fx That is, instituted formal legal action against him.
fy That is, rejected, found worthless.
fz That is, appearing in the newspaper bankruptcy notices.
ga Eagle hunt (French).
gb Famous chef, at one point at the Reform Club, to which Thackeray belonged.
gc British admiral, the successor to Admiral Nelson, much admired by Thackeray.
gd Greek goddess of health.
ge Parliamentary term for votes.
gf House for debtors, run by a bailiff; a preliminary step to a debtor‘s prison.
gg False hair.
gh That is, her estate will divide up nicely.
gi Ancient goddess of marriage.
gj Sealing-wax for letters.
gk Each star indicated stock holdings of the value of 2,000 British pounds.
gl Title of lands that are currently unoccupied—that is, not accruing rent.
gm Turkish bath in the vicinity of Covent Garden.
gn That is, still displayed their original red brick; both were substantially altered in the 1820s.
go Small closets pushed into the sea and lowered, to allow bathers to preserve their modesty.
gp Neapolitan beggars.
gq Naval theoretician; son of Louis-Philippe, king of France at the time of Vanity Fair‘s writing.
gr Well-known street in Calcutta.
gs Physician and mesmerist who published accounts of the hypnosis of his patient Alexis.
gt Record of the purchase and use of wine and foodstuffs.
gu Affair there (French).
gv Dressing gown (French).
gw Love letter (French).
gx What do you expect? (French).
gy Fashionable card game for two.
gz Formal court orders demanding repayment of debts.
ha Highly prized turtle delicacies.
hb Reference to the visit of Czar Alexander I and his sister to London in the summer of 1814.
hc French colloquialism: “civilian.”
hd Apprentices, “articled” for a certain term to their employers.
he Fool, idiot (slang).
hf Pillar memorializing the 1666 Great Fire of London.
hg Merrion Square, Dublin.
hh Walcheren was a swampy island on the Dutch coast, where an ague (severe cold) would be easy to catch.
hi Card games.
hj Hot punch made with wine.
hk Evening party (French).
hl Casual eating places.
hm Echo of a famously derogatory remark of Napoleon‘s about the British people.
hn Not so stupid (French).
ho Roads (French).
hp Alternate spelling for Mainz, a city on the Rhine.
hq Personal timepiece that sounded the hour when a button was pressed.
hr That is, from the south coast of France to Paris.
hs Reference to the Congress of Vienna, which met in 1815 to reorganize postwar Europe.
ht Famous opera singer.
hu Pun: both a limp and a promotion.
hv First impression (French).
hw Neck cloth.
hx That is, the Marché aux fleurs, or flower market.
hy Opera box.
hz Enter (French).
ia The original publishers of Vanity Fair.
ib Center of the Indian diamond trade.
ic Persian king and invader of Greece in the fifth century B.C.
id Distinguished, refined (French).
ie Corset maker (French).
if Very likable (French).
ig That is, a notarized I.O.U.
ih Coins worth 20 francs.
ii Colloquial: “Please pawn them.”
ij Leroy and Breguet were French makers of elegant jewelry and watches.
ik Maid (French).
il French term for buttered bread-slices.
im By God (French).
in A Belgian beer.
io Well, madame, isn‘t my husband also in the army? (French).
ip Reference to the Parthian soldiers of ancient legend, famous for fighting while retreating.
iq It‘s shooting! (French).
ir Her man (French).
is No horses! (French).
it Reference to Gottfried Burger‘s 1774 ballad Lenore, in which the heroine is carried off by the ghost of her dead lover.
iu Scotsmen.
iv My pretty little lady (French).
iw Cut me, quickly! Cut me! (French).
ix Rendered in Anglicized French: My moustaches, cut, shave, quickly!
iy Anglicized French: No longer wear—military clothes—cap—giving it to you, take it away.
iz Anglicized French: Let‘s go now, follow—let‘s go—leave—into the street.
ja Coach door (French).
jb Traveling trunks.
jc Coin worth 20 francs.
jd That is, the wife of a French marshal.
je Attendants on horseback.
jf Reference to the clergy‘s immunity from trial in secular courts.
jg Protestants who did not worship within the Church of England.
jh Fiancé.
ji Large pill.
