Clergy Precedence, Austen’s View of the Clergy, and Paying Tithes
How did clergymen rank in the Regency era? Does Mr. Collins represent Austen’s true views on the clergy? How were tithes paid? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 18.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 18 finds us at the Netherfield ball. Elizabeth’s hopes of dancing with Mr. Wickham are dashed when she finds from his friend Denny that he was “called away”, but he also implies that he likely wouldn’t have been called away had Darcy not been in attendance.
This of course contradicts his claims two chapters ago of not being frightened away by Darcy, but Elizabeth doesn’t seem to notice. Ironically, she ends up dancing with Mr. Darcy instead, an event which neither of them come away wholly satisfied with.
During this dance, Darcy first learns of the expectation by the Bennets and the community at large. Meanwhile Elizabeth feels that her family is spending the evening doing their best to embarrass themselves in front of Darcy and the Bingley’s.
Clergy Introductions
We’ve talked before about how being a clergyman can elevate someone to the same social status of a gentleman, but how far does that elevation go? When Elizabeth warns Mr. Collins against introducing himself to Mr. Darcy’s at the ball, he explains to her that this elevation knows no bounds:
“My dear Miss Elizabeth, I have the highest opinion in the world of your excellent judgment in all matters within the scope of your understanding, but permit me to say that there must be a wide difference between the established forms of ceremony amongst the laity, and those which regulate the clergy; for give me leave to observe that I consider the clerical office as equal in point of dignity with the highest rank in the kingdom—provided that a proper humility of behaviour is at the same time maintained. You must therefore allow me to follow the dictates of my conscience on this occasion, which leads me to perform what I look on as a point of duty.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 18
Unfortunately, things don’t really go his way. While some clerical offices do have an official precedence, this is generally limited to the rank of Bishop and higher, and even then there is a hierarchy. For example, according to Debretts, the Bishop of London takes precedence over a Baron, but is outranked by a Viscount. Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury outranks everyone except the sovereign and most of their family.
Neither Mr. Collins nor Mr. Darcy had titles that implied precedence, but as Daniel Pool, the author of “What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew”, says: “official rank and actual social clout of any particular individual might be two different things.”
This is still true today, for while the Lord Chamberlain is an ancient and noble office which takes precedence over all the Dukes of the British Isles, he doesn’t have anywhere near the social clout of someone like Sir Elton John.
Clergy Portrayals
Speaking of Mr. Collins, Austen’s portrayal of the clergy is interesting. From previous episodes, you’ll remember that her father, The Reverend George Austen, was a clergyman, and someone for whom Jane had great respect. Her father in turn always encouraged Jane’s writing.
Some writers have said that Jane’s satiric portrayal of the clergy is a hallmark of her writing, citing Mr. Collins as the prime example. But I think between her father, uncles, and those of her brothers who became clergymen, Jane had a great respect for the clergy.
I think the character Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park, is the best example of her views on the clergy, that while they had great capacity for goodness and noble influence, they were also human and therefore subject to the same follies as regular men. And that’s how Austen usually portrayed clergymen like Edmund Bertram, Edward Ferrars, Mr. Elton, Charles Hayter, and even Henry Tilney.
Clergy Duties
To finish out this chapter, which despite taking place at a ball, contains a great deal of information about the clergy, we have an interesting enumeration of the duties of a clergyman, as understood by Mr. Collins:
“The rector of a parish has much to do.—In the first place, he must make such an agreement for tythes as may be beneficial to himself and not offensive to his patron. He must write his own sermons; and the time that remains will not be too much for his parish duties, and the care and improvement of his dwelling, which he cannot be excused from making as comfortable as possible. And I do not think it of light importance that he should have attentive and conciliatory manners towards every body, especially towards those to whom he owes his preferment. I cannot acquit him of that duty; nor could I think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards any body connected with the family.” And with a bow to Mr. Darcy, he concluded his speech, which had been spoken so loud as to be heard by half the room.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 18
The “agreement for tythes” that Mr. Collins mentions here is a reference to the fact that most of the income from a living came from then ten percent of the area’s farm production the living was entitled to. This was paid “in-kind” (meaning the clergy received payment in produce) until the Tithe Act of 1836, which replaced this system with monetary payments.
However this wasn’t the first attempt at converting tithing from agricultural payment to currency. A few years earlier, in 1823, parliament passed the Tithe Composition Act, which required Irish farmers to pay monetary payments to the Anglican Church in Ireland instead of in-kind payments of farm produce.
Seeing how the majority of Ireland were Roman Catholics at the time and already hated being forced to support the Anglican church through tithes, this did not go over well, leading to the “tithe war”, a series of sometimes violent uprisings and persecutions between Irish Catholics and their Anglican neighbors until a series of changes were made to the tithing laws.
Can you turn down a dance request at a Regency ball? What exactly were shoe roses? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 17.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 17 opens with Jane and Elizabeth sitting outside, reviewing Mr. Wickham’s story. While Jane finds it hard to believe that Mr. Darcy could behave in such a way, she equally finds it hard to believe that Mr. Wickham would invent such a story. Meanwhile, Mr. Bingley and his sisters arrive to invite the family to the Netherfield Ball. Mr. Collins takes this opportunity to secure the first two dances from Elizabeth.
Two Dances
As the ball is being discussed, Elizabeth is caught off guard when Mr. Collins makes a special request:
Elizabeth’s spirits were so high on this occasion, that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to Mr. Collins, she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept Mr. Bingley’s invitation, and if he did, whether he would think it proper to join in the evening’s amusement; and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head, and was very far from dreading a rebuke either from the Archbishop, or Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by venturing to dance.
“I am by no means of the opinion, I assure you,” said he, “that a ball of this kind, given by a young man of character, to respectable people, can have any evil tendency; and I am so far from objecting to dancing myself, that I shall hope to be honoured with the hands of all my fair cousins in the course of the evening; and I take this opportunity of soliciting yours, Miss Elizabeth, for the two first dances especially, a preference which I trust my cousin Jane will attribute to the right cause, and not to any disrespect for her.”
Elizabeth felt herself completely taken in. She had fully proposed being engaged by Mr. Wickham for those very dances; and to have Mr. Collins instead! her liveliness had never been worse timed. There was no help for it, however
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 17
As we learned back in chapter 3, Regency balls consisted of several pairs of dances, sometimes referred to as “sets”. You typically kept the same partner for a set, but unless you were particularly affectionate (and publicly so), you would not dance with the same partner for more than one set.
Unfortunately for Elizabeth, it was also considered improper for a young lady to refuse to dance with a young man who asked her.
The Attentions of Mr. Collins
Elizabeth’s misfortune continues in this chapter as she suddenly realizes what his asking her to dance the first two dances must represent:
She was not the better pleased with his gallantry from the idea it suggested of something more. It now first struck her, that SHE was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form a quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible visitors.
The idea soon reached to conviction, as she observed his increasing civilities toward herself, and heard his frequent attempt at a compliment on her wit and vivacity; and though more astonished than gratified herself by this effect of her charms, it was not long before her mother gave her to understand that the probability of their marriage was extremely agreeable to HER. Elizabeth, however, did not choose to take the hint, being well aware that a serious dispute must be the consequence of any reply. Mr. Collins might never make the offer, and till he did, it was useless to quarrel about him.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 17
Shoe Roses
Unfortunately things continue to look dismal for Elizabeth and her sisters, thanks to a persistent streak of bad weather:
If there had not been a Netherfield ball to prepare for and talk of, the younger Miss Bennets would have been in a very pitiable state at this time, for from the day of the invitation, to the day of the ball, there was such a succession of rain as prevented their walking to Meryton once. No aunt, no officers, no news could be sought after–the very shoe-roses for Netherfield were got by proxy.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 17
Every era has its dance customs. And while the wrist corsage is the current accessory of choice for young ladies, in the regency era, it was all about the shoe roses.
According to the Fashion Institute’s Fashion History Timeline, shoe roses began to become popular in the 1600s. They were formed by twisting ribbons into a rosette or gathering them into a large ruffled puff, which were then affixed to the instep of the shoe.
Some shoe roses were small and unassuming, while others were up to five inches in diameter and embroidered with jewels.
Shoe roses were worn by both men and women in the 1600s, but by the Regency era, they were primarily worn only by women. The institute points out that you can still find shoe roses on some modern shoes, as well as affixed to ankle ribbons.
Another important note here is that since it was raining so much, the ladies of Longbourn would not be able to secure the shoe roses themselves, but would instead have to send a servant to retrieve them by proxy.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 16.
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 16, the ladies of Longbourn are accompanied by Mr. Collins for an evening at the Philipses. The highlight of the evening is when some of the officers of the regiment join them, and Elizabeth has a chance to get to know Mr. Wickham a little better.
Mr. Wickham
This week, let’s take a moment to examine Mr. Wickham. Austen’s works are sometimes described as “novels of manners”, which according to the Encyclopedia Britannica means:
a work of fiction that re-creates a social world, conveying with finely detailed observation the customs, values, and mores of a highly developed and complex society.
The conventions of the society dominate the story, and characters are differentiated by the degree to which they measure up to the uniform standard, or ideal, of behavior or fall below it.
Encyclopedia Britannica
And that’s certainly true at one level, but at a deeper level, I’ve always thought that a core message found in Austen’s novels is that of a cautionary tale against dating the wrong sorts of men.
Some examples of this include Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park, Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility, Frank Churchill in Emma, Frederick Tilney in Northanger Abbey, and of course, Mr. Wickham.
Wickham’s Self Contradictions
Wickham is handsome and charismatic, and so perhaps it’s understandable that Elizabeth fails to notice the number of times he contradicts himself in this chapter, and it’s not until much later, once she gets to know Mr. Darcy better, that she begins to see the inconsistencies in his behavior.
Opinion on Mr. Darcy
As Elizabeth and Mr. Wickham chat, Mr. Wickham asks after Mr. Darcy, wanting to know how long he’s been in the area, and whether Elizabeth knows him well. After hearing Elizabeth express how disagreeable she finds the man, Wickham begins to open up, though cautiously. At first he claims he can’t give any fair opinion of Darcy, seeing as he’s known him for so long:
“I have no right to give MY opinion,” said Wickham, “as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for ME to be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish–and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else. Here you are in your own family.”
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
But then after learning from Elizabeth that most people in down seem to dislike Darcy, Mr. Wickham decides he will, after all, share his opinion:
“I cannot pretend to be sorry,” said Wickham, after a short interruption, “that he or that any man should not be estimated beyond their deserts; but with HIM I believe it does not often happen. The world is blinded by his fortune and consequence, or frightened by his high and imposing manners, and sees him only as he chooses to be seen.”
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
Not to be Frightened
We don’t see this contradiction take place until a couple of chapters later, but Wickham—now that he knows the prevailing opinion on Darcy, feels confident enough in his perceived moral high ground to claim to have no fear of seeing Mr. Darcy.
“I wonder,” said he, at the next opportunity of speaking, “whether he is likely to be in this country much longer.”
“I do not at all know; but I HEARD nothing of his going away when I was at Netherfield. I hope your plans in favour of the —-shire will not be affected by his being in the neighbourhood.”
“Oh! no–it is not for ME to be driven away by Mr. Darcy. If HE wishes to avoid seeing ME, he must go. We are not on friendly terms, and it always gives me pain to meet him, but I have no reason for avoiding HIM but what I might proclaim before all the world, a sense of very great ill-usage, and most painful regrets at his being what he is.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
Of course later we see that like most things Wickham says about Darcy, this claim is untrue. Wickham is in fact, afraid of Darcy, and refuses to go to the Netherfield ball when invited.
What’s interesting about this contradiction is that that Elizabeth later notices it, but decides to blame Darcy for it rather than wonder at Wickham’s character and still doesn’t question anything else about his story.
Exposing Darcy and his sister
Wickham continues to speak with Elizabeth at length about his connections with the family, explaining that his own father was the steward of Mr. Darcy’s father. A steward in those days acted very much like an XO or second in command, carrying out many regular duties on behalf of his employer.
Wickham then explains how much Mr. Darcy’s father liked him and how jealous it made Darcy. He then shares that Mr. Darcy’s father promised to provide for Wickham in his inheritance by granting him a living, but that Mr Darcy’s jealousy led him to deny Wickham what was rightfully his.
As we discussed in a previous episode, the assignment a clergyman had was referred to as a “living”, and it could produce varying amounts of income, depending on its size, management, and the composition of parishioners who lived within its boundaries. Wealthy landowners often had access to one or more livings they could grant to clergy of their choice.
When Elizabeth asks Wickham why he doesn’t tell more people this story, he claims he could never bring himself to speak ill of the family, due to his affection for Darcy’s late father:
“Some time or other he WILL be–but it shall not be by ME. Till I can forget his father, I can never defy or expose HIM.”
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
At this point, Wickham has completely forgotten his earlier statements that he isn’t qualified to give a fair opinion on this subject, and proceeds to further criticize Darcy’s character, outlining the faults he’s known about him since childhood.
When Elizabeth asks about Mr. Darcy’s younger sister, Georgianna, Wickham also has no trouble sharing her faults:
He shook his head. “I wish I could call her amiable. It gives me pain to speak ill of a Darcy. But she is too much like her brother–very, very proud. As a child, she was affectionate and pleasing, and extremely fond of me; and I have devoted hours and hours to her amusement. But she is nothing to me now.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
We can only assume that Wickham is in a great deal of agony at this point, having had to speak ill of so many Darcy’s.
Parting Thoughts on Wickham
This quote at the end of the chapter is a good summary of Wickham’s public behavior and its influence over Elizabeth.
Whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully. Elizabeth went away with her head full of him. She could think of nothing but of Mr. Wickham, and of what he had told her, all the way home;
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 16
This same set of traits are used to describe many of Austen’s more infamous male characters.
A consistent theme in Austen’s novels is that while people are quick to trust men who are highly charismatic and amiable, it is often the quiet, more serious men who prove to be more trustworthy in the end.
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.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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.
Why were Regency clergymen so popular? Why is Lydia appalled at Mr. Collins’ choice to read Fordyce’s Sermons? Just how were ladies presented to the monarchy? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 14.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 14 picks up right as dinner with Mr. Collins ends. Mr. Bennet invites Mr. Collins to discuss his patroness, Mrs. Bennet asks some further questions about Lady Catherine and her daughter, and towards the end of the chapter, Mr. Collins is invited to read the ladies.
