Chapter 26: 257-265
Contents
Page 257
November 15, 1763
Aviating swine
Flying pigs are featured in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Beatles' I Am the Walrus, Pink Floyd's stage shows and the album Animals, and many more. [See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_pig]
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Whorekill Road
In 1672, Lord Baltimore declared Maryland included the settlement of Whorekills on the west shore of the Delaware Bay, an area under the jurisdiction of the Province of New York. A force was dispatched which attacked and captured this settlement. New York could not immediately respond because New York was soon recaptured by the Dutch. Maryland feared the Dutch would use their Iroquois allies to recapture the settlement. This settlement was restored to the Province of New York when New York was recaptured from the Dutch in November, 1674. From WIKI
Cape Henlopen
Cape Henlopen is the southern cape of the Delaware Bay along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It lies in the state of Delaware, near the town of Lewes, Delaware. Off the coast on the bay side are two lighthouses, called the Harbor of Refuge Light and the Delaware Breakwater East End Light. From WIKI
See Vineland, pg. 316-317: Harbor of Refuge & Delaware Bay similarity
New Castle
New Castle, Delaware was originally settled by the Dutch West India Company in 1651, under Peter Stuyvesant on the site of a former Indian village, "Tomakonck" ("Place of the Beaver"). The original name of New Castle was Fort Casimir. This was changed to Fort Trinity following its capture by New Sweden on Trinity Sunday, 1654. After its recapture by the Dutch the following year, the name was changed to Nieuw Amstel. Under Sir Robert Carr, the British routed the Dutch in 1664 and changed the name to New Castle. The Dutch again seized the town in 1673 but it was returned to Great Britain the next year under the Treaty of Westminster. In 1680 it was conveyed to William Penn by the Duke of York and was Penn's landing place when he first set foot on American soil in 1682. This transfer to Penn was contested by Lord Baltimore and the boundary dispute was not resolved until the survey conducted by Mason and Dixon, now famed in history as the Mason-Dixon Line. From WIKI
Dock Creek
Society Hill district is named after the 18th century Free Society of Traders, which had its offices at Front Street on the hill above Dock Creek. Located close to both the Delaware River and Philadelphia's civic buildings, including the Independence Hall, the neighborhood soon became one of the city's most populous areas. From WIKI
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled — that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.
"single up all lines" also appears in V., p.11; The Crying of Lot 49, p.31; Gravity's Rainbow, p.489; Against the Day, p.3; and Inherent Vice, p. 119.
Swab
A nautical term for a yarn mop, while also a term for the lowest form of sailor, since the most inexperienced members of a ship's company were assigned to this task. From WIKI.
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Pills Balsamic and Universal
The promotion of patent medicines was one of the first major products highlighted by the advertising industry, and many advertising and sales techniques were pioneered by patent medicine promoters. Patent medicine advertising often talked up exotic ingredients, even if their actual effects came from more prosaic drugs. One memorable group of patent medicines — liniments that allegedly contained snake oil, supposedly a universal panacea — made snake oil salesman a lasting synonym for a charlatan. From WIKI
the Spadger hops
A sparrow, WIKI
Page 260
Old Q, the Star of Picadilly
William Douglas, 4th Duke of Queensberry KT (16 December 1724 – 23 December 1810) was a Scottish nobleman. Queensberry was a liberal patron of Italian opera, although, it was said, more out of interest in the prima donnas and dancers than in the music. Latterly known as Old Q., he was notorious for his escapades and dissolute lifestyle and was a member of the Hellfire Club. Raikes, in his Journal, said of 'Old Q': He was a little sharp-looking man, very irritable, and swore like ten thousand troopers. Mackenzie, in Anecdotes and Egotisms claimed that he was a disciple of Epicurus but without the virtue of the Epicurean system; and he had none of the hypocrisy of pretending to virtue or disinterestedness. Although he had a number of illegitimate children, he never married, and his titles were dispersed on his death. From WIKI
Graziana... Daughter of Naples
Graziana is a genus of gastropod (snails/slugs) in the Hydrobiidae family. Seems like the kind of woman a "Dodman" may fall for.
Scamozz'
Seems to be a reference to Vincenzo Scamozzi (September 2, 1548 - August 7, 1616), an Venetian architect and writer on architecture, active mainly in Vicenza and Venice area in the second half of the 16th century. From WIKI
single up all lines
See p.258, above
Whitefield
George Whitefield, also known as George Whitfield, (December 16, 1714 - September 30, 1770), was an Anglican itinerant minister who helped spread the Great Awakening in Great Britain and, especially, in the British North American colonies. His ministry had tremendous impact on American ideology. From WIKI Also, see page 14.
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The New Religion
A reference to the
'First Great Awakening'.
Hermits in the desert
Reference to the Desert Fathers: Hermits, Ascetics and Monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt, beginning around the third century. They were the first Christian hermits, who abandoned the cities of the pagan world to live in solitude. These original desert hermits were Christians fleeing the chaos and persecution of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century. They were men who did not believe in letting themselves be passively guided and ruled by a decadent state. Christians were often scapegoated during these times of unrest, and near the end of the century, the Diocletianic Persecution was more severe and systematic. In Egypt, refugee communities formed at the edges of population centers, far enough away to be safe from Imperial scrutiny. From WIKI
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Dithyrambists
The dithyramb was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honour of Dionysos, the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god: Plato, in The Laws, while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb." Plutarch contrasted the dithyramb's wild and ecstatic character with the paean. According to Aristotle, the dithyramb was the origin of Athenian tragedy. A wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing is still occasionally described as dithyrambic. From WIKI
the way ev'rything, suddenly, has begun to gravitate towards B-flat major
B flat major is the easiest key for many wind instruments and therefore very popular for hymns and anthems, as well as later on for jazz.
To Anacreon in Heaven
Then a British drinking song; later to become "The Star-Spangled Banner". [1]
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Ritornelli
In Baroque music, ritornello was the word for a recurring passage for orchestra in the first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria (also in works for chorus). In ritornello form, the tutti opens with a theme called the ritornello (refrain). This theme, always played by the tutti (i.e. all voices), returns in different keys throughout the movement. However, it usually returns in incomplete fragments. From WIKI
"As to journey west...grow older, and die...to turn Eastward...defy death"
Journeying westward as following the "Stream of the Day" makes turning eastward a turning "Against the Day", as it were. The Reverend's story, as a means of travelling into the past, is also bound "against the wind".
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surrender of Cornwallis
In March 1781, in response to the threat of Cornwallis, General Washington had dispatched Marquis de Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops in the state now totaled 7,200. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. It was during this period that Cornwallis received orders from Clinton to choose a position on the Virginia Peninsula - referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck" - and construct a fortified naval post to shelter ships of the line. In complying with this order, Cornwallis put himself in a position where it would be easy to become trapped. With the arrival of the French fleet under the Comte de Grasse and General George Washington's combined French-American army, Cornwallis found himself cut off. After the Royal Navy fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves was defeated by the French at the Battle of the Chesapeake, and the French siege train arrived from Newport, Rhode Island, his position became untenable. He surrendered to General Washington and the French commander, the Comte de Rochambeau, on 19 October 1781. From WIKI
portamenti
Portamento (plural: portamenti, literally "carried") is a musical term originated from Italian, originally denoting a chromatic vocal slide between two pitches, and its emulation by instruments such as the violin, and is sometimes used interchangeably with glissando, in which the pitch change is smooth rather than stepped in semitones, and in this sense is also applied to the "note slide" functions of synthesizers. From WIKI
Percussion
First recorded in 1544, "a striking, a blow," from L. percussionem (nom. percussio), from percussus, pp. of percutere "to strike," from per- "through" + quatere "to strike, shake." Reference to musical instruments is first recorded 1776.
[2]
