92 results
485 Investigating the Impact of Inflammation on White Matter Tracts using Diffusion Tensor Imaging that may Contribute to Motivational Deficits and Negative Symptoms in Patients with Schizophrenia
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- Nicholas Thomas, Courtney Ning, Robin E Gross, Tianwen Ma, Ebrahim Haroon, David R Goldsmith
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 8 / Issue s1 / April 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 April 2024, p. 143
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OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Previous research has linked inflammation to changes in brain reward circuitry and subsequent negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. This project aims to understand brain-immune interactions using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate the impact of inflammatory markers on white matter (WM) tracts. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Patients with schizophrenia, ages 18 to 45, were recruited at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, GA. All subjects were stable outpatients and underwent extensive medical screening to rule out medical causes of acute inflammation. DTI data was collected from 39 participants on a 3-Tesla Siemens scanner. Blood was collected between 9-11AM for later assay of serum inflammatory markers. Negative symptoms were assessed using the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS). A diffusion tensor imaging model will be fitted with the data to generate well-known diffusion tensor measures (fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity). Linear regression will be used to analyze the relationship between DTI measures and inflammation (C-Reactive Protein, CRP), controlling for possible confounders. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The hypothesis of this proposal is that decreased microstructural integrity in WM tracts between the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and insula will be associated with increased inflammation, which in turn are associated with increased negative symptoms. Negative symptoms include deficits in motivation/pleasure as well as diminished expressivity, and are strongly associated with poor functional outcomes. Based on previous data from this sample demonstrating relationships between CRP and negative symptoms as well as CRP and fMRI functional connectivity between the NAc and insula, we anticipate results that demonstrate similar relationships with WM microstructural integrity, such as functional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Given the lack of treatment options for negative symptoms, this research will provide key data to further our understanding of the potential role of inflammation on neural circuits that underlie these symptoms, including WM integrity. This research also has the potential to inform future anti-inflammatory therapies for patients with schizophrenia.
Short-stay crisis units for mental health patients on crisis care pathways: systematic review and meta-analysis
- Katie Anderson, Lucy P. Goldsmith, Jo Lomani, Zena Ali, Geraldine Clarke, Chloe Crowe, Heather Jarman, Sonia Johnson, David McDaid, Paris Pariza, A-La Park, Jared A. Smith, Elizabeth Stovold, Kati Turner, Steve Gillard
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- Journal:
- BJPsych Open / Volume 8 / Issue 4 / July 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 July 2022, e144
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Background
Internationally, an increasing proportion of emergency department visits are mental health related. Concurrently, psychiatric wards are often occupied above capacity. Healthcare providers have introduced short-stay, hospital-based crisis units offering a therapeutic space for stabilisation, assessment and appropriate referral. Research lags behind roll-out, and a review of the evidence is urgently needed to inform policy and further introduction of similar units.
AimsThis systematic review aims to evaluate the effectiveness of short-stay, hospital-based mental health crisis units.
MethodWe searched EMBASE, Medline, CINAHL and PsycINFO up to March 2021. All designs incorporating a control or comparison group were eligible for inclusion, and all effect estimates with a comparison group were extracted and combined meta-analytically where appropriate. We assessed study risk of bias with Risk of Bias in Non-Randomized Studies – of Interventions and Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials.
ResultsData from twelve studies across six countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, UK and USA) and 67 505 participants were included. Data indicated that units delivered benefits on many outcomes. Units could reduce psychiatric holds (42% after intervention compared with 49.8% before intervention; difference = 7.8%; P < 0.0001) and increase out-patient follow-up care (χ2 = 37.42, d.f. = 1; P < 0.001). Meta-analysis indicated a significant reduction in length of emergency department stay (by 164.24 min; 95% CI −261.24 to −67.23 min; P < 0.001) and number of in-patient admissions (odds ratio 0.55, 95% CI 0.43–0.68; P < 0.001).
ConclusionsShort-stay mental health crisis units are effective for reducing emergency department wait times and in-patient admissions. Further research should investigate the impact of units on patient experience, and clinical and social outcomes.
