Roxana
Page 42
307. (p. 310) Vapours: see the Introduction, pp. 18–19.
308. (p. 314) a Bedlam: a lunatic. See note 254.
309. (p. 317) the German Princess: Mary Carleton, born Mary Moders in Canterbury in 1634 or 1635. She became a celebrated figure in London in 1663 when, posing as a wealthy German noblewoman, she made a bigamous marriage with John Carleton, and was soon afterwards exposed and tried at the Old Bailey. Several accounts were written of her life (including those by herself and by John Carleton) and a play entitled The German Princess was put on at the Duke’s House, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in 1664 with Mary Carleton in the title role. She was hanged as a thief in 1674.
310. (p. 321) promiscuous: indiscriminately mixed (in social class).
311. (p. 322) Redriff: Rotherhithe (commonly called Redriff in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries), an area on the south bank of the Thames between Bermondsey and Dept-ford, long inhabited by seafarers (including Swift’s Gulliver).
312. (p. 322) discover: show.
313. (p. 322) discover herself: maker herself known, reveal her feelings.
314. (p. 323) within her: between her and the shore.
315. (p. 328) over and above: great, considerable.
316. (p. 328) clapp’d in: burst in.
317. (P. 329) Face: disguise or outward show. The phrase ‘carried its own Face with it’ means ‘made the matter appear natural’.
318. (p. 330) after the Italian Way: probably like a mantua. See note 103.
319. (p. 330) my Head: see note 78.
320. (p. 330) more shap’d to the Body, than we wear them since: The old seventeenth-century woman’s dress, consisting of a skirt and tight-fitting bodice (boned and long-waisted until 1710), gave way in the early eighteenth century to the looser sack (often spelled sac or sacque) introduced from France.
321. (p. 331) at one: the same.
322. (p. 331) dangerous… dangerous: Defoe plays on the word ‘dangerous’, which Roxana first uses in the sense of ‘particular’ or ‘perceptive’ and then in the sense of ‘threatening’ or ‘vengeful’. The meaning is that the QUAKER, because she had a penetrating intelligence, would certainly see the implications of the Turkish dress even more than the girl, but that this was less alarming because she (the QUAKER) would not use the information to threaten Roxana.
323. (p. 331) what a Place she had of it: what sort of position she had there.
324. (p. 332) Pieces of Gold: guineas; cf. note 23.
325. (p. 332) Portion to put her off: dowry to dispose of her in marriage.
326. (p. 332) great: intimate, ‘thick’. Johnson in the Dictionary calls it ‘a low word’.
327. (p. 333) behind of: still to be explained about.
328. (p. 334) the Pallmall is not far from Whitehall: Whitehall was the official royal residence in London until 1697, but Pall Mall was inhabited by many people (including Charles II’s mistress, Nell Gwynn) who were at court.
329. (p. 334) paint: use make-up.
330. (p. 334) Outlandish: foreign.
331. (p. 336) Comedian: an actress, originally in comedies. The practice of employing actresses in the female roles (formerly taken by boys) was introduced from France with the revival of the theatres at the Restoration. Actresses had a reputation for sexual immorality, and several of them, including Nell Gwynn, became well-known courtesans.
332. (p. 336) a Stage Amazon: Roxana disparagingly suggests that any woman prepared to act on stage was behaving in an unfeminine way.
333. (p. 336) the Play of Tamerlane: Roxana appears to confuse Nicholas Rowe’s Tamerlane (1701) with Racine’s Bajazet (1672), a play about the Turkish sultan of that name and a sultaness, Roxane. It was known to English audiences of Defoe’s day in Charles Johnson’s adaption, The Sultaness, performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1717. Rowe’s play has a Bajazet but not a Roxana.
334. (p. 337) Bassa: an obsolete form of bashaw or pasha, a Turkish grandee.
335. (p. 337) a Gaming-Ordinary: a gambling house which provided food.
