Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World
When dinner was done, my master went out to his labourers, and, as I
could discover by his voice and gesture, gave his wife strict charge to
take care of me. I was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my
mistress perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a
clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the mainsail of a
man of war.
I slept about two hours, and dreamt I was at home with my wife and
children, which aggravated my sorrows when I awaked, and found myself
alone in a vast room, between two and three hundred feet wide, and
above two hundred high, lying in a bed twenty yards wide. My mistress
was gone about her household affairs, and had locked me in. The bed was
eight yards from the floor. Some natural necessities required me to get
down; I durst not presume to call; and if I had, it would have been in
vain, with such a voice as mine, at so great a distance from the room
where I lay to the kitchen where the family kept. While I was under
these circumstances, two rats crept up the curtains, and ran smelling
backwards and forwards on the bed. One of them came up almost to my
face, whereupon I rose in a fright, and drew out my hanger to defend
myself. These horrible animals had the boldness to attack me on both
sides, and one of them held his forefeet at my collar; but I had the
good fortune to rip up his belly before he could do me any mischief. He
fell down at my feet; and the other, seeing the fate of his comrade,
made his escape, but not without one good wound on the back, which I
gave him as he fled, and made the blood run trickling from him. After
this exploit, I walked gently to and fro on the bed, to recover my
breath and loss of spirits. These creatures were of the size of a large
mastiff, but infinitely more nimble and fierce; so that if I had taken
off my belt before I went to sleep, I must have infallibly been torn to
pieces and devoured. I measured the tail of the dead rat, and found it
to be two yards long, wanting an inch; but it went against my stomach
to drag the carcass off the bed, where it lay still bleeding; I
observed it had yet some life, but with a strong slash across the neck,
I thoroughly despatched it.
Soon after my mistress came into the room, who seeing me all bloody,
ran and took me up in her hand. I pointed to the dead rat, smiling, and
making other signs to show I was not hurt; whereat she was extremely
rejoiced, calling the maid to take up the dead rat with a pair of
tongs, and throw it out of the window. Then she set me on a table,
where I showed her my hanger all bloody, and wiping it on the lappet of
my coat, returned it to the scabbard. I was pressed to do more than one
thing which another could not do for me, and therefore endeavoured to
make my mistress understand, that I desired to be set down on the
floor; which after she had done, my bashfulness would not suffer me to
express myself farther, than by pointing to the door, and bowing
several times. The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived
what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the
garden, where she set me down. I went on one side about two hundred
yards, and beckoning to her not to look or to follow me, I hid myself
between two leaves of sorrel, and there discharged the necessities of
nature.
I hope the gentle reader will excuse me for dwelling on these and the
like particulars, which, however insignificant they may appear to
groveling vulgar minds, yet will certainly help a philosopher to
enlarge his thoughts and imagination, and apply them to the benefit of
public as well as private life, which was my sole design in presenting
this and other accounts of my travels to the world; wherein I have been
chiefly studious of truth, without affecting any ornaments of learning
or of style. But the whole scene of this voyage made so strong an
impression on my mind, and is so deeply fixed in my memory, that, in
committing it to paper I did not omit one material circumstance:
however, upon a strict review, I blotted out several passages of less
moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being censured as
tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often, perhaps not without
justice, accused.
CHAPTER II.
A description of the farmer’s daughter. The author carried to a
market-town, and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his
journey.
My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly parts
for her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in dressing her
baby. Her mother and she contrived to fit up the baby’s cradle for me
against night: the cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and
the drawer placed upon a hanging shelf for fear of the rats. This was
my bed all the time I staid with those people, though made more
convenient by degrees, as I began to learn their language and make my
wants known. This young girl was so handy, that after I had once or
twice pulled off my clothes before her, she was able to dress and
undress me, though I never gave her that trouble when she would let me
do either myself. She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as
fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth;
and these she constantly washed for me with her own hands. She was
likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the language: when I pointed
to any thing, she told me the name of it in her own tongue, so that in
a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to. She was
very good-natured, and not above forty feet high, being little for her
age. She gave me the name of _Grildrig_, which the family took up, and
afterwards the whole kingdom. The word imports what the Latins call
_nanunculus_, the Italians _homunceletino_, and the English _mannikin_.
