The Trail of the Serpent
Page 49
2. going into the Gazette: being declared bankrupt. There were three official journals that published notices of bankruptcy—the London Gazette, Edinburgh Gazette, and Dublin Gazette.
3. Alsatia: London slum district between Fleet Street and the Thames. It was notorious for its high crime rate, and it was said to be unsafe for anyone to venture there alone.
CHAPTER II. LIKE AND UNLIKE
1. boned my mug: stolen my face.
2. rheumatic fever: a disease caused by a streptococcal bacterium that destroys blood cells. In its most extreme form it can cause fever, arthritis, and heart failure.
CHAPTER III. A GOLDEN SECRET
1. born to be drowned: There is a proverbial English saying that a person is born to be drowned or born to be hanged.
CHAPTER IV. JIM LOOKS OVER THE BRIM OF THE TERRIBLE GULF
1. the first murderer: in the Bible, Cain, who murdered his brother Abel (Gen. 4).
CHAPTER V. MIIDNIGHT BY THE SLOPPERTON CLOCKS
1. the nobleman that wrote the letters: Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773), English statesman whose Letters to His Son (1774) was published as a guide to good manners.
2. Rasselas: novel by Samuel Johnson (1709–84), published in 1759.
3. Mercury: In Greek mythology, Mercury was the messenger of the gods.
4. Œdipus: In Greek mythology, Oedipus won a kingdom by solving a riddle posed by the Sphinx. He later blinded himself in a fit of despair when he realized that his wife, Jocasta, was in fact his mother, from whom he had been separated at birth.
CHAPTER VI. THE QUIET FIGURE ON THE HEATH
1. matutinal: during the morning.
2. short-coated: a child dressed in short clothes.
3. the Lady’s Mile: the part of Hyde Park where upper-class women rode their horses. One of Braddon’s novels is entitled The Lady’s Mile (1867).
4. Parthian: comment or gesture made on departing. This expression came into common use in the nineteenth century. It refers to the practice of the horsemen of ancient Parthia, who would turn to shoot arrows at enemies as they rode off.
5. gentlemen who wore white neckcloths: clergymen.
6. fête champêtre: In France, this term describes village fêtes, but in nineteenth-century England it usually referred to upper-class garden parties where food was provided.
7. farinaceous: containing flour or starch.
8. Barcelona nuts: hazel nuts.
9. story of the lion and the mouse: from Aesop’s Fables.
10. vesper: evening prayer or evening service.
11. seven sleepers: According to an early Christian legend, seven Christians of Ephesus were walled up alive in a cave on Mount Anchilos by order of the Emperor Decius (249–251). When the cave was opened, over two hundred years later, they had miraculously survived, having slept for the entire time. Similar legends appear in the Koran and in the writings of Aristotle.
CHAPTER VII. THE USHER RESIGNS HIS SITUATION
1. pound-cake: a rich fruit cake, so called because it contained one pound of each of the principal ingredients—flour, butter, sugar, and fruit.
2. sal-volatile: a carbonate salt formed by the reaction of ammonia with acid. It was often referred to as “smelling-salts.” A bottle of sal-volatile would be held beneath the nose of an unconscious person to revive him or her.
3. red lavender: Tincture of red lavender was a medicinal cordial composed of oils of lavender and rosemary, mixed with cinnamon bark, nutmeg, red sandalwood, and wine. It was used as a stimulant and a cure for indigestion.
4. three volumes a day from the circulating library: In the 1860s, novels were usually published in three volumes. A circulating library was a library run by private subscription where members paid a membership fee that entitled them to borrow a certain number of books. Two of the most popular circulating libraries of the nineteenth century were Boots and Mudies, which had branches throughout Britain.
BOOK THE THIRD. A HOLY INSTITUTION
CHAPTER I. THE VALUE OF AN OPERA-GLASS
1. La Vallière: Louise-Françoise de La Baume le Blanc, Duchess of La Vallière (1644–1710), was a mistress of King Louis XIV of France. She bore him four children. When Louis abandoned her for another woman, he compensated her by making her a duchess (1667). In 1674, she retired to a nunnery in Paris, where she remained until her death; Scarron: Paul Scarron (1610–60), French poet and novelist; Bossuet: Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), French Catholic bishop and tutor to the eldest son of Louis XIV.
