The Annotated Persuasion

by Jane Austen

  56. A watchman was someone who would patrol a town after dark, crying out the time and keeping watch for possible trouble. Watchmen in London then would cry the time every half hour. See illustration on this page for a contemporary picture (the lantern and stick were standard).

  57. Her unexpected felicity, a contrast to her anticipations of imprisonment at the start of the chapter, suggests that her stay in Bath may turn out to be less miserable than she feared.

  Lansdown Crescent, where Mr. Elliot dines (from a contemporary drawing).

  [From Mowbray Aston Green, The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath (Bath, 1904), p. 188]

  VOLUME II, CHAPTER IV

  1. My dear Madam: a more formal address than most people would use, especially toward someone who is relatively young and a close acquaintance. It may result from his wishing to maintain some distance between them or from his general formality.

  2. fine: refined, delicate.

  3. This last line signals Mrs. Clay’s successful flattery, in convincing Sir Walter that she shares his own great interest in physical appearance. It thus forms a fitting capstone to Sir Walter’s earnest invitation to Mrs. Clay and the greater affection for her that it indicates.

  4. Mrs. Clay’s glance around, like Anne’s observance of her, results from the serious implications of Sir Walter’s words, especially his praise of her mind, for prevailing rules of propriety counseled against an unmarried man paying compliments directly to an unmarried woman unless he had serious intentions toward her. Sir Walter’s is a limited compliment, but it could signal more to come.

  5. The wording suggests that only chance, and never intention, would bring them together.

  6. person: physical person. For the tendency not to equate thinness with beauty, see note 28.

  7. The compliments of Sir Walter, someone always focused on appearance and inclined to criticize that of others, indicate that the improvement in Anne’s looks seen at Lyme has persisted, and thus that her hope of enjoying a “second spring of youth and beauty” may be coming true (this page).

  8. Gowland was a popular skin lotion of the time. It had been created in the mid-1700s by John Gowland, and promoted, first by Gowland and then by the succeeding owners of the formula, with pamphlets in which its curative properties were extolled, particularly with respect to “cutaneous eruptions” of the skin (in one pamphlet Gowland is hailed as the apothecary to the king). It in fact contained corrosive substances that would strip away the top layer of the skin.

  9. Freckles were, along with almost every other imaginable ailment or defect of the skin, mentioned by the seller of Gowland as something his lotion could cure.

  10. Drinking the warm mineral waters that flowed from beneath the ground and that supplied the baths was a favorite activity of visitors to Bath. Though the waters were not praised for their taste, they were frequently lauded as healthful, and many people made drinking them part of their daily routine (for a picture of a royal visitor drinking the waters, see this page).

  11. Bath, in addition to other sources of amusement, was supplied with a number of booksellers and circulating libraries (the latter were often run by booksellers). It even had publishers of its own. Hence it would be an excellent place to keep abreast of new books and pamphlets.

  12. world: society, different walks of life; possibly also the specific connotation of elite society.

  13. This represents the ideal mean, with regard to the issue of independence vs. social conformity, promoted by Jane Austen. She satirizes those who blindly conform to whatever happen to be prevailing notions. At the same time, in Sense and Sensibility she presents a heroine, Marianne, whose strong Romantic ideas lead her to disregard social decorum and to rely only on her personal feelings in governing her behavior, which ends up creating pain for others and disaster for herself. In contrast, her sister Elinor, who follows established decorum and controls her feelings, avoids causing such harm. In an exchange with Marianne, she explains that while she has criticized the latter’s lack of civility to others, she has never “advised you [Marianne] to adopt their sentiments or conform to their judgments in serious matters.”

  14. candid: fair-minded or generous in one’s opinions; inclined to think well of others.

  15. spirits: eagerness, vehemence.

  16. amiable: kind, benevolent, worthy of love.

