In my recent posts about
Mr. Perry as Mr. Woodhouse’s imaginary friend, I’ve claimed, in part, that various
other characters speak about Mr. Perry as if he were still alive, knowing full
well that he is not, but with the purpose of concealing from Emma that she has
never been told of Mr. Perry’s death, mostly so that she won’t realize that her
father is completely and profoundly delusional. (and of course, this all is in
parallel to what I’ve also been saying about Nurse Rooke in Persuasion and Mrs. Long in P&P)
I’d like to briefly add a major
new wrinkle to my claims, using as my springboard the observation I made in
those recent posts that the word “peri” is Farsi for “fairy”, and that JA had
therefore most cleverly and aptly selected
the surname “Perry” for him, her most fully realized imaginary friend (which is
therefore like a fairy, spirit or ghost).
Yesterday it occurred to
me to pick up on the obvious allusion that Miss Bates makes to A Thousand And One Nights when she says
about the brightly lit festive room at The Crown:
“Well! This is brilliant
indeed!—This is admirable!—Excellently contrived, upon my word. Nothing
wanting. Could not have imagined it.—So well lighted up!—Jane, Jane, look!—did
you ever see any thing? Oh! Mr. Weston, you must really have had ALADDIN’S LAMP.
Good Mrs. Stokes would not know her own room again.”
Fittingly re a thousand
and one nights, I, almost exactly a year and a week ago…..
…. posted at length about
the overt Scheherazade allusion in Persuasion,
in which I claimed that JA’s allusion was complex and highly significant.
Today I make a parallel
claim about the allusion to that same, vastly popular and influential work of
world literature, but this time in EMMA,
as to which Mr. Perry as imaginary friend or “peri” turns out to be the most
significant element, one among many
symbols pointing back to the “entertainments” of that classic literary work (which
first appeared in English just over a century before JA published Emma).
As with my posts about Mr.
Perry, I am not going to lay out all my evidence, I will, with one exception, merely summarize it, and leave it
to those who are so inclined to take my hints and go back to the text of Emma themselves, and see the rest of the
evidence for themselves!
The key point is that JA
was, I am now certain, alluding specifically to one particular tale among the
1,001 told by Scheherazade to the demented Sultan (who, like the protagonist of
Garrick’s Riddle, takes a new virgin every night, to first behead her sexually,
and then to behead her literally---no coincidence there!)—the tale of PERI
Banou.
Here is a wonderful
synopsis of most of the plot of the tale recounted by Marina Warner in her
recent book, Stranger Magic: Charmed
States and the Arabian Nights, at p. 71 et seq:
“Prince Ahmed and the
Fairy Peri Banou: “Three brothers, sons
of the sultan of the Indies, are rivals for the hand of the exquisitely
beautiful Princess Nouronnihar, their first cousin and an orphan, who lives in
the palace with them. The three princes are dispatched by their father at the
beginning of the story: the one who brings back the greatest wonder shall marry
her. Prince Houssain, the eldest,
…[buys] a flying CARPET that can take you in an instant where you want to be.
…Ali… buys a TELESCOPE carved from IVORY, through which you can see anything
and everything, whatever is happening in the world at the time. Ahmed, the
youngest, [buys] an artificial APPLE which exudes a perfume that can heal any
disease.
Once the brothers meet
again at an INN on the road as arranged, they see through Ali’s TELESCOPE that
the beautiful Princess has been taken terribly ill and is on the point of
death. The three brothers immediately mount the flying CARPET and ride to her
rescue—and then use the magic APPLE to cure her. Revived, she still has no say
in her choice of suitor, and the father continues to declare himself undecided.
So he sets a further test…the one who shoots an ARROW the farthest will win her
for his bride.
Ahmed’s ARROW flies out of
sight and he’s disqualified; she marries the winner, Prince Ali, while
Houssain, in his fury at losing her,
renounces the CROWN and becomes a dervish. Ahmed meanwhile sets out to find his
ARROW and finds himself straying…until he discovers it pointing the way through
rocks to an iron DOOR; through this he descends and enters…FAIRYLAND.
PERI Banou comes to greet him, leads him into her palace where
she sits him down and tells him that she has contrived to bring him to her by
her magic arts, for the CARPET, the GLASS and the APPLE were her handiwork, and
she then carried off his ARROW. If he seizes his chance with her now, she
promises to make him happy. According to FAIRY law, she explains, women can be
forward and choose their love; she has chosen him, if he’ll agree. Prince Ahmed
needs no persuading, and the ceremony
takes place then and there between the two of them, contracted and sealed with a thousand kisses…..(and so on)”
Do I need to explain why I
put the words “apple”, “telescope/glass”,
“arrow”, “fairyland”, “crown”, “fairy”, “door”, and “peri” in all caps? Anyone familiar with
the text of Emma, and in particular
with the speeches of Miss Bates, will know EXACTLY why I did this.
But in particular, I draw
everyone’s attention to the following speech by Miss Bates, which is the
epicenter of JA’s complex allusion. Start here in Chapter 27….
"Very well, I am much
obliged to you. My mother is delightfully well; and Jane caught no cold last
night. How is Mr. Woodhouse?—I am so glad to hear such a good account. Mrs.
