An exchange, from ADA ( dialogues!):
- ‘Tell me, Bouteillan,’ asked Marina,
‘what other good white wine do we have — what can you recommend?’ The butler
smiled and whispered a fabulous name.
-‘Yes, oh, yes,’ said Demon. ‘Ah, my
dear, you should not think up dinners all by yourself.[...] What else,
Van?’
-‘You still beat me at fencing [...] That’s not real "sudak",
papa, though it’s tops, I assure you.’
(Marina, having failed to obtain the
European product in time for the dinner, had chosen the nearest thing, wall-eyed
pike, or ‘dory,’ with Tartar sauce and boiled young potatoes.)
-‘Ah!’ said
Demon, tasting Lord Byron’s Hock. ‘This redeems Our Lady’s
Tears.’
Bouteillan whispers a fabulous name to Marina. Van
advises his father about a "sudak" substitute, while we learn that Marina was
offering "wall-eyed pike" or "dory" for dinner.
Next Demon tastes wine from the Rhine or Moselle region,
mentioning Byron*, and "Our Lady's Tears."
*Wikiquotes, from Byron, offers The Waltz (l.29)
"Imperial Waltz! imported from the Rhine (Famed for the growth of pedigrees
and wine), Long be thine import from all duty free, And hock itself be less
esteem'd than thee."
Query: What do these "Our Lady's Tears" indicate? I once
tasted "Lachrima Christi" ( Our Lord's Tears), a sweet white wine from
grapes that grow close to the Vesuvium, but it shouldn't be offered
during dinner.
An option would be "Liebfraumilch" ( the labels often
have Our Lady suckling infant Jesus). Is there such a wine? Might this be a
reference to Dolores ( Dolores as in "Our Lady of Tears"), to whom Van also
mentions in relation to Swinburne and his
poem?
I fail to understand all the links which seem to demand a
common thread.
Waltzes, tears and legs in wine, Dolores, Byron, incest,
Ada... what else? Is there any "fishy clue"?