Sartor Resartus (Oxford World's Classics)

by Carlyle, Thomas

  We are such stuff… sleep: The Tempest, IV. i. 156–8.

  And like … behind: The Tempest, IV. i. 151–6.

  Horn-gate: in the Aeneid, VI. 893 ff., the gate of sleep that produces true dreams, opposed to the ‘Ivory-gate’ that produces false dreams.

  Magna Charta … measures: the celebrated charter of the liberties of England was signed by King John in 1215. Sir Robert Cotton (1571–1631), collector of manuscripts, reputedly rescued it from his tailor.

  Thirty-nine Articles: the doctrinal tenets of the Church of England.

  Worth: ‘World’ in later editions.

  Clotha Virumque cano: ‘Clothes and the man I sing’, parodying the opening line of the Aeneid, ‘Arms and the man I sing’.

  Lord Herringbone: i.e. a typical dandy, named after the herringbone stitch.

  Zerdusht, Quangfoutchee, Mohamed: Zoroaster, Confucius, and Mohammed; respective founders of the Parsee, Confucian, and Islamic religions.

  Menadic … Eleusinian or Cabiric: the Maenads were inspired female worshippers of Bacchus, the god of wine; the Eleusinians worshipped Ceres, the goddess of agriculture; the Cabiri were deities worshipped in Greece and Egypt.

  Magnetic Sleep: from ‘animal magnetism’, an early term for hypnotism.

  deliquium: melting or liquefaction.

  Fire-balls … Alien: balls of fire which reputedly prevented Julian the Apostate’s attempt to rebuild the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem, in defiance of the Christians.

  Stillschweigen’sche Buchhandlung: ‘Silence Bookshop.’

  Mohamedan reverence even for waste paper: because, according to the Spectator, no. 85, it ‘may contain some piece of their Alcoran’.

  Pelham: a novel by Bulwer Lytton, published in 1828. The seven ‘Articles of Faith’ that follow are based on passages in Pelham which were omitted or altered in later editions.

  Hallanshakers: Scotch for beggars.

  Bogtrotters, Redshanks, Ribbonmen, Cottiers, Peep-of-day Boys, Babes of the Wood, Rockites: Irish terms for, respectively, peasants, the bare-legged, members of the Catholic Ribbon Society (opponents of the Protestant Orangemen), cottage dwellers, Protestant insurgents, outlaws, and revolutionaries of 1812, signing their notices ‘Captain Rock’.

  irrevocably enough: ‘irrevocably’ in later editions.

  seemed indescribable: ‘did not seem describable’ in later editions.

  Brahminical feeling: Brahmins oppose the killing of animals.

  Potatoes-and-Point: i.e. nothing but potatoes, from the Irish joke of eating potatoes while pointing to something else saved for a future meal.

  The late John Bernard: English actor and writer (1756–1828), whose Retrospections of the Stage was published posthumously in 1830. The excerpt ‘from the original’ is from 1. xi. 349–50.

  original: in later editions, the heading ‘Poor-Slave Household’ is here inserted.

  abode: in later editions, the heading ‘Dandiacal Household’ is here inserted.

  A Dressing-room … Apron: the passage is from Bulwer Lytton’s Introduction to The Disowned (1828).

  Potwallopers: i.e. householders; those who boiled their own pots.

  Pelion on Ossa: the mythological Titans attempted to reach heaven by piling Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa (Odyssey, xi. 305 ff.).

  Hans Sachs … Schneider mit dem Panier: German poet (1494–1576), one of whose songs is entitled ‘The Tailor with the Banner’.

  Taming of the Shrew: an anonymous tailor appears in IV. iii.

  sartorius: thigh muscle used to produce the tailor’s cross-legged sitting position.

  Swift … Divinity: referring to the tailor-worshipping sect in Swift’s A Tale of a Tub (1704), sec. ii.

  Franklin … Kings: the words quoted are inscribed in Latin on a bust of Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), American statesman and author, who discovered that lightning was an electric charge.

  greatest living Guild-Brother: Goethe; the quotation is from Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (11. ii).

  Sic itur ad astra: ‘This is the way to the stars’ (Aeneid, xi. 641).

  being: ‘having’ in later editions.

  brush: ‘sponge’ in later editions.

  Gowle: ghoul; ‘gowl’ in later editions.

  Ew. Wohlgeboren: ‘Your Honour.’

  it: ‘this’ in later editions.

  lived: ‘existed’ in later editions.

  APPENDIX I

  Reform hurlyburly: agitation leading to the Reform Bill of 1832.

  title: Carlyle first refers to the work as Sartor Resartus in a letter of 18 July 1833 to John Stuart Mill.

  Eight sheets of Fraser: Carlyle’s estimate proved correct; the work was published in eight instalments.

  five persons: the five readers cannot be precisely identified, but probably include William Glen, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Inglis. The sixth, William Fraser, was James Fraser’s brother and editor of the Foreign Review.

  “O. Y.’s”: notes spuriously attributed to ‘Oliver Yorke’, pseudonym of William Maginn, the editor of Fraser’s Magazine.

