The Dorothy Dunnett Companion

Description

Here is a lovingly assembled, essential A-Z companion to Dorothy Dunnett’s brilliant Lymond Chronicles and the first five novels in the House of Niccolò series.

Elspeth Morrison has re-created the author’s exhaustive original research, documenting her myriad sources and literary references. Foreign phrases are translated; poems and quotations presented in full; historical figures and events fleshed out; subtle allusions–and there are many–noted. From the origins of the Arabic drink qahveh to a recipe for quince paste, from the medical uses of ants and alum, to Zacco, Zenobia, and Zoroaster, this easy-to-use A-to-Z reference richly illuminates the intricacies of the complex and far-flung Renaissance world Dorothy Dunnett’s creations so colorfully inhabit."[Dunnett is] the finest living writer of historical fiction."–The Washington Post Book WorldElspeth Morrison and Dorothy Dunnett live in Edinburgh, Scotland.A

A fin, fin et demi: CHECKMATE, III, 4: ‘Finish the job to the end and beyond’.

A fool though he live in the company of the wise, understands nothing of the true doctrine: QUEENS, I, 6: Proverb taken from the Buddhist scripture, the Dhammapada. (Samuel Beal, Texts from the Buddhist Canon, The Dhammapada, London, 1902.)

A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse: UNICORN, 16: From the biblical Song of Solomon, 4, 12-15: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices: A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”

A grey eye looks back towards Erin: QUEENS, III, 1: Traditional Irish song from St Columkille’s Remembrance of Erin, lamenting his exile in Iona, with ‘a grey eye full of tears’. (P.W. Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland.)

A hunter went killing sparrows: KNIGHTS, II, 9: A proverbial Arabic story and caveat. (H. Howarth & I. Shakrullah, Images from the Arabic World, London, 1944.)

A la fontaine je voudrais: QUEENS, I, 5; KNIGHTS, III, 13: Song by Jean-Antoine de Baïf:

A la fontaine je voudrais
Avec ma belle aller jouer.
Là dedans l’eau nous irions tous deux rafraîchir
Notre amour trop ardent.

Mille douceurs, mille bons mots, mille plaisirs,
Mille gentils amoureux jeux se feraient là,
Mille baisers, mille doux embrassements là nous nous donn’rions.
A la fontaine je voudrais . . . (refrain)

Nous irions par le fleuri pré courir aux fleurs,
Cueillerions l’or fin et l’argent et le pourprin,
Chapelets ronds et bouquets, chaînes et tortils nous y lî’rions.
A la fontaine je voudrais . . . (refrain)

Si le destin le nous permet que feignons-nous,
Que n’allons-nous jouir heureux de so beaux dons?
En le printemps nous y convie de notre âge la saison.
A la fontaine je voudrais . . . (refrain)

Pèse bien: Qu’est-ce du monde, ô mon amour doux?
Si l’amour manque et la plaisance, ce n’est rien:
Du désir donc et du plaisir recueillons, belle, le doux fruit.
A la fontaine je voudrais . . . (refrain)

There to the fountain I would take
My darling who makes sport with me
And in the cooling spray to slake
This love which burns so ardently

A thousand sweetnesses, soft words, disports,
A thousand loving pastimes we would share
A thousand kisses, sweet embraces there.
There to the fountain . . . (refrain)

Across the flowery meadows would we tread,
The gold and carmine would we gather, with the white
And wreathe them into chains for her delight.
There to the fountain . . . (refrain)

If destiny should give us fief of all these gifts
Should we do other than accept them with a will?
For spring is ours, whose age is springtime still.
There to the fountain . . . (refrain)

Think well: what is this world, my darling dear?
If love and pleasure fail, then nothing boots
So from this repast let us keep the fruits.
(Tr. D.D.)

A Madame la Dauphine: QUEENS, II, 3: Clément Marot on Catherine de Médicis:

A Madame la Dauphine
Rien n’assigne
Elle a ce qu’il faut avoir
Mais je voudrais bien la voir
En gésigne.

With Madame la Dauphine
Nothing is amiss.
She has everything she needs to have,
But I’d rather like to see her
Lying down.

A mhic: QUEENS, I, 2: ‘My son’.

A mhuire: QUEENS, I, 2: ‘Oh Mary’.

A sangre! A fuego! A sacco!: CHECKMATE, I, 6: Battle cry of Jean de Ligne, Baron de Barbançon, Comte d’Aremberg (d. 1568); ‘To blood! To fire! To pillage!’ (Abbé de Brantôme, Les Vies des Grands Capitaines François, Vol. IV.)

A silken tongue, a heart of cruelty: KINGS, I, 1: Taken from the Scots poem, ‘The Paddock [puddock, or frog] and the Mouse’, where the frog beguiles the mouse into believing it is safe to cross the deep river on his back, with the intention of drowning his passenger halfway across. They are both rewarded for their respective acts of attempted murder and stupidity by ending up as prey for the hawk. The frog’s wanton act of cruelty is symbolic of man’s flattery and treachery. See also Cryand with many a piteous peep. Extract:

My brother, gif thou will take advertence [warning],
By this fable, thou may perceive and see
It passes for all kind of pestilence,
Ane wicked mind with wordis fair and slee.
Beware, therefore, with whom thou fellows thee:
To thee were better bear the stane barrow,
For all thy days to delve while thou may dree [endure],
Than to be matchèd with ane wicked marrow [mate].

A false intent under a fair presence,
Has causèd many innocent for to dee;
Great folly is to give ower soon credence,
To all that speakis fairly unto thee.
A silken tongue, a heart of cruelty,
Smitis more sore than any shot of arrow.
Brother if thou be wise, I reid [advise] thee flee,
Than match thee with a thrawart feignèd marrow.
(J. Ross, The Book of Scottish Poems, Edinburgh, 1878.)

A stout stomach, pregnant-witted and of a most gentle nature: CASTLE, I, 7: John Elder commenting on Philip II. (Beatrice White, Mary Tudor, 1935.)

A thief in the night: KINGS, III, 3: A reference to the biblical Day of Judgement; see II Peter, 3, 10:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

A town of price like Paradise: CASTLE, II, 7: The words of Thomas Tusser (1524-1580), author of the sixteenth-century model guide to farming, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, subsequently enlarged to five hundred useful tips in rhyme. Tusser took to farming in Suffolk in his thirties when his career as Musician in Residence to Lord Paget of Beaudesert was curtailed by illness. It was for the sake of his first wife’s health that the Tussers eventually moved to Ipswich. See He pincheth and spareth and pineth his life. (Michael Pafford, ‘A Sixteenth Century Farmer’s Year’, History Today, June 1970.)

A whoremonger, a haunter of stews, a hypocrite, a wretch and a maker of strife: PAWN, 27: The description given of the character of Sir John, the parish priest in John John the Husband; one of the ‘merry plays’ of John Heywood (c. 1497-1578). (Karl J. Holzknecht, Tudor and Stuart Plays in Outline, London, 1963.)

Abature: QUEENS, IV, 4: The flattened areas of grass caused by a deer lying upon it.

Abraham: KINGS, I, 5: The worthy patriarch Abram of the Old Testament, called by God at the age of seventy-five. He was rewarded for his devotion with the promise that he would be the father of nations; a promise sealed with the covenant of circumcision. Abraham and his wife Sarah fed the angels of the Lord on hearth cakes, and it was then that God announced that Sarah was to give birth to their son Isaac. (Genesis, 12-25.)

The term Abram- or Abraham-man (CASTLE, III, 3) referred to an inmate of Bedlam (the London insane asylum) who was allowed out to seek alms. It is particularly used to denote a beggar who feigns madness.

ACCIAJUOLI, Family: RISING, RAM, 9: Little is known about Nicholai Giorgio de’Acciajuoli other than his name, which appears in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, and the fact that he did have a wooden leg. The family of Acciaiuoli (as it can also be spelled) originated in Brescia, founding a steel works in Florence in the twelfth century. By the fourteenth century a branch of the family had established itself in Greece, gaining land fiefs in return for rents. At this point the Acciaiuoli ranked amongst the major Florentine banking families such as the Bardi. The Florentine side of the family bank was forced to liquidate its assets in 1345 when Edward III of England could not repay his loans.

The Greek branch, Dukes of Athens by 1385, remained in control of that city until the mid-fifteenth century. Duke Nerio II, a weak and effeminate ruler, died in 1451, leaving his Venetian widow Chiara and their son Francesco to bribe the Turks and usurp the regency of Athens for the next five years. The visiting Venetian noble Bartolomeo Contarini fell passionately in love with Chiara, so he returned to Venice, poisoned his wife and married the Duchess.

Contarini and his stepson were summoned by Suleiman to Constantinople in 1456 to explain themselves. Franco Acciaiuoli (the only son of Duke Antonio II who was Nerio II’s brother and predecessor) usurped the throne, imprisoned his aunt and murdered Contarini. Francesco vanished without trace. The indignant Sultan ordered Omar, governor of Thessaly, to march against Athens in June 1456. Franco fled to the Acropolis, where he remained for nearly two years. At the end of this time Franco was eventually obliged to relinquish power and forced to leave Athens, in return for which he was given control over Boetia and Thebes by the Ottoman Sultan, leaving other members of his family to remain in Turkish-occupied Greece, or return to Florence having lost their wealth. The fortunes of the Acciaiuoli improved in Florence in the fifteenth century as supporters of the Medici against the Albizzi faction. Amongst their other acquisitive skills, the Athenian branch were renowned for their horse-breeding talents. (Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror, Princeton, 1978.)

Acrostics: RAM, 18: In Greek liturgical services the canon, invented in the late seventh century, consisted of nine hymns or odes which contained an acrostic running through all the verses. This warned the singers when the original canon had been shortened. Each ode was prefaced by its mode, which gave the starting note.

Ad lucrandum vel perdendum: KNIGHTS, III, 16: ‘With the purpose of winning or losing’.

Ad unum mollis opus: PAWN, 8: ‘An easy task for one person’.

Adieu la Court: CHECKMATE, III, 5: The original poem by Clément Marot is the same as that given in the text, save for the last line; ‘Puisqu’à l’église nous allons’. Marot’s lyric bids farewell to the joys of court to attend war, not church. (A. Darmesteter & A. Hatzfeld, Le Seizième Siècle en France.)

ADORNE, Anselm: RISING: (b. 1424) A remarkable man–financier, diplomat, jouster, assiduous pilgrim, shrewd magistrate and man of strong beliefs–whose career, binding together Burgundy, Scotland and the Genoese Levant over a great part of the fifteenth century, has even yet only half emerged from the myriad records in which he appears.

Anselm Adorne was born into the wealthy Flemish branch of the crusading and merchant family of Adorno, which provided Genoa with several Doges. He was well educated in letters and was taught Latin and other languages as well as knightly accomplishments. In 1436, when he was twelve, a short uprising in Bruges in which his uncle was involved led to the Adorne family making a brief retreat into exile from which both his father and uncle returned unscathed to take up high public office. In due course Anselm followed their example and became in his turn a burgomaster of Bruges, occupying the Hôtel Jerusalem, the magnificent family mansion which was used to entertain many of the town’s most eminent visitors.

As a small child, he laid the foundation stone of the Jerusalemkirk, the church which his father and uncle had determined should be built next to their home as a replica of the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. Despite two trips by the founders to the Holy Land to check the exact measurements, the final church–unfinished when they died and altered by Anselm–shows only an approximation to the original building in its size, windows, and stairs, although the actual tomb is said to be an exact copy of the Holy Sepulchre. The family employed its own chaplain, who lived next door to the church and read Mass every day (and was known jokingly in the town as the Patriarch of Jerusalem). The church exists today, lovingly preserved, with the tombs of Adorne and his wife at its heart. Piety mixed with worldly wisdom and a degree of political fervour appeared to characterise the whole family.