2329 Associations between inflammatory markers and negative symptoms in individuals with schizophrenia: Converging evidence
- David Goldsmith, Robert Cotes, Brian J. Miller, Michael T. Treadway, Elaine F. Walker, Andrew H. Miller
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- Journal:
- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 2 / Issue S1 / June 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 November 2018, p. 4
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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia, including motivational deficits, social withdrawal, poverty of speech, decreased emotional reactivity, and psychomotor retardation, have been shown to be most predictive of functional impairment and poor outcome in patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, these symptoms tend not to be responsive to antipsychotic medications. Inflammation could be one mechanism underlying these difficult to treat symptoms. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Three cohorts of patients, reflecting different phases of disease, were studied. One cohort was comprised of a sample of patients with deficit schizophrenia (characterized by primary and enduring negative symptoms; n=17), nondeficit patients (n=39), and healthy controls (n=28). ANOVA and multivariate general linear models were used to compare groups, and linear regression models were used to examine relationships between inflammatory cytokines and negative symptoms. The second cohort was comprised of 80 individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis from the North American Prodromal Longitudinal Study. Linear regression models examined the relationship between baseline inflammatory markers and subsequent negative symptoms at follow-up visits up to 2 years. The third cohort consisted of patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) on clozapine (n=10). Correlations were performed to examine relationships between inflammatory markers and negative symptoms. In a subgroup of patients from this third sample, resting state functional connectivity analyses were performed on fMRI data to explore relationships between inflammatory markers and connectivity in brain reward circuitry. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: In a sample of patients with the deficit syndrome of schizophrenia (n=17), a subtype of the disorder characterized by primary and enduring negative Symptoms, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) was significantly increased relative to nondeficit patients (n=39) and healthy controls (n=28; F2,57=3.51, p=0.036), and predicted total negative symptoms (β=0.31, p=0.012), alogia (β=0.30, p=0.024), and blunted affect (β=0.31, p=0.018) items of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale in linear regression models while controlling for antipsychotics. In another sample of individuals at clinical-high risk for psychosis (n=80), baseline concentrations of TNF significantly predicted negative symptoms, including anhedonia, apathy, and loss of interest in linear regression models, at the 6-month (β=0.25, p=0.011) and 12-month follow-up (β=0.39, p=0.001). Interleukin (IL)-1 receptor antagonist also predicted these symptoms at the 6-month follow-up (β=0.21, p=0.037). In a third sample (n=10) of patients with TRS treated with clozapine, IL-1β was correlated with passive/apathetic social withdrawal (r=0.657, p=0.039) and disturbance of volition (r=0.686, p=0.029) items of the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and the global avolition-apathy scores of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (r=0.751, p=0.012). Finally, in a small subsample (n=5) of patients from this TRS cohort for whom we collected fMRI data, we found resting-state functional connectivity from a right nucleus accumbens seed to a cluster in medial prefrontal cortex. We found relationships between higher inflammation and decreased connectivity for TNF (r=−0.64) and CRP (r=−0.89). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Taken together, these preliminary data show the predicted relationship between inflammatory markers and negative symptoms and demonstrate the reproducibility of TNF and other monocytic-derived cytokines as reliably elevated in schizophrenia and associated with negative symptoms across samples of patients with schizophrenia and individuals at high risk for psychosis. Cytokines may exert their effects via their impact on brain reward circuitry, and could represent novel treatment targets for motivational deficits and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Beyond Hands On
- Incorporating Kinesthetic Learning in an Undergraduate Paleontology Class
- David W. Goldsmith
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- 30 October 2018
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- 29 November 2018
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Hands-on learning in paleontology, and geology in general, is fairly common practice. Students regularly use rocks, fossils, and data in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career, but they typically do it sitting in a chair in a lab. Kinesthetic learning is a teaching model that requires students to be physically active while learning. Students may be involved in a physical activity during class or might be using their own bodies to model some important concept. This Element briefly discusses the theory behind kinesthetic learning and how it fits into a student-centered, active-learning classroom. It then describes in detail methods for incorporating it into student exercises on biostratigraphy, assessment of sampling completeness, and modeling evolutionary processes. Assessment data demonstrates that these exercises have led to significantly improved student learning outcomes tied to these concepts.
