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things up. But—there you are—can't get him into bed. You've no idea what Camille's like when he's got one of his fits of rectitude. John Knox was merely a beginner!

HILARY MANTEL A Place of Greater Safety, 1992

Hell and damnation: he knew about the very unofficial tapes. And Teddy with a puritan conscience that made Messrs Knox and Calvin look flexible, even soft. Not the moment to be precipitate myself. Not the occasion for the full and frank admission.

RAYMOND FLYNN Busy Body 1998

Savonarola Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) was a Dominican monk and ascetic and a zealous religious and political reformer. A puritanical opponent of the Renaissance, he gained power in Florence, where he preached against immorality, vanity, and corruption in the religious establishment. This led the Pope to excommunicate him, and he was hanged and burnt as a heretic.

Meanwhile, up at the mill, I was slogging away and trying to earn an honest bob or two in conference with the book-seller, who was describing the difficulties which face an honest vendor of adult reading material in the town of Grimble. There was, it seemed, a local Savonarola or Calvin who was a particular thorn in Mr Meacher's flesh.

JOHN MORTIMER Rumpole's Return, 1980

Voltaire Voltaire, the pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), was a French writer, dramatist, and poet, a leading figure of the Enlightenment. He condemned intolerance and superstition and was an outspoken critic of religious and social institutions, his radical views earning him several periods of imprisonment and banishment. His name is particularly associated with mocking scepticism.

'Sue, you are terribly cutting when you like to be—a perfect Voltaire!' THOMAS HARDY Jude the Obscure, 1895

Disclosure

The main idea here is the revealing of a secret, especially unwittingly.

• See also Concealment.

Freudian Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and psychotherapist who was the first to draw particular attention to the role of the subconscious mind in human behaviour. A Freudian slip or accident is a remark, gesture, or action, apparently accidental, that in fact reveals subconscious desires or fears.

The loss of the manuscript, I thought, was a Freudian accident.

1. B. SINGER The Lecture, 1968

Midas Midas was a legendary king of Phrygia who was one day asked to judge

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a musical contest between Apollo and Pan. He unwisely chose Pan, whereupon Apollo punished him by giving him ass's ears to show his stupidity. Midas concealed his appearance from all but his barber who, unable to keep the secret but afraid to reveal it publicly, told it to a hole in the ground, which he then filled in. Reeds grew over the hole and whispered 'Midas has ass's ears' when the wind blew.

Rumpelstiltskin In the Grimms' fairy story, Rumpelstiltskin helps a miller's daughter to spin straw into gold for the king, and she in return promises to give him her first child. She becomes queen, and when her first child is born Rumpelstiltskin says that she may keep the child if she can discover his name within three days. She sends out messengers to find all the strange names they can collect, and one messenger comes across the little man dancing round a fire and chanting a rhyme that ends with the line: 'Rumpelstiltskin is my name!' When the queen confronts him with his name, Rumpelstiltskin becomes so angry that he stamps his foot into the ground and tears himself in two when he tries to pull it out.

Disguise

In this theme, those who adopt a disguise do so in order to deceive, but for

a variety of motives. • See also Concealment Cunning.

Achilles According to Greek mythology, Thetis, the mother of Achilles, knew from a prophecy that if Achilles sailed with the Greek fleet to fight against the Trojans he would not come back alive. In an attempt to save his life, she disguised him as a girl and entrusted him to Lycomedes, King of Scyros. Odysseus, Nestor, and Ajax were sent to find him, and did so by laying a pile of gifts, mostly jewels and fine clothes, but also a shield and spear, in the hall of Lycomedes' palace. Odysseus then ordered a sudden trumpet blast, at which one of the girls stripped to the waist and seized the shield and spear. This was Achilles, who then promised to lead his men to Troy. • See special entries

U ACHILLES on p. 3 and • TROJAN WAR on p. 392.

Brom Bones In Washington Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820-21), Brom Bones impersonates a ghostly headless horseman, using a pumpkin and a hat for the head that he is supposedly carrying, to scare off his rival suitor, Ichabod Crane.

Charley's Aunt In Brandon Thomas's farce Charley's Aunt, which opened in London in 1892, Lord Fancourt Babberly is persuaded by two friends to assist them in their amorous endeavours by impersonating his rich aunt. He introduces himself with the famous line: 'I'm Charley's aunt from Brazil—where the nuts come from', but runs into difficulties when the real aunt appears.

Jacob In the Old Testament, Jacob, with his mother Rebecca's help, dressed as

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his older brother Esau in order to obtain the blessing of their father, Isaac, who was old and unable to see well. He put on Esau's clothes and his mother put the skins of young goats on his hands and neck so that they would feel hairy like Esau's. Despite recognizing Jacob's voice, Isaac was fooled: 'The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau' (Gen. 27: 22). He therefore gave Jacob the blessing of the first-born, which should have belonged to Esau.

Odysseus In Greek mythology, when Odysseus returned to Ithaca after his many adventures during and after the Trojan War, Athene disguised him as an old beggar so that he could arrive secretly at his palace and challenge his wife Penelope's many suitors. The disguise was so effective that even Penelope and Telemachus, his son, failed to recognize him. The only ones who saw through his disguise were his faithful hound, Argus, whom Odysseus found dying on a dung heap, and his former nurse, Eurycleia, who was called upon to wash his feet and knew him from an old scar on his leg. • See special entry

a ODYSSEUS on p. 283.

Portia In Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice (1600), Portia, a rich heiress, disguises herself as a male lawyer to save Antonio, a friend of her betrothed, Bassanio. Antonio had borrowed money from Shylock to help Bassanio and later, unable to pay it back, is faced with paying the bond of a pound of his flesh instead. Portia saves Antonio's life by arguing that, although Shylock has the right to take a pound of Antonio's flesh, he has no right to shed any of his blood, making it impossible for Shylock to exact his due.

Mr Toad In Kenneth Graham's story for children The Wind in the Willows (1908), Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, who has been thrown into jail for stealing a motor car, disguises himself as a washerwoman in order to escape.

wolf in Red Riding Hood In the fairy story Little Red Riding Hood, first recorded by Perrault in 1697, Little Red Riding Hood, a young girl who earns her name from her red cloak and hood, sets off one day to visit her sick grandmother. Walking through a wood on her way, she meets a wolf, who asks where she is going. On hearing the answer, the wolf runs on ahead, imitates Red Riding Hood's voice to gain entry to the grandmother's cottage, and devours the grandmother. It then puts on the grandmother's clothes and gets into the grandmother's bed to await Red Riding Hood. When she arrives, the wolf talks to her kindly, trying to disguise its voice, but Red Riding Hood is struck by the strange appearance of her grandmother, and comments on the size of her ears, eyes, and finally teeth: 'What big teeth you have, grandmother', at which point the wolf, responding 'All the better to eat you with!', leaps up and devours Red Riding Hood. The wolf can be alluded to in the context of someone disguising themselves in order to win another's confidence and hide their own dishonest or evil intentions.

The animal itself was as peaceful and well-behaved as that father of all picturewolves, Red Riding Hood's quondam friend, whilst seeking her confidence in masquerade.

BRAM STOKER Dracula, 1897

wolf in sheep's clothing The wolf in sheep's clothing is one of the fables of Aesop, a Greek storyteller who lived in the 6th century BC. The fable relates

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how a wolf decides to disguise himself as a sheep in an attempt to obtain an easy meal. He spends the day with aflockof sheep, fooling sheep and shepherd alike, and in the evening is shut into the fold with the other sheep. However, when the shepherd gets hungry later in the evening he comes to the fold to choose a sheep to eat and chooses the wolf, which he proceeds to eat on the spot. A 'wolf in sheep's clothing' is anyone who uses an outward appearance of friendship or kindness to conceal underlying hostility or cruelty.

I'm ordinarily the sweet soul, too good for this world, too kind for my own good, too gentle, a little lamb. To discover the wolf cub in lamb's skin doesn't suit my mother's preconceptions.

EDMUND WHITE A Boy's Own Story, 1982

Distance

This theme includes places that are both 'far away' (e.g. TIMBUKTU, ULTIMA

THULE) and 'widely separated' (e.g. DAN TO BEERSHEBA, J O H N O'CROATS TO

LAND'S END).

Atlantis Atlantis was a legendary island continent in the ocean west of the Pillars of Hercules. According to Plato, Atlantis was beautiful and prosperous and ruled part of Europe and Africa, but following volcanic eruptions it was swallowed up by the sea.

I made a serious attempt to be sensitive, culturally aware and all that. I borrowed Sanchez from Ramparts Division to translate. We brought food, kept a low profile. I got nada. Hear no evil, speak no evil. I honestly don't think they knew much about Elena's life. To them West L.A.'s as distant as Atlantis. But even if they did they sure as hell weren't going to tell me.

JONATHAN KEiLERMAN When the Bough Breaks, 1992

Dan to Beersheba Dan was a town in the north of Canaan, the Promised Land to which Moses led the people of Israel in the Bible. It marked the northern limit of the ancient kingdom of Israel. Beersheba, which still exists as a town, was the town which marked the southern limit of the kingdom. According to the Book of Judges, the people of Israel were 'gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba' (Judg. 20: 1). Something that happens from Dan to Beersheba therefore happens everywhere. • See special entry

D MOSES AND THE BOOK OF EXODUS 0/7 p. 264.

What profits it to have a covenanted State and a purified Kirk if a mailed Amalekite can hunt our sodgers from Dan to Beersheba?

JOHN BUCHAN Witch Woods, 1927

Darkest Africa Before Africa had been fully explored by Europeans it was known to them as the Dark Continent. Darkest Africa was therefore an unexplored land far away from modern European life and full of potential dangers. The term may have originated from titles of works by the explorer

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Henry Morton Stanley, Through the Dark Continent (1878) and Through Darkes Africa (1890).

end of the rainbow According to legend, there is a pot of gold buried at the spot where a rainbow comes down and touches the earth. The end of the rainbow is therefore a distant place where dreams come true. The idea was popularized by the song 'Over the Rainbow' from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which begins with the words:

'Somewhere over the rainbow Way up high,

There's a land that I heard of Once in a lullaby.'

The Japanese stock market was the last-but-one in a long line of Wall Street Loreleis. Like Xerox, conglomerates, and convertible debentures, it had been the legendary pot of gold at the end of some local rainbows. Those happy few blessed with foresight got more than sordid, material gain. They got brief immortality. Going into Japan at the right time was like predicting exactly when Dow-Jones would reach fiveor fifteen-hundred.

EMMA LATHEN Sweet and Low, 1978

Great Divide The Great Divide or Continental Divide is another name for the Rocky Mountains, a range of mountains in North America which extends from the US-Mexico border to the Yukon territory in northern Canada. It was once thought of as the epitome of a faraway place.

Albert had then crossed the Great Divide and gone to work as a solicitor's clerk in a grey and wind-blasted town called Grimble, in the north of England.

JOHN MORTIMER Rumpole's Return, 1980

John O'Groats to Land's End John O'Groats is a village at the extreme north-eastern point of the Scottish mainland. Land's End is a rocky promontory in south-west Cornwall, which forms the westernmost point of England. John O'Groats and Land's End are considered to be the two extreme ends of the British mainland.

The sexual antics of public figures—Cecil Parkinson, Bill Clinton, Paddy Ashdown, Frank Bough, Alan Clark—never fail to send the same old-maidish frisson reverberating from John O'Groats to Land's End.

The Guardian, 1993

Nineveh Nineveh was an ancient city located on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite the modern city of Mosul, Iraq. It was the oldest city of the ancient Assyrian Empire and its capital during the reign of Sennacherib until it was destroyed by the Medes and the Babylonians in 612 BC. In the opening lines of John Masefield's poem Cargoes (1903), Nineveh and Ophir are presented as places of far-away exoticism:

'Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine'.

I've been to Europe and the States but never to Nineveh and Distant Ophir. JULIAN BARNES Talking it Over, 1991

Ophir Ophir was an unidentified region in the Bible, perhaps in south-east Arabia, famous as the source of the gold and precious stones brought to King

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Solomon (i Kgs. 9: 28, 10: 10). • See also NINEVEH.

Outer Mongolia Mongolia in eastern Asia, bordered by Russia and China, was known formerly as Outer Mongolia and thought of as the epitome of a remote, inaccessible place.

Pillars of Hercules The Pillars of Hercules are the two promontories at the sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, one in Europe and one in North Africa, known in ancient times as Calpe and Abyla and now known as the Rock of Gibraltar and Mount Acho in Ceuta. According to Greek mythology, they were either erected by Hercules or pushed apart by him as he travelled to the island of Erytheia to complete the tenth of his twelve Labours. They were regarded in ancient times as marking the limit of the known world. • See special entry o HER-

CULES on p. 182.

Siberia Siberia is a vast region of northern Russia, known for the harshness of its climate and the bleakness of its landscape, and formerly used as a place of banishment and exile.

In the grim Siberian wastes of the Brighton Conference Centre . . . not one proMandelson joke was to be heard.

The Observer, 1997

Timbuktu Timbuktu or Timbuctoo is a town in northern Mali, thought of as a very faraway place.

And he yelled at us to get out of the station before he kicked our arses to Timbuctoo.

CHRISTOPHER HOPE Darkest England, 1996

Ultima Thule Thule was a land first described by the ancient Greek explorer Pytheas as being six days' sail north of Britain, thought to be either Iceland, Norway, or the Shetland Islands. To the Romans it was the northernmost extremity of the world, described by Virgil as 'Ultima Thule', literally 'farthest Thule'. It has come to denote any distant unknown region or, figuratively, the limit of what is attainable.

Forget Marat, and the black distress he bred; he's going to create a new, Ultima Thule atmosphere, very plain, very bright, every word translucent, smooth. The air of Paris is like dried blood; he will (with Robespierre's permission and approval) make us feel that we breathe ice, silk and wine.

HILARY MANTEL A Place of Greater Safety, 1992

After a brief crawl he reached the end, striking his head against hard larch, the Ultima Thule of the Daphne, beyond which he could hear the water slapping against the hull.

UMBERTO ECO 777e Island of the Day Before, 1994