Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) was born in Ireland in the family of a priest. He studied at the College of St. Trinity in Dublin, lectured at the universities of Edinburgh, London and Leiden. Goldsmith was engaged in medicine, jurisprudence and philology, but due to material need he did not complete the university course. His literary activity began in the late 1950s when he worked at the Richardson Printing Office in London.
As a writer, Goldsmith distinguished himself in many genres. He began with the publication of the satirical weekly "The Bee" (The Bee, 1758), wrote articles for the magazine "Monthly Review" and others. periodicals. Goldsmith wrote two comedies - The Good-Natur "d Man, 1768) and She Stoops to Conquer, or the Mistakes of a Night, 1773. He belongs to a number of biographies and "Study on the state of verbal sciences in Europe” (An Inquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe, 1759). Into history English Literature Goldsmith entered as the author of the poems The Traveler (The Traveler, or a Prospect of Society, 1764), The Deserted Village (1770) and the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).
The poem "Abandoned Village", continuing the line of sentimental poetry mid-eighteenth c., enriches it with sharpness and power of sound social theme. Goldsmith addresses the pressing issue of the era. The ruin of the English villages forced many peasants to leave their homes and go to the city in search of work. About one of these abandoned and deserted villages, named in the poem Auburn, Goldsmith tells. Auburn's past is described in idyllic terms. Memories of the peaceful well-being of the past years, the poet connects with memories of the days of his childhood. A landscape characteristic of sentimental poetry emerges: quiet shady oak forests, the murmur of a stream, thatched huts, a wooden bench under the branches of an old spreading oak, a church on a hill, winged mills. Field work alternates with cheerful rural holidays, when they dance, compete in archery, laugh and joke. But it's all gone:
Where are you, meadows, blooming paradise?
Where are the games of the villagers, lively with fun?
Where is happiness? Where is Love? Everything is gone - they are not! ..
(Translated by V. A. Zhukovsky)
The fields became the prey of desolation, the houses were destroyed, “the lush garden of nature is turned into the desert!” The dead silence of the empty places is interrupted only by the piercing cry of a heron and the sad moan of a lapwing. With deep sorrow, the poet writes about the fate of those who are “alienated from their homeland” and wander in a foreign land. He speaks with anger about greedy predators who "under the heaps of their wealth" buried the happiness and modest well-being of the inhabitants of Auburn.
Goldsmith's denunciations have great generalizing power. Already not only Auburn, but the image of all rural England appears in his poem. However, Goldsmith criticizes bourgeois civilization from the standpoint of sentimentalism. Grieving for the past of "blessed Auburn", he idealizes him.
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Night of Mistakes (She Humbles herself to Win, or Night of Mistakes) is a comedy film directed by Oliver Goldsmith. The premiere took place at London's Covent Garden Theater on May 15, 1773. The play was a resounding success: 13 performances before the end of the season. In the same year, the play ran for four individual publications. original title- "Night of Errors" - was replaced by a more lengthy one (thanks to J. Dryden, who liked the play very much). The plot is based on a real incident from the life of the author. It is believed that "The Night of Errors" was written in opposition to the sentimental comedies of X. Kelly "False scrupulousness" (1768) and R. Cumberland "Hindu" (1771). Goldsmith substantiated the principles and aesthetics of a real "merry comedy" in his treatise "An Experience on the Theater, or a Comparison of a Merry and Sentimental Comedy" (1772). "The Night of Errors" became the embodiment of theoretical postulates and was created in the best traditions of the English classic comedy of manners.
As in D. Farker's farce "The Cunning Plan of the Dandies" (1707), in Goldsmith's play "The Night of Errors" the development of the comic situation occurs due to a misunderstanding, or mistake: the young varmint Tony Lumpkin tries to play a trick on two traveling gentlemen and directs them instead hotel to the house of Mr. Hardcastle, who is waiting for the visit of the son of his friend Sir Charles Marlowe. Not knowing where they are, young people behave cheekily, misunderstandings multiply. Goldsmith resorts to the technique of "double irony" (for example, in the episode with the "stealing" of Constance Neville's jewelry), but the author does not pursue didactic purpose, - his task is to make the viewer laugh. The most comical character of Tony Lampkin, his indefatigable antics and jokes are a kind of plot engine. The daughter of the owner of the house, Kate, disguises herself as a maid to seduce young Marlow, who finds himself in a very awkward position. Masterfully, with humor, the dialogues of Marlowe and Mr. Hardcastle, Marlowe and Kate, skirmishes of Mrs. Hardcastle and Tony are constructed.
Samuel Johnson admitted that Lately he did not see a comedy "that would not only amuse the audience, but make them a little happier." Opposite opinion adhered to G. Walpole: “I do not condemn the very theme of the play (although it is vulgar), but its embodiment. The result is no morality, no edification. The play is opposed to sentimental comedy, but it is no better.