Preparing for a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak Using a Novel Tabletop Exercise
- Eric J. Linskens, Abby E. Neu, Emily J. Walz, Kaitlyn M. St. Charles, Marie R. Culhane, Amos Ssematimba, Timothy J. Goldsmith, David A. Halvorson, Carol J. Cardona
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- Journal:
- Prehospital and Disaster Medicine / Volume 33 / Issue 6 / December 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 September 2018, pp. 640-646
- Print publication:
- December 2018
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Introduction
Foreign animal disease (FAD) outbreaks can have devastating impacts, but they occur infrequently in any specific sector anywhere in the United States (US). Training to proactively discuss implementation of control and prevention strategies are beneficial in that they provide stakeholders with the practical information and educational experience they will need to respond effectively to an FAD. Such proactive approaches are the mission of the Secure Food System (SFS; University of Minnesota; St. Paul, Minnesota USA).
MethodsThe SFS exercises were designed as educational activities based on avian influenza (AI) outbreaks in commercial poultry scenarios. These scenarios were created by subject matter experts and were based on epidemiology reports, risk pathway analyses, local industry practices, and site-specific circumstances. Target audiences of an exercise were the groups involved in FAD control: animal agriculture industry members; animal health regulators; and diagnosticians. Groups of industry participants seated together at tables represented fictional poultry premises and were guided by a moderator to respond to an on-farm situation within a simulated outbreak. The impact of SFS exercises was evaluated through interviews with randomized industry participants and selected table moderators. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses were performed on interview feedback.
ResultsEleven SFS exercises occurred from December 2016 through October 2017 in multiple regions of the US. Exercises were conducted as company-wide, state-wide, or regional trainings. Nine were based on highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks and two focused on outbreaks of co-circulating HPAI and low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI). Poultry industry participants interviewed generally found attending an SFS exercise to be useful. The most commonly identified benefits of participation were its value to people without prior outbreak experience and knowledge gained about Continuity of Business (COB)-permitted movement. After completing an exercise, most participants evaluated their preparedness to respond to an outbreak as somewhat to very ready, and more than one-half reported their respective company or farms had discussions or changed actions due to participation.
Conclusion:Evaluation feedback suggests the SFS exercises were an effective training method to supplement preparedness efforts for an AI outbreak. The concept of using multi-faceted scenarios and multiple education strategies during a tabletop exercise may be translatable to other emergency preparedness needs.
,Linskens EJ ,Neu AE ,Walz EJ ,St. Charles KM ,Culhane MR ,Ssematimba A ,Goldsmith TJ ,Halvorson DA .Cardona CJ Preparing for a Foreign Animal Disease Outbreak Using a Novel Tabletop Exercise . Prehosp Disaster Med.2018 ;33 (6 ):640 –646 .
57 - To John Nourse, [London, 26 April 1773]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 128-129
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Summary
John Nourse (bap. 1705, d. 1780), bookseller, specialized in language books, contemporary foreign literature, and scientific books. Based at the Lamb without Temple Bar, near the Strand, he would become bookseller to the Society for the Encouragement of Learning and then bookseller to the king, 1762–80. Not only was Nourse's shop an important venue for scientific discussion in London, it was an important node in the Enlightenment republic of letters; he had trade connections in Paris, The Hague and Leiden. Nourse disseminated key English texts abroad and published translations of significant European authors for British audiences – notably Voltaire. William Griffin had been forced to sell his interest in Goldsmith's History of Earth, and Animated Nature (for which he had already given £500 to Goldsmith by way of advance) to Nourse, who eventually published the eight-volume work on 1 July 1774.
Here Goldsmith is providing an aspiring author with a letter of introduction, an indication of Goldsmith's status – or, at the very least, his perceived status – among London booksellers. John Andrews (1736–1809), historian, would become best known for his History of the War with America, France, Spain, and Holland, 4 vols. (London: Printed for John Fielding and John Jarvis, 1785–6). The History of the Revolutions of Denmark, the text referred to here by Goldsmith and which Nourse published in April 1774, was his first publication. The introductory note ‘To the Reader’ observes: ‘Denmark having by the remarkable Events which happened in that Kingdom, during the Course of the last Year, attracted the Attention of all Europe, and particularly of the British Nation, from the Family Connexion subsisting between the two Crowns’ (1) makes clear that Andrews was exploiting interest in the shocking events surrounding the divorce and expulsion from Denmark of Queen Caroline Matilda – sister to George III – in 1772, events which captivated the British public. Goldsmith's interest in Andrews's book may also have been piqued by his personal recollection of King Christian VII's visit in 1768 and the masquerade for which he sought tickets for the Hornecks (see Letter 26).
