by Jane Austen
13. person: personal appearance; in this case, it also probably means general persona.
14. in the world: in fashionable society. Its inhabitants were often noted for their dissipations, a word often used then to describe a life of profligacy, hedonism, and moral laxness.
15. perplexed affairs: messy or entangled or uncertain finances.
16. “Parlour” was the term generally used for a small sitting room. One that was more spacious and luxurious would be called a drawing room.
17. afford: supply. The house is a rooming house. Such houses were a common feature of English towns, frequently run by landladies, and Bath contained many, of varying levels of comfort and cost. Rooming houses normally employed servants, often multiple ones—that this house has only one indicates its modest level and hence the reduced circumstances of Mrs. Smith.
18. She could be conveyed into the bath by means of a Bath sedan chair (see note 18) or a wheelchair. While certain forms of wheelchair had been around for a while, shortly before this time an improved version called a Bath chair had been developed in Bath, whose invalid population created a large demand for such a device. The chair had one small wheel in front and two large ones in back, with a handle allowing the rider to steer while an attendant pushed it from behind.
19. Anne would have a natural interest in studying and reflecting on this case, for much of her life has been spent trying to achieve fortitude and resignation in the face of distress. Mrs. Smith’s resilience links her to Anne and makes her an appropriate friend (Captain Wentworth’s friends are also shown to share important characteristics with him; see note 39).
20. understanding: intellect, mind.
21. elasticity of mind: buoyancy of character or disposition; ability to overcome depression or despair.
22. appointment: decree or allotment. In other words, heaven has arranged it so that her special gift of mental fortitude counterbalances her other misfortunes. Anne’s attributing such a gift to her suggests, perhaps with a touch of admiring envy on Anne’s part, that Mrs. Smith does not need to struggle for calm and composure as Anne does.
23. character: reputation. “Character” could mean a work reference allowing one to gain new employment; in this case, the landlady would wish to maintain her house’s reputation as a desirable residence. Thus Mrs. Smith has been able to rely on someone’s own self-interest to obtain good treatment.
24. The term “profession” applied to nurses at the time only in a very loose sense, for there was no regular training or certification for nurses, much less any kind of organization. Most nursing was done at home, by family members and servants, as seen earlier in the cases of little Charles Musgrove and Louisa. Among those who earned a living as nurses, some worked in the small number of hospitals existing at the time; a much larger number worked as private nurses like the person mentioned here. In either case, a nurse had a status similar to that of a servant and performed cleaning as well as strictly nursing tasks. This nurse’s periodic unemployment and need to live with her sister indicate the precarious nature of her position.
25. Mrs. Smith is taught to knit by her nurse because, while knitting was widely practiced by the lower classes, it was at that time rare among upper-class women, who instead devoted themselves to decorative forms of needlework. The only other women in Jane Austen’s novels described as knitting are Mrs. Bates and her granddaughter Jane Fairfax in Emma, both of whom, like Mrs. Smith, are in difficult economic circumstances and thus more likely to prefer an activity with a strong practical benefit.
26. in the way of making: in a position to make.
27. Thread cases are folding cases with pockets in which pieces of thread would be kept; thread was not sold loose then and was wound around pieces of bone or wood, so it would be helpful to have pockets for arranging different threads in an orderly and accessible fashion. Pincushions hold pins, which were fairly expensive then and so worth taking the trouble to avoid losing. Both of these would be useful for women engaged in needlework. Card racks hold visiting cards, popular items in Bath (see note 8).
28. One reason, in addition to benevolence, for Mrs. Smith to value these acts of charity is that they would affirm, amid her current economic distress, her upper-class status, for helping the poor was a basic activity of wealthy women. Thus, even as her knitting signifies her social descent, the use she makes of her knitted products signifies something more elevated.
29. In her novels Jane Austen consistently indicates respect for being thoughtful and well-informed and liking to read, but she does not necessarily associate that with formal schooling, and she sometimes speaks satirically of fashionable or expensive schools. She herself went to school only briefly.
30. This may represent Jane Austen’s own sentiments. Her letters show a continual interest in news of others, while her novels display her continual fascination with the intricacies and varieties of human character. She may also object to those who denigrate such curiosity as mere craving for gossip.
31. au fait: thoroughly conversant or well-informed.
32. Nurse Rooke’s frequent sharing of interesting gossip may be another sign of her shrewdness and intelligence. It would be a useful service for a nurse to perform for a confined patient, one that might raise the patient’s spirit—at a time when physical means of curing ailments were very limited—and that would enhance the value of the nurse’s services, making the patient more likely to retain her and recommend her to others.
33. The term “volumes” would have particular resonance then because most books, including Jane Austen’s novels, were published in multiple, separate volumes.
