Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/185

 GOLDSMITH. 181 and struggled for the remainder of his life, in sickness and want, from which he was relieved by death, on the 21st of December, 1784. He wrote and altered fifteen dramatic pieces, none of which are now remembered, or had originally much suc cess. He was the author also of “Characters,” an epistle, published in 4to, in 1766; and “Royal Fables,” in 8vo. both poetical productions of very considerable merit; but his best performance is the “Dramatic Censor,” in two vols. 8vo. published in 1770, in which he criticises about fifty of the principal acting plays, with both impartiality and judgment, and he likewise had the discredit of being editor of the worst edition of “Shakspeare's plays,” that ever obtruded itself on the public eye". OLIVER GOLDSMITH, A poet, whom truth and nature seemed to have in spired, a miscellaneous writer of great taste, and an histo rian of no mean celebrity, was born November 29th, 1728, in the obscure village of Pallice, situated on the northern banks of the new ferry, in the parish of Fores, county of Longford. Dr. Goldsmith's family had been long settled in Ireland, and one branch of i t, Dr. Isaac Goldsmith, was dean o f Cork about the year 1730. The poet's father, was the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a native o f the county o f Roscommon; h e was a clergyman o f the establish ment, and was educated a t Dublin College. He resided a t Pallice a t the time his son Oliver was born, and after wards held the living o f Kilkenny-West, i n the county o f Westmeath, and from thence was promoted t o a bene fice i n the county o f Roscommon. By his wife Anne, the daughter o f the Rev. Oliver Jones, master o f the diocesan school o f Elphin, h e had five sons and two daughters; Henry, his eldest son, went into the church, and i s the gentleman t o whom our poet dedicated his Published b y Bell i n 1774 and 1775.