Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in Gulliver's Travels

Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in "Gulliver's Travels"
Author(s): Ellen Douglass Leyburn

Source: Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Feb., 1950), pp. 161-189
Published by: University of California Press
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CertainProblemsof AllegoricalSatirein
Gulliver'sTravels
By ELLENDOUGLASS
LEYBURN
A MONGthemanyformsof allegorical
satire,the imaginary
jour-
lEney has had an enduringpopularitywhich warrantsan exam-
inationof its artistry.The writerwho choosesto give expressionto
his ideas under the guise of a voyage confronts the difficultiesof
satiricallegoryin generaland some which belong especiallyto the
allegoricaljourney.Swift'shandlingof certainof theseproblemsin
Gulliver'sTravelsis consideredhere in four units: the relationof
Gulliver to the genre of the voyage, Swift's establishmentof his
allegoricalintent,the degreeof allegoricalmeaningin Gulliver,and
someparticularpointsconnectedwith the separatevoyages.
I
Like many anothershorttitle, Gulliveris misleading.Swift'sown
title, Travelsinto severalRemoteNationsof the World,givesa truer
notion of the imaginativeintent of the work. Lemuel Gulliver,
"Firsta Surgeon,and then a Captainof severalShips,"appearedon
the originaltitle page only as author,and properlyso. We realize
very early, to be sure, that the characterof Gulliveris important;
but it is throughhistravelsthathiscreatorprojectsboth the allegory
andthe satire:the satirethroughthe allegory.'In choosingthe jour-
ney as an artisticform, Swift adoptsa mediumwhich is thoroughly
familiarin both satiricand seriousallegory.His predecessorsin the
use of the imaginaryjourney for comment on conditionsin this
world have been treatedin a competentstudy of his sources.2
What Swift does with the travelschemeis even moreinteresting
thanthe relation of Gulliverto otherimaginaryvoyages."It is not
difficultto see" saysProfessorCase,"why Swift, havingdetermined
to write his politico-sociologicaltreatise,shouldhavechosento cast
'For a treatment of the affinity between satire and allegory, see my "Notes on
Satire and Allegory," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, VI, 323-3I.
2W. A. Eddy, Gulliver'sTravels,A CriticalStudy (Princeton,1923), pp. 8-71.
I6I
i62 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY
it in the form of a travel book."3The form gave him complete
freedomto expresshis own views and yet enabledhim to appeal
to all the ready-maderesponseto the mere word travel.He him-
self hadsteadilyfelt the fascinationof booksof actualtravel.4These
books,which gavethe stay-at-homea senseof adventure,were enor-
mously popularin the early eighteenthcentury, as indeedin times
before and since. Swift's participationin the feeling which made
Dampierin particularso seize upon the contemporaryimagination
is demonstratedby the way he plays upon and uses it for his own
purposes.Swift capitalizesto the full on the desirefor vicariousex-
perience,the alreadyexistingwill to believe. With characteristic
doublenessof intention,he can mock at the real mariner'sconcern
with triflesand his reader'sappetitefor them, even while feeding
and countingupon that appetite.The most familarexampleof this
sort of dry mock is his taking the descriptionof the storm from
Sturmy'sMariner'sMagazinefor the openingof Book II.5The par-
ody is the moredelightfulbecauseit is still half actuallyin the spirit
of the original:the shifted attitudeis perceivedonly in relationto
the rest of the tale. Swift is, I think,in partsincerelydelightedwith
all this wealthof extravagantliteralnessand expectshis readerto be.
And his pleasurein realisticdetail (that is also real) is partly what
enableshim to achievethe circumstantiality that is so often pointed
out as giving credibilityto his imaginarylands.6
3A. E. Case, Four Essays on Gulliver's Travels (Princeton, 1945), p. I07.
4The evidence of his interest is compactly summarized by Harold Williams in
his introduction to Gulliver's Travels, in The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed.
Herbert Davis, XI, xiv-xv.
5Cited,for example, by Ricardo Quintana, The Mind and Art of Jonathan Swift
(Oxford, 1936), p. 296.
6Moll'satlasesapparentlyfed Swift's imaginationmuch as did the books of actual
travels. The use of Moll's maps by Motte's engraver has been treated by Frederick
G. Bracher,"Mapsin Gulliver's Travels,"Huntington Library Quarterly,VIII (No-
vember, 1944), 59-74, and by A. E. Case, op. cit. pp. 5o-6i. But so far as I know,
nothing has been made of Swift's own reference: "This confirmed me in the Opin-
ion I have long entertained, that the Maps and Charts place this Country at least
three Degrees more to the East than it really is; which Thought I communicated
many Years ago to my worthy Friend Mr. Herman Moll, and gave him my Reasons
for it, although he hath rather chosen to follow other Authors." (Gulliver's Travels,
Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis, XI, 268. All quotations from
Gulliver are taken from this edition.) In Moll's Atlas of 1709 we are promised:
"The World described; or, a New and Correct Sett of Maps: shewing, The King-
doms and States in all the known Parts of the Earth, with the principal Cities, and
GULLIVER I63
It is true that the book mustbe classifiedas an imaginaryvoyage;
but Swift differsmarkedlyfrom otherwritersof imaginaryvoyages
not only in makingmore adroituse of real or realisticvoyages,but
alsoin clarityof allegoricalintent.One readsLucian'sTrueHistory
in a spiritof sheermerriment.The parodistgives us warning:"But
my lying is far more honestthan theirs,for though I tell the truth
in nothingelse, I shallat leastbe truthfulin sayingthat I am a liar.
I think I can escapethe censureof the world by my own admission
that I am not telling a word of truth."7Consequently,while we
perceivehis mockery of the historians,we read on expectingthe
fun that he gives us: of fish that have the effect of wine, of grape
most considerable Towns in the World. Wherein the Errors of the antient Geog-
raphers are corrected according to the latest Observations of Travellers, as Com-
municated to the Royal Society of London, and the Royal Academy of Paris. Each
Map is neatly engraved on Copper by Herman Moll, Geographer, and printed on
two sheets of Elephant-Paper,so that the Scale is large enough to shew the chief
Cities and Towns, as well as Provinces, without appearing in the least confus'd.
And to render these Maps the more acceptable, there is engraved on several of
them what is most remarkablein those Countries."The pictures of what is most
remarkableabound in strange suggestions. The set accompanying the Map of Den-
mark and Sweden is headed: "The Laplandersbeing the most RemarkablePeople
in Europe; it will not be amiss to give a Scheach [sic.] of their manner of Living."
The picture labeled in the key, "F. Their way of Burying," shows four naked fig-
ures standing bolt upright in a picketed enclosure and another equally erect in a
tall box. Clearly all five are waiting to rise. This could conceivably be what Swift
sees upside down when he says in Chapter VI of the Voyage to Lilliput: "They
bury their Dead with their Heads directly downwards; because they hold an Opin-
ion, that in eleven Thousand Moons they are all to rise again; in which Period, the
Earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this Means
they shall, at their Resurrection, be found ready standing on their Feet." (pp. 41-
42.) The pictures include many of strange animals;the one of "The Dominions of
the King of Great Britain on ye Continent of North America" shows Beavers mak-
ing a dam. They are displayed in various stages of building with logs that recall to
the modern observer the Houyhnhnm carpentry described in the ninth chapter of
Gulliver's fourth voyage, whether or not they gave the suggestion to Swift. Many
of the maps have sketches of cities which make Swift's comment on Mildendo
leap to mind: "I viewed the Town on my left Hand, which looked like the painted
Scene of a city in a Theatre" (p. I3). The description fits the pictures of "Edin-
burg" with Moll's map of "The North Part of Great Britain called Scotland," the
"city of Mexico in New Spain,"with the map of the West Indies, Utrecht with the
map of the United Provinces, and Jerusalemwith the map of the Turkish Empire.
On the same page with the last of these, the lamps in the holy sepulchre give imme-
diately the effect of those in the Astronomer'sCave of Laputa. It would be surpris-
ing if the range of Moll's pictures of "what is most remarkable"had not made a
strong impressionupon so intense an imagination as Swift's, which seized on mate-
rial in out-of-the-way places and used it in fresh combinations.
7A True Story, tr. A. M. Harmon (Loeb ed.), I, 253.
vines that have the bodiesof women, of grassplumeridersand flea
archers,of ant dragoonsand vulture dragoons,and even of life
within the whale. We think very little of the storiesas mockery of
historians'fancifultalesbecausewe are delightedwith themas fan-
ciful talesper se. To the studentof Swift there is the extrainterest
in speculatingabout how some of Lucian's extravagantdetails
wroughtupon the imaginationof the creatorof Gulliver'sTravels.
Do the ears of plane leaves and the removableeyes, for instance,
suggestthe sensesthat are usableonly with the help of flappersin
Laputa?More strikingrecollectionsof Lucianin Gulliverare cited
by Eddy.8But the charmof Lucianis the feeling of pure caprice,
the sharingof his own joy in prodigalinvention,with occasional
commenton mankindtossedin apparentlyjust for an extrafillip of
interest.The parallelswith Swift throw into startlingrelief Swift's
controlledprecisionof meaning.This is justastrueof the two books
which D'Ablancourtaddedto his Frenchtranslationof Lucianand
which Eddy considersan evenmoresignificantsourcefor Gulliver.9
Lively as D'Ablancourt'simaginationis, he appearsstill freer than
Lucianof consistentallegoricalor satiricintent.Swift's pleasurein
theseimaginaryvoyages,with which Eddy has establishedso many
connections,musthavebeen very much like our own, a pleasurein
fancy itselfratherthanin its use for a purpose.The parallelpassages
from Cyranode Bergeracare even more impressive.'0 But Cyrano,
like Lucian,is capriciousin his managementof implicationin his
voyages,thoughhe is sharperin his condemnationof man;and it is
man that is condemnedratherthan historianor literarycommen-
tator as in Lucian.With Cyranoagain,however, we feel that the
journeysare essentiallyjeux d'espritandthat the meaningis adven-
titiousratherthan central.Again there are detailseven beyond the
strikingparallelsset forth by Eddy which teasethe studentof Swift
with questionsas to how much lurked in Swift's mind to appear
transformedin Gulliver.If we thinkof Swift'sinsistenceon simplic-
ity of languageand its relationto truth in Books II and IV, the
following passagetakeson an addedinterest:
8A Critical Study, pp. 53-55.
9"A Source for Gulliver's Travels," Modern Language Notes, XXXVI, 419-22.
lOEddy,A CriticalStudy, pp. 125 ff.
GULLIVER I65
Je ne me souviens pas si je luy parlay le premier,ou si ce fut luy qui
m'interrogea:mais j'ay la memoiretoute fraiche comme si je l'ecoutois
encore, qu'il me discourutpendanttrois grosses heures en une Langue
que je ssay bien n'avoirjamaisoiuye,& qui n'a aucunrapportavec pas-
une de ce Monde-cy, laquelletoutefois je comprisplus vite &plus intel-
ligiblement que celle de ma Nourice. 11 m'expliquaquand je me fus
enquis d'une chose si merveilleuse,que dans les Sciences il y avoit un
vray, hors lequel on etoit toujourseloigne du facile; que plus un idiome
s'eloignoitde ce vray, plus il se recontroitau dessousde la conception&
de moins facile intelligence... qui rencontre cette verite de lettres, de
mots, & de suite, ne peut jamaisen s'exprimanttomber au dessousde sa
conception,il parletoujoursegal a sa pensee;&c'est pour n'avoirpas la
connoissancede ce parfait idiome, que vous demeurezcourt, ne con-
noissantpas l'ordre ny les paroles qui puissent expliquer ce que vous
imaginez.1"
But simplicity, with its basisin exactness, is one of the principles em-
phasized in Swift's "Proposalfor Correcting, Improving, and Ascer-
taining the English Tongue," written long before the languages of
Brobdingnag and Houyhnhnmland were evolved.12It is indeed but
another statement of Swift's "proper words in proper places."
"3Les Oeuvres de Monsieur Cyrano de Bergerac (seconde partie, Paris, I676),

