[Vwoolf] "Jacob's Room": Crux #3

[Andre Gerard]

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 *Mrs. Dalloway.*  For instance, there is the cathedral visit
(both St Paul's and Westminster in *Mrs. Dalloway*), exhilarating bus
rides, unknown lives brushing past each other, the consumption or nibbling
of the day, and the old woman singing.  In *Mrs. Dalloway* 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?

Also, for Virginia, "three elderly men" had personal, almost mythic
significance.  In *Moments of Being* 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."

 As mythic creatures the old gentlemen may be re-gendered versions of the
Moirai, male versions of  Atropos, Lachesis and Clotho.

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 4:16 AM, Stuart N. Clarke <
stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com> wrote:

>
>  Near the beginning of ch. V:
>
> “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”
>
> This *very* mysterious.
>
> Vara Neverow suggests that the ‘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.’ (*JR* 2008: 229)
>
> Ado suggests “peut-être” (*JR* 2012: 329):
> (1) Live spiders attached by threads
> (2) penny toys
> (3) bicycles
>
> 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).
>
> 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!
>
> I really like Vara’s and Ado’s #2.  Not something I would have thought of,
> but look here:
>
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-WIND-UP-CLOCKWORK-TOY-SCHUCO-STYLE-SPRING-DEVIL-SPIDER-C1920S-30S-/391084080032
>
> http://www.ebay.ca/itm/OLD-GERMAN-WIND-UP-TOY-SPIDER-/251940077598?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa8cc801e
>
> 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?
>
> Any answers gratefully received.
>
> Stuart
>
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