Jonathan Swift The Bickerstaff Partridge Papers

The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift "Isaac Bickerstaff Esq" was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of then famous Almanac-maker and astrologer John Partridge. Wherein the month, and day of the month are set down, the persons named, and the great actions and events of next year particularly related, as will come to pass. Written to prevent the people of England from being farther imposed on by vulgar almanack-makers. By Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. I have long consider'd the gross abuse of astrology in this kingdom, and upon debating the matter with myself, I could not possibly lay the fault upon the art, but upon those gross impostors, who set up to be the artists. I know several learned men have contended that the whole is a cheat; that it is absurd and ridiculous to imagine, the stars can have any influence at all upon human actions, thoughts, or inclinations: And whoever has not bent his studies that way, may be excused for thinking so, when he sees in how wretched a manner that noble art is treated by a few mean illiterate traders between us and the stars; who import a yearly stock of nonsense, lyes, folly, and impertinence, which they offer to the world as genuine from the planets, tho' they descend from no greater a height than their own brains.Includes a biography of the author.

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Isaac Bickerstaff Esq was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of then famous Almanac-maker and astrologer John Partridge. "All Fools Day" (now known as April Fools Day which falls on 1 April) was Swift's favourite of holidays and he often used this day to aim his satirically biting wit at non-believers in an attempt to "make sin and folly bleed." Disgruntled by Partridge's sarcastic attack about the "infallible Church" written in his 1708 issue of Merlinus Almanac, Swift projected carefully 3 letters and one Eulogy as an elaborate plan to "predict" Partridge's "infallible death" to be revealed on April 1, All Fools Day. The first of the three letters, Predictions for the Year 1708, published in January 1708, predicts, among other things, the death of Partridge by a "raging fever." The second letter, The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions, published in March 1708, Swift writes not as Bickerstaff but as a "man employed in the Revenue" where he "confirms" the imaginary Bickerstaff's prediction. To accompany The Accomplishments Swift also publishes an Elegy for Partridge in which, typical of Swift's satire, he blames not only Partridge, but those who purchase the Almanacs as well: Here, five Foot deep, lies on his Back,A Cobler, Starmonger, and Quack;Who to the Stars in pure Good-will,Does to his best look upward still.Weep all you Customers that useHis Pills, his Almanacks, or Shoes;And you that did your Fortunes seek,Step to his Grave but once a Week:This Earth which bears his Body's Print,You'll find has so much Vertue in't,That I durst pawn my Ears 'twill tellWhate'er concerns you full as well,In Physick, Stolen Goods, or Love,As he himself could, when above. The hoax, gaining immense popularity, plagued Partridge till the real end of his life. Mourners, who believed him to be dead, often kept him awake at night crying outside his window. Accounts of an undertaker arriving at his house to arrange drapes for the mourning, an elegy being printed and even a gravestone being carved, all culminate to Partridge publishing a letter in hopes to have a last word on the matter and proclaim (and reclaim) himself as living. In 1709 Swift, writing as Bickerstaff for the last time, publishes A Vindication of Isaac Bickerstaff in which he abandons any real attempt to maintain the hoax. Bickerstaff counter-argues Partridge's letter of proclamation disputing, " They were sure no man alive ever to writ such damned stuff as this." He goes on to sarcastically reason that "death is defined by all Philosophers [as a] separation of the soul and body. [Partridge's wife] has gone about for some time to every Alley in the neighborhood...that her husband had neither life nor soul in him."

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Bickerstaff Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift "Isaac Bickerstaff Esq" was a pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift as part of a hoax to predict the death of the then famous almanac maker and astrologer John Partridge. Jonathan Swift (Dublin, November 30, 1667-ibid., October 19, 1745) was an Irish satirical writer. His main work is Gulliver's Travels, ? which constitutes one of the most bitter, and at the same time satirical, criticisms that have been written against society and the human condition. A member of the Scriblerus Club, he anonymously published or used the pseudonyms of Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff and M. B. Drapier to hide his satires. Of English parents, a modest lawyer and a housewife, Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin and was a posthumous son of his father, since he died shortly before he was born;all he owed to the charity of his uncle Godwin, who was in charge of educating the boy in the midst of great poverty, since his mother left the boy and returned to England. His family was related to numerous writers, especially his cousin John Dryden, who died in 1700, and the former Francis Godwin (1562-1633), and further and collaterally with Walter Raleigh and William Davenant; Even so, of all these only a utopian and satirical writer like Francis Godwin left some mark on his work.

"Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers" from Jonathan Swift. Anglo-irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (1667-1745).