.•A\;':y^;:r;-..tv;!.a^F si Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/closingyearsofdeOOwildrich ,» r c^,^^^4^<^/V^ ,^^«^ OsfcAcr Jcrli nscm ]JublIjt.]Jo(Iy/es.^ Smith /,y /.y. THE CLOSING YeA.li^,. OF DEAN SWIFT'S LIFE; WITH EEMARKS ON STELLA, AND OX SOME OF HIS WRITINGS HITHERTO UNNOTICED. BY W. R. WILDE, M. R. L A., F. R. C. S., AUTHOR OF " NARRATIVE OP A VOYAGE TO MADEIRA, TENERIFFE, AND THE SHORES OP THE MEDITERRANEAN {" ••AUSTRIA AND ITS INSnTUTlONS ;" " MEDICAL MEMOIR IN THE IRISH CENSUS noble Festus." SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENURGED. DUBLIN: HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFTON-STREET. LONDON : LONGMAN, BROWN, AND CO. SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 1849. •:V .V • • ••••; •• • Memn DUBLIN : PBINTED AT THE UNIVEKSITY PBESS, By M. H. GILL. TO WILLIAM STOKES, M.D., IN TESTIMONY OF MANY YEARS OE UNINTERRUPTED FRIENDSHIP, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED. 175366 / PREFACE. To the interest which still attaches to everything con- nected with the name or history of Swift, I must at- tribute the very rapid sale of the former edition of this little work. Occupations of a more urgent nature than literature, as well as a desire carefully to revise the whole of this book, and to add much additional infor- mation, which I had acquired since the publication of the former edition, have conduced to delay the publica- tion of the present work until now. Much of the first portion of this Essay, — that in which the question of Swift's insanity is considered, — originally appeared in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science for 1847, in answer to a communication upon the subject, addressed to me in August, 1846, by my friend, Dr. Mackenzie, of Glasgow. To this distin- guished physician, who first called my attention to the subject of the disease of the eccentric Dean, the public are indebted for any interest which this Essay may possess, or any additional light which it may throw upon his character and writings. VI PREFACE. During the progress of my researches, while col- lecting materials for the papers which appeared in the Dublin Quarterly Journal, many curious and hitherto unnoticed facts, chiefly of a literary nature, presented themselves. These, with several most interesting do- cuments, contained in printed broadsides, and manu- scripts of the Dean's, which have very lately been dis- covered, will be found incorporated in the present edition, which has been carefully revised, considerably enlarged, and the entire arrangement of it recast. The mechanical arrangements of headings to the pages, and a Table of Contents, will, I trust, be found of assistance to the reader. Dublin, 21, Westland-row, July, 1849. CONTENTS. Page. Introduction, 1 Letter from Dr. Mackenzie, 3" Commencement of Dean Swift's niness in 1690, 6 Swift's Residence in London in 1711, 8 His Deafness and Tlireatenings of Gout, 1213 First Symptoms of Paralysis and Loss of Memory, 15,16 His Physicians, 17 TheDeathof Stella in 1728, 22 Unpublished Correspondence with Knightly Chetwode, Esq., 25 The Dean's Verses on his own Death, 28 HisVisit to Sheridan in 1735, 32 Decay of his Sight, 34 Swift's Opinion of the Doctors, 36 His Despondency and Loss of Spirits, 37 His Want of Abstemiousness, 39 His last Prose Writings, 42 His last Poetic Effusion, 44 His Ophthalmic Affection, 45, 66 Examination of the Proofs given of Swift's Insanity, 47 His Death in 1745, 49 The second Post Mortem Examination in 1835, 51 Identification of Swift's Remains, 52 Opinion of the Phrenologists on Swift's Skull, 54 Pathological Appearances of Swift's Brain and Skull, 57, 59 The Cast in Trinity College brought to Light, 60 A Summary of the Dean's Case, 64 Was Swift ever Insane ? 67 VIU CONTENTS. Page. Did Swift expire a "Driv'ler and a Show," 70 Parallel between Swift's and Scott's Disease, 71 Mistakes of the Phrenologists, 73 Errors with Respect to Delany's Life of Swift, 73 The Erection of St. Patrick's Hospital, 78 Letter from Sir William Fownes, 80 Letter to Eaton Stannard, 83 Ingratitude towards Swift by the Governors of Saint Patrick's Hospital, ... 86 The Bust in the Library of Trinity College, 87 Unpublished Letter of Swift, to Dr. Clarke, F. T. C. D., 88 Unpublished Letter to the Right Hon. William Walker, Lord Mayor of Dublin, 90 Swift's House in Hoey's Court, 92 Some of the modem Yilifiers of Swift, 94 Swift's Treatment of Stella. Is the Account of it true ? 96 Stella's Will and Autograph, 97 The Question of Stella's Marriage with Swift investigated, 103,107 Stella supposed to be the Daughter of Sir William Temple, 109 Conjectured Relationship between Swift and Stella, 112 The Causes of Swift's Celibacy, , 113 Stella rersMs Vanessa, 116 Stella's Character and Personal Appearance, 119 Her Skull and Monument, 120, 121 Her Portrait, 123 The Medallion at Delville, 125 Description of Harward's and other Irish early Almanacs, 126 Recovery of some of Swift's Manuscript Poems, 128 The Poems on Aflfairs of State, 130 The Birth of the Prince of Wales in 1688, 131 Various Poems on the Circumstance, supposed to be Swift's, 134, 135 The Advice to the Prince of Orange, and Pacquet Boat returned, .... 136, 137 The Gentleman at Large's Litany, 139 Clerical Theatricals in Dublin in 1691, 141 Lampoon upon the Irish Court and Bar, 142 The early Histoiy of the Irish Stage, 143 The Lanesborough Manuscript, or Whimsical Miscellany, 144 The Duel between two Physicians, 145 Rochester's Poems, 148 The Picture of a Chancellor in 1699, and The Fable, 152 The Thanksgiving, 153 Description of Francis Higgins, the Irish Sacheverel, 154 The Kilmainham Sessions of 1711, 156 The Whig's Lamentation, an unnoticed Poem of Swift's, 157 j CONTENTS. IX Page. j Dr. Barrett's Ess), we acknowledge that they rather strengthen the assertion of the phrenologists, for they exhibit six dif- ferent forms of head, bearing but little resemblance to each other, although three or four of them were undoubtedly taken about the same time ; yet they all more or less present the sloping forehead. But sculptors, even still less than painters, cannot be relied on for anatomical accuracy in the form of heads, and of this fact we might adduce many proofs. Al- though the forehead was so retiring that, at one of the meet- ings of the Dublin Phrenological Society it was stated, " that the man must have been apparently an idiot," in reality the capacity of the cranium was, as Mr. Hamilton has shown, very great. Before we dismiss this portion of the subject, we may re- mark, that the evidences of Swift's " violent and furious lunacy," his "frantic fits of passion," and his "situation of a helpless changeling," quoted from Sir Walter Scott's Life by the Phre- nological Journalists, as proving their position, are only to be (a) It appears that different engravings were made for each edition of Orrery's work. The best is that by B. Wilson, in 1751 ; there was another by Wheatley, in 1752; the one by Revenet is prefixed to the third edition: it is a reverse of that by Wilson. (6) We know of six busts of Swift in Dublin: that placed by T. Faulkner over the monument in St. Patrick's is a very admirable one, and it strikingly exhibits the sloping forehead, as any one may see who examines it by stand- ing upon the steps of Archbishop Smith's monument, on the opposite side of the aisle ; there are besides this, one at Charlemont House; one by Van Nost, in the possession of Mrs. Crampton of Kildare-street ; one by Cunningham, belonging to Godwin Swift, Esq. ; that in the University ; and the small one belonging to Mr. Watkins, already described. 76 swift's biographers. relied on so far as they accord with the extracts from those letters of Mr. Swift and Mrs. Whiteway which we have already given, for Sir Walter had no further means of knowing the Dean's condition. The circumstance of Dean Swift's head exhibiting small intellectual and large animal propensities — little wit and great amativeness — has not yet been accounted for by the votaries of phrenology. Throughout the previous pages we have not made refe- rences to the works from which we have derived our informa- tion, as they would require almost as much space as the text itself. Our principal authority was the first and last five vo- lumes of Scott's edition of Swift's Works, particularly his epis- tolary correspondence. To these may be added, Orrery's, Hawkesworth's, Deane Swift's, Sheridan's, Johnson's, Faulk- ner's, Nicholl's, Berkeley's, Roscoe's, Wills's, and Mr. Monck Mason's biographies, which were published either separately, or attached to editions of his works. A very remarkable and very general popular error exists with respect to one of Swift's biographers. Having met fre- quent allusions to " Delany's Life of Swift," and even seen quotations purporting to be from it, we anxiously sought for it, first in all the public libraries, and then among our literary friends, and, in the outset, the recovery of this very generally known work seemed comparatively easy ; for notwithstanding that it was not contained in any of the catalogues of libraries, all tlie persons connected with these institutions informed us that they were perfectly familiar with it, and would certainly have it for us on our next visit. Most of the publishers and booksellers knew it, they said, by appearance, but were unable just at that moment to lay their hands upon it. Our literary acquaintances had all seen it, several had read it, and two of them went so far as to say they possessed it, and would send it to us in the morning. Still the book could not be procured either here or in London. The only difference of opinion among those most delany's life of swift. 77 familiar with it was as to whether it was published in quarto or octavo. Having at length, after considerable search, assured ourselves that no such work had ever existed, our conviction was greatly staggered by finding in the first general catalogue published by the Royal Society, the following entry : *' Delany, Patrick, — A Supplement to Swift's Life, containing Miscellanies by the Dean, Sheridan, Johnson, &c., with notes by the Editor (J. Nicholls). 4to. London, 1779." This appeared all but conclusive ; not quite so, however. Our friend, Dr. Madden, who was at the time in London, undertook to examine the work it- self, and has thus answered our inquiries: "With regard to this work of Delany on Swift's life, which you were so long in search of, and which so many people speak of, but cannot show, lo ! no such work of Delany's exists — no such work was ever written by Delany ; the book described in the R. S. catalogue is wrongly described, for, on examining it, 1 find it is 'A Sup- plement to Swift's Life, containing Miscellanies by the Dean, Dr. Delany, Sheridan, Johnson, &c., with notes by the Editor. London. 4to. 1779.' In fact the thirteenth volume of the quarto edition of Swift's Works, edited by Mr. Nicholls, in 1779, some time after the death of Dr. Delany." Delany did write two works, however, upon Swift, though not generally known to the learned ; but neither of these were lives or biographies. The first was entitled, " Ob- servations upon Lord Orrery's Remarks upon the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, containing several singular Anecdotes relating to the Character and Conduct of that great Genius, and the most deservedly celebrated Stella, in a series of Letters to his Lordship ; to which are added the Original Pieces of the same Author (excellent in their kind) never be- fore published." Dublin, printed for Robert Main, at Homer's Head, in Dame-street, 1754, 12mo., pp. 211. And another edition, in 8vo., was contemporaneously published by Reeve, at the Shakespear's Head, in London, pp. 310. It bears no name ; but the letters J. R. are affixed to the preface, and it b 78 ST. Patrick's hospital. is well known to be Delany's. Besides this spirited answer to Lord Orrery, the same writer, in 1755, published a tract re- futinsr some statements contained in Deane Swift's work. And as these animadversions were personally levelled at Delany, and he answers them in the first person, and styles his tract, '* A Letter to Deane Swift, Esq., on his Essay upon the Life, Writings, and Character of Dr. J. Swift, by the Author of * Observations on Lord Orrery's Remarks,' &c." 8vo. London, Reeve, pp. 31 ; it fixes the authorship of the " Observations" upon Dr. Delany. Sir Walter Scott's lengthened quotation from Dr. Delany is, with the exception of one paragraph, nowhere to be found in either of Delany's works. It is chiefly made up from Faulkner's and Hawkesworth's biographies, which, as far as this portion of the life of the Dean is concerned, are solely and entirely abstracted from Deane Swift's and Mrs. White way's letters already alluded to. We could point out several sen- tences in this account of the Dean's last illness, which are ver- batim the same in no less than five works, and that without the smallest acknowledgment. There is an autograph letter from Sir Walter Scott to C. G. Gavelin, Esq., of this city, in the MS. Library, T. C. D., in which he states that he had nothing whatever to do with the publication or revision of the second edition of the " Works of Jonathan Swift." Let us now briefly describe the origin and erection of St. Patrick's Hospital, bequeathed to us by Swift, the earliest, and one of the noblest charitable institutions of the country. It has been supposed by his biographers that a presenti- ment of his insanity induced the Dean to devote his fortune to the erection of a lunatic asylum ; and, probably from an ex- pression in Orrery's work, that he was a fit inmate for his own asylum, it is generally believed that Swift was the first patient in the hospital, although it was not erected till several years after his death. PROPOSAL OF SIR W. FOWNES. 79 Lord Orrery, although he never saw Swift in latter years, and had only vulgar rumour and the letters of Mrs. Whiteway and D. Swift to guide him, thus writes of his state after the year 1742 : " His rage increased absolutely to a degree of mad- ness ; in this miserable state he seemed to be appointed as the first proper inhabitant of his own hospital, especially as, from an outrageous lunatic, he sunk afterwards into a quiet, speech- less idiot, and dragged out the remainder of his life in that helpless situation"(«). It is evident that Swift had long entertained the idea of establishing such an institution ; and so early as November, 1731, when he wrote the verses on his own death, we find his determination thus graphically described in the concluding stanza of that celebrated poem : *' He gave the little wealth he had To build a house for fools and mad ; — And showed by one satiric touch, No nation wanted it so much." In September, 1732, he appears to have spoken with Sir William Fownes(^) on the subject of the establishment of an hospital, but without, it would appear, mentioning his own benevolent intention on the subject; and the verses which we have just quoted, though written, had not then been published. After this conversation Sir William addressed the Dean at considerable length on the matter, and enclosed him a pro- posal, " That an hospital called Bedlam be built in the city of Dublin, or liberties, for the reception of lunatics from any part of the kingdom"(c). Among the other items in this proposal, — Avhich is exceedingly well drawn up, and, though published upwards of a century ago, is well worthy of attention at the (a) Orrery's Remarks. (b) A distinguished citizen of Dublin, who had, shortly before this date, served the office of Lord Mayor. He built the Castle Market, and Fownes'- street is called after him. (c) Scott's Life and Works of Swift, vol. xviii. p. 48. 80 SIR W. FOWNES'S LETTER. present day, — we find one inviting the College of Physicians to contribute to this good work, by appointing some of their body to superintend tlie erection of cells, and to regulate the food and diet, &c., of the inmates. " When I was Lord Mayor," continues Sir William, in his letter accompanying the proposal, " I saw some miserable lu- natics exposed, to the hazard of others as well as themselves. I had six strong cells made at the workhouse for the most out- rageous, which were soon filled ; and by degrees, in a short time, those few drew upon us the solicitations of many, till, by the time the old corporation ceased, we had in that house forty and upward. The door being opened, interest soon made way to let in the foolish, and such like, as mad folks. These grew a needless charge upon us, and, had that course gone on, by this time the house had been filled with such. The new cor- poration got rid of the most of these by death, or the care of friends, and came to a resolution not to admit any such for the future ; and the first denial was to a request of the Earl of Kil- dare, which put a full stop to farther applications. As I take it, there are at this time a number of objects which require assistance, and, probably, many may be restored if proper care could be taken of them. There is no public place for their re- ception, nor private undertakers, as about London. Friends and relations here w^ould pay the charge of their support and attendance, if there were a place for securing such lunatics. " I own to you I was for some time averse to our having a public Bedlam, apprehending we should be overloaded with numbers under the name of mad. Nay, I was apprehensive our case would soon be like that in England ; wives and hus- bands trying who could first get the other to Bedlam. Many who were next heirs to estates would try their skill to render the possessors disordered, and get them confined, and soon run them into real madness. Such like consequences I dreaded, and therefore have been silent on the subject till of late. Now I am convinced that regard should be had to those under such SIR W. FOWNES'S LETTER. 81 dismal circumstances, and I have heard the Primate and others express their concern for them ; and no doubt but very suffi- cient subscriptions may be had to set this needful work on foot. I should think it would be a pleasure to any one that has any intention in this way to see something done in their lifetime rather than leave it to the conduct of posterity. I would not consent to the proceeding on such a work in the manner I have seen our poor-house and Dr. Steevens's Hospital, viz., to have so expensive a foundation laid that the expense of the building should require such a sum, and so long a time to finish as will take up half an age. " My scheme for such an undertaking should be much to this effect: — " First, I would have a spot of ground fixed on that should be in a good open air, free from the neighbourhood of houses ; for the cries and exclamations of the outrageous would reach a great way, and ought not to disturb neighbours, which was what you did not think of when you mentioned a spot in a close place almost in the heart of the city. There are many places in the outskirts of the city, I can name, very proper. " Next to the fixing of a spot, I would, when that is se- cured (which should be a good space), have it well enclosed with a high wall ; the cost of all which must be known. Then I would have the cells at the Royal Hospital Infirmary, lately made for mad people, be examined how convenient, and how in all points they are adapted to the purpose, with the cost of these cells, which I take to be six or eight. Then I would proceed to the very needful house for the master and the proper servants. Then another building, to which there should be a piazza for a stone gallery for walking dry ; and out of that several lodging-cells for such as are not outrageous but melan- choly, &c. This may be of such a size that it may be enlarged in length, or by a return, and overhead the same sort of a gal- lery, with little rooms or cells, opening the doors into the gal- lery, for, by intervals, the objects effected may be permitted 82 MEMORIAL TO THE CORPORATION. to walk at times in tlie galleries. This is according to tlie custom of London. Annexed to the master's house must be the kitchen and offices." And this very plan seems to have been subsequently adopted in the erection of the present hospital. Fownes suggested the propriety of erecting the institution in an open space, formerly called The Dunghill, facing the western end of South King-street, or of purchasing " the large stone building called an almshouse, made by Mrs. Mercer," now Mer- cer's Hospital, in the same locality. On the 21st of January, 1735, Swift memorialed the Mayor and Corporation of Dublin for a piece of ground for the pur- pose of erecting the hospital ; the petition runs thus : " The memorial of the Dean of St. Patrick's sheweth, " That the said Dean having, by his last will and testament, settled his whole fortune to erect and endow an hospital in or near this city, for the support of idiots and lunatics ; and being advised that a plot of ground in Oxmantown Green(a) would be a convenient place whereon to erect the said hospital, he therefore humbly desires that your Lordship and this honour- able Board will please to grant him such a plot of ground on the said Green, and for the said use, upon such terms as your Lordship and Worships shall think fit"(3). The Corporation (a) Oxmantown Green, on which Blackhall-place and the Blue-Coat Hospital now stand, — one of the ancient Danish localities in Dublin, on the northern side of the river. It is curious that this memorial of the Dean commenced as follows : "That the said Dean having, by his last will and testament, settled his whole fortune to erect and endow an hospital," &c., although the Dean's will bears date the 3rd of May, 1740;— therefore it would appear that he had made some previous will, or settled his property for this purpose by means of some other instrument. (6) See the "Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer," attached to Faulkner's London and Dublin Magazine, for January, 1735, p. 81. To the above cor- poration news is attached these lines on Swift's leaving his fortune to pro- vide an hospital for lunatics and idiots : '• The Dean must die ! — our idiots to maintain ! Perish ye idiots ! and long live the Dean !" LETTER TO EATON STANNARD. 83 accordingly ** were pleased to appoint a committee to inspect the said Green" for that purpose ; but it does not appear that they ever came to any definite or amicable arrangement with the Dean. The following letter, the original of which (a) now lies before us, is so much to the purpose, so characteristic of the man, and reminds us so forcibly of the expressions of ano- ther distinguished churchman in his latter days, that we here insert it : *' To Eaton Siannard, Esq., ''Recorder of the City of Dublin. " Sir, — I believe you may possibly have heard from me, or publick report, of my resolution to leave my whole fortune, except a few legacies, to build an Hospital for Ideots and Lu- naticks in this city or the suburbs ; and after long conside- ration, I have been so bold as to pitch upon you as my direc- tor in the methods I ought to take for rendering my design effectual. I have known and seen the difficulty of any such attempt by the negligence, or ignorance, or some worse deal- ing by executors and trustees. I have been so unfortunate, for want of some able friend of a publick spirit, that I could never purchase one foot of land ; the neighbouring country squires(^) always watching, like crows for a carcase, over every estate that was likely to be sold ; and that kind of knowledge was quite out of the life I have led, which in the strength of my days chieHy past at courts and among ministers of state, to my great vexation and disappointment, for which I now repent too late. I therefore humbly desire that you will please to take me into your guardianship as far as the weight of your busi- ness will permit. As the City hath agreed to give me a piece of land, mj wish would be to make the Lord Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen, my trustees, executors, or governors, according («) In the possession of A. J. Malay, Esq., of this city. (6) The word *' squires" is omitted in the copy of the letter published by Sir W. Scott. g2 ^ 84 THE DEAN'S WILL. as you shall please to advise; and out of these, Committees may be appointed to meet at proper times(a). My thought is, that the city will be careful in an affair calculated wholly for the City's advantage. If you would favour me so much as to fix any day during this vacation to dine at the Deanery, I shall be extremely obliged to you, and give you my very crude notions of my intentions. *' I am, with very great esteem, Sir, *' Your most obedient and obliged Servant, "JoNATH. Swift. " Deanery House, ''April Wth, 1735." In 1737 a mortmain bill was introduced into the Irish Par- liament for preventing the settlement of landed property on the Church, or on public charities. The Dean, foreseeing the effect of this, petitioned against it, and it never passed into a law. The site finally chosen was on a piece of waste ground, or common, surrounding Dr. Steevens's Hospital, which, from its being mentioned in Swift's will, we must suppose he had been in treaty for prior to 1740. By this will he demised his whole property, amounting to about £12,000, to his executors, to purchase lands, with the profits of which to erect and endow *'an hospital large enough for the reception of as many idiots and lunatics as the annual income of the said lands," &c., shall be sufiScient to maintain. As the following extracts from the Dean's will more parti- cularly relate to this noble bequest, we here insert them : " And I desire that the said hospital may be called St. Pa- trick's Hospital, and may be built in such a manner, that ano- ther building may be added unto it, in case the endowment thereof shall be enlarged ; so that the additional building may {a) The city not having furnished the ground after all, may probably ac- count for the names of the Corporation being omitted in the Dean's will. THE dean's bequest. 