From the age of twenty, Adorne distinguished himself in the annual jousts of the White Bear Society, which attracted to Bruges the élite of the Burgundian court. He won first prize there in 1447, and later bested Corneille, Bastard of Burgundy, as well as accounting for himself creditably in combat against the famous Jacques de Lalaing who had jousted in Scotland at the marriage of James II and Mary of Gueldres. Adorne first attained public office at twenty-four, and was in frequent touch with the Genoese merchants who had their comptoirs in Bruges. One of them, the powerful Paul Doria, stood as godfather at the birth of Adorne’s first child Jan in 1444 after Anselm’s marriage to the young orphan Margriet van der Banck. Margriet had inherited fine lands from her mother’s family, who were especially powerful in Zeeland. In all, the couple were to have twelve or more children, of whom at least two daughters were placed in a convent and several sons entered the church. The extended family included several brothers and sisters of Adorne, one of the latter marrying into the distinguished family of Sersanders in Ghent and bearing a son also named Anselm who was to share a large part of Adorne’s life. As happened with the Adornes, this family were also involved in an uprising in Ghent and Daniel Sersanders, Adorne’s brother-in-law, was at one point banished for provoking unrest.

By 1468 Anselm, now a practised negotiator trusted by both the Duke of Burgundy and the people, was chosen to travel to Scotland to persuade King James III to rescind an edict forbidding his subjects to trade with Bruges and its ports. During this stay, and a second visit late in 1469, Adorne formed the basis of a friendship with the seventeen-year-old King. Adorne must already have met many of Scotland’s merchants on visits to Bruges, for a large number of them were related by blood to their opposite numbers in Flanders. The King’s churchmen and higher officials, many of whom had studied at the university of Louvain, would also have been well known to him. James himself, son of Mary of Gueldres, was kin to Duke Philip the Good, and his aunt Mary had been married into the noble house of Veere and had helped rear the King’s younger brother, Albany.

It is likely that King James, appreciative of Burgundian gossip, was also attracted by what Adorne could tell him of his family’s travels to the Holy Land, and of the Genoese interest in the eastern Mediterranean, in which the Adorne family had a share and which in the past had occasioned direct traffic between Genoa and Scotland. Before Adorne returned home in 1469 he had been appointed a counsellor to the King and received the Collar of the Order of the Unicorn, of which he is the only known recipient and which is carved on the effigy which lies on his tomb. He was also given a freeholding of lands which paid dues to the church of Brechin (closely associated with Mary of Gueldres). This gift endowed him with the title of Baron Cortachy, and was no doubt meant to encourage him to further the cause of Scotland in Bruges. Adorne continued to maintain his own arms, consisting of three bands of checkers on a field of gold, with the motto ‘Para Tutum Deo’, but added the badge of the unicorn to the decorations in his house. He returned to Bruges also with cause to thank the Bishop of St Andrews, nephew of Bishop James Kennedy (an old friend of Bruges), for his care of Adorne’s young son Maarten.US

Additional information

Weight	12.6 oz
Dimensions	0.9400 × 5.2600 × 8.0000 in
Imprint	Vintage
Format	General Trade
ISBN-13	09780375725876
ISBN-10	0375725873
Author	Elspeth Morrison
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	LCO009000, LAN002000
Subjects	nerd gifts, short story anthology, LAN002000, book lovers gifts, classic literature, book lover, literary criticism, book gifts, long story short, LCO009000, book lover gifts, short story collections, gifts for readers book lovers, literature book, short stories collections, british gifts, irish gifts, scottish gifts, anthology, england, historical, writing, renaissance, classic, book lovers, short stories, library, Literature, book club, world history, reference, british history, essays, gifts for readers, literary gifts, gifts for book lovers