| Framley Parsonage Chapters 46 to 48 |
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Chapter 46 |
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Chapter 47 |
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Poena,
that just but Rhadamanthine goddess, whom we moderns ordinarily call
Punishment, or Nemesis when we wish to speak of her goddess-ship, very
seldom fails to catch a wicked man though she have sometimes a lame foot
of her own.
Poena is Latin for punishment. Nemesis, whose name means "retribution" was a goddess of vengeance. Rhadamanthus was the son of Zeus and Europa, and in life worked as a judge and lawgiver widely reknowned for his fairness; in death he ruled over part of the underworld and served as a judge to the dead. Because of his reputation for strict but fair judgment, a "Rhadamanthine" goddess would be one who acted harshly but justly. For the reference to Nemesis and her lame foot, see commentary for Chapter 37. [JM] |
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Quod
facit per alium, facit per se "That which someone does through another he does through himself." Trollope here misremembers the quotation, which should properly be "Qui facit per alium, facit per se", "he who acts through another, acts through himself," as stated in Sir Edward Coke's Institutes of the Laws. The Jupiter has published an article reprimanding Mark Robarts for his unclerical behaviour and for his unearned high position; the article in the Jupiter maintains that the former Prime Minister is ultimately responsible for Mark's appointment, advocated by Mr. Harold Smith. See note in the 2004 Penguin edition of Framley Parsonage edited by David Skilton and Peter Miles, p. 573. [JM & RR] |
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Nemesis See earlier notes on Nemesis (in this chapter and in Chapter 37). Nemesis here refers to Tom Towers, who published an article in the Jupiter reprimanding Mark Robarts because he received such a high position at such a young age and because he was irresponsible while holding the position. The article advised him to turn the prebendal stall over to the government. Robarts did so, but not in response to the article; he had already given up the stall before it was published. Being mentioned in an article by Tom Towers is still of great concern; the Jupiter is very widely read, making Robarts' disgrace very public. [JM] |
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Pagan thunder Mrs. Robarts has gotten over feeling ashamed at the article that appeared in the Jupiter regarding her husband. Thus, the "sun" of neighborly warmth and friendship shines on her again, unobscured by the effects of the "pagan thunder." Jupiter was the Roman god of the heavens and thunder, and this is another instance of thunder-language being used in reference to the Jupiter newspaper. [JM] |
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Supporter of
the gods See commentary for chapter 23. Trollope uses the mythological story of a battle between the gods and the giants as an analogy for a political change going on in Britain. [JM] |
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Chapter 48 |
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Leader of the
chorus In his concluding chapter, Trollope states, "I, as leader of the chorus, disdain to press you further. . ." In Greek drama, the chorus often represented the perspective of the common people. Although the chorus members most often spoke (or sang) in unison, there was often a leader who would speak alone at times. [JC] |
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Hymeneal altar
See commentary on Barchester Towers Chapter 42. |
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Pope's Horace "As for feast of reason and for flow of soul, is it not a question whether any such flows and feasts are necessary between a man and his wife?" The phrases "feast of reason" and "flow of soul" come from Alexander Pope's Satires and Epistles of Horace Imitated, Book 2, Satire 1; this is thus a second-hand classical reference, much like Trollope's use of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar elsewhere. Notice the chiastic order of "feast, flow, flows, feasts." Chiasmus was a common classical device for artful arrangement of words. [JC & RR] |
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