"Fairy-Kist"

Notes on the text

These notes, by John McGivering, are partly new, and partly based on the ORG. The page and line numbers below refer to the Macmillan (London) Standard Edition of Limits and Renewals, as published and frequently reprinted between 1932 and 1950.



[October 16th 2008]

[Title] Fairy-Kist a dialect word meaning 'bewitched', 'touched by the fairies', and thus 'deranged'.

[Page 153 line 7] M. R. C. P. Member of the Royal College of Physicians

[Page 153 line 8] accoucheur one who attends the birth to deliver a child.

[Page 153 line 10] South Eastern postal districts There are 27 of them in London from Southwark to West Norwood, the higher numbers are further out into the country.

[Page 153 line 21] 1903 Chateau la Tour an ancient and important House producing fine clarets; ORG (vol 7 page 3214) believes, however, that 1903 was not a particularly good year and would have preferred 1899 or 1900.

[Page 154 line 4] Lily William Lilly (or Lily) 1602-1681, an English astrologer and occultist, probably known to Kipling from D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature. See “The Propagation of Knowledge” (Debits and Credits page 277, lines 1-2) .

[Page 154 line 9] periscope perhaps a misprint for 'horoscope'.

[Page 154 line 11] Sherlock Holmes the famous detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, much of whose work also appeared in the Strand Magazine. His last story “The Maracot Deep” appeared in the issue for February 1928 with “Fairy-Kist”. (See “The House Surgeon” Actions and Reactions page 274 line 16) Doyle introduced Kipling to golf in Vermont. ( Harry Ricketts, page 209).

[Page 154 line 24] Barnet Horse Fair believed to date from the 12th Century, this famous fair is held in Barnet, Hertfordshire, some 11 miles north of central London.

[Page 155 line 9] Lodge Faith and Works 5836 corrected to 5037 in the Sussex Edition volume 11 page 149, with a footnote (not included in the Uniform or Pocket Editions) to give it the same number as the Lodge in the Masonic stories collected in Debits and Credits.

[Page 155 line 21] Berkshire an important breed of pig – see ORG Volume 7, page 3216 for further details.

[Page 156 line 14] shove-halfpenny an old game played in public-houses – smooth coins are propelled along a polished board by the ‘heel’ of the hand to stop in marked ‘beds’ – a variant of 'shovelboard', 'shove-shilling' etc.

Oddfellows friendly societies in the United Kingdom with Lodges similar to those of the Freemasons, dating back to the 1700s and perhaps earlier.

[Page 157 line 3] “the morning after” suffering from a hangover due to excessive drinking.

[Page 157 line 7] cautioned the “Caution” at that time was probably something like: 'You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so – anything you do say will be taken down in writing and may be used in evidence.'

[Page 157 line 15] high dungeon a malapropism for 'high dudgeon' – a feeling of resentment and anger.

[Page 158 line 9] bloods in this context would-be smart young men.

[Page 158 line 30] modus operandi merhod or system of working.(Latin.)

[Page 159 line 9] the Huish poisoning case we have not identified this, but there is a character of this name in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Ebb-Tide (1894) which he wrote in collaboration with his step-son, Lloyd Osbourne. See “The Vortex” (A Diversity of Creatures, page 386 line 18).

[Page 159 line 14] ‘ung hanged, then the punishment for murder.

[Page 160 line 11] Salonika fever a variety of malaria prevalent among the allied troops in the Gallipoli campaign in the 1914 War

[Page 160 line 18] Mitcham town in the London Borough of Merton, 7.5 miles (12 km) south-west of Charing Cross in Central London.

[Page 160 line 19] West Wickham in the London Borough of Bromley, England, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) south-east of Charing Cross in Central London.

[Page 160 line 32] two-seater in this context a motor-car similar to that belonging to the narrator of “Aunt Ellen” earlier in this volume.

[Page 161 line 31] carneying in this context, in a wheedling, insinuating and cunning manner. In use in the 1914 War but dating back to the 1880s (Partridge's Dictionary of Slang).

