Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin in 1667, after the death of his father. A cousin of Dryden, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and for much of his early life travelled frequently between Ireland and England. Swift became increasingly occupied with Irish affairs, and wrote a great number of works including celebrated satires like ‘A Tale of a Tub’ and A Modest Proposal’, political pamphlets and Gulliver’s Travels – all informed by his sense of the Whigs’ unfair treatment of Ireland. Nearly all of his works were published anonymously, and he only received payment for Gulliver’s Travels. He died, after a long illness in 1745.