122.3 Devouring Posterity:A Modest Proposal, Empire,and Ireland's“Debt of the Nationi” SEAN MOORE [OJur modern expedient...is to mortgage the public revenues,and to trust that posterity will pay off the incumbrances contracted by their ancestors. -David Hume,Of Public Credit(167) I GRANT this Food will be somewhat dear,and therefore very proper for Landlords;who,as they have already devoured most of the Parents,seem to have the best Title to the Children. -Jonathan Swift,A Modest Proposal (Prose Works 12:112) ONATHAN SWIFT'S A MODEST PROPOSAL TRADITIONALLY HAS BEEN regarded as an indictment of colonial landlordism in Ireland,one asserted subtly through the play between the narrator's rational overt tone and the author's covert critique of it(Smith 136-37).This design,it has been argued,forces the reader to play the roles of three audiences,the hailing of which he or she anticipates in the process of exegeses.These are an"ideal narrative audience"who finds"the nar- SEAN MOORE is assistant professor for Res toration and eighteenth-century studies rator's argument cogent and compelling,"another who takes the ar- at the University of New Hampshire.His gument as a“serious proposal'”that reflects the“skewed”values of the essays,new-economic and postcolonial first audience,and a third who feels privileged to recognize the cre- readings of eighteenth-century colonial ativity the author showed in crafting the work's irony(Culler 34-35). literatures,have appeared in Atlantic Stud. Swift's correspondence and references to the satire in contemporary ies,the Eighteenth Century:Theory and In- works document multiple receptions,but few studies have positioned terpretation,Eighteenth Century Ireland,the "the reader among the eaters"(Phiddian 618)by locating the "actual Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial audience"Swift addressed when he chose to publish it first in Dublin Studies,and the forthcoming Oxford Uni- in October 1729(Culler 34).Newly discovered external evidence,I versity Press volume The Postcolonial En- lightenment.This article is adapted from a argue,intimates that the parliament convening in Dublin that month chapter in a book he is completing to be may have been the satire's intended target.'This body was composed entitled A Republic of Debt:Swift,Satire. exclusively of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy,a landed caste and Colonial Sovereignty. who secured its dominance by legally forbidding non-Anglicans from 2007 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 679 This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms12 2.3 Devouring Posterity: A Modest Proposal, Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation" SEAN MOORE SEAN MOORE is assistant professor for Res toration and eighteenth-century studies at the University of New Hampshire. His essays, new-economic and postcolonial readings of eighteenth-century colonial literatures, have appeared in Atlantic Stud ies, the Eighteenth Century: Theory and In terpretation, Eighteenth Century Ireland, the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, and the forthcoming Oxford Uni versity Press volume The Postcolonial En lightenment. This article is adapted from a chapter in a book he is completing to be entitled A Republic of Debt: Swift, Satire, and Colonial Sovereignty. [0]ur modern expedient... is to mortgage the public revenues, and to trust that posterity will pay off the incumbrances contracted by their ancestors. ?David Hume, Of Public Credit (167) J GRANT this Food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for Landlords; who, as they have already devoured most ofthe Parents, seem to have the best Title to the Children. ?Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (Prose Works 12: 112) JONATHAN SWIFT'S >4 MODEST PROPOSAL TRADITIONALLY HAS BEEN regarded as an indictment of colonial landlordism in Ireland, one asserted subtly through the play between the narrator's rational overt tone and the author's covert critique of it (Smith 136-37). This design, it has been argued, forces the reader to play the roles of three audiences, the hailing of which he or she anticipates in the process of exegeses. These are an "ideal narrative audience" who finds "the nar rator s argument cogent and compelling," another who takes the ar gument as a "serious proposal" that reflects the "skewed" values ofthe first audience, and a third who feels privileged to recognize the cre ativity the author showed in crafting the works irony (Culler 34-35). Swift's correspondence and references to the satire in contemporary works document multiple receptions, but few studies have positioned "the reader among the eaters" (Phiddian 618) by locating the "actual audience" Swift addressed when he chose to publish it first in Dublin in October 1729 (Culler 34). Newly discovered external evidence, I argue, intimates that the parliament convening in Dublin that month may have been the satire's intended target.1 This body was composed exclusively ofthe Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy, a landed caste who secured its dominance by legally forbidding non-Anglicans from ? 2007 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 679 This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:56:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms