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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2014
Samuel Johnson's dislike of Jonathan Swift has provoked a continuing interest among scholars and critics. Commentators on the subject have described the attitude as an inherent prejudice and have questioned its possible causes. From James Boswell's repeated comments that Johnson apparently had an unaccountable prejudice against Swift and his pointed question to discover the source (“I once took the liberty to ask him, if Swift had personally offended him, and he told me, he had not”) to Walter Raleigh's facile summation that an essential difference in their characters separated them, speculation has been persistent, if not always rewarding. Perhaps the final statement of explanation is set forth in W. B. C. Watkins's essay, “Vive la bagatelle,” where Watkins maintains that though Johnson had “a residue of sheer, inexplicable prejudice” against Swift, much that appears prejudice can be made understandable. That understanding comes largely from Watkins's well-documented theory that Johnson and Swift were more alike than different: “Curiously, his antagonism is intensified by certain similarities between the two men in circumstance and personality.” Watkins's theory convincingly explains the source of a behavioral trait clearly revealed in Boswell's record of Johnson's conversation.
Yet the character of Johnson's biography of Swift has its own peculiar problem. Most of Johnson's attacks on Swift came at impromptu moments when conversation led Johnson to lash out hastily at the Dean. Boswell indicates that Johnson's behavior was habitual: “He attacked Swift, as he used to do upon all occasions.” Watkins explains this in part by referring to Johnson's belief that Swift was overpraised; thus Johnson voiced his irritation whenever excessive acclaim prompted a reply.
1. See especially Boswell, James, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, G. B. and Powell, L. F. (Oxford, 1934), II, 318Google Scholar; IV, 61.
2. Ibid., V, 44.
3. Raleigh, Walter, Six Essays on Johnson (Oxford, 1927), p. 29.Google Scholar
4. Watkins, W. B. C., “Vive la bagatelle,” Perilous Balance (Princeton, 1939), p. 31.Google Scholar
5. Boswell, , Life of Johnson, II, 318.Google Scholar
6. John Hawkesworth's account was published in 1755; Johnson's Life was probably written in 1780.
7. Boswell, , Life of Johnson, V, 238.Google Scholar
8. For an excellent brief discussion of Swift's eighteenth-century biographers, see Williams, Harold, “Swift's Early Biographers,” in Pope and His Contemporaries, ed. Clifford, James L. and Landa, Louis A. (Oxford, 1949)Google Scholar.
9. Johnson, Samuel, Life of Swift, in Lives of the English Poets, ed. Hill, G. B. (Oxford, 1905), III, 61–62Google Scholar.
10. Chapman, R. W. (ed.), The Letters of Samuel Johnson (Oxford, 1952), II, 390Google Scholar, Letter 696.
11. McAdam, E. L. Jr. (ed.), Samuel Johnson: Diaries, Prayers, and Annals [The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson] (New Haven, 1958), I, 301.Google Scholar
12. This assumption is based on verifiable evidence in Johnson's Life. Though Johnson was probably aware of other sources for the character of Swift, such as Mrs. Laetitia Pilkington's Memoirs, their influence was apparently negligible. Johnson's overt references to sources in the Life indicate his reliance on the few substantial biographers who had preceded him.
13. Boswell, , Life of Johnson, III, 249.Google Scholar
14. Ibid., V, 238.
15. See especially Johnson, , Life of Swift, in Lives of the English Poets, III, 41, 48-49, 56, 57, 60, 180.Google Scholar
16. Ibid., III, 1. It is possible, of course, that Johnson, after contributing to Hawkesworth's relatively positive view of Swift, chose to take a negative view merely to justify his own additional commentary. Yet I believe his point of view is more definitely related to his moral purpose than to historical expediency.
17. Ibid., III, 6.
18. Deane Swift's comment on Orrery's account of Swift's practice is illuminating: “But the account of his ‘using to lie in houses where he found written over the door lodgings for a penny’ … are only to be considered like many other sparks of rhetorick scattered here and there in the several pages of the Remarks, to give a lustre and a brilliancy to the caricature of Dr. Swift.” Swift, Deane, An Essay upon the Life, Writings, and Character, of Dr. Jonathan Swift (London, 1755), p. 101.Google Scholar
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22. Ibid.
23. Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 36.Google Scholar
24. See Delany, Patrick, Observations upon Lord Orrery's Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (London, 1754), esp. pp. 259–60Google Scholar. Delany remarks that by nature Swift was “turned to frugality, and good economy” which “inclined him to some degree of avarice,” but realizing his weakness, he combatted it by charity to the poor. Hawkesworth explains the same characteristic by stating that because Swift was naturally temperate and chaste, it was easy for him to be frugal, “but he was also naturally high-spirited.” Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 39.Google Scholar
25. Delany, , Observations, pp. 7–8Google Scholar.
26. Ibid., p. 203.
27. See Orrery, Lord, Remarks on the Life and Writings of Dr. Jonathan Swift (London, 1752), p. 4.Google Scholar
28. The reference is specifically to Swift's letters written to Dr. Sheridan. See Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 28.Google Scholar
29. Johnson, , Life of Swift, in Lives of the English Poets, III, 61.Google Scholar
30. Ibid.
31. Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 13.Google Scholar
32. Ibid., p. 14.
33. Orrery, , Remarks, p. 45.Google Scholar
34. Johnson, , Life of Swift, in Lives of the English Poets, III, 58.Google Scholar
35. Orrery, , Remarks, p. 22.Google Scholar
36. Johnson, , Life of Swift, in Lives of the English Poets, III, 41.Google Scholar
37. Ibid., III, 59-60.
38. Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 33.Google Scholar
39. Ibid., p. 32.
40. Orrery, , Remarks, p. 123.Google Scholar
41. Hawkesworth, , “An Account of the Life,” Works of Swift, p. 40.Google Scholar
42. Delany, , Observations, p. 288.Google Scholar
43. Orrery, , Remarks, p. 136.Google Scholar
43. Orrery, Remarks, p. 136.