Oxford World’s Classics

by Jane Austen

  2 Domino’s: a domino is a unisex garment, ‘A kind of loose cloak, app. of Venetian origin, chiefly worn at masquerades, with a small mask covering the upper part of the face, by persons not personating a character’ (OED). Cf. Cecilia: ‘Dominos of no character, and fancy-dresses of no meaning, made, as is usual at such meetings, the general herd of the company’ (bk 2, ch. 3).

  a beautifull Flora: ‘In Latin mythology, the goddess of flowers; hence, in modern poetical language, the personification of nature’s power in producing flowers’ (OED).

  a studied attitude: in other words, a contrived pose designed to attract attention. A ‘rather handsome’ male correspondent in the Literary Fly, no. 4 (1779), who writes for advice ‘but dare not ask it of anyone without a mask’, recalls an evening at the opera in which, ‘Intoxicated with pleasure, I displayed my glass, and, carelessly leaning on a bench, in an attitude studied for the purpose, and not very unbecoming, took a prospect of the gallery’ (17, 18, 21).

  11 character of Virtue: popular characters to impersonate at masquerades included abstract qualities such as Virtue, Hope, Temperance, and Liberty. Richardson’s Pamela is subtitled or Virtue Rewarded, suggesting that the heroine, like Lady Williams, might be read as such a personification.

  Entertainment: ‘Treatment at the table’ ( Johnson’s Dictionary); a formal or elegant meal or banquet.

  12 tout ensemble: the overall or general effect (French).

  so much her Junior: JA originally wrote ‘so much her inferior’ (see Textual Notes, p. 220); her revision changes the emphasis. Rather than feel constrained by the rule that a woman should not marry a man of lower rank, Lady Williams is made to respond to a different convention: that a woman should not marry a younger man. Both potential infractions apply to Lady Booby’s wooing of her teenage footman in Henry Fielding’s The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams (1742), his second response to Richardson’s Pamela.

  polite to all but partial to none: an echo of Pope’s description of Belinda in The Rape of the Lock: ‘Favours to none, to all she Smiles extends’ (canto 2, l. 11). Belinda has eyes like Charles, too: ‘Bright as the Sun, her Eyes the Gazers strike’ (canto 2, l. 13).

  the lovely, the lively, but insensible: novelistic cant: ‘insensible’ contradicts ‘lively’, suggesting both ‘void of feeling’ and ‘void of emotion or affection’ ( Johnson’s Dictionary). There is a comparable joke in Elizabeth Blower’s Features from Life; or, A Summer Visit (1788), in which Mr Needham sarcastically commends Lady Gaythorne’s appearance: ‘such a dress needs not the aid of animated, living, glowing beauty, to set it off; it needs but to be seen in a fashionable assembly on the body of an automaton to do a world of execution. How many men of fashion would be dying for the lovely insensible?’ (239–40). In Jane Timsbury’s The Male-Coquette; or, The History of the Hon. Edward Astell, 2 vols. (1770), the narrator recalls a career akin to that of Charles Adams: ‘I have made an extensive devastation, a strange havock among the pretty creatures’. However, just as the Miss Simpsons are immune to Charles’s power, so Edward finds one ‘lovely insensible’ who is strangely ‘proof against every charm’ (The Male-Coquette, i, 13).

  like the great Sir Charles Grandison … Home: Harriet Byron praises Grandison for refusing to make his servants tell visitors that he is ‘not at home’ when he does not wish to see anyone (iv, letter 26).

  13 Bigamy: another allusion to Grandison, who is torn between two potential wives. Cf. the double engagement leading to suicide in ‘Frederic & Elfrida’.

  out of spirits: a pun on ‘spirits’ in the double sense of alcohol and cheerfulness; the use of wine as a medicinal aid is also in play here. The same pun features in ‘A beautiful description of the different effects of Sensibility on different Minds’ (p. 64).

  second attachment … serious consequences: the relative merits and dangers of first and second attachments are frequently discussed in 18th-century novels. In Sir Charles Grandison, Lady Grandison asks ‘how few of us are there, who have their first Loves? And indeed how few first Loves are fit to be encouraged?’ (vii, letter 43). Marianne Dashwood ‘does not approve of second attachments’, but thanks to her marriage to Colonel Brandon she lives ‘to counteract, by her own conduct, her most favourite maxims’ (S&S, ch. 11, ch. 50).

