c;ou>sriiMll>T 



GOLDSMITH 



2S7 



intimate connection with companies of actors, for 

 win m he wrote various comedies, until in 1740 

 In- settled iii Venice. Then for twenty years he 

 iMim-ed forth comedy after comedy. In 1761 

 IK- made an engagement for two years to write 

 fur the Italian theatre in Paris, and for that 

 purpose moxed to the French capital. On the 

 conclusion of this engagement he waH appointed 

 ler of Italian to the daughters of Louis 

 \\ . , and remained attached to the court until 

 the Revolution. He died 6th February 1793. 

 Cold. mi'.- comedies, more than 120 in nuinher, 

 some uf the best of which are the VilUggttxtura 

 trilogy, l.ocandiera, Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, Belinda 

 -A//-/*, I'i'iitdi/iio, La Bottega di (Jaffe, and 

 liiuiui I'i-iit/<iite, were for the most part put 

 together too rapidly and too roughly to be 

 adjudged first-rate. But, though they seldom 

 touch more than the external and superficial 

 aspect- of life and society, they are marked by 

 consideraMe skill in character-sketching, by faith- 

 ful representation of contemporary manners, lively 

 dialogue, and cleverness in the invention of comic 

 >it nation*. Coldoni wrote Memoi res of his own life 

 1 1 7s7), and published at Venice in 1788-89 the first 

 collected edition of his own works in 44 vols. (3d 

 ed. Florence, 53 vols. 1827). His correspondence 

 has been edited by Masi (1880) and Mantovani 

 ( 1884 ). See Lives by Molmenti ( 1879 ) and Galanti 

 (2d ed. 1883), and Vernon Lee, Studies of the 

 Ei'thtcenth Century in Italy ( 1880). 



Goldsclunidt, MADAME (JENNY LIND), a 

 celebrated Swedish singer, was born of humble 

 parentage at Stockholm, October 6, 1820. Her 

 musical gifts were apparent from her third year, 

 and at nine she was admitted to the school of 

 singing attached to the court theatre, where she 

 received lessons of Berg and others. She sang before 

 the court with success, and at eighteen appeared 

 in the r6le of Agatha in Der Freischiitz, Alice in 

 Robert le Diable, &c. , and soon became the prin- 

 cipal support of the royal theatre. In June 1841 

 she went to Paris to receive lessons from Garcia. 

 Meyerbeer, who heard her at this time, prophesied 

 a brilliant future for Jenny Lind. Her voice 

 was tested with success in private in the Grand 

 Opera, and erroneous rumours of failure were 

 current. She had already been engaged for the 

 Stockholm Opera (1842). In 1844 she went 

 to Berlin, and for a time studied German ; re- 

 turning to Stockholm, she was heard with en- 

 thusiasm in Robert le Diable, and at the instance 

 of Meyerbeer was engaged at Berlin in October, 

 appearing in Nunna and Meyerbeer's operas. In 

 is Hi she visited Vienna, in 1847 London. Prices 

 at Her Majesty's rose to a fabulous height, and 

 4 the town, says Chorley, ' sacred and profane, 

 went mad about the Swedish Nightingale.' Her 

 voice at this time has lieen described as a soprano 

 of bright, thrilling, and remarkable sympathetic 

 quality, with wonderfully developed length of 

 breath, and perfection of execution. She could sing 

 up to high U in rich, full tones, and even touch 

 higher notes ; she literally warbled like a bird ; and 

 especially striking was her rendering of the weird 

 Swedish melodies. Her return visit to London in 

 1848 was an immense triumph ; and in London, 

 on 18th May 1849, she sang on the stage for the 

 last time in Roberto; henceforth ler appearances 

 were confined to the concert-room. Her share of the 

 profits of a brilliant concert tour in America under 

 Barnum's management ( 1840 .">_' ,. amounting to 

 35,000, wius more than spent afterwards in found- 

 ing and endowing musical scholarships and charities 

 in ner native country. In lsr>l she was married at 

 Boston to Otto Coldschmidt, a native of Hamburg, 

 her pianist. Returning to Kurope, she continued 

 .to sing at concerts and in oratorios, as in London 



(1856), and for the la-t time at Duwjeldorf (1870). 

 Her English charities included the gift of a hoxpital 

 to Liverpool and of the wing of another to London. 

 Sin- founded the Mendelssohn scholarship, and her 

 interest in the Bach Choir, of which her husband 

 wan conductor, was shown by her careful training 

 of tlie female chorus. Her voice retained its sweet- 

 ness to the last, although she did not care to sing 

 much even in the semi-privacy of a crowded draw- 

 ing-room. But from 1883 till 1886 she was pro- 

 fessor of Singing at the Royal College of Music. 

 Slie died near Malvem, November 2, 1887. Her 

 moral character was elevated and deeply religious ; 

 and ' her smile,' said Bishop Stanley of Norwich, 

 ' is, with the exception of Dr Pusey's, the most 

 heavenly I ever beheld.' 



or GOLUFINNY(Oe<'/a/yrM* rnelopv), 

 also called the Cork- wing, a small fish of the Wrasse 

 family (Labridte), common on British coasts. Like 

 other members of its family, it haunts the neigh- 

 bourhood of rocks, feeding on crustaceans, molluscs, 

 and the like. In colour it is more or less green or 

 yellow, darker above, striped along the sides, with 

 a dark spot on the tail. Like young wrasse, but 

 unlike the adults, it has a serrated bone (preoper- 

 culum) on the side of its gill-cover. 



Goldsmith* OLIVER, was born at Pallas, in 

 Longford, Ireland, on the 10th November 1728, his 

 father, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, a clergyman of 

 the established church, being at that time curate 

 to the rector of Kilkenny West. When six years 

 old Goldsmith was placed under Thomas Byrne, 

 the schoolmaster described in the Deserted Vwagt. 

 After an attack of smallpox, he went successively 

 to various local schools, ultimately entering Trinity 

 College, Dublin, as a ' sizar,' or poor scholar, on the 

 11 th June 1744. As yet he had shown no excep- 

 tional ability, nor did he show any at the university. 

 His tutor was rough and unsympathetic ; he him- 

 self was pleasure-loving and poor. His father died, 

 and his circumstances grew worse. In 1747 he was 

 involved in a college riot, and, escaping from the 

 consequences of this only to fall into further <lis- 

 graces, finally ran away from his Alma Mater. 

 Matters being patched up by his elder brother, he 

 returned, taking his B.A. degree, 27th February 

 1749. His uncle, the Rev. Mr Contarine, now his 

 chief friend, wished him to qualify for orders, but he 

 was rejected by the bishop of Elphin. Thereupon 

 he made a false start for America. Getting no 

 farther than Cork, he was next equipped with 

 50 to study law in London. This disappeared 

 at a Dublin gaming-table. In 1752 he started for 

 Scotland to study physic. Reaching Edinburgh, he 

 stayed there nearly two years, leaving, however, 

 behind him more legends of his social gifts than his 

 professional acquirements. From Edinburgh he 

 drifted to Leyden, again lost at play what little 

 money he had, and finally set out to make the 

 ' grand tour ' on foot. Alter wandering through 

 Flanders, France, Germany, and Italy, and obtain- 

 ing, either at Louvain or Padua, a dubious degree 

 as M.B., he returned to England in February 1756, 

 with a few halfpence in his pockets. It is thought 

 he tried strolling ; it is certain that he was assistant 

 to an apothecary. Then, with the aid of an Edin- 

 burgh friend, he practised as a poor physician in 

 Southwark a profession which he speedily quitted 

 for that of proof-reader to Richardson, in turn 

 abandoning this to 1 > usher in Dr Milner's ' classical 

 academy ' at Peckham. At Dr Milner's he became 

 acquainted with Griffiths, the proprietor of the 

 Monthly Renew, who engaged him as author-of-all- 

 work. His bondage to Griffiths lasted only a few 

 months. His next mode of subsistence is obscure. 

 but in February 1758 appeared his first definite 

 work, a translation in two volumes of the Memoirs 



