[Numbers refer to pages and lines in the
1999 University
of Michigan Press edition
of Thackeray's Catherine: A Story, edited by Sheldon Goldfarb.]
1.6-8 quarrelling, king-killing, reforming,
republicanizing, Oliver Cromwellizing, restoring, Stuartizing, Orangizing,
re-restoring, play-writing, sermon-writing ...
An
overview of seventeenth-century English history:
quarrelling: the conflicts that
culminated in the English Civil Wars (1642-49)
king-killing: the execution of Charles
I in 1649
reforming: the Puritan attempts to
reform the Church of England and perhaps the attempts to reform the
relationship between king and Parliament
republicanizing: the establishment of
something like a republic after the execution of Charles I
Oliver
Cromwellizing: the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650’s
restoring: the restoration of the
monarchy in 1660
Stuartizing: a reference to the
Stuart kings of this period
Orangizing: the installation of
William of Orange as king after the Glorious Revolution of 1688
re-restoring:
perhaps
also referring to the Glorious Revolution
play-writing: Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, etc. early in the century;
the Restoration dramatists (Wycherley, Congreve) later
sermon-writing:
John
Donne and Lancelot Andrewes early in the century; John Tillotson, Jeremy
Taylor, etc. later
1.9-10 Mr. Isaac Newton was a tutor of Trinity, and Mr. Joseph
Addison commissioner of appeals
Newton was a tutor at Trinity College,
Cambridge, from the late 1660’s until 1687 and
continued at Cambridge
until 1701 or 1702.
The essay writer Addison (1672-1719) became Commissioner of Excise Appeals
in 1704.
1.10-12 the presiding genius that watched over the
destinies of the French nation had played out all the best cards in his hand,
and his adversaries began to pour in their trumps
A
reference to the decline of French power at the end of the seventeenth
century.
1.13-14 two kings in Spain employed perpetually in
running away from one another
During
the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), the two rival claimants for the
Spanish throne, Philip of Anjou (backed by France) and the Archduke Charles of
Austria (backed by England), did seem to be avoiding each other. Charles especially seemed reluctant to engage
his rival in battle. He did not even
arrive in Spain until 1705;
and when Philip and his forces were in retreat towards Madrid
in 1706, Charles did not pursue them, but first lingered in Barcelona
and then marched away from Madrid,
saying there was a threat elsewhere in the country.
1.14-15 there was a queen in England, with
such rogues for ministers as have never been seen, no, not in our own day
Queen Anne (reigned 1702 to 1714), known for having corrupt ministers
(e.g., Harley and Bolingbroke). The
suggestion that the government ministers of Thackeray's own day were almost as
corrupt probably owes something to the fact that Catherine was appearing in Fraser's
Magazine, which was carrying on a vociferous campaign against the
government at the time.
1.15-17 a general ... [who] was the meanest miser or
the greatest hero in the world
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, celebrated as a hero for his
victories over the French during the War of the Spanish Succession, but also
derided for alleged stinginess.
1.17-18 Mrs. Masham had not yet put Madame
Marlborough's nose out of joint
"Madame Marlborough,"
or more properly the Duchess of Marlborough, had been an early favorite of
Queen Anne's, but she was eventually supplanted by Abigail Masham.
1.18-19 people had their ears cut off for writing
very meek political pamphlets
People did have their ears cut
off in the early seventeenth century for writing supposedly seditious pamphlets
(William Prynne was a well-known example from the 1630’s), but this was no
longer true at the time Thackeray is writing of (1705).
1.19-20 very large full-bottomed wigs were just
beginning to be worn with powder
The full-bottomed wig, which
came into fashion in France
in the closing decades of the seventeenth century, consisted of a mass of curls
framing the face and falling around and below the shoulders. Powdering such wigs to make them appear grey
or white became fashionable during the eighteenth century.
1.20-23 Louis the Great ... was ... observed to look
more dismal
Louis the Great (France's Louis XIV) would have looked dismal
because of France's reverses
in Europe.
1.28 "Newgate Calendar"
Any collection of crime stories
or, more specifically, the collections issued under that name by Andrew Knapp
and William Baldwin.
1.35-38 FAGIN ... TURPIN ... JACK SHEPPARD (at present
in monthly numbers) ... the embryo DUVAL
Fagin is the fictitious
gang leader and receiver of stolen goods in Dickens' Oliver Twist (1837-38).
