MDDM Ch. 76 Cannibals and Fairy-Dust

[jbor]

744.8 "the Cham"

'The Great Cham of Literature' was an epithet applied to Samuel Johnson by
Tobias Smollett. 'Cham' is a French form of 'Khan' (meaning "lord" or
"prince"). 

Smollett wrote _Roderick Random_ (1748), semi-autobiographical and modelled
on Le Sage's _Gil Blas_ (1715, 1724), and _Peregrine Pickle_ (1751) while
still in his 20s and these two novels, both of them picaresque in style,
were very successful. Though he wrote other novels (including _Humphrey
Clinker_, published in 1771 and still a favourite), a history of England,
satires and travel diaries, Smollett is perhaps best known for his
translation of _Don Quixote_ (1755), which is still current.

744-7 Dr. Johnson does come across as somewhat arrogant and mean-spirited in
this chapter, though the relationship between he and Boswell does have
overtones of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza about it, as well as the explicit
connection Mason makes with his and Dixon's partnership (747.21). The
question Chas asks Boswell about whether he ever had "Hum...a Boswell,
Sir,-- I mean, of your own" resonates both with the way Wicks is used by
Pynchon as a narratological instrument and the way Cervantes inserts Cid
Hamet Benengeli as the "author" of _Don Quixote_.

748.3 'twill be Maskelyne who goes to Schiehallion

http://www.purton.freeserve.co.uk/maskelyne.html

Schiehallion, whose name means either 'the Maiden's Pap' or the 'Seat of the
Caledonian Fairies' or the 'Fairy Hill of the Caledonians', is one of the
most romantic and interesting mountains in Scotland. On the east side of the
mountain lies the Maiden's Well, where on the first of May, the girls from
local villages would dance and drink to bring health and good fortune for
the year to come. Schiehallion also has place in scientific history, as it
was on its slopes that an attempt was made to measure the mass of the earth
using the displacement of a pendulum, by the then Astronomer-Royal, Nevil
Maskelyne. Schiehallion Mountain was chosen for this purpose due to its
isolation and conical shape. Coincidentally, many calculations to work out
the absolute geographical centre of Scotland arrive at spots very close to
this hill. 

http://www.visitdunkeld.com/kinloch-rannoch.htm

http://www.visitrannoch.com/schiehallion-spring.htm

748.5 the subject of a Ballad  ?

748.10 Mun i.e. Edmund, Nevil's brother (131.20, 213-4)

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