1. The Eighteenth Century
Rationalism, Anti-Colonialism, Philosophy and Comedy
JONATHAN SWIFT
The first great Irish writer in English, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), is best known for Gulliverâs Travels (1726), a savagely satiric view of human society, yet one which has become a childrenâs classic. Lemuel Gulliver, a supposed shipâs surgeon, recounts his voyages, the first to Lilliput where he is called the âMan Mountainâ by the diminutive inhabitants. At first he helps them (notably by extinguishing a fire in the Queenâs palace by urinating on it) but becomes disillusioned by their way of life, is falsely accused of treason and escapes to Blefuscu, the neighbouring kingdom with which the Lilliputians are at war (this mirrors the longstanding antagonism between England and France).
In Part II Gulliver goes to Brobdingnag where he is minute compared to the gigantic inhabitants; he is disgusted by human anatomy in enlarged form. But his account of English political life, of European politics and warfare disgusts the King of Brobdingnag who considers Gulliverâs race âthe most pernicious race of little odious vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earthâ.
After being carried off in his specially built travelling cage by a vast eagle, Gulliver returns to England (which now seems Lilliputian to him!). Then, in Part III, he visits the flying island Laputa and the neighbouring Lagado â a nice anticipation of science fiction. In Laputa the inhabitants are obsessed by speculations about mathematics and music, which Gulliver finds incomprehensible. In Lagado the Academy of Projectors are engaged in absurd research â one is trying to extract sunbeams out of cucumbers â and Swift obviously enjoys satirising the activities of members of the Royal Society in describing their research activities. The morose Struldbrugs are here too, gloomily resigned to their immortality.
In Part IV Gulliver makes his last voyage, to the land of the Houyhnhnms, horses who run their lives by reason. This is also the land of the degraded Yahoos who are akin to human beings but regarded by the Houyhnhnms as the vilest form of life. After hearing Gulliverâs description of European politics they decide he is a Yahoo and he is banished. On his return to England he prefers the company of horses to that of his family.
Swiftâs praise of the rational horses and his disgust at the brutal Yahoos have led some commentators to see the last book of the Travels as giving an ultimately pessimistic view of human nature, but Swiftâs own view of humanity is larger than the one his invented character Gulliver puts forward. Gulliverâs pride is being satirised. Swift himself combatted the evils of existence with laughter and with exuberant fantastic humour; he balanced his saeva indignatio, his fierce anger at the injustice and irrationality of mankind, with compassion and kindness, with his capacity âfor mirth and societyâ.
In writing to his friend Alexander Pope about Gulliverâs Travels, he said:
Swift had been educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College, Dublin. He worked as a secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat living at Moor Park in Surrey, before becoming ordained in the Church of Ireland and taking charge of a parish in Kilroot in Northern Ireland. He did not enjoy being surrounded by dour Presbyterians and returned to work for Temple until the latterâs death when he became rector of a parish north of Dublin, this time being surrounded by Roman Catholics. At his advice Esther Johnson, whom he called âStellaâ and had known at Moor Park, moved with her friend Rebecca Dingley to live in Dublin.
Swift visited London in 1701, issuing anonymously there his first political pamphlet, The Contests and Dissensions between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, in which he praised the Whig leaders. In 1704 A Tale of a Tub, which he had begun in Kilroot, attacked abuses in religion. A father leaves his three sons a coat each which they are not to alter in any way. These coats are the Christian faith: the sons are Peter, Martin and Jack, respectively standing for the Catholics, the Anglicans and the Calvinists. Swift thought Roman Christianity too worldly and non-conformism too immoderate; he was himself a churchman of the centre and considered the Anglican church, though imperfect, to be the best because it was the most rational religion he knew.
Swift had now invented his own style, creating a persona whose apparent innocence, varied viewpoint and shattering satiric comments on stupidity have sometimes puzzled his readers.
In A Tale of a Tub he lulls his readers into false security, then exposes the falsity of his reasoning. He praises the pursuit of truth, despite the pain this might cause:
Queen Anne was not amused and Swiftâs barbs were later to cost him preferment to a bishopric. The Battle of the Books, published along with A Tale of a Tub, reflects Swiftâs unease with contemporary corruption of the English language and voices his scepticism about the value of the new sciences. It praises the wisdom of the past, rejecting new intellectual fashions.