Dick
Turpin and Jack Sheppard were real-life criminals from the eighteenth century
who had appeared or were appearing in novels by Harrison Ainsworth. Turpin plays a role in Ainsworth's Rookwood (1834), and Jack Sheppard is
the title figure in the novel Ainsworth was serializing monthly in Bentley's Miscellany in 1839 when Catherine began appearing.
Claude Duval was another real-life
criminal Ainsworth had said he wanted to write about, but he had not as yet
done so, making his Duval a sort of embryo.
He did eventually put Duval into a novel (Talbot Harland) thirty years later.
1.39 the eighth commandment
"Thou shalt not
steal."
2.7 Old Bailey calendar
The Old Bailey (the nickname
for the Central Criminal Court) was intimately associated with Newgate Prison,
so this may be a reference to any of the crime collections known collectively
as The Newgate Calendar, or it could
mean specifically The Old Bailey
Chronicle.
2.8 the Stone Jug
As Thackeray's footnote
explains, the Stone Jug meant Newgate Prison.
It was not the "polite name," however, but underworld slang.
2.9 hurdle-mounted
Mounted on the hurdle or sledge
on which traitors were drawn through the streets to the place of execution.
2.9 riding down the Oxford-road
Riding down the Oxford Road to
Tyburn was what condemned criminals did on the day of their execution.
2.10 Jack Ketch
Name of a real
seventeenth-century hangman which came to be applied to all executioners.
2.15-17 whether
it was that the Queen of England
did feel seriously alarmed ... that a French prince should occupy the Spanish
throne
The English were concerned that if Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis
XIV, became king of Spain he
would ally Spain with France and upset the balance of power in Europe.
2.17-18 the Emperor of Germany
The
Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, whose younger son, the Archduke Charles of Austria, was
the rival candidate for the Spanish throne.
2.18-19 the quarrel of William of Orange,
who made us pay and fight for his Dutch provinces
William was criticized during his
reign for dragging England
into a continental war against France
(the Nine Years' War, also called King William's War, 1689-97) in order to
support the interests of his native Holland.
2.21-22 Sarah Jennings and her husband wanted
to make a fight
The
Duchess of Marlborough and the Duke of Marlborough, who were influential at
court (the Duchess more so than her husband), were seen as seeking to profit
from the war.
2.26 the Corsican upstart
Napoleon. Scornful term used by his opponents, but here
ironic. Used similarly in Chapter 6 of Vanity Fair.
2.27-28 Cutts's regiment (which had been so mangled
at Blenheim the year before)
Lord Cutts was third in command
at the Battle of Blenheim in August 1704.
The battalions he commanded there suffered heavy losses.
2.29 dépôt
Base of operations.
2.32 Captain Plume and Sergeant Kite
The two central figures in
George Farquhar's 1706 comedy, The
Recruiting Officer.
2.39 Ramillies and Malplaquet
Two major battles in the War of the Spanish Succession. Malplaquet was especially costly in terms of
loss of life.
2.46 Peter Brock
Brock resembles Sergeant Kite
in The Recruiting Officer, who, like
Brock, is skilled at "canting, lying, impudence, pimping, bullying,
swearing, whoring, drinking."
Brock's name (along with
Galgenstein's) may have come from the character Galgebrok in Jack Sheppard. Or it may have been inspired by the
character Peter Block of Brocken Mountain in The
King of the Mist, or, The Miller of the Hartz Mountains,
by Edward Fitzball (1792-1873). This
play was being performed in April 1839, just when Thackeray would have been
inventing Brock.
3.1 dragoons
Originally an infantryman who rode
to battle but fought on foot. Later
simply a cavalryman.
3.3 a chest that the celebrated Leitch himself
might envy
There was a Mr. Leitch of
Rothsay, a leading member of Robert Macnish's "Chestic Club" in Glasgow in the early
1830’s, who was known for his large chest.
This is mentioned in the 1838 collection The Modern Pythagorean (I owe this reference to Gary Simons).
3.7 chansons de table
Drinking songs.
3.12 the Marquess of Rodil
General and Minister of War for
the Spanish government during the first Carlist War (1833-1840). Prone to boasting, but notoriously
unsuccessful on the battlefield.
