| Dampier, William | 1652-1715: English explorer, adventurer, pirate, and popular travel writer: Dampier's writings (particularly his A New Voyage Round the World (1697)) provided Swift with a ready model for Gulliver's Travels. The reference to Dampier and his work ("...as my Cousin
Dampier did by my Advice, in his Book called A Voyage round the World.") in the first paragraph of "A Letter from Capt. Gulliver, to his Cousin Sympson would seem to establish the connection; Dampier may appear as Captain Pocock in Part IV (IV:1;1) of the Travels; for additional references to Dampier, see Sources: Exploration. |
| death | It is interesting to see how Swift has the different nations treat death (where the subject arises). There is little of the satirist in such portrayals and, if Swift has a point in such inventions, it is not made with the same kind of passion that you find directed towards other topics. In fact, Swift is by turns playful and sentimental in his discussions of death.
- They bury their Dead with their Heads directly downwards, because ... the
Earth (which they conceive to be flat) will turn upside down, and by this means they
shall, at their Resurrection, be found ready standing on their Feet. (I:6;3)
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| degenerate Nature of Man |
degenerate = adj. worsening; Swift's constant theme of humanity's decline
- Lilliput: "the most scandalous Corruptions into which these People are fallen by
the degenerate Nature of Man." (I:6;9)
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| Rebecca Dingley | (1665?-1743); companion to Esther Johnson and the putative addressee of Swift's letters later published as "A Journal to Stella;" poor relation and member of Temple household, where Johnson was raised and Swift was secretary to Sir William; on Sir William's death, Swift convinced Johnson and Dingley to relocate near him in Ireland, obtensibly for economic reasons; Swift managed her financial affairs, supplementing her small annuity. [source: Glendinning] |
| discover |
reveal; "neither could I reasonably conceive that the Emperor
would discover the Secret while I was out of his power" (I:7;23) |
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| disbelief of a divine providence | Swift was a priest of the Church of Ireland and a proponent of the Test Acts which prevented Catholics from holding office.
- "Disbelief of a Divine Providence renders a Man incapable of holding any Publick Station" (I:6;8)
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| Drunlo |
a Lilliputian informer working for Flimnap; "trimmer" [Clark]
- "the Treasurer, or his two Informers, (I will name them, and let 'em make their best of it) Clustril and Drunlo," (I:6;22)
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| Drurr | Lilliput: "a Measure about the fourteenth Part of an Inch" (I:4;4); "turd" or "dirt" [Clark] |
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| Dutch, High and Low | German and Dutch |
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