THE SHIFTING PERSONA IN JONATHAN SWIFT'S A TALE OF A TUB THE SHIFI'ING PERSONA IN JONATHAN SWIFT'S A TALE OF A TUB By HARRIETTE WALLACE, B.A. I • A Tqesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University . May 1971 MASTER OF ARTS (1971) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (English) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Shifting Persona in Jonathan Swift's A Tale of ~ Tub AUTHOR: Harriette Wallace, B.A. (The College of St. Catherine) SUPERVISOR: Professor Gordon Vichert NUMBER OF PAGES: 160 SCOPE AND CONTENTS: This thesis endeavors to investigate the shifting rhetoric of A Tale of ~ Tub with the object of determining the nature of the speaker in both allegory and digressions. It concludes that a single voice, Modern by Swift's standards, speaks throughout. This voice adopts various Modern positions yet is not consistent in being Modern, for it does·, on occasion, let through Swift's own point of view. ii I wish to thank Dr. Gordon Vichert for his helpful suggestions during the preparation of this thesis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE PERSONA TRADITION 13 III. THE ALLEGORY AND ITS PERSONA 38 IV. THE PERSONA AND THE REST OF THE TALE 69 V. THE HEART OF THE MATTER: "A DIGRESSION ON MADNESS" 105 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 iv I INTRODUCTION This study began as a close reading of A Tale £!~~ with particular focus on its rhetoric. The Tale contains peculiar and confusing shifts in style and point of view, and by examining these shifts I have hoped to make my own judgment concerning the voice or voices responsible for them. I have concluded that a single persona, who presents and adopts a number of Modern views, narrates both allegory and digressions. Extremely elusive in nature, this persona changes his vocabulary to match his pose of the moment. Beginning as a Modern writer, he also at times emerges as a critic (both biblical and secular); a Modern projector evinc- ing mystical, Cabbalistic, Rosicrucian, or alchemical tendencies; a Modern scientist of mechanical or experimental leanings; and a materialist philosopher with Hobbesian or Neo-Epicurean vocabulary and beliefs. Within this chameleon-like shifting between Modern positions, some are obvious and some more concealed but yet important. The Neo-Epicurean <- positions, for instance, although less immediately apparent than the amusing "dark writer" ones, are more central to the Tale. Furthermore, a given attitude, such as that of explainer of the mysteries of the universe, is common to both poses. The rapid change between Modern views and the existence of attitudes common to more than one view make exact enumeration of the persona's changes impractical. However, since certain poses domin- ate related sections of the ~, a general pattern can be discerned. A Modern writer guise controls the prefatory apparatus and Introduction as Well as the Conclusion; a biblical critic most parts of the allegory; and I 2 a Modern critic or enthusiast the early digressions. "Dark writer" characteristics are more prominent in sections V, VIII~ and X, while a Hobbesian vocabulary emphasizes the materialism of the tailor cult, the opening of the Aeolist section, and portions of "A Digression on Madness". Underlying Aeolism and controlling Madness is a Neo-Epicurean terminology and philosophy which also appears strategically from title page to Conclusion. In his wide-ranging Modernism, the persona adopts not only general­ ized positions, such as those of a Modern writer or critic, but also takes on the style and opinions of known individuals. That the reader might not miss this element of specific parody, comments on it appear in the margin notes of the Tale's first edition and in the Apology and footnotes of the fifth and subsequent editions. Although Swift hardly furnishes a complete guide to the instances in which the persona resembles a given Modern, his notes give sufficient clues for the reader to pursue the matter on his own. By the frequency with which the persona imitates or mentions them in a manner calculated to do them no honour, certain individuals emerge as prinCipal objects of Swift's satire. Chief among these are Richard Bentley and William Wotton, opponents of Swift's mentor, Sir William Temple, in the Ancients-Moderns controversy. In any part of the Tale directly related to the controversy the persona mimics these two, while at other times he gratuitously pulls them into the narrative, thereby implicating them in a more obViously reprehensible Modernism. Thus, in Section III, .. 