MDDM Ch. 41 Notes & Questions

Wed Mar 13 06:05:57 CST 2002

410.1 "Ridotto" n. an entertainment with music and dancing, often in
masquerade; popular in 18th C. England

411.4 "Mr LeSpark, as he tells it"  So, who is narrating John's tale?

411.11 "the workings of the Invisible Hand"  Economic progress, as described
in Adam Smith's _The Wealth of Nations_ (1776):

http://www.cyberus.ca/choose.sustain/invisble.html

http://pass.maths.org.uk/issue14/features/smith/

(And almost certainly *not* _Macbeth_ III ii 49.)

411.18 "Iron-Plantation"  i.e. a steel mill

411.20 "that timeless *Encyclopedia-Light*"  the Age of Enlightenment (?)

412.8 "Gangue"  gangue or gang n. valueless or undesirable material, such as
quartz in small quantities, in an ore [19th C. from French *gangue*, from
German *Gang* vein of metal, course]

412.11 "journalizes the Rev.d to himself, later"  Again, an external
narrator seems to be relating this episode.

412.22 "Mason and Dixon, happening to be lost at nightfall (as they will
later tell it)"  Is this now Wicks retelling one of M & D's tales? Or
LeSpark? Another narrator?

The narrative shifts and nestings are quite complex here. Why I wonder?

412.26 "the Surveyors find more room inside than could possibly be contained
in the sorrowing ruin they believ'd they were entering."  (Cf. the "Jesuit"
coach at 354.11)

412.31 "Plafond"  n. a ceiling, especially one having ornamentation [17th C.
from French]

413.3 "at the moment of D." Death? Departure? (From the context I'd guess
the latter.)

413.11 "the Oboick Reveries of the Besozzis" Alessandro (1702-1775) and
Carlo Besozzi (1738-1791):

http://www.musicabona.com/cdshop3/besozzi01.html

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search/002-6512614-6629625?tag=dr
johnholleman&keyword=alessandro+besozzi&mode=classical-music

http://www.music.indiana.edu/musicref/oboesec.htm

Probably not:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/hautbois/orchestre_badin.htm

413.11 "the Imperial Melismata of Quantz"  melismata n. pl. Music. an
expressive vocal phrase or passage consisting of several notes sung to one
syllable [19th C. from Greek: melody]

Quantz (cf. 104.5), courtesy of Otto Sell:

"Johann Joachim Quantz (Jan. 30 1697-July 12 1773) is a major figure in the
world of the flute. He is less well-known than he ought to be, though, since
the vast majority of his works remain unpublished. This is due, at least in
part, to the fact that his many sonatas and concertos (several hundred of
each survive) were written for a jealous monarch, who did not care to see
the works he had paid for distributed to a wider public. Of Quantz's works
only six sonatas with continuuo (published in 1734, after Quantz had begun
to teach Frederick the Great, but before he had taken an official position
at court) and six duets (published 1759) appeared in print with Quantz's
permission." by Tom Moore

http://www.princeton.edu/~mlislib/quantzbrown.html

413.31 "Hurricanoe" (?)

414.8 "Climber's Discourse"  i.e. social climbers (?)

414.20 "Churs"  i.e. streets (?)

414.22 "the notorious Calvert agent Captain Dasp" (?)

415.19 "Ballocks"  n. variant of "bollocks" (slang = testicles)

415.29 " ... the unashamed prevalence of British modality,-- that is,
Phrygioid, if not Phrygian,-- ... "  ???

Phrygia was an ancient country of W. central Asia Minor; -ioid = resembling
or shaped like; -ian = hailing from; "British modality" might mean
pretentiousness or affected politeness in speech (although cf. 413.12); but
it's too obtuse for me!

416.17 "*Bellezza, che chiama...* "  "Beauty, so-called... " (?) Source?

