Swift and the Ancients-Moderns Controversy

Abstract

There is apparently no question about Swift's loyalties in the Ancients-Moderns controversy; he is considered an Ancient. The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub seem to demonstrate this unmistakably. But how much an Ancient is he? and of what kind? These are legitimate questions, for when we look closely at Swift's writings we soon realize that the standard definitions of the terms do not fit. In fact, we are no longer sure what an "Ancient" is. The difficulty is in the definitions. In Swift's day "Ancient" and "Modern" were, for the most part, epithets of abuse employed in the heat of controversy, and though they carried a meaning, that meaning was seldom precise. One might even argue that preciseness of meaning comes later, imposed by scholars in search of neat definitions.