Emperor of Lilliput
The Emperor of Lilliput, whose full name and title is Golbasto Momaren Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, is the absolute ruler of the Lilliputian empire. He is described as taller than any of his court by almost the breadth of a fingernail, a detail that alone is enough to strike awe into his subjects. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, an olive complexion, and a majestic deportment. At the time of Gulliver's arrival, he was twenty-eight years and three-quarters old, having reigned for about seven years in great felicity and generally victorious. His dress is plain and simple, but he wears a light helmet of gold adorned with jewels and a plume on the crest, and he carries a sword almost three inches long with a hilt and scabbard of gold enriched with diamonds. His voice is shrill but very clear and articulate.
Political Authority and Court Intrigue
The Emperor governs with a council and a court rife with factionalism and intrigue. He is a renowned patron of learning, and his people are excellent mathematicians and mechanics, a skill he encourages. However, his court is divided between the Tramecksan (high heels) and the Slamecksan (low heels), and the Emperor has determined to use only low heels in the administration of the government, making his own heels lower by at least a drurr than any of his court. The heir to the crown is suspected of having a tendency toward the high heels, as one of his heels is higher than the other. The Emperor's favor is a precarious commodity, dispensed through dangerous diversions like the rope-dance, where candidates for high office risk life and limb to prove their agility, and the ceremony of leaping over or creeping under a stick to win colored silken threads as marks of favor. The Emperor's chief ministers, including the treasurer Flimnap and the admiral Skyrris Bolgolam, are constantly maneuvering for power and influence, and the Emperor himself is susceptible to their machinations.
Relationship with Gulliver: From Captivity to Service
The Emperor's first encounter with Gulliver is one of calculated prudence. Upon receiving news of the sleeping giant, he determines in council to have him tied down, supplied with food, and transported to the capital. He personally rides out to meet Gulliver, and his horse, unused to the sight of a moving mountain, rears up, but the Emperor, an excellent horseman, keeps his seat until attendants can assist him. He orders the search of Gulliver's pockets, a process conducted with great ceremony and the production of an exact inventory. The Emperor is particularly astonished by Gulliver's watch, which he commands two of his tallest yeomen of the guards to bear on a pole. After Gulliver's good behavior, the Emperor grants him liberty under a set of articles, which include swearing a peace, not departing the dominions without license, and aiding against the enemies of Blefuscu. The Emperor creates Gulliver a nardac, the highest title of honor among them, upon his successful capture of the Blefuscu fleet.
The Emperor's Ambition and Gulliver's Refusal
The Emperor's ambition proves immeasurable. After Gulliver's victory, he desires that Gulliver take another opportunity to bring all the rest of the enemy's ships into his ports, seeming to think of nothing less than reducing the whole empire of Blefuscu into a province, destroying the Big-endian exiles, and compelling that people to break the smaller end of their eggs. Gulliver's open and bold declaration that he will never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery is so opposite to the Emperor's schemes that he can never forgive him. From this time begins an intrigue between the Emperor and a junto of ministers maliciously bent against Gulliver, which breaks out in less than two months and nearly ends in his utter destruction.
The Conspiracy and the Emperor's Lenity
The Emperor's resentment, fueled by Flimnap and Bolgolam, leads to a formal conspiracy. Articles of impeachment are prepared against Gulliver for high treason, including the charge that he maliciously and traitorously pulled the empress by the arms to extinguish the fire in her apartment, and that he refused to destroy the Big-endian exiles. In the debates upon this impeachment, the Emperor gives many marks of his great lenity, often urging the services Gulliver had done him and endeavoring to extenuate his crimes. He ultimately brings off the chamberlain to secure a majority against the death penalty, and the council, at the suggestion of Reldresal, condemns Gulliver to the loss of his eyes. The Emperor's mercy is a calculated performance; it is a custom that after the court has decreed any cruel execution, the Emperor always makes a speech to his whole council expressing his great lenity and tenderness, and this speech is immediately published through the kingdom. The more these praises are enlarged, the more inhuman the punishment and the more innocent the sufferer.
The Emperor's Final Act and Gulliver's Escape
When Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, the Emperor, after consulting with the treasurer and the rest of that cabal, sends an envoy with the copy of the articles against him. The envoy is instructed to represent the great lenity of his master, who was content to punish Gulliver no further than the loss of his eyes, and to demand that the Emperor of Blefuscu send Gulliver back bound hand and foot. The Emperor of Blefuscu, however, refuses, and Gulliver ultimately departs. The Emperor of Lilliput's final act is one of political calculation, revealing a ruler who values his own power and the appearance of mercy above genuine justice or gratitude.
