Welcome to Downton Abbey Idioms – Episode Two! In this episode, Matthew Crawley, the lawyer who has unexpectedly become heir to Lord Grantham’s title and estate after the death of the two nearest heirs in the sinking of the Titanic, has arrived at Downton. It’s interesting how both families are prejudiced and in both there’s a sort of discussion on how to face the unwelcome situation: Matthew is less than inclined to change his life and become a member of the aristocracy, and his mother rightly (and with a lot of tact) leads him to see his attitude is actually snobbish. In Lord Grantham’s house, on the other hand, Robert is trying to make his wife see that since the situation cannot be changed the best thing is to accept it and make the best out of it. The following dinner is a delightful example of British humour, with almost everyone managing to be rude without using one single rude word. But Maggie Smith’s Lady Violet almost moved me to tears when she asked, with the tone and look of someone entirely lost: what is a weekend? Which speaks more than a thousand words about the distance between their world and the difficulty of understanding each other, although they speak the same language.

There’s no mechanism for you to do so

A mechanism is a special way of getting something done within a particular system. Mathew’s mother is saying there’s no way for him to refuse to be heir.

You saw how many of the village turned out for the service

turn out = go somewhere to attend a meeting, ceremony, etc.

I wouldn’t want to push in

to intrude. Lady Mary answers testily to Mrs. Crawley’s invitation because she’s overheard Matthew’s apparently arrogant assumption that the family will want him to marry one of the girls. He was saying so just before he saw Mary and was actually besotted, as she could not have failed to notice.

She’s a match for the old lady

Lady Violet has found someone who is able to stand up to her             be a match for = be well suited or, as in this case, be as strong and determined as someone seen as his or her competitor or rival. This is one rare case in which Thomas probably tries to express the feeling of the whole staff, but is harshly rebuked by Mr. Carson. As we know, manners are very important to him. Indeed, just when his sense of “pride and dignity” threatens to make us (and the other servants) see him as a very pompous, self-important prig, a letter arrives. Soon, the contents of that letter will show a very, very human side of poor Mr. Carson, who emerges humbler and also much nicer from a tough spot.

I’m afraid it’s a case of the war horse and the drum

Mrs. Crawley means she is feeling the call (since her father and late husband were doctors and she trained as a nurse), just like a war horse hearing the sound of drums. She

And I’m just stood there like a chump watching a man get dressed

A chump is a fool. Poor Molesley feels useless as Matthew doesn’t want a valet. He is used to do everything himself and is determined not to change his habits in any way.

Lady Mary’s in for a surprise. Seems they want to fix her up with Mr. Crawley

Be in for (a surprise, a disappointment, etc.) = to be guaranteed to receive or experience an unexpected outcome, especially a negative one.          fix sb up = find a romantic partner, or arrange a date or meeting for someone with another person for such purpose. So Matthew turns out to be right after all!

Would she have though, when it came to it?

in the end, actually. Anna knows Lady Mary is strong-willed and stubborn and although many thought the late heir-to-be Patrick was her fiancé, she was not too keen to marry him. She probably wouldn’t have, in the end, or so Anna tells Gwen.

I thought you might be a “great lady nurse” and faint at the sight of blood, but I see you’re made of sterner stuff

Made of sterner stuff, means someone with a strong character, determined and well capable of dealing with difficulties and problems. In this conversation, we can see a battle of wills between Dr. Clarkson and Mrs. Crawley. A young farmer, John Drake, suffers from dropsy of the heart. Mrs. Crawley suggests a relatively new treatment her husband and other doctors had already tried with some success. Dr. Clarkson admired Mrs. Crawley’s late husband’s work and is beginning to admire her as well. However, he is conservative and afraid, as his subsequent words prove: “We would set an impossible precedent, when every villager could demand the latest fad in treatment”. In practice, he is saying this would become a rule, everyone could ask to receive the newest treatment, as if it was just a trend or a fashion.

And if anyone thinks I’m going to pull my forelock and curtsey to this Mr. Nobody from Nowhere…

Pulling or tugging your forelock means show deference or obsequious respect. O’Brien is speaking of Matthew Crawley, and Lady Grantham enters the room at exactly that moment. So her question: “Is it your place to do so?”   is actually a statement:    It isn’t your place, i.e. it isn’t right or appropriate for you to criticize a member of the family. And immediately afterwards she adds: “You’re sailing perilously close to the wind, O’Brien”. Sail close to the wind means to behave in a manner that is on the verge of being dangerous, improper or illegal, take a risk by doing or saying something that may be considered unacceptable.

Don’t push your luck, Thomas

push one’s luck = take a risk on the assumption that one will continue to be successful or in favour.

Who does she think she’s fooling?

Lady Grantham’s words have offended Mrs. O’Brien because she probably wanted to believe they were friends.

Why are you so against him?

Be against someone = be opposed to, dislike or not approve of someone. Sybil is always the kindest of the three girls, as well as the least prejudiced, and she doesn’t’ understand why Mary is so angry at Matthew.

It’s too ludicrous for words

it’s too absurd even to talk about or comprehend ludicrous = so foolish, unreasonable, or out of place as to be amusing. Mary is talking (to her mother) of the fact that in the twentieth century, a woman still has to “lose her money to a distant cousin of her husband”.

I’m afraid the good doctor and I did not see eye to eye

See eye to eye = be in full agreement. Mrs. Crawley has not given in (she never does), and is trying to win Lord Grantham’s support on the subject of Mr. Drake’s treatment.

I’ll keep an eye out

keep an eye out = look out for something with particular attention. In this case, Mr. Carson refers to the fact that Thomas is bullying William

Her father was king Cepheus, whose country was being ravaged by storms

Ravaged = severely and extensively damaged, destroyed, devastated. Mary is telling the story of Andromeda at dinner, to compare Matthew to the hideous (disgusting, horrific) monster to which his father would sacrifice her. She apparently hopes that some Perseus will help her out. Matthew’s answer is very shrewd, he’s perfectly polite, and yet he’s telling her, I’m not sure you are the princess and I am the monster. Matthew is struck by Mary’s beauty, but this doesn’t mean he’s entirely at her feet, and we are beginning to understand this may be what annoys her most.

My dear papa thought the balloon would go up in the 1880s

if/when the balloon goes up is an expression that implies impending trouble, it means that a situation has suddenly become extremely serious, dangerous or unpleasant. This is a very beautiful conversation, in which Robert and Matthew begin to better understand each other. The passion with which Lord Grantham talks of the place, in particular, shows Matthew that although in a different way from him, the earl has been working for a dream, and is worried that it may crumble like the stones of the property. Perhaps he believed that the life of the aristocrats was all a bed of roses, and is beginning to see it isn’t. Lord Grantham, on his part, has already accepted Matthew as his heir, and is about to accept him as somone who can really help him save the estate and everything he cares for.

Uh-uh, don’t go all high and mighty with me

Go/act high and mighty = use self-important or arrogant manners. Grigg is addressing Mr. Bates who, in the absence of both William and Thomas, has answered the front door. This would be a totally unimportant event, but it introduces us to Carson’s secret. Moreover, Carson begins to appreciate Mr. Bates much more.

If you think you’re tucking me away somewhere, you’ve got another thing coming

tuck away = store in a safe place, hidden in a quiet place where few people go; you’ve got another thing coming = you’re wrong, think again. Still Grigg talking.

Do I take it you know this man?

I take it (that) = I assume, used for saying that you expect that the person who you are talking to knows something or will do something (Sbaglio o…?). The following conversation is mainly between Lord Grantham, Carson and Grigg, in the presence of Sybil, Bates, and Anna, much to Carson’s embarrassment.

I tried to stick him downstairs, out of sight, but he wouldn’t come

Stick sb = force someone to have or do something

Until you couldn’t keep your hands out of the till

Until you stole the earnings of the show

You might as well bear witness to my shame

bear witness to = testify to, be a testimony to, bring evidence or be clear proof of something

On the run

trying to escape from someone such as the police or an enemy

Steady on!

Calm down, stop talking nonsense

He threatened to expose my past to make me a laughingstock in this house

a laughing stock = an object of ridicule, especially referred to someone who should be or sees him/herself as important and/or serious.

Really Carson, there’s no need to be quite so melodramatic. You’re not playing Sydney Carton

Sydney Carton is a central character in Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, a brilliant but depressed and cynical drunkard who is full of self-loathing because of what he sees as his wasted life. By using gentle irony, Lord Downton here manages to convey the message to Carson, in a very skilful way, that it’s okay, he won’t think less of him for what’s happened, and that acting and dancing on the stage (which he tactfully does not mention before the others) is not something of which Carson should be ashamed. He might even be proud of it!

You’ll not always be in charge, you know. The day is coming when your lot will have to toe the line just like the rest of us

your lot = the group to which people like you belong; toe the line = accept, usually unwillingly, the rules, standards or principles set by a higher authority, do as you are expected or supposed to.

Well, Mrs. Crawley, I have a feeling we will sink or swim together

Sink or swim = referred to a situation in which one has to succeed entirely by one’s own efforts, or otherwise they will fail completely and hopelessly. Mrs. Crawley has had her way and Drake will be treated with adrenaline as she wanted. Dr. Clarkson tells her that whether they succeed or fail, they will both face the consequences or be rewarded.

At the risk of being impertinent, on your own head be it

Lord Grantham means to appoint Mrs. Crawley to chairwoman of the hospital board. Dr. Clarkson tells him that if he is ready to deal with Lady violet’s reaction, he has his full support.

Would you find me very ungrateful if I dispensed with his services?

Dispense with = do without, get rid of, stop using something Matthew is asking Lord Grantham advice because he thinks of dismissing Molesley.

Well, it’s nothing to me, I’ve bigger fish to fry

It’s nothing to me = I don’t mind; bigger fish to fry = more important or more interesting things to turn one’s attention to, more pressing issues to attend to. Mary and her sisters are chattering and as usual, she acts nastier than she really is.

Have you been poking around in my things?

Poke around = look around a place in search of something, look for something by moving things around, usually in a not very organized or careful way. Still Mary talking to Edith.

You won’t be any the wiser, but his name is…

be none/not be any the wiser = not know or understand more, not find out about something. Mary’s about to tell her sisters the name of the “bigger fish, a suitor named Evelyn Napier, who is the son of a viscount.

I want to see the old bat’s face when they announce it

Old bat = an old and slightly crazy woman, a virago. Mrs. Hughes, who is usually very restrained, expresses her feelings in a very colourful way, for her. Mrs. Crawley is going to be appointed chairwoman of the hospital board and Mrs. Hughes is very pleased that Lady Violet has finally found “her match”.

Fiddly

Complicated or awkward to do or use. After speaking with Lord Grantham, Matthew has changed his mind regarding Molesley and is trying to let him know he appreciates his help and advice. The following remark has the same purpose, when Matthew asks him how he managed to remove a mark from his jacket, to acknowledge his skills. Molesley answers: I tried it with this and I tried it with that, until it yielded, that is, I tried various methods, until it finally went away. He wants to appear modest, but is clearly very pleased at Crawley’s new appreciative attitude.

Our little hospital must surely grow and thrive, with two such doughty champions

thrive = prosper, flourish; doughty = brave and determined, resolute, determined, fearless, dauntless. Of course, Dr. Clarkson’s speech is filled with British irony, as everyone in the room is well aware that the two “doughty champions” are not on the best of terms with each other, to say the least.  

I wish to thank TFD (The Free Dictionary) for its existence, but also the Macmillan Dictionary, the Collins Dictionary, the Cambridge Dictionary…

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