  Life & Adventures: a phrase often used in the titles or subtitles of novels (e.g. Francis Coventry’s The History of Pompey the Little, or the Life and Adventures of a Lapdog (1761)). The narration of ‘life and adventures’, frequently by characters in distress, was a stock device. In The Female Quixote, Lennox’s Arabella repeatedly asks new acquaintances to recite their ‘adventures’; towards the end of the work, a countess reprimands her for doing so: ‘The Word Adventures carries in it so free and licentious a Sound in the Apprehensions of People at this Period of Time, that it can hardly with Propriety be apply’d to those few and natural Incidents which compose the History of a Woman of Honour’ (bk 8, ch. 7).

  sending me to School … Education at Home: JA herself attended school for several years, but she was primarily educated at home in Steventon Rectory—itself a sort of private boarding school, since her father took in a number of paying male pupils in order to supplement his income.

  14 Kitty: pet form of Catherine; cf. Kitty in ‘Edgar & Emma’ (p. 26), and the heroine of ‘Kitty, or the Bower’.

  Winter … in town: the fashionable set spent winter in a London town-house (in the West End, rather than in the City); the London season lasted until the king’s official birthday on 4 June.

  too much colour: cf. references to complexions and rouge in ‘Frederic & Elfrida’; here, the excess colour may be natural, or due to cosmetics, or (as in Alice Johnson’s case) to drink.

  red in their Complexion … too red a look: JA revised ‘too much colour’ to ‘too red a look’ (see Textual Notes, p. 221), heightening the redundancy of the phrasing.

  15 ‘From Words she almost came to Blows’: JA here adapts a line from James Merrick’s poem ‘The camelion: a fable after Monsieur de la motte’, in which two men dispute the colour of a chameleon. The work appears in Robert Dodsley’s A Collection of Poems … By Several Hands, 6 vols. (1758), v, 223–35. JA owned a copy of Dodsley’s Collection; she sold it for 10s. in May 1801 (Letters, 92). See ‘Ode to Pity’, note to p. 66; ‘Collection of Letters’, note to p. 147.

  Claret: red wine imported from Bordeaux; an expensive choice, drunk by gentlemen. In Masquerades; or, What you Will, 4 vols. (1780), Sir Charles Montague is envisaged ‘feasting on ortolans and quaffing claret and champaign’ (iv, 79).

  15 Citron Grove: a grove of citrus trees, not found in England. There is an orange grove in the Italian section of Sir Charles Grandison (iii, letter 22); a citron grove also appears in a much anthologized passage from Milton’s Paradise Lost (bk 5, line 22). Groves of all kinds were popular settings in sentimental fiction and pastoral verse.

  sensible: ‘Cognizant, conscious, aware of something. Often with some tinge of emotional sense: Cognizant of something as a ground for pleasure or regret’ (OED).

  16 fair Nymph: stock sentimental and pastoral language, though in view of her other allusions to Pope’s Rape of the Lock JA may again have Belinda in mind, this time with reference to her suffering, like Lucy, the hero’s ‘unresisted Steel’: ‘What wonder, then, fair Nymph! Thy hairs should feel | The conqu’ring force of unresisted Steel?’ (canto 3, ll. 177–8). This episode and a beautiful character called Lucy have an afterlife in the person of S&S’s Lucy Steele.

  your Life & adventures: JA may be recalling (among other things) an episode in Charlotte Smith’s Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle, 4 vols. (1788), in which the heroine and her friend, while out walking, happen to spot a melancholy young lady at a cottage window. When pressed, the beautiful stranger, Adelina, reluctantly embarks on her narrative of distress (ii, ch. 11). See also note to p. 13.

  North Wales … capital Taylors: north Wales is a location cele
brated for its wild, sublime mountain scenery rather than for its tailors; south Wales is the backdrop for the heroine’s childhood in ‘Love and Friendship’. See also ‘A Tour through Wales’ in ‘Collection of Letters’.

  accomplishments … Wales: the daughter of a tailor, adopted by a widowed innkeeper, would not be expected to possess skills such as those listed here (for criticism of female accomplishments, see The Loiterer, no. 27). JA’s joke may partly allude to her brother Edward’s adoption in 1783 by the wealthy but childless Knight family; in MP, Fanny Price is adopted as a child by the family of her mother’s sister.

  17 rents … Estate: a gentleman derived his income from the rent paid by tenants who farmed his estate; collecting such rents was usually the task of the estate owner’s steward.

