Sartor Resartus (Oxford World's Classics) (45 page)

a seventy-four
: a large ship, with seventy-four guns.

Regina: Fraser’s
was popularly dubbed
Regina
, Queen of the Magazines. The Cimbri and Teutones were ancient Teutonic tribes.

British Friend … party
: Father O’Shea, an Irish priest of Cork, who wrote to Fraser commending
Sartor Resartus;
Carlyle finally met him in 1849.

Fritz the Only
: Frederick the Great; see
Sartor Resartus
, p. 63 above.

Blair’s Lectures
: Hugh Blair’s
Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres
(1783).

Mill
: John Stuart Mill.

coal-marks
: black marks of censure.

“Talented”
: one of the many words in
Sartor
to which Sterling objected.

Satan Montgomery
: Robert Montgomery’s religious poem
Satan
(1830) had been widely praised and frequently reprinted.

cross the Atlantic
:
Sartor Resartus
was published in Boston nine months later, in March 1836; see Note on the Text, above.

penes nos
: in our possession.

Fraser’s … &c.
: this sentence is not in the review of
Fraser’s Magazine
in the
Sun
, 1 April 1834, from which the rest of the excerpt is taken.

old Dennis1
: John Dennis (1657–1734), dramatist and critic, known for the vigour of his criticism.

Here is a “—
: the omitted sentence continues: ‘bray worthy of the
most sonorous animal that ever chewed the thistle.’ The reviewer goes on to compare Carlyle’s sentence with another by an ‘eminent transcendental philosopher of the day’, concluding: ‘These two scribes should be harnessed together in a donkey cart. They have both an equal length of ear.’

… “After
: the omission is a brief discussion of the ‘Editorial Difficulties’ chapter, Book I.

hum
: humbug or hoax.

supercherie
: hoax or fraud.

… character.”
: the remainder of the review, omitted by Carlyle, gives an outline of
Sartor
, provides copious extracts, and identifies Carlyle as the author.

1835
: Carlyle’s error; should be 1836.

Sunt, Fuerunt vel Fuere
: ‘That’s the way they are, that’s the way they have been.’

Aaron,
brother of Moses; his rod performed many miracles.

Adamites,
second-century heretical sect, whose efforts to return to a pre-lapsarian innocence included the discarding of clothes.

Agora,
market-place in Greek cities.

Alaric (c.376–410),
King of the Goths, who captured and plundered Rome in 410.

Alexander the Great (356–323
BC
), King of Macedon, who conquered much of the ancient world.

Almack’s,
fashionable London assembly-room, founded by William Almack in 1765.

Ammon,
principal Egyptian deity, with a temple and oracle in an oasis of the Libyan desert.

Amur,
principal river of Eastern Asia.

Angelo,
Michelangelo (1475–1564).

Arachne,
Lydian maiden who challenged Athena to a weaving contest; after losing she was turned into a spider.

Arbela,
town in ancient Assyria, where Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 331
BC
.

Arkwright, Sir Richard (1732–92),
inventor of the spinningjenny.

Athos,
Holy Mountain in Macedonia; site of numerous monasteries.

Baliol, John (1249–1315),
King of Scotland 1292–6; his nickname ‘Toomtabard’ is Scotch for ‘empty gown’.

Bardili, Christoph Gottfried (1761–1808),
German philosopher.

Bazard-Enfantin,
Armand Bazard (1791–1832) and Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (1796–1864); two French followers of Saint-Simon.

Bichat, Marie François Xavier (1771–1802),
French physiologist and anatomist.

Bivar, Rodrigo Diaz de (c.1040–99),
Spanish national hero.

Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas (1636–1711),
French poet and critic. According to Helvétius, his coldness and severity were owing to a bizarre childhood injury: ‘a turkey gave him several blows of the beak on a very delicate part.’

Bolívar, Simón (1783–1830),
South American statesman and liberator.

Buchan-Buller,
whirlpool on the coast of Buchan, Scotland, formed by a cauldron-like well in the rocks.

Büsching, Anton Friedrich
(1724–93),
German geographer; author of
A New Description of the Earth
(1754–9).

Caaba,
sanctuary in the Great Mosque at Mecca, containing a sacred black stone.

Cadmus,
legendary founder of Thebes and introducer of the alphabet into Greece.

Caesar, Julius (102–44
BC
), according to Plutarch’s
Lives
, when Caesar leapt into the sea to escape from the Egyptians after the battle of Pharos, he swam with one hand and kept his papers dry with the other.

Cain,
the first farmer and first city-dweller, as well as the first murderer.

Callot, Jacques (1592–1635),
French painter and engraver.

Campus Martius
, ‘Field of Mars’; assembly place in ancient Rome.

Cassini, Giovanni Domenico (1625–1712),
Italian astronomer and director of the Paris observatory; author of
Règles de l’Astronomie Siamoise
.

Chronos,
Greek god of Time; confused with Kronos, the father of Zeus. Kronos devoured his children, but Zeus escaped this fate and overthrew his father.

Chrysostom, St John (347–407),
early Greek father of the Christian Church.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43
BC
), Roman orator and exemplar of wisdom.

Cid
(from
Seid
or Lord), see
Bivar.

Cincinnatus, Lucius Quintius,
Roman hero called from farming to the Dictatorship (458
BC
); he returned to farming after only a few days.

Congreve, Sir William (1772–1828),
inventor of a powerful rocket enclosed in a metallic case, named after him.

Cousin, Victor (1792–1867),
French philosopher.

