This is likely my last post about Jane Austen's allusions to Benjamin William Portal for a while, but I am ending this little excursus with a bang I hope you'll enjoy.
I spent several hours today following up every loose end and every lead that presented itself to my imagination, and it was a productive day. In addition to the allusion to Portal in P&P and in Letter 1 which I wrote about earlier today, about an hour ago I found a remarkable validation of one of the other linchpins of my claim that Jane Austen satirized the Revd. Benjamin William Portal throughout her entire writing life--in her letters, in her uncredited contributions to The Loiterer, and in at least 3 of her novels.
What I found today had to do with Loiterer #45.....
http://www.theloiterer.org/loiterer/no45.html
....which, as I have previously described (but, if you care about what I am saying, I think you will want to read it for yourself, it's really not that long), was, on the surface a wild, fantastical, allegorical fantasy about a patented air moving machine; but just _under_ the surface, according to my interpretation, was an extended bravura covert satire on the "hot air" produced by "orators" from places like "Westminster Hall" and the House of Commons.
In essence, I identified Loiterer #45 as one long "fart joke" (as far as I can tell, no previous scholar has ever written anything about Loiterer #45, let alone interpreted it as being scatalogical), which suggests, in a variety of ways, that the speeches that came out of the mouths of clergymen and politicians were especially similar to the foul air that emanated from other human "portals" (yes pun intended).
I also previously claimed that JA had, via the joke on "the letter F" in S&S, meant to direct her knowing readers to the essays attributed to Revd. Portal by James Austen, which were signed by the initial "F." And in that regard, I pointed out that the letter F is explicitly personified in Loiterer #45, as if it were a coded "handle" (today we'd call it a "user ID") for a real person, and "F" is singled out in Loiterer #45 for particular emphasis as to the foulness and "torrent" of hot air propelled into the atmosphere by him alone.
So that sets the stage:
Earlier, I claimed, based on the above-summarized textual clues, that Loiterer #45 was a scatalogical satire of Benjamin William Portal.
Now, here is the new and remarkable validation of that interpretation which I found today----- I actually located the very very famous literary source which inspired the author of Loiterer #45 (who, again, I believe was the almost 14-year old Jane Austen, in full Juvenilia "running wild" form), a source which, in hindsight (another pun intended), was not only the primary inspiration for the scatalogy of Loiterer #45, but was also, as a bonus, a source for another memorable bit of sexual innuendo in one of Jane Austen's novels!
And that source is none other than the introductory Section 1 in Jonathan Swift's famous _A Tale of A Tub_!:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/tltb10h.htm#footnote62a
To read the relevant portion, just scroll down to "SECTION I. - THE INTRODUCTION." and start reading from there, until the end of Section 1 (which is about the same length, by my rough reckoning, as Loiterer #45--surely also not a coincidence!), and see if you don't see the incredibly obvious parallels between the two.
While the scatology of Swift's Section 1 is not explicit, it is so strongly implied that I quickly found several scholarly arguments online which made it very clear that Swift was being extremely scatalogical in Section 1. Which confirms to me that my own interpretation of Loiterer #45 was on the money.
And, as a final bonus, if you do read Swift's Section 1, your eye will probably be caught by the following paragraph, which is, I claim, a direct inspiration for the bawdy alternative meaning of "seminary" which Anielka Briggs pointed out the other day in Austen L, in the narrative description, in Emma, of Mrs. Goddard's school:
"The last engine of orators is the Stage-itinerant, erected with much sagacity...It is the great seminary of the two former, and its orators are sometimes preferred to the one and sometimes to the other, in proportion to their deservings, there being a strict and perpetual intercourse between all three."
That single short paragraph is packed with more sexual euphemisms (engines, erected, seminary, intercourse) than many full pages in the ultimate treasure house of sexual euphemism, Fanny Hill! And that is perfect harmony with my own interpretation of all the sexual innuendoes in Emma.
Cheers, ARNIE
Monday, June 6, 2011
The Revd. Benjamin William Portal and.....Mr. Darcy
I continue to examine the fascinating question of the meaning of the allusions to the Revd. Benjamin Portal in JA's fiction and letters. Besides the allusion to Portal in the character of Edmund Bertram which Anielka pointed out last week, and the allusion to Portal in the character of Edward Ferrars which I have pointed out, and then expanded upon, during the past several days, I now see a _third_ Austenian hero as a representation of Portal in Loiterer #30, one of the two solely authored by Portal himself:
Loiterer #30 is a shortish, generally mild philippic on the subject of good and bad conversation, with the latter being broken down by Portal, as to the types of offenders, into two groups, male and female. In reading the following two passages which particularly caught my eye, keep in mind that Portal was 21 when he offered the world the following two pearls of wisdom:
"Perhaps the pleasure of conversation is often exclusive of any actual wit or sense contained in it; for who but has listened with pleasure to the bewitching nothings of a pretty woman, and thought her periods sufficiently rounded by a sweet and voluble utterance, and sufficiently pointed by a piercing eye?"
"But above all in folly is she, whom the weak of both sexes term a /sensible woman /. To complement her is an impeachment of her understanding; to argue with her, an insult to her charms. If a man contradicts him, she openly affronts him; if he assent, she secretly despises him. She is fastidious to shew her judgement, and sarcastic to exercise her wit. If the company is gay, she is all gravity and reserve; if serious, all vivacity and levity; She is invariably careful never to join in the prevailing topic, at which she is ever disposed to sneer, as too superficial, or too profound. — If a character of this description be of an age verging on thirty, and yet of the sisterhood of virgins (which not infrequently happens) she becomes particularly troublesome to the men, whose company she avowedly affects, declaiming on the inanity of her own sex; a preference, for which the one feels little gratitude, and the other little concern. — Such a character is generally a very extensive and excursive reader. Her favourite volume is a thin folio, which takes up much room and contains little matter. One subject is not more /difficult/ to her than another, except as it employs a greater number of pages, and if a sentence be but fairly printed, she seldom finds any /obscurity /. — There is a very literary lady, esteemed a great ornament to our family, who often lays down Reid and Horsley, and runs over the Loiterer without the least remission of the wisdom which on these occasions she summons into her countenance. Under the pressure of most of the mortifications of life, I preserve a tolerable balance of temper; but I confess this circumstance sometimes sways me from my wonted equability."
Portal was all of 21 when he wrote this, so perhaps it might seem unfair to infer that Portal continued to hew to these ridiculously sexist, simple-minded, and condescending attitudes toward women even when he was 32, and JA referred to his good looks in Letter 27 (as I suggested in my earlier post, to tease Cassandra by suggesting Portal as a good match for Cassandra). But that's where the allusions in JA's novels, only one of which (S&S) was published before Portal's early death in 1812, kick in. JA's making fun of Portal in Loiterer #45 is one thing--JA's _still_ making fun of Portal more than two decades later, in novels published right before, and right after, his death, are quite another, they point to the importance of this man in JA's artistic imagination, and in my view it is, on balance, a negative judgment on him as a person.
Anyway, my Subject Line reveals why these passages particularly caught my eye, and I would guess that most Janeites reading this post recognize the same strong echoes of these two passages to the character of Mr. Darcy, to wit:
Darcy is described as being "bewitched" by Lizzy, both her repartee and her fine eyes, and of course Caroline Bingley jokes about Mrs. Bennet as a wit. But note the reversal by JA in P&P. Portal refers to the "bewitching nothings of a pretty woman", suggesting that even an imbecilic woman can be listened to with pleasure by an intelligent sophisticated man, if she is pretty and saucy. Whereas Darcy, jerk that he is at the Meryton assembly, and then again at the ball and in the salon at Netherfield, nonetheless recognizes, and admires, that Lizzy is very intelligent. This is what turns him on, not just her fine eyes, but her sharp and witty tongue. The consciousness raising that Darcy experiences during the second half of the novel has nothing to do with learning to admire a woman's intellect, which he has always found stimulating.
And that brings us to the second, even more telling, excerpt from Portal's Loiterer #30. In Portal's sneering indictment of the "sensible woman", he portrays the dreadful horrors (from his point of view) of a woman who dares to contradict a man's opinion, who frustrates a man's narcissistic need to be yessed to death; a spinster who dares to presume to entitlement to participate in male (i.e., intellectual) conversation. In this context, it is part of the sensible woman's crime that she "is generally a very extensive and excursive reader". Of course, to a man like Portal, this is a form of pollution that is simply not to be borne.
And note, again, the contrast to even the Darcy of the first half of P&P. Darcy is not threatened by a woman who is very well read. Quite the contrary, he famously and emphatically makes that the final and most important attribute of the truly accomplished woman.
These (reversed) correspondences between Loiterer #30 and Mr. Darcy in P&P only add to my claim that JA saw the Revd. Portal as an object worthy of extended and varied criticism.
[I posted the above in Janeites and Austen L, and then, shortly thereafter, posted this followup]
As I just reread my post of a half hour ago under this same Subject Line, I realized one final connecting of dots which I had noted but failed, in my haste, to articulate, i.e., that JA did not wait till publishing the final version of P&P in 1813 to make a veiled allusion to Benjamin Portal's sexist joke about a vapid woman's "bewitching" "piercing eyes". Here's the rest of this little story (which does not require reference to my prior posts to get the gist of).
In a post over this just past weekend, I had taken note of JA's referring to Benjamin Portal in Letter 1 ("His eyes are handsome as ever") and suggested that this was part of JA's teasing CEA about CEA's (not JA) being attracted to Benjamin Portal. I still hold to that interpretation.
