Wives and Daughters

by Elizabeth Gaskell

  But we will not permit ourselves to write any more in this vein. It is unnecessary to demonstrate to those who know what is and what is not true literature that Mrs. Gaskell was gifted with some of the choicest faculties bestowed upon mankind; that these grew into greater strength and ripened into greater beauty in the decline of her days; and that she has gifted us with some of the truest, purest works of fiction in the language. And she was herself what her works show her to have been—a wise, good woman.

  ENDNOTES

  Chapter 1

  1 (p. 6) the little town of Hollingford: The town in which Wives and Daughters takes place is based upon Knutsford, a town in Cheshire where Elizabeth Gaskell was raised from the age of thirteen months by her aunt, Hannah Lumb. Elizabeth Stevenson, Gaskell’s mother, had died in London in October 1811. Gaskell’s aunt would take the mother’s place, and Knutsford would become a fertile source for Gaskell’s novels, including Cranford, in which the town of the title was also based upon Knutsford.

  2 (p. 6) Five-and-forty years ago: Gaskell is setting the action of the story back in time, with the main action of the novel occurring in the late 1820s through the early 1830s.

  3 (p. 6) It was before the passing of the Reform Bill: The novel is set before the 1832 Reform Act, an act that brought a broader share of power to the middle classes and that redistributed parliamentary representation from small electoral boroughs to the nation’s growing industrial centers. It is thought to have saved England from the kind of unrest and revolutionary action that occurred on the Continent. As a result of the act the number of enfranchised men was extended from 435,000 to 813,000-but this was out of an adult male population close to 6 million. Nevertheless, this was a significant piece of reform, mostly because it inaugurated a political shift from power based solely on rank, birth, and land ownership to one based on wealth and capital; it set a precedent that would be followed up on in the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884-1885.

  4 (p. 6) Whig family ... Tory family of Cumnor: Gaskell here switches the political parties of these two families, which we will learn are central to the novel. The Cumnors are actually more enlightened and align themselves with the Whigs, a party that in the eighteenth century thought of itself as progressive, having defended constitutional monarchy against Stuart Catholicism. Later in the novel Gaskell refines the political distinctions between the two families by making the Cumnors into Whigs and alluding to the “Toryism” of Squire Hamley. This is an inconsistency in the novel that Gaskell did not have the opportunity to change prior to her death.

  5 (p. 7 ) a school of the kind we should call “industrial”: The aims of the school that Gaskell describes are self-serving in that the education it of fered to children of the working class prepared them to be servants. Gaskell’s take on education for the poor “nowadays”—that is, in the 1860s—makes it seem as if standards had changed more than they actually had. It was not until 18 71 that public education was established, and before then elementary education for the lower classes was voluntary and geared toward achieving only the most basic levels in reading, writing, and math.

  Chapter 2

  1 (p. 1 S) greenhouses and hothouses.... Lady Agnes had a more scientific taste: Lady Agnes’s interest in botany is not meant to be understood as an eccentricity, as the nineteenth-century saw a burgeoning fascination with the study of plants and flowers. Botany from the late eighteenth century was also considered an acceptable intellectual pursuit for young women. Although the study of plants was not only an upper-class endeavor, here the allusion to a “long glittering range” of greenhouses and the fact that Lady Agnes is a collector of plants, including rare orchids, is a clue to the wealth of the Cumnors.

  2 (p. 22) Molly had never read the “Three Bears”: “The Three Bears,” of which Molly is ignorant, was and remains a common fairy tale. The question of whether fairy tales should be part of a child’s reading was a fraught one in the nineteenth century; one opinion had it that they were dangerous for children in that fairy tales did not conform to reason or fact. Lord Cumnor goes on to joke about her as “Sleeping Beauty,” of whom Molly also seems ignorant.

  3 (p. 24) Lodge’s Portraits: Mrs. Kirkpatrick is showing Molly a work by Edmund Lodge entitled Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain (4 vols., 1821-1834).

  Chapter 3

  1 (p. 30) muscular Christianity: This belief system, which equated moral and physical fitness, became widely accepted in the 1850s. Introduced by Thomas Arnold, a headmaster of Rugby, it is associated with educational reform. The ideal of muscular Christianity is associated most clearly in the novel with Roger Hamley, whose robust physical self corresponds with a strong moral sense.

  2 (p. 30) he must be Scotch: Contemporary readers of the novel would have understood the reference to Mr. Gibson’s “Scotch” background as a suggestion of his superiority as a medical man. During the nineteenth century Edinburgh University in Scotland was the premier place for medical education, so to suggest Gibson was Scottish was to suggest that he may have had superior training during a time when most doctors learned their craft through apprenticeships rather than formal university training.

  3 (p. 33) apprentices ... bound by indentures, and paying a handsome premium to learn their business: Apprenticeship remained the way in which most “surgeons” or “apothecaries” became qualified to practice. The length of the apprenticeship, which was a binding contract or indentureship, was typically five to seven years; the apprentice exchanged his labor for room, board, and education.

  Chapter 4

  1 (p. 41 ) the Heptarchy: The vicar is referring to Squire Hamley’s ancient family, which existed before the Norman Conquest. “The Heptarchy” refers to the seven kingdoms that are said to have existed in England in the seventh and eighth centuries.

  2 ,. (p. 44) the fable of the lap-dog and the donkey: In this fable from Aesop, a donkey, who is envious of the petting the lap-dog receives, tries to get similar attention but is beaten instead. Osborne is more like the lap-dog, delicate and much petted, while Roger, though neither beaten nor neglected, is more like the donkey in being larger and less doted on by his mother. The sons are metaphorical opposites: Osborne is associated with culture and refinement, Roger with nature and a constitutional hardiness.

  3 (p. 47) the pomfret cakes, and the conserve of hips, and on Sundays he shall have a taste of tamarinds: Mr. Gibson is somewhat making fun of his old acquaintance, who had asked Mr. Gibson to give his son preferential treatment. The father is unhappy that his son’s apprenticeship would include the making of pills (medicine often was manufactured and sold by doctors), but this is an essential task for a young apprentice. Mr. Gibson’s assurance that he will be given pomfret cakes, conserve of hips, and tamarinds is a sardonic one. It sounds as if he is promising that he will have many pleasures—cake, conserves, and tamarind, which was often made into a candy—but the three entities are also related to medicine: Pomfret cakes are licorice lozenges, conserve of hips is not a jam but a pill-manufacturing substance, and tamarind, besides being used in some candies, was also prized in the nineteenth century as a laxative.

  Chapter 6

  1 (p. 75) time of Queen Anne: Queen Anne reigned from 1702 to 1714; because she had no heirs, Parliament created the Act of Settlement, which made her successors the Hanoverian descendants of King James I of England, events that are understood as the beginning of the modern British state. By asking where the Cumnors were in the time of Queen Anne, Squire Hamley is implying that their status as members of the peerage, or aristocracy, is a new one, in contrast to his own ancient if untitled family. This is an early but important reference to the way in which the Hamleys represent ancient English traditionalism and the Cumnors represent progress and newness.

  Chapter 14

  1 (p. 160) withes of green flaxe: A biblical allusion (to Judges 16) that Molly does not understand. Samson had allowed Delilah to bind him, but he broke through the bonds easily. Here Lady Harriet is suggesting that Molly will
be able to thwart her stepmother’s strictures if she wants to do so. The allusion directly contradicts what Lady Harriet then says out of prudence: “Be a good girl, and suffer yourself to be led.”

  Chapter 17

  1 (p. 191) he has been spending ever so much money in reclaiming that land... and is very hard pressed himself: Mrs. Hamley is here referring to the improvements that Squire Hamley is making to his estate, a process of land reclamation that includes draining land to make it farmable (and thus able to be rented out). This capital improvement will double the value of the estate, but the expenditure required to implement it is threatened by the debt that Osborne has run up. The work is referred to below as “the draining-works.”

  2 (p. 199) like Major Dugald Dalgetty: Mr. Gibson is referring to a character in a novel by Walter Scott, A Legend of Montrose (1819). Major Dugald Dalgetty is a soldier who claims that a soldier should eat whenever the opportunity arises, as he never knows when he will be able to dine again. Gibson’s reference is an indirect criticism of Mrs. Gibson’s running of the household, which he had hoped would be regularized for his comfort when he married.

  Chapter 23

  1 (p. 259) Catholic emancipation had begun to be talked about by some politicians: Osborne’s wife, Aimee, would be considered an unsuitable wife for Osborne for a number of reasons, including her class status, her national origin, and particularly her religion. Here the narrator is alluding to the fact that when the novel is set (in the late 1820s) the question of “catholic emancipation” was under discussion but had yet to be settled. After the Reformation in England all non-Anglicans were discriminated against in not having the right to vote or hold public office; since 80 percent of Ireland was Catholic, the discrimination against Catholics was deeply felt there. The “Catholic Emancipation Bill” of 1829 encountered wide public disapproval, an opinion that Osborne understands would have been shared by his father. After 1829 Catholics could become members of Parliament and were eligible for most but not all public offices; however, one of the concessions made in the process of enacting the bill was that the land requirement for the right to vote in Ireland was increased, which drastically decreased the electorate in Ireland.

  Chapter 24

  1 (p. 265) comparative osteology: Osteology is a discipline that studies the structure and arrangement of bones. Comparative osteology—a branch of study central to the evolutionary debates that circulated in the decades prior to Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859)-was concerned with the likenesses and dissimilarities among various species (especially apes and humans).

  Chapter 26

  1 (p. 290) Could it be the duchess?: The people at the ball had been anticipating all evening the arrival of the family from “the Towers” and their guest, a duchess. In particular, as is repeatedly mentioned, they had hoped to catch sight of her “diamonds” and “coronet.” The duchess, who arrives with flowers rather than jewels adorning her person, not only disappoints but offends the ball-goers. In the hierarchy of the nobility, dukes and duchesses ranked the highest; a duchess would wear a small crown to signify that identity. This small crown, and expensive jewels, is what is absent from the duchess’s person, and this, in combination with a choice of dress that seems inappropriately informal, is what leads to the feeling of having been insulted—as if they are not adequate audience for the display of her “diamonds.” Lady Harriet is cunning enough to understand that their guests’ lateness of arrival, and the absence of the distinguishing diamonds, is an affront to an established code of behavior.

  Chapter 27

  1 (p. 300) meet the author of the paper which had already attracted the attention of the French comparative anatomists: Roger is working at the cutting edge of the emerging field of evolutionary theory The French comparative anatomists the text refers to are central scientific figures of the early nineteenth century They include the aforementioned Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see footnotes on the preceding pages), as well as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck (1744-1829) was an unrecognized forerunner of evolutionary theory, and Darwin was later to cite Saint-Hilaire’s realizations about homologies among species as important to understanding evolutionary relationships. Cuvier, on the other hand, resisted evolutionary arguments even as he acknowledged that the earth was older than the biblical narrative suggested. His explanation for evidence of change in species (which he took from the fossil record) was “catastrophist”—that is, he believed the difference in species in the rock record indicated that in each age life had been wiped out, to be created anew again.

  Chapter 32

  1 (p. 350) “Never mind! You shall be married again in England”: Roger’s close inquiry into the details of Osborne’s marriage to Aimée reflects the complicated status of legal marriage in England in the early nineteenth century. Roger’s questions point to his understanding of the law behind the estate’s entail (the contract that binds the estate) and of contemporary marriage law; the Hamley estate will pass only to “heirs-male born in lawful wedlock,” which means the entail requires that Osborne’s marriage be legally binding. The clandestine nature of the marriage that had taken place on the Continent may have been questioned, as Roger is quick to intuit. The Marriage Act of 1836, which followed up on the Clandestine Marriage Act of 1753, had both limited the circumstances under which a valid marriage could occur and extended the sites where a legal marriage could take place. The 1836 law required that a legal marriage take place within a parish church or, barring that, be performed by a licensed member of the Church of England. Provisions were made for non-Anglicans by allowing civil registrars to perform legal marriage, as well as registrars within non-Anglican buildings (including synagogues, dissenting churches, etc.). Roger’s insistence that Osborne and Aimée be married again prior to the child’s birth both in the Roman Catholic chapel where she worships and “at the church of the parish in which she lives as well” tells of his desire to take care of the issue of inheritance; by having Osborne remarry according to the strictest letter of the law Roger ensures that Osborne’s son (should he have one) will be heir to Hamley, whether or not the marriage remains a secret to the Squire. Roger presciently notes below, “The law makes one have foresight in such affairs.”

  Chapter 33

  1 (p. 365) he had never known any one with an equal capacity for mental labour: This is another reference to the belief system known as “muscular Christianity;” see note 1 to chapter 3.

  Chapter 34

  1 (p. 371) she was being carried on in earth’s diurnal course, with rocks, and stones and trees: Gaskell here is indirectly citing a poem by Romantic poet William Wordsworth entitled “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal,” written in 1800 and included in Lyrical Ballads. This is the poem that Gaskell incorporates into the prose describing Molly’s feelings upon discovering that Roger loves Cynthia:A slumber did my spirit seal;

  I had no human fears:

  She seemed a thing that could not feel

  The touch of earthly years.No motion has she now, no force;

  She neither hears nor sees;

  Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course,

  With rocks, and stones, and trees.

  Chapter 37

  1 (p. 411) “0 my Lord! give her the living child, and in no wise slay it”: Molly’s prayer is that of the true mother in the biblical story in which two women claim to be the mother of a child (1 Kings 3:16-28).When King Solomon proposes to cut the baby in two to resolve the dispute, the true mother gives up her claim—and hence proves she truly loves and is the mother of the child. Molly’s prayer indicates that she thinks of herself as the more righteous claimant to Roger’s affection, but that she would willingly sacrifice her love if it would mean ensuring his safe return from Africa.

  Chapter 38

  1 (p. 415) Robespierre and Bonyparte: Maximilien-Francois-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre was at the center of the “Terror” (1793-1794), the most bloody years of the French Revolution. “Bonyparte” refers to Napoleon
Bonaparte, the bellicose emperor of France from 1804 to 1815.

  Chapter 39

  1 (p. 423) M. de la Palisse ... Il était en vie: Mr. Palisse is dead / in losing his life / A quarter of an hour before his death / he was alive.

  2 (p. 426) “gar auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new”: The words are Scottish dialect for “make old clothes look almost as well as new ones.” It is a quotation from a poem entitled “The Cottar’s Saturday Night” (1786), by Scottish poet Robert Burns.

  Chapter 41

  1 (p. 447) Geographical Society: The Royal Geographical Society was a learned society in London founded in 1830; its stated purpose was the “advancement of geographical science” and the “improvement and diffusion of geographical knowledge.” The history of the society is bound up especially with British nineteenth-century exploration and discovery and its famous figures, including David Livingstone, Richard Burton, and John Hanning Speke; in the later Victorian era, it supported British expansion into Africa. The society’s particular association with Africa stems from having absorbed in 1831 the African Association, a society founded in 1788 by Sir Joseph Banks to promote travel in Africa.