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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 27: Swift: Thoughts on Various Subjects ...
Unit 27: Swift: Thoughts on Various Subjects: Introduction Notes
and Detailed Study
CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
27.1 Textual Introduction
27.2 Thoughts on Various Subjects
27.3 Summary
27.4 Key-Words
27.5 Review Questions
27.6 Further Readings
Objectives
After reading this Unit students will be able to
• Discuss Swift's Major Works
• Explain Swift's views on Thoughts on various Subjects
Introduction
Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then
for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
He is remembered for works such as Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella,
Drapier’s Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A
Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well
known for his poetry. Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as
Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He is also known for being a
master of two styles of satire: the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
Biography
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second child and only son of Jonathan
Swift (1640-1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick), of Frisby-on-the-Wreake. His father, a
native of Goodrich, Herefordshire, accompanied his brothers to Ireland to seek their fortunes in
law after their Royalist father’s estate was brought to ruin during the English Civil War. Swift’s
father died at Dublin before he was born, and his mother returned to England. He was left in the
care of his influential uncle, Godwin, a close friend and confidante of Sir John Temple, whose son
later employed Swift as his secretary.
Swift’s family had several interesting literary connections: His grandmother, Elizabeth (Dryden)
Swift, was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of the poet John Dryden. The same
grandmother’s aunt, Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of the wife of Sir Walter
Raleigh. His great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godwin) Swift, was the sister of Francis Godwin,
author of The Man in the Moone which influenced parts of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. His uncle,
Thomas Swift, married a daughter of the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of
William Shakespeare.
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