3.14 seven cities
Traditionally, seven cities
claimed to be Homer's birthplace.
3.16-17
a royalist regiment ...
the Parliamentarians
The two sides in the English Civil War of the 1640’s.
Brock’s mother opportunistically switched sides.
3.17-20 Monk ...
Coldstreamers ... marched ... from a republic at once into a monarchy
General Monk and his regiment
marched to London from Coldstream in Scotland to
restore the monarchy in 1660, ending the Cromwellian republic.
3.22-23 battle of the Boyne
1690 battle in Ireland in which the deposed James II failed in
his attempt to regain the throne of England from William of
Orange.
3.25 Mordaunt's forlorn hope at Schellenberg
Lord Mordaunt's advance guard at the 1704 Battle of Schellenberg, most
of whom died.
3.26 promised a pair of colours
That is, a promotion to the
rank of ensign, a low-ranking officer's position equivalent to the later
sub-lieutenant or second lieutenant. The
ensign was responsible for carrying a unit's banner or standard, which was
itself referred to as either the ensign or the colours.
3.38 Schloss
German for castle.
3.42-43 Gustavus Adolphus ... von Galgenstein
Galgenstein's first two names are
those of a seventeenth-century Swedish king known for his military
successes. They are also similar to the
first two names of Gustave Adolphe Basslé, a child genius in the late
1830’s.
The name Galgenstein is German for
"gallows" and "stone."
Robert Colby (170, note 27) suggests that the name derives from
Galgebrok, the name of a character in Jack
Sheppard.
In
Barry Lyndon (1844) Thackeray reused the names
"Gustavus Adolphus" and "Galgenstein," but for two separate
characters.
3.44 gardes du corps
French for bodyguards.
3.45-46 two regiments of Germans came over to the winning side
Two regiments of the Bavarian
army did switch sides after the Battle of Blenheim.
4.2 John Churchill
Later the Duke of Marlborough.
4.12
Flanders horses
Probably not the heavy farm animal
now known as a Flanders horse, but the more graceful Friesian horse, a breed
formerly used for military purposes.
4.14 mountain-wine
A wine from Malaga
in the mountainous region of southern Spain.
4.37 a cipher
A monogram; also a synonym for zero, so perhaps this is a veiled barb at
Galgenstein.
4.47-48 the parson ... Dobbs
In character the good-hearted
but gullible parson who likes to drink and smoke resembles Parson Adams in
Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews
(1742). His name meanwhile resembles
names Thackeray gave to two other good-hearted but flawed characters: Dobbin in
Vanity Fair and Ensign Dobble in Stubbs's Calendar.
4.48, 5.1 horseboy ... ostler
Terms for someone who takes
care of horses at an inn.
5.18 beaver
The visor on a helmet. Rather out of date by this time.
5.22 Prince Eugene
Eugene
of Savoy: A
commander of troops allied with the British during the War of the Spanish
Succession. Nearly killed at Blenheim,
but rescued at the last moment.
5.26-27 William of Nassau
Another
name for William of Orange.
5.43 George of Denmark
Husband
of Queen Anne.
5.44-45 Marshal Tallard
Leader of the French forces at
Blenheim. Galgenstein could not have
taken him prisoner because at that point Galgenstein was on the French side.
6.30 Mrs. Score, her relative
An invented character, not in
the historical record. The
real-life Catherine Hayes was not an orphan raised by a relative; she
had parents but ran away from them.
Thackeray, however, liked to write of characters who had lost one or
both parents, e.g., Becky Sharp, Henry Esmond, Barry Lyndon, Arthur Pendennis.
6.48 O woman, lovely woman!
Laub (88) notes that this
phrase is also the opening phrase of Thomas Otway's 1682 drama, Venice Preserved:
O woman! lovely woman! Nature made
thee
To temper man: we had been brutes
without you.
Laub notes the contrast between Otway's sincere praise of women and
Thackeray's more ironic point.
7.1 fribble
Frivolous or ridiculous.
7.3-4 when thou puttest a kiss within the cup—and we are content to call the
poison, wine!
Ironic allusion to the opening
lines of Ben Jonson's "Song: To Celia." The original reads:
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I'll pledge thee with mine;
Or leave a kiss within the cup,
And I'll not ask for wine.