23 - To George Colman, London, 19 July [1767]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 69-71
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Summary
George Colman the Elder (bap. 1732, d. 1794), playwright and theatre manager, had his greatest success with The Clandestine Marriage (Drury Lane, 1766), which he co-wrote with David Garrick. Colman then became part of Covent Garden’s management team, along with Thomas Harris, John Rutherford and William Powell, in 1767. He committed £15,000 for his share of the royal patent and seems to have taken primary responsibility for managing the theatre's day-to-day affairs. Goldsmith had initially courted David Garrick of Drury Lane to represent his first play The Good Natur’d Man which he completed in spring 1767. Garrick's reluctance and objections had inflamed Goldsmith and so he sent the manuscript to Colman: his acceptance of the piece without his partners’ acquiescence may have been a cause of dispute between them, settled in a lawsuit in Colman's favour in 1769. The letter's expression of appreciation to Colman is heartfelt, as are the bitter references to Garrick's previous equivocation. Balderston notes that Goldsmith’s finances were in a parlous state as is evidenced by the fact that he had borrowed £10 from Newbery on a promissory note on 7 July, even though he still had a note of £48, dating from 11 October 1763, still unpaid. Goldsmith had refused to subjugate himself to Garrick's wish for flattery in order to get his play accepted and he also rejected the Drury Lane manager's suggestions for improvements to the manuscript. His willingness in this letter to accede to any amendments that Colman might request betrays his eagerness to have the play performed, or might indicate a desire to spite Garrick, whatever the cost.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It was first published by Forster in 1848. It is addressed ‘To | George Colman Esqr. | Richmond.’ It is possibly postmarked 20 July although the ‘2’ is not clearly visible. The folio is also marked, in a different hand, ‘Dr Goldsmith to Colman’. Balderston notes that it was found among the papers of David Morris (1770?–1842) who gradually took over the management of the Haymarket from his brother-inlaw George Colman the Younger (1762–1836) during the 1810s.
46 - To Thomas Percy, [London, 1772‒1773]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 110-111
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Summary
Goldsmith was preparing an edition of the Spectator for an Irish publisher, William Wilson (c. 1745–1801), who was once described by Charlemont, the first president of the Royal Irish Academy, as ‘the most spirited printer in this spiritless City’. Wilson published Dublin editions of popular novels such as The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771) and Robinson Crusoe (1781) and supplied books in bulk to Marsh's Library in Dublin, Ireland's first public library. He edited the Dublin Directory 1772–1801, an important overview of Dublin's commercial activity initiated by his father, Peter, in 1751. A letter from Wilson to Goldsmith sounded him out on the idea of an Irish edition of the Spectator and asked him for his terms. Wilson did eventually publish an eight-volume edition in 1778. Prior’s list of Goldsmith's books (II: 583) also includes an eight-volume edition of the Spectator (1729).
The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Balderston in 1928. It is addressed, ‘To | The Revd Doctor Percy.’ ‘Sent’ is inserted with a caret, in a different hand and in pencil after ‘I have’ in the final sentence.
[London, 1772 or 1773]
Dear Sir
I wish you would write for me the names of such persons as have written papers in the Spectator, at the end of every paper belonging to Addison and Steel &c there are letters. There are some however which are without marks. Those names I wish to have. I have you a little book where the numbers are mark’d, to which I beg you’l add the names.
Yours ever.
Oliver Goldsmith.Ill call or send on Sunday morning, being constrain’d for time.
32 - To Sir Joshua Reynolds, [Lille, 27 July 1770]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 87-88
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Summary
Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) was an artist and art theorist who was the founding president of the Royal Academy. He also established the Club and this is where his intimacy with Goldsmith developed, the pair having first met in 1761 through their mutual friend Johnson. Reynolds, also a bachelor, was a great champion of Goldsmith throughout his career, encouraging him to practise medicine again in 1765, advocating on behalf of The Good Natur’d Man, and even making Goldsmith Professor of Ancient History at the Royal Academy, much to his friend's delight, as we can see in Letter 29 above. This faith in Goldsmith's abilities was warmly acknowledged in The Deserted Village's dedication to Reynolds, which imagined him as a surrogate brother. Reynolds also featured in Retaliation, one of Goldsmith's final poems.