2. bon mot: witticism, epigram.
3. Ninon de Lenclos: Anne de Lenclos (1620–1705), known as Ninon de Lenclos, was a high-class French courtesan, famed for her many aristocratic lovers. She was popularly reported to be taking lovers even when she was in her seventies and eighties; Beaumarchais: Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–99), French playwright and political satirist. His best-known plays are The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784), which inspired operas by Rossini and Mozart; Marmontel: Jean-François Marmontel (1723–99), French writer and historian; Philippe of Orleans: Duke Philippe of Orleans (1641–1701), son of King Louis XII of France and Anne of Austria; Voltaire: Voltaire was the pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), a leading French writer and atheist whose ideas were highly influential in the years leading to the French Revolution; Ferney: Voltaire spent the last twenty years of his life at his château near the town of Voltaire-Ferney. He was visited there by many distinguished literary figures, including James Boswell, Lord Chesterfield, and Edward Gibbon; Madame du Deffand: French woman of letters (1697–1780). Her literary salon attracted distinguished figures from all over the world, including Benjamin Franklin, Horace Walpole, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Mademoiselle de l’Espinasse: Julie-Jeanne-Éléonore de l’Espinasse (1732–76), French woman of letters famous for her literary salon; Horace Walpole: Horace (or Horatio) Walpole, Fourth Earl of Orford (1717–97) was an English writer and M.P. His novel The Castle of Otranto (1764) set the fashion for Gothic romances. He converted his house at Strawberry Hill, near London, into a small pseudo-Gothic castle.
4. ce cher: dear
5. Bailly: Jean-Sylvain Bailly (1736–93) was a French astronomer and politician. He was president of the National Assembly and mayor of Paris during the French Revolution in 1789, and was guillotined after allowing soldiers to fire on anti-Royalist demonstrators; Madame Roland: Jeanne-Marie Roland de La Platière (1754–93) was the wife of Jean-Marie Roland de La Platière (1734–93), who became minister of the interior in the French revolutionary government. The couple fell foul of Robespierre (see note 7 below), and were threatened with execution. Jean escaped from Paris, but Jeanne-Marie was arrested and guillotined, after which Jean committed suicide; Marie Antoinette: Louis XVI’s queen, guillotined on October 16, 1793; Princess Elizabeth: one of the many aristocrats killed in the French Revolution; son of St. Louis: King Louis XVI of France (1754–93), who was guillotined on January 21, 1793. The phrase “son of St. Louis” refers to his descent from St. Louis of France, King Louis IX (1214–70).
6. that terrible machine invented by the charitable doctor: The guillotine was invented by Joseph Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814), a French doctor and revolutionary. Adopted in France in 1791 and named after him, the guillotine is a decapitating instrument used as a means of execution.
7. Robespierre: Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre (1758–94) was one of the leaders of the French Revolution. In 1793, he instituted a reign of terror, but not long after this he fell from power and was arrested and guillotined on the orders of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
8. Marengo … Lodd, Arcola, Austerlitz, Auerstadt, and Jena: battles fought by Napoleon.
9. Citizen King: Louis Philippe I (1773–1850), King of France (1830–48). Eldest son of Louis-Philippe-Joseph de Bourbon-Orléans (Philippe Égalité) (see note 2, Book the Third, ch. IX [p. 440]), he became king after Charles X was deposed in a rebellion in the summer of 1830. He styled himself the “C
itizen King” and swore to observe the Constitution, but alienated many of his subjects. Faced with growing unrest, in 1848 he abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson, Philippe. He spent the rest of his life in England.
10. La Sonnambula: opera by Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35), first performed in 1831. The title means “The Sleepwalker.” The heroine, Amina, is accused of infidelity when she sleepwalks into the wrong man’s bedroom on the night before her wedding. Her fiancé, Elvino, spurns her until a second sleepwalking episode proves her innocence.
11. coryphée: ballet dancer who ranks above the corps de ballet but below the soloists. Coryphées perform small ensemble pieces.
12. Don Giovanni: an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91), which concerns the adventures of a philandering nobleman. First performed in 1787; La ci darem la mano: “There we’ll hold hands,” a duet from Don Giovanni, sung by Giovanni and Zerlina, the peasant girl he is attempting to seduce.
13. Phædra: In Greek mythology, Phaedra was the daughter of Minos and the second wife of Theseus. She fell in love with her step-son Hippolytus. When Hippolytus rejected her, she accused him of trying to rape her. Theseus called on Poseidon to punish Hippolytus with death, after which Phaedra hanged herself. Her story is the subject of a play, Phèdre, by French dramatist Jean Racine (1639–99), which was first performed in 1677 and is still performed today.
14. Messalina: The notoriously violent and promiscuous Roman empress Valeria Messalina (c. 22–c. 48 A.D.) was the third wife of the emperor Claudius, whom she married at the age of fourteen. She instigated a reign of terror, but was eventually betrayed and put to death.
CHAPTER II. WORKING IN THE DARK
1. the celebrated aphorism of one of our English neighbours, ‘Knowledge is power’: This saying is attributed to English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626). In De Haeresibus (1597), he wrote “nam et ipsa scientia potest est,” which is usually translated as “for knowledge itself is power.” In his Essays (1598), he wrote “Knowledge it selfe is a power.” The phrase was quoted by Braddon’s friend and mentor Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803–73) in My Novel, serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine during 1850–53.
CHAPTER III. THE WRONG FOOTSTEP
1. “Louis the Well-beloved”: Louis XV of France (1715–74). The term “well-beloved” is also sometimes used to refer to two other French kings, Louis XIII (1610–43) and Charles VI (1380–1422).
2. Bourbon: the French Royal family.
3. Boucher: François Boucher (1702–70), French painter of pastoral and mythological scenes in a delicate, sentimental style.
4. Versailles Olympus: Versailles is the French royal palace. In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the home of the gods.
5. recherché: rare, exotic, or exquisite.
CHAPTER IV. OCULAR DEMONSTRATION
1. pot à feu: probably a misprint for pot au feu, beef stew.
2. quarterings on your shield: line of descent as indicated in armorial bearings.
CHAPTER V. THE KING OF SPADES
1. Lucretia Borgia: Lucretia, or Lucrezia, Borgia (1480–1519) was a famous poisoner who lived in Italy during the Renaissance. She was the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia (later Pope Alexander VI), and the sister of Cesare Borgia. She married three times to further her family’s political ambitions. She is the subject of an opera by Donizetti (see note 2 in ch. VII below). Braddon appeared several times in a play based on the life of Lucretia Borgia. (For details, see Carnell, p. 369.)
2. aqua tofana: a poisonous arsenical solution invented by infamous Italian poisoner Teofania (or Toffa) de Adamo, who sold small bottles of it at a high price to her clients. She was executed at Naples in 1709. The poison is odorless, colorless, and tasteless, and only four to six drops are enough to kill. It has been suggested that Mozart was killed by a dose of aqua tofana.
CHAPTER VI. A GLASS OF WINE
1. Baron Munchausen: a German soldier famous for telling exaggerated, untruthful stories. His exploits were first published in English as Baron Munchhausen’s Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785), by Rudolf Erich Raspe (1737–94).
2. Charivari: a popular Parisian satirical magazine, founded in 1832. The name comes from a traditional ritual that involves blowing horns and banging pots and pans in order to express disapproval of an adulterer. The custom was practiced in much of Europe under different names.
3. Gennaro in Lucretia Borgia: In the opera Lucrezia Borgia, Gennaro is Lucretia’s long-lost illegitimate son. In poisoning a group of her enemies at a banquet, Lucretia accidentally poisons Gennaro as well. She begs him to take an antidote, but he refuses, preferring to die with his friends.
CHAPTER VII. THE LAST ACT OF LUCRETIA BORGIA
1. Victor Hugo: French novelist (1802–85), now chiefly remembered for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).
2. Donizetti: Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) was an Italian composer of operas. His work included Anna Bolena (1830), Lucrezia Borgia (1833), and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).
3. ‘Pescator ignobile’: literally, “despicable fisherman.” An aria from Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.
4. Maffeo Orsini: a young nobleman in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. Maffeo encourages guests at a banquet to drink heartily, unaware that Lucretia has poisoned the wine. Although a male part, this character is usually sung by a contralto.
5. brain-fever: See Book the First, ch. IX, note 1 (p. 432).
CHAPTER VIII. BAD DREAMS AND A WORSE WAKING
1. Caen: a port in Normandy, France.
2. ormolu and buhl à la Louis Quatorze: ormolu is a gilded metal alloy of copper, zinc, and tin used in France and England for decorating candelabra, clocks, elaborate furniture, and other luxury objects; buhl: wooden furniture inlaid with ornamental patterns in brass or tortoise-shell; à la Louis Quatorze: in the style of King Louis XIV.
3. the ardent hue which prejudice condemns: red. Victorians disliked red hair, which they regarded as ugly.
CHAPTER IX. A MIARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE
1. Faubourg St. Germain: a rich neighborhood of Paris, inhabited mainly by aristocrats.
2. Philip Egalité: Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orleans (1747–93). A libertine, he squandered his immense wealth and joined the leaders of the French Revolution. He voted for the execution of Louis XVI, but was himself guillotined in November 1793, during the Reign of Terror. His son became King Louis Philippe.
3. the Madeleine: a large, fashionable Parisian church, consecrated in 1842.
4. Asmodeus: in Christian mythology, a demon who prevented the consummation of marriages. He appears in the book of Tobias, which is in the Apocrypha (books included in older Bibles between the Old and New Testaments). Asmodeus is sexually obsessed with the Virgin Sara. Sara marries seven times, but each husband is killed on the wedding night before the marriage can be consummated. Sara’s eighth husband, Tobias, realizes that this is because of demonic intervention. With the aid of his guardian angel, Raphael, he drives Asmodeus from the bridal chamber by burning a fish’s heart and liver there. On returning to his family home, Tobias puts the fish gall on the eyes of his blind father, Tobit, and restores his sight.
CHAPTER X. ANIMAL MIAGNETISM
1. animal magnetism: This term was usually used to refer to a form of hypnotism developed in the late eighteenth century by Anton Mesmer. However, Braddon seems to be using it here to refer to psychic communication.
BOOK THE FOURTH. NAPOLEON THE GREAT
CHAPTER I. THE BOY FROM SLOPPERTON
1. congé: order to depart.
2. Maria Martin … Red Barn: one of the most notorious murder cases of the nineteenth century. On May 18, 1827, twenty-six-year-old Maria Marten (or Martin) of Polstead, Suffolk, was murdered by her lover, William Corder, who hid her body in a barn. Corder told her family that she had left for London. They suspected nothing until Maria’s mother had a dream in which Maria told her of the murder and the location of the body.
Maria’s father then searched the Red Barn and found the corpse. Corder was convicted on August 7, 1828, and executed on August 11 in front of a crowd estimated at ten thousand people. The story caught the public imagination. Numerous books, broadsheets, and engravings about the murder were produced almost immediately. A pamphlet describing the trial sold over a million copies. An anonymously written novel called The Red Barn (London: Knight and Lacy, 1828) was published in serial form starting soon after the trial and became a bestseller. Melodramas based on the case remained popular for many years. As a child, Braddon was taken to see a melodrama entitled Maria Marten and the Red Barn (Carnell, p. 7).
For details of the case, see Altick, Richard D., Victorian Studies in Scarlet (New York: Norton, 1970), and Peter Haining, Buried Passions—Maria Marten and the Red Barn Murder (Suffolk: Neville Spearman, 1980).
3. third daughter of Henry the Eighth’s seventh wife: This is a joke on Braddon’s part. Henry VIII had six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr) and two daughters (Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I).
4. William the Conqueror: King William of Normandy (c. 1028–87), who conquered Britain in 1066.
5. Fair Rosamond: Rosamond Clifford (c. 1140–75 or ’76) was the mistress of King Henry II of England. She died in mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoned by Henry’s wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitane. She is the subject of an 1861 painting by Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82), which can be seen in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Braddon was familiar with the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, and may have had this painting in mind.