To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that country: we never parted
while I was there; I called her my _Glumdalclitch_, or little nurse;
and should be guilty of great ingratitude, if I omitted this honourable
mention of her care and affection towards me, which I heartily wish it
lay in my power to requite as she deserves, instead of being the
innocent, but unhappy instrument of her disgrace, as I have too much
reason to fear.
It now began to be known and talked of in the neighbourhood, that my
master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a
_splacnuck_, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature;
which it likewise imitated in all its actions; seemed to speak in a
little language of its own, had already learned several words of
theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when
it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in the
world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of three
years old. Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular
friend of my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the
truth of this story. I was immediately produced, and placed upon a
table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up
again, made my reverence to my master’s guest, asked him in his own
language how he did, and told him _he was welcome_, just as my little
nurse had instructed me. This man, who was old and dim-sighted, put on
his spectacles to behold me better; at which I could not forbear
laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon
shining into a chamber at two windows. Our people, who discovered the
cause of my mirth, bore me company in laughing, at which the old fellow
was fool enough to be angry and out of countenance. He had the
character of a great miser; and, to my misfortune, he well deserved it,
by the cursed advice he gave my master, to show me as a sight upon a
market-day in the next town, which was half an hour’s riding, about
two-and-twenty miles from our house. I guessed there was some mischief
when I observed my master and his friend whispering together, sometimes
pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and
understood some of their words. But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my
little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked
out from her mother. The poor girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a
weeping with shame and grief. She apprehended some mischief would
happen to me from rude vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death, or
break one of my limbs by taking me in their hands. She had also
observed how modest I was in my nature, how nicely I regarded my
honour, and what an indignity I should conceive it, to be exposed for
money as a public spectacle, to the meanest of the people. She said,
her papa and mamma had promised that Grildrig should be hers; but now
she found they meant to serve her as they did last year, when they
pretended to give her a lamb, and yet, as soon as it was fat, sold it
to a butcher. For my own part, I may truly affirm, that I was less
concerned than my nurse. I had a strong hope, which never left me, that
I should one day recover my liberty: and as to the ignominy of being
carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a perfect
stranger in the country, and that such a misfortune could never be
charged upon me as a reproach, if ever I should return to England,
since the king of Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have
undergone the same distress.
My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box
the next market-day to the neighbouring town, and took along with him
his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him. The box was
close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a
few gimlet holes to let in air. The girl had been so careful as to put
the quilt of her baby’s bed into it, for me to lie down on. However, I
was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey, though it was but
of half an hour: for the horse went about forty feet at every step and
trotted so high, that the agitation was equal to the rising and falling
of a ship in a great storm, but much more frequent. Our journey was
somewhat farther than from London to St. Alban’s. My master alighted at
an inn which he used to frequent; and after consulting a while with the
inn-keeper, and making some necessary preparations, he hired the
_grultrud_, or crier, to give notice through the town of a strange
creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big as a
_splacnuck_ (an animal in that country very finely shaped, about six
feet long,) and in every part of the body resembling a human creature,
could speak several words, and perform a hundred diverting tricks.
I was placed upon a table in the largest room of the inn, which might
be near three hundred feet square. My little nurse stood on a low stool
close to the table, to take care of me, and direct what I should do. My
master, to avoid a crowd, would suffer only thirty people at a time to
see me. I walked about on the table as the girl commanded; she asked me
questions, as far as she knew my understanding of the language reached,
and I answered them as loud as I could. I turned about several times to
the company, paid my humble respects, said _they were welcome_, and
used some other speeches I had been taught. I took up a thimble filled
with liquor, which Glumdalclitch had given me for a cup, and drank
their health, I drew out my hanger, and flourished with it after the
manner of fencers in England. My nurse gave me a part of a straw, which
I exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth. I was that
day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced to act over
again the same fopperies, till I was half dead with weariness and
vexation; for those who had seen me made such wonderful reports, that
the people were ready to break down the doors to come in. My master,