[30c]William Penn (1644–1718), the celebrated founder of Pennsylvania. Swift says that he “spoke very agreeably, and with much spirit.”
[30d]This “Memorial to Mr. Harley about the First-Fruits” is dated Oct. 7, 1710.
[30e]Henry St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke in July 1712. In the quarrel between Oxford and Bolingbroke in 1714, Swift’s sympathies were with Oxford.
[31a]I.e., it is decreed by fate. So Tillotson says, “These things are fatal and necessary.”
[31b]See p.8.
[31c]Obscure. Hooker speaks of a “blind or secret corner.”
[31d]Ale served in a gill measure.
[31e]Scott suggests that the allusion is toThe Tale of a Tub.
[31f]An extravagant compliment.
[32a]See p.62.
[32b]L’Estrange speaks of “trencher-flies and spungers.”
[32c]See p.2.
[32d]Samuel Garth, physician and member of the Kit-Cat Club, was knighted in 1714. He is best known by his satirical poem,The Dispensary, 1699.
[32e]Gay speaks of “Wondering Main, so fat, with laughing eyes” (Mr. Pope’s Welcome from Greece, st. xvii.).
[32f]See p.24, note 3.
[33a]See the letter of Oct. 10, 1710, to Archbishop King.
[33b]See p.6.
[33c]“Seventy-three lines in folio upon one page, and in a very small hand.” (Deane Swift).
[34a]I.e., Lord Lieutenant.
[34b]Tatler, No. 238.
[34c]See p.2.
[34d]Charles Coote, fourth Earl of Mountrath, and M.P. for Knaresborough. He died unmarried in 1715.
[34e]Henry Coote, Lord Mountrath’s brother. He succeeded to the earldom in 1715, but died unmarried in 1720.
[35a]The Devil Tavern was the meeting-place of Ben Jonson’s Apollo Club. The house was pulled down in 1787.
[35b]Addison was re-elected M.P. for Malmesbury in Oct. 1710, and he kept that seat until his death in 1719.
[35c]Captain Charles Lavallee, who served in the Cadiz Expedition of 1702, and was appointed a captain in Colonel Hans Hamilton’s Regiment of Foot in 1706 (Luttrell, v. 175, vi. 640; Dalton’sEnglish Army Lists, iv. 126).
[35d]See p.25.
[36a]TheTatler, No. 230,Sid Hamet’s Rod, and the ballad (now lost) on the Westminster Election.
[36b]The Earl of Galway (1648–1720), who lost the battle of Almanza to the Duke of Berwick in 1707. Originally the Marquis de Ruvigny, a French refugee, he had been made Viscount Galway and Earl of Galway successively by WilliamIII.
[36c]William Harrison, the son of a doctor at St. Cross, Winchester, had been recommended to Swift by Addison, who obtained for him the post of governor to the Duke of Queensberry’s son. In Jan. 1711 Harrison began the issue of a continuation of Steele’sTatlerwith Swift’s assistance, but without success. In May 1711, St. John gave Harrison the appointment of secretary to Lord Raby, Ambassador Extraordinary at the Hague, and in Jan. 1713 Harrison brought the Barrier Treaty to England. He died in the following month, at the age of twenty-seven, and Lady Strafford says that “his brother poets buried him, as Mr. Addison, Mr. Philips, and Dr. Swift.” Tickell calls him “that much loved youth,” and Swift felt his death keenly. Harrison’s best poem isWoodstock Park, 1706.
[37a]The last volume of Tonson’sMiscellany, 1708.
[37b]James Douglas, second Duke of Queensberry and Duke of Dover (1662–1711), was appointed joint Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1708, and third Secretary of State in 1709. Harrison must have been “governor” either to the third son, Charles, Marquis of Beverley (born 1698), who succeeded to the dukedom in 1711, or to the fourth son, George, born in 1701.
[37c]Anthony Henley, son of Sir Robert Henley, M.P. for Andover, was a favourite with the wits in London. He was a strong Whig, and occasionally contributed to theTatlerand Maynwaring’sMedley. Garth dedicatedThe Dispensaryto him. Swift records Henley’s death from apoplexy in August 1711.
