Notes:Anne of Ingleside/Cultural references and allusions

"Perhaps there's more in a name than Shakespeare allowed. Don't grudge Anne Cordelia her fancies, Diana. I'm always sorry for children who don't spend a few years in fairyland."

Here Anne refers to the quote "What's in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet;" from Act II, Scene II of William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, when Diana suggests that Anne Cordelia takes after her namesake more than her own mother.

"There was a lane curtained with wild cherry blossoms; a grassy field full of tiny spruce-trees just starting in life and looking like elvish things that had squatted down among the grasses; brooks not yet 'too broad for leaping'; starflowers under the firs ... sheets of curly young ferns ... and a birch-tree"

This description of the countryside is given by the narrator on the day of Anne and Diana's picnic in Avonlea. "Too broad for leaping" is a reference to the poem "With Rue My Heart is Laden" by A. E. Housman.

"I had a feeling that something was going to happen when I went to bed tonight,' said Aunt Mary Maria, pressing both hands to her temples. 'When I read my nightly chapter in the Bible the words, "Ye know not what a day may bring forth," seemed to stand out from the page, as it were."

Aunt Mary Maria is referring to Proverbs 27:1: "Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth".

"[Aunt Mary Maria] actually slapped Nan one day when the doctor and Mrs. Doctor were both away ... slapped her ... just because Nan called her "Mrs Mefusaleh" ... having heard that imp of Ken Ford saying it."

"Mefusaleh" is used as an insult by Nan to imply that Aunt Mary Maria is extremely old. Nan is referring to Methusaleh of the Old Testament in the Bible, who is mentioned as having been the oldest living man at 969 years: "And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died".

"Oh, I am very well aware that there is a comical side to a toad under a harrow, Miss Dew. But the question is, does the toad see it?"

To be beneath the harrow is a proverbial saying to describe a person in distress and danger.

"And then she lectured us on our folly, and warned us not to let the sun go down on our wrath."

Aunt Maria Maria gives martial advice to Anne and Gilbert, as she mistakenly believes them to have quarreled, by quoting from Ephesians 4:26: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath".

"[Aunt Mary Maria] looked with disapproval at the present Little Elizabeth had sent Anne from Paris ... a beautiful little bronze reproduction of Artemis of the Silver Bow."

This is a reference to the Greek goddess Artemis, known in Roman mythology as Diana, who was goddess of the hunt, the natural environment, and, significantly, archery. As a religious woman, Aunt Mary Maria dismisses the ornament on the grounds of it being "heathen".

"Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house lest he weary of thee and hate thee."

Susan comes across this quote from Proverbs 25:17 while reading her nightly chapter of the Bible and thinks how fitting it is for Aunt Mary Maria.

"Aunt Mary Maria lifted a long, thin, knobbly hand. "Don't let us discuss it, Annie. I want peace ... just peace. "A wounded spirit who can bear?""

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 18:14: "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?".

"Tiger lilies were 'burning bright' along the walk and whiffs of honeysuckle went and came on the wings of the dreaming wind."

"Burning bright" is a quote from the first line of William Blake's poem "The Tyger", which appears in the collection of Songs of Experience (1794).

"Last fall, when that valuable horse took sick ... worth four hundred if a dollar ... instead of sending for the Lowbridge vet she "went to the Bible" and turned up a verse: "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." So send for the vet she would not and the horse died."

This quote is a reference to Job 1:21. Here Miss Cornelia informs Anne of Mary Churchill's unusual habit of "going to the Bible" instead of to church, and turning up Bible verses to suit her actions.

"I was afraid it would break out again some day. I've done my best, but you can't reform a born matchmaker. She has a positive passion for it. The number of matches she has made is incredible. I couldn't sleep o' nights if I had such responsibilities on my conscience."

Gilbert teases Anne when she announces her intention to play the matchmaker to Stella Chase and Alden Churchill. "Sleep o' nights" is a reference to Act I, Scene II of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Let me have men about me that are fat; / Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights".

