# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Swift, Jonathan

​SWIFT, JONATHAN (1667–1745), dean of St. Patrick's and satirist, son of Jonathan Swift, by Abigail (Erick) of Leicester, was born at 7 Hoey's Court, Dublin, on 30 Nov. 1667 (a drawing of the house, now destroyed, is in Wilde's Closing Years of Swift's Life, p. 89). The elder Jonathan was a younger son of Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich, near Ross, by Elizabeth (Dryden), niece of Sir Erasmus, the grandfather of John, Dryden. Thomas Swift descended from a Yorkshire family, one of whom, Barnham, called ‘Cavaliero’ Swifte, of an elder branch, was created Lord Carlingford in 1627 (for pedigrees of the Swift family see Monck Mason's St. Patrick's, pp. 225–6). The younger branch had settled at Canterbury. Thomas inherited from his mother a small estate at Goodrich, took orders, and was distinguished for his loyalty during the civil war; he subscribed money to the king, and invented warlike contrivances for the annoyance of the round​heads. When the roundheads gained the upper hand he naturally had to go through many troubles, which are recorded in ‘Mercurius Rusticus’ (1685; reprinted in Monck Mason, p. 228). He died in 1658. He had ten sons and four daughters. The second son, Thomas, became a clergyman, married the daughter of Sir William D'Avenant [q. v.], and was father of another Thomas (1666–1752), who became rector of Puttenham, Surrey. The eldest son, Godwin, was a barrister of Gray's Inn; he was four times married, and his wives, except the second, were heiresses. His first wife was connected with the Ormonde family; his third was daughter of Richard Deane [q. v.], the regicide admiral; and the fourth a sister of Sir John Mead, an Irish lawyer, described in Mrs. Pilkington's ‘Memoirs.’ Upon the Restoration, Godwin went to Ireland, where he was made attorney-general for the palatinate of Tipperary by the first Duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant from 1662 to 1664; he left fifteen sons and four daughters. He was ‘a little too dexterous in the subtle parts of the law,’ according to his nephew Jonathan, and in later years lost much of his fortune by rash speculations. He prospered, however, for some time, and four of his brothers followed him to Ireland.
Of these, Jonathan (the father of the satirist) became a member of the King's Inns, Dublin, and was appointed steward of the society on 25 Jan. 1665–6. Upon his marriage, a short time before, he had been able to settle an annuity of 20l. upon his wife. He died a little more than a year after his appointment, leaving her with an infant daughter Jane. Soon after the birth of Jonathan, seven months later, Abigail went to her family at Leicester. The child was left with a nurse, who became so fond of him that she took him with her when she had to return to her native place, Whitehaven, Cumberland. His mother was afraid to venture a second voyage, and he was kept nearly three years at Whitehaven. There his nurse taught him so well that at three years old he could read any part of the Bible. He was then sent back to Dublin. Shortly afterwards his mother settled at Leicester, leaving him in Ireland, where his uncle Godwin took charge of him. He was sent at the age of six to the grammar school of Kilkenny. Congreve, two years his junior, was a schoolfellow, and afterwards a friend; but nothing is known of Swift at this time beyond a trifling anecdote or two. On 24 April 1682 he was entered at Trinity College, Dublin, his cousin Thomas being entered on the same day. Thomas became a scholar in May 1684; but Jonathan was never elected. Swift's own account of his college career is that he was depressed by the ‘ill-treatment of his nearest relations,’ and ‘too much neglected his academic studies, for some parts of which he had no great relish by nature.’ He read ‘history and poetry,’ and lived with great regularity; but was ‘stopped of his degree for dulness and insufficiency, and at last admitted in a manner little to his credit, which is called in that college speciali gratia.’ In a college roll of the Easter term, 1685 (facsimile in Forster's Life of Swift, p. 38), he is marked bene for Greek and Latin, male for philosophy, and negligenter for theology. He had not done well enough, it appears, to be allowed one of the twelve terms necessary for admission to the exercise of the B.A. degree. This however, according to custom, was granted to him by the ‘special grace,’ and he graduated at the regular date, February 1685–6. Swift in later years told Mrs. Pilkington, and his biographers, Deane Swift and Sheridan, that he had really been a ‘dunce.’ Sheridan (p. 5) also declares that Swift when in his last years repeated the exact arguments used in his degree exercise. He had been disgusted with the scholastic logic still taught at Dublin, and thought that he could reason as well without using the proper syllogistic forms. This dislike was characteristic of Swift's whole turn of thought, and probably explains in what sense we are to take the statement that he was a dunce, which, as Mrs. Pilkington observes, is ‘very surprising if true.’
Swift continued his residence after taking the B.A. degree. He became irregular in his conduct. According to Dr. Barrett (Essay, pp. 13, 14), he was constantly fined and censured for non-attendance at chapel and at the nightly roll-call. He was publicly censured for such offences (16 March 1687) with his cousin Thomas; and again (30 Nov. 1688) for insolence to the junior dean (Barrett's statements are sufficiently clear, though criticised by Forster, p. 34). Samuel Richardson (to Lady Bradshaigh, 22 April 1752) gives a story that Swift had been expelled from Dublin on account of an oration as terræ filius. One Jones, a contemporary, was actually punished, though not expelled, for such an oration in 1688. Barrett tried to make out that Swift was an accomplice in this wretched performance, which has accordingly been printed in his ‘Works.’ The arguments, however, both from external and internal evidence, establish at the outside a bare possibility. Swift attributes his reck​lessness to the neglect of his relations. ‘Was it not your uncle Godwin who educated you?’ he was asked. ‘Yes,’ said Swift, ‘he gave me the education of a dog.’ ‘Then,’ was the reply, ‘you have not the gratitude of a dog’ (Scott on the authority of Theophilus Swift). Godwin was at this period losing money (Deane Swift, pp. 41, 21), and in 1688 ‘fell into a lethargy.’ Swift was apparently helped by his other uncles—William, whom he calls the ‘best of his relations’ (to William Swift on 29 Nov. 1692), and Adam. Godwin's son Willoughby, settled in an English factory at Lisbon, sent him a present at a moment when he was almost in despair, and from that time, he says, he learnt to be a better economist (Deane Swift, p. 54). Swift, however, seems to have retained little regard for his family (ib. p. 353), and it is probable that their generosity was so administered as to hurt his pride. A desire for independence became a passion with him.
The troubles which followed the expulsion of James II forced Swift to leave Dublin. He retired to his mother's house at Leicester. She was a cheerful frugal woman, who thought herself rich and happy on 20l. a year. She had a touch of humour, and amused herself, on a visit to Dublin in later years, by passing off her son to her landlady as a lover who had to visit her secretly. Swift was always a good son, and deeply affected by her death (24 April 1710). Mrs. Swift was now alarmed by her son's attentions to a certain Betty Jones. He explained to a friend that he despised the Leicester people as ‘wretched fools,’ and that prudence and a ‘cold temper’ prevented any thoughts of marriage. A ‘person of great honour’ in Ireland had told him that his mind was ‘like a conjured spirit which would do mischief if I did not give it employment.’ He had therefore permitted himself these little ‘distractions’ (to Kendall, 11 Feb. 16 Feb. 1691–2).
Sir William Temple, the statesman, was about this time retiring from Sheen to Moor Park, near Farnham in Surrey. Temple and his father had known Godwin Swift, and Lady Temple, it is said, was related to Swift's mother. Temple now took Swift into his family. He was, according to an untrustworthy report (Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh, quoting John, nephew of Sir W. Temple), to have 20l. a year and his board, and was not allowed to sit at table with his employer. He was by this time suffering from attacks of giddiness, attributed by himself to a ‘surfeit of fruit.’ Physicians, he says, ‘weakly imagined’ that his native air might be beneficial. On 28 May 1690, in any case, Temple recommended him to Sir Robert Southwell (1635–1702) [q. v.], who had been appointed secretary of state for Ireland, and was to accompany William III on his expedition from England (Letter first published in Cunningham's edition of Johnson's Lives, iii. 160). Temple says that Swift knew Latin and Greek, some French, wrote a good hand, and was honest and diligent. He had kept Temple's accounts, served as amanuensis, and might wait on Southwell ‘as a gentleman,’ act as clerk, or be appointed to a fellowship at Trinity College. Nothing came of this; but Swift was in Ireland in 1691, whence he returned in the autumn, and, after visiting Leicester, was again at Moor Park in February 1691–2. He was now thinking of taking orders. He was admitted in June to the B.A. degree at Oxford on the strength of testimonials from Dublin, and on 5 July became M.A. as a member of Hart Hall. In November he writes that he is not to take orders until the king fulfils a promise to Temple of giving him a prebend. Temple is ‘less forward’ than could be wished, finding the value of Swift's services to himself. Temple showed his rising estimate of Swift by introducing him to William III, who offered, it is said, to give the young man a troop of horse, and taught him how to cut asparagus (Deane Swift, p. 108; and see Faulkner's story in Scott, p. 29). In the spring of 1693 Temple sent Swift to William to persuade the king to consent to the bill for triennial parliaments. William's refusal to be convinced was, he says, ‘the first incident that helped to cure him of vanity.’
Swift had already been trying his hand at literature. He wrote pindarics after the fashion of Cowley, one of which (dated 1691–2) appeared in the ‘Athenian Mercury’ of the eccentric John Dunton [q. v.], and is said by Johnson to have provoked Dryden's contemptuous remark, ‘Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet.’ Swift gave up pindarics; and two later epistles—one to Congreve, and one to Temple upon his recovery from an illness—begin to show genuine satirical power. He was becoming restless and doubtful as to his prospects. He had, he says, ‘a scruple of entering into the church merely for support;’ but Temple, who held the sinecure office of master of the rolls in Ireland, having offered him ‘an employ of about 120l. a year’ in that office, Swift thought his scruple removed, and returned to Ireland, where he was ordained deacon by Moreton, bishop of Kildare, on 28 Oct. 1694, and priest on 13 Jan. 1694–5 ​(Craik, p. 48 n.) Whatever the force of the scruples, Swift had become indignant at Temple's slowness in procuring him preferment (to Deane Swift, 3 June 1694). Temple was ‘extremely angry’ at his departure in May. When Swift reached Ireland, he found that the bishops demanded some testimonial as to his conduct during his stay in England, and he was forced to make an application to Temple (6 Oct. 1694) in sufficiently humiliating terms (the original letter in Swift's autograph is in the Rowfant Library). Temple gave the necessary document, and Swift had enough interest to obtain from Lord Capel, then lord-deputy, the prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast, worth about 100l. a year. A preposterous story of a criminal assault upon a farmer's daughter, discussed by some writers upon Swift, originated, as Scott shows, in the blunders of a lunatic. Swift carried on a flirtation with a Miss Jane Waring (‘Varina’) of Belfast, sister of an old college friend. On 29 May 1696 he wrote her a letter full of extravagant protestations, offering to give up his prospects for her sake, or, if she will wait for him, to ‘push his advancement’ in England till he is in a position to marry her. Temple had been making fresh promises to induce him to return; and Swift accordingly went back to Moor Park in May 1696. He left John Winder in charge of his prebend, which in the course of the next year he resolved to resign. He obtained the succession to Kilroot for his friend Winder, a fact which was the foundation of a story told by Sheridan (p. 19) to prove his romantic benevolence. A letter to Winder (Forster, p. 84) shows that he had entertained hopes of patronage which were ruined by the fall of Lord Sunderland, and that he was being consulted in some political intrigues.
Swift's relation to Temple had completely changed its character. Temple's age and previous history entitled him to the respect of a young man who depended upon his patronage; but he had sufficiently shown his need of Swift's services, and now treated him as a friend. Swift employed himself in preparing Temple's letters and memoirs for publication (Swift's letter in Courtenay's Sir W. Temple, ii. 243). Swift had also time for a great deal of reading, chiefly classical and historical (see Craik, pp. 56, 57 n.) He spent ten hours a day in study according to Deane Swift (p. 271), or eight according to Delany (p. 50), and now wrote the first of his books which became famous. Temple had in 1692 published his essay upon ancient and modern learning, which transplanted to England a controversy begun in France by Fontenelle. William Wotton [q. v.] had replied by ‘Reflections’ in 1694; and incidental points had started the famous controversy between Bentley and Charles Boyle [q. v.], supported by the wits of Christ Church. Swift hereupon wrote his prose mock heroic, ‘The Battle of the Books,’ in which Bentley and Wotton, as the representatives of modern pedantry, are transfixed by Boyle in a suit of armour given him by the gods as a representative of ‘the two noblest of things, sweetness and light.’ Wotton accused Swift of plagiarism from a French book by François de Callières (not ‘Coutrey,’ as Scott says; see Craik, p. 71). There are slight resemblances which suggest that Swift may have seen the book, though his denial implies that, if so, he had forgotten it. The book remained in manuscript until its publication in 1704, with a greater satire, the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ According to Deane Swift (p. 60) the ‘Tale of a Tub’ was revised by Temple. Deane Swift also says (p. 31) that a sketch had been seen by Waring when Swift was still at Trinity College. The report, if it had any foundation, probably referred to the later period when Waring met Swift at Kilroot. In any case, it was finished early in 1697, and circulated in manuscript with the ‘Battle of the Books.’ Johnson said to Boswell (24 March 1775) that the book had ‘such a swarm of thoughts, so much of nature, and vigour, and life,’ that Swift could not have written it. The inference only expresses Johnson's prejudice; and the authorship, never seriously doubted, was assumed by Swift in a letter to his publisher Tooke (29 June 1710). The power of the satire, which anticipates Carlyle's clothes philosophy as a general denunciation of shams and pedantry, is indisputable. The contemptuous ridicule of theological pedantry in particular produced very natural suspicions of Swift's orthodoxy. The ridicule which he directs against papists and dissenters was only too applicable to Christianity in general. For the present, however, the book was known only to Temple's circle. In 1710 Swift prefixed an anonymous ‘Apology’ to a fifth edition. Curll, in a ‘Key,’ had insinuated that Thomas Swift, Jonathan's cousin, who had been chaplain at Moor Park, was the chief author. Wotton, in his ‘Defence’ of his ‘Reflections,’ also calls Thomas the editor. Swift, in writing to his publisher Tooke, makes some contemptuous references to his ‘little parson cousin,’ whom he guesses to have been an accomplice in this.
