Picture of dorian gray b.., p.29
Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series),
p.29
aa Lusty Roman nature god with the lower body of a goat (a satyr in Greek mythology).
ab Pine or fir wood.
ac Very old, exclusive London men’s social club.
ad Horse-drawn taxicab.
ae Exclusive London apartment house popular with bachelors.
af General Juan Prim led a successful revolt against the Spanish queen Isabella II in 1868.
ag Conservative British political party favoring the royalty.
ah Cigar cut at both ends.
ai Elegant men devoted to their personal appearance.
aj Lord Henry’s elder brother.
ak Published parliamentary reports.
al Popular Belgian health resort with mineral springs.
am Hired coach drivers.
an Fashionable address in the Mayfair section of London; pronounced “barkley.”
ao A pre-Olympian Greek god; the titans were often depicted as giants.
ap Resembling a wood nymph.
aq Renaissance artist, architect, and poet better known today as Michelangelo.
ar Wilde made a generally successful, if controversial, lecture tour of the United States in 1882.
as Female follower or priestess of Bacchus, the wine god of Roman mythology.
at Foster father of Bacchus and leader of the satyrs.
au Omar Khayyám, Persian poet and astronomer of the eleventh and twelfth centuries most famous for his Rubaiyat, which became well-known in Britain following the 1859 publication of Edward Fitzgerald’s translation.
av His charms make people follow him, as children followed the Pied Piper in the fairy tale; the story became especially popular in England after the 1842 publication of Robert Browning’s poem “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.”
aw Popular restaurant and meeting place.
ax Superior London club, originally composed of literary men.
ay French novel by Abbé Prévost about a woman who forgoes love for luxury, published in 1731.
az In the ornate style of French king Louis XIV (reigned 1643-1715).
ba Color of the bright-blue flower.
bb Richard Wagner’s 1848 opera about an Arthurian knight; contains the famous “Wedding March.”
bc London street known for its antique shops.
bd Wilde recycled this sentiment in his 1892 play Lady Windermere’s Fan, in which Lord Darlington describes a cynic as “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
be Tropical, flowery fragrance derived from the jasmine flower and named for a sixteenth-century Italian perfumer, Marquis Muzio Frangipane.
bf Wittiness.
bg Fashionable London commercial street.
bh Gold coin equivalent to 21 shillings; a pound equals 20 shillings.
bi Invented, mocking title.
bj “Grandfathers are always wrong” (French).
bk Blackened with burnt cork in an exaggerated fashion.
bl In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is Romeo’s friend and is killed by Juliet’s cousin.
bm Oboe.
bn The alleged tomb of Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tourist attraction in Verona, Italy.
bo Juliet’s mother in Romeo and Juliet.
bp London equivalent of a Broadway theater.
bq High tea at which meat and other substantial fare are served to constitute an early-evening meal.
br Christ’s wounds were traditionally described as such.
bs Another favorite sentiment of Wilde, which is echoed in, among other works, Lady Windermere’s Fan.
bt Grayish-white mineral element used in pharmaceuticals and theatrical makeup.
bu Lawyers who do not argue in court.
bv Street in North London lined with inexpensive lodgings.
bw Outlaws living in the woods.
bx Officer on a commercial ship who oversees details concerning the cargo.
by Wilde recycles the phrase “sometimes they forgive them” in his 1893 play A Woman of No Importance as “rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”
bz Violet-scented perfume made from iris rhizomes.
ca Low-slung carriage with two seats.
cb Carriage drawn by four horses.
cc Large bronze statue of the Greek Trojan War hero, which stands in London’s Hyde Park.
cd Monument in Hyde Park.
ce Legendarily promiscuous wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, who had her executed in A.D. 48.
cf In London’s Soho neighborhood; location of many inexpensive European restaurants.
cg A character in Shakespeare’s play As You Like It.
ch Rosalind’s lover in As You Like It.
ci One of the small, delicate terra-cotta statues from ancient Greece found in the village of Tanagra in 1874.
cj French brandy, such as cognac.
ck Small closed carriage.
cl Miranda is the heroine of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest; Caliban is her father’s slave.
cm Four heroines from, respectively, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear.
cn Then home to London’s central flower, fruit, and vegetable market.
co Color of mother-of-pearl.
cp Belonging to the main Venetian magistrate.
cq Dorian’s country house.
cr French porcelain, often richly decorated with pastoral scenes.
cs May through July, the traditional time for society events in London.
ct Elaborate, eighteenth-century decorative style named for French king Louis XV.
cu Poisonous solution of hydrogen cyanide.
cv Adelina Patti (1843-1919), famous Spanish soprano.
cw Brasslike metal alloy pounded into thin sheets.
cx Symbolic of oblivion, because opiates are derived from them.
cy Flower that is symbolic of death.
cz Extremely popular color in Victorian England.
da Desdemona’s father in Shakespeare’s Othello.
db Parisian art dealer who sold paintings by the Impressionists.
dc Figure in Homer’s Illiad who is the son of Priam, King of Troy, and lover of the beautiful Helen.
dd The barge of Hadrian; Dorian is compared to the beautiful youth Antinous, a favorite of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who drowned in the Nile.
de Popular ladies’ gloves that exposed the fingers and extended back to the elbow.
df The sentiment expressed is similar to Wilde’s defense, at his second trial, of “the love that dare not speak its name.”
dg Sixteenth-century French essayist Michel de Montaigne.
dh Eighteenth-century German historian of Greek art Johann Winckelmann.
di Gothic-revival country house owned by novelist William Beckford and sold with its contents in 1822.
dj Chest, often elaborately carved.
dk The reference is most likely to À Rebours (translated into English as Against Nature or Against the Grain), the seminal Decadent novel by the French author Joris-Karl Huysmans; see Introduction, pp. xvii.
dl Slang, jargon.
dm London street where many clubs for gentlemen were located.
dn A Roman satire of wealth and excess by Gaius Petronius.
do Arbiter of fashion; Gaius Petronius held this position in Nero’s court.
dp Echoes Walter Pater, Wilde’s mentor at Oxford: in the conclusion to Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), Pater writes “Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end.”
dq Doctrine of divine grace that releases Christians from having to obey moral law.
dr Nineteenth-century German movement advocating the evolutionary theories of naturalist Charles Darwin.
ds Strongly fragrant Indian tree of the magnolia family.
dt Bernal Díaz del Castillo, sixteenth-century Spanish historian and conquista dor who accompanied Hernando Cortés on his conquest of Mexico.
du Highest-quality turquoise; literally, “of the old rock” (French).
dv Hard mass of swallowed, undigestible material found primarily in animal stomachs and thought by some to possess magical qualities.
dw Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
dx Jeweled necklace.
dy Strewn (French).
dz Greek goddess of wisdom (Minerva in Roman mythology).
ea Infamous Roman emperor of the first century A.D.
eb Sun god of Greek and Roman mythology.
ec Palm-shaped designs.
ed Needlework in a net design, known as network (French).
ee Silk squares used to wrap gifts.
ef Ornamental borders.
eg An elaborate pattern.
eh Linen cloths upon which consecrated objects are placed during religious services.
ei Cloths upon which the image of the face of Christ have been imprinted.
ej Fashionable resort on the north coast of France.
ek Wilde would take Lord Alfred Douglas there in 1895.
el Fictional club possibly based on the exclusive Marlborough Club, founded by the Prince of Wales.
em Stiff front portion of a woman’s dress.
en Derogatory term for a young dandy, particularly one with an affected Continental style.
eo Of great beauty; the term recalls the famous mistress of Admiral Nelson.
ep Life-weariness (Latin).
eq In Greek mythology, beautiful youth who was the cup bearer of Zeus.
er Beautiful page of mythical Greek hero Hercules.
es Soft-sided traveling bag that opens from the top, popularized by Liberal prime minister W. E. Gladstone.
et Long overcoat of coarse material, often belted.
eu Marquetry (French); a decorative veneer inlaid with other wood or shells.
ev White wine, often that from the Rhine region of Germany.
ew Art collection of Lord Dudley, exhibited to the public.
ex This is a reference from the Bible, Isaiah 1:18: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (KJV).
ey Closet or cupboard.
ez Lantern sided with glass.
fa Society directory.
fb Fashionable beach resort near Venice.
fc Famous Venetian clock tower in Piazza San Marco.
fd Jacopo Robusti, better known as Tintoretto (“little dyer”), sixteenth-century Venetian religious painter known for his dramatic use of color.
fe Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
ff Ancient Egyptian obelisk that the Egyptian government presented to France in 1831 and that now stands in the middle of Place de la Concorde.
fg Final honors exams at Cambridge University.
fh Anton Rubinstein, popular nineteenth-century Russian pianist and composer.
fi Dark, curly, furlike wool of a breed of Russian lamb, very popular for nineteenth-century gentlemen’s coats.
fj Feverish chills.
fk Richmond-upon-Thames, the London borough where the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew are located.
fl Corrosive chemical oxidizer, used in explosives, fertilizers, and dyes.
fm Heavy-scented blooms of a pale-lavender color.
fn Throwing one’s hat over the windmills means to act recklessly.
fo Fashionable German spa.
fp Gilded bronze or brass.
fq Dish of meats or fish covered in a jellied sauce.
fr Having a low-cut neckline; the reference here implies that she has questionable propriety or taste.
fs Wilde recycles this quip in his 1895 play The Importance of Being Earnest.
ft French queen, wife of Henri IV, infamous for her licentiousness.
fu Too zealous (French).
fv Too bold (French).
fw Fin de sièecle is French for “end of the century,” general term for the 1890s; fin du globe translates as “end of the world.”
fx Debrett’s Peerage, a guide to British aristocracy.
fy Wilde later claimed to have been thinking of Lord Alfred Douglas when he conceived this idea.
fz Cherry brandy.
ga Small, incense-like lozenges burned for their fragrance.
gb Wilde scholar H. Montgomery Hyde suggests this may be a poison or aphrodisiac drug.
gc Light carriage.
gd Dorian gets out in the Chinese district of London.
ge Rebellious angel Lucifer (Satan), who falls to hell after being expelled from Heaven.
gf Title character of 1664 comedy by French playwright Molière.
gg Quick, retaliatory reply.
gh Following the technique of ancient peoples of the Near East who, in battle, would make a false retreat on horseback then shoot arrows at their unsuspecting opponents.
gi Large ferns.
gj Servant on a hunt who beats the bushes to roust game.
gk In Greek mythology, goddess of the moon and the hunt (Diana in Roman mythology).
gl Decorations on a duke’s crown.
gm Lord Henry compares their repartee to a fencing match; the point of the duchess’s sword has lost its covering.
gn Perdita and Florizel are lovers forbidden to marry in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
go Contains smelling salts.
gp Inexpensive pocket watch not worth stealing.
gq Diego Velázquez, seventeenth-century painter of the Spanish court.
gr Scales.
gs In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, act 4, scene 7, King Claudius asks Laertes, “Was your father dear to you? / Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, / A face without a heart?”
gt The reference is to the Bible, Mark 8:36: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (KJV).
gu Dreamy, pensive piano piece, evocative of nighttime.
gv Wide bands of cloth worn around the neck.
gw In Graeco-Roman mythology, a satyr who challenges Apollo to a flute-playing contest, loses, and is flayed alive.
gx Walter Pater wrote of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting the Mona Lisa that her imagined incarnations “have been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes.”
gy White lilac.
gz In Chapter XII, Basil accuses Dorian of ruining the reputation of Sir Henry Ashton, among others.
Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
