human
Can you write a poem for me in the style of John Lothrop Motley?
assistant
Sure, here's a poem in the style of John Lothrop Motley:
  Johnson's "Lives of the Poets" were written to serve as
Introductions to a trade edition of the works of poets whom the
Johnson's account of his life had not secured for him lasting
written for Cave.  Soon after its publication, we are told, Mr.
Harte dined with Cave, and incidentally praised it.  Meeting him
baronetcy.  Savage had literary skill, and he could personate the
Countess of Macclesfield had placed a child that died, and that
Johnson's simple truthfulness and ready sympathy made it hard for
noble piece of truth, although it rests on faith put in a fraud.
Joseph Addison was born on the 1st of May, 1672, at Milston, of
which his father, Lancelot Addison, was then rector, near
Not to name the school or the masters of men illustrious for
whole process of his education.  In 1683, in the beginning of his
To judge better of the probability of this story, I have inquired
Of this memorable friendship the greater praise must be given to
Steele.  It is not hard to love those from whom nothing can be
predominating genius of Addison, whom he always mentioned with
reverence, and treated with obsequiousness.
But the sneer of jocularity was not the worst.  Steele, whose
imprudence of generosity, or vanity of profusion, kept him always
purpose of repayment; but Addison, who seems to have had other
In 1687 he was entered into Queen's College in Oxford, where, in
eminent by his Latin compositions, which are indeed entitled to
therefore his profession of regard was probably the effect of his
In his twenty-second year he first showed his power of English
encomium on Queen Mary, in the "Musae Anglicanae."  These verses
exhibit all the fondness of friendship; but, on one side or the
other, friendship was afterwards too weak for the malignity of
faction.  In this poem is a very confident and discriminate
learning the trade of a courtier, and subjoined Montague as a
Addison was caressed both by Somers and Montague.
remitted.
At his return he published his Travels, with a dedication to Lord
observations are such as might be supplied by a hasty view, and
consist chiefly in comparisons of the present face of the country
The most amusing passage of his book is his account of the minute
censure to say that they might have been written at home.  His
reprinted it rose to five times its price.
encouragement for genius; that worthless men were unprofitably
person.  Godolphin sent the message by Mr. Boyle, afterwards Lord
language.  He therefore wrote the opera of Rosamond, which, when
exhibited on the stage, was either hissed or neglected; but,
dedication was therefore an instance of servile absurdity, to be
When the Marquis of Wharton was appointed Lord Lieutenant of
connected, and how they adjusted their other sentiments we cannot
Addison must, however, not be too hastily condemned.  It is not
necessary to refuse benefits from a bad man when the acceptance
implies no approbation of his crimes; nor has the subordinate
hundred friends; and if my fee be two guineas, I shall, by
imparted and the evil suffered."  He was in Ireland when Steele,
without any communication of his design, began the publication of
converses, and who are acquainted with his track of study, his
favourite topic, his peculiar notions, and his habitual phrases.
If Steele desired to write in secret, he was not lucky; a single
To the Tatler, in about two months, succeeded the Spectator:  a
series of essays of the same kind, but written with less levity,
materials or facility of composition, and their performance
labour; many pieces were offered, and many were received.
showed the political tenets of its authors; but a resolution was
soon taken of courting general approbation by general topics, and
which, if they produce no lasting calamities, impress hourly
sufficiently attested by the translations which almost all the
nations of Europe were in haste to obtain.
deserves praise for liveliness of description and justness of
observation.  Before the Tatler and Spectator, if the writers for
philosophy or politics; but an arbiter elegantiarum, (a judge of
propriety) was yet wanting who should survey the track of daily
read, not as study, but amusement.  If the subject be slight, the
they neglected that a complete collection is nowhere to be found.
controversy relating to the Church or State; of which they taught
It has been suggested that the Royal Society was instituted soon
after the Restoration to divert the attention of the people from
continue to be among the first books by which both sexes are
initiated in the elegances of knowledge.
Bruyere, exhibited the "Characters and Manners of the Age."  The
personages introduced in these papers were not merely ideal; they
small part of their due praise; they superadded literature and
happily varied with elegant fictions and refined allegories, and
illuminated with different changes of style and felicities of
invention.
It is recorded by Budgell, that of the characters feigned or
forbearing Sir Roger for the time to come.
It may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original
delineation.  He describes his knight as having his imagination
effects of a mind deviating from the beaten track of life, by the
rusticity, and that negligence which solitary grandeur naturally
eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit that Addison
seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own design.
opinions, it is probable more consequences were at first intended
Of essays thus elegant, thus instructive, and thus commodiously
daily number.  This sale is not great; yet this, if Swift be
credited, was likely to grow less; for he declares that the
Spectator, whom he ridicules for his endless mention of the FAIR
sex, had before his recess wearied his readers.
The next year (1713), in which Cato came upon the stage, was the
undertaking the supplement, brought in a few days some scenes for
Addison was, I believe, sufficiently disposed to bar all avenues
against all danger.  When Pope brought him the prologue, which is
public virtue.  Addison was frighted, lest he should be thought a
Now "heavily in clouds came on the day, the great, the important
day," when Addison was to stand the hazard of the theatre.  That
sentence."
The play, supported thus by the emulation of factious praise, was
public had allowed to any drama before; and the author, as Mrs.
Porter long afterwards related, wandered through the whole
exhibition behind the scenes with restless and unappeasable
solicitude.  When it was printed, notice was given that the Queen
censurer of Corneille's Cid, his animadversions showed his anger
without effect, and Cato continued to be praised.
without appearing to revenge himself.  He therefore published "A
discovered more desire of vexing the critic than of defending the
Addison, who was no stranger to the world, probably saw the
The greatest weakness of the play is in the scenes of love, which
subsequent review, in compliance with the popular practice of the
Cato had yet other honours.  It was censured as a party-play by a
A tragedy was written on the same subject by Des Champs, a French
But the translator and the critic are now forgotten.
While Cato was upon the stage, another daily paper, called the
Guardian, was published by Steele.  To this Addison gave great
assistance, whether occasionally or by previous engagement is not
faction.  He was soon too hot for neutral topics, and quitted the
The papers of Addison are marked in the Spectator by one of the
insinuates, that he could not without discontent impart to others
"gentleman in the company;" and when it was received, as is
delineated, and the tendency such as Addison would have promoted.
party, since personal malice is past, and the papers which once
written to expose the treaty of commerce with France, lived no
longer than the question that produced it.
succession of a new family to the throne filled the nation with
anxiety, discord, and confusion; and either the turbulence of the
series.
The Spectator, from its re-commencement, was published only three
little use--having recourse to sketches and hints, the product of
When the House of Hanover took possession of the throne, it was
reasonable to expect that the zeal of Addison would be suitably
distracted by choice of expression, that the lords, who could not
however, some strokes less elegant and less decent; such as the
"Pretender's Journal," in which one topic of ridicule is his
poverty.  This mode of abuse had been employed by Milton against
Centum exulantis viscera Marsupii regis."
made use of a lute, when they should have called for a trumpet.
passion.  He is said to have first known her by becoming tutor to
ceremony the tutor of her son.  Rowe's ballad of the "Despairing
Shepherd" is said to have been written, either before or after
place.  In the House of Commons he could not speak, and therefore
vocation, and began to plan literary occupations for his future
designed to have made a new poetical version of the Psalms.
office he intended to take orders and obtain a bishopric; "for,"
said he, "I always thought him a priest in his heart."
