by Jonathan Swift
(Summary)
Swift gives the origin of the dispute between
the two parties of books in the very beginning in allegorical terms. He regards
the ancient authors and the modern authors as the occupants of two summits of a
mountain called Parnassus (which was sacred to Apollo and the Muses). The
summit occupied by the Ancients being higher than the one occupied by the
Moderns. A feeling of jealousy leads the Moderns to challenge the right of the
Ancients to occupy the higher summit. The quarrel between the occupants of the
two summits, says Swift, then spread to the books lying on the shelves of St.
James’s Library.
Before
describing the actual battle fought by the books, Swift takes the opportunity
to attack Richard Bentley who was the keeper of the aforesaid library and a
champion of the Ancients, Swift satirizes Bentley for his discourtesy towards
those who wanted to borrow books or manuscripts from the library and for his
inability to think clearly or to keep the library books in a proper order.
Swift
then turns to the books themselves and the dispute which was taking place
between them. One of the Ancients, says Swift, had tried to settle the matter
by arbitration but had failed in his effort to assuage the tempers. This
ancient author had pointed out that the writers belonging to his side were really
wiser than those of the modern times and that they were entitled to greater
respect because of their antiquity. But the Moderns did not accept this
argument and went so far as to claim that of the two parties the Moderns were
the more ancient.
Swift
then proceeds to describe an important event which occurred at this juncture. A
bee, finding a hole in a broken window-pane of the library, came inside and
landed upon a spider’s cobweb. This invasion by the bee led to a dispute
between the two (the spider and the bee). The spider spoke to the bee in a
contemptuous tone, pointing out that while he himself owned an impressive
palace (namely, his cobweb) the bee had no property or substance at all except
a pair of wings and a drone pipe. The bee in reply said that heaven had given
to him the power to fly and the power to sing, and that he visited all the
flowers and the blossoms of the field and the garden, gathering the required materials
for his use. The bee also alleged that the spider’s palace, while exhibiting
“method and art”, was absolutely devoid of “duration and matter”. The bee went
on to say that all that the spider produced was poison while the bee produced
honey and wax.
Aesop
now speaks and states that whatever the bee had said in favour of himself could
be applied to the ancient authors and that whatever the bee had alleged against
the spider could be applied to the Moderns. According to Aesop, the Moderns
have no real grounds for boasting of their genius or their inventions because,
even if they possess method and skill, they have only produced works which will
soon be forgotten because the materials of which those works are made have come
out of the authors themselves and are therefore no better than dirt. The
Moderns cannot claim to any genuine productions of real value. Much in their
work can be described as mere wrangling and satire which may be compared to the
spider’s poison. As for the Ancients, they have their imaginative flights and
their language. The Ancients collected their materials from every corner of
Nature and they have produced works full of honey and wax which have
contributed to mankind two of the noblest things, which are sweetness and
light.
Swift
then goes on to mention the books which took part in the battle. However,
instead of naming the books by their titles, he names the authors of the books
which took part in the fight. When the two armies of warriors had thus got
ready for the battle, Fame, who had at one time an important position in the
library, flew up straight to the chief god, Jupiter, and gave him a faithful
account of what was happening below on the earth. Jupiter immediately called a
meeting of the gods and goddesses in order to decide upon a course of action.
However, there being a difference of opinion among the gods and goddesses,
Jupiter privately consulted the Book of Fate and gave appropriate orders to his
agents to go down to the library and manipulate events in accordance with those
orders. Momus, the god of jealous mockery, who at the conference of the gods
and goddesses had taken the side of the Moderns, now enlisted the support of a
goddess known as Criticism. This goddess was very malignant and she lent her
full support to the Moderns.
Swift
then goes on to describe the battle itself. He tells us that the first to start
the offensive was Paracelsus who attacked Galen with a javelin but who was
himself wounded by Galen’s counter attack. Then Aristotle shot an arrow at
Bacon, but Bacon escaped being injured and the arrow hit and killed another
modern philosopher whose name was Descartes. Now it was Homer’s turn to launch
an attack upon the modern epic poets. Next came Virgil, another ancient epic
poet. He found himself face to face with the modern poet, Dryden who also had
attempted epic poetry (by writing a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid). Dryden,
however, acknowledged Virgil’s superiority to himself as an epic poet, and sought
a compromise with the enemy.
Yet
another ancient epic poet, by the name of Lucan, now attacked two Moderns who
also had attempted epic poetry. These Moderns were Richard Blackmore and Thomas
Creech. Then the ancient poet, Pindar, the famous writer of Odes came forward
and killed such modern writers of Pindaric Odes as John Oldham and Afra Behn,
and Abraham Cowley. Then comes the last episode in The Battle of the Books. The
central figures in this last episode are Bentley and Wotton (who were the
champions of the Moderns), and Temple and Boyle (the champions of the
Ancients). Swift pours all his scorn and ridicule upon Bentley and Wotton.
These moderns see Phalaris and Aesop lying fast asleep in the distance, but
they do not have the courage to attack them. Wotton even fails in his attempt to
quench his thirst at the spring known as Helicon. The two friends then
encounter Charles Boyle who attacks them with a lance and kills both of them at
one stroke. According to Swift’s satirical account, then, Temple and Boyle had
been victorious in their support of the Ancients as against Bentley and Wotton
who had opposed the Ancients and given all their support to the Moderns.
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