While at Moor Park Swift made occasional ​excursions to Leicester and elsewhere. He was fond of walking, and used, it is said, to interrupt his studies by running up a hill and back, half a mile in six minutes (Deane Swift, p. 272). He constantly preached the duty of exercise to his friends. He made some of his expeditions on foot, and liked to put up at wayside inns where ‘lodgings for a penny’ were advertised, and to enjoy the rough talk of wagoners and hostlers (Orrery, p. 34; Delany, p. 72). He showed his love of Moor Park Gardens by afterwards imitating them on a small scale in Ireland. The great charm of Moor Park, however, was of a different kind. Esther Johnson (1681–1728), born at Richmond, Surrey, on 13 March 1680–1 (Richmond Register), was the daughter of a merchant who died young. Her mother became the companion of Lady Giffard, sister of Temple, who, as a widow, went to live with her brother. The Johnsons also became inmates of the family. A writer in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for November 1757 asserts that both Esther and Swift were Temple's natural children. The statement as to Swift is all but demonstrably false, and the other a gratuitous guess. The Rev. James Hay has tried to revive this hypothesis in ‘Swift, the Mystery of his Life and Love,’ 1891. Swift during his first stay at Moor Park took some part in Esther's early education, which seems to have been imperfect enough. When he returned in 1696 she had got over an early delicacy, was one of the most beautiful, graceful, and agreeable ‘young women in London, only a little too fat.’ Her ‘hair was blacker than a raven, and every feature of her face in perfection’ (‘On the death of Mrs. Johnson’). Another member of the household was Rebecca Dingley, who was in some way related to the Temple family.
Sir William Temple died on 26 Jan. 1698–9, and with him, as Swift noted at the time, died ‘all that was good and amiable among mankind.’ He left 100l. to Swift, and a lease of some lands in Ireland to Esther Johnson (Will in Courtenay's Temple, ii. 484–6). To Swift he also left the trust and profit of publishing his posthumous writings. Five volumes appeared in 1700, 1703, and 1709, for one of which Swift received 40l. (a presentation copy to Archbishop Marsh, with Swift's autograph, is now in Marsh's library, Dublin). The last volume, containing a ‘third part’ of Temple's ‘Memoirs,’ provoked an angry correspondence with Lady Giffard, who charged him with printing against Temple's wishes and from an ‘unfaithful copy.’ Swift defended himself successfully (see Courtenay, ii. 242–8; Forster, p. 99), but was alienated from the family. His hopes of preferment vanished, and he long afterwards declared that he owed no obligation to Temple, at ‘whose death he was’ as far to ‘seek as ever’ (to Palmerston, 29 Jan. 1725–6). In the ‘Journal to Stella’ there are various reminiscences of the days in which he had been treated ‘like a schoolboy’ and felt his dependence painful. He calls Temple, however, ‘a man of sense and virtue’ (notes on Burnet, ap. Scott's Swift, xii. 206), and praises him warmly in a memorandum printed in Scott's ‘Life.’ It was not Temple's fault, Swift admitted, that nothing had come of the connection. Temple had obtained a promise from the king of a prebend at Canterbury or Westminster. Swift went to London, and begged Henry Sidney, earl of Romney [q. v.], to obtain its fulfilment. Romney agreed to speak, but did not keep his word. Swift then accepted an offer from Lord Berkeley, who in the summer of 1699 was appointed one of the lords justices of Ireland. Swift was to be his chaplain and secretary, but, upon reaching Ireland, Berkeley gave the secretaryship to a Mr. Bush, who had persuaded him that it was unfit for a clergyman. The rich deanery of Derry becoming vacant, Swift applied for it, but Bush had been bribed by another candidate. Swift was told that he might still have it for 1,000l. He replied to the secretary and his master, ‘God confound you both for a couple of scoundrels!’ (Sheridan, p. 30). He wrote some verses in ridicule of the pair, and in consequence, or in spite, of this received in February 1699–1700 the livings of Laracor, Agher, and Rathbeggan. To these was added in 1700 the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick's. The whole was worth about 230l. a year (Forster, p. 117), which to Swift, with his strictly economical habits, meant independence, so long as he had only himself to keep. Miss Waring apparently thought that the income would be enough for two. In a letter to her (4 May 1700) Swift, after demolishing this theory, offers still to take her as his wife, but upon terms so insulting as to make her acceptance incompatible with the slightest self-respect. This, perhaps the most unpleasant of his actions, produced the desired result. Laracor is a mile or two from Trim. Swift rebuilt the parsonage, made a fishpond, planted willows, and formed a garden. His congregation consisted of about fifteen persons, ‘most of them gentle and all simple’ (to King, 6 Jan. 1708–9; to Sterne, 17 April 1710). Orrery (p. 29) tells how he proposed to read prayers every Wednesday and Friday, and had to commence the exhortation with ​the words, ‘Dearly beloved Roger, the scripture moveth you and me.’ Swift, however, passed much of his time at Dublin, where he was familiar with the official society. Lady Betty Germain [see Germain, Lady Elizabeth], the daughter of Lord Berkeley, dated from this time a long friendship, and in 1700 he gave the first specimen of a peculiar vein of humour in the ‘Petition of Mrs. Frances Harris.’ He made various visits to London, where he spent altogether some four out of the next ten years, always finding time for a visit to his mother at Leicester. In February 1701 he took his D.D. degree at Dublin, and in April returned with Lord Berkeley to London. The impeachment of the whig lords was then exciting the political world, and a conversation with Berkeley led Swift to write his ‘discourse on the dissensions in Athens and Rome.’ The pamphlet was to show that the desirable balance of power had been upset by measures analogous to impeachments, and, though well written, appears now to be pedantic or ‘academical.’ It was, however, successful at the time, and was attributed to Somers and to Burnet. Bishop Sheridan told Swift himself, when he returned to Ireland, that it was written by Burnet, whereupon Swift could not refrain from claiming the authorship (Deane Swift, p. 122; Sheridan, p. 34). On his next visit to England he was welcomed as a promising whig author by Somers, Halifax, and Sunderland, who held out liberal prospects of preferment (Memoirs relating to the Change of Ministry). Though the impeached ministers are incidentally compared to Aristides and other virtuous persons, there is nothing in the pamphlet committing Swift to specifically whig doctrine. He says himself that this was the first occasion on which he began to trouble himself about the difference between whig and tory. On his return to Ireland in September 1701 Swift was accompanied by Esther Johnson, best known as Stella (though, according to Forster, the name was not given to her till after the famous journal), and her friend, Mrs. Dingley. Swift says (in his paper upon her death) that Stella's fortune was only 1,500l., and that she would get a better interest for her money in Ireland. The two ladies settled there permanently. During Swift's absence they lived in his houses at Dublin and Laracor, and when he was in Ireland took lodgings in his neighbourhood. Suggestions were naturally made that this implied a ‘secret history.’ Swift, however, carefully guarded against scandal. He never saw Stella except in presence of a third person, and says many years afterwards that he has not seen her in a morning these dozen years, except once or ‘twice in a journey’ (to Tickell, 7 July 1726). They visited England when Swift was there in 1705 and 1708 (Forster, pp. 131, 230; Craik, p. 176). In 1704 Dr. William Tisdal or Tisdall [q. v.], clergyman at Dublin, made an offer to Stella, and charged Swift with opposing his suit. In a remarkable letter (20 April 1704) Swift admits that if his ‘fortune and humour’ permitted him to think of marriage, he should prefer her to any one on earth. As matters are, however, he is prepared to give Tisdall a fair chance if he will make a proper application to the mother, and declares that he has been Tisdall's friend ‘in the whole concern.’ The letter, the tone of which is remarkably calm, has been variously interpreted. It admits an affection of which the natural end would be marriage. It may mean that he considered the obstacles in his own case to be so decisive that he could not fairly stand in the way of another match, or that he had private reasons for knowing Tisdall's suit to be hopeless, or that he did not choose to be forced to declare his intentions, and considered that he was giving Tisdall a sufficient hint to keep at a distance. It is certain that he afterwards speaks of Tisdall with marked dislike.
Swift was again in England from April to November 1702, and from November 1703 till May 1704. The Occasional Conformity Bill was now exciting bitter contests in parliament. Swift was mightily urged ‘by some great people’ to write against the bill. His strong church prejudices made it difficult for him to agree with the whigs, although he still considered himself to belong to the party, and his chance of preferment depended upon them. Somers and Burnet assured him eagerly that they meant no harm to the church. He at last wrote, though with many qualms, but too late to publish (to Tisdall, 16 Dec. 1703 and 3 Feb. 1703–4). Before leaving London in 1704 he published the ‘Battle of the Books’ and the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ The authorship was secret, though known in the Moor Park time, and doubtless guessed by many of his friends.
When he next came to London, in April 1705, he became known to the wits. Addison presented to him a copy of his travels (now in the Forster Library), inscribed ‘to the most agreeable companion, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of the age.’ The genius had no doubt been recognised in the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ Sheridan (p. 41) tells a story of the quaint behaviour at a coffee-house by which he got the name of the ‘mad parson’ and attracted the notice of the circle. He knew, however, enough distinguished men to have no difficulty about an introduction. The ​friendship with Addison was permanent, and is illustrated by one of his pleasantest pieces of humour, ‘Baucis and Philemon,’ a travesty of Ovid. Swift told Delany (p. 19) that Addison had made him ‘blot fourscore lines, add fourscore, and alter fourscore’ in a poem ‘of not two hundred lines.’ Swift exaggerated, but not very much. Forster found the original at Narford, the seat of Sir Andrew Fountaine, and gives the exact figures (Forster, pp. 164, &c.) Addison and Swift met constantly at this time, and never, says Delany, wished for a third person (Delany, p. 32; Forster, p. 159).
Swift spent the whole of 1706 in Ireland, and returned to England in November 1707 with Lord Pembroke, who had been lord lieutenant for a time, and had thus made Swift's acquaintance. Swift had now an official mission. Queen Anne's bounty had been founded in England in 1704. A similar measure had been suggested for Ireland (see Swift to King, 31 Dec. 1704) some time before, and Swift was now instructed to apply to the English government to make the grant. Swift calculated that the surrender of the first-fruits and twentieths and certain other funds for the benefit of the church would cost the crown about 2,500l. a year (see his Memorial to Harley, 17 Nov. 1710). The negotiation dragged, and Swift remained in England till the beginning of 1709. He applied to Somers and other great men, and at last, in June 1708, had an interview with Godolphin. Godolphin intimated that some acknowledgment would be expected from the Irish clergy. The phrase meant that they should consent to the abolition of the test. This was regarded both by Swift and his clients as out of the question. He could for the present only wait for opportunities of further negotiation. He was still reckoned a whig. In January 1708 the bishopric of Waterford was vacant, and Somers, as Swift believed, pressed his claims upon the government (Forster, p. 211). Swift was bitterly disappointed when it was given to Thomas Milles [q. v.] The fall of Harley in February marked the triumph of the whigs. When Somers and others came into office, Swift thought that the change might prove favourable to his cause and himself, though protesting that he would not make his fortune at the expense of the church (to King, 9 Nov. 1708). At the same time, however, he had thoughts of getting ‘out of the way of the parties’ by becoming secretary to Lord Berkeley's proposed embassy to Vienna.