[37d]Sir William Ashurst, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, and Mr. John Ward were replaced by Sir Richard Hoare, Sir George Newland, and Mr. John Cass at the election for the City in 1710. Scott was wrong in saying that the Whigs lost also the fourth seat, for Sir William Withers had been member for the City since 1707.
[37e]Sir Richard Onslow, Bart., was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in 1708. Under George I. he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Onslow in 1716. He died in the following year.
[38a]“The upper part of the letter was a little besmeared with some such stuff; the mark is still on it” (Deane Swift).
[38b]John Bolton, D.D., appointed a prebendary of St. Patrick’s in 1691, became Dean of Derry in 1699. He died in 1724. Like Swift, Bolton was chaplain to Lord Berkeley, the Lord Lieutenant, and, according to Swift, he obtained the deanery of Derry through Swift having declined to give a bribe of £1000 to Lord Berkeley’s secretary. But Lord Orrery says that the Bishop of Derry objected to Swift, fearing that he would be constantly flying backwards and forwards between Ireland and England.
[38c]See p.6, note 2.
[39a]“That is, to the next page; for he is now within three lines of the bottom of the first” (Deane Swift).
[39b]See p.20.
[39c]Joshua Dawson, secretary to the Lords Justices. He built a fine house in Dawson Street, Dublin, and provided largely for his relatives by the aid of the official patronage in his hands.
[39d]He had been dead three weeks (see pp.14,25).
[39e]InThe Importance of the Guardian Considered, Swift says that Steele, “to avoid being discarded, thought fit to resign his place of Gazetteer.”
[40a]As Swift never used the name “Stella” in theJournal, this fragment of his “little language” must have been altered by Deane Swift, the first editor. Forster makes the excellent suggestion that the correct reading is “sluttikins,” a word used in theJournalon Nov. 28, 1710. Swift often calls his correspondents “sluts.”
[40b]Godolphin, who was satirised inSid Hamel’s Rod(see p.4).
[40c]No. 230.
[40d]“This appears to be an interjection of surprise at the length of his journal” (Deane Swift).
[41a]Matthew Prior, poet and diplomatist, had been deprived of his Commissionership of Trade by the Whigs, but was rewarded for his Tory principles in 1711 by a Commissionership of Customs.
[41b]“The twentieth parts are 12d. in the £1 paid annually out of all ecclesiastical benefices as they were valued at the Reformation. They amount to about £500 per annum; but are of little or no value to the Queen after the offices and other charges are paid, though of much trouble and vexation to the clergy” (Swift’s “Memorial to Mr. Harley”).
[41c]Charles Mordaunt, the brilliant but erratic Earl of Peterborough, had been engaged for two years, after the unsatisfactory inquiry into his conduct in Spain by the House of Lords in 1708, in preparing an account of the money he had received and expended. The change of Government brought him relief from his troubles; in November he was made Captain-General of Marines, and in December he was nominated Ambassador Extraordinary to Vienna.
[41d]Tapped, nudged.
[41e]I.e., told only to you.
[41f]Sir Hew Dalrymple (1652–1737), Lord President of the Court of Session, and son of the first Viscount Stair.
[41g]Robert Benson, a moderate Tory, was made a Lord of the Treasury in August 1710, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in the following June, and was raised to the peerage as Baron Bingley in 1713. He died in 1731.
[42a]The Smyrna Coffee-house was on the north side of Pall Mall, opposite Marlborough House. In theTatler(Nos. 10, 78) Steele laughed at the “cluster of wise heads” to be found every evening at the Smyrna; and Goldsmith says that Beau Nash would wait a whole day at a window at the Smyrna, in order to receive a bow from the Prince or the Duchess of Marlborough, and would then look round upon the company for admiration and respect.
[42b]See p.19.
[42c]See p.25.
[42d]An Irish doctor, with whom Swift invested money.
[43a]Enoch Sterne, Collector of Wicklow and Clerk to the House of Lords in Ireland.
