Introduction

Summary

Scope and arrangement of this volume

At the heart of this volume of Swift's Parodies, Hoaxes, Mock-Treatises is a group of works with a shared relation to hoax and parody; and since several works in this group are thematically concerned with language and manners, various works on associated topics are here included alongside them. This means that the volume develops along two axes, one generic and one thematic; and an associated consequence is that its contents are extremely various, spanning almost the whole of Swift's publishing career, and addressing a wide range of occasions and contexts. At the end of the volume, a supplementary section of Associated Materials presents relevant jokes, notes and memoranda; and theAppendices are devoted to pieces of less definite attribution (including cases of possible collaboration), discussions of some persistent but problematic attributions, and relevant items by other authors.

The works in the volume are arranged in broadly chronological order, and each individual work is prefaced by a Headnote (including specific information about composition and context), and has its own Textual Account (focusing on the identification and discrimination of sources, and on issues of publication and textual transmission) at the back of the volume. In addition, the General Textual Introduction, which precedes the individual Textual Accounts, outlines some general points about textual transmission and editorial treatment, and gives an account of the various collections in which many of the smaller individual works appeared. This arrangement allows for a more discursive exploration of generic and thematic issues in the present Introduction. Although focusing first on genre and then on theme will inevitably produce occasional repetitions in respect of particular works, this seems a small price to pay, in the context of such a large and varied selection of writings as is here presented, for the opportunity to set out some of the basic issues affecting the genres and themes around which the volume is conceived.

Hoax and parody

Hoaxes

As the title of this volume suggests, Swift's delight in hoaxing is at the heart of the selection. The earliest piece included, ‘A Meditation upon a Broom-stick’, belongs to this category, if the traditional anecdotes about its origins are to be trusted: Swift reads aloud to a lady with a taste for the devotional meditations of Robert Boyle an imitation that convinces and impresses her.