Meanwhile Swift was seeing much of Halifax, Addison, Steele, and Congreve. It was at the end of 1707 that he launched his famous joke against the astrologer John Partridge [q. v.] (1644–1715, for a full account of this performance). The name of Bickerstaff, under which he wrote, became famous, and was adopted by Steele for the ‘Tatler.’ He wrote some graver pamphlets: the ‘Argument to prove the inconvenience of abolishing Christianity,’ which showed that he could ridicule a deist as well as a papist or a presbyterian; a ‘Project for the Advancement of Religion,’ and the ‘Sentiments of a Church of England Man.’ In the ‘Project’ he suggested the plan adopted by Harley a little later for building fifty new churches in London. These pamphlets are remarkable as an exposition of his political principles at the time. He fully agrees with the whigs as accepting the ‘revolution principles,’ but holds that the state should vigorously support the church. The government therefore could not give the dissenters too ‘much ease nor trust them with too little power.’ The application of this principle to the Test Act is obvious, and is significant of Swift's position in the following months.
In October 1708 the Earl of Wharton was appointed lord lieutenant. Swift waited upon him to press the first-fruits application. Wharton put him off with ‘lame excuses,’ which were repeated when Swift made a second attempt with the help of Somers. Perceiving that Wharton would endeavour to abolish the test, Swift wrote a pamphlet, his ‘Letter on the Sacramental Test’ (December 1708), in which for the first time his power as a political writer was revealed. It is a fierce attack upon the claims put forward by the Irish presbyterians, and amounts to a declaration of war to the knife. Swift carefully concealed the authorship, even from his correspondent, Archbishop King. He even complains to King that the author ‘reflects upon me as a person likely to write for repealing the test’ (to King 6 Jan. 1708–9). This apparently refers to a passage not discoverable and suppressed in the reprint of 1711 (see Forster, p. 250). The authorship, however, was suspected, according to Swift, by Wharton's secretary (Change of Ministry), and injured him with ministers. Swift in fact, while still hoping for preferment, was anonymously attacking a favourite measure of the advanced whigs. He was afterwards accused of having made an application to be Wharton's chaplain. Samuel Salter [q. v.] of the Charterhouse professed to have seen letters of Swift to Somers, and Somers's letters to Wharton, and reported Wharton's contemptuous answer: ‘We cannot countenance these fellows. We have not character ​enough ourselves.’ This, it is suggested, caused Swift's desertion of the whigs. Swift, however, writing at the time, states that he made no application to Wharton (to King, 30 Nov. 1708, and to Sterne same day). Before he left England Somers asked him to take a letter (no doubt of recommendation) to Wharton, but he ‘absolutely refused,’ though he finally consented to deliver it in Dublin some months later. Swift's account is clear and consistent, and Salter is described by Bishop Percy as a repeater of silly anecdotes (Nichols, Illustrations, viii. 160). The story is merely an instance of the calumnies suggested by Swift's change of party (the story told originally by Salter in the Gentleman's Magazine is given in the annotated Tatler, 1786, vol. v., with an answer by Theophilus Swift [q. v.] It is also discussed in Monck Berkeley's Literary Relics, 1789, pp. xl, &c.; and see Scott's Swift, i. 99, &c., and Craik, p. 154 n.)
Swift had still hopes of success in the ‘first-fruits’ business, and on 6 Jan. 1708–9 tells King that he has heard from Lord Pembroke that the concession had been made. On 26 March he has to explain that this was a delusion. He was suffering from bad attacks of his old complaint and greatly dispirited. He lingered in London till 3 May, when he called upon Halifax and begged a book, asking the donor to remember that it was the only favour he had ever received from him or his party. A few months later he endorsed a complimentary letter from the great man as a ‘true original of courtiers and court promises’ (Sheridan, p. 97). He sent two adulatory letters, however, to Halifax (Johnson, Lives of the Poets, ed. Cunningham, iii. 201) to remind him of his promise in case of accident. He left London on 3 May, and, after staying five weeks at Chester, reached Ireland on 30 June. He retired at once to Laracor, and saw nothing of any friends except Esther Johnson and Addison, who was now Wharton's secretary (Journal to Stella, 3 May 1711).
When the whig ministry was breaking up in 1710, Swift remarked that he might expect something in ‘a new world, since’ he ‘had the merit of suffering by not complying with the old’ (to Tooke, 29 June 1710); he considered, that is, that preferment had been withheld by the whigs because he would not support their policy. There can in fact be no doubt that the secret of Swift's alienation from the whigs was his intense devotion to his order. He had imbibed in an intensified form all the prejudices of the Irish churchmen of his day. He hated with exceeding bitterness the presbyterians of the north, their Scottish allies, and the English dissenters. But he also heartily despised the Jacobites. James II had taught him and his friends a lesson in 1688, and his relations to Temple had thrown him into a whig connection at starting. As it became evident that whiggism meant alliance with dissent, Swift's distrust of the leaders deepened into aversion. He is indeed more to be blamed for adhering so long to so uncongenial a connection than for breaking it off so early. Unfortunately, Swift could never separate personal from public questions. He complained of not being rewarded for his services, not the less bitterly because he also boasted that he had never rendered them. He would not exculpate the whigs from ingratitude, though as whigs they had no reasons to be grateful. His complaints have therefore given plausibility to imputations of ‘ratting’ when in fact he was really discovering his genuine affinities, at a time, it is true, when the discovery coincided with his personal interests. In the summer of 1710 Swift was requested by the Irish bishops to take up once more the first-fruits negotiation, which would have better chance under a change of administration. He went to England, as he writes to Esther Johnson, with less desire than ever before. The famous ‘Journal to Stella’ begins from Chester on 2 Sept., and records his history minutely in the following years. He reached London on 7 Sept., and on the 9th writes to King that he was ‘caressed by both parties.’ The whigs took him to be ‘a sort of bough for drowning men to lay hold of.’ Godolphin, however, was ‘morose.’ Somers made explanations to which Swift listened coldly. Somers, he says (24 Jan. 1710–11), is a ‘false, deceitful rascal.’ Halifax asked him to dinner. He saw something of Addison, and contributed to Steele's ‘Tatler.’ Meanwhile the elections were going for the tories, and on 4 Oct. Swift saw Harley, to whom he had got himself represented as ‘one extremely ill-used by the last ministry.’ Harley welcomed him with effusion. Within a week he was treating Swift as an intimate friend, and promising to get the first-fruits business settled at once. Swift's exultation was mingled with triumph over those ‘ungrateful dogs’ the whigs. On 4 Nov. he writes to King to announce authoritatively that the first-fruits will be granted. The Irish bishops had meanwhile bethought themselves that Swift's whiggish connections might disqualify him as an intercessor, and proposed to take the matter out of his hands. Swift was angry, though no doubt amused by this unconscious testimony to ​his success. Harley had won not only the gratitude but the permanent devotion of his new friend. Swift, though seeing plainly the minister's faults, always speaks of him hereafter with the strongest personal affection.
Swift began at once by political squibs, attacking his enemy Godolphin in ‘Sid Hamet's Rod,’ which had a great success, and producing in December what he rightly calls ‘a damned libellous pamphlet’ against the hated Wharton, of which two thousand copies were sold in two days (Journal, 15 Oct. 1710, and 1 Jan. 1710–1). He was already employed upon more important work. The ‘Examiner’ had been started as a weekly paper to support the tories, and had been for a time answered by Addison in a short-lived ‘Whig Examiner.’ Swift now took over the ‘Examiner,’ of which the original authors were tired, and wrote the numbers from 2 Nov. 1710 to 14 June 1711. Their success was unprecedented. With an air of downright common-sense and vigorous insistence upon the main points, Swift defends the ministerial policy. He expresses the general weariness of the war, which was now, he argued, being carried on for the benefit of Marlborough, the ‘monied men,’ and our Dutch allies; he appeals to the interests of the church and the landed men, and denounces some of his hated opponents. He often took credit for sparing Marlborough (Journal, 7 Jan., 12 Jan., and 18 Feb. 1710–1711), whom he heartily disliked, but still took to be necessary. The ‘sparing’ is not very evident now, but at the time Swift and his patron, Harley, appeared as too moderate to some of their own side. The ministry, as Swift says (4 March 1710–11), stood ‘like an isthmus’ between whigs and violent tories. Swift endeavoured to restrain the excess of zeal, and was very nervous at reports of Harley's ill-health. When, on 8 March 1711, Harley was stabbed by Guiscard, Swift was thrown into an agony of fear. He afterwards preserved Guiscard's knife as a memorial (Deane Swift, p. 163; Scott, i. 196 n.; Nichols, Lit. Illustr. v. 379). Swift took lodgings at Chelsea on 26 April to have the benefit of a walk to London. He often went to Windsor in the summer with ministers, and describes his journeys in his imitation of Horace (6th satire of 2nd book). He saw the queen occasionally, but Harley, it seems, never fulfilled his promise of presenting him formally at court. Prior's secret mission to Paris in the summer gave occasion for one of Swift's characteristic ‘bites.’ When it was made known by an accident, he wrote a mock account, supposed to come from a French valet, which is an amusing instance of his power of mystification. The serious purpose of the pamphlet was apparently to test the public feeling as to the peace negotiations. This gave the occasion for Swift's most important work at this time. In concert with St. John he prepared, during the summer, his pamphlet upon the ‘Conduct of the Allies.’ The whigs were to make a great effort at the meeting of parliament. They made an alliance with Nottingham [see Finch, Daniel, second Earl of Nottingham] by agreeing to accept the Occasional Conformity Bill; and the queen was thought to be drawn towards them by the influence of the Duchess of Somerset. Swift, as usual, took a gloomy view of political prospects. His pamphlet appeared on 27 Nov., and was greedily bought. It was a powerful defence of the thesis assumed in the ‘Examiner,’ that the war had been protracted against our true interests from corrupt motives, and solely to benefit our allies. When a vote hostile to the ministry was passed in the House of Lords, Swift was in despair and begged St. John to get him a secretaryship abroad, to which he might retreat if the ministry fell (Journal, 7 Dec. 1711). He recommended, however, strong measures all the more earnestly. On 13 Dec. he was alarmed by hearing that the chief justice (Parker) had threatened the printer of the ‘Conduct of the Allies,’ which he would not have had the impudence to do had he not anticipated a change. Swift consoled himself by writing the ‘Windsor Prophecy,’ a squib in which he charged the Duchess of Somerset with having red hair and having been concerned in the murder of her second husband [see under Seymour, Charles, sixth Duke of Somerset]. It was privately printed, and a dozen copies given to each of his friends at the Brothers' Club. Mrs. Masham persuaded him not to publish it; but it was probably shown to the queen, and would not conciliate her or her favourite (Journal, 23, 26, and 27 Dec. 1711). His anxiety was at last relieved by the creation of the twelve peers and the dismissal of Marlborough from all his offices at the end of the year.
The tories were now triumphant; but success brought disunion. The October Club, composed of the more violent tories, complained that the ministry had not gone far enough. Swift endeavoured to pacify them by a ‘twopenny pamphlet’ of advice, and complains (ib. 28 Jan. 1711–12) that, though ‘finely written,’ it did not sell. The jealousies between Harley (now Lord Oxford) and St. John were becoming serious. Swift had noticed a discord soon after Guiscard's attempt, ​and had been labouring to effect a reconciliation (ib. 27 April, 15 and 27 Aug., and 20 Oct. 1711). He knew, he said, that he was endangering his own interests by acting an ‘honest part,’ but the jealousy was steadily growing. Swift, during the early part of 1712, speaks several times of his expectation of returning to Ireland, and is only detained by some piece of business (ib 7, 27 Feb. 1711–12, 31 May, 17 June 1712). He had received promises from ministers at an early period, but professed to count little upon them (ib 5 April, 22 May, 25 Aug. 1711). He was becoming discontented, and complains that he can help every one except himself (ib 8 and 17 March 1711–12). He employed himself in some of his usual squibs and in helping to preface a famous ‘Representation’ from the House of Commons (ib 8 March 1711–12). He wrote nothing, however, comparable to his previous efforts. A distressing illness at the end of March caused him to drop his regular ‘Journal to Stella.’ He wrote occasional letters, but the journal was suspended until the following December. He was at Windsor for some time in August and September, and was at work upon the book afterwards published as the ‘History of the Last Four Years of Queen Anne’ (ib 15 Sept. 1712). His letters frequently complain of giddiness and depression of spirits, and the want of any personal result of his labours became vexatious. John Sharp, the archbishop of York [q. v.], is said to have complained to the queen of the irreligious tendency of the ‘Tale of a Tub.’ Swift calls Sharp his ‘mortal enemy’ (ib 23 April 1713), and although, at the end, Sharp seems to have wished for a reconciliation, this plausible imputation would no doubt be a serious obstacle (see Swift, The Author upon Himself, 1713; and Delany, Observations, p. 270). At last, in the spring of 1713, there were several vacancies, and Swift told Oxford that he would at once go to Ireland if ‘something honourable’ were not immediately given to him. After a long dispute it was at last settled that John Sterne [q. v.], dean of St. Patrick's, should be made bishop of Dromore, and Swift promoted to the vacated deanery. The warrants were finally signed on 23 April, and Swift left London on 1 June, and was installed dean of St. Patrick's on the 13th.
