I ended my last post earlier today as follows:
Ellen wrote: "In the case of Martha Lloyd
and Jane Austen as far as we can tell Jane called Martha Martha and Martha Jane
Jane. I don't think I jump to conclusions when I at least repeatedly point to what
it seems the Austen world wants to ignore about the depth and continuity of
this relationship. I'm persuaded that in Charlotte Lucas we have a reflection
of that friendship"
And I replied: And this is another one of those
rare occasions when Ellen and i agree about a subtextual interpretation of JA's
writing, as I have also previously stated that Charlotte Lucas is in some way a
portrait of Martha Lloyd, Jane Austen's beloved (in more than purely platonic
ways) particular friend.”
A few hours later, thinking some more about names
in JA’s novels, in particular about Martha Lloyd as a source for some of JA’s non-heterosexual
female characters, something tickled the edges of my memory, and led me to
search to see whether there might have been a “Martha”, a minor character,
somewhere in her novels—and sure enough, I found the following passage in
Chapter 38 of Sense & Sensibility,
when Nancy Steele accosts Elinor and starts telling her all about a
conversation between Edward and Lucy about their future life together:
"I
do not understand what you mean by interrupting them," said Elinor;
"you were all in the same room together, were not you?"
"No,
indeed, not us. La! Miss Dashwood, do you think people make love when any body
else is by? Oh, for shame!—To be sure you must know better than that. (Laughing
affectedly.)—No, no; they were shut up in the drawing-room together, and all I
heard was only by listening at the door."
"How!"
cried Elinor; "have you been repeating to me what you only learnt yourself
by listening at the door? I am sorry I did not know it before; for I certainly
would not have suffered you to give me particulars of a conversation which you
ought not to have known yourself. How could you behave so unfairly by your
sister?"
"Oh,
la! there is nothing in THAT. I only stood at the door, and heard what I could.
And I am sure Lucy would have done just the same by me; for a year or two back,
when Martha Sharpe and I had so many secrets together, she never made any bones
of hiding in a closet, or behind a chimney-board, on purpose to hear what we
said."
Elinor
tried to talk of something else…
My
eyes widened when I beheld the one and only “Martha” in all of JA’s six novels combined:
it was a name which I must have registered subliminally before, but which today
took on its full significance, in the light of my and Ellen’s shared opinion
about Martha Lloyd as a lesbian allusive source for JA’s fiction.
When
I read what Nancy Steele said about Martha Sharpe, as my Subject Line suggests,
I realized that “Martha Sharpe” had to be a blending of the first name of one,
and the last name of the other, of the two women I have long believed were Jane
Austen’s real life Charlotte Lucases ---- MARTHA Lloyd and Anne SHARP!
I
then immediately wondered whether any other Austen scholar had ever taken
notice of the name “Martha Sharpe”. I found only three who had ever mentioned it
other than in passing.
The first was Margaret Doody, in her 2015 book about names in
Jane Austen’s novels, but her comment showed no awareness whatsoever of the personal
Austenian significance of that name:
“That
Nancy has an equally mannerless friend named “Martha Sharpe” (a New Testament
first name already demoted) clarifies her lower middle class milieu.”
The second was my good
friend Linda Robinson Walker, in her recent Persuasions
article about Colonel Brandon as a survival of circumcision while in the
Subcontinent, picked up on a possible pun in “Margaret Sharpe:: “And of course, there is her sister’s
friend, Martha Sharpe. Thaler, who also has taken note of the “sharps”
and Lucy’s dueling with Elinor, points out that duels at the time of Austen’s
writing were usually conducted with pistols. “
But,
as far as I can tell, only our own Ellen Moody noted the following in September
2012 in a blog post:
“Martha
is found in Austen’s novels in a minor character. Nancy Steele mentions
eavesdropping on her sister, Lucy….”When Martha Sharpe and I had so many
secrets together.”…Jane has conflated her two favorite women, Martha Lloyd and
Anne Sharpe. In this scenario, she is Nancy …More seriously, alas, we don’t
know enough about Martha’s inward character accurately described to try to
discern which of Austen’s characters might have some of her traits, unless
aspects of Nancy Steele caricature Martha.”
However,
Ellen, having gotten so close, and having already recognized that Martha was a
source for the lesbian Charlotte Lucas in P&P, failed to make clear that
Martha and Anne were more than JA’s “favorite women”—they were women with whom
JA had a strong romantic connection.
Which tells us that Martha Lloyd had already made this “cameo” appearance in S&S,
before she made a full fledged appearance in the significant role of Charlotte
Lucas in P&P two years later.
What
seals the deal, I think, is the way Nancy Steele describes “Martha Sharpe”---could
JA be more sexually suggestive than to have the crude, vulgar Nancy Steele say,
“when Martha Sharpe and I had so many secrets together, she never made any
bones of hiding in a closet, or behind a chimney-board…”. So many secrets
together? Hiding in a closet? Hiding behind a chimney-board?
Where
have we heard such crude sexual innuendo coming out of the mouth of a vulgar female
Austen character? Of course, you know the first passage that came to my mind:
“…Dear me! we had such a good piece of fun the other day at
Colonel Forster's. Kitty and me were to spend the day there, and Mrs. Forster
promised to have a little dance in the evening; (by the bye, Mrs. Forster and
me are such friends!)
and so she asked the two Harringtons to come, but Harriet was ill, and so Pen
was forced to come by herself; and then, what do you think we did? We dressed
up Chamberlayne in woman's clothes on purpose to pass for a lady, only think
what fun! Not a soul knew of it, but Colonel and Mrs. Forster, and Kitty and
me, except my aunt, for we were forced to borrow one of her gowns; and you
cannot imagine how well he looked! When Denny, and Wickham, and Pratt, and two
or three more of the men came in, they did not know him in the least. Lord! how
I laughed! and so did Mrs. Forster. I thought I should have died. And that made the men suspect something, and
then they soon found out what was the matter."
And don’t forget Miss Bates’s memorable turn in a similar Freudian
vein:
“'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….”
Secrets between female friends, hiding in closets
and chimneys--- and to find them explicitly connected to a character named for
JA’s two intimate female friends. It doesn’t get any more suggestive than that!
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
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