Goldsmith's Night of Mistakes was as popular in America as it was in England. Musical version under the name "Two Roses" was a success on the New York stage (November 21, 1904, directed by S. Stange). Many theater stars played in this play, among them: Charles Kemble, Mrs. Langtry, Fanny Davenport, Rose Coghlan, Annie Russell, Julia Marlowe, Mary Shaw, Sidney Drew, Robert Mantell, Cyril Mode. In New York, productions were resumed in 1905, 1924 and 1928. A surge of interest in the play was observed in the 1930s.
In Russia, acquaintance with Goldsmith's comedy began with late XVIII century. Pushkin scholars consider her one of the likely sources of the story "The Young Lady-Peasant Woman".
Features of sentimentalism in O. Goldsmith's novel "Weckfield Priest". Image of Pastor Primroz.
Goldsmith addresses the theme of the oppressors and the oppressed in his largest prose work, one of the most remarkable examples of sentimentalist prose, the novel The Weckfield Priest. Here Goldsmith is still in many ways close to the authors of traditional enlightenment novels. Like them, the writer affirms the need for a harmonious, logically complete composition, speaks of the integrity of the characters. But in his work, the enlightenment novel acquires important new features.
"Wackfield Priest" belongs to the genre of family and everyday novel, so characteristic of educational prose. It tells about the family of the provincial pastor Primrose, in which patriarchal relations reign. Goldsmith views these relationships from the standpoint of sentimentalism. Members of the Primroz family live in an idyllic setting: there is almost always peace and harmony in their house.
Goldsmith continues the traditions of the enlightenment novel, but he presents them at a new stage in the development of English literature - the period of sentimentalism. Goldsmith took into account the experience of Fielding and Smollet, but his "Wackfield Priest" connects the features enlightenment realism with sentimental idyll; criticism of social injustice is combined with the idealization of patriarchal life; the sharpness of life conflicts, without pouring out into satirical denunciations, is softened by irony.
In The Weckfield Priest, the family and everyday theme is intertwined with the social one. Published a few years earlier than The Abandoned Village, Goldsmith's novel is a more detailed and concretized in artistic images variation on the same theme of the plight of rural England. This time, this theme is revealed in the story of the misadventures of the family of the country pastor Primrose, who fell victim to the arbitrariness of Squire Thornhill.
Life with its contradictions and injustice breaks into the peaceful idyllic existence of the naive and honest people and destroys it.
The writer draws a charming image of his hero, naive, sometimes funny, blindly believing people. Primroz is a person who lives according to his conscience, guided by his feelings, the main of which is sympathy and sympathy for others. Pastor Primroz is the personification of true humanity, kindness, diligence and selflessness. He is shown as a noble, trusting and simple-hearted eccentric with strong moral principles, but rendered helpless in the face of deceit and evil. For many years, the life of his family was not overshadowed by any adversity. But, imprudently entrusting his fortune to a merchant who went bankrupt, Primrose went bankrupt. The family had to leave the habitable house and move to a new place. Poverty comes, but Primroz does not lose heart and encourages children to humble themselves and find peace of mind in a modest share. However, the characters of The Weckfield Priest are not models of behavior, not an ideal. Goldsmith endows his heroes with comic features that make their characters more alive - Primrose's wife is smug, his daughters are vain, and his son is frivolous. The writer slightly teases them, their inability to live and how often they take wishful thinking.
The titles of many chapters of the novel are declarative and didactic in nature. How does the teaching sound, for example, the title of the fourth chapter: "Even with the most modest prosperity, happiness is possible, because it is inherent in ourselves and does not depend on external circumstances." Further development events refutes this beautiful-hearted assertion. The title of the twenty-eighth chapter of the novel already sounds as follows: "In this life, happiness depends not so much on virtue as on the ability to live." Life forces the heroes to make sure that providence does not consider it necessary to take care of the fair distribution of earthly goods. This idyllic world must inevitably collide with harsh reality. Goldsmith understands this very well. The moral principles of a pastor are incompatible with the laws of bourgeois society. Deceived in his trust in people, insulted, Primroz goes bankrupt and ends up in a debtor's prison. Here he sees the life, the existence of which he had not suspected before. And yet the ending of the novel is prosperous: evil is punished, virtue triumphs.
However, Goldsmith's novel showed not only the limitations of sentimentalism. It reflects democratic views a writer who sincerely sympathizes with the plight common people. It should also be noted that the author of the novel, deeply sympathetic to his hero, does not completely merge with him. This is supported by the nature of Goldsmith's irony, which reveals Primrose's obvious weaknesses.
Although Goldsmith is quite truthful in describing the terrible pictures of poverty and in many respects, when depicting them, relies on the traditions of the enlightenment novel, in his denunciation of the world around him, he is not consistent enough.