However, in light of what I just wrote about Darcy as a reverse image of Portal in my previous post, I now see this reference to Portal's handsome eyes in Letter 1 from 1796 as a _private_ joke shared only with CEA. It was a wink pointing toward Portal's Loiterer #30 essay about "conversation", with its sneer at women's bewitching eyes, an essay which JA and CEA had probably laughed about many times since 1789, whenever Benjamin Portal came up in conversation, or was met by one or both of them in person. So any reference to Portal and attractive eyes would immediately be recognized by CEA as a coded reference back to that familiar old private joke between the sisters.
And, given that I have identified so many instances in JA's letters that we've read together so far, in which JA was veiledly pointing toward First Impressions, which JA appears to me to have been revising from an epistolary novel into the kind of narrative P&P became, on an ongoing basis during 1798-1800, I now also suspect that JA must have chosen to insert that _private_ joke into First Impressions at that very moment, in the form of Darcy's admiration for Lizzy's fine eyes, and how this admiration unnerves the jealous Caroline Bingley.
And clearly, this joke, whether my guess is correct as to when it was inserted into what became P&P, _did_ make the final cut in 1812----just after Portal's death---and became one of JA's most memorable _public_ jokes.
And, stepping back one logical level, I finish by pointing out that this little exegesis is exactly analogous to what I've been claiming recently about JA, in Loiterer #45 with its mockery of the personified "letter F", first sending up Portal, who signed both Loiterer #26 and #30 as "F", and then, over a decade later, recycling that private joke by putting in the very memorable joke about "the letter F" in S&S.
This sort of blending of private and public joke, adapting a private joke with CEA into a memorable public joke in one of her novels, is the quintessence of The Jane Austen Code which JA invented, and I was lucky enough to discover.
Cheers, ARNIE
Loiterer #30 is a shortish, generally mild philippic on the subject of good and bad conversation, with the latter being broken down by Portal, as to the types of offenders, into two groups, male and female. In reading the following two passages which particularly caught my eye, keep in mind that Portal was 21 when he offered the world the following two pearls of wisdom:
"Perhaps the pleasure of conversation is often exclusive of any actual wit or sense contained in it; for who but has listened with pleasure to the bewitching nothings of a pretty woman, and thought her periods sufficiently rounded by a sweet and voluble utterance, and sufficiently pointed by a piercing eye?"
"But above all in folly is she, whom the weak of both sexes term a /sensible woman /. To complement her is an impeachment of her understanding; to argue with her, an insult to her charms. If a man contradicts him, she openly affronts him; if he assent, she secretly despises him. She is fastidious to shew her judgement, and sarcastic to exercise her wit. If the company is gay, she is all gravity and reserve; if serious, all vivacity and levity; She is invariably careful never to join in the prevailing topic, at which she is ever disposed to sneer, as too superficial, or too profound. — If a character of this description be of an age verging on thirty, and yet of the sisterhood of virgins (which not infrequently happens) she becomes particularly troublesome to the men, whose company she avowedly affects, declaiming on the inanity of her own sex; a preference, for which the one feels little gratitude, and the other little concern. — Such a character is generally a very extensive and excursive reader. Her favourite volume is a thin folio, which takes up much room and contains little matter. One subject is not more /difficult/ to her than another, except as it employs a greater number of pages, and if a sentence be but fairly printed, she seldom finds any /obscurity /. — There is a very literary lady, esteemed a great ornament to our family, who often lays down Reid and Horsley, and runs over the Loiterer without the least remission of the wisdom which on these occasions she summons into her countenance. Under the pressure of most of the mortifications of life, I preserve a tolerable balance of temper; but I confess this circumstance sometimes sways me from my wonted equability."
Portal was all of 21 when he wrote this, so perhaps it might seem unfair to infer that Portal continued to hew to these ridiculously sexist, simple-minded, and condescending attitudes toward women even when he was 32, and JA referred to his good looks in Letter 27 (as I suggested in my earlier post, to tease Cassandra by suggesting Portal as a good match for Cassandra). But that's where the allusions in JA's novels, only one of which (S&S) was published before Portal's early death in 1812, kick in. JA's making fun of Portal in Loiterer #45 is one thing--JA's _still_ making fun of Portal more than two decades later, in novels published right before, and right after, his death, are quite another, they point to the importance of this man in JA's artistic imagination, and in my view it is, on balance, a negative judgment on him as a person.
Anyway, my Subject Line reveals why these passages particularly caught my eye, and I would guess that most Janeites reading this post recognize the same strong echoes of these two passages to the character of Mr. Darcy, to wit:
Darcy is described as being "bewitched" by Lizzy, both her repartee and her fine eyes, and of course Caroline Bingley jokes about Mrs. Bennet as a wit. But note the reversal by JA in P&P. Portal refers to the "bewitching nothings of a pretty woman", suggesting that even an imbecilic woman can be listened to with pleasure by an intelligent sophisticated man, if she is pretty and saucy. Whereas Darcy, jerk that he is at the Meryton assembly, and then again at the ball and in the salon at Netherfield, nonetheless recognizes, and admires, that Lizzy is very intelligent. This is what turns him on, not just her fine eyes, but her sharp and witty tongue. The consciousness raising that Darcy experiences during the second half of the novel has nothing to do with learning to admire a woman's intellect, which he has always found stimulating.
And that brings us to the second, even more telling, excerpt from Portal's Loiterer #30. In Portal's sneering indictment of the "sensible woman", he portrays the dreadful horrors (from his point of view) of a woman who dares to contradict a man's opinion, who frustrates a man's narcissistic need to be yessed to death; a spinster who dares to presume to entitlement to participate in male (i.e., intellectual) conversation. In this context, it is part of the sensible woman's crime that she "is generally a very extensive and excursive reader". Of course, to a man like Portal, this is a form of pollution that is simply not to be borne.
And note, again, the contrast to even the Darcy of the first half of P&P. Darcy is not threatened by a woman who is very well read. Quite the contrary, he famously and emphatically makes that the final and most important attribute of the truly accomplished woman.
These (reversed) correspondences between Loiterer #30 and Mr. Darcy in P&P only add to my claim that JA saw the Revd. Portal as an object worthy of extended and varied criticism.
[I posted the above in Janeites and Austen L, and then, shortly thereafter, posted this followup]
As I just reread my post of a half hour ago under this same Subject Line, I realized one final connecting of dots which I had noted but failed, in my haste, to articulate, i.e., that JA did not wait till publishing the final version of P&P in 1813 to make a veiled allusion to Benjamin Portal's sexist joke about a vapid woman's "bewitching" "piercing eyes". Here's the rest of this little story (which does not require reference to my prior posts to get the gist of).
In a post over this just past weekend, I had taken note of JA's referring to Benjamin Portal in Letter 1 ("His eyes are handsome as ever") and suggested that this was part of JA's teasing CEA about CEA's (not JA) being attracted to Benjamin Portal. I still hold to that interpretation.
However, in light of what I just wrote about Darcy as a reverse image of Portal in my previous post, I now see this reference to Portal's handsome eyes in Letter 1 from 1796 as a _private_ joke shared only with CEA. It was a wink pointing toward Portal's Loiterer #30 essay about "conversation", with its sneer at women's bewitching eyes, an essay which JA and CEA had probably laughed about many times since 1789, whenever Benjamin Portal came up in conversation, or was met by one or both of them in person. So any reference to Portal and attractive eyes would immediately be recognized by CEA as a coded reference back to that familiar old private joke between the sisters.
And, given that I have identified so many instances in JA's letters that we've read together so far, in which JA was veiledly pointing toward First Impressions, which JA appears to me to have been revising from an epistolary novel into the kind of narrative P&P became, on an ongoing basis during 1798-1800, I now also suspect that JA must have chosen to insert that _private_ joke into First Impressions at that very moment, in the form of Darcy's admiration for Lizzy's fine eyes, and how this admiration unnerves the jealous Caroline Bingley.
And clearly, this joke, whether my guess is correct as to when it was inserted into what became P&P, _did_ make the final cut in 1812----just after Portal's death---and became one of JA's most memorable _public_ jokes.
And, stepping back one logical level, I finish by pointing out that this little exegesis is exactly analogous to what I've been claiming recently about JA, in Loiterer #45 with its mockery of the personified "letter F", first sending up Portal, who signed both Loiterer #26 and #30 as "F", and then, over a decade later, recycling that private joke by putting in the very memorable joke about "the letter F" in S&S.
This sort of blending of private and public joke, adapting a private joke with CEA into a memorable public joke in one of her novels, is the quintessence of The Jane Austen Code which JA invented, and I was lucky enough to discover.
Cheers, ARNIE
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Actual Meaning of the cryptic reference to Benjamin Portal in Jane Austen's Letter 21...and in her Letter 1, too!
This post comes in two parts, the first written by me in a rush, the second my followup after a positive response in Janeites, all as shown below:
PART ONE:
When we discussed Jane Austen's Letter 21 over a month ago, the following excerpt....
"Benjamin Portal is here. How charming that is! I do not exactly know why, but the phrase followed so naturally that I could not help putting it down. My mother saw him the other day, but without making herself known to him."
....was discussed briefly by Diane Reynolds in Janeites & Austen L:
"...This also seems to be her way of expressing approval of Portal. Or is it a pun on a "portal" being there--that she likes that idea?..."
I now respond to Diane that, in light of what I've recently figured out in terms of Edward Ferrars as a satirical representation of Benjamin Portal, I think I have an answer to her question which she (and I also hope all of you reading along now) might find persuasive.
The key, as is often the case in interpreting cryptic passages in JA's letters, is to look at the context, i.e., what came right before or right after, the cryptic passage.
