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The Pattern of Swift's Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Irvin Ehrenpreis
Irvin Ehrenpreis*
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
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Extract

Although Middleton Murry, Swift's latest biographer, treats his subject with grateful sympathy and respect, he has, like every other writer on the problem, ignored the amazing consistency which framed Swift's relations with women. Yet the pattern need only be pointed out to be perceived, for it is recurrent, unusual (if not unique), and extraordinarily illuminating. Naturally enough, it is a pattern which originates in the author's childhood.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 70 , Issue 4-Part-1 , September 1955 , pp. 706 - 716
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1955

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References

Note 1 in page 706 Since I have relied almost entirely on standard authorities, the normal apparatus of documentation seems unnecessary. Two of my statements of fact are not generally known: that Varina was a first-born child, and that Stella moved to Dublin after her younger sister was married. Varina's family is described in H. B. Swanzey, Succession Lists of the Diocese of Dromore (Belfast, 1933), pp. 42–13; the marriage of Stella's sister is mentioned as a very recent event in a letter by Lady Giffard dated 14 July [1700] (?'. M. MS. Eg. 1705, f. 25—a sentence omitted from the published text). Mrs. Letitia Pilkington is quoted from her Memoirs (New York, 1928), p. 57. Swift's letters to Varina or about her are quoted from his Correspondence, ed. F. Elrington Ball (London, 1910–14), i 18, 19, 30, 34–35, 20. The Vanessa material comes from Vanessa and Jonathan Swift, ed. A. Martin Freeman (London, 1921). All anecdotes or remarks concerning Stella—whether quoted in Swift's words or summarized—are from “On the Death of Mrs. Johnson” and “Three Prayers for Stella,” as edited by John Hayward in his Nonesuch Swift (London, 1934), pp. 725–738. The verses on Vanessa are quoted from Sir Harold Williams' ed. of Swift's Poems (Oxford, 1937), ii 693; those on Stella, from the same source, p. 726. Gulliver's Travels is quoted from the ed. by Sir Harold Williams (London, 1926), pp. 191, 124–125. Swift's remark on his mother's death was first published in John Nichols' ed. of his Works (London, 1808), x, 105. I must thank Mr. Mark Spilka, of the University of Michigan, for greatly improving the style of this paper.