MDDM Ch. 22 Notes (2)

[jbor]

220.6 " ... and therefore hates Euler, for example ... " Leonhard Euler
(1707-83) Swiss mathematician, noted esp. for his work on the calculus of
variation: considered the founder of modern mathematical analysis. (Cf.
Pynchon's own comments re. Leibniz in the 1969 letter to Thomas F. Hirsch)

220.8 "Fluxions" n. 1. Maths, obsolete. the rate of change of a function;
derivative.  2. a less common word for "flux" (in two senses: flow or
discharge; continuous change, instability)

220.10 " ... a Ship to him is a Paradigm of the Universe ... " Cf. the
metaphor of the Bull's Eye above Cape Town (87, 91, 99), as well as
Rebekah's belief that the Stars "were Ships at Anchor" (172.13).

220.32 "Chaining through the Glaur...?" Glaur n. Scot. mud or mire [16th c.
of origin unknown]

221.1 "Dodman" ?

221.15 "Pit-Prop" ? The wooden pole holding up the roof of a coal mine ?

222.12 "St Omer" town about 40 km south east of Calais

222.19 "*De Litteraria Expeditione et Soforthia*" ? A facetious reference to
a journal of one of Boscovich's and Maire's surveying expeditions? Perhaps
that one recounting "the march from Rome to Rimini" ? (222.25)

221.16 "Tow Law" ?

223.31 "tilth-stopp'd" tilth n. 1. the act or process of tilling land  2.
the condition of soil or land that has been tilled, esp. with respect to
suitability for promoting plant growth [Old English *tilthe*]

So, full of dirt, in other words.

224.9 "Maria Theresa" (1717-80) Empress, daughter of Charles VI, became
Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria, in 1740. Marie
Antoinette was one of her daughters.

225.32 "Calvert approval" Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore
(c.1580-1632), founded Maryland. Formerly an English statesman and secretary
of state, he converted to Catholicism in 1632 and retired to his Irish
estates. He was created Baron Baltimore in the Irish peerage. His son,
Leonard, became the first colonial governor of Maryland in 1634. I assume
that Calvert descendants retained economic and political power in Maryland
throughout the 18th c.

225.35 "the melancholy yet darkly inspirational tale of Sir Henry Vane the
younger" Sir Henry Vane (1613-62) had been governor of Massachussetts for a
time, and upon his return was instrumental in English politics before and
after the Civil War. His religious extremism (he was a Fifth Monarchist)
eventually lead to a falling out with Cromwell, however, and the dissolution
of the Rump Parliament followed in 1653. Vane was imprisoned in 1656 after
publishing 'Healing Question' (written while he was in retirement at Raby
Castle), a treatise which was hostile to Cromwell's Protectorate. After
Cromwell's death Vane returned to politics, was imprisoned several times,
and was finally beheaded for high treason in 1662.

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