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Gulliver Biographies
From The Gulliver Code
John Arbuthnot
Jonathan Swift
1667-1745; b. 30 Nov. [‘born in Dublin on St. Andrew’s Day’, acc a TCD MS], 7 Hoey’s Court, Dublin; son of Jonathan Swift, steward at King’s Inn whose his handwriting is preserved in the so-called "Black Book", and Abigaile Swift [née Erick, b. Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, dg. a butcher; d. 24 April 1710]; married by special licence of the Archbishop of Armagh, June 1664), his father dying before his birth (on the supposition that Jonathan Swift, the Elder, was actually the father of the writer); gs. of Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich in Yorkshire, nr. Ross, dispossessed as Royalist in Civil War (d.1658); kidnapped by an over-affectionate nurse who later returned him to Ireland [both poss. on instructions from Sir John Temple]; after the return of his mother to Leicestershire, the young Swift was supported by Godwin Swift, an uncle and Attorney-General of palatine county of Tipperary; ed. Kilkenny Grammar School from 1673, with Congreve; entered TCD, 1682; convicted of taking part in college disturbances and obliged to beg pardon of the Dean on bended knee; grad. BA, speciali gratia; quit Ireland during the viceroyship of Richard Talbot, Catholic viceroy of James II, and joined his mother in Leicester;apparently sent by her to Sir William Temple, then at Sheen outside London, with a seat at Moor Park, nr. Farnham, 1689; in that household met Esther Johnston (‘Stella’), then aged 8, being the dg. of lady servant of Temple’s sister Lady Giffard and poss. the illegitimate dg. of Temple; sent by Temple to Ireland with letter of recommendation to Sir William Southwell, minister of state to William III; failed to secure fellowship at TCD; returned to Moor Hall, and thence to Oxford, where he secured an MA, ad eundum, 1692; wrote Pindaric Odes, 1690-91, one of which, appearing in Athenian Mercury, provoked Dryden’s saying ‘Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet’ (acc. Johnson’s Lives); ordained in Dublin, 1694; quit Sir William’s household; obliged to seek his patronage again to secure living; appointed rector of Kilroot, nr. Belfast, Co. Antrim, with parishes at Ballinure and Templecorran; Jan. 1695; sought marriage with one Jane Waring, dg. of Archdeacon of Dromore (‘Varina’), in the only extant letter of the period; returned to Moor Park and there wrote The Battle of the Books (1696); acted as Temple's literary executor at his death in 1699, and returned to Dublin that year; opposed marriage of his sister Jane (b. April. 1666) to one Joseph Fenton, offering her £500 pounds to break it off (acc. to Deane Swift); disappointed in ecclesiastical preferments; appt. chaplain to Earl of Berkeley and to Lord Pembroke, viceroys in Dublin; rectory of Agher, Co. Meath, with united parishes of Laracor and Rathbeggan, to which added prepend of Dunlavin at St. Patrick’s, 1700 (opened 1757), providing income of £230 p.a.; TCD DD, Feb. 1701 [var. 1702]; frequently visited Leicester and London; remained in London, 1701-04, forming acquaintance with Pope, Steele, and Saddison, et al.; published in London a pamphlet Discourses of the Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome (Sept. 1701), defending Whigs against Tory attack on Partition (or ‘Barrier’) Treaties and dissuasive of impeachment of Lords Somers, Orford, Portland, and Halifax; authorship of same disavowed by Burnet; published A Tale of a Tub (April or May 1704), a satire on ‘corruption in religion and learning’, in defence of Temple’s Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1692), which William Wotton had criticised; won First Fruits and twentieths, known as ‘Queen Anne’s Bounty’ and prev. granted to the English clergy, for the Irish Church, negotiating with the Godolphin ministry in London, 1707 [var. Feb. 1708-Apr. 1709]; first encountered Esther Van Homrigh [vars. Vanhomrigh, Van Homerigh, 'Vanessa', b.1690; dg. of Bartholomew Van Homerigh, Dublin Alderman and former Williamite Commissar-General], at an inn in Dubstable en route between Dublin and London, Dec. 1707; later Sherriff of Dublin, MP for Londonderry, and Chief Comm. of Irish Revenue; Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1697; d. 1703, his widow living on till 1715]; published Baucis and Philemon (Nov. 1707); Argument to prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England may, as things now stand, be attended with some inconveniences (1708; Prose Works, ed. Davis, Vol. II, p.37); also The Sentiments of a Church of England Man with respeoct to Religion and Government (1708), and Letters concerning the Sacramental Test (1708), harming him with the Whigs; The Story of the Injured Lady (written 1707; suppressed by author, and published c.1746); satirical pieces in Tatler include ‘Bickerstaff Papers’ (from Jan. 1708), in which he ridiculed the almanacker John Partridge by predicting his demise, spuriously confirming it on 30 March, and concluding with Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. (April 1709); also the poems ‘Description of a City Shower’ and ‘Description of the Morning’, depicting London life (Tatler, 1709); A Project for the Advancement