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English Men of Letters
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY
SWIFT
SWIFT
BY
LESLIE STEPHEN
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1882.
The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved
PREFACE.
The chief materials for a life of Swift are to be found in his writingsand correspondence. The best edition is the second of the two edited byScott (1814 and 1824).
In 1751 Lord Orrery published Remarks upon the Life and Writings of Dr.Jonathan Swift. Orrery, born 1707, had known Swift from about 1732. Hisremarks give the views of a person of quality of more ambition thancapacity, and more anxious to exhibit his own taste than to give full oraccurate information.
In 1754, Dr. Delany published Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Remarks,intended to vindicate Swift against some of Orrery’s severe judgments.Delany, born about 1685, became intimate with Swift soon after the dean’sfinal settlement in Ireland. He was then one of the authorities of TrinityCollege, Dublin. He is the best contemporary authority, so far as he goes.
In 1756 Deane Swift, grandson of Swift’s uncle Godwin, and son-in-law toSwift’s cousin and faithful guardian, Mrs. Whiteway, published an Essayupon the Life, Writings, and Character of Dr. Jonathan Swift, in which heattacks both his predecessors. Deane Swift, born about 1708, had seenlittle or nothing of his cousin till the year 1738, when the dean’sfaculties were decaying. His book is foolish and discursive. Deane Swift’sson, Theophilus,[Pg vi] communicated a good deal of doubtful matter to Scott, onthe authority of family tradition.
In 1765 Hawkesworth, who had no personal knowledge, prefixed a life ofSwift to an edition of the works which adds nothing to our information. In1781 Johnson, when publishing a very perfunctory life of Swift as one ofthe poets, excused its shortcomings on the ground of having alreadycommunicated his thoughts to Hawkesworth. The life is not only meagre butinjured by one of Johnson’s strong prejudices.
In 1785 Thomas Sheridan produced a pompous and dull life of Swift. He wasthe son of Swift’s most intimate companion during the whole periodsubsequent to the final settlement in Ireland. The elder Sheridan,however, died in 1738; and the younger, born in 1721, was still a boy whenSwift was becoming imbecile.