Jonathan Swift

EARLY LIFE 

Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. 

Portrait by Charles Jervas

He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick).

Jonathan was born seven months after his father's death from syphilis.

His grandfather was a well-known royalist vicar at Goodrich, Thomas Swift who had lost all he owned during the English Civil War.

The house in which Swift was born; 1865 illustration

His mother abandoned Jonathan at the age of 6 when she returned to England. She left him in the care of his Uncle Godwin, a close friend and confidant of Sir John Temple whose son later employed Swift as his secretary.

Jonathan was educated at Kilkenny Grammer School. The future poet and playwright William Congreve was there the same time.

In 1682, Swift started attending Trinity College, Dublin, where he was censured for offences against discipline, obtaining his degree only by "special grace”. He remained at college for three more years not quite long enough for a higher degree. 

Swift spent much of his time at Trinity College reading for pleasure. He stayed away from lectures and hang around with friends in town.

After his not very successful career at Trinity College, Dublin, Swift went to stay with his mother, Abigail Erick, at Leicester.

POLITICAL AND CLERICAL CAREER 

In 1689 Swift went to live at Moor Park, Farnham, Surrey, where he joined the Household of Sir William Temple, a diplomat. He read to Temple, wrote for him, and kept his accounts. Growing into confidence with his employer, he "was often trusted with matters of great importance." 

Within three years of their acquaintance, Temple had introduced his secretary to William III, and sent him to London to urge the king to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments.

By 1694 Swift had grown tired of his position, and finding that Temple, who valued his services, was slow in finding him preferment, he left Moor Park in order to carry out his resolve to go into the Church. He was ordained on January 13, 1695, and obtained the prebend of Kilroot, near Belfast. 

Swift was bored by his rural parish and in May 1696 Temple induced Swift to return to Moor Park, where he was employed in preparing Temple's memoirs and correspondence for publication. He remained there until Temple's death in 1699.

Between 1701- 1705 Jonathan Swift was the Vicar of Laracor in County Meath. At Laracor, Swift ministered to a congregation of about fifteen persons, and had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal (after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park), planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage.

Jonathan Swift switched allegiance from the Whigs to the Conservatives (Tories) in 1710, chiefly as he felt they showed more concern for the church. The following year he published the political pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies, attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France.

By 1713, Swift was acknowledged as the greatest of pamphleteers of his era and as a reward, he was given the Deanery of St Patrick's Dublin. He remained there until 1747. 

Jonathan Swift at the Deanery of St Patrick's, illus. from 1905 Temple Scott edition of Works

On one occasion, Swift was admonished for preaching a charity sermon of such an excessive length that by its conclusion the congregation felt totally uninclined to contribute to the cause concerned. The next time the Dean determined to keep it brief and he proceeded to announce his text from Proverbs 19 v 17. "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward him for what he has done." He repeated this twice more then continued, "You, have heard the terms of the loan. If you like the security, put down your money." Then he sat down and watched the congregation donate in a much more generous manner.

WRITING CAREER 

During his visits to England in 1704 Swift published A Tale of a Tub, where he attacked corruption in religion and education and The Battle of the Books, a response to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning. It was with those works that he began to gain a reputation as a satirical writer. 

Cover, 1704.

Swift published most of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously.

Swift also published poetry, for which he is less known. His cousin, John Dryden commented on his early work "Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet."

During the 1720s, Swift turned his pamphleteering skills to the support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works. His series of pamphlets, Drapier's Letters, published between April 1 - October 13, 1724, where he attacked the English for debasing the Irish policy, earned him the status of an Irish patriot.

The first edition of Gulliver's Travels was published in two volumes on October 26, 1726, priced at 8s. 6d. Though it’s vulgarness provoked much critical opinion it was a runaway best seller and sold out its first run in less than a week.

Gulliver's Travels was the only book for which Swift made much money. His friend Alexander Pope had negotiated a copyright fee of £200.

Swift described in Gulliver's Travels the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. He did this more than a hundred years before either moon was officially discovered. As the Earth has one moon and Jupiter he mistakenly thought four, Swift formulated the geometrical progression that Mars would have two. Because of this, Swift Crater on the Martian Moon Deimos is named after him.

First edition of Gulliver's Travels

In 1729, Swift published A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick. The book was a satire written in a mock public spirited way in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque arguments, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their offspring to the rich who could fatten the children before eating them.

Having got the idea for A Modest Proposal from meetings at the Scriblerus club, Swift had first started working on the book in 1720. It was an immediate success from the cradle to the cabinet. 

The phrase 'Land of Nod' originally referred to the place where Cain was exiled to after murdering his brother. Swift birthed its alternative meaning in his A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, by relating going to the land of Nod as falling asleep.

