May 1st. Up betimes. Called by my tailor, and there first put on a summer suit this year; but it was not my fine one of flowered tabby vest, and coloured camelott tunique, because it was too fine with the gold lace at the bands, that I was afraid to be seen in it; but put on the stuff suit I made the last year, which is now repaired; and so did go to the Office in it, and sat all the morning, the day looking as if it would be fowle. At noon home to dinner, and there find my wife extraordinary fine, with her flowered tabby gown that she made two years ago, now laced exceeding pretty; and, indeed, was fine all over; and mighty earnest to go, though the day was very lowering; and she would have me put on my fine suit, which I did. And so anon we went alone through the town with our new liveries of serge, and the horses' manes and tails tied with red ribbons, and the standards gilt with varnish, and all clean, and green reines, that people did mightily look upon us; and, the truth is, I did not see any coach more pretty, though more gay, than our's, all the day. But we set out, out of humour

- I because Betty, whom I expected, was not come to go with us; and my wife that I would sit on the same seat with her, which she likes not, being so fine: and she then expected to meet Sheres, which we did in the Pell Mell, and, against my will, I was forced to take him into the coach, but was sullen all day almost, and little complaisant: the day being unpleasing, though the Park full of coaches, but dusty, and windy, and cold, and now and then a little dribbling of rain; and, what made it worse, there were so many hackney-coaches as spoiled the sight of the gentlemen's; and so we had little pleasure. But here was W. Batelier and his sister in a borrowed coach by themselves, and I took them and we to the lodge; and at the door did give them a syllabub, and other things, cost me 12s., and pretty merry. And so back to the coaches, and there till the evening, and then home, leaving Mr. Sheres at St. James's Gate, where he took leave of us for altogether, he being this night to set out for Portsmouth post, in his way to Tangier, which troubled my wife mightily, who is mighty, though not, I think, too fond of him.

JONATHAN SWIFT

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL TO STELLA

[From the Journal to Stella. Written 1710-1713; published in part 1766, 1768; complete 1784. Edited by G. A. Aitken, Methuen & Co., London,

1901.

SWIFT, JONATHAN (1667–1745), dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and satirist; cousin of Dryden and son of Jonathan Swift by Abigail (Erick) of Leicester; born at Dublin after his father's death; grandson of Thomas Swift, the well-known royalist vicar of Goodrich, who was descended from a Yorkshire family, a member of which, 'Cavaliero' Swifte, was created Baron Carlingford, 1627; educated at Kilkenny grammar school, where Congreve was a schoolfellow, and at Trinity College, Dublin, 1682; neglected his studies, showed an impatience of restraint, was publicly censured for offences against discipline, and only obtained his degree by the 'special grace'; attributed his recklessness himself to the neglect of his family, for whom he felt little regard; joined his mother at Leicester on the troubles which followed the expulsion of James II; admitted into the household of Sir William Temple, who had known his uncle Godwin, c. 1692, where he acted as his secretary; introduced to William III and sent by Temple to him, to convince him of the necessity for triennial parliaments, 1693; wrote pindarics, one being printed in the 'Athenian Mercury,' 1692, which, according to Dr. Johnson, provoked Dryden's remark, 'Cousin Swift, you will never be a poet'; chafed at his position of dependence, and was indignant at Temple's delay in procuring him preferment; left Temple's service, returned to Ireland, was ordained, 1694, and was given the small prebend of Kilroot; returned to Temple at Moor Park, 1696; read deeply, mostly classics and history, and edited Temple's correspondence; wrote (1697) 'The Battle of the Books,' which was published in 1704, together with 'The Tale of a Tub,' his famous and powerful satire of theological shams and pedantry; met 'Stella,' Esther Johnson [q. v.], who was an inmate of Temple's family at the time; went again to Ireland on the death of Temple, 1699; given a prebend in St. Patrick's, Dublin, and Laracor, with other livings; made frequent visits to Dublin and London; D.D. Dublin, 1701; wrote his 'Discourse on the Dissensions in Athens and Rome' with reference to the impeachment of the whig lords, 1701; in his visit to London, 1705 and 1707, became acquainted with Addison, Steele, Congreve, and Halifax; entrusted (1707) with a mission to obtain the grant of Queen Anne's bounty for Ireland; wrote some pamphlets on religious or church subjects; published 'Letter on the Sacramental Test,' 1708, an attack on the Irish presbyterians which, though anonymous, injured him with the whigs; in disgust at the whig alliance with dissent, ultimately went over to the tories on his next visit to England, 1710; attacked the whig ministers in pamphlets, in the 'Examiner,' November 1710 to June 1711, and wrote the Conduct of the Allies,' 1711; became dean of St. Patrick's, 1713; had already commenced the 'Journal to Stella,' had become intimate with the tory ministers, and had used his influence in helping young and impoverished authors, including Pope and Steele; returned to England, 1713, to reconcile Bolingbroke and Harley, but in vain;

wrote more pamphlets, notably 'The Public Spirit of the Whigs considered,' 1714, in reply to Steele's 'Crisis,' but at length gave up all for lost and retired to the country; left for Ireland, 1715, after the fall of the ministry and the death of Queen Anne; his marriage to Stella, an incident which still remains unproven, and also his final rupture with 'Vanessa' (Miss Vanhomrigh, whose acquaintance he had made in London), supposed to have taken place about this time; his rupture with Vanessa the cause of her death, before which she entrusted to her executors his poem 'Cadenus and Vanessa,' which relates the story of their love affair; though always contemptuous of the Irish, was led, by his personal antipathies to the whigs, to acquire a sense of their unfair dealings with Ireland; successfully prevented the introduction of 'Wood's Half-pence' into Ireland by his famous 'Drapier Letters,' 1724; came to England, 1726, visited Pope and Gay, and dined with Walpole, for whose behoof he afterwards wrote a letter complaining of the treatment of Ireland, which had, however, no effect on the minister; broke with Walpole in consequence; was introduced to Queen Caroline, but gained nothing by it; published Gulliver's Travels,' 1726; made his last visit to England, 1727, when the death of George I created for a moment hopes of dislodging Walpole; wrote some of his most famous tracts and some of his most characteristic poems during these last years in Ireland; kept up his correspondence with Bolingbroke, Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot, and though remaining aloof from Dublin society, maintained good relations with Lord Carteret, the lord-lieutenant; attracted to himself a small circle of friends, and was adored by the people; set up a monument to Schomberg in the cathedral at his own expense, spent a third of his income on charities, and saved up another third to found a charitable institution at his death, St. Patrick's Hospital (opened, 1757); symptoms of the illness from which he appears to have suffered all his life very marked, c. 1738; buried by the side of Stella, in St. Patrick's, Dublin, his own famous inscription, 'ubi sæva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit,' being inscribed on his tomb. Dr. Johnson, Macaulay, and Thackeray, among many other writers, were alienated by his ferocity, which was, however, the result of noble qualities soured by hard experience. His indignation at oppression and unfairness was genuine. His political writings are founded on common sense pure and simple, and he had no party bias. His works, with the exception of the letter upon the correction of the language, 1712, were all anonymous, and for only one, 'Gulliver's Travels,' did he receive any payment (200l.). A large number of publications appear to have been attributed to him by different editors without sufficient authority. — Index and Epitome of D. Ñ. B.

"Swift has left one monument, which he would not himself have recognized as of any literary value, but which the world, most assuredly, will never allow to die. This is the Journal to Stella: a continuous series of letters in which he depicts, for her who, in all his busy and bustling surroundings, ever occupied the place closest to his heart, the scenes in which he moved. Half the charm of the Journal lies in its absolute ease and unconsciousness of effort; in the humour alternately playful and sarcastic, in the pathos and the anger, in the fierce self-assertion which would not conceal itself, in the fidelity which made his genius the willing servant of smaller men who played the part of his patrons in a word, in all those varying traits which reflect Swift's character so exactly, and which let us see him at once in his pride, and in his tenderness, in his power, and in his weakness. We see him as the

confidant of ministers, and the dispenser of patronage: as the frequenter of the Court, and the companion of the great, and, again, as the boon companion of the victors and the vanquished in the world of letters; as the friend of Addison, of Congreve, of Atterbury, of Arbuthnot, of Pope; as the protector of Parnell and others more obscure who had fallen into misfortune; and as the fierce combatant, who enjoyed recounting his triumphs to the one listener, so far removed, for whom all that affected him was the first interest of life." SIR HENRY CRAIK, Selections from Swift, Vol. I, pp. 19-20. 1892.

