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There now above stairs, we have a young woman who has come to take up her lodgings here, and I don't believe she has got any money by her over-civility. I am certain she is very slow of payment, and I wish she were put in mind of it.' — 'What signifies minding her,' cried the host, 'if she be slow, she is sure.'— 'I don't know that,' replied the wife; 'but I know that I am sure she has been here a fortnight, and we have not yet seen the cross of her money.'

[Complaining to her husband and their guest that the hussy upstairs has no intention of paying the cost of room and board for the last two weeks, the landlady storms out to confront the young woman, whom neither the reader nor the Vicar suspects is Olivia, cast out by Squire Thornhill after participating with him in a spurious marriage ceremony. Dr. Primrose continues his recollection of events at the ale-house.]

I soon perceived by the loudness of her voice, and the bitterness of her reproaches, that no money was to be had from her lodger. I could hear her remonstrances very distinctly: 'Out I say, pack out this moment, tramp thou infamous strumpet, or I'll give thee a mark thou won't be the better for this three months. What! you trumpery, to come and take up an honest house, without cross or coin to bless yourself with; come along I say.' — 'O dear madam,' cried the stranger, 'pity me, pity a poor abandoned creature for one night, and death will soon do the rest.' I instantly knew the voice of my poor ruined child Olivia. I flew to her rescue, while the woman was dragging her along by the hair, and I caught the dear forlorn wretch in my arms. — 'Welcome, any way welcome, my dearest lost one, my treasure, to your poor old father's bosom. Tho' the vicious forsake thee, there is yet one in the world that will never forsake thee; tho' thou hadst ten thousand crimes to answer for, he will forget them all.' — 'O my own dear' — for minutes she could no more — 'my own dearest good papa! Could angels be kinder! How do I deserve so much! The villain, I hate him and myself, to be a reproach to such goodness. You can't forgive me. I know you cannot.' — 'Yes, my child, from my heart I do forgive thee! Only repent, and we both shall yet be happy. We shall see many pleasant days yet, my Olivia!' —​'Ah! never, sir, never. The rest of my wretched life must be infamy abroad and shame at home. But, alas! papa, you look much paler than you used to do. Could such a thing as I am give you so much uneasiness? Sure you have too much wisdom to take the miseries of my guilt upon yourself.' — 'Our wisdom, young woman,' replied I. — 'Ah, why so cold a name papa?' cried she.​'This is the first time you ever called me by so cold a name.' — 'I ask pardon, my darling,' returned I; 'but I was going to observe, that wisdom makes but a slow defence against trouble, though at last a sure one. [Volume II, Chapter II, "The short Continuance of Friendship Amongst the Vicious, which is coeval only with Mutual Satisfaction," pp. 132-33]

Commentary: The Return of the Prodigal Daughter

Squire Thornhill has successfully ingratiated himself with the Primroses by obtaining a military commission for the eldest son, George. The picture alludes to the conventional figure of the Magdalene, but, like Emily in Dickens's David Copperfield (May 1849-November 1850), she repents her immoral conduct — and accuses her seducer, the handsome, wealthy young man who has portrayed himself as a friend of the family. James Steerforth in Dickens is but the latest incarnation of Squire Harry Thornhill. The illustration signals the return of Olivia to her family, but not yet to her own sense of herself as a moral being, since she has brought shame upon her upper-middle-class family. The solicitous woman at the door is presumably the publican's wife, who only moments before had been insulting Olivia (dressed in white to suggest the purity of her character) as "an infamous strumpet" (132). However, the moment realised may be extended to include her returning to enquire at the door "if we did not chuse a more genteel apartment" (134). The elderly, white-haired clergyman tenderly holds up his daughter as she collapses, clutching him in desperation.

The attentive reader can hardly misconstrue this scene as part of Goldsmith's satire on the Reverend Dr. Primrose as a gullible Man of Sentiment. Here, his finest emotions prompt him to forgive the daughter whom a vicious aristocrat has led astray and victimized. The denouement will involve Olivia's vindication and Sir William Thornhill's meeting out poetic justice to his profligate nephew who had made Olivia "honourable, though private, proposals" (134), that is, a proposal of marriage. This point is crucial in Goldsmith's eliciting the middle-class reader's sympathy for the girl in a seduction plot that later writers such as Dickens would freely adapt for their own purposes.

Related Material: Fallen Women in 19th c. Art and Literature

• Martha Endell in David Copperfield
• The River by Phiz
• The Role of the "Fallen Woman" in Three Victorian Novels
• Fallen Women in Victorian Art
• What was 'Fallenness' and what was Dickens's interest?

Related Illustrations by George Cruikshank (1832)

• The unexpected Visit of the fine Ladies
• The Gross of Green Spectacles

Bibliography

Goldsmith, Dr. [Oliver]. The Vicar of Wakefield. A Tale. Illustrated by Thomas Stothard. London: Sammells and Ritchie for E. Harding, Fleet-Street; and J. Good, New Bond-Street, 1792.

Peter Nahum at The Leicester Galleries. "William Mulready RA (1786-1863). Collection of 19 drawings & 9 etchings for Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield (England, c. 1840)." http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/william-mulready/48046

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Last modified 27 March 2018