On Murder (Oxford World's Classics)

by Thomas De Quincey

  A good many years ago … dilettante in murder: De Quincey reminds Blackwood’s readers of his first paper ‘On Murder’, published twelve years earlier in 1827 (see above, pp. 8–34).

  civilation: as De Quincey explains in his 1852 essay on Sir William Hamilton, ‘civilation’ is ‘civilization’ as pronounced by ‘a gentleman taking his ease of an evening … after 10 P.M.’ (The Works of Thomas De Quincey: Volume Seventeen, ed. Edmund Baxter (London, 2001), 158).

  Stagyrite … two extremes: Aristotle was known as ‘The Stagyrite’ (see above, p. 170). He detailed his doctrine of the ethical mean in Nicomachean Ethics, II. vi. 15–17.

  born to be hanged: Shakespeare, The Tempest, I. i. 32–3: ‘If he be not born to be hang’d, our case is miserable’. Cf. Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, book III, chapter ii: ‘It was the universal opinion of all Mr Allworthy’s family that [Tom Jones] was certainly born to be hanged’.

  shambles … attelier: respectively, a slaughter-house and a studio.

  coup d’oeil: the scene that the beholder of a picture takes in.

  Cyclops: in Greek mythology, Cyclopes were man-eating, one-eyed giants (see above, p. 171).

  quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent?: De Quincey adapts Horace, Ars Poetica, 39–40: ‘Ponder long what your shoulders refuse, and what they are able to bear.’

  liberavi animam meam: St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Cistercian monk and mystic, The Letters, trans. Bruno Scott James (Guildford, Surrey, 1998), 474: ‘I have delivered my soul’.

  in toto: entirely.

  Principiis obsta: Ovid, Remedia Amoris, 91: ‘Stand firm against the onset (of a disease)’.

  laudator temporis acti: Horace, Ars Poetica, 173: ‘a praiser of time past’. De Quincey quotes this same line in his first essay ‘On Murder’ (see above, p. 30).

  God’s Revenge upon Murder, by Reynolds: John Reynolds (fl. 1620–40), The Triumph of God’s Revenge (1621–35), a series of ostensibly fictional tales of revenge and murder in which a wrathful God tracks down and punishes sinners. Cf. William Godwin in his 1832 account of the composition of his terror novel Caleb Williams (1794): ‘I turned over the pages of a tremendous compilation, entitled “God’s Revenge Against Murder”, where the beam of the eye of Omniscience was represented as perpetually pursuing the guilty, and laying open his most hidden retreats to the light of day’ (Godwin, Caleb Williams, ed. David McCracken (Oxford, 1970), 340).

  Scott in his Fortunes of Nigel: Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), novelist and poet; chapter 24 in The Fortunes of Nigel, ed. Frank Jordan (Edinburgh, 2004), 267: ‘The book was entitled, “God’s Revenge against Murther”; not … the work which Reynolds published … but one of a much earlier date’. The work which Scott has in mind, however, has not been traced. Jordan writes that it is ‘probably imaginary’ (p. 619).

  Newgate Calendar: The Newgate Calendar was the generic title of various eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections recounting the careers of infamous criminals.

  listless … filth that muddled by: De Quincey adapts Thomas Gray, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, ll. 103–4: ‘His listless length at noontide would he stretch, | And pore upon the brook that babbles by’.

  One morning in 1812: as in his essay ‘On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth’, De Quincey is out by a year. The date should be ‘1811’ (see above, p. 166).

  brushing … the postman by the conduit side: De Quincey adapts Thomas Gray, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’, ll. 99–100: ‘Brushing with hasty steps the dews away | To meet the sun upon the upland lawn’.

  chef-d’oeuvre: masterpiece.

  Williams … Marr’s … Williamson’s: De Quincey details these murders in his ‘Postscript’ to ‘On Murder’ (see above, pp. 97–136).

