Robertson Davies Trivia

1. "What's Bred in the Bone", the story of Francis Cornish, is the second book in Robertson Davies' "Cornish Trilogy". What was Francis Cornish's role in the first book, "The Rebel Angels"?

From Quiz What's Bred in the Bone

Answer: He had recently died, and much of the plot arose from the settling of his estate.

Cornish never actually appeared in "The Rebel Angels" as a living man, although his nephew Arthur did turn up as executor of his business interests. His legacy, however, ran all through the book. He had named three professors to settle the collections that had been his life's passion -- three apartments crammed full of paintings, sketches, manuscripts, and statuary -- and a combination of scholarly avarice and poor bookkeeping ultimately led to a theft and a murder. If that's what the death of Francis Cornish accomplished, what must he have been like in life?

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Deptford

Deptford is the name of the trilogy. Pembroke is the quiz author's boyfriend's home town and Bowles Corner is the name of a town that Deptford citizens "look with pitying amusement on."

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Rabelais was at least aquainted with Cabala.

Francois Rabelais (c.1483-c.1553) is a shadowy figure in the annals of literature. Hollier is convinced that the manuscript, which Cornish seems to have lent to McVarish, contains the lost book "The Stratagems" and letters from Rabelais to Paracelsus, the Swiss alchemist and physician.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: The College of Saint John and the Holy Ghost

The College of Saint John and the Holy Ghost (affectionately known as "Spook" to those in the know) is a part of the University of Toronto. Ploughwright College is another college in that august institution; Prof. the Rev. Simon Darcourt is Sub-Warden of Plowright College. Balliol College is a college of Oxford University.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: WW I

He goes off to France and ends up fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Hollier should tell his worst enemy, McVarish of the one-time affair.

Hollier calls the incident "a sort of daemonic seizure," and in order to make it up to Maria, promised her the missing Gryphius manuscript for her doctorial dissertation.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Parlabane is back.

Hollier responds with, "Great God! How awful!"

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: His leg

He had his leg blown off.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Two musical manuscripts, one by Ravel and the other by Schoenberg.

Arthur had admired the Varley sketch of Georgian Bay at the initial meeting, but it was earmarked for the Provincial Gallery. The Venus was chosen by McVarish, who claimed it with some snide remarks about Maria, and Darcourt chose the Beerbohms. Maria mentioned that Arthur collected musical manuscripts to Darcourt, hence the offer.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Rabelais

Rabelais is Maria's special balliwick; when McVarish asks if she has read his ancestor's translations, she replies that she sticks to the original French.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Boy Stanton

One might say this solitary snowball, snowballed into the finale of his death.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: The Kodaly String Quartet

Yerko, who takes quite a bit of sobering up before his trips, takes various unemployed musicians with him. He returns with string instruments and money; the musicians stay behind. Zoltan Kodaly was a Hungarian composer around the turn of the last century. Laoutaro is Mamusia's and Yerko's last name. "Kalderash" is one of the three main tribal divisions of the Gypsies and the one to which the Laoutaros belong. The bears that travel with Gypsies are always called "Brother Martin."

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: The Society of the Sacred Mission

The Society of the Sacred Mission is an Anglican monastic order. The Society of Jesus (otherwise known as the Jesuits) was founded by Ignatius Loyala and is greatly concerned with education. The Franciscans are actually an order of friars as opposed to monks. (Friars take orders but lead a mendicant life.) The Poor Clares is actually a mendicant order for women -- a sister order to the Franciscans, if you will.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: A quote from Paracelsus.

Maria inspired Parlabane to read Paracelsus, and he found a quote that translates as "Be not another's if thou canst be thyself." He thought "Be Not Another" would look good on a title page in italics.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Polish

Although he took his mother's Greek surname when he moved to Hungary, Tadeusz Bonawentura Niemcewicz was born in Poland in 1910.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Saints

He wrote prolificly about saints. His books were titled, 'A Hundred Saints for Travellers', 'Forgotten Saints of Tyrol' and 'Celtic Saints of Britain and Europe'.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: The penis-bone of a raccoon.

While McVarish owns the bootjack and the snuff-box, he shows Roberta Burns the penis-bone, much to the dismay of Prof. Lamotte. Prof. Burns explains that gentlemen used to us them to pick their teeth. Prof. Burns actually owns the tobacco pouch; her brother sent it to her from Australia.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Luthier

Mamusia tells Hollier that she is a "maker, mender, lover, mother, bondwoman of violins and all the viol family."

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Leola

Caroline is the daughter, Lisel is the name of the Swiss woman who befriended Paul and Ramsey. Denyse is Boy's second wife.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Mistresses Morley and Masham.

Abigail Masham was Queen Anne's favorite lady. Mistress Morley was the persona adopted by Queen Anne when she and Masham drank whisky out of china cups and gossiped. Parlabane revealed what happened during McVarish's "ceremonies" in his postmortum confessional letter to Hollier and Maria. Incidently, Maria and Clem were often subjects of "Morley's" and "Masham's" gossip.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: John Aubrey

Ellerman wishes that he were ten years younger so that he could write a University of Toronto version of Aubrey's "Brief Lives." Darcourt is inspired by this comment and finds himself looking at his colleagues in a new light.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Ramsey

Ramsey taught him card tricks and coin manipulation as a tiny child. Faustus LeGrand was Paul's first stage name and Le Solitare was the man who taught Paul magic after he left Deptford.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Sir Harry Lauder, "Stop Your Tickling, Jock"

Sir Harry Lauder (1870-1950) was a Scottish baritone who was known for his ballads and comic songs. Arthur's and Maria's first date is to hear Egressy playing Liszt. Mary-Benedetta McRory is actually a character from the second book in the Cornish Trilogy, "What's Bred in the Bone." I just threw in Rubenstein for the heck of it.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Clement Hollier, Simon Darcourt and Urquhart McVarish

Francis Cornish left behind a huge (and extremely haphazard) collection of art, books and manuscripts. Hollier cataloged the books, Darcourt cataloged the manuscripts, and McVarish cataloged the art.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Le Solitaire

The bearded lady thought that Paul regarded Le Solitaire as his father in art.

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: Queen Anne

Darcourt insists on interviewing all couples that he marries. Maria accepts Arthur's marriage proposal after he calls her "fathead."

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part One

Answer: Feces

Dr. Froats runs afoul (pun intended) of Murray Brown, a politician who feels that scatomancy has no place in state-funded university education.

From Quiz What's Bred in the Bone

Answer: Unable to return to painting himself, he tries to bolster Canadian art.

Francis makes a few halfhearted efforts to transform himself into an artist of his own time, but it never feels right and he always abandons the attempt. The style that feels true to himself as an artist is that of the Old Masters, but he dares not produce more work in that vein, for fear of exposing himself as the Alchemical Master. He is neither a writer nor a zookeeper by nature, and instead gives art a central place in his life by trying to support Canadian artists. He tries abortively to found a school of art, but ends up functioning as an informal but prestigious art dealer, operating out of three apartments crammed with disorganized treasures. One of his last hopes is that the secret of his masterpiece, "The Marriage at Cana", will be revealed after his death -- and in the sequel, "The Lyre of Orpheus", we find out whether it is.

From Quiz Fifth Business

Answer: Lisel

When he first sees her, Ramsey thinks Lisel "was certainly the ugliest human creature I had ever seen."

From Quiz "The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies, Part Two

Answer: A piece of Biblical apocrypha

Maria likens Darcourt and Hollier to the Rebel Angels Samahazai and Azazel. They revealed the secrets of Heaven to Solomon, and, after being thrown out of Paradise, they taught mankind medicine and languages and law and other nifty accoutrements of civilization. Darcourt, upon being asked to choose which he would rather be, chooses Samahazai, as "Azazel is to zizzy."

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