Page 283 - DENG502_PROSE
P. 283

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.





                                           LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY                                       277
   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288