two years

The two years Gulliver spends in Brobdingnag constitute the longest continuous residence in any single land during his travels, and the experience produces a more profound psychological transformation than any other voyage. From his capture by a farmer in June 1703 to his escape in June 1706, Gulliver lives as a dependent curiosity among a people who tower over him, and the sustained reversal of scale forces him to confront his own insignificance in ways that the brief Lilliputian episode never did.

Capture and Exhibition

Gulliver's two years in Brobdingnag begin with his abandonment on an unknown coast. On June 16, 1703, a boy on the topmast of the Adventure sighted land, and the next day Gulliver went ashore with a dozen men seeking fresh water. While his companions fled from a giant pursuing them through the sea, Gulliver ran inland and was discovered by a reaper in a barley field. The farmer, a substantial husbandman, took him home and placed him on the dinner table, where the family—the farmer, his wife, three children, and an old grandmother—examined him with wonder. The farmer's youngest son, an arch boy of about ten, picked Gulliver up by the legs and held him high in the air until his father snatched him away and boxed the boy's ear. Gulliver's life as a public spectacle began almost immediately. The farmer, acting on the advice of a miserly neighbor, carried him in a box to the next market-town and exhibited him at the sign of the Green Eagle. He was shown to twelve sets of company that first day, forced to repeat the same tricks until he was half dead with weariness. The farmer grew insatiable; within weeks Gulliver was reduced to a skeleton, and the farmer, concluding he could not live much longer, resolved to make as much money as possible before the end.

Life at Court

Gulliver's fortunes changed when a gentleman-usher from court commanded the farmer to bring him to the queen. Her majesty was delighted with his demeanor, and when she asked whether he would be content to live at court, Gulliver answered that he was his master's slave but would be proud to devote his life to her service. The queen purchased him for a thousand pieces of gold, and Gulliver immediately begged that Glumdalclitch, the farmer's nine-year-old daughter who had been his nurse and teacher, might be admitted into her service as well. The queen agreed, and Glumdalclitch remained with Gulliver throughout his two years at court. The king, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance, initially took Gulliver for a piece of clockwork, but after hearing him speak rationally he sent for the farmer, examined him privately, and began to believe Gulliver's account of his origins. A convenient apartment was provided, and the queen's cabinet-maker built Gulliver a wooden chamber sixteen feet square and twelve high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets. The queen became so fond of his company that she could not dine without him; he had a table placed at her left elbow, and Glumdalclitch stood on a stool nearby to assist him. The king, too, took pleasure in conversing with Gulliver, inquiring into the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe. Over five audiences, each of several hours, Gulliver gave an account of England, but the king's questions grew increasingly skeptical, and he finally concluded that the bulk of Gulliver's countrymen were "the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth."

Dangers and Humiliations

The two years were punctuated by a series of accidents that underscored Gulliver's vulnerability. The queen's dwarf, who was not full thirty feet high, became insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him; he dropped Gulliver into a large silver bowl of cream, and later wedged him into a marrow-bone. A violent shower of hail struck Gulliver to the ground, the stones being near eighteen hundred times as large as European hailstones. A small white dog belonging to one of the gardeners carried him in its mouth to its master. A kite made a stoop at him, and he fell neck-deep into a molehill. The most dangerous incident involved a monkey belonging to one of the clerks of the kitchen, which seized Gulliver, held him like a baby, and carried him to the roof of the palace, where he sat five hundred yards from the ground until a footman climbed up and brought him down in his breeches-pocket. The monkey was killed, and an order made that no such animal should be kept about the palace. Gulliver was confined to bed for a fortnight, and the king rallied him mercilessly about the adventure.

Escape and Return

After two years in Brobdingnag, Gulliver's deliverance came in a manner he had never anticipated. He and Glumdalclitch attended the king and queen on a progress to the south coast. Glumdalclitch fell ill, and Gulliver, longing to see the ocean, persuaded her to let him go with a page to the seaside. He ordered the page to set down his travelling-box, lifted one of the sashes, and cast a melancholy look toward the sea. Feeling unwell, he climbed into his hammock and fell asleep. While he slept, an eagle seized the ring at the top of the box and carried it into the air. The eagle was pursued by two or three others and forced to drop the box, which fell into the sea. Gulliver was rescued by an English merchantman under Captain Thomas Wilcocks, who had spied the box through his glass and sent his long-boat to investigate. When Gulliver came on board, he was in a very weak condition. The voyage back to England was prosperous, and he arrived in the Downs on June 3, 1706, about nine months after his escape. The psychological effects of the two years lingered. On the road home, Gulliver found himself afraid of trampling on every traveller he met, and when he reached his own house he bent down to go through the door for fear of striking his head. His wife ran out to embrace him, but he stooped lower than her knees, thinking she could not otherwise reach his mouth. He told his wife she had starved herself and her daughter to nothing. His family concluded he had lost his wits, and Gulliver himself recognized this behavior as an instance of the great power of habit and prejudice.