MDMD(1): Notes

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

MDMD(1) Notes

5.1  `as of cousins' i.e. starred their sides too

5.2 `Wind off Delaware' we are in Philadelphia, Advent 1786 cf. 6.8
and 6.9
 
5.13 `Lancaster' Pennsylvania town west of Philadelphia on east side
of Susquehanna river.

5.22 `Twins and Sister' Pliny and Pitt LeWade and their sister
Tenebrae cf. 7.11 and 7.8

6.29 `Revd Wicks Cherrycoke who arrived here in October for the
funeral of a friend of years ago,-- too late for the Burial, as it
proved,--` This was mason's funeral cf.  7.35 and 8.7

6.34  `yet Sultan enough' a hint at Wicks' Scherezade role.

7.23  `Jabot' frill on front of man's (or boy's) shirt.

7.29 `Allegheny Ridge' western end of the Mason Dixon line reached
during survey in 1766.

8.18 `Green Brief-Bag' from which we deduce that Uncle Ives is, horror
of horrors, a Philadelphia Lawyer!

8.28 `the crime they styl'd “Anonymity”' our narrator and his
narrator have this in common, at least. n.b. Enclosures etc represent
the onset of revolutionary social change in England, with first
agricultural and then industrial technology transforming the
conditions of working people's lives.

10.23 `Seahorse' establishing a link to Mason & Dixon in the next chapter.


10.34  `Indian Hemp' aka cannabis

11.6  `Lamas' i.e. Tibetan Monks

11.7  `Jean Crapaud' i.e. Johnny Frog (crapaud = toad in French)

12.1 `assistant to the AR' i.e. Bradley the Astronomer Royal on whose
ascendant Mason has hitched himself a ride up.

12.5 `Sumatra' their destination being the peak of Bencoolen on this
Indonesian island.

12.7 `Mr Bird', `Mr Emerson' Dixon's promoter in Greenwich (cf 12.18)
and his old teacher (cf 17.17) in `County Durham' (13.4).

12.8 `Ahhrr! bitter Deception' right from the start Mason & Dixon
appear to wrong foot and misjudge each other, yet each such
misjudgement is acknowledged and taken into the reckoning.

12.12 `my own Work' surveying (cf 17.1 ff)

14.3 `Spiritual Day Book' from which several quotes are selected to
head some of the chapters.

14.6 `Writing in your sleep, too!' cf twins comment on need for coffee
to keep Nunk awake (7.16)

14.10 `Portsmouth' and this must be December 1760 or early January
1761.

14.12 `Eeh' `How can Yese dwell thah' closely together' revealing
Dixon's North East origins.

15.4 `Wapping High Street' `Tyburn' where hangings took place in
London

15.23 `Did ye see them rahde the Eeahr at Taahburn?' sounds more
Yorkshire than North East. Maybe deliberate or maybe just a bad ear?

15.27 `Nooah, the first thing . . .' Sounds much more like the real
thing - no bad ear!

16.22 `Quaker Profession' hence his tendency to Thee and Thou

17.8 `Ha-Ha' a ditch with a wall on its inner side below ground level,
forming a boundary to a garden or park without interrupting the view
from within, being visible only from a close proximity (E18th OED).

17.12 `Laplace' b 1749 so aged 2 at the time of this scene!

19.36 `Metempsychosis' revealign Mason's real interest

20.12 `Sailors with Queues' pigtails (M18th OED)

20.15 `Ale-Drapers' obsolete term for keeper of alehouse (OED)

21.30 `Fops, Macaronis or Lunarians' (Shorter) OED has Fop = dandy in
L17th then conceited person in M18th. Macaroni = C18th dandy who
imitates continental fashions. Lunarian = dweller in moon in E18 and
lunar observer only in E19th.  Dava Sobel in her book `Longitude'
refers to those who hoped to solve the Longitude problem using astral
and planetary observations as Lunarians but OED does not list this
meaning.

21.34 `Glim-jacks' glim = candle hence must be person who carries a
candle or torch to light the way, hence Pynchon's pun.


22.21 `So now we know how to evoke from you, Man, one day at a time,
at least enough Mercy for one more day of life' Sounds a bit like our
Revd Wicks, or maybe even that tired old performing dog, TRP, no?

23.?? `I am a British Dog, Sir. No one owns me!' Perhaps the whole
point of introducing the LED was to place this gem?

24.3 `Pearl of Sumatra' an aptly named pub.

24.26 `welsh Main' a series of cock-fighting matches organised as a
knockout competition (OED)

25.8 `Fulhams' loaded dice (E16th OED)

25.29 `Angelo said there would be a package for me?' so someone has
set this meeting up!

26.1 `Ort' scrap of food or rubbish

26.23 `Broadside Sheet' = broadsheet i.e. a large piece of paper
printed on only one side (not a large format newspaper)

26.27 `Intelligence, Naval' a commodity doubtless in short supply but
this may be yet another hint that scheming is afoot.

27.27 `La Changhaienne' The Lady From Shanghai' an Orson Welles
film. Anyone able to connect the film and the novel or is this just a
little joke.

27.28 `Kiddean Chair' after Captain Kidd the pirate.


28.7 `Ramillies' `Bolt' cf 34.5 as the Seahorse sails down the Channel

30.2 `Epictetus' - stoic philosopher of Hierapolis in Phrygia. Like
the Stoics he maintained the doctrine of the immortality of the soul
but declared himself strongly against suicide.

30.19 `pollicates' not in OED. poll-ex -icis = thumb, so this must be
P's invention for gesturing with the thumb.

31.14 `horse races in Marylands' presumably betting was not allowed in
Pennsylvania

31.34 `Royal N.' for Navy

32.7 `Silver ringing upon Silver,-- sugar-Loaves, . . .' Mason & Dixon
evidently must be in a coffee house and their discussion of
negotiations with Captain Smith places the time frame at least some
days before the Seahorse set sail.

32.12 `Lord Anson' First Lord of the Admiralty (cf 32.23)

33.12 `our Great Circumnavigator' a reference to Anson, perhaps to the
journey in HMS Centurion, on which he misjudged his latitude several
times when rounding the tip of South America, the consequent delays
killing many of his men. The Centurion was used to test Harrison's
first chronometer, although with another Captain.

33.20 `Rutabageous Anaemia' rutabago = the edible root of the swede
(rather like a turnip) so this must mean deep-rooted cowardice
(bloodlessness)?

34.3 `Perhaps there is?'  yet another hint of scheming?

34.5 `tail of the Bolt' cited to emphasise the importance of solving
the Longitude problem?

35.33 `that year of miracles. 1759' - because of the defeat of the
French? but note also that Rebekah died in this year.

36.1 `though officially she is a couple of guns shy' a frigate
normally had 28-60 guns.

36.2 `Jackass Frigate' a small frigate (OED) jackass is also used to
qualify barque, brig and schooner when jackass rigged i.e. with an
unusual sail arrangement.

39.13 `loblolly boy' an attendant who assists a ship's surgeon and his
mates in their duties (OED)

39.15 `Lazarette' after part of a ship used for stores and also a
quarantine ship or a quarantine hospital on land (OED) but here
appears to mean Sick Bay.

40.16 `teton dernier' hind tit i.e. the runt of the fleet.