123. Sandhurst: a village in Berkshire and the location of the Royal Military Academy (1799).
124. Scott’s novels or the Chronicles of Froissart: Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) was a prolific novelist and poet. The chronicles of Jean Froissart (c.1337 – c.1410) record the chivalric exploits of English and French nobles in the 14th century. They were translated into English from French in 1523–5.
125. Bond Street… Lord’s: Bond Street is a premier shopping street in central London extending southwards from Oxford Street to Piccadilly through the exclusive district of Mayfair. Lord’s, a cricket ground in the St John’s Wood area of north London, has been the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club and the national headquarters of the game in England since the late 19th century.
126. Aldershot: in Hampshire is the chief garrison town and army training centre in the United Kingdom.
127. Glasmoyle: an imaginary place in Ireland.
128. the ’nineties… very bad for farming: with the exceptions of 1891 (when unusually heavy autumn rain ruined the next season’s corn crops) and 1894, every year from 1891 to 1900 was stricken by drought, and 1893 was especially bad. Moreover, from 1894, there was a disastrous decline in the value of domestic grain and a great increase in the volume of imported grain.
129. the big bank failure in 1907 or thereabouts: payment of cheques in currency was suspended in New York on 28 October 1907 and the suspension continued until the beginning of 1908. The crisis was precipitated by overspeculation by a group of American national banks.
130. a Vermont Democrat: the key point is that at this time Vermont was an overwhelmingly Republican state, so a Vermont Democrat would have been a rare bird indeed.
131. Dreyfus: Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935) was a French-Jewish army officer who, while serving on the General Staff, was falsely convicted (in 1894) of handing over secrets to the Germans. He was court-martialled and transported to the penal settlement at Devil’s Island off the coast of French Guiana in the Caribbean. Intellectual, political and social life was thrown into turmoil by the case, which revealed the degree of anti-Semitism at the heart of French society. After Dreyfus’s case was heard again in 1899 he was found guilty a second time, but pardoned. In 1906 the verdict was reversed and in 1930 German military documents proved his innocence.
132. Monte Carlo: a fashionable resort in the principality of Monaco on the Riviera famous for its casinos.
133. beaux yeux: beautiful eyes (French).
134. giv her the keys of the street: throw her out.
135. ‘Enfin, mon ami… Forli’s: ‘Well, my friend…’ ‘Forli’s’ is an imaginary Monte Carlo jewellery shop.
136. Town: i.e. London.
137. eau de mélisse: lemon balm water (French).
138. Genghis Khan’s charger: the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan (c.1162–1227), who was more or less continuously at war from the age of thirteen until his death, must have made use of a good many horses or chargers.
139. menus plaisirs: entertainments (French).
140. Vandykes: portraits by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641). Born in Antwerp, from 1632 until his death he lived and worked in England.
141. Simla: (now Shimla) from 1865 to 1939, this city in the Himalayan foothills was the summer capital of British India. It is located about 200 miles north of Delhi in the Punjab region.
142. brevet-colonel… South African War: a brevet-colonel, or any other brevet officer, is one promoted to a rank without the appropriate pay, almost always on a temporary basis. The Boers (Dutch-origin South African farmers), in winning the first Boer War (1880–1) won independence for the Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1886 and this led to renewed tension and eventually conflict, with Britain winning the second Boer (or South African) War (1899–1902).
143. North Western frontier… spruit: the Northwest Frontier, bounded to the north and west by Afghanistan, was the British military district that controlled the strategic Khyber Pass. The British maintained large military forces in the region, which is now a province of northwest Pakistan. A ‘spruit’ is ‘A small watercourse that is usually dry except in the rainy season’ (NSOED).
144. ex’s: expenses.
145. sent in his papers: i.e., made a formal application to resign his commission.
146. lâcker prise: let go (French).
147. ad majorem Dei gloriam: for the greater glory of God (Latin). The official motto of the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits.
148. the dayspring from on high: Luke 1:76–9. ‘Dayspring’ means dawn.
149. Madeira: a Portuguese island in the Atlantic about 350 miles off the coast of Morocco. Its mild climate has always attracted holiday-makers and the convalescent.
150. Chippendale… Zoffany and Zucchero: Thomas Chippendale (1718–79) was the pre-eminent British cabinet-maker of his day, especially famed for his elegant chairs. The German-born painter Johann Zoffany (c.1733–1810) worked chiefly in England after about 1761. He was noted for his theatrical scenes and portraits. By ‘Zucchero’, Dowell means Francesco Zuccarelli (1702–88), an Italian painter who worked in England 1752–62 and 1765–71. He was a founding member of the Royal Academy and a favourite painter of George III.
151. Christchurch: Christchurch Old Hall, the Brand family seat, is presumably in or near the Hampshire coastal town of Christchurch. The town is adjacent to Bournemouth, about twenty miles southeast of Bramshaw.
152. Ringwood: a Hampshire town on the western edge of the New Forest, about five miles south of Fordingbridge and eight miles southeast of Bramshaw.
153. Henry VIII… Protestantism rests: Henry VIII broke from the Roman Catholic Church in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn.
154. Princess Badrulbadour: the heroine of one of the Arabian Nights stories.
155. Thou art to all… Herrick: lines 1–2 of ‘To the Willow Tree’ by the English Cavalier poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674).
156. National Reserve Committee: an imaginary committee reflecting pre-1914 Anglo-German tensions.
157. Deborah… hagiology: there has been no St Deborah, indicating that Dowell is not ‘up in’ hagiology, Catholic or otherwise. In the Bible there are references to Rebekah’s nurse Deborah (Gen. 35:8 and 24:.59) and the Deborah who was famed as a military leader (Judges 4 and 5), but neither seems appropriate here.
158. ‘Domine, nunc dimittis… in peace’: ‘Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’ (Latin). From the evening prayer, the last monastic office of the day. Its source is the biblical Song of Simeon, Luke 2:29.
159. the Craw: La Crau is the name of the flat and featureless plain between Tarascon and Marseilles.
160. ‘Credo in unum Deum Omnipotentem’: ‘I believe in one God Almighty’ (Latin). Nancy omits the word Patrem (‘Father’) after Deum. From the Nicene Creed.
161. Aden: now the main port and commercial centre of Yemen, Aden was taken by the British in 1839 and was an important coaling station for steamships on the route to and from India via the Suez Canal (opened 1869).
162. Kandy: was an important independent monarchy in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). It was the last Sinhalese kingdom to be subjugated by a colonial power, the British, in 1818. Kandy is also a town on the Kandy Plateau in central Sri Lanka, and this is where Dowell has in mind. It was the capital of the Sinhalese kings between c.1480 and 1815.
163. Timbuctoo: or Timbuktu, is a town in the African republic of Mali (until 1959 the country was known as French Sudan) on the River Niger.
164. making love to her: that is, paying suit to her, with not even the faintest hint of the more recent, purely carnal meaning of the phrase.
165. the peace of God which passes all understanding: Philippians 4:7: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’
166. Thou hast conquered, O pale Galilean: line 25 of ‘Hymn to Proserpine’ by Algerno
n Charles Swinburne (1837–1909). The ‘pale Galilean’ is Jesus Christ. Swinburne was a friend of Ford’s grandfather, the painter Ford Madox Brown (1821–93) and was very kind to Ford when he was a boy.
167. Tartarus: in Greek myth, the place in the Underworld where the wicked suffer punishment for their misdeeds on earth.
168. the Hampshire territorials: the British Army’s Territorial Force (known after 1921 as the Territorial Army) was established following the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, 1907.
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
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