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Thomas Gray (1716-1771), with his undying " Elegy " and his wonderful" Pindaric Odes." Then came a Scot named Macpherson, who stirred men's souls with what was really a good poem of his own but which he pretended to be a translation of the ancient Gaelic verse of "Ossian." Its popularity enraged Dr. Johnson, who was himself a stout adherent of Pope and who called it an impudent forgery. Forgery perhaps, poem surely, " Ossian " was succeeded by another work, likewise a forgery and a poem, the Rowley book of Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), who pretended that what he had himself written had lain for centuries in the archives of an old family. Bishop Percy, about the same time, published a book of real old English poetry under the title of "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry" and thus revealed to an astonished nation the fact that some good poetry had been written before Dryden's time. Though George Crabbe (1754-1832) and William Cowper (1731-1800) wrote in couplets, both showed the new influence, the former by his choice and accurate description of homely subjects, the latter both by example and by precept, for he complained that Pope had made poetry a mere mechanic art.

"And every warbler had his tune by heart."

Finally, in 1786, Robert Burns (1759-1798) went up from Mossgiel to Edinburgh; William Blake about the same time wrote his "Songs of Innocence"; in 1798 Wordsworth and Coleridge published their Lyrical Ballads "; and thus, while the French themselves were busy in getting rid of their kings, the French influence in English literature passed away. Perhaps the student will be able to feel what had happened if he will contrast four lines from Pope with four from Burns:

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is but always to be blest.

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come."

-Pope.

'Oh, my love's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;

Oh, my love's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune."

-Burns.

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George I..... 1715 Jacobite rebellion. 1716 Gray born.

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1721 Robertson born.

Smollett born.

1728 Percy born.

Goldsmith born. 1730 Burke born. 1731 Cowper born. 1737 Gibbon born. 1740 Boswell born. 1751 Sheridan born. 1752 Fanny Burney

born.
Chatterton
born.

1754 Crabbe born.
1759 Burns born.
1770 Wordsworth
born.

1771 Scott born.
1772 Coleridge born.
1775 Lamb born.

Jane Austen
born.

1783 W. Irving born.

1788 Byron born.

1712 "Specta-
tor."
1718 "Robin-
son Crusoe.'

1759 Gray's 1759. Elegy.

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I. Perhaps arbitrarily we mark the beginning of the eighteenth century as the beginning of a new era in English literature. When was it terminated and what great event marked its termination?

2. What were the especial aims of the typical writers of this century? 3. What new literary forms may we look for in the eighteenth century? 4. Name four eighteenth century novelists.

5. How did the historical writing of the eighteenth century differ from that which had preceded it?

6. Name several important biographical or autobiographical works written in this century.

7. For what was Lady Mary Wortley Montague famous?

8. You sometimes hear the phrase "Chesterfieldian manners." How did this phrase originate?

9. What is the character of Thomson's "Seasons"? Does it more thoroughly represent the point of view of the beginning or the end of the century?

10. Exclusive of being the author of “Robinson Crusoe,” what is Daniel Defoe's claim to fame?

Suggested Readings.—Edmund Gosse's "History of Eighteenth Century Literature" is an excellent work for collateral reading. Read "Robinson Crusoe" again.

CHAPTER XIX

JONATHAN SWIFT (1667–1745)

"An immense genius."-Thackeray.

"The most agreeable companion, the truest friend, and the greatest genius of his age."-Addison.

JONATHAN SWIFT, best known to the present generation as the author of "Gulliver's Travels," was born at 7 Hoey's Court, Dublin, November 30, 1667. Though his name is inseparably connected with Ireland and the Irish, he was thoroughly English in descent and character. His Yorkshire lineage is commemorated in the lines:

"Jonathan Swift Had the gift By fatherige,

Motherige, And by brotherige, To come from Gotheridge."

On his mother's side he was related to the Poet Herrick, and on his father's to John Dryden. Before he was three he could read any chapter in the Bible. At six he was sent to Kilkenny School, then the best in Ireland. In 1682 he was entered at Trinity College, Dublin. His college career, however, did not harmonize with the brilliant promise of his infancy. At Easter, 1685, we find him passing in Greek and Latin, but being plucked in philosophy and theology. However, through a special dispensation of the authorities he was given his bachelor's degree in 1686. The death of his father and the financial embarrassment of the uncle on whom he had chiefly depended at this time reduced Swift to poverty and deeply impressed upon his mind the misery of dependence.

Probably Swift had looked forward while at Trinity to a clerical career, but the Revolution of 1688 destroyed his hopes of preferment. At this crisis, Sir William Temple, whose wife was in some way related to Swift's mother, offered him a position as his private secretary at a salary of twenty pounds a year. Swift accepted and for the next eleven years, except for one short interval, made his home at Temple's estate of Moor Park, near Farnham, in Surrey. Temple in his day had been a distinguished statesman and though now retired still retained considerable influence. In later years, Swift was in the

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habit of complaining bitterly of the menial relationship in which he stood to his employer. It is altogether probable that the raw Irish student, whose views regarding the distribution of functions between knives and forks were lamentably unsettled, did and said things

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which were highly distasteful to the distinguished diplomat of 60, who had been intimate with the last two kings and was still the confidential friend of the reigning monarch. Their relations indeed became so strained that in 1695 Swift actually left Temple, went to

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