jj Comic emblem: three trotting silver lambs upon a green field, separated by a black and gold diagonal from three red snuff-boxes.
jk Napoleon before his imperial conquests began.
jl Heavy protectionist tariffs on imported grain, eventually repealed in 1846.
jm Failed, or “flunked out.”
jn Well-known horse race, run in September.
jo Sent home from university.
jp That is, get top honors in mathematics.
jq Farm cart.
jr Preliminary examination for a bachelor‘s degree.
js Drain, finish.
jt Fox hunt in the vicinity of Oxford.
ju Truth in wine ... Of men as they are of gods: Mars, Bacchus, Apollo (Latin).
jv From Horace‘s Odes: Now chase away care with wine, tomorrow we set out once more upon the mighty sea.
jw Politician Charles James Fox and playwright Richard Sheridan, known for both hard living and elegant manners.
jx Colloquial: pub, dive.
jy Witty, spirited (French).
jz Raves about (French).
ka Roguish (French).
kb Bonnet.
kc Parisian restaurants.
kd lmpediment (French).
ke Galignani‘s Messenger, popular English-language newspaper read by British Continental travelers and expatriates.
kf The returning words of the Prodigal Son; see the Bible, Luke 15.
kg Peace in war (Latin).
kh Sweet and fitting is it to die for one‘s country (Latin); from Horace, Odes.
ki Pap-boats: feeding dishes for children; corals: teething toys.
kj Slang term: hired.
kk French seaport town renowned as a haven for British debtors.
kl Colloquial term meaning a disapproving, censoring middle-class figure.
km New arrival, upstart (French).
kn Enclave of Parisian nobility, situated on the Left Bank.
ko A cheat (slang).
kp First floor (French); in American usage: second floor.
kq Mezzanine (French).
kr Anglicized French: stored.
ks That charming woman (French).
kt Returned (French).
ku With his wife—a small woman, very witty. ‘Ah, sir, they have robbed me frightfully‘ (French).
kv The names David, Moss, and Manasseh imply that the moneylenders are Jewish.
kw That is, a greengrocer‘s.
kx That is, his goods were auctioned off.
ky That is, has received a court order enforcing debt repayment.
kz Lunch (French).
la Reference to a memento mori, a reminder of the brevity of life.
lb Giraffe.
lc Decorations belonging to the Order of the Garter, the highest o
rder among English aristocratic honors.
ld Corydon and Meliboeus are traditional names for pastoral figures.
le Pun: Steyne wears the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece, but is also known for “fleecing” others.
lf Youthful episodes (French).
lg Slang for full of “pluck,” or courage.
lh Refers either to a Paris clothing store or a French fashion magazine.
li Butler (French).
lj South Atlantic island where the exiled Napoleon lived; tourists, including Thackeray himself, could see the former emperor there.
lk Currency conversion fees.
ll Rothschild and Baring Brothers were preeminent financiers and bankers of the nineteenth century.
lm Per month (Latin).
ln Reference to Fernando Munoz, Spanish officer who married the Queen of Spain but could hold no official title.
lo Gingerbread cake.
lp London‘s criminal court.
lq Puppet king of Judea who ordered the death of all first-born Jewish sons in Bethlehem; see the Bible, Matthew 2:16.
lr Quinine.
ls Ah, the divine creature! (French).
lt The Queen of Love (French).
lu Famous executioner, his name became slang term for the profession.
lv Bill that bankers would not pay.
lw Legendary Persian songbird.
lx County court sessions held at regular intervals.
ly Clogs and calash: wooden-soled shoes and a large hooped hood.
lz That is, he owned enough property to give him the right to vote in the “rotten” borough.
ma Sarah Siddons, famous late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century actress.
mb The Annual Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art.
mc That is, to be repaid in annual installments.
md Glass beads.
me Reference to Guy Fawkes, Catholic conspirator whose effigy was burned every November 5; in other words, she was hideous.
mf In the early nineteenth century a scarcely inhabited area on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in South Africa.
mg Colloquial term for a common opiate.
mh Term for consolidated annuities, government stocks that accrued 3 percent interest a year.
mi New Testament term for wealth; see the Bible, Luke 16:9.
mj Street in the City of London known for its banking and publishing houses.
