| Page | Reference |
|---|---|
| 68 | the cats Oedipuss and Pathos |
| 68 | Cosmic Egg In several legends the world was created from a cosmic egg |
| 68 | trapeador (Mex.) 'floor mop' |
| 69 | El otro senor i.e. Hugh, the Consul's half-brother and 'other' self. (Lowry, 1975: "Hugh and the Consul are the same person"). |
| 72 | cabron (Span.) 'billy goat' |
| 72 | nacio 1820 ... compante The Spanish version of the 'Born 1820, still going strong' on the Johnny Walker label |
| 72 | a swan ... plummeted to earth "Yvonne is to be equated here with the white bird of teh Pleidades legend since she too has descended from heaven to bring love" (PE, 86) |
| 73 | ursa horribilies The ursus horribilis is the grizzly bear; with a punning allusino to ursa major, the Great Bear and the Big Dipper |
| 73 | Medico ... Nerviosas (Span.) 'Surgery and Obstetrics, Children's Diseases, Nervous Indispositions' |
| 74 | dispute with Lucretius In the 3rd book of De rerum natura, Lucretius argues that sould (mind) and body have parallel developments and are both mortal: "Besides, we feel that the mind is begotten along with the body, and grows up with it, and with it grows old. For as toddling children have a body infirm and tender, so a weak intelligence goes with it. Next, when their age has grown up into robust strength, the understanding too and the power of the mind is enlarged. Afterwards, when the body is now wrecked with the mightly stength of time, and the frame has succumbed with blunted strength, the intellect limps, the tongue babbles, the intelligence totters, all is wanting and fails at the same time. It follows therefore that the whole nature of the spirit is dissolved abroad, like smoke, into the high winds of the air, since we see it begotten along with the body, and growing up along with it, and as I have shown, falling to pieces at the same time worn out with age." |
| 74 | Cliff Yvonne's "millionaire playboy", Cliff Wright, is mentioned again later |
| 74 | Eisenstein Sergei Eisenstein (1898 - 1948), Russuan film director. One of his films was Thunder Over Mexico. |
| 75 | Might a soul ... drought From Andrew Marvell's "Clorinda and Damon". The quotation reappears 2 times later. In the poem, Clorinda invites the shepherd Damon to an "unfreqented Cave", but he declines her offer to "Seize the short Joys". |
| 76 | the goujeers The French disease |
| 76 | Mariana ... the moated grange Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. Mariana exemplifies the faithful lover. The Consul seems to blame the ruined state fo the garden on Yvonne's having left him. |
| 77 | trogon The Consul associates the bird with William Blackstone, who also decided to leave those "fellows with ideas". |
| 77 | Popeye ... spinach Popeye the comic strip, also the Consul's nickname for Popocatepetl |
| 78 | Pariah "The term paraiyan probably means 'drummer'" |
| 79 | Erikson The Swedish telephone company, L. M. Ericsson, built one of Mexico's early phone systems. Since there were 2 independent systems, the name of the system would be listed with the number. |
| 79 | Argal Perversions of Latin 'ergo'. Well-known from the graveyard scene in Hamlet and associated with clownish reasoning. |
| 79 | Away! Away! See Keat's "Ode to a Nighingale". There are a number of striking thematic similarities between Keat's Ode and Chapter 3. The Consul's situation is reminiscent of the poet's in the Ode: My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of Hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-ward had sunk: The combination of Scotch and strychnine has brought a similar "drowsy numbness" on the Consul. The poem also offers parallels to the Consul's longing for a cool drink, to his desire to disappear, like Blackstone, into the Indian forest, and his deliberate choice of death. The lines humorously and ironically alluded to by the Consul are these: Away! Away! for I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Posesy, Though the dull brain perplexes and retards: |
| 82 | a great court i.e. the court of Trinity College, Cambridge |
| 83 | all this oil business A reference to President Cardena's nationalization of 17 foreign-owned oil companies in March 1938, which caused England to sever diplomatic relations with Mexico |
| 84 | Pop. Uo. ... Uayeb Names of the 'months' of the Mayan calendar 18 of which have 20 days each, and 1 (Uayeb) had 5. "Generally given a certain sinister meaning [the 5 days of Uayeb] are considered poisoned, damaged, infected ... [Uayeb is the 'month' whose symbol is the ...scorpion". |
| 85 | dodge about ... St. Jago monkey "A paraphrase from Melville's Redburn". |
| 85 | Napoleon's leg twitched War and Peace, chapter IX. |
| 85 | confiscated some property Expropriations of foreign-owned industries and land were frequent under Cardenas (1934-40), culminating in 1938 with "Cardenas' old shindig". |
| 85 | Lalla Rookh Heroine of Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance (1817) by Thomas Moore. |
| 88 | nux vomica "The seed of Strychnos nux-vomica ... has been used as a bitter tonic and central nervous system stimulant" (Stedman's Medical Dictionary) |
| 88 | bella donna Atropa belladonna: deadly nightshade |
| 89 | Donnelly Ignatius Donnelly, influential 19th century authority on Atlantis |
| 89 | Coxcox and Noah The Mexican story of Coxcox and his wife is a striking parallel to the Biblical account of Noah. |
| 89 | publisher in Chicago Perhaps a reference to Frater Achad's Colegium ad Spiritum Sanctum which published a number of Cabbalistic books. |
| 89 | cohabation Alchemical term; 'redistillation' |
| 89 | Faust himself The 16th century German magician and charlatan |
| 89 | Copula Maritalis (Cabbalistic term) 'marial bond'. "Pronounced properly, [it] could ensure a successful act of intercourse" |
| 89 | alkahest The 'universal solvent' of the alchemists |
| 90 | Via Dolorosa Also the name of the road in Jerusalem believed to have been traversed by Christ on his way to Calvary |
| 92 | Yesod-bound In Cabbalistic terms "the sex act [is equated] with the symbolic entry of the soul into Yesod" |
| 93 | La Prensa, El Universal Mexican newspapers |
| 93 | Don Quixote Both Don Quixote and the Consul are "sad" because they are ludicrously, yet nobly, out of touch with ordinary reality. Straw representations of Don Quixote are common in Mexico. |
| 94 | dead man ... large sombrero "The dead man with hat over head the Consul see in the garden is man by the wayside in Chapter VIII. This can happen in really super D.T.s. Paracelsus will bear me out" (Lowry, 1973) |
| 49 | the 'other' i.e., Hugh |
| 96 | The will of man is unconquerable Reoccurs in chapter 7. |