  APPENDIX II

  Bayle in voce: the reader is referred to Pierre Bayle’s Dictionnaire historique et critique (1695–7), sub voce (under the heading) Oppian, the name of two Greek poets of the second century AD.

  donner-und-blitzenizing: thundering and lightning.

  a seventy-four: a large ship, with seventy-four guns.

  Regina: Fraser’s was popularly dubbed Regina, Queen of the Magazines. The Cimbri and Teutones were ancient Teutonic tribes.

  APPENDIX III

  British Friend … party: Father O’Shea, an Irish priest of Cork, who wrote to Fraser commending Sartor Resartus; Carlyle finally met him in 1849.

  Fritz the Only: Frederick the Great; see Sartor Resartus, p. 63 above.

  Blair’s Lectures: Hugh Blair’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1783).

  APPENDIX IV

  Mill: John Stuart Mill.

  coal-marks: black marks of censure.

  “Talented”: one of the many words in Sartor to which Sterling objected.

  Satan Montgomery: Robert Montgomery’s religious poem Satan (1830) had been widely praised and frequently reprinted.

  cross the Atlantic: Sartor Resartus was published in Boston nine months later, in March 1836; see Note on the Text, above.

  APPENDIX V

  penes nos: in our possession.

  Fraser’s … &c.: this sentence is not in the review of Fraser’s Magazine in the Sun, 1 April 1834, from which the rest of the excerpt is taken.

  old Dennis1: John Dennis (1657–1734), dramatist and critic, known for the vigour of his criticism.

  Here is a “—: the omitted sentence continues: ‘bray worthy of the most sonorous animal that ever chewed the thistle.’ The reviewer goes on to compare Carlyle’s sentence with another by an ‘eminent transcendental philosopher of the day’, concluding: ‘These two scribes should be harnessed together in a donkey cart. They have both an equal length of ear.’

  … “After: the omission is a brief discussion of the ‘Editorial Difficulties’ chapter, Book I.

  hum: humbug or hoax.

  supercherie: hoax or fraud.

  … character.”: the remainder of the review, omitted by Carlyle, gives an outline of Sartor, provides copious extracts, and identifies Carlyle as the author.

  1835: Carlyle’s error; should be 1836.

  Sunt, Fuerunt vel Fuere: ‘That’s the way they are, that’s the way they have been.’

  GLOSSARY OF PEOPLE AND PLACES

  Aaron, brother of Moses; his rod performed many miracles.

  Adamites, second-century heretical sect, whose efforts to return to a pre-lapsarian innocence included the discarding of clothes.

  Agora, market-place in Greek cities.

  Alaric (c.376–410), King of the Goths, who captured and plundered Rome in 410.

  Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), King of Macedon, who conquered much of the ancient world.

&
nbsp; Almack’s, fashionable London assembly-room, founded by William Almack in 1765.

  Ammon, principal Egyptian deity, with a temple and oracle in an oasis of the Libyan desert.

  Amur, principal river of Eastern Asia.

  Angelo, Michelangelo (1475–1564).

  Arachne, Lydian maiden who challenged Athena to a weaving contest; after losing she was turned into a spider.

  Arbela, town in ancient Assyria, where Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 331 BC.

  Arkwright, Sir Richard (1732–92), inventor of the spinningjenny.

  Athos, Holy Mountain in Macedonia; site of numerous monasteries.

  Baliol, John (1249–1315), King of Scotland 1292–6; his nickname ‘Toomtabard’ is Scotch for ‘empty gown’.

  Bardili, Christoph Gottfried (1761–1808), German philosopher.

  Bazard-Enfantin, Armand Bazard (1791–1832) and Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (1796–1864); two French followers of Saint-Simon.

  Bichat, Marie François Xavier (1771–1802), French physiologist and anatomist.

  Bivar, Rodrigo Diaz de (c.1040–99), Spanish national hero.

  Boileau-Despréaux, Nicolas (1636–1711), French poet and critic. According to Helvétius, his coldness and severity were owing to a bizarre childhood injury: ‘a turkey gave him several blows of the beak on a very delicate part.’

  Bolívar, Simón (1783–1830), South American statesman and liberator.

  Buchan-Buller, whirlpool on the coast of Buchan, Scotland, formed by a cauldron-like well in the rocks.

  Büsching, Anton Friedrich (1724–93), German geographer; author of A New Description of the Earth (1754–9).

  Caaba, sanctuary in the Great Mosque at Mecca, containing a sacred black stone.

  Cadmus, legendary founder of Thebes and introducer of the alphabet into Greece.

  Caesar, Julius (102–44 BC), according to Plutarch’s Lives, when Caesar leapt into the sea to escape from the Egyptians after the battle of Pharos, he swam with one hand and kept his papers dry with the other.

  Cain, the first farmer and first city-dweller, as well as the first murderer.

  Callot, Jacques (1592–1635), French painter and engraver.

  Campus Martius, ‘Field of Mars’; assembly place in ancient Rome.

  Cassini, Giovanni Domenico (1625–1712), Italian astronomer and director of the Paris observatory; author of Règles de l’Astronomie Siamoise.

  Chronos, Greek god of Time; confused with Kronos, the father of Zeus. Kronos devoured his children, but Zeus escaped this fate and overthrew his father.