Even though one of the best parts of this chapter is listening to Mr. Collins be absurd, there is also a lot of interesting history around what is said, so this week’s episode will be a bit longer than usual.
Regency Sermons
At the start of the chapter, Mr. Bennet asks Mr. Collins about his patroness, Lady Catherine. Let’s listen to a clip of his response. As always, our audio clips come courtesy of Karen Savage and Librivox.org:
The subject elevated him to more than usual solemnity of manner; and with a most important aspect he protested that he had never in his life witnessed such behaviour in a person of rank—such affability and condescension, as he had himself experienced from Lady Catherine. She had been graciously pleased to approve of both the discourses which he had already had the honour of preaching before her.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 14
Sermons were the TikTok of the Regency Era. According to The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon,
The period 1689 — 1901 was “the golden age” of the sermon in Britain. It was the best selling printed work and dominated the print trade until the mid-nineteenth century.
The Oxford Handbook of the British Sermon
While many sermons were discourses on worship, personal religious conviction, and morality, sermons during this time period weren’t confined to these topics.
Sermons were often given on politics, science, culture, civil rights, and patriotism. Historians have pointed out numerous examples in British history where a particularly popular sermon could sway the votes of an entire village, change the outcome of a trial, or even exert a strong enough influence over parliament to affect change at the national level.
And sermons during this time period weren’t the exclusive venue of the clergy either. Laymen and women also preached popular sermons which were often distributed in written form.
Some of the more popular ministers could attract crowds in the thousands, sometimes renting large venues to accommodate their listeners. In addition, traveling preachers carried these sermons across the British Empire.
The most popular sermon of the time was “The Perils of False Brethren”, a sermon given by Anglican clergyman Henry Sacheverell on the dangers posed by any church leader or member of parliament who would alter Church of England doctrine.
Conservative estimates are that there were at least 100,000 copies of this sermon in circulation during the height of its popularity.
Quadrille
Mr. Collins also mentions this invitation from her ladyship:
She had also asked him twice to dine at Rosings, and had sent for him only the Saturday before, to make up her pool of quadrille in the evening.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 14
I mentioned previously that I hoped to never have to describe the rules of another card game. And unfortunately, quadrille is quite possibly the worst game to try and describe over a podcast. One of the reasons Whist became so popular in the mid nineteenth century was because quadrille was just too complicated.
Descriptions of Quadrille in the early 1800s vary quite a bit, as there were many variations and different styles. In addition, books published during that time period that described the game, assumed that the reader was already familiar with the rules.
In fact, an 1822 book on the Quadrille written under the pseudonym “Quanti”, remarks:
I have known it happen, that a party, being desirous to play at Quadrille, has been obliged to forego the pleasure of the entertainment, for want of some one to regulate the various payments.
Quadrille by Quanta
David Parlett, author of A History of Card Games has an original copy of Quanti and notes that it is 96 pages long. Parlett does a good job of summarizing the rules though, and I advise you to check out his book if you are curious about the rules.
One thing I will note though is that during the time period, quadrille was extremely popular in France, and particularly amongst women of the court. So it was considered something of an “upper-class lady’s game”.
Phaeton & Ponies
Let’s transition away from lady’s card games to lady’s modes of conveyance
“She is a most charming young lady, indeed. Lady Catherine herself says that, in point of true beauty, Miss de Bourgh is far superior to the handsomest of her sex; because there is that in her features which marks the young woman of distinguished birth. She is unfortunately of a sickly constitution, which has prevented her making that progress in many accomplishments which she could not otherwise have failed of, as I am informed by the lady who superintended her education, and who still resides with them. But she is perfectly amiable, and often condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies.”
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 14
Back in Episode 12 of Season 1, we had a long discussion about Regency transportation and different types of vehicles, so make sure you listen to that episode if you haven’t already.
But there were a couple I mentioned that I was purposefully leaving out of the discussion for the sake of future episodes. One of those is the Phaeton.
Phaetons are open carriages, typically with oversized wheels and high suspensions that made them relatively dangerous at high speeds. It wasn’t uncommon for people to be thrown out of phaetons, especially the springier models, which were often called “High Flyers”.
In fact, in the 1995 movie adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby mentions that one of the reasons he doesn’t like Colonel Brandon was that he had found fault with the balance of his high flyer. Which, when I first saw that movie, I thought was a special kind of kite.
But as we mentioned a high flyer is a particularly high riding and dangerous model of phaeton. You can catch a glimpse of Willoughby’s high flyer in the movie as he and Marianne race through town.
Though in the book, Willoughby actually says that Brandon “found fault with the hanging of my curricle”.
As we mentioned in our previous discussion of vehicles, the curricle had two wheels instead of four, and was considered the sports car of Regency-era vehicles. Which I think actually suits Willoughby’s character better.
Presenting Ladies
Speaking of character, let’s listen to this exchange between Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins:
“Has she been presented? I do not remember her name among the ladies at court.”
“Her indifferent state of health unhappily prevents her being in town; and by that means, as I told Lady Catherine myself one day, has deprived the British Court of its brightest ornament.
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 14
Being presented at court was what Daniel Poole calls “A major ritual” of British society.
While the exact procedure and qualifications for “presentation to the monarch” has changed over the years, there’s a great children’s book written in 1805 called “The Book of Ranks and Dignities of British Society” that outlines exactly how this process worked during the Regency era.
As a side note, while this book was published anonymously, many people believe it was written by Charles Lamb, who alluded to it in a letter he wrote to his friend Thomas Manning. However other scholars dispute this, claiming that the book shows none of the usual characteristics of Lamb’s writings.
Regardless of who wrote it, since it was written in 1805, it serves as a great source of information on various aspects of British noble society. So if you need to know the minutia of how someone in the Regency era would address a letter to a Baron, or how an Alderman of London took office, it is a great source of information.
According to the text, both men and women were presented to the monarchy to mark significant events. Men were presented to the king in royal reception, which was also called a levee, then to the queen in the adjacent drawing room.
Women were often presented to the queen first. If the king happened to be present during these presentations, they were then presented to the king as well. But usually what happened was that select women were invited by the queen to Windsor for a subsequent presentation to the king.
The actual presentation of both men and women generally proceeded in the same fashion. A card with the presentee’s name, rank, and reason for presentation was given to a steward. In the case of men this was the “Lord of the Bedchamber” (during the time Pride & Prejudice takes place, this would have been William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont); while for women the card was given to the Lord Chamberlain. It’s difficult to say who this would have been, because the dates of Pride and Prejudice are a bit fuzzy and there was a vacancy in the office between 1810 and 1812. But if we assume that had Lady Catherine’s daughter been healthy enough to be presented, she probably would have been presented to the court just prior to that time, so the man who announced her to the queen would have been George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth.
Now, once the lady’s name was read, if the king happened to be there, they would courtesy to his majesty who would then salute them. They would have removed their right glove, just in case the king wanted to kiss her hand, but this rarely happened. Instead, he would usually just salute.
When they were presented to the queen, the ceremony differed depending on the lady’s rank. Those whose rank was gave them a formal address of “right honorable” or higher, would approach the queen with the glove of their right hand removed, as if to receive a kiss. They would then courtesy before her majesty, who would then salute them.
Those of lower ranks would leave their gloves on, courtesy so low as to almost be kneeling, and kiss the queen’s hand.
Now, just who warranted the title of address “Right Honorable” or higher is a bit complicated. It depended on a combination of your parent’s rank and, if you were married, the rank of your husband.
For example, if you were the wife of a duke, your title of formal address would be “Most Honorable”, which is higher than “High Honorable”. Sort of like Summa cum Laude instead of Magna cum Laude in academics.
However the daughter of a Duke would be announced as “The Lady”, which is lower ranked than “Right Honorable”. If that daughter married say, the eldest son of an Earl, she would be addressed as “Right Honorable”, but if she married a younger son of an Earl, her address would remain “The Lady”. This is one more reason why some women like Miss Crawford in Mansfield Park were more interested in marrying an eldest son.
The rules are complicated, and as I mentioned back in Season 1 when we discussed the ranks and forms of address for Sir Walter and Lady Dalrymple, if you’re interested in the nuances of getting forms of address correct, I highly recommend Laura Ann Wallace’s website on “Peerage Basics”.
Now that we know more about how presentations worked, there remains the question of who actually got to be presented and why.
Women of rank, that is the wife or daughter of a knight or higher, could be presented upon entering society. This usually occurred when they were seventeen or eighteen years old.
Women could also be presented when they got married, or if their name changed for some other reason (such as their husband being appointed to a new rank in the peerage), if they were traveling abroad (even to Ireland), or if they had been appointed to some special position or to carry out a service by the monarchy.
Men were presented upon obtaining a commission in the army, being promoted as an officer within the army or navy, or if they had been appointed to a position in the government or the church.
Fordyce’s Sermons
Before we wrap up, one more quick note on a book mentioned in this chapter. Mr. Bennet grows tired of entertaining his guest and suggests he reads to the ladies:
Mr. Collins readily assented, and a book was produced; but on beholding it (for everything announced it to be from a circulating library) he started back, and, begging pardon, protested that he never read novels. Kitty stared at him, and Lydia exclaimed. Other books were produced, and after some deliberation he chose “Fordyce’s Sermons.” Lydia gaped as he opened the volume;
Pride & Prejudice – Chapter 14
Fordyce’s Sermons was a very popular two-volume collection of sermons, written by a Scottish clergyman named James Fordyce. They are sometimes referred to as “Sermons to Young Women”.
I mentioned earlier how preachers were the social media influencers of the Regency era, and Fordyce was one of the most popular preachers in London in the late 1700s. But by the turn of the century, some women had begun to feel that his strictures on the proper role and behavior of young women were a bit old-fashioned, as evidenced by Lydia’s reaction here.
While I don’t like to get into deeper literary analysis on this podcast, Fordyce’s Sermons deserves a bit of a special mention.
While many people claim that Austen would have taken offense at Fordyce’s views on women, some Austen scholars consider Lydia’s reaction to Fordyce to be a foreshadowing of her fate in the novel.
Many of the warnings that Elizabeth later gives to her father about Lydia and Kitty’s behaviors, the subsequent discussions she has with Jane and her aunt about Lydia, Wickham’s behaviors and attractions, and Lydia’s ultimate fate are all in line with many of the warnings espoused by Fordyce.
Based on this, and the fact that Austen was the daughter of a clergyman, some scholars believe that Austen was in agreement with much of what Fordyce wrote.
How exactly did entails work? Why were they so popular? What rites did Mr. Collins perform as a clergyman? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 13.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 13 introduces us to Mr. Collins. He’s the cousin of the Longbourn sisters, and is next inline to inherit the estate once Mr. Bennet dies. This fact doesn’t win him any points in Mrs. Bennet’s eyes.
Entails and Inheritance
Before Mr. Collins arrives, he writes a letter informing the family that he has invited himself over for a visit. Let’s listen to a brief clip from that letter, and as always our audio clips come courtesy of Karen Savage and Librivox.org:
“About a month ago I received this letter, and about a fortnight ago I answered it; for I thought it a case of some delicacy, and requiring early attention. It is from my cousin, Mr. Collins, who, when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases.”
“Oh, my dear,” cried his wife, “I cannot bear to hear that mentioned. Pray do not talk of that odious man. I do think it is the hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own children; and I am sure, if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it.”
Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail. They had often attempted it before: but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason; and she continued to rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 13
Well, in case Mrs. Bennet is listening, we’re going to take a few minutes to explain the nature of an entail, and a bit about regency estate law.
But first, I just have to point out this little quip by Mr. Bennet. Pretty much everything Mr. Bennet says in the novel is a mixture of dry humor and sarcasm, and while Elizabeth often gets the spotlight for being the voice of Jane Austen’s “witty social commentary”, Mr. Bennet has his fair share of quips as well.
A great example in this chapter is his comment that he felt that this letter of Mr. Collins was a matter of some delicacy and required “early attention”. But he also says that he received the letter a month ago, didn’t answer it until two weeks after he received it, and then two weeks after that , he brings it up to the rest of the family.
So now, on to the infamous entail.
In the early days of the English aristocracy, the right of primogeniture was fairly well established. This was the right of the first born son to inherit his father’s estate, rather than having that estate divided amongst all the children.
There are a bunch of reasons why this happened, but one of the main reasons for its beginnings was social influence and security. Adam Smith writes about this in the classic economics text, The Wealth of Nations:
When land was considered as the means, not of subsistence merely, but of power and protection, it was thought better that it should descend undivided to one. In those disorderly times, every great landlord was a sort of petty prince. His tenants were his subjects. He was their judge, and in some respects their legislator in peace and their leader in war. He made war according to his own discretion, frequently against his neighbours, and sometimes against his sovereign. The security of a landed estate, therefore, the protection which its owner could afford to those who dwelt on it, depended upon its greatness. To divide it was to ruin it, and to expose every part of it to be oppressed and swallowed up by the incursions of its neighbours.
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
So primogeniture had two main goals. First, to make sure a family’s land remained intact, by not dividing it amongst all the children. And second, to keep the land tied to the family’s name by making sure only the oldest son inherited. Because if a daughter inherited the estate and then married, that estate would then pass to a new family line.
But primogeniture is only half of the story here. Because that right alone did not stop the heir from parcelling up the land to sell it off as he pleased.
So in addition to the right of primogeniture, there were also Entail restrictions.
The English law governing how entails worked was codified in a 1285 statute called De donis conditionalibus, which sounds a bit like a Harry Potter spell.
There were basically two ways to inherit land in English law: “Fee simple” and “fee tail”. First, the term “fee” is a latin derivative of the word “fief”, which just means “estate of land”. You can think of “fee simple” as “the land is simply yours to do what you want”, whereas “fee tail” inheritance says you can’t sell the estate to anyone except your rightful heir (often referred to as the “tenant in tail”).
The rules around this restriction are complicated and vary somewhat over the years, so sometimes different estates would have slightly differing rules about how they could be inherited, how that chain of custody could be altered, and how long the entail lasted.
Typically, because of rules against perpetuities — that is, putting a permeant restriction on land, an entail lasted until 21 years after the death of those creating the entail.
However, families with particular pride often worked around this restriction by renewing entails in each generation. But, this had to be done with both the current owner’s and heir’s consent. While that might seem difficult to pull off, it was actually relatively easy.
Imagine you’re the heir of a large estate. You’ve been brought up all your life as the chosen one set to inherit everything. And maybe because of that, you’ve never been to fussed about financial prudence.
One day your father calls you into his study and says, “Son, I don’t want you selling off our family’s ancestral land to just anyone.”
“Of course I won’t father. You know me…Mr. Family pride…”
Your father narrows his eyes at you, perhaps thinking of our outstanding gambling debts and the wonton way that you spend money when you visit London.
He smiles. “Of course son, of course. But just to give you an extra incentive, I want you to sign this legally binding entail that will prohibit you from selling the land to anyone except your heir.”
Now, this goes against your plans for financial freedom and “being your own man”, so you hesitate a little.
Your father smiles again and says, “Son, I can see this is difficult for you. So in exchange for signing this document, I will sign one of my own that guarantees you an annual living allowance until I leave this earth. Now, if you don’t want either of us to sign these things, well…” he shrugs as if to say, “good luck finding the funds to pay for your extravagant lifestyle.
You look at your father, who is in relatively good health, and will likely live at least another ten or twenty years. Sighing, you sign the papers. Now the land is entailed until 21 years after you die.
Unless you decide to have a similar conversation with your heir one day.
Most legal scholars agree that the 1925 Law of Property Act ended the ability of estates to be entailed, though some maintain that certain restrictive aspects of the entail still exist in the form of things like conservation easements, rights of first refusal, and deed covenants, all of which serve the purpose of allowing a former land owner to set the terms by which land may be used by successive owners.
Patronage
Let’s talk briefly about Mr. Collins’ relationship with Lady Catherine:
I have been so fortunate as to be distinguished by the patronage of the Right Honourable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, widow of Sir Lewis de Bourgh, whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of this parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her Ladyship, and be ever ready to perform those rites and ceremonies which are instituted by the Church of England.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 13
Last season we discussed how in regency times, the term “patron” in had three common meanings.
It could mean a patron of the arts, someone who paid to support one or more artists in their work. The term could also refer to someone who donated money or resources to a charitable cause.
But here the term patron refers to patronage in the church, which was the right a wealthy landholder had to appoint a living to a clergyman.
The assignment a clergyman had was referred to as a “living”, and it could produce varying amounts of income, depending on its size, management, and the composition of parishioners who lived within its boundaries.
We’ll talk more about the economics of a living when we discuss Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, where their details are more integral to the plots of those books.
Rites
In the tail end of the earlier quote, Mr. Collins mentions that he is ready to “perform those rites and ceremonies” of the Church of England, which Elizabeth refers to here:
…Elizabeth was chiefly struck with his extraordinary deference for Lady Catherine, and his kind intention of christening, marrying, and burying his parishioners whenever it were required.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 13
These list of “rites” of the Church of England are sometimes referred to as “Rites of Passage” because they mark important transition periods in a person’s life, such as birth, baptism, marriage, and death as they pass along their mortal journey on their path to return to the presence of God.
According to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, which was published in 1571 as the foundational set of doctrines for the Church of England, these rites can be divided into two groups, the set of rites or sacraments instituted by Christ (sometimes called “Sacraments of the Gospel”), and those later adopted or taught by the apostles (sometimes called “Sacraments of the Church”).
The Sacraments of the Gospel include Baptism and Communion (also called the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist). The Sacraments of the Church include confirmation, penance, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction. This latter rite is sometimes referred to as “ministering to the sick” or “anointing the sick”.
Since this is often performed just prior to someone’s death, it is sometimes referred to as “last rites”, though most clergy disapprove of this term because the rite of Extreme Unction is available to anyone who is dangerously ill, not just those who are terminally ill. And therefore someone may receive Extreme Unction more than once during the lifetime.
Before I get a bunch of angry letters accusing me of misconstruing Anglican doctrines, it’s important to note that the beliefs and practices of the Church of England during the regency era are not necessarily exactly the same in all regards as those practiced by its members today.
Nor do all churches that form the Anglican Communion have the exact same interpretation of the 39 articles.
As with all religions, if you want a good overview of the beliefs of the Church of England, or any other Anglican Church, I suggest you reach out to a practicing member.
How do I carry out Regency Research? What got me interested in Jane Austen in the first place, and how is this show produced? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
Transcript
Welcome back to another episode of My Cousin Jane. Normally we’d spend this episode talking about Pride & Prejudice chapter 12. But this chapter is super short at just over 670 words or so, and not that much happens.
Jane is on the mend. And Elizabeth, anxious to leave Netherfield, convinces Jane to borrow Mr. Bingley’s carriage, and they leave right after church on Sunday to return home.
And that’s basically it for Chapter 12.
We could talk a bit about Regency church services, but I’m saving those discussions for our Mr. Collins chapters. So instead, I thought we’d make this episode a little more interactive and go over some reader questions and comments.
Question 1
I’ve gotten a couple of variations on this first question:
How do you approach research for these episodes? Do you just know a bunch of stuff about Regency times? What sources do you use?
First of all, though I love British history I did not study much about it in school. I have a PhD in quantitative genetics, and while that program and subsequent activities didn’t teach me much of anything about British history, it did teach me a lot about how to do research effectively, and how to corroborate information from reliable sources.
One of the things you’ll find as you start to research Regency lore, is that false information spreads pretty quickly, and often without any sources attributed to it.
Even fairly well known Regency writers will fall into this trap, so I try not to take anything at face value, even if it’s something published in a popular novel or research text.
While I find interesting information in all kinds of places, I don’t usually include it in the show unless I can verify the information with what I call my “Primary Regency Sources”.
These sources includes anything written by Austen herself, (including her novels and surviving letters). Things written about Austen by her immediate family members (or extended family and friends who knew her during her lifetime), and the original books, newspaper articles, maps, and periodicals published during the regency era, as well as the Oxford English Dictionary’s historical word usage and meaning reference.
This last one is particularly important because sometimes a word’s meaning will change significantly over the centuries.
There are a lot of secondary sources I really like as well. These include the publications of the Jane Austen Society of North America; the writings of historic site curators, such as the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, and the Jane Austen center in Bath; and articles published in peer-reviewed research journals, usually on period-specific topics rather than on “the regency era” per se.
Now, there are lots of other great resources out there for learning more about Jane Austen and Regency life in general, and I try my best to mention those specifically on the show when I come across them. Sites like the BBC and Jane Austen’s World, and countless books I’ve mentioned over the years.
But, I try to never take any information about the Regency era at face value (and therefore never include it in an episode), unless I can corroborate it with a primary source.
That’s not to say that I don’t get stuff wrong, or won’t get stuff wrong in the future. One interesting thing about history is that a specific fact or conclusion can be presumed true for quite a long time, and then a new discovery of an old letter or text can change everything we thought we knew about subject.
So if you think I’ve got something on the show wrong (and can prove it to me by citing a primary source from the time period), please let me know.
Question 2
The second most common question I get is related to the first.
How do you plan and record each episode?
Typically what I’ll do is scan through the current episode’s chapter, looking for historical bits that I think listeners might find interesting, or which would clarify or add extra depth to the novel.