pp. 215-I6.
l2Swift's interest in the appropriatesounds of his various languages is apparent
throughout Gulliver. The number of h's and y's which make the Houyhnhnm lan-
guage suggest the whinny of a horse is no more carefully managed than is the pre-
dominance of g and u sounds which give a guttural appropriatenessto the language
of the giants, emphasized by the diminished sound of the i's in Grildrig. Swift's
interest in concocted languages is revealed not only in the little language of his
Journal to Stella, but also in the language games that he continued to play with
his friend Sheridan. There is a manuscript of some of these in the Huntington Li-
brary, bearing on one sheet the inscription "Stanzasto Sherid-." One of them,
labeled "Consult,"gives an idea of one of Swift's methods of making up language:
"Enter fore docto res o fis icto a sic mano qual lite
A Consult is de scribe dat his Pallas.
I Dr Is His Honor sic? Prae lietus felis pus. It
does beat veris loto de."
These two lines are marked out, apparently because they depend too much on
plain English; but samples of those allowed to stand are just as easy to translate (as
indeed I think it would all be if the letters could be deciphered).
"Mi pati entis sic offa colli cassureas I sit here.
4. Dr. Itis AEther an Atro phi ora colli casu sed....
2d Dr. I fit is a fluxit me re qui re ac lister....
It me bea pluri si, avo mitis [first written "a vomit
is"] veri prop per fora manat his age.... It isto late
tot hinc offa remedi for i here his honoris de ad."
i66 HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLY
Clearlywe do not haveto do with a sourcein Cyrano.Here again,
the stimulusthat Swift received was a delight in fancy. How to
charmthe imaginationhe might have learnedfrom fantasticvoy-
ages,hadhe neededsuchinstruction;but the artof usingthe voyage
for a purposewhich concernedhim more than art he could not
learn from his so-calledsources.What engagesus here is Swift's
confrontingof the problemsof the satiricallegoryin journeyform.
II
The first problemis perhapsthe establishmentof the underlying
intent.How soon andhow directlycan the writerof such a voyage
let the readerknow what he is up to? By what methodsis he to re-
veal so that the readerwill have the pleasureof seemingto find for
himself what is hidden?Since the great pleasureof both allegory
and satire,and hence peculiarlyof allegoricalsatire,is being in the
secret,laughingwith a "few friendsin a corner,"the mysterymust
be presentand it must also be clearto the astute."Forthe allegory
is nothingmore nor less than a riddle.... A riddleunansweredis a
failure;in like manneran allegorywhich remainsa darkconceit,or
which is unravelledwith difficulty,is a failureas an allegory,what-
ever its literarymerit may be in other directions."'13But a riddle
which is too easy is just as much a failureamongthe elect as is one
that is too hard among the vulgar. What is the right degree of
difficulty?
The moment of time between the perceptionof the outward
seemingand the perceptionof the underlyingintent, which makes
the great charmof all speakingby indirectionand which through
its sharpeningof the barb becomesthe specialmeansof economy
in satiricallegory,if it is prolongedmakesfor diffusioninsteadof
intensificationand hence for artisticwaste ratherthan economy.
The pitfall is especiallytreacherousin the initialstagesof the alle-
gory, for if the writerwaitstoo long to let us know that he is up to
somethingbeyond his apparentpurpose,we may be so beguiledby
the story itself that we are not alertto the first hints of what he is
actually doing.
13H. E. Greene, "Allegory in Spenser, Bunyan, and Swift," Publications of the
Modern Language Association, IV, I5s-52.
GULLIVER I67
Swift may have falleninto this snare.Sir CharlesFirth,in his in-
valuableessayon "The PoliticalSignificanceof Gulliver'sTravels,"
saysthatthe firstpart"hasno politicalsignificance.It is simplywhat
Shakespeare terms'very graciousfooling.'This no doubtrepresents
the part written in I714." 14 The commonview is that Swift, taking
up old material,shifted his intentionwhen he began to rework it
afteran intervalof six or sevenyears;andit is a view that the publi-
cationof the lettersto Ford,with theirevidenceaboutthe composi-
tion of the work, has done little to shake.15But supposewe accept
Case'sopinion, to which I incline, that "The allegory is exactly
coincidentalwith Gulliver'sresidencein Lilliput and Blefuscu.It
beginswith the hero'sshipwreckand captivity,which correspond
to the temporaryfall from power of OxfordandBolingbroke(then
RobertHarley andHenry St. John) in I 708." 16 If the suggestedin-
terpretationis sound,we haveto do with an artisticlapseof another
sort than awkwardpatching. Case'scomment fits the rest of his
argument:
For, examinedwithout prejudice,the first two chaptersof Gulliver ap-
pear to be a perfectly naturalintroductionto the story under cover of
which Swift intends to shoot his wit: moreover, they contain events
which are a necessarypart of the politicalallegory.These introductory
chaptersare neither more or less imaginative,or more or less closely
linked with the main purposeof the book, than are the corresponding
chaptersof the second voyage, which, if they show a slight deepening
in tone, do so in accord with Swift's intention to deepen the character
of his principalfigure as an integralpart of his main design.17
There may be morethana slight deepeningof tone in the detailsof
Gulliver'sbeingcomparedto a "smalldangerousAnimal,"a weasel,
a toad or a spider;but even if what Casesays is true, the analogy
with Book II is falseandthe questionof Swift'sartistryin launching
his travelsremains.By the time we reach Book II we know what
14EssaysHistorical and Literary (Oxford, 1938), p. 214. (Reprinted from Pro-
ceedings of the British Academy, vol. IX.)
15Fora summary of this evidence, see the editor's introduction to The Letters of
JonathanSwift to CharlesFord, ed. D. N. Smith (Oxford, '935), pp. xxxviii ff. and
for conclusions from it Harold Williams, op. cit., p. xxi. For a representativestate-
ment of the idea of Swift's patching, see Quintana, op. cit., p. 291.
160p. cit., p. 70-
17Ibid.,p. 105.
i68 HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLY
Swift is up to, or at leastthathe is up to somethingmorethana fanci-
ful tale.He hashadno way of givingus suchpreparationfor BookI.
The book must not only make its own point, but must also let us
know that it is doing so. Now Casehimselfadmitsthat the applica-
tions in the first two chaptersare apparentonly on looking back
afterlaterchaptersclarifythe allegoricalintent.'8It seemsto me that
this is a defect that the most ardentadmirerof Swift's skill must
acknowledgeif the work is to be takensimplyas a politico-sociolog-
ical tract. But if we assumethat Swift from the beginninghas in
mind two levels of allegory, I think we must considerourselves
much more fairly dealt with as readers.We do not know at once
that Lilliputis England,but we do know almostat once that the
Lilliputiansare humanbeings,and that throughan apparentlyfac-
tual record of a rather literal-mindedtraveler,human curiosity,
cruelty, pompousness,etc., are being revealedwith all the clarity
that the shiftedscaleof Lilliputiansize makespossible.Later,when
we havemadethis adjustment,we beginto get particularreferences
that areunmistakable. This we clearlydo by the time of the investi-
gation of Gulliver'spockets,which is completedbefore the end of
the secondchapter.It is perhapsthe very measureof Swift'sadroit-
nessthat he lets us into one secretafteranotherso that we are flat-
teredfirst by seeingthroughthe natureof the Lilliputiansinto the
natureof man and then againby seeingthroughthe happeningsat
theircourt into eventsin England.Two complirnentsto our under-
standingare more beguilingthan one, and we do not yet feel that
we too areincludedin the indictment.
The establishmentof the allegoricalintentionis especiallyimpor-
tant in a work of the size and scope of Gulliver'sTravelsbecauseif
the readerhasa clearsenseof the total design,he is less botheredby
incidentaldeparturesfromit. Indeed,it is the blendof straightstory
with allegory that saves the formulafrom rigidity, and helps the
narrativeto carry the meaning.We shouldnot willingly part with
unallegoricaldetailssuch as the accountsof Gulliver'scontrivance
of his stools for gettinginto the courtsof the Lilliputianemperor's
palaceor of his oaten cakes and rush mats in HouyhnhnmLand.
But if the allegoristis to win the rightto such freedom,he mustfirst
180p. cit., p. 70.
GULLIVER I 69
win our confidencethat he is taking us somewhere.Once he has
done this, we follow him into bypaths,confidentthat the goal is
eventuallyto be reached.'9The initialwinning of our confidence
Swift triumphantlyachieves.Much has been made of Gulliver's
matter-of-factair of candorwhich made the Irishbishopexclaim,
"thatbook was full of improbablelies, and, for his part,he hardly
believed a word of it."20 In Dr. Bentley's CriticalRemarksupon
Gulliver'sTravelswe read, in answerto the claim to truth in the
letterto Sympson,"Andas I am entirelyunconcerned,whetherthe
Captain'sReputationmight be more advanced,by its passingfor a
Fiction,than a Fact; I shallundertaketo convincethe Learned,by
sufficientTestimonies,that such a Nation as he calls the Houyhn-
hnms,was perfectly known to the Antients."'21 What makesthese
judgments,straightor ironic, of the work as truth, possibleis, in
part,the gravemannerin which Gulliverrecitesfacts that could be
truein the life of any adventurousplainman,a manof somethingof
Defoe's classand temperament,and then in the samegrave factual
mannerbegins to inject the impossibleelements.An equally large
partis due, I think,to the vividnesswith which Swift himselfabso-
lutely saw, with his physicaleyes, the creaturesof his imagination.
19Thisline of thought was suggested to me by H. E. Greene, op. cit., p. i6i: "The
clearness of Bunyan's allegory may be due in part to a cause that is not generally
suspected,-namely, that much of it is not allegory at all." But oddly enough,
Greene does not apply the same reasoningto Gulliver, which he finds as an allegory
"very imperfect. The size of the Lilliputians and of the Brobdingnagianshas no
immediate connection with the allegory, which depends solely on the transference
of human qualities and interests to these peoples. Through them is expressed di-
rectly, and not by any transfer of meaning, the contempt which Swift felt for the
human race. Except in the first part there is but little of continued allegory,,though
there are scattered throughout the work allegorical allusionsto matters of recent or
contemporary history" (pp. I67-68). Greene considers The Tale of a Tub "not
only... his masterpiece, but... also his best allegory; indeed one would hazard
little in making the assertion that it is the best sustained allegory that ever was
written" (pp. I68-69). Cf. Harold Williams' comment: "In A Tale of a Tub the
allegory is not remarkable,and it is a subordinatepart of the whole." (Introduction
to Gulliver's Travels, op. cit., p. ix.) We are constrained to wonder what Swift
would have made of these contests and dissensions among his commentators. The
newcomer among them can only hope that the spirit of Swift is not so remote as
he makes the ghosts of Homer and Aristotle be from their commentators,to whom
they were "perfect Strangers"(p. i8i ) .
2OTheWorks of Alexander Pope, ed. Elwin and Courthope (London, I871), VII,
91-92.
21Dublin, 1735, p. 8.
170 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY
His use of detailis far more than the heapingup of circumstantial
evidencefor the sake of verisimilitude; it is the attemptto makeus
see what he sees. The hyperacutenessof Swift's actual senseshas
often beenpointedout; the intensityof his visual(and auditoryand
olfactory and motor!) imaginationis just as acute. This habit of
"perceivingabsentthings as if they were present"suffusessuch a
work as the Journalto Stella,where Swift is as far as possiblefrom
the thoughtof havingto win belief: "I was speakingmonkeythings
in air,justasif MD hadbeenby," "... when I amwritingin our lan-
guage I makeup my mouthjust as if I was speakingit." "No, faith,
you are just hereupon this little paper,and thereforeI see and talk
with you every eveningconstantly."22 Consequentlyin such a work
as Gulliverhe makesus believeby makingus see andfeel becausehe
hasfirstseenandfelt himself.Gulliversays:
I attemptedto rise, but was not able to stir: For as I happenedto lie on
my Back,I foundmy ArmsandLegswere stronglyfastenedon each
Side to the Ground;and my Hair, which was long and thick, tied down
in the same Manner.I likewise felt severalslenderLigaturesacrossmy
Body,frommy Armpitsto my Thighs.I couldonly look upwards;the
Sun began to grow hot, and the Light offended mine Eyes. I heard a
confused Noise about me, but in the Posture I lay, could see nothing
except the Sky. In a little time I felt somethingalive moving on my left
Leg, which advancinggently forward over my Breast,came almostup
to my Chin;when bendingmine Eyes downwardsas much as I could, I
perceived it to be a human Creaturenot six Inches high, with a Bow
and Arrow in his Hands, and a Quiver at his Back.23
Even the strainingof Gulliver'sneck as he triesto see what is on his
chest we feel in our own musclesbecauseSwift had undoubtedly
felt it firstin his.
Makingus feel in this fashionis an accomplishmentof no mean
order;but Swift hasa harderkind of suspensionof disbeliefto win
fromus. He mustmakeus acceptthe sensuouslyperceivednarrative
as somethingmorethanitself, andhe mustdo it earlyif he is not to
lead us astrayand so causeresistancewhen he does makeus attend
to the meaning.This more difficulttask likewiseI think he accom-
plishes.The letter to Sympson,first publishedin Faulkner'sDublin
22Journalto Stella, ed. Harold Williams (Oxford, 1948), 1, 154-55,210s, 232.
23Pp. 5-6.
GULLIVER I 7'
edition,gives clear warningthat it is the meaningof the travelsto

which our attentionis directed;and as twentieth-centuryreaders,
we havegrown so accustomedto beingtold fromchildhoodthatthe
book is morethana story that it is almostimpossibleto judge on its
meritsthe revelationof purposewithinthe narrative.But unmistak-
able hints come very early. From our first perceptionof the first
Lilliputian,we areinvitedto considerhumankind:"I perceivedit to
be a humanCreaturenot six Incheshigh."Swift makeshere a plain
announcementthat his subject is man and the littlenessof man.
And as the openingsceneunfolds,thereareconstantremindersthat
it is humanactionsand humanattitudesthat makeit up. Sentences
in proof can be picked almost at randomfrom the first chapter:
.... they shot anotherFlight into the Air, as we do Bombsin Eu-
rope;""He actedeverypartof an Orator;andI could observemany
Periodsof Threatnings,andothersof Promises,Pity, andKindness."
"... I could not sufficientlywonder at the Intrepidityof these di-
minutiveMortals."It seemsfolly to multiplyexampleswhen almost
every paragraphsuppliesthem. The uncannyrecognitionof these
as indeedhumancreaturesnot six incheshigh is as much a part of
the spell cast upon us by the openingchaptersas is the feeling that
they actuallyexist.
III
If we agreethatthe use of the story for commenton manis estab-
lished by the end of the first chapterand its use for commenton
Englandby the end of the second,we are irnmediatelyconfronted
with the questionof how much weight of meaningthe story can
bear,the constantproblemof the allegoristwhich seemsto me espe-
cially pressingif the allegoryis satiric.If it must carry two levels
of satiricidea, should they be perceivedsimultaneouslythrougha
given episode?Should both be presentin every episodewhich is
madeto beareither?
H. E. Greene,followingBrinkman,definesallegoryas "figurative
throughoutin all its details;while the metaphoris partly literal,
partly figurative."24By this definitionmuch of Gulliver is meta-
240p. Cit., p. Is50
I72 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY
phoricalratherthan allegorical.Gulliver'saccount of Englandto
his Houyhnhnmmasteris a case in point. There is direct, literal
statement:"BUT, besidesreal Diseases,we are subjectto many that
are only imaginary,for which the Physicianshave inventedimagi-
nary Cures;these have theirseveralNames, and so have the Drugs
that are proper for them; and with these our Female Yahoosare
always infested."25Indeedthe whole accountof diseaseand medi-
cine in chaptersix is perfectly straightforward.But in chapterfive
in the accountof the causesof war, thereis greatvariationin man-
agementof levels.Gulliverbeginswith a statementof humanquar-
relsomenessin which the specificreferencesarerathereasilyassign-
able:
Differencein Opinionshath cost many Millionsof Lives: For Instance,
whetherFlesh be Bread,or Breadbe Flesh:Whether the Juice of a cer-
tain Berrybe Blood or Wine:Whether Whistlingbe a Vice or a Virtue:
Whether it be better to kissa Post or throw it into the Fire: What is the
best Colour for a Coat, whether Black, White, Red or Grey; and
whether it shouldbe long or short,narrowor wide, dirty or clean;with
many more.
But he concludesthe paragraphwith a generalization:
Neither are any Warsso furiousand bloody, or of so long Continuance,
as those occasioned by Difference in Opinion, especially if it be in
things indifferent.
Then in the next paragraph,where the subjectis greed as a source
of war, he abandonsspecific reference entirely and uses general
statementwith irony to enforcethe point:
SOMETIMES the Quarrelbetween two Princesis to decide which of them
shalldispossessa Third of his Dominions,where neitherof them pretend
to any Right. Sometimesone Prince quarrelethwith another,for fear
the other should quarrelwith him. Sometimesa War is entered upon,
becausethe Enemy is too strong, and sometimesbecausehe is too weak.
Sometimesour Neighbours want the Things which we have, or have
the Things which we want; and we both fight, till they take ours or
give us theirs.It is a very justifiableCauseof War to invade a Country
after the People have been wasted by Famine,destroyedby Pestilence,
or embroiledby Factions amongstthemselves.It is justifiableto enter
25p. 238.
GULLIVER 173
into a War againstour nearestAlly, when one of his Towns lies conven-
ient for us, or a Territoryof Land, that would render our Dominions
round and compact. If a Prince send Forces into a Nation, where the
People are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to
Death, and makeSlavesof the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them
from their barbarousWay of Living. It is a very kingly, honourable,
and frequent Practice, when one Prince desires the Assistance of an-
other to securehim againstan Invasion,that the Assistant,when he hath
drivenout the Invader,should seize on the Dominionshimself,and kill,
imprisonor banishthe Prince he came to relieve.Allyance by Blood or
Marriage,is a sufficientCauseof War between Princes;and the nearer
the Kindredis, the greateris their Dispositionto quarrel:Poor Nations
are hungry,and rich Nations areproud;andPride and Hunger will ever
be at Variance.For these Reasons,the Tradeof a Soldieris held the most
honourableof all others: Becausea Soldier is a Yahoohired to kill in
cold Blood as many of his own Species,who have never offended him,
as possibly he can.26
This is in a very different vein from the story of the combat between
Lilliput and Blefuscu, which carries the same implications, but we
dare not say that it is less packed or less effective. Obviously it is
not all allegory, though allegory shades very easily into irony of
which there is full measure here.27The reader would be bored, I
think, if the allegorical scheme were strictly followed throughout
the four books; and I have chosen this passage to illustrate Swift's
skilful mixture of methods partly because it comes from a long dis-
quisition where boredom from sameness of manner is the particular
danger to be avoided.
The whole management of Books II and IV as predominantly
comment on the nature of man without much specific reference to
England adds to the special force of the passagesin Books I and III
which do carry both levels. Human rapacity is illustrated in the
behavior of the farmer in Book II who works Gulliver unmercifully
and then is willing to sell him when he seems beyond use; the same
trait is illustrated with the addition of its being Whig rapacity and
the clamor of "No Peace without Spain" in the Lilliputian desire to
26pp. 230-31I
27Does irony serve for satire the same purpose that allegory does? Is allegory a
degree of irony not reaching to opposition of meaning-or put the other way
round, is irony here an extension of allegory? At least it can be said that irony
involves some of the same problems of the relation of appearanceto reality.
I74 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY
reduceBlefuscuto a province.The two methodsof treatingsimilar
qualitiesenhanceeach other.
There can be no objectionto varyingthe degreeof meaningthe
allegoryis to carry,or departingfromallegoricalmethodaltogether,
so long as the centralallegoricalintent is clear and the departures
from it not confusing.These conditionsSwift fulfillsin BooksI, II,
and IV. Book III, the last written of the four books, has been held
by commonconsent,sincethe time of its firstreaders,to be the least
effectiveof the four. No doubtGulliverwould be morenearlyper-
fect as a work of art if Swift hadbeen contentto stop when he had
finishedBook IV. His own feeling that Book III is anti-climacticis
evidencedby his insertingit betweenII andIV. But it is easyto see,
from the effectivenessof someof its parts,why he might havebeen
unwillingto discardit entirely.Its importance,in his eyes, is indi-
cated by the length of time he spent in polishingit, longer than he
lavishedon any of the other books.28The variousunits of it do
belong in the total commenton man and many of them in the spe-
cific applicationto England.The artisticconfusionlies as much in
the relationof the levels of meaningas in the lack of centralstruc-
turewhichis usuallystatedasits cause.Eddy declares:". . . the satire
is inexcusablyobvious,"29but since he takes it only as a satireof
scientists,etc., it would appearthat the satireis not obviousenough.
Caseseemsto be much nearerto the truthwhen he says:
It is importantto keepin mindthe mainpurposeof this thirdvoyage,
which has universallybeen judgedto be the least successfulof the
four, largelyfor lack of unity. It is impossiblenot to agreewith the
generalverdict,butit is easyto overstatethe degreeof disorganization.
Superficiallythevoyageseemsto be dividedintofoursections,recount-
ing the adventuresin Laputa,in Balnibarbi, in Glubdubdrib, and in
Luggnagg.The firsttwo sectionsareregardedas attacksuponscience,
thethirdasa criticismof history,andthe fourthasa personalexpression
of Swift'sfearof old age.In pointof fact,the attacksuponscienceand
historyaresubsidiary to a singlemainpurpose-anattackuponfolly in
government, which,in Swift'sview,wasidenticalwiththeoreticalinno-
vation,as opposedto the followingof old andtriedmethods,modified
only by the adoptionof suchvariations as havebeenprovedsuccessful
in practicein other countries.Swift apparentlyfelt that the Whigs had
28SeeHarold Williams, Introduction, op. cit., p. xxi.
29A Critical Study, p. I57.
GULLIVER 175
transferredto the scientistsmuch of the encouragementwhich earlier
administrationshad given to men of letters, and he regardedthis tend-
ency as symptomaticof the inclinationof the Whigs toward chimerical
experimentationin all fields.30
But beyond this general satire on folly in government in terms of
the folly of speculators, we have also to do with a great many spe-
cific references. There are often, therefore, three levels of meaning
beyond the obvious story. Our difficulty comes, I think, from our
not knowing at any given point how much extra meaning we are to
look for. We are afraid we have not read the riddle completely; and
consequently the time-lag becomes too great. The moment of sus-
pense that intensifies the force and pleasure with which the mind
leaps into understanding becomes an appreciable period of puzzling
out references. The problems seem too thorny and the pleasure of
solving them too long delayed. In Book I, we see that Flimnap is
Walpole (or some specific first minister) as soon as we see the larger
mockery of human folly in the sentence: "Flimnap, the Treasurer,
is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher
than any other Lord in the whole Empire."'3'The mockery of Wa-
pole's skill in acrobatic feats and of maneuvering for place have a
reciprocal intensification. But in the episode of the mill in Book III,
while the ridicule of speculative schemes is at once apparent,we are
tantalized by the specific applications. If Case is right in declaring
that Munodi "actually represents" Oxford,32surely it is an artistic
defect that this was not apparentuntil Case pointed it out; and Case's
analysis of the new scheme for conveying water to the mill by pipes
and engines is somewhat forced. The mill episode is a good example
of the defect of the whole book. If we take the reference to contem-
porary life as the first level of meaning, the distance to an interpre-
tation of it in which we can feel any confidence is so great that we
are discouraged before we get to the second and third levels of
comment on theorizing in the management of public affairs and on
300p. cit., pp. II1-12.
31p. 22.
320p. cit., p. 87. Case seems to have forgotten in his treatment of Book III that
Gulliver himself was supposed to have the experiences of Oxford and Bolingbroke.
Case makes this claim only for the events in Lilliput. (Ibid., p. 70.) But it seems
awkward to have Gulliver shift identity.
I76 HUNTINGTON LIBRARYQUARTERLY
theorizingas such. Thus the deepersignificanceis almostlost. The
artisticweaknessis fundamentalandhasnothingto do with passage
of time,which doesnot botherus at all in the equallycontemporary
referencesof Book I.33 The relationof High Heels and Low Heels
to fundamentalhumannatureis clear at once; so that if we know
about Democratsand Republicans,we can interpretwell enough
the particularreferencesto Whig and Tory controversies,whether
we know aboutthemfrom historybooksor not. But in Book III we
arenot sureaboutour clues,and so we wonderwhat bit of knowl-
edge of the eighteenthcentury we are lacking to piece them to-
gether. We are likely, as we searchfor limitedapplicationsto the
times,to missthe largerpointaltogether.Swift'sclaimto universality
of applicationwas made as much for Book III as for any other
book;34but it hasnot beenso universallyappliedas the others.This,
I think, is largely due to his failureto clarify in his own mind the
relationof the terms of his allegory to the levels of meaninghe
wishedto convey throughit.
One questionwhich arisesin this connectionandwhich is perhaps
simplya matterof terminologyis whetheror not satiricallegorycan
use symbolism.In his interestingstudy, "The Nature of Allegory as
Used by Swift," H. M. Darganspeakssteadilyof the "satiricsym-
bols,"35apparentlysimplyto designatethe termsof the allegory.But
actuallyin his discussionof the satirist'skeepingattentionfixedupon
the symbolslongerthan does the writerof "visionary"allegory,he
is makingthe samesortof distinctionusuallymadebetweenallegory
and symbolismitself.36So the questionstill remainswhetheror not
33There may be something of the same flaw in the character of Reldresal, whom
Firth identifies as Carteret (Op. Cit., p. 222), and Case as Townshend (Op.cit., p. 78).
Their disagreement in identification depends on a different interpretation of the
friendship of Reldresal, which Case considers feigned and Firth takes as authentic.
The trouble, if it exists, is not in our loss of knowledge of the period but in the
lack of clarity in Reldresal's character, and is of exactly the same kind as the
artistic confusion in Book III.
34The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D. D., ed. F. E. Ball (London, 19I2),
III, 407.
35Studies
in Philology,XIII, 159-79 passim.
361bid.,pp. I62-63. Cf. Greene, op. cit., pp. 156-57 and C. S. Lewis, The Allegory
of Love (Oxford, 1936), p. 45, for the usual view that "The allegorist leaves the
given-his own passions-to talk of that which is confessedly less real, which is a
fiction.The symbolist leaves the given to find that which is more real."
GULLIVER '77
the satiricallegoristhasany businessin this realmof the purertruth
of the ideal made concrete. I wonder if symbolismis not exactly
what Swift is attemptingin the characterof the Houyhnhnmsandif
this is not preciselythe reasonfor theirrelativelyunsuccessfulpres-
entation.Imaginatively,we do not know quitewhat to do with the
passionlesshorses,whereasthe responseto the Yahoosis clear and
immediate.Dargan'sdistinctionis useful here: "in the latter[satiric
allegory]the artistmoreoften wishesto prejudiceor preoccupythe
reader'smind with the qualitiesof the symbol before the reader
passesto the concept of the thing symbolized;whereasin visionary
allegorythe reader'simaginationmustquicklybe shiftedfrom sym-
bol to symbolized... the differencein practicebetween it and the
satiricdependson the fact that in visionthere is no suggestionof a
moralequivalencebetweenthe anchorandhope;but satiredoessug-
gest a moral equivalencebetween the frog and the Whig."37 The
anchorfor Hope is a symbolin exactlythe usualsense.Now doesthe
writerof satiricallegoryhaveany use for suchsymbols?The horses
can scarcely be said to representReason and Benevolenceas the
anchorrepresentsHope; yet if our mindsdwell on them as horses,
the effect is slightlyridiculous.We areinclinedto lingerover the at-
temptto picturethem becauseSwift hastrainedus throughall four
booksby the very vitalityof his sensuousrepresentations of objects
of satireto takein a sharplyconcreteimpression.The Yahoosarethe
climaxof this dreadfulvividness;andin readingthe fourthbook,we
are likely eitherto have the attentionexclusivelyfocused on them
(which probablyaccountsfor the horrormanyreadersfeel of Swift
himself)or elseto try to envisagethe Houyhnhnmsandto findthem
a little foolish.We can hardlyrespondexcept by laughterto such
descriptionsas:
They dinedin the bestRoom, andhadOatsboiledin Milk for the second
Course,which the old Horse eat warm,but the rest cold. Their Mangers
were placed circularin the Middle of the Room, and dividedinto sev-
eral Partitions,round which they sat on their Haunchesupon Bossesof
Straw. In the Middle was a large Rack with Angles answeringto every
