NOTES ON ISSUE 8: ALLUSIONS

Into his face, the bitter waters of captivity had worn…

The “bitter waters of captivity” invoke the waters of two exilic Psalms – Psalm 126, in which the singer calls upon the Lord to “Turn again our captivity … as the streams in the South,” and Psalm 137, which begins, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Sanders 111). Doctor Manette’s imprisonment was both captivity and exile from those he most loved.