If
you want to read a quintessential example of Jane Austen’s amazing art of
covert but significant literary allusion, this is the one!
THE
LUCIFER WORDGAME IN SENSE & SENSIBILITY
In
2005, I was the first to discover the hidden code in the all-caps signature in
Lucy’s final letter to Edward near the end of Sense & Sensibility:
LUCY
FERRARS è LUCYFER RARS
è LUCIFER
What
was clear to me in 2005, and remains clear today, is that one huge implication
of this word game in S&S is how perfectly it functions as a clue that goes
to the heart of the story in S&S. I.e., it points unmistakably to my prior,
independently arrived-at discovery that Lucy, by provoking big-mouthed sister
Nancy into “blurting out” that Edward has been engaged to Lucy all along,
thereby diabolically and deliberately provoked Mrs. Ferrars into a rage, during
which that matriarch disinherited Edward and vested everything in Robert. And
Lucy has set this all up over a period of time, such that, not coincidentally,
this was the very outcome that Lucy desired, as she by then already had Robert
in her complete power, unbeknownst to anyone else. That scheme is the very
essence of Lucy’s Satanic indirect action, as she gets what she wants by preying
on the greatest weaknesses of Mrs. Ferrars, her pride and greed, to accomplish
Lucy’s goal for her, which Lucy otherwise was powerless to accomplish.
Since
2005, I’ve periodically revisited and explored the many implications of that
wordgame hidden in plain sight in S&S, including looking at “Lucifer” both
as an allusion by JA to prior works of literature, and also as allusions to JA in later works of literature.
I
have also tried to think outside the box about tweaks of the above wordplay,
that might shed further light on JA’s cryptic authorial intentions. In late
2007, when I shared this wordplay with Anielka Briggs, she cleverly asserted
that “Lucifer errs” was a better solution. And in 2009, an anonymous poster at
my blog had, in response to my claims about Lucy Ferrars as “Lucifer”, suggested “Lucifer’s Arse” as another
possible solution, drawing upon the long rich history of that symbol in Dante’s
Inferno and elsewhere.
The
above is all background to what I am writing about today, which is the great
serendipity that arose at the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami-Dade JASNA event that we
held three days ago at Nova Southeastern University’s Library in honor of the
bicentennial of Pride & Prejudice.
Specifically,
in addition to the Library’s graciously providing several expert musicians and
a Regency Era dance expert to provide dancing instruction and fun for our
participants, there were also two speakers on substantive Austen topics, myself
and Prof. Lynne Barrett from Florida International University. Lynne gave a
firstrate, engrossing talk about P&P analyzed from the perspective of a
professional writer, looking at various aspects of the genius with which JA subtly
organized her storytelling.
Then,
after a break, it was my turn, and Lynne remained as part of my audience. When
I led off with the above wordgame on “Lucifer” in S&S, Lynne popped out
another possible solution which I had previously been utterly unaware of, i.e.,
that Jane Austen might well have also been pointing to “Lucifera” from Edmund
Spenser’s The Faerie Queene!
To
make a very long story very short, I’ve since had the chance to followup on
Lynne’s wonderful catch, and I want to give you now a summary of at least some
of the major implications which it has led me to. At another time, I will bring
forward the detailed textual evidence I’ve been assembling and organizing
during the past few days, but today I will just give you an outline of some of
my conclusions and inferences—and that will already be a long haul—but worth
it, I hope you’ll agree!
Although
I had never previously studied The Faerie
Queene in any comprehensive way, I was aware that several Austen scholars
(including not only Stephen Derry and Juliet McMasters, but also, in passing,
myself, Anielka Briggs and Elissa Schiff in Austen L and Janeites) have at
different times suggested and speculated that Jane Austen alluded to Spenser’s
famous and influential epic poem in Emma
and in Catherine or The Bower.
However,
after diligent search, I could only find one scholar, Jocelyn Harris, who had
ever connected Spenser’s epic poem to S&S. Prof. Harris did so, in passing,
as follows, in the following passage in her seminal 1985 book, Jane Austen’s Art of Memory, a book which
I’ve cited a hundred times, which was so crucially influential on the direction
of my Austen allusion studies when I first read it in 2005:
P.
82: “When Marianne’s ‘mind’ is not to be controlled, when Willoughby proves to
be everything that her ‘fancy had delineated’, when her ‘imagination’ deludes
her that a tender and contrite letter will appear from Willoughby and be
followed by his eager self, when ‘the same eager fancy’ which led her into an
extreme of indulgence, and repining introduces excess into her scheme of
self-control, S&S borrows from The
Faerie Queene words and values used of [for] Marianne’s lack of moderation:
fancy, imagination, excess, reason, wandering, and error. Fancy is dangerous
here.” END QUOTE
However,
as a result of my research the past 3 days, I am here to present three
additions to Jocelyn Harris’s lonely example of allusion to The Fairie Queene in S&S:
LUCIFERA
IN BOOK I, CANTO 4 OF THE FAERIE QUEENE:
First,
here, in Lynne Barrett’s own words, is her crucial extension of “Lucifer” to
“Lucifera”:
“In The
Faerie Queene, Lucifera is the "maiden queen" who has a Court of Pride
and a dungeon full of prisoners. She is one of several figures in the
allegorical poem who stand for Elizabeth I, with Gloriana being the most
positive one. And I can't resist noting that in The History of England
(Henry IV-Charles I), the young Jane Austen criticizes Elizabeth I for her
treatment of Mary Queen of Scots. I think she would have known who
Lucifera was.”
I
could not agree more with Lynne, and now that I’ve studied the portion of Book
One, Canto Four of The Faerie Queene which
tells the story of Lucifera, I can confirm with high confidence that Lucifera
is indeed a key source for the character of Lucy Ferrars in S&S. For those
of you not familiar with The Faerie
Queene, here is an excellent description of Lucifera and her House of Pride
that I found here at SparkNotes:
“Meanwhile,
the real Redcrosse has been led by Duessa to a wonderful palace--the House of
Pride. It is beautiful and lavish, with a wide entrance, but it is built weakly
on a poor foundation. Redcrosse and Duessa are brought in and marvel at the
richness. They are welcomed by the whole court but especially by Lucifera, the
Queen of the palace. Full of pride, Lucifera shows off for the knight by
calling her coach, which is pulled by six beasts upon which ride her six
counselors. They are: Idleness, Gluttony, Lechery, Avarice, Envy, and Wrath,
their appearances appropriate to their names.
…The
House of Pride is a collection of ancient and medieval thought about sin and
evil. Christian theology holds that pride is the greatest sin, from which all
other vices come. Pride was the sin of Satan, which caused his fall from
Heaven; thus, the Queen of Pride is associated with Lucifer by her name. The
parade of the seven major vices, each with some prop or costume to indicate their
nature (Pride holds a mirror, for she is vain), was a common feature of
medieval morality plays--Spenser borrows it for this scene in Canto iv. The
Queen, however, is not simply an allegory for Pride; she also has a political
meaning. Spenser intentionally contrasts her with the true Queen, to whom the
poem is dedicated: Queen Elizabeth. The poet notes that Lucifera "made her
selfe a Queene, and crowned to be, / Yet rightfull kingdome she had none at
all, / Ne heritage of native soveraintie / But did USURPE with wrong and
tyrannie / Upon the scepter (I.iv.12)." This is in contrast to Elizabeth,
who held her power lawfully, ruled with justice and "true religion,"
and was descended from a noble race (as Spenser will later establish). “
While
it would take pages of intricate textual analysis to illustrate, take my word
that JA’s clever pervasive thematic wordplay in S&S, in particular on the
words “pride” and “nobility” and “justice”, demonstrates very clearly, to those
versed in the Jane Austen Code, that JA has, in S&S, given us the story of
how Lucy Steele managed to usurp the “throne” of the House of Pride known as
the Ferrars family, by incessant brilliant manipulation of the fatal flaws of
the Ferrars family –its monstrously unjust pride and greed. In the end, they all get exactly the karmic
punishment they deserve—to be ruled by Lucy Ferrars, who will, upon the death
of Mrs. Ferrars, succeed her on the “throne”! Thus, as per my Subject Line, we
may fairly say that Lucy Ferrars has become the Queen of the Ferrars’!!!!
And
so there is absolutely no question that JA treated the Lucifera story in
Spenser’s poem as a key allusive source for this major arc of the shadow story
of S&S!
But
that’s only one third of the story—read on!
LUCY
IN THE TALE OF AMIDAS & BRACIDAS IN BOOK V, CANTO IV:
On a
hunch that proved to be spot-on, I searched the name “Lucy” in The Faerie Queene, and to my amazed
delight, it brought me to a completely different section of Spenser’s poem—Book
V, Canto IV, the short but famous tale of Amidas & Bracidas, as to which I
am again indebted to SparkNotes for an excellent brief summary:
“Arthegall
is a true knight of Justice not only for his wisdom, but for his physical
strength. Justice isn’t easy to uphold. He and Talus leave the wedding and
passed by the sea. There he sees a large chest, two knights, and two ladies.
The ladies are trying to stop the knights from fighting. They are the sons of
Milesia, masters of two nearby islands. One is large and the other is small.
The elder brother, Bracidas, recounts their story: He was given an island of
equal size with his younger brother Amidas’ island. He loved a lady named
Philtera, who had a “goodly doure”. Amidas loved a lady named Lucy, who was
poor in worldly wealth, but virtuous. Sadly, the ocean began to swallow up
Bracidas’ island until he had very little land left. His girl left him and went
to Amidas instead. Lucy threw herself into the sea in despair. While drowning,
she caught hold of a chest that was floating and hung on until she washed
ashore on Bracidas’ land. She decided to marry him. When they opened the
chest, they found treasure! However, Philtera now claims it is her dowry that
was lost in a shipwreck en route to Amidas. Arthegall’s judgement is that the
treasure belongs to Bracidas and Lucy, since the sea had taken away what
belonged to Amidas just as it had previously taken away what had belonged to
Bracidas. Of course half of them are displeased with this, but Arthegall pays
no mind and rides off. “ END QUOTE
Again,
while I could take up several more pages of intricate textual analysis
demonstrating all the ways that Jane Austen cleverly demonstrated her focus on
this one short inset tale in The Faerie
Queene, I will merely state my claim that Jane Austen chose the name “Lucy”
for her diabolical anti-heroine, Lucy Steele Ferrars, not only because it would
point to all the Lucifers of prior literature, and to Spenser’s Lucifera, as
well as to some literary Lucys as well--see, e.g., Lucy in Sarah Fielding’s The Governess (as I’ve previously
blogged). I am now claiming that JA chose Lucy as a Christian name for her
arch-schemer, so that it would point even more directly to the lucky (or
resourceful) Lucy of Spenser’s Book V, Canto IV tale-who just happens to be a
Lucy who throws herself into the sea in despair (or in deception?), only to “miraculously”
wind up as the wife of a different brother than her original fiancé—two brothers
who also just don’t get along!---and with the windfall of a great treasure as a
dowry!
And…as
an uncanny footnote to the above discovery re Spenser’s Lucy washing up onshore
with a treasure chest , in the Emma Thompson S&S, after Marianne survives
her bout of near fatal illness, Brandon reads to Marianne from....(you guessed
it!) Book V of The Faerie Queene.
Does this suggest that Emma Thompson saw some resonance there, and it was not just
a random choice on her part? After all, the excerpt Brandon reads to Marianne
is also from Book V, although not from Canto IV. Perhaps one day I will be able
to ask Emma Thompson that question myself!
Meanwhile,
quickly on to my third claim!
MRS.
JENNINGS, MICHAELMAS, LUCIFER, DRAGONS & THE FAERIE QUEENE
Purely
by coincidence, ten weeks ago……
….I
posted at length about the allusion that I claim Mrs. Jennings kept making,
repeatedly, near the end of S&S, to the Biblical St. Michael ejecting Lucifer
from Heaven. I had no idea then that Lynne Barrett would suggest that JA was
alluding to The Faerie Queene in
S&S, but once she did, the second thing I thought of was that in the
climactic battle of Book I (in Cantos 11 & 12) of The Faerie Queene, Redcrosse
slays the dragon that has laid waste to Eden.
Suffice
to say that I find it very very curious that Mrs. Jennings should be making a
veiled allusion to the Biblical ejection of Lucifer from Heaven, in the same
novel, S&S, as JA has alluded very pointedly to Lucifera in Canto IV in
Book I of The Faerie Queene, only a
stone’s throw, so to speak, from Cantos XI & XII in which Spenser’s
Redcrosse slays a demonic dragon.
POSTSCRIPT:
I
leave you with one tantalizing question:
Anielka
Briggs and other Austen scholars have speculated about the meaning of the
following allusion to Queen Mab by Willoughby in S&S:
"But,
Marianne, the horse is still yours, though you cannot use it now. I shall keep
it only till you can claim it. When you leave Barton to form your own
establishment in a more lasting home, Queen Mab shall receive you."
Of
course Queen Mab is famously referred to by Mercutio as the "fairies's
midwife" in Shakespeare’s Romeo
& Juliet.
My tantalizing
question is: What connection might there be between Shakespeare’s “fairies’s
midwife” and The Faerie Queene of Spenser’s
eponymous poem? And, even more to a Janeite point: Did Jane Austen mean to make a
connection between Shakespeare’s Queen Mab and Spenser’s Faerie Queene, when she
chose that name for Willoughby’s horse, knowing that she had already covertly
alluded to The Faerie Queene all over
the place in S&S, as I have described above?
This
is a particularly interesting question, in light of Maurice Hunt’s fantastic
scholarship in his recent book Shakespeare's
As You Like It, in Chapter One entitled “Wrestling for Temperance: AYLI and
TFQ, Book 2”. In that chapter, Prof. Hunt makes a powerful case for Shakespeare
having extensively and significantly alluded, in As You Like It, to the theme of temperance in Book II of The Faerie Queene. Given that I have
argued not long ago that Chapter 2 of S&S (when Fanny and John Dashwood
whittle down the bequest to the Dashwood women to a pittance) alludes even more
specifically to the confrontation between Orlando and Oliver in 1.1 of As You Like It than to the more famous
scenes in King Lear when Goneril and
Regan whittle down their father’s retinue, I think it quite possible that JA
herself understood that Shakespeare was alluding to Spenser, as Hunt outlines.
I’ve
argued that S&S’s Austen family subtext is that of the unfairness of how
the Austen family wealth came to be so unevenly divided amongst the Austen
siblings, with Edward Austen Knight in particular making off like a bandit,
while JA and her sister lived on the uneven charity of their brothers their
whole lives. Both As You Like It and The Faerie Queene are significantly
concerned with those very same issues of fairness in inheritance, and on the
kind of temperance that an heir who gets the shaft would have to struggle to
achieve, when faced with utter unfairness.
Anyway,
I will stop now, but I’d love to hear someone take this chain of discovery one
giant step further in any of the directions I’ve pointed!
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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