A MODEST PROPOSAL

- By Jonathan Swift
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Anglo-Irish satirist and cleric (1667–1745) For other uses, see Jonathan Swift (disambiguation). The Very ReverendJonathan SwiftPortrait by Charles Jervas, 1710Born(1667-11-30)30 November 1667Dublin, IrelandDied19 October 1745(1745-10-19) (aged 77)Dublin, IrelandResting placeSt Patrick's Cathedral, DublinPen nameIsaac BickerstaffM. B. DrapierLemuel GulliverSimon WagstaffEsq.OccupationWriterpoetpolitical pamphleteerpriestLanguageModern EnglishEducationB.A.Alma materTrinity College DublinPeriod18th centuryGenresSatireparablepolemicnovelessaypoetrycorrespondenceotherSubjectsReligionpoliticsotherLiterary movementClassicismEnlightenmentYears activefrom 1696Notable worksA Tale of a TubDrapier's LettersGulliver's TravelsA Modest ProposalPartnerEsther Johnson (?)Signature Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish[1] satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin,[2] hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language.[1] He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".[3] Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin in the Kingdom of Ireland. He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick) of Frisby on the Wreake.[4] His father was a native of Goodrich, Herefordshire, but he accompanied his brothers to Ireland to seek their fortunes in law after their Royalist father's estate was brought to ruin during the English Civil War. His maternal grandfather, James Ericke, was the vicar of Thornton in Leicestershire. In 1634 the vicar was convicted of Puritan practices. Sometime thereafter, Ericke and his family, including his young daughter Abigail, fled to Ireland.[5] Swift's father joined his elder brother, Godwin, in the practice of law in Ireland.[6] He died in Dublin about seven months before his namesake was born.[7][8] He died of syphilis, which he said he got from dirty sheets when out of town.[9] His mother returned to England after his birth, leaving him in the care of his uncle Godwin Swift (1628–1695), a close friend and confidant of Sir John Temple, whose son later employed Swift as his secretary.[10] At the age of one, child Jonathan was taken by his wet nurse to her hometown of Whitehaven, Cumberland, England. He said that there he learned to read the Bible. His nurse returned him to his mother, still in Ireland, when he was three.[11]More background to the Whitehaven connection. The house in which Swift was born; 1865 illustration Swift's family had several interesting literary connections. His grandmother Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of poet John Dryden. The same grandmother's aunt Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. His great-great-grandmother Margaret (Godwin) Swift was the sister of Francis Godwin, author of The Man in the Moone which influenced parts of Swift's Gulliver's Travels. His uncle Thomas Swift married a daughter of poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William Shakespeare. Swift's benefactor and uncle Godwin Swift took primary responsibility for the young man, sending him with one of his cousins to Kilkenny College (also attended by philosopher George Berkeley).[10] He arrived there at the age of six, where he was expected to have already learned the basic declensions in Latin. He had not and thus began his schooling in a lower form. Swift graduated in 1682, when he was 15.[12] Jonathan Swift in 1682, by Thomas Pooley. The artist had married into the Swift family.[13] He attended Trinity College Dublin in 1682,[14] financed by Godwin's son Willoughby. The four-year course followed a curriculum largely set in the Middle Ages for the priesthood. The lectures were dominated by Aristotelian logic and philosophy. The basic skill taught to students was debate, and they were expected to be able to argue both sides of any argument or topic. Swift was an above-average student but not exceptional, and received his B.A. in 1686 "by special grace."[15] Adult life[edit] Swift was studying for his master's degree when political troubles in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution forced him to leave for England in 1688, where his mother helped him get a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple at Moor Park, Farnham.[16] Temple was an English diplomat who had arranged the Triple Alliance of 1668. He had retired from public service to his country estate, to tend his gardens and write his memoirs. Gaining his employer's confidence, Swift "was often trusted with matters of great importance".[17] Within three years of their acquaintance, Temple introduced his secretary to William III and sent him to London to urge the King to consent to a bill for triennial Parliaments. Swift took up his residence at Moor Park where he met Esther Johnson, then eight years old, the daughter of an impoverished widow who acted as companion to Temple's sister Lady Giffard. Swift was her tutor and mentor, giving her the nickname "Stella", and the two maintained a close but ambiguous relationship for the rest of Esther's life.[18] In 1690, Swift left Temple for Ireland because of his health, but returned to Moor Park the following year. The illness consisted of fits of vertigo or giddiness, now believed to be Ménière's disease, and it continued to plague him throughout his life.[19] During this second stay with Temple, Swift received his M.A. from Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1692. He then left Moor Park, apparently despairing of gaining a better position through Temple's patronage, in order to become an ordained priest in the Established Church of Ireland. He was appointed to the prebend of Kilroot in the Diocese of Connor in 1694,[20] with his parish located at Kilroot, near Carrickfergus in County Antrim. Swift appears to have been miserable in his new position, being isolated in a small, remote community far from the centres of power and influence. While at Kilroot, however, he may well have become romantically involved with Jane Waring, whom he called "Varina", the sister of an old college friend.[17] A letter from him survives, offering to remain if she would marry him and promising to leave and never return to Ireland if she refused. She presumably refused, because Swift left his post and returned to England and Temple's service at Moor Park in 1696, and he remained there until Temple's death. There he was employed in helping to prepare Temple's memoirs and correspondence for publication. During this time, Swift wrote The Battle of the Books, a satire responding to critics of Temple's Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1690), though Battle was not published until 1704. Temple died on 27 January 1699.