That Pope should have thought this conjecture of Tonson worth
remembrance, is a proof--but indeed, so far as I have found, the
only proof--that he retained some malignity from their ancient
rivalry.  Tonson pretended to guess it; no other mortal ever
It is related that he had once a design to make an English
dictionary, and that he considered Dr. Tillotson as the writer of
end, to a political dispute.
Steele.  It may be asked, in the language of Homer, what power or
their posterity.  The Bill, therefore, was eagerly opposed, and,
among others, by Sir Robert Walpole, whose speech was published.
The Lords might think their dignity diminished by improper
advancements, and particularly by the introduction of twelve new
Peers at once, to produce a majority of Tories in the last reign:
To prevent this subversion of the ancient establishment, Steele,
whose pen readily seconded his political passions, endeavoured to
finally part in acrimonious opposition.  Such a controversy was
"bellum plusquam CIVILE," as Lucan expresses it.  Why could not
faction find other advocates?  But among the uncertainties of the
Britannica."  "The Old Whig" is not inserted in Addison's works:
The necessity of complying with times, and of sparing persons, is
told; and when it might be told, it is no longer known.  The
delicate features of the mind, the nice discriminations of
character, and the minute peculiarities of conduct, are soon
obliterated; and it is surely better that caprice, obstinacy,
frolic, and folly, however they might delight in the description,
unseasonable detection, a pang should be given to a widow, a
daughter, a brother, or a friend.  As the process of these
narratives is now bringing me among my contemporaries, I begin to
extinguished," and coming to the time of which it will be proper
rather to say "nothing that is false, than all that is true."
The end of this useful life was now approaching.  Addison had for
aggravated by a dropsy; and, finding his danger pressing, he
prepared to die conformably to his own precepts and professions.
In Tickell's excellent Elegy on his friend are these lines:--
"He taught us how to live; and, oh! too high
The price of knowledge, taught us how to die"--
Having given directions to Mr. Tickell for the publication of his
daughter.
Of his virtue it is a sufficient testimony that the resentment of
those who are praised only after death; for his merit was so
gives credit and esteem to all that are concealed."  Chesterfield
conversation, used to say of himself that, with respect to
intellectual wealth, "he could draw bills for a thousand pounds,
ungraceful timidity, every testimony concurs to prove; but
The time in which he lived had reason to lament his obstinacy of
silence; "for he was," says Steele, "above all men in that talent
acquaintance of Terence and Catullus, who had all their wit and
nature, heightened with humour more exquisite and delightful than
Pope, who can be less suspected of favouring his memory, declares
The last line of Cato is Pope's, having been originally written--
"And oh! 'twas this that ended Cato's life."
Pope might have made more objections to the six concluding lines.
servant in the Countess of Warwick's family, who, under the
patronage of Addison, kept a coffee-house on the south side of
Russell Street, about two doors from Covent Garden.  Here it was
that the wits of that time used to assemble.  It is said when
bashfulness for confidence.  It is not unlikely that Addison was
first seduced to excess by the manumission which he obtained from
Among those friends it was that Addison displayed the elegance of
disgusted him, and left his friend in the hands of Tickell.
variance, since amidst that storm of faction in which most of his
though he might lose the love, he retained the reverence.
himself, but taught it to others; and from his time it has been
having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from
indecency, and wit from licentiousness; of having taught a
succession of writers to bring elegance and gaiety to the aid of
goodness; and, if I may use expressions yet more awful, of having
honourably ascribed to his personal character:  he who, if he had
raised too high is in danger, lest the next age should, by the
vengeance of criticism, sink it in the same proportion.  A great
writer has lately styled him "an indifferent poet, and a worse
splendour of elegance.  He thinks justly, but he thinks faintly.
This is his general character; to which, doubtless, many single
equability, deliberate and cautious, sometimes with little that
"Thy verse could show even Cromwell's innocence,
And compliment the storms that bore him hence.
Oh! had thy Muse not come an age too soon,
But seen great Nassau on the British throne,
How had his triumph glittered in thy page!"
What is this but to say that he who could compliment Cromwell had
The Letter from Italy has been always praised, but has never been
"Fired with that name--
I bridle in my struggling Muse with pain,
That longs to launch into a nobler strain."
To BRIDLE A GODDESS is no very delicate idea; but why must she be
hindered by a BRIDLE:  and whither will she LAUNCH? into a NOBLER
victory:  yet Addison's is confessedly the best performance; his
power of consulting his own mind in the midst of danger.  The
"Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright--
Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,
And those that paint them truest, praise them most."
"The well-sung woes shall soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them who shall feel them most."
Martial exploits may be PAINTED; perhaps WOES may be PAINTED; but
flames in Iceland, so AEtna vomits flames in Sicily.  When Horace
the mind is impressed with the resemblance of things generally
unlike, as unlike as intellect and body.  But if Pindar had been
examined, when the English are represented as gaining a fortified
Marlborough's person, tells us that "Achilles thus was formed of
every grace," here is no simile, but a mere exemplification.  A
Marlborough "teaches the battle to rage;" the angel "directs the
simile, was remote from vulgar conceptions, and required great
labour and research, or dexterity of application.  Of this Dr.
Madden, a name which Ireland ought to honour, once gave me his
poetry, he would probably have excelled.
The tragedy of Cato, which, contrary to the rule observed in
selecting the works of other poets, has by the weight of its
dialogue than a drama, rather a succession of just sentiments in
When Cato was shown to Pope, he advised the author to print it,
harden Dennis in fixed dislike; but his dislike was not merely
"A deference is to be paid to a general applause when it appears
wanting in talent, and to supply by poetical craft the absence of
He then condemns the neglect of poetical justice, which is one of
"'Tis certainly the duty of every tragic poet, by the exact
distribution of poetical justice, to imitate the Divine
circumscribed by those; and therefore, during that reading or
this, in the fate of his principal character; but everywhere,
generous frankness and open-heartedness of Marcus."
poet is certainly at liberty to give it prosperity on the stage.
ought to show us sometimes what we are to expect.
Dennis objects to the characters that they are not natural or
shall be tried.  It is, however, not useless to consider what he
dearest to us, those who are related to us, or those who are not?
been said, that for a man to receive the news of his son's death
with dry eyes, and to weep at the same time for the calamities of
"'SYPH.  But is it true, Sempronius, that your senate
Is called together?  Gods! thou must be cautious;
Cato has piercing eyes.'
"There is a great deal of caution shown, indeed, in meeting in a
governor's own hall to carry on their plot against him.  Whatever
"'Gods! thou must be cautious.'
"When Cato, Act II., turns the senators out of the hall upon
pretence of acquainting Juba with the result of their debates, he
"Sempronius, in the second act, comes back once more in the same
morning to the governor's hall to carry on the conspiracy with
"'SEMP.  Know, villains, when such paltry slaves presume
To mix in treason, if the plot succeeds,
They're thrown neglected by; but, if it fails,
They're sure to die like dogs, as you shall do.
Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth
To sudden death.'
these words of Sempronius--
"'Here, take these factious monsters, drag them forth
To sudden death--'
palpably discovered.  How comes it to pass, then, that instead of
enters at the same time that the guards are carrying away the
leaders, big with the news of the defeat of Sempronius?--though
"'SYPH.  Our first design, my friend, has proved abortive;
Still there remains an after-game to play:
My troops are mounted; their Numidian steeds
Snuff up the winds, and long to scour the desert.