As I mentioned, I didn’t study British history in school, but at this point I have read a lot of information about Jane Austen and the regency era in general, so I can usually spot when something is going to be interesting.
But sometimes I’ll come across something I’ve glossed over a bunch of times and wonder what its significance is. That will usually send me down a rabbit hole of research.
A good example of this is the discussion way back in episode 5 of season 1, when I talked about Sir Walter’s description of Mrs. Clay as having “a clumsy wrist”.
At first this seems like a throw-away comment by a vain man, but digging a little deeper we learn that during that time period, rickets was a large problem during that time period for the lower class due to malnutrition, and that one of the symptoms was skeletal deformity in the wrist.
So once I learned all this, I knew it was something I wanted to include in the show.
Sometimes I’ll read something interesting and it’ll just stick with me, and I’ll make a note about it to include it in a particular episode. This is particularly true with Austen’s family life, where you find out so much about Austen’s understanding of the Navy came from her brother’s service, or her understanding of the clergy came from the fact that her father was a clergyman.
But once I have a general outline of the facts I want to discuss, and I’ve verified things using the primary sources I discussed previously, I write out a draft script for the episode.
Then I prepare the audio for the clips I want to use. I’ve mentioned in probably every episode that I get those from Karen Savage’s performances on Librivox.org.
On the more technical side of things, I use a few tools from Rogue Amoeba to do the prep work and recording. These include Fission for audio editing, Audio Hijack for recording, and Farrago for queuing up audio clips and the intro and outro clips.
Once the raw recording is done, I clean things up in Final Cut Pro, which is normally something I use for video editing, but its magnetic timelines and audio scrubbing tools make it really great for editing podcasts as well.
Once that’s done, I upload a reasonable transcript to the blog at CousinJane.com, and then post the episode on Buzzsprout, our podcast host. They then take care of syndicating it to various catalogues, like Spotify and Apple Music.
Each episode probably takes me 5 to 10 hours to research, write, record, and edit.
On the hardware side, the only recording hardware I have is a Blue snowball mic, though I would love to upgrade to a Yeti mic, or an Elegato Wave, and maybe pick up a Stream Deck, but those are down the road purchases.
Question 3
Our final question today is:
How did you first get interested in Jane Austen and the Regency Era?
When I was going to graduate school, I had a pretty long commute, about an hour each way several times a week, and I was always on the lookout for new audiobooks that would make this drive less monotonous.
While I had an Audible subscription, I would listen to books faster than my Audible credits could keep up with, and then I discovered Librivox. Librivox is a fantastic service, and their volunteers provide public domain audio recordings of public domain books.
One thing you’ll notice pretty quickly is that there is a wide variety of narration quality. Many of the more popular titles have several different audio versions, all by different narrators.
Well, I started listening to a book narrated by Karen Savage, I think it was Anne of Green Gables. Then when I’d finished that, I looked for other titles she’d narrated and started listening to Pride & Prejudice.
Something about those books really helped me to deal with the stresses of being a young father working full time while also going to grad school.
I think Winston Churchill said it best when he talks about his own experience having Pride & Prejudice read to him while he was recovering from pneumonia:
The days passed in much discomfort. Fever flickered in and out. The doctors tried to keep the work away from my bedside…They all kept on saying, “Don’t work, don’t worry,” to such an extent that I decided to read a novel.
I had long ago read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and now I thought I would have Pride and Prejudice. Sarah read it to me beautifully from the foot of the bed…What calm lives they had, those people! No worries about the French Revolution, or the crashing struggle of the Napoleonic Wars. Only manners controlling natural passion so far as they could, together with cultured explanations of any mischances.
How exactly does one make a white soup for a Regency Ball? What’s negus and why was it added to soup? Did one drink it, or eat it, or both? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
by Martha Lloyd, Julienne Gehrer, and Deirdre Le Fay
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 11.
Chapter Summary
In chapter 11 Jane is feeling well enough to join Elizabeth and the Netherfield gang in the drawing room. After making sure Jane is warm enough, they start discussing Charles’ idea of having a ball at Netherfield, and the rest of the evening is spent in a playful banter. Playful at least on Elizabeth’s part.
White Soup
Let’s jump in to this banter at the point where Caroline asks her brother about the ball. And as always, our audio clips come courtesy of Karen Savage and Librivox.org:
“By the bye Charles, are you really serious in meditating a dance at Netherfield? I would advise you, before you determine on it, to consult the wishes of the present party; I am much mistaken if there are not some among us to whom a ball would be rather a punishment than a pleasure.”
“If you mean Darcy,” cried her brother, “he may go to bed, if he chooses, before it begins; but as for the ball, it is quite a settled thing, and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough I shall send round my cards.”
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 11
There are a lot of interesting things to discuss about Regency balls. We talked about some of them in previous episodes, and we’ll talk about a bunch more in the future. But today I want to talk about white soup.
If you search for white soup recipes, you’ll find a lot of “Regency inspired” white soup recipes. One thing you’ll notice about them is that they are all quite different.
That’s because even during the Regency era, there were a lot of ways to make white soup. There were really fancy versions made by the aristocracy (or rather, by their servants), as well as many versions of what we might think of as “more economic” white soup.
If you ask someone why “white soup” is called “white”, you’ll hear a lot of different explanations. Some people claim that it was always made without red meat, but this wasn’t even true in Regency times. Others claim that it’s because of the ground almonds, or cream, or some other ingredient.
The fact is that it’s impossible to say definitively, because you can easily find variations on this recipe that go back to the early 1600s, and many historians believe the recipe originates in the Middle Ages.
There’s also some disagreement about how white soup was usually served at Regency balls. Some writers portray it as a traditional soup, which you would sit down at a table and eat from a bowl. While others convey the impression that it was served more like a warm punch.
The only thing that can be said conclusively about white soup is that it usually “looked white” and could be made lots of different ways.
If you want to know the kind of white soup Jane Austen ate at home, you can grab a copy of Martha Lloyd’s Household Book, a collection of handwritten recipes and medicinal remedies from Jane Austen’s friend / housekeeper, Martha Lloyd.
Finding themselves very firmly in the more “economic” side of society, the white soup prepared by the Austen family was relatively simple:
Make a gravy of any kind of meat, add to it the yolks of four eggs boiled hard and pounded very fine, 2 oz. of sweet almonds pounded, as much cream as will make it a good colour.
Martha Lloyd’s Household Book
But for a more refined recipe, we can turn to the most popular cookbook of the early 19th century, A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Rundell. Though this book was first published in 1806, its recipes were in wide use before that time.
Take a scrag of mutton, a knuckle of veal, after cutting off as much meat as will make collops, two or three shank bones of mutton nicely cleaned and a quarter of a pound of very fine undrest lean gammon of bacon: with a bunch of sweet herbs, a piece of lemon-peel, two or three onions, three blades of mace and a desert spoonful of white pepper; boil all in three quarts of water till the meat falls quite to pieces. Next day take off the fat, clear the jelly from the sediment, and put it in a saucepan of the nicest tin. If macaroni is used it should be added soon enough to get perfectly tender, after soaking in cold water. Vermicelli may be added after the thickening, as it requires less time to do.