Crim Tartary,
part of the Crimea inhabited by Tartars.

Curragh of Kildare,
plain in county Kildare, Ireland.

D’Alembert, Jean (1717–83),
French mathematician, philosopher, and encyclopaedist.

Darnley, Henry (1545–67),
second husband of Mary Queen of Scots; she is said to have been attracted to him because of his figure.

Diogenes,
Greek Cynic philosopher of the fifth century
BC
, celebrated for his sharp wit; he was reputed to live in a tub.

Dionysius’ Ear,
cave by means of which Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse (
c
.432–367
BC
), could overhear his prisoners.

Donau,
the River Danube.

Downing Street,
London street containing Government offices and the official residence of the Prime Minister.

Elizabeth of Hungary (120731),
on one occasion St Elizabeth disobeyed her husband by bringing a basket of food to
the poor at her gates. On being intercepted by her husband, she hid the basket under her apron. When uncovered, the food was found to have been miraculously transformed into roses.

Epictetus,
first-century Stoic philosopher. The
Enchiridion
, or handbook, of Epictetus was compiled by his pupil Arrianus.

Ernulphus,
Bishop of Rochester (1040–1124) who wrote a celebrated curse, the full text of which is given in Sterne’s
Tristram Shandy
(III. xi).

Eros,
principal god in Greek myth, born from the cosmic egg produced by Chaos (or Night).

Erostratus,
in 356
BC
he set fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus in order to be remembered in history.

Estrapades,
the
Place de l’Estrapade
in Paris, named after the torturing of Protestants by the ‘strappado’ or rope used to dislocate the arms.

Eurotas,
principal river of Laconia in ancient Greece, near Sparta.

Faust (or Fust), Johann (c.1400–66),
partner of Johann Gutenberg in Mainz; originator of movable type in printing.

Field Lane,
notorious in Carlyle’s time for its shops dealing in stolen goods.

Fox, George (1624–91),
founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and known as ‘the man in leather breeches’.

Frederick the Great (1712–86),
Frederick II, King of Prussia.

Fritz the Only,
see
Frederick the Great.

Gao (or Gaváh),
legendary Persian blacksmith who led a successful rebellion, using his leather apron as a standard.

Gehenna,
valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to Moloch; hence a prototype of Hell.

Gibeonites,
biblical inhabitants of Gibeon, condemned by Joshua to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for having deceived him.

Golgotha,
place of skulls; Calvary.

Graham, Dr James (1745–94),
founder of a Temple of Health in London and inventor of a Celestial Bed, designed to cure sterility.

Hadrian (76–138),
Roman Emperor who held that a ruler should, like the sun, visit every part of his dominions.

Hannibal (247–183
BC
),
at the age of 9, the Carthaginian general swore an oath of life-long enmity to Rome.

Hebron,
residence of King David and burial place of the patriarchs.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831),
German idealist philosopher.

Helvétius, Claude Adrien (1715–71),
French philosopher and author.

Hengst and Horsa,
leaders of
the Germanic invaders of Britain during the fifth century.

Henry the Fowler (876–936),
Henry I, King of Germany.

Herschel, Sir William (1738–1822),
English astronomer of German birth, who attempted to count the stars of the Northern Hemisphere.

Hertha (or Nerthus),
ancient Teutonic earth-goddess of fertility.

Hochkirch,
town in Saxony where Frederick the Great was defeated by the Austrians in 1758.

Humboldt, Alexander von (1769–1859),
German naturalist and explorer.

Hutton, James (1726–97),
Scottish geologist.

Ishmael,
Abraham’s son, left in the desert as a child; his cry for help was heard by God, who gave him his name (‘I have heard’).

Issus,
town in Cilicia, where Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 333
BC
.

Jean Paul,
see
Richter
.

Jenner, Edward (1749–1823),
English physician and discoverer of vaccination.

Johnson, Samuel (1709–84),
man of letters; his respect for Church dignitaries is recorded in Boswell’s
Life of Johnson
(1791).

Joseph II (1741–90),
Emperor of Austria, who outraged Hungarians by ordering the Hungarian crown to be sent to Vienna.

Justinian (483–565),
Emperor of Constantinople, who supervised the compilation of a Pandect, or Digest, of the commentaries of jurists on Roman laws.

Kepler, Johann (1571–1630),
German astronomer.

Knox, Elizabeth,
youngest daughter of John Knox, the sixteenth-century Scottish reformer. After the exile of her husband, John Welch, she pleaded for his pardon, which King James promised to grant only if Welch would acknowledge the authority of the bishops.

Kunersdorf,
Prussian village where Frederick the Great was defeated by the Russians and Austrians in 1759.

Lagrange, Joseph Louis, Comte (1736–1813),
French mathematician and astronomer; author of
Mécanique analytique
(1788).

Landgravine Elizabeth,
see
Elizabeth of Hungary.

Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de (1749–1827),
French mathematician and astronomer; author of
Mécanique céleste
(1799–1825).

Lawrence, Sir William (1783–1867),
English surgeon and physiologist.

Lilis (or Lilith),
Adam’s first wife, according to the Talmud.

Lingard, John (1771–1851),
Roman Catholic historian of England.

Loretto-shrine,
small Italian town containing the reputed
house of the Virgin Mary, said to have been conveyed there from Nazareth by angels.

Luther, Martin (1483–1546),
German religious reformer, who in 1520 publicly burned the papal bull by which he was excommunicated. His German translation of the Bible appeared in 1534.