Let but Sempronius lead us in our flight,
We'll force the gate where Marcus keeps his guard,
And hew down all that would oppose our passage;
A day will bring us into Caesar's camp.
SEMP. Confusion! I have failed of half my purpose;
Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind.'
mean by
"'Marcia, the charming Marcia's left behind'?
"'What hinders, then, but that you find her out,
And hurry her away by manly force?'
"'SEMP.  But how to gain admission?'
Oh! she is found out then, it seems.
"'But how to gain admission? for access
Is giv'n to none but Juba and her brothers.'
But, raillery apart, why access to Juba?  For he was owned and
received as a lover neither by the father nor by the daughter.
Well, but let that pass.  Syphax puts Sempronius out of pain
"'SYPH.  Thou shalt have Juba's dress, and Juba's guards;
The doors will open when Numidia's prince
Seems to appear before them.'
"Sempronius is, it seems, to pass for Juba in full day at Cato's
house, where they were both so very well known, by having Juba's
"'To hurry her away by manly force,'
another opinion.  He extols to the skies the invention of old
"'SEMP.  Heavens! what a thought was there!'
"But now let us lay before the reader that part of the scenery of
concerning the unity of place.  'Tis true, implicitly he has said
without destroying the probability of the incidents, 'tis always
comeliness to the representation.  But since there are no express
"'SEMP.  The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'
"'The deer is lodged; I've tracked her to her covert.'
this, Sempronius is entertaining himself with whimsies:--
"'Semp.  How will the young Numidian rave to see
His mistress lost!  If aught could glad my soul
Beyond th' enjoyment of so bright a prize,
'Twould be to torture that young, gay barbarian.
But hark! what noise?  Death to my hopes! 'tis he,
'Tis Juba's self!  There is but one way left!
He must be murdered, and a passage cut
Through those his guards.'
"Pray, what are 'those guards'?  I thought at present that Juba's
Or act like men; or, by yon azure heav'n!'--
"Upon hearing the clash of swords, Lucia and Marcia come in.  The
"'Luc.  Sure 'twas the clash of swords! my troubled heart
Is so cast down, and sunk amidst its sorrows,
It throbs with fear, and aches at every sound!'
And immediately her old whimsy returns upon her:--
"O Marcia, should thy brothers, for my sake--
I die away with horror at the thought.'
"'The face is muffled up within the garment.'
therefore was not muffled.  Upon seeing this man with his muffled
supposed defunct, begins to make his funeral oration.  Upon which
how comes Juba to listen here, who had not listened before
"But let us come to the scenery of the fifth act.  Cato appears
"In short, that Cato should sit long enough in the aforesaid
posture, in the midst of this large hall, to read over Plato's
intruding there; then that he should leave this hall upon the
Such is the censure of Dennis.  There is, as Dryden expresses it,
neglected.  Flushed with consciousness of these detections of
objections.
versification which he had learned from Dryden he debased rather
than refined.  His rhymes are often dissonant; in his Georgic he
admits broken lines.  He uses both triplets and Alexandrines, but
Addison is now to be considered as a critic:  a name which the
It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of
Addison is now despised by some who perhaps would never have seen
expanded.  An emulation of intellectual elegance was excited, and
conversation purified and enlarged.
Dryden had, not many years before, scattered criticism over his
prefaces with very little parsimony; but though he sometimes
An instructor like Addison was now wanting, whose remarks, being
superficial, might be easily understood, and being just, might
descended now and then to lower disquisitions:  and by a serious
display of the beauties of "Chevy Chase" exposed himself to the
diminution, by obscuring its appearances, and weakening its
Before the profound observers of the present race repose too
As a describer of life and manners, he must be allowed to stand
wonder by the violation of truth.  His figures neither divert by
distortion nor amaze by aggravation.  He copies life with so much
As a teacher of wisdom, he may be confidently followed.  His
religion has nothing in it enthusiastic or superstitious:  he
appears neither weakly credulous nor wantonly sceptical; his
morality is neither dangerously lax nor impracticably rigid.  All
"Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet."
His prose is the model of the middle style; on grave subjects not
scrupulosity, and exact without apparent elaboration; always
equable, and always easy, without glowing words or pointed
splendour.
idiomatical it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism.
incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to
fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery,
which they cannot give, raises no astonishment:  but it seems
endeavour their own benefit, and that they who are most able to
been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and
relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths.
compassion not always due to the unhappy, as they were often the
consequences of the crimes of others rather than his own.
confession of adultery the most obvious and expeditious method of
manner:  for he applied, not to the ecclesiastical courts for a
divorce, but to the Parliament for an Act by which his marriage
interest could be promoted by neglect or cruelty.  The dread of
shame or of poverty, by which some wretches have been incited to
abandon or murder their children, cannot be supposed to have
affected a woman who had proclaimed her crimes and solicited
reproach, and on whom the clemency of the Legislature had
supporting, assisting, and defending him, delight to see him
rocks.  His mother could not indeed infect others with the same
cruelty.  As it was impossible to avoid the inquiries which the
In this charitable office she was assisted by his godmother, Mrs.
tenderness which the barbarity of his mother made peculiarly
necessary; but her death, which happened in his tenth year, was
pounds, yet as he had none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him
several of the classes, with what rapidity or with what applause
being rewarded; and if in so low a state he obtained distinctions
While he was thus cultivating his genius, his father, the Earl
Rivers, was seized with a distemper, which in a short time put an
demanded a positive account of him, with an importunity not to be
The same cruelty which incited his mother to intercept this
wicked enough to concur in so cruel an action; for it may be
It is generally reported that this project was for some time
occupation.
About this time his nurse, who had always treated him as her own
therefore went to her house, opened her boxes, and examined her
affluence of his mother; and therefore without scruple applied to
interposition of those friends which his merit or his distress
purpose that he frequently solicited her to admit him to see her;
Savage was at the same time so touched with the discovery of his
At this time the attention of the literary world was engrossed by
popular, he made choice for his first attempt, and, without any
success or merit of this performance I know not; it was probably
lost among the innumerable pamphlets to which that dispute gave
occasion.  Mr. Savage was himself in a little time ashamed of it,
therefore given by him to Mr. Bullock, who, having more interest,
part of the profit.
Not discouraged, however, at his repulse, he wrote two years
afterwards Love in a Veil, another comedy, borrowed likewise from
caressed, and relieved.
Sir Richard Steele, having declared in his favour with all the
early to his house the next morning.  Mr. Savage came as he had
Richard dictated, and Savage wrote, till the dinner that had been
Mr. Savage then imagined his task over, and expected that Sir
Richard would call for the reckoning, and return home; but his
expectations deceived him, for Sir Richard told him that he was
difficulty he obtained.  Sir Richard then returned home, having
retired that day only to avoid his creditors, and composed the
pamphlet only to discharge his reckoning.
domestics could be consistent with his fortune.  Sir Richard very
willingly be rid.  And being then asked why he did not discharge
them, declared that they were bailiffs, who had introduced
diverted with the expedient, and by paying the debt, discharged
their attendance, having obliged Sir Richard to promise that they
though he was always lavish of future bounties, he conducted his
affairs in such a manner that he was very seldom able to keep his
It is not, indeed, unlikely that Savage might by his imprudence
expose himself to the malice of a talebearer; for his patron had
many follies, which, as his discernment easily discovered, his
sometimes, in the wantonness of thoughtless mirth, or the heat of
ingratitude.  But Sir Richard must likewise be acquitted of
laboured, and whose interest he has promoted?
contemptuous, insolent, petulant, selfish, and brutal.
