A Portrait of a Satirist as an Old Man: Jonathan Swift’s Apologia for Satire in Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to propose that Swift’s Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift is neither straightforward self-irony, nor downright self-eulogy, nor the vindication of La Rochefoucauld’s maxim that all mankind are selfish including the case of the “impartial speaker,” but a very complicated defence of Swift as a satirist through myth-making. In so doing, this paper first argues that, through the discussion of “An Epistle upon an Epistle” and “A Libel on Dr. Delany,” poems written just before the composition of the Verses, there does exist Swift’s desire to present himself as a positive norm against the venal world he perceives in a straightforward way. Then, this paper insists that this poem cannot be a simple vindication of La Rochefoucauld’s maxim in the case of Swift or the “impartial speaker.” Even though there are some instances of half-truth and untruth in the vindication of Swift, this paper insists, there are too many attestation to Swift’s ideal aspects as a satirist in this poem to understand this poem as Swift’s wry self-irony or the testimony of universal selfishness including the case of the “impartial speaker.” La Rochefoucauld’s maxim, this paper suggests, is rather a pretense to prompt the vindication of Swift as a satirist. As there is Swift’s fear that he and his integrity as a satirist will be forgotten in a short time in a world hostile or indifferent to his efforts as a satirist, of which dire example is the scene in Lintot’s bookshop at the end of the first part, this paper argues that half-truth and even untruth mixed with the truth about the life of Swift in this poem should be understood as Swift’s desperate attempt to make a myth of him that will make him remembered into the posterity. Yet, this paper concludes that this myth-making is so tinged with self-doubt as to make this poem not a confident apologia for satire but a sad portrait of a satirist as an old man made in the twilight of his career.