During his stay in London Swift had made himself conspicuous in society as well as in politics. His relations to the whigs had naturally cooled. Steele had lost his place as gazetteer, but had another small office, which Swift begged Harley not to take away. Harley consented, but stipulated that Steele should call with an apology for previous errors. Steele never came, being held back, as Swift thought, by Addison. Swift declared that he would never speak in their favour again (Journal, 22 Oct., 15 Dec. 1710, 4 Feb. 1710–11, 29 June 1711). The breach with Steele was complete, but he still occasionally saw Addison, and declares (14 Sept. 1711) that no man was ‘half so agreeable to him.’ Meanwhile he had been welcomed to the tables of ministers. Harley offered him a 50l. banknote for his services as ‘a writer;’ Swift insisted upon an apology, and, upon the quarrel being made up, was invited to one of Harley's Saturday dinners, with St. John and Harcourt, the lord-keeper (ib 7 and 17 Feb., and 6 March 1710–11). He ‘chid’ Lord Rivers for presuming to join the party, and they all called him ‘Jonathan.’ They would, he replied, leave him Jonathan as they found him. In June he was one of the original members of the Brothers' Club (ib 21 June 1711). The club held weekly dinners, and was intended, besides promoting sociability, to advise ministers to a worthy distribution of patronage to men of letters. Harley and Harcourt were excluded, apparently to secure the independence of the advice, but it included St. John and several tory peers; while literature was represented by Swift, Prior, Freind, and Arbuthnot. Political squibs were occasionally laid upon the table and subscriptions raised for poor authors. The club declined in 1713, but its members long addressed each other as ‘brother.’ Swift's ambition to become a patron of literature suggested the only pamphlet published with his name, a ‘Proposal for Correcting … the English Language’ written in February 1711–12 (ib 21 Feb. 1711–12). An academy was to be founded for this purpose. Swift speaks of this scheme on 22 June 1711, and continued to cherish it. The ministry had other things to think of. Swift was heartily desirous to help poor authors. He was perseveringly kind to William Harrison (1685–1713) [q. v.], and deeply affected by his death. He got help for him in his last illness and for William Diaper, a ‘poor poet in a nasty garret.’ He induced Oxford to make the first advances to Parnell, and recommended Berkeley (afterwards the bishop) to all the ministers (13 Jan. 1712–13 and 12 April 1713). He did a ‘good day's work’ by relieving his old schoolfellow Congreve of the fears of being turned out by the new ministry (22 June 1711), and obtained a promise of a place for Nicholas Rowe (27 Dec. 1712). The members, he says, complained that he never came to them ‘without a whig in his ​sleeve.’ Naturally, however, his intimates were chiefly tories, and the most eminent of the young men encouraged by him was Pope (first mentioned in his Journal, 13 March 1712–13). A passage frequently quoted from the ‘Journal’ of Bishop White Kennett [q. v.] describes Swift at court in 1713 touting for subscriptions to Pope's ‘Homer,’ and making an ostentatious display of his interest at court. It tends to confirm the unjust impression that Swift was a sycophant disguised as a bully. His self-assertion showed bad taste, but the independence was genuine, and the services of which he bragged were really performed. If he could be generous to dependents, he had no mercy upon his enemies, and complained that Bolingbroke was not active enough in ‘swingeing’ Grub Street assailants (28 Oct. 1712). He was sensitive to abuse, and was stung to the quick when Steele in the ‘Guardian’ of 12 May 1713, attacking an article in the ‘Examiner,’ insinuated that Swift was an accomplice, and hinted that he was an unbeliever. The ‘Examiner’ was now edited by William Oldisworth [q. v.], who was unknown to Swift, but who received occasional hints from government and took a gift from the Brothers' Club (1 Feb. and 12 March 1712–13). Swift wrote an indignant remonstrance to Addison denying all complicity with the ‘Examiner,’ and truly declaring that he had done his best to keep Steele's place for him. Steele unjustifiably refused to accept either statement, and they became bitter enemies.
When Swift reached Dublin in 1713 he was received, according to Orrery (p. 49) and Sheridan (p. 183), with insults by the people generally. Delany (p. 87) denies this, which may perhaps refer to his arrival after the fall of the tories. He was, in any case, ‘horribly melancholy.’ The discord of the ministry was increasing. Swift fancied at one time (Journal, 8 April 1713) that he had effected a reconciliation. But he was entreated by his political friends to return to try the hopeless task again. He reached London in September, and found the political excitement rising; the new parliament was to be elected; the treaty of Utrecht had enraged the whigs; and the state of the queen's health threatened a political catastrophe at any moment. Swift showed his own bitterness by writing against Bishop Burnet and Steele. ‘The Importance of the “Guardian” considered’ was his reply to Steele's ‘Importance of Dunkirk considered.’ ‘The Public Spirit of the Whigs considered’ replied to Steele's ‘Crisis,’ published in January 1713–14. (The ‘Character of Steele’ and another attack by ‘Andrew Tripe’ are attributed to Swift. The evidence, however, would be equally cogent against Pope or some other friend, whom Swift may possibly have encouraged to write. The internal evidence is not in favour of Swift's own authorship.). Swift's powerful invective was in striking contrast to Steele's feeble performance in an uncongenial field; and he treats both Steele and Burnet with contemptuous insolence. One of his aims was to repudiate the charge of jacobitism made against the tories. Swift's frequent denials that any jacobite intrigue existed (see especially letter to King, 16 Dec. 1716), though mistaken in fact, were certainly sincere. The ministers had an obvious interest in keeping him in the dark, if only that he might give the lie to dangerous reports more effectively. Steele was expelled from the House of Commons for the ‘Crisis;’ and the peers petitioned the crown for action against the unknown author of the ‘Public Spirit.’ Oxford offered a reward of 300l. for his discovery, and when the printers were summoned to the bar of the House, sent 100l. privately to Swift to pay for their damages.
Meanwhile, the split between Oxford and Bolingbroke was widening. Swift, after vain expostulations, gave up the game, and retired at the end of May to the vicarage of an old friend at Upper Letcombe in Berkshire. He had shortly before (15 April) applied for the office of historiographer to the queen, which brought trifling profit, but would enable him to write his proposed history. He seems to have been greatly annoyed at Bolingbroke's failure to secure the success of this application (to Miss Vanhomrigh, 1 Aug. 1714). He tried at times to forget politics; he corresponded with Arbuthnot and Pope on the satire to be written by the ‘Scriblerus Club,’ an informal association of the tory wits started at this period, with which Oxford had found time to exchange verses in April. Politicians, however, entreated Swift to leave his retirement; and he was writing his ‘Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs,’ throwing the blame chiefly upon Oxford's vacillation, and recommending vigorous action against the whigs. The pamphlet, of which the authorship was to be carefully concealed (Ford to Swift, 20 July 1714), was too late. The final fall of Oxford was followed by the death of the queen (1 Aug.), and Swift saw at once that the case was hopeless. Lady Masham, who had helped Bolingbroke's intrigue, wrote on 29 July to entreat Swift to stay in England and support the queen, who had been, as she said, ‘barbarously used’ by Oxford. On ​1 July, however, Swift had written a warm acknowledgment of gratitude to Oxford, whose resignation he anticipated. On 25 July, hearing that it was coming, he had written offering to accompany Oxford in his retreat. On 1 Aug. he tells Miss Vanhomrigh that he could not join with Bolingbroke; Oxford had accepted his offer in the ‘most moving terms imaginable.’ Swift could not refuse the fallen minister who, when in power, had been so good to him. Although condemning Oxford as a minister, he could not desert the friend. The queen's death ruined both ministers; and Swift on 16 Aug. left Berkshire for Ireland.
Swift retired to what he always regarded as a place of exile in sullen despondency. In verses written in sickness he laments his solitude, and says that life is becoming a burden. He is living alone, he tells Pope next year (28 June 1715), in ‘the corner of a vast unfurnished house.’ Could he be easy, he asks, while his friends Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Ormonde were in danger of losing their heads? He wrote another affectionate letter to Oxford upon his impeachment (19 July 1715). Next year he bitterly resented a suggestion from King that Bolingbroke might be able to tell an ‘ill story’ of him (16 Dec. 1716). He declares his innocence of any plots in favour of the Pretender. King's suspicions had been stimulated by letters addressed to Swift and seized in the post office, but they were clearly groundless (see Craik, p. 306). Swift's chief amusement seems to have been in petty quarrels with the archbishop and his choir.
To this period has been assigned his alleged marriage to Esther Johnson. The journal addressed to her during her stay in London, full of caresses so playful and intimate that to read them even now seems a breach of confidence, clearly suggests intention of marriage. He ostensibly joins her with Mrs. Dingley as ‘M.D.,’ but when he says (23 May 1711) that ‘M.D.'s felicity is the great goal I aim at in all my pursuits,’ there could be only one interpretation. In the journal Swift frequently mentions a Mrs. Vanhomrigh, with whom he often dined, and at whose lodgings he kept his ‘best gown and periwig’ when he was at Chelsea. Mrs. Vanhomrigh was the widow of a Dutch merchant who had followed William III to Ireland and obtained places of profit. He died in 1703, leaving about 16,000l. and four children. One son died early, and the other behaved ill (Orrery, p. 103; Deane Swift, pp. 257–262). In 1708 Mrs. Vanhomrigh, with her two daughters, Esther (born 14 Feb. 1689–1690; see Journal, 14 Feb. 1710–11, 14 Aug. 1711) and Mary, was living in London, where Swift met them in that year. The journal rarely mentions Esther, and the silence may be significant. An intimacy sprang up between her and Swift, which is described in his remarkable poem, ‘Cadenus and Vanessa,’ written at Windsor in 1713 (revised in 1719), but not then published. Swift's behaviour to women was always a mixture of tyrannising and petting. He often refers in later years to an ‘edict’ which he issued annually in London commanding all ladies to make the first advances. In 1709 he drew up a treaty setting forth the terms on which a beautiful Miss Long was to claim his acquaintance. ‘Hessy’ Vanhomrigh undertakes not to abet her in her ‘contumacy.’ He showed genuine kindness to Miss Long, who died in sad circumstances, to his great sorrow, in 1711 (Journal, 25 Dec. 1711). Miss Vanhomrigh became his devoted slave. The ‘Cadenus and Vanessa’ states that he at first regarded her as a master might regard a promising pupil. She startled him after a time by confessing that love had taken the place of admiration in her heart. He tried to persuade her to suppress her passion, but offered as much friendship as she pleased. She replied that she would now become his tutor; but the result of her instructions remained a secret. Swift wrote to her from Dublin in 1713, and from Letcombe in 1714, in terms implying close confidence, though expressing no special affection. Her mother died in the summer of 1714. Vanessa seems to have surprised Swift by an indiscreet visit at Letcombe soon afterwards. She was intending to return to Ireland with her sister, and he warns her that if she comes he will see her very seldom. She was in Dublin, however, in November 1714, and complains piteously of the restrictions upon their intercourse, of his ‘killing words,’ and the ‘awful’ look which ‘strikes her dumb.’ She settled at Marlay Abbey, near Celbridge, on the Liffey, where her sister died in 1720. The correspondence, which is fragmentary, shows that she wrote to him in terms of passionate adoration. He makes excuses for not seeing her oftener; he advises her (5 July 1721) to ‘quit this scoundrel island,’ and yet he assures her in the same breath ‘que jamais personne du monde a été aimée, honorée, estimée, adorée par votre ami que vous.’ In other passages he recalls old associations and uses fondling terms, while he yet seems to reproach her for yielding to morbid sentiment. It is also said that he favoured the proposals of marriage to her from another person (Deane Swift, p. 263). How far he was ‘in love’ with her is a matter of doubtful inference. The stronger his ​feeling, the greater would be the excuse for his behaviour to her. Reluctance to give her pain, and to sacrifice a friendship so valuable to himself in his retirement, might be pleaded as some extenuation of his temporising; but if, as is alleged, he was really married to Stella, he was clearly bound to speak out. In 1723 Vanessa wrote a letter to Stella (Sheridan, p. 290), or to Swift himself (Orrery, p. 113), asking whether they were married. Swift rode off to Celbridge in a fury, threw down the letter, and retired without speaking a word. Vanessa died before the autumn from the shock. She revoked a will in favour of Swift, and by another (dated 1 May 1723) divided her fortune between the famous Berkeley and Judge Marshall. She also entrusted to them as executors her correspondence with Swift (extracts from this were given by Sheridan, but it was first fully published in Scott's edition of the ‘Works’) and ‘Cadenus and Vanessa,’ which was published after her death. Swift hid himself for two months in the south of Ireland. Stella was also shocked, but, when somebody remarked that Vanessa must have been a remarkable woman to inspire such poetry, observed that the dean could write well upon a broomstick (Delany, p. 57). The story of the marriage to Stella has been much discussed. Swift had sufficient reasons, in his passionate desire for independence, for not marrying before he had won his deanery. The profound depression into which he was thrown by the fall of his party, and the constant alarms as to his health, which made him old before his time, may well account for his not caring to marry on his return to Ireland. Nor does it seem necessary with some of his biographers to lay any particular stress upon the coldness of temperament of which he speaks. The marriage was, in any case, merely formal. Orrery (p. 22) states positively, and Delany (p. 52) confirms the statement, that Swift was privately married to Stella by St. George Ashe [q. v.], bishop of Clogher, in 1716. Deane Swift first thought the story to be an idle rumour (Craik, p. 529), but accepts it in his book (p. 92). Sheridan (p. 282) agrees in this, and adds that Swift found that Stella was depressed, and, on learning the cause through a common friend, declared that he was too old and too poor to marry, but consented to have the ceremony performed, which would at least prevent his marrying any one else. Sheridan gives Mrs. Sican, a friend of Swift's in his later years, for his authority. Monck Berkeley, in his ‘Relics’ (p. xxxvi), repeats the statement of the marriage by Ashe on the authority of his grandmother, Bishop Berkeley's widow, who told him that Berkeley himself had the story from Ashe. Berkeley in 1716 was travelling abroad as tutor to Ashe's son, and did not return till after Ashe's death (1718). It is hardly conceivable that Ashe should have at once written to communicate so confidential a transaction to his son's tutor, and the grandson could only have heard the story in his childhood. Johnson heard from Samuel Madden [q. v.] that Stella had told the story on her deathbed to Dr. Sheridan, Swift's old friend, the father of the biographer. Besides this, there is a story told by Delany (p. 56) that shortly before Vanessa's death Swift offered to own the marriage, and that Stella replied ‘too late.’ Stella told this to a friend well known to Delany, probably Sheridan. Deane Swift was told by Mrs. Whiteway, who lived with Swift in later years, that Stella had given the same account to Dr. Sheridan (unpublished letter to Orrery, written before Swift's death; quoted by Craik, p. 532). Theophilus, son of Deane Swift, told Scott a story which is apparently a distorted version of the same. Sheridan (p. 316) says that Stella begged Swift in presence of Dr. Sheridan, shortly before her death, to make the acknowledgment, and that Swift turned on his heel and left the room. He adds an erroneous statement that she altered her will in consequence. Her will (in which she appears as ‘spinster’) was in accordance with a suggestion made by Swift (to Worrall, 15 July 1726). Dr. John Lyon [q. v.], who attended Swift in his last years, disbelieved the whole story, and says that Mrs. Dingley laughed at it as an ‘idle tale.’ Mrs. Brent, the dean's housekeeper, similarly disbelieved it.
