In
May 2007-- in only my fourth post ever in this blog---I revealed publicly for
the first time a word game Jane Austen had played in Emma which had never previously been noticed by any Janeite for 191
years:
Here’s
the relevant part of what I wrote then:
[Mrs. Elton speaking] “That's quite unnecessary; I
see Jane every day: -- but AS YOU LIKE. IT is to be a morning
scheme, you know, Knightley; quite a simple thing...."
So what was Jane Austen doing here? It might be a natural reaction to see it as a cutesy, clever, covert allusion to the title of a Shakespeare play. But all my experience tells me that, funny and clever as it is, to put that title into Mrs. Elton's mouth, this is more. First, it is a clue to tell the reader who detects it that it would be worthwhile to give some thought as to how and why Jane Austen herself may have alluded to As You Like It in Emma. I have, and I think you will find that a rewarding exercise.
So what was Jane Austen doing here? It might be a natural reaction to see it as a cutesy, clever, covert allusion to the title of a Shakespeare play. But all my experience tells me that, funny and clever as it is, to put that title into Mrs. Elton's mouth, this is more. First, it is a clue to tell the reader who detects it that it would be worthwhile to give some thought as to how and why Jane Austen herself may have alluded to As You Like It in Emma. I have, and I think you will find that a rewarding exercise.
But
second, and more significant, I think, it is a metafictional message to the
reader from Jane Austen herself (who does indeed "see Jane every
day"....in the mirror!), in which she is alerting the reader that in
interpreting much of the mysterious action of the novel, it can be read
straight, taking the text at face value, or it can be read slightly askew,
using the clues and hints in the novel as wormholes into the secret subtext of
the novel. Read it this way or that....as
you like it!” END QUOTE
Since
then, I have subsequently mentioned this word game a number of times in this
blog, and also in various Austen online discussion groups, as well as in my
public presentations about Jane Fairfax’s concealed pregnancy in Emma.
In
particular, in the following 2010 post of mine…
…I
wrote the following:
“And
if you think about it, Mr. Elton's charades are VERY resonant with the hero [of
As You Like It] Orlando leaving lovesick poems on trees in the Forest of Arden for
Rosalind to find; PLUS Mr. Elton's lover, Miss Hawkins (to whom he surely sent
his charades as well, right?) repeatedly shows us that she just loves to affect
the false persona of the simple rustic girl, even though she is a hard-edged
girl from that bustling slaving town, Bristol. What better way for JA to spoof
Mrs. Elton's disingenuousness than by a covert reference to exactly the role she
is playing in the story!”
Now,
I am back with a further extension of this discovery, which I recently came up
with while continuing my more or less endless exploration of the myriad ways in
which Jane Austen alluded to Shakespeare in her novels. Specifically, I was
revisiting my earlier sense that Mr. Elton was a kind of Regency Era Orlando, a
lovesick poet in the form of the charade, and I wondered whether Emma’s answer
to the charade, “courtship” , might have some nontrivial significance in As You Like It.
It
turns out that I thereby hit an allusive jackpot, because the word “court”, referring
to a royal entourage, but also the word “courtship” referring to romantic
wooing, are both repeatedly spoken by a variety of characters in the play---in
serious mode by Duke Senior and Duke Frederic and their nieces/daughters, and
in absurdist foolish mode by Touchstone and Corin. If you read all the
examples, too long to quote here, you’ll find that there is no question that JA
had, in part, chosen to give Emma that answer, in order to point readers to
that theme in As You Like It.
Two
strikingly parallel passages in Emma and
As You Like It, however, particularly
caught my eye, and I will explain why after first quoting them:
ROSALIND:
“I have been told so of many: but indeed an old religious uncle of mine taught
me to speak, who was in his youth an inland man; one that knew COURTSHIP too
well, for there he fell in love. I have heard him read many lectures against
it, and I thank God I am not a woman, to be touched with so many giddy offences
as he hath generally taxed their whole sex withal.”
MRS.
ELTON: “"Very true, Mr. Weston, perfectly true. It is just what I used to
say to a certain gentleman in company in the days of COURTSHIP, when, because things
did not go quite right, did not proceed with all the rapidity which suited his
feelings, he was apt to be in despair, and exclaim that he was sure at this
rate it would be May before Hymen's saffron robe would be put on for us.”
Now,
what caught my eye in addition to the use of the word “courtship” in both of
these short speeches was all of the following:
ONE:
Both passages are spoken by a young woman in retrospection, referring to an
earlier time when she was spoken to by a man close to her about courtship.
TWO:
The “old religious uncle” of Rosalind who “read many lectures against” falling
in love reminds us immediately of Mr. Woodhouse with his violent, unswerving
aversion to the institution of marriage, and his endless refrain of “Poor Miss
Taylor” and “Poor Isabella” to “tax” the female sex for the “giddy offence” of
marrying!
THREE:
I have previously revealed in another earlier blog post….
…the
following discovery of mine with respect to Mr. Elton’s “courtship” charade
in Emma:
“In her article, Colleen [Sheehan] made the sensible
inference that the acrostic on "Lamb" was there to point to _Charles_
Lamb, the author of the satirical poem which JA was pointing to, which has as
its punch line "the Prince of Whales". And that is certainly correct.
But that was when I realized _another_ meaning of that acrostic, as it relates
to the shadow story of _Emma_, which is Mr. Elton's charade must be the same
acrostic that was given to Miss Hawkins!
