The next scene contains a translation of Cyrano's notion of the dignity of walking on all fours. Acts II and III furnish other parallels; but in Act IV, the trial scene is very closely imitated from Cyrano's trial in the History of the Birds in The Sun. The speech of the prosecution is almost a word for word translation; the sentence is the same and the prisoners are rescued by a parrot named "Cæzar"! (See The Sun.)
It has long been recognised that Gulliver's Travels owes quite as much to Cyrano de Bergerac as to any other book. The resemblance is rather one of general ideas, taken up and exploited by Swift, than of parallel passages. One passage in the Voyage to Lilliput, chapter VI, is taken directly from Cyrano:
"Their notions relating to the duties of parents and children differ extremely from ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is founded upon the great law of Nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the Lilliputians will needs have it that men and women are joined together, like other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness towards their young proceeds from the like natural principle: for which reason they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father for begetting him, or to his mother for bringing him into the world, which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts in their love encounters were otherwise employed. Upon these and the like reasoning, their opinion is, that parents are the last of all others to be trusted with the education of their own children: and therefore they have in every town public nurseries, where all parents, except cottagers and labourers, are obliged to send their infants of both sexes to be reared and educated, when they come to the age of twenty moons, at which time they are supposed to have some rudiments of docility." (See The Moon.)
Chapter II of the Voyage to Brobdingnag has a strong likeness to those parts of Cyrano's Moon describing how he was showed by a mountebank. The flashing swords in chapter VII, the king's desire to "propagate the breed" in chapter VIII, even the adventure with the monkey, may have been suggested by Cyrano. As to the "Houyhnhnms", the device of satirising and shaming man by showing him to be inferior in virtues to the very beasts is a favourite one of Cyrano. The scenes with the birds and trees in the Sun and some of the philosophical conversations in the Moon may be referred to for confirmation of this. There can be little doubt that Swift read Cyrano de Bergerac closely and frequently built upon what the French writer had done or took up and developed better the hint of some idea. The unity of Swift's purpose, the even tone of his prose, the strong air of common sense, the Defoe-like illusion of reality, are all in sharp contrast with Cyrano's wandering fancies, varying styles, extravagance and lack of common sense.
APPENDIX II
LIST OF EDITIONS
(A complete bibliography of Cyrano de Bergerac's works will be found in M. Lachèvre's edition. This list will give only editions of the Complete Works and of the Estats et Empires de la Lune et du Soleil, but will add all the discoverable English translations of Cyrano's work.)
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES
Les œuvres de Monsieur de Cyrano Bergerac. Première (et seconde) partie. A Paris, chez Charles de Sercy, au Palais, au Sixiesme Pilier de la Grand' Salle, vis-à-vis la Montée de la Cour des Aydes, à la Bonne-Foy couronnée. M.DC.LXXVI. in-12.
Ditto. Rouen, 1677. 2 Vol. in-12.