Preachers of Goldsmith and Crabbe
In his poem The Deserted Village, Oliver Goldsmith paints a picture of an idealized hamlet, quaint and perfect. Upon reading this account of 18th century country living, one may find it somewhat idyllic, and Goldsmith’s contemporary, George Crabbe, certainly did. In 1783, Crabbe published The Village, a rebuttal to Goldsmith’s 1770 work. In contrasting the two works, the dichotomy between Goldsmith’s idea of country life and Crabbe’s is most apparent in their descriptions of the village preacher. Goldsmith begins the characterization of his village preacher at line 141: “A man he was, to all the country dear.