Not P but Moby-Dick (6)

David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Tue Aug 29 03:23:41 UTC 2023


Right. Elevation of the Whale Cosmology. And driving down the hat
(obligatory homage) to a tryant versus  a celebratory raising and waving of
the hat to Queequeg, the savage.

On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 11:03 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> My impression is that Melville throughout this chapter is thumbing his
> nose at warriors and conquerors as cowardly lugs in comparison to the
> whaling man, who takes his noble battle right to the throne of God. Ergo,
> "drive down your hat" seems to mean pull your hat down snug on your head to
> the cowardly royals (the Czar) on land; doff it and bow in honor to the
> great whaler (Queequeg).
>
> On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 2:57 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> “Drive down” your hat for the Czar.
>> (versus? the same action/sentiment?)
>> “Take off” your hat for Queequeg.
>>
>> I take it the point is to raise Queequeg to the status of the Czar.
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 5:42 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > seems some old slang says: pull down; lower [the cap, brim of] your
>> > hat.....
>> >
>> > On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 3:40 PM Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > The following excerpt is from Chapter 24:
>> > >
>> > > No dignity in whaling? The dignity of our calling the very heavens
>> > attest.
>> > > Cetus is a constellation in the South! No more! Drive down your hat in
>> > > presence of the Czar, and take it off to Queequeg!
>> > >
>> > > What does "drive down" mean here? Some of the previous translations
>> > > interpreted it as "remove", which doesn't seem right.
>> > > --
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>> > >
>> > --
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>> >
>
>
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>


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