112 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SWIFT AND STELLA. Dingley were both relations to Sir William Temple, at whose house Swift became acquainted with them after he left the University of Dublin. Mrs. Johnson, then, was not the daughter of Sir William's menial servant. At least, if she was, that servant was his relation"(a). That Stella was the daughter of Sir William Temple appears more than probable; but that Swift was his son, and, consequently, her half brother, remains to be proved. It has, it is true, been often surmised, from the date of the publication of Orrery's book to the present time, but we cannot discover in the supposition anything but vague conjecture. If he was, it certainly would account for many hitherto inexplicable portions of his conduct relative to both Stella and Vanessa. Scott, although he apparently did not believe in the relationship, has inserted the following curious incident: "Immediately subsequent to the ceremony, Swift's state of mind appears to have been dreadful. Delany (as I have learned from a friend of his relict) being pressed to give his opinion on this strange union, said that about the time it took place he observed Swift to be extremely gloomy and agitated, so much so that he went to Archbishop King to mention his apprehensions. On entering the library Swift rushed out with a countenance of distraction, and passed him without speaking. He found the Archbishop in tears, and upon asking the reason he said: 'You have just met the paragraph alluded to; but in a note to Hawkesworth's edition of the Dean's letters, we read: "Mrs. Dingley, the lady to whom this letter is addressed, though a relation of Sir William Temple's, had no more than an annuity of £27 for a subsistence; this the Dean used to receive for her and it was known by an accident, after his memory failed, that he allowed her an annuity of fifty." Dublin, Williams, 1767, vol. i. p. 146. In Mr. Monck Berkeley's "Literary Relics" there is a letter from a Mrs. Hearn, niece to Stella, on the subject of her birth, &c., but it does not in any way disprove, but rather strengthens the account given in the Gentleman's Magazine. (a) Observations upon Lord Orrery's Remarks, p. 54. It is curious that Delany-or his printer-spelled her name with a t. CAUSES OF SWIFT'S CELIBACY. 113 most unhappy man on earth, but on the subject of his wretchedness you must never ask a question.' "When Stella went to Ireland," continues the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, "a marriage between her and the Dean could not be foreseen; but when she thought proper to communicate to her friends the Dean's proposal, and her approbation of it, it was then become absolutely necessary for that person, who alone knew the secret history of the parties concerned, to reveal what otherwise might have been buried in oblivion." Who this person was is not stated, but we must suppose that it was Mrs. Dingley. "But was the Dean to blame, because he was ignorant of his natural relation to Stella? or can he be justly censured because it was not made known before the day of marriage? He admired her; he loved her; he pitied her; and when fate had placed the everlasting barrier between them, their affection became a true Platonic love, if not something yet more exalted. I do not deny but that she might lament the particular oddness of her fate; nor do I deny but that Swift's natural temper might acquire an additional severity and moroseness from hence, and that he might vent his passion, and revenge himself on the rest of mankind. But his affection for Stella became truly fraternal; and whenever she lamented her unhappy situation, the friend, the tutor, the husband, all in one, mingled his sympathetic tears with her's, and soothed the sharpness of her anxiety and sorrow. But he despised her family. Was Swift's reputed father then so noble, and to whom did the Dean declare the secret of his soul? We are sometimes told, that upon the Hanoverian family succeeding to the throne of Great Britain, Swift renounced all hopes of farther preferment; and that his temper became more morose, and more intolerable, every year. I acknowledge the fact in part; but it was not the loss of his hopes that soured Swift alone; this was the unlucky epocha of that discovery, that convinced the Dean that the only woman I 114 DID SWIFT EVER LOVE? in the world who could make him happy as a wife, was the only woman in the world who could not be that wife”(a). We confess we cannot agree with those who think it was Swift's pride which prevented his marrying Stella, or his acknowledging and consummating their union, if they were married; neither do we think it necessary (although it is quite possible) to suppose that too great a consanguinity existed between them. Swift was no ordinary man in any of the relations of life, and, therefore, cannot well be judged by those rules wherewith society judges ordinary men. His affection— shall we term it love?