The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner [125]
The following notes were prepared by Joseph Blotner and are reprinted with permission from Novels 1926–1929 (2006) in the edition of Faulkner’s collected works published by The Library of America. Numbers refer to page and line of the present volume (the line count includes chapter headings). No note is made for material included in the eleventh edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. For further information on these three works, consult the appropriate portions of Joseph Blotner, Faulkner, A Biography, 2 vols. (New York: Random House, 1974); Joseph Blotner, Faulkner, A Biography, One- Volume Edition (New York: Random House, 1984); Selected Letters of William Faulkner (New York: Random House, 1977), edited by Joseph Blotner; Calvin S. Brown, A Glossary of Faulkner’s South (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976); and Noel Polk, An Editorial Handbook for William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (New York: Garland Publishing, 1985).
Additional Notes by Joseph Blotner
46. projecking] Playing.
47. squinch owl] Screech owl.
48. Et ego in arcadia] “I too have been in Arcadia.”
49. Jackson] Site of the Mississippi state insane asylum.
50. gizzle] Gizzard.
51. a bluegum] A person possessing supernatural powers.
52. rinktum] Rump.
53. sulling] Acting sullen.
54. Little Sister Death] Cf. St. Francis of Assisi, “Canticle of the Sun”: “Our sister, the death of the body, from whom no man escapeth.”
55. the voice that breathed o’er Eden] Cf. John Keble, “Holy Matrimony.”
56. Young Lochinvar … west] Cf. Sir Walter Scott, Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field, Canto Fifth, stanza XII.
57. French Lick] A summer resort in southern Indiana.
58. swine of Euboeleus] In Greek mythology, the swine who were swallowed up in the earth when Hades carried Persephone down into the underworld to be queen of the dead.
59. flac-soled] The etymology of the phrase is unknown.
60. back to hell] In folklore jaybirds were said to be spies sent by the Devil.
61. sullin] See note 51.
62. Appendix] Faulkner wrote “1699–1945 The Compsons” in 1945 for publication in The Portable Faulkner (1946), edited by Malcolm Cowley. It was retitled “Appendix/Compson: 1699–1945” for its inclusion in the 1946 Modern Library combined edition of The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying.
63. 1833] Choctaw Indians were forcibly removed from Mississippi and sent to the Indian Territory from 1831 to 1833.
64. Culloden Moor] Site of the battle fought near Inverness on April 16, 1746, in which the Hanoverian army led by the Duke of Cumberland defeated Prince Charles Stuart and ended the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.
65. Tarleton’s] Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton (1745–1833), a British officer who commanded Loyalist cavalry during the Revolutionary War.
66. Forever Amber … Tom Jones] Forever Amber (1944), romance novel set in Restoration England by Kathleen Windsor; Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice (1919), romance by James Branch Cabell; Tom Jones (1749), novel by Henry Fielding.
66. Thorne Smith] An American comic novelist (1892–1934) whose works included Topper (1926) and The Passionate Witch (published posthumously in 1941).
67. Cannebière] The main boulevard in Marseilles.
Note to the Appendix
“When you reprint The Sound and the Fury, I have a new section to go with it,” Faulkner wrote to a Random House editor early in 1946. “When you read it you will see how it is the key to the whole book.” He had prepared this new text for The Portable Faulkner, edited by Malcolm Cowley, and it appeared in the Modern Library’s dual edition of The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying in the same year. Faulkner wanted the Appendix to be the first section of the book, which is how it appeared in early editions,