Swift

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Swift, by Leslie Stephen
English Men of Letters
EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY
SWIFT
BY LESLIE STEPHEN
London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1882. The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved

The chief materials for a life of Swift are to be found in his writings and correspondence. The best edition is the second of the two edited by Scott (1814 and 1824).
In 1751 Lord Orrery published Remarks upon the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift . Orrery, born 1707, had known Swift from about 1732. His remarks give the views of a person of quality of more ambition than capacity, and more anxious to exhibit his own taste than to give full or accurate information.
In 1754, Dr. Delany published Observations upon Lord Orrery’s Remarks , intended to vindicate Swift against some of Orrery’s severe judgments. Delany, born about 1685, became intimate with Swift soon after the dean’s final settlement in Ireland. He was then one of the authorities of Trinity College, Dublin. He is the best contemporary authority, so far as he goes.
In 1756 Deane Swift, grandson of Swift’s uncle Godwin, and son-in-law to Swift’s cousin and faithful guardian, Mrs. Whiteway, published an Essay upon the Life, Writings, and Character of Dr. Jonathan Swift , in which he attacks both his predecessors. Deane Swift, born about 1708, had seen little or nothing of his cousin till the year 1738, when the dean’s faculties were decaying. His book is foolish and discursive. Deane Swift’s son, Theophilus, communicated a good deal of doubtful matter to Scott, on the authority of family tradition.
In 1765 Hawkesworth, who had no personal knowledge, prefixed a life of Swift to an edition of the works which adds nothing to our information. In 1781 Johnson, when publishing a very perfunctory life of Swift as one of the poets, excused its shortcomings on the ground of having already communicated his thoughts to Hawkesworth. The life is not only meagre but injured by one of Johnson’s strong prejudices.