Well, look at what came right before, which, to the best of my knowledge, no one has previously connected to the Portal reference, followed by the Portal reference:
"...As for " Fitzalbini," when I get home [Martha] shall have it, as soon as ever she will own that Mr. Elliott is handsomer than Mr. Lance, that fair men are preferable to black; for I mean to take every opportunity of rooting out her prejudices.
"Benjamin Portal is here. How charming that is! I do not exactly know why, but the phrase followed so naturally that I could not help putting it down. My mother saw him the other day, but without making herself known to him."
"The phrase followed so naturally..." but, we must ask, followed what?
Well, when you think about it, it's obvious. What it followed was a passage in which JA had _just_ teasingly written about playing matchmaker for Martha Lloyd, trying to convince Martha that the "fair" Mr. Elliott...--- [per Le Faye, the Revd. William Elliott, two years older than JA, curate of Tangley, Hants since 1796, and friend of Revd. William Lance of [I am NOT making this up!] NETHERTON] ---- ...was handsomer than the "black" Mr. Lance [a married man whom, along with his wife, JA will in 1807 describe as money snobs in Letter 49 [P. 115 of Le Faye].
So, the clear implication--and JA is pretty much saying, "Hint, hint" to make sure CEA gets what JA means without JA having to be explicit about it---is that, just as JA has attempted to get Martha to see how attractive the very eligible Mr. Elliott is, so too JA is now trying to get _Cassandra_ to realize how attractive Revd. Benjamin Portal is!
Why would JA do this? Because, I claim, while Benjamin Portal might not exactly be JA's cup of tea when it came to men, JA was, like Charlotte Lucas, pragmatic and savvy enough to recognize that Portal might be a very good fit indeed with her own sister, who was so different from her. Charlotte tells Lizzy not to be a fool and dismiss the attentions of the ultra-eligible Mr. Darcy, and in a way, JA is, in this letter, suggesting something similar to CEA.
Which, to me, shows that JA was not narcissistic, because she would have, for the sake of her sister, have tolerated having a brother in law whom she herself did not find particularly impressive. Which is exactly how I believe Marianne Dashwood felt about her sister marrying Edward Ferrars.
And, now that I think about it, another puzzle piece falls neatly into place---that's _also_ why JA wrote the following about Benjamin Portal way back in Letter 1, in 1796:
"We had a visit yesterday morning from Mr. Benjamin Portal, whose eyes are as handsome as ever. Everybody is extremely anxious for your return, but as you cannot come home by the Ashe ball, I am glad that I have not fed them with false hopes."
Nobody has ever realized before that "everybody" means.....Mr. Benjamin Portal!!! JA is once more saying, writing between the lines once again, that Portal is the one who is interested in CEA (who happens, by the way, to be exactly the same age as Portal). And _that's_ why JA, in both Letter 1 (at a time when anyone reading the letter can see that JA is focused on only one man--Tom Lefroy) _and_ in Letter 21, 4 years later, praises Benjamin Portal's good looks. Not because JA is attracted to him herself, but because she wants CEA to be attracted to him!!
JA is being part Charlotte Lucas, part Emma, but, apparently, CEA never rose to her sister's challenge, or else Benjamin Portal just wasn't interested in CEA.
All of which puts the kibosh, I suggest, on any notion that JA herself was interested in Benjamin Portal.
PART TWO:
Diane Reynolds then responded in Janeites to Part One, above, as follows:
"Yes, Arnie, you make a persuasive case that JA was "matchmaking" or at least encouraging, Cassandra and Mr. Portal."
Thanks, Diane! As soon as I sent that message, I realized I had been in
such a rush that I did not do my normal followup on such a catch, which I
have now done, and I have found a great deal more to support my claim:
First, there is one other scholar who did realize JA was hinting at
something about Revd. Portal, and that was the ever alert David Nokes, who
wrote the following in his Austen bio after quoting that very line:
"That was a pretty broad hint to Cassandra, with whom she had often shared
coy remarks on the Reverend Portal's handsome eyes."
However, Nokes did not realize that these were more than playful jokes
about Portal, they had a very specific purpose, and the focus was not on
JA at all, but on CEA!
Which leads to my second additional point, which is that there is much
additional raillery later in Letter 21, which, I now see, also pertains to
CEA and Revd. Portal!
To wit: last month, I went through a bit of Biblical exegesis to explain
the meaning of another cryptic passage a little later in Letter 21:
" 'On more accounts than one you wished our stay here to be lengthened
beyond last Thursday.' There is some mystery in this. What have you
going on in Hampshire besides the itch_ from which you want to keep us?"
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/04/letter-21-jane-austen-itch-witch.html
In addition to that Biblical subtext pertaining to Mary Lloyd Austen,
which I still hold to, I also now see that passage, pertaining to the mock
mystery of why CEA chooses to stay in Hampshire, as a playful extension of
JA's earlier teasing about Revd. Portal.
I.e., why is CEA hiding in Hampshire when she might somehow have joined JA
& Co. in Bath where Revd. Portal and his handsome eyes also was,
presumably sighing out Sundays (and other days as well) in longing for
CEA!
And there's more in Letter 21 that is also explained by my interpretation.
Read the following excerpts from Letter 21 with my claim in mind, and tell
me if you don't see them as a continuation of JA's relentless teasing and
hinting about Revd. Portal:
"I do not know what is the matter with me to-day, but I cannot write
quietly; I am always wandering away into some exclamation or other.
Fortunately I have nothing very particular to say."
Translation: CEA, don't be dull and dense, _think_ about why I keep
hinting at something, why I keep making these strange exclamations and
then immediately questioning my own meaning----and figure out what is the
_something_ very particular I am trying to say to you (in Lydia Bennet
fashion) in "lines under the words"? There's a reason why the narrator
tells us that Lydia wrote this way to Kitty....
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2010/05/lines-under-words-as-writing-between.html
..and partly that is because it a reflection that JA was Lydia, and CEA
Kitty, in real life. Lydia wrote from a gay excursion to Brighton to poor
Kitty stuck at home, and here we have JA writing to CEA from a gay
excursion to Bath, to poor CEA stuck in dull little Overton.
And here is one more in Letter 21:
"We walked to Weston one evening last week, and liked it very much. Liked
what very much? Weston? No, walking to Weston. I have not expressed myself
properly, but I hope you will understand me."
Again, JA adopts a mock Socratic style, pushing CEA to realize that JA is
saying something important to CEA in code, and JA worries that she has
"not expressed [her coded message] properly, but [JA hopes CEA] will
understand [JA."
So these lines are not about JA as author, but JA as matchmaking sister!
Cheers, ARNIE
PART ONE:
When we discussed Jane Austen's Letter 21 over a month ago, the following excerpt....
"Benjamin Portal is here. How charming that is! I do not exactly know why, but the phrase followed so naturally that I could not help putting it down. My mother saw him the other day, but without making herself known to him."
....was discussed briefly by Diane Reynolds in Janeites & Austen L:
"...This also seems to be her way of expressing approval of Portal. Or is it a pun on a "portal" being there--that she likes that idea?..."
I now respond to Diane that, in light of what I've recently figured out in terms of Edward Ferrars as a satirical representation of Benjamin Portal, I think I have an answer to her question which she (and I also hope all of you reading along now) might find persuasive.
The key, as is often the case in interpreting cryptic passages in JA's letters, is to look at the context, i.e., what came right before or right after, the cryptic passage.
Well, look at what came right before, which, to the best of my knowledge, no one has previously connected to the Portal reference, followed by the Portal reference:
"...As for " Fitzalbini," when I get home [Martha] shall have it, as soon as ever she will own that Mr. Elliott is handsomer than Mr. Lance, that fair men are preferable to black; for I mean to take every opportunity of rooting out her prejudices.
"Benjamin Portal is here. How charming that is! I do not exactly know why, but the phrase followed so naturally that I could not help putting it down. My mother saw him the other day, but without making herself known to him."
"The phrase followed so naturally..." but, we must ask, followed what?
Well, when you think about it, it's obvious. What it followed was a passage in which JA had _just_ teasingly written about playing matchmaker for Martha Lloyd, trying to convince Martha that the "fair" Mr. Elliott...--- [per Le Faye, the Revd. William Elliott, two years older than JA, curate of Tangley, Hants since 1796, and friend of Revd. William Lance of [I am NOT making this up!] NETHERTON] ---- ...was handsomer than the "black" Mr. Lance [a married man whom, along with his wife, JA will in 1807 describe as money snobs in Letter 49 [P. 115 of Le Faye].
So, the clear implication--and JA is pretty much saying, "Hint, hint" to make sure CEA gets what JA means without JA having to be explicit about it---is that, just as JA has attempted to get Martha to see how attractive the very eligible Mr. Elliott is, so too JA is now trying to get _Cassandra_ to realize how attractive Revd. Benjamin Portal is!
Why would JA do this? Because, I claim, while Benjamin Portal might not exactly be JA's cup of tea when it came to men, JA was, like Charlotte Lucas, pragmatic and savvy enough to recognize that Portal might be a very good fit indeed with her own sister, who was so different from her. Charlotte tells Lizzy not to be a fool and dismiss the attentions of the ultra-eligible Mr. Darcy, and in a way, JA is, in this letter, suggesting something similar to CEA.
Which, to me, shows that JA was not narcissistic, because she would have, for the sake of her sister, have tolerated having a brother in law whom she herself did not find particularly impressive. Which is exactly how I believe Marianne Dashwood felt about her sister marrying Edward Ferrars.
And, now that I think about it, another puzzle piece falls neatly into place---that's _also_ why JA wrote the following about Benjamin Portal way back in Letter 1, in 1796:
"We had a visit yesterday morning from Mr. Benjamin Portal, whose eyes are as handsome as ever. Everybody is extremely anxious for your return, but as you cannot come home by the Ashe ball, I am glad that I have not fed them with false hopes."
