MDDM Ch. 5: There was this Jesuit...

[Terrance]

Dixon and Mason are drinking. 

"Neither is making much sense." MD.43

Although, Robert, your explanation makes very good sense, in fact the
more I think about it the more sense it makes, I still think the pronoun
ambivalence may be deliberate and that other possible meanings here (the
devil for example) may be important.  

In any event, they are now drafting a letter to send to the RS. 

I posted a link on this. 



Dixon is joking about commanding a regiment. 
Mason is not getting the jokes. 
Moreover, Mason remains fixated on WHOM, while Dixon is cracking jokes
that 
require a knowledge of Quaker theology and history which Mason lacks. 

Remember the joke Dixon begins to tell but never provides a punch line
for? 

There was a Chinaman, a Jesuit and Corsican and a Lady, and they were on
their way to Bath.....

Well, even if Dixon had given us the punch line,  Mason probably
wouldn't
have gotten the joke. 

Would we? 

In any event, the joke involved a Jesuit. 

I think it worth our time to identify the names that Pynchon is tossing
into the tale. 

The Jesuit "Father Bascovich"  MD.44

Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich


A Dalmatian Jesuit and well-known mathematician, astronomer, and natural
philosopher, b. at Ragusa, 18 May 1711; d. at Milan, 13 February, 1787.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02691a.htm



PS MD43 Dixon says, "Quakers are a bit matier." 

What is "matier" ?