MDDM18: The Rebel Weaver

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Worse than London by far,' Mason brushing away
Bugs, rolling over and over, four sudes at five
minutes per side, a Goose upon Insomnia's Spit,
uncontrollably humming to himself an idiotic Galop
from The Reebel Weaver, which he attended in London
just before Departure, instead of Mr. Arne's Love in a
Cottage, which would have been wiser.[...]  He keeps
waking with his heart racing, fear in his Bowels,
something loud having just occur'd...waiting for it to
repeat.  And as he relaxes, never knowing the precise
moemnt it begins, the infernal deedle ee, deedle ee,
deedel-eedle-eedle-dee again.
   "The Rebel Weaver was set in the Golden Valley,
being a light-hearted account of the late battles
there between Weavers and Clothiers, with interludes
of music, juggling, and tricksome Animal Life. 
'Strangely,' Mason has reported to Dixon, 'I was not
appall'd,-- tho' I've every reason to be.'  The plot,
about a Weaver's son who loves the Daughter of a
Clothier, and the conflict of loyalties resulting,
presents nothing more troubling sentimentally, than
the comick misunderstandings of an Italian Opera.  One
of two of the slower tunes, lugubrious to some Ears,
he even yet fancies, tho' this damn'd Galop is another
matter." (M&D, Ch. 29, p. 292)

First off ...

Arne, Thomas Augustine (1710-72), 
292; prolific composer whose most well known work is
probably "Rule Britannica" but, now, Love in a
Cottage.

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/a.html#arne

"Love in a Cottage"
441; 1762: Librettist: Isaac Bickerstaffe; Composer:
Thomas Augustine Arne; Designated Genre: Pasticcio
opera (i.e., an opera with contributions from two or
more composers); `and he ain't just humming `Love in a
Cottage' brings to mind the expression "and he ain't
just whistling Dixie."

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/l.html#love

Main Entry: ga·lop  
Pronunciation: 'ga-l&p, ga-'lO
Function: noun
Etymology: French
Date: 1831
: a lively dance in duple measure; also : the music of
a galop

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

"fear in his Bowels"--cf. "cryptick Intestinal
Commentary" (M&D, Ch. 29, p. 289)

http://www.freedomofchoice.com/devo/lyrics.asp?Submit=View+Lyrics&AlbumID=1&SongID=8

"something loud having just occur'd...waiting for it
to repeat."--cf. "A screaming comes across the sky. It
has happened before, but there is nothing to compare
it to now.  The evacuation still proceeds ..." (GR,
Pt. I, p. 3) 

But The Rebel Weaver ...

"Nicole Tooley (50th, 24:44), Katie Lust (55th, 25:02)
and Rebel Weaver (56th, 25:03) also ran for the
Warrior girls."

http://www.oweb.com/advertiser-tribune/Text/S090998a.html

Okay ...

"The plot, about a Weaver's son who loves the Daughter
of a Clothier, and the conflict of loyalties
resulting, presents nothing more troubling
sentimentally, than the comick misunderstandings of an
Italian Opera."   Or a Shakesperean tragedy ...

http://www.bartleby.com/70/index38.html

http://www.shakespeare.com/FirstFolio/ROMEO_AND_JULIET/

http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/Tragedy/romeoandjuliet/romeoandjuliet.html

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/romeo_and_juliet/

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/R&JPaintings.html

"The Rebel Weaver was set in the Golden Valley, being
a light-hearted account of the late battles there
between Weavers and Clothiers, with interludes of
music, juggling, and tricksome Animal Life."

The "tricksome Animal Life" I've already covered ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60179&sort=date

But on "the late battles there between Weavers and
Clothiers" ...

"Long before the Soldiers came in sight, People in
their Path could hear the drums, upon fitfully
directed Winds, clattering off the walls of old
quarries ..."

[...]

   "'Then they began with the Bagpipes.'"

[...]

   "'British firing upon British,-- '  Dixon charging
his Pipe absently, 'I thought tha' was all done with. 
Are your Weavers Jacobites, then?'
   "'They're people, Dixon ..."

[...]

   "'Some aspir'd to be master-weavers, ost would have
settl'd for a living wage, but their desires how
betray'd, when in 'fifty-six the Justices of the
Peace, upon easily imagin'd arrangements with the
Clothiers, reduced by half the Wages set by law, and
the troubles came to a head."  He pauses as if
reaching a small decision.  'Rebekah's people were
weavers.'
   "Dixon lighting his Pipe, 'Hahdn't knoawn thah'.'
   "'Wool-workers upon her father's side, silk upon
her mother's,-- she liked to say it accompted for the
way she was.'
   "Dixon puffs, nodding slowly, evenly, eyes cross'd
as if scrying in the glow of his pipe-bowl.
   "'And that wondrous night, in the High Street, they
were all there, brothers and cousins and uncles,' 
Mason's pause seems but for breath, tho' Dixon is
beaming and unmistakable inquiry,-- 'I was there, now
that I think of it.'
   "Dixon nods.  'Been out on the Pavement
m'self...Tyne Keelmen, back in 'fifty.  No business
over there, understand, none at all, yet...'

[...]

   "'The Streets, Jere! thousands of angry men in
Streets that ordinarily see no more than, oh, a dozen
a day,-- [...] torches ev'rywhere.  Looms dress'd in
Mourning, songs of the 'Forty-five (their Throbbing
within those prim corridors of Stone, hopw savage),
effigies of hated Master Weavers, hang'd in their own
Bar-chains so dishonorably set, and the Murmur,--
ever, unceasingly, the great, crisp, serene Roar,-- of
a Mobility focus'd upon a just purpose.'
   "'Aye...aye, of course in Newcastle 'twas more the
Brick type of wall,-- quite different sound,-- more
like Philadelphia...?'

[...]

"'Weavers a-riot, troops coming in,--'" (M&D, Ch. 52,
pp. 501-3)

"'I was not appall'd,-- tho' I've every reason to
be.'"  Indeed.  Cf. Boston, Haymarket, Kent State ... 


And on the Woolen Industry in 'The Golden Valley" of
Charles Mason's Cotswolds ...

http://www.grahamthomas.com/history11.html

Okay, a quick one, then I'm away ...

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