ENTER SWELLFOOT, IN HIS ROYAL ROBES, WITHOUT PERCEIVING THE PIGS. by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A proud king named Swellfoot admires his own hefty figure and prays to a goddess of excess.
The poem
SWELLFOOT: Thou supreme Goddess! by whose power divine These graceful limbs are clothed in proud array [HE CONTEMPLATES HIMSELF WITH SATISFACTION.] Of gold and purple, and this kingly paunch Swells like a sail before a favouring breeze, And these most sacred nether promontories _5 Lie satisfied with layers of fat; and these Boeotian cheeks, like Egypt’s pyramid, (Nor with less toil were their foundations laid), Sustain the cone of my untroubled brain, That point, the emblem of a pointless nothing! _10 Thou to whom Kings and laurelled Emperors, Radical-butchers, Paper-money-millers, Bishops and Deacons, and the entire army Of those fat martyrs to the persecution Of stifling turtle-soup, and brandy-devils, _15 Offer their secret vows! Thou plenteous Ceres Of their Eleusis, hail! NOTE: (_8 See Universal History for an account of the number of people who died, and the immense consumption of garlic by the wretched Egyptians, who made a sepulchre for the name as well as the bodies of their tyrants.—[SHELLEY’S NOTE.]) SWINE: Eigh! eigh! eigh! eigh! SWELLFOOT: Ha! what are ye, Who, crowned with leaves devoted to the Furies, Cling round this sacred shrine? SWINE: Aigh! aigh! aigh! SWELLFOOT: What! ye that are The very beasts that, offered at her altar _20 With blood and groans, salt-cake, and fat, and inwards, Ever propitiate her reluctant will When taxes are withheld? SWINE: Ugh! ugh! ugh! SWELLFOOT: What! ye who grub With filthy snouts my red potatoes up In Allan’s rushy bog? Who eat the oats _25 Up, from my cavalry in the Hebrides? Who swill the hog-wash soup my cooks digest From bones, and rags, and scraps of shoe-leather, Which should be given to cleaner Pigs than you? SWINE—SEMICHORUS 1: The same, alas! the same; _30 Though only now the name Of Pig remains to me. SEMICHORUS 2: If ’twere your kingly will Us wretched Swine to kill, What should we yield to thee? _35 SWELLFOOT: Why, skin and bones, and some few hairs for mortar. CHORUS OF SWINE: I have heard your Laureate sing, That pity was a royal thing; Under your mighty ancestors, we Pigs Were bless’d as nightingales on myrtle sprigs, _40 Or grasshoppers that live on noonday dew, And sung, old annals tell, as sweetly too; But now our sties are fallen in, we catch The murrain and the mange, the scab and itch; Sometimes your royal dogs tear down our thatch, _45 And then we seek the shelter of a ditch; Hog-wash or grains, or ruta-baga, none Has yet been ours since your reign begun. FIRST SOW: My Pigs, ’tis in vain to tug. SECOND SOW: I could almost eat my litter. _50 FIRST PIG: I suck, but no milk will come from the dug. SECOND PIG: Our skin and our bones would be bitter. THE BOARS: We fight for this rag of greasy rug, Though a trough of wash would be fitter. SEMICHORUS: Happier Swine were they than we, _55 Drowned in the Gadarean sea— I wish that pity would drive out the devils, Which in your royal bosom hold their revels, And sink us in the waves of thy compassion! Alas! the Pigs are an unhappy nation! _60 Now if your Majesty would have our bristles To bind your mortar with, or fill our colons With rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles, In policy—ask else your royal Solons— You ought to give us hog-wash and clean straw, _65 And sties well thatched; besides it is the law! NOTE: _59 thy edition 1820; your edition 1839. SWELLFOOT: This is sedition, and rank blasphemy! Ho! there, my guards! [ENTER A GUARD.] GUARD: Your sacred Majesty. SWELLFOOT: Call in the Jews, Solomon the court porkman, Moses the sow-gelder, and Zephaniah _70 The hog-butcher. GUARD: They are in waiting, Sire. [ENTER SOLOMON, MOSES, AND ZEPHANIAH.] SWELLFOOT: Out with your knife, old Moses, and spay those Sows [THE PIGS RUN ABOUT IN CONSTERNATION.] That load the earth with Pigs; cut close and deep. Moral restraint I see has no effect, Nor prostitution, nor our own example, _75 Starvation, typhus-fever, war, nor prison— This was the art which the arch-priest of Famine Hinted at in his charge to the Theban clergy— Cut close and deep, good Moses. MOSES: Let your Majesty Keep the Boars quiet, else— SWELLFOOT: Zephaniah, cut _80 That fat Hog’s throat, the brute seems overfed; Seditious hunks! to whine for want of grains. ZEPHANIAH: Your sacred Majesty, he has the dropsy;— We shall find pints of hydatids in ‘s liver, He has not half an inch of wholesome fat _85 Upon his carious ribs— SWELLFOOT: ’Tis all the same, He’ll serve instead of riot money, when Our murmuring troops bivouac in Thebes’ streets And January winds, after a day Of butchering, will make them relish carrion. _90 Now, Solomon, I’ll sell you in a lump The whole kit of them. SOLOMON: Why, your Majesty, I could not give— SWELLFOOT: Kill them out of the way, That shall be price enough, and let me hear Their everlasting grunts and whines no more! _95 [EXEUNT, DRIVING IN THE SWINE.
A proud king named Swellfoot admires his own hefty figure and prays to a goddess of excess. He then spots a group of starving pigs, symbolizing the average people of his kingdom. The pigs plead for basic food and shelter, reminding the king of his responsibility to care for them. Instead, Swellfoot orders their slaughter. This poem serves as a biting political cartoon, satirizing the greed of rulers and the pain they inflict.