  17. Lady Russell’s evaluation reflects her own strong belief in rational self-control. It also echoes points made elsewhere in Jane Austen, who consistently presents “characters of fancied enthusiasm and violent agitation” in a critical light. This novel’s treatment of Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick is one example.

  18. This suggests that, contrary to what has just been explained, Lady Russell already suspects a further motive in Mr. Elliot, namely an interest in Anne.

  19. Any attention directed particularly to Anne seemed impossible.

  20. Crape, because of its dull finish, was frequently used for mourning attire, which was supposed to have nothing shiny about it. In a letter discussing how she will mourn for her brother’s just-deceased wife, Jane Austen writes that her bonnet will be covered with crape (Oct. 15, 1808).

  If the crape around Mr. Elliot’s hat is his sole remaining mourning article, as implied by the wording of the sentence, then he is in a later stage of mourning. Custom dictated two or three stages, with each stage involving a reduction of the number of mourning articles or their darkness. When Mr. Elliot was in Lyme, approximately two months prior to this (see chronology), he was probably in an earlier stage, for Anne notices, after two passing encounters with him and a view of his servant in the street, that they are both in mourning, and crape around a hat might not have sufficed for that; the servant is also described as having traded his livery for mourning clothes (see this page and this page).

  21. awful: worthy of respect or awe.

  22. Anne is naturally attributing to someone else her own delicacy and regard for others. The real nature of Mr. Elliot’s feelings, on this matter and other ones, will eventually be revealed in great detail in Chapter IX of Volume II.

  23. The other person is Captain Wentworth, who was prompted by Mr. Elliot’s look to glance at Anne with greater appreciation (this page).

  24. Bath paper: one newspaper in Bath, the Bath Chronicle, listed the most prominent arrivals into Bath. In 1799 it referred to the arrival of “Mr. and Mrs. E. Austin,” a probable (misspelled) reference to Jane Austen’s brother Edward, the heir of a considerable estate, and his wife (cited in Maggie Lane, A Charming Place, page 23). Jane Austen herself and her parents were not wealthy and prominent enough to receive such a mention upon their arrival, though in her first letter written from Bath, she notes, “There was a very long list of Arrivals here, in the Newspaper yesterday” (May 17, 1799).

  25. A viscountess is the wife of a viscount, the fourth-highest rank of nobility—the others are duke, marquess, earl, and, after viscount, baron. This puts the viscountess at a higher rank than Sir Walter. Dowager is the title given to widows of those with titles. When this woman’s husband died, his heir, most likely his son, became the new viscount, and his wife, if she existed, became Viscountess Dalrymple. “Dowager” allows the widow, while retaining the title of viscountess, to be distinguished from the current holder of the title.

  26. “The Honourable” is a courtesy title given to the children of viscounts and barons. Carteret is the family name, which normally differs from the name of the noble title; thus the mother’s full name would be “——Carteret, Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple.”

  Many dowagers came to Bath. They would frequently no longer be able, or wish, to remain in the family home once their sons’ families moved there. In Mansfield Park a wealthy woman in such a position moves to Bath “with true dowager propriety” (she lacks a title, but “dowager” was sometimes used for any wealthy and prominent widow). Lady Dalrymple, as shortly explained, has only come to Bath for three months; she also came last year, so she may divide her time
between it and London or other resort towns, at all of which she could enjoy the society of many other wealthy people. This would also make such places suitable for finding a husband for Miss Carteret.

  27. Pride and Prejudice, even as it condemns pride generally, especially that based purely on birth, does indicate some sympathy for certain kinds of pride, such as the pride in one’s goodness that could spur action to conform to that self-image. In this case, Anne is disappointed that her father’s and sister’s sense of their own dignity has not dissuaded them from undignified behavior.

