Jane and the Barque of Frailty jam-9
Page 25
The chief biographer of both Canning and Castlereagh is Wendy Hinde, whose workmanlike studies of the celebrated Regency statesmen, George Canning (London: William Collins Sons, 1973) and Castlereagh (London: William Collins Sons, 1981) are well worth reading.
Stephanie Barron
Golden, Colorado
September 2005
Примечания
1
In a letter to her sister, Cassandra, dated April 25, 1811, Jane states that Henry gave up their tickets for this performance, and that she was unable to see Mrs. Siddons — a curious prevarication, in light of this text. — Editor’s note.
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2
A charley, as London’s night watchmen were termed, was supposed to make the rounds of his neighborhood every half hour during a set period of work — usually twelve hours at a stretch — and could rest in his wooden booth when not so employed. In point of fact, however, many such watchmen never bothered to make the rounds but drew their minimal pay for huddling in their boxes and periodically announcing the time and weather. They were frequently bribed by prostitutes and petty thieves to ignore minor acts of crime; they were also subject to being overturned in their booths by drunken young gentlemen. At this time there was no regular police force in London. — Editor’s note.
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3
In June 1809, the Portland Cabinet authorized a military campaign to take the Island of Walcheren, in the Dutch river Scheldt, held by Napoleon. The object was to destroy the arsenals and dockyards at Antwerp and Flushing. Some 40,000 troops and 250 vessels were dispatched in a well-publicized raid, conducted with poor intelligence and worse weather. By August, the Cabinet ordered a withdrawal. The Walcheren campaign has gone down in history as a fiasco. — Editor’s note.
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4
This part of the fashionable West End is now Cadogan Square. Hans Town was named for Sir Hans Sloane, whose daughter married the first Earl of Cadogan in the 1770s, uniting the two families’ estates. Architect Henry Holland leased the area and built the original brick houses, many of which were altered in subsequent centuries. — Editor’s note.
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5
In Austen’s day, a sister-in-law such as Eliza de Feuillide would be referred to as a “sister” once she married Jane’s brother Henry. The fact of Eliza’s being also Jane and Henry’s first cousin makes for a tightly knit relationship. — Editor’s note.
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6
Jane’s elder brother, Edward, was adopted by his distant cousin, Thomas Knight, who bequeathed extensive estates in Kent and Hampshire to Edward. — Editor’s note.
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7
To be “warm” in Jane’s day was to be wealthy. According to Charles Greville, a contemporary of Austen’s, Rundell was so rich he was able to lend money to his bankers during the financial panic that followed Waterloo. When he died at the age of eighty, Greville notes, Rundell left the largest fortune then registered under a will at Doctors Commons — some million and a half pounds. — Editor’s note.
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8
Princess Caroline of Brunswick was the estranged wife of the Prince Regent, later George IV. — Editor’s note.
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9
This was the traditional meeting ground of duelists, outside London. — Editor’s note.
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10
Mort was a cant term for woman. — Editor's note.
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11
Bow Street Runners were not public servants but professional thief-takers more akin to our present-day bounty hunters. They typically worked for a percentage of the value of any stolen goods recovered; this was their “prize money.” As the jewelry belonged to Princess Tscholikova, presumably her family would pay the reward once the gems were recovered. This pursuit of gain made Bow Street Runners typically less interested in justice or the guilt or innocence of those they pursued, and more intent upon the simple recovery of goods. Although they were empowered to arrest suspects and bring them before the magistrate, justice was for the court to determine. — Editor’s note.
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12
General Sir John Moore was killed in the British evacuation from Corunna in January 1809.—Editor’s note.
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13
The Upper Ten Thousand were the aristocracy of England; the haut ton. — Editor’s note.
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14
Dun Territory was a cant term for indebtedness, as those who owed money were “dunned” by bill collectors. — Editor’s note.
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15
The Ministry of All Talents united notable Tory and Whig political figures under the leadership of Thomas Grenville and Charles James Fox in 1806. — Editor’s note.
