Mrs. Dalloway (Annotated) (33 page)

 

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Pope's poetry
: Alexander Pope (1688–1744), English poet and satirist. He makes an appearance in Woolf's novel
Orlando
.

 

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those Indian women
: Women, presumably of British descent, sent to India as part of the imperial enterprise.

 

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Park gates . . . Piccadilly
: Clarissa has walked north through Green Park and reached the Ritz gate to the park on Piccadilly Lane [map 4C], which borders the stylish borough of Mayfair, to the north. Woolf's proper young women first encounter prostitutes in Piccadilly, farther east, nearer Piccadilly Circus (see 71). Green is another Royal Park, created in 1668.

 

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Fräulein Daniels
: Clarissa's governess, who, along with occasional visiting instructors, provided what education she and her sister, Sylvia, received. “Fräulein” suggests she was German.

 

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Devonshire House, Bath House, the house with the china cockatoo
: Grand private houses, the settings for high-society parties (DB). All on or near Clarissa's route east on Piccadilly.

 

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the Park . . . the Serpentine
: Hyde Park, another of the major Royal Parks, appropriated by Henry VIII (1536), and site for carriage drives by the wealthy. It has as its lake the Serpentine. Hyde Park lies to the west of Clarissa's route.

 

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Bond Street
: Major shopping street in Mayfair, which Clarissa accesses via Piccadilly Lane [map 5C].

 

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Hatchards'
: In 1923 the actual Hatchard's (preferred spelling) bookshop was at 187 Piccadilly Lane (DB), past where Clarissa turns onto Bond Street.

 

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Fear no more the heat o' the sun /. . . winter's rages
: Beginning of the song sung by Shakespeare's characters Arviragus and Guiderius in his
Cymbeline
, Act IV, Scene ii. They presume that the heroine, Imogen, has died. A new edition of
Cymbeline
edited by
Harley Granville Barker came out in August 1923, and this could have been in the window at Hatchard's (DB). Clarissa later repeats the lines several times (29, 182) and Septimus Smith thinks of them as well (136).

 

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Jorrocks'
Jaunts and Jollities . . . Soapy Sponge
and Mrs. Asquith's
Memoirs
and
Big Game Shooting in Nigeria: Of these books on display, three are factual. Jorrock was a comic Cockney grocer, the creation of Robert Smith Surtees (1803–1864). Soapy Sponge is a character in another Surtees work,
Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour
(1853). Margot Asquith was the wife of the former prime minister; her two-volume autobiography appeared in 1920. Woolf invented the
Shooting
book, which is representative of a popular genre (DB). Though several male members of her family were hunters, Woolf's objections to the sport appear in several of her essays, including “The Plumage Bill” (1920).

 

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glove shop
: In Woolf's story “Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street” (1923), which in many ways resembles this morning walk, Clarissa's goal is to purchase a pair of gloves. There would have been shops to correspond to those mentioned in this section.

 

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Grizzle
: The actual name of the Woolfs' dog at this time. In “The Hours,” an earlier draft of
Mrs. Dalloway
(see Wussow transcription), the dog is named Shag, after the Irish terrier the Stephen family acquired in 1892.

 

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Miss Kilman . . . Russians
. . .
Austrians
: Both countries were experiencing economic hardship following, respectively, the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Mrs. Dalloway's daughter, Elizabeth, has as a tutor Miss Kilman, whose German ancestry contributed to her being “badly treated” while Britain was at war with Germany.

 

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Mulberry's the florists
: Imaginary shop on Bond Street near its intersection with Brook Street [map 6C].

 

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cherry pie
: Popular name for the herb valerian, which has white or pink flowers and roots used medicinally. Woolf “botanized” early with her father, but in her diary usually cited flowers she encountered by their common names.

 

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Prince of Wales
: One of the many possibilities for who might be in the car that has backfired on Bond Street [map 6M]. The future Edward VIII (1894–1972), whose coronation took place in 1936. That same year he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, an American whose two divorces made her unacceptable as queen to the Church of England, of which the king was head.

 

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Septimus
: Our first sighting of the second major character of the novel, Septimus Smith, out on a walk of his own with his wife, Rezia [map 6S].

 

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the Embankment
: Reclaimed north bank of the Thames between Westminster Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge.

 

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Brook Street
: Street intersecting Bond Street, the last position on Clarissa's walk [map 6C].

 

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breasts stiff with oak leaves
: A token dating back to the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. On his birthday (May 29), people wore sprigs of oak in thanks for the return of royalty after the Civil War.

 

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a Colonial
: A person from one of the colonies or former colonies of the British Empire, for example, Australia.

 

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House of Windsor
: British-affiliated name of the royal family assumed in 1917 by King George V, whose lineage was German. This was a diplomatic decision, as Britain was battling Germany in World War I.

 

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St. James's Street
: Location of many gentlemen's clubs. Among these is Brooks's [map 7M].

 

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Brooks's
: Men's club at 60 St. James's Street. In the second English edition (actually a new impression of the first edition printed by Hogarth Press in September 1925), this was changed to White's, another club at 37–38 St. James's Street, which was preferable because it had the requisite bow window.

 

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the
Tatler: Journal founded by Richard Steele, first published in 1709 and revived as a society paper, reporting on clubs and gaming, in 1901.

 

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whispering gallery
: An acoustical effect, usually achieved with a curved wall that collects and magnifies a sound carried to another site. The cathedral Woolf had in mind was probably St. Paul's, which has a remarkable whispering gallery. Much of this section is resonant of Englishness—a nostalgic affection for landscapes and customs associated with the nation.

 

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old Irishwoman's loyalty
: This was a restive period in Anglo-Irish relations, following the bloody Easter Rising against British rule (1916) and a bitter Civil War (1919–21). Through a Treaty negotiated by Sinn Fein leader Michael Collins (1921), the Irish Free State (founded January 1922) had dominion status in the British Commonwealth, while Northern Ireland remained part of Britain. This compromise outraged many Irish revolutionaries, and led to Collins's assassination (also 1922). The constable who discourages Moll Pratt's floral tribute to British royalty could be an Irishman with more radical politics than Moll's. The incident reminds us of conflicted national loyalties.

 

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sentries at St. James's
: Guards at one of the principal royal palaces, constructed by King Henry VIII, located on St. James's Street.

 

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Queen Alexandra
: (1844–1925), widow of King Edward VII, lived in Marlborough House, where her own police would have been on duty.

 

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Victoria, billowing
: Memorial to the queen, whose matronly sculpture sits surrounded by allegorical figures and basins of cascading water. Designed by Sir Thomas Brock, it was dedicated in 1911. It is positioned outside the main entrance to Buckingham Palace. Richard Dalloway also makes note of it (114).

 

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the Mall
: Wide tree-lined avenue on northern side of St. James's Park, suitable for ceremonial processions from Buckingham Palace to the Admiralty Arch. The name comes from the game, pail-mail, played there with ball and mallet (hence “mall”), in the reign of Charles II.

 

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Queen's old doll's house
: Queen Mary was given a grand doll house, meticulously furnished with British goods (one inch to the foot), designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1923. It was thus new at the time of the novel. Still on display at Windsor Palace.

 

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Princess Mary
. . .
the Prince
: Princess Mary (1897–1965) was the only daughter of the royal family. Her marriage to Viscount Lascelles occurred in 1922. Prince Edward is compared to Edward VII (1841–1910).

 

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Mr. Bowley
: Character recycled from
Jacob's Room
, where he is also out for a walk. His residence, the Albany, housed prominent politicians and writers. He sights the mysterious motorcar turning onto the Mall, moving toward Buckingham Palace [map 8M]. At this point an airplane distracts viewers of the motorcar, and is visible simultaneously from this and other points.

 

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bronze heroes
: Sculpture associated with the Royal Artillery Monument (1910), in memory of soldiers fallen in South African and Chinese wars (1889–1902).

 

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letting out white smoke from behind
: Michael North gives a detailed account of the first ever demonstration of skywriting, which occurred over London in 1922, and notes Woolf's use of the occasion in her novel (
Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of the Modern
[New York: Oxford University Press, 1999], 81–84).

 

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Glaxo
: Brand name for a babies' formula milk product (DB). Its ads must have succeeded, because the firm grew into a large international pharmaceutical company that still exists.

 

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Regent's Park . . . Broad Walk
: Large circular park, part of a garden suburb of town houses designed by John Nash (1812), and named for the prince regent (later George IV). In the Marylebone district, north of the areas of London explored to this point. Its widest pedestrian walkway runs north—south through the eastern part of the park [map 9S]. The airplane is visible from here as well.

 

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her sisters
: While this suggests that Rezia had multiple sisters, Septimus later recalls marrying the younger daughter, implying she had only one sister (85).

 

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the Indian and his cross
: The Victorian Gothic drinking fountain resembles a cross. To one side is a sacred cow under a palm tree. Its fulsome inscription, dating from 1869, expresses the gratitude of its donor, Sir Cowasjee Jehangir, for the protection British rule gave to himself and other Parsees in India. By 1923, Indians were strongly urging self-government. The Amritsar Massacre (April 1919), in which British troops slaughtered unarmed protesters in that Punjabi city (now in Pakistan), created intense anti-British attitudes. The Government of India Act (December 23, 1919) created a dyarchy. Mohandas Gandhi founded the first Non-cooperation Movement (1920–22) in protest to British rule.

 

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Romans saw it . . . darkness
: Romans occupied various parts of Britain during the years A.D. 43 to 410. There is an echo of Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness
, which also looks back to the Roman era. Woolf admired Conrad's work and wrote relevant essays and reviews, most notably, “Mr. Conrad: A Conversation” (1923).

 

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sparrow
. . .
to sing . . . in Greek words
: Septimus's perceptions of a sparrow singing in Greek resembles Woolf's own experience of birds singing Greek choruses to her during her 1904 mental breakdown.

 

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Zoo
: Collection of the Zoological Society of London, opened in Regent's Park in 1828. Woolf visited the zoo from childhood onward and wrote about its aquarium in “The Sun and the Fish” (1928).

 

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cricket stumps
: Three posts, driven into the ground, which together with two horizontal pieces (bails) form the wicket defended by the batsman, who stands before it in the game of cricket.

 

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Tube station
: Subway station.

 

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up from Edinburgh
: Although the Scottish capital is far north of London, it is customary in England to say one is traveling “up” to London, wherever one is coming from.

 

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Bath chairs
: Wheeled and hooded chairs used by invalids.

 

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Kentish Town
: District in north London, inhabited by the working class in the 1920s.

 

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Margate
: Seaside resort in Kent, seventy-six miles east of London.

 

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Greenwich
: Borough of southeast London, south of the Thames, where the Royal Observatory (source of Greenwich Mean Time) and Royal Naval College are located.

 

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St. Paul's and the rest
: Of the many churches visible to the rising airplane, the most prominent would be St. Paul's, the Renaissance-style domed Cathedral of the Bishop of London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1710.