The Warden (32 page)

1
(p. 140). Convent
Custody Bill
: See Chapter 7, note 4.

2
(p. 141).
Bradshaw: Bradshaw's Railway Guide
, the standard railway timetable of the Victorian period.

3
(p. 143).
William Pitt
: The younger (1759–1806), Tory Prime Minister from 1783 to 1800 and again from 1804 to 1806. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

4
(p. 147).
a London supper-house
: These provided food and entertainment for a largely male clientele coming on from theatres and casinos, and were notoriously places frequented by prostitutes. The more stylish and expensive offered the Victorian equivalent of a cabaret, but Mr Harding has chosen one catering for the working-class Londoner's taste for shellfish. ‘At none of these night haunts, smart, low, native or exotic, could one expect to see a respectable woman' (Kellow Chesney,
The Victorian Underworld
(Temple Smith, 1970), p. 311).

5
(p. 148).
cigar divan
: Cigar-shop offering a room for smoking and drinking. The word ‘divan' is of Persian origin and came to mean the chamber where an oriental divan, or privy council, met.

6
(p. 148).
Sherbet
: In the East a cooling drink of sweetened fruit-juice and snow, in the West a drink made of effervescent fruit-flavoured powder.

7
(p. 149).
Blackwood: Blackwood's Magazine
, founded in Edinburgh in 1817.

1
(p. 151).
Lord Chancellor
: The head of the judiciary in England and Wales, and a member of the Prime Minister's cabinet.

2
(p. 154).
Quixotism
: A lofty and idealistic but impractical approach to life, after the chivalrous hero of Cervantes' novel
Don Quixote
(1605).

1
(p. 158).
Macready
: William Charles Macready (1793–1873), famous Victorian actor who did much to revitalize the production of Shakespeare. He was renowned for his powerful performances as Macbeth and Lear.

2
(p. 160).
God, that feeds the young ravens
: See Psalm 147, v. 9: ‘He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.'

3
(p. 161).
Job
: Proverbially patient and long-suffering patriarch in the Old Testament.

1
(p. 163).
sotto voce
: In an undertone.

2
(p. 169).
gravelled
: Perplexed.

3
(p. 170).
Quiverful
: A comic derivation from Psalm 127, vv. 4–5: ‘As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them…'

1
(p. 172).
wretched clerical Priam… Hecuba… Hectors
: Trollope is comparing Mr Quiverful ironically to the last king of Troy, married to Hecuba, who according to Homer fathered fifty sons and fifty daughters by his wife and concubines. Their son Hector was the greatest of the Trojan warriors.

2
(p. 173).
simony
: The illegal buying and selling of a Church living, considered a corrupt and sinful practice.

3
(p. 174).
Pharisee
: Jewish sect advocating strict adherence to the laws and forms of religion, and in the Gospels more concerned with the letter than the spirit; hence a formalist and religious hypocrite.

4
(p. 175).
her teapoy and his cellaret
: A teapoy is a small three-legged table or stand which originally had nothing to do with tea-making, although by this time Eleanor's would probably be used for just that.
A cellaret is a case or small sideboard with compartments for holding wine-bottles.

5
(p. 175).
esprit de corps
: Pride in and loyalty to one's order.

6
(p. 180).
his mortal coil would be shuffled off
: See
Hamlet
, III.i.67: ‘When we have shuffled off this mortal coil'.

1
(p. 181).
court plaster
: Sticking-plaster for superficial wounds made of silk, so called because of their use in the eighteenth century for beauty patches.

2
(p. 183).
perfect church
: Many details in this picture suggest the tiny church of St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate in Winchester, and provide further evidence for the view argued in the Introduction that Trollope's memory of his schooldays at Winchester played a significant part in the conception of Barchester.