August 17, 1703

August 17, 1703, marks a decisive turning point in Lemuel Gulliver's second voyage, the day he was forcibly removed from the farmer's house where he had been held since his capture and set on a ten-week journey to the metropolis Lorbrulgrud. This date initiates the phase of his captivity in which he is transformed from a private wonder into a public commodity, exhibited for money in eighteen large towns and countless villages before being sold to the Queen of Brobdingnag. The journey that began on this day would ultimately lead to his life at court, his conversations with the King of Brobdingnag, and his eventual escape from the country.

Background and Context

Gulliver had arrived in Brobdingnag on June 16, 1703, when he was left ashore by a long-boat sent to fetch water and was immediately seized by a gigantic farmer. For about two months he lived in the farmer's household, cared for by the farmer's nine-year-old daughter, whom he called Glumdalclitch. The farmer, recognizing the profit to be made, had already begun showing Gulliver to neighbors and had taken him once to a market-town for public exhibition. By August 17, the farmer had resolved to carry Gulliver to the most considerable cities of the kingdom, having provided himself with all things necessary for a long journey and settled his affairs at home.

The Departure and Journey

On August 17, 1703, about two months after Gulliver's arrival in Brobdingnag, the farmer took leave of his wife and set out for the metropolis, situated in the middle of that empire and about three thousand miles from their house. The farmer made his daughter Glumdalclitch ride behind him on a pillion, and she carried Gulliver on her lap in a box tied about her waist. The girl had lined the box on all sides with the softest cloth she could get, well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby's bed, and provided Gulliver with linen and other necessaries. The only other company was a boy of the house who rode after them with the luggage. The farmer's design was to show Gulliver in all the towns by the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles to any village or person of quality's house where he might expect custom. They made easy journeys of not above seven or eight score miles a day, for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare Gulliver, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse. She often took him out of his box at his own desire to give him air and show him the country, but always held him fast by a leading-string.

Duration and Scale of the Journey

The journey lasted ten weeks, during which Gulliver was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many villages and private families. They passed over five or six rivers many degrees broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges, and there was hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London Bridge. On October 26, 1703, they arrived at the metropolis, called in their language Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe. The farmer took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills containing an exact description of Gulliver's person and parts. He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet wide, provided a table sixty feet in diameter upon which Gulliver was to act his part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge and as many high to prevent his falling over. Gulliver was shown ten times a day to the wonder and satisfaction of all people.

Consequences and Significance

The journey that began on August 17, 1703, led directly to Gulliver's sale to the Queen of Brobdingnag. The frequent labors he underwent every day made a very considerable change in his health; the more the farmer got by him, the more insatiable he grew. Gulliver had quite lost his stomach and was almost reduced to a skeleton. The farmer observed this and, concluding Gulliver must soon die, resolved to make as good a hand of him as possible. It was at this point that a gentleman-usher came from court commanding the farmer to carry Gulliver immediately thither for the diversion of the queen and her ladies. The queen bought Gulliver for a thousand pieces of gold, and at Gulliver's request, Glumdalclitch was admitted into her service to continue as his nurse and instructor. This date thus marks the beginning of the end of Gulliver's brutal public exhibition and the start of his life at the Brobdingnag court, where he would engage in the famous dialogues with the King of Brobdingnag that form the satirical core of the second voyage.