Editing Jonathan Swift (section)

====Final years====
[[File:Jonathan Swift by Rupert Barber, 1745, National Portrait Gallery, London.JPG|thumb|upright|Jonathan Swift (shown without wig) by Rupert Barber, 1745, [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]]]
Before the fall of the Tory government, Swift had hoped that his services would be rewarded with a church appointment in England. However, Queen Anne appeared to have taken a dislike to Swift and thwarted these efforts. Her dislike has been attributed to ''A Tale of a Tub'', which she thought blasphemous, compounded by ''The Windsor Prophecy'', where Swift, with a surprising lack of tact, advised the Queen on which of her bedchamber ladies she should and should not trust.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gregg |first=Edward |title=Queen Anne |publisher=Yale University Press |date=1980 |pages= 352–353}}</ref> The best position his friends could secure for him was the [[Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin|Deanery of St Patrick's]];<ref>"Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae: The succession of the prelates Volume 2" [[Henry Cotton (divine)|Cotton, H.]] pp. 104–105: Dublin, Hodges & Smith, 1848–1878.</ref> while this appointment was not in the Queen's gift, Anne, who could be a bitter enemy, made it clear that Swift would not have received the preferment if she could have prevented it.<ref>Gregg (1980), p. 353.</ref> With the return of the Whigs, Swift's best move was to leave England, and he returned to Ireland in disappointment, a virtual exile, to live "like a rat in a hole".<ref>Stephen ''DNB'', p. 215.</ref>

[[File:Brass plate listing deans of Saint Patrick's Cathedral.jpg|thumb|right|List of deans of [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin|Saint Patrick's Cathedral]], including Jonathan Swift]]

Once in Ireland, however, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works: ''Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture'' (1720), ''[[Drapier's Letters]]'' (1724), and ''A Modest Proposal'' (1729), earned him the status of an Irish patriot.<ref>Stephen ''DNB'', pp. 217–218.</ref> This new role was unwelcome to the Government, which made clumsy attempts to silence him. His printer, Edward Waters, was convicted of [[seditious libel]] in 1720, but four years later a [[grand jury]] refused to find that the ''Drapier's Letters'', which though written under a pseudonym were universally known to be Swift's work, were seditious.<ref>Sir [[Walter Scott]]. ''Life of Jonathan Swift'', vol. 1, Edinburgh 1814, pp. 281–282.</ref> Swift responded with an attack on the Irish judiciary almost unparalleled in its ferocity, his principal target being the "vile and profligate villain" [[William Whitshed]], [[Lord Chief Justice of Ireland]].<ref>[[F. Elrington Ball|Ball, F. Elrington]] (1926). ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'', London: John Murray, vol. 2 pp. 103–105.</ref>

Also during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships'', better known as ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode in which the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories' illegal peace treaty, a treaty he regarded as a good thing accomplished in an unfortunate manner. In 1726 he paid a long-deferred visit to London,<ref name=LS219>Stephen ''DNB'', p. 219.</ref> taking with him the manuscript of ''Gulliver's Travels''. During his visit, he stayed with his old friends Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot and John Gay, who helped him arrange for the anonymous publication of his book in November 1726 It was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year and another in early 1727. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727, and pirated copies were printed in Ireland.

In 1727, Swift returned to England one more time and stayed once again with Alexander Pope. The visit was cut short when Swift, receiving word that Esther Johnson was dying, rushed back home to be with her.<ref name=LS219 /> On 28 January 1728, Johnson died; Swift had prayed at her bedside, even composing prayers for her comfort. Swift could not bear to be present at the end, but on the night of her death he began to write his ''The Death of Mrs Johnson''. He was too ill to attend the funeral at St Patrick's.<ref name=LS219 /> Many years later, a lock of hair, assumed to be Johnson's, was found in his desk, wrapped in a paper bearing the words, "Only a woman's hair."

