Mr. Collins, Muslin, and Lottery Tickets
What exactly was the social standing of Mr. Collins? What exactly was “a muslin”? How does one play Regency lottery tickets? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Show Notes
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Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of My Cousin Jane. Each week, we look at what you might think of as the behind the scenes featurettes or deleted scenes of a particular chapter in Austen’s books.
This week, we’re going to talk about Pride & Prejudice Chapter 15.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter we learn a bit more about Mr. Collins and his reasons for coming to Longbourn. Later, the ladies of Longbourn decide to walk to Meryton, where they meet Mr. Wickham.
He joins the party and they run into Darcy and Bingham. Darcy is furious at the sight of Wickham, but we don’t find out why until later on.
The party then continues to the home of Mrs. Phillips, who is Mrs. Bennet’s sister and therefore the girls’ aunt, where they make plans for a dinner party the following evening.
Rector
Let’s take a minute to understand more about Mr. Collins as well as his role as a rector.
Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society; the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father; and though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms without forming at it any useful acquaintance.
The subjection in which his father had brought him up had given him originally great humility of manner; but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity.
A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 15
Charles Musgrove points out the fact that to many people, a clergyman, even those from humble circumstances, were elevated to the social status of gentleman, just by the nature of their calling.
Now, as we discussed in previous episodes, this view wasn’t held by everyone. To many people, the family, birth and rank of the clergyman in question would all make a difference, and we’ll see that contrast in opinion more sharply when we discuss Mansfield Park.
But in general, clergy in rural communities were held in much higher regard by local society than they were in larger cities. This was helped by the fact that quite often, clergymen were the second (or later) sons of gentlemen. And of course your exact rank in the clergy had a great effect on your social standing. Something that we’ll also discuss next season, when we talk about Mansfield Park.
“A” Muslin
Now we’ll turn our attention to matters of fashion. As the party enters the town of Meryton, with Mr. Collins prattling on, the younger girls turn their attention to some of the shops
In pompous nothings on his side, and civil assents on that of his cousins, their time passed till they entered Meryton. The attention of the younger ones was then no longer to be gained by him. Their eyes were immediately wandering up the street in quest of the officers, and nothing less than a very smart bonnet, indeed, or a really new muslin in a shop window, could recall them.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 15
The term muslin was used for a couple of different things in Regency times. First, it was the name of a particular type of cotton fabric, usually imported from India. While muslin can be dyed, in regency times wearing white was the mark of true gentility, probably because it was so hard to keep clean.
The name comes from Mosul, Iraq, which is where the fabric first originated. If you’re into textile history, and honestly, who isn’t? The Muslin trade has a very interesting history.
Even though most people during that era didn’t dye their muslin garments, embroidering muslin, was very popular. Sometimes this was done using white thread, which was referred to as white work. But more colorful embroidery was also used.
Sometimes, complex patterns were first engraved onto a wooden cylinder by pattern designers, and then that cylinder was used to lightly print the pattern onto the muslin. The pattern when then serve as a guide for embroidery work.
This latter type of embroidery started in the west of Scotland and was a major source of revenue for many women in both Scotland and Ireland until the late 1850s, until the so-called economic crash of 1857 caused a major shift in fortune for many traders.
Sometimes, the term muslin is used to refer to a garment, especially a gown, made of muslin. So, depending on the context, the phrase “a new muslin”, can be understood to mean a gown made of muslin.
Lottery Tickets
After discussing the regiment for a while, they all make plans to visit with the Philipses the next evening and play a game.
Some of them were to dine with the Philipses the next day, and their aunt promised to make her husband call on Mr. Wickham, and give him an invitation also, if the family from Longbourn would come in the evening. This was agreed to; and Mrs. Philips protested that they would have a nice comfortable noisy game of lottery tickets, and a little bit of hot supper afterwards. The prospect of such delights was very cheering, and they parted in mutual good spirits.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 15
We’ve talked through the rules of a bunch of Regency card games on this podcast, some of which were tricky to describe. Thankfully, lottery tickets is an easy one.
According to Hoyle’s 1817 book of card game rules, Lottery tickets (or Lottery) is played with two decks of cards. After everyone contributes to a central pool or fund, one dealer deals a prize card face down to each person from the first deck. That player then decides how much of the pool to assign to their prize card.
The second dealer then hands each player a card from the second deck, called a ticket. The prize cards are revealed one at a time. If you have a ticket that matches a prize card, you win the money assigned to that prize. Any unclaimed money is put back into the pool, and play continues until there is no money left.
During the regency era, many people used carved tokens in the shape of fish for games like this, which we’ll discuss a bit more in the next episode.
Conclusion
That wraps up this episode of My Cousin Jane.
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Either way, thanks so much for listening
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