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16
The present-day equivalent of 1810 British pounds may be calculated roughly by a factor of sixty; the value in present-day dollars, by a factor of one hundred. Thus, Jane scraped by on an income roughly equivalent to three thousand present-day British pounds per annum, while the Prince’s debts discharged by Parliament were roughly equivalent to thirty-six million present-day pounds. His annual income was in the neighborhood of 3.6 million. — Editor’s note.
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17
Jane refers obliquely to Harriette Wilson in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, dated Friday, February 9, 1801. Speaking of Eliza Lloyd Fowle, sister of the Austens’ beloved friend Martha Lloyd and sister-in-law of Thomas Fowle, to whom Cassandra was engaged prior to his untimely death, Jane notes: “Eliza has seen Lord Craven at Barton, & probably by this time at Kintbury, where he was expected for one day this week. — She found his manners very pleasing indeed. — The little matter of his having a Mistress now living with him at Ashdown Park, seems to be the only unpleasing circumstance about him.” It was this Lord Craven who carried off Cassandra’s fiancé, Tom Fowle, to the West Indies as his military chaplain in 1795 — indirectly causing Fowle’s death of yellow fever in 1797.— Editor’s note.
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18
“Prinny” was the nickname of the Prince of Wales, at this time the regent. In her memoirs, Harriette Wilson recounts her correspondence with the prince, in which he invited her to come to London so that he might look her over as a prospective mistress — at which she declined the trip as too expensive to waste on a mere possibility. — Editor’s note.
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19
Grafton House sat on the corner of Grafton and New Bond streets, and was known to provide excellent millinery goods for bargain prices. As a result, hordes of respectable women thronged its counters, and the premises were so crowded that one might wait full half an hour to be served. Jane recounts one such expedition in company with Manon, during which she purchased bugle trimming, and silk stockings at twelve shillings the pair, in a letter to her sister, Cassandra, dated April 18, 1811. — Editor’s note.
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20
The Prince Regent married his German cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, in 1796, but cordially hated her and maintained a separate household from his consort for all but three weeks of his married life. Princess Caroline was tried and acquitted of treason (the basis being adultery) in Parliament in 1820; she died abroad in 1821. — Editor’s note.
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21
According to Austen historian Deirdre Le Faye, this may be Jane’s personal name for St. George’s, Five Fields, Chelsea. In Austen’s day this would have been on the edge of what is now Belgravia, and would have provided a pleasant walk. — Editor’s note.
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22
Carte blanche was a euphemism for unlimited financial support a man might offer his mistress; it implied an exclusive sexual tie in return for the maintenance of a courtesan's lifestyle. — Editor's note.
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23
Mary Brunton (1778–1818) published Self-Controul in 1810. Austen told Cassandra in a letter written from Sloane Street on Tuesday, April 30, 1811, that she was almost afraid to read the book and find it too clever — and consequently lose confidence in her own work. She finally read Brunton in 1813, and was relieved to be underwhelmed. — Editor’s note.
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24
A panada was a dish made of bread or crackers, boiled to a pulp and flavored, and generally served to invalids. — Editor’s note.
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25
This was a cant term for indebtedness, as the wellborn who lacked means tended to live “on tick” — or credit. — Editor’s note.
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26
Foxed, well to live, shot the cat, and bosky are all cant terms for inebriation. — Editor’s note.
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27
Cit was an abbreviation of citizen and designated a person engaged in trade in the City, or square mile of merchant London east of the genteel neighborhoods bordering Hyde Park. Mushroom designated a cit who aspired to the upper classes, either through conspicuous consumption or marriage with the gentry; like mushrooms, such people were viewed as unattractive social growths who sprang up overnight. — Editor’s note.
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28
Free trader was a euphemism for a smuggler who brought cargoes from France under cover of darkness, thus avoiding importation duties. At this time, Napoleon’s Continental System — which forbade all trade with England on the part of France or its imperial satellites — still inhibited direct importation of a host of goods. — Editor’s note.
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29
Gunter’s was the foremost confectioner of Regency London and was frequently hired to cater the refreshments at private debutante balls. — Editor’s note.
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