Sir Henry Craik, whose authority is very high, is convinced by the evidence. Forster (p. 140) thought it quite insufficient. The objections are obvious. The general curiosity which had been stimulated by the mystery made it quite certain that some such story would be told, and the tellers would have the glory of being in the secret. Orrery, Deane Swift, and the younger Sheridan are uncritical, and could only know the story at second-hand. Delany was an old friend of Swift, and his belief in the marriage is strongly in its favour; but he does not tell us by what evidence he was convinced. It seems to be clear from Mrs. Whiteway's evidence that the elder Sheridan (who died in 1738) received some statement from Stella, whom he certainly saw frequently in her last illness. The other stories seem to depend more or less directly upon Sheridan. It is impossible to say what precisely was Sheridan's own version of a story which became more circumstantial with repetitions, or how far he was ​simply reporting or interpreting Stella's own account. It does not appear on what ground the date and the name of Ashe were assigned. Experience in biography does not tend to strengthen belief in such anecdotes. On the whole, though the evidence has weight, it can hardly be regarded as conclusive. The ceremony, in any case, made no difference to the habits of the parties. They lived apart, and Stella used her maiden name in her will.
Until he was over fifty Swift had not appeared as a patriot. He shared in an intensified form all the prejudices of the Irish churchman against dissenters, catholics, and jacobites. He was proud of being an Englishman, though he ‘happened to be dropped’ in Ireland (see letter to Grant, 23 March 1733–4, and Oxford, 14 June 1737). He could speak warmly of the natural intelligence of the native Irish (to Wogan, July 1732), but he considered them to be politically insignificant, and shows no desire for any change or for a relaxation of the penal laws. At this period, however, his prejudices were roused against the English government. The English colonists in Ireland were aggrieved by the restrictions upon Irish trade, and their oppressors were the hated whigs. Swift's eyes were opened, and his hatred of oppression was not the less genuine because first excited by his personal antipathies. The first symptom of his return to political warfare was the publication of a proposal for the universal use of Irish manufactures in 1720. He declared that the oppression of Ireland was calculated to call down a judgment from heaven, and says that whoever travels in the country will hardly think himself ‘in a land where law, religion, and common humanity are professed.’ The printer of the pamphlet was prosecuted, and the chief justice, Whitsted, after sending the jury back nine times, only induced them, after eleven hours' struggle, to return a special verdict. The prosecution had to be dropped. In 1722 a patent was given to William Wood, an English tradesman, to provide a copper coinage, which was much wanted in Ireland. Wood was to pay 1,000l. a year to the crown for fourteen years, and the Duchess of Kendal, the king's mistress, sold the patent to Wood for 10,000l. It seems that Wood was allowed to make a good bargain in order to be able to pay these sums. The real grievance, however, was not so much that the Irish had to pay a high price for their copper coinage, as that they had to pay a high price for the benefit of Wood and the duchess without being in any way consulted as to the bargain. The Irish parliament presented a memorial against Wood, other bodies petitioned, and a committee of inquiry of the privy council met to consider the matter in April 1724. Swift hereupon published a pamphlet, signed ‘M. B. drapier,’ in his tersest style. He declared, with audacious exaggeration, that Wood's project would ruin the country, and prophesied the most extravagant results. The committee reported on 24 July 1724, defending the patent, but recommending that the amount to be coined should be reduced from 100,800l. to 40,000l. Before the report was published its general nature had transpired, and Swift published a second letter, dated 4 Aug., taking wider ground, and proposing a general agreement to refuse the money. A third letter followed the publication of the report on 25 Aug., and a fourth, the most powerful of all, appeared on 13 Oct. Swift now asserted the broad principle that Ireland depended upon England no more than England upon Ireland. Government without the consent of the governed, he said, is the ‘very definition of slavery,’ and, if Irishmen would not be slaves, the remedy was in their own hands.
Meanwhile Lord Carteret had been appointed lord lieutenant. Swift had written to him privately to protest against Wood's patent. Carteret [see under Carteret, John, Earl Granville, for his relations to Swift] had replied graciously. His post was a kind of exile due to Sir Robert Walpole's jealousy, and he was to be responsible for compromising the dispute. He reached Ireland on 22 Oct., and issued a proclamation on the 27th offering a reward of 300l. for a discovery of the authorship of the fourth letter. The printer, Harding, was prosecuted. Swift went to Carteret's levee and reproached him for attacking a poor tradesman (Sheridan, p. 215). The butler to whom Swift had dictated the letters having absented himself, Swift suspected him of presuming upon his knowledge of the secret, and at once dismissed him for his insolence (Deane Swift, p. 190; Sheridan, on his father's authority, p. 213). The butler did not inform, and when the storm was over Swift made him verger of the cathedral. Sir Henry Craik rejects the story on the ground that Swift's authorship was notorious. Legal evidence, however, might be important, and the printer's trial was proceeding. Swift, at any rate, wrote a letter admitting the authorship to the chancellor, Lord Middleton, who was opposed to the patent. It was first published in 1735, and it is not certain that it was sent (it is erroneously placed, in Scott's edition, after the letter to Molesworth). On 11 Nov. he printed a letter of ‘seasonable advice’ to ​the grand jury, who threw out the bill against the printer. Another grand jury presented Wood's halfpence as a nuisance. Swift became the idol of the people. Ballads were sung in his honour and clubs in honour of the ‘Drapier’ formed in every tavern. The patent had to be surrendered, and the victory was complete. Swift wrote a final letter as ‘Drapier’ on 24 Dec. addressed to Lord Molesworth, ironically apologising for errors caused by his simplicity as a tradesman. A seventh letter, addressed to parliament, going over the list of Irish grievances, did not appear, if written, at this time, but was added to the edition of 1735.
Swift's triumph as ‘Drapier’ suggested the possibility of his again taking part in politics. He had kept up an intermittent correspondence with the old ‘Scriblerus’ set, and with Bolingbroke, who was in 1725 permitted to return to England and settled at Dawley. Swift had been frequently invited to visit his friends, and now resolved to come, bringing literary and political projects. He left Dublin for London in March 1725–6, and, after a visit to Gay at Whitehall, spent most of his time with Pope at Twickenham. Hugh Boulter [q. v.] had now been appointed to the Irish primacy, and was virtually the representative of Walpole in place of the lord lieutenant. He advised that a watch should be kept upon Swift (Boulter, Letters, i. 62). Walpole invited Swift to dinner (to Lady Betty Germaine, 8 Jan. 1732–3), and Swift afterwards obtained an interview. He wrote an account of it next day to Peterborough, with a request that it should be shown to Walpole (to Peterborough, 28 April 1726). Swift, according to this remarkable document, complained that the Englishmen whose ancestors had conquered Ireland were treated as Irishmen; that their manufactures were restrained; all preferments given to others; the gentry forced to rack their tenants; and the nation controlled by laws to which they did not consent. Walpole, he says, took an entirely different view; Swift ‘absolutely broke with him’—never saw him again, and for the time refused even to see the lord lieutenant (to Stopford, 20 July 1726). Meanwhile he was on friendly terms with Pulteney, who was now forming an alliance with Bolingbroke against Walpole. He was paying some court to the princess, soon to become Queen Caroline, to whom he was at once presented by Arbuthnot, and to Mrs. Howard, afterwards Lady Suffolk, the princess's friend and the prince's mistress. He made a present of Irish silks to them, and had a promise, never fulfilled, of a present of medals from the princess.
Meanwhile Swift, with Pope and Arbuthnot, was collecting fragments of the old Scriblerus scheme, which were put together in the volumes of ‘Miscellanies,’ of which the first two were published by Pope in 1727. He had also brought with him the finished manuscript of ‘Gulliver's Travels.’ The book had been begun about 1720, a date suggested by a passage at the conclusion. An allusion to the incident is made by Vanessa about that time, and Bolingbroke speaks of the ‘Travels’ on 1 June 1721–2. It is frequently discussed by Pope's friends as the time of publication approached, and on 8 Nov. 1726 Arbuthnot prophesies that it will have as great a run as Bunyan. Swift chose, however, to keep up for a time an affectation of secrecy, and the publication was managed by Pope. It appeared at the end of October 1726 (2nd ed. May 1727; cf. Gent. Mag. 1855, ii. 34). Through Pope's management Swift obtained 200l. for the copyright, and this, he says, was the only occasion on which he ever made a farthing by his writings (to Pulteney, 12 May 1735). Pope apparently got Erasmus Lewis [q. v.] to transact the business (see Carruthers, Pope, p. 239). The work made an instantaneous success. Lady Bolingbroke remarks in February 1726–1727 that it has been already translated into French, and soon afterwards that two plays have been founded upon it. The first translation was by the Abbé des Fontaines, who explained in his preface that he had suppressed much, to avoid shocking the good taste of Frenchmen. He sent a copy to Swift, who did not appreciate the improvement (Des Fontaines to Swift, 4 July 1727, and reply). Critics, he said, had declared that ‘Gulliver’ would last as long as the language, because it described the vices of man in all countries. It had, at any rate, an extraordinary combination of qualities which made it at once a favourite book of children and a summary of bitter scorn for mankind. Swift reports to Pope (17 Nov. 1726) an excellent testimony to one quality—an Irish bishop had said that it was full of improbable lies, and that he hardly believed a word of it.
Swift had been tormented during his stay in England by grave reports of Stella's state of health. He shows the profoundest feeling in writing to his friends in Dublin, and at the same time expresses his anxiety that her death may not occur in the deanery, for fear of scandal, and laments the close friendship which has caused such cruel suffering (to Worrall, 15 July, and Stopford, ​20 July 1726). He returned to Dublin to find her rather better. He was welcomed with popular enthusiasm; bells were rung and bonfires lighted; the harbour covered with wherries on his arrival; the corporation went to meet him; and he was taken in triumph to the deanery (Sheridan, p. 227).
