The Importance of Being Earnest (40 page)

L
. 33.
Club Train:
a deluxe train to the Continent via ferry over the English Channel.

L
. 1.
Grosvenor Square:
a prestigious address in Mayfair, London.

LL
. 7-8: Triumph of Love, from a design by Boucher: François Boucher (1703-70), a French artist who completed his classically inspired
Triumph of Love
(also known as
Triumph of Venus)
in the 1730s.
L
. 12.
Louis Seize sofa:
a sofa hearkening back to the reign of Louis XVI, king of France in the period that brought about the French Revolution in 1789. Like the other features of the Sir Robert’s house, the decor suggests continental refinement rather than proud English insularity.
L
. 13.
Watteau:
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), French rococo painter noted for scenes depicting elegantly costumed ladies and gentlemen at play outdoors.

LL
. 16-17.
star of the Garter:
a noble military badge;
Whig:
an actual political party until the mid-nineteenth century, known as a progressive force of opposition to the conservative Tories. To use the term
Whig
in Wilde’s time is to conjure a figure that is progressive but also securely part of the Establishment;
Lawrence:
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), an English painter noted for political portraits at a time when the Whig party was in its heyday.
LL
. 28-29.
Tanagra statuette:
a small terra-cotta human figure, characteristically associated with fifth to third century
B.C
. examples found near the Greek city of Tanagra. Typically, the figures are thinly draped female dancers.
L
. 32.
the Row:
the so-called “Rotten Row” in Hyde Park, where the fashionable rode their horses.

L
. 9.
milliner:
a person, generally a woman, who makes fashionable articles of apparel, especially hats.
L
. 24.
hair à la marquise:
a woman’s hairstyle associated with pre-revolutionary France, hence in keeping with much of the decorative detail in this Act.
L
. 29.
heliotrope:
A shade of purple characteristic of the flower by this name.

L
. 13.
House of Commons:
the lower house of Parliament in Great Britain.
L
. 14.
Vandyck:
Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), Flemish painter.

L
. 35.
blue spectacles:
in the Victorian period, the term
blue
had come to include senses such as
sad
and
depressed
, and it seems that Mrs. Cheveley draws on these senses in opposing the pessimist’s view to the optimist’s broad grin.

L
. 3.
Our season:
the annual period of London-based society gatherings that gained momentum in December, accelerated after Easter, and wound down in August when wealthy families headed to the countryside for hunting season.
L
. 17.
Corots:
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875), French landscape painter.
LL
. 29-30.
Penelope:
the Greek wife who faithfully waited decades as her husband Odysseus wended his way home from the Trojan War. In styling Penelope as a “disadvantage” to the worldly man, Mrs. Cheveley is directing yet another volley at marriage.
L
. 34.
dandy:
a man primarily concerned with manners, elegance, and fashionable attire; a fop;
romantic:
emphasizing authenticity and genuine feeling, thus too artless and direct to suit the dandified Lord Goring.

L
. 22.
House:
The House of Commons typically convened in the afternoon and often ran until after midnight with speeches.

L
. 31.
dowdies:
shabbily or drably attired women.

L
. 13.
Suez Canal:
Linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, the Suez Canal was opened in 1869. In 1875, the British acted on economic and political concerns by purchasing a controlling interest in the Canal.
L
. 27.
a second Panama:
a reference to the canal project that had recently stalled following revelations of corruption.

L
. 22.
Puritanism:
smug moralism.
See note for p. 11,
L
. 29
.

L
. 1.
Ladies’ Gallery:
a viewing area for women observing the proceedings of the House of Commons.

LL
. 6-7.
Claridge’s:
an elegant hote
L
.
L
. 11. en règle: according to the “rule” or norm (French). Mrs. Cheveley understands that ladies abroad can leave their card to a man, but ladies in England would seem forward in doing so.
L
. 29.
Royal Academy:
the most prestigious school of art and exhibition gallery in London.

L
. 10.
mauve Hungarian music:
mauve is a hue of purple associated with 1890s aestheticism and, by many accounts, with a male homosexual subculture at the time. A very frequent color reference in Wilde’s writings, this instance plays with the strangeness of attributing color to music. In that respect, Lord Goring recalls the idea of sense-blending, or synesthesia, that English and French writers in the aestheticist mode had played with for decades.

L
. 36.
twenty-two at the time:
Assuming that the play is set in the mid-1890s, the “present” of its audience, Sir Robert’s deal with Baron Arnheim would appear to have been made in the mid-1870s, contemporary with the British purchase into the Suez Canal (see
note for p. 95,
L
. 13)
. Wilde’s stage direction in the First Act tells us that Chiltern is now “a man of forty” (p. 85, 1. l).

L
. 13.
Park Lane:
elegant address in Mayfair.

L
. 21.
£110,000:
equivalent to about £5 million today, or $8 million in U.S. currency. Regarding such money conversions, however,
see note for p. 20,
L
. 5
.

L
. 5.
cipher:
encoded.

L
. 9. décolleté: indicating a woman’s dress cut low over the bosom. Here the figurative sense is one of Continental raciness.
LL
. 23-24.
Woman’s Liberal Association:
Wilde seems to have in mind an organization founded in the 1880s to offer women a forum for political activity. When Wilde was working up this play, from 1893 to 1895, the organization was very active, though increasingly divided over questions of female suffrage and, soon, the Boer War. By the end of the 1890s, the Women’s Liberal Federation and the Women’s National Liberal Association named respectively more and less radical wings of the original entity.
L
. 36
-P
. 118,
LL
. 1-2.
Factory Acts, Female Inspectors, the Eight Hours’ Bill, the Parliamentary Franchise:
various contemporary reforms promoted by liberal thinkers and politicians.

L
. 24.
Bachelors’ Ball:
a fixture event in the social season.

L
. 23.
German philosophy:
Although generally associated by the English with abstruse idealism, the reference here to German philosophy
as pessimistic suggests more specifically the views of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).

L
. 17.
The Morning Post:
a daily newspaper.

L
. 27.
bimetallist:
comically, Mabel Chiltern has grasped at a then-current political debate over whether and how to define a monetary standard using both gold and silver. This is the historical period during which a single-metal gold standard was emerging to facilitate international economy.

L
. 18.
tableaux:
Also called
tableaux vivants
or “living pictures” (French), these entertainments featured people dressing up and holding a group pose in emulation of a painting or a historical scene;
Triumph of something:
The opening stage direction indicated a French tapestry in the Chiltern home depicting the
Triumph of Love
by Boucher.
See note for p. 81,
LL
. 7–8
.

L
. 7.
Bath:
spa town in England.
LL
. 13-14.
Higher Education of Women:
Since around 1850, women in increasing numbers had been able to attend British colleges and universities, although at traditional institutions women were limited in their ability to earn regular degrees well into the twentieth century.

L
. 10.
Upper House:
the hereditary House of Lords in Parliament.
L
. 21.
Blue Books:
governmental publications.
L
. 25.
yellow covers:
Racy continental novels were sold in yellow paper wraps.

L
. 1.
Adams room:
a room in elegant neoclassical style, after Robert Adams (1728-92), a Scottish architect who was also noted for his interiors. A surviving example of his interior work is Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath.
L
. 6.
Sphinx:
Both Greek and Egyptian mythologies tell of this creature with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion. The Greek version dramatized by Sophocles in
Oedipus Rex
tells of a sphinx that destroys all those who fail to answer its riddle. Wilde often referred to sphinxes in his writings and in his private life.
L
. 14.
buttonhole:
a flower or small spray of flowers worn by men in a lapel buttonhole.

L
. 16.
Lamia-like:
Lamia is a fatal sorceress known for sucking the blood of children. The romantic poet John Keats wrote a famous poem by this name in 1819.

p. 142,
L
. 34.
hock:
a German white wine.

L
. 31.
gout:
an illness involving painfully swollen joints, associated especially with wealthy individuals because it was understood to be brought about by high levels of meat consumption.

L
. 35.
Book of Numbers:
In referring to this book of the Old Testament, which is devoted to lineages, Lord Goring has in mind at least the two marriages of Mrs. Cheveley and perhaps insinuates that she has “known” more than two men along the way.

LL.
9-10. Voilà tout: “That is all” (French).

L
. 29.
Canning:
George Canning (1770-1827), notable politician and, in 1827, prime minister.

LL.
12-13.
Downing Street:
residence of the prime minister in Westminster, London.

L
. 1.
Half-Moon Street:
in Mayfair, London, an elegant residential neighborhood.
L
. 15.
salver:
A small tray used in wealthy households to present refreshments, letters, cards, and so forth.

L
. 32.
Shropshire:
a west-midland county of England.

L
. 24.
Scotland Yard:
headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London, especially its detective branch.

L
. 15.
Tunbridge Wells:
here presumably meant to indicate a respectable but unexciting community. It is east of London, in Kent.

L
. 3.
The Albany:
a bachelor residence near the Royal Academy, a short walk up Piccadilly from Algernon’s dwelling on Half-Moon Street.
L
. 17.
Bunburyist:
although Bunbury was an actual, if uncommon, surname in Wilde’s period, the term operates here as a provocative and playful coinage. Given that bum is low English slang for buttocks, an uncanny valence of male homosexual erotics permeates Algernon’s ostensibly innocent term for his double life.

L
. 31.
Willis’s:
an upscale restaurant near the theater district.

L
. 8.
ready money:
money paid in cash on the spot as opposed to on an account.

L
. 26.
German sounds a thoroughly respectable language:
German seems
here to play the boring cousin to French, which is consistently associated with raciness.
See note for p. 206,
L
. 6
.

L
. 8.
domesticity:
a name used about the house, an informality.

L
. 15.
Grosvenor Square:
a very affluent address in Mayfair, London, and therefore not a place that the mobs would normally find themselves. Lady Bracknell’s image is therefore one of anarchy loosed amid the wealthy.
L
. 17.
Between seven and eight thousand a year:
Eight thousand pounds in the 1890s was equivalent to approximately £500,000 or $800,000 today. Regarding such money conversions, however,
see note for p. 20,
L
. 5
.
L
. 35.
Belgrave Square:
a very good address in the Belgravia district of London, south of Hyde Park’s eastern end—a bit farther away from the Mayfair and theater district addresses than are most of the fashionable residences referenced throughout Wilde’s play;
let:
rented out.