Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and satirist.

Early Life

Irish author and satirist Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 30, 1667. His father, an attorney, also named Jonathan Swift, died suddenly, leaving his wife, baby daughter, and an unborn son to the care of his brothers. Without steady income, his mother was unable to provide for her newborn. Moreover, Swift was a sickly child. It was later discovered that he suffered from Meniere's Disease, a condition of the inner ear that leaves the afflicted nauseous and hard of hearing. In an effort to give her son the best upbringing possible, Swift's mother gave him over to Godwin Swift, her late husband's brother and a member of the respected professional attorney and judges group Gray's Inn.

Godwin Swift enrolled his nephew in the Kilkenny Grammar School (1674–1682), which was perhaps the best school in Ireland at the time. Swift's transition from a life of poverty to a wealthy private school setting proved challenging. He did, however, make a fast friend in William Congreve, the future poet and playwright.

At age 14, Swift began his undergraduate studies at Trinity College in Dublin.

In 1686, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, and went on to get a master's.

At that time The king of Ireland, England and Scotland was soon to be overthrown. What became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688 inspired Swift to move to England and start anew.

His mother found a secretary position for him under the revered English statesman, Sir William Temple.

For 10 years, Swift worked in Surrey's Moor Park and acted as an assistant to Temple, helping him with political tasks, and also in the researching and publishing of his own essays and memoirs. Temple was impressed by Swift's abilities and after a time, entrusted him with sensitive and important tasks.

Swift came to intellectual maturity at Moor Park, with Temple’s rich library at his disposal.

During his Moor Park years, Swift met the daughter of Temple's housekeeper, a girl just 8 years old named Esther Johnson.

When they first met, she was 15 years Swift's junior, but despite the age gap, they would become lovers for the rest of their lives.

When she was a child, he acted as her mentor and tutor, and gave her the nickname "Stella." When she was of age, they maintained a close relationship, which lasted until Johnson's death. It was rumored that they married in 1716, and that Swift kept of lock of Johnson's hair in his possession at all times.

Writings

During his decade of work for Temple, Swift returned to Ireland twice. On a trip in 1695, he took all necessary requirements to become a priest in the Anglican tradition.

Under Temple's influence, he also began to write, first short essays and then a manuscript for a later book.

In 1699, Temple died. Swift completed the task of editing and publishing his memoirs – not without disputes by several of Temple's family members – and then, accepted a less prominent post as secretary and chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley.

After making the long journey to the Earl's estate, Swift was informed the position had been filled. Discouraged but resourceful, he found work ministering to a pea-sized congregation just 20 miles outside of Dublin.

For the next 10 years, he gardened, preached and worked on the house provided to him by the church. He also returned to writing. His first political pamphlet was titled A Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome.

In 1704, Swift anonymously released A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books.

Tub, although widely popular with the masses, was strongly disapproved of by the Church of England. It criticized religion, but Swift meant it as a parody of pride.

Nonetheless, his writings earned him a reputation in London, and when the Tories came into power in 1710, they asked him to become editor of the Examiner, their official paper.

He then began preparing a pamphlet in support of the Tory drive for peace with France. This, The Conduct of the Allies, appeared on Nov. 27, 1711, some weeks before the motion in favour of a peace was finally carried in Parliament.

Swift laid out his private thoughts and feelings in a stream of letters to his beloved Stella. They would later be published as The Journal to Stella.

Later Years

With the death of Queen Anne in August 1714 and the accession of George I, the Tories were a ruined party, and Swift’s career in England was at an end. Swift returned to Ireland.

In 1713, he took the post of dean at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

Of his Irish writings, the “Drapier’s Letters” (1724–25) and “A Modest Proposal” are the best known.

The first is a series of letters attacking the English government for its scheme to supply Ireland with copper halfpence and farthings.

“A Modest Proposal” is a grimly ironic letter of advice in which a public-spirited citizen suggests that Ireland’s overpopulation and poor economic conditions could be alleviated if the babies of poor Irish parents were sold as delicacies to be eaten by the rich. Both were published anonymously.

Although he was still in contact with Esther Johnson, it is documented that he engaged in a romantic relationship with Esther Vanhomrigh (whom he called Vanessa). His courtship with her inspired his long and storied poem, "Cadenus and Vanessa."

He is also rumored to have had a relationship with the celebrated beauty Anne Long.

While leading his congregation at St. Patrick's, Swift began to write what would become his best-known work.

In 1726, at last finished with the manuscript, he traveled to London and benefited from the help of several friends, who anonymously published it as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in 4 parts, also known, more simply, as Gulliver's Travels.

In each of its four books the hero, Lemuel Gulliver, embarks on a voyage; but shipwreck or some other hazard usually casts him up on a strange land.

The book was an immediate success. It has succeeded in entertaining (and intriguing) all classes of readers.

Book I takes him to Lilliput, where he wakes to find himself the giant prisoner of the six-inch-high arrogant, self-important Lilliputians.

Book II takes Gulliver to Brobdingnag, where the inhabitants are giants. He is cared for kindly by a nine-year-old girl, but his tiny size exposes him to dangers, such as getting his head caught in a baby’s mouth. Picked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea, he manages to return home.

In Book III Gulliver visits the floating island of Laputa, whose inhabitants are impractical pedants and intellectuals. He visits the Academy of Lagado (a travesty of England’s Royal Society), where he finds its clever minds engaged in such studies as reducing human excrement to the original food. In Luggnagg he meets the Struldbruggs, a race of immortals.

Book IV takes Gulliver to the Utopian land of grave, rational, and virtuous horses - Houyhnhnms.

There is also another race on the island, uneasily tolerated and used for menial services by the horses. These are physically disgusting Yahoos. Although Gulliver pretends at first not to recognize them, he has to at last to admit the Yahoos are human beings. He finds perfect happiness with the Houyhnhnms, but as he is only a more advanced Yahoo, he is rejected by them in general assembly and is returned to England, where he finds himself no longer able to tolerate the society of his fellow human beings.

Gulliver's Travels was completed at a time when he was close to the poet Alexander Pope and the poet and dramatist John Gay.

Not long after the celebration of this work, Swift's longtime love, Esther Johnson, fell ill. She died in January 1728. Her life's end moved Swift to write The Death of Mrs. Johnson. Shortly after her death, other Swift's friends also died, including John Gay and John Arbuthnot. Swift, always supported by the people around him, was now quite troubled.

In 1742, Swift suffered from a stroke and lost the ability to speak.

On October 19, 1745, Jonathan Swift died.

He was laid to rest next to Esther Johnson inside Dublin's St. Patrick's Cathedral.

On his memorial tablet is an epitaph of his own composition, which says that he lies “where savage indignation can no longer tear his heart.”