[Numbers
refer to pages and lines in the 1999 University of Michigan Press
edition of Thackeray's Catherine: A Story, edited by Sheldon
Goldfarb.]
20.22-23
if the
Whigs remain in, I, for my part, will be content with nothing less
than a blood-red hand on the Solomons’ seal
The
narrator (the criminal Ikey Solomons) is on one level hoping to be
made a baronet; he would then be entitled to put a red hand (the
emblem of the baronetcy) on his family seal. The suggestion here, in
line with the anti-Whig politics of Fraser’s
Magazine
(in which Catherine
was appearing), is that the Whigs might bestow honours on a criminal
like Ikey Solomons. Thackeray is perhaps hoping his readers will
remember how the Whigs had offered high positions to Daniel
O’Connell, the Irish radical, the year before.
As
to the Solomons’ seal, besides being the seal of the Solomons
family, it is also the old name for the Star of David, the
traditional Jewish symbol, so that Thackeray is alluding to Solomons’
Jewishness and also conjuring up the odd image of a red hand on the
Star of David.
21.6
pot-house
A
tavern or alehouse.
21.14
weazand
The
esophagus, the windpipe, or more generally the throat.
21.43
land-junker
German
for country squire.
22.20-21
Was not
Helen ... ninety years of age when she went off with ... Prince
Alexander of Troy?
Traditionally,
Helen of Troy was a great beauty when Paris (also known as Alexander)
abducted her. But in a version of the tale told by the satirist
Lucian she is made out to be almost as old as Paris’s mother.
22.22
Was
not Madame La Vallière ill-made, blear-eyed, tallow-complexioned,
scraggy, and with hair like tow?
A
reference to one of Louis XIV's mistresses. She was considered by
some to be extremely pretty, but others had more negative views along
the lines of Thackeray’s description here.
22.23
Wilks
late of Boston
The
explorer Charles Wilkes (1798-1877), who attended naval school in
Boston. In the 1830’s he was in Europe to procure equipment for a
major expedition to the Pacific region and Antarctica.
22.24
the
celebrated Wilks of Paris
The
notorious swindler John Wilks (d. 1846), who lived in Paris after
1828. Thackeray himself may have been one of his victims (see
Goldfarb).
22.24
Wilks
of No. 45, the ugliest, charmingest, most successful man
The
eighteenth-century radical reformer John Wilkes, who became notorious
for the publication of Issue 45 of his periodical the North
Briton, was
generally seen as ugly, with "curiously malformed features"
(cit. Quennell 199), but he was known for his success with women.
22.26
cui
bono?
Latin
for "who would benefit?"
22.28
Bow
Street
Site
of London's main police station until replaced by Scotland Yard.
23.10
ménage
Domestic
establishment or household.
24.35
brown
Bess
Type
of flintlock musket used by the British army in the eighteenth
century.
25.4
couches
Confinement
to bed for childbirth.
25.5
a
chopping boy
A
boy who is healthy and vigorous.
25.6
bar
sinister
Heraldic
mark of illegitimacy: a diagonal band running from top right to lower
left on a coat of arms.
25.39
confidences
Secret
communications (French).
26.19
free-born
Briton
Ironic
reference to the phrase used by radicals to indicate their opposition
to the ruling hierarchy (more usually "freeborn Englishman").
26.19
lick-spittle
Fawning,
flattering, toadying. Literally, a reference to someone who would
lick up someone else’s spit.
26.24
on the
pavé
On
the pavement, i.e., abandoned or without lodgings.
26.31
caracolling
Wheeling
to the right or left.
26.36
purchase
a regiment
It
was common, from the Restoration until well into the nineteenth
century, for officers to purchase their commissions in regiments and
even to purchase the regiments themselves, that is, the right to
command or raise them.
26.47
dun
Creditor
or creditor's agent, a bill-collector.
27.8
Croesus
Proverbially
rich king; ruled in Asia Minor in the sixth century B.C.
27.15
that’s
poz
That’s
certain or positive.
27.16
brandy-faced
Red
in the face, especially from the effects of liquor.
27.28
Mr.
Kean
The
tragedian Charles Kean (1811-1868); known for his over-acting.
27.32-33
piano
... con molta espressione
"Quietly
... with a great deal of expression" (Italian).
28.15
Nan
Fantail
A
fantail was a hat worn by a coal-heavers and garbage collectors.
29.9
Miss
Drippings, the twenty-thousand-pounder
She’s
an heiress worth twenty thousand pounds, and her name suggests the
fat dripping off roasted meat. It also suggests an impossibly large
cannon. Farquhar in The Recruiting Officer
also refers to an heiress as a twenty-thousand -pounder.
29.27-28
Holophernes
... Judith
In
the Apocrypha,
Judith of Judea cuts off the head of Holophernes after he falls into
a drunken stupor. The reference anticipates the events at the end of
the novel.
29.37
laudanum
Mixture
of opium, distilled water, and alcohol. Commonly used in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a non-prescription treatment
for a variety of ailments, including toothaches, but also known to be
fatal in too large a dose.
30.11
quote
Plato, like Eugene Aram
In
Bulwer-Lytton's 1832 novel Eugene
Aram,
the title character, though a murderer, is also a sensitive, serious
scholar who quotes poetry, discusses philosophy, and is praised for
his classical learning. He does not, however, quote Plato.
