Arcadia Study Guide - Glossary

Aeschylus: (525-426 BC) Greek playwright of The Persians, The Orestia. Brockett Hall: Caroline Lamb’s home.

Admiral: The senior officer of the British “Butts and Beaters”: Beaters, of course, Navy. are individuals who walk through a field beating the brush to flush out game. “a prize essay of the scientific Academy Presumably “butts” are what one “beats” in Paris”: Reference to Fourier’s Heat with. Equation. Jean Baptiste Joseph (Baron) Fourier – French Geometrician and Cabalistic: A system of occult or physicist (1768-1830). The equation is theosophist interpretations of scripture described and commented upon in originated by Jewish rabbis and passed general terms by both Septimus and into Christian tradition in the Middle Thomasina in the text. Ages.

Anchorite: A person who retires to a Capability Brown: Lancelot “Capability” solitary place for religious contemplation. Brown (1716-1783). English landscape architect who assured potential patrons Arcadia: A region of Greece idealized by of the “capabilities” of their grounds. the Roman poet Virgil as a serene garden Advocate of a “natural” style of paradise in which man lived in natural asymmetrical arrangement of sinuous harmony with the elements and his fellow curves and informal groupings. creatures. An “Eden,” if you will. Caro, Carnis: translated as “Flesh, Flesh Archimedes: (287-212 BC) Greek (feminine)”. mathematician. Known for the “ Archimedian screw” – a device for raising Caroline Lamb: water – in the shape of a corkscrew. The Castle of Otranto: An early “Gothic” Baron Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibnitz: novel by Horace Walpole. German philosopher and mathematician (1646-1716). “Ce soir, il faut qu’on parle francais, je te demande.”: Translated “This evening, Beau Brummel: George Bryan Brummel we must speak French, I pay you…” (1778-1840). Famous English society leader and “beau,” i.e., a “dandy”. Chatsworth: The country home of the Duke of Devonshire located four miles Brideshead Revisited: A novel by Evelyn east of Blakewell in Derbyshire. Waugh about the pre World War I Landscaped by Capability Brown. aristocracy. King Charles II: King of England 1660- Brighton and Hove Argus: Daily 1685 (Born 1630). Restored to the throne newspaper. in 1660 after 11 years in exile following the execution of his father, Charles I (Charles Stuart) in 1649 by Oliver DNB: Dictionary of National Biography. Cromwell. The Duchess: Elizabeth Foster, 5th Childe Harold: Childe Harold’s Duchess of Devonshire(1759-1824), she Pilgrimage, Byron’s most famous poem. had openly been mistress of the 5th Duke The first part published in 1811, begun of Devonshire while at the same time 1809 and added to intermittently until being the “dearest friend” of the Duke’s 1817. Enormously successful. Somewhat wife Georgiana. Both women bore the autobiographical piece referring to his man children, which were raised in one travel about Europe. Established Byron’s household. After the death of his first wife fame throughout Europe. Harold was seen in 1806, the Duke married Elizabeth in as the embodiment Byron’s fame 1809. throughout Europe. Harold was seen as the embodiment of the romantic ideal, a Eclogue nobleman in self-exile, a man who has all the advantages and has experienced life Edinburgh: Scottish Periodical widely, but is weary of empty pleasures and seeks solace in travel. Edmund Spencer: (1522-1599) Poet, and author of The Fairy Queen. Christies: The London auction house. English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: Claude Lorraine: (1600-1682) French Byron’s satirical verse commentary on his landscape painter. In the last ten years of contemporaries. his life painted six works showing scenes from the adventures of Aeneas, all Et in Arcadia ego: Literal Latin scrupulously following the text of Virgil’s translation, “And I am in Arcadia…”. The epic poem, The Aeneid. phrase is the title of a painting by Nicholas Poussin to which Lady Croom Commode: A chamber pot enclosed in a refers. The phrase originally comes from chair or a chest of drawers. the Latin poet Virgil. As translated by Septimus, “Even in Arcadia, there am I…” Cornhill Magazine: London, J. Murray. the suggestion by context being that even Published from 1860-1975. A literary in an earthly paradise (such as Arcadia or magazine that published serialized stories Sidley Park) death is present. The phrase and short stories. “Et in Arcadia ego” is the title of a painting by Nicholas Poussin to which Lady Croom Curlew: a large bird long legs and a long refers. The phrase originally comes from curved bill. the Latin port Virgil. The painting represents a group of sheperds in Arcadia Devonshire House: The London discovering a tomb on which the residence of the Duke of Devonshire, a inscription Et in Arcadia ego is carved. mansion built in the 18th century by Lady Croom properly quotes Poussin William Kent. Located at the corner of (and Virgil) but widely misinterpreting Piccadilly and Berkeley Street, across the meaning. from Green Park. Etonian: One who attended Eton, a Henry Fuseli: (1742-1825) Johann Prestigious English public school. Heinrich Fuseli, Swiss painter in England.

Euripides: (484-406 BC) Greek Sir Horace Walpole: Earl of Oxford, Playwright of Medea, Hippolytus, The author of The Castle of Otranto (1717- Bacchae. 1797).

Fractals: geometric shapes that represent Humphrey Repton: Landscape Architect the mathematical expression of complex (1752-1818) Presented patrons with cut natural phenomena. Discovered in the and fold watercolors of what their 1970s by… grounds might look like.

Florence Nightingale: (1820-1910) The Idyll by Theocritus English philanthropist and nurse. Improved Newcomen Steam Pump: Gallic Wars: The wars through which the invented by Thomas Newcomen (1663- Romans captured Gaul, roughly the area 1729). The steam pump presumably used of contemporary France. Recounted in to pump water from one place to another. Caesar’s Comentaries – a standard beginning Latin text. (Omnia Gallia in tres Iterated Algorithm: partes divisa est: All Gaul is divided into three parts. Or something like that.) Sir James Augustus Henry Murray: (1837-1915) Scottish philologist and George Spencer: 5th Duke of lexicographer, editor of the Oxford English Marlborough (1776-1840), amateur Dictionary. dabbler in the arts, noted for his musical compositions. Sir Joseph Banks: English naturalist (1743-1820). Guinea: An English gold coin worth 21 shillings. Discontinued in 1813. Just William Books: a series of books aimed at the adolescent audience. The Ha-Ha: An unseen trench or ditch. A American equivalent to Nancy Drew or sunken fence. The Hardy Boys.

Harrow: Prestigious public school. Kew: A Royal residence located at Richmond upon Thames. The Royal Headlong Hall: published in 1815. Botanic Gardens were created by George Thomas Love Peacock’s first novel. A III in 1772 by the combination of the Kew farce. It contains a satire of an actual and Richmond Lodge Gardens which were controversy about landscape gardening landscaped by Capability Brown. Brown which had erupted in 1810 between the designed the famous Rhododendron Dell, famous landscape gardeners of the day to the lake and its setting of trees and the the quality of Capability Brown’s style of landscape along by the river. gardens. “Lacte et Carne Vivunt”: Translate “they live on milk and meat”. Newstead Abbey: Lord Byron’s ancestral The Levant: The Middle East home.

Linnean Society: Presumably historical. Newtonian: Follower of Sir Isaac Newton Named after the Swedish Naturalist Karl (1642-1727), proponent of a theory of Von Linne (1707-1778) who founded the gravitational attraction and a theory of system of classifying plant life used by the universe resulting therefrom. botanists. Nicholas Poussin: French painter (1594- Lord Holland: “Lady Holland” is 1665). mentioned in some sources as a prominent society hostes of the day, much Obelisk: An upright, four sided pillar, interested in the arts, literature, and gradually tepering and resulting in a Byron. Lord Holland is her husband. Lord pyramid. Holland (Henry Richard (Baron) – 1773- 1840). Holland House (located two miles Opera Court, Pall Mall: A dignified street from Marble Arch on the main road in London, one block from St. James running out of London towards the west – Square, named after the game of what is now Holland Park) was a major pallemaille, a cross between croquet and salon of the time – famous for bringing golf, which was played here in the early the powerful and the best together for 17th century. For more than 150 years, their mutual edification and enjoyment. It Pall Mall has been the heart of London’s was meritocratic, inegalitarian and held club land. Here exclusive gentlemen’s mediocrity in abhorrence. Among those clubs were formed to provide members who dined there were the Prince Regent, with a refuge from their womenfolk. Sheridan, Wilberforce, Canning, William Lamb, Byron, Thomas Moore, Onan: The Biblical character who “spilled his seed”. Lord Jeffrey: Scottish Lawyer and Essayist (1773-1850) Editor of the Ovid: Roman poet. Metamorphoses (BC Edinburgh Review, the most influential 43-AD 17). magazine of the period. It was devoted to the interests of the Whig party. Parterre: An ornamental and diversified grouping of flowerbeds. Lord Little: A fictional charater. Pastoral poetry The Mysteries of Udolpho: a Two-volume romance novel written by Ann Ward Piccadilly Recreation: Subsequently Radcliffe (1764-1823). Although the defined as a “thrice weekly periodical.” action is set in 1584, the heroine, Emily St. Aubert, is very much like a young Pierre de Fermat: French Mathematician English lady of the early 19th Century. A 1601-1665. Famous for developing two hugely popular work of fiction when it important mathematical theorems. was published in 1808. Ptolemy: The dynastic line of Egyptian rulers, of whom Cleopatra was the last Samuel Rogers: (1763-1855) English Q.E.D.: Quod Errat Demonstrandum, poet (The Pleasure of Memory). Translated “thus it was demonstrated”. Scape: Queen Elizabeth: Elizabeth I, Queen of England 1558-1603 (born 1533). Septimus: Latin for “seventh”; Signifying Daughter of Henry VIII. Known as “The that Septimus is the seventh child in his Virgin Queen”. family.

Queen Dido: Mythological Carthaginian Sophocles: (496-405 BC) Greek Queen whose name represents a Playwright of The Odeipus Cycle. stereotype of both feminine capriciousness and obsessive passion. Snipe: a bird related to the woodcock. Henry Purcell wrote a famous opera, Dido and Aeneas. Sussex University

“Queer my pitch”: Theodolite: An instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles, employing Regency: A period in which a “Regent” a small telescope. rules in place of a King or Queen unable by reason of health or age to rule. Thomas Hobbes: (1588-1679) English Specifically, the period 1811-1820 during philosopher and author of Leviathan. which George, the Prince of Wales, ruled for his father, George III. Thomas Love Peacock: English poet and novelist. (1785-1866) Author of Headlong RN: Royal Navy Hall.

Robert Southey: English author and poet Thomas Moore: (1779-1852) Irish poet, (1774-1843). Poet Laureate 1813-1843. Lalla Rookh and Irish Melodies. Published Friend of Wordsworth and Shelley. Butt of letters and journals of Lord Byron in Byron’s ridicule in English Bards and 1830. Scotch Reviewers. “topped and tailed”: British phrase used Salvator Rosa: Italian painter and poet in publishing to refer to the cropping of (1615-1675). the top and bottom of a manuscript.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: English “Trainers” and “Flatties”: Short for cross metaphysician and poet (1772-1834) – trainers, or sneakers. Slang for a flat pair Kubla Khan, The Rime of the Ancient of shoes. Mariner. Opium addict. Originator, with Southey, of a scheme called Trinity College: Also known as “Pantisocracy” – a utopia to be built on Cambridge University, Byron’s alma the banks of the Susquehanna River. mater. Never realized. Virgil: Roman poet (70-19 B.C.)

Walter Scott: Later Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish author of Ivanhoe, also a poet.

William Makepeace Thackery: English Novelist (1811-1863), author of Vanity Fair.

William Wordsworth: English poet (1770-1850). Poet Laureate 1843-1850. “Lake” poet. Lyrical Ballads (published 1798) established his reputation.