Oliver Goldsmith war ein irischer Schriftsteller und Arzt, der für seinen Roman Der Pfarrer von Wakefield , sein pastorales Gedicht The Deserted Village und seine Stücke The Good-natur'd Man und She Stoops to Conquer bekannt ist. Unter dem Einfluss von Buffon verfasste er eine umfangreiche Naturgeschichte: A History of the Earth and Animated Nature, die postum 1774 erschien und bis Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts mehrere Auflagen erfuhr. Das achtbändige Werk erlangte in England eine ähnliche Popularität wie Brehms Tierleben als „der Brehm“ in Deutschland. Wikipedia
„Eine Tugend, die immer beschützt werden muss, ist nicht die Schildwache wert.“
Der Landprediger zu Wakefield, übersetzt von W.A. Lindau, Dresden 1825, S. 52 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=ve0Glvb-mj4C&pg=PA52&dq=schildwache "That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel." - The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) ch. 5
„Gesetze schinden die Armen, und die Reichen beherrschen die Gesetze.“
Der Wanderer
"Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law." - s:The Traveller, or, A Prospect of Society (1765)
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 8, The Hermit (Edwin and Angelina), st. 6-7.
“It seemed to be pretty plain, that they had more of love than matrimony in them.”
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 16.
“The king himself has followed her
When she has walk'd before.”
Elegy on Mrs. Mary Blaize, st. 5.
The Bee (1759)
“This same philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an arrant jade on a journey.”
Act I.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)
“Baw! Damme, but I'll fight you both, one after the other!
With baskets.”
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act IV
“Man wants but little here below,
Nor wants that little long.”
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 8, The Hermit (Edwin and Angelina), st. 8.
“I'll be with you in the squeezing of a lemon.”
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act I
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 17, An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, st. 3.
“On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting;
'Twas only that when he was off he was acting.”
Quelle: Retaliation (1774), Line 101.
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 8, The Hermit (Edwin and Angelina), st. 19.
“The sigh that rends thy constant heart
Shall break thy Edwin's too.”
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 8, The Hermit (Edwin and Angelina), st. 33.
Act II.
The Captivity, An Oratorio (1764)
“They liked the book the better the more it made them cry.”
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act II
“Her modest looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn.”
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 329.
“And, ev'n while fashion's brightest arts decoy,
The heart distrusting asks, if this be joy.”
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 263.
“The man recovered of the bite,
The dog it was that died.”
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 17, An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog, st. 8.
“To me more dear, congenial to my heart,
One native charm, than all the gloss of art.”
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 253.