30.11-12
sing
... ballads ... like jolly Dick Turpin
The
highwayman Dick Turpin sings songs in Harrison Ainsworth's 1834 novel
Rookwood.
30.12-13
prate eternally about to kalon like that precious canting Maltravers
The
Greek phrase means "the Beautiful," something that is
"prated" about in Bulwer-Lytton's novel Alice
(1838).
Ernest Maltravers is a character in this novel, but he is not the
one who does the prating.
30.14
Biss
Dadsy
Mispronounced
version of the name "Miss Nancy" in Oliver
Twist.
31.15
Seven's
the main ...
This
expression and the ones that follow are associated with the old dice
game hazard. When the count says seven's the main, he is declaring
the number he is trying to roll. Because he rolls a four instead, he
now has to roll a four (the "chance") before he rolls
another seven. In the end, after rolling a nine and an eleven, he
rolls a seven before he can roll a four, and therefore loses.
31.15-16
Three to two against the caster
The
odds of throwing a second four. Hazard was such a popular game that
tables of odds were worked out for the various dice rolls. Thackeray
is actually wrong about the odds; with a "main" of seven
and a "chance" of four, the odds against the caster were
not three to two, but two to one.
31.17
Ponies
A
bet of 25 pounds.
31.39
booked
his winnings
Recorded
them rather than collecting them.
32.45
toledo
A
sword made at Toledo in Spain.
33.22-23
mustard
and salt ... oil ... hot water.
A
treatment for laudanum poisoning basically in accord with the medical
practices of the day, which recommended inducing vomiting by having
the victim drink large quantities of warm water mixed with salad oil.
34.22
Schlafen
Sie wohl ... bon repos
German
and French respectively, both meaning "Sleep well."
35.29
a
gentleman in black
There
was an 1830 novel about the Devil by James Dalton, entitled The
Gentleman in Black,
illustrated by George Cruikshank and discussed by Thackeray in an
1840 essay on Cruikshank.
35.39
The
"Liverpool carryvan,"
A
caravan, or stage wagon, was a large, slow stagecoach primarily used
for transporting goods, but also carrying passengers.
36.5
Jehu
Traditional
name for a coachman, from the Biblical driver (2 Kings 9:20) who
drove fast and furiously.
36.20
groat
Old
coin worth fourpence. In circulation during the seventeenth century
and perhaps into the early eighteenth. Revived in Thackeray's own
time.
37.20
sack-possett
A
cold remedy consisting of hot milk mixed with sack (a Spanish white
wine).
38.10
coachmasters
The
owners of the stagecoaches.
38.44
tramper
A
tramp or vagrant.
39.19
trull
Whore.
39.38
Magdalen
A
reformed prostitute, after the Biblical Mary Magdalen.
40.15
the
green
The
village green, the common land near the village.
40.47
upon
this hint the elopement took place
"Upon
this hint I spake," says Othello about his courtship of
Desdemona (Othello
I.iii.166), an ill-fated courtship, like the courtship of Catherine
and John Hayes.
41.1
pillow
Variant
of "pillion," the cushion attached to the back of a saddle
on which a second person, usually a woman, could sit behind the
rider.
41.10-12
a
proclamation ... for the encouragement and increase of seamen
An
actual proclamation printed in the March 28-April 1 issue of the
Gazette
(1-2).
41.13-14
constables,
petty constables, headboroughs, and tything-men
Terms
for policemen dating back to medieval times.
41.18-19
and
another [act] ... for pressing men into the army
Possibly
"An Act for the better Recruiting Her Majesty's Army and
Marines" (1706).
41.20
a
mighty stir throughout the kingdom
There
was opposition to the recruiting acts from one section of the Tories,
who thought they violated traditional freedoms. There were also
riots to free newly enlisted men.
41.24-25
The
great measure of Reform ... carried along with it much private
jobbing and swindling
Though
the Whig Reform Bill of 1832 is now generally seen as something that
removed corruption from the old electoral system, in Thackeray's day
Fraser’s
Magazine and
other Tory opponents of the bill threw the charge of corruption back
at the Whigs and said the Reform Bill was itself associated with
corruption.
"Jobbing"
means doing public business dishonestly for private gain.
41.27
the
British glories in Flanders
Marlborough's
victory at Ramillies in 1706.
41.28-29
not the
first time that a man has been pinched at home to make a fine
appearance abroad
A
pun. "Pinched" can mean "frugal" and also
"seized" or "arrested," while "abroad"
can mean "outdoors" or "overseas." So the
sentence can mean both that men economize at home in order to look
impressive in public and that they are seized in England to perform
well on foreign battlefields.
41.31
extortion
There were cases of
extortion in which those subject to impressment were allowed to
escape in return for money; there were also sham press gangs at work,
like the one Brock leads.
41.42
halbert
A
combination spear and battle-axe, still used at this period by
sergeants.
42.9
at this
lock
In
this dilemma or difficulty.
Works
Cited
Goldfarb,
Sheldon. "Thackeray and the Celebrated Wilks of Paris."
English
Language Notes
31, 2 (December 1993): 40-43.
Quennell,
Peter. Four
Portraits: Studies of the Eighteenth Century.
Rev. ed. London: Collins, 1965.
