The Annotated Sandman

              Edited and largely written by David Goldfarb

                        Issue 58: "The Kindly Ones: 2"

                  Neil Gaiman, Marc Hempel, D'Israeli

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of DC Comics Inc.  Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature
audiences only.

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Cover: Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was Earl of Beaconsfield and Prime 
Minister of England. The inker's pen name is probably derived from him, 
although he did not spell his name with an apostrophe.

Page 1 panel 4: Evidently he was rocking the boat...

Page 5 panel 3: Cluracan was of course last seen in issue 56; his sister Nuala
in issue 52.

Page 7 panels 3-5: In 47:14:4 we see (in a panel from Destiny's book, whose
location in time is uncertain) a white-haired, white-clad Dream that looks
somewhat like this figure. It's unclear as yet whether this is a plot point
or just an echo.
 
Page 9 panel 4: In an interview in "Comics Buyers Guide" Gaiman states that
the story of Cluracan's nemesis isn't going to be resolved before the title 
ends. Sigh...

Page 11 panel 7: "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (French: "The Beautiful Merciless
Lady"): a poem, written in 1819 by John Keats, about a young man pining away 
for love of an elf-maiden.

Page 14 panel 6: The recipe is from _Macbeth_ act IV scene 1:

First Witch     Round about the cauldron go;
        In the poison'd entrails throw.
        Toad, that under cold stone
        Days and nights has thirty-one
        Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
        Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL     Double, double toil and trouble;
        Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch    Fillet of a fenny snake,
        In the cauldron boil and bake;
        Eye of newt and toe of frog,
        Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
        Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
        Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
        For a charm of powerful trouble,
        Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL     Double, double toil and trouble;
        Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch     Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
        Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
        Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
        Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
        Liver of blaspheming Jew,
        Gall of goat, and slips of yew
        Silver'd in the moon's eclipse,
        Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
        Finger of birth-strangled babe
        Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
        Make the gruel thick and slab:
        Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
        For the ingredients of our cauldron.

ALL     Double, double toil and trouble;
        Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch    Cool it with a baboon's blood,
        Then the charm is firm and good.

Page 15 panel 1: Granddaughter on the mother's side, most likely...
        panel 3: An echo: twice before the three witches have appeared to 
answer three questions. Once when summoned by Dream in issue 2, and once 
to Rose Walker in issue 10.

Page 17 panel 3: "Dragnet": A radio show, then a television show, purporting 
to dramatize actual cases of the LA police department.

Page 18 panel 3: No refs on these figures or the name "Ruthven", other than 
that Gaiman used the name for a minor character in issue 1.

Page 19 panel 6: No refs on any of Cluracan's titles...

Page 21 panel 3: Morpheus and Nuala seem oddly ignorant of the events 
recounted in issue 52. We can speculate that the reality storm sent Cluracan 
back in time, but things aren't that simple: Queen Titania would likely have 
noticed her ambassador arriving before he left. Further, there is no evidence 
in that story of the events shown in this.

Page 23 panel 9: An echo of "A Game of You". That story also concerned a 
crystal that could be used to summon Dream for a boon.

Release history:
Version 1.0 released 13 May 94.

Credits:
	Greg "elmo" Morrow (morrow@physics.rice.edu) created the Sandman
Annotations.