Oliver Goldsmith

Abstract

Oliver Goldsmith was the third son of the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, and was born at Elphin, in the county of Roscommon, (according to his epitaph in Westminster Abbey, at Pallas, in the county of Longford) in Ireland, in 1729.¹ He was instructed in classical learning at the school of Mr Hughes, from whence he was removed to Trinity College, Dublin, where he was admitted an usher the 11th of June 1744. At the University, he exhibited no specimen of that genius which distinguished him in his maturer years. On the 27th of February 1749, O. S.² two years after the regular time, he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Intending to devote himself to the study of physic, he left Dublin, and proceeded to Edinburgh, in 1751, where he continued till the beginning of the 1754, when, having imprudently engaged to pay a considerable sum of money for a fellow-student, he was obliged precipitately to quit the place. He made his escape as far as Sunderland; but there was overtaken by the emissaries of the law, and arrested. From this situation, he was released by the friendship of Mr Laughlin Maclane and Dr [J. F.] Sleigh, who were then in the College. On his being set at liberty, he took his passage on board a Dutch ship for Rotterdam; from whence, after a short stay, he proceeded to Brussels. He then visited [a] great part of Flanders; and, after passing some time at Strasbourg and Louvain, where he obtained the degree of Bachelor in Physic, he accompanied an English gentleman to Geneva.

In A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, vol. 10 (London: Bell & Bradfule, 1795) pp. 809–14.