85 make the whole edifice regular and complete. And my farther will and desire is, that when the said hospital shall be built, the whole yearly income of the said lands and estate shall, for ever after, be laid out in providing victuals, clothing, medi- cines, attendance, and all other necessaries for such idiots and lunatics as sliall be received into the same ; and in repairing and enlarging the building from time to time, as there may be occasion. And, if a sufficient number of idiots and lunatics cannot readily be found, I desire that incurables may be taken into the said hospital to supply such deficiency ; but that no person shall be admitted into it, that labours under any infec- tious disease ; and that all such idiots, lunatics, and incurables, as shall be received into the said hospital, shall constantly live and reside therein, as well in the night as in the day ; and that the salaries of agents, receivers, officers, servants, and atten- dants, to be employed in the business of the said hospital, shall not in the whole exceed one-fifth part of the clear yearly in- come or revenue thereof .... And that no leases of any part of the said lands shall ever be made other than leases for years not exceeding thirty-one, in possession, and not in re- version or remainder, and not dispunishable of waste, whereon shall be reserved the best and most improved rents, that can reasonably and moderately, without racking the tenants, be gotten for the same, without fine. Provided always, and it is my will and earnest desire, that no lease of any part of the said lands, so to be purchased as aforesaid, shall ever be made to, or in trust for, any person any way concerned in the execution of this trust, or to, or in trust for, any person any way related or allied, either by consanguinity or affinity, to any of the per- sons who shall at that time be concerned in the execution of this trust : and that, if any leases shall happen to be made contrary to my intention above expressed, the same shall be utterly void, and of no effisct.^' The year after his death, his executors became incorporated into a body of governors, and obtained a charter in 174G. 86 INGRATITUDE TOWARDS SWIFT. Voluntary contributions were also set on foot, which, with parliamentary grants(«), and the proceeds of the Dean's bequest, enabled the governors to open the hospital, which now stands adjacent to that of Dr. Steevens, upon the 19th of September, 1757, for the reception of fifty patients. It is now capable of accommodating 150 patients, seventy-five males and seventy- five females, besides the officers and servants of the institution, amounting to about thirty. The various details of this noble institution are already well known to the profession and the public, and, therefore, unneces- sary to be here repeated. The late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Sir E. Sugden, effected some important changes in carrying out the intentions of the noble donor. "We have only further to re- mark upon two circumstances connected with the management of this institution. We regret to find that there is neither pic- ture, bust, arms, carving, name, nor any other memorial of the munificent and distinguished founder to be seen in any part of this extensive institution. The other circumstance on which we would remark is the great facility which the institution offers for a school and clinique, in which to educate medical practi- tioners, both as attendants upon, and masters of similar insti- tutions ; • and also for instructing nurses and keepers to be employed both in hospitals and in private practice. We feel that we need not enlarge upon this topic(6). (a) In November, 1763, the Irish Parliament granted the sum of £1000 to this charity. See "Debates relative to the Affairs of Ireland, in the Years 1763 and 1764, taken by a Military Officer, ;to which is added, An Inquiry how far the Restrictions laid upon the Trade of Ireland by British Acts of Parliament are a Benefit or Disadvantage to the British Dominions in general, and England in particular, for whose separate Advantage they were intended." London, 1766, vol. ii. (6) For the particulars of the history of St. Patrick's, or Swift's Hospital, as it is now usually called, subsequent to the date of its erection, we refer our readers to Harris's, Whitelaw and Walsh's, and all other histories of Dublin, as well as the charter of incorporation, and the various Reports made by the Inspectors of Lunatic Asylums, and other documents of that nature, for the last twenty years. THE BUST IN TRINITY COLLEGE. 87 As the verses written upon the presentation of Swift's bust to the library of Trinity College by the Senior Sophisters, graphically allude to the Dean's noble bequest, we here insert them, the more particularly as they have not been printed in any collection of his works. The subject is thus introduced in the number of Faulkner's Dublin Journal, for March 21, 1749: " There is arrived from London a marble busto of the late Rev. Dr. Swift, D. D., D. S. P. D., the workmanship of Rou- villiac; it is done with exquisite skill and delicacy, and is looked upon by persons of taste as a masterpiece. It deserves to be mentioned that the class of Senior Sophisters who, accor- ding to academical custom, formed themselves into a Senate in the year 1738, applied the money usually laid out in an enter- tainment to the purchase of this busto, which they have given to be placed in the College Library, among the heads of other men eminent for genius and learning : an instance of public spirit in young persons worthy of praise and imitation : '* VERSES PROPOSED AS AN INSCRIPTION. *' We, youth of Alma — thee, her pride and grace, Illustrious Swift, amid these heroes place; Thee, of such high associates wittiest found, In genius, fancy, sense, alike renown'd. Rich in unborrow'd wit, thy various page By turns displays the patriot, poet, sage. Born to delight thy country, and defend, In life, in death, to human race a friend ; For mad and idiots, — whom alone to teach Thy writings fail, — thy will's last bounty reach. All hail, Hibernia's boast ! our other pride. Late, very late, may Berkely grace thy side." On the back of the bust is the following inscription : " Ex Dono Quarti Classis, 1745. Procurante Digbae French." As every circumstance connected with the history of this great man must interest the public, no apology need be offered for introducing the following hitherto unpublished letter. It 88 THE UNIVERSITY IN 1735- relates to a " Letter to G W , Esq., concerning the present condition of the College of Dublin, and the late dis- turbances that have been therein!" Dublin, 1734. It is ad- dressed to Dr. Clarke, then Vice-Provost, whose relative has kindly permitted its insertion here (a) : ** S"^. — I have reed over the discourse you sent me con- cerning the present condition of your College. The writer seems to be a modest man, of good understanding. I think there is a good deal in what he cautiously wishes, that what he calls the powers of Bachelors and Sophisters were restored ; but I believe the disposition of the kingdom at present will not tend to give them any coercive civil power over the persons of the Scholars. Your University is now, I think, near 150 years old. But the complaint of ryots is chiefly since the reign of the present governor ; how he will acquit himself I neither know nor much regard. He is charged with some personall irregularityes, but even those are light in comparison to the spirit of party, under the influence of which he is said to dis- pose of all employments, particularly fellowships, very often to the least deserving. There is no headship in either of the English universities, attended with so many advantages of dignity, profit, and power as that of your governor. But it is universally agreed by all partyes that your discipline is most infamously relaxed in every particular. I had the honour to be for some years a student at Oxford, where I took my Mas- ter's degree, and I know what your author says to be true ; for the Vice-Chancellor hath more power than the Mayor, and, indeed, the University governs the city, although the latter, (a) The late Dr. Thomas Smith, the possessor of this interesting docu- ment, was one of the descendants of the Rev. Henry Clarke, who was elected a Fellow of the University in 1724, and afterwards appointed Vice-Provost, in 1752. There was a second letter also addressed to G W , upon the same subject as the above, in 1734. Both will be found in the library of the University, among a volume of pamphlets, P. ii. 31. The Provost alluded to by Swift was Baldwin. ORIGINAL LETTER BY SWIFT. 89 in my time, was often disposed to be turbulent. I mentioned to three Lord Lieutenants my wish that your Governor were otherwise provided for, and they all pretended to wish the same, but never went further, although I had pretensions to have some credit with them all. I have more than once heard, at a meeting of persons in the greatest stations here, very open complaints against the conduct of your , although they were of those principles to which he hath entirely devoted himself. *' I quarrell with your author, as I do with all your writers and many of your preachers, for their careless, incorrect, and improper style, which they contract by reading the scribblers from England, where an abominable tast is every day prevayl- ing. It is your business, who are coming into the world, to put a stop to these corruptions; and recal that simplicity which in every thing of value ought chiefly to be followed. " These are some of my sudden thoughts, after having this minute perused the discourse you sent me. " Deanery House^ December 12, 1734. '* Your writer should have sometimes styled your College a University. " To the Rev. Dr. Cleric^ at his Chambers in Trinity CoUege, Dublin.'''* So early as 1728, " An humble remonstrance, in the names of the lads in all the schools of Ireland where Latin and Greek are taught : and of the young students now in the University of Dublin, together with a protest of all the Senior Fellows in Trinity College, Dublin (except one), against the Pro- 90 THE REMONSTRANCE OF 1728. vost"(a) — " was laid at the Parliament's feet, beseeching," on the part of the students, that the exorbitant power exercised by the Provost, in electing Fellows contrary to the opinion of the great majority of the board, should be restrained by law. The cause of this remonstrance and protest was, that Provost Baldwin had " nominated Mr. John Palliseer(^) to the fellow- ship lately vacant in Trinity College, Dublin, in preference to Mr. Arthur Forde, and in opposition to the judgment of all the Senior Fellows then present, except Dr. Gilbert"(c). The names of the Fellows attached to this document are those of Helsham, Delany, Thompson, Clayton, and Rogers. It would appear, however, that these remonstrances were unheeded, and that the riots and disturbances alluded to in the letters to G W , in part at least, arose out of the circumstances attend- ing Palliseer's election, and the general laxity of rules at that time in the University. In 1735 a visitation was held upon the subject, " when the Rev. Dr. Swift, D. S. P. D., was pre- sent, and spoke against some corruptions and abuses" (c?). This was one of the last public acts of the Dean. For the following unpublished letter we are indebted to our valued friend James Hardiman, the learned author of the Irish Minstrelsy : *' Deanery House, Oct. 1th, 1737. " My Lord, — I entirely forgot yesterday a small affair which I did intend to mention to your Lordship. About six months ago my Lord Orrery desired me to recommend the son of an old faithfull servant, who is still his domestick in England, (a) " Dublin, printed by S. Harding, next door to the Crown in Copper- Alley, 1727-8." Pamphlet, pp. 16. We are indebted to our learned friend, P. V. Fitzpatrick, for this rare tract. (6) John Pellisier or Palliseer, was elected a Fellow, in 1727; Vice Pro- vost, in 1745; Professor of Divinity, in 1746; and Rector of Ardstraw, in 1753. See Dublin University Calendar for 1832. (c) Dr. Gilbert was Mr. Palliseer's tutor. (d) See Exshaw's Magazine for March, 1735. ORIGINAL LETTER OF SWIFT. 91 one Catlierine Reyley, to be admitted into the Blue-Coat Hos- pital. I applied accordingly to the late Lord Mayor very fre- quently, but could never obtain that justice. I have been these many years a governor of that hospital, and have recommended fewer boys than perhaps any other governors ; and my Lord Orrery, as he is a most valuable person in all respects, as well as a great friend to this kingdom, hath a good title to recom- mend for so small a favour. The boy's name is Edward Reyley. I have sent him with his mother to attend, and get one of the servants to deliver this letter to your Lordship, and I hope you will please to order his admittance this day. He hath been al- ready measured, and is tall enough for the standard. " I wish your Lordship success in your administration equall if possible to your deserts, and am, with the greatest respect, my Lord, " Your Lordship's most obedient " And most humble Servant, '* Jonath: Swift. " The Right Hon. William Walker, Lord Mayor P It has often appeared strange to us that the house in which a man of such celebrity as Swift was born should never have been represented in any of his Lives, nor in any of the editions of his works, nor figured in any of the periodicals of this country. Hoey's-court, in which the Dean was born, is classic ground, although few of our readers are aware even of its locality. Ad- joining a portion of one of the ancient city walls, — one of the few vestiges of them now remaining, — and running between Castle-street and the junction of Great and Little Ship-street, is a narrow passage, now called the Castle Steps, but in for- mer days Cole's-alley. The eastern side of this is formed by the Castle wall ; and about the end of the last century a num- ber of small open shops or stalls, chiefly occupied by buckle- makers or " cheap sellers," formed its western side. There were then no steps as at present, but a very steep, slippery 92 THE HOUSE WHERE SWIFT WAS BORN. descent, down which the apprentice boys from Skinncr's-row and the adjoining streets occupied by artisans used to run their comrades on first joining the craft, as a sort of initiatory "jib- bing." Towards the lower end of this descent, on the western side, another alley led up a few steps into a small square court. in the mouldering grandeur of the houses of which we still re- cognise the remains of a locality once fashionable and opulent. Here, on our right, is the house occupied by Surgeon-General Ruxton, that beyond it was the residence of Lord Chancellor Bowes, and a little farther on, upon the right, stands the cola- hoey's court. 93 bratcd Eades' Coffee House, where the wits and statesmen of the day drank their claret and canary. Upon the opposite side, where the court narrows into the lane that leads into St. Wer- burgh-street, is the house, No. 7, where Jonathan Swift was born, on the 30th November, 1667. A handsome door-case a few years ago ornamented the front of this house, but some an- tiquary, it is said, carried it away : the mark is still visible. The house is at present occupied by the families of several poor tradesmen, but the carved wainscotting and cornices, the lofty ornamented chimney-pieces, and the marble window- sills, which existed up to a very recent period, and some of which still remain, all attest the remains of a mansion of note in its day. There are few writers of the same celebrity, and no Irish- man of the same distinction, whose character has been so fre- quently villified by modern English and Scotch writers as Swift's. And although he has not wanted defenders when thus indiscriminately assailed and disparaged, yet the services which he rendered Ireland should ever enlist the lovers of their coun- try to stand by him when occasion offers, even though such defence may appear to some misplaced in the present instance. To the slights thrown upon his memory by the Jeffreys, Broughams, Macaulays, De Quincies, and other modern lite- rati, answers and refutations have been already given. Of these attacks, which exhibit all the bitterness of contemporary and personal enmity, it is only necessary to request a careful analysis, when they will be found to be gross exaggerations of some trivial circumstances, but written in all the unbecoming spirit of partisanship ; while the opinions of his contempora- ries, Harley, Bolingbroke, Pope, Arbuthnot, Delany, &c., are a sufficient guarantee for the opinion which was entertained of Swift by those who knew him best and longest. Alluding to the charge of " base perfidy," and such like unbecoming ex- pressions, made use of by Lord Brougham, in his sketch of Sir Robert Walpole, and to the language employed by Jeffreys in 94 MODERN WRITERS ON SWIFT. the celebrated article in the Edinburgh Review, a writer in one of the Journals lately said : " But Swift is dead, — as Jeffreys well knew when he reviewed his works." The last libeller of Swift, Mr. William Howitt, has laboured with great ingenuity, in his "Homes and Haunts" of the British Poets, to traduce the character and revive the worst stories ever told of the eccentric Dean, and has even made one or two abortive efforts to be witty at his expense. Of which latter the following attempt at a stupid pun may serve as an example : King " William is also said to have offered Swift a troop of horse, which might naturally arise out of their cutting horse- radish for dinner at the same time, though of this the biogra- phers do not inform us." A little farther on he endeavours to revive the accusation of immorality which was raised against Swift, many years after his death, by some of his biographers, when describing his residence at Kilroot. This unfounded story was completely, and we had hoped for ever, set at rest by Sir Walter Scott. Mr. Howitt adduces no evidence in support of his accusation, but by an insidious " something" in italics he would lead the reader to believe that he knew more than his modesty would permit him to. define, and upon this he grounds a supposition, " that as in his youth he was of a dis- sipated habit" " it is far more likely that these habits induced that constitutional affection, with giddiness, deafness, and ultimate insanity, which made his future life wretched, than that it was owing to eating an over-quantity of stone fruit." The answer to this may be gleaned from the foregoing pages. With the epithets of '* selfish tyranny," " wretched shuffler," " contemptible fellow," &c., &c., showered upon him by Mr. Howitt, we need not interfere ; they sufficiently ex- plain the tone and character of his book. Swift seems to have had a presentiment of such writers when he penned the fol- lowing lines : •' Hated by fools, and fools to hate, Be this my motto and my fate." CHARACTER OF SWIFT. 95 A just estimate of Mr. Howitt's work — which aptly resem- bles the whlted sepulchres of the East, being, without, all gold and whitewash, but, within, full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness — will be found in the number of Fraser's Maga- zine for February, 1847. It has been well said, that Ireland worshipped Swift, "with almost Persian idolatry. Sagacious and intrepid, — he saw, he dared ; above suspicion, he was trusted ; above envy, he was beloved ; above rivalry, he was obeyed. His wisdom was practical and prophetic, — remedial for the present, warning for the future ; he first taught Ireland that she might become a nation, and England that she must cease to be a despot. But he was a Churchman. His gown impeded his course, and entangled his efforts ; guiding a senate, or heading an army, he had been more than Cromwell, and Ireland not less than England. As it was, he saved her by his courage, — improved her by his authority, — adorned her by his talents, — and exalted her by his fame. His mission was but of ten years ; and for ten years only did his personal power mitigate the Government ; but though no longer feared by the great, he was not forgotten by the wise ; his influence, like his writings, has survived a century ; and the foundations of whatever pros- perity we have since erected are laid in the disinterested and magnanimous patriotism of Swift"(a). Widely different, indeed, is the character of some of Swift's countrymen of the present day, wdio, having resided in Eng- land long enough to be able to boast a familiarity with the great, and to have acquired not only all the prejudices- com- mon to their class, but to become saturated with the bitterest hatred of the soil which gave them birth, willingly become the ready tools of speculative politicians, and occasionally the hired villifiers of their country. While collecting materials for the medical part of this essay, (a) See a tract believed to be written by the Hon. John Wilson Croker. 96 DEATH OF STELLA. many circumstancs not generally known, and not properly un- derstood, with regard to Swift, chiefly, however, of a literary character, have attracted our attention. These, with other circumstances of a like nature relating to Stella, &c., will be found in the remaining portion of this work. The accusation of the greatest heartlessness with which Swift has ever been branded, and, indeed, the story which, if true, tells most forcibly against him, is that related by Sheridan of a circumstance connected with the death of Stella. It runs thus : — when this lady saw her end approaching, she besought Swift, in the presence of Dr. Sheridan, and in the most earnest and pathetic terms, to grant her as a dying request, " that as the ceremony of marriage had passed between them, though, for sundry reasons, they had not cohabited in that state, in order to put it out of the power of slander to be busy with her fame after death, she adjured him, by their friendship, to let her have the satisfaction of dying at least, though she had not lived, his acknowledged wife. Swift made no reply, but, turning on his heel, walked suddenly out of the room, nor ever saw her after- wards during the short time she lived. This behaviour threw Mrs. Johnson into unspeakable agonies, and for a time she sunk under the weight of so cruel a disappointment. But soon after ^ roused by indignation, she inveighed against his cruelty in the bitterest terms ; and, sending for a lawyer, made her will, be- queathing her fortune, by her own name, to charitable uses. This was done in the presence of Dr. Sheridan, whom she appointed one of her executors" (a). This story, however, must be received with some degree of caution. The popular opinion is, that the Rev. Dr. Sheridan, the friend of Swift, was the author of the Life of that great ge- nius, and, consequently, of this story : but this is an error. The Thomas Sheridan who wrote the Life of Swift must have been a mere child at the time when this circumstance occurred ; he (a) The Life of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, D, S. P. D., by Thomas Sheridan, A. M. London, 1784, p. 361. Stella's will. 97 was only a lad when his father, of whom he is said to have re- ceived it, died ; and the first edition of the work in which it was published did not appear till fifty years after the occurrence is said to have taken place. In this printed tradition it is made to appear that Stella left her fortune for charitable purposes, and, consequently, away from Swift, on account of the cruel treatment just related. That this was not the case may be learned from a letter which Swift had previously addressed to his friend Worrall upon the subject of Stella's will. During one of her severe illnesses, while Swift was in London, in 1726, he writes : " I wish it could be brought about that she might make her will. Her intentions are to leave the interest of all her fortune to her mother and sister during their lives, afterwards to Dr. Steevens's Hospital, to purchase lands for such uses as she designs"(a). Now such was not only the tenor but the very words of the will made two years afterwards, which Sheridan would have his readers believe was made in pique at the Dean's conduct. The following is, we believe, the only copy of Stella's will hitherto published. It is extracted from the registry of the Prerogative Court in Ireland. " In the name of God. Amen. I, Esther Johnson, of the City of Dublin, spinster, being of tolerable health in body, and perfectly sound in mind, do here make my last will and testa- ment, revoking all former wills whatsoever. First, I bequeath my soul to the infinite mercy of God, with a most humble hope of everlasting salvation, and my body to the earth, to be buryed in the Great Isle of the Cathedral Church of St. Pa- trick's, Dublin, and I desire that a decent monument of plain white marble may be fixed in the wall, over the place of my burial, not exceeding the value of twenty pounds sterling, and that the charges of my funeral may not exceed the said sum. i^Iiem.—l desire that, as soon as possible after my decease, (a) See the Works of Jonathan Swift, by Sir Walter Scott, Bart., second edition, vol. xvii. p. 43. In this as well as most printed works, the name of the founder of the hospital is erroneously spelled Stephens. H 98 Stella's will. one thousand pounds of that fortune which God hath blessed me with may be laid out by my executors to purchase lands in the province of Leinster, Munster, or Ulster, or any good living equal to such legacy, which a lay patron can sell for ever, as my executors shall think best. If lands be purchased, I de- sire they may be such as are not subject to leases for lives re- newable, or to any other leases above the term of forty-one years to come ; which lands, or the said thousand pounds till the said lands shall be purchased, I do hereby vest in the Governors of the Hospital founded by Richard Steevens, Doc- tor in Physick, deceased, near St. James's-street, Dublin, and their successors for ever ; in trust, nevertheless, that the said Governors, with the advice of my executors, and the survivor or survivors of them, shall pay the interest of the said thousand pounds, or the rents of the said lands, half-yearly, at Lady Day and Michaelmas, to my dear mother, Mrs. Bridget Mose, of Farnham, in Surrey, and to my dear sister, Ann Johnson, alias Filby, or their order, by even and equal portions, toge- ther with all the interest which shall remain due to me after the defraying the above-mentioned expenses of my funeral ; and to the survivor of them the whole interest or rent shall be paid during the survivor^ life. And after the decease of my said mother and sister, my will is that the said interest or rent shall be applied to the maintenance of a chaplain in the hospital founded by Doctor Richard Steevens aforesaid, to be paid to the said chaplain every year at Lady Day and Michaelmas, by equal portions, on condition that the said chaplain shall read prayers out of the Common Prayer Book now established, and none other, once every day, at ten or eleven of the clock in the morning, and preach every second Lord's Day in the chapel, or some other place appointed for Divine Service, in the said hospital ; and shall likewise visit the sick and wounded in the said hospital, at such times and in such a manner as shall be appointed by the Governors thereof. And further, my will is, that the said chaplain shall be a person born in Stella's will. 99 Ireland, and educated in the College of* Dublin, who hath taken the degree of Master of Arts in the said College, and hath received the order of priesthood from a bishop of the Church of Ireland, and my will is that the said chaplain shall be chosen by ballot, by the Governors of said hospital ; and that the Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and the Provost of the said College, shall be allowed to ballot for choosing the said chap- lain, although they be not Governors of the said hospital. It is likewise my will that the said chaplain be an unmarried man at the time of his election, and so continue while he en- joys the office of chaplain to the said hospital; and if he shall happen to marry he shall be immediately removed from the said office, and another chosen in his stead by ballot, and so qualified as aforesaid. It is also my will and desire that the said chaplain shall not lie out of his lodgings in or near the hospital above one night in a week, without leave from the said Governors, to whom I leave full power to punish him, as far as with deprivation, for immoralities or neglect of his duty. And if it shall happen (which God forbid), that at any time hereafter the present Established Episcopal Church of this kingdom shall come to be abolished, and be no longer the na- tional Established Church of the said kingdom, I do, in that case, declare wholly null and void the bequest above made of the said thousand pounds, or the said land purchased, as far as it relates to the said hospital and chaplain, and do hereby ab- solutely divest the Governors of the said hospital of the prin- cipal and interest of the said thousand pounds. And my will is, that, in the case aforesaid, it devolves to my nearest rela- tion then living. " Item. — I bequeath to my dear sister, Ann Johnson, afore- said, alias Filby, all my new linen which is now in my posses- sion. It is likewise my will that the lands purchased by the said thousand pounds shall be let, without fine, to one or more able tenants for no longer term than forty-one years, at a full h2 100 Stella's will. rent, with strict penal clauses for planting, enclosing, building, and other improvements ; and that no new lease shall be granted till within two years after the expiration of the former lease ; and then, if the tenant hath made good improvement, and paid his rents duly, he shall have the preference before any other bidder by two shillings in the pound ; provided that in every new lease there shall be some addition made to the former rent, as far as the land can bear, so as to make it a reasonable bargain to an improving tenant. " Item, — I bequeath to my friend, Mrs. Rebecca Dingley, my little watch and chain, and twenty guineas. '* Item. — I bequeath to Bryan M'Loghlin (a child who now lives with me, and whom I keep on charity), twenty-five pounds to bind him out apprentice as my executors or the sur- vivors of them shall think fit. " Item. — I bequeath to Robert Martain, my servant, the sum of ten pounds, in consideration of his long and faithful service, provided he be alive and in my service at the time of my decease, and not otherwise. " Item. — I bequeath to mine and Mrs. Dingley's servants half a year's wages, over and above what shall be due to them at the time of my decease. " Item. — I bequeath five pounds to the poor of the parish where I shall happen to die. " Lastly, I make and constitute the Rev. Dr. Thomas She- ridan, of the City of Dublin, the Rev. Mr. John Grattan, the Rev. Mr. Francis Corbet, and John Rochfort, Esq., of the City of Dublin, executors of my last will and testament. I desire likewise that my plate, books, furniture, and whatever other moveables I have, may be sold to discharge my debts ; and that my strong box, and all the papers I have in it or else- where, may be given to the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's. " Item, — I bequeath to the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Swift a bond STELLAS will: lr)J of thirty pounds, due to me by Dr. Russell, in trust for the use of Mrs. Honoria Swanton. " Item. — I bequeath to Mrs. Jane Temple the sum often guineas. 8j/^ SaR^OTs. '* Signed, sealed, and published in the presence of us, and signed by us in the presence of the testator. " December the ?>Oth, 1727. ** Mary Rose, '* Margaret Morris, ** John Collens." Compared 25th of February, 1848. M. Keatinge, ) A. Hawkins, ] I>. Registers. This will was proved by the executors, in the Prerogative Court, on the 4th of May, 1728. There are, in the first instance, certain circumstances con- nected with the thoughts and expressions in this document, particularly with respect to the interment, &c., well worthy of attention, and which strongly bias the mind with the idea that the Dean was its autlior, as may be seen by comparing the wills of Swift and Stella. The directions as to the places where the lands purchased with their fortunes were to be situated, are similar in both testaments, and also the particulars relating to the leases and tenure. In this latter particular the will of Stella forms a theme, at the present time, of intense interest, and one well worthy of imitation. Leaving her fortune first to her mother and sister, and then to a charitable purpose, is ex- actly what Swift informed Mr. Worrall she intended to do two years previously, and evidently with his concurrence, as is ma- nifest by his then wishing her to make this very will. There is a paragraph in both wills, so unusual, and yet so much alike, that, if no further evidence existed, we should be inclined from 102: f : .^'^/'ITS REFUTATION OF SHERIDAN'S STORY. it alone to attribute them to the same author, — that is, the sentence respecting the Established Church(a) quoted at p. 99. Now it will be remembered that in Swift's will the same sen- timents, almost the same words, occur ; thus he bequeathed the tithes of EfFernock, near Trim, to the vicars of Laracor(6), '* so long as the present episcopal established religion shall continue to be the national established faith and profession in this kingdom ; but whenever any other form of Christian reli- gion shall become the established faith in this kingdom," then these tithes are to be distributed among the poor of the parish. Of Stella's mother, Mrs. Mose, or Mosse, and her sister, Mrs. Fillbj, we shall have to speak hereafter. The expression, " little watch and chain," which she bequeathed to Mrs. Ding- ley, was used in contradistinction to her large gold repeater, which the Dean had brought her from London about twelve months previously. To Swift she left all her papers, her strong box, and all its contents; what these were we can only conjec- ture, but in all likelihood they were all their correspondence, and probably the Dean did not wish any further notice of him- self in this will, which we have every reason to believe he drew. It is stated in some of the biographies that she left her (a) The following anecdote is highly characteristic of the Dean's satire, and has not before been published, we believe. Upon his visiting Carlow, the rector of that place conducted him over the town and its neighbourhood, showing him all the objects of interest there. On returning to the glebe, Swift pointed out the church, and inquired what building it was, and why he had not been shown it? *' Oh !" said his conductor, *' it is only the pa- rish church ; but it is really so dilapidated and in such bad order that I did not think it worth your inspection." At this Swift expressed his regret ; but said he knew a cheap way of repairing it. " Why don't you give it," said he, " to the Papists ? you know they would repair it, and then you could take it from them afterwards." Was it on this occasion he said, — " A high church and a low steeple, A poor town and a proud people." (6) We regret to say that the Dean's residence at Laracor has been sadly neglected ; a portion of one of the gables of the glebe is all that now remains of it. See Dublin University Magazine for June, 1847, p. 778. Stella's marriage. 103 watch to the Dean ; but there is no mention of this in her will. The most valuable evidence afforded by this document yet re- mains to be considered. Thomas Sheridan says, as may be seen by the pasage quoted at page 96, that she only lived a few days after making her will, and that even when making it she felt her end approaching. Now, in the first place, she declares that at the time she is in " tolerable health of body ;" again, she leaves a legacy to one of her domestics, provided he be alive and in her service at the time of her decease ; and also one to the poor of the parish where she may happen to die ; — all which lead us to suppose that this will was no sudden thought, nor drawn up hastily, or in daily expectation of her death. But we have the incontrovertible evidence of dates against Mr. Sheridan's tradition; for, instead of Stella's living but a "few days," the will was signed and dated one month before her death, which took place on the 28th of January, 1728. Thus, we think, has been disposed of the worst, indeed the only story worth answering, ever printed against the Dean, at least as far as Stella is concerned. Sir Walter Scott has endeavoured to answer this anecdote by substituting another in its stead. It is related on the au- thority of Mr. Theophilus Swift, who had it from Mrs. White- way, and evidently refers to the same circumstance: " When Stella was in her last weak state, and one day had come in a chair to the deanery, she was with difficulty brought into the parlour. The Dean had prepared some mulled wine, and kept it by the fire for her refreshment. After tasting it, she became very faint, but having recovered a little by degrees, when her breath (for she was asthmatic) was allowed her, she desired to lie down. She was carried up stairs and laid on a bed ; the Dean, sitting by her, held her hand, and addressed her in the most affectionate manner. She drooped, however, very much. Mrs. Whiteway was the only third person present. After a short time, her politeness induced her to withdraw to the ad- joining room, but it was necessary, on account of air, that the 104 MRS. WHITEWAY'S STORY. door should not be closed : it was half shut, — the rooms were close adjoining. Mrs. White way had too much honour to listen, but could not avoid observing, that the Dean and Mrs. Johnson conversed together in a low tone ; the latter, indeed, was too weak to raise her voice. Mrs. Whiteway paid no at- tention, having no idle curiosity ; but at length she heard the Dean say, in an audible voice: ' Well^ my dear, if you wish it, it shall be owned,^ to which Stella answered, with a sigh, * It is too late.' Such are, upon the best and most respectable autho- rities, the minute particulars of this remarkable anecdote. The word mamage was not mentioned, but there can be no doubt that such was the secret to be owned ; and the report of Mrs. Whiteway I received with pleasure, as vindicating the Dean from the charge of cold-blooded and hard-hearted cruelty to the unfortunate Stella, when on the verge of existence." " Mr. Sheridan," continues Scott, " was a boy at the time of his father's death ; although neither father nor son were capable of voluntarily propagating a falsehood to the Dean's prejudice, yet it seems more likely that a boy might have mistaken what his father said to him on such a subject, than that Mr. Swift should have misunderstood a story told to him repeatedly and minutely by Mrs. Whiteway, after he had come to man's estate. In fact the hardness of heart imputed to Swift by the earlier edition of this story, is not only totally inconsistent with an affection agonized by the view of its dying object, but with every circumstance. Vanessa was dead, — Stella was dying, — the Dean could no longer fear that the society or claims of a wife should be forced upon him, — the scene was closed, and every reason for mystery at an end. The relations may indeed be reconciled, by supposing that of Mrs. Whiteway subsequent to the scene detailed by Sheridan. The Dean may at length have relented, yet Sheridan remained ignorant of it. Dr. Johnson seems to have received the anecdote as given in the text"(a). (a) Scott's Memoirs of Jonathan Swift, p. 354, and note, p. 356. SWIFT S GRIEF FOR STELLA. 105 By what right the world accuses Swift of ill-treating Esther Johnson, except that of vulgar rumour, we are at a loss to dis- cover, unless, indeed, it be this very problematical story of Thomas Sheridan's, or the spiteful conjectures of Lord Orrery. No one accused Stella of impropriety, nor Swift of inhumanity, during their lifetimes ; she never complained, like Vanessa ; and none of Swift's friends or acquaintances ever breathed such an idea in their writings. All the endearments of the most refined friendship, we have every reason to believe, existed between them till the hour of her death. Where, then, is the authority for these surmises? From what we can glean from authentic sources, it would appear that Stella died of consumption, at the age of 47, the Dean being then aged 61, broken down in health by a most distressing malady, disappointed in his hopes, and rendered morose and discontented by those causes, physical and moral, to which we have already alluded. If Stella's death was caused by love, then, indeed, that affection must be of a more chronic character than poets and novelists would lead us to suppose. We can perfectly understand how a person of Swift's pe- culiar temperament, and past sixty years of age, should be unwilling to witness the last moments of one so dear to him as Stella. " I would not," he writes to Mr. Worrall, in the letter already quoted from, " for the universe be present at such a trial as seeing her depart. She will be among friends that, upon her own account and great worth, will tend her with all possible care, where I sliould be a trouble to her, and the greatest torment to myself." The same expression he repeats to Dr. Sheridan : " Nay, if I were now near her I would not see her; I could not behave myself tolerably, and should redouble her sorrow." But that this was not from indifference may be gleaned from the following expressions to the same friend: " I know not whether it be an addition to my grief or not that I am now extremely ill ; for it would have been a reproach to 106 STELLA'S FUNERAL. me to be in perfect health when such a friend is desperate. I do profess upon my salvation, that this distressed and desperate condition of our friend makes life so indifferent to me, who, by course of nature, have so little left, that I do not think it worth the time to struggle. Yet I should think, according to what hath been formerly, that I may happen to overcome the present disorder; and to what advantage? Why, to see the loss of that person for whose sake only life was worth pre- serving"(a). To Dr. Stop ford he writes from London, in 1726, on the same subject: "I never was in so great a dejection of spirits. For I lately received a letter from Mr. Worrall, that one of the two oldest and dearest friends I have in the world is in so des- perate a condition of health, as makes me expect every post to hear of her death. It is the younger of the two, with whom I have lived in the greatest friendship for thirty- three years. I know you will share in my trouble, because there were few persons whom I believe you more esteemed. For my part, as I value life very little, so the poor casual remains of it, after such a loss, would be a burden that I must heartily beg God Almighty to enable me to bear ; and I think there is not a greater folly than that of entering into too strict and particular a friendship, with the loss of which a man must be absolutely miserable ; but especially at an age when it is too late to en- gage in a new friendship. Besides, this was a person of my own rearing and instructing from childhood ; who excelled in every good quality that can possibly accomplish a human crea- ture. — They have hitherto writ me deceiving letters, but Mr. Worrall has been so just and prudent as to tell me the truth, which, however racking, is better than to be struck on the sudden." During the latter part of January, 1728, Swift was very ill (a) Scott's Swift, Epistolary Correspondence, vol. xvii. p. 144. AUTHORITIES FOR STELLA'S MARRIAGE. 107 and confined to the house. He received the account of Stella's death on Sunday evening, at 8 o'clock, about two hours after it occurred. She was buried by torch-light, on Tuesday, the 30th of January, in the same manner as the Dean directed himself to be buried, and nearly at the same hour. In his *' Character of Mrs. Johnson," Swift thus alludes to the cir- cumstance : " This is the night of the funeral, which my sick- ness will not suiFer me to attend. It is now 9 at night, and I am removed into another apartment that I may not see the light in the church, which is just over against the window of my bed-chamber." Although they never lived together as man and wife, it is generally believed that Esther Johnson and Dean Swift were married, — nay, the very date (1716) has been specified ; and it is said that the ceremony was performed by Dr. St. George Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, in the garden of the Deanery, with- out witnesses; but it may be added that the evidence of this rests on questionable authority. For ourselves, we acknowledge that, notwithstanding all the powerful arguments and astute criticism of Mr. W. Monck Mason, in his learned History of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, we incline to the belief that the mere legal ceremony of marriage was absolutely performed. This persuasion is not, however, from any positive evidence of the fact, but has arisen from its being frequently repeated by Swift's biographers, inferred from collateral circumstances, and admitted by some of his personal friends. In 1752, seven years after the death of Swift, and twenty-four years after the death of Stella, Lord Orrery first promulgated the idea of this marriage. Delany tacitly acknowledges the fact in his " Ob- servations ;" the Sheridans, father and son, appeared to believe it ; so did Mr. Monck Berkeley, Mr. Deane Swift, Faulkner, Dr. Hawesworth, and others who lived nearest the Dean's time ; and Sir Walter Scott, who also believed in the mar- riage, has collected all the information bearing upon the sub- 1G8 MRS. BRIDGET JOHNSTON. ject, and added some new testimony, though not of a very satisfactory description. Lord Orrery's work was reviewed in the London Gentle- man's Magazine for 1755 ; and two years later a letter appeared in the same periodical, on the subject of Stella, written by a person who was evidently well acquainted with all the facts and most of the persons therein alluded to. Mr. Sheridan, and some of those who have since followed in the same track, have en- deavoured to slight, or throw discredit upon this production ; nevertheless, it bears all the stamp of truth ; it is borne out in many circumstances by collateral evidence, and particularly by this very will of Stella's now, for the first time, published at length, and its statements have never been fairly refuted. As the true history of Esther Johnson does not appear in any of Swift's biographies, and as this article throws much light upon it, we here insert the following extracts and obser- vations : — " When Sir William Temple left Sheen to reside at Moor Park in Surrey, he brought down with him, one summer, a gentlewoman in the charactor of a housekeeper, whose name was Johnson. She was a person of a surprising genius ; few woman ever exceeded her in the extent of her reading — none in the charms of conversation. She had seen the world ; her address and behaviour were truly polite ; and whoever had the pleasure of conversing with her for a quarter of an hour, was convinced that she had known a more genteel walk of life than her present situation confined her to. She was not so happy in her person as her mind, for she was low of stature, and rather fat and thick than well shaped ; yet the imperfec- tion of her shape was fully compensated by a set of fine fea- tures and an excellent complexion, animated by eyes that perfectly described the brightness of her genius. She was, in few words, the same among women that Sir William Temple was among men. Is it surprising then that such Stella's relationship to sir william temple. 109 similar perfections should attract each other's notice ? This gentlewoman was the widow (as she always averred) of one Johnson, a merchant, who, having been unfortunate in trade, afterwards became master of a trading sloop which ran be- tween England and Holland, and there died." It is stated by several of Swift's biographers that Esther Johnson was the daughter of Sir William Temple's steward ; but, as will be shown, her mother did not marry this person, whose name was Mosse(a), till long after Temple's death, and when Stella was resident in Ireland ; nor is it likely that this nobleman would have left the daughter of his steward one thousand pounds in his will. Mrs. Johnson had three chil- dren : the eldest, a daughter, married one Fillby, a baker in London ; this is the sister mentioned in Stella's will. The se- cond child was a son, Edward, who died abroad, young. Tlje third and last was her daughter Esther, '* who only," says the correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, '* of all her children, was permitted to reside with her at Moor Park, where she was educated ; and her appearance and dress so far exceeded the rank and fortune of her mother, and the rest of the children, that the world soon declared Miss Johnson to be Sir William's daughter. But had dress shown no distinc- tion between her and the rest of her mother's children, nature had already distinguished her sufficiently. Her mother and brother were both fair,, her sister is said to have been the same. The boy was said to be like his father, he, therefore, must be fair too, as the boy was so to an uncommon degree ; yet Esther's, or, as she was usually called in the family, Miss Hetty's, eyes and hair were of a most beautiful black ; and all the rest of her features bore so strong a resemblance to those of Sir William T that no one could be at a loss to deter- mine what relation she had to that gentleman(^). And could the striking likeness have been overlooked. Sir William's un- (a) The name is spelled sometimes with one and sometimes with two ss. (6) There certainly is a likeness between the portraits. 