Dedication: John Forster (1812–76), literary critic and biographer, was the close friend and biographer of Dickens, through whom Collins first met him.
the Baths of WILDBAD: Collins is drawing on his own experience of this spa town, where he took a ‘cure’ in the summer of 1863.
the diligence: a public stage-coach.
beaver hats: made of brushed felt supposed to resemble beaver fur.
the waltz in Der Freischutz: popular opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed in 1821 in Berlin.
My desk?: a small portable writing case, with a lid forming a writing slope.
a wild life and a vicious life… paralytic affection: the paralysis is, by inference, the terminal stage of syphilis.
a woman in the prime of her beauty: the description of Mrs Armadale is in sharp contrast to general attitudes to the appearance of black and half-caste men and women in nineteenth-century novels. See, for example, the description of Miss Swartz in Chapter 20 of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair.
a Writer to the Signet: Scottish equivalent of an English solicitor.
to scud: to run before the wind.
the scuttle: a small rectangular hole in the roof of the cabin, fitted with a movable lid.
the rumour of a contemplated emancipation of the slaves: slaves were freed throughout British possessions in 1833.
the Book tells me: the Third Commandment, Deuteronomy 5: 959
Castletown: the capital of the Isle of Man at the time Armadale was written. In 1869 Douglas was substituted.
journeymen: men skilled at a trade, working for daily wages.
Diogenes: Greek philosopher (c.400-c.325 BC), founder of the Cynic sect, whose teachings emphasized the virtues of a life of extreme simplicity.
a sovereign: gold coin worth one pound sterling.
as usher: an assistant schoolmaster, usually unqualified and badly paid.
red Paisley shawl: named after the Scottish town where shawls with a ‘tree-cone’ pattern, based on those of Kashmir, were made.
parish clerks, sextons: who would have charge of the parish burial registers.
a varied life: The description of Midwinter was toned down when Collins revised the novel for the volume edition. The Cornhill version reads:’ … a wild and varied life. He had seen and observed more than most men of twice his age; his talk showed a strange mixture of sense and absurdity—of vehement earnestness at one time, and fantastic humour at another. He could speak… peeped out of him now and then; serialization continues: words occasionally slipped off his tongue with an unpleasantly strong flavour about them; and more significant…
the gentleman preserved his game: protected the game birds and animals on his estate, keeping them for his exclusive use for shooting and hunting.
a footboy: a boy employed in place of, or to assist, a footman, a uniformed male servant.
livery: male servant’s uniform.
Broomielaw: a street in Glasgow running alongside the river Clyde.
in irons: with feet, or hands, or both, in fetters.
reversionary scraps: left-overs.
a confirmed opium-eater… a prodigal in laudanum: laudanum, tincture of opium dissolved in alcohol, was the most common way of taking the drug. It was freely, and legally, available until 1868, and only subject to minor restrictions until the end of the century. Collins himself was, by the time he wrote Armadale, addicted to laudanum.
the funds: Government Stock; a safe investment paying 3 per cent interest.
I may say, like Macbeth: Macbeth, III. 4.
‘a wet sheet and a flowing sail’: misquotation from A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea by Allan Cunningham (1784–1842), biographer of Wilkie Collins’s godfather, Sir David Wilkie.
one Governor Smelt: Leonard Smelt (1719?–1800), captain, Royal Engineers and sub-governor to the Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick, sons of George III.
‘College of King William’: public school on the Isle of Man made famous by Dean Farrar (1831–1903), whose cautionary tale of school life, Eric: or Little by Little (1858), was based on his experiences there.
the House of Keys: the lower house of the Court of Tynewald, the Manx Parliament.
Spanish Head … the famous channel of the Sound: Spanish Head is the promontory in the extreme south of the Isle of Man. The Sound is the narrow stretch of water separating the Isle of Man from a small island, the Calf of Man.
forechains: iron links extending and strengthening the shrouds, or ropes, fastening the foremast to the deck.
bulwark: the side of a ship projecting above the deck.
forecastle: forepart of a ship, under the main deck.
taffrail: the upper part of the stem timbers of a ship.
mizen-top: look-out platform on the mizen-mast (the rear-mast in a three-masted ship.
Have you any reason to give…: a passage in the manuscript, deleted before publication, continues:
‘… for going out of your way to reconcile such a mystical view as this, with the unanswerably rational explanation of the dream which lies straight before you?’
‘It is hard to tell how I reconcile it,’ said Midwinter, ‘but I will try. All supernatural influences which work on mortal creatures, must necessarily work by means of mortal perceptions. Acknowledging as I do that you have clearly traced the events of the dream to my friend’s waking impressions, I go a step farther back when that point has been gained, and I ask next “If the waking impressions account for the dream, what accounts for the waking impressions?” I don’t believe, sir, that Chance took us on the road from Castleton to this place. I don’t believe that Chance caused our meeting with you. I see in that meeting, and in the events which grew out of it, a supernatural influence working its end with a mortal creature by mortal means, and producing those very working impressions (about which we are all agreed) as the medium through which to convey the warning of the dream.’
The doctor looked at his watch …
Miss Gwilt: both her surname, in pronunciation and spelling so close to ‘guilt’, and her Christian name ‘Lydia’, have significance. In classical Greece the women of Lydia in Asia Minor were notorious for their licentiousness. In the Catalogue of Plays Submitted to the Lord Chamberlain in the British Library, Miss Gwilt was originally mistakenly entered as ‘Miss Guilt’.
Doctors’ Commons: the College of Doctors of Civil Law in London, which dealt, among other things, with marriage licences and wills. Abolished in 1858.
a good six years older than he is: in the serialization in the Cornhill Magazine, six was mistakenly printed sixteen.
Who can control his fate, as the poet says?: Othello, v. ii. 266.
Mrs Jezebel: a woman of loose morals, from Jezebel the wife of Ahab, 2 Kings 9: 31.
the famous clock at Strasburg: described in a letter of October 1853, in a letter Collins wrote to his mother.
… the famous dock which exhibits a fantastic puppet show, every time 12 o’Clock strikes. Our Saviour is in a niche above the dial. At the first stroke, a procession of the twelve Apostles issues from a door and passes before him; each of the twelve stopping to receive his benediction—then passing out again at an opposite door… St Peters cock (big enough to eat up fifty St Peters) flaps his wings, and crows mechanically three times … the machinery in the inside of this Brobdignag bird creaking and rattling… A cherub shakes an hour-glass, and the puppet representing Our Saviour, waves its hand to the right and left, in token of general benediction. ALS 16.10.1853. Pierpont Morgan Library.
The Major has secularized his version.
Louis the Sixteenth took to lock-making: during his imprisonment after he had been deposed in the French Revolution.
Waverley Novels: by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Tales by Miss Edgeworth: Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849). Poems of Mrs Hemans: Felicia Hemans (1793–1835), a popular poet. The collection is the typical reading matter of a serious young woman of the early nineteenth century.
the famous Niobe of the Florence Museum: the Niobe Group in the Uffizi Gallery, a Roman copy of a third-century BC Hellenistic original, brought from Rome in 1775. Collins first saw it on a visit to Italy with his parents, when he was twelve years old.
Shadrach, Meshech, and the other fellow:. Daniel 3: 12…30. Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego were cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Man wants but little here below and wants that little long: misquotation of
Man wants but little here below
Nor wants that little long.
from The Hermit, or Edwin and Angelina, by Oliver Goldsmith.
The Midsummer Audit: audits, examinations of accounts, were usually made quarterly, sometimes twice yearly.
an Irish bull: a foolish remark containing an inconsistency not perceived by the speaker.
black mohair in the obsolete form of a stock: mohair, originally made from the hair of the angora goat, was by this date made from wool and cotton. A stock was a cloth worn wrapped closely round the neck.
Augean stable: in Greek mythology one of the labours undertaken by Hercules was to clean out the filthy stables of King Augeus in a single day.
the Brazils: obsolete term for the country of Brazil.
the mixed train: one carrying different classes of passengers, possibly with goods wagons as well as passenger carriages.
what the name of Michael Angela was to Sir Joshua Reynolds: Reynolds devoted part of his final Discourse at the Royal Academy (10.12.1790) to a eulogy on Michelangelo, calling him ‘that truly divine man’.
