by George Eliot
CHAPTER XXXVII
1 (p. 357). her precious spikenard rejected … soothe the wearied feet: a spikenard is an aromatic substance, usually referring in ancient times to a costly ointment or oil; the precise image here is of Mary Magdalene, who in John 12:3 anoints the feet of Jesus with her precious spikenard, and wipes his feet with her hair. Esther’s metaphorical act of worship is, however, denied, another reference which explores the idea of Esther’s ‘conversion’ and of the new ‘religion’ which Felix offers (see, for example, Chapter XXVII, note 3). The lines which follow also develop the transposed biblical allusions of this section of the text, Esther’s ‘carrying these things in her heart’ echoing Mary, the mother of Jesus, who, in Luke 2:19, ‘kept all these things and pondered them in her heart’.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
1 (p. 363). all the texts in Proverbs … the live baby: further examples of Mrs Holt’s highly personal and over-literal readings of the Bible, the first referring to Proverbs 16:15 (‘In the light of the king’s countenance is life; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain’), and the second to 1 Kings 3:16–28 and the tale of Solomon deciding the claims of the true mother by the proof of her love for her son.
2 (p. 364). much-quoted Gallio: Gallio was the Proconsul of Achaia before whom St Paul was accused by the Jews at Corinth of ‘persuading men to worship God contrary to the law’. As Acts 18:13–15 recounts, Gallio’s response to the Jews was to say that ‘If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness … reason would that I would bear with you. But if it be a question of words and names of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters.’ The chief ruler of the synagogue, Sosthenes, was then taken and beaten before Gallio’s seat but ‘Gallio cared for none of these things’. It is because of Gallio’s stated indifference in this context that the phrase ‘a careless Gallio’ gained its currency, especially among the seventeenth-century Puritans, a ‘Gallio’ coming to signify any person (though particularly someone in an official capacity) whose main characteristic is indifference.
3 (pp. 367–8). it is an opprobrium of our law … in cases of felony: another legal detail which Eliot was careful to check with Harrison, writing to him on 25 May 1866 and noting that ‘I found, in time to correct some allusions in the previous dialogue, that felons were not allowed to have counsel till 1836’. Harrison replied the next day, offering a further emendation: ‘Prisoners might have assistance of counsel even before 1835 to cross-examine witnesses – but not to speak. So that Felix would be quite consistent in rejecting counsel’s aid.’ The manuscript at this point originally read ‘Holt refuses counsel and intends to speak in his own defence. That is generally held injudicious.’
4 (p. 368). concerning which … iniquitous power: a later addition by Eliot in the margin of her manuscript, but one which pertinently amplifies the conjunction of Harold’s moral and political failings.
5 (p. 370). Mentor-like questions: Mentor, in the Odyssey, is the friend and counsellor of Ulysses who is charged with the task of looking after Ulysses’ house following the latter’s departure after the Trojan wars. It is his form that the goddess Athene assumes in order to aid Telemachus and to act as his guide in his quest for his father.
CHAPTER XXXIX
1 (p. 372). fine clothes … only a smart shroud: another reference to the death-in-life quality of Mrs Transome’s existence, maintained throughout the novel by references to her cold hands and lips, her uneasy spirit made still more apparent on p. 375: ‘ “I am not at rest!” Mrs Transome said, with slow distinctness, moving from the mirror to the window, where the blind was not drawn down, and she could see the chill white landscape and the far-off unheeding stars.’
2 (p. 373). poor French Queen: Marie Antoinette.
3 (p. 375). Hecuba-like woman: in classical mythology, Hecuba was the chief wife of Priam, and the mother of Hector, Cassandra, and Paris (as well as fifteen other children). She appears as a figure of despair in Homer’s Iliad, uttering a pathetic lament for the dead Hector, and being fated to see the death of nearly all her children, the loss of her husband, and the sacking of Troy. After the latter, Hecuba (along with the other women of Troy) is allotted to Ulysses as part of the spoils of war. She is further developed as a figure of tragic suffering in Euripides’ Hecuba. Eliot’s letters show her reading ‘the sorrows of the aged Hecuba with great enjoyment’ in March 1864 (letter to Mrs Peter Alfred Taylor), and adding: ‘I wish an immortal drama could be got out of my sorrows, that people might be the better for them two thousand years hence.’
CHAPTER XL
1 (p. 380). Semiramis who made laws to suit her practical licence: in Greek legend, Semiramis was an Assyrian princess who married Ninus, the king of Assyria, after the suicide of her first husband, Menones (prompted by Ninus’s demand that Menones give Semiramis to him). According to some stories, Ninus was so besotted with her that he gave her the crown, after which transfer of power she had him put to death, ruling for many years afterwards. Semiramis also features in Dante’s Inferno as one of the inhabitants of the second circle of Hell in which those who have sinned in lust and adultery have their being. It is this allusion which is most significant, not least in the implicit link between her and Mrs Transome. As Canto V of the Inferno (11. 57–60) states: ‘Empress of many tongues, who was so corrupted by licentious vice that she made lust legal within her law to take away the scandal into which she was brought.’ No such redress is, unfortunately, to be open to Mrs Transome.
2 (p. 380). Bildad the Shuhite. one of Job’s ‘comforters’, Bildad the Shuhite is one of the three friends who come professing ‘to mourn with him and comfort him’ (Job 2:11). The ‘comfort’ which they bring is, however, in the form of rebukes and reproaches, increasing rather than diminishing Job’s sorrow.
3 (p. 383) Sir Peter Lely’s style. Sir Peter Lely (1618–80) was a famous portrait-painter of the Restoration, painting all the royal family of Charles II, as well as a vast array of lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses. Esther’s own critique of the stylistic features of his portrait of the ‘fair Lady Betty’ offers a clear summary of some of the characteristics of his portraits of women (for which he was especially celebrated). Harold’s comment (‘She brightens up that panel well with her long satin skirt’) offers further illustration of his attitudes towards women as ornaments and decorations, evident even in his first comments to Esther in Chapter XVI.
CHAPTER XLI
1 (p. 388). ‘the little horn’: the ‘little horn’ appears in one of a series of visions granted to Daniel which foretell the destinies of the Jewish people (Daniel 7:8: ‘I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things’). It signifies Antiochus Epiphanes, one of the fiercest and most ruthless tyrants who will deny the Jews the right to observe their religion, eventually trying to challenge the power of God himself.
CHAPTER XLII
1 (p. 396). Hazaels … doglike actions by the sudden suggestion of a wicked ambition: Hazael was the messenger sent by Ben-hadad, the ailing king of Syria, to the prophet Elisha to ask whether he would recover. Elisha’s reply was that Ben-hadad would both recover and die, his successor being Hazael who would do great evil to the children of Israel. Informed of this, Hazael avows his good intentions (2 Kings 8:13: ‘But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing’) and he returns to Ben-hadad, telling him only the first part of Elisha’s prophecy. He himself fulfils the second, however, smothering Ben-hadad the next day and ruling in his stead.
2 (p. 397). Jason … not at all obliged to Medea: Medea, the daughter of Aetes, the king of Colchis, falls in love with Jason and it is through her help that Jason succeeds in the apparently impossible tasks set by Aetes, thus obtaining the Golden Fleece. In all versions of the story, Medea then escapes from Colchis with Jason. Euripides takes up the story after
they had fled to Corinth, where Jason tires of Medea and arranges to marry Glauce, the daughter of Creon, the king of Corinth. The ‘goddess’ mentioned in the text is Aphrodite, and in Euripides’ Medea, Jason’s speech in ll. 526–8 runs as follows: ‘I hold that to Aphrodite alone of gods or of men I owe the safety of my voyage.’