110 Stella's relationship to sir william temple. common regard for her, and his attention to her education, must have convinced every unprejudiced person that Miss Hetty- Johnson was the daughter of one who moved in a higher sphere than a Dutch trader. The respect that Sir William affected to show the child induced his family to copy his example ; and the neighbouring families behaving in the same manner, she early lost all that servility that must have tinged her man- ners and behaviour, had she been brought up in dependance, and without any knowledge of her real condition." The writer was of opinion that Sir William Temple had informed Miss Johnson, as she was called, of her birth, and here follows the only error which we have been able to detect in his narrative, it is that she retired to Ireland during the lifetime of Sir William Temple ; " but of this," he candidly says, ** I am not so positive." Her leaving all her natural connex- ions, to go to another country with a comparative stranger as her companion, is certainly remarkable. All Swift says concerning her birth is, that " she was born at Richmond, in Surrey, on the 13th day of March, 1681. Her father was a younger brother of a good family in Nottinghamshire ; her mother of a lower degree ; and indeed, she had little to boast of her birth." *' Here," continues the writer in the article just quoted from, " let me leave the daughter, and return to Mrs. Johnson, her mother, who continued to live at Moor Park till the death of Sir William Temple, soon after which she resided with Lady Giffard, sister to Sir William Temple, and his great favourite, as her woman, or housekeeper, or perhaps in both capacities. Upon Lady Giffard's death she retired to Farnham, and boarded with one Fillby, a brother of her daughter's husband, and some time after intermarried with Mr. Ralph Mosse, a person who had for a long series of years been intrusted, as steward, with the affairs of the family, and had successively served Sir William Temple, Lady Giffard, and Mr. Temple. He was a widower, and his first wife had been cook to Sir William Temple. Upon the death of Mr. STELLA'S RELATIONSHIP TO SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE. Ill Mosse, slie went to board with Mrs. Mayne of Farnham, a gentlewoman who had a particular esteem for her, and at length retired to Mr. Fillby's again, and there died, not long after the year 1743. I saw her myself in the autumn of 1742, and, although far advanced in years, she still preserved the re- mains of a very fine face"(a). It may be wondered how a woman of her taste could marry a man so much beneath her ; but Mosse might, it is con- jectured, be privy to certain secrets that she was unwilling to have divulged. " The lady," continues the writer, " to whom I am obliged for those anecdotes, assured me that she heard Mrs. Mosse, in her freer hours, declare that she was obliged, by indispensable necessity, to marry the man her soul despised." She appears, from the description given of her, to have been a woman of high attainments as well as of great personal attrac- tions. It is said that Pomfret, in his poem of " The Choice," has given a description of Moor Park, Sir William Temple, and Mrs. Johnson, the mother of Stella. The writer in the Ma- gazine then goes on to relate the incident of Stella's coura- geous conduct in firing a pistol at a robber who was entering her chamber during her residence in Dublin. Now this story, which is there for the first time published, is detailed in almost the same words by Swift : but his " character of Mrs. Johnson" (Stella) did not appear till several years after ; and this cir- cumstance certainly lends the greater probability to the entire narrative. Dr. Delany also, who evidently inclined to the opinion of Stella being a daughter of Sir W. Temple, thus writes in his Observations: " We are told (and I am satisfied by Swift himself) at the bottom of a letter to Dr. Sheridan, dated September 2, 1727(6), that Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. (a) In the notes to Scott's Swift, vol. xv. p. 268, it is erroneously stated that Mosse married Stella's sister. The name Fillby was also erroneously altered to Kilby in the second edition of that work. (6) This letter, as published by Sir Walter Scott, does not contain the 112 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SWIFT AND STELLA. Dingley were both relations to Sir William Temple, at whose house Swift became acquainted with them after he left the University of Dublin. Mrs. Johnson, then, was not the daugh- ter of Sir William's menial servant. At least, if she was, that servant was his relation"(«). That Stella was the daughter of Sir William Temple appears more than probable ; but that Swift was his son, and, conse- quently, her half brother, remains to be proved. It has, it is true, been often surmised, from the date of the publication of Orrery's book to the present time, but we cannot discover in the suppo- sition anything but vague conjecture. If he was, it certainly would account for many hitherto inexplicable portions of his conduct relative to both Stella and Vanessa. Scott, although he apparently did not believe in the relationship, has inserted the following curious incident : " Immediately subsequent to the ceremony. Swift's state of mind appears to have been dreadful. Delany (as I have learned from a friend of his relict) being pressed to give his opinion on this strange union, said that about the time it took place he observed Swift to be extremely gloomy and agitated, so much so that he went to Archbishop King to mention his apprehensions. On entering the library Swift rushed out with a countenance of distraction, and passed him without speaking. He found the Archbishop in tears, and upon asking the reason he said : * You have just met the paragraph alluded to ; but in a note to Ha wkes worth's edition of the Dean's letters, we read : •* Mrs. Dingley, the lady to whom this letter is addressed, though a relation of Sir William Temple's, had no more than an annuity of £27 for a subsistence ; this the Dean used to receive for her : and it was known by an accident, after his memory failed, that he allowed her an an- nuity of fifty." Dublin, Williams, 1767, vol. i. p. 146. In Mr. Monck Berkeley's " Literary Relics" there is a letter from a Mrs. Hearn, niece to Stella, on the subject of her birth, &c., but it does not in any way disprove, but rather strengthens the account given in the Gentle- man's Magazine. (a) Observations upon Lord Orrery's Remarks, p. 54. It is curious that Delany — or his printer — spelled her name with a t. CAUSES OF swift's CELIBACY, 113 most unhappy man on earth, but on the subject of his wretch- edness you must never ask a question.'" ** When Stella went to Ireland," continues the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, " a marriage between her and the Dean could not be foreseen ; but when she thought proper to communicate to her friends the Dean's proposal, and her ap- probation of it, it was then become absolutely necessary for that person, who alone knew the secret history of the parties con- cerned, to reveal what otherwise might have been buried in oblivion." Who this person was is not stated, but we must suppose that it was Mrs. Dingley. " But was the Dean to blame, because he was ignorant of his natural relation to Stella? or can he be justly censured because it was not made known before the day of marriage ? He admired her ; he loved her ; he pitied her ; and when fate had placed the everlasting bar- rier between them, their aiFection became a true Platonic love, if not something yet more exalted. I do not deny but that she might lament the particular oddness of her fate ; nor do I deny but that Swift's natural temper might acquire an addi- tional severity and moroseness from hence, and that he might vent his passion, and revenge himself on the rest of mankind. But his aiFection for Stella became truly fraternal ; and when- ever she lamented her unhappy situation, the friend, the tutor, the husband, all in one, mingled his sympathetic tears with her's, and soothed the sharpness of her anxiety and sorrow. But he despised her family. AVas Swift's reputed father then so noble, and to whom did the Dean declare the secret of his soul? We are sometimes told, that upon the Hanoverian family succeeding to the throne of Great Britain, Swift re- nounced all hopes of farther preferment ; and that his temper became more, morose, and more intolerable, every year. I acknowledge the fact in part ; but it was not the loss of his hopes that soured Swift alone ; this w^as the unlucky epocha of that discovery, that convinced the Dean that the only woman I 114 DID SWIFT EVER LOVE ? in tlie world who could make him happy as a wife, was the only woman in the world who could not be that wife"(a). We confess we cannot agree with those who think it was Swift's pride which prevented his marrying Stella, or his ac- knowledging and consummating their union, if they were married ; neither do we think it necessary (although it is quite possible) to suppose that too great a consanguinity existed between them. Swift was no ordinary man in any of the rela- tions of life, and, therefore, cannot well be judged by those rules wherewith society judges ordinary men. His affection — shall we term it love ? — for Esther Johnson was, in his own eccentric way, and as far as his peculiar amatory passions ex- tended, of an early and most enduring character. She cer- tainly loved him in return ; and he, first as her mentor, and then her friend (indeed the only one she appears to have had at that time), encouraged by his acts, if not by his words, her generous passion. Had Swift remained a quiet country rector among his willows at Laracor, and had there been no " cause or just im- pediment," moral or physiological, to the contrary, it is more than probable that he would have married the object of his esteem; but the fatal visit to London in 1710, and his re- maining there four years, possibly prevented this. During that period another Esther claimed the heart of Swift. After all, the most that can be said of this circumstance is that he — perhaps unconsciously, perhaps through vanity — permitted Miss Vanhomrigh (Vanessa) to fall in love with him ; but where is the authority for his ever having made love to, or written a single endearing sentiment to her, which could lead her to suppose he intended to marry her ? The celebrated poem of Cadenus and Vanessa affords us (a) The Gentleman's and London Magazine. Dublin, printed for John Exshaw, November, 1757, p. 555 to p. 560, from Mhich article the foregoing extracts have been made. It is signed C. M. P. G. N. S. T. N. S. HIS CONSTITUTIONAL COLDNESS. 115 much information on the subject. '* I knew," he makes Va- nessa to say, " By what you said and writ, How dangerous things were men of wit ; You cautioned rae against their charms, But never gave me equal arms ; Your lessons found the weakest part, Aim'd at the head, but reached the heart." And if Swift himself was not susceptible (as we firmly be- lieve he was not by nature) of any passion stronger than friend- ship, he was, to a certain degree, unconscious of the unhap- piness he was thus laying the foundation of in the heart of another. Even to Stella he says : *' Without one word of Cupid's darts. Of killing eyes or bleeding hearts ; With friendship and esteem possest, I ne'er admitted love a guest." In the first letter of the "Journal to Stella," the usual cold- ness of Swift appears to have transiently warmed into love. Thus we read: " Farewell dearest beloved M D, and love poor Presto, who has not had one happy day since he left you, as hope saved ;" and that he at this time entertained some idea of their enjoying each other's society for life, if not of their marriage, may be inferred from the expression, '* I would make M D and me easy, and I never desired more." This was written in the " little language": M D was Stella; Presto, Swift. In one of his letters to Dr. Stopford, on the subject of Stella's illness, written in an agony of grief, he seems to have faithfully depicted his own feelings: — " Dear James, pardon me, I know not what I am saying ; but believe me, that violent friendship is much more lasting and as much engaging as violent love.'"' Sad must have been the perplexity in which he found himself when he discovered the peculiar position in which he i2 116 STELLA r£ii 6- L^A VANESSA. was placed. Stella, gentle and forbearing, his earliest, most devoted of friends, who had risked everything but her honour for his sake, to whom he was in great part a guardian, pined, though not quite in secret, still in comparative silence ; but she enjoyed his society, and frequently presided at his table. Vanessa, hasty and passionate in her love, and deprived of his presence, importunes him to marry her. The jealousy of the rivals was well known to the poor Dean: to Stella he was bound by honour as well as by aifection ; but he feared to marry her, either from the reasons which we have already stated, or on account of the elFect it might produce on Vanessa, with whom it does not appear he ever entertained any idea of mar- riage whatever. This ceremony of marriage with Stella was evidently performed to ease her scruples, and, perhaps, re- quired by her to secure Swift from her rival ; and the story about Archbishop King might have occurred from Swift's re- lation of the peculiarity of his position. In the year 1723, Vanessa, when thirty-seven years of age, is said to have made the fatal discovery of Swift's secret mar- riage with Stella. There have been two versions of this catas- trophe published; the earlier one is, that on her pressing Swift to marry her, he wrote her a positive refusal, and delivered it with his own hand, without uttering a word, the last time they ever met. Whether in this letter he informed her of his en- gagement with Stella or not is uncertain. The other, and the later story, is, that she herself wrote to Stella upon the sub- ject of her own claims upon the Dean ; that Stella answered this by a brief note, acquainting her with her marriage, and at the same time enclosed the unhappy Vanessa's letter to Swift, who immediately rode off to Celbridge, where she resided, and, entering her apartment, threw down a letter, and, without ut- tering a word, stalked out of the room : on opening it she found it to be her own to her rival. Stella retired immediately, and without seeing Swift, to Woodpark, the seat of her friend, Mr. WHY DID NOT SWIFT ACKNOWLEDGE STELLA? 117 Ford(«). Vanessa died of a fever in a very short time after, — the autumn of 1723; and the Dean left Dublin, and was not heard of for some months, having retired in remorse to the south of Ireland. One of the great sources of uneasiness being removed, it may be asked — if none of these causes, already hinted at, existed, why did not Swift now acknowledge Estlier Johnson as his wife ; or marry her, if not already legally bound to her ? The answer to this question must ever be surmise or conjecture. We may, however, again refer to dates. It was now the year 1724; Swift was fifty-seven, and Stella forty-two years of age, and both in very precarious health; the force of habit, the coldness of Swift's temperament, indifference perhaps on the part of Stella when the cause of her anxiety was removed, and a feeling that as they had (if the story of the marriage be true) lived for so many years of their lives separate, and had both passed their days of youth, they should live on as before. The very mystery of their connexion, which had been so long preserved, neither might now be willing to disclose. There are a few other trivial circumstances, besides those already alluded to, connected with the will of Esther Johnson, on which we would remark. It is remarkable that she signs it in her own name, and styles herself spinster, which we do not believe she would have done had there been any just reason to the contrary. The very small legacy bequeathed to her companion, Mrs. Dingley, accounts for an expression of Swift's in one of his letters to Dr. Sheridan : — " I brought both those friends over" (Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley), "that we might be happy together as long as God should please ; the knot is broken, and the remaining person you know has ill answered the end." (a) See the poem of Stella at Woodpark, written in 1723. She remained at Mr. Ford's for half a year, and Swift appears to have written this poem on her return, as a sort of make-up. 118 STORY OF BRYAN M'LOGHLIN. Mr. Monck Berkeley lias retailed a piece of scandal to the effect that Stella had a son by the Dean. This he gives upon the authority of Brennan, the old bell-ringer at St. Pa- trick's (of whom we have already made mention in this essay), who told the author of the " Literary Relics," that, when he was a lad at school, there was a boy boarded there of whom such a story was current ; that he dined at the Deanery on Sundays, and was permitted to amuse himself in the Deanery yard, &c. The fourth item in Stella's will clears up this mystery: Bryan M'Loghlin, the child who lived with her, whom she kept on charity, and to whom she be- queathed twenty-five pounds to enable him to be bound ap- prentice, never could have been her son. Mrs. Honoria Swanton, to whom a legacy is left, appears to be one of a family of that name who are frequently men- tioned in the " Journal to Stella." They resided at Fortran in 1712, at which time Stella was on a visit with them. Dr. Russell was probably the Archdeacon of Cork. Of Mrs. Jane Temple, the last legatee, we have no certain account. We cannot believe that she was Sir William's sister, who generally bore the title of Lady Giffard, and whose Chris- tian name was Martha. Steevens's Hospital was opened for the reception of patients on the 23rd of July, 1733; and among the officers appointed by the governors previous to the opening of the institution, we find the Rev. Peter Cooke elected chaplain at a salary of £10 per annum, with unfurnished apartments. When the will of Esther Johnson came into force we cannot state with accuracy; but in 1758, divine service, which had up to that period been performed in the wards, was celebrated in the chapel, and in 1783 the salary of the chaplain was £107. We now come to the description of Stella's personal ap- pearance. Lord Orrery, who never saw her, makes no men- tion of it. The first notices of it are those which may be gleaned from Swift's odes to her on her birth days, and his sub- STELLA'S PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 119 sequent " Character" of lier, written the night of* her decease. In this latter he says : " She was sickly(«) from her childhood until about the age of 15, but then grew into perfect health, and was looked upon as one of the most beautiful, graceful, and agreeable young women in London, only a little too fat. Her hair was blacker than a raven, and every feature of her face in perfection. She had a gracefulness somewhat more than human in every motion, word, and action." Her grace- fulness and the beauty of her hair are frequently alluded to by writers of or about her time. The writer in the Gentle- man's Magazine gives the fullest description of her which we have met. Speaking of Swift's mortification on making the fatal discovery of her birth, he says: " Let those judge who have been so happy as to have seen this Stella, — this Hetty Johnson ; and let those who have not judge from the following description. Her shape was perfectly easy and elegant; her complexion exquisitely fair; her features were regular, witli the addition of that nameless something that so often exceeds the most exact beauty, and which never fails to add to it when they meet together. Her teeth were beyond comparison ; her eye-brows and hair of the most glossy black ; and her eyes, — but those I pretend not to describe ; her mien and air were equal to the rest of the piece." Mr. Mason — who, however, merely paraphrased the descriptions of earlier writers— says : '* Nature seems to have lavished upon this remarkable female all pos- sible charms, mental and corporeal. Her features were beau- tiful and expressive ; her countenance, rather pale, was pensive, but not melancholy ; her eyes dark ; and her hair blacker than a raven ; her person was formed with the greatest symmetry, but rather inclined to embonpohU" &c.{b) Mr. Mason, al- though he has not acknowledged it, as it might militate against an opinion which he had expressed relative to the («) When at Laracor she suffered from sore eyes, as we learn from the "Journal to Stella ;" and she always had rather weak sight. (6) History of the Cathedral of St. Patrick. 120 Stella's skull. authority of Scott's informant, evidently copied a portion of liis description from that biographer, who says, quoting a friend of Mrs. Delany's: " She was very pale, and looked pen- sive, but not melancholy, and had hair as black as a raven." Of her genius and high mental cultivation it is not necessary here to enlarge. The world is already in possession of them. The cranium of Stella, of which the accompanying is an engraving, was exhumed from the vaults of St. Patrick's Ca- thedral, along with that of Swift, in 1835(a). " The coffin in which it lay was of the same material, and placed in the same relation to the pillar bearing the tablet to her memory, as that of the Dean ; and the bones constituting the skeleton exhibited the same characters, and were in equally perfect preservation, though interred ten [seventeen] years earlier. Its exact and proper place was well known, and no other coffin lay near it from which any confusion might have arisen."(6) (a) Phrenological Journal, vol. xix. p, 607. The skull of Stella was re- turned to its former, and, we hope, its last resting-place, at the same time as that of Swift. (6) Stella is buried beneath the second pillar from the great western en- trance, on the south side of the nave of the Cathedral. The following inscrip- tion, on " a plain, white marble" slab, in accordance with her will, marks INSCRIPTION ON STELLa's MONUMENT 121 As may be seen by the foregoing representation, this skull is a perfect model of symmetry and beauty. Its outline is one of the most graceful we have ever seen ; the teeth, which, for their whiteness and regularity, were, in life, the theme of ge- neral admiration, were, perhaps, the most perfect ever witnessed in a skull. On the whole, it is no great stretch of the ima- gination to clothe and decorate this skull again with its ala- baster skin, on which the rose had slightly bloomed ; to adorn it with its original luxuriant dark hair, its white, expanded forehead, its level, pencilled eye-brows, and deep, dark, lustrous eyes, its high prominent nose, its delicately chiselled mouth, and pouting upper lip, its full, rounded chin, and long but grace- fully swelling neck, — when we shall find it realize all that de- scription has handed down to us of an intellectual beauty of the style of those painted by Kneller, and with an outline and form of head accurately corresponding to the pictures of Stella which still exist. Have we a veritable portrait of Stella now existing which answers the foregoing description? We have taken conside- the spot. From the contiguity of the tombs it looks as if she and the Dean had long arranged the place of their burial : " Underneath lie interred the Mortal Remains of Mrs. Hester Johnson, better known to the world by the name of Stella, under which she is celebrated in the writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of this Cathedral. She was a person of extraordinary endowments and accomplishments in body, mind, and behaviour ; justly admired and respected by all who knew her, on account of her many eminent virtues, as well as for her great natural and acquired perfections. She died January 27, 1727-8, in the forty-sixth year of her age, and by her will bequeathed one thousand pounds towards the support of a Chaplain to the Hospital founded in this city by Dr. Stevens." This certainly, as Mr. Mason remarks, is not from the pen of any skilful eulogist. Both her own name and that of Dr. Steevens are misspelled in it. The precise date of its erection has not been ascertained ; but it does not appear to have been set up during the Dean's lifetime. 122 Stella's portrait. rable pains to answer this question, and have had opportunities of examining several portraits and miniatures said to have been painted for her. There are two oil paintings in this city which tradition asserts to be originals of Esther Johnson. They are both of females about twenty years of age. One of them was lately, along with a very good original of the Dean, in the possession of Mrs. Hillis. These were purchased several years ago in the Liberty of Dublin, and are said to have been the property of Swift's butler. The other likeness of Stella is that which Sir Walter Scott alluded to as the only portrait known to exist; it is in the possession of Walter Berwick, Esq., who has kindly lent it to us for the purposes of this inquiry. Most of the biographers of Swift describe Stella as *' a dumpy woman," but this idea has evidently arisen from the expression of the Dean's already alluded to. In latter life it is well known that Stella lost much of her plumpness and also some of her beauty ; Swift himself frequently alludes to this in the later odes upon her birth day. Even in 1719, when she was but 35, it is evident that her beauty was declining, and the following year we read that this was — *' Stella's case in fact, An angel's face a little crack'd; Could poets or could painters fix How angels look at thirty-six." In 1721 she seems to have felt the clouds of time passing over her fair features. And in her poem to Swift on his birth day, November 30, 1721, she thus reminds him of the cir- cumstance : " Behold that beauty just decay 'd Invoking art to nature's aid," And even then alludes to the failing lustre of her eyes, and the loss of changed or falling hairs. In 1725 Swift wrote the " Receipt to restore Stella's Youth," and in that poem her thinness and want of flesh form the bur- den of the Dean's song. In the same year the annual ode ex- Faulkner's engraving of stella. 123 plicitly describes her state when half her locks were turned to grey; and in 1727 Sheridan alludes to the subject of Stella's thinness in his poetical invitation to the Dean to Rathfarnham, where he says: ♦' You shall be welcome to dine, if your Deanship Can take up with me and my friend Stella's leanship." We have introduced these quotations to show that Stella's advancing years and declining health induced great thinness ; let us now return to the subject of the portrait. Some years after the Dean's death, George Faulkner, the bookseller, pub- lished a wretched engraving of Stella, taken, he says, from an original drawing by the Rev. George Parnel, Archdeacon of Clogher, and then in possession of the publisher(a). What has become of this picture we have not been able to discover. We have now beside us a copy of this very rare engraving(^), but, besides being most inartistic, it in no wise answers the description given of Esther Johnson. The history of the pic- ture in the possession of Mr. Berwick, and described by Scott, is unknown beyond the last thirty years ; and even Mr. Ber- wick's father himself had some doubts about its authenticity at the time. There certainly is a likeness ; the hair, however, is brown, not black, which would be a fatal objection to any pic- ture supposed to be that of Stella. It would occupy unnecessary space to discuss the claims and merits of the various pictures said to be those of Stella, three of which are now before us. We know of but one, the history of which is undoubtedly authen- tic, and which perfectly answers both to the foregoing descrip- tion and to the characteristics of the skull. It is that engraved as the frontispiece to this work. It was originally in the pos- (a) It is the frontispiece to the seventeenth volume of Swift's works, re- vised by Deane Swift, Esq., and published in Dublin in 1772. (6) This engraving belonged to the late Dean Dawson, to whom it was presented by Mr. Hopkins. It is now in the possession of the family of the late Mr. Maguire, to whom we are indebted for the use of it, and other matters connected with Swift. Dr. A. Smith possesses another copy. 124 THE ORIGINAL PICTURE OF STELLA. session of the distinguished Charles Ford of Woodpark, where Stella was constantly in the habit of visiting, and where she spent several months in 1723(a), when probably it w^as painted, Stella being then about 42. It remained, along with an original picture of Swift, at Woodpark for many years, with an un- broken thread of tradition attached to it, until it came, with the property and effects of the Ford family, into the possession of the Preston family. It now belongs to Mr. Preston of Bellin- ter, through whose kindness we have been permitted to en- grave it. The hair is jet black, the eyes dark to match, the fore- head fair, high, and expansive, the nose rather prominent, and the features generally regular and well-marked. Notwithstand- ing that it has not been highly worked by the artist, there is a " pale cast of thought" and an indescribable expression about tliis picture, which heighten the interest its historic recol- lections awaken. She is attired in a plain white dress, with a blue scarf ; and around her bust hangs a blue ribbon, to which a locket appears to be appended(^) ; and she wears attached to *the lower part of her dress a white and red rose. It is a very good full-sized oil painting, and in size matches one of the Dean wdiich is likewise preserved in the same family. It may have been painted by Jervas, who was a particular friend of Swift. At Delville, in the vicinity of this city, the charming resi- dence of Dr. Delany, a spot hallowed by so many interesting (a) See poem on *' Stella at Woodpark." — Scott's Swift, vol. xiv. p. 521. (6) There is a tradition that Stella wore a locket with a miniature of the Dean on one side and a red Wicklow pebble on the other. This trinket was said to be lost after her death, but was recovered about fifty years aq^o by Mr. Maguire, in whose family it now is. This is one of the few miniatures of the Dean in existence. May it not be that worn by Stella when this picture was painted ? We have just seen another miniature of Swift set in a locket, which belonged to George Faulkner. On the back is this inscrip- tion, surrounding an urn : *' Aldr. George Faulkner, obt. 30th August, 1775, ajt. 76." It is either a copy of the former or was painted by the same artist and at the same time. Sir W. Betham has lately shown us a well- executed miniature of Swift. THE MEDALLION AT DELVILLE. 