This letter and the one following describe a trip to Paris taken by Goldsmith and the Horneck sisters and their mother, probably at the behest of Reynolds. They travelled to the French capital via Lille before returning to England. The trip, according to Prior, lasted six weeks in total and, despite the reasonably energetic tone of the first letter, appears to have been a failure. Money, as often, seems to have been at the heart of the difficulty. At a dinner with John Ridge, an Irish lawyer (the ‘anchovy’ of Retaliation), Goldsmith was asked for his views on such trips. He replied, more than a little bitterly, ‘I recommend it by all means to the rich if they are without the sense of smelling, and to the poor if they are without the sense of feeling’ (P, II: 297). As the following letter reveals, this letter was never sent.
The copy-text is Balderston’s; her transcription was taken from the original in the possession of Constance Meade (Percy's great-granddaughter) which was inserted in her album and not deposited at the British Library with the rest of her Goldsmith letters. Its current location is unknown. It was first published by Percy in 1801. It has no address. The letter was given by Reynolds to Boswell and then on to Thomas Percy, confirmed by a marginal note ‘Original letter of Dr. Goldsmith to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave it to me. James Boswell’.
66 - To Isaac Jackman, [London, c. March 1774]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 142-143
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Summary
Isaac Jackman (1752?–1831), Irish journalist and playwright, moved from Dublin to London for a financially advantageous marriage. After his wife died – and her annuity stopped – Jackman began to write for the stage. He had a poorly received comic opera The Milesian staged at Drury Lane in 1777 before going on to moderate success with All the World's a Stage (1777), The Divorce (1781) and a two-act burletta Hero and Leander (1787). He edited the Morning Post for a period between 1791 and 1795. Jackman may have had radical tendencies: John Thelwall sent him ‘some Songs and other writings, calculated to rouse the Nation to a sense of its rights’ in the early 1790s, presumably in his capacity as newspaper editor.
This final poignant letter speaks to an important facet of Goldsmith's life in London as a point of contact and introduction to London for many Irish migrants. William Hodson might be the most obvious example but Goldsmith's sense of responsibility to the newly arrived stretched well beyond his familial duties, as Robert Day reported to Prior. Goldsmith was an important figure of inspiration for a new generation of Irish playwrights working in London, such as John O’Keeffe (1747–1833), Leonard MacNally (1752–1820), Dennis O’Bryen (1755–1832), and indeed Jackman, whose play The Milesian featured ‘Charles Marlove’ in homage to the character in She Stoops to Conquer.
The copy-text is a photocopy of the manuscript in the British Library and has never been published. The location of the original is unknown. Our dating of the letter in March is speculative, though the year 1774 appears to have been marked on the original in another hand. It was likely written as Goldsmith was in his final illness, and as Jackman was attempting to establish himself in the theatre scene at the time by contacting the Irish author of She Stoops to Conquer.
Mr. Goldsmith presents his Compliments to Mr. Jackman, and begs his pardon for not being able to attend him this day, as he finds himself too ill to Stir abroad.
25 - To the St. James's Chronicle, London, 25 July 1767
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 73-76
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Summary
Goldsmith's letter to the St. James's Chronicle; Or, the British Evening-Post was prompted by two separate letters the newspaper had recently printed. The first was an almost apologetic correction from ‘D. H.’ in a letter printed in the issue for 12–14 May. Goldsmith had endorsed the recent publication of Blainville's Travels through Holland, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, 3 vols. (London: J. Johnson, B. Davenport and T. Cadell, 1767). The various advertisements for this work claimed that it had never been published, a claim that was exposed as spurious by the letter-writer. ‘D. H.’ had ‘too much Respect for Dr. Goldsmith to suffer him to authorise so pitiful an Artifice’. The various advertisements for Blainville's Travels in the St. James's Chronicle and other newspapers do not, however, contain any reference to Goldsmith so it is not clear how his endorsement was publicized. In any event, Goldsmith owns up to his error in his letter and is happy to concede his mistake.
The second, more serious accusation, was an anonymous letter, often attributed to William Kenrick, in its issue for 18–21 July 1767. Kenrick had replaced Goldsmith as chief reviewer for the Monthly Review and had written a caustic review of Goldsmith's An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning (1759), probably at the instigation of Ralph Griffiths, the proprietor. ‘DETECTOR’ accuses Goldsmith of plagiarism: the substance of his claim is that Goldsmith’s poem ‘Edwin and Angelina’ was inappropriately derived from a ballad in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). The letter is reproduced here:
To the Printer of the ST. J. CHRONICLE.
