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OLIVER GOLDSMITH
Oliver Goldsmith (1730–1774) was an Anglo-Irish writer and poet. In this short passage from one of his most famous works, She Stoops to Conquer, Goldsmith describes old Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle reflecting on life. Mrs. Hardcastle resents the change in life that comes with age and the boringness that it brings. In a touching moment, Mr. Hardcastle responds that he loves everything that comes with old age, including his old wife.
MRS. HARDCASTLE: Ay, your times were fine times indeed; you have been telling us of them for many a long year. Here we live in an old rumbling mansion, that looks for all the world like an inn, but that we never see company. Our best visitors are old Mrs. Oddfish, the curate’s wife, and little Cripplegate, the lame dancing-master; and all our entertainment your old stories of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough. I hate such old-fashioned trumpery.
MR. HARDCASTLE: And I love it. I love every thing that’s old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine; and I believe, Dorothy [Taking her hand.] you’ll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife.