Chapter XXVI
1 (p. 308) “At twelve my horses turn into rats and off I go”: This is an allusion to the fairy tale “Cinderella,” in which Cinderella’s fairy god-mother transforms a pumpkin and mice into a carriage and horses to transport her to the royal ball, with the stipulation that the spell will be over at midnight.
2 (p. 309) he had drawn up a scheme for the education of labour, for the amalgamation of the middle class and the working class, . . . combined in the Society for the Education of Democracy, upon Capitaclass="underline" The language of this passage suggests the influence of German political philosopher Karl Marx (his 1867 work, Das Kapital, is an analysis of the economics of capitalism), as well as Mary’s and Ralph’s far-left views.
Chapter XXVII
1 (p. 317) After visiting the National Gallery, or Hertford House, or hearing Brahms or Beethoven at the Bechstein Halclass="underline" Cassandra would be visiting notable London arts sites. The National Gallery, located in Trafalgar Square, houses one of Great Britain’s permanent national art collections; Hertford House contains the Wallace Collection, the extensive private art collection of Sir Richard Wallace (1818-1890); Bechstein House, now Wigmore Hall, is a concert hall where Woolf might have heard the works of German composers Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827).
2 (p. 318) Sunday . . . is usually dedicated to Nature . . . But Cassandra rejected Hampton Court, Greenwich, Richmond, and Kew in favour of the Zoological Gardens: Hampton Court Palace, Greenwich, Richmond upon Thames, and Kew are areas in and around London known for their royal parks and gardens. The London Zoo opened in Regent’s Park in 1828.
Chapter XXVIII
1 (p. 339) “I’m out of my mind. . . . it’s insanity, and yet it’s perfectly reasonable”: Ralph’s seemingly contradictory statements are staples of love poetry, English and otherwise.
2 (p. 342) an odd image came to his mind of a lighthouse.... senseless against the glass: This passage is a striking anticipation of Woolf’s later novel To the Lighthouse (1927).
3 (p. 347) “what fools we both are!”: Rodney’s outburst recalls Puck’s statement in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when he is gazing upon the confused arrangements of lovers: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (act 3, scene 2).
Chapter XXIX
1 (p. 355) “The love of husband and wife is the most holy we know. That is the lesson Mamma’s children learnt from her”: Mrs. Hilbery is referring to Katharine’s paternal grandmother.
Chapter XXXI
1 (p. 372) Shakespeare’s command to leave his bones undisturbed applied only to odious curiosity-mongers: Mrs. Hilbery recalls the inscription on Shakespeare’s tomb—“Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare / To digg the dust encloased heare; / Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones / And curst be he yt moves my bones”—but decides that it will not impede her literary sleuthing.
2 (p. 386) “Mount Ararat Road, Highgate”: There is no such road in Highgate, but there is a Mount Ararat Road in Richmond near Paradise Road, where the Woolfs lived.
3 (p. 391) in the pit of the Coliseum.... some remote place such as Camberwell, or Sidcup, or the Welsh Harp: The Coliseum Theatre, on St. Martin’s Lane in London’s West End, opened as a music hall in 1904 (and is presently the home of the English National Opera); Camberwell and Sidcup are in the southeastern boroughs of Camberwell and Bexley, respectively; and the Welsh Harp Reservoir, a popular place of recreation named after an old alehouse, lies to the northwest in the borough of Brent.
Chapter XXXII
1 (p. 400) Hampton Court was decided upon, . . . for though Cassandra had dreamt as a child of the brigands of Hampstead, she had now transferred her affections . . . to William III: Hampstead Heath, a large—and largely uncultivated—park in north London, had long been known for its thieves; King William III (1650-1702) employed renowned English architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) to renovate Hampton Court Palace.
2 (p. 401) “William shall die, and Cassandra shall be given rooms as the widow of a distinguished poet”: The allusion is to the old practice of awarding apartments surrounding the smaller courts of Hampton Court Palace to pensioners of the Crown.
Chapter XXIII
1 (p. 417) “From Shakespeare’s tomb!”: In fact, the tomb is not outside, but inside Holy Trinity Church.
2 (p. 419) the meeting between Keats and Coleridge: This encounter, which took place in Highgate on April 11, 1819, is recorded by Keats in a letter to his brother George four days later, and by Coleridge in an August 14 entry of his collected essays Table Talk (1836).
3 (p. 422) a little song about a miller’s daughter: This is perhaps a reference to Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s 1823 song cycle Die schöne müllerin (“The Fair Maid of the Mill”).
4 (p. 425) “I always feel that our physical ailments are so apt to turn into mental ailments. I think Matthew Arnold says something of the same kind about Lord Byron”: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was an English poet and critic. Such a passage has not been found in Arnold’s works, although he did publish an essay on Byron in 1881.
5 (p. 416) “marry her in Westminster Abbey . . . marry her in St. Paul’s Cathedral”: Weddings in these two churches are restricted to the select few. A church has stood on the site of Westminster Abbey since before A.D. 1000; the present Gothic-style church was erected by King Henry III in the thirteenth century. St. Paul’s Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built from 1675 to 1710 (an earlier church on the site was destroyed in the Great Fire of London).
6 (p. 429) so that he could see certain streets, books, and situations wearing a halo: Ralph’s reverie strongly resembles a passage in Woolf’s essay “Modern Fiction” (in A Common Reader): “Life is not a series of gig-lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.”
Chapter XXXIV
1 (p. 441) the golden light of a large steady lamp: This description also recalls the passage in “Modern Fiction” cited in note 6, chapter XXXIII.
VIRGINIA WOOLF AND THE HOGARTH PRESS
In 1917 Leonard and Virginia Woolf purchased a small used hand-press and began printing books in the dining room of their home, Hogarth House, in Richmond upon Thames, London. The couple originally began the venture as a hobby, a distraction they hoped would alleviate Virginia’s bouts of depression and the emotional duress she suffered from the pressures of writing. In a humble missive written to an unidentified correspondent on December 10, 1930, as an apology for a printing error, Virginia neatly described the operations of the press: “All I have to urge in excuse is that printing is a hobby carried on in the basement of a London house; that as amateurs all instruction in the art was denied us; that we have picked up what we know for ourselves; and that we practise printing in the intervals of lives that are otherwise engaged.” Hogarth’s first publication was a slim volume entitled Two Stories (1917), featuring “The Mark on the Wall,” by Virginia, and “Three Jews,” by Leonard; the printing was limited to 150 copies.