MDDM Ch. 23 Summary, Notes

[jbor]

Emerson, Dixon and Maire (disguised as Emerson's "cousin", Ambrose) arrive
at the pub. As they enter, Mr Brain, the hotelier, insults Emerson, scolds
his dog, then makes a terrible racket on a hurdy-gurdy.

The trio continue to discuss surveying, maths, religion, politics, and
Maire's plan for Dixon to take the Jesuit oath before going off to America.
Maire is convinced that Dixon is "God's Instrument". (230) Dixon, however,
remains resolute in his defiance.

Mr Whike, an old acquaintance of both Emerson and Dixon, joins the three,
and a fight nearly breaks out. Lud (Ludowick) Oafery, a local yokel, arrives
soon after, along with his mother, Ma Oafery (Betsy). Instead of conversing
Lud generally merely growls, and Whike translates these growls into
sentences. (Years before, however, when he first met Dixon in one of the
local tunnels while on patrol after the second Jacobite rising of 1745, Lud
seems to have been much more articulate.)

A discussion of the pre-existing tunnels "all over England" (233), oblique
references to the coal-mining industry - and the role of surveyors therein -
ensues, as well as more conjecture regarding Dixon's looming assignation in
America, and the reason for it. ("Sort of long Property-Line, Ma." 234)

Maire makes an impromptu anchovy pizza in order to cover a *faux pas* and
maintain his anonymity. It is "arguably the first British pizza" ever, and
all seem to enjoy eating "those pointed things". (236)

At the appearance of the full moon Lud Oafery turns into a werewolf, or, in
fact, turns from a grunting beast into some anti-werewolf, a foppish dandy,
much to his mother's dismay.

***

228.22 "Namby"  Short for "namby-pamby", which was the nickname of Ambrose
Phillips (1674-1749), whose pastoral verse was ridiculed for being insipid.
(Many of his verses were addressed to babies.) The name was given to him by
the dramatist Henry Carey, and was adopted by Alexander Pope.

namby-pamby adj 1. sentimental or prim in a weak insipid way  2. clinging,
feeble, or spineless  n. 3. a person who is namby-pamby

229.16 "a batter'd Hurdy-Gurdy or Hum-Strum of antique design"

hurdy-gurdy 2. a medieval instrument shaped like a viol in which a rosined
wheel rotated by a handle sounds the strings (18th c.)

229.21 "The Dog Goblin ... "  Interestingly, unpunctuated.

229.28 "the pernicious Cult of *Feng Shui* ... "  First mention.

*Feng Shui*. In Chinese thought a system of good and evil influences in the
natural surroundings, now increasingly taken into account in the West when
designing buildings or simply when deciding where to sit. The words
represent Chinese *feng*, "wind", and *shui*, "water". For the Chinese *feng
shui* is both an art and a science, the former as a means of counteracting
evil influences by good ones, the latter by determining the desirability of
sites from the configuration of natural objects such as rivers, trees and
hills. Many Chinese were at first concerned that the introduction of
railways and telegraph lines would seriously damage the *feng shui* or
prosperity of the districts through which they were laid.

230.6 "mental Cilice"  cilice n. (garment of) haircloth

230.17 "Why, teach thy Grandam to grope Ducks...?" A common expression from
the early 17th c., a variant of the idiom "to teach one's grandmother to
suck eggs", with the meaning of "to feel a duck and decide whether it will
lay or not

230.28 "clarts" n. Scot. lumps of mud

232.34 "the '45 ... the Young Pretender"  The Forty-Five was the name given
to the rebellion of 1745 led by Charles Edward Stuart (1720-88), the Young
Pretender. He landed at Eriskay Island (23 July) and raised his standard at
Glenfinnan (19 August). Joined by many Scottish clansmen, he proclaimed his
father, the "Old Pretender", as James III. His army defeated Sir John Cope
at Preston-pans (21 Sept.) and marched south to Derby (4 Dec.). His plan to
proceed to London was frustrated by the advice of his supporters and lack of
support from the English Jacobites. He retreated to Scotland and was
decisively beaten by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden Moor (16 April
1746). The Young Pretender escaped to France (20 Sept.) with the help of
Flora Macdonald and others. Cumberland earned the nickname "Butcher" for the
subsequent reprisals taken against the Highlanders.

235.28 "*Cicinielli*"  little fishes

Interesting facts about pizza:

http://www.pizza.it/curiosita/sorpb.html

236.8 "Bourquelet and Nynauld"

Bourquelet ? Maybe = Berkeley ? George Berkeley (1685-1753), Bishop
Berkeley, famed Irish mathematician and philosopher ?

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/berkeley.htm

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/pub/HistMath/People/Berkeley/

Jean de Nynauld was a French physician and herbalist. He concocted "flying
ointments" amongst other potions and cures:

    The drugs employed in shape-shifting were similar to those used in the
    witches' flying ointments.... The most complete list of ingredients for
    the werewolf ointment was provided by Nynauld in his *De la
    lycanthropie, transformation, et extase des sorciers* (1615):
    "Belladonna root, nightshade, the blood of bats and hoopoes, aconite,
    celery, sopoforic nightshade, soot, cinquefoil, calamus, parsley, poplar
    leaves, opium, henbane, hemlock, varieties of poppy, and the
    crustaceans...."]

http://shanmonster.lilsproutz.com/witch/werewolf/drugs.html

best