Documents associated with: Ouida
Record 1 of 3
System Number: 10034
Date: 7 January 1877
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: [unknown]
Repository: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
Call Number: HRC 36
Document Type: PD/MsS[1]
PLEASE NAME YOUR FAVORITE
NAME Maria[2] -
COLOUR Payne's Grey[3] -
FLOWER Calceolaria [4]-
OCCUPATION Whittling -
RECREATION Church & Royal Academy
STUDY Brown
POET Mrs. Barbauld [5]-
PROSE WRITER Dr. Blair[6] -
RELIGIOUS PROSE WRITER Soloman[7] [sic] -
NOVELIST Ouida[8] -
CHARACTER IN HISTORY Mazeppa[9] -
FICTITIOUS CHARACTER George Washington [10]-
PUBLIC CHARACTER The bailiff -
SPEAKER The Speaker[11] -
FRENCH AUTHOR Mme. de Stäel[12] -
GERMAN POET Ella[13] -
RELIGIOUS WORK Sir Joshua Reynolds[14]
MUSICAL COMPOSER Sankey[15].
SCRIPTURE CHARACTER Michal[16] -
VIRTUE Modesty -
AND NAME THE VICE YOU MOST DISLIKE Prevarication
J A McN. Whistler.
[butterfly signature]
Jan. 7. 1877 -
2 Lindsey Houses. Chelsea
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. PD/MsS
The heading and questions are printed, with dotted lines for the answers, within a simple, decorative margin. The answers were filled in by JW in pen and ink. The spelling in the heading (FAVORITE) suggests the sheet came from America.
2. Maria
The answers are mostly light-hearted. This name could have been chosen as a compliment one of the company who were engaged in the parlour game.
3. Payne's Grey
This well-known colour might have been considered the dominant colour in some of JW's portraits and Nocturnes.
4. Calceolaria
Tropical American scrophulariaceous plants, with slipper-shaped flowers.
5. Mrs. Barbauld
Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1845), née Aitken, poet [more].
6. Dr. Blair
Possibly Dr Hugh Blair (1718-1800), minister [more]. He was a friend of Hume, Melville, and "Ossian" MacPherson, and his sermons were admired by Dr. Johnson as 'the best example of the style of the moderate divines of the time'.
7. Soloman
Solomon (b. 1033 BC), third king of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba. The 'Songs of Solomon', in the Old Testament, are not, of course, prose.
8. Ouida
'Ouida', née Louise de la Ramée (1839-1908), novelist [more]. Her novels were considered rather daring, dealing with 'dubious phases of military and fashionable life' (Oxford Companion to English Literature).
9. Mazeppa
Evan Stepanovitch Mazeppa (ca 1645 - d.1709), Cossack leader [more]. He abandoned his allegiance to Peter the Great to fight for Charles XII of Sweden at the battle of Poltova. In Byron's famous poem Mazeppa, published in 1819, Mazeppa was punished for an intrigue by being tied to a horse but was rescued by peasants.
10. George Washington
George Washington (1732-1799), first U. S. President [more].
11. The Speaker
The Speaker keeps order in the House of Commons, in the British Parliament.
12. Mme. de Stäel
Anne Louise Germaine de Stäel (1766-1817), née Necker, writer [more], who is best known for De l'Allemagne (1810).
13. Ella
'Ella' may be a fictional or imaginary character.
14. Sir Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), painter [more]. Reynolds was revered as an immensely successful portrait painter and one-time President of the Royal Academy.
15. Sankey
Ira David Sankey (1840-1908), evangelist and hymn writer [more]. 50 million copies of his immensely popular Sacred Songs and Solos (1873) were sold.
16. Michal
Michal, younger daughter of King Saul, wife of David. She saved David in his distress and mocked him in his triumph.