See the maps for places mentioned in the texts or in the following notes. D. H. Lawrence is referred to as ‘DHL’. Quotations from the Bible are from the King James Authorised Version.
The imperial road … to Verona I.e. the route traversed by the Holy Roman Emperors, German kings crowned by the Popes in the Middle Ages as notional inheritors of the Roman Empire, from Bavaria in southern Germany via Austria to Italy, over the Brenner Pass. (Bozen became the Italian Bolzano after the First World War.)
Grössenwahn Megalomania, delusions of grandeur (German).
mystery plays Dramatisations of the life of Christ or legends of saints, popular in the Middle Ages.
Christus Christ (Latin).
Gasthaus Hostelry, inn (German).
Frohenleichnam Corpus Christi (German, properly ‘Fronleichnam’), Catholic feast sixty days after Easter, here incorporating pagan rituals of regeneration.
Isar River flowing northwards through Munich.
“To be, or not to be,” … the question Adapting Shakespeare, Hamlet III. i. 56 (‘To be, or not to be: that is the question’).
Klamm Dornauberg-Klamm, valley c. 18 miles east of Innsbruck.
Gabriele D’Annunzio’s son … martyred saint I.e. in the decadent and sensual style of the Italian writer (1863–1938), whose play The Martyrdom of St Sebastian (1911) caused a scandal.
Guido Reni Italian painter (1575–1642) of popular religious works.
Hyacinth In Greek myth, beautiful youth loved by sun-god Apollo, but killed through the jealous intervention of wind-god Zephyrus, when the flower bearing his name sprang from his blood.
“Couvre-toi … de flanelle.” ‘Cover yourself with glory, Tartarin – cover yourself with flannel’ (French), from chap. 6 of the comic novel Tartarin de Tarascon (1872) by Alphonse Daudet (1840–97), contrasting the glorious and everyday sides of the hero.
sensational Christus At Wieden, c. 6 miles east of the Brenner Pass.
“Spring in the Austrian Tyrol” June in the Austrian Tyrol (1892) by the Scottish painter John MacWhirter (1839–1911), in London’s Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain).
ex-voto limbs Artefacts (here models of cured limbs) given as thank-offerings.
Jaufen The Jaufenpass.
Martertafel Literally ‘torture-table’ (German): a wayside shrine in the form of a crucifix, here sheltered by a ‘hood’.
Wren Churches in London Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) designed fifty-three churches, the most famous being St Paul’s Cathedral.
Spirit of David Characteristic of the second king of Israel (reigned c. 1010–c. 970 BC), who behaved ‘passionately, imperiously’.
San Francesco Church near the centre of Gargnano; DHL and Frieda rented the Villa Igèa in neighbouring Villa di Gargnano from September 1912 to April 1913.
mountain Monte Baldo, on the eastern side of Lake Garda.
Jacob’s ladder Genesis xxviii.12.
heaven and earth are divided Cf. Genesis i.6–7.
caper-bush Mediterranean trailing shrub flourishing on old walls, ‘like a blood-stain’ because its white flowers have violet or purplish stamens and pistils and a reddish stem.
perce-neige Snowdrop (French).
steamer … Island The steamer is travelling down Lake Garda from Riva at the northern tip. Island: Isola di Garda.
monks Of the then new monastery adjacent to San Tommaso.
Eurydice … Pluto Figures connecting upper (light) and lower (dark) worlds in Greek mythology: Orpheus sought and lost his dead wife Eurydice in the underworld, and Pluto took Persephone there by force.
Desenzano At the southern end of Lake Garda.
Mais … dérange Mais … dérange: But – but, sir – I fear that – that – that I am disturbing you. Voyez … cela: Look, sir – this – this – what – what does this mean – this. Mais … s’ouvre (here): But, sir, the door – the door – it does not shut – it opens. non … dérange: no, sir, that will disturb you (French).
