The Trail of the Serpent
Page 50
6. Emperor Napoleon the First: Napoleon Bonaparte.
7. St. Helena: the island to which Napoleon was exiled after his abdication in 1815.
8. Sir Hudson Lowe: British Lieutenant-General who was governor of St. Helena during Napoleon’s exile, 1815–21.
9. water on the brain: Now known as hydrocephalus, water on the brain was the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles, or cavities, of the brain, causing enlargement of the head, convulsions, and mental difficulties.
10. meerschaum: a type of pipe. Meerschaum takes its name from the material used for the bowl, a hydrated magnesium silicate mineral, which is similar to white clay and is easily carved.
11. bluchers: workmen’s boots, a cheaper version of Wellington boots; named after General von Blücher (1742–1819), the Prussian general-in-chief at the Battle of Waterloo.
12. orders of the Bath and the Garter: The Order of the Bath is a British Order of Chivalry established by King George I by letters patent under the Great Seal dated May 18, 1725. Its title refers to a medieval ritual of purification. It is usually awarded to high-ranking officers in the armed forces and senior civil servants. The Order of the Garter is the oldest and highest British Order of Chivalry, founded in 1348 by Edward III. The Order of the Garter consists of Her Majesty the Queen, who is Sovereign of the Order, His Royal Highness Prince of Wales, and twenty-four Knights Companions. The symbol of the order is a blue “garter” with the motto Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense. According to legend, the motto and order originated in the fourteenth century when Joan, Countess of Salisbury, dropped her garter at a ball and King Edward, seeing her embarrassment, picked it up and bound it about his own leg saying in French, “Evil [or shamed] be he that thinks evil of it.” Although now highly anachronistic, both orders have survived into the twenty-first century.
13. Pinnock’s Goldsmith: William Pinnock (1782–1843) was the author of revised versions of Oliver Goldsmith’s histories of Greece, Rome, and England. These revised versions were used as textbooks in schools from the 1830s onwards.
14. the Medes and Persians: from the Bible: “the law of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not” (Dan. 6:18).
15. Lord Castlereagh: the title given to Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquis of Londonderry and Chief Secretary for Ireland, 1798–1801. He quelled the 1798 rebellion and formed a political union between Britain and Ireland in 1800. Castlereagh became infamous after the 1819 “Peterloo Massacre” in which British soldiers attacked a crowd attending a Radical political meeting at St. Peter’s Field in Manchester, killing eleven and injuring another four hundred. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) responded to the event by writing “The Mask of Anarchy,” which includes the lines:
I met Murder on the way—
He had a mask like Castlereagh—
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven blood-hounds followed him;
All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.
CHAPTER II. MR. AUGUSTUS DARLEY AND MR. JOSEPH PETERS GO OUT FISHING
1. St. Mark’s: a basilica in St Mark’s Square, Venice.
2. Bridge of Sighs: covered footbridge over the Rio di Palazzo, in Venice. Designed by Antonio Contino, it was erected in the year 1600 to connect the prison with the inquisitor’s rooms in the Doge’s Palace. It was given the nickname “Bridge of Sighs” in the nineteenth century, when Lord Byron helped to popularize the belief that the bridge’s name was inspired by the sighs of condemned prisoners as they were led through it to the executioner. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, by Lord Byron (1788–1824), begins with the lines: “I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; / A palace and a prison on each hand:”
3. penny numbers: In this era, novels were often published in weekly installments at a penny per installment.
4. “Bravo”: a daring villain or reckless desperado.
5. caravansary: In Persia, a caravanserai was an inn with a central courtyard for receiving caravans crossing the desert. Here, Braddon uses it to mean a public house.
6. mark with a white stone: from the Latin Albo lapillo notare diem—To mark the day with a white stone. This refers to the ancient Roman custom of marking each happy day by dropping a white stone into an urn, and each bad day by doing the same with a black stone. At the end of the month the urn would be emptied and the stones counted to determine what kind of month it had been. The 1898 edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable cites an additional custom, that of marking good days on a calendar with white chalk and bad days with black charcoal.