[43b]Claret.
[43c]Colonel Ambrose Edgworth, a famous dandy, who is supposed to have been referred to by Steele in No. 246 of theTatler. Edgworth was the son of Sir John Edgworth, who was made Colonel of a Regiment of Foot in 1689 (Dalton, iii, 59). Ambrose Edgworth was a Captain in the same regiment, but father and son were shortly afterwards turned out of the regiment for dishonest conduct in connection with the soldiers’ clothing. Ambrose was, however, reappointed a Captain in General Eric’s Regiment of Foot in 1691. He served in Spain as Major in Brigadier Gorge’s regiment; was taken prisoner in 1706; and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of Colonel Thomas Allen’s Regiment of Foot in 1707.
[43d]This volume ofMiscellanies in Prose and Versewas published by Morphew in 1711.
[43e]Dr. Thomas Lindsay, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe.
[44a]The first mention of the Vanhomrighs in theJournal. Swift had made their acquaintance when he was in London in 1708.
[44b]Lady Elizabeth and Lady Mary (see p.40and below).
[44c]John, third Lord Ashburnham, and afterwards Earl of Ashburnham (1687–1737), married, on Oct. 21, 1710, Lady Mary Butler, younger daughter of the Duke of Ormond. She died on Jan. 2, 1712–3, in her twenty-third year. She was Swift’s “greatest favourite,” and he was much moved at her death.
[45a]Edward Wortley Montagu, grandson of the first Earl of Sandwich, and M.P. for Huntingdon. He was a great friend of Addison’s, and the second volume of theTatlerwas dedicated to him. In 1712 he married the famous Lady Mary Pierrepont, eldest daughter of the Duke of Kingston, and under George I. he became Ambassador Extraordinary to the Porte. He died in 1761, aged eighty.
[45b]See p.28. No copy of these verses is known.
[45c]Henry Alexander, fifth Earl of Stirling, who died without issue in 1739. His sister, Lady Judith Alexander, married Sir William Trumbull, Pope’s friend.
[46]“These words, notwithstanding their great obscurity at present, were very clear and intelligible to Mrs. Johnson: they referred to conversations, which passed between her and Dr. Tisdall seven or eight years before; when the Doctor, who was not only a learned and faithful divine, but a zealous Church-Tory, frequently entertained her with Convocation disputes. This gentleman, in the year 1704, paid his addresses to Mrs. Johnson” (Deane Swift). The Rev. William Tisdall was made D.D. in 1707. Swift never forgave Tisdall’s proposal to marry Esther Johnson in 1704, and often gave expression to his contempt for him. In 1706 Tisdall married, and was appointed Vicar of Kerry and Ruavon; in 1712 he became Vicar of Belfast. He published several controversial pieces, directed against Presbyterians and other Dissenters.
[47a]No. 193 of theTatler, for July 4, 1710, contained a letter from Downes the Prompter in ridicule of Harley’s newly formed Ministry. This letter, the authorship of which Steele disavowed, was probably by Anthony Henley.
[48a]William Berkeley, fourth Baron Berkeley of Stratton, was sworn of the Privy Council in September 1710, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He married Frances, youngest daughter of Sir John Temple, of East Sheen, Surrey, and died in 1740.
[48b]Probably the widow of Sir William Temple’s son, John Temple (see p.5). She was Mary Duplessis, daughter of Duplessis Rambouillet, a Huguenot.
[48c]The Rev. James Sartre, who married Addison’s sister Dorothy, was Prebendary and Archdeacon of Westminster. He had formerly been French pastor at Montpelier. After his death in 1713 his widow married a Mr. Combe, and lived until 1750.
[48d]William Congreve’s last play was produced in 1700. In 1710, when he was forty, he published a collected edition of his works. Swift and Congreve had been schoolfellows at Kilkenny, and they had both been pupils of St. George Ashe—afterwards Bishop of Clogher—at Trinity College, Dublin. On Congreve’s death, in 1729, Swift wrote, “I loved him from my youth.”
[49a]See p.19.
[49b]Dean Sterne.
[49c]See p.38.
[49d]When he became Dean he withheld from Swift the living of St. Nicholas Without, promised in gratitude for the aid rendered by Swift in his election.
[49e]Crowe was a Commissioner for Appeals from the Revenue Commissioners for a short time in 1706, and was Recorder of Blessington, Co. Wicklow. In hisShort Character of Thomas,Earl of Wharton, 1710, Swift speaks of Whartons “barbarous injustice to . . . poor Will Crowe.”
[50a]See p.9.
[50b]See p.13.
[50c]See p.3.
[50d]Richard Tighe, M.P. for Belturbet, was a Whig, much disliked by Swift. He became a Privy Councillor under George I.
[51a]Dryden Leach, of the Old Bailey, formerly an actor, was son of Francis Leach. Swift recommended Harrison to employ Leach in printing the continuation of theTatler; but Harrison discarded him. (SeeJournal, Jan. 16, 1710–11, and Timperley’sLiterary Anecdotes, 600, 631).
[51b]ThePostman, which appeared three days in the week, written by M. Fonvive, a French Protestant, whom Dunton calls “the glory and mirror of news writers, a very grave, learned, orthodox man.” Fonvive had a universal system of intelligence, at home and abroad, and “as his news is early and good, so his style is excellent.”
[51c]Sir William Temple left Esther Johnson the lease of some property in Ireland.
[52a]See p.27.
[52b]An out-of-the-way or obscure house. So Pepys (Diary, Oct. 15, 1661) “To St. Paul’s Churchyard to a blind place where Mr. Goldsborough was to meet me.”
[52c]Sir Richard Temple, Bart., of Stowe, a Lieutenant-General who saw much service in Flanders, was dismissed in 1713 owing to his Whig views, but on the accession of George I. was raised to the peerage, and was created Viscount Cobham in 1718. He died in 1749. Congreve wrote in praise of him, and he was the “brave Cobham” of Pope’s firstMoral Essay.
[52d]Richard Estcourt, the actor, died in August 1712, when his abilities on the stage and as a talker were celebrated by Steele to No. 468 of theSpectator. See alsoTatler, Aug. 6, 1709, andSpectator, May 5, 1712. Estcourt was “providore” of the Beef-Steak Club, and a few months before his death opened the Bumper Tavern in James Street, Covent Garden.
[52e]See p.32.
[52f]Poor, mean. Elsewhere Swift speaks of “the corrector of a hedge press in Little Britain,” and “a little hedge vicar.”
[52g]Thomas Herbert, eighth Earl of Pembroke, was Lord Lieutenant from April 1707 to December 1708. A nobleman of taste and learning, he was, like Swift, very fond of punning, and they had been great friends in Ireland.
[53a]See p.9.
[53b]See p.10.
[53c]A small town and fortress in what is now the Pas de Calais.
[53d]Richard Stewart, third son of the first Lord Mountjoy (see p.2), was M.P. at various times for Castlebar, Strabane, and County Tyrone. He died in 1728.
[54a]See p.7.
[54b]Swift, Esther Johnson, and Mrs. Dingley seem to have begun their financial year on the 1st of November. Swift refers to “MD’s allowance” in theJournalfor April 23, 1713.
[55a]Samuel Dopping, an Irish friend of Stella’s, who was probably related to Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath (died 1697), and to his son Anthony (died 1743), who became Bishop of Ossory.
[55b]See p.6.
[55c]The wife of Alderman Stoyte, afterwards Lord Mayor of Dublin. Mrs. Stoyte and her sister Catherine; the Walls; Isaac Manley and his wife; Dean Sterne, Esther Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, and Swift, were the principal members of a card club which met at each other’s houses for a number of years.
[55d]See p.2.
[56a]“This cypher stands for Presto, Stella, and Dingley; as much as to say, it looks like us three quite retired from all the rest of the world” (Deane Swift).
