NOTES ON ISSUE 8: GLOSSARY
PART 2 OF 2
…like a docile and attentive pupil before
his catechist…
A catechism is “an elementary treatise for instruction
in the principles of the Christian religion, in the form of
question and answer” (OED), which children memorize
as a means to moral instruction. A catechist is someone who
examines a student on the catechism.
cognac
Cognac, named after the French town where it was originally
made, is a “French brandy of superior quality distilled
from Cognac wine,” though the name “is sometimes
extended (for trade purposes) to any French brandy” (OED).
“…he is Mr. Charles Darnay. D’Aulnais
is the name of his mother’s family.”
Phonetically, “Darnay” is a close equivalent in
English to the French “D’Aulnais”: In French
pronunciation, the “D” and the “A” of
D’Aulnais are run together and the “s” on
the end of the name is not pronounced.
Madame Defarge with her work in her hand was accustomed
to pass from place to place and from group to group: a Missionary
– there were many like her – such as the world will
do well never to breed again. All the women knitted. They knitted
worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a mechanical
substitute for eating and drinking…
The knitting women of A Tale of Two Cities are the
famous citoyennes tricoteuses of revolutionary Paris,
who would, during the Reign of Terror, take their knitting with
them to watch the executions at the guillotine. (Dickens alludes
to this eventuality at the end of this chapter, remarking that
“[s]o much was closing in about the women who sat knitting,
knitting, that they their very selves were closing in around
a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting,
counting dropping heads.”) Dickens connects the knitting
of Madame Defarge and her compatriots with a chief motive of
the French Revolution – hunger. And his imagery suggests
that this knitting registers the gradual creation – the
knitting-together, as it were – of a means to revenge
that wrong. The irony of the chapter’s final image –
of knitting combined with the severing of heads –
is perhaps already implied in the “worthless things”
that the women knit: Their creations are altogether negative.
Born of frustration and rage, their productivity is essentially
destructive, and it is this destructive impulse only that unites
them.
Darkness closed around, and then came the ringing of
the church bells and the distant beating of the drums of the
Royal Guard…
The “Royal Guards” are soldiers of the Gardes Françaises (French Guards) –
renamed the “Centre Grenadiers of the National Guard”
after the fall of the Bastille in 1789 (Carlyle 167). The change
in name reflects a change from the service of the monarchy to
the service of the people.
“I doubt you must have
been a solitary prisoner to understand these perplexed distinctions.”
To doubt, in this sense, means to “anticipate with apprehension”
or “to apprehend … something feared or undesired”
(OED).
“…during the next
fortnight, while you are in Warwickshire and thereabouts, even
Tellson’s shall go to the wall (comparatively speaking)
before him.”
“Fortnight,” an abbreviated version of an Old English
phrase for “fourteen nights,” means two weeks, and
comes from the Germanic method of reckoning time by the number
of nights (OED). Warwickshire, in which the Darnays’
marital fortnight is to be passed, is a county northwest of
London, in the English Midlands. And the expression “to
go to the wall” is an old phrase – the first use
recorded in the OED dates from the 16th century –
originally meaning “to give way, succumb in a conflict
or struggle,” and later, in 19th-century usage, “to
fail in business” (OED). The later meaning, though
not yet current in the 1780s, would have a special aptness for
Dickens’ 19th-century readers (since Mr. Lorry is speaking
hypothetically of a failure in Tellson’s prosperity, and
calls himself and Miss Pross two “formal folks of business”).
“…on
your other fortnight’s trip in Wales…”
Wales, which accepted political union with England in the 16th
century (becoming part of what is now the United Kingdom), is
a rugged region on the western side of England.