At times, Swift was abusive in his satire. In 1731 he wrote Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, his own obituary, which was published eight years later. His poem about his own death was just as cutting about himself as his attacks on others. Swift had pre-empted his critics. 

BELIEFS 

Swift used the name Isaac Bickerstaff to discredit a certain astrologer named John Partridge. In January 1708, he wrote "Predictions for the ensuing year by Issac Bickerstaff" asserting that on March 29, 1708 Partridge would die. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on March 30th claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary. In asserting that he was still alive, Partridge covered himself with ridicule and Swift wrote in April 1709 his vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff.

One of the episodes Gulliver founds himself in was being shipwrecked on a land of little people called Lilliput. The book's protagonist ended up in the middle of a dispute where the Lilliputians were arguing whether to break eggs at the broad or narrow end. Swift was satirizing religious disputes between Protestants and Catholics.

Swift once advised a young man about to enter Holy Orders that it was the duty of a clergyman to "Preach and practice the contempt of human beings."

CHARACTER AND APPEARANCE 

Dean Swift was a tall, powerful man with large unemotional face and flashing eyes.

Swift

To save money Swift wore his clerical gown when attending the court of Queen Anne.

Swift was gifted in conversation and was enormous fun to be with. Once Lady Cateret, wife of the English Viceroy in Ireland remarked how good the air was in Ireland. Swift fell on his knees and besought her "For Gods Sake, madam, don't say that in England for if you do they will surely tax it."

Swift was generous with his money. He gave one third of his income on charity and another third he saved up to found St Patrick's Hospital for imbeciles. 

Swift showed many kindnesses to people who needed help. He seems to have given Mrs. Dingley fifty guineas a year, pretending that it came from a fund for which he was trustee.

RELATIONSHIPS 

When the 22-year-old Swift took up his residence at Moor Park, he found there a sickly eight-year-old little girl. Esther (later known as Stella) was the daughter of a merchant named Edward Johnson, who had died young. 

Stella (1868). John Everett Millais 

On his return to Temple's house, Swift found his old playmate had grown into a girl of fifteen, in perfect health. 

When he returned to Ireland in September 1702 from a stay in England, he was accompanied by Stella — now twenty years old — and her friend Rebecca Dingley. 

There's a great deal of mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Stella. Many hold that they were secretly married in 1716, though they never lived together as man and wife.

Swift wrote in an embarrassing baby language to Esther Johnson, which later became The Journal to Stella.

Stella's relationship with Swift became fraught after 1707 when he met in England Esther Vanhomrigh, daughter of the Dutch-born Lord Mayor of Dublin. She was 22 years younger than Swift, and for a time they he served as her tutor. Swift nicknamed her "Vanessa".

Vanessa became infatuated with Swift and after his return to Ireland followed him there. When her father died she inherited Celbridge Abbey 12 miles from Dublin and Stella. The uneasy triangle between Swift, Stella and Vanessa continued until 1723 when Vanessa (who was by now seriously ill from tuberculosis) apparently asked Swift not to see Stella again. This led to a violent quarrel between them, and Vanessa before her death in June 1723 she cut him out of her will.

Imaginary portrait of Vanessa by John Everett Millais

Although there has never been definite proof of this, there is no doubt that Stella was dearer to Swift than anyone else, and that his feelings for her did not change throughout his life.

On January 28, 1728, Stella died. Swift was too ill to be present at the funeral at St. Patrick's, but afterwards, a lock of her hair was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair."

Swift was a member of the Scriblerus Club with Alexander Pope and John Gay. He gave Gay the idea for his well known work "The Beggars Opera" when he mentioned to him "A Newgate Pastoral might make a pretty sort of thing."

HEALTH 

Swift contracted Ménière's syndrome as a young man and was harassed all his life by attacks of deafness, ringing in the ears and dizziness.

LAST YEARS AND DEATH 

The mental decay which Swift had always feared — "I shall be like that tree," he once said, "I shall die at the top" — became marked about 1738. Paralysis was followed by aphasia and acute pain, followed by a long period of apathy, during which he went a whole year without uttering a word. Finally death relieved him on October 19, 1745. His last words were: "I am dying like a poisoned rat in a hole. I am what I am. I am what I am."

Swift was buried in St Patrick's Cathedral next to Stella. The epitaph he wrote for himself inscribed on his tomb is "Here he lies, where savage indignation can longer lacerate his heart."

Bust in St Patrick's Cathedral. By Wknight94 - Own work

Swift left £12,000 in his will to found the St Patrick's Hospital for idiots and lunatics in Dublin along with his second best beaver hat and his horses.