Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Swift, Jonathan

by James Frederick Ferrier

SWIFT, Jonathan, the celebrated dean of St. Patrick's, author of the "Tale of a Tub" and "Gulliver's Travels," was born at Dublin on the 30th November, 1667. His life may be divided, for purposes of reference, into the following periods—I. His family. II. His life till the death of his uncle, Godwin Swift. III. His residence with Sir William Temple. IV. His residence at Laracor and in London till 1713. V. His life in Dublin till the death of Stella. VI. His latter years.

I. Although born in Ireland, Swift was of English extraction. His grandfather, Thomas Swift, who was married to an aunt of Dryden the poet, had been a zealous royalist in the days of Charles I., in whose cause he had endured many sufferings and losses. He left behind him six sons. The eldest, Godwin Swift, settled in Ireland, having been appointed attorney-general of the palatinate of Tipperary. His brothers followed him in the hope of bettering their fortunes. One of these was Jonathan, father of the subject of this memoir. Jonathan died soon after his arrival in Ireland, leaving his widow, Abigail Erick, a lady of an ancient Leicestershire family, in destitute circumstances. She, with an only daughter, was thrown on the hospitality of her brother-in-law, Godwin, in whose house, seven months after his father's death, Jonathan Swift was born.

II. Swift's early upbringing was singular. His nurse, who was a native of Whitehaven in England, having been called home by the dangerous illness of a relation, carried with her by stealth her infant charge, to whom she had become strongly attached. When the cause of the child's disappearance was discovered, his mother sent orders that he should not be exposed to the hazards of a second voyage until he was better able to bear it. Swift, therefore, remained at Whitehaven with his nurse for several years. She taught him to read, and seems otherwise to have behaved towards him with exemplary fidelity. When four or five years old he was brought back to Ireland and placed at the school of Kilkenny. At the age of fourteen he entered Trinity college, Dublin. At this time he was entirely dependent on his uncle, Godwin, who was compelled by pecuniary embarrassments to rear him rather penuriously. Swift looked back to this period of his life with very embittered feelings. Nor was the treatment he met with at the university calculated to soften the natural acerbity of his disposition. He was very nearly plucked when examined for his bachelorship in arts, and obtained his degree only by special favour, a term used in that university to denote want of merit. He is said to have been idle and irregular; but it is probable that his failure was rather owing to his neglect of the prescribed routine of academical study, than to any want of diligence and ability. History and poetry had occupied his mind more than the technicalities of the scholastic logic. Be that as it may, he now made up for any time he may have lost, by reading eight hours a day for the next seven years. His uncle Godwin died in 1688.

III. By this event Swift, who was now in his twenty-first year, was thrown penniless upon the world. His mother, who was living with some friends in Leicestershire, advised him to solicit the patronage of Sir William Temple, to whom she was distantly related, and who had been intimately acquainted with some members of Swift's family. Sir William received him with much kindness, and invited him to reside in his house as secretary, with a salary of £20 a year. Swift accepted the invitation, and although it must have galled his proud and irritable spirit to occupy so subordinate a position, still the situation had many advantages; and the time which he spent in the household of this eminent statesman was probably the happiest, as well as the most profitable, portion of his existence. Temple had played a prominent part in the management of great affairs, and in his society Swift had the best opportunities of acquiring political knowledge. The conversation between the old and experienced politician and an observer of mankind so acute and original as Swift, must have been highly interesting to both parties. Temple introduced him to King William, who was very affable, showing him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch fashion, and offering to make him captain of a troop of horse. During his residence with Temple, Swift applied to the university of Oxford for the degree of master of arts. He obtained it without difficulty; for the special favour impressed on his Dublin diploma was understood at Oxford to signify that he had passed his examination with great credit. Swift must have been amused at the mistake, which was not unworthy of the discernment of his own sages of Laputa. In 1694 a short estrangement took place between him and his patron. Swift had expected that through the influence of Temple he might ere now have obtained some permanent settlement in life. Being disappointed in these hopes, and disgusted with Temple's want of zeal on his behalf, he entered the Church of England and withdrew to Ireland, where he had been appointed, on the recommendation of Lord Capel, to the prebend of Kilroot, in Connor, a small living of about £100 a year. But the company of Swift had by this time become essential to the comfort of Temple. He accordingly invited him back, with a promise to procure for him a better living in England if he would resign Kilroot. With this promise Swift was satisfied. He returned to Sir William, attracted probably as much by the presence of Stella (of whom a few words must be said hereafter), as by the persuasiveness of his patron. It is probable that he wrote the "Tale of a Tub" and the "Battle of the Books" in the four years (1695-99) which passed between his return and the death of Temple. He exercised himself likewise in poetical effusions, some of which, having been submitted to the veteran Dryden, drew from him the remark, "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet"—a very true observation, but one which the subject of it was not likely to forgive. Temple died in 1698. Besides his manuscripts, he left to Swift a small legacy, and had also obtained for him a promise from King William of the first vacant prebend in Westminster or Canterbury.

