death rushed upon him at this time with such incessant importunity, that they took possession of his mind when he first waked for many years together '. He opened his house by a publick table two days a week 2, 67 and found his entertainments gradually frequented by more and more visitants of learning among the men, and of elegance among the women. Mrs. Johnson had left the country, and lived in lodgings not far from the deanery. On his publick days she regulated the table, but appeared at it as a mere guest, like other ladies 3. On other days he often dined, at a stated price, with Mr. 68 Worral, a clergyman of his cathedral, whose house was recommended by the peculiar neatness and pleasantry of his wife*. To this frugal mode of living he was first disposed by care to pay some debts which he had contracted 5, and he continued it for the pleasure of accumulating money. His avarice, however, was not suffered to obstruct the claims of his dignity; he was served in plate, and used to say that he was the poorest gentleman in Ireland that eat upon plate, and the richest that lived without a coach. Swift wrote to Bolingbroke in 1729:-'I was forty-seven years old when I began to think of death; and the reflections upon it now begin when I wake in the morning, and end when I am going to sleep.' Works, xvii. 260. He was forty-seven four months after the Queen's death. He wrote to Pope in 1733:-'As to mortality it has never been out of my head eighteen minutes these eighteen years.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 300. The Queen had been dead eighteen years. See also Works, xvii. 234, xviii. 107. 'The whole of life,' said Johnson, 'is but keeping away the thoughts of death.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. had a bishopric in prospect, says:— 4 [Worrall was a minor canon of St. Patrick's, dean's vicar and master of song in both cathedrals. Swift called him Melchisedec because he was a foundling. The Dean and he were nearly of the same standing at the University. Worrall had, however, one special qualification for intimacy with Swift-he was a good walker. After walking from church they would dine either at Swift's house or at Worrall's as Johnson describes. Delany, p. 91. Deane Swift (p. 294) says that Swift 'never had any esteem for the husband or the wife.' See also Mason's Hist. of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, p. 294 n.] 5 Ante, SWIFT, 54 n. A list of his plate, with the value of each article, is given in his Works, 69 How he spent the rest of his time, and how he employed his hours of study, has been enquired with hopeless curiosity. For who can give an account of another's studies? Swift was not likely to admit any to his privacies, or to impart a minute account of his business or his leisure 1. 70 Soon after (1716), in his forty-ninth year, he was privately married to Mrs. Johnson by Dr. Ashe, Bishop of Clogher2, as Dr. Madden3 told me, in the garden. The marriage made no change in their mode of life; they lived in different houses, as before 5: nor did she ever lodge in the deanery but when Swift was seized with a fit of giddiness. 'It would be difficult,' says Lord Orrery, 'to prove that they were ever afterwards together without a third person".' 71 The Dean of St. Patrick's lived in a private manner, known and regarded only by his friends 3, till, about the year 1720, he, by a pamphlet, recommended to the Irish the use, and consequently the improvement, of their manufacture. For a man to xix. 223. The total value was over £360. He had 24 plates, but only 6 teaspoons. On a save-all he had had engraved, 'For Ireland.' For his providing 'tridents'-three-pronged forks for £30, see ib. xvii. 301. 'The ill-management of forks,' he wrote, 'is not to be helped when they are only bidental, which happens in all poor houses, especially those of poets, upon which account a knife was absolutely necessary at Mr. Pope's.' There are no forks in the list. For his setting up a coach on the news coming of Walpole's fall see ib. i. 397 n. I Delany (p. 101) gives some account of his studies. For his regularity in all his actions see post, SWIFT, 133 n. 2 Ante, PARNELL, 4. He had been Swift's tutor at Trinity College. Forster, p. 28. On Jan. 15, 1710-11, Swift got Harley to promise that 'the Bishop shall not be removed from the Council. I know he has enemies, and they shall not be gratified.' Works, ii. 147. 3 For Johnson's 'castigation' of Madden's Boulter's Monument see Boswell's Johnson, i. 318. See also ib. ii. 321; John. Misc. ii. 211, 267; ante, ADDISON, 134. See Appendix D. 5 She never came to his house but upon very particular invitation.' Delany, p. 129. 