As Mr. Wilks was one of those to whom calamity seldom complained
without relief, he naturally took an unfortunate wit into his
general madness of the South Sea traffic; and having been
disappointed in her expectations, refused to pay what perhaps
nothing but the prospect of sudden affluence prompted her to
promise.
Being thus obliged to depend upon the friendship of Mr. Wilks, he
pleased with his conversation, and touched with his misfortunes,
memory or diffuse the censure.
excellence which none ever denied her:  this is the only encomium
that without exalting her character would have depressed his own.
frustrate his applications, and that she never left any expedient
supporting life.  The same disposition she endeavoured to diffuse
contested; but, if they deserve death who destroy a child in its
birth, what pain can be severe enough for her who forbears to
overwhelmed with calamities; and, when his own industry, or the
charity of others, has enabled him to rise for a short time above
which he chose for the subject was that of Sir Thomas Overbury, a
removed from the present age to admit properly the fictions
most certain which approach nearer to our own time.  Out of this
strength of genius and evenness of mind, of a serenity not to be
ruffled and an imagination not to be suppressed.
which he had picked up by accident.
want of genius, and must rather excite pity than provoke censure.
there yet remained the labour of introducing it on the stage, an
wrote the prologue and epilogue, in which he touches on the
circumstances of the author with great tenderness.
After all these obstructions and compliances, he was only able to
In the publication of his performance he was more successful, for
In the dedication, for which he received ten guineas, there is
Miscellany of Poems in a very extraordinary manner, by publishing
received by him from his mother, but of which he was himself the
author, as Mr. Savage afterwards declared.  These lines, and the
The subscriptions of those whom these papers should influence to
patronise merit in distress, without any other solicitation, were
from his proposal, found, to his surprise, seventy guineas, which
extended to all his dedications:  his compliments are constrained
decency of introduction.  He seems to have written his panegyrics
Soon afterwards the death of the king furnished a general subject
know not whether he gained by his performance any other advantage
exhausted, and which was made at once difficult by the multitudes
mentioned as a crime or a calamity.
acquaintances, whose names were Merchant and Gregory, he went in
should offer themselves till morning.  In this walk they happened
criminals, but in the Press yard.
difference in their depositions; one did not see Savage give the
Sinclair's sword at all.  This difference, however, was very far
therefore some deductions were to be made from the credibility of
Sinclair had declared several times before his death that he
received his wound from Savage:  nor did Savage at his trial deny
suddenness of the whole action, and the impossibility of any ill
design or premeditated malice; and partly to justify it by the
justice, or decline a trial, but to avoid the expenses and
severities of a prison; and that he intended to appear at the bar
This defence, which took up more than an hour, was heard by the
multitude that thronged the court with the most attentive and
woman by whom strumpets were entertained, a man by whom they were
severity, and when he had summed up the evidence, endeavoured to
exasperate the jury, as Mr. Savage used to relate it, with this
eloquent harangue:--
"Gentlemen of the jury, you are to consider that Mr. Savage is a
comparisons, resolutely asserted that his cause was not candidly
explained, and began to recapitulate what he had before said with
attack each other, the death of either is only manslaughter; but
where one is the aggressor, as in the case before them, and, in
manslaughter.
Thus ended this memorable trial, which lasted eight hours.  Mr.
Savage and Mr. Gregory were conducted back to prison, where they
offences which arise out of premeditation, and a disposition
sudden impulse of passion.  We therefore hope you will contribute
calamity.  I hope this will not be construed as if we meant to
soften my grief than to be without any companion in so great a
misfortune."
To prejudice the queen against him, she made use of an incident
before he entered the chamber, alarmed the family with the most
Savage, who had attempted with the most submissive tenderness to
soften her rage, hearing her utter so detestable an accusation,
thought it prudent to retire, and, I believe, never attempted
afterwards to speak to her.
But shocked as he was with her falsehood and her cruelty, he
imagined that she intended no other use of her lie than to set
instrument of future wickedness, or that she would endeavour for
this fictitious assault to deprive him of his life.  But when the
intent to murder her.
By whom this atrocious calumny had been transmitted to the queen,
audience of the queen, laid before her the whole series of his
mother's cruelty, exposed the improbability of an accusation by
which he was charged with an intent to commit a murder that could
It is natural to inquire upon what motives his mother could
persecute him in a manner so outrageous and implacable; for what
committed without apparent temptation.
shortened by her maternal offices; that though she could not
transport her son to the plantations, bury him in the shop of a
necessary to aggravate the enormity of this woman's conduct by
placing it in opposition to that of the Countess of Hertford.  No
Mr. Savage, during his imprisonment, his trial, and the time in
which he lay under sentence of death, behaved with great firmness
The nature of the act for which he had been tried was in itself
uncommon rigour.  When all these particulars are rated together,
informed him that she was in distress, and, with a degree of
forgave an enemy; by which he at once remitted the strongest
continued to speak with anger of the insolence and partiality of
Page, and a short time before his death revenged it by a satire.
It is natural to inquire in what terms Mr. Savage spoke of this
wholly free from the guilt of blood.  How much and how long he
regretted it appeared in a poem which he published many years
from virtue," by an instance of murder committed by Savage in the
life between want and plenty, or, what was yet worse, between
abilities by treating him at taverns, and habituating him to
night by the anguish of cold and hunger for a week.
rougher methods.  He had now, as he acknowledged, lost that
tenderness for her which the whole series of her cruelty had not
infamy by allowing him a pension.
This expedient proved successful.  Whether shame still survived,
though virtue was extinct, or whether her relations had more
delicacy than herself, and imagined that some of the darts which
satire might point at her would glance upon them, Lord Tyrconnel,
life; and for some time he had no reason to complain of fortune.
His appearance was splendid, his expenses large, and his
upon a refined taste.  To admire Mr. Savage was a proof of
which they owe to merit, and are pleased when they have an
This interval of prosperity furnished him with opportunities of
Author to be Let," where he introduces Iscariot Hackney, a
Iscariot Hackney might himself have produced.  He was accused
false satire ought to be recanted, for the sake of him whose
reputation may be injured, false praise ought likewise to be
obviated, lest the distinction between vice and virtue should be
lost, lest a bad man should be trusted upon the credit of his
into contempt, his satire loses its force, and his panegyric its
"Dunciad," which were addressed by Mr. Savage to the Earl of
Middlesex, in a dedication which he was prevailed upon to sign,
though he did not write it, and in which there are some positions
satisfaction.  The enumeration of the bad effects of the
uncontrolled freedom of the press, and the assertion that the
"liberties taken by the writers of journals with their superiors
were exorbitant and unjustifiable," very ill became men who have
themselves not always shown the exactest regard to the laws of
eminent for their hereditary rank, and employed in the highest
offices of the kingdom.  But this is only an instance of that
Mr. Savage was likewise very far from believing that the letters
without thinking.
attended the publication of the "Dunciad," however strange and
improbable, was exactly true.
suspected of supplying with private intelligence and secret
incidents; so that the ignominy of an informer was added to the
generally with contempt, as he was one of those who were always
On this, and on many other occasions, he was ready to lament the
"I fly all public care, all venal strife,
To try the still, compared with active, life;
To prove, by these, the sons of men may owe
The fruits of bliss to bursting clouds of woe;
That ev'n calamity, by thought refined,
Inspirits and adorns the thinking mind."