[17] Swift, normally a harsh judge of human nature, said that all that was good and amiable in mankind had died with Temple.[17] He stayed on briefly in England to complete editing Temple's memoirs, and perhaps in the hope that recognition of his work might earn him a suitable position in England. His work made enemies among some of Temple's family and friends, in particular Temple's formidable sister Martha, Lady Giffard, who objected to indiscretions included in the memoirs.[18] Moreover, she noted that Swift had borrowed from her own biography, an accusation that Swift denied.[21] Swift's next move was to approach King William directly, based on his imagined connection through Temple and a belief that he had been promised a position. This failed so miserably that he accepted the lesser post of secretary and chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, one of the Lords Justice of Ireland. However, when he reached Ireland, he found that the secretaryship had already been given to another. He soon obtained the living of Laracor, Agher, and Rathbeggan, and the prebend of Dunlavin[22] in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.[23] Swift ministered to a congregation of about 15 at Laracor, which was just over four and a half miles (7.2 km) from Summerhill, County Meath, and twenty miles (32 km) from Dublin. He had abundant leisure for cultivating his garden, making a canal after the Dutch fashion of Moor Park, planting willows, and rebuilding the vicarage. As chaplain to Lord Berkeley, he spent much of his time in Dublin and travelled to London frequently over the next ten years. In 1701, he anonymously published the political pamphlet A Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome. Writer[edit] Swift resided in Trim, County Meath, after 1700. He wrote many of his works during this period. In February 1702, Swift received his Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College Dublin. That spring he travelled to England and then returned to Ireland in October, accompanied by Esther Johnson—now 20—and his friend Rebecca Dingley, another member of William Temple's household. There is a great mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Esther Johnson, nicknamed "Stella". Many, notably his close friend Thomas Sheridan, believed that they were secretly married in 1716; others, like Swift's housekeeper Mrs Brent and Rebecca Dingley (who lived with Stella all through her years in Ireland), dismissed the story as absurd.[24] Swift certainly did not wish her to marry anyone else: in 1704, when their mutual friend William Tisdall informed Swift that he intended to propose to Stella, Swift wrote to him to dissuade him from the idea. Although the tone of the letter was courteous, Swift privately expressed his disgust for Tisdall as an "interloper", and they were estranged for many years. During his visits to England in these years, Swift published A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704) and began to gain a reputation as a writer. This led to close, lifelong friendships with Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot, forming the core of the Martinus Scriblerus Club (founded in 1713). Swift became increasingly active politically in these years.[25] Swift supported the Glorious Revolution and early in his life belonged to the Whigs.[26][27] As a member of the Anglican Church, he feared a return of the Catholic monarchy and "Papist" absolutism.[27] From 1707 to 1709 and again in 1710, Swift was in London unsuccessfully urging upon the Whig administration of Lord Godolphin the claims of the Irish clergy to the First-Fruits and Twentieths ("Queen Anne's Bounty"), which brought in about £2,500 a year, already granted to their brethren in England. He found the opposition Tory leadership more sympathetic to his cause, and when they came to power in 1710, he was recruited to support their cause as editor of The Examiner. In 1711, Swift published the political pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies, attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with France. The incoming Tory government conducted secret (and illegal) negotiations with France, resulting in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) ending the War of the Spanish Succession. Swift was part of the inner circle of the Tory government,[28] and often acted as mediator between Henry St John (Viscount Bolingbroke), the secretary of state for foreign affairs (1710–15), and Robert Harley (Earl of Oxford), lord treasurer and prime minister (1711–14). Swift recorded his experiences and thoughts during this difficult time in a long series of letters to Esther Johnson, collected and published after his death as A Journal to Stella. The animosity between the two Tory leaders eventually led to the dismissal of Harley in 1714. With the death of Queen Anne and the accession of George I that year, the Whigs returned to power, and the Tory leaders were tried for treason for conducting secret negotiations with France. Swift has been described by scholars[who?] as "a Whig in politics and Tory in religion" and Swift related his own views in similar terms, stating that as "a lover of liberty, I found myself to be what they called a Whig in politics ... But, as to religion, I confessed myself to be an High-Churchman."[26] In his Thoughts on Religion, fearing the intense partisan strife waged over religious belief in seventeenth-century England, Swift wrote that "Every man, as a member of the commonwealth, ought to be content with the possession of his own opinion in private."[26] However, it should be borne in mind that, during Swift's time period, terms like "Whig" and "Tory" both encompassed a wide array of opinions and factions, and neither term aligns with a modern political party or modern political alignments.[26] Also during these years in London, Swift became acquainted with the Vanhomrigh family (Dutch merchants who had settled in Ireland, then moved to London) and became involved with one of the daughters, Esther. Swift furnished Esther with the nickname "Vanessa" (derived by adding "Essa", a pet form of Esther, to the "Van" of her surname, Vanhomrigh), and she features as one of the main characters in his poem Cadenus and Vanessa. The poem and their correspondence suggest that Esther was infatuated with Swift and that he may have reciprocated her affections, only to regret this and then try to break off the relationship.[29] Esther followed Swift to Ireland in 1714 and settled at her old family home, Celbridge Abbey. Their uneasy relationship continued for some years; then there appears to have been a confrontation, possibly involving Esther Johnson. Esther Vanhomrigh died in 1723 at the age of 35, having destroyed the will she had made in Swift's favour.[30] Another lady with whom he had a close but less intense relationship was Anne Long, a toast of the Kit-Cat Club. Final years[edit] Jonathan Swift (shown without wig) by Rupert Barber, 1745, National Portrait Gallery, London Before the fall of the Tory government, Swift hoped that his services would be rewarded with a church appointment in England. However, Queen Anne appeared to have taken a dislike to Swift and thwarted these efforts. Her dislike has been attributed to A Tale of a Tub, which she thought blasphemous, compounded by The Windsor Prophecy, where Swift, with a surprising lack of tact, advised the Queen on which of her bedchamber ladies she should and should not trust.[31] The best position his friends could secure for him was the Deanery of St Patrick's;[32] this was not in the Queen's gift, and Anne, who could be a bitter enemy, made it clear that Swift would not have received the preferment if she could have prevented it.[33] With the return of the Whigs, Swift's best move was to leave England and he returned to Ireland in disappointment, a virtual exile, to live "like a rat in a hole".[34] Llist of deans of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, including Jonathan Swift Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works: Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), earning him the status of an Irish patriot.[35] This new role was unwelcome to the Government, which made clumsy attempts to silence him. His printer, Edward Waters, was convicted of seditious libel in 1720, but four years later a grand jury refused to find that the Drapier's Letters (which, though written under a pseudonym, were universally known to be Swift's work) were seditious.[36] Swift responded with an attack on the Irish judiciary almost unparalleled in its ferocity, his principal target being the "vile and profligate villain" William Whitshed, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.[37] Also during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, better known as Gulliver's Travels. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode in which the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories' illegal peace treaty; having done a good thing in an unfortunate manner. In 1726 he paid a long-deferred visit to London,[38] taking with him the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. During his visit, he stayed with his old friends Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot and John Gay, who helped him arrange for the anonymous publication of his book. First published in November 1726, it was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year and another in early 1727. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727, and pirated copies were printed in Ireland. Swift returned to England one more time in 1727, and stayed once again with Alexander Pope. The visit was cut short when Swift received word that Esther Johnson was dying, and rushed back home to be with her.[38] On 28 January 1728, Johnson died; Swift had prayed at her bedside, even composing prayers for her comfort. Swift could not bear to be present at the end, but on the night of her death he began to write his The Death of Mrs Johnson. He was too ill to attend the funeral at St Patrick's.[38] Many years later, a lock of hair, assumed to be Johnson's, was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair". Death[edit] Bust in St Patrick's Cathedral Death became a frequent feature of Swift's life from this point. In 1731 he wrote Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, his own obituary, published in 1739. In 1732, his good friend and collaborator John Gay died. In 1735, John Arbuthnot, another friend from his days in London, died. In 1738 Swift began to show signs of illness, and in 1742 he may have suffered a stroke, losing the ability to speak and realising his worst fears of becoming mentally disabled. ("I shall be like that tree", he once said, "I shall die at the top.")[39] He became increasingly quarrelsome, and long-standing friendships, like that with Thomas Sheridan, ended without sufficient cause. To protect him from unscrupulous hangers-ons, who had begun to prey on the great man, his closest companions had him declared of "unsound mind and memory". However, it was long believed by many that Swift was actually insane at this point. In his book Literature and Western Man, author J. B. Priestley even cites the final chapters of Gulliver's Travels as proof of Swift's approaching "insanity". Bewley attributes his decline to 'terminal dementia'.[19] In part VIII of his series, The Story of Civilization, Will Durant describes the final years of Swift's life as such: "Definite symptoms of madness appeared in 1738. In 1741, guardians were appointed to take care of his affairs and watch lest in his outbursts of violence, he should do himself harm. In 1742, he suffered great pain from the inflammation of his left eye, which swelled to the size of an egg; five attendants had to restrain him from tearing out his eye. He went a whole year without uttering a word."[40] In 1744, Alexander Pope died. Then on 19 October 1745, Swift, at nearly 78, died.[41] After being laid out in public view for the people of Dublin to pay their last respects, he was buried in his own cathedral by Esther Johnson's side, in accordance with his wishes. The bulk of his fortune (£12,000) was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill, originally known as St Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles, which opened in 1757, and which still exists as a psychiatric hospital.[41] Epitaph in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin near his burial site (Text extracted from the introduction to The Journal to Stella by George A. Aitken and from other sources). Jonathan Swift wrote his own epitaph: Hic depositum est Corpus IONATHAN SWIFT S.T.D. Hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Decani, Ubi sæva Indignatio Ulterius Cor lacerare nequit. Abi Viator Et imitare, si poteris, Strenuum pro virili Libertatis Vindicatorem. Obiit 19º Die Mensis Octobris A.D. 1745 Anno Ætatis 78º. Here is laid the Body of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Dean of this Cathedral Church, where fierce Indignation can no longer injure the Heart. Go forth, Voyager, and copy, if you can, this vigorous (to the best of his ability) Champion of Liberty. He died on the 19th Day of the Month of October, A.D. 1745, in the 78th Year of his Age. W. B. Yeats poetically translated it from the Latin as: Swift has sailed into his rest; Savage indignation there Cannot lacerate his breast. Imitate him if you dare, World-besotted traveller; he Served human liberty. Swift, Stella and Vanessa – an alternative view[edit] British politician Michael Foot was a great admirer of Swift and wrote about him extensively. In Debts of Honour[42] he cites with approbation a theory propounded by Denis Johnston that offers an explanation of Swift's behaviour towards Stella and Vanessa. Pointing to contradictions in the received information about Swift's origins and parentage, Johnston postulates that Swift's real father was Sir William Temple's father, Sir John Temple who was Master of the Rolls in Dublin at the time. It is widely thought that Stella was Sir William Temple's illegitimate daughter. So Swift was Sir William's brother and Stella's uncle. Marriage or close relations between Swift and Stella would therefore have been incest, an unthinkable prospect. It follows that Swift could not have married Vanessa either without Stella appearing to be a cast-off mistress, which he would not contemplate. Johnston's theory is expounded fully in his book In Search of Swift.[43] He is also cited in the Dictionary of Irish Biography[44] and the theory is presented without attribution in the Concise Cambridge History of English Literature.[45] Works[edit] Swift was a prolific writer. The collection of his prose works (Herbert Davis, ed. Basil Blackwell, 1965–) comprises fourteen volumes. A 1983 edition of his complete poetry (Pat Rodges, ed. Penguin, 1983) is 953 pages long. One edition of his correspondence (David Woolley, ed. P. Lang, 1999) fills three volumes. Major prose works[edit] This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Jonathan Swift" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Jonathan Swift at the Deanery of St Patrick's, illus. from 1905 Temple Scott edition of Works Swift's first major prose work, A Tale of a Tub, demonstrates many of the themes and stylistic techniques he would employ in his later work. It is at once wildly playful and funny while being pointed and harshly critical of its targets. In its main thread, the Tale recounts the exploits of three sons, representing the main threads of Christianity, who receive a bequest from their father of a coat each, with the added instructions to make no alterations whatsoever. However, the sons soon find that their coats have fallen out of current fashion, and begin to look for loopholes in their father's will that will let them make the needed alterations. As each finds his own means of getting around their father's admonition, they struggle with each other for power and dominance. Inserted into this story, in alternating chapters, the narrator includes a series of whimsical "digressions" on various subjects. In 1690, Sir William Temple, Swift's patron, published An Essay upon Ancient and Modern Learning a defence of classical writing (see Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns), holding up the Epistles of Phalaris as an example. William Wotton responded to Temple with Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694), showing that the Epistles were a later forgery. A response by the supporters of the Ancients was then made by Charles Boyle (later the 4th Earl of Orrery and father of Swift's first biographer). A further retort on the Modern side came from Richard Bentley, one of the pre-eminent scholars of the day, in his essay Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris (1699). The final words on the topic belong to Swift in his Battle of the Books (1697, published 1704) in which he makes a humorous defence on behalf of Temple and the cause of the Ancients. The title page to Swift's 1735 Works, depicting the author in the Dean's chair, receiving the thanks of Ireland. The Horatian motto reads, Exegi Monumentum Ære perennius, "I have completed a monument more lasting than brass." The 'brass' is a pun, for William Wood's halfpennies (alloyed with brass) lie scattered at his feet. Cherubim award Swift a poet's laurel. In 1708, a cobbler named John Partridge published a popular almanac of astrological predictions. Because Partridge falsely determined the deaths of several church officials, Swift attacked Partridge in Predictions for the Ensuing Year by Isaac Bickerstaff, a parody predicting that Partridge would die on 29 March. Swift followed up with a pamphlet issued on 30 March claiming that Partridge had in fact died, which was widely believed despite Partridge's statements to the contrary. According to other sources,[citation needed] Richard Steele used the persona of Isaac Bickerstaff, and was the one who wrote about the "death" of John Partridge and published it in The Spectator, not Jonathan Swift. The Drapier's Letters (1724) was a series of pamphlets against the monopoly granted by the English government to William Wood to mint copper coinage for Ireland. It was widely believed that Wood would need to flood Ireland with debased coinage in order to make a profit. In these "letters" Swift posed as a shopkeeper—a draper—to criticise the plan. Swift's writing was so effective in undermining opinion in the project that a reward was offered by the government to anyone disclosing the true identity of the author. Though hardly a secret (on returning to Dublin after one of his trips to England, Swift was greeted with a banner, "Welcome Home, Drapier") no one turned Swift in, although there was an unsuccessful attempt to prosecute the publisher John Harding.[46] Thanks to the general outcry against the coinage, Wood's patent was rescinded in September 1725 and the coins were kept out of circulation.[47] In "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift" (1739) Swift recalled this as one of his best achievements. Gulliver's Travels, a large portion of which Swift wrote at Woodbrook House in County Laois, was published in 1726. It is regarded as his masterpiece. As with his other writings, the Travels was published under a pseudonym, the fictional Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon and later a sea captain. Some of the correspondence between printer Benj. Motte and Gulliver's also-fictional cousin negotiating the book's publication has survived. Though it has often been mistakenly thought of and published in bowdlerised form as a children's book, it is a great and sophisticated satire of human nature based on Swift's experience of his times. Gulliver's Travels is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic looking-glass, often criticised for its apparent misanthropy. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has adequately characterised human nature and society. Each of the four books—recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands—has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought. In 1729, Swift's 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 was published in Dublin by Sarah Harding.[48] It is a satire in which the narrator, with intentionally grotesque arguments, recommends that Ireland's poor escape their poverty by selling their children as food to the rich: "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food ..." Following the satirical form, he introduces the reforms he is actually suggesting by deriding them: Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients ... taxing our absentees ... using [nothing] except what is of our own growth and manufacture ... rejecting ... foreign luxury ... introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance ... learning to love our country ... quitting our animosities and factions ... teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. ... Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.[49] Essays, tracts, pamphlets, periodicals[edit] "A Meditation upon a Broom-stick" (1703–10) "A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind" (1707–11)[50] The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers (1708–09) "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity" (1708–11): Full text The Intelligencer (with Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788)): Text: Project Gutenberg The Examiner (1710): Texts: Project Gutenberg "A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue" (1712): Full texts: Jack Lynch, U of Virginia[permanent dead link] "On the Conduct of the Allies" (1711) "Hints Toward an Essay on Conversation" (1713): Full text: Bartleby.com "The Publick Spirit of the Whigs, set forth in their generous encouragement of the author of the crisis" (1714) "A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Entered into Holy Orders" (1720) "A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet" (1721): Full text: Bartleby.com Drapier's Letters (1724, 1725): Full text: Project Gutenberg "Bon Mots de Stella" (1726): a curiously irrelevant appendix to "Gulliver's Travels" "A Modest Proposal", perhaps the most notable satire in English, suggesting that the Irish should engage in cannibalism. (Written in 1729) "An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen" "A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding": Full text: Bartleby.com "A modest address to the wicked authors of the present age. Particularly the authors of Christianity not founded on argument, and of The resurrection of Jesus considered" (1743–45?) Poems[edit] An 1850 illustration of Swift "Ode to the Athenian Society", Swift's first publication, printed in The Athenian Mercury in the supplement of Feb 14, 1691. Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Texts at Project Gutenberg: Volume One, Volume Two "Baucis and Philemon" (1706–09): Full text: Munseys "A Description of the Morning" (1709): Full annotated text: U of Toronto; Another text: U of Virginia[permanent dead link] "A Description of a City Shower" (1710): Full text: U of Virginia[permanent dead link] "Cadenus and Vanessa" (1713): Full text: Munseys "Phillis, or, the Progress of Love" (1719): Full text: theotherpages.org Stella's birthday poems: 1719. Full annotated text: U of Toronto 1720. Full text: U of Virginia[permanent dead link] 1727. Full text: U of Toronto "The Progress of Beauty" (1719–20): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Progress of Poetry" (1720): Full text: theotherpages.org "A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General" (1722): Full text: U of Toronto "To Quilca, a Country House not in Good Repair" (1725): Full text: U of Toronto "Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers" (1726): Full text: U of Toronto "The Furniture of a Woman's Mind" (1727) "On a Very Old Glass" (1728): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "A Pastoral Dialogue" (1729): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "The Grand Question debated Whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Barrack or a Malt House" (1729): Full text: Gosford.co.uk "On Stephen Duck, the Thresher and Favourite Poet" (1730): Full text: U of Toronto "Death and Daphne" (1730): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Place of the Damn'd" (1731): Full text at the Wayback Machine (archived 27 October 2009) "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch; Another text: U of Virginia[permanent dead link] "Strephon and Chloe" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch; Another text: U of Virginia Archived 30 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine "Helter Skelter" (1731): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "Cassinus and Peter: A Tragical Elegy" (1731): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch "The Day of Judgment" (1731): Full text "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D." (1731–32): Full annotated texts: Jack Lynch, U of Toronto; Non-annotated text:: U of Virginia[permanent dead link] "An Epistle to a Lady" (1732): Full text: OurCivilisation.com "The Beasts' Confession to the Priest" (1732): Full annotated text: U of Toronto "The Lady's Dressing Room" (1732): Full annotated text: Jack Lynch "On Poetry: A Rhapsody" (1733)[51] "The Puppet Show" "The Logicians Refuted" Correspondence, personal writings[edit] "When I Come to Be Old" – Swift's resolutions. (1699) A Journal to Stella (1710–13): Full text (presented as daily entries): The Journal to Stella; Extracts: OurCivilisation.com; Letters: Selected Letters To Oxford and Pope: OurCivilisation.com The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Edited by David Woolley. In four volumes, plus index volume. Frankfurt am Main; New York : P. Lang, c. 1999 – c. 2007. Sermons, prayers[edit] Three Sermons and Three Prayers. Full text: U of Adelaide, Project Gutenberg Three Sermons: I. on mutual subjection. II. on conscience. III. on the Trinity. Text: Project Gutenberg Writings on Religion and the Church. Text at Project Gutenberg: Volume One, Volume Two "The First He Wrote Oct. 17, 1727." Full text: Worldwideschool.org "The Second Prayer Was Written Nov. 6, 1727." Full text: Worldwideschool.org Miscellany[edit] Directions to Servants (1731): Full text: Jonathon Swift Archive[permanent dead link] A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738) "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Full text: U of Adelaide Archived 14 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine Historical Writings: Project Gutenberg Swift quotes at Bartleby: Bartleby.com – 59 quotations, with notes The Benefit of Farting Explained, published under the pseudonym Don Fartinando Puff-Indorst, Professor of Bumbast in the University of Crackow.