8.23-24 the Brill
Or Brielle. Small town in the Netherlands.
8.28 High-Dutch
German.
8.34 chits
Contemptuous term for a young
person, especially a young woman, suggesting they are still a child.
8.42 clodpole
A stupid fellow. Also, according
to Chapter 5 of Catherine Gore’s novel Pin
Money (1831), one easy to recruit into the army: "... the heart of the
country clodpole responds ... readily to the pipe and drum with which the
cunning recruiting sergeant baits the recruiting-hook in the village
market-place ..."
9.22 Bullock
A bull or an ox. There is a character named Bullock in
Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer.
9.24-26 a galley slave ... in Turkey
and America
... and in the country of Prester John
Turkish galleys (i.e., oared
ships) manned by slaves were common in the Mediterranean, but there were no
galley slaves in America. As for the country of Prester John, it was
purely legendary, it had no ships, and it was supposed to be a Utopia where no
one suffered, so Brock is just inventing here.
10.1-2 a crimp
Someone who uses deceptive
means to induce men to enlist as soldiers or sailors.
10.5 Tummas
Familiar form of Thomas.
10.29-30 a hearty cock
A man with pluck and spirit.
10.42-43 Juvenal
Roman satirist, known for his
angry indignation.
10.44 Mrs. Catherine
In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, both married and unmarried women could be referred to as
"Mrs."
11.12 But no mortal is wise at all times
Translation of a line from
Pliny's Natural History: "nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit."
11.36 pis-aller
French for last resort.
11.38 "chartered libertine,"
One who has a charter or
licence to do anything. Phrase found in
Shakespeare's Henry V (I.i.48), where
it refers to the air. William Pitt the
Younger, the eighteenth-century prime minister, later applied it to the press.
12.1 franche coquette
French for open flirt.
12.13-14 a sly demon ... drops into your ear those ... sweet words
Allusion to Satan's whispering
into Eve's ear in Book 4 of Paradise Lost
(ll. 799-809).
12.16 Macassar oil
Popular hair product in the
nineteenth century. Supposed to prevent
balding, greying, and dandruff.
12.20 thimble-sealed
Using a thimble to leave a mark
or seal on a letter.
12.21 muffetees
Introduced in the
mid-eighteenth century, these small wrist
muffs were intended to provide warmth and protect shirt ruffles from
dirt.
12.24 pot-boy
A boy or young man who serves
beer in a tavern
12.28 Love, like Death, plays havoc among the pauperum tabernas
The pauperum tabernas are the hovels of the poor. Horace (Odes
I.iv.13-14) says Death plays havoc there and in wealthy mansions too: "Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
tabernas regumque turres" ("Pale Death impartially kicks the
doors of the hovels of the poor and the mansions of the rich").
12.30-31, 12.40 the ... old-clothesman … in Holywell Street
The Jewish old clothesman, or
dealer in secondhand clothing, was a common sight in London in Thackeray’s day, especially in Holywell Street.
12.32 exuvial
Castoff, discarded, originally
in reference to the skins shed by animals.
12.33 atrior cura
Blacker care (Latin). An alteration of the phrase "atra
Cura" (black care) from Horace's Odes (III.i.11). Thackeray loved quoting
Horace and especially loved quoting this melancholy phrase. He even wrote a
ballad called "Atra Cura." For
more on Horace and Thackeray, see Elizabeth Nitchie's article.
12.50 Ætna-flames
Mount
Aetna or Etna, a volcano in Sicily, erupted three
times in the 1830’s, including once just months before Catherine began appearing.
13.17-18 He sighed and drunk, sighed and drunk, and drunk again
Comical allusion to John
Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" (ll. 112-13), where Alexander the Great
is described as having "sigh'd and look'd, sigh'd and look'd,/ Sigh'd and
look'd, and sigh'd again."
13.36-37 at a railroad pace
The railroads were new in the
1830’s and seemed incredibly
fast to contemporaries. Thackeray
was not the first to use this phrase as a metaphor for high speed. In January
1839, the Sunday Times said that
court cases had formerly been "hurried on at a railroad pace,"
causing justice to resemble a "whirligig," but the situation had
improved and trials were now conducted "with patient attention"
(January 6: 4).