Weston told me you were here.—Oh! then, said I, I must run across, I am sure
Miss Woodhouse will allow me just to run across and entreat her to come in; my
mother will be so very happy to see her—and now we are such a nice party, she
cannot refuse.—'Aye, pray do,' said Mr. Frank Churchill, 'Miss Woodhouse's
opinion of the instrument will be worth having.'—But, said I, I shall be more
sure of succeeding if one of you will go with me.—'Oh,' said he, 'wait half a
minute, till I have finished my job;'—For, would you believe it, Miss
Woodhouse, there he is, in the most obliging manner in the world, fastening in
the rivet of my mother's SPECTACLES.—The rivet came out, you know, this
morning.—So very obliging!—For my mother had no use of her SPECTACLES—could not
put them on. And, by the bye, every body ought to have two pair of SPECTACLES;
they should indeed. Jane said so. I meant to take them over to John Saunders
the first thing I did, but something or other hindered me all the morning;
first one thing, then another, there is no saying what, you know. At one time
Patty came to say she thought the kitchen chimney wanted sweeping. Oh, said I,
Patty do not come with your bad news to me. Here is the rivet of your
mistress's SPECTACLES out. Then the baked APPLES came home, Mrs. Wallis sent
them by her boy; they are extremely civil and obliging to us, the Wallises,
always—I have heard some people say that Mrs. Wallis can be uncivil and give a
very rude answer, but we have never known any thing but the greatest attention
from them. And it cannot be for the value of our custom now, for what is our
consumption of bread, you know? Only three of us.—besides dear Jane at
present—and she really eats nothing—makes such a shocking breakfast, you would
be quite frightened if you saw it. I dare not let my mother know how little she
eats—so I say one thing and then I say another, and it passes off. But about
the middle of the day she gets hungry, and there is nothing she likes so well
as these baked APPLES, and they are extremely wholesome, for I took the
opportunity the other day of asking Mr. Perry; I happened to meet him in the
street. Not that I had any doubt before—I have so often heard Mr. Woodhouse
recommend a baked APPLE. I believe it is the only way that Mr. Woodhouse thinks
the fruit thoroughly wholesome. We have APPLE-dumplings, however, very often.
Patty makes an excellent APPLE-dumpling. Well, Mrs. Weston, you have prevailed,
I hope, and these ladies will oblige us.…I declare I cannot recollect what I
was talking of.—Oh! my mother's SPECTACLES. So very obliging of Mr. Frank
Churchill! 'Oh!' said he, 'I do think I can fasten the rivet; I like a job of
this kind excessively.'—Which you know shewed him to be so very.... Indeed I
must say that, much as I had heard of him before and much as I had expected, he
very far exceeds any thing.... I do congratulate you, Mrs. Weston, most warmly.
He seems every thing the fondest parent could.... 'Oh!' said he, 'I can fasten
the rivet. I like a job of that sort excessively.' I never shall forget his
manner. And when I brought out the baked APPLES from the closet, and hoped our
friends would be so very obliging as to take some, 'Oh!' said he directly,
'there is nothing in the way of fruit half so good, and these are the
finest-looking home-baked APPLES I ever saw in my life.' That, you know, was so
very.... And I am sure, by his manner, it was no compliment. Indeed they are
very delightful APPLES, and Mrs. Wallis does them full justice—only we do not
have them baked more than twice, and Mr. Woodhouse made us promise to have them
done three times—but Miss Woodhouse will be so good as not to mention it. The APPLES
themselves are the very finest sort for baking, beyond a doubt; all from
Donwell—some of Mr. Knightley's most liberal supply. He sends us a sack every
year; and certainly there never was such a keeping APPLE anywhere as one of his
trees—I believe there is two of them. My mother says the orchard was always
famous in her younger days. But I was really quite shocked the other day—for
Mr. Knightley called one morning, and Jane was eating these APPLES, and we
talked about them and said how much she enjoyed them, and he asked whether we
were not got to the end of our stock….”
…and continue until here
in Chapter 28…
"Oh! Mr. Knightley,
one moment more; something of consequence—so shocked!—Jane and I are both so
shocked about the APPLES!"
"What is the matter
now?"
"To think of your
sending us all your store APPLES. You said you had a great many, and now you
have not one left. We really are so shocked! Mrs. Hodges may well be angry.
William Larkins mentioned it here. You should not have done it, indeed you
should not. Ah! he is off. He never can bear to be thanked. But I thought he
would have staid now, and it would have been a pity not to have mentioned....
Well, (returning to the room,) I have not been able to succeed. Mr. Knightley
cannot stop. He is going to Kingston. He asked me if he could do any
thing...."
…and don’t overlook the
mention in the interim about CARRIAGE rides as a kind of metaphorical “magic
carpet” rides!
My point being that JA is
telling her knowing readers that SHE is none other than the Peri Banou of
fiction, so we should all put on the special spectacles she has fixed up for us,
take a bite of the scented apples she has laid out for us to eat, and take a
magic carpet ride courtesy of Air Austen!
That’s precisely when it
will dart through YOU, with the speed of an ARROW, that Jane Austen was the
greatest genius in the history of literature, matched only by HER “peri”,
Shakespeare.
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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