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OLIVER GOLDSMITH AS SOCIAL CRITIC IN

THE CITIZEN OF THE WORLD

by

JUDY FAYE PONTHIEU, B.A., M.A.

A DISSERTATION

IN

ENGLISH

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Approved

Accepted

May, 1971

Ac 201 rs 191 Mo.Zl

Copyright by JUDY FAYE PONTHIEU

1971

CONTENTS

PREFACE iii

I. INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AI D SOURCES . . . . 1

II. THE ART OF SATIRE AND OLIVER GOLDSMITH . . . . 21

The Nature of Satire 21

The Character of the Author 25

III. PRELIMINARIES 32

The Purpose of The Citizen of th_e World . . . 32

The Title 34

The "Editor's Preface" 36

IV. THE FPLAME STORY 41

V. GOLDSMITH AND THE CHARACTER ESSAY 57

VI. IDIOSYNCRASIES OF ENGLISH SOCIETY 75

VII. POLITICS 92 fa

VIII. RELIGION 107

IX. MEDICINE 116

X. LITERARY CRITICISM 124

XI. AN EVALUATION AND INTERPRETATION 142

BIBLIOGRAPHY 154

11

PREFACE

Oliver Goldsmith is one of the most undervalued

writers of the eighteenth century. The general public

remember him as the author of The Vicar of V/akefield and

The Deserted Village. The literati recall his spritely

play, She Stoops to Conquer, as the brightest flash of

genius in eighteenth-century comedy. For the most part,

the remainder of knov/ledge that most educated persons

have about Goldsmith is the stereotype image of the

plagiarist, the Grub Street hack writer who mass produced

histories, criticisms, and essays for a living, the

awkward appendage to Dr. Johnson and his circle who talked

"like poor Poll," as David Garrick put it. Few credit

him for the genius that he truly was; his writings have

such simplicity that critics are apt to overlook the merit

that is there.

The mass of critical work on Goldsmith pursues two

intersecting lines, biographical and literary sources, and

there is no limit to such investigations. Only recently

has a recognition of Goldsmith's talents and the true

literary merit of some of his less applauded v/ritings come

iii

to. light. Robert H. Hopkins in his book, The True Genius

of Oliver Goldsmith (Baltimore, 1969), is among the first

to credit Goldsmith v.lth humor, irony, and insight into

hiw ov.Ti age and literature, and into general humanity. If

one may claim apocalyptic vision, it seems highly possible

that Hopkins has taken the initiative in the trend for

the future: of giving more attention to the writings of

Goldsmith rather than allowing them to be overshadov/ed by

the prose of the two incumbent giants of late eighteenth-

century literature, Johnson and Boswell.

This dissertation confines itself to a group of es­

says originally published in John Newbery's Public Ledger

and generally knovvoi as the "Chinese letters" or The Citizen

of the World, as the bound volume is called. Little re­

search has been done on this group of essays, outside of

searching for sources. It is a curious phenomenon

that almost no attention has been given, v/ith the excep­

tion of a chapter in Hopkins' v;ork, to the purpose of

the essays and the v/ay in which they fulfilled that pur­

pose—that is, social criticism and satire. In 1758,

Dr. Johnson began his famous Idler series which endeavored

to criticize and instruct the masses of London society;

considerable acclaim has been given these papers, and

rightly so, as instruments of social criticism. Yet, tv;o

years later, in 1760, Goldsmith wrote his Chinese essays,

iv

which have much more unity and use the same technique as

such monuments of satiric strategy as Jonathan Sv/ift's

Gulliver's Travels and Lord Byron's Don Juan, the tech­

nique of the naive observer who is victimized by society

and who serves to focus on inequalities, absurdities,

and intellectual lacunas within the society of which

he is a part. Goldsmith, of course, went a bit further;

like Montesquieu in his Persian Letters, Goldsmith's

observer is a foreigner, who is capable of contrasting

his own society with the one in v/hich he finds himself.

Johnson has been praised as an able essayist; yet having

commensurate skill, Goldsmith has been largely ignored.

The purpose of this study is to delimit the perimeter

of subjects in these essays, to probe areas of social

comment, to assess and evaluate these areas in view of

the times in which Goldsmith lived, and to comment upon

the satire and its effectiveness. The ultimate aim of

this project is from these pages to resurrect Goldsmith

in a different light so that he will be recognized for

what he truly was: a citizen of the v/orld and a pene-1

trating social critic.

1 The standard edition used for this dissertation

is The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, ed. by Arthur Friedman, Vol. Ill: The Citizen of The World (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). Future references to thiL v/ork will be referred to by the short title. The Citizen.

Finally, the author v/ishes to acknov/ledge the helpful

criticism of Professors Truman Camp and John R. Crider

whose inspiring courses in the eighteenth century brought

a literary era to life that, to the v/riter, had previously

been singularly unimpressive. The merit that this dis­

sertation contains they must share; the inadequacies must

be attributed to the author.

VI

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AND SOURCES

The eighteenth century v;as the age of the periodical

essay, a genre which began, grew to maturity, and then

declined v/ithin this era. Daniel Defoe's Review was

among the first to appear on the London scene (1704-1713);

it was followed by perhaps the best-known and most suc­

cessful periodicals in English literature, Richard Steele's

The Tatler (1709-1711) and Joseph Addison and Richard

Steele's The Spectator (1711-1712). There were many other

less successful essay series which followed, but it was

not until the latter half of the century that the essay

burgeoned forth into the literary field to become a promi­

nent genre which was widely read by the general public.

The late part of the eighteenth century saw the essay

generally absorbed into the newspapers of the day as a

"feature." There were, of course, notable exceptions,

such as Dr. Samuel Johnson's The Rambler v/hich ran in 208

numbers from 1750-1752. The latter, however, were not

the rule of the day. The practicality of including the

1 George Sherburn and Donald F. Bond, The Restoration

and Eighteenth Century (1660-1789), Vol. Ill of A Literary History of England, ed. by Albert C. Baugh (4 vols.; New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967), p. 1050.

essay within the newspaper helps to explain the essay's ex­

istence: for most struggling writers, publishing one's es­

says in a newspaper which paid its contributors was much

less risky than endeavoring to obtain subscriptions or

seeking financial support from prominent men. There was

also the advantage of not facing the continuous deadlines

of independent serial writing, since most essay features 2

within the newspapers appeared on an irregular basis.

There were numerous newspapers after the 1750's which

employed regular essay series of a literary nature. The

Daily Advertiser printed Sir John Hill's Inspector (1751-

1753); the Universal Chronicle of John Payne for tv/o years

published the 104 numbers of Johnson's Idler. Nearly any

newspaper of merit was certain to employ an essayist

among its other contributors.

The contributors to the eighteenth-century newspapers

were chiefly hack writers who were associated with the

metaphorical Grub Street, a street which actually existed

in the seventeenth century near Moorfields and which was

peopled by the insignificant writers of the day; the term

"Grub Street" thus came to be associated with the hack

writer. This type of writer had his origin in the days

of the Roundhead and Cavalier v/hen there was a rising party

^Ibid., p. 1052.

elan, and authors were needed to write pamphlets or the

broadsides, which consisted of a single page often of

doggerel verse and sometimes illustrated by a cartoon.

Even so late as the reign of Queen Anne, Bolingbroke and

Harley persuaded an Irishman named Jonathan Swift to

write various pamphlets for the Tory cause.

In the early part of the eighteenth century, the

patron was still a necessity to any writer without inde­

pendent financial means. The literary hack v/ho wrote on

Grub Street was often able to do little more than subsist

because of a lack of public support for literature. Thus

it was that the political periodical more than anything

else was able to transfuse life into the struggling essay

genre. The latter half of the century, however, provided

a contrast. Booksellers became well enough supported by

the public to pay v.Triters for their publications; the

subscription, a means of soliciting contributions toward

the publication of a work,gave further independence to the

writer.

Thus it was that when Oliver Goldsmith journeyed to

London in 1756 and began writing, the temper of the times

bequeathed to the struggling newcomer a possibility of

supporting himself by hack writing. From 1757 to 1762,

- A. S. Turberville, English Men and Manners In The Eighteenth Century (2nd ed.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929), p. 337.

Goldsmith wrote for ten different periodicals; he published

a series of eight essays, The Bee (1759); abridged five

volumes of Plutarch's Lives (1762); revised, and perhaps

wrote, a History of England (1764) in both two and four

volumes; wrote two volumes of The Roman History (1769), tv/o

volumes of The Beauties of English Poesy (1767), and tv/o

volumes of The Grecian History; and developed the lengthi­

est of all, his eight volumes of An History of the Earth

and Animated Nature (1774). His first signed work was his

poem, The Traveller, published in 1764.

The breadth of Goldsmith's translations and hack pub­

lications contributed to his knowledge and versatility as

an essayist. His writings were not striking for their

originality; as Smith has shown in his study of sources

in Goldsmith's Citizen of the V/orld, much of v/hat Gold­

smith v/rote borrowed heavily from other sources. His

experience as a reviser had embued him v/ith the gifts of

a popular v/riter—the ability for condensation and the

facility for handling his native tongue. If Goldsmith's

sources are compared v/ith his own v/riting, two facts become

at once apparent to the observer: Goldsmith is terser,

Sherburn and Bond, Eighteenth Century, pp. 1056-57. 5 See Hamilton Jewett Smith, Oliver Goldsmith's The

Citizen of The World: A Study (Nev: HaverT: i:ale University Press, 1^67"^ bmith reTies heavily on James Prior's The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B. (2 vols.; London: JonrP" MurrayV TBTTTT ~ "

and his language flows more beautifully than that of his

sources.

-.Conveniently for Goldsmith, there was a fashionable

trend for exotic Eastern materials which v/as current

from the middle of the century. This was the mania for

"Chinoiserie." The vogue began v/ith reports from China

by Jesuit missionaries; Father Matteo Ricci early in the

seventeenth century had written glowing accounts of the

artistic culture of the Chinese. Father Matteo was later

^ castigated for his accounts of the great morality of this

people, a fact which fanned the fires of the Deists and

which caused Confucius to be held up as comparable in

moral teaching to Jesus. Ricci's account also gave rise

to the "oriental tales and letters" which blossomed in

Prance and England.

By the time of Pope, the world of fashion was collect­

ing Chinese porcelains, imitating the Chinese in home

furnishings such as wallpapers and fabrics, producing

pseudo-Chinese furniture as seen in the Chippendale pieces,

and cultivating Chinese gardens. Sir William Chambers,

the architect, wrote Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture,

etc. in 1757, and in his Essay on Gardens praised "sharawadgi,"

the asymmetry and contrast of the Chinese.

Donald Greene, The Age of Exuberance (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 149.

That great connoisseur of the Gothic, Horace Walpole,

even turned his talents for a time to Chinoiserie. Wal­

pole wrote his friends of the esthetic beauties of Chinese

porcelain and dragonheaded furniture. In 1757 he wrote

and published A Letter from Xo-Ho, a Chinese Philosopher

at London, t£ his friend Lien Chi at Pekin. In this

tract he compared the Chinese culture to the English and

pointed up errors in the latter. So popular was his

pamphlet that in a fortnight it had gone through five

editions.'

There was much other Chinese literature with which

Goldsmith must have been acquainted. The Reverend Thomas

Percy of Northamptonshire, later Bishop Percy v/ho came to

be renowned for his ballad collection, met Goldsmith on

Wednesday, January 21 of 1759. Percy had brought to

London the manuscript of Hau Kiou Chooan, his Chinese

novel, and was pursuing a collection of ballads for his

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Percy was especially

interested to learn that Goldsmith had among his reper­

toire many old songs. He visited Goldsmith again in the

latter's meager quarters at Green Arbour Court on March 3,

Saturday, and again on the following Tuesday. Doubtless, o

Percy related something of his novel to Goldsmith.

' Smith, Citizen of The World, p. 3. o Ralph M. Wardle, Oliver Goldsmith (Lawrence: University

of Kansas Press, 1957), pp. 93-4.

7

There v/ere many other precedents for Goldsmith's

v/ork. At the turn o-f the eighteenth century, the exotic

stories of the Arabian Nights were translated into English.

Collins used the bizarre Eastern trappings for his Persian

Eclogues; Hav/kesworth gave the East as the setting for

parts of his Adventurer; Lord Lyttelton in his epistolary

essays dealt v/ith Oriental material in his Letters from

^ PeJ"sis-n in England to his friend in Ispahan. Giovannia '

Paolo Marana's Letters writ by a Turkish Spy v/as trans­

lated in eight volumes from the French and published

from 1687-1793. Thomas Simon Gueullette wrote Chinese

Tales (1725), Mongul Tales (1736), Tartarian Tales (1759),

and Peruvian Tales (1764). Jean Baptiste de Boyer,

Marquis D'Argens, published his Chinese Letters in English

in 1739.

Even so prominent a personage as Samuel Johnson was

influenced by the faddishness of the Orient. In The Ramblers

of July 28, 1750; October 30, 1750; May 11, 1751; January 11,

1752; February 29, 1752; and March 3, 1752, he used the

Orient as background for his essays. The last two numbers,

204 and 205, dealth with Seged, the Ethiopian ruler, who

declared that all his people should be happy. Johnson

pursued the same theme in his tale of Rasselas, The Prince

of Abyssinia, published in 1759. Three issues of The

8

Idler also showed influence of the exotic East: September

22, 1759; March 8, 1760, and March 22, 1760.^

-. There was scarcely a field of writing v;hich escaped

observations on the East. Du Halde's General History of

China and Louis LeComte's Memoirs and Observations . . .

Made in a late Journey through the Empire of Chins, ap­

peared in 1738. Practically every major magazine treated

the subject; among them v/ere such prominent periodicals

as the Gentleman's Magazine, the British Magazine, and

the Monthly Review. Even the stage felt the influence

of Chinoiserie v/hen Arthur Murphy's Orphan £f China v/as

performed by Garrick on April 21, 1759-

So prominent v/as the fad that John Shebbeare in his

Letters on the English Nation in 1755 wrote

The simple and sublime have lost all influ­ence almost everyv/here, all is Chinese or Gothic; every chair in an apartment, the frames of glasses, and tables, must be Chinese; the walls covered v/ith Chinese paper filled v;ith figures v/hich resemble nothing of God's creation, and which a prudent nation v/ould prohibit for the sake of pregnant women.

In one chamber, all the pagods and distorted animals of the east are piled up, and called the beautiful decorations of a chimney-piece; on the sides of the room, lions made of porcelain, grin­ning and misshapen, are placed on brackets of the Chinese taste, in arbors of flowers made in the same ware, and leaves of brass painted green lying like lovers in the shades of old Arcadia.

^Smith, Citizen of the World, p. 2.

'' Ibid., p. 2.

Nay, so excessive is the love of Chinese architecture become, that at present the fox hunters v/ould be sorry to break a leg in pur­suing their sport in leaping any gate that ..was not made in the eastern taste of little bits of v/ood standing in all directions; the connoisseurs of the table delicacies can dis­tinguish between the taste of an ox v/hich eats his hay from a Chinese crib, a hog that is en­closed in a stye of that kind, or a fowl fat­tened in a coop the fabric of which is in that design, and find great difference in the flavor. . . .

The Chinese taste is so very prevalent in this city at present, that even pantomime has obliged harlequin to seek shelter in an enter­tainment, where the scenes and characters are all in the taste of the nation.''

The taste of the times for Chinoiserie provided Gold­

smith with a backdrop of ideas for his essays; there were

other factors at work as well. First, there was a cer­

tain advantage in Goldsmith's having served as a hack

writer, for he was forced to search through and peruse

large volumes of miscellaneous materials for his hired

writings. This perusal familiarized him with far-reaching

literary ideas and precedents, both in England and on the

Continent. Secondly, his vast research and voluminous

hack writing developed the innate capacity v/ithin him

to gather all sorts of diverse materials, to digest, to

synthesize, and to mold them into homogeneous new works.

One of the many cases in point is that of the influence

of Voltaire in France.

^^Ibid., p. 4.

10

Voltaire, in ten of his v/orks, treated the Chinese

culture and compared it in superlative fashion v.lth that

of the Y/est. It v/as Voltaire who called attention to

the superiority of the Chinese government, society, and

laws. In his Melanges, in the article Chine, the Dic-

tionnaire Philosophique, Histoire Universelle, and his

plays was a serious philosophical treatment of the

Chinese culture. Goldsmith thought enough of Voltaire's

works to include several selections in the Bee. He also

reviewed the new 1756 edition of the Histoire Universelle

in the August, 1757, issue of the Monthly Reviev;. There

was one passage in this review of striking interest since

it suggests that the influence of the pseudo-letter and

the foreign observer as a basis for an essay series

may have already been in Goldsmith's mind. In the reviev/.

Goldsmith quotes Voltaire on the merit of Montesquieu's

Persian Letters; the point that Voltaire makes in this

passage is that it was the Letters v/hich opened the gates

of the French Academy to Montesquieu. It requires little

speculation to surmise that Goldsmith may have thought

that an aspiring English v/riter might be able to use the

techniques of Montesquieu with equally successful conse-

12 quences.

^^Ibid., pp. 7-9.

11

There are other facts which point to Goldsmith's

admiration for Voltaire. First, there is the panegyric

on the supposed death of Voltaire in No. XLIII of the

Citizen of the V/orld letters. Secondly, there is the

1761 edition of Goldsmith's Memoirs M. die Voltaire.

Last, there is Goldsmith's translation of part of Vol­

taire's article, "Contradictions," which discussed

pseudo-letters. Y/ithin this v/ork, Voltaire pointed out

objects for satire such as (1) continuing superstitions

of the French, (2) contraband trading with the Spanish,

(3) the system of buying preferments in government,

(4) the charge for purportedly free patents, (5) ex­

communication of actors and their hire by heads of state,

(6) the lack of tribute paid to really great men, and

(7) the licensing of plays and subsequent inequalities.

It is worthv/hile to note that within the "Chinese let­

ters" Goldsmith treats several of these subjects.

A second Frenchman greatly influenced Goldsmith in

both ideas and format for the "Chinese letters." This

was Montesquieu whose Lettres Persanes received great

acclaim in France (1721). V/ith this work, the genre of

the pseudo-letter reached its peak. Montesquieu had

created two Persians, Usbek and his friend Rica, v/ho

^^bid., pp. 11-13.

12

visited Prance for the avowed purpose of learning the

science and culture of the Y/est. Once in France, the

two ..satirized the customs, morals, institutions, and

life-style of the French by comparing them to those of

their native Persia. Montesquieu's frame story included

an account of a seraglio with letters from its wives and

eunuchs and the story of Roxane, Usbek's most beloved

wife, who committed suicide after her lover's death and

the revolt of the harem. The frame tale in Montesquieu's

, work as in the "Chinese letters" simply provided interest

and a means of satirizing society.

Both Goldsmith and Montesquieu created a foreign

observer who satirized an alien society by comparing it

with his ov/n; there was an exchange of letters between

the observer and friends in his ov/n society, a frame

tale, autobiographical materials (Usbek and the Man-in-

Black), and a fictitious translation by an unknown editor,

in both works the actual author. Y/hat Goldsmith appears

to have done is to have taken Montesquieu's ideas and

14

adapted them to a series of letters on English society.

Goldsmith did, of course, alter the outcome of the frame

story, for the "Chinese letters" ended with a wedding 15 rather than a death.

^^Ibid., pp. 45-47.

'' For a close analysis of the parallel structure of the two works, see Smith, Citizen of the World, pp. 45-52

13

There was some precedent for the "Chinese letters"

in English as v/ell as in French literature. In Addison's

Spectator No. 50, April 27, 1711, the device of foreign

observers on English soil was used. Four Indian kings

visited London and were observed by The Spectator, v/ho

found a bundle of papers after their departure and

translated them. The papers contained satire on religion,

politics, and the strange attire of women v/ith their

bizarre coiffures, odd face patches, and peculiar pet­

ticoats and breeches. Y/hile there is no documented proof

that Goldsmith v/as influenced by this essay, it is hardly

possible that he had not read it, for his library contained

the works of Addison and Steele; and the satiric essay on

St. Paul's, No. XLI of The Citizen of the World, which ap­

peared on May 2, 1760, in the Public Ledger could very

16 well have been modeled on Addison's account.

In Hamilton Smith's admirable work on sources, Oliver

Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," numerous v/orks are

compared in a passage by passage analysis v/ith the "Chinese

letters." Among the primary literature that employed the

same pseudo-letter format as Goldsmith's "letters" and

which had passages corresponding with those of Goldsmith

are Giovanni Paolo Marana's L'Espion Turc (1686), George

'' Ibid., pp. 43-44.

14

Lyttelton's Letters from a Persian in England to his

friend at Ispahan (1735), Jean Baptist de Boyer, Marquis

D'Argens' Lettres Chinoises (1755), Horace V. alpole's A

Letter from Xo-Ho, a Chinese Philosopher at London, to

his friend Lien Chi at Peking (1757), the anonymous Letter

from an Armenian in Ireland (1756), and, of course, the

17

aforementioned works of Addison and Montesquieu.

There were naturally other sources to v/hich Goldsmith

went for facts and oriental information: Louis Le Comte's

Memoirs and Observations . . . Made in a late Journey

Through the Empire of China (1696), Du Halde's The

General History of China (1738), John Byrcm's Tom the 18

Porter (1746), and Samuel Johnson's Rasselas (1759).

Y/ith a v/ealth of literary precedent before him,

Goldsmith began the "Chinese letters" on January 24, 1760,

in the Public Ledger; during that month three letters

appeared. As time passed. Goldsmith's number of contribu­

tions increased: ten in February and in March, eight in

April, ten in May, eleven in June, eight in July, nine

in August, ten in September, ten in October, six in November,

'•' Ibid., pp. 38-84.

Since the purpose of this paper is not to analyze sources, but rather to evaluate Goldsmith's essays and techniques within the framev/ork of the times, the interested reader should consult Smith's work for a detailed analysis and comparison of Goldsmith's sources and his essays.

15

and three in December—a total of ninety-eight during

1760. The series had great popularity as the output in

number indicates. -^

The Public Ledger demanded two letters per v/eek;

when the number dropped, it may have been in part from

a decrease in public enthusiasm, but it also may have

been that Goldsmith v/as occupied with activities in

other magazines. He served as editor and contributor

of the Ladies' Magazine during this period and also

wrote fugitive pieces for the Ledger and other magazines.

On the fourteenth of August, 1761, the last letter ap­

peared; Goldsmith had contributed a total of one hiindred

20

and nineteen letters.

Goldsmith's initial meeting v/ith John Newbery, the

publisher of the new daily. Public Ledger, has never been

ascertained. Whatever the date, it was a propos for both

men. Even the scantiest reading in the major biographies 21 of Goldsmith reveals that he v/as a profligate spender

who was forever in debt as a result of both extravagance

and of a too generous benevolence. Newbery was apparently

• Smith (pp. 18-20) appears to have taken his informa­tion directly from Prior's Goldsmith. See Prior, p. 361.

