ABSTRACT
The impact of The Drapier’s Letters was to a large extent owing to Swift’s exploitation of the feeling of the time. The way in which the Letters were printed and distributed – pseudonymously and cheaply by the thousand – contributed to that impact. Swift wrote The Drapier’s Letters between 1724 and 1725 in an effort to unite Irish opposition to the copper halfpence coined in England for Irish use. For the most part, the controversy was based on economic arguments. However, the dispute also revived discussion about the question of Ireland’s political status and threatened to disrupt the stability of Walpole’s government. In order to write The Drapier’s Letters Swift interrupted work on Gulliver’s Travels, in which political insinuations are conveyed by the manipulation of physical dimensions. The Drapier’s Letters were designed to take advantage of popular feeling and it is evident that Swift distorted facts and exploited prejudice to produce the reactions he desired.
