Was Oliver Goldsmith colour-blind?

206 Pages·07.47 MB·English

by  MacLennan, Munro

WAS OLIVER GOLDSMITH COLOUR-BLIND?
by J. Munro MacLennan.
Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts
of the University of Ottawa in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
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Ottawa, Canada, 1951
UMI Number: DC53650
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mr. Peter Mclntyre, Assistant Editor of Chambers's
Journal, Edinburgh, Scotland, searched nineteenth-century
files of that magazine in an attempt to locate the anec
dote about the parson who appeared in church in a scarlet
hunting jacket, referred to in the Introduction.
Dr. W. D. Wright, of the Imperial College of
Science and Technology, London, England, wrote the letter
reproduced herein as Appendix IV in answer to questions
regarding colour-blindness and the possibility of Gold
smith's having acquired the defect as a consequence of
smallpox.
The assistance given by these gentlemen is grate
fully acknowledged.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
INTRODUCTION v
I .- COLOUR-BLINDNESS .' 1
I I .- BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 14
I I I .- COLOUR CLASSIFICATION 22
IV.- GOLDSMITH'S WRITINGS 27
V.- COLOUR REFERENCES - BLUE 32-
VI.- COLOUR REFERENCES - GREEN 41 ,
VII.- COLOUR REFERENCES - YELLOW 48
VIII.- COLOUR REFERENCES - RED 55
IX.- COLOUR REFERENCES - WHITE 73
X.- COLOUR REFERENCES - BLACK 84
XI.- COLOUR REFERENCES - GREY 95
XII.- COLOUR REFERENCES - BROWN 99
XIII.- MISCELLANEOUS REFERENCES 116
XIV.- "HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND ANLtfATED NATURE" 142
XV.- GOLDSMITH'S TYPE OF COLOUR VISION . . .. 153
XVI.- LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE 160
BIBLIOGRAPHY 173
TABLE OF CONTENTS iv
Appendix Page
I.- EARLY RECORDS OF COLOUR-BLINDNESS . . .. 175
II.- LIST OF WORKS EXAMINED 179
III.- EXTRACTS FROM THE LEDGER OF WILLIAM FILBY,
TAILOR, AT THE SIGN OF THE HARROW IN
WATER-LANE 180
IV.- CORRESPONDENCE 183
V.- GOLDSMITH'S ACCOUNT OF RAINBOWS 185
VI.- ABSTRACT OF fes Oliver Goldsmith Colour
blind? I87
INDEX I89
INTRODUCTION
The theory that Oliver Goldsmith may have been
colour-blind first suggested itself to the present writer
in January, 1951 > as a possible explanation of an incident
which affected Goldsmith's entire subsequent career. As
a young man, Goldsmith — after one or two other false
starts — made an attempt to take holy orders, but on pre
senting himself for examination he was summarily rejected
by the bishop who interviewed him. Of this event his
biographer Forster writes:
His sister says that his youth was the objection;
while it was a tradition "in the diocese" that either
i-r. Theaker Wilder had given the bishop an exaggerated
report of his college irregularities, or (which is
more likely, and indeed is the only reasonable account
of the affair) that he'had neglected the preliminary
professional studies. Doctor Strean on the other hand
fully believed, from rumours he picked up, that "Lr.
I*oll s" offence was the having presented himself before
his right reverence in scarlet breeches; and certainly
if this last reason be the true one, it is our first
ominous experience of the misplaced personal finery
whicl' will find reiterated mention in this veritable
history!.
The parenthetical remark in the first sentence of
the above quotation shows that Forster was at first inclined
to reject the "scarlet breeches" story, but at the end of
the paragraph we see that he was not quite so sure. Subse
quent biographers refer to the story with caution, if not
1 John Forster, The Life and Times of Oliver Gold
smith, London, Bradbury and .Cvans, 1854~ vol. .1, pp. 43-44.
INTRODUCTION vi
with scepticism. Some consider it a pure invention, tagged
upon a man whose eccentricities made him vulnerable to the
creators of fantastic legends; others hold, with Forster,
that it was an example of the lack of savoir-faire and of
judgment which was only too evident in later life; others
suspect that Goldsmith actually shrank from the prospect of
a clerical career, and (consciously or unconsciously) tried
to fail in the test.
None of these explanations seems to be entirely
satisfactory. As an invention, the story would be rather
far-fetched; and Forster says that it was "fully believed"
by the first definite person to whom it is credited. The
second theory overlooks the fact that Goldsmith had been
born and brought up in a parson's family, making it very
improbable that he would commit such a blunder through
ignorance or neglect of clerical conventions. The third
suggestion is untenable in view of the long period of
