The Washington herald., 1911-02-19

TIE LIFE OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH. By Frank
F.arIfrrr Nn,sc. With wine illustrations. sYo..
~. o. 1. T.. DUttsu 60.
Mr.. Moore begins this sympathetic,
readable life Of Oliver Goldsmith with a
caaptcr on the ireland Of his day, which
sounds the keynote of the work, for it
IS as a typca! Irishman OF that period
that he would have US see his hero. All
his shortcomings and they were many.
when studied in this light. assume an
attractive and certainly an generating
aspect--his imprOvidenCc. his love OIL
gambling his unbOunded generosity,
winch borrowed recklessly in order TO
lend indiscriminately. the altogether IN
CNrusablo muddlc Re made OF the ousl-
ross Of living All this becomes part OF
his "Ccltic temperament along with ms
simple creduity his unworldliness, which
was far from other unwOrdliness, the
MANY InvablC traits that have made him
tho hest loved of English poets. He is
the Benjamin Of the large family OF
eighteenth century poets. We Venerate
DRYDEN. we admire Pope, we esteem
Young VIC quote Gray. we neglect Ihom-
son. we ignore johnson, we tolerate Cow
pcr bat we love Goldsmith. Really, wGen
We come to consider he whole question of
the p,acc occupied 10y English poets in the
affection Of their READERS. we are led to
wonder if the position OF Goldsmith is not
absolutely unique.
Oliver Goldsmith was an Irishman of
his time to the core. his AnSlo-SaXon
ancestry notwithstanding. Mr.. Moore
insists upon our remembering this to the
end of the story. Fully as important is
it. according TO him. and he does not,
allow us to forget this either, that BoS-
well was a SCotChman. He, indeed, is
the villain OF this biography, unmasked
in a special introduction filled with much
vigorous writing. 1t is not merely that
he was a toadyiHg little man, forcing his
way into the tolerant. semi-contemptuous
company of great ones; it is not merely
that he had not a grain of humor-many
of the Englishmen with whom Gold
smith associated shared that lack. Mr..
Moore insists: il is most of all for his
malignant persistent and ingenious mis-
representation of the Irishman, for his
internal design to harm his reputation
with posterity. for his envious hatred of
him that Mr.. Moore piIlories Boswell, and
prosecutes him from page TO page with
the discovery OF inconsistencies in his
picture of Goldsmith with what we know
OF him from other sources, and even
from Johnson's lips himself as reported
by his admiring biographer. Boswell,
Mr.. Moore holds. was not above tam
pering with the Jovian announcements
OF Ills luOl IN 10 BTdlllN spite
And. for that matter, the johnson who
used the butt Of the pistol when it
missed fire is much In evidence, too.
Neither does Garrick fare well at Mr.
Moore's hands, Garrick, whose insatia-
BILE thirst for adulation the unyorldly
Goldsmith neglected to slake. One re-
members The great actors "Noll, who
wrote like an angel, but talked like poor
POLL Here Mr.. Moore brings forward
his theory of the Englishmans inability
70 understand Irish humor IN explana-
ton of the accusations brought against
Goldsmith as conversationalist:
But quite apart from those questions of
malice and willful inaccuracy on Hoswelfs
part there was about Goldsmith some
thing which Boswell was constitutionally
incapable OF understanding, and which
puzzled a good many of the people in the
same circle OF observers and recorders.
The most perplexing OF all forms of ma
tional humor were those which belonged
TO Ireland in the eighteenth century. and
which are not yet extinct in many parts