Botticelli … Queen of Heaven The Florentine painter Sandro Botticelli (1444/5–1510) used the same model for Aphrodite or Venus, goddess of love, as for the Virgin Mary.
in His own image … Mosaic position in His own image: Genesis i.27. Michael Angelo … Mosaic position: i.e. the Florentine painter and sculptor Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) reverts to the Old Testament and Moses, according to DHL: God the Father rather than Christ, ‘flesh’ rather than ‘spirit’.
born of the sea-foam As in Botticelli’s famous Birth of Venus (1487).
Tiger, tiger … Blake Opening of ‘The Tyger’, from Songs of Experience (1794) by William Blake (1757–1827).
a burning bush From Exodus iii.2.
Dionysic Of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, and his frenzied worshippers. In Roman style Bacchus (here) and his followers, Bacchae (here); see also note here.
Blessed … heaven Matthew v.3, 10. See also here and here and note.
Whosoever … perfect Matthew v.39; Luke vi.27–8; Matthew v.48.
Moloch Idol receiving savage sacrifices, as in 2 Kings xxiii.10.
love my neighbour as myself From Leviticus xix. 18, Matthew xix.19.
Puritans … Charles the First His execution, in 1649, concluded the Civil War between the Puritan Parliament and the King who ruled by ‘Divine Right’.
Pope … Man,” Alexander Pope (1688–1744), opening lines of the second epistle of An Essay on Man (1733).
Stuart Charles I was of the Scottish Royal House of Stuart.
empirical and ideal Respectively, giving primacy to experience and to the mental or spiritual.
Shelley, the perfectibility of man A belief the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) derived from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78).
“Now … known.” 1 Corinthians xiii.12.
Shakspearean … tiger.” Henry V, III.i.6 (‘Then imitate …’).
lion … lamb Cf. Isaiah xi.6: ‘The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.’
deny … the Holy Ghost For the unpardonable sin, against the Holy Ghost, see Matthew xii.31–2.
“Mais … terres?” But … but – do you wish to walk round my small property? (French).
vous savez, monsieur … “Perche … ecco!” vous savez, monsieur: you know, sir (French). Perche … ecco!: Because – because – the weather is – thus – very beautiful – very beautiful, see! (Italian and French).
“Vouley … monsieur.” Would you … Would you enter, sir. (The misspelling of ‘Voulez’ Italianises the padrone’s French.)
Hades Hell; a dark underworld.
citron Larger, less acid and thicker-skinned than a lemon.
Francis of Assisi The saint (1181/2–1226) who founded the Franciscan order of monks.
così-così … poco, poco—peu So-so … little, little – little (Italian, French).
divertiment The padrone confuses divertimento (Italian) and divertissement (French).
I Spettri Italian title (properly Gli Spettri) of Ghosts (1882) by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906), as DHL realises at the performance.
synthetic Not ‘artificial’ but ‘of synthesis’, fusing opposites.
a child crying in the night Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92), In Memoriam (1850), liv. 18 (‘An infant …’). See also here.
Strindberg August Strindberg (1849–1912), Swedish playwright.
D’Annunzio See note here; the play here is a sensational revenge tragedy of 1905.
Serata d’Onore Evening of Honour (Italian), i.e. performance in honour of, and exhibiting the talents of, the leading actor.
The Wife of the Doctor La Moglie del Dottore (1908) by Silvio Zambaldi (1870–1932).
Adelaida DHL’s name for Adelia di Giacomo Tadini, owner of the theatre company.
“the woman pays.” ‘Phase the Fifth’ of Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) by Thomas Hardy (1840–1928).
Gretchen Here starts (to 54:27) a list of tragic heroines: Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust (1808); Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello; Iphigenia in plays by Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles (5th century BC); Marguèrite (also near the end of the list) in the novel (1848) and play (1852) La Dame aux Camélias, by Alexandre Dumas; Lucy in the novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819) by Sir Walter Scott; Mary Magdalene in Luke vii.37–50; Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, a play (1892) by Maurice Maeterlinck and an opera (1902) by Claude Debussy; Elizabeth (Elisabeth) in Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser (1845); Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; Butterfly in Giacomo Puccini’s opera, Madame Butterfly (1904); Phèdre in Jean Racine’s play Phèdre (1677); Minnehaha in Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha (1855); Gilda in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto (1851); Electra in plays titled Electra (c. 410 BC) by Sophocles and Euripides; Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (1865) and Sieglinde in his Der Ring des Nibelungen (1869–76); Marguèrite as above. 55:10, Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Robert Burns … bosom Opening lines and line 7 of ‘O Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast’ (c. 1796) by the Scottish national poet (1759–96); ‘bield’ means ‘shelter’.
Galahad … Lancelot Knights with these qualities in the Arthurian legend.
Enrico Persevalli DHL’s name for Enrico Marconi, actor–manager of the company.
“Sono … io.” What a disgrace I am (Italian); i.e. Hamlet II.ii.584: ‘O what a rogue and peasant slave am I’.
Victoria … Jubilee period Either the Golden (1887) or the Diamond (1897) Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901).
Forbes Robertson Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853–1937) played Hamlet on several occasions, including on film in 1913.
Leonardo da Vinci Italian artist and genius (1452–1519) often seen by DHL in terms of corruption or perversion.
Orestes Hero of Aeschylus’s tragic trilogy, the Oresteia (458 BC).
Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon … The third play In the first play of the trilogy, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon are the parents of Orestes and Iphigenia, killed in sacrifice by her father. In the third play, Eumenides, the Furies (Eumenides) drive Orestes to seek absolution from Athene for killing his mother.
Davidian ecstasy Especially in his dancing: see 2 Samuel vi.14.
Savonarola … Martin Luther … Henry VIII. Initiators of the Protestant Reformation who challenged the papacy: the reformist monk (1452–98) executed in Florence; the monk (1483–1546) who began the Reformation in Germany; the king (reigned 1509–47) who made the Head of the Church of England the same as the Head of State.
Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) defeated Charles I and became Lord Protector (1653–8) during the Commonwealth republican interregnum.
Shelley and Godwin The poet (see note here) and his father-in-law, William Godwin (1756–1836), author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) at the height of the French Revolution, shared philosophical ideals of universal human freedom, perfectibility and benevolence.
Nietzsche … Pragmatist Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), the German philosopher, was ‘pagan’ in suggesting the superiority of certain pre-Christian values and calling into question the Christian emphasis on humility. In Pragmatism (1907) by American psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910), DHL read about this practical philosophy.
Sanine DHL read a French translation of Sanin (1907) by the Russian novelist Mikhail Artsybashev (1878–1927), defending a life of sensation and pleasure.
“Essere … punto.” Hamlet III.i.56 again, in Italian.
Laertes In performances of Hamlet, one actor often doubles as Laertes and the Ghost.
thou arena You aren’t (Nottinghamshire dialect).
“O … melt!” Hamlet I.ii.129.
Questo cranio, Signore This same skull, Sir (Italian): Hamlet V. i.175.
Joseph, father of the child Christ’s earthly father; ‘real’ could be opposing Christian doctrine that God is Christ’s true father, or stressing the genuineness of this mountain man.
Agamemnon’s soldiers … on the seashore Imagining men led by the Greek king during the siege of Troy, a city close to the sea.
gamin Urchin, brat (French).
Bogliaco Small dependent village just south of Gargnano.
“ein frecher Kerl,” A cheeky blighter (German).
Phaedra and Helen Phaedra was rejected by her stepson Hippolytus and had him killed; Helen’s abduction by Paris caused the Trojan War.
Bohemian glass Famed for rich colours and gilding.
many-breasted Diana The Roman moon goddess of hunting and chastity, identified with the Greek Artemis, was earlier worshipped as a fertility goddess. See also notes here and here.
