by Jane Austen
25. must have got: would have needed to get.
26. Mail coaches toward London were scheduled to arrive early in the morning, and he would need, if going this way, to take a morning coach to Portsmouth because the distance, seventy-two miles, would require traveling all day.
27. interest: influence. Such influence was often critical for allowing an officer to win promotion.
28. The daughters of wealthy families, like Maria and Julia, were groomed for coming out, since their first appearance at a fashionable social event such as a ball was critical for what was in effect their profession or trade in life, securing marriage to a wealthy and high-ranking man. They would be carefully prepared for this appearance, by mothers, other female relatives, or governesses and servants. Fanny’s poorer status and more limited expectation means she has undergone little of this preparation.
29. Snipe are birds that inhabit marshes or other wet ground. In England they are found especially in low-lying areas in the east, which Northamptonshire is on the edge of. According to a contemporary guide to shooting birds (W. B. Daniel, Rural Sports), they “are scarcely good until November, when they get very fat.” Thus William is hunting them at an appropriate time. Snipe are also difficult birds to hit; the term “sniper” derives from the skill needed to hunt them. For pictures of snipe and snipe hunting, see this page and this page.
30. A substantial supper was a standard part of a ball, for they went very late in the evening and the participants would become hungry from hours on the dance floor. The housekeeper is in charge of that, and would resent the interference of Mrs. Norris, who is shown regularly interfering in servants’ affairs. The housekeeper’s high rank in the domestic hierarchy would also make it easier for her to stand up to Mrs. Norris, particularly since Lady Bertram’s indolence probably means that the housekeeper is rarely challenged or questioned by her mistress and thus has full rein when it comes to many household matters.
31. own: acknowledge.
32. “Mind” and “manner” were often paired and contrasted in this period, with the first referring to inner character and the second to outer character or behavior.
33. She means that if he does marry Mary Crawford he will regret having spoken ill of her now. Fanny feels morally obligated to issue this warning, though she finds mentioning this future event so horrible and embarrassing that she blushes and breaks off before she can actually speak of it more explicitly.
34. Meaning that even if, despite his current expectations, they do marry, he and Fanny will not need to be sorry for having spoken critically of Mary, since Edmund’s current scruples or hesitations regarding her are based on moral principles he can never regret holding.
35. His scruples will be removed by her ceasing to object to his clerical career. In that case, recollecting the faults that made her object earlier will only raise his opinion of her current, reformed character.
36. The housemaid is coming to help Fanny dress for the ball, since there is no lady’s maid who normally attends to this task.
37. “Real and imaginary” probably means the reality of the chain and cross fitting together well and Fanny’s imaginary sense of their being a special or intrinsic harmony between them, due to their coming from the two people she cherishes most.
38. Mrs. Chapman is the name of Lady Bertram’s lady’s maid. Such a maid, as an upper servant, would usually be called by her last name—without “Mrs.” Lady Bertram, immediately afterward and elsewhere, simply calls her “Chapman.” The “Mrs.” is a courtesy of the author; she does the same in Pride and Prejudice with the housekeeper of the principal family, “Mrs. Hill,” even though her employers always call her “Hill.” People outside the family would use “Mrs.” in speaking to or of her, and the author is probably in effect ascribing the same position to herself.
39. attention: act of courtesy.
VOLUME II, CHAPTER X
1. The ladies are leaving the dining room while the gentlemen remain.
2. He has already engaged the first pair of dances with Mary Crawford.
3. Preparing a fire in the fireplace was normally the job of lower servants, but the butler may take a special pride in doing the task on an important occasion like a ball.
4. but: only necessary.
5. à-la-mortal: in the style of mortals, or characteristic of mortal existence.
6. finely: delicately, carefully.
7. chequered: checkered, i.e., variegated, mixed.
8. against: before.
9. They have hired an orchestra of professional musicians to play at the ball, and violins are its principal instrument.
10. discovered: disclosed, revealed.
11. This means that she, with her partner, will take the lead during the first dance. This was a great honor, so Fanny is shocked. It was given according to social prominence as well as sometimes to commemorate a special occasion. In Emma the heroine is disappointed that another lady, of lower status, receives the honor because she is a recent bride. Sir Thomas may have selected Fanny for the honor because of her relationship to him, the host and probably the highest-ranking man there, or because this is the ball, being her first attended by the whole neighborhood, in which she effectively “comes out” (the earlier dance she participated in was a more intimate and casual affair—this page).
12. They are dancing in the standard country dance manner, which involves two facing rows of couples. She and Henry Crawford are at the top of their respective rows.
13. She and Henry begin by dancing together and at some point, depending on the nature of the dance, they progress down the space between rows; when they finish they take their position at the bottom, and wait for succeeding couples to follow the same procedure. When all have done that, and Fanny and Henry are again first in line, the dance is over.
14. His principal recent wrong, in her eyes, was his insistence that Edmund inhabit the parsonage once he takes over the clerical position at Thornton Lacey, rather than continue to live at Mansfield Park. She probably also blames him for his encouragement of Edmund’s choice of a clerical career, and for the overall atmosphere of strict propriety he has imposed since his return home. Furthermore, she may still resent his cancellation of the play, which would have given Mary opportunities for open flirtation with Edmund as well as more general enjoyment.
15. Entire families, except children, would attend balls, but only younger people would usually dance. Older women served as chaperons by standing and sitting around the edge of the room; Mrs. Norris may think, or have decided to think, that they would observe better from a different position. Older men would often leave the dancing area and play cards.
16. Mary Crawford’s efforts to please and flatter a variety of people, even those she has reason to dislike, such as Sir Thomas and Mrs. Norris, indicate her character. Her one failure, in the case of Fanny, results partly from not imagining Fanny is in love with Edmund—something that no one imagines, since she has kept it so secret—and partly from not suspecting Fanny’s dislike of Henry. The latter is less excusable, for Fanny has revealed, in the considerable time she has recently spent with Mary, her strict moral standards and disinterest in social status, but Mary, while grasping some elements of Fanny’s character, cannot really fathom someone with principles so contrary to her own.
17. Mary is teasing Fanny about having supplanted her in Henry’s confidence, but is not thinking of her as a possible wife for Henry (see this page).
18. He wishes to secure a seat next to Fanny at supper.
19. Her having opened the ball, and her being Sir Thomas’s niece, have made her a desired partner among the men at the ball. The good looks she has been displaying are probably a further inducement.
20. Her pleasure at Edmund’s quarreling with Mary, and his consequent unhappiness, could be seen as pure jealousy, and therefore a bad reflection on her character, though it surely also results from her belief that Mary is unworthy of Edmund and thus that he will benefit if he does not marry
her.
21. The set of facing rows of dancers is becoming shorter as people drop out from exhaustion. Those still participating are supposed to proceed down the rows by dancing, but Fanny can only walk droopingly.
22. Ladies regularly carried fans during this period, especially at formal occasions like a ball. Fans could enhance a woman’s appearance, for they tended to be elaborately decorated, often with hand-painted scenes. They also could be used as aids to flirtation or as a means of signaling to people through the way they were positioned or moved. Finally, they could serve the purpose seen here, that of combating the heat: rooms at parties and balls could become hot because of the number of people, and those dancing would become further heated from their exertions.
23. knocked up: exhausted.
24. Dances could go very late. Jane Austen describes such a ball in a letter: “We began at 10, supped at 1, & were at Deane [where she was staying] before 5” (Nov. 20, 1800).
25. This is a little earlier than usual for breakfast among those of this social rank, but Henry has already indicated that he wishes to leave in time to reach London before his uncle’s dinner hour.
26. Henry is impressed by Fanny’s affection for her brother, as he was earlier when William first arrived (see this page). In Pride and Prejudice the hero receives an early positive impression of the heroine, one he refers to after he proposes, because of her affection and kindness toward her sister.
27. murmuring: grumbling, discontent.
28. This line is from Walter Scott’s popular narrative poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel; Fanny quoted lines from it during the visit to Sotherton (see this page). In this passage the Lady of Branxholm Hall starts to enter a hall in order to summon a man for a mission, but as she does, she spies her son engaged in childish play. At this point,
The Ladye forgot her purpose high,
One moment and no more;
One moment gaz’d with a mother’s eye,
As she paused at the arched door:
For a contemporary illustration of this character, see this page.
29. Meaning the music for the country dance, the type of dance they are doing.
30. Soup was often served at balls; in Pride and Prejudice the host of an upcoming ball declares he will set a date for it as soon as his cook has made enough white soup, a popular soup for parties. Negus is a drink often served toward the end of evening gatherings, particularly in the winter, for it was a warm drink that was considered fortifying. It is served toward the end of a ball in Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons. It consists of boiling water, wine, calves-foot jelly, lemon, and spices.
31. The ideal of a persuadable wife was common in this society. This would not necessarily mean a wife who was completely submissive or who never expressed an opinion, but one who tended to defer to her husband’s judgment and who was never obstinate in asserting her own position. Sir Thomas assumes it is a quality that would appeal particularly to a potential husband.
VOLUME II, CHAPTER XI
1. Henry’s and William’s breakfasts are more substantial than the usual morning fare of the time, which consisted of breads or cakes along with tea, coffee, or hot cocoa. They may feel that such a meal will reduce their need to stop for refreshment while traveling to London.
2. con amore: with or from love.
3. heavy: overcast with dark clouds, gloomy.
4. The second breakfast was that taken by those besides the travelers and Fanny, who have no special reason to rise earlier than the usual breakfast time, especially after staying up so late the night before.
5. Edmund is probably going on horseback only to Northampton, where he will then travel post using a carriage (his horse could be ridden back to Mansfield by a servant or someone working at the inn where he catches the carriage). The distance to Peterborough is more than forty miles, which on horseback would mean several extended stops to allow the horse to rest.
6. Jane Austen identifies discussing a ball as a favorite feminine activity: in Pride and Prejudice, after an assembly dance, she writes, “That the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets should meet to talk over a ball was absolutely necessary; and the morning after the assembly brought the former to Longbourn to hear and to communicate.” Fanny will soon be able to satisfy this impulse with Mary Crawford and Mrs. Grant (see this page).
7. This is the only mention of another titled person in the area. “Lady” could mean she is the wife of a lord and thus outranks the Bertrams, though if that were the case, she and her family would likely have been mentioned and discussed before, due to the prestige of having people of that rank in the vicinity. She also could be a baronet’s wife, like Lady Bertram, or the wife of a knight, a rank lower than the Bertrams’. Any of those possibilities would have justified having her open the ball instead of Fanny, but she is probably older and thus simply a spectator at the dance who was observing Fanny and relating her observations to Lady Bertram.
8. Military officers were a common element in genteel society. They could be on temporary leave, or commanding a local regiment (though none is ever mentioned here); they also could be retired, perhaps most likely in this case. In all Austen’s novels except this one and Pride and Prejudice, a retired army or naval officer is an important character.
9. The jellies were part of the supper at the ball. Mrs. Norris naturally wishes to procure for herself any that are left over, and is happy to claim the needs of her maid as a justification, whether or not the maid is really ill.
10. Tea things are items used for evening tea. They included a container of boiling water, tea (and possibly coffee), sugar, milk or cream, breads and cakes, and various utensils and dishes, including cups, saucers, a creamer, and plates. For contemporary examples of tea things, see this page and this page.
11. stupid: stupefied.
12. Cribbage is a card game that had been played in England for several centuries before this. It is usually a game for two, but can be played by more.
13. Fanny is commenting on the game. Cribbage consists of two parts: In the first the participants alternate playing single cards from their hands, with points scored if their card can form combinations with cards just played or can collectively add up to fifteen or thirty-one. In the second part the players add up the points from the combinations in their own hands and in the crib, formed by the cards earlier discarded by each player (the points in the crib go to the dealer, with players alternating in that role).
14. brilliancy: brightness, luster. The principal reference here is to the bright lighting during the dance, for dances and fancy evening parties were the only times that large amounts of artificial light were used. An additional connotation of more general splendor may also be intended.
15. They mean Edmund, who will shortly return from this current excursion but will not long afterward depart Mansfield for full-time residence elsewhere.
16. swimming: watery, full of tears.
17. levelled: directed.
18. Maria and Mr. Rushworth have finished their time in Brighton (they have been there more than a month) and, as originally planned (see this page), are now heading to their house in London. Julia wishes to continue living with Maria, most likely because of the far greater opportunities for social life and entertainment in the capital, while Maria doubtless welcomes the continued presence of a close companion besides her husband.
19. use: benefit.
20. This week includes Christmas (the ball was on the 22nd), but the holiday is not mentioned here—though Mary Crawford alludes to “Christmas gaieties” on this page. In fact, Christmas was not a major holiday at this time. It had been more extensively celebrated in England in earlier times, but the custom had declined in the seventeenth century, partly under the influence of Puritanism. It was now mainly an occasion for parties and feasting, which is what Mary has in mind. Most of the things we now associate with Christmas, including a tree, presents, and cards, emerged later in the nineteenth century, when the holiday again became a maj
or occasion.
21. The trio are Mary and the two Grants.
22. ill-bred: rude. As often, Mary’s principal regrets concern lack of manners. Her focus on bad manners may also be a way of venting her more fundamental dissatisfaction, regarding Edmund’s absence, without acknowledging to herself how deeply she still cares for him.
23. He left the day after the ball, which was on a Thursday, and planned to be gone only a week. Mary has clearly been counting the days.
24. Both families would attend church on Sunday, and while there greet each other and probably engage in brief conversation.
25. She wishes to regulate or control her voice in order to avoid signaling to Fanny how anxious and distressed she is about Edmund.
26. Young men had a freedom to go where they liked compared with young women, especially when it came to visiting distant places, and many wealthy young men, who had no pressing work obligations, took full advantage of this freedom to exercise flexibility in the length of their visits. Mary is probably judging particularly by her brother, who has already shown a willingness to change his plans whenever it suits him.
27. chat: small talk.
28. Because being accomplished, and being pleasing, were two of the most valued qualities in young ladies, praising them for these qualities was a standard courtesy. In Pride and Prejudice a man declares that all young ladies are “so very accomplished,” since “I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished.” Mary’s words suggest a similar experience, along with a more critical perspective on whether the praise is universally valid.