biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1667–1745)
|
| biography:
| Clergyman and satirist, born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Dublin, then moved to England, where he became secretary to the diplomat, Sir William Temple. During a visit to Ireland, he was ordained in the Anglican Church (1695). He wrote several poems, then turned to prose satire, exposing religious and intellectual complacency in A Tale of a Tub (1704), and produced a wide range of political and religious essays and pamphlets. He was made Dean of St Patrick's, Dublin, at the fall of the Tory ministry in 1714, and afterwards visited London only twice. His world-famous satire, Gulliver's Travels, appeared (anonymously, like all his works) in 1726. In later years he wrote a great deal of light verse, and several essays on such topics as language and manners. He also progressively identified himself with Irish causes, in such works as The Drapier's Letter (1724) and the savagely ironic A Modest Proposal (1729). |
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