The Return of the Native Allusions & Cultural References

References to Literature, Art, and Music

• "Divine Florentine" a.k.a. Dante Alighieri (1.3.6)
• Albrecht Drürer (German painter) (1.3.9)
• "Queen Eleanor's Confession" (English ballad) (1.3.11-12, 1.3.112)
• "Lydia," folk tune of Psalm 133 (1.5.87)
• Cimmerians, from Homer's Odyssey (1.6.3)
• Sappho, Greek poet (1.6.11)
• "War March of the Priests" the finale of Felix Mendelssohn's cantata "Athalie" (1.7.6)
• Lotus eaters, from Homer's Odyssey (1.7.6)
• Alcinous, king of the Phaecians in Homer's Odyssey (1.7.11)
• "a populous solitude," reference to Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1.7.12)
• Scylla, monster that guarded a passage in the Odyssey (1.8.6)
• Charybdis, dangerous whirlpool in the Odyssey (1.8.6)
• Mephistopheles, the devil that Faust made a bargain with (1.9.1)
• James Thompson's "The Castle of Indolence," 1748 (2.1.29)
• Scheherazade, from The Arabian Nights (2.3.17)
• Saint George, play put on by the Egdon mummers (2.4.11)
• Perugino, teacher of artist Raphael (2.4.39)
• Rembrandt, Dutch artist (2.6.3)
• Venus appearing before Aeneas in Virgil's Aeneid (2.6.39)
• Ithuriel, angel in Milton's Paradise Lost (2.7.56)
• "My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is," line of poem by Sir Edward Dyer (3.1 chapter title)
• Pheidias, Athenian sculptor (3.1.1)
• Aeschylus, Greek dramatist (3.1.2)
• John Gay, dramatist and author (3.1.7)
• John Keats, Romantic poet (3.1.7)
• "in striving at high thinking [...]" reference to sonnet by William Wordsworth (3.2.2)
• Benjamin West, American painter (3.2.6)
• Samuel Rogers, poet (3.2.6)
• Thomas Blacklock, blind poet (3.3.111)
• Anthonius Sallaert, Flemish painter (3.3.112)
• Danys van Alsloot, Flemish painter (3.3.112)
• Petrarch, Italian poet famous for his love for Laura (3.4.78)
• Samuel Johnson, "The History of Raselas" (4.2.55)
• "birthplace of Shakespeare," Stratford-upon-Avon, England (4.5.17)
• Aeneas and his father, from Virgil's Aeneid (4.6.33)
• "Beware the fury of a patient man," line from John Dryden's poem "Absalom and Achitophel" (5.1.63)
• Oedipus, Greek mythology and Sophocles's play Oedipus Rex (5.2.118)
• Jack and the Beanstalk (6.1.30)

Biblical References

• Ishmael (1.1.10 and throughout)
• "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3) (1.3.8)
• "Philistine's greaves of brass," reference to Goliath (1 Samuel 17:6) (1.3.32)
• Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, first four books of the New Testament in the Bible (1.3.41)
• The Devil's temptation of Christ (Matthew 4:1-11) (1.3.155)
• Mount Nebo, where Moses views the promised land before dying (Deuteronomy 3:27 and 3:49) (1.3.160)
• Witch of Endor and Samuel (1 Samuel 28) (1.6.102)
• "mentally walked round love," reference to Psalm 48:12 (1.7.15)
• King Saul, Sisera, Jacob, David (biblical figures) (1.7.17)
• "mark of Cain," reference to Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-15) (1.9.2)
• Jared and Mahalaleel (Biblical figures) (2.6.4)
• Abasuerus the Jew, a.k.a. the Wandering Jew of Christian legend (2.7.11)
• Zin, desert through which Israelites travelled to the Promised Land (Numbers 20) (2.7.12)
• John the Baptist (3.2.3)
• "as St. Paul says," reference to Romans 8:22 (3.2.18)
• Pontius Pilate (3.2.23)
• "measure you were going to mete me [...]" (Matthew 7:2) (3.5.28)
• "a time to laugh," reference to Ecclesiastes 3:4 (3.7.5)
• Ahimaaz, 2 Samuel 18 (4.5.12)
• Israelites enslaved in Egypt (4.2.54)
• "old serpent in God's garden," reference to the temptation of Eve in Eden (4.6.47)
• Judas Iscariot (5.1.27)
• "Famine and Sword," reference to Jeremiah 14:15-16 (5.2.24)
• Ascension of Christ (5.2.38)
• Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Luke 5:1-11 (5.2.38)
• Last plague of Egypt, Exodus 11:4-12:36 (5.7.17)
• Gethsemane, garden where Jesus prayed before the crucifixion (5.7.17)
• Saul, first King of Israel (5.7.20)
• Lord's Prayer (5.7.34)
• Lazarus, raised from the dead by Jesus (5.9.55)
• Job, from the Book of Job (6.3.38)
• "gladness of his heart," reference to Song of Solomon 3:11 (6.4.64)
• Sermons on the Mount, reference to Jesus' sermons in Matthew 5-7 (6.4.65)
• "And the king rose up to meet her [...]" quote from 1 Kings 2:12-20 (6.4.67)
• Apostle Paul (4.6.27)

Historical References

• The Doomsday Book, 1086 census ordered by William the Conqueror (1.1.9)
• John Leland (Henry VIII's antiquarian, or historian) (1.1.9)
• Roman Roads, Via Iceniana, Ikenild Street (1.1.12)
• The Gunpowder Plot (1.3.7)
• Amerigo Vespucci (1.4.14)
• "the year four," reference to war with Napoleon in 1804 (1.3.56)
• "Fifth-of-Novembers," reference to Guy Fawkes Night (1.3.132)
• Farinelli, famous Italian castrato singer (1.5.89)
• Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan, Irish playwright and member of Parliament (1.5.89)
• "when a woman deliberates," reference to Cato (4.1), a play by Joseph Addison (1.5.122)
• Julius Caesar (1.6.3 and throughout)
• Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael (September 29) (1.6.6)
• Sarah Kemble Siddons, famous English actress (1.6.11)
• Belshazzar, last king of Babylon (1.6.21)
• Albertus Magnus, German natural philosopher (1.6.44)
• Johann Paul Richter, a.k.a. Jean Paul, German humorist (1.7.8)
• William the Conqueror, Thomas Wentworth, First Earl of Strafford, Napoleon (1.7.17)
• Delphi oracles (1.7.22)
• Heloise, medieval figure (1.7.22)
• Cleopatra (1.7.22)
• Sir John Franklin, polar explorer (1.10.3)
• Frederick the Great of Prussia, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Napoleon, and Queen Louisa of Prussia (1.10.4)
• King Candaules's wife in Herodotus's The Histories (1.10.41)
• "king's head cut off years ago," reference to the beheading of Louis XVI of France (2.1.7)
• John Kitto, biblical scholar (2.3.5)
• Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (2.3.17)
• "Swaflham tinker," reference to old English legend of John Chapman, who dreamt he'd go to London and become rich (2.3.17)
• Madame Tussaud's, waxwork museum in London (2.4.2)
• Napoleon (2.6.11 and throughout)
• Death of Thomas Lyttleton (2.6.38)
• Lavinia Fenton, actress famous for role of Polly Peachum in John Gay's The Beggar's Open (2.6.51)
• Elizabeth Farren, actress who played role of Lydia Languish in Richard Sheridan's The Rivals (2.6.51)
• Baltazar Gracian y Morales, Spanish philosopher (3.1.6)
• Battle of Waterloo (3.1.6)
• Robert Clive, governor of British India (3.1.7)
• Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great (3.2.4)
• Lord Frederick North, British prime minister during part of the American Revolution (3.2.6)
• Plato and Socrates (3.2.23)
• Nicholas Sanderson, blind mathematician (3.3.111)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, famous philosopher (3.6.65)
• Pitt Diamond, acquired by Thomas Pitt in India (3.7.26)
• Sir Thomas Rumbold, governor of Madras, India (3.7.83)
• Famous duel in 1547 between Gui Chabot and La Chateigneraie (4.4.7)
• Colonel Charles Lynch (4.4.23)
• Chateau of Hougomont, HQ of Wellington during the Battle of Waterloo (4.5.17)
• Mary Stuart, Mary Queen of Scots (4.5.17)
• Friedrich Hoffman, Richard Meade, and Felice Fontana, nineteenth-century physicians (3.8.03)
• Sennacherib, king of Assyria (5.7.17)

Mythology References

• Titans (Greek Mythology) (1.1.4)
• Atlantean (Atlas) (1.2.39)
• Maenads, female followers of Dionysus, god of wine (1.3.4)
• Thor and Woden (Norse gods) (1.3.7)
• Prometheus (1.3.8)
• Echo, Greek mythology (2.6.50)
• Tartarus, worst section of the Greek Underworld Hades (1.4.1)
• Mount Olympus (1.7.1)
• "the distaff, the spindle, and the shears," reference to the three Fates in Greek Mythology (1.7.1)
• Sphinx (1.7.3)
• Hades, the Greek Underworld (1.7.7 and throughout)
• Artemis, Athena, Hera (Greek goddesses) (1.7.6)
• Tantalus, Greek mythology (1.9.14)