The writer ends the tragic story with a happy ending. Restoring balance in the idyllic little world of pastor Primrose, he establishes the harmony of family and public relations. He finds their support in the healthy way of life of the third estate. This is where the foundations come in. true relationship between people whose essence is mutual understanding and sympathy for each other, it is here that the author sees examples of sincerity, decency and goodwill. So in the work of Goldsmith find confirmation of the ideas of Hume and Smith.
Oliver Goldsmith (Oliver Goldsmith, 1728-1774) was born in the Irish village of Pallas (County Longford) in the family of a village priest, who soon moved to another Irish village - Lissa, with which Goldsmith associated the best childhood memories reflected in his works. There, under the guidance of a village teacher, Goldsmith began his education. In the autumn of 1758 Goldsmith undertook the publication of a weekly satirical leaflet "Bee" (The Bee; only eight issues were published). Articles Goldsmith wrote not only for his: "Bees", but also for a number of other magazines. All these articles were published as a separate book in 1765.
During 1760-1761. Goldsmith publishes his "Chinese Letters" in the newspaper "Public Gazette", which he publishes in 1762 as a separate book called "Citizen of the World, or Letters Chinese philosopher living in London to his friends in the East" (The Citizen of the World.). During this period, Goldsmith met the then trendsetter in literary taste, critic Samuel Johnson, who immediately appreciated his talent.
Goldsmith already had the manuscripts of his famous "Weckfield Priest" and the poem "The Traveler" ready when their author was put in a debtor's prison. The advance received for the novel bailed out Goldsmith, but the publisher delayed publishing the book for several more years. Only success "The Traveler" (The Traveler, came out in Dec. 1764, but dated 1765) finally prompted the publisher to release The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).
Goldsmith found himself at the pinnacle of fame. He became an honorary member of the Literary Club, which included his close friends - Samuel Johnson, the publicist Burke, the artist Reynolds, and others.
In 1768, Goldsmith wrote his first comedy, The Good-natured Man. In 1770, his famous poem The Deserted Village was published, and in 1773, the second comedy She Stoops to Conquer, etc. In addition, Goldsmith wrote biographies of the famous dandy and dandy Richard Nash, the poet Parnel, the philosopher and politician Bolinbroke, books on the history of England and Rome, A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774) and many other works are the fruits of professional literary work.
Out of Goldsmith's journal work, only one has grown great work- "Citizen of the world". An example of this genre, like many genres of the 18th century, was already in The Spectator, in one of the letters composed by Steele according to an idea submitted by Swift (May 27, 1711). But this genre won wide success only with the advent of the unsurpassed Persian Letters by Montesquieu (1721). They served as a model for Goldsmith. As in all works of this genre, Goldsmith uses the humor of relativity. He describes English life through the perception of an Oriental. Lien Chi is surprised to hear a man in debtor's prison praising English freedom. Watching the magnificent departure of a noble lord, Lien Chi assumes that he sees a very worthy and meritorious person, and learns with amazement that only the distant ancestors of the lord were heroes and government officials, but after one of them married a cook, and she cheated on him with a groom, all subsequent generations were only interested in good food and a good stable.
Free from the illusions of Europeans, Lien Chi immediately notices everything that is not evident to the British: he sees that seven years war England and France are essentially fighting over Canadian furs, that the electoral struggle is going on between supporters of imported gin and domestic brandy, etc. It is not without reason that Lien Chi calls himself a citizen of the world: he has traveled to many countries, comprehended the relativity of all national customs, and only "recklessness, ignorance and vice" in any country are ridiculous to him.
Chinese origin Goldsmith uses his character to introduce Chinese stories, parables and fairy tales, in which, under a transparent exotic cover, the same English life. Such, for example, is a witty tale about a prince who, instead of state affairs, was engaged in collecting mice and was ready to give half his kingdom for white mouse with green eyes. The free genre of friendly letters allows Goldsmith to devote a lot of space to reasoning on common topics. So, he touches, without naming names, on the dispute between Rousseau and the encyclopedists about the benefits and harms of the sciences. Goldsmith tries to reconcile both points of view, arguing that science is harmful primitive society and useful to the civilized. But in general, he nevertheless adjoins the opponents of Rousseau, arguing that the development of luxury and, as a consequence of it, the development of sciences lead to an improvement in morals; at civilized man many vices, the savage has few, but on the other hand his vices are many times more terrible and grosser. Subsequently, in The Forsaken Village, Goldsmith took a different point of view regarding the influence of luxury on mores and came much closer to Rousseau.
However, in the "Citizen of the World" there are statements that are very reminiscent of Rousseau. Such, for example, is the beginning of the fifteenth letter: “Man was born to live in innocence and simplicity, but he departed from nature; he was born to share in heavenly goods, but he monopolized them."
