The Major Works

by Swift, Jonathan; Ross, Angus; Woolley, David

• ISBN13: 9780192840783
• ISBN10: 0192840789
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This authoritative edition brings together a unique selection from the full range of Swift's fifty-year career--prose, poetry, and letters--to give the essence of his work and thinking. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best known as the author of Gulliver's Travels, which alone would have secured his place in the history of English literature. But in addition to this classic fictional satire, Swift wrote numerous works concerning politics, religion, and Ireland, some savage, others humorous, all suffused with his tremendous wit and inventiveness. This anthology includes satirical works such as A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, political pamphlets, pieces for the popular press, poems, and a generous selection from Swift's correspondence. Presented chronologically, the anthology offers a new and clearer awareness of the unity as well as the complexity of Swift's vision, and the powerful bonds between disparate pieces.

Author Biography

Angus Ross is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
Chronology	xxix
Note on the Text	xxxiii
A Full and True Account of the Battel Fought last Friday, Between the Antient and the Modern Books in St. James's Library (1697)	1	(22)
When I come to be old (1699)	23	(1)
A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions Between the Nobles and the Commons in Athens and Rome, With the Consequences they had upon both those States (1701)	24	(33)
To their Excellencies the Lords Justices of Ireland the Humble Petition of Frances Harris (1701)	57	(3)
A Meditation upon a Broom-Stick (1701)	60	(2)
A Tale of a Tub (1704)	62	(103)
A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, &c. (1704)	165	(16)
[Apothegms and Maxims]	181	(6)
Baucis and Philemon (1706)	187	(30)
[from the Bickerstaff Papers] (1708)
Predictions for the Year 1708	193	(8)
An Answer to Bickerstaff	201	(4)
An Elegy on Mr. Partridge, the Almanac-maker	205	(4)
The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions	209	(3)
A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. (1709)	212	(5)
An Argument to prove that the Abolishing of Christianity in England, may as things now stand, be attended with some Inconveniences, and perhaps not produce those many good Effects proposed thereby (1708)	217	(11)
[Answer to Verses from May Fair] (1709)	228	(1)
A Description of the Morning, from The Tatler, No. 9 (1709)	229	(1)
Swift to Esther Johnson and Rebecca Dingley, [from Journal to Stella, Vi] 10 October 1710	230	(7)
A Short Character of His Excellency, Thomas Earl of Wharton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1710)	237	(15)
[The continual Corruption of our English Tongue], from The Tatler, No. 230 (28 September 1710)	252	(4)
A Description of a City Shower, from The Tatler, No. 238 (1710)	256	(16)
from The Examiner (1710--11)
[Marlborough], No. 17 [16], (23 November 1710)	258	(5)
[The Rage of Party], No. 32 [31], (8 March 1711)	263	(4)
[The Criminals in the late Ministry], No. 39 [38], (26 April 1711)	267	(5)
Swift to Esther Johnson and Rebecca Dingley, [from Journal to Stella, XXX] 8 September 1711	272	(8)
The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War (1711)	280	(47)
Dunkirk to be Let, Or, A Town Ready Furnish'd; with A Hue-and-Cry after Dismal (1712)	327	(3)
[Part of] The Seventh Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated (1713)	330	(4)
Cadenus and Vanessa (1713)	334	(23)
Swift to Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, 8 July 1713	357	(1)
The Importance of the Guardian Considered (1713)	358	(18)
The Author upon Himself (1714)	376	(3)
Swift to Joseph Addison, 9 July 1717	379	(1)
The Testimony of Conscience [sermon]	380	(7)
Stella's Birthday, 1719	387	(1)
Swift to John Evans, Bishop of Meath, 22 May 1719	388	(1)
Phyllis, or, The Progress of Love (1719)	389	(3)
The Progress of Beauty (1720)	392	(4)
To Stella, who collected and transcribed his Poems (1720)	396	(4)
A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufacture, in Clothes and Furniture of Houses, &c. (1720)	400	(6)
An Excellent New Song on a Seditious Pamphlet (1720)	406	(2)
The Run upon the Bankers (1720)	408	(3)
Swift to Alexander Pope, 10 January 1721[-2]	411	(7)
A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a late Famous General (1722)	418	(1)
Upon the Horrid Plot discovered by Harlequin, the Bishop of Rochester's French Dog. In a Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory (1722)	419	(2)
Swift to Bishop Stearne, 28 February 1724	421	(40)
[from the Drapier's Letters controversy]
To the Shop-keepers, Tradesmen, Farmers, and Common-People in General, of the Kingdom of Ireland [Drapier's Letter 1] (1724)	422	(9)
Swift to Lord Carteret, 28 April 1724	431	(1)
The same to the same, 9 June 1724	432	(1)
The same to the same, 9 July 1724	433	(1)
A Letter to the Whole People of Ireland [Drapier's Letter IV] (1724)	434	(13)
A Letter to the Lord Chancellor Middleton [the fifth Drapier's letter] (1724)	447	(14)
Horace, Book I, Ode xiv ... paraphrased and inscribed to Ireland (1724)	461	(2)
On Dreams. An Imitation of Petronius (1724)	463	(2)
Swift to Charles Ford, 11 March 1725	465	(1)
Swift to Charles Ford, 16 August 1725	466	(2)
Swift to the Rev. Thomas Sheridan, 11 September 1725	468	(2)
Swift to Alexander Pope, 29 September 1725	470	(3)
Swift to the Earl of Peterborough, 28 April 1726	473	(4)
`Richard Sympson' to Benjamin Motte [from Gulliver's Travels], 8 August 1726	477	(2)
Stella's Birthday, 13 March 1727	479	(3)
Desire and Possession (1727)	482	(2)
On the Death of Mrs. Johnson (1727)	484	(8)
A Modest Proposal for preventing the Children of poor People from being a Burthen to their Parents or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Public (1729)	492	(8)
The Grand Question Debated: whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Barrack or a Malt-House (1729)	500	(6)
Swift to Lord Carteret [April 1730]	506	(2)
Death and Daphne. To an agreeable young Lady, but extremely lean (1730)	508	(3)
An Excellent New Ballad: or, The True English Dean to be hanged for a Rape (1730)	511	(3)
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D., Occasioned by reading a Maxim in Rochefoucault (1731)	514	(17)
The Place of the Damned (1731)	531	(1)
[The Day of Judgement] (1731)	532	(1)
A Beautiful Young Nymph going to Bed. Written for the Honour of the Fair Sex (1731)	533	(2)
On Poetry. A Rhapsody (1733)	535	(21)
from Directions to Servants
Rules that concern all Servants in General	549	(7)
A Character, Panegyric, and Description of the Legion Club (1736)	556	(47)
from A Compleat Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, According to the most polite Mode and Method, now used at Court, and in the best Companies of England. In several Dialogues. By Simon Wagstaff, Esq.
An Introduction to the following Treatise	563	(20)
Dialogue II	583	(20)
Swift's Epitaph	603	(2)
Abbreviations	605	(1)
Notes	605	(90)
Further Reading	695	(4)
Glossary	699	(7)
Biographical Index of Contemporaries	706	(15)
Index of Short Titles	721	(2)
Index of First Lines	723	(1)
Index of Addressees	724