MDDM Ch. 28 "what else?"

[jbor]

on 18/1/02 4:59 PM, John Bailey at johnbonbailey at hotmail.com wrote:

> Also interesting is the way Washington becomes a little suspicious that
> Mason & Dixon recognise the Chinese origin of the inscription, as, I
> presume, most people in this period wouldn't. Fair enough. But if that is
> the case, why *do* they recognise it?

I think it links back to 223-4, when Emerson chances upon the Jesuits'
ambition "*to penetrate China.*" (224.6) It's Dixon who recognises the
Plate's reverse inscription as Chinese, and we're still not 100% certain
that Dixon didn't take up Maire's offer back at Hurworth (just as we don't
know what Mason decided to do about his sons), so that the dramatic tension
is amplified when Washington suggests Dixon is a Jesuit. (287.5)

Quick-witted and unfazed yet again, Dixon fends off the charge by citing the
"Masonick password", which appears to be "*West*", and which is a reference
I don't really get. But it seems that George is a Mason (was he?), and that
the irony here is that the Masons are exactly the same sort of secret
society which George describes the Jesuits as being. The Masons figure
prominently in _GR_, of course, but the allusion here seems far more benign.

best