BOOKS.
JONATHAN SWIFT.* Ma. TEMPLE SCOTT'S valuable edition of Swift's prose works, begun nearly twelve years ago, is now completed by the present volume, the twelfth, which contains a full bibliography of Swift's writings, essays on his portraits and his relations with Stella, and a general index to the whole work. The completion of this edition is an event of real importance to all those who have the interests of our literature at heart, for though the most popular of Swift's works have been endlessly reprinted, the whole body of his achievement has not been put before the public since the edition prepared by Sir Walter Scott at the beginning of the. last century. Thus in giving to the world an authoritative and scholarly version of the most important of Swift's writings—his prose works—Mr. Temple Scott has done no small service to English letters. The interesting bibliography in the volume before us, compiled by Mr. Spencer Jackson, which describes "all' the , editions of Swift's writings, whether separate or collected; published before the end of the eighteenth century," is in ' itself sufficient to give Mr. Scott's edition a unique value to students of Swift. It is to be hoped that these volumes will be speedily followed by the edition of the correspondence '
which is to form a companion to the prose works, and that . in due time a reprint of the whole of Swift's verse will complete an admirable undertaking.
Swift was something more than a great writer, he was a great man ; and the interest attaching to his name has always depended as much upon his character as upon his works. There are many indications that this was the case among the general public even during his lifetime. Swift's power, though for a few years it was enormous, was never declared or obvious ; he occupied no official position in politics; as a public man he was a failure, and even his deanery, when it carne to him, was a fatal blow to his ambitions, Yet, in spite of the comparative obscurity of his career, hie personal * The Pram Works of Jonathan Swift, 11.1). Edited by Temple Scott. Vol. XII., Essays on the Portraits of Swift by Sir Frederick Falkluer, and on Swift and Stella by the Very Rev. the Dean of St. Patrick's. Bibliography of Swift's Works by W. spencer Jackson, and a General Index, Lendou George
Bell and Sons. [5s.]
characteristics and his personal history absorbed the attention of his contemporaries. A curious proof of this may be found in Mr. Jackson's bibliography, which shows us that " Cadenus and Vanessa," that strange poem which at once reveals and conceals the secret of Swift's relations with Hester Van- homrigh, went into no less than eight editions within the year of its publication. The essay on Swift's portraits by the late Sir Frederick Falkiner contains precisely similar evidence. 'The number of these portraits, either copied or original, is so great that "after a two years' hunt" it was found necessary "to forgo the hope of truly identifying half the 'genuine' Swifts in the homes and the collections of Ireland 4ind England "; and this confusion has arisen not only from the multiplication of copies by unknown hands, but from the large number of replicas made by the most -eminent artists, to whom, as Sir Frederick Falkiner tells
"the temptation would seem often to have been irresistible to eke out their income by a few repetitious on the sly,"—so pressing was the demand for portraits of the great Dean. Unfortunately, however, the quantity of these portraits is no compensation foe their quality. Swift was never painted by a master, and thus, though his features are familiar to every one—the high forehead, the arched nose, the arrogant lips, the eyes "quite azure as the heavens," and the black terrific eyebrows above them—yet they live for us on no -supreme canvas, and we are fain to do our best with our imagination to clothe with the force and fire of genius the -dull presentments we possess. The most distinguished of -the painters to whom Swift sat was Charles Jervaa, who, if we are to believe tradition, was very far from considering ;himself the second-rate artist that he was. "Poor little Tit," lie exclaimed on one occasion after having finished a copy of Titian, "how be would stare !" Jervas gave lessons in painting to Pope, who in his turn tried his hand at his friend's portrait. . "I find my hand most successful in draw- ing of friends," Pope wrote to Caryl!, "insomuch that my -masterpieces have been one of Dr. Swift and one of Mr. Betterton." But the poet destroyed his paintings in despair.
When St. Luke painted," he said, "an angel came and ,finished the work, and it will be thought hereafter that when I painted, the devil pub the last hand to my pieces." Pope -seems to have painted and written on the same principles.
Sir Frederick Falkiner regrets that Swift never sat to Hogarth—it would have been possible during his last visit to London in 1726—and goes on to draw a parallel between ." the Swift of the painters" and "the Hogarth of the poets." At first sight the comparison is attractive, but it grows less satisfactory the more one examines it. After all, Hogarth, though it is true that he was a satirist, was no misanthrope ; his apirit was essentially cheerful and good-natured, and when lie, laughed he laughed outright. He knew nothing of the litter mockery. of Swift. To find in painting anything at all lesembling the Yahoos and the Struldbrugs one must turn to the terrible visions of Goya, or to some of Da.umier's over- whelming caricatures. But there is another even more vital 'differenee: Hogarth's genius was fundamentally poetical, while Swift's was a• prose genius through and through. If one were obliged to look for parallels among painters, surely there is only one master with whom, so far as style at least is concerned, Swift can be fitly compared,—Velazquez. Swift's writing has all the restraint, all the economy of effort, all the -sobriety of tone, which fill the great Spaniard's pictures ; and it produces effects as brilliant and as unforgettable. When we read his finest pages we experience sensations such as those that are evoked by an "Infanta" or a "Philip IV."; we .ask in ,vein by what magic those quiet and commonplace ingredients have been converted into the visible image of life and ferce. Swift's is the least emphatic of styles, and the most powerful. His mind, infinitely unpoetical, turned naturally towards the detailed, the dry, and the material, discarding all -the dazzling allurements of fancy, and seeking its inspiration, -often enough, in the dirt. It relied for its effects upon its own strength, and upon that alone. The only ornament in his 'writing is the rhythm, so that, compared to the decorative and -imaginative prose of such a writer as Sir Thomas Browne, it 'resembles the naked body of an a th'ete beside some Prince in :gorgeous raiment. Who can say which is the more beautiful? Who can balance the subtle vigour of nudity against the 'splendour of glowing colour and elaborate form ? It is more fruitful to compare Swift with one of the great masters in his
own style—with Voltaire, for instance—where we may find the same clarity and sobriety, the same unerring precision of statement, the same preoccupation with the concrete and the real. Then perhaps we shall understand more completely the true essence of Swift's genius. What is it that dis- tinguishes Candide from the "Modest Proposal for Pre- venting the Children of Poor People from being a Burden to their Parents or the Country" ? Both are masterpieces of irony; both are intensely serious; but the Frenchman attains his end by means of a ghastly gaiety, while Swift employs a more deadly weapon still,—an impassive and unrelaxing gravity which never fluctuates, which shrinks from nothing, which advances rigidly and logically to the most preposterous conclusions, and leaves us at last in an agony, as if the curtain had gone down on a tragic scene.
If it is true that an underlying sense of tragedy animates Swift's greatest work, it is equally certain that the same dreadful influence dominated his life. The story of his relations with "Stella " and "Vanessa" is reviewed once more in the present volume by Dr. Bernard, the Dean of St. Patrick's, who is able to contribute a new piece of evidence relating to the much-disputed question as to Swift's marriage,—a letter written by the Bishop of Meath while both Swift and Stella were alive, mentioning their marriage as a fact. The importance of this letter lies in the support which it affords to a number of independent traditions of much later date. Thus it adds in some degree to the probability of the truth of the marriage ; but the whole matter still remains within the region of doubtful speculation. There seems, indeed, very little reason to regret this. Whether Swift went through the ceremony of marriage or not is in reality a question of merely formal and antiquarian interest; whatever the answer, we shall be no nearer the central mystery of Swift's life. What was the nature of his feelings towards the two women whose fates were so strangely twisted round his .own ? What were the compelling forces, what were the crucial acts, of that tragedy ? We shall never know more than we know at present, and that is so little that the most careful biographers are able,to caine to totally contrary conclusions upon the most important points at issue. Thus Sir Leslie Stephen inclined to believe that Swift was in love with Vanessa and not with Stella, while Dr. Bernard is of opinion that lie was in love with Stella and was never anything more than Vanessa's intimate friend. What- ever conclusion we may come to, however, it seems clear that we have no reason to condemn the conduct of any of the three. It is easy enough, for instance, to say with Di-. • Bernard that "Swift was to blame for allowing Vanessa to lose, her foolish heart to him"; but it is riot so easy to say bow he could have prevented it, or how, when it had once happened, he was to treat the situation. We know far too little of the facts to bring in any verdict but one of "Not proven."
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