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Unit 25: Swift–Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation...
of discourse, if it were not a little relieved by the uncouth terms and phrases, as well as accent and Notes
gesture, peculiar to that country, would be hardly tolerable. It is not a fault in company to talk
much; but to continue it long is certainly one; for, if the majority of those who are got together be
naturally silent or cautious, the conversation will flag, unless it be often renewed by one among
them, who can start new subjects, provided he doth not dwell upon them, but leaveth room for
answers and replies.
Self Assessment
1. Fill in the blanks:
(i) ............... Swift tried to open a political career among Whigs but changed his party and
took over the Tory journal The Examiner.
(a) 1710 (b) 1715
(c) 1718 (d) 1719
(ii) There are ............... faults in conversation
(a) Three (b) Two
(c) Four (d) Five
(iii) ............... “Of Conversation: An Apology.” was written by
(a) Bacon (b) H.G. Wells
(c) Swift (d) Addissen
25.2 Summary
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• In 1710 Swift tried to open a political career among Whigs but changed his party and took
over the Tory journal The Examiner. With the accession of George I, the Tories lost political
power. Swift withdrew to Ireland. Hester Vanhomrigh, whom Swift had met in 1708, and
whom he had tutored, followed him to Ireland after her mother had died. She was 22 years
younger than Swift, who nicknamed her Vanessa. In the poem ‘Cadenus and Vanessa’ from
1713 Swift wrote about the affair: “Each girl, when pleased with what is taught, / Will have
the teacher in her thought.” In 1723 Swift broke off the relationship; she never recovered
form his rejection.
• In this essay, the great Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels and
“A Modest Proposal”) enumerates “the faults and errors” of those who lack the ability to
participate in an agreeable conversation.
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