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Digvijay Pandya, Lovely Professional University Unit 25: Swift–Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation...

Unit 25: Swift–Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation: Notes
Introduction and Detailed Study

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
25.1 Introduction to Hints Towards An Essay On Conversation
25.2 Summary
25.3 Key-Words
25.4 Review Questions
25.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to
• Discuss Swift‘s Life and Works
• Introduce Hints Towards An Essay on Conversation

Introduction

Irish author and journalist, dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Dublin) from 1713, the foremost
prose satirist in English language. Swift became insane in his last years, but until his death he was
known as Dublin’s foremost citizen. Swift’s most famous works is Gulliver’s Travels (1726), where
the stories of Gulliver’s experiences among dwarfs and giants are best known. Swift gave to these
journeys an air of authenticity and realism and many contemporary readers believed them to be
true.
“They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with
death; for they alledge, that care and vigilante, with a very common understanding, may preserve
a man’s goods from thieves; but honesty hat no fence against superior cunning: and since it is
necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon
credit; where fraud is permitted or connived at, or hath no Law to punish it, the honest dealer is
always undone and the knave gets the advantage.” (from Gulliver’s Travels: ‘A Voyage to Lilliput’)
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin. His father, Jonathan Swift Sr., a lawyer and an English civil
servant, died seven month’s before his son was born. Abigail Erick, Swift’s mother, was left
without private income to support her family. Swift was taken or “stolen” to England by his
nurse, and at the age of four he was sent back to Ireland. Swift’s mother returned to England, and
she left her son to her wealthy brother-in-law, Uncle Godwin.
Swift studied at Kilkenny Grammar School (1674-82), Trinity College in Dublin (1682-89), receiving
his B.A. in 1686 and M.A. in 1692. At school Swift was not a very good good student and his
teachers noted his headstrong behavior. When the anti-Catholic Revolution of the year 1688 aroused
reaction in Ireland, Swift moved to England to the household of Sir William Temple at Moor Park,
Surrey - Lady Temple was a relative of Swift’s mother. He worked there as a secretary (1689-95,
1696-99), but did not like his position as a servant in the household.
In 1695 Swift was ordained in the Church of Ireland (Anglican), Dublin. While in staying in Moor
Park, Swift also was the teacher of a young girl, Esther Johnson, whom he called Stella. When she

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