  28. It would not be unusual for an Irish noble family to have relations in England or to visit an English resort like Bath. Ireland at the time was part of the United Kingdom and governed from London; more significantly, Ireland was dominated by the so-called Anglo-Irish, descendants of English settlers whose great wealth and power was supported by Britain as a way of maintaining Protestant and British control over Ireland, and who thus had strong feelings of affinity with Britain. The Anglo-Irish formed the majority of the Irish nobility. In fact, many Irish peerages were conferred on English families who were not considered worthy of English peerages. This, along with the greater number of Irish peers relative to the population and their lesser wealth and political power compared to English peers, gave them lower prestige. It is possible Jane Austen made the Dalrymples Irish for this reason, for their lesser status, as peers go, makes Sir Walter’s obsequiousness even more foolish. In a letter from Lyme she gives a sense of her own probable low opinion of Irish nobility by speaking of “the Honbl Barnwalls, who are the son & son’s wife of an Irish Viscount—bold queerlooking people, just fit to be Quality at Lyme” (Sept. 14, 1804). While her strictures are most obviously directed at their personal qualities, her words about being quality, i.e., the elite class, at Lyme, a small town that did not cater to a particularly selective clientele, suggest a low opinion of their social status as well.

  29. fine: fancy, ornate (often in an affected manner).

  30. right honourable: a designation conferred on nobles below the rank of marquess. Sir Walter would use it when addressing Viscountess Dalrymple in his letter to her.

  31. Laura-place: a grand, diamond-shaped square in the eastern part of Bath (see map). This area, across the river from the rest of the city, formed, along with the north, the principal direction of Bath’s expansion in the years preceding the novel. It was very fashionable. In Northanger Abbey, the heroine stays in Pulteney Street, which adjoins Laura Place, and during Jane Austen’s time in Bath, she and her family lived for a while on Sydney Place in this area; they were not in a position to afford Laura Place itself.

  Since the Elliots are the ones who zealously wish for the connection, their feelings would inspire them to visit first, but etiquette would probably also dictate a first visit from them, as the ones already resident in Bath (see also note 57).

  32. Trays for holding visiting cards were standard equipment. Visitors would place their cards on them, but they could also serve as places to display cards one had received. Since these trays were in front hallways, their contents would be visible to all who came to the house.

  33. understanding: intellect.

  34. Anne’s experience replicates one of Jane Austen herself. While staying at the estate of her wealthy brother Edward she met a Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton, the daughter of an earl, and her daughter. She comments, “I have discovered that Ly Eliz:th for a woman of her age & situation, has astonishingly little to say for herself, & that Miss Hatton has not much more” (Aug. 24, 1805).

  35. nice: fastidious, discriminating.

  36. “My dear” is often used before mother, father, sister, or brother, but it is rarely used with cousins in Jane Austen. The only other example is the foolish and excessively formal Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice. Mr. Elliot’s use of the term—and he says “my dear cousin” twice more in this brief conversation—marks the great, if not excessive, courtesy of his manners, as well as the earnestness of his wish to win Anne’s favor.

  37. London was not only far larger than Bath, but also where the wealthiest and highest-ranking people in England congregated, so the Elliots could never hope to be in the first set there. Their chances would be further undermined by the “quiet style of living” mentioned by Mr. Elliot, for leading families in London would typically give elaborate entertainments and participate in the political and cultural life of the capital.

  38. Their continued disagreement over the value of rank suggests a fundamental divide between Anne and Mr. Elliot, though it is kept from being too apparent by the politeness and goodwill of both, and by their agreement over Mrs. Clay, which Mr. Elliot, eager to downplay their differences, proceeds to cite. Anne’s refusal to accede to his perspective may result in part from the misery that high regard for rank, on the part of her father and Lady Russell, caused her by leading her to reject Captain Wentworth. If so, it would form one more way that event continues to influence her.

  39. This is the first indication of Mr. Elliot’s own worries about Mrs. Clay. The degree and importance of this will be revealed later (this page).

  40. Anne’s dislike of Mrs. Clay indicates she is not indifferent to status, because her strong objection to a possible marriage between Mrs. Clay and Sir Walter seems to be based at least partly on her belief in its social inappropriateness and on the shame it would bring to the family. Anne never speaks very harshly of Mrs. Clay’s personal qualities, and she herself would not be directly harmed by the marriage since she would not be displaced as mistress of the household.

  41. great acquaintance: friendship or acquaintance with people of high, or great, social position.

  West end of Bath Street, with the Cross Bath on right. The Hot Baths are just behind the Cross Bath (from a contemporary picture).

  [From Emma Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen and Bath (London, 1939), p. 8]

  VOLUME II, CHAPTER V

  1. Girls from wealthy families frequently had a governess if they were educated at home. Anne would have had hers in the years before she went to school. The governess may know about Anne’s old schoolfellow from having connections with the school or with a teacher there, for governesses and schoolteachers were drawn from the same source, unmarried women from genteel backgrounds who needed to earn money, these being the only jobs considered suitable for genteel women. The heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre works as a teacher before becoming a governess, a course Anne’s governess could have followed, and one that might have led her to recommend the school for Anne.

  2. Many girls went to boarding schools for a few years (though not all—Anne might never have gone had her mother not died). Bath had a number of schools, and its proximity to Kellynch would make it a logical place for Anne to go. For what was usually taught, see note 66.

  3. This is an indication that Anne’s general quietness and reserve existed even before the unhappy end of her affair with Captain Wentworth.

  4. want: lack.

  5. By seventeen a girl was usually finished with her education, but there was no standardized curriculum that forced anyone to finish at a particular time. Thus a girl could easily remain another year if her family could pay for it.

  6. involved: entangled.

  7. Rheumatic fever is an illness characterized by the sudden onset of a variety of severe symptoms, with the heart and joints being particularly affected. Now believed to result from a reaction to a streptococcus infection, it was first diagnosed in the late eighteenth century and may have been an actual new disease. Called rheumatic fever (“fever” was applied then to a variety of ailments), or acute rheumatism because of its effect on the joints, it was distinguished from normal, or chronic, rheumatism by a number of features. These included its sudden onset, its effects on the heart, its fatality in some instances, and its almost exclusive focus on the young—those in their teens were the most likely to contract it, followed by those in their twenties, as is the case with Mrs. Smith (at present, a year or two later, she is thir
ty—see this page). The inflammation and pain also tended to migrate, often rapidly, from one area to another, which is why Mrs. Smith’s pain is described as “finally settling in her legs.” The words “for the present” are also apt, for usually the affliction of the joints would cease after a while, though the disease could cause long-term damage to the heart.

  8. hot-baths: the hottest of several baths in the city, all of which were within close proximity (see map; for a picture of the adjacent Cross Bath, see this page). Warm bathing was sometimes recommended for rheumatic fever and other ailments striking the joints.

  9. Not having a servant would be a true mark of limited means and reduced status. Servants were considered essential to living a decent life by the classes depicted in Jane Austen, and in fact it would cost little to hire the cheapest kind, an unskilled maid.

  10. Miss Elliot: what this friend, as a nonrelation, would call Anne. She uses this rather than “Miss Anne Elliot” because she does not know Elizabeth (see also note 58).

  11. Westgate-buildings: a street and buildings in the lower, old part of town (it was the original site of the west gate of the city). The street was very close to the baths, and thus would be an excellent location for someone who is frequenting them for her health, as Mrs. Smith is soon revealed to be doing, but who is unable to afford to be conveyed long distances. The street’s unfashionable location would also make lodgings there more affordable.

  In a letter regarding her family’s debate over possible new locations in Bath, Jane Austen mentions Westgate Buildings as one, and writes, “Westgate Buildings, tho’ quite in the lower part of the Town are not badly situated themselves; the street is broad, & has rather a good appearance” (Jan. 3, 1801). She does say, however, that other locations are preferable. For a picture, see this page.

  12. emotion: agitation; mental disturbance or excitement.