And more distinctly in the following passage:--
"By woe, the soul to daring action swells;
By woe, in plaintless patience it excels:
From patience prudent, clear experience springs,
And traces knowledge through the course of things.
Thence hope is formed, thence fortitude, success,
Renown--whate'er men covet and caress."
This performance was always considered by himself as his
still more at the third.
It has been generally objected to "The Wanderer," that the
together by accident, which strikes rather with the solemn
magnificence of a stupendous ruin than the elegant grandeur of a
finished pile.  This criticism is universal, and therefore it is
sense of the efficacy of religion.  But my province is rather to
intellectual features of the rebels, who suffer death in his last
allusion to any real persons or actions.
correction to a friend, who was too indolent to perform it with
accuracy.
A superstitious regard to the correction of his sheets was one of
learned and ingenious are often obliged to submit to very hard
gratification, and, being without money for the present occasion,
drink the most expensive wines with great profusion, and when the
happened, his company were willing to defray his part, the affair
house in which they were entertained, indulged themselves in the
utmost extravagance of merriment, practised the most licentious
frolics, and committed all the outrages of drunkenness.  Nor was
this the only charge which Lord Tyrconnel brought against him.
Having given him a collection of valuable books, stamped with his
exposed to sale upon the stalls, it being usual with Mr. Savage,
when he wanted a small sum, to take his books to the pawnbroker.
Whoever was acquainted with Mr. Savage easily credited both these
exalt him above them; and so much was he delighted with wine and
trust for the reckoning to the liberality of his company, and
frequently of company to whom he was very little known.  This
entertaining, and his address so pleasing, that few thought the
Mr. Savage, on the other hand, declared that Lord Tyrconnel
quarrelled with him because he would not subtract from his own
that subsistence which he thought not so much a favour as a debt,
taverns, and that he appeared desirous that he would pass those
resolution "to spurn that friend who should pretend to dictate to
future edition of his writings, and accordingly blotted it out of
During his continuance with the Lord Tyrconnel, he wrote "The
contemplated; whether the splendour with which they dazzled their
selected for high stations, or high stations made great men.
advantages more praise than he could justly claim from his real
considered as the advocates of the Crown, or the guardians of the
formidable as to be universally detested, he observed that his
acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and
But the opportunity of indulging his speculations on great
characters was now at an end.  He was banished from the table of
Lord Tyrconnel, and turned again adrift upon the world, without
preceded by coldness, peevishness, or neglect, though it was
undoubtedly the consequence of accumulated provocations on both
difficulties to which Mr. Savage was exposed by them, were soon
known both to his friends and enemies; nor was it long before he
perceived, from the behaviour of both, how much is added to the
endeavoured to preserve his favour by complying with his
inclinations, and whom he nevertheless set at defiance, and was
continually irritating by negligence or encroachments.
Examples need not be sought at any great distance to prove that
treated.
That Mr. Savage was too much elevated by any good fortune is
generally known; and some passages of his Introduction to "The
distress was not a proper subject for merriment or topic of
invective.  He was then able to discern, that if misery be the
however forcibly he might inculcate them.  His degradation,
It does not appear that after this return of his wants he found
they might now consign him to others.  He was now likewise
considered by many rather as criminal than as unhappy, for the
friends of Lord Tyrconnel, and of his mother, were sufficiently
industrious to publish his weaknesses, which were indeed very
numerous, and nothing was forgotten that might make him either
hateful or ridiculous.  It cannot but be imagined that such
withdraw their regard, or withhold their assistance.
Savage, however, was not one of those who suffered himself to be
advantage, that he drove him first to the practice of outrage and
Lord Tyrconnel was accused by Mr. Savage of some actions which
These mutual accusations were retorted on both sides, for many
length have forgot those provocations, which, however they might
have once inflamed him, had not in reality much hurt him.  The
spirit of Mr. Savage, indeed, never suffered him to solicit a
reconciliation; he returned reproach for reproach, and insult for
fortune, and enabled him to form a party, and prejudice great
however, he never made any mean or importunate complaints, being
formed rather to bear misery with fortitude than enjoy prosperity
notoriety of the story to which the allusions are made, procured
this performance a very favourable reception; great numbers were
immediately dispersed, and editions were multiplied with unusual
rapidity.
One circumstance attended the publication which Savage used to
relate with great satisfaction.  His mother, to whom the poem was
The pleasure which he received from this increase of his poetical
properly proposed to the imitation of multitudes who, for want of
It were doubtless to be wished that truth and reason were
universally prevalent; that everything were esteemed according to
disappointed, in their endeavours after happiness, by placing it
imagination with those ideal opiates, of having tried the same
experiment upon his conscience; and, having accustomed himself to
certain that he was upon every occasion too easily reconciled to
indeed not so much a good man as the friend of goodness.
This, at least, must be allowed him, that he always preserved a
strong sense of the dignity, the beauty, and the necessity of
virtue; and that he never contributed deliberately to spread
corruption amongst mankind.  His actions, which were generally
precipitate, were often blameable; but his writings, being the
"No mother's care
Shielded my infant innocence with prayer;
No father's guardian hand my youth maintained,
Called forth my virtues, or from vice restrained."
under the same want of the necessaries of life; and he therefore
exerted all the interest which his wit, or his birth, or his
Gentleman's Magazine, whence I have copied it entire, as this was
"MR. URBAN,--In your Magazine for February you published the last
notwithstanding this act of ceremony was wanting, in a few days
generous.  To chain down the genius of a writer to an annual
panegyric showed in the queen too much desire of hearing her own
praises, and a greater regard to herself than to him on whom her
bounty was conferred.  It was a kind of avaricious generosity, by
Mrs. Oldfield had formerly given him the same allowance with much
assistance, and was contented with doing good without stipulating
assumed the title of "Volunteer Laureate," not without some
reprehensions from Cibber, who informed him that the title of
bestow upon himself; and added that he might with equal propriety
usurpation of it could be imputed to him as an instance of very
which they were dispersed over the kingdom.
confined to the same subject, he should be at some times indolent
patronage; and, in others, as disconsolate to find himself
neglected.  Her promise, like other promises made to this
About this time not only his hopes were in danger of being
frustrated, but his pension likewise of being obstructed, by an
transaction was mentioned, and the whole series of the rioter's
imputation of sedition and ingratitude.  This demand was likewise
interest, or any other visible design than that of drawing upon
himself the attention of mankind.
conversation; and therefore Mr. Savage, in pursuance of his
character, endeavoured to become conspicuous among the
controvertists with which every coffee-house was filled on that
occasion.  He was an indefatigable opposer of all the claims of
ecclesiastical power, though he did not know on what they were
Rundle; for he was the friend of Mr. Foster and Mr. Thomson, who
were the friends of Mr. Savage.
inverted the accusation; and that he thought it reasonable to
But return of invective was not thought a sufficient punishment.
The Court of King's Bench was therefore moved against him; and he
intended to promote the practice of vice; but that Mr. Savage had
detestation, and of amending the age by showing the deformity of
such a manner as should expose them either to ridicule or
curiosity could make after him.  At length he appeared again,
confuted his own account of his conduct.