11A Dig:r-.sss-iQn- Concs-:r-.n-ing Critics" ,the persona especially mimics BentleY...an historical criticism, while in the next digression, "In the Modern Kind", 3 he mainly parodies William Wotton's enthusiasm for Modern endeavors. In that same digression, furthermore, an alchemical recipe for knowledge (an obvious target for satire) immediately precedes a Wotton-type cen~ suring of Homer's deficiencies. Of Modern literary figures those most often implicated by the persona are John Dryden and Roger L'Estrange; of "dark writers", Thomas Vaughan; of philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Lucretius. Although Lucretius was an ancient, his work, ~ Rerum Natura, the Modern's bible of Epicureanism, had only recently been translated into English. The persona's Modernism is broad enough to be both general and very specific. Structurally, this,Modern consciousness serves as the link between sections labelled as allegory and as digression. In all sections the persona focuses on what he finds most interesting at the moment, thereby giving short shrift to consistent exposition. The undue intrusion into his material, often in the form of digressions within a chapter, and a penchant for congratulating himself upon his proficiency as a Modern writer mar'k the persona's authorship of both allegory and digressions. As the Modern author he is responsible for the alternation between "tale" sections and digressions and for the relationship between each. As MiriannStarkman and Jay Arnold Levine both point out, a definite connection exists between the installments of the allegory and their accompanying ' , 1 dl.greSSl.ons. For example, in the allegory's opening section the persona 1Miriam Starkman, Swift's Satire.£!l Learning in "A Tale of!!. Tub", (New York, 1968) and Jay Arnold Levine, "The Design of A Tale of a Tub (With aDigression on a Mad Modern Critic)",!!d!" XXX (r9~T98-:217. 4 describes Peter's techniques of finding meanings in his father's will h, - solely to prove his own point. Then, in section III, himselfA.indulg!.6,,~ in similar tactics to prove the existence in ancient times of the true critic. Again, in the second allegory installment he describes Peter's activities as a projector, only, in the succeeding digression, to become himself a kind of Modern projector. As the ~ progresses this relation- ' ship between allegory and digressive sections gradually breaks down, as does the order of even-numbered sections continuing the allegory and odd- numbered ones the digressions. Perhaps this is to be expected after digressions praising digressions and madness. At any rate, the persona's own whim eventually subverts any other ordering principle. Another kind of connection, a thematic one, further demonstrates that one voice narrates allegory and digressions. This connection by subject appears in the description of the tailor cult in Section II and in the subsequent reference to it in Section III. Furthermore, the tailor cult and Aeolism, although they nominally belong to the allegory, in addi- tion belong to the materialistic system more fully propounded in "A .' ..... Digression on Madness". A prominent aspect of the Tale-Teller's Modern mentality is his use of metaphor. Instead of metaphor illustrating his thought, it more often controls it, partly because he persistently confuses the difference between literal meanings and metaphors. For him, metaphor becomes literal meaning, while a literal meaning evolves into metaphor. Thus the meta- phorical "deep impressions" which words make upon us (Introduction) become physical impressions and prove one of his theories. St. Paul's statement that !!Learning puffeth Hen up!! (section VIII) in his mind accounts'for the 5 Aeolist practice of applying bellows to their neighbors' breeches. In additi9n, his analogy between the face of nature and the mind of man turns into a literal application of natural process, (that is, that. vapours rise and produce disturbances) to mental activity_ On the other hand, he likes to change literal sense into metaphor. In dis- covering the antiquity of the "true critic", he finds that the ancients' references to asses, weeds, and serpents are actually metaphors for "true critics". Throughout the ~ the persona favors certain kinds of metaphors, namely those of an inside-outside as well as those of an up-down nature. Men, for example, become. suits of clothes animated by wind. Early in the Tale it becomes established that these outsides rarely contain any- thing of worth, and are indeed, vehicles of delusion. The Tale itself is a major vehicle of delusion which, like the largest in a series of Chinese boxes, contains others--the allegory, the oratorial machines, and the systems of the tailor cult, Aeolism, and Madness. In its turn, the Tale comes within the Introduction's theory of oratorial machines, speci- fically the Stage Itinerant. Again, the Puritan pulpit, one of the oratorial machines, is also a tub which reappears in Aeolism as the requisite vessel for containing wind. In one of the Tale's more famous passages, the Teller, after demonstrating that Modern outsides are often delusory, notes that the "Grubbean Sages have always chosen to convey their Precepts and their Arts, shut up within the Vehicles of Types and Fables".2 The allegory, of course, does just this.