English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History: Designed as a Manual of InstructionCoppée, Henry
History
English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History: Designed as a Manual of Instruction
Coppée, Henry
English literature -- History and criticism
At last his versatile and powerful pen obtained some measure of reward: in
1713 he was made Dean of St. Patrick's, in Dublin, with a stipend of £700
per annum. This was his greatest and last preferment.
On the accession of George I., in the following year, he paid his court,
but was received with something more than coldness. He withdrew to his
deanery in Dublin, and, in the words of Johnson, "commenced Irishman for
life, and was to contrive how he might be best accommodated in a country
where he considered himself as in a state of exile." After some
misunderstanding between himself and his Irish fellow-citizens, he
espoused their cause so warmly that he became the most popular man in
Ireland. In 1721 he could write to Pope, "I neither know the names nor the
number of the family which now reigneth, further than the prayer-book
informeth me." His letters, signed _M. B. Drapier_, on Irish manufactures,
and especially those in opposition to Wood's monopoly of copper coinage,
in 1724, wrought upon the people, producing such a spirit of resistance
that the project of a debased coinage failed; and so influential did Swift
become, that he was able to say to the Archbishop of Dublin, "Had I raised
my finger, the mob would have torn you to pieces." This popularity was
increased by the fact that a reward of £300 was offered by Lord Carteret
and the privy council for the discovery of the authorship of the fourth
letter; but although it was commonly known that Swift was the author,
proof could not be obtained. Carteret, the Lord Lieutenant, afterwards
said, "When people ask me how I governed Ireland, I said that I pleased
Doctor Swift."
Thus far Swift's literary labors are manifest history: we come now to
consider that great work, _Gulliver's Travels_,--the most successful of
its kind ever written,--in which, with all the charm of fiction in plot,
incident, and description, he pictures the great men and the political
parties of the day.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.--Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon's mate, finds himself
shipwrecked on the shore of the country of Lilliput, the people of which
are only six inches in height. His adventures are so vividly described
that our charmed fancy places us among them as we read, and we, for a
time, abandon ourselves to a belief in their reality. It was, however,
begun as a political satire; in the insignificance of the court of
pigmies, he attacks the feebleness and folly of the new reign. _Flimnap_,
the prime minister of Lilliput, is a caricature of Walpole; the _Big
Indians_ and _Little Indians_ represent the Protestants and Roman
Catholics; the _High Heels_ and _Low Heels_ stand for the Whigs and
Tories; and the heir-apparent, who wears one heel high and the other low,
is the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II., who favored both parties in
order to gain both to his purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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