The Duke's Children

by Anthony Trollope

  Chapter 32

  1. (p. 203) Nay, my Lord… and Lord Tybalt: the literary reference – to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (one of several made to this play in The Duke's Children) – suggests that Mr Boncassen may be speaking here. The remark would be out of character for Mrs Boncassen.

  2. (p. 206) They can't do it: an heir to the throne could not marry a commoner.

  3. (p. 207) Erebus: the Underworld of the ancient Greeks.

  Chapter 33

  1. (p. 211) Athenaeum: an exclusive club for gentlemen.

  2. (p. 212) new things are such ducks: ‘ducks’ could mean light linen trousers, which is why Dolly replies as he does.

  3. (p. 214) Madame Scholzdam: an opera singer.

  Chapter 35

  1. (p. 223) ten thousand: the ‘Upper Ten Thousand’ was a current term for those supposedly of the highest social rank. The opening sentence of Can You Forgive Her? (1864) refers to ‘the Upper Ten Thousand of this our English world’.

  2. (p. 225) That unfortunate quarrel: between Sir Timothy Beeswax and Phineas Finn, over proposed reforms of the legal system.

  3. (p. 227) the Twelfth: 12 August, the ‘glorious Twelfth’, when the season for shooting grouse begins. For all his careful sobriety, Lord Popplecourt evidently devotes a significant proportion of his time and energy to sport.

  4. (p. 227) Leadenhall Market: a London poultry market.

  Chapter 36

  1. (p. 230) that very clever distich… its parasite: ‘So, naturalists observe, a flea/ Hath smaller fleas that on him prey/ And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em,/ And so proceed ad infinitum.’ – Swift, ‘On Poetry’ (1733), 337–40.

  2. (p. 231) grass-plat: lawn.

  3. (p. 231) strap a'orse: to groom a horse.

  Chapter 37

  1. (p. 239) catastrophe: the climax of the action of a plot – the word is not here primarily used in the modern sense of ‘disaster’.

  Chapter 38

  1. (p. 241) venatical: relating to hunting.

  2. (p. 241) gillies: hunting guides.

  3. (p. 244) crammers: lies.

  4. (p. 246) defalcation: defaulting.

  Chapter 39

  1. (p. 247) lawn-tennis: lawn-tennis, patented in 1874, was a new and fashionable pastime.

  2. (p. 247) cockney: vulgar.

  3. (p. 248) When youth and pleasure meet… with flying feet: ‘On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;/ No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet/ To chase the glowing hours with flying feet!’ – Lord Byron, Childe Harolde's Pilgrimage (1812–18), canto III, st. xxii.

  Chapter 40

  1. (p. 256) party-coloured: of variegated colour.

  Chapter 41

  1. (p. 261) Ischl: spelled Ischel in the first three-volume edition, but the manuscript and serial edition has Ischl. An Austrian resort, known for its medicinal springs and baths.

  2. (p. 262) Halstadt: a small market town in the mountains, thirteen miles from Ischl; popular as a tourist destination.

  3. (p. 265) Men have died… not for love: ‘Men have died from time to time, and worms have eaten them, but not for love’ – Shakespeare, As You Like It, IV. i. 101–3.

  4. (p. 266) man is born to sorrow… fly upwards: ‘Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward’ – Job, 5:7.

  5. (p. 268) the Hintersee and the Obersee: mountainous regions of Austria.

  Chapter 42

  1. (p. 270) Richard will be himself: ‘Conscience avaunt. Richard's himself again’ – Colley Cibber, Richard III, adapted from Shakespeare (1700), V. iii.

  2. (p. 272) Lady Fawn: wife of the Viscount Fawn. Lord Fawn's earlier romantic vicissitudes are recounted in Phineas Finn (1869), The Eustace Diamonds (1873), Phineas Redux (1874) and The Prime Minister (1876).

  3. (p. 273) The great women of the world… Charlotte Cordays: Semiramis was the legendary Assyrian queen who founded Babylon; Pocahontas the American Indian heroine who rescued Captain John Smith; Ida Pfeiffer a celebrated Austrian explorer; Charlotte Corday the murderer of Marat.

  Chapter 43

  1. (p. 276) Your money's… other way already: Major Tifto has been betting against Prime Minister.

  2. (p. 276) the pull: collective betting.

  3. (p. 277) macassar: hair oil.

  4. (p. 277) the Leger distance: the distance over which the St Leger Stakes was run – one mile, six furlongs and 127 yards.

  5. (p. 278) pitch: ‘he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith’ – Ecclesiastes, 13: 1.

  6. (p. 280) the horse's frog: the horny part of the underside of a horse's hoof, vulnerable to injury.

  Chapter 44

  1. (p. 281) the free-school: the local grammar school.

  2. (p. 281) the ring: the bookmakers.

  3. (p. 284) go to the Jews: to the money-lenders. Trollope's distressing youthful experiences with money-lenders left a lasting mark. See An Autobiography (1883), Chapter 3.

  4. (p. 285) Moreton: the Duke's agent, whose name also appears as ‘Morton’.

  Chapter 45

  1. (p. 289) mooncalf: foolish.

  2. (p. 289) hecatombs: sacrifices.

  3. (p. 289) Mr Simcox: Gerald's tutor.

  4. (p. 289) Nimrod: a hunter, after the biblical Nimrod, ‘the mighty hunter before the Lord’ – Genesis, 10:9.

  Chapter 46

  1. (p. 296) a marker: a professional score-keeper.

  2. (p. 298) Lady Rosina de Courcy: elderly daughter of Earl de Courcy, and friend of the Duke, she appears in Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858), The Small House at Allington (1864) and The Prime Minister (1876).

  3. (p. 298) Moore's Melodies: Tom Moore's Irish Melodies (1807–34) were enduringly popular.

  Chapter 49

  1. (p. 313) levanted: run off.

  2. (p. 314) Apollyon: a demon, one of Christian's adversaries in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678).

  3. (p. 315) to edge: ‘to hedge’ is to make covering bets for safety.

  Chapter 51

  1. (p. 322) ‘locus poenitentiae’: place of repentance, i.e. an opportunity for a change of mind.

  2. (p. 324) Mr Warburton: the Duke's secretary.

  3. (p. 325) Barrington Erie: senior Liberal politician and friend of Phineas Finn.

  Chapter 52

  1. (p. 326) There is no occasion for awe: Silverbridge's use of ‘awfully’ is slang. The Duke's half-joking admonishment reminds the reader of the cultural gap which divides him from his son, but also of the affection which unites them.

  2. (p. 328) Chiltern's: Lord Chiltern, of Harrington Hall, is Master of the Brake Hounds.

  Chapter 53

  1. (p. 336) quints: fifths. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke's great ambition had been to introduce decimal coinage. See The Eustace Diamonds (1873).

  2. (p. 339) King Cophetua… beggar's daughter: according to a traditional story, King Cophetua fell in love with a beggar's daughter and married her.

  3. (p. 340) Did you ever hear of a gentleman… back upon him: the reference is to Sisyphus, who in ancient Greek mythology is eternally punished in the underworld as Mabel describes.

  4. (p. 341) Sir Guy: ancestor of the Pallisers, famed for his wild behaviour.

  Chapter 54

  1. (p. 345) comme il faut: as it should be.

  2. (p. 346) a younger son: the elder son customarily stands for Parliament in a family seat.

  Chapter 55

  1. (p. 349) Carlyle's French Revolution: Trollope had read Carlyle, but was not impressed by his doom-laden prophecies: ‘If he be right, we are all going straight away to darkness and the dogs. But then we do not put very much faith in Mr Carlyle’ – An Autobiography (1883), Chapter 20. Tregear defends his Conservatism with spirit, but Silverbridge is given the last word, and it is clear that he is moving towards his father's Liberalism.

  2. (p. 352) Parliamentary canvassing: Trollope's depiction of electioneering is shaped by his dismal memories of standing as a Liberal candidate for the
corrupt borough of Beverley in 1868. See An Autobiography, Chapter 16.

  3. (p. 353) buff: buff and blue were traditionally Whig colours.

  Chapter 56

  1. (p. 355) ballot-boxes: secret ballots had been introduced with the Ballot Act of 1872.

  2. (p. 355) Salem and Zion and Ebenezer: customary names for Nonconformist chapels. Nonconformism was strong in Cornwall, and represented a significant challenge to the dominance of the Church of England there.

  3. (p. 356) the Jacobins: reforming radicals.

  Chapter 57

  1. (p. 361) Caesar wouldn't keep a wife who was suspected of infidelity: in 62 BC Julius Caesar divorced his second wife, Pompeia, on the grounds of her suspected adultery with Clodius – according to Plutarch, because his wife must be ‘above suspicion’. See Plutarch, Lives, Julius Caesar, x. 6.

  Chapter 59

  1. (p. 375) to the top of his bent: ‘They fool me to the top of my bent’ – Shakespeare, Hamlet, III. ii. 375. The reference is to a drawn, or ‘bent’, bow.

  Chapter 61

  1. (p. 384) perfect love casteth out fear: see I John, 4: 18.

  2. (p. 387) flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone: ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh’ – Genesis, 2: 23.

  3. (p. 389) Trumpington Wood: spelled ‘Trumpeton’ in Phineas Redux (1874) and The Prime Minister (1876).

  4. (p. 390) all that was altered: several English aristocrats had chosen American brides in the 1870s, the most celebrated of such alliances being that between Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome in 1874.

  5. (p. 390) jejune: barren and spiritless.

  Chapter 62

  1. (p. 392) his intimate friends: Phineas Finn had once courted Violet Effingham, now Lady Chiltern. The story of Adelaide Palliser's choosing Gerard Maule rather than Mr Spooner as her husband is told in Phineas Redux (1874).

  2. (p. 395) chopped one: came upon one suddenly.

  3. (p. 396) Captain Glomax: makes an appearance as a Master of the A. R. U., or U. R. U. (Ufford and Rufford United Hunt) in The American Senator (1877).

  4. (p. 396) carpet-bag: the term has its origins in the American Civil War, and suggests an intruder looking for new territory to occupy (cf. ‘carpetbagger’).

