129. Yon widowed, solitary thing. Supposed to be Catherine Geraghty. The reference to one person in a solitary condition adds to the loneliness of the picture.

137-192. Goldsmith drew the picture of the village preacher from his father and his brother Henry, who seem to have been very much alike in character. The poem was written shortly after the death of Henry Goldsmith.

137. Copse. From the French couper, to cut. Means brushwood cut for fuel.

142. And passing rich with forty pounds a year. Passing means exceedingly. Forty pounds was the average salary of an eighteenth-century curate. Cf. the stipend received by Dr. Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield. Also the dedication to The Traveller, referring to his brother Henry.

145. Unpractised he to fawn. A Latin construction, much used by eighteenth-century poets.

173. Champion. From the Latin campus, a field, or a place for fighting. The word here means the defender of a passing spirit against evil.

176. Accents. Words. Cf. Longfellow's "Excelsior":—

"And like a silver clarion rung,

The accents of that unknown tongue."

180. And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray. Cf. The Vicar of Wakefield, XXVII: "Some were penitent, and all attentive."

189. As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form. A powerful and sublime comparison.

194. Furze. A shrub having yellow flowers.

195. Skilled to rule. See note on line 145.

196. The village master. This is supposed to be Thomas Byrne, Goldsmith's boyhood teacher. Byrne's yarns may have suggested the description of the "broken soldier" (11. 155158). Read the account of Byrne in Irving's Life of Goldsmith. 205-206. aught . . . fault. In Ireland and rural England, the sound of is omitted in fault. With this explanation aught, fault, is a perfect rhyme.

209 Terms and tides presage. The terms were sessions of the universities or law courts. The tides were times or seasons in the ecclesiastical year.

210. Gauge. Measure the capacity of casks, or barrels, from their dimensions. Both Burns and Hawthorne performed this duty as excise commissioners.

221. That house. The village inn.

Nut-brown. A favorite figure with poets. Cf. Milton's "L'Allegro," 1. 100:

"Then to the spicy nut-brown ale."

Also the old English ballad, "The Nut-brown Maid."

232. The twelve good rules. These rules, ascribed to Charles I, were generally hung in public houses. They were: 1. Urge no healths. 2. Profane no divine ordinances. 3. Touch no state matters. 4. Reveal no secrets. 5. Pick no quarrels. 6. Make no comparisons. 7. Maintain no ill opinions. 8. Keep no bad company. 9. Encourage no vice. 10. Make no long meals. II. Repeat no grievances. 12. Lay no wagers.

The royal game of goose. This game was played by two persons on a board something like the modern checkerboard, in that it was divided into sixty-two squares.

On every fourth and fifth

square a goose was painted, and if the player's dice fell on a goose, he might move on twice as many squares as the number thrown.

234. Fennel. An aromatic plant.

236. Glistened in a row. Cf. The Vicar of Wakefield, IV: "Besides, as it, parlor and kitchen in one, was kept with the utmost neatness, the dishes, plates, and coppers being well scoured and all disposed in bright rows on the shelves, the eye was relieved, and did not want richer furniture."

244. The woodman's ballad. Woodman does not mean a wood-chopper, but one who knows the woods; as a hunter. The ballad was probably some song of Robin Hood.

248. The mantling bliss. Joy that included all.

250. Shall kiss the cup. To touch the cup with the lips before drinking. Cf. Scott's Marmion, V, 12:

"The bride kissed the goblet: the knight took it up,

He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup."

259. Pomp. The word has here its first meaning of procession. From the Greek pempos.

264. The heart distrusting asks if this be joy. Considered by some critics as the most beautiful line in the poem.

267-268. Cf. the following from The Citizen of the World: "There is a wide difference between a conquering and a flourishing empire."

287. Female. This word was a common word for woman in the eighteenth century.

Plain. Simple and retiring.

288. Secure to please, Confident of pleasing.

line 145.

See note on

290. Solicitous to bless. By bestowing her hand in marriage. See note on line 145.

298. Vistas. The view through the trees.

316. Artist. In Goldsmith's time the term was applied to workmen engaged in the mechanic arts.

322. Chariots. Carriages.

Torches. Before the introduction of stationary street lamps, people of fashion in London were attended by link-boys, or boys with torches.

330. Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn. Beautiful, poetic imagination, typical of the romantic school.

343-358. Through torrid tracts, etc. Goldsmith did not have a very definite notion of America. He here refers to the colony of Georgia, founded in 1732 by General Oglethorpe. At the time the poem was written, the General was inviting many distressed debtors in England to seek homes in his colony.

344. The Altama is the Altamaha River, one of the boundaries of Georgia.

355. Crouching tigers. As far as locality is concerned, Goldsmith's ideas of natural history are not clear. Possibly here he meant the jaguar or the puma.

368. Seats. Homes; from the Latin sedes.

398. I see, etc. Goldsmith pictures an emigrant band departing for America. The figure is known as "vision."

400. Flaps. A very effective onomatopoetic word.

411. Dear charming nymph. Poetry, personified as a mythological divinity.

418. Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side. The River Torno, or Tornea, is on the boundary line between Sweden and Russia. Pambamarca is a mountain in Ecuador, near Quito. Goldsmith thus expresses a wish that the influence of poetry may extend over the whole world.

427-430. These lines are heavy and rhetorical in the manner of the classical school. They were written by Dr. Johnson, who thought that the poem did not end with enough force. See Boswell's Life of Johnson: "Dr. Johnson favored me at the same time by marking the lines which he furnished to Goldsmith's Deserted Village, which are only the last four."

QUESTIONS

THE TRAVELLER

1. What is the general plan of the poem ?

2. Contrast the poet's restless life with the quiet life of his brother Henry.

3. What does the poet's wish for a spot of real happiness show of his character?

4. Discuss the claims made by the dwellers in each region.
5. What is the patriot's boast, and why is it questioned?
6. How is the truth of the matter tested?

7. Interpret what the poet sees in Italy, ll. 105-164; in Switzerland, ll. 165-238; in France, ll. 239-280; in Holland, 11. 281-316 in Britain, ll. 317-334.

8. Why does no one land offer complete happiness?

9. Where, according to the poet, is true happiness and contentment to be found?

10. What do you consider the most beautiful passage in the poem in thought? In expression?

THE DESERTED VILLAGE

II. Contrast Auburn when it was the "loveliest village of the plain" with the later Auburn, in regard to its appearance and the condition of the people.

12. Why does the poet praise the rural sports?

13. What does the poet consider the cause of the changes he laments?

14. Show how the contrast presented by happy Auburn and desolate Auburn is extended to the country of England.

15. What insight into the poet's character do you get from his opinion of the influence of wealth?