Dunces") began originally as a
controversy concerning Shakespeare, but turned out to be a coarse and
revengeful satire upon all the literary men of the age who had aroused
Pope's anger by their criticism or lack of appreciation of his genius.
Though brilliantly written and immensely popular at one time, its present
effect on the reader is to arouse a sense of pity that a man of such
acknowledged power and position should abuse both by devoting his talents
to personal spite and petty quarrels. Among the rest of his numerous works
the reader will find Pope's estimate of himself best set forth in his
"Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," and it will be well to close our study of this
strange mixture of vanity and greatness with "The Universal Prayer," which
shows at least that Pope had considered, and judged himself, and that all
further judgment is consequently superfluous.

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)

In each of Marlowe's tragedies we have the picture of a man dominated by a
single passion, the lust of power for its own sake. In each we see that a
powerful man without self-control is like a dangerous instrument in the
hands of a child; and the tragedy ends in the destruction of the man by the
ungoverned power which he possesses. The life of Swift is just such a
living tragedy. He had the power of gaining wealth, like the hero of the
_Jew of Malta_; yet he used it scornfully, and in sad irony left what
remained to him of a large property to found a hospital for lunatics. By
hard work he won enormous literary power, and used it to satirize our
common humanity. He wrested political power from the hands of the Tories,
and used it to insult the very men who had helped him, and who held his
fate in their hands. By his dominant personality he exercised a curious
power over women, and used it brutally to make them feel their inferiority.
Being loved supremely by two good women, he brought sorrow and death to
both, and endless misery to himself. So his power brought always tragedy in
its wake. It is only when we remember his life of struggle and
disappointment and bitterness that we can appreciate the personal quality
in his satire, and perhaps find some sympathy for this greatest genius of
all the Augustan writers.

LIFE. Swift was born in Dublin, of English parents, in 1667. His father
died before he was born; his mother was poor, and Swift, though proud as
Lucifer, was compelled to accept aid from relatives, who gave it
grudgingly.