Gulliver's Travels | Flimnap

Flimnap is Lord High Treasurer of Lilliput and the best rope dancer in the emperor's cabinet. Swift meant him to represent politician Robert Walpole, leader of the Whigs (represented by the fictional Low Heels). Walpole is recognized as England's first prime minister, and Swift considered him a corrupt symbol of an oppressive party. Political office in Lilliput is gained through rope-dancing competition, and Flimnap, the ultimate politician, can turn somersaults in the air. He would have hurt himself in his acrobatics had he not been caught by a cushion, which is Swift's allusion to how...

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