[56b]Steele’s “dear Prue,” Mary Scurlock, whom he married as his second wife in 1707, was a lady of property and a “cried-up beauty.” She was somewhat of a prude, and did not hesitate to complain to her husband, in and out of season, of his extravagance and other weaknesses. The other lady to whom Swift alludes is probably the Duchess of Marlborough.
[56c]See p.46.
[56d]Remembers: an Irish expression.
[57a]This new Commission, signed by Narcissus Marsh, Archbishop of Armagh, and William King, was dated Oct. 24, 1710. In this document Swift was begged to take the full management of the business of the First-Fruits into his hands, the Bishops of Ossory and Killala—who were to have joined with him in the negotiations—having left London before Swift arrived. But before this commission was despatched the Queen had granted the First-Fruits and Twentieth Parts to the Irish clergy.
[57b]Lady Mountjoy, wife of the second Viscount Mountjoy (see p.2), was Anne, youngest daughter of Murrough Boyle, first Viscount Blessington, by his second wife, Anne, daughter of Charles Coote, second Earl of Mountrath. After Lord Mountjoy’s death she married John Farquharson, and she died in 1741.
[58a]Forster suggests that Swift wrote “Frond” or “Frowde” and there is every reason to believe that this was the case. No Colonel Proud appears in Dalton’sArmy Lists. A Colonel William Frowde, apparently third son of Sir Philip Frowde, Knight, by his third wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Ashburnham, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel Farrington’s (see59) Regiment of Foot in 1694. He resigned his commission on his appointment to the First Life Guards in 1702, and he was in this latter regiment in 1704. In November and December 1711 Swift wrote of Philip Frowde the elder (Colonel William Frowde’s brother) as “an old fool,” in monetary difficulties. It is probable that Swift’s Colonel Proud (? Frowde) was not Colonel William Frowde, but his nephew, Philip Frowde, junior, who was Addison’s friend at Oxford, and the author of two tragedies and various poems. Nothing seems known of Philip Frowde’s connection with the army, but he is certainly called “Colonel” by Swift, Addison, and Pope (see Forster’sSwift, 159; Addison’sWorks, v. 324; Pope’sWorks, v. 177, vi. 227). Swift wrote to Ambrose Philips in 1705, “Col. Frond is just as he was, very friendly andgrand rêveur et distrait. He has brought his poems almost to perfection.” It will be observed that when Swift met Colonel “Proud” he was in company with Addison, as was also the case when he was with Colonel “Freind” (p.11).
[58b]Charles Davenant, LL.D., educated at Balliol College, Oxford, was the eldest son of Sir William Davenant, author ofGondibert. In Parliament he attacked Ministerial abuses with great bitterness until, in 1703, he was made secretary to the Commissioners appointed to treat for a union with Scotland. To this post was added, in 1705, an Inspector-Generalship of Exports and Imports, which he retained until his death in 1714.Tom Double, a satire on his change of front after obtaining his place, was published in 1704. In a Note on Macky’s character of Davenant, Swift says, “He ruined his estate, which put him under a necessity to comply with the times.” Davenant’sTrue Picture of a Modern Whig,in Two Parts, appeared in 1701–2; in 1707 he publishedThe True Picture of a Modern Whig revived,set forth in a third dialogue between Whiglove and Double, which seems to be the piece mentioned in the text, though Swift speaks of the pamphlet as “lately put out.”
[58c]Hugh Chamberlen, the younger (1664–1728), was a Fellow of the College of Physicians and Censor in 1707, 1717, and 1721. Atterbury and the Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby were among his fashionable patients. His father, Hugh Chamberlen, M.D., was the author of the Land Bank Scheme of 1693–94.
[58d]Sir John Holland (see p.11).
[59a]Swift may mean either rambling or gambolling.
[59b]Thomas Farrington was appointed Colonel of the newly raised 29th Regiment of Foot in 1702. He was a subscriber for a copy of theTatleron royal paper (Aitken,Life of Steele, i. 329, 330).
[59c]InThe History of Vanbrugh’s House, Swift described everyone as hunting for it up and down the river banks, and unable to find it, until at length they—
“— in the rubbish spyA thing resembling a goose pie.”