  5. (p. 396) ‘‘Bells Life’… ‘Field’… ‘Bayley's’: these were all journals devoted to sporting and hunting matters.

  6. (p. 397) we shan't find: i.e. find a fox.

  7. (p. 397) I must draw the country regularly: it was the duty of the Master (here, Lord Chiltern) to hunt his territory methodically.

  Chapter 63

  1. (p. 402) a whip: the man who whips in the hounds.

  2. (p. 404) his wertebury: Mrs Spooner's version of ‘vertebrae’.

  Chapter 64

  1. (p. 406) Hyperion to a satyr: ‘So excellent a king, that was to this/ Hyperion to a satyr’ – Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. ii. 139–40. In ancient Greek mythology, Hyperion was a god renowned for his beauty.

  Chapter 65

  1. (p. 410) Jack Hinde: previously spelled ‘Hindes’ (see p. 380). One of the novel's many dissipated young men.

  2. (p. 410) Facilis descensus Averni… janua Ditis: ‘The way down to the Underworld is easy: by night and day Dis's dark door stands open’ – Virgil, Aeneid vi. 126.

  3. (p. 412) the pips: the marks on the cards.

  4. (p. 413) ‘The Fortnightly’: The Fortnightly Review, a Liberal journal, launched in 1865 with Trollope as a co-founder.

  5. (p. 414) craning: hesitating. A horse pulling up at a jump is said to be ‘craning’.

  Chapter 67

  1. (p. 424) None but the brave deserve the fair: see Chapter 4, note 1. Trollope's favourite quotation is barely appropriate here.

  2. (p. 424) Why, if ‘We fail… not fail’: ‘We fail?/But screw your courage to the sticking-place/ And we'll not fail’ – Shakespeare, Macbeth, I. vii. 60–62.

  3. (p. 425) Mr Roby: senior Tory politician, who appears in Phineas Finn (1869), Phineas Redux (1874) and The Prime Minister (1876).

  Chapter 69

  1. (p. 434) ‘Clarissa’: that Silverbridge should be attempting to read Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa (1747–8), a long and deeply serious exploration of the principles of moral conduct, is a sign of his devotion to his father.

  Chapter 70

  1. (p. 439) Mr Gotobed: he is the senator of Trollope's The American Senator (1877), where his acerbic criticisms of English society are an important comic theme.

  2. (p. 439) Ezekiel Sevenkings: in part a satirical portrait of Walt Whitman, whose Leaves of Grass (1855) enjoyed a vogue in the 1870s.

  3. (p. 443) Anglican: anglophile.

  Chapter 71

  1. (p. 445) Old Mr Mildmay: senior Liberal politician, who appears in Phineas Finn (1869), Phineas Redux (1874) and The Prime Minister (1876).

  2. (p. 446) sore-boned: reluctant to bear pain. The first and subsequent editions give ‘sore-bored’ here, a misreading of the manuscript.

  3. (p. 446) Walpole: Sir Robert Walpole, first Earl Orford (1676–1745), was the leading Whig politician of his day.

  4. (p. 449) ‘all the blood of all the Howards’: ‘What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards?/ Alas! Not all the blood of all the Howards’ – Pope, An Essay on Man (1733–4), IV. 215. The Howards were an aristocratic English family of ancient lineage.

  Chapter 72

  1. (p. 454) Darby and Joan: traditional term for a contented old married couple, originating in an eighteenth-century ballad.

  Chapter 73

  1. (p. 463) protect her from the very winds: ‘so loving to my mother/ that he might not beteem the winds of heaven/ visit her face too roughly’ – Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. ii. 140–42.

  2. (p. 464) ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men’: ‘There is a tide in the affairs of men,/ Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune’ – Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, IV. iii. 217–18.

  Chapter 74

  1. (p. 467) caviare to the general: i.e. not suited to popular taste. The Duke quotes from Shakespeare, Hamlet, II. ii. 433.

  2. (p. 470) to a moral: racing slang – ‘a moral’ is ‘a moral certainty’, tipster's jargon for a sure thing.

  Chapter 76

  1. (p. 479) buckram: starched and stiff.

  2. (p. 480) suasive: persuasive.

  3. (p. 482) peculation: pilfering.

  Chapter 77

  1. (p. 492) retrick his beams: ‘So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,/ And yet anon repairs his drooping head,/ And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore/ Flames in the forehead of the morning sky’ – Milton, Lycidas (1637), 170.

  Chapter 78

  1. (p. 493) leather or prunella: ‘Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow/ The rest is all but leather and prunella’ – Pope, An Essay on Man (1733–4). IV. 204. Prunella is a strong woollen or silken material, formerly used to make clerical or academic robes, or ladies' shoes. Trollope uses the phrase simply to denote matters of indifference.

  * See Juliet McMaster, Trollope's Palliser Novels: Theme and Pattern (1978), p. 141.

  * The Duke's Children, ed. Hermione Lee (1983).

  * The Duke's Children, ed. Hermione Lee (1983), pp. xvi–xvii.

  * N. John Hall, Trollope: A Biography (1991), p. 471.