The importance of Swift's residence at Moor Park to his early writings Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Hoban, Joseph Patrick, 1928- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 06/10/2021 09:25:11 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/319702 THE IMPORTANCE OF SWIFT'S RESIDENCE AT MOOR PARK TO HIS EARLY VfRITINGS by Joseph Patrick Hoban A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 5 8 Univ. of ArizonaLibrary & y / y / / 9 j r & STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quota­ tion from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in their judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholar­ ship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Directo<^)f Thesis ii ' ■'- 'Oi' SdEEllM' : ■ . - '" ■; : ; ’, ; 1, ' INTRODUCTION . » '6; . > J. »: » . » „ ' it . : : II e v: ; T SlMTT :C©LISeS ;P$ElO|):, - o ;' . , »' - 1 IXX o_ :-, MOOR ]PAKEk> -«/ - 6_..^ - o./ «- & « « » « « » <> <>..« • 13 ' m m ^ mm . # m # , ' : « ;»: ^ . 3 0 ::■ :• ;v.'.B d s m :C)t::wv B O C E B V '•;;;■:':. V .;' . • ■ :; W r: : : .; ' : ^:X ;Vt§ ■ „ . ' V .'.' c':"/ ,'■ 81;'. CHAPTER I : ' ' ISTEOmCTTOH' ■ ; ; : ' Jonathan Swift resided, at-Hoor Park, as seeretary . to Sir William Temple, from the autumn of 1689 until Temple1 s death in January of 1699% This period of residence at Moor Park was interrupted twice; on each ocoasion he went, to Ireland for a Short time "but returned to resume his previous goat in. the Temple household» ; ;k.; ■k-k ;. ■ This ten year period, which hegan with his departure frdm Trinity College, Dublin, and ended with his eventual re­ turn to Emhlin as chaplain to lord Berkeley, is of utmost im­ portance in the literary development Of Swift. I t ,was during this residence that ho came into contact with the cultivation . and sophistication that he "believed was. ah sent during his Trinity College day So If was during this time that he felt he had found, in the verse form of the ode, the ideal vehiele through which the world would hear him. It was. during this period that he, leisurely.foilowed; a, routine of avid reading . in the Temple library, association with Temple8s Celebrated visitors, and appreciation of the ease of noble living that ultimately led to his becoming a ngentleman of taste.^ It was during these ten years that Swift became aware of the . mediocrity of his odes as. a means of expressing his brilliant satire and turned his efforts, so successfully, toward writ­ ing in prose form. ' ■ ; y----; ■■ y - As a result of these experiences$ Swift, while at Heor Park, reached the point at which his literary develop­ ment "became of ageo5’ ' . • It is the pmrpose of this thesis to demonstrate that the atmosphere of Moor Park and the association of Sir . William Temple and his family and friends were dominant in- fineness in Swift9s attainment of artistic and intellectual aatnrityv reaching a climax in the pnMieatibn of the Battle of the Books, 'v':' ' ""'v'r. --'v v . The method of procedure will he an examination of the texts of works written hy Swift at Moor Park and of 'bio­ graphical and Mhllographieal material, as well as modern ; eritiealyWorks.®C The/stndy and discussion of these materials is intended to lead to a demonstration that the Battle of the Books was the elimination of an imtelleetmal development which had. been forecast ,in Swift9 s early years and was con- tinned in hia later writings/: ' - : ; , ; CHAPTER II : . \ : ■. ■ TRIHITY -C0LLEG1 ..PEBiCl)' ■ '■ /f:;; . " - . Accounts of early years of Jonathan Swift8 s life ■ . arc aMndant in interesting facts and; conjectures concern­ ing his parentage^ a kidnapping:;:ana his Kilkenny School . dayso However, since these earliest incidents do not seem to have imprinted any stigma, that. carried, oyer to his period ; ' of literary development.at Hbor Park, Swift * s earliest child­ hood years will he omitted in: this thesis0 -P : • For the benefit of those interested in Swift’s an- :a©stry;and;early: ohildhodd, :attenti0n^iS;daiie4it©,i'an article,, hy F* D? pfundy, entitled ’’Ancestry of Jonathan Swift”;1 to .Irvin Efarenpreis’s ”Swift and Mr, John Temple,” and "Swift5 s ' S'. ' / y / - v :: h ' , :■■ ■" 7 Pather”; and to ^Kilkenny to Moor Park” by'John Middleton iterray*^ ■: v ' ■ ■■ ' y ' : Oliver St. John■Cogarty in an essay, VDean Swift as a, Human Being9” , states 9 most', aptly,; his reason for'an omission of the accounts of Swift’s early childhood; . ’’The strange ad-. -vehture of his''imfa#t years when he Was kidnapped by his nurse '■ ::W0#y(1951) , 381-387. ' ;;v m i x (1947). 145-154. 3mQ,9 CXCXI (1947) , .4 9 6 -4 9 8 ; ^Jonathan Swift, A Critical Biography (Hew Tork, 1955) pp. 13-24,. ' : - : ' y , . ; ' , a M taken to England at tke age of three, and. his mother’s ''■';attitiaae;;tpw'2^;s:.what;::^p^ear5; to he a convenient kidnapping, need not eoheerti us at the moment« We are concerned with his adult years, the heat part ©f whieh Were S.pent at Iffoor , Park, Surrey, in Ingland, the home of Sir, William Temple^ Phis .present' ehapter will’he; -a study of the reaction of B^lft to the seven years, from April ofl682 until early in l o # , 'in,: which he was enrollediin Prinity College, Dublin» Unlike his early childhood years, these years iramediately - preceding his employment at -Moor Park:, are very significant o It was during these years at an Irish university that Swift believed Me Was cheated of .'an educatioh befitting a young gentlman of English aneestry^ ' • ■ . ' ; In order to understand Swift’s feeling for what he believed to be a neglectful college education, we should con­ sider his position (as . a-ward of hisyUnels; G-odwin) at the time of his enrollment plus the academic attitude of Prinity .Uollege" at that, time: ;'.; 1 ' ,7-'; -l't : V'.:i" he (Swift} belonged to a rich and well-to-do - family, but that, on the other, he held the position ■ therein, perhaps, in' great meashre hiddeh from the . , world, and hot on that account the less irksome, of • a poor relafiomo .©mtwardly he had the same education as his GousinSo. But he felt that the eduoafcion,;was : ■ grudgingly bestowed, and doubtless exaggerated; to himself, as most men to placed would naturally do, the degradatidn of the positioner ^Atlantic Monthly, October, 1950V p° 5k* . „ Heiry Graik, Life of :iohatMan Swift (London9 1894) „ 2DV'V ' —---r ,: ;■ . 3 Eieardo Quintana3 celebrated Swift scholar, en­ lightens us concerning the attitude of frinity Sellege in : .Swiftia 'dayt At Trinity College » one seems to ■ detect a . growing bi11erness ■ t, 0 0 But chiefly it arose from his\(Swift’s) intense aversion to the pedantic and narrowly scholastic atmosphere which in M s time lay heavily about Trinity College$ still . insulated.m§ainst:'thein^ if©rlf-horn of .the;; • . - : Renaissance and established in the course of ’ ■ the seventeenth centuryo For years the new’phil­ osophy and new science had'been stirring at. Oxford : and Cambridge; Trinity College proceeded as. of I- 'I'i old, enforcing. the study of the Greek and Latin . classics, but placing.chiefiemphasis upon the mastery of the,scholastic philosophy.? ' John Middleton Murray tells us: : wSwift was bitterly humiliated by his povertyo As a pensioner, he was nominally - on an eg.ual footing with the average gentleman8s son; but in fact his allowance was so meagre that, he conceived a pas si on- .v.;ateres@ntment-,against his uncle, which he vented on the ' Qv ■ \ : .. ;.«*•' ' . ' • , ' r academic ourriculum«^ ;y . .;, A point suggested by Evelyn Hardy is: "In extenua- : tion of his behavior one must realize that Swift was only eighteen when his, degree was granted him, and the discipline ;©f the Oollege was extraordinarily strict ' ; .Swift8s.,own words, written/later in life, concerning his Trinity days are.: ■ ^ : "Mi n d and. Art o f : Jonathan .Swift- (Oxford, 1936), p <> 5» . Swift, A 'Critical Biography (Sew York, 1955), p^ 13. -.%h e ' Conjured Spirit (london, 1949), 21<, ; --i 4 ■ . :where "by the, ill-treatment of his nearest re­ lations s he (jonathan Swift} was so much discouraged' ' and sunk: in his spirits that he too much neglected some:parts of his, academic studies, for which’he had „ no: great'' .relish: hy nature, and turned himself to reading history and-poetry;: 00 that when the time came for taking his degree of bachelor, although he lived with great regularity and due observance of ,, the statutes, he was stopped of his degree 'for ’ ,v: dulness and insufficiency; and at last hardly ad­ mitted in a manner little to his credit, which is called in that college sneciall, gratia° And this discreditable mark, as I am.