6 Deane Swift, p. 92. It seems that she sometimes lodged there when he was in England. He wrote from London on July 7, 1726:-'I find the ladies made the Deanery their villa.' Works, xix. 283. 7 'It would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove they had ever been together without some third person.' Orrery, p. 25. See ante, SWIFT, 24. 8 July 18, 1717. I am in a hopeful situation, torn to pieces by pamphleteers and libellers on that side the water, and by the whole body of the ruling party on this; against which all the obscurity I live in will not defend me.' Works, xvi. 287. See also Letters to Chetwode, p. 72. A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures. Utterly rejecting and renouncing everything wearable that comes from England. 1720. Works, vi. 252. Swift quotes a pleasant observation that Ireland would never be happy till a law were made for burning use the productions of his own labour is surely a natural right, and to like best what he makes himself is a natural passion. But to excite this passion, and enforce this right, appeared so criminal to those who had an interest in the English trade, that the printer was imprisoned1; and, as Hawkesworth justly observes, the attention of the publick being by this outrageous resentment turned upon the proposal, the author was by consequence made popular 2. In 1723 died Mrs. Van Homrigh3, a woman made unhappy 72 by her admiration of wit, and ignominiously distinguished by the name of Vanessa, whose conduct has been already sufficiently discussed, and whose history is too well known to be minutely repeated. She was a young woman fond of literature, whom Decanus, the Dean, called Cadenus by transposition of the letters, took pleasure in directing and instructing; till, from being proud of his praise, she grew fond of his person 5. Swift was then about forty-seven, at an age when vanity is strongly excited by the amorous attention of a young woman. If it be said that everything that came from England, except their people and their coals.' Works, vi. p. 257. He described his pamphlet as 'a weak, hasty scribble.' Hanmer Corres. p. 191. 'The printer,' wrote Swift, 'was seized, and forced to give great bail.' Works, xvi. 339. For the trial see post, SWIFT, 77. The Dublin Newgate was a dreadful den. Exemption from the felons' room was got by daily fees. Those who refused to pay were stripped of their clothes by the common executioner, beaten, and in some instances chained. Many died from want.' The Keeper's salary was £10 a year. A parliamentary document shows that in 1729 he made £1,163 by his place. He was dismissed. J. T. Gilbert's Hist. of Dublin, i. 268. 2 [Hawkesworth's Life of Swift, 1755, p. 42.] The name is pronounced Vannumery.' Orrery, p. 103. 'Her father, Bartholomew Vanhomrigh, was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1697-8. His large fortune he bequeathed to his wife and four children in equal shares. Vanessa's two brothers and her sister, as well as her mother, had predeceased her. One of her brothers had left his share to a Mr. Partinton, provided he took the name of Vanhomrigh, a condition he complied with.' F. ELRINGTON BALL, Journal of the Cork Hist. Soc., 2 S. iii. 264. Vanessa had 'Five thousand guineas in her purse.' Cadenus and Vanessa, Works, xiv. 447 Orrery, p. 102; Delany, p. III. Aim'd at the head, but reach'd the • The first mention of her by Swift is in his Journal to Stella, Feb. 2, 1710-11, when he was forty-three. Works, ii. 161. He became acquainted with the family two or three years earlier. Forster, pp. 230, 269. Cadenus and Vanessa, if we can trust the title-page, was 'written at Windsor in 1713. On April 19, 1726, he wrote it was written at Windsor near 14 years ago, and dated.' Letters to Chetwode, p. 189. On July 7 of the same year he wrote:-'It was Swift should have checked a passion which he never meant to gratify, recourse must be had to that extenuation which he so much despised, ' men are but men '': perhaps, however, he did not at first know his own mind, and, as he represents himself, was undetermined. For his admission of her courtship, and his indulgence of her hopes after his marriage to Stella, no other honest plea can be found, than that he delayed a disagreeable discovery from time to time, dreading the immediate bursts of distress, and watching for a favourable moment. She thought herself neglected, and died of disappointment; having ordered by her will the poem to be published, in which Cadenus had proclaimed her excellence, and confessed his love3. The effect of the publication upon the Dean and Stella is thus related by Delany*. 