His politeness and his wit still raised him friends who were
petitioner, but of a friend to his friend."
Mr. Savage now concluded himself set at ease for ever, and, as he
To despair was not, however, the character of Savage; when one
patronage failed, he had recourse to another.  The Prince was now
equal danger of being disconcerted, he produced a poem "On Public
But though he may sometimes disappoint his reader by transient
attention, and excited the applause, of a poet.  The politician,
relieved; and the life which is overburthened by accidental
undisturbed repose.
which have been generally committed by the discoverers of new
regions, and to expose the enormous wickedness of making war upon
waste.  He has asserted the natural equality of mankind, and
endeavoured to suppress that pride which inclines men to imagine
that right is the consequence of power.  His description of the
various miseries which force men to seek for refuge in distant
countries affords another instance of his proficiency in the
benevolence.
It is observable that the close of this poem discovers a change
which experience had made in Mr. Savage's opinions.  In a poem
declared that in his opinion all the virtue of mankind was
comprehended in that state.
In describing villas and gardens he did not omit to condemn that
absurd custom which prevails among the English of permitting
"But what the flowering pride of gardens rare,
However royal, or however fair,
If gates which to excess should still give way,
Ope but, like Peter's paradise, for pay;
If perquisited varlets frequent stand,
And each new walk must a new tax demand;
What foreign eye but with contempt surveys?
What Muse shall from oblivion snatch their praise?"
But before the publication of his performance he recollected that
publication of these lines might be officiously represented as an
against the censures which the unseasonableness of it might draw
necessary, and restored it to the proper place.  The poem was,
therefore received no reward from his patron, however generous on
sold, though the performance was much commended by some whose
however allowed, in justification of the public, that this
performance is not the most excellent of Mr. Savage's works; and
that, though it cannot be denied to contain many striking
But no sooner had he received his pension than he withdrew to his
former distress, and for some part of the year generally lived by
lodged as much by accident as he dined, and passed the night
meanest and most profligate of the rabble; and sometimes, when he
walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the
summer upon the bulk, or in the winter, with his associate, in
poverty, among the ashes of a glass-house.
whose delicacy might have polished courts.  It cannot but be
imagined that such necessities might sometimes force him upon
"Though misery leads to happiness and truth,
Unequal to the load this languid youth,
(Oh, let none censure, if, untried by grief,
If, amidst woe, untempted by relief),
He stooped reluctant to low arts of shame,
Which then, e'en then, he scorned, and blushed to name."
Whoever was acquainted with him was certain to be solicited for
small sums, which the frequency of the request made in time
exigencies this comfort, that he always imagined himself sure of
inclination or intrude upon his gaiety.  His distresses, however
afflictive, never dejected him; in his lowest state he wanted not
submitted to be treated otherwise than as an equal.  Once when he
indeed not remarkable for moderation in his prosperity, left a
message that he desired to see him about nine in the morning.
determined, if he ever regained his allowance, to hold it only by
submission as the tyranny of affluence; and therefore Savage, by
writings feared him as a critic, and maligned him as a rival; and
Among these Mr. Miller so far indulged his resentment as to
introduce him in a farce, and direct him to be personated on the
severe for so impotent an assault.
The great hardships of poverty were to Savage not the want of
lodging or food, but the neglect and contempt which it drew upon
him.  He complained that, as his affairs grew desperate, he found
nothing above his reach which he should at any time earnestly
quality which could never be communicated to his money.
obtained.
expenses of the next.
former play, but made a total alteration of the plan, added new
incidents, and introduced new characters; so that it was a new
tragedy, not a revival of the former.
Many of his friends blamed him for not making choice of another
omitting to write on her death; but on her birthday next year he
gave a proof of the solidity of his judgment and the power of his
that it was impossible to travel in it without treading in the
footsteps of those who had gone before him; and that therefore it
would have thought it very difficult to connect in one view, but
The beauty of this peculiar combination of images is so masterly
king, in the most delicate and artful manner, of continuing his
pension.
With regard to the success of his address he was for some time in
determined in his affair, having reason to suspect that no great
It is said that he did not take those methods of retrieving his
interest which were most likely to succeed; and some of those who
violence in his proceedings; but Mr. Savage, who seldom regulated
distinction that was made between him and the other pensioners of
Whatever was the crime of which he was accused or suspected, and
generosity on every other occasion was eminent, procured him no
reward; Sir Robert Walpole, who valued himself upon keeping his
only.
clothes that had been designed for him were taken away.
His distress was now publicly known, and his friends therefore
concern "for the miserable withdrawing of this pension;" and gave
which we are pleased to call the Great."  The scheme proposed for
improvements, which would have required much time or great
application; and, when he had finished them, he designed to do
justice to his subscribers by publishing them according to his
proposals.  As he was ready to entertain himself with future
interruption from pride, or ignorance, or brutality.  With these
expectations he was so enchanted that when he was once gently
support himself, he could not bear to debar himself from the
happiness which was to be found in the calm of a cottage, or lose
bramble, and which he did not fail to mention as a very important
He now began very sensibly to feel the miseries of dependence.
consult how they should equip him.  This treatment was not very
peculiarity of his character.  Upon hearing the design that was
formed, he came to the lodging of a friend with the most violent
agonies of rage; and, being asked what it could be that gave him
such disturbance, he replied with the utmost vehemence of
indignation, "That they had sent for a tailor to measure him."
How the affair ended was never inquired, for fear of renewing his
retiring "for ever to a place where he should no more trouble his
this request, and that "so small a relation would not harden his
heart against him."
expostulations.  He very justly observed, that the style was too
hypocritically, ask it."  He remarked that his friend made a very
After many alterations and delays, a subscription was at length
however, was satisfied, and willing to retire, and was convinced
Full of these salutary resolutions, he left London in July, 1739,
sufficient, not only for the expense of his journey, but for his
therefore could not proceed without a remittance.  They then sent
At Bristol he found an embargo laid upon the shipping, so that he
After some stay at Bristol he retired to Swansea, the place
contracted, as in other places, acquaintance with those who were
This proposal he rejected with the utmost contempt.  He was by no
distresses, will find it no easy task to vindicate their conduct.
least the resentment it might provoke ought to have been generous
abandoned.  He might justly represent, that he ought to have been
release himself, and, with an intent to return to London, went to
kindness were not often to be expected, and that this ardour of
Another part of his misconduct was the practice of prolonging his
into which he was admitted.  This was an error in a place of
commerce which all the charms of his conversation could not
their houses.
But he did not spend all the time of his residence at Bristol in
returning to London, to bring his tragedy upon the stage; but,
conduct had already wearied some of those who were at first
enamoured of his conversation; but he might, perhaps, still have
devolved to others, whom he might have entertained with equal
success, had not the decay of his clothes made it no longer
consistent with their vanity to admit him to their tables, or to
slighted and neglected, in quest of a dinner, which he did not
always obtain.
To complete his misery, he was pursued by the officers for small
lodging, which was in the garret of an obscure inn.  Being thus
excluded on one hand, and confined on the other, he suffered the
neither be persuaded to go to bed in the night nor to rise in the
It is observable, that in these various scenes of misery he was
always disengaged and cheerful:  he at some times pursued his
studies, and at others continued or enlarged his epistolary
accusations and reproaches.
