"DANCING ON THE ROPE" BY JONATHAN SWIFT:This Diversion is only practised by those Persons who are Candidates for great Employments, and high Favour, at Court. They are trained in this Art from their Youth, and are not always of noble Birth, or liberal Education. When a great Office is vacant either by Death or Disgrace (which often happens), five or six of those Candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the Office. Very often the chief Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the Summerset several times together upon a Trencher fixed on the Rope, which is no thicker than a common Packthread in England. My friend Reldresal, principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer; the rest of the great Officers are much upon a Par. (Davis 39)
In an article in College English in 1987, William Dowling a respected scholar of eighteenth-century literature, pointed out that when he studied Swift in university, this -- in part -- is what was offered by the notes on that passage in the text he used (it was also the one I used when I studied Swift as an undergraduate):
Flimnap represents the famous Whig statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, head of the government from 1715 to 1717 and from 1721 to 1742. His political dexterity is here satirized. Swift disliked him both as a man and a politician. . . . Reldresal [is] possibly Lord Carteret, Secretary of State in 1721 and later Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; . . . Also suggested as Reldresal: Lord Townshend, Secretary of State and a chief ally of Walpole. (Landa 504)
MY ANALYSIS OF "DANCING ON THE ROPE" BY JONATHAN SWIFT(FROM "GULLIVER'S TRAVELS"):“Dancing on the rope” was a show: who wanted public charges had to please the king. So, they didn’t show their abilities, but they were funambols(tightrope walker), and they had to balance themselves among different political positions. They had to entertain the king and they wanted to become ministers or head of the army. In this text, there is a typographic convention: nouns were written in the capital letter. The winner is the most skilful at dancing higher. They are also bourgeois people, not necessary attending university. Often a great office was vacant because the king changes his idea to his collaborators, or they had problems, or the king wanted to test their loyalty. He is denouncing the political world, because politics were chosen according to their disposition to please the king. He wrote about a treasurer, Flimnap, who represents the famous Whig statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, head of the government from 1715 to 1717 and from 1721 to 1742. His political dexterity is here satirized. Swift disliked him both as a man and a politician. His political ability was the salvation of his position: he often asked for money, and even if he was a good Prime Minister, he was personally and morally corrupted. Tories discovered his corruption.
Fonte: Pavi92
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