Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 11 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

Transcript

11 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter three, the author sent for to court. The Queen
0:05
Speaker 1: buys him of his master, the Farmer, and presents him
0:08
Speaker 1: to the King. He disputes with his Majesty's great scholars.
0:12
Speaker 1: An apartment at court provided for the author. He is
0:16
Speaker 1: in high favor with the Queen. He stands up for
0:19
Speaker 1: the honor of his own country. He quarrels with the
0:21
Speaker 1: Queen's dwarf. The frequent labors I underwent every day made
0:27
Speaker 1: in a few weeks a very considerable change in my health.
0:31
Speaker 1: The more my master got by me, the more insatiable
0:34
Speaker 1: he grew. I had quite lost my stomach and was
0:37
Speaker 1: almost reduced to a skeleton. The Farmer observed it, and,
0:42
Speaker 1: concluding I must soon die, resolved to make as good
0:45
Speaker 1: a hand of me as he could. While he was
0:48
Speaker 1: thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a sadrall, or gentleman
0:52
Speaker 1: usher came from court, commanding my master to carry me
0:56
Speaker 1: immediately thither for the diversion of the Queen and her ladies.
1:01
Speaker 1: Some of the latter had already been to see me,
1:03
Speaker 1: and reported strange things of my beauty, behavior, and good sense.
1:08
Speaker 1: Her Majesty and those who attended her were beyond measure
1:12
Speaker 1: Delighted with my demeanor, I fell on my knees and
1:15
Speaker 1: begged the honor of kissing her imperial foot. But this
1:19
Speaker 1: gracious princess held out a little finger towards me. After
1:22
Speaker 1: I was set on the table, which I embraced in
1:25
Speaker 1: both my arms, and put the tip of it with
1:28
Speaker 1: the utmost respect to my lip. She made me some
1:31
Speaker 1: general questions about my country and my travels. When she
1:35
Speaker 1: answered as distinctly in as few words as I could,
1:38
Speaker 1: she asked whether I could be content to live at court.
1:43
Speaker 1: I bowed down to the board of the table and
1:45
Speaker 1: humbly answered that I was my master's slave, but if
1:49
Speaker 1: I were at my own disposal, I should be proud
1:51
Speaker 1: to devote my life to her Majesty's service. So then
1:55
Speaker 1: she asked my master whether he was willing to sell
1:58
Speaker 1: me at a good price. He, who apprehended I could
2:01
Speaker 1: not live a month, was ready enough to part with me,
2:05
Speaker 1: and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered
2:08
Speaker 1: him on the spot, each peace being about the bigness
2:11
Speaker 1: of eight hundred moidors, but allowing for the proportion of
2:15
Speaker 1: all things between that country and Europe, and the high
2:18
Speaker 1: price of gold among them, was hardly so great a
2:20
Speaker 1: sum as a thousand guineas would be in England. I
2:24
Speaker 1: then said to the Queen, since I was now her
2:26
Speaker 1: Majesty's most humble creature and vassal, I must beg the
2:29
Speaker 1: favor that Glumdalklitch, who had always tended me with so
2:33
Speaker 1: much care and kindness, and understood to do it so well,
2:37
Speaker 1: might be admitted into her service and continued to be
2:39
Speaker 1: my nurse and instructor. Her Majesty agreed to my petition
2:44
Speaker 1: and easily got the farmer's consent, who was glad enough
2:47
Speaker 1: to have his daughter preferred at court, and the poor
2:51
Speaker 1: girl herself was not able to hide her joy. My
2:55
Speaker 1: late master withdrew, bidding me farewell and saying he had
2:58
Speaker 1: left me in a good servant, to which I replied
3:02
Speaker 1: not a word, only making a slight bow. The Queen
3:06
Speaker 1: observed my coldness, and when the farm all was gone
3:09
Speaker 1: out of the apartment, asked me the reason I made
3:13
Speaker 1: bold to tell her Majesty that I owed no other
3:16
Speaker 1: obligation to my late master than his not dashing out
3:19
Speaker 1: to the brains of a poor, harmless creature found by
3:22
Speaker 1: chance in his fields, which obligation was amply recompensed by
3:27
Speaker 1: the gain he had made in showing me through half
3:29
Speaker 1: the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me
3:31
Speaker 1: for that the life I had since led was laborious
3:35
Speaker 1: enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength,
3:38
Speaker 1: that my health was much impaired by the continual druggery
3:41
Speaker 1: of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day, And
3:45
Speaker 1: that if my master had not thought my life in danger,
3:48
Speaker 1: her majesty would not have got so cheap a bargain.
