W.D. Clarke’s Reviews > Jonathan Swift: The Major Works (Oxford Authors > Status Update
W.D. Clarke
is on page 41 of 722
Swift's (sometimes, not always appealing) jaundice in a nutshell:
That those abuses and corruptions which in time destroy a government, are sown along with the very seeds of it, and both grow up together; and that as rust eats away iron, and worms devour wood, and both are a sort of plagues born and bred along with the substance they destroy; so with every form and scheme of government that...
— Jun 29, 2020 02:58PM
That those abuses and corruptions which in time destroy a government, are sown along with the very seeds of it, and both grow up together; and that as rust eats away iron, and worms devour wood, and both are a sort of plagues born and bred along with the substance they destroy; so with every form and scheme of government that...
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W.D.’s Previous Updates
W.D. Clarke
is on page 481 of 722
Swift's final birthday poem to Stella (Mar 13, 1727) is heartbreaking.
Me, surely me, you ought to spare,
Who gladly would your suff'rings share;
Or give my scrap of life to you,
And think it far beneath your due;
You, to whose care so oft I owe
That I'm alive to tell you so.
— Dec 28, 2020 01:30PM
Me, surely me, you ought to spare,
Who gladly would your suff'rings share;
Or give my scrap of life to you,
And think it far beneath your due;
You, to whose care so oft I owe
That I'm alive to tell you so.
W.D. Clarke
is on page 380 of 722
note p380:
... only twelve sermons ascribed to [Swift] are known... [including] a sermon on sermons, now known as Sleeping in Church.
— Dec 27, 2020 09:09AM
... only twelve sermons ascribed to [Swift] are known... [including] a sermon on sermons, now known as Sleeping in Church.
W.D. Clarke
is on page 236 of 722
Generally speaking, the times which afford most plentiful matter for story are those wherein a man would least choose to live...
— Aug 15, 2020 03:32AM
W.D. Clarke
is on page 231 of 722
Hmm. Bit of a non sequitur:
... he goes down in a rage, shoots his wife through the head, then falls on his sword; and, to make the matter sure, at the same time discharges a pistol through his own head, and died on the spot, his wife surviving him about two hours, but in what circumstances of mind and body is terrible to imagine. I have finished my poem on the Shower, all but the beginning, and...
— Jul 06, 2020 02:33PM
... he goes down in a rage, shoots his wife through the head, then falls on his sword; and, to make the matter sure, at the same time discharges a pistol through his own head, and died on the spot, his wife surviving him about two hours, but in what circumstances of mind and body is terrible to imagine. I have finished my poem on the Shower, all but the beginning, and...
W.D. Clarke
is on page 230 of 722
n. p230: ("Journal to Stella Letter VI")
Swift employs a private code, ourrichar gangridge ('our little language') based on abbreviations and the childish pronunciation of newly learned words. 'When I am writing in our language, I make up my mouth just as if I was speaking it.' The chief abbreviations are 'MD' for 'my dear(s)', 'Ppt' for 'poppet' or perhaps 'poor pretty thing', ..., 'Pdfr for [cont'd]
— Jul 04, 2020 08:28AM
Swift employs a private code, ourrichar gangridge ('our little language') based on abbreviations and the childish pronunciation of newly learned words. 'When I am writing in our language, I make up my mouth just as if I was speaking it.' The chief abbreviations are 'MD' for 'my dear(s)', 'Ppt' for 'poppet' or perhaps 'poor pretty thing', ..., 'Pdfr for [cont'd]
W.D. Clarke
is on page 204 of 722
From The Bickerstaff Papersa (or perhaps the) recipe for satire:
... he will succeed... as long as he can preserve a thorough contempt for his own time, and other people's understandings, and is resolved not to laugh cheaper than at the expense of a million people.
— Jul 03, 2020 02:31PM
... he will succeed... as long as he can preserve a thorough contempt for his own time, and other people's understandings, and is resolved not to laugh cheaper than at the expense of a million people.
W.D. Clarke
is on page 24 of 722
'Tis agreed, that in all government there is an absolute unlimited power, which naturally and originally seems to be placed in the whole body, wherever the executive part of it lies.
In the rump [party], then.
— Jun 28, 2020 12:57PM
In the rump [party], then.
W.D. Clarke
is on page 183 of 722
When I am reading a book, whether wise or silly, it seems to be alive and talking to me. (Apothegms and Maxims 148)
— Jun 16, 2020 11:02AM
W.D. Clarke
is on page 180 of 722
(Not a speed-reader by any means: feel entitled, tho, to be skipping ahead past what I already read last year in another edition—The Battel of the Books and Tale of a Tub, etc.)
— Jun 16, 2020 10:45AM
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Cool quotes! I love Swift. I find him very difficult to read, but he rewards the effort when I try. - )
Mark wrote: "Cool quotes! I love Swift. I find him very difficult to read, but he rewards the effort when I try. - )"He can be VERY difficult indeed, Mark! I wanted to blow my brains out over Tale of the Tub/Battle of the Books, but Gulliver is pretty easy. This satire I can only do 10 pages max at a sitting! And I generally like but sometimes despair over his misanthropy :P
—A Discourse of the Contests and Dissentions Between the Nobles and the Commons In Athens and Rome, with the Consequences They Had Upon Both Those States (1701).