The Life Of Jonathon Swift

[Found on one of my hard drives – I have not read it all – posted for educational purposes]

Swift was a mysterious character,full of opposing attitudes, loyalties,and contradictions.

Swift was a sympathetic man, he was also temperamental, power driven, extremely active,and fearful of gossip.
Swift possessed a great deal of political power in his day, both in England and in Ireland. Swift spent most of his life traveling between England and Ireland: he never traveled anywhere else. Swift did not like to disclose facts about his life, and when he wrote of his life he would refer to himself in the third person. Swift would praise himself in poetry in a conspicious way. Swift wrote about many subjects: politics, religion, manners, and education. Swift
was famous for the offensive tone of his poetry, but in his speeches Swift was pure, delightful, and witty. Swift cherished his grandfather Swift. Swift had a tombstone made in his grandfather’s memory, and he studied his grandfather’s diary, even though he never had the pleasure of meeting him. Swift never knew his father either, who died seven months before he was born, on November 30, 1667. Swift was very troulbled because he had never met his father. Swift referred to his birth as “being dropped rather than born in Irish soil.” Swift said on his birthday he would read the third chapter of the Book of Job.

Swift’s parents were married three years before his birth; Swift also had a sister, Jane, who was two years older than he. Swift’s mother was ten years older than his
father and she came from a lower social class. There are two versions of Swift’s birth. The first states he was born premature at seven months and conceived before
his parents were married and after his father’s death. The second states he was born at term seven months before his father died; therefore, the father did not know of the pregnancy or of his existence. The fact that Swift’s father was not present caused a great deal of gossip at the time.

Swift’s mother was English and her father was a butcher, some say. Swift’s father was also named Jonathon, and he migrated to Ireland from England, Swift’s father came from a family of several brothers and he was the least succesful of the brothers. When Swift’s father passed away he left numerous debts. Abigail Erik Swift, Swift’s mother, had to ask her husband’s brother Godwin to pay the debts she had been left with. Swift wrote of himself that he had been a weak baby, when he was a year old he was kidnapped by his nurse without the consent or knowledge of his uncle or mother. He was not returned to his mother, until three years later
when he was around four years old. Swift’s relationship with sister Jane is unclear.

Swift had a fairly normal childhood, and he was accelerated in his studies. Swift studied at Trinity, for his Masters degree. Swift found employment at the household of Sir William Temple, a friend of the Swift family for years. During Swift’s employment in the temple household, Swift became friends with a young widow, a Mrs Johnson, a lady-in-waiting who had an eighteen-year-old daughter, Hester, Swift took an interest in Hester. Hester was one of three woman who played an important part in Swift’s adult life. The two other girls were Jane Waring and Hester Vanhomrigh. Swift feared woman and thought they were filthy; this was written so
frequently in all of Swift’s work that it appears as one of the dominant themes of his life.

Swift gave a nickname to each of the three girls he was interested in, Jene Waring he named Varina, Hester Johnson he named Stella, and Vanhomrigh he called
Vanessa. Each of these three girls were daughters of widows. There was never any official documentation that Swift was married, but there was a rumor that he
married Stella in 1716. In 1718, Swift wrote a birthday poem commemerating Stella’s thirty-eighth birthday.

Vanessa died in 1723, and Swift became politically active in a noble cause that sought to relieve the suffering people of Ireland. During 1724, Swift wrote a series
of letters under the name M.B. Drapier, becoming a friend to the Irish because of the coinage of the half-pence. The right the King had unfairly granted to a relative of his mistress. Two years later Swift completed Gulliver’s Travels, which he started writing before Vanessa died. This series of stories was one of Swift’s most popular works. On the whole Swift seems to have been both feared and respected by his contemporaries. His wonderful wit and vast knowledge won him social recognition and his periodic dealings in politics brought him admiration. Stella was forty-seven when she passed away. Swift was with Stella almost till the end and the end came while Swift was hosting a dinner party. He could not bear to attend Stella’s funeral, but he sat in the next room in the church. Swift died when he was seventy-eight in Dublin, on October 19th, 1745. He left his fortune to establish an institution for madman.