Last week, in my latest
quiz, I presented a series of quotes from a work of literature which I did not
identify, but which I suggested were connected in a subtextual and significant
manner to one of Austen’s novels in particular.
Today I’m back to give
you the answer, which my Subject Line has already revealed – Charlotte Smith’s
first novel, Emmeline, published in
1788 when Jane Austen was not quite 13 years old ---and the Austen novel which
is rich in significant connection to Emmeline
is Austen’s first, Sense &
Sensibility, published 23 years after Smith’s debut, in 1811. In
particular, certain characters and events in Emmeline shine a bright allusive light on certain events I
previously determined had occurred in Sense
& Sensibility.
Without further ado, here
are the passages from Emmeline which
I quoted, and, in each case, the detail on the allusive usage made thereof by
Jane Austen:
#1: “Fitz-Edward, who
was about five years older than Delamere, concealed, under the appearance of candour
and nonchalance, the libertinism of his character. He had entered very young
into the army; the younger son of an Irish peer; and had contracted his loose
morals by being thrown too early into the world; for his heart was not
originally bad. With a very handsome person, he had the most
insinuating manners, and an address so truly that of a man of fashion, as
immediately prejudiced in his favour those by whom he wished to be thought well
of. Where he desired to please, he seldom failed of pleasing extremely; and his
conversation was, in the general commerce of the world, elegant and
attractive.”
#1 EXPLANATION:
Fitz-Edward is a secondary source, along with his best bud, Delamere, for the
pleasing, insinuating manners of Willoughby in S&S.
#2: “Fitz-Edward
insisted on his being blooded and put to bed; and then went to the apothecary
of the village near which the accident happened, and procuring a phial of
laudanum, infused it into the wine and water which Delamere drank, and by that
artifice obtained for him the repose he otherwise would not have been prevailed
on to take. After having slept several hours, he desired to pursue his journey
in a post chaise…”
#2 EXPLANATION:
Fitz-Edward’s strategic spiking of Delamere’s wine with laudanum, in order to
put the latter out of commission for hours of deep sleep, points directly to
Mrs. Jennings’s spiking of Elinor Dashwood’s wine that I described a few weeks
ago here: “Wineglass full
of SOMETHING: Mrs Jennings’ Constantia wine a roofie for Elinor in S&S” http://tinyurl.com/jz9p9vo
#3: “Yet I had no
intention of terrifying you, or of abruptly rushing into the presence of
Adelina. It is true, that for some nights past I have walked under the window
where she and my child sleep: for I could not sleep; and it was a
sort of melancholy enjoyment to me to be near the spot which held all I have
dear on earth. As I pass at the ale house where I lodge as a person hiding in
this island from the pursuit of creditors, my desire of concealment did not
appear extraordinary. I have often lingered among the rocks and copses, and
seen Adelina and my child with you. Last night I came out in the dusk, and was
approaching, to conceal myself near the house, in hopes, that as you love
walking late, and alone, I might have found an opportunity of speaking to you,
and of concerting with you the means of introducing myself
to her without too great an alarm.”
#3 EXPLANATION: The above
is Delamere’s explanation as to how he obsessively stalked Adelina, exactly the
way I described Willoughby stalking Marianne a few weeks ago here: “Why Austen’s Willoughby stops at
MARLBOROUGH on his way to CLEVELAND in S&S” http://tinyurl.com/je2k3jq
#4: “…my father, who had
been in a declining state of health ever since his second marriage, appeared to
grow worse as the period of separation approached. He seemed to have waited
only for this beloved son to close his eyes; for a few days before he was again
to take leave, my father found his end very rapidly approaching. Perfectly
conscious of it, he settled all his affairs; and made a provision for me and my
brother William out of the money of the present Lady Westhaven, which the
marriage articles gave him a right to dispose of after her Ladyship's death if
he left no children by her; and recommended us both to his eldest son.’
'"You will act
nobly by our dear William," said he; "I have no doubt of it; but
above all, remember my poor Adelina. Camilla is happily married. Tell her I die
blessing her, and her children! But Adelina—my unfortunate Adelina is herself
but a child, and her husband is very young and thoughtless. Watch over her
honour and her repose, for the sake of your father and that dear woman she so
much resembles, your sainted mother."
#4 EXPLANATION: Of
course, that passage is echoed by the famous deathbed scene described at the
start of S&S, as further explained here: “The 2 deathbed utterances of Austen’s
Sense&Sensibility: Mssrs Dashwood…& Jennings?” http://tinyurl.com/gvsj3qc
#5: “She felt a pensive pleasure
in retracing the lonely rambles she used to take at the same season at Mowbray
Castle; and memory bringing before her the events of the two years and an half
which had elapsed since she left it, offered nothing that did not renew her
regret".
EXPLANATION #5: There we
have Smith’s Emmeline as a source for Marianne Dashwood’s nostalgia about her lonely
outdoor rambles.