Nobody has ever realized before that "everybody" means.....Mr. Benjamin Portal!!! JA is once more saying, writing between the lines once again, that Portal is the one who is interested in CEA (who happens, by the way, to be exactly the same age as Portal). And _that's_ why JA, in both Letter 1 (at a time when anyone reading the letter can see that JA is focused on only one man--Tom Lefroy) _and_ in Letter 21, 4 years later, praises Benjamin Portal's good looks. Not because JA is attracted to him herself, but because she wants CEA to be attracted to him!!
JA is being part Charlotte Lucas, part Emma, but, apparently, CEA never rose to her sister's challenge, or else Benjamin Portal just wasn't interested in CEA.
All of which puts the kibosh, I suggest, on any notion that JA herself was interested in Benjamin Portal.
PART TWO:
Diane Reynolds then responded in Janeites to Part One, above, as follows:
"Yes, Arnie, you make a persuasive case that JA was "matchmaking" or at least encouraging, Cassandra and Mr. Portal."
Thanks, Diane! As soon as I sent that message, I realized I had been in
such a rush that I did not do my normal followup on such a catch, which I
have now done, and I have found a great deal more to support my claim:
First, there is one other scholar who did realize JA was hinting at
something about Revd. Portal, and that was the ever alert David Nokes, who
wrote the following in his Austen bio after quoting that very line:
"That was a pretty broad hint to Cassandra, with whom she had often shared
coy remarks on the Reverend Portal's handsome eyes."
However, Nokes did not realize that these were more than playful jokes
about Portal, they had a very specific purpose, and the focus was not on
JA at all, but on CEA!
Which leads to my second additional point, which is that there is much
additional raillery later in Letter 21, which, I now see, also pertains to
CEA and Revd. Portal!
To wit: last month, I went through a bit of Biblical exegesis to explain
the meaning of another cryptic passage a little later in Letter 21:
" 'On more accounts than one you wished our stay here to be lengthened
beyond last Thursday.' There is some mystery in this. What have you
going on in Hampshire besides the itch_ from which you want to keep us?"
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/04/letter-21-jane-austen-itch-witch.html
In addition to that Biblical subtext pertaining to Mary Lloyd Austen,
which I still hold to, I also now see that passage, pertaining to the mock
mystery of why CEA chooses to stay in Hampshire, as a playful extension of
JA's earlier teasing about Revd. Portal.
I.e., why is CEA hiding in Hampshire when she might somehow have joined JA
& Co. in Bath where Revd. Portal and his handsome eyes also was,
presumably sighing out Sundays (and other days as well) in longing for
CEA!
And there's more in Letter 21 that is also explained by my interpretation.
Read the following excerpts from Letter 21 with my claim in mind, and tell
me if you don't see them as a continuation of JA's relentless teasing and
hinting about Revd. Portal:
"I do not know what is the matter with me to-day, but I cannot write
quietly; I am always wandering away into some exclamation or other.
Fortunately I have nothing very particular to say."
Translation: CEA, don't be dull and dense, _think_ about why I keep
hinting at something, why I keep making these strange exclamations and
then immediately questioning my own meaning----and figure out what is the
_something_ very particular I am trying to say to you (in Lydia Bennet
fashion) in "lines under the words"? There's a reason why the narrator
tells us that Lydia wrote this way to Kitty....
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2010/05/lines-under-words-as-writing-between.html
..and partly that is because it a reflection that JA was Lydia, and CEA
Kitty, in real life. Lydia wrote from a gay excursion to Brighton to poor
Kitty stuck at home, and here we have JA writing to CEA from a gay
excursion to Bath, to poor CEA stuck in dull little Overton.
And here is one more in Letter 21:
"We walked to Weston one evening last week, and liked it very much. Liked
what very much? Weston? No, walking to Weston. I have not expressed myself
properly, but I hope you will understand me."
Again, JA adopts a mock Socratic style, pushing CEA to realize that JA is
saying something important to CEA in code, and JA worries that she has
"not expressed [her coded message] properly, but [JA hopes CEA] will
understand [JA."
So these lines are not about JA as author, but JA as matchmaking sister!
Cheers, ARNIE
Friday, June 3, 2011
FEDERmidable!
Yes, I know this is a blog about literature, but today, after watching Roger Federer beat Novak Djokovic in a classic duel of champions in which the greatest of all time narrowly defeated the greatest of 2011 (as characterized by Rafael Nadal, who is somewhere in between those two categories himself), I have to say that it was almost as thrilling to see Federer rise like Lazarus and take down one of the younger lions who block his path to a return to #1--now Sunday Federer will try for his sweetest, and his greatest, Slam!
And by the way, I am certain that William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and James Joyce would ALL have been Federer fans, because he is a consummate artist, as they were.
Cheers, ARNIE
P.S.--watch this memorable part of the match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u33IcQHXQ8
And by the way, I am certain that William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and James Joyce would ALL have been Federer fans, because he is a consummate artist, as they were.
Cheers, ARNIE
P.S.--watch this memorable part of the match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u33IcQHXQ8
Naipaul is more clueless than Emma, more sexist and colonialist than Sir Thomas
"In an interview at the Royal Geographic Society on Tuesday about his career, Naipaul, who has been described as the "greatest living writer of English prose", was asked if he considered any woman writer his literary match. He replied: "I don't think so." Of Austen he said he "couldn't possibly share her sentimental ambitions, her sentimental sense of the world". He felt that women writers were "quite different". He said: "I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me." The author, who was
born in Trinidad, said this was because of women's "sentimentality, the narrow view of the world". "And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too," he said."
Naipaul is _precisely_ the kind of arrogant, narcissistic "Portal" whom JA particularly targeted. He is a combination of Sir Thomas Bertram, Emma, and James Stanier Clarke, and he doesn't have a clue that she was laughing at men like him most of all. JA knew exactly how to lead such a man down the intellectual garden path.
And at first glance, it might seem particularly surprising that Naipaul, who is from the West Indies, should somehow fail to see, or at least be aware of, the slavery subtext of Mansfield Park. How could he be out of the loop on a topic that is now mainstream Austen criticism? I had the feeling that Naipaul was protesting a little too much about Austen's sentimentalism, and I guessed that Naipaul might be being a little disingenuous. And Google just told me my suspicion was well founded:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/sep/25/society.politics
"...from time to time [Edward] Said criticises Naipaul as a writer who tells western power what it wants to hear about its former colonies."
There you have it. He has to dismiss JA in particular, because she's got his number, and he knows it, and he hates it. Like Sir Thomas, he would rather burn what exposes his own hypocrisy, than examine himself.
Cheers, ARNIE
Another insightful reaction to Naipaul's nonsense from a bright young woman whom I met when she attended my _Emma_ talk to the JASNA NYC chapter 13 months ago:
http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/138322/
P.S. [added 9:45 pm EST June 3]
It turns out that this is not news that Naipaul thinks JA's writing is, basically, crap.
I had forgotten that two years ago, I came across an excellent article which summarized Naipaul's lifelong aversion to JA:
https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/2944/3/Austen%20Naipaul.pdf
" ‘What trouble I have with Jane Austen!’ V.S. Naipaul’s blind spot." Gillian Dooley
To Dooley's exhaustive discussion of what she so aptly calls "Naipaul's Blind Spot", I can add the following detail:
Between father and son: family letters_ contains a letter written by
Naipaul to his sister when he was 17, in 1949:
“…I am actually reading once more. I decided to start preparing myself for next year by a thorough knowledge of the nineteenth century novel. …I …went on to Jane Austen. I had read so much in praise of her. I went to the library and got Emma. It has an introduction by Monica Dickens, which extolled the book as the finest Austen ever wrote. Frankly, the introduction proved better reading than the book itself. JA appears to be essentially a writer for women; if she had lived in our age, she would undoubtedly have been a leading contributor to the women’s papers. Her work really bored me. It is mere gossip. It could appeal to a female audience. The diction is fine, of course. But the work, besides being mere gossip, is slick and professional.”
In _Reading & writing: a personal account _ published in 2000, Naipaul
confirms that he has always had a negative view of JA:
“When Conrad met HG Wells…, Conrad said, ‘My dear Wells,…what is all this about JA? What is it all about?” That was how I had felt in my secondary school, and for many years afterward as well; but it had not occurred to me to say so. I wouldn’t have felt I had the right. I didn’t feel competent as a reader until I was twenty five. I had by that time spent seven years in England, four of them at Oxford, and I had a little of the social knowledge that was necessary for an understanding of English and European fiction…”
In my opinion, Naipaul reveals that however good a writer he might be in his own right, he is not close to being competent as a reader, and he shows it by the elementary gaffe of not understanding that _Emma_’s being the novel about “mere gossip” is about as insightful about the novel as Emma herself is about what goes on around her! As Dooley comments re his reactions to Northanger Abbey, this guy does not merely have a tin ear for irony, he is stone cold deaf to it! I can't imagine what sort of fiction such a person would write, but, regardless of whatever beauties of style his writing might have, my guess is that it would not have very much irony in it, and therefore would be of little interest to me.
born in Trinidad, said this was because of women's "sentimentality, the narrow view of the world". "And inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too," he said."
Naipaul is _precisely_ the kind of arrogant, narcissistic "Portal" whom JA particularly targeted. He is a combination of Sir Thomas Bertram, Emma, and James Stanier Clarke, and he doesn't have a clue that she was laughing at men like him most of all. JA knew exactly how to lead such a man down the intellectual garden path.
