DISSECTING THE DEAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 788, 27 August 1954, Page 12

DISSECTING THE DEAN

JONATHAN SWIFT, a critical biography by John Middleton Murry; Jonathan Cape, English price 30/-. ‘THE strange and tortured’ genius whose remains lie under the great aisle of St. Patrick’s, Dublin, below one of the most famous of all epitaphs, was a riddle to his own and to succeeding ages. In retrospect, Swift dwarfs most of his contemporaries by sheer passion and force of character; yet the passion was suppressed and the character most curiously warped. It was inevitable, perhaps, that Mr. Middleton Murryafter his dealings with Dostoievsky, Keats and Shakespeare-should come forward to pluck out the heart of this mystery; what was less foreseeable, was that he should write so judicious and, on the whole, so conservative a book. Mr. Murry’s method here, as in his Keats studies, is to review the known biographical facts in the light of the writings, both private and public, of his subject. A great poet or a great writer means what he says, even-or perhaps most of all-in the years of juvenilia before his mature style is formed. So, by concentrating on the "uncharacteristic" poems of Swift’s early years with Temple at Moor Park, Mr. Murry posits a romantic, hero-worship-ping young man whose ardent affections were rebuffed, first by the impercipience of his patron, and then by the shallow coquetry of the young woman ("Varina") to whom he proposed marriage in Ireland. If the pattern of all this suggests Keats and the reviewers, and Keats and Fanny Brawne, rather than the terrible Dean, no doubt Mr. Murry would keep an appeal open to Shakespeare: only a frustrated idealist can become a Timon. On the biographical side, Mr. Murry’s solution is neat enough, "If we want the true answer to the eternal question: Why did Swift not marry Stella? we do not have to seek it in fantastic theories, of concealed consanguinity, or physical incapacity, or overweening pride; it is simple enough. It was because of his rejection by Varina." The rest of the story is more familiar, though Mr. Murry tells it in detail with

crisp precision, making full use of an impressive reserve of literary and historical authorities. The literary criticism in this book is first-rate: Mr. Murry has re-read afresh everything by Swift, and his revaluation, of the writings-especi-ally the poems -#is always interesting and generally convincing. His chapter on "The Excremental Vision" is sane and charitable, and a necessary pendant to any modern commentary on Swift. ‘Altogether, this is one of the most solid and rewarding of Mr. Murry’s critical studies. Compelled (for once) neither to love nor hate his subject, he treats Swift both with sympathy and with critical detachment; and when this measure of objectivity has been added to his genuine literary flair, Mr. Murry becomes a very formidable critic indeed.

J.

B.