The Satiric Background of the Attack on the Puritans in Swift's A Tale of A Tub

Extract

In a previous article I pointed out that Swift's analysis of Jack the Dissenter had been in part anticipated by earlier satirists. Some references to plays, poems, and prose attacks were then given to substantiate my contention. In this brief bibliography of non-dramatic satire from the Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621, to Tom Brown, ca. 1700, further evidence will be presented that before Swift's time there was a long tradition of satire of the Puritans, and one which in many ways was much like his own attack. Since the work of presenting the dramatic satire of the Puritans has, in part at least, been done, no titles of plays will be included. The bibliography will also confine itself to citation of satires on the Puritans. The year 1621 was chosen as a starting point, for I believe that with the Anatomy of Melancholy there began a new era of satire, and especially of analysis of cause and effect in the problems of religious enthusiasm, a subject upon which Swift wrote some of his best passages. That this bibliography is in any way complete is not claimed; it is hoped, however, that it will present some satires which have been neglected by students of the strife between the Puritans and their satirists, and will also help to clarify the problems of the literary background of A Tale of a Tub and the Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit