Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Content
- List of Illustrations
- General Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Upon Giving Badges to the Poor
- Considerations About Maintaining the Poor
- A Short View of the State of Ireland
- An Answer to a Paper, Called A Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland
- The Intelligencer
- Intelligencer, No. 1
- Intelligencer, No. 3
- Intelligencer, No. 5
- Intelligencer, No. 7
- Intelligencer, No. 9
- Intelligencer, No. 19
- A Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, Concerning the Weavers
- An Answer to Several Letters from Unknown Persons
- An Answer to Several Letters Sent Me From Unknown Hands
- A Letter on M’culla’s Project About Halfpence, and a New One Proposed
- A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or Country; and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick
- A Proposal That All the Ladies and Women of Ireland Should Appear Constantly in Irish Manufactures
- Maxims Controlled In Ireland
- Advertisement by Dr Swift, in His Defence Against Joshua, Lord Allen
- The Substance of What Was Said by the Dean of St Patrick’s to the Lord Mayor and Some of the Aldermen, When His Lordship Came to Present the Said Dean With His Freedom in a Gold-Box
- A Vindication of His Excellency the Lord Carteret, From the Charge Of Favouring None but Toryes, High-Churchmen and Jacobites
- The Answer to the Craftsman
- A Proposal for an Act of Parliament, to Pay Off the Debt of the Nation, Without Taxing the Subject
- An Examination of Certain Abuses, Corruptions, and Enormities in the City of Dublin
- The Humble Petition of the Footmen in and About the City of Dublin
- Some Considerations Humbly Offered to the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and Common Council of the Honourable City of Dublin, in the Choice of a Recorder
- Prefatory Letter to Mary Barber, Poems on Several Occasions
- Advice to the Free-Men of the City of Dublin in the Choice of a Member to Represent Them in Parliament
- Observations Occasioned by Reading a Paper, Entitled, The Case of the Woollen Manufacturers of Dublin, &c.
- A Letter on the Fishery
- The Rev. Dean Swift’s Reasons Against Lowering the Gold and Silver Coin
- A Proposal for Giving Badges to the Beggars in all the Parishes of Dublin
- Associated Materials
- Appendices
- General Textual Introduction and Textual Accounts of Individual Works
- Bibliography
- Index
Prefatory Letter to Mary Barber, Poems on Several Occasions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2021
- Frontmatter
- Content
- List of Illustrations
- General Editors’ Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Upon Giving Badges to the Poor
- Considerations About Maintaining the Poor
- A Short View of the State of Ireland
- An Answer to a Paper, Called A Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland
- The Intelligencer
- Intelligencer, No. 1
- Intelligencer, No. 3
- Intelligencer, No. 5
- Intelligencer, No. 7
- Intelligencer, No. 9
- Intelligencer, No. 19
- A Letter to the Archbishop of Dublin, Concerning the Weavers
- An Answer to Several Letters from Unknown Persons
- An Answer to Several Letters Sent Me From Unknown Hands
- A Letter on M’culla’s Project About Halfpence, and a New One Proposed
- A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People From Being a Burthen to Their Parents, or Country; and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick
- A Proposal That All the Ladies and Women of Ireland Should Appear Constantly in Irish Manufactures
- Maxims Controlled In Ireland
- Advertisement by Dr Swift, in His Defence Against Joshua, Lord Allen
- The Substance of What Was Said by the Dean of St Patrick’s to the Lord Mayor and Some of the Aldermen, When His Lordship Came to Present the Said Dean With His Freedom in a Gold-Box
- A Vindication of His Excellency the Lord Carteret, From the Charge Of Favouring None but Toryes, High-Churchmen and Jacobites
- The Answer to the Craftsman
- A Proposal for an Act of Parliament, to Pay Off the Debt of the Nation, Without Taxing the Subject
- An Examination of Certain Abuses, Corruptions, and Enormities in the City of Dublin
- The Humble Petition of the Footmen in and About the City of Dublin
- Some Considerations Humbly Offered to the Right Honourable the Lord-Mayor, the Court of Aldermen, and Common Council of the Honourable City of Dublin, in the Choice of a Recorder
- Prefatory Letter to Mary Barber, Poems on Several Occasions
- Advice to the Free-Men of the City of Dublin in the Choice of a Member to Represent Them in Parliament
- Observations Occasioned by Reading a Paper, Entitled, The Case of the Woollen Manufacturers of Dublin, &c.
- A Letter on the Fishery
- The Rev. Dean Swift’s Reasons Against Lowering the Gold and Silver Coin
- A Proposal for Giving Badges to the Beggars in all the Parishes of Dublin
- Associated Materials
- Appendices
- General Textual Introduction and Textual Accounts of Individual Works
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Headnote
Probably composed 1734; published 1734 (advertised from October 1733); copy text 1734 (see Textual Account).
The Irish poetMary Barber is mentioned frequently in Swift's correspondence in the early 1730s: he attempted to help her gain patronage, gave her contacts, letters of introduction and potential subscribers in England, and generally encouraged her work (seeWoolley, Corr., vol. III, p. 278; Ehrenpreis, vol. III, p. 759), above all in this letter to the Earl of Orrery. This formed the preface to her Poems on Several Occasions, which appeared in 1734, printed by Samuel Richardson.The volume was reprinted in 1735 and 1736, and Barber's poetry had some currency in the century, being anthologised in Poems by Eminent Ladies, London, 1755, and elsewhere.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN, EARL OF ORRERY.
My LORD,
I Lately receiv’d a Letter fromMrs. Barber; wherein she desires my Opinion about dedicating her Poems to your Lordship; and seems in Pain to know how far she may be allow’d to draw your Character, which is a Right claim’d by all Dedicators. And she thinks this the more incumbent on her, from the surprizing Instances of your Generosity and Favour that she hath already receiv’d, and which she hath been so unfashionable to publish where-ever she goes. This makes her apprehend, that all she can say to your Lordship's Advantage, will be interpreted as the mere Effect of Flattery, under the Style and Title of Gratitude.
I sent her Word, that I could be of no Service to her upon this Article: Yet I confess, my Lord, that all those who are thoroughly acquainted with her, will impute her Encomiums to a sincere, but overflowing Spirit of Thankfulness, as well as to the humble Opinion she hath of herself. Altho’ the World in general may possibly continue in its usual Sentiments, and list her in the common Herd of Dedicators.
Therefore, upon the most mature Deliberation, I concluded that the Office of setting out your Lordship's Character, will not come properly from her Pen, for her own Reasons: I mean the great Favours you have already conferr’d on her. And God forbid, that your Character should not have a much stronger Support.
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- Irish Political Writings after 1725A Modest Proposal and Other Works, pp. 274 - 278Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018