3:52
Speaker 1: But as I was, out of all fear of being
3:54
Speaker 1: ill treated, under the protection of so great and good
3:56
Speaker 1: an empress, the ornament of nature, the darling of the world,
4:00
Speaker 1: the delight of her subjects, the phoenix of the creation,
4:04
Speaker 1: so I hoped my late master's apprehensions would appear to
4:07
Speaker 1: be groundless, for I had already found my spirits revive
4:12
Speaker 1: by the influence of her most august presence. This was
4:16
Speaker 1: the sum of my speech, delivered with great improprieties and hesitation.
4:22
Speaker 1: The latter part was altogether framed in the style peculiar
4:25
Speaker 1: to that people, whereof I learned some phrases from Glumdalklitch
4:30
Speaker 1: while she was carrying me to court. The Queen, giving
4:34
Speaker 1: great allowance for my defectiveness in speaking, was however, surprised
4:38
Speaker 1: at so much wit and good sense in so diminutive
4:41
Speaker 1: an animal. She took me in her own hand and
4:44
Speaker 1: carried me to the King, who was then retired to
4:47
Speaker 1: his cabinet. His Majesty, a prince of much gravity and
4:52
Speaker 1: austere countenance, not well observing my shape at first view,
4:56
Speaker 1: asked the Queen, after a cold manner, how long it was,
5:00
Speaker 1: and she grew fond of Blocknuk, for such it seems.
5:03
Speaker 1: He took me to be as I lay upon my
5:05
Speaker 1: breast on her Majesty's right hand. But this princess, who
5:10
Speaker 1: has an infinite deal of wit and humor, set me
5:13
Speaker 1: gently on my feet upon the scrutoire, and commanded me
5:16
Speaker 1: to give his Majesty an account of myself, which I
5:19
Speaker 1: did in a very few words, and Glandalklitch, who attended
5:23
Speaker 1: at the cabin at door and could not endure I
5:26
Speaker 1: should be out of sight, being admitted, confirmed all that
5:30
Speaker 1: had passed from my arrival at her father's house. The King,
5:35
Speaker 1: although he be as learned person as any in his dominions,
5:38
Speaker 1: had been educated in the study of philosophy, and particularly mathematics. Yet,
5:43
Speaker 1: when he observed my shape exactly and saw me walk
5:46
Speaker 1: erect before I began to speak, conceived I might be
5:50
Speaker 1: a piece of clockwork, which is in that country, arrived
5:54
Speaker 1: to a very great perfection contrived by some ingenious artist.
6:00
Speaker 1: He heard my voice and found what I delivered to
6:02
Speaker 1: be regular and rational. He could not conceal his astonishment.
6:07
Speaker 1: He was, by no means satisfied with the relation I
6:09
Speaker 1: gave him of the manner I came into his kingdom,
6:12
Speaker 1: but thought it a story concerted between Gondalklitch and her father,
6:17
Speaker 1: who had taught me a set of words to make
6:19
Speaker 1: me sell at a better price. Upon this imagination, he
6:22
Speaker 1: put several other questions to me, and still received rational answers,
6:28
Speaker 1: no otherwise defective than by a foreign accent and an
6:31
Speaker 1: imperfect knowledge in the language, with some rustic phrases, which
6:35
Speaker 1: I had learned at the farmer's house, and did not
6:37
Speaker 1: suit the polite style of a court. His Majesty sent
6:41
Speaker 1: for three great scholars, who were then in their weekly waiting.
