A chronological list of definitions and useful clarifications.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The title itself is a play on words that Albee saw scrawled on a mirror in a Greenwich Village bar one night in 1954, according to an interview with Albee in the Paris Review:

“I was in there having a beer one night, and I saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf . . . who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke.”

Source: http://virginiawoolfblog.com/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf/

Albee's original title for the play was The Exorcism (eventually used as the name for Act III), which then became The Exorcism: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and was subsequently shortened to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Source: Edward Albee: A Singular Journey by Mel Bussow

Virginia Woolf

"While she is best known for her novels, especially Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927), Woolf also wrote pioneering essays on artistic theory, literary history, women’s writing, and the politics of power."

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Virginia-Woolf

"What a dump!"

A quote from Beyond the Forest, a 1949 noir film from Warner Brothers, starring Bette Davis. The phrase has inspired memes and imitations.

Martha is wrong about the name of Bette Davis' costar. She calls him Joseph Cotten, but the role was played by James Cotten.

Martha also confuses Davis' love interest, who does not have a scar.

Find more information about Beyond the Forest on IMDB here.

An interesting tidbit from IMDB that may reflect on the play: "The film begins after the opening credits with this warning title: This is the story of evil. Evil is headstrong - is puffed up. For our souls sake, it is salutory for us to view it in all it's ugly nakedness once in a while. Thus may we know how those who deliver themselves over to it end up like the scorpion, in a mad frenzy stinging themselves to eternal death."

Peritonitis

Bette Davis' character in Beyond the Forest dies from Peritonitis, which she contracted after trying to abort her fetus.

"Peritonitis is inflammation of the peritoneum — a silk-like membrane that lines your inner abdominal wall and covers the organs within your abdomen — that is usually due to a bacterial or fungal infection. Peritonitis can result from any rupture (perforation) in your abdomen, or as a complication of other medical conditions.

Peritonitis requires prompt medical attention to fight the infection and, if necessary, to treat any underlying medical conditions. Treatment of peritonitis usually involves antibiotics and, in some cases, surgery. Left untreated, peritonitis can lead to severe, potentially life-threatening infection throughout your body.

Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/peritonitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20376247

Pronunciation: https://youtu.be/vshLlg0Wo7g

"Georgie-Porgie, put-upon-pie"

This is a variation of an English nursery rhyme, which Martha alters for her own use.

The traditional rhyme is:

Georgie Porgie, Puddin’ and Pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry,

When the boys came out to play

Georgie Porgie ran away.

Source: https://allnurseryrhymes.com/georgie-porgie/

"Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

In the original film, this phrase was sung to the tune of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", a song from Walt Disney Productions' 1933 Silly Symphony short, The Three Little Pigs. In contrast, copyright laws have limited theatrical productions' utilization of the song.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

British poet, famous for "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Under Milkwood".

From the Dylan Thomas website:

"Dylan’s first girlfriend Pamela Hansford Johnson remembers, as early as 1933, that “Dylan met someone he knew on the way out and pretended to be drunk”. His biographer Constantine Fitzgibbon goes so far as to say that he was ‘acting’ in public arenas.

“Part of Dylan the actor’s charm and success lay in his ability to give his audience what they wanted. When they wanted him witty, he was. When they wanted him outrageous, he was that too. Increasingly they wanted him drunk”.

In terms of Dylan’s drinking there is no doubt that he often drank to excess and later in life there was increased alcohol consumption associated with depression, money and family issues, and the strains caused by the rigours of four American tours. There were also psychological explanations for his drinking with references from friends to his shyness, his need for company and his dislike of being alone. His friend Gwen Watkins (who called Dylan’s public face ‘instant Dylan’) described that,

“If he was at ease in his company, liked and admired, (not flattered) he rarely seemed to drink to excess, and certainly he never showed in these circumstances the uneasy urgency of the true alcoholic for more and stronger drink… But any pressure, any anxiety, any uncertainty – and respites from all of these were rare in Dylan’s life – drove him to alcohol as a child turns to its mother’s breast for comfort.”

His feeling of inadequacy was never truer than when he found himself in what he considered ‘distinguished company’, he would find defence in drink, as he felt intimidated, as they considered him an uneducated man because of his lack of a university education.

There were periods of abstinence, displays of moderation, and Dylan had a preference for beer over wine and spirits. He enjoyed the atmosphere of pubs and clubs where he could socialise, and he appreciated the taste of good beer. Interestingly in his post-mortem, though there was evidence of the effects of a life long drinker, there was no alcoholic hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver."

Source: https://www.discoverdylanthomas.com/life

Parnassus

Here George is referring to his father-in-law's house as Mount Parnassus, the mythological home of Apollo and the Muses. A famed landmark, Mount Parnassus is located in central Greece near Dephi.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Parnassus

Interestingly, there was also a literary movement named after the mountain and it's muses: Parnassianism. "As a reaction to the less-disciplined types of romantic poetry/and what they considered the excessive sentimentality and undue social and political activism of Romantic works, the Parnassians strove for exact and faultless workmanship, ^[2] selecting exotic and (neo-)classical subjects that they treated with rigidity of form and emotional detachment. Elements of this detachment were derived from the philosophical work of Schopenhauer."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnassianism

Illyria

1) The fictional location of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

2) "Illyria, northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, inhabited from about the 10th century BCE onward by the Illyrians, an Indo-European people. At the height of their power, the Illyrian frontiers extended from the Danube River southward to the Adriatic Sea and from there eastward to the Šar Mountains."

Illyria was eventually conquered by Rome in 168BCE and absorbed into the Roman Empire.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Illyria

Gomorrah

Biblical location near the Dead Sea. According to the Bible, this city and Sodom were destroyed by God because of the inhabitants' wickedness.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Sodom-and-Gomorrah

"24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace." New International Version, Genesis 19:24-28

The Tenure Process

For an in-depth account of the tenure process at Yale in the 1950s and 1960s, pages 6-21: https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/Teichgraeber.pdf

Abstruse, abstract, recondite

According to Webster:

Abstruse: difficult to comprehend

Abstract:

1 a: disassociated from any specific instance an abstract entity

b: difficult to understand : ABSTRUSE abstract problems

c: insufficiently factual : FORMAL possessed only an abstract right

2: expressing a quality apart from an object the word poem is concrete, poetry is abstract

3 a: dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : THEORETICALabstract science

b: IMPERSONAL, DETACHEDthe abstract compassion of a surgeon— Time

4: having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content abstract painting

Recondite:

1: difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend : DEEP a recondite subject

2: of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure recondite fact about the origin of the holiday— Floyd Dell

3: hidden from sight : CONCEALED

"I will not give up Berlin!"

A Washington Post article recounts an exchange between Albee and a student at a University of Houston seminar:

"Some of the 1960s references need a little explaining to the children of the 1980s. What, someone asks, does [George] mean when he says: 'I will not give up Berlin.' The 72-year-old playwright thinks back, looking for an shorthand description of the Cold War. 'Here was a time when Russia was trying to take Berlin, the Berlin blockade. Keep that, don't worry about that.'"

In her review of Anthony Page's mid-2000s Broadway/West End revival, Guardian critic Susannah Clapp points out:

"'I will not give up Berlin!' George proclaims: Albee was writing in 1962, a year after the Berlin Wall went up, when the Cold War was in the American air; the first production of the play fell in the same month that the Cuban missile crisis erupted."

Finishing Schools

An account of a current school: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/08/lessons-from-the-last-swiss-finishing-school

"Unaccredited, expensive, and, typically, family run, Swiss finishing schools took the place of men’s university education for many wealthy Western European women with matrimonial ambitions."

Perhaps Martha attended something like Miss Porter's school.

Source: http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/miss-porters-school-finishes-socialites-scholars-first-lady/

Lady Chatterley

In the D.H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, a woman named Lady Chatterley has an affair with her estate's gamekeeper amidst disappointment in her marriage. Follow the link to learn more about the work.

Albatross

Possibly a reference to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Walpurgisnacht

Translated from German as "Witches Night."

Traditionally takes place on April 30th as a celebration that ushers in Spring. According to legend, witches and warlocks fly to the Harz Mountains on this evening to celebrate with bonfires and dancing.

Mentioned in Goethe's Faust, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.

More information here about the history: https://germangirlinamerica.com/what-is-walpurgisnacht/

Notably in Goethe's Faust, Faust's lover Gretchen drowns her illegitimate child while in a state of madness. For a synopsis and discussion of the moment:

https://books.google.com/books?id=gEg3XuQZ7KwC&lpg=PA139&ots=5nJQvTumYY&dq=gretchen%20drowning%20the%20child&pg=PA140#v=onepage&q=gretchen%20drowning%20the%20child&f=false

Punic Wars

The wars between Carthage and Rome. See Carthage entry above.

Insults

Monstre: Monster

Cochon: Pig. Pronunciation: https://youtu.be/o_hYCQge1Eg

Bete: Beast, Animal

Canaille: Blackguard, hound. Pronunciation: https://youtu.be/0kT1QPaw0OU

Putain: Whore

Thanks to Google Translate for giving us the French to English translation.

Dies Irae

Di·​es Irae | \ ˌdē-(ˌ)ās-ˈē-ˌrā \

Definition of Dies Irae

(Entry 1 of 2): a medieval Latin hymn on the Day of Judgment sung in requiem masses

di·​es irae | \ ˌdē-ˌās-ˈē-ˌrī , -ˌrā\

Definition of dies irae (Entry 2 of 2)

: day of wrath : Judgment Day

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Dies%20Irae

"Sacre du Printemps"

French for The Rite of Spring, a 1913 work by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. George refers to it as a "rhythm [Martha] understands". Originally titled The Victim, the (upon premiere, extremely controversial and provocative) ballet portrays a virgin sacrificing herself to a god of spring through a pagan ritual. George's reference hearkens back to his earlier claim that Martha is "the only true pagan on the Eastern Seaboard" and also hints at the couple's complicated relationship with fertility.

Source: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/controversial-ballet-le-sacre-du-printemps-performed-in-paris

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Rite-of-Spring

flores para los muertos

Translation: "flowers for the dead"

See also A Streetcar Named Desire

Pansies, Rosemary and Snapdragons

Reminiscent of Hamlet and Ophelia's collection of flowers.

In the language of flowers:

• pansies = thoughts
• rosemary = remembrance (and were used in wedding bouquets)
• Snapdragons = deception
  • Derived from the Greek words "anti," meaning like, and "rhin," meaning nose, antirrhinum, the snapdragon's botanical name, is a fitting description of this snout-shaped flower. It's said that the common name for this colorful flower comes from the snap it makes when the sides of the "dragon's mouth" are gently squeezed. While their actual origin is unknown, it's believed that snapdragons were originally wildflowers in Spain and Italy.

Legend has it that concealing a snapdragon makes a person appear fascinating and cordial, and in the language of flowers, snapdragons are said to represent both deception (perhaps tied to the notion of concealment) and graciousness.

Source: https://www.teleflora.com/meaning-of-flowers/snapdragon

Absolve, Domine....

From the Mass for the Dead, which is the Mass on the Day of Death or on the Day of Burial

Beginning of the Mass starts with:

Absolve, Domine, animas omnium fidelium defunctorum ab omni vinculo delictorum. V.: Et gratia tua illis succurrente, mereantur evadere judicium ultionis. V.: Et lucis aeternae beatitudine perfrui.

Absolve, O Lord, the souls of the faithful departed from every bond of sins. V.: And by the help of Thy grace may they be enabled to escape the avenging judgment. V.: And enjoy the bliss of everlasting light.

While the body is being carried to the grave, the following anthem is sung:

In paradisium * deducant te Angeli: in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondem paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

May the Angels lead thee into paradise: may the Martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and lead thee unto the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choir of Angels receive thee, and mayest thou have eternal rest with Lazarus, who once was poor.

Source: http://missale.heliohost.org/requiem.html

In paradisium deducant te Angeli:

Mass for the Dead continued...

While the body is being carried to the grave, the following anthem is sung:

In paradisium * deducant te Angeli: in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. Chorus Angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondem paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

May the Angels lead thee into paradise: may the Martyrs receive thee at thy coming, and lead thee unto the holy city of Jerusalem. May the choir of Angels receive thee, and mayest thou have eternal rest with Lazarus, who once was poor.

Source: http://missale.heliohost.org/requiem.html

In memoria aeterna erit iustus:

George is jumping backwards in the order of the Mass here to Psalm 112:7.

In memoria aeterna erit iustus: ab auditione mala non timebit.

The just shall be in everlasting remembrance; he shall not fear the evil hearing.

Source: http://www.requiemsurvey.org/latintext.php

Dominus vobiscum

"The Lord be with you. Latin greeting of the priest at Mass, addressing the people. Their response is "Et cum spiritu tuo [and with your spirit].""

Source: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33203

requiescat in pace

may he (or she) rest in peace.

Close to the end of the Requiem Mass.

Source: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/requiescat

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine

"This prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours is graced with a partial indulgence for souls in purgatory.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei (eis). Requiescat (-ant) in pace. Amen.

ETERNAL rest grant unto him/her (them), O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him/her (them). May he/she (they) rest in peace. Amen."

Also close to the end of the Requiem Mass.

Source: http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Varia/Requiem.html

Who's Afraid -- Redux

A bit of analysis from ANGEL DANIEL MATOS, PH.D.

"The play strikingly concludes with Martha confessing that she is afraid of Virginia Woolf. Her fear is completely grounded and rational because Virginia Woolf knows. After all, Woolf’s works are known for their use of uncensored stream of consciousness, in which readers gain an all-access look into the thoughts that are running through a character’s head. Unlike the world of George and Martha, Virginia Woolf’s world holds little room for secrets, and even less room for contortions of truth or reality. The figure, or better said, the idea of Virginia Woolf would be able to look beyond the game that these characters desperately try to play."