[52] Legacy[edit] Literary[edit] Swift's death mask John Ruskin named him as one of the three people in history who were the most influential for him.[53] George Orwell named him as one of the writers he most admired, despite disagreeing with him on almost every moral and political issue.[54] Modernist poet Edith Sitwell wrote a fictional biography of Swift, titled I Live Under a Black Sun and published in 1937.[55] A. L. Rowse wrote a biography of Swift,[56] essays on his works,[57][58] and edited the Pan Books edition of Gulliver's Travels.[59] Literary scholar Frank Stier Goodwin wrote a full biography of Swift: Jonathan Swift – Giant in Chains, issued by Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York (1940, 450pp, with Bibliography). In 1982, Soviet playwright Grigory Gorin wrote a theatrical fantasy called The House That Swift Built based on the last years of Jonathan Swift's life and episodes of his works.[60] The play was filmed by director Mark Zakharov in the 1984 two-part television movie of the same name. Jake Arnott features him in his 2017 novel The Fatal Tree.[61] A 2017 analysis of library holdings data revealed that Swift is the most popular Irish author, and that Gulliver’s Travels is the most widely held work of Irish literature in libraries globally.[62] The first woman to write a biography of Swift was Sophie Shilleto Smith, who published Dean Swift in 1910.[63][64] Eponymous places[edit] Swift crater, a crater on Mars's moon Deimos, is named after Jonathan Swift, who predicted the existence of the moons of Mars.[65] In honour of Swift's long-time residence in Trim, there are several monuments in the town marking his legacy. Most notable is Swift's Street, named after him. Trim also holds a recurring festival in honour of Swift, called the Trim Swift Festival. In 2020, the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has not been held since.[66] See also[edit] Poetry portal Poor Richard's Almanack Sweetness and light Founding Fathers of India Notes[edit] ^ a b Jonathan Swift at the Encyclopædia Britannica ^ "Swift", Online literature, archived from the original on 3 August 2019, retrieved 17 December 2011 ^ "What higher accolade can a reviewer pay to a contemporary satirist than to call his or her work Swiftian Archived 23 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine?" Frank Boyle, "Johnathan Swift", Ch 11 in A Companion to Satire: Ancient and Modern (2008), edited by Ruben Quintero, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0470657952. ^ Stephen, Leslie (1898). "Swift, Jonathan" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. pp. 204–227. ^ Stubbs, John (2016). Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel. New York: WW Norton & Co. pp. 25–26. ^ Stubbs (2016), p. 43. ^ Degategno, Paul J.; Jay Stubblefield, R. (2014). Jonathan Swift. Infobase. ISBN 978-1438108513. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2020. ^ "Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World". The Barnes & Noble Review. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 16 March 2014. ^ Stubbs (2016), p. 54. ^ a b Stephen DNB, p. 205. ^ Stubbs (2016), pp. 58–63. ^ Stubbs (2016), pp. 73–74. ^ Hourican, Bridget (2002). "Thomas Pooley". Royal Irish Academy – Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 3 November 2020. ^ "Alumni Dublinenses Supplement p. 116: a register of the students, graduates, professors and provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593–1860) Burtchaell, G.D/Sadlier, T.U: Dublin, Alex Thom and Co., 1935. ^ Stubbs (2016), pp. 86–90. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 206. ^ a b c d Stephen DNB, p. 207. ^ a b Stephen DNB, p. 208. ^ a b Bewley, Thomas H., "The health of Jonathan Swift", Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 1998;91:602–605. ^ "Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the prelates Volume 3" Cotton, H. p. 266: Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1848–1878. ^ Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (23 September 2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. ref:odnb/55435. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/55435. Retrieved 19 January 2023. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) ^ "Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the prelates Volume 2" Cotton, H. p. 165: Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1848–1878. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 209. ^ Stephen DNB, pp. 215–217. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 212. ^ a b c d Fox, Christopher (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift. Cambridge University Press. pp. 36–39. ^ a b Cody, David. "Jonathan Swift's Political Beliefs". Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018. ^ Stephen DNB, pp. 212–215. ^ Stephen DNB, pp. 215–216. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 216. ^ Gregg, Edward (1980). Queen Anne. Yale University Press. pp. 352–353. ^ "Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the prelates Volume 2" Cotton, H. pp. 104–105: Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1848–1878. ^ Gregg (1980), p. 353. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 215. ^ Stephen DNB, pp. 217–218. ^ Sir Walter Scott. Life of Jonathan Swift, vol. 1, Edinburgh 1814, pp. 281–282. ^ Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, London John Murray, vol. 2 pp. 103–105. ^ a b c Stephen DNB, p. 219. ^ Stephen DNB, p. 221. ^ "The Story of Civilization", vol. 8., 362. ^ a b Stephen DNB, p. 222. ^ Foot, Michael (1981) Debts of Honour. Harper & Row, New York, p. 219. ^ Johnston, Denis (1959) In Search of Swift Hodges Figgis, Dublin ^ Dictionary of Irish Biography ^ Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 1970, p. 387. ^ Elrington Ball. The Judges in Ireland, vol. 2 pp. 103–105. ^ Baltes, Sabine (2003). The Pamphlet Controversy about Wood's Halfpence (1722–25) and the Tradition of Irish Constitutional Nationalism. Peter Lang GmbH. p. 273. ^ Traynor, Jessica. "Irish v English prizefighters: eye-gouging, kicking and sword fighting". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 9 January 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2020. ^ Swift, Jonathan (2015). A Modest Proposal. London: Penguin. p. 29. ISBN 978-0141398181. ^ This work is often wrongly referred to as "A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind". ^ Rudd, Niall (Summer 2006). "Swift's 'On Poetry: A Rhapsody'". Hermathena. 180 (180): 105–120. JSTOR 23041663 – via JSTOR. ^ Jonathan, Swift (2007). The Benefit of Farting. Oneworld Classics. ISBN 9781847490315. ^ In the preface of the 1871 edition of Sesame and Lilies Ruskin mentions three figures from literary history with whom he feels an affinity: Guido Guinicelli, Marmontel and Dean Swift; see John Ruskin, Sesame and lilies: three lectures Archived 11 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Smith, Elder, & Co., 1871, p. xxviii. ^ "Politics vs. Literature: an examination of Gulliver's Travels" ^ Gabriele Griffin (2003). Who's Who in Lesbian and Gay Writing. Routledge. p. 244. ISBN 978-1134722099. Archived from the original on 15 February 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2016. ^ Rowse, A. L. (1975). Jonathan Swift Major Prophet. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01141-9. ^ Rowse, A. L. (1944). "XXVI: Jonathan Swift". The English Spirit: Essays in History and Literature. London: Macmillan. pp. 182–192. ^ Rowse, A. L. (1970). "Swift as Poet". In A. Norman Jeffares (ed.). Swift. Modern Judgements. Nashville and London: Aurora Publishers Incorporated. pp. 135–142. ISBN 0-87695-092-6. ^ Swift, Jonathan (1977). A. L. Rowse (ed.). Gulliver's Travels. London and Sydney: Pan Books. ISBN 0-330-25190-2. ^ Justin Hayford (12 January 2006). "The House That Swift Built". Performing Arts Review. Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on 9 February 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020. ^ Arnott, Jake (2017). The Fatal Tree. Sceptre. ISBN 978-1473637740. ^ "What is the most popular Irish book?". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017. ^ Barnett, Louise (2007). Jonathan Swift in the Company of Women. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-19-518866-0. ^ Smith, Sophie Shilleto. Dean Swift. Methuen & Company, 1910. ^ MathPages – Galileo's Anagrams and the Moons of Mars Archived 12 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine. ^ "Home - The Jonathan Swift Festival". The Jonathan Swift Festival. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024. References[edit] Damrosch, Leo (2013). Jonathan Swift : His Life and His World. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16499-2.. Includes almost 100 illustrations. Delany, Patrick (1754). Observations Upon Lord Orrery's Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift. London: W. Reeve. OL 25612897M. Fox, Christopher, ed. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00283-7. Ehrenpreis, Irvin (1958). The Personality of Jonathan Swift. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-416-60310-1.. — (1962). Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age. Vol. I: Mr. Swift and his Contemporaries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-85830-1. — (1967). Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age. Vol. II: Dr. Swift. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-85832-8. — (1983). Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age. Vol. III: Dean Swift. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-85835-2. Nokes, David (1985). Jonathan Swift, a Hypocrite Reversed: A Critical Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-812834-2. Orrery, John Boyle, Earl of (1752) [1751]. Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (third, corrected ed.). London: Printed for A. Millar. OL 25612886M.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Stephen, Leslie (1882). Swift. English Men of Letters. New York: Harper & Brothers. OL 15812247W. Noted biographer succinctly critiques (pp. v–vii) biographical works by Lord Orrery, Patrick Delany, Deane Swift, John Hawkesworth, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Sheridan, Walter Scott, William Monck Mason, John Forester, John Barrett, and W.R. Wilde. Stephen, Leslie (1898). "Swift, Jonathan" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 55. pp. 204–227. Wilde, W. R. (1849). The Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. OL 23288983M. Samuel Johnson's "Life of Swift": JaffeBros Archived 7 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine. From his Lives of the Poets. William Makepeace Thackeray's influential vitriolic biography: JaffeBros Archived 7 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine. From his English Humourists of The Eighteenth Century. Sir Walter Scott Memoirs of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin . Paris: A. and W. Galignani, 1826. Whibley, Charles (1917). Jonathan Swift: the Leslie Stephen lecture delivered before the University of Cambridge on 26 May 1917. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. External links[edit] “Gulliver's Travels’ ‘nonsense’ language is based on Hebrew, claims scholar” by Alison Flood, The Guardian, 17 August 2015. Jonathan Swift at Wikipedia's sister projects Media from CommonsQuotations from WikiquoteTexts from Wikisource Library resources about Jonathan Swift Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Jonathan Swift at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA) "Swift, Jonathan" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 224–231. BBC audio file "Swift's A modest Proposal". BBC discussion. In our time. Jonathan Swift at the National Portrait Gallery, London Swift, Jonathan (1667–1745) Dean of St Patrick's Dublin Satirist at the National Archives. Online works Works by Jonathan Swift in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Jonathan Swift at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Jonathan Swift at Internet Archive Works by Jonathan Swift at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by Jonathan Swift at Open Library Works by Jonathan Swift at The Online Books Page vteJonathan SwiftSermons Sermons of Jonathan Swift Satires Meditation Upon a Broomstick (1701) A Tale of a Tub (1704) The Battle of the Books (1704) Gulliver's Travels (1726–1727, 