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come was between thirty and forty pounds a year: yet he still continued for some years to serve his old master as his butler.

Swift was known from this time by the appellation of The Dean. He was honoured by the populace, as the champion, patron, and instructor of Ireland; and gained such power as, considered both in its extent and duration, scarcely any man has ever enjoyed without greater wealth or higher station.

He was from this important year the oracle of the traders, and the idol of the rabble, and by consequence was feared and courted by all to whom the kindness of the traders or the populace was necessary. The Drapier was a sign; the Drapier was a health; and which way soever the eye or the ear was turned, some tokens were found of the nation's gratitude to the Drapier.

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The benefit was indeed great; he had rescued Ireland from a very oppressive and predatory invasion; and the popularity which he had gained he was diligent to keep, by

1 Swift's popularity, following so soon on the very unpromising way in which he was at first received in Ireland, is a notable instance of the readiness of the Irish to accept and to grow enthusiastic over Protestant leaders. Ireland he looked on as a place of exile; the original inhabitants he calls "the savage Irish," between whom and the (English) gentry he recognizes an impassable barrier. In his Address to the People of Ireland, he speaks of the Papists in the third person; and he never expresses, though he may have felt, a wish for Catholic Emancipation. Yet, when forced" to commence Irishman for life," he insisted on the rights of the Irish Parliament; and in the matter of Wood's halfpence he "succeeded in establishing those rights."-H. S. FAGAN.

2 It seems, on the contrary, to have been really a measure of public convenience, offensive only, as so many Irish measures have been, in the way in which it was enforced. Ireland was already paying a large pension to the so-called Duchess of Munster (Lady Kendal), and that the profits of the coinage should be divided between her and Wood was too much even for an Irish (Protestant) Parliament to stomach. It was far less a question whether Wood's coin was debased or not, than whether the English minister could force a patent on Ireland in a way ho would never have attempted in Englaud.—H. S. FAGAN.

appearing forward and zealous on every occasion where the publick interest was supposed to be involved. Nor did he much scruple to boast his influence; for when, upon some attempts to regulate the coin, Archbishop Boulter,' then one of the Justices, accused him of exasperating the people, he exculpated himself by saying, "If I had lifted up my finger, they would have torn you to pieces."

But the pleasure of popularity was soon interrupted by domestic misery. Mrs. Johnson, whose conversation was to him the great softener of the ills of life, began in the year of the Drapier's triumph to decline; and two years afterwards was so wasted with sickness, that her recovery was considered as hopeless.

Swift was then in England, and had been invited by Lord Bolingbroke to pass the winter with him in France; but this call of calamity hastened him to Ireland, where perhaps his presence contributed to restore her to imperfect and tottering health.

He was now so much at ease, that (1727) he returned to England; where he collected three volumes of Miscellanies in conjunction with Pope, who prefixed a querulous and apologetical Preface.

This important year sent likewise into the world "Gulliver's Travels," a production so new and strange,

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1 Dr. Hugh Boulter, Bishop of Bristol, and Dean of Christchurch, Oxford, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh. For a full account of this typical ruler of Ireland for the English, see Craik, pp. 363-366.

2 The first part of these celebrated Travels appeared in 1726, the second early in 1727. See S. S. vol. xi. Scott's Introduction to Gulliver's Travels, and vol. i. pp. 326-346, for an account of their publication.

It is somewhat strange that Johnson has not mentioned in connection with Gulliver's Travels the True History of Lucian, a fictitious journey through imaginary countries, prefixed by an exquisitely ironical introduction on the Art of Writing History, especially as he was a subscriber to Dr. Francklin's fine edition of Lucian's Works, translated from the Greek (2 vols. 4to, Lond. Cadell, 1780), in which Swift's indebtedness to Lucian is mentioned in the preface, vol. i. p. xvii.

that it filled the reader with a mingled emotion of merriment and amazement. It was received with such avidity, that the price of the first edition was raised before the second could be made; it was read by the high and the low, the learned and illiterate. Criticism was for a while lost in wonder; no rules of judgement were applied to a book written in open defiance of truth and regularity. But when distinctions came to be made, the part which gave least pleasure was that which describes the Flying Island, and that which gave the most disgust must be the history of the Houyhnhnms.