7. ha’porth of Epsom salts: halfpenny’s worth of hydrated magnesium sulphate, sold as a laxative.
8. three-farthings’ worth: A farthing was a coin worth a quarter of a penny.
9. rhubarb and magnesia: a purgative consisting of rhubarb mixed with magnesium carbonate.
10. the legend of the mistletoe bough: a folktale concerning a bride who hid in a large trunk as a joke. Unable to get the lid open again, she died, and her body was not found until many years later. A folk song based on the story was popular in the nineteenth century, and goes as follows:
The mistletoe hung, in the old castle hall,
The holly branch shone, on the old oak wall,
And the baron’s retainers, were blythe and gay,
All keeping their Christmas holiday.
And the baron beheld, with a father’s pride,
His beautiful child, young Lovell’s bride,
While she with her bright eyes, seemed to be,
The Star of the goodly company.
Chorus: Oh the mistletoe bough, Oh the mistletoe bough.
“I’m weary of dancing now” she cried,
“Here tarry a moment, I’ll hide, I’ll hide,
And Lovell, be sure thou’rt the first to trace,
The clue to my secret hiding place.”
Away she ran, and her friends began
Each tower to search, each nook to scan.
And young Lovell he cried, “Where dos’t thou hide.
I’m lonely without thee, my own dear bride.”
Chorus: Oh the mistletoe bough, Oh the mistletoe bough.
They sought her that night, they sought her next day,
They sought her in vain, till a week passed away.
In the highest, the lowest, the lonesomest spot,
Young Lovell sought wildly, but found her not.
And years flew by, and their grief at last,
Was told as a sorrowful tale long-past.
And when Lovell appeared, all the children cried
“See the old man weeps, for his fairy bride.”
Chorus: Oh the mistletoe bough, Oh the mistletoe bough.
At length an old chest, that had long lain hid,
Was found in the castle, they raised the lid.
A skeleton form lay mouldering there,
In the bridal wreath of a lady so fair,
Oh sad was her fate, in sportive jest,
She hid from her lord, in an old oak chest.
It closed with a spring, and the bridal bloom,
Lay withering there, in a living tomb.
Chorus: Oh the mistletoe bough, Oh the mistletoe bough.
11. eel-spears: forked or pronged instruments about six feet long, used to catch eels by transfixing them as they lie in the mud. They look like tridents, hence the joke about Peters looking like Neptune.
CHAPTER III. THE EMPEROR BIDS ADIEU TO ELBA
1. chevaux-de-frise: glass or spikes set into the top of a wall to make it more difficult for anyone to climb over.
2. darkened glass: from the Bible, First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Cor. 13:11).
3. Abd-el-Kader: Ab
d-el-Kader (1807–83) was an Algerian nationalist who led the rebellion against the French conquest of Algiers (1832–47).
4. Terp—what-you-may-call-her, the lady who had so many unmarried sisters: In Greek mythology, Terpsichore was the Muse associated with dancing and lyric poetry. There were nine Muses, who were conventionally depicted as unmarried young women.
5. muffins: In England, a muffin is not the type of sweet cake that is known by that name in America, but is a kind of thick, pancakelike savory bread that is eaten toasted and buttered. It is also known as a crumpet.
6. Alfred the Great: According to an English folk tale, King Alfred the Great (c. 849–900) once took refuge in a poor woman’s cottage while fleeing from a battle. She asked him to watch her baking for her while she went out, but he was so absorbed in thinking out battle strategy that he forgot to do so and the cakes burnt. This, presumably, is why the madwoman thinks King Alfred invented muffins.
7. “Do you know the muffin-man?” … “He lives in Drury Lane”: English nursery rhyme:
Oh do you know the muffin man
Oh do you know the muffin man
Oh do you know the muffin man
who lives in Drury Lane.
