The prosecution of
Sacheverell
gave the high church party its
chance.
chance.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v09
II of his Works in Prose (1741), where they
are stated to be copied from an impression sent from Dublin, and
to have been printed by the Dean's direction, and complained
## p. 85 (#109) #############################################
Imitations of Horace
85
a
to friends that Swift had published them without his consent.
The letters to Cromwell are interesting as illustrating Pope's early
tastes and ambitions; but his elaborate way of doctoring the
correspondence for whose publication he was himself responsible
makes it of very little worth as biographical evidence, unless the
originals or genuine copies, as in Carylls case, have survived.
As a whole, the letters are disappointing; they are wanting in
naturalness and charm, and, too often, are a mere string of moral
reflections.
The year 1733 was, perhaps, the most prolific in Pope's life.
About the beginning of the year, when he had for the moment laid
aside An Essay on Man on account of ill-health, Bolingbroke
observed to him how well the first satire of Horace's second book
would 'bit his case' if he were to imitate it in English. On this
hint, Pope 'translated it in a morning or two and sent it to the press
in a week or fortnight after. ' The suggestion of a friend, and the
framework of Horace, had given him one of the greatest oppor-
tunities of his literary life. The brilliance and conciseness of his
style, his command alike over a lofty and over a conversational
tone, the power of pungent epigram with which he stung his
enemies, the affectionate enthusiasm with which he praised his
friends, the fondness with which he lingered over the subject of
himself-all here found expression. Horace's rambling method
lent itself to his purpose, and the original text, while sparing him
the task of constructing his own scheme, enabled him to display
his skill in adaptation and parallel. While, in one part, adopting
& tone of proud superiority as the conscious champion of virtue, he
does not deny the presence of a personal animus:
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhymel.
The most savage blow was aimed at ‘furious Sappho. ' Lady
Mary had been attacked in ‘The Capon's Tale'in Pope and Swift's
Miscellany, and, again, in The Dunciad. Pope suspected her of
being, at least part, author of A Pop upon Pope, which gave an
imaginary account of his whipping by two of his victims in The
Dunciad. In March 1733 appeared Verses addressed to the
Imitator of Horace: By a Lady, in which Pope's body, soul,
and muse were mercilessly reviled. Of this piece, Lady Mary, it
would seem, was the chief author, helped, perhaps, by Lord Hervey,
smarting from the reference to himself as 'Lord Fanny' in the
6
ILI. 77-78.
1
## p. 86 (#110) #############################################
86
Pope
first Imitation of Horace'. Hervey replied, on his own account,
in the feeble Letter from a Nobleman at Hampton Court (1733).
Pope's rejoinder was the prose Letter to a Noble Lord (printed,
but not published, in 1733); but his most conclusive reply to
the attacks he had provoked was in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
(1735), misnamed by Warburton The Prologue to the Satires.
This magnificent outburst of autobiography, self-laudation, satire
and invective contains some of Pope's most finished and bril-
liant work. He professed that, feeling the awkward necessity to
say something of himself, he had merely put the last hand
to a desultory piece which he had had no thoughts of publishing.
Parts, it is true, such as Addison's character and the lines on
his own mother, were of earlier date; but the bulk of the com-
position is, obviously, written for an immediate end. Beginning
with lively complaints of the persecution from friend and foe
which his fame has brought on him, he sketches his career as
a man of letters, the encouragement received by him, all that he
has endured from critics, his shrinking from literary coteries, his
own lofty aims and his promptness to attack vice high or low. He
closes by dwelling on his father's character and his own devotion
to his mother's declining years. His pride in the approval and
.
love bestowed by the fittest on his studies and himself is seen in
those lines which Lamb could not repeat without emotion; but, in
general, the blame is more thickly sown than the praise. Gildon,
Dennis, Colley Cibber, Philips, Curll, Budgell, Welsted, Moore,
Bentley, Theobald, all are made to feel his lash. A satiric
portrait of Bubb Dodington was transferred in later editions to
Halifax; but the two most famous full-lengths are those of Lord
Hervey and Addison. Both are essentially unjust, and the latter
is a masterpiece of plausible misinterpretation. No less remark-
able than the number of passages of high excellence is the art
with which they are introduced into the context and the supreme
ease that throughout distinguishes the style.
Pope soon followed up the success of his first imitation of
Horace. Satire II, îi appeared in 1734, I, ii, 'Sober advice
from Horace,' anonymously in the same year. Epistle i, vi in
January, II, ii in April, II, i in June and i, i at the end of
1737. They have been called perfect translations, the persons and
things being transferred as well as the words. ' They are, however,
something less and something more than translations. Horace's
i Sat. 11, i, 6.
2 LI. 305-333.
3 LI. 193—214,
## p. 87 (#111) #############################################
Various Satires
87
point of view is not always caught. In places, adherence to the
Latin produces a train of thought not perfectly natural in English ;
but, for the most part, the imitations give keen pleasure as originals,
and the pleasure is made more various by comparison with the
model. There is a wide difference between the two satirists. Pope
has less of the mellow wisdom of Horace's maturity and more of
the fiery temper of his youth. The lofty and declamatory moral
tone is in the manner, rather, of Juvenal. Full use is made of the
chances for personal reference. It cannot be said that Pope
administers justice impartially. When there is an opportunity
for an example of vice, his personal enemies have the first claim,
while supporters of the opposition in arms against Walpole are
treated with leniency. Of his compliments to his friends, Hazlitt
has well said they are equal in value to a house or an estate. '
His use of irony is extraordinarily skilful. It is seen at its best
in his treatment of George II in Epistle 11, i; his frequent hits,
elsewhere, at king George II and his consort are due to his having
adopted wholesale the opinions of the opposition. Pope's style in
the Satires is at its very highest. In such lines as
And goad the prelate slumb'ring in his stalli
or
Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star,
manner.
the thought is expressed to perfection and acquires a further
atmosphere from the words chosen. The Imitations of Epistle
1, vii and the latter part of Satire II, v in octosyllabic verse are
of a totally different character, being attempts to copy Swift's
The Satires (II and iv) of Dr Donne Versified were
included in the collection of 1735; the latter had appeared, anony-
mously, in 1733. If Pope is to be believed, they were composed
at the request of Lords Oxford and Shrewsbury; but, if written
earlier, they were largely revised in the reign of George II, when
many of the modern instances were added. Pope had thought of
dealing, after the same fashion, with the Satires of Joseph Hall
whom he has imitated in more than one place, but Hall's versifica-
tion invited less change. The two Dialogues of 1738 were treated
.
by Warburton as an epilogue to the Satires. They appeared at
a time when the opposition to Walpole was exceptionally active,
and are full of evidence of Pope's sympathy with that side. In
one of these, a friend contrasts Pope's severity with Horace's 'sly,
7
1 Epilogue to the Satires, written in 1738, Dial. 11, 1. 219.
2 Imitations of Horace, Sat, a, i, 1. 108.
3 Cf, ante, vol. iv, pp. 329 ff.
## p. 88 (#112) #############################################
88
Pope
polite, insinuating style,' and presses him to take safe subjects for
his satire. Pope ironically agrees: :
Come, harmless characters, that no one hit1.
He laments, that, though virtue is an empty boast, the dignity of
vice should be lost, and ends with a picture of universal corruption.
In Dialogue II, the poet defends his practice of personal satire,
showing that he can appreciate merit, that it is not friendship only
which prompts his lays and that he praises virtue in whatever party.
He ends by dwelling on his proud consciousness of his office as
a satirist. It is difficult at first to reconcile this boast with the
elaborate party purpose of the two poems. But, often as Pope
perverted his powers for personal ends, capable as we know him
to have been of insincere professions, it is difficult not to feel, when
reading his lofty claim, that, at the moment, he believed his satire
to be an instrument for righteousness. The unfinished 1740 found
among Pope's papers? is of interest in showing the feeling of a
section of the opposition to their nominal leaders, Pulteney and
Carteret.
The new Dunciad (1742) embodied materials on the mis-
application of learning, science and wit originally designed for
another poem. Its appearance seems due to Pope's irritation
against the university of Oxford for declining to offer Warburton
the degree of D. D. While gratifying many personal grudges, as
in the notorious lines on Bentley’, the satire was, to a large extent,
general, falling on the Italian opera, the abuses of education at
school and college, antiquaries, naturalists and freethinkers. The
lines describing the final consummation of the power of dulness
have won deserved praise; those on the fashionable tour, though
less elevated, are almost equally brilliant.
Pope had frequently directed his satire at Colley Cibber. His
most offensive line was in the Epistle to Arbuthnot (1. 97). In the
new Dunciad, Cibber was introduced as ‘Dulness's Laureate Son. '
Cibber, in reply, published a letter in which he suggested that,
if 'Sawney' had been substituted for 'Cibber' in the Epistle, the
satire would have been equally just. To prove this, he told how,
having met Pope in very doubtful company in years gone by,
he would take credit for Homer in having saved his translator
from serious harm. Cibber's good-humoured patronage was
sufficiently exasperating, and, to Pope, who was ambitious of
fame as a moralist, this full-flavoured anecdote, with the derisive
1 Epilogue, etc. (1738), Dial. I, 1. 65.
2 LI. 203-274.
## p. 89 (#113) #############################################
Pope's Genius and Influence
89
engravings which it occasioned, must have been particularly gall-
ing. In revenge, he installed Cibber in Theobald's place as hero
of The Dunciad in the new edition which incorporated the fourth
book (1743). Pope has been reproached for allowing his rancour
to inflict irreparable injury on his original design. Certainly, the
change of the opening is ludicrously inapposite, but the hero's
personality is little to the fore in the later books. Cibber was
no dullard, but neither were many of the other 'dunces'; and he
undoubtedly had much of the bad taste and folly that is apt to
attend on cleverness. A man of his character was not so hope-
lessly unsuited for the throne.
Warburton was now on terms of growing intimacy with Pope.
He had contributed 'Aristarchus on the Hero of the Poem' and
notes to the latest edition of the Dunciad, and his influence is felt
in parts of the fourth book. He had written commentaries on An
Essay on Man and on An Essay on Criticism and was engaged
on the Ethic Epistles. This edition, completed in time for Pope
to present to some of his friends, was suppressed by Warburton
at Bolingbroke's suggestion in consequence of its containing the
character of Atossa.