In 1727 he made another visit to England, leaving Dublin in April, and staying most of his time with Pope at Twickenham. He thought of trying the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle, and Voltaire sent him introductions to friends. Bolingbroke (24 June 1727) dissuaded him, on the ground that it might injure his prospects in England. Mrs. Howard also told him that he ought to stay, and he afterwards resented her advice, which he had taken as a hint that he was wanted and would be patronised at home. The death of George I (11 June) now raised for a time the hopes of his friends Pulteney and Bolingbroke; but it soon appeared that Walpole was to be supported by the new queen, and that Mrs. Howard's influence was of no account. Swift was welcomed at Leicester House, the centre of the opposition which gathered round the new Prince of Wales, and was asked to join in the ‘Craftsman.’ His health, however, was weak, and his gloom deep. It was made deeper still in August by reports that Stella was sinking. He left Pope's house abruptly at the end of August. He could not bear society, and yet could not bear to be present in the ‘very midst of grief’ at Dublin. He scarcely dared to open letters from Ireland; he was very ill, though he might escape this time, and could hardly travel. ‘I am able,’ he tells Sheridan (2 Sept. 1727), ‘to hold up my sorry head no longer.’ He is still anxious that the death may not take place at the deanery. He thinks of going to France, but finally resolves to start for Ireland. He reached Dublin in the beginning of October (a fragment of a journal of his journey to Holyhead is printed by Sir Henry Craik, App. ix., from the original in the Forster Library). Stella still lingered till 28 Jan. 1727–8. Swift had some one with him at the deanery when the news was brought to him at eight in the evening. He could not be alone till eleven P.M., when he sat down to begin writing the remarkable ‘Character of Mrs. Johnson.’ She was buried in St. Patrick's on the 30th, but he was too ill to be present. An envelope, with a lock of her hair, belonged, says Scott, to Dr. Tuke of St. Stephen's Green, on which Swift had written the famous words, ‘Only a woman's hair.’ To interpret them rightly is to understand Swift.
Swift never again left Ireland. He wrote occasional pamphlets, expressing the old views with growing bitterness. He repeats the list of Irish wrongs, and traces all the sufferings of the country to the oppression of the English rulers. The most famous is the ‘Modest Proposal’ (1729) for preventing the children of the poor from being burdensome by using them as articles of food. A similar tract is an ‘Answer to the Craftsman’ (1730), in which Swift argues that the Irish should be permitted to join the French army, because it will lead to depopulation, which is the one end of English policy. Swift received the freedom of Dublin in 1729, and, in returning thanks, accepted the authorship of the ‘Drapier's Letters.’ Lord Allen, a silly Irish peer, protested against the action of the corporation, and was bitterly satirised by Swift as ‘Traulus.’ He wrote against the proposed repeal of the Test Act, and in 1731 he attacked two bills for enforcing residence on the clergy and dividing large benefices. Swift described them afterwards (to Sterne, July 1733) as ‘two abominable bills for enslaving and beggaring the clergy, which took their birth from hell.’ They were thrown out. In 1733 and afterwards bills were introduced for commuting the tithe, which Swift took to be an attack upon the church by the landlords. He fiercely denounced the measures, and attacked the Irish parliament in the most savage of all his satires in verse, ‘The Legion Club’ (1736). (For the impression made upon Tennyson by this poem, see ‘Memoir of Tennyson,’ 1897, ii. 73.). While writing this he was seized with a fit of giddiness which prevented its completion (Orrery, p. 245), and he was never afterwards fit for serious work.
Swift was the most thoroughgoing of pessimists. Do not the corruptions of men in power ‘eat your flesh and exhaust your spirits?’ he asked a friend (Delany, p. 148). His so-called patriotism, he declares, is ‘perfect rage and resentment, and the mortifying sight of slavery, folly, and baseness’ (to Pope, 1 June 1728). He feared that he should die at Dublin in a rage, ‘like a poisoned rat in a hole’ (to Bolingbroke, 21 March 1728–9). Bolingbroke (18 July 1732) offered to procure him an exchange for the rectory of Binfield in Berkshire, which Swift declined as inadequate. He continued, however, to write to his friends Bolingbroke, Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot in letters touching from the evident desire for affection, and showing increasing symptoms of decay. He is querulous over old grievances: the 1,000l. owing to him from the crown when he accepted the deanery, and ​the medals which the queen never remembered to give. He hopes for death. ‘Good night; I hope I shall never see you again,’ was his habitual leave-taking to one of his friends (Deane Swift, p. 217). On the anniversary of his birthday he had long been in the habit of shutting himself up and reading the third chapter of Job. He declares that he is tired of company, sees only his inferiors, and kills time with writing nonsense (to Pope, 6 March; Bolingbroke, 21 March 1728–9). The merest trifles he ever wrote are ‘serious philosophical lucubrations’ in comparison with his ‘present employments’ (to Gay, 28 Aug. 1731). Carteret, till he ceased to be lord lieutenant in 1730, remained upon very friendly terms with Swift, who recommended various friends for preferment, and wrote a humorous defence of Carteret's supposed patronage of tories. He was a bitter enemy of Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland, and attacked the Irish bishops too fiercely to be on pleasant terms. His habitual tone is indicated by an earlier letter, in which he tells the bishop of Meath (22 May 1719) to remember that he was speaking to a clergyman, and not to a footman. He governed his chapter vigorously and judiciously, performing the services impressively, and refusing to grant leases upon terms which would benefit him at the expense of the permanent revenue (DELANY, pp. 40, 208). He insisted upon the repair of monuments, especially of one to the Duke of Schomberg. When the duke's relations refused help, he set up a monument at the expense of the cathedral. A bitter inscription reflecting upon their neglect offended the courts of England and Prussia (an unpublished letter is quoted in Craik, p. 445, with a characteristic reference to this).
Swift's alienation from the official society of Dublin did not prevent him from attracting friends among those who were willing to submit to his masterful ways. Delany (pp. 90–7), in answer to Orrery's not unfounded complaint of Swift's taste for inferior company, gives a list of his chief friends. Chief among them were the family of Grattans, who, as he told Carteret, could ‘raise 10,000 men;’ Thomas Sheridan (1684–1738) [q. v.], Richard Helsham [q. v.], a physician, and Delany himself [see Delany, Patrick]. Mrs. Pendarves (afterwards Mary Delany [q. v.]) was one of his chief female friends. Soon after the death of Stella, Swift spent eight months with Sir Arthur Acheson at Market Hill. During Stella's life he had two public days for receiving his friends (D. Swift, p. 180) when the two ladies acted as unofficial hostesses. After Stella's death the circle gradually narrowed. The ‘meanest’ of Swift's friends, according to Delany (p. 90), was John Worrall, vicar of St. Patrick's, who often did business for him. Swift dined regularly at Worrall's house, bringing his friends and paying the expense. (Deane Swift, pp. 293, &c., gives a long and hostile account of Worrall). His closest intimate was Sheridan, whom he warmly patronised, abused, ridiculed, and bullied. Sheridan bore Swift's whims with unfailing good temper, till his unlucky forgetfulness of the famous passage in ‘Gil Blas’ led to a final breach between the two old friends, shortly before Sheridan's death in 1738. Swift still received his friends upon Sunday afternoons; but his temper became morose, and his love of saving increased till he grudged a bottle of wine to his friends. An obstinate refusal to wear spectacles weakened his eyes, and he filled his time by excessive exercise, in spite of his physicians (Delany, pp. 144–6). He found some distraction, however, in literary employments of various kinds. He took up two works, both begun, as he tells Pope (12 June 1731; see also to Gay, 28 Aug. 1731), about 1703—the ‘Polite Conversation,’ of which he made a present to Mary Barber [q. v.] in 1737, and the ‘Directions to Servants,’ not published till after his death. Both of them are singularly characteristic of keen powers of satirical observation employed upon trivial purposes. Two or three of his most characteristic poems are of the same dates; especially the verses on his own death (to Gay 1 Dec. 1731), the ‘Rhapsody on Poetry’ (1733), and probably the verses upon the ‘Day of Judgment,’ sent by Chesterfield to Voltaire (27 Aug. 1752) from an original manuscript of the author (published in Chesterfield's ‘Letters’). These poems give the very essence of Swift. Other works show him killing time by trifling. At Market Hill he carried on a commerce of ‘libels’ with his hostess, written in good humour, though misrepresented by scandal (see his curious letter to Dr. Jeremy, 8 June 1732). The ‘Grand Question Debated’ shows his old humour. Other performances, such as the laborious riddles and plays upon words in which Sheridan was his accomplice, are painful illustrations of his maxim Vive la bagatelle. Two or three performances, which appear to have been surreptitiously printed about this time, show the morbid dwelling upon filth which was unfortunately characteristic. Delany (pp. 75, 175) remarks that Swift was remarkable for scrupulous cleanliness, and moreover (though allowance must certainly be made for the manners of the time) particularly delicate in conversation. ​In this, as in other cases, he seems to have tormented himself from a kind of fascination by what revolted him. During this period Swift was also engaged upon the history which he had begun in 1712. He made Mrs. Pilkington read it to him. He consulted Erasmus Lewis upon the advisability of publishing it (to Lewis, 23 July 1737). Lewis pointed out the need of revision (to Swift, 8 April 1738); and Swift, who had become unequal to the task, did no more in the matter.
As long as he retained his powers, Swift was constantly endeavouring to help various dependents. Among them were Mary Barber, William Dunkin, Constantia Grierson, and Lætitia and Matthew Pilkington (for details of Swift's services to them, see the articles under those names). Swift's zeal as a patron is more conspicuous than his discrimination. The Pilkingtons turned out to be worthless; and a counterfeit letter from Swift to Queen Caroline (22 June 1731), enforcing Mrs. Barber's claims to patronage, gave him great annoyance. The true authorship was never revealed. Deane Swift insinuates that it was a practical joke of Delany's (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. v. 378, 384); and Swift wrote some indignant and obviously truthful repudiations (to Pope, 20 July, and to Lady Suffolk, 24 July 1731). His sister Jane had married (in December 1699) Joseph Fenton, a carrier in good business and well educated (see Craik, p. 82). Swift broke off all connection with her, and makes some unpleasant references to her in the ‘Journal to Stella,’ but, on her husband's death as a bankrupt, made her an allowance until her death in 1738 (Motte to Swift, 4 Oct. 1735). To Mrs. Dingley he is said to have made an allowance of fifty guineas a year, persuading her that it was the product of a fund for which he was trustee. He was also generous to a Mrs. Ridgeway, daughter of his old housekeeper, Mrs. Brent, with whom Mrs. Dingley lodged (to Mrs. Dingley, 29 Aug. 1733, and 28 Dec. 1734 and note; see Deane Swift, pp. 345, &c.; Sheridan, p. 439). According to Delany (pp. 115, 213), Swift was one of the best masters in the world, though ‘churlish’ in appearance. He began by testing his servants' humility but paid them well, and, if they submitted, was generous and helped them to save money. The common people retained their reverence for him, and apparently took his rough ways from the humorous point of view. He tells Pope in one of his last letters (9 Feb. 1736–7) that he has ‘a thousand hats and blessings’ from his ‘lower friends’ in the streets, though the gentry have forgotten him. Sheridan (p. 375) tells the story that a crowd collected to see an eclipse dispersed on being told that it had been put off by the dean's orders. A lawyer named Bettesworth, whom he had ridiculed, called at the deanery to remonstrate and gave some intimations of threatening violence. Had the neighbours been called in, says Swift, in a letter to the lord lieutenant (to Dorset, January 1733–4), their rage would have endangered the lawyer's life. They sent a deputation to offer reprisals, and when Swift sent them away peaceably formed an association to protect ‘the person of the Drapier.’ Bettesworth was said to have lost 1,200l. a year by the insult.
Swift's parsimony enabled him to be charitable. Sheridan (p. 235) states that he spent a third of his income upon charity, and saved a third with a view to a charitable foundation at his death. As soon as he had 500l. to spare, he lent it in small sums to be repaid in weekly instalments without interest. Delany (p. 8) testifies that he never saw the poor so well cared for as those round the cathedral. Swift visited them steadily, helped to found an almshouse, and set up a system of ‘badges’ to suppress promiscuous charity. He had a ‘seraglio’ of poor old women, to whom he gave grotesque names, and whom he helped and encouraged. There was hardly a lane in or near Dublin, says Delany (p. 133), without one of them. The project of founding a hospital occupied him for some years. On 9 Sept. 1732 Sir W. Fownes sends him a careful plan in answer to some of his suggestions upon the subject, and in 1735 he applied to the corporation of Dublin for a piece of ground on which to erect it.
