The Golden Bowl - Henry James [289]
5. (p. ref) Ecco! That’s it!
6. (p. ref) quattrocento. Fifteenth century.
7. (p. ref) lightning elevator (U.S.). High-speed lift.
8. (p. ref) Machiavelli. Used loosely by Mrs Assingham in its sense of ‘schemer’. However, her companion explores this allusion to the great Italian statesman (author of The Prince, 1513) rather less superficially.
9. (p. ref) rococo. i.e. extravagant.
10. (p. ref) tableau-vivant. The representation of a painting, historic scene, etc., by silent and motionless actors.
11. (p. ref) the Queen of Sheba. A reference to the Biblical episode (1 Kings X) in which the Queen’s visit to Solomon and the magnificence of her train are described in some detail.
12. (p. ref) revendeuse. A secondhand dealer. The themes touched on in this paragraph will re-emerge in the visit to the antique shop in Chapter 6.
13. (p. ref) Northwest Passage. From the sixteenth century onwards explorers had attempted to find a route along the north coast of America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but the first actually to complete the passage was Amundsen in his expedition of 1903–6. This is a good example of James’s topicality.
14. (p. ref) Pocahontas (1595–1617). The daughter of an Indian chief in Virginia. She married an English colonist and went with him to live in England, where she died.
15. (p. ref) doyenne. The oldest or most senior woman.
16. (p. ref) ‘Est-elle toujours aussi belle?’ ‘Is she as beautiful as ever?’
Chapter 3
1. (p. ref) Barbarians. Originally, the tribes outside the Roman Empire.
2. (p. ref) balia. Nurse.
3. (p. ref) contadini. Peasants.
4. (p. ref) podere. Farm.
5. (p. ref) Friday. Unlucky, since it was the day of Christ’s death.
6. (p. ref) the Oratory. The Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge, the church usually chosen for fashionable Catholic weddings.
Chapter 4
1. (p. ref) tropic islands . . . wide verandahs. Bob Assingham has been serving the far-flung British Empire.
2. (p. ref) Attila the Hun. He and his hordes ravaged the Roman Empire in the fifth century. The British Empire is here seen as destructive of older civilizations. (See also the note on pax Britannica, p. ref, Vol. II.)
3. (p. ref) the Apennines. The mountain range which runs down the spine of Italy. In fact both Rome and Florence are on the western side – but then Fanny Assingham’s references are not always exact.
4. (p. ref) Amerigo. The Prince is apparently a descendant of Amerigo Vespucci, whose explorations of the coastline of South America from 1499 to 1502 led him to realize that this was indeed a new continent, and not, as had been previously supposed, part of Asia. Fanny’s view of him as a ‘make-believe discoverer’ was then the general one: it was only in the 1920s and 30s that Vespucci’s achievements were properly recognized by historians.
5. (p. ref) ‘By that sign he’ll conquer.’ An adaptation of the motto of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who before the battle of the Milvian Bridge (312) saw in the sky a vision of a flaming cross bearing the words, ‘In this sign thou shalt conquer.’ He adopted the cross as his emblem and won the battle – and with it, the Empire.
6. (p. ref) You’ve taken part in the sack of cities. Another link between Assingham and Attila the Hun.
Chapter 5
1. (p. ref) on the huge Portland Place staircase. Scenes on staircases are significant in this novel. See, in particular, the long conversation between Fanny Assingham and her husband which occupies the whole of Chapters 10 and 11 of Book Third and which takes place almost entirely on the actual stairs or on the landing. Interestingly, characters are always observed going upstairs, never down.
2. (p. ref) antiquarii. Antique-dealers.
Chapter 6
1. (p. ref) hansom. A two-wheeled hired cab, with room for two passengers. James is always very specific about means of transport, presumably because, as here, he attaches a symbolic significance to them.
2. (p. ref) ‘rot’. Rubbish. Amerigo, like his creator, likes showing off his knowledge of contemporary English slang.
3. (p. ref) grey. A reference to the proverb, ‘At night all cats are grey.