=====Death=====
[[File:St. Patrick's Cathedral Swift bust.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bust (sculpture)|Bust]] in [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin|St Patrick's Cathedral]]]]
Death became a persistent preoccupation in Swift's mind from this point. In 1731 he wrote ''Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift'', his own obituary, published in 1739. In 1732, his good friend and collaborator John Gay had died. In 1735, John Arbuthnot, another friend from his days in London, also died, and in 1738 Swift too began to show signs of illness, perhaps even suffering a stroke in 1742, losing the ability to speak and realising his worst fears of becoming mentally disabled. ("I shall be like that tree", he once said. "I shall die at the top.")<ref>Stephen ''DNB'', p. 221.</ref> He became increasingly quarrelsome, and long-standing friendships, like that with Thomas Sheridan, ended without sufficient cause. To protect him from unscrupulous hangers-ons, who had begun to prey on the great man, his closest companions had him declared of "unsound mind and memory." However, it was long believed by many that Swift was actually insane at this point. In his book ''[[Literature and Western Man]]'', author [[J. B. Priestley]] even cites the final chapters of ''Gulliver's Travels'' as proof of Swift's approaching "insanity". Bewley attributes his decline to 'terminal dementia'.<ref name=Bewley />

In part VIII of his series, ''[[The Story of Civilization]]'', [[Will Durant]] describes the final years of Swift's life as exhibiting:

<blockquote>Definite symptoms of madness ... [first appearing] in 1738. In 1741, guardians were appointed to take care of his affairs and watch lest in his outbursts of violence, he should do himself harm. In 1742, he suffered great pain from the inflammation of his left eye, which swelled to the size of ... [a chicken's] egg; five attendants had to restrain him from tearing out his eye. He went a whole year without uttering a word.<ref>"The Story of Civilization," vol. 8., 362.</ref></blockquote>

In 1744, Alexander Pope died. Then on 19 October 1745, Swift died, at nearly 78.<ref name=LS222>Stephen ''DNB'', p. 222.</ref> After being laid out in public view for the people of Dublin to pay their last respects, he was buried in his own cathedral by Esther Johnson's side, in accordance with his wishes. The bulk of his fortune (£12,000) was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill, originally known as St Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles, which opened in 1757, and which [[St Patrick's University Hospital|still exists]] as a psychiatric hospital.<ref name=LS222 />

[[File:St. Patrick's Cathedral Swift epitaph.jpg|thumb|[[Epitaph]] in [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin]] near his burial site]]
: ''(Text extracted from the introduction to ''The Journal to Stella'' by George A. Aitken and from other sources).''

Jonathan Swift wrote his own [[epitaph]]:
{|
|-
|<poem>''Hic'' depositum est Corpus
IONATHAN SWIFT S.T.D.
Hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Decani,

''Ubi'' sæva Indignatio
Ulterius
Cor lacerare nequit.
Abi Viator
Et imitare, si poteris,
Strenuum pro virili
Libertatis Vindicatorem.

Obiit 19º Die Mensis Octobris
A.D. 1745 Anno Ætatis 78º.</poem>
|style="padding-left:2em;"|<poem>''Here'' is laid the Body
of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology,
Dean of this Cathedral Church,

''where'' fierce Indignation
can no longer
injure the Heart.
Go forth, Voyager,
and copy, if you can,
this vigorous (to the best of his ability)
Champion of Liberty.

He died on the 19th Day of the Month of October,
A.D. 1745, in the 78th Year of his Age.</poem>
|}

[[W. B. Yeats]] poetically translated it from the Latin as:

: Swift has sailed into his rest;
: Savage indignation there
: Cannot lacerate his breast.
: Imitate him if you dare,
: World-besotted traveller; he
: Served human liberty.

His library is known through sale catalogues.<ref>Passmann, Dirk F. 2012. “Jonathan Swift as a Book-Collector: With a Checklist of Swift Association Copies.” ''Swift Studies: The Annual of the Ehrenpreis Center'' 27: 7–68.</ref>