MDDM Ch. 77 Dogs and dogsbodies

[jbor]

>> 
>> 756.1 a Norfolk Terrier, of memorable appearance
>> 
>> One of the L.E.D.'s descendant's no doubt....

http://www.puppydogweb.com/caninebreeds/norfolkter.htm

"Bred in Cambridge, Market Harborough and Norwich in the early twentieth
century he was mainly used as a hunter of vermin. He was a mixture of
gypsy's dogs that were crossed with weaver's pets."

Bandwraith:

> Missing eachother
> by a hundred miles, would put one or the other of
> them in the sea.

This is amusing, but Ives snorts that it was "[m]ore likely ... they didn't
pass within a hundred miles of Mason" (744.4), which is a different
proposition entirely.

> Boswell, as both
> character and referent, obliquely acknowledged as
> "any third Observer" in the next chapter

I don't think this accurate either. Boswell never meets Dixon, and the point
seems to be made fairly firmly by both Mason and Dr Johnson (747.23-36) that
Boswell (and Wicks) are not just *any* third observers at all.

And I don't think Johnson and Mason are alike in any way. Mason seems to get
on better with Boswell. Dr. Johnson's arrogant patrician attitude towards
Mason (and Boswell) reminds me of Ben Franklin. I think Mason is quite happy
to remain a "Sorcerer's Apprentice" to Maskelyne (who certainly decks out as
a wizard), as he was also apprenticed to Bradley, just as Boswell situates
himself in relation to "the Great Cham of Literature".

I think this goes to the central characterisation: why Mason never became
the R.A., why he never received the glory or Medals or even proper financial
remuneration, why his name became historically intertwined with Dixon's. He
was never ambitious, ruthless or charismatic enough to be a true leader.
Always something else (Rebekah) on his mind.

Also, back a bit, why would the ghost of a 17th C. Jesuit mathematician be
wearing a Slouch Hat (704-5)?

best