“— in the rubbish spyA thing resembling a goose pie.”
Sir John Vanbrugh was more successful as a dramatist than as an architect, though his work at Blenheim and elsewhere has many merits.
[59d]For the successes of the last campaign.
[60a]John Sheffield, third Earl of Mulgrave, was created Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703, and died in 1721. On Queen Anne’s accession he became Lord Privy Seal, and on the return of the Tories to power in 1710 he was Lord Steward, and afterward (June 1710) Lord President of the Council. The Duke was a poet, as well as a soldier and statesman, his best known work being theEssay on Poetry. He was Dryden’s patron, and Pope prepared a collected edition of his works.
[60b]Laurence Hyde, created Earl of Rochester in 1682, died in 1711. He was the Hushai of Dryden’sAbsalom and Achitophel, “the friend of David in distress.” In 1684 he was made Lord President of the Council, and on the accession of JamesII., Lord Treasurer; he was, however, dismissed in 1687. Under WilliamIII. Rochester was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, an office he resigned in 1703; and in September 1710 he again became Lord President. His imperious temper always stood in the way of popularity or real success.
[60c]Sir Thomas Osborne, CharlesII.’s famous Minister, was elevated to the peerage in 1673, and afterwards was made successively Earl of Danby, Marquis of Caermarthen, and Duke of Leeds. On Nov. 29, 1710, a few days after this reference to him, the Duke was granted a pension of £3500 a year out of the Post Office revenues. He died in July 1712, aged eighty-one, and soon afterwards his grandson married Lord Oxford’s daughter.
[60d]See p.12.
[60e]See p.48.
[60f]See p.11.
[60g]See p.52.
[60h]This is, of course, a joke; Swift was never introduced at Court.
[60i]Captain Delaval (see p.23).
[60j]Admiral Sir Charles Wager (1666–1743) served in the West Indies from 1707 to 1709, and gained great wealth from the prizes he took. Under George I. he was Comptroller of the Navy, and in 1733 he became First Lord of the Admiralty, a post which he held until 1742.
[60k]See p.52.
[60l]See p.24.
[60m]Isaac Bickerstaff’s “valentine” sent him a nightcap, finely wrought by a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth (Tatler, No. 141). The “nightcap” was a periwig with a short tie and small round head, and embroidered nightcaps were worn chiefly by members of the graver professions.
[61a]Tatler, No. 237.
[61b]Tatler, No. 230.
[62a]See pp.32,68.
[62b]“Returning home at night, you’ll find the sinkStrike your offended sense with double stink.”
(Description of a City Shower, ll. 5, 6.)
[62c]Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
[63a]See p.1.
[63b]See p.55.
[64a]See p.34.
[64b]See p.2.
[65]The bellman’s accents. Cf. Pepys’Diary, Jan. 16, 1659–60: “I staid up till the bellman came by with his bell just under my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried, ‘Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty, windy morning.’”
[66a]John Freind, M.D. (1675–1728), was a younger brother of the Robert Freind, of Westminster School, mentioned elsewhere in theJournal. Educated under Dr. Busby at Westminster, he was in 1694 elected a student of Christ Church, where he made the acquaintance of Atterbury, and supported Boyle against Bentley in the dispute as to the authorship of the letters of Phalaris. In 1705 he attended the Earl of Peterborough to Spain, and in the following year wrote a defence of that commander (Account of the Earl of Peterborough’s Conduct in Spain). A steady Tory, he took a share in the defence of Dr. Sacheverell; and in 1723, when M.P. for Launceston, he fell under the suspicion of the Government, and was sent to the Tower. On the accession of GeorgeII., however, he came into favour with the Court, and died Physician to the Queen.
[66b]See p.59.
[66c]St. John was thirty-two in October 1710. He had been Secretary at War six years before, resigning with Harley in 1707. Swift repeats this comparison elsewhere. Temple was forty-six when he refused a Secretaryship of State in 1674.
