Swift A Modest Proposal KRAY
A Modest Proposal - study guide
Directions: Read and complete the missing pre-reading vocabulary:
a. Alms: Money given as charity to the poor
b. Chair: (here) a Sedan Chair - a covered chair supported by poles, carried by two bearers.
c. Deplorable: worthy of severe condemnation
d. Episcopal: To do with (here appointed by) a bishop - the adjective refers to church administration at the time Swift wrote.
e. Gibbet: Place where criminals are hanged.
f. Importune: To ask for urgently or repeatedly
g. Mandarin: Important official serving an oriental (originally Chinese) ruler, or any high official today.
h. Papists: Supporters of the Pope, an insulting name for Catholics.
i. Pretender: James Stuart, a Catholic who pretended to (claimed) the English and Scottish thrones. He is sometimes known as the Old Pretender, while his son, Charles Edward Stuart, is known as the Young Pretender (or Bonnie Prince Charlie)
j. Prodigious:____________________________________________________________________
k. Shambles: Place (usually in a town) where animals are slaughtered and butchered.
l. Solar year: A year in the ordinary sense (as measured by the earth's going once round the sun).
Now read and annotate “A Modest Proposal.”
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729)
A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.
1 It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native
Directions: Read and complete the missing pre-reading vocabulary:
a. Alms: Money given as charity to the poor
b. Chair: (here) a Sedan Chair - a covered chair supported by poles, carried by two bearers.
c. Deplorable: worthy of severe condemnation
d. Episcopal: To do with (here appointed by) a bishop - the adjective refers to church administration at the time Swift wrote.
e. Gibbet: Place where criminals are hanged.
f. Importune: To ask for urgently or repeatedly
g. Mandarin: Important official serving an oriental (originally Chinese) ruler, or any high official today.
h. Papists: Supporters of the Pope, an insulting name for Catholics.
i. Pretender: James Stuart, a Catholic who pretended to (claimed) the English and Scottish thrones. He is sometimes known as the Old Pretender, while his son, Charles Edward Stuart, is known as the Young Pretender (or Bonnie Prince Charlie)
j. Prodigious:____________________________________________________________________
k. Shambles: Place (usually in a town) where animals are slaughtered and butchered.
l. Solar year: A year in the ordinary sense (as measured by the earth's going once round the sun).
Now read and annotate “A Modest Proposal.”
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (1729)
A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.
1 It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native