EPITAPH ON EDWARD PURDON.
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he occasion of this quatrain, first published as Goldsmith’s* in _Poemsand Plays_, 1777, p. 79, is to be found in Forster’s _Life andTimes of Oliver Goldsmith_, 1871, ii. 60. Purdon died on March 27,1767 (_Gentleman’s Magazine_, April, 1767, p. 192). ‘“Dr.Goldsmith made this epitaph,” says William Ballantyne [the author of _Mackliniana_],“in his way from his chambers in the Temple to the Wednesday evening’sclub at the Globe. _I think he will never come back_, I believe hesaid. I wassitting by him, and he repeated it more than twice. (I think he will nevercome back.)”’ Purdon had been at Trinity College, Dublin, with Goldsmith;he had subsequently been a foot soldier; ultimately he became a‘bookseller’s hack.’ He wrote an anonymous letter to Garrick in 1759, andtranslated the _ Henriade_ of Voltaire. This translationGoldsmith is supposed to have revised, and his own life of Voltaire was tohave accompanied it, though finally the Memoir and Translation seem tohave appeared separately. (Cf. prefatory note to _Memoirs of M. deVoltaire_ in Gibbs’s _Works of Oliver Goldsmith_, 1885,iv. 2.) * It had previously appeared as an extempore by a correspondent inthe _Weekly Magazine_, Edin., August 12, 1773 (_Notes andQueries_, February 14, 1880). Forster says further, in a note, ‘The original . . . is the epitaph on “LaMort du Sieur Etienne”:— Il est au bout de ses travaux, Il a passé, le Sieur Etienne;
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