Swift and the Ruin(s) of History

This article explores the use and meaning of the figure of the ruin in the work of Swift. Ruination is a consequence of man’s hubristic activity as illustrated by the story of Babel, a recurring reference in the eighteenth century. Although ruins may prompt meditation on history, or even be aestheticized (as is illustrated later by the Encyclopédie), these aspects are not found in Swift, who clearly favours the morally negative construction of the image, a leitmotiv in his sermons. Despite his involvement with the Tories in 1710-11, so ingrained is Swift’s scepticism about the possibility of political action and repair that isolation is his favourite posture, enabling him to fulminate from his exile in Ireland against what he considers as threats to the Church of England and civic peace. This anti-modern reflex ties in with Swift’s instinctive opposition to Whig optimism for the future, and may be located in the apocalyptic year 1714, when Tory hopes and Swift’s ambition collapsed with the death of Queen Anne. It is Swift’s poems which provide the best commentary on the « dire destructive Scene » of these late years, where Babel resurfaces as a figure of original sin or entrance into historical time, and a « glorious past » is only invoked in contrast to the menacing future promised by history.