CHAP. the style of the old English navigators copied SO XVIII. much does there seem of their honest simplicity and LITERA- plain common sense-so consistent is every part of TURE. the story so natural all the events after the first improbability, that the fable, even in its wildest flights, never loses an air of real truth. "I lent "the book," says Arbuthnot, "to an old gentle"man, who went immediately to his map to search "for Lilliput." In Ireland, one Bishop sagely observed, that for his part he hardly believed a word of it! t We may also observe in these Travels, as the especial talent of Swift, his manner of implying or assuming as certain the charge he wishes to convey. To give only one instance :"In Lilliput "the style of writing is very peculiar, being neither "from the left to the right, like the Europeans; nor "from the right to the left, like the Arabians; nor "from up to down, like the Chinese; but aslant "from one corner of the paper to the other, like "ladies in England!" At the time of the publication, also, many strokes of satire, now no longer applicable, and therefore scarcely perceived, gave infinite delight. In the following passage, for example, he doubtless had in view the proceedings against Atterbury and Layer, and some of the Royal Speeches at that period: "It was a custom in Lilliput, that, after the Court "had decreed any cruel execution, the Emperor * Letter to Swift, November 8. 1726. + Swift to Pope, November 17. 1726 XVIII. always made a speech to his whole Council, ex- CHAP. pressing his great lenity and tenderness, as qua"lities known and expressed by all the world. LITERA"This speech was immediately published through"out the kingdom; nor did any thing terrify the 66 people so much as these encomiums on His Ma"jesty's mercy; because it was observed, that the "more these praises were enlarged and insisted "on, the more inhuman was the punishment, and "the sufferer more innocent!" Yet, though Gulliver thus abounds with satire upon Courts, he became a great favourite at the little Court of the Princess of Wales. Lady Suffolk and the Princess herself eagerly read the book, and warmly welcomed the author. Her Royal Highness graciously accepted from him a present of some Irish silks for herself and the young Princesses, and promised him in return some medals, which, however, were at first delayed, and afterwards forgotten. Such little neglect is not very uncommon in private life, and does not seem to call for any very extraordinary indignation. But by Swift it was most bitterly resented: he has recorded it again and again both in prose and verse; and almost to the close of his life we find him complaining of the forgotten medals and unrequited silks! He might have known that in those times few things were less remembered than presents to Princes. A popular German writer tells us that, having once offered a costly picture to his sovereign, he was honoured with a warm embrace, and TURE. CHAP. his picture with one of the best places in the gallery. XVIII. But only a year afterwards he stood by, when his LITERA Highness showed the picture to a foreign minister, and said, "It is really "It is really a fine piece, and I rather "think that I bought it cheap!"* TURE. From the manner in which Swift always harps upon his petty grievance of the medals, we may conclude that he had no greater to urge against the Court. On the death of George the First, he kissed their new Majesty's hands, and for some time buoyed himself with expectations † ; but finding, to his mortification, Walpole confirmed in power, and more hostile than ever, he returned to Ireland; yet he did not, for some years, relinquish his friendly correspondence with Lady Suffolk; until at length losing all hope, and with hope all patience, he renounced her as false and faithless; declaring that "Bob, the poet's foe," possessed her ear; and from that time also he began to make the Queen the object of some of his sharpest satirical attacks. The resentment of Gay against the Queen had still less foundation. He had paid her assiduous court as Princess; and, a few weeks after coming to the throne, she said to Lady Suffolk, in allusion to one of Gay's Fables, that she would now take up * See Knigge, Umgang mit Menschen, vol. iii. p. 10. ed. 1813. To Dr. Sheridan, June 24. 1727. See especially the Directions for writing a Birth-day Ode, and the Poem on his own death. XVIII. TURE. the Hare with many Friends.* Accordingly she CHAP. obtained for him the appointment of Gentleman Usher to one of the Princesses, a child about two LITERAyears old. It was, in fact, an honourable sinecure, affording a provision for his wants, at the same time with leisure for his pen. An easy place of 2001. a year was surely no contemptible offer to one who had begun life as apprentice to a silk mercer, and who was now a thoughtless man of genius, without any knowledge of affairs. Yet Gay was persuaded by some officious friends, not merely to decline the offer, but to resent it as an insult. Soon afterwards he joined the Opposition, and declared his quarrel by the production of the Beggar's Opera, teeming with satirical strokes against the Court and Government. The name of Bob Booty, for example, always raised a laugh, being understood as levelled at Sir Robert Walpole. The first idea of this play appears to have sprung from a suggestion of Swift t; but the praise of its execution belongs entirely to Gay. Its brilliant success (it was acted for sixtythree nights without intermission) may be ascribed, in some degree, like that of Cato under Queen Anne, to party zeal: yet the pleasure with which it is still seen upon the stage is a proof of its real merit. It must be owned, however, that the attacks of Gay and other dramatic authors at this time far outstepped the bounds that any Government could sanction. Not only did the measures of Walpole * Swift to Lady E. Germaine, January 8. 1733. CHAP. stand exposed to every kind of misrepresentation XVIII. and malignity, but his person was brought on the LITERA- stage, and his character made the sport of the TURE. players. The sequel which Gay wrote to the Beggar's Opera, under the name of Polly, went as far beyond it in violence as it fell short of it in talent; and the Lord Chamberlain exerted his almost dormant privilege to forbid it.* Gay was more than recompensed for this disappointment, through a subscription so liberally filled by the Opposition as to gain him nearly 1200l., while the Beggar's Opera had only brought 400l.; so that, as Johnson observes," what he called oppression ended in profit." Other writers, having no such reputation as his to hazard, were restrained by no regard to it. Scurrilous personalities, low buffoonery, and undisguised sedition took possession of the stage, and the licentiousness of morals under Charles the Second was now exchanged for the licentiousness of liberty. The necessity of some curb to these excesses became evident to all parties. In 1735, Sir John Barnard brought in a Bill to restrain the number of playhouses, and regulate the stage; nor did there appear at first a single dissenting voice; but on Walpole attempting to introduce a clause to enlarge the power of the Lord Chamberlain, Barnard declared that he thought that power too great already, and the Bill was dropped. *The Beggar's Opera first appeared in 1728, and Polly in 1729. Baker's Biographia Dramatica, vol. i. p. 186. + Life of Gay. See also Spence's Anecdotes, p. 214. |