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CHAPTER X

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

I. INTRODUCTION

Political History of the Eighteenth Century.—Almost at the opening of the eighteenth century the crown passed, by the death of William III., to the second daughter of James II., Anne (1702-1714). Her reign was marked by political struggles between the Whigs, who wished to secure the Protestant succession to the throne by recognizing the Elector of Hanover as next heir, and the Tories, who hoped to see the kingdom revert to the son of James II. In spite of the fact that the Tories were led by one of the cleverest men of the time both in politics and literature, Lord Bolingbroke, the Whigs triumphed, and on the death of the queen in 1714 the Elector of Hanover succeeded as George L. The supporters of the Stuart heir, or Jacobites, revolted twice, once in 1715, and again against George II. in 1745, but fruitlessly. The House of Hanover was continued by George III., in whose reign England won her imperial domain from France in America and India, only to lose the greater part of the former by the American Revolution.

The Social Importance of Literature. The early eighteenth century shows a continuation of the literary tendencies which marked the Restoration. Literature on its serious side was largely concerned with politics. The Revolution of 1688 had made Parliament supreme in the government of the nation, and had fixed the system of party government. In the days before newspapers, the services of writers were of great importance in determining public opinion; accordingly they were employed largely by both parties and liberally rewarded. In a sense, political service took the place of patronage as the chief resource of authors. It gave

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them a place of independence and power in the state such as they have at no other time enjoyed. Moreover, thoughtful men saw in literature a means of improving social life and purging society of evils which threatened the peace and order of the community. The violence of party spirit engendered by the expulsion of the Stuarts, the survival of religious fanaticism among the lower orders, the licentiousness of private life among the aristocracy, which is reflected in the Restoration drama-against all these the literature of the age made protest, partly by the use of ridicule and satire, partly by an appeal to common sense. In minor respects, also, the civilization of the time was imperfect. London was so filthy that the plague was always imminent, so badly paved that traveling was dangerous, so poorly guarded that footpads and highwaymen operated freely, and wild young bucks, who called themselves Mohocks, kept peaceful citizens in terror. The crude, immature nature of the masses, as it expressed itself in vulgar amusements and cruel practical jokes, is portrayed in the realistic writings of the time, as it is with still more vivid satire in the pictures of Hogarthalways with the intention of making things better.

Eighteenth Century Style.-To serve such ends the writers of the time found their most acceptable form in the regular style which had characterized the period of Dryden. The reign of law and order, which was so much desired after the turbulence of the seventeenth century, had already been achieved in the realm of letters. Literary men had only to practise what they preached, the cultivation of perfect manners instead of the assertion of personal peculiarities, the attainment of regularity and correctness of form instead of originality of thought. If the literary fashion of the time seems to us to stifle real feeling under formality, we must remember that men needed this formality, as they did their wigs and ruffles and their stately courtliness of manner, to remind themselves that they were not barbarians, like Shakespeare and his friends, but almost as fine gentlemen as the French or the Latins. Indeed, it was the boast of Queen Anne's time that it resembled the first century of the Roman Empire, whence it called itself the Augustan Age.

The Age of Queen Anne. Queen Anne has given her name to an age in English history only less glorious than that of Elizabeth. Her short reign is famous for the wonderful victories of the Duke of Marlborough over the French, and for the writers who are known as Queen Anne's men. These form the most compact group in the history of English letters. They all shared the same interests and wrote after the same models. They were all more or less in politics; they lived as much as possible in London; they met constantly in coffee-houses and clubs where they formed partnerships and alliances, or quarrelled and went away to attack each other with lampoons and epigrams. All this gives a peculiar sense of intimacy to literary society in the early eighteenth century, the days of Swift, Addison, Steele, Pope.

II. JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)

Swift's Early Life.-Jonathan Swift was born in Ireland of English parents, in 1667. He was a posthumous son, and he grew up to share his mother's poverty. He was sent to the University of Dublin, where, as he says, he was "stopped of his degree for dulness and unsufficiency; and at last hardly admitted, in a manner little to his credit." In 1689 he left Ireland to take a position as under-secretary to a distant relative, Sir William Temple, with whom he remained intermittently for some years, reading aloud to his patron, writing at dictation, keeping accounts, and cursing his fate. At Moor Park, Temple's country-seat, he met Esther Johnson, who was also a dependent on the bounty of Temple, and there began the long friendship between them which later gave rise to the story of their secret marriage. While in the service of Sir William Temple, Swift wrote The Battle of the Books, a contribution to the controversy which Temple was carrying on with Bentley, the great scholar, as to the comparative merit of ancient and modern writers. About this time, also, he wrote a satire on the divisions of Christianity, called The Tale of a Tub. Neither work was published until 1704. Before this time, in despair of any other career, he had entered the church; and after his patron's death he returned to

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Ireland as chaplain to Lord Berkeley, by whom he was given the living of Laracor.

Swift's Political Career. Then began the great period of Swift's life, the time of his political power. During the reign of William III., party strife was bitter between the Whigs, who supported the king's foreign policy of resistance to Louis XIV. of France, and the Tories, who opposed it; and this struggle was continued in the reign of Queen Anne. Almost all the prominent literary men of the time were engaged on one side or the other. Swift, who was frequently in London promoting his candidacy for offices in the church as they fell vacant, at first wrote on the Whig side; but in 1710 he joined the Tories, who were just coming into power. The Tory ministry, of which Lord Bolingbroke was a member, was resolved to stop the war with France; and in defence of this policy Swift put out one of his strongest political writings, The Conduct of the Allies. His life during these years is reflected in his Journal to Stella, a daily account of his doings which he wrote to his friend, Esther Johnson. Here we find Swift playing the part in which he most delighted, that of a man of affairs, active, successful, and powerful. He records with gusto his hours spent with the rulers of the country; their politeness, and his own half contemptuous familiarity; his pleasure in his ability to serve his friends and to punish his enemies. In 1713, as the price of his support of the Tory government, he was named Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin, a promotion little to his taste. The next year the Tories went out of power, discredited by Bolingbroke's intrigues with the Pretender; and Swift returned to Ireland.

Swift in Ireland. Here his unconquerable activity found vent in defending the Irish from the careless tyranny of the home government. In this endeavor he published The Drapier's Letters, most of them in 1724, as a protest against turning over the right to coin money for Ireland to a private individual, for his own profit. In 1726 he took the manuscript of his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels, to London for publication, and the next year he returned thither to taste the pleasure of a great literary success. This, as all else

in his life, seemed to turn only to disappointment. In 1728 Miss Johnson died, and her death left him desolate. As the years passed, his hatred of the world grew more intense, and his satire more bitter. A disease from which he had suffered at intervals gained rapidly upon him, resulting in deafness and giddiness; and he suffered also from attacks of epilepsy and insanity. After years of gloom and agony, death came slowly upon him. He died in 1745.

Swift's Character. It is evident from this narrative that, to a great extent, Swift's writings were occasional, and grew out of the circumstances of his life. He was not a professional writer; with one or two exceptions, his works were published anonymously. He was a man of affairs, who became a man. of letters because literature was a means by which affairs could be directed. His writings must be regarded, then, as one expression among others of energy turned to practical ends; as one evidence among others of his extraordinary activity. For Swift lived hard. "There is no such thing,' he wrote to a friend, "as a fine old gentleman; if the man had a mind or body worth a farthing they would have worn him out long ago." We are not surprised to read of Swift that while he was at Moor Park with Sir William Temple he used to leave his study every two hours for a half mile run. As an old man, imprisoned in his deanery, he found relief in rushing over the house and up and down stairs with incredible speed.

This need of exercise is the explanation of much that is. singular in Swift's life. It shows itself not only in his serious concern with important affairs of state, but also in his gigantic sense of play. The anecdotes related of him by his earlier biographers are legion, most of them turning upon the translation of some whim into practical form, usually as a grotesque joke. The tale of his dispersing a crowd gathered to witness an eclipse, by sending a message that, according to the Dean's orders, the eclipse would be put off for a day; of his impersonating a poor usher at a reception, to draw the contempt of a rich fool; and of his disguising himself as a fiddler at a beggar's wedding, to discover the arts by which impostors live-all these bear testimony to that restlessness

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