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Andromeda, Cepheus and Perseus[]

Andromeda, Cepheus and Perseus On the way back to Seriphos Island, Perseus stopped in the kingdom of Ethiopia. This mythical Ethiopia was ruled by King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia, having boasted her daughter Andromeda equal in beauty to the Nereids, drew down the vengeance of Poseidon, who sent an inundation on the land and a sea serpent, Cetus, which destroyed man and beast. The oracle of Ammon announced that no relief would be found until the king exposed his daughter Andromeda to the monster, and so she was fastened naked to a rock on the shore. Perseus slew the monster and, setting her free, claimed her in marriage.[1]

Appearances

Mary: "Her father was King Cepheus, whose country was being ravaged by storms, and in the end, he decided the only way to appease the gods was to sacrifice his eldest daughter to a hideous sea monster. So, they chained her naked to a rock..."
Matthew: "But the sea monster didn't get her, did he?"
Mary: "No. Just when it seemed he was the only solution to her father's problems, she was rescued."
Matthew: "By Perseus."
— Episode 1.02

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Angel Clare[]

Angel Clare is the son of a preacher and suitor to Tess Durbeyfield in the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Tess believes she is unworthy of his proposal due to a prior rape and resulting child that only lived a couple days.

Appearances

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Ariadne[]

Ariadne is a Greek mythology figure associated with labyrinths, due in part of the notable story of Theseus. Ariadne is the daughter of Minos, King of Crete and Queen Pasiphaë, daughter of the sun titan Helios. King Minos tasked her with caretaking the labyrinth where six boys and six girls from Athens were sent each year to be devoured by the Minotaur. She gave Theseus a thread to be able to escape the labyrinth after he killed the Minotaur.[2]

"I only know I shall need Ariadne's thread to find my way out."
Violet Crawley[src]

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Augeus[]

Augeus In Greek mythology, Augeas (or Augeias), whose name means "bright", was king of Elis and father of Epicaste. Some say that Augeas was one of the Argonauts. He is best known for his stables, which housed the single greatest number of cattle in the country and had never been cleaned—until the time of the great hero Heracles. The fifth Labour of Heracles[3] (Hercules in Latin) was to clean the Augean stables.[4]

Appearances

Mary: "A-ha, you started on the Augean task. How are you getting on?"
Matthew: "Badly. I’m beginning to get a sense of how it all works."
Mary: "In a way, it’s probably best you tackle it by yourself."
— Episode 3.04

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Becky Sharpe[]

Becky Sharp is the anti-heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's[5] satirical novel Vanity Fair[6]. A cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate and seduce upper-class men, Sharp is contrasted with the clinging, dependent heroine Amelia Sedley. She befriends Amelia at an expensive girls school where she is given a place because her father teaches there, and uses her as a stepping stone to gain social position. Sharp functions as a picara — a picaresque heroine — or by being a social outsider who is able to expose the manners of the upper gentry to ridicule. Her name ("sharp" having connotations of a "sharper" or con-man) and function suggest that Thackeray intended her to be unsympathetic, and yet she became one of his most popular creations.[7]

Appearances
Molesley: "Ah Daisy, have you decided? Should we discuss the vices of Miss Becky Sharpe?"
Daisy: "I'm tired. I'm going up Mrs. Patmore"
Episode 5.07

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Belshazzar[]

Belshazzar "Bel, protect the king", sometimes called Balthazar, was a 6th-century BC prince of Babylon, the son of Nabonidus and the last king of Babylon, according to the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. In Daniel 5 and 8, Belshazzar is the King of Babylon before the advent of the Medes and Persians. Although there is evidence that Belshazzar existed, his famous narrative and its details are only recorded in the Book of Daniel, which tells the story of Belshazzar seeing the writing on the wall.

