Scottish Funeral Quotes

The term originated in a religious context with the psalm Placebo Domine, “I shall please the Lord,” but by the fourteenth century had taken on a more negative association within the church to describe fake mourners paid to attend funerals to “sing placebos” about the dead. The word made its way into medicine five centuries later, when, in 1772, Scottish physician and chemist William Cullen gave his patients mustard powder treatments for all manner of ailments, even though he knew it was a sham: “What I call a placebo.

she’s a passion for funerals, like all uneducated Scottish people,

In this instance, the point of showing you the king’s funeral was primarily that it provided Lord John with his moment of enlightenment regarding Jamie’s motive for remaining at Helwater. Secondarily, it shows a historical turning point that a) anchors the reader in time, b) metaphorically underlines the conclusion of the Grey brothers’ quest, c) marks a turning point in Lord John’s relationship with Jamie Fraser, and d) opens the door to a new phase of both personal and public history—for George III (who was the grandson, not the son, of George II) is, of course, the king from whom the American colonies revolted, and we see in the later books of the Outlander series just how that affects the lives of Lord John, Jamie Fraser, and William.

He felt both elated and peaceful, almost valedictory: a strange state of mind to experience in the wake of a funeral. Part of it was Charlie, of course, and the knowledge that he had not failed his dead friend. Beyond that, though, was the knowledge that it lay within his power to do something equally important for the living one. He could keep James Fraser prisoner.

He’d suspected it when he’d found Fraser in the chapel with Geneva Dunsany’s coffin, just before her funeral. But now he knew, beyond doubt. Knew, too, why Fraser did not desire his freedom.