Brigadoon
Glossary
- Brigadoon: "Brig o’ Doon", from the
poem "Tam O’Shanter" by Robert Burns, in which Tam must cross the
brig (Scots for bridge) over the river Doon
- The story of Brigadoon is based on Germelshausen,
a German
story by Friedrich Gerstäcker.
- The Highlands of Scotland is the rugged mountainous area of the
north and west of a (not well defined) boundary separating it from the Lowlands.
The two areas are traditionally very different, in language, religion, and
culture. The highlands traditionally spoke a form of Gaelic, related to
Irish, whereas the lowlands spoke Scots, a form of English.(Today, just
about everyone speaks standard English, but the higlanders have an accent
that sounds Irish, whereas the lowlanders speak with what most everyone else
thinks of as a Scottish burr.) The highlands remained attached to Roman
Catholicism after the Protestant Reformation; the lowlands accepted the
Presbyterian form of Christianity. The culture of the highlands also more
nearly resembles Irish culture than lowlands. The highlands were much more
densely populated before 1750 than now, due to several factors, including
the highland clearings following the Second Jacobite Rising in 1745 ("The
’45") and the subsequent "highland clearings", and the
industrial revolution, which attracted many of those remaining to the great
cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
- Auchintoul: There is an estate
called Rosskeen and Auchintoul, in the (pre-1975) County of Ross
and Cromarty. There is also an Auchintoul House in the County of
Banff, which is in the Lowlands. [I, 1]
- Braemore: There is a Braemore
village, on River Broom. and also Braemore
Junction, at the junction of A-832 and A-835, near Ullapool,
both in the (pre-1975) County of Ross and Cromarty, now in the
(post-1975) region of Highlands. There is a Braemore
in Caithness. You can read also about the "Beauty of
Braemore". [I, 1]
- Maybe we took the high road instead of the low road is a
reference to the traditional Scottish song "Loch Lomond", first published
in 1841. There are several notions about the meaning of the words,
but the best known concerns two Scots who were captured by the English in
the Rising of 1745 ("The ’45") in favor of Prince Charles Edward
Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"). One of the rebels was to
executed and the other let free. The notion was that when people die, they
return to their homeland, under ground, as it were, along "the low
road", whereas the freed rebel would have to take "the high
road" and walk back to Scotland over the mountains. [I, 1]
- By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes,
- Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
- Where me and my true love will ne’er meet again
- On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
- Chorus:
- O you’ll tak’ the high road and I’ll tak’ the low road
- And I’ll be in Scotland afore ye,
- For me and my true love will ne’er meet again
- On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomond.
- A cathedral is, properly, a church where a bishop has his cathedra,
or chair. In common parlance, the term is used for a large church. In
Scotland, because the Church of Scotland is Presbyterian, and thus does not
have bishops, the medieval cathedrals have lost that status. They are,
however, still informally referred to as cathedrals.[I, 1]
- Rand McNally is a map company with headquarters in Chicago. They
have now taken over Thomas Brothers, and publish the famous Thomas Guide,
the popular atlases of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities. [I, 1]
- bonnie: chiefly a Scots word meaning "pretty" or
"excellent". [I, 2]
- kirk: Scots for "church": Both words are derived from Old
English (Anglo-Saxon) circe and cyrice, from Greek Κυριακη
οικια
(Kyriakē oikia) = "house of the Lord". [I, 5]
- glen: a narrow secluded valley (of Celtic
origin) [I, 2 &c]
- bairn: a child (related to English born).
Lerner seems to be treating the singular bairn as a
plural. [I, 2]
- brae: a hillside; a slope; a bank; a hill [I, 1 &c]
- laddie, lassie: the ending"-ie" is
frequent in Scotland: e.g., "postie" for
"postman" [I, 1]
- lea (sometimes spelled ley): a
grassland or meadow (pronounced LEE or LAY) [I, 2]
- ken: to know (somebody or something) [I, 2]
- candy: I read somewhere that Scotland has the
highest per-capita consumption of candy of any country in the
world [I, 2]
- waistcoat: what Americans call a vest
(pronounce wescut) [I, 2]
- daughter of two first cousins: in some places, a
relationship that would be considered incestuous, but in others, about the
closest relationship that would not be incestuous [I, 2]
- Russia . . . "more and more" in Europe:
since the play was originally presented around 1950, and at that
time the Soviet Union, which consisted mostly of Russia, seemed
to be expanding all over Europe; turn left is
geographically correct, but it is also "left" in the
political sense. [I, 2]
- uranium: A heavy radioactive metal, used chiefly as fuel
for nuclear reactors and weapons, but it also has uses in
pigments. Around 1950, uranium was considered a major factor in
United States power and prestige, and did not have nearly the
amount of negative connotation it has today. [I, 2]
- heather: A low
shrub with minute evergreen leaves, and handsome clusters of pink
flowers. It is used in Great Britain for brooms, thatch, beds for
the poor, and for heating ovens. It is called both heather, and ling. Also, a place
overgrown with heath; any cheerless tract of country overgrown
with shrubs or coarse herbage. [I, 2]
- thistle: a symbol of
Scotland. The story goes that during the
Viking age Norwegian invaders attempted to surprise the Scots by
attacking them at night while they slept, but one Norwegian
stepped on a thistle and his shriek of pain alerted the Scots and
saved them from defeat. [I, 2]
- claret: a dry red wine from the Bordeaux
region of France [I, 2]
- gloaming: evening twilight [I, 2: "Heather on the
Hill"]
- rill: a small brook or streamlet [I, 2: "Heather on
the Hill"]
- Haig and Haig Pinch: a
brand of blended Scots whisky. The reason Meg has never heard of
it is that Haig and Haig was founded in 1877 or thereabouts. Pinch
is known as The Dimple everywhere except in the USA. Pinch is distinguished even
further by its famous triangular, dimpled bottle wrapped in wire net.
Pinch is also known to be a drink favored by James
Bond. (Read
more on Scots whiskies.) [I, 4]
- Whisky is spelled without an e in
Scotland, Wales, Canada, and Japan, but in Ireland it is spelled whiskey
(with an e). In the United States, official government
publications spell it whisky, but the majority of proprietors
spell it whiskey.
- dominie [from Latin dominus
magister]: a schoolmaster or pedagogue (chiefly Scottish) [I, 4]
- three-cornered hat, also called a tricorn,
or tricorne, or tri-cornered hat, is a style of hat popular
from the late 17th century to just before the French Revolution (1780s). It
was worn as a part of military and naval uniforms, as well as civilian
dress. It had gutters that could direct rainwater down the wearer’s
shoulders, rather than on his face. [I, 4]
- The marriage laws of Scotland were different from those of England.
Under customary law from the middle ages, a man and a woman were legally
married when the parties vowed to take each other as husband and wife, even
in the absence of witnesses. This could cause problems: without witnesses
and written records, a couple might not easily be able to prove they were
married. The Council of Trent (1545-63) ruled that a
marriage must be witnessed by a priest (or at least a deacon) of the Roman
church, with two additional witnesses. This was only
recognized in Roman Catholic countries. But the British Parliament passed
the Marriage Act in 1753, which required
a valid marriage to be witnessed by a priest of the Church of England.
This only applied to England and Wales, because Scotland had its own legal
system. Thus to get around the marriage restrictions in England, couples
would travel to Gretna Green, which is just across the Scottish border. The
Marriage Act also did not apply to Britain’s overseas colonies, so to this
day common-law marriages are still recognized in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa,
Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia,
and in several Canadian provinces. (California abolished common-law
marriage in 1895.) Scotland finally abolished "marriage by habit and
repute" in 2006, the last country in Europe to do so. [I, 6]
- country dance: A folk
dance in which two lines of dancers face each other. There are both English and Scottish
country dances. In Ireland a similar kind of dancing is known as set dancing.
Related forms in the United States are contra dancing and square dancing.
Scottish country dances are usually classed as jigs,
reels, and strathspeys. The main difference is
a jig is in 6/8 time and a reel
in 2/4; a strathspey is a slow reel. [II, 3]
- piobrochead: probably related to pibroch (pronounced
['pibrox] = (PEE-brokh)), a bagpipe tune, not originally associated with
dance; from Gaelic pìobaireachd, meaning pipe tune. [II, 3]
- old fashioned (Jane’s
drink): whisky bitters and sugar with fruit slices; possibly the oldest
drink called a "cocktail". It is traditionally served in a proper
glass, called an old fashioned glass, named for the drink. [II, 4]
- rye and soda: a drink made from soda water and rye whiskey. In the
United States, rye whiskey must be made from at least 51% rye. [II, 4]
- DDT: A colorless contact insecticide, C14H9Cl5, moderately toxic to humans and animals when
swallowed or absorbed through the skin. It was used to eradicate
mosquitoes and greatly increased agricultural production. But
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring led to a great outcry
against its use. It has been banned in the United States for most
uses since 1972. Its use still remains controversial. [II, 4]
Note: The symbols [II, 3] refer to the act and scene numbers: [II, 3]
means Act II, Scene 3.
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