BOOKS.

SWIFT'S POLITE CONVERSATION.*

THE two long notes which we append to the heading of this article speak for themselves. Another of the reissues of old classics, so dear to modern editors and modern students, has been provided for us by Mr. Saintsbury, whose long preface upon Swift's work and characteristics will be the second matter in the volume to be read, as Simon Wagstaff's own introduction will certainly be the first. It is delightful to be • (1.) A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious C mversations, according to the Most Polite Mode and Method now Deed at (Joust, and in the But Companies of England. In Three Dialogues. By Simon Wagstaff, Esq. London : Printed for B. Motto and C. Bathurst, at the Middle Temple Gate, in Fleet Street. MDOCCXXXFIII.— (2.) Polite Conversations in Three Dialogues. By Jonathan Swift. With Introduction and Notes by George SaMtsbury. London : Printed and issued by Charles Whittingbam and Co., at the Chiswick Press. YD0001011.

told how polite spelling, as patronised at Court and at playhouses and levees, and at the best houses, by gentle- men templars and commoners of both Universities who had lived at least a year in London, had introduced such words into English as " can't," " han't," " shan't," " didn't," " coodn't," " woodn't," and " isn't "—as locutions before unheard of—as it is to reflect that, since that day, " han't " has developed into " haven't," and " coodn't " and " woodn't " have been formally respelt into "couldn't " and " wouldn't ; " while the truly beautiful " e'n't'" is what we should, we suppose,. know as " ain't." The same polite dictionary, which Mr. Wagstaff wishes to indite, sets forth " jommetry " for " geo- metry," " verdi " for "verdict" (an odd word), " Herd " for "lord," and " larnen " for " learning." " Lierd" and " larnen" have, since Swift's day, disappeared from amongst us, and so, perhaps, has " jommetry," though " joggraphy " is yet a polite reminder of it. As for the abbreviations which Mr. Wagstaff supplies us with, there are : Pozz " for " positive," " mobb for " mobile," phizz " for " physiognomy," " rep " for " repu- tation," " plenipo " for " plenipotentiary," " incog " for " incog- nito," " hypps," or " hippo," for " hypochondriacs," " barn " for " bamboozle," and " bamboozle " for God knows what. Out of this list, '° pozz," and " phizz," and " incog" have alone survived the assaults of Time ; and while we do not much deplore the loss. of " mobb " and "rep," we confess to something of a yearning after " hypps " and " barn." They seem to express much in little, as abbreviations should ; "whereby much Time is saved, and the high-road to Conversation cut short by many a mile." " I have, as it will be apparent, laboured very much," proceeds- Mr. Wagstaff Swift, " and I hope with felicity enough, to make every Character in the Dialogue agreeable with itself to a degree that, whenever any judicious person shall read my Book aloud for the Entertainment and Instruction of a select Company, he need not so much as name the particular speakers, because all the Persons throughout the several subjects of Conversation strictly observe a different Manner, peculiar to. their Characters, which are of different kinds."

This is, of course, a brief and effective summary of the way in which dramatic work should be done, in order that it may be impersonal, as all dramatic work should be, and as the book so emphatically is. It is the test of all drama. No doubt in this sense Swift, in his Polite Conversations, succeeds in effecting- this purpose well enough. Mr. Saintsbury fairly compares them to the dialogues of the Plain Dealer or the School for Scandal, the first far earlier, as the last was far later, in date, and finds them superior to both in the matter of good nature in dealing with the subjects satirised. Infinitely, he calla them the most good-natured things in Swift.. That may well be so without much excess of good nature being discoverable, and we confess that, to ourselves, there is a dreary hollowness about the whole talk of Lord and Lady Smart and Lord Sparkish, and the rest, which makes it difficult to follow or to quote from. It must depend on the mood, we suppose ; and the flavour of " hypps " about all the surroundings fails to make us much in love with our com- pany :—

" ST. JAMES'S PARK.

[Lord Sparkish meeting Col. Attoit.]

Col. Well met, my Lord.

Ld. S. Thank ye, Colonel. A Parson would have said, I hope-

we shall meet in Heaven. When did you see Tom Nevcrout Col. He's just coming towards us. Talk of the Devil [Nevcrout comes up.] How do you do, Tom P

Nev. Never the better for you.

Col. I hope you're never the worse. But where's your Manners ? Don't you see my Lord Sparkish P

Nev. My Lord, I beg your Lordship's pardon."

This that we have cited is the opening scene of this informal play, and the power of repartee does not so far recall the sparkle of Sheridan or Congreve. "How do you do P—None the better for you.—I hope you're never the worse," is surely the most primitive form of give-and-take which ever inspired the pen of any man. " Mr. Nevcrout, methinks you stand in your own Light.—Nev. Ab, Madam, I have done so all my Life.—Ld. S. I'm sure he sits in mine. Prythee, Tom, sit a. little farther. I believe your Father was no glazier."

"Nev. Madam, have you heard, that Lady Queasy was lately at the Playhouse incog. ?

Lady Smart. What, Lady Queasy of all Women in the World ? Do you say it upon Rep Nev. Poz. I saw her with my own Eyes : she sat among the Mob in the Gallery : her own ugly fiz. And she saw me look at her.

