their having authentic information, and would be out of place here. My own
opinion is that the evidence for the marriage is very far from convincing, and
this view seems to be confirmed by all that we know from his own letters of
Swift's relations with Stella. It has been suggested that she was pained by
reports of Swift's intercourse with Vanessa, and felt that his feelings
towards herself were growing colder; but this is surmise, and no satisfactory
explanation has been given to account for a form of marriage being gone
through after so many years of the closest friendship. There is no reason to
suppose that there was at the time any gossip in circulation about Stella, and
if her reputation was in question, a marriage of which the secret was
carefully kept would obviously be of no benefit to her. Moreover, we are told
that there was no change in their mode of life; if they were married, what
reason could there be for keeping it a secret, or for denying themselves the
closer relationship of marriage? The only possible benefit to Stella was that
Swift would be prevented marrying anyone else. It is impossible, of course,
to disprove a marriage which we are told was secretly performed, without banns
or licence or witnesses; but we may reasonably require strong evidence for so
startling a step. If we reject the tale, the story of Swift's connection with
Stella is at least intelligible; while the acceptance of this marriage
introduces many puzzling circumstances, and makes it necessary to believe that
during the remainder of Stella's life Swift repeatedly spoke of his wife as a
friend, and of himself as one who had never married.[7] What right have we to
put aside Swift's plain and repeated statements? Moreover, his attitude
towards Vanessa for the remaining years of her life becomes much more culpable
if we are to believe that he had given Stella the claim of a wife upon him.[8]

From 1719 onwards we have a series of poems to Stella, written chiefly in
celebration of her birthday. She was now thirty-eight (Swift says, "Thirty-
four--we shan't dispute a year or more"), and the verses abound in laughing
allusions to her advancing years and wasting form. Hers was "an angel's face