They returned home to breakfast…
Wedding breakfasts, given at the bride’s house after morning
marriage ceremonies, preceded the married couple’s departure
on their honeymoon (OED). As a kind of reception, wedding
breakfasts could be quite elaborate – though in the case
of the newly-married Darnays, the breakfast is probably a modest
affair. The Dictionary of Daily Wants (1859) makes
the following recommendations concerning the conduct of wedding
breakfasts:
WEDDING CEREMONY, ETIQUETTE OF – When
the ceremony is concluded, the bride, taking the bridegroom’s
arm, goes into the vestry, the others following; signatures
are then affixed, and a registration made, after which the married
pair enter their carriage and proceed to the breakfast, every
one else following…. The wedding breakfast having been
already prepared, the wedding party returns thereto. If a large
party, the bride and bridegroom occupy seats in the center of
the long table, and the two extremities should be presided over
by elderly relatives, if possible, one from each family. Everybody
should endeavor to make the occasion as happy as possible. One
of the senior members, of either the bride or bridegroom’s
family, should, some time before the breakfast terminates, rise,
and in a brief but felicitous manner, propose “Health
and happiness to the wedded pair.” It is much better to
drink their healths together than separately; and, after a brief
interval, the bridegroom should return thanks, which he may
do without hesitation, since no one criticizes a speech on such
an occasion. (1089)
The Dictionary recommends a
wedding-breakfast menu supplied by a pastrycook, as more convenient and
only slightly more expensive than a home-cooked meal (the pastrycook
supplying all the utensils and other necessaries, as well as the food).
The suggested menu includes bride cake, tea, lemon cakes, decorated
potted salmon, butter in ice, ham in jelly, partridges perigord,
baskets of bon-bons, potted char (a fish something like a salmon in
appearance), preserved ginger, ginger cream, preserved pineapple, melon
or cucumber, strawberry jelly, pastry, sandwiches with marmalade, jams,
&c. Suggested beverages include chocolate, milk, coffee, and water
in urns. This menu, proposed in a publication of 1859, is of course a
Victorian one (composed in the year Dickens was writing A Tale of
Two Cities). The breakfast in the novel itself is an 18th-century
breakfast, and is probably less elaborate due to the smallness of the
wedding party and the thriftiness of the household. (Also, given Miss
Pross’ character as a “Sorceress” with foodstuffs, she may well have
cooked the breakfast herself.) However, the table would probably have
consisted of festive dishes like those suggested. The Dictionary
goes on to recommend that
[c]ream
and sugar, in silver or cut glass jugs and dishes [be] presented in
proper places. Game and lobster salads may make part of the dishes, and
venison is an appropriate luxury. Ice-pails may, in hot weather, be
placed on the table. Plovers’ eggs, hot, in a napkin, or cold, laid in
moss, are tasty. At such entertainments, the lighter dessert wines are
used, and also liqueurs. Toast, rolls, muffins, eggs, may find a place
on the side table. Fruit may form a part of the repast, according to
the season. (192-3)
And her agitated hand waved to
them from a chaise window, and she was gone.
“Chaise” is the name for various kinds of light carriages, some open,
some enclosed, usually with two or four wheels and drawn by two or four
horses (OED). The word comes from the French for “chair,” and is
often associated with light “pleasure” carriages. The Darnays’ chaise
seems to be of the enclosed variety (since Lucie waves from a window),
and is probably a post-chaise – a “carriage for traveling, having a
closed body and seated for one to three persons, the driver sitting on
one of the horses” (OED). Post-chaises were intended for
traveling over long distances (and would thus be appropriate for the
Darnays’ trip to Warwickshire and Wales). To “post” is to travel in
relays or stages, periodically stopping to change horses as the animals
become fatigued.
Miss Pross and he divided the night into two
watches…
A “watch,” in this sense, is a period of wakeful
vigil. The phrase “watches of the night,” now used
to refer generally to night-time, originally referred to “periods
into which the night was anciently divided... . The Hebrews
divided the night into three watches, the Greeks usually into
four (sometimes five), the Romans (followed by the Jews in New
Testament times) into four” (OED).
Bibliographical information
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