The Vicar of Wakefield. By Oliver Goldsmith. With a Preface
by Austin Dobson, and Illustrations by Hugh Thomson. (Mac- millan.)—Mr. Austin Dobson's preface appeared as an article in the English Illustrated Magazine. It gives a highly interesting his- tory of the illustrations of Goldsmith's tale. The first edition with pictures was that of 1779 (the " Vicar" appeared in 1766). In the last century, Stothard did the best work as an illustrator; in this, we have the names, among many others, of Cruikshank and Mulready. The information about the contributions of foreign artists will be new to most readers. They do not seem to have been successful ; Goldsmith has been Gallicised in France, and Teutonised in Germany. On the whole, Mr. Austin Dobson thinks that " Goldsmith has not yet found his fitting pictorial inter- preter." Whether Mr. Hugh Thomson will be found to have filled this empty place, is more than we can attempt to say. To hit the mean between the serious and the humorous is the object which has to be attained. The tale itself inclines to the latter rather than to the former, and Mr. Thomson's illustrations follow the same bent. Sometimes, we are inclined to think, they go too far in this direction. The squire asleep in the most pathetic part of the sermon, is a caricature. Among the drawings most to our liking are " The Village Quire," on p. 74; " The Bundle of Pro- posals," p. 171; and the " Officers of Justice," on p. 223.
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