Oliver Goldsmith: Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

Oliver Goldsmith
10.11. 1728 Pallas (Provinz Longford, Irland) – 4.4. 1774 London

Born at Pallas, Longford or at Elphin, Roscommon as son of an Anglo-Irish clergyman. "He worked his way through Trinity College, Dublin, where he was thought a buffoon, and came out at the foot of his class" (Adventures in English Literature, New York, 1931). He studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leyden. During 1755-56 he roamed over France, Switzerland, and Italy. In England he tried several jobs before finally taking up literature. Most famuos for his poem The Deserted Village (1770) and his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

Good people all, of every sort,
Give ear unto my song;
And if you find it wondrous short,
It cannot hold you long.

In Islington there was a man
Of whom the world might say
That still a godly race he ran,
Whene'er he went to pray.

A kind and gentle heart be bad,
To comfort friend and foes;
The naked every day he clad,
When he put on his clothes.

And in that town a dog was found,
As many dogs there be,
Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, and hound,
And cur of low degree.

This dog and man at first were friends
But when a pique began,
The dog to gain his private ends,
Went mad and bit the man.

Around from all the neighboring streets
The wondering people ran,
And swore the dog had lost his wits,
To bite so good a man.

The wound it seemed both sore and sad
To every Christian eye;
And while they swore the dog was mad,
They swore the man would die.

But soon a wonder came to light,
That showed the rogues they lied;
The man recovered of the bite;
The dog it was that died.

Maugham. The Painted Veil