6:45
Speaker 1: According to the custom in that country, these gentlemen, after
6:49
Speaker 1: they had a while examined my shape with much nicety,
6:52
Speaker 1: were of different opinions concerning me. They all agreed that
6:56
Speaker 1: I could not be produced according to the regular laws
6:59
Speaker 1: of nature, because I was not framed with the capacity
7:02
Speaker 1: of preserving my life, either by swiftness or climbing of
7:06
Speaker 1: trees or dig in holes in the earth. They observed
7:10
Speaker 1: by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that
7:14
Speaker 1: I was a carnivorous animal. Yet most quadrupeds, being an
7:18
Speaker 1: overmatch for me, and fielled mice, with some others too nimble.
7:23
Speaker 1: They could not imagine how I should be able to
7:25
Speaker 1: support myself unless I fed upon snails and other insects,
7:30
Speaker 1: which they offered by my learned arguments to insive that
7:33
Speaker 1: I could not possibly do. One of these virtuosi seemed
7:38
Speaker 1: to think that I might be an embryo or abortive berth,
7:42
Speaker 1: but this opinion was rejected by the other two, who
7:46
Speaker 1: observed my limbs to be perfect and finished, and that
7:50
Speaker 1: I had lived several years, as it was manifest from
7:52
Speaker 1: my beard the stumps were of they plainly discovered through
7:56
Speaker 1: a magnifying glass. They would not allow me to be
7:59
Speaker 1: at a war because my littleness was beyond all degrees
8:02
Speaker 1: of comparison. For the Queen's favorite dwarf, the smallest ever
8:07
Speaker 1: known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high. After
8:12
Speaker 1: much debate, they concluded unanimously that I was only well
8:16
Speaker 1: plum scalcaf, which is interpreted literally Lasser's naturae, a determination
8:22
Speaker 1: exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors,
8:27
Speaker 1: disdaining the old evasion of occult cases, whereby the followers
8:31
Speaker 1: of Aristotle endeavored in vain to disguise their ignorance, have
8:35
Speaker 1: invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties to the unspeakable
8:39
Speaker 1: advancement of human knowledge. After this decisive conclusion, I entreated
8:45
Speaker 1: to be heard a word or two. I applied myself
8:50
Speaker 1: to the King and assured his Majesty that I came
8:53
Speaker 1: from a country which abounded with several millions of both sexes,
8:56
Speaker 1: and of my own stature, where the animals, tree and
9:00
Speaker 1: houses were all in proportion, and where by consequence I
9:05
Speaker 1: might be able to defend myself and to find sustenance
9:08
Speaker 1: as any of His Majesty's subjects could do here, which
9:12
Speaker 1: I took for a full answer. To those gentlemen's arguments
9:16
Speaker 1: to this, they only replied with a smile of contempt,
9:19
Speaker 1: saying that the farmer had instructed me very well in
9:23
Speaker 1: my lesson. The King, who had a much better understanding,
9:28
Speaker 1: dismissing his learned men, sent for the farmer, who, by
9:32
Speaker 1: good fortune was not yet gone out of town. Having
9:36
Speaker 1: therefore first examined him privately, and then confronted him with
9:40
Speaker 1: me and the young girl, his majesty began to think
9:43
Speaker 1: that what we told him might possibly be true. He
9:49
Speaker 1: desired the Queen to order that a particular care should
9:51
Speaker 1: be taken of me, and was of opinion that glumdal
9:55
Speaker 1: Klitch should still continue in her office of tending me,
9:59
Speaker 1: because he obser we had a great affection for each other.
