Original: "The Dickensian", 1944

Introduction

1. Cloisterham. Chapter III opens with these words: "For sufficient reasons ... a fictitious name must be bestowed upon the old cathedral town. Let it stand in these pages as Cloisterham." It has been generally agreed (although nowhere does Dickens specifically say so) that Rochester, close to Dickens's home at Gad's Hill, was intended, and throughout the book the resemblances are so identifiable as to be almost exact. Dickens goes on:

"It was possibly known to the Druids by another name [Dourbryf,] and certainly to the Romans by another [Durobrivis,] and to the Saxons by another [Hrofesceaster,] and to the Normans by another [Rovecestre,] and a name more or less in the course of centuries can be of little moment."

The notes will therefore deal with the topographical allusions in the book as though they refer actually to Rochester. But it should be borne in mind that Rochester's famous castle is not mentioned at all; that, whilst a weir at Cloisterham plays an important part in the story, there is no weir at Rochester, the nearest being seven miles away; and that there are other discrepancies between the two cities that are noticed in their appropriate places. It may well be that Dickens has reverted to an early-practice and has incorporated in his fictitious cathedral town some features from other towns, or even invented some features for the purpose (what he calls "sufficient reasons") of his story.

2. The period of the story. There are several lines of enquiry to be pursued to arrive at the date, and this is the subject of a special article. (See Dickensian, 1944, page 113, "Drood Time in Cloisterham.")

3. The plot. No attempt is made to elucidate the "Mystery," as it is beyond the scope of these notes, which only deal with the unfinished book as a book.

Chapter I

1. grey square tower. This is correct as a description of Rochester cathedral, although it now has a spire. (See the article on the period of the story.) Fildes's vignette drawing on the title-page shows the cathedral with a square pinnacled tower, and is, indeed, the only indication that identifies Cloisterham with Rochester.

2. John Chinaman. He is only mentioned twice, here and in Chapter XXII, where he is called Jack.

3. daily vesper service. "Vespers" is one of the evening services in the "Hours " of the Sarum Breviary (these were Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sexts, Nones, Vespers, and Compline). Although not an official name for the Anglican "Evening Prayer." which unites the Pre-Reformation Vespers and Compline, it is often used colloquially for brevity and convenience.

4. sullied white robes. This only means literally that the surplices wanted washing; but perhaps Dickens also wished to convey a hint of spiritual " sullying."

5. palls into the procession. That would be, of course, among the men and behind the boy choristers. In Chapter XXIII Jasper is said to be leading the line, which is obviously a mistake. Collins's drawing on the cover is correct, although the choir is a very small one.

6. locks the iron-barbed gates. These at Cloisterham divide the sanctuary from the chancel, but at Rochester there is neither sanctuary nor chancel, the former being known as the Presbytery, and the latter as the Choir, with the Choir Transept between the two; the iron-barred gates divide the Nave from the Choir. The Sacristan should be the Verger (see Chapter II, "Mr. Tope, Chief Verger and Showman ").

7. when the wicked man. The first of the Opening Sentences at Morning Prayer and at Evening Prayer in the Church liturgy. The full text from Ezek., xviii, 27, is: "When the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive."

Chapter II

1. sedate and clerical bird. The rook has constantly been likened to a clergyman, probably from his nearly black plumage and the white patch (like a parson's bands) under his beak, combined with his stately and deliberate walk. Caricaturists are especially fond of him. He is associated with Cloisterham cathedral all through the book, and in Chapter III the clergy in the stalls are called "hoarse and less distinct rooks."

2. monastery ruin. On the south side of Rochester cathedral are the remains of a beautiful Norman cloister, the ruined Chapter House that extended into what is now the Deanery garden, and other portions of the ancient Priory of St. Andrew, dissolved in 1540.

3. low arched cathedral door. This is the small door north of, and adjoining, the Great West Door.

4. old stone gatehouse. The entry from High Street, Rochester, to the Cathedral Precincts. It is a fifteenth century building, with a timbered upper story originally known as Chertsey's or Cemetery Gate; its official name since the dissolution of the Priory in 1540 is College Gate. The roadway which takes the place of the old wall of the Priory and the houses that adjoined the gateway is of comparatively recent construction.

5. snug old red-brick house. An exact description of the deanery.