Line-by-line
Thou supreme Goddess! by whose power divine / These graceful limbs are clothed in proud array
Ha! what are ye, / Who, crowned with leaves devoted to the Furies,
What! ye that are / The very beasts that, offered at her altar
The same, alas! the same; / Though only now the name / Of Pig remains to me.
My Pigs, 'tis in vain to tug. / I could almost eat my litter.
Happier Swine were they than we, / Drowned in the Gadarean sea—
This is sedition, and rank blasphemy! / Ho! there, my guards!
'Tis all the same, / He'll serve instead of riot money, when
Tone & mood
The tone is a biting comic satire—imagine a political cartoon that grows darker the more you examine it. Swellfoot's opening speech is a wide-ranging farce, nearly a pantomime, but the pigs' chorus brings in real sorrow, and by the conclusion, the laughter turns into something resembling horror. Shelley manages to maintain both tones simultaneously, ensuring that neither one overshadows the other.
Symbols & metaphors
- Swellfoot's body — His bulging belly, thick limbs, and pyramid-shaped cheeks reflect a life of aristocratic indulgence. Every part of him is a testament to the labor and suffering of others, much like the pyramids — a connection that Shelley highlights in his footnote.
- The Pigs — The pigs represent the British working class and the Irish poor during Shelley's era, who were oppressed by taxation, enclosure, famine, and political repression. Referring to them as pigs flips the ruling class's own insult back at them.
- Hog-wash and clean straw — These humble demands—basic food and shelter—are the bare minimum any government should provide for its people. The reality that even these necessities are denied shows that the king's cruelty cannot be justified in any way.
- The Gadarean sea — The biblical story of the swine driven into the sea by demons flips the typical moral on its head. In this case, the pigs seem to envy the drowned animals, implying that death might be more merciful than living under Swellfoot's rule.
- Ceres / the Goddess — Ceres is the goddess of grain and harvest, yet in this realm, she rules over a kingdom plagued by starvation. The king reveres her as a symbol of his own indulgence, even as his people suffer from hunger — a stark contradiction to what the goddess stands for.
- The slaughter order — Swellfoot's orders to spay, cut, and kill the pigs reflect the genuine population-control discussions of the early 19th century, including Malthusian views that suggested reducing the poor's numbers. Shelley explicitly names these policies — war, prison, starvation — to ensure the allegory is clear.
Historical context
Shelley wrote *Swellfoot the Tyrant* in 1820, the same year that King George IV tried to divorce Queen Caroline, which turned into a national scandal. The play directly addresses this situation: Swellfoot represents George IV, whose infamous obesity and lavish lifestyle made him an easy target for ridicule, while the pigs symbolize the British and Irish poor who were struggling under post-Napoleonic austerity, the Corn Laws, and the harsh suppression of reform movements, such as the one that faced a massacre at Peterloo in 1819. Shelley penned the play while in exile in Italy, and it was published anonymously in London, but it faced immediate suppression after a complaint from the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Only seven copies were sold before the publisher decided to withdraw it. The excerpt here features the opening scene, which sets up the central allegory before the plot unfolds around Queen Caroline's trial.
FAQ
Swellfoot represents King George IV of Britain. George was well-known for his significant obesity, extravagant spending, and conservative political views. The name "Swellfoot" pokes fun at his physique, while the setting of "Thebes" serves as a subtle stand-in for Britain.
The pigs symbolize the everyday working people of Britain and Ireland — the impoverished, the taxed, the starving. Shelley flips the aristocracy's disdainful slang for the lower classes into the play's main metaphor, compelling the audience to confront the harshness of that analogy.
Shelley based it on Aristophanes, the ancient Greek comic playwright known for using animals and exaggerated characters to poke fun at politicians. This dramatic style allows Shelley to depict the king's self-delusion in action instead of merely describing it, and the stage directions (like "HE CONTEMPLATES HIMSELF WITH SATISFACTION") enhance the mockery.
It originates from a New Testament story in which Jesus expels demons from a man and sends them into a herd of pigs, which subsequently rush into the sea and drown. In Shelley's play, the pigs express envy for those drowned swine — suggesting that death would be preferable to their current existence. This dark humor also portrays Swellfoot as the demon controlling the kingdom.
These are actual methods employed by the British government, whether intentionally or not, to lower the number of poor people. Shelley refers to Malthusian population theory, a concept that was popular among the ruling class back then, which argued that poverty could be alleviated by allowing the poor to die instead of redistributing wealth. Shelley found this appalling and expresses that clearly.
A complaint was lodged with the publisher by the Society for the Suppression of Vice, an actual organization that monitored obscene and seditious publications. The publisher withdrew the book almost right away. Shelley was a controversial figure — an atheist, a radical, living in exile — and directly satirizing the king posed legal risks.
It’s a valid question. Shelley uses Jewish names for the king's butchers and enforcers, playing into a stereotype that was both common and damaging during his time. Most modern scholars interpret this as Shelley criticizing the king's readiness to employ any means of oppression rather than specifically targeting Jewish individuals. However, those names still reflect the prejudices of his era and are important to recognize.
This refers to Thomas Robert Malthus, the economist and clergyman known for his *Essay on the Principle of Population*, where he claimed that the poor would always reproduce up to the limits of what they could sustain. Shelley held a strong disdain for Malthus and used this nickname for him in various works. The "Theban clergy" represents the Church of England, which Shelley viewed as complicit in maintaining the status quo for the poor.