"The Post
that Fitted"

(notes edited by Roberta Baldi)



the poem

[June 23 2004]

Publication

First printed in Civil and Military Gazette, March 16th, 1886. Collected in Departmental Ditties and Other Verses, 1886, E.V., 1900; I.V., 1919; D.V., 1940; Sussex Edition, Vol. 32, page 18; Burwash Edition, Vol. 25 (ORG entry: nr. 172, page 5112).


Notes on the text


The lines refer to the whole poem, heading lines included.

[Title] The Post that fitted The title of the poem activates different semantic threads. “Post” as “4. An assigned position or station, as of a guard or sentry. […] 6. A position of employment, especially an appointed public office. 7. A place to which someone is assigned for duty” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Post 2, http://www.bartleby.com/61/62/P0466200.html; June, 2nd 2004) may be interpreted in connection with “fit” as “2. Appropriate; proper” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Fit 1, http://www.bartleby.com/61/20/F0152000.html; June, 2nd 2004), pointing thus to Sleary’s appointment to a proper post.

“Post” and “fit” may also be separately interpreted, though, highlighting their paratextual pilot function: “post” as “1a. A delivery of mail. b. The mail delivered.” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Post 3, http://www.bartleby.com/61/63/P0466300.html; June, 2nd 2004) may in this case refer to letters and mail exchanged in the poem (see Lines 27, 30); “fit” as “1. Medicine a. A seizure or convulsion, especially one caused by epilepsy.” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Fit 2, http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/F0152100.html; June, 2nd 2004) points to Sleary’s epileptic fits (see Lines 18-22, 26, 30, 32), and as “3. A sudden period of vigorous activity.“ (ibidem), to his “behind-the-scenes” machinations (see Lines 9, 18-22).

[Lines 1, 3] tangle The repetition of this word in the heading prepares for the complex plot Sleary completes to entrap Minnie Boffkin and her relatives.

[Line 1] true love Ironically, the one between Sleary and Carrie perhaps, not that between the former and Minnie.

[Line 2] ditty A reference to the title of the collection.

[Line 6] Tunbridge In Kent; India is eastwards from there.

[Line 7] Sleary's pay was very modest; Sleary was the other way. One of the first antithetical statements which formally sustain the semantic field of complexity seen in “tangle”.

[Line 11] Subaltern A junior officer in the army.

[Line 15] billet Here both as “2. A position of employment; a job. 3. Archaic A short letter; a note” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Billet 1, http://www.bartleby.com/61/94/B0249400.html; June, 2nd 2004), the former referring to Sleary’s new job and the latter to the semantic field of “mail” cited above.

[Line 16] artless Ironic here.

[Lines 17-18] impulse of a baser mind? / No!. The narrator’s ironic stance intervenes again here.

[Line 19] modus operandi Latin “1. A method of operating or functioning. 2. A person's manner of working.” (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company, Billet 1, http://www.bartleby.com/61/60/M0366000.html; June, 2nd 2004).

[Line 22] distressing vigour This oxymoron opens a series of close-following antithetical stances (see subsequent lines).

[Line 22] – always in the Boffkins’ sight. Again the ironical,omniscient narrator intervenes to comment upon Sleary’s conduct.

[Line 25] chastened holy joy Both adjectives are sarcastically punning on Sleary’s misconduct – he is not Minnie’s sacrificial victim but rather her manipulator, though she does not realise it.

[Line 26] employ Archaic for “occupation”.

[Line 28] last, long, lingering This sequence of alliterative /l/ sounds reinforces a slow-down which seems to emphasise Sleary’s cunning performance.

[Line 29] laughed until she wept Again an antithetical structure, now highlighting Carrie’s enjoyment of Sleary’s achievement.

[Line 31] in pious patience, vengeful Again an antithetical sequence contrasting Minnie’s patience with her resentment.


[R.B.]