Dr Fell and More

The Cape Cod Mystery (1931)

pg 23
"If I had to make up my mind I'd say I didn't like him. Case of Dr. Fell, I suppose."

Not to be confused with Dr. Gideon Fell, John Dickson Carr's detective.

The Doctor Fell (1625-1686) that is referred to in the Mother Goose rhyme (first published in the Mother Goose books in 1926) was the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. The author of the rhyme is the satirist Thomas Brown, who was a student of Doctor Fell at Oxford. Fell threatened to expel Brown from Oxford unless he translated the lines of Martial:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, Non amo te.

A translation of this epigram is:

I do not love thee, Sabidi, nor can I say why;
This only I can say, I do not love thee.

Brown’s translation is said to be the verse:

I do not love thee, Doctor Fell.
The reason why I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not love thee Doctor Fell.

"It was an awful picture. Reel broke four times, the pianist fell asleep,..."

Although it is 1931, and sound pictures started with Al Jolson's The Jazz Singer in 1929, it took a few years for the sound apparatus to make it to the various theaters. For silent films, a pianist, employed by the theater, usually accompanied the action on screen.

With a flick of his tail that was the equivalent of a thumb to the nose, he turned and ran away.

Thumbing the nose is a sign of derision in Britain made by putting your thumb on your nose and wiggling your fingers. This gesture is also known as Anne's Fan or Queen Anne's Fan, and is sometimes referred to as cocking a snook.

From The Word Detective:
While the phrase "thumb one's nose" first appeared in English around 1903, "cocking a snook" is much older, first appearing in print back in 1791. The verb "to cock" comes from strutting behavior of male chickens, and means, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, "to turn up in an assertive, pretentious, jaunty, saucy, or defiant way." The "snook" is of uncertain origin, but may be related to "snout," which would certainly make sense.