by Jane Austen
34. Nothing is said in the play about Amelia’s size, or exact age, but she is described as young, and she acts girlish, especially through her enthusiastic eagerness and her naivete about the ways of the world.
35. be to: have to, be required to.
36. Amelia pities Frederick when he is imprisoned in the castle, and upon hearing he is being provided only with bread and water, she fills a basket with better fare, including wine, and brings it to him. They have a short dialogue there in which Frederick learns the Baron is his father.
37. Since Frederick is in acute distress during the scene with Amelia, the danger Henry earlier alluded to of losing his solemnity while acting opposite Julia could also apply here. In fact, as Julia seems to be on the verge of stating, the danger might be greater there, for while his character is serious throughout their dialogue, she, unlike Agatha in all her scenes, speaks in a way that might arouse inappropriate laughter in the actor playing Frederick, most notably when she says, regarding Frederick’s drawing his sword against the Baron, “if you had murdered any one, you had better have killed the Count; nobody would have missed him.”
38. impudent: shameless.
39. Amelia is bold and uninhibited in her conversation, especially when it comes to matters of love (see note 43), and makes a number of cheeky or caustic remarks, as in the quotation in note 37 above. This was often condemned at the time, especially in the case of women, who were urged to be modest and discreet and diffident and believed to be naturally inclined toward those virtues.
40. Fanny would be especially inclined to sympathize due to her own jealousy of Mary Crawford. This may be why the author puts the word in italics.
41. under voice: low or suppressed voice.
42. It would be appropriate for Maria, as another woman, to visit Mary Crawford and offer the part to her. At the same time, going to the parsonage now means she can walk with Henry Crawford, who is returning there himself (since he neither walks off with Tom and Mr. Yates nor remains with Fanny). She also knows that securing Mary’s services would both please Henry, who is eager for the play, and ensure that Julia will not play a role that would involve acting opposite Henry.
43. Agatha has had a child out of wedlock. Amelia’s impropriety may be not only her outspokenness and frequent sauciness, but especially her behavior toward her beloved, Anhalt. Instead of waiting for him to initiate any talk of love, as was considered absolutely incumbent on women at the time, she signals her love to him first, and then coaxes and persuades him into a similar declaration. For this reason, her character was, according to the English adapter of the play, Elizabeth Inchbald, “a very particular object of my solicitude and alteration.” Since “the forward and unequivocal manner, in which she announces her affection, in the original, would have been revolting to an English audience,” she made Amelia proceed by “whimsical insinuations, rather than by coarse abruptness.” Even so, Mary Crawford, who is far bolder and less morally strict than Fanny, will later balk at some of the lines she is supposed to utter as Amelia (see this page).
VOLUME I, CHAPTER XV
1. Anhalt is certainly not unintelligent, but “stupid” frequently meant dull then, and Mr. Rushworth may have found him that, since he is thoughtful and unassuming, in contrast to the confident and flashy Count. His negative memory of Anhalt may also have been shaped by Maria’s current description of the characters, for she prefers that he not choose Anhalt.
2. Count Cassel is a smaller role than Anhalt.
3. in hand: under her control.
4. very much dressed: highly adorned.
5. Maria presumably knows of Mr. Rushworth’s love of fine dressing.
6. His displeasure, if he was at all perceptive, would be at Maria and Henry Crawford choosing to play roles that lead to a very affectionate scene between them.
7. dress: costume. The term then referred to everything one was wearing, not one specific garment, and it is frequently used in relation to men in Austen’s novels. What we call a dress was then called a gown.
8. There is a scene in which Count Cassel and the Baron are out shooting, i.e., hunting, together.
Men in shooting dress.
[From The Repository of arts, literature, fashions, manufactures, &c, Vol. IV (1810), p. 93]
9. Maria’s blush indicates her sense of the possible impropriety of her choice. Mentioning Lady Ravenshaw is likely a means of making it seem more proper, while mentioning Mary Crawford would help deflect Edmund’s censure due to his partiality toward Mary.
10. Count Cassel does have forty-two lines, or speeches; Mr. Rushworth has counted precisely. What he has not said is that almost all Count Cassel’s lines are short—and Maria has cut those that are not.
11. fine: ornately dressed.
A lord, or peer, in fancy dress.
[From William Pyne, The Costume of Great Britain (London, 1804; 1989 reprint), Plate XXXVII]
12. delicacy: refined sense of what is proper and appropriate.
13. The bell is to call for a servant. Wealthy houses then did not use hand bells but ropes, or bell-pulls, hanging along the wall that were linked by wires to bells in the servants’ quarters; there was a different bell for each room, allowing the servants to know where they were wanted.
14. Ladies and gentlemen changed into evening clothes for dinner; Lady Bertram is calling for her lady’s maid to help her change. Since Julia is not participating in the play preparations, she has been able to change already.
15. “Warm” means racy. Many plays were criticized for having inappropriate content.
16. precise: particular, punctilious.
17. Lady Bertram has just demonstrated her inadequacy as a substitute for Sir Thomas in guiding the family by, in response to Edmund, expressing concern only briefly and then changing immediately to discussing dinner. Mrs. Norris now shows her unsuitability by quickly seguing from the important moral issues raised by Edmund to trivial questions of how the work is proceeding and whether small amounts of money are being saved.
18. making up: advancing.
19. Deal board is board of fir or pine. The servants’ hall door is the one servants use to enter the area where they work. Dick Jackson is the son of Christopher Jackson, the estate carpenter.
20. She is imitating lower-class speech, through the use of “father” and “mother” with no “my” and through several ungrammatical constructions: “chanced to send him of,” “them two bits,” and “could not no how.” Class differences in speech were very marked then, due to the vast gulf in education—there were no state schools and children of humble background received at most a few years of limited schooling—and to the limited interaction between classes. Jane Austen records these differences when she has servants speak, and all the characters in her novels would be aware of them. But Mrs. Norris is the only one who openly ridicules lower-class speech. The norm among genteel people was to be consistently polite toward social inferiors, while remaining distant.
21. In other words, the boy, hearing dinner announced in the servants’ hall, wishes to partake; he would normally eat dinner with his family.
22. The father is not at home but in the house, working on the theatrical project. In carrying the boards to him, Mrs. Norris is actually performing a task regarded as ungenteel. Moreover, most people of her social level would hardly worry about the boy’s behavior: a certain amount of petty pilfering by servants was commonplace and was either ignored or accepted as unavoidable. Mrs. Norris’s going to such lengths to prevent a young boy from procuring a little food, like her mockery of his speech, indicates her exceptional pettiness and meanness.
23. He presumably works solely for the Bertrams, and it is possible Sir Thomas at times needs to find work for him to keep him continually employed. But this would not be simply charity, for preventing him from ever needing to seek employment elsewhere means he is always available if an important task at Mansfield Park arises.
24. heavily: gloomily, listlessly.
26. At the end of dinner, the ladies left for the drawing room while the men stayed and talked among themselves, before eventually rejoining the ladies.
27. dirty: muddy.
28. Act 1 takes place on a road, next to an inn (i.e., alehouse) and a cottage. The second act begins inside the cottage. They are now presumably working on the scenery for those two scenes.
29. making love: professing love. The term, often used, did not imply sexual relations. Normally, however, it was the man who made love; Miss Crawford’s asking the question may result from her finding it so unusual to be in that position herself, at least as a character in a play.
30. forward: bold, presumptuous.
31. puzzle: embarrass, bewilder, leave at a loss.
32. Anhalt offers moral lessons to other characters similar to those found in a sermon or educational book.
33. A “tea-table” could mean a special table, normally small and round, built for serving tea, or any table where tea (which in this case includes food and probably coffee as well) is served.
34. creepmouse: shy, furtive; tending to creep like a mouse.
35. Fanny calls him “Mr. Bertram”; she never addresses him as Tom. Like her consistently calling Edmund “cousin” rather than using his first name, this marks her deference and sense of her lower status.
36. A mobcap is a soft cloth hat or bonnet normally worn by women when inside, or underneath a regular hat when going outside. It would often be worn by an older woman, since it was simple and practical and protected the hair (almost all women wore caps for this purpose), but did not look as fashionable and attractive as a regular hat. A brown gown and an apron would be characteristic of a poorer woman: wealthy women, whose daily routines did not involve activities that could soil their clothes, tended to wear white or brightly colored gowns, and they would not wear aprons. For a picture of a poor woman in a dark gown and an apron, see this page.
37. Fanny’s continued refusal, despite the pressure being exerted on her, shows that beneath her timid exterior she has an inner strength of character, at least when she believes that she is morally right.
38. Mrs. Norris expresses an important truth about Fanny’s dependent status, though nobody else would be cruel enough to mention it openly, especially since Fanny herself never acts in a way to make it seem as if she needs reminding.
39. Her astonishment does not derive from any special sympathy for Fanny. Until now she has mostly ignored her except when the two of them have both been conversing with Edmund, and then, while always courteous to Fanny, she has never shown any particular interest in her. Yet that same sense of courtesy, which she displays consistently and which reflects her background in fashionable society, makes her shocked at Mrs. Norris’s words. In the world she has lived in, certain types of immoral behavior were often tolerated, but open rudeness was considered reprehensible and was therefore rare.
40. situation: position, location.
41. Because the sole source of heat is the fireplace, and it needs to burn fiercely to heat an entire room, especially a large room such as this one, sitting near the fire can be excessively hot. Thus people sometimes move away from it to escape the heat or closer to escape the chill. This fact of daily life gives Mary an excuse to move close enough to Fanny to avoid overtly chastising Mrs. Norris, which would be against Mary’s code of politeness.
42. teasing: bothersome, irritating.
43. The pattern is part of Fanny’s needlework, which Mary is admiring.
44. Coming out will allow her to mingle freely with eligible young men (see this page for an earlier discussion of Fanny’s status in this regard, which is also the only time previously that Mary showed much interest in Fanny). A family normally preferred to avoid having too many girls out at once, in order to keep the younger from competing with the elder and thereby imperiling her marital chances. Once Maria is married, it would make sense for Fanny to come out. Exactly when this occurs is never made clear, but she is able later to dance with eligible young men at a ball, and Mary’s supposition is a reasonable one.
45. A small drawing or painting, often a miniature painting, of a beloved person was something people often kept with them during separations.
46. A little earlier Mary showed a similar skill in flattery when she complimented Lady Bertram on the patience she supposedly showed in withstanding the bustle of the play, even though Mary must have known that Lady Bertram pays little attention to almost anything happening among others.
47. Six miles would probably take a little more than an hour in a carriage on country roads, and a little less for a young man on horseback. It is close enough for someone to travel each day for something important, but not to allow the frequent mixing that the families at Mansfield Park and the parsonage have enjoyed.
48. wild: passionately eager or excited.
49. Stoke is a common place name in England; it is unlikely Jane Austen had a specific town or village in mind. The most famous Stoke, Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, is too far from Northampton to be meant here.
50. Julia hopes that the suggestion that the play will become a formal event involving the whole neighborhood will provoke Edmund into protesting again, and also make Maria feel less comfortable with her participation.
51. Their scene together involves mutual declarations of affection, especially on her side, and she assumes that will make them both uncomfortable.
VOLUME I, CHAPTER XVI
1. enforced: emphasized, reinforced.
2. apartment: room.
3. meet: suitable, well-adapted.
4. Wealthy families who educated their children at home often had a special schoolroom. Jane Austen could have drawn on memories of visits to her brother’s house of Godmersham Park; she never mentions a schoolroom in her letters from there, but it was certainly large enough to have one and her brother had many children. She does mention frequently playing with her nieces and nephews there and helping them with their lessons.
5. On this page, the author states that the room’s name was changed to “the East room” when Maria turned sixteen and thus finished her schooling; she may have thought there should no longer be a room in the house called a schoolroom. It is also possible that Julia, a year younger and therefore probably still using the schoolroom, did not like a term that emphasized her inferiority to her sister.
6. Since Fanny is two years younger than Julia, for a period of that approximate length she alone would have received lessons from Miss Lee and shared the room with her.
7. accommodation: comfort.
8. aspect: position facing the outside.
9. Fanny’s geraniums are mentioned on this page, and she evinces an interest in nature and in plants particularly (see especially this page). Other women in Austen’s novels exhibit this interest, which was encouraged by the emergence of botany as a popular study for young ladies in the eighteenth century and the appearance of writings designed to teach the subject to them. These books could include practical advice for cultivating plants, and Fanny, by keeping her geraniums inside in the winter while also giving them air (see this page), is following advice delivered in contemporary books on botany and gardening.
10. This suggests she received a regular allowance from Sir Thomas. Books were not cheap then: Jane Austen’s first three novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park, each cost eighteen shillings; her next, Emma, cost twenty-one; and the initial edition of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, published together, cost twenty-four. Each of these sums exceeds the weekly income of most people in England then. Thus Fanny would have needed to save carefully. Her doing so, even though she has access to Sir Thomas’s undoubtedly large library (see this page), indicates her dedication to reading.
11. A writing desk could be either a stand-alone piece of furniture,
similar to a desk of today, or a small wooden item that would be placed on a desk or table. This device would contain paper and writing materials, such as pen and ink in slots, as well as a flap that, when open, provides a surface for writing. The description of the desk being within reach, as well as the limited furnishings of Fanny’s room, signals that it is this smaller type. Jane Austen owned such a desk, which is currently on display at the British Library in London.
12. Works of ingenuity are those involving skill, and in Fanny’s case this probably means needlework. They may be the same as her works of charity: she is sewing items to donate to the poor. Charity was a fundamental duty of those who were genteel, especially women. Fanny, though a poor relative to the Bertrams, is still genteel, and living in a grand house, and her strict moral standards and natural benevolence would make her feel especially obliged to be charitable. Thus she has chosen to employ her needle, which she has already been described as skillful with, to supply what her purse cannot. In Persuasion a woman who had been wealthy, and is now living under very straitened circumstance, uses her knitting skills to assist one or two poor families.
13. furniture: furnishings.
14. Julia embroidered the cloth that forms the stool’s cover. Such works by the ladies of the house would often be used for decoration.
15. Transparencies were a fashionable artistic activity during this period. They involved drawing or painting a picture onto a sheet of paper, and then applying various substances, most notably turpentine, to render the paper transparent. It could then be affixed to windows to let light through. In this case Maria, Julia, and Fanny probably each made one transparency: the first two girls had been taught drawing before Fanny arrived, and she would have been taught the subject subsequently.
16. The three scenes represent popular subjects of this period, which exhibited a particular fondness for landscape painting, especially scenes that were melancholy or mysterious. Tintern Abbey is a medieval abbey in Wales, on its border with England, that fell into ruin after the dissolution of the monasteries in the early 1500s. In the later part of the eighteenth century the rise of tourism and the growing interest in natural beauty caused the mountainous and picturesque valley of the Wye river, where the abbey lies, to become a popular spot for vacationers. The abbey was a highlight of the area, often recommended in guidebooks, due to the concurrent increasing fascination with ruins; in Sense and Sensibility the romantic Marianne Dashwood plans to visit the nearby ruins of a monastic order. Tintern Abbey became the subject of several poems, and in 1798 William Wordsworth was inspired by a visit to the area to write one of his most famous, “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” in which he develops his view of the spiritual solace and inspiration provided by nature. Tintern Abbey was also painted several times by the leading painter of the age, J. M. W. Turner. Similar interests made the rugged landscape of Italy a leading subject for Turner and other painters, and inspired a fascination with the Lake District of northwestern England (which includes Cumberland) among artists, poets, and tourists. Books giving instructions on making transparencies advised that they were particularly appropriate for scenes involving moonlight or ruins or dark venues, due to the striking contrasts created by the light streaming through the paper from behind. For contemporary pictures of the Wye valley and the Lake District, see this page and this page.