Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift (beach read book .TXT) 📗
- Author: Jonathan Swift
- Performer: 0141439491
Book online «Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift (beach read book .TXT) 📗». Author Jonathan Swift
As prelate and later as politician his name never rang with the praise which early rewarded the efforts of his pen, for as a master of “humor, irony, and invective he has no superior.” His love affairs were disastrous and reflect only discredit upon his manhood, but to the strength of his passion for Esther Johnson, or “Stella,” whom it is contended that he secretly married but never acknowledged, and for Vanessa—Miss Vanhomrigh—are due the great works that immortalized them.
The Tale of the Tub first betrayed his transcendent genius and irresistible wit, but the grave humor of all his other productions which were not really serious in character, paled before the keen satire and ludicrous exaggeration of Gulliver’s Travels. Its covert ridicule of rulers, courts, statesmen, and political organizations was so severe and cut so ruthlessly and cruelly deep, that only its diabolical cleverness prevented its suppression and instead lent it an unprecedented popularity. It is so true, so simple in expression, its searching irony so based on the frailties of human nature; it is so comic, and yet its tone so whimsically solemn, that it provides prodigious enjoyment for thousands who never catch a glimpse of—much less grasp—its inner meaning.
But the veiled significance is unmistakably there, for the voyage to Lilliput is merely a revelation of the policy of the English court during the reign of George I; the trip to Brobdingnag affords opportunity for picturing an ideal ruler and government; the journey to Laputa holds up to contumely the proceedings of the British Royal Society, while the visit to the Houyhnhnms is a rabid satire against humanity.
And after achievements which deservedly won the plaudits of the master brains among his contemporaries, and continue to reflect on him lasting glory, this gifted man four years before his death on October 19, 1745, sank into a condition of dementia. But though the powers of his marvelous, eccentric mind weakened and finally failed, “his works do follow him,” for he contributed to the world’s literature one of the most delightful children’s books ever written, and his name echoes through history as the clerical exposer of human frailties in a manner to call forth only innocent mirth.
THE AUTHOR GIVES SOME ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF AND FAMILY—HIS FIRST INDUCEMENTS TO TRAVEL—HE IS SHIPWRECKED, AND SWIMS FOR HIS LIFE—GETS SAFE ON SHORE IN THE COUNTRY OF LILLIPUT—IS MADE A PRISONER, AND CARRIED UP THE COUNTRY.
My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire; I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emanuel College in Cambridge, at fourteen years old, where I resided three years, and applied myself close to my studies; but the charge of maintaining me, although I had a very scanty allowance, being too great for a narrow fortune, I was bound apprentice to Mr. James Bates, an eminent surgeon in London, with whom I continued four years; and my father now and then sending me small sums of money, I laid them out in learning navigation, and other parts of the mathematics, useful to those who intend to travel, as I always believed it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do. When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my father; where, by the assistance of him and my uncle John, and some other relations, I got forty pounds, and a promise of thirty pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden; there I studied physic two years and seven months, knowing it would be useful in long voyages.
Soon after my return from Leyden, I was recommended by my good master, Mr. Bates, to be surgeon to the Swallow, Captain Abraham Pannell, commander; with whom I continued three years and a half, making a voyage or two into the Levant, and some other parts. When I came back I resolved to settle in London; to which Mr. Bates, my master, encouraged me, and by him I was recommended to several patients. I took part of a small house in the Old-Jury; and being advised to alter my condition, I married Mistress Mary Burton, second daughter to Mr. Edmund Burton, hosier, in Newgate Street, with whom I received four hundred pounds for a portion.
But my good master Bates dying two years after, and I having few friends, my business began to fail; for my conscience would not suffer me to imitate the bad practice of too many among my brethren. Having, therefore, consulted with my wife and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea. I was surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune. My hours of leisure I spent in reading the best authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of books; and when I was ashore, in observing the manners and dispositions of the people, as well as learning their language, wherein I had a great facility, by the strength of my memory.
The last of these voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the sea, and intended to stay at home with my wife and family. I removed from the Old-Jury to Fetter Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors, but it would not turn to account. After three years’ expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage at first was very prosperous.
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the northwest of Van Diemen’s Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were dead by immoderate labor and ill food: the rest were in a very weak condition. On the 5th of November, which was the beginning of summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen spied a rock within half a cable’s length of the ship, but the wind was so strong that we were driven directly upon it, and immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let down the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship and the rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues, till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with labor while we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves to the mercy of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was overset by a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my companions in the boat, as well as of those who escaped on the rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell, but conclude they were all lost. For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and could feel no bottom, but when I was almost gone, and able to struggle no longer, I found myself within my depth; and by this time the storm was much abated. The declivity was so small, that I walked near a mile before I got to the shore, which I conjectured was about eight o’clock in the evening. I then advanced forward near half a mile, but could not discover any sign of houses or inhabitants; at least I was in so weak a condition that I did not observe them. I was extremely tired, and with that, and the heat of the weather, and about half a pint of brandy that I drank as I left the ship, I found myself much inclined to sleep. I lay down on the grass, which was very short and soft, where I slept sounder than ever I remember to have done in my life, and, as I reckoned, about nine hours; for when I awakened, it was just daylight. I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir; for, as I happened to lie on my back, I found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my arm-pits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me; but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky. In a little time, I felt something alive moving on my left leg, which advancing gently forward over my breast, came almost up to my chin; when, bending my eyes downwards as much as I could, I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and an arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back. In the meantime I felt at least forty more of the same kind (as I conjectured) following the first. I was in the utmost astonishment, and roared so loud that they all ran back in a fright, and some of them, as I was afterwards told, were hurt by the falls they got by leaping from my sides upon the ground. However, they soon returned, and one of them who ventured so far as to get a full sight of my face, lifting up his hands and eyes by way of admiration, cried out in a shrill but distinct voice, Hekinah degul! The others repeated the same words several times, but I then knew not what it meant. I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness; at length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings, and wrench out the pegs that fastened my left arm to the ground, for, by lifting it up to my face, I discovered the methods they had taken to bind me, and at the same time with a violent pull, which gave me excessive pain, I a little loosened the strings that tied down my hair on the left side, so that I was just able to turn my head about two inches. But the creatures ran off a second time, before I could seize them; whereupon there was a great shout in a very shrill accent, and after it had ceased I heard one of them cry aloud, Tolgo phonac; when in an instant I felt above a hundred arrows discharged on my left hand, which pricked me like so many needles; and besides they shot another flight into the air, as we do bombs in Europe, whereof many, I suppose, fell on my body (though I felt them not) and some on my face, which I immediately covered with my left hand. When this shower of arrows was over, I fell a-groaning with grief and pain, and then striving again to get loose, they discharged another volley larger than the first, and some of them attempted with spears to stick me in the sides; but by good luck I had on me a buff jerkin, which they could not pierce.
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