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SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE (1721-1771)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 280 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SMOLLETT, TOBIAS See also:GEORGE (1721-1771) , See also:British novelist, was See also:born in the old See also:grange of Dalquhurn, near Bonhill, in the vale of See also:Leven, See also:parish of Cardross, See also:Dumbartonshire, and was christened on the 19th of See also:March 1721. His See also:father See also:Archibald (youngest son of See also:Sir See also:James, the See also:laird of Bonhill, a zealous Whig See also:judge and See also:promoter of the See also:Union of 1707) had made what was deemed in the See also:family an improvident See also:marriage. Archibald died in 1723, and Sir James did what he could for the widow and her family during his lifetime. The See also:elder son James was sent into the See also:army. Tobias was sent to See also:Dumbarton school, then in excellent repute under the grammarian See also:John Love. When the grandfather died in 1731 there was no further See also:provision, and after qualifying for a learned profession at See also:Glasgow University, Tobias was apprenticed in 1736 for five years to a well-known surgeon in that See also:city. This See also:early " deception " conspired to make him angry, resentful and suspicious of See also:motive; but he was neither vindictive nor ungenerous. If his tendency to See also:satire and See also:caricature made him enemies, his See also:enthusiasm for Scottish See also:history made him See also:friends, and, in spite of peccadilloes, the " bubbly-nosed callant with a stane in his pouch," as Dr See also:Gordon called him, seems as an apprentice to have won his See also:master's regard. The lad's ambition would not allow him to remain in Glasgow. The example of See also:Thomson and See also:Mallet was contagious, and at the See also:age of eighteen Smollett crossed the border in set See also:form to conquer See also:England with a tragedy, The See also:Regicide, based on See also:Buchanan's description of the See also:death of James I. The See also:story of the See also:journey is told with See also:infinite spirit in the early chapters of See also:Roderick See also:Random. The failure of the See also:play, his See also:darling See also:composition and certainly the worst thing he ever wrote, became the stock grievance of Smollett's See also:life.

For some months no one could be induced to read it, and the unrequited author would have been reduced to See also:

starvation had not a friend of the family procured him the position as surgeon's See also:mate on H.M.S. " See also:Cumberland. " The See also:fleet was ordered to attack See also:Cartagena, the See also:great stronghold of See also:Spanish See also:America, and the See also:siege, which occupied most of the See also:year 1741, proved the Walcheren expedition of the 18th See also:century. Smollett as an See also:eye-See also:witness has See also:left us a memorable picture of the miseries endured by soldiers and sailors, which historians have been content to accept as a first-See also:hand authority in spite of the fact that it is embedded in the pages of a licentious novel. When the enterprise was abandoned the fleet returned to See also:Jamaica. There Smollett See also:fell in love with the daughter of a planter, See also:Nancy Lascelles, whom he married on returning to England. Before this, having removed his name from the See also:navy books (May 1744), he had set up as a surgeon in See also:Downing See also:Street; but he attracted See also:attention more as a wit than as a See also:leech. " See also:Jupiter " See also:Carlyle testifies to his brilliant accomplishments, and to the popularity he attained by his indignant verses " The Tears of See also:Scotland," resenting See also:Culloden. In the same year (See also:July 1746) his name appeared upon the See also:title-See also:page of a See also:political satire entitled See also:Advice, followed characteristically in 1747 by Reproof, both of them " imitations from See also:Juvenal " in the manner of See also:Pope. He revenges himself in his satires on the should-have-been patrons of his play. Disappointed alike in the See also:drama, his profession and his wife's See also:dowry, Smollett devoted his attention in a happy See also:hour to fictitious See also:adventure. See also:Richardson had published the first See also:part of Pamela in 1741, and See also:Fielding his See also:Joseph See also:Andrews in 1742.

But Smollett owed less to these See also:

models than to his studies in Cervantes, See also:Swift, See also:Defoe and above all Le See also:Sage. His See also:hero, who gives his first novel its See also:capital name, Roderick Random, recounts like Gil Blas a life of varied adventure in the See also:company of a servant, in which he enters the service of a physician and meets with old schoolfellows, thieves, notes of the See also:bank of See also:engraving, See also:prison, semi-starvation and in the end an unexpected See also:fortune. The author draws on his adventures on the See also:English See also:highway and in the See also:cockpit of a See also:king's See also:ship. Virtually he revealed the See also:seaman to the See also:reading See also:world—divined his See also:character, sketched his outlines, formulated his lingo, discovered his possibilities to such purpose that, as See also:Scott says, every one who has written about the navy since seems to have copied more from Smollett than from nature. Pungent observation allied to a vigorous See also:prose, emancipated to a rare degree from provincialism or archaism, were perhaps the first of Smollett's qualifications as a novelist. Such coherence as his novels have owes more to accidental See also:accumulation than to constructive See also:design. The See also:wealth of amusing incident, the rapidly moving See also:crowd of amusing and See also:eccentric figures, atones for a See also:good many defects. Smollett's See also:peculiar coarseness and ferocity were gradually eliminated from English fiction, but from Tom See also:Jones right down to Great Expectations his See also:work was regularly ransacked for See also:humour. There was no author's name on the title of the two small volumes of Random; See also:Lady See also:Mary Wortley See also:Montagu thought a work so delightful could only be by Fielding, in whose name it was actually translated into See also:French. But Smollett made no See also:secret of the authorship, went to See also:Paris to ratify his fame, and published his See also:derelict play as " by the author of Roderick Random," hoping thus, as he said, to intimidate his discarded patrons. The incident well reveals the novelist's " systema nervosum maxime irritabile," of which his medical advisers spoke. Smollett now became a central figure among the See also:group of able doctors who hailed from See also:north of the See also:Tweed, such as Clephane, See also:Macaulay, See also:Hunter, See also:Armstrong, See also:Pitcairne and See also:William Smellie, in the revision of whose See also:system of Midwifery the novelist See also:bore a part.

He must have still designed to combine See also:

medicine with authorship, for in See also:June 17 See also:J0 he obtained the degree of M.D.from Illarischal See also:College, See also:Aberdeen. But in the autumn of this year he already had another novel in prospect, and went over to Paris with a new acquaintance, Dr See also:Moore (author of Zeluco), who soon became his intimate and was destined to become his biographer. The See also:influence of this visit is marked in Smollett's second novel, The Adventures of Peregrine See also:Pickle (4 vols., 1951). Like its predecessor, a loosely constructed See also:string of episodes and adventures in which a still greater See also:scope is afforded to the author for eccentric display, Pickle proved from the first a resounding success, both in England and See also:France. The See also:chief centres of attraction are the See also:grotesque misanthrope of See also:Bath, Cadwallader Crabtree, the See also:burlesque scenes afforded by the physician (a caricature of See also:Akenside) and Pallet the painter in Paris, and the so-called " See also:garrison," with its inhabitants, Hatchway and Pipes and the inimitable Trunnion—whose death-See also:scene fully exhibits Smollett's See also:powers for the first See also:time–the prototype of so many character portraits from See also:Uncle Toby to Cap'n Cuttle. Trunnion's grotesque ride to See also:church reappears in John See also:Gilpin; the misanthrope, practising satire under See also:cover of feigned deafness, reappears in the Mungo Malagrowther of Scott, who frankly admits further debts to Smollett in the See also:preface to the See also:Legend of See also:Montrose. The " garrison " unquestionably suggested the " See also:castle " of Tristram Shandy and the " fortress " of Mr Wemmick. Indeed it is no exaggeration to say that the tideway of subsequent fiction is strewn on every hand with the disjecta mesnbra of Smollett's happy phrases and farcical inventions. Pickle himself is if possible a bigger See also:ruffian than Random; in this respect at any See also:rate Smollett clings to the cynical tradition of the old romances of roguery. The novel is marred to an even greater extent by interpolations and See also:personal attacks than its predecessor; the autobiographical See also:element is slighter and the See also:literary quality in some respects inferior. Smollett's third novel, See also:Ferdinand See also:Count See also:Fathom, appeared in 1753, by which time the author, after a final trial at Bath, had definitively abandoned medicine for letters, and had settled down at See also:Monmouth See also:House, See also:Chelsea, a married See also:man, a father and a professional writer, not for patronage, but for the See also:trade. In this capacity he was among the first to achieve a difficult See also:independence.

In Fathom Smollett endeavours unquestionably to organize a novel upon a See also:

plan elevated somewhat above See also:mere agglomeration. It looks as if he had deliberately set himself toshow that he too, as well as the author of Tom Jones, could make a See also:plot. The squalor and See also:irony of the piece repel the reader, but it is Smollett's greatest feat of invention, and the descriptive See also:power, especially in the first See also:half, reveals the latent imaginative power of the author. Few novels have been more systematically plundered, for Fathom was the studio See also:model of all the See also:mystery and terror school of fiction commencing with See also:Radcliffe and See also:Lewis. With Fathom the first See also:jet of Smollett's See also:original invention was spent. The novel was not particularly remunerative, and his expenses seem always to have been profuse. He was a great frequenter of taverns, entertained largely, and every See also:Sunday threw open his house and See also:garden to unfortunate " See also:brothers of the See also:quill," whom he regaled with See also:beef, See also:pudding and potatoes, See also:port, See also:punch and " See also:Calvert's entire See also:butt-See also:beer." To sustain these expenses Smollett consented to become a literary impresario upon a hitherto unparalleled See also:scale. His activity during the next six years was many-sided, chiefly in the direction of organizing big and saleable " See also:standard " See also:works for the booksellers and contracting them out to his " myrmidons." Thus we see him almost simultaneously editing See also:Don Quixote, making a triumphant visit to Scotland, inaugurating a new literary periodical the See also:Critical (Feb. 1756) by way of corrective to See also:Griffith's Monthly See also:Review, organizing a standard library History of England in See also:quarto and See also:octavo, with continuations, and a seven-See also:volume compendium of Voyages, for which he wrote a See also:special narrative of the siege of Cartagena, supplementary to his See also:account in Roderick Random. In 1758 he projected and partly wrote a vast Universal History, and in See also:January 176o he brought out the first number of a new sixpenny See also:magazine, the British, to which he contributed a serial work of fiction, the mediocre Adventures of Sir Launcelot See also:Greaves. By these Herculean labours as a compiler Smollett must have amassed a considerable sum, to which the £20o received from the now forgiven " Marmozet " (See also:Garrick) for the See also:sixth performance of the patriotic extravaganza, The Reprisal, or the Tars of Old England, must have come as a welcome addition. The Critical Review was already responsible for plenty of thorns in the editorial See also:cushion when in 1762 Smollett undertook the additional task of editing the Briton.

He had already been ridiculed, insulted, fined and imprisoned in the See also:

Marshalsea (this last for an attack on See also:Admiral Sir See also:Charles See also:Knowles). He was now to support the North British favourite of George III. in the See also:press against all corners, not we may reasonably suppose without substantial. See also:reward. Yet after incurring all this unpopularity, at a time when the See also:London See also:mob was more inflamed against Scotsmen than it has ever been before or since, and having aroused the animosity of such former See also:allies as Wilkes and his friend See also:Churchill, Smollett was to find himself unceremoniously thrown over by his chief, See also:Lord See also:Bute, on the ground that his See also:paper did more to invite attack than to repel it. The Briton expired or was killed by the North Briton in See also:February 1763, and for the moment Smollett allowed himself to be beckoned back by the booksellers to such tasks as a universal gazetteer and a See also:translation of See also:Voltaire in 38 volumes, and we hear of him prescribing work to his minions or receiving their See also:homage and demanding their copy as of old. In See also:April, however, his only daughter died at the age of fifteen, and, already over-wrought and almost broken down from sedentary See also:strain, the tension proved too much and Smollett was never the same man again. His wife earnestly begged him to " convey her from a See also:country where every See also:object seemed only to nourish grief," and he followed her advice. The result was two years' sojourn abroad, mainly upon the See also:Riviera, which Smollett, who may be termed the literary discoverer of See also:Nice, turned to such excellent purpose in his Travels (2 vols., 1766), remarkable alike for their acidity and for their insight. On his arrival from See also:Italy, where he had provided material for See also:Sterne's portrait of the distressful " Smelfungus," Smollett seemed at first decidedly better and appeared to be getting over some of the symptoms of his pulmonic complaint. But his See also:health was thoroughly undermined by See also:rheumatism, and the See also:pain arising from a neglected See also:ulcer which had See also:developed into a chronic sore helped to See also:sap his strength. As soon, therefore, as the Travels were out of hand Smollett resolved on a summer journey to Scotland. The society of See also:Edinburgh, then at the apogee of its brilliance, paid due attention to the famous Dr Smollett. He was visited by See also:Hume, See also:Home, See also:Robertson, See also:Adam See also:Smith, See also:Blair, Carlyle, See also:Cullen and the Monros.

He went to Glasgow to see Dr Moore (where he patted the See also:

head of the future hero of Coruna), and stayed with his See also:cousin, James Smollett, in his newly built See also:mansion of See also:Cameron. His See also:mother, who hardly knew his toil-worn visage until it relaxed into his old roguish smile, died in this autumn, and he was still in a pre-carious See also:state of health when he proceeded to Bath, spending the See also:Christmas of 1766 in See also:Gay Street, where his complaint at last took z turn for the better, and where it is possible that he may have commenced a rough draft of See also:Humphrey See also:Clinker. In 1768 he was again in London, and with a return of his vital See also:energy came a recrudescence of the old savagery. The History and Adventures of an See also:Atom is a very See also:clever, but abominably coarse, Rabelaisian satire upon the whole conduct of public affairs in England from the beginning of the Seven Years' See also:War down to the date of publication. He lashes out on' all sides without fear or favour. The king, See also:Chatham, Bute and North are bespattered with filth, the acridity of which owes something to Gulliver, with aid as to See also:local See also:colour from the Jesuit and other accounts of See also:Japan which had come under his See also:ken as a compiler of travels. After its publication in 1769, without other serious consequences, Smollett's health completely relapsed, and in See also:December (a consulate in the Mediterranean having been refused him) he left England finally, and settled first at See also:Pisa and then near Antignano, a few See also:miles out of See also:Leghorn. There, during the autumn of 1770, he penned his immortal Humphrey Clinker, in which he reverts to his favourite form of itinerant letters, a rare example of See also:late maturity of literary power and fecundity of humour. The sardonic humour, persistent curiosity and keen See also:faculty of observation shown in the Travels are here combined with the mellow contentment of the voyager who has forgotten the small worries of transport and with the enthusiasm of the See also:veteran who revisits the scenes of his youth. The character See also:drawing, too, though still See also:caustic, seems riper and more matured. Smollett's speculative and informing 18th-century mind is here content for the most part, like See also:Goldsmith's, merely to amuse. Smollett died at Leghorn aged fifty on the 17th Of See also:September 1771, and was buried in the old English See also:cemetery there.

Three years later the Smollett See also:

obelisk was put up at See also:Renton (it now stands in the parish school-ground), half-way between Dumbarton and Balloch. The best portrait belongs to the Smollett family, Cameron House, See also:Loch See also:Lomond (engraved by See also:Freeman, 1831). The genuineness of the others, if we except that in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, is doubtful. The novelist has been confused with the Dr Smollett, the contemporary of Dr William Hunter, who figures in See also:Rowlandson's " Dissecting See also:Room " (Royal See also:Coll. of Surgeons See also:Cat., 1900). Hume said that Smollett was like a coco-See also:nut, rough outside, but full of human kindness within. He was easily ruffled by the rubs of fortune of which he had more than his See also:fair See also:share. Hence the adjectives corrosive and splenetic so often applied to a nature essentially both generous Jnd See also:tender. After Fielding, Smollett See also:counts as the greatest purveyor of comic prose-epic of See also:con-temporary life to his See also:generation, if not to his century. Scott and See also:Dickens regarded him as fully Fielding's equal. See also:Hazlitt and See also:Thackeray thought otherwise. Equally rationalist and See also:pagan with Fielding, Smollett is more of a See also:pedagogue and less of the instinctive See also:scholar and wit than his predecessor. His method in its broad outlines is similar, historic and ambulant rather than philosophic or poetic, but he has more potential See also:romance or See also:poetry about his make-up than the mystery-hating Fielding.

In the recognized requirements of prose-epic such as plot, character, scene, reflection and diction, Smollett could fairly hold his own. His prose, which carries on the robust tradition from Swift and Defoe to See also:

Johnson and See also:Jeffrey, is more See also:modern in See also:tone than that of his great See also:rival. In See also:fictions such as Toni Jones, Roderick Random and the like, England could at length feel that it possessed compositions which might claim kinship and comparison with Cervantes and Le Sage. Much that these writers attempted has been done again in a See also:style better adjusted to the increasing refinement of a later age. But Smollett's great powers of observation and description, his caustic and indignant turn of speech, will See also:long render him an invaluable witness in the century which he so well represents. Much that he did was mere hackwork, but at his best he ranks with the immortals. The estimate formed of Smollett's work during the past generation has probably been a diminishing one, as we may infer in part from the fact that there is no standard Life and no definitive edition of the works. The chief collective See also:editions are as follows: 6 vols., Edinburgh, 1790; 6 vols., London, 1796, with R. See also:Anderson's Memoir; Works, ed. J. Moore, 1797 (re-edited J. P.

See also:

Browne, 8 vols., 1872); Works,ed. See also:Henley and Seccombe, See also:Constable (12 vols., 1899-1902). To which must be added a one-volume See also:Miscellaneous Works, ed. See also:Thomas See also:Roscoe (1841); Selected Works (with a careful life by See also:David See also:Herbert) (Edinburgh, 1870); Ballantyne's edition of the Novels with Scott's judicious memoir and See also:criticism (2 vols., 1821); and See also:Professor G. See also:Saintsbury's edition of the Novels (12 vols., 1895). There are See also:short Lives by See also:Robert See also:Chambers (1867), David See also:Hannay (1887) and O. See also:Smeaton (1897). Additional See also:information of See also:recent date will be found in the See also:article on Smollett in the See also:Diet. Nat.Biog., See also:Masson's British Novelists (and other books on the development of English Fiction), H. See also:Graham's Scottish Men of Letters in the Eighteenth Century, See also:Blackwood's Mag. for May 1900; and the See also:present writer's introduction to Smollett's Travels through France and Italy (World's See also:Classics, Igo7). (T.

End of Article: SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE (1721-1771)

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