Chapter 90 - Heads or Tails Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 90 - Heads or Tails
What Latin epigraph opens Chapter 90?
A passage from Bracton's Laws of England: "De balena vero sufficit, si rex habeat caput, et regina caudam," meaning the King gets the head and the Queen the tail of any captured whale.
What does the old English whale law stipulate about the King and Queen?
The King, as "Honorary Grand Harpooneer," must have the head of every whale caught on the English coast, and the Queen receives the tail.
Where did the mariners in Ishmael's anecdote capture their whale?
Near one of the Cinque Ports—Dover, Sandwich, or another port in that group on the southeast English coast.
How much did the mariners expect to earn from their whale?
They anticipated roughly one hundred and fifty pounds (£150) from the precious oil and bone.
Who is the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports?
A sort of policeman or official who holds office directly from the crown and receives all royal emoluments from the Cinque Port territories. In this chapter, the Duke of Wellington holds the office.
What book does the gentleman carry when he seizes the whale?
A copy of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, which he lays upon the whale's head.
What three-word phrase does the gentleman repeat to every objection from the mariners?
"It is his."—referring to the Duke of Wellington's legal right to the whale.
What happened when a clergyman wrote to the Duke on behalf of the mariners?
The Duke replied that he had already considered the case, received the money, and asked the clergyman to stop meddling in other people's business.
According to Plowdon, why does the whale belong to the King and Queen?
"Because of its superior excellence."—a justification Ishmael ironically calls a "cogent argument."
What reason does William Prynne give for the Queen receiving the whale's tail?
So that the Queen's wardrobe may be supplied with whalebone for ladies' bodices.
Why is Prynne's justification about whalebone mistaken?
The baleen ("black limber bone") is found in the whale's head, not the tail. Ishmael calls this "a sad mistake for a sagacious lawyer."
What are the two "royal fish" under English law?
The whale and the sturgeon. Both are royal property under certain limitations.
What branch of revenue do royal fish nominally supply?
The tenth branch of the crown's ordinary revenue.
How does Ishmael humorously connect the sturgeon to the King?
He suggests the King receives the sturgeon's dense, elastic head, perhaps grounded upon "some presumed congeniality" between the King and that peculiar fish head.
What is a "sinecure" as mentioned in this chapter?
An office or position that requires little or no actual work but provides income. Some writers call the Lord Warden's office a sinecure, but Ishmael disagrees because the Lord Warden is "busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites."
How does this chapter connect to the Fast-Fish / Loose-Fish doctrine?
The gentleman declares the whale a "Fast-Fish" belonging to the Lord Warden, applying the legal concept of possession to royal prerogative and showing how property law serves those already in power.
What satirical question does Ishmael ask about the Queen?
"But is the Queen a mermaid, to be presented with a tail?" He suggests an allegorical meaning may lurk in the absurd division.
What broader critique does Melville make through the Cinque Ports anecdote?
That legal systems and inherited privilege allow those in power to appropriate the labor and wealth of working people, with the law itself providing a veneer of legitimacy to injustice.
What word does Ishmael use to describe the Lord Warden's activity with his perquisites?
"Fobbing"—meaning pocketing or slyly taking. The Lord Warden is busily employed in fobbing (collecting) his perquisites.
What does Ishmael compare the whale-division law to at the chapter's opening?
He compares it to halving an apple—noting that in a whale, once the head and tail are taken, "there is no intermediate remainder."