I.

Introduction

Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745), Anglo-Irish satirist and political pamphleteer, considered one of the greatest masters of English prose and one of the most impassioned satirists of human folly and pretension. His pamphlets, prose, letters, and poetry were all marked by highly effective and economical language.

Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667, and educated at Trinity College in the city. His father was a lawyer whose family had gone to Ireland after the Restoration. His cousin was the poet John Dryden. He obtained employment in England in 1689 as secretary to the diplomat and writer Sir William Temple, a distant relative of his mother. Swift's relations with his employer were not amicable, and in 1694 he went back to Ireland, where he took religious orders. Effecting a reconciliation with Temple, he returned to Temple's household in 1696. There he supervised the education of Esther Johnson, daughter of the widowed companion to Temple's sister. Swift remained with Temple until Temple's death in 1699. Swift's stay, although frequently marred by quarrels with his employer, gave him the time for an immense amount of concentrated reading and for writing.