And at first glance, it might seem particularly surprising that Naipaul, who is from the West Indies, should somehow fail to see, or at least be aware of, the slavery subtext of Mansfield Park. How could he be out of the loop on a topic that is now mainstream Austen criticism? I had the feeling that Naipaul was protesting a little too much about Austen's sentimentalism, and I guessed that Naipaul might be being a little disingenuous. And Google just told me my suspicion was well founded:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/sep/25/society.politics
"...from time to time [Edward] Said criticises Naipaul as a writer who tells western power what it wants to hear about its former colonies."
There you have it. He has to dismiss JA in particular, because she's got his number, and he knows it, and he hates it. Like Sir Thomas, he would rather burn what exposes his own hypocrisy, than examine himself.
Cheers, ARNIE
Another insightful reaction to Naipaul's nonsense from a bright young woman whom I met when she attended my _Emma_ talk to the JASNA NYC chapter 13 months ago:
http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/138322/
P.S. [added 9:45 pm EST June 3]
It turns out that this is not news that Naipaul thinks JA's writing is, basically, crap.
I had forgotten that two years ago, I came across an excellent article which summarized Naipaul's lifelong aversion to JA:
https://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/2944/3/Austen%20Naipaul.pdf
" ‘What trouble I have with Jane Austen!’ V.S. Naipaul’s blind spot." Gillian Dooley
To Dooley's exhaustive discussion of what she so aptly calls "Naipaul's Blind Spot", I can add the following detail:
Between father and son: family letters_ contains a letter written by
Naipaul to his sister when he was 17, in 1949:
“…I am actually reading once more. I decided to start preparing myself for next year by a thorough knowledge of the nineteenth century novel. …I …went on to Jane Austen. I had read so much in praise of her. I went to the library and got Emma. It has an introduction by Monica Dickens, which extolled the book as the finest Austen ever wrote. Frankly, the introduction proved better reading than the book itself. JA appears to be essentially a writer for women; if she had lived in our age, she would undoubtedly have been a leading contributor to the women’s papers. Her work really bored me. It is mere gossip. It could appeal to a female audience. The diction is fine, of course. But the work, besides being mere gossip, is slick and professional.”
In _Reading & writing: a personal account _ published in 2000, Naipaul
confirms that he has always had a negative view of JA:
“When Conrad met HG Wells…, Conrad said, ‘My dear Wells,…what is all this about JA? What is it all about?” That was how I had felt in my secondary school, and for many years afterward as well; but it had not occurred to me to say so. I wouldn’t have felt I had the right. I didn’t feel competent as a reader until I was twenty five. I had by that time spent seven years in England, four of them at Oxford, and I had a little of the social knowledge that was necessary for an understanding of English and European fiction…”
In my opinion, Naipaul reveals that however good a writer he might be in his own right, he is not close to being competent as a reader, and he shows it by the elementary gaffe of not understanding that _Emma_’s being the novel about “mere gossip” is about as insightful about the novel as Emma herself is about what goes on around her! As Dooley comments re his reactions to Northanger Abbey, this guy does not merely have a tin ear for irony, he is stone cold deaf to it! I can't imagine what sort of fiction such a person would write, but, regardless of whatever beauties of style his writing might have, my guess is that it would not have very much irony in it, and therefore would be of little interest to me.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Reverend Benjamin-William Portal Represented by Edward Ferrars
In Austen L and Janeites, Anielka Briggs has just written two very interesting posts about the allusion she saw in Mansfield Park, whereby Reverend Benjamin William Portal, the real life contemporary, and possible love interest, of Jane Austen, was, Anielka claims, with considerable justification, in my opinion, represented by the character of Edmund Bertram in Mansfield Park:
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1106a&L=austen-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=674
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1106a&L=austen-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=2063
I responded to her first post in part as follows:
"...are you aware of the diabolical clue in S&S that convincingly points to Edward Ferrars as a representation of Revd. Portal? I wonder whether you know it already, but if not, I will be glad to post it to these groups."
As neither Anielka nor anyone else responded, I am now following through on my promise to post that diabolical clue in S&S which points to Reverend Benjamin William Portal. And here it is:
The letter F.
Is that all? What does it mean?
Well, first, all Janeites will recognize that I am referring to the scene in Chapter 21 of S&S when Sir John and Mrs. Jennings tease Elinor about her secret affection for a man whose name is represented by "the letter F", i.e., Edward Ferrars:
"Elinor could not suppose that Sir John would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for Edward, than he had been with respect to Marianne; indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two, as being somewhat newer and more conjectural; and since Edward's visit, they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks, as to excite general attention. THE LETTER F—had been likewise invariably brought forward, and found productive of such countless jokes, that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with Elinor."
But… what has the letter F to do with Revd. Portal, who initials are BWP?
Because Revd. Portal was also, as Anielka pointed out, an Oxonian friend of both Henry and James Austen, and was the sole author of two of the issues (#26 and #30) of The Loiterer. But what Anielka did not notice is that he signed both of those issues with......the letter F! (and the Austen brothers also used different one letter initials to code their _own_ authorship of the other Loiterer issues)
But, you reply, that could be a coincidence, and, standing alone, I acknowledge, it surely could be. But then consider the following additional evidence:
Loiterer #45….
http://www.theloiterer.org/loiterer/no45.html
…is a very strange bit of writing, which contains the following satirical passage describing a fanciful machine for measuring the movement of "air":
"...But, before I proceed to inform my Readers that he immediately applied an elastic Tube to the Machine, which could easily be moved to every part of the house, it is only necessary that _I should disclaim every idea of personal application_ in the result of our Experiments, as it would give me very sincere concern to have my very worthy publisher obliged to _go down on his knees_ before the House, or my own papers and bureau to be ransacked. In short, though I would wish the Loiterer, No. 45, to be as much read, and equally celebrated with the North Briton of the same Number; yet I flatter myself that none of the other extraordinary consequences which attended that publication, will be experienced upon the present occasion. _To do away, therefore, every thing like personal allusion, I shall pursue the common letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, &c. _
From the letter A nothing remarkable was to be obtained……..The letter D produced a phenomenon of the most singular nature; for at every revolution of the wheel, instead of Air, there ascended little particles of Gold Leaf. And here I ought to inform my Readers, that there is a very narrow part in the Tube of this Machine, exactly similar to that in the Throat of the real Orator, which Anatomists have denominated the Rima Glotidis, or, in plainer terms, the entrance into the wind pipe; which, upon an unusual Exertion of the Machine, became suddenly choaked up, so great was the quantity of these Leaves, which rushed all at once into this narrow passage.
The E’s like the A’s produced nothing remarkable; but no sooner did the Tube come within _THE VORTEX OF THE LETTER F_, than torrents of Air of various Qualities, rushed through the Machine with the greatest impetuosity; nor did this Air differ more in its real Properties, than in the Opinion which the World entertained of its Purity……To our great astonishment this Air had intimately combined with that produced by _THE LETTER F_, forming a compound which at first appeared likely to fill the whole House, till pursuing the alphabet a little further, we discovered a surprising quantity of Air of a nature diametrically opposite, issuing from the Letter P, the flavour of which was so peculiarly powerful, as very soon to predominate....."
If you read the entire Loiterer #45, you quickly realize that the entire issue is one extended joke about verbal flatulence, i.e., the idea of overblown rhetoric as generating the same sort of foul smelling hot air that normally issues from a person's rear end! And it is the words of “F”—which happens to be the first letter of the Latinate “flatulence” and the Anglo-Saxon “fart”---also which generate a powerful torrent of very impure air!
So I claim, first, that it is not a coincidence that Loiterer #45, with its personifications of letters of the alphabet, and its disingenuous disclaimers of personal allusion---should contain this satirical piece that just happens to coincide with the veiled signatures of the authors of the Loiterer themselves, with particular negative judgment rendered on the writings of Benjamin Portal, aka “F”!
Which is why I now guess is that Loiterer #45, along with the issues containing the Sophia Sentiment and Luke Lickspittle letters which I attribute to JA, might be a _third_ Loiterer issue authored by the 14 year old Jane Austen!
But that’s just the beginning of all the smoke in S&S that points to Edward Ferrars as a representation of Reverend Portal—and not at all a favorable one! I will briefly summarize some of it now:
POETRY:
Portal’s obituary makes a very big deal about his lifelong love of poetry. It is therefore curious that Edward Ferrars’s spiritless reading of Cowper makes Marianne cringe, and even Mrs. Dashwood cannot bring herself to pretend he reads poetry well.
THE CLERGY INSTEAD OF THE LAW:
Like Edmund Bertram, Edward has an aversion to the practice of law which his family would like him to pursue, preferring to be a country clergyman. Portal’s obituary made a very big deal about that particular point, as Anielka pointed out earlier.
FRENCH SURNAME:
Ferrars is a surname of French origin, suggesting that the Ferrars family were of Huguenot origin. Henri de Portal was the ancestor who fled persecution in France and settled at Laverstoke and became very rich, ase the Ferrars family is rich.
BANK NOTES:
The wealth of the Portal family is symbolized by the way that the family fortune was made and sustained. I.e., by acquiring, and then holding over a period of centuries, the exclusive right to print the distinctively water-marked paper used for all bank notes issued by the Bank of England! The paper mill was located at Laverstoke (not far from the Portal-owned rental mansion where James Austen was married!) , and this is why, I claim, JA wrote her youthful charade on the word "bank note"….
You may lie on my first by the side of a stream,
And my second compose to the NYMPH you adore,
But if, when you've none of my whole, her esteem
And affection diminish--think of her no more!
…, and also why the only specific reference to “bank notes” in all of JA's novels appears in S&S, in Chapter 33:
"Is Mr. Edward Ferrars," said Elinor, with resolution, "going to be married?"
"It is not actually settled, but there is such a thing in agitation. He has a most excellent mother. Mrs. Ferrars, with the utmost liberality, will come forward, and settle on him a thousand a year, if the match takes place. The lady is the Hon. Miss Morton, only daughter of the late Lord Morton, with thirty thousand pounds. A very desirable connection on both sides, and I have not a doubt of its taking place in time. A thousand a-year is a great deal for a mother to give away, to make over for ever; but Mrs. Ferrars has a noble spirit. To give you another instance of her liberality:—The other day, as soon as we came to town, aware that money could not be very plenty with us just now, she put BANK-NOTES into Fanny's hands to the amount of two hundred pounds. And extremely acceptable it is, for we must live at a great expense while we are here."
JA’s joke seems to be that the Portals were so rich they could print their _own_ money!
THE ARCHITECT BONOMI:
Robert Ferrars speaks the following snobbish drivel in Chapter 36 of S&S:
"For my own part," said he, "I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at any time, and collect a few friends about me, and be happy. I advise every body who is going to build, to build a cottage. My friend Lord Courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice, and laid before me three different plans of Bonomi's. I was to decide on the best of them. 'My dear Courtland,' said I, immediately throwing them all into the fire, 'do not adopt either of them, but by all means build a cottage.' And that I fancy, will be the end of it.
When Robert Ferrars speaks of tossing architectural plans created by Bonomi into the fire, preferring a simple cottage, this is an ultra-sly joke about the fact that this very same architect Bonomi, whose name was a household word in JA’s era, actually designed Laverstoke for Joseph Portal, the cousin of Benjamin-William Portal, and the proprietor of the paper mill which generated the money necessary to fund some extravagant construction designed by the “it” architect of the day! There is therefore something wicked in JA suggesting, via Robert Ferrars, that Bonomi’s plans were not quite up to par!
And last but not least, it occurred to me after detecting the extended “fart joke” in Loiterer #45, which, as I said above, I believe was the wicked work of the 14-year old Jane Austen, I think it is no coincidence at all that this connects directly to my claim last year about another passage in S&S involving Edward Ferrars, which has to do with the “rears” of people:
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2010/11/jane-austens-great-chasms-and-dirty.html
The punch line of my above linked post is “dirty bottoms”, and we read the passage in which it appears with fresh eyes if we think about Edward Ferrars as representing Revd. Portal, both as the author of pompous prose in the Loiterer and also as a member of the local family which made its fortune from a paper mill---which, if you think about it, must have generated a _very_ disgusting smell throughout its near environs:
"It is not every one," said Elinor, "who has your passion for dead leaves."
"No; my feelings are not often shared, not often understood. But sometimes they are."—As she said this, she sunk into a reverie for a few moments;—but rousing herself again, "Now, Edward," said she, calling his attention to the prospect, "here is Barton valley. Look up to it, and be tranquil if you can. Look at those hills! Did you ever see their equals? To the left is Barton park, amongst those woods and plantations. You may see the end of the house. And there, beneath that farthest hill, which rises with such grandeur, is our cottage."
"It is a beautiful country," he replied; "but these bottoms must be dirty in winter."
"How can you think of dirt, with such objects before you?"
"Because," replied he, smiling, "among the rest of the objects before me, I see a very dirty lane."
"How strange!" said Marianne to herself as she walked on.
Of course, “dead leaves” is a nice bit of word play to describe……paper!
So, for all of the above reasons, and many more which are beyond the scope of where I want to go today, I claim that JA was sending up Revd. Benjamin William Portal in the character of Edward Ferrars!
Cheers, ARNIE
P.S.: [Added at 4 pm EST]
I was just rereading Loiterer Issue #45 to see if I had missed any clues pointing to Benjamin-William Portal and look what I found, right near the beginning:
"In short, the subject of my present Paper is nothing less than the celebrated Air Machine, by the King’s Royal Letters Patent. The politeness of the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers had induced them to grant the use of their Hall for the Display of this very elegant, though simple Machine, to its worthy and facetious Proprietor the Patentee; with whom I soon found myself on very free, easy, and familiar Terms. And whilst he was demonstrating its wonderful Powers by filling the whole Edifice with the Fumes of Gum Benjamin, drawn from an Apartment at a considerable distance...."
Did you see it? "Gum Benjamin"!!! Of course there really is such a thing as Gum Benjamin (I just Googled it to see), but even so, in a satirical piece like this, filled from beginning to end with fantastical pseudo-scientific verbiage, the author clearly chose to include a reference that included the name "Benjamin" for a reason, which was to point to Benjamin Portal!
And...(close your eyes if you are easily offended)....it also occurred to me that JA would not have been blind to the punny potential of the surname "Portal", especially in the context of a satirical piece based entirely on the notion of oratory as a species of farting. And surely, if you think for a second about what a "portal" is, you will realize that Loiterer #45 boils down, in the end, to the fact that it points to Benjamin Portal, and then screams "He is a "portal"!" in more ways than his last name, i.e., it is saying that Benjamin Portal is an ******* (being the vulgar name--that is used by millions of speakers of the English language---for that part of the human body whence foul air sometimes escapes)!
And finally, note the epigraph for Loiterer #45, in Latin and in English, which fits perfectly with the subject matter:
"The Goddess, by herself revolving such Thoughts in her inflamed Breast, repairs to Æolia, the native Land of Storms, Regions pregnant with boisterous Winds. Here, in a capacious Cave, King Æolus controuls with imperial Sway the reluctant Winds and blubbering Tempests, and confines them with Chains to their Prison. "
Nimborum in Patriam, Loca fæta furentibus Austris
Æo1iam venit. Hic vasto rex Æolus antro
Luctantes Ventos tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit, ac Vinclis et Carcere frenat.
Illi indignantes magno cam murmure Montis
Circum Claustra fremunt. Virgil, The Aeneid
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1106a&L=austen-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=674
http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1106a&L=austen-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=2063
I responded to her first post in part as follows:
"...are you aware of the diabolical clue in S&S that convincingly points to Edward Ferrars as a representation of Revd. Portal? I wonder whether you know it already, but if not, I will be glad to post it to these groups."
As neither Anielka nor anyone else responded, I am now following through on my promise to post that diabolical clue in S&S which points to Reverend Benjamin William Portal. And here it is:
The letter F.
Is that all? What does it mean?
Well, first, all Janeites will recognize that I am referring to the scene in Chapter 21 of S&S when Sir John and Mrs. Jennings tease Elinor about her secret affection for a man whose name is represented by "the letter F", i.e., Edward Ferrars:
"Elinor could not suppose that Sir John would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for Edward, than he had been with respect to Marianne; indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two, as being somewhat newer and more conjectural; and since Edward's visit, they had never dined together without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy and so many nods and winks, as to excite general attention. THE LETTER F—had been likewise invariably brought forward, and found productive of such countless jokes, that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with Elinor."
But… what has the letter F to do with Revd. Portal, who initials are BWP?
Because Revd. Portal was also, as Anielka pointed out, an Oxonian friend of both Henry and James Austen, and was the sole author of two of the issues (#26 and #30) of The Loiterer. But what Anielka did not notice is that he signed both of those issues with......the letter F! (and the Austen brothers also used different one letter initials to code their _own_ authorship of the other Loiterer issues)
But, you reply, that could be a coincidence, and, standing alone, I acknowledge, it surely could be. But then consider the following additional evidence:
Loiterer #45….
http://www.theloiterer.org/loiterer/no45.html
…is a very strange bit of writing, which contains the following satirical passage describing a fanciful machine for measuring the movement of "air":
"...But, before I proceed to inform my Readers that he immediately applied an elastic Tube to the Machine, which could easily be moved to every part of the house, it is only necessary that _I should disclaim every idea of personal application_ in the result of our Experiments, as it would give me very sincere concern to have my very worthy publisher obliged to _go down on his knees_ before the House, or my own papers and bureau to be ransacked. In short, though I would wish the Loiterer, No. 45, to be as much read, and equally celebrated with the North Briton of the same Number; yet I flatter myself that none of the other extraordinary consequences which attended that publication, will be experienced upon the present occasion. _To do away, therefore, every thing like personal allusion, I shall pursue the common letters of the alphabet, A, B, C, &c. _
From the letter A nothing remarkable was to be obtained……..The letter D produced a phenomenon of the most singular nature; for at every revolution of the wheel, instead of Air, there ascended little particles of Gold Leaf. And here I ought to inform my Readers, that there is a very narrow part in the Tube of this Machine, exactly similar to that in the Throat of the real Orator, which Anatomists have denominated the Rima Glotidis, or, in plainer terms, the entrance into the wind pipe; which, upon an unusual Exertion of the Machine, became suddenly choaked up, so great was the quantity of these Leaves, which rushed all at once into this narrow passage.
The E’s like the A’s produced nothing remarkable; but no sooner did the Tube come within _THE VORTEX OF THE LETTER F_, than torrents of Air of various Qualities, rushed through the Machine with the greatest impetuosity; nor did this Air differ more in its real Properties, than in the Opinion which the World entertained of its Purity……To our great astonishment this Air had intimately combined with that produced by _THE LETTER F_, forming a compound which at first appeared likely to fill the whole House, till pursuing the alphabet a little further, we discovered a surprising quantity of Air of a nature diametrically opposite, issuing from the Letter P, the flavour of which was so peculiarly powerful, as very soon to predominate....."
If you read the entire Loiterer #45, you quickly realize that the entire issue is one extended joke about verbal flatulence, i.e., the idea of overblown rhetoric as generating the same sort of foul smelling hot air that normally issues from a person's rear end! And it is the words of “F”—which happens to be the first letter of the Latinate “flatulence” and the Anglo-Saxon “fart”---also which generate a powerful torrent of very impure air!
