If I may argue from the silence of the latest edition of _Gulliver's
Travels, with Notes_, with which I am acquainted, viz. that by W. C.
Taylor, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin, the Preface to which is dated May
1st, 1840, I may say that all the commentators on Swift--all, at least,
down to that late date--have omitted to refer to a work containing
incidents closely resembling some of those recorded in the "Voyage to
Lilliput."
The work to which I allude is a little dramatical composition, the
Bambocciata, or puppet-show, by Martelli, entitled _The Sneezing of
Hercules_. Goldoni, in his _Memoirs_, has given us the following account of
the manner in which he brought it out on the stage:
"Count Lantieri was very well satisfied with my father, for he was
greatly recovered, and almost completely cured: his kindness was also
extended to me, and to procure amusement for me he caused a
puppet-show, which was almost abandoned, and which was very rich in
figures and decorations, to be refitted.
"I profited by this, and amused the company by giving them a piece of a
great man, expressly composed for wooden comedians. This was the
_Sneezing of Hercules_, by Peter James Martelli, a Bolognese.
. . . . . . . . . .
"The imagination of the author sent Hercules into the country of the
pigmies. Those poor little creatures, frightened at the aspect of an
animated mountain with legs and arms, ran and concealed themselves in
holes. One day as Hercules had stretched himself out in the open field,
and was sleeping tranquilly, the timid inhabitants issued out of their
retreats, and, armed with prickles and rushes, mounted on the monstrous
man, and covered him from head to foot, like flies when they fall on a
piece of rotten meat. Hercules waked, and felt something in his nose,
which made him sneeze; on which, his enemies tumbled down in all
directions. This ends the piece.
"There is a plan, a progression, an intrigue, a catastrophe, and
winding up; the style is good and well-supported; the thoughts and
sentiments are all proportionate to the size of the personages. The
verses even are short, and everything indicates pigmies.
"A gigantic puppet was requisite for Hercules; everything was well
executed. The entertainment was productive of much pleasure; and I
could lay a bet, that I am the only person who ever thought of
executing the Bambocciata of Martelli."--_Memoirs of Goldoni_,
translated by John Black, 2 vols., duod. vol. i. chap. 6.
It is certainly not necessary to point out here in what respects the
adventures of Hercules, the _animated mountain_, and those of Quinbus
Flestrin, the _man mountain_, differ from, or coincide with, each other, as
the only question I wish to raise is, whether a careful analysis of
Martelli's puppet-show ought, or ought not, to have been placed among the
notes on _Gulliver's Travels_.