Chapter 27
1 (p. 300) meet the author of the paper which had already attracted the attention of the French comparative anatomists: Roger is working at the cutting edge of the emerging field of evolutionary theory The French comparative anatomists the text refers to are central scientific figures of the early nineteenth century They include the aforementioned Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see footnotes on the preceding pages), as well as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck (1744-1829) was an unrecognized forerunner of evolutionary theory, and Darwin was later to cite Saint-Hilaire’s realizations about homologies among species as important to understanding evolutionary relationships. Cuvier, on the other hand, resisted evolutionary arguments even as he acknowledged that the earth was older than the biblical narrative suggested. His explanation for evidence of change in species (which he took from the fossil record) was “catastrophist”—that is, he believed the difference in species in the rock record indicated that in each age life had been wiped out, to be created anew again.
Chapter 32
1 (p. 350) “Never mind! You shall be married again in England”: Roger’s close inquiry into the details of Osborne’s marriage to Aimée reflects the complicated status of legal marriage in England in the early nineteenth century. Roger’s questions point to his understanding of the law behind the estate’s entail (the contract that binds the estate) and of contemporary marriage law; the Hamley estate will pass only to “heirs-male born in lawful wedlock,” which means the entail requires that Osborne’s marriage be legally binding. The clandestine nature of the marriage that had taken place on the Continent may have been questioned, as Roger is quick to intuit. The Marriage Act of 1836, which followed up on the Clandestine Marriage Act of 1753, had both limited the circumstances under which a valid marriage could occur and extended the sites where a legal marriage could take place. The 1836 law required that a legal marriage take place within a parish church or, barring that, be performed by a licensed member of the Church of England. Provisions were made for non-Anglicans by allowing civil registrars to perform legal marriage, as well as registrars within non-Anglican buildings (including synagogues, dissenting churches, etc.). Roger’s insistence that Osborne and Aimée be married again prior to the child’s birth both in the Roman Catholic chapel where she worships and “at the church of the parish in which she lives as well” tells of his desire to take care of the issue of inheritance; by having Osborne remarry according to the strictest letter of the law Roger ensures that Osborne’s son (should he have one) will be heir to Hamley, whether or not the marriage remains a secret to the Squire. Roger presciently notes below, “The law makes one have foresight in such affairs.”
Chapter 33
1 (p. 365) he had never known any one with an equal capacity for mental labour: This is another reference to the belief system known as “muscular Christianity;” see note 1 to chapter 3.
Chapter 34
1 (p. 371) she was being carried on in earth’s diurnal course, with rocks, and stones and trees: Gaskell here is indirectly citing a poem by Romantic poet William Wordsworth entitled “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal,” written in 1800 and included in Lyrical Ballads. This is the poem that Gaskell incorporates into the prose describing Molly’s feelings upon discovering that Roger loves Cynthia:A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
Chapter 37
1 (p. 411) “0 my Lord! give her the living child, and in no wise slay it”: Molly’s prayer is that of the true mother in the biblical story in which two women claim to be the mother of a child (1 Kings 3:16-28).When King Solomon proposes to cut the baby in two to resolve the dispute, the true mother gives up her claim—and hence proves she truly loves and is the mother of the child. Molly’s prayer indicates that she thinks of herself as the more righteous claimant to Roger’s affection, but that she would willingly sacrifice her love if it would mean ensuring his safe return from Africa.
Chapter 38
1 (p. 415) Robespierre and Bonyparte: Maximilien-Francois-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre was at the center of the “Terror” (1793-1794), the most bloody years of the French Revolution. “Bonyparte” refers to Napoleon Bonaparte, the bellicose emperor of France from 1804 to 1815.
Chapter 39
1 (p. 423) M. de la Palisse ... Il était en vie: Mr. Palisse is dead / in losing his life / A quarter of an hour before his death / he was alive.
2 (p. 426) “gar auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new”: The words are Scottish dialect for “make old clothes look almost as well as new ones.” It is a quotation from a poem entitled “The Cottar’s Saturday Night” (1786), by Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Chapter 41
1 (p. 447) Geographical Society: The Royal Geographical Society was a learned society in London founded in 1830; its stated purpose was the “advancement of geographical science” and the “improvement and diffusion of geographical knowledge.” The history of the society is bound up especially with British nineteenth-century exploration and discovery and its famous figures, including David Livingstone, Richard Burton, and John Hanning Speke; in the later Victorian era, it supported British expansion into Africa. The society’s particular association with Africa stems from having absorbed in 1831 the African Association, a society founded in 1788 by Sir Joseph Banks to promote travel in Africa.
Chapter 45
1 (p. 487) the long vacation: The reference is to the period of time each year in which law business would be suspended, traditionally from July to October.
Chapter 49
1 (p. 523) I’ll go to church and forbid the banns: The “banns” refers to the public announcement at Sunday church services of a couple’s intention to marry; these notices of intention to marry were read for three consecutive Sundays, in order to publicize the intention of the couple and to give anyone who may have an objection—especially a legal one-the opportunity to voice it. The traditional Anglican marriage service includes the phrase “If anyone can show just cause why these two shall not be married, speak now, or forever hold your peace”—a public query, like the banns, on the legal suitable-ness of the couple for marriage. Here Lady Harriet’s assertion that she would go to church to “forbid the banns” must be taken as somewhat “tongue in cheek”; she would presumably have had no legal reason to propose to stop the marriage. That she does use such strong language, even if half in jest, suggests her partiality toward Molly as well as a strong feeling against Mr. Preston. Her reason for disliking Mr. Preston is voiced in chapter 14 but never fully explicated ; she tells Molly, “But, at any rate, you are not to go out walking with that man. I’ve an instinctive aversion to him; not entirely instinctive either; it has some foundation in fact; and I desire you don’t allow him ever to get intimate with you” (p. 163). Before the issue is resolved more clearly (see p. 528), the reader might surmise that when she was younger Lady Harriet was involved in a clandestine flirtation with Preston.