Jonathan Swift

One of the world's most famous satirists, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667 and began his education at Kilkenny Grammar School under his uncle's tutelage. He later continued his studies at Trinity College, Dublin. In the wake of the Glorious Revolution, Swift moved to England and became the secretary of Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat and man of letters, at Moor Park in Surrey. In Temple's household he also became the tutor of Esther Johnson, whom he nicknamed Stella, and to whom he dedicated a series of poems over the years and a journal. Their deep friendship lasted until Stella's death in 1728. In 1692, Swift took his Masters from Hertford College, Oxford, and was ordained as a priest of the Church of Ireland in 1695. He obtained the living of Laracor, Agher, and Rathbeggan, and the prebend of Dunlavin in St. Patrick's Cathedral, but he frequently returned to England in the following years where he became involved first in the Whig and later in the Tory party. 1704 saw the anonymous publication of A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. In London, too, Swift became friends with Alexander Pope, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, William Congreve and other literary figures who together formed a group of writers who called themselves the Scriblerus Club. After the Whigs return to power, Swift returned to Dublin where he was installed as Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in 1713. His writing, both prose and poetry, took a more acerbic and often misanthropic turn. 1724-25 saw the publication of The Drapier Letters, a series of pamphlets in which Swift took issue with numerous economic grievenaces Ireland was afflicted with, and the completion of Gulliver's Travels. When Swift died on 19 October 1745 after a sad physical and mental decline, it was said that a hush fell over Dublin, so highly was he regarded. He was interred in St Patrick's Cethedral by Stella's side. Yeats's poetic rendition of his epitaph is: Swift sailed into his rest; / Savage indignation there / Cannot lacerate his breast. / Imitate him if you dare, / World-besotted traveller; he / Served human liberty.