Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

ning together, either at Mr Worral's, or at the deanery. The Dean, being a fingle man, was oftner a guest to Mr Worral, than Mr Worral was a guest to him. And this brought on an agreement, that the Dean fhould dine with him whenever he would at a certain rate, and in? vite as many friends as he pleafed upon the fame terms This gentleman is lately dead, and left a darge fum of money to be difpofed of to public charities, at the difcretion of his executors; 500l of which was appro priated to the Dean's hofpital. [D. S. p. 299. J. R p. 92. vol. 41 340, 1]

3

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

THE Dean, when he first fettled at Dublin, was in debt; a fituation which ill suited his fpirit, and determined him to a fevere economy, with which this agreement with Worral well fuited. [J. R. p. 92.] On his public days, however, the dignity of his ftation was fuftained with the utmost elegance and decorum, under the direction of Mrs Johnfon, who yet appeared in the circle without any character distinct from the rest of the company. She was however frequently invited with the Dean, whether to entertainments, or parties of plear fures, though not fo generally as if he had been his wife. She vifited, and received vifits, as far as the prac tice is a mere ritual of good breeding. Her friendships feem to have been still among the men, but he was treated with great politeness by the ladies. [D. S. p. 92.1

[ocr errors]

THE Dean's mind had been now fo filled with politics, that he found it impracticable to excel as a preacher, his first and moft laudable ambition; and frequently de clared, that though he fometimes attempted to exert himself in the pulpit, yet he could never rife higher than preaching pamphlets. [ R. p. 42.] He was however ftill a good dean, and a good prieft: He applied himself to the care of his deanery, his cathedral, its regulations, its income and economy, with great diligence; he renewed the primitive practice of celebrating the holy communion every Sunday, and at this facrament he was not only conftantly prefent, but he confecrated and adminiftrated it with his own hands, in a manner equally graceful and devout; he attended at church every morning, and generally preached in his turn; he alfo conftantly attended the performance of the anthem on a

Sunday

Sunday night, though he did not understand mufic, to fee that the choir did not neglect their duty. [D. S. P. 370, 16] €

[ocr errors]

As to his employment at home, he feems to have had no heart to apply himself to study of any kind, but to have refigned himself wholly to fuch amusements as of fered, that he might not think of his fituation, the mif fortune of his friends, and the disappointment of his hope, Such at leaft is the account that he gives to Mr Gay, in his letter dated January 81722-3 I was "three years," fays he," reconciling myfelf to the "fcene and business to which fortune hath condemned "me; and stupidity was what I had recourse to *" [volv 4. p. 33.]

1

[ocr errors]

Ir has been fuggested, that the acquaintance he fell into with men of learning, made it neceffary for him about this time to review his Greek and Latin, and obe tain fome acquaintance with church history. [7. R. p. 101. But furely he who had ftudied eight hours aday for seven years, or, according to. Mr Deane Swift, [D. S par271, 272, 276.1 ten hours a day for nine years the who had read and extracted the fathers more than fixteen years before, had little occafion to review his Latin and Greek, or acquaint himself with churchhiftory, left he should not fuftain his character among learned men: for except it be pretended that others were able to acquire more knowledge in lefs time and with lefs labour, it must be allowed that Swift was likely to be always the most knowing of his company. Lord

[ocr errors]

From the 1714, till he appeared, in 1120, a champion for Irelandragainft Wood's halfpence, his fpirit of politics and of patriotifm was kept almost closely confined within his own breast. Idleness and trifles ingroffed too many of his hours; fools and fycophants too much of his converfation. However, it may be obferyed, that the treatment which he received after the death of Q. Anne, was almost a fufficient reason to justify contempt, if not an abhorrence, of the human race. He had bravely withstood all hostile indignities during the lifetime of that princess; but when the whole army of his friends were not only routed, but taken prisoners, he dropt his fword, and retired into his fortification at Dublin, from whence he feldom ftirred beyond the limits of this own garden, unless in great indulgence to fome particular favourites. Olet. 6.

[ocr errors]

Lord Orrery fays, that he was little acquainted with the mathematics, and never confidered the fcience except as an object of ridicule *: but the author of the Obfervations affirms, on the contrary, that he had acquired confiderable mathematical knowledge; and that he had feen him more than once undertake to folve an algebraic problem by arithmetic. [7. R. p. 101.]

[ocr errors]

THE firft remarkable event of his life that occurred after his fettlement at the deanery, was his marriage to Mrs Johnfon, after a moft intimate friendship of more than fixteen years. This was in the year 1716; and the ceremony was performed by Dr Afhe, then Bishop of Clogher, to whom the Dean had been a pupil in Trinity college, Dublin t. [vol. 4. p. 14. But whatever were the motives of this marriage, the Dean and the Lady continued to live afterwards juft in the fame manner as they had lived before 1. Mrs Dingley was ftill

[ocr errors]

See the notes, above, p. xiii.

+ Tho' it is admitted, that Dr. Swift was married to Mrs Johnfon in 1716, yet it may be afferted with great truth, that he never had any ferious thoughts of marriage after he was one and twenty, Some time indeed before, while he was a ftrippling in the univerfity of Dublin, he had a paffion for Mifs Warren, the fifter of his chamber fellow. But whatever attachments he had to that lady! upon his going to live in England, where he applied himself clofe to politics and learning at Sir William, Temple's, his passion quick ly fubfided, and he forgot his amour. Neither do I believe, further than common forms, that he ever paid his court, throughout his whole life, to any woman befides, in the character of a profeffod lover. D. S. p. 93, 94.-See Swift's letter to Mr Kendall, vol. 4. P. 288.