mk A member of the Royal Academy.
ml Becky‘s father; Frith Street is located in Soho, nineteenth-century London‘s bohemian district.
mm Slang: to sail around the southern end of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope.
mn Women‘s living quarters.
mo Wearied but not satisfied, she withdrew (Latin); from Juvenal, Satires, said of the Empress Messalina leaving a brothel.
mp Officers below the rank of captain.
mq Reference to Shakespeare‘s Othello, in which Desdemona falls for Othello while hearing his adventures.
mr Curling papers.
ms Game stewed in wine.
mt Proverbial term for a beggar; see the Bible, Luke 16:19-31.
mu Good God! (French).
mv Bodyguard of a sultan.
mw Secret medieval German tribunals.
mx That is, to hunt on his land.
my The Greek warrior Achilles, disguised as a girl, was discovered by Odysseus when he preferred a sword to jewels in a market.
mz Ecclesiastical terms: a dean heads a chapter, or a group of resident clergy at a cathedral.
na Short, thickset riding horse.
nb Procession (French).
nc Parliamentary reports, named after the color of their covers.
nd French term for knee-breeches.
ne Reference to Samson‘s loss of power when Delilah cut his hair; see the Bible, Judges 16.
nf That is, accents.
ng Flavius Eutropius‘s Epitome of Roman History, a beginner‘s Latin textbook.
nh That is, to free from debt.
ni Fashion (French).
nj Speech from John Home‘s 1756 tragedy Douglas; standard recitation fare for children.
nk Popular children‘s books; the first, by Maria Edgeworth, is a collection of children‘s stories.
nl 1759 British defeat of the French in Germany.
nm The Prince Regent, later George IV, and his mistress Mary Robinson, known for acting Perdita in Shakespeare‘s The Winter‘s Tale.
nn Mistress of the Duke of York.
no Private quarters (French).
np Philippe Egalité, the duke of Orléans, father of Louis Philippe, king of France from 1830 to 1848.
nq Early-nineteenth-century tourist guides to local roads and sights.
nr Popular guide to the British nobility.
ns In ancient legend, Damocles sat under a dangling sword as a reminder of the fragility of his good fortune.
nt Oxford and St. Acheul trained clergy for the Church of England and the Catholic Church, respectively.
nu Hugh Latimer: Protestant theologian; Saint Ignatius of Loyola: founder of the Jesuit Order.
nv Pall Mall club; membership was restricted to those who had traveled at least 500 miles from Britain.
nw Reference to the Passover story: the final plague on the Egyptians, the death of all firstborn sons; see the Bible, Exodus 12.
nx We think twice (French).
ny Wine from French region of Sillery.
nz Wife of George III, mother of George IV.
oa Ironic reference to George IV, famous for his debauchery.
ob The king‘s personal guard.
oc One of George IV‘s ceremonial titles, as regent of the Duchy of Brunswick.
od Court dress (French).
oe In a low-cut dress (French).
of Cynthia: the moon; Phoebus: the sun.
og Quote from Alexander Pope‘s 1717 poem.
oh Famous mistresses of French kings, Louis XIV and Louis XV, respectively.
oi Streamers on a headdress.
oj Handkerchiefs (French).
ok Avaricious, selfish daughters of the monarch in Shakespeare‘s King Lear.
ol The large and ornate Bernini canopy over the altar in St. Peter‘s Basilica in Rome.
om Beware of the women (French).
on Drumming his fingers nervously on the table (slang).
oo Dismissal (French).
op That is, the hope that Lord Gaunt would die childless, in which case the estate passes to her and her husband.
oq Newgate: main London prison; Bedlam: Bethlehem Royal Hospital for the insane.
or Art objects and valuable antiques.
os Reference to the British defeat in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815.
ot Characters in Oliver Goldsmith‘s play She Stoops to Conquer (1773).
ou Hannah sent her only son Samuel to live with Eli the priest; see the Bible, I Samuel 1, 2.
ov Reference to Lady Jane Grey, queen of England for nine days in 1553, deposed by Mary Tudor.
ow Mortal destroyed when her wish to see her lover Jupiter in all his glory was granted.
ox Reference to the Bible, I Corinthians 13:1. “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (King James Version).
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