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A study of the source materials of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"

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A study of the source materials of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"

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Content A STUDY OF THE SOURCE MATERIALS OF JONATHAN SWIFT'S
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
A Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of English
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
fey
Eugene Frank Timpe
July 1952
UMI Number: EP44309
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This thesis, w ritte n by
Eugene ..Frank .Timpe.............
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and approved by a ll its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the C o u n cil on
Graduate Study and Research in p a rtia l f u llfill-
ment of the requirements f o r the degree of
Master—of—Ar.ta.
Faculty Committee
CJojiX^x hi
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I.......... INTRODUCTION ........................ 1
The problem and purpose of this study ... 1
Review of the development of Gulliver1 a
Travels ............................... 3
II. IMAGINARY AND FANTASTIC VOYAGE LITERATURE
WHICH INFLUENCED SWIFT .................... 7
Ancient imaginary voyages ............... 7
Contemporary imaginary voyages ....... 29
Indigenous imaginary voyages .............. 54
III. REALISTIC VOYAGE LITERATURE WHICH
INFLUENCED SWIFT ......................... 72
IV. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE WHICH
INFLUENCED SWIFT .......................... 84
Scientific works .......................... 84
Fietion .......................... 89
V, SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.................. 98
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................... 103
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I. PROBLEM AND PURPOSE OP THIS STUDY
The problem of identifying the sources to which 1
Jonathan Swift was indebted for Gulliver’s Travels has been
both accepted and rejected as a valid problem by various
distinguished critics. Dr. Samuel Johnson was of the opin-
i
I
ion that Swift borrowed nothing from any other source for hi's
i
book,1 and more recently, Harold Williams said of Gulliver: ,
I
Its ehief sources were originality of author- j
ship and some general reading. The eager search
in hidden corners for similarities of phrase and
narrative may easily become a mistaken pastime.^
Of an exactly opposite opinion was Borkowsky, who attempted
to show that Swift borrowed so much that his originality
was questionable.3 Recent research in the field has un
, 1 Samuel Johnson, Lives of the ftoets, Preface and
Notes by Matthew Arnold (New York: The Macmillan Company,
1921), p. 178.
O
Harold Williams, Dean Swift*s Library (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1932), p. 64.
3 Borkowsky, "Quellen zu Swift’s Gulliver,1 1 Anglia,
l XV-(~T893t7345-389. — ------- ----------------------------
2
earthed numerous likely sources for Gulliver, but It has In
no way refuted Swift's originality as an author. Since
Borkowsky's work there has been only one comprehensive study
of Swift which has traced his source materials. This was
i
made by William A. Eddy in 1923, and it includes most of
4
the important material on the subject known at the time.
Although Eddy's has been the most complete treatment of the
subject yet, it has not been accepted without reservations
by other students of Swift.5 Also, since its publication,
t
and possibly because of its publication, there has been a
f
renewed interest in the subject. As a result, a number of I
' |
possible sources have since been suggested which were un- j
known in Eddy's time. The purpose of this paper then, is
to collate and trace all of the materials which seem to
have been valid literary sources for Swift’s Gulliver's
Travels.
4
J W. A. Eddy, Gulliver's Travels: A Critical Study
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 19231
^ For example, see: A. W. Secord, "Review of Eddy's
Critical Study of Gulliver's Travels," Journal of English
and German Philology, XXIII (19241, 460-462.
3
II. REVIEW OP THE DEVELOPMENT OF GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
"The various stages in the growth of Swift's great
satire, from its inception in 1714 to its publication on
28 October, 1726 now stand fully revealed." More exactly
perhaps, the general outline now stands revealed. It Is
currently accepted that Swift wrote his book during two
different periods. The first of these was in the early
months of 1714, at which time he began parts of the book
as contributions to the Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life,
Works and Discoveries of Martlnus Scrlblerus. What now
constitutes chapters one, two and that part of chapter six
wherein the concept of a Utopia was developed, in "A Voyage
to Lilliput," and chapters five and six of "A Voyage to
Laputa," was written In 1714. The section on Lilliput was
written as a lighthearted parody of travel literature, and
the section on Laputa was intended as a burlesque of ex
perimental science.^ The second period In the composition
z :
Ricardo Quintana, Mind and Art of Jonathan Swift
(London: Oxford University Press, 1936), p. 289.
^ Arthur E. Case, Pour Essays on Gulliver's Travels
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945)> P. 102._____
4
of Gulliver began after an interim of at least six years.
While in Ireland in 1721, Swift wrote to Ford: "I am now
writing an History of my Travells, which will be a large
Q
Volume, and gives Account of Countrys hitherto unknown.”0
We know that, with the exception of certain parts of chap
ter six, from chapter three on, the narrative of ”A Voyage
to Lilliput” bears marks of considerably later composition
in the form of numerous political allusions to events
posterior to 1714.^ Also, we know that Swift did not work
on any phase of the Scriblerus scheme for several years
after 1714.10 The obvious conclusion, then, is that the
fragments of parts I and III of what was to become Gulli
ver 1 a Travels were written as the travels of Martinus
Scriblerus, were laid aside completely for at least six
years, and then were taken up again and transformed from
® David N. Smith, editor, The Letters of Jonathan
Swift to Charles Ford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935)
No. XXXVIII.
9
Quintana, Mind and Art, p. 307.
10 Charles Kerby-Miller, Memoirs of the Extraordinary
Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), p7 50.
5
the adventures of Scriblerus in a land of pigmies into the
adventures of Gulliver in 1 1 several remote regions of the
world.
Work on Lilliput was resumed by 1721, the first
draft at least of Brobdingnag was begun and completed by
1723 > and the voyage to Houyhnhnmland was third in order,
. 12
being finished early in 1724. Laputa was written, except
for the two chapters dealing with the Academy of Lagado, in
1724. Early in that year Swift wrote to Ford saying, ”1
have left the Country of the Horses and am now in the fly
ing island. According to another letter written to Ford
in 1725, the book was finished and revised in that year.1^
The development of Gulliver^ Travels began then, in 1714,
11 Case, Four Essays, p. 102. ”For nearly six years
after Swift left England in 1714 he wrote little or nothing.
For the next year he was busy with pamphlets— thus it seems
hardly likely that this could have left very much oppor
tunity for him to devise and execute an important literary
project.”
12 Quintana, Mind and Art, p. 311. Also see, C. H.
Firth, ”The Political Significance of Gulliver's Travels,”
Proceedings of the British Academy, IX (l920), p. 2.
^ Smith, Letters to Ford, Letter XLII.
_______^-Ibid. . , _Letter_LI. . Cf_._alsp^_Qulntana, Mind and
Art, p. 311.
6
stopped for at least six years, and was resumed and com
pleted between the years 1721 and 1725. Parts I and III
included material from the earlier period, while parts II
and IV were written completely in the later period. The
i
entire work was revised in 1725, and in the process of j
printing certain changes were made. Such textual changes,
however, are not considered within the scope of this study.
i
CHAPTER II
IMMAGINARY AND FANTASTIC VOYAGE LITERATURE
WHICH INFLUENCED SWIFT
I. ANCIENT IMAGINARY VOYAGES
All accounts of travel must be either realistic of
Imaginary. Swift was Influenced by both types, but it is
the fictitious voyage which will be considered first,
since Gulliver's Travels belongs first of all to this form.
Swift the neo-classicist must certainly have been familiar
with classical literature, and in l8l4 Sir Walter Scott
wrote that Herodotus and Philostratus "seem fed] particular
ly to have engaged his [Swift's] attention . . .nl He
further suggested that Herodotus' account of the reception
of his travelers by the pigmies, and Philostratus' story
of the capture of the sleeping Hercules by the pigmies,
were both sources of "A Voyage to Lilliput.'’2 Herodotus'
account, which is meager in the extreme, Is as follows:
1 Works of Swift, ed. Sir Walter Scott, 1883, 1:243.
2 Ibid., IX:6-7.
8
Whilst they [the NasamoniansJ were thus employed,
some men of dwarfish stature came where they were,
seized their persons, and carried them away.3
Philostratus1 aceount was considered the model for the
scene in Lilliput where Gulliver was surrounded and at
tacked by the Lilliputians. Philostratus wrote:
The pygmies . . . having found Hercules napping
in Lybia, mustered up their forces against him.
One phalanx assaulted his left hand; but against
his right hand, being the stronger, two phalanxes
were appointed. The archers and slingers besieged
his feet, admiring the hugeness of his thighs; but
against his head, as the arsenal, they raised
batteries, the King himself taking his post there.
They set fire to his hair, put reaping hooks in his
eyes; and, that he might not breathe, clapped doors
to his mouth and nostrils; but all the execution
they could do was only to awake him, which, when
done, deriding their-folly, he gathered them all
up, into his lion's skin and carried them to
Euristhenes
The parallel to Lilliput is close: Gulliver fell asleep,
was attacked by archers upon awakening, was admired for
his hugeness, and had a battery erected near his head from
which the principal person of the Lilliputians delivered
3 Herodotus, Ancient History, trans. Rev. William
Beloe (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1858), p. 78.
^ Eddy, Critical Study, p. 76, trans. from
Philostratus* Imagines, II.
9
an ultimatum. Scott’s judgment, therefore, seems reason
able in view of the parallels cited, although the influence
of Herodotus and Philostratus should not be over-estimated,
jsince they supplied Swift with only a part of one of the
; I
numerous incidents in "A Voyage to Lilliput."
A recent study has traced several parallels between
the writings of Homer and Swift’s G u l l i v e r .5 Likenesses
were pointed out within the general background of the
Odyssey and Gulliver, since both narratives were accounts
of long trips, both heroes were inveterate travelers,
i
and neither traveler was eager to return home during j
i
at least one phase of his travels. The blinding of Cy-
I
clops was suggested as a source for the Lilliputian em
peror’s attempt to blind Gulliver, and Ulysses' visit j
to the underworld in Odyssey XI was also mentioned in
connection with Gulliver's summoning of the dead in the
Glubbdubdrib episode. The underworld incident, however,
iwas common to several others at Swift's literary ancestors,
i
so it is not likely that he was indebted solely to Homer forj
^ G. McCracken, "Homerica in Gulliver1s Travels,"
Classical Journal, XXIX (April, 193*0* 535-538. f
I
10
the Glubbdubdrib episode.
The dialogue between Ulysses and one of Circe’s swine,
in Plutarch’s "Gryllus,” in which the manners and morals
of men were satirically contrasted with those of brutes, is
comparable to Swift's "A Voyage to the Country of the
Houyhnnhnms." According to J. H. Hanford, who suggested
the source:
The piece can in no sense be called a forerunner of
Gulliver . . . there are, however, resemblances
between the two works, not only in general idea
but in detail, which make it seem at least possible,
considering Swift's fondness for the highways and
byways of late classical literature, that he had
read this dialogue of Plutarch's and been influ
enced by it in writing the last part of his great
satire . . . That Swift had read the dialogue
seems probable since he speaks in the Journal to
Stella (Jan. 12, 1712-13) of having bought a 2
vol. Plutarch for 30 shillings.7
Externally, the two satires vary considerably. Plutarch
has no caricature of humanity comparable to the Yahoos,
and in place of a journey to a land of superior beasts who
fs
For translation from the Greek see: J. H. Hanford,
"Plutarch and Dean Swift,” Modern Language Notes, XXV,
(June, 1910), 181-184.
7 Ibid., p. 181.
11
show the traveler how lowly mankind really is, we find in
the Greek work a philosophical discussion between a worldly-
wise human and a brute which has been transformed from a man
to the more desirable existence of an animal. Plutarch's
satire was direct, while Swift satirized by innuendo.
Swift's object was "to degrade humanity to the level of
the brute and even to elevate the brute above man,” while
Plutarch merely wished to show how illogical were man's
feelings of superiority over animals. The dialogue began
when Ulysses, pitying the condition of his companions,
asked Circe to allow him to restore them to their human
shapes, but found that they were content with their lot.
Gryllus, the spokesman for the animals, told Ulysses that
he (Ulysses) was the one to be pitied. In the discussion
that followed he sought to prove his point by contrasting
animal virtues with corresponding human vices. The main
points discussed were war, the females of the respective
species, temperance, and medicine. Regarding warfare, it
was pointed out that humans used underhanded methods for
waging war, while beasts were "free from craft and deceit
. . . and . . . with open and naked courage defend jedj
12
themselves by mere strength of-body."® The points made by
Gryllus parallels Gulliver's ''unintentional" satire of war
in chapter five of "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhn-
hnms." Gryllus argued also, that human females were useless
for anything but procreation, while animal females did
their own share of the work in addition to bearing young.
Among the Houyhnhnms, it will be remembered, equal educa
tions and obligations were shared by both sexes. While
discussing temperance, Gryllus spoke bitterly of the avar
ice of men, contrasting his own present scorn for wealth
with his former greed. Similarly, in Gulliver, Part IV,
chapter six, Gulliver described at length the pains to
which human Yahoos went in procuring unnecessary luxuries.
When speaking of the relations between the sexes, Gryllus
said that brutes were more temperate, and that they at
tracted each other naturally. On the same subject, Gulliver
told of the restraint of the Houyhnhnms as compared to the
incontinence of the Yahoos, and he referred also to the
Q
Hanford, "Plutarch and Dean Swift," trans. of
Plutareh, chapter iv.
13
wiles of the Yahoo females who
. . . would often stand behind a bank or a bush,
to gaze on the young males passing by, and then
appear, and hide, using many antic gestures and
grimaces, at which time it was observed that she
had a most offensive smell; and when any of the
males advanced, would slowly retire, looking
often back, and with a counterfeit show of fear,
run off into some convenient place where she
knew the male would follow her.^
Speaking of diet and healing, Gryllus said that the animals
lived on one item, were therefore free from disease, and
were at little pains to minister to themselves naturally
when they became ill. Gulliver also explained that the
oaten cakes, which were the substance of his diet while
staying in Houyhnhnmland, became more palatable as time
passed. Because of this simple diet he had no disease
during his visit, although he noticed that the Houyhnhnms
had excellent medicines composed of herbs with which they
cured their rare illnesses. The dialogue between Gryllus
and Ulysses broke off at the point where Gryllus attempted
9
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver^ Travels, and other
Works, Ed. Henry Morley. (London: George Routledge and
Sons, Ltd., 1890), IV, vii, 302.
Hereafter referred to as Gulliver.
14
to convince Ulysses that brutes knew Deity, and therefore
had a claim to reason, just as men did. Plutarch's
dialogue may have directly influenced Swift, but what seems
more likely, it probably served as a model for the dialogues
of Selli and Brown, which in turn provided Swift with sev
eral ideas for the fourth part of Gulliver.
The Circe of Sign!or Giovanni Battista Gelll of the
Academy of Florence, Consisting of Ten Dialogues between
Ulysses and Several Men transformed into Beasts: Satyri-
cally representing the various Passions of Mankind and the
many Infellicltles of human Life; Done out of Italian by
Mr. Tho. Brown, London, 1702, was originally published in
1594, and translated later into English by J. Cawoode in
1557. Thomas Brown's version resembles Gulliver, Part IV,
in several respects, in that it provides interesting par
allels to the attacks on physicians, luxurious living, and
drunkenness which are to be found in the fourth part of
Gulliver.10 The most important resemblance, however,
10 E. B. Reed, f l Gulliver's Travels and Tom Brown,"
Modern Language Notes, XXXIII (January, 1918), 57-58. Also,
B. Boyce, Tom Brown of Facetious Memory, (Cambridge, Massa
chusetts: Harvard University Press, 1939), pp. 85 > 141, 152.
....................T5
exists between the same part of Gulliver and Gelli’s seventh
dialogue, which was between Ulysses and a horse. The ar
guments presented by the intellectual horse in order to
prove that man is less temperate, less faithful, and more
of a beast than his four legged servant, reappear in
chapter seven of "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms
In Gelli’s dialogue the horse said:
Consult your own histories a little, and you will
find how much Hatred and Animosity, how many Fewds
and Quarrels, how many Treasons and Murders, as
well by Sword as by Poyson, which is a most execrable
Barbarity, have ow’d their original to this dis
orderly Passion (Jealousy). I will therefore drop
so odious a Subject, and pass to the Pleasures of
Eating and Drinking. Now pitch upon what Beasts
you please, either wild or tame, and you must own
that in this respect we are more moderate than you.
I defie you to show me one that at any time eats
or drinks more than Nature requires, or that seeks
after any other aliment than what she ordained,
Seed, or Grass, or Flesh, or Fruit; whereas you are
so far from being satisfied with one Nourishment,
that you eat everything almost, search every corner
in the Universe, and ransack the four elements to1
supply your Luxury. Nay, not content with this,
you employ learned Masters in the Mystery of Eat
ing, who try a thousand expensive Tricks, to give
a greater haut goust to your Foods, than Nature
thought fit to give them.
This betrays you into frequent excesses, by
which means you destroy the vigour of your Consti
tution, and either shorten your Days, or entail a
sickly vexatious old Age upon your selves ....
Therefore I leave you to judge, whether we are not
16
much more temperate than you, and whether our
Destiny is not far happier than yours, who have
the greater share of that Virtue, which takes
off the Impediments that hinder us from acting
according to Mature.
Following Gulliver's explanation, to his Houyhnhnm master,
of European warfare, the horse replied:
. . . whoever understood the nature of Yahoos
might easily believe it possible for so vile an
animal to be capable of every [such] action ...
if their strength and cunning equaled their m a l i c e . ^
Concerning "the Pleasures of Eating and Drinking," Gulliver
told his master, in chapter six, that
This whole globe of earth must be at least three
times gone round, before one of our better female
Yahoos could get her breakfast or a cup to put
it in.
In chapter seven, Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master said:
. . . there was nothing that rendered the Yahoos more
odious than their undistinguishing appetite to
devour every thing that came in their way, whether
herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted flesh of
animals, or all mingled together: and it was peculiar
in their temper that they were fonder of what
they could get by rapine or stealth at a greater
distance than much better food provided for them
at home. If their prey held out, they would eat
11 Reed, "Gulliver and Tom Brown," p. 58.
12 Gulliver, Part IV, chapter v, 283.
17
till they were ready to burst, after which nature
had pointed out to them a certain root that gave
them a general evacuation.
There was also another kind of root very juicy,
but somewhat rare and difficult to be found, which
the Yahoos sought for with much eagerness, and
would suck it with great delight; and it produced
in them the -same effects that wine hath upon us.
It would make them sometimes hug, and sometimes
tear one another; they would howl and grin, and
chatter, and reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep
in the dirt.
[GulliverI did indeed observe that the Yahoos
were the only animals in this country subject to
any diseases ....
Gelli’s third dialogue also provided references to
Swift’s sixth chapter, on the subjects of court ministers,
the evils of the military establishment, the spirit of
conquest among princes, and human coveteousness. Thus, in
the general satiric framework of the fourth part of
Gulliver, Swift paralleled the Ulysses story in several
respects: In both cases the traveller discoursed with
beasts whom he considered inferior to man, and more miser
able than man; in each case the beasts were unimpressed by
the traveler's boasts of human greatness, expressing loath
ing and horror instead; beasts were represented as less
subtle and crafty than man, but much more sensible,
18
temperate, healthy, and peaceable; and finally, the beasts
were Idealized animals, contrasted with degenerate humans,
the purpose being to represent the dual faults of civiliza
tion and natural depravity. Although there was no animal
kingdom to be found in the land of Circe, particularly one
governed by one species, having its own constitution and
government, there still can be little doubt that Swift was
indebted to the tradition of Ulysses and the beasts as it
came down through Plutarch, Gelli, and Brown, for an im
portant phase of the satire in his "Voyage to the Land of
the Houyhnhnms."
Swift's debt to Lucian was more significant than any
debt yet considered. Lucian influenced Swift in two ways:
He pioneered the form of literature which Swift was later
to develop into its highest form, and he supplied Swift
with a number of general and detailed hints for the narra
tive of Gulliver's Travels. The genre which Lucian founded
was the philosophic voyage, which was an imaginary voyage
with a purpose. Fantastic accounts of travels were as old
at least, as the Odyssey, the Imagines, and the Ancient
History, but until the writing of Lucian's True History in
19
about 170 A. D., there were no fantastic voyages with didac
tic content. This addition of criticism to what had pre
viously been simply Imaginative travel literature, marked
the beginning of one form of satire.Lucian’s criticism !
1
i
was directed at historians and commentators, according to
his own statement at the beginning of the True History,
and it was this purpose which changed his imaginary voyage ,
into a narrative that not only entertained, but also scru
tinized and evaluated. Gulliver had an even broader pur
pose, which is one of the reasons why it attained a place
of eminence within the genre. j
i
Lucian’s second form of influence upon Swift exerted
I
itself directly upon the author of Gulliver, and also j
through the medium of other authors from whom Swift bor- j
I
i
rowed. These authors were, principally, Rabelais and
Cyrano de Bergerac.1^ The writings of Lucian which Swift
I
I
.. — }
I
i *3 ThiS classification of voyage literature was in-
j troduced by Eddy in his Introduction to the Critical Study.
1 1 4 t
j Lucianus Samosatensis, True History, in Transla
tions from Lucian, tran3. Augusta M. Campbell Davidson
(new York: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1902).
_______^ Francis G. Alllnson, Lucian, Satirist and Critic
(Boston: Marshall, Jones, 1926).
2C
drew upon were: the True History; Icaromennlpus, or a
Voyage to Heaven; Dialogues of the Dead; and On Mourning
for the Dead. These were all available to him in the
popular translation of Lucian, done in three volumes by
Perrot d'Ablaneourt in 1648. This translation included,
in addition to both parts of the True History, a third and
fourth part written by d’Ablaneourt himself by way of a
sequel. There is little question that Swift was familiar
with this work, for in the Journal to Stella he said:
"I went to Bateman’s the bookseller . . . and bought these
[threej little volumes of Lucian for our Stella."1^ That
such an edition was in existence in 1711 is authenticated
by the Catalogue of the British Museum.1^ If by chance
Swift was not familiar with d’Ablancourt’s Lucian, he could
hardly have been unacquainted with the Dryden Lucian (1J11),
the first volume of which was completed in 1696. The
16 Letter XIII, January 4, 1710-11.
17
1 Recorded as: "Nouvelle edition . . . Corrige.
I 3 pt. Paris, 1674. 8 vo. Grasse, "Tressor des Livres
I Rares et Precieuses," "Amst. 1688 3 tom. in 12.” (and)
f 'Amst. 1717 3 tom. in 12." Cited by Eddy, In "A Source
for Gulliver’s Travels,t f Modern Language Notes, XXXVI
(November.,_JL921.X,_p.__422.._________________________________
21
Introduction only was written toy Dryden, the greatest'part
of the translating toeing done toy Tom Brown, a writer whom
Swift said he had "read entire.”1®
Of the four works of Lucian which Swift drew upon,
IQ 1
the most important toy far is the True History. ^ The j
I
satire of this toook is echoed in part of Swift's work toy
his vehement satire on historians "who have the perpetual
misfortune to toe mistaken," and also in his satire upon
the pedantic commentators of Homer who had "so horribly
misrepresented [hisj meaning ... to posterity."21 The
prefatory matter of the two works was similar in that both
Gulliver and Lucian stated that they despised falsified
"travels," and tooth boasted that they recorded plain facts
in non-technieal language. The contents of the True History
are as follows:
18 Prose Works, XI, 221.
j 1^ The debt was first pointed out by H. W. L. Hime,
j Iticla-rc* the Syrian Satirist, 1900. Cited toy Eddy, p. 5^.
2° Gulliver, III, viii, 232.
21 Gulliver, III, viii, 229.
Lucian’s "Gulliver" begins by setting sail
with fifty companions and a trusty pilot to dis
cover what lies beyond the western ocean. After
encountering a storm which lasts eighty days
they arrive at a hilly and richly wooded island,
where they find a pillar of brass, with the in
scription in Greek, "Thus far came Bacchus and
Hercules." Two footprints, one of enormous size,
mark the farthest step of god and hero. The
rivers of the island flow with wine instead of
water. The women there below the waist are mere
vines. When two of the travellers attempt to
kiss them, they are clasped tight in their
tendrils and transformed into vines. These vines
scream with pain when any twig is broken off.
Sailing away from the island, the ship is
caught by a whirlwind which carries it three
thousand stadia into the air. The real adven
tures of the crew now begin. They sail to the
moon, are hospitably received by King Endymion,
and enlist in the war which he is about to wage
with King Phaeton. Endymion1s forces consist
of eighty thousand warriors who bestride vultures,
each with three heads, so huge that every feather
is as big as a ship's mast. The battle ends in
the total discomfiture of Endymion. The inhab
itants of the moon live a strange life. They do
not die, but vanish when the time of death approach
es. Their only nourishment is the odor of roasted
frogs. They extract oil from onions, get pure
water from their grapes, wear garments of glass,
and drink air squeezed into a goblet. To pre
serve their sight they take out their eyes, using
them but rarely, the rich buying up the spare
eyes of the poor ....
A long stay is made at the Island of the Blessed
governed by Rhadamanthus. The city has palaces
of gold and pavements of ivory; there are crystal
baths, and round the city flows a stream of rose
water- The_people_lie_.in_beds_.of_f lowers, _while___
23
nightingales drop roses on their heads and eholrs
of sweet-faced hoys sing to them. All the demigods
and old philosophers are there. Socrates is in
temporary disgrace, having carried his levities
too far. Diogenes is married and has taken to
drink. Plato is marooned on an island by himself,
where he makes laws forever. The Stoics are not
admitted, but are kept climbing the steep slopes
of the Hill of Virtue, while the Academicians, who
would like to enter, are excluded on account of
their having denied the existence of the place.
The travellers meet with many other adventures
of the most fantastic type imaginable, after which
the story closes abruptly with the promise of more
next time.^
From the preceding account it may be seen that the True
History served as a source principally for the "Voyage to
Laputa." The actual concept of a flying island may have
been instigated by Lucian. The actual account of Lucian
and his companions who were sailing through the air in
their ship was as follows:
We continued thus our course through the sky for
the space of seven days and as many nights. At
last on the eighth day we discovered a great land
in the sky, like a shining island, round and
bright, where . . .we went ashore, and soon
found it to be inhabited .... Below us was
another earth, containing cities and rivers and
seas and woods and mountains, which we conjec
tured to be the very same with that which is
{ 22 Exerpted from the account of the True History in
L-Eddy-is-Criti-eal—Study-, - pp. 16-17. — --- - ----------
24
inhabited by u s . 2 3
When he first observed the flying Island, Gulliver noticed
that It was "very bright from the reflection of the sea
below," that It was inhabited, and that it was a vast
24
opaque body, flat and smooth. Lucian’s aerial Islanders
were at war with the sun, just as the Laputans were with
the Balnibarbians. The sun was able to subdue the moon
by cutting off the supply of sunbeams, just as the King
of Laputa was able to bring the Balnibarbians to terms
by hovering over them and depriving them of the sunlight.
Thus, the fear of the Laputans of the sun may also cor
respond to the fear of Lucian’s moon-dwellers of the sun.
After their respective visits, both travelers expressed
relief upon returning to earth. Lucian said:
On the fourth day about noon, having a fair and
gentle gale, we were let down upon the sea. As
soon as we touch’d water, you cannot imagine how
From the excerpts of the Dryden Lucian, III,
128-9, printed in Eddy’s Critical Study, p. 159.
Gulliver, III, i, 189.
25
greatly we rejoiced.2^
Under the same circumstances Gulliver said:
The island being then hovering over a mountain . . .
I was let down from the lowest gallery in the same
manner as I had been taken up ... I felt some
little satisfaction in finding myself on firm
ground.
A further parallel to an incident in Lucian is found in
Gulliver's visit to Glubbdubdrib. In the second part of
Lucian's True History he told how he arrived at Rhadaman-
thus' Isle of the Blest, and how there the famous dead
were judged. Lucian's conversations with these dead,
insofar as they included Homer, Alexander the Great, and
Hannibal were reproduced by Swift in Gulliver's visit to
Glubbdubdrib. In both accounts the departed spirits
united in heaping disgrace upon unreliable historians.
The other part of Gulliver which was influenced by the
True History was the "Voyage to Lilliput." Gulliver's
reception in Lilliput, his discovery that the inhabitants
were in danger of attack by an enemy, his enlistment and
2- > From the excerpts of the Dryden Lucian, III, 143,
printed in Eddy's Critical Study, p. 159.
^^Gu-l-M-ver,—I-I-I-,—i-v-,—206-.
2 6
military service rendered, were all vaguely parallel to
Lucian’s initial experiences on the moon.
The basic concept of the satire in the "Voyage to
Lilliput," that of a difference in perspective which de
pends upon a difference in physical size, might well have
been suggested by Lucian's Icaromenlppus, or A Voyage to
Heaven. In this satire Lucian represented Menippus as
recently returned from a flight above the clouds. A friend
asked him to describe the appearance of the world from that
altitude, and Menippus' reply included the following:
. . . all Greece appeared to me at that height
not a span over, and Attica the least part of
that too. I began to think what it was that men
of estate value themselves upon when he that had
the most acres had no more than one of Epicurus *
atoms .... But the merriest of all was to
see the wealthy men strut and look big with their
rings, plate, etc., when the whole Pangaeum was
no bigger than a millet seed. '
The Struldbrugg episode from the "Voyage to Lugg-
nagg," could well have been Influenced by Lucian, for the
sentiments of the Struldbruggs concerning death were
^ Eddy's Critical Study, p. 110, excerpt from
Dryden Lucian, 1711, I» 312.
27
anticipated in two satires of Lucian. In one of these,
entitled On Mourning For The Dead, a deceased son remon
strated with his father for his unreasonable grief, saying
0 wretched man, why dost thou create so much
trouble for me? Forbear to pull off thy hair, and
tear the skin from thy face . . . Dost thou think
it a misfortune to me that I did not live to be
come such an old man as thyself, with a bald pate,
a wrinkled face, stooping in the back, feeble
knees, and almost wholly rotten with age, having
lived many Olympiads, and at length brought to
dotage before so many witnesses?^
The entire satire was an elaboration of the same theme, a
theme which occurred again in the sixth Dialogue of the
Dead, in which Lucian had Terpsio say:
In my opinion |oh Plut£| the oldest ought to die
first, and the rest successively In their turn,
without permitting an old gouty dotard to live,
after he has lost the use of his senses, and is
at best but an animated tomb.^9
Swift’s debt to Lucian was a significant one. It 4
included the satiric form in which Gulliver was written,
the actual concept of a flying island, and the bases for
the Glubbdubdrib and Struldbrugg episodes. Swift's con-
28
Ibid., p. 167 I, 187-188.
29 Ibid., p. 167, III, 442-443.
28
temporaries recognized this debt quickly. In Lyttleton's
Dialogues of the Dead, number twenty-two, Lucian is made to
criticize Gulliver as an imitation of his own True History.
In Fielding’s Amelia, the Unknown Author says of Swift,
"There is one whom I am convinced he studied above all
others . . . Lucian."30
Swift's complete debt to the ancients, in addition
to his use of materials from Lucian, possibly included the
utilization of ideas relating to pigmies, such as could
have been provided by Herodotus and Philostratus, and the
borrowing of the general form of Homer's Odyssey, as well
as the suggestion for the blinding of the giant, which
also occurred in that work. More certainly, Swift made
good use of the idealized beasts who proved themselves
superior to degenerate men, the formulae for which were
suggested by Plutarch, Gelli, and Brown.
