VIII. — Swift's Hoax on Part'ridoe, the Astrologer, and similarJests 



IN Fiction. 



Readers of Swift will always recall the amusement which they 

 derived from their first acquaintance with the famous predictions 

 of Isaac Bickerstaff for the year 1708, "wherein the month, and the 

 day of the month are set down, the persons named, and the great 

 actions and events of the next year particularly related as they will 

 come to pass. Written to prevent the people of England from 

 being farther imposed on by vulgar almanac-makers." These pre- 

 dictions, aimed by Swift at one John Partridge, cobbler, doctor, 

 astrologer and almanac-maker, resemble, in their main features at 

 least, a tale which can be found in almost all languages of Europe ; 

 it was so wide-spread and had been so frequently retold, that one 

 is forced to believe that Swift may have made use of the chief idea 

 of some one version known to him in his joke on Partridge. For 

 the sake of clearness, a resume of the latter will not come amiss. 



Swift's campaign against Partridge consists of five prose skits ^ 

 and an elegy on the supposed death of the astrologer. In the tirst 

 he imitates the manner of the current almanacs, and prophesies 

 events for the year 1708, the first of which is to be the death of 

 Partridge. The second, purporting to have been written by a 

 person of qualit}', contains some reflections on Mr. Bickerstafl's pre- 

 dictions. The third announces the accomplishment of the first pre- 

 diction, " being an account of the death of Mr. Partridore, the alma-- 

 nac-maker, upon the 29 th instant." Two or three days before the 

 fatal date, it says. Partridge had fallen ill, was first confined to the 

 house, and in a few hours after to his bed. Rumors soon spread 

 that he was past hope, and in his last confession he admitted his 

 ignorance and discredited the profession of all astrologers. As a 

 natural result of this hoax, the report of the astrologer's death spread 

 with great persistency ; " the company of stationers struck the dead 

 Partridge from their rolls, and asked for an injunction against the 

 continued publication of almanacs in his name. The fame of Bicker- 

 staff" extended over Europe, and the Inquisition of Portugal, having 



1 Cf. The Works of Jonathan Sivift^ etc., with notes and a life of the 

 author by Sir Walter Scott ; 2 nd edition, 19 vols., Boston and London, 

 188.3-4; vol. viii, pp. 437-484. 