"^^Smith, Citizen of Th£ World, pp. 18-20.

21 See Y/ardle's Goldsmith and Ricardo Quintana's

Oliver Goldsmith, a Georgian Study (New York: Macmillan, T9Fn.

16

a kind man who was v/illing to lend money from time to

time to promising authors such as Samuel Johnson and

Goldsmith. The affiliation v/ith Newbery was advantageous

for both men: Goldsmith, as a writer for hire, could

well use the steady money provided by a newspaper

column; Nev/bery, on the other hand, needed someone with

a spritely, entertaining writing style to supply interest

22 for his new Ledger.

The first issue of the Public Ledger appeared Janu­

ary 12, 1760. Tucked away among news items in the January

24th issue were two letters: one from "a resident of

Amsterdam" to a "Mr. , Merchant, in London," a let­

ter of introduction v/hich specified the bearer as one who

spoke English and v/as a philosopher. The second letter

was from the bearer of the first, a foreigner of Honan

in China, who was writing to the Amsterdam merchant about

his nev/ arrival. The third letter was addressed to a

friend in China v/ho was to be the recipient of most of

the remaining letters, the "First President of the Cere-

monial Academy at Pekin," Fum Hoam.

The fifth letter was the first to bear the heading

of "Chinese Letters"; at this time. Goldsmith v/as probably

^^Wardle, Goldsmith, p. 109.

^^Ibid., p. 110.

17

contracted for tv/o letters a v/eek at a reputed salary

of one hundred pounds per annum. This stipend relieved

him of the tremendous pressure of free lance v/riting for

a living while providing him v/ith a basic income. In

a sense. Goldsmith was the perfect man for such a job;

he had established him self already as an essay v/riter in

his series of the Bee and other miscellanies, and he

possessed the advantage of being an outsider, a foreigner

himself. Being of Irish birth and having traveled v/idely

through Europe on tour prior to 1760, he had acquired

the acumen and objectivity to comment on English society

and to compare it with others. The very fact that he v/as

an Irishman, hov/ever, could have proved a disadvantage

had he chosen to write from that point of view since the

English looked down their noses at their neighbors to

the west. If any should doubt the point, it is necessary

to look only at the subjugation of the Irish to this day

or to examine the matter of Y/ood's halfpence a few decades

before Goldsmith's time to see how another prominent

Irishman, Jonathan Sv/ift, was aroused to fight for the

Irishman's basic economic rights. Thus, Goldsmith,

the Irishman, found it to his advantage to assume the

pose of a Chinese philosopher.

24 ^See also Jonathan Swift's vitriolic essay, "A Modest Proposal," which angrily protested the treatment of the Irish and the calloused attitude of the English toward them

18

That the series was a successful one may be indicated

by the fact that by the third letter of January 31, New­

bery had placed the "Chinese correspondent's" letter in

the first column. From that time, the letters occasion­

ally appeared in the second or third column, but always

occupied the first page. After March 11, 1760, subsequent

letters occupied the first column position of the import­

ant "leader" in the paper. There is also evidence of

the popularity of the papers by the demand for their re­

prints. The Court Miscellany and British Magazine both

carried reprints of several numbers of the letters.^

On May 1, 1762, two volumes of The Citizen of the

World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in

London, to his Friends in the East, appeared. These con­

tained Goldsmith's Chinese letters in bound, republished

form with an answer to the note which appeared after the

last number of the "Chinese letters" series.

It may not be improper to inform the Public that these letters will shortly be published, in two Volumes of the usual Spectator Size. The numerous Errors of the Press are corrected, and the Errors of the Writer, still, perhaps, more numerous are retrenched. Some new Letters are added, and others, which were remarkable only for being dull, are wholly omitted. In short, such Pains have been taken, that the Editor will.

^^Smith, Citizen of The World, pp. 20-21.

26 This comment followed Letter CXVI in the Ledger.

Capitalization follows Goldsmith.

19

perhaps, receive more Praise for his Industry, than the Y/riter for his Genius. I could be prolix upon the present Occasion, but shall be silent, for when we talk of ourselves, Vanity, or Resentment have always too much to say.27

In the bound edition. Goldsmith did not omit any

of the original letters, although he revised and edited

them; but he did add four nev/ essays. One v/as the

much anthologized "A City Night-piece" which appeared

in the October 27, 1759, copy of the Bee; another was

"The Distresses of a Common Soldier" v/hich v/as taken

from the June, 1760, British Magazine. Two others.

Letters CXXI and CXXII, were nev/ly v/ritten for the

Citizen edition. In the original series there were one

hundred and nineteen numbers; in The Citizen of the World,

Pft the total essays numbered one hundred and tv/enty three.

Goldsmith also regrouped the existing essays and renum­

bered them in order to have letters of similar topics

within a more homogeneous grouping.

The Citizen of the Y/orld appeared anonymously, as

had the original letters. The format was the same, and

the actual author assumed only translation. The tv/o

volumes sold for six shillings and were advertised in

St. Paul's Churchyard by J. Nev/bery and W. Bristow.

^'^Smith, Citizen of The World, pp. 25-26.

^^Ibid., p. 26.

20

Goldsmith purportedly received only ten to fifteen pounds

for his work. "

2Q ibid., p. 27.

CHAPTER II

THE ART OF SATIRE AND OLIVER GOLDSMITH

The Nature of Satire

Like the proverbial weather that everyone talks about

but no one does anything about, Oliver Goldsmith's "Chinese

letters" are credited as satire, but fev/ bother to discuss

the implications of the label. In literary histories and

other works which mention Goldsmith's essays, they are

quickly passed over, or perhaps a small sampling which

features the man in black and the shabby Beau v/ill appear

in large anthologies. Thus, the essays have not been, for

the most part, carefully perused and scrutinized. The

total impact of the satire and the social criticism has

escaped most readers. This dissertation aims, then, to

discover Goldsmith's powers as a satirist and social critic

In defense of the selective nature of such a study

of The Citizen papers, it would perhaps be v/orthv/hile to

mention something of the basis of satire itself: v/hat it

is and hov/ it differs from literary genres such as comedy.

First of all, it should be noted that satire is not

itself a genre, but a pervasive mood which can dominate

many genres such as poetry, drama, the novel, the essay,

21

22

and others. As James Sutherland points out, satire calls

to mind "some quality which gives a work its special

character." The most difficult distinction to be made

is between comedy and satire, for both have many elements

in common; yet they are not the same.

Sutherland compares the satirist to a demolition ex­

pert; that is, his dissatisfaction v/ith the state of af­

fairs is strong enough that he wishes to tear down super­

cilious pretensions which permeate a society. The satirist

offers no solutions; all his efforts are directed tov/ard

revealing follies, not remedying them. The satirist, un­

like the comic v/riter, cannot accept and refuses to tolerate

human shortcomings. In his protest, he attempts to mirror

the faults of society in a derisive manner to make them

appear as hideous as he sees them. The satirist "is

nearly always a man who is abnormally sensitive to the gap 2

between what might be and v.hat is." He is, to put it

succinctly, often a disillusioned idealist.

The art of satire is to persuade men to see themselves

as the satirist sees them, to peer beneath the habitual

normality of everyday life and to reexamine the ordinary,

to return to past traditions or to forsake those traditions,

James Sutherland, English Satire (Cambridge: Cam­bridge University Press, 1967), p. 1.

2 Ibid., p. 4.

23

and to strike out for change. In a sense, the satirist

is a sensationalist, for he wishes to shock his readers

into reevaluating and modifying the existing life-style.

His art, the art of satire, is marked then by the chief

function of rhetoric: persuasion. If he is to be adroit

in effecting change, he must be adept in the art of per­

suasion; it is this characteristic above all others that

defines the satirist. His secondary characteristics are

his tools: derision, ridicule, and exaggeration. The

satirist is finally and foremost, a legislator of morals.

The v/riter of comedy, on the other hand, "accepts

the natural and acquired folly and extravagance and im­

pudence which a bountiful v/orld provides for his enjoy­

ment; he is a sort of human bird-v/atcher, detached and

attentive, but no more troubled by moral issues than the

ordinary bird watcher." Comedy usually does not employ

as its tools indignation and moral condemnation. While

Shakespeare does not seem to condone the actions of Falstaff,

he leaves him free to exercise his absurdities as a ploy

until the end of the play in which Hal denounces him. As

Sutherland notes, this denunciation comes as something

of a shock to the reader who feels it as a rebuke to

- Ibid., p. 5.

Ibid., p. 3.

24

himself and the folly of the human condition.^ Most

audiences delight in Falstaffs escapades and indulge his

moral deviances while not passing judgment upon the

character.

Sutherland sees a long literary tradition in v/hich

the distinction between comedy and satire has not been

sufficiently made. From the Italian critics of the

Renaissance to Jeremy Collier's denunciation of the prac­

tices of the English stage in I698, the trend v/as to ex­

pect comedy to cause men to be laughed out of their

follies and to exercise virtue. Sutherland sees this theory

as an outgrowth of the continual attacks upon the stage

and the licentiousness of many comedies. If the purpose

of comedy is not to be an antidote to spiritual wayv/ard-

ness, it is left with a single aim, entertainment. /.h.ile

many comedies may in fact contain elements of satire,

nevertheless, the intent of the writer is entertainment

rather than persuasion. To draw the distinction in a

tangential manner, the comic artist is an objective painter

of human affairs; he glories in humanity with all its

frailties. The satirist is a subjective artist; he wishes

his art to reveal a lop-sided view of man, an angular

^Ibid., p. 8.

^Ibid., pp. 7, 9.

25

close-up of man with all of his absurdities which stand

in an overpowering need of correction.

-.You cannot be a satirist just by telling the truth; you are a satirist v/hen you consciously compel men to look at v/hat they have tried to ignore, when you wish to destroy their illu­sions or pretences, when you deliberately tear off the disguise and expose the naked truth.'

There are, however, different approaches to revealing

the truth: an angry, biting, vitriolic manner and a gentle,

smiling, urbane approach. The former method is employed

by Juvenalian satirists such as Swift; the latter, Horatian

approach, belongs to writers such as Addison and Goldsmith.

The method of employment may be a product of the age, the

sensitivity of the writer, the aim of the artistic work,

or perhaps the personality of the man; it may perhaps be

a combination of these elements. YrTiatever the reasons

for the type of implementation. Goldsmith safely belongs

to the Horatian variety.

The Character of the Author

It may perhaps seem paradoxical to consider Oliver

Goldsmith, who appeared to be the good-natured man and ami­

able author, as social critic. Biographers usually picture

him as a mild spirit much given to benevolence and flamboyant

spending, somewhat like the two characters of that nature

'^Ibid., p. 11.

26

which he created: the man in black and the kindly Vicar

of Wakefield. Even Boswell's biased account of Goldsmith

in the Life of Johnson would seem to substantiate this

portrait. There was, however, another side to Goldsmith,

a facet of his personality v/hich any discerning reader

will see twisted in Boswell's account. This was the

critical, scrutinizing dimension of the Goldsmithian

nature, a part of the man v/hich saw injustice and resented

it. Boswell often portrays Goldsmith as the envious,

peevish second-rate author who was the fool in the fashion­

able Literary Club. The fact is that Goldsmith v/as at

least the equal of Johnson in both the demand for and

volume of material v/hich he produced. Because of the

magnetic Johnsonian personality, however, Johnson was lion­

ized, and Goldsmith v/as overshadowed. As Prior notes, the

pronounced effort of Boswell to drav/ Goldsmith as the en­

vious fool com.es across as the projection of a Scots lawyer

who resented the author whose works Johnson valued so o

highly. Boswell substantiates this accusation in the life

when he recalls an event in 1763 when Goldsmith accompanied

Johnson to Miss V/illiams. The bitterness Boswell felt at

his exclusion is clear. o James Prior, The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.,

Vol. II (London: John Murray, 1b37), pp. 4oO-464. See also Prior's first volume, pp. 427-457 for an excellent discussion.

27

Dr. Goldsmith, being a privileged man, went with him this night, strutting av/ay, and call­ing to me with an air of superiority, like that of an esoterick over an exoterick disciple

-. of a sage of antiquity, "I go to Miss Williams." I confes-s, I then envied him this mighty priv­ilege, of which he seemed so proud; but it was not long before I obtained the same mark of distinction.°

There is another factor to be taken into consideration

in Boswell's account of both Johnson and Goldsmith and

that is the matter of selection in biographical material.

To quote that eminent literary critic, Joseph Y/ood Krutch,

Boswell's account scans a very brief period.

During the something more than tv/enty years v/hich elapsed betv/een the first meeting in Tom Davies's parlor and Johnson's death, Boswell v/as, it has been calculated, within reach of his friend for two years and some v/eeks even out of what is, roughly, the last quarter of Johnson's life. They did not, of course, meet on anything like every day of the relatively short periods during which they might have met, and Bosv/ell often, as he frankly confesses, failed to make a record of the conversation on the days when they did. V/hat we have, then, is not a remarkably complete record of Johnson's sayings, or even—as v/e unconsciously tend to assume when reading the Life—a selection of the best specimens of his talk. W£ have only a sampling, and something pretty close to a random sampling at that. ' (Italics added.)

It v/ould seem then if Bosv/ell's account is to be scrutinized

objectively, that if what he says about Johnson is to be

Q

^James Boswell, Bosv/ell's Life of Johnson, ed. by G.B. Hill, revised and enlarged by L. F. Powell, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934), p. 421.

^^Joseph Wood Krutch, "Folding His Legs," in Modern Writ­ings on Major English Authors, ed. by James R. Kreuzer smd Lee Cogan (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1963), p. 369.

28

considered "random sampling," without a doubt what he said

and intimated about Goldsmith is certainly selective criti­

cism and must be read in the context of other criticisms.

In spite of Boswell's efforts to tarnish Goldsmith's

character, an effort which, upon publication of the book,

drew rounds of criticism from Goldsmith's friends—Lord

Charlemont, Edmund Burke, John Y/ilkes, George Stevens,

11 Bishop Percy, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, some of the

Goldsmithian acumen still steals through Boswell's account.

Although Boswell allowed few persons to outshine his adu­

lated subject, Johnson, on at least two occasions, he

does record Goldsmith's outreasoning the great Cham.

In the entry of Thursday, April 15, 1773, Boswell

describes a conversation between Johnson and Goldsmith at

General Paoli's, the subject of the discussion being

whether Martinelli in his History of England should record

characters and events of the current time. Goldsmith

argued that a foreigner could write honestly of current

affairs and yet extricate himself from any entanglements.

Johnson vigorously disagreed and stated that a foreigner

who dared to write about recent politics had better be at

Calais before the book was published. Goldsmith argued

that men continuously told lies and received no retribution;

''Vrior, pp. 444-445.

29

Johnson replied that men would hear lies much more easily

than the truth. Goldsmith continued that for his part he

would "tell the truth, and shame the devil." Johnson re­

torted that while he preferred the truth himself the devil

would be angered and that he, Johnson, v/ould prefer to be

out of reach of his claws. Goldsmith replied, "His claws

12

can do you no harm, v/hen you have the shield of truth."

Thereafter the subject moved to a discussion of Sterne.

In the entry of April 27, Tuesday, 1773, there is

again testimony which counters Boswell's traditional pic­

ture of Goldsmith's abilities. Bosv/ell quotes Johnson

in saying that Goldsmith should never argue in company

because of his ineptness and his inability to accept

being bettered. Boswell goes on to praise Johnson's wit

and adds that Garrick considered him even above Rabelais.

He then condescends to add that by chance. Goldsmith some­

times had the better part of repartee. Goldsmith, however, was often very fortunate in his v/itty contests, even when he entered the lists with Johnson himself. Sir Joshua Reynolds was in company with them one day, when Goldsmith said, that he thought he could write a good fable, men­tioned the simplicity which that kind of composi­tion requires, and observed, that in most fables the animals introduced seldom talk in character. "For instance, (said he,) the fable of the little fishes, who sav/ birds fly over their heads, and envying them, petitioned Jupiter to be changed into birds. The skill (continued he,) consists

^^Boswell, II, 221-222.

30

in making them talk like little fishes." While he indulged himself in this fanciful reverie, he observed Johnson shaking his sides, and laugh­ing. Upon v/hich he smartly proceeded, "V/hy Dr.

^ Johnson, this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like V/HALES."'^

Bosv/ell in the entry of Friday, May 7, 1773, cites an

undated evening when Goldsmith upbraided Boswell for at­

tributing to Johnson unbounded superiority. Boswell's

quotation of Goldsmith is a key one, for it seems that

the latter quite accurately stated v/ith some insight the

reason for his frequent dissatisfaction with the Johnson

group. Boswell states that Goldsmith said, "Sir, . . .

you are for making a monarchy of v/hat should be a repub-

lick." For those who believe the eminence of Goldsmith

as a contemporary of Johnson's and as an equally valued

writer in his day, this statement is indeed central in

ascertaining hov/ Goldsmith has continued to be underrated

even into the twentieth century. Johnson gave Goldsmith

credit for being a writer of first stature, a fact that

no student of the eighteenth century can afford to ignore:

"Goldsmith, however, was a man," said Johnson, "who, v/hat-

15 ever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do."

''^Boswell, II, 231.

^^Ibid., p. 257.

^^Ibid., Ill, 253.

31

Goldsmith himself offers an explanation as to v/hy

this preeminence of Johnson is and was a fact. Johnson

simply had the most dominant, overbearing personality

and could impress those about him by squelching opposi­

tion. To quote Goldsmith, "There is no arguing v/ith

Johnson; for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you

down with the butt end of it."''^

Perhaps the pursuit of Boswell's portrayal of Gold­

smith may seem a bit far afield from the central topic

under discussion. But the case in point here, as in courts

of law, is to establish the character and merit of a man

that this dissertation proposes as an eminent critic and

satirist of his own time. The attitude tov/ard an author

which scholars bring to an evaluation of his works does

cast a psychological pallor over their scrutiny. Boswell's

biography has had such profound influence over scholars

in this century that the effort to reestablish the character

of Goldsmith seems a primary one. Hopefully, the analysis

which immediately follov/s of The Citizen of the Y/orld will

abet the effort to see Goldsmith in a much fairer light.

^^Ibid., p. 531.

CHAPTER III

PRELIMINARIES

The Purpose of "The Citizen of the World"

Besides the obvious purpose of pursuing a living,

what was Goldsmith's objective in v/riting The Citizen

papers? Entertainment was obviously one reason; for if

essays v/ere not entertaining, they were unlikely to be

both published and read. The entertainment value, how­

ever, was only the bait to attract a willing reader.

Living in a didactic age. Goldsmith was a product of that

age and had higher aspirations. Like Johnson, he v/ished

to instruct his readers in ways which would lead to a

happier, more fulfilling life. In Letter VII from Altangi

to Fum Hoam, Goldsmith explains his purpose for the

Chinese philosopher and his letters.

Goldsmith points out that to the true philosopher a

description of geographical phenomenon and terrain is

unnecessary. For the true philosopher is one who seeks

to understand "the human heart, who seeks to know the

Much of this letter. Goldsmith says, follows Con­fucius. Freidman also points out that it is closely allied to a translation of letter Ixxix of d'Argens' Lettres Chinoises. See Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman, Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 39-40.

32

33

men of every country, who desires to discover those dif­

ferences which result from climate, religion, education,

prejudice, and partiality." Travellers who describe

the dimensions of foreign residences, the colors of alien

dress, and who exaggerate the superiority of the culture

are pursuing a useless course insofar as the philosopher

is concerned. Such descriptions do nothing to make the

reader a happier person, nor do they help him to bear

his daily burdens more easily. The man who travels and

describes the findings of his curiosity is little more

than a vagabond, but true philosophers are those who

endeavor "to unite the world by their travels."

In Letter XX, again to Fum Hoam, Altangi describes

his dissatisfaction with the v/arring factions of authors

in England. Instead of trying to unite the country,

their rivalry spurs disunion. Goldsmith refers to Con­

fucius who "observes that it is the duty of the learned

to unite society more closely, and to persuade men to

become citizens of the world." The same subject is

pursued in Letter XXIII where Altangi praises the benevo­

lence of the English in raising subscriptions for French

^Ibid., p. 40.

^Ibid., p. 41.

^Ibid., p. 86.

34

prisoners. The most striking inscription of all the

benefactions is quoted by Altangi and printed in italics

by the author: "The mite of an Englishman, a citizen of

the world, to Frenchmen, prisoners of war, and naked."

The repeated motif of world unity and the emphasis

which Goldsmith uses to express it seem a straightforward

effort to make the reader av/are of the intention of the

papers. The profundity of such insight can hardly be

overstated; such an objective is one v/hich has been

weakly pursued in the tv/entieth century beginning first

v/ith V/oodrow Wilson and his League of Nations. It is

a concept, hov/ever, v/ith which the world has yet to come

to grips; even the adventure of man's setting foot on

the moon and looking back and photographing one world

has had little philosophical impact on the tribalistic

nations that pursue national identity. Humanity still

lacks a world view, a fact v/hich reveals that Goldsmith

did indeed pursue an avant garde objective.

The Title

The title of the letters, The Citizen of the World,

suggests their purpose, and evidence points to the fact

that the title was carefully chosen. Smith states that

Goldsmith believed titles to be quite important and

^Ibid., p. 99.

35

quotes an incident v/ith Isaac Taylor, a book engraver

who asked Goldsmith's help in choosing a title for the

former's book. When Taylor apologized for bothering

Goldsmith with such an insignificant detail, Goldsmith

retorted, "The title, sir; v/hy the title is everything."^

Smith says that Goldsmith first used "the Citizen

of the Y/orld" phrase in his Memoirs of M. Voltaire, where

the latter writes "Y/hen she was gone, those ties v/hich

held him to his country were broken, and he considered

himself, in every sense of the v/ord, a citizen of the

world."' In 1760, in one of Goldsmith's essays, "On

National Prejudices," which appeared in the British

Magazine, the term appeared twice. It v/ould appear then

that the concept of international being and \inity v/as

much in Goldsmith's mind.

Where Goldsmith found the phrase is indeterminable,

but it is possible that he acquired it from classical

sources; for Socrates, Cicero, Lucian, Seneca, and Diogenes o

Laertius v/ere among those who used it. It is also pos­

sible that it simply grew out of his ov/n philosophy of c. Hamilton Jewett Smith, Oliver Goldsmith's The Citizen

of The Y/orld; A Study (New Haven: Yale University Press, i92Frr p- 27.

'^Ibid., p. 28.

^Ibid., p. 27.

36

universal brotherhood. Whatever the source, the title

is a propos of the intent and purpose of the letters.

