by Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)
Good people all, of every sort
Language: English
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 he had, To comfort friends 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 curs of low degree. This dog and man at first were friends; But when a pique began, The dog, to gain some private ends, Went mad, and bit the man. Around from all the neighboring streets The wond'ring neighbors ran, And swore the dog had lost his wits, To bite so good a man. The wound it seem'd 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 show'd the rogues they lied: The man recover'd of the bite -- The dog it was that died.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith: The Globe Edition, ed. by David Masson, London: MacMillan and Co., 1923. Appears in Miscellaneous Poems, pages 681 - 682.
Authorship:
- by Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774), "Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "An elegy on the death of a mad dog", 2007 [ bass-baritone and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "The mad dog", 1910 [ ATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Part Songs for Male-Voice Choir, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Melanie Trumbull
This text was added to the website: 2008-02-12
Line count: 32
Word count: 196