by Jane Austen
104. “A’n’t,” or its variants “an’t” and “ain’t,” was considered incorrect grammar then and is used in Jane Austen by less polished or less educated characters.
105. Charles’s reaction suggests that, despite all Elizabeth’s rationalizations about an invitation for an evening party being as good or better (this page), others are aware of the superior hospitality, and desirability, of a dinner party.
106. This statement would have a particular resonance at this time, for one of the central themes in British politics over the preceding century had been the conflict between the king and the heir to the throne, and the followers of each. As the reigning sovereign, and thus the person who could appoint people to high office, dispense other favors, and determine policy (along with Parliament), the king would collect supporters around him. At the same time, many who disagreed with the king’s policies or simply had not been fortunate enough to enjoy his patronage would congregate around the king’s eldest son, who could offer the certainty that, barring premature death, he would eventually become king and be able to act as his supporters wished. Those gathered around him often constituted the main political opposition in the country. As the king seemed to be nearing his end, the number of those who gravitated to the heir apparent, i.e., “the rising sun” in Charles’s words, would naturally increase.
107. Playbills and other notices show Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday to be the standard days for performances at this time, though some performances on other days (excepting Sundays) occur. The “to-morrow night” that Charles originally secured is a Saturday (see chronology). In a letter from Bath Jane Austen writes of attending a play on Saturday (June 19, 1799).
108. This statement signals Anne’s increasing integration into the Musgroves’ circle, especially since, in contrast to some earlier incidents, Mrs. Musgrove is not praising Anne because of any service she is rendering the family but simply out of fondness for her and a wish for her presence. This statement has additional value for Anne now, with Captain Wentworth present. It is possible that hearing Anne so highly praised helps motivate his friendlier approach to her immediately after this.
109. Fireplaces were the only form of heat in rooms. During the winter they needed to burn strongly, which could make the immediate vicinity of the fireplace excessively warm, even as more distant areas of the room remained cool. Hence moving toward the fire from cooler areas and away from it again after being warmed would be a common procedure, one enabling Captain Wentworth to end up near Anne without alerting others that this was his real intention.
110. Cards were one of the most popular forms of indoor amusement at the time, with many different games being played; Jane Austen’s characters are frequently described playing cards. They were especially popular in Bath, where the concentration of people with ample leisure encouraged frequent playing and, in many cases, heavy gambling. Anne and Captain Wentworth assume as a matter of course, and turn out to be correct, that this evening party will center around cards.
111. While Anne’s not being changed could mean she still loves Captain Wentworth, it could also mean she is still swayed by or susceptible to those influences that earlier caused her to reject him. Her hesitation shows the difficulties created by the mixed legacy of her past experience with Captain Wentworth.
112. This is the first time he has ever directly alluded to their earlier relationship.
113. The sounds are presumably alarming not because they know who might be arriving, but because they feel any guests to be unwelcome. The face Charles made at their earlier visitors suggests the general desire for a conclave that consists only of the family and its closest friends.
114. revolving a great measure: considering or pondering an important step.
115. This is all she believed she still owed them as relations and perhaps as former neighbors as well.
116. The good manners of Sir Walter and Elizabeth when it comes to public behavior will be mentioned later (this page).
117. Elizabeth is the one to distribute cards, and hence invitations, because she is the mistress of the house.
118. importance: social consequence.
119. The walk to Camden Place would be toilsome not only because of Anne’s anxieties regarding Captain Wentworth but also because of its long and steep ascent.
120. Duty might dictate coming, whether as an acknowledgment of Elizabeth’s courtesy in inviting him, as a sign of friendship to Anne, or as something that would please his friends, the Musgroves, and his sister and her husband (the Crofts are later described as attending the party, which would be expected since they are Sir Walter’s tenants). Discretion might dictate staying away, to avoid any conflicts or uneasiness that could arise from visiting the home of those who had earlier treated him with disdain, or to avoid seeing the woman he loves with another man who is courting her and is widely expected to marry her. Yet, since all of these reasons are fairly weak, Anne remains undecided as to what might ultimately sway him.
121. imitation of nature: appearance of acting naturally. “Nature” and “imitation of nature” were often used in connection with art; pictures or works of literature that represented people accurately were praised for imitating nature well.
122. Bath-street: see note 93.
123. Pump-yard: an open area just north of the Pump Room and very close to Bath Street (see map).
124. A later development suggests this might have been a planned delay on his part, done for the very purpose of having this meeting (this page).
125. He would presumably like to arrive at the Elliots’ before the other guests.
VOLUME II, CHAPTER XI
1. It is now Saturday; she spoke with Mrs. Smith on Thursday. Anne’s delay in telling Lady Russell introduces some awkwardness into the story, for it makes the conversation with Mrs. Smith, which formed the longest chapter in the book, of even less relevance to the main plot, since it does not even lead to an alteration in Lady Russell’s attitude. At the same time, the delay does underline the true nature of Anne’s priorities.
