Constance Fenimore Woolson

by Constance Fenimore Woolson

  144.19 on that April morning . . . fired on Sumter] April 12, 1861.

  156.32–35 “Toujours femme varie . . . plume au vent.”] Slightly misquoted or altered from Victor Hugo’s drama Le Roi s’amuse (1832). Sung by Hugo’s King Francis, the lines translate as “Women are inconstant, / only a fool counts on them; / A woman is often / but a feather in the wind.” King Francis I is said to have inscribed the motto “Toute femme varie.” above one of the windows at Château Chambord.

  160.2 anathema-marantha] Outcast, detested. See I Corinthians 16:22.

  162.30–37 “Tell me not . . . the soul!”] First two stanzas of Henry Wads­worth Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” (1838).

  164.9 Southern Memorial Day] Also known as Confederate Memorial Day or Confederate Decoration Day, observed on different dates in several southern states since the conclusion of the Civil War.

  164.18 “Swing low, sweet chariot,”] African American spiritual, composed by unknown slaves and passed orally throughout the South; first performed onstage by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1870s.

  172.2–13 She lived . . . her eyes.] “Sister St. Luke” by John Milton Hay (1838–1905), American poet, former secretary to Lincoln, and friend of Wool­son. When Woolson reprinted her story “Sister St. Luke” in Rodman the Keeper, Hay wrote the poem for Woolson to use as the epigraph.

  172.19 Minorcan] The Minorcans of northeastern Florida trace their lineage to indentured servants brought from Minorca and other Mediterranean islands in 1767 to work on indigo plantations at New Smyrna. The Minorcan colonists revolted and won their freedom in 1777.

  173.31 Pelican Island] A made-up name. The island Woolson describes resembles Anastasia Island, off the coast of Florida, just south of St. Augustine.

  173.38–39 Fresnel] Lens with concentric rings that reflect light for great distances, invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1822.

  174.17 Queen of the Antilles] Cuba.

  174.26 Huguenot] A group of Huguenots, French Protestants fleeing religious persecution, was slaughtered by Catholic Spanish forces near St. Augustine in 1565.

  183.9–12 Deep on . . . follow soon—] The first four lines of English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Eve of St. Agnes” (1837).

  185.26–27 Santa Inez . . . Santa Rufina . . . earthen vases.] Santa Inez is the Spanish name of Saint Agnes of Rome, whose name is associated with the Latin agnus or “lamb.” Agnes is the patron saint of virgins, victims of rape, and gardeners. Rufina and her sister, Justa, are the patron saints of potters. They lived in Seville, Spain, in the third century and were martyred for refusing to sell their pots for pagan rituals.

  190.31 primary rocks] A nineteenth-century geologic term for crystalline rocks.

  201.2–15 In yonder homestead . . . desolate eyes!] “The Old Mirror” (1877) by American novelist and poet Edgar Fawcett.

  201.35 St. Cecilia] The patron saint of musicians.

  202.20 sing for me . . . ‘The Proud Ladye.’”] Long narrative poem of 1840 by American journalist and poet Spencer Wallace Cone, here adapted for singing.

  203.18 romanza] A short, lyrical song for voice or instrumental music.

  206.9 Minorcan] See note 172.19.

  207.16 coquina-walls] Coquina is a limestone made from broken shells, common in Florida and the Caribbean.

  208.25 gondelieds] A word of Woolson’s invention meaning the songs (“Lieder” in German) of the gondoliers.

  215.18 Canton crape] A type of soft, wavy, heavy silk.

  215.19 Leghorn bonnet] Fine straw hat from Livorno, Italy, called Leghorn in English.

  215.21 ruche] Pleated fabric used as decoration.

  220.18 ciel!] French: heavens!

  222.40 Rimmon] Ancient Syrian deity. See 2 Kings 5:18.

  223.28 the Paul of this Virginia] A reference to the French novel Paul et Virginie (1788) by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in which the titular characters, brought up as brother and sister, are raised in pastoral innocence on the French outpost of Île de France (now Mauritius) until their sexual feelings for each other are awakened.

  224.8 chaparral] A thicket of shrubs and small trees. Here, the sandy Florida scrublands.