Have ready the thickening which is to be made as follows: Blanch a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds, and beat them to a paste in a marble mortar, with a spoonful of water to prevent their oiling; mince a large slice of drest veal or chicken and beat it with a piece of stale white bread; add all this to a pint of thick cream, a bit of fresh lemon-peel and a blade of mace, in the finest powder. Boil it a few minutes; add to it a pint of soup, and strain and pulp it through a coarse sieve; this thickening is then fit for putting it to the rest, which should boil for an hour afterwards.
A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Rundell
So, clearly the second version is much more involved. Not only does it require more expensive ingredients, (such as veal or mutton rather than “any meat”, more expensive spices, and almonds), the recipe is also much more labor intensive, and requires at least two days to make up a batch.
The funny thing about serving white soup at balls in Regency times was that most people probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between soup made with a fancy recipe compared with a more economical one, because white soup at balls was almost always spiked with negus.
Negus is a type of mulled win, a mixture of port wine, citrus, sugar, and sometimes spices such as nutmeg. The main difference between Regency negus and modern mulled wine is negus was mixed with hot water.
Negus has a very interesting history, and became very popular in the early 1700s. It’s mentioned in the works of a variety of Regency and Victorian writers, including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, William Thackeray, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
This definitely gives more weight to the “served as a warm punch” interpretation, especially when you consider Fanny Price’s reflections at the end of her first ball in Mansfield Park:
creeping slowly up the principal staircase, pursued by the ceaseless country-dance, feverish with hopes and fears, soup and negus, sore-footed and fatigued, restless and agitated, yet feeling, in spite of everything, that a ball was indeed delightful.
Mansfield Park, Chapter 28
Turn about the room
Speaking of rooms and dancing, here’s one more interesting clip from chapter 11:
Miss Bingley made no answer, and soon afterwards got up and walked about the room. Her figure was elegant, and she walked well; but Darcy, at whom it was all aimed, was still inflexibly studious. In the desperation of her feelings, she resolved on one effort more; and, turning to Elizabeth, said,—
“Miss Eliza Bennet, let me persuade you to follow my example, and take a turn about the room. I assure you it is very refreshing after sitting so long in one attitude.”
Elizabeth was surprised, but agreed to it immediately. Miss Bingley succeeded no less in the real object of her civility: Mr. Darcy looked up.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 11
The phrase “take a turn about the room” is such an interesting phrase and it’s a phrase that is so often quoted by people familiar with Pride & Prejudice, that I wondered where it first originated.
The earliest use of it I could find in English was in 1687, in a pamphlet by Roger L’Estrange, whom you might know as the man who first translated Aesops fables into English, though he had a rather interesting political career prior to that, and translated many other important classical texts.
But according to Google’s Ngram graphs of the English language, while you do see the phrase appear in a few places in the 1700 and 1800s, the phrase wasn’t really that popular in English writing until around the year 2005, when its usage rockets up exponentially.
Is Piquet more fun than Loo? Did Mr. Darcy really mend his own pens? Why did he need to and how did he do it? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 10.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 10 is one of my favorite chapters in Pride & Prejudice.
The banter between Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, as well as the attempts on Caroline Bingley’s part to simultaneously disparage Elizabeth and use her to get Mr. Darcy’s attention, are all great examples of Jane Austen’s ability to use smart dialogue and social wit to tell an entertaining story.
Piquet
This week we have yet another Regency card game introduced to us. Let’s listen to this clip courtesy of Karen Savage and Librivox.org:
Elizabeth joined their party in the drawing-room. The loo table, however, did not appear. Mr. Darcy was writing, and Miss Bingley, seated near him, was watching the progress of his letter, and repeatedly calling off his attention by messages to his sister. Mr. Hurst and Mr. Bingley were at piquet, and Mrs. Hurst was observing their game.
Price & Prejudice, Chapter 10
We’ve talked about commerce, Vingt-un, and loo, and this week we find our Netherfield friends playing piquet, which is a two-player trick-taking game.
If you don’t remember how trick-taking games work, go back and review episode 09 of this season, where we talk about the rules of the game of Loo.
Piquet is one of those games that seems really complicated at first, but once you start playing it, it seems really simple. But then once you understand what’s happening, you realize there’s more to it than you thought.
If you want the complete rules to this and many other fascinating historical games, I recommend you check out John McLeod’s popular historical card game reference site, pagat.com, but here’s a quick summary:
You start with a deck of 32 cards containing only the cards 7 through Ace. Each player is dealt twelve cards, which leaves eight in a draw pile.
Players take turns each round as the “Elder” and “Younger” hands. Each round has three phases: exchange, declaration, and trick taking. The elder hand goes first in each phase.
In the exchange phase, the elder hand can exchange up to five cards with the draw pile while the younger can exchange up to three.
In the second, or declaration phase, the elder hand “declares” their best plays in three different categories.
After each declaration, which is done without revealing any cards, the younger hand announces whether they can beat that play or not.
The younger hand then declares their best plays for any category where they announced a better play than the elder hand.
Points are then awarded according to how good each player’s declarations were.
After all the declarations are made, the elder hand leads the trick-taking phase of the round.
What makes piquet so interesting is that even though you never see your opponent’s cards until the trick taking round begins, if you’re paying close attention to what is declared during the declaration phase, you can almost always figure out what cards they have, which allows you to plan your strategy for the trick-taking portion.
It’s a fun game with a few different variations. I recommend you find a copy of the rules and play through it a couple of times with a friend. You can also find digital versions of the game online.
The game is also referred to as Le Cent, and appears under that name in the classic French story, Gargantua and Pantagruel, which we discussed back in Episode 06.
Mending Pens & Dancing Reels
Now, in case card games aren’t your thing, let’s turn our attention to letter writing, and Miss Caroline Bingley’s observations on what a great letter writer Mr. Darcy seems to be:
“You write uncommonly fast.”
“You are mistaken. I write rather slowly.”
“How many letters you must have occasion to write in the course of a year! Letters of business, too! How odious I should think them!”
“It is fortunate, then, that they fall to my lot instead of to yours.”
“Pray tell your sister that I long to see her.”
“I have already told her so once, by your desire.”
“I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well.”
“Thank you—but I always mend my own.”
“How can you contrive to write so even?”
He was silent.
“Tell your sister I am delighted to hear of her improvement on the harp, and pray let her know that I am quite in raptures with her beautiful little design for a table, and I think it infinitely superior to Miss Grantley’s.”
“Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again? At present I have not room to do them justice.”
“Oh, it is of no consequence. I shall see her in January. But do you always write such charming long letters to her, Mr. Darcy?”
“They are generally long; but whether always charming, it is not for me to determine.”
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 10
I just want to take a moment to discuss the idea of mending pens. According to an article written for the Jane Austen Society of North America by Robert Hurford, editor of Editor of Journal for the International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting, mending pens was something that most people preferred to do themselves, though there was difference between mending pens and cutting them into their initial shape.
Most people during the Regency era wrote with either a feature quill, or a graphite pencil. In this scene, Darcy would have been writing with a feather quill and ink.
Turning a feather into a quill was a relatively specialized task, and most people did not do this themselves. But, mending a pen—the feature quill equivalent of sharpening your pencil—was something that most people did prefer to do themselves. But before we talk about how to do it, let’s talk about why it was needed
There were two main kinds of ink in use during that time period, carbon black (made from mixing soot or lamp black with either gum or glue), and iron gall ink (made from soaking gall nuts from an oak tree in water, and then mixing in an iron salt). Both inks were typically sold in powdered form, and you would add water to them before use.
