You'll See Why
For Lo! we are back on the subject of "The White Company", by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a lot fonder of it than his infinitely more famous creation, Sherlock Holmes. Indeed, it may come as a shock to some people (you know who you are) that the consulting detective is fictional, made up and never really existed. Sir Nigel Loring of TWC was loosely based on a real person, Neil Loring.
As out there as Sherlock Holmes is likely to get
"Yes but the title -" and let me interrupt you right there, matey, because we'll get to that in a moment or ten. One of the things about TWC is that SACD wrote it using the language of the times, definitely not the language of 1891, which is when he wrote it. Thus - O alright, alright, your pleading eyes did the trick. The title refers to Sir Oliver Buttesthorn, whom is not overly tall yet whom is exceedingly wide, and loves food above all else, and whose talk to all constantly refers to food. And why not?
I have been somewhat remiss in not noting down all the unfamiliar words present in the text, as that would have slowed my reading down, so a quick flick backwards brought up plenty, which illustrates how many there are. Let us proceed -
Sir Oliver in green, dreaming of pies*
"Bancal": by context, a piece of furniture. The word is French and means "Wobbly", so possibly a three-legged item. I did find a picture for you -
"Murrain": context indicates a disease. One hesitates to bring up images - you might be eating whilst reading this - so let me check. Ah yes. Used in times long gone as meaning an epidemic of plague or similar.A table. Rather prosaic.
Excuse me, I just came across an interesting-looking blog, "Curious British Telly" and - er - well I read a bit of it instead of hammering away on the keyboard. Forgive me! And now back to our regularly-scheduled scrivel.
"Black-jack": This one they do explain, as being a drinking vessel. The characters in TWC spend a lot of time drinking, I have noticed, everything from small beer up to 'malvoisie', whatever that is. Must be classy, the Prince drinks it. Conrad merely thought that having a cup named thus was interesting, and proof that not everything was invented or named by South Canadians.Murrain on the plain
"Pensil": from context, as it is used in combination with banners and pennons, this must be a variety of flag. It's not in my Collins Concise, and of course if one tries to look it up on teh interwebz you get what is below.Made out of leather
"Jupon": an item of clothing. Something like a tabard? perhaps.<sighs>
Well, as you can see from this short list that took only a couple of minutes to compile, there is much in TWC that is foreign to our eyes and ears nowadays, and must have been just as odd 129 years ago. It's part of SACD's skill as an author that you can still make sense of what he wrote, at least most of the time. What do you say to that?
WHAT! There's a James Bond film with a title dangerously close to mine? But - how can this be! "Love And Let Pie"? where there is dirty work afoot in a bakery? "Lave And Let Pie"? where there is dirty work afoot in a laundry? What's that?
Bah! Next you'll be telling me that it features <thinks of something bizarrely unlikely> a crocodile nursery, where they grow the monsters from babies!
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| I'll shut up now, shall I? |
Conrad's Heart (Or The Substitute He Uses For One) Sank
Yes it's so, Marlon Brando. Your Humble Scribe was perusing the BBC's website in search of any schadenfreude going spare, when he spotting an alarming sidebar title. I have captured it on film for you. Art!
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| Egad! |
What's that? You thought I was referring to the South Canadian elections? As if! You should surely know better by now, we here at BOOJUM! avoid, positively avoid, Politics**.Books, not so much.
Look What I Dug Up!
Whilst looking for my book of Codewords, which has mysteriously vanished (and probably graced one of the bags of books I took to the charity shop), Your Humble Scribe was poking around under the cabinet and found the following. Art!
The inner pages reveal that it was published in 1990, so it's been out for 30 years and given that duration it's a fair bet that some of the alleged mysteries have been solved. Take this one, for starters. Art, you sluggard!
"They Vanished Without A Trace" alleges the title, and promptly goes on to disprove the title with the story of French explorer La Perouse, whose expedition was shipwrecked on a Pacific island, Vanikoro, in 1788. Traces were found of the wrecks in 1826 and in 2005 and 2008 the M8's Navy formally established what had happened: both ships of the expedition had been wrecked on coral reefs, many of the survivors had been massacred by the friendly locals, and those who survived set sail on a makeshift boat and were lost at sea.
CAUTION! The Pacific is not always so
Finally -
Because Conrad does not grasp anything until he has either read it six times over, or written it down, I have a new <ahem> 'project' to undertake. You may recall my wittering about having acquired "Field Guns In France" earlier this year, a series of letters sent home by Major Neil Fraser-Tytler whilst on the Western Front. He has quite the ghoulish sense of humour; at one point he is witness to a Teuton aeroplane being set on fire at 4,000 feet " - the observer seemed to feel uncomfortable and got out -" with consequences you can imagine. Art!
From the text one gathers that he was an old Etonian as he's continually meeting other alumni from the place, and liked hunting, shooting and fishing. His casual style nevertheless disguises a comprehensive grasp of modern (at the time) artillery methods and techniques. He proudly boasts in the Introduction that there is no glossary, meaning Conrad is going to have to dig around to get definitions, rather like "The White Company" which is where we came in ...
One of the boys with the toys that make noise
* Well, he might be.
** Twitting Tsar Putin is merely satirical entertainment.
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