  Mrs Susan: as a lower servant, Susan is known by her first name rather than by her surname.

  her Place: employment or position as a servant.

  pumping her: to pump is ‘To subject (a person) to a questioning process in order to elicit information; to ply with questions in an artful or persistent manner’ (OED).

  offering him … hand & heart: JA may be recalling Lady Olivia’s passionate offer ‘to cast her fortune’ at the feet of Sir Charles Grandison, and ‘to comply with any terms he should propose to her’ (Sir Charles Grandison, iv, letter 21). Cf. JA’s apparent intention to have Eliza declare her love to Cecil in ‘Henry & Eliza’ (see Textual Notes, p. 223). For a woman to propose to a man was a thrilling breach of convention that went on to inspire radical novels of the next decade such as Eliza Fenwick’s Secresy; or, The Ruin on the Rock, 3 vols. (1795).

  18 steel traps: traps with jaws and springs of steel were laid in the grounds of private estates in order to catch poachers and trespassers (see The Loiterer, no. 50).

  After examining the fracture … such a one before: in her highly unlikely resourcefulness and benevolence, Lady Williams resembles Lady Bountifull in George Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem. A Comedy ([1707]).

  19 I am very partial … real defects: JA’s revision of her original phrasing—‘I may be partial; indeed I believe I am; yes I am very partial to her’—changes a neutral comment into a snide, self-praising one (see Textual Notes, p. 221).

  Bath: the well-known resort and spa town where JA lived with her mother and sister from 1801 to 1804 also features in ‘The three Sisters’ and ‘Love and Friendship’, as well as in her novels.

  Jaunt: ‘Ramble; flight; excursion. It is commonly used ludicrously’ ( Johnson’s Dictionary).

  20 the Hero of this Novel: Jack Johnson, who is named only in the title and barely features in the story.

  my self unparalelled: Charles Adams, in delivering a lengthy eulogy on himself, takes to its logical conclusion the praise heaped on virtuous characters in Richardson’s epistolary fiction. Harriet Byron’s first description of Grandison is lavishly hyperbolic: ‘Were kings to be chosen for their beauty and majesty of person, Sir Charles Grandison would have few competitors’ (i, letter 36). Adams, however, prides himself on his looks and abilities, not on his charity or kindness. Charlotte Grandison says of her brother, by contrast, that he is ‘valued by those who know him best, not so much for being an handsome man; not so much for his birth and fortune; nor for this or that single worthiness; as for being, in the great and yet comprehensive sense of the word, a good man’ (i, letter 36).

  21 One freind I have: that is, Mrs Susan, the cook. Friendship between a male employer and a female servant would be highly unusual, but ‘freind’ may in this context be a euphemism: in her first letter home, Richardson’s Pamela excitedly reports that Mr B has offered to be a friend to her. Her parents are instantly alarmed (Pamela, i, letters 1 and 2). Cf. OED ‘friend’: ‘A romantic or sexual partner; a lover’.

  She flew to her Bottle … forgot: cf. Mrs Slipslop in Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews, who on being rejected by the hero consoles herself with ‘a visit to the Stone-Bottle, which is of sovereign use to a Philosophical Temper’ (bk 1, ch. 9).

  23 raised to the Gallows: hanging, usually in public, was the punishment for those found guilty of capital crimes, murder included.

  some Prince … cheifly engaged: JA alludes to the notorious affairs and entanglements of the Prince of Wales, and of his younger brothers Frederick (Duke of York), William (Duke of Clarence), and Edward (Duke of Kent). The Prince of Wales had secretly married a Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert, in 1785.

  great Mogul: the Muslim Mogul dynasty ruled most of India in the 17th century. During the next century, with the rise of the British Raj, its power swiftly declined, the Great Mogul being left in control only of Delhi and the surrounding area. He was recognized as the formal ruler and known by Europeans as the ‘Emperor of Delhi’. Like sultans and sultanas, the Great Mogul often appeared in 18th-century oriental narratives; see e.g. Charles Morell, The Tales of the Genii; or, The Delightful Lessons of Horam, 2 vols. (1780).

  Edgar & Emma

  24 a tale: this generic designation (cf. ‘Mr Harley’, ‘Mr Clifford’, ‘Amelia Webster’, ‘The Generous Curate’, and ‘A Tale’) distinguishes the ensuing work from the typically longer ‘novels’ in JA’s teenage writings. Probably composed in 1787, ‘Edgar & Emma’ is exceptional among the teenage writings in lacking a dedication.

  Godfrey: an unusual name in the 18th century; it also appears in The Amicable Quixote; or, The Enthusiasm of Friendship, 4 vols. (1788). ‘Godfrey’s cordial’ was a name given to ‘various preparations containing tincture of opium mixed with treacle and often flavourings such as sassafras, ginger, or caraway, used as a sedative, esp. for children’ (OED).