Mrs Johnson, with regards to her manners, her virtues, her mind, and her perfon, was not undeferving to have been married to the greatest prince in Europe: but her descent was from a fer. vant of Sir William Temple; and therefore he was by no means worthy to have been the acknowledged wife of Dr Swift.If Dr Swift had acknowledged his marriage even with this improved, this adorable creature, he would, in spite of his genius, and all the res putation he had acquired in the days of K. William and QAnne, have immediately funk in the esteem of the world. For among the rest of his enemies, (and these were not few), there were some that were not unacquainted with the story of Mrs Johnson's birth and education, who, on account of fome particular disobligations they had received from the Doctor, would have been glad of an opportunity,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ftill the infeparable companion of Stella where-ever The went; and the never refided at the deanery, except when the Dean was feized with violent fits of giddiness, which fometimes lafted near a month

.-TILL this time he had continued his vifits to Vanessa } who, though fhe had fuffered very great pecuniary loffes, had yet preferved her reputation, and her friends: for the was vifited by many persons of rank, character, and fortune, of both fexes; particularly Mrs Conolly, a Lady of very high reputation; Dr Berkeley, the late most excellent Bishop of Cloyne; the late Judge Lindsay †, and the Lord Chief Justice Marley. [D. S. p. 262.] The Dean appears ftill to have preferved the character of her preceptor, to have directed her progrefs in literature, and explained and illuftrated the authors fhe had read. But foon after his marriage he vifited her on another ac-* count, he went as an advocate for Mr Dean Winter,

whom

opportunity of expofing him to contempt and ridicule for the meannefs of his fpirit; and as in that cafe they would have had it full in their power, as well as strong in their inclination, they would have published and confirmed the obfcurity of Mrs Johnson's birth and education among all their acquaintance. They would have declar ed, among other particulars, that Mrs Johnfon, when she was about ten or eleven years old, was appointed to wait upon the Doctor's fifter in the character of her little fervant, during the fummer that The spent at Moorpark in 1692. Neither can we fuppofe, that even the Doctor's sister, with whom he had quarrelled to fuch a degree as never to see her face, on account of a match he thought greatly beneath her acceptance, [above, p. xxiv.], would have stifed her indignation, or with any patience have forborn to retaliate the feverities of her brother upon his own back, when he himself had married and acknowledged a wife fo very meanly extracted, and particularly that individual perfon whom she despised and hated beyond all the inhabitants on earth. --In one word, if Dr Swift, whose ambition was not to be gratified without fome uncommon degree of admiration, had acknowledged Mrs Johnson for a wife, he would on all fides have been fo perfecuted with contempt and derifion, (as half mankind were in 1716 his profeffed enemies), that, unable to fupport himself under the burden of his affliction, he would have loft his spirits, broken his heart, and died in a twelvemonth. And accordingly we find he had more wifdom than to acknowledge this beautiful, this accomplished woman, for his wife. D. S. p. 80, 83, 84, 85.*

See vol. 4. p. 291, 292.

See vol. 7. p. 87, vol. 4. p. 342r.

whom he took with him, a gentleman who was a profeffed admirer of Vaneffa, and had made her fome over tures of marriage: but though he had an eftate of near 800l. a-year, befides 300 l. a-year preferment in the church; yet Vaneffa rejected the propofal in fuch terms, as that it was never repeated. She was alfo addreffed by Dr Price, who was afterwards Archbishop of Cashell, but without fuccefs. [D. S. p. 263. 265.] From this time the Dean's vifits were much less frequent. In the year 1717 her fifter died; and the whole remains of the family-fortune being then centered in Vaneffa, the retired to Selbridge, a fmall house and eftate, about twelve miles diftance from Dublin, which had been purchased by her father.

FROM this place the wrote frequently to the Dean, and he answered her letters. In these letters fhe ftill, preffed him to marry her; and in his anfwers he still rallied, and still avoided a pofitive denial. At length, however, the infifted with great ardour, and great tendernefs, upon his pofitive and immediate acceptance or refufal of her as a wife. The Dean wrote an anfwer, and delivered it with his own hand,

As this letter of Vanefla's, which was written in 1723, is a demonstration that she was then utterly ignorant of the Dean's marriage with Stella, and as the appears to have known it almoft immediately afterwards, it is probable that the Dean's anfwer communicated the fatal fecret, which at once precluded all her hopes, and accounted for his former conduct: it is probable too, that the refentment which he felt at having it thus extorted from him, was the cause of the manner in which he delivered the letter; for having thrown it down upon her table, he hafted back to his horfe, and returned immediately to Dublin. [D. S. p. 264. O. let. 9.]

THIS letter the unhappy lady did not furvive many weeks. However, fhe was fufficiently compofed to cancel a will that the had made in the Dean's favour, and to make another, in which the left her fortune, which long retirement and frugality had in a great measure reftored, to her two executors, Dr Berkeley, the Bishop of Cloyne, and Mr Marfhall, one of the King's ferjeants

at

« ForrigeFortsett »