The meerschaums and the French novels have been presented to a young Templar,* with whom Robert Audley had been friendly in his bachelor days, and Mrs Maloney has a little pension paid her quarterly for her care of the canaries and geraniums.
I hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it leaves the good people all happy and at peace. If my experience of life has not been very long, it has at least been manifold; and I can safely subscribe to that which a mighty king and a great philosopher declared, when he said that neither the experience of his youth nor of his age had ever shown him ‘the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.’*
FINIS
EXPLANATORY NOTES
[Dedication] THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON, BART:
Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803–73), a prolific essayist and novelist, whose works included the Newgate crime novel Paul Clifford (1830) and (perhaps most notoriously) the psychological crime thriller Eugene Aram (1832). He served as a Member of Parliament, first as a Whig radical (1831–42), then as a Conservative (1852–66). Braddon met Bulwer Lytton in 1854, probably introduced by her cousin John Delane, editor of The Times, and adopted him as her literary mentor.
avenue of limes: a linden or basswood, grown for its timber, not the tree that produces citrus fruit.
Audley Court: It does seem a little odd that Braddon should have chosen to use the title of a current baronet (Lord Audley of Heleigh) for the family at the centre of her novel. In his Times review E. S. Dallas noted that ‘Audley’ might have particular associations for readers: ‘They may imagine it refers to that most horrible story … of Mervyn Touchet, Lord Audley, who was beheaded in the reign of Charles I for inflicting on his wife, Lady Audley, indescribable cruelties’ but, Dallas notes, ‘The secret of the imaginary Lady Audley is very different, and the novel in which she figures belongs entirely to modern times’ (The Times, 18 Nov. 1862, p. 4). Some readers might also have remembered the ‘sensational’ case reported in The Times in 1844 in which William Ross Touchett, the brother of Lord Audley [the 21st baronet], was acquitted of the attempted murder of the owner of a London shooting gallery on grounds of his insanity. The Times (24 Oct. 1844, p. 7) reported that Touchett’s defence counsel argued that his client ‘was suffering from melancholia, in consequence of the state of wretchedness and poverty to which the speculations of his father the late Lord Audley [the 20th baronet] had reduced his family’. It was also noted that ‘the unhappy prisoner’ was the grandson of the late Admiral Sir Ross Donnelly who had been pronounced insane by ‘a jury empanelled under a commission de lunatico inquirendo [of enquiry into an allegation of lunacy]’. It is also possible that the name of Lady Audley might have been in Braddon’s mind when she began writing her novel because there were numerous press notices of her death at the age of 37 on 1 April 1860 and these were still appearing early in 1861. Emily Mitchell, the daughter of Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell (the late Surveyor General of New South Wales), had married George Edward Thicknesse Touchett, Lord Audley, in Sydney on 16 April 1857. She bore him two daughters before her premature death.
espaliers: fruit trees or ornamental shrubs trained on a wooden frame or lattice.
mullions: the bars dividing the lights of a window, especially in Gothic architecture.
to paint from Nature after Creswick: Thomas Creswick, RA (1811–69), popular landscape painter, noted for his realism; viewed favourably by Ruskin.
wool-stapler: a merchant who buys wool from producers, grades it, and sells it to manufacturers.
speculation and vingt-et-un: both round games of cards. In speculation players buy and sell trump cards and the player who possesses the highest trump in a round wins the pool. In vingt-et-un the winner is the player who collects a hand of cards whose pips add up to twenty-one, or the nearest number below that.
fast-sailing Argus: the Argo was the ship in which, in Greek myth, Jason sailed on his adventurous journey in search of the Golden Fleece.
cornet: the standard bearer in a cavalry troop, usually a commissioned officer.
poor as Job: the Old Testament figure Job has traditionally been used as a figure of abject poverty, as well as patience. In the Book of Job, he temporarily loses all of his wealth as part of God’s attempt to test his piety.
dragoons: members of a cavalry regiment, usually bearing heavy firearms. Also used to signify a ‘rough and fierce fellow’ (OED).
Australian gold-diggings: the Australian gold rush began in 1851 in New South Wales.
steerage: the part of a ship occupied by passengers travelling at the cheapest rate. Steerage passengers usually had to endure very poor conditions.
ormolu, buhl: originally referring to the ground gold or gold leaf used for gilding brass, ormolu was later used to refer to the gilded brass used for making ornaments or decorating furniture. Buhl (from André Charles Boule, a French cabinet-maker) is a style of patterned inlay made from brass, tortoiseshell, or other material, used for decorating furniture, clocks, etc.
Claudes and Poussins, Wouvermans and Cuyps: all of these painters were well represented in late eighteenth-century English collections. Claude Lorrain (1600–82) was a French landscape painter who inspired developments in English landscape gardening. Nicolas Poussin (1594–1695) was an important painter in the French classical tradition. Philip Wouverman (1619–68), a member of a Dutch family of painters, was particularly well known for his military and hunting scenes. His Dutch compatriot, Aelbert Cuyps (1620–91), was a landscape painter.
Law List: a list of the judges and officers of the different courts of justice of England and Wales and of Counsel and their dates of being called to the Bar.
French novels: like sensation novels, French novels were thought to be decadent, addictive, and risqué in their representation of sexuality.
Braddon was a great admirer of the realism and aesthetic experimentation of French fiction.
benchers: senior members of the four Inns of Court that supervise and regulate barristers in England and Wales. The four Inns of Court are Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, Middle Temple, and Outer Temple.
Nimrod: ‘A mighty hunter before the lord’: Genesis 10: 9.
lymphatic nature: a slow, sluggish temperament, originally thought to be caused by excessive lymphatic fluid. In her notes to the Penguin edition of the novel (p. 439), Jenny Bourne Taylor quotes from Robert Hooper’s Medical Dictionary (1839): ‘Men of this [lymphatic] temperament … have in general, an insurmountable inclination to sloth, averse alike to labours of the mind and body … [and are] [l]ittle fitted for business.’
bill of accommodation: a bill of exchange endorsed by a reputable third party, who remains liable for the sum guaranteed until the bill is paid.
consols: consolidated annuities or government securities, generating an annual interest of 3 per cent between 1751 and 1889.
Hansom: a small two-wheeled carriage named after its designer, the architect Joseph Hansom (1803–82), used like the modern taxi.
those what’s-its-names, who got poor old Ulysses into trouble: the sirens who attempted to lure Ulysses and his sailors onto the rocks in Homer’s Odyssey.
meerschaum: a white mineral often used for making pipes and cigarette holders.
her album, full of extracts from Byron and Moore: it was common for middle-class women in the nineteenth century to keep scrapbooks or albums into which they pasted illustrations, drew sketches, and transcribed quotations from literary works. The Romantic poets George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) and his friend, the Irishman Thomas Moore (1779–1852), were both particular favourites of Braddon.
ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE, OUT OF THE WORLD: a quotation from Thomas Hood’s (1799–1845) popular sentimental poem ‘The Bridge of Sighs’ (1843) about the suicide of an ‘unfortunate’ or fallen woman. The poem emphasizes the mystery of the woman’s life and her purity in death.
filberts: hazelnuts.
a set of sables: the fur of a species of Siberian marten, use
d to make expensive coats and stoles.
worst rookeries about Seven Dials: a rookery was an overcrowded London slum area inhabited by the very poor and often by criminals, as described by Thomas Beames in chapter 1 of The Rookeries of London (1850): ‘Doubtless there is some analogy between these pauper colonies and the nests of the birds from whom they take their name; the houses for the most part high and narrow, the largest possible number crowded together in a given space.’ The Seven Dials was an area of London notorious for its rookeries, crime, and lively lower-class life, as described by Charles Dickens in his Sketches by Boz (1835).
gigs and chaises, dogcarts and clumsy farmers’ phaetons: types of open carriage. The first three were usually two-wheeled carriages, the last was a four-wheeled vehicle.
barouche: a four-wheeled carriage with a seat in front for the driver and two facing seats inside. It also had a half-hood which could be raised or lowered.
postilion: a person who rides the leading horse drawing a carriage.
heartsease: a variety of pansy.
the convenient word telegram had not yet been invented: telegraphic equipment was invented and patented in 1837 and by the 1850s the spread of telegraphic lines throughout England facilitated the wide use of telegraphic communication. The OED notes that scholars initially opposed the use of the word telegram and advocated the use of ‘telegraph’ by analogy with the Greek. The first usage recorded by the OED is 1852. In 1857 it was still being described (in a letter from Lady Canning) as ‘a new Yankee word for a telegraphic despatch’, but by 1858 Chambers Journal noted that ‘The Longmans have promised to include the word telegram in their forthcoming dictionary’.
privileged 29th of February: by custom women were allowed to take the initiative in making a proposal of marriage in a leap year.
retroussé: turned up.
espiègle: mischievous.
Izaac Walton: author (1593–1683), best known for his The Compleat Angler: The Contemplative Man’s Recreation (1653).
Academicians: members of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
the pre-Raphaelite brotherhood: a radical group of artists and critics formed in 1848 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais. Influenced by the writings of John Ruskin, they aimed to defy the teachings and tastes of the Royal Academy of Art and produce an art for the modern age. Their paintings are characterized by a preoccupation with detail, texture, and brilliant colour. They are often erotic or symbolic and take their subjects from literature.
bonne bouche: literally a pleasing taste in the mouth; a tasty morsel or treat.
Salvator: Salvator Rosa (1615–73) was an Italian painter noted for his landscapes and paintings of historical subjects.
‘don’t be German!’: nineteenth-century German literature and philosophy was popularly regarded as speculative, metaphysical, and over-fanciful.
Pythias … Damon: classical examples of male friendship. In Greek legend Damon stood bail for his friend Pythias (or Phintias), while the latter arranged his affairs prior to his execution for plotting against the emperor Dionysius.
When Pythias arrived just in time to save Damon from having to die in his place, Dionysius was so impressed by the strength of their friendship that he pardoned Pythias and begged to be admitted to their brotherhood.
Bamfylde Moore Carew: Carew (1693–c.1759) was the son of the rector of Bickleigh in Devon. He ran away from school to join the gypsies, and later claimed to be the king of the beggars. The Life and Adventures of Bamfylde Moore Carew, the noted Devonshire stroller and dog-stealer; as related by himself, during his passage to the plantations in America was first published in 1745. This colourful memoir, which may, in fact, have been written by the Dorset printer Robert Goadby, was reprinted in several editions throughout the nineteenth century.
tarantella: a group of southern Italian folk dances. One solo version of the tarantella had a particularly fast tempo and was said to have originated as a way of curing the victim of a spider’s bite.
yellow-paper-covered novels: cheap paperback novels, often known as yellowbacks, were marketed in Britain from the 1840s. Sensation novels were often issued as yellowbacks. French novels, noted for their risqué subject matter, were also issued in yellow paper covers.
Burlington Arcade: a fashionable covered shopping area in London’s West End.
that French story we read: this may refer to a particular historical romance known to Braddon, who was widely read in French fiction. Alternatively, she may have invented this plot.
good-will: the reputation, custom, and connections of a business often forms part of its valuation.
young Marlowe’s error: Marlow is a character in Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer (1793), who mistakes the Hardcastles’ home for an inn.
prancing tits: small horses.
Flying Dutchman fillies and Voltigeur colts: the Flying Dutchman and Voltigeur were celebrated winners of the Derby and St Leger horse races in 1849 and 1850 respectively. Their owners staged a famous match between them at York racecourse in 1851, which Voltigeur won.
vi et armis: by force of arms (Cicero).
costermonger: someone who sells fruit, vegetables, fish, etc., from a barrow in the street.
Tennyson: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92), appointed Poet Laureate in 1850.
Sybarite: an inhabitant of Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy noted for its effeminacy and luxury; hence someone who is devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure.
Winsor and Newton’s: established in 1832, Winsor and Newton sold artists’ materials, and included amongst their clients J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), painter of atmospheric land and seascapes.
sable pencils: very fine brushes for fine detailing.
under the rose: in secret (from the Latin sub rosa).
Berlin-wool: fine dyed wool used for tapestry, embroidery, etc.
Penelopes: during her husband’s absence, Penelope, the wife of Ulysses in Homer’s Odyssey, wove all day and unravelled her weaving each night in order to deter suitors. In the nineteenth century her name was used for the Penelope canvas which was printed with a pattern or scene which could be embroidered in Berlin wool.
the Olden Time at Bolton Abbey: Scene in the olden Time at Bolton Abbey (1834) is an oil painting by Sir Edwin Landseer (1802–73). Here it has been printed onto the Penelope to form a pattern for an embroidered scene.
GETS HIS CONGÉ: receives his notice.
imperials: a case or trunk specially adapted for fitting on to the roof of a coach or carriage.
put the brush in her hat: until the latter part of the nineteenth century it was customary in fox hunting to cut off the tail or brush of the fox as a trophy.
horse-ball: large pill for treating horses.
drag: a large carriage, rather like a stagecoach but for private use; drawn by four horses.
vinegar tops: miserable or pained expressions.
mauvaise honte: false modesty, bashfulness.
his Lares and Penates: in this context personal possessions which make his lodgings homely. In Roman mythology the Lares and Penates were groups of gods who protected the home and the state; they were often worshipped in a domestic shrine.
brougham: a one-horse closed carriage.
infatuation, borrowed from Balzac, or Dumas fils: a reference to the adultery plots common in the French fiction of the time. Braddon greatly admired the frankness, social criticism, and realism of the novels of Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Alexandre Dumas (1824–95) is the author of La Dame aux Camélias (1848), the story of Marguerite Gautier, a courtesan who tries—and fails—to escape from her past when she falls in love with Armand Duval. Dumas’s novel was adapted for the theatre in 1852 and, in 1853, as an opera, La Traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi.
Lady Audley's Secret (Oxford World's Classics) Page 52
