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[4-6]

Chapter 1
How Did He Get It

Festering wounds
The "festering wounds" of Mr. Crawley are caused by the letters he received from Bishop Proudie urging him to pay his debts to the butcher. "Festering wounds" may recall the festering and incurable wound which the character Philoctetes in Sophocles' Philoctetes has received and which has caused him to be deserted by his comrades on a deserted island.  Like Philoctetes, Mr. Crawley is socially isolated from his peers and suffers greatly from this isolation. Perhaps there is a link between Philoctetes and Mr. Crawley because both characters believe that their suffering is unjust.  [AM]

Jane, who passed her life between her mother's work table and her father's Greek… - for Mr. Crawley in his early days had been a ripe scholar
Mr. Crawley teaches his youngest daughter Jane to translate Greek and scan Greek iambic poetry. The narrator remarks that Mr. Crawley is quite a scholar because he has the aptitude not only to read Greek literature and poetry himself but also to teach Greek to others.  In learning Greek Jane is more educated than most of the women of her time.  [AM]

Chapter 2
By Heavens, He Had Better Not!

Chances of war
This is an English translation of a common Latin phrase, casus belli.  This phrase refers to the circumstances by which the county seat of Chaldicotes fell into the possession of Dr. and Mrs. Thorne.  [AM & RR]

Chapter 3
The Archdeacon's Threat

Second nature
Griselda's "second nature" is the "cold magnificence" that permeates her every action while she is in the house of her family. It is almost natural that her presence exudes her elevated status and marks her distance from others who are not in her high social stratum.  See commentary on "Habit is second nature" for Chapter 10 of Doctor Thorne.  [AM]

She is simply the best educated girl whom it has ever been my lot to meet
Major Grantly here refers to the classical education of Grace Crawley.  Major Grantly refutes his father's assertion that Grace Crawley is unfit for marriage because she did not receive lady's education.  Though Grace comes from an impoverished family, Major Grantly believes that she is a "lady" because she is has knowledge of Latin, Greek, and classical history and literature.  Being classically educated, perhaps Grace is entitled to the epithet of "lady" and fit for matrimonial union with Major Grantly.  [AM]    

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