The "Editor's Preface"

The traditional point of view has been to accept

the Chinese letters for what they appear to be: a straight­

forward attempt at a group of essays based on the pseudo-

letter format with some incidental satire. It is more

than possible that for over two hundred years critics

have missed the entire point of the essays—a sustained,

organized attempt at social satire, an attempt to amelior­

ate social inequities.

If this position is supported, the conclusion must

be that Goldsmith, like Addison and Steele, is a master

of Horatian, rather than Juvenalian satire. His irony

is usually subtle and good-humored, seldom vitriolic or

biting. Perhaps the gentleness with which he handles

his subjects is one reason that critics have overlooked

his intent.

Certainly a careful reading of the "Editor's Preface"

supports this conclusion. The first paragraph which intro­

duces the qualifications of the philosopher states that

"his learning and gravity" are "nine hundred and ninety Q

nine, within one degree of absolute frigidity." The

•^Goldsmith, p. I3.

37

term, frigidity, suggests a frozen mental state and would

lead the discerning reader to believe that Altangi, the

philosopher, should not be taken too seriously.

Yet Goldsmith cannot afford to have his readers

dismiss his philosopher as a completely incompetent

thinker because the criticism which Altangi v/ill offer

of English society is often astute. According to the

way in which "schoolmen" formerly estimated merit. Gold­

smith does not hesitate to estimate Altangi's "genius,"

his innate ability, higher than the genius of Escobar

or Caramuel. Rather, it is the "learning and gravity"

of a philosopher v/hich Goldsmith notes Altangi lacks.

The reader is then led to believe that he must choose

for himself those criticisms of Altangi which are

legitimate.

Goldsmith undercuts the profundity of his philoso­

pher when he states:

The distinctions of polite nations are few; but such as are peculiar to the Chinese, appear in every page of the follov/ing correspondence. The metaphors and allusions are all drawn from the East. Their formality our author carefully reserves. Many of their favourite tenets in morals are illustrated. The Chinese are always concise, so is he. Simple, so is he. The Chinese are grave and sententious, so is he. But in one particular, the resemblance is peculiarly striking: the Chinese are often dull; and so is he.'' '

^^Ibid., p. 13.

^hbid., p. 14.

38

The reader may wonder when he reads that the philoso­

pher is "simple" whether Goldsmith is punning. When,

however, Goldsmith further degrades his narrator in say­

ing that he is dull as well, there can be little doubt

as to the sense in which "simple" is meant. "Dull" can

have the double meaning of being slov/ in wit or dry in

writing talent. Goldsmith goes on to say that he has

aided the philosopher in writing v/ith his "colloquial

ease." The implication stands, hov/ever, that a character

with frigid learning will be slow in v/it as well. Thus

the reader is led to believe from the very beginning

that Goldsmith's narrator, like Swift's Gulliver, is a

bit naive and will himself be the object of satire within

the essays.

Hopkins states in The True Genius of Oliver Gold­

smith that he believes that the vehicle of Chinoiserie

is also subject to ridicule, and the "Preface" seems to

substantiate that viev/point. Goldsmith relates a dream

of "Fashion Fair" where authors carry works across the

frozen Thames for marketing with successful results.

Other authors carry their goods in a v/agon, but Goldsmith's

will be taken via v/heelbarrow for fear of falling through

the ice because of their excessive v/eight. Goldsmith says

he resolves "to make a nev/ adventure. The furniture,

frippery, and firev/orks of China, have long been fashionably

39

bought up. I'll try the fair v/ith a small cargoe [sic*]

of Chinese morality. If the Chinese have contributed

to vitiate our taste, I'll try hov/ far they can help to

12 improve our understanding." The phrase "furniture,

frippery and fireworks" is a key.one; it implies the fad­

dishness for trivial and inconsequential Oriental acquisi­

tions by Englishmen. The phrase is satiric in that the

term, "frippery," suggests ostentation and pretentious­

ness as well as excessive ornamentation, exactly the

qualities that may be found in the character of Lien Chi

Altangi. As the essays suggest, form is of great con­

sequence to him. The alliteration of the successive

nouns is also important because it is a key tool of the

satirist in suggesting playful irony.

Finally, Goldsmith's analysis of himself as a

writer suggests that he is boldly putting his ideas on

the line; for he v/ill pay court to the pretensions of

no man. The satirist attempts to undercut the appearances

in life and carve out the truth at bottom; that attempt

is just what Goldsmith implies that he is doing. He

sees himself as an iconoclast who belongs

to no particular class. I resemble one of those solitary animals, that has been forced from, its forest to gratify human curiosity. My earliest wish v/as to escape unheeded through life; but I

'' Ibid., p. 15.

5

40

have been set up for half-pence, to fret and scamper at the end of my chain. Tho' none are injured by my rage, I am naturally too savage to court any friends by fawning. Too obstinate to be taught new tricks; and too improvident to mind what-may happen, I am appeased, though not contented. Too indolent for intrigue, and too timid to push for favour. . . .13

He says that he is in a stage of "rage," of agitation, but

that none v/ill be "injured" by his madness, a statement

which could very v/ell describe the Horatian satirist.

Apparently Goldsmith felt that his work might never

be understood, or if so might prove too heavy a burden,

for at the end of his dream sequence, he and his works,

14 alas, sink to the bottom of the Thames.

'' Ibid., p. 15.

^This metaphor is one of long literary tradition and appears in such v/orks as the preface to Swift's "Tale of a Tub" and in Sir Francis Bacon's Novum Organiun.

CHAPTER IV

THE FRAME STORY

In order to make his essays more palatable and to

incite interest, Goldsmith wove a frame story which

loosely bound them together. The texture of the story

contains a single thread, the frame tale, which moves

through the domain of wider interest and space, that of

the Chinese philosopher and his observation of English

culture. After the initial letter of introduction on the

philosopher, five letters appear before the frame story

begins. Of the 123 letters in the present edition, only

twenty actually deal v/ith the plot of the frame tale;

that is, one-sixth of the essays are then concerned with

plot. The guise of the Chinese persona failed to fool the

British public for long, and the modern reader is apt to

feel that the clumps of story essays which do appear are

little more than an attempt to make the persona more con­

vincing. This lack of dominance on the story line emphasizes

the comparison of cultures, a fact which Goldsmith seems to

have had in mind in his composition.

1 The frame story is contained in Letters VI, VII,

XXII, XXVI, XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVII, XLVII, LIV, LV, LIX, LX, LXXI, LXXVI, XC, XCIV, XCV, CIII, CXVIII, and CXXIII.

41

42

The story proper begins in Letter VI, in which Fum

Hoam, Altangi's friend in China, rebukes the philosopher

for leaving the country and advises him that the latter's

family have been seized by the emperor; that is, all ex­

cept Altangi's fifteen-year-old son, Hingpo, whom Fum

Hoam has hidden at the risk of his life. Hoam writes

that Hingpo is determined to make his way to Altangi, a

situation which sets the stage for the remainder of the

frame story, the account of Hingpo's adventures on his

way to England. Goldsmith never relates the destiny of

the rest of Altangi's family, his v/ife and daughter; the

reader can only assume that they forever rem.ain the

emperor's property.

Altangi replies in Letter VII that he has determined

to accept such adverse news philosophically, to steel

himself against his misfortune, and to forget his miseries

in the observations of travel. Letter XXII from Altangi

is addressed to his merchant friend in Amsterdam. Altangi

relates that the letter passed by the merchant was from

Hingpo who was captured by Tartars while traveling and is

nov/ a slave in Persia. Altangi laments his sorrowful lot

and blames his own ineptitude for his son's misfortunes.

The episode is reminiscent of the philosopher in Rasselas

who advises that dire events should be taken v/ithout

grief until he loses his only daughter and goes mad.

43

Altangi likewise finds that travel can ease the loss of

family until he finds that he has apparently lost every­

thing including his remaining son.

These three letters, VI, VII, and XXII, satirize

what Hopkins calls the "pride of fortitude." Fum Hoam's

Letter VI to Altangi announces the seizure of his family

and reprimands Altangi for his lack of responsibility and

his excessive reliance on reason and the search for wisdom.

I knov/ you will reply, that the refined pleasure of grov/ing every day v/iser is a sufficient re-compence for every inconvenience . . . he v/ho separates sensual and sentimental enjo;>Tnents, seeking happiness from mind alone, is in fact as wretched as the naked inhabitant of the forest, v/ho places all happiness in the first, regardless of the latter. There are tv/o ex­tremes in this respect; the savage who sv/allows down the draught of pleasure without staying to reflect on his happiness, and the sage v/ho pass-eth the cup while he reflects on the conveniencies [sic] of drinking.^

Hoam continues to upbraid Altangi for his conduct

and adds

You see, my dearest friend, v/hat imprudence has brought thee to. . . . Want of prudence is too frequently the want of virtue. . . .

In Altangi's reply which immediately follows, Hopkins

notes that the editor's note designates Altangi's letter

Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman, Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 37-38.

^Ibid., p. 38.

44

as a "rhapsody," a pejorative term in the eighteenth

century. This rhapsody is borrov/ed, states the editor,

from, Confucius. Most of what follov/s is indeed very

traditional: Altangi sees himself at the bottom of the

wheel of fortune and states that .man's "greatest glory

is, not in never falling, but in rising every time v/e

fall."-^ Altangi adds that his chief purpose in life is

"to procure wisdom, and the chief object of that wisdom"

is "to be happy."

Hopkins sees Altangi's viev/ as analogous to those

of optimists such as Soame Jenyns who try to explain av/ay

evil by making it good and v/ho rely heavily on reason to 7

rationalize evil in the world. There are some parallels

with the doctrine of optimism and with the trend in major

literary figures of the time to decry it. In 1759, a

year before the publication of the "Chinese letters,"

both Samuel Johnson's Rasselas and Voltaire's Candide were

published; both of the major characters in the novels

pursue happiness as does Goldsmith's Chinese philosopher.

See Robert H. Hopkins, The True Genius of Oliver Goldsmith (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1969), p. 103.

^Goldsmith, p. 39.

^Ibid., p. 39. 7 'Hopkins, p. 104.

45

Both Rasselas and Candide go in quest of happiness; both

are unsuccessful and find that happiness is to be found

at home. Rasselas returns to the Happy Valley; Candide

and Pangloss return to Constantinople to find happiness

in working their garden. The Chinese philosopher has not

learned this lesson, as Fum Hoam says; Altangi's quest

is for knov/ledge and happiness at any cost, including

the loss of his family; the crov/ning irony of this situa­

tion is that he is looking in the v/rong places and is

miserable knowing the plight of his son and feeling res­

ponsible for it.

He tries to rationalize his dilemma; v/hile he does

not go quite to Pangloss' extreme in labeling his situa­

tion the "best of all possible worlds," he does pride

himself on being able to face adversity. His philosophy,

however, will not hold up in the most adverse conditions.

In Letter XXII, Altangi's pride in fortitude collapses.

He repeats that his reason said, "True magnanimity consists

not in NEVER falling, but in RISING every time we fall."^

By the end of his letter, he finds that his reason cannot

overcome his emotions. The fallacy of his reliance on

wisdom leads him into a labyrinth of despair. Altangi

mentions the religions of the Jew, Indian, and "christian"

o

^Goldsmith, p. 95.

46

which pretend to teach happiness and which he has ap­

parently rejected.

-.. How contrary to reason are those; and yet all pretend to teach me to be happy. Surely all men are blind and ignorant of the truth. Mankind wanders, unknowing his way from morn­ing till the evening. V/here shall v/e turn after happiness; or is it wisest to desist from the pursuit. Like reptiles in a corner of some stupendous palace, v/e peep from our holes; look about us, wonder at all v/e see, but are ignorant of the great architect's design: 0 for a revelation of himself, for a plan of his universal system: 0 for the reasons of our creation; or why v/e were cre­ated to be thus unhappy. If we are to ex­perience no other felicity but v/hat this life affords, then are v/e miserable indeed. If we are born only to look about us, repine and die; then has heaven been guilty of injustice. If this life terminates ray existence, I despise the blessings of providence, and the v.'isdom of the giver. If this life be my all, let the following epitaph be v/ritten on the tomb of Altangi. B^ m^ father' s crime I receive this. By my own crimes 1^ bequeath it to posterity.^

Altangi relies on reason and is non-Christian in his

beliefs. Throughout his discourse, no capitalization is

used for references to Christianity or to deity. Absolute

belief in deity was the prevailing philosophy in the

eighteenth century; to the reader of that period, a philoso­

pher who presumed to be wise and rational would seem to be

a fool, for his emphasis on reason implied a defiance of

emotion and faith in God. He defied the basic Christian

concept that the beginning of knowledge is the fear of

^Ibid., pp. 96-97.

47

God. Altangi in his naivete is thus the object of

philosophical satire.

. The frame story continues v/ith the introduction of

the man in black in Letter XXVI. Nine letters later it

continues with three letters from Hingpo to his father,

Letters XXV, XXVI, and XXXVII. In Letter XXXV, Hingpo

describes his meeting with the beautiful captive of the

Tartars, Zelis. Hingpo observes Zelis from a distance

and is physically attracted to her; but realizing his

ov/n wretched state of servitude, he fears that a love

with her can never be. Then he anticipates his father's

reaction to such emotion and becomes an object for satire

himself when he states that "never let it be thought

11 your son . . . could stoop to so degrading a passion."

The conclusion of the letter is filled with regret that

Zelis seems bound in devotion to the tyrant who rules

the harem.

Letter XXXVI continues in the same vein; Zelis has

consented to become a bride of Mostadad, the ruler of the

harem. Hingpo is among those v/ho will prepare for the

nuptial festivities. Mostadad is the antithesis of Altangi;

the former lives by emotion rather than reason. He "seems

'' See The Holy Bible, Proverbs 1:7.

Goldsmith, p. 154.

48

perfectly contented v/ith his ignorance" and his many wives

12 and material possessions. Hingpo envies Mostadad's

pleasure and wishes he derived such enjoyment from life.

As Hopkins points out, Hingpo serves as a foil to point

1 " up the error of Altangi's reliance on reason. - Again

in anticipation of Altangi's reproach, Hingpo launches

into a panegyric on the advantages of philosophy and vows

he v/ill never abandon its pursuit "even though persuasion

spoke in the accents of Zelis!"

There are irony and humor in the introductory sentence

of the letter from Hingpo, XXXVII, v/hich immediately fol­

lows. In his yearning for Zelis, he begins "to have doubts

15

whether wisdom be alone sufficient to make us happy."

Hingpo relates an allegory told by a fellov/ slave about

a young man (much like Rasselas) v/ho was born in "the

valley of ignorance" v/ho longed to escape. The lad was

approached by three genii in sequence—Demonstration,

Probability, and Error—v/ho agreed to take him to his

destiny, the Land of Certainty. But, alas, the last, the

Demon of Error dropped the fellow into the Ocean of Doubts 12 Ibid., p. 155•

•^Hopkins, Chapter 3*

^ G o l d s m i t h , p . 156.

""^Ibid . , p . 156.

49

from v/hich he never emerged. The moral of the story for

both Hingpo and Altangi, to whom it is v/ritten, is that

the search for philosophical truth ends at last in error 16

and doubt.

The frame story continues in Letter XLVII in v/hich

Altangi advises Hingpo on v/ays to relieve his misery. In

the interval between Altangi's reply to Fum Hoam, Letter VII,

and the present letter, Altangi's attitudes tov/ard the

senses of man appear to have modulated near the concept

of the golden mean. Altangi advises Hingpo that the pas­

sions are sources of both vice and virtue and that in

times of misery little suffices as does giving vent to

the passions in virtuous ways. Altangi echoes Pope's

concept of reason in his "Essay on Man" as the ship which

17 carries one through life while "passions are the gale."

There is some irony, hov/ever, in the word choice Altangi

uses in his advice: "dissipation," v/hich has the double

18 meaning of broadcasting and of wasteful use of the energies.

The thread of plot continues in Letter LIX, a letter

from Hingpo to Altangi. Hingpo relates how he escaped

with the beautiful captive, Zelis. On the night before

^^Ibid., pp. 156-161.

'See Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, II, 11. 106-107-

''^Goldsmith, pp. 200-201.

50

the nuptial rites, Zelis came to him begging his aid in

escaping. V/hen they sought to climb over the garden

wall, instead of the female slave who v/as to bring a lad­

der, they found an infuriated Mostadad who ordered Hingpo

beaten until his nails came from his feet and his sinews

were exposed. By a miraculous stroke of luck, Tartars

invaded Mostadad's city; and the captives fled to the city

of Turki.""^

This manipulation of plot could easily be a satire

on the many Oriental tales whose authors used such de­

vices as the miraculous escape and a sv/ashbuckling hero

to create suspense and adventure for their readers.

Goldsmith's plot early embodies the sentimental love tale

so traditional in Oriental stories: the maiden held

against her will in a harem and rescued by an adventurous

young man. Apparently, the English market was eager for

such fantasies; for fifty years later Lord Byron still

found a ready audience for the same plot devices and whet­

ted the public taste with poems such as the Oriental tale.

The Corsair, and others. The adventurous travel tale had

successfully been ridiculed earlier in the century by Swift

in his Gulliver's Travels. It is likely that Goldsmith

found a parody of the Oriental tale would arouse reader

^%bid., pp. 243-245.

51

interest as well as provide good fodder for literary

satire.

- Letter LX contains the history of Zelis, a girl

born in undetermined Western climates, the daughter of

a widov/ed army officer. Zelis tells of her genteel up­

bringing which invited many suitors, none of v/hom were

serious because of her lack of fortune. After an aged

suitor married an heiress, her father challenged him to

a duel for her honor and died. Thereafter, she accom­

panied a passionate, liberated woman v/riter to Italy.

Finding dissatisfaction v/ith her irresolute life, Zelis

decided to become a nun and sailed for Rome. En route,

the ship that she v/as aboard was invaded by Barbary

pirates, and all v/ere enslaved. After relating her ad­

venture, Hingpo advises Altangi that he and Zelis are

20 travelling to Moscow and v/ill write from there.

Letter LXI is Altangi's reply to his son's letter.

In this letter, which could aptly be called "Advice to a

Young Man," Altangi v/ams his son about listening to the

advice of all those about him and, through the devices

of two anecdotes and a fable, tries to impress upon Hingpo

that the best v/ay to please the world "is to attempt

21 pleasing one half of it."

^^Ibid., pp. 247-250.

^^Ibid., p. 254.

52

The plot continues with Hingpo's letter to his

father. Letter LXXVI, an allegory on "the preference of

grace to beauty."^^ The moral of the allegory is that

a graceful v/oman with variety is much to be preferred

to a beautiful v/oman who lacks variety.

Letter XCIV, from Hingpo in Moscow to Altangi, re­

lates how he was separated from Zelis when pirates on

the Volga River harrassed his travelling party. The

women were sent ahead of the besieged boat of men; the

ship of ladies was wrecked, and the travellers were taken

hostage by nearby peasants. Hingpo laments his ill for­

tune in losing Zelis. Altangi replies in Letter XCV

and endeavors to comfort his son.

Only three letters before the conclusion remain in

the frame story. The rush of events in the plot and

their lack of coordination might cause the reader to feel

that Goldsmith was overly occupied wdth other writings or

that he was eager to conclude a long and successful series.

Letter CIII, from Altangi to his merchant friend in Amster­

dam, reveals that Altangi plans to wait for the arrival

of Hingpo and then journey back to China with his son.

Whether Goldsmith was undecided about how to end the plot

or v/as preoccupied with other matters, the last tv/o letters

^^Ibid., pp. 314-318.

53

of the series are unconnected, and a surprise ending is

sprung upon the unwary reader.

,, Letter CXVII, to Altangi from Fum Hoam, who has

been assigned to an embassy in Japan, complains about

the behavior of the Dutch in the court of Japan, v/hich

reminds one of Swift's description of Gulliver's treat­

ment at the hands of the Dutch in the beginning of

Book III of Gulliver' s Travels. There are also parallels

between the indignities of the Japanese court and the

Laputan court in Book III. Goldsmith may have reaped

the idea from his voluminous reading, or he may have

simply been parodying the unconnected sequence of events

in travelogues current in the eighteenth century. In

any'event, this letter seems to have no bearing upon the

central plot.

The conclusion to the frame tale and the series

comes in Letter CXXIII, in which the man in black is sur­

prised with a visit from his young niece, who is no other

than the beautiful Zelis. Hingpo and Zelis are married,

v/ith the man in black, the pav/n-broker's v/idow, and Mr.

and Mrs. Tibbs in attendance. The man in black gives the

couple a small country estate, and he and the Chinese philoso-

23 pher determine to travel from country to country together.

^^Ibid., pp. 470-476.

54

Although the frame tale provides some incidental

narrative interest in the series of letters, it offers

more than entertainment. First, it provides the basis

for comparison which pervades the essays. Secondly, it

sets the tone for the interpretation of the essays which

proceed from the Chinese philosopher. Since the frame

story is itself a satire of Altangi and his friends, the

reader may assume that the point of viev/ v/hich is pre­

sented from the Chinese philosopher's essays may be

ironical and should not alv/ays be taken literally. That

is, the frame tale tips off the reader to the possibility

that what he is reading is more than light entertainment;

it is satire which is leveled not only at English culture

but at the Chinese and the obeisance which the English

had paid to the fad of Chinoiserie.

Perhaps the most satiric blow of all, the most pro­

found judgment of the two cultures is found in the final

character of Altangi. While he has observed English

culture in a comparative fashion, it has produced little

change in his character. Altangi is essentially the same

man who emerges in the initial essays, although he is

more experienced. The fact of this lack of alteration

is a two-edged sword. Not only is it an indictment of

English culture which is incapable of producing positive

change, but it speaks as well for the nature of the

55

Chinese v/ho v/ere revered as paragons of wisdom. The

question that arises is how much v/isdom is to be found

in either of the tv/o cultures.

In the initial discussion of the frame tale, Fum Hoam

suggests that Altangi seeks happiness, the object of his

quest, in the wrong places and states that the pleasure

of the senses, of one's home and family should not be

neglected. Hingpo tries to accede to his father's faith

in the pov/er of reason, but finds at last v/hen he unites

with Zelis that happiness is found not only in philosophy,

but in the senses. What seems to be at stake here is the

adherence to the standard of the golden mean, the balance

24 betv/een reason and the senses. Hopkins very aptly

makes this point:

Altangi is accused of having a lopsided viev/ of life, of placing an undue emphasis on reason, and of thereby ignoring the rational-empirical golden mean that rejects both the hedonistic, excessive indulgence of the senses and excess­ive reliance on reason. Fum Hoam proceeds to inform Altangi that because he has left China, the emperor has made slaves of his family and appropriated his property; only his son Hingpo has escaped. The situation most assuredly undercuts Altangi's role as the philosophic traveler, for it v/ould have been easy for Gold­smith to have made his traveler a bachelor.^-^

^^See Robert E. Moore, "William Hogarth: The Golden Mean," in The Age of Johnson, ed. by Frederick V/. Hilles (Nev/ Haven: Yale University Press, 1949).

