mdmd(4) - questions: "Bubb" Dodington

[Matthew P Wiener]

>I am reposting this for Adam
>----- Begin Included Message -----

From: AS Rounce <A.Rounce at bristol.ac.uk>

>> 113-31    George (Bubb) Dodington?

>Crazy name, crazy guy. Dodington (1691-1762) is famous for his
>Machiavellian political diary (publ. 1784; 1965), [...]

>Dodington's name became a byword for aristocratic hauteur, tactless
>arrogance and amorality (c.f Pope's 4th Moral Essay and the first
>Epilogue to the Satires), so the irony in Mason's comments on him on
>p.114 is quite overt.

I do not think Mason was being ironic whatsoever.  Florinda deliberately
named Bubb Dodington as a cryptic sexual reference, and Mason was simply
surprised at her forwardness, trying to verify that she meant what she
seemed to have meant.

Baron Melcombe's last name is actually "Bubb Dodington", two names.  He
was born George Bubb, and added on his uncle's name upon inheriting the
estate.  He was one of the Mad Monks of Medmenham Abbey, which is what
Mason was referring to.  (Chalk up another detail Pynchon got right.)
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)