Jonathan's biography

1. St Xavier’s College Mahuadanr
SEM – IV Core – 8
Unit - 3
Gulliver’s Travels books 1 and 2
by Jonathan Swift
Introduction about the author
Anglo-Irish author, clergyman and satirist Jonathan Swift was born on Nov. 30, 1667 in
Dublin, Ireland, of English parents. His father died before he was born; his mother was poor and
though Swift was very proud was compelled to accept help from his relatives. He seems to be
very miserable both at his school at Kilkeny and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1686 at the age of
19 left Trinity College in disgrace and entered the household office of his kinsman; the famous Sir
William Temple under whose encouragement he took Holy Orders in Anglican Church and on the
death of Temple in 1699 obtained other secretarial and ecclesiastical appointments.
In Ireland faithful to his Church duties he labored to better the conditions of the unhappy
people around him. Never before had the poor of his parishes being so well cared for. But Swift
chafed under the yoke, growing more and more irritated as he saw small men advanced to larger
positions while he remained unnoticed in a little country Church. Largely because he was too
proud and too blunt with those who might have advanced him.
He might have become Bishop but it is said that Queen Anne objected it on doubts about
his orthodoxy and in the wreck (fall) of the Tory party in 1715, and all he could save was the
deanery of Saint Patrick’s in Dublin which he had received in 1713.
An embittered (resentful) man, he spent the last 30 years of his life in gloom, and largely in
retirement. His last years were passed in Silence and at the very end lunacy (mental illnesses).
Swift suffered a Stroke in 1742, and he was unable to speak. He died 3 years later on
October 19th
1745 and was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.