Selected Stories (99 page)

8
.
Ygdrasil
: In Norse mythology the world-tree, connecting heaven, earth and hell.

9
.
Hymettus
: Mountain near Athens, famous for its honey.

10
. post hoc
with
propter hoc:
After this
with
because of this
.

1
.
Marklake Witches
: First published in
Rewards and Fairies
, 1910.

2
.
Dan and Una
: Dan and Una are based on Kipling's children John and Elsie, figure in
Puck of Pook's Hill
(1906) and
Rewards and Fairies
(1910), in both of which Puck, a benevolent hobgoblin, introduces them to characters who lived in Sussex in past ages.

3
.
a great French physician
: Kipling is alluding to René Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781–1826), a well-known French physician, later Professor of Medicine at the Collège de France, who began experiments which resulted in the development of the stethoscope.

4
.
from Wesley to Wellesley
: Sir Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), spelt his name ‘Wesley' until 1798, when he adopted the form ‘Wellesley'.

5
. confrère: Colleague.

6
.
canaille
: Roughs, rabble.

7
.
syncope
: Fainting-fit.

8
.
vandyked
: With a large series of points, forming a border.

9
.
morone
: Maroon.

10
. en grande tenue: In full dress.

11
.
Assaye
: The battle in which Wellesley inflicted a major defeat on the Mahrattas in 1803.

12
. accablés: Overwhelmed.

13
. Assez… Assez: Enough, Mademoiselle! It is too much for me! Enough!

1
.
The Knife and the Naked Chalk
: First published in
Harper's Magazine
, December 1909; collected in
Rewards and Fairies
.

2
.
bivvering
: Hovering.

3
.
baffed
: Brushed.

4
.
What else could I have done?
: The leitmotif, according to Kipling, of the stories in
Rewards and Fairies
. Cf. p. 422 above.

5
.
Tyr
: The god of war and victory in Scandinavian mythology (the Teutonic Tiw), one of whose hands was bitten off by the demonic wolf Fenris, in whose mouth Tyr had placed it as a pledge.

6
.
Oak, and Ash, and Thorn
: Used by Puck as a spell to make the children forget what they have heard, for the time being.

1
. ‘
My Son's Wife'
: First published in
A Diversity of Creatures
, 1917, but attributed by Kipling to 1913. The title is provided by a phrase from Jean Ingelow's poem ‘The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571', which is quoted throughout the story (cf. ‘At the Pit's Mouth', note 2).

2
.
the disease of the century: Mal du siècle
– a pervasive sense of melancholy and disenchantment.

3
. vie intime: Private and secret life.

4
.
Liris – out of Horace
: Horace's
Odes
, iii:17, contains a reference to ‘the Liris where it floods Marica's shores', and there is another reference to this stream in
Odes
, i:31.

5
.
Eliphaz… Naamathite
: Job's comforters (Job 2:11–13) who came to mourn with him in his misfortune.

6
. Ne sit ancillae: From Horace,
Odes
, ii:4: ‘Let not the love of thy handmaiden shame thee.'

7
.
Bartolozzi
: Painter and engraver (1728–1815).

8
.
preserved
: i.e., reared pheasants, which the hunt would have disturbed.

9
.
James Pigg
–
and Batsey
: Characters in the works of R. S. Surtees (1805–64) which include
Handley Cross
(1843), and which portray the hunting world, especially the exploits of Mr Jorrocks, a London sportsman–grocer.

10
. ‘
the set grey life and apathetic end'
: From Tennyson's poem, ‘Love and Duty', 1842.

11
.
Alsatia
: Whitefriars district of London which was once a sanctuary for criminals.

12
.
the young man… horse-flesh
: A not wholly accurate quotation from Surtees's
Handley Cross
.

13
.
cubbing
: Hunting young foxes.

14
. Injecto ter pulvere: Dust having been thrown on it three times (Latin).

15
. Sortes Surteesianae: By analogy with
sortes Virgilianae
– a kind of divination
by opening Virgil's work at random and reading whatever lines presented themselves.

1
.
Mary Postgate
: First published in
Nash's Magazine
and the
Century Magazine
, September 1915 (the month before Kipling's son John was killed in the Battle of Loos); collected in
A Diversity of Creatures
.

2
.
Contrexeville
: French mineral water from the spa of that name.

3
.
Laty
: Lady.

4
.
Cassée. Tout cassée
: Broken. All broken (French).

5
.
Che me rends. Le médicin
: I surrender. The doctor (French, with ‘Che' for ‘Je').

6
.
Ich haben… gesehn
: I have seen the dead child (German).

1
.
The Wish House
: First published in
Maclean's Magazine
, 15 October 1924; collected in
Debits and Credits
, 1926.

2
.
list-bound
: Bound with cheap cloth-material.

3
.
rugg
: Tear, pull violently.

4
.
hoppin'
: ‘Hop-picking' (Kipling).

1
.
The Gardener
: First published in
McCall's Magazine
, April 1925; collected in
Debits and Credits
.

2
.
William the Conqueror
: William was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy.

3
.
threw themselves into the Line
: Enlisted as privates so as to get to the Front quickly.

4
.
K.
: Field Marshal Lord Kitchener (1850–1916), then Secretary of State for War.

5
.
the Salient
: At Ypres.

6
.
found, identified, and re-interred
: Kipling became a member of the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1917. His own son's body was never found after he was listed ‘Missing' in October 1915.

7
.
A.S.C.
: Army Service Corps.

8
.
supposing him to be the gardener
: Cf. John 20:15: ‘Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him…'