6. early tea (for Jasper). Observe the chronology: Evensong at 4 o'clock; the service is over; the day is waning; the "deep Cathedral-bell strikes the hour" (5 o'clock); the Dean's dinner-bell summons him home (the fashionable dinner-hour is 5.30); Jasper goes home to his early tea, having probably dined at middle-day, as he was boarded by Mrs. Tope. In Chapter XII, also after the cathedral service "the Dean withdraws to his dinner, Mr. Tope to his tea, and Mr. Jasper to his piano."

7. grand piano. If Cloisterham is Rochester, and if the Old Stone Gatehouse is "Jasper's Gateway, it is extremely doubtful whether it would be possible to convey a grand piano up the narrow and steep staircase giving access to Jasper's rooms.

8. tell me, shepherds. A pastoral glee, "The Wreath (Ye shepherds, tell me)," by Joseph Mazzinghi (1765-1844) popular in the nineteenth century with singing classes and choirs.

9. moddley-coddley. Probably a remembrance of Dickens's childhood's pronunciation of the more correct molly-coddle. Molly, a variant of Mary, means effiminate or babyish; coddle, is to treat as an invalid; hence to molly-coddle is to pet or make a fuss of.

10. marseillaise-wise. It used to be the custom, and still is, on occasion, for a French crowd to sing the Marseillaise with their arms round each other's shoulders.

11. begone dull care. A seventeenth century ballad first printed in the "Musical Companion," published 1667 by John Playford (1613-93). The first verse runs: "Begone, dull Care, I prithoe begone from me, / Begone, dull Care, you and I shall never agree." The second verse contains the phrase used by Edwin (see Note 14): "Too much Care will make a young man grey, / And too much care will turn an old man to clay. / My wife shall dance / And I will sing, / So merrily pass the day."

12. lay precentor or lay clerk. Jasper's exact position seems a matter of some doubt, even to the author. He is also described elsewhere as Choir-Master, Music Master, and as Precentor. He could not hold all these offices in a cathedral choir; his proper office was probably Lay Choral Clerk, i.e., a professional chorister. He may, by courtesy, have been called Choir-Master, as it is possible ho may, to assist the cathedral organist, have trained the boys' voices, but at Rochester the Organist is also "Master of the Choristers" since 1791; in the seventeenth century the organist (who was a Petty, or Minor, Canon) was also "teaching the children." Moreover, if Jasper led the singing, what were the duties of Minor Canon Crisparkle, who would normally take the priest's part in all the Responses? Note, that in Chapter XXIII Datchery says only: "he sings in the choir."

13. niche in life. One's niche is, figuratively, the place in the general scheme of things best suited to one's abilities and qualifications, just as a statue has its appointed and particular niche (shell-like alcove) in or on a public building. A niche in the Temple of Fame — the Pantheon at Para — is reserved for illustrious Frenchmen. William Cowper (1731-1800) effectively uses the word in "The Task." (1785): "Just in the niche he was ordained to fill."

14. my wife shall dance. See Note 11.

15. nothing half so sweet in life. From "Love's young dream," one of the "Irish Melodies" of Thomas Moore (1779-1852).

Chapter III

1. fictitious name. See Introduction.

2. small salad. Seedlings of mustard and land-cress, commonly known as Mustard-and-Cress.

3. hoarse and less distinct rooks. See Chapter II, Note 1.

4. paved Quaker settlement. According to the late Edwin Harris this was situated at Boley Hill, Rochester, close to the cathedral precints. It is only a passing topographical allusion, as it does not come into the story so far as told. There is a Friends' Meeting House in Northgate.

5. despondent little theatre. Another topographical detail not used in the story. Rochester Theatre Royal, built 1791, stood at the foot of Star Hill; it was closed 1884 and a Club erected on the site.

6. Nuns' House. A fanciful name with a fanciful derivation from a supposed conventual use; the building is usually said to be Eastgate House. It never was a convent, nor does it stand on the site of a Convent. It is a handsome sixteenth century red-brick house built by Sir Peter Burke, Clerk of the Cheque of H.M. Dockyard, Chatham. Here he entertained the King of Denmark in 1606. At the time Dickens was writing it accommodated a School for Young Ladies, and was acquired by the City Corporation in 1897 as a memorial of Queen Victoria's jubilee. It is now a museum.

7. seen better days. In Shakespeare's time this saying was already current with people whose worldly circumstances had deteriorated. In "Timon of Athens " the Steward says: "Let's shake our heads, and say, / As 'twere a knell unto our Master's fortunes, / We have seen better days." Act IV, Sc. 2.

8. wandering Jewess. The legend of the Wandering Jew who roamed the earth till the Judgement Day, in punishment for an insult offered to Our Lord on the way to Calvary, dates from the early Middle Ages, and is probably an embellishment of the Gospel narrative, calculated to make it more interesting and impressive to the illiterate. Poor Miss Twinkleton, evicted from her parlour with no other place to rest the soles of her feet.

9. down the kitchen stairs. The Nuns' House at Cloisterham seems to have had a basement, but Eastgate House at Rochester has none.

10. Belzoni dragged out. Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1853), famous traveller and explorer of Egyptian antiquities. The allusion in the text refers to his opening-up of the second Pyramid of Gizeh. In 1821 he held an exhibition in London of his collection. Thomas Hood mentioned him in his "Ode to W. Kitchener, M.D.": "There came Belzoni, fresh from the ashes of Egyptian dead."

Chapter IV

1. receiving you here for the first time. It is curious that Jasper and Sapsea had never met before, and that at their first meeting Sapsea should enter into intimate details of his private life, and should seek Jasper's opinion (not criticism) of the famous epitaph of Mrs. Sapsea. But of course we do not know how long Jasper had been living at Cloisterham.

2. wooden effigy. This figure really existed, but not in Rochester High Street. At the time that Dickens was writing the book it could be seen over the portico of a house in St. Margaret's Banks.

3. when the French came over. See the "Drood Time in Cloisterham" in The Dickenrian, 1944, page 113.

4. chartered libertine. This expression is from Shakespeare: "The air, a chartered libertine, is still." "King Henry V," Act I, Sc. 1. A libertine is one who is a law unto himself, does exactly as he pleases and when be likes, being responsible to no one whatsoever; like the air indeed, that cares no more for a king than for a tramp.

5. up in the chancel. That is the Choir, to which, at Rochester, a considerable flight of steps leads from the nave of the cathedral.

6. ask 'ere a man. A very illiterate way of saying: "ask any man here." 'Ere is pronounced air. 'Ere equals ever used as word of emphasis; ever a man means any possible man you care to choose.

7. tying the third key up. A few paragraphs before this Durdles had opened "the mouth of a large breast-pocket . . . before taking the key to place it in that repository." Apparently he changed his mind in favour of the dinner-bundle.

8. a hit at backgammon. The "hit" is the first score in the game; the "gammon" the second score; and "game" the third and final.

Chapter V

1. cockshy. In medieval sports, archers used a live cock as a target at which to shoot (it sounds cruel). Hence any rough-and-ready target at which to throw or shy became, figuratively, a cock; it is also applied to a butt for ridicule.

2. Travellers Twopenny, in Gasworks Garding. Formerly an inferior inn or lodging-house in what is now the Maidstone road, then called Crow Lane. The site is now (1943) occupied by a furniture warehouse. By the way, Deputy would have said "Travellers' Tupny."

3. Durdles was making his reflections. It is interesting to note that Durdles, throughout this conversation, gives no evidence of illiteracy or of his condition of "beery soddenness." On the contrary, he seems particularly lucid, speaking like an educated man with a good vocabulary.

4. Peter the wild boy. A savage creature found in 1725 in a wood near Hameln in Hanover at the supposed age of thirteen. Ho "walked" on all fours, could climb trees like a squirrel, and had fed on grass, nuts, etc. King George I brought him to England in 1746. Efforts to reclaim him were practically unsuccessful, and he never learned to talk. He died in 1785.

5. little underground chapel. The partly Norman and partly thirteenth century crypt of Rochester cathedral is unusually large. There were in ancient days no less than seven altars representing as many chapels. At the time of the story the crypt was much neglected and was used as a receptacle for builder's rubbish and discarded church furniture, and the window openings were unglazed, while some of them were boarded to keep out the worst of the weather. The crypt was cleaned up, re-floored with cement, and the windows were all properly glazed late in the nineteenth century.

6. old 'un with a crook. This was, of course, the tomb of a deceased bishop.

7. once the vineyard. The use of the word vineyard in the old monasteries often meant the orchard. The place is still called the "Vines" and is used as a public park.

8. some wooden forget-me-not. Forget-me-not is here used, rather picturesquely, as a synonym for the commoner "souvenir."

9. red curtaining. The old custom of having red curtains to the windows of inns has nearly died out, although they may be found in out-of-the-way places. They were superseded in the late nineteenth century by wire blinds, and now even these have now almost disappeared.

Chapter VI

1. pier-glass. A pier-glass was originally a mirror placed on the pier between windows. Nowadays it is placed on the pier or chimney-breast over the fireplace. Occasionally one will be found against a wall supported by a bracket or console-table, perhaps with a mistaken notion that pier means peer or look at.

2. no railway. See article "Drood Time in Cloisterham" in The Dickensian, 1944, page 113.

3. I won't deprive you of it. The same expression as that used by Sam Weller in the Pickwick Papers, Chap. XXXVII, in reply to Mr. John Smauker's offer of his arm. It is interesting to note the repetition in Dickens's last book of the phrase in his earliest novel.

Chapter VII

1. hinting the key-note . . . hinted the one note. Quite apart from the hypnotic effect of Jasper's gaze, the emphasis of his softly hinting the key-note would be very embarrassing to the singer, and to keep insisting on the key-note might be also very jarring, unhelpful and inartistic. It is not as though he were giving a lesson to someone who couldn't keep to the pitch; he was really "showing-off" a pupil before company.

Chapter VIII

1. heater is on the fire. The heater was probably one of those funnel-shaped metal vessels for thrusting into the coals to warm its contents.

2. seems to require much mixing. The addition of some drug or sleeping mixture is plainly hinted. Sec Neville's account of its effects, later in the chapter.

Chapter IX

1. Tilbury Fort. Here on August 8th, 1588, Queen Elizabeth reviewed her army and navy after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

2. bird of graceful plumage. It was Ben Jonson, in his "Tribute to the Memory of Shakespeare," who called him "Sweet swan of Avon." "The bird's song on the approach of death, for which we have no ornithological authority" has a classical foundation as the swan was the Bird of Apollo, and was credited with remarkable musical powers, exercised when its death was imminent. Shakespeare knew the legend and used it twice: "I will play the swan and die in music." "Othello," Act V, Sc. 2. "If he lose, he makes a swan-like end / Fading in music." "Merchant of Venice," Act III, Sc. 2. It is the fact that the so-called mute swan rarely uses its voice, except in the breeding season, when the male or cob trumpets loudly.

3. who drew the celebrated jew. This, of course, was Shakespeare, and the celebrated Jew was Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice." Miss Twinkleton had that evidently, in mind, without being able to remember the exact words Pope's tribute to Charles Macklin, whose real name was McLaughlin (1697-1797), the great Irish actor and dramatist, in his enormous success as Shylock on 14th February, 1741: "This is the Jew / That Shakespeare drew."

4. rumour, painted full of tongues. In the masques of the sixteenth century Rumour was a frequent character, and always arrayed in garments on which many tongues were embroidered or painted. In Thomas Campion's masque, St. Stephen's Night (1614) Rumour appears clad in a skin coat full of winged tongues. Shakespeare's first stage direction at the beginning of the Induction to King Henry the Fourth, Part II, reads, "Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues," and this is the immediate source of the frequent allusion.

5. la Fontaine. Jean de Lafontaine (1621-1695). Best known for his poetical versions of Aesop's Fables (1668). His verse is brilliant and free from all coarseness, and used to be a favourite medium for the acquisition of the French language in genteel ladies' academies.

6. airy nothings pointed at by the poet. Shakespeare again: "As imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen / Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothings / A local habitation and a name." "Midsummer Night's Dream," Act V, Sc. 1.

7. clapping on a paper moustache. From this phrase Percy Carden deduced that Neville wore a moustache, although Fildes in his illustrations depicts him as clean-shaved. Yet Dickens approved of both cover and pictures.

8. fur tippet. A tippet is a kind of short cape.

9. few and far between. This simile has a poetic origin. Robert Blair (1699-1747) has this form in his poem "The Grave ": "Visits like those of angels, short and far between." Its usually accepted form is found in Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), whose "Pleasure of Hope " contains this line: "Like angels' visits, few and far between."

10. a guiding memorandum. Mr. Grewgious's use of such an aid to memory is reminiscent of the same device to help Mr. Guppy (another legal person) at his interview with Lady Dedlock in Bleak House, Chap. XXIX.

11. celestial nine. The author gives Miss Twinkleton a wide choice, for these are the Nine Muses, daughters of Zeus. In Greek mythology they presided over the liberal arts, and their names were Clio (history), Euterpe (lyric poetry) Thalia (comedy), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (music and dancing), Erato (amatory poetry). Calliope (epic poetry), Urania (astronomy), and Polyhymnia (singing). No wonder that Miss Twinkleton was looking upward and biting the end of her pen, waiting for the descent of an idea.

12. youthful cotillon. The Cotillon is a graceful dance of French origin performed by eight persons. That is why Mr. Grewgious, being an angular man, did not feel qualified (even if he had known the steps, which seems doubtful) to "advance and retire," and therefore recommended the Dancing Master.

13. possessed you with the contents. This use of the word " possess" is not common nowadays except with lawyers, but Dickens uses it occasionally. See Bleak-House, Chap. II, where Mr. Tulkinghorn possessed the Dedlocks of new developments in the Jarndyce suit.

14. pen-and-ink-ubus. This was an old pen even in Dickens's day.

15. curtsy suggestive of marvels. A rather unkind suggestion that advancing years and stiffness might make the complexities of the curtsy difficult of attainment by the elderly Miss Twinkleton's respected (because concealed) legs. At any rate, her struggles landed her three yards (!) from where she started, which implies that she nearly overbalanced.

16. great western door. See Chap. II, Note 3.

17. chancel steps. See Chap. IV, Note 6.

Chapter X

1. gown still on. Jasper might well have returned in his cassock from the vestry to speak to Mrs. Crisparkle, but he certainly first retired with the choir to take off his surplice.

2. wanted support. Just the sort of expression a fussy mother would use before proceeding to administer a restorative.

3. Constantia. A wine produced in the province of that name near Capetown. It is sweet and has a delicious aroma; it is a light dessert wine, and would not be a very potent pick-me-up.

4. delicious fugue. The apposite associations of the bust of Handel, a master of the fugue form, with the mixed aroma from the famous cupboard, only needs to be pointed out to be appreciated.

5. outlandish vessels of blue and white. These roughly-finished pot-bellied jars are not very often seen nowadays, but they were, in their wicker or cane cases, at one time common in grocers' shops. Perhaps a few may still be preserved in china cabinets.

6. double-breasted buttoned coat. This delightful description of the jars in which pickles used to be kept is one of Dickens's inimitable similes. It recalls the tombstones of Pip's five little brothers in Great Expectations: their shape gave him the impression that "they had been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets."

7. infusions of gentian. Mrs. Crisparkle's stock of homely medicaments was doubtless prepared (distilled) in the Still Room; it was before the days of multitudinous "patent" medicines, and when the virtues of herbal preparations were appreciated. Here is the full list of her medicines and the ailments for which they were used:

Gentian: a stomachic tonic.

Peppermint: carminative and comforting.

Gilliflower-water: for palpitation.

Sage: a gargle for sore-throat; promotes perspiration.

Parsley: makes stimulating poultices.

Thyme: thyme-oil eases toothache, sprains, etc.

Rue: rue-oil is a powerful stimulant useful for flatulence and colic.

Rosemary: for nervous headache and hysteria.

Dandelion: dandelion-tea acts on a sluggish liver.

8. highly popular lamb. This reference has sometimes been thought to be irreverent, but Dickens, who was a seriously religious man, uses it—as it is used in the Bible—not as being a direct mention of Our Saviour, but as being a simile and a simile only. In a letter written on the morning of the day of his fatal seizure and only a few hours before his death he replied to a correspondent: "It would be quite inconceivable to me . . . that any reasonable reader could possibly attach a scriptural reference to a passage in a book of mine reproducing a much abused social figure of speech impressed into all sorts of service on all sorts of inappropriate occasions without the faintest connexion of it with its original source . . ."

9. lady Macbeth was hopeless. This allusion combines two separate references. It was not Lady Macbeth, but her husband, who said: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather / The multitudinous sea incarnadine." Act II, Sc. 1. Then, in the sleep-walking scene, Lady Macbeth exclaims: "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." Act V, Sc. 1.

10. vesper service. See Chap. I, Note 3.

11. wisdom or love. An instance of Dickens's knowledge of human motives, and his genius in presenting a profound truth in attractive form.

(To be continued)