Biography Category
Name :
Jonathan Swift
Date :
Views :
521
Category :
Birth Date :
01/01/1970
Birth Place :
Dublin.
Death Date :
Not Available
Not Available
[br /]
[b]Birth And Theft Of The Infant[/b][br /]
[br /]
Among all the celebrations of St Andrew's day, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 to Jonathan Swift Sr and Abigail Erick. He had an elder sister.[br /]
[br /]
When Jonathan was about a year old, his nurse had to go suddenly to Whitehaven to visit a close relation. She was very fond of the little boy and could not leave him behind. Without giving it a second thought, she picked him up and left for her voyage to Whitehaven. Mrs Swift kept on searching for them until a word came from the nurse. He was believed to have been kidnapped. The relieved mother asked the nurse not to undergo a journey again and asked her to stay back till the boy was strong enough to take the hazards of the sea journey. By the time they returned Jonathan had learnt to spell.[br /]
[br /]
[b]English Heart Of Irishman[/b][br /]
[br /]
He often complained, "All persons born in Ireland are called and treated as Irishmen although their fathers and grandfathers were born in England." He often denied of his being an Irishman. He said, "As to my native country, I happened indeed by a perfect accident, to be born here, my mother being left here from returning to her house at Leicester… and thus I am a Tegue, or an Irishman, or what people please, although the best part of my life was in England." However, all his claims about his birth and childhood were fabricated. His father, Jonathan Swift Sr, emigrated from England to Ireland and took a job at the King’s Inns, the center of Dublin’s legal establishment. His wife Abigail Erick was also an English immigrant. Jonathan Swift Sr died unexpectedly after the birth of his daughter. Jonathan was born six months after his death. Later, Jonathan Swift said, this death "was much lamented on account of his reputation for integrity with a tolerable good understanding."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Education[/b][br /]
[br /]
Very little is known about Jonathan’s initial years in Ireland. At the age of six, his Uncle Godwin sent him to an excellent grammar school at Kilkenny.[br /]
[br /]
After Kilkenny, Jonathan enrolled himself at Trinity College, Dublin in 1682, at the age of 15. At Trinity College, the curriculum was highly conservative. Thus stress was laid on the study of Aristotelian logic, physics and metaphysics, alongwith language and literature. Except for language and literature (he excelled in these earning good grades), Jonathan was poor at other subjects, for which he said :[br /]
[br /]
[i]Sunk overhead and ears in matters[br /]
Nor can of metaphysics smatter….[br /]
And think all notions too abstracted,[br /]
Are like the ravings of a cracked head.[/i][br /]
[br /]
At Trinity, Swift found a life long friend in his tutor, St George Ashe. Ashe was later nominated Professor of Mathematics in 1685 and finally Provost of the college in 1692. Swift was at Trinity College until 1689. He was forced to flee from Ireland and sail to England due to a war that raged between the two kings at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]In England[/b][br /]
[br /]
In England, he stayed with his mother who had returned to Leicester for a short while and moved to London and became secretary to Sir William Temple. He was chief negotiator of the Tripple Alliance, which brought Holland, Britain and Sweden together to restore balance of power in Europe. He was also an advisor to King William. Once King William objected a bill that called for regular meetings of the Parliament and young Swift was sent by Temple to plea for the bill’s passage. But Swift’s arguments were not upto the mark and the king vetoed the bill. Swift later on admitted, "This was the first time he had ever any converse with courts and he told his friends [that] it was the first incident that helped to cure him of vanity." (Swift often used the third person when he spoke about himself). Gulliver’s experience with the Emperor of Lilliput left him with a similar "imperfect idea of Courts and Ministers."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Ailment[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1690, for the first time Swift felt the effect of an ailment which he described as "a giddiness and coldness of stomach, that almost brought him to his Grave and… pursued him with intermissions of two or three years to the end of his life." Swift thought that his ailment was due to overeating of fruits. Another major attack forced Swift to move to Ireland. He said, "by advice of physicians, who weakly imagined that his native air might be of some use to recover his health." Later on inspite of daily exercise, walking, running, riding, and swimming, the symptoms recurred periodically of which he said, "That old vertigo in his head will never leave him, till he’s dead."[br /]
[br /]
Perhaps this resulted into myths of Swift’s madness, later on. But whenever he felt healthy, he engaged himself in some other activity "there is something in me which must be employ’d and when I am alone, turns all, for want of practice, into speculation and thought in so much that in these seven weeks I have been here, I have writt, and burnt and writt again, upon almost all manner of subjects, more perhaps than any man in England."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Career[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1690-91, Swift for the first time composed a poem, An Ode to the King. He also completed his MA at Oxford and prepared himself to become a priest. He was ordained on January 13, 1695. However very little is known about Swift’s private religious views. George Orwell later said that in Gulliver’s Travels Swift’s "attitude is in effect the Christian attitude, minus the bribe of the ‘next world’."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Stella[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1696, at Moor Park, Swift started reading extensively and also took up editing of Sir William Temple’s work, which introduced him to the world of publishing. Here he met and taught young Esther Johnson, daughter of Temple's housekeeper. Johnson was none other than his beloved ‘Stella’. She had been immortalized in literary work of high esteem. His record of daily life, while away from Stella, came to be known as the Journal To Stella. Once on her birthday, he wrote a series of poems celebrating it, beginning with Stella’s Birthday.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Then Stella this day is thirty-four[br /]
