by Jane Austen
4. They are too large a family for everyone to occupy the same pew.
5. An analogy with a clock or watch is probably intended by “wound up”: just as a mechanical timepiece (the only type then) needs regular winding, this refreshment of her spirits will set her wheels in motion for the upcoming week.
6. It is now early March; see chronology, this page.
7. The seaward section of the ramparts offers excellent views, particularly one stretch of it called the Platform (or sometimes Saluting Platform); see map. A popular contemporary guide to England states in its description of Portsmouth, “From the Platform…is an extremely fine sea-view, including the anchorage at Spithead, and the Isle of Wight in the distance: the more contiguous scenes are scarcely less beautiful” (John Britton, The Beauties of England and Wales, Vol. VI, 1805). The Platform lies at the foot of High Street, off which the Prices’ home stood, so they would have been able to reach it easily; Mr. Price described earlier having “made but two steps to the platform” in order to see William’s ship leave the harbor (see this page).
8. knocked up: worn out, exhausted.
9. accurate: precise.
10. be to: be forced to, required to.
11. Social rules require them both to come, he in order to provide a male escort, and she because it would be improper for two unmarried and unrelated young people of the opposite sex to travel alone together.
12. Maddison is his agent, mentioned earlier. He is of sufficient status to be called by his last name. Some agents, particularly the many who were also attorneys, were of high enough status to be called “Mr.” as well.
13. impose on: deceive.
14. Many estates had mills; one is mentioned on the property of the leading landowner in Emma. One of the most famous works by the leading landscape painter John Constable is Flatford Mill (1816), which depicts a water mill. Mills had long been used to grind grain into flour, as Flatford Mill did. Others had been recently developed to power factories, an activity landowners were sometimes happy to promote on their property, though they would let somebody else manage the actual enterprise.
15. mischief: harm, injury.
16. credit: public standing, good name.
17. After having been able to manage the estate with almost no interference, Maddison would probably dislike having his practices suddenly examined and criticized, and might try to resist his employer’s interference even if he was not doing anything underhanded.
18. simple: foolish, unwise.
19. griping: grasping, avaricious.
20. Fanny enunciates here a basic principle of many Anglican thinkers of the time who argued that God has created a rational and harmonious universe that includes timeless principles of morality and has implanted in human beings the capacity, through their conscience, of grasping those principles and judging moral questions.
21. That Henry dines three hours later is a sign of the social gulf between him and the Prices, for while people lower in the social scale dined fairly early, those in fashionable London society could dine very late. In a letter Jane Austen mentions, with some embarrassment, dining at three-thirty in the afternoon (Dec. 18, 1798), while in Pride and Prejudice the hero and some wealthy friends, who are often in London, dine at six-thirty.
22. Puddings had for centuries been a basic feature of the English diet; they could be savory as well as sweet. Hashes arrived during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from France. That these appear to be the basics of the Prices’ diet signals their limited means. Meat dishes—usually simply meat plus perhaps a sauce—were the staple of the diets of wealthy people, and puddings and hashes were only side dishes if served at all. During the period when Jane Austen lived in Southampton, under fairly straitened circumstances, she speaks in her letters of the poor quality of the food they sometimes consumed.
23. A biscuit was a small, flat, crisp piece of bread, generally dry and hard. Buns were usually a sweet cake or bread that could be held in the hand.
24. in the most promising way of being: in the most promising position to be, in the most promising likelihood of being.
25. Grog was a mixture of rum and water popular in the navy. Mr. Price and his friends would have acquired a taste for it there. It is a “long, long evening” and they are drinking at home because of laws against public serving of alcohol on Sunday.
26. feeling: tender, compassionate.
VOLUME III, CHAPTER XII
1. Henry left on Monday and arrived in London that evening, Mary wrote on Tuesday, and Fanny received her letter on Wednesday. Her curiosity is on the subject of Mary and Edmund, as indicated by what she first reflects upon after finishing the letter.
2. afforded: provided.
3. raise: arouse.
4. Susan was earlier stated to be fourteen, and this is confirmed in a later chapter. It is possible Henry was not told her age and simply guessed it.
5. great: full of emotions or thoughts.
6. By “parties” she could mean either social gatherings, large or small, that are connected with politics, or actual political parties or factions. At the time there were two main political parties in Britain, the Whigs and the Tories, though the term also could refer to smaller or more temporary factions. Politics was a central concern of fashionable London society, many of whose members were in Parliament.
7. air: outward character, demeanor.
8. Meaning that at present, unlike in earlier times, clergymen dress like other men, so nothing alerts others to Edmund’s being one. Mary does not wish her fashionable friends to see that the man she admires is a clergyman.
9. material: essential.
10. Her aunt may have been using that as an excuse to avoid being near her husband, who as an admiral would be serving at sea or in a port. Most medical opinion of the time praised the seaside as good for health.
