Having dispensed with the very first quote, the one from John Donne about Universities as horti conclusi, we move on to the next allusion. I thought at first that it would be perhaps the short phrase “in aeternum floreant”1 with which Sayers opens the Author’s Note, but it seems that this is simply an example of her excellent Latin compositional skill—it’s a hortatory phrase meaning “May they flourish eternally.” (Please correct me if you know anything more about possible allusions in this phrase!)
I will not at this time do a deep-dive into the history of the corporation dump; I can tell you that when I visited Oxford in 2018 there was housing construction taking place upon what, to the best of my knowledge, had been the “spacious and sacred cricket-ground.” I intended to share a picture with you, but I apparently didn’t take one.
In fact, we do not arrive at the next literary allusion until the very last line of the author’s note: “…however realistic the background, the novelists’ only native country is Cloud-Cuckooland…”. I did not know until now that “Cloud-Cuckooland” is derived from The Birds by Aristophanes. I learned this from a helpful entry on the Guardian website, of all places, which I am reproducing here:
I have never read any Aristophanes, and cannot tell you if there is any deeper symbolism to be derived. Aristophanes famously makes fun of Socrates and other brainy types, so it would be in keeping with the concerns of the novel to lead off with light mockery of those who retreat into an academic world (and a little silliness does help balance the ponderous weight of the Donne epigraph).
P.S. Robin was right, words do beget words. Unfortunately for all six of you who have subscribed to this here substack, right now the words are being gotten in my dissertation. These posts are going to be few and far between for a while. Sorry not sorry!
I’m going to take this opportunity to voice my displeasure with the absolutely abysmal typographical editing of the Kindle edition, which renders this phrase as “in aetemum floreant.” I’ve flagged numerous other howlers for them, and I don’t know if they’ve been corrected (one of the perils of having a Kindle is that books are updated silently while you sleep). You simply cannot trust the Kindle text for anything significant.