125 recollections, and where Nature has combined so many syl- van beauties, there is a small temple or portico at the lower end of the grounds, which has long been called Stella's Bower. On the frieze in front is the motto, " Fastidia despidt urhis ;" and upon the wall facing the entrance there is a medallion bust painted in oils, and long reputed and believed to be that of Stella(a). Although there is but traditional evidence attaching to this medallion, which is evidently the work of an amateur ; still as it has never been engraved, as it has been greatly defaced of late, and must, in a few years more, be quite obliterated, we give the accompanying wood-cut of it exactly as it now presents. (a) It is said to have been painted by Mrs. Delany ; but the Doctor did not, we believe, marry till after the death of Stella. See D' Alton's History of the County Dublin. This sketch was made by Mr. James Forde, drawn on wood by Mr. Du Noyer, and engraved by Mr. Hanlon. Mr. Forde also copied the painting of Stella at Bellinter, which forms the frontispiece to this Memoir. It was engraved here by Mr. Englehart. The autograph under- 126 RECOVERY OF SWIFT's POCKET BOOK, There still exists a number of anecdotes relating to Swift, both among the gentry of Ireland and the working classes in the Liberty of this city. These, could they be depended upon, would of themselves occupy a large space in this memoir ; but it is not our object to enlarge it by inserting them. Notwithstanding all that has been collected and published upon the subject of S\vift and his writings, we are convinced, from the inquiries which we have instituted for the purpose of this essay, that much more could still be brought to light. A family named Christie, whose descendants now reside in the neighbourhood of Swords, have long possessed a pocket- book of the Dean's, which the present owner has, through the influence of the Rev. William Ormsby, kindly lent us for the purpose of this essay. It is an interleaved copy of one of Harward's Almanacks, '' A Prognostication for the year of our Lord God, 1666"(a), each blank leaf and portions of many of the others being filled with manuscript entirely in the Dean's handwriting. This manuscript is mostly poetry, con- 'sisting of fragments of verses, and some of what appear to us neath it is copied from one attached to a list of the Dean's plate, partly in Stella's handwriting and partly in that of the Dean, now in possession of our friend the Archdeacon of Glendalough. Scott was under a mistake when he supposed these signatures were written by the Dean. We are in- debted to our friend, P. R. Webb, Esq., for having put us on the track of this portrait. (a) A "Prognostication for the Year of our Lord God, 1666, together with an exact Accompt of the principal Highways and Fairs in the Kingdom of Ireland, by Michael Harward, Philomath. Dublin, printed by John Crook, Printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, and are to be sold by Samuel Dancer, Bookseller, in Castle-street. 1666." It is one of the earliest alma- nacs printed in Ireland, and is, perhaps, one of the oldest Irish almanacs now extant. In Whitelaw and Walsh's History of Dublin, vol. ii. p. 1162, we are told that "an Irish almanac, so early as the fifteenth century, is stated to have been in the possession of General Vallancey." This, however, is a statement which must be received with caution, because it is well known that the first book ever printed in Ireland was the Book of Common Prayer, in 1551 ; and even EARLY IRISH ALMANACS. 127 to be his earlier poems, several of which were never pub- lished. Some of these early effusions are in the grossest style of the period, and consequently unfit for original publication at the present time. They are nearly all political, and the greater number of them refer to the reign of James II., particularly about the period of the expected birth of the Prince of Wales, in 1688. Swift was at this time a student of Trinity College ; and these were, probably, written shortly before he went to in England no books were printed until 1474. William Farmer, Chirurgeon, ♦♦ writ," says Harris, in a slip added to some copies of his Writers of Ireland, p. 363, "an almanack for Ireland, Dublin, 4to, 1587, which I mention as being, perhaps, the earliest almanack ever published in or for that country." Since the publication of the first edition of this Essay upon Dean Swift, we purchased at the Stowe auction a very rare work of the class now under consideration, being " A Bloody Irish Almanack, or Rebellious and Bloody Ireland Discovered, in some notes extracted out of an almanack, printed at Waterford, in Ireland, for this yeare 1646. Whereunto are annexed some astrologicall observations upon a conjunction of the two malignant planets, Saturne and Mars, on the midle of the signeTaurus the Horroscope of Ireland, upon friday, the 12 of June, this yeare, 1646, with memorable prajdictions and occurrences therein. By John Booker. Printed at London for John Partridge, 1646." Small 4to. pp. 57. The author of this production was one of the fana- tical astrologers who, with Lilly, Partridge, and Bickenstalf (who flourished somewhat later), were the prophets of the people of those times. The book he alludes to, and which he quotes in his preface, was, "A New Almanack for the Year of our Lord God, 1646, being the second after Leap Year, and since the Creation of the World 5595. Calculated for the Longitude and La- titude of the City of Waterford , and may serve generally for all Ireland. By an Manapian. Waterford : printed for the yeare 1646." The Ptolomean Menapia, of which the writer claims to be a citizen, was situated upon the south-eastern coast of Ireland, but whether the present Wexford or Water- ford was the exact seat of that famed city has not been accurately deter- mined. See Camden's Britannia and Smith's Waterford. With the title of an almanac appeared some of the copies of that now very scarce and curious work, Barnabe Ryche's " New Description of Ire- land." 4to. The title to the copy of Ryche's book, which now lies before us, runs thus : "A New Irish Prognostication or Popish Callender, wherein is described the disposition of the Irish, with the manner of their behaviour, and how they for the most part are adicted to Poperie, &c. &c. London, 128 EARLY IRISH ALMANACS. England, in the beginning of 1G89. Others are as late as the reign of Anne. The book is much injured in several places, and the leaves so much worn at the edges that it is often with diffi- culty the full meaning of the lines can be made out. Although of but little poetic merit, they are interesting not only on ac- count of their supposed author, but from their historic associa- tions. Scott was of opinion that Swift first wooed the Muses during his early residence with Sir W. Temple, in 1692 ; but he himself acknowledged that, long prior to that, he had " written, printed for Francis Constable, and are to be sold at his Shoppe in Panic's Church-yard, at the sign of the White Lyon. 1624." In 1695 an almanac was published in Dublin by Andrew Cumpsty, Philo- math, who kept a school at the sign of the Royal Exchange, Wood-quay ; so at least say Walsh and Whitelaw, but it is much more probable that Cumpsty was only a printer. He is the person referred to in the Journals of the House of Commons, alluded to in the notes to the "Whig's Lamentation" in this Essay. The year following a printer named Wilde published another almanac, which is believed by Whitelaw and Walsh to have been a pirated edition of Cumpsty's. We have then an account of Watson's (established in 1727), Rider's, Merlin's, Kelly's, and Grant's, up to the commencement of the pre- sent century. Whitelaw and Walsh have, however, omitted to mention several of the greatest rarities and curiosities of this department of Irish literature, viz. : *' Advice from the Stars, or an Almanac for the Year of Christ, 1700, &c., &c., to which is added a Continuation of some Considerations last Year published, concerning the Pope's Supremecy ; and the Picture of a Mathe- Magotty Monster, to be seen at the Royal Exchange on the Wood-quay, Dublin: or, Andrew Cumpsty drawn to the Life. By John Whalley, Praet. in Physic and Astrology. Printed at the Author's Printing House, next door to the Fleece in St. Nicholas street," &c. From the preface to this we learn that Whalley the astrologer had printed an almanack in 1697, which was partially pirated by Crook, Cumpsty, and others, against whom Whalley took an action in the Court of King's Bench. We possess copies of " Advice from the Stars," for 1704, 1720, 1721, 1723, and 1724, when its author died; and the '• Advice" was continued by his "successor, Isaac Butler, a lover of the mathematics," of whom we gave an account some time ago — See Dublin Quarterly Journal for August, 1847. In 1715 ap- peared " Annus Tenebrosus ; a Dark Year, &c., by John Whalley, Student in Astrology and Physic." Butler continued the " Advice" till the year of his death, 1757, and it was then taken up, and published regularly, some- EARLY IRISH ALMANACS. 129 burned, and written again, upon all manner of subjects, more than, perhaps, any man in England." Since the issue of the first edition of this work, the fact of the previous publication of some of the poems found in Swift's manuscript in this pocket-book has been pointed out to us ; and although we cannot compliment the reviewer who has done so upon the courtesy of his language or the spirit of his criticism, we feel obliged to him for directing our attention to times under the title of ** Annus Mirabilis ; by John Smith, Successor to Dr. John Whalley and the late Isaac Butler, Student in Astrology and Bot, and Beadle to the Corps of Apothecaries." The prefaces, which are very amusing, are, he says, " given from my observatory in Elbow-lane, Meath-street." The issue of these almanacs continued till 1768, perhaps longer. •'Vox Stellarum; or, an Almanac, &c., by John Coates, Student in Astrology." The work was compiled at Cork, where the author resided, but was printed in Dublin. We possess copies of it from 1713 to 1731. " An Almanac, or a Diary, Astronomical, Meteorological, Astrological, &c., by John Knapp, a Lover of the Mathematics," *' Watch and Clock Maker, at the Sign of the Dyal, at the Lower End of St. Peter's Church Lane, on the Key, Cork :" but originally dated from the Dyal and Globe in Meath- strcet, Dublin. It was always printed here ;— from 1717 to 1722. " Knapp Redivivus, or the Ladies' Almanac, by S. S. and J. W., Pro- fessors of Astrology," Dublin, from 1752 to 1770, perhaps longer. " An Express from the Stars, with a Satchel-full of true News from the Planets, for the year 1719, being a Burlesque upon 'Strologers, Conjurers, and Necromantic Fortune Tellers, whether Male or Female, &c. &c. By Tom Tattler, Prime Minister to the Stars, Secretary Extraordinary to the Emperor of Terra Incognita, and Student in neither Physic nor Astrology, in the Lower Region of the Moon." Dublin. " Tom Tattler's Astral Gazet ; being a compleat Almanack, useful and pleasant, for the year 1722, &c. Written by Kenneth Young, Master of the Dublin English School at the Robin Hood in Mary-street." Dublin. For the use of this collection we are indebted to our learned friend, James Hardiman, Esq. Besides the ordinary materials of almanacs, these books contain much curious information, enigmas, paradoxes, epigrams, lampoons, mathematical questions, astrology, horoscopes and calculations of nativity, alchemy, physic, &c. &c. This notice of rare Irish Almanacs may be useful to those interested in the subject, or to such as may hereafter undertake to write a history of them. K 130 THE POEMS ON AFFAIRS OF STATE. the source of his information (a). *' Some," it is said, "were included (in Swift's lifetime, and while he was writing had Pindaric odes in imitation of Sprat) in ' A Second Collection of the newest and most ingenious Poems, Satyrs, &c., against Popery.' 4to. London, 1689 ; and others may be found in the four famous volumes entitled ' Poems of State,' printed at the beginning of the last century." Now, in the first place, this writer, though he was not courteous, should have been critical. He contradicts himself, for in the very next sentence he objects to these poems being attributed to Swift, because they are " bad verse ;" although he acknowledges that, at the very time at which some of them appeared, he was engaged in writing *' bad Pindaric odes." He has, moreover, misquoted the title of one of the books to which he refers. Nevertheless, we thank this " gentle" critic for the service he has done us. The " Poems on Affairs of State ; — written by the greatest Wits of the Age," and some of whose names appear on the title pages, do contain a few of the poems which we have printed as Dean Swift's, and so far we acknowledge their former publi- cation ; but does that in any way disprove their authorship ? There are other poems printed in these " Poems on Affairs of State," worthy of attention — one, " suppos'd to be writ by a Dignify'd Clergyman," consisting of tlie four following lines referring to Queen Anne, — " When A n was the Church's daughter She acted as her mother taught her ; But now she's mother to the Church, She leaves her daughter in the lurch ;" — which was, in all probability, written by Swift ; while another, " Mully of Mountowne, a Poem," " is attributed to" " the Author of the Tale of a Tub," but was written, as afterwards appeared, by Dr. William King. Many of Swift's poems were not recovered till after his death ; several were first (a) Athenaeum, for March 31, 1849. POLITICAL EVENTS OF 1688. 131 printed on broadsheets, and posted upon the walls, like placards in the present day ; others were first printed for the ballad singers ; and it is not improbable that all the poems which we have found in his handwriting may have appeared in the song books and political miscellanies of the day. We shall refer to these circumstances again. We now give our readers the pieces found in the pocket- book, illustrating them with such historical notes as our know- ledge of the subject enables us. It is for the public to judge of the authenticity and authorship of these verses. In 1688 considerable excitement prevailed, both in these countries and on the Continent, on its being announced that the Queen of England was likely to present the nation with an heir. " This blessing," says Hume, *' was impatiently longed for, not only by the King and Queen, but by all the zealous Catholics both abroad and at home. They saw that the King was past middle age, and that on his death the succession must devolve to the Prince and Princess of Orange, two zealous Protestants, who would soon replace everything on ancient foundations. Vows, therefore, were offered at every shrine for a male successor ; pilgrimages were undertaken, particularly one to Loretto, by the Duchess of Modena ; and success was chiefly attributed to that pious journey (a). But in proportion as this event was agreeable to the Catholics, it increased the disgust of the Protestants, by depriving them of that pleasing, though somewhat distant prospect, in which at present they flattered themselves. Calumny even went so far as to ascribe to the King the design of imposing on the world a suppositi- tious child, who might be educated in his principles, and after his death support the Catholic religion in his dominions. The nation almost universally believed him capable of committing any crime ; as they had seen that, from like motives, he was guilty of every imprudence ; and the affections of nature, they (a) The King himself made a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well. k2 132 THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES IN 1688. tliought, would be easily sacrificed to tlie superior motive of propagating a Catholic and orthodox faith. The present oc- casion was not the first when that calumny had been invented. In the year 1682, the Queen, then Duchess of York, had been pregnant ; and rumours were spread that an imposture would at that time be obtruded upon the nation ; but, happily, the infant proved a female, and thereby spared the party all the trouble of supporting their improbable fiction"(a). Several lampoons were written on the occasion : and the future Dean's opinions, both in politics and religion, naturally led him to take the Protestant side of the question. It is curious to find how a more matured consideration of the ques- tion in after years, and when the excitement of the moment had subsided, induced him to alter his opinion; for in his manuscript notes to Burnet's History, we find this remark upon that question in more than one place : — " All coffee-house chat." Mr. Macaulay, in his History of England, published since (a) •' This story is taken notice of in a weekly paper, the Observator, published at that very time, 23rd of August, 1682. Party zeal is capable of swallowing the most incredible story ; but it is surely singular that the same calumny, when once baffled, should yet be renewed with such success." — Humes England, vol. ix. p. 455. See also Clarendon's Diary ; Burnet's History of His Own Times ; Mackintosh's History of the Revolution in 1688, as well as the general history of the period ; and Macaulay's History of Eng- land, just published. Upon the 22nd of December, 1688, King James held an extraordinary council at Whitehall, at which the Queen Dowager, a large assembly of the spiritual and temporal peers, the mayor and aldermen of London, and the judges, &c., were present, for the purpose of receiving depositions as to the fact of the Prince of Wales's birth. The Queen Dowager, several of the peers, the ladies of the bedchamber and the physicians and nursetenders, &c., were then examined, and their depositions, together with a full account of the proceedings, were printed, and circulated here as well as in England. There is a copy of this curious document in the library of the University of Dublin, bound up with the " Whimsical Miscellany." The medical questions considered in it are of great interest ; and some curious superstitious prac- tices are related as having been had recourse to at the Queen's accouchement. WAS HE SUPPOSITITIOUS? 133 the first edition of this essay appeared, thus describes the state of the national feeling upon the subject: '* The cry of the whole nation was that an imposture had been practised. Papists had during some months been predicting, from the pul- pit and through the press, in prose and verse, in English and Latin, that a Prince of Wales would be given to the Church ; and they had now accomplished their own prophecy. Every witness who could not be corrupted or deceived had been studiously excluded. Anne had been tricked into visiting Bath. The Primate had, on the very day preceding that which had been fixed for the villany, been sent to prison, in defiance of the rules of law and of the privileges of the peerage. Not a single man or woman who had the smallest interest in detect- ing the fraud had been suffered to be present. The Queen had been removed suddenly, and at the dead hour of night, to St. James's Palace, because that building, less commodious for honest purposes than Whitehall, had some rooms and passages well suited for the purpose of the Jesuits. There, amidst a crowd of zealots who thought nothing a crime that tended to pro- mote the interests of their Church, and of courtiers who thought nothing a crime that tended to enrich and aggrandize them- selves, a new-born child had been introduced into the royal bed, and then handed round in triumph as heir of the three kingdoms." — (Vol. ii. p. 369.) The historian does not himself believe in the imposture, but has thus recounted the circum- stances which rendered the suspicions of the people natural, though unjust. The child said to be pawned upon the nation was believed to be the son of a bricklayer ; and in the Jacobite Relics, pub- lished by our esteemed friend Mr. Hardiman, in his " Irish Minstrelsy," the circumstance is thus alluded to in " The Pro- phecy of Donn Firinneach :" '♦ And the Emperor shall weep, Flanders writhe in the chain. And the * Brickler' exult in King James's chambers again." To this event, no doubt, the following poems refer ; it must, 134 UNNOTICED POEMS OF SWIFT. however, be remembered that at the time they were written Swift was not above twenty years of age, and they appear not to have had the advantage of their author's corrections. We give them in their order of succession. The following is the last verse of what was apparently the first poem in the collection, the remainder is obliterated : Then lower your sail For the Prince of Wale, Though some are of opinion That when he comes out A double clout Will cover his dominion. Now this fragment, which, it would appear from the " State Poems," was the concluding verse of the " Prayer for the un- born Prince of Wales," which we have given on the opposite page, certainly tends to prove that the pocket-book belonged to the writer of the poem (a). The next verses are also printed in the " State Poems," as " The Miracle ; how the Dutchess of Modena (being in Heaven) prayed the B. Virgin that the Queen might have a Son ;" but the version of it in Swift's handwriting is both better sense and better rhyme. THE MIRACLE. TO THE TUNE OF *' YOUTH, Y0UTH"(6). Ye Catholicke statesmen and churchmen rejoyce. And praise Heaven's Queen in heart and with voice, None greater on earth, nor in heaven, than she, Some say she's as good as the best of the Three, For her miracles bold Were famous of old, &c. (a) In the work alluded to the verse begins : " Then a pot of ale To the Prince of Wales." (6) A well-known song in Ben Jonson's *' Bartholomew Fair," some- THE PRAYER FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES. 135 And so it goes on for six irregular verses, portions of which have been obliterated, and others are unpublishable. It makes several sarcastic allusions to the Modena pilgrimage, and ends thus: This message with hearts full of joy we received, And the next news we heard was, — Queen Mary conceiv'd. Ye great ones converted, ye cheated Dissenters, Grave Judges, Lords, Bishops, and Commons Conventors, Ye Commissioners all ecclesiasticall(a). From Mulgrave the doubtful to Chester the tall. Pray heaven to strengthen her Majesty's placket, For if this trick fails then beware of your jacket. The following fragment particularly refers to the same event, and alludes to the current opinions of the day : ON THE COMPOSING OF A PRAYER FOR THE UNBORN PRINCE OF WALES. Two Toms and Natt(6) In council were satt, To rig up a new thanksgiving, With a dainty fine prayer For the birth of an heir That's neither dead nor living. times called " The Cutpurse." Thirty years afterwards Swift wrote a ballad, " The Newgate Garland," to this tune. The first verse quoted above is imperfect in the pocket-book, the three last lines being wanting. (a) The odious Court of Ecclesiastical Commission, erected by Kiog James, in 1686. Mulgrave is spelled " Moorgrave the doubtful" in the manu- cript. He was chamberlain, and was very undetermined as to what religion he would choose. In the " Poems on Affairs of State" it is printed thus : " You great ones converted — poor cheated Dissenters, Grave Judges, Lords, Bishops, and Commons Consenters, You Commissioners all Ecclesiastical, From M the Dutiful to C the Tall." (6) The Thanksgiving was ordered for 23rd December, 1687- There were several Toms among the bench of bishops at that time : White, Bishop 136 POEMS ON THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. The dame of Est, As it is express't All in her late epistle, Did to Our Lady Vow the new baby, With coral bells, and whistle. And soon as e'er The Queen of Prayer Had got the diamond bodkin, The Queen had leave [The leaf is torn here.] These verses are also given in the " State Poems," with se- veral alterations : indeed in no instance are the verses found in Swift's pocket-book literal transcripts of the published ver- sions. This poem is headed, " The Council, to the tune of Jamaica." The circumstances connected with the following verses are remarkable. We have printed them as they occur in the pocket-book separately ; but in the '* Poems on AiFairs of State," we find them joined under this heading, "Advice to the Prince of Orange, and the Packet Boat returned ;" the verses from each poem occurring alternately, and with the words " Adv." and " Pac." prefixed to them. TO THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. A PACQUET OF ADVICE. The year of wonder now is come ! A jubilee proclaim at Rome, The Church has pregnant made the womb. Orange, lay by your hope of crowns. Give up to France your Belgick towns, And keep your fleet out of the Downs. of Peterborough, and Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, would be likely to be those alluded to. The only Nat was Nathaniel Crew, a well-known agent of the King's. He was created Bishop of Oxford in 1671, and translated to Durham in 1674. POEMS ON THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. 137 You boast you've eighty men-of-war, Well rigg'd and mann'd you say they are: Such news can't fail of welcome here. Know we have some upon the stocks, And some are laid up in our docks, When fitted out, will match your cocks. Besides we have our men call'd home(a), Which in your fleet and army roam ; But you, 'tis said, won't let 'em come. Soldiery and seamen both we need, Old England's quite out of the breed ; Feather and scarf won't do the deed ; But if victorious you'd be made. Like us in Hounslow masquerade(&), Advance your honour and your trade. Breda you storm'd and took with ease ; Pursue such grandeur on the seas, And fight us too whene'er you please. Such warlike actions will, at least, Inspire each neighbouring monarch's breast, Till Lewis shall complete the rest(c). THE PACQUET BOAT RETURNED. No more of your admired year, No more your jubilees declare. All trees that blossom do not bear. (a) There were at that time several English regiments in the Dutch service. (6) In allusion to King James's celebrated review of the troops on Houns- low Heath, in the summer of 1688. (c) Louis XIV., at that time coquetting between Holland and England. 