He had now no longer any hopes of assistance from his friends at
benevolence by observation of the use which was made of their
favours, and conviction that relief would be only momentary, and
that the same necessity would quickly return.
At last he quitted the house of his friend, and returned to his
lodgings at the inn, still intending to set out in a few days for
arrested for a debt of about eight pounds, which he owed at a
coffee-house, and conducted to the house of a sheriff's officer.
omitted.
"It was not a little unfortunate for me, that I spent yesterday's
believe nobody would choose.
"I was arrested at the suit of Mrs. Read, just as I was going
"In the first place, I must insist that you will industriously
conceal this from Mrs. S---s, because I would not have her good
nature suffer that pain which I know she would be apt to feel on
this occasion.
(God be praised!) I have in this, and have had in a much severer
resentment against Mrs. Read.  I believe she has ruined me, but I
peremptory command.
attend me for this day, not only for the sake of saving me the
philosophy, refined and exalted by those of Christianity."
When his friends, who had hitherto caressed and applauded, found
therefore, after having been for some time at the officer's house
By his removal to Newgate he obtained at least a freedom from
suspense, and rest from the disturbing vicissitudes of hope and
burthensome to him.  He was offered by some of his friends that a
determined only to write to some ministers of state, to try to
regain his pension."
He continued to complain of those that had sent him into the
This pamphlet was never written; for he in a very short time
"I now write to you from my confinement in Newgate, where I have
In another letter he observes, that he ranges from one subject to
another.
virtue of suffering well cannot be denied him.  The two powers
which, in the opinion of Epictetus, constituted a wise man, are
supported by him at his own table, without any certainty of a
recompense; had a room to himself, to which he could at any time
Virtue is undoubtedly most laudable in that state which makes it
most difficult; and therefore the humanity of a gaoler certainly
deserves this public attestation; and the man whose heart has not
tender gaoler."
print it with his name; but enjoined him not to communicate his
agreeable to his character, in the following terms:--
suppose that it was his will and pleasure to add it in his case:
would imagine.  You go on in saying, Suppose I should not put my
provoke those whom he could neither resist nor escape.
This resolution, from the execution of which it is probable that
only his death could have hindered him, is sufficient to show how
interruption succeeding another, hindered him from supplying the
chasm, and perhaps from retouching the other parts, which he can
hardly be imagined to have finished in his own opinion; for it is
criminals; for it was not pleasing to him to be much without
company; and though he was very capable of a judicious choice, he
He had now ceased from corresponding with any of his subscribers
show how much he was superior to their insults, had not all his
schemes been suddenly destroyed.
charge of very atrocious ingratitude, drawn up in such terms as
expense of the keeper.
Such were the life and death of Richard Savage, a man equally
impressed upon him.  He had the art of escaping from his own
reflections, and accommodating himself to every new scene.
To this quality is to be imputed the extent of his knowledge,
embellishes them.
entertain such odious ideas as some who perhaps had neither his
judgment nor experience, have published, either in ostentation of
their malice.
It cannot be said that he made use of his abilities for the
excited by the presence of its object, and that slavery to his
easily disgusted; but he is accused of retaining his hatred more
tenaciously than his benevolence.  He was compassionate both by
nature and principle, and always ready to perform offices of
humanity; but when he was provoked (and very small offences were
His friendship was therefore of little value; for though he was
gratitude; and would betray those secrets which in the warmth of
appearing in the form of insolence at one time, and of vanity at
another.  Vanity, the most innocent species of pride, was most
every other man's, and to reject that praise to which he had no
virtues; but his characters were generally true, so far as he
perverting the judgment.
against the objections of the critic, it must however be
acknowledged that his works are the productions of a genius truly
sentiments have a cast peculiar to themselves, which no man can
imitate with success, because what was nature in Savage would in
though sometimes forced, and his numbers sonorous and majestic,
For his life, or for his writings, none who candidly consider his
prosperity; and vanity surely may be readily pardoned in him, to
whom life afforded no other comforts than barren praises, and the
Those are no proper judges of his conduct who have slumbered away
presume to say, "Had I been in Savage's condition, I should have
lived or written better than Savage."
This relation will not be wholly without its use, if those who
languish under any part of his sufferings shall be enabled to
fortify their patience by reflecting that they feel only these
irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless, wit
ridiculous, and genius contemptible.
An account of Dr. Swift has been already collected, with great
sentiment.
Jonathan Swift was, according to an account said to be written by
himself an Englishman.  The question may, without much regret, be
(1682) was admitted into the University of Dublin.  In his
resolved from that time to study eight hours a day, and continued
pleasures, and who having lost one part of life in idleness, are
When he was about one-and-twenty (1688), being by the death of
Godwin Swift, his uncle, who had supported him, left without
subsistence, he went to consult his mother, who then lived at
Temple, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, had lived in great
familiarity of friendship with Godwin Swift, by whom Jonathan had
pleased, that he detained him two years in his house.  Here he
garden, showed him how to cut asparagus in the Dutch way.  King
complying with a bill then depending for making parliaments
predetermination of the king; and used to mention this
everybody eats as much fruit as he can get, without any great
inconvenience.  The disease of Swift was giddiness with deafness,
It is easy to imagine that the mode in which his first degree was
omitted; and he took his Master's degree (July 5, 1692) with such
lodging, where he purchased clean sheets for sixpence.  This
practice Lord Orrery imputes to his innate love of grossness and
vulgarity:  some may ascribe it to his desire of surveying human
life through all its varieties:  and others, perhaps with equal
conversation; and grew so impatient, that (1694) he went away in
which, according to his kinsman's account, was an office which he
prebend, which he desired him to resign.  With this request Swift
Swift began early to think, or to hope, that he was a poet, and
wrote Pindaric Odes to Temple, to the king, and to the Athenian
prebend that should be vacant at Westminster or Canterbury.  That
deanery.  At Laracor he increased the parochial duty by reading
Soon after his settlement at Laracor, he invited to Ireland the
unfortunate Stella, a young woman whose name was Johnson, the
Swift was not one of those minds which amaze the world with early
have, should hire me to write the 'Tale of a Tub.'"
understand the two controversies, or he willingly misrepresented
them.  But Wit can stand its ground against Truth only a little
anonymous protestation prefixed, in which all knowledge of the
French book is peremptorily disowned.
Astrology under the name of "Bickerstaff;" the "Argument against
"The Sentiments of a Church of England Man" is written with great
materials?  What other subject, through all art or nature, could
have produced Tindal for a profound author, or furnished him with
"Bickerstaff," induced Steele, when he projected the Tatler, to
assume an appellation which had already gained possession of the
reader's notice.
In the year following he wrote a "Project for the Advancement of
Soon after began the busy and important part of Swift's life.  He
Harley's designs and situation were such as made him glad of an
auxiliary so well qualified for his service:  he therefore soon
admitted him to familiarity, whether ever to confidence some have
conversation, and mentions something contributed by him to his
thought, with great reason, that the Ministers were losing
succession undetermined.  Not knowing what to do, he did nothing;
Swift seems to have concurred in opinion with the "October Club;"
Early in the next year he published a "Proposal for Correcting,
instituting an academy; the decrees of which every man would have
Swift now attained the zenith of his political importance:  he
published (1712) the "Conduct of the Allies," ten days before the
have been continued without end, if he could have continued his
wonder-working pamphlet with cool perusal, will confess that its
efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers; that it
operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little assistance
This year (1712) he published his "Reflections on the Barrier
treats him like one whom he is glad of an opportunity to insult.
Swift, being now the declared favourite and supposed confidant of
interposition many Whigs of merit, and among them Addison and
Congreve, were continued in their places.  But every man of known
Much has been said of the equality and independence which he
accounts of this kind a few single incidents are set against the
general tenour of behaviour.  No man, however, can pay a more
magnanimity; nor have often any nobler cause than the pride of
importance, and the malice of inferiority.  He who knows himself
necessary may set, while that necessity lasts, a high value upon
qualities.  His disinterestedness has likewise been mentioned; a
strain of heroism which would have been in his condition romantic
friends could venture to give him.  That Ministry was in a great
Swift contrived an interview, from which they both departed
discontented; he procured a second, which only convinced him that
sometimes with contempt, and sometimes with abhorrence.  In this
pamphlet the Scotch were mentioned in terms so provoking to that
Parliament, particularly by two men, afterwards of great note,
Aislabie and Walpole.  But, by the disunion of his great friends,
services at last useless, he retired about June (1714) into
politics; and nothing remained but to withdraw from the
implacability of triumphant Whiggism, and shelter himself in
unenvied obscurity.
think is true, that they speak of different times.  When Delany
says, that he was received with respect, he means for the first
fortnight, when he came to take legal possession; and when Lord
Orrery tells that he was pelted by the populace, he is to be
understood of the time when, after the Queen's death, he became a
between prudence and integrity, he was seldom in the wrong; and
that, when he was right, his spirit did not easily yield to
opposition.
possession of his mind, when he first waked, for many years
together.  He opened his house by a public table two days a week,
contracted, and he continued it for the pleasure of accumulating
money.  His avarice, however, was not suffered to obstruct the
life; they lived in different houses, as before; nor did she ever
giddiness.  "It would be difficult," says Lord Orrery, "to prove
that they were ever afterwards together without a third person."
The Dean of St. Patrick's lived in a private manner, known and
regarded only by his friends; till, about the year 1720, he, by a
improvement, of their manufactures.  For a man to use the
imprisoned; and, as Hawkesworth justly observes, the attention of
proposal, the author was by consequence made popular.
In 1723 died Mrs. Van Homrigh, a woman made unhappy by her
admiration of wit, and ignominiously distinguished by the name of
fond of his person.  Swift was then about forty-seven, at an age
indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other
honest plea can be found than that he delayed a disagreeable
discovery from time to time, dreading the immediate bursts of
excellence and confessed his love.  The effect of the publication
house of a cheerful, generous, good-natured friend of the Dean's,
beloved and largely acquainted, it happened one day that some
gentlemen dropped in to dinner, who were strangers to Stella's
situation; and as the poem of 'Cadenus and Vanessa' was then the
general topic of conversation, one of them said, 'Surely that
known that the Dean could write finely upon a broomstick.'"
The great acquisition of esteem and influence was made by the
"Drapier's Letters," in 1724.  One Wood, of Wolverhampton, in
inconvenient and embarrassing scarcity of copper coin, so that it
frightened into a special verdict, now presented the Drapier, but
Lord Carteret and the Privy Council published a proclamation,
offering three hundred pounds for discovering the author of the
Fourth Letter.  Swift had concealed himself from his printers and
butler.
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 benefit was indeed great; he had rescued Ireland from a very
exculpated himself by saying, "If I had lifted up my finger, they
conversation was to him the great softener of the ills of life,
considered as hopeless.  Swift was then in England, and had been
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
This important year sent likewise into the world "Gulliver's
which she never meant to raise, the event was that he always
enough of recommencing courtier, and endeavoured to gain the
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 turned to a home of sorrow:  poor Stella was sinking
wished her life his papers show; 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.
demands, and prescribing conditions that could not be performed.
literature, for she could not spell her own language; and of her
wit, so loudly vaunted, the smart sayings which Swift himself has
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
Bettesworth was so little satisfied with this account, that he
Swift was popular awhile by another mode of beneficence.  He set
forced to drop his scheme, and own the folly of expecting
punctuality from the poor.
years increased, his fits of giddiness and deafness grew more
frequent, and his deafness made conversation difficult; they grew
expectation of a dinner, his custom was to give every one a
shilling, that they might please themselves with their provision.
refuse a bottle of wine, and in Ireland no man visits where he
spectacles, he could make like little use of books in his latter
vacant to the vexations of the hour, till at last his anger was
heightened into madness.  He, however, permitted one book to be
published, which had been the production of former years--"Polite
upon great things, busy with minute occurrences.  It is apparent
mouthfuls:  but he would never touch it while the servant stayed,
walking; for he continued his old habit, and was on his feet ten
hours a day.  Next year (1742) he had an inflammation in his left
parts; he was kept long waking with the pain, and was not easily
restrained by five attendants from tearing out his eye.
recovery; but in a few days he sank into a lethargic stupidity,
November, told him that the usual bonfires and illuminations were
When Swift is considered as an author, it is just to estimate his
have dictated for a time the political opinions of the English
riches and prosperity.  He taught them first to know their own
guardian, and obeyed him as a dictator.
In his works he has given very different specimens both of
sentiments and expression.  His "Tale of a Tub" has little
resemblance to his other pieces.  It exhibits a vehemence and
written.  In his other works is found an equable tenour of easy
language, which rather trickles than flows.  His delight was in
necessity than choice.  He studied purity; and though perhaps all
passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration:  he always
understands himself, and his readers always understand him:  the
peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be
sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common
conveyance of meaning it was Swift's desire to attain, and for
attentive.  He managed the revenues of his church with exact
economy; and it is said by Delany, that more money was, under his
testimony of skilful judges.
In his church he restored the practice of weekly communion, and
careful to hide the good which he did, but willingly incurred the
formerly asserted, that hypocrisy is less mischievous than open
scrupulosity, did not look clear.  He had a countenance sour and
severe, which he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety.  He
vigilance of minute attention which his works discover, must have
In his economy he practised a peculiar and offensive parsimony,
without disguise or apology.  The practice of saving being once
general practice, is a kind of defiance which justly provokes the
Of his humour, a story told by Pope may afford a specimen.
facts.  I'll tell you one that first comes into my head.  One
operation.
Of Swift's general habits of thinking, if his Letters can be
Pope it might be inferred that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had
engrossed all the understanding and virtue of mankind; that their
employment, and splendid friendships; but when time had enabled
querulousness was now grown habitual, and he cried out when he
probably had ceased to feel.  His reiterated wailings persuaded
Bolingbroke that he was really willing to quit his deanery for an
rejected; and Swift still retained the pleasure of complaining.
revolving ideas, from which almost every other mind shrinks with
"My Lord, when you consider Swift's singular, peculiar, and most
uprightness in making right resolutions, and his steadiness in
adhering to them; his care of his church, its choir, its economy,
"All this considered, the character of his life will appear like
that of his writings; they will both bear to be reconsidered, and
beauties and excellences upon every examination.
malignity, or envy interposes to cloud or sully his fame, I take
upon me to pronounce, that the eclipse will not last long.
watchful, and a faithful counsellor, under many severe trials and
always light, and have the qualities which recommend such
compositions, easiness and gaiety.  They are, for the most part,
humour.
ancient or modern.  This is not literally true; but perhaps no