While Swift was enjoying the reputation of his new work, the news of the king's death arrived; and he kissed the hands of the new King and Queen three days after their accession.

By the Queen, when she was Princess, he had been treated with some distinction, and was well received by her in her exaltation; but whether she gave hopes which she never took care to satisfy, or he formed expectations which she never meant to raise, the event was, that he always afterwards thought on her with malevolence, and particularly charged her with breaking her promise of some medals. which she engaged to send him.

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I know not whether she had not, in her turn, some reason for complaint. A Letter was sent her, not so much entreating as requiring her patronage of Mrs. Barber, an ingenious Irishwoman, who was then begging subscriptions for her Poems. To this Letter was subscribed the name of Swift, and it has all the appearances of his diction and sentiments; but it was not written in his hand, and had some little improprieties. When he was charged with this Letter, he laid hold of the inaccuracies, and urged the im

1 Swift had in Ireland a number of dependents, who had no other claim than being old, or ill, or poor. Among these were three ladies, who were also learned, Mrs. Lican, Mrs. Grierson, and this Mrs. Barber.

probability of the accusation; but never denied it: he shuffles between cowardice and veracity, and talks big when he says nothing.

He seemed desirous enqugh of recommencing courtier, and endeavoured to gain the kindness of Mrs. Howard, remembering what Mrs. Masham had performed in former times; but his flatteries were, like those of the other wits, unsuccessful; the Lady either wanted power, or had no ambition of poetical immortality.

He was seized not long afterwards by a fit of giddiness, and again heard of the sickness and danger of Mrs. Johnson. He then left the house of Pope, as it seems, with very little ceremony, finding that two sick friends cannot live together; and did not write to him till he found himself at Chester.

He returned to a home of sorrow: poor Stella was sinking into the grave, and, after a languishing decay of about two months, died in her forty-fourth year, on January 28, 1728. How much he wished her life, his papers shew; nor can it be doubted that he dreaded the death of her whom he loved most, aggravated by the consciousness that himself had hastened it.

Beauty and the power of pleasing, the greatest external advantages that woman can desire or possess, were fatal to the unfortunate Stella. The man whom she had the misfortune to love was, as Delany observes, fond of singularity, and desirous to make a mode of happiness for himself, different from the general course of things and order of Providence. From the time of her arrival in Ireland he seems resolved to keep her in his power, and therefore hindered a match sufficiently advantageous, by accumulating unreasonable demands, and prescribing conditions that could not be performed. While she was at her own disposal he did not consider his possession as secure; re

1 Stella was born in 1680-1. The register of her baptism was found by Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole at Richmond.

sentment, ambition, or caprice, might separate them; he was therefore resolved to make assurance double sure, and to appropriate her by a private marriage, to which he had annexed the expectation of all the pleasures of perfect friendship, without the uneasiness of conjugal restraint. But with this state poor Stella was not satisfied; she never was treated as a wife, and to the world she had the appearance of a mistress. She lived sullenly on, in hope that in time he would own and receive her; but the time did not come till the change of his manners and depravation of his mind made her tell him, when he offered to acknowledge her, that it was too late. She then gave up herself to sorrowful resentment, and died under the tyranny of him, by whom she was in the highest degree loved and honoured.

What were her claims to this excentrick tenderness, by which the laws of nature were violated to retain her, curiosity will enquire; but how shall it be gratified? Swift was a lover; his testimony may be suspected. Delany and the Irish saw with Swift's eyes, and therefore add little confirmation. That she was virtuous, beautiful, and elegant, in a very high degree, such admiration from such a lover makes it very probable; but she had not much literature, for she could not spell her own language; and of her wit, so loudly vaunted, the smart sayings which Swift himself has collected afford no splendid specimen.'

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The reader of Swift's "Letter to a Lady on her Marriage," may be allowed to doubt whether his opinion of female excellence ought implicitly to be admitted; for if his general thoughts on women were such as he exhibits, a very little sense in a Lady would enrapture, and a very little virtue would astonish him. Stella's supremacy, therefore, was perhaps only local; she was great, because her associates were little.

1 Bons mots de Stella, S. S. vol. ix. pp. 294-296.
2 Ibid. pp. 208-220.

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