  228.2–17 One by one . . . house go!] The first and eighth stanzas of “Fuit Ilium” (1868) by American poet and critic Edmund Clarence Stedman. The poem addresses the tearing down of New York’s historic grand homes to make way for new commercial buildings.

  232.20 “Spectator”] The Spectator, a weekly London magazine, first published in 1828. On June 19, 1880, The Spectator reviewed Rodman the Keeper favorably: “These are sketches of life in the Southern States, picturing mostly with a quite remarkable power the condition of things which has resulted from the war. . . . The book will find, we hope, an English publisher.”

  233.1–4 “Little Cupid . . . a bee,”] Slightly altered lyrics from a popular English song titled “Cupid Wounded,” published in The British Minstrel: A Choice Collection of Modern Songs (1848).

  233.6 Mother Venus’s advice] In “Cupid Wounded,” Cupid’s mother, Venus, tells him to remember “that the rose holds the thorn, and the myrtle, the bee.”

  240.35 lawns] A lawn is a dress made of fine linen.

  250.5 Queen of Sheba] See note 55.27.

  252.26–27 No one made courtesies . . . the Lancers.] A lancer is a formal quadrille, or square dance, in which men bow and women curtsy to their partners.

  258.2–13 The trees that lean’d . . . black love.] Excerpts from American poet Joaquin Miller’s “Isles of the Amazons,” published in Songs of the Sun-Lands (1873).

  261.7 chaparral] See note 224.8.

  261.27 South Devil] A fictional name, though Woolson’s South Devil bears geographic resemblances to Graham’s Swamp, south of St. Augustine, Florida.

  262.24 Scipio . . . Africanus] Scipio Africanus the Elder (236–183 B.C.E.) was a celebrated Roman general who defeated Hannibal in modern-day Tunisia in 202 B.C.

  263.21 San Miguel] Thinly fictionalized St. Augustine, Florida.

  264.18 Spanish-bayonets] The Spanish bayonet (Yucca aloifolia) is a large yucca plant with sharp spear-like leaves.

  269.9 “Gayly the Troubadour touched his Guitar.”] Title of a popular ballad by English poet and songwriter Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797–1839).

  270.30 manqué] French: unsuccessful, failed.

  271.10–11 the “Creation,”] Die Schöpfung (1798), an oratorio by Joseph Haydn based on Genesis.

  274.32–33 Kenton Arctic Expedition—] Woolson’s invention, but probably inspired by the lost 1845 Arctic expedition of British explorer Sir John Franklin and by the Second Grinnell Expedition of 1853–1855 to determine the fate of Franklin’s crew, led by American physician and explorer Elisha Kent Kane. Kane recounted his party’s escape from the ice-bound Adance in whaleboats in the best-selling book Arctic Exploration: The Second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin (1856).

  283.11–12 San Juan Bautista] Spanish name for Saint John the Baptist.

  283.39 fox-and-geese] A board game designed for two players in which the fox tries to capture the geese, while the geese try to hem in the fox. The version played in colonial and nineteenth-century America typically employed thirteen geese.

  284.8 “Sweet Afton.”] Musical composition of 1837 by American composer Jonathan Spillman, accompanying Robert Burns’s poem “Afton Water” (1789), which begins “Flow gently, sweet Afton.”

  286.13 King’s Road] Built by the British Crown along existing Indian trails, the King’s Road runs north–south to the west of St. Augustine.

  292.2–7 The loveliest land . . . garden spiceries.] Lines excerpted from the long poem “W. Gilmore Si
mms. A Poem” (1877) by Southern poet Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830–1886), with whom Woolson carried on a long and warm correspondence.

  292.9–16 Call on thy children . . . Carolina!] Stanzas from the second and third parts of “Carolina” (1862) by Southern poet Henry Timrod (1829–1867), reprinted in Poems (1873), edited by his friend and fellow Southern poet Paul Hamilton Hayne.

  293.22–23 “What!” said a country-woman . . . westward, sir?”] See William Wordsworth’s poem “Stepping Westward” (1807), which recalls the kind greeting made to Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, by one of two passing women, near Loch Ketterine after sunset.

  294.36 Giant Despair] In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), Giant Despair captures Christian and Hopeful, halting their progress toward the Celestial City.

  297.38–39 “War is cruelty,”] Letter of William Tecumseh Sherman to James M. Calhoun, E. E. Rawson, and S. C. Wells, September 12, 1864: “You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to Secure Peace.”

  298.15 Fredericksburg] The battle of Fredericksburg (December 11–15, 1862), fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War, in which Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac failed to rout entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city under the command of Robert E. Lee.

  298.17 ‘And pray ye . . . winter’] Matthew 24:20.

  299.2–3 ‘no man knoweth . . . this day.’] Deuteronomy 34:6.

  299.12–13 thy tangled Wilderness] The Wilderness, a dense second-growth forest of scrub oak, pine, and underbrush in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, was the scene of two major Civil War battles: the battle of Chancellorsville, May 1–4, 1863, in which Lee succeeded in driving the Union army back across the Rappahannock River, and the battle of the Wilderness, in which Lee attacked the Union army as it moved south through the woods, May 5–6, 1864, but failed to prevent Grant from continuing his southward advance toward Spotsylvania Court House.

  299.20–21 ‘Le roi est mort, vive le roi!’] French: The king is dead, long live the king!

  300.31 Appomattox] Outnumbered and surrounded, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, effectively bringing the Civil War to an end.

  303.17 ‘Is there any sorrow . . . my sorrow?’] Lamentations 1:12.

  303.19–20 the march to the sea?] The scorched-earth campaign of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), beginning with the departure of Union troops from Atlanta on November 16, 1864, and ending with the occupation of Savannah on December 21, 1864. Sherman’s army of 60,000 men marched on a front fifty to sixty miles across, engaging in widespread destruction of both public and private property.

  303.21–22 its route . . . flame by night—] Cf. Exodus 13:21.

  303.22–23 the march through South Carolina] Sherman left Savannah on February 1, 1865, and began marching into South Carolina, where his army inflicted greater destruction on private homes and property than in Georgia. The Union advance reached Fayetteville, North Carolina, on March 11 and Raleigh on April 13.

  307.24–25 a new king . . . not Joseph—] See Exodus 1:8 and Acts 7:18.

  308.2–21 Glooms of the live-oaks . . . a shade.] From “The Marshes of Glynn” (1878) by Southern poet Sidney Lanier (1842–1881).

  310.24 Minorcans] See note 172.19.

  312.38 chaparral] See note 224.8.

  315.33 cui bono?] Latin: who benefits from it?

  320.7–8 cynicism, as Mr. Aldrich says . . . the artilleryman.] Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907), American writer and editor, in the short story “Marjorie Daw” (1873).

  324.39–40 Somebody says somewhere . . . a virtue.”] English writer P. G. Patmore (1786–1855), faulting William Hazlitt for his despondency, in My Friends and Acquaintance: Being Memorials, Mind-Portraits, and Personal Recollections of Deceased Celebrities of the Nineteenth Century (1845): “Hope is more than a blessing—it is a duty and a virtue.”

  326.20–25 “Have you felt . . . is she!”] Concluding lines of the fourth part of “A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces” (1640–1641) by Ben Jonson (1572–1637).

  329.2–7 I met a traveler . . . an unseen book.] From American poet and journalist Richard Watson Gilder’s long poem “The New Day: A Poem in Song and Sonnets” (1876). In later versions of the poem, Gilder substantially altered these lines.

  329.17 “the Children of Ham”] In Genesis 9:25, Noah curses his son Ham’s children. In the Bible Noah and his family are not characterized in racial terms, but Ham came to be portrayed as black and by the nineteenth century the phrase “Children of Ham” was often used to refer to African Americans, implying that the race was cursed.

  329.30–31 mountains of Kong] A mountain range featured on maps of Africa from 1798 until the late 1880s, but which never existed.

  330.24 Freedman’s Bureau] The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as The Freedman’s Bureau, established at the close of the Civil War to assist the freed slaves by providing clothing, shelter, and education.

  336.13 old Adam] The fallen man, who, like Adam in the Bible, is susceptible to temptation and sin, as opposed to the new Adam, or Christ.

  337.23 C.B.] Carpetbagger.

  THE FRONT YARD AND OTHER ITALIAN STORIES

  352.16 ring the Angelus] In the Roman Catholic Church, a call to prayer three times a day at 6:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M., and 6:00 P.M., composed of bells ringing three sets of three rings, with a pause between each set.

