1 July, however, Swift had written a warm acknowledgment of gratitude to Oxford, whose resignation he anticipated. On 25 July, hearing that it was coming, he had written offering to accompany Oxford in his retreat. On 1 Aug. he tells Miss Vanhomrigh that he could not join with Bolingbroke; Oxford had accepted his offer in the ‘most moving terms imaginable.’ Swift could not refuse the fallen minister who, when in power, had been so good to him. Although condemning Oxford as a minister, he could not desert the friend. The queen's death ruined both ministers; and Swift on 16 Aug. left Berkshire for Ireland.
Swift retired to what he always regarded as a place of exile in sullen despondency. In verses written in sickness he laments his solitude, and says that life is becoming a burden. He is living alone, he tells Pope next year (28 June 1715), in ‘the corner of a vast unfurnished house.’ Could he be easy, he asks, while his friends Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Ormonde were in danger of losing their heads? He wrote another affectionate letter to Oxford upon his impeachment (19 July 1715). Next year he bitterly resented a suggestion from King that Bolingbroke might be able to tell an ‘ill story’ of him (16 Dec. 1716). He declares his innocence of any plots in favour of the Pretender. King's suspicions had been stimulated by letters addressed to Swift and seized in the post office, but they were clearly groundless (see Craik, p. 306). Swift's chief amusement seems to have been in petty quarrels with the archbishop and his choir.
To this period has been assigned his alleged marriage to Esther Johnson. The journal addressed to her during her stay in London, full of caresses so playful and intimate that to read them even now seems a breach of confidence, clearly suggests intention of marriage. He ostensibly joins her with Mrs. Dingley as ‘M.D.,’ but when he says (23 May 1711) that ‘M.D.'s felicity is the great goal I aim at in all my pursuits,’ there could be only one interpretation. In the journal Swift frequently mentions a Mrs. Vanhomrigh, with whom he often dined, and at whose lodgings he kept his ‘best gown and periwig’ when he was at Chelsea. Mrs. Vanhomrigh was the widow of a Dutch merchant who had followed William III to Ireland and obtained places of profit. He died in 1703, leaving about 16,000l. and four children. One son died early, and the other behaved ill (Orrery, p. 103; Deane Swift, pp. 257–262). In 1708 Mrs. Vanhomrigh, with her two daughters, Esther (born 14 Feb. 1689–1690; see Journal, 14 Feb. 1710–11, 14 Aug. 1711) and Mary, was living in London, where Swift met them in that year. The journal rarely mentions Esther, and the silence may be significant. An intimacy sprang up between her and Swift, which is described in his remarkable poem, ‘Cadenus and Vanessa,’ written at Windsor in 1713 (revised in 1719), but not then published. Swift's behaviour to women was always a mixture of tyrannising and petting. He often refers in later years to an ‘edict’ which he issued annually in London commanding all ladies to make the first advances. In 1709 he drew up a treaty setting forth the terms on which a beautiful Miss Long was to claim his acquaintance. ‘Hessy’ Vanhomrigh undertakes not to abet her in her ‘contumacy.’ He showed genuine kindness to Miss Long, who died in sad circumstances, to his great sorrow, in 1711 (Journal, 25 Dec. 1711). Miss Vanhomrigh became his devoted slave. The ‘Cadenus and Vanessa’ states that he at first regarded her as a master might regard a promising pupil. She startled him after a time by confessing that love had taken the place of admiration in her heart. He tried to persuade her to suppress her passion, but offered as much friendship as she pleased. She replied that she would now become his tutor; but the result of her instructions remained a secret. Swift wrote to her from Dublin in 1713, and from Letcombe in 1714, in terms implying close confidence, though expressing no special affection. Her mother died in the summer of 1714. Vanessa seems to have surprised Swift by an indiscreet visit at Letcombe soon afterwards. She was intending to return to Ireland with her sister, and he warns her that if she comes he will see her very seldom. She was in Dublin, however, in November 1714, and complains piteously of the restrictions upon their intercourse, of his ‘killing words,’ and the ‘awful’ look which ‘strikes her dumb.’ She settled at Marlay Abbey, near Celbridge, on the Liffey, where her sister died in 1720. The correspondence, which is fragmentary, shows that she wrote to him in terms of passionate adoration. He makes excuses for not seeing her oftener; he advises her (5 July 1721) to ‘quit this scoundrel island,’ and yet he assures her in the same breath ‘que jamais personne du monde a été aimée, honorée, estimée, adorée par votre ami que vous.’ In other passages he recalls old associations and uses fondling terms, while he yet seems to reproach her for yielding to morbid sentiment. It is also said that he favoured the proposals of marriage to her from another person (Deane Swift, p. 263). How far he was ‘in love’ with her is a matter of doubtful inference. The stronger his