^^Hopkins, p. 103.

56

The mark of a wise man is that he learns from his

experiences; his intercourse v/ith life widens his horizons

and teaches him hov/ to find happiness within his environ­

ment and culture. Altangi has experienced not only his

ov/n culture but everything in English culture from

prostitution to religious services at St. Paul's; yet

he seems no v/iser for his exposure. His quest for hap­

piness has not ended at the conclusion of the series;

it has received nev/ impetus in his plan to visit still

other cultures. This fact indirectly seems to support

the view that Altangi is at last a pseudo-philosopher,

that many of his attitudes as found in the essays are a

mockery of true wisdom.

H

m s CO

CHAPTER V

GOLDSMITH AND THE CHARACTER ESSAY

Prom the time of Theophrastus to the present, authors

have been intrigued v/ith the character essay. Among the

most famous English v/riters v/ho have tried to capture the

essence of personality on paper are Addison and Steele who

created Sir Roger de Coverley and Will V/imble, Samuel John­

son v/ho originated Dick Minim and Mr. Sober, and Oliver

Goldsmith v/hose characters in The Citizen are the subjects

of this study.

The asset of the character essay is that it can de­

lineate many personality weaknesses in the character of

a single person and may thus satirize a wide range of

human frailties. This sort of caricature, of exaggerating w

satirically a character's faults, allows the artist to be

specific in his denunciations while not pointing to a defi­

nite person or sect of persons and thus risking the charge of

slander. Y/hile Addison and Steele could hardly run the

risk of directly criticizing the Tory party, they could

draw a satirical caricature of what they considered Tory

traits with their portrait of Sir Roger de Coverley; at the

same time, this character fascinated their readers. Goldsmith

57

H M

r

58

was aware of these assets and engaged them, when he created

his cast of characters for The Citizen papers.

The "man in black"

One of the most memorable characters of The Citizen

papers is the man in black, who is often associated with

his creator, Goldsmith. Perhaps one reason for his appre­

ciation is that his "frailties" make him seem very human.

Hopkins mentions that the fact that the man in black has

often been associated v/ith the Vicar of V/akefield for his

belief in universal benevolence. As Hopkins observes,

the description of the man in black's father is more akin 1

to the Vicar than is that of the man in black himself. ^ H

Hopkins sees Goldsmith's portrayal of the man in g

black as a satire on universal benevolence and on the in- m

nate goodness of man as described by Shaftesbury's dis- r

ciple, Francis Hutchinson. The three beggars v/hom the

man in black meets Hopkins sees as imposters and cites

instances in eighteenth-century magazines of such creatures 2

indulging on the benevolence of the public. He cites an entry in the Public Ledger, written on April 12, 1760, a

''Robert H. Hopkins, The True Genius of Oliver Gold­smith (Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1969), p. 113.

^Ibid., pp. 124-127. Capitalization of the "man in black" follows Goldsmith.

59

week after the essay on the inconsistent behavior of the

man in black, which told of a woman who hired children

for a stipend and begged in the streets to incite the

charity of passers-by.-^ While Hopkins' case is convincing,

it seems that he loses sight of the nature of Altangi who

accompanies the man in black and of another interpreta­

tion which the essay, Letter XXVI, inherently contains.

The man in black, unlike the Vicar, constantly de­

cries the principle of benevolence. In the essay, he

and Altangi meet three beggars: the first is a wretch

who sells matches; the second is a soldier with a peg

leg; and the third is a woman v/ith children. In the first

case, the man in black gives to the poor wretch a shilling,

much more than the v/orth of the matches; the soldier re­

ceives a piece of silver, again a sizable donation; and §

the woman, the last whom they meet, is given the matches

purchased for a shilling, the man in black now having

nothing except the matches. In each case the man in black

berates benevolence and tries to hide his charity from

Altangi.

Hopkins sees Altangi's approach as the rational one.

Altangi states that he, "Being prepossessed against such

flashoods [sic]," the first beggar's story "had not the

H m

^Ibid., p. 127.

60

least influence upon me." The man in black, however,

is moved enough to give a shilling. Altangi is a man

guided by reason; as his character is pictured in the

early essays by Fum Hoam and Hing Po, he is seldom swayed

by his passions. It is notable that this fact is the

flaw in the philosopher's character. If this thesis is

accepted as the essays seem to indicate. Letter XXVI

assumes a slightly different interpretation.

Goldsmith draws tv/o characters, each of whom is an

extreme opposite. The man in black is clearly guided

by his passion rather than his reason v/hile Altangi is

moved only by reason and not the passions. Each violates

the golden mean. Therefore, not only the man in black

but also Altangi is a target of satire in these essays.

It seems quite possible with such an interpretation that

the man in black's approach to life receives less condem- g

nation.

While he is victimized by his OV\TI charity, he harms

only himself and not others. In Letter XXVII, a sister

essay to the preceding one, the man in black narrates his

own history, or biography. He tells how he was manipulated

by false friends until he learned to feign avarice and then

X

w H M

r

Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman, Vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), p. 110.

61

became esteemed at the highest tables, behavior which is

clearly an indictment of the society in which he moved.

In each of the anecdotes which he relates, the characters

of his social circle relate that he "seemed to be very

good natured, and had no harm" in him.^ The crov/ning

irony of this situation appears to be that in order to

exist in London society it was necessary to be cold and

avaricious, calculating and rational, characteristics

which could be associated more with Altangi than with

the man in black. The implication of this essay seems to

undercut the more obvious denunciation of the universal

benevolence of the man in black. Like Asem the man-hater,

the character of Goldsmith's essay (1759) by that name, J

who gave everything to mankind and hated it in the end,

the man in black learned to exercise prudence and calcu­

lation in order to live in an unfeeling society. co

The man in black, while he has the ostensible purpose jj

of serving Altangi as a guide, represents an ideal ethic,

universal benevolence, but it is an impractical ideal in

a gross materialistic v/orld. The irony of the situation

is that the man in black must violate his human compassion

to be accepted in a world where manipulation and deception

are the codes of the day.

231

H m n

r

^Ibid., pp. 115-117.

62

Beau Tibbs and the English Nobility

Goldsmith apparently felt that the English nobility

had degenerated since the time of Pope. Men of great

station who had once been the patrons and exponents of

learning had become dilettanti of the arts and triflers.

In order to savor Goldsmith's distaste for such noblemen,

one need only examine The Citizen of the World essays.

The gentleman v/ho has now passed us, replied my companion, has no claims from his own merit to distinction, he is possessed neither of abilities nor virtue; it is enough for him that one of his ancestors was possessed of these qualities tv/o hundred years before him. There v/as a time, indeed, when his family deserved their titles, but they are long since degenerated, and his ancestors for more than a century have been more and more solicitous to keep up the breed of their dogs and horses than that of their children. ^ This very nobleman, simple as he seems, is de- g scended from a race of statesmen and heroes; but w unluckily his great grandfather marrying a cook H maid, and she having a trifling passion for his 2 lordship's groom, they some how crossed the strain, and produced an heir who took after his , mother in his great love to good eating, and his ;g father in a violent affection for horse flesh. h These passions have for some generations passed ^ on from father to son, and are now become the characteristics of the family, his present lord­ship being equally remarkable for his kitchen and his stable.°

The superficiality of a class expected to be the para­

gons of social responsibility is obvious. The talents and

resources of the nobility. Goldsmith saw squandered. Such

men attracted only a retinue of flatterers who gathered

^Ibid., Letter XXXII, pp. 138-139-

63

about their tables as long as they could continue to please

the perverted taste of the nobility. Furthermore, such

noble specimens were misled in their artistic taste, and

rather than teaching their sons to be statesmen and men

of responsibility taught them instead to be dilettanti

like themselves.

In Letter XXXIV, Goldsmith relates through Altangi

the decline of the arts and social responsibility because

of the trifling tastes of the nobility.

The nobility are ever fond of v/isdom, but they also are fond of having it without study; to read poetry required thought, and the English nobility were not fond of thinking; they soon therefore placed their affections upon music, because in this they might indulge an happy vacancy, and yet still have pretensions to delicacy and taste as before. They soon brought their numerous depend- g ents into an approbation of their pleasures; who ^ in turn led their thousand imitators to feel or « feign a similitude of passion. . . .

Music having thus lost its splendour. Painting is now become the sole object of fashionable care; the title of connoisseur in that art is at present |S the safest passport into every fashionable society; 1 a well timed shrug, an admiring attitude, and one or tv/o exotic tones of exclamation are sufficient qualifications for men of low circumstances to curry favour; even some of the young nobility are themselves early instructed in handling the pencil, while their happy parents, big with expectation, foresee the walls of every apartment covered with the manufactures of their posterity.'

Altangi goes on to describe the nobleman's son v/ho is

accompanied to Europe by his tutor. The object of the trip

X

n

[X

'^Ibid., pp. 148-149.

64

is to absorb all of the pictorial culture of the Conti­

nent. From Antwerp the youth v/rites his father that he

and his tutor measured the "exact dimensions" of "the church o

of the virgin-mother." The trifling nature of such under­

takings is obvious. The son next describes hov/ another

lord whom they have visited possesses a picture of the

"holy family just like your lordship's." The lord, the

lad says, had the vanity to protest that his painting v/as

the original, but the tutor vov/s to v/rite a "dissertation" Q

on its authenticity once the two return home.

This anecdote implies tv/o value judgments: the nobility

are misguided in their attempts to attain culture, and their

amateur efforts make them gullible for the most outrageous

frauds. These indictments are made against the class that H m

a few decades earlier had been the patrons of true art. 2 In Letter LXIV, the nobility is again examined, but S

X

this time in a satirically positive light. Altangi writes

to Fum Hoam about how little it takes to make noblemen happy

and v/hat pains they go to to achieve a semblance of success.

Noblemen in Europe, for example, are satisfied to go to

war or to make other sacrifices in the hopes that their

sovereign v/ill simply present them v/ith a yard or two of ^Ibid., p. 150.

3a V)

X <

^Ibid., Letter XXXIV, pp. 150-151.

65

blue or green ribbon. To Altangi, the outsider, the orders

presented to lords are nothing more than the reality of

some ribbon.

The "sacrifice" these noblemen make are certainly to

be wondered at, says Altangi. First of all, they are rich

initially, and once the basic appetities such as hunger

and sex are satisfied what is to be gained by striving

for more. If, ponders Altangi, they were able to increase

their physical appetix.e.s as they achieve success, surely

it would all be worthwhile; that is, if they could eat

two meals at a time instead of one, or have tv/o wives,

rather than one, such endeavors would be rewarding.

Ironically, Altangi decides that H

Instead therefore of regarding the great with envy^ "^ I generally consider them with some share of com- S passion. I look upon them as a set of good na- § tured misguided people, who are indebted to us •• and not to themselves for all the happiness they 3 enjoy. For our pleasure, and not their own, 5 they sweat under a cumbrous heap of finery; for our pleasure the lacquied train, the slov/ parading pageant, with all the gravity of grandeur, moves in reviev/; a single coat, or a single footman, answers all the purposes of the most indolent refinement as v/ell; and those who had tv/enty, m.ay be said to keep one for their ov/n pleasure, and the other nineteen merely for ours. So true is the observation of Confucius, that we take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy, than in endeavouring to think so ourselves. ^

X <

^^Ibid., p. 267.

66

What did indeed characterize the accoutrements of

the nobility is best seen in the description of Beau Tibbs,

a shabby commoner who affected the habits of the nobility.

As Hopkins points out, Tibbs appears to be a caricature

of the nobleman just as Sir Roger de Coverley was a satir-

11 ical prototype for the Tory gentleman. In Letter LIV,

when Altangi first meets Tibbs, he describes the latter's

dress.

His hat v/as pinch'd up v/ith peculiar smartness; his looks were pale, thin, and sharp; round his neck he wore a broad black ribbon, and in his bosom a buckle studded v/ith glass; his coat w'as trimimed with tarnish'd twist; he wore by his side a sword with a black hilt, and his stock­ings of silk, though newly wash'd, were grov/n yellow by long service.''^

:;)

Hopkins sees close analogies between this portrait and x 'J)

those drawn by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his Caricature and by H jf\

Vi Hogarth in his drawing of the French dancing master, A **

1 3 Rake' s Progress, Plate II. - To Hopkins ? ^ z

Beau Tibbs embodies Goldsmith's theory of humor < and serves a satirical function which a mere sur­face view of Beau Tibbs v/ill fail to comprehend. Goldsmith believed that his age had witnessed a considerable decline in contemporary aristocratic manners and taste. The basic problem v/as how to ridicule this taste. The creation of an aristo­cratic fop was not the answer for Goldsmith be­cause this device was v/orn out and because high

Hopkins, p. 140.

''^Goldsmith, p. 226.

''Hopkins, pp. 146-147.

67

society presented a "universal blank of silk, ribbands, smiles and whispers." But to take a character originating in a lower level of society and to use this character as a mirror

-. reflecting in an exaggerated manner the affecta­tions of the aristocrats v/ould be a brilliant solution, one of its antecedents being John Gay's use in The Beggar's Opera of highwaymen and fences to parody the V/hig administration of Walpole, and another being Hogarth's en­gravings. Beau Tibbs is more than mere satire, however, against the aristocratic nouveaux riches themselves; he represents the potential corruption in taste and fashion of the entire middle class. '

Hopkins' evaluation seems to be an accurate one, well

supported by The Citizen essays. There are tv/o standards

which are evaluated here; the first concerns the "misguided"

(a term Goldsmith uses in Letter LXIV) endeavors of the

nobility, the top class in English society, a class v/hich ;j X

set the standards of taste for the country and v/hich held v) H MB

the responsibility for cultural and economic progress. h The second standard is concerned with the middle and lower "

classes which often imitated the aristocracy and v/hich were ? •<

generally influenced by the latter's habits.

The most encompassing criticism leveled at both classes,

however, is affectation. Doing what was thought "proper,"

behaving with "decorum," and putting on "airs" of self-

importance, these are the actions that exude from the

little Beau and Mrs. Tibbs. The lack of inherent naturalness

^^Ibid., pp. 142-143.

68

was a character trait v/hich Goldsmith apparently despised;

for Mr. and Mrs. Tibbs are objects of ridicule by virtue

of their aristocratic airs which contrast with their

meager, poverty-stricken background just as the Beau's

dress is ridiculous because it apes the nobleman's ap­

parel but is marked by conspicuously yellow, aged stockings.

Tibbs and his wife are persons with little individual­

ity or character; they are pseudoaristocrats, fakes and

imitations who want to pass for the real thing. Affecta­

tion is the key to their characters; it pervades the essays

in which they appear. Even the speech patterns are carica­

tures of aristocratic manners. In Letter LIV, v/hen

Altangi first meets Tibbs, there is Tibbs' air of conde- S

scension punctuated by habitual name dropping. ^ H umm

Psha, psha, V/ill, cried the figure, no more of g that if you love me, you know I hate flattery, on my soul I do; and yet to be sure an intimacy with 3 the great will improve one's appearance, and a x course of venison v/ill fatten; and yet faith I t despise the great as much as you do; but there ^ are a great many damn'd honest fellows among them; and we must not quarrel with one half, because the other wants breeding. If they were all such as my Lord Mudler, one of the most good-natured creatures that ever squeez'd a lemon; I should myself, be among the number of their admirers. I was yesterday to dine at the Duchess of Pic­cadilly's, My Lord was there. Ned, says he to me, Ned, says he, I'll hold gold to silver I can tell where you v/ere poaching last night. Poaching my Lord, says I; faith you have missed already; for I staid at home, and let the girls poach for me. That's my way; I take a fine woman as some animals

69

do their prey; stand still, and swoop, they fall into my mouth.15

It is noteworthy that Tibbs unknowingly sustains the

motif of criticism that has built against the nobility

throughout other essays. First, he says that intercourse

with the nobility v/ill '.'improve one's appearance";

nothing is mentioned about the mind or spirit being lifted

or improved. The only other improvement mentioned is

that of the nobility's table, a motif which appears through­

out the essays.

•This same motif is carried through when Drybone asks

Tibbs whether his fortune has improved in such company,

and Tibbs replies that he has been promised "five hundred

1 fi a year to begin v/ith." g

This braggadocio is unconvincing from the beginning jn

of the essay. The reader ascertains this tone when Altangi ^ 3

relates hov/ his companion madly endeavored to avoid Tibbs *

and was at last trapped into talking with him. The under­

cutting stab v/hich pierces the satire, however, comes

after Tibbs finishes his pretentious speeches and asks

Drybone for a half-crown. No one v/ith such connections

as Tibbs professes to have would be forced to ask a

commoner for such a paltry sum. Drybone supports this

''^Goldsmith, pp. 226-227. Italics omitted.

"• Ibid., p. 227.

X

<

•'^H^^sawT"

70 J

satiric thrust when he tells Altangi that of those

noblemen Tibbs purports to know "he has scarce of coffee-

17 house acquaintance." ' Thus Tibbs is exposed as a liar;

furthermore he is a hypocrite, for he professes to despise

the nobility and yet imitates them.

In Letter LV, v/hich follows, the incongruity between

the Beau's pretensions and his actual station becomes

comic. Tibbs meets Altangi and insists that he accompany

him home for dinner and meet "Mrs. Tibbs, a Lady of as

elegant qualifications as any in nature . . . bred . . .

18 under the inspection of the Coi ntess of Shoreditch."

In the following scene, the maid manipulates the

satire. After wandering through dark back streets, Altangi J

and Tibbs ascend to a garret, the humblest of all dwellings.

The comedy begins when Tibbs continues to beat at the door s

^^Ibid., p. 227.

'^Ibid., p. 229.

H

until at last the maid opens it. V.Hien Tibbs asks where a

the mistress is, the maid replies that she is next door 5

washing his two shirts because the neighbors v/ill not lend

out the tub again. Infuriated, Tibbs asks again and re­

ceives the same reply. He then asks the maid to summon

his wife.

71

Mrs. Tibbs has the aristocratic practice of keeping

her guests v/aiting; when she does arrive, Altangi perceives

her as "at once a slattern and a coquet; much emaciated,

1Q but still carrying the remains of beauty." ^ Mrs. Tibbs,

who is only a little less ridiculous than her husband,

affects the same aristocratic small talk as her husband

and tells Altangi that she spent the prior evening v/ith

the countess at Vauxhall Gardens. Tibbs then suggests

several delicacies for lunch, a venture which is satiric­

ally undercut when Mrs. Tibbs mentions a "pretty bit of

ox cheek." Tibbs agrees, adding that he detests loads of

meat. Disgusted, Altangi leaves while Mrs. Tibbs assures

20 him that lunch will be ready in tv/o hours.

The same satire is carried through in Letter LXXI ^

which relates the visit to Vauxhall of Altangi, the Tibbses, s

the man in black, and the pav/nbroker's v/idov/. In this |

letter, the pawn-broker's widow serves as foil to the ever J

social conscious Mrs. Tibbs. The pawn-broker's widow has

gone for the express purpose of seeing the waterv/orks which

are soon to begin. Mrs. Tibbs, however, finds such amuse­

ments beneath her station and prefers to sit in the gardens

where she says "the best company" is. An argument ensues

3

^^Ibid., p. 232.

^^Ibid., p. 232.

72

with Mrs. Tibbs accusing the widow of low breeding; the

widov/, hov/ever, defends herself by stating that she, at

least, can carve meat at the head of a full table.

When the food arrives, Mrs. Tibbs complains, and

Tibbs states that it hardly compares v/ith "lord Crumps

21 or lady Crimps." Tibbs finds the v/ine "abominable" as

he drinks off a glass. This scene of social snobbery can

well be compared to the last portrait of the Tibbses as

they ineffectually offered Altangi dinner at their home.

The aristocracy could better afford such snobbery than

those of impoverished stock.

The final COUD of this affectation occurs when Mrs.

Tibbs is persuaded by Tibbs to sing. The widow fears she

will miss the v/aterworks, but is courteous enough to

remain. V/anting to represent the decorum of good breed-ma

ing, "she could not bounce out in the very middle of a 3

song, for that would be forfeiting all pretension to high \

22 life, or highlived company ever after." The v/aiter soon

informs the company that the v/aterworks are over. The

disappointed widow desires to leave, but the Tibbses assure

her that "the polite hours" are arriving and that they v/ill

'Ji

H

''ibid., p. 296.

^^Ibid., p. 297.

73

be entertained with horns, an amusement Mrs. Tibbs told

Altangi that she relished at their former meeting.

^ What has occurred in this letter seems to be a parody

of genteel manners exhibited by members of the lower mid­

dle class. Not one of these persons has a claim to high

breeding; yet all are manipulated by the Tibbses* ideas

of gentility. Letter CXXIII, the conclusion, carries the

same motif v/hen Tibbs is appointed "Master of the Cere­

monies" for Hing Po and Zelis' wedding and when Mrs. Tibbs

2 arranges entertainment "v/ith proper decorum." -^

The utter absurdity of the interests pursued by the

nobility is brilliantly and hum.orously satirized in another

parody on the Newmarket horse races. Altangi, v/ho has

never visited Nev/market, describes a race between a turnip H

cart, dust cart, and dung cart on the road to Brentv/ood, 3 -a

a small village outside London. The ridiculous nature of 3 a

the carts SDeaks for Goldsmith's oiDinion of the trivial 5

horse races on which the nobility exert their time and

energies. Initially, the odds are five to four, for dust

against dung. The first half-mile finds turnip, however,

in the lead. Spectators shout as turnip and dung vie.

Turnip appears to be v/inning as the goal post appears; but,

alas, the horse stops and refuses to move. As the dung

^^Ibid., p. 474.

74

cart passes turnip on the path to victory, it jumps the

road and falls into a nearby ditch. Dust, trailing from

behind, speeds to a victorious finish amid the shouts of

spectators.

Altangi comments that there is little difference

between the understanding of the spectators at the Brent­

wood and Newmarket races; only the dress differs. Y/ith

a touch of pungent satire he concludes "that turnips,

dust, and dung, are all that can be found to furnish out 24 description in either." ^

The indictment against both the middle class and

nobility stands. The nobility represent an empty, formal

set of manners; their interests are confined to well-bred •;( <

horses, overstuffed tables, and dilettantish artistic ^

endeavors. The middle class, rather than retaining their 2 •m

m

individuality, tend to affect the perverted taste of the "_^

aristocracy. In both classes, there is a decline of true ^

manners and good taste and the abandonment of personal

responsibility.

^^Ibid., Letter LXXXVI, 350-352.

