Question about Shelley's Swellfoot the Tyrant
I don't quite understand the following passage from Shelley's "Swellfoot the Tyrant". Could anyone help me interpret or paraphrase it:

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

Here are my questions:
1. I am not sure what "radical" actually means when it modifies butchers. As for paper-money-millers, I understand it as "some people that issue bank notes".
2. stifling turtle-soup: Why is turtle-soup stifling? What is the connotation?
3. the meaning of brandy-devils... Does it mean someone who drinks lots of brandy?

The complete text of this work can be found here.
http://books.google.de/books?id=_BvZWIoVrPoC&pg=PT627&lpg=PT627&dq=Radical-butchers&source=bl&ots=Cd5zLtCAl9&sig=S0fgSuAnE0ML7-zLE_gFDMys_oI&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ei=OYmVUuTpFMekkQX-jYHgDw&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Radical-butchers&f=false

Thanks a lot!

Question

Question about Shelley's Swellfoot the Tyrant
I don't quite understand the following passage from Shelley's "Swellfoot the Tyrant". Could anyone help me interpret or paraphrase it:

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

Here are my questions: 
1. I am not sure what "radical" actually means when it modifies butchers. As for paper-money-millers, I understand it as "some people that issue bank notes". 
2. stifling turtle-soup: Why is turtle-soup stifling? What is the connotation? 
3. the meaning of brandy-devils... Does it mean someone who drinks lots of brandy?

The complete text of this work can be found here. 
http://books.google.de/books?id=_BvZWIoVrPoC&pg=PT627&lpg=PT627&dq=Radical-butchers&source=bl&ots=Cd5zLtCAl9&sig=S0fgSuAnE0ML7-zLE_gFDMys_oI&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ei=OYmVUuTpFMekkQX-jYHgDw&ved=0CF4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Radical-butchers&f=false

Thanks a lot!

Answer

Ok, well this is taken from a poem, so we need context to understand. But here's what I think it means, after reading the poem.

Radical-butcher's antecedent is the Kings and Emperors. And radical would be used in the old sense as meaning, intrinsic or base. So, Swinefoot is saying, these kings and emperors are all, at their base level, butchers.

Paper-money miller's probably modifies the Bishops and Deacons, which would mean that they are only interested in making money.

"Stifling" would mean to repress (since we are dealing with personified animals, it could be that humans suppressed the turtle and pig). And turtle soup is an extravagant food, much as brandy is. So, Swellfoot calls these people who suppressed the turtle and ate expensive, extravagant things, devils.

But, this is poetry, so it could mean a few different things.

Answer

Radical is a strange word to use here, it means excessive or crazed.  I think it was picked for the way it sounds more than for whether or not it makes sense.

If something is stifling, it prevents you from doing something.  It's a very specialised word, and would be best explained with "stifling heat", when it's so hot that you feel like you can't do anything.  I'm not 100% sure why it's being used with "turtle soup" here, though.

"Brandy-devils" means pretty much what you said.  It could also mean people that produce and sell Brandy, if they're evil.

Answers · 4

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