-for Esther Johnson was, in his own eccentric way, and as far as his peculiar amatory passions extended, of an early and most enduring character. She certainly loved him in return; and he, first as her mentor, and then her friend (indeed the only one she appears to have had at that time), encouraged by his acts, if not by his words, her generous passion. Had Swift remained a quiet country rector among his willows at Laracor, and had there been no "cause or just impediment,” moral or physiological, to the contrary, it is more than probable that he would have married the object of his esteem; but the fatal visit to London in 1710, and his remaining there four years, possibly prevented this. During that period another Esther claimed the heart of Swift. After all, the most that can be said of this circumstance is that he -perhaps unconsciously, perhaps through vanity—permitted Miss Vanhomrigh (Vanessa) to fall in love with him; but where is the authority for his ever having made love to, or written a single endearing sentiment to her, which could lead her to suppose he intended to marry her? The celebrated poem of Cadenus and Vanessa affords us (a) The Gentleman's and London Magazine. Dublin, printed for John Exshaw, November, 1757, p. 555 to p. 560, from which article the foregoing extracts have been made. It is signed C. M. P. G. N. S. T. N. S. HIS CONSTITUTIONAL COLDNESS. 115 much information on the subject. "I knew," he makes Va nessa to say, 66 By what you said and writ, How dangerous things were men of wit; But never gave me equal arms; Your lessons found the weakest part, Aim'd at the head, but reached the heart." And if Swift himself was not susceptible (as we firmly believe he was not by nature) of any passion stronger than friendship, he was, to a certain degree, unconscious of the unhappiness he was thus laying the foundation of in the heart of another. Even to Stella he says: "Without one word of Cupid's darts, Of killing eyes or bleeding hearts; In the first letter of the "Journal to Stella," the usual coldness of Swift appears to have transiently warmed into love. Thus we read: "Farewell dearest beloved M D, and love poor Presto, who has not had one happy day since he left you, as hope saved;" and that he at this time entertained some idea of their enjoying each other's society for life, if not of their marriage, may be inferred from the expression, "I would make M D and me easy, and I never desired more." This was written in the "little language": M D was Stella; Presto, Swift. In one of his letters to Dr. Stopford, on the subject of Stella's illness, written in an agony of grief, he seems to have faithfully depicted his own feelings:-" Dear James, pardon me, I know not what I am saying; but believe me, that violent friendship is much more lasting and as much engaging as violent love." Sad must have been the perplexity in which he found himself when he discovered the peculiar position in which he 116 STELLA VERSUS VANESSA. was placed. Stella, gentle and forbearing, his earliest, most devoted of friends, who had risked everything but her honour for his sake, to whom he was in great part a guardian, pined, though not quite in secret, still in comparative silence; but she enjoyed his society, and frequently presided at his table. Vanessa, hasty and passionate in her love, and deprived of his presence, importunes him to marry her. The jealousy of the rivals was well known to the poor Dean: to Stella he was bound by honour as well as by affection; but he feared to marry her, either from the reasons which we have already stated, or on account of the effect it might produce on Vanessa, with whom it does not appear he ever entertained any idea of marriage whatever. This ceremony of marriage with Stella was evidently performed to ease her scruples, and, perhaps, required by her to secure Swift from her rival; and the story about Archbishop King might have occurred from Swift's relation of the peculiarity of his position. ever met. In the year 1723, Vanessa, when thirty-seven years of age, is said to have made the fatal discovery of Swift's secret marriage with Stella. There have been two versions of this catastrophe published; the earlier one is, that on her pressing Swift to marry her, he wrote her a positive refusal, and delivered it with his own hand, without uttering a word, the last time they Whether in this letter he informed her of his engagement with Stella or not is uncertain. The other, and the later story, is, that she herself wrote to Stella upon the subject of her own claims upon the Dean; that Stella answered this by a brief note, acquainting her with her marriage, and at the same time enclosed the unhappy Vanessa's letter to Swift, who immediately rode off to Celbridge, where she resided, and, entering her apartment, threw down a letter, and, without uttering a word, stalked out of the room: on opening it she found it to be her own to her rival. Stella retired immediately, and without seeing Swift, to Woodpark, the seat of her friend, Mr. |