Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/410

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NOTES AND QUERIES. \v* s. i. MAY 21, ' 98.

tioned, is not even remotely alluded to, in the Queer Client story. One of Jack Bamber's skeletons surprised the " tenant of a top-set " in Clifford's ; but confusion is impossible.

P. 13. A recent paper-war shows that, while the types exist, scurrilities of the Pott-and- Slurk kind will never be wanting.

P. 16. The remarks on kissing are extra- vagant and inaccurate. Tupman never kissed, or attempted to kiss, any one on entering " the hall of a strange house."

P. 17. " On no occasion save one, when he wore a great-coat, does he [Pickwick] appear

without his favourite white breeches and

gaiters." Why white ? He had a great-coat at the very outset of his travels, in the chase after Jingle, in the Christmas ride to Dingley Dell, in the Bristol night escapade. Which of these occasions is the " one " referred to 1

P. 19. The remarks on duelling are simply extraordinary. As in other cases, a longing for sensational extravagance has led to the greatest inaccuracy. Pickwick, we learn, nearly fought duels with Slammer, Magnus, and Tupman. Why with Slammer 1 When, and where, is there the slightest suggestion of anything of the kind? And there is absolutely nothing but a carefully fooled passage fully explained away to warrant the idea of a " duel " with Magnus. There is an unpleasantly comic-combat flavour about the quarrel with Tupman, but absolutely nothing more. Slammer delivered a fierce "challenge " to Tupman, which that gentle- man disregarded, but this is not mentioned. Instead, we have Winkle " with no less than three * affairs ' on his hands : one with Slam- mer, one with Dowler, and one with Bob Sawyer." Slammer of course ; Dowler of course not. There were two cowards and one intention, to run away that is all. As to Sawyer, the only wonder is that Mr. Fitz- gerald did not make him Ben Allen, and refer for the details to Sam's bloodthirsty whispers from the pear-tree.

P. 20. Mr. Pickwick's "violence" "vigour" would be at once temperate and accurate is quite a necessary part of his character. It is certainly not a " blemish," nor do we require the " capital comedy spirit of the author " to carry us over it. The inconsistencies his cowardice with the cabman, for instance are not noticed.

P. 23. To say that porter is " drunk almost exclusively in 'Pickwick'" is incorrect. There is no ground for a generalization of this kind. Dickens may have preferred porter. In any case, the terms are obviously used with a general significance for example, in the fleet (chap, xlv.), where Sam's drink is first

' porter," and immediately afterwards u beer." .t is surely unnecessary to class pewter- Dots among the things that have been. 3 ewter is not dead. On this "drink-ques- ion" it may be said that the statement p. 29) that brandy-and-water is no longer 'the only drink of the smoking-room" is mis- eading. Brandy-and-water, like pewter, can, of course, be had for the asking. The reason of the frequent mention of brandy is that in ihe thirties brandy was what sherry was in the sixties, and what whisky is to-day. It would be a fair question to ask how often whisky is mentioned in ' Pickwick.' Only once, 1 think.

P. 25. "Bright basket buttons" might be guessed at; but the query, "What are they?" remains. Perhaps they were used in the period "eighty years" before the Bagman's narrative at the Peacock ; which eighty years have been forgotten by Dickens in telling the story, by Phiz in the illustrations, and by most people who have since remarked on it.

P. 26. " Alley tors," Mr. Fitzgerald thinks, were the "best" marbles. I fancy that "tors," or "taws," in the present day, are marbles of unusual size. "Tip-cheese" is certainly tipcat. "Fly ing -the -garter" is almost as certainly " cap-over-back "an exciting com- pound of leap-frog and long-jump. A cap is placed on the " back " to be jumped, and this must not be disturbed when " going over."

P. 29. " Mr. Pickwick and his friends were always 'breaking the waxen seals' of their letters while Sam, and people of his degree, used the wafer." Very short acquaintance would show how unsafe such remarks really are. Two of the most important letters in the book come to mind at once, and if they may be taken to prove anything, it is the exact opposite to this theory. The letter from Dodson & Fogg was sealed with a wafer ; that from Smauker, the " swarry " letter, " in bronze vax vith the top of a door-key."

P. 30. It is extravagant to suppose that campstools were generally carried about without provoking remark. Dr. Payne, alone of over tnree hundred characters, had a camp- stool ; as a means, one would think, of pro- voking remark.

P. 33. " Cold shrub" was certainly not the drink of the Bath footmen. " Gin-and-water, sweet, appeared to be the favourite beverage" (chap, xxxvii.).

P. 34. "Through the buttonhole." Mr. Fitz- gerald says this has been well " threshed out,' and means "through the mouth." Perhaps ; but are not the decanters always passed " through the buttonhole," i. e.> from right to left, the "way of the sun"?