  ‘reclaimed’: ‘To cry out, or protest, against (a thing or person)’ (OED).

  gout de comparaison, as La Bruyère calls it: the French phrase is ‘taste for making comparisons’. De Quincey’s reference is to Jean de La Bruyère (1645–96), French satirist, Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec avec les caractères ou les mœurs de ce siècle (1688; The Characters, or Manners of the Age, with the Characters of Theophrastus).

  Iliad … Odyssey: the two Greek epic poems traditionally attributed to Homer.

  ne plus ultra: the highest point capable of being attained.

  Leo the Tenth: Giovanni de’ Medici (1475–1521), elected Pope Leo X in 1513, made Rome the cultural centre of the Western world.

  en attendant: literally, ‘as we wait’.

  Thugs and Thuggism: the Thugs were a confederacy of robbers and murderers who travelled in gangs throughout India for several hundred years.

  persimmon: a persimmon is a plum-like fruit. In the nineteenth century the word had a wide range of humorous slang senses, apparently emanating from America. Here it seems to mean ‘my greatest efforts’.

  ‘non est inventus’: the phrase is taken from Psalm 37: 36: ‘I sought him, but he could not be found’. In the present legal context, it means the return of a sheriff on a writ, when the defendant is not found in his county.

  Et interrogatum … Non est inventus: ‘And it was asked by Toad-in-the hole –– Where is that reporter? And it was replied with laughter –– He has not been found. Then it was repeated by everyone with waves of laughter –– He has not been found.’

  Burke-and-Hare: William Burke (1792–1829) and William Hare (c. 1790–c. 1860), Irish-born murderers, smothered sixteen people in Edinburgh in 1828 and then delivered the corpses to the back door of the celebrated anatomist Robert Knox, where they received payment. At their trial in 1829, Hare turned King’s evidence, and Burke was hanged (and dissected). Copycat ‘burkings’ occurred throughout the early 1830s; cf. the 1831 tale of terror ‘The Victim’ in The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre, ed. Robert Morrison and Chris Baldick (Oxford, 1997), 87–98.

  The Old Man of the Mountains: De Quincey discussed ‘The Old Man of the Mountains’ in his first essay ‘On Murder’ (see above, p. 15).

  Mr Von Hammer: Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774–1856), Austrian orientalist, The History of the Assassins (1835).

  malleus haereticorum: ‘hammer of heretics’. Johann Faber (1478–1541), bishop of Vienna, was given the title after publishing his celebrated attack on Martin Luther, Malleus in haeresim Lutheranam (1524).

  tickle your catastrophes: Shakespeare, 2 Henry IV, ii. i. 60: ‘I’ll tickle your catastrophe’.

  Williams … ship carpenter’s mallet: as De Quincey discusses in his first essay ‘On Murder’, Williams used a mallet to assassinate the Marr family (see above, p. 30).

  Charles the Hammer … the Martel: Charles Martel (c. 688–741), Frankish ruler, was known as ‘the hammer’.

  Charlemagne: Charlemagne (742–814), King of the Franks, was the grandson of Charles Martel.

  Abdera: Abdera was a Greek city on the coast of Thrace, and proverbial for the stupidity of its inhabitants.

  Jewish Sicarii: the Sicarii were a first-century Jewish terrorist sect. They kidnapped or murdered persons friendly to Rome.

  Nero: Nero (ad 37–68), fifth Roman emperor, was infamous for his extravagance and debauchery.

  Josephus: Flavius Josephus (ad 37/38–c. 100), Jewish priest, scholar, and historian, is celebrated for The History of the Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities.

  Pontifex Maximus?: at Rome, the Pontifex Maximus was head of the college of pontiffs.

  ‘Et interrogatum … est inventus’: ‘And it was asked by Toad-in-the hole––Where is the assassin? And it was replied by all––He has not been found’.

  Book XX … his Antiquities: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xx. 160–6.

  Book I … his Wars: De Quincey intends Josephus, The Jewish War, ii. 254–7.

