Chapter 7: 58-76
Contents
Page 58
sepia-shadow'd
???
Herren XVII
Modern Dutch spelling "de Heeren XVII," the 17 Lords, board of governors of the V.O.C.
Eighteenth Lord... never be acknowledg'd
???
V.O.C.
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company.
Page 59
Slaves
Pynchon appears to have cast around for a politically correct subtheme for the Capetown episodes, and picked slavery for want of anything more Pynchonian.
set against
Imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer.
Page 60
Droster
???
Vroom
vroo*
Jethro's Tent
???
Nimrods
???
Page 61
Fascination
Pynchon needed a personality-contrast between M and D, and chose (arbitarily?) to make M melancholy but charismatic (cf Byron?) and Dixon the opposite. It's hard to see from TRP's descriptions what women see in M.
Portable Soup... Slabs
???
Emerson... Darlington Market
???
Page 62
Kezia
???
Kerenhappuch
???
Page 63
Rattle-Watch
???
English Tea-Pot
Free associating, Mason to English to English tea to teapot?
Page 64
Vrou
???
fatally but not yet mortally
???
Page 65
Dagga
???
Page 66
dorsal 'Scape
Dorsal landscape = shapely rear end.
five Sprites
The women?
Asian parlor-game
???
Page 67
Indifference-Draught
Traditionally saltpetre.
Page 69
Velleity
???
Rix-Dollar
Reichsdollar, a Dutch coin.
Late Blow
???
Butter-Bag Castle
???
Page 70
karis
???
Page 71
Routs and Ridottoes
???
Page 72
Blight
???
terre mauvais
???
Page 73
two Punches in a Droll-booth
(As in Punch-and-Judy slapstick puppets?)
Jesuits... Invisible College
???
Nervus Probandi
???
Mr. Peach
???
Spotted Cubes
Dice.
Sector Wallah
"Wallah," in British India, a specialist or tradesman. Sector Wallah, the person in charge of the Sector.
Page 74
Stuffata
???
dating back to Walpole
???
Clive
???
Maskelyne
???
Robert Waddington
???
Bleak
???
Piggotts... A long stare
???
Page 75
Bodkin
???
History is the Dance of our Hunt for Christ
Nice.
