Summary: Chapter III
The strain of traveling and performing “tricks” takes
its toll on Gulliver, and he begins to grow very thin. The farmer
notices Gulliver’s condition and resolves to make as much money
as possible before Gulliver dies. Meanwhile, an order comes from
the court, commanding the farmer to bring Gulliver to the queen
for her entertainment.
The queen is delighted with Gulliver’s behavior and buys
him from the farmer for 1,000 gold
pieces. Gulliver requests that Glumdalclitch be allowed to live
in the palace as well. Gulliver explains his suffering to the queen,
and she is impressed by his intelligence. She takes him to the king,
who at first thinks he is a mechanical creation. He sends for great
scholars to observe Gulliver, and they decide that he is unfit for
survival, since there is no way he could feed himself. Gulliver
tries to explain that he comes from a country in which everything
is in proportion to himself, but they do not seem to believe him.
Glumdalclitch is given an apartment in the palace and
a governess to teach her, and special quarters are built for Gulliver
out of a box. They also have clothes made for him from fine silk,
but Gulliver finds them very cumbersome. The queen grows quite accustomed
to his company, finding him very entertaining at dinner, especially
when he cuts and eats his meat. He finds her way of eating repulsive,
since her size allows her to swallow huge amounts of food in a single
gulp.
The king converses with Gulliver on issues of politics,
and laughs at his descriptions of the goings-on in Europe. He finds
it amusing that people of such small stature should think themselves
so important, and Gulliver is at first offended. He then comes to
realize that he too has begun to think of his world as ridiculous.
The queen’s dwarf is not happy with Gulliver, since he
is used to being the smallest person in the palace and a source
of diversion for the royal court. He drops Gulliver into a bowl
of cream, but Gulliver is able to swim to safety and the dwarf is
punished. At another point, the dwarf sticks Gulliver into a marrowbone,
where he is forced to remain until someone pulls him out.
Summary: Chapter IV
Gulliver describes the geography of Brobdingnag, noting
first that since the land stretches out about 6,000 miles
there must be a severe error in European maps. The kingdom is bounded
on one side by mountains and on the other three sides by the sea.
The water is so rough that there is no trade with other nations.
The rivers are well stocked with giant fish, but the fish in the
sea are of the same size as those in the rest of the world—and therefore
not worth catching.