Swift's mental decay was becoming marked about 1738. It was from 1736 to 1741 that Pope carried out the miserable scheme by which Swift was made to appear as publishing their correspondence out of vanity (a full account is given by Mr. Elwin in his edition of Pope's ‘Works,’ vol. i. introduction; see also under Pope, Alexander, (1688–1744)). Mrs. Whiteway (daughter of his uncle Adam, and mother-in-law of Deane Swift) had come to superintend his household, and discharged her duty affectionately and judiciously. Swift constantly suffered from the disease which first attacked him at Moor Park. Dr. Bucknill (in ‘Brain’ for January 1882) has identified the symptoms with those of ‘labyrinthine vertigo,’ a disease in the region of the ear. In any case, it caused not only physical distress, but continual anxiety. Young, in his letter on original composition, tells how he once heard Swift say, ‘I shall be like that tree: I shall die at the top.’ Frequent re​ferences in his letters and journals show how he was harassed by some such fear. Many of these references are collected in the ‘Closing Years of Swift's Life,’ by (Sir) W. R. Wilde, who discusses the disease and shows that Swift did not suffer from insanity proper. Towards the end of his life paralysis came on, and he suffered from aphasia. A last very painful letter is addressed to Mrs. Whiteway, dated 26 July 1740. An ‘exhortation’ to his chapter against allowing the choir to take part in a ‘fiddlers' club,’ is dated 28 Jan. 1741. In March 1741–2 guardians were appointed for him by the court of chancery. In the following summer a strange attack was made upon him by a Dr. Wilson, a prebendary of the cathedral. Wilson, while taking him in a carriage, tried, it was said, by actual violence to extort from him a promise of the subdeanery (Orrery to Deane Swift, 4 Dec. 1742; Craik, p. 493, n.) Great indignation was aroused. Wilson swore that Swift had been violent. In September 1742 a crisis took place. Swift suffered much agony from an abscess in the eye. When this broke the pain ceased; he recognised his friends for a short time, and then sank into a state of apathy. He survived till 19 Oct. 1745. Painful anecdotes of his last days and occasional gleams of intelligence are given by his biographers, chiefly from letters of Mrs. Whiteway and Deane Swift (first published by Orrery, pp. 136–42). At midnight on 22 Oct. Swift was buried privately, according to his own careful directions, in the cathedral of St. Patrick, by the side of Stella. A famous inscription by himself, saying that he was ‘ubi sæva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit,’ was, by his direction, engraved in large letters deeply cut and strongly gilded.
In 1835, some repairs being made in the cathedral, Swift's and Stella's coffins were found side by side. The British Association was holding a meeting at Dublin, and the skulls were examined by various scientific people (Wilde, pp. 54, &c.). Wilde describes the results and gives drawings of both skulls (pp. 62, 116) and of a cast from the interior of Swift's (p. 63).
Swift's design of founding a hospital is mentioned in the verses on his own death (1731), and had occupied him in the succeeding years. He made a will in 1735, modified in 1737, and again in 1740 (Craik, pp. 449, 450). He left between 10,000l. and 11,000l. for the purpose, which was increased by other donations; and St. Patrick's Hospital, so called by his direction, was opened on 19 Sept. 1757, to receive fifty patients. It was upon ground adjoining ‘Dr. Steevens's Hospital,’ to which Stella had left 1,000l. to endow a chaplaincy (see her will in Wilde, pp. 94–7). Swift left the tithes of Effernock to the vicars of Laracor, with the provision, dictated probably by his fear of the dissenters, that ‘when any other form of the Christian religion shall become the established faith in this kingdom,’ the proceeds shall go to the poor; so long as ‘Christianity in any shape shall be tolerated among us,’ but ‘still excepting professed Jews, atheists, and infidels.’ A similar provision is in Stella's will, no doubt suggested by Swift (Swift's will of March 1737 is printed in the appendix to Scott's ‘Life’).
An interesting portrait of Swift as a student at Trinity College, by an unknown artist, is reproduced as a frontispiece to ‘Swift's Prose Works’ (1897, vol. i.). The present whereabouts of this portrait is unknown; the negative was obtained at South Kensington in 1867. Francis Bindon [q. v.] painted a portrait of Swift in 1738, now in the deanery of St. Patrick's, engraved in mezzotint at the time, and by Scriven in 1818. A portrait, in the theatre of Trinity College, Dublin, is said to be a copy from this. Another at Howth Castle, with Wood writhing in agony at Swift's feet, was painted by Bindon for Lord Howth in 1735. A bust-portrait, ascribed to Bindon, is in the National Gallery at Dublin. A portrait by Jervas was presented to the Bodleian Library by Alderman Barber in 1739. Another by Jervas is in the National Portrait Gallery. An engraving from a portrait by Benjamin Wilson (1741) is the frontispiece to Orrery's ‘Letters.’ A portrait, said to be taken from a cast after death, is prefixed to the first volume of Nichols's edition of the ‘Works.’ A plaster bust in the museum at Trinity College is also taken from a cast after death, the original of which was destroyed. A bust by Roubiliac is in the library of Trinity College.
Wilde gives an engraving of a supposed portrait of Stella and of a medallion at Delville, also supposed to be intended for her.
In Swift the author and the man are identical. No writings ever reflected more perfectly a powerful idiosyncrasy; and his famous sayings resemble groans wrung from a strong man by torture. His misanthropy partly excuses, if it does not justify, the prejudices of Johnson and of Macaulay. Thackeray, in the ‘English Humourists,’ accepted Macaulay's statements of fact too unreservedly, and, while appreciating the power, was alienated by the ferocity, of some of Swift's writings. To deny the ferocity is im​possible; but it may be forgiven by those who recognise some of the noblest of qualities soured by hard experience. Swift was a man of proud and masterful nature doomed to dependence on weaker men; suffering till past middle life from hope deferred, and, after a brief gleam of triumph, sent, with all his ambitions crushed, to eat his heart out in exile. His strongest personal affections involved him in a tragedy; the country which he had served most generously seemed to be sinking into ruin under the system which he had denounced. His writings are a record of his moods. The early ‘Tale of a Tub’ and ‘Battle of the Books’ express the scorn of a vigorous youth for effete pedantry. But he had not, like his contemporaries, any faith in the advent of a reign of ‘common sense.’ The apparently sceptical tendency of his ridicule of mysterious dogmas was balanced by his utter scorn for the capacities of the race. He believed most unequivocally in the corruption of human nature, and inferred the practical necessity of a religion to restrain immorality. The ‘Scorn of Fools,’ which he confesses in an early poem, is never absent. He could be both humorous and really playful when in good spirits with congenial society; but his humour has almost always a sardonic tinge. He never shows the gentle kindliness which gives the charm to the writings of Addison. This characteristic attitude to society is indicated in the singular collections for the history of social follies, begun at an early period, which were ultimately published in the ‘Polite Conversations’ and the ‘Directions to Servants.’ His fun is always tinged with contempt, and he is absolutely incapable of pitying his victims. This singular combination culminates in ‘Gulliver's Travels,’ which varies so strangely from the simple ingenuity displayed in working out the problem of Lilliput, to the intense bitterness which culminates in the ‘Struldbrugs.’ A similar contrast appears in the ‘Drapier's Letters.’ The earlier political pamphlets are admirable, and the ‘Conduct of the Allies’ in particular a masterpiece of its kind. The whole aim of the author is to strike an effective blow, not to expound any general principles. It shows Swift's intensely practical character. He cares nothing for abstract principles, and is simply a man of most powerful common-sense uttering the strong prejudices which are part of himself. The sincerity is palpable, although the selfish element gave colour to the charge of ‘ratting,’ sufficiently discussed above. This is equally obvious in the ‘Drapier's Letters,’ in which is embodied all the passionate resentment accumulated in ten years of exile. It is as easy to attribute the wrath to hatred of Walpole as to hatred of oppression; Swift appears as an Irish patriot, and yet claims to be a thorough Englishman, and speaks in the name of the dominant race. He was really unable to distinguish between the two impulses, which happened to coincide. It is bare justice, however, to admit that, if his eyes were opened by personal antipathy, he saw most clearly the really bad side of his enemies, and that his indignation, however roused, was as genuine as intense. The same peculiarity appears in his personal relations and in the poems suggested by them. Nobody could be a warmer friend, but it was on condition that his friends should be part of himself. He annexed other persons rather than attracted them. Hence follows one painful characteristic. The suffering from the loss overbalances for him the happiness from the love. He almost curses the friendship which has caused the pain; with the ‘inverted hypocrisy’ often ascribed to him, he habitually regards his best feelings as the cause of his misfortunes, and disavows or laments their existence. It is this unique combination of an ‘intense and glowing mind’ with narrow prejudices, and the perversion of a deeply affectionate nature with a kind of double selfishness, which gives enduring interest to so many of Swift's utterances. His insight is as keen as it is one-sided, and his genuine hatred of vice and folly seems always to be tinctured with a recognition of the futility in this world of virtue or wisdom. Swift's works, by the insertion of the life, the ‘Journal,’ and the letters, fill nineteen volumes in Scott's edition. The greatest part of these is occupied partly by the historical writings—which, written in times of repression and without the stimulus of an immediate practical purpose, are languid, though giving some interesting facts—and partly by the miserable trifles with which he killed time in later years, and which, though Fox thought them a proof of ‘good-nature,’ are to most readers melancholy illustrations of the waste of great faculties by a man dying ‘like a poisoned rat in a hole.’ Such people will hold that the fire would have been the best editor.
Swift's works, with the exception of the letter upon the correction of the language in 1712, were all anonymous. A great number of trifles are attributed to him, some of which he may only have corrected or suggested, while others may be not his at all. Many were published surreptitiously; collections were made without authority, and the editors of his works added many pieces without assigning any reasons. Confusion is caused by ​the publication of some books both as independent and as additional volumes to previous collections. A complete bibliography would require much labour, especially upon the accumulations of rubbish. The nearest approach is Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole's ‘Notes for a Bibliography of Swift’ in the ‘Bibliographer’ (vi. 160–71). Mr. Lane-Poole has been unable to find separate copies of some of Swift's works which we know to have appeared separately. Others were published for the first time from the manuscripts in the editions of his works. The following list owes much to Mr. Lane-Poole's very careful article: 1. ‘Preface to Letters … by Sir W. Temple,’ London, 1700, 2 vols. 8vo. 2. ‘A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and Commons in Athens and Rome, with the Consequences,’ London, 1701, 4to (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 3. ‘A Tale of a Tub … [with] an Account of a Battle between the Ancient and Modern Books in St. James's Library,’ London, 1704, 8vo (this includes the ‘Mechanical Operations of the Spirit;’ the fifth edition, 1710, adds the author's ‘Apology’ and Wotton's notes). 4. ‘An Argument to prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, as Things now stand, be attended with some Inconveniences, and perhaps not produce those many good Effects proposed thereby,’ 1708 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 5. ‘The Sentiments of a Church of England Man with respect to Religion and Government,’ 1708 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 6. ‘A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners: by a Person of Quality,’ 1708 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 7. ‘A Letter to a Member of Parliament in Ireland upon choosing a New Speaker there,’ 1708. 8. ‘A Letter from a Member of the House of Commons in Ireland to a Member of the House of Commons in England concerning the Sacramental Test,’ 1708 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 9. ‘Predictions for the Year 1708 … by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.,’ London, 1708, 4to (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 10. ‘The Accomplishment of … Mr. Bickerstaff's Prediction,’ 1708 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 11. ‘An Answer to Bickerstaff … by a Person of Quality,’ 1708. 