10:03
Speaker 1: A convenient apartment was provided for her at court. She
10:07
Speaker 1: had a sort of governess appointed to take care of
10:10
Speaker 1: her education, a maid to dress her, and two other
10:13
Speaker 1: servants for menial offices. But the care of me was
10:17
Speaker 1: wholly appointed to herself. The Queen commanded her own cabinet
10:21
Speaker 1: maker to contrive a box that might serve me for
10:25
Speaker 1: a bedchamber, after the model that glumdale Clitch and I
10:28
Speaker 1: should agree upon. This man was a most ingenious artist, and,
10:33
Speaker 1: according to my direction, in three weeks finished for me
10:36
Speaker 1: a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square and twelve feet high,
10:41
Speaker 1: with sash windows, a door and two closets like a
10:44
Speaker 1: London bedchamber. The board that made the ceiling was to
10:48
Speaker 1: be lifted up and down by two hinges to put
10:52
Speaker 1: in a bed ready furnished by her Majesty's upholsterer, which
10:55
Speaker 1: Glumdale Clitch took out every day to air, made it
10:59
Speaker 1: with her own hands, and letting it down at night,
11:02
Speaker 1: locked up the roof over me. A nice workman, who
11:06
Speaker 1: was famous for little curiosities undertook to make me two
11:11
Speaker 1: chairs with backs and frames of a substance knot unlike Ivory,
11:16
Speaker 1: and two tables with a cabinet to put my things in.
11:20
Speaker 1: The room was quilted on all sides, as well as
11:23
Speaker 1: the floor and the ceiling, to prevent any accident from
11:26
Speaker 1: the carelessness of those who carried me, and to break
11:29
Speaker 1: the force of a jolt when I went in a coach.
11:32
Speaker 1: I desired a lock for my door to prevent rats
11:35
Speaker 1: and mice from coming in. The smith after several attempts
11:40
Speaker 1: made the smallest that ever was seen among them, for
11:42
Speaker 1: I have known a larger at the gate of the
11:44
Speaker 1: gentleman's house in England. I made a shift to keep
11:48
Speaker 1: the key in my pocket of my own, fearing Glumdalklitch
11:51
Speaker 1: might lose it. The Queen likewise ordered the thinnest silks
11:55
Speaker 1: that could be gotten to make me clothes not much
11:58
Speaker 1: thicker than an English blanket, very cumbersome till I was
12:01
Speaker 1: accustomed to them. They were, after the fashion of the Kingdom,
12:06
Speaker 1: partly resembling the Persian and partly the Chinese, and are
12:11
Speaker 1: a very grave and decent habit. The Queen became so
12:16
Speaker 1: fond of my company that she could not dine without me.
12:19
Speaker 1: I had a table placed upon the same at which
12:21
Speaker 1: her Majesty ate just as her left elbow, and a
12:24
Speaker 1: chair to sit on. Klumdalglitch stood on a stool on
12:28
Speaker 1: the floor near my table to assist and take care
12:31
Speaker 1: of me. I had an entire set of silver dishes
12:35
Speaker 1: and plates and other necessaries, which, in proportion to those
12:39
Speaker 1: of the Queen were not much bigger than what I
12:41
Speaker 1: have seen in a London toy shop for the furniture
12:44
Speaker 1: of a baby house. These my nurse kept in her
12:47
Speaker 1: pocket in a silver box, and gave me at meals
12:50
Speaker 1: as I wanted them, always cleaning them herself. No person
12:55
Speaker 1: dined with the Queen but the two Princesses Royal, the
12:58
Speaker 1: eldest sixteen years and the younger, at that time thirteen
13:02
Speaker 1: and a month. Her Majesty used to put a bit
13:06
Speaker 1: of meat upon one of my dishes, out of which
13:08
Speaker 1: I carved myself, and her diversion was to see me
13:12
Speaker 1: eat in miniature for the Queen, who had, indeed but
13:16
Speaker 1: a weak's stomach, took up at one mouthful as much
13:19
Speaker 1: as a dozen English farmers could eat at a meal,
13:22
Speaker 1: which to me was for some time a very nauseous sight.