Pope, who had been for some time in failing health, died on
30 May 1744.
With Pope, the classical spirit in English poetry reached its
acme. That the life of so supreme a genius for style coincided
with the period when the social interest in man had dwarfed the
feeling for nature, and when knowledge of the town was more
prized than romance or pathos, gave double strength to the reaction
when it came. His immediate influence, however, was immense
and extended across the sea to Germany, France and other parts
of Europe. Before his death, the first traces of the coming change
were seen; but the effect of his language and numbers prevailed
for long when the tone and subject of poetry were changing.
When the dust of the long controversy had been laid that raged
during the first quarter of the next century, it came to be recognised
that Pope's claim to rank among the very greatest poets could no
longer be allowed; but that, in his own class and kind, he need
not yield to any one. He has suffered most, in general repute, from
a distaste for the period which he faithfully reflected, from the
narrowness of devotees of nature and from the comparative rarity
of a true sense of form in the average reader of poetry, With the
professional student, his permanence is secure; but heaven forbid
that Pope should ever become a mere subject for research!
## p. 90 (#114) #############################################
90
Pope
It
Important for the history of English poetry and taste, he is
important, also, as the writer of lines that live. Critics may
attempt to define his limitations and point him to his place in
the great company of poets; but, within the pale of literary ortho-
doxy, there is room for difference. The survival of poets other
than the very highest must depend not on their historical value,
but on their finding in each generation a body of admirers.
has been said that admiration for Pope comes with years. If so,
. ,
it is among the kindliest provisions of Providence against old age.
The question is essentially one of temperament. Those who, while
not responding readily to violent emotions, are keenly interested
in men and manners, with but a chastened passion for green fields,
who can appreciate satire and epigram and have a nice sense of
finish, will, in every age, enjoy the poetry of Pope for its own sake.
## p. 91 (#115) #############################################
CHAPTER IV
SWIFT
>
SWIFT's writings are so closely connected with the man that
they cannot be understood properly without reference to the
circumstances under which they were produced. The best way,
therefore, of arriving at Swift's views and methods will be to set
out briefly the chief events of his life, and, afterwards, to consider
the more important of his writings.
Jonathan Swift's royalist grandfather, Thomas Swift, of a
Yorkshire family, was vicar of Goodrich, and married Elizabeth
Dryden, niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, the poet's grandfather.
The eldest of his large family, Godwin, a barrister, went to
Ireland, where he became wealthy; and some of his brothers
followed him. One of them, Jonathan, who had married Abigail
Erick, was made steward of the king's inns, Dublin, but he did not
live long, and, seven months after his death, on 30 November 1667,
his only son, Jonathan, was born. The widow was left dependent
mainly on her husband's brother, Godwin. A nurse took the child
to Whitehaven, and kept him there three years; and, not long
after his return to Dublin, his mother returned to her relatives
in England, leaving the boy in his uncle's care. He was sent
to Kilkenny school, where he met Congreve; and, when he was
fourteen, he was entered as a pensioner at Trinity college, Dublin.
Why he afterwards felt so much resentment against his relatives is
not clear; for his uncle gave him, not the education of a dog,' but
the best obtainable in Ireland. Swift was often at war with the
college authorities; but he got his degree in 1685.
;
In 1688, Swift's uncle Godwin died, having lost his fortune, and
Swift realized that he must not depend on any one but himself. The
revolution brought trouble for Ireland, and the young man joined
his mother at Leicester and looked about for employment. After
a time, an opportunity came from Sir William Temple, who was
now living in retirement at Moor park, near Farnham. Temple's
6
## p. 92 (#116) #############################################
92
Swift
ܢ
father had been a friend of Godwin Swift; he had himself known
the Swifts in Ireland; and Lady Temple was a connection of
Swift's mother. A man of cultivation and refinement, and a
renowned diplomatist, Temple was in need of someone to assist
him in his literary work, and Swift was chosen. Temple is said
to have treated him entirely as a dependent; but it must be
remembered that, at this time, Swift was an untrained youth of
twenty-two, and the distance between him and 'a person of
quality' like Temple would inevitably be great, especially in
those days.
In later years, Swift spoke somewhat disparagingly of Temple,
saying that he had felt too much what it was to be treated like a
schoolboy. Temple sometimes seemed out of humour for three or
four days, while Swift suspected a hundred reasons. In 1690, his
patron sent Swift with a letter of introduction to Sir Robert South-
well, secretary of state in Ireland, in the hope that he would find
Swift a post or procure for him a fellowship at Trinity college. The
letter said that Swift knew Latin and Greek and a little French;
that he wrote a good hand, and was honest and intelligent.
Nothing came of this recommendation, and Swift was soon back at
Moor park. Temple procured for him the M. A. degree at Oxford
and recommended him to William III. 'He thinks me a little
necessary to him,' wrote Swift. In 1693, he was sent by Temple to
represent to the king the necessity of triennial parliaments; but
the king was not convinced'. The first publication of anything by
Swift appears to have been in February 1691/2, when he printed in
the fifth supplement to The Athenian Mercury, a curious forerunner
of Notes and Queries, a ‘Letter to the Athenian Society,' enclosing
a Pindaric ode, in which he referred to his 'young and almost
vergin muse. ' In 1694, Swift parted from Temple, disappointed at
the failure of his patron to make any definite provision for him;
and, in October, he was ordained deacon, and priest in the following
January. He found it necessary to ask Temple for testimonials,
and Temple went further than he was asked, and obtained for
Swift the prebend of Kilroot. Swift, however, soon tired of
Ireland ; and, in 1696, he was once more at Moor park. In the
meantime, he had had a love affair with a Miss Jane Waring,
whom he addressed as Varina ; but he represented to her that
he was not in a position to marry. He remained with Temple
1 'I have sent him (the secretary) with another complaint from Papa to the King,
where I fancy he is not displeased with finding opportunities of going. ' Martha,
Lady Giffard, Her Life and Correspondence, ed. Longe, J. S. , 1911, p. 216.
## p. 93 (#117) #############################################
Moor Park and Laracor
93
until that statesman's death in 1699. Lady Temple had died in
1694, and Temple found his secretary more and more useful.
Swift was learning much in many directions. He read classical
and historical works in the library; he heard of public affairs
and of the experiences of his patron; he had opportunities of
studying the ways of servants in great houses; and he formed
the lasting affection of his life. Lady Giffard, Temple's sister, who
kept house for him after his wife's death, had as a companion or
servant Mrs Johnson, widow of a merchant of good position; and
this Mrs Johnson had two daughters, one of whom, Esther, a bright
child of eight when Swift first met her, was a great favourite with
the family, and received a legacy under Temple's will. Swift acted
as tutor to the girl, and, by the time of his last sojourn at Moor
park, she had, he says, grown into perfect health and was looked
upon as one of the most beautiful and graceful young women in
London.
Temple took part in the controversy on ancient and modern
learning, and in an essay he quoted the spurious 'Epistles of
Phalaris' as evidence of the superiority of the ancients. He was
answered by William Wotton, and, in 1697, Swift wrote his contri-
bution to the controversy, the clever Battle of the Books, which,
however, was not published till 1704. By his will, Temple had left
Swift £100 and any profit that was to be made by the publication
of his posthumous works. Unfortunately, this task led to a pro-
tracted quarrel with Lady Giffard. Swift was 'as far to seek as
ever. ' An application to the king came to nothing, and he thought
it well to accept an invitation to be chaplain and secretary to
Lord Berkeley, one of the lords justices in Ireland; but a rival
persuaded Lord Berkeley that the post was not fit for a clergyman,
and Swift departed in dudgeon. He was, however, presented to the
living of Laracor, near Trim, with two other small livings, together
with the prebend of Durlaven, in St Patrick's, and these brought
in an income of some £230 a year. Laracor had a congregation of
about fifteen persons; but he was often in Dublin and, through his
friendship with Lady Berkeley and her daughters, soon became well
known there. He suggested to Esther Johnson that she and her
friend Rebecca Dingley, who, in some way, was related to the Temple
family, might, with advantage, live in Ireland, and the ladies took
his advice. Swift was now thirty-four, Esther Johnson a young
woman of twenty. Everything was done to avoid any occasion of
scandal When Swift was absent, the ladies used his rooms in
Dublin; when he was there, they took separate lodgings, and he
## p. 94 (#118) #############################################
94
Swift
was never with Esther Johnson except in the presence of a third
person.
Swift was soon back in England. He had already written one
of his most amusing poems, the burlesque Petition of Mrs Frances
Harris ; and, in 1701, he wrote the pamphlet A Discourse on the
Dissensions in Athens and Rome, which was attributed by some
to Somers and by others to Burnet. He was evidently well known
in London society by the time that A Tale of a Tub appeared
in 1704, after lying in manuscript for seven or eight years. He
became a friend of Addison, who sent him a copy of his Travels
in Italy with an inscription : ‘To Jonathan Swift, the most agree-
able of companions, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of
his age this work is presented by his most humble servant the
author. ' Of one of his poems, Baucis and Philemon, Swift said
that Addison made him blot out fourscore lines, add fourscore
and alter fourscore. Steele, too, at this time, was among his friends;
but he spoke with some contempt of the ordinary coffeehouse
wits. He took part in the attack on the almanac written by the
astrologer John Partridge, producing a parody, Predictions for
the ensuing year, by Isaac Bickerstaff, in which he foretold that,
on 29 March, Partridge would die of fever; and, on 30 March, he
printed a letter giving an account of Partridge's end. Partridge
protested that he was alive; but Swift represented that he was
really dead, inasmuch as his credit was gone. Other wits joined
in the fray, and Steele, on starting The Tatler in 1709, adopted
the name Bickerstaff as that of the supposed author. At the same
time, Swift was engaged in more serious work. In 1708—9, he
produced important pamphlets on church questions, which show
that he was beginning to understand that the interests of the whig
party could not be reconciled with those of his order, and was
busily engaged in representing to the government the claims of
the Irish clergy to the first fruits and twentieths, which had
already been granted to the clergy in England.