  352.31 Ledham (New Hampshire)] Invented town.

  352.35 great triple church of St. Francis] The Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi is composed of two churches and a crypt where St. Francis (1181–1226) was laid to rest. Canonized in 1228 by Pope Gregory IX, St. Francis is the patron saint of Italy.

  358.1 Indian pudding] Traditional New England custard made with cornmeal and molasses.

  360.27 the Honorable Mrs. Norton] Caroline Norton (1808–1877), an English writer who left her husband, the Honourable George Norton, after which her husband sued Lord Melbourne for seducing her. Caroline Norton’s advocacy against the laws that discriminated against married women influenced the passage of the Custody Bill in 1839 and the Marriage and Divorce Act in 1857.

  364.16 festa] In Italy, a religious holiday or feast day.

  368.30 scaldino] A brazier made of earthenware for holding or burning coal.

  377.32 close-reefed] A nautical term: having reduced the area of the sails, particularly in strong winds.

  381.23 she read Symonds] John Addington Symonds (1840–1893), English poet and literary critic, wrote on the cultural history of the Italian Renaissance in Renaissance in Italy (1875–86), Sketches and Studies in Italy (1879), and other works.

  381.31 è troppo grave,”] Italian: it’s too serious.

  382.22 Giotto] Giotto di Bondone (1266–1337), Italian artist and architect of the Late Middle Ages, known for his chapel frescoes in Assisi and elsewhere, as well as the bell tower of the Duomo in Florence, considered a masterpiece of fourteenth-century Gothic architecture.

  386.6 Queen Margherita] Margherita of Savoy (1851–1926), Queen Consort of Italy, married to King Umberto I.

  388.16 Scotch shooting-box] A hunting lodge or, colloquially, a simple, unadorned house.

  392.5–6 not afraid of fever] “Fever” here means yellow fever or malaria, widespread in many parts of Italy in the late nineteenth century, both diseases transmitted by mosquito bites.

 
392.13 Punta Palmas] A Florida town of Woolson’s invention.

  397.23 Clerkenwell] Area in central London, one of the city’s oldest parishes.

  398.27 Chevalier Bayard] Pierre Terrail (1473–1524), seigneur de Bayard, a French knight, known as “the knight without fear and beyond reproach.”

  398.31 “Pioneers! oh, pioneers!”] “Pioneers! O Pioneers!,” the refrain in a poem of the same title by Walt Whitman, first published in Drum-Taps (1865); the poem celebrates the American frontier spirit.

  398.38 prunella shoes] Prunella is a heavy woolen or cotton fabric used for shoe uppers.

  401.15 Ehrenbreitsein] A fortress on the Rhine River in Germany, overlooking the town of Koblenz.

  403.1–2 “O la douce folie— / Aimable Capri!”] French: “Oh the sweet madness— / Amiable Capri!”

  403.25 Trancadillo] A boat song of 1844, also called “O Come, Maidens, Come,” with words by American poet Caroline Gilman and music by American composer Francis H. Brown.

  404.1 rang the Angelus] See note 352.16.

  431.23 omnium gatherum] A mock-Latin phrase: a collection of random things or people.

  432.30 res angusta] Res angusta domi, a commonly used phrase meaning poverty, derived from the Latin for “narrowed circumstances at home.”

  433.7 Doria gallery] The Palazzo Doria in the heart of Rome, home of the Doria-Pamphilj family and site of one of the most renowned art collections in Italy.

  433.14 the Borghese] The Villa Borghese, built by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the seventeenth century as a country home just outside of the walls of Rome. In the nineteenth century, the gardens, home, and extensive art collection were still in private hands, bequeathed to the Italian state in 1903.

  433.26 the Caraccis] Agostino Carracci (1557–1602) and his brother Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), artists from Bologna.

  434.4–5 the Raphael double portrait?”] Double Portrait (c. 1516) by Italian painter Raffaello Sanzio.

  434.7–8 the portrait of Andrea Doria, by Sebastiano del Piombo?”] Portrait of Andrea Doria (c. 1526) by Italian artist Sebastiano del Piombo.