2004-2005 Season: Major Barbara

GLOSSARY

 

Following are definitions for a number of words having to do with life in London in 1905 that appear in the dialogue of Major Barbara.

 

TOPOGRAPHY

“What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.”

London as depicted in Major Barbara is clearly divided into two distinct worlds: one inhabited by the privileged upper class and the other by the poverty-stricken lower class.

 

THE HAVES

Harrow - This is an expensive private boarding school for boys aged 12-18. Oddly enough, these establishments were originally called "Public Schools" as they were founded for the purpose of teaching Latin and Greek grammar to all British boys (hence the term “grammar schools”).

Horrockses - London department store.

Lockhart’s - a fashionable London tea shop.

Perivale St. Andrews - region northwest of London in Middlesex County, the site of Andrew Undershaft’s munitions factory.

WiltonCrescent - a fashionable suburb of London.

Woolwich Arsenal - Since 1518, Woolwich has been home to one of two Royal Arsenals, where ammunition, fuses, and gun powder are manufactured for the UK’s armed forces.

 

THE HAVE NOTS

Canning Town - A parish in West Ham between Stratford and North Woolwich, this area was home to some of the unhealthiest industrial sites in England.

Embankment - In the late 1860s, a substantial amount of land along the north bank of the Thames was replaced with a thick concrete rampart. This permitted the creation of a new thoroughfare and gardens as well as better river defenses and sewage arrangements, providing a communal resting spot for the city’s ho meless and destitute.

 

POLITICS

“Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.”

 

Nihilist - one who believes in the need to destroy existing economic and social institutions; advocates direct action such as assassination.

Tom Paine - This British political theorist immigrated to Philadelphia, where he published a pamphlet in 1776 called Common Sense, advocating American independence from the British monarchy. Paine later returned to England and continued to write, publishing his most famous work, The Rights of Man, in 1791.

James Bronterre O’Brien - An Irish journalist who wrote for socialist newspapers in support of a militant approach to winning universal suffrage. (Note: In 1905, women and people who did not own land were not permitted to vote.)

Sultan – Abdul Hamid II was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the time of the play. His reign achieved great stability and progress and regained much of the prestige it had lost

under previous sultans.

The Times - Britain’s leading national daily newspaper, then and now.

The Spectator - conservative weekly magazine.

The Speaker - a liberal weekly newspaper.

 

RELIGION

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.”

Mahometanism - This term, which dates back to medieval Christianity, refers to the religion based on the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, now known as Islam.

Secularist - opposed to the idea of doing right through fear of damnation (i.e. God’s will); instead, believes in doing right to enhance the best interests of others. Holding the view that religious consideration should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

Mystic - One who practices or believes in religious mysteries. One who believes in a spiritual reality. Someone who communes with a greater power.

 

POVERTY AND THE SALVATION ARMY

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.” 

Blood and Fire - the Salvation Army motto, referring to the blood of Christ and the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation Army - This evangelical movement was founded in London in 1865 by Methodist preacher William Booth to help feed and house the poor. Originally called the Christian Mission and renamed in 1878, the Salvation Army was aided by their adoption of a quasimilitary command structure, characterized by the use of flags, uniforms, brass bands, badges, and military ranks. This responds to a recurrent theme in Christianity which sees the Church engaged in spiritual warfare: “Do not be discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15). The Church of England was at first extre mely antagonistic against the Salvation Army, calling Booth the “Anti-Christ” and imprisoning Salvationists for open-air preaching. An 1882 survey of London discovered that on one weeknight there were 17,000 worshipping with the Salvation Army, compared to only 11,000 in ordinary churches. Commissioned officers are registered ministers of religion; all members accept a disciplined and compassionate life of high moral standards, including abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.

Mephistopheles - The devil in the Faust legend to whom Faust sold his soul.

 

SOCIETY

Royalty - The oldest and most beloved institution in Britain is the monarchy, which has been broken only once (Oliver Cromwell mid-1600s). Kings and queens are so important that they frequently have given their names to the styles, fashions, and customs of an entire era. Edward VII was on the throne when Shaw wrote Major Barbara. The eldest son of Queen Victoria, Edward proved to be a popular figure at home and abroad. Thus, this period was known as the Edwardian period.

Aristocracy - The monarchy has traditionally operated with the support of an army of privileged gentlemen and women who are rewarded for their loyalty with land and titles. Most important are the Duke and Duchess, who must be addressed as “Your Grace,” followed by Marquis and Marchioness, then Earl and Countess, Viscount and Viscountess, and Baron and Baroness, addressed as “Lords” and “Ladies.”

Middle Class - England has always been an extremely class-conscious society. Although fewer barriers exist today than ever before, people still notice little clues to a person’s background and social status. Middle class occupations included merchants and bankers, ship-owners, factory and mine owners, doctors, lawyers, architects and engineers. The middle class would not contain many of what we today call intellectual or “creative” occupations.

Working Class - These people remained shut out from the political process and became increasingly hostile not only to the aristocracy but to the middle classes as well. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, there was further social stratification. Capitalists, for example, employed industrial workers who were one component of the working classes. Each class included a wide range of occupations of varying status and income, and there was a large gap between skilled and unskilled labor. Although skilled workers had acquired enough power to enable them to establish Trade Unions which they used to further improve their status, unskilled workers and the underclass beneath them remained much more susceptible to exploitation.

Lower Class - Beneath the industrial workers was a submerged, poverty-stricken class referred to by their contemporaries as the “sunken people.” The disease and malnutrition that ran rampant among the poor caused “stunted physiques” and pale countenances that caused not only economic division between the classes, but also physical division as well. In 1905 more than 30% of the population of London lived in extreme poverty.

 

ALL THINGS GREEK

Autolycus - son of Chione and Hermes and grandfather of Odysseus, chiefly remembered for his many thefts and his penchant for trickery.

Dionysus – Greek god of wine and of an orgiastic religion celebrating the power and fertility of nature.

Dithyrambs - lyric hymns to Dionysus, the probable source of Greek tragedy.

Diapason - a full rich out-pouring of harmonious sound.

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