Swift composed one of his wittiest poems at the end of the tumultuous Bubble year of 1720, which had witnessed stock in the South Sea Company rise precipitately and then collapse in an even more dramatic fashion. By the time he wrote this satiric ballad, the share price had fallen from almost £1,000 to the £130s, and Parliament was beginning to ask serious questions of the directors. Swift had been an early investor in the Company, set up in 1711 by his patron Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford (1661–1724), but had liquidated his holdings by 1717. One reason may be that the institution founded by his Tory allies had been taken over by the new Whig elite, with George I and the Prince of Wales each serving terms as its governor, and the entire Hanoverian court immersed in its grimy activity.…
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Citation: Rogers, Pat. "The Bubble: A Poem". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 May 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40504, accessed 25 April 2024.]
