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(Continued from page 45)
In speaking of crimes, Swift seldom fails to mention sodomy (pp. 346, 413) and one suspects that it is passive sodomy which he thinks of. There is one entirely unnecessary reference to “piles” (p. 335) and there is frequent mention of the buttocks and anus in referring to the Yahoos. Gulliver refuses to sit upon a chair made in part from the hair of the head of the Queen of Brobdingnag because “I would rather die a thousand deaths than place a dishonorable part of my body on those precious hairs that once adorned her majesty's head.” (P. 241.)
There is an occasional masochistic or sadistic passage, but these are usually mixed with other elements that suggest the coprophiliac rather than the victim of algolagnia. In the Laputa section of the “Travels” we find the following concerning Gulliver's visit to the King of Luggnagg:
“A messenger was dispatched half a day's journey before us, to give the king notice of my approach; and to desire, ‘that his majesty would please to appoint a day and hour, when it would be his gracious pleasure that I might have the honor to lick the dust before his footstool.’ This is the court style, and I found it to be more than matter of form: for, upon my admittance two days after my arrival, I was commanded to crawl upon my belly, and lick the floor as I advanced; but on account of my being a stranger, care was taken to have it made so clean, that the dust was not offensive. However, this was a peculiar grace, not allowed to any but persons of the highest rank, when they desire an admittance. Nay, sometimes the floor is strewed with dust on purpose, when the person to be admitted happens to have powerful enemies at court; and I have seen a great lord with his mouth so crammed, that when he had crept to the proper distance from the throne, he was not able to speak a word. Neither is there any remedy; because it is capital for those who receive an audience, to spit or wipe their mouths in his majesty's presence. The