The Annotated Pride and Prejudice

by Austen, Jane

  “I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this48 —though I have never liked him, I had not thought so very ill of him —I had supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge, such injustice, such inhumanity as this!”

  After a few minutes reflection, however, she continued, “I do remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the implacability of his resentments, of his having an unforgiving temper. His disposition49 must be dreadful.”

  “I will not trust myself on the subject,” replied Wickham, “I can hardly be just to him.”

  Elizabeth was again deep in thought, and after a time exclaimed, “To treat in such a manner, the godson, the friend, the favourite of his father!” —She could have added, “A young man too, like you, whose very countenance may vouch for your being amiable”50—but she contented herself with, “And one, too, who had probably been his own companion from childhood, connected together, as I think you said, in the closest manner!”

  “We were born in the same parish, within the same park,51 the greatest part of our youth was passed together; inmates of the same house, sharing the same amusements, objects of the same parental care.52 My father began life in the profession which your uncle, Mr. Philips, appears to do so much credit to—but he gave up every thing to be of use to the late Mr. Darcy, and devoted all his time to the care of the Pemberley property.53 He was most highly esteemed by Mr. Darcy, a most intimate, confidential friend. Mr. Darcy often acknowledged himself to be under the greatest obligations to my father's active superintendance, and when immediately before my father's death, Mr. Darcy gave him a voluntary promise of providing for me, I am convinced that he felt it to be as much a debt of gratitude to him, as of affection to myself.”

  “How Strange!” cried Elizabeth. “How abominable! —I wonder that the very pride of this Mr. Darcy has not made him just to you! —If from no better motive, that he should not have been too proud to be dishonest—for dishonesty I must call it.”

  “It is wonderful”54 —replied Wickham,—“for almost all his actions may be traced to pride;—and pride has often been his best friend. It has connected him nearer with virtue than any other feeling.55 But we are none of us consistent; and in his behaviour to me, there were stronger impulses even than pride.”56

  “Can such abominable pride as his, have ever done him good?”

  “Yes. It has often led him to be liberal and generous, —to give his money freely, to display hospitality, to assist his tenants, and relieve the poor.57 Family pride, and filial pride, for he is very proud of what his father was, have done this. Not to appear to disgrace his family, to degenerate from the popular qualities, or lose the influence of the Pemberley House, is a powerful motive.58 He has also brotherly pride, which with some brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his sister; and you will hear him generally cried up59 as the most attentive and best of brothers.”60

  “What sort of a girl is Miss Darcy?”

  He shook his head. —”I wish I could call her amiable. It gives me pain to speak ill of a Darcy.61 But she is too much like her brother-very, very proud. —As a child, she was affectionate and pleasing, and extremely fond of me; and I have devoted hours and hours to her amusement. But she is nothing to me now.62 She is a handsome girl, about fifteen or sixteen, and I understand highly accomplished. Since her father's death, her home has been London, where a lady lives with her, and superintends her education.”63

  After many pauses and many trials of other subjects, Elizabeth could not help reverting once more to the first, and saying,

  “I am astonished at his intimacy with Mr. Bingley! How can Mr. Bingley, who seems good humour itself, and is, I really believe, truly amiable, be in friendship with such a man? How can they suit each other? —Do you know Mr. Bingley?”

  “Not at all.”

  “He is a sweet tempered, amiable, charming man. He cannot know what Mr. Darcy is.”64

  “Probably not;—but Mr. Darcy can please where he chuses. He does not want65 abilities. He can be a conversible companion66 if he thinks it worth his while. Among those who are at all his equals in consequence,67 he is a very different man from what he is to the less prosperous. His pride never deserts him; but with the rich, he is liberal-minded,68 just, sincere, rational, honourable, and perhaps agreeable, —allowing something for fortune and figure.”69

  The whist party soon afterwards breaking up, the players gathered round the other table, and Mr. Collins took his station between his cousin Elizabeth and Mrs. Philips.—The usual inquiries as to his success were made by the latter. It had not been very great; he had lost every point; but when Mrs. Philips began to express her concern thereupon, he assured her with much earnest gravity that it was not of the least importance, that he considered the money as a mere trifle, and begged she would not make herself uneasy.

  “I know very well, madam,” said he, “that when persons sit down to a card table, they must take their chance of these things, —and happily I am not in such circumstances as to make five shillings any object.70 There are undoubtedly many who could not say the same, but thanks to Lady Catherine de Bourgh, I am removed far beyond the necessity of regarding little matters.”

  Mr. Wickham's attention was caught; and after observing Mr. Collins for a few moments, he asked Elizabeth in a low voice whether her relation were very intimately acquainted with the family of De Bourgh.

  “Lady Catherine de Bourgh,” she replied, “has very lately given him a living. I hardly know how Mr. Collins was first introduced to her notice, but he certainly has not known her long.”

  “You know of course that Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy71 were sisters; consequently that she is aunt to the present Mr. Darcy.”

  “No, indeed, I did not.—I knew nothing at all of Lady Catherine's connections.72 I never heard of her existence till the day before yesterday.”