So I claim, first, that it is not a coincidence that Loiterer #45, with its personifications of letters of the alphabet, and its disingenuous disclaimers of personal allusion---should contain this satirical piece that just happens to coincide with the veiled signatures of the authors of the Loiterer themselves, with particular negative judgment rendered on the writings of Benjamin Portal, aka “F”!
Which is why I now guess is that Loiterer #45, along with the issues containing the Sophia Sentiment and Luke Lickspittle letters which I attribute to JA, might be a _third_ Loiterer issue authored by the 14 year old Jane Austen!
But that’s just the beginning of all the smoke in S&S that points to Edward Ferrars as a representation of Reverend Portal—and not at all a favorable one! I will briefly summarize some of it now:
POETRY:
Portal’s obituary makes a very big deal about his lifelong love of poetry. It is therefore curious that Edward Ferrars’s spiritless reading of Cowper makes Marianne cringe, and even Mrs. Dashwood cannot bring herself to pretend he reads poetry well.
THE CLERGY INSTEAD OF THE LAW:
Like Edmund Bertram, Edward has an aversion to the practice of law which his family would like him to pursue, preferring to be a country clergyman. Portal’s obituary made a very big deal about that particular point, as Anielka pointed out earlier.
FRENCH SURNAME:
Ferrars is a surname of French origin, suggesting that the Ferrars family were of Huguenot origin. Henri de Portal was the ancestor who fled persecution in France and settled at Laverstoke and became very rich, ase the Ferrars family is rich.
BANK NOTES:
The wealth of the Portal family is symbolized by the way that the family fortune was made and sustained. I.e., by acquiring, and then holding over a period of centuries, the exclusive right to print the distinctively water-marked paper used for all bank notes issued by the Bank of England! The paper mill was located at Laverstoke (not far from the Portal-owned rental mansion where James Austen was married!) , and this is why, I claim, JA wrote her youthful charade on the word "bank note"….
You may lie on my first by the side of a stream,
And my second compose to the NYMPH you adore,
But if, when you've none of my whole, her esteem
And affection diminish--think of her no more!
…, and also why the only specific reference to “bank notes” in all of JA's novels appears in S&S, in Chapter 33:
"Is Mr. Edward Ferrars," said Elinor, with resolution, "going to be married?"
"It is not actually settled, but there is such a thing in agitation. He has a most excellent mother. Mrs. Ferrars, with the utmost liberality, will come forward, and settle on him a thousand a year, if the match takes place. The lady is the Hon. Miss Morton, only daughter of the late Lord Morton, with thirty thousand pounds. A very desirable connection on both sides, and I have not a doubt of its taking place in time. A thousand a-year is a great deal for a mother to give away, to make over for ever; but Mrs. Ferrars has a noble spirit. To give you another instance of her liberality:—The other day, as soon as we came to town, aware that money could not be very plenty with us just now, she put BANK-NOTES into Fanny's hands to the amount of two hundred pounds. And extremely acceptable it is, for we must live at a great expense while we are here."
JA’s joke seems to be that the Portals were so rich they could print their _own_ money!
THE ARCHITECT BONOMI:
Robert Ferrars speaks the following snobbish drivel in Chapter 36 of S&S:
"For my own part," said he, "I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at any time, and collect a few friends about me, and be happy. I advise every body who is going to build, to build a cottage. My friend Lord Courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice, and laid before me three different plans of Bonomi's. I was to decide on the best of them. 'My dear Courtland,' said I, immediately throwing them all into the fire, 'do not adopt either of them, but by all means build a cottage.' And that I fancy, will be the end of it.
When Robert Ferrars speaks of tossing architectural plans created by Bonomi into the fire, preferring a simple cottage, this is an ultra-sly joke about the fact that this very same architect Bonomi, whose name was a household word in JA’s era, actually designed Laverstoke for Joseph Portal, the cousin of Benjamin-William Portal, and the proprietor of the paper mill which generated the money necessary to fund some extravagant construction designed by the “it” architect of the day! There is therefore something wicked in JA suggesting, via Robert Ferrars, that Bonomi’s plans were not quite up to par!
And last but not least, it occurred to me after detecting the extended “fart joke” in Loiterer #45, which, as I said above, I believe was the wicked work of the 14-year old Jane Austen, I think it is no coincidence at all that this connects directly to my claim last year about another passage in S&S involving Edward Ferrars, which has to do with the “rears” of people:
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2010/11/jane-austens-great-chasms-and-dirty.html
The punch line of my above linked post is “dirty bottoms”, and we read the passage in which it appears with fresh eyes if we think about Edward Ferrars as representing Revd. Portal, both as the author of pompous prose in the Loiterer and also as a member of the local family which made its fortune from a paper mill---which, if you think about it, must have generated a _very_ disgusting smell throughout its near environs:
"It is not every one," said Elinor, "who has your passion for dead leaves."
"No; my feelings are not often shared, not often understood. But sometimes they are."—As she said this, she sunk into a reverie for a few moments;—but rousing herself again, "Now, Edward," said she, calling his attention to the prospect, "here is Barton valley. Look up to it, and be tranquil if you can. Look at those hills! Did you ever see their equals? To the left is Barton park, amongst those woods and plantations. You may see the end of the house. And there, beneath that farthest hill, which rises with such grandeur, is our cottage."
"It is a beautiful country," he replied; "but these bottoms must be dirty in winter."
"How can you think of dirt, with such objects before you?"
"Because," replied he, smiling, "among the rest of the objects before me, I see a very dirty lane."
"How strange!" said Marianne to herself as she walked on.
Of course, “dead leaves” is a nice bit of word play to describe……paper!
So, for all of the above reasons, and many more which are beyond the scope of where I want to go today, I claim that JA was sending up Revd. Benjamin William Portal in the character of Edward Ferrars!
Cheers, ARNIE
P.S.: [Added at 4 pm EST]
I was just rereading Loiterer Issue #45 to see if I had missed any clues pointing to Benjamin-William Portal and look what I found, right near the beginning:
"In short, the subject of my present Paper is nothing less than the celebrated Air Machine, by the King’s Royal Letters Patent. The politeness of the Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers had induced them to grant the use of their Hall for the Display of this very elegant, though simple Machine, to its worthy and facetious Proprietor the Patentee; with whom I soon found myself on very free, easy, and familiar Terms. And whilst he was demonstrating its wonderful Powers by filling the whole Edifice with the Fumes of Gum Benjamin, drawn from an Apartment at a considerable distance...."
Did you see it? "Gum Benjamin"!!! Of course there really is such a thing as Gum Benjamin (I just Googled it to see), but even so, in a satirical piece like this, filled from beginning to end with fantastical pseudo-scientific verbiage, the author clearly chose to include a reference that included the name "Benjamin" for a reason, which was to point to Benjamin Portal!
And...(close your eyes if you are easily offended)....it also occurred to me that JA would not have been blind to the punny potential of the surname "Portal", especially in the context of a satirical piece based entirely on the notion of oratory as a species of farting. And surely, if you think for a second about what a "portal" is, you will realize that Loiterer #45 boils down, in the end, to the fact that it points to Benjamin Portal, and then screams "He is a "portal"!" in more ways than his last name, i.e., it is saying that Benjamin Portal is an ******* (being the vulgar name--that is used by millions of speakers of the English language---for that part of the human body whence foul air sometimes escapes)!
And finally, note the epigraph for Loiterer #45, in Latin and in English, which fits perfectly with the subject matter:
"The Goddess, by herself revolving such Thoughts in her inflamed Breast, repairs to Æolia, the native Land of Storms, Regions pregnant with boisterous Winds. Here, in a capacious Cave, King Æolus controuls with imperial Sway the reluctant Winds and blubbering Tempests, and confines them with Chains to their Prison. "
Nimborum in Patriam, Loca fæta furentibus Austris
Æo1iam venit. Hic vasto rex Æolus antro
Luctantes Ventos tempestatesque sonoras
Imperio premit, ac Vinclis et Carcere frenat.
Illi indignantes magno cam murmure Montis
Circum Claustra fremunt. Virgil, The Aeneid
Letter 27: Jane Austen's Field Observations in the WI-ld at Hurstborne
"Your desiring to hear from me on Sunday will, perhaps, bring you a more particular account of the ball than you may care for, because one is prone to think much more of such things the morning after they happen, than when time has entirely driven them out of one's recollection."
And JA is not kidding, as she then proceeds, in the very next paragraph of Letter 27, to unleash her full, trenchant powers of observation and characterization on the human beast in the wild---providing uncharitable, clinical description of what she observes. I am reminded of Jim Carrey's _Liar, Liar_, when he, who has magically been rendered incapable of lying for 24 hours, is put on the spot at a company meeting by an enemy who knows of his unfortunate "defect"--he proceeds to turn his weakness into a strength by going completely over the top in his criticisms of his work colleagues, pretending he is just joking. JA is a quintessential "sharp poker" in this paragraph.
"It was a pleasant evening; Charles found it remarkably so, but I cannot tell why, unless the absence of Miss Terry, towards whom his conscience reproaches him with being now perfectly indifferent, was a relief to him."
Little brother Charles is 21 at this point, and still 7 years away from marrying, but I wonder if JA's seemingly flip innuendo that Charles has been unkind in love to Miss Terry has a serious real life subtext--it appears that this Miss Terry is the one who much later admires Emma very much, which suggests she was bright and someone JA really did like, and was therefore disappointed that Charles jilted her.
"There were very few beauties, and such as there were were not very handsome."