of Religion and the Reformation of Manners (1709); returned to Dublin, June 1709; living in London from Nov. 1710 [var. Sept.]; employed by Tory ministry of Robert Harley (1st Earl of Oxford), with Bolingbroke, 1710-13, writing The Examiner for them, 2 Nov. 1710-July 11; The Conduct of the Allies and Some Remarks on the Barrier Treaty (1711), facilitating the dismissal of Marlborough and the creation of 12 new peers; faced antagonism of Bishop of York and Duchess of Somerset (both of whom had influence with Queen Anne); squibs and writings issued as Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1711), incl. ‘Mrs. Frances Harris’s Petition’ (1709), burlesque on a servant who has lost her purse; ‘On Mrs Biddy Floyd’ (1709); ‘A Meditation upon a Broomstick’ (1710); The Virtues of Sid Hamet the Magician’s Rod (1710), sat. poem attack on Godolphin; The W[in]ds[o]r Prophecy (1711), attacking Duchess of Somerset; A Short Character of T. E. of W [Thomas, Earl of Wharton] (1711) - one time viceroy in Ireland, of dissenter background, and supposed author of ‘Lillibulero; The Fable of Midas (1711); Some Advice Humbly Offered to the Members of the October Club (1712), against extreme Tories; ‘The Prediction of Merlin’, and ‘The History of Vanbrugh’s House’; while in London during 1710-13 wrote the Journal to Stella, addressing Stella and Mrs Dingley (1st cousin once removed of Sir William), then settled in Ireland; during this period also, he may have been intimate with Vanessa whom he re-encountered as he was living close to her mother’s lodgings, and who appears to have considered herself affianced to him; met Pope and joined Scriblerus Club, and contrib. Martinus Scriblerus; contrib. to the Tatler, Spectator, and Intelligencer; issued Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue (1712); History of the Four Last Years of the Queen, written 1712-13 and published posthumously (published 1758; includes his character of Harley); received admission of love from Stella, and altered character of his communication with her; appointed to Deanship of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, setting out for Dublin, June 1713 [var. 1714]; Journal ends 6th June, at Chester; arrives Dublin circa 8 June; victim of poetical squib by [prob.] Bishop of Killala, nailed to doors of St. Patrick’s (‘… Look down, St Patrick, look, we pray/On thine own Church and Steeple;/Convert thy Dean on this great Day,/Or else, God help the People’); retired to his parish at Laracor, within a fortnight, directly after his installation, July; quit Ireland again in August 1713; issued A Preface to the B****p of S*r*m’s [i.e., Bishop of Sarum’s] Introduction (1713), attack on Bishop Burnet; pamphlets of this period include The Importance of the Guardian Considered (1713), also Mr C[olli]n’s Discourse on Free Thinking (1713), against Anthony Collins; The Public Spirit of the Whigs (1714), answering Steele’s Crisis, and further papers in defence of the second; returned from Dublin on eve of death of Anne, when the Tories apparent indifference to the Protestant succession turned public opinion towards the Whigs, 1714; lived in seclusion at Upper Letcombe, Berkshire, during final dissension between Oxford and Bolingbroke; a pamphlet, Some Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs (written 1713, but amended by Bolingbroke, and then suppressed [var. pub. 1714]), adopting bold plans of Bolingbroke, incl. utter exclusion of Whigs and dissenters from government, remodelling of army, and [suggesting] restraints on heir to throne; granted £1,000 by Bolingbroke during his 3-day ministry after the expulsion and exile of Oxford, but offered to join Oxford in retirement [var. in prison] and was refused, the news of both offers arriving in the same post; Bolingbroke’s award intercepted by Queen’s death (1 Aug. 1714); Swift retired to Berkshire, where he was visited by Vanessa before his departure for Dublin in mid-Aug. 1714; Vanessa followed him to Dublin, Nov. 1714, settling at the family home in Turnstile Abbey, Dublin (which she later sold on advice of Archbishop King), and also at Celbridge [Marlay Abbey; and note onomastic Kildrochid, occas. employed in Vanessa’s letters], where Swift was to visit her in 1720; wrote in Dublin A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (Dublin 1720), answering the Declaratory Act of that year and stinging the triumphant Whig Administration; gave account of same in letter to Pope (‘a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures’); prosecution of same dropped; The Swearer’s Bank (1720), Irish pamphlet; Letter of Advice to a Young Poet (1721); Swift makes tour of Ireland that takes him to Clogher, Loughgall, etc, 1722; version of ‘Pléaráca na Ruarcach’ by Hugh MacGuaran [anglice Gawran; Gowran], supposedly to literal translation provided by the poet which he then entitled ‘The Description of an Irish Feast’, written in 1720 [Williams, Poems, Vol. 1, pp.243-44]; writes prologue for performance of Hamlet for ‘distressed weavers’ of Dublin, 1 Apr. 1721; A Letter to a Young Gentleman lately entered into Holy Orders (1731); Letter from Dr Swift to Mr Pope (written 1722, published 1741); Vanessa dies, 2 June, 1723; to escape ‘obloquy’, Swift journey in Leinster, Munster, and Connacht; June-Sept 1723; interrupts his work on Gulliver’s Travels in response to Wood’s Half-pence, a benefit involving forty per cent of profit at difference between metallic and nominal value of the coinage, secured by the Duchess of Kendal to him and to herself; Drapier’s Letters (March 1724-Dec. 25 1925), commencing with A Letter to the Tradesmen, Shopkeepers, Farmers, and Common-People in General of the Kingdom of Ireland, by M[arcus] B[rutus] Drapier; 1st Letter argues the sovereign rights of kingdom of Ireland in terms derived from William Molyneux (‘by the laws of God, of nations, and of your own country, you are and ought to be as free a people as your brethren in England’; McMinn, ed., Irish Pamphlets, 1991, p.80); 2nd Letter assails Wood and the Duchess of Kendal (How dare he oppose a nation [... ...] how can he hope to oppose a nation?’); 3rd Letter addresses the nobility and gentry and asserts right of Ireland to autonomy as of equal status with England under the crown; 4th Letter launches invective against slavery, tyranny, injustice, addressing this time ‘the Whole People of Ireland’; 5th Letter addressed to Robert Molesworth, adopts a calm and reasonable tone, the patent having been by this date withdrawn; strenuous prosecution of author impeded by sympathy of Lord Carteret, Viceroy; issued Gulliver’s Travels, properly called ‘Travels into Several Remote Nations of the Works’ [4 Pts.], by Lemuel Gulliver (London: Benjamin Motto 1726); visited London and dined with Robert Walpole, to whom he addressed a letter remonstrating about Ireland; hopes of the dislodgement of Walpole at death of George I, occasions his final visit to England, 1727; ‘Letter of Advice to a very Young Lady on her Marriage’ (1727); death of Stella, 1728; issued A Short View of the State of Ireland (1728), a pamphlet reprinted as No.15 of the Intelligencer, a weekly paper begun by Swift and his friend Thomas Sheridan in 1729; A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burden to their Parents or their Country and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick (Dublin: S. Harding 1729); An Examination of certain Abuses, Corruptions and Enormities in the City of Dublin (1732); The Grand Question Debated (1729); produced the Intelligencer (1729-30) with Thomas Sheridan; received Freedom of Dublin, 1729 for the Drapier’s Letters, of which he later wrote that ‘no traitor could be found’ though all of Dublin knew the author; Traulus (1630), attacking Lord Allen; Direction to Servants (c.1731; published 1745); A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation (written 1731, published 1738); poem, ‘Hamilton’s Bawn’; Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift (1731, published London 1739); also The Day of Judgement (1731; The Lady’s Dressing-Room (1732); The Beasts Confession to the Priest (1732), on ‘universal folly of mankind in mistaking their talents’; A Serious and Useful Scheme to make an Hospital for Incurables, whether the incurable disease were knavery, folly, lying, or infidelity (1733); An Epistle to a Lady (1733); On Poetry, A Rhapsody (1733), satirical advice; A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed [1734]; Strephon and Chloe (1734); The Legion Club (1736), on the Irish Parliament, and regarded as his fiercest verse satire; first edition of his Works printed by George Faulkner (1735); issued imitations of 7th Epistle in Book I and First Ode of Book II of Horace (1738); spent one third of his monies on Irish charity, and saved another third to establish St. Patrick’s Hospital for Imbeciles (opened in 1757); suffered increasing attacks of giddiness, now known to be Menier’s disease (and so diagnosed by Dr. J. C. Bucknill in 1882); declared of unsound mind and body in 1742, ‘a shocking object, though in person a very venerable figure’ (Mary Delaney); exhibited by his manservant Patrick Brell; d. 19 Oct., aetat. 78; bur. at night, beside Stella, 22 Oct. at foot of 2nd column from west end, south side of St. Patrick’s Cathedral; his epitaph written by himself (ubi saeva indignation ulterius cor lacerare nequit) appears on an oval plaque set in the wall; William Stopford, later Bishop of Cloyne, acts as one of his executors; four sermons by Swift appeared in 1744; Swift was harshly treated in the Earl of Orrery (John Boyle’s) Remarks on the Life and Writings of Jonathan Swift (1752) and in Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets (1779-81), the first of many to characterised him in terms of coarseness and ferocity (also attributing shallow sentiment to his saeva indignatio and spite to his motive in having ‘turned Irishman for life’); Thomas Sheridan wrote a sympathetic life in 1784 [var. 1785], immediately preceding his 17 vol. edition of the Works; Thackeray wrote of him in English Humourists [first lecture] (1851; new edn. 1853); there is a three-volume biography by Irvin Ehrenpreis (1962-83), informed with literary, historical, and psychological concerns; a Swift Summer School convenes annually at Maynooth College, Co. Kildare; the contents of his library compiled by William Le Fanu in 1745; there are portraits of Swift by Jervas and Bindon, and a marble bust by Louis-Francois Roubillion in the TCD Library (Long Room).
