MDDM Ch. 54

[jbor]

524.7 *Maquilleuses* = female make-up artists

531.29 *Luo-Pan* = a Chinese compass used in Feng Shui

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMGeomancy.html

531.30-31 Fort Stanwix ... Johnson Castle

http://www.nyhistory.net/~drums/stockade.htm

531-33 Sir William Johnson

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nytryon/johnson.html

http://earlyamerica.com/review/fall96/johnson.html

532.33 "sure as Mahoney's Mother-in-Law"  ?

534.32 "Green Halations"  halation n. (Photography) spreading of light
beyond its proper boundary in a developed image, caused by reflection from
the emulsion [irreg. from halo + -ation]

535.10 *Viudita*  young widow

535.29 "automatick Battle of Leuthen"

http://www.war-art.com/leuthen.htm

http://mercury.sfsu.edu/~genochun/pages/war_html/fredindex.html

535.31 "Nádasdy Hussars"

THE SEVEN YEARS WAR

On August 29,1756, Frederick struck Saxony with lightening speed. Militarily
the invasion was a great success, but diplomatical1y it was a blunder.
Tsarina Elisabeth (1742-1762) became ruler of Russia in 1742 when the
Russian gentry overthrew Tsar Ivan VI for his too strong pro-Western and
pro-German policy. Thus, it was in Elisabeth s interest to undermine the
authority of the German party in Russia and to prevent Prussia from becoming
a great power. In December, 1756, she declared war on Frederick and Sweden
followed suit shortly after. Frederick's preventive war added to the
Habsburg-Bourbon alliance of Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. England,
Frederick's only ally as Kaunitz expected, stopped sending subsidies.
Prussia's situation seemed to be hopeless. In the south the Austrian and
Saxon forces were only 40 miles from Berlin, in the west the French and
Imperial German troops were only l00 miles away; in the north the Swedish
columns were 130 miles from Berlin and in the east the Russians were
crossing Poland, approaching the Odera River and only 50 miles from the
Prussian capital. The combined allied forces numbered 400,000, the Prussian
close to 100,000. On the other hand, morale and discipline were the highest
in the Prussian army, lower in the Austrian and almost nonexistent in the
French and Russian forces.

As soon as winter allowed the movement of troops, Frederick crossed the
Bohemian Mountains and advanced toward Prague. On May 6, 1757, he defeated
the Austrian army at Lobositz. He then surrounded Prague with smaller forces
and continued southward with the bulk of his army. On June 18, confronted by
the Austrian army under the command of Field-Marshal Count Leopold Joseph
Daun, Frederick accepted battle although his troops were outnumbered by the
Austrians 33,000 to 54,000. Frederick lost the battle not because of the
greater size of the Austrian army, but because of the daring cavalry attack
by General Count Ferenc Nadasdy. Leading l00 hussar companies he charged the
Prussian lines, broke through and occupied Frederick's camp. Frederick lost
13,000 men and had to retreat from Bohemia to Saxony. [...]

http://www.hungary.com/corvinus/lib/thou/thou08.htm

535-40 Zsuzsa Szabó  a quite common Hungarian name

536.24  "an oblate Heap"  Here, cf. oblate n. a person dedicated to a
religious or monastic life [19th C. from French]

538.1-2 "even the activity you now so freely engage in, being denied me for
longer than I now remember"  Wicks, of course, is taking a shit: Mason is
physically as well as spiritually constipated it seems.

540.17 *kicsi káposta* = Hungarian: small  ?


NB the immediate change from third person ("she") in Ch. 53 to first person
("my novitiate") in Ch. 54.

NB similarities between Eliza & Zhang and DL & Takeshi from _Vineland_  ?

NB 'Thelmer's "Synopsis" of "The Ghastly Fop" cf. "The Scarlet Pimpernel"  ?

NB more talking dogs at 534.22-27

best