Right Ho Jeeves Ch 1
Chapter 1 (pp 7 - 22)
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gone off the rails (p 5)
A colorful expression referring to a trainwreck, meaning the author has strayed from his path.
Cannes (p 5)
Southern French city renowned for tourism, nightlife and gambling. Now chiefly known for its film festival.
white mess jacket
A waist-length fitted jacket, typically part of a uniform and worn on formal occasions.
baccarat (p 5)
A card game popular in casinos, very similar to chemin de fer.
Ascot (p 6)
An English horse racing course, site of an important yearly racing event.
point d'appui (p 6)
French: entry point (literally: point of support, fulcrum)
aqua planing (p 6)
Similar to water-skiing but uses a single, wide board: the style at that time. Water-skiing is done with one or two skis or, sometimes, barefooted.
soup and fish (p 6)
Formal dinner wear.
What news on the Rialto? (p 7)
Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, III:1 The Rialto is a bridge over the Grand Canal and a central meeting point in Venice.
Eton and Harrow match (p 7)
Two large and prestigious private schools for teenage boys in England, the match refers to a hotly contested annual cricket match held every summer. Bertie and Gussie were both Etonians.
newts (p 7)
Newts are members of the salamander group, amphibians that live in ponds and streams, often mistaken for lizards which they resemble in shape and size. Lizards are, of course, reptiles. British newts are of the order Urodela, family Salamandridae. Jeeves states they are genus Molge, but modern taxonomy puts them in genus Triturus. If this in-and-out running surprises you, recall that the father of taxonomy is Carl Linnaeus, a Swede. As is well-known, the Swedes are a peculiar people, and when the impressionable young come under their sway, for instance, D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright, they are liable to end up involved in such excesses as doing "swedish exercises" every morning in the nude. Given this, it is less surprising that they would pull the rug out from under Jeeves in this fashion.
piscine (p 8)
Relating to fish.
rummy (p 9)
"Rum," slang that means odd or strange.
ruling of the form book (p 9)
The form book is a reference to horse-racing, it gives information on the horses.
cognoscenti (p 10)
Italian word meaning well-informed or learned.
bring himself to the scratch (p 10)
Starting line in a race.
letting I dare not wait upon I would. (p 10)
From Macbeth, Act 1 scene 7:
[Lady Macbeth] Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poor cat i' the adage?
divine p (p 11)
Divine Passion.
treading upon Life's banana skins (p 11)
Banana peels can be extremely slippery on a smooth surface, and cause a nasty slip.
Tallulah Bankhead (p 12)
Comely Hollywood star of the 1920s and 30s. Notorious for her "hard partying" lifestyle.
stymied (p 14)
Golfing expression: in a situation where a putt is blocked by an opponent's ball. The stymie has been obsolete since 1952 -- a player was "laid a stymie" if, on the green, the opponent's ball fell in the line of his path to the hole (providing the balls were not within 6 inches of one another). The player was not allowed to strike the opponent's ball when putting his own ball.
the knee-length (p 14)
This appears to be a reference to the length of the tails in his dinner jacket.
treading the measure (p 15)
Dancing.
Battle of Agincourt (p 15)
English triumph during the Hundred Years War. Taking place in October 1415, Henry V faced a vastly larger, but undisciplined, French army on their own soil. English courage and longbow superiority carried the day.
vest (p 15)
In America, this would be an undershirt
Blue Train
Luxury train between Paris and the Côte d'Azur, first ran in 1922.
tout ce qu'il y a de chic (p 10)
French: all that's elegant
olive branch (p 16)
A peacemaking gift and gesture. Probably related to the dove bringing back the olive leaf to Noah to signal an end of the Great Flood.
Mephistopheles (p 16)
A synonym for Satan, he is one of the seven Princes of Hell.
Right Ho Jeeves Ch 2
Chapter 2 (pp 7 - 22)
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shake like an aspen (p 17)
A tree with leaves that flutter in the slightest breeze.
fancy-dress ball (p 17)
costume party
Pierrot (p 17)
Harlequin, clown, especially in pantomime, wears whiteface with bright clothes; cf. several early Picasso paintings and "Pierrot Lunaire," a song-cycle by Arnold Schõnberg.
roof-tree (p 17)
The main, center pole of a tent or building which holds up its roof, typically carved from a single tree.
rout or revel (p 18)
party
gassing all over the place (p 18)
Talking out of turn, spilling secrets.
non-starter (p 19)
Horse removed from a race for any reason.
cipher (p 20)
An unimportant or powerless person.
shirty (p 20)
annoyed
iron hand (p 20)
The iron hand in the velvet glove. A saying suggesting great power with a benign front.
de riguer (p 20)
French: required, necessary.
always been a whale (p 20)
Has always been learned and enthusiastic about a subject.
snaps it out of the bag (p 20)
Brings up the subject.
binge (p 21)
party
visionary (p 23)
Person with the ability to see into the future.
Chapter 3 (pp 7 - 22)
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snifter (p 26)
A special glass designed for drinking brandy, cognac, armagnac, calvados, and the other brandywine drinks.
Martinis and a dividend (p 26)
When a pitcher of mixed drinks is prepared, the portion left over in the pitcher that is not quite a full drink is called the "dividend."
the well-cooked (p 26)
well prepared meal
the better element (p 27)
the aristocracy, his well-bred friends
V-shaped rumminess (p 27)
The reference is to the depiction on a synoptic weather chart of the fronts associated with a depression, or low pressure system. The warm and cold fronts usually appear as an inverted 'V', with its apex at the center of the depression. In Britain, such frontal systems almost always bring thick cloud and rain.
dissentient (p 28)
A very odd choice of words, perhaps this is a joke with Bertie mangling his vocabulary again. The proper term would typically be "dissenting," meaning "disagreeing." "Sentient" means thinking, capable of emotions or perceptions, and this author has never seen the word with the "dis" prefix.
fortnight (p 28)
An term for "two weeks," seldom used in North America, a contraction of "fourteen nights."
mighty rushing wind (p 29)
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Acts, ii, 2
Right Ho Jeeves Ch 4
Chapter 4 (pp 7 - 22)
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the year Bluebottle won the Cambridgeshire (p 30)
The Cambridgeshire Handicap, run at Newmarket in October, is one of the main races of the horseracing calendar. The horse Bluebottle appears to be fictitious. Wodehouse often avoids committing himself to a date by referring to a horserace.
Milady's Boudoir (p 30)
Magazine for the delicately nurtured edited by Aunt Dahlia Travers. Also known as "Madame's Nightshirt," by her husband Tom Travers, who foots the bills for it.
Home Counties (p 30)
The [former] counties which contain London are Middlesex and Surrey; the surrounding counties of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex (clockwise from the Thames estuary) are also usually considered as Home Counties. English counties have been revised a couple of times over the last century, this list is according to the situation as it was in 1918.
vis-à-vis (p 31)
French, face to face.
chivvying (p 31)
chasing, pursuing
out on the tiles (p 31)
Out dancing, hanging around in nightclubs.
Noblesse oblige (p 31)
French, noble obligations.
oolong (p 31)
a kind of dark tea, from Chinese Wu Lung (black dragon).
like a drowning man at a straw hat (p 31)
Proverbial - usually just "at a straw" (or "at straws"). OED records first use as "Clarissa" (Richardson, 1748): "A drowning man will catch at a straw, the Proverb well says." Reported to have originated in 'Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation' (1534) by Thomas More (1478-1535). The addition of the word "hat" subverts the cliché completely, of course.
this awful thing that had come upon me. (p 32)
Job 3:25: For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,!!!
oz. of the lifesaving (p 33)
ounce of tea
strained a fetlock and must scratch his nomination (p 33)
Fetlock: third metacarpal/metatarsal bone in a horse's leg, similar to the ankle joint. Scratch his nomination: withdraw from the race/event.
Dotheboys Hall (p 34)
The boy's school in the Dickens novel 'Nicholas Nickleby." As is typical in Dickens's work, it is hell on earth, run by tyrants who surpass even M. Aubrey Upjohn, Bertie's imperious schoolmaster in his youth at Bramley-on-Sea..
nib (p 35)
A distinguished person.
spats (p 35)
A piece of cloth or leather covering the ankle and part of the shoe and buttoned on the side. Spatterdashes were long gaiters or leggings worn when riding to protect the breeches and stockings from mud (mainly 18th century). Spats were literally short spatterdashes - a 19th century adaptation to keep mud off your shoes and socks in city streets. With paved streets and the decreasing use of horses in city traffic they became purely decorative by the early 20th century. They fell out of favor when fashionable young men started wearing shoes instead of ankle boots, largely due to the fashion influence of the Prince of Wales.
topper (p 35)
top hat, large tall hat worn on formal occasions
address a girl's school (p 35)
Bertie is referring to an unfortunate incident detailed in the short story "Bertie Changes His Mind."
a frost (p 35)
disaster
Right Ho Jeeves Ch 5
Chapter 5 (pp 7 - 22)
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raspberry (p 37)
Putting the tongue firmly between the lips and blowing, making a rude sound.
human lark, leaving his watery nest at daybreak. (p 37)
The lark is a bird notorious for rising early and singing, causing much negative comment in the neighborhood.
Davenant, William, (1606-1668)
Aubade
The lark now leaves his wat'ry nest,
And climbing shakes his dewy wings.
He takes this window for the East,
And to implore your light he sings--
Awake, awake! the morn will never rise
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.
The merchant bows unto the seaman's star,
The ploughman from the sun his season takes;
But still the lover wonders what they are
Who look for day before his mistress wakes.
Awake, awake! break thro' your veils of lawn!
Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn!
bung (p 37)
throw
rising on stepping-stones of his dead self to higher things. (p 38)
See Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H.": "That men may rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things."
Colney Hatch (p 41)
A noted insane asylum.
put our hands to the plough, we do not readily sheathe the sword. (p 41)
A muddled mixture of two sayings from Bertie, the first is from the Bible: St. Luke 9, 62, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." The second is Shakespeare, Hevry V act III scene 1: "Have in these parts from morn till even fought, and sheath'd their swords for lack of argument."
It also could be influenced by the famous quote from Isaiah (2:4), in which "swords" and "ploughs/plows" are juxtaposed.
"And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war."
Right Ho Jeeves Ch 6
Chapter 6 (pp 7 - 22)
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plugs decarbonized (p 44)
A reference to the sparkplugs of a car, which gradually become dirty with carbon from burning gasoline and need to be cleaned or replaced.
poultice (p 44)
A soft medicine, typically warmed and spread on a wound or other bodily damage
mousse (p 45)
A sweetened chilled desert, typically made with whipped cream and gelatin.
tender pash (p 45)
Tender passion, i.e., Love.
grab the gold ring on a merry-go-round (p 46)
A merry-go-round is a carnival ride, a round platform with horses mounted on it, it spins around and people sit on the horses and pretend they are riding. Some merry-go-rounds have a system of prizes given for grabbing rings from a stationary object as you roll by.
beach pyjamas (p 46)