I then combined that insight with my earlier guess that
Frank Churchill was the puppy who gave that acrostic to Miss Hawkins, and
deduced that Frank Churchill must therefore be _both_ the puppy, and also the
unnamed friend of Mr. Elton who gives Mr. Elton that charade/acrostic to
deliver to Emma!
So, the second charade is the acrostic, Frank is both the
unnamed puppy and Mr. Elton's unnamed friend. This is Occam's Razor in
duplicate---two mysteries explained by one answer! Everything ties together in
an incredibly neat bow, and, more important, the implications of this discovery
shed crucial light on the shadow story of Emma.
I then combined that insight with my earlier guess that
Frank Churchill was the puppy who gave that acrostic to Miss Hawkins, and
deduced that Frank Churchill must therefore be _both_ the puppy, and also the
unnamed friend of Mr. Elton who gives Mr. Elton that charade/acrostic to
deliver to Emma!
So, the second charade is the acrostic, Frank is both the
unnamed puppy and Mr. Elton's unnamed friend. This is Occam's Razor in
duplicate---two mysteries explained by one answer! Everything ties together in
an incredibly neat bow, and, more important, the implications of this discovery
shed crucial light on the shadow story of Emma.”
So,
Mrs. Elton’s “courtship” speech is connected to the charade/acrostic which
Frank gave to Mrs. Elton, during his “courtship” of her which ended
unsatisfactorily, from her point of view, to put it mildly!
And
now, I have set the stage for the latest discovery I’ve made, which only adds
to the overwhelming evidence I’ve previously laid out, for Jane Austen having
extensively alluded to As You Like It
in Emma, in particular going so far
as to hide the title of Shakespeare’s play in plain sight in the text of Emma.
If
you read Mrs. Elton’s little speech about “the days of COURTSHIP”, quoted
above, do you see anything else in it
that might further point to As You Like
It? (pause here if you want to try
to figure it out yourself before reading further):
……
……
……
……
Here’s
the phrase that might have struck you as a bit out of place in an Austen novel,
but very much in place in a Shakespeare play:
“…he
was sure at this rate it would be May before HYMEN’S saffron robe would be put on
for us.”
I
remembered from prior readings of As You
Like It that there was a hasty marrying off of all four couples in short
order at the end, and I dimly recalled that there was some mythological aura in
that scene, but imagine my delight when I searched for “Hymen” in Shakespeare’s
plays, and, out of only nine plays that had any mention of Hymen, the one with
the most elaborate reference to Hymen was….(you guessed it!)…As You Like It, in that very same final
scene!!!!. Here is the part involving Hymen:
Enter
HYMEN, ROSALIND, and CELIA
Still
Music
HYMEN
Then is there mirth in heaven,
When
earthly things made even
Atone
together.
Good
duke, receive thy daughter
Hymen
from heaven brought her,
Yea,
brought her hither,
That
thou mightst join her hand with his
Whose
heart within his bosom is.
ROSALIND
[To DUKE SENIOR] To you I give myself, for I am yours.
[To
ORLANDO] To you I give myself, for I am yours.
DUKE
SENIOR If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter.
ORLANDO
If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind.
PHEBE
If sight and shape be true,
Why
then, my love adieu!
ROSALIND
I'll have no father, if you be not he:
I'll
have no husband, if you be not he:
Nor
ne'er wed woman, if you be not she.
HYMEN
Peace, ho! I bar confusion:
'Tis
I must make conclusion
Of
these most strange events:
Here's
eight that must take hands
To
join in Hymen's bands,
If
truth holds true contents.
You
and you no cross shall part:
You
and you are heart in heart
You
to his love must accord,
Or
have a woman to your lord:
You
and you are sure together,
As
the winter to foul weather.
Whiles
a wedlock-hymn we sing,
Feed
yourselves with questioning;
That
reason wonder may diminish,
How
thus we met, and these things finish.
SONG.
Wedding
is great Juno's crown:
O
blessed bond of board and bed!
'Tis
Hymen peoples every town;
High
wedlock then be honoured:
Honour,
high honour and renown,
To
Hymen, god of every town!
So, I
don’t think I need to go further in arguing that it is no accident that Mrs.
Elton of all characters in Emma is
the one to make a veiled reference to the mega-wedding ceremony at the end of As You Like It, just as she is the one
who makes an explicit, indeed a memorable reference to the mega-wedding
ceremony at the end of Emma:
“The
wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have no taste for
finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars detailed by her husband,
thought it all extremely shabby, and very inferior to her own.—"Very
little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business!—Selina would
stare when she heard of it."
In
other words, “Saffron’s robes” were too shabby for Mrs. Elton’s taste, whereas
Hymen herself was not so critical of the ceremony in the enchanted Forest of
Arden.
So….is
there anyone who has read this post all the way through who wishes to make the
argument that Jane Austen did not pervasively and significantly allude to As You Like It, including most of all
the hidden title of the play spoken by….who else?....Mrs. Elton!
To
any such person, I can only say that I am in complete disagreement with you,
but, if that’s the way you want to read Jane Austen, then….as you like it! ;)
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
P.S added Feb. 14, 2013 at 9:38 am EST:
Check out my followup post that unpacks an additional wonderful aspect of the above:
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2013/02/lionel-trillings-massive-trojan-horse.html
P.S added Feb. 14, 2013 at 9:38 am EST:
Check out my followup post that unpacks an additional wonderful aspect of the above:
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2013/02/lionel-trillings-massive-trojan-horse.html
1 comment:
Arnie,
I am not at all surprised to think of Austen using As You Like It as a source for Emma. Hymen is a good link.
Diane
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