Goldsmith attached special meaning his poetic experiences. Among the small poems of Goldsmith, the wonderful song of the deceived girl from The Weckfield Priest and the ballad about Edwin and Angelina from the same novel stand out. But most of his poems are not lyrical, but humorous. These are "Retaliations" (Retaliations, 1774) and "Game" (1776), devoted to the description of friendly feasts, as well as comic "elegies", in which Goldsmith parodies the flattering elegies on the death of a noble person, common in the literature of classicism.
Goldsmith's first poem, "The Traveler", produced great impression on contemporaries. Johnson felt that such a beautiful poem had not appeared since Pope's time. According to its stylistic features, this poem, written in "heroic couplets" and built according to a strict plan, does not go beyond classicism. Thomson, in one of his letters, expressed the opinion that it would be a very interesting task for a poet to draw "a poetic landscape individual countries mixed with moral observations on their character and peoples". The "poetic landscape", however, is almost absent in The Traveler, giving way entirely to "moral observations". Rather, Goldsmith's model was Addison's Letter from Italy to Lord Halifax, which Goldsmith himself included in The Beauty of English Poetry (1767). The new thing that Goldsmith brought to this genre is the strengthening of the lyrical element. The author becomes lyrical hero poems. Having climbed the peaks of the Alps, he looks at the countries spread out before him; we sympathize with his homesickness, we listen to his reasoning about the shortcomings of the system of various states; we pity the traveler who does not know where to lay his head. "Traveler" Goldsmith is a distant ancestor of "Childe Harold".
Some of the motifs and images of the last part of The Traveler, depicting England, were fully developed in another poem by Goldsmith, "The Forsaken Village", written eight years later. The Abandoned Village is a much less rationalistic work than The Traveler. There is more direct feeling and more real experience. "Abandoned Village" is both an idyll and an elegy. The past of this village, its way of life, its people are described in an idyllic way.
In the field of drama Goldsmith shows great conservatism. He insists on a strict separation between tragedy and comedy, and considers all forms in between "bastards". However, in The Citizen of the World, Goldsmith gives a very sharp characterization of the traditional “high tragedy”: “With what indignation I hear the heroes of the tragedy complain of misfortunes and difficulties, whose greatest disasters are based on arrogance and pride! Their most cruel sufferings are only pleasures in comparison with what many poor people meekly endure every day.
However, there was no tragedy depicting the life of the poor, and the attempts made at that time to elect heroes dramatic work the humble, virtuous bourgeois found no sympathy in Goldsmith.
Goldsmith consciously opposes his comedies to "tearful comedy", returning to Molière and the English comedy genre of the Restoration. Both Goldsmith's comedies - both The Good-natured Man and She Humbles herself to Win - were attacked for their "rudeness" and contrast with the "nobility" of the "tearful" comedy's sentiments.
But Goldsmith's "rudeness" was only open and unconstrained fun. During the reign of tearful and serious comedy, Goldsmith retained the brilliant realistic comedy of intrigue and character that Sheridan and Beaumarchais later revived.
"The Weckfield Priest" completes a series of remarkable English novels XVIII century. realistic novel gradually freed himself from the stringing of adventurous episodes, characteristic of Defoe, Fielding and Small
lettu; the action was increasingly centered around the fate of several individuals, usually associated family relationships. The Weckfield Priest is a further step in this direction. The story includes only what is connected with fate. friendly family Vicar Primrose. Through the history of this family, all other relations in society are shown.
In The Priest of Weckfield, the patriarchal purity of rural customs is contrasted with the corruption of the city and big light. Goldsmith says of his character in the preface: “In our time of excessive luxury and refinement of morals, can such a type please the public? Hunters of high society life will turn away with disdain from his modest hearth in the bosom of rural simplicity.
However, Goldsmith himself makes fun of the patriarchal limitations of this "humble home." He endows all members of the Primrose family with various comic traits. Vicar Primrose's lovingly portrayed character - a variant of the kind of beautiful-hearted eccentric already familiar to us from Fielding and Smollett - is the best thing in Goldsmith's novel. When he is told that he is ruined, and therefore advised to be more modest, he, on the contrary, behaves even more independently, because “from the loss of his state of pride worthy person only increases." He is incapable of suspecting others of insidious designs and therefore so easily gets into a mess. He is considered wise man only in a narrow family circle, but even here all his authority and all his exhortations cannot overcome the ridiculous vanity of his wife and daughters. For all Goldsmith's sympathy for the fine qualities of his hero, a realistic feeling leads him to introduce ironic motives into the interpretation of Primrose. Thanks to this good-natured irony, Goldsmith's "moral and Christian" novel, as Goethe notes, is devoid of "prudence and pedantry", but is full of the philosophy of resignation to fate and pious hopes for providence.
