The Sorcerer
GLOSSARY (in
order of occurrence)
Act I :
- Mrs. Partlet, a pew
opener - one who escorts Wealthy parishioners
to their pew, in exchange for tips; a poor but worthy
person
- Forget your knells
- funereal bell-ringing
- Forget your notes
of mournful lay - song
- The air is charged
with amatory numbers - romantic
music
- I was a fair young
curate then - assistant to a
vicar or rector
- she is rather comely
- good-looking
- But tush
! I am puling !
- tush is a mild expletive; puling is whining
- most auspicious
plighting - fortunate engagement
- Ere Sol
has sunk into his western slumbers -
Roman name of the sun god
- may their love
never cloy - become tiresome
- I find some
satisfaction in apostrophe like
this - in a speech or poem, an exclamatory address to
a person or object
- not a navvy
dissented - unskilled worker (e.g. a
ditch digger)
- Philtre -
a love potion
- Necromancy -magic;
particularly, foretelling the future by communicating
with the dead
- Amulets -
objects worn on the person to bring good luck
- cast you a nativity
at a low figure - determine planetary
positions at the time of your birth, for an astrological
reading
- Abudah
chests , each containing a patent Hag...
with spring complete - in the pseudo-Persian fairy
tale by James Ridley, Abudah had a box containing an old
woman prophet
- melt a rich uncle
in wax - melt a wax image of someone, to kill them
- the resident Djinn
- same as genie; supernatural spirit in
Arabian mythology
- Number 70, Simmery
Axe - St. Mary Axe, a street in the older
part of London
- for raising a posthumous
shade - ghost
- Bogies spectacular
- goblins, or bogey men
- Tetrapods tragical
- a form of verse used by ancient Greek tragedians
- 'Lectrobiology
- early term for hypnosis
- Mystic nosology
- study of diseases
- Spirit philology
- study of language and literature
- we are not in the
habit of puffing our goods -
exaggerating the worth
- taking it in
the wood ... in pipes and
hogsheads for laying down -
terms from wine wholesaling; laying down long-term
storing; pipes & hogsheads = large barrels
- noisome bags
of night - smelly and disgusting
- Ye demons fell
with yelp and yell - villainous
- now for the gay Sally
Lund - type of tea-cake or bun; usually
served with butter and jam
- I will go
bail for the liquor - I will vouch for
it
- brewing a jorum
of tea - a large drinking vessel
- great garner
of bliss - storehouse
Act II :
- I did not think it
meet to see - fitting or
appropriate
- a Baronet and K.
C. B. - Knight Commander of the Bath, an
order of knighthood
- that respectable Q.
C. - Queen's Counsel, a high-ranking lawyer -
implying the Notary who in fact would be very unlikely to
be a Q. C. - some Gilbertian poetic licence
- all fast asleep al-fresco-Iy
- outdoors; alfresco is Italian for "in
the cool"
- I've guineas
not a few for you - old coin worth one
shilling more than a pound
- the Blind
Young Boy obeys the spell - Cupid
- why do you gaze on
me with visage lowering -
threatening
- I often roll down One
Tree Hill - hill in Greenwich Park which
couples sometimes rolled down together (presumably not a
high-class activity)
- I sometimes go to Rosherville
- a lower class amusement park
- o'er us has cast
its magic fell - sinister.
malevolent
- must yield up his
life to Ahrimanes - in Persian
mythology, the personification of evil
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