I wasn’t sure I was going to keep up with the audio component here, but it’s a nice sort of reward for myself after doing all the research, plus I’ve already received criticism on yesterday’s reading – that it didn’t sufficiently make sense of the text to a modern ear – and that’s exactly the sort of problem that I like attempting to solve. Maybe my skill at this will improve as I go. As was pointed out, Melville’s prose is both informal and convoluted, which is a tall order for reading aloud. I don’t want to resort to that annoyingly slow declamatory style you hear on most audiobooks, but I’m not enough of an actor to pull off a genuine shot at “how Ishmael talks.” I guess I’m just going for straightforwardness as best I can.
I should have said yesterday, and I say to you now – if anyone out there, friend or stranger, wants to improve on these readings, please send in your versions and I will post them in parallel. Or maybe I’ll just take down mine and put up whichever reading seems best.
Me reading (4:01).
UPDATE 5/06 – Links to reading intentionally broken. Whew.
accost, v.
7. a. To make up to and speak to; to address.
I thought this had a connotation of roughness or hostility, but it doesn’t! Well, it does now. The OED can be a little old-fashioned sometimes.
cherish, v.
7. To entertain in the mind, harbour fondly, encourage, cling to (a hope, feeling, design, etc.)
OED says this is the most common sense of the word, and that
1. trans. To hold dear, treat with tenderness and affection; to make much of.
is
Obs. or arch
which comes as news to me. In any case, I ended up looking this up because the connotation here is “cling to” but not particularly “fondly,” whereas fondness and attention seem to me implicit in modern uses of “cherish.”
skylark, v.
1. intr. a. To frolic or play; to play tricks; to indulge in rough sport or horse-play. In early use chiefly Naut.
backward, a.
6. a. Turning or hanging back from action; disinclined to advance or make advances; reluctant, averse, unwilling, loath, chary; shy, bashful.
in proper person
In his (or one’s) own person.
spend and be spent
From 2 Corinthians 12:15
think, v.
12. d. intr. with for (of, on), after as or than, and with the preposition at the end of the clause: To expect, suppose. (Cf. look for)
chief mate
Exactly the same as “first mate.”
sea carpenter
under carpenter, OED gives
3. Naut. ‘An officer appointed to examine and keep in order the hull of a wooden ship, and all her appurtenances’ (Smyth Sailor’s Word-bk.)
sea cooper
under cooper, OED gives
1. b. On board ship: One who looks to the repair of casks and other vessels.
There’s no equivalent entry for “blacksmith” but, having my initial suspicions confirmed by the above, at this point I’m willing to say that I know exactly what a sea blacksmith does.
ship-keeper
A man who takes care of a ship when the crew is absent from it.
bosky, a.
Consisting of or covered with bushes or underwood; full of thickets, bushy.
but also be aware, just for the echo, of the second entry,
bosky, a. dial. or slang
Somewhat the worse for drink, tipsy.
satin wood
The wood of the Indian tree Chloroxylon Swietenia and of several W. Indian trees esp. Fagara flava; also, the similar yellowish wood of any of several African or Australian trees, esp. Daphnandra micrantha or Zanthoxylum brachyacanthum; also, any of the trees producing this timber; the colour of this timber.
Andes’ western slope
Is some kind of dramatic stratification visible (say, from the ocean)? Or is he just saying that the slope creates several climate zones in close proximity, but not that they’re visible as such? I’ve never been and I’m not in the mood to dig really hard in search of I’m-not-sure-what, so please write in if you think you know exactly what he means.
Ledyard
John Ledyard (1751-1789), American explorer who travelled with Captain Cook and later attempted to pass through Russia and enter North America by crossing the Bering Strait, but never made the crossing, though he did traverse much of Siberia.
Mungo Park
Mungo Park (1771-1806), Scottish explorer of Africa, who eventually died there.
that sort of thing is to be had anywhere
Not clear to me. Is he saying that social refinement may be learned anywhere, whereas exploratory adventures require travel? Or is he saying that the sort of un-refining travel experienced by Ledyard and Park is the sort of travel that, for the most part, one finds anywhere (contrary to the aforementioned popular belief that most travel is socially edifying)? Or something else?
board, v.
besides the obvious meanings, there’s also
4. fig. To approach, ‘make up to’, accost, address, ‘assail’; to make advances to.
sheepfold
1. A pen or enclosure for sheep.
Green Mountains
In Vermont. I thought maybe there might be others that I should know about.