Gulliver and Flimnap

The relationship between Lemuel Gulliver and Flimnap, the Lord High Treasurer of Lilliput, is a study in courtly hypocrisy and the precariousness of favor. From the outset, Flimnap's demeanor toward Gulliver was marked by a sour countenance and secret hostility, even as he outwardly caressed the Man-mountain more than his morose nature usually allowed. This enmity, which Gulliver perceived as a private reason to believe the treasurer was doing him ill offices with the emperor, was rooted in Flimnap's professional and personal anxieties.

Flimnap's Enmity and Its Causes

Flimnap's opposition to Gulliver was not a matter of personal slight but of calculated political and financial self-interest. The treasurer's jealousy was inflamed by Gulliver's spectacular success in capturing the Blefuscu fleet, an exploit that obscured the glory of Skyrris Bolgolam, the admiral, and by extension threatened the standing of the entire ministerial cabal. More concretely, Flimnap represented to the emperor the low condition of the treasury, arguing that Gulliver had cost his majesty above a million and a half of sprugs (their greatest gold coin, about the bigness of a spangle), and that the exchequer bills would not circulate under nine per cent below par. He concluded that it would be advisable for the emperor to take the first fair occasion of dismissing Gulliver, framing the Man-mountain's maintenance as an insupportable burden on the state.

The Conspiracy and Impeachment

Flimnap's secret enmity became overt when he joined a junto of ministers maliciously bent against Gulliver, a conspiracy that broke out in less than two months after Gulliver's refusal to reduce Blefuscu to a province. Alongside Skyrris Bolgolam, Limtoc the general, Lalcon the chamberlain, and Balmuff the grand justiciary, Flimnap prepared articles of impeachment against Gulliver for high treason and other capital crimes. The articles accused Gulliver of traitorously pulling the empress by the arms during the palace fire, of refusing to destroy the Big-endian exiles and the people of Blefuscu, of aiding the Blefuscu ambassadors, and of preparing a voyage to Blefuscu under color of a verbal license. During the debates on the impeachment, the treasurer and the admiral insisted that Gulliver should be put to the most painful and ignominious death, by setting fire to his house at night, with the general attending with twenty thousand men armed with poisoned arrows. Flimnap also supported the alternative of starving Gulliver by degrees, arguing that the secretary's expedient of putting out his eyes would only increase the cost, as blinding fowls made them feed faster and grow sooner fat.

The Dinner at Gulliver's House

The tension between the two men was palpable even in social settings. When the emperor, the empress, the young princes, and Flimnap dined with Gulliver, the treasurer attended with his white staff, and Gulliver observed him often looking on with a sour countenance. In response, Gulliver ate more than usual, in honor to his dear country and to fill the court with admiration, a gesture that likely only deepened Flimnap's resentment. This visit gave Flimnap an opportunity to do Gulliver ill offices to his master, as he immediately afterward represented the financial strain of Gulliver's maintenance to the emperor.

The Aftermath and Gulliver's Escape

Flimnap's machinations were central to the plot that forced Gulliver to flee Lilliput. Informed by a friend at court of the conspiracy, Gulliver learned that Flimnap, in conjunction with the admiral and others, had prepared the articles of impeachment. The treasurer's insistence on a painful death was only overridden by the emperor's lenity, which ultimately condemned Gulliver to the loss of his eyes. Gulliver, realizing the depth of the enmity against him, escaped to Blefuscu, and from there departed the region entirely. The relationship thus exemplifies the Swiftian theme that the greatest services to princes are of little weight when put into the balance with a refusal to gratify their passions, and that a minister's jealousy and financial concerns can turn a benefactor into a mortal enemy.