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NOTES ON THE NOVEL: ISSUE 2
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A Note on the Maps:
William Smith's 1815 Map and Delineation of
the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland gives
a detailed account of the geography and geology of most of Great
Britain. It consists of several large maps, each about 16x24 inches,
mounted on canvas. These maps can be folded into smaller squares,
and some of the seams -- where the map folds and the canvas shows
through -- are visible on the sections of the maps reproduced here.
The whole work consists of 16 large maps (a "General Map"
of England, Wales and Scotland, and 15 regional maps), together
with a "Memoir" discussing the geological study they illustrate.
Detail from Map 12, in a reduced size, is reproduced here.
This portion of Smith's 1815 Map and Delineation
of the Strata of England [etc.] (above) shows the area described
in Chapters 5-7 of Great Expectations.
This drawing of England (below) indicates the
portion of the country illustrated by Smith's 1815 Strata map.
My notions of the theological positions to
which my Catechism bound me: A Catechism is "an elementary treatise
for instruction in the principles of the Christian religion, in
the form of question and answer" (OED, "catechism"), which
children memorize as a means to moral instruction. Pip, confessing
the inaccuracy of his ideas concerning "the theological position
to which my Catechism bound me" (Ch. 7), indicates that this exercise
was not entirely effective in his case. He tends to take injunctions
literally, believing, for instance, that the admonition to "walk
in the same all the days of [his] life" meant that he was always
to take the same route through his village.
Mark Antony's oration over the body of Caesar:
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Antony gives the following
speech (III.ii.74-) to the citizens.
Friends,
Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest --
For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all, all honourable men --
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept.
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause.
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Collins' Ode on the
Passions: When Pip "particularly venerate[s] Mr. Wopsle as Revenge,
throwing his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down, and taking the
War denouncing trumpet with a withering look" (Ch. 7), he is giving
an account of a performance of William Collins' 1746 poem, "The
Passions, An Ode for Music." This poem, which apostrophizes ancient
Grecian music (invoking it as a "Heav'nly Maid" (line 1)), is allegorical:
The various passions -- Fear, Anger, Despair, Hope, Revenge, etc.
-- are personified, and gather around Music, insisting upon expressing
themselves ("Each, for Madness rul'd the Hour, / Would prove his
own expressive power" [lines 15-16]). Each Passion makes music according
to its nature, and Revenge -- which Wopsle renders so impressively
-- interrupts Hope:
And
Hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd Her golden Hair.
And longer had She sung, -- but with a Frown,
Revenge impatient rose,
He threw his blood-stain'd Sword in Thunder down,
And with a with'ring Look,
The War-denouncing Trumpet took,
And blew a Blast so loud and dread,
Were ne'er Prophetic Sounds so full of Woe.
And ever and anon he beat
The doubling Drum with furious Heat;
And tho' sometimes each dreary Pause between,
Dejected Pity at his Side,
Her Soul-subduing Voice applied,
Yet still He kept his wild unalter'd Mien,
While each strain'd Ball of Sight seem'd bursting from his Head.
(38-52)
Crock and dirt: Pip's sister is dismayed
to find him "grimed with crock and dirt" in Chapter 7. Crock is
an obsolete term for "Smut, soot, dirt" (OED, "crock").
Mangle: Pip describes the hut bedstead
as "like an overgrown mangle without the machinery" (Ch. 5). The
Dictionary of Daily Wants (1858-9) gives an illustration
(below) of a small mangle for household use, and describes the process
of mangling.
MANGLING.
-- A process in connection with the laundry, which is usually
adopted for articles of domestic use, or wearing apparel of a
coarse or plain kind. The articles to be mangled are wrapped round
rollers, and are forced backward and forward under a heavily loaded
case. The art consists chiefly in laying the clothes smoothly
upon the cloth, and in arranging them in such a way that those
of equal substance shall come together, so that the surface may
not be rendered irregular. Most articles are folded two or three
times, and come out better when so arranged than they do when
put in the mangle in single folds. Beyond this, it is only necessary
to roll them evenly on the rollers, and lay them in the mangle.
Articles which have buttons attached to them, are not adapted
for the mangle; when the buttons are made of slender material
they are liable to be crushed, and if made of metal they are apt
to cut the fabrics brought into contact with them, and also to
cause iron-moulds. The ordinary mangle is a machine of large dimensions,
which the premises of a private establishment are sometimes not
large enough to contain. A smaller kind of mangle has been therefore
invented, acting by means of a spring or some other substitute
for mere force of weight. Of these, the mangle shown in the engraving
is the best. It is portable; and the bed on which the linen is
mangled is not a fixture as in the ordinary mangle, but traverses
backward and forward, whilst the roller on which the linen is
placed, remains stationary. The pressure is obtained by means
of springs adjusted by a screw, and the roller is either of metal
or wood. The figure shows the machine placed upon an ordinary
table; but when taken to pieces it consists of the bed, and also
of the roller and works, which may be contained within a box two
feet eight inches long and one foot square. (658)
Market-days: "Mrs. Joe made occasional
trips with Uncle Pumblechook on market-days" (Ch. 7). In rural 19th
century Kent, market days were usually held once or twice a week
(Bagshaw, "Table Showing ... Weekly Market Days"). The market town
in Great Expectations is the town of Rochester, and though
we have not been able to confirm the market-day for Rochester for
the early part of the century, it was on Fridays by mid-century
(Bagshaw, "Table").