  “Her daughter, Miss De Bourgh, will have a very large fortune, and it is believed that she and her cousin will unite the two estates.”73

  This information made Elizabeth smile, as she thought of poor Miss Bingley. Vain indeed must be all her attentions, vain and useless her affection for his sister and her praise of himself, if he were already self-destined74 to another.

  “Mr. Collins,” said she, “speaks highly both of Lady Catherine and her daughter; but from some particulars that he has related of her ladyship, I suspect his gratitude misleads him, and that in spite of her being his patroness, she is an arrogant, conceited woman.”

  “I believe her to be both in a great degree,” replied Wickham; “I have not seen her for many years, but I very well remember that I never liked her, and that her manners were dictatorial and insolent. She has the reputation of being remarkably sensible and clever; but I rather believe she derives part of her abilities from her rank and fortune,75 part from her authoritative manner, and the rest from the pride of her nephew, who chuses that every one connected with him should have an understanding of the first class.”76

  Elizabeth allowed that he had given a very rational account of it, and they continued talking together with mutual satisfaction till supper put an end to cards; and gave the rest of the ladies their share of Mr. Wickham's attentions. There could be no conversation in the noise of Mrs. Philips's supper party, but his manners recommended him to every body. Whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully. Elizabeth went away with her head full of him. She could think of nothing but of Mr. Wickham, and of what he had told her, all the way home; but there was not time for her even to mention his name as they went, for neither Lydia nor Mr. Collins were once silent. Lydia talked incessantly of lottery tickets, of the fish77 she had lost and the fish she had won, and Mr. Collins, in describing the civility of Mr. and Mrs. Philips, protesting that he did not in the least regard his losses at whist,78 enumerating all the dishes at supper, and repeatedly fearing that he crouded79 his cousins, had more to
say than he could well manage before the carriage stopped at Longbourn House.

  1. furniture: furnishings.

  2. apartment: room.

  3. summer breakfast parlour: it is a sign of Lady Catherine's wealth that she has a separate breakfast parlor for summer, presumably because its position in relation to the sun makes it less warm than the regular parlor—an issue she raises when she visits the Bennets later in the novel.

  4. Chimney pieces, which would go above and next to the entrance to the fireplace, were often elaborately ornamented (see p. 139 for a sample). Very few, however, were so elaborate as to cost 800 pounds; records from wealthy homes show chimney pieces generally costing less than 300 pounds, and sometimes costing less than a hundred. Lady Catherine's expenditure thus indicates not only her wealth, but also her ostentatious use of it.

  5. housekeeper's room: the housekeeper, the chief female servant, would normally have her own sitting room, though it would not be grand even in a large house like Lady Catherine's.

  6. The men were already there for dinner, and would be engaged in the standard after-dinner masculine drinking and talking. They would have the advantage of deciding when to join the ladies. Mr. Collins is with the ladies because he arrived after the men's conversation had begun.

  7. consequence: importance.

  8. retail: repeat, recount in detail.

  9. The Philips's lack of an instrument, i.e. piano, indicates their lower social position, for owning a piano was a fundamental mark of wealth and gentility.

  10. indifferent: mediocre.

  11. imitations of china: copies, on another surface, of the pictures or decorations on bought china. China had become popular and widespread in England over the preceding century, as had the designs and motifs, many of Chinese origin, found on china. The desire to imitate these designs, along with the further inspiration of the fine lacquer artwork imported from China and Japan, led to the rise of what was called Japanning as a favored pastime for ladies. This pastime—often known now as decoupage—involved pasting pictures or designs onto ceramic pieces or wooden boxes or a variety of other objects, and then, sometimes after raising or highlighting certain parts of the image, carefully applying coats of varnish to it. The images themselves could be copied from other decorative objects (e.g., pieces of china), usually by tracing the image onto thin paper. They could also be cut from drawings, including ones found in books whose purpose was to provide such cut-outs. One reason for the popularity of this activity is that, while it required some patient effort, it did not demand special artistic skills. This would make it especially suitable for the Bennet girls, who, it is revealed later, do not draw and thus could not decorate anything with their own creations (as it turns out, even this project has not produced fine results). It is possible these imitations are on the mantelpiece as a substitute for actual china, which was frequently displayed in homes as a sign of affluence and gentility; if so, that would be a further sign of the Philips's lack of affluence and gentility.

  Jane Austen's work cabinet, in which she kept needlework supplies, was decorated with Chinese figures, done in black lacquer and gilt.

  12. creditable: honorable.

  13. port wine: a strong red wine imported from Portugal; its name derived from the main Portugese port of shipment, Oporto. Port was the most popular type of wine in Britain at that time, and it was the drink normally consumed by gentlemen, often in great quantities, after dinner. Excessive drinking was presented by many writers as a sign of uncouthness, and here Mr. Philips's indulgence in port marks him as less polished than the officers.

  14. Mr. Wickham's showing particular attention to Elizabeth is critical to the story. It is uncertain whether he does so by pure chance, or because she especially attracted him, or because he perceived her keen observation of his chilly encounter with Darcy. At this point, he might regard her as a profitable matrimonial catch, for, being new to the neighborhood, he may still not know that the Bennet girls will inherit almost none of their father's wealth.

  15. the fair: a standard designation for women (the fair sex).

  16. muffin: this would be what is known in the U.S. as an English muffin.

  17. whist: a card game. At this time whist was becoming the most popular card game in England, a position it would hold until ousted by bridge in the early twentieth century. It is mentioned more often than any other card game in Jane Austen's novels. Whist is essentially bridge without the bidding stage or the complicated point system.

  18. Lydia's love of gambling reveals the recklessness that her later actions will manifest further, while her particular fondness for lottery tickets, a game requiring no skill at all, reveals her lack of intelligence.

  19. It would be rude for her to force the subject on Wickham, since it might, judging from the strained encounter of the previous day, be painful for him.

  20. It is significant that Wickham is the one who raises the topic of Darcy, as he will continue to do on other occasions. In contrast, Darcy will never discuss Wickham unless prompted to by another; such silence and discretion would be considered the more gentlemanly course when two people had quarreled. More generally, prevailing ideals of courteous behavior frowned strongly upon telling private information to a stranger, as Wickham proceeds to do now.

  21. noble: splendid, admirable, very large (it does not necessarily mean linked to the nobility).

  22. Despite this avowal, and subsequent ones along the same lines, Wickham will soon take it upon himself to deliver a series of strong, and critical, opinions concerning Darcy.

  23. The interruption would allow Wickham to absorb this surprising, and to him welcome, piece of information before then deciding what to say next. This would be important for him since in general he seems to calculate carefully the effects his words will have on others.

  24. estimated beyond their deserts: valued or admired beyond what they deserve.

  25. consequence: importance, high social position.

  26. high: haughty.

  27. The conversation has been interrupted again, presumably by Lydia and the lottery game, but this in no way diverts Wickham from his subject.

  28. country: county. This was the standard meaning of country then, and it is seen in many places in the novel.

  29. This praise of Darcy's father, and description of his fondness for Wickham, is one of the only points on which Wickham and Darcy will agree.

  30. grieved to the soul by a thousand tender recollections: words that represent the kind of exaggerated, sentimental language that the author often ridicules, and places in the mouths of superficial or untrustworthy characters.

  31. Elizabeth maintains her characteristic discretion and sense of decorum, for such intimate subjects were usually not introduced during two people's first meeting. Yet she completely overlooks the lack of any such discretion in Wickham.

  32. Meaning that he praised particularly the women there.

  33. good society: often used for the society of those of high social station.

  34. One good reason, not mentioned by Wickham, for him to accept a commission in the militia is that, unlike other genteel careers, it offered easy entry. The militia, which was less prestigious than the regular army, had great trouble finding officers, especially lower officers like Wickham. Hence it was not strict in its standards of entry, and commissions in the militia, unlike those in the regular army, cost nothing. In consequence, many penniless adventurers joined the militia, often in the hope of later transferring to the regulars. Moreover, while each militia unit came from a specific county, Wickham would not have to be from that county himself in order to become an officer. An additional attraction of the militia is that it followed a very relaxed routine, especially by the time the novel was written (when the danger of French invasion had subsided): standards of training and drill were lax, and officers had much leisure time for other things. Thus Wickham can consider the main attraction of the militia to be the opportunity it offers for society or social life.


  35. own: acknowledge.

  36. eligible: desirable.

  37. living: clerical position.

  38. next presentation: bestowal when it next became vacant.

  39. Like Lady Catherine and other wealthy landowners, the Darcy family owned church livings. Such livings, being a form of property, could be bequeathed in a will.

  40. fell: became vacant.

  41. This would have been done by the current Mr. Darcy, who would have inherited control of the living from his father.

  42. The late Mr. Darcy could have formally stipulated in his will to whom the living must go, in which case his son would have been forced to give it to that person. But, according to Wickham, the will simply recommended giving the living to him, and thus did not bind the current Mr. Darcy in a legal sense.

  43. extravagance: wildness; unrestrained or excessive living.

  44. unguarded: incautious.

  45. temper: character. Such a description of himself allows Wickham to place in the best possible light any harm he has done to Darcy, of which more will be revealed later. It also allows him to contrast himself with Darcy's cold and reserved character—and Elizabeth's own fervent reactions make her seem the type to prefer a warm and unguarded person.

  46. In this society, where public reputation counted tremendously, such disgrace would have been a severe punishment.

  47. This vow, like his earlier one not to avoid Darcy, will soon be put to the test. Wickham has already violated this one somewhat in speaking to Elizabeth, for he does not know her character and cannot be sure that she will not spread his tale to everyone in town.

  48. Were Wickham's account true, Elizabeth's outrage would be thoroughly justified, for in this society good career opportunities were limited, especially for those of relatively humble background like Wickham. A man denied such an opportunity might never find another that was nearly as good, and would thus suffer permanent harm.

  49. disposition: character (especially moral character).

  50. amiable: kind, good natured. This, like Elizabeth's earlier sense of Wickham's being “handsomer than ever” as he avows his generosity, indicates how much her eager acceptance of his story is bound up with her romantic attraction to him.