Coolly done

Different things "coolly done": "that" by Queegueg according to Ishmael; "this" by G. P. R. James according to the narrating Captain of U. S. Dragoons in conversation with "I. F." his Imaginary Friend in in the January 1852 installment of Scenes Beyond the Western Border. Later reprinted in Part II of the book version, Scenes and Adventures in the Army (Philadelphia, 1857). Queequeg takes his harpoon to breakfast, and James slanders Americans as unrefined. Coolly.

MOBY-DICK (October-November 1851):

But as for Queequeg—why, Queequeg sat there among them—at the head of the table, too, it so chanced; as cool as an icicle. To be sure I cannot say much for his breeding. His greatest admirer could not have cordially justified his bringing his harpoon in to breakfast with him, and using it there without ceremony; reaching over the table with it. to the imminent jeopardy of many heads, and grappling the beefsteaks towards him. But that was certainly very coolly done by him, and every one knows that in most people's estimation, to do anything coolly is to do it genteelly. -- Chapter 5 - Breakfast

 https://archive.org/details/mobydickorwhale01melv/page/34/mode/2up

SCENES BEYOND THE WESTERN BORDER (January 1852):

"...But this is coolly and deliberately done." 

I. F. — "And what is it?"

—“I say Americanism advisedly; for republicanism is a very different thing, and does not imply rejection of refinement in the higher classes of society."  

James's "coolly done" distinction between Americanism and republicanism is quoted from Chapter 5 of The False Heir (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1843).

Related posts:

• Criticism of G. P. R. James
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/2014/05/criticism-of-g-p-r-james.html

• riddle, cypher, mask
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/search?q=james+riddle+cypher

• G. P. R. James, again
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/2015/12/g-p-r-james-again.html

• Has a problem with artificial plot twists
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/2012/06/has-problem-with-artifical-plot-twists.html

riddle, cipher, mask

Looking closer at the criticism of G. P. R. James quoted in the last post, we can't help but notice how trenchantly our Captain of U. S. Dragoons breaks down the plot and characters in the novel by Melville's neighbor. And how all the key terms are exampled in Melville's writings.

"The hero is a lad of seventeen; old enough to fall in love, and but little else. St. Medard is a mere abstraction, De Langy a cipher, Artonne a riddle, Monsieur L. a man in a mask who puts himself in the way sufficiently to give some interesting trouble and help out the plot." --Scenes Beyond the Western Border, Southern Literary Messenger 18 (January 1852): 49; and Scenes and Adventures in the Army. Spelled "cypher" in the 1852 magazine version; "cipher" in the 1857 book version.

LAD OF

"... a lad of about sixteen" (Redburn)

"...a lad of Pierre's own age." (Pierre)

ABSTRACTION

"...far from furnishing an example of the high, humane abstraction; the Pequod’s carpenter was no duplicate…” (Moby-Dick)

“I keep my love for it in the lasting condition of an untried abstraction.” (The Confidence-Man)

A RIDDLE

"His ruminations were a riddle." (Mardi)

“Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold.” (Moby-Dick)

"thou wert a riddle to me…” (Pierre)

“In short, the entire ship is a riddle.” (The Confidence-Man)

A CIPHER (CYPHER)

“The captain—a mere cipher—was an invalid in his cabin;” (Omoo)

“that man, to others, too often proves a cipher.” (Mardi)

“He who on all hands passes for a cypher today, if at all remembered hereafter, will be sure to pass for the same.” (Mardi)

IN A MASK

“In a mask, he dodges me.” (Mardi)

“I am the Vailed Persian Prophet; I, the man in the iron mask; I, Junius.” (Mardi)