I 80
| Amelia, Book VIII, chapter v. Quotation cited
i in Eddy, Critical Study, p. 5^.
i
I
I
II. CONTEMPORARY IMAGINARY VOYAGES
29
In 1730, just four years after the publication of
Gulliver's Travels, Lord Bathurst jestingly threatened to
expose Swift’s thefts from Rabelais. Feigning anger with
Swift, he threatened to prove that the prose works "about
which they made so much ado are but little improvement upon
the humor" which was "stolen" from Rabelais.The opin
ions of Pope, Lyttleton and Scott further strengthen this
judgment. Pope, in the Dunciad alluded to Swift’s ability
to "laugh and shake in Rabelais1 easy chair"; Lyttleton's
Dialogue asked Lucian to judge between Rabelais's works
and Gulliver; and Scott reprinted excerpts from Book V,
chapters twenty-one and twenty-two of Rabelais in the foot
notes to his 1814 edition of Swift, so that the reader
could better compare Swift's Academy of Lagado with Rabel
ais's Court of Queen Whim.
Attempts to find proof for these beliefs, however,
I
i reveal only that Swift's debt to Rabelais was minor. It
1
j
31 Eddy’s Critical Study, p. 59.
is generally agreed that Swift owed Rabelais nothing in the
matter of style, and very little for hints on the general
composition of Gulliver.3g What Swift did owe to Rabelais
was the use of a number of incidents which appeared prin
cipally in parts I and III of Gulliver. Swift had access
to Rabelais in the original, or he might have read the
popular Urquhart and Le Motteux translation. The first
three books of this were published in 1653, and fourth and
fifth books followed in 169^.33 It has been proved con
clusively that Swift knew Rabelais directly, rather than
through an intermediary work,3^ and that he knew him well,
for
. . . Swift's mind was well stored with incidents
out of Rabelais, whose works he must have known
almost by heart, since he was able to quote him
off-hand in his correspondence with verbal aceur-
^ «> P. 4-9. Also, Huntington Brown, Rabelais
in English Literature (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1933)7 P. 171.
33 The Works of Rabelais, trans. Urquhart-Le Motteux,
ed. by Nock and Wilson (New York: Harcourt Brace and
Company, 1931)> Introduction.
3^ Eddy's Critical Study, pp. 57-60.
The Incidents in Gulliver which Swift borrowed from Rabel
ais were not taken verbatim, but rather a general idea, or
perhaps only part of an idea, was excerpted from the French,
man’s writings. It is certain that several of the descrip
tions of the duties of the professors In Lagado compare
closely with those of Rabelais1 professors at the court of
Queen Whim. In Lagado a professor was busy refining human
ordure, separating its constituents, while at the court of
Queen Whim, Archasdarpenin was engaged in distilling human
excrement. Where Swift’s professor was writing a treatise
concerning the malleability of fire, Rabelais’s was cutting
fire into steaks with a knife. In Lagado the ground was
ploughed by hogs, and in Rabelais' country three couples
of foxes ploughed a sandy shore. Swift's professors con
densed air into a dry, tangible substance, and Rabelais's
pitched nets to catch the wind. One of Swift's physicians
attempted to resuscitate a dead dog with an anal pump, and !
i j
one of Rabelais's attempted to get farts out of a dead ass i
Ibid., p. 47
32
with a spodizator. Further, in this same chapter on the
"Quintessence” in Rabelais, one doctor compounded human
urine with horse dung as a medicine to prolong the life
of the royal family. Parallel to this was Swift’s re
duction of "human excrement to its original food."^ Other
similarities to Rabelais occur in the "Voyage to Lilliput."
According to one authority,
Gulliver appears as a giant, and much is made of
the discrepancy between his bodily proportions,
with all' that they imply, and those of the little
folk who enslave and entertain him. His appetite,
like Gargantua’s requires whole flocks to appease,
his thirst whole hogsheads of liquor to slake.
Six scholars are retained to teach him the language,
and three-hundred tailors to make him a suit of
clothes. He is able to innundate the countryside
when he urinates as Gargantua did the city of Paris
and neighborhood of Aneenys, his mare the Gue de
Vede, and Pantagruel the battlefield of the Dip-
sodes.37
It was further noted that the bases for alignment into
political groups in Lilliput were similar to those of the
All of these parallels are to be found in
Gulliver, III, v, and Works of Rabelais, Vol. II, Book V,
xxi, xxii.
37 Huntington Brown, Rabelais in English Literature
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933) P. 1^2“
33
belligerents in the famous war in Gargantua, since "both
[were] satirizing the triviality of political motives the
world over." The Lilliputian emperor's name, "Golbasto
Momaren Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Muliy Ully Gue," may have
been suggested by the gibberish of Punurge. Considering,
however, the Celtic cast to the emperor's name, it seems
possible that it originated closer to home.^9 A further
close parallel to Swift's disillusionment in the ancestry
of "old illustrious families," which he suffered when he
saw that the ancestors of several generations of kings
were fiddlers, barbers, prelates, abbots, and cardinals,
may be found in Rabelais's Gargantua^0 where he says:
"emperors, kings, dukes, princes and popes" are descended
from Junk peddlars. Rabelais's influence on Swift did not
extend to Gulliver's fourth voyage, and the only similarity
Brown, Rabelais in English Literature, p. 162.
; ^ M. R. Grennan, "Lilliput and Leprecan: Gulliver
and the Irish Tradition," Journal of English Literary
History, XII (September, 19^5), p. 202.
40 Rabelais, II, xxx. Also Brown, Rabelais . . .
p. 165.
between Rabelais’s writings and "The Voyage to Brobdingnag"
occurs in the character of the giant king, which is much
like his literary cousin’s, the pacifistic Grangousier.
Swift’s total debt to Rabelais, then, amounted to the
borrowing of some incidents about a giant in a land of
pigmies, and a satirical account of a visit to the land
of learned nonsense.
Cyrano de Bergerae's influence upon Swift was first
described by Dunlop in his History of Prose Fiction
! Ii -I
! (l8l4). ^ In the same year Sir Walter Scott prefixed to
! his edition of Gulliver the statement that he considered
i ----------
i
Cyrano, as well as Rabelais, Lucian, and Philostratus to
be a source for Swift's satire. A century later, Eddy, in
his Critical Study stated that "Swift's borrowings of
incident and idea from the Fantastic Voyages of Cyrano
are more extensive and more numerous than from any other
source."**2 Proof of this statement, however, must rely
i
on internal evidence only, since Swift never mentioned
Edition of Henry Wilson, 1911» II* 527-535.
**2 Eddy’ s Critical Study, p. 6l.
Cyrano or his writings.
Gulliver’s Travels is basically parallel to Voyages
to the Moon and to the Sun in that both works are imaginary
voyages of the philosophic type.^3 The story of each
centers about the travels of a representative of the human
race to exceedingly strange and remote lands, where the
opportunity is taken to deal satirically with humanity.
In both cases, at least some of the satire depends upon
the arrival of the traveler in an ideal commonwealth. In
such a state the satiric effect is achieved by one of two
methods: Either the "Utopia" is contrasted to Europe, and
the natives receive with surprise the traveler's aecount
of kings, priests, and lawyers; or the commonwealth is
objectively described, and its virtues frequently counted.
A variation of the latter idea was employed in the case of
the beast Utopias. The satire in this case took the form
of a contrast between European civilization and a superior
race of animals. Cyrano's Voyage to the Sun was of this
Eddy's classification was used. It will be
recalled that he defined a philosophic voyage as an im
aginary voyage with a didactic or critical purpose.
type, and in general satire was paralleled by r , A Voyage to
the Land.of the Houyhnhnms," to about the same extent that
the Voyage to the Moon was paralleled by "The Voyage to
Brobdingnag." Summaries of Cyrano's two voyages should
suffice to demonstrate the general nature of the influence
of his works upon Swift's, and the succeeding section trac
ing more exact parallels should show the extent to which
Swift was specifically influenced by Cyrano. Cyrano's
Voyage to the Moon:
Following a discussion with several friends of
the possibility that the moon be inhabited, Cyrano
resolves to make a journey thither himself. He
fills bottles with morning dew and attaches them
to his person, in the hope that the dew will be
attracted by the sun. The experiment is only
partially successful, for with the help of the
bottles he does actually rise into the air only
to subside again upon the earth, landing not in
France, but in Canada, due to the revolution of
the earth. Here he makes new experiments, and
succeeds finally by rubbing the marrow of certain
animals on his body, which the moon sucks up.
On his arrival he is met by the inhabitants,
giants twelve cubits high. He is appropriated by
a mountebank who shows him for money, making him
perform as a dwarf in a circus, turn somersets,
make faces, and jump at the end of a rope. Cyrano
meets Socrates with whom he is able to converse
in Greek. He complains to Socrates of the treat- i
ment to which he has been subjected, but Socrates
reminds him that it is no worse than the lot
which would befall a moon-man if he should come
to—the_ear-th_and_elaim_to_be-_a_human_being..___________
Socrates brings Cyrano to the court, where he
becomes the pet of queen and courtiers in general.
The philosophers disagree about his species, but
conclude at length that he must be an ill-formed
specimen of the genus to which the queen's dwarf
belongs. When he meets this dwarf, Cyrano recog
nizes him as Domingo Gonzales, the Spaniard who
had flown to the moon by the aid of birds. Both
are confined in a cage where they converse together
at night on philosophy, and pass the daytime on
exhibition before curious crowds of spectators.
They pick up a smattering of the moon-language,
the result of which is that some free-thinkers
in the moon hold them to be endowed with reason.
This opinion is combated on the ground that nature
would never have wasted intelligence upon such
mis-shapen creatures. The quarrel becomes so
violent that Cyrano is ordered to appear before
a public assembly which is to pass upon his ration
ality. The verdict is in the negative, and Cyrano
nearly loses his life by asserting that the moon
is in reality only a moon and not an earth, a
statement which he is compelled to retract in
public. After becoming further acquainted with
the customs and manners of the moon-people, Cyrano
escapes with the aid of Socrates* .who carries him
to Italy whence he returns home. ^
Cyrano’s second voyage was an inferior account of
similar trip, but was nevertheless significant because of
its influence upon "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhn
hnms." The story is as follows:
After a journey of four months Cyrano reaches one
of the small stars whieh circle about the sun.
L j^L-Eddy-,—Critlcal-Study,_p_.__21.
38
There he makes the acquaintance of a small, naked
man who lets him into the profound secrets of
nature. Cyrano understands him because the native
speaks a mother language akin to all other lang
uages. Cyrano leaves the star and goes to the
sun itself, where he finds a race of people who
are able to assume any shape they please. A
nightingale leads him to the province where the
people have assumed the shape of birds. There
Cyrano has most humiliating experiences. On the
moon he was not credited with human intelligence.
Here the fault with him is that he is human, and
hence a miserable wretch, unfit to live. He is
sentenced to death, but manages to escape.
Other adventures include the varvellous forest,
the trees of which can speak; and the Lake of
Sleep into which five rivers fall, the rivers of
the five senses. Cyrano meets Campanella and
Descartes, at which point the story breaks off,
uncompleted.5
The respective parallels between Cyrano and Swift
are more impressive by reason of their numbers than be
cause of their exactness. Swift seldom borrowed anything
verbatim, which makes it impossible to ascertain definitely
the validity of the following similitudes. The following
passage, for instance, concerning a belief attributed to
the Lilliputians, can only be suggested as a likely origin
of one of Swift’s ideas.
^5 ibid., p. 22.
I
39
Their notions relating to the duties of parents
and children differ extremely from ours. For,
since the conjunction of male and female is
founded upon the great law of Nature, in order
to propagate and continue the species, the Lilli
putians will needs have it that men and women are
joined together, like other animals, by the motives
of concupiscence; and that their tenderness towards
their young proceeds from the like natural principle.:
for which reason they will never allow that a child
is under any obligation to his father for begetting
him, or to his mother for bringing him into the
world, which, considering the miseries of human
life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor in
tended so by his parents, whose thoughts in their
love encounters were otherwise employed ....
Their opinion is, that the parents are the last
of all others to be trusted with the education of
their own children.^6
On the subject of filial obligations, one of the philoso
phers who lectured to Cyrano while he was visiting the
moon, said:
When Nature brought him jthe father] forth it
was on condition that he should return that whieh
she lent him; so when he begot you he gave you
nothing, he merely paid a debtl Moreover I should
very much like to know if your parents were think
ing of you when they begot you? Alas, not at
all I And yet you think yourself obliged to them
for a present they made you without thinking!
What, because your father was so lascivious
* he could not resist the charms of some baggage,
46 Gulliver, I, vi, 87-88.
40
because he made a bargain to satisfy his desire
and you were the masonry which resulted from
their puddling, you are to revere this sensual
fellow as one of the seven wise men of Greece
For the general concept of littleness and bigness, as
applied to both Lilliput and Brobdingnag, Swift may well
have been indebted to Cyrano for the following:
Tell me, I beseech you, is it very hard to
believe that a louse takes your body for a World,
and that when one of them has travelled from one
of your ears to the other, his companions should
say of him that he has been to the ends of the
world or that he has passed from one pole to the
other? Yes, no doubt this little nation takes
your hair for the forests of its country, the
pores full of moisture for fountains, pimples
for lakes and ponds, abscesses for seas, fluxions
for deluges; and when you comb your hair back
wards and forwards they take this movement for
the ebb and flow of the ocean.
Cyrano's Histoire comlque de la lune furnished more
- n
hints for Swift's "Voyage to Brobdingnag" than it did for
any other part of Gulliver's Travels. Cyrano's giants, the
Selenites, although only one-fourth as tall as the Brob-
l 4 7
| Cyrano de Bergerac, Voyages to the Moon and the
; Sun, trans. Richard Aldington, (London: George Routledge
1 and Sons Ltd., 1923), pp. 121-122. The parallel was sug-
j gested by Aldington in his Appendix I, pp. 319-323.
I hQ
! Ibid., p. 132.
41
dingnagians, were gigantic enough to be instrumental in one
form of satire used by both authors. This consisted in thej
contrast in the difference in size between the traveler and
his hosts, the purpose of the comparison being to use the
relative greatness of the giants as a means for humiliating
the traveler.
After his arrival on the moon, Cyrano was made the
subject of a learned discussion which was to determine his
At this time they said that I was certainly
the female of the Queen’s little animal. As this
or as something else I was carried to the town
hall, where I noticed from the buzz and the ges
tures made by the people and the magistrates that
they were arguing together about what I might be.^9
They carried me openly to the court of justice,
where I was severely treated by the examiners
£while being tried before a number of judgesj.5°
Immediately the news ran through the whole kingdom
that there had been found two wild men, smaller
than others because of the poor nourishment soli
tude had furnished us with, who from some feat In
their fathers' seed possessed fore-legs too weak
49
Ibid., p. 82.
50 Ibid., p. 108.
to walk upon.^1
Much the same discussion took place in Brobdingnag:
His Majesty sent for three great scholars ....
These gentlemen . . . were of different opinions
concerning me. They all agreed that I could not be
produced according to the regular laws of nature,
because I was not framed with a capacity of preserv
ing my life. . . . One of these virtuosi seemed
to think I might be an embryo, or abortive birth.52
The travelers beeame the objects of popular curiosity;
Gulliver was kept in a box, and Cyrano in a cage. Each
was exhibited for money. In each ease the traveler was
expected to perform tricks. Cyrano was "taught to play
the buffoon, to throw somersaults, to make grimaces;"53
Gulliver was taught to make a speech to the company, to
drink their health from a thimble, to flourish his hangar,
and to exercise a straw as if it were a pike.5^ Both
Cyrano and Gulliver were used at court to divert the queen
51 Ibid., p. 106.
52 Gulliver, II, iii, 133.
53 Voyage to the Moon, p. 83.
54 Gulliver, II, ii, 127.
and her ladies.^ Both of the travelers were exhausted by
the fatiguing exhibitions,in the course of which, both
had to dodge large nuts which were thrown at them by mis
chievous spectators.^ Both Cyrano and Gulliver became a
pet of the queen, and both won the queen's favor in spite
of an unfriendly dwarf. Both were expected to propagate
their kind; Gulliver said: "He was strongly tempted to
get me a woman of my own size, by whom I might propagate
the breed."-5® According to Cyrano's account,
. . . the King and Queen themselves often were pleased
to touch my belly to find out if I were not pregnant,
for they burned with an extraordinary desire to have
a race of these little animals.59
The philosophy of Aristotle was held up to ridicule
in both works. Gulliver spoke of
. . . the modern philosophy of Europe, whose
professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult
causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle en-
55 Voyage to the Moon, pp. 197, 109. Gulliver, II,
iii, 135.
56 Gulliver, II, li, 128. Voyage to the Moon, p. 8£
^ Gulliver, II, il, 127. Voyage to the Moon, p.106
58 Gulliver, II, viii, 171.
Voyage-to-the—Moon— p.—I-Q61---------------------
44
deavor in vain to disguise their ignorance,
have invented this wonderful solution of all
difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement
of human knowledge.60
Cyrano, when examined by the court, found it necessary to
allege the "Principles of Aristotle, which were no more
useful to me than his Sophisms, for they showed me their
falsity in a few words. His judges replied:
Aristotle, said they, fitted principles to
his philosophy instead of fitting his philosophy
to principles. And at least he ought to have
proved these principles to be more reasonable
than those of other sects, which he could not do.
For this reason the good man must not. complain
if we agree to differ from him.®2
In both Brobdingnag and the French romance, the hero
was the object of the affections of a maid of honor. Gulli'
ver was liked by Glumdalcliteh, and Cyrano by one of the
giantesses of the court. It has also been suggested by
Aldington that the flashing of swords in chapter seven of
"A Voyage to Brobdingnag," and the adventure with the
60 Gulliver, II, iii, 133.
^ Voyage to the Moon, pp. 108-109.
62 ibid., p. 109.
monkey in chapter five of Part II, but the likelihood that
Cyrano inspired these seems questionable. J At the con
clusion of Gulliver’s trip to Brobdingnag, and of Cyrano’s
journey to the moon, both travelers were borne away by
native birds; Gulliver by an eagle which carried him off
in his box, and Cyrano by a roc which carried him off in
his cage.
Parallels between "A Voyage to Laputa'1 and the
Voyage to the Moon have been generally overlooked by stu -
dents of Swift. The idea of a flying island supported by
a loadstone for Instance, is unique to Cyrano de Bergerac.
When Cyrano first arrived on the moon he encountered the
prophet Elijah, who told Cyrano the story of how he got
to the moon.
I got a very light Machine of Iron made, into
which I went— and when I was well seated in my
place, I threw this Magnetlk Bowl as high as I
could, up into the Air. Now the Iron Machine,
which I purposely made more massive in the middle
than at the ends, was presently elevated, and in
a just Poise; because the middle received the
greatest force of Attraction. So then, as I
arrived at the place, whither my Load-stone had
attracted me, I presently threw up my Bowl into
^ Voyage to_the,Moon, Appendix I. p. 322.
46
64
the Air over me.
This, together with Lucian's flying island, and Defoe's
forms the only known source for the underlying idea of
Swift's Laputa. There are two other parallels to Laputa
4
in Cyrano which have completely escaped notice so far.
While in Laputa, Gulliver observed that the Laputans be-
• lieved,
. . . that the earth, by the continual approaches
of sun towards it, must in course of time be ab
sorbed or swallowed up. That the face of the sun
will by degrees be encrusted with its own effluvia,
and give no light to the world. 5
One of the moon-dwellers, while conversing with Cyrano,
said:
But when these suns have altogether used up
the matter maintains them, you cannot doubt but
that they will spread out on all sides to seek
new fuel and will fall upon all the worlds they
had thrown off before and particularly upon the \
nearest ones.®® I
Comical History of the States and Empires of the
j World in the Moon, newly Englished by A. Lovell, (London,
; 1687), p. 27. Also, c.f. Aldington translation listed
i above, footnote no. 47.
65 Gulliver, III, 11, 197.
^ Voyage to the Moon, p. 61.
Also, in Laputa it was proposed that doctors attend each
senator and administer to him as the case required,^
whereas in the moon there was in every house a doctor to
treat only the healthy, who prescribed according to the
proportion, shape and symmetry of the limbs, features,
68
coloring, and complexion of each resident of the house.
These parallels seem close enough to establish the fact
that Swift drew upon Cyrano's Voyage to the Moon when he
wrote the third section of Gulliver1s Travels.
According to Eddy, CyranO's Histoire du Solell
served as the_ model for the satire heaped upon Gulliver by
the Houyhnhnms, rather than Cyrano’s earlier story. It has
been pointed out that a general assembly was held in each
case to decide the fate of the travelers. Both defendants
were charged with the same crime, that of being a man, and
as such, naturally "malicious, treacherous, libidinous,
cowardly, and insolent."^9 Hatred for him was due largely
67 Gulliver, III, vi, 220.
^ Voyage to the Moon, pp. 130-131.
69 Gulliver, IV, viii, 305.
48
in both cases to his presumption and cruelty in tyrannizing
over his meeker superiors, which were horses in Houyhnhnm-
land, and birds in the sun. The juries were more lenient
than necessary, and both sentences were likewise commuted.7°
The character of the satire used by Swift, that of shaming
man by showing him to be inferior to the very beasts in
virtues was a favorite of Cyrano's. The scenes with the
birds and trees in the sun, and some of the philosophical
conversations on the moon confirm this. Aldington said:
*
There can be little doubt that Swift read
Cyrano de Bergerac closely and frequently built
upon what the French writer had done or took up
and developed better the hint of some idea. The
unity of Swift's purpose, the even tone of his
prose, the strong air of common sense, the Defoe-
like illusion of reality, are all in sharp con
trast with Cyrano's wandering fancies, varying
styles, extravagance and lack of common sense.'1
Until recently, the significance of the pseudo-
realistic French voyages, as forerunners of Gulliver, has
been overlooked. Part of the reason for this has been that
Swift did not have in his library any such books. Accord-
Eddy, Critical Study, pp. 63, 187.
71 Voyage to the Moon and Sun, Appendix I, p. 323 •
4S
ing to one authority, however, Swift's library is useless
as a guide.72 He didn't have Sturray's "Storm," which
appeared almost word for word in his "Voyage to Brobdingnag,
*
and he did have five books on economics, which conflicts
with his notorious ignorance of that subject.73 Also,
there was no Shakespeare, Dryden, or Milton to be found in
his library, and since Swift was familiar enough with these
authors to write about them in Epistolae I_ Prolusiones, he
must have read them. Further, a list of 675 works found in
his library at the time of his death could certainly have
been no guide to the reading of one whom Defoe called "a
walking Index of Books . . . who has all the Libraries of
Europe in his Head."^ There is no reason then, to assume
that Swift was not familiar with The Voyages et Advantures
J. R. Moore, "New Source for Gulliver's Travels:
The Voyages et Advantures de Jacques Masse, Assigned to
Tyssot de Patot," Studies in Philology, XXXVIII (January,
1941), 66-80.
^ In Gulliver, II, Swift actually stated that the
purchasing value of money was lowered by the high price of
gold.
7^ Moore, "New Source . . .," excerpt from Review,
VII, 455. Cited by Moore, p. 67.
50
de Jacques Masse, written by Simon Tyssot de Patot.7^ On
the contrary, on the basis of internal evidence, there is
reason to believe that Swift knew, and was influenced by,
the Voyages of Masse. The Voyages was a satiric narrative
in which a seventeenth century Frenchman told of his ex
periences in various countries.
The hero, Masse, became a surgeon to gratify
his desire to travel. He embarked for Martinique
as the doctor aboard a ship, was foreed to put into
Lisbon because of adverse gales, and from there
set sail for the East Indies on a Portuguese vessel.
When the ship was wrecked somewhere to the southeast
of Africa, the survivors began to build a smaller
vessel to escape from the land upon which they had
been cast. Masse and a companion or two set off to
investigate the country, and after traversing dif
ficult waterways and crossing mountains, arrived
nearly naked and unarmed at an inland kingdom.
There they were entertained by the people and
their king. One of Masse’s companion’s skill as
a watchmaker won favor for them both, but the ad
miration with which they were regarded was lessened
by Masse's unsuccessful attempt to defend European
civilization against the arguments of a judge, a
priest, and the king. When his companion was al
most discovered in an attempted intrigue with the
queen, which was shortly after they assisted in
putting out a fire in the queen's chambers, they
both escaped and rejoined their comrades on the
coast, who had by this time completed their craft
and were making ready to depart.
75 Published in French in 1710, and in English in
1733^34^______________________________________________________________
Similarities between Masse's Voyages and Swift’s
Gulliver may be found in the matter-of-fact styles, the
general air of realism, in the storm which drove the hero's
ship to an unknown country between Africa and Australia,
in the hero’s separation from his shipmates, in the almost
complete destitution in which he arrived in a strange
country, in his fondness for detailed statistics, in his
interest in a new language, in his entertainment at the
king's court, in his skill in mechanics, and in the grave
mockery of the argumentative passages in whieh the Euro
pean traveler was put to shame. Also, both travelers were
ship's surgeons, a circumstance which may be explained by
the need for an excuse for the superior education and
spirit of scientific enquiry which must have been rare
among sailors of the time. The position of surgeon was
attended by other advantages too, for surgeons, according
to Defoe's History of the Pirates, were in special favor
with pirates, and whereas ship eaptains were often cast
aside, surgeons were retained. This may help to explain
why Gulliver was promoted to "captain of a ship" in part
IV, and consequently marooned by the mutineers instead of
52
being kept by them, as he would have been if he had been
the ship surgeon. Also, while visiting in the strange
kingdom, Masse was lectured by the king concerning his
objections to the use of firearms, and against the horror
and futility of European warfare. Both Patot and Swift
seemed to have the War of the Spanish Succession in mind
while writing, for both referred darkly to Malplaquet and
the battle of 1709, which was a terrible victory for the
Allies, since it cost thegi 20,000 men for only slight gains.
The palace fire episode in both stories was Similar: There
was an alarm at night, the placing of ladders against
palace walls, a hurrying to the scene, the quest for water
with which to put the fire out, a constant shouting of the
word "Fire!” and the eventual drenching of the conflagration
by the hero. In both cases, after the fire was extinguished,
the hero was either expelled or fled from the country. Be
cause of the likenesses between the two works, and in
spite of the lack of evidence that Swift was familiar with
the story of Masse, Patot's Voyages must stand as a likely j
4
I J
source for Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
Another possible source for the palace fire incident,
53
is "The Adventures of the physician, Abu Bakkr," from
The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour, Tartarian Tales
of Simon Guehlette. In this story,
The physician told how the governor's son
dreamed that he would one day lay under water
the kingdom of Bisuagar. For this reason he refused
to urinate. To force him to do so, the physician
gave him a warm bath, had a fire of resin and
brimstone built under his bedroom window, and
after the youth had gone to bed, had the slaves
cry, "FireI" The physician then ran into his
patient's room in a great apparent fright, told
him the flames were beginning to reach the palace,
and pleaded with him to help. When the patient
asked what he could do, the physician explained
that since there was no water nearby, it would
be necessary for him to urinate on the fire in
order to put it out. This he did.
There were several resemblances between this story and
Gulliver. Both Gulliver and the governor's son were alarm
ed by cries in the night, a high officer of the crown en
treated each to aid in the emergency, since only his inter
vention could save the palace from destruction, both heroes
had to get out of bed, and a natural and urgent want caused
by drink was increased by the warmth of the fire. Finally,
^ E. E. Roviliain, "Jonathan Swift's 'A Voyage to
Lilliput' and The Thousand and One Quarters of an Hour,
I Tartarian Tales of Thomas Simon Gueulette," Modern
I Language_N.ot.es j_XLIVL_( June, 1929) 5 362-364.______________
54
both Gulliver and the governor’s son referred to the fear
of laying the land under water by the same means. Although
these parallels help to fill some spaces in the possible
;sources for the palace fire incident, because they were
not so likely to have been known by Swift, the Tartarian
Tales must be considered only a supplementary source, and
Rabelais and Patot still the main influences upon Swift
for this one incident.
III. INDIGENOUS IMAGINARY VOYAGES
One of the several Indirect influences upon Swift
may have been supplied by Bishop Godwin's Man in the Moone J
through the medium of Cyrano de Bergerac1s Hlstoire de la
Lune. It is possible that swift was directly influenced
by Godwin's story, in which Domingo Gonzales was the hero,
but because of the similarity between it and Cyrano’s nar- !
I
I
rative, It seems more likely that It reached Swift through
Cyrano. Godwin's story was told in the first person by
Domingo Gonzales, a Spaniard whose adventures began when
he was shipwrecked.
While passing the lonely hours on his desert isle,
Gonzales constructed, a flying machine which was_______
55
supported by swans and geese. Attempting to escape
from the island by means of this contrivance, he
overshot his mark and was carried to the moon,
where he landed on September 21, 1591. Upon ar
rival on the moon, he was impressed immediately by
the extraordinary dimensions of all lunar objects.
As he observed, "... all things were ten, twenty,
yea thirty times larger than o u r s . "77 The first
house he saw, and the first lunar occupant, were
both about five times as big as their earthly
prototypes. Later he discovered that this person,
who was twenty-eight feet tall, was really one of
the smallest of the moon-dwellers; on the moon,
merit, ability, and general intelligence were in
direct proportion to height, for ". . . the taller
the people are of stature, the more excellent are
their endowments of m i n d . "78 Longevity also, was
a function of height. Those whose stature was
about that of earth beings, ". . . they account
base, unworthy creatures, but one degree above
brute beasts, . . . calling them bastards, counter-,
felts, or changelings."79
Gonzales was questioned by the king of the giants, much
as Gulliver had been in Brobdingnag. Like Gulliver too,
the traveler was envied and mistreated by dwarfs. Further,
while traveling between earth and the moon, Gonzales ob
served the attracting powers of heavenly bodies. It has
been suggested that this incident could have provided a
77 Reprint of Voyage of Gonzales, Anglia X, 428-452.
78 Ibid., 443.
..... 79.h ._W..—Law-ton,—^Bishop-Godwinls-Man-in—' the-Moone,, . ! !
Review of English Studies, VII (January, 193lT7 P* 51.
56
hint for the magnetic attraction and repulsion between
Laputa (which parallels the moon), and the earth itself.®0
Godwin, however, probably did not influence Swift directly,
since all of the similarities between Gulliver and the Man
in the Moone > are duplicated in the later works of Cyrano
de Bergerac.
I n 1 7 0 5 D a n i e l D e f o e p u b l i s h e d a c u r i o u s w o r k e n
t i t l e d : T h e C o n s o l i d a t o r : o r , M e m o i r s o f S u n d r y T r a n s a c
t i o n s f r o m t h e W o r l d i n t h e M o o n . A c c o r d i n g t o J o h n F . R o s
v Several biographers of Defoe have seized upon
the work as one of the sources of Gulliver,
falling to note the true extent and significance
of its connection with Swift—
considerable debt to the Tale
hat it owes a
1704J, and that
be Tale.ul it is, in part, ah attack on tl
Actually, according to a recent study of Laputa, Defoe's
flying machine involving political satire, which he called
the "Consolidator," was a significant contribution to
Gulliver's Travels, and It was an Influence upon only one
80
H. W. Lawton, "Bishop Godwin's Man in the Moone,"
Review of English Studies, VII (January, 1931)> p. 51.
J. F. Ross, Swift and Defoe, A Study in Relation
ship, (Berkely and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1941), XI, p. 37.
57
82
idea within the "Voyage to Laputa.1 The story of the
Consolidator was cast as a long, satiric narrative in the
form of an imaginary voyage. The Consolidator itself, was
a mechanism designed by the Chinese for making trips to
the moon. It was "formed in the shape of a Chariot, on
the Backs of two vast Bodies with extended Wings,1 1 which
were composed of 513 feathers. The machine symbolized the
English government, its wings were the houses of Parlia
ment, its feathers were the members of Parliament, and the
one very large feather which served as a rudder represented
the -prime minister. The voyage to the moon itself had
four meanings: it was a means for getting to a uperior
civilization; it was a contemptuous characterization of
the intellectual flights of wits, philosophers, and free
thinkers; it was the normal process of English government,
when that government followed a desirable and satisfactory
course; and it was representative of the attempts of the
Stuarts to reach absolute power. The fourth meaning was
^ M. Nicolson and N. Mohler, "Swift's Flying
Island in the 'Voyage to Laputa,'1 1 Annals of Science, II
(1937), ^25.