Partitionof the Manger.So that each Horse and Mare eat their own
370p. Cit., p. I62.
Hay, and their own Mash of Oats and Milk, with much Decency and
Regularity.38
The pictureof the white marethreadinga needleheld betweenthe
pasternandhoof of herforefeetis stillmoreludicrous.It wouldseem
that even so great an artistas Swift cannot successfullybreakinto
an attitudeof derision,set up by insistentconcrete details,with an
attitudeof veneration,set up by symbolsfor qualitiesnot at all iden-
tifiablewith them. If the horsesactuallyworked as such a symbol,
our mindswould leave them almostat once to dwell upon Reason
and Benevolence.As it is, we either stay too long upon them as
horsesor else ignorehorsesand their qualitiesalikein our preoccu-
pationwith the morestrikingYahoos.
In a totally differentdeparturefrom the planeof satiricrepresen-
tation in his allegorySwift seemsto me altogethersuccessful.The
characterof Gulliveris distinctfrom the scheme.In what happens
to him, Gullivermay go throughexperiencesthatstandfor those of
BolingbrokeandOxfordandSwift andMankind;but in his own be-
ing Gulliverrepresentsno personnor class.He is not a Puritanlike
Hudibras,nor a knight errantof romanceand a particularkind of
humanbeing like Don Quixote.He is LemuelGulliver,first a sur-
geon andthen a captainof severalships.But exceptas his titles help
to show his enterprise,they are of no importance.Swift'srefusalto
let himwearlabelsis a strongproof of artistry,andthis for the cause
thatBergsonsetsforth in Laughter:
... le Jalouxcould only be the title of a comedy.The reasonis that,
however intimatelyvice, when comic, is associatedwith persons,it none
the less retainsits simple, independentexistence,it remainsthe central
character,presentthough invisible,to which the charactersin flesh and
blood on the stage are attached.... Every comic characteris a type. In-
versely, every resemblanceto a type has somethingcomic in it.... It is
comic to fall into a ready-madecategory.And what is most comic of all
is to become a category oneself into which otherswill fall....39
It is imperativethatwe shouldnot see Gulliveras comic becauseour
gradualenlightenmentmustcome throughhis. The whole intensifi-
cationfrom book to book, andthe cumulativeforce of themall, de-
389T. 2I5
39Tr. Brereton and Rothwell (New York, 1929), pp. 15, 148, I49.
GULLIVER '79
pendson our beingableto feel that Gulliveris a manlike ourselves,
not a qualitynor a collectionof qualities.It is not a questionof our
liking or not liking him. We are full of affectionfor Don Quixote;
but we haveonly to imaginehimin Gulliver'splaceto see the whole
structureof the work fall to pieces.If Gulliveris to serveSwift'sal-
legoricpurpose,he mustnot be an allegoricalcharacterhimself.We
do take him seriouslyas a personeven when he is in ridiculoussitu-
ationssuchasthosein Brobdingnagthatbefallhimon accountof his
smallsize.In the monkeyepisode,insteadof laughingwith the Brob-
dingnagians,we feel all Gulliver'sown discomfiture.That we are
enabledto do this is due, I think, as much to the particulartraits
Swift gives him as to the skill with which his temperamentis con-
veyed. He would have to be incorrigiblyadventurousto makehis
travelsat all;but he mustnot be given to intellectualor imaginative
adventuringif he is to give us the apparentlyfactualrecord of his
experienceswhich enablesus to perceiveasif for ourselvesthe grow-
ing implicationsof what he goes through. He must have a head
"mechanicallyturned,"40if he is to survivethe varioushardships
underwhich he sustainslife; but he mustbe observantbeyondwhat
concernshimselfif he is to serveus. He musthavea fairlystubborn
prejudicein favorof his countryandhisspeciesif his disillusionis to
be delayedlong enough to give force to ours;but he must not be
wholly imperviousto new ideasif we areto be taughtthe lessonset
down for our amendment.Swift has given him every quality he
needsto fill the positionhe holds;but he is morethantheirsum.Be-
yond all his qualities,he is a humanbeinglike ourselves:blundering,
suffering,full of mixedtraits,strugglingwith new perceptions,but
somehowindomitablyretaininga senseof his own identity.
IV
It remainsto commentbrieflyon each of the four unitsof Gulli-
ver'sexperience.The allegoryof Book I has been written aboutin
such detailby Sir CharlesFirthandProfessorCasethat it seemsun-
necessaryto say much about it, though it would be interestingto
note the pointsat which Firthand Casedifferin keepingwith their
40Swift uses the same phrase to characterize his own forebear, Thomas Swift, in
the "Fragment of an Autobiography," Works, ed. Temple Scott (London, 1907),
XI, 372.
opposingviews of inconsistencyand consistencyin the conception
of the whole.41I agreewith Casethatthereis a centralunity andthat
thereis no shiftin the characterof the king,simplya drivinghomeof
the mockeryby the incongruityof hiscomelyfigurewith GeorgeI's
ungainlyone. But the sixth chapteris still an awkwardintrusion,
which Casedoes not explainaway by saying: "At this point Swift,
to heightensuspense,interpolatesa chapteron generalconditionsof
life in Lilliput,which, while it containsa numberof isolatedsatiric
references,does not advancethe main plot."42It is not actually a
chapteron generalconditions,for if these conditionsprevailed,the
people would be far betterthan Swift has depictedthem as being.
This is especiallytruein the realmof education.He is far from hav-
ing shownthe Lilliputiansasthe productsof the systemhe describes,
which more appropriatelybelongsto such a utopiaas Houyhnhnm
Land.The Lilliputiansseemto be productsof the educationSwift
ascribesto the king of Brobdingnag.The account of educationin
the sixth chapterof the voyage to Lilliputreadslike "An Essay on
ModernEducation"43 in reverseand is clearly Swift's idea of what
ought to be done, not of what is done in Lilliputor anywhereelse.
Swift himselfin hisapologyfor the chapterdoesnot claimthatit de-
scribesgeneralconditionsbut ratherthe originalpurity-fromwhich
the institutionshavefallen away: "In relatingthese and the follow-
ing Laws, I would only be understoodto meanthe originalInstitu-
tions, and not the most scandalousCorruptionsinto which these
Peoplearefallenby the degenerateNatureof Man."44 It can hardly
be broughtinto the unity of Book I, thoughit may sharpenthe ex-
citementof the surroundingnarrativeby its lack of action.Its justi-
ficationis ratherits relationto the body of positiveidea that is the
basisof the whole satire;but thisis scarcelyan artisticjustification.
One othersuggestionI shouldlike to makeaboutBook I. Swift's
earlywork, ContestsandDissensionsin AthensandRome,develops
the views of governmentto which Swift was to adhereall his life
and which are embodiedin Gulliver.This has often been pointed
out; but I have nowhereseen mentionedthat since the Contestsis
4tFirth,op. cit., pp. 214-23, and Case, op. Cit., pp. 70-80.
42Case, op. Cit., p. 76. 43Works,ed. Temple Scott, XI, 49-57.
44P.
44.
GULLIVER I8I
alsoSwift'sfirstallegoricalrepresentation of Englishgovernment,it
hasa very realartisticrelationto the Voyageto Lilliput.The whole
object in talkingabout the countriesof antiquitywas to represent
whatwasto be saidaboutEngland.To be sure,they arethe reallands
of GreeceandRome;Swift as artisthasyet to learnthat he can pre-
sentthe contestsand dissensionsof Englandwith stillmorefreedom
and precisionunder the guise of squabblesin Lilliput than under
ancientparallelswhose linesarefixedby history.But surelyhe is al-
readyexperimentingwith ways of sayingmorethanhe seemsto be
saying. His comments,quoted by Firth,45about his hopes that the
meaningof his allegorywill be discoveredare as applicableto this
firstcritiqueof governmentas to Gulliveritself.
Since commentatorson the allegory in Gulliver have been pri-
marilyinterestedin the politicalreferences,Book II has had short
shrift from them.46But on the deeperlevel of meaning,the second
book is heavilyweighted;andin a considerationof Swift'smethods
of conveying meaningit is as interestingas any of the four. Its
schemecan hardlybe viewed except in relationto that of Book I.
Johnson'sjudgment:"Whenonce you havethoughtof big men and
little men, it is very easy to do all the rest,"47springsfrom his usual
disparagement of Swift;but his implicationof the importanceof the
shift in perspectiveis sound.It is not truethat the restis easy.What
we know of the compositionof Gulliverprovesthat it was not easy
even for such a geniusas Swift. But the fact that Gulliveris now the
Lilliputian,shown off by the farmeras he hasshown the Lilliputian
cattlein England,exactlyasmuchsmallerthanthe Brobdingnagians
as the "humancreaturenot six inches high"has been than he, im-
mediatelymultiplies(one mightalmostsay in a twelve timestwelve
ratio) the impressionof man'sinsignificanceand weaknessalready
set up in Book I. Eddy has discussedthe use of perspectivein Lu-
cian's Voyageto Heaven.48The matterof contrastedworldsmight
be consideredin Fontenelle,anotherauthorSwift had known since
45Works, ed. TempleScott,IX, 8I, Ioi, 110.
46See,for instance, the comment of Harold Williams, Introduction, op cit., p. xxi.
47Boswell'sLife of Johnson, ed. G. B. Hill and L. F. Powell (Oxford, I934), I,
319.
48"A Source for Gulliver's First Voyage," Modern Language Notes, XXXVII,
353.
he took SirWilliamTemple'spartin the controversyof ancientand
modern.I quote from A Discovery of New Worlds,AphraBehn's
ratherliteraltranslationof Fontenellepublishedin Londonin I688:
Yougive me an Idea of Saturnsaid the Marquiese,that makesme shiver
with cold; whereas before you warm'd me as much with the descrip-
tions you gave me of Mercury.There is a Necessity, saidI, that the two
Worldsthat are at the extremityof this great Tourbillion,must be con-
trary to one anotherin every thing. At that rate, said she, the Inhabi-
tants of Saturnmust be very wise; for you told me the Inhabitantsof
Mercury were down-right mad. If the People of Saturn,said I, be not
wise, they are at leastin all Appearanceso, and are very flegmatick,they
know not what it is to laugh;and who take a whole days time at least,
to answer the most trifling Question: They wou'd have look'd upon
the grave Cato the Censor,as too wild and youthful for their Conver-
sation.49
Not only the contrastof the two worlds, but the sobrietyof tem-
peramentin connectionwith wisdommakesus think of Brobding-
nag. But Swift did not need Fontenellenor anybody else to teach
him the value of contrast;and what we have to do with here is far
more than a simplecontrast.It is not only that Gulliverhasshifted
fromgiantamongpigmiesto pigmy amonggiants.Within the com-
passof Book II, he hasa doubleperspective.Not merelythe disgust
at man'sphysicalbeingwhich comesfromhis magnifiedstature;but
scornof his folly as well can be revealedthroughhis size.The fool-
ishnessof parentsseemsvery foolish indeed in the farmer'swife's
indulgenceof her baby's desireto have Gulliverfor a plaything.
What is dismissedasnaughtinessin humanboys seemsactualcruelty
when the giantfarmer'sson holdsGulliverhighin the airby the legs
and the mischievousschoolboyaimsthe hazelnut at his head.The
silly fearsof women areshown as peculiarlysilly when the giantess
screamsat the sight of Gulliver.The explanationat the end of the
seventhchapterof the presenceof the militiamagnifiesSwift's old
themeof contestsanddissensionsin the state.Even the queenis sus-
ceptible to flattery,and the incapacityof man to bear derisionis
enforcedby the actualludicrousnessof the pictureof the farmer's
visitorwho peers at Gulliveras well as by his vindictivenessover
being laughedat. The farmerenlargesour notion of everydayhu-
4pp1 127-28.
GULLIVER I83
mancallousnessin what Glumdalclitchsays of the fate of her lamb
as well as in his treatmentof Gulliver.Yet throughall this holding
up humandefect to our view throughenlargement,we are steadily
havinghumaninsignificancebeforeus in Gulliver'slittleness.He is
the pet of a child,who is the only good characteramongthe farm-
ers,andthen the playthingof the court.All this impressionis inten-
sifiedbecauseit is combinedwith the memorywe have of Lilliput.
Swift remindsus at intervalsof the old impressionsby Gulliver's
own reflectionsuponrelativityanduponthe dishonorableness of his
presentcondition.In BookI he indulgessomereflectionsuponcourts
and princes,50 but almostnone upon his humancondition.The only
hint that I find in Book I of the kind of awarenessthat grows upon
him in Book II is in the sixthchapter,where he says: "theEmperor
thoughtit monstrousin me to offer, as a Defence, the greatestAg-
gravationof the Crime:And truly, I had little to say in Return,
fartherthanthe commonAnswer,that differentNationshaddiffer-
ent Customs;for, I confess,I was heartilyashamed."51 But this medi-
tation seems as uncharacteristicas does the whole of the sixth
chapter.In Book II, on the otherhand,Gulliver'ssomberreflections
begin almostat once. It is in the very firstchapterthat he says: "In
thisterribleAgitationof MindI could not forbearthinkingof Lilli-
put, whose Inhabitantslookedupon me as the greatestProdigythat
ever appeared in the World; . .. Undoubtedly Philosophers are in
the Right when they tell us, that nothingis greator little otherwise
thanby Comparison."52 And the degradingcomparisonsof the kinds
of small animalsthat come to Gulliver'smind to explainwhat he
feels is the Brobdingnagianattitudeto him do almostas much to
drivehomethe conceptionas doeshis insignificantsize.Swift is tak-
ing advantagehere,as he does throughoutthe book, of every possi-
bility his centralconceptionoffershim of makingthe management
of the story intensifythe underlyingmeaning.In the largerunity of
the whole of Gulliver'sTravels,Book II occupiesa centralposition,
for it not only begins with the announcementof the problemof
relativityin man'simportance:
5OPp. 38, 5'.
51p. 42.
52Pp. 70-71.
It might have pleasedFortune to let the Lilliputiansfind some Nation,
where the People were as diminutivewith respectto them, as they were
to me. And who knows but that even this prodigiousRace of Mortals
might be equallyovermatchedin some distantPart of the World,where-
of we have yet no Discovery?53
It also contains in the king's denunciation of man the explicit state-
ment of the point of view of Book IV.
Book III, like Book I, has been thoroughly discussedby Sir Charles
Firth and Professor Case. Their interest again has been in the specific
references of the allegory to contemporary affairs. Two articles by
Marjorie Nicolson and Nora M. Mohler, "The Scientific Back-
ground of Swift's Voyage to Laputa" and "Swift's 'Flying Island' in
the Voyage to Laputa," (Annals of Science, II, 299-334, 405-30),
give still more insight into Swift's artistic method:
For the most part he simply set down before his readersexperiments
actually performedby membersof the Royal Society, more preposter-
ous to the layman than anything imaginationcould invent and more
devastatingin their satirebecauseof their essentialtruth to source. The
"invention"in Swift's passagesusually consists in one of two things:
sometimeshe neatly combines two real experimentson different sub-
jects-as in the case of the spiderswho not only spun silk stockings,but
also went one better than the scientistsby colouringthem naturally;at
other times Swift carriesa real experimentonly one step further-and
the addedstep carriesus over the precipice of nonsense.54
This closely approximatesthe way Swift has laughed at travel books
while using his mockery for a deeper purpose. "Neither have I for-
got, how apt some Travellers are to boast of extraordinary Favours
they have received,"55says Gulliver modestly after he has wondered
if he will cause his veracity to be doubted by saying that his horse
master had done him the honor to raise his foot to Gulliver's mouth.
But there is a very real, if subtle, difference in effect when Swift is
using the pattern of the accounts of experiments in the Royal So-
ciety. He laughs at the travel books as it were from the inside of the
travelers'company. He remains outside the Royal Society, always a
hostile witness, however accurate his parody. Consequently, his
53p. 71.
54P. 322.
55P. 266.
GULLIVER I85
laughternever quite infects us with his own mirthas do his solemn
assurances:
thatI thoughtwe werealreadyoverstocked withBooksof Travels:That
nothingcouldnow passwhichwasnot extraordinary; whereinI doubt-
ed,someAuthorslessconsultedTruththantheirownVanityor Interest,
or theDiversionof ignorantReaders.Thatmy Storycouldcontainlittle
besidescommonEvents,without those ornamentalDescriptionsof
strangePlants,Trees,Birds,andotherAnimals;or the barbarous Cus-
tomsandIdolatryof savagePeople,withwhichmostWritersabound.56
ProfessorsNicolson and Mohlerend their first articlewith a com-
ment from Orrery'sRemarksto show that contemporariesfelt the
exactnessof Swift'spicture.57Orrery'sjudgmentis confirmedby the
still earlierwriter of A Key, Being Observationsand Explanatory
Notes, uponthe Travelsof LemuelGulliver,London,1726, who de-
claresaproposof the Astronomers'Cave, etc., that "Mostof these
Raritiesmay be seen at Flamsted-Housein Greenwich-Park."But
the writer, who describeshimselfon the first title page as "Signor
Corolini,a noble Venetiannow residingin London,"andputs hisob-
servationsin the form of lettersto Dean Swift, goes on to say "the
Load-Stone,no doubt, is a just Emblemof the BritishLinen and
Woollen Manufactures,on which depends the Welfare of those
UnitedDominions."58 There is a strongelementof exhortationin his
observationson all four books;but those on the third,called "The
Flying Island,"have much the strangestmixtureof sound and un-
sound applications.After the descriptionof the use of flappers,
Corolinisays: "This is the very case of the ExperimentMongers,
throughoutthe good citiesof Londonand Westminster; andI there-
fore recommendthe use of these Flapping-Officersto Messieurs
Whiston,Desaguliers,Henley, and otherDisplayersof the abstruse
Arcanaof Nature."59 But upon the descriptionof the shapedfoods,
he remarks:"Thisis a just Rebuketo thoseFops who in the Treats
they make,regardmorethe Garnitureof their Tables,thanthe Food
they intendto set upon them.And, who at a Fish-Dinner,pinchup
56p. 131.
570p. Cit., p. 334-
58The Flying Island, p. I5.
59Ibid.,p. 7.
theirPig'sEye-Diaperinto the shapesof Poultry."60He goes on to
let the condemnationinclude"PedantickIlliterati";but his turning
the mockerytowardFops is an exampleof the abusesto which alle-
gory is susceptible,and also perhapsof the weaknessof Swift's al-
legory in this book. Corolini'scommenton the story of the court
lady andthe footmanis: "Doesnot thisresemble,Mr.Dean,the Case
of the late John Dormer Esq; and Tom Jones his footman?The
wholeof thisAffairmaybe seenamongthosecuriousPieces,intitled,
The Casesof Impotencyand Divorce, in five Volumes,printedfor
Mr. Curllin the Strand;concerningthe publicationof which the un-
derwrittenAffidavithas been made before the Right Honourable
the LordChiefJusticeRaymond."61 At leastSwift'scontemporaries
were not lacking in confidencethat they had read Swift's riddle.
Possiblythey stayedlargelyon Corolini'slevel and missed,because
of the defectsI havediscussedin III above,the force of the underly-
ing meaningpointedout by ProfessorsNicolson andMohler:
Hereinlies the ironyof the Voyageto Laputa,-anirony immediately
apparentin thatpost-Newtonian generationwhichhadbeenforcedto
new awarenessof the interrelationships
of all the partsof the cosmic
universe.By physicallaws,whichmanmay detect,but cannotchange,
each partis relatedto the whole.Greatworld andlesserworld,each
obeyingnaturallaw, each dependentupon others,all combinedby a
curiouspowerinto a whole,whichagainreflectsthe parts-suchis the
cosmicphilosophyof the Voyageto Laputa.Here we find againthat
"relativity"
whichmakesSwift'sfirsttwo voyagesso poignantin their
outlookuponlife, but whichcriticshavefailedto discoverin the third
voyage.62
Artistically,the lastbook seemsto me the mostmixedof the four.
Swift depictsthe Yahooswith all the power of the masterof satiric
allegory.He makesus dwell uponthe successionof loathsomephysi-
cal detailsin his opening description,compellingus to think long
aboutthe horriblenessof the signbeforewe get to thethingsignified.
He givesus the feelinghe meansus to sharethroughGulliver'scom-
60p. 8.
61PP. 12-13. The whole work is apparently one of Curll's advertising schemes.
See Ralph Straus, The UnspeakableCurll (London, 1927), PP. iI6 n. 2, 280-81.
620p. cit. p. 4I8. See also the development of this idea by Professor Nicolson,
Voyages to the Moon (New York, 1948), PP. I89-95.
GULLIVER 187
ment: "Upon the whole, I never beheld in all my Travelsso dis-
agreeablean Animal,or one againstwhich I naturallyconceivedso
strongan Antipathy."63 Then when the revulsionis established,we
comein the secondchapterto the explicitidentification:"Myhorror
and Astonishmentare not to be described,when I observed,in this
abominableAnimal,a perfecthumanFigure."64 The worst suffering
that Gulliverhas to endureis being called a Yahoo;yet since the
Houyhnhnmshavetaughthimto abandonself-deception,he cannot
deny his similarityto the creaturehe loathes.But he is neveridenti-
fied with them.65The horsesin all their discussionspoint out his
distinctnessfrom theseanimalsas well as his likenessto them.They
arethe partof man'snatureto be hated-from Swift'spoint of view
to be suppressedout of existence.The suggestionof substituting
asses,"inall respectsmorevaluableBrutes,"66 when the Yahooshave
been exterminatedenforcesthe impressionthatthe bestialis not dis-
pleasingin itself, but only degradingin man.Swift is not writinga
beastfable in which humanweaknessesare shown in animals,as in
his own "Beasts'Confession."What he hasto do with hereis the dual
natureof man,"createdhalf to riseandhalf to fall."All the division
of manwithinhimselfis representedin Gulliver'sbeingrelatedboth
to Houyhnhnmsandto Yahoos.The power of the book comesfrom
our seeing the two partsof humanitydistinctand yet juxtaposed.
But the power of the juxtapositionis weakenedbecausethe baser
part is so much the more distinctlyportrayed.I have suggestedin
SectionIII abovethat perhapssuch a contrastis impossiblein satiric
allegory,where we are not in a state of mindto accept idealrepre-
sentation.In any case, we feel cheatedof the full artisticeffect of
the Houyhnhnm-Yahoorelation.Partof this thwartingof aesthetic
satisfactionis due,I believe,to our beingunsatisfiedphilosophically.
63pp. 207-8.
64pp. 2 13-14.
65His difference from them is as useful as his likeness to them in establishingthe
impression. Cf. I. A. Richards' comment: "In general, there are very few meta-
phors in which disparitiesbetween tenor and vehicle are not as much operative as
the similarities. Some similarity will commonly be the ostensive ground of the
shift, but the peculiar modification of the tenor which the vehicle brings about is
even more the work of their unlikenessesthan of their likenesses."(The Philosophy
of Rhetoric [Oxford, 1936], p. 127.)
66p. 257.
We feel that if Houyhnhnmand Yahoowere put together, they
would not makeup the full statureof man.J. Horrell in an article
called "What Gulliver Knew,"67has developedthe irony of the
Houyhnhnms'virtue'sbeingsimplythe absenceof vice. Their hav-
ing no learning,which Gulliverpoints out with respectin chapter
ix, would havemadethemvery boringcompanionsfor Swift, whose
passionfor books is revealedas much in the constantreferencesto
readingin such an undressexpressionof himselfas the Journalto
Stellaas in a formal utterance such as The Battleof the Books.68He
cannot, probablyfor this reason,make Gulliver convince us that
theirconversationis very "improving," even though"nothingpassed
but what was useful, expressedin the fewest and most significant
Words."69
How far consciousSwift himselfwas thathe hadnot reallysolved
the problemof the relationof reasonandpassionmustremaina puz-
zle. Without speculatingaboutthe working out of his views in his
own life, we can bring to bear upon Gulliverthe statementin his
"Thoughtson Religion."
Although reasonwere intendedby Providenceto govern our passions,
yet it seemsthat, in two points of the greatestmomentto the being and
continuanceof the world, God hath intended our passionsto prevail
over our reason.The first is, the propagationof our species, since no
wise man ever marriedfrom the dictates of reason. The other is, the
love of life, which, from the dictates of reason,every man would de-
spise, and wish it at an end, or that it never had a beginning.70
By this formula,Swift makesthe Houyhnhnmsreasonable.But the
dilemmais increasedbecausetheirlife, as he makesGulliverdescribe
it, he declaresnot despicable;andwe wonderif they arereasonable,
even by Swift'sstandards,to esteemit so lightly.
If the book is reallyintendedat all for our amendment,the worst
indictmentof it is that the sojournamongthe Houyhnhnmstotally
unfits Gulliverfor humanlife. This weaknessagainis both philo-
67SewaneeReview, LI, 500, 502.