13.43-44 the gentleman at Penelope's table ... exiguo pinxit proelia tota bero
In Ovid's Heroides (1:32) Penelope imagines a returned warrior drawing
pictures of Troy
with drops of wine: "pingit et exiguo
Pergama tota mero." Thackeray
jokingly substitutes the pseudo-Latin bero
(to mean "beer") for mero
(Latin for wine) and makes other changes so that his version reads: "He
sketched all the battles with a little beer."
14.4-5 a little shower of patches, which ornament a lady's face wondrously
In the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries it was fashionable for ladies to wear black patches made
of velvet or silk, often cut in representational shapes (stars, moons,
etc.). Patches would be worn on the
face, neck, or shoulders.
14.13-14
Ah sacré! ... O mon Dieu!
Mild French oaths meaning "Oh, damn!" and "Oh my
God!"
14.14 Ventrebleu!
Literally "blue belly" (French), but really another oath,
being a euphemistic corruption of Ventre
Dieu, or "belly of God."
Brock is wrong to say bleu
means "through."
14.16-17 waists . . . are worn now excessive long
That is, worn low, the style
that came in at the end of the seventeenth century.
14.17-18 stap my vitals
An exclamation of surprise,
literally meaning "stop my vital
functions," that is, "strike me dead."
14.18 Warwick's assembly
"Assemblies" became
popular throughout England
in the eighteenth century as regular social functions for the fashionable, at
which people met for conversation, dancing, card-playing, etc.
14.19 a hoop as big as a tent
Women wore enormous hoop dresses in the eighteenth century. A 1745 article speaks of the "enormous
abomination of the Hoop Petticoat," which resulted in sights such as that
of "a girl of seventeen taking up the whole side of a street." (See Cunnington and Cunnington 146).
14.21-22 the Duke of Marlborough
seated along with Marshall Tallard
Tallard was Marlborough's
prisoner, but Marlborough
was reported to have treated him with courtesy, even allowing the French leader
the use of his coach.
14.22-23 Johannisberger wine
A fine white wine from
Johannisberg, a village on the Rhine.
14.31-32 a magnificent gold diamond-hilted snuff-box
That is, the snuff-box was made
of gold and had a diamond-encrusted handle (or hilt). The use of gold and diamonds for snuff-boxes
was common in aristocratic circles in the eighteenth century in both England and France.
14.33 Wauns
Vulgar pronunciation of "wounds,"
meaning "God's wounds," a mild oath.
14.36 Colonel Cadogan
Marlborough's
Quartermaster-General, or principal staff officer.
15.1-3 Mr. Butcher ... was rescued by the furious charge of ... his wife
In Farquhar's Recruiting Officer (4:2) a butcher is
warned that his mother, sister, and sweetheart will try to stop him from
enlisting.
15.20 sack
White wine from southern Europe.
16.2-3 the queen's money
Recruits received a payment of 40 to 60 shillings for enlisting.
16.22 small beer
Weak beer.
16.41 a crown-piece
Old British coin worth five
shillings.
17.14 When the kine had given a pailful ...
The first verse of a song by Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723). In the last verse of the song, the girl, who
at first rejects her lover's advances, happily gives in to them, much as
Catherine will.
18.43-44 a sedan
A sedan chair, an enclosed chair
carried on poles; a fashionable means of transport in the eighteenth century.
19.10-11 a barebacked horse; which Corporal Brock was flanking round a ring
Somewhat
anachronistic reference to circus trick riding, introduced into England by
Philip Astley in 1768.
19.19 Ernest Maltravers
An 1837 novel by Edward
Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873).
19.31 thimblerigging
The sleight-of-hand swindling
game involving three thimbles and a pea.
Also known as the shell game.
19.43 Cold Bath Fields
Site of the Middlesex House of
Correction, where men sentenced to short prison terms were sent.
Works Cited
Colby, Robert A. Thackeray's
Canvass of Humanity: An Author and His Public. Columbus: Ohio State
University Press, 1979.
Cunnington, C. Willett, and Phillis
Cunnington. Handbook of English Costume in the Eighteenth Century. 3rd ed. London: Faber, 1972.
Laub, Roger M. "The Poetics of Literary Allusion in the
Early Fictions of William Makepeace Thackeray." Diss.
University of Kansas, 1978.
Nitchie, Elizabeth. "Horace and Thackeray." Classical
Journal (1918): 393-410.