138 POEMS ON THE PRINCE OF ORANGE. We'll wait for crown nor interest quit, Let Lewis take what he can get, And do not you proscribe our fleet. Well may the sound of eighty sail Make England's greatest courage fail, When half the number will prevail. Talk not as you would match our cocks, But launch your few ships on the stocks, And, if you can, secure your docks. Your subjects in our camp and fleete, Whom you with proclamation greete, Will all obey, when we think fit(a). Of men of arms never despair, The civilized wild Irish are Courageous even to massacre. Then take this counsell back again. Leave off to mimick in Campaign, And fight in earnest on the main. Your taking Breda does declare. That you the glorious offspring are Of those who made all Europe fear. Such camps, such sieges, and such shows. Make each small state your power oppose, And Lewis lead you by the nose. A PAPER PUT IN THE KING'S SHOE. The hearts of all thy friends are lost and gone. Gazing they stand and grieve about thy throne. Scarcely believing thee the Martyr's son. (a) Alluding to the Prince of Orange's celebrated proclamation to the English troops and navy, signed the 10th October; so that this poem must have been written between that date and the landing of the Prince on the 8th of November following. THE GENTLEMAN AT LARGE's LITANY. 139 Those whom thou favourest merit not thy praise ; To their own gain they sacrifice thy ease, And will in sorrow make thee end thy days. Then trust thou not too far, doe not relye On force or fraud ; — why shouldst thou. Monarch, why Live unbelieved, and unlamented dye ? A PAPER FOUND IN THE KING'S TWALLITE (TOILET). The King to keep the laws did plight his troth ; His will's his law, and thus he keeps his oath. THE GENTLEMAN AT LARGE'S LITANY(a). From leaving fair England that goodly old seat. And coming to Ireland to serve for our meat. In hopes of being all of us made very great, Libera nos, Domine. From staying at Dublin until we have spent Our last ready coine in following the scent Of what we could never secure — Preferment, Libera nos, &c. From living upon one short meal for a day. Without bit of breakfast our stomach to stay, Or supper to drive the long night on its way. Libera nos, &c. From dwelling where folks unto prayer doe fall Thrice for each meal, and where they doe call To the chappell much oftener than unto the hall, Libera nos, &c, (a) Litanies were a frequent form of lampooning about this period : thus we find " The Freeman's Litany," published in Dublin in 1724; and there are several litanies, principally political, preserved in the Lanesborough manuscripts, T. C. D. 140 THE GENTLEMAN AT LARGe's LITANY. From drinking, and wrangling, and staying out late, And being locked out of our own Castle gate, And returning again to our own bonny Kate, Libera nos, &c. The remaining verses are very rough, and scarcely capa- ble of emendation, but we give them as they are in the manu- script. From quarrelling amongst ourselves ; without Somebody to hold us from goeing out, From handling cold iron, being stout, Libera nos, &c. From playing at cards in the room above stairs, And losing our money with a honair. To gratefie the lady that's not very fair, Libera nos, &c. From the Steward's rebukes, the Controller's smile. Bestowed with a grace enough to beguile One out of his way a Yorkshire mile. Libera nos, &c. From turning Tory or highwaymen. And leaving our bones near Stephen's-Green(a), Now let us all say, I pray God, Amen, Libera nos Domine. In prose at foot of it we find. " This Litany would have been longer but that the Author knew those gentlemen's constitutions can as ill endure long as frequent prayers." Most of the verses in the pocket-book are, it must be ad- mitted, rough and uncouth ; they were evidently the first un- corrected draughts of their author's ideas, and we have here given them to the reader as near as possible to the original. (a) Referring to the gallows which then stood in the neighbourhood of Stephen's-green, near Baggot-street. CLERICAL THEATRICALS. 141 Their chief merit is their associations, and the times and events to which they refer. In the following we find this exempli- fied. From the " Whimsical Miscellany" (described at page 144), in which several of the poems are transcribed, we may learn somewhat of the history of these verses preserved in Swift's pocket-book. Upon Shrove Tuesday, in 1691, Durfey's new play of " Love for Money" was acted by the ladies and gentle- men of rank in this city, at the palace of his Grace the Arch- bishop of Dublin (Francis Marsh), in St. Sepulchre's, whereon a number of satires and lampoons were written upon the persons who were present, and the dramatis personce in particular, amongst whom were Sir Paul Davis, afterwards Lord Mount- cashel, Sir Standish Hartstonge, Judge Keatinge, Barry, and many distinguished members of the bar. The pasquinading continued upon both sides with great bitterness. This of Swift is evidently written in retaliation upon those who lam- pooned the Archbishop and the players. TO THE TUNE OF "CHIVIE CHASE"(a). God prosper long our Government, The Lords and Ladys all, A wofull quarrell lately did At Lord Chief Barrens fall(J). To combate Ladyes bold and brave Lord Pine(c) found out the way, His brother Kit might live to rue Making him drunk that day. (a) The Dean wrote several poems to the tune of " Chevy Chase ;" — one of them, ♦* Duke upon Duke," was originally sung by the ballad-singers, in 1720. It has been published by Scott. (b) John Hely, appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer, December 3, 1690, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1694; therefore the poem refers to some period between those dates. (c) Richard Pyne, appointed one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal under William and Mary, in 1690 ; afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and, in 1694, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. See Smith's Chro- nicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, 1839. 142 LAMPOON UPON THE IRISH COURT AND THE BAR. The remainder of this poem, which is scarcely fit to publish at the present time, refers to a dispute which, it is said, took place between the wives of some of the judges and other high functionaries of the day. Except for its allusion to some of these circumstances connected Avith the domestic history of the country, it is of little value. It consists of sixteen verses. Lady Coningsby, whose husband was then Lord Justice of Ireland(a), having attacked Lady Shelburn(^), the poem pro- ceeds : For never Amazonian dame Could greater courage show, The second word that passed she thought To follow with a blow. But out there stepped a gallant squire, Jack Poultney(c) was his name, And said he would not have it told To Henry(J), our chief, for shame. That she should foul her own fair hands To right her Lordship's wrongs ; Quoth he, the rogue's not worth the touch Though with a pair of tongs. I'll do the best that do I may, I'll fight with heart and hand, Though I am drunk as you or he, And scarce can go or stand. (a) Thomas Coningsby, created Baron of Clanbrazil by William III. ; appointed Lord Justice of Ireland in 169U, and Lord Treasurer in 1692 ; created an Earl by George I. (6) Charles, eldest son of Sir W. Petty, was created Baron of Shelbom after his father's death. His lady is the person, most likely, alluded to here. (c) Jack Pultney appears to have been one of the wits and fine gentle- men of the town at that time ; he is mentioned in other poems of Swift's in this pocket-book. (rf) Probably Sir Henry Echlin, Justice of the King's Bench in 1692. EARLY HISTORY OF THE DUBLIN STAGE. 143 The champion then 'bout to engage, After those due respects, Knight Levins(a) snatched him from his hands, And the poor sott corrects. While other Heros tried to help Dame Hely in a fitt That threw her flat upon the floor, Without either fear or witt. The next poem in succession which we find in the Dean's Almanack, and in his handwriting, is headed " Mrs. Butler to Mrs. Braceglrdle." It is, probably, one of the earliest in the collection, and is a very severe lampoon upon the state of the Dublin stage, which at that time does not appear to have been in a very high condition. In it all the scandal and intrigue of the day are introduced. It consists of thirty-eight lines, few of which are suited to modern taste. Of Mrs. Anne Bracegirdle, one of the brightest ornaments of the British stage, it is unnecessary now to write at any length ; but the circumstances connected with the drama here at the time this piece was written require some explanation. The original theatre in Werburgh-street, which was built by Mr. John Ogilby, Master of the Revels during the Lieutenancy of Strafford, in 1633, and for which Shirley's play of the *' Royal Master" was written, was closed during the ensuing rebellion, by order of the Lords Justices, and never re-opened. In 1662 Ogilby's patent was renewed, and the Irish nobility and gentry subscribed and built a new theatre in Smock-alley, then called Orange-street, and now Essex-street, West ; it fell, however, in 1671, from which time the drama became, it is said, extinct in Dublin till 1689, when the citizens formed a company, and re- built the house in Smock-alley, and exhibited gratuitously. Here (a) Sir Richard Levinge, Solicitor-General in 1690 and 1694, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 144 THE WHIMSICAL MISCELLANY. Wilkes andEstcourt first made their appearance, and also George Farquhar,tlie dramatist, in 1695. Ashbury having been appoint- ed Master of the Revels by the Duke of Ormonde, invited over several actors and actresses from England, among whom was Mrs. Butler, then one of the most distinguished actresses of the day ; of whose Constantia, says Colley Gibber (a), '* If I should say I have never seen her exceeded, I might still do no wrong to the late Mrs. Oldfield's lively performance of the same character." Mrs. Dillon appears to have been one of the principal ac- tresses here at the time, and is thus described in this poem : Dillon would be an angel, were her mind Like to her face, so gloriously refined. In the library of Trinity College are three volumes of poems, entitled the " Whimsical Miscellany," and usually known as the Lanesborough Manuscripts, consisting of all the curiosities of poetical literature, chiefly Irish, which were writ- ten about the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the last century. Some account of this manuscript has been given by Dr. Barrett, in his Essay on Swift, and several of the pieces in it have been proved to be the Dean's, and are now pub- lished in his collected works. In it we find a copy of that now under consideration (vol. i. p. 36), with this heading, " Mrs. Butler the Player, in Ireland, to Mrs. Bracegirdle, her Correspondent, in London." And at the end of both copies, ** the rest you shall have next post. I am your's, B." Theophilus Lord Newtown Butler, the compiler of the Miscellany, and his brother Brinsley, afterwards Viscount Lanesborough, entered the University in September, 1686, and would, very likely, have procured copies of these early poems (a) See Colley Gibber's Apology, vol. i. p. 126, and p. 121 ; see also Hitchcock's Historical View of the Irish Stage, 1788; the Dublin Magazine for June, 1820; Ware's Writers of Ireland ; and Mr. Walker's Historical Essay on the Irish Stage, in vol. ii. of Transactions R. I. A. Uuiacke, Foulkes, Atkinson, and Jackson, are the names of the other actresses mentioned in Swift's poem. THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS. 145 of Swift. The following poem, which refers to a dispute be- tween two of our medical men, probably at a somewhat later period, is also copied into the " Whimsical Miscellany," and from it we are able to restore some portions which are oblite- rated in the original. The fact of these poems being found among the collection considerably strengthens the opinion of Dr. Barrett as to the authorship of the '* Tripos" and other pieces which he has attributed to Swift. THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS(a). Yee High commissioners of death, And fatall stoppers of our breath, By Jove you make us wonder, That you who ought, like birds of feather, Most willingly to flock together. Should now be riv'd asunder. (a) We have not been able to determine who the medical men here re- ferred to were, nor to discover the occasion to which this poem alludes. These verses, as we already stated, are preserved in a more correct form in the *• Whimsical Miscellany," under the title of •• The Duell betwixt two old Physitians," from which we have been able to revise the original, which is deficient in many places. The first ** Physician to the State" was Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart., appointed by patent in 1725; he was succeeded by Dr. Henry Cope, about the year 1730, and on the resignation of Dr. Cope, in 1742, Dr. Robert Robinson was appointed. The earliest State medical appointments made in Ireland were those of Chirurgeons- General, the first of whom was James Fountaine, appointed 16th of March, 1660; a,nd " Physicians- General to the Army " of whom Dr. Wil- liam Currer, appointed 26th May, 1663, was the first. He was succeeded by Dan de Maziers des Fountaines, M, D., in 1668. "The office was dis- continued for some time, until Sir Patrick Dun, M. D. [who was physician to the army in Ireland, in the war in 1688], having, in the year 1704, repre- sented that there was an hospital in Dublin for the sick and infirm of the army, and that no physician had been appointed to attend them since the Queen's accession to the crown, he prayed a grant of the said office to him, with the usual salary of ten shillings a day, as was allowed since the Res- toration. Accordingly the Queen appointed him Physician-General of the army, with the said fee from Lady Day, 1705." — Liber Munerum Puhlicorum Hihernice, vol. i. p. 101, part 2. L 146 THE DUEL BETWEEN TWO PHYSICIANS. What dev'lish motives did you feel, Or was the Devill in the Deel, To cause this dismall fray ; For sure his kingdom can't increase, If you his agents ben't at peace. And both in concord slay. Charon for joy did shout so clear, That you from Arctick might him hear, To the Antarctic Polus. If one of you by sword had fell Few souls he'd ferryed o'er to hell For want of mortall Bolus. As for the motives, most men doubt Why those two doctors did fall out ; Some say it was Ambition, And that the one did undermine The other's credit, with design To be the State's Physitian. According to my little sense. It was an act of Providence, In kindness to the nation. For when knaves quarrell good men thrive. Their mortal feuds keep us alive. Their deaths our preservation. Next for the manner of the fight, If I conceive the matter right : One gave the other worne ground. But, (Jove be praised,) it so fell out. That, though design'd a bloody bout. Betwixt them pas'd not one wound. Sir Patrick Dun was succeeded by John Friend, M. D., in 1713; Dr. Friend, by John Campbell, M. D. ; the year following, upon the death of Dr. Campbell, in 1718, Sir Thomas Molyneux was appointed Physician-Ge- neral to the army, a situation he resigned in favour of Dr. Upton Peacock, upon his being appointed State Physician, in 1723. The subsequent State medical appointments are already well known. ROCHESTER S POEM UPON NOTHING. 147 Now why one doctor did advance, And why the other backward danc'd, Let's make some divination ; None truly knows no more than horse, Yet wise men guess it was the force Of Physick's operation. * * * * « « But to conclude, in sober sadness. Take my receipt to cure this madness And stupifying folly : First purge, then bleed, then take good store Of mad men's dyet — Helebore, Which cureth melancholy. And doctors, pray, don't take it ill, Or think this charitable bill Your reputation sully s ; For men of sense do all agree There must be madness certainly When old men fight like buUys. Four lines, headed, " A Parcell lately come from France," and alluding to the birth of the Prince of Wales, already referred to, here follow in the pocket-book. After this we find the cele- brated poem " Upon Nothing," which has been usually attributed to the Earl of Rochester ; it also is in Swift's handwriting ; but after the heading we find this — " By y^ of Ro ." Now as none of Rochester's poems were published during his lifetime, and as considerable doubts have been thrown upon several of them, it is very interesting to find this authority for one of Rochester's first poems. Johnson believed that the verses upon " Nothing" were the genuine production of Wilmot's pen ; but it is remarkable that he thinks both Yalden and he drew upon Wowerus, who wrote the Hymnus ad Umhram. The poem preserved in Swift's handwriting is not a transcript from that which has since appeared in print, but in many l2 148 ROCHESTER'S POEM UPON NOTHING. places both the ry thm and the meaning are better ; we there- fore give the verses verhatim{a). They were either written from memory, from a manuscript copy, or from one of the very rare early editions of Rochester (1685), which we have not had an opportunity of examining. UPON NOTHING. " Nothing, thou elder brother even to Shade, Thou hadst a being ere the world was made, Well fixed alone, of ending not afraid. " Ere time and place were, time and place were not. When primitive Nothing Something straight begot. They all preceded from the great united what. " Something, the general atribute of all. Severed from thee its sole original. Into thy boundless self must undistinguished fall. " Yet Something did thy Nothing power command. And from thy fruitfull emptiness's hand Snatch men, beasts, birds, fire, water, air, and land. " Matter, the wickedest offspring of thy race. By form assisted, flew from thy embrace. And rebel life obscured thy reverend face. ** With form and matter, time and place design ; Body, thy foe, which these in league combine, To spoil thy peacefull reign, and ruin all thy line. " But turncoat Time assists the foe in vain. And, built by thee, destroys their short-lived reign, And to thy hungry womb drives back the slaves again. (a) See Johnson's English Poets, and the various modern editions of Rochester. We here beg to express our obligations to our esteemed friend, D. P. Starkey, Esq., for several valuable suggestions with regard to the poems here published. We are also indebted to Mr. J. T. Gilbert, one of the secretaries to the Celtic Society, for much valuable information received since the publication of the first edition of this work. ROCHESTER'S POEM UPON NOTHING. 149 " Thy misteries are hid from Laick eyes, And the Divine alone by warrant pries Into thy bosome, where thy truth in privat lyes. " Yet this of thee the wise may truly say : Thou from the virtuous nothing takes away, And to be part of thee the wicked wisely pray. " Great negative I how vainly would the wise Enquire, design, distinguish, teach, devise. Didst not thou stand to point their blind philosophies. " Is, or is not, the two great ends of fate, Of true or false, the subject of debate. That perfect or destroy designs of state, " When they have wrack'd the poletitian's breast, Within thy bosom most securely rest. Denied to thee at last are safe and best. *' But, Nothing, why does Something still permitt, That sacred monarchs should at council sitt, Such persons thought, at best, for Nothing fitt, " Whilst weighty Something modestly abstains From princes' courts, and from the statesman's brains, And Nothing there, like stately Nothing, reigns. " Nothing that dwells with fools in grave disguise, For whom thy revered forms and shapes devise Lawn sleeves and furs and gowns, when they look wise. " French truth, Dutch prowess, British policy, Hibernian learning, Scotch civility, Spaniard's despatch, Dane's witt, are seen in thee. " The great man's gratitude to his best friend. Kings' promises, quean's vows, toward thee they bend, Fly swiftly into thee, and in thee ever end." 150 ANTI-POPERY BALLADS. Swift was never a friend of the Papacy, and gave full scope to his satirical powers on the subject when he was an under- graduate in the University of Dublin. " At his departure from College," says Dr. Barrett, " the political hemisphere was covered with thick clouds ; the Protestant religion seemed at the point of being extinguished in Ireland ; and the College experienced such convulsions from the troubled state of the times as produced a temporary dissolution, and had well nigh destroyed the society." We find in Swift's handwriting in the manuscript before us three anti-Popery ballads : the two first of considerable length; the third is defective. They are all powerful satires on the Roman Catholic religion, its belief, forms, and miracles, &c. The first is, " The Catho- lique Ballad; or, an Invitation to Popery, to the tune of '88." It also is copied into the " Whimsical Miscellany," with this addition to the heading, " Upon considerable grounds and reasons, 1688." The first two verses are : Since Popery of late is so much in debate, And great strivings have been to restore it, I cannot forbear openly to declare That the ballad-makers are for it. We'll dispute no more then ; these heretical men Have exposed our books unto laughter, So that many doe say, 'twill be the best way To sing for the cause hereafter. And so it extends to thirty-two verses in two parts. The second ballad is A CONTINUATION OF THE CATHOLIQUE BALLAD INVIT- ING TO POPERY UPON THE BEST GROUNDS AND REA- SONS THAT COULD EVER YET BE PROVIDED. TO AN EXCELLENT TUNE CALLED *' THE POWDER PLOT." From infallible Rome once more I am come With a budget of Catholic ware. Shall dazzle your eyes, and fancies surprise, To embrace a religion so rare. ROCHESTER'S POEMS. 151 O I the love and good will of his Holiness still, What will he not do for to save ye ? If such pains and such art cannot you convert, 'Tis pitty but Old Nick should have ye. There are thirty-one verses of this composition, several of which are defective. It does not exist in the " Whimsical Miscellany." We have given the foregoing fragments of these poems in order that they may be recognised hereafter, should they ever see the light in full, or be found in any of the periodicals of the days to which they refer. The third is headed '* On Rome's Pardons, by the E. of R. :" the Earl of Rochester(a). This and the poem *' Upon No- thing," are the only ones in the collection to which an author's name has been attached. It begins ; " If Rome can pardon sins, as Romans hold ; And if these pardons can be bought and sold ; It were no sin t' adore and worship gold." Upon a torn leaf at the end, with the title obliterated, ex- cept the figures " 1699," we find the accompanying rhymes upon some of the distinguished men who flourished both here and in England at that time, and whose names are well known. In the " Whimsical Miscellany" we find a short poem, re- sembling this, — in all save the names of the persons, — so closely that we are forced to believe them to be by the same hand. It is headed " The Picture of a Beau"(6). (a) This poem will be found in, ** The Works of the Earls of Rochester, Roscommon, and Dorset ; the Dukes of Devonshire, Buckinghamshire, &c. ; with Memoirs of their Lives." London, printed in the year 1777. (6) In the " Whimsical Miscellany" it commences : Many have tried their skill a beau to draw, One tolerable like I never saw. The man that would a perfect picture make, Should from each fop a different feature take. 152 THE PICTURE OF A CHANCELLOR IN 1699. As he that would a perfect picture make, From diflferent faces must the features take ; So he that would the Chancilor designe, Of a stanch coxcomb must together join The differing qualetys of each fop and beau, That all the Play, the Strand, and Castle show. He that like Blessington writes, like Villiers walks, Dances like Lanesborough, and like Upton talks(a), Whose sprightly parts like Orrery's do shine, Like Kingland's wise, like Chidly Coot is fine. Like Lord Moore, witty, like Jack Eyres, brave; Generous like Hill, like Captain Southwell grave ; Like CoPnel Conningham learn'd speeches makes ; Reasons like Tennison ; like Purcell speaks ; Like Worth, a patriot; like Allen Brodrick, just; And, like the Speaker, faithfull to his trust; Ikerin-like, belles lettres understands ; Well-bred like Bligh ; well-shaped like Sir J. Sands(6). A FABLE, YET A TRUE STORY. In ^sop's tales an honest wretch we find. Whose years and comforts equally declined ; He in two wives had two domestic ills. For each had different age and different wills, One pluck'd his black hairs, t'other pluck'd his grey; The man for quietness did both obey. Till all the parish saw his head quite bare, And said he wanted sense as well as hair. (a) In the " Whimsical Miscellany:" He that like Stewart brags, like Wheeler talks, Like Chomly entertains, like Waters walks. (6) The other names mentioned in this poem are Hartstonge, ** old Jerom," Welch, and Sir Thomas. The various personages introduced into this Picture of a Chancellor are already well known. THE THANKSGIVING. 153 THE MORALL. The parties, henpeck'd William, are thy wives, The hairs they pluck are thy prerogatives. Torys thy person hate, and Whigs thy pow * , Though much thou yieldest still they tug * * Till thou and this old man alike art shown, He without hairs and thou without a crown. THE THANKSGIVINGC«). In sounds of joy your tunefull voices raise. And teach the people whom to thank and praise; Thank humble Sarah's(^) providential reign, For peace ^nd plenty, both of coin and graine; Thanks to Vulpone(c) for your unbought union ; Thank bishops for occasional communion ; Thank Banks and brokers for your thriving trade; Once more thank Vulpo that your debts are paid ; Thank Marlborough's zeal that scorn'd the proffered treaty (c?). And thank Eugene the Frenchmen did not beat ye; Thanks to yourselves if ye are tax'd and sham'd, And sinff Te Deum when the three are d d. (a) For the probable occasion of this poem, see Scott's Swift, vol. ii. p. 72 ; therefore it was written, in all likeHhood, in 1710. (h) Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. (c) Vulpone, a term first used by Ben Jonson, was a nick-name constantly employed in the satirical poems and lampoons of that day. It was applied to Godolphin, by Dr. Sacheverel, in his celebrated sermon, and is said to have been the true cause for his impeachment by the minister. In the Ex- aminer for January 10, 1710, Swift writes : *' We remember when a poor nick-name, borrowed from an old play of Ben Jonson, and mentioned in a sermon without any particular application, was made use of to spur on an impeachment." Godolphin was a strenuous advocate for the Scotch union, (d) Probably alluding to the treaty of Gertruydenberg. See the Exa- miner for February 8, 1711. 154 SOCIAL STATE OF IRELAND IN 1711. The following poem, of wliicli we possess two copies, — one in the Dean's pocket-book, and the other, also in manuscript, preserved among a collection of broadsides to be described hereafter, — is one of the most remarkable of the set, and contains greater evidence of being Swift's, both in its composition and style, as well as the circumstances to which it alludes, than any of the foregoing. Swift wrote two poems precisely similar to this, both in the rhyme, and in the termination of several of the lines. One is " Jack Frenchman's Lamentation," a song upon the battle of Oudenarde, written in 1708, which commences with the line adopted as the tune of the accompanying verses, "Ye Com- mons and Peers." From some of the circumstances mentioned in this poem of the " Whigs' Lamentation" it would appear to refer to the period between the viceroyalty of the Earl of Wharton in 1711, and the death of Queen Anne in 1714, when the Duke of Ormonde was Lord Lieutenant. The Recorder mentioned in the eighth verse is manifestly Foster, the parody on whose speech to the Duke of Ormonde, in 1711, has been rescued from oblivion by the learned Dr. Barrett. Since the first edition of this essay was printed, we have dis- covered all the circumstances connected with the origin of this poem, and all the persons alluded to therein(a). The circum- stances are these. The Rev. Francis Higgins, who had been the coadjutor of Sacheverel in England, was presented with an Irish benefice, and about the year 1704 was put in the com- mission of the peace by Chancellor Sir Richard Cox. Scott styles him "a bustling pragmatical clergyman of the time, who had made himself remarkable by the vehemence of his high church politics," and, again, '* a violent high churchman, who made himself very busy in the political intrigues and contro- (a) In a collection of broadsides and pamphlets relating to such affairs, lately purchased by Dr. Todd, for the library of the University. HIGGINS, THE IRISH SACHEVEBEL. 155 versial discussions of the period"(a). Swift, in his *' List of Friends," classes him amongst the ungr'otified. Having preached a sermon in the Royal Chapel at White- hall, about the year 1709, which displeased Lord Sunderland, then Secretary of State, he was imprisoned, and superseded from the commission of the peace in Ireland, by Sir R. Cox. To an account of the sermon which gave so much offence was attached a postcript which, it is said, contained a libel on the Archbishop of Canterbury. The tract was burned by the hang- man by order of the House of Lords (the usual and enlightened mode of punishing writers and publishers in those days), and the author censured by the House of Convocation. Higgins, who did not acknowledge the authorship, was, however, some time after reinstated in the commission of the peace for the county Dublin, by Chancellor Sir Constantine Phipps : and when we next hear of him, in 1710, he was rector of Baliud- dery, and one of the prebendaries of Christ Church. Towards the close of that year, Dominick Langton, a converted friar, ac- cused Lewis Mears, Esq., and other Whig gentlemen of West- meath (upon the information of a servant), of entering into a conspiracy against the Queen and her ministers. Archbishop King, writing to Swift on the 16th December, 1710, says : "The design of it is to show all the gentlemen of L'eland to be a pack of desperate Whigs, ready to rise up in arms against Her Ma- jesty for the old ministry, associating for the purpose. Whe- ther it be for the interest of Ireland to have this believed you may judge ; and sure there must be good evidence to make any reasonable man believe it. Mr. Higgins has drawn up the narrative, and sent it to England, and will pawn all he is worth to make it good." A special commission, under Chief Justice Sir R. Cox, was sent down to Westmeath; but the grand jury, by his direction, (a) The works of Jonathan Swift, by Sir W. Scott, second edition, vol. i. 476 ; vol. XV. p. 410, n. 156 THE KILMAINHAM SESSIONS. ignored the bills. Tins was afterwards made a matter of impeach- ment against the Chief Justice. Higgins, backed by the high Tory party, warmly espoused Langton's cause ; but evidently, as it would appear from the correspondence of Swift, for the purpose of ingratiating himself with the English government. The impeachment was, however, disposed of by the Irish Com- mons pronouncing the charges made by Langton to be false, groundless, and malicious, and directing an address to be for- warded to the Lord Lieutenant, desiring that her Majesty would order Langton to be struck off the establishment of Ire- land. At the ensuing sessions of Kilmainham, on the 5th Oc- tober, the grand jury, who were all staunch Whigs, presented Higgins as a turbulent person, a sower of sedition, and of having been guilty of acts unbecoming a clergyman and a magistrate. Lord Santry, a descendant of the celebrated Santry who wrote the " Case of Tenures," and a Whig leader, memorialed the Privy Council for his discharge from the commission of the peace, and not having had redress from that assembly, subse- quently, in October, 1711, petitioned the Duke ofOrmond, then Lord Lieutenant, on the same subject; and among the va- rious charges preferred against Higgins were those of tampering with witnesses, shifting recognizances, and compounding felo- nies ; but, says Archbishop King, " it is said these things are common in the country; and perhaps that will save him"(a). The lower House of Convocation having acquitted him of the charges contained in the presentment, and declared him " an orthodox divine, a good Christian, and a loyal subject," the matter appears to have been allowed to drop. Higgins went over to England, and there endeavoured to represent himself as an aggrieved man, and claimed some com- pensation ; but it does not appear that he succeeded. The accompanying notes will, however, explain, better than any prefatory remarks, the circumstances and persons alluded to in this poem. (a) Letter to Swift, 31st October, 1711 ; and also Santry's petition, in the Library T. C. D. THE whig's lamentation. 157 AN EXCELLENT NEW BALLAD; on, THE WHIGGS' LAMENTATION, OCCASIONED BY A SORE OF THEIR OWN SCRATCHING, TO THE TUNE OF "COMMONS AND PEERS." At a sessions of late There arose a debate Which the Dons of the county resented, When an hot-headed jury, With less wit than fury, An orthodox churchman presented. By a Peer at their head These managers led, They boldly petitioned His Grace(a), With tumult, and riot, And zeal most unquiet, To preserve the Queen's Majesty's peace. But the good man in black, Who no courage did lack. Would not bate the proud noble an ace(i), Tho' he huff'd and look big. Sir, And Hector'd at Higg(c), Sir, Yet he bravely supported his place. Then to bully and boast, They began with a toast(c?) To William, their hero so brave ; Ah I Sirs, I profess 'Tis a sorrowful case To disturb a man's rest in his grave. (a) The Duke of Ormonde; Lord Lieutenant from 1711 to 1714. (6) Lord Santry, the foreman of the jury. (c) Higgins, the clergyman already referred to in the text. See Liber Munerum Publicorum. He is described under the name of Borachio in ♦• The Swan Tripe Club in Dublin," a poem ascribed to Swift. (d) •* The glorious Memory," which was proposed as a toast of loyalty at the Kilmainham Sessions' dinner. See Higgins's case, in Library T. C. D. 158 THE WHIG'S LAMENTATION. In peace let him be, With his great memory, Whilst our Gracious Queen Anne fills the throne; By birth and by merit Long may she inherit, In spite of the Whiggs, what's her owne(a). But her foes who unite To invade her just right, Would be their own monarch's electors(6) ; To pull high-flyers down, These fast friends to the Crown, And set up themselves for Protectors. The sharpers still aim At IhQ forty- one game(c). Enraged while they court moderation, That knaves may turn trumps, And the Parliament Rumps(c?) Palm bad votes for good laws on the nation(e). (a) For the sentiment contained in the two preceding verses the reader is referred to Swift's parody on *' The Recorder's Speech to His Grace the Duke of Ormonde, 4th July, 1711," printed in Barrett's Essay. The " Glo- rious Memory" was even then, it appears, a cause of offence to some. (6) Alluding to Higgins's opinion as to the right of electing kings, which arose out of a dispute between him, Sir R. Bulkeley, and Colonel Foster, who asserted that the Crown was elective and vested in the people. (c) " Your petitioner can prove that the said Higgins, to reproach her Majesty's just administration, seditiously said in a public coffee-house that forty-one was coming in again, ' and if so,' said he, ' I can cant and wear a short cloak.' " See Lord Santry's petition. (rf) It would appear from the similarity of several lines in these poems found in Swift's pocket-book to those already published, that the same ideas had long remained in the Dean's recollection ; — thus in the ballad to the tune of which this very poem is set we find the following lines : *• How modern Whigs Dance forty- one jigs." And again, alluding to the Rump Parliament, convened in 1649. *♦ That a Parliament rump Should play hop-step-and-jump." (c) Alluding to the celebrated case of the Dublin election, then invest!- THE whig's lamentation. 159 Of late our Recorder, 'Gainst duty and order, Has flown in the face of the Duke, But when he does gabble To his long-ear'd rabble Some are forced to come off with a fluke. This orator quaint His hearers does taint, Hence some who are pleased to be witty Do give him a name, Which doth sully his fame, Not the mouth, but the nose of the city. Some with addle pates, In furious debates, Have rail'd at the gown in great passion, 'Cause they have their hearts on Fanatical Wharton, Who'd feign bring the cloak into fashion(a). Hence Clodpate and Rowley(6) On the Doctor fell foully, For slighting a health so profane. And his champion, my Lord(c), Once a man of the sword. Would his colleague's lost honour maintain. gating by the Commons. —See "A Long History of a Short Session in a cer- tain Kingdom. 1711." — Queen's Inns Library, N. 8, No. 28. (a) Alluding to Lord Wharton's patronage of the Dissenters during his viceroyalty in Ireland. His health was proposed by Lord Santry at the Kilmainham dinner. (6) Perhaps a play on the name Clotsworthy Rowley, then, as now, be- longing to the Rowley family. Rowley added the usual curses and maledic- tions to "the glorious and pious memory " at the Kilmainham dinner, and was reproved by Higgins for cursing. Hence arose the " furious debate." (c) Lord Santry. 160 THE whig's lamentation. This younker so smart Has attempted a part, To be for the faction a bully ; But, mark the disaster Of pert little master, (a) His Lordship came off like a cully. They thought, without doubt. The Doctor must out, As soon as his train he did summons ; And he hoped 'twould be try'd By hearing one side, As Mercer was tried by the Commons(5). («) Henry Lord Santry was a very small man. Higgins once threatened to "pitch him" through the window of Lucas's coffee house. See the 12mo. London edition of Swift's works, 1775, edited by Deane Swift, Esq., vol. v. p. 69. (6) John Mercer, the person here alluded to, appears to have been a coal- factor in Dublin, whose proceedings were brought before the Irish House of Commons in the latter part of the year 1711. Upon the 17th of October in that year a bill was presented to the House for the more effectually preventing the engrossing, forestalling, and regrating of coals imported into this kingdom ; and upon the 24th of that month the House received the petition of John Whalley, the printer and celebrated almanac-maker, setting forth that, upon the application of several poor inhabitants and housekeepers of the city of Dublin, and dealers in coal, he printed their case, addressed to the House, for relief against John Mercer for engrossing of coals ; and that the said Mercer had taken out a writ marked by Francis North, attorney, for one hundred pounds, against petitioner, for printing this case. In answer to this it was ordered that Mercer and North should attend the bar of the House, which they did on the 17th, when it was resolved that Whalley had made out his petition against Mercer, *• for a notorious breach of the privileges of this house in taking out a marked writ of a hundred pounds against the pe- titioner for printing the case of several thousand poor inhabitants in Dublin, and dealers in the coal trade." It was also ordered that Mercer should be taken into custody by the sergeant at arms, and proceeded against by the Attorney- general, ** as a common and notorious cheat, for selling and retailing coals in the city of Dublin by false and deceitful measures." It was likewise or- dered that the certificate of Andrew Cumpsty (another almanac-maker), relative to the said false measures, should be referred to a committee of the House. — See Journals of the Irish House of Commons. THE WHIGS' LAMENTATION. IGl To gain him success Some great ones, we guess, In private caballs have assisted. Which, since under the rose, We shall not disclose, Tho' their plotts may in time be untwisted(a). With these owles of the night Was a swan, tho' not white(^), A witness who swore fast and loose; But if birds of a feather Do still flock together, 'Tis plain that their swan was a goose. And, as we do hear, They summon'd to swear Some persons of office and trust ; I shall instance but one. And that's good as ten, . Though makers of pyes and pye-crust(c). In the second manuscript transcript of this poem in our possession the thirteenth verse runs thus : ** He thought, without doubt. The Doctor must out When his train he together did summons, And his cause now be tryed By hearing one side, As Langhton was judged by the Commons." For the history of Mr. Langton's case, which was also brought before the House at this period, see the Irish Commons' Journals for 1711-12. (a) Probably alluding to Archbishop King, who, it would appear, was rather hostile to Higgins. (6) Probably a frequenter of the celebrated Swan Tavern, '* A modern dome of vast renown, For a plump cook, and plumper reckonings known." See the **Swan Tripe Club, a Satire," among the poems ascribed to Swift, (c) In the second manuscript copy the line runs : ** The maker of the Queen's pye-crust." It is difficult to say who this alludes to : in the Tripos we have a scene at M 162 THE WHIGS' LAMENTATION. This witness, they say, Lives at Droghedah, And an evidence chief in their case ; But she would not be seen, For fear least the Queen Should turn her out of her place. But before I conclude(«), The cause of this feud 'Tis fit should be told without favour, How a fresh- water soldier, That ne'er had smelt powder, Was scar'd at the cock of a beaver. But if a cock'd hat Has caused such debate As did in this scuffle befall, Oh I what had it done Had this hat been a gun. And charged with powder and ball. Thus my moderate friends, To gain their vile ends. Their violent methods pursue; But while Sir Con's(J) at his place To advise the Duke's Grace He their plotts and caballs will undoe. Next Anglesey(c) brave A tribute shall have, And he in my sonnet shall follow; Drogheda, in which Nelly the bar-maid is introduced along with the cele- brated Bernard Doyle and a mutton-pie. See Barrett's Essay, pp. 67-8. (a) In the second copy there is a different arrangement of the verses ; thus verses 20 and 21 follow 17. (6) Sir Constantino Phipps, the great friend and adviser of the Duke of Ormond, created Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1710. He was the ancestor of the present Marquis of Normanby. (c) The Anglesey here referred to must have been one of the Annesley THE WHIGS' LAMENTATION. 103 The Church's defender When few did befriend her, Who speaks in her cause like Apollo. Thus by giving them rope They have answer'd our hope, And their line is now brought to an end. The Doctor's just cause, For the Queen and the laws. The Church's true sons will defend. But as it is common When death now does summon, For life to make efforts in vain, So their impotent malice Has made some faint sallies, But now dead, may they ne'er rise again. Then fill boys the glass, Here's a health to His Grace, Whilst those two fast friends are about him, Whom if he forsake. With grief I must speak. In spight of his guards faith they'll rout him. This poem concludes the manuscript collection preserved in Mr. Christie's valuable almanac, and there is evevy reason to believe that it is Swift's composition, as it is undoubtedly in his handwriting. Whether it is Swift's or not, it is worth pre- serving, as an " abstract, and brief chronicle" of the time, highly characteristic of the state of society in this country at the beginning of the last century, and recording an event family, and, probably, Arthur, the sixth Viscount Valentia, and afterwards Earl of Anglesey, who was then in the Irish House of Lords, and was sworn one of the Commissioners for building fifty new churches in 1711. He was also Vice-Treasurer of Ireland from 29th September, 1710, to January 14th, 1714. m2 164 DR. Barrett's essay on swift. fraught with interest in the political history of this kingdom, where, as well as in England, it caused great excitement. There now lies before us Dr. Barrett's own copy of his Essay on the Life of Swift, containing several additions and interlineations in his own handwriting(a). Amongst these we find one particularly worthy of being recorded. It occurs at the end of page 86, where the Whimsical Miscellany is de- scribed, and runs thus : " Add : at the end of vol. iii., Appendix, p. 31, a poem thus entitled, ' On His Majesty King George going abroad this Summer, 1719.' " We must suppose that Barrett had good reasons for believing this poem to be Swift's. We have examined the Whimsical Miscellany and find the piece referred to. It consists of nineteen lines beginning tlius : " Go, mighty Prince, where great designs unite, And bless thy native country with thy sight, Where no fell party, in traducing tongue, Shall stain thy glories or thy virtues wrong," &c. Some of Swift's best pieces appeared in the form of broad- sides, and were originally printed for private distribution ; and many of them, particularly the satirical and political poems, were given into the hands of ballad-singers, hawkers, and newsvenders, and were sung through the streets of Lon- don as well as Dublin. Others were posted on the walls like ordinary modern advertisements; and, at a time when news- papers and cheap literature did not prevail as at present, and when witty lampoons, satires, and pasquinades, were as much relished by the people, and, in all probability, more effectually obtained the ends intended, than the street oratory and violent declamation of more modern times, these effu- sions must have caused considerable excitement. Many of these broadsides and ballads were in existence thirty years ago ; most of them had been printed by John Harding (o) For the use of this work we are indebted to our friend J. O. Bonsall, Esq., who purchased it at the Vice-Provost's auction. BROADSIDES RELATING TO SWIFT. 165 (the printer of the celebrated Drapier's Letters), in Moles- wortli's Court, beliind Fishamble-street. When Sir Walter Scott was publishing the collected edition of Swift's works, he was furnished with several of these ; some of them he published upon the traditional authority of the persons by whom they were supplied, and others from the internal evidence which they bore of Swift's pen; for, with very few exceptions, they were originally printed without the names of the authors. We possess a large volume of these ballads, and also of broad- sides, both in prose and verse, noted in many places in the handwriting of Swift, and bearing evident marks of having been in his possession(a). In this volume we also find several unpublished poems, in manuscript, revised and noted in the handwriting of Swift. The whole collection consists of eighty pieces, extending from 1710 to 1734. Many of these poems have been already published as Swift's in the several editions of his works, but there are others which have never been re- printed. The following brief notices of some of the contents of this collection, will, we feel, interest the lovers of Irish history, and the memory of the eccentric, witty Dean : " The Speech of the P st of T y C ge, to His Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales." This is the original publication of the celebrated parody upon the speech of the Provost, Dr. Benjamin Pratt, when the Duke of Ormond, the great friend of Swift, was attainted and su- perseded in the office of Chancellor to the University by the Prince of Wales, afterwards George the Second. The original speech appeared in the London Gazette of Tuesday April 17, 1716. The poetic parody was printed in that year, but in what month we cannot determine. There is no printer's name to it. Sir Walter Scott published this poem (a) This rare collection has been recently presented to us by our friend George Smith, Esq. Sir William Betham also possesses some volumes of rare broadsides (some of them Swift's) printed here, which he has kindly permitted us to make use of. 166 BROADSIDES CONTAINING SOME OF SWIFT's POEMS. from the Lanesborougli manuscript in Trinity College, and says, " tliere is great reason to suppose that the satire is the work of Swift, whose attachment to Orraond was uniformly ardent. Of this it may be worth while to mention a trifling instance. The Duke had presented to the Cathedral of St. Patrick's a superb organ, surmounted by his own armorial bearings. It was placed facing the nave of the church. But, after Ormond's attainder, Swift, as Dean of St. Patrick's, re- ceived orders from Government to remove the escutcheon from the church. He obeyed ; but he placed the shield in the great aisle, where he himself and Stella lie buried." The arms were afterwards restored to their original locality. " The verses," says Scott, " have suffered much by the inaccuracy of the noble transcriber. Lord Newtown Butler"(«). The variation, however, between the two copies is not so great as has been supposed ; ne- vertheless, as in several instances it alters the meaning, we here reprint the original broadside as it appeared in 1716, the more particularly as the letters here printed in italics in the words '* Prowst," " Tnm'ty," and " College" are filled up in the hand- writing of Swift, and also the name of Dr. Pratt added as a note. I. Illustrious Prince, we're come before you. Who, more than in our founders, glory To be by you protected ; Deign to descend and give us laws. For we are converts to your cause. From this day well affected(6). II. The noble view of your high merits Has charm'd our thoughts and fired our spirits With zeal, so warm and hearty, (a) See Scott's Swift, vol. xii. p. 351. (b) In allusion to the Provost having formerly been a Tory. PARODY UPON PROVOST PRATT's SPEECH. 167 That we resolved to be devoted, At least until we be promoted, To your just power and party. m. Urg'd by a passionate desire Of being raised a little higher, From a lazy, cloister'd life, We cannot flatter him nor fawn. But fain would honour'd be with lawn. And settled by a wife(a). IV. For this we have before resorted, Paid levies punctually, and courted(6), Our charge at home long quitting ; But now we're come, just in a nick. Upon a vacant bishoprick(c). This bait can't fail of hitting. V. Thus, Sir, you see how much affection, Not interest, sways in this election, But sense of loyal duty ; For you surpass all Princes far. As glow-worms do exceed a star, In goodness, wit, and beauty. VI. To us our Irish Commons owe That wisdom which their actions show. Their principles from cur's springs ; (a) At that period the Celibacy Act was in force. (6) Dr. Pratt was a constant attendant at the levees at St. James's, (c) The see of Killaloe then vacant. Dr. George Carr, Chaplain to the Irish House of Commons, was appointed to it. 168 PARODY UPON PROVOST PRATT's SPEECH. Taught e'er the Deel himself could dream on't, That of their illustrious house a stem on't Should rise the best of kings. VII. The glad presages, with our eyes Behold a king, chaste, valiant, wise. In foreign fields victorious ; Who in his youth the Turks attacks, And made them still to turn their backs ; Was ever king so glorious? VIII. Since Ormond, like a traitor gone. We scorn to do what some have done, For learning much more famous(a). Fools may pursue their adverse fate. And stick to the unfortunate ; We laugh while they condemn us. ix. For being of that generous mind, To success we are still inclined. And quit the suffering side. If on our friends cross planets frown. We joyn the cry, and hunt them down. And sail with wind and tide.. X. Hence 'twas this choice so long delayed, Till our rash foes, the rebels, fled, Whilst Fortune held the scale ; But since they're driven like mist before you. Or rising sun, we now adore you, Because you now prevail. (a) " Alluding to the sullen silence of Oxford upon the accession."— 5co«. PARODY UPON PROVOST PRATt's SPEECH. 169 XI. Descend tlien from your lofty seat, Behold th' attending Muses wait, With us to sing your praises ; Calliope now strings her lyre, And Cloe(a), Phoebus does inspire. The theme their fancy raises. XII. If then our nursery you will nourish, We and our Muses too will flourish, Encourag'd by your favour ; We'll doctrines teach the times to serve. And more five thousand pounds deserve By future good behaviour. XIII. Now take our harp into your hand. The joyful strings, at your command, In doleful sounds no more shall mourn ; We, with sincerity of heart, To all your tunes shall bear a part, Unless we see the tables turn. XIV. If so, great Sir, you will excuse us, For we and our attending Muses May live to change our strain, And turn with merry hearts our tune. Upon some happy tenth of June, So the king enjoys his own again. It will be remembered that the scholars of Dr. Sheridan were in the habit of acting plays immediately before each va- (a) Scott adds, *' this is spelled Chloe, but evidently should be Clio; in- deed many errors appear in the transcription, which, probably, were mistakes of the transcriber." — Vol. xii. p. 357. 