• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

21 (p. 189) But there was a serpent in her Eden: This is a reference to the Bible, Genesis 3:1-6, in which the devil takes the form of a snake and enters the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve with the forbidden apple.

22 (p. 190) who died for the souls of men: It is a fundamental Christian belief that the Lord sacrificed his one son in order to save the eternal souls of mortal men. D. H. Lawrence concentrated much of his intellectual energies on questions of religion. In his later life, he became interested in primitive religions.

23 (p. 193) Jean Ingelow: The works of this immensely popular English poet and novelist (1820-1897) include her long poem “High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire, 1571.”The poem recounts a historic incident in which high tides flood the North Sea coast. Although the mayor of the town of Boston climbs the belfry tower to ring a warning peal across the land—“Play uppe, play uppe,” he commands—a young woman named Elizabeth drowns and is found “floating o’er the grassy sea.” The poem inspired an equally popular song.

24 (p. 194) “The Flowers o‘the Forest”: Jane Elliot (1727-1805), a member of a famous Scottish clan, wrote this popular ballad lamenting the Battle of Flodden (1513), in which as many as 10,000 Scots died at the hands of the English.

25 (p. 195) “Coons”: This is a reference to the performances in which white singers dressed as blacks. Such productions originated in America around 1840 and soon became a popular family entertainment in Britain.

26 (p. 196) some sad Botticelli angel: Sandro Botticelli (1444?-1510), an Italian painter, depicted religious and mythological subjects in a decorative style with extreme attention to detail and fine, idealized forms. Paul later compares Miriam to a Botticelli Madonna (see page 306).

27 (p. 196) Norman arches: Norman arches, also referred to as Romanesque, were built from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries and have rounded tops.

28 (p. 196) Gothic arch: Gothic arches were built from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries and have pointed tops. Norman arches and Gothic arches were commonly used in churches and cathedrals.

Chapter 8: Strife in Love

1 (p. 200) the King’s shilling: By tradition, a recruiting officer would give a new soldier enlisting in the army a token bit of money.

2 (p. 205) Women’s Rights: Feminists in nineteenth-century Britain worked to improve the educational prospects of all women and the economic prospects of working women, and also to reform the place of the woman in the domestic sphere. Due in part to industrialization and the founding of various cooperative societies, women of this time came together in a way never previously seen. D. H. Lawrence paid attention to the feminist rumblings. In a letter to his editor Edward Garnett dated April 1912, D. H. Lawrence writes, “... every evil that could be urged against a working man is urged by his women-folk. They are all aristocrats, these women, to the backbone. They would murder any man at any minute if he refused to be a good servant to the family. They make me curse.”

3 (p. 208) Verlaine: Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was a French lyrical poet who was influential in the early Symbolist movement.

4 (p. 212) lived and moved and had her being: The reference is to the Bible, Acts 17:26-28, which provides part of the definition of God that the apostle Paul offers to the Athenians: God “hath made of one blood all nations ... ; for in him we live, and move, and have our being.”

5 (p. 215) Orion: This constellation is named after the mythological giant and hunter Orion and is easily recognizable by the three stars, called jewels, in his belt; Sirrus, his star-dog (see page 215), lies at his feet.

6 (p. 216) Balzac: French author Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) wrote more than ninety novels. His style is both melodramatic and tough-minded, realistic and extravagant.

7 (p. 223) Liberty’s: Founded in 1875 and still a prominent London department store, in the late nineteenth century