Radcliffian—romance popular mystery novels written by Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823).
Jonah’s toss—the act of throwing overboard anything unlucky, as happened to Jonah in the Bible (Jonah 1:7–15).
Coke and Blackstone—English lawyers who produced influential legal commentaries.
that lexicon which is based on Holy Writ—a book that defines and explains scripture.
Calvin’s dogma as to total mankind—the philosophy of John Calvin, founder of the Presbyterian faith, that the fate of each person is determined from birth.
an ambidexter implement for effecting the irrational—a deceitful method of pretending to be logical.
Chang and Eng—famous Siamese twins who lived from 1811 to 1874.
Saul’s . . . the comely young David—This allusion compares Claggart’s deadly envy of Billy Budd to King Saul’s envy of David after he creates a name for himself as a warrior and threatens Saul’s heroic stance before his subjects (I Samuel 18:6–13).
groundlings—inferior sailors.
understrapper—a subordinate.
an inordinate usurer—Revenge is like a moneylender who demands high interest rates.
the Pharisee is the Guy Fawkes—a hypocrite like Guy Fawkes, the villain who tried unsuccessfully to blow up London’s Houses of Parliament in 1605.