[66d]Sir Henry St. John seems to have continued a gay man to the end of his life. In his youth he was tried and convicted for the murder of Sir William Estcourt in a duel (Scott). In 1716, after his son had been attainted, he was made Viscount St. John. He died in 1742, aged ninety.
[67a]See p.4.
[67b]“Swift delighted to let his pen run into such rhymes as these, which he generally passes off as old proverbs” (Scott). Many of the charming scraps of “Old Ballads” and “Old Plays” at the head of Scott’s own chapters are in reality the result of his own imagination.
[67c]See p.10.
[67d]Sir Richard Levinge, Bart., had been Solicitor-General for Ireland from 1704 to 1709, and was Attorney-General from 1711 to 1714. Afterwards he was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland.
[68a]See pp.32,62.
[68b]See p.6.
[68c]Thomas Belasyse, second Viscount Fauconberg, or Falconbridge (died 1700), a nobleman of hereditary loyalty, married, in 1657, the Protector’s youngest daughter, Mary Cromwell, who is represented as a lady of high talent and spirit. She died on March 14, 1712. Burnet describes her as “a wise and worthy woman,” who would have had a better prospect of maintaining her father’s post than either of her brothers.
[69a]Richard Freeman, Chief Baron, was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1707 until his death in November 1710.
[69b]See p.49.
[69c]Sir Richard Cox, Bart. (1650–1733), was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1703 to 1707. In 1711 he was appointed Chief-Justice of the Queen’s Bench, but he was removed from office on the death of Queen Anne. His zealous Protestantism sometimes caused his views to be warped, but he was honest and well-principled.
[69d]Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart. (1676–1746), succeeded Bromley as Speaker in 1714. In February 1713 Swift said, “He is the most considerable man in the House of Commons.” His edition of Shakespeare was published by the University of Oxford in 1743–44. Pope called it “pompous,” and sneered at Hanmer’s “superior air” (Dunciad, iv. 105).
[70]See p.24.
[72a]Elliot was keeper of the St. James’s Coffee-house (see2).
[72b]Forster suggested that the true reading is “writhing.” If so, it is not necessary to suppose that Lady Giffard was the cause of it. Perhaps it is the word “tiger” that is corrupt.
[72c]The Hon. Charles Boyle (1676–1731), of the Boyle and Bentley controversy, succeeded to the peerage as Lord Orrery in 1703. When he settled in London he became the centre of a Christ Church set, a strong adherent of Harley’s party, and a member of Swift’s “club.” His son John, fifth Earl of Orrery, publishedRemarks on the Life and Writings of Jonathan Swiftin 1751.
[73a]William Domville, a landed proprietor in County Dublin, whom Swift called “perfectly as fine a gentleman as I know.”
[73b]On May 16, 1711, Swift wrote, “There will be an old to do.” The word is found in Elizabethan writers in the sense of “more than enough.” Cf.Macbeth, ii. 3: “If a man were porter of hell gate, he should have old turning the key.”
[73c]See p.9. Clements was related to Pratt, the Deputy Vice-Treasurer, and was probably the Robert Clements who became Deputy Vice-Treasurer, and whose grandson Robert was created Earl of Leitrim in 1795.
[73d]See p.24.
[74a]Swift’s sister Jane, who had married a currier in Bride Street, named Joseph Fenton, a match to which Swift strongly objected. Deane Swift says that Swift never saw his sister again after the marriage; he had offered her £500 if she would show a “proper disdain” of Fenton. On her husband’s dying bankrupt, however, Swift paid her an annuity until 1738, when she died in the same lodging with Esther Johnson’s mother, Mrs. Bridget Mose, at Farnham (Forster’sSwift, pp. 118–19).
[74b]Welbore Ellis, appointed Bishop of Kildare in 1705. He was translated to Meath in 1731, and died three years later.
[74c]The expression of the Archbishop is, “I am not to conceal from you that some expressed a little jealously, that you would not be acceptable to the present courtiers; intimating that you were under the reputation of being a favourite of the late party in power” (King to Swift, Nov. 2, 1710).
