Blandings: Three Men and a Maid

Theosophy
- any of the various philosophies professing to achieve a knowledge of God by spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations, especially a modern movement following Hindu and Buddhist teachings and seeking universal brotherhood [Concise Oxford Dictionary]. Wodehouse's elder brother, Armine, became President of the Theosophical College at Benares in 1911, while Professor of English at the Central Hindu College there.

Butterfly Club
- there are many Butterfly Clubs in the US, including near NY, interested in butterflies but no obvious reason why any of them should be interested in Theosophy.

Breaking gas globes
- refers to the days of gas lighting, the globes shielding the gas jets from draughts.

Trinity smoker
- Trinity is one of the colleges at Oxford. A 'smoker' was a form of amateur entertainment, the 'smoking concert'.

Little Church Round the Corner
- Wodehouse was married in this church, properly known as The Church of the Transfiguration, in 1914. It is at One East 29th Street, between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue. There are brass tablets in the aisle of the nave including one to Wodehouse.

'... what she wanted was something more like Lancelot or Sir Galahad ...'
- like one of the knights of the Round Table, brave, chivalrous and strong.

'What mighty ills have not been done by woman! Who was't betrayed the Capitol? A woman! ... Who lost Marc Antony the world? - A woman! Who was the cause of a long ten-years' war, and laid at last old Troy in ashes? Woman! Destructive, damnable, deceitful woman!'
- Thomas Otway, The Orphan, Act 3, Scene 1. Note: my copies have Marc Anthony [UK] and Mark Anthony [US] - the name is unusually variable.

'It should leap from crag to crag like the chamois of the Alps.'
- often quoted in various forms by many authors, but I cannot find a definitive origin.

'Her demeanour was that of Mariana at the Moated Grange. "He cometh not!" she seemed to be saying.'
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Mariana.

She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;

'He travels, thought Mr Swenson, the fastest who travels alone.'
- Rudyard Kipling, The Winners.

Down to Gehenna or up to the throne,
He who travels fastest travels alone.

'... the skipper of which, following a famous precedent, had taken his little daughter to bear him company.'
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Wreck of the Hesperus.

It was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.

'Wotcha do a Brodie for off'n that ship?'
- a reference to Steve Brodie, a bookmaker who allegedly jumped of Brooklyn Bridge in 1886 and survived.

Idylls of the King
- a poem sequence on the Arthurian legends by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Morocco-bound
- morocco is a fine, flexible leather made from goatskins, tanned with sumac, and used in bookbinding (also imitation in grained calf skin). Sumac is the dried leaves of Rosa coriaria.

Chesterfield
- a sofa with arms and back of the same height and curved outwards at the top.

'Laughing love-god'
- a phrase probably referring to Cupid, the mischievous Roman god, but of uncertain origin. In the context of a silent film caption this could be an invention by PG making fun of the florid language sometimes employed for these.

Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar
- a song of the Prohibition by Ed Rose, Billy Baskette and Lew Pollock, and performed by Bert Williams (see below).

'Yes, he would put his fortune to the test, to win or lose it all.'
- James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, My dear and only love.

He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch
To gain or lose it all.

'Alphonso, who for cool assurance licks ...'
- W. S. Gilbert, The Modest Couple from the Bab Ballads.

Alphonso, who in cool assurance all creation licks,
He up and said to Emmie (who had impudence for six),
'Miss Emily, I love you - will you marry? Say the word!'
And Emily said, 'Certainly, Alphonso, like a bird!'

Bruton Street
- a street in Mayfair, it would be very expensive; Queen Elizabeth II was born there. It runs off Berkeley Square.

Miss in baulk
- a term from billiards indicating a penalty without loss of turn.

'... the place was practically Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street.'
- from context, and the UK version's equivalent of a busy subway station, this intersection at the centre of New York's theatre district must be full of people.

Walt Mason
- (1862-1939) Canadian newspaper writer, humorist and poet (as 'Uncle Walt').

The Princess and the Swineherd
- probably a reference to the Hans Christian Anderson story but only if Sam/PG has made a mistake; the swineherd was really a Prince and the Princess was the one at fault, not seeing the true value of the Prince's simple but heartfelt gifts.

'My love is like a glowing tulip that in an old-world garden grows'
- sorry, no trace of this song.

The toad beneath the harrow knows
Exactly where each tooth-point goes

Schopenhauer
- Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher, (1788-1860). Unusual for his time as being an atheist and sympathetic to Christianity. He advocated minimizing natural desires and that the universe is not a rational place. Seen as a pessimist.

Gunga Din
- a poem by Rudyard Kipling, celebrating the dedication of a brave native Indian water-bearer.

Fuzzy Wuzzy
- another poem by Kipling, in admiration of the fighting qualities of the native enemy in the Sudanese campaign.

'My Little Gray Home in the West'
- probably The Little Grey Home in the West, words by D. Eardley-Wilmot, music by Hermann Löhr, 1911.

'All over the saloon you could see fair women and brave men ...'
- possibly Lord Byron, Childe Harolde, Canto 3.

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men.

'The word, as Keats would have said, was like a knell!'
- John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale.

'He stared at it pallidly, like Macbeth at the ghost of Banquo.'
- a reference to events in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4.

'Oh, Woman in our hours of ease. Un-something, something, something please. When tiddly-umpty umpty brow, A something something something thou.'
- Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto VI, Stanza 30.

O woman! in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou!

Bert Williams
- (1875-1922) top Black performer and comedian who wore 'blackface' make up (such were the prejudices of the time).

Golliwog
- a caricature in miniature, usually as a doll, of a black-skinned man but more like a black-face minstrel, no longer seen (except at collector's fairs etc) for obvious reasons.

Moving picture Saved from the Scaffold
- possibly the 1905 British film Shamus O'Brien or Saved from the Scaffold.

'I fee-er naw faw in shee-ining arr-mor,
Though his lance be sharrrp and-er keen;
But I fee-er, I fee-er the glah-mour
Therough thy der-rooping lashes seen:
fee-er, I fee-er the glah-mour ...'
- words by E. Oxenford, music by Ciro Pinsuti, 1886. (Chorus)

I fear no foe in shining armour
Though his lance be swift and keen
But I fear and love the glamour
Through thy drooping lashes seen

Commination service
- an Anglican service that includes a recital of divine threats against sinners.

Orchestrion
- the Oxford Companion to Music lists the orchestrion as a mechanical reproduction instrument [of other instruments], with many devices using the name.

Tort and misdemeanour
- two legal terms: the first is a breach of duty, other than by contract, leading to liability for damages (e.g. negligence); the second is an evil-doing, a criminal act (the term has more specific meanings under some countries' laws).

Fleet Street
- a street in central London and once the home of many national newspapers. Most have now moved elsewhere but the British national press is still sometimes referred to as Fleet Street.

Demurrer and replevin
- two more genuine legal terms (their meaning is irrelevant here).

Rupert Street Rifle Range
- I cannot find any trace of this although Rupert Street is real. It is entirely possible that such a range could be in the area; I know of one that existed in the basement of a London College - 25 yards with room for two rifles or one pistol.

Stenographer
- a sort of shorthand writer / typist. (The term is still used in the US but not in the UK.)

'It was as if Dante had recommended some lost soul in the Inferno ...'
- a reference to the Inferno, one of the parts of the Divine Comedy by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321).

'Life is real, life is earnest ... up and doing.' plus an additional stanza.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life.

Damon and Pythias
- two friends in ancient Syracuse who were prepared to die for each other.

Tosti's Good-bye
- Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) an Italian song writer, opera director and music teacher.

'[He] like the dove despatched from the Ark, was back again.'
- Genesis: Chapter 8, Verse 9.

But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark ...

Widgery on Nisi Prius Evidence
- nisi prius is a genuine legal term which seems to have more than one meaning, none of which need concern us. I cannot find a Widgery but, by one of those curious life imitating art coincidences, Lord Widgery presided over a much discredited enquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday.

Walton Heath
- a golf club in Surrey, founded 1903 and used for major international competitions.

Raptu haeredis
- possibly de raptu heredis, 'where the writ runs', which sort of matches the next bit about an heir holding in socage. However, that is one of PG's favourite legal terms often used out of its true context, socage being defined as 'land tenure by agricultural service or payment of rent, but not by military service'.

Putney
- an area of London on the Thames, to the west of the centre. Putney Bridge is the starting point for the annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race.

'... one series of pictures, "The Dangers of Diana" ...'
- the brief description fits The Perils of Pauline, a popular film serial in 20 parts from 1914, re-shown throughout the 1920s.

'... the gall of an Army mule.'
- to Wodehouse the nerve or gall of an army mule means impudence or cheek. Mules were used as pack animals in WW1 and other conflicts and were noted for their endurance. Much maligned, they did sometimes turn on handlers to get revenge for poor injury or hurt, but could wait for the right opportunity to do so, which might be where PG got his use of the term.

'... like Robinson Crusoe staring at the footprint in the sand.'
- Crusoe was the title character of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel about a man who spends years alone on an island after a shipwreck. After some time he found a footprint in the sand and rescued a man from cannibals, called him Friday and they became companions.

Pure Food Committee
- an organisation of this name was active in the USA in the 1900s, but I can't find one in the UK.

'To almost a painful degree I have excited his pity and terror; and, though that is what Aristotle tells one ought to do, ...'
- Poetics, 6.1449b.

Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude ... by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

'... a road leading to Havant, and another to Cosham?'
- this puts Windles close to Emsworth, in an area that Wodehouse knew from his days living there in the 1900s.

Scullery-maid
- a scullery is a room at back of house for washing dishes etc., so a scullery-maid is a maid who works there.

'Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away.'
- from the hymn Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin? by Rev. E. H. Bickersteth.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away,
In Jesus's keeping we are safe, and they.

Dempsey-Carpentier fight
- Jack Dempsey beat Georges Carpentier on 21 July 1921, in round 4 of what was considered a mismatch.

Vassar
- a highly selective liberal arts college in Hudson Valley, New York. It was founded in 1861 as a women only college but went co-ed in 1969.

Muirfield
- a public links golf course about 10 miles east of Edinburgh.
Hoylake
- golf course of the Royal Liverpool GC on the Wirral peninsula.
St. Andrews
- a golf club in Fife, Scotland, the home of golf.
Westward Ho
- a town in north Devon, home of the Royal North Devon Golf Club, the oldest golf course in England.
Hanger Hill
- part of Ealing, west London (with a golf course).
Mid-Surrey
- the Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club and course, in Richmond, west London.
Walton Heath
- a golf course (already mentioned).
Garden City
- a private golf club and course in Nassau County, New York, Long Island.
Engineers' Club at Roslyn, L. I.
- another New York golf course to the north of Garden City.

'[He] had promised to come and knock an all-clear signal on the door.'
- a sign that the danger had passed, from the siren signalling the end of an air raid.

Cranking a car
- before the days of electric starter motors, cars were started by inserting a long crank and turning its handle until the engine caught. This was retained for some time, as car batteries were less efficient and dynamos did not keep them charged as well as today's alternators. There was a distinct knack to cranking and it was hard work, often leading to bruised shins.

Edgar Allen Poe
- (1809-49) US author of Tales of Mystery and Imagination, early horror stories.

Lochinvar
- a poem by Sir Walter Scott in which the knight young Lochinvar comes to the wedding of his girl and steals her from her intended husband-to-be, evidently with her approval but not her father's.

Three Men and a Maid

Notes and Quotes