Mogul: When Joe tells Pip that he "don't
deny that your sister comes the Mo-gul over us, now and again" (Ch.
7), he is invoking an image of significant foreign power. In the
19th century, according to the OED, "the Great or Grand
Mogul, also shortened to the Mogul [was] the common designation
among Europeans of the emperor of Delhi, whose empire at one time
included most of Hindustan; the last nominal emperor was dethroned
in 1857" (OED, "Mogul"). More generally, mogul (with a small
"m") meant "A great personage; an autocratic ruler" (OED).
Joe's "Mo-gul" probably comprehends both "Mogul" and "mogul."
Purple leptic fit: Joe describes his father's
death as the result of a "purple leptic fit" (Ch. 7), which is his
way of referring to apoplexy -- the malady that we now usually call
a stroke (Merriam-Webster, "apoplectic").
The Dictionary of Daily Wants (1858-9)
describes the disease and its treatments as follows:
APOPLEXY.
-- Apoplexy is a disease which arrests all voluntary motion, and
deprives a person of consciousness, as though he had been struck
by a blow. Sometimes a person is warned of the approach of apoplexy
by various symptoms, such as giddiness, drowsiness, loss of memory,
twitching of the muscles, faltering of the speech, &c.; but most
frequently he falls to the ground without any warning, and lies
as though in a deep sleep. While so lying he breathes heavily,
with a snorting kind of noise, and with considerable muscular
action of the features. The face is red and swollen, the veins
distended, the eyes protruding and blood-shot, remaining half-open
or quite closed, and a foam frequently forms about the mouth.
Apoplexy
arises from accumulation of blood in the system, but it may be
the result of an enfeebled constitution, and general want of vitality.
Where
a person is seized as described, a medical man should be sent
for, and the patient should be carried into a cool room and placed
in a sitting posture, in such a situation that the air may be
freely admitted to him. The neckcloth, shirt collar, waist-band,
and other ligatures should be unfastened, and cold water should
be poured over the head. Mustard plasters may be applied to the
soles of the feet and the calves of the legs, or where the mustard
cannot be immediately procured, the feet and legs should be placed
in hot water.
If
the attack occurs in a person of full habit of body, a
dozen leeches may be applied behind the ears and on the temples.
It is of great importance that the bowels should be freed of their
contents, and as there is a great difficulty of swallowing, one
drop of croton oil should be placed on the tongue and repeated
every two hours, until the object is entirely accomplished. Blood-letting
should in no case by attempted by a non-professional person. Where
the fit arises from enfeebled strength (which is indicated by
a small irregular pulse) the remedies should be of a milder form,
and stimulants may be cautiously administered at intervals. The
most common immediate cause of apoplexy is pressure of
the brain, either from an effusion of blood or serum, or from
a distention of the vessels of the brain by an accumulation of
the blood in them, independently of effusion.
The
predisposing causes are the habitual indulgence of the
appetite in rich and gross food, or stimulating drinks, coupled
with luxurious and indolent habits, sedentary employments carried
to an undue length; the habit of sleeping, especially in a recumbent
posture after a full meal; and lying too long in bed.
The
exciting causes are excesses in eating and drinking, violent
mental emotions; the sudden suppression of piles, gout, rheumatism;
or any other cause which augments the circulation of blood to,
or extracts the flow of blood from the brain.
Persons
below the middle height, robust, with large hands and short thick
necks, are generally recognized as apoplectic subjects; but it
is, in truth, confined to no particular conformation of the body,
all persons being liable to be attacked by it.
Persons,
however, who are predisposed to this disease should not
fail to profit by the warnings of its approach mentioned at the
commencement of this article. Their diet should be light and nutritious;
all luxurious habits should be abandoned, and moderate exercise
should be taken. Above all, they should avoid giving way to their
passions, as it is well known that many persons have been struck
with death in the midst of a fit of anger. (31-2)
This illustration (below), from the Dictionary
of Daily Wants, shows the treatment appropriate to an apoplectic
fit.
Steam, yet in its infancy: Pip compares
Joe's education to "Steam," indicating that both steam power and
Joe's literacy are "in their infancy" in Chapter 7. Pip is giving
Joe lessons in about December 1813 (Meckier 171), before steam power
became prominent in English industry and transportation. The steam
engine had been developed in the 18th century by Thomas Newcomen,
and improved by James Watt (after whom the unit of power is named);
but it was not widely implemented until the 19th century ("History
of Steam Engines," Inventors.about.com). In 1815 (about two years
after Pip reads with Joe in Chapter 7), steamships first appeared
on the Thames, and the railroad followed somewhat later (Meckier
182). Passenger railroad service began to appear in the 1820s, but
was not widely developed until the 1830s and 1840s ("History of
Railroad Innovations," Inventors.about.com).
Stocks: When the soldiers spit over their
"stocks" into the yard (Ch. 5), they are spitting over the high,
stiff collars of their uniforms (OED, "stock").
Wheelwright: A maker of wheels and wheeled
vehicles (OED, "wheelwright").
Bibliographical
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