The rhyme may have a secondary, obscene meaning—“muff”—this being a slang term for female pubic hair.
8. Lord Chesterfield never advised his son to do that: See Book the Second, ch. V, note 1 (p. 434).
CHAPTER IV. JOY AND HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY
1. bitters: alcoholic liquid made from herbs or roots and used to flavor drinks. First made in Venezuela in 1824, today it is mainly used in cocktails.
2. turned up: put up in a bun.
3. leger-de-main: sleight-of-hand.
4. Tripe: offal, which consists largely of parts of the stomachs of cows and sheep; usually served with onions.
5. taters: potatoes.
CHAPTER V. THE CHEROKEES TAKE AN OATH
1. his dexter fist … Left-handed Smasher. “Dexter” is the Latin for “right,” so this may be a misprint in the original text. The Latin for “left” is “sinister.”
2. grimalkins: greymalkins, i.e., cats.
3. Welsh rarebit: a type of cheese on toast. Before cooking, the cheese is grated and mixed with mustard, salt, pepper, and either milk or beer.
4. Lindley Murray: Quaker grammarian from Pennsylvania (1745–1826); author of English Grammar (1795), An English Spelling Book (1804), and other books on grammar and spelling, which remained in print well into the 1840s.
5. mawley: fist.
CHAPTER VI. MR. PETERS RELATES HOW HE THOUGHT HE HAD A CLUE, AND HOW HE LOST IT
1. transpontine: on the south side of the River Thames, in London.
2. that circular chapel some time sacred to Rowland Hill: Surrey Chapel, in Blackfriars Road. Rowland Hill (1744–1833) was a popular Methodist preacher who built the chapel at his own expense. It opened in 1783, could seat up to three thousand people, and had what was probably the first Sunday school in London. Hill’s services attracted large congregations, and he preached six or seven times a week until shortly before his death.
3. Sir Benjamin Brodie: Benjamin Brodie the elder (1783–1862), surgeon to the Queen.
4. Herring: John Frederick Herring (1795–1865), British artist famous for his paintings of animals.
5. Landseer: Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–73), British artist known for his paintings of animals. He modeled the four bronze lions that stand at the foot of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square (unveiled in 1867). He was knighted in 1850.
6. jujubes: a generic term for sweets.
7. tartaric acid: acidulant (i.e., something that turns things sour) derived from argol (a sediment found in wine vats).
8. seidlitz-powders: laxative made from tartaric acid, potassium tartare, and sodium bicarbonate.
9. ’steriky: hysterical.
10. Marengo: battle at which Napoleon-led French forces defeated the Austrian army. It took place on June 14, 1800, in what is now northern Italy. Approximately 5,800 French and 9,400 Austrians were killed.
11. sup-boned-aed: subpoenaed, i.e., summoned to appear in a court of law.
BOOK THE FIFTH. THE DUMB DETECTIVE
CHAPTER I. THE COUNT DE MIAROLLES AT HOME
1. tallow: animal fat melted down to make candles or soap.
2. Park Lane: expensive, upper-class residential street on the edge of Hyde Park in London.
3. Mangling: drying and pressing clothes by putting them through a mangle. A mangle was a hand-operated device consisting of two rollers. Wet laundry was fed between the rollers to squeeze most of the water out.
4. Mayfair: expensive, upper-class residential area of London.
5. St. Giles: a notorious London slum.
6. fêtes champêtres: See Book the Second, ch. VI, note 6 (p. 435).
7. thés dansantes: tea dances.
8. Louis the Sixteenth: Louis XVI was the king of France at the time of the French Revolution. He was executed in 1793; Madame Elizabeth: Louis XVI’s sister; the unfortunate boy prisoner of the Temple: Louis Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The family were imprisoned in the Temple on August 12, 1792. After Louis XVI’s execution on January 21, 1793, Louis Charles was taken away from his mother and his sister, Marie Therese Charlotte. According to popular folklore, he was imprisoned in a cell nearby, where they could hear him crying but could not go to him. Louis Charles died of tuberculosis in prison in 1795.
