GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
by JONATHAN SWIFT
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS
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Chapter 1 | |
| We set sail from Portsmouth upon the 7th Day of August, 1710 | some editions give this date as August 7 while others say the second Day. |
Chapter 5 | |
| There is a Kind of beggarly Princes in Europe (IV:5;5) | some editions readanother kind of Princes |
| "those in Germany and other Northern Parts of Europe" (IV:5;5) | earlier editions read"such are those in many Northern Parts of Europe"Motte and other printers probably removed the reference to Germany because of its association with George I. |
Chapter 6 | |
| "A Continuation of the State of England. The Character of first Minister." (IV:6;0) | Different editions, reflecting editorial changes below, read:
"A Continuation of the State of England; so well governed by a Queen as to need no first Minister. The Character of such an one is some European Courts." |
| "I told him, that a First or Chief Minister of State, whom I intended to describe, was a Creature wholly exempt from Joy and Grief, Love and Hatred, Pity and Anger;" (IV:6;10) The first printer, Motte, added text to eliminate direct criticism of the current government and to act a buffer against other charges. However, the change also made it seem that Swift did not know that Queen Anne had two ministers - Godolphin and Oxford - leading the government during her reign. I told him, that our She Governor or Queen having no Ambition to gratify, no Inclination to satisfy of extending her Power to the Injury of her Neighbors, of the Prejudice of her own Subjects, was therefore so far from needing a corrupt Ministry to carry on or cover any sinister Designs, that she only directs her own Actions to the Good of her People, conducts them by the Direction, and restrains them within the Limitation of the Laws, of own Country; but submits the Behaviour and Acts of the she intrusts with the Administration of her Affairs to the Examination of her great Council, and subjects them to the Penalties of the Law; and therefore never puts any such Confidence in any of her Subjects as to entrust them with the whole and entire Administration of her Affairs: But I added, that in some former Reigns here, and in many ther Courts of Europe now, Princes grew indolent and careless of their own Affairs through a constant Love and Pursuit of Pleasure, they made use of such an Administrator, as I had mentioned, under the Title of a first or chief Minister of State, the Description of which, as far as it may be collected not only from their Actions, but from the Letters, Memoirs, and Writings published by themselves, the Truth of which has not yet been disputed, may be allowed to be as follows: That he is a PersonSwift addressed this addition specifically in "A Letter from Capt. Gulliver," ("I do not remember I gave you Power to consent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted: therefore, as to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that Kind; particularly a Paragraph about her Majesty the late Queen Anne..." Letter;1) which he added to the Travels in later editions, specifically to address such changes to his text. In subsequent editions, this paragraph begins simply as seen as above. | |
| no uncommon Marks of a Great Man | some editions substitute noble blood |
| apt to conclude his real Father to have been one of the Inferiors of the Family, especially when it is seen that the Imperfections of his Mind run parallel with those of his Body; | some editions read: "apt to conclude his real Father to have been a Groom or a Coachman. The Imperfections of his Mind run parallel with those of his Body;" |