A Pact with Power

Abstract

Swift’s character and status as a writer was to undergo extraordinary changes in the next few years. From having been a minor clergyman with remarkable but occasional literary talent, and still desperately hoping for an English post worthy of his ambition, he quickly became official propagandist for the new, Tory government, dining and socialising with the most powerful political circles in England. His four years with the Tories were extremely prolific, yet the style of this period seems quite a surprise after the masked humour of earlier work. Although he became a party-writer, he remained an amateur one, believing that such a principle guaranteed artistic integrity and proved personal independence. Long-term preferment, he felt, was worthier and more politic than short-term reward. For the first and last time in his writing career, he was to serve the interests of power.