Author: Leslie Stephen
File Type: pdf
span Apple-style-span DejaVu Sans Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) came from a distinguished family of politicians, jurists and writers, and was the father of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. His literary career began with writing about his great passion, the Alps, and he became a noted author and critic, and the first editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. He was a friend of John Morley (1838-1923), the general editor of English Men of Letters, who commissioned him to write three biographies for the first series, on Swift, Pope and Johnson. Stephen is very interested in the family connections and history of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the great satirist and moralist, and he blends direct sources with general conclusions in an informal style which makes the work (first published in 1882) of continuing interest today. Stephens Sketches from Cambridge, published anonymously in 1865, is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.Book DescriptionPart history, part literary critique, Sir Leslie Stephens 1882 biography examines the significant people and places of Swifts life together with his works. Attending to the forces that shaped one of Irelands greatest authors, Stephen investigates his subjects family and connections as he blends facts with general reflections.spanThis historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt ...things as memoranda, to do for him. He turned to the fire, and took out his gold watch, and telling him the time of day, complained it was very late. A gentleman said, it was too fast. How can I help it, says the Doctor, if the courtiers give me a watch that wont go right? Then he instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in England was Mr. Pope (a Papist), who had begun a translation of Homer into English verse, for which, he said, he must have them all subscribe. For, says he, the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him. Lord Treasurer, after leaving the Queen, came through the room, beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him both went off just before prayers. There is undoubtedly something offensive in this blustering self-assertion. No man, says Johnson, with his usual force, can pay a more servile tribute to the great than by suffering his liberty in their presence to aggrandize him in his own esteem. Delicacy was not Swifts strong point his compliments are as clumsy as his invectives are forcible and he shows a certain taint of vulgarity in his intercourse with social dignitaries. He is perhaps avenging himself for the humiliations received at Moor Park. He has a Napoleonic absence of magnanimity. He likes to relish his triumph to accept the pettiest as well as the greatest rewards to flaunt his splendours in the eyes of the servile as well as to enjoy the consciousness of real power. But it would be a great mistake to infer that this ostentatiousness of authority concealed real servility. Swift preferred to take the bull by the horns. He forced himself upon ministers by selfassertion and he held them in awe of him as the liontamer keeps down the late...