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The Sentimentalism of Goldsmith

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

W. F. Gallaway Jr
W. F. Gallaway Jr*
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
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Extract

Two popular conceptions of Goldsmith stand out in sharp opposition. To many readers and to a few students The Deserted Village and The Vicar of Wakefield are masterpieces in the sentimental vein, books tinged with a kindly sympathy and with a longing for a bygone and a better day. To a portion of this group The Traveler bears a similar message that happiness is a creation of the individual heart independent of governments and of geographies. In contrast to this view of Goldsmith as the most charming of the sentimentalists, there is current another view which is rooted in Goldsmith's attack on sentimental comedy, in the gay humor of his own plays, and in his connection with Dr. Johnson—a view that reveals Goldsmith as a classicist out of touch with the tendencies of the future—wit not dreamer, apostle of common sense rather than disciple of Rousseau. The disagreement does not arise concerning Goldsmith the man, for as to his personality there is substantial unity of opinion, but concerning Goldsmith the author. Here the two positions seem to be irreconcilable, and even a minute study of the sentimental trends in the whole of Goldsmith's work is not likely to resolve the antinomy. Sentiment and sensibility are in turn praised and condemned, luxury justified and attacked, prudence and generosity alternately exalted, so that the final position of the critic as to Goldsmith's sentimentalism will perhaps always depend on the nature of his definitions. It should be possible, however, to reach a clearer understanding of Goldsmith's sentimentalism and a more solid basis for the appreciation of his literary productions by an analysis of the sentimental aspects of his work in the light of a definition sufficiently broad to permit of a somewhat inclusive treatment.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 1933 , pp. 1167 - 1181
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1933

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References

1 Goldsmith, it seems to me, is not so pronounced a classicist as is supposed by W. L. Phelps, A. L. Sells, et al., though his critical attitude is comparatively free from sentimentalism. Cf. Phelps, The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement (New York, 1893), p. 37; Sells, Les sources françaises de Goldsmith, (Paris, 1924), passim.

2 Sells, op. cit., p. 2; p. 3, note 1.

3 Goldsmith's attitude towards fiction will be considered below.

4 W. A. Eddy, Gulliver's Travels, A Critical Study (Princeton, 1923), p. 42.

5 W. L. Cru, Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought, quoted by Sells, op. cit., p. 92.

6 Sells, op. cit., p. 90, where the medley of cosmopolitanism, orientalism, and English-Irish humor is mentioned.

7 Citizen of the World, Letters xxxii, lxxii.

8 Ibid., Letter lxiii.

9 Review of Murphy's Orphan of China in Works, ed. Gibbs (London, 1885), iv, 350.

10 In The Vicar of Wakefield, chapter xx, Goldsmith includes these Eastern tales with esssys on liberty and cures for the bite of a mad dog among the trash that filled contemporary magazines.

11 Works, ed. Gibbs, iv, 285.

12 In a review of Voltaire's L'Orfelin du Chine he ranks the Chinese in the lowest rank of those inspired by the gods.

13 Sells, op. cit., p. 89.

14 In L'Orient dans la litterature française au xviie et au xviiie siècle. See Sells, op. cit., p. 87, note 1.

15 Citizen of the World, Preface.

16 Cf. Citizen of the World, Letters vii, xx, and the essay on “National Prejudices.”

17 Citizen of the World, Letters, xcviii, iii, viii, cxvi, cxxi.

18 Ibid., Letter xi.

19 Ibid., Letter v.

20 Works, ed. Gibbs, i, 431.

21 Citizen of the World, Letter ciii.

22 Ibid., Letter lxxiii.

23 Works, ed. Gibbs, i, 431, 444, 457.

24 Essay iv, Miscellaneous Works, ed. Masson (London, 1918), p. 294.

25 An Inquiry into Polite Learning in Europe in Miscellaneous Works, p. 438.

26 Life of Nash in Miscellaneous Works, p. 515.

27 Citizen of the World, Letter VII.

28 Prudence as a balance to spontaneous goodness is considered in the concluding section of this paper.

29 Life of Nash in Miscellaneous Works, pp. 517–518, et passim.

30 Citizen of the World, Letters lxiv, lxxiv.

31 Ibid., Letter lxii.

32 Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter xv.

33 Bee, No. vi in Miscellaneous Works, p. 406; Citizen of the World, Letter lxii.

34 Sells, op. cit., p. 130.

35 Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter i.

36 Ibid., Chapter xi.

37 Ibid., Chapter iv.

38 Bee, No. ii, Miscellaneous Works, p. 365; Traveler, passim.

39 Deserted Village, Miscellaneous Works, p. 588.

40 Citizen of the World, Letter cxvii; New Essays, ed. Crane (Chicago, 1927), p. 81 f.; Bee, No. v, Miscellaneous Works, p. 383.—Goldsmith debated with Dr. Johnson on April 13, 1773, on degeneracy caused by luxury. On this occasion Johnson defended luxury. Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill (New York, n.d.), ii, 250. Goldsmith's opposition to luxury is examined in the concluding section of this paper.

41 As in The Citizen of the World, Letter xviii.

42 New Essays, ed. Crane, p. 22 f.

43 Animated Nature (1774) quoted by Crane in New Essays, p. 21, note 2.

44 New Essays, ed. Crane, p. 32.

45 Miscellaneous Works, p. 588.

46 Bee, No. vi, Miscellaneous Works, p. 394; New Essays, ed. Crane, p. 38.

47 Citizen of the World, Letter xxxvii.

48 Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter xxvii.

49 Citizen of the World, Letter xi.

50 Essay v, Miscellaneous Works, p. 295.

51 Essay i, Miscellaneous Works, p. 287.

52 Citizen of the World, Letter xliii.

53 Ibid., Letter x.

54 Ibid., Letter lxxx.

55 Vicar of Wakefield, Chapter xxvii.

56 Citizen of the World, Letter xxxviii.

57 Heading of chapter xxviii of The Vicar Wakefield.

58 Ibid., Chapter iii, et passim.

59 Works, ed. Gibbs, i, 439.

60 Ibid., i, 449–450.

61 Citizen of the World, Letter xxvii.

62 Ibid., Letter xxiii.

63 Ibid., Letter viii.

64 Good-Natured Man, Act iii, i. Cf. the first dialogue between Marlowe and Miss Hard-castle in She Stoops to Conquer. From the New Essays one might quote, “Neither abilities, nor virtue, nor even a title, are of any great service for present happiness without prudence and perseverance.” New Essays, ed. Crane, p. 99 f.

65 I plan to develop the opposition between realism and romance in an article on Goldsmith as realist.

66 Citizen of the World, Letter cxiv. Cf. also Letter cxvi.

67 Works, ed. Gibbs, iv, 483.

68 Citizen of the World, Letter xviii.

69 Essay xxiii, Miscellaneous Works, p. 348.

70 Citizen of the World, Letter xi.—This essay contains the most complete defense of luxury in Goldsmith's work.

71 Ibid., Letter iii.

72 Ibid., Letter lxxxii; New Essays, ed. Crane, p. 28.

73 Works, ed. Gibbs, iv, 271–273. Citizen of the World, Letter lx.

74 Essay xxii, Miscellaneous Works, p. 346.