by Jane Austen
31. Arcturus is, after Sirius, the brightest star visible in the northern hemisphere, and is part of the constellation called “the Bear.” Cassiopeia is a constellation. Astronomy was often recommended for girls to learn, as was seen earlier in a limited way with Maria and Julia (see this page). There were also celestial atlases published that had maps of all the constellations.
32. He refers to the fear of damp night air, mentioned in the last chapter in relation to the carriage ride home from Sotherton.
VOLUME I, CHAPTER XII
1. September brought the commencement of outdoor sports, which were matters of vital importance to most country gentlemen and thus are referred to here humorously as “duties,” for on September 1 it became legal to shoot partridges, one of the two principal game birds (the season for the other bird, pheasants, along with that for hunting foxes and hares, began later in the autumn). The gamekeeper was the servant in charge of the game on an estate; his duties included breeding game, protecting it from predators, assisting sportsmen in the pursuit of game, and stopping poachers, for which last the owner of the estate could confer on him the power of arrest.
2. He would write to Edmund because he is currently managing the affairs of the house and because, as later revealed, he will also participate in the sport. It is notable that Tom writes to him only after writing to the gamekeeper. Sport is his priority.
3. He had earlier left Mansfield to attend horse races. He went subsequently to Weymouth, a town in southwestern England that was one of the most fashionable seaside resorts of the time. Its popularity and prestige were enhanced by its being a favorite destination of the current king, George III. A leading tourist book, John Feltham’s A Guide to All the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places (1804), says of it, “As a bathing place it is perhaps unparalleled.” Bathing, or swimming in the sea, emerged as a recreation during the eighteenth century, recommended by medical opinion for health and also simply enjoyed by many people, and seaside resorts gradually sprang up all over the coast of England. Many other characters in Austen’s novels take vacations at the seaside, as did Jane Austen herself and her family.
4. Meaning she wishes to have her beauty and attractiveness confirmed by some attention on his part, but does not wish for a stronger interest.
5. In other words, even if Sir Thomas were now to die and Tom to inherit the property and the title, she would not marry Tom. Thus Mary, as concerned as she is with wealth and position, also cares about less mercenary factors; in this she contrasts with Maria Bertram and her willingness to become engaged to Mr. Rushworth despite a lack of any feeling for him on her part.
6. Henry Crawford’s estate is in Norfolk, and he would wish to go there for the shooting, for like any large estate it would have its own game.
7. This is an important theme in Jane Austen, who frequently shows the adverse effects of enjoying too much wealth and importance or of poor education. She begins her longest book, Emma, by declaring that the heroine’s two main disadvantages are “the power of having rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself.”
8. Meaning detailed accounts of his shooting (“sport” then referred only to the pursuit of game).
9. Dogs played a central role in shooting by locating the birds through their scent and fetching those that had been shot. Sportsmen devoted great effort to breeding and raising their dogs, and took great pride in the result.
10. His jealousy could be simple competitiveness about who killed the most birds. But it also could be a worry that others are killing game on his land. Landowners tried by various means to maximize their supply of game; at the same time, improved killing methods during this period, most notably better guns, often caused the supply to become exhausted. This made landowners zealous to prevent any loss of their own game to others; in Persuasion three neighboring proprietors are said to be “each more careful and jealous than the other” regarding their game.
11. By law the right to kill game was restricted to those owning a fairly large estate, but others sometimes also pursued game, in many cases with the permission of landowners, who used this as a way to confer favors and enhance their social and political position in the community.
12. Poaching was a serious issue in rural England at this time: landowners tried hard to stop it and got Parliament, which they dominated, to pass draconian laws against it, but it persisted. Ordinary people believed that wild game should be free to all, and thus that poaching, unlike stealing domestic livestock, was not wrong. In addition, game meat was highly desired and commanded very high prices; landowners got Parliament to outlaw the sale of game, but this only created a lucrative black market for it and thus even better money for those willing to poach.
13. attachment: affection.
14. If he attracted general notice, it might lead to an open conflict with Mr. Rushworth regarding Maria or, in the case of Julia, to an expectation that he was courting her, and from that an opinion that he was honor-bound to marry her. Henry’s avoidance of this shows him to be skilled and practiced in flirting with and pursuing women.
15. candidly: generously, justly. “Candour” and “candid,” frequently used in Austen’s novels, refer principally not to frankness, as now, but to a tendency or willingness to think well of others.
16. distinguish: single out, pay particular notice to.
17. He means that Maria’s willingness to become engaged to a man like Rushworth whom she does not love deeply—it is not clear if Edmund has concluded this from observation or from assuming that no sensible woman could be deeply in love with Rushworth—indicates that she lacks strong romantic feelings.
18. Fanny’s deference to Edmund’s judgment and unwillingness to contradict him, even though she has had more opportunity of observing the matter under discussion and has not been distracted by wooing someone else, as he has, will continue for much of the novel and have momentous consequences.
