"pumpernickel court"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I am very, very confused.

Carlyle invented the fictional dukedom of Pumpernickel, and Thackery
borrowed the place for his Vanity Fair. Carlyle also invented the
"Pumpernickel court", ie, the court at Pumpernickel. It is not a place name.

I do not believe that either Carlyle or Thackery ever used the phrase
"Pumpernickel court'.
DanG


On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 12:46 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "pumpernickel court"
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> "pumpernickel court" not in OED.
>
> 1)  1892 --
>
> In 1830 he left the university and went to
> Weimar, and some of his most pleasing
> sketches--those in which he describes the life at
> Pumpernickel Court--were doubtless drawn from his
> recollections of this period of his life.
>
> The Virginia University Magazine, May-June 1892, page 519.  Here a
> place-name.
>
> This is in an article on
> Thackery.  "Pumpernickel" can be found in Vanity
> Fair  GBooks says in 9 times in an 1848 edition,
> always as a place name; but not "pumpernickel
> court".  And perhaps in other Thackery writings, looking at GBooks results.
>
> 2)  1894 --
>
> "Oh, at Pumpernickel!" said the Colonel. "... At
> Pumpernickel, I represented the Queen and Country
> in a sort of way, and I was therefore a person of
> consequence, to whom the Pumpernickel Court, and
> Prince Hermann among the rest, could not but be civil."
>
> Ä Prince's Love-Story", by J. Maclaran Cobban. in
> Chamber's Journal, April 7, 1894, page 217, col.
> 1.  [on page 216, col. 2, Hermann is described as
> "His Royal Highness Prince Hermannof
> Schweiningen-Pumpernickel".]  Still a place-name.
>
> 3)  1914 --
>
> Arranging the congregation with due deference to
> rank was quite as difficult a process for our
> forefathers as the ceremonies of a Pumpernickel court.
>
> Mary Caroline Crawford, Social Life in Old New
> England, page 166.  Becoming metaphorical?
>
> 4)  1977, but citing an earlier writer --
>
> Though she was granddaughter to Queen Victoria,
> first cousin to the Kaiser and sister to the
> Grand Duchess Serge, she came from what Carlyle
> contemptuously called 'a Pumpernickel Court'[54].
>
> Michael Sidney Tyler-Whittle, The Last Kaiser: a
> Biography of William II, German Emperor ..., page
> 154.  This is a snippet only, but presumably the
> source is given in footnote 54.
> -----
>
> Two other GBooks results, allegedly 1966 and
> 1981, both also attributing "pumpernickel court"
> to (Thomas?) Carlyle.  Is the use attributed to
> Carlye metaphorical?  And it would certainly be earlier than 1914.
>
> Joel
>
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