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)
“How happy he who crowns in shades like these,
A youth of labour with an age of ease.”
Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 99.
Oliver Goldsmith buch The Vicar of Wakefield
Quelle: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 8, The Hermit (Edwin and Angelina), st. 1.
“For just experience tells; in every soil,
That those that think must govern those that toil.”
Quelle: The Traveller (1764), Line 371.
“The first blow is half the battle.”
Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act II
Quelle: Retaliation (1774), Line 145.
Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 227.
Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act II
“Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.”
Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 179.
“All his faults are such that one loves him still the better for them.”
Act I.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)
“Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind.”
Quelle: The Traveller (1764), Line 423.
“The twelve good rules, the royal game of goose.”
Oliver Goldsmith The Deserted Village
Quelle: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 232.
Verses in reply to an invitation to dine at Dr. Baker's.