3 (p. 398). He cares … for me: this sentence in the manuscript reads as follows: ‘He cares more for his father than he does for me’, the emendation from ‘father’ to ‘Mr Transome’ being added in proof, thus eliminating this (potentially productive) ambiguity; Harold as yet assumes that his father is indeed Mr Transome, and his feelings for the man who is his real father are distinctly negative.
4 (p. 401). There was … a cutting icicle: another later, and extremely telling, addition in the manuscript.
5 (p. 402). the pyx: pyxis (Gr.), a boxwood vessel. Usually refers to the small box or receptacle in which the Host is taken to sick people. In some Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, it denotes the vessel in which the Host is kept within the Tabernacle. It constitutes another image of the ‘desecrated sanctities’ which surround Mrs Transome’s life.
6 (p. 403). There is heroism even in the circles of hell … never recriminate. another reference to Dante’s Inferno, the allusion here is to the second circle of Hell described in Canto V where the souls of the lustful are incessantly whirled around by the howling wind. It is here that the sins of self-indulgence, weakness of will, and the too easy yielding to temptation all receive their due. Those lovers who, on earth, were too easily swept into self-indulgent fulfilment of their love, are here eternally swept around. Even this, however, has its ‘heroism’ as Dante reveals in his encounter with the two lovers, Paolo and Franscesca of Rimini. Married to the deformed Gianciotto, Franscesca fell in love with his younger brother, Paolo; both were stabbed to death by Gianciotto when he found them together. Franscesca speaks to Dante in the Inferno, relating how their love came upon them unawares as a kind of fate, and how its hold continues even after death. The scene is one of pity in this vision of an unlawful love which endures beyond death, as well as of the essential frailty of human nature, ‘mastered’ by love and surrendering to sin, and hence to Hell.
CHAPTER XLIII
1 (p. 408). point device: perfectly correct, with the sense of extreme nicety or correctness.
2 (p. 411). soughing tiles: tiles for drainage.
3 (p. 414). Jude … rail at your betters if they was the devil himself: Jude 8:9: ‘Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee.’ Another example of George Eliot’s irony and Mrs Holt’s felicity in the Ciceronian antiphrasis (see Chapter XXII, note 3).
4 (p. 415). the Bible says … wise servant. Proverbs 14:35: ‘The king’s favour is towards a wise servant: but his wrath is against him that causeth shame.’
5 (p. 421). the Giaour. The Giaour was a very popular poem by Byron which, first published in 1813, went through eight editions between June and December of that year. It narrates the tale of Leila, a female slave, who is in love with the Giaour, a hero formed on the characteristic Byronic pattern. Leila is killed by Hassan, her Turkish master, because of her love for the Giaour; he in turn takes revenge and murders Hassan before entering a monastery in his grief.
6 (p. 422). She paused … the stables: the chapter was originally intended to end with this sentence; in the manuscript the next sentence appears about a quarter of the way down the next leaf, following a chapter number which has been crossed out. Eliot has written ‘Run on from last page’ immediately after this cancellation, clearly indicating her decision to include the following scene with Mrs Holt within Chapter XLIII.
7 (p. 423). Lord Burleigh: Lord Burghley (1520–98) was Lord Treasurer and chief minister in the reign of Elizabeth I. Figuring in Scott’s Kenilworth, he was also depicted satirically in Sheridan’s The Critic of 1799, appearing as far too occupied with state matters to speak, and merely coming on stage and shaking his head wisely.
8 (p. 423). clemm’d: dialect, characteristic of the Midlands: to waste with hunger, to starve.
9 (p. 424). the Bible says, grey hairs should speak: Ecclesiasticus 25:9.
CHAPTER XLIV
1 (p. 426). Assizes: these were held periodically in county towns throughout England, usually four times a year, for the purpose of administering civil and criminal justice with offenders being tried in their own shires. The general pattern was that civil and criminal business was dealt with at the summer and winter assizes, whereas Easter (as here) and autumn were reserved for criminal business only. The judges travelled from the central courts to the assizes wherever they happened to be held.
