Constance Fenimore Woolson
Page 85
645.28 “Væ victis!”] Latin: Woe to the vanquished!
650.29 like the works of dreams . . . Kubla Kahn] Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed his famous poem “Kubla Kahn: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” (1816) came to him in its entirety in a dream but was interrupted in its composition by a visitor from Porlock.
657.37–38 memento mori] Latin: reminder of mortality.
659.7–8 Memorials of a Quiet Life] English writer Augustus J. C. Hare’s two-volume life story of his adopted mother (published in 1872 and 1876), who, he says in the introductory note, would be surprised to learn that “anything she could do or say would have an interest beyond the loving circle in which she lived.”
659.24 Mrs. Jameson and Ruskin] Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860), Anglo-Irish art historian and author of the influential Sacred and Legendary Art (1848); John Ruskin (1819–1900), the most prominent art authority of the nineteenth century and author of the multivolume Modern Painters (1843–1860).
659.28–29 Tupper and Sandford and Merton] References to Martin Farquhar Tupper’s collection of moralizing maxims Proverbial Philosophy (1838) and the popular children’s book The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–1789) by Thomas Day.
664.34–35 ‘Never talk to an author about his books.’] The maxim is Woolson’s own invention.
665.29 Sloane Street] A fashionable shopping and residential street in the Belgravia district of London. Woolson lived there in 1884.
668.10 Cavalleria] The opera Cavalleria Rusticana (1890) by Pietro Mascagni, which had its British premiere in London on October 19, 1891.
668.12 Vapour] Woolson’s invented title for a vacuous novel.
668.37 Du Maurier’s] French-born British writer George du Maurier (1834–1896) was known for his popular novels, such as Trilby (1895), as well as his illustrations for Punch, Harper’s, and other magazines.
670.3 water-cure] A prevalent treatment in the nineteenth century for various ailments, in the form of showers, sitz-baths, enemas, douches, or simply the drinking of mineral water.
670.23 “Vegetubble baths and the mind-cure,”] Vegetable baths were infused with herbs, seaweed, or leaf extracts. The mind cure was a popular belief in the power of positive thinking to heal the body.
671.4 Lemaitre?] French literary and drama critic Jules Lemaître (1853–1919).
671.5–6 that Bashkirtseff thing!] The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff by Russian-French artist Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884), published posthumously to great acclaim and criticism for its frank portrayal of the author’s extraordinary ambitions to become a famous artist. An English translation by Mathilde Blind appeared in 1890.
671.35–672.3 Life of Louisa Alcott . . . thought at all.] Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals, edited by Ednah Cheney, was published in the United States and England in 1889. In a tribute to Alcott years earlier, Woolson published her children’s novel, The Old Stone House (1873), under the pseudonym Anne March.
672.24–26 “Ever be hap-pee . . . pirate’s heart—”] From “The Pirate’s Chorus” of Irish composer Michael W. Balfe’s opera The Enchantress (1845).
674.30 lambrequins] Pieces of cloth draped over mantels or atop doors or windows.
674.32–33 ‘Harvard Annex,’] The Society for the Collegiate Instruction for Women, popularly known as the Harvard Annex, led by Elizabeth Cary Agassiz and founded in 1879. Forerunner of Radcliffe College, established in 1894.
675.6 Gray Tucker] A made-up name.
677.12 St. James’s Gazette] A London evening paper published from 1880 to 1905, known for its conservative politics and highbrow literary content.