Today,
in the midst of my recent closer look at various scenes in P&P involving Darcy’s
letter to Eliza, in particular having to do with Wickham and Georgiana, my eye
was caught for the first time by the pun I put in my above Subject Line, taken
from the comments by the newly married Wickham to Eliza about Georgiana:
"I
have heard, indeed, that she is uncommonly improved within this year or two.
When I last saw her, she was not very PROMISING. I am very glad you liked her.
I hope she will turn out well."
What
pun? Think about it…..according to Darcy’s letter, when Wickham last saw
Georgiana, at the last moment Georgiana backed off from eloping with Wickham—or,
in other words, she was not ready to PROMISE, i.e., take her wedding vows! And
that’s a punny meaning, on top of two others: Wickham intends to say that
Georgiana’s character was not promising, but he also unintentionally also means
that his own prospects as a fortune hunter weren’t promising for him!
That
got me thinking that there must be other (less memorable) passages scattered through
JA’s novels, in which she made variations on that same pun—and sure enough, she
did. Here are the best ones:
In
NA, Chapter 25, Eleanor and Henry wittily joke about their brother Captain
Tilney’s jilting of Isabella Thorpe:
“…And
how strange an infatuation on Frederick's side! A girl who, before his eyes, is
violating an engagement voluntarily entered into with another man! Is not it
inconceivable, Henry? Frederick too, who always wore his heart so proudly! Who
found no woman good enough to be loved!"
"That is the most UNPROMISING
circumstance, the strongest presumption against him. When I think of his past
declarations, I give him up…..”
Indeed, it was an “unpromising”
circumstance for Frederick, as his knowing siblings were well aware that their
rakish career bachelor brother never intended to marry Isabella, for him every
romantic liaison is “unpromising” in that sense!
In S&S, Chapters 3&4, Jane
Austen’s narrator hints at Edward’s not going to propose to Elinor, before his
brother proposes to Lucy, by first referring to Robert as “more promising”, and
then to Edward as “unpromising”:
“But
Edward had no turn for great men or barouches. All his wishes centered in domestic
comfort and the quiet of private life. Fortunately he had a younger brother who
was more PROMISING.
….There
was, at times, a want of spirits about him which, if it did not denote
indifference, spoke of something almost as UNPROMISING.”
And
then, in S&S Chapter 40, Edward and Elinor are both in a state of
embarrassment arising out of his having given his engagement “promise” to Lucy
a while back:
“She
had not seen him before since his engagement became public, and therefore not
since his knowing her to be acquainted with it; which, with the consciousness
of what she had been thinking of, and what she had to tell him, made her feel
particularly uncomfortable for some minutes. He too was much distressed; and
they sat down together in a most PROMISING state of embarrassment…..”
In
P&P Chapters 18 before Bingley decamps suddenly from Meryton, we have Mrs.
Bennet’s dreams of marriage “promises” for all her daughters, and then in
Chapters 25 and 37, after he has left, the Bennets can only look back with
stunned sadness at the sudden disappearance of Bingley’s inclination to marry
Jane!:
“His
being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from
them, were the first points of self-gratulation; and then it was such a comfort
to think how fond the two sisters were of Jane, and to be certain that they
must desire the connection as much as she could do. It was, moreover, such a PROMISING
thing for her younger daughters, as Jane's marrying so greatly must throw them
in the way of other rich men…”
….But
that expression of 'violently in love' is so hackneyed, so doubtful, so indefinite,
that it gives me very little idea. It is as often applied to feelings which
arise from a half-hour's acquaintance, as to a real, strong attachment. Pray,
how violent was Mr. Bingley's love?"
"I never saw a more PROMISING
inclination; he was growing quite inattentive to other people, and wholly
engrossed by her. Every time they met, it was more decided and remarkable.
….How grievous then was the thought that, of a
situation so desirable in every respect, so replete with advantage, so PROMISING
for happiness, Jane had been deprived, by the folly and indecorum of her own
family!”
In
MP, we have, in Chapters 34 and 42, a darker meaning of this pun, both having
to do with Sir Thomas’s sadistic, domineering campaign to coerce Fanny into
marrying Henry, :
“In
the evening a few circumstances occurred which he thought more PROMISING. When
he and Crawford walked into the drawing-room, his mother and Fanny were sitting
as intently and silently at work as if there were nothing else to care for.
Edmund could not help noticing their apparently deep tranquillity.
….After
being nursed up at Mansfield, it was too late in the day to be hardened at
Portsmouth; and though Sir Thomas, had he known all, might have thought his
niece in the most PROMISING way of being starved, both mind and body, into a
much juster value for Mr. Crawford's good company and good fortune, he would
probably have feared to push his experiment farther, lest she might die under
the cure.”
Finally,
in Emma
(this pun is absent from Persuasion),
we have, in Chapters 6, 25, and 55, respectively, this pun referring to Emma’s
prospects of marriage with Elton, Frank, and finally, Knightley:
“…a
standing memorial of the beauty of one, the skill of the other, and the
friendship of both; with as many other agreeable associations as Mr. Elton's
very PROMISING attachment was likely to add.”
….“He…said
he would be the best man in the world if he were left to himself; and though
there was no being attached to the aunt, he acknowledged her kindness with
gratitude, and seemed to mean always to speak of her with respect. This was all
very PROMISING; and, but for such an unfortunate fancy for having his hair cut,
there was nothing to denote him unworthy of the distinguished honour which her
imagination had given him; the honour, if not of being really in love with her,
of being at least very near it, and saved only by her own indifference—(for
still her resolution held of never marrying)—the honour, in short, of being
marked out for her by all their joint acquaintance.”
…“When
first sounded on the subject, he was so miserable, that they were almost
hopeless.—A second allusion, indeed, gave less pain.—He began to think it was
to be, and that he could not prevent it—a very PROMISING step of the mind on
its way to resignation. Still, however, he was not happy.”
That
last one is the best of the three, as it was indeed a very promising step when
Mr. Woodhouse began to feel resigned to the inevitability of Emma marrying
Knightley…And that concludes this whirlwind tour through the most “promising” passages in Jane Austen’s fiction!
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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