The Duke's Children

by Anthony Trollope

  Removing these speculations, Trollope gives his readers no reason to suppose that there will be a sequel, and leaves the last word unequivocally with his pensive Duke.

  NOTES

  Chapter 1

  1. (p. 1) Lady Mary, the only daughter: Trollope is not always consistent in the details of his family histories. In The Prime Minister (1876), Mary is the younger of the Duke's two daughters. Trollope originally planned two younger brothers for Lord Silverbridge in this novel. Lord Gerald is retained, but references to a shadowy third son, Lord Maurice, are deleted from the manuscript. Trollope is also a little uncertain about Mary's age, referring to her in this introductory chapter as ‘nineteen’, and then ‘nearly nineteen’.

  2. (p. 1) banished: after becoming Duke of Omnium on his uncle's death, Plantagenet Palliser was no longer able to sit in the House of Commons.

  3. (p. 2) 187–: the political and social background of the novel suggest a setting in the mid-1870s.

  4. (p. 2) Matching Priory: the Duke's country house.

  5. (p. 4) has been told elsewhere: in Phineas Finn (1869) and Phineas Redux (1874), Trollope tells how the wealthy Madame Max Goesler refuses an offer of marriage from the old Duke of Omnium, becomes a close friend of Lady Glencora and later marries Phineas Finn. The opening chapters of The Duke's Children make repeated allusion to characters and incidents from the earlier Palliser novels. See A Note on the Manuscript (pp. 508–9), for a deleted passage from the manuscript of Chapter 13, which reminds the reader of Mrs Finn's earlier history at some length – and also of the Duke's lingering reserve towards her as a woman who had been, when he first met her, ‘the mysterious widow of an unheard of old husband’.

  6. (p. 6) Lady Cantrip: the Countess of Cantrip, married to a senior Liberal politician, makes minor appearances in Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux and The Prime Minister.

  7. (p. 6) Mrs Jeffrey Palliser: Jeffrey Palliser would have been next in line for the dukedom if Glencora had not had children. Trollope implies a cool relation between the families.

  8. (p. 7) the Greys: John Grey and his wife, Alice, whose courtship is described Can You Forgive Her? (1864), the first of the Palliser novels.

  Chapter 2

  1. (p. 11) Lady Midlothian: Glencora's aunt, and the source of much unwelcome interference in her girlhood.

  2. (p. 11) the reader may possibly know: Mrs Finn had sacrificed her own social ambitions in refusing to marry Palliser's uncle, the old Duke of Omnium.

  3. (p. 13) a commoner: Tregear is not a member of the aristocracy.

  Chapter 3

  1. (p. 16) gone out in honours: Tregear had shown scholarly competence beyond the level required simply to pass his examination.

  2. (p. 16) another man: Burgo Fitzgerald, Glencora's first love. The story of their turbulent relationship is told in Can You Forgive Her? (1864).

  3. (p. 18) to bell the cat: to confront something frightening.

  4. (p. 19) the Conservative party: the Pallisers represent the traditions of the Whig aristocracy. As the Duke sees it, for the heir to his dukedom to enter Parliament as a Conservative is a dereliction of family duty.

  5. (p. 20) my grandfather: Silverbridge means the old Duke, who is his great-uncle and not his grandfather.

  Chapter 4

  1. (p. 21) ‘None but the brave deserve the fair’: one of Trollope's favourite quotations. ‘None but the brave deserves the fair’ – Dryden, Alexander's Feast (1697), 15.

  2. (p. 21) ‘De l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace’: ‘Courage, courage still, always courage’ – from a speech by Danton, 2 September 1792. Danton was a central figure in the French Revolution, and Carlyle writes about him at length. See Chapter 55, n. 1, for Tregear's reading of Carlyle's The French Revolution (1837).

  3. (p. 22) an enormous legacy: though Madame Max Goesler had consented to be neither the Duke's mistress nor his wife, she had been a loyal and affectionate friend in his old age, and had been rewarded with a large legacy which delicacy and pride had prevented her from accepting.

  4. (p. 25) I have no sister as it happens: forgetting this declaration on Tregear's part, Trollope later endows him with a sister.

  5. (p. 26) He wants me to stand for the county: the Duke wishes his heir to represent the county of West Barsetshire as a Liberal. He is reluctant to have Silverbridge stand for the borough whose name he bears, as he disapproves of ‘pocket boroughs’. Generally, agricultural county voters might be expected to elect a Conservative, but the Duke supposes that their loyalty to the Palliser family would make his son's success likely, though the contest might be expensive (he is later said to be prepared to spend £10,000 on the election – see Chapter 7). Silverbridge, however, intends to disregard his father's views by standing for the family borough as a Conservative.

  6. (p. 27) the Radicals: Liberals of the Duke's stamp were hardly ‘Radicals’, but the Liberal party did include reformers of more extreme tendencies.

  Chapter 5

  1. (p. 32) the Croesus: a king legendary for his wealth.

  2. (p. 35) she-Pandarus: a Pandarus is a go-between, so called from the Pandarus in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

  3. (p. 35) Good-morning, sir: the interview takes place in the late afternoon. Perhaps a slip on Trollope's part – or, possibly, intended to indicate the extent to which the Duke's habitual self-command has been disturbed by Tregear's petition.

  Chapter 6

  1. (p. 36) the Beargarden Club: a fashionable but faintly disreputable club for young men about town.

  2. (p. 36) the Carlist army: campaigns in support of Don Carlos's claims to the Spanish throne were intermittently waged throughout the Victorian period.

  3. (p. 36) M.F.H.: Master of Fox Hounds. Tifto is paid, though not generously, to manage the Runnymede hunt. The job gives him a certain social status, and he makes up his precarious income from gambling and trading in horses.

  4. (p. 37) blackballs: elections to clubs were traditionally conducted by dropping balls into a ballot-box; a black ball represents a vote against a candidate.

  5. (p. 38) the great Leamington handicap: a steeplechase, held at Warwick.

  6. (p. 38) a straight tip: the name of a winning horse.

  7. (p. 39) A dash at loo: to bet at the card game loo.

  8. (p. 39) blind hookey: a simple card game in which bets are placed on random cuts of the pack.

  9. (p. 40) the Craven… Chester: the Craven Stakes and the Chester Cup, both run in the spring.

  10. (p. 40) Solomon: a tipster.

  11. (p. 41) Mr Adolphus Longstaff… Lord Nidderdale: the indolent ‘Dolly’ and Lord Nidderdale, who has married a daughter of Lady Cantrip, had previously appeared as members of the Beargarden in The Way We Live Now (1875).

  Chapter 7

  1. (p. 46) the greatest benefit of the greatest number: Palliser is no Utilitarian, but here he refers to Bentham: ‘The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation’ – Works, x. 142.

  Chapter 8

  1. (p. 49) Gatherum Castle: the Palliser family seat, vast and uncomfortable, built by the old Duke of Omnium.

  2. (p. 50) Lucullus: Lucullus (?110–56 BC) was a Roman general and consul, famed for his rich banquets.

  3. (p. 50) seltzer water: effervescent water

  Chapter 9

  1. (p. 55) ‘in medias res’: literally, ‘in the middle of things’. The phrase derives from Horace's Ars Poetica (148), where it describes Homer's technique in beginning the Odyssey in the middle of the story. It is characteristic of Trollope to associate his fictional methods with classical literature. The Duke's habit of quoting Horace later becomes something close to comic business (see Chapter 25), but it is also one of his distinguishing marks as a ‘perfect gentleman’.

  2. (p. 57) the Seven Dials: a notoriously disreputable district – Mabel is joking.

  3. (p. 57) snobbish: vulgar and pretentious – Trollope is here using
the word as Thackeray uses it in The Book of Snobs (1848).

  4. (p. 58) a government which contained many Conservatives: in The Prime Minister (1876), Trollope describes Palliser's leadership of a coalition administration.

  5. (p. 59) Newmarket and the Beaufort: Newmarket for the racing, and the Beaufort – a fashionable betting club – for the cards.

  6. (p. 60) ratting: deserting his cause.

  7. (p. 62) plunging: betting recklessly.

  Chapter 10

  1. (p. 64) Rosaline: Romeo's first love in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

  Chapter 11

  1. (p. 70) The Horns: another of the many residences of the Palliser family, given by the old Duke of Omnium to Glencora on her marriage.

  Chapter 12

  1. (p. 74) The pity of it!: ‘Ay, that's certain, but yet the pity of it, Iago: O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!’ – Shakespeare, Othello, IV. i. 191–2. Trollope here uses the phrase in a more general sense than that which it has in Shakespeare's play, as Othello laments his lost happiness with Desdemona.

  Chapter 14

  1. (p. 85) Mr Spurgeon and Mr Sprout and Mr Du Boung: the earlier political history of these Silverbridge tradesmen, whose manoeuvrings had played a prominent part in the last election there, is told in The Prime Minister (1876). Later in The Duke's Children, Mr Spurgeon becomes Mr ‘Sprugeon’, Mr Sprout becomes Mr ‘Sprott’ and Mr Du Boung ‘De Boung’.

  2. (p. 90) Dr Tempest: rector of Silverbridge.

  3. (p. 90) Mr Walker: the lawyer who acts locally for the Duke.

  Chapter 16

  1. (p. 100) Mr Monk: a prominent reforming Liberal, and a former Prime Minister. His friendship with Phineas Finn is recorded in Phineas Finn (1869).

  2. (p. 100) Sir Timothy Beeswax: leader of the Conservative party – partly modelled on Disraeli (1804–81).

  3. (p. 102) When I was a child I acted as a child: ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things –’ I Corinthians, 13:11.

  4. (p. 103) chaff: teasing.

  Chapter 17

  1. (p. 105) a match: a race, in which the runners were handicapped. Tifto complains that Coalition carried more weight than was fair.

  2. (p. 106) her: the word is misprinted ‘his’ in the first and subsequent editions.

  3. (p. 108) three-year-old: the Derby is a race for three-year-old horses.

  4. (p. 109) the Leger: the St Leger Stakes, also for three-year-olds, run at Doncaster in September.

  5. (p. 109) The Jockey Club: racing's governing body.

  6. (p. 109) the crack shire packs: the fashionable county packs of hounds.

  7. (p. 109) four-in-hand: another word for a ‘drag’, a substantial coach pulled by four horses.

  8. (p. 111) Peppermint: misprinted ‘Pepperment’ in the first edition.

  Chapter 18

  1. (p. 112) gated: forbidden to leave college grounds.

  2. (p. 113) the Oaks: a celebrated race for three-year-old fillies, run, like the Derby, at Epsom.

  3. (p. 117) attaché: junior diplomat. Trollope disapproved of the competitive examinations that were increasingly a precondition for entry into the Civil Service. See An Autobiography (1883), Chapter 3.

  Chapter 19

  1. (p. 124) Sir Orlando Drought: a prominent Conservative minister.

  Chapter 20

  1. (p. 128) Mrs Montacute Jones: a society hostess, described in Is He Popenjoy? (1878).

  Chapter 21

  1. (p. 131) a great Conservative reaction: events in Trollope's parliamentary novels correspond broadly, but never exactly, to political circumstances of the time – see P. D. Edwards, Anthony Trollope: His Art and Scope (1978), pp. 228–9. Disraeli's Conservative administration had come to power in 1874. Trollope's hostile description of Beeswax's character as a politician suggests parallels with Disraeli as he is evoked, with ‘that remembrance of tailors’, in An Autobiography (1883), Chapter 13.

  2. (p. 133) to lick the Russians, or to get the better of the Americans: Russia was unpopular during the 1870s as a result of the war with Turkey, while commercial, social and political rivalry with America continued throughout the period.

  3. (p. 134) a young woman read a closed book placed on her dorsal vertebrae: one of the marvels supposedly achieved by fashionable mediums. Trollope was impatient with the interest in spiritualism which was strong throughout the 1860s and 1870s.

  Chapter 22

  1. (p. 136) a coalition: in The Prime Minister (1876), Trollope describes how Palliser had led this unsuccessful coalition.

  2. (p. 136) Duke of St Bungay: friend of the Duke of Omnium, and a senior Liberal statesman, the Duke of St Bungay plays a prominent part in Phineas Finn (1869), Phineas Redux (1874) and The Prime Minister.

  3. (p. 137) Solve senescentem: ‘the old horse should be put out to grass’ – Horace, Epistles, I. i. 8.

  4. (p. 137) Lord Grey: Whig Prime Minister (1830–34).

  5. (p. 137) the emancipation of the Roman Catholics: the Roman Catholic Relief Bill was passed in April 1829.