170 THE MISSING PROLOGUE. cation, and that prologues and epilogues, some of considerable merit, were written for these occasions by Swift, Sheridan, and Delany. It is related that on one occasion Dr. Helsham wrote a prologue of rather a ludicrous character, and got the boy — Master Putland — who was to have spoken the original one, to recite this instead of that arranged by Sheridan. Tlie trick succeeded to perfection, to the great annoyance of the school- master, and to the infinite delight of Swift and his friends. What became of this prologue has not been related by any of Swift's biographers, nor is it to be found in any of his works. Among the broadsides in the volume before us we find the following poem, which evidently could not have been com- posed by Sheridan, or spoken by his permission. May it not have been that very prologue alluded to(a) ? A PROLOGUE, DESIGNED FOR THE PLAY OF CEDIPDS, WRITTEN IN GREEK, AND PERFORMED BY MR. Sheridan's scholars at the king's inns hall, on Tuesday, THE 10th of DECEMBER, 1723. To-day before a learned audience comes A play we know too well, witness our thumbs, Where deep indenting rule such tragick staines Has drawn to life, as wou'd amaze your brains: Believe me. Sirs, I'd many an aking heart. And many a stripe, to make me get my part ; And, after all, a tyrannizing rogue, Imposes on my memory this curs'd prologue. Well, faith, if I am fated e'er to squeek In hollow scenes, it shall not be in Greek ; There's such a peal of hard words to be rung. As spoils the brain, and after cracks the lung. Had he adapted for our waxen age A barring-out to play upon this stage, (a) In the note to Scott's Swift, vol. xv. p. 79, it is said that the play fixed on was Hippolytus, and the year 1720. See also a note of Deane Swift at page 364 of Faulkner's Swift ; Dublin, 1772. THE MISSING PROLOGUE. 171 Especially consider'd time of year, He need not its success, or our performance, fear. Each boy his part so hero-like had done, So well employ'd his powder, pease, and gun. So bravely his assaults repuls'd, as you Could not but be engaged our leave to sue. The fair, for certain, wou'd have stood our friend, Charm'd that our fortress we'd so well defend; In hopes one day that the young cavaliers Wou'd show with better grace in red and bandaliers. And you, as well as they, will this confess. That this same red has a damn'd taking grace; For tho' black coats as potent be and able, They're better pleas'd with gules than they're with sable. But now I recollect, if more I speak In English (my performance lies at stake) The Deel a word I'll have just now in Greek. I Our collection contains " Punch's Petition to the Ladles," and underneath the heading, in the Dean's hand- writing, we find this sentence, " Written upon Secretary Hopkins refusing to let Stretch act without a large sum of money." This broad- side was, in all probability, the original publication. We have compared it with that printed by Scott(a), but do not find alterations of sufficient importance in it to induce us to republish it. It does not bear the motto attached to it in mo- dern times, but concludes with the signature, " Punch cum Sociis." On two broadsides we find the Petition and Answer of Dean Smedley, both printed in Dublin in the year 1724 ; the former is headed, " A Petition to His G e the D e of G n." They do not bear a printer's name, but both of them are noted in the handwriting of Swift. There are a few trivial variations in both poems from those already published ; a por- tion, however, of the petition has been so much altered from the (a) Swift's Works, vol. xii. p. 497. 172 BROADSIDES RELATING TO SWIFT. original in the copy published by Scott, that we here insert it, becrinninof at the eleventh line : " Thus I, the Jonathan of Clogher, In humble lays my thanks do offer — Approach your Grace with grateful heart, My thanks and verse devoid of art ; Content with what your bounty gave, No larger income do I crave ; Eejoicing that in better times Grafton requires my royal rhymes ; — Proud ! while my patron is polite, I likewise to the patriot write." " Prometheus ; a Poem." The celebrated philippic against Wood's halfpence, printed in 1724, with the words, " by Dean Swift," added in his own handwriting. A ludicrous poem, which bears many of the characteris- tics of Swift's style, would appear to apply to Dr. Sheridan, and was, probably, written on the occasion of his getting the living of Quilca; it is printed upon a single side of broadsheet, without date, and appears to have been intended for private circulation. '* A Poem addressed to the Quidnuncs at St. James's CofFee- House, London, occasioned by the Death of the Duke of Or- leans :" printed in the year 1724. " The First of April ; a Poem, inscribed to Mrs. E. C," without date. " The Rivals ; a Poem occasioned by Tom Punsibi Meta- morphosed." " A new Ballad occasioned by a late Edict of the Pope's for Taxing and Limiting certain Public Institutions at Rome." This is a severe lampoon in manuscript, referring to the times of Swift. Perhaps one of the cleverest and at the same time most sarcastic poems in the collection, is a manuscript of forty-eight lines, with this heading, in Swift's handwriting, " A Satire FRAGMKNTS IN MANUSCRIPT AND ON BROADSIDES. 173 upon People of Note in 1727." It bears all the evidence of Swift's pen, but is quite unsuited to the taste of the present day ; in it Walpole, Cowper, Doddington, Halifax, Wharton, Carteret, Harcourt, Chartres, Molly How, Bully Vaughan, and other celebrated characters, are introduced. In the same strain, and on the same subject, there is a poem, also in manuscript, satirizing the various public characters of the day, but even less fit than the foregoing for publication at the present time. They are both much in the same style as the Description of a Chancellor, printed at page 152. " A Creed for an Irish Commoner," a prose lampoon, fol- lows next in this collection ; it was first printed in Dublin upon a broadsheet in 1724. " The Art of Rapping, by Monsieur Knockondoor ;" an exceedingly amusing piece, also in prose, printed upon both sides of a broadsheet, by Harding, in 1723. We wonder that this piece, if it is Swift's, was not reprinted in his '* Advice to Servants;" it is as applicable to the present day as it was to the time in which it was written. On the two next broadsides we find the " Express from Parnassus," and Vanessa's rebus on the words *' Jonathan Swift," together with the Dean's answer, which show that these poems were originally intended for private distribution among the friends of the parties concerned. ** An Elegy on the Death of Dr. John Whalley," the cele- brated Dublin astrologer, whose almanacs we alluded to at page 128. Two poems upon Wood's halfpence, both printed by Har- ding in 1724, and also the paraphrase on the eighty-second Psalm, which was addressed to Justice Whitshed, after the trial of the Drapier, and which, curious to say, was printed upon the back of the Circuit List for 1724-5. Here also we find an epistle from Jack Sheppard to the Chancellor of England ; and seve- ral poems, in the style of Carey's " Namby Pamby," addressed to Ambrose Phillips, the poet, turning him and his verses into extreme ridicule. Some of these have already been republished by Swift's editors, but there are others in our collection which 174 POEMS IN MANUSCRIPT AND ON BROADSIDES. bear equal evidence of his pen, to which no alhision is made in any of the editions of Swift's works. Besides the poems upon Dick Tighe, which are well known to be Swift's, this collection contains one entitled " The Sick Lion and the Ass," which would also appear to be the Dean's. The manuscript of the " Whigs' Lamentation," which we have already alluded to at page 154, follows here ; and se- veral poems addressed to Lord Carteret, of exceeding interest, from their allusion to the political affairs and state of public opinion in Ireland at the time, are also contained in this col- lection. As materials (for want of better) for our domestic history during the early part of the last century, these scraps are valuable. In the D rapier's Miscellany, published by Hoey in Skinner- row, we find a poem, in Lilliputian verse, on King George II., and ascribed by the editor of that publication to Swift ; but Sir Walter Scott rejected it for want of evidence of its au- thorship. It is, however, printed on a narrow slip in our col- lection, with the following title and imprint : " A Poem to His Majesty King George II. on the present State of Affairs in England, with Remarks on the Alterations expected at Court after the Rise of the Parliament. By the Rev. Dr. J. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's. Dublin, Printed by Little George Faulkner in Christ's Churchyard, 1727." "A View of the Irish Bar," in 1730, a doggrel rhyme of thirteen verses, we willingly republish, on account of its his- toric interest. In it the characters of Marlay, Jocelyn, Singleton, Bowes, Malone, Callahan, Daly, Costello, Blake, Coghlan, and other eminent Irish lawyers of the time, are set forth. A VIEW OF THE IRISH BAR. TO THE FREEMASON TUNE, '* COME LET US PREPARE," &C. &C. There's Marly the neat(a). Who in primitive state Was ne'er for a drudge designed, Sir, (a) In the broadside from which we have quoted this poem, and which A VIEW OF THE IRISH BAR IN 1.730. 175 Your French gibberish he Takes great nonsence to be, And is one of your sages refin'd, Sir. There's Joslin next comes(a), Who in very loud hums, Which makes him not very concise. Sir, With a finger and thumb He strikes one judge dumb, Who suspends till he asks his advice. Sir, There's Prime Sergeant Grand(6), Who puts all to a stand, With his jostle and shove to arise, Sir; He lays down the law With as haughty a paw, As if he were judge of assize. Sir. There's Bowes a great beau(c). That here makes a show. And thinks all about him are fools, Sir, He winks and he speaks, His brief and fee takes. And quotes for it English rules. Sir. was printed in Dublin in the years 1729-30, the names are not written in full. The first and final letters are merely given ; the others have been written in a handwriting very much resembling Swift's. We have spelled them accord- ing to the original writing. Thomas Marlay was made Solicitor-General during the reign of George I., in 1720; Attorney-Generalin 1726 ; Chief Baron in 1730 ; afterwards raised to be Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a post he held till October, 1750, when he resigned, and St. George Caulfield raised to that office. (a) Robert Jocelyn, Solicitor- General in 1726, and Attorney-General four years afterwards ; made Lord Chancellor in 1739; and shortly after created Baron Newport and Viscount Jocelyn. He died in December, 1756. He was the head of the present Jocelyn family. (6) Henry Singleton was Prime Sergeant in 1727, and raised to be Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1739. He was afterwards Master of the Rolls, and died in 1758. (c) John Bowes, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and raised to the peerage 176 A VIEW OF THE IRISH BAR IN 1730. There's the rest of the wise, That have no way to rise But a short sleeve and seat within table, They stop up the way. Though they've nothing to say, And are just like the dog in the fable. There's old Dick Malone(a), Though in barrister's gown, Talks reason and law with a grace, Sir, Yet without bar he stays, Tho' he's merit to raise : But converts ne'er change their first place. Sir. There's Anthony too. Without father can't do, Though knight of the shire he's chosen, For dad takes more pains. When his family gains, And Tony the pleadings do open. with the title of Baron Bowes of Clonlyon, was third Sergeant from 1726 to 1730, when he was made Solicitor-General. He died while Lord Chancellor in 1766. A very beautiful portrait of this distinguished lawyer was lately disposed of in this city, for a mere trifle, to some of his descendants now resi- dent in England. (a) Malone. There were three distinguished men of this name at the Irish Bar from 1730 till towards the end of the last century. Richard Ma- lone, the person here alluded to, was appointed Third Sergeant in 1751, nine years after his son had been appointed Prime Sergeant. He died in 1759. Anthony Malone, son to the foregoing, was made Prime Sergeant in 1742, and appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1753. For the foregoing references see Smith's Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland ; London, 1839. The other persons alluded to in this poem were distinguished lawyers of the early part of the last century, but, not holding official appointments, history does not record their professional progress. To those interested in the history of the Irish Bar, and indeed the domestic history of Ireland, which for the period alluded to has yet to be written, this poem must possess consi- derable interest. A VIEW OF THE IRISH BAR IN 1730. 177 There's Munster's great crack, Who, in faith, has the knack To puzzle and perplex the matter ; He'll insist on't for law, Without the least flaw. Though a good cause he ne'er made better. There's Daly, say Peter, Who in very good meter. In sound law and equity clear. Sir ; By the Court he's not loved, And his cause is not proved. But he knows it's their duty to hear, Sir. There's Costilow and Blake, There's Coghlan the great. And Bourk, all from the Irish line. Sir ; Now Coke without doubt, Would have chose those four out, To count and to levy a fine. Sir. There's many more lads. Who faith, if their dads. Did but hear them on Popish Acts prate, Sir, Talk of criminal Papists As if they were Atheists, They would say they were turn-coats of state, Sir. There's the rest of the pack, With the gown on their back. From one Court to t'other they wander, One's biting his nails. Or at the judge rails. And swears he's committing a blunder. There's many pretenders Who have bundles of papers A starting just out of their breast, Sir, But all the year round There the same may be found. And a brief without fees against test. Sir. N 178 SOME OF swift's unnoticed poems. The collection also contains manuscripts of many of Swift's acknowledged poems, as, for instance, that of "Hamilton's Bawn," with corrections in his own handwriting, and "The true Character of the Intelligencer, writtenby Paddy Drogheda," &c. A satire " On the Bishops of Ireland," a manuscript of twenty- two lines, in Swift's handwriting, is a most withering lampoon, and totally different from the poem with the same title already published with the Dean's works. We cannot conclude this cata- logue of some of the curiosities of this collection, without quoting a portion of one manuscript rhyme of ninety lines, the authorship of which is acknowledged " by Dean Swift," in his own hand, underneath the heading. This consists of three parts ; the first is, " Advice to a Parson, an Epigram," applicable, perhaps, to that time, and consisting of but ten lines. The probability is that it has been already printed, though we have not met with it. " Would you rise in the Church, be stupid and dull, — Be empty of learning, of insolence full ; Though light and immoral, be formal and grave ; In flatt'ring, an artist ; in fawning, a slave ; No merit, no science, no virtue is wanting In him that's accomplished in cringing and canting. Be studious to practice true meanness of spirit ; And who but Lord Bolton (a) was mitred for merit ? Would you wish to be wrap'd in a rochet ? — in short, Be as gross and profane as fanatical H 1"(5). (a) Dr. Theophilus Bolton, the ancestor of our friend Chichester Bolton, was Bishop of Clonfert, and afterwards Archbishop of Cashel. His memory should be long revered in Cashel, from his having supplied the town with water ; and on account of his magnificent donation to the library of a com- plete set of the Greek and Latin Fathers. (b) Josiah Hort, Bishop of Kilmore, and afterwards Archbishop of Tuam, was the author of " A new Proposal for the better Regulation and Improve- ment of Quadrille," for the publication of which Faulkner the bookseller was imprisoned. His not having indemnified the publisher appears to have been the chief cause of Swift's severity. SATIRES ON THE IRISH BISHOPS. 179 " An Epigram on seeing a worthy Prelate go out of Church in the time of Divine Service, to wait on His Grace the D. of Dorset, on his coming to Town :" " Lord Pam in the church (could you think it?) kneel'd down, When told that the Duke was just came to town, — His station despising, unaw'd by the place, He flies from his God to attend on His Grace. To the Court it was fitter to pay his devotion, Since God had no hand in his Lordship's promotion." These lines have been published anonymously in the " Ele- gant Extracts," p. 820. The concluding portion of the poem is headed, " Verses on the Great Storm which happened about Christmas, 1722. Dr. H , Bishop of " (probably Hort, Bishop of Kilmore) *' and Dean Berkley, were then in the yacht, and in great danger of being lost." It runs thus : Pallas, the goddess chaste and wise, Descending lately from the skies, To Neptune went to beg in form. He'd give his orders for a storm ; A storm to drown that rascal H And she wou'd kindly thank him for't; A wretch whom English rogues, to spite her, Had lately honour'd with a mitre. Neptune, who favour'd her request, Assur'd her he wou'd do his best. Venus had been there already, Pleaded the bishop's love was steady, He had enlarg'd her empire wide. He own'd no deity beside : By sea and land, where e're you find him Without a mistress, hang or drown him. If H must sink, she grieves to tell it, She'l not have left one single prelate. For, to tell truth, she did intend him Elect of Cyprus in commendum. 180 SATIRE ON BISHOP HORT. Then Proteus urg'd the same request, But half in earnest, half in jest. Said he, — Great sovereign of the main, To drown him all attempts are vain ; H can assume more forms than I, A rake or bully, pimp or spy ; Can creep or run, can fly or swim, All motions are alike to him. Turn him adrift, and you shall find, He knows to sail with every wind ; Or throw him overboard, he'l ride, As well against, as with the tyde. But, Pallas, you've applyed too late, For 'tis decreed by Jove and fate. That Ireland must be destroy'd. And who but H could be employ'd; You need not then have been so pert. In sending Bolton to Clonfert; I found you did it by your grinning, Your business is to mind your spinning; But how you came to interpose In making bishops, no man knows ; But if you must have your petition, There's Berkley in the same condition. Look, there he stands, and 'tis but just, If one must drown the other must ; But if you'l leave us Bishop Judas, We'll give you Berkley for Bermudas. And if you'l gratify your spight, To put him in a plagu'y fright, Altho' 'tis hardly worth the cost, You soon shall see him soundly tost. You'l find him swear, blaspheme, and damn. And every moment take a dram ; — His ghostly visage with an air Of reprobation and despair; Or, when some hiding hole he seeks, For fear the rest should say he squeeks ; RELICS OF SWIFT. 181 Or when he raves, and roars, and swears, And but for shame would say his prayers ; Or wou'd you see his spirits sink, Relaxing downwards in a stink : If such a sight as this can please ye, Good Mrs. Pallas, pray be easie : To Neptune speak and he'll consent, But H comes back the knave he went. The goddess, who conceived a hope That H was destin'd to a rope, Believ'd it best to condescend To spare a foe, to save a friend ; But, fearing Berkley might be scar'd She left him virtue for a guard(a). There are many interesting relics of Swift still preserved by the curious. His cream-ewer was purchased along with the collection of the late Dean Dawson, for the museum of the Royal Irish Academy. A Bible said to have been his, and containing some scraps of his writing, is at present in the possession of J. H. Reid, Esq., of this city. A few months ago we purchased from a person, then upon the eve of emigrating to America, Swift's original manuscript of the celebrated Letter upon Mar- riage, already printed in several editions of his works. It con- sists of sixteen pages, beautifully and clearly written out, with scarcely an alteration. It is dated 11th February, 1722-3. The Dean took, at one time of his life at least, a great deal of snuff, and gave away among his friends, as well as received, presents of several snuff-boxes. A gold box, said to have been Swift's, was sold at Dr. Barrett's auction, with, we understand, a miniature of Stella on the lid. It was purchased by the Rev. Robert King, but having passed out of his hands into those of a London broker, some years ago, we have not been able to trace (a) There are some lines referring to Brigadier Fitzpatrick, who was drowned with his mistress, coming from England, in the year 1696, but they are unfit for publication at the present day. 182 THE dean's snuff-box. it. About four years ago a flat oblong snufF-box, reported to be of "pure gold," and generally believed to have belonged to the Dean, was offered for sale. It was said to have been bequeathed to Mrs. Ridgeway, the Dean's housekeeper, among the " small pieces of plate" alluded to in Swift's will. In 1792, her son, Joseph Ridgeway, Esq., was register to the late Judge Cruik- shank, to whom he presented the box, and in whose possession it remained till his death in 1813. The Judge's last surviving son, Alexander Cruikshank, Esq., of Belfast, died in 1845, and then this curious relic came into the market. "Inside the lid are the following doggerel lines, which are highly characteristic of ' The Dean,' and a sample of that queer Anglo-Latin in which he delighted to bandy puns with Sheri- dan and Delany: — ' Celer ad Fervendum. * From Churchman scribbler wit, a wit's a fool To a Lord ; recte dictum, if such the rule ; — When Peerages to men are given, Few like your's would appertain to Heaven ; Concordia discors I have written, But with a cacoetkes scribendi I am smitten ; The box may be metal's basest dross ; If you loose it, the less the loss ; And though new it now appears, D — L — Y's mother used it many years.' " This reads at first something like a riddle, but the solution is given thus: — ^ Celer ad fervendurri is ha-tin (more Swiftish than Ciceronian) for * Swift to Boyle' (boil), i. e. his friend John Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery, whose peerage apper- taining to Heaven is in allusion to his title, — an Orrery being an instrument representing the heavenly bodies. D — L — Y means another of his friends, Doctor Delany. From the above it would appear, that Swift had at some period intended the box as a present for Lord Orrery, and that it had previously belonged to Doctor Delany 's mother"(a). (a) Irish Union Magazine, No. 2, April, 1845. THE HISTORY OF ADDRESSES. 183 A large sum having been asked for it, we were anxious to test the purity of the material, our suspicions having been awakened by the seventh line of the inscription ; and upon test- ing it, found it to \)Q pinchbeck! — " metal's basest dross," — a fact of which it would appear Swift was either well aware or had a shrewd suspicion : indeed he seldom penned a line without a meaning. Sir William Betham has just lent us a very rare work, — " The History of Addresses. By one very near akin to the Author of the Tale of a Tub. London, printed in the year 1709," — which may, possibly, have been written by Swift. It consists of quotations from the various addresses presented to the Crown from different portions of the kingdom (England), with a running comment thereon, during the times of the Com- monwealth, and from thence to about the middle of the reign of Anne. It is written with great spirit, contains many charac- teristics of Swift's style, and supplies most valuable evidence of the political state of England during the period specified. The sarcasm with which the usual fulsome addresses of the same people to three and sometimes four royal personages, in succession, and upon circumstances of a diametrically opposite nature, are lashed, was worthy of Swift. Our friend, J. Huband Smith, Esq., possesses the original manuscript of two lampoons of Swift's ; one, " The Review in 1738," and commencing — " Serene the morn, the season fine. Great G e advancing on the plain ; To view his horse and concubine, The goodly blessings of his reign. The trumpets sound, The coursers bound. The field all blaze with arms. His Trojans true Their tactics show. And Helen shows her charms." 184 THE CONCLUSION. The occasion of this poem, which runs to twenty-two lines, is well known. The other poem of four lines, also alluding to the same circumstance, is merely headed, " Fix'd on St. James's Gate." Without prolonging this Essay to too great a length, it would be impossible to enumerate the various trivial circumstances re- lating to Swift, with which we have become acquainted during our recent investigation, and search after materials connected with the disease, history, and writings, of the celebrated Dean of St. Patrick's. We may, however, in conclusion, just mention one more, in order to direct the attention of the future biographers of this great man to the sources from whence much additional in- formation might be drawn by those who possess sufficient time and interest to pursue the investigation. In one of the volumes of broadsides in the library of Trinity College, to which we have already alluded, we find the original of one of Swift's punning pieces, a play upon words, similar to the " Discourse to prove the Antiquity of the English tongue," &c.. It is "The History of Poetry, in a Letter to a Friend. By the Rev. D — S — t. Dublin: printed by E. Waters, 1726." The existence of this piece in the form alluded to not only marks the date and man- ner of its original publication, but, to a certain degree, decides the question of authorship, concerning which Sir Walter Scott and other biographers of Swift were in some doubt. ^^ OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS • 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 • 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF • Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW - HL Jhm^l 9 1999 — MAR 1 1333 12,000(11/95) BtKKfcLEV, CA 94720 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY