Dionysus

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(PROSPERO'S BANQUET). • See also Deserted Places, Invisibility Mystery.

Enoch Arden In Tennyson's poem of the same name (1864), Enoch Arden is shipwrecked and presumed dead for ten years. By the time he returns, his wife Annie has remarried and, observing from afar the couple's happiness, Enoch decides not to ruin it by making himself known.

Atlantis Atlantis was a legendary island continent in the ocean west of the Pillars of Hercules. According to Plato in the Timaeus, Atlantis was beautiful and prosperous and ruled part of Europe and Africa, but following volcanic eruptions it was swallowed up by the sea.

Under the clouds out there it's as still, and lost, as Atlantis.

THOMAS PYNCHON Gravity's Rainbow, 1973

In those days . . . the island of Britain was no island at all but part of the ancient kingdom of Atlantis, which, when it sank beneath the waves, left this western part to be our kingdom.

PETER ACKROYD The House of Dr Dee, 1993

Bermuda Triangle The Bermuda Triangle is an area of the western Atlantic bounded by Bermuda, Florida, and Puerto Rico which is supposedly associated with an unusually high number of unexplained disappearances of ships and aircraft.

I'd entered what Renée's mother calls the Bermuda Triangle of Health, which is pretty terrifying.

SIMON GRAY Gray's Anatomy, 1993

Cheshire Cat In Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), the Cheshire Cat is a large cat with a broad fixed grin. Alice watches as the Cheshire Cat's body gradually disappears 'beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had

gone'. • See special entry • ALICE IN WONDERLAND on p. 10.

Affairs of greater moment' would occupy more and more of his attention, until gradually, like the Cheshire cat, he had faded altogether out of the world of the schoolroom and the nursery into higher and more comfortable spheres. The boys settled down again to happiness.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

'Where's the elevator?' I called out. 'Don't work.' He disappeared, leaving a cackle hanging in the air behind him like the Cheshire cat's grin.

MIKE PHILLIPS Point of Darkness, 1994

Labour policies are like the Cheshire cat: look twice and they have disappeared, leaving only Mr Blair's enduring smile.

777e Independent on Sunday, 1996

Amelia Earhart Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) was an American aviator, the first woman to fly the Atlantic in 1928, and the first woman to do so solo in 1932, completing the journey from Newfoundland to Londonderry in a time of i31/4 hours. The aircraft carrying Earhart and her navigator, Frederick J. Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a subsequent round-the- world flight in 1937.

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Jimmy Hoffa Jimmy Hoffa (1913-c. 1975) was a US labour leader, president of the Teamsters' Union (transport workers) from 1957. He disappeared mysteriously in 1975 and is believed to have been murdered.

Finding first-rate outfield arms today is like searching river bottoms for Jimmy Hoffa.

Show, 1990

Lord Lucan Lord Lucan (b. 1934) was a British aristocrat who mysteriously disappeared in 1974 on the night that his wife was attacked and his children's nanny was murdered. He has never been found.

He stood beside her car. 'You're that sure he's coming back?' she said, getting in. He extended his hand. 'Bet,' he said. 'How much?' 'Why so sure?' she pressed. 'Who wants

Macavity In T. S. Eliot's collection of poems Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (!939)J Macavity the Mystery Cat is the criminal mastermind, the 'fiend in feline shape', who always has an alibi and always manages to elude Scotland Yard and the Flying Squad: 'For when they reach the scene of crime— Macavity's not there!'

Mary Celeste The Mary Celeste (commonly, though erroneously, referred to as the Marie Celeste) was an American brig that set sail from New York for Genoa and was found drifting in the North Atlantic in December 1872 in perfect condition but abandoned. What happened to the crew has remained a mystery ever since.

She vanished so swiftly and so completely that journalists of the time scented something as delicious as the lost continent of Atlantis, or the Mary Celeste.

PHILIP PULLMAN Shadow in the North, 1988

A quick scoping of the kitchen didn't tell me much. There were no half-eaten meals on the table, no coffee bubbling on the hotplate. This wasn't a Marie Celeste situation, this looked like somebody who'd gone on holiday in a slight rush.

MIKE RIPLEY Family of Angels, 1996

Prospero's banquet In Shakespeare's The Tempest (1623), Prospero is the exiled Duke of Milan who practises magic on a remote enchanted island. After causing the shipwreck of his brother Antonio and his party, Prospero sends his servant, the spirit Ariel, to present a banquet to them and then to make it instantly vanish.

Scarlet Pimpernel 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' is the name assumed by the English nobleman Sir Percy Blakeney, the hero of a series of novels by Baroness Orczy, including The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905). Apparently a lazy fop, he daringly rescues aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution and smuggles them out of France. His calling-card is the sign of the red flower from which he takes his pseudonym. The Scarlet Pimpernel's exploits inspire the famous rhyme:

'We seek him here, we seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?

That demmed, elusive Pimpernel?'

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His name can be applied to anyone who is difficult to find or catch.

I'm asking Wilson, but he's gone away—to Lagos for a week or two. The damned elusive Pimpernel. Just when I wanted him.

GRAHAM CREENE The Heart of the Matter, 1948

Sennacherib Sennacherib (d. 68i BC) was King of Assyria 705-681 BC, devoting much of his reign to suppressing revolts in various parts of his empire. He sacked Babylon in 689. According to the account in the Bible, when he invaded Palestine in the reign of Hezekiah, his army was destroyed by a pestilence brought by the Angel of Death: 'And the Lord sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria' (2 Chr. 32: 21). This episode is the subject of Byron's poem 'The Destruction of Sennacherib'.

Max felt his suave sophistication return with the rush of elation that an ailing diva must have when she finds her voice again. A touch here, a word there, and the guests disappeared like the hosts of Sennacherib.

SARA PARETSKY V. I. for Short, 1995

Disapproval

This theme is chiefly concerned with moral disapproval and condemna-

tion. • See also Sternness.

Antisthenes Antisthenes (C.445-C.365) was the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, whose pupils included Diogenes. Antisthenes despised art and learning, and the luxuries and comforts of life, and taught that virtue consists in self-control and independence of worldly needs.

John Calvin John Calvin (1509-64) was a French Protestant theologian and reformer, a leader of the Protestant Reformation in France and Switzerland. His name is mentioned in the context of adherence to strict moral behaviour and principles.

'When did you get to be such a little Calvinist, anyway?' 'I'm not talking about sex; I'm talking about lying!

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN Sure of You, 1990

'I never agreed with all that entertainment for the tourists,' the old man added. 'At least the gambling and whoring. I'm no Calvinist, but to me that's just dirty money.'

PAUL JOHNSTON Body Politic, 1997

CatO Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), known as Cato the Elder or Cato the Censor, was a Roman statesman, orator, and writer. As censor in 184 BC he was vigorously opposed to luxury and decadence and tried to restore simplicity to Roman life. He became convinced that Rome would never be safe until Carthage was destroyed, ending all his speeches in the Senate with the words

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'Delenda est Carthago' ('Carthage must be destroyed'). His name is associated with severity and austerity in matters of morality.

Seduced by an ageing libertine, Mr Quarles's mistresses were surprised to find themselves dining with a Hebrew prophet, and taking their amusements with a disciple of Cato or of Calvin.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

Diogenes Diogenes (C.400-C.325 BC) was a Greek philosopher, the most famous of the Cynics. He promoted self-sufficiency and the denial of physical pleasure and rejected social conventions. According to legend he lived in a barrel, to demonstrate his belief that the virtuous life was the simple life. One story told of him is that he carried a lantern out in daylight, saying that he was seeking an honest man.

I was filled with a sour scorn that I now know was nothing but envy, but then mistook it for philosophy. I didn't really want the clothes, I didn't really want the girl or the booze, but it scalded me to see him enjoying them, and I hobbled away grumbling to myself like Diogenes.

ROBERTSON DAviEs Fifth Business, 1970

He immediately built himself a grass hut, Indian style, thatched it with palm, and to the wonder of the locals began to live like Diogenes and labour like Sisyphus, except with better results.

LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, 1990

Mrs Grundy Mrs Grundy is an off-stage character from Thomas Morton's play Speed the Plough (1798), whose name is repeatedly invoked with the words: 'What will Mrs Grundy say?' In the play she represents conventional propriety and prudery. 'Grundyism' is the narrow-minded condemnation of unconventional behaviour.

Fastidious men do not live in pigsties, nor can they long remain in politics or business. There are nature's Greeks and nature's Mrs Crundies.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

Perhaps it would turn out to be a fortuitous early warning, making Dalziel step back before he got in too deep. Shit, thought Wield with sudden self-disgust. How mealyminded could you get! A few months of what felt like a stable partnership had turned him into Mrs Grundy!

REGINALD HILL The Wood Beyond, 1996

John Knox John Knox (c. 1505-72) was a Scottish Protestant reformer, the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Like those of other famous Protestant figures, his name is sometimes used in the context of moral uprightness or disapproval.

Whose love is given over-well

Shall look on Helen's face in hell,

Whilst they whose love is thin and wise

May view John Knox in paradise.

DOROTHY PARKER 'Partial Comfort' in Sunset Gun, 1928

'Camille has been famous for a whole year now,' she said dejectedly, 'and we're no nearer getting married. I thought it would be neat if I got pregnant, it would hurry