SOURCE: "Goldsmith's Achievement as Dramatist," in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, January, 1965, pp. 159-77.

In the essay below, Quintana provides a comprehensive survey of Goldsmith's theatrical activities.

I

Despite the fact that Goldsmith occupies a secure place among eighteenth-century dramatists, the precise nature of his achievement as a playwright has yet to be explored with the care which the subject deserves. Since this is a matter which concerns Georgian comedy in a broad sense as well as Goldsmith's own comic artistry, it is one of no little importance. Goldsmith came to the drama fairly late in his career, being thirty-seven—if we accept 1730 as the year of his birth—when his first play was produced. He had already established himself as one of the notable literary men of the period. He had behind him the Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning, a multitude of...