(We shan’t dispute a year more :)[br /]
However Stella, be not troubled,[br /]
Although thy size and years are doubled.[br /]
Since first I saw thee at sixteen,[br /]
The brightest virgion on the green.[br /]
So little is thy form declined;[br /]
Made up so largely in the mind.[/b][br /]
[br /]
Humor, indirect praise and the anti-romantic strain in Stella’s Birthday speaks of Swift’s love for Stella. They shared a wonderfully constrained relationship, always avoiding meeting alone and yet continuing heartfelt emotion till Stella's death in 1727-28. When Stella died he wrote that he had lost "the truest, most virtuous and valuable friend, that I, or perhaps any other person ever was blessed with." Swift’s highly complicated view of women makes our understanding more complex, which reflects in his relationship with another woman Esther Vanhomrigh whom he called ‘Venessa’. "I was born with violent passions which terminate all in one that inexpressible passion I have for you," wrote Venessa. We don’t know whether Swift acknowledged this or not but his involvement seems more mysterious when we read his poem about the affair in Cadenus and Venessa.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Next Job[/b][br /]
[br /]
After the death of Sir William Temple in 1699, Swift became Chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley. He later became Vicar of Laracor in Ireland. In 1701, Swift wrote his first political pamphlet The Contest and Dissensions that argued about the danger of political factionalism. A year later, he received a degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College. Then for the next few years, he made some trips to London to get special funds, known as First Fruits, for the Anglican Church of Ireland. During these trips, Swift met the Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Stella, the publishers of The Tatler and The Spectator. He also met his old friend William Congreve who was now a famous dramatist. Swift’s fame followed with A Tale of A Tub (1704), The Battle of the Books and Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. From 1707 to 1709 Swift again made some unsuccessful trips to London for First Fruits.[br /]
[br /]
[b]'First Fruits'[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1710, Swift once again left Dublin for London for First Fruits, but this time he was an official spokesman for the Anglican Church of Ireland. He got introduced to Robert Harley, the treasurer, in the new ministry. In less than three weeks he was able to obtain First Fruits through Harley, from the queen. Robert Harley convinced Swift to stay on, as the new conditions needed a "good pen, to keep up the spirits raised in the people, to assert the principles and justify the proceedings of the new ministers." Swift helped the new ministry, by supporting the efforts to end war and establish peace in Europe. Swift published a series of 33 essays in a periodical called The Examiner and also wrote a large work, The Conduct of the Allies (1711), which calculated the cost of war.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Adventure In Politics[/b][br /]
[br /]
Swift’s move unsettled his Whig friends, though he said he adhered to old Whig principles. His support to Tory regime was a matter of conjecture. Swift was an ambitious man. This seems to be a certain factor as to Whig’s support for war was perhaps secondary. However Swift argued the very meaning of the terms ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’, which he mentioned in his Examiner.[br /]
[br /]
"I would be glad to ask a question about ‘two great men’ of the late ministry and how they came to be Whigs ? And by what figure of speech, half a dozen others, lately, put into great employments, can be called ‘Tories’ ? I doubt, whoever would suit the definition to the persons, must make it directly contrary to what we understood it at the time of the revolution."[br /]
[br /]
Swift thought that he was the same while the Whigs had changed in their motives. He saw the Whig ministry being controlled by the new ‘money interest’, consisting of bankers and stockjobbers, taking advantage of war. According to Swift, the Whig leadership had sold out to "evil persons, whose principle and interest it was to corrupt our manners, blind our understandings, drain our wealth, and in time destroy our constitution both in church and state" and "at last" lead us "to the very brink of ruin." Such impressive language influenced the public opinion away from war, towards peace, finally confirmed at Utrecht, in 1713. He wrote to Stella : "Now, the great work is in effect done and I believe it will appear a most excellent Peace for Europe." – (Journal to Stella)[br /]
[br /]
Swift’s connection with Tories made him acquainted with famous writers like John Arbuthnot, John Gay, Thomas Parnell and the poet Alexander Pope. Their group, which included Swift, was famous as 'Scriblerians', "most celebrated collection of clever fellows this country ever saw." The group began meeting regularly and the vital foundation of their program was their work The Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life and Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scribblerns.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Dean Of St Patrick's Cathedral[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1713, Swift got a distinguished position in Dublin as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral. He remained the Dean for rest of his life. The Queen, the Army Chief and the entire government, which Swift had supported, fell with the arrival of the new king, George I from Germany. Swift, depressed, returned home (Ireland) and lamented his loneliness, away from his London friends, in his poem In Sickness. The poem also marked illness and firm belief in his approaching end.[br /]
[br /]
[b]‘Tis true – then why should I repine[br /]
To see my life so fast decline ?[br /]
But, why obscurely here alone ?[br /]
Where I am neither loved nor known.[br /]
My state of health none care to learn…[br /]
And, those with whom I now converse,[br /]
Without a tear will tend my hearse.[/b][br /]
[br /]
However, Swift lived for 30 more years. He increased his involvement in Irish affairs during these years and could not keep himself away from local politics, "as the World is now turned, no Cloyster is retired enough to keep politics out". By 1720, Swift had published many pamphlets, which influenced the heart of colonial rule and also started composing his masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Masterpiece[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1726, Swift went to London along with the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. When Swift returned, his arrival at home became a public event as revealed through the local newspapers. The boat in which he arrived ‘made a fine appearance.’ Swift was "brought to his landing – place in a kind of triumph, where he was received and welcomed on shore by a multitude of his grateful countrymen, by whom he was conducted to his house amid repeated acclamations, of ‘Long Live the Drapier’" Drapier was Swift’s pseudonym.[br /]
[br /]
In October 1726, a London publisher published Gulliver’s Travels. The Book caused a sensation. His friend and writer Arbuthnot wrote "Gulliver is in everybody’s hands" and that "Gulliver is a happy man that at his age can write such a merry work." Pope appreciated the work and congratulated Swift "upon what you call your Couzen’s wonderful Book".[br /]
[br /]
Swift was 59 when Gulliver’s Travels was published. He continued writing for another 10 years, publishing important political pamphlets like A Short View of the State of Ireland (1728), A Modest Proposal (1729), humorous pieces as Polite Conversation (1738) and Directions to Servants (published in 1745). Later he also wrote poems like The Lady’s Dressing Room and Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, in which he imagined the reaction to his death, among friends and enemies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Later Years[/b][br /]
[br /]
In the late 1730s Swift suffered a major attack of deafness and vertigo. His health worsened. Edward Young once recalled an evening walk "Stop short, as we passed on; but, perceiving that he did not follow us, I went back; and found him fixed as a statue, and earnestly gazing upward at a noble Elm, which in its uppermost branches was much withered, and decayed." Pointing at it, he said, "I shall be like that tree, I shall die at the top." His 70th birthday was celebrated throughout Dublin. At the age of 75 he was declared "of unsound mind and memory" by his friends. On October 19, 1745, Swift died and was buried next to Stella in St Patrick’s Cathedral. The first mental hospital in Ireland, St Patrick’s Hospital for the Insane, was possible only by his life savings, in his own words.[br /]
[br /]
[b]He gave the little wealth he had,[br /]
To build a house for fools and mad :[br /]
And showed by one satiric touch,[br /]
No nation wanted it so much.[/b][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Birth And Theft Of The Infant[/b][br /]
[br /]
Among all the celebrations of St Andrew's day, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667 to Jonathan Swift Sr and Abigail Erick. He had an elder sister.[br /]
[br /]
When Jonathan was about a year old, his nurse had to go suddenly to Whitehaven to visit a close relation. She was very fond of the little boy and could not leave him behind. Without giving it a second thought, she picked him up and left for her voyage to Whitehaven. Mrs Swift kept on searching for them until a word came from the nurse. He was believed to have been kidnapped. The relieved mother asked the nurse not to undergo a journey again and asked her to stay back till the boy was strong enough to take the hazards of the sea journey. By the time they returned Jonathan had learnt to spell.[br /]
[br /]
[b]English Heart Of Irishman[/b][br /]
[br /]
He often complained, "All persons born in Ireland are called and treated as Irishmen although their fathers and grandfathers were born in England." He often denied of his being an Irishman. He said, "As to my native country, I happened indeed by a perfect accident, to be born here, my mother being left here from returning to her house at Leicester… and thus I am a Tegue, or an Irishman, or what people please, although the best part of my life was in England." However, all his claims about his birth and childhood were fabricated. His father, Jonathan Swift Sr, emigrated from England to Ireland and took a job at the King’s Inns, the center of Dublin’s legal establishment. His wife Abigail Erick was also an English immigrant. Jonathan Swift Sr died unexpectedly after the birth of his daughter. Jonathan was born six months after his death. Later, Jonathan Swift said, this death "was much lamented on account of his reputation for integrity with a tolerable good understanding."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Education[/b][br /]
[br /]
Very little is known about Jonathan’s initial years in Ireland. At the age of six, his Uncle Godwin sent him to an excellent grammar school at Kilkenny.[br /]
[br /]
After Kilkenny, Jonathan enrolled himself at Trinity College, Dublin in 1682, at the age of 15. At Trinity College, the curriculum was highly conservative. Thus stress was laid on the study of Aristotelian logic, physics and metaphysics, alongwith language and literature. Except for language and literature (he excelled in these earning good grades), Jonathan was poor at other subjects, for which he said :[br /]
[br /]
[i]Sunk overhead and ears in matters[br /]
Nor can of metaphysics smatter….[br /]
And think all notions too abstracted,[br /]
Are like the ravings of a cracked head.[/i][br /]
[br /]
At Trinity, Swift found a life long friend in his tutor, St George Ashe. Ashe was later nominated Professor of Mathematics in 1685 and finally Provost of the college in 1692. Swift was at Trinity College until 1689. He was forced to flee from Ireland and sail to England due to a war that raged between the two kings at that time.[br /]
[br /]
[b]In England[/b][br /]
[br /]
In England, he stayed with his mother who had returned to Leicester for a short while and moved to London and became secretary to Sir William Temple. He was chief negotiator of the Tripple Alliance, which brought Holland, Britain and Sweden together to restore balance of power in Europe. He was also an advisor to King William. Once King William objected a bill that called for regular meetings of the Parliament and young Swift was sent by Temple to plea for the bill’s passage. But Swift’s arguments were not upto the mark and the king vetoed the bill. Swift later on admitted, "This was the first time he had ever any converse with courts and he told his friends [that] it was the first incident that helped to cure him of vanity." (Swift often used the third person when he spoke about himself). Gulliver’s experience with the Emperor of Lilliput left him with a similar "imperfect idea of Courts and Ministers."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Ailment[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1690, for the first time Swift felt the effect of an ailment which he described as "a giddiness and coldness of stomach, that almost brought him to his Grave and… pursued him with intermissions of two or three years to the end of his life." Swift thought that his ailment was due to overeating of fruits. Another major attack forced Swift to move to Ireland. He said, "by advice of physicians, who weakly imagined that his native air might be of some use to recover his health." Later on inspite of daily exercise, walking, running, riding, and swimming, the symptoms recurred periodically of which he said, "That old vertigo in his head will never leave him, till he’s dead."[br /]
[br /]
Perhaps this resulted into myths of Swift’s madness, later on. But whenever he felt healthy, he engaged himself in some other activity "there is something in me which must be employ’d and when I am alone, turns all, for want of practice, into speculation and thought in so much that in these seven weeks I have been here, I have writt, and burnt and writt again, upon almost all manner of subjects, more perhaps than any man in England."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Career[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1690-91, Swift for the first time composed a poem, An Ode to the King. He also completed his MA at Oxford and prepared himself to become a priest. He was ordained on January 13, 1695. However very little is known about Swift’s private religious views. George Orwell later said that in Gulliver’s Travels Swift’s "attitude is in effect the Christian attitude, minus the bribe of the ‘next world’."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Stella[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1696, at Moor Park, Swift started reading extensively and also took up editing of Sir William Temple’s work, which introduced him to the world of publishing. Here he met and taught young Esther Johnson, daughter of Temple's housekeeper. Johnson was none other than his beloved ‘Stella’. She had been immortalized in literary work of high esteem. His record of daily life, while away from Stella, came to be known as the Journal To Stella. Once on her birthday, he wrote a series of poems celebrating it, beginning with Stella’s Birthday.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Then Stella this day is thirty-four[br /]
(We shan’t dispute a year more :)[br /]
However Stella, be not troubled,[br /]
Although thy size and years are doubled.[br /]
Since first I saw thee at sixteen,[br /]
The brightest virgion on the green.[br /]
So little is thy form declined;[br /]
Made up so largely in the mind.[/b][br /]
[br /]
Humor, indirect praise and the anti-romantic strain in Stella’s Birthday speaks of Swift’s love for Stella. They shared a wonderfully constrained relationship, always avoiding meeting alone and yet continuing heartfelt emotion till Stella's death in 1727-28. When Stella died he wrote that he had lost "the truest, most virtuous and valuable friend, that I, or perhaps any other person ever was blessed with." Swift’s highly complicated view of women makes our understanding more complex, which reflects in his relationship with another woman Esther Vanhomrigh whom he called ‘Venessa’. "I was born with violent passions which terminate all in one that inexpressible passion I have for you," wrote Venessa. We don’t know whether Swift acknowledged this or not but his involvement seems more mysterious when we read his poem about the affair in Cadenus and Venessa.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Next Job[/b][br /]
[br /]
After the death of Sir William Temple in 1699, Swift became Chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley. He later became Vicar of Laracor in Ireland. In 1701, Swift wrote his first political pamphlet The Contest and Dissensions that argued about the danger of political factionalism. A year later, he received a degree of Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College. Then for the next few years, he made some trips to London to get special funds, known as First Fruits, for the Anglican Church of Ireland. During these trips, Swift met the Whig writers Joseph Addison and Richard Stella, the publishers of The Tatler and The Spectator. He also met his old friend William Congreve who was now a famous dramatist. Swift’s fame followed with A Tale of A Tub (1704), The Battle of the Books and Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. From 1707 to 1709 Swift again made some unsuccessful trips to London for First Fruits.[br /]
[br /]
[b]'First Fruits'[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1710, Swift once again left Dublin for London for First Fruits, but this time he was an official spokesman for the Anglican Church of Ireland. He got introduced to Robert Harley, the treasurer, in the new ministry. In less than three weeks he was able to obtain First Fruits through Harley, from the queen. Robert Harley convinced Swift to stay on, as the new conditions needed a "good pen, to keep up the spirits raised in the people, to assert the principles and justify the proceedings of the new ministers." Swift helped the new ministry, by supporting the efforts to end war and establish peace in Europe. Swift published a series of 33 essays in a periodical called The Examiner and also wrote a large work, The Conduct of the Allies (1711), which calculated the cost of war.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Adventure In Politics[/b][br /]
[br /]
Swift’s move unsettled his Whig friends, though he said he adhered to old Whig principles. His support to Tory regime was a matter of conjecture. Swift was an ambitious man. This seems to be a certain factor as to Whig’s support for war was perhaps secondary. However Swift argued the very meaning of the terms ‘Whig’ and ‘Tory’, which he mentioned in his Examiner.[br /]
[br /]
"I would be glad to ask a question about ‘two great men’ of the late ministry and how they came to be Whigs ? And by what figure of speech, half a dozen others, lately, put into great employments, can be called ‘Tories’ ? I doubt, whoever would suit the definition to the persons, must make it directly contrary to what we understood it at the time of the revolution."[br /]
[br /]
Swift thought that he was the same while the Whigs had changed in their motives. He saw the Whig ministry being controlled by the new ‘money interest’, consisting of bankers and stockjobbers, taking advantage of war. According to Swift, the Whig leadership had sold out to "evil persons, whose principle and interest it was to corrupt our manners, blind our understandings, drain our wealth, and in time destroy our constitution both in church and state" and "at last" lead us "to the very brink of ruin." Such impressive language influenced the public opinion away from war, towards peace, finally confirmed at Utrecht, in 1713. He wrote to Stella : "Now, the great work is in effect done and I believe it will appear a most excellent Peace for Europe." – (Journal to Stella)[br /]
[br /]
Swift’s connection with Tories made him acquainted with famous writers like John Arbuthnot, John Gay, Thomas Parnell and the poet Alexander Pope. Their group, which included Swift, was famous as 'Scriblerians', "most celebrated collection of clever fellows this country ever saw." The group began meeting regularly and the vital foundation of their program was their work The Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life and Works and Discoveries of Martinus Scribblerns.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Dean Of St Patrick's Cathedral[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1713, Swift got a distinguished position in Dublin as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral. He remained the Dean for rest of his life. The Queen, the Army Chief and the entire government, which Swift had supported, fell with the arrival of the new king, George I from Germany. Swift, depressed, returned home (Ireland) and lamented his loneliness, away from his London friends, in his poem In Sickness. The poem also marked illness and firm belief in his approaching end.[br /]
[br /]
[b]‘Tis true – then why should I repine[br /]
To see my life so fast decline ?[br /]
But, why obscurely here alone ?[br /]
Where I am neither loved nor known.[br /]
My state of health none care to learn…[br /]
And, those with whom I now converse,[br /]
Without a tear will tend my hearse.[/b][br /]
[br /]
However, Swift lived for 30 more years. He increased his involvement in Irish affairs during these years and could not keep himself away from local politics, "as the World is now turned, no Cloyster is retired enough to keep politics out". By 1720, Swift had published many pamphlets, which influenced the heart of colonial rule and also started composing his masterpiece, Gulliver’s Travels.[br /]
[br /]
[b]The Masterpiece[/b][br /]
[br /]
In 1726, Swift went to London along with the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. When Swift returned, his arrival at home became a public event as revealed through the local newspapers. The boat in which he arrived ‘made a fine appearance.’ Swift was "brought to his landing – place in a kind of triumph, where he was received and welcomed on shore by a multitude of his grateful countrymen, by whom he was conducted to his house amid repeated acclamations, of ‘Long Live the Drapier’" Drapier was Swift’s pseudonym.[br /]
[br /]
In October 1726, a London publisher published Gulliver’s Travels. The Book caused a sensation. His friend and writer Arbuthnot wrote "Gulliver is in everybody’s hands" and that "Gulliver is a happy man that at his age can write such a merry work." Pope appreciated the work and congratulated Swift "upon what you call your Couzen’s wonderful Book".[br /]
[br /]
Swift was 59 when Gulliver’s Travels was published. He continued writing for another 10 years, publishing important political pamphlets like A Short View of the State of Ireland (1728), A Modest Proposal (1729), humorous pieces as Polite Conversation (1738) and Directions to Servants (published in 1745). Later he also wrote poems like The Lady’s Dressing Room and Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, in which he imagined the reaction to his death, among friends and enemies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]Later Years[/b][br /]
[br /]
In the late 1730s Swift suffered a major attack of deafness and vertigo. His health worsened. Edward Young once recalled an evening walk "Stop short, as we passed on; but, perceiving that he did not follow us, I went back; and found him fixed as a statue, and earnestly gazing upward at a noble Elm, which in its uppermost branches was much withered, and decayed." Pointing at it, he said, "I shall be like that tree, I shall die at the top." His 70th birthday was celebrated throughout Dublin. At the age of 75 he was declared "of unsound mind and memory" by his friends. On October 19, 1745, Swift died and was buried next to Stella in St Patrick’s Cathedral. The first mental hospital in Ireland, St Patrick’s Hospital for the Insane, was possible only by his life savings, in his own words.[br /]
[br /]
[b]He gave the little wealth he had,[br /]
To build a house for fools and mad :[br /]
And showed by one satiric touch,[br /]
No nation wanted it so much.[/b][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Jonathan Swift [ 1667 - 1745 ][/b][br /]
[br /]
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist and political pamphleteer. His passion for satire of human folly made him one of the greatest masters of English prose. His many pamphlets, prose letters and poetry, though meticulous, were yet economical and simple in language. His moral principles, though not original, were always present in his satiric imagination. The satiric compositions were marked by concentrated power and directness of impact.[br /]
[br /]
His Gulliver’s Travels is considered to be one of the masterpieces in English prose. Though labeled as children’s book, its great satire leads the adult readers to deeper understanding, matching Gulliver’s tall tales with current events and long-term societal problems.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Jonathan Swift [ 1667 - 1745 ][/b][br /]
[br /]
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist and political pamphleteer. His passion for satire of human folly made him one of the greatest masters of English prose. His many pamphlets, prose letters and poetry, though meticulous, were yet economical and simple in language. His moral principles, though not original, were always present in his satiric imagination. The satiric compositions were marked by concentrated power and directness of impact.[br /]
[br /]
His Gulliver’s Travels is considered to be one of the masterpieces in English prose. Though labeled as children’s book, its great satire leads the adult readers to deeper understanding, matching Gulliver’s tall tales with current events and long-term societal problems.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]1667[/b] Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1673-81[/b] Studied at Kilkenny School.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1682-89[/b] Studied at Trinity College, Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1689[/b]
Moved to England as secretary to Sir William Temple.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1692[/b] M A from Oxford.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1695[/b] Ordained as Priest.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1696[/b] Wrote A Tale of Tub.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1697[/b] Wrote The Battle of Books.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1699[/b] Returned to Ireland, a Chaplain to Lord Berkeley.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1702[/b] Received Doctor of Divinity from University of Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1704[/b] A Tale of Tub and The Battle of Books published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1710[/b] Began Journal to Stella and essays in the Examiner.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1711[/b] Published The Conduct of the Allies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1713[/b] Swift appointed Dean of St Patrick's.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1714[/b] Settled in Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1720[/b] Began writing Gulliver’s Travels.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1724[/b] Wrote Drapier’s Letters.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1726[/b] Visited England. Gulliver’s Travels published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1727[/b] Swift’s last visit to England.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1731[/b] Composed Verses on the death of Dr. Swift.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1739[/b] Verses on the death of Dr. Swift published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1742[/b] Swift was declared of having ‘unsound mind and memory’.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1745[/b] Jonathan Swift died.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]1667[/b] Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1673-81[/b] Studied at Kilkenny School.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1682-89[/b] Studied at Trinity College, Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1689[/b]
Moved to England as secretary to Sir William Temple.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1692[/b] M A from Oxford.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1695[/b] Ordained as Priest.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1696[/b] Wrote A Tale of Tub.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1697[/b] Wrote The Battle of Books.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1699[/b] Returned to Ireland, a Chaplain to Lord Berkeley.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1702[/b] Received Doctor of Divinity from University of Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1704[/b] A Tale of Tub and The Battle of Books published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1710[/b] Began Journal to Stella and essays in the Examiner.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1711[/b] Published The Conduct of the Allies.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1713[/b] Swift appointed Dean of St Patrick's.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1714[/b] Settled in Dublin.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1720[/b] Began writing Gulliver’s Travels.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1724[/b] Wrote Drapier’s Letters.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1726[/b] Visited England. Gulliver’s Travels published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1727[/b] Swift’s last visit to England.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1731[/b] Composed Verses on the death of Dr. Swift.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1739[/b] Verses on the death of Dr. Swift published.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1742[/b] Swift was declared of having ‘unsound mind and memory’.[br /]
[br /]
[b]1745[/b] Jonathan Swift died.[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Gulliver’s Travels[/b]
[br /]
[br /]
Gulliver’s Travels is a transparent fairy story, a children’s folk tale with a intriguing plot and interesting events. Gulliver carried off in his box reminds us of Sindbad in the Arabian Nights and the commonwealth of horses reminds one of Beatrix Potter as well as Animal Farm.[br /]
[br /]
Scenes in Lilliput served to infantilize politics, while in the second part of the story Gulliver himself becomes a toy or piece of kindergarten equipment. However, it is a traditional fairy story of Gulliver who is caught by one of the reapers in the cornfield, at the start of his Tom Thumb existence in the land of giants. [br /]
[br /]
Ever since its appearance, Gulliver’s Travels has enjoyed both aspects – one of a lighthearted children’s classic and the other of a morose and misanthropic vision. However some critics feel that the existence of a truncated children’s version demeans the ‘serious’ meaning of the work.[br /]
[br /]
The germ of the book went back to the convivial and collaborative activities of the so-called Scriblerus Club. The book was written in four parts and probably from about 1720 to about 1725, taking almost six years to complete. The book caused a sensation. Alexander Pope found that ‘Gulliver’ was the talk of the town. Gay reported, "From the highest to the lowest it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." Though the book attained a great success, it elicited some puzzled and some skeptical responses. Among which the famous was from the Irish bishop "The book was full of improbable lies, and for his part, he hardly believed a word of it."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Other Important Works[/b][br /]
[br /]
A Tale of A Tub was published in 1704. His other famous works, The Battle of the Books and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit also added to the fame of Swift. A Tale of A Tub was like a triumph, which ran through 10 editions in Swift’s lifetime. In an Apology added to the 1710 edition, Swift wrote that he thought that "numerous and gross corruptions in Religion and Learning might furnish Matter" for satire and further decided "to proceed in a manner, that should be altogether new, the world having been already too long nauseated with endless repetitions upon every subject."[br /]
[br /]
A Tale of A Tub seems to be an example of 'modern' writing at its finest, by an author pretending to be the Secretary of the Universe to deliver 'momentous Truths'. He said, "Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded, that something very useful and profound is couched underneath."[br /]
[br /]
Swift is wildly imaginative as well as digressive. In digression he points out one rambling, history of Christianity, the story of three brothers. It reveals Swift’s talent for parody or ventriloquism. It was further seen in Swift’s parody under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff, a character based on John Partridge, who predicted the death of the Queen and also attacked the Anglican Church. Swift’s astrologer Bickerstaff predicted Partridge’s death : "I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules and find he will infallibly die upon the 29th of March next, about 11 at Night, of a raging fever." A month later a pamphlet was published with the title The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff, Predictions, Being An Account of the Death of Mr. Partridge, the Almanack-Maker, upon the 29th. When the real Partridge protested saying he is still alive, Bickerstaff published another pamphlet, proving that "Mr. Partridge is not alive," and the man using Partridge’s name must be an imposter.[br /]
[br /]
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift is the revelation of Swift’s own ideal view of his character drawn in a way to explain how he would like to think of himself. According to Professor Woolley, the editor of the Swift Poems Project, ‘the eulogist’s statements…. more nearly express hopes or intention than facts.'[br /]
[br /]
The irony in Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift is the same as in his earlier works. And one cannot interpret Swift when one is never sure of his ground and even for rhetorical analysis one needs contextual awareness. The poem was written when Swift was passing through a bad phase of life. He was still brooding over the past, of not availing the opportunities and was very anxious about his future. W B Carnochan "Swift threw up ramparts against pain and loss." His satire murdered - not only to dissect but, ironically, to heal the wound of life itself." Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift shows Swift’s preparation for his greatest defeat. For that he had his usual weapon of an ironist : wit, raillery and humor. He could not resist the temptation to put forward an ideal view of himself:[br /]
[br /]
[b]Fair LIBERTY was all his cry;[br /]
For her he stood prepar’d to die;[br /]
For her he boldly stood alone;[br /]
For her he off expos’d his own.[/b][br /]
[br /]
He was even ready to cut his own eulogy :[br /]
[br /]
[b]That kingdom he has let his Debtor,[br /]
I wish it soon may have a Better.[/b][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]Gulliver’s Travels[/b]
[br /]
[br /]
Gulliver’s Travels is a transparent fairy story, a children’s folk tale with a intriguing plot and interesting events. Gulliver carried off in his box reminds us of Sindbad in the Arabian Nights and the commonwealth of horses reminds one of Beatrix Potter as well as Animal Farm.[br /]
[br /]
Scenes in Lilliput served to infantilize politics, while in the second part of the story Gulliver himself becomes a toy or piece of kindergarten equipment. However, it is a traditional fairy story of Gulliver who is caught by one of the reapers in the cornfield, at the start of his Tom Thumb existence in the land of giants. [br /]
[br /]
Ever since its appearance, Gulliver’s Travels has enjoyed both aspects – one of a lighthearted children’s classic and the other of a morose and misanthropic vision. However some critics feel that the existence of a truncated children’s version demeans the ‘serious’ meaning of the work.[br /]
[br /]
The germ of the book went back to the convivial and collaborative activities of the so-called Scriblerus Club. The book was written in four parts and probably from about 1720 to about 1725, taking almost six years to complete. The book caused a sensation. Alexander Pope found that ‘Gulliver’ was the talk of the town. Gay reported, "From the highest to the lowest it is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." Though the book attained a great success, it elicited some puzzled and some skeptical responses. Among which the famous was from the Irish bishop "The book was full of improbable lies, and for his part, he hardly believed a word of it."[br /]
[br /]
[b]Other Important Works[/b][br /]
[br /]
A Tale of A Tub was published in 1704. His other famous works, The Battle of the Books and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit also added to the fame of Swift. A Tale of A Tub was like a triumph, which ran through 10 editions in Swift’s lifetime. In an Apology added to the 1710 edition, Swift wrote that he thought that "numerous and gross corruptions in Religion and Learning might furnish Matter" for satire and further decided "to proceed in a manner, that should be altogether new, the world having been already too long nauseated with endless repetitions upon every subject."[br /]
[br /]
A Tale of A Tub seems to be an example of 'modern' writing at its finest, by an author pretending to be the Secretary of the Universe to deliver 'momentous Truths'. He said, "Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded, that something very useful and profound is couched underneath."[br /]
[br /]
Swift is wildly imaginative as well as digressive. In digression he points out one rambling, history of Christianity, the story of three brothers. It reveals Swift’s talent for parody or ventriloquism. It was further seen in Swift’s parody under the name of Isaac Bickerstaff, a character based on John Partridge, who predicted the death of the Queen and also attacked the Anglican Church. Swift’s astrologer Bickerstaff predicted Partridge’s death : "I have consulted the star of his nativity by my own rules and find he will infallibly die upon the 29th of March next, about 11 at Night, of a raging fever." A month later a pamphlet was published with the title The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff, Predictions, Being An Account of the Death of Mr. Partridge, the Almanack-Maker, upon the 29th. When the real Partridge protested saying he is still alive, Bickerstaff published another pamphlet, proving that "Mr. Partridge is not alive," and the man using Partridge’s name must be an imposter.[br /]
[br /]
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift is the revelation of Swift’s own ideal view of his character drawn in a way to explain how he would like to think of himself. According to Professor Woolley, the editor of the Swift Poems Project, ‘the eulogist’s statements…. more nearly express hopes or intention than facts.'[br /]
[br /]
The irony in Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift is the same as in his earlier works. And one cannot interpret Swift when one is never sure of his ground and even for rhetorical analysis one needs contextual awareness. The poem was written when Swift was passing through a bad phase of life. He was still brooding over the past, of not availing the opportunities and was very anxious about his future. W B Carnochan "Swift threw up ramparts against pain and loss." His satire murdered - not only to dissect but, ironically, to heal the wound of life itself." Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift shows Swift’s preparation for his greatest defeat. For that he had his usual weapon of an ironist : wit, raillery and humor. He could not resist the temptation to put forward an ideal view of himself:[br /]
[br /]
[b]Fair LIBERTY was all his cry;[br /]
For her he stood prepar’d to die;[br /]
For her he boldly stood alone;[br /]
For her he off expos’d his own.[/b][br /]
[br /]
He was even ready to cut his own eulogy :[br /]
[br /]
[b]That kingdom he has let his Debtor,[br /]
I wish it soon may have a Better.[/b][br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [b][i]On Age and Aging[/i][/b][br /]
Every one desires to live long, but no one would be old.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Ambition[/b][/i][br /]
Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offences; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Belief[/b][/i][br /]
The lack of belief is a defect that ought to be concealed when it cannot be overcome.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Charity[/b][/i][br /]
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Conversation[/b][/i][br /]
One of the very best rules of conversation is to never, say anything, which any of the company wish had been left unsaid.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Disease[/b][/i][br /]
We are so fond of one another because our ailments are the same.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Enemies[/b][/i][br /]
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Friends and Friendship[/b][/i][br /]
Your motions of friendship are new to me; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he cannot give to one without robbing another. I very well know to whom I would give the first place in my friendship, but they are not in the way, I am condemned to another scene, and therefore I distribute it in pennyworths to those about me, and who displease me least, and should do the same to my fellow prisoners if I were condemned to a jail.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Heaven[/b][/i][br /]
What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Life and Living[/b][/i][br /]
May you live all the days of your life.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Men[/b][/i][br /]
Men are happy to be laughed at for their humor, but not for their folly.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Optimism[/b][/i][br /]
Positiveness is a good quality for preachers and speakers because, whoever shares his thoughts with the public will convince them as he himself appears convinced.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Power[/b][/i][br /]
Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Reason[/b][/i][br /]
Reason is a very light rider, and easily shook off.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Shame[/b][/i][br /]
I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Understanding[/b][/i][br /]
Where I am not understood, it shall be concluded that something very useful and profound is couched underneath.[br /]
[br /]
[b]•[/b] [i][b]On Winners and Winning[/b][/i][br /]
Whoever wishes to win in this game must have patience and money, since the values are so little constant and the rumors so little founded on truth, vision is the art of seeing things invisible.[br /]
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[br /]
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