  Chrysostom, St John (347–407), early Greek father of the Christian Church.

  Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106–43 BC), Roman orator and exemplar of wisdom.

  Cid (from Seid or Lord), see Bivar.

  Cincinnatus, Lucius Quintius, Roman hero called from farming to the Dictatorship (458 BC); he returned to farming after only a few days.

  Congreve, Sir William (1772–1828), inventor of a powerful rocket enclosed in a metallic case, named after him.

  Cousin, Victor (1792–1867), French philosopher.

  Crim Tartary, part of the Crimea inhabited by Tartars.

  Curragh of Kildare, plain in county Kildare, Ireland.

  D’Alembert, Jean (1717–83), French mathematician, philosopher, and encyclopaedist.

  Darnley, Henry (1545–67), second husband of Mary Queen of Scots; she is said to have been attracted to him because of his figure.

  Diogenes, Greek Cynic philosopher of the fifth century BC, celebrated for his sharp wit; he was reputed to live in a tub.

  Dionysius’ Ear, cave by means of which Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse (c.432–367 BC), could overhear his prisoners.

  Donau, the River Danube.

  Downing Street, London street containing Government offices and the official residence of the Prime Minister.

  Elizabeth of Hungary (120731), on one occasion St Elizabeth disobeyed her husband by bringing a basket of food to the poor at her gates. On being intercepted by her husband, she hid the basket under her apron. When uncovered, the food was found to have been miraculously transformed into roses.

  Epictetus, first-century Stoic philosopher. The Enchiridion, or handbook, of Epictetus was compiled by his pupil Arrianus.

  Ernulphus, Bishop of Rochester (1040–1124) who wrote a celebrated curse, the full text of which is given in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (III. xi).

  Eros, principal god in Greek myth, born from the cosmic egg produced by Chaos (or Night).

  Erostratus, in 356 BC he set fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus in order to be remembered in history.

  Estrapades, the Place de l’Estrapade in Paris, named after the torturing of Protestants by the ‘strappado’ or rope used to dislocate the arms.

  Eurotas, principal river of Laconia in ancient Greece, near Sparta.

  Faust (or Fust), Johann (c.1400–66), partner of Johann Gutenberg in Mainz; originator of movable type in printing.

  Field Lane, notorious in Carlyle’s time for its shops dealing in stolen goods.

  Fox, George (1624–91), founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and known as ‘the man in leather breeches’.

  Frederick the Great (1712–86), Frederick II, King of Prussia.

  Fritz the Only, see Frederick the Great.

  Gao (or Gaváh), legendary Persian blacksmith who led a successful rebellion, using his leather apron as a standard.

  Gehenna, valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where children were sacrificed to Moloch; hence a prototype of Hell.

  Gibeonites, biblical inhabitants of Gibeon, condemned by Joshua to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for having deceived him.

  Golgotha, place of skulls; Calvary.

  Graham, Dr James (1745–94), founder of a Temple of Health in London and inventor of a Celestial Bed, designed to cure sterility.

  Hadrian (76–138), Roman Emperor who held that a ruler should, like the sun, visit every part of his dominions.

  Hannibal (247–183 BC), at the age of 9, the Carthaginian general swore an oath of life-long enmity to Rome.

  Hebron, residence of King David and burial place of the patriarchs.

  Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770–1831), German idealist philosopher.

  Helvétius, Claude Adrien (1715–71), French philosopher and author.

  Hengst and Horsa, leaders of the Germanic invaders of Britain during the fifth century.

  Henry the Fowler (876–936), Henry I, King of Germany.

  Herschel, Sir William (1738–1822), English astronomer of German birth, who attempted to count the stars of the Northern Hemisphere.

  Hertha (or Nerthus), ancient Teutonic earth-goddess of fertility.

  Hochkirch, town in Saxony where Frederick the Great was defeated by the Austrians in 1758.

  Humboldt, Alexander von (1769–1859), German naturalist and explorer.

  Hutton, James (1726–97), Scottish geologist.

  Ishmael, Abraham’s son, left in the desert as a child; his cry for help was heard by God, who gave him his name (‘I have heard’).

  Issus, town in Cilicia, where Alexander the Great defeated the Persians in 333 BC.

  Jean Paul, see Richter.

  Jenner, Edward (1749–1823), English physician and discoverer of vaccination.

  Johnson, Samuel (1709–84), man of letters; his respect for Church dignitaries is recorded in Boswell’s Life of Johnson (1791).

  Joseph II (1741–90), Emperor of Austria, who outraged Hungarians by ordering the Hungarian crown to be sent to Vienna.

  Justinian (483–565), Emperor of Constantinople, who supervised the compilation of a Pandect, or Digest, of the commentaries of jurists on Roman laws.

  Kepler, Johann (1571–1630), German astronomer.

  Knox, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of John Knox, the sixteenth-century Scottish reformer. After the exile of her husband, John Welch, she pleaded for his pardon, which King James promised to grant only if Welch would ackno
wledge the authority of the bishops.

  Kunersdorf, Prussian village where Frederick the Great was defeated by the Russians and Austrians in 1759.