by Jane Austen
40. Adultery, like any other sexual misbehavior, would normally be completely inappropriate to discuss before ladies, which is one reason he has hesitated to raise this matter earlier with Elinor, and is now apologetic about it.
41. consumption: tuberculosis. This was a frequent killer in those days, and people who were poor were even more susceptible to it, especially those living in cities and subject to poor sanitation and crowded conditions.
42. Again he speaks of death as a mercy for a fallen woman. By “better preparation for death” he means reconciling with God and receiving forgiveness and peace.
43. connection: affair.
44. Many children, especially girls, were educated at home. This was often done by the mother of the family, but a man could also undertake the charge. In this case, given the extreme youth of the child, he probably sent her first to a woman teaching and taking care of a few girls in her home; Jane Austen was sent briefly to such an establishment when she was seven. When older she could have been transferred to a boarding school for girls.
It is not clear how Colonel Brandon was supporting himself at this point. As a younger son his inheritance is unlikely to have been large enough to enable him to maintain a home for others besides himself. He could have procured a commission in a regiment stationed in England, but that would have made it difficult to establish a suitable home for a young girl.
45. His brother would have died without heirs, not surprising given his divorce and dissolute way of life, which would make him unlikely to marry again. The property would therefore descend to the next-oldest brother. Once Colonel Brandon inherited it he would have had a good home for the girl, as well as the means to hire a governess, but he may have decided it was better for her to continue in the school she was already attending.
46. He refers to the suspicions of Mrs. Jennings, and perhaps others, that the girl is his natural daughter.
47. Dorsetshire: a county in southwestern England (see map).
48. Such informal arrangements for girls were not uncommon. It is not clear if this woman was continuing the girls’ education or just supervising them.
49. Bath was the most popular resort town in England. Its warm springwaters were considered healthful both to bathe in and to drink. During the eighteenth century, with many people also coming for the various entertainments and active social life it offered, it boomed significantly. Thus it would have attracted the father of Eliza’s friend for health reasons and lured the girls with its opportunities for enjoyment.
50. This would be after Eliza had disappeared from Bath, and Colonel Brandon came to locate her. The friend knew with whom Eliza had run away, but did not wish to betray the secret.
51. Bath was a prime destination for meeting people, especially those who were wealthy and leisured. The girls could have gone out frequently and encountered young men who were interested in them; with the father at home due to his health, they would have lacked normal adult supervision.
52. She guesses this partly because of what she has learned about Willoughby’s character and partly because, without some connection to him, there would not be a clear reason for Colonel Brandon to tell his story. It would certainly be plausible that a pleasure-loving person like Willoughby would visit Bath.
53. When he received the letter he changed color upon looking at the address, which would have been in her handwriting (this page). The letter was probably forwarded by a servant at Delaford.
54. Meaning a decent or respectable home. The stigma attached to unchaste women would keep any normal lodging house from admitting her. It is not clear where she did find a home. Colonel Brandon never says where he went to find her. Earlier when Elinor asked Colonel Brandon if he had been continually in London, “he replied with some embarrassment” that he had been in Delaford (this page); his embarrassment may have come from his also having left London to see Eliza.
55. A woman in her situation would have been completely vulnerable, dependent on the man who seduced her for financial support as well as for whatever social respectability she might command, if he were willing to live with her and offer her his protection.
56. expensive: extravagant.
57. dissipated: intemperate, dissolute, without moral restraint. The term was a frequent one of censure then.
58. He had been tempted to tell Elinor at one point, when he also openly avowed his love for Marianne (see this page). But if she were already engaged his news would be too late and his motives might have been questioned, especially since others like Mrs. Jennings had noticed his interest in Marianne.
59. Colonel Brandon thinks Willoughby might have intended to seduce Marianne as well. But Willoughby’s later confession indicates that, bad as his behavior and motives were, he probably never had this intention (see note 43).
60. Sexual misbehavior in a woman was a lifelong stain that would make her a permanent outcast from regular society. This could naturally lead to severe self-reproach, perhaps reinforced by feelings of moral or religious guilt.
61. When Willoughby suddenly left the Dashwoods he was going to London. Since it was eight months at this point since she had disappeared her pregnancy would have been visible, and Colonel Brandon could have insisted on knowing the father.