IV. Swift's disappointments now commenced in earnest. King William forgot his promise; and Swift's dedication to him of the posthumous works, with which he had been intrusted, failed to operate as a reminder. He next received an invitation to accompany the earl of Berkeley to Ireland as his private secretary, an appointment which might have led to much higher promotion; but after preparing himself for the duties of the office, he found himself supplanted by a person of the name of Bush. Through the machinations of this same hireling he was defrauded, moreover, of the deanery of Derry, a rich benefice, which he had reasonably expected to obtain. He was put off with the livings of Laracor and Ruthbeggin, in the diocese of Meath, which together were not equal to half the value of the deanery. Swift settled at Laracor in 1700. He performed all his parochial duties with great punctuality. In 1701 he published his earliest work, entitled "Dissensions in Athens and Rome," a political treatise, in which he reflected severely on the ingratitude of the house of commons for impeaching such benefactors of their country as Oxford, Somers, Halifax, and Portland. This pamphlet was generally attributed to Burnet. Swift having ventured, in the presence of some bishop, to doubt Burnet's title to the authorship, was rebuked as "a very positive young man." The "Tale of a Tub" was published in 1704, and the work placed Swift in the foremost rank of satirical humorists. Although too much interlarded with digressions, some of which have lost their point and intelligibility for modern readers, the main current of the allegory is, for the most part, admirably carried through. It represents, with grotesque felicity, the squabbles and adventures of Lord Peter (the Church of Rome) and his brothers Martin and Jack (the Church of England and the Presbyterians). The passage in which Lord Peter bullies his brothers for not entering into his views of transubstantiation is, perhaps, unequalled in its audacious drollery by any satirical outburst either of ancient or of modern times. "The Tale of a Tub" is directed against the abuses of religion, and, therefore, it would be unfair to characterize it as profane; but it certainly contains such flagrant offences against clerical propriety, that we cannot wonder, and scarcely ought to regret, that it prevented its author from being made a bishop. During Swift's incumbency at Laracor (1700-13) he paid frequent visits to London, and published many pamphlets. In the latter years of this period the "History of John Bull" and the "Journal to Stella" were written. The disappointments he had experienced at the hands of the whig party, to which he originally belonged, had so disgusted him, that for some time past he had been gradually wheeling round to the tories. He defended his tergiversation on grounds of public duty, but there is little doubt that private pique had much more to do with the change in his political sentiments. It was not, however, until 1710 that he had an opportunity of putting forth his full strength in the service of his new allies. In that year the whig government, with Marlborough and Godolphin at its head, broke down; and Harley (afterwards earl of Oxford) and St. John (afterwards Lord Bolingbroke) came into power. Their great object was to put an end to the campaigns of Marlborough, and restore peace to Europe. In the accomplishment of this design Swift lent them most effectual aid. He lived on terms of close intimacy with Harley and St. John, who treated him as an equal, and admitted him to their most private deliberations. But what mainly contributed to their success was his pamphlet (published in 1712) on "The Conduct of the Allies." There is nothing which John Bull dislikes so much as even the appearance of being overreached, or of not getting full value for his money. This feeling was the sure handle which Swift laid hold of to work out the purposes of the ministry. He told the people of England, that while our allies, the Germans and the Dutch, had monopolized all the benefits of the war with France, they (the English) had merely had the satisfaction of defraying the expenses, and of enriching Marlborough, the insatiable commander-in-chief. A more responsive chord could not have been struck. The argument went home at once to the heart and pocket of the nation. Eleven thousand copies of "The Conduct of the Allies" were sold in two months; and the people became clamorous for peace. He followed up this pamphlet with another on "The Barrier Treaty," and in 1713 the peace of Utrecht was accomplished. This was Swift's greatest political stroke. It was due officially to Harley and St. John; but Swift's pamphlet was undoubtedly the real instrument by which the treaty of Utrecht was brought about. For this important service to his party he was rewarded with the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin, the most valuable preferment which his friends could venture to give him, for they could not afford to rouse the indignation, and lose the support of the English clergy, by presenting to a bishopric or even to a lucrative benefice in England, the author of the "Tale of a Tub." Swift acquiesced sullenly in the appointment, hoping probably that better things were in store for him. But the death of Queen Anne (in 1714) destroyed at once the whole system of Tory politics on which his expectations were built, and extinguished his prospects of any higher preferment. Swift now, much against his will, as Dr. Johnson says, "commenced Irishman for life."

V. In 1713 he entered on the possession of his deanery. He settled in Dublin; and renewed with Stella those singular relations which must now be stated, although they scarcely admit of being explained. This lady was the reputed daughter of Mr. Johnson, Sir William Temple's steward; by many she was believed to be Sir William's own natural child. Handsome, accomplished, and witty, she had been Swift's constant companion during the last four years of his residence with Temple. An original predilection had disposed them to court each other's society, and custom had rivetted the chain. Swift wished always to have her near, but not too near him—proxima, sed intervallo. She would have obliterated the interval, and gradually wore out her life in fretting against the "barrier treaty" which separated them. So far back as 1700, he had invited her to Laracor along with her friend, Mrs. Dingley, a lady in very straitened circumstances. They accepted the invitation, and Stella expected that it would be followed up ere long by an offer of his hand. She was bitterly disappointed. Swift took care that their intercourse should be of the most guarded kind. "Whenever he was from home the ladies took up their quarters at the parsonage; so soon as he returned, they decamped to lodgings of their own. They never slept under the same roof, and he and Stella were never known to have been together alone. Nevertheless Stella felt her position to be exceedingly equivocal, and Swift at length yielded to her remonstrances. They were privately married in 1716. But the marriage made no difference in their mode of life. It was like that of Œdipus, an ἀγαμος γάμος, a truly unmatrimonial wedlock. They never lived together, and never met except in the presence of a third person—an example of manners, and, we may add, of morals, unparalleled unless by some of the strange observances commemorated in Gulliver's Travels. Stella fell into bad health, and after lingering for some years, she yielded up her wasted existence at the age of forty-eight, a victim to the caprice and constitutional coldness of one who always treated her with the utmost respect, and felt for her the most unbounded admiration, and as tender an attachment as it was possible for him to entertain. She died in 1728. This passage in Swift's life was combined with another episode of a precisely similar character. Esther Vanhomrigh, immortalized by Swift as "Vanessa," was the daughter of a highly respectable Dutch family, whose acquaintance he had made in London when in the zenith of his political importance. She was devoted to literature. Swift had fostered her tastes, and attracted her by the magnet of his genius. She could not live away from him. Her father had been dead for some years. On the death of her mother (1714) she followed him to Ireland, and proposed that he should marry her. Swift treated the proposal as a jest, but she persisted in her overtures. This dalliance went on for years, partly in Dublin, until 1717, and afterwards at Marley abbey, near Celbridge, where the lady had gone to reside. Suspecting that Stella was the obstacle which interfered with her matrimonial designs, she wrote to that lady to ascertain the nature of the relation in which she stood towards the dean. Stella informed her that she was his wife, and forwarded her letter to Swift. His rage was unbounded; he rode instantly to Marley abbey, and flinging Vanessa's letter on the table before her, departed without saying a word. But his ferocious looks had been her death-warrant. She only rallied sufficiently to alter her will, which had been made in his favour, and died a few weeks afterwards in 1723. During this period Swift published in 1724 the "Drapier's Letters." These were written for the purpose of stopping the importation into Ireland of a new copper coinage, which a person named Wood had obtained a patent for introducing to the amount of £180,000. Swift represented the new halfpence as not worth one-third of their nominal value, and that therefore all who received them, and particularly the petty shopkeepers, would be ruined. The letters answered their purpose; the obnoxious coinage was withdrawn, and Swift became the most popular man in Ireland. "Gulliver's Travels" were given to the world in 1727. This is one of the three books which have probably had the greatest run of popularity of any in our language, the other two being Robinson Crusoe and the Pilgrim's Progress. In the same year he published, in conjunction with Pope and Arbuthnot, "Miscellanies in Prose," containing "Martinus Scriblerus, or the art of sinking in poetry"—a most amusing work, in which the pedantries of learning and philosophy are very ingeniously satirized. Swift passed the greater part of 1727 and 1728 in England. He resided chiefly with Pope; but left him with very little ceremony, finding, as he said, "that two sick friends cannot live together." Besides, he was recalled to Ireland at this time by the dangerous illness of Stella, who died, as has been said, in 1728.

VI. Swift lived for many years after the death of the ill-starred Stella. Before that event the shadows of his life had been sufficiently sombre; they now darkened into unmitigated gloom. In consequence, as he thought, of having once surfeited himself with fruit when very young, he had been subject throughout life to fits of giddiness, and these increased in frequency and severity as he grew old. He became deaf, and consequently more morose than ever. His misanthropy made him court solitude, and solitude exasperated his misanthropy. "At last," says Dr. Johnson, "his avarice grew too powerful for his kindness; he would refuse a bottle of wine; and in Ireland no man visits where he cannot drink." In 1741 his mind entirely gave way; he was at times furious, and at times fatuous; and in this condition he remained, with scarcely a lucid interval, until his death in October, 1744.

Dr. Johnson, who must have seen him, says that "he had a kind of muddy complexion, which, though he washed himself with oriental scrupulosity, did not look clean. He had a countenance sour and severe, which he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety. He stubbornly resisted any tendency to laughter." It must be added, that he performed many generous and charitable and even noble actions, although he performed them in his own way, which was often particularly odd, and seldom at all ingratiating.

Sir Walter Scott wrote his life and edited his works in 1815. A cheap but very complete edition of his works was published in two double-columned volumes by Thomas Roscoe, in 1853.—J. F. F.