S W I 
was severely tried by the triumph of the Whigs, and the in¬ 
dignity with which he was treated. He, therefore, withdrew 
to the functions of his clerical office, and by the exercise of 
integrity and firmness, made many reforms, in the chapter of 
St. Patrick’s, and obtained an authority never before pos¬ 
sessed by any one in his station. He opened his house twice 
a week to good company, and extended his acquaintance 
among the most cultivated and respectable of both sexes. 
Mrs. Johnson, who had lodgings near the deanery, regulated 
his table on public days, though she sat at it merely as a 
guest. In 1716, he was privately married by Dr. Ashe, 
bishop of Clogher, to this lady, long known as his Stella; 
but before the event took place, he had formed another 
amorous connection, which was attended with circumstances 
more censurable than any other occurrence of his life. 
About the year 1712, he became acquainted, in London, 
with Miss Esther Vanhomrigh, an accomplished young lady 
of fortune, with a literary taste, which Swift took pleasure in 
cultivating by his instructions. She became enamoured of 
his person, and actually made proposals of marriage to him. 
The flame on his part seems to have been mutual, and dic¬ 
tated his “ Cadenus and Vanessa,” the longest and most 
finished of his poems. Although he was engaged to Stella, 
he had not resolution to terminate the intercourse. When 
absent, he corresponded with her, and she followed him to 
Ireland. After his marriage with Stella, he still visited Va¬ 
nessa, and encouraged her hopes. Having questioned Stella 
whether or not she was really married, an answer was sent 
to her in the affirmative; and Stella sent her note to Swift, 
aud went into the country, without seeing him. He went 
immediately to the house of Vanessa, threw a paper on her 
table with a very indignant aspect, and then left her without 
uttering a word. Thus their connection terminated. The 
shock was fatal to the lady, who died in 1723, leaving in 
charge to her executors to publish all the letters that had 
passed between Swift and herself, together with the poem of 
“ Cadenus and Vanessa.” The poem was published, but 
the letters were suppressed. 
In 1720, the dean of St. Patrick’s claimed an interest in 
the regard of his countrywoman, by publishing a pamphlet, 
entitled, “ A Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manu¬ 
factures.” In 1724, he resumed his political character, by 
exerting all his powers for defeating a scheme for supplying 
the currency of that country by coining a large quantity of 
copper money, a person named Wood, of Wolverhampton, 
having obtained a patent for this purpose. With this view 
he wrote a series of letters under the name of “ M. B. Dra- 
pier,” which caused the coin to be universally refused, to the 
great displeasure of the Irish government, which offered a 
large reward for the discovery of the author; but he was not 
betrayed. 
In 1726, he published his “Gulliver’s Travels,” which 
was the product of spleen, as the author himself assured his 
friend Pope. 
In the same year. Swift being in England, published 
three volumes of Miscellanies, in conjunction with Pope, to 
whom he relinquished the whole profits; for he seems never 
to have regarded his literary exertions as objects of pecuniary 
emolument. 
On the death of George I. in 1727, Swift paid his duty 
to the new king aud queen; he also paid his court to the 
favourite, Mrs. Howard; but eventually he gained nothing, 
and always afterwards spoke of queen Caroline with male¬ 
volence. His Stella had been long languishing in a state of 
decline; her complaint being probably mental, on account 
of her extraordinary situation, combined with her bodily 
malady. She died in January, 1728, bequeathing her for¬ 
tune, in her own name, to charitable uses. Notwithstanding 
the doubts that have been thrown upon the reality of the 
marriage, the proof of it seems to be incontestible; his con¬ 
duct with respect to both this lady and Miss Vanhomrigh 
fixes an indelible blot on his memory, nor can any talents 
he possessed, or popularity he acquired, ever efface it. 
The death of Stella very much affected Swift, though he 
afterwards continued to vent his rancorous feelings in various 
Vox.. XXIII. No. 1608. 
S W I 797 
effusions, both in prose and verse, on public topics. As an 
Irish patriot, anxious to meliorate the condition of the poor, 
he distinguished himself; and with this view he devoted a 
third of his income to charity. The most finished and in¬ 
teresting of his poems, written about this time, was the 
“ Verses on his own Death,” formed on a misanthropic 
maxim of Rochefoucault. Having indulged his hatred and 
contempt of the Presbyterians in a bitter poem, in which he 
introduced the name of a counsellor Bettesworth, who was 
obnoxious to him as an active leader in the Whig party at 
Dublin, he was threatened with corporal retaliation; but 
his popularity was such, that the inhabitants of St. Patrick’s 
district resolved to embody in his defence. In other in¬ 
stances he made little discrimination in the satires which he 
circulated; and such was the malignity of his temper, that 
it manifested itself in a kind of declared hostility against all 
mankind, a few of its own favourites excepted. At this 
time his most familiar associates were selected from the infe¬ 
rior class, and especially from among females, who were 
always ready to administer obsequious flattery. In 1736 
his constitution sustained a shock from a severe fit of gid¬ 
diness, to which, as well as deafness, he was habitually sub¬ 
ject; so that after this period he undertook no work that re¬ 
quired much thought or labour. 
A total failure of speech for some months preceded his de¬ 
cease, which happened in October, 1744, in his 78th year. 
He bequeathed the greatest part of his property to an hospital 
for lunatics and idiots, the intention of which he had an¬ 
nounced in the verses on his own death : 
“ To shew by one satiric touch. 
No nation wanted it so much.” 
He was buried in St. Patrick’s cathedral, under a monu¬ 
ment, for which he wrote a Latin epitaph ; one clause of 
which displays very forcibly the state of his own feelings; 
“ Ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit.” 
“As a writer, Swift was original, and probably will 
always remain unparalleled. In wit, he stands first in the walk 
of grave irony, maintained with such an air of serious sim¬ 
plicity, that it would deceive any reader not aware of his 
drift. He also abounds in ludicrous ideas of every kind, with 
which his poems are abundantly interspersed, but which too 
often deviate into offensive grossness. His style in verse 
is the most perfect example of easy familiarity that the 
language affords; and his readiness in rhyme is astonish¬ 
ing, the most uncommon associations of sounds coming as 
it were spontaneously, in words the best adapted to the 
occasion. That he was capable of high polish and ele¬ 
gance, some of his pieces sufficiently prove; but the humor¬ 
ous, familiar, and sarcastic, was his habitual taste.” 
SWIFT, a river of England, in Leicester and Warwick 
shires, which runs into the Avon, above Rugby. 
SWIFT, a river of the United States, in New Hampshire 
which runs east into the Saco, in Conway. 
SWIFT’S CREEK, a river of Virginia, which runs into 
the Appomatox. Lat. 37. 20. N. long. 77. 37. W. 
SWI'FTFOOT, adj. Nimble. 
Where now the valley greene, and mountaip bare. 
The river, forrest, wood, and crystall springs. 
The hauke, the hound, the hinde, the swift-foot hare ? 
Mir. for M ag 
SWIFTGATE, a river of England, in Gloucestershire, 
which runs into the Avon below Tewkesbury. 
SWl'FTHEELED, adj. Swiftfoot; rapid; quick. 
Vows are vain: no suppliant breath 
Stays the speed of swift-heel'd death. Habington 
SWI'FTLY, adv. [ppipc-lrce. Sax.] Fleetly; rapidly; 
nimbly; with celerity; with velocity. 
Pleas’d with the passage, we slide swiftly on, 
And see the dangers which we cannot shun. Dryden. 
SWI'FTNESS, s. [j-pipcnepre. Sax.] Speed; nimble¬ 
ness; rapidity; quickness; velocity; celerity. 
9 R Let 
