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Wed 14 May, 2014 12:08 am
“ι“I’m Jack Prendergast,” said he, “and by God! you‘ll learn to bless my name before you’ve done with me.”
“‘I remembered hearing of his case, for it was one which had made an immense sensation throughout the country some time before my own arrest. He was a man of good family and of great ability, but of incurably vicious habits, who had by an ingenious system of fraud obtained huge sums of money from the leading London merchants.
“ι“Ha, ha! You remember my case!” said he proudly.
“ι“Very well’, indeed.”
“ι“Then maybe you remember something queer about it?”
“ι“What was that, then?”
“ι“I’d had nearly a quarter of a million, hadn‘t I?”
“ι“So it was said.”
“ι“But none was recovered, eh?”
“ι“No. ”
“ι“Well, where d’ye suppose the balance is?” he asked.
“ι“I have no idea,” said I.
“ι“Right between my finger and thumb,” he cried. “By God! I’ve got mare pounds to my name than you’ve hairs on your head. And if you’ve money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can do anything. Now, you don’t think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a Chin China coaster. No, sir, such a man will look after himself and will look after his chums. You may lay to that! You hold on to him, and you may kiss the Book that he’ll haul you through.”
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My attempts:
1. It means there will be one day Prendergast will save the person he is talking to. (bless)
2. It means kissing the Bible, which means Predergast will be like god saving people.
Do you agree?
@WBYeats,
Jack Prendergast says (of himself:) "No, sir, such a man will look after himself and will look after his chums.
You may lay to that! [you can bet on it, and be confident of winning the bet] You hold on to him, and
you may kiss the Book that [you can have absolute faith that] he’ll haul you through."
'You' is used in a general sense to mean 'anyone'.
'The Book' (with a capital B) means 'the Bible'. In some ceremonies when a person promised or swore an oath to do something they kissed the Bible to demonstrate their firm intention to adhere to their promise. Also some old fashioned Christians kissed the Bible to demonstrate their religious faith (in God). The phrase "you may kiss the Book [that a thing will happen]" means "You may firmly believe and be confident that the thing will happen". There is no suggestion that God is to intervene or is involved. Many Christians frown upon oaths.
I wonder if WBYeats realises that nobody talks like that any more, if they ever did?
@contrex,
Yes. I was going to say to him something like "Why are you reading stuff like this?", then thought the better of it. I'm reading a Patrick O'Brien at the moment, and the language/dialogue is delightful, as well as being archaic.
@McTag,
McTag wrote:
Yes. I was going to say to him something like "Why are you reading stuff like this?", then thought the better of it. I'm reading a Patrick O'Brien at the moment, and the language/dialogue is delightful, as well as being archaic.
He manages to be authentic without losing the modern reader. Last year I had a task that involved a long commute and over about three months I listened my way through all of the audio books of O'Brian's Aubrey - Maturin series, read by the incomparable Patrick Tull. The weird thing was that as soon as I had finished listening to the last one, I went and bought the first book, and enjoyed it just as much as if I had never heard the Tull reading of it. I am currently on no. 5, Desolation Island. Thoroughly recommended.
@contrex,
Marvellous. I've read a lot of them, over the years. I am currently on "The Nutmeg of Consolation".
@McTag,
I'm just here to say that Set and I are O'Brien fans as well.
I learned about him back at Abuzz from debacle and Lustig Andrew.
Great reading.
I even went and got the cookbook based on the series. Fascinating reading in its own way.
oddly enough (?) this review mentions kissing a book
http://old.post-gazette.com/columnists/20030209rubin0209fnp1.asp
Quote:Skimming through it, I stopped to close the book and kiss the cover as a thank-you for its having returned me to the company of Captain Jack Aubrey and his ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin.
Yeah "kiss the Book" means the Bible, it's just a way of saying "thank your lucky stars".
@ehBeth,
Good stuff, ehBeth. Noting the name change, too. I know there are P O'B societies in the USA, and I daresay here too, where they meet, dress up, and dine on some of the things mentioned in the books.
@contrex,
Oh no, my mistake, I've just checked and I've been spelling it wrongly, O'Brien/ O'Brian. Beg pardon with an A.
Very good answer!
But the first part missed your attention:
-“ι“I’m Jack Prendergast,” said he, “and by God! you‘ll learn to bless my name before you’ve done with me.”
My interpretation:
-You can rely on me.
@McTag,
McTag wrote:Oh no, my mistake, I've just checked and I've been spelling it wrongly, O'Brien/ O'Brian. Beg pardon with an A.
Why do you think I posted an image of the cover of one of his books, with his surname in big letters?
@WBYeats,
WBYeats wrote:you‘ll learn to bless my name
You will come to think very favourably of me, or be very grateful to me.
@contrex,
You can lead a horse to water.....
@McTag,
McTag wrote: You can lead a horse to water.....
When I was looking for the audio books I typed 'O'Brien' into The Pirate Bay more than once.
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
McTag wrote:Oh no, my mistake, I've just checked and I've been spelling it wrongly, O'Brien/ O'Brian. Beg pardon with an A.
Why do you think I posted an image of the cover of one of his books, with his surname in big letters?
and I corrected myself from e to a
while posting something with his name as well
@ehBeth,
Just as a matter of interest (although not an excuse), the version with "e" is much more common around these parts.
He was born Richard Patrick Russ in 1914 and changed his name to Patrick O'Brian by deed poll at the age of 31. The spelling is an alternative Anglicisation of the Gaelic spelling Ó Briain, which is also the source of the more common O'Brien spelling. His father was of German and his mother of Irish ancestry, but I don't know if he had an actual O'Brian or Ó Briain in his family tree. It sounds just like him to pick the more unusual version.
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