73 I have good reason to believe that they both were greatly shocked and distressed (though it may be differently) upon this occasion. The Dean made a tour to the South of Ireland, for about two months, at this time, to dissipate his thoughts, and give place to obloquy. And Stella retired (upon the earnest invitation of the owner) to the house of a cheerful, generous, good-natured friend of the Dean's, whom she also much loved and honoured. There my informer often saw her; and, I have reason to believe, used his utmost endeavours to relieve, support, and amuse her in this sad situation. written 14 years ago at Windsor.' Works, xix. 283. This places its composition in 1712. In the poem he tells (ib. xiv. 444) how 'Vanessa, not in years a score, Dreams of a gown of forty-four.' He was not forty-five till Nov. 30, 1712. She was of age in Aug. 1711. Ib. ii. 320. In Sept. 1712, the Vanhomrighs were to join him at Windsor. Ib. xix. 317. Writing to her in 1722 he says:-'Go over the scenes of Windsor.' Ib. xix. 369. He was a good deal in that town in the late summer of 1712. Ib. iii. 41, 43, 45, 50. His letters to Stella had been interrupted by illness through April of that year; but when he recovered he wrote but little. Between July 17 and Sept. 15 he only wrote once. Ib. pp. 24, 43. It seems likely that Vanessa was the cause of this neglect. If the poem was written in 1712, it must have been revised next year, for he was not 'Decanus' till May, 1713. set [ I cannot find this 'extenuation' Or be so artfully applied, 3 See Appendix E. 'One little incident he told me of, on that occasion, I think I shall never forget. As her friend was an hospitable, openhearted man, well-beloved and largely acquainted, it happened one day that some gentlemen dropt in to dinner, who were strangers to Stella's situation; and as the poem of Cadenus and Vanessa was then the general topic of conversation, one of them said, "Surely that Vanessa must be an extraordinary woman, that could inspire the Dean to write so finely upon her." Mrs. Johnson smiled, and answered, "that she thought that point not quite so clear; for it was well known the Dean could write finely upon a broomstick."' The great acquisition of esteem and influence was made by the 75 Drapier's Letters in 17242. One Wood of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, a man enterprising and rapacious 3, had, as is said, by a present to the Dutchess of Munster, obtained a patent, ' She no doubt knew of the trick Swift had played on Lady Berkeley, when he read out to her, as one of Boyle's Meditations, A Meditation upon a Broomstick. Works, ix. 118; ed. 1803, iii. 274. 'It is to be regretted that Johnson did not write an account of his travels in France; ... he is reported to have once said that "he could write the Life of a Broomstick." Boswell's Johnson, ii. 389. * No. 1, dated 1724. 'Published while the Committee of Inquiry was sitting in London '-i. e. between April 9 and July 24. Craik, pp. 348, 351. Works, vi. 339. No. 2, Aug. 4, 1724. Ib. p. 353. 'Johnson observed that Swift put his name to but two things (after he had a name to put), The Plan for the Improvement of the English Language [ante, SWIFT, 40], and the last Drapier's Letter. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 319. It was to No. 6 that he put his name-or rather initials. Besides the Letters he published Seasonable Advice to the Grand Jury, dated Nov. 11, 1724. Works, vi. 436. For a facsimile of the titlepage of the first edition of the Letters see Letters to Chetwode, p. 151. 3 Swift calls him 'a mean ordinary man, a hardware dealer'; 'this little impudent hardwareman'; 'a diminutive, insignificant mechanic.' Works, vi. 341, 358. He was a great proprietor and renter of iron works in England. He had a lease of all the mines on the Crown lands in 39 counties.' Coxe's Walpole, i. 216. 'He was the fourth in descent from François Dubois, who with his wife and only son fled after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew to Shrewsbury. By 1609 his descendants had anglicized their name to Wood. Removing to Wolverhampton they purchased coal-mines and built iron forges. He was the great-grandfather of Mary Howitt.' Mary Howitt's Auto. i. 12, 15. Baroness de Schulemberg, mistress of George I, and Duchess of Munster and Kendal. Horace Walpole, who, in his eleventh year, saw her in 1727, writes:-'I remember that just beyond his Majesty stood a very tall, lean, ill-favoured old lady.' Letters, Preface, p. 94. In A Wicked Treasonable Libel-'the bitterest epigram,' writes Scott,' which his own or any other pen ever traced'-Swift attacked her, the King, and the Prince of Wales. Works, i. 338, xii. 453. See also ib. xii. 356. He only indirectly attacked her in the Letters. 'Mr. Wood,' he writes, |