An attempt to lessen the power of the duke of Marlborough
had come to nothing. Harley, just when he seemed to have
attained success, lost his office; Marlborough and Godolphin
joined the whigs, and, by the end of 1708, Somers was lord
president of the council and Wharton lord lieutenant of Ireland.
Swift was hoping for preferment for himself; but he informed
correspondents that no promise of making his fortune would
prevail on him to go against what became a man of conscience
and truth and an entire friend to the established church. Hopes
## p. 95 (#119) #############################################
i
London and Party Politics 95
that had been held out to him came to nothing, and Swift re-
tired to Ireland. A great change, however, was not far distant.
The prosecution of Sacheverell gave the high church party its
chance. The whigs were turned out of office: Harley became
chancellor of the exchequer, and the new parliament of November
1710 had a great tory majority. In September, Swift was again in
London, and the events of the three following years, with all Swift's
thoughts and hopes, are set out before us in his letters to Esther
Johnson and Mrs Dingley, afterwards to be published as the
Journal to Stella. In a very short time, Swift was in company
with Harley and St John. The whigs, he said, had clutched at
him like a drowning man at a twig, but he minded them not.
Harley listened to the proposals as to first fruits, showed
familiarity with Swift's Christian name and, in general, was exces-
sively obliging. Swift confessed that he was willing to revenge
himself upon his old friends, who had neglected him. “I will
make them repent their ill-usage before I leave this place,' he
said. But we must not forget that, in joining the tories, he was
only rallying to the side with which he was really in sympathy.
The interests of the church were paramount with him; and he had
come to see that tories were the church's natural guardians. In
October, he attacked Godolphin in The Virtues of Sid Hamet
the Magician's Rod, and published a pamphlet against Wharton,
charging him with nearly every crime. In the following month,
he took in charge a weekly paper, The Examiner, which had just
been started by St John', and he wrote for it regularly until June
1711. St John afterwards said, “We were determined to have you:
you were the only one we were afraid of. '
An attempt to assassinate Harley, in March 1711, greatly in-
creased the popularity of that minister. Swift was much alarmed
while Harley's life was in danger. He had, Swift said, always
treated him with the tenderness of a parent, and never refused him
any favour as a friend. The efforts of the party were now devoted
to bringing the war with France to an end. Harley was created
earl of Oxford, and became lord treasurer. The whigs, opposed
to a peace, formed an alliance with Nottingham, previously an
extreme tory. Swift, who had given up his connection with
The Examiner, composed, in November and December 1711, two
pamphlets in favour of peace: The Conduct of the Allies and of
the late Ministry in beginning and carrying on the present war,
and Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty. He also attacked
* See post, chap. VIII.
6
}
1
## p. 96 (#120) #############################################
96
Swift
the duchess of Somerset in The W-ds—r Prophecy, and assisted
the government by A Letter to the October Club, which consisted
of the more extreme tories. The danger threatening the govern-
ment from the House of Lords was removed, in December, by the
creation of twelve new peers, and by the dismissal of the duke of
Marlborough from his employments.
Swift had now attained a position of great importance, and the
authority he possessed and the respect shown him gave him much
pleasure. He often used his power in the service of humble friends
as well as of persons of more social consequence. "This I think I
am bound to do, in honour to my conscience,' he says, 'to use of
my little credit toward helping forward men of worth in the
world. ' To literary men, he was specially helpful. The Brothers'
club, which had been founded in 1711, to advance conversation
and friendship, included St John and other ministers, Swift,
Arbuthnot and Prior. The club does not seem to have lasted
beyond 1713, but its members frequently called each other
"brother' in later years. With regard to his own promotion,
Swift felt that he should be asked rather than ask? Recognition
of his services was, no doubt, to some extent, delayed by the wish
of ministers to keep him at hand to assist them; but the main
dífficulty was the suspicion as to his orthodoxy, an argument
which had considerable weight with the queen. Oxford was
kind to him; 'mighty kind,' says Swift; ‘less of civility but more
of interest! ' At last, in April 1713, he was given the vacant
deanery of St Patrick's—a somewhat disappointing end to his
hopes, inasmuch as it involved banishment to Ireland, and the
payment of heavy expenses on the deanery. His health was
bad; he was subject to attacks of giddiness; and his reception
in Dublin was anything but friendly. In October, Swift returned
to London. Peace had now been secured, and the question before
the country was that of the succession to the crown. Oxford was
not above suspicion; St John (now Viscount Bolingbroke) was
involved in Jacobite plots. Swift was not aware of these schem-
ings, although there was widespread suspicion which led to much
uneasiness in the country. The queen was in ill-health, and it was
known that her life was very precarious.
Swift's efforts to repair the growing breach between Oxford and
* He did not, however, always leave it to others to make the suggestion. On
5 Jan. 1712/3, he wrote to Oxford: 'I must humbly take leave to inform your Lordship
that the Dean of Wells died this morning at one o'clock. I entirely submit my small
fortunes to your Lordsbip. ' Marquis of Bath's Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1904, 1, 228.
## p. 97 (#121) #############################################
Stella and Vanessa
97
>
Bolingbroke came to nothing. In many respects, his sympathies
were with Bolingbroke; but his friendship for Oxford made it im-
possible for him to desert that minister. He refused, therefore,
to join with the men now in power. Oxford was deprived of office
on 27 July 1714; but Bolingbroke's triumph was short-lived, for,
on 1 August, queen Anne died. Swift retired to Dublin, where he
lived in the corner of a vast unfurnished house. '
In Dublin, of course, Swift was in constant intercourse with
Esther Johnson; but his relations with Stella, as she has come
to be known, were complicated by his friendship for Hester
Vanhomrigh, the daughter of a widow with whom he had become
acquainted in 1708. In 1710, when Swift went to London, he had
taken lodgings near the family, and he was frequently with them.
Hester Vanhomrigh was then nineteen. By 1713, she was known
to him as Vanessa, and he wrote a poem, Cadenus and Vanessa,
to explain the relations between them. This curious piece was not
meant for publication, but, rather, as a self-justification, to explain
how it was that a girl felt admiration for a man who had grown old
in politics and wit and had lost the arts that would charm a lady.
He regarded her as might a father or a tutor; but, when he offered
friendship, she said that she would be the tutor and would teach him
what love is. Vanessa was passionately in love; and, on the death of
her mother, she and her sister retired to Ireland, a step which, no
doubt, was very embarrassing to Swift. He told her that he could
see her very seldom, for everything that happened there would
be known in a week. Her fragmentary letters are filled with
reproaches, which Swift endeavoured to meet by temporising and
by good advice as to diverting her mind by exercise and by
amusing books. We cannot discuss here the theories that have
been advanced as to the reason why Swift had not married Stella.
It is alleged that a form of marriage was gone through in 1716 ; but
the evidence in favour of this is quite insufficient, and, in any case,
it was merely a form. It was at this time, according to Delany,
that archbishop King, after parting from Swift, said, 'You have
just met the most unhappy man on earth; but on the subject of
his wretchedness you must never ask a question. ' About 1723, a
crisis occurred. One of the stories is that Vanessa, who had then
lost all her near relatives, wrote to Stella asking her whether she
was Swift's wife; whereupon Stella replied that she was and sent
the letter to Swift. Swift, we are told, went at once to Vanessa,
threw the letter on the table, and rode off. If this were true,
Swift's conduct would be put in a very bad light; but the evidence
7
E. L. IX.
CA. IV.
## p. 98 (#122) #############################################
98
Swift
is slight, and, according to another version, it was to Swift that
Vanessa wrote. It is certain that Vanessa died soon afterwards,
leaving a request that Cadenus and Vanessa and her correspond-
ence with Swift might be published. Whatever interpretation be
put upon them, the letters are very unpleasant reading.
In the meantime, Swift had become an Irish patriot, though he
viewed Ireland and the native population with contempt. His
hatred of injustice was, no doubt, strengthened by pleasure in
attacking the government in power; but he was certainly sincere
in his convictions. More will be said below of A proposal for the
universal use of Irish manufacture, published by him in 1720,
in which he urged the Irish not to use English goods, and of the
famous Drapier's Letters, written between April and December
1724, on the occasion of the granting of a patent to William Wood
to supply Ireland with a copper coinage. In the former case, the
printer was prosecuted, but no jury could be found to convict,
and the prosecution was dropped. In the latter, amidst the
greatest popular excitement, a crown jury in Dublin represented
that Wood's halfpence were a nuisance, and the government was
beaten.
Before the Drapier's letters appeared, Swift was engaged on
his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels: but the book was not
finished until early in 1726, when Swift brought the manuscript to
London, where it was published in October. Its success was great
and immediate. Arbuthnot said that he thought it would have as
long a run as John Bunyan, and Gay states that the duchess of Marl-
borough was in raptures with it on account of the satire on human
nature with which it was filled. During Swift's visit to England
he had, however, received the troubling news of Stella's illness. To
one friend in Dublin he wrote, “We have been perfect friends these
thirty-five years; on my advice they both came to Ireland, and have
been ever since my constant companions, and the remainder of my
life will be a very melancholy scene. ' To another friend he said:
This was a person of my own rearing and instruction from childhood, who
excelled in every good quality that can possibly accomplish a human creature.
. . . Violent friendship is much more lasting and as much engaging as violent
love.
He returned to Ireland in August; but Stella's health improved,
and, in 1727, he paid another visit to London’; but in September
1 Swift may have contributed to Bolingbroke's Craftsman in 1726 and following
years. See post, chap. VIII; and cf. Sichel, W. , Bolingbroke and his Times, vol. 11,
pp. 251–2.
## p. 99 (#123) #############################################
99
Popularity and Despondency
she was worse, and again he hurried back to Dublin. On the way,
he had been delayed at Holyhead, and, in a diary which he kept
'to divert thinking,' he speaks of the suspense he was in about his
dearest friend. Stella died in January 1728, after making a will
which describes her as 'spinster. In the Character of Mrs Johnson
which Swift began to write on the night of her death, he calls her
'the truest, most virtuous and valuable friend that I or perhaps
any other person was ever blessed with. ' After his death, a lock of
her hair was found in his desk in a paper marked 'Only a woman's
hair. ' Swift was himself so troubled with noises in the ear and
deafness that he had no spirit for anything and avoided everybody.
