Yesterday, I presented five
clues about a covert literary allusion to the Devil hiding in plain sight in
one of Jane Austen’s novels, an allusion which I had never detected before
(nor, as far as I can tell, has any Austen scholar). I wrote: “This allusion to
the Fallen Angel, like the Lucy Ferrars wordplay, is not Biblical (or
Miltonic). But it goes to the heart of the Austen novel in which that allusion
occurs, and it is a beautiful thing, hiding in plain sight like all of JA's
best allusions.”
Now here are the hints I
gave, each followed by my answers:
HINT ONE: Jane Austen sneaked
the exact title of the Source into
the text of the novel in which she alluded to the Source. And, what’s more, she
placed that title at the most thematic point possible, to show beyond a shadow
of a doubt that this was not a coincidence. That is of course, exactly what JA
did with her sneaking “as you like. It” into Mrs. Elton’s pastoral speech in Emma.
ANSWER ONE: In Chapter 46
of Mansfield Park, we read:
“Her father read his
newspaper, and her mother lamented over the ragged carpet as usual, while the
tea was in preparation, and wished Rebecca would mend it; and Fanny was first
roused by his calling out to her, after humphing and considering over a
particular paragraph: "What's the name of your great cousins in town,
Fan?"
A moment's recollection
enabled her to say, "Rushworth, sir."
"And don't they live
in Wimpole Street?"
"Yes, sir."
“Then, there’s THE DEVIL
TO PAY among them, that’s all! There” (holding out the paper to her); “much
good may such fine relations do you. I don’t know what Sir Thomas may think of
such matters; he may be too much of the courtier and fine gentleman to like his
daughter the less. But, by G—! if she belonged to me, I’d give her the rope’s
end as long as I could stand over her. A little flogging for man and woman too
would be the best way of preventing such things.” “
The title is The Devil to Play, a 1731 ballad opera
written by Charles Coffey, with a bit more about same here:
And by the way, JA, with her
meticulous attention to small details, has Mr. Price utter this expression, “the
devil to pay”, because this expression became common among sailors like Mr.
Price, referring to the horribly onerous task of applying black-colored tar (“paying”)
to a difficult-to-reach part (the “devil”) of a ship.
HINT TWO: Jane Austen also mentioned
the exact title of the Source, and in
a favorable light, in a letter she wrote precisely when she had just finished
writing that same novel, even though her letter does not connect the Source to
that novel.
ANSWER TWO: In Letter 98
dated 3/5/14, written by JA (staying with Henry at Henrietta Street), we read: “We are to see The Devil to Pay to-night. I expect to be very much amused.”
And note that by March 8,
1814, Jane Austen must have already completed the writing (and possibly also
the proofreading?) of Mansfield Park,
which was actually published a scant four months later, in July, 1814.
HINT THREE: The Source has a character,
Mr. X, who is an abusive, wife-beating, alcoholic husband, whose favorite
domestic weapon against his victimized wife, Mrs. X, is a strap.
ANSWER THREE: Of course, in
the above-quoted passage in Chapter 46 of MP, the title of Coffey’s play is
actually spoken aloud by Fanny’s father, followed immediately by Mr. Price’s
expression of a fondness for flogging those who, in his estimation, deserve
harsh punishment.
The chances of the allusion
to Coffey’s opera title being a coincidence are thus reduced to zero. Jane Austen
clearly meant for her readers (especially those in London who might well have
gone to see The Devil to Pay during
its recent run there) to recognize the allusion and its strong thematic
resonance, which goes far far beyond a mere covert insertion of the play’s
title into the text of the novel.
HINT FOUR: The Source has a
character Mrs. Y who disrespects a male relative authority figure, and as a
direct result is exiled for a short period of time from her life of relative
ease in Mr. Y’s home to a life of privation in the home of the abusive Mr. X,
which teaches her to value her life of ease with Mr. Y when she is suddenly returned
to his home.
ANSWER FOUR: It’s pretty
straightforward to see Mr. Price as an echoing of Mr. X--Mr. Jobson in Coffey’s
play. We can imagine that Mrs. Price suffers physical and emotional abuse from
Mr. Price when he is drunk, exactly as is the case for the poor, virtuous, and
long suffering Mrs. Jobson.
But Mrs. Y--Lady Loverule in
the play--is like Mrs. Norris (or Edward’s mother, Mrs. Dashwood) but even
worse because she does not even attempt to hide her vicious, bestial character.
She is cruel, violent, abusive, and literally “loves to rule” over her mild-mannered,
good-natured husband, Sir John Loverule, whose late first wife was a good
woman, but who appears to have misjudged the character of his second wife when
he (as she reminds him) apparently married her for her money.
And that is where the
allusion gets really interesting. In The
Devil to Pay, it is the Devil (who somehow assumes the character of the
Doctor, a local fortune teller who we find out is endowed with supernatural powers), and not God, who
intervenes to make things right in the end.
How? When Lady Loverule
abuses him, the Doctor takes revenge in truly Satanic style. He causes Lady
Loverule and Mrs. Jobson to change bodies and residence, such that the abusive
Mr. Jobson starts abusing Lady Loverule (whom Jobson thinks is his wife), while
the saintly Sir John and all of his servants are amazed when Mrs. Jobson (whom
everyone believes is Lady Loverule) starts treating everyone really well, like
Scrooge is transformed after his night of educative dreams in Dickens.
Then…the Doctor repents of
his revenge, and restores both of these women back to their original bodies and
situations, and all ends well, because now Lady Loverule has, like Scrooge,
seen the error of her horrible ways and will henceforth be a good wife and
mistress to her servants. And, similarly, Mr. Jobson has now learned not to
abuse his wife.
Now, what’s really
interesting--when you view the above action in The Devil to Pay through the lens of Mansfield Park, as Jane Austen clearly intended her readers to
do--- is that Fanny Price is clearly like both Lady Loverule and Mrs. Jobson in
being transported out of her previous life, to teach her a valuable lesson. But
which lesson? Is Sir Thomas Bertram correct that Fanny is demonstrating
disgusting pride and ingratitude in refusing to marry Henry Crawford, and does
Fanny need to suffer in her home of birth in Portsmouth in order to appreciate
the benefits of living at Mansfield Park? That would make her more like Lady
Loverule.
Or…is Fanny actually learning
that her courageous defiance of Sir Thomas will be rewarded by marriage with
Edmund, whom she always wanted to marry, and thus Fanny is like Mrs. Jobson who
winds up with a repentant good husband?
I leave those questions open
for discussion, as I think it’s typical Jane Austen, with much ambiguity as to
what it all means—or better put, it’s ambiguous because Jane Austen wants to
force her readers who recognize the allusion to The Devil to Pay to struggle to make sense of it.
HINT FIVE: The author of the
Source is only known today for having written the Source.
ANSWER FIVE: Charles Coffey
was known in his time for other musical writing, but as far as I can tell, The Devil to Pay was the only one of his
major works that was still being performed during Jane Austen’s visits to London.
However, my eyes did perk up
at reading that his 1729 song Ellen A Roon was later sung to new words
and became known as Robin Adair—which leads us to the following passage
in Emma:
"I do not see much sign
of it. She is playing Robin Adair at this moment—his
favourite."
And speaking of Emma, I also suspect that Coffey, an
Irishman who dedicated The Devil to Pay
to the English governor of Ireland, may just have intended some subversive political
subtext to be read between the lines of his opera. While ostensibly it is a
morality tale about domestic abuse and tyranny undone by a higher power, I
think it also works really well as an allegory about England’s abuse of and
tyranny over Ireland. And I believe JA, with her totally insincere dedication
of Emma to the hateful Prince Regent,
would have totally understood Coffey’s subversive meaning in his faux
dedication.
One thing’s for sure-Jane Austen
felt there’d be the devil to pay if she had made her allusion explicit, so, as
was her way, she alluded covertly, yet significantly, to a complex and
disturbing source.
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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