This short satirical essay was published in 1729. Swift was living in Dublin as Dean of St Patrick's (1713 to 1745) which was an Anglican (Church of Ireland) cathedral. Swift was born and educated in Ireland and, by his own epitaph, was a fiercely indignant champion of liberty.
Here's a bit of history: James II was defeated in 1691, and subsequently various penal laws were subsequently enacted that punish Catholics - Catholic education is restricted, Catholic clergy are ordered to leave Ireland, Catholics can't buy land, Catholics can't hold public office. In 1727 Catholics lose the right to vote.
The Irish famine of 1740-1741 had not yet happened when Swift wrote this essay. Was Swift prescient? His proposal is that the children of the poor should be eaten by the rich. He argues this will reduce the number of Papists and give the poor a reliable income so that they don't have to beg.
I read Swift's bio on Wikipedia and it made me want to find out more about him. Wikipedia refers to Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets, so I've downloaded that (free) to Kindle as further reading. I've also downloaded (for $2.99) the Essential Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, who wrote English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century. I love my Kindle!
Here's Swift's epitaph:
"Here is laid the Body of Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Sacred Theology, Dean of this Cathedral Church, where fierce Indignation can no longer injure the Heart. Go forth, Voyager, and copy, if you can, this vigorous (to the best of his ability) Champion of Liberty. He died on the 19th Day of the Month of October, A.D. 1745, in the 78th Year of his Age."
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