Cot. Her Ladyship was plaguily bamb'd. I warrant it put her into the Hipps.

Nev. I studied her huge Nose, and egad she put me in mind of the Woodcock, that strives to hide his long Bill, and then thinks nobody sees him.

Col. Tom, I advise you hold your tongue, for you'll never say so good a thing again."

The phrases that we have italicised are probably the original expression of two very common and familiar sayings which have since developed almost into the American " chestnut ; " and scattered throughout these pages we meet with various examples of the same kind. But, somehow, there is very little flavour of real wit about them :—" I beg your ladyship's pardon. But this small beer is dead."—" Why, then, let, it be buried." Here, again, the repartee is of the fatally obvious order which in a modern dramatist is condemned wholesale under the fatal name of smartness—and it strikes us as much the same throughout. Indeed, these pictures of purely fashionable frivolity are always wonderfully the same, and show a wonderful sameness of invention in its types of all ages. With all respect to Mr. Saintsbury, the School for Scandal in no way enters into the competition. It is such a perfect store- house of genuine wit, that we are fain to believe that no such circle of talkers can ever have been born of fashion or frivolity. In that respect, Sheridan's very greatness makes him fail as a limner of manners of this kind, where less gifted portrayers may succeed. For ourselves, we are fain to confess that, the familiar phrase of " up-to-date " admitted, we could well fancy, when we are studying these dialogues, that we heard the thing quite as well done lately in Lady Windermere's Fan. The talk of Mr. Wilde's clubmen and the fine ladies is much in the same vein. Not the least characteristic part of these scenes is the manner in which the talkers approve of their own wit. We have seen how the Colonel encourages Nevcrout's last. Let us examine another :—

" [Nevcrout eats a piece of venison, and burns his mouth.]

Ld. Smart. What's the matter, Tom ? You have tears in your eyes. What dost cry for, man ?

Nev. My Lord, I was just thinking of my poor grandmother. She died just this very day seven years.

[Miss takes a bit, and burns her mouth.] And pray, Miss, why do you cry too ?

Miss. Because you were not hang'd the day your grandmother died.

Ld. St. I'd have given forty pounds, Miss, to have said that."

Forty pounds, even at the present rates, would be a long price for such a modest personality, especially after the very elaborate " business " which leads up to it; and we confess to being rather surprised at the taste which, according to Mr. Saintsbury, has made " Miss " Notable a favourite ladylove of his since he was seventeen. To our mind, he is juster and more true in his estimate of Swift's wonderful irony as the chief pint of the man's greatness, than in regarding these dialogues as specimens of his irony. We should rather have regarded them as the great ironist playing at the lighter game of wit, and failing in the play. He could not stoop some- how to this light kind of badinage, which needs the kind of softness which Thackeray finds so entirely wanting in Swift's work. Thackeray yields to no man in his admiration for the Dean's power, and dwells upon the surprising humour which describes the Emperor of Lilliput as "taller by the breadth of his nail than any of his Court, which alone is enough to strike an awe into beholders." Here, however Swift is speaking for himself ; and no doubt if he makes his fashionable folk so entirely silly on purpose, he has succeeded to some extent in his dramatic intention. But we doubt if the dramatic ironities are really attained by such imitative art as that ; and the irony which exhibits the personages—and Lord Smart and Nevcrout appear to appraise would-be witty sayings in just the same way—only through the smallest of futile small-talk—somehow fails of its mark, as descriptive irony does not. The ironist speaks best through description, and it is there that Thackeray does Swift full justice. It is curious, by the way, to read, on recurring to the notes on Thackeray's essay, that Dr. Wilde, the father of the author of Lady Windermere, whom we were citing just now, had the oppor- tunity of examining the skull of Swift, and holding that it evidenced diseased action of the brain during life, such as would be produced by an increasing tendency to cerebral congestion. On the painful and oft-told story of Swift's life, it is needless to dwell again. We must own, however, in con- cluding our notice, to sympathy rather with Thackeray's intense dislike of Swift's intolerable coarseness than with Mr.

Saintsbury's Apology. His writings are so essentially un- kind, that they leave behind them an unpleasant flavour which neither wit nor humour prevail to carry off : and it may, perhaps, be our own prejudice that makes us seem to trace the same tendency even in the Polite Conversations of Miss Notable and her friends. But Mr. Saintsbury's Plea for Irony is well worth reading as we close :—

" The perpetual stream of irony which Swift pours out in so quiet yet so steady a flow, is the most difficult of all things to maintain in its perfection. Not more, perhaps, than half-a-dozen writers in all literature, of whom the three chiefs are Lucian, Pascal, and Swift himself, have been quite masters of it ; and of these three, Swift is the mightiest. Sink below the requisite pro- portion of bitterness, and the thing becomes flat; exceed that proportion, and it is nauseous. Perhaps, as one is always fain to persuade oneself in such cases, a distinct quality of palate is required to taste, as well as a distinct power of genius to brew it. . . . . . . The liquor is too dry for many tastes : it has too little froth, if not too little sparkle, for others. The order of architec- ture is too unadorned, depends too much upon the bare attraction of symmetry and form to charm some eyes. But those who have the taste never lose it, never change it. never are weary of gratifying it. Of irony, as of hardly any other thing under the sun, cometh no satiety to the born ironist."