The Battle of the Books
Jonathan Swift worked for William Temple during the time of the controversy, and Swift's "A Tale of a Tub" (1703/1705) takes part in the debate. From its first publication, Swift added a short satire entitled "The Battle of the Books" to the "Tale of a Tub." In this piece, there is an epic battle fought in a library when various books come alive and attempt to settle the arguments between moderns and ancients. In Swift's satire, he skilfully manages to avoid saying which way victory fell. He portrays the manuscript as having been damaged in places, thus leaving the end of the battle up to the reader.
A Tale of a Tub
Although today very little of this debate remains, questions of the authorship of the "Tale" occupied many notable critics both in the 18th and 19th centuries. Famously, Samuel Johnson claimed that "A Tale of a Tub" was a work of true genius (in contrast to "Gulliver's Travels" where once one imagines "big people and little people" the rest is easy) and too good to be Jonathan Swift's. In the 19th century, many critics who saw misanthropy and madness in Jonathan Swift's later work wished to reject the "Tale" as his. In a way, a critic's view on who wrote the "Tale" reflected that critic's politics. Swift was such a powerful champion of Tory, or anti-Whig, causes that fans of the "Tale" were eager to attribute the book to another author from nearly the day of its publication.