{"id":"01KG6G85HB4SDF0AWH03DVG867","cid":"bafkreidohqvf73gat7quf5lv6ynuk2z2jgv3pken4wjr2ezzsyfwqlzfgq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1548,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":1510,"text":"Passion, and passion in its profoundest, is not a thing demanding a\r\npalatial stage whereon to play its part. Down among the groundlings,\r\namong the beggars and rakers of the garbage, profound passion is\r\nenacted. And the circumstances that provoke it, however trivial or mean,\r\nare no measure of its power. In the present instance the stage is a\r\nscrubbed gun-deck, and one of the external provocations a man-of-war’s\r\nman’s spilled soup.\r\n\r\nNow when the master-at-arms noticed whence came that greasy fluid\r\nstreaming before his feet, he must have taken it--to some extent\r\nwilfully perhaps--not for the mere accident it assuredly was, but for\r\nthe sly escape of a spontaneous feeling on Billy’s part more or less\r\nanswering to the antipathy on his own. In effect a foolish demonstration\r\nhe must have thought, and very harmless, like the futile kick of a\r\nheifer, which yet were the heifer a shod stallion, would not be so\r\nharmless. Even so was it that into the gall of envy Claggart infused the\r\nvitriol of his contempt. But the incident confirmed to him certain\r\ntell-tale reports purveyed to his ear by Squeak, one of his more cunning\r\ncorporals, a grizzled little man, so nicknamed by the sailors on account\r\nof his squeaky voice and sharp visage ferreting about the dark corners\r\nof the lower decks after interlopers, satirically suggesting to them the\r\nidea of a rat in a cellar.\r\n\r\nNow his chief’s employing him as an implicit tool in laying little traps\r\nfor the worriment of the foretopman--for it was from the master-at-arms\r\nthat the petty persecutions heretofore adverted to had proceeded--the\r\ncorporal, having naturally enough concluded that his master could have\r\nno love for the sailor, made it his business, faithful understrapper\r\nthat he was, to ferment the ill blood by perverting to his chief certain\r\ninnocent frolics of the good-natured foretopman, besides inventing for\r\nhis mouth sundry contumelious epithets he claimed to have overheard him\r\nlet fall. The master-at-arms never suspected the veracity of these\r\nreports, more especially as to the epithets, for he well knew how\r\nsecretly unpopular may become a master-at-arms--at least, a\r\nmaster-at-arms in those days, zealous in his function--and how the\r\nblue-jackets shoot at him in private their raillery and wit; the\r\nnickname by which he goes among them (_Jemmy Legs_) implying under the\r\nform of merriment their cherished disrespect and dislike.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6NZQDT19J9MSHXZPHRXV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G85H63T3MNP0ZM4NGANMX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G85HDB492E00DFC43GFSN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:17.579Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:24.494Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}