CHAPTER XXX



557. William Cowper, The Task, Bk I, 540–41.

558. euthanasia: A gentle and easy death.

559. Ask…kingdom: Mark vi, 23. The daughter of Herodias dances and
pleases Herod. When he offers her anything, as here, she asks for the
head of John the Baptist.

560. Catherine of Braganza: (1638–1705), queen of Charles II.

561. the Duchess of Cleveland: Barbara Villiers (1641–1709), supplanted
as mistress of Charles II by Louise Renée de Querouaille, Duchess of
Portsmouth (1649–1734).

562. Taylor's Book of Martyrs: The Acts and Monuments (otherwise known
as the 'Book of Martyrs') was by JohnFoxe (1516–87), not by Jeremy Taylor
(1613–67), Bishop of Dromore.

563. had read… 1525: François Mezeray (1610–83), Jacques-August de
Thou (1553–1617), and Maximilian de Bethune, Duc de Sully
(1559–1641), are French historians.

564. cum multis aliis: Along with many others.

565. Fairfax: Edward Fairfax (c. 1575–1635), poet and translator of
Tasso.

566. in Quintum Novembris…abomination: Properly Quintem: on the
Fifth of November. Composed in 1626 when Milton was seventeen,
but not published until 1645, this is a floridly propagandist, anti-
Catholic celebration of the failure of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, in
the Latin style of the descent to Hades of Virgil's Aeneid, Bk VI.

567. Then…satisfaction: Aliaga's interjection serves to remind us that
this is a story within a story within Monçada's story, which is being
told to Melmoth's descendant in 1816.

568. In…beds: These lines are all from Shakespeare, Richard II, V, i,
40–45; adapted to the diction of oral history.

569. We…times: Shakespeare, Richard III, I, 4: Clarence's dream--he
and Richard walk the deck, and recall the Wars of the Roses. Again,
the theme is the oral recounting of history.

570. invested: Attacked.

571. hewed to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal: the fate of Agag, who
was cut into pieces (1 Sam. xv, 33) (Grant).

572. crows: Crowbars.

573. j'ai fait mon devoir: I have done my duty.

574. Sacharissa: (From Gr) Sweetest one. Lady Dorothy Sidney, later
Countess of Sunderland (1617–84), the 'Sacharissa' of Edmund
Waller's poetry; Lady Sophia Murray was supposed to have been
Waller's 'Amoret'--i.e. 'little Venus'.

575. Lucius, Lord Falkland: Viscount Falkland (1600–1643), courtier
and soldier, philosopher and poet.

576. that Nazareth…abhorrence: i.e. she behaves towards the
Presbyterians as Nero towards the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

577. Guide's: Guido Reni (1575–1642), the Italian painter.

578. the unfortunate queen of Virgil: Dido, Queen of Carthage, who
stabbed herself and threw herself on a pyre as Aeneas sailed away to
his destiny as the hero of Rome (Aeneid, IV, 641ff.).

579. The war with the Dutch: Began in 1665.

580. Sir Walter Raleigh…calamitous expedition: He was released from
the Tower in 1616 to go on an expedition to search for gold on the
Orinoco. He failed to find it, and was executed after he returned in
1618.

581. De Ruyter: Michael de Ruyter (1607–76), Admiral of the Dutch
Fleet.

582. Opdam…blew up: On 3 June 1665 (Grant).

583.…and Mr Boyle: The engagement, in which they were all killed
by a single ball, took place off Lowestoft on 3 June 1665.

584. Micyllus: Mycellus, inspired by Hercules in a dream to found
Crotona. The honey seems to have come from another story.

585. aidant: Helpful.

586. the savour…death: 2 Cor. ii, 16.

587. chapter: Assembly of the cations of a collegiate or cathedral
church, a body of Knights.

588. guerdon: Reward. A chivalric term.

589. vermeil: Stained with vermilion, bright red.

590. fitter…Campania: A paraphrase of Livy. The Carthaginian
General Hannibal, after leading his army across the Alps and
defeating the Romans, spent the winter in soft living on the plains of
Campania.

591. like the ancient statue: Of Memnon at Thebes.

592. They…waters: Ps. cvii, 23 (Grant).

593. apples that were flung in their path: Atalanta, fleetest of foot,
made all her suitors run a race with her, on pain of death if she won.
Melanion had golden balls strewn in her path which distracted her
and allowed him to win.

594. marriage…palatine: The daughter of James I married Frederick V,
Elector Palatine, in 1613.

595. vicinage: Neighbourhood.

596. plaits: Folds.

597. Prynne: William Prynne, the Puritan moralist, writer, and
preacher, was sentenced by the Star Chamber to have his ears cut
off and to stand in the pillory in 1634.

598. she…there: Gen. xliii, 30. It is Joseph who weeps secretly.

599. the painting of the great Italian artist: Untraced. This is likely
to be an early Renaissance painter like Giotto.

600. Histriomastrix: Published in 1632, Prynne's diatribe against
stage-plays. This caused his sentence: his attack on the stage was
taken to be anti-Royalist propaganda.

601. Bartholomew bushel: The Act of Uniformity came into force on St
Bartholomew's Day, 1662, whereby one-fifth of the English clergy
were expelled from their parishes as nonconformists.

602. like Joseph: Gen. xliii, 30. See note 42 above.

603. Marshall: Walter Marshall (1628–80), author of The Gospel
Mystery of Sanctification, 1694.

604. Her life…movements: The opposition between life and
mechanism is not simply a feature of the representation of
Catholicism; it is also part of this account of dissenting
Protestantism. It seems Maturin satirizes all forms of automatic
or conditioned behaviour.

605. Anachronism--n'importe: An anachronism, but not a serious one.
In fact, 1662 precedes his present narrative date, so Maturin has
not committed an anachronism as he thinks (Hayter). Of course, the
absurdly defiant footnote would draw attention to the anachronism,
if it were one. The target of this defiance seems to be the
'probability' and order of Scott's historical romance.

606. Then they…etc.: Mai. iii, 16ff.

607. Ichabod: Son of Phineas and grandson of the priest Eli, the tragic
circumstances of whose birth are described in i Sam. iv, 19–22. The
name means 'the glory of the departed'. The analogy is
extraordinarily baroque: between reviving the 'reminiscences of
religion' and 'bearing an heir of the soul' when you know the 'glory
has departed'.

608. the root…in her: Job xix, 28 (Grant). This is Job's reply to Bildad
the Shuhite and the other righteous ones who judge him--i.e. that the
root of the matter is in them.

609. Lady Russel's letters in manuscript: Lady Rachel Russell (1636–
1723), the correspondent of Archbishop Tillotson. Her letters were
first published from manuscript in 1773.

610. Nelson's Fasts and Festivals etc.: Robert Nelson (1656–1715),
Companion for the Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England, 1704.

611. An intolerable (lit: 'unliveable') life (Aristophanes, Plutus,
1.969) (Grant); my life's been not worth living; all through him (Loeb).
The Old Lady is rejected and spurned by her young lover and this is her
complaint.

612. scutcheon: Shield, name-plate, with transferred sense of 'coat of
arms'.

613. prévoyance: Foresight, but here 'forethought'.

614. Cowley's 'Cutter of Coleman Street': Abraham Cowley (1618–62)
was famous for writing in every style of his age. This anti-Puritan
comedy, from which Maturin derives some local colour, was revised
in 1663. In Cowley’s ‘Cutter of Coleman Street,’ Mrs Tabitha, a rigid
Puritan, tells her husband she had danced the Canaries in her youth.
And in Rushworth’s Collections, if I remember right, Prynne
vindicates himself from the charge of a general denunciation against
dancing, and even speaks of the ‘Measures,’ a stately, solemn dance,
with some approbation.

615. the system…gospel: The distinction is explicitly made here
between 'the system of Calvin' and 'the Gospel' and the implication
seems to be that Elinor's aunt (like all of her persuasion) confuses
the one with the other. Cf. the exposure of 'system' in the Spanish
Catholic part of the narrative.

616. this 'tyranny is overpast': Ps. lvii, 1 (Grant). The verse reads:
Tea in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these
calamities be over past.' The 'tyranny' is mortal life.



CHAPTER XXXI



617. John Home, The Fatal Discovery, 1769, Act V.

618. feathers of gold: Ps. Ixviii,13. The verse reads:
'Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings
of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers of yellow gold,' i.e.
providing a glimpse of the beauty that lies beyond this mortal clay.
Adapted here to fit Elinor's vision of the landscape coloured by her
love for Sandal.

