the medals which the queen never remembered to give. He hopes for death. ‘Good night; I hope I shall never see you again,’ was his habitual leave-taking to one of his friends (Deane Swift, p. 217). On the anniversary of his birthday he had long been in the habit of shutting himself up and reading the third chapter of Job. He declares that he is tired of company, sees only his inferiors, and kills time with writing nonsense (to Pope, 6 March; Bolingbroke, 21 March 1728–9). The merest trifles he ever wrote are ‘serious philosophical lucubrations’ in comparison with his ‘present employments’ (to Gay, 28 Aug. 1731). Carteret, till he ceased to be lord lieutenant in 1730, remained upon very friendly terms with Swift, who recommended various friends for preferment, and wrote a humorous defence of Carteret's supposed patronage of tories. He was a bitter enemy of Boulter, the virtual ruler of Ireland, and attacked the Irish bishops too fiercely to be on pleasant terms. His habitual tone is indicated by an earlier letter, in which he tells the bishop of Meath (22 May 1719) to remember that he was speaking to a clergyman, and not to a footman. He governed his chapter vigorously and judiciously, performing the services impressively, and refusing to grant leases upon terms which would benefit him at the expense of the permanent revenue (DELANY, pp. 40, 208). He insisted upon the repair of monuments, especially of one to the Duke of Schomberg. When the duke's relations refused help, he set up a monument at the expense of the cathedral. A bitter inscription reflecting upon their neglect offended the courts of England and Prussia (an unpublished letter is quoted in Craik, p. 445, with a characteristic reference to this).
Swift's alienation from the official society of Dublin did not prevent him from attracting friends among those who were willing to submit to his masterful ways. Delany (pp. 90–7), in answer to Orrery's not unfounded complaint of Swift's taste for inferior company, gives a list of his chief friends. Chief among them were the family of Grattans, who, as he told Carteret, could ‘raise 10,000 men;’ Thomas Sheridan (1684–1738) [q. v.], Richard Helsham [q. v.], a physician, and Delany himself [see Delany, Patrick]. Mrs. Pendarves (afterwards Mary Delany [q. v.]) was one of his chief female friends. Soon after the death of Stella, Swift spent eight months with Sir Arthur Acheson at Market Hill. During Stella's life he had two public days for receiving his friends (D. Swift, p. 180) when the two ladies acted as unofficial hostesses. After Stella's death the circle gradually narrowed. The ‘meanest’ of Swift's friends, according to Delany (p. 90), was John Worrall, vicar of St. Patrick's, who often did business for him. Swift dined regularly at Worrall's house, bringing his friends and paying the expense. (Deane Swift, pp. 293, &c., gives a long and hostile account of Worrall). His closest intimate was Sheridan, whom he warmly patronised, abused, ridiculed, and bullied. Sheridan bore Swift's whims with unfailing good temper, till his unlucky forgetfulness of the famous passage in ‘Gil Blas’ led to a final breach between the two old friends, shortly before Sheridan's death in 1738. Swift still received his friends upon Sunday afternoons; but his temper became morose, and his love of saving increased till he grudged a bottle of wine to his friends. An obstinate refusal to wear spectacles weakened his eyes, and he filled his time by excessive exercise, in spite of his physicians (Delany, pp. 144–6). He found some distraction, however, in literary employments of various kinds. He took up two works, both begun, as he tells Pope (12 June 1731; see also to Gay, 28 Aug. 1731), about 1703—the ‘Polite Conversation,’ of which he made a present to Mary Barber [q. v.] in 1737, and the ‘Directions to Servants,’ not published till after his death. Both of them are singularly characteristic of keen powers of satirical observation employed upon trivial purposes. Two or three of his most characteristic poems are of the same dates; especially the verses on his own death (to Gay 1 Dec. 1731), the ‘Rhapsody on Poetry’ (1733), and probably the verses upon the ‘Day of Judgment,’ sent by Chesterfield to Voltaire (27 Aug. 1752) from an original manuscript of the author (published in Chesterfield's ‘Letters’). These poems give the very essence of Swift. Other works show him killing time by trifling. At Market Hill he carried on a commerce of ‘libels’ with his hostess, written in good humour, though misrepresented by scandal (see his curious letter to Dr. Jeremy, 8 June 1732). The ‘Grand Question Debated’ shows his old humour. Other performances, such as the laborious riddles and plays upon words in which Sheridan was his accomplice, are painful illustrations of his maxim Vive la bagatelle. Two or three performances, which appear to have been surreptitiously printed about this time, show the morbid dwelling upon filth which was unfortunately characteristic. Delany (pp. 75, 175) remarks that Swift was remarkable for scrupulous cleanliness, and moreover (though allowance must certainly be made for the manners of the time) particularly delicate in conversation.