Machiavelli: Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527), author of The Prince, a by word for devious intrigue.
‘He rides the whirlwind…’: Joseph Addison (1672–1719), The Campaign (1705).
‘The death of Marmion’: Sir Walter Scott. ‘The Battle of the Baltic’: Thomas Campbell (1774–1844). ‘The Bay of Biscay’: Andrew Cherry (1762–1812). ‘Nelson’: ballad by John Braham.
the late Braham: John Braham (1784?–1856), famous tenor noted for his wide vocal range.
‘The Mistletoe Bough’: ballad by Nathaniel Bayley (1797–1839). ‘Poor Mary Anne’: ballad, by Braham (?).
Moore’s Melodies: Thomas Moore (1779–1852), Irish Melodies, patriotic and sentimental verses set to traditional Irish tunes.
scrofulous: from scrofula, tuberculosis of the lymphatic glands, extended to mean any skin disorder.
Let us gather our rosebuds…: paraphrase of Robert Herrick (1591–1674), ‘To Virgins, to Make Much of Time’.
‘Worth makes the man …’: Alexander Pope (1688–1744), Essay on Man.
prunella: worsted material used for academic gowns.
under the rose: in strict confidence. From the Latin sub rosa: the rose was the emblem of silence.
the waterman: man licensed to provide water for the cab-horses to drink, and to see that the cab-drivers accepted fares in strict rotation.
The true story of Miss Gwilt’s connection with the house in Pimlico … a story infinitely less revolting… infinitely more terrible: by implication the house is a brothel, or house of assignation, also a shady beauty-parlour and abortionist’s surgery. Lydia Gwilt is not a prostitute. Her story will, however, be revealed as ‘more terrible’.
the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park: Crystal Palace exhibition, 1851. The reference reminds the reader of the date of the action.
mens sana … : a sound mind in a sound body. Juvenal (ad 60–130), Satire 10.
a crib: literal translation used, illicitly, by schoolboys.
five shillingsworth of human labour and electric fluid: the nature of electricity was still widely misunderstood.
the Old Bailey: the Central Criminal Court, in London.
gig: light two-wheeled one-horse carriage.
Newgate: the gaol for the City of London and the County of Middlesex. Demolished in 1880.
A prison, in the present tender state of public feeling: an oblique reference to the case of Madeleine Smith, accused, in 1857, of poisoning her lover with arsenic. There was overwhelming public sympathy for her, and her acquittal by the Scottish verdict of ‘Not Proven’ was greeted in court with loud cheers.
the soft answer…: Proverbs 15: I.
the cheffonier: usually chiffonier; a small cupboard or sideboard.
Siren-imitations: irresistible, like the song of the Sirens in Greek mythology.
I believe in mesmerism: the validity of mesmerism was hotly contested in the 1850s. Wilkie Collins wrote a series of articles on the subject for The Leader newspaper in 1851 and 1852.
chemisette: an insert to fill in the neck of a low-cut gown.
notes-of-hand: a signed note, legally binding, promising to repay a debt at a future specified date.
the wings of a dove: Psalms 55: 6.
that sweet character in Shakespeare: Midsummer Night’s Dream, II. i. 163, possibly alluding to Queen Elizabeth, ‘the imperial vot’ress … in maiden meditation, fancy-free’. Mrs Oldershaw’s use of high-flown but inaccurate quotation recalls the language of Madame Rachel Leverson’s pamphlet of 1863, extolling her beauty products: ‘Beautiful for Ever’ (for Rachel Leverson, see Introduction, p. xiv).
the dinners came in from the bakers: few poorer families owned an oven. Cooking that could not be done over an open fire would be sent to be cooked in the baker’s oven after the bread had been baked.
the ‘Moonlight Sonata’: Beethoven, Piano Sonata Op. 27, No. 2.
How admirably Byron has described girls in their teens!: Beppo, 39.
tap-room: room in a public house where beer is served from the tap, or cask; frequented by the rougher sort of drinker.
Gorgon-visitors: from the monsters of Greek mythology who turned all who saw their faces to stone; hence hideous women.
On this hint…I spoke: Othello, 1. iii. 166, ‘Upon this hint I spake’.
‘To bed! to bed!’: Macbeth, v. i.
Work?: i.e. needlework.
Blackstone’s Commentaries: the standard work of reference to the Common Law.
the age of consent to matrimony: the age of consent to marriage was not raised from 12, for women, to the present age of 16 (for both sexes), until 1929, though the age of consent to sexual intercourse, for women, was raised to 16 in 1885.
the blacksmith at Gretna Green: the Marriage Acts did not apply to Scotland, where, until 1856, a mutual declaration before witnesses constituted a valid marriage. Gretna Green was just over the border from England, and a declaration before the blacksmith became fashionable for runaway couples. After 1856, a residence in Scotland of 21 days by one of the parties became necessary.
a fly: a light carriage for public hire.
a mustard plaster: a poultice spread with mustard paste, used as a counter-irritant to draw away pain.
New Road: later renamed the Marylebone Road.
the common-place rubbish of the circulating libraries: a dig at Mudie’s Circulating Library, whose dominance of the literary scene imposed an informal but crippling censorship on novelists. Collins had a running feud with Mudie and his competitors.
he proposes to get the Licence: Wilkie Collins consulted Dickens’s solicitor Ouvry about the details of marriage by Special Licence for this section of the novel. A Special Licence avoided the need for banns to be read, and therefore attracted less notice.
the risks the doctor runs, in his particular form of practice: Dr Downward performs abortions.
Great Western … South Eastern: railway companies serving, respectively, the west country and the south-eastern counties. The London terminus of the Great Western was Paddington station; that of the South Eastern at this time, London Bridge.
the tidal train: the boat train, timed to coincide with the high tide when boats sailed or docked.
the General Post Office: at Mount Pleasant, near King’s Cross.
the Borough side of the Thames: the south bank.
a travelling quack-doctor… perfumery as’ well as medicines: Madame Rachel Leverson’s first husband was a chemist’s assistant, who taught her to concoct cosmetics.
caught a Tartar: someone more than a match for her.
in a suburb of the city, on the Portici side: to the east of the city.
circular notes: letters of credit addressed by a banker in one country to several bankers in other countries.
the hotel at Santa Lucia, where he sleeps: to the west, across the bay from Portici; a tourist area.
an Alpaca gown: made of hard-wearing serviceable cloth from the wool of the alpaca, a Peruvian llama.
the Toledo: now the Via Roma.
Norma: opera by Vincenzo Bellini, first performed at La Scala, Milan, in 1831.
the San Carlo: the Naples opera house, famous for its perfect acoustic.
my smelling-bottle: bottle containing ammonium carbonate crystals, used as a stimulant in faintness.
like the sop to Cerberus: to quieten a troublesome person with a bribe. Refers to the three-headed dog who guarded the gate to the underworld in Roman mythology and who was appeased with a drugged piece of bread.
the Mole: a breakwater, especially in a harbour.
Fairweather Vale: the description corresponds closely to the Vale of Health. Hampstead Heath, originally a small hamlet, where a number of new villas were built from 1862 onwards. Collins knew Hampstead Heath well. He may have seen this development in progress on his frequent visits to his publisher George Smith, who kept open house on Friday evenings at Oak Hill Lodge, Hampstead, and ante-dated it for the purposes of his novel. The asylum from which Anne Catherick escapes in The Woman in White is also placed in Hampstead.
a collection of photographic portraits… effects of nervous suffering… ravages of insanity: a fashion for psychiatric photography in the mid-nineteenth century was pioneered by Dr Hugh Diamond, a physician at the Surrey Asylum from 1848.
my galvanic apparatus: designed to give mild electric shocks, with supposed therapeutic effects. One of the treatments Wilkie Collins tried for his ‘rheumatic gout’ consisted of ‘electric baths’.
as Harvey waited, as Jenner waited: William Harvey (1578–1657) first correctly described the circulation of the blood. Edward Jenner (1749–1823) introduced vaccination against small-pox to England.
the great mourning shop in Regent Street: Jays‘, The London General Mourning Warehouse, 247–51 Regent Street.