  Market-town: the centre of a country area, a town permitted to hold regular market-days.

  three pair of Stairs high: ‘pair’ here means a ‘set’ or flight of stairs. Sir Godfrey and Lady Marlow are living, anachronistically, as if they were tradesmen or merchants with rooms above the shop. Third-floor accommodation in town-houses was normally small and occupied by servants or lodgers of very modest means. In Robert Bage’s Mount Henneth, A Novel, 2 vols. (1782), the narrator visits a patient ‘who lodged in a garret up three pair of stairs, at a green grocer’s. The room, and its furniture, were exceeding poor’ (ii, 78).

  Consumption: ‘Originally: abnormality or loss of humours, resulting in wasting (extreme weight loss) of the body; such wasting; (obs.). Later: disease that causes wasting of the body, spec. tuberculosis’ (OED).

  25 Marlhurst: perhaps echoing the Whig aristocratic name of the Duke of Marlborough, this country seat combines the first syllable of the Marlows’ name with ‘hurst’, meaning a wooded hill.

  ninepence among the Ringers: major events in a community were traditionally marked by a peal of the church bells; the mere return of owners to their estate would not seem to merit such a celebration. In any event, ninepence is a miserly amount to parcel out among a group of six or more bell-ringers. James Woodforde distributed money to the ringers in his village every Christmas, giving them 2s. 6d. as their ‘annual Gift’ on 26 Dec. 1786 (The Diary of a Country Parson, ed. John Beresford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 291–2).

  Villa: a smallish and newly built ‘country seat’ ( Johnson’s Dictionary), or any residence of a superior or handsome type, or of some architectural pretension.

  Mr Willmot … the representative … Lottery: despite his ‘very ancient Family’ and the aristocratic associations of his name (echoing that of the dissolute poet John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–80)), Mr Willmot’s money is new and far from genteel in origin. He owns a potentially very profitable share in a lead mine and has bought an expensive ticket in the national lottery that ran from 1709 to 1824. There is a cash-seeking Mr Willmott in The Assignation. A Sentimental Novel. In a Series of Letters, 2 vols. (1774); see also note below to p. 25. JA originally wrote ‘a younger representative’, but presumably revised her phrasing as only the eldest son could have inherited the ‘paternal Estate’ (see Textual Notes, p. 222).


  their Coach: no private carriage of the type suggested here could in reality have accommodated as many people as nine children and two adults. JA’s father’s carriage, a ‘chariot’, had one row of seats for two or three people (see note to ‘Sir William Mountague’, p. 35).

  Emma: a favourite name of JA’s, it appears again in ‘Mr Harley’ and The Watsons, as well as in E, her only published novel to be named after the heroine. Many heroines in later 18th-century fiction are called Emma, perhaps thanks to the lasting popularity of Matthew Prior’s verse dialogue ‘Henry and Emma’, first published in his Poems on Several Occasions (1709).

  Edgar: an unusual name in the 18th century, not employed elsewhere in JA; it also appears in Prior’s ‘Henry and Emma’. In Burney’s Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth, 5 vols. (1796), the heroine’s suitor is called Edgar Mandlebert.

  tremble: revised by JA from the original ‘fear’, and heightening the physical manifestation of Emma’s feelings (see Textual Notes, p. 222).

  Rodolphus: in a list of otherwise unremarkable male names, Rodolphus sticks out. A Rodolphus Vernon appears in Anna Maria McKenzie’s The Gamesters: A Novel, 3 vols. (1786), as does the surname Wilmot (iii, 161); see note above to p. 25, and ‘Lesley-Castle’, note to p. 98.

  sunk breathless on a Sopha: cf. ‘Love and Friendship’: ‘We fainted Alternately on a Sofa’ (p. 77). ‘A long, stuffed seat with a back and ends or end, used for reclining; a form of lounge or couch’ (OED), from the early 18th century onwards, the comfortable and relatively informal sofa became increasingly popular. It readily lent itself to fainting and posing as well as to relaxation. William Cowper’s long blank-verse poem The Task, a favourite of JA’s, appeared in 1785; Book One, ‘The Sofa’, commissioned by his female friend Lady Austen (no relation to JA), mentions the ‘soft recumbency of outstretched limbs’ afforded to women (l. 82). Lady Bertram makes the most of her sofa in MP, but Fanny Price gets scolded for idling there (ch. 2, ch. 7).