Peter
Know-Shaw, in his 2004 Jane Austen &
The Enlightenment, wrote about Fanny Price as very Quaker-like: “If Thomas
Clarkson’s Portraiture of Quakerism
(1807) reveals a similar profile, and one that bears an uncanny resemblance to
Fanny’s, that goes to show just how representative a character she is. Though
the taboos against theatre, music, and dancing are all very much softened in
Fanny’s case (and are carefully mediated, too, by Clarkson’s commentary), the
praise of stillness and quietness, the stress on subjugating the passions, and
the suspicion of self gratification are all of a piece with her temperament. So
also is the attitude of reverence attaching to all living creatures and
especially to the unspoilt countryside. Fanny….is foreshadowed at almost every
point by the Quaker portrait…”
I had
no idea about any Quaker subtext in JA’s writing until Diane raised the issue 5
years ago in Janeites and Austen, with several interesting points about Fanny
Price, and I responded as follows:
Now
fast forward to yesterday, when Diane inspired me to write a post about the
theme of “dark” Darcy and angel of “light” Wickham. At the end of yesterday, as
I reread what I had written, and kept seeing the word “light”, suddenly the proverbial
“light bulb” went on in my memory, and I wondered —could there be a Quaker
subtext in P&P (of course published a year before MP) as well, focused on
the “light” motif (ha ha) I had just explicated?
Long
story short—it didn’t take me long to locate a fantastic scholarly article, “Accusations of Blasphemy in English
Anti-Quaker Polemic, C.1660-1701” by David Manning, in Volume 14 #1 Quaker
Studies 2010, which, as I’ll outline for you below, provided all sorts of support
for my hypothesis. I’ll quote some excerpts from same, with comments by me as
to each regarding the connections I see to P&P:
Manning:
“In this paper I want to take an alternative approach that will move away from critiques
of criminal blasphemy and focus on the accusation of blasphemy as a symptom of
theological division between Quakers and Protestant non-Quakers. Many non-Quakers
took such exception to the theological precepts of Quakerism, particularly its
Christology vis-a-vis the doctrine of the Trinity, that they became antiQuakers
who openly challenged the validity of Quakerism and labelled it inherently WICKED.”
As I
noted yesterday, Wickham is three times associated with the word “wicked” in
P&P. Not a big deal by itself, but in the context of the other stuff,
below, it becomes so.
Manning:
“BUGG's aggressive stance would have been an embarrassment to many irenical
clergy; nevertheless, he enjoyed the patronage of the bishop of Norwich, John
Moore (1646-1714), as well as more general support from several Norfolk
clergymen. [They included: Henry MERITON (d. 1707), rector of Oxborough; his
son, John MERITON (1662-1717), rector of Boughton...]”
Francis
Bugg was an early Anglican enemy of Quakerism—and I can’t help but be reminded
not only of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, but also Rudyard Kipling’s corruption of
same into “de BUGG” in “The Janeites”. Plus, I am pretty sure that it is no
coincidence that two of Bugg’s early anti-Quaker clergyman supporters were a
father and son named “Meriton”? As in the single sentence in all of P&P
which is at the heart of the veiled Quaker subtext: “All MERYTON seemed striving to blacken the man, who, but
three months before, had been almost an ANGEL OF LIGHT.”
Manning:
“According to St Augustinian, speculative blasphemy was a denial of
self-evident and unquestionable divine truth, a lie about God himself that was
caused and perpetuated by human PRIDE. The ability to believe a lie about God
and to propagate it as truth, for example in the form of heresy, was the
consummate skill of a FALSE PROPHET….”
How
about, pride, false prophets, and the prejudice of Anglicans against Quakers?
Manning:
“The foundation of Quaker theology was a belief in the LIGHT within, the
immediate inspiration of God in the believer. Once established, Quakers
believed that the LIGHT within became the primary authority in all matters of
faith, taking precedence over mediated authorities such as the words of creeds
or Scripture: the premise being that the Apostles had not read texts in order
to establish a relationship with God.”
In
addition to the “light” subtext which pervades the Darcy-Wickham axis in
P&P which I laid out yesterday, my strong sense of JA’s own religiosity is
that she was intensely individualistic, and would have been irresistibly drawn
to a strand of Christianity which validated and nurtured that inner light—in her
case, that inner light was a blazing bonfire of genius, creativity, and emotional
connection to others, and she fought to her dying day (see “Winchester Races”
and “Galigai for ever and ever”) to defend her right and moral imperative to
protect her own inner fire, and to refuse to be “burnt at the stake” for her “bewitching”
beliefs.
Manning:
“In 1696,..Charles Leslie (1650-1722) unleashed a polemical tour-de-force
against Quakerism: The Snake in the
Grass: Or; Satan Transform'd into an Angel of LIGHT. The title of the work
was inspired by St Paul's warning to the Corinthians about the diabolism of
'false apostles' (2 Cor. 11:13-14); and the content was no less confrontational.
Leslie lambasted 'our Present Obstinate Quakers', who 'Fearlessly go on, and pretend
themselves to the same Extraordinary Commission, of immediate Divine Revelation',
dismissing such notions as 'nothing short of Blasphemy; Rank, Wild Blasphemy!'
The blasphemous enthusiasm of Quakerism was 'more dangerous than Atheism', for
it 'steals away many Devout and Well-meaning Persons'.”
And I
don’t think, at this point, that I even need to explain how this last excerpt
relates to the line in P&P about Wickham being transformed into an “angel
of light” by “all of Meryton”!
I
recommend your reading Manning’s entire article for a full understanding of the
history of the Anglican-Quaker “war of words” which raged a century before JA’s
writing career began. I now strongly believe that she, being anything but an
ignorant and prejudiced historian, was fully cognizant of that history, and
wove it deeply into the fabric not only of Fanny Price in MP, but also the
intense rivalry and dynamic between Darcy (joined by Lady Catherine de “Bugg”)
and Wickham.
How
amazing to add to all the other subtexts of P&P the notion that it’s also
an allegory of the theological struggle between the powerful entrenched
Anglican orthodoxy (Darcy, Lady C) and the upstart, seductive, individualistic
Quaker “heresy” (Wickham)—with Elizabeth Bennet as the confused and ambivalent
English people, whose heart, soul, and mind the Anglicans and the Quakers struggled
with each other to win.
Diane
(and perhaps others), I am sure there is MUCH more to say on this topic, I have
only scratched the surface, and have shone a flashlight on that shadowy
theological allegory in P&P. I am eager to hear your reactions.
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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