2. =passing rich.= Exceedingly rich. The word is a common one among the poets. "Is she not passing fair?" (Shakespeare, "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act iv, sc. 4); "How passing sweet is solitude" (Cowper, "Retirement"). 3. =forty pounds.= In his dedication of "The Traveller," Goldsmith refers to his brother Henry as "a man who, despising fame and fortune, has retired early to happiness and obscurity, with an income of forty pounds a year." 4. =broken soldier.= See "The Soldier's Dream," Campbell. "And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay!" 5. The simile included in these four lines, says Lord Lytton, is translated almost literally from a poem by the Abbé de Chaulieu, who died in 1720. "Every one must own," adds he, "that, in copying, Goldsmith wonderfully improved the original." 6. =The village master.=--The portrait here drawn of the village schoolmaster is from Goldsmith's own teacher, Thomas Byrne, with whom he was placed when six years old. "Byrne had been educated for a pedagogue," says Irving, "but had enlisted in the army, served abroad during the wars of Queen Anne's time, and risen to the rank of quartermaster of a regiment in Spain. At the return of peace, having no longer exercise for the sword, he resumed the ferule, and drilled the urchin populace of Lissoy. "There are certain whimsical traits in the character of Byrne, not given in the foregoing sketch. He was fond of talking of his vagabond wanderings in foreign lands, and had brought with him from the wars a world of campaigning stories of which he was generally the hero, and which he would deal forth to his wondering scholars when he ought to have been teaching them their lessons. These travellers' tales had a powerful effect upon the vivid imagination of Goldsmith, and awakened an unconquerable passion for wandering and seeking adventure. "Byrne was, moreover, of a romantic vein, and exceedingly superstitious. He was deeply versed in the fairy superstitions which abound in Ireland, all which he professed implicitly to believe. Under his tuition Goldsmith soon became almost as great a proficient in fairy lore." =noisy mansion.= The old-time school-room was a noisy place, the pupils studying their lessons aloud, and but little care being taken to secure quietness at any time. 7. =boding.= Foreboding; seeing that which is about to happen. From A.-S. _bodian_, to announce, to foretell. 8. =village.= Villagers. 9. =terms and tides.= Times and seasons. =presage.= Foreknow. From Lat. _pre_, before, and _sagio_, to perceive. 10. =gauge.= Measure liquids. The humor in this and in some other expressions in these verses is too apparent to require comment. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.