1735) A Modest Proposal (1729) Essays Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting (1706) An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1708) The Conduct of the Allies (1711) Drapier's Letters (1724/25) Directions to Servants (published 1745) Miscellany Isaac Bickerstaff writings (1708) The Examiner newspaper (1710–1714) "Cadenus and Vanessa" (1713 poem) "The Lady's Dressing Room" (1732 poem) A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation (1738) A Journal to Stella (published posthumously – 1766) Related Esther Johnson Esther Vanhomrigh Scriblerus Club Swift crater The House That Swift Built (1982 film) "The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to Write a Poem Call'd the Lady's Dressing Room" (1734 poem) vteJonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726)Characters Lemuel Gulliver Glumdalclitch Locations Balnibarbi Brobdingnag Glubbdubdrib Japan Lagado Laputa Lilliput and Blefuscu Lindalino Luggnagg Other characters The Engine Houyhnhnm Struldbrugg Yahoo Films Gulliver's Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants (1902) Gulliver en el país de los Gigantes (1903) Gulliver's Travels (1924) Gulliver Mickey (1934) The New Gulliver (1935) Gulliver's Travels (1939) The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960) Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (1965) Gulliver's Travels (1977) Jajantaram Mamantaram (2003) Gulliver's Travels (2010) Gulliver Returns (2021) Television The Mind Robber (1968) The Adventures of Gulliver (1968–1969) Saban's Gulliver's Travels (1992–1993) Gulliver's Travels (1996) Related Cultural influence of Gulliver's Travels vteIrish poetryTopics Irish poetry Aisling Dán Díreach Metrical Dindshenchas Irish syllabic poetry Kildare Poems Filí Chief Ollam of Ireland Irish bardic poetry Contention of the bards Irish Literary Revival Weaver Poets An Gúm Táin Bó Cúailnge PoetsBardic Mael Ísu Ua Brolcháin Muircheartach Ó Cobhthaigh Gilla Mo Dutu Úa Caiside Baothghalach Mór Mac Aodhagáin Giolla Brighde Mac Con Midhe Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh Flann mac Lonáin Donnchadh Mór Ó Dálaigh Lochlann Óg Ó Dálaigh Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh Mathghamhain Ó hIfearnáin Cormac Mac Con Midhe Eoghan Carrach Ó Siadhail Fear Feasa Ó'n Cháinte Tadhg Olltach Ó an Cháinte Eochaidh Ó hÉoghusa Proinsias Ó Doibhlin Tarlach Rua Mac Dónaill Gilla Cómáin mac Gilla Samthainde Tadhg Dall Ó hÚigínn Niníne Éces Colmán of Cloyne Cináed ua hArtacáin Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh Cearbhall Óg Ó Dálaigh Máeleoin Bódur Ó Maolconaire Diarmaid Mac an Bhaird Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh Dallán Forgaill Óengus of Tallaght Sedulius Scottus Saint Dungal Maol Sheachluinn na n-Uirsgéal Ó hÚigínn Philip Ó Duibhgeannain 15th/16th century Tomás Ó Cobhthaigh 17th century Dáibhí Ó Bruadair Piaras Feiritéar Donnchadh Mac an Caoilfhiaclaigh Aogán Ó Rathaille 18th century Aogán Ó Rathaille Brian Merriman Jonathan Swift Oliver Goldsmith John Hewitt 19th century Thomas Moore Charles Gavan Duffy James Clarence Mangan Samuel Ferguson William Allingham Douglas Hyde James Henry Antoine Ó Raifteiri Aeneas Coffey Robert Dwyer Joyce Thomas Davis Speranza Katharine Tynan Edward Walsh Oscar Wilde 20th century James Joyce Patrick Pearse Joseph Plunkett Thomas MacDonagh Francis Ledwidge Padraic Colum F. R. Higgins Austin Clarke Samuel Beckett Brian Coffey Denis Devlin Thomas MacGreevy Blanaid Salkeld Mary Devenport O'Neill Patrick Kavanagh John Hewitt Louis MacNeice Máirtín Ó Direáin Seán Ó Ríordáin Máire Mhac an tSaoi Michael Hartnett Gabriel Rosenstock Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill Micheál Mac Liammóir Robert Greacen Roy McFadden Padraic Fiacc John Montague Michael Longley Derek Mahon Seamus Heaney Paul Muldoon Thomas Kinsella Michael Smith Trevor Joyce Geoffrey Squires Augustus Young Randolph Healy John Jordan Paul Durcan Basil Payne Eoghan Ó Tuairisc Patrick Galvin Cathal Ó Searcaigh Bobby Sands Nora Tynan O'Mahony Rita Ann Higgins Eavan Boland Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin Medbh McGuckian Paula Meehan Dennis O'Driscoll Seán Dunne Anthony Cronin W. F. Marshall W. B. Yeats 21st century Thomas McCarthy John Ennis Pat Boran Mairéad Byrne Ciarán Carson Patrick Chapman Harry Clifton Tony Curtis Pádraig J. 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A MODEST PROPOSAL

"VIctorian Children 1880s" by East Lothian Museums is licensed under CC by-NC-SA 2.0.

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.

I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets. As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of 2s., which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children,alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout. I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds. I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young laborers, they are now in as hopeful a condition; they cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor, they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.

I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.

Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.

Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old and upward, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a-piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, The constant breeders, beside the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating: and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef, the propagation of swine's flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well-grown, fat, yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a lord mayor's feast or any other public entertainment. But this and many others I omit, being studious of brevity.

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth.

Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.

But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points.

First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs.

And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and children who are beggars in effect: I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

Current Page: 1

GRADE:11

Additional Information:

Rating: Words in the Passage: 1540 Unique Words: 1,087 Sentences: 67
Noun: 798 Conjunction: 425 Adverb: 198 Interjection: 4
Adjective: 251 Pronoun: 264 Verb: 533 Preposition: 465
Letter Count: 15,343 Sentiment: Positive Tone: Neutral (Slightly Formal) Difficult Words: 709
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