He had, as already noticed, been subject to giddiness for many years.
Swift was now a popular hero in Ireland, and there had been
some hope that, during his visits to London, he would obtain
preferment in England; but none was given him. In Ireland, he
found the people would not do anything to help themselves. His
growing misanthropy was shown in the terrible satire called A
Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people from
being a burden to their parents or the country. Ireland, he said,
was a mass of beggars, thieves, oppressors, fools and knaves; but
he must be content to die there: with such a people, it was better
to die than live? Elsewhere, he compared Ireland to a coalpit:
a man who had been bred in a pit might live there all his life
contented; but, if sent back to it after a few months in the open
air, he could not be contented. Yet, notwithstanding his feelings,
Swift did his work at St Patrick's efficiently, and improved the
lot of many by his charity. To Mrs Dingley, he gave an annuity
of fifty guineas a year, allowing her to believe that the money
came from a fund of which he was trustee. He had various friends
with whom, in his later years, he bandied riddles and other trifles;
but, from time to time, he still produced admirable pieces, such
as A Complete Collection of genteel and ingenious Conversa-
tion, Directions to Servants, On Poetry: a Rhapsody and The
Legion Club. Gradually, his correspondence with friends in
England fell off. In 1738, he wrote to Edward Harley, earl of
Oxford:
a
I am now good for nothing, very deaf, very old, and very much out of favour
with those in power. My dear lord, I have a thousand things to say, but
I can remember none of them.
· Welbeck Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1901, vi, 57. Swift's private affairs were in
1730—3 in a bad condition, embroiled in law (ibid. 28, 47).
? Marquis of Bath's Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1, 254.
7-2
## p. 100 (#124) ############################################
Іоо
Swift
And, in 1740, he wrote to his cousin, Mrs Whiteway,
>
I have been very miserable all night, and today extremely deaf and full of
pain. I am so stupid and confounded that I cannot express the mortification
I am under both in body and mind. All I can say is, that I am not in torture:
but I daily and hourly expect it. I hardly understand one word I write.
I am sure my days will be very few, few and miserable they must be.
The brain trouble, which had threatened him all his life, became
worse, and there were violent fits of temper, with considerable
physical pain. In 1742, it was necessary to appoint guardians,
and Swift fell into a condition of dementia. The end came, at
last, on 7 October 1745. He left his fortune to found a hospital
for idiots and lunatics, and was interred at St Patrick's by the
side of Stella. In an epitaph which he wrote for himself, he said
he was Ubi saeva indignatio cor ulterius lacerare nequit.
One of the greatest and most characteristic of Swift's general
satires is A Tale of a Tub, written for the universal improvement
of mankind, an early work, composed about 1696, and published,
with The Battle of the Books, in 1704. In his later years, when
his powers were failing, we are told that Swift was seen looking
at this volume and was heard to say, 'Good God, wbat a genius
I had when I wrote that book. ' A considerable, but by no means
the largest or ablest, portion of the work is occupied by an account
of the quarrels of the churches, told in the famous story of three
brothers, Peter, Martin and Jack, representing Roman catholics,
Anglicans and puritans ; of the coat bequeathed to them by their
father, whose will, explaining the proper mode of wearing it, they
first interpreted each in his own way, and then, after many ingenious
evasions of it, locked up in a strong box; and of their subsequent
quarrels concerning the will and its significance. Throughout,
the brothers act in accordance with the doctrine that beings which
the world calls clothes are, in reality, rational creatures or men,
and that, in short, we see nothing but the clothes and hear nothing
but them-a doctrine which Carlyle had in mind when he wrote
his Sartor Resartus.
The manner in which Swift dealt with religious questions in this
book led to suspicions as to the genuineness of his Christianity-a
suggestion which Swift regarded as a great wrong. He said that
he had attacked only Peter (who insisted, in turn, on being called 'Mr
Peter,' 'Father Peter' and 'Lord Peter') and Jack (who called his
hatred of Peter zeal, and was much annoyed by Martin's patience),
and that he had not made any reflections on Martin. What he
## p. 101 (#125) ############################################
A Tale of a Tub
IOI
satirised was not religion but the abuse of religion. This defence
is not very convincing; though we need not doubt Swift's ortho-
doxy, we cannot but feel that a scoffer would read the book with
greater relish than a believer. The contempt poured on Roman
catholics and dissenters is often in the worst taste, and touches
upon doctrines and beliefs which an earnest member of the church
of England would think it dangerous to ridicule. Such attacks
on important doctrines may easily be treated as attacks on
Christianity itself.
But A Tale of a Tub is far more than an account of the
wrangles of the churches. It is a skilful and merciless dissection
of the whole of human nature. To the satire on vanity and pride,
on pedantry and on the search for fame, in the introductory
dedication to Somers and the delightful dedication to prince
Posterity, is added an attack on bad writing, which is continued,
again and again, throughout the work. In conclusion, Swift ob-
served that he was trying an experiment very frequent among
modern authors, which is to write upon nothing: the knowledge
when to have done was possessed by few. The work contains
entertaining digressions, in one of which the author satirises
critics. In former times, it had been held that critics were persons
who drew up rules by which careful writers might pronounce
upon the productions of the learned and form a proper judgment
of the sublime and the contemptible. At other times, critic' had
meant the restorer of ancient learning from the dust of manu-
scripts; but the third and noblest sort was the 'true critic,' who
had bestowed many benefits on the world. A true critic was the
discoverer and collector of writers' faults. The custom of authors
was to point out with great pains their own excellences and other
men’s defects. The modern way of using books was either to learn
their titles and then brag of acquaintance with them, or to get
a thorough insight into the indexes. To enter the palace of
learning at the great gate took much time; therefore, men with
haste and little ceremony use the back door. In another digression,
Swift treats of the origin, use and importance of madness in
a commonwealth. He defined happiness as 'a perpetual possession
of being well deceived. The serene and peaceful state was to be
a fool among knaves. Delusion was necessary for peace of mind.
Elsewhere, Swift confesses to a longing for fame, a blessing which
usually comes only after death.
In wit and brilliancy of thought, Swift never surpassed A
Tale of a Tub; and the style is as nearly perfect as it could well
6
## p. 102 (#126) ############################################
IO2
Swift
be. Swift here allows himself more colour than is to be found in
his later writings. In spite of discursiveness and lack of dramatic
interest, the book remains the greatest of English satires.
The famous Full and true Account of the Battle fought last
Friday between the Ancient and the Modern Books in Saint
James's Library, generally known as The Battle of the Books,
had its origin, as has been said, in the controversy respecting the
relative superiority of ancient and modern learning, in which Sir
William Temple had taken part. The controversy has now lost
its interest, and Temple's ill-judged defence of the genuineness of
the ‘ Epistles of Phalaris' does not concern us. Swift assumes the
genuineness of the letters ; but the merit of the work lies in its
satirical power. It may be that Swift had read Le Combat des
Livres of François de Callières (1688); but, if so, he owed little
to it. Among Swift's satires, the fragmentary Battle of the Books
is relatively so little remembered, that its main features may be
here recalled.
The piece is mainly an attack on pedantry, in which it is
argued that invention may be weakened by overmuch learning.
There were two tops to the hill Parnassus, the highest and largest
of which had been time out of mind in the possession of the
ancients, while the other was held by the moderns. The moderns
desired to bring about a reduction in the height of the point held
by the ancients. The ancients replied that the better course would
be for the moderns to raise their own side of the hill. To such
a step, they would not only agree but would largely contribute.
Negotiations came to nothing, and there was a great battle. But,
first, we are told the story of the Bee and the Spider. A bee had
become entangled in a spider's web; the two insects quarrelled
and Aesop was called in as arbitrator. The bee, who is to be taken
as typifying the ancients, went straight to nature, gathering his
support from the flowers of the field and the garden, without any
damage to them. The spider, like the moderns, boasted of not being
obliged to any other creature, but of drawing and spinning out all
from himself. The moderns, says Swift, produced nothing but
wrangling and satire, much of the nature of the spider's poison.
The ancients, ranging through every corner of nature, had pro-
duced honey and wax and furnished mankind with the two
noblest of things, which are sweetness and light. ' In the great
battle between the books that followed, the moderns appealed for
aid to the malignant deity Criticism, who had dwelt in a den at
the top of snowy mountains, where there were spoils of numberless
## p. 103 (#127) ############################################
The Battle of the Books. Gulliver's Travels 103
half-devoured volumes. With her were Ignorance, Pride, Opinion,
Noise and Impudence, Dulness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry
and Ill-manners. She could change herself into an octavo compass,'
when she was indistinguishable in shape and dress from “the divine
Bentley,' in person the most deformed of all the moderns. The
piece ends abruptly with the meeting of Bentley and Wotton with
Boyle, who transfixes the pair with his lance. We need not imagine
that Swift held too seriously the views on the subject of the con-
troversy expressed in this fragment: Temple, we are told, received
a slight graze ; and, says the publisher, the manuscript, ‘being in
several places imperfect, we cannot learn to which side the victory
fell. ' The piece was largely inspired by the desire to assist his
patron ; but, besides being a brilliant attack on his opponents, it
abounds in satire of a more general nature, and its interest for us
is not affected by the fact that Temple was on the wrong side.
The most famous of all Swift's works is Gulliver's Travels.
The inception of the book has been traced to the celebrated
Scriblerus club, which came into existence in the last months of
queen Anne's reign, when Swift joined with Arbuthnot, Pope,
Gay and other members in a scheme to ridicule all false tastes
in learning. The Memoirs of Scriblerus by Arbuthnot were not
published until 1741; but Pope said that Swift took the first hints
for Gulliver's Travels from them. The connection of the Travels
with the original scheme, however, is very slight, and appears
chiefly in the third part of the work. Swift's book underwent
discussion between him and his friends several years before it
appeared. In September 1725, he told Pope that he was correcting
and finishing the work.
are stated to be copied from an impression sent from Dublin, and
to have been printed by the Dean's direction, and complained
## p. 85 (#109) #############################################
Imitations of Horace
85
a
to friends that Swift had published them without his consent.
The letters to Cromwell are interesting as illustrating Pope's early
tastes and ambitions; but his elaborate way of doctoring the
correspondence for whose publication he was himself responsible
makes it of very little worth as biographical evidence, unless the
originals or genuine copies, as in Carylls case, have survived.
As a whole, the letters are disappointing; they are wanting in
naturalness and charm, and, too often, are a mere string of moral
reflections.
The year 1733 was, perhaps, the most prolific in Pope's life.
About the beginning of the year, when he had for the moment laid
aside An Essay on Man on account of ill-health, Bolingbroke
observed to him how well the first satire of Horace's second book
would 'bit his case' if he were to imitate it in English. On this
hint, Pope 'translated it in a morning or two and sent it to the press
in a week or fortnight after. ' The suggestion of a friend, and the
framework of Horace, had given him one of the greatest oppor-
tunities of his literary life. The brilliance and conciseness of his
style, his command alike over a lofty and over a conversational
tone, the power of pungent epigram with which he stung his
enemies, the affectionate enthusiasm with which he praised his
friends, the fondness with which he lingered over the subject of
himself-all here found expression. Horace's rambling method
lent itself to his purpose, and the original text, while sparing him
the task of constructing his own scheme, enabled him to display
his skill in adaptation and parallel. While, in one part, adopting
& tone of proud superiority as the conscious champion of virtue, he
does not deny the presence of a personal animus:
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhymel.
The most savage blow was aimed at ‘furious Sappho. ' Lady
Mary had been attacked in ‘The Capon's Tale'in Pope and Swift's
Miscellany, and, again, in The Dunciad. Pope suspected her of
being, at least part, author of A Pop upon Pope, which gave an
imaginary account of his whipping by two of his victims in The
Dunciad. In March 1733 appeared Verses addressed to the
Imitator of Horace: By a Lady, in which Pope's body, soul,
and muse were mercilessly reviled. Of this piece, Lady Mary, it
would seem, was the chief author, helped, perhaps, by Lord Hervey,
smarting from the reference to himself as 'Lord Fanny' in the
6
ILI. 77-78.
1
## p. 86 (#110) #############################################
86
Pope
first Imitation of Horace'. Hervey replied, on his own account,
in the feeble Letter from a Nobleman at Hampton Court (1733).
Pope's rejoinder was the prose Letter to a Noble Lord (printed,
but not published, in 1733); but his most conclusive reply to
the attacks he had provoked was in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
(1735), misnamed by Warburton The Prologue to the Satires.
This magnificent outburst of autobiography, self-laudation, satire
and invective contains some of Pope's most finished and bril-
liant work. He professed that, feeling the awkward necessity to
say something of himself, he had merely put the last hand
to a desultory piece which he had had no thoughts of publishing.
Parts, it is true, such as Addison's character and the lines on
his own mother, were of earlier date; but the bulk of the com-
position is, obviously, written for an immediate end. Beginning
with lively complaints of the persecution from friend and foe
which his fame has brought on him, he sketches his career as
a man of letters, the encouragement received by him, all that he
has endured from critics, his shrinking from literary coteries, his
own lofty aims and his promptness to attack vice high or low. He
closes by dwelling on his father's character and his own devotion
to his mother's declining years. His pride in the approval and
.
love bestowed by the fittest on his studies and himself is seen in
those lines which Lamb could not repeat without emotion; but, in
general, the blame is more thickly sown than the praise. Gildon,
Dennis, Colley Cibber, Philips, Curll, Budgell, Welsted, Moore,
Bentley, Theobald, all are made to feel his lash. A satiric
portrait of Bubb Dodington was transferred in later editions to
Halifax; but the two most famous full-lengths are those of Lord
Hervey and Addison. Both are essentially unjust, and the latter
is a masterpiece of plausible misinterpretation. No less remark-
able than the number of passages of high excellence is the art
with which they are introduced into the context and the supreme
ease that throughout distinguishes the style.
Pope soon followed up the success of his first imitation of
Horace. Satire II, îi appeared in 1734, I, ii, 'Sober advice
from Horace,' anonymously in the same year. Epistle i, vi in
January, II, ii in April, II, i in June and i, i at the end of
1737. They have been called perfect translations, the persons and
things being transferred as well as the words. ' They are, however,
something less and something more than translations. Horace's
i Sat. 11, i, 6.
2 LI. 305-333.
3 LI. 193—214,
## p. 87 (#111) #############################################
Various Satires
87
point of view is not always caught. In places, adherence to the
Latin produces a train of thought not perfectly natural in English ;
but, for the most part, the imitations give keen pleasure as originals,
and the pleasure is made more various by comparison with the
model. There is a wide difference between the two satirists. Pope
has less of the mellow wisdom of Horace's maturity and more of
the fiery temper of his youth. The lofty and declamatory moral
tone is in the manner, rather, of Juvenal. Full use is made of the
chances for personal reference. It cannot be said that Pope
administers justice impartially. When there is an opportunity
for an example of vice, his personal enemies have the first claim,
while supporters of the opposition in arms against Walpole are
treated with leniency. Of his compliments to his friends, Hazlitt
has well said they are equal in value to a house or an estate. '
His use of irony is extraordinarily skilful. It is seen at its best
in his treatment of George II in Epistle 11, i; his frequent hits,
elsewhere, at king George II and his consort are due to his having
adopted wholesale the opinions of the opposition. Pope's style in
the Satires is at its very highest. In such lines as
And goad the prelate slumb'ring in his stalli
or
Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star,
manner.
the thought is expressed to perfection and acquires a further
atmosphere from the words chosen. The Imitations of Epistle
1, vii and the latter part of Satire II, v in octosyllabic verse are
of a totally different character, being attempts to copy Swift's
The Satires (II and iv) of Dr Donne Versified were
included in the collection of 1735; the latter had appeared, anony-
mously, in 1733. If Pope is to be believed, they were composed
at the request of Lords Oxford and Shrewsbury; but, if written
earlier, they were largely revised in the reign of George II, when
many of the modern instances were added. Pope had thought of
dealing, after the same fashion, with the Satires of Joseph Hall
whom he has imitated in more than one place, but Hall's versifica-
tion invited less change. The two Dialogues of 1738 were treated
.
by Warburton as an epilogue to the Satires. They appeared at
a time when the opposition to Walpole was exceptionally active,
and are full of evidence of Pope's sympathy with that side. In
one of these, a friend contrasts Pope's severity with Horace's 'sly,
7
1 Epilogue to the Satires, written in 1738, Dial. 11, 1. 219.
2 Imitations of Horace, Sat, a, i, 1. 108.
3 Cf, ante, vol. iv, pp. 329 ff.
## p. 88 (#112) #############################################
88
Pope
polite, insinuating style,' and presses him to take safe subjects for
his satire. Pope ironically agrees: :
Come, harmless characters, that no one hit1.
He laments, that, though virtue is an empty boast, the dignity of
vice should be lost, and ends with a picture of universal corruption.
In Dialogue II, the poet defends his practice of personal satire,
showing that he can appreciate merit, that it is not friendship only
which prompts his lays and that he praises virtue in whatever party.
He ends by dwelling on his proud consciousness of his office as
a satirist. It is difficult at first to reconcile this boast with the
elaborate party purpose of the two poems. But, often as Pope
perverted his powers for personal ends, capable as we know him
to have been of insincere professions, it is difficult not to feel, when
reading his lofty claim, that, at the moment, he believed his satire
to be an instrument for righteousness. The unfinished 1740 found
among Pope's papers? is of interest in showing the feeling of a
section of the opposition to their nominal leaders, Pulteney and
Carteret.
The new Dunciad (1742) embodied materials on the mis-
application of learning, science and wit originally designed for
another poem. Its appearance seems due to Pope's irritation
against the university of Oxford for declining to offer Warburton
the degree of D. D. While gratifying many personal grudges, as
in the notorious lines on Bentley’, the satire was, to a large extent,
general, falling on the Italian opera, the abuses of education at
school and college, antiquaries, naturalists and freethinkers. The
lines describing the final consummation of the power of dulness
have won deserved praise; those on the fashionable tour, though
less elevated, are almost equally brilliant.
Pope had frequently directed his satire at Colley Cibber. His
most offensive line was in the Epistle to Arbuthnot (1. 97). In the
new Dunciad, Cibber was introduced as ‘Dulness's Laureate Son. '
Cibber, in reply, published a letter in which he suggested that,
if 'Sawney' had been substituted for 'Cibber' in the Epistle, the
satire would have been equally just. To prove this, he told how,
having met Pope in very doubtful company in years gone by,
he would take credit for Homer in having saved his translator
from serious harm. Cibber's good-humoured patronage was
sufficiently exasperating, and, to Pope, who was ambitious of
fame as a moralist, this full-flavoured anecdote, with the derisive
1 Epilogue, etc. (1738), Dial. I, 1. 65.
2 LI. 203-274.
## p. 89 (#113) #############################################
Pope's Genius and Influence
89
engravings which it occasioned, must have been particularly gall-
ing. In revenge, he installed Cibber in Theobald's place as hero
of The Dunciad in the new edition which incorporated the fourth
book (1743). Pope has been reproached for allowing his rancour
to inflict irreparable injury on his original design. Certainly, the
change of the opening is ludicrously inapposite, but the hero's
personality is little to the fore in the later books. Cibber was
no dullard, but neither were many of the other 'dunces'; and he
undoubtedly had much of the bad taste and folly that is apt to
attend on cleverness. A man of his character was not so hope-
lessly unsuited for the throne.
Warburton was now on terms of growing intimacy with Pope.
He had contributed 'Aristarchus on the Hero of the Poem' and
notes to the latest edition of the Dunciad, and his influence is felt
in parts of the fourth book. He had written commentaries on An
Essay on Man and on An Essay on Criticism and was engaged
on the Ethic Epistles. This edition, completed in time for Pope
to present to some of his friends, was suppressed by Warburton
at Bolingbroke's suggestion in consequence of its containing the
character of Atossa.