CHAPTER VI

IDIOSYNCRASIES OF ENGLISH SOCIETY

Probably the first aspect of a new country v/hich

strikes the foreigner is the costume of the native inhabi­

tants which generally is peculiar to each country and which

usually impresses the observer as odd. Goldsmith, having

made a tour of the continent and having compared the merits

of differing countries seemed well aware of this fact.

That he was is evident from the fact that he devotes one

of Altangi's first essays. Letter III, to the bizarre

dress of the English. Altangi looks about him and compares

the English men and women with their counterparts in his

native China.

He observes that the desire to distort v/hat nature has :>

bestowed upon the human race seems to stem from a vanity 5

which makes men want to be more beautiful than nature cre­

ated them. This fact he finds particularly true among

the English because both sexes leave hardly any part of

the body in its natural state. The men, for example, feel

that the height of masculinity is to be achieved by bearing

a head full of hair. So inordinate is this drive that they

75

<

H

76

wear wigs made from the hair of others. The barber who

achieves this conversion begins by first cropping the hair

close to the crown, plastering the head v/ith hog's lard

and meal, and placing the wig with its lengthy pigtail on

the customer's head. Thus transformed, the English man

feels that "he is qualified to make love, and hopes for

success more from the powder on the outside of his head,

than the sentiments within."

Turberville comments upon this custom and supports

Altangi's observations. He reports that the Macaronis,

a group of extravagant young men, "v/ore masses of arti­

ficial hair with very small hats and clothes fitting very

close to the figure and carried huge walking-sticks v/ith 2

long tassels." By 1765, however, the fad had diminished

enough that the peruke-makers complained to the King of 5

men wearing their own hair. Goldsmith did himself at Z >Q

times wear a peruke, but it is notable that in his portrait J

by Sir Joshua Reynolds he appears bareheaded.

Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the V/orld, ed. by Arthur Friedman, Vol. Ill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 23-24.

2 A. S. Turberville, English Men and Manners in the

Eighteenth Century, 2nd ecH (OxforHT Clarendon Press, 1929), pp. 287-290.

^Ibid., p. 98.

<

'>i

<

77

The dress of the ladies was, apparently, scarcely

more outlandish than that of the men. When the philosopher

compares the ,ladies of China to those of England he finds

the latter quite ugly. Rather than having small feet as

do the Chinese women, the English women have large feet,

often as long as ten inches. The Chinese women are

blessed with broad faces, small eyes, thin lips, short

noses, pencil-fine eye brows, and black teeth. In compari­

son to such beauty, Altangi finds the English v/omen fright­

fully odious.

Women in England, writes Altangi, have big eyes,

horribly ugly white teeth, red cheeks, and enormous feet,

which he, ironically, adds are actually used in some ^

instances for v/alking. As if these deformities are not ^ H

enough, they powder their hair white, blue, or sometimes J

black, and the face is painted red for special occasions. 5

Sometimes, small black patches are actually stuck to all =

parts of the face except the nose to enhance this "beauty."

The most surprising practice about these women, how­

ever, is that they purportedly v/ear tv/o faces: one for

strangers and guests and another for their husbands and

families. Y/hile Altangi cannot attest to the truth of

this rumor, he does find that they usually wear far more

apparel indoors than out, and he has "seen a lady v/ho

78

seem'd to shudder at a breeze in her ov/n apartment, appear

half naked in the streets."^

^One of the most peculiar aspects of the English woman

is the current style of clothing which she wears. As late

as Letter LXXXI, Altangi is still assessing the women of

England. It is with some trepidation that he begins the

description of contemporary styles:

To confess a truth, I was afraid to begin the description, lest the sex should undergo some new revolution before it was finished; and my picture should thus become old before it could well be said to have ever been nev/. To-day they are lifted upon stilts, to-morrov/ they lower their heels and raise their heads; their deaths at one time are bloated out with whale­bone; at present they have laid their hoops aside and are become as slim as mermaids. All, all is in a state of continual fluctuation, jj from the Mandarine's wife, who rattles through < the streets in her chariot, to the humble ^ sempstress, who clatters over the pavement in H iron-shod pattens.^ ^

tm

The current rage i s the slim s i lhouet te v/hich i s ac- .; 3

cented by a long train. Altangi says the longer the train ,J <

the more importance a v/oman believes that she has. There

are disadvantages to such attire: a woman can hardly turn

around and is forced to move forward only; for if she

moves backward or fails to negotiate a v/ide circle, she

slips over her train. Furthermore, these trains are contin­

ually wearing out, and the ladies must constantly clean

^Goldsmith, pp. 25-26.

^Ibid., p. 330.

79

and repair them. The one advantage that Altangi sees is

that these conditions inflate the Chinese economy by

raising the demand for silk.

The absurdity of such pretension—a woman bearing a

long train with the bearing of a- peacock, a superficial

pride—must have struck Goldsmith as the height of hilarity;

for this essay is the only one in which the writer gives

vent to his prejudicial emotions and breaks into laughter.

"And yet to think," writes Altangi, "that all this con­

fers importance and majesty! to think that a lady ac­

quires additional respect from fifteen yards of trailing

taffety! I can't contain; ha, ha, ha." Altangi concludes

by describing an Italian play which features a noble ^

^Ibid., p. 332.

» woman's attendant who is loaded with a muff in one hand ^

and a lap dog in the other; he endeavors to solve the 2 m

dilemma of carrying the train by simply tucking it into 5 , m

7 *

the waist of his breeches and proceeding. ^

The satire of these comments, of course, comes from

the fact that they were indeed true and that Altangi with

his native dress appeared just as strange to the English

as they did to him. In the introduction to Letter III,

he testifies to this fact: Behold me then in London gazing at the strangers, and they at me; it seems they find somewhat

' Ibid., Letter LXXXI, p. 330.

80

absurd in my figure; and had I been never from home it is possible I might find an infinite fund of ridicule in theirs; but by long travel­ling I am taught to laugh at folly alone, and

~ to find nothing truly ridiculous but villainy and vice-.^

Not only does the dress of Chinese and English women

differ but also the manners; especially the preliminaries

of courtship are considerably different. In Letter XXXIX,

Altangi sends to the merchant in Amsterdam tv/o accounts

of courtship in the form of letters written respectively

by a Chinese and an English maiden. In the latter case,

a colonel calls upon the girl and her mother. The colonel

is impudent, witty, and charming. The girl's mother finds

him positively engaging, and Belinda, the maiden, feels

9 3 sure that she has lost her heart to him.^ 5

')

The letter from Yaoua, the Chinese girl, is completely H •J

different. Her father receives her admirer, a wonderfully ^

corpulent man who has never seen her. The two bargain for

the price of the girl because the finality of a match is

decided when the suitor can offer a satisfactory price.

Yaoua is allowed to see the man for the first time through

a curtain v/ith a slit for such purposes. The girl feels

that the match is sure to be a success; for v/hen the suitor leaves, his many bows surpass even those of her

i 'J t

^Ibid., p. 115.

^Ibid., p. 167.

81

father. The only apprehension from which the girl suffers

is that v/hen she is carried incognito in a chair to his

house he may uncover her face and find that he does not

like her.''^

Although Goldsmith never states his evaluation of

English women in such terms, their "independence" seems

to be the most striking fact about them. The foregoing

comparison bears out this evaluation, and other essays

support such a viev/. The subservience of v/omen in other

countries is unseen in England. The characters of the

frame story support such an assertion. Zelis initiates

the love affair with Hingpo; Mrs. Tibbs manipulates the

evening at Vauxhall. Her only contender to planning the ,

evening's entertainment is not a man, but the pav/n-broker' s ')

widow, the man in black's escort. 3

The fact that English women do indeed enjoy autonomy 5

is evident in Letter CII on gaming. In Asia, v/rites Al- 5

tangi, the women gamble v/ith great fury and often pursue

the game v/ith such determination that they lose not only

their money but their clothes as well. The situation is

quite different in England where the husband may be locked

in jail for his v/ife's debts after she has gambled every­

thing away; but v/hile all .may be lost, the lady will always

'' Ibid., pp. 168-170.

82

retain her clothes. In England, says Altangi, "they

strip their families"; in China, ladies "strip them-11

selves naked."

Altangi's remarks are directed at v/omen, but he could

have as well included men, for Turberville v/rites that

From the reign of Anne till the beginning of the nineteenth century gambling was a national disease among the leisured classes of both sexes. Games of skill and games of chance, horse-racing, lotteries, and commercial specu­lations—all made an irresistible appeal. V/hile the men spent most of the day, and some­times of the night also, round the card-tables at the fashionable clubs of Almack's, Y/hite's, arid Boodle's, the ladies occupied themselves in similar fashion in their ov/n drawing-rooms. Thousands of pounds would be v/on or lost at a single sitting. . . . Ken v/ould take wagers on anything—that X would not be made a vice-admiral by such and such a date, that Y v/ould be found wearing a certain suit on a particular occasion, that Z would, although seriously ill, be still surviving on the first of next month, and so forth. '

^^Ibid., pp. 401-403.

1 ? Turberville, p. 88.

Although both sexes gambled, perhaps one reason that 3

Goldsmith satirized women's gambling was that he felt it J

a masculine pursuit. V/hat v/as typically English about

this feminine vice v/as the independence of women in squander­

ing their husband's earnings. The married English woman

v/as indeed independent.

Quite a different type of independent English woman

was the London prostitute. It is perhaps useless to

83

speculate as to just how well Goldsmith v/as acquainted

with the queans of the street. One critic believes that

he must have known them well to write such a knowing de­

scription of one in The Citizen of the World letters.

Edward McAdam states that "he knew a good deal about

prostitutes; the lively description of how the Chinese

philosopher is entertained by London v/hores is too good

to be secondhand or pure imagination." ^ It is conceiv­

able, hov/ever, in spite of the fact that Goldsmith had an

ugly countenance and never married, that he did write

from secondhand sources. \\h.atever the case, Altangi in

all of his naivety does have an encounter v/ith a London

prostitute which leaves him much wiser and v;ithout his

pocket watch.

Early in the series, in Letter VII, Goldsmith writes

about the philosopher's experience. The gullible Altangi

is much impressed by the friendliness of the London women t

whom he meets on the streets and decides that this v/armth

compensates for their lack of beauty. He recounts that

a few nights previous one of these "ladies" had forcibly

accompanied him home, v/here she obtained his watch that

she might have a friend repair it for a small sum. In

the next letter, IX, Altangi had learned to profit from

'' See Edward L. McAdam, Jr., "Goldsmith, the Good-Natured Man," p. 41, in The Age of Johnson.

84

such experiences; for the woman never returned v/ith his

watch. Altangi says that he concluded that since the law

prohibits an Englishman from more than one wife there v/ould

be no English prostitutes. Much to his surprise, he found

that the wealthier the man, the more "wives" he kept. Age ,

was no determiner of this feat; for some "mandarines" were

so decrepit that they were supported on "spindle shanks."

There was a type of independence in men and w'oraen

which Goldsmith, oddly enough, decried: the state of

celibacy. It is strange that he v/as so outspoken on the

subject since he was himself a bachelor; nevertheless, he

railed against those v/ho never married. Letter XXVIII is

devoted to the subject of celibacy and the reasons for it. 1

Altangi marvels that the city abounds with unmarried per­

sons, and he is persuaded that marriage must be discouraged

in England. Old beaux and "decayed coquets" who sv/arm

15 "upon the gaiety of the age" disgust the philosopher.

He is especially vehement toward bachelors.

I behold an old batchelor in the most contempt­ible light, as an animal that lives upon the common stock without contributing his share: he is a beast of prey, and the lav/s should make use of as many stratagems and as much force to drive the reluctant savage into the toils, as the Indians when they hunt the hyena or rhino­ceros. The mob should be permitted to halloo

^Goldsmith, pp. 44-45.

"• Ibid., p. 121.

85

after him, boys might play tricks on him with impunity, every v/ell-bred company should laugh at him, and if, when turned of sixty, he of­fered to make love, his mistress might spit in

- his face, or, what would be perhaps a greater ^ pimishment, should fairly grant him the favour.

Perhaps one reason for Altangi's somewhat drastic

suggestions was that old beaux did indeed provide a threat

to society. Turberville states

The careers of such wits as Selv/yn and of the beaux of his day suggest complete emptiness. They seem to live a life of pure dissipation,

~ to spend all their money and their thought on gambling and fine clothes, v/hich were in any case exceedingly expensive.^'

Too often the beau and man of fashion lightly concealed under a thin veneer of polish the heart of a scoundrel, and the prevalence of the abduction motive in the fiction of the period is no mere accident.''" j

Old maids,, since they must have never had the opportun- \

ity to marry, or they would have done so, should receive, J 'm

mm

Altangi feels, much less severe treatment. No woman, he '.; •I

declares, in her right senses v/ould choose to be a sub­

ordinate figure in the household of a relative, where she

would do the work of a maid v/ithout the pay, if she could

do otherv/ise.

The man in black tries to clarify this deception and

declares that when he viev/s a spinster he accuses "her '' Ibid., p. 122. 17

^Turberville, pp. 94-95.

^^Ibid., p. 98.

.'I

86

either of pride, avarice, coquettry, or affectation."''^

He goes on to relate the tale of Miss Jenny Tinderbox v;ho

rejected all lovers because she wanted to raise her

status in life and Miss Squeeze who did not v/ant to marry

beneath her because her father had left her a small in­

heritance. Then he continues with Sophronia, the sagacious,

who rejected both pedants and gentlemen and v/as at last

overcome by the wrinkles of old age. All had their chances

to marry, but threw them av/ay.

. In spite of the fact that many celibates threw away

their chances, Goldsmith apparently felt that in English

society there were unnecessary impedim.ents to the marital

process. In Letter LXXII, "The marriage act censured," ^

a Altangi enumerates these difficulties. He is amazed to ' •i

find laws which seem to discourage marriage and therefore 'i m

' m

propagation. First, a man must receive the consent of :;

a woman before he marries; not only must he receive her i

consent, but if she is of an immature age, he must receive

the approval of her parents. Much time must precede the

marriage during which the forthcoming event is announced.

The marriage may be dissolved legally; yet the same men

who make marriages and are paid may dissolve them. These

entanglements v/ould be enough to discourage the modest or ''^Goldsmith, p. 122.

87

yoimg from marrying; it is difficult enough to please one

person, says Altangi, but to be forced to satisfy entire

families is too much to be expected.

Therefore, if those who do marry find it at last "a

bed of thorns," they must blame themselves for the laws

have certainly discouraged them.

The laws are not to blame, for they have deterred the people from engaging as much as they could. It is indeed become a very serious affair in England, and none but serious people are generally found willing to engage. The young, the gay, and the beautiful v/ho have motives of passion only to induce them, are seldom found to embark, as those inducements are taken away, and none but the old, the ugly, and the mercenary are seen to unite, who, if they have any posterity at all, v/ill po probably be an ill-favoured race like themselves.

Altangi reasons that the laws maintain an economic 1

status quo. The rich marry only the rich, and the poor

marry the poor. If nature were allowed to motivate mar-

riages, the rich would marry for beauty, and the poor :) •3 t

would marry for money, thus leveling the class and finan- J

cial distinctions. As the laws stand, the youthful rich

may marry only in their OWTI social class; the older genera­

tion is thus protected from having their money spread among

the poor. Altangi quotes Sir Francis Bacon who declared

that money, like manure, enriches only when it is spread 21 in a thin layer.

^^Ibid., p. 300.

^''ibid., p. 301.

i i

88

For those v/ho would yet contend that Goldsmith was

a sentimentalist, a consideration of tv/o quite realistic

companion essays might alter such views. Letter XVIII and

XIX are devoted to the subject of adultery. Goldsmith

v/ould seem to support the view that while marriages may

have been conceived in heaven, they often go awry on earth.

Altangi relates in Letter XVIII the story of a Chinese

couple who appeared very much in love and were inseparable.

One day the husband v/itnessed a v/idov/ mourning at the

grave of her husband and took her home. In a jealous rage,

the v/ife threw the v/oman into the cold night. The same

evening the husband had an apoplectic fit and died. Three

days later the wife had agreed to marry a disciple of her

husband. Shortly before the marriage ceremony, the lover

fell into a fit, and his physician declared that only the

application of the heart of a dead man could revive him. ;5 •3

The wife went to the coffin of her deceased husband and ^

was about to -extract his heart when her husband arose.

Rushing from the room, she stabbed herself. The husband

then placed his wife in the coffin and married the widow 22 he had seen at the grave.

The solution to such marital problems, Altangi reasons,

was for the marital partners to have no illusions about the

^^Ibid., pp. 76-80.

89

union; they could thus realistically proceed. In Letter XIX,

Altangi describes how the Russians dealt effectively with

infidelity. V/hen a couple in Russia v/ere married, the

father-in-lav/ gave the husband a cudgel which was at first

refused and then accepted. The lady was then told that

if she were caught in adultery she v/ould be mercilessly

beaten.

The subject for such a comparison arose when Altangi

and the man in black encountered a couple railing against

each other in the midst of a crov/d. The husband, having

caught his v/ife in compromising circumstances, raved v/ith

indignation. The man in black explains that if the v/ife

is unfaithful in England the husband v/ho reveals her is T

regarded a cuckold and forced to send her into retirement,

where he supports her.

.4 )

1 'J

Altangi satirizes this situation by pointing up that ii 3 la

the v/oman indeed benefits from being caught, for she es- ^

capes a husband v/hom she loathes and is yet financially

supported. Y/ere he an English husband, says Altangi, he

would avoid finding his wife in adulterous circumstances.

He would always inform his v/ife of his expected time of

return, clomp loudly up the stairs, hem and hav/, and beat

vigorously on the door for several minutes. Altangi con­

tinues, "I would never inquisitively peep under her bed,

or look behind the curtains. And even though I knev/ the

90

captain v/as there, I would calmly take a dish of my wife's

2 cool tea, and talk of the army v/ith reverence." -

-• Altangi is constantly surprised by English practices.

Had Goldsmith created Altangi in twentieth-century America,

doubtless he would have related an incident about the ef­

fects of Madison Avenue. Living in eighteenth-century

England, Altangi unwittingly becomes a victim of a fore­

runner of the Madison Avenue supersalesman. The Chinese

philosopher enters a shop in search of a nightcap.. The

master of the shop persuades Altangi that only the finest

silk, bought only that morning by Lady Trail, will suffice.

When Altangi consents to buy the piece, the master persuades

him that he needs a waistcoat, for the time will come v/hen

waistcoats must be dearly purchased. "Alv/ays buy before

you want," declares the proprietor, "and you are sure to

be well used, as they say in Cheapside." Before Altangi 3 M'

m

can be measured for his coat, the master through snob J

appeal persuades him to purchase a morning gov/n, which is

the current attire of noblemen. Altangi muses on the

persuasive ability of so ill-educated a man to manipulate

an intelligent custom.er and concludes that such men must 24

have a special instinct for success.

^^Ibid., p. 83.

" Ibid., pp. 318-320.

s>*i,n(jljy»BH!r

91

Goldsmith writes very little about English commerce,

but undoubtedly he had a special knowledge of tailors,

because he enjoyed sporting a fine wardrobe. From his

days as a student until his death, he spent considerable

sums of money on clothing and v/as frequently in debt to

tailors. Therefore, his account of the shopkeeper is apt

to be rather typical.

In these essays on idosyncrasies of English society.

Goldsmith very aptly tears away "the painted veil" of pre­

tense and, through Altangi's naive observations and his

description of commonplace occurrences, reveals the sham

and injustice which underlie the social scene. Like

Richardson's novels, his satirizations could well provide

insight into a moral and pragmatic method of approaching

the individual's problems within the social milieu of

eighteenth-century life.

)

1 'J

CHAPTER VII

POLITICS

Like many men of his age. Goldsmith was quite in­

terested in politics. A Tory, he believed in the supremacy

of the monarchy and in the existing social order; yet he

was wise enough to see that changes needed to be made

within that structure. His Dr. Primrose explains to his

host, the disguised butler, in Chapter XIX of The Vicar of

V/akefield, that only a monarchy prevents the poor lower

class, the "rabble," from joining leagues with a powerful

aristocracy v/ho might wish to subdue the middle class, the

social order from which, stability and creativity within

society come.

n I

•1

Since the English Renaissance, the status quo of S •

Englishmen had changed little; but a trend v/hich culminated I

in the Industrial Revolution had set itself in motion at

that time. The rise of tradesmen in the Renaissance began

to feed the mounting middle class, a class that in Gold­

smith's day v/as being realized in the merchant. Commerce

v/as the heartbeat of a changing nation, and the merchant

rather than the aristocrat pumped blood into the body

92

93

politic. The sources of power were being altered. Unlike

its continental sisters, England was in the backv/ash of

such change and never felt the turbulence of a flood tide.

Although such change was certainly in the wind when Gold­

smith was writing, neither he nor his compatriots seemed

to realize the significance of it.

As Leslie Stephen says in English Literature and Soci­

ety in the Eighteenth Century,

It follov/s that neither in practice nor in spec­ulative questions v/ere the English thinkers of the time prescient of any coming revolution. They denounced abuses, but they regarded abuses as removable excrescences on a satisfactory system. They v/ere content to appeal to common sense, and to leave to philosophers to v/rangle over ultimate results. They might be, and in fact were, stirring questions v/hich v/ould lead 3j to far more vital disputes; but for the present jj they w-ere "unconscious of the future, and con- ;» tent to keep the old machinery going though ;< desiring to improve its efficiency. ' :I

Such an approach very well describes Goldsmith's treat- jj

ment of politics in his time. He found many faults in the *

system which needed alteration—the judicial system, the

treatment of soldiers, and British imperialism among others—

but the system itself he apparently found a workable one

that was in need of no radical change. The grov/ing powers

of the merchant class seemed to offer no hint to him of

Leslie Stephen, English Literature and Society _in the Eighteenth Century (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1904), pp. 111-112.

94

coming industrial problems; or if they did. Goldsmith did

not treat such themes in his essays.

- One of the themes which Goldsmith did treat is the

power of the press in the game of politics. Altangi ob­

serves in Letter IV that the interest in politics is

universal among the English; even the ladies show an in­

terest. The daily dissemination of political matters is

accomplished by the gazettes. There is a difference be­

tv/een the Chinese and the English political system. In

Altangi' s coiontry

the emperor endeavours to instruct his people, in theirs the people endeavour to instruct the administration. You must not, however, imagine. that they who compile these papers have any actual knowlege [sic] of politics, or the | government of a state; they only collect their ; materials from the oracle of some coffee-house, * v/hich oracle has himself gathered them the night ^ before from a beau at a gaming table, v/ho has * pillaged his knowledge from a great man's porter, who has had his information from the great man's ; gentleman, v/ho has invented the whole story for J his own amusement the night preceding.^ {

«

Goldsmith apparently saw the nev/spapers of different

countries as representative of the national climate and

character. In Letter V Altangi gives entries from various

continental newspapers to exhibit the differing natures of

each. Comically, the excerpt taken from the English

' Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), Letter IV, pp. 29-30.