SIR,
IN the Reliques of antient Poetry published about two Years ago, is a very beautiful little Ballad called “A Frier of Orders Grey.” The ingenious Editor Mr. Piercy supposes that the Stanzas sung by Ophelia in the Play of Hamlet, were Parts of some Ballad well known in Shakespeare's Time, and from these Stanzas, with the Addition of one or two of his own to connect them, he has formed the above-mentioned Ballad; the Subject of which is, a Lady comes to a Convent to enquire for her Love–, who had been driven there by her Disdain. She is answered by a Frier that he is dead.
37 - To Bennet Langton, London, 4 September 1771
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 97-100
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Summary
Bennet Langton (bap. 1736–1801) became friendly with Johnson due to his great admiration for the Rambler. He was also a close friend of Topham Beauclerk. Langton was an original member of the Club and also rose to the rank of major in the Lincolnshire militia. In 1770 he married Mary Lloyd (1743–1820), the widow of John Leslie, Earl of Rothes (1698?–1767) and the Lady Rothes referred to in the letter. A well-regarded Greek scholar despite an acute lack of publications, he succeeded Johnson as Professor of Ancient Literature at the Royal Academy in 1788. In this letter Goldsmith declined an invitation to visit Langton and his wife at their home in Lincolnshire. It is also the first time Goldsmith alludes to his comic masterpiece, She Stoops to Conquer. Langton's letter of invitation (also in the British Library) is given in full here:
My dear Sir,
You was so kind, when I had the Pleasure of seeing you in Town, as to speak of having Thoughts of giving me your Company here. I wish very much you would put your kind intention in Execution, in which Lady Rothes, who desires Her best Compliments, very sincerely concurs with me—it was, if you remember, at Joshua Reynolds's that we talked of this, who gave me Hopes too of Letting us see Him. I would have wrote to Him likewise to request that Favour, but in the Papers it was said that he went to France some time ago, and I do not know whether he is yet returned; if He is, and You have an opportunity of seeing Him, will You be so kind as to mention what I have said, and how much we wish for the Pleasure of His Company—I have sent for the History of England, but have not yet receivd it—some short extracts yt. I have already seen have entertained me much. Let me have the Pleasure of hearing from you, Dear Sir, as soon as you conveniently can after you receive this, and then, if you are so good as to say you are coming, I will immediately write you word of the particulars of the Road to this place and Means of conveyance &c—Will you give me Leave to ask in what Forwardness is the Natural History, or whether you are about any other Work that you chuse as yet to speak of? I hope Poetry takes up some of Your attention—tout I will intrude upon you no longer than to say that I am, Dear Sir, with great Respect and Regard
Your obedient humble Servant
Bennet Langton.
8 - To Edward Mills, London, 7 August [1758]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 25-28
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Summary
Edward Mills was Goldsmith's cousin, the son of Charles Goldsmith's sister. Mills did not respond in any way to Goldsmith's request, as the later letter to Henry Goldsmith shows. This letter is introduced with thoughts upon what would become a quintessentially Goldsmithian opposition of ambition and domestic contentment. Mills, it seems, had forsaken a career at the bar in Dublin – or, more probably and profitably, London – and there is a little needling, possibly, in Goldsmith’s imagining his cousin's lost glories as enhancing his own. Mills has chosen instead his own smaller circle of acquaintance, the ‘cultivation of his paternal acres’. There is an awkwardness of tone in this letter as Goldsmith tries to establish, or re-establish, a connection with Mills only to set up his own request that Mills help to collect Irish subscriptions for Goldsmith's forthcoming Enquiry into the Present state of Polite Learning in Europe, which would be published anonymously in April 1759. Dated 7 August, this is the first letter of a series which Goldsmith wrote to relatives and friends in Ireland seeking such subscriptions in order to preempt Irish piracy.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Percy in 1801. It is addressed ‘To Edward Mills Esqr. | near | Roscommon | Ireland’ and postmarked 17 August. The bracketed portions, worn away in the manuscript, are supplied by Percy, except where otherwise noted.
Dr Sr.