As I mentioned last week, this is JA's usual comic absurdism.
"...Mrs. Blount was the only one much admired. She appeared exactly as she did in September, with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, and fat neck."
No wonder Oscar Wilde was a Janeite, he never surpassed JA's gift for rapier-like aphoristic wit.
"The two Miss Coxes were there: I traced in one the remains of the vulgar, broad-featured girl who danced at Enham eight years ago; the other is refined into a nice, composed-looking girl, like Catherine Bigg."
JA shows that she has what seems to be total recall of past field observations, as she is able to effortlessly update her internal "files" on a personality, even after a gap of 8 years, and then crystallize her analysis of changes. She also demonstrates an impartiality in rendering her verdicts, telling it like it is, whether that is good news or bad.
The elder Miss Cox (I bet her name was Anne) must have made quite an impression on JA, even based on these infrequent sightings, because she unmistakably has her own special moment in the sun 15 years later, in Chapter 27 of _Emma_:
[Harriet]: "...The Coxes were wondering last night whether [Jane F.] would get into any great family. How did you think the Coxes looked?" [Emma]: "Just as they always do—very vulgar."
"They told me something," said Harriet rather hesitatingly; "but it is nothing of any consequence." Emma was obliged to ask what they had told her, though fearful of its producing Mr. Elton.
"They told me—that Mr. Martin dined with them last Saturday." "Oh!"
"He came to their father upon some business, and he asked him to stay to dinner." "Oh!"
"They talked a great deal about him, especially Anne Cox. I do not know what she meant, but she asked me if I thought I should go and stay there again next summer." "She meant to be impertinently curious, just as such an Anne Cox should be."
"She said he was very agreeable the day he dined there. He sat by her at dinner. Miss Nash thinks either of the Coxes would be very glad to marry him." "Very likely.—I think they are, without exception, the most vulgar girls in Highbury."
The Miss Coxes must not have been neighbors of the Austens, and JA probably was confident that even if by some chance Anne Cox happened to _start_ reading Emma, she would never make it to Volume 2 to read JA's savage little "memorial" to Anne Cox's vulgarity.
"I looked at Sir Thomas Champneys and thought of poor Rosalie; I looked at his daughter, and thought her a queer animal with a white neck."
Per the peerage, "Sir Thomas Champneys, 1st Bt. was born...1745.^..He married, firstly, Caroline Anne Cox...1768.......He and Henrietta Minchin obtained a marriage license on 10 December 1801.^....matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford.... created....//1767...He held the office of Sheriff of Somerset between 1775 and 1776. He lived after 1776 at Jamaica."
First, we see that he is related by marriage to the Miss Coxes (Le Faye missed this connection). Second, I infer that the 55 year old baronet was an eligible bachelor in 11/1800, who had recently disappointed the conjugal ambitions of "Rosalie", apparently a friend of the Miss Austens. Third, I see that Sir Thomas was part of a significant West Indies contingent at this ball, consisting not only of him with his Jamaican connection, but see also below....
"Mrs. Warren, I was constrained to think, a very fine young woman, which I much regret. She [words omitted in Brabourne edition: "has got rid of some part of her child, and"] danced away with great activity [words omitted in Brabourne edition: "looking by no means very large"]. Her husband is ugly enough, uglier even than his cousin John; but he does not look so /very/ old."
Le Faye's Index reveals that Mrs. Warren was nee Jane Maitland, and therefore was a granddaughter of the austere General Mathew, and the maternal first cousin of Anna Austen Lefroy. Le Faye also reveals that Mrs. Warren gave birth in March 1801, meaning that she was about halfway through her pregnancy at the time of this ball. So JA is once again ragging on pregnancy, raising the macabre image of a "partial" miscarriage. What is for sure is that JA did not like these people!
"The Miss Maitlands are both prettyish, very like Anne, with brown skins, large dark eyes, and a good deal of nose. The General has got the gout, and Mrs. Maitland the jaundice. "
And here is the rest of the West Indies party, the two unmarried sisters of Mrs. Warren, along with their mother and their grandfather, each receiving their own personal put-down. I also have always read this passage to show that either General Mathew or his wife, or both of them, were of mixed racial descent, as would not be surprising in the case of a Creole family.
"Miss Debary, Susan, and Sally, all in black, but without any stature, made their appearance, and I was as civil to them as circumstances [Unexpurgated original: "their bad breath"] would allow me."
And JA saved the best (or the worst) for last.
Cheers, ARNIE
And JA is not kidding, as she then proceeds, in the very next paragraph of Letter 27, to unleash her full, trenchant powers of observation and characterization on the human beast in the wild---providing uncharitable, clinical description of what she observes. I am reminded of Jim Carrey's _Liar, Liar_, when he, who has magically been rendered incapable of lying for 24 hours, is put on the spot at a company meeting by an enemy who knows of his unfortunate "defect"--he proceeds to turn his weakness into a strength by going completely over the top in his criticisms of his work colleagues, pretending he is just joking. JA is a quintessential "sharp poker" in this paragraph.
"It was a pleasant evening; Charles found it remarkably so, but I cannot tell why, unless the absence of Miss Terry, towards whom his conscience reproaches him with being now perfectly indifferent, was a relief to him."
Little brother Charles is 21 at this point, and still 7 years away from marrying, but I wonder if JA's seemingly flip innuendo that Charles has been unkind in love to Miss Terry has a serious real life subtext--it appears that this Miss Terry is the one who much later admires Emma very much, which suggests she was bright and someone JA really did like, and was therefore disappointed that Charles jilted her.
"There were very few beauties, and such as there were were not very handsome."
As I mentioned last week, this is JA's usual comic absurdism.
"...Mrs. Blount was the only one much admired. She appeared exactly as she did in September, with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, and fat neck."
No wonder Oscar Wilde was a Janeite, he never surpassed JA's gift for rapier-like aphoristic wit.
"The two Miss Coxes were there: I traced in one the remains of the vulgar, broad-featured girl who danced at Enham eight years ago; the other is refined into a nice, composed-looking girl, like Catherine Bigg."
JA shows that she has what seems to be total recall of past field observations, as she is able to effortlessly update her internal "files" on a personality, even after a gap of 8 years, and then crystallize her analysis of changes. She also demonstrates an impartiality in rendering her verdicts, telling it like it is, whether that is good news or bad.
The elder Miss Cox (I bet her name was Anne) must have made quite an impression on JA, even based on these infrequent sightings, because she unmistakably has her own special moment in the sun 15 years later, in Chapter 27 of _Emma_:
[Harriet]: "...The Coxes were wondering last night whether [Jane F.] would get into any great family. How did you think the Coxes looked?" [Emma]: "Just as they always do—very vulgar."
"They told me something," said Harriet rather hesitatingly; "but it is nothing of any consequence." Emma was obliged to ask what they had told her, though fearful of its producing Mr. Elton.
"They told me—that Mr. Martin dined with them last Saturday." "Oh!"
"He came to their father upon some business, and he asked him to stay to dinner." "Oh!"
"They talked a great deal about him, especially Anne Cox. I do not know what she meant, but she asked me if I thought I should go and stay there again next summer." "She meant to be impertinently curious, just as such an Anne Cox should be."
"She said he was very agreeable the day he dined there. He sat by her at dinner. Miss Nash thinks either of the Coxes would be very glad to marry him." "Very likely.—I think they are, without exception, the most vulgar girls in Highbury."
The Miss Coxes must not have been neighbors of the Austens, and JA probably was confident that even if by some chance Anne Cox happened to _start_ reading Emma, she would never make it to Volume 2 to read JA's savage little "memorial" to Anne Cox's vulgarity.
"I looked at Sir Thomas Champneys and thought of poor Rosalie; I looked at his daughter, and thought her a queer animal with a white neck."
Per the peerage, "Sir Thomas Champneys, 1st Bt. was born...1745.^
First, we see that he is related by marriage to the Miss Coxes (Le Faye missed this connection). Second, I infer that the 55 year old baronet was an eligible bachelor in 11/1800, who had recently disappointed the conjugal ambitions of "Rosalie", apparently a friend of the Miss Austens. Third, I see that Sir Thomas was part of a significant West Indies contingent at this ball, consisting not only of him with his Jamaican connection, but see also below....
"Mrs. Warren, I was constrained to think, a very fine young woman, which I much regret. She [words omitted in Brabourne edition: "has got rid of some part of her child, and"] danced away with great activity [words omitted in Brabourne edition: "looking by no means very large"]. Her husband is ugly enough, uglier even than his cousin John; but he does not look so /very/ old."
Le Faye's Index reveals that Mrs. Warren was nee Jane Maitland, and therefore was a granddaughter of the austere General Mathew, and the maternal first cousin of Anna Austen Lefroy. Le Faye also reveals that Mrs. Warren gave birth in March 1801, meaning that she was about halfway through her pregnancy at the time of this ball. So JA is once again ragging on pregnancy, raising the macabre image of a "partial" miscarriage. What is for sure is that JA did not like these people!
"The Miss Maitlands are both prettyish, very like Anne, with brown skins, large dark eyes, and a good deal of nose. The General has got the gout, and Mrs. Maitland the jaundice. "
And here is the rest of the West Indies party, the two unmarried sisters of Mrs. Warren, along with their mother and their grandfather, each receiving their own personal put-down. I also have always read this passage to show that either General Mathew or his wife, or both of them, were of mixed racial descent, as would not be surprising in the case of a Creole family.
"Miss Debary, Susan, and Sally, all in black, but without any stature, made their appearance, and I was as civil to them as circumstances [Unexpurgated original: "their bad breath"] would allow me."
And JA saved the best (or the worst) for last.
Cheers, ARNIE
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