Appearances
Mention
William: "What are you giving them to eat?"
Mrs. Patmore: "Not much. They know the money's for the hospital, so they can't expect Belshazzar's feast."
Episode 2.01

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Elizabeth Bennet[]

Elizabeth Bennet, later Darcy is the protagonist in the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice[8] by Jane Austen[9]. She is often referred to as Eliza or Lizzy by her friends and family. Elizabeth is the second child in a family of five daughters. Though the circumstances of the time and environment require her to seek a marriage of convenience for economic security, Elizabeth wishes to marry for love.[10]

She is the daughter of Mrs Bennet, Pemberly is the estate of Fitzwilliam Darcy, whom she goes on to marry.

Appearances
Isobel: "People have always tipped the butler to look 'round the house. Even Elizabeth Bennet wanted to see what Pemberly was like inside."
Violet: "A decision that caused a greast deal of embarassment if I remember the novel correctly."
Episode 6.06

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Mrs Bennet[]

Mrs Bennet appears in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She is the wife of her social superior Mr Bennet and mother of five daughters including Elizabeth. She is frivolous, excitable, and narrow-minded, and she imagines herself susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations. Her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth. Her favorite daughter is the youngest, Lydia, who reminds her of herself when younger, though she values the beauty of the eldest, Jane. Her main ambition in life is to marry her daughters to wealthy men.[11]

Appearances

Lady Shackleton: "Of course a single peer with a good estate won't be lonely long if he doesn't want to be."
Violet: "You sound like Mrs. Bennet."
— Episode 5.01

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Bulldog Drummond[]

Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by H. C. McNeile[12] and published under his pen name "Sapper". After an unsuccessful one-off appearance as a policeman in The Strand Magazine, the character was reworked by McNeile into a gentleman adventurer for his 1920 novel Bulldog Drummond.

Drummond is a First World War veteran, brutalised by his experiences in the trenches and bored with his post-war lifestyle. He publishes an advertisement looking for adventure, and soon finds himself embroiled in a series of exploits, many of which involve Carl Peterson—who becomes his nemesis—and Peterson's mistress, the femme fatale Irma.[13]

Appearances
"I want to be happy, of course, but mainly I want to be worthy of her, and I know I sound like Bulldog Drummond, but I do."
—Henry Talbot, 2015 Christmas Special

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Cat that walked by himself[]

The cat that walked by himself is a character and chapter in Just so Stories[14] by Rudyard Kipling. It explains how man domesticated all the wild animals except for the cat.

Appearances

Matthew: "Seriously, I can only relax because I know that you have a real life coming. If I ever thought I was putting that in jeopardy, I’d go away and never see you again."
Mary: "You don’t mean that."
Matthew: "But I do. I am the cat that walks by himself and all places are alike to me. I have nothing to give and nothing to share. If you were not engaged to be married, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near me."
— Episode 2.06

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Cupid[]

In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupido, meaning "desire") is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus, and is known in Latin also as Amor ("Love"). His Greek counterpart is Eros.[15]

Appearances
Mary: "Why are you playing Cupid?"
Tom: "He's nice. He's mad about you. He loves cars. I rest my case."
Episode 6.06

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Madam Defarge[]

Madame Thérèse Defarge is a fictional character in the book A Tale of Two Cities[16] by Charles Dickens. She is a tricoteuse, a tireless worker for the French Revolution, and the wife of Ernest Defarge.

She is one of the main villains of the novel, obsessed with revenge against the Evrémondes. She ruthlessly seeks revenge against the Evrémondes, including Charles Darnay, his wife Lucie Manette and their child, for crimes a prior generation of the Evrémonde family had committed[17].

Appearances
Daisy: "Not possible? Don't give me not possible!"
Mrs Patmore: "Alright Madam Defarge, calm down and finish that mash!"
Episode 6.04

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Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde[]

Dr Henry Jekyll and his alternate personality Mr Edward Hyde are characters appearing in the novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson[18], first published in 1886.

It is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and the evil Edward Hyde. The work is commonly associated today with the Victorian concern over the public and private division, individual's sense of playing a part and the class division of London. However, after stage and film productions of the story, the plot has become simplified and misrepresented as merely good versus evil.[19]

Appearances
Spratt: "I beg your pardon?"
Denker: "Butler by day, author by night. Like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."
2015 Christmas Special

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Jane Eyre[]

Jane Eyre is the principle character in the novel by the same name, originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by English writer Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its title character, including her growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall[20].

Appearances
Rosamund: "Mrs Carson. It's like Jane Eyre asking to be called Mrs Rochester. I'll never get used to it."
Mary: "None of us will."
Episode 6.04

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Fu Manchu[]

Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century. The character was also featured extensively in cinema, television, radio, comic strips and comic books for over 90 years, and has become an archetype of the evil criminal genius while lending the name to the Fu Manchu moustache.[21]

Appearances

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Gunga Din[]

Gunga Din is the principle character in a rhyming narrative poem by Rudyard Kipling[22], told from the point of view of an English soldier in India, about an Indian water-bearer (a "Bhishti") who saves the soldier's life but is soon shot and killed. In the final three lines, the soldier regrets the abuse he dealt to Din and admits that Din is the better man of the two for sacrificing his own life to save another. [23]

Appearances

Isobel: "Are you thinking of getting married Dr. Clarkson, because if you are you are a better man than I am Gunga Din."
Dr. Clarkson: "Why"
Isobel: "Well, with good friends like you I am enjoying life as it is and I wouldn't want to risk things by changing it."
— 2012 Christmas Special

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Iphigenia[]

Iphigenia is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology, whom Agamemnon is commanded to kill as a sacrifice to allow his ships to sail to Troy. In Attic accounts, her name means "strong-born", "born to strength", or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."[24]

Appearances

Cora: "Before you scold me, it’s no good pretending Mary is not a good deal too attached to Matthew."
Robert: "So you summon Lavinia? To be sacrificed like some latter day Iphigenia doomed to push his chair through all eternity?"
Cora: "Robert. It’s quite simple. Do you want Mary’s marriage to be a success? Do you want grandchildren?"
Robert: "Sometimes, Cora, you can be curiously unfeeling."
— Episode 2.06

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Juliet[]

Juliet Capulet is the heroine of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.[25] She falls in love with Romeo Montague, though their fathers' and respective families are rivals. Nevertheless they marry in secret. When her parents try to force her into a marriage with another nobleman, she drinks a potion that makes her appear dead. Unfortunately, Romeo does not know what she did and believes her to have died. She awakes shortly after he enters the tomb and commits suicide. She follows in suit. Their deaths and now revealed marriage ends their families' feud.

Violet confronts Matthew and tells him Mary is still in love with him after he announces his intention to marry Lavinia. Violet says that Mary looked like Juliet upon awakening in the tomb when he made the announcement.

Appearances

Violet: "Mary is still in love with you."
Matthew: "What?"
Violet: "I was watching her the other night when you spoke of your wedding. She looked like...Juliet on awakening in the tomb."
— Episode 2.07

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Long John Silver[]

Long John Silver is a fictional character in the novel Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Louis Stevenson. In the novel, he is a cunning and opportunistic pirate who was quartermaster under the notorious Captain Flint. Long John Silver had a pet parrot called Captain Flint, often seen sitting on his shoulder where she would nibble on seeds. Silver claims to have served in the Royal Navy and lost his leg under "the immortal Hawke". "His left leg was cut off close by the hip, and under the left shoulder he carried a crutch, which he managed with wonderful dexterity, hopping about upon it like a bird". [26]

Appearances
Thomas: "I can't believe I've been passed over for Long John Silver."
O'Brien: "You should've spoken up when you had the chance. Don't make the same mistake next time."
Thomas: "Who says there'll be a next time?"
— Episode 1.01

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Princess Aurora / Sleeping Beauty[]

Princess Aurora is one of the names associated with the princess in Sleeping Beauty[27] from The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood (La Belle au bois dormant) by Charles Perrault and Little Briar Rose (Dornröschen) by the Brothers Grimm. The name was not firmly associated with Sleeping Beauty until the 1959 Disney film by the same name.

Appearances
Mention
Robert: "Mary has more suitors tonight than the Princess Aurora."
Violet: "Will she judge them sensibly?"
Robert: "Oh, no one's sensible at her age. Nor should they be. That's our role."
Episode 1.03

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Simon Legree[]

Simon Legree is a character appearing in Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly by American novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe[28]. Simon Legree is a cruel slave owner, a Northerner (US) by birth whose name has become synonymous with greed. He is arguably the novel's main antagonist.[29]

Appearances

Timothy Drewe: "You mean you want to farm the land yourself. Then it is all settled."
Robert: "Mr. Drewe, it is no good painting me as Simon Legree. We left your father a long time to get straight and left him alone at the end of his life."
— Episode 4.05

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Lady of Shalott[]

The Lady of Shalott is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson[30]. He wrote two versions of the poem. The poem was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a thirteenth-century Italian novella titled Donna di Scalotta, with the earlier version being closer to the source material than the later. Tennyson focused on the Lady's isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world, two subjects not even mentioned in Donna di Scalotta.[31]

Appearances

Tom: "Is something the matter?"
Isobel: "If it is it shouldn't be."
Tom: "It's the first time I have heard her laugh since it happened."
Isobel: "I know, I don't want her to spend her life in sorrow, she isn't the Lady of Shalott."
— Episode 4.03

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Methuselah[]

Methuselah[32] "Man of the dart/spear", or alternatively "his death shall bring judgment" is the man in the Hebrew Bible reported to have lived the longest. Extra-biblical tradition maintains that he died on the 11th of Cheshvan of the year 1656 (Anno Mundi, after Creation), at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood. Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah.

The name Methuselah, or the phrase "old as Methuselah", is commonly used to refer to any living thing reaching great age.

Appearances

Robert: "Happy New Year, Mama."
Violet: "1920. Is it to be believed? I feel as old as Methuselah."
Robert: "But so much prettier."
— 2011 Christmas Special

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Mr Squeers[]

Wackford Squeers is a character from the novel Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. A cruel, one-eyed, Yorkshire "schoolmaster". He runs Dotheboys Hall, a boarding school for unwanted children. He mistreats the boys horribly, starving them and beating them regularly. He gets his comeuppance at the hands of Nicholas when he is beaten in retaliation for the whipping of Smike. He travels to London after he recovers, and partakes in more bad business, fulfilling his grudge against Nicholas by becoming a close partner in Ralph's schemes to fake Smike's parentage and later to obfuscate the will that would make Madeline Bray an heiress. He is arrested during the last of these tasks and sentenced to be transported to Australia.[33]

Appearances
Tom Branson: "You talk of her as if we should be scared of her."
Bertie Pelham: "She makes Mr Squeers look like Florence Nightengale."
Episode 6.08

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Mrs Tanqueray (2nd)[]

Paula Tanqueray, previously Jarman The Second Mrs Tanqueray is a character in an eponymous play by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero[34]. It adopts the 'Woman with a past' plot, popular in nineteenth century melodrama.

The play opens with a late night dinner between the widower Mr Tanqueray and some of his long time professional friends. All are upper class members of British Society, and are very disturbed when they learn of the upcoming second marriage of Tanqueray to a Mrs Paula Jarman, a lower class woman with a known sexual past.

As the play progresses we see the misery of the mismatched couple and their shared efforts to foster a bond between the young, but impeccably proper Miss Eillean Tanqueray and her young unhappy stepmother. This is compromised when Mrs Tanqueray learns the identity of her stepdaughter's fiancé; he is the man who ruined her, years ago. She reveals her knowledge to her husband, who prevents the marriage and alienates his daughter. This alienation spreads and husband and wife, father and daughter, step-parent and child are all angered and alone. When the daughter learns the reasons behind her disappointment she is struck with pity and makes a speech about trying again with her stepmother, only to go to her and find her dead, apparently by suicide.[35]

Appearances

Rosamund: "You're not being fair. I will support you whatever you decide...Just as Cora will, and Robert."
Edith: "That sounds like a speech from 'The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'. But you don't mean a word of it."
— Episode 4.07

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Prisioner of Zenda[]

The Prisioner of Zenda is a character and a novel by Anthony Hope[36] published in 1894. On the eve of the coronation of King Rudolf of Ruritania, his brother, Prince Michael, has him drugged. In a desperate attempt to deny Michael the excuse to claim the throne, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, attendants of the King, persuade his distant cousin Rudolf Rassendyll, an English visitor, to impersonate the King at the coronation.

The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the small town of Zenda. There are complications, plots, and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman Count Rupert of Hentzau.[37]

Appearances
Mary: "You saw Henry when he was here. High-handed and bullying and unapologetic. Am I expected to lower myself to his level, and be grateful I am allowed to do so?"
Tom: "Listen to yourself. Lower yourself to his level? Your not a prisioner in The Prisioner of Zenda."
Episode 6.08

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Rochester[]

Edward Fairfax Rochester in the novel Jane Eyre is the master of Thornfield Hall. A Byronic hero, he is tricked into making an unfortunate first marriage to Bertha Mason many years before he meets Jane, with whom he falls madly in love.

Appearances

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Romeo[]

Romeo Montague is the hero of William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy written early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

Appearances
Violet: "Oh, what is the latest from your aging Romeo?"
Isobel: "If it is of any interest, I have not heard from him since we last met."
Episode 5.03

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Saint Paul[]

Paul the Apostle (c. 5 – c. 67), whose Jewish name was Saul, was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age. In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul took advantage of his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to minister to both Jewish and Roman audiences.

His conversion was the result of having experienced an unforeseen, sudden, startling change, due to all-powerful grace—not the fruit of his reasoning or thoughts. [38]

Appearances
Spratt: "But mind you, act surprised when she tells you."
Denker: "I will rival Saint Paul in my astonishment."
Episode 6.05

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Sydney Carton[]

Sydney Carton is a central character in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He is a shrewd young Englishman and sometime junior to his fellow barrister C.J. Stryver. In the novel, he is seen to be a drunkard, self-indulgent and self-pitying because of his wasted life. He has a strong, unrequited love for Lucie Manette.[39]

Appearances

Carson: "And now my disgrace is complete. My lord, you have my resignation."
Robert: "Really, Carson, there's no need to be quite so melodramatic. You're not playing Sydney Carton."
— Episode 1.02

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles[]

Tess Durbeyfield is the principle character in the Thomas Hardy[40] novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles[41]. Tess, through her father, believes they are related to the wealthy d'Urbervilles, not realizing that while her descent is authentic, the modern d'Urbervilles had purchased the name, and is raped by "cousin" Alec d'Urbervilles.

Several years later the son of a preacher named Angel Clare proposes to her. This puts her in a painful dilemma, Angel obviously thinks her a virgin and she shrinks from confessing her past.

Appearances

Mary: "It was lust, Matthew! Or a need for excitement, or something in him that I...Oh, God, what difference does it make? I’m Tess of the d'Urbervilles to your Angel Clare. I have fallen. I am impure."
Matthew: "Don’t joke. Don’t make it little, not when I’m trying to understand."
Mary: "Thank you for that. But the fact remains...that I am made different by it. Things have changed between us."
— 2011 Christmas Special

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Usher[]

Roderick Usher is the subject of the short story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe[42], published in 1839. The story is doubly referring, applying to both the structure and the family.[43]

Appearances

Cora: "I wonder if she (Edith) wants to come to Mallerton Hall tomorrow?"
Mary: "We should all go. The fall of the house of Usher."
Cora: "We mustn't crow. We may be next."
— Episode 6.01

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References
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