Fair Liberty was all his Cry: A Tercentenary Tribute to Jonathan Swift 1667–1745

432 Pages·1967·39.545 MB·English

by  A. Norman Jeffares (eds.)

FAIR LIBERTY WAS ALL HIS CRY
Jonathan Swift
hy C. jervas
FAIR LIBERTY
WAS ALL HIS CRY
A TERCENTENARY TRIBUTE
TO JONATHAN SWIFT
EDITED BY
A. NORMAN JEFFARES
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-00411-9 ISBN 978-1-349-00409-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00409-6
© Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1967
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1967
MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED
Little Essex Street London WC 2
also Bomhay Calcutta Madras Melhourne
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED
70 Bond Street Toronto 2
ST MARTIN'S PRESS INC
17S Fifth Avenue New York NY zoozo
Library of Congress catalog card no. 67-1.2.82.7
Contents
List ofI llustrations page vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: A. Norman jeffares ix
Chronological Table xix
List ofA hhreviations xxi
D. NICHOL SMITH Jonathan Swift: some observations
Transactions oft he Royal Society ofL iterature, vol. XIV ( 193 5)
T. G. WILSON Swift's Personality I 5
A Review ofE nglish Literature, vol. m, no. 3 Ouly 1962)
BoN AMY DoBREE The Jocose Dean 42
HERBERT DAVIS Swift's View of Poetry 62
Studies in English, ed. Malcolm Wallace (1931)
A. L. RowsE Swift as Poet 98
The English Spirit(1945)
VIRGINIA WooLF Swift's]ournaltoStella I07
The Common Reader, Second Series (1935)
F. R. LEA VIS The Irony of Swift II6
Determinations (I934)
KATHLEEN M. WILLIAMS 'Animal Rationis Capax.' A study of
certain aspects of Swift's imagery I 3 I
Journal ofE nglish Literary History, vol. XXI (1954)
J. C. BECKETT Swift as an Ecclesiastical Statesman I46
Essays in British and Irish History in Honour of James Eadie
Todd, ed. H. A. Cronne, T. W. Moody and D. B. Quinn (1949)
GEORGE ORWELL Politics vs. Literature: an examina-
tion of Gulliver's Travels I 66
Shooting an Elephant and other essays (1950)
W. B. YEATS Introduction to Words upon the
Window-Pane (I934) I86
vi Contents
IRVIN EHRENPREIS The Origins of Gulliver's Travels 2.00
Puhlications oft he Modern Language Association ofA merica (1957)
MARJORIE NICOLSON
AND NORA M. MoHLER The Scientific Background of
Swift's 'Voyage to Laputa' 2.2.6
Annals ofS cience, vol. II (1937)
MARJORIE W. BucKLEY Key to the Language of the Houy
hnhnms in Gulliver's Travels
VIVIAN MERCIER Swift and the Gaelic Tradition 2.79
A ReYiew ofE nglish Literature, vol. m, no. 3 (July 1962.)
GEORGE P. MAYHEW Jonathan Swift's Hoax of 172.2.
upon Ebenezor Elliston 2.90
Bulletin ofthejohnRylands Lihrary, vol. xuv, no. 2. (March 1962.)
MACKIE L. JARRELL 'Jack and the Dane': Swift tradi-
tions in Ireland 3 I I
journal ofA merican Folklore, vol. LXXVII (1964)
RICARDO QuiNTANA A Modest Appraisal: Swift scholar-
ship and criticism, 1945-65 342.
CLAIRE LAMONT A Checklist of Critical and Bio
graphical Writings on Jonathan
Swift, 1945-65 356
Notes on Contributors
Index
Illustrations
Jonathan Swift, by C. Jervas frontispiece
Jonathan Swift, by or after C. Jervas facing page I 07
Both portraits are reproduced by permission oft he Trustees
oft he National Portrait Gallery, London
Acknowledgements
THE editor and publishers wish to thank the following, who have given
permission for the use of copyright material: the American Folklore
Society Inc., for '"Jack and the Dane": Swift traditions in Ireland', by
Mackie L. Jarrell, from the Journal ofA merican Folklore; Chatto & Wind us
Ltd., for the extract from Determinations: Critical Essays, by F. R.
Leavis; Mrs. J. Gray, Mrs. J. Cannon, and Mrs. J. Phipps, for 'Jonathan
Swift: some observations', by D. Nichol Smith, from Transactions of the
Royal Society of Literature; the Librarian of the John Rylands Library,
for 'Jonathan Swift's Hoax of 1722 upon Ebenezor Elliston', by George
P. Mayhew, from the Bulletin oft he john Rylands Library; Johns Hopkins
Press, for '"Animal Rationis Capax." A study of certain aspects of
Swift's imagery', by Kathleen M. Williams, from Journal of English
Literary History; Professor Vivian Mercier and the Editor and publishers
of A Review of English Literature for 'Swift and the Gaelic Tradition';
Modern Language Association of America, for 'The Origin of Gulliver's
Travels, from PMLA; Frederick Muller Ltd., for 'Swift as an
Ecclesiastical Statesman', by J. C. Beckett, from Essays in British and
Irish History in Honour of James Eadie Todd; Dr. A. L. Rowse, for
'Jonathan Swift', from The English Spirit (Macmillan); Martin Seeker &
Warburg Ltd. and Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., for 'Politics vs.
Literature: an examination of Gulliver's Travels', from Shooting an
Elephant, by George Orwell; Taylor & Francis Ltd., for 'The Scientific
Background of Swift's "Voyage to Laputa" ', by Marjorie Nicolson and
Nora M. Mohler, from Annals ofS cience; University ofTo ronto Press, for
'Swift's View of Poetry', by Herbert Davis, from Studies in English, ed.
Malcolm Wallace; Mr. T. G. Wilson and the Editor and publishers of A
Review of English Literature for 'Swift's Personality'; Mr. Leonard
Woolf, for the extract .from 'Swift's Journal to Stella', by Virginia Woolf;
and Mr. M. B. Yeats and Crowell-Collier & Macmillan, Inc., for the
extract from the Introduction to Words upon the Window-Pane, by W. B.
Yeats.
The contributions specially commissioned for this book by Professor
Bonamy Dobree, Professor A. Norman Jeffares, Miss Claire Lamont, and
Professor Ricardo Quintana are © Macmillan & Co. Ltd 1967. 'Key to
the Language of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels' is © Mrs.
Marjorie W. Buckley 1967.
Introduction
'SWIFT haunts me,' wrote Yeats, 'he is always just around the next
corner.' In writing thus in his introduction to The Words upon the
Window-Pane Yeats was as much exploring his own Anglo-Irish
heritage as contemplating the political nationalism oflreland, which
he thought Bishop Molyneux, author of The Case of Ireland Stated
(1698), and Swift, as author of The Drapier's Letters, had founded,
but his words still apply to the attitudes of many readers of Swift.
For his is indeed a haunting presence. In Ireland he is still part of the
folklore of those for whom he altered and amended the proof-sheets
of Faulkner's Dublin edition ofhis works, which the publisher read
aloud not only to him but to two men servants, whose understanding
of the writings had to be clear. Not until they understood would
Swift stop altering and amending and say: 'This will do; for I write
to the Vulgar more than to the Learned.' Swift's place in Irish
popular tradition is explored in this volume by Mackie L. Jarrell,
while Vivian Mercier considers Swift's own attitude to Gaelic
Ireland and its likely effect on him. His serious work for the Church
of Ireland is examined by J. C. Beckett, while a discussion by
George P. Mayhew of the hoax he perpetrated upon Ebenezer
Elliston in Dublin reminds us that he described himself to Stella as
'not the gravest of Divines'.
Swift haunts the learned. He had the habit of writing many things
which he did not intend to be printed; he concealed his authorship
by having his work transcribed in an unknown hand and dropped
unseen at the printers. His instructions to his friend Charles Ford
about how the manuscript of Some Free Thoughts upon the Present
State ofA ffairs was to reach the printer are clear:
Here it is, read it, and send it to B--by an unknown hand ... Do
not send it by the Penny post, nor your Man, but by a Porter when
you are not at your Lodgings. Get some Friend to copy out the little
Paper, and send it inclosed with the rest, and let the same Hand
direct it, and seal it with an unknown Seal.