Fiori DHL’s name for the Capelli family, with whom he and Frieda stayed in April 1913.
Mantegna Faces by the Italian painter Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431–1506) have these chiselled qualities.
“Il … settimani,” Paulo and me, twenty days, three weeks (Italian; properly ‘settimane’).
polenta Staple dish in northern Italy, made from ground maize flour and served either ‘wet’ as a mash or in solid slabs able to be cut with a string (as suggested at here).
The earth … thereof Slightly adapted opening of Psalm xxiv.
Signoria … elect The aristocracy … those predestined for heaven, from i Thessalonians i.4.
first-fruit … altar See Leviticus ii.12.
Porca-Maria Pig-Mary (Italian), with reference to the Virgin Mary, and therefore extremely blasphemous.
Mugiano DHL’s name for the local area, Muslone.
iron … into her soul From Psalm cv.18, Book of Common Prayer.
Abraham See Genesis: the first Jewish patriarch is a ‘landowner’ in being given Canaan as God’s faithful ‘lieutenant’.
disease The citrus disease first struck in the late 1850s.
Pompeii Roman city preserved in ash from the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.
“Venga, venga mangiare.” Come, come to eat (Italian).
fighting … lake In May 1915, Italy occupied Austrian-held areas of the Garda near where DHL had stayed in 1913.
house-place Living-room.
two English women I.e. Frieda, and Antonia Almgren, née Cyriax (1881–1927), then also living with the Capellis.
Il Duro … “bella bionda,” The Hard Man (Italian; see chap. VI and note here) chooses dark Antonia (see above); Frieda is the ‘beautiful blonde’ (Italian).
“È bello … molto bello,” Is it nice – the dance? … Yes – very nice (Italian).
“Venga—venga un po’,” Come – come for a bit (Italian).
Si verrà … l’amor Yes spring will come/ The almond will flower,/ The Trentino women will come down / To make love with Italian men (Italian folk song). Trentino is the mountainous region to the north and east of Lake Garda.
the Adige River to the east of Lake Garda.
Il Duro ‘The Hard Man’ was a nickname of Faustino Magri (1882–1974), locally notorious for his promiscuity.
“Up, Jenkins.” … table In this guessing-game, a player says ‘Up, Jenkins’ to bring the opposing team’s hands, one hiding a coin, up on to the table, guesses at the number … table: Italian game known as morra.
Peccato … neri A shame! – you know, for beauty, the black moustaches (Italian).
“Vuol’ … dolorosa,” He wishes to say you have a mournful air (Italian).
Pan Greek (‘All’) fertility god, half man, half goat.
village Gardola di Tignale.
Falstaff I.e. like Shakespeare’s fat, jovial knight in The Merry Wives of Windsor and both Henry IV plays.
Tripoli In the war of 1911–12, Italy seized Tripoli in North Africa from Turkey.
Tripoli … cannon’ Tripoli will be Italian, / Will be Italian at the roar of the cannons (Italian).
“Caro … Bravissimo,” Caro … colonello: Dear – dear – Ettore, dear colonel. Un brav’ … Bravissimo: A good man … The best (Italian).
queer shoot Or ‘queer shot’: strange fellow (dialect).
Dago Offensive slang for an Italian (or Spaniard, etc.).
forty The age up to which men were liable for service, hence the reluctance of many younger Italians to return home.
Constance … Schaffhausen DHL sailed between these Swiss towns on 19 September 1913.
Niebelung In Germanic mythology, a member of a race of dwarves who hid their treasure in the Rhine (hence the river association), as in Wagner’s cycle of operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Baden German Duchy bordering Switzerland.
village Eglisau.
Meistersinger Mastersingers (German): they revived (fourteenth to seventeenth centuries) the traditions of the minstrels of the Middle Ages.
Abendessen Supper (German).
knoedel Dumpling (German).
“Nacht, Frau Wirtin … ’te Nacht, Frau,” Goodnight, Landlady (German), with three shortened forms of Gute Nacht.
dialect Swizzerdeutsch or Swiss German.
“schön” Fine (German): perhaps complimenting DHL’s accent.
“Bettler … Taugenichtse!” Beggars, vagabonds and wastrels (German).
mein Herr Sir (‘My lord’, German).
put them out By his door, to be cleaned.
shack-bags Tramps (dialect).
long lake The Zürich See.
soulless village … “Gasthaus zur Post.” The village is perhaps Langnau-Gattikon, near Thalwil, DHL’s likely landing-place. Gasthaus zur Post: Post Inn (German), where the mail carriers stopped.
trapu … Caruso Stocky (French), like the famed Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873–1921).
Neapolitan cards In packs of forty cards, not the usual fifty-two.
“Il sole, il sole!” The sun, the sun! (Italian).
Nietzsche … Dionysic ecstasy Nietzsche contrasted dark Dionysus and light Apollo in The Birth of Tragedy (1872).
campanilismo Love of one’s village (Italian), from the bell-tower or campanile.
Cirenaica North African region ceded, with Tripoli, to Italy in 1912.
Sunday morning … heading for Lucerne Sunday is 21 September 1913. DHL is walking south-west to Lucerne on Lake Lucerne.
top of the hill The Albispass, above Langnau-Gattikon.
the lake … Rigi The lake is the Zuger See. Rigi is a mountain with a pass between the Zuger See and Lake Lucerne, giving panoramic views.
crambling Stiff, decrepit (dialect).
meek … earth From Matthew v.5.
town Zug, at the north-east corner of the Zuger See.
angenehm Pleasant (German).
town Arth, at the southern tip of the Zuger See.
last station Flüelen, at the bottom end of Lake Lucerne.
to the Lake I.e. from some 30 miles south of Flüelen.
Interlaken One of the oldest tourist resorts in central Switzerland.
valley The Reusstal, valley of the river Reuss.
edelweiss pottery Souvenirs with representations of the Alpine flower.
Excelsior ‘Higher’ (Latin); poem (1841) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) in which the hero unswervingly climbs the mountain of his idealistic purpose and dies.
Streatham Commuter suburb of south London.
Sadish Like the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), sadistic.
Red Indians … torture A notion DHL probably derived from the American novelist James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851).
rushing wave of death Avalanches are common in the Reusstal.
crew-yards For herds (‘crews’) of cattle.
little town Gurtnellen.
tunnel St Gotthard rail tunnel (built 1872–80), piercing the Alps for 9 miles between Göschenen and Airolo.
pass Schöllenen Pass, above Göschenen.
Russians killed In fighting the French here, August–September 1799.
Skegness or Bognor Typical English seaside holiday resorts.
village … castle Hospental.
Gotthard St Gotthard Pass.
oil-cloth Waterproofed canvas.
Sportverein Sports club (German).
“Das ist schön … Hübsch,” That is beautiful … Pretty (German).
camels I.e. with back-packs like humps.
Encore More (French).
descent From the St Gotthard Pass to Airolo.
britching Breeching (dialect) or straining backwards, from the breeching strap against which a descending carthorse strains.
“Kennst … blühen?” Know you the land where the lemon-trees bloom? (German); from Goethe (1749–1832), Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795–6), Bk III, chap. 1.
valley-head Of the river Ticino.
“Quanto … chilo,” How much do the grapes cost? … Sixty a kilo (Italian, the dominant language in southern Switzerland).
“Ja … reizend,” Yes, this is nice (German).
station Lavorgno, c. 12 miles south-east of Airolo, fits DHL’s trainfare.
the end I.e. Capolago, at the southern tip.
terminus Cernobbio.
“Vous … parasol.” You have left your parasol (French).