Pope, who had been for some time in failing health, died on
30 May 1744.
With Pope, the classical spirit in English poetry reached its
acme. That the life of so supreme a genius for style coincided
with the period when the social interest in man had dwarfed the
feeling for nature, and when knowledge of the town was more
prized than romance or pathos, gave double strength to the reaction
when it came. His immediate influence, however, was immense
and extended across the sea to Germany, France and other parts
of Europe. Before his death, the first traces of the coming change
were seen; but the effect of his language and numbers prevailed
for long when the tone and subject of poetry were changing.
When the dust of the long controversy had been laid that raged
during the first quarter of the next century, it came to be recognised
that Pope's claim to rank among the very greatest poets could no
longer be allowed; but that, in his own class and kind, he need
not yield to any one. He has suffered most, in general repute, from
a distaste for the period which he faithfully reflected, from the
narrowness of devotees of nature and from the comparative rarity
of a true sense of form in the average reader of poetry, With the
professional student, his permanence is secure; but heaven forbid
that Pope should ever become a mere subject for research!
## p. 90 (#114) #############################################
90
Pope
It
Important for the history of English poetry and taste, he is
important, also, as the writer of lines that live. Critics may
attempt to define his limitations and point him to his place in
the great company of poets; but, within the pale of literary ortho-
doxy, there is room for difference. The survival of poets other
than the very highest must depend not on their historical value,
but on their finding in each generation a body of admirers.
has been said that admiration for Pope comes with years. If so,
. ,
it is among the kindliest provisions of Providence against old age.
The question is essentially one of temperament. Those who, while
not responding readily to violent emotions, are keenly interested
in men and manners, with but a chastened passion for green fields,
who can appreciate satire and epigram and have a nice sense of
finish, will, in every age, enjoy the poetry of Pope for its own sake.
## p. 91 (#115) #############################################
CHAPTER IV
SWIFT
>
SWIFT's writings are so closely connected with the man that
they cannot be understood properly without reference to the
circumstances under which they were produced. The best way,
therefore, of arriving at Swift's views and methods will be to set
out briefly the chief events of his life, and, afterwards, to consider
the more important of his writings.
Jonathan Swift's royalist grandfather, Thomas Swift, of a
Yorkshire family, was vicar of Goodrich, and married Elizabeth
Dryden, niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, the poet's grandfather.
The eldest of his large family, Godwin, a barrister, went to
Ireland, where he became wealthy; and some of his brothers
followed him. One of them, Jonathan, who had married Abigail
Erick, was made steward of the king's inns, Dublin, but he did not
live long, and, seven months after his death, on 30 November 1667,
his only son, Jonathan, was born. The widow was left dependent
mainly on her husband's brother, Godwin. A nurse took the child
to Whitehaven, and kept him there three years; and, not long
after his return to Dublin, his mother returned to her relatives
in England, leaving the boy in his uncle's care. He was sent
to Kilkenny school, where he met Congreve; and, when he was
fourteen, he was entered as a pensioner at Trinity college, Dublin.
Why he afterwards felt so much resentment against his relatives is
not clear; for his uncle gave him, not the education of a dog,' but
the best obtainable in Ireland. Swift was often at war with the
college authorities; but he got his degree in 1685.
;
In 1688, Swift's uncle Godwin died, having lost his fortune, and
Swift realized that he must not depend on any one but himself. The
revolution brought trouble for Ireland, and the young man joined
his mother at Leicester and looked about for employment. After
a time, an opportunity came from Sir William Temple, who was
now living in retirement at Moor park, near Farnham. Temple's
6
## p. 92 (#116) #############################################
92
Swift
ܢ
father had been a friend of Godwin Swift; he had himself known
the Swifts in Ireland; and Lady Temple was a connection of
Swift's mother. A man of cultivation and refinement, and a
renowned diplomatist, Temple was in need of someone to assist
him in his literary work, and Swift was chosen. Temple is said
to have treated him entirely as a dependent; but it must be
remembered that, at this time, Swift was an untrained youth of
twenty-two, and the distance between him and 'a person of
quality' like Temple would inevitably be great, especially in
those days.
In later years, Swift spoke somewhat disparagingly of Temple,
saying that he had felt too much what it was to be treated like a
schoolboy. Temple sometimes seemed out of humour for three or
four days, while Swift suspected a hundred reasons. In 1690, his
patron sent Swift with a letter of introduction to Sir Robert South-
well, secretary of state in Ireland, in the hope that he would find
Swift a post or procure for him a fellowship at Trinity college. The
letter said that Swift knew Latin and Greek and a little French;
that he wrote a good hand, and was honest and intelligent.
Nothing came of this recommendation, and Swift was soon back at
Moor park. Temple procured for him the M. A. degree at Oxford
and recommended him to William III. 'He thinks me a little
necessary to him,' wrote Swift. In 1693, he was sent by Temple to
represent to the king the necessity of triennial parliaments; but
the king was not convinced'. The first publication of anything by
Swift appears to have been in February 1691/2, when he printed in
the fifth supplement to The Athenian Mercury, a curious forerunner
of Notes and Queries, a ‘Letter to the Athenian Society,' enclosing
a Pindaric ode, in which he referred to his 'young and almost
vergin muse. ' In 1694, Swift parted from Temple, disappointed at
the failure of his patron to make any definite provision for him;
and, in October, he was ordained deacon, and priest in the following
January. He found it necessary to ask Temple for testimonials,
and Temple went further than he was asked, and obtained for
Swift the prebend of Kilroot. Swift, however, soon tired of
Ireland ; and, in 1696, he was once more at Moor park. In the
meantime, he had had a love affair with a Miss Jane Waring,
whom he addressed as Varina ; but he represented to her that
he was not in a position to marry. He remained with Temple
1 'I have sent him (the secretary) with another complaint from Papa to the King,
where I fancy he is not displeased with finding opportunities of going. ' Martha,
Lady Giffard, Her Life and Correspondence, ed. Longe, J. S. , 1911, p. 216.
## p. 93 (#117) #############################################
Moor Park and Laracor
93
until that statesman's death in 1699. Lady Temple had died in
1694, and Temple found his secretary more and more useful.
Swift was learning much in many directions. He read classical
and historical works in the library; he heard of public affairs
and of the experiences of his patron; he had opportunities of
studying the ways of servants in great houses; and he formed
the lasting affection of his life. Lady Giffard, Temple's sister, who
kept house for him after his wife's death, had as a companion or
servant Mrs Johnson, widow of a merchant of good position; and
this Mrs Johnson had two daughters, one of whom, Esther, a bright
child of eight when Swift first met her, was a great favourite with
the family, and received a legacy under Temple's will. Swift acted
as tutor to the girl, and, by the time of his last sojourn at Moor
park, she had, he says, grown into perfect health and was looked
upon as one of the most beautiful and graceful young women in
London.
Temple took part in the controversy on ancient and modern
learning, and in an essay he quoted the spurious 'Epistles of
Phalaris' as evidence of the superiority of the ancients. He was
answered by William Wotton, and, in 1697, Swift wrote his contri-
bution to the controversy, the clever Battle of the Books, which,
however, was not published till 1704. By his will, Temple had left
Swift £100 and any profit that was to be made by the publication
of his posthumous works. Unfortunately, this task led to a pro-
tracted quarrel with Lady Giffard. Swift was 'as far to seek as
ever. ' An application to the king came to nothing, and he thought
it well to accept an invitation to be chaplain and secretary to
Lord Berkeley, one of the lords justices in Ireland; but a rival
persuaded Lord Berkeley that the post was not fit for a clergyman,
and Swift departed in dudgeon. He was, however, presented to the
living of Laracor, near Trim, with two other small livings, together
with the prebend of Durlaven, in St Patrick's, and these brought
in an income of some £230 a year. Laracor had a congregation of
about fifteen persons; but he was often in Dublin and, through his
friendship with Lady Berkeley and her daughters, soon became well
known there. He suggested to Esther Johnson that she and her
friend Rebecca Dingley, who, in some way, was related to the Temple
family, might, with advantage, live in Ireland, and the ladies took
his advice. Swift was now thirty-four, Esther Johnson a young
woman of twenty. Everything was done to avoid any occasion of
scandal When Swift was absent, the ladies used his rooms in
Dublin; when he was there, they took separate lodgings, and he
## p. 94 (#118) #############################################
94
Swift
was never with Esther Johnson except in the presence of a third
person.
Swift was soon back in England. He had already written one
of his most amusing poems, the burlesque Petition of Mrs Frances
Harris ; and, in 1701, he wrote the pamphlet A Discourse on the
Dissensions in Athens and Rome, which was attributed by some
to Somers and by others to Burnet. He was evidently well known
in London society by the time that A Tale of a Tub appeared
in 1704, after lying in manuscript for seven or eight years. He
became a friend of Addison, who sent him a copy of his Travels
in Italy with an inscription : ‘To Jonathan Swift, the most agree-
able of companions, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of
his age this work is presented by his most humble servant the
author. ' Of one of his poems, Baucis and Philemon, Swift said
that Addison made him blot out fourscore lines, add fourscore
and alter fourscore. Steele, too, at this time, was among his friends;
but he spoke with some contempt of the ordinary coffeehouse
wits. He took part in the attack on the almanac written by the
astrologer John Partridge, producing a parody, Predictions for
the ensuing year, by Isaac Bickerstaff, in which he foretold that,
on 29 March, Partridge would die of fever; and, on 30 March, he
printed a letter giving an account of Partridge's end. Partridge
protested that he was alive; but Swift represented that he was
really dead, inasmuch as his credit was gone. Other wits joined
in the fray, and Steele, on starting The Tatler in 1709, adopted
the name Bickerstaff as that of the supposed author. At the same
time, Swift was engaged in more serious work. In 1708—9, he
produced important pamphlets on church questions, which show
that he was beginning to understand that the interests of the whig
party could not be reconciled with those of his order, and was
busily engaged in representing to the government the claims of
the Irish clergy to the first fruits and twentieths, which had
already been granted to the clergy in England.
