where_away | Entries tagged with book: 1 (master and commander)

Current Music: Le nozze di Figaro, A2

'Dear Queeney. I thought she was to be an old maid, though she was so pretty; for how could any man make up to a girl that knows Hebrew? It seemed a sad pity: anyone so sweet-tempered should have a prodigious great family of children. But, however, here she is married to the admiral, so it all ends happy … yet, you know, he is amazingly ancient – grey-haired, rising sixty, I dare say. Do you think, as a physician – I mean, is it possible …?’

‘Possibilissima.’

‘Eh?’

‘Possible è la cosa, e naturale,’ sang Stephen in a harsh, creaking tone, quite unlike his speaking voice, which was not disagreeable. ‘E se Susanna vuol, possibilissima,’ discordantly, but near enough to Figaro to be recognized.

‘Really? Really?’ said Jack with intense interest.

- from Master and Commander, chapter four

esteven

With the revolution in France gone to pure loss I was already chilled beyond expression. And now, with what I saw in '98, on both sides, the wicked folly and the wicked brute cruelty, I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind - it is my own truth alone - but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman. And I have nothing to do with nations, or nationalism. The only feelings I have -for what they are - are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone.'
'Patriotism will not do?'
'My dear creature, I have done with all debate. But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.'

(chapter five)

esteven

'It is the price that has to be paid,' he reflected. 'And by God it's worth it.' As the words formed in his mind so the look of profound happiness, of contained delight, formed once more upon his shining face. Yet as he walked off to his meeting at the Crown - to his meeting with an equal -there was a little greater eagerness in his step than the mere Lieutenant Aubrey would have shown.

(chapter 1)

Just after Jack has reflected on the fact that he will be very much alone, being “them” and no longer “us”, the last sentence of the chapter holds the solution to his dilemma.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

esteven

'Must I put on silk stockings?'
'Certainly you must put on silk stockings. And do show a leg, my dear chap: we shall be late, without you spread a little more canvas.'
'You are always in such a hurry,' said Stephen peevishly, groping among his possessions. A Montpellier snake glided out with a dry rustling sound and traversed the room in a series of extraordinarily elegant curves, its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground.
'Oh, oh, oh,' cried Jack, leaping on to a chair. 'A snake!'
'Will these do?' asked Stephen. 'They have a hole in them.'
'Is it poisonous?'
'Extremely so. I dare say it will attack you, directly. I have very little doubt of it. Was I to put the silk stockings over my worsted stockings, sure the hole would not show:
but then, I should stifle with heat. Do not you find it uncommonly hot?'
'Oh, it must be two fathoms long. Tell me, is it really poisonous? On your oath now?'
'If you thrust your hand down its throat as far as its back teeth you may meet a little venom; but not otherwise. Malpolon monspessulanus is a very innocent serpent. I think of carrying a dozen aboard, for the rats - ah, if only I had more time, and if it were not for this foolish, illiberal persecution of reptiles. . . What a pitiful figure you do cut upon that chair, to be sure. Barney, Barney, buck or doe, Has kept me out of Channel Row,' he sang to the serpent; and, deaf as an adder though it was, it looked happily into his face while he carried it away.

(chapter six)

note:
With its head held up some eighteen inches above the ground it must have been close to those7 ft mentioned in wike. Venom or not, I, too, might have jumped on a chair

esteven

This I had from Mateu's own cousin as we danced -'
'You danced?' cried Jack, far more astonished than if Stephen had said 'as we ate our cold roast baby'.
'Certainty I danced. Why would I not dance, pray?'
'Certainty you are to dance most uncommon graceful, I am sure. I only wondered, but did you indeed go about dancing?'
'I did. You have not travelled in Catalonia, sir, I believe?'
'Not I.'
'Then I must tell you that on Sunday mornings it is the custom, in that country, for people of all ages and conditions to dance, on coming out of church: so I was dancing with Ramon Mateu i Cadafalch in the square before the cathedral church of Tarragona, where I had gone to hear the Palestrina Missa Brevis. The dance is a particular dance, a round called the sardana;

(chapter eight)

esteven

I made a circuitous attempt at enlightening him a little, but he looked very knowing and said, "Don't tell me about rears and vices; I have been in the Navy all my life."'
'Then surely he must be wanting a little in penetration?'
'James, I trust there was no mens rea in that remark?'

(chapter five)

:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

heather_mist

" 'And we run as fast as ever we can along the shore and so take the tower from behind.' ...'Let us say ten minutes to run from the cove to the tower, and...'
'Allow twenty, if you please,' said Stephen, 'You portly men of a sanguine complexion often die suddenly, from unconsidered exertion in the heat. Apoplexy - congestion.'
'I wish, I wish you would not say things like that, Doctor,' said Jack in a low tone: they all looked at Stephen with some reproach and Jack added, 'Besides, I am not portly.'
'The captain has an uncommon genteel figgar,' said Mr Marshall."
Master and Commander Ch 7

No Jack, of course you are not portly,... *pets*

esteven

And some of them are very mere rakes," says he, piercing me through and through with that damned cold eye of his,' said Jack, filling Stephen's glass and spreading himself comfortably along the locker

(chapter four)

I should not be surprised, having read through the books several times, but it continues to amaze me how very early we find quotes of the slashy kind. I mean, first getting Stephen to loosen up by filling his glass and then spreading himself. I am sure the doctor took the hint

esteven

There were plenty of people on the little quarter-deck- the master at the con, the quartermaster at the wheel, the marine sergeant and his small-arms party, the signal midshipman, part of the afterguard, the gun-crews, James Dillon, the clerk, and still others - but Jack and Stephen paced up and down as though they were alone, Jack enveloped in the Olympian majesty of a captain and Stephen caught up within his aura. It was natural enough to Jack, who had known this state of affairs since he was a child, but it was the first time that Stephen had met with it, and it gave him a not altogether disagreeable sensation of waking death: either the absorbed, attentive men on the other side of the glass wall were dead, mere phantasmata, or he was - though in that case it was a strange little death, for although he was used to this sense of isolation, of being a colourless shade in a silent private underworld, he now had a companion, an audible companion.

(chapter four)

I always felt this was the first time that showed how together Jack and Stephen are, even this early on.
*smiles*

esteven

We have already collected wonderful scenes and quotes here, mainly for our continued pleasure, and partially so that dear

alltoseek does not always have to engage her awesome finding powers. *g*

But what of those quotes that –though short- remind us of long scenes, may even move us to smile or sniffle, and where we know exactly where they are?

Let me give you some examples that you surely know intimately well:

The music-room in the Governor's House at Port Mahon, a tall, handsome, pillared octagon, was filled with the triumphant first movement of Locatelli's C major quartet

'Come, brother,'said Stephen in his ear, very like a dream.'Come below.

Stephen saw them walk into his timeless dream: they had been there before, but never together.

Off Hats

Would you know any more of quotes like these? Please post them here. :D

esteven

After a while some of the lanterns began to go down; others remained, and some even climbed higher still; Jack and Stephen stayed where they were. Dawn found them under their rock, with Jack steadily sweeping the Gut - calm now, and deserted - and Stephen Maturin fast asleep, smiling.

(chapter twelve)

Why would Stephen be smiling in his sleep? :D

feroxargentea

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Entries tagged with book: 1 (master and commander)

Queeney's marriage; Stephen's voice

Master and Commander - Patriotism

"Us", "Them" and a meeting with an equal

Silk Stockings, Snakes and a commander on a chair

Stephen Dancing

wanting in penetration

An Uncommon Genteel Figgar

Spreading himself comfortably along the locker

he now had a companion, an audible companion

Quotes we find instantly

Fast asleep, smiling

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