Gulliver's Travels (Swift)/Part 3/Chapter 7

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Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels. Part 3. Chapter 7

On Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver questions the illustrious dead

1726

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “Gulliver's Travels. Part 3”

The original takes about 8 minutes to read

Microsummary

While waiting for a ship home, Gulliver visits Glubbdubdrib. Its Governor summons spirits for him, allowing him to question figures from antiquity and compare ancient Rome with his own age.

The divisions of this summary into sections are editorial.

Gulliver left Lagado, intending to return to Europe by way of Luggnagg and Japan. Before he departed, his noble protector gave him a generous present.

A delay at Maldonada

Gulliver hired two mules and a guide and travelled without incident to the port of Maldonada. There he found no ship bound for Luggnagg and learned that none was expected to sail for at least a month.

The townspeople received him hospitably. A gentleman proposed a visit to the nearby island of Glubbdubdrib and offered a boat, as well as his own company and that of a friend.

Glubbdubdrib meant, as Gulliver understood it, the Island of Sorcerers or Magicians. Its fertile land was ruled by the eldest member of a family of magicians, who married only among themselves. The Governor could summon dead people to serve him for twenty-four hours; ordinarily, he could not summon the same person again for three months.

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The Governor of Glubbdubdrib — hereditary ruler and magician who summoned the dead to serve him.

A frightening reception

The party reached the island at about eleven in the morning. One of Gulliver’s companions obtained an audience, and the three entered the palace between rows of strangely dressed guards whose faces filled Gulliver with horror.

The Governor understood the language of Balnibarbi and asked Gulliver about his travels. To show that his guests could be at ease, he dismissed his attendants with a movement of his finger; they vanished at once. Gulliver recovered only after the Governor assured him that he was safe and he saw that his companions, who had witnessed such scenes before, were unconcerned.

Gulliver gave an account of his adventures, though he kept glancing back at the place where the spirits had stood. A new company of ghosts served dinner. Less frightened than before, he stayed until sunset, but declined the Governor’s invitation to sleep in the palace. He and his companions lodged in the adjoining town and returned the next morning at the Governor’s command.

Questions for the dead

During a stay of ten days, the visitors spent most of each day with the Governor. Gulliver soon became accustomed to the spirits, and curiosity overcame any remaining fear. The Governor offered to summon any number of dead people whom Gulliver named, provided his questions concerned their own lifetimes. Gulliver understood that their answers would be truthful:

And one thing I might depend upon, that they would certainly tell me the truth, for lying was a talent of no use in the lower world.

Gulliver first asked for a magnificent spectacle: Alexander the Great and his army just after the battle of Arbela. They appeared in a field below the palace window, and Alexander was brought into the room. Despite their difficulty understanding each other’s Greek, Gulliver learned how Alexander said he had died:

He assured me upon his honour that he was not poisoned, but died of a fever by excessive drinking.

Gulliver next saw Hannibal crossing the Alps; Hannibal told him there had been no vinegar in his camp. He also saw Caesar and Pompey facing one another with their armies, and Caesar in his final great triumph. When Gulliver requested a comparison between the Roman senate and a modern representative assembly, the ancient senators appeared to him like heroes and demigods, the modern representatives like thieves and bullies.

Brutus and the defenders of liberty

At Gulliver’s request, Caesar and Brutus came forward together. Gulliver revered Brutus, who had helped kill Caesar, and believed his face showed courage, virtue and love of his country.

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Brutus — Roman opponent of Caesar, admired by Gulliver for his courage and devotion to liberty.

Gulliver was pleased to see the two on good terms. Caesar acknowledged that even his greatest achievements could not equal the glory of taking his life. Brutus told Gulliver that he kept company with Junius, Socrates, Epaminondas, Cato the Younger and Sir Thomas More; Gulliver thought no seventh person in history worthy to join them.

Many other celebrated people appeared during the visit. Gulliver especially delighted in seeing those who had overthrown tyrants and restored liberty to oppressed nations, though he felt unable to convey the full satisfaction the encounters gave him.

The summary is based on the edition of the novel edited by G. Ravenscroft Dennis from volume 8 of The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift (London: George Bell and Sons, 1899).