336. (p. 337) upon the foot of: on the basis of
337. (p. 337) upon the Tenters: The modern phrase is ‘on tenterhooks’, meaning to make someone painfully anxious. Tenter hooks are the nails on the upper and lower rails of the frame, or tenter, used in the manufacture of cloth to prevent shrinking.
338. (p. 339) a Canterbury Story: The expression, derived from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, means a long, tedious story.
339. (p. 339) Citizens: those who dwelt in or near the City of London (mainly tradesmen, shopkeepers, and bankers), as opposed to the gentry living in the fashionable West End of London. The term (often abbreviated as cits.) was frequently used contemptuously, though here Roxana uses it as a term of approval.
340. (p. 339) satisfy’d… Satisfaction: Roxana plays on two meanings of ‘to satisfy’, namely, ‘to convince’ and ‘to be contented with’.
341. (p. 344) by-halves: imperfectly.
342. (p. 346) come out-of-the-way come amiss, go wrong.
343. (p. 347) fallen down the River: moved downstream.
344. (p. 347) North-Hall: the common name at one time for the village of Northaw in Hertfordshire. During the reign of Charles II its mineral spring made Northaw a fashionable summer resort. In 1660 at Hampton Court Charles gave his permission for the spring to be called the King’s Well.
345. (p. 347) ugly: discomforting, awkward.
346. (p. 348) Grimace: pretence, sham.
347. (p. 348) a Piece of meer Manage: an instance of sheer self-control.
348. (p. 348) fram’d Conduct: contrived behaviour.
349. (p. 348) Conversation: way of life.
350. (p. 348) a Complication of Crime: an entangled mass of crimes.
351. (p. 350) Third-Day Ague: tertian ague or fever, one that is accompanied by paroxysms every third (that is, alternate) day.
352. (p. 350) publick: openly acknowledged.
353. (p. 353) Cherry. Chérie (dear). Both Roxana and her husband speak French and so use the playfully affectionate form of address to Amy. The QUAKER either is ignorant of the sense of the word or pretends to be.
354. (p. 356) quite left: given up entirely.
355. (p. 356) she reckon’d them all up by Name: Susan does not mention all the major ‘Airing-Places’ (towns from where it was fashionable to take walks or drives in the country) even of southern England. Most of the seven places mentioned were spas, of which Tunbridge Wells and Bath were long highly fashionable. Epsom, also then a spa, was already becoming well known in the late seventeenth century for horse-racing on the near-by downs. Newmarket, too, was and is famous for racing. Bury St Edmunds was ‘crowded with nobility and gentry, and all sorts of the most agreeable company’ (Defoe’s A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (Penguin Books, 1971, p. 75). Barnet and North-Hall (properly Northaw) were fashionable spas in Charles II’s reign, but declined thereafter. Of Barnet, Defoe reported in 1724, that ‘The Mineral Waters, or Barnet Wells… are now almost forgotten’ {Tour, p. 339).
356. (p. 357) teizing: See note 145.
357. (p. 358) amuse: bewilder, deceive.
358. (p. 359) of a Knot: associated together, in touch with one another.
359. (p. 359) came to hit: succeeded, worked out.
360. (p. 359) Tower-Wharf: the wharf beside the tower of London. As London Bridge was the only bridge over the Thames, crossings by boat were necessary and frequent.
361. (p. 359) Manners: polite gestures.
362. (p. 366) doubted: feared.
363. (p. 369) uneasie: troublesome.
364. (p. 371) denounc’d: threatened.
365. (p. 374) the Great Pond at Camberwell: now disappeared. As late as 1820, however, there was a pond on the south-east corner of Camberwell Green.
ROXANA’S LONDON
* Here she tells my whole Story, to the Time that the Parish took off one of my Children, and which she perceiv’d very much affected him; and he shook his Head, and said
some things very bitter, when he heard of the Cruelty of his own Relations, to me.