Anne here espouses ideals of stoic fortitude akin to those she discussed earlier with Captain Benwick (see this page). Such ideas were fundamental to this culture, advocated on the basis of both religious and nonreligious principles. The ideals were frequently applied to sickness, with almost everyone arguing for the necessity and worthiness of fortitude and resignation in the face of illness, and extolling the great character of those who demonstrated such virtues. A further spur to such attitudes was the lack of many other means of coping with illness, given the inability of contemporary medicine to cure many ailments, or even to offer relief from the terrible pain that often accompanied them. At the same time, the intensity of such miseries made people frequently admit the difficulty, or impossibility, of being as stoic and resigned as they would like.
34. Mrs. Smith’s skepticism clearly reflects her own recent trials and is part of a cynicism about human beings that she displays elsewhere. It also probably reflects Jane Austen’s own perspective, for in both her novels and her letters she describes the querulousness of those who suffer from illness or believe themselves to be suffering. If so, it would be one of the occasional points on which she signals a difference between herself and her heroine.
This whole issue had a particular poignancy for Jane Austen, for it was while finishing this novel that she came down with the illness—possibly Addison’s disease, a failure of the adrenal glands—that killed her. Based on the testimony of family members and some letters from that time she seems to have demonstrated uncomplaining fortitude, even as her pain worsened and the possibility of recovery became more remote. In a letter written two months before her death, when she was already suffering greatly, she manages to write, with evident self-mockery, “I was interested in all you wrote, though with all the Egotism of an Invalid I write only of myself” (May 22, 1817). In fact, she was calm enough about the matter of illness in those final months to begin work on a novel, Sanditon, in which she satirizes those who come to a seaside resort in quest of health, including a trio of siblings with a ludicrous obsession with their ailments.
35. “To think seriously” sometimes meant specifically to think about religious matters. Thus when Mrs. Smith speaks of “almost too late” she may mean not thinking about one’s soul and its fate until one is about to die.
36. Mrs. Wallis and her husband, Colonel Wallis, have alre
ady been mentioned as friends of Mr. Elliot (see this page); the coincidental connection with Nurse Rooke will lead to important revelations later. The latter is attending Mrs. Wallis because, as mentioned earlier, she is having a baby (see also note 37).
37. expensive: extravagant, given to lavish expenditure.
38. Westgate-buildings: Though the houses on this street are fairly grand, its location in the poorer and lower part of town would make it an object of scorn by anyone as conscious of wealth and status as Sir Walter. In 1780 one aristocrat, Lord Herbert, declared, “I cannot bear to go into the Lower Town” (quoted in Hembry, The English Spa, page 126). Westgate Buildings could be a particular object of loathing because the street was very close to Avon Street, the center of the area in which the poorest and least reputable inhabitants resided. Anne’s lack of concern about such matters is another mark of her profound difference with the rest of her family.
39. Miss Anne Elliot: a sign of Sir Walter’s formality, even to his own daughter, as well as probably a reminder to her of the difference in her status from that of a “mere Mrs. Smith.”
40. Foul air would be regarded not simply as unpleasant but as dangerous, for medical opinion regarded bad air as a prime cause of illness. It would be especially common in poorer sections of town, which, in Bath and other towns and cities then, were characterized by overcrowding and poor sanitation.
41. not one-and-thirty: thirty; this construction appears elsewhere in Jane Austen.
42. warm bath: this probably means either the King’s or Queen’s Bath, which, according to a contemporary guidebook, had temperatures of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (the Hot Bath had a temperature as high as 117, and the Cross Bath one of 93–94). The book says that the former baths are “chiefly used by hospital invalids, or by persons of the lower class of life” (John Feltham, A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places, page 26).
43. pavement: sidewalk.
44. The family arms would be displayed on the carriage. Not everyone had the right to display arms. It required a license. But by this time more than ten thousand families possessed the right, so a knight like Sir Henry Russell, or his widow, certainly would, even if these arms were undistinguished in the eyes of a baronet like Sir Walter.
45. equipage: carriage plus horses and servants attending it.
46. One factor in Sir Walter’s contempt is that widows were very numerous in Bath. They, like many others, found it an attractive place of retirement; their presence is indicated by the census of 1811, which shows the population of Bath as just over 60% female, as opposed to 52% for England as a whole.
47. This suggests that Lady Dalrymple is also linked to the English nobility—no other noble connection to the Elliots is ever mentioned, and Sir Walter would certainly be one to bring it up if he could. It is possible that her family does have English ties (see note 28). It is also possible that Sir Walter is simply overstating the case from vanity.
48. Sir Walter’s differing attitudes toward Mrs. Clay and Mrs. Smith indicate his inconsistency, for he is in many respects more guilty with the former of the faults he finds in his daughter relative to Mrs. Smith. Anne only visits her widowed friend, while his lives permanently with the family. Moreover, Mrs. Smith, while poorer than Mrs. Clay at present, comes from a higher social position, something Sir Walter should be able to guess from her being an old schoolfellow of Anne’s. That Mrs. Clay’s flattery and external deference make Sir Walter overlook all this shows how foolish he can be, even with regard to his own principles of social distinction.
49. wait on: call upon, visit.
50. The actions of Mr. Elliot and Lady Russell demonstrate again the difference between them and Anne on this important point, one that is just about to play a critical role in Anne’s decision about him and disagreement with her.
51. It will later turn out that Mr. Elliot and Mrs. Smith know each other, but he definitely seems not to recognize her here. It is possible Anne did not mention her name, but that is unlikely, especially since Sir Walter regards its commonplace character as worthy of remark. More likely, that same commonplace character keeps Mr. Elliot from wondering if this is the same Mrs. Smith he knows.
52. temper, manners, mind: these three terms would together refer to all her personal qualities.
53. One year was the standard period of mourning for those who had lost a wife or husband. Those who abbreviated it could face severe censure. Not long after this Anne will say, “Mr. Elliot’s wife has not been dead much above half a year” (this page), so there would still be a number of weeks remaining before he would be free. Lady Russell’s beginning to calculate them suggests her eagerness.
54. alliance: marriage.
55. pay his addresses to: court (for the purpose of marriage).
56. connection: link established by marriage.
57. own: admit.
58. succeeding to: inheriting.
59. countenance: appearance and (possibly) demeanor.
60. disposition: general mental bent or tendencies. The term had a broader connotation at this time than it does today.
61. This probably means to sit at the head of the table and bless the food. “Preside” often refers specifically to the first action, though it can also refer to directing affairs in general (both usages are found in Jane Austen). Either usage could apply to a future mistress of a household—who could preside at table and would always manage the household generally—though the reference to “the same spot” suggests the first meaning.
62. dearest Anne: this, like “dear someone,” was frequently used by family members and friends, and usually with “my” as in this case. Jane Austen uses the designation at times in her letters.
63. This probably means needlework, which was such a prevalent activity among ladies that it was often called simply “work.”
64. This is the most significant temptation Anne faces in the novel. It is particularly seductive for her because of all the disappointments and suffering she has experienced: the loss of her mother, the neglect by her father and sister, the years of regret after rejecting Wentworth, and the recent pain of witnessing his coldness to her and pursuit of other women. Her ability to resist it, as immediately revealed, constitutes a strong proof of her character. The match offers many advantages from the standpoint of wealth and position and attention by others, but she still rejects it on grounds, more than anything, of moral principle.
65. article: item; clause or provision. This last meaning, usually used in relation to written documents, may be suggested because it would link articles of moral duty with the “thirty-nine articles,” the basic tenets of the Church of England. Such religious principles were considered to be intimately linked to morality.
66. Frequent Sunday traveling was often regarded as a sign of bad character. There was a strong belief in the sanctity of the Sabbath, which meant refraining on Sunday from many activities, including travel; travel, which usually took a long time then, would also tend to preclude going to church. There had been a movement in the decades prior to this novel to improve adherence to the rules regarding the Sabbath, especially those prohibiting drinking, working, and traveling, since these rules were frequently violated. In 1802 the Society for the Suppression of Vice came into being, and, among other things, tried to pressure government officials to enforce Sabbath laws more zealously. These efforts, which seem to have had some, though far from universal, success, were linked to the growing evangelical movement, which sought to inspire greater moral and religious devotion in various aspects of life and also promoted certain political causes, including the abolition of the slave trade. It is possible this had some influence on Jane Austen, for after expressing a dislike for evangelicals in a letter from Jan. 24, 1809, she declares sympathy for them in a letter of Nov. 18, 1814. As regards this novel, the serious thoughtfulness of its heroine would make her likely to respect strict religious principles, as she does here.
67. serious matters: religious matters (possibly)
. See note 35.
68. fair character: good name or reputation.
69. mind: inner character. The term then referred not just to the intellect.
70. By “early impressions” she probably means falling in love with Captain Wentworth, which has so clearly left a permanent imprint on her mind. It is possible that her long experience of the unhappiness in her father’s house, with its surface polish and lack of warmth, has influenced her as well.
71. In addition to her “early impressions,” her recent experience with Wentworth and other members of naval society, especially at Lyme, have probably helped inspire this attitude. Thus both he and Lyme continue to play a critical role in the story and in Anne’s development. At the same time, it is also significant that her decision to reject Mr. Elliot does not stem from any lingering hope of attaining Captain Wentworth instead.
72. In these respects Mr. Elliot is part of a category that appears consistently in Jane Austen. In all her novels but her first, Northanger Abbey, there is a young man with great surface charm and attractiveness who tempts the heroine to a degree. The previous four—Willoughby, Wickham, Henry Crawford, and Frank Churchill—all prove untrustworthy in some respect, though in varying degrees. More will eventually be revealed about the true nature of Mr. Elliot’s character.
73. Anne’s decision reveals her clear independence from Lady Russell. She is capable of deciding completely on her own, and the good judgment and high moral standards she has shown throughout the novel suggest that her verdict is more worthy of trust than her friend’s.
74. Mr. Elliot’s mourning would end by the summer (see note 53; and chronology), and this would allow a decent interval between his proposal and the marriage, something the highly proper Lady Russell would desire.
Westgate Buildings, where Mrs. Smith lives.
[From Mowbray Aston Green, The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath (Bath, 1904), p. 196]
VOLUME II, CHAPTER VI