11. Norfolk, where Everingham lies, is not at all on the route from Portsmouth to Northampton, but since it is not far to the east, they could follow a circular route going through it. This would also mean going through London, which lies along the most direct route from Portsmouth to Norfolk. See map.
12. St. George’s is a church in Hanover Square, in the middle of the highly fashionable Mayfair district. Mary may think of it because it is where she is attending church now (the address of the Frasers is never specified, but it is almost certainly in Mayfair or nearby). Her mention of it is likely meant to tease Fanny about getting married there to Henry. It is possible Jane Austen was familiar with the church: in her letters she mentions going to various London churches in her visits there. For a picture of the church, see this page.
13. If Edmund came while Fanny and Henry were getting married, Mary might be tempted to marry him. Her “but—but—but” at the end of the letter indicates she is wavering with regard to Edmund.
14. That Mary would insist on his staying for a party indicates her priorities.
15. Her wording implies that Henry is willing to stay for the party, though he will not admit to being curious to see how Maria and Julia will react to him.
16. staggered: made more hesitant or doubting or wavering.
17. condition: lay down terms, bargain.
18. It is notable that Fanny, who used to condemn Henry and Mary equally, is now more favorable to him.
19. Suspense: delay, uncertainty.
20. Fanny may have chosen these subjects because she believed they were the most necessary for Susan’s education. Earlier we were told that she most desired to inspire in her sister her own love of poetry and biography.
21. Oliver Goldsmith’s four-volume History of England (1771) was a bestseller (Goldsmith also wrote poetry, essays, plays, and a novel, all of which were popular). It was often used to teach history to children. When she was young Jane Austen wrote a parody of Goldsmith, her only known work of nonfiction. She herself does not seem to have been a lover of history, though she recognized its value. In a letter to a friend she discusses a history she is re
ading and the possibility of relating its contents to her friend: the wording suggests that at least some of the book is more a matter of duty than of pleasure.
22. high: weighty, elevated.
23. Morals would refer to the essays. Essays of the time tended to be heavily focused on moral reflections; that is certainly true of those Fanny was earlier shown to be reading, in Samuel Johnson’s The Idler.
24. well-appointed: nicely furnished.
VOLUME III, CHAPTER XIII
1. detail: account.
2. He means that the busy social life and other diversions of London make it naturally harder for Mary to devote her time to him. He may be trying to excuse, to himself at least as much as to Fanny, the decreased attention he received from Mary there, to avoid concluding that it marks a decline in her interest in him.
3. directly: immediately.
4. Mary was in London for five to six weeks before Edmund arrived (see chronology), so she had rehabituated herself to its ways and mores by the time, something also suggested in her letters to Fanny.
5. This is consistent with Mary’s earlier description of the mercenary calculations behind her friend’s marriage.
6. places: attributes.
7. construction: interpretation.
8. the fashionable world: high society.
9. Meaning that with twenty thousand pounds, a very large fortune for a woman, Mary could reasonably expect to marry a very wealthy man, with many thousands a year in income. But her fortune will provide an annual income of only a thousand a year (by the standard 5 percent return on investments in government bonds, in which people without land generally placed their money), and Edmund’s income will probably be, at best, only a little larger than that, so they would have to live far more modestly than she hopes and expects to do.
10. He means proposing to her as well as explaining himself to her. Proposing in person was the usual way at this time, but people could and did propose by letter. A character in Emma does so.
11. Edmund’s reversing his just-reached decision in a letter reflects his confused and disordered state of mind. He jumps from topic to topic, often haphazardly, while always returning to the subject of Mary.
12. So Henry did attend the party, as Mary wished (see this page), rather than heading immediately to his estate in Norfolk.
13. Henry’s reaction shows that he no longer has any affection for Maria, but his surprise demonstrates that he still has no conception of how deeply she fell in love, and how deeply his abandonment wounded her.
14. That is the location of the Rushworths’ residence.
15. This is probably business relating to Parliament, which is now in session. Once in London, he will be almost halfway to Portsmouth, so coming to pick up Fanny will be less out of the way.
16. Henry had earlier advised significant improvements to the parsonage at Thornton Lacey, and though Edmund rejected such ambitious plans, he did acknowledge the need for some improvements (see this page).
17. Fix: decide definitely.
18. His being in Parliament may have encouraged her because it meant he had the power to frank all her letters, and thereby save her correspondents from having to pay the normal postage, which was expensive at the time (see this page, note 38). In addition, until the approximate time when Fanny came to live with them, which means most of their married life so far, she joined Sir Thomas in London every spring (see this page). She would have been away for a few months from her sister and friends in Mansfield, and she could have made friends in London, whom she would be away from during the rest of the year. Both of these circumstances would give her reason to write letters.
19. Mrs. Grant probably pays regular morning calls to Lady Bertram, and tells her about her husband’s troubles with gout, which furnishes Lady Bertram with letter material. Dr. Grant’s gout has not previously been mentioned, but as an older, affluent man deeply devoted to the pleasures of the table, he is a very likely candidate for the ailment (for more on gout, see this page, note 81). They are probably going to Bath now because of his gout, since he is a “stay-at-home man” (see this page) who would not wish normally to travel, and his wife usually caters to his desires. Many people went to Bath for the supposed healing powers of bathing in or drinking the abundant warm waters, and gout figured prominently among their ailments; in fact, it was commonly associated with the town. In both Persuasion and Northanger Abbey older male characters with gout go to Bath in search of a cure.
A man with gout.
[From Joseph Grego, Rowlandson the Caricaturist, Vol. I (London, 1880), p. 157]
20. express: express message or messenger. Such messengers could be hired to deliver a message that could not wait for the post.
21. Newmarket was the leading center in England for horse racing, a sport Tom was earlier shown pursuing with dedication. It is even possible his own horse was running in a race there. Newmarket’s racing season was much longer than most; in 1809 it had thirty-nine days of racing. It was also a place for extensive socializing, which attracted many upper-class people because only those of their social rank were normally allowed to attend the races.
22. A physician was the most advanced type of medical man at the time; the other two types were surgeon and apothecary. Physicians were the only ones who had received a formal education and were considered gentlemen. They were few in number, so they tended to be concentrated in cities and large towns; people who lived elsewhere, even if wealthy, had to rely on surgeons or apothecaries for regular treatment. Newmarket would be a natural venue for physicians, because of the presence of visitors wealthy enough to afford their high fees. At the end of her life Jane Austen’s family sent her to Winchester, the nearest large town, so she could consult a physician about the serious illness afflicting her. Unfortunately, the physician was unable to cure her, and she died in Winchester.
23. Travel was a rigorous experience, due to the rough roads and lack of good shock absorbers on carriages (see the illustration). Jane Austen’s mother became very ill on one occasion after a long journey. Travel from Newbury to Northampton would take a full day by current speeds; see map.
24. Her keener solicitude is her worry about what will happen to him in the afterlife. Having lived a selfish life, his soul is in danger of damnation.
25. Those who died would now be well provided for, being united with God instead of suffering poverty on earth. The contrast between this attitude and Fanny’s regarding the afterlife is that Fanny is not heartlessly supposing that someone’s death could be a blessing for his or her loved ones.
VOLUME III, CHAPTER XIV
1. Meaning no aptitude at discerning a hint.
2. security: confidence, assurance.
3. hectic: pertaining to a consumptive fever; see next note.
4. This means they fear he has consumption, the current term for tuberculosis. The disease is a bacterial infection of the lungs; a regular fever or infection can make one more susceptible to catching it. It was a leading killer during this time, with no known cure; a few years after this novel, in 1821, the poet John Keats would die of tuberculosis at twenty-five, the same age as Tom Bertram is now.
5. The term “nerves” was often used to refer to people’s general bodily state, for medical opinion of the time attributed numerous ailments to bad nerves or nervous disorders.
6. If Tom dies, Edmund will be heir to Mansfield Park and the family estate, as well as the title of baronet. He would also give up being a clergyman, for such a position would be both unnecessary to support him and incompatible with the demands of managing a large estate.
7. She left Mansfield in early February.
8. Meaning her love for them makes her wish that they not understand how much she has been suffering, for that could cause them further pain.
9. William Cowper is the same poet Fanny quoted earlier in relation to the suggested improvements at Sotherton (see this page; see also the accompanying note for general information about Cowper). “Tiroci
nium: Or, A Review of Schools” was published in 1785 with The Task, the more famous long poem that was the source of the earlier quotation. The line Fanny quotes here occurs in a passage about the homesickness of a boy away at boarding school (though it reads “he wants” rather than “she wants”).
10. regale: delight.
11. coloured: blushed.
12. Certain parts of the garden could be warmer because of their position in relation to the sun or wind, and gardens were often kept warmer by building walls around them, and in some cases even heating the walls with a fire.
13. The plantations differ from the woods in being planted trees. Thus they could contain young trees that do not exhibit the full glory of the mature trees of the woods.
14. Stale or foul air, in addition to being unpleasant, was also regarded as an acute danger to health. People were as yet unaware of microorganisms due to the lack of sufficiently powerful microscopes to see them, so medical opinion frequently attributed the spread of infectious diseases to poisonous atmospheres.
15. incitements: incentives.
16. She means Mrs. Norris.
17. Nursing was one of the basic female tasks in the household. Most nursing was done at home by family members or servants; there were few professional nurses, and those who existed had not received any special training. Moreover, the severe limitations of current medicine meant that illnesses could last for a long time and the main treatment was continual nursing care. A young man’s sisters would be expected to be willing to return home to help nurse him in a case where his life was threatened, especially since they know their mother is inadequate to the task and they have no other pressing obligations, such as children to care for.
18. They could easily return because London was only a day away, rather than two days, and because they could easily procure a man to escort them for such a journey: Edmund or Sir Thomas could come to London to pick them up, or a man they know in London could take them to Mansfield, Mr. Rushworth being an obvious possibility.