From 1707 to 1709 Swift was again in London, seeking in vain as an emissary of the Irish clergy to persuade the Whigs to grant a remission of a tax (the first yearâs income paid by holders of benefices). When the Tories came to power in 1710 they realised the political power of his blend of cold reason and explosive logic and put him in charge of a journal, The Examiner. He became a close friend of the government ministers, Harley and St John, and obtained the concession sought by the Church of Ireland. He did much to get the ministersâ policies accepted through his skilful journalism. His anti-war propaganda in The Conduct of the Allies largely brought about the end of the war in France and caused the dismissal in 1711 of the conquering Captain-General, the Duke of Marlborough.
In 1713 Swift visited Ireland briefly, to be installed as Dean of St Patrickâs Cathedral, a disappointed man because he had failed to obtain a bishopric in Ireland or a deanery in England despite his work for the Tory government. When it fell in 1714 he returned to Dublin determined to keep out of Irish politics but after a few years he took up the cause of Ireland, advocating the greater use of Irish manufacturers. Adopting the persona of a Dublin shopkeeper, M B Drapier, in a series of letters â The Drapier Letters â Swift successfully attacked a proposal which would have allowed an English ironmaster, William Wood, to coin copper money (âWoodâs halfpenceâ) for Ireland. As a result Swift became a popular hero.
His horror at the widespread poverty of Ireland led to his devastating A Modest Proposal (1729) for âpreventing the children of the poor being burdensome and for making them beneficialâ. In an apparently matter-of-fact way, he argues a case against poverty as if he were an economist, suggesting that âa young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most nourishing and wholesome food whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasse or ragout.â The scheme is carefully worked out: âof the 120,000 children computed, 20,000 are to be reserved for breedingâ, the remaining 100,000 âto be offered for sale at a year old to Persons of Quality and Fortune ⌠always advising the mothers to let them suck plentifully in the last month so as to render them plump and fat for a good tableâ. He thought that Irish apathy and greed were as much to blame as English economic policy:
Swiftâs letters, especially those which make up the Journal to Stella, written from London to Esther Johnson, are a delight to read for their directness and vivid, lively wit. In his poetry too, he was concerned to convey truth but that truth had to be presented in concise yet conversational speech. âA Description of a City Showerâ and the âHumble Petition of Mrs Harrisâ are good examples. There is plenty of variety among his poems: savage satire on politicians, affectionately teasing poems to Stella, some written for her birthdays, praising her character, her intellect and her kindness, and that strange, long poem Cadenus and Vanessa â (Cadenus is an anagram for decanus, Latin for dean) which deals with his relationship with Esther Vanhomrigh, whom he called âVanessaâ.
Against his stern advice, she had followed him from London to Dublin after he became Dean of St Patrickâs. She was an attractive girl of twenty, he forty-one, when their intimate friendship began. The poem contrasts her perfections with the imperfections of other women; it tells how Cadenus was surprised at her falling in love with him. He had offered her friendship, he had tutored her, guiding her reading and thinking, but she wants the situation reversed. The poem remains enigmatic. Vanessa, who died in 1723, left instructions in her will for it to be published.
But what success Vanessa met,
Is to the world a Secret yet:
Whether the nymph to please her Swain,
Talks in a high Romantick Strain;
Or whether he at last descends
To like with less Seraphick Ends;
Or, to compound the business, whether
They temper Love and Books together;
Must never to Mankind be told,
Nor shall the conscious Muse unfold.
Other poems record his disgust with untidiness and lack of hygiene; there are playful poems such as the laughing account of his own achievement in âThe Life and Character of Dr Swiftâ and the supremely comic âVerses on the Death of Dr Swiftâ, linking himself with the land in which he had not wanted to live. In his will, written in 1745, the year he died, he left money to found a hospital for the mentally ill; and St Patrickâs Hospital, the first of its kind, still flourishes. Swift took a keen interest in the planning of it:
He gave the little wealth he had
To build a house for fools and mad:
And showed by one sati...
