he afterwards studied law
and was called to the English bar in 1762. He made a translation of
Tacitus, and wrote several farces and comedies, among which may be
mentioned _The Apprentice; The Spouter; The Upholsterer; The Way to
Keep Him_; and _All in the Wrong_. He also wrote three tragedies,
namely, _The Orphan of China; The Grecian Daughter_; and _Arminius_.
For the last-named, which was produced in 1798, and which had a
strongly political cast, he received a pension of L200 a year. His
plays long held the stage.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), essayist, poet, novelist, playwright,
historian, biographer, and editor, was a many-sided genius, who, as
Johnson said in his epitaph, left scarcely any kind of writing
untouched, and touched none that he did not adorn. Born, probably, in
Co. Longford, the son of a poor clergyman, he was educated at various
country schools until, in 1744, he secured a sizarship in Trinity
College, Dublin. There he had a somewhat stormy career, but
eventually took his degree in 1749. He then lounged at home for a
while in his widowed mother's cottage at Ballymahon, until he was
persuaded to take orders, but spoiled his already sufficiently poor
chances of ordination by appearing before the bishop of Elphin in
scarlet breeches. After other adventures in search of a profession,
he went to Edinburgh in 1752 to study medicine, and two years later
transferred himself to Leyden for the same purpose. It was from
Leyden that, with one guinea in his pocket, one shirt on his person,
and a flute in his hand, he started on his celebrated walking tour of
Europe, during which he gained those impressions which he was
afterwards to embody in some of his greater works. In 1756 he arrived
in England, where for three years he had very varied experiences--as
a strolling player, an apothecary's journeyman, a practising
physician, a reader for the press, an usher in an academy, and a
hack-writer. In 1759 he published anonymously his _Enquiry into the
Present State of Polite Learning in Europe_, which was well received
and helped him to other literary work. _The Bee_, a volume of essays
and verses, appeared in the same year. He was made editor of the
_Lady's Magazine_; he published _Memoirs of Voltaire_ (1761), a
_History of Mecklenburgh_ (1762), and a _Life of Richard Nash_
(1762). In 1762 also he brought out his _Citizen of the World_, a
collection of essays, which takes an extremely high rank. In 1764 his
poem, _