You have quitted, I find, that plan of life which you once Intended to pursue, and given up ambition for domestic tranquillity: Were I to consult your satisfaction alone in this change I have the utmost reason to congratulate your choice, but when I consider my own I cant avoid feeling some regret, that one of my few friends has declin’d a pursuit in which he had every reason to expect success. The truth is, like the rest of the world I am self-interested in my concern and do not so much consider the happiness you have acquir’d as the honour I have probably lost in the change. I have often let my fancy loose when you were the subject, and have imagined you gracing the bench or thundering at the bar, while I have taken no small pride to myself and whispered all that I could come near, that that was my cousin.
38 - To Joseph Cradock, [London, December 1771]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 101-102
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Summary
Joseph Cradock (1742–1826) was a writer from Leicester. Upon moving to London, he became friendly with David Garrick and was well known to the literary set as an avid theatregoer. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1768 and assisted Garrick in the preparations for the Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769. He wrote a tragedy called Zobeide based on Voltaire's Les Scythes which was first performed on 11 December 1771 at Covent Garden. It had a further ten performances that season, ensuring that Cradock benefited from three author nights.
As the letter below shows, Goldsmith supplied the prologue to Zobeide, probably at the behest of one or both of the actors Richard and Mary Ann Yates. Cradock gave Mary Ann Yates, who played the eponymous heroine, the profit from the ninth night (£59 16s), presumably for her success in the role but perhaps also acknowledging her part in securing Goldsmith's prologue, which added to the new play's metropolitan appeal, as the reviews testify. The Middlesex Journal (12–14 December 1771) reported: ‘Upon the whole, there is merit in the Prologue, and the town was too just to withhold the tribute of approbation’, and the Critical Review (December 1771) went as far as to say that the Prologue and Epilogue (the latter supplied by Arthur Murphy) were ‘not excelled by many on the English stage’.
Cradock's literary output was not prodigious but there are some efforts of note. A pamphlet, The Life of John Wilkes, Esq., in the Manner of Plutarch (1773), inspired a Wilkesite mob to smash his windows. He later published another play and a novel but is best remembered for his four-volume Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs (1826–8), which holds a wealth of anecdotal information about London’s literary life.
The copy-text is Cradock's Literary and Miscellaneous Memoirs, where it was first published in 1826. It was addressed ‘For the Rt. Hon. Lord Clare, (Mr Cradock,) Gosfield, Essex’.
Mr. Goldsmith presents his best respects to Mr. Cradock, has sent him the Prologue, such as it is. He cannot take time to make it better. He begs he will give Mr. Yates the proper instructions; and so, even so, he commits him to fortune and the public.
Dedication
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp v-vi
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21 - To John Bindley, [London], 12 July 1766
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 63-65
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Summary
See headnote to previous letter. Goldsmith and Bindley continue their exchange here with Goldsmith noting Bindley's younger brother's illness. James Bindley (1739–1818) was a book collector and a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge (1762–8). Goldsmith writes of him: ‘I never knew any one so short a time whose mind I fancy’d more like my own, that is in other words that I loved better.’ The younger Bindley assisted Edmond Malone with the third edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson (1799). He was also a friend of John Nichols, who described him in the fourth volume of Illustrations as a ‘kind-hearted and intelligent Bibliographer’. James Bindley suffered with ill health through much of his life.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the Beinecke Library, Yale University. It was first published in 1964 by Balderston in the Yale University Library Gazette, the year after Yale had acquired it from a private collection in Australia. Below Goldsmith's signature at the foot of the letter ‘Author of the Traveller & other works of genius’ is written in a different, later hand.
Dear Sir
You tell me I forgot to date my letter. I did that by design for if ever my letters come before a court of justice, as they want a date no body can take any hold of them. What do you think of me there? Now I will give you a receipt to make a conjuring box! Take four penny worth of half pence and rivet them together at the edge. Then let there be an hole in the bottom of these here halfpence to hold a die, or a conjurors ball no matter which, then you have a little tin box with which you cover the half pence, while the halfpence cover the die, and so taking the cover off and putting it on you can conjure. This I keep as a secret except upon particular occasions. Am I any body now? You are going to build two houses an hot house and a cold house. Ill be hanged but the one is an oven and the other a drain. I find however the pot pourri has succeeded, but the truth is, it was Mrs Bindley that was my operator, and I entreat that you may be kept away from the jar.
50 - To the Duke of Northumberland, [London], 18 March [1773]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 115-116
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Summary
The letter appears to be an acknowledgement for Northumberland's support for She Stoops to Conquer. His presence at a performance – perhaps the benefit performance of 18 March – would have helped the play at a time when the presence of persons of fashion contributed to the success of a piece. Moreover, Goldsmith, through providing ‘orders’ – suggested by his promise to ‘take care for his Graces reception’ – would also have been pleased by the opportunity to do an elevated friend a favour. ‘Orders’ were the means by which a theatre gave free admission to selected patrons: on this, Goldsmith's first benefit night, he would have borne the cost of the tickets.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the British Library. It was first published by Balderston in 1928. The verso is marked ‘Goldsmith’ in red ink by Percy. ‘Duke of North’ is also inserted in pencil with a caret, not by Goldsmith, after ‘Grace’.
Temple. Thursday March 18.
Doctor Goldsmith presents his most humble respects to his Grace with his sincere thanks for his kind countenance and protection upon the present occasion. He will take care for his Graces reception.
14 - To Mrs. Johnson, [London, 1758‒1762]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 50-50
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The identity of Mrs Johnson is unknown and the nature of the business involving a guinea is unclear. The dating of the two notes to this Mrs Johnson is highly conjectural. Balderston suggests that the use of ‘Mr. Goldsmith’ in the first note indicates that it was written before 1763, around which time Goldsmith began routinely to refer to himself as ‘Dr. Goldsmith’ (BL, 70n2). However, it is also possible that Dr Keay referred to in the second note here is the Chester correspondent mentioned in Letter 11 of August 1758, which suggests an earlier date. Splitting the difference, so to speak, Balderston suggests the summer of 1760. It would appear that Mrs Johnson and Dr Keay were correspondents through whom Goldsmith carried out unspecified miscellaneous tasks and transactions: Mrs Johnson in London, Dr. Keay in Chester, which was, along with Holyhead, one of two major ports for traffic with Ireland.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. It was first published by Balderston in 1928. It is endorsed on the verso, in another hand, ‘To Mrs. Johnson’.
Mr. Goldsmith's best respects to Mrs. Johnson will pay a Guinea or whatever she thinks proper either of his own or her appointing only letting him know to whom or for what: He will wait on Mrs. Johnson if she thinks proper this evening at six, or if, as she intended she will call upon him he will be very proud of that honour. A line or two by the bearer will not be amiss.
33 - To Sir Joshua Reynolds, Paris, 29 July [1770]
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp 88-92
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Some days into the trip with the Hornecks, this letter suggests the expedition to France was not as harmonious as anticipated. In a later letter to their mutual friend Bennet Langton, Johnson confirms that the trip had not gone well: ‘Dr Goldsmith has been at Paris with the Hornecks not very delightfully to either side.’ In addition to financial pressures, the presence of Joseph Hickey, lawyer to Burke and Reynolds and who had much more up-to-date knowledge of Paris than he, appears to have irked Goldsmith, cast somewhat into the shadows. As later correspondence shows (see Letters 35 and 64), Goldsmith and the Hornecks repaired their friendship. This letter, with its litany of complaints about the diurnal aggravations of Continental travel, provides a humorous counterpoint to the cosmopolitan Goldsmith evoked by his poem The Traveller. The overarching sense of the letter is of a man who is missing the metropolitan whirl of London and its literary homosociality.
The copy-text is the manuscript in the Free Library of Philadelphia. It was first published by Prior in 1837. It is addressed: ‘To | Sir Joshua Reynolds | Leicester Fields | London’. The postmark is incomplete at the edge of the sheet but most likely records 4 August.
Paris July 29th
My Dear Friend.
I began a long letter to you from Lisle giving a description of all that we had done and seen but finding it very dull and knowing that you would shew it again I threw it aside and it was lost. You see by the top of this letter that we are at Paris, and (as I have often heard you say) we have brought our own amusement with us for the Ladies do not seem to be very fond of what we have yet seen. With regard to myself I find that travelling at twenty and at forty are very different things, I set out with all my confirmd habits about me and can find nothing on the continent so good as when I formerly left it. One of our chief amusements here is scolding at every thing we meet with and praising every thing and every person we left at home. You may judge therefore whether your name is not frequently bandied at table among us. To tell you the truth I never thought I could regret your absence so much as our various mortifications on the road have often taught me to do.
Frontmatter
- Oliver Goldsmith
- Edited by Michael Griffin, University of Limerick, David O'Shaughnessy, Trinity College Dublin
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- The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith
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- 26 July 2018, pp i-iv
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