68The relation of Reason to anti-intellectualism,a paradox constant in Swift, is
treated by Quintana, op. cit., pp. 51 ff. and 323 ff.
69p. 26I.
70Works, ed. Temple Scott, III, 309.
GULLIVER I89
sophicandaesthetic.Gulliver'srudenessto the kindseacaptainwho
rescueshimandhis monstrouscrueltyto his familyfit no morewith
the conception we have formed of his characterthan with the
Houyhnhnmstandardsof reasonandbenevolence.If the horsesare
an ideal of perfectionwhich satisfiesSwift, it is perhapshis final
irony that living with them does leave Gulliver in a pathological
state.This may be his underliningof humanimperfection,that the
associationwith perfectiononly makesit worse.But such an inter-
pretationdoes little to assuagethe feeling of aestheticand philo-
sophicfrustrationwith which the book leavesus. The degreeof this
feelingis a proof of Swift'sgeniusin satiricallegory,for we measure
our unsatisfiedstateby the tremendousness of our expectation.Swift
hasraiseda hopethat even he cannotappease.

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Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in "Gulliver's Travels"

Author(s): Ellen Douglass Leyburn

"3Les Oeuvres de Monsieur Cyrano de Bergerac (seconde partie, Paris, I676),

edition,gives clear warningthat it is the meaningof the travelsto

370p. Cit., p. I62.

67SewaneeReview, LI, 500, 502.

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Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in "Gulliver's Travels"

Author(s): Ellen Douglass Leyburn

"3Les Oeuvres de Monsieur Cyrano de Bergerac (seconde partie, Paris, I676),

edition,gives clear warningthat it is the meaningof the travelsto

370p. Cit., p. I62.

67SewaneeReview, LI, 500, 502.

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Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in Gulliver's Travels

Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in Gulliver's Travels

Certain Problems of Allegorical Satire in Gulliver's Travels