9. Canovo: Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Italian sculptor who carved a huge head of Napoleon that he could not bear to part with. Canova is best remembered for his sculpture of the Three Graces, which was the center of great controversy in 1995 when the U.K. government in 1995 paid £7.6 million to prevent its being sold to a museum in America. It is now displayed in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
10. solfeggi: scales, intervals, and melodic exercises.
11. Cherubino: Valerie has evidently named her son after one of the characters in Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro. Cherubino is a flirtatious young man. The role is usually played as a “travesti” role, i.e., sung by a women dressed as a man.
CHAPTER II. MIR. PETERS SEES A GHOST
1. otium cum dignitate: Latin expression meaning “ease with dignity” or “leisure with dignity.”
2. do for: do the cooking and housework for.
3. New Road: a major road connecting Paddington with Islington. It consisted of what are now Euston Road and Marylebone Road.
4. Mazeppa: The eponymous hero of Byron’s Mazeppa (1819) is sentenced to death by being bound to the back of a wild horse, which is then whipped to a frenzy. The horse gallops itself to death. When it collapses, Mazeppa, who is himself at the point of death, is rescued.
5. saveloys: spicy sausages made from smoked pork or offal.
6. porter: a type of weak beer.
7. Kidderminster carpet: a two-ply or ingrain reversible carpet, named after the Worcestershire town of Kidderminster, where this type of carpet was originally made.
8. Old Lady of Threadneedle Street: the Bank of England.
9. buried … between four cross roads with a stake druv’ through him if he’d poisoned himself fifty years ago: In England before 1823, the bodies of suicides were usually not buried in consecrated ground. From the sixteenth century to 1823, it was common practice to bury them at a crossroads, often with a stake driven through the heart. An act of 1823 decreed that they could be buried in churchyards, but that the burials had to take place between 9 P.M. and midnight, without any religious service. The law was altered in 1882 to allow burial at any time and with a religious service. Suicide remained a criminal offense in England until 1961.
10. levanting: leaving secretly, or fleeing, to avoid paying debts.
11. downy: clever, alert. A “downy bit” was nineteenth-century slang for a prostitute.
CHAPTER III. THE CHEROKEES MIARK THEIR MIAN
1. fop’s alley: in a theater or opera-house, a passage
between the tiers of benches, frequented by fashionable young men.
2. Pandemonium: name given by John Milton (1608–74) for the capital of Hell in Paradise Lost, from Greek pan (all) and daimon (demon).
3. Colchesters: oysters from Colchester, in Essex.
4. Lucia: Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor (1835).
5. Edgardo: the hero of Lucia di Lammermoor, with whom Lucia is in love.
6. Porte-St.-Martin: a theater in Paris.
7. Hessian boots: high boots with tassels on the front, as worn by Hessian troops (Hesse was a state in what is now central Germany). They were fashionable in the early nineteenth century.
8. quadrille: a popular dance.
9. knowledge-box: head.
10. bunch of fives: fist.
11. Newmarket: racecourse near Cambridge, about sixty-five miles from London.
CHAPTER IV. THE CAPTAIN, THE CHEMIST, AND THE LASCAR
1. Newton: Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), physicist and mathematician chiefly famous for discovering the law of gravity.
2. Leplace: The Marquis de Leplace (1749–1827) was a French mathematician and author of mathematical treatises. He was said to have presented one of his books to Napoleon while on board ship on an expedition to Egypt. When Napoleon complained that there was no mention of God in the book, Leplace replied, “Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis.”
3. Albertus Magnus: philosopher and churchman famed for his learning (c. 1200–80).
4. kitmutghar: an Indian servant whose duties were connected with serving meals and waiting at table.
5. Punjaub: The Punjab was a state in northwest India that was annexed by the British after the Sikh Wars (1845–46 and 1848–49).