19. The chaperons are the older women who watch the dancing to ensure nothing improper occurs; the older men at balls, who also would not dance, usually go off by themselves to play cards. In a letter Jane Austen describes how she, being older, now serves as a chaperon at a ball, and says that it has its compensations, since “I am put on the Sofa near the Fire & can drink as much wine as I like” (Nov. 6, 1813).
20. In other words, Tom has left; his reason for leaving will soon be revealed.
21. Since “morning” comprised most of the day at this time, “afternoon” refers only to the period of an hour or two between dinner and the onset of evening.
22. built on: founded upon.
23. late: recent.
24. This would not be a professional musician but simply a servant capable of playing the violin.
25. Their party otherwise consists of eight young people: the four Bertram children, the two Crawfords, Mr. Rushworth, and Fanny. An additional man and woman allow for five dancing couples. With Tom temporarily gone, one woman is left without a partner, and it is natural that it is Fanny, the lowest in social status of the women.
26. A dance normally lasted a quarter of an hour.
27. Dancing couples stayed together for a pair of dances, thus for half an hour, and then each person selected a new partner for the next pair. This change of partners was standard etiquette: in Sense and Sensibility a couple too wrapped up in each other to be willing to dance with anyone else must sit down for every other pair in order to avoid breaching etiquette; even so, their exclusiveness attracts ridicule. In this case, Maria and Mr. Rushworth were together for the first pair, were then separated, and are now reunited for the third pairing (four dances have been completed).
28. stately: haughty, excessively dignified.
29. She means that those engaged should be free from standard dancing etiquette, i.e., “the common forms,” and be allowed to dance continuously with each other.
30. Mrs. Norris reveals her naivete and blindness regarding Maria and her feelings for Rushworth, a bli
ndness she will continue to show throughout the novel. A more discerning observer could easily guess that Maria’s insistence on changing partners might have other motives than strict propriety.
31. Meaning the previous pair of dances.
32. The couple above are the ones preceding them in the line of dancers. Dances involved a number of couples together: two facing lines, one of each sex, were formed, and couples would take turns performing dance steps; the most common procedure was for the couple at the top of the lines to take their turn and move at the end to the bottom of the lines, after which everyone else would advance one position. For an example of a dance like this from the time, see the diagram on this page. The substantial periods of standing and watching others allowed the participants to perform so many dances without needing to rest.
33. Austen’s novels consistently portray a society in which knowledge of other people’s incomes is almost universal. One source would be marriage settlements, which were agreements between families that involved explicit calculations of their respective worth as well as stipulations as to what the bride and the groom were to have; another would be wills. Once, via whatever source, the information was known, it would be widely shared without hesitation.
34. As the elder son of the host family, he is the leading man at the ball (and thus opposite in position to Fanny).
35. Thus he left the ball to check on his horse; this gives a sense of his priorities. The groom would be tending to the horse.
36. Newspapers had become a standard feature of life in England, at least among the affluent (they were expensive). They are shown in Austen’s novels as particularly the favorite reading matter of men, who were the only ones who could participate in politics.
37. stand up: dance.
38. The “strange business” is probably the War of 1812, which Tom would have been reading about in the newspaper. The war arose principally from disputes between Britain and the United States over restrictions on maritime trade imposed by Britain and the impressment of sailors by the British navy, both of which grew out of Britain’s long and difficult war with Napoleonic France. War was declared by the United States in June 1812 and lasted until February 1815. The first two years centered around attempts by the United States to invade Canada, all of which ultimately failed. The last part, coming after Napoleon had been defeated in the spring of 1814 and Britain could devote more resources to the fight, involved British attacks on the United States, which also were ultimately repulsed. At the end both sides agreed to restore the status quo ante. Jane Austen started writing this novel sometime in 1812 and finished it in 1813, so this war would have been a regular subject of newspaper articles (there is every indication that this novel, like all her novels, is set in the time when it is written).
39. A rubber is a set of card games, usually three.
40. As revealed shortly, they are playing whist, which requires four players, and Mrs. Norris needs a fourth person.
41. Her fringe is part of Lady Bertram’s needlework, her main occupation. As the mistress of the house and thus the nominal hostess of the event, she should be principally responsible for entertaining guests, especially female ones, but she still cannot be bothered to leave her normal activity. It is unclear if she is really anxious about Mrs. Rushworth, or if Mrs. Norris is simply attributing her own anxiety to her sister.
42. Betting was standard for card playing. Half-crowns and half-guineas were both coins; the first was worth two and a half shillings, the second ten and a half. Thus changing from one to the other will slightly more than quadruple the stakes. Mrs. Norris assumes that Tom, whose love of horse racing has already been revealed, would prefer to gamble for higher stakes.
43. poking: inclined to putter around in a desultory manner.
44. Whist, which emerged in the eighteenth century, had become the most popular game in England by this time. It is essentially bridge without bidding or the complicated point system.
45. without ceremony: in an offhand way, without formal courtesy.
VOLUME I, CHAPTER XIII
1. “The Honourable” is a courtesy title given to sons of the three lowest ranks of the peerage or nobility, which are, in descending order, earl, viscount, and baron; we later learn that Mr. Yates is the son of a baron. Sons of the two highest peerage ranks, duke and marquess, are given the title “Lord” before their name. Courtesy titles, unlike the titles of actual peers, do not confer any legal privileges on the bearer.
2. independence: income or fortune providing financial independence. Usually younger sons, who would not inherit the family title or estate, would receive a monetary inheritance. In his case, we later learn, he has his own estate, separate from the main family one.
3. One of the attractions of fashionable resorts like Weymouth was that they contained many people of high social rank.
4. Private theatricals at home were a long-standing amusement that became extremely popular from the 1770s through the time of this novel. Families often organized special parties and sent invitations to carefully selected guests, who would help fill the casts of the plays.
5. connections: relations.
6. There were strict customs relating to funerals and mourning for family members that would have dictated dropping frivolous entertainments.
7. Ecclesford, a fictional name, is the house where Yates was visiting. The long paragraph would have appeared in a local newspaper, which had become increasingly common in England: by 1821, fewer than ten years after the composition of this novel, one-third of all stamps sold by the Post Office were for local newspapers, and by 1830 more than 150 such papers were being published.
8. “Right Hon.,” or “Right Honourable,” is a title used for an earl, viscount, or baron in formal contexts; in this case it is what would have been printed in the newspaper. It would not be employed in normal conversation. Its specific use here indicates that Lord Ravenshaw is a baron: for the other two ranks the formal designation would be “Right Honourable the Earl…” or “Right Honourable Lord Viscount…”
9. Cornwall is a county in the farthest southwestern corner of England. It is not far from Weymouth. For both locations, see map.
10. dresses: costumes.
11. Epilogues, usually spoken by one of the characters, had long been a common feature of plays. Jane Austen’s brother James wrote special epilogues for some of the dramas performed in their home.
12. Lovers’ Vows was a popular play of the time; Count Cassel is a character in it, as are other names mentioned in this paragraph: the Baron, Frederick, and Agatha. For much more on the play, see the next chapter.
13. must have: certainly would have.
14. Sir Henry is either a baronet or a knight. The presence of a duke, a “Lord,” and a “Sir” indicates the elite nature of the party.
15. stick: wooden actor. Mr. Yates’s speech, with its inappropriate denigration of his companions, including the man who was his host, to listeners who have never met them, introduces his character. It also reveals the sort of petty rivalries and jealousies that were attendant to the play’s production and that will soon appear as well among the Mansfield party.
16. dowager: a wealthy, often titled widow. For more, see this page, note 38.
17. Professional theatrical shows of the time normally included an after-piece, which was a short play, usually lighthearted, that succeeded the main drama.
18. My Grandmother, by Prince Hoare, was a popular play that was usually acted as an after-piece because it had two acts instead of the standard five. Tom contrasts it to Lovers’ Vow, a full-length comedy. Tom’s clever allusion also has a cruel edge, for since My Grandmother was a farce, it suggests the empty or ludicrous nature of Lord Ravenshaw’s mourning.
19. A jointure is a provision in a marriage settlement giving a lifetime annual sum to the wife after the husband dies; it was usually set at 10 percent of the dowry brought by the wife, based on the calculation that on average the wife outlived her husband by ten years
(there typically was an age disparity at marriage) and thus she would receive back the same amount from the family that she had contributed when she married into it. The jointure in this case was going to the grandmother of Lord Ravenshaw while she was alive. She was probably fairly old, and, given generally low life expectancy at the time, there is a good chance she had been a widow for many years. Thus Lord Ravenshaw, at least in Tom’s opinion, may derive significant comfort from being relieved of this annual financial burden; in Sense and Sensibility a mercenary woman complains of how hard it is to have to pay annuities to those who live a long time.
20. credit: reputation, good name.
21. “Manager” was the term for the person in charge of a theatrical production; the term and concept of a theatrical director did not exist then.
22. riot: extravagance, dissipation.
23. alive at: aroused by.
24. Shylock and Richard III were two of the most popular dramatic roles of the time. Records for the main London theaters show Richard III and The Merchant of Venice as, respectively, the third and fifth most produced Shakespeare plays during the second half of the eighteenth century (the first, second, and fourth most produced were, respectively, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth). The Merchant of Venice also underwent a transformation during this period, in which Shylock, previously portrayed as a comical supporting character, became a diabolical figure who was the main focus of the drama. Since Richard III was also valued at this time for the monstrous iniquity of its title character, Henry mentions roles that would give him the greatest opportunity for melodramatic acting; they also provide the sharpest contrast to the farcical figure he next mentions.
25. Farces frequently involved music. Scarlet coats and cocked hats were outmoded fashions and hence appropriate to a farce. During this time dark, sober colors had become standard for men’s principal attire, while cocked hats, which had been popular throughout the eighteenth century, had declined in favor of the top hat. A cocked hat had opposing brims turned up together to make either two points (bicorn) or three (tricorn).