study and preparation which had preceded the test, of
Goldsmith's high regard for the clerical profession (evi
dent in The Deserted Village and The Vicar of "wakefield),
and of the industry and versatility which he showed in his
almost life-long struggle with poverty: he certainly
undertook tasks (such as those of school usher and book
seller's hack) which must have been far more irksome to
an imaginative, sensitive spirit than would be the quiet
life of a rural parson.
INTRODUCTION vii
The present writer, on reading the story of the
scarlet breeches, was struck by its similarity to an anec
dote which he had read many years before in an article on
the subject of colour-blindness. It was there related that
an English parson scandalised his congregation by appearing
at the morning service in a scarlet fox-hunting jacket, and
was puzzled by the objections raised to what he thought was
2
a proper garment of clerical black . The suggestion that
Goldsmith was colour-blind, and that he really thought him
self suitably attired for his interview with the bishop,
immediately presented itself as a much more logical explan
ation of his blunder than any that had been previously
offered.
This paper is an attempt, if not to solve the ques
tion "Was Goldsmith colour-blind?", at least to discover
what light can be thrown upon it. The remoteness of the
period of Goldsmith's life (1728-1774) makes it improbable
that the question can ever be answered with absolute cer
tainty, -fe have, however, a large volume of material in
Goldsmith's writings and in references to him by his con
temporaries which may be sifted in the hope of finding
scraps of evidence which, individually or pieced together,
2 This anecdote is thought to have appeared in an
issue of Chambers' Journal dated about 1870. but has not
been again located. TTie editor of Chambers Journal kindly
searched his files of the period, but was unable to trace
the anecdote.
INTRODUCTION VI 11
will indicate whether the theory of his colour-blindness
is well-founded or otherwise.
If Goldsmith was really colour-blind, the import
ance of proving the fact would not be confined to the
explanation of a single incident in his youth. Colour
blindness might be shown to have a bearing on many features
of his life which have puzzled biographers and critics.
It might throw light on the paradox which was summed up by
Garrick in the well-known description of 'Noll, who wrote
like an angel and talked like poor Poll." It would without
doubt influence his poetic language and imagery, his mode
of expression, and his descriptions of things observed by him.
The phenomenon of colour-blindness is familiar to
us to-day, and has been studied by workers in both optics
and physiology- A subsequent chapter of this paper will
be devoted to a discussion of modern knowledge of the sub
ject as it affects our present problem. It is important
to remember that, although colour-blind individuals have
probably existed in every generation of the human race,
the defect was not generally recognised until the chemist
Dalton, who himself was a sufferer, investigated and des
cribed his own peculiarities of vision about t?i/enty years
after Goldsmith's death. This fact explains why no refer
ence to Goldsmith's colour-blindness (if it existed) is
found in tie writings of himself or of ris contemporaries,
INTUOJJUCTIUIM ix
and why his biographers and critics, basing their work on
that source material, appear never to have suspected that
he was colour-blind.
fhe present research project is both impeded and
assisted by the considerations noted in the preceding
paragraph. It is impeded because, since the problem is
here formulated for the first time, no previous research
has been done in the field; there are therefore no books
of reference to which the research worker can turn for
the data and conclusions of his predecessors, for a survey
of ground already covered, for a warning against blind
alleys which may exist, or even for a hint whether the
whole project is likely to be of any value. Methods of
examining the material available, of collecting and ana
lysing data, and of deriving conclusions have to be
devised independently.
On the other hand, the fact that colour-blindness
-as first described only after Goldsmith's death assists
the project, because it assures that a virgin field is
being entered. Any relevant allusions by Goldsmith or
others can be taken at face value, since they could not
have been affected by preconceived ideas. Any discovered
indication that Goldsmith knew of the existence of colour
blindness will be strong evidence that his knowledge ca^e
from personal experience, because he could not draw upon