  Chapter 23

  1. (p. 146) Faint heart: ‘Faint heart ne'er wan/ A lady fair’ – Robert Burns, ‘To Dr Blacklock’. One of Trollope's favourite quotations.

  2. (p. 147) Rosaline: Romeo's first love (see Chapter 10, note 1). The first edition erroneously gives ‘Rosalind’ here.

  3. (p. 147) Benedict… Beatrice: Trollope is referring to the central characters in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

  Chapter 25

  1. (p. 154) he had made the most prudent book: a book for recording bets (hence ‘bookmaker’).

  2. (p. 155) the stud: after his racing season as a three-year-old, the Prime Minister will become a stallion at stud.

  3. (p. 155) Alma Mater: benign mother – a term with which students traditionally referred to their university.

  4. (p. 155) to read: that is, to study.

  5. (p. 157) dura ilia: his guts – Horace, Epodes, iii.

  6. (p. 158) Not though you build palaces out into the deep: the Duke is alluding to Horace's celebrated ode in praise of simplicity (Odes, III, i), in which Horace refers to the practice of building large houses out into the sea.

  7. (p. 158) Scandunt eodum quo dominus minae: Horace, Odes, III. i. 37–8. The Duke misquotes slightly, though his version preserves both the sense and the metre of Horace's ode:

  sed Timor et Minae

  scandunt eodem quo dominus, neque

  decedit aerata triremi et

  post equitem sedet atra Cura.

  (‘But Fear and Threats climb to the same high point as the lord; nor does black Care leave the brass-bound trireme, and sits behind the horseman.’) Gerald shows comparable familiarity with Horace by translating the last line of the verse, thus reminding the reader that despite his boyish misbehaviour he has had, like his father (and like Trollope), a gentleman's education.

  8. (p. 159) it is the grind that makes the happiness: in his respect for the virtues of hard work, the Duke comes close to Trollope's own creed.

  9. (p. 159) Sinbad: in The Thousand and One Nights, the Old Man sits on Sinbad's shoulders and refuses to move. Spelled ‘Sindbad’ in the first and subsequent editions, but the manuscript has ‘Sinbad’.

  10. (p. 160) the Scotch property: Scottish land which had come to the Duke through his marriage to Lady Glencora.

  Chapter 26

  1. (p. 161) I have been under obligations to Mr Finn: in The Prime Minister (1876), Phineas Finn effectively defends the Duke in the House of Commons against a charge of corruption.

  2. (p. 162) a Royal concert: Prince Albert had initiated the custom of royal musical concerts, and they had continued, enthusiastically attended by fashionable society, after his death.

  3. (p. 163) fighting a duel: Finn had duelled with Lord Chiltern over their rivalry for the love of Violet Effingham. The story is told in Phineas Finn (1869).

  4. (p. 164) Turveyd
rop: the dancing master in Dickens's Bleak House (1852–3).

  5. (p. 167) Bacchus: Roman god of wine.

  6. (p. 167) Pitt: William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) was twice Prime Minister (1783–1801 and 1804–6).

  Chapter 27

  1. (p. 171) squared: bribed.

  2. (p. 173) certain scenes: The Prime Minister (1876) gives an account of the political house parties Glencora had given at Gatherum, and of the Duke's acute discomfort as a host.

  Chapter 28

  1. (p. 177) Queenstown: a port in Ireland – now called Cobh.

  Chapter 29

  1. (p. 184) woman s rights: Trollope's published views on ‘woman's rights’ are as hostile as those of Silverbridge, as his lecture entitled ‘The Higher Education of Women’ (1868) makes very clear. But Silverbridge, like Trollope, is not altogether consistent. He is shown to be drawn to Isabel Boncassen because of the American ‘freedom which she enjoyed’ (p. 196) – a freedom denied to English ladies such as Mary and Mabel.

  2. (p. 185) Mentors: counsellors and guides. Mentor, or the goddess Athena in his form, was the tutor of Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey.

  3. (p. 185) Mr Worldly-Wise-man: as his name suggests, Mr Worldly Wiseman obstructs Christian's pursuit of virtue in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).

  Chapter 30

  1. (p. 193) potential: powerful.

  Chapter 31

  1. (p. 195) appreensive: sensitive.

  2. (p. 197) flies: light one-horse carriages, for hire.