#6: Notwithstanding the
steadiness Emmeline had hitherto shewn in rejecting the clandestine addresses
of Delamere, he still hoped they would succeed. A degree of vanity, pardonable
in a young man possessing so many advantages of person and fortune, made him
trust to those advantages, and to his unwearied assiduity, to conquer her
reluctance. He determined therefore to persevere; and did not imagine it was
likely he could again lose sight of her by a stratagem, against which he was
now on his guard. As he fancied Lord Montreville and his sister designed to
carry her with them when they went, he kept a constant eye on their motions,
and set his own servant, and Fitz-Edward's valet, to watch the servants of Lord
Montreville. Fitz-Edward, who had been so near losing the confidence of both
the father and son, found it expedient to observe a neutrality, which it
required all his address to support; being constantly appealed to by them both.
#6 EXPLANATION: There is
more of Delamere’s persistent stalking of Emmeline, which is echoed by
Willoughby’s stalking of Marianne in S&S.
#7: Mrs. Ashwood seemed
very much pleased with her guest; for there was in her countenance a passport
to all hearts. Mrs. Ashwood, tho' not in the bloom of life, and tho' she never
had been handsome, was so unconscious of her personal disadvantages, that she
imagined herself the object of admiration of one sex and of the imitation of
the other. With the most perfect reliance on the graces of a figure which never
struck any other person as being at all remarkable, she dressed with an
exuberance of expence; and kept all the company her neighbourhood afforded.
Where her ruling passions, (the love of admiration and excessive vanity) did
not interfere, she was sometimes generous and sometimes friendly. But her ideas
of her own perfections, both of person and mind, far exceeding the truth, she
had often the mortification to find that others by no means thought of them as
she did; and then her good humour was far from invincible.
Though Emmeline soon
found her conversation very inferior to what she had of late been accustomed
to, she thought herself fortunate in having found an asylum, the mistress of
which seemed desirous of making it agreeable; and to which she was introduced
by the kindness of her beloved Mrs. Stafford.
#7 EXPLANATION: Of
course Mrs. Ashwood sounds almost identical to Mrs. Dashwood – but the above description
of her shows that Austen strongly echoed her character in Mrs. Jennings.
#8: But Emmeline no
sooner appeared, than one of these gentlemen renewed his visits with more than
his original assiduity. The extreme beauty of her person, and the naivetè of
her manners, gave her, to him, the attractive charms of novelty; while the
mystery there seemed to be about her, piqued his curiosity. It was known that
she was related to a noble family; but Mrs. Ashwood had been so earnestly
entreated to conceal as much as possible her real history, lest Delamere should
hear of and discover her, that she only told it to a few friends, and it
had not yet reached the knowledge of Mr. Rochely, who had become the attendant
of Mrs. Ashwood's tea table from the first introduction of Emmeline. Mr.
Rochely was nearer fifty than forty. His person, heavy and badly proportioned,
was not relieved by his countenance, which was dull and ill-formed. His voice,
monotonous and guttural, was fatiguing to the ear; and the singularity of his
manners, as well as the oddness of his figure, often excited a degree of
ridicule, which the respect his riches demanded could not always stifle.
With a person so ill
calculated to inspire affection, he was very desirous of being a favourite with
the ladies; and extremely sensible of their attractions. In the inferior ranks
of life, his money had procured him many conquests, tho' he was by no means
lavish of it; and much of the early part of his time had been passed in low
amours; which did not, however, impede his progress to the great wealth he
possessed. He had always intended to marry: but as he required many
qualifications in a wife which are hardly ever united, he had hesitated till he
had long been looked upon as an old bachelor. He was determined to chuse
beauty, but expected also fortune. He desired to marry a woman of family, yet
feared the expensive turn of those brought up in high life; and had a great
veneration for wit and accomplishments, but dreaded, lest in marrying a woman
who possessed them, he should be liable to be governed by superior abilities, or
be despised for the mediocrity of his own understanding.
With such ideas, his
relations saw him perpetually pursuing some matrimonial project; but so easily
frightened from his pursuit, that they relied on his succession with the most
perfect confidence. When first he beheld Emmeline, he was charmed with her
person; her conversation, at once innocent and lively, impressed him with the
most favourable ideas of her heart and understanding….”
#8 EXPLANATION: No
Janeite can read the above passage without instantly thinking of Colonel
Brandon’s instant attraction to Marianne.
What does this all mean?
In a nutshell, it should come as no surprise to any Austen scholar that Emmeline was on Jane Austen’s radar
screen in a big way– she famously explicitly alluded to Delamere at three
points in her Juvenilia, two of them in her History
of England, written by her only a few years after Emmeline was published. But I can tell you that there has been
practically no prior scholarship that has identified Emmeline as a source for S&S, let alone a key source, that
makes is echoed so many times in both the overt and the shadow story of
S&S, as I have outlined, above.
Finally, and most important,
I believe that the character Adelina in Emmeline,
who undergoes a secret pregnancy and then gives her infant away to her
close relation, is very much the literary “ancestor” of all of Jane Austen’s
secondary heroines who undergo that same experience, especially Marianne
Dashwood!
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on
Twitter
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