Fiume, Illyria: now Rijeka, Yugoslavia
the inductive process of reasoning, for which we are indebted to the immortal Bacon: Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam (1561–1626), whose inductive method (deriving general laws from particular instances) was intended to help man to regain dominion over the natural universe, lost with the Fall.
a host in yourself: a whole army in one person.
the Commissioners in Lunacy: appointed to represent the interests of the insane, and those said to be so.
Oh, woman, in our hours of ease… please!: Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, 30.
Bohemian glass-work: Bohemia, now part of Czechoslovakia, famous for its glass.
mental alienation: insanity.
Nothing painful: Collins is satirizing the critics who attacked his novels, and the unofficial censorship imposed by the circulating libraries.
a most harmless and useful medicine… a certain common mineral Substance: Collins is deliberately vague, but he is probably referring to the production of carbonic acid gas by dissolving limestone. It was thought to be ‘a real and energetic poison of the narcotic kind … a very small proportion of carbonic acid, when respired for a certain time in combination with air, will suffice to destroy life in man’ (Alfred Taylor, Medical Jurisprudence, 1849). Collins confessed he had difficulty, writing this episode, in ‘reconciling certain chemical facts with the incidents of the story’. (ALS 26.3.1866, Pierpont Morgan Library.)
Tired nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep:. Edward Young (1683–1765), The Complaint: Night Thoughts, Night 1, line 1.
the great cemetery: Highgate Cemetery.
a return ticket (from Saturday to Monday): Mr Pedgift shrewdly takes advantage of a cheap rate.
Lord, what fools we mortals be!: misquotation from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, III. i. 115, ‘Lord, what fools these mortals be!’
Lipari Islands: otherwise the Aeolian islands, a volcanic group lying between Sicily and the mainland of Italy.
by sleeping in poisoned air!: The seamen in this case died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
the ‘Norfolk Broads’ … personal investigation: Wilkie Collins visited Norfolk for the purposes of his novel in the summer of 1864.
The kindness of a friend: probably Wilkie Collins’s own doctor, Francis Carr Beard.
I saw the chemical ingredients at work Collins and Augustus Egg visited the Grotto di Cane near Naples in 1853, where the guide demonstrated the lethal effects of ‘mephitic air’ on a dog, for the edification of the tourists. Collins insisted on the experiment being cut short (letter to Charles Collins, 13 November 1853).
A SELECTION OF OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
TROLLOPE IN OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
ANTHONY TROLLOPE |
An Autobiography |
A SELECTION OF OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN |
Fairy Tales |
J. M. BARRIE |
Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and Peter and Wendy |
L. FRANK BAUM |
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |
FRANCES HODGSON |
The Secret Garden |
LEWIS CARROLL |
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass |
CARLO COLLODI |
The Adventures of Pinocchio |
KENNETH GRAHAME |
The Wind in the Willows |
THOMAS HUGHES |
Tom Brown’s Schooldays |
CHARLES KINGSLEY |
The Water-Babies |
GEORGE MACDONALD |
The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie |
EDITH NESBIT |
Five Children and It The Railway Children |
ANNA SEWELL |
Black Beauty |
JOHANN DAVID WYSS |
The Swiss Family Robinson |
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE |
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
A SELECTION OF OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
MORE ABOUT OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS
A complete list of Oxford Paperbacks, including Oxford World’s Classics, OPUS, Past Masters, Oxford Authors, Oxford Shakespeare, Oxford Drama, and Oxford Paperback Reference, is available in the UK from the Academic Division Publicity Department, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP.
In the USA, complete lists are available from the Paperbacks Marketing Manager, Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
Oxford Paperbacks are available from all good bookshops. In case of difficulty, customers in the UK can order direct from Oxford University Press Bookshop, Freepost, 116 High Street, Oxford OX1 4BR, enclosing full payment. Please add 10 per cent of published price for postage and packing.