12. ‘An Elegy upon Mr. Pa[r]tridge the Almanac Maker,’ 1708, s. sh. fol. 13. ‘A Famous Prediction of Merlin … by T. M. Philomath,’ 1709 (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 14. ‘Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., against … Mr. Partridge,’ London, 1709, 8vo (‘Miscellany,’ 1711). 15. ‘The Virtues of Sid Hamet the Magician's Rod,’ London, 1710, s. sh. fol. 16. The ‘Tatler’ of 1709 and 1710 contains thirteen papers ascribed to Swift; and the second ‘Tatler,’ by his friend Harrison, six papers in 1710–1711. 17. ‘The Examiner,’ London, 1710–1711 (Nos. 14 to 46, by Swift, which in a 12mo reprint of 1712 appear as 13 to 45, the original No. 13 being omitted). 18. ‘A Short Character of T[homas] E[arl] of W[harton], L.L. of I[reland],’ &c., London, 1710, 12mo. 19. ‘Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,’ London, 1711, 8vo; pamphlets marked above: ‘Meditations upon a Broomstick,’ ‘Various Thoughts,’ ‘Critical Essay,’ and ‘Baucis and Philemon’ (first published in Tonson's ‘Miscellany Poems,’ pt. vi. 1709), Mrs. Harris's Petitions and other verses. In 1710 and 1711 Curll published ‘Baucis and Philemon,’ with the ‘Broomstick’ and some trifles in two or three different shapes. 20. ‘Remarks upon a Pamphlet’ (on the examination of Gregg), London, 1711, 8vo. 21. ‘A New Journey to Paris, together with the most secret transactions between the French king and an English gentleman, by the Sieur du Baudrier; translated from the French,’ London, 1711, 8vo. 22. ‘The Conduct of the Allies and of the Late Ministry in beginning and carrying on the Present War,’ London, 1711, 8vo. 23. ‘Some Remarks on the Barrier-Treaty between Her Majesty and the States-General,’ &c., London, 1712, 8vo. 24. ‘Some Advice humbly offered to Members of the October Club, in a letter from a Person of Honour,’ London, 1712, 8vo. 25. ‘Some Reasons to prove that no Person is obliged by his Principles as a Whig to oppose her Majesty or her present Ministry ....’ London, 1712, 8vo. 26. ‘A Proposal for correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English Tongue in a letter to the .... Lord High Treasurer, by Jonathan Swift, D.D.,’ London, 1712, 8vo. 27. ‘A pretended letter of thanks from Lord W[harton] to Bp. of St. Asaph …’ 1712, 8vo. 28. ‘T—d's [i.e. Toland's] invitation to Dismal [i.e. Nottingham] to dine with the Calves' Head Club; imitated from Horace, Ep. v. lib. i,’ 1712, s. sh. 29. ‘Part of the Seventh Epistle of the First Book of Horace, imitated and addressed to a Noble Lord,’ London, 1713, 8vo. 30. ‘Mr. C—n's Discourse of Freethinking put into plain English by way of Abstract, for the Use of the Poor,’ London, 1713, 8vo. 31. ‘A Preface to the B—p of S—r—m's Introduction to the third volume of the History of the Reformation. … By Gregory Misosarum,’ London, 1713, 8vo. 32. ‘The Importance of the Guardian considered in a Second Letter to the Bailiff of Stockbridge, by a friend of Mr. St—le,’ London, 1713, 8vo. 33. ‘The Character of Richard St—le, Esq., by Abel, Toby's Kinsman …’ 1713; reprinted in ‘Miscellaneous Works of Mr. ​William Wagstaffe,’ 1726, but attributed to Swift. See Dilke's ‘Papers of a Critic,’ i. 369–81, for this and the following letter, which differs from one of the same title in Wagstaffe's ‘Miscellanies.’ 34. ‘A Letter from the Facetious Dr. Andrew Tripe to the Venerable Nestor Ironside,’ 1714. 35. ‘The Publick Spirit of the Whigs set forth in their generous encouragement of the Author of the “Crisis,” with some observations on the seasonableness, candour, erudition, and style of that treatise,’ London, 1714, 8vo. 36. ‘A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures …’ Dublin, 1720. 37. ‘The Right of Precedence between Phisicians [sic] and Civilians enquired into,’ Dublin, 1720, 8vo. 38. ‘An Elegy on the much lamented Death of Mr. Demar. …’ 1720, s. sh. fol. 39. ‘The Swearer's Bank … wherein the medicinal use of oaths is considered; to which is prefaced an Essay upon English Bubbles by Thomas Hope,’ Dublin, 1720. 40. ‘Miscellaneous Works, comical and diverting, by T. R. D. J. S. D. O. P. I. I.’ (‘Tale of a Tub,’ and ‘Miscellanies in Prose and Verse’), London, 1720, 8vo. 41. ‘Letter to a Young Gentleman lately entered into Holy Orders, by a Person of Quality. It is known that … the treatise was writ … by … Dr. S.,’ London, 1721, 8vo. 42. ‘A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet,’ &c. Dublin, 1721. 43. ‘Miscellanies by Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patricks,’ 4th ed. London, 1722, 8vo. (Some of the later pamphlets with [Sheridan's] ‘Wonderful Wonder of Wonders’ and ‘Ars Punica.’). 44. ‘Some Arguments against Enlarging the Power of the Bishops in letting leases …’ Dublin, 1723, 8vo. 45. ‘Maxims controuled in Ireland. The truth of maxims in state and government examined with reference to Ireland,’ 1724. 46. ‘A Letter to the Shopkeepers, Tradesmen, Farmers, and Common People of Ireland, concerning the brass halfpence coined by Mr. Woods … by M. B. Drapier,’ Dublin, 1724, 8vo. 47. ‘A Letter to Mr. Harding, the printer … by M. B. Drapier’ (dated Aug. 4), Dublin, 1724, 8vo. 48. ‘Some Observations on … the Report [on] … Wood's Halfpence,’ by M. B. Drapier (25 Aug.), Dublin, 1724, 8vo. 49. ‘A Letter to the whole People of Ireland,’ by M. B. Drapier (23 Oct.), Dublin, 1724, 8vo. 50. ‘Seasonable Advice to the Grand Jury’ (November), Dublin, 1724, s. sh. fol. 51. ‘A Letter to Viscount Molesworth,’ by M. B. Drapier (14 Dec.), Dublin, 1724, 8vo. 52. ‘Fraud detected in the “Hibernian Patriot,”’ reprints the five ‘Drapiers' Letters,’ with other trifles, Dublin, 1725, 12mo. The letters to Middleton (in October) called the sixth ‘Drapier's Letter,’ and a seventh addressed to both houses of parliament, were first published in the works of 1735. 53. ‘To his Excellency the Lord Carteret’ (‘Birth of Manly Virtue’), 1725, fol. 54. ‘Cadenus and Vanessa,’ Dublin, 1726, 8vo. 55. ‘It cannot Rain but it Pours, or London strewed with Rarities,’ London, 1726, 8vo. 56. ‘Travels into several remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon and then a Captain of several Ships,’ 2 vols. 8vo. 1726, London. A large-paper copy, with manuscript additions by Swift, is in the Forster Library. For an account of the various forms of the first edition, see ‘Notes and Queries,’ 6th ser. xi. 367, 431, xii. 198, 350, 398, 473. 57. ‘A Short View of the State of Ireland,’ Dublin, 1727, 8vo. 58. ‘Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,’ with preface (dated 27 May 1727) signed by Swift and Pope, 5 vols. 8vo, London (the first two volumes, 1727, the third and the ‘last volume,’ 1732). The fifth volume in 1735 is entirely by Swift, and professes to add all that was new in the Dublin works of that year. There is also a three-volume edition of 1727, of which vols. i. and ii. are the same as in this, and vol. iii. the same as vol. iv. of this. 59. ‘An Answer to … a Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants … of Ireland,’ Dublin, 1728, 8vo. 60. The ‘Military Memoirs’ of George Carleton (fl. 1728) [q. v.], 1728, have been ascribed to Swift by Colonel Parnell in the ‘English Historical Review,’ vi. 97–151; but, though he demolishes Carleton, his grounds for attributing the authorship to Swift are of no weight, and a consideration of Swift's position at the time, and of the internal evidence, seems to be conclusive against the suggestion. 61. ‘The Intelligencer,’ Dublin, 1728, republished in a volume in London in 1729, was set up by Swift and Sheridan. Swift describes his share in letters to Pope on 6 March 1728–9, and 12 June 1731. 62. ‘A Modest Proposal for preventing the Children of the Poor from being a Burden to their Parents or Country, and for making them beneficial to the Publick,’ Dublin, 1729, 8vo. 63. ‘The Grand Question debated whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Barrack or a Malthouse,’ 1729, s. sh. fol. (also as ‘A Soldier and a Scholar’ in 1732, 4to). 64. ‘The Journal of a Modern Lady … by the Author of “Cadenus and Vanessa,”’ Dublin, 1729, 8vo. 65. ‘Libel on Dr. D—ny and a certain great Lord,’ &c., Dublin, 1730, also as ‘Satire on Dr. D—ny,’ &c. 66. ‘Vindication of his Ex— the Lord L—t from the charge of favouring none but Toryes, High Churchmen and ​Jacobites,’ by the Rev. D. S., London, 1730, 8vo. 67. ‘An Excellent new Ballad; or the True En—sh D—n to be hanged for a R—pe,’ 1730, s. sh. fol. 68. ‘A Scheme for making R[eligio]n and the C[lerg]y useful,’ 1731, 8vo. 69. ‘Infallible Scheme to pay the Public Debt of the Nation in Six Months; humbly offered to the Consideration of the present Parliament, by D—n S—T.,’ 1731, 8vo. 70. ‘The Memoirs of Captain John Creighton, written by himself’ (edited with a preface by Swift), 1731. 71. ‘Advantages proposed for repealing the Sacramental Test, impartially considered,’ &c., London, 1732, 8vo. 72. ‘Queries relating to the Sacramental Test,’ 1732 (‘Works’ of 1735). 73. ‘Considerations on two Bills sent down from the House of Lords, &c., by Dr. S.,’ Dublin, 1732, 8vo. 74. ‘The Lady's Dressing-room, to which is added a Poem on cutting down the old Thorn at Market Hill, by the Rev. Dr. S—T.,’ Dublin, 1732, 8vo. 75. ‘Some Reasons against the Bill for settling the Tithe of Hemp, Flax, &c., by a Modus,’ 1733. 76. ‘The Presbyterians' Plea of Merit … examined,’ Dublin, 1733, 8vo (to the second edition was added a ‘Narrative of … Attempts … for a Repeal of the Sacramental Test,’ published in the ‘Correspondent,’ a periodical). 77. ‘A Serious and Useful Scheme to make an Hospital for Incurables of Universal Benefit, with Petition of Footmen in and about Dublin,’ sm. 1733, 12mo. 78. ‘On Poetry: a Rapsody’ [sic] London, 1733, 8vo. 79. ‘A beautiful young Nymph going to Bed,’ by Dr. S–T., 1734, 4to. 80. ‘The Works of J. S., D.D., D.S.P.D.,’ 4 vols. 1735. This is Faulkner's edition, and was revised by the author, although he complained of the publication (see Orrery, p. 79). It was reprinted with two additional volumes, also seen by the author, in 1738, and other volumes of Miscellanies and Letters, making it a set of sixteen in all, were added up to 1767. 81. ‘Poetical Works,’ London, 1736, 12mo. 82. ‘A Proposal for giving Badges to the Beggars in all the Parishes of Dublin,’ London, 1737, 4to. 83. ‘A complete Collection of genteel and ingenious Conversation, according to the most polite Mode and Method now used at Court, and in the best Companies of England, in three Dialogues. By Simon Wagstaff,’ London, 1738, 8vo. 84. ‘The Beast's Confession to the Priest, on observing how most Men mistake their Talents, by J.S., D.S.P.,’ London, 1738, 8vo. 85. ‘Imitation of the Sixth Satire of the Second Book of Horace,’ London, 1738, fol. 86. ‘Verses on the Death of Dean Swift, written by himself in 1731,’ Dublin, 1739, 8vo. A spurious version of this appeared in 1733 as ‘Life and genuine Character of Dr. Swift,’ &c. An edition was published in London by Dr. W. King (1685–1763) [q. v.] in 1739, with omissions of which Swift complained. 87. ‘Letters to and from Dean Swift from 1714 to 1738,’ with ‘Free Thoughts’ (see below), appeared in 1741 as a seventh volume of Faulkner's edition of Swift's ‘Works,’ and was published in London in 4to as ‘Dean Swift's Literary Correspondence for Twenty-four Years’ (for the circumstances see Mr. Elwin's Introduction to Pope's ‘Works,’ vol. i.). 88. ‘Some Free Thoughts upon the present State of Affairs,’ by the Author of ‘Gulliver's Travels’ (written in 1714), London, 1741, 8vo. 89. Three Sermons: ‘On Mutual Subjection,’ ‘On the Conscience,’ ‘On the Trinity,’ London, 1744, 4to. 90. ‘The Difficulty of Knowing Oneself’ (a sermon), London, 1745. 91. ‘Directions to Servants in general,’ London, 1745, 8vo. 92. ‘Story of the Injured Lady, being a true Picture of Scotch Perfidy, Irish Poverty, and English Partiality,’ with letters and poems, London, 1746, 8vo. 93. ‘History of the last Four Years of the Queen,’ published without the editor's name by Charles Lucas, M.D. (1713–1771) [q. v.], London, 1758, 8vo. (The authenticity of this has been disputed, but seems to be conclusively established. See Craik, App. iii.).
A collective edition of Swift's ‘Works,’ in 12 vols. 8vo, edited by Hawkesworth, appeared in 1755. The thirteenth and fourteenth volumes were added by Bowyer in 1762, and the fifteenth and sixteenth by Deane Swift in 1765. Three volumes of correspondence were added by Hawkesworth in 1766, and three by Deane Swift in 1767. These became volumes xviii. to xxiii., when J. Nichols added a seventeenth volume, containing an index to the whole, in 1775. Nichols afterwards added two more volumes in 1778 and 1779. This edition was also published in 4to and in 12mo. An edition in seventeen volumes 8vo, edited by T. Sheridan, appeared in 1785. In 1801 J. Nichols edited an edition in nineteen volumes 8vo, which was reprinted in twenty-four small 8vo volumes in 1804, and in nineteen 8vo volumes in 1808. Malone contributed to the 1808 edition (see Nichols's Illustrations of Literature, v. 391–7). In 1814 appeared the edition in nineteen volumes by Scott, which was again published in 1824. An edition by Thomas Roscoe, 2 vols. royal 8vo, appeared in 1849, and has been reprinted. An edition of ‘Swift's Prose Works’ is now progress in ‘Bohn's Standard Library’ (12 vols. 1897–1908) the second volume (1897) contains for the first time an accurate version of the ‘Journal to Stella.’
L. S.