MDDM Ch. 26 Summary, Notes

[jbor]

The central section of the novel opens with a brief poetic précis of the
background to Mason and Dixon's commission, written by 'Pennsylvaniad' bard
Timothy Tox. 

The sounds and sights of the new continent are strange to Cha. and Jere.
when they arrive in Delaware Bay in mid-November 1763. Wicks relates details
of Philadelphia's pre-eminence ("second only to London, as the greatest of
English-speaking cities"), as well as intimating some of its hazards.

The two Englishmen disembark at the Philadelphia dock amidst a flurry of
multicultural activity and produce. "Vendors of all sorts" accost the
sailors and unaccompanied passengers, each one with a different scam. Of
these, evangelists, and "[s]nooty urban Anglicans" in particular, "haunt"
the streets like scavengers.

Aside, Wicks bemoans the failure of the "New Religion", the fervour of the
"born agains" of the 1740s, to inspire the American populace during the
1760s. Ethelmer expresses his scepticism, and Wicks agrees that there were
indeed many "Charlatans" among the Evangelicals, but that these had been
easily exposed and a true revelation of the "Holy Ghost" had swept the
colony at that time, "and rules yet".

This conversation leads into a discussion of the relationship between the
religious revival and the War of Independence, and corresponding changes in
popular music, and various points of view and exemplifications are put
forward by the family members, including Ethelmer's playing of the tune
which will become 'The Star Spangled Banner'.

A teasing reference to "Rock ... [and] Roll" by Ethelmer at 264.27-8,
followed by similar allusions to even more recent stylistic variants, fuels
a suspicion that much of what is being referred to here could be also
transposed onto 20th C. history, culture, and, particularly, pop music.

As well, the various allusions to specifically literary endeavours and forms
- "the Dithyrambists" (262.3), hymns, anthems, street-airs, *Ritornelli*, "a
Novel in Musick" (263.26) - assume a reflexive potentiality here. Wicks's
and Euphrenia's distinctions between west-bound and east-bound tales (263)
seems to me to be marking a distinction between picaresque narratives (such
as the story of Mason and Dixon's adventure, and the "true" playing out of
lives and histories) and a more artificial type of story-telling, morality
tales perhaps - narratives in the Aristotleian/Platonic mode, born of a vain
utopianism - which seek to present and solidify the illusion that "reality"
has a beginning, middle and end.

***

257.19 "Timothy Tox, *The Line*"  I get the impression, from its metre and
punctuation, that this is supposed to be a separate and complete poem in
itself, and not merely a part of the longer epic.

258.7 "the Brakes"  brake n. an area of dense undergrowth, shrubs, brushwood
etc; thicket. (Old English *bracu*; related to Middle Low German *brake, Old
French *bracon* branch)  ?

259.2 "feeling like Super-cargo"  supercargo n. an officer on a merchant
ship who supervises commercial matters and is in charge of the cargo (17th
C., changed from Spanish *sobrecargo*)

259.12 "Queen-of-Hungary Water"  ?  a type of perfume ?

259.15 "Spadger"  spadger n. (slang) sparrow (fanciful alternative)

260.8 "how about Old Q, the Star of Piccadilly?"  William Douglas, Duke of
Queensberry (1724-1810), "Old Q", succeeded his father as Earl of March, his
mother as Earl of Ruglen, and his cousin in 1778 as the fourth Duke of
Queensberry. From 1760 to 1789 he was lord of the bedchamber to George III.
He was famous as a patron of the turf, and infamous for his shameless
debaucheries. He died unmarried, worth over a million sterling.

260.15 "Graziana"  ?

260.20 "we haven't even gotten to the *Scamozz'* yet!"  ? Perhaps:
Scammozzi's rule. The jointed 2ft (60cm) rule used by builders, said to have
been invented by Vincenzo Scammozzi (1552-1616), the Italian architect.
(_Brewer's_)

Is Graziana a young Italian girl giving a demonstration of how to roll and
toss dough, as in the making of a round pizza crust?

260.29 "The Rev.d MacClenaghan"  ?

260.30 "The Whitefield Mold"  George Whitefield (1714-1770) English
evangelist, one of the founders of Methodism, was born in the Bell Inn,
Gloucester. At 18 he entered as servitor Pembroke College, Oxford. The
Wesleys had already laid the foundations of Methodism at Oxford, and
Whitefield became an enthusiastic evangelist. He took deacon's orders in
1736, and preached his first sermon in the Crypt Church, Gloucester. In 1738
he followed Wesley to Georgia, returning to be admitted to priest's orders,
and to collect funds for an orphanage. The religious level of the age was
low, and Whitefield was actively opposed by his fellow churchmen. But when
the parish pulpits were denied him he preached in the open air .... His life
was then spent in  constant travel and preaching. About 1741 differences on
predestination led to his separation as a rigid Calvinist from John Wesley
as an Arminian. ... [H]is preaching gathered immense audiences. But he
founded no distinct sect, many of his adherents following the Countess of
Huntingdon in Wales, and ultimately helping to form the Calvinistic
Methodists. The Countess appointed him her chaplain, and built and endowed
many chapels for him. He made seven evangelical visits to America, and spent
the rest of his life in preaching tours through England, Scotland and Wales.
One of the most famous of these missionary journeys was that which he made
to Scotland in 1741. In that year he married a Welsh widow, Mrs James. He
set out for America for the last time in 1769, and died near Boston.

260.34 "great Conestoga Waggons"  Conestoga wagon n. (US and Canadian) a
large heavy horse-drawn covered wagon used in the 19th C. (19th C., after
Conestoga, Pennsylvania, where it was first made)

262.19 "To Anacreon in Heaven". It was written in c.1780, probably by the
British composer John Stafford Smith. The melody is well known, since it was
later used for the American National Anthem, with different words, of
course. For more, quite interesting, info, go to:

http://www.contemplator.com/america/anacreon.html

(Thanks to Cyrus for this note.)

263.17 "*Ritornelli*"  ritornello n. 1. an orchestral passage between verses
of an aria or song  2. a ripieno passage in a concerto grosso  (17th C. from
Italian, literally, "a little return")

A term used generally for a short instrumental section played between the
scenes of an opera or during the action for dramatic effect, or between the
phrases of a song or anthem. It was also the name given to an old variety of
Italian verse, and is still used in some parts for folk-songs with the same
characteristics.

263.35 "the Elder World, Turn'd Upside Down"  'The World Turned Upside Down'
The name of the tune played by the military band when General Cornwallis
surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown in 1781.

An inn sign illustrating an unnatural state of affairs, and also an allusion
to the antipodes. It often took the form of a man walking at the South Pole.
(_Brewer's_)

264.20 "the Negroe Musick, the flatted Fifths, the vocal *portamenti*"

flatted vb. the usual US word for flatten, to lower the natural pitch of a
note by one chromatic semitone

Fifth n. the interval between one note and another five notes away from it
counting inclusively along the diatonic scale, or one of two notes
constituting such an interval in relation to the other

A "flatted fifth" is more properly called a "diminished fifth" I think.

portamento n. a smooth slide from one note to another in which intervening
notes are not separately discernible. (18th C. from Italian, "a carrying")

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