Note i-144 — INTRODUCTION

See L. Richardson, A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789, index, for the vogue of Swift. In the library of the New England Courant, as early as 1722, there was a copy of The Tale of a Tub (T. G. Wright, Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730, 187-8). Franklin was probably indebted to the Dean for his prophecies of the death of Titan Leeds (although he could have learned the use of this device from Defoe). In Idea of the English School Franklin recommends Swift for use in the sixth class (Writings, III, 28). His Meditation on a Quart Mugg is undoubtedly derived from Swift's Meditation upon a Broomstick, each forced to undergo the indignities of a "dirty wench." In 1757 he made the acquaintance of Dr. John Hawksworth, who in 1755 had edited Swift's works. It is likely that this friendly union may have helped to produce Franklin's 1773 masterpieces of caustic irony and the disarmingly effective hoaxes. Variously he quotes (acknowledged and otherwise) bits from Swift's poetry and prose. See Herbert Davis's "Swift's View of Poetry," in Studies In English by Members of University College, Toronto (1931), collected by M. W. Wallace.