"I know of nothing more manly, more tender, more exquisitely touching, than some of these brief notes, written in what Swift calls 'his little language' in his journal to Stella. He writes to her night and morning often. He never sends away a letter to her but he begins a new one on the same day. He can't bear to let go her kind little hand, as it were. He knows that she is thinking of him, and longing for him far away in Dublin yonder. He takes her letters from under his pillow and talks to them, familiarly, paternally, with fond epithets and pretty caresses - as he would to the sweet and artless creature who loved him. 'Stay,' he writes one morning—it is the 14th of December, 1710 - 'Stay, I will answer some of your letter this morning in bed. Let me see. Come and appear, little letter! Here I am, says he, and what say you to Stella this morning fresh and fasting? And can Stella read this writing without hurting her dear eyes?' he goes on, after more kind prattle and fond whispering. The dear eyes shine clearly upon him thenthe good angel of his life is with him and blessing him.". WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, "Swift," in The English Humourists of the Eighteenth Century. 1853.]

London, Oct. 22, 1710. I was this morning with Mr. Lewis, the under-secretary to Lord Dartmouth, two hours, talking politics, and contriving to keep Steele in his office of stamped paper: he has lost his place of Gazetteer, three hundred pounds a year, for writing a Tatler,1 some months ago, against Mr. Harley, who gave it him at first, and raised the salary from sixty to three hundred pounds. This was devilish ungrateful; and Lewis was telling me the particulars: but I had a hint given me, that I might save him in the other employment: and leave was given me to clear matters with Steele. Well, I dined with Sir Matthew Dudley, and in the evening went to sit with Mr. Addison, and offer the matter at distance to him, as the discreeter person; but found party 3 had so possessed him, that he talked as if he suspected me, and would not fall in with anything I said. So I stopped short in my overture, and we parted very drily; and I shall say nothing

3

1 No. 193.

2 Robert Harley: raised to the peerage in May, 1711, as Earl of Oxford, and made Lord High Treasurer.

3 Swift was a Tory; Addison and Steele were Whigs. For the life of Sir Richard Steele see post, p. 425.

to Steele, and let them do as they will; but, if things stand as they are, he will certainly lose it, unless I save him; and therefore I will not speak to him, that I may not report to his disadvantage. Is not this vexatious? and is there so much in the proverb of proferred service? When shall I grow wise? I endeavour to act in the most exact points of honour and conscience; and my nearest friends will not understand it so. What must a man expect from his enemies? This would vex me, but it shall not; and so I bid you good-night, etc.

23. I know 'tis neither wit nor diversion to tell you every day where I dine; neither do I write it to fill my letter; but I fancy I shall, some time or other, have the curiosity of seeing some particulars how I passed my life when I was absent from MD1 this time; and so I tell you now that I dined to-day at Molesworth's, the Florence Envoy, then went to the Coffee-house, where I behaved myself coldly enough to Mr. Addison, and so came home to scribble. We dine together to-morrow and next day by invitation; but I shall alter my behaviour to him, till he begs my pardon, or else we shall grow bare acquaintance. I am weary of friends; and friendships are all monsters, but MD's.

March 7, 1710-11. . . . And so you say that Stella is a pretty girl; and so she be, and methinks I see her just now as handsome as the day is long. Do you know what? when I am writing in our language, I make up my mouth just as if I was speaking it. I caught myself at it just now. And I suppose Dingley is so fair and so fresh as a lass in May, and has her health, and no spleen. In your account you sent do you reckon as usual from the 1st of November was twelvemonth? Poor Stella, will not Dingley leave her a little daylight to write to Presto? Well, well, we'll have daylight shortly, spite of her teeth; and zoo must cly Lele and

The 'little language' which Swift used when writing to Stella (Esther Johnson) was the language he employed when playing with her as a little child at Moor Park. It is marked chiefly by such changes of letters (e.g., for n, or n for l) as a child makes when learning to speak. Swift is Presto, and Pdfr, sometimes Podefar (perhaps Poor dear foolish rogue). Stella is Ppt (Poor pretty thing). MD (my dears) usually stands for both Stella and Mrs. Dingley, but sometimes for Stella alone. Mrs. Dingley is indicated by ME (Madame Elderly). The letters FW may mean Farewell, or Foolish Wenches. Lele seems to be There, there, and sometimes Truly.-G. A. AITKEN.