13:26
Speaker 1: She would crunch the wings of a lark, bones and
13:28
Speaker 1: all between her teeth, although it were nine times as
13:31
Speaker 1: large as that of a full grown turkey, and put
13:34
Speaker 1: a bit of bread into her mouth as big as
13:36
Speaker 1: two twelvepenny loaves. She drank out of a golden cup
13:40
Speaker 1: above a hogshead at her draft. Her knives were twice
13:43
Speaker 1: as long as a scythe set straight upon the handle.
13:47
Speaker 1: The spoons, forks, and other instruments were all in the
13:50
Speaker 1: same proportion. I remember when Glelumdalklitch carried me out of
13:55
Speaker 1: curiosity to see some of the tables at court, where
13:59
Speaker 1: ten or a do some of these enormous knives and
14:01
Speaker 1: forks were lifted up together. I thought I had never
14:05
Speaker 1: till then behold so terrible a sight. It is the
14:09
Speaker 1: custom that every Wednesday, which as I have observed, is
14:13
Speaker 1: their sabbath, the King and Queen, with the royal issue
14:17
Speaker 1: of both sexes, dined together in the apartment of his Majesty,
14:22
Speaker 1: to whom I now became a great favorite. And at
14:25
Speaker 1: these times my little chair and table were placed at
14:28
Speaker 1: his left hand. Before one of the salt sellers. This
14:32
Speaker 1: Prince took a pleasure in conversing with me, inquiring into
14:36
Speaker 1: the manners, religion, laws, government, and learning of Europe, wherein
14:41
Speaker 1: I gave him the best account I was able. His
14:44
Speaker 1: apprehension was so clear, and his judgment so exact, that
14:48
Speaker 1: he made very wise reflections and observations upon all I said.
14:53
Speaker 1: But I confess that after I had been a little
14:56
Speaker 1: too copious in talking of my own beloved country, of
15:00
Speaker 1: our trade and wars by sea and land, of our
15:03
Speaker 1: schisms in religion and parties in the state, the prejudices
15:08
Speaker 1: of his education prevailed so far that he could not
15:12
Speaker 1: forbear taking me up in his right hand, and stroke
15:14
Speaker 1: me gently with the other. After a hearty fit of laughing,
15:18
Speaker 1: asked me whether I was a Whig or Tory. Then,
15:22
Speaker 1: turning to his first minister, who waited behind him with
15:25
Speaker 1: the white staff near as tall as the main mast
15:28
Speaker 1: of the royal Sovereign, he observed how contemptible a thing
15:32
Speaker 1: was human grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive
15:36
Speaker 1: insects as I. And yet said he, I dare engage.
15:40
Speaker 1: These creatures have their titles and distinctions of honor. They
15:43
Speaker 1: contrived little nests and burrows that they call houses and cities.
15:47
Speaker 1: They make a figure in dress and equipage. They love,
15:50
Speaker 1: they fight, they dispute, they cheat, they betray. And thus
15:55
Speaker 1: he continued on, while my color came and went several
15:59
Speaker 1: times with indignation to hear our noble country, the mistress
16:03
Speaker 1: of arts and arms, the scourge of France, the arbitress
16:07
Speaker 1: of Europe, the seat of virtue, piety, honor, and truth,
16:10
Speaker 1: the pride and envy of the world so contemptuously treated.
16:15
Speaker 1: But as I was not in a condition to resent injuries,
16:19
Speaker 1: so upon mature thoughts I began to doubt whether I
16:21
Speaker 1: was injured or no. For after having been accustomed several
16:25
Speaker 1: months to the sight and converse of these people, and
16:29
Speaker 1: observed every object upon which I cast mine eyes to
16:32
Speaker 1: be a proportional magnitude, the horror I had at first
16:36
Speaker 1: conceived from their bulk and aspect was so far worn
16:40
Speaker 1: off that if I had then beheld a company of
16:43
Speaker 1: English laws and ladies, in their finery and birthday clothes,
16:47
Speaker 1: acting their several parts in the most courtly manner of
16:50
Speaker 1: strutting and bowing and pratting. To say the truth, I
16:54
Speaker 1: should have been strongly tempted to laugh as much at
16:57
Speaker 1: them as the King and his grandees did it me. Neither, indeed,
17:02
Speaker 1: could I forbear smiling at myself when the Queen used
17:05
Speaker 1: to place me upon her hand towards a looking glass
17:09
Speaker 1: by which both our persons appeared before me in full view.
17:12
Speaker 1: And there could be nothing more ridiculous than the comparison,
17:16
Speaker 1: so that I really began to imagine myself dwindled many
17:20
Speaker 1: degrees below my usual size. Nothing angered and mortified me
17:25
Speaker 1: so much as the Queen's dwarf, who, being of the
17:28
Speaker 1: lowest stature that was ever in that country. For I
17:31
Speaker 1: verily think he was not full thirty feet high, became
17:35
Speaker 1: so insolent at seeing a creature so much beneath him,
17:38
Speaker 1: that he would always effect to swagger and look big
17:41
Speaker 1: as he passed by me in the Queen's ante chamber
17:44
Speaker 1: while I was standing on some table talking with the
17:46
Speaker 1: lords or ladies of the court. And he seldom failed
17:50
Speaker 1: of a smart word or two upon my littleness, against
17:54
Speaker 1: which I could only revenge myself by calling him brother,
17:58
Speaker 1: challenging him to wrestle, and such repartees as are usually
18:01
Speaker 1: in the mouths of court pages. One day at dinner,
18:06
Speaker 1: this malicious little cub was so nettled with something I
18:09
Speaker 1: had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame
18:12
Speaker 1: of Her Majesty's chair, he took me up by the
18:15
Speaker 1: middle as I was sitting down, not thinking any harm,
18:19
Speaker 1: and let me drop into a large silver bowl of cream,
18:22
Speaker 1: and then ran away as fast as he could. I
18:26
Speaker 1: fell over head and ears, and if I had not
18:29
Speaker 1: been a good swimmer, it might have gone very hard
18:31
Speaker 1: with me, For glumdalklitch in that instant happened to be
18:36
Speaker 1: at the other end of the room, and the Queen
18:38
Speaker 1: was in such affright that she wanted presence of mind
18:41
Speaker 1: to assist me, but my little nurse ran to my
18:44
Speaker 1: relief and took me out. After I had swallowed above
18:47
Speaker 1: a quart of cream. I was put to bed. However,
18:52
Speaker 1: I received no other damage than the loss of a
18:54
Speaker 1: suit of clothes, which was utterly spoiled. The dwarf was
18:58
Speaker 1: soundly whipped, and as a further punishment, forced to drink
19:02
Speaker 1: up the bowl of cream into which he had thrown me.
19:05
Speaker 1: Neither was he ever restored to favor, for soon after
19:09
Speaker 1: the Queen bestowed him on a lady of high quality,
19:11
Speaker 1: so that I saw him no more, to my very
19:13
Speaker 1: great satisfaction, for I could not tell to what extremities
19:17
Speaker 1: such a malicious urchin might have carried his resentment. He
19:23
Speaker 1: had before served me a skirvy trick, which sent the
19:26
Speaker 1: Queen a laughing although at the same time she was
19:29
Speaker 1: heartily vexed and would have immediately cashiered him if I
19:33
Speaker 1: had not been so generous as to indecede her majesty.
19:37
Speaker 1: Had taken a marrow bone upon her plate, and after
19:40
Speaker 1: knocking out the marrow, placed the bone again in the
19:43
Speaker 1: dish erect as it stood before. The dwarf, watching his
19:48
Speaker 1: opportunity while glumdal Klitch was gone to the sideboard, mounted
19:53
Speaker 1: the stool that she stood on to take care of
19:54
Speaker 1: me at meals, took me up in both hands, and,
19:58
Speaker 1: squeezing my leg together, wedged the me to the marrowbone
20:00
Speaker 1: above my waist, where I stuck for some time and
20:04
Speaker 1: made a very ridiculous figure. I believe it was near
20:07
Speaker 1: a minute before anyone knew what was become of me,
20:11
Speaker 1: for I thought it below me to cry out. But
20:13
Speaker 1: as princes seldom get their meat hot, my legs were
20:16
Speaker 1: not scolded, only my stockings and breeches in a sad condition.
