2. Alice in Wonderland: a reference to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll. In Chapter 3, ‘A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale’, the Dodo presents Alice with a thimble she has found in her own pocket as a prize: ‘Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh.’ See also Chapter 10, note 6; and Chapter 13, note 7.
3. iliad: an epic poem like the Iliad, the celebrated account, traditionally attributed to Homer, of the Greeks’ siege of Troy.
4. cresset: ‘an iron basket to hold pitched rope, wood, or coal, to be burnt for light; usually mounted on the top of a pole or building, or suspended from a roof’ (OED). This is, of course, a reference to the description in a previous paragraph of the ‘gigantic bonfire’ that from its ‘iron basket’ on the roof of the house ‘lit up the land for miles’.
5. Now there was a day: see Job 1: 6–7: ‘Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. / And the Lord said unto Satan, whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’
6. Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of: see Mark 10: 37-40: ‘They [James and John] said unto him [Jesus], Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. / But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? And be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? / And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized with shall ye be baptized. / But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.’ Compare too Matthew 26: 26–56.
THE BEGINNING
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First published 1908
Published in Penguin Books 1937
This edition first published in Penguin Classics 2011
Introduction, chronology and notes copyright © Matthew Beaumont 2011
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The moral right of the editor has been asserted
ISBN: 978-0-141-97081-3