<div dir="ltr"><div>A number of loose, associative thoughts. The passage about the
three elderly men belongs to a section which contains many elements
which also surface in <i>Mrs. Dalloway.</i> For instance, there is the cathedral visit (both St Paul's and Westminster in <i>Mrs. Dalloway</i>),
exhilarating bus rides, unknown lives brushing past each other, the
consumption or nibbling of the day, and the old woman singing. In <i>Mrs. Dalloway</i>
spiders and spider thread recur several times, primarily as an image of
tenuous linkage, although there is also, more mysteriously, Whitehall
"skated over by spiders." Water spiders, perhaps?<br><br></div>Also, for Virginia, "three elderly men" had personal, almost mythic significance. In <i>Moments of Being</i>
she describes the "three old gentlemen" (Mr. Wolstenholme, C. B.
Clarke, and Mr. Gibbs) as Dickensian figures, and in the same passage
she describes Justine Nonon, an old woman who "walked like a spider,"
"sang in a hoarse cracked voice" and rode the "red omnibus." Virginia
remembers her "as if she were a completely real person, with nothing
left out, like the three old men." <br><br> As mythic creatures the old
gentlemen may be re-gendered versions of the Moirai, male versions of
Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho. <br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 4:16 AM, Stuart N. Clarke <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com" target="_blank">stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>Near the beginning of ch. V:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><span><span></span></span>“<span>you
will see that three elderly men at a little distance from each other run spiders
along the pavement as if the street were their parlour”</span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span>This
*very* mysterious. </span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><span>Vara
</span><span>Neverow suggests that
t</span>he ‘men, who are spaced so that they will not compete with one another,
are selling mechanical toys to passersby, probably windup penny toys
manufactured in Germany.’ (<i>JR</i> 2008:
229)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ado suggests “peut-être” (<i>JR</i>
2012: 329):</div>
<div>(1) Live spiders attached by threads</div>
<div>(2) penny toys</div>
<div>(3) bicycles</div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div>I think Ado’s #3 is unlikely: bikes on the pavement – disgraceful! I
think those types of bikes called spiders predate 1910 by some considerable time
(altho’ I’d never heard of them before).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ado’s #1 seems possible. After all, in the Victorian period you could
buy sparrows from street vendors, with strings attached to their legs, and you
could fly them around. Ugh!</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I really like Vara’s and Ado’s #2. Not something I would have thought
of, but look here:</div>
<div><a title="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-WIND-UP-CLOCKWORK-TOY-SCHUCO-STYLE-SPRING-DEVIL-SPIDER-C1920S-30S-/391084080032" href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-WIND-UP-CLOCKWORK-TOY-SCHUCO-STYLE-SPRING-DEVIL-SPIDER-C1920S-30S-/391084080032" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-WIND-UP-CLOCKWORK-TOY-SCHUCO-STYLE-SPRING-DEVIL-SPIDER-C1920S-30S-/391084080032</a></div>
<div><a title="http://www.ebay.ca/itm/OLD-GERMAN-WIND-UP-TOY-SPIDER-/251940077598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa8cc801e" href="http://www.ebay.ca/itm/OLD-GERMAN-WIND-UP-TOY-SPIDER-/251940077598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa8cc801e" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.ca/itm/OLD-GERMAN-WIND-UP-TOY-SPIDER-/251940077598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa8cc801e</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>On the other hand, would a 1922 reader know what VW was referring to?
Would it be obvious to him/her that she was referring to toys?</div>
<div> </div>
<div><span><span>Any
answers gratefully received.</span></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div><span><span></span></span> </div>
<div><span><span>Stuart</span></span></div></font></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br></div>