[75]This indignant letter is dated Nov. 23, 1710. It produced an apologetic reply from the Archbishop (Nov. 30, 1710), who represented that the letter to Southwell was a snare laid in his way, since if he declined signing it, it might have been interpreted into disrespect to the Duke of Ormond. Of the bishops King said, “You cannot do yourself a greater service than to bring this to a good issue, to their shame and conviction.”
[76a]William Bromley (died 1732) was M.P. for the University of Oxford. A good debater and a strong High Churchman, he was Secretary of State from August 1713 until the Queen’s death in the following year.
[76b]Colonel, afterwards Major-General, John Hill (died 1735) was younger brother of Mrs. Masham, the Queen’s favourite, and a poor relation of the Duchess of Marlborough. He was wounded at Mons in 1709, and in 1711 was sent on an unsuccessful expedition to attack the French settlements in North America. In 1713 he was appointed to command the troops at Dunkirk.
[76c]“The footmen in attendance at the Houses of Parliament used at this time to form themselves into a deliberative body, and usually debated the same points with their masters. It was jocularly said that several questions were lost by the Court party in the menial House of Lords which were carried triumphantly in the real assembly; which was at length explained by a discovery that the Scottish peers whose votes were sometimes decisive of a question had but few representatives in the convocation of lacqueys. The sable attendant mentioned by Swift, being an appendage of the brother of Mrs. Masham, the reigning favourite, had a title to the chair, the Court and Tory interest being exerted in his favour” (Scott). Steele alludes to the “Footmen’s Parliament” in No. 88 of theSpectator.
[77a]See p.1.
[77b]A Court of Equity abolished in the reign of Charles I. It met in theCamera Alba, or Whitehall, and the room appears to have retained the name of the old Court.
[78a]See p.24.
[78b]Swift’s first contribution to theExaminer(No. 13) is dated Nov. 2, 1710.
[78c]Seduced, induced. Dryden (Spanish Friar) has “To debauch a king to break his laws.”
[80a]Freeman (see p.69).
[80b]“To make this intelligible, it is necessary to observe, that the words ‘this fortnight’, in the preceding sentence, were first written in what he calls their little language, and afterwards scratched out and written plain. It must be confessed this little language, which passed current between Swift and Stella, has occasioned infinite trouble in the revisal of these papers” (Deane Swift).
[80c]Trim. An attack upon the liberties of this corporation is among the political offences of Wharton’s Lieutenancy of Ireland set forth in Swift’sShort Character of the Earl of Wharton.
[80d]Apologies.
[80e]“A Description of the Morning,” in No. 9 of theTatler.
[81a]See p.38.
[81b]William Palliser (died 1726).
[81c]See p.20.
[81d]“Here he writ with his eyes shut; and the writing is somewhat crooked, although as well in other respects as if his eyes had been open” (Deane Swift).
[81e]Tatler, No. 249; cf. p. 93. During this visit to London Swift contributed to only threeTatlers, viz. Nos. 230, 238, and 258.
[81f]St. Andrew’s Day.
[82a]No. 241.
[82b]Tatler, No. 258.
[84a]Lieutenant-General Philip Bragg, Colonel of the 28th Regiment of Foot, and M.P. for Armagh, died in 1759.
[84b]James Cecil, fifth Earl of Salisbury, who died in 1728.
[84c]See p.5.
[84d]See p.60.
[84e]Kneller seems never to have painted Swift’s portrait.
[85a]On Nov. 25 and 28.
[85b]Arthur Annesley, M.P. for Cambridge University, had recently become fifth Earl of Anglesea, on the death of his brother (see p.13). Under George I. he was Joint Treasurer of Ireland, and Treasurer at War.
[85c]A Short Character of the Earl of Wharton, by Swift himself, though the authorship was not suspected at the time. “Archbishop King,” says Scott, “would have hardly otherwise ventured to mention it to Swift in his letter of Jan. 9, 1710, as ‘a wound given in the dark.’” Elsewhere, however, in a note, Swift hints that Archbishop King was really aware of the authorship of the pamphlet.
[86a]A false report: see p.88below.