"Paul Clifford", Chapter 33, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

1 year ago
6

Clem. Lift the dark veil of years! Behind, what waits?
A human heart. Vast city, where reside
All glories and all vilenesses; while foul,
Yet silent, through the roar of passions rolls
The river of the Darling Sin, and bears
A life and yet a poison on its tide.
..............
Clem. Thy wife?

Vict. Avaunt! I've changed that word to "scorn"!

Clem. Thy child?

Vict. Ay, that strikes home,-my child, my child!

Love and Hatred, by ----

----

The author decided to blank out place names for this chapter. All of them. So I've tweaked the language a bit to cope with missing shire and town names. Ugh. There's another word that's blanked out: "this fatherly sentiment for a ---'s offspring is exquisite in me!" I could think of several choice words to use there, but none of them very youtube friendly, so I didn't put any word in. You can fill in the blank according to your own imagination!

Taliacotian: as best I can tell, this means "Pertaining to surgically reconstructed noses" (after the 16th century Italian surgeon Gasparo Tagliacozzi) But I don't understand how that definition fits into the context in which the word is used here. If you have some better understanding, please leave a comment below!

Magasin des Modes: "Cabinet des Modes", with the title "La Magasin des Modes Nouvelles Francaises et Anglaises" (or "Magasin des modes" for short) in 1786–1789, and "Le Journal de la Modet et du Gout" in 1790–1793, was a French fashion magazine, published between 1785 and 1793. It is recognized to be the first fashion magazine.

philoprogenitiveness: in this context: of, relating to, or characterized by love of offspring

And this chapter gives us the rest of Brandon's backstory! I think we all know what's coming next... D: D: D:

The picture used is a painting by Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch of Faust and Mephisto playing chess. Since the comparison of Welford to Retzsch's mephistopholes was made in the text, here you have something to make the comparison.

To follow along: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7735/7735-h/7735-h.htm#link2HCH0033

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