Roxana

by Daniel Defoe

  177. (p. 206) Firing: fuel.

  178. (p. 206) the Mall: a fashionable walk in St James’s Park.

  179. (p. 208) One and twenty Thousand, and Fifty eight Pounds: to realize this amount Clayton would have had to invest Roxana’s money at the unusually high rate of 8.5 per cent. See note 180.

  180. (p. 210) no less than 61. per Cent: the usual rate of interest at this time, 5 per cent, was what Defoe considered fair. Clayton’s various investment schemes were probably not meant to sound either admirable or honest.

  181. (p. 210) a true-bred Merchant is the best Gentleman in the Nation: also an expression of Charles II’s, quoted with approval by Defoe in The Complete English Tradesman (1745 ed., reprinted Burt Franklin, 1970), I, 242.

  182. (p. 211) That an Estate is a Pond; but that a Trade was a Spring: a favourite idea of Defoe’s. See The Complete English Tradesman, I, 245, and A Plan of English Commerce, in The Novels and Selected Writings of Daniel Defoe (Basil Blackwood, 1928), p. 75. Defoe uses Clayton as the mouthpiece for several of his own ideas on trade and commerce.

  183. (p. 212) Amazonian: aggressively feminist (from the legendary race of female warriors).

  184. (p. 212) Bites: swindlers.

  185. (p. 213) affecting: caring, inclining.

  186. (p. 213) gave himself a Loose: indulged himself, showed no restraint.

  187. (p. 214) a Sett of fine Musick: music for a number of instruments playing together.

  188. (p. 214) the Play-House: probably the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. But it is also possible that Roxana means the near-by Queen’s Theatre (later the King’s Theatre), also called The Opera House, in the Haymarket, managed about this time by John James Heidegger, who had introduced masquerades there. See note 219.

  189. (p. 214) some Disturbance: Roxana’s party resembles the large, public masquerades, revived by Heidegger in the early years of the reign of George I, which were immensely popular and had to be guarded.

  190. (p. 216) an Antick: a grotesque or fantastic dance.

  191. (p. 217) Roxana! Roxana!: by Defoe’s day ‘Roxana’ had become a generic name for an oriental queen, suggesting ambition, wickedness, and exoticism. She is known to history as a wife of Alexander the Great and, as Roxolana, as the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent. There are Roxanas in several seventeenth-century works, notably in the immensely popular Rival Queens (1677) by Nathaniel Lee, as well as in William Davenant’s Siege of Rhodes (1656), Roger Boyle’s Mustapha (1665), and Racine’s Bajazet (1672; adapted for the English stage by Charles Johnson in 1717 as The Sultaness). See also note 333.

  192. (p. 218) the Box: the kitty, or pool into which the players contribute a proportion of their winnings to be distributed for expenses, such as the tips to the servants.

  193. (p. 219) Glass-Chairs: sedan chairs fitted with glass windows.

  194. (p. 219) a promiscuous Crowd: a crowd in which the social classes are indiscriminately mixed.

  195. (p. 219) blue Garters: insignia of the Knights of the Garter, the highest order of English knighthood.

  196. (p. 220) Point: needlepoint lace.

  197. (p. 220) Antick: fantastic, odd.

  198. (p. 220) Safra: the sofa as used in Eastern countries was as Roxana describes it. Sofa as a word used to describe a stuffed couch first made its appearance in the early eighteenth century.

  199. (p. 220) an Instrument like a Guittar: the Armenian kamancha.

  200. (p. 221) a small low-sounding Trumpet: the Armenian doudouk.

  201. (p. 221) Tyhiaai: cf. Tyhaia (pp. 292, 338). The word is not Turkish, but is probably an attempt to render the Arabic Tāqiyya, an imposing headgear worn by women in Syria and Egypt in the fourteenth century. The term was later applied to other types of head-dress.

  202. (p. 222) with his Hat on: i.e., the King.

  203. (p. 222) the D — of M — th: the Duke of Monmouth (1649–85), Charles II’s illegitimate son by Lucy Walter, created Duke of Monmouth in 1663.

  204. (p. 223) a Baulk to my View: i.e., got in the way of their considering her.

  205. (p. 223) a meer Roxana: nothing more or less than a whore. Possibly an allusion to Hester Davenport, a well-known actress and mistress of the Earl of Oxford, who took the part of Roxana in several plays. ‘Roxolana’ is used in Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700) as a synonym for whore.

