Notes:The Blythes Are Quoted/Cultural references and allusions

"The man's eyes were grey and smouldering, and Timothy felt, too, that he was cross about something–very cross–cross enough to do anything mean that occurred to him. This must certainly be what Mrs. Dr. Blythe called "a Jonah day.""

This quote is a reference to Jonah, a prophet of Israel, who, in attempting to avoid his mission, travels in the opposite direction to the city of Nineveh, which causes a storm at sea, where Jonah is thrown overboard and swallowed by a whale.

"I'd pretend anything–tortured Indians–or entertaining the King–or a prince's daughter imprisoned in a castle by the sea–or Edith Cavell at her execution–or the land where wishes come true–the Blythe girls love that–or anything."

Edith Cavell was a British nurse who worked in various hospitals in Brussels during the First World War (1914-1918). Cavell, along with her colleagues, helped some two hundred Allied soldiers to escape German-occupied Belgium for which she was arrested and executed by firing squad on the 12th October 1915.

"Susan Baker says Dr. Blythe is the most unselfish man she knows but even he, if anyone eats the slice of pie she leaves for him in the pantry when she goes to bed, raises Cain."

Cain, the son of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament of the Bible, is known as the first murderer for killing his brother through jealousy.

"And her eyes–blue as the sea and bright as the stars. Why, a man might die for such eyes." "Like Helen of Troy's, murmured Jill."

In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was said to be one of the most beautiful women in the world and the battles between her suitors resulted in the events of the Trojan War.

"For she was there, crossing the moonlit lawn with that light step that always made him think of Beatrice, "born under a dancing star.""

This quote is from Act II, Scene I of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing: "No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there / was a star danced, and under that was I born".

"So the ugly duckling has turned out a swan," twinkled Mrs. Barry when they met–by way of setting Esmé at ease."

This quote is a reference to the fairy tale, "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen (1842).

"'What is truth?'–as Pilate once said."

This quote is a reference to John 18:38.

"Still, there are compensations. I've seen you, 'moving in moonlight through a haunted hour' to me. Are you quite sure you are not a ghost, little Esmé Dalley?"

This quote is a reference to the poem "Moon Knows No Time" by David Morton.

"Given anything of a chance, he felt that he had it in him to be William Tell or Richard Coeur-de-Lion or any other of the world's gallant adventurers."

William Tell is a folk hero of Switzerland who, according to the legend, assassinated the tyrannical bailiff, Albrecht Gessler. Richard Coeur-de-Lion (Richard the Lionheart), otherwise known as Richard I of England, is known as a great warrior in history for leading the English crusades of the twelfth century A.D.

"God pity us all, who vainly the dreams of our youth recall."

This quote is a reference to the poem "Maud Muller" by John Greenleaf Whittier.

"What was the sermon Mr. Meredith preached last year that everyone talked of? 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.'"

This is a reference to Proverbs 23:7.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew the whalings she gives him," said Mrs. Lawrence bluntly. "She doesn't believe in sparing the rod and spoiling the child.""

This phrase originates from Samuel Butler's poem, Hudibras: "Love is a boy by poets styled / Then spare the rod and spoil the child".

"Did you hear how they ended up that bee-i-ee-i-ee song? demanded Marta. "They didn't end it with 'way down yonder in the field.' What if Mrs. Raynor had heard them?"

This is a reference to the traditional children's song, "There was a Bee".

"When Bill broke Aunt Fanny's Chinese tea-cup–the five-clawed one that had been part of the loot of the Summer Palace, so she claimed–Bill coolly told his mother that Patrick had broken it."

This is a reference to the British and French looting of the Summer Palace in China in 1860 during the Second Opium War.

"Don Glynne seemed to know all about the gardens of history and romance and legend in the world, from Eden down."

This is a reference to the Garden of Eden from the Book of Genesis in the Bible.

"Poor Prue Davis–smiling with her lips but not her eyes–hope deferred maketh the heart sick. Odd, I learned that verse in Sunday school fifty years ago. If only Prue knew how well off she was!"

This quote is a reference to Proverbs 13:12.

"You'll never see me in a scrape like this–though that little bridesmaid is cute–slant eyes like a fairy's–twinkling like a littledark star–but he who travels the fastest who travels alone."

This quote is a reference to the poem, "The Winners" by Rudyard Kipling.

"A jug of tea, a crust of bread and thou!"

This quote is a reference to The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam, which was first translated into English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859. The line in the poem reads: "A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou".

"Do you remember," said Susette slowly, "how, when we were going to play Robinson Crusoe, you wouldn't let me be Man Friday because I was a girl?"

This quote is a reference to the novel, Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe (1719). Friday is the name of Crusoe's servant on the desert island.

"There is a pleasure sure in being mad That none but madmen know."

This quote is a reference to Act II, Scene I of The Spanish Friar by John Dryden (1681). Jerry Thornton comments to Susette that this was Walter Blythe's favourite quotation.

"I don't believe I've ever thought about it," evaded Dr. Parsons. "I suppose, Phil, you hold with Osler's theory that everyone should be chloroformed at sixty?"

William Osler (1849-1919) was a Canadian physician, writer, and historian, and one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. On 22 February 1905, Osler gave a famous speech, "The Fixed Period", in which he made an intentionally humorous reference to Anthony Trollope's novel, The Fixed Period, which proposed a life where men would retire at 67 and be "peacefully extinguished by chloroform" the following year. This caused uproar in the press where headlines such as "Osler recommends chloroform at sixty" appeared.

"I never remember seeing her in a decent rag even when I was a little girl, and she was no more than middle-aged ... though, of course, like all young people," with a resentful glance at Emmy and Phil, "I thought anyone ten years older than myself was Methuselah."

Methuselah, from the Old Testament in the Bible, was reportedly the oldest living person who died aged 969 years and seven days before the Great Flood.