[Page 162 line 1] Ray John Ray (or Wray c.1628 - 1705) English naturalist, 'the father of English natural history' who published important works on plants and animals. See ORG volume 7 page 3216 for more details.

[Page 162 lines 19-21] Morrison… with the Duke of Orleans at Blois Robert Morison (1620-1683) Scottish botanist, who, with his contemporary John Ray, developed the systematic classification of plants; an outstanding scholar who was a Doctor of Philosophy at 18. During the English Civil War between King and Parliament, he was a Royalist, and when King Charles I was deposed, fled to France where he became physican to the Duke of Orleans. He returned at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. He was responsible for much of the work on which John Ray (or Wray) based his Methodus Plantarum.

[Page 162 line 21] Grew Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) English vegetable anatomist and physiologist. He graduated at Cambridge in 1661, took the degree of M.D. at Leiden University ten years later, his thesis being Disputatio medico-physica de liquore nervoso. He began observations on the anatomy of plants in 1664. His essay, The Anatomy of Vegetables was published in 1672.

[Page 162 line 23] Hales Stephen Hales, FRS (1677-1761) English physiologist, chemist and inventor, who studied the role of air and water in the maintenance of plants and animals.

[Page 162 lines 25 – 30] Tom Morrison ... links the narrator is confusing Robert Morison (line 19 above) with 'Old Tom Morris' (1821-1908) one of the pioneers of professional golf.

[Page 163 line 29] on the drop a man to be hanged stands on the trapdoor which the hangman opens by pulling a lever.

[Page 164 14] gout a constitutional disorder connected with excess of uric acid in the blood, and manifesting itself by inflammation of joints with deposition therein of urate of soda and also by morbid changes in various important organs. (Black's Medical Dictionary)

[Page 164 line 21] wounded and gassed and gangrened Injuries commonly received in the Great War. See The Irish Guards in the Great War page 82, and Soldier from the War Returning by Charles Carrington, page 72.

[Page 165 line 3] Jack the Ripperism 'Jack the Ripper' was an unknown homicidal maniac, who killed women in the East End of London in a particularly brutal manner in 1888.

[Page 165 line 14] the C. I. D. the Criminal Investigation Department of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard in London.

floating kidney the kidney is slightly movable - more commonly in women. The condition is responsible, by its pressure upon neighbouring organr, for many obscure abdominal complaints, from severe conditions like chronic obstruction of the bowels, or constant pain, down to inveterate dyspepsia. (Black's Medical Dictionary)

[Page 167 line 4] in the light in the way.

[Page 167 line 15] bromide one of the salts of bromine which act chiefly as paralysers of the brain and sensory nerves.(Black's Medical Dictionary)

[Page 168 line 14] a pithed ox an animal slaughtered by severing the spinal cord. The word is used in “With the Night Mail,” Actions and Reactions page 127 line 1 for the destruction of an aircraft.

[Page 168 line 25] sign his certificate certify that he is insane.

[Page 168 line 30] Worshipful Sir polite form of address to the Master of a Lodge, or a Mayor, etc.

[Page 169 line 7] a higher seat in the Synagogue an echo of Mark, 12,39-40: '… the scribes… which love… the chief seats in the synagogues… Here it simply means a more prestigious seat in church.

[Page 169 line 8] the Squire’s pew In an English village church there would be a pew reserved for the squire and his family, and other local worthies would have had their own seats. see “An Habitation Enforced” (Actions and Reactions, page 28, line 20.)

[Page 169 line 17] that kind of glare a far-away look of utter despair often seen in photographs of soldiers at the time.

[Page 170 line 16] Broadmoor a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne, Berkshire, England.

[Page 170 line 31] Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) court painter to the Spanish Crown, and one of the great painters of Spain. The picture might have been 'The Bewitched Man' (El Hechizado) c. 1798, now in the National Gallery in London.

[Page 171 lines 5 & 6] daffodils see Mary’s Meadow by Mrs Ewing, page 38.

honeysuckle probably Coral Honeysuckle which, in the 'Language of Flowers' means the colour of my fate. Mary’s Meadow quotes Parkinson:

The Honeysuckle that groweth wild in every hedge , although it be very sweet, yet doe I not bring it into my garden, but let it rest in its owne place, to serve their senses that travel by it, or have no garden.
loosestrife – a hybrid not mentioned in Mary’s Meadow but ORG quotes Parkinson, who calls it a kind of double cowslip – 'Hose-in-Hose' – which plays an important part in the story. Another variety – 'Creeping Jenny' – means 'horror' in the 'Language of Flowers'; perhaps a hidden reference to this plant.

[Page 171 line 16] carneying see page 161, line 31 above.

[Page 171 line 28] the Somme one of the greatest and most ghastly battles of the 1914 War.

[Page 172 line 3] something else besides a G.P. they are Freemasons.

[Page 172 line 6] on the Square another reference to Freemasons meaning 'honestly' or 'fairly'.

[Page 172 line 13] Gotha The earlest type of German aircraft used for long-range bombing.

[Page 172 line 15] V. A. D. Voluntary Aid Detachments, formed in 1909 to provide medical assistance in time of war. By the end of the 1914 war there were 38,000 working as assistant nurses, ambulance drivers and cooks.

[Page 172 line 27] Army Corps then a main sub-division of the army – perhaps some 36,000 men – he is speaking figuratively.

[Page 173 line 2] helled in this context to hound him on - 'giving him hell' in the process; ORG believes this to be a usage coined by Kipling.

[Page 174 line 1] the Ancient Mariner principal character in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1789) a long poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) beginning:

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The poem tells how a Wedding Guest is stopped by the Ancient Mariner ('He holds him with his glittering eye') and is unable to break away from the fearful story of a long and disastrous sea voyage.

[Page 174 line 16] water on the brain a popular name for hydrophobia and hydrocephalus.

[Page 174 line 30 onwards] Paradise originally the Garden of Eden but now applied metaphorically to a state of bliss. ORG Volume 7, pp. 3219 ff. has a long and interesting description of Mary’s Meadow which is available in the Kipling Library and on the Web via Project Gutenberg.

[Page 175 line 5] ipsissima verba (Latin) the very words.

[Page 175 line 16] a great privilege to be able to consult botanical books the gardener is invited into the Library (Chapter 3) to consult the Gardener’s Dictionary (various editions over the years) by Philip Miller (1691 - 1771) a botanist of Scottish descent.

[Page 177 line 21] evaporated like ether Disappeared quickly. Ether is a very volatile gas.

[Page 178 line 9] Juliaana Horratia Ewing see the Headnote. McKnight is pronouncing her name with a strong Scottish accent.


"The Mother's Son"

the poem


Critical comments

Andrew Lycett (page 527) comments:

If further evidence were required that Rudyard was alluding to himself and his own recovery from a near psychotic state, it came in the poem “The Mother’s Son” which accompanied “Fairy-Kist” when it was published in book form.
Marghanita Laski observes (page 169):

It could be that Kipling came to understand that there were worse ends than dying in that (1914) war. It might be worse to live.
She calls it (page 58) a sinister late story. See the Headnote for observations by Philp Mason.


Notes on the text


[Verse 2]

They do not let you sleep upstairs in case the patient commits suicide by jumping out of the window.

not allowed to shave for the same reason – the cut-throat razor was in use at the time – see "The Woman in His Life", page 69 line 15, earlier in this volume.

[Verse 4]

The Cup an echo of Matthew 26,42: ' Jesus prays before he is betrayed and crucified - 'O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except before I drink it, thy will be done'. See “Epitaphs of the War” and “Hymn of Breaking Strain” for verse in similar vein.


[J H McG]

©John McGivering 2008 All rights reserved