"Richard Chase had a familiar in the shape of a yellow cat of abnormal size which now climbed up on his knee. He stroked it tenderly. 'Thomas the Rhymer' gives the world assurance of a cat,' he said. 'Don't you, Thomas? Look at your Aunt Cornelia, Rhymer. Observe the baleful glances she is casting at you out of orbs created to express only kindness and affection."

Thomas the Rhymer, the name of Richard Chase's cat, is a reference to the legendary Scottish figure who was allegedly kidnapped by the Queen of Elfland and returned with the power of prophesy. Thomas the Rhymer is also the subject of a Scottish ballad, which was extended and popularized by Sir Walter Scott.

"Do you know, Mrs Elliott,' said Richard Chase solemnly, 'I have a secret leaning towards evolution myself.' 'So you've told me before. Well, believe what you want to Dick Chase ... just like a man. Thank God, nobody could ever make me believe that I descended from a monkey."

Here Miss Cornelia and Richard Chase discuss Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory from On the Origins of Species (1859).

"A man shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife."

Mrs Churchill "goes to the Bible" and finds this quote, most likely from Genesis 2:24, which allows her to be reconciled to Alden's engagement to Stella Chase.

""The time has come the Walrus said to talk of" ... having a dog,' said Gilbert."

This quote is a reference to "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

"Susan was not acquainted with Kipling's poem on the folly of giving your heart to a dog to tear; but if she had been she would, in spite of her contempt for poetry, have thought that for once a poet had uttered sense."

This quote is a reference to "The Power of the Dog" by Rudyard Kipling: "Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware / Of giving your heart to a dog to tear".

"I saw a ship a-sailing on the sea, And oh, it was all laden with pretty things for me,"

Anne recites the old Mother Goose nursery rhyme, "I saw a ship a-sailing...", to the twins, Nan and Diana, as they fall asleep.

"Old Uncle Archibald MacGregor had solemnly assured Susan that Samuel Hewett was dead as a doornail when Dr. Blythe brought him to."

"Dead as a doornail" is an often-used simile to describe someone who is very much dead. One of the oldest references to the phrase comes from Piers Plowman: "as ded as dore-nayl". Subsequent references in popular culture come from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II: "and if I do not leave you all as dead / as a doornail, I pray God I may never eat grass more", and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. [...] permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail".

"Anne smiled as she hugged him, and thought of a ridiculous thing she had read in a medical journal that day, signed Dr V. Z. Tomachowsky. 'You must never kiss your little son lest you set up a Jocasta complex."

The "Jocasta complex" is a psychoanalytical theory attributed to Raymond de Saussre, which covers any incestuous or intense feelings a mother may have for her son, i.e. the opposite to the Oedipal complex. In Greek mythology, Jocasta was the Queen consort of Thebes and the mother of Oedipus with whom she had a sexual relationship.

"Occasionally I do write a little story,' admitted Anne. 'But a busy mother hasn't much time for that. I had wonderful dreams once, but now I'm afraid I'll never be in Who's Who, Mrs Mitchell. And I never wrote an obituary in my life."

Who's Who is a biographical reference book of famous, influential, and important public figures published annually since 1849. It was first published in the United Kingdom by A & C Black and later by Bloomsbury Publishing during the height of the British Empire and would generate spin-offs for countries all over the world and different spheres of life.

"He was sixty-five so he weren't far off from the allotted span."

Here Mrs Anthony Mitchell is referring to Psalm 90:10 which states that the allotted life span of a man is "three score years and ten" (i.e. seventy years).

"Walter took it harder than Jem, who had not yet quite forgotten his anguish over Gyp's death and was not ever again going to let himself love a dog wisely but too well."

This quote is a reference to Act V, Scene II of William Shakespeare's Othello: "Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, / Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak / Of one that loved not wisely but too well".

"Then Tiger Tom, who lived in the barn and was never allowed in the house because of his thieving propensities but got a good deal of petting for all that, was found stark and stiff on the barn floor and had to be buried with pomp and circumstance in the Hollow."

This quote is a reference to Act III, Scene III of Othello by William Shakespeare: "Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war!"