An attempt to lessen the power of the duke of Marlborough
had come to nothing. Harley, just when he seemed to have
attained success, lost his office; Marlborough and Godolphin
joined the whigs, and, by the end of 1708, Somers was lord
president of the council and Wharton lord lieutenant of Ireland.
Swift was hoping for preferment for himself; but he informed
correspondents that no promise of making his fortune would
prevail on him to go against what became a man of conscience
and truth and an entire friend to the established church. Hopes
## p. 95 (#119) #############################################
i
London and Party Politics 95
that had been held out to him came to nothing, and Swift re-
tired to Ireland. A great change, however, was not far distant.
The prosecution of Sacheverell gave the high church party its
chance. The whigs were turned out of office: Harley became
chancellor of the exchequer, and the new parliament of November
1710 had a great tory majority. In September, Swift was again in
London, and the events of the three following years, with all Swift's
thoughts and hopes, are set out before us in his letters to Esther
Johnson and Mrs Dingley, afterwards to be published as the
Journal to Stella. In a very short time, Swift was in company
with Harley and St John. The whigs, he said, had clutched at
him like a drowning man at a twig, but he minded them not.
Harley listened to the proposals as to first fruits, showed
familiarity with Swift's Christian name and, in general, was exces-
sively obliging. Swift confessed that he was willing to revenge
himself upon his old friends, who had neglected him. “I will
make them repent their ill-usage before I leave this place,' he
said. But we must not forget that, in joining the tories, he was
only rallying to the side with which he was really in sympathy.
The interests of the church were paramount with him; and he had
come to see that tories were the church's natural guardians. In
October, he attacked Godolphin in The Virtues of Sid Hamet
the Magician's Rod, and published a pamphlet against Wharton,
charging him with nearly every crime. In the following month,
he took in charge a weekly paper, The Examiner, which had just
been started by St John', and he wrote for it regularly until June
1711. St John afterwards said, “We were determined to have you:
you were the only one we were afraid of. '
An attempt to assassinate Harley, in March 1711, greatly in-
creased the popularity of that minister. Swift was much alarmed
while Harley's life was in danger. He had, Swift said, always
treated him with the tenderness of a parent, and never refused him
any favour as a friend. The efforts of the party were now devoted
to bringing the war with France to an end. Harley was created
earl of Oxford, and became lord treasurer. The whigs, opposed
to a peace, formed an alliance with Nottingham, previously an
extreme tory. Swift, who had given up his connection with
The Examiner, composed, in November and December 1711, two
pamphlets in favour of peace: The Conduct of the Allies and of
the late Ministry in beginning and carrying on the present war,
and Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty. He also attacked
* See post, chap. VIII.
6
}
1
## p. 96 (#120) #############################################
96
Swift
the duchess of Somerset in The W-ds—r Prophecy, and assisted
the government by A Letter to the October Club, which consisted
of the more extreme tories. The danger threatening the govern-
ment from the House of Lords was removed, in December, by the
creation of twelve new peers, and by the dismissal of the duke of
Marlborough from his employments.
Swift had now attained a position of great importance, and the
authority he possessed and the respect shown him gave him much
pleasure. He often used his power in the service of humble friends
as well as of persons of more social consequence. "This I think I
am bound to do, in honour to my conscience,' he says, 'to use of
my little credit toward helping forward men of worth in the
world. ' To literary men, he was specially helpful. The Brothers'
club, which had been founded in 1711, to advance conversation
and friendship, included St John and other ministers, Swift,
Arbuthnot and Prior. The club does not seem to have lasted
beyond 1713, but its members frequently called each other
"brother' in later years. With regard to his own promotion,
Swift felt that he should be asked rather than ask? Recognition
of his services was, no doubt, to some extent, delayed by the wish
of ministers to keep him at hand to assist them; but the main
dífficulty was the suspicion as to his orthodoxy, an argument
which had considerable weight with the queen. Oxford was
kind to him; 'mighty kind,' says Swift; ‘less of civility but more
of interest! ' At last, in April 1713, he was given the vacant
deanery of St Patrick's—a somewhat disappointing end to his
hopes, inasmuch as it involved banishment to Ireland, and the
payment of heavy expenses on the deanery. His health was
bad; he was subject to attacks of giddiness; and his reception
in Dublin was anything but friendly. In October, Swift returned
to London. Peace had now been secured, and the question before
the country was that of the succession to the crown. Oxford was
not above suspicion; St John (now Viscount Bolingbroke) was
involved in Jacobite plots. Swift was not aware of these schem-
ings, although there was widespread suspicion which led to much
uneasiness in the country. The queen was in ill-health, and it was
known that her life was very precarious.
Swift's efforts to repair the growing breach between Oxford and
* He did not, however, always leave it to others to make the suggestion. On
5 Jan. 1712/3, he wrote to Oxford: 'I must humbly take leave to inform your Lordship
that the Dean of Wells died this morning at one o'clock. I entirely submit my small
fortunes to your Lordsbip. ' Marquis of Bath's Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1904, 1, 228.
## p. 97 (#121) #############################################
Stella and Vanessa
97
>
Bolingbroke came to nothing. In many respects, his sympathies
were with Bolingbroke; but his friendship for Oxford made it im-
possible for him to desert that minister. He refused, therefore,
to join with the men now in power. Oxford was deprived of office
on 27 July 1714; but Bolingbroke's triumph was short-lived, for,
on 1 August, queen Anne died. Swift retired to Dublin, where he
lived in the corner of a vast unfurnished house. '
In Dublin, of course, Swift was in constant intercourse with
Esther Johnson; but his relations with Stella, as she has come
to be known, were complicated by his friendship for Hester
Vanhomrigh, the daughter of a widow with whom he had become
acquainted in 1708. In 1710, when Swift went to London, he had
taken lodgings near the family, and he was frequently with them.
Hester Vanhomrigh was then nineteen. By 1713, she was known
to him as Vanessa, and he wrote a poem, Cadenus and Vanessa,
to explain the relations between them. This curious piece was not
meant for publication, but, rather, as a self-justification, to explain
how it was that a girl felt admiration for a man who had grown old
in politics and wit and had lost the arts that would charm a lady.
He regarded her as might a father or a tutor; but, when he offered
friendship, she said that she would be the tutor and would teach him
what love is. Vanessa was passionately in love; and, on the death of
her mother, she and her sister retired to Ireland, a step which, no
doubt, was very embarrassing to Swift. He told her that he could
see her very seldom, for everything that happened there would
be known in a week. Her fragmentary letters are filled with
reproaches, which Swift endeavoured to meet by temporising and
by good advice as to diverting her mind by exercise and by
amusing books. We cannot discuss here the theories that have
been advanced as to the reason why Swift had not married Stella.
It is alleged that a form of marriage was gone through in 1716 ; but
the evidence in favour of this is quite insufficient, and, in any case,
it was merely a form. It was at this time, according to Delany,
that archbishop King, after parting from Swift, said, 'You have
just met the most unhappy man on earth; but on the subject of
his wretchedness you must never ask a question. ' About 1723, a
crisis occurred. One of the stories is that Vanessa, who had then
lost all her near relatives, wrote to Stella asking her whether she
was Swift's wife; whereupon Stella replied that she was and sent
the letter to Swift. Swift, we are told, went at once to Vanessa,
threw the letter on the table, and rode off. If this were true,
Swift's conduct would be put in a very bad light; but the evidence
7
E. L. IX.
CA. IV.
## p. 98 (#122) #############################################
98
Swift
is slight, and, according to another version, it was to Swift that
Vanessa wrote. It is certain that Vanessa died soon afterwards,
leaving a request that Cadenus and Vanessa and her correspond-
ence with Swift might be published. Whatever interpretation be
put upon them, the letters are very unpleasant reading.
In the meantime, Swift had become an Irish patriot, though he
viewed Ireland and the native population with contempt. His
hatred of injustice was, no doubt, strengthened by pleasure in
attacking the government in power; but he was certainly sincere
in his convictions. More will be said below of A proposal for the
universal use of Irish manufacture, published by him in 1720,
in which he urged the Irish not to use English goods, and of the
famous Drapier's Letters, written between April and December
1724, on the occasion of the granting of a patent to William Wood
to supply Ireland with a copper coinage. In the former case, the
printer was prosecuted, but no jury could be found to convict,
and the prosecution was dropped. In the latter, amidst the
greatest popular excitement, a crown jury in Dublin represented
that Wood's halfpence were a nuisance, and the government was
beaten.
Before the Drapier's letters appeared, Swift was engaged on
his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels: but the book was not
finished until early in 1726, when Swift brought the manuscript to
London, where it was published in October. Its success was great
and immediate. Arbuthnot said that he thought it would have as
long a run as John Bunyan, and Gay states that the duchess of Marl-
borough was in raptures with it on account of the satire on human
nature with which it was filled. During Swift's visit to England
he had, however, received the troubling news of Stella's illness. To
one friend in Dublin he wrote, “We have been perfect friends these
thirty-five years; on my advice they both came to Ireland, and have
been ever since my constant companions, and the remainder of my
life will be a very melancholy scene. ' To another friend he said:
This was a person of my own rearing and instruction from childhood, who
excelled in every good quality that can possibly accomplish a human creature.
. . . Violent friendship is much more lasting and as much engaging as violent
love.
He returned to Ireland in August; but Stella's health improved,
and, in 1727, he paid another visit to London’; but in September
1 Swift may have contributed to Bolingbroke's Craftsman in 1726 and following
years. See post, chap. VIII; and cf. Sichel, W. , Bolingbroke and his Times, vol. 11,
pp. 251–2.
## p. 99 (#123) #############################################
99
Popularity and Despondency
she was worse, and again he hurried back to Dublin. On the way,
he had been delayed at Holyhead, and, in a diary which he kept
'to divert thinking,' he speaks of the suspense he was in about his
dearest friend. Stella died in January 1728, after making a will
which describes her as 'spinster. In the Character of Mrs Johnson
which Swift began to write on the night of her death, he calls her
'the truest, most virtuous and valuable friend that I or perhaps
any other person was ever blessed with. ' After his death, a lock of
her hair was found in his desk in a paper marked 'Only a woman's
hair. ' Swift was himself so troubled with noises in the ear and
deafness that he had no spirit for anything and avoided everybody.
