Ch. 27 Summary, Notes

[jbor]

We land in the immediate presence of Benjamin Franklin, mid-utterance as it
were, as he is denouncing the Penns and their hypocrisy. The
sunglass-wearing "celebrated American Philosopher" has met up by chance with
Jere. and Cha. in a local "Apothecary" - a 1760s equivalent of the
ubiquitous drug store I presume - each stocking up on medicinal goods.

Franklin takes the two to a nearby coffee-house, "The Blue Jamaica", and,
while Mason attempts to flatter the American polymath, Dixon remains aloof
from his partner's brown-nosing and much less susceptible to Franklin's
name-dropping, duplicity and wit. Franklin sounds out first Mason,
attempting to bribe him, and then Dixon, about what he suspects are the
other man's secret or private loyalties. But neither Cha. nor Jere. betray
the other, nor agree to become Franklin's flunkies. Seemingly unperturbed by
these rebuffs, Ben fills in some first-hand info. about the Royal Society's
"Stubbornness" in sending M & D to the Cape, and observes that "[s]ooner or
later ... Americans must fight" the "bloody-minded" British. The trio are
then joined by two tarts, Molly and Dolly.

Perceiving the "eminent Philadelphia" as somewhat eccentric, and a bit of a
conman to boot, the two Englishmen take their leave but later that evening
attend a concert given by him at a Swedish dockside pub, where he performs
on one of his famed Glass Armonicas. During a break from the gig Franklin
introduces "Mr Tallihoe, of Virginia", who arranges for Cha. and Jere to
visit with George Washington. Mason and Dixon depart for Virginia the
following morning and, after an express 24 hour coach-trip, they arrive at
George and Martha's Mt Vernon estate.

***

266.1 "'Demagogue'!" Franklin had earnt the ire of the Penn faction after he
had successfully lobbied the British Crown to ratify a bill instructing that
their proprietorial landholdings be taxed.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/franklin.htm

I assume that Ben is reacting to a speech, pamphlet or comment from one of
William Penn's sons in which he was referred to as a "demogogue", with the
exhortation that he should be "crush[ed]".

The cry of "Demagogue!" seems to have been bandied about quite a bit in the
pre-Revolutionary era, most notably from the English aristocracy after
William Pitt the Elder legislated the Repeal of the Stamp Act in March 1766.

http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_html/Our_Country_vol_2/repealof_ba.htm
l

266.3 "Mr. Allen"  ? Perhaps Ethan Allen (1738-1789) American soldier, born
at Lichfield, Conneticut, distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War by
the surprise and capture of Fort Ticonderoga (May 10, 1775). He next did
good service in Montgomery's expedition to Canada, but was taken prisoner
and not exchanged until 1778. He wrote a famous deistical work (1784).  ?

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/allen/allenxx.htm

266.15 "Godfrey's Cordial ... Bateman's Drops, Hopper's Female Pills"
well-known proprietary medicines, imported from Britain

'Advertising Health to the People' by William H. Helfand

http://www.librarycompany.org/doctor/helfand.html

267.3 "Daffy's Elixir" Daffy. "So called after a seventeenth-century
clergyman, daffy was a medicine for children. It was a mixture of senna to
which gin was commonly added, and hence became the slang name for gin
itself." (_Oliver Twist_, Chapter 2, note 1)

Daffy's Elixir. Invented by said clergyman in the Restoration period. "What
it tasted like one can no longer tell, but it was probably pretty good since
it contained brandy, canary wine, oranges, lemons, rhubarb and a certain
amount of borax, perhaps to convince customers that it really was a medicine
and not just a rather expensive sort of gin."

http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/teaching/sle/Book/drinkgloss.htm

267.15 "the noted Dr. Paracelsus, of Germany"

The name coined for himself by the Swiss physician Theophrastus Bombastus
von Hohenheim (1493-1541), implying that he was superior to Celsus, the 1st
Century writer and physician.

http://www.psychicinvestigator.com/Occult/Paracl.htm

268, 272 Franklin's "Glass Armonica"

http://www.crystalmusic.com/glassarmonica.html

http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1386.htm

http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/summer/scor/articles/scor231.htm

http://www.gigmasters.com/armonica/index.asp

http://www.glassarmonica.com/

http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/musician/musician.html

268.10 "the excellent Miss Davies"  Marianne Davies (1744-1792)

270.26 "Phlogiston and Electric Fir-r-re"  Phlogiston (Greek 'combustible').
The inflammatory substance that was believed to be a constituent of all
combustible material. The theory regarding it was advanced by the German
chemist Johann Becher (1635-1682) and developed in 1702 by George Stahl
(1660-1734). It held sway until overthrown in the 1770s by Antoine Lavoisier
with his theory of oxygenation. (_Brewer's_)

272.28 "Oxenstjerna, Gyllenstjerna, Gyllenborg"  Respectively:

Count Axel Oxenstern (1583-1654), Swedish Chancellor from 1612.

Count Johan Gyllensterna, according to Tim Ware's site: "(1636-1680), chief
advisor to Charles XI. Advocated a strong royal authority and opposition to
the nobles of the Council of the Realm."

However: 

År 1677 reste Johan Gyllenstjerna, en av Karl XI:s närmaste män, genom
Blekinge och norra Skåne. Då hade det varit svenskt i nästan 20 år. Genom
hot om mycket hårda straff skulle befolkningen i de mest upproriska
socknarna underkuvas. Enligt Gyllenstjerna var Näsums socken bland de
argaste Snapphane-socknarna i Skåne.

http://home3.swipnet.se/~w-31763/nas4h1.htm

Which seems to indicate his demise in 1677 rather than 1680.

And, possibly, the first, or third, of the following trio:

Gyllenborg, Carl (1679-1746). Chancellor of Uppsala University.

Gyllenborg, Carl Johan (1741-1811). Count and lawyer, president of the
administrative court of appeal. Linnaeus's student in 1748.

Gyllenborg, Henning Adolph (1713-1775). Count, councillor of the realm.
Student at Uppsala and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

best