417.27 "Great Chain of Being"  The phrase summarises an idea of considerable
antiquity; namely, that all that exists in the created order is part of
natural hierarchy, a *scala naturae* from the lowest possible grade up to
the *ens perfectissimum*. It implements the concept that nature abhors a
vacuum. The concept has pervaded philosophy, literature and scientific
thought from the time of Plato and Aristotle onwards.
    Apart from Ulysses famous statement of degree in Shakespeare's _Troilus
and Cressida_ (I, iii), one of the clearest statements of the idea in
English literature occurs in Alexander Pope's _Essay on Man_ (1734):

VIII.

233   See, through this air, this ocean, and this earth,
234 All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
235 Above, how high, progressive life may go!
236 Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
237 Vast chain of being, which from God began,
238 Natures ethereal, human, angel, man,
239 Beast, bird, fish, insect! what no eye can see,
240 No glass can reach! from infinite to thee,
241 From thee to nothing!--On superior pow'rs
242 Were we to press, inferior might on ours:
243 Or in the full creation leave a void,
244 Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
245 From nature's chain whatever link you strike,
246 Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/pope10.html

417.35 "Helixxx" helix n. a spiral shape or form [16th C. from Latin, from
Greek; probably related to Greek *helissein* to twist]

418.15 "one of these Leveler chaps"  Levellers. In Cromwellian times a group
of radical republicans who wanted the franchise for "freeborn Englishmen"
(not necessarily including servants and labourers) and who were prominent at
London and in the ranks of the army until their power was broken by
Cromwell, after the mutinies of 1647 and 1649. Their influence waned
steadily, especially after the suppression in 1652-3 of their leader, John
Lilburne (c. 1614-57). In Irish history, the Whiteboys were also called
Levellers.
    Whiteboys. Irish Catholic peasant organisations first appearing in
Munster in the 1760s, whose outrages were a protest against rack-rents,
tithes, enclosures and the like. They again terrorised southern Ireland from
the late 1780s until the end of the century. They were so-called because
they wore white frocks over their clothing.

418.33 "Duetto"  soft duet (?)

418.35 "Medmenham Circle ... Hellfire Club"  Hellfire Club: A notorious 18th
C. coterie founded about 1755 by Sir Francis Dashwood, afterwards Baron Le
Despencer (1708-81). Its thirteen members conducted their profanities and
revelries at Medmenham Abbey, Buckinghamshire, which formed part of the
Dashwood property. Among the 'Monks of Medmenham' were John Wilkes, Paul
Whitehead, the satirist, who was secretary and steward, Charles Churchill
and the Earl of Sandwich. The motto of the fraternity was: "Fay ce que
voudras" ("Do as thou shalt wish"). (Cf. 110.13)

419.23 "black Major-domos and black Soubrettes"  major-domo, a steward or
butler (sometimes facetious); soubrette, a minor female role in a comedy,
often that of a pert lady's maid

419.30 "the Widows of Christ"  Cf. "Brides of Christ" (i.e. nuns)

So, perhaps:

    Dieu est mort! le ciel est vide --
    Pleurez! enfants, vous n'avez plus de père.

    Gérard de Nerval, _Les Chimières_ (1854), 'Le Christ aux Oliviers'
    epigraph (summarising a passage in Jean-Paul's _Blumen-Frucht-
    und-Dornstücke_ 1796-7, in which God's children are referred to
    as orphans)

    God is dead! Heaven is empty -- Weep, children, you
    no longer have a father.

And:

    Gott ist tot: aber so wie die Art der Menschen ist, wird es
    vielleicht noch Jahrtausende lang Höhlen geben, in denen
    man seinen Schatten zeigt.

    Friedrich Nietzsche, _Die fröliche Wissenschafte_ (1882) book 3,
    section 108

    God is dead: but considering the state the species Man is in, there will
    perhaps be caves, for ages yet, in which his shadow will be shown.

420.3 "Otick Catarrh"  otic adj. of or relating to the ear [17th C. from
Greek]

420.9 Pépé d'Escaubitte? 2-A Lagoo? Iron-Mask Marthioly? the boys from
Presque Isle?

421.3 "E-O Wheel" E-O = Evens-Odds (?) Perhaps a type of roulette (?)

best