58
plainly incompatible with the third. . Of all this, Swift
borrowed two ideas: The basic one was that his flying
machine was modeled upon Defoe's in that it was a satiric
symbol of the English government; the second one was the
notion of a vehicle which hovers above those whom it rules.
This last was borrowed from the fourth meaning for the Con
solidator. In this meaning the Consolidator functions well
and normally as a flying machine set over and above the
people it governed. In this sense, the Consolidator is
not a transporting vehicle at all, but a symbol of power
hovering above. If the reader's attention is to be focused
on the way in which Laputa, which represented the English
administration, brings pressure to bear on the people below
by shutting off sun or rain, or slowly settling and crush
ing out opposition, he should not be distracted by having
to consider the vehicle also a means of transportation to
the moon, as it was in Defoe's story. Thus, by omitting
any ipoon voyage, by carefully limiting Laputafs sphere of
motion, upward and horizontally, Swift took full advantage
of Defoe's idea and carried it further, without those
elements of Defoe's which had led to ambiguity and confusion.
59
The total result is a contribution to the political satire
of the flying island which must be considered to be of con
siderable Importance since none of Swift's other literary
creditors was able to offer anything comparable to it.
As in the case of every human being, there were
forces which exerted their influence upon Swift indirectly,
not through the usual literary channels, but which were
none the less potent in their effect. A case in point is
the influence upon Swift of the Irish folk tales. These
were just as much imaginary voyages as those which came to
Swift from across the channel, and in some respects they
could lay claim to at least an equal share in the background
materials which were drawn upon for Gulliver1s Travels.
Swift must have been familiar with Celtic folk-lore: he
must have been under the influence of the Irish imagina
tion during those years he spent in Ireland before writing
his Travels, since certainly it is not possible to imagine
one of the great literary intellects of the age living in
ignorance of such a charming tradition of folk-lore as that
which surrounded Swift in Ireland. According to M. R.
Grennan:
60
If the "Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms"
owes its power to indignation of mind— a rational
rather than an emotional reaction to injustice,
perhaps "A Voyage to Liiliput" owes its charm to
Swift's partial surrender to a spirit not entirely
his own ... I believe that the adventures in
Liiliput, and to a lesser degree those in Brob-
dingnag, show Swift very close to the Celtic
spirit.
There were two dominant themes in Irish literature:
One dealt with the very big, and the other with the very
little. Swift, while staying at Sheridan's house in
County Canan, could hardly have missed hearing such stories.
At the time, he was writing nA Voyage to Brobdingnag,” so
the story of Finn MacCumaill in the Colloquy of the
Ancients, a tale about giants, was the one story which
he was almost certain to have been familiar with.®** He
may also have been familiar with the stories of the very
little, such as that of Tuatha De Danann, which told of
the gods of old who had dwindled into tiny creatures.
This story had its beginning early in the development of
Grennan, "Liiliput and Leprecan: Gulliver
I and the Irish Tradition," Journal of English Literary
j History, XII (September, 19^5)> 188.
84 Ibid., 189.
6l
Irish literature, when there appeared a noble race, the
Tuath Luchra, a comely, gifted, and resourceful people,
whose leader, Iubhdan, like Swift’s Golbasto, was ntall,
proud, and imperious,” ”though a more disinterested ob
server than his chief poet would admit that the king barely
cleared the close-cropped grass. The general outline
of the story alone presents close resemblances to Liiliput,
but an even more important point has much light cast upon
it by Irish mythology, a point which must have bothered
many of the readers of source studies of Gulliver's Travels.
It is the question of the proposed ancestors of the Lilli-
putians.
To the reader who has never been fully satisfied
with the ancestry accorded the Lilliputians by
modern scholarship, it may come as a welcome sug
gestion that perhaps Swift knew the lovely Irish
world of the very small, either through the com
mon tales of the "little people" or through a
popular story of the very special kingdom of Lepra popular story pi
and Leprecan.^k
Swift, of course, was undoubtedly familiar with the classi
cal tradition and with the real and imaginary voyages, all
85 Ibid. , 188.
86 Ibid.. 188-202
62
of which have been shown above to have exerted some influ
ence upon him, and most likely the initial idea of Liiliput
did arise from such sources. However,
. . . if there is_ any aesthetic evolution from
the horrible grubs of Ctesias to the dainty
creatures of Book One, a very significant step
has been omitted in scholarly accounts, the
step that explains the elegance and charm of
Swift’s little people. ^
The pigmy tradition was not capable of filling in this gap,
for the pigmies did not resemble the diminutive inhabitants
of Liiliput in the way that the ’ ’little people” of the Iris;
stories did. The concept of pigmies has always brought wit:
it the idea of creatures which were sub-human, ugly, stunt
ed, hairy, short-lived, and which burrowed into holes and
emerged for bloody and futile battles with their ancient
enemies, the cranes. Though the pigmy tradition may have
given the original hints for the idea of Liiliput, it could
never for long have sustained the author's imagination in
the task of creating a miniature world of comely people of
elfin proportions.
87
Ibid., 188-202.
If Swift was not already familiar with the Irish
tradition, he most likely became aware of it between 1714
and 1720, the period of his residence in Ireland during
which Gulliver's Travels must have been forming itself in
his mind. At that time, in manuscript form, a tale was
circulating which was called The Death of Fergus Mac Lelde,
or the Wanderings of the Tuath Luchra.^ In it Iubhdan,
the Lilliputian king of Luchra, sent his poet, Esirt, to a
land of giants, so that he could confirm the poet's claim
that he knew of a nation, any person from which could lift
four battalions of the Luchra. Esirt journeyed to this
land, which was called Emania, and which was ruled by one
King Fergus. During the course of his adventures in Emania,
the Ulster poet was dropped into a beaker of liquor for his
arrogance, just as Gulliver was immersed in a bowl of cream
following his patriotic boasts before the amused giants.
Esirt returned to Ulster with Aedh, the dwarf of King
OQ-
The tale was told in O'Grady, Sil. Gadellca, II,
viii (1892), and seems to have come originally from Egerton
1782, a manuscript written between 1419 and 1517°. Cited by
A. C. L. Brown, "Gulliver's Travels and an Irish Folk-Tale,
Modern Language Notes, XIX (1904), 45-46.
64,
Fergus’ court, where he was greeted as "enormous Aedh, 0
very giant!" King Iubhdan then set out for Emania himself.
Once there, he fell into a bowl of porridge, and upon being-
addressed derogatorily by King Fergus he replied: "But if
it may please thee to show me some favour, suffer me no
longer to be among yonder loons, for the great men’s breaths
do all infect me."^
The parallels between this story and Gulliver's
Travels are several in number. First of all, much was
made of the scene at the palace in both accounts, where
the size of the dishes was dwelt upon considerably. Iubh
dan slipped into a porridge bowl and stuck to his middle,
almost as Gulliver was thrust by the dwarf into the marrow
bone, where he stuck to his waist. When the people saw
Iubhdan they "sent up a mighty roar of laughter," and
Gulliver admitted presenting himself as a "very ridiculous
figure." Both diminutive travelers, King Iubhdan and
Gulliver, were dismayed by the offensive odors of the
89
From the translation given In Eddy, Critical
Study, p. 119.
giants. In both stories a dwarf was introduced in order tc
emphasize the small size of the respective travelers. In
both stories it was mentioned that the ladies of the
smaller race appeared extremely fair and beautiful, and
in both narratives there was the scene at the feast of
the giants at which the visitor and the dwarf were both
present. There is no real evidence that Swift was familiar
with this Irish story and took from it certain Ideas to be
used in his Gulliver's Travels, although if he did not know
this one story, it still seems unlikely that he could have
remained oblivious to the spirit of an entire body of na
tive literature, especially while in the "low company"
which Orrery so deplored.
To the list of English writings which may have in
fluenced Swift should be added a little-known periodical,
The Weekly Comedy, As it is Dayly Acted at most Coffee-
Houses In London, according to G. S. McCue and F. S.
— .
j R o c k w e l l .9° The first number of this periodical appeared
i
1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ i
I ;
G. S. McCue, "A Seventeenth-Century Gulliver,"
Modern Language Notes, L (January, 1935)* 32-3^.
F. S. Rockwell, "A Probable Source for Gulliver's
Travels," Notes and Queries, CLXIX (August 24, 1935), 131- 1
133.
66
May 10, 1699. It has been generally ascribed to Ned Ward,
since the style of the written material resembles Ward’s,
since the only advertisements in The Weekly Comedy were
those for the London Spy, and since some of its material
was included in the 1706 two volume edition of Ward's works.
The periodical made use of a general framework which con
sisted of a club-like gathering of twelve men who told
stories to one another while sitting in a coffee-house.
One of the narratives, that of Scribble, a newswriter, is
of particular interest to us, for it tells of the recent
discovery of a fertile, pleasant island, forty-three
leagues from Ireland. Scribble tells how the John of Leith
from Scotland, Sanders Mac Doel, Master, bound for Gold
Island in America, set sail from Leith on March 11th.
The first day at sea they enjoyed good weather,
but on the second day a storm arose which lasted
to the sixth day, and which took them into latitude
fifty-seven degrees north. Here they were be
calmed, and surrounded by a dense fog. Through
the fog, one of the crewmen heard the lowing of
a cow, and the captain fired one of the ship's
guns in hopes of receiving succor from the in
habitants, although to no avail. Shortly after
this,- the fog cleared, and the captain sent a
party ashore for provisions. They met a group
of pigmies, whom they thought were children, but
they soon learned otherwise, for the pigmies shot
67
a t t h e c r e w w i t h t h e i r b o w s a n d a r r o w s , k i l l i n g
o n e a n d w o u n d i n g f o u r . T h e c r e w r e t i r e d t o t h e
s h i p , t o r e t u r n a f t e r w a r d s w i t h t h e m a s t e r a n d
a r m e d r e i n f o r c e m e n t s . T h e y s a l l i e d a s h o r e , a n d
m e e t i n g n o r e s i s t a n c e , m a r c h e d i n l a n d , w h e r e
t h e y d i s c o v e r e d a c a s t l e . F r o m t h i s c a s t l e c a m e
a g i a n t t w e l v e ' f e e t h i g h a n d a n a r m y o f p i g m i e s
w h i c h t h e m a s t e r a n d h i s c r e w m e n b a t t l e d . T h e
g i a n t w a s k i l l e d , s o m e p i g m i e s w e r e c a p t u r e d ,
t h e c a s t l e w a s s a c k e d , a n d t h e c r e w r e t u r n e d t o
S c o t l a n d w i t h t h e g i a n t ’ s b o d y a n d t h e c a p t u r e d
p i g m i e s , b o t h o f w h i c h t h e y p u t o n d i s p l a y . T h e
l a n d o n w h i c h t h e p i g m i e s l i v e d w a s s u p p o s e d b y
s o m e l e a r n e d g e o g r a p h e r s t o h a v e b e e n f o r m e r l y a
p e n i n s u l a , j o i n e d b y a n i s t h m u s t o P r e s t e r ? ? J o h n ’ s
C o u n t r y , b u t w h i c h b y t h e s h o c k o f a n e a r t h q u a k e
w a s s e v e r e d f r o m t h e m a i n l a n d .
T h e p a r a l l e l s t o G u l l i v e r a r e t o b e f o u n d i n t h e
f a c t s t h a t b o t h t h e i s l a n d i n S c r i b b l e ’ s s t o r y a n d L i i l i p u t
w e r e o r i g i n a l l y t h o u g h t t o b e c o n n e c t e d w i t h P r e s t e r - J o h n ’ s
C o u n t r y , t h a t a r a c e o f p i g m i e s g r e e t e d t h e t r a v e l e r s w i t h -
a f l i g h t o f a r r o w s i n e a c h s t o r y , a n d t h a t t h e t r a v e l e r s
i n e a c h c a s e b r o u g h t b a c k c u r i o s i t i e s ; G u l l i v e r , i t m a y
b e r e c a l l e d , e x h i b i t e d L i l l i p u t i a n a n i m a l s o n t h e B o w l i n g
G r e e n a t G r e e n w i c h . T h e s e f e w p a r a l l e l s c e r t a i n l y d o n o t
j m a k e a s t r o n g c a s e f o r t h e I n f l u e n c e o f T h e W e e k l y C o m e d y
i
[ u p o n G u l l i v e r , b u t t h e p o s s i b i l i t y s t i l l e x i s t s t h a t S w i f t ,
i ~
u p o n r e a d i n g T h e W e e k l y C o m e d y , r e t a i n e d a n i m p r e s s i o n o f
p a r t s o f i t W h i c h h e h a l f - r e m e m b e r e d a n d u s e d , y e a r s l a t e r ,
68
while writing Gulliver's Travels.
From one of numerous travel accounts of the times
comes an almost exact parallel to a section of Gulliver.
In "A Voyage to Liiliputthere is a diverting passage
on the Lilliputian way of writing, which runs as follows:
. . . hut their manner of writing is very peculiar,
heing neither from the left to the right, like the
Europeans; nor from the right to the left, like
the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese;
nor from down to up, like the Caseagians; but
aslant from one corner of the paper to the other,
like ladies of England.91
According to R. W. Frantz this passage, only slightly dis
guised, was apparently taken from Captain William Symson's
A New Voyage to the East Indies (1715).^2 The "original,"
from Syrason, was written as follows in the work cited:
Their Way of Writing, is not like the Europeans, in
a line from the Left to the Right; nor like the
Hebrews, from the Right to the Left; nor yet like
t h e Chinese, from the Top of the Paper strait down
to the Bottom; but from the Left Corner down to
the Right, slanting downwards.
This stands as one of the few parallels to Swift’s work,
G u l l i v e r , I , v i , 8 4 - 8 5 .
R. W. F r a n t z , " G u l l i v e r ' s C o u s i n S y m p s o n , " H u n t i n g
ton Library Quarterly, I (1937-38), 329-334.
69
which so obviously represents borrowing on the part of
Swift, that no further proof is needed to support it. The
only question whieh remains to be answered, is how do we
know that both Swift and Symson did not use a common source
To answer this question it is necessary to inspect Symson’s
source, for Williarm.Symson, the author, never existed, and
all of his material was necessarily b o r r o w e d .93 The book
which he was supposed to have written was a simulated
travel narrative, written by s o m e unknown author under the
anonym of William Symson. Those parts of A New Voyage to
the East Indies which described the voyage to and from the
East Indies were taken from John Ovlngton’s popular Voyage
to Suratt (1696). The following passage, which was Oving-
ton's treatment of the same subject, makes it apparent that;
Swift had borrowed from Symson, not Ovington.
Their manner of Writing is neither directly for
wards nor backwards, nor in a streight Line downwafds,
like the Chinese from the upper to the lower part
of the Paper; but it is a Medium between both,
from the uppermost Corner of the right, slanting
gradually downwards; especially when they write
93 Frantz, ’ ’ Gulliver’s Cousin Sympson,” p. 332.
70
a n y N o t e s o r E p i s t l e s t o o n e a n o t h e r . ^
A l t h o u g h S w i f t c l e a r l y i m p r o v e d u p o n t h e p a s s a g e b o r r o w e d
f r o m t h e u n k n o w n a u t h o r o f A N e w V o y a g e t o t h e E a s t I n d i e s ,
t h e r e c a n b e l i t t l e q u e s t i o n c o n c e r n i n g i t s o r i g i n , i t
b e i n g o n e o f t h e f e w u n q u e s t i o n a b l e v e r b a l p a r a l l e l s t o
b e f o u n d i n G u l l i v e r ’ s T r a v e l s .
F r o m b o t h f o r e i g n a n d n a t i v e i m a g i n a r y v o y a g e w r i t t e n
d u r i n g h i s t i m e , o r s l i g h t l y b e f o r e , S w i f t b o r r o w e d t h e
g r e a t e s t a m o u n t o f h i s m a t e r i a l f o r G u l l i v e r . F r o m R a b e l a i s ,
h e t o o k s e v e r a l i n c i d e n t s w h i c h w e r e u s e d i n L a p u t a . F r o m
C y r a n o , w h o w a s h i s m o s t I m p o r t a n t s o u r c e , h e b o r r o w e d t h e
i d e a o f u s i n g t r a v e l s t o r e m o t e , I d e a l c o m m o n w e a l t h s , f o r
s a t i r i c a l p u r p o s e s . F o r m u c h i n " A V o y a g e t o B r o b d i n g n a g , "
s u c h a s t h e u s e o f g i a n t s , w i t h t h e i d e a o f h u m i l i a t i n g t h e
n o r m a l - s i z e d t r a v e l e r b y t h e c o n t r a s t , a n d t h e l e a r n e d d i s
c u s s i o n s b e t w e e n t h e t r a v e l e r a n d h i s h o s t s , w h i c h w e r e
d e s i g n e d t o f u r t h e r h u m i l i a t e t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f m a n k i n d
S w i f t w a s I n d e b t e d t o C y i * a n o . F o r t h e m o d e l o f h i s f l y i n g
i s l a n d S w i f t b o r r o w e d n o t o n l y f r o m L u c i a n , b u t h e a l s o
^ I b i d . , q u o t e d f r o m O v l n g t o n , e d . R a w l i n s o n , (192$?),
p. 148._________________________________________ __________
71
u s e d c o n c e p t s w h i c h h a d b e e n d e v e l o p e d b y C y r a n o a n d D e f o e
f o r t h e i r r e s p e c t i v e f l y i n g m a c h i n e s . T h e m o d e l f o r t h e
H o u y h n h n m ’ s s a t i r e o f G u l l i v e r a l s o c a m e f r o m C y r a n o . F o r
s t y l e a n d g e n e r a l f r a m e w o r k , S w i f t w a s p r o b a b l y i n d e b t e d t o
P a t o t , a n d f o r t h e p a l a c e f i r e i n c i d e n t , h e m a y h a v e d r a w n
f r o m t h e T a r t a r i a n T a l e s . G o d w i n ' s i m a g i n a r y v o y a g e , w h i c h
w a s c o p i e d b y C y r a n o , p r o v e d t o b e a n i n d i r e c t i n f l u e n c e
u p o n S w i f t . N a t i v e I r i s h f o l k - l i t e r a t u r e m u s t h a v e e x e r t e d
a s t r o n g i n f l u e n c e u p o n G u l l i v e r , p a r t i c u l a r l y t h e f i r s t
t w o p a r t s , i n w h i c h e x t r e m e l y s m a l l a n d e x t r e m e l y l a r g e
p e o p l e i n t e r m i x e d . O f l e s s e r i m p o r t a n c e i s t h e b o r r o w i n g
o f a p a s s a g e , p r a c t i c a l l y v e r b a t i m , f r o m t h e f i c t i t i o u s
S y m s o n . S w i f t ' s t o t a l d e b t t o I m a g i n a r y v o y a g e l i t e r a t u r e ,
t h e r e f o r e , b o t h a n c i e n t a n d c o n t e m p o r a r y , w a s o f g r e a t I m
p o r t a n c e i n t h e f o r m a t i o n o f G u l l i v e r ' s T r a v e l s .
CHAPTER III
R E A L I S T I C V O Y A G E L I T E R A T U R E W H I C H I N F L U E N C E D S W I F T
F o r t h e n a u t i c a l I n f o r m a t i o n a n d f r a m e w o r k o f v o y
a g i n g w h i c h w a s s o i m p o r t a n t f o r t h e r e a l i s t i c i m p r e s s i o n
w h i c h S w i f t ’ s n a r r a t i v e g a v e , i n f o r m a t i o n f r o m D a m p i e r a n d
f r o m S t u r m y w a s r e l i e d u p o n . F r o m D a m p i e r , S w i f t b o r r o w e d
n a m e s , e v e n t s , d a t e s , a n d e v e n s o m e h i n t s p e r t a i n i n g t o
w r i t t e n s t y l e , w h i l e f r o m S t u r m y # S w i f t t o o k a p a s s a g e
w h i c h d e s c r i b e d a s t o r m a t s e a . S u c h b o r r o w i n g s b y S w i f t
w e r e a n e c e s s i t y , s i n c e S w i f t ’ s f e w s e a v o y a g e s q u a l i f i e d
h i m i n n o w a y t o w r i t e a u t h o r i t a t i v e l y u p o n s u c h a s u b j e c t ,
a s G u l l i v e r , t h e s u r g e o n a n d c a p t a i n o f a m e r c h a n t m a n ,
w o u l d n a t u r a l l y b e e x p e c t e d t o d o .
D a m p i e r w a s f i r s t c o n s i d e r e d t o b e a s o u r c e f o r
G u l l i v e r b y S i r W a l t e r S c o t t i n l 8 l 6 . i L a t e r s c h o l a r s
2
e i t h e r i g n o r e d t h i s i n f l u e n c e , a s d i d E d d y ,
i 1 Walter Scott, T 'Works of Jonathan Swift," Contrlbu-
i tions to the Edinburgh Review, XXVII (September, 1816), 52.
2 Eddy, in his Critical Study, p. 29, states that
", . .no direct relationship can be traced."
73
Honncher,® Borkowsky,^ and Poll,5 or they denied it as did
Taylor, who flatly asserted that Swift borrowed "next to
nothing" from Dampier.® More recently, Secord^ and Bon
ner,® in separate studies, have convincingly traced his
influence in Swift’s book. Parallels have been shown to
exist principally between the nautical parts of the two
narratives, Swift’s and Dampier's, but the style of writing,
general mood, and story framework have also been demon
strated to be closely allied to Dampier’s.
That Swift knew Dampier's A New Voyage Round the
o
E. Honncher, "Quellen zu Dean Jonathan Swift’s
Gulliver's Travels," Anglia, X (1888), 397-427.
^ Theodore Borkowsky, "Quellen zu Swift’s 'Gulliver,'"
Anglia, XV (1893), 3^5-389.
® Max Poll, "The Sources of Gulliver's Travels,"
Bulletin of the University of Cincinnati, XXIV, 6 - 2 2 .
fs "
W . D . T a y l o r , J o n a t h a n S w i f t , A C r i t i c a l E s s a y
( L o n d o n : P. D a v i e s , 1933) p . 211.
rj
A . W . S e e o r d , " G u l l i v e r a n d D a m p i e r , " M o d e r n
L a n g u a g e N o t e s , L I ( M a r c h , 1936), 59.
Q
Willard H. Bonner, Captain William Dampier,
Buccaneer-Author (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1934) pp. 156-181.
74
World (1697) is not difficult to establish. In the "Letter
from Captain Gulliver to his Cousin Sympson," written in
the year 1727* Gulliver says that the fictitious Sympson
persuaded him to publish his travels as Dampier did,
loosely thrown together and corrected by someone else.
Certainly this reference implies knowledge of Dampier's
book. In addition, Swift owned the book, for when he made
a list of his books in 1715* Dampier's Hew Voyage (3d ed.,
1698) was cited.^ This same volume, with Swift's autograph
in it and the ticket of a Dublin bookseller attached, ap-
10
peared in 1925. Since the date of Swift's library list
ing was 1715, it is both possible and likely that he read
Dampier either before or during the years during which he
was writing Gulliver.
Scott believed that Swift probably used Dampier's
jDOok for a model, and said:
The character of the imaginary traveller is
9 t. P. LeFanu, "Catalogue of Dean Swift's Library
In 1715 *" Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, XXXVII
(1927)
10 M. R. James, "Swift's Copy of Dampier," Times
_Lite,rary„Supplement* , (February 26, 1925)* 138.__________ _
75
exactly that of Dampier, or any other sturdy
nautical wanderer of the period, endowed with
courage and common sense.^
Scott aptly analyzed the influence upon Swift by Dampier
when he wrote of a "sturdy nautical wanderer,” for the
nautical phase constituted Dampier's most important con
tribution to Swift's book. The date of Gulliver's de
parture and the name and destination of his vessel were
taken directly from Dampier. Dampier had reported meeting1
the Antelope on June 3* 1699> as she rounded the Cape of
Good Hope enroute to the East Indies. Gulliver's voyage
to Lilliput was made in the Antelope, sailing from Bristol.
He left for the East Indies, presumably via the Cape of
Good Hope, on May 4, 1699. Swift evidently chose May 4th
as a suitable sailing date for a ship which was to reach
the Cape of Good Hope by June 3rd. The Antelope certainly
12
was no fiction in either narrative, for she was listed
as a ship of 200 tons, her master being Daniell Hogben,
11
Walter Scott, ed. Memoirs of Jonathan Swift, D. D.,
in Swift's Works, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh, 1824), I, 338-339.
Cal. of Treasury Papers, IX (January 31, 1689/90),
ii, 479. From Secord, "Gulliver and Dampier," p. 59.
■ — 1
76
and It Is further stated that on a voyage to the East Indies
her crew had plotted to run off with her,1^ which was a.
circumstance repeated by Swift in the fourth part of
Gulliver. The general framework of Gulliver's voyage to
the land of the Brobdingnagians closely resembles Dampier's
lli
course to New Holland. Both enjoy a very prosperous
gale,” both have an easy journey as far as the Cape of
Good Hope, both round the Cape in the fall of the year, and
' both express concern about the westerly winds of the region.
Gulliver remarked that a "constant equal gale” blew for
twenty daysj1^ Dampier previously had spoken of a "brisk
r
Gale” from the same direction whieh lasted for thirteen
days. u In both accounts the westerly wind was succeeded
by violent storms. The storms carried both ships several
hundred leagues to the east, into the vicinity of New
/-
Cal. of State Papers, Colonial Series: Am. & W.
Indies (November 2, 1699), 506. From Secord, "Gulliver
. . P. 59.
14
Bonner, Captain William Dampier, p. 168.
15 Gulliver, II, i, ill.
■j /IT
From Dampier's Voyage to New Holland (1703),
pp. 4l6-4l9. Recorded in Bonner, Captain William Dampier,
pp. 136-181.
77
Holland. Both adventurers put ashore there for water, in
vain. Dampier noticed grasses that grew In tufts as big as
a bushel, and Gulliver observed the unusual height of the
grass, "which, in those grounds that seemed to be kept for
17
hay, was about twenty feet high." Both Dampier and
Gulliver also dealt similarly with the terms of their
trade. Dampier wrote that he steered a middle course,
including some and omitting others of the "Sea-Terms"
common to mariners. He explained that this was to make
his writing more intelligible, saying in his first preface:
"I have frequently indeed, divested myself of Sea Phrases,
to gratify the Land Header." Swift, in Richard Sympson’s
"Publisher to the Reader," declared that the editing out
of the nautical descriptions had reduced the size of the
volume by one-half; the purpose being "to fit the work as
much as possible to the general capacity of readers."
Dampier wrote a second book, Voyages and Descriptions
(l699)> which included the nautical information taken from
j A New Voyage, together with much information on winds,
!
17 Gulliver, II, i, 114.
i J
currents and tides, exactly as Cousin Sympson declared he
1 f t
had done with Gulliver's Travels. °
Dampier personally, may have been in Swift’s mind
when he wrote:
On the 14th, we met with Captain Peacock of
Bristol, at Teneriffe, who was going on to the
Bay of Campeachy to cut logwood ... He was an
honest man, and a good sailor, but a little too
positive in his own opinions which was the cause
of his destruction, as it had been of several
others.
Certainly the description of Captain Peacock fitted Dampier
exactly: Dampier had had much difficulty with insubordinate
crews, he has recognized for his honesty and seamanship, on
his la3t voyage he sailed from Bristol, and he Was known
on
for his positiveness. There was also a close kinship
between Dampier and Swift's Gulliver. Both progressed
from a lesser office on shipboard to the captaincy of
"several ships." In both cases the title pages of their
several volumes or editions recorded the rise in status.
t f t
. Bonner, Captain William Dampier, p. 163.
1 9 Gulliver, IV, I, 255-256.
j
l
Bonner, Captain William Dampier, p. 165. I
79
B o t h s p e n t a b o u t n i n e y e a r s i n v o y a g i n g b e f o r e t h e y m a d e
t h e i r m o s t f a m o u s t r i p s ; b o t h d e s i r e d a n d l i v e d a n " a c t i v e
a n d r e s t l e s s l i f e . " A l s o , b o t h w e r e u n u s u a l l y w e l l - e d u c a
t e d s a i l o r s : D a m p i e r a n i n d e f a t i g a b l e o b s e r v e r , r e a d e r ,
a n d j o u r n a l i s t ; G u l l i v e r a b o r n l i n g u i s t , a n d g i v e n t o
" r e a d i n g t h e b e s t a u t h o r s , a n c i e n t a n d m o d e r n " d u r i n g h i s
h o u r s o f l e i s u r e . F u r t h e r , t h e e n t i r e w a n d e r i n g l i f e o f
e a c h w a s m a r k e d l y s i m i l a r . A c c o r d i n g t o B o n n e r , " N o f i g u r e
i n S w i f t ' s t i m e o r b e f o r e i t f u r n i s h e s s o n e a r a n d i n t e r e s t
i n g a p a r a l l e l . " ^ 1 E a c h o f t h e m t o o k f o u r l o n g v o y a g e s t o
l i t t l e - i n o w n r e g i o n s , n o t a b l y N e w H o l l a n d . D a m p i e r ' s v o y
a g e s b e g a n i n 1681 a n d e n d e d i n 1711. G u l l i v e r ' s b e g a n i n
1 6 9 9 a n d l a s t e d t o 1 7 1 5 . T h e c o r r e s p o n d e n c e c o u l d b e
c h a n c e , b u t i t s e e m s m o r e l i k e l y t h a t S w i f t m o d e l e d G u l l i
v e r ' s v o y a g e s u p o n t h o s e o f h i s f l e s h a n d b l o o d c o u s i n ' s
i n o r d e r t o m a k e t h e m s e e m m o r e r e a l .
S w i f t a l s o b o r r o w e d m u c h o f h i s g e o g r a p h y f r o m
D a m p i e r . I n h i s j o u r n e y t o L a p u t a G u l l i v e r t r a d e d a t
T o n q u i n a s D a m p i e r h a d d o n e i n h i s f i r s t v o y a g e . A f t e r
21 B o n n e r , C a p t a i n W i l l i a m D a m p i e r , p . 166.
80
h i s e x p e r i e n c e s i n L a p u t a , G u l l i v e r w a s p i c k e d u p b y a n
E n g l i s h c a p t a i n w h o h a d r e c e n t l y e o m e f r o m T o n q u i n . T u r n
i n g t h e s h i p s o u t h w e s t , h e s a i l e d a l o n g t h e c o a s t o f N e w
H o l l a n d a s D a m p i e r h a d d o n e a f t e r h i s e x p e r i e n c e s i n T o n
q u i n a n d t h e E a s t I n d i e s . G u l l i v e r ’ s l a s t v o y a g e , t h e o n e
o n w h i c h h e m e t C a p t a i n P e a c o c k , t o o k h i m t o t h e W e s t I n d i e s .
T h e r e h e t o o k o n n e w m e m b e r s , b u c c a n e e r s f r o m t h e B a r b a d o e s
a n d L e e w a r d I s l a n d s , t h e v e r y r e g i o n w h e r e D a m p i e r ’ s o w n
b u c c a n e e r i n g h a d t a k e n p l a c e . A f t e r v i s i t i n g H o u y h n h n m l a n d .
h e c o m m e n t e d o n t h e f a c t t h a t N e w H o l l a n d w a s i n c o r r e c t l y
l o c a t e d o n t h e c h a r t , a s D a m p i e r h a d d o n e w h e n h e a r r i v e d
a t N e w H o l l a n d i n t h e R o e b u c k i n 1699. B o t h s a i l e d s o u t h
o f N e w H o l l a n d o n t h e v o y a g e b a c k t o E n g l a n d , a n d w h i l e
d o i n g s o p o i n t e d o u t s i m i l a r e r r o r s i n t h e m a p p i n g o f t h a t
r e g i o n .
T h e s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d n e s s o f S w i f t ' s s t y l e i s r e m i n i s
c e n t o f D a m p i e r : w h e r e G u l l i v e r w i s h e d t o " a v o i d n o t h i n g
m o r e t h a n m u l t i p l y i n g u n n e c e s s a r y w o r d s , " D a m p i e r e x p r e s s e d
t h e i n t e n t i o n t o g i v e o n l y a " P l a i n a n d J u s t A c c o u n t o f t h e
t r u e N a t u r e a n d S t a t e o f t h i n g s d e s c r i b e d . . . " A s m e n
t i o n e d a b o v e , G u l l i v e r ' s a t t i t u d e o n t h e u s e o f s e a t e r m s
81
was borrowed directly from Dampier. Both apologized for
omission of details* Dampier saying: "I shall not trouble
the reader with my observations . . and Gulliver writing
that "I shall not trouble the reader with a particular
account of this voyage." Both Swift and Dampier portrayed
graphically the disgusting qualities of an aboriginal race.
Swift's Yahoos might even be the literary descendants of
Dampier's Hottentots, for certainly Dampier's description
of the Hottentot's smell, fondness for decayed ass's flesh,
laziness, uncleanliness, and licentiousness, was close in
tone to Swift's descriptions of the Yahoos.
Swift's borrowing from Dampier then, amounted prin
cipally to the copying of a good deal of nautical informa
tion, done so that the general framework of Gulliver would
give an impression of realism. For this purpose he bor
rowed names, dates, events, and even the outline of Dam
pier's own life. Also, Dampier must have given Swift
several hints on an appropriate style for a "sturdy nauti
cal wanderer," in addition to information about a primitive
race of people which could have served as a prototype for
the Yahoos. In order to authenticate his account of
82
Gulliver, Swift the landsman needed accurate information
on voyaging, and there can be little doubt that he turned
to Dampier as one of his sources for this information.
Swift’s other source for his nautical information,
and one of the few verbal duplicates which are known to
*
exist in Gulliver., is the description of the storm which
exactly parallels a passage from Samuel Sturmy’s Mariner’s
MagazineThe passage from Sturmy was as follows:
It is likely to overblow, take in your spirit
sail, stand by to hand the fore sail ... We
make foul weather, look the guns be all fast,
come hand the mizen. The ship lies very broad off;
it is better spooning before the sea than trying
or hulling. Go reef the fore sail and set him;
haul aft the fore sheet. The helm is hard aweath-
er. Belay the fore-down-haul. The sail is split:
go haul down the yard and get the sail into the
ship, and unbind all things clear of it. A very
fierce storm. The sea breaks strange and danger
ous . Stand by to haul off above the lanyard of
the whipstaff, and help the man at the helm.
Shall we get down our top-masts? No, let all
stand: she scuds before the sea very well; the
top-mast being aloft the ship Is wholesomer and
! maketh better way through the sea, seeing we have
sea-room. Get the starboard tacks aboard, cast
off our anchor, braces and lifts; set-in the lee-
i
i
i —. . —
1
Published in London, 1679. The debt was first
notieed by E. H. Knowles, Notes and Queries, Ser. IV (March
7, 1868), I, 223. Parallels quoted above have been repro-
L_duc,e.d_f,r_omJBddyJ.s _Critical_Study, pp. 143-144. _________
braces and haul them taught and belaye them, and
haul over the mizen-tacks to windward and keep her
full and by as near as she would lie.
Swift's version of the same, from the first chapter of
Voyage to Brobdingnag" was as follows:
Finding it was likely to overblow, we took in
our spirit-sail, and stood by to hand the fore
sail,* but making foul weather, we looked the
guns were all fast, and handed the mizen. The
ship lay very broad off, so we thought it bet
ter spooning before the sea than trying or hul
ling. We reefed the fore sail and set him, and
hauled aft the fore sheet; the helm was hard
aweather ... we belayed the fore-down-haul,
but the sail was split, and we hauled down the
yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound
all things clear of it. It was a very fierce
storm; the sea broke strange and dangerous. We
hauled off upon the lanyard of the whipstaff,
and helped the man at the helm. We could not
get down our top-mast, but let all stand, be
cause she scudded before the sea very well, and
we knew that, the top-mast being aloft, the ship
was wholesomer and made better way through the
sea, seeing we had sea-room ... we got the
starboard tacks aboard, we cast off our weather
braces and lifts; we set-in the lee-braces and
hauled forkward by the leather-bowlings, and
hauled them tight, and belayed them, and hauled
over the mizentack to windward, and kept her
full and by as near as she would lie.
I
I
CHAPTER IV
MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE WHICH INFLUENCED SWIFT
I. SCIENTIFIC WORKS'
Swift*s "Voyage to Laputa" was of all sections of
Gulliver1s Travels the one which was most dependent upon
its sources. For this section of his book he almost cer
tainly drew upon the great store of scientific literature
of the age, although he was not completely dependent upon
such sources. For the originaof the general physical
concept of a flying island he used literary sources,1 but
for the development of the idea he relied considerably
upon the scientific and pseudo-scientific literature of
the time. The cave idea, for instance, may have originated
from a contemporary account of the Royal Observatory in
1 Swift may have known of the "Passarola" of Bar-
tholom^u Lourenco de Gusmao; Lisbon, 1709# which provided
plans for a model of a magnetic flying machine which ac
tually flew, and which earned its inventor financial and
honorary awards from John V of Portugal. See Marjorie
Nicolson and Nora Mohler, "Swift's Flying Island in the
'Voyage to Laputa,'" Annals of Science, II (1937)# p. 424.
85
Paris, where:
. . . there is, besides many other rooms fit
for Philosophical uses and purposes, a very deep
Cave, having an hundred threescore and ten steps
of descent; wherein many sorts of Experiments
are intended to be made, being of that nature,
that they require to be remote from the Sun-beams
and the open Air.2
Swift's statement that he observed the minerals in the
flying island lying in "their usual order," may have come
from Strachey, who wrote articles with diagrams in mining
and strata in coal mines.3 Swift's measurements of the
diameter of the flying island coincided exactly with the
average of Newton's measurements of the diameter of the earth,
only miles were reduced to yards.^ The loadstone idea it
self probably came from the catalog of Nehemiah Grew,-*
wherein Swift may have noted a listing for "A Terrela or
an orbicular Loadstone, about four inches and one-half in
Diametre, with the one half immersed in the Centre of a
2 Ibid., 4l3-4l4. Quotation given was cited by
this source.
3 Ibid., p. 410.
4 Ibid., p. 415.
5 Ibid., p. 4l6.
T ■ : 1
86
Plane. . ."
Not only the mechanical aspects mentioned above were
borrowed from scientific literature, but also many of the
exact details used in the development of the satire in
Gulliver’s third voyage. The most important work within
such literature was The Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society. The Transactions were publicized and read
widely, both in their original forms, and in the three
volume edition of the abstracts of the papers which was
published in 1705 as the Miscellanea Curlosa.^ Both in
the complete and abridged editions, these volumes were
storehouses of innumerable accounts of scientific lore and
travel. Together with the accounts of the virtuosi, or
dabblers in science, the Transactions provided Swift with
much good raw material for satire, for certainly anyone
who was out of sympathy with the scientific endeavors of
the age would find ample material for ridicule. Addison’s
i
I was the most characteristic attitude, in that he was genu-
!
i
| ■■■■■■■■!
Marjorie Nicolson and Nora Mohler, "The Scientific
Background of Swift’s ’Voyage to Laputa,Annals of
Science, II, (1937), 302.
87
inely Interested in the new science, but he derided the
impractical experimenters and pseudo-scientific virtuosi.
The passage in which the tailor took Gulliver’s altitude
by means of a quadrant was a satire on the interest in
surveying currently Indulged in by the virtuosi, who were
using quadrants, barometers, air-pumps, and other scientific
Instruments as toys for their pseudo-scientific playing.
Concerning the astronomical sciences, Gulliver stated that
the Laputans were worried lest the earth fall into the sun,
the sun become encrusted with ©ffluvia, or the sun consume
itself.^ These were notions common to Swift's times, for
even Newton, in the Principla, calculated the time required
R
for the earth to fall Into the sun. Material for Swift's
statements on the moons of Mars was derived from this same
work, and also from the seventeenth section of System of
the W o r l d When Swift said that "The squares of their
periodical times are very near the same proportion with the
7 Gulliver, III, 11, 197.
I ® NIcolson and Mohler, "Scientific Background . . ,1 1
| P. 307.
j________ 9 s. H. Gould, "Gulliver and the Moons of Mars,"
Journal of the History of Ideas, VT~~(January,-T945),91^-10i.
88
cubes of their distances,r f he was referring to the famous
third law of Kepler, which expresses a simple relation be
tween the distance of a satellite from its central body and
the time taken by the satellite to make one complete revo
lution. Kepler stated that "the square of the period var
ies with the cube of the distance."10 Swift's figures
were Incorrect, since he became lost in Newton’s Principia
and erred. The popular fear of sun spots, ever since Gal
ileo discovered them, accounts for the idea that the sun
11
could become encrusted with its own effluvia, and Robert
Hooke’s lectures on light discussed, but rejected the pos-
1 P
sibility of the sun’s burning out. The Laputan dread of
comets may have had its roots in the discussion in Hailey’s
Synopsis, of the possibility of a comet colliding with the
earth, where he said:
But may the good GOD avert such a shock or con-
10 Ibid., p. 98.
11 Nicolson and Mohler, "The Scientific Background
. . P. 311.
12
Ibid., p. 312, in which citation was made from
Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, p. 9^.
89
tact of such great Bodies moving with such forces
(which however is manifestly by no means impos
sible), lest this most beautiful order of things
be interely destroyed and reduced to its antient
chaos
II. FICTION
Swift not only borrowed directly from contemporary \
i
scientific literature in order to develop the satire in
his "Voyage to Laputa," but he also made good use of the
work of at least one other writer who had dealt with the
same subject at an earlier date. For instance, Thomas .
Brown, whom Swift admitted having read "entire," and also
of having had "the honor to be his intimate friend, who
was universally allowed to be the greatest genius of the
age,"1^ almost certainly contributed to Swift’s satire at
the expense of the scientists and philosophers, when he
mentioned In one satire "the Quadrant that a Philistine
13 Ibid- * PP« 312-315.
^ E. N. S. Thompson, "Tom Brown and Gulliver's
i Travels," Modern Language Notes, XXXII (1917)> 90-93*
i Quotation from "introduction" to Polite Conversations
cited therein, p. 90.
Taylor took the height of Goliah by, when he made him his
last Suit of Clothes. Swift may have borrowed this
incident from the virtuosi, but because of the close par
allel in Brown, the latter must be the more likely source.
Brown’s philosopher's country, in Amusements, Serious and
Comical, provided incidents similar to those which occurred
in Laputa. Among the impractical experimenters, or "im
provers of nature" in this land, Brown professed finding
"an old Bard cutting Asp-leaves into Tongues, which were
to be fastened in the Mouths of Flowers, Fruits, Herbs and
Seeds, with design to make the whole Creation Vocal."
Another philosopher was engaged in "putting a Period to
the Abstruse Debates between the Engineers and Mouse-trap
makers.The scientists whom Gulliver found were wasting
their time in speculations similar to these.
Thomas Brown’s "A Comical View of the Transactions
that will happen in the Cities of London and Westminster
| Ibid., Quotation from Reason of Mr. Bays changing
! his Religion, Preface, cited therein, p. 93. I
; Ibid., p. 93. Quotation from Amusements, Serious}
i and Comical, "The Philosophical or Virtuosi Country," cited
L_therjeln..___________________________ ___ ______________________ _
91
. . ."by Silvester Partridge, was continued serially by
Ned Ward, and the completed edition of both parts appeared
in a separate volume in 1705. In one of the numbers by
Ward there occurred a passage which helps to explain the
basic coneept for Swift's view of Lilliput:
The Loftiness of my Mind, made me climb, last
Week to the top of the Monument where I gaz'd around
me ... I looked down into the Streets where I
saw a Parcel of busie Mortals, running backwards
and forwards, who seem'd to be dwindled into such
little Knaves, that I fancy'd myself in Prester
John's Country, mounted upon the Vertical point
of some overgrown Mole-hill; observing the Hurry
and Confusion of a Race of Pigmies, who seem'd
to be muddling and working one among another, like
so many Maggots in a Tub of Kitchen stuff . .
This quotation, along with a few passages in Lucian, is
one of the rare and fragmentary anticipations of the ridi
cule in Lilliput of what Pope termed the "Tiny race, and
nation void of brain."
In Ambrose Philip's essay journal, the Free-Thinker
(1718-1721), paper number 144 contains an interesting
^ W. A. Eddy, "Ned Ward and Lilliput," Notes and
Queries, CLVIII (March 1, 1930), 148-149. Quotation from
A Comical View . . .The Second Part; (London, 1705),
165-166.
92
parallel to a scene from "A Voyage to Lilliput." This paper
tells of a conversation in which every other of six persons
is to tell a story. One of the stories, told by one
Fidelio, was as follows:
The Story which occurs to me is in High Life;
Nevertheless, it shall not rise in Dignity above
either of two foregoing pieces . . . A Corres
pondent of mine in the Northern Parts of Europe,
in one of his letters, entertained me with an
account of some Rope Dancers, that came (last
Winter) to the City, where the Court then resided.
These Vagabonds had the Honour to shew their
Feats of Activity before the Sovereign of the
Country: And, his Majesty being highly delighted
with their Performances; the Nobles likewise, in
compliance to their Master, attended these Ex
ercises: But, their Hearts were sorrowful, when
they perceived their Prince took a particular
liking to these Foreign Agilities. And why?
Truly, because they feared his Majesty would
oblige them, at the hazard of their limbs, to
learn to dance upon the Ropes, for his Diversion.
This incident from the Free-Thinker bears a close resem
blance to the section on the rope-dancers in chapter three
of "A Voyage to Lilliput." Moreover, in both accounts, the
device of rope-dancing was a means for political satire,
although it is a political allegory in Gulliver’s Travels,
and a general satire in the Free-Thinker. Beyond three
bits of circumstantial evidence, there is^no proof that
93
Swift was acquainted with the Free-Thinker, although total
lack of proof would still not negate the validity of a
source showing evidence of good internal parallels. First
of all, Swift and Philips were cordial acquaintances in
1709» although they were enemies by 1724 when Philips went
to Dublin as Archbishop Boulter's secretary. Despite this,
the appearance of a well-backed Whig organ like the Free-
Thinker could hardly have been unnoticed by Swift, even in
Dublin. It appeared at an opportune time, August 7* 1719*
just when Swift began re-writing the first voyage of Gul
liver. He had two, opportunities to become acquainted with
this work: He could either have read it in the original
half-sheet edition, or he could have read the first reprint
edition in 1722-23.
In any case, the mere resemblance of the two pas
sages gives occasion for ironic reflection. Would
Swift, too, have sensed some irony as he perused
this issue of the prominent, rabidly Whig Free-
Thinker? It were poetic justice indeed, had this
thrower of so many journalistic barbs turned the'
weapons of his political foes against themselves.^8
1 ff
N. Joost, "Gulliver and the Free-Thinker,"
Modern Language Notes, LXV (March, 1950), 199v
94
The relationship between the Memoirs of the Extra
ordinary Life, Works, and Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus
and Gulliver's Travels was an important one because Gulliver
was quite possibly begun as the travels of M a r t i n u s .^ The
Scriblerus Club began in the fall of 1713 and continued
intermittently for over twenty years. Swift worked on his
book from 1714 to 1725, skipping 1715-1720. Since the
times of the writing of Gulliver and the Scriblerus activ
ities overlapped, it is possible to conclude that Gulliver
may have had its inception in the Memoirs. According to
one source, this is just what occurred for:
... he excused himself again (from further
Scriblerus activity) on the same grounds he had
used in the summer of 1714, saying in a letter
to Pope, "truly I must be a little easy in my
mind before I can think of Scriblerus." We know
from a later statement and other evidence that
something like three years passed before his
peace of mind was established. He then appar
ently began to consider contributing to the
scheme which his friends in England had recently
brought back to life. The part of the project
on which he started work was the travels of
Scriblerus, and the result, by an evolutionary
19
Pope told Spence that Swift took his first hints
for Gulliver from Martinus Scriblerus. C. H. Firth,
"Political Significance of Gulliver's Travels," Proceedings
of the British Academy, IX XI92O), p. 2.__________
95
2 0
process, was Gulliver’s Travels.
Apparently Swift’s decision to work on the travels of
Martinus was arrived at independently of the other Scrib-
lerians, for there is no mention of it in his corres
pondence, and at the time he was in Ireland. Collaboration
would have been impossible from such a distance, and he
probably didn’t wish to be held accountable for something
which he might later abandon or wish not to acknowledge.
An advertisement which appeared at the end of the fifth
edition of the Memoirs is of interest In that it indicates
how the Scriblerians planned to carry out the projected
plan for the Travels. It promises
There will be publish’d with all convenient
speed, THE SECOND BOOK of these Memoirs, Being
the TRAVELS of M. SCRIBLERUS, Vindicated to their
True Author. And the THIRD BOOK never before
publish’d, Containing his Journey thro' the
Desarts of Nubia to the Court of Aethiopia.
His Friendship with the Bishop of Apamaea, and
their joint Voyage upon Cunturs, to China; with
an account of all the hidden Doctrines of Re
ligion, and the refined Policy of those Empires.
20
Pope, Arbuthnot, Swift, Gay, Parnell, and Harley,
The Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and Discov
eries of Martinus Scriblerus, edited by Charles Kerby-Miller,
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), p. 50.
With these Travels will he Intermix’d at
proper Intervals, the Journal of a High and
Mighty Prince, styled in his own Country Son
of the Morning, Lord of the Air and Fire, and
Elder than all the Kings of the Earth; who hath
long travel’d and Is yet travelling Incognito,
thro’ all the Courts of Europe.
After the appearance of Gulliver, In 1728, the Scriblerians
attempted to identify it as an offspring of the Memoirs.
It was, of course, part of the Scriblerus scheme that in
dividual pieces should be published by members of the
group and later "vindicated” by the great Scriblerus. The
Memoirs itself, amounted to no real source for Gulliver,
since it was in effect merely an early version of Gulliver.
Even this is pure conjecture, however, for we have no real
evidence that Gulliver was partly written, or even planned
before Swift left Ireland. It is only probable that the
plan of taking Martinus on his travels began to be con
sidered early in the development of the Scriblerus project.
The basic idea was unavoidable; the very concept of Martinus
as an extravagantly learned man carried with it the Idea
of his traveling to the far corners of the earth in search
21 Ibid., p. 172.
97
of knowledge, and the many writers of burlesque travel
books, voyages imaglnaires, and tales of humorous adventure
in the past century had shown how successfully travel
stories could be used for satiric purposes. Whether or
not the Scriblerians had gone so far as to write any of
the travels of Martinus, it still seems likely that the
plans and discussions of the club members probably in
fluenced Swift, and this constitutes the influence of the
Memoirs upon Gulliver, notwithstanding the efforts of Pope
and the other Scriblerians to claim so brilliant an offshoot
of their project.
22 Ibid., p. 165. Chapter xvi of the Memoirs,
which was published two years after Gulliver (p. 320 in
the Memoirs), which was entitled "Of the Secession of
Martinus and some Hint of his Travels," summarized Swift’s
work and claimed it as part of the Memoirs.
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
In one sense of their meanings, both those who
thought Swift was completely original, and those who main
tained that he leaned heavily upon his sources, were partly
correct. As Johnson maintained,
It was said . . . that Swift had never been known
to take a single thought . . . This is not literally
true; but perhaps, no writer can easily be found
that has borrowed so little or that in all his ex
cellences and all his defects has so well main
tained his claims to be considered original.^
Swift was original, in that r , what he took became his own,, f
and he was dependent upon sources to the same extent that
any author is likely to draw upon his own general reading,
and to write within the boundaries of the knowledge gained
by this reading and the spirit and tradition of his time.
Much of the material which Swift could have drawn
upon is yet to be discovered. A multitude of incidents
and episodes In all four parts of Gulliver have no known
literary background, since only a fraction of them have
________L-J.ohns.Q.n.,__Li_v.e.s_Qf__the__P_pets,,_.p_. 178.______________
99
been related to "sources.’ 1 The genres or traditions within
which Swift wrote have been generally identified, and
sources for some of his satire have been discovered, but
no source or sources have yet been found which could have
provided the variety, depth, and scope of his satire upon
humanity. In a few cases he took information directly from
his sources, but that was only because he needed specific
technical information on some subject which he was not
equipped himself to supply, such as nautical information
or technical accounts of science. These are the only
borrowings that can definitely be proved, although it is
certain that the background of his reading included a
great deal of material, of which the suggested sources
almost surely formed but a small portion.
His major sources were drawn from that great body
of literature which deals with Imaginary voyages. Swift
had read ancient and modern works in this field, and he
i drew upon both. Herodotus and Plutarch supplied some
! Ideas possibly, for the voyage to Lilliput. Homer helped
I
supply the general framework of Gulliver. Plutarch, Gelli
and their translator, Brown, furnished background materials
100
for/a beast commonwealth of idealized animals and degener
ate humans. Lucian began the form of satire which Swift
used, and also loaned Swift several basic ideas for the
third part of Gulliver. Rabelais provided incidents for
that same part, although much of his material came from
X
Lucian. Cyrano was probably the most important influence
upon Swift. He provided Information for every part of
Gulliver, except the first. He was the greatest of the
imaginary voyage writers before Swift, and the one to whom
w*
Swift looked for the most number of hints. A French
pseudo-realistic voyage by Patot, an unimportant source,
may also have provided information for Swift.
Not always did Swift look to foreign authors for
help, for it is evident that native literature exerted a
strong influence on him also. The Irish tradition partic
ularly, with its stories of the very little and the very
big, must have been known and appreciated by him. Defoe*s
Consolidator provided an important missing link in the
design of the flying island, and a periodical by Ned Ward
may have given Swift the germ of an idea for the Lillipu
tians. For actual accounts of sea travels Swift took from
: .
101
Sturmy and Dampier, and for one incident in part I of the
Travels, he used a passage which had been previously bor
rowed by Symson from Ovington. From a Whig journal, the
Free-Thinker, he took an idea for another satirical incident
in Lilliput, From the ephemeral literature of the time he
took incidental satire upon the virtuosi, much of it writ
ten by Tom Brown, and from the scientific literature of the
age, particularly the Transactions of the Royal Society and
Newton's and Kepler's writings, he took the raw material
for many of the satiric incidents in part three of Gulli
ver. Some of these materials whieh have been named as
possible sources, were used for the travels of Martinus
Scriblerus, which was at one time an early version of
Gulliver. Suggestions from other members of the Scriblerus
Club may have also aided Swift when Scriblerus' travels
were being projected. Martinus Scriblerus itself, however,
was a transitional form of Gulliver, and not a source for
Gulliver.
Swift, then, drew upon the results of his own assid
uous reading, he drew upon a strong memory and good general
_____________________________Diversity o f S o u th e rn Q aH fO rW la*M bfa>y_______________________________
102
■background of literature, and he drew upon his own good
intellect, one of the greatest of the time, for the most
withering and comprehensive satire of mankind yet pro
duced by any author.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. BOOKS
Allinson, Francis G., Lucian, Satirist and Critic. Boston:
Marshall, Jones, 1926.
Arbuthnot, John and others, History of John Bull. Editor,
H. Teerink. Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, 1925.
Bonner, Willard H., Captain William Dampier, Buccaneer-
Author. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1934.
Boyce, Benjamin, Tom Brown of Facetious Memory. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1939.
Brown,. Huntington, Rabelais in English Literature.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.
Case, Arthur Ellicott, Four Essays on Gulliver's Travels.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1945.
de Bergerac, Cyrano, Voyage to the Moon and Sun, Translated
by Richard Aldington. London: George Routledge and
Sons, Ltd., 1923.
Dunlop, John Collin, History of Prose Fiction. Edition of
Henry Wilson, London: G. Bell and Sons, 1911.
Eddy, William Alfred, Gulliver's Travels: A Critical Study.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1923.
Gove, Philip Babcock, The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction. )
New York: Columbia University Press, 1941. I
i
Gwynn, Stephen, The Life and Friendships of Dean Swift. |
New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1933.
Herodotus, Ancient History. Translated by Rev. William
Beloe. New York: Derby and Jackson, 1858.
1 0 ^
Lucianus Samosatensis, True History. Translated by:Augusta
M. Campbell, in Translations from Lucian. New York:
Longmans, Green and Company, 1902.
Johnson, Samuel, Lives of the Poets. Preface and Notes by
Matthew Arnold. New York: Macmillan Company, 1921.
Pope, Arbuthnot, Swift, Gay, Parnell and Harley, The
Memoirs of the Extraordinary Life, Works, and
Discoveries of Martinus Scriblerus. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1950.
Quintana, Ricardo, The Mind and Art of Jonathan Swift.
London: Oxford University Press, 1936^.
Ross, John Frederic, Swift and Defoe, A Study in Relation
ship . Berkeley and Los Angeles : University of
California Press, 1941.
Stephen, Leslie, Swift. London: Macmillan and Company Ltd.
1909.
Swift, Jonathan, The Letters of Jonathan Swift to Charles
Ford. Edited by David Nichol Smith. Oxford, 1935.
Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver’s Travels and Other Works. Ed.
H. Morely. London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd.,
1890.
Swift, Jonathan, Works. Edited by Temple Scott. London:
George Bell and Sons, ,1897-1908.
Swift, Jonathan, Prose Selections. Introduction by Hardin
Craig. New York: Charles Scribners and Sons, 1924.
Taylor, W. D., Jonathan Swift, A Critical Essay. London:
P. Davies, 1933.
Williams, Harold Herbert, Dean Swift's Library. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1932.
B. PERIODICALS
Baughan, Denver Ewig, "Swift’s Source of the Houyhnhnms
Reconsidered," English Literary History, V (September,
1938) , 207-210.
Borkowsky, "Quellen zu Swift's ’Gulliver,’" Anglia, XV(i893 ,
345-389.
Brown, A. C. L., "Gulliver’s Travels and an Irish Folk-
Tale," Modern Language Notes, XIX (1904), 45-46.
Eddy, William Alfred, "A Source for Gulliver's Travels,"
Modern Language Notes, XXXVI (November, 1921), 419-422.
______, "A Source for Gulliver's First Voyage," Modern
Language Notes, XXXVII (June, 1922), 353-355.
______, "Rabelais, A Source for Gulliver’s Travels," Modern
Language Notes, XXXVII (November, 1922), 4l6-4l8.
, "Ned Ward and Lilliput," Notes and Queries, CLVIII
fiarch 1, 1930), 148-149.
______, "Cyrano de Bergerac's Hlstoire comique du soleil,—
A Source for Gulliver's Travels," Modern Language Notes,
XXXVIII (June, 1923), 344-345.
______, "Gulliver's Travels and Le Theatre Itallen," Modern
Language Notes, VLIV (June, 1929), 356-3&1.
Firth, C. H., "Political Significance of Gulliver’s Travels,
Proceedings of the British Academy, IX (1920).
Frantz, R. W., "Swift's Yahoos and the Voyagers," Modern
| Philology, XXIX (August, 1931), 49-57.
, "Note," English Literary History, VI (1939), 82.
107
______, "Gulliver's Cousin Sympson," Huntington Library
Quarterly, I (1937-38), 329-334.
Gould, S. H., "Gulliver and the Moons of Mars," Journal of
the History of Ideas, VI (January, 1945), 91-101.
Gove, P. B., "Giidon's ’Fortunate Shipwreck' as Background
for Gulliver's Travels," Review of English Studies,
XVIII (October, 1942), 470-478.
Grennan, M. R., "Lilllput and Lepreean: Gulliver and the
Irish Tradition," Journal of English Literary History,
XII (September, 1945), 188-202.
Hanford, James H., "Plutarch and Dean Swift," Modern
Language Notes, XXV (June, 1910), 181-184.
Honncher, E., "Quellen zu Dean Swift's Gulliver's Travels,"
Anglia, X (1888), 397-427.
______, "The Voyage at Domingo Gonzales to the World of
the Moon," Anglia, X, 428-452.
James, M. R., "Swift's Copy of Dampier," Times Literary
Supplement, (February 26, 1925), 138.
Joost, N., "Gulliver and the Free-Thinker," Modern Language
Notes, LXV (March, 1950), 197-199.
Lawton, H. W., "Bishop Godwin's Man in the Moone," Review
of English Studies, VII (January, 1931), 23-55.
Le Fanu, T. P., "Catalogue of Dean Swift's Library In
1715," Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, XXXVII
(1927).
Lewis, Penry, "Lilllput and Gulliver," Notes and Queries,
Series XII, Vol. IV (March, 1918), 73.
McCracken, George, "Homerica In Gulliver's Travels,"
Classical Journal, XXIX (April, 1939), 535-538.
r
108
McCue, G. S., "A Seventeenth-Century Gulliver/’ Modern
Language Notes, L (January, 1935), 32-34.
Montagu, M. F. Ashley, ’ ’Tyson1 s Orang-outang slve Homo
Sylvestris and Swift's Gulliver1s Travels,”
Publications of_ the Modern Language Association, LIX
(March, 1944), 84-89.
______, ’ ’ Edward Tyson, 1650-1708," Publication of the
American Philosophical Society, XX (1943), 403-405.
Moore, John Robert, ”A Defoe Allusion in Gulliver's
Travels,”~ Notes and Queries, CLXXVIII (February 3,
1940),79-80.
______, "A New Source for Gulliver1s Travels: The Voyages
et Advantures de Jaques Masse, Assigned to Tyssot de
Patot,” Studies in Philology, XXXVIII (January, 1941),
66-80.
Nicolson, Marjorie and Mohler, Nora, ’ ’Swift's Flying
Island in the ’Voyage to Laputa,Annals of Science,
II, (1937), 405-430.
______, ’ ’The Scientific Background of Swift's 'Voyage to
.Laputa,'” Annals of Science, II (1937), 299-334.
Poll, Max, "The Sources of Gulliver’s Travels," Bulletin
of the University of Cincinnati, XXIV (l909).
Reed, Edward Bliss, "Gulliver1s Travels and Tom Brown,”
Modern Language Notes, XXXIII (January, 1918), 57-58.
Rockwell, F. S., "A Probable Source for Gulliver’s
Travels," Notes and Queries, CLXIX (August 24, 1935),
131-133.
Rovillain, Eugene E., "Jonathan Swift’s 'A Voyage to
Lilliput' and The Thousand and One Quarters of an
Hour, Tartarian Tales of Thomas Simon Gueulette,"
Modern Language Notes, XLIV (June, 1929), 362-3^4.
109
Scott, Sir Walter, "Works of Jonathan Swift," Contributions
to the Edinburgh Review, XXVII (September, 1816), 52.
Secord, A. W., "Review of Eddy's Critical Study of
Gulliver's Travels," Journal of English and German
Philology, XXIII, 460-462.
______ , "Gulliver and Dampier," Modern Language Notes, LI
(March, 1936), 159.
Thompson, E. N. S., "Tom Brown and Gulliver’s Travels,"
Modern Language Notes, XXXII (1917)/90-93.
C. UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
Van Wyck, William, "Bibliography of the Writings of
Jonathan Swift," (unpublished Master's thesis, The
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1918)
^University of Southern GaliforniaLibrary

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Creator Timpe, Eugene Frank (author)

Core Title A study of the source materials of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"

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