2 (p. 429). a fair divided excellence … perfection: King John, II, i, 436–40:
He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.
The description is of the Lady Blanch.
CHAPTER XLVI
1 (p. 437). a melody that’s sweetly pitched in tune. Robert Burns, ‘A Red, Red Rose’, included in Poems, 1794.
2 (p. 443). he has said for himself: there is a lengthy deletion at this point in the manuscript: ‘The first three witnesses made no strong impression. Mike Brincey testified to the objects Felix appeared to have in coming against the Sproxton men. Mike declared that Felix went “uncommon again’ drink and pitch and toss and quarrelling and sich,” and was “all for bringing up the little chaps”; but on being cross-examined, he admitted that he “couldn’t give much account”; that Felix did talk again’ idle folk whether poor or rich, and that he most like meant the rich, who had a right to be idle, which was what he, Mike, liked himself sometimes, though for the most part he was a “hard working butty.” However, Mike reasserted strongly that what Felix most’. A further section of around thirty plus words is illegible. Much of this material, with minor alterations, is included on pp. 446–7, Eliot obviously reworking the arrangement of the trial scene, and the precise order in which the evidence of witnesses is to be given.
3 (p. 445). Sir Thomas Lawrence. Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was president of the Royal Academy, and enjoyed both the royal favour and public fame. His artistic reputation was based on his portraits, not only in his role as principal portrait-painter to the king after the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, but as a popular painter of the aristocracy.
4 (p. 448). Pray tell the attorney … evidence to give for the prisoner. Eliot began writing to Harrison about the details of the trial scene in May 1866, asking him to ‘cast [his] eyes over it and see if there is anything wrong or absurd’. He commented on Esther’s role in the trial in his reply, confirming its legitimacy as a process: ‘if you need it Esther’s speech might come in anywhere (last or not) by special leave of the judge. A judge may in his discretion hear evidence at any moment of the trial but he rarely exercises a very great licence and never against the prisoner’, and offering additional assurances three days later: ‘witnesses to character naturally come last but at the judge’s suggestion a witness might very well be brought forward afterwards to speak a fact. So far as I have seen it works perfectly and I feel sure you may be satisfied there is nothing illegal.’
5 (p. 450). Guilty of manslaughter: this is another emendation suggested by Harrison, added in the proof stage for the first edition. The manuscript has ‘Guilty of the assault on the constable, and of manslaughter’ but, as Harrison stressed on 1 June 1866, ‘The verdict must be for “Manslaughter” only. As I said you cannot mix up assault, riot, etc. in this indictment.’ He similarly supplies the basis for the change in the sentence Felix receives. The manuscript reads ‘Imprisonment for four years without hard labour’ but Eliot corrected this in proof, presumably in response to Harrison’s reservations in the same letter: ‘I think the words hard labour would stand but they ar
e not usual.’
6 (p. 450). that human contact: a deletion in the manuscript at this point leads to some loss of coherence in the subsequent narrative. The text originally read: ‘Harold took her other hand and putting it within his arm said, “We will get a pardon for him. Trust me – be sure of it. Let us go.” ’ Esther’s response echoes Harold’s final words.
CHAPTER XLIX
1 (p. 459). an Eve gone grey … did eat: Genesis 3:12: ‘And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat.’ Another reference to the imagery of the garden and original sin which runs through Felix Holt. See editor’s Introduction pp. xxi–xxiii, and also the end of Chapter XLIII, where Harold too offers temptation to Esther in the garden though, unlike Mrs Transome, she is able to refuse.
EPILOGUE
1 (p. 477). Gaius … friends of an apostle: the companion of St Paul, by whom he was baptized.
*K. B. Mann, The Language That Makes George Eliot’s Fiction (Baltimore and London, 1983), p. 121.
