A Satirical Elegy - context

Question 1

Who is the Poem about?

Answer 1

Jhon Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722)

Question 2

What was Jhon Churchill’s position in the english army?

Answer 2

-Commander-in-chief of the English army during the War of the Spanish Succession against Louis XIV of France.

Question 3

What did Swift believe church had done wrong?

Answer 3

-His military campaigns in the service of English royal power, caused death and grief to the English, but served as opportunities for Marlborough to advance himself and profit financially from war.

Question 4

Why was Swift able to write this poem without facing bad consequences?

Answer 4

-English monarchy had evolved from an absolute monarch ruling by divine right into a constitutionally limited monarchy functioning alongside a parliament controlled by political parties.
-made it possible for the satirical form that Swift favored to develop and survive the wrath of the very powers it mocked and rebuked.

Question 5

What was Swifts views on War?

Answer 5

-Military ventures, no matter what their outcome, were abhorred by Swift, whose political beliefs were second to or determined by his hatred of war.

Question 6

What were the Tories and the Whigs?

Answer 6

Whiggs:
-favored the power of Parliament over the King and Court.
-favored Protestantism over Catholicism
-supported the English continental war against France.
-Duke was a Whigg.

Tories:
-represented the court party
-supported the Anglican Church
- eager to end the War of the Spanish Succession.
-Wanted to make England a sea-power dominant in trade
-Swift was a Tory, due to his deep opposition of the continental war.