62. He means they fought a duel. Dueling, though against the law, was a fairly common practice, especially among the upper classes and among soldiers; Colonel Brandon’s service as an officer may have made him more likely to challenge someone. Men mostly fought duels to avenge insults to their own honor, but they would also fight for the sake of a woman’s honor, as Colonel Brandon does here. One reason and justification for duels was that they provided a means to punish conduct such as sexual seduction or betrayal that was not punishable by law. The fear of having to fight a duel could serve as a deterrent: in Pride and Prejudice there is talk of a possible duel with a young man who has run off with an unmarried girl, and the girl’s mother expresses a hope that this will make him marry her. The duelists would meet by appointment, usually in a relatively remote place to avoid attracting attention, especially by legal authorities. There were several open spaces on the outskirts of London that often served as dueling grounds.
63. got abroad: became generally known.
64. Women were less likely than men to approve of duels, though Elinor’s thoughts show her awareness of how deeply entrenched, and accepted, the custom was among men. In one of Jane Austen’s favorite novels, Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison, the hero, in a stance clearly approved by the author, refuses to fight duels out of principle, but his stance arouses mostly scorn and disagreement. Austen indicates her own attitude in a letter in which she describes an acquaintance in the army who accidentally shot himself. She writes, referring to his family, “One most material comfort however they have; the assurance of it’s being really an accidental wound, which is not only positively declared by Earle himself, but is likewise testified by the particular direction of the bullet. Such a wound could not have been received in a duel” (Nov. 8, 1800; emphasis in original).
65. Meaning the trust of looking after the daughter. His acute regrets about his failure to protect her may be an additional reason for his hesitation to tell the story.
66. lying-in: confinement, i.e., period after a woman gives birth when she stays indoors and avoids activity (see note 48).
67. He would be supporting them, probably in a remote location where they can avoid notice. That is also the fate of a woman in Mansfield Park who abandons her husband for another man.
68. The story told by Colonel Brandon is by far the most melodramatic feature of the novel. Its main elements—childhood romance, attempted elopement, forced marriage, adultery and divorce, debtors’ prison, death from consumption, illegitimate offspring, seduction and disappearance, and a duel—are those found in numerous novels of the time, the same sort that Jane Austen herself often satirizes for their overblown emotions and improbable plot devices. Thus the story fits uneasily into a novel cr
iticizing the cult of sensibility and focusing on the realistic portrayal of ordinary life. Its main justification would be the further revelation it provides of Willoughby’s character, along with the background it provides for Colonel Brandon, one showing that his current silence and gloominess are the result more of unfortunate circumstances than of inherent nature. It also gives him a particular affinity with Marianne by revealing both his passionate feelings and the resemblance between his history and that of many heroes of romantic fiction.
VOLUME II, CHAPTER X
1. irritated: excited, agitated.
2. Her situation thus contrasts with Elinor’s, who while blaming Edward for some of his behavior at Norland, has no grounds for a severe reproach and therefore can continue to esteem him.
3. The idea of being the object of seduction would be a source of great shock and pain, both from moral revulsion at what was considered a terrible crime in itself and from knowledge of the ruin it would have caused if she had succumbed (as well as the damage to others, since a family would be severely tainted by a member’s fall from respectability).
4. By now they have been in London more than three weeks (see this page). Long visits were common among genteel people at this time; Jane Austen shows them in her novels, and went on such visits to family members in her own life. One reason was the ample leisure of members of this class, especially the women. Another was the time, difficulty, and expense involved in travel, which made people wish to make the most of any trip they did take.
5. objects: objects of interest or enjoyment.
6. cheat: beguile.
7. retirement: seclusion.
8. Visiting a relative with one’s new bride would be a standard courtesy, one Willoughby would have a particular reason to extend in this case because of his hope to inherit Allenham—though his wish not to encounter the Dashwoods or anybody else in that neighborhood could also be a powerful deterrent.
9. son-in-law: stepson.
10. They left for London during the first week in January and arrived three days later (this page). Thus a stay of five to six weeks or longer would keep them there until the arrival of John Dashwood and his wife.
11. Meaning the company of Mrs. Jennings and other acquaintances in London, as well as probably the general crowds and busyness of the city. Marianne has long demonstrated a love of solitude, and she sought it especially when she experienced the heartbreak of Willoughby’s departure from Barton; she would naturally yearn for it even more now.
12. evil: trouble. The term had a weaker connotation then.
13. Sir John had earlier praised Willoughby for his bold riding, an important virtue among hunters (see note 21).
14. A covert is a thicket or other place where animals hide. They would be standing outside Barton covert—which is presumably a fairly large one, having gained this name—to wait for the prey to emerge, either on their own initiative or after being chased out by dogs.
15. Sir John presumably had more puppies than he wished to raise, and Willoughby was interested in one, perhaps from admiring the qualities of the puppy’s parent. Dogs were a major preoccupation of sportsmen, since they were central to most types of hunting and shooting.
