The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Battle of the Books, by Jonathan Swift,
Edited by Henry Morley

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Title: The Battle of the Books
and Other Short Pieces

Author: Jonathan Swift

Editor: Henry Morley

Release Date: January 15, 2007 [eBook #623]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS***

Transcribed from the 1886 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
AND OTHER SHORT PIECES.

BY
JONATHAN SWIFT.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
1886.

INTRODUCTION.

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667, on the 30th of November. His father was
a Jonathan Swift, sixth of the ten sons of the Rev. Thomas Swift, vicar
of Goodrich, near Ross, in Herefordshire, who had married Elizabeth
Dryden, niece to the poet Dryden's grandfather. Jonathan Swift married,
at Leicester, Abigail Erick, or Herrick, who was of the family that had
given to England Robert Herrick, the poet. As their eldest brother,
Godwin, was prospering in Ireland, four other Swifts, Dryden, William,
Jonathan, and Adam, all in turn found their way to Dublin. Jonathan was
admitted an attorney of the King's Inns, Dublin, and was appointed by the
Benchers to the office of Steward of the King's Inns, in January, 1666.
He died in April, 1667, leaving his widow with an infant daughter, Jane,
and an unborn child.

Swift was born in Dublin seven months after his father's death. His
mother after a time returned to her own family, in Leicester, and the
child was added to the household of his uncle, Godwin Swift, who, by his
four wives, became father to ten sons of his own and four daughters.
Godwin Swift sent his nephew to Kilkenny School, where he had William
Congreve among his schoolfellows. In April, 1782, Swift was entered at
Trinity College as pensioner, together with his cousin Thomas, son of his
uncle Thomas. That cousin Thomas afterwards became rector of Puttenham,
in Surrey. Jonathan Swift graduated as B.A. at Dublin, in February,
1686, and remained in Trinity College for another three yea