"Jem thought they were romance itself. Among them was a Viking boat, with a striped square sail and a fearsome dragon in front ... a caravel of Columbus ... the Mayflower ... a rakish craft called The Flying Dutchman ... and no end of beautiful brigantines and schooners and barques and clipper ships and timber droghers."

Jem frequently visits the Harbour Mouth in Glen St. Mary and is fascinated by Captain Malachi's ship models. The Vikings were the first Europeans to visit the New World, led by Leif Erikson, which they called Vinland; the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492; the Mayflower ship is an iconic ship in American history, which carried the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England and landed in the New World in 1620; and The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship, which has been linked to the Gulf of St Lawrence by the poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852).

"Anne thought this would pass; he had felt the same when Gyppy died. But it did not. The iron had bitten deeply into Jem's soul."

This quote is a reference to Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768): "I heard his chains upon his legs, as he turned his body to lay his little stick upon the bundle.—He gave a deep sigh.—I saw the iron enter into his soul!—I burst into tears".

"All the Ingleside children had been started in life with the old classic, 'Now I lay me' ... then promoted to 'Our Father' ... then encouraged to make their own small petitions also in whatever language they chose."

Anne's children learn the first two prayers that she was taught by Marilla at Green Gables: "Now I lay me down to sleep" and "The Lord's Prayer".

"Life and death are in the power of the tongue,"

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 18:21.

"Shall I ever forget Elsie Taylor's marriage?' said Miss Cornelia reminiscently. 'Her best friend, Maisie Millison, was to play the Wedding March. She played the Death March in Saul in place of it."

"Wedding March" was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1842 in his suite of incidental music for the Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. "Death March" is a piece of music, commonly played at funerals, which was composed by George Frederic Handel and features in Act III of his dramatic oratorio, Saul (1738).

"Mother, I guess I was naughty last night. I said, "Give us tomorrow our daily bread," instead of today. It seemed more logical. Do you think God minded, Mother?"

Walter is referring to the fifth line of "The Lord's Prayer".

"'Life and death are in the power of the tongue,' murmured Anne absently."

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 18:21.

"Oh, they buried him. Wallace said it couldn't be put off. But you couldn't rightly call it a funeral, with everyone so happy over Stanton's return. Mr Dawson changed the last hymn from "Take Comfort, Christians", to "Sometimes a Light Surprises", but most people thought he'd better have left well enough alone."

"Take Comfort, Christians" is a reference to the hymn by John Logan (1781). "Sometimes a Light Surprises" is a reference to the hymn by William Cowper (1779).

"She was all that,' said Martha, 'whether the stars were accountable for it or not. And a hard time she had in Lowbridge, where they thought a minister's wife should be all prunes and prisms."

This quote is a reference to Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit (1857), in which the character Mrs General instructs her young charges that uttering the phrase "prunes and prisms" will give an attractive and ladylike shape to the mouth.

"The trees were whispering 'dark sayings of old' and an owl was hooting in Rainbow Valley."

This quote is a reference to Psalms 78:2.

"The choir sang, 'Death like a narrow sea divides that heavenly land from ours', and Anne caught Camilla's eye and knew they were both wondering just how Peter Kirk would fit into that heavenly land."

This quote is a reference to the hymn, "There is a land of pure delight" by Isaac Watts.

"The minister, who had intended to announce for a last hymn, 'Asleep in Jesus', thought better of it and simply pronounced a tremulous benediction."

"Asleep in Jesus" is a reference to the hymn by Margaret Mackay (1832).

"They would sit by the fountain ... there was a fountain by this time ... and pledge their vows anew and she would follow him, 'over the hills and far away, beyond their utmost purple rim', just as the Sleeping Princess did in the poem Mother read to her one night from the old volume of Tennyson Father had given her long, long ago."

This quote is a reference to the poem, "The Daydream" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

"Come again and see me, won't you? You've got something about you ... "loving favour is better than silver and gold", the Good Book says, and I guess it's right."

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 22:1.

"I do wish that girl was called anything but Delilah. Such a name for a Christian child!' 'Why, it is in the Bible, Susan. Delilah is very proud of her Bible name."

In the Bible, Delilah was a deceitful woman who betrayed Samson's weakness to the Philistines in exchange for money.

"And I don't believe one single word you've been saying about Ingleside, Delilah Green,' said Laura Carr. Before Delilah could reply Diana, who had recovered her powers of locomotion and speech, dashed into the schoolroom. 'Judas!' she said."

Diana gets revenge on Delilah for telling lies about her by denouncing her as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, to their class at the Glen St. Mary school.

"It was one of those chill, drizzly, late August days that take the heart out of you, one of those days when everything goes wrong ... what in old Avonlea days had been called 'a Jonah day'."

This is a reference to the prophet Jonah from the Old Testament of the Bible and was used by Anne, most notably in Anne of Avonlea, to describe a day where everything had gone wrong. Jonah, in incurring the wrath of God for not carrying out his mission, was thrown overboard at sea and swallowed by a whale.

"Nan, I don't know where the Seven Seas are. For mercy's sake stop asking questions! I don't wonder they poisoned Socrates. They ought to have."

Here Anne is referring to the 'Socratic method' of inquiry. Socrates (c.470-399 BC) was a classical Greek philosopher and writer, who laid the foundations of modern Western philosophy. In 399 BC, Socrates was sentenced to death by poison for refusing to acknowledge the gods of the state. While in prison, Socrates' friend, Crito, attempted a rescue mission, which Socrates himself thwarted by repeatedly asking "why" he should escape.

"After all, the modern fashions of men's clothes were really ridiculous. Entirely lacking in glamour. How gorgeous it must have been in 'the spacious days of Great Elizabeth' when men could wear white satin doublets and cloaks of crimson velvet and lace ruffs."

This quote is a reference to the poem, "A Dream of Fair Women", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Anne is also referring to the Elizabethan era, which encompassed Queen Elizabeth's rule of England from 1558 until her death in 1603.

"How ghastly it would be to sniffle all through dinner under the eyes of Mrs. Andrew Dawson, née Christine Stuart! A spot on her lip stung ... probably a horrible cold sore was coming on it. Did Juliet ever sneeze? Fancy Portia with chilblains! Or Argive Helen hiccupping! Or Cleopatra with corns!"

Juliet is one of the titular characters from William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Portia is a beautiful and intelligent character from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Helen of Troy was considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world in Greek mythology during the time of the Trojan War. Cleopatra was a powerful and reportedly beautiful pharaoh of Ancient Egypt and lover of Mark Antony.

"The menu was good and Anne went through the motions of eating without any appetite and smiled until she felt she was beginning to look like a Cheshire cat."

To grin like a Cheshire cat, a phrase of unknown origins, was popularized by Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

"Then they switched to the Passion Play. 'Have you ever been to Ober-Ammergau?' Christine asked Anne. When she knew perfectly well Anne hadn't!"

The Oberammergau Passion Play is a passion play, dramatically depicting the last years of Jesus' life, which has been performed in Oberammergau, Bavaria, Germany, at different intervals, since 1634.

"There was talk, laughter, music. Christine sang ... very well. She had always been 'musical' — She sang at Gilbert ... 'the dear, dead days beyond recall'. Gilbert leaned back in an easy-chair and was uncommonly silent. Was he looking back wistfully to those dear, dead days?"

This quote is a reference to the nineteenth-century Irish parlour song, "Love's Old Sweet Song" (1884), by the composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist G. Clifton Bingham.

"My dear, dear love! I didn't think you needed words to know that. I couldn't live without you. Always you give me strength. There's a verse somewhere in the Bible that is meant for you ... "She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life."

Gilbert quotes to Anne from Proverbs 31:12.

"There's another verse in the Bible ... queer how those old verses you learn in Sunday School come back to you through life! ... "I will lay me down in peace and sleep." In peace ... and sleep ... goo'-night."

Gilbert quotes from Psalms 4:8 in the final chapter of Anne of Ingleside as he drifts off to sleep: "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety".