Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 2/Chapter 2
from the Collection âGulliver's Travels. Part 2â
The division of this summary into sections is editorial.
After Gulliver had been found in a field in a land of giants, he stayed at a farmerâs house. There, the farmerâs young daughter became his protector and teacher.
The farmerâs daughter cares for Gulliver
The farmerâs nine-year-old daughter was clever, kind and skilled with a needle. Although she was about forty feet tall, she was small for her age in her own country.
She and her mother made Gulliver a bed in her dollâs cradle, placing it inside a cabinet drawer on a hanging shelf to keep him safe from rats. As he learned to explain what he needed, they gradually made the bed more comfortable. The girl learned to dress and undress him, though he preferred to do it himself whenever she allowed him. She also sewed him shirts and other linen and washed them by hand.
By naming the objects Gulliver pointed to, she taught him enough of her language to ask for things within a few days. He called her Glumdalclitch, meaning «little nurse». In turn, she gave him a name that spread throughout the country.
She gave me the name of Grildrig, which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom.
Grildrig meant a tiny man. Gulliver credited his nurse above all others with keeping him alive in that country. Looking back, he wished he could repay her affection and feared that he had innocently caused her disgrace.
A neighbour proposes a public show
News spread that the farmer had found a tiny creature shaped like a human being, able to walk upright, obey commands and speak a few words. A neighbouring farmer, an old friend of Gulliverâs master, visited to see whether the story was true.
Placed on a table, Gulliver walked, drew and put away his sword, bowed and welcomed the visitor in his own language, as Glumdalclitch had taught him. The visitor put on spectacles for a closer look. His magnified eyes made Gulliver laugh, and the household joined in; the embarrassed visitor became angry.
The neighbour advised Gulliverâs master to exhibit him for money at the next market. Gulliver saw the men whispering and pointing at him and suspected trouble. The next morning Glumdalclitch, who had learned the plan from her mother, told him what was intended.
Glumdalclitch wept, fearing that spectators might crush Gulliver or break his limbs. She also knew he would feel humiliated at being displayed for money. Her parents had promised that he would be hers, but she remembered how they had once given her a lamb and then sold it when it grew fat.
Gulliver was less distressed than she was. He still hoped to recover his freedom and reasoned that, if he returned to England, no one could fairly blame him for a humiliation that even a king could not have avoided in the same position.
The first market-day exhibition
On market day, the farmer carried Gulliver to a nearby town in a ventilated box, with Glumdalclitch riding behind him. She had put her dollâs quilt inside for Gulliver to lie on, but the giant horseâs enormous, jolting strides made the half-hour journey miserable.
At an inn called the Green Eagle, the farmer hired a town crier to announce the strange creature and its tricks. In the innâs largest room, Gulliver performed on a table while Glumdalclitch stood nearby to direct and protect him. The farmer admitted only thirty spectators at a time.
Gulliver answered his nurseâs questions, bowed, welcomed the audience and drank their health from a thimble. He fenced with his sword and used a piece of straw as a pike, drawing on skills he had learned in his youth. The reports of those who saw him brought such crowds that people nearly broke down the doors. Gulliver recalled the cost of repeating the performance:
I was that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced to go over again with the same fopperies, till I was half dead with weariness and vexation.
To protect his investment, the farmer allowed no one but Glumdalclitch to touch Gulliver and placed benches beyond reach of the table. Even so, a schoolboy threw a hazelnut at Gulliverâs head and narrowly missed. The nut was nearly as large as a small pumpkin to him and could have killed him. Gulliver was pleased to see the boy beaten and expelled.
After the journey and eight hours of entertaining, Gulliver could barely stand or speak and needed at least three days to recover. The farmer announced another market-day show and prepared a more comfortable box, but Gulliver found little rest at home: visitors came from far away, and the farmer charged them to see him. Wednesday, the local day of worship, was his only regular respite.
The profitable tour to the capital
Seeing how much money Gulliver could earn, the farmer decided to exhibit him in the kingdomâs major towns. On 17 August 1703, about two months after Gulliverâs arrival in the country, he set out for the capital. Glumdalclitch rode behind her father, carrying Gulliver on her lap in a box secured to her waist; a household boy followed with the luggage.
Glumdalclitch had lined the box with soft cloth, padded its floor and fitted it with her dollâs bed, linen and other necessities. The farmer planned to stop wherever an audience could be found, even making long detours to villages or wealthy households. To spare Gulliver the jolting, Glumdalclitch complained that she herself was tired, so they travelled at a comparatively easy pace.
At Gulliverâs request she sometimes took him out to give him air and let him see the country, keeping hold of him with a cord. They crossed immense rivers, and even the small streams seemed huge to him. The journey lasted ten weeks. Along the way, he was exhibited in eighteen large towns as well as many villages and private homes.
On 26 October they reached Lorbrulgrud, the capital, whose name meant «Pride of the Universe». The farmer rented lodgings near the royal palace and advertised Gulliverâs appearance and abilities. In a large hired room he set up a broad table for the performances, with a barrier around it to prevent Gulliver from falling. There Gulliver was shown ten times a day.
By then Gulliver could speak the local language fairly well and understand what was said to him. Glumdalclitch had also taught him the alphabet during their time at home and on the journey. Using a book for young girls about their religion, she explained words to him, and he learned to make out a sentence here and there.