2. The Sultaness Scheherazade is the ostensible narrator of The Arabian Nights. In the story she has married a king, or sultan, who executes each new wife the morning after the wedding in order to prevent her from ever being unfaithful. To forestall this fate Scheherazade tells the king a story that is still unfinished when morning arrives, promising to finish it come evening. The king’s eagerness to hear the end makes him postpone her execution for one day, but the next night she also begins a new story and leaves it uncompleted. This continues night after night until at last the king relents from his murderous design; the tales told by her constitute the book. In the case of Mr. Elliot’s character, or reputation, the reprieve it wins, at least as regards Lady Russell’s opinion, promises to be only temporary.
The Arabian Nights, which emerged in various versions in the Middle East, first came to the attention of European readers in the early 1700s with a French translation of one version by Antoine Galland. An English translation of that soon followed, and the book became very popular, with a particular appeal for children but with many adult readers as well. This popularity grew further in the early 1800s, as its exotic origin and many fantastical elements fit in well with the Romanticism of the period.
3. It is characteristic of Anne’s unselfish and sympathetic nature that she “grieved” over the sufferings of her friends and only “felt” her own.
4. An apartment could be a room or a suite of rooms, but it is the latter in this case. The previous chapter referred to the Musgroves’ dining room, and it soon becomes apparent that Anne has joined others in a sitting room that is separate from the bedrooms.
5. In the previous chapter Mrs. Musgrove indicated how much she valued Anne’s company, rather than just her usefulness (this page). Now Henrietta, and even Mary, do the same.
6. Captain Wentworth asks about writing materials. The ones on hand are on a separate table because a number of different materials were needed then. T
hey included, in addition to paper, a quill pen, an inkwell (often a glass bottle) into which the pen was dipped, a penknife to sharpen the easily dulled quill, and a pounce-pot, or sander, to sprinkle a drying substance over the paper, since the highly liquid ink would otherwise blot (chalk was the favored substance; the term “sander” derived from the earlier use of sandarac, a resin). To this would be added materials for sealing the letter (see note 46).
7. brother: brother-in-law.
8. Mrs. Musgrove’s lack of taste and delicacy make the account even less interesting to others, like Mrs. Croft, than it would be in any case. “Good Mrs. Musgrove” refers to her moral goodness, i.e., her kindness and benevolence. Jane Austen distinguishes this from taste or delicacy, which would make the speaker present her account well and refrain from introducing inappropriate or overly private details. In Jane Austen’s scale of values, kindness and benevolence matter more than taste, but the latter is still important, and the ideal person, such as Anne, has both.
9. It is not clear if Anne does not wish them to hear because she always wishes others not to experience something uncomfortable, even if she is experiencing it, or because she feels that a conversation between two women about marriage would be especially uncongenial to a man, or because she feels that the gentlemen’s lack of any family connection makes the subject even less relevant and interesting to them than to her.
10. Presumably she means they could have wished the manner and speed with which the engagement proceeded to be different, not the match itself. Except for Charles Musgrove’s mentioning earlier that his father could have wished Charles Hayter to be richer—in which the former may have even been projecting his own opinions onto his father—there has been no sign of objection to the marriage on the part of the Musgroves, especially Mrs. Musgrove.
11. wild: passionate.
12. settle: marry.
13. Mrs. Musgrove’s abrupt interruption is another sign of her inferior manners and the lack of delicacy mentioned above.
14. In a letter to her niece Jane Austen expresses similar sentiments. The niece is wondering whether to marry a man, and Jane Austen tentatively advises against it, focusing on his lack of independent means and the long delay that could entail: “I should dread the continuance of this sort of tacit engagement, with such an uncertainty as there is, of when it may be completed.—Years may pass, before he is Independent.—You like him well enough to marry, but not well enough to wait” [emphasis in original] (Nov. 30, 1814).
15. The principle of marrying only with sufficient means is another one endorsed by Jane Austen, and by various characters in her novels; in this case the two families consented only after Charles Hayter’s income improved (this page). Austen makes clear that while she believes it is terrible to marry only for money, when there is no affection, it is certainly foolish to marry solely on the basis of love, without any means of support. She herself seems to have followed this advice when young, for she and a young man, Tom Lefroy, separated from each other, despite apparent attraction between them, because neither had enough money to enable them to marry.
16. Her thrill would come from hearing Captain Wentworth’s own sister endorse the principle on which Anne rejected him, for at the time of their engagement it was highly uncertain, since he was only starting out in the navy, whether and when they would have the means to marry.
17. It is not clear if Captain Wentworth’s look is conscious in the same sense as the word is still used today, i.e., a product of his acute consciousness of how meaningful those words are for Anne and himself, or in the sense of guilty, another meaning of the word at the time. The latter could result from his thinking, as he listens to Mrs. Croft, that he has judged Anne too harshly for exercising the same prudent caution when she broke off their engagement. His pausing, perhaps to reflect on his sister’s words, might suggest the latter represents at least part of the explanation.
18. enforce: strengthen; press home (an argument).
19. “Parcel” frequently referred to small packages wrapped in paper, as is the case here.
20. Miniature paintings had long been popular, especially for portraits, and their popularity had greatly increased during the late eighteenth century. They were particularly valued because their small size allowed them to be carried or worn about the neck, thereby keeping the image of the person portrayed always at hand; they were thus especially suitable for those in love, as in this case. (For a picture of a contemporary woman wearing one around her neck, see this page.)
21. The Cape of Good Hope is at the southern tip of Africa and is now part of South Africa. It had been captured by Britain because it stood at the juncture of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, making it a critical location for a country with naval interests around the world and whose ships had to pass by the Cape en route to its most important colony, India (the Suez Canal did not yet exist). Cape Town, the city at the Cape, became a British naval base, which is where Captain Benwick’s ship would have stopped.
22. South Africa, whose principal European settlers were Dutch, starting in the 1600s, also received a large number of German settlers over the years. Jane Austen’s naval brother Francis, who stopped at the Cape, described the colony there in a letter as a mixture of many nations.
23. Captain Harville’s sister obviously wished to have a picture of Captain Benwick. This would be natural for someone engaged or married to a naval officer, whose duties would keep him away from home for many months.
24. To set a picture is to place it in a frame. Captain Benwick must have been planning to do this after he returned home, either because he lacked the opportunity to do so at the Cape, or because he thought the quality of frames or framing work would be better in England. Then, learning of Miss Harville’s death, he had no reason to frame it, until his engagement to Louisa meant there was someone else who desired his picture.
25. allow: make allowances.
26. Anne here commences the most important conversation in the novel. Absent from the first version, it was a final inspiration of the author. It provides a superb lead-up to the resolution of the plot—much better than a meeting at the Crofts’ that had earlier served that purpose—while also revealing more of the two main characters, and their feelings for each other, and drawing together a number of critical themes already developed.
27. Anne is describing, at least in part, her own situation over the last eight years. But her description would also apply to any genteel woman who lost her man in some way, though many of these women would have more distractions than Anne, whether from duties as mistress of a house, the function Elizabeth performs in the Elliot family, or from a more active family or social life. Many, lacking her habits of continual reflection, would also be less prone to being preyed on by their feelings than Anne.
28. One inspiration for this observation would be the contrast between her own situation and Captain Wentworth’s. As he explained earlier (this page), he was able to channel his impatience for doing something, after the end of their engagement, into naval activity. Her statement suggests that she assumes he was able, thanks to this activity, to forget her and thereby to suffer less. The truth of this assumption will soon be a matter of debate.
29. This analogy of body and mind was used by many people at the time, whether in relation to the difference between the sexes or to other matters.
30. Captain Harville will continue to use numerous naval metaphors; Admiral Croft does the same. Captain Wentworth also uses them but less frequently, a sign of his wider reading and broader mind.
31. “Friends” at this time could include family members, and it probably does here.
32. Anne is offering an idealized vision of men’s professions, for most did not call for such risks or such separation from home. She may be offering this compliment to men to encourage acceptance of her arguments and avoid any antagonistic feelings that could arise from disagreement.
Ironically, Anne’s argument, though presented in defense of women, bear
s similarities to arguments presented then in favor of traditional roles for women. Hannah More, a leading evangelical writer, argued that a domestic role suited women because they were more emotional, and their feelings would interfere with successful performance of jobs outside the home.
33. He may be overhearing them. If so, this conversation reverses his and Anne’s positions during an earlier important conversation, in which she overheard him praise Louisa Musgrove for her firmness and thereby implicitly criticize Anne for lacking that same quality (this page). In this case, the speaker has reason to suspect the listener’s awareness, which means she must anticipate his hearing whatever else she says.
34. Harville makes a series of analogies between himself and a ship. Being well supplied was critical for naval vessels because they were frequently away from any port for long periods. An elaborate system of signals existed to convey information and orders to ships, such as those to leave their anchorage or other existing position.
35. These last words should read “my side of the argument.” The omission of the “of” is probably a printer’s error; other passages in Jane Austen with the same or similar wording use the “of.”
36. Much of the literature of preceding centuries did lament woman’s supposed inconstancy. Most of it also, as he allows, was written by men. But the case was far from being as uniform as he asserts—his own limited reading leads him to an overly absolute generalization. There were plenty of stories showing male betrayal as well as ones showing female betrayal. The issue itself also became a point of dispute in many works of literature.