95

newspaper is a v/ant advertisement for an usher to an

academy—one who has had smallpox! Just as in "The

Traveller" Goldsmith would compare nations, so he finds

the newspapers a "map" of the "genius and the morals of"

a nation's inhabitants.-^

Motivated by a desire for brotherhood among all

countries, Goldsmith hated wars. In addition, he found

most wars to be v/astes of national resources. His most

satiric denunciations of v/ars were directed against colonial

wars, notably the Seven Years' V/ar, as it v/as called in

England, or the French and Indian V/ar, as the Americans

called it. In Letter XXV from Altangi to the merchant in

Amsterdam, the dangers of colonialism are described in a

history of Lao, a prosperous country that grew so opulent

it developed frivolous desires for the resources of its \

neighbors and decided to colonize a country invaded by

Tartars. The decision proved to be Lao's undoing.

Y/hen a trading nation begins to act the conqueror, it is then perfectly undone: it subsists in some measure by the supports of its neighbours; v/hile they continue to regard it without envy or appre­hension, trade may flourish; but when once it pre­sumes to assert as its right what it only enjoyed as a favour: each country reclaims that part of commerce v/hich it has power to take back, and turns it into some other channel more honourable, though perhaps less convenient.^

^Ibid., p. 32.

^Ibid., Letter XXV, p. 106.

96

England, Goldsmith seemed to feel, paralleled Lao.

In Letter XVII, Altangi discusses the Seven Years' V/ar

and its futility. The entire war is motivated, says

Altangi, by the desire of English men and women for

clothes and muffs of furs. Since the French people like

to be equally well dressed, a war has ensued in America.

The country has for centuries been in the possession of

savages who really ov/n it, but English politicians have

decided that the best policy is to colonize the country

v/ith their people. The rationale for such a plan is that

it would rid England of the weak, sick, and poor populace.

Altangi proposes that no persons except the fittest can

survive such a climate and that the English are therefore •

sending their sturdiest men there. * i

Insofar as the commonwealth is concerned, once it ;

overextends itself, like a man v/ith oversized limbs, it j

becomes awkv/ard, clumsy, and vulnerable. What commodities j

are worth such risks? Why raw silk, hemp, and tobacco. England, there­fore, must make an exchange of her best and bravest subjects for raw silk, hemp, and tobacco; her hardy veterans, and honest tradesmen must be truck'd for a box of snuff or a silk petticoat. Strange ab­surdity ! 5

Fum Hoam expresses the same sentiments v/hen he writes

to Altangi in Letter XLII and begs him to return home.

^Ibid., Letter >T.V, p. 106.

97

China is governed by familial loyalty and has never become

engaged in endless war, Hoam says. He points out that in

centuries of fighting between the French and English, the

national boundaries have remained essentially the same.^

While Goldsmith may not have agreed with English

foreign policy, he seemingly agreed v/ith the domestic

system. Like Johnson, he felt that monarchy was the best

form of government. In fact. Goldsmith believed it es­

sential to a democratic process. Altangi v/rites in Let­

ter L that the reason v/hy the English system works so

v/ell is that although the people are governed by consti­

tutional laws, a monarch resides as the last resort to

order. That is, if people decide to break the lav/s they

have made, then the lav/s no longer have sanction in a

democratic society; but where there is a monarch to decide

which laws shall be vigorously enforced some infractions 7

may be made, yet the sanction of the system prevails.

In Letter XXXVIII Goldsmith especially praises

George II for the virtue of his justice. The natural

human inclination is to give forgiveness when a suppliant

begs for it; but although George is merciful, he does

punish miscreants. In the neighboring country of France,

^Ibid., pp. 176-181.

'^Ibid., Letter L, pp. 210-213.

98

Charolais, an aristocrat was tried and forgiven on three

occasions for shooting passers-by from the top of his

palace. Altangi finds such decisions by the monarchy a

great injustice. In contrast, he recites the recent case

of an English noblem.an who in a state of rage killed his

servant. Because of the murder, the nobleman was sentenced

to hang.

Goldsmith felt that one of the temptations that the

monarchy must guard itself from was domestic trifles. In

Letters XLIII and XLIX, Altangi relates a fairy tale to

the merchant in Amsterdam, a narrative that demonstrates

Goldsmith's light satirical manner. A foreign prince had

a trifling passion for mice and found collecting them a

harmless pastime. He went to great difficulty to choose

a bride, but on his nuptial night v/as distracted by a mouse

with green eyes that he longed to add to his collection.

The mouse disappeared; and after much searching, the prince

discovered it to be a fairy hag who bargained to remain a

mouse by night and a hag by day if he would marry her.

Goldsmith refers to an actual case cited by Friedman, in Footnote 1, pp. 163-164, and Donald Green in The Age of Exuberance (New York: Random House, 1970), pp. 33-34. According to Green, peers could be tried by fellow peers rather than a jury, and, if found guilty, could be hanged at Tyburn by a silk rather than a hemp rope. This occur­rence happened to the Earl of Ferrers when he v/as sentenced for killing his steward in 1760.

99

The prince was saved at last when his patient bride in

the form of a cat devoured the mouse. The warning issued

to monarchs, however, was that "they who place their affec­

tions on trifles at ,first for amusement, will find those

trifles at last become their most serious concern."^

Perhaps the greatest agitation that Altangi feels

with regard to the monarchy is the lack of respect paid

to a passing ruler. Instead of mourning for months as

the survivors do in China, the English, Altangi finds,

mix revelry and solemnity when George II dies: solemnity

for the death of the king, revelry for the approaching

monarch. The incongruity of the situation vexes Altangi:

"For my part I have no conception of this new manner of

mourning and rejoicing in a breath, of being merry and

sad, of mixing a funeral procession v/ith a jig, and a

bonefire [sic] ."

The coronation of George III receives even greater

condemnation. Beau Tibbs relates the extraordinary events

which are about to occur—the finery, the order of the

^Goldsmith, Letter XLIX, p. 210. The source of this essay, which resembles Chaucer's V/ife of Bath's tale, is un-knov/n. Goldsmith attributes it to Confucius, but Friedman notes that scholars have been unable to find the source. Y/ardle (p. 121) relates an anecdote about Goldsmith's giving money to Jack Pilkington to buy clothes to present himself and a white mouse to a "great lady." The source may very well be a folktale.

^^Ibid., Letter CXVI, p. 385.

100

march, and the participants. Y/hat strikes Altangi as

most peculiar is again the lack of "solemnity and re­

ligious awe." When the Beau at last convinces Altangi

that he must buy a seat to review the pageant, he accedes.

But when Altangi and Tibbs arrive, they find the seats

are to be had for a bag of gold; overcome, they both

decide not to see the coronation, for all that could be

gained would be the pleasure. The conclusion of the let­

ter undercuts the "frippery" of the coronation:

You may object that I neither settle rank, pre­cedency, nor place; that I seem ignorant whether Gules walks before or behind Garter; that'I have neither mentioned the dimensions of a Lord's cap, nor measured the length of a Lady's tail. I know your delight is in minute description, and this I am unhappily disqualified from fur­nishing, yet upon the whole, I fancy it v/ill be no way comparable to the magnificence of our late Emperor Y/hangti's procession, v/hen he v/as married to the moon, at which Fum Hoam himself presided in person."

Goldsmith was not generally well disposed toward the

prevailing legal system. Johnson in Rambler 114 had

criticized the English lav/ system for inequality; that is,

it carried the death penalty for both theft and murder, a

fact which seemed to equate the crimes. Goldsmith ironically

praised the penal laws in Letter LXXX and suggested that

non-violence and mercy are the prevailing trends. English

policemen carry no weapons; and, fortunately, the statutes

''ibid., p. 412.

101

are few enough that the poor and ignorant are not un­

knowingly offenders. However, Letters CXIX and IV under­

cut this ironical optimism because these essays illustrate

how the poor become victims of a "non-violent," but in­

different system.

Goldsmith often coimterposed an optimistic tone v/ith

the reality of hard, unpleasant facts; this incongruous

reversal is the prevailing technique of the serio-comic

satire that pervades the essays. One of the best examples

of this technique occurs in Letter CXIX, an essay which

points up the injustice done to the lov/er-class populace

because they are poor. The life of the private sentinel

is comic because of the continued piling of misfortunes—

more than enough for ten sentinels rather than one—a

case of classic overkill. The sentinel, hov/ever, is

representative of the ills that befall the English poor.

As an orphan lad, the sentinel passes through three

parishes before being placed in a v/orkhouse where he labors

"only" ten hours a day. Being a bright child, he is taught

to use the mallet and has the "liberty of the whole house,

12 and the yard before the door." His misfortunes really

begin v/hen he lives v/ith a farmer and is caught throwing

a stick at a rabbit, "was indicted, and found guilty of

'' Ibid., Letter CXIX, p. 460.

102

being poor." Placed in Newgate, he enjoys a full belly,

but is eventually placed aboard a ship bound for the planta­

tions. Many die for v/ant of food, but Providence smiles

and sends a fever upon the sentinel, and he is spared. At

last he returns to England "because I loved my country."

Enraptured, he cries, "0 liberty, liberty, liberty!"''^

Twice he is captured by a press-gang and sent to fight the

French. In each expedition, he endures numerous wounds and

imprisonment.

Finally, he has four fingers blown from his left hand

and a leg shot off.

Had I the good fortune to have lost my leg and use of my hand on board a king's ship, and not a privateer, I should have been entitled to cloath-ing and maintenance during the rest of my life, but that was not my chance; one man is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another v/ith a v/ooden ladle. However, blessed be God, I enjoy good health, and will for ever love liberty and Old England. Liberty, property, and Old England for ever, huzza! '4

This essay represents Goldsmith at his best. The tone

of the essay is optimistic throughout; like the man in black,

the sentinel seldom complains. His praise of his liberty

and freedom are so overstated and so incongruous v/ith the

facts that Goldsmith achieves the desired effect: satir­

ically pointing up the injustice which prevails among the

^^Ibid., p. 460.

''' Ibid., pp. 464-465.

103

English poor and the lack of liberty v/hich they really

enjoy. This essay can v/ell be compared to Letter IV on

English liberty. In this letter, Altangi relates an anec­

dote about his passing an English prison and overhearing

a conversation between a debtor inside and a porter v/ho

stands by the window. The two fear French domination:

For my part, cries the prisoner, the greatest of my apprehensions is for our freedom; if the French should conquer, v/hat v/ould become of English liberty. My dear friends, liberty is the Englishman's prerogative; we must preserve that at the expence of our lives, of that the French shall never deprive us; it is not to be expected that men who are slaves themselves would preserve our freedom should they happen to conquer.'5

The irony of the situation is apparent. How can a m.an

fear his liberty's being taken v/hen he is v/ithout any! In

both Letter IV and CXIX, Goldsmith points out the injustice

of the English system: in the first case the treatment of

the soldier who is poor and in the second the treatment

of debtors. If English liberty is to be fully realized,

such inequities must be overcome. As the sentinel says,

the reason for his difficulties with the law is that he

can never give an account of himself; that is, he is, in

current vernacular, one of the hard-core unemployed.

Y/hile Goldsmith found the penal laws unsatisfactory,

the civil laws offered other problems. In Letter XCVIII,

15 Ibid., Letter IV, p. 28.

104

in an account of Westminister Hall and the man in black's

suit there. Goldsmith satirized the civil courts. The

criticism foreshadows the analysis v/hich Charles Dickens

was to give nearly a century later in his account of

Jarndyce versus Jarndyce, a chancery case, in Bleak House

(1853).

The man in black has had his suit in court for some

time, but he persuades Altangi to accompany him to West­

minister because he believes that success is imminent.

Altangi, the skeptic, says that he has alv/ays viewed

courts as traps, but the ever optimistic man in black per­

suades him that English courts "secure property." The

system is based upon the precedent of cases in bygone

eras. Altangi asks whether present lawyers might not have

as much "reason" as former ones and thus dispense v/ith the

legal entanglement of precedent. The multiplication of

"formalities" v/ould seem, states Altangi, to perpetuate

more time being spent "in learning the arts of litigation

1 fi

than in the discovery of right." The man in black per­

sists in stating that this method is best in securing

property, but Altangi argues that the encumbrances of the

system actually prevent justice. V/hen they reach court,

Altangi is overv/helmed by the inordinate numbers of men

'' Ibid., p. 391.

105

in black. His companion relates that each watches the

other in a descending line of authority. Altangi con­

tinues to berate such an entangled system and suggests

that the lawyers who continue to be paid by the client

through such an ordeal are the actual beneficiaries. The

man in black's case supporting the civil system is under­

cut when a lawyer informs him that his case is postponed

for another term and to retain his attorneys more money

is needed. The cro /vning blow comes when the lawyer ironi-

17 cally adds that success seems imminent in the next term.

Goldsmith obviously felt that the English legal

system v/ith all its trappings left much to be desired;

but v/hatever viewpoint one may find in his essays, there

is a sense of fair play. The case in point may be il­

lustrated by Letter CXXII. The English political system

had its many faults, but those faults, Goldsmith felt,

issued from the same origin as its strengths—the powers

of a people to govern themselves. The English system was

irresolute because it was based on reason, and v/here many

people reasoned together, there were sure to be inequities

and disagreements.

Goldsmith is often labeled a sentimentalist by modern

scholars; such misjudgment seems to be a byproduct of his

''' Ibid., Letter XCVIII, pp. 390-393-

106

sense of fair play, the ability to see the good in the bad.

V/hile it is true that the satirist who is willing to be

objective loses some of his biting punch; nevertheless,

such judgment speaks well of his powers to see society in

a balanced light. If Goldsmith were indeed the sentimental­

ist, he should indulge the reader's emotions with the Polly-

annaish outlook of others of that class. His indictment

of the English legal system hardly supports that viev/.

CHAPTER VIII

RELIGION

Goldsmith was no novice in religious matters. As a

young man, he had prepared for religious orders, but pur­

portedly failed to impress his examining committee vjhen

he appeared before them in scarlet breeches. His novel.

The Vicar of Wakefield, dealt v/ith a clergyman; thus his

observations were generally well-founded ones. In addition,

his father, uncle, and other relatives v/ere clergymen; so

his formative years v/ere spent under the shadow of the

Anglican Church. One of his most memorable essays, Let­

ter XLI, deals with religious services, "The behaviour of

the congregation in St. Paul's church at prayers." The

satire is again derived by the observations of Altangi,

the outsider.

Altangi's first judgment of St. Paul's is that it is

"superior in beauty and magnificence" to V/estminister Abbey.

He is puzzled, however, by the awe the English pay to some

decorative rags for v/hich they fought a war, probably the

Crusades, and for v/hich the French lost face. The next

image which impresses him is the "idol" v/hich the parishoners

107

108

seem to worship. After the idol (the organ) stops playing,

most of the occupants of the church leave. Altangi ob­

serves that those v/ho remain behind are either asleep or

ogle through spectacles at other worshippers. The man in

black, his guide, explains that prior to the service a

heavy meal or a late party often interferes with the morn­

ing worship of some. The crux of irony comes v/hen Altangi

observes a little, old lady in the corner v/ho appears to

be listening intently; the man in black explains that she

is "the deaf lady v/ho lives in the cloysters."

If the members of the established Church of England

stand indicted for passive religion, there are other groups,

enthusiasts, who receive greater ridicule and condemnation.

The satire on the Methodists and other sectarians, in Let­

ter CXI, is among Goldsmith's most brilliant. It is remi­

niscent of Swift's "A Discourse Concerning The Mechanical

Operation of The Spirit"; for although the methods of satire

differ, the objects of ridicule are much the same.

Sv/ift derided the enthusiasts for their belief in "in­

ward light," or leaving the interpretation of religion to

each individual. Goldsmith makes the same observation;

reason plays little part in their observances. In earlier

times, these sectarians were v/ont to combat with those of

1 Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by

Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), Letter XLI, pp. 173-175.

109

the established religion; but of late, the new enthusiasts

have no differing opinions; so they simply form new sects,

and^each religious group hates the other.

Y/hile they may now agree in principles, they differ

in practice. Altangi observes that the established church

is amenable to laughter, while sectarians go about all

matters with utmost gravity. The enthusiasts consider

dancing and gaming dangerous practices; and all activities,

even courtship and marriage, are accompanied by "a chorus

of sighs and groans." Altangi surmises that this disposi­

tion is brought about by the dismissal of reason, for

those who walk in darkness are ever apprehensive.

The chief reason that Altangi sees the enthusiasts

as having an aversion to laughter, hov/ever, is that they

themselves are such apt subjects for ridicule. It is

ridicule that they despise most, and ridicule alone is

the v/eapon v/ith which to crush them..

Ridicule has ever been the most powerful enemy of enthusiasm and probably the only antagonist that can be opposed to it v/ith success. Per­secution only serves to propagate new religions; they acquire fresh vigour beneath the execu­tioner and the ax, and like some vivacious in­sects, multiply by dissection. It is also im­possible to combat enthusiasm v/ith reason, for though it makes a shew of resistance, it soon eludes the pressure, refers you to distinc­tions not to be understood and feelings v/hich it cannot explain. A man v/ho v/ould endeavour

^Ibid., p. 430.

110

to fix an enthusiast by argument, might as well attempt to spread quicksilver v/ith his fingers. The only v/ay to conquer a visionary is to despise him; the stake, the faggot, and

^ the disputing Doctor, in some measure ennoble the opinions they are brought to oppose; they are harmless against innovating pride; contempt alone is truly dreadful.3

Such a theory is applicable to satire in general.

Goldsmith's contempt for such divergent groups must have

been keen; for this essay, more than others, is explicit

in the use of ridicule.

It would be a rare English satirist v/ho allowed the

clergy to escape his scathing pen. From the days of

Chaucer to the present,,the clergy has consistently been

under attack by English authors. Goldsmith is no excep­

tion to this unv/ritten rule; his portrayal of the English

clergy is penetrating and uncomplimentary.

One occasion for the attack occurs v/hen the man in

black, possibly a clergyman himself, invites Altangi to

accompany him to a 'Visitation" dinner. The man in black

explains that in former times it v/as the duty of bishops

to visit their underpaid vicars to be certain that the

affairs of the church were going smoothly. The bishops,

being clever men and finding a better chance of promotion

at court, decided the best procedure v/as to invite their

subordinates to an annual visitation dinner at v/hich time

^Ibid., Letter CXI, p. 431.

Ill

they would ostensibly inform their superiors of church 4

matters.

. Altangi is afire with the desire to hear the great

philosophical discussions of these theologians. He ex­

pects the entertainment to be akin to a mental banquet,

undistinguished for food but replete with profundities.

The company is silent until the food is served, an abundance

of varied dishes. Imagine Altangi's surprise when he finds

that the only subject discussed the entire evening is

cuisine! Each clergyman suggests the merits of the deli­

cacies to the others. His final assessment of these men

is that their one obsession is not the church, but the

stomach.

The clergy here, particularly those who are ad­vanced in years, think if they are abstemious with regard to v/omen and wine, they may indulge their other appetites v/ithout censure. Thus some are found to rise in the morning only to a consultation v/ith their cook about dinner, and when that has been swallov/ed, make no other use of their faculties (if they have any) but to ruminate on the succeeding meal.-

The clergy, the group responsible for the morals and

souls of the nation, are portrayed as superfluous, empty

men v/ho feed on the wealth of the church. The kindly

Vicar of Wakefield would have no place in this group;

^Ibid., Letter LVIII, p. 241.

^Ibid., Letter LVIII, p. 242.

112

like Chaucer's parson, his dedication v/ould be swallowed

up and overlooked by the self-seeking ambitions of superi­

ors. The isolation of these men and their indifference to

society are aptly summed up in the concluding sentence of

the essay: "We'll preach for the v/orld, and the world

shall pay us for preaching, whether we like each other or

not."^

In order to evaluate the fairness of the portrait

of the Anglican Church, its clerics, and the enthusiast

sects v/hich Goldsmith paints, it is helpful to examine the

assessment of modern historians and of authors contemporary

with Goldsmith. In Dorothy Marshall's English People in

the Eighteenth Century, a reproduction of an eighteenth-

century painting appears which portrays a dean bargain-

ing v/ith a statesman for a bishopric. The picture is

dubbed, "The Morning Visit" (1773).'^ That politics played

a tremendous role in clerical success was apparently a

fact. Parson Adams in Fielding's Joseph Andrev/s found

himself without a curacy because he persuaded his nephew

to support a political candidate whom his rector opposed.

William Law in A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

(1729), the book most responsible for the dissenters'

^Ibid., p. 243. 7 Dorothy Marshall, English People in the Eighteenth

Century (London: Longmans, 1956), p. 49-

113

movement, wrote disparagingly of the pluralists, who

reaped livings from numerous curacies and farmed them out

to uneducated, poorly trained men.^

A very penetrating treatment of this subject is to

be found in A. S. Turberville's English I-ien and Manners

in the Eighteenth Century. Turberville tries to be fair

and describes some clergymen, such as Scotland's Bishop

Burnet, v/ho v/ere indeed dedicated. The total assessment

of the Anglicans and the enthusiasts in this era, however,

coincides largely v/ith Goldsmith's description.

Turberville finds that v/ith the accession of the

Georges the church fell into a state of apathy. Pluralism

v/as a continuing evil, and the absenteeism of the curacy

from numerous parishes v/as very real. Such occurrences

of neglect were widespread; the wealthy pluralist hired

subordinates for such nominal fees that poverty was a real

and pressing evil in the curacy. Some chaplains were re­

tained in domestic households with the social stature of

a servant. The political and religious arenas were insep­

arably tied together. The state of the established church

invited apathy and set the stage for an enthusiast movement 9

o

Dorothy M. George, England in Johnson's Day (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1928), pp. 30-31-

°A. S. Turberville, English Men and Mar.ners in the Eighteenth Century, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929), pp. 287-290".

114

In carefully steering between the ritualism of Rome and the austerity of Puritanism, they v/ere adopting a via media which had nothing obviously attractive in it save to a small intellectual

, minority. V/hile the dignitaries were distinguished by intellectual eminence, the mass of the clergy, not possessing that qualification, had little to recommend them. Too often their standard was lamentably lov/ and the performance of their paro­chial duties perfunctory in the extreme.'^

Such poor standards v/ere bound to meet the objections

of reformists; thus when John V/esley began his appeals to

the masses, his religious instruction had much to offer.

Goldsmith decries V/esley's movement because of its enthusi­

ast approach. Y/esley himself was constantly under fire and

was often in real physical danger, as his diaries testify.

Dorothy Marshall states that "To accept the badge of the

Dissenter v/as a severe test of character in a world v/here

11 its social inferiority was recognized." That V/esley did

indeed do much good in appealing to a social contingency

that had had little spiritual nourishment is true; one

need only recall the edification by enthusiast preaching

of V/inifred Jenkins and Humphrey Clinker in Smollett's

entertaining novel. But Turberville states that V/esley

offered some threats to the welfare of society as v/ell.

There is no doubt that such revivalist preach­ing as this produced a great deal of pure hysteria, v/hich v/as not only of no lasting value, but v/as

'' Ibid., p. 305.

''''Marshall, p. 59-

115

positively dangerous. It is also true that John Wesley v/as an exceedingly superstitious raan.^ He believed v/holeheartedly in the reality of witchcraft, demoniacal possession, and other

. Satanic manifestations, and the influence of Wesleyanism thus tended to foster credulity in what had been essentially an age of reason and critical inquiry. It is also true that the cur­rent idea that Wesleyanism at once produced a revival in the English Church is not borne out by the facts. Its results in that resoect v/ere not immediate. On the other hand, as to the profound impression created on certain classes of the population by the fervour of V/esleyan field preachers there is no question.''^

The foregoing analysis seems to indicate that Goldsm.ith's

attacks on both the Anglican clergy and the enthusiasts

v/ere not v/ithout basis and that both groups in some measure

offered threats to a fully developed society. The visita­

tion dinner which Goldsmith describes seems likely to have

been not unlike the reality of the times. More remarkable

perhaps than Altangi's satirical amazement is the fact

1 that such conditions actually existed.

''^Turberville, p. 308.

1 " - It is interesting to observe that Goldsmith does not discuss the Catholic Church and Popery in The Citizen. Per­haps he felt Catholicism in England v/as no longer a dynamic issue.

CHAPTER IX

r/IEDICINE

In spite of the fact that G.oldsmith lived in an age

that liked to pride itself as one of reason and common

sense, the lower classes v/ere more often credulous than

reasonable in their ignorance. Nowhere is this fact more

clearly manifested than in the essays which Goldsmith

wrote concerning maladies and medicine. The lower stratum

of London society v/as ill-educated, and verbal communica­

tion v/as the most common means of information. Goldsmith

sought not only to ridicule such credulity, but to reassure

and educate these people in several of his letters.

Having attended medical school first at Edinburgh

and then intermittently on his tour of the Continent, Gold­

smith was well prepared to comment on medical beliefs and

abuses of the day, for he was himself a doctor. In fact,

had he found a more promising clientele in London, it is

likely that he would never have given his talents to the

writing profession. After returning from the Continent in

1756, he found no friends in London to recommend his medical

abilities, and the patients who sought the odd Irishman

116

117

were unfortunately too poor to pay. So nearly a year

later Goldsmith turned to hack writing for Ralph Griffiths,

the publisher of the Monthly Review. Thus by 1760 when

he wrote his "Chinese letters," he was astutely aware of

the ill practices of the medical-quacks who played on the

credulity of the populace, and he sought to educate the

English poor and allay their fears.

The fears of tne populace were many: a French inva­

sion, a declining economy, or perhaps a comet foretelling

gloomy events. Goldsmith saw the Englisn populace as one

which reacted first and reasoned later. They v/ere agitated

by each successive rumor v/hich reached them., and like a

dog in a well fell farther into the abysm each time they

endeavored to climb out. In Letter CVII, Altangi relates

an anecdote which illustrates this tendency.

A man of breeding received a letter from an anon; TTious

incendiary who alleged that he had perfected a means of

poisoning that left no traces. The receiver of the letter

was told that he had been picked to die by such means; the

sender offered as proof for the man to feed the letter to

his dog and watch the results. Alarmed, the poor man spread

the v/ord of the threat against him; the consternation v/as

so great that the government finally searched for the in­

cendiary. Y/hen he was not found, it v/as suggested that

118

the dog be fed the letter. The o /mer tried in vain, but

could not force his mastiff to consume it.''

- This theme is treated again in Letter LXIX on "the

fear of mad dogs ridiculed." As Friedman notes, the basis

for such an essay was quite real; a panic actually did de­

velop among the populace at the time of Goldsmith's writ­

ing. Thus, by satire and ridicule Goldsmith apparently

hoped to calm the uncontrolled fears.

The evil that beset the populace Goldsmith called the

"Epidemic terror." People feared to sally forth from their

houses, expecting that they might meet some unknown canine.

Physicians, of course, prospered by such universal panics,

and varieties of nostrums v/ere advertised. Rumors, usually

unbased, preceded the panic, and innocent dogs v/ere cap­

tured and killed as a result. Goldsmith says that mad dogs

were tested like the witches who were tried in former times:

there v/as no escaping the indictment of the accusation.

The usual test was to tease the dog; if it bit or snapped

at its tormentor, it was sure to be rabid. On the other

hand, if it tucked tail and ran, it v/as also rabid.

The epidemic of fear reached v/hat Goldsmith called "a

national disease." Of all the dogs accused of rabies, only

three or four a season, states Goldsmith, could actually

''oiiver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by^ Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), pp. 416-417.

119

be found rabid. Therefore, the best preventative v/as to

discount all rumors and to look upon the dog as the friend

toyman that he actually was, loyal and protective.^

Perhaps the most universal and cor.mon of all English

ailments was the spleen, a self-diagnosed and recurring

malady that struck its victim v/ithout notice. The charac­

teristics of the illness were a pervasive melancholy and

dejection akin perhaps to contemporary "blahs." The stratum

of society v/hich suffered most v/as the rich, for they alone

were capable of relenting to their affliction and retiring

punctually to the country v/here they nursed themselves

with "drinking, idleness, and ill-humour."-^ Curiously

enough, the fair sex v/as most often struck down while at

home in the country and was cured by a visit to the city,

v/hile the gentlemen were most often afflicted in urban

climates and cured by rural retreats.

Altangi happened to pay a visit to the man in black

v/hile he was suffering from this condition. The philosopher

found him in retirement with his morning clothes still on,

endeavoring to blov/ a German flute. The illness was brought

on, said the man in black, when he read on a prior night

the accounts of some renegades who were sentenced to Newgate

^Ibid., pp. 285-289.

^Ibid., p. 364.

120

prison. The realization of the malice in man so cast him

down that nothing could ameliorate his condition until at

last he hit upon the pursuit of playing his flute.^

Physicians fed on the ignorance of the English poor,

and quacks v/ere everyv/here. Friedman notes that most

gazettes carried advertisements for such men v/ho claimed

cures for any ailment; the most advertised remedies, how­

ever, v/ere for venereal disease. The Public Ledger, in

which Goldsmith's letters appeared, had a policy v/hich

prevented such lurid advertisements; thus Goldsmith v/as

in an able position to ridicule these quacks.

Marshall observes that the English had a rigid system

concerning physicians. The universities of Oxford, Cam­

bridge, and Trinity College at Dublin accepted aristocratic,

young men of the established church in their medical schools

Only these graduates were accepted into the Royal College

of Physicians, and the same were the recognized doctors

of the day. Other aspiring students were forced to attend

medical schools in Edinburgh and Leyden if they v/ished to

have a license to practice; but such graduates were not

5 accepted in the Royal College. It v/as the latter condi­tion under which Goldsmith received his medical education,

^Ibid., p. 367.

^Dorothy Marshall, English People in the Eighteenth Century (London: Longmans, 1956), p. 53-

121

and it v/as perhaps because of his training in medicine in

the "lesser" schools which made earning a living as a

doctor in London difficult.

Apothecaries did not have a licens.- to practice medi­

cine and were regarded as mere tradesmen. Yet a good

deal of money could be made in this profession since

apothecaries often did advise certain nostrums for poor

patients who could not afford the services of doctors.

Often aspiring young men from the lov/er classes were appren­

ticed to apothecaries to learn the trade.

Goldsmith v/as well aware of these sub rosa medical

practices and sought to decry such abuses. Altangi is

thunderstruck at the variety of illnesses v/hich English

doctors claimed to cure. Unlike other physicians in foreign

countries who strive to treat the entire body, the English

specialize in treating parts of the body. With the variety

of pills and nostrums v/hich are advertised, Altangi wonders

that some Englishmen are yet reluctant to take advantage

of them; for benevolence seems to be at the heart of the

system, and each practitioner avov/s that his arts are of­

fered to the public at half the valued price. Ironically,

Altangi suggests that perhaps the best aims which physicians

could pursue v/ould be to invent a nostrum v/hich v;ould bring

^Ibid,, p. 53-

122

back the dead, a group who would be most docile to treat

and which would be sure to have utmost gratitude. Lest

any think his proposals outrageous, Altangi refers to the

current claims of elixirs v/hich restore youth and virility

to the aged.

The lamentable state of treatment for the poor Gold­

smith ably satirizes v/hen Altangi describes the preparation

of such quacks.

Few physicians here go through the ordinary courses of education, but receive all their knov/ledge of medicine by immediate inspiration from heaven. Some are thus inspired even in the v/omb; and what is very remarkable, understand their profession as v/ell at three years old as at three score. Others have spent a great part of their lives un­conscious of any latent excellence, till a bank­ruptcy, or a residence in gaol have called their miraculous pov/ers into exertion. And others still there are indebted to their superlative ignorance alone for success. The more ignorant the practi­tioner, the less capable is he thought of deceiv­ing. The people here judge as they do in the east; where it is thought absolutely requisite that a man should be an ideot before he pretend to be either a conjuror or a doctor.'

Altangi's naive reception to such occurrences is amusing,

but as farfetched as such observations seem, they were

probably less amusing than true. In the conclusion of Let­

ter XXIV, Altangi observes that if the patient is cured,

the doctor takes the credit; but if he dies by virtue of

the treatment, his case is pronounced incurable. Goldsmith

' Ibid., p. 103.

123

apparently felt the state of medicine for the poor v/as a

sad state of affairs.

- So unlearned were these quacks that in Letter LXVII

Goldsmith personally attacks three of them: Richard Rock,

Timothy Franks, and a "doctor" V/alker. The speciality

of each of these men v/as the healing of venereal disease.

Altangi, v/ho has by now become skeptical, challenges the

three to a medical disputation and poses a riddle as to

whether "syncope, Parenthesis, or apoplexy" is the most

fatal disease. Dr. Rock, to v/hom the challenge is ad­

dressed, curiously enough replied the next day that he

8 believed apoplexy to be the most fatal.

^Ibid., p. 284.

CHAPTER X

LITEllARY CRITICISM

Goldsmith had long been interested in the state of

English letters. Before v/riting The Citizen papers, he had

served his "apprenticeship" as a hack writer, work v/hich

meant perusing volumes of books for reviev/s, translations,

or compilations. In 1757 as a critic for Ralph Griffiths'

Monthly Reviev/, he had reviev/ed such works as Gray's Odes

and Edmund Burke's Philosoiohical Inquiry into the Origin

of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. In 1759 v/hile

writing for the Tory Critical Reviev/, he had anonymously

published his Enquiry into the Present State of Polite

Learning which lamented the decay of literature and decried

the pedantry of former critics v/ho appraised classical

literature. By 1760, he was well prepared to satirize the

v/riting profession and the works which he felt were sub­

standard .

Perhaps no other subject is so interesting to the writer

as that of his own profession: literature. That this was

true of Goldsmith seems apparent from the number of essays

which he devoted to the state of learning and literature—

roughly twenty-one, one-sixth of the total. Generally

124

125

speaking, Goldsmith is traditionally oriented in his ap­

praisal of the current state of literature. He seems to

feel that the writing of and appreciation for literature

is in a state of decay, not an unusual view; for as one

twentieth-century author has v/ritten, writers usually feel

that the literature of their ov.n period is in a state of

decay. Goldsmith decries critics, also a long standing

literary habit of authors, laments the lack of apprecia­

tion for good writing, and scorns the state of contemporary

drama. Nearly every aspect of the literary profession in

the eighteenth century receives assessment, from the book­

seller, the nobleman and patron, the author, the clubs,

the drama, the literature itself, to the critics. The

only unqualified praise to an author is given in an essay

which v/as v/ritten on the death of Voltaire, a sincere

lament for the mistaken passing of a great man who had

been the subject of Goldsmith's biography.

One of the aspects of literature with v/hich Goldsmith

dealt was the situation of the independent writer, a per­

son of precarious means v/hose only resources v/ere the words

which he carried in his mind. Johnson had dealt v/ith the

same subject in The Rambler when he rather satirically

Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen £f the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), Letter XLIII, p. 181.

126

discussed the "benefits" of the garret: that v/riting v/as

most sublime v/hen the v/riter lived at higher altitudes."^

Goldsmith never pondered the advantages of the garret, but

he did treat numerous other subjects v/hich dealt with the

pitfalls of being what today would be called a "free lance"

v/riter.

First of all, he tried to defend the man v/ho writes

for a living. By Goldsmith's era, the patronage of the

nobility was largely dying out as the episode of Johnson's

famous letter to Lord Chesterfield v/ould suggest. Hov/-

ever, authors seemed to enjoy the same dubious reputations

as actors often did—as persons of a low social station

who were often unemployed. That v/riting v/ithout patronage

had its advantages seems evident in Altangi's Letter XCIII

where he discusses the fact that the nobility, however

dull the material they may write, enjoy higher literary

favor than v/riters v/ho live by their trade. Altangi observes

And yet this silly prepossession the more amazes me, when I consider, that almost all the excel­lent productions in wit that have appeared here, v/ere purely the offspring of necessity; their Drydens, Butlers, Otv/ays, and Farquhars, v/ere all writers for bread. Believe me, my friend, hunger has a most amazing faculty of sharpening the genius; and he who with a full belly can think like a hero, after a course of fasting, shall rise to the sublimity of a demi-god.^

^Samuel Johnson, Th^ Rambler, No. 117, April 30, 1751.

-^Goldsmith, p. 376.

127

Goldsmith must have felt no small satisfaction v/hen

he did achieve not only success but also fame v/ith the

v/riting of the "Chinese letters," for his appraisal of the

road to fame in eighteenth-century England (as in most

eras) shows it to be a rocky one. encumbered v/ith thistles

and thorns. Not only did the nobility still enjoy the

first fruits of literary praise, but their favor toward

a work could make an author's reputation. Altangi com­

ments in Letter LVII that in China a tribunal meets to

decide the merit of literary v/orks. There is, hov/ever,

no equitable method of appraisal in England. There a

piece may be read by a lord v/ho praises it at his table.

The news circulates to the coffee houses, v/here it pro­

ceeds to the family fireside. The common folk accord it

the praise given by the noblemen, and a reputation is thus

made.

The question v/hich is first posed by the populace

when a book arrives from the press is not, "V/hat is its

merit?" but "Who is the author? Does he keep a coach? 4

V/here lies his estate? V/hat sort of a table does he keep?"

The rich are thus assured of finding praise, while the poor,

says Altangi, are fortunate to find not fame, but forgiveness

Vrnat kind of literature did Goldsmith consider meritori­

ous? Did an author have social obligations? V/as Goldsmith

" Ibid., p. 238.

128

governed in his ov/n writings by a literary code? Each of

these are important issues which Goldsmith considered.

In Letter LVII, Goldsmith ansv/ers such questions:

In a polished society, that man, though in rags, who has the power of enforcing virtue from the press, is of more real use than forty stupid brachmans, or bonzes, or guebres, though they preached never so often, never so loud, or never so long. That man, though in rags, who is capable of deceiving indolence into wisdom, and who professes amusement v/hile he aim.s at reforma­tion, is more useful in refined society than twenty cardinals with all their scarlet, and tricked out in all the fopperies of scholastic finery.-'

Merit has a history of being universally neglected, a

fact which Goldsmith recognized. In Letter LXXXIV, Altangi

gives a history of famous men from Homer to Cervantes v/ho

died in a state of neglect and often of abject poverty.

Goldsmith v/as not, hov/ever, totally pessimistic. He real­

ized tha-j men who wrote meritorious works for the public

good at least had the satisfaction of knowing them to be

valuable. The contemporary eighteenth-century v/riter had

one asset which those of his profession had never before

enjoyed, and that was independence. No longer v/ere authors

forced to sit at the tables of the great to acquire patron­

age; no longer did a writer have to starve. If he wished

only for a living, one could be made by catering to the

bookseller and the public taste. V/hatever disadvantages

^Ibid., p. 238.

129

the writer had incurred before, there v/as now recompense.

If a man lacked fortune, he at least had the dignity now

of independence.

Goldsmith felt that it was difficult to be a good

writer and that a great deal of what passed for literature

could be put to better use lining trunks. He particularly

disliked what he called obscene and pert novels like Tris-

.tram Shandy, v/hich were being widely disseminated. First

of all, he v/as surprised that ladies with delicate sensi­

bilities would so assiduously read obscene novels. The

ladies, hov/ever, constituted only a small part of the

audience which a writer with prurient tastes reached. In

Letter LIII, Altangi asserts that obscene novels v/ith their

indecent jests titillate the reader and that those v/ho most

enjoy them have dead sensibilities which can scarcely be

reached by other means:

An author who writes in this manner is generally sure therefore of having the very old and the im­potent among his admirers; for these he may properly be said to v/rite, and from these he ought to expect his reward, his v/orks being often a very proper succedaneum to cantharides, or an assa foetida pill. His pen should be considered in the same light as the squirt of an apothecary, both being directed to the same generous end.'

The personal subject matter of these novels also ap­

parently irritated Goldsmith, and he seemed to feel that

^Ibid., pp. 344-345.

^Ibid., p. 222.

130

a writer who could write about nothing else could at least

write about himself. Such assertions indicate the growing

trend toward the subjective which was to dominate the

Romantic era of the next century. Goldsmith was much in

tune v/ith the eighteenth-century dictum of objectivity in

writing. It is a curious paradox, however, that while he

condemned those v/ho v/rote from their experience, most

modern scholars see v/ithin his own v/ritings, especially

The Citizen of the World papers and The Vicar ofl Wakefield,

much that is autobiographical.

Another type of literature which Goldsmith, like John­

son, decried is the romance. In Letter LXXXIII, Altangi

writes to his son, Hingpo, and advises him to make the

study of books his habitual employment, for such an under­

taking facilitates successful living. There is one type

of book, however, which Altangi strongly urges Hingpo to

avoid, and that is the romance. Altangi advises Hingpo

that the romances are nothing but "instruments of debauchery.

They are dangerous fictions where love is the ruling pas-Q

sion." Y/hat passes for wit in these books, says Altangi,

is actually villainy v/hich is portrayed in such an allur­

ing fashion that the young may be influenced to emulate

romantic intrigues. Goldsmith felt that many novelists

^Ibid., p. 340.

131

#

v/ho purported to show "vice punished and virtue rewarded,"

(a reference perhaps to Richardson's Pamela) were perhaps

influencing the young more to vice than virtue; for a

writer must be a philosopher of the first rank to "incul­

cate virtue by so leaky a vehicle."^

Perhaps one reason for the growth of the romance was

the dearth of new literary material. By the latter part

of the eighteenth century the number of publications had

so blossomed that each v/eek saw volumes of new books is­

sue from the press. In Letter CXVII, Altangi discusses

the fact that the public taste has become satiated v/ith

the inundation of books on the same subjects. Altangi

rather humorously ruminates that he can scarcely read

tv/o pages into "Thoughts upon God and Nature, Thoughts up­

on Providence, or Thoughts upon free Grace, or indeed

into thoughts upon any thing at all." Pie can "no longer 10 meditate with Meditations every day in the year." So

satiated is he that his emotions are entirely unmoved by

almost anything that is currently published.

There are advantages, however, in a society which is

productive in literary output. In Letter LXXV, Altangi

philosophizes on the necessity for new books in a "refined"

society. In primitive societies, oral admonition suffices

%bid., p. 341.

''^Ibid., p. 388.

132

to refine individuals toward virtue. As the society be­

comes more civilized, the press becomes a better means

of impressing virtue than the pulpit. Therefore, fine

v/riters should be among the most esteemed members of

such a society. Where there are many writers, the books

of the licentious tend to be overbalanced by those of

the good.

There is always a need for current literature, says

Altangi; for with the times, vices change. Books must

therefore be tailored to mend the vices of the times.

While the ancients will alv/ays be revered, like antique

medals, they serve the curious and fail to speak to a

contemporary audience as do modern writings.

Instead therefore of thinking the number of nev/ publications here too great, I could v/ish it still greater, as they are the most useful in-stri;iments of reformation. Every country must be instructed either by writers or preachers; but as the number of readers encreases, the number of hearers is proportionably diminished, the writer becomes more useful, and the preaching Bonse less necessary.''

Whatever be the motives which induce men to write, v/hether avarice or fame, the country be­comes most wise and happy, in which they most serve for instructors.""^

The foregoing appraisal certainly exhibits the height of

optimism concerning the writing profession.

''''ibid., p. 312.

'' Ibid., p. 313.

• vt.'>fl[.B«'""

133

However optimistic Goldsmith v/as about his profession,

he was not above satirizing most aspects of it. One aspect

v/hich received a great deal of attention was the rivalry

among authors for fame and attention. In Letter }DC, Altangi

discusses "the republic of letters in England." In China,

says Altangi, there is a great cooperation among authors

for each to contribute in a unifying way to the body of

learning. On the other hand, in England the situation is

reversed. Each author looks upon his associates as rivals,

and there is constant bickering and ridicule. Each author

seems to despise another. Regardless of the merit of one's

book, others are sure to search for defects to suggest

ways in v/hich it could have been improved. Whatever

novelty an author may introduce, others, to avoid seeming

less innovative, assure the public that nothing really

new is to be seen in his v/orks. Not only do these authors

calumniate each other, but if their country is at political

odds with another, they seek to degrade the v/riters of that

country. Altangi states that Confucius observed that it

was the "duty of the learned to unite society more closely,

and to persuade men to become citizens of the v/orld," but

English authors strive to disconnect the union of all men.

Authors, like critics, v/ho find their ov.n writing efforts

impotent are the first to try to bring all successful writers

13 to their own level by abusive criticism.

^^Ibid., pp. 85-88.

134

This tendency is perhaps best illustrated in Gold­

smith's companion essays describing a club of authors.

The^man in black introduces Altangi to this group of men.

The types of pseudoliterary persons that must have dominated

many clubs exhibit the characters which Goldsmith likely de­

tested. First there is a "doctor Nonentity," a metaphysi­

cian who is well adapted to v/riting indexes and philo­

sophical essays on every subject. So astute is he that he

may v/rite a book v/ithin twenty-four hours. The others

acknowledge him as the leader of the club for his v/isdom

which is illustrated by the fact that he seldom speaks.

There is Tim Syllabub, dressed in shabby finery, who writes

riddles, bav/dy songs, and hymns v/ith equal astuteness.

Perhaps Mr. Tibs is a satirization of Goldsmith himself;

for he writes eastern tales and "receipts for the bite of

a mad dog." . Lawyer Squint v/ho speaks in parliament and

writes criticisms of plays has "seasonable thoughts" on all

subjects. After some discussion, the group is dispersed

when a bailiff is heard at the door, and Altangi and his

companion are forced to leave.

The satire on the pretensions of such uninspiring men

is continued in Letter XXX v/hen Altangi describes "the pro­

ceedings of the club of authors." On this occasion, one

'' Ibid., p. 126.

135

of the group, a poet, wishes to read a modern epic poem.

The other members resist, but at his insistence they con­

sent to allow him to read if he pays the cost of one shil­

ling per hour. The fellow is so determined that he does

so and satirically assures them that they will not find

any Turnuses or Didos in it. It happens that the poem

is a badly done attempt at describing the impoverished

room of the poet. V/hen he describes his nightcap as "A

cap by night—a stocking all the day," he stops enrap­

tured. The group sneers, sniggers, ridicules him, and

deters him from reading more. The conversation then turns

to the sad state of affairs for the contemporary v/riter,

and one v/ould-be author relates hov/ the nobility conspire

1 5 against these depressed v/riters.

Y/hile trifling authors v/ere discouraged by an indif­

ferent nobility, legitimate writers had troubles of their

ov/n: critics. It was difficult enough for Goldsmith and

his colleagues to accept each other's criticism, but to

be subjected to the critical inquiry of those who seemed

\inable to v/rite themselves was an almost unbearable burden.

Whatever lack of merit the critics seemed to share, there

was one advantage in receiving their scrutiny: a reputa­

tion, however dubious, might be won through them. Often­

times, when critics disagreed or v/hen authors and critics

'' Ibid., pp. 126-134.

136

disagreed, a literary battle ensued. In Letter CXIII,

Altangi describes a literary battle fought by epigram.

.Goldsmith's technique here is noteworthy, for he en­

deavors to sublimate critical inquiry to a pettiness that

he apparently feels that it deserved. First, the battle

is fought by epigram, a trifling, indirect v/ay to assault

the character of v/riting. Secondly, the battle is an in­

effectual one because the epigrams are so badly v/ritten

that they resemble riddles, and the reader never knows

v/hat to make of them. Goldsmith describes the epigram

as "that species of argumentation, called the perplexing.

It effectually flings the antagonist into a mist; there's

no ansv/ering it; the laugh is raised against him v/hile he 1 f)

is endeavouring to find out the jest."

The literary battle did create notoriety for its vic­

tim and made him known to the public. Nevertheless, an

author ran the risk of at last being seen as the butt of

a joke, or v/orse, as an ineffectual writer. Goldsmith

ironically v/rites as if he fears to be himself in this

position; for Altangi squirms under the pretense of being

possibly attacked by none other than the quack. Doctor Rock,

v/ho v/as challenged in Letter LXVIII.

That Goldsmith did feel the critic an unqualified

judge of literature is illustrated best in the essays on

'' Ibid., p. 439.

137

the republic of letters, XX, and on the visit of a book­

seller, LI. In the former letter, Altangi explains that

the author and critic are both driven by similar motives.

The critic v/ishes to tell the public how poorly a book is

written; the author endeavors to point out his merit.

A critic is a being possessed of all the vanity, but not tne genius, of a scholar, incapable, from his native weakness, of listing himself from the ground, he applies to continuous merit for support, makes the sportive sallies of another's imagina­tion his serious employment, pretends to take our feelings under his care, teaches where to con­demn, where to lay the emphasis of praise, and may, with as much justice, be called a man of taste, as the Chinese who measures his wisdom by the length of his nails. 1"

The critics oftentimes disagree and are thus engaged in a

battle which engages copy for the press. Other critics at

the same time embark upon making extensive notes for the

publication to explain fine points to the public. Thus,

with its critics, booksellers, bookbinders, printers, and

paper makers, the English publishing industry resembles a

Persian army which trails hosts of retinue.

The most derisive ridicule on critics occurs when Al­

tangi meets a bookseller. Altangi questions him concerning

the business of selling books, and the seller explains that

more money is often made by selling criticisms on the books

than by hav/king the books themselves. The seller explains

'' Ibid., p. 88.

138

that he once had an author whose works v/ere so poor that

they would not sell; so the seller induced him to become

a critic and found him a success. The most remarkable

"aspect of this critic, continued the seller, was that he

wrote best, when drunk. The implications of the satire are

quite obvious: the critic. Goldsmith apparently felt, v/as

a man, who incapable of writing himself, leveled abuse at

others. The fact that criticism lacked reason is suggested

by the comment that the seller's critic v/rote best in an 18

intoxicated state. Furthermore, the attack is more

than a frontal assault on critics; it is a satire on the

business of sellers v/ho lack taste and have only a profit

in mind.

The bookseller explains to Altangi that selling books

. resembles selling cucumbers; each has its season. The

seller says that he tries to echo the vulgar public taste;

thus the public receives the pleasure of always seeing

its ov/n sentiments in print. He continues that much of

the wit of an author may be seen in his use of dashes,

numerous breaks, and many "ha-ha's." V/hen Altangi asks why

such books are published, the seller replies that they are

published to be sold.

Goldsmith, by illustrating the trifling subject mat­

ter and critical methods of evaluating current v/orks.

'' Ibid., LI, p. 216.

139

satirized what he felt to be the decay of literature. So

mercenary was the industry that he seemed to feel it hardly

more esthetic than the business of selling in a vegetable

market. Profit v/as the criterion by which such trash was

pawned on the public; and the crowning irony v/as that a

writer's recognition and merit could be decided by such

means.

This decay was seen as v/ell in the driveling drama of

the day. Altangi, in Letter XXI, describes his experience

at an English playhouse where he v/as taken by the man in

black. He describes the various placements of seats from

the aristocrats who occupy the floor to the vulgar who

sit in the galleries. The plot of the play is concerned

with a queen who lost her infant son and refused to be con­

soled for four acts. With the noise of the audience, the

confusion on stage, and the rapidity of the action, Altangi

is unable to recall the conclusion of the play. He finds

it, however, a despicable presentation. Hov/ can one con­

tinue to sympathize with the actors' laments through five

acts, when pity is such a fleeting passion, asks Altangi.

Altangi then offers what he, or Goldsmith, feels should

be the criterion for a good play.

There should be one great passion aimed at by the actor as well as the poet, all the rest should be subordinate, and only contribute to make that the greater; if the actor therefore exclaims upon every occasion in the tones of despair, he attempts

140

to move us too soon; he anticipates the blow, he ceases to affect though he gains our ap­plause, 'y

^ The same theme continues in Letter LXXIX where Altangi

asserts that once an author has seen the general scheme of

trite plots and dialogues writing a play should be simple.

Much whining, exclamations such as "gods! tortures, racks,

and damnation" are about all that is required to enliven a

dialogue. Altangi is amused at the assertion that the

English go to a play to be instructed as v/ell as entertained;

for he finds with all the noise and confusion that it is

scarcely possible to leave a theater v/ith little more than

20 a dizzy head.

With literature in such a state of confusion, it v/ould

be thought that perhaps scholars might be the best hope for

remedying such a situation. But the state of scholarship.

Goldsmith seemed to feel, v/as in an equally decadent state.

Educated men spent their time likev/ise in trifles. Men of

science were so involved in the peculiarities of minutiae

that the spectrum of life escaped them. In Letter LXXXIX,

Goldsmith writes of their meetings v/here each is praised

for his "cockle-shell," his new "powder," or "the important

21 discovery of some nev/ process in the skeleton of a mole."

'• ibid., XXI, p. 94-

20rbid.., pp. 324-325.

''ibid., pp. 360-361.

ti!.:

sraj^,

141

The v/orst of this breed of men were the antiquarians v/ho

speculated on the evidence that they could not produce

until at last the speculation was introduced as evidence.

The social scene as Goldsmith viev/ed it v/as infected

v/ith misdirection. The priorities to v/hich the English

devoted their time v/ere trifles of no value. The aristo­

crats ineffectually strived for learning which was super­

ficial; they were dilletantes of the arts. English politics

v/hich indoctrinated the vulgar v/ith the notion of English

liberty discriminated against the poor and did little to

ameliorate the ills of the populace. Religion was a vain

pretense v/hich in its established forms actually ignored

the spiritual needs of the parishioners, and in its en­

thusiast counter movement misled its followers into follov/-

ing their emotions and spiritual whims. Medicine v/as a

commodity available only to the rich v/hile uneducated quacks

ministered to a helpless lov/er class. The English v/ere more

concerned about appearance and mode of dress than the more

substantial business of social responsibility. Literature,

as a profit making enterprise, v/as in a state of decadence

v/ith few guide lines and fewer capable authors. The social

machinery v/as available to effect necessary change, but v/ho

v/as v/illing to take the responsibility for mirroring to the

English their misguided priorities? Goldsmith apparently

felt that he v/as equal to the task.

CHAPTER XI

AN EVALUATION AND INTEPLPRETATION

Because the eighteenth century saw the bloom of the

genre of the periodical essay (as Chapter I has pointed

out). Goldsmith had many precedents upon v/hich to build

his Citizen papers. Among the many v/hich flourished

prior to Goldsmith's time, some obviously were more influ­

ential than others. Those in particular v/hich exerted

the most influence employed the pseudo-letter format and/or

used the convention of the character essay within a frame

tale. While Goldsmith probably picked up miscellaneous

ideas such as names for his characters (Zelis and Lien

Chi) from the compilations having less impact, such as Y/al-

pole's A Letter from Xo-Ho, it is likely that he looked

to those authors who had enjoyed considerable success for

his format. In particular, he needed a format which would

serve as a satirical vehicle, and there were several major

v/orks v/hich could have very well supplied these needs.

The grandfather of the pseudo-letter genre was P.

Marana's Turkish Spy which v/as published in France in 1684.

1 Goldsmith was at least av/are of this v/ork for he

wrote his Uncle Contarine v/hile in Edinburgh that he felt like the Turkish Spy, a recluse av/ay from his homeland. See Ralph M. V^ardle, Oliver Goldsmith (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1957), p. 52.

142

143

Marana was an Italian journalist v/ho lived in France and

was perhaps the first author to successfully employ the

pseudoletter as a vehicle for satire. The series ran to

eight volumes, but it was the first which made the most

impact; the other seven, being published in England, were

of questionable origin.

Marana used the device of a Moslem, a Turkish spy,

who resides in Paris to spy for the Sultan of the Ottoman

Empire, his master. In the guise of a priest, Mahmut

moves about the city, mixing v/ith its inhabitants and ob­

serving the political and religious systems. Most of the

satire of the letters is directed against religious in­

tolerance and insularity among the Christians and the

Moslems. There are, of course, letters v/ritten home to

friends on purely social and personal matters, but the

majority of the letters are reports on the state of affairs

in France. The mask of the persona remains tightly in

place, perhaps because of state censorship in France; and

while the satire of the author is readily apparent, it is

2 Mahmut who controls the letters. Unlike Goldsmith and

his predecessors, Addison and Steele, Marana employed no

sustained league of characters to lend interest to a frame

tale.

See Arthur J. Weitzman in the introduction to Giovanni P. Marana's Letters Writ by A Turkish Spy (New York: Colum­bia University Press, 1970), pp. vii-xix.

144

Goldsmith's essays are interesting because v/ithin

the context of satirical essays the reader finds charac­

ters, typically English who draw interest not only to them­

selves as characters but to the particular English traits

which they exemplify and which Goldsmith satirizes. The

characters also shift the emphasis of satire from a com­

plete comparison of tv/o cultures to an analysis of English

society. This emphasis resembles the character essays

of Addison and Steele in their Spectator of the first part

of the eighteenth century.

In the Spectator, Addison and Steele created the famous

Club v/hich included Mr. Spectator, the narrator; the Templar;

the Clergyman; Captain Sentry; V/ill Honeycomb; Sir Andrew

Preeport; and Sir Roger de Coverley. Some of these charac­

ters commented on their ovm spheres of interest, and the

reader came to feel an intimacy in the association. Gold­

smith used the motif of sustained characterization, but

limited the focus on the characters by using a smaller number

to serve as telescopes for observing English society. Thus,

the man in black serves chiefly as a guide for Altangi, and

the shabby Beau and his v/ife shov/ in a lesser degree the

pretensions of those who imitated others in high society.

Goldsmith, and other writers of the age, were great

admirers of The Tatler and The Spectator. As has been noted,

Goldsmith possessed copies of both v/orks. There are

145

parallels in the objects of satire: in The Spectator Ad­

dison writes of ladies' "party patches" in No. 81, of

their "head-dresses" in No. 98, and of the "use of fans"

in No. 202; Goldsmith comments on both sexes' hair styles

and on ladies' patches in Letter III, and in Letter LXXXI

on women's trains. In No. 180, Steele writes "on the

futility of wars of conquest," an essay which parallels

Goldsmith's history of Lao in Letter XXV. In No. 329,

Sir Roger visits Y/estminister Abbey just as Altangi does

in Letter XIII. In No. 335, Sir Roger attends a play, an

account which parallels Altangi's attendance at the theatre

in Letter XXI. Of course, there is also No. 50 of The

Spectator, the visit of the four Indian kings who leave

behind their criticism of London society: a critical

essay that employs a persona like Goldsmith's "Chinese

letters." Like Addison and Steele, Goldsmith had a light

satirical touch that differs considerably from the heavy

moralizing which is found in Johnson's essays, especially

those of the Rambler.

Goldsmith's satire, hov/ever, is unique when compared

to other essay collections: it has less philosophy and

more social criticism. One of its closest parallels is

Montesquieu's Persian Letters; yet there are great differ­

ences between the two. Montesquieu's Persian Letters was

published in 1721 by Dutch printers and smuggled into

[ip^f* "

146

Prance. The response to the letters was immediate; they

created a sensational scandal. The format for the epistles

is"similar to Goldsmith's: a frame tale which relates the

responses of two Persian travellers, Usbek and his servant,

Rica, to Prance. Goldsmith uses three narrators. Lien Chi

Altangi, his son, Hingpo, and his friend, Fum Hoam. Most

of the letters, hov/ever, are v/ritten from one point of

view, that of the visiting Chinese, Altangi. Montesquieu,

on the•other hand, divides his letters almost equally among

n\imerous narrators, Usbek, Rica, the eunuchs, and the wives

of the seraglio. Thus in Montesquieu's Letters, there are

more divergent points of view and more analyses of different

strata of society. The Persian Letters lack, however, the

unity which a single narrator like Altangi provides and

the opportunity for satire on the narrator himself.

There are other differences. France never entertained

a craze for the Persian culture as England did for Chinois­

erie. Thus the opportunity to satirize a cultural fad was

absent in the Persian Letters. Furthermore, Montesquieu's

Letters, having many narrators, are divided in subject mat­

ter almost equally between the frame story, v/hich largely

takes place in the seraglio, where the eunuchs have

^See George R. Healy, the "Translator's Introduction," in Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Mon­tesquieu, Persian Letters (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1964), p. vii.

147

difficulty controlling the harem and the observations of

the' foreigners, Usbek and Rica, in France. The resulting

contrast in cultures then is more philosophical than

satirical. Unlike Goldsmith, Montesquieu spends less time

in the examination of trivialities.

This contrast is provided to refute a myth which has

been perpetrated about Goldsmith: that he v/as not an

original writer. The fact seems to be that he was indeed

original and imaginative; he took ideas from other writers

and expanded them into innovative literature. It is true

that he borrov/ed from Du Halde's History of China and

D'Argen'.s Chinese Letters. Any v/riter who had never lived

v/ith the culture about v/hich he was v/riting v/ould be forced

to read and scavenge ideas from other books on the subject.

But as Smith's study illustrates. Goldsmith was not a

plagiarist; he borrowed ideas, it is true, but always with

the advantage of taking ideas already in print and remodel­

ing them to produce a superior product. If writers were

expected to use only original materials, doubtless there

would be fewer v/riters, and the state of literature would

consequently be bankrupt. A study of most writers from

Homer to T. S. Eliot illustrates to even the most inex­

perienced student of literature that an author must glean

from fertile fields sov/n by others to produce a magnum opus

himself, whether that acreage yields oral tradition or the

148

printed page. The artistry lies not only in the subject

matter, but in the manner of telling as well.

A consideration of Goldsmith's overall approach to

his subject in The Citizen papers reveals an immense varia­

tion in style. The letters include fairy tales, allegory,

philosophic essays, dramatic dialogue, literary criticism,

and satiric prose, certainly a v/ide variety. There is a

humorous light touch which appears in the essays on English

elections and women's trains, and there is biting denunci­

ation in essays dealing with an irresponsible aristocracy.

There is tenderness in Hingpo's essays v/hich relate his

love for Zelis, and severe reproach in Fum Hoam's essays

denouncing Altangi for leaving China.

Throughout these essays, the persona of the naive

Chinese narrator, Altangi, is kept intact. The facade of

a persona is a thin veneer, however; and, except in the

frame story where Altangi is himself often the object of

satire, the reader usually feels that it is Goldsmith

speaking through the guise of Altangi. The first readers

of the "Chinese letters" apparently reacted to the nar­

rator in the same way; for fev/ doubted after the initial

numbers that Altangi was actually a Londoner. It would

seem that Goldsmith did little to keep up the pretense

since it was the Chinese series v/hich brought him his first

writing fame. While the persona may have been scarcely

149

more than a cover for the author himself, his posture be­

tween Goldsmith and the reader does create an aura of

objectivity.

Only once in the essay series does the veil of disguise

seem to fall, and this withdrawal occurs in an article

first v/ritten for the Bee of Saturday, October 27, 1759,

the renowned "A City Night-piece." This essay v/as one

of two not originally written for The Citizen papers but

added later; the other was Letter CXIX on the distresses

of private sentinel, v/hich v/as taken from the June, 1760,

edition of the British Magazine. Each of these essays

is among the most powerful in the series; only in the

former, however, does the reader feel that the satiric

mask has been lowered.

In the nocturnal quiet of a London night, the facade

of a pretentious society is laid aside, and the candid

intestine condition of the organism of humanity is bared.

At two o'clock, the author puts aside his classic readings

and wanders through the naked streets. Here is the quiet

of dark; there are no pretensions—no vanity. This placid

scene, under cover of darkness, hides the workings of the

lesser knov/n sector of the social forgotten: the drunkard,

the robber, and the suicide.

Hamilton Jewett Smith, Oliver Goldsmith's The Citizen of The V/orld: A Study (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1 9 2 ^ p. 26.

150

The streets v/hich only a short while ago were crov/ded

with the opulent "now no longer wear their daily mask, nor

5

attempt to hide their lewdness or their misery." The in­

habitants of this clandestine world are the poor—"strangers,

wanderers, and orphans"—clutching their rags, shivering

in doorways, steeling themselves against the humid London

cold for sleep. The harlot, disgraced by the desires of

evil men, and the diseased are the inhabitants of these

streets. "The world has disclaimed them; society turns

its back upon their distress." Who will remember them?

Who will cry out their v/retchedness and misery?

There are two worlds in London society, the world of

the opulent which reigns by day, and the v/orld of the poor

which dominates the night. A microcosm of the common­

wealth is held in these two worlds, the rich and the poor.

The author feels that luxury is the prelude to the crumbling

of social contigiiity. V/hile he decries the opulent society,

his emphasis upon the unseen sectors of social misery imply

that what he is denouncing is not so much opulence for its

own sake, but the chasm between the haves and have-nots,

the indifference of the rich, and their refusal to be their

brothers' keepers.

^Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World, ed. by Arthur Friedman (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 196o), Letter CXVII, p. 453.

^Ibid.

151

Goldsmith inserted this essay sixth from the last in

the series. It is an important essay; for here the un­

masked author speaks in v/hat appears to be a normative

passage. This is the essay which holds the interpretation

for all others; it ansv/ers the riddle of the total satire,

the author's message to his readers: if British society

is to endure, cognizance must be taken of the poor; the

petty trivialities of the upper and middle classes must be

replaced with a responsibility, a true brotherhood of man,

not only in England, but throughout the world. Men must

become citizens of the world if they would endure—a time­

less pronouncement.

However congenial Goldsmith may have seemed to his

colleagues, he was a sensitive man who agonized over social

problems which he felt himself impotent to solve. In the

closing paragraphs of this essay, the reader sees what

Sutherland has pointed out about the nature of the satirist,

the sensitive man who is av/are of the gap betv/een what is

and what should be, the Prometheus who agonizes for humanity.

Why, why was I born a man, and yet see the suf­ferings of wretches I cannot relieve! Poor house­less creatures! the world v/ill give you reproaches, but will not give you relief. The slightest mis­fortunes of the great, the most imaginary uneasiness of the rich, are aggravated with all the pov/er of eloquence, and held up to engage our attention and sympathetic sorrow. The poor v/eep unheeded, perse­cuted by every subordinate species of tyranny, and every law, which gives others security, becomes an enemy to them.

•..• «ap>

152

V/hy v/as this heart of mine formed v/ith so much sensibility! or why was not my fortune adapted to its impulse! Tenderness, v/ithout a capacity of relieving, only makes the man

.. who feels it more wretched than the object which sues for assistance. Adieu.'7

This yearning for a better world underlies the mask

of satire and good humor in The Citizen letters. It is

the beleaguered effort of one man to move his fellows to

that highest of all callings—to be citizens of the world.

There is a fairy tale about an emperor with much

vanity who is persuaded by two pseudotailors to model a

marvelous suit of clothes v/hich can only be seen by those

who are intelligent men fit for their jobs. The story is

told throughout the kingdom, and the king parades in all

his bare charm through the streets of the capitol city.

No one v/ill admit that he sees the king in his nakedness,

for to do so would be to admit that that man is unintel­

ligent and unfit for his occupation. Thus from the highest

stratum of society to the lov/est, the vanity of the people

allows them to believe and support a lie. Only the declara­

tion by a small child, a naive observer of the scene, ex­

poses the king and the people to the king's nakedness and

their ov/n vanity.

Goldsmith's "Chinese letters" function in much the

same way. Altangi, a childlike, naive observer, serves as

' Ibid., p. 454.

153

a herald to announce the indecencies of the time which

conformity has succeeded in binding upon the English.

Goldsmith told Dr. Johnson that he would carry the shield Q

of truth. The truth is usually much more difficult for

a people to accept than lies; so it is that an enter­

taining tale which reflects a people's inadequacies makes

the taste of truth more palatable. A revelation of the

truth was the goal of Goldsmith's Citizen of the World

letters.

James Boswell, Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. by G. B. Hill, revised and enlarged by L. T. Powell, Vol. IL (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934), 221-222. See also Chapter II, "The Character of the Author," for a summary from Boswell.

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