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This is a map of Bath as it was in 1803 from my copy of John Feltham’s Guide to all the Watering and Sea-Bathing Places etc, of that year, and I have annotated with the locations of places very much associated with Jane Austen-and ones that we shall be visiting over the next few days. You can, as ever, click on the map to enlarge it.
They are as follows:
1. Walcot Church
2. Queen’s Square
3. The Paragon
4. Sydney Place
5. Green Park Buildings
6. Gay Street
7. Trim Street
8. Great Pultney Street
Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801-1806. During this time her father had died and was buried there and the Austen ladies - Cassandra, Mrs Austen and Jane- had begun to realise exactly what living as quite poor, dependant, unmarried and widowed women meant in the early 19th century…Her intimate know ledge of Bath was used to great effect in her novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, where Bath is a ’character” of the novels in its own right. Eventually in 1806 the Austen ladies left bath, visited nearby Clifton and took a summer tour of relatives in Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire before settling in Southampton.
Prior to settling in the city in 1801 Jane Austen had visited Bath, staying at Queen’s Square and it is there that we will begin our tour of Austen related sites in Bath in the next post. Do join me, won’t you?
Professor Vickery contacted me yesterday to say she had linked Rae’s lovely review of her Fitzroy Square lecture at her website.
She thought you might also like to know of her other forthcoming appearances, and so I list them here for you all to note.
She is doing a reading and holding a question and answer session at the Geffrye Museum in London on 4 March.
As I have already pointed out, and am hoping to attend, Professor Vickery is also giving a lecture at Fairfax House, York on the 18th March. Sadly, she thinks this event is now fully booked, but do note she is hoping to be able to do a repeat performance of the lecture the following morning, the 19th March, as there are already 20 people on waiting list. Do phone Fairfax House to see if they can book you a place, or put you on the waiting list if you are keen on attending it.
On the 19th May she is speaking on the subject of on private lives at the Brighton Festival , and is contributing to what looks like being a lovely interiors & garden history day at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire.
As to radio appearances, on Wednesay the 3rd March, Professor Vickery is appearing on BBC Radio 4 on Thinking Allowed, talking about 18th century servants with Laurie Taylor and Carolyn Steedman : this will be available on the Listen Again feature and as a podcast.
Finally I ought to pass on Professor Vickery’s comments about our little community here:
I cannot tell you how cheering it is to know that there’s so much genuine and knowledgable enthusiasm for the 18th century out there.
I think that sums us up nicely!
From Sunday we shall begin a series of post about Jane Austen and the places with which she was associated in Bath- primarily the places in which she and her family lived.
So do join me to find out more about Queen’s Square, Sydney Place, Walcot Church….and much, much more
Rae, a friend of AustenOnly,and someone who will be already known to some of you, was lucky enough to go to Amanda Vickery’s Lecture at the Georgian Group’s headquarters this week. She kindly consented to write a report of it for me, and so I have great pleasure in posting it here for you all to read.
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Amanda Vickery ,23 February 2010
Amanda Vickery gave an animated and fascinating lecture based on her recent book ‘Behind Closed Doors‘ to a packed room at the Georgian group. She began by describing the ways in which the rituals of ‘visiting’ both transformed and reflected polite society in Georgian England.
(A Family at Tea circa 1725)
The role of tea and its associated paraphernalia was illustrated by slides of the range of teapots in circulation and a discussion of the commodification of that paraphernalia – the search by silversmiths in the early part of the century for ways to cash in on the drink’s popularity led to the disaster of silver handled pots and silver cups – and the development of what we now instantly recognize as the shape of a teapot.
Another lovely slide showed an accounting book for visiting, with all the socially important addresses in London and columns for the recording ‘in’ and ‘out’ of cards. I particularly enjoyed her description, in the Q&A session, of the ’set dressing’ that went on for many households. Houses or apartments taken for the season might be freshly papered for tenants, and furniture could be rented by the season.
(An English Family at Tea by Jospeh van Aken circa 1720)
Beyond this, she provided an analysis of the gendered nature of domestic life, often made visible to us now through instances of the norms and expectations of marital relations being denied or failed; the sad letters of wives whose husbands did not allow them the expected authority to order either the home or the activities within it. More happily many other couples shared the rights and responsibilities of setting up home (a man’s seriousness and willingness in discussing such things before marriage was an omen for the future) and she reminded us that there was no suggestion of effeminacy in a man’s taking an interest in choosing and decorating the home.
The Dinner-Locust or the Advantages of a Keen Scent from “Behind Closed Doors”
Her work is particularly interesting for the way she explores masculinity, and an important insight she gives us is into the significance of marriage and the home to men. We are familiar with their importance in the lives of women, particularly those Austen women we all love and care about, but she reminds us that a bachelor’s lot was seen as a rather limited one, and that marriage, with its accompanying establishment of a home, was as much the gateway to adulthood for men as it was for women.
(James Farrell Phillips by Zoffany)
‘Behind Closed Doors’ is a joy of a book, full of detailed and evidenced insights (how could we not love a book which uses Jane Austen as a primary source?) and Amanda Vickery’s lecture was an excellent elaboration and discussion of its themes.
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Thank you so much ,Rae for your considered and detailed report of what must have been a fabulous lecture. Behind Closed Doors has very quickly become one of my favourite books on this era(I only wish it were available on Kindle then I’d have it with me always!)and I think you will join me in recommending it highly.
Thank you so much once again for allowing us all to share your wonderful experience.
Jane Austen, Cassandra and Mrs Austen lived with and Mary Austen, wife of Frank, in Southampton from 1806 to 1809.
The old port of Southampton had by this time long been in decline but when Jane Austen lived there Southampton had a short lived popularity as a fashionable place to live, take the waters and bathe in the Solent. From the mid 18th century, new houses were built, inns were modernised and communications with London improved and the fashionably rich built villas in the surrounding countryside. Promenades were created and shops boomed along with circulating libraries etc.
This is a general description of it from my copy of A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places etc (1803) by John Feltham
EQUALLY adapted for health, pleasure, and commerce, Southampton, distant about seventy-seven miles from London, is bounded on the east by the river Itchin which flows past the ancient city of Winchester, and on the west by the Tese or Anton, which rises near Whitchurch. It occupies a kind of peninsula, the soil of which is a hard gravel ; and, as the buildings rise from the water with a gentle ascent, the streets are always clean and dry. The approach from the London road is uncommonly striking and grand; in fact, it is almost unparalleled in the beauty of its features, for the space of two miles. At first appear an expanse of water, and the distant Isle of Wight, the charming scenery of the New Forest, and Southampton itself, in pleasing perspective. Elegant seats and rows of trees, nearer the town, line the road on both sides ; and, on entering the place, by one of its most fashionable streets, that venerable remain of antiquity the Bargate, gives a finish to the scene, and fixes the impression of the objects through which we have passed.
But by the time of Jane Austen’s death in 1817 its star had faded, and it was only with the introduction of the railway system, in the 1840s that Southampton once again became a port and place of some import.
However, it was