16. building: being built. This construction is found occasionally in Jane Austen. A coachmaker would make any type of carriage, not just a coach. Acquiring a new carriage upon marriage was common, especially since the carriage would take the couple away after the ceremony and could display their wealth and good taste to everyone. In Jane Austen’s satirical story “Three Sisters,” a dispute between a prospective bride and groom about what new carriage they will purchase threatens to derail the match, while in Mansfield Park the only criticism made of an elegant wedding is that the vehicle conveying the couple from the scene was not a new one.
17. Having one’s portrait painted was a basic ritual for those in the landowning class; the portraits of each generation were usually displayed prominently in the family home.
18. “Warehouse” was a more dignified term for a store. Some stores would display the wedding clothes of very wealthy brides in their windows as a way to advertise.
19. This gives a sense of Jane Austen’s own scale of values. She consistently presents good breeding, or manners, as a worthy quality, but just as consistently prizes goodness of heart even more.
20. This indication of Lady Middleton’s indifference, and the behavior that follows, give the immediate lie to any idea of actually rating good breeding over good nature.
21. An ideal of female solidarity appears at points in Austen’s novels. In Emma the heroine wonders if, by discussing with a man the possibility of another woman’s illicit love, “she had not transgressed the duty of woman by woman.” In a letter Jane Austen comments on the running public feud between the princess of Wales and her husband, the reigning prince regent, who was notorious for sexual misconduct and for mistreating his wife, and declares that, while disappointed in the princess’s latest behavior, “I shall support her as long as I can, because she is a Woman, & because I hate her Husband” (Feb. 16, 1813). At the same time, Jane Austen shows many women disregarding such female solidarity, as Lady Middleton does here.
22. assemblies: social gatherings, parties.
23. She would leave her visiting card, a sign of her wish to become acquainted.
24. This signals that Marianne appreciates the Romantic quality of his story.
25. Midsummer is June 24, Michaelmas September 29. For more, see note 16.
26. These are some of the features of Colonel Brandon’s Delaford estate that were extolled by Mrs. Jennings (see this page).
27. made over: transferred, handed over.
28. Here Mrs. Jennings’s relative intellectual shallowness, and tendency to focus only on what is immediately before her proves beneficial to Elinor.
29. Newspapers would announce recent weddings. In Pride and Prejudice the heroine’s mother is disappointed that the recent marriage of one of her daughters, which occurred under a cloud of prior scandalous conduct, received only a brief mention in the papers, with no information given on the family or residence of the bride.
30. Willoughby’s wedding marks the end of this phase of Marianne’s story. The transition to Elinor and her travails is marked in the next line by the arrival of the Miss Steeles in London.
A public coach.
[From John Ashton, The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England (London, 1906), p. 183]
[List of Illustrations]
31. Bartlett’s Buildings was a very small cul-de-sac extending south off High Holborn (it was near the current Holborn Circus); see map. Holborn is a long-inhabited area on the western edge of the city of London; it is thus near the commercial part of London, and removed from the more fashionable vicinity of Mayfair that all the other characters in the novel inhabit. This marks the lower social status of the relations with which the Miss Steeles are staying, and is why the sentence goes on to mention “their more grand relations” elsewhere. At the time Holborn was occupied principally by lawyers, who would be near the law courts, and merchants, so the Steeles’ relations are certainly not poor. Lucy mentioned them to Elinor in a conversation about her trip to London (this page). For a picture of Bartlett’s Buildings, see this page.
32. This would be Mrs. Jennings and the Middletons. They do not present themselves to the Palmers, who are as much their relations and are probably richer, because they have not met them yet.
33. should: would.
34. By this time they have barely exceeded a month in London (see this page), but Lucy is quick to detect any transgression of Elinor’s stated intentions. For Elinor’s earlier hopes, see this page.
35. amazingly: exceedingly.
36. Lucy’s tremendous delight is mostly her usual insincerity. But she may feel some genuine satisfaction in Elinor’s supposed failure to keep her word.
37. Elinor may understand particularly the meaning of “no hurry to be gone,” which insinuates that Elinor
wants to remain in London until Edward arrives because of her affection for him and her hope to win him in the end.
38. “The stage” means the stage, or public, coach, which offered regular service throughout Britain. Coming post meant renting a private carriage (both means involved hiring horses); for more, see note 18. Characters in Jane Austen novels almost always travel post, for while more expensive and not faster than the public coach, it offered privacy and social exclusiveness. Someone using the stagecoach could be accompanied by poorer people, such as Mrs. Jennings’s servant Betty, whom she sent by this means when coming to London. This is why Miss Steele exultingly points out that they traveled post. It is likely she and her sister have been forced before to use the public coach. For a picture of a public coach, see the previous page.
