The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature by Rebecca Lemon & Emma Mason & Jonathan Roberts & Christopher Rowland

Author:Rebecca Lemon & Emma Mason & Jonathan Roberts & Christopher Rowland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

Jonathan Swift

Michael F. Suarez, S.J.

Writing to the Duke of Dorset to ask a favor for a fellow clergyman in financial distress, Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Paul’s, Dublin, employed an unusual form of the humility topos: “My Lord; I will as a Divine, quote Scripture. Although the Childrens meat must not be given to Dogs; yet the Dogs eat the Scraps that fall from the Childrens tables” (December 30, 1735, Swift, 1965, 4:450; Matthew 15:26–7; Mark 7:27–8). Lest he seem preachy or pompous, Swift justifies his adducing the gospel passage by virtue of his profession. Yet, the text Swift employs in his suit for the Duke’s charity places Dorset in the position of Christ who grants a petitioner’s request – and situates Swift in the place of the importunate foreign woman rewarded for her great faith in Jesus’ generous goodness and his ability to effect the remedy she seeks (Matthew 15:22–8; Mark 7:25–30). The correspondence between Swift and the woman is further strengthened by the fact that neither asks a boon for himself or herself, but on behalf of another in dire need. By means of these identifications, then, the Dean creates a quasi-typological parallel that would make it hard for the Duke to say no. Thus, Swift evinces a high degree of scriptural wit, a knowing gift for adducing the biblical text that will produce the desired effect.

As a divine, satirist, poet, and correspondent, Swift routinely quotes Scripture. A recent catalogue of Swift’s own library lists twenty-one different texts under “Bibles,” indicating how central the Bible was to Swift’s own understanding and sensibilities (Passmann and Vienken, 2003). Although the Bible repeatedly appears in Swift’s writings, it has rarely been studied as an essential element of his rhetorical strategies or his habits of mind. The sole monograph devoted to the subject, Swift’s Use of the Bible (1965) by Charles Allen Beaumont, has been deservedly neglected by scholars of Swift and of the Bible’s reception alike. This chapter, part of a larger work on Swift and Scripture, attempts to offer some small redress for the surprising paucity of scholarly attention devoted to Swift’s uses of the sacred page.

There are four basic uses of the Bible in Swift’s writing: the homiletic, chiefly but not exclusively found in his sermons; the proverbial, when he adduces biblical texts as ordinary proverbs more than theological teaching; the jocular, using the biblical text or allusion to make a joke, but not of any satirical consequence; and, finally, the mock biblical, employing the Bible (and, often, invoking its normative status) for satirical purposes. Swift’s mock biblical satire can typically be divided into two kinds. The first is the quick thrust, in which the obvious meaning and incongruity of the verse itself makes its satirical point. The second type of mock biblical is a more intricate and intriguing use in which the text Swift adduces must be understood in its larger context if we are to attend to its full resonance in a new context. In the

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