An Allusion in Maria Edgeworth’s The Double Disguise to the Historical Poisoning at the Castle Inn at Salt Hill
2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/notesj/gjx164
ISSN1471-6941
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Scientific Studies
ResumoIn England, during the mid-to-late 1700s, there were two well-known inns at Salt Hill, and while the Windmill Inn was the most famous, the Castle Inn was the most infamous.1 Maria Edgeworth exploits this infamy in an exchange between the Landlady, the proprietor of the Inn2 in which The Double Disguise (perf. 1786) is set, and her maid, Betty Broom: Betty Broom: About, Ma’am! Was not I all morning helping Jim Waiter to pick sloes for port wine & pare turnips for cyder? Lord knows I have had enough to be about—had not I a dozen pair of sheets to sprinkle for the stage folks & a whole week’s tea leaves to dry and— Landlady: Well & I hope you have made them something greener than the last—Jim saw I was obliged to mix a quarter of fresh with them, to give ’em some color, but so you get the work out of your hands you don’t care a farthing for the credit of the house! Betty Broom: I’ll answer for them Madam, the brass kettle was pure & green before I put them in & they look as fresh & feel as crisp as the best bloom tea that can be had for money.3 The widow [Mrs Partridge], on her death-bed, said that as she considered it right to disclose the secret of the poisoning now that it could no longer hurt any individual, and was at the time purely accidental, she would confess that it arose from the turtle having been left in the stewpans cold, and then heated afresh for the dinner. … On the alarm of illness being given, the husband flew to the cellar, the wife to the kitchen, where she at one glance perceived the cause. From the acids used in dressing the turtle, the pan was covered with verdigris.5 Westbrooke: You have heard of the great Inn at Salt Hill, Mrs Betty? Betty Broom: Oh … Mrs Partridge … ? Westbrooke: Yes, Mrs Partridge, famous you know for stewing cucumbers in a brass saucepan? Betty Broom: Brass saucepan! Westbrooke: Aye … Aye, you know to give them the right green colour. She was in a fine run of business, I knew her very well, till poor woman she chanced to poison a coach full of Gentry with those same cucumbers done a trifle too green. Poor soul, she lost all her custom by it. Never held up her head afterwards. Betty Broom: And all for stewing cucumbers in a brass saucepan! Westbrooke: Even so, Mrs Betty. Betty Broom: (aside) Well, the longest day I have to live, I’ll never crisp bloom tea in the brass kettle again! God forgive me—Amen. Westbrooke: But Mrs Betty, it’s an ill wind, as the saying is, that blows nobody good. Let me see your hand … aye … hum. I see you sitting this time two years Mrs Betty, Mrs Landlady I should say, giving orders to your own servants in the bar of Mrs Partridge’s great house at Salt Hill. Betty Broom: Me! Dear heart! Me! Mr Conjuror? Westbrooke: Yes, you Mrs Betty—you know your sign that is to be? Betty Broom: Mrs Partridge used to have the Windmill. Westbrooke: Aye, the Windmill—I see it beginning to go merrily round again with the wind of your good fortune.7
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