The Double Transformation.
’The Double Transformation’ first appeared in ’Essays: By Mr.
Goldsmith", 1765, where it figures as Essay xxvi, occupying pp.
229-33. It was revised for the second edition of 1766, becoming
Essay xxviii, pp. 241-45. This is the text here followed. The poem is an obvious imitation of what its author calls (’Letters from a Nobleman to his Son’, 1764, ii. 140) that ’French elegant easy manner of telling a story,’ which Prior had caught from La
Fontaine. But the inherent simplicity of Goldsmith’s style is curiously evidenced by the absence of those illustrations and ingenious allusions which are Prior’s chief characteristic. And although Goldsmith included ’The Ladle’ and ’Hans Carvel’ in his
’Beauties of English Poesy’, 1767, he refrained wisely from copying the licence of his model.
l. 2. -----
"Jack Book-worm led a college life".
The version of 1765 reads ’liv’d’ for ’led.’
l. 6. -----
"And freshmen wonder’d as he spoke".
The earlier version adds here—
Without politeness aim’d at breeding,
And laugh’d at pedantry and reading.
l. 18. -----
"Her presence banish’d all his peace".
Here in the first version the paragraph closes,
and a fresh one is commenced as follows:—
Our alter’d Parson now began
To be a perfect ladies’ man;
Made sonnets, lisp’d his sermons o’er,
And told the tales he told before,
Of bailiffs pump’d, and proctors bit,
At college how he shew’d his wit;
And, as the fair one still approv’d,
He fell in love—or thought he lov’d.
So with decorum, etc.
The fifth line was probably a reminiscence of the college riot
in which Goldsmith was involved in May, 1747, and for his part
in which he was publicly admonished. (See ’Introduction’, p. xi,
l. 3.)
l. 27. -----
"usage". This word, perhaps by a printer’s error, is
’visage’ in the first version
l. 39. -----
"Skill’d in no other arts was she". Cf. Prior:—
For in all Visits who but She,
To Argue, or to Repartee.
l. 46. -----
"Five greasy nightcaps wrapp’d her head". Cf.
’Spectator’, No. 494—’At length the Head of the
Colledge came out to him, from an inner Room, with half
a Dozen Night-Caps upon his Head.’ See also Goldsmith’s
essay on the Coronation (’Essays’, 1766, p. 238), where
Mr. Grogan speaks of his wife as habitually ’mobbed up
in flannel night caps, and trembling at a breath of
air.’
l. 52. -----
"By day, ’twas gadding or coquetting". The first version after
’coquetting’ begins a fresh paragraph with—
Now tawdry madam kept, etc.
l. 58. -----
"A sigh in suffocating smoke".
Here in the first version follows:—
She, in her turn, became perplexing,
And found substantial bliss in vexing.
Thus every hour was pass’d, etc.
l. 61. -----
"Thus as her faults each day were known". First version:
’Each day, the more her faults,’ etc.
l. 71. -----
"Now, to perplex". The first version has ’Thus.’
But the alteration in line 61 made a change necessary.
l. 85. -----
"paste". First version ’pastes.’
l. 91. -----
"condemn’d to hack", i.e. to hackney, to plod.