He had, as already noticed, been subject to giddiness for many years.
Swift was now a popular hero in Ireland, and there had been
some hope that, during his visits to London, he would obtain
preferment in England; but none was given him. In Ireland, he
found the people would not do anything to help themselves. His
growing misanthropy was shown in the terrible satire called A
Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people from
being a burden to their parents or the country. Ireland, he said,
was a mass of beggars, thieves, oppressors, fools and knaves; but
he must be content to die there: with such a people, it was better
to die than live? Elsewhere, he compared Ireland to a coalpit:
a man who had been bred in a pit might live there all his life
contented; but, if sent back to it after a few months in the open
air, he could not be contented. Yet, notwithstanding his feelings,
Swift did his work at St Patrick's efficiently, and improved the
lot of many by his charity. To Mrs Dingley, he gave an annuity
of fifty guineas a year, allowing her to believe that the money
came from a fund of which he was trustee. He had various friends
with whom, in his later years, he bandied riddles and other trifles;
but, from time to time, he still produced admirable pieces, such
as A Complete Collection of genteel and ingenious Conversa-
tion, Directions to Servants, On Poetry: a Rhapsody and The
Legion Club. Gradually, his correspondence with friends in
England fell off. In 1738, he wrote to Edward Harley, earl of
Oxford:
a
I am now good for nothing, very deaf, very old, and very much out of favour
with those in power. My dear lord, I have a thousand things to say, but
I can remember none of them.
· Welbeck Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1901, vi, 57. Swift's private affairs were in
1730—3 in a bad condition, embroiled in law (ibid. 28, 47).
? Marquis of Bath's Papers, Hist. MSS Comm. , 1, 254.
7-2
## p. 100 (#124) ############################################
Іоо
Swift
And, in 1740, he wrote to his cousin, Mrs Whiteway,
>
I have been very miserable all night, and today extremely deaf and full of
pain. I am so stupid and confounded that I cannot express the mortification
I am under both in body and mind. All I can say is, that I am not in torture:
but I daily and hourly expect it. I hardly understand one word I write.
I am sure my days will be very few, few and miserable they must be.
The brain trouble, which had threatened him all his life, became
worse, and there were violent fits of temper, with considerable
physical pain. In 1742, it was necessary to appoint guardians,
and Swift fell into a condition of dementia. The end came, at
last, on 7 October 1745. He left his fortune to found a hospital
for idiots and lunatics, and was interred at St Patrick's by the
side of Stella. In an epitaph which he wrote for himself, he said
he was Ubi saeva indignatio cor ulterius lacerare nequit.
One of the greatest and most characteristic of Swift's general
satires is A Tale of a Tub, written for the universal improvement
of mankind, an early work, composed about 1696, and published,
with The Battle of the Books, in 1704. In his later years, when
his powers were failing, we are told that Swift was seen looking
at this volume and was heard to say, 'Good God, wbat a genius
I had when I wrote that book. ' A considerable, but by no means
the largest or ablest, portion of the work is occupied by an account
of the quarrels of the churches, told in the famous story of three
brothers, Peter, Martin and Jack, representing Roman catholics,
Anglicans and puritans ; of the coat bequeathed to them by their
father, whose will, explaining the proper mode of wearing it, they
first interpreted each in his own way, and then, after many ingenious
evasions of it, locked up in a strong box; and of their subsequent
quarrels concerning the will and its significance. Throughout,
the brothers act in accordance with the doctrine that beings which
the world calls clothes are, in reality, rational creatures or men,
and that, in short, we see nothing but the clothes and hear nothing
but them-a doctrine which Carlyle had in mind when he wrote
his Sartor Resartus.
The manner in which Swift dealt with religious questions in this
book led to suspicions as to the genuineness of his Christianity-a
suggestion which Swift regarded as a great wrong. He said that
he had attacked only Peter (who insisted, in turn, on being called 'Mr
Peter,' 'Father Peter' and 'Lord Peter') and Jack (who called his
hatred of Peter zeal, and was much annoyed by Martin's patience),
and that he had not made any reflections on Martin. What he
## p. 101 (#125) ############################################
A Tale of a Tub
IOI
satirised was not religion but the abuse of religion. This defence
is not very convincing; though we need not doubt Swift's ortho-
doxy, we cannot but feel that a scoffer would read the book with
greater relish than a believer. The contempt poured on Roman
catholics and dissenters is often in the worst taste, and touches
upon doctrines and beliefs which an earnest member of the church
of England would think it dangerous to ridicule. Such attacks
on important doctrines may easily be treated as attacks on
Christianity itself.
But A Tale of a Tub is far more than an account of the
wrangles of the churches. It is a skilful and merciless dissection
of the whole of human nature. To the satire on vanity and pride,
on pedantry and on the search for fame, in the introductory
dedication to Somers and the delightful dedication to prince
Posterity, is added an attack on bad writing, which is continued,
again and again, throughout the work. In conclusion, Swift ob-
served that he was trying an experiment very frequent among
modern authors, which is to write upon nothing: the knowledge
when to have done was possessed by few. The work contains
entertaining digressions, in one of which the author satirises
critics. In former times, it had been held that critics were persons
who drew up rules by which careful writers might pronounce
upon the productions of the learned and form a proper judgment
of the sublime and the contemptible. At other times, critic' had
meant the restorer of ancient learning from the dust of manu-
scripts; but the third and noblest sort was the 'true critic,' who
had bestowed many benefits on the world. A true critic was the
discoverer and collector of writers' faults. The custom of authors
was to point out with great pains their own excellences and other
men’s defects. The modern way of using books was either to learn
their titles and then brag of acquaintance with them, or to get
a thorough insight into the indexes. To enter the palace of
learning at the great gate took much time; therefore, men with
haste and little ceremony use the back door. In another digression,
Swift treats of the origin, use and importance of madness in
a commonwealth. He defined happiness as 'a perpetual possession
of being well deceived. The serene and peaceful state was to be
a fool among knaves. Delusion was necessary for peace of mind.
Elsewhere, Swift confesses to a longing for fame, a blessing which
usually comes only after death.
In wit and brilliancy of thought, Swift never surpassed A
Tale of a Tub; and the style is as nearly perfect as it could well
6
## p. 102 (#126) ############################################
IO2
Swift
be. Swift here allows himself more colour than is to be found in
his later writings. In spite of discursiveness and lack of dramatic
interest, the book remains the greatest of English satires.
The famous Full and true Account of the Battle fought last
Friday between the Ancient and the Modern Books in Saint
James's Library, generally known as The Battle of the Books,
had its origin, as has been said, in the controversy respecting the
relative superiority of ancient and modern learning, in which Sir
William Temple had taken part. The controversy has now lost
its interest, and Temple's ill-judged defence of the genuineness of
the ‘ Epistles of Phalaris' does not concern us. Swift assumes the
genuineness of the letters ; but the merit of the work lies in its
satirical power. It may be that Swift had read Le Combat des
Livres of François de Callières (1688); but, if so, he owed little
to it. Among Swift's satires, the fragmentary Battle of the Books
is relatively so little remembered, that its main features may be
here recalled.
The piece is mainly an attack on pedantry, in which it is
argued that invention may be weakened by overmuch learning.
There were two tops to the hill Parnassus, the highest and largest
of which had been time out of mind in the possession of the
ancients, while the other was held by the moderns. The moderns
desired to bring about a reduction in the height of the point held
by the ancients. The ancients replied that the better course would
be for the moderns to raise their own side of the hill. To such
a step, they would not only agree but would largely contribute.
Negotiations came to nothing, and there was a great battle. But,
first, we are told the story of the Bee and the Spider. A bee had
become entangled in a spider's web; the two insects quarrelled
and Aesop was called in as arbitrator. The bee, who is to be taken
as typifying the ancients, went straight to nature, gathering his
support from the flowers of the field and the garden, without any
damage to them. The spider, like the moderns, boasted of not being
obliged to any other creature, but of drawing and spinning out all
from himself. The moderns, says Swift, produced nothing but
wrangling and satire, much of the nature of the spider's poison.
The ancients, ranging through every corner of nature, had pro-
duced honey and wax and furnished mankind with the two
noblest of things, which are sweetness and light. ' In the great
battle between the books that followed, the moderns appealed for
aid to the malignant deity Criticism, who had dwelt in a den at
the top of snowy mountains, where there were spoils of numberless
## p. 103 (#127) ############################################
The Battle of the Books. Gulliver's Travels 103
half-devoured volumes. With her were Ignorance, Pride, Opinion,
Noise and Impudence, Dulness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry
and Ill-manners. She could change herself into an octavo compass,'
when she was indistinguishable in shape and dress from “the divine
Bentley,' in person the most deformed of all the moderns. The
piece ends abruptly with the meeting of Bentley and Wotton with
Boyle, who transfixes the pair with his lance. We need not imagine
that Swift held too seriously the views on the subject of the con-
troversy expressed in this fragment: Temple, we are told, received
a slight graze ; and, says the publisher, the manuscript, ‘being in
several places imperfect, we cannot learn to which side the victory
fell. ' The piece was largely inspired by the desire to assist his
patron ; but, besides being a brilliant attack on his opponents, it
abounds in satire of a more general nature, and its interest for us
is not affected by the fact that Temple was on the wrong side.
The most famous of all Swift's works is Gulliver's Travels.
The inception of the book has been traced to the celebrated
Scriblerus club, which came into existence in the last months of
queen Anne's reign, when Swift joined with Arbuthnot, Pope,
Gay and other members in a scheme to ridicule all false tastes
in learning. The Memoirs of Scriblerus by Arbuthnot were not
published until 1741; but Pope said that Swift took the first hints
for Gulliver's Travels from them. The connection of the Travels
with the original scheme, however, is very slight, and appears
chiefly in the third part of the work. Swift's book underwent
discussion between him and his friends several years before it
appeared. In September 1725, he told Pope that he was correcting
and finishing the work.
