Waiting for Godot

 

à Vladimir=Didi=Mister Albert

àEstragon=Gogo=Adam

 

Act I

1. privation (8b)-          A state of extreme poverty

 

2. wheedling (11b)-      Influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering

 

3. cawm (11b)-            Probably just to emphasize the pronunciation of “calm.”

 

4. bawd (11b)-             A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money

 

5. prerogatives (13b)-   A right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

 

6. greatcoat (15a)-       A heavy overcoat; surcoat, topcoat

 

7. conciliating (15b)-     Overcoming animosity or hostility

 

8. the clap (15b)-         A common venereal disease caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae; symptoms are painful urination and pain around the urethra

 

9. peremptory (16a)-    Offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power

 

10. jaded (17a)-           Dulled by surfeit; exhausted

                                   

11. affectation (19a)-    A deliberate pretense or exaggerated display

 

12. grampus (20b)-      Predatory black-and-white toothed whale with large dorsal fin; common in cold seas

                                    Slaty-gray blunt-nosed dolphin common in northern seas

 

13. vaporizer (20b)-     a device used to vaporize medicine for inhalation

 

14. to cod (21a)-          No definition for verb, but cod can mean scrotum

 

NOTE: (21a) Atlas is not the son of Jupiter.  His parents are the Titan Iapetus and the nymph Clymene

 

15. knook (22b)-        

 

16. briar (23b)-            A pipe made from the root (briarroot) of the tree heath

 

17. dudeen (23b)-        A short-stemmed clay pipe

 

18. Kapp and Peterson (23a)-  Brand of pipe.

                                    http://www.knoxcigar.com/petersonpipes.html

 

19. firmament (24b)-    The apparent surface of the imaginary sphere on which celestial bodies appear to be projected

 

20. qua (25a)-              Which?

 

NOTE: Effulgence (one of our vocabulary words) is on 25a.

 

NOTE: (25b) Estragon says “Oh tray bong, tray tray tray bong.” I interpreted that as “Très bon,” French for very good.

 

21. farandole (27a)-     A lively dance from Provence; all the dancers join hands and execute various figures

 

22. the fling (27a)-        A kind of dance; as, the Highland fling

 

23. the brawl (27a)-     Branle: Simple French dances from the 1500s. Branle means "to move from side to side." Pronounced brawl.

 

24. the jig (27a)-          Any of various old rustic dances involving kicking and leaping (usually in 3-4 time)

 

25. fandango (27a)-      A provocative Spanish courtship dance in triple time; performed by a man and a woman playing castanets

 

26. hornpipe (27a)-      A British solo dance performed by sailors

 

27. aesthete (27a)-       One who professes great sensitivity to the beauty of art and nature

 

28. pulverizer (27a)-     ??

 

29. Puncher and Wattmann (28b)-        And while there might be some merit, at least for those interested in such things, in analyzing George's lyrics for different Hindu influences and literary references and so forth, that's beyond the scope and inclination of this writer, who was exposed to Lucky's speech in Waiting for Godot at an early age and thus rendered incapable such things. As Puncher and Wattmann so aptly put it, "ga-ga-ga-ga." Or as Omar Khayyam put it, discussing spirituality: "You cannot fathom it by research."

 

30. quaquaquaqua (28b)-         ??

 

31. athambia (28b)-      ??

 

32. aphasia (28b)-        Inability to use or understand language (spoken or written) because of a brain lesion

 

33. anthropometry (28b)-         Measurement and study of the human body and its parts and capacities

 

NOTE:  Stuttering probably on purpose-  caca= have a bowel movement, French child’s word for excrement

popo= possibly Mexican volcano

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/current_volcs/popo/popo.html

            OR… I think you know.

 

34. Essy-in-Possy (28b)-          Possible esse and posse which are Latin for “to be” and “to be able”

 

35. Testew and Cunard (28b)- Distortion of testes and (you know).

OR “Test you” and

 A ship of the Cunard fleet, presumably a passenger liner.

 

36. Fartov and Belcher (28b)-              Distortions of fart and belch

 

37. conating (29a)-       Perhaps from the French “connaître” and meaning “knowing”

 

38. camogie (29a)-       Camogie is the female version of hurling. The game of hurling is unique to Ireland and is one of the fastest field games in the world. It has always been a huge part of our culture and heritage and is our national sport.

 

39. succedanea (29a)-              A substitute

 

40. Feckham Peckham Fulham Clapham (29a)-            Feckham is distortion of f--- him.

                                    The rest are either similar distortions, or refer to places in London (all of which are bus route stops)

41. Bishop Berkeley (29a)-

Berkeley was born at Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, Ireland, on March 12, 1685. He studied at Trinity College Dublin and received a B.A. (1704), M.A. and fellow (1707). He filled various college offices including tutor, Junior Dean, and Junior Greek Lecturer. He lived there in an atmosphere "charged with the elements of reaction against traditional scholasticism in physics and metaphysics." His Philosophical Commentaries (first printed in 1871 under the title Common-Place Book) was written from time to time during his undergraduate years as a kind of scrapbook of thoughts. The work indicates the great formative influence of Locke's Essay which was a text book at Trinity College, and appears to have excited Berkeley to independent critical activity. In 1709 he published an Essay toward a New Theory of Vision, an examination of visual consciousness to prove that it affords no ground for belief in the reality of the objects apparently seen. In 1710 appeared a Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, which presents the theory of idealism, for which he is best remembered.

Berkeley took holy orders, and, in 1713, he left Dublin, went to London and formed acquaintances. The same year he published Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, a popularized and lively account of the theory of idealism as appears in his Principles. He visited continental Europe in 1713-14 and again in 1716-20. During this period he did little literary work. Although he made some progress with the second part of his Principles, the manuscript was lost in his travels and the work was never resumed. His Latin treatise De motu was written as he was on his way home and published in 1721. Back in England, he became concerned with what he witnessed as a nationwide decline in religion, decay of public spirit, and corrupt ion of manners. The result was his Essay towards preventing the ruin of Great Britain, published anonymously in 1721. That same year he returned to Ireland, earned his B.D. and D.D. (1721), and again filled college offices including Divinity Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Hebrew Lecturer, Proctor, Dean of Dromore, and Dean of Derry.

He now became devoted to a plan of establishing a college in the Bermuda Islands, went to London to further the project in 1724, and in 1725 published A Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches in our Foreign Plantations, and for converting t he savage Americans to Christianity by a college to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Isles of Bermuda. By his enthusiasm and persuasiveness, he won many expressions of sympathy, and came to believe that the government would support the plan. In September 1728, he sailed for America and landed at Newport, Rhode Island. On arrival he bought a farm near Newport and built a house which he called "Whitehall" after the English palace. The shoreline, about a mile from the house, had a cleft in the rocks which became a retreat for writing and reflection. He helped found a philosophical society at Newport and preached there in Trinity Church, a old wooden structure. He influenced Reverend Samuel Johnson, Episcopal missionary and later first president of Columbia College, New York. The new world affected Berkeley's imagination and led to a set of Verses on the prospect of planting arts and learning in America.

Three years of waiting on funding for his project convinced him that his hopes were futile, and in February 1732 he returned to London. He published immediately Alciphron or the Minute Philosopher, the result of his studies in America. It is a polemic against deists whom he identifies with atheists, and designates as "minute philosophers" because of their inability to take large views of things. In 1733 appeared his Theory of Vision, or Visual Language Vindicated and Explained. In the following year he published The Analyst, in which he criticized the positions of the new mathematics which, in his view, were connected with a materialistic conception of the world. This bold attempt to carry the war into the enemy's country prompted many pamphlets in response. In 1734 he was made bishop of Cloyne. After this, his literary work was divided between questions of social reform and religious reflection. His concern for reform is represented in The Querist (1735). Other writings express his faith in tar-water as a universal medicine, specifically his Siris, a Chain of Philosophical Reflections, and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar-water (1744), in which he also revises his earlier views of idealism. Berkeley lived with his family in Cloyne until 1752, when he went to Oxford to end his days with his son, a senior student at Christ Church. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/berkeley.htm

 

42. Connemara (29a)-              Place in Ireland. http://www.horseclick.com/connemara.htm

 

43. Steinweg and Peterman (29a)-        ??

 

44. half-hunter (30b)-               Type of gold fob watch.

Here’s a picture:

http:/www.geocities.com/kcirtap27613/image001.jpg

 

45. escapement (30b)-             Mechanical device that regulates movement

 

46. fob (30b)-              A pocket in a man's vest to hold a pocket watch

 

NOTE:  Vladimir says “Words, words…” (33b)

 

Act II

1. Macon country (39b)-          At one time they picked grapes for a man in Macon country (a region in France).

 

2. Cackon country (40a)-         Another pun on caca.

 

3. charnel-house (41b)-            A vault or building where corpses or bones are deposited

 

4. (For you non-French speakers)

            Que voulez-vous? = What do you want?  (42a)

 

5. canter (42a)-            An smooth 3-beat gait; between a trot and a gallop

 

6. minces (46b)-           Walks daintily

 

7. gonococcus (47a)-   The pus-producing bacterium that causes gonorrhea

 

8. spirochete (47a)-      Parasitic or free-living bacteria; many pathogenic to humans and other animals

 

9. precipitately (47a)-   At breakneck speed

 

10. morpion (48b)-       A louse

 

11. the tree (49a)-        May refer to movements involved in stretching (a shoe or boot) onto a shoetree, or the movements associated with swinging on the gallows.

 

12. ballsocked (50b)-   Perhaps a pun on Balzac, French writer in the realist school of fiction.

 

NOTE:  (51a) “Let us not waste our time in idle discourse!”

 

13. congeners (51b)-    An animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus)

 

NOTE: (51b) “We are all born mad.  Some remain so.”

 

14. crablouse (53a)-     Parasite that infests the pubic region of the human body

 

15. zenith (54a)-           The point above the observer that is directly opposite the nadir on the imaginary sphere against which celestial bodies appear to be projected

 

16. caryatids (55a)-      A supporting column carved in the shape of a person

 

17. (For those of you who aren’t in Latin)

            Memoria praeteritorum bonorum = Memory of good things past

                                                                                    (55b)

18. the Board (55b)-    ??

 

19. forceps (58a)-        A pair of pincers used in medical treatment; especially for the delivery of babies

 

20. dropped (59b)-      Meant to mean break association with, but also has double meaning of gave birth to.