und Curll, the London printer and bookseller. But
surprisingly, the observations do not exhibit Swift in a harsh
factional light. As a matter of fact, in his introduction to the
_Keys_, which are entitled _Lemuel Gulliver's Travels into Several
Remote Nations of the World. Compendiously Methodized, For Publick
Benefit: With Observations and Explanatory Notes Throughout_ (1726),
Curll flatters Swift as possessing "the true Vein of Humour and polite
Conversation" (I, 4). Regarding the _Travels_, he observes, "The Town
are infinitely more eager after them than they were after _Robinson
Crusoe_" (I, 5).

In general, the _Keys_ are pleasantly written, including no nasty
innuendoes critical of Swift's high-church sectarian zeal or his
high-flying Tory political sympathies. They may be considered a
frankly commercial venture meant to exploit the popularity of the
_Travels_. Curll merely summarizes the narratives, occasionally
providing substantial extracts or sprinkling explanatory comments on
some allusions that attract him. Some of the annotations are
ridiculous, or curious, like the equations of Blefuscu with Scotland,
of the storm Gulliver passes through before reaching Brobdingnag with
"the _South-Sea_ and _Mississippi_ Confusion," and of the giants with
inflated South Sea stock (II, 4). Some remarks, however, appear
convincing, such as his belief that "the _trifling Transactions_ of
the present _English Royal Society_" on insects and fossils are
"finely rallied" (II, 11-12). Curll also notes about the third voyage
that "besides the political Allegory, Mr. _Gulliver_ has many shrewd
Remarks upon Men and Books, Sects, Parties, and Opinions" (III,
10-11). Concerning the fourth, he equates the good Portuguese Captain
Don Pedro with the Dean's "good Friend the Earl of _P[eterboroug]h_"
(IV, 26). The Roman Catholic Peterborough, we recall, fought in Spain
and was also Pope's good friend.

Other more suggestive comments on Swift's political meaning may be
cited. For example, the "_ancient Temple_" in which Gulliver is housed
in Lilliput, a structure "_polluted ... by an unnatural Murder_," he
identifies as "the _Banquetting-House_ at _White-Hall_, before which
Structure, King CHARLES I was Beheaded" (I, 7-8). This allusion to
"the _Royal-Martyr_" (III, 32) may be considered a modest clue to
Swift's Toryism, and it is associated with the Jacobitism of which his
Whiggish enemies accused him. Yet an unusual reading of the
Strul