1 - Swift's political character

Summary

… the modern Question is only, Whether he be a Whig or Tory …

The Sentiments of a Church-of-England Man (1708; published 1711)

If possible, to learn his Story,

And whether he were Whig or Tory? …

In State-Opinions a-la Mode,

He hated Wh——n like a Toad;

Had giv'n the Faction many a Wound,

And Libell'd all the Funta round …

Part of the Seventh Epistle of the First Book of Horace Imitated (1713)

But, I confess, that after I had been a little too copious in talking of my own beloved Country; of our Trade, and Wars by Sea and Land, of our Schisms in Religion, and Parties in the State; the Prejudices of his Education prevailed so far, that he could not forbear taking me up in his right Hand, and stroaking me gently with the other; after an hearty Fit of laughing, asked me whether I were a Whig or a Tory.

Gulliver's Travels, II, iii (1726)

Swift's politics is a large, complex and controversial subject upon which there is a considerable corpus of commentary. This chapter considers briefly some of the contested issues in interpretation of Swift's political biography and writing.

The exegesis of Swift's political principles and party-political allegiance is a matter of continuing disagreement in modern Swift studies. A complexity in the case is that Swift was reputed to be a Whig at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign but a Tory by the end of it.