20:21
Speaker 1: The dwarf at my entreaty, had no other punishment than
20:24
Speaker 1: the sound whipping. I was frequently rallied by the Queen
20:28
Speaker 1: upon account of my fearfulness, and she used to ask
20:32
Speaker 1: me whether the people of my country were as great
20:34
Speaker 1: a cowards as myself. The occasion was this, The kingdom
20:39
Speaker 1: is much pestered with flies in summer, and these odious insects,
20:43
Speaker 1: each of them as big as a dunstable lark, hardly
20:46
Speaker 1: gave me any rest while I sat at dinner with
20:49
Speaker 1: their continual humming and buzzing about mine ears. They would
20:53
Speaker 1: sometimes alight upon my victuals and leave their loaths some
20:57
Speaker 1: excrement or spawn behind which to me was very visible,
21:01
Speaker 1: though not the natives of that country, whose large objects
21:05
Speaker 1: were not so acute as mine. In viewing smaller objects,
21:09
Speaker 1: sometimes they would fix upon my nose or forehead, where
21:13
Speaker 1: they stung me to the quick, smelling very offensively, and
21:17
Speaker 1: I could easily trace that vicious matter which our naturalists
21:20
Speaker 1: tell us enable those creatures to walk with their feet
21:23
Speaker 1: upwards upon a ceiling. I had much ado to defend
21:27
Speaker 1: myself against these detestable animals, and could not forbear starting
21:31
Speaker 1: when they came on my face. It was the common
21:35
Speaker 1: practice of the dwarf to catch a number of these
21:37
Speaker 1: insects in his hand, as schoolboys do among us, and
21:41
Speaker 1: let them out suddenly under my nose, on purpose to
21:44
Speaker 1: frighten me and divert the Queen. My remedy was to
21:48
Speaker 1: cut them in pieces with my knife as they flew
21:50
Speaker 1: in the air, wherein my dexterity was much admired. I
21:55
Speaker 1: remember one morning when glumdal Klitch had set me in
21:58
Speaker 1: a box upon a window, as she usually did in
22:01
Speaker 1: fair days, to give me air, for I durst not
22:05
Speaker 1: venture to let the box be hung on a nail
22:07
Speaker 1: out of the window, as we do with cages in England.
22:10
Speaker 1: After I had lifted up one of my sashes and
22:13
Speaker 1: sat down at my table to eat a piece of
22:15
Speaker 1: sweet cake for my breakfast, above twenty wasps, allured by
22:19
Speaker 1: the smell, came flying into the room, humming louder than
22:23
Speaker 1: the drones of as many bagpipes. Some of them seized
22:27
Speaker 1: my cake and carried it piecemeal away. Others flew about
22:31
Speaker 1: my head and face, confounding me with the noise, and
22:34
Speaker 1: put them in the utmost terror of their stings. However,
22:39
Speaker 1: I had the courage to rise and draw my hanger
22:41
Speaker 1: and attack them in the air. I despatched four of them,
22:45
Speaker 1: but the rest got away, and I presently shut my window.
22:48
Speaker 1: These insects were as large as partridges. I took out
22:52
Speaker 1: their stings, found them an inch and a half long
22:54
Speaker 1: and as sharp as needles. I carefully preserved them all, and,
23:00
Speaker 1: having since shown them with some other curiosities in several
23:03
Speaker 1: parts of Europe, upon my return to England, I gave
23:06
Speaker 1: three of them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth
23:08
Speaker 1: for myself. End of Chapter three, Part two