Ein Maikäfer, einen Premier-Minister · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Ein Maikäfer, einen Premier-Minister
Subject: Corruption; Conspiracy; Satire; Fictional Works; Fictitious Characters; Imaginary Places; Imaginary Creatures
Period: 1800-1850;
Geographic: Balnibarbi; England
Description: This image is of a beetle. A beetle was the code word for the Prime Minister. This image comes in a description of a conspiracy found by a professor from the Grand Academy on Balnibarbi. This idea is representing code word for terms in the conspiracy that Swift is satirizing. The professor advises that those named in the conspiracy papers be closely monitored at all times, naming specifically while they were using the bathroom, as this is when men were most thoughtful. This conspiracy is thought to be an allusion to the trial of Francis Atterbury, the bishop of Rochester for allegedly plotting with the Jacobites. Atterbury was charged with treason in 1722 and was exiled to France. The same image appears in the 1839 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Vignettes
Identifier: mta:21709
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder Vol. II. Vignettes by Grandville (1843)
Image: mta_21709_OBJ.png