99 100 worth', a lawyer eminent for his insolence to the clergy, which, from very considerable reputation, brought him into immediate and universal contempt. Bettesworth, enraged at his disgrace and loss, went to Swift and demanded whether he was the author of that poem 2. 'Mr. Bettesworth,' answered he, 'I was in my youth acquainted with great lawyers, who, knowing my disposition to satire, advised me, that, if any scoundrel or blockhead whom I had lampooned should ask, "Are you the author of this paper?" I should tell him that I was not the author; and therefore I tell you, Mr. Bettesworth, that I am not the author of these lines 3. Bettesworth was so little satisfied with this account that he publickly professed his resolution of a violent and corporal revenge; but the inhabitants of St. Patrick's district embodied themselves in the Dean's defence. Bettesworth declared in Parliament that Swift had deprived him of twelve hundred pounds a year. Swift was popular a while by another mode of beneficence. 'Thus at the bar the booby Bettes worth, Though half a crown o'erpays his Who knows in law nor text nor Calls Singleton his brother serjeant.' Works, xii. 417. The poem appeared in Gent. Mag. 1733, p. 710, where in the second line it is 'out-pays.' 2 6 'Upon entering the room,' says T. Sheridan, who had it from his father, Swift desired to know his commands. "Sir," says he, "I am Sergeant Bet-tes-worth" (which was always his pompous way of pronouncing his name, in three distinct syllables)." Of what regiment, pray?" Swift.' Works, 1803, ii. 129. According to Sheridan the advice was given him by Lord Somers. Ib. As for the lawfulness of such an answer see Boswell's Johnson, iii. 376. says 4 Swift wrote to the Lord Lieutenant in Jan. 1733-4 that he was at a friend's house when Bettesworth asked to see him. 'The Sergeaunt had a footman in the hall during all his talk, who was to have opened the door for one or two more fellows, as he has since reported; and likewise that he had a sharp knife in his pocket, ready to stab or maim me. The least uproar would have called his nearest neighbours, first to my assistance, and next to the manifest danger of his life.' Works, xviii. 175. A paper was presented to Swift about the end of December, 1733, by the inhabitants of the Liberty of St. Patrick's, in which, after stating that 'a certain Man of this City hath openly sworn by the Help of several Ruffians to murder or maim the Reverend the Dean of St. Patrick's, our Neighbour, Benefactor and Head of the Liberty of St. Patrick's,' they continued:-'We, from our great Love and Respect to the said Dean, do unanimously declare that we will defend the Life and Limbs of the said Dean against the said Man, and all his Ruffians and Murderers, as far as the Law will allow.' To this 'the Dean, being in bed very much indisposed, dictated an answer.' Gent. Mag. 1734, p. 48; Letters to Chetwode, p. 112. He set aside some hundreds to be lent in small sums to the poor, from five shillings, I think, to five pounds. He took no interest, and only required that, at repayment, a small fee should be given to the accomptant; but he required that the day of promised payment should be exactly kept. A severe and punctilious temper is ill qualified for transactions with the poor; the day was often broken and the loan was not repaid. This might have been easily foreseen, but for this Swift had made no provision of patience or pity. He ordered his debtors to be sued. A severe creditor has no popular character; what then was likely to be said of him who employs the catchpoll under the appearance of charity? The clamour against him was loud and the resentment of the populace outrageous; he was therefore forced to drop his scheme and own the folly of expecting punctuality from the poor '. His asperity continually increasing condemned him to soli- 101 tude, and his resentment of solitude sharpened his asperity 2. He was not, however, totally deserted: some men of learning, and some women of elegance, often visited him, and he wrote from time to time either verse or prose; of his verses he willingly gave copies, and is supposed to have felt no discontent when he saw them printed 3. His favourite maxim was 'vive la baga I According to Sheridan 'he lent £500 in sums of five or ten pounds, to be repaid weekly, at two or four shillings, without interest.' He required 'good security for the repayment'; a steady man, he said, would easily find it. Thus did this fund continue undiminished to the last. I have been well assured that many families, now living in great credit, owed the foundation of their fortunes to the sums first borrowed from this fund.' Works, 1803, i. 312. One man, when asked for his security, 'replied:-"I have none to offer excepting my faith in my Redeemer." Swift accepted the security, made the entry accordingly with all formality, and declared that none of his debtors was more punctual.' Works, i. 445 n. His housekeeper was the accountant. On Sept. 14, 1721, he wrote to Mr. Worrall (ante, SWIFT, 68):—‘I doubt Mrs. Brent will be at a loss about her industry-book, for want of a new leaf, with a list drawn of the debtors.' Ib. xvi. 366. It is stated in a pamphlet recently issued by the Governors of St. Patrick's Hospital (post, SWIFT, 138) that their predecessors found great difficulty in collecting the £11,000 bequeathed by Swift; a considerable amount of his money having been lent by the Dean to deserving tradesmen.' For Johnson's almsgiving see Boswell's Johnson, ii. 119, iii. 56, iv. 3; John. Misc. i. 204. * T. Sheridan, after speaking of his 'temper, peevish, fretful, and morose,' continues:-'I loved him from my boyish days, and never stood in the least awe before him, as I do not remember ever to have had a cross look or harsh expression from him.' Works, 1803, ii. 83. 3 Delany, in A Letter to Deane Swift, 1755, p. 16, says, 'Swift was so long used to the sweet incense of 102 telle ''; he thought trifles a necessary part of life, and perhaps found them necessary to himself. It seems impossible to him to be idle, and his disorders made it difficult or dangerous to be long seriously studious or laboriously diligent. The love of ease is always gaining upon age, and he had one temptation to petty amusements peculiar to himself; whatever he did he was sure to hear applauded; and such was his predominance over all that approached, that all their applauses were probably sincere. He that is much flattered soon learns to flatter himself: we are commonly taught our duty by fear or shame, and how can they act upon the man who hears nothing but his own praises ?? As his years increased his fits of giddiness and deafness grew more frequent, and his deafness made conversation difficult 3; they grew likewise more severe, till in 1736, as he was writing a poem called The Legion Club, he was seized with a fit so painful and so long continued, that he never after thought it proper to attempt any work of thought or labour. praise from printing that he could ''In the end he was almost totally After writing to Bolingbroke on March 21, 1729-30, that 'death is never out of my mind,' he continues:'And yet I love la bagatelle better than ever; for finding it troublesome to read at night, and the company here growing tasteless, I am always writing bad prose or worse verses, either of rage or raillery.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 188; Works, xvii. 234 (where the letter is misdated). See also Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 276, for 'my rule, vive la bagatelle. Bolingbroke wrote to him in 1722 :— 'I will undertake to find in two pages of your bagatelles more good sense, useful knowledge and true religion than you can shew me in the works of nineteen in twenty of the profound divines and philosophers of the age.' Works, xvi. 378. 'If, after all, we must with Wilmot own The cordial drop of life is love alone; The man that loves and laughs must sure do well.' POPE, Imit. Hor., Epis. i. 6. 127. See also Swift's Works, xvi. 326, 411, xviii. 329. 2 Post, SWIFT, 130. 3 He wrote to Pope in 1737:— 'This deafness unqualifies me for all company except a few friends with counter-tenor voices, whom I can call names if they do not speak loud enough for my ears.' Works, xix. 69. See also ib. p. 64, where he says he can hear 'a woman with a treble.' 4 Orrery, p. 245. The Legion Club (Works, xii. 436) is a complete poem. Swift wrote on April 24, 1736 :—' I have been very ill these two months past.... I have writ a very masterly poem on the Legion Club; which, if the printer should be condemned to be hanged for it, you will see in a threepenny book, for it is 240 lines. Mrs. Whiteway is to have half the profit, and half the hanging. Ib. xviii. 424. See also ib. p. 433, xix. 67. 'Tennyson,' says Mr. LockerLampson, 'was greatly impressed by the deadly-earnest and savagery, and, let me say sadness, of Swift's Legion Club. He has more than once read it to me.' Tennyson's Life, ii. 73. He was always careful of his money and was therefore no 108 liberal entertainer, but was less frugal of his wine than of his meat. When his friends of either sex came to him in expectation of a dinner his custom was to give every one a shilling, that they might please themselves with their provision 2. At last his avarice grew too powerful for his kindness; he would refuse a bottle of wine, and in Ireland no man visits where he cannot drink 3. Having thus excluded conversation *, and desisted from study, 104 he had neither business nor amusement; for having, by some ridiculous resolution or mad vow, determined never to wear spectacles, he could make little use of books in his later years; his ideas, therefore, being neither renovated by discourse, nor increased by reading, wore gradually away, and left his mind vacant to the vexations of the hour, till at last his anger was heightened into madness. He, however, permitted one book to be published, which 105 had been the production of former years: Polite Conversation, which appeared in 1738%. The Directions for Ser 'His meat was but little, yet much more than Mr. Pope's; and his wine out of all proportion more, and excellent in its kind.' Delany, p. 180. See also ib. p. 145; ante, SWIFT,67 n. 2. For Pope's frugality see post, POPE, 267. In 1734 Swift described himself as drinking ‘a pint of wine at noon, and another at night.' Works, xviii. 230. 2 When Lady Eustace brought her daughter 'he would contend hard that no more than sixpence should be allowed for the brat (now Mrs. Tickell). Delany, p. 181. 3 Swift wrote in 1732:-'I should hardly prevail to find one visitor if I were not able to hire him with a bottle of wine.' Works, xviii. 12. A few days earlier he wrote:-'Even my wine will not purchase me company.' Ib. xix. 291. Deane Swift (p. 181) says that till the death of Stella 'he generally spent his time from noon till he went to bed in conversation.' 5 Delany adds (p. 146) that the natural make of his eyes (large and prominent) very ill qualified him to support this resolution.' On Jan. 15, 1730-1, Swift wrote to Pope:-'Read at night I dare not for my eyes.... I am in my chamber at five, there sit alone till eleven, and then to bed. I write pamphlets and follies merely for amusement, and when they are finished, or I grow weary in the middle, I cast them into the fire.' Pope's Works (Elwin and Courthope), vii. 211. He wrote to Stella on her birthday, March 13, 1724–5 (Works, xiv. 480): 'For Nature always in the right 'Whenever,' said Goethe, 'a stran- Ib. ix. 339. [The shorter title, 106 vants1 was printed soon after his death. These two performances shew a mind incessantly attentive, and, when it was not employed upon great things, busy with minute occurrences. It is apparent that he must have had the habit of noting whatever he observed; for such a number of particulars could never have been assembled by the power of recollection. He grew more violent; and his mental powers declined till (1741) it was found necessary that legal guardians should be appointed of his person and fortune. He now lost distinction. His madness was compounded of rage and fatuity 3. The last face that he knew was that of Mrs. Whiteway, and her he ceased to know in a little time". His meat was brought him cut into mouthfuls; but he would never touch it while the thing in prose, begun above 28 years ago, and almost finished.' Works, xvii. 356. He described it as 'a work to reduce the whole politeness, wit, humour, and style of England into a short system, for the use of all persons of quality, and particularly the maids of honour.' Ib. p. 384. See also ib. xix. 7, 120. Thackeray in his English Humourists, p. 140, trusted to the ignorance of his audience when he quoted it as representing the talk of persons of fashion.' Early in 1738-9 Swift published his poem On the Death of Dr. Swift, of which two editions (the first of 2000 copies) were rapidly sold off. Works, xiv. 317, xvii. 389, xix. 171, 178. * Ib. xi. 365. Swift wrote in 1731 that it was of almost equal importance' as Polite Conversation. 'I may call it the whole duty of servants.' Ib. xvii. 384. Mrs. Whiteway, in 1740, described it as 'very unfinished and 'incorrect.' Ib. xix. 230. Faulkner, the printer, wrote in 1745 that 'it was never finished by the Dean, and is consequently very incorrect.' Ib. p. 255. See also ib. xvii. 357, xix. 158, 213. 2 I Johnson, in the rest of this account, follows Delany (p. 150), who however does not mention the appointment of legal guardians. Hawkesworth in Swift's Life, 1755, p. 57, mentions this. Professor Sir John Banks showed in The Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, May, 1861, p. 83, that on Aug. 12, 1741, a writ de lunatico inquirendo was issued. The jury found that Swift had been 'a person of unsound mind, and not capable of taking care of his person or fortune, since May 20 last past.' See ante, SWIFT, II. 3 See post, YOUNG, 31, for Young's anecdote of the tree withered at its top. 'From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driv'ler and a show.' JOHNSON, The Vanity, &c., 1. 317. He wrote of her in 1735:-'I have kindred enough, but not a grain of merit among them except one female, who is the only cousin I suffer to see me.' Works, xviii. 277. In 1737 he wrote of her as 'the only cousin I own.' Ib. xix. 61. 'She was a lady of talents, fashion, and independent fortune.' SCOTT. Ib. i. 412 n. 'She came from her own house three days in each week to read and chat with him after Stella's death.' Ib. xviii. 362 n. 5 'I was informed by the servant who attended him in his last illness, that when any person of whose talents he had thought highly visited him, he evinced the greatest anxiety for his departure, whilst blockheads were suffered to approach him with impunity.' G. M. BERKELEY, Literary Relics, Preface, p. lv. |