tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post383493345699894916..comments2024-01-29T03:20:32.291-05:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: Mr. Allen's Glass of Water: Cheers!Arnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-53663964123815769842010-08-23T10:59:16.684-04:002010-08-23T10:59:16.684-04:00Whoever you are, your comments are all (as you alr...Whoever you are, your comments are all (as you already knew without my telling you) first-rate and brilliant, and do indeed demonstrate that Jane Austen could pack a dozen puns and jokes into a paragraph, which would not only make us laugh, but also make us think seriously about the various human foibles being skewered.Arnie Perlsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-7853741492515514822010-08-23T10:53:42.512-04:002010-08-23T10:53:42.512-04:00But there are so many more CLEAR HINTS here that y...But there are so many more CLEAR HINTS here that you've left unexplored. Surely the word "drops" must also refer to "drops" of laudanum, and we must remember that Jane administers her sick mother's "drops" to her (perhaps Jane is hinting at, in NA, contemplation of the POISONING of her own "fanciful and troublesome" parent with an overdose of laudanum?!). This reading becomes even more charged when we realize that "cordial" refers specifically to a drink intended to have medicinal properties. ("Will not your heart sink within you?" 'cordial' from Latin for heart = heart medicine, right?) And surely the "cabinet of ebony and gold" in the chamber described by Henry must be a liquor cabinet? And Dorothy's information that "you will not have a single domestic within call" must surely refer to call brands of liquor? Goodness me, the amazing thing is that Jane Austen managed to string along any sort of story at all, when so consumed with the superior business of injecting puns and double meanings into virtually every line! And what a nefarious character Mr. Allen is, to leave his private lodgings in Bath and go to the PUMP ROOM of all places (which I must interject is only one tiny letter away from PIMP ROOM; what can this portend?), where everyone else is drinking WATER, in order to have his "secret" alcohol fix? Brilliant!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com