  “They tooled … Roman sickles or sicae”: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xx. 186.

  justus exercitus: a righteous army.

  Festus: Porcius Festus, Procurator of Judaea (c. 60–62), acted wit
h rigour against the Sicarii, pursuing them with cavalry and infantry (see Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, xx. 187–8).

  ‘Et interrogatum … est inventus’: ‘And it was asked by Toad-in-the hole––Where is that army? And it was replied by all––It has not been found’.

  Mersenne … Commentary on Genesis: Marin Mersenne (1588–1648), French mathematician, philosopher, and theologian, Quaestiones Celeberrimae in Genesim (1623). De Quincey’s page reference to Quaestiones is correct. ‘Operose’ is ‘laborious; tedious; elaborate’ (OED).

  Abelem fuisse morsibus dilaceratum à Cain: ‘Abel was torn apart by Cain’s bites’. These words do not appear in Mersenne.

  St Chrysostom: St John Chrysostom (c. ad 347–407), eloquent orator and archbishop of Constantinople, produced a large number of scriptural homilies and other sermons.

  Irenaeus: St Irenaeus (c. ad 120/130– c. 200), bishop of Lyons, wrote Adversus haereses (Against Heresies) to refute Gnosticism.

  Prudentius: Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (ad 348–after 405), Christian Latin poet, is best known for Psychomachia (The Contest of the Soul).

  Frater … sarculo: i.e. his … hedging-bill: Prudentius, ‘Preface’ to Hamartigenia, 15–16.

  Madeira … Cape: Madeira is fortified wine from the Portuguese island of Madeira. Cape is wine from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

  Pancirollus … de rebus deperditis: Guido Panciroli (1523–99), professor of law, Rerum memorabilium jam olim deperditarum, & contrà recens atque ingeniose inventarum libri duo (1599). ‘De rebus deperditis’ is ‘concerning things utterly lost’.

  Planudes: Maximus Planudes (1260–c. 1310), Greek Orthodox scholar, theologian, and anthologist, revised (and bowderlized) The Greek Anthology, a celebrated and anonymous collection of Greek poetry and prose comprising authors from about 700 BC to ad 1000.

  epigram itself … at this moment: De Quincey has in mind The Greek Anthology, xi. 125: ‘The physician Crateas and the sexton Damon made a joint conspiracy. Damon sent the wrappings he stole from the grave-clothes to his dear Crateas to use as bandages and Crateas in return sent him all his patients to bury.’

  Salmasius: Claudius Salmasius (1588–1653), French classical scholar, discovered the Palatine manuscript of The Greek Anthology and published a famous edition of the Scriptores Historiae Augustae (1603).

  Vopiscus: Flavius Vopiscus, reputed author of several biographies in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae.

  “Est et elegans … commissos occideret”: De Quincey quotes (and slightly modifies) Salmasius’s note in Vopiscus, ‘Life of Divus Aurelianus’ in Scriptores Historiae Augustae, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1671), ii. 422: ‘There is indeed an elegant epigram of Lucilius where a physician and an undertaker have agreed that the physician should kill any patient entrusted to his care’. Lucilius (fl. first century ad) is a Greek epigrammatist. The Loeb edition of The Greek Anthology lists this epigram as anonymous.

  “Et ut pollinctori amico suo traderet pollingendos”: ‘And should hand the body over to his friend the undertaker to be prepared for burial’.

  “Et ut pollinctor … quos curabat”: ‘And that the undertaker should in turn pass on to the physician as gifts the linen bandages which he would filch from the corpses being prepared for burial so that the doctor could use them to bind the wounds of those under his care.’

  re infectâ: the business being unfinished.

  Pylades … Orestes: in Greek mythology, Pylades was the constant companion of Orestes, son of Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra. Pylades helped Orestes murder Clytemnestra.

  … Aesop: the Greek word is ‘moral of the story’. Aesop is the reputed author of a collection of Greek fables, and almost certainly a legendary figure. De Quincey draws from ‘Fable 307’ in Corpus Fabularum Aesopicarum, ed. Herbert Hunger (Leipzig, 1959), 116.

  uno pede: ‘with one foot’. De Quincey plays on ‘una voce’, ‘with one voice’.

  POSTSCRIPT [TO ON MURDER CONSIDERED AS ONE OF THE FINE ARTS]

  First published in volume 4 of Selections Grave and Gay (Edinburgh, 1854), 60–111. The volume also contained revised versions of the 1827 and 1839 essays ‘On Murder’.

  bagatelle: ‘a trifle, a thing of no value or importance’ (OED).

  cooking and eating them: as in the first essay ‘On Murder’, De Quincey’s reference is to Jonathan Swift’s satire ‘A Modest Proposal’ (see above, p. 169).

  jeu d’esprit: ‘a witty or humorous trifle’ (OED).

  Lilliput … Laputa … Yahoos: in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), book I, Gulliver is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are only six inches tall. In book III, he travels to the flying island of Laputa, where the absent-minded inhabitants quite literally have their heads in the clouds. In book IV, he describes the country of the Houyhnhnms, rational and virtuous horses who share their island with the vicious and filthy Yahoos.

  Telamonian shield: in Homer’s Iliad, Ajax, son of Telamon, is of great stature and dogged courage. His characteristic attribute is a strong and all-enveloping body-shield. De Quincey draws from Pope in his translation of The Iliad, viii. 321–2: ‘Secure behind the Telamonian Shield | The skilful Archer wide survey’d the Field’.

  spectacle of a great fire: De Quincey used a similar example in his first essay ‘On Murder’ (see above, p. 11).

  Drury Lane: De Quincey was in London on 25 February 1809 when the Drury Lane Theatre burned to the ground. In De Quincey to Wordsworth, ed. John Jordan (Berkeley, 1963), 102–3, he describes the ‘sublime’ spectacle of the fire, and the ‘great multitude of people … gathered on all sides of the Theatre’.

  Apollo: Apollo was the most widely revered and influential of all the Greek gods. Cf. De Quincey’s account in De Quincey to Wordsworth, 103: ‘a person in the room described the fine spectacle of the roof falling in at Drury Lane: – he saw the Apollo fall fm. his pedestal; and could have counted the strings on his harp by the light’.

  Goree: the Goree warehouses, named after the island just south of Cape Verde Peninsula, Senegal, were destroyed by fire in 1802.

  arrowy sleet: De Quincey draws from Milton, Paradise Regained, iii. 323–5: ‘flying behind them shot | Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face | Of their pursuers’.

  Williams’ murders of 1812: as in previous essays, De Quincey is out by a year in dating the atrocities attributed to John Williams (see above, pp. 166, 186).

  Never, throughout the annals … Cain: cf. the opening sentence from ‘John Williams’ in Newgate Calendar, v. 119: ‘The metropolis - indeed the whole nation - was never so completely horror-struck at any private calamity as at the daring and inhuman murders perpetrated, in the very heart of the City of London, at the close of the year 1811.’

  three hundred miles from London: when the Williams murders took place, De Quincey was living in Wordsworth’s former home of Dove Cottage in Grasmere.

  Attila, or ‘scourge of God’: Attila (d. 453), king of the Huns, 434–53. His Latin byname was ‘Flagellum Dei’ (‘Scourge of God’).

  castra stativa: ‘a stationary camp’.

  : ‘a possession for ever’. De Quincey draws from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, i. xxii. 4. Cf. Horace, Odes, iii. xxx. 1: ‘I have finished a monument more lasting than bronze’.

  Coleridge … London … panic: The Maul and the Pear Tree, 50: in the week following the murder of the Marrs, ‘the London Chronicle had offered its news in adjacent, incongruous columns. While one headline shrieked, “Murder of Mrs Marr and Family”, the next announced, “Mr Coleridge’s Lectures”’.