THE history of the publication of the _Journal to Stella_ is somewhat
curious. On Swift’s death twenty-five of the letters, forming the
closing portion of the series, fell into the hands of Dr. Lyon, a
clergyman who had been in charge of Swift for some years. The letters
passed to a man named Wilkes, who sold them for publication. They
accordingly appeared in 1766 in the tenth volume of Dr. Hawkesworth’s
quarto edition of Swift’s works; but the editor made many changes in the
text, including a suppression of most of the “little language.” The
publishers, however, fortunately for us, were public-spirited enough to
give the manuscripts (with one exception) to the British Museum, where,
after many years, they were examined by John Forster, who printed in his
unfinished _Life of Swift_ numerous passages from the originals, showing
the manner in which the text had been tampered with by Hawkesworth.
Swift himself, too, in his later years, obliterated many words and
sentences in the letters, and Forster was able to restore not a few of
these omissions. His zeal, however, sometimes led him to make guesses at
words which are quite undecipherable. Besides Forster’s work, I have had
the benefit of the careful collation made by Mr. Ryland for his edition
of 1897. Where these authorities differ I have usually found myself in
agreement with Mr. Ryland, but I have felt justified in accepting some of
Forster’s readings which were rejected by him as uncertain; and the
examination of the manuscripts has enabled me to make some additions and
corrections of my own. Swift’s writing is extremely small, and abounds
in abbreviations. The difficulty of arriving at the true reading is
therefore considerable, apart from the erasures.
The remainder of the _Journal_, consisting of the first forty letters,
was published in 1768 by Deane Swift, Dr. Swift’s second cousin. These
letters had been given to Mrs. Whiteway in 1788, and by her to her
son-in-law, Deane Swift. The originals have been lost, with the
exception of the first, which, by some accident, is in the British
Museum; but it is evident that Deane Swift took even greater liberties
with the text than Hawkesworth. He substituted for “Ppt” the word
“Stella,” a name which Swift seems not to have used until some years
later; he adopted the name “Presto” for Swift, and in other ways tried to
give a greater literary finish to the letters. The whole of the
correspondence was first brought together, under the title of the
_Journal to Stella_, in Sheridan’s edition of 1784.
Previous editions of the _Journal_ have been but slightly annotated.
Swift’s letters abound with allusions to people of all classes with whom
he came in contact in London, and to others known to Esther Johnson in
Ireland; and a large proportion of these persons have been passed over in
discreet silence by Sir Walter Scott and others. The task of the
annotator has, of course, been made easier of late years by the
publication of contemporary journals and letters, and of useful works of
reference dealing with Parliament, the Army, the Church, the Civil
Service, and the like, besides the invaluable _Dictionary of National
Biography_. I have also been assisted by a collection of MS. notes
kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Thomas Seccombe. I have aimed at
brevity and relevance, but it is hoped that the reader will find all the
information that is necessary. Here and there a name has baffled
research, but I have been able to give definite particulars of a very
large number of people—noblemen and ladies in society in London or
Dublin, Members of Parliament, doctors, clergymen, Government officials,
and others who have hitherto been but names to the reader of the
_Journal_. Where there is no reference at the foot of the page, the note
upon any person alluded to can readily be found by consulting the Index.
I have corrected a good many errors in the older notes, but in dealing
with so large a number of persons, some of whom it is difficult to
identify, I cannot hope that I myself have escaped pitfalls.