  206. (p. 224) blown: faded (used of a flower that has blossomed).

  207. (p. 225) Compliment, or Appointment: gift, or arrangement.

  208. (p. 226) by: as concerns.

  209. (p. 226) a Goldsmith’s Bill: a form of paper currency that preceded the bank note. The practice of depositing money and other valuables with London goldsmiths (because they had strong-rooms) arose in the seventeenth century. The goldsmiths issued receipts – sometimes several receipts of convenient amounts equal to the total value of the deposit – payable on demand. Gradually these receipts became negotiable (by 1668 at the latest), after which they came to be called notes or bills.

  210. (p. 227) Correspondence: relationship.

  211. (p. 228) the Park: St James’s Park. John Kip’s engraving, A Prospect of the City of London, Westminster, and St James’s Park (c. 1700), shows houses on the south and east sides of the park with garden doors that open directly on to the park.

  212. (p. 228) Fire: lightning.

  213. (p. 228) fell foul of: attacked.

  214. (p. 229) shifted me: changed into clean underclothing.

  215. (p. 229) Ecclairicissiment: éclaircissement, clearing up.

  216. (p. 233) Apprenticeship: From 1562 to 1814 no one was permitted by law to engage in a trade until he had served an apprenticeship of seven years. An apprentice was bound by contract (an indenture) to a master, who undertook to teach him his trade in return for a fixed payment and sometimes other considerations (in this case, clothing). The amount of payment increased with the desirability of the trade.

  217. (p. 234) put to a Turkey-Merchant: made apprentice to an importer of Turkish goods.

  218. (p. 240) discover’d: revealed.

  219. (p. 240) while the Masks and Balls were in Agitation: masquerade balls were revived early in the reign of George I (1714–27) and, under the management of the Swiss promoter, John James Heidegger, became immensely popular. See notes 188–9.

  220. (p. 241) Kensington Gravel-Pitts: Despite its name, a pleasant and fashionable village on the direct road to Uxbridge and Oxford (now the Bayswater Road), at the north-west corner of Kensington Palace Gardens. The gravel pits, from which it took its name, were near by.

  221. (p. 242) Quarter-Day: one of the four days which by ancient custom mark off the quarters of the year, on which tenancies of houses usually end and rents are due.

  222. (p. 244) For HONESTY and HONOUR, are the same: Defoe, The Character of the late Dr Samuel Annesley (1697), in A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of The True-Born English man (1703), p. 113.

  223. (p. 245) Mechanick: a manual labourer.

  224. (p. 246) put-out: apprenticed.

  225. (p. 246) was out of his Time: had served his apprenticeship.

  226. (p. 252) Hammer-Cloths: the cloth coverings of the driver’s seat.

  227. (p. 253) to the Life: in every detail.

  228. (p. 253) the Minories: a street between Aldgate and the tower in the City of London.

  229. (p. 253) QUAKERS: Quakers practised a sober way of life, abstaining from all frivolity, the pursuit of pleasure, and even from music and art. Their distinctive clothing (see note 231) and mode of speaking aroused animosity, and they were frequently reviled in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Defoe, however, did not share the widespread dislike of them.

  230. (p. 254) Goodman’s-Fields: originally pastures lying east of the Minories owned by a farmer called Goodman, but by 1720 converted into streets with houses occupied by merchants. The area was prosperous but unfashionable.

  231. (p. 254) the Dress of the QUAKERS: Quakers wore very plain, simply-made clothes
. Particularly distinctive were the plain, broad-brimmed hats of the men, worn instead of wigs, and the old-fashioned country hats with high pointed crowns like church steeples of the women.

  232. (p. 255) Holland: linen (originally from Holland).

  233. (p. 256) Grimace: pretence, sham.

  234. (p. 257) Conversation: way of life.

  235. (p. 260) the Exchange, in the French Walk: The Royal Exchange, not far from Lawrence Pountney Lane in the City, was an imposing rectangular building with two floors around an inner quadrangle. It served as a meeting place for merchants, both foreign and English, provided warehousing and shops, and was a convenient place to exchange foreign currencies. The French Walk was located on the south side near the main entrance in Cornhill.

  236. (p. 261) the Road between Bow and Mile-End: Stratford le Bow (Chaucer’s Stratford atte Bowe), about a mile east of Mile End. Mile End (which is exactly a mile from Aldgate and hence from the City of London) was still a hamlet in the country in Defoe’s day.

  237. (p. 263) Whitechappel-Church-Wall: the church of St Mary Whitechapel (or St Mary Matfellon), located in Whitechapel street, part of the road from Aldgate to Mile End.

  238. (p. 263) Lawrence Pountney’s-Hill; inhabited by eminent City merchants.

  239. (p. 263) Familiar: familiar spirit, demon associated with an individual.

  240. (p. 264) humane: human.

  241. (p. 265) Naturalists: students of nature, scientists. Roxana ironically suggests that scientists would be unable to explain a metaphysical phenomenon.

  242. (p. 267) saluted me in Form: greeted me formally.

  243. (p. 268) chop upon: chance upon, run into.

  244. (p. 268) Conversation: society.

  245. (p. 271) Amende Honorable: public apology, reparation.

  246. (p. 273) Nimeugen: Nijmegen.

  247. (p. 275) doubted: suspected.

  248. (p. 275) to sollicit his Arrears: to attend to collecting his debts.

  249. (p. 276) a Gasconade: an extravagant story. The natives of Gascony were notorious braggarts.

  250. (p. 276) the Battle of Mons: the seige of Mons (1709) occurred in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–13)

  251. (p. 276) Hospital of the Invalids: the Hôtel des Invalides, established in 1670 by Louis XIV as a home for wounded soldiers.

  252. (p. 276) talking my Platonicks: arguing theoretically.

  253. (p. 277) a Copy of my Countenance: a pretence or outward show. Roxana is ‘putting on a face’.

  254. (p. 278) Bedlam: properly, Bethlehem hospital, the lunatic asylum in Moorfields. It could be visited for a small sum on Sunday afternoons and was one of the principal sights of London. See Defoe, A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, ed. Pat Rogers (Penguin Books, 1971), p. 329.

  255. (p. 278) no Notion of: no fancy for, no inclination to see.

  256. (p. 279) Fermentation: agitation.

  257. (p. 279) my Spirits: Distilled from the blood and circulating throughout the body, particularly through the nerves, the animal spirits were thought of as highly refined particles controlling man’s rational faculties. If disrupted or agitated the spirits would cause severe nervous disorders or death. See Introduction, pp. 18–21.

  258. (p. 281) Shuffles: evasive tricks.

  259. (p. 282) High-Dutch: German.

  260. (p. 282) by-half, by a great deal.

  261. (p. 282) Crassus: M. Licinus Crassus (c. 112–53 BC) was famed for his immense riches (acquired by unscrupuious means) and for his avarice. With Pompey and Julius Caesar, he was one of the First Triumvirate.

  262. (p. 283) Pride and Ambition: It was widely believed in Defoe’s day that madness arose from passionate desires, such as ambition or pride. In the Tatler, No. 127 (31 January 1709), Steele concludes that all mental disorders arise from pride.

  263. (p. 283) form Ideas of, in our Fancy, and realize to our Imagination: i.e., once pride or ambition takes possession of the mind, there is nothing, however unlikely, that we cannot conceive of, and then imagine we can achieve such a thing in actuality.

  264. (p. 283) a meer Malade Imaginaire: an utter hypochondriac (after Moliere’s Le Malade Imaginaire, 1673).

  265. (p. 283) it being Summer-Weather, and very hot: the heat of late summer, particularly upon the reappearance of the star Sirius, was long thought to cause madness.

  266. (p. 283) the Head may be distemper’d, and not the Brain: that is, Roxana may be suffering only from ‘the vapours’ (see note 60), rather than the far more serious disturbance of the animal spirits, which could affect the brain and cause madness or even death.

  267. (p. 285) a Patent for Baronet: letters patent, an open letter or document conferring the rank of baronet.

  268. (p. 285) the Title of COUNT, with the Estate annex’d: In some continental countries, notably Germany, countships early on became territorial, rather than an hereditary personal honour.

  269. (p. 288) the Indies: When neither east or west is specified, the East Indies are meant. The West Indies were generally so called.

  270. (p. 288) one way: in that manner.

  271. (p. 288) as the Wives do in Holland: In Holland women in many trades still shared the burden of work with their husbands.

  272. (p. 290) the Indian King at Virginia: Opechancanough, who succeeded to the leadership of the ‘Confederacy’ or Indian empire alter the death of his kinsman Powhatan in 1618, had a house built for him by George Thorpe. Edward Waterhouse, the London Secretary of the Virginia Company, gave an account of the event in his Declaration of the State of the Colony… in Virginia (1622): Opechancanough ‘took such joy, especially in his lock and key, which he so admired as, locking and unlocking his door an hundred times a day, he thought no device in all the world was comparable to it’. (See H. C. Porter, The Inconstant Savage: England and the North American Indian: 1500–1660 (Duckworth, 1979), p. 457.) The story would have been known to Defoe from Captain John Smith’s account of ‘The Massacre upon the 22 March, 1622’ in the fourth book of his The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624).

  273. (p. 291) merrily: facetiously.

  274. (p. 292) breeded: braided.

  275. (p. 292) Tossel: tassel.

  276. (p. 294) Carriage: conduct.

  277. (p. 296) Suit: set.

  278. (p. 296) to ballance my former Friendship: to repay my earlier favour.

  279. (p. 297) Figure: (financial or social) position.

  280. (p. 298) the Compter, or Ludgate, or the Kings-Bench: three of London’s prisons, all used for debtors, Ludgate exclusively so.

  281. (p. 299) her Spirits: animal spirits. See note 257.

  282. (p. 299) Cistern: a large basin or case for holding bottles, frequently used at the dining table.

  283. (p. 300) doubt: fear.

  284. (p. 300) Bite: swindler.

  285. (p. 301) his Goldsmith’s: Because they had strong rooms, goldsmiths acted as depositories for money and other valuables.

  286. (p. 302) Goldsmith’s Bills: see note 209.

  287. (p. 302) the English East-India Company: The English Company was the largest and most important of the eight European companies trading with India and the Far East. Established at the end of the sixteenth century, it became the dominant power in India until it handed over power to the British Government in 1858.

  288. (p. 302) Assignments: negotiable documents secured by revenue or property; in effect bills.

  289. (p. 302) 5800 Crowns: worth £1,334. See note 111.

  290. (p. 302) 30000 Rixdollars: 30,000 Rijksdaalders were worth £6,660.

  291. (p. 303) an Account-Courant: a corruption of compte-courant, not a modern current account with a bank, but a private financial arrangement between two people.

  292. (p. 303) Bottomree: bottomry, a maritime contract by which a shipowner borrows money to finance a voyage, pledging the vessel (or bottom) as security.

  293. (p. 303) a Right of Reversion: a written right of succession to an est
ate. In English law reversion means that the estate (leased or granted, often for life, to someone who has no hereditary claim to it) reverts to the original grantor, or his heirs, on the death of the grantee or when the grant expires.

  294. (p. 304) Fee-Farm Rents: the rent paid for an estate held in absolute possession but subject to a perpetual fixed rent.

  295. (p. 304) than ever Belshazzer did at the Hand-writing on the Wall: Daniel 5:1–30.

  296. (p. 304) a Moth and a Catterpiller among it: echoes Matthew 6:19–21.

  297. (p. 304) Fire in his Flax: a traditional proverbial expression of the ease of destruction, similar to the modern expression ‘a match to a powder-keg’.

  298. (p. 305) Pretence: reason, purpose.

  299. (p. 305) a Dart struck into the Liver: Proverbs 7:22–23. The allusion is curiously inappropriate since the reference is to a man seduced by the wiles of a harlot. Defoe uses it in that sense in Moll Flanders (Penguin Books, 1978), p. 218.

  300. (p. 306) gay: dissipated, immoral.

  301. (p. 307) a Reversion: not transferred outright, but as a right of succession at some future time (usually after the death or retirement of the holder). See note 293.

  302. (p. 307) fell: fell in, was obtained.

  303. (p. 307) as all the Brothers of a Count are call’d Counts: Unlike the English practice, by which titles of nobility are acquired by right of primogeniture, continental practice permitted all the sons of a count to assume the title.

  304. (p. 307) by Courtesie: courtesy titles have no legal validity but are recognized by social custom.

  305. (p. 308) conjur’d implored, appealed solemnly to.

  306. (p. 310) melancholly: often used in a much stronger sense in Defoe’s day, suggesting severe depression or even mental derangement.