Since this ink is relatively wet, it would cause the tip of the quill to soften and deform as it was used. Most of the time, writers would have three or four quills at hand, and when one became too wet to use, they would switch to another until the wet one dried out.
You could make your tips last a little longer by writing on a softer surface, which is why many regency era writing desks, and the letter writing boxes that were placed on top of writing desks, had soft felt tops.
But mending a pen was relatively straight forward. Most people used a small knife, cleverly referred to as a “pen” knife, to sharpen and reshape the tip of the quill. Though again, you had to wait until the quill was dry before you could mend it.
One last note on this scene: most people during this time period learned to write using English Round Hand style, so we can assume that this is the style of writing Mr. Darcy was using.
If you want to explore the topic of regency handwriting in more detail, I recommend getting a copy of Barbara Heller’s special edition of Pride & Prejudice. Heller used the science of paleography—the study of historic handwriting, to recreate plausible handwriting styles for each of the letters in the novel based on the writer’s personalities and background.
Heller based much of her research on the study of Austen’s handwriting, as well as conversations with expert calligraphers.
Heller’s special edition of Pride & Prejudice includes nineteen hand folded letters with appropriate postmarks, which have been inserted into “pouches placed at just the right moments in the story.”
Why is poetry the food of love? What’s so funny about four-and-twenty families? And how do you play Loo? Find out the answers to these questions and more, in this episode of My Cousin Jane.
Note: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means that every time you click on one and then buy something, I get paid billions of pounds by a secret organization trying to bring back the Regency period…or I get a few fractions of a cent from a company like Amazon, one or the other.
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 9.
Chapter 9 is a relatively short, but very cringeworthy chapter. Not because the writing is bad, but because it is such an accurate portrayal of a very awkward situation.
Elizabeth’s mother and younger sisters come to visit Netherfield to check on Jane. The conversation is more than a bit awkward for Elizabeth, who afterwards quickly retreats to check on Jane.
“Indeed, Mama, you are mistaken,” said Elizabeth, blushing for her mother. “You quite mistook Mr. Darcy. He only meant that there was not such a variety of people to be met with in the country as in town, which you must acknowledge to be true.”
“Certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood, I believe there are few neighbourhoods larger. I know we dine with four-and-twenty families.”
Nothing but concern for Elizabeth could enable Bingley to keep his countenance. His sister was less delicate, and directed her eye towards Mr. Darcy with a very expressive smile. Elizabeth, for the sake of saying something that might turn her mother’s thoughts, now asked her if Charlotte Lucas had been at Longbourn since her coming away.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 9
The joke here is that four-and-twenty families, though a significant number to Mrs. Bennet, is in fact a rather embarrassing boast compared to what families in the highest social circles such as Darcy and the Bingleys are used to.
The Food of Love
Speaking of embarrassing boasts, here’s one about Jane:
“She seems a very pleasant young woman,” said Bingley.
“Oh! dear, yes; but you must own she is very plain. Lady Lucas herself has often said so, and envied me Jane’s beauty. I do not like to boast of my own child, but to be sure, Jane—one does not often see anybody better looking. It is what everybody says. I do not trust my own partiality. When she was only fifteen, there was a gentleman at my brother Gardiner’s in town so much in love with her, that my sister-in-law was sure he would make her an offer before we came away. But, however, he did not. Perhaps he thought her too young. However, he wrote some verses on her, and very pretty they were.”
“And so ended his affection,” said Elizabeth impatiently. “There has been many a one, I fancy, overcome in the same way. I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!”
“I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love,” said Darcy.
“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.”
Price & Prejudice, Chapter 9
Darcy’s comment that “poetry is the food of love” is a reference to a famous Shakespeare quote from Twelfth Night:
If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Twelfth Night, Act 1 Scene 1
Loo
As promised in the previous episode, we’re going to backtrack briefly one chapter and talk about the game of Loo. Here’s a clip from chapter 8 where Elizabeth encounters the game at Netherfield:
On entering the drawing-room she found the whole party at loo, and was immediately invited to join them; but suspecting them to be playing high she declined it, and making her sister the excuse, said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay below, with a book. Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment.
Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 8
I mentioned last time that according to David Parlett, author of A History of Card Games, Loo, also known as “Lanterloo”, is a trick-taking game similar to whist, which most scholars think originated in Holland.
While it was mostly played by the aristocracy in the late 1700s and early 1800s, by the late 1800s it was considered a hallmark of the rough tavern crowd and generally looked down upon.
TRICK-TAKING
Loo is a trick-tacking game. If you’ve never played a trick-taking game, most of them go something like this:
Whomever goes first plays a card, say the four of clubs. The next player has to “follow suit” by playing another club if they have one. If they don’t have one they can either play a trump card or a slough card.
A trump card is a card of a designated suit that beats all the other suits.
For example, if hearts are the trump suit, and the current high card in the trick is the ten of clubs, a player that doesn’t have clubs could play any heart card, which would be the new high card of the trick.
If a trump card is played, the only way for the next player to do better would be to play a higher card in the trump.
So imagine we have four players named Elizabeth, Jane, Bingley, and Darcy, and we say that hearts is the trump suit. Elizabeth goes first and plays a five of spades. Jane has a couple of hearts, but she also has a four of spades, so she must play that because you have to follow suit if you can. So Elizabeth is still winning.
Next Bingley, who doesn’t have any spades, plays a four of hearts. Since this is a card from the trump suit, he is now winning. Finally, Darcy has neither a spade nor a heart, so he can play a slough card (sometimes called a discard) and plays a two of clubs.
Bingley wins the trick.
Notice there are lots of phrases that come from this style of card game that you have probably heard used in other contexts, such as “playing the trump card”, “following suit”, and “missing a trick”.
LOO RULES
Now that you know how trick-taking works, here’s how Loo works. There are three card and five card variations of Loo, but I’ll explain the five card version.
At the start of the game, five chips are added to the pool by the dealer. Each player is dealt five cards, then a card is flipped over to reveal the trump suit for that hand.
Each player looks at their hand and decides if they want to play or fold. If they play, they may exchange any number of their cards for new cards.
Then players proceed to try to win tricks as described above. In five card Loo, there are five possible tricks to be won. For every trick you win, you get one-fifth of the pot.
If you go through a round without winning any tricks, you have been “looed” and you add five more chips to the pool.
There are some additional rules in five-card Loo that can affect play:
First, the jack of clubs is referred to as “Pam”, and trumps everything else in the game.
Second, after the dealing and exchanging of cards, if you have a flush, you can win the entire pool immediately. These are (in order of precedence) a “Pam” flush, which is the Jack of clubs, plus four other cards of the same suit; followed by a trump-flush (five cards of the trump suit); and then a regular flush (five cards of any other suit).
If the pool is won in this way, play begins again.
There are some additional variations on five-card loo, but the most significant is “Unlimited Loo”.
In “Unlimited Loo”, instead of adding five more chips, you have to add an amount equal to the current value of the pool. This version of loo can lead to extremely large amounts being won and lost in a short amount of time.