619. as it had been…angel: Acts vi, 15: Stephen, confronted by false
witnesses in the Council, is undeniably holy. Here again, adapted to
describe Elinor's vision of Sandal's face.



CHAPTER XXXII



620. We were, but are no more (unidentified).

621. Those whom…predestinated: Rom.viii, 29. A central text for
Calvinism as it stands, because it seems to endorse the doctrine of
predestination. The verse carries on, however, in a way that makes
it much less useful to Calvinists: '…predestinated to be conformed to
the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many
brethren.'

622. deplored: Wept. (Used here literally.)

623. Bishop Burnet: Gilbert Burnet (1643–1714), Bishop of Salisbury
who 'had the credit of the conversion, apparently genuine, of one of
the worst of the libertines of the court, Wilmot, Earl of Rochester,
and of Miss Roberts, one of the King's mistresses…' (DNB)

624. Her delight…house: Milton, Samson Agonistes, 1490–91. Adapted:
the 'delight' and the lines belong to Manoa, Samson's father.

625. sufered...physicians: Mark v, 26 (Grant). Referring to the daughter
of Jairus (who had spent his money on doctors), who touched the
hem of Jesus's garment and was healed.

626. unwearied in well-doing: Gal. vi, 9 (Grant). The verse reads: 'And
let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap, if
we faint not.' Here, adapted to the pain of unrequited love.
proofs: Tests.

627. an expression of fear: i.e. that he will never succeed. The Wanderer
is talking about himself in the third person.

628. That is…comparison: This joke makes us jump out of the narrative
frame, reminding us suddenly of the ideological difference of the
listener-in-the-text.

629. Dr Dee…Poland: Dr Dee (1527–1608), mathematician and
astrologer, popularly supposed to be a magician. He visited Poland
in 1584. His colleague in crystallomancy was Albert Laski, palatine
of Siradz. Here Maturin has produced an anachronism: the
clergyman did not visit Poland until 1642; Dee died in 1608, and so
could not have been 'one of their companions in Poland' (Hayter).
Except, of course, if their pact made them all possessed of unusual
longevity. The hint is that Melmoth got some of his powers from
Dee. The passage has been taken as evidence for Maturin's
Rosicrucianism.

630. by all…Christ: 2 Tim. ii, 19: 'Let everyone who nameth the name
of Christ depart from iniquity.' Paul seeks to draw the line for his
son, Timothy. This is a text which Maturin uses to invoke the black
art, the Anti-Christ.

631. Observe…dead: Cf. Marlowe, Dr Faustus, Act V, XIX, Faustus, and
his fellow scholars.

632. Seeking…devour: i Peter v, 8: 'Be sober, be vigilant, because your
adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom
he may devour.' Peter to the elders in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadochia,
Asia Minor and Bithynia. Melmoth here, for the clergyman, is the
'roaring lion' and therefore the Devil. But note the dramatic irony: it
is Melmoth himself who narrates the clergyman's speech to Don
Aliaga.



CHAPTER XXXIII



633. 'Tis not so much the thieves and beasts wont to infest the place
that cause me care and trouble, as the witches who with spells and
drugs vex human souls' (Horace, Satires, I, viii, 17–20) (Grant):
spoken by the little fig-wood garden statue of Priapus. The theme,
rendered in a mixture of comedy and darker threat, is superstition;
and the analogy the allusion generates is between seventeenthcentury
Spain and nineteenth-century Ireland.

634. the ballad of Roncesvalles: Roland, the most famous of
Charlemagne's paladins, was killed in the valley of Roncevaux. His
legend is the theme of the twelfth-century Chanson de Roland.

635. sacravienses: Frequenters of the Via Sacra district of Rome, a
traditional route for processions since Ancient Rome.

636. deserted abodes of ruined nobility: Following Lady Morgan's best-
seller The Wild Irish Girl (1806), Maturin's second and third novels,
The Wild Irish Boy (1808) and The Milesian Chief (1812), portrayed
the Gothic ruins of Ireland as the habitations of a deposed race of
ancient Irish princes, or 'Milesians', now reduced to squatting in
their own property.

637. though one…dead: Luke xvi, 31. Abraham's answer to Dives the
rich man--that even the Resurrection would not convince those
men who pay no heed to Moses and the Prophets. Here the
mercantile father abandons his daughter to her fate for the sake of
business.



CHAPTER XXXIV



638. Little's Poems: The pseudonym of Thomas Moore for his Poems
(1801) was Thomas Little. See 'The Ring', v.30.

639. Chacoli…Catalonia: i.e. from the north-west Atlantic coast to the
east Mediterranean coast.

640. poignant: Pungent.

641. The celebrated manufactory for glass in Spain.

642. Quichotte: i.e. the French pronunciation of Don Quixote.

643. assiduity: Unremitting attention to the matter in hand,
perseverence, diligence.

644. spirit…waters: Gen. 1, 2. The analogy compares Isidora's female
faith in the power of the heart to God's creation of the world. This is
the kind of blaphemous hyperbole Maturin's first reviewers
protested violently against.

645. It…inflict: The Wanderer's motivation here for becoming a father
seems to be so that he has a future victim.

646. from Dan to Beersheba: Judges xx, 1. The original celebrates the
unity of the children of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba. Here,
dialectically reversed: all is universally barren.

647. He…night?: Isa. xxi, 11.



CHAPTER XXXV



648. Dryden, King Arthur, 1691, iii, 2.

649. laterally: A slip for latterly, lately.

650. momently: From moment to moment, continually.

651. See the beautiful tale of Auheta the Princess of Egypt, and
Maugraby the Sorcerer, in the Arabian Tales: 'The History of the
Amours of Maugraby with the sister of the planets, daughter of the
King of Egypt', Arabian Tales; or, A Continuation of the Arabian
Nights' Entertainment, 1794, iii, 201–21.

652. the salutary…angel': The Wanderer alludes to the Tudor Morality
Plays, which contain a psychomachia between Good and Evil angels
for the soul of Human Kind, or Everyman. Cf. Christopher Marlowe's
Dr Faustus, which uses, and inverts, this popular genre. The
Wanderer takes the part of the Good Angel here, but Isidora replies
in a way which seems merely idolatrous.



CHAPTER XXXVI



653. 'Now love and the name of mother break me down' (Ovid,
Metamorphoses, viii, 508). Althaea, sister of Plexippus and Toxeus,
who are killed by Meleager: she kills him by a piece of maternal
witchcraft, but is tormented by the contradiction between her roles
as avenging sister and life-giving mother. The analogy is with
Isidora's torment between virgin daughter and pregnant wife to the
Wanderer.



CHAPTER XXXVII



654. William Mason, Caractacus, 1759.

655. the heralds…Achilles: Iliad, IX, 165ff. Odius and Eurybates, who
accompany Phoenix, Aras and Odysseus to persuade Achilles to
fight.

656. Te absolve: I absolve you.

Jam tibi dedi, moribunda: I have just now given it to you, you who
are about to die.



CHAPTER XXXVIII



657. Southey: Robert Southey, 'Old Woman of Berkeley'. The Devil
comes three times for the old woman's soul, and cannot finally be
resisted. The analogy is with the Wanderer's end.

658. seriously incline: Shakespeare, Othello, I, iii, 146. The phrase
describes Desdemona's narrative curiosity for Othello's adventures,
which is compared to young John Melmoth's about those of his
ancestor.

659. natural force…abated': Deut. xxxiv, 7. Of Moses, when he died:
'His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.'

660. the Spanish writer: Tirso de Molina (1571–1641) in El Burlador de
Sevilla, in 1625.

661. I have been…evil: The distinction suggests that Melmoth sees
himself not in hell, nor even as an agent of the devil, unless he
succeeds in his mission.

662. lose his own soul!: Cf. Matt, x, 39: 'he that finds his life shall lose
it; and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.'



CHAPTER XXXIX



663. the very image of hoary decrepid debility: Cf. the final paragraph
of Poe's 'The facts in the Case of M. Valdemar', which owes something
to this final image of the suddenly-aged Wanderer. The scene has
become a cliché of the Gothic.

664. if…last: the hint keeps alive the Wanderer's equivocal position,
suggesting God or the Devil may let him try again.

665. Men…lives: Cf. Marlowe, Dr Faustus, V, ii, xvi: 'Whatever noise ye
hear, come not unto me.'