MDDM Ch. 40 Summary, Notes, Questions

[jbor]

Mason, meanwhile, goes north for the week, to New York, here described as "a
prosperous Hell". He attends the Sunday service at the Trinity Church and
then on Monday night joins the lovers walking by the river in Battery Park.
He meets up with "a certain Amelia, a Milk-Maid of Brooklyn" and treats her
to a hearty meal at a local Tavern, and then with her takes the ferry back
to her home on Long Island.

Amy is all dressed in black and talks like a late 18th C. East Coast version
of a Valley Girl/Jewish American Princess/Sloane Ranger. On the ferry she
makes a pass at Mason, who becomes inarticulate yet again. Arrived at her
home he meets Amy's "uncle" and an array of misfits and scoundrels, who make
fun of him and threaten him, until he agrees to impersonate a Frenchman.
Finally they ask him to repair their telescope.

These 18th C. counterparts of the Whole Sick Crew then talk politics and
revolution long into the night as Mason labours. A fragile rapport is
struck, the oppression of colonials, slaves and English weavers by "Masters"
being rated as somewhat comparable by all, including Wicks in his day-book.

Returning to Brandywine the following Sunday Mason is thrown from his horse
and while recuperating from his injuries spends his time reading up on and
pondering the logic of Resurrection in I Corinthians (or, at least, so Wicks
has it). Another visitation, "not exactly" Rebekah, assures him of the gap
between rationality and faith.

***

398.4 "Trinity Church, at the head of Wall-Street"

"The original Trinity Church finished construction in 1698 and appeared
modest in design. Unfortunately, this first church was destroyed in 1776 by
a massive fire stemming from an American Revolution battle."

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/trinity1.html

400.23 "All her Funds? ... "

Why was "Amelia" on Manhattan? What was her mission in the city?

401.25 "Bum-bailiff"  Formerly an official who collected debts and arrested
debtors for non-payment. He was so-called because he followed close behind
the debtors, on their tail.

401.34 "I observe the heavens ... I am a Cadastral Surveyor"  cadaster or
cadastre  n. an official register showing details of ownership, boundaries
and value of real property in a district, made for taxation purposes [19th
C., from French, from Provencal *cadastro*, from Italian *catastro*, from
late Greek *katastikhon* register, from *kata stikhon* line by line, from
*kata* or cata- + *stikhos* line]

Mason uses the term "Cadastral" knowingly, I think, at once expecting to
impress his audience in the mistaken assumption that it has something to do
with astronomy (i.e. "astral" surveying) while also self-deprecatingly
referring to the real purpose of his work in America. There are other
subtexts at play too I think: Mason's interest in the afterlife and
resurrection, and particularly Rebekah's ghost, which is another
non-professional capacity in which he does "observe the Heavens"; the way
that Mason's and Dixon's professions (and, their identities) are
intermingling; his constant and constantly ill-fated craving for respect.

And, yet again, his attempt at wit is foiled and his self-esteem punctured.
"Amelia" finds yet another pun in the term, on the words "Cad" and "Ass",
and recoils from him as some horrible lech. The dogs howl and the Irishman
draws his pistol.

402.19 "Quotha"  interjection (Archaic) an expression of mild sarcasm, used
in picking up a word or phrase used by someone else: "Art thou mad? Mad,
quotha! I am more sane than thou." [16th C. from *quoth a* quoth he]

So, what word is being picked up? Is it, perhaps, "independent"?

403.4 "If he reads the Papers, he knows what we are ... "  What are they?
Revolutionaries? Petty criminals? Fugitives? Beatniks?

"Amelia/Amy"? "little Ezekiel"? "Patsy"? "Black-Powder"? "Drogo"? "the tiny
Topman MacNoise"? "Captain Volcanoe"?

403.14 "A Field-Marshal's Dream."

Perhaps (?) a reference to:

http://www.lihistory.com/histpast/past0511.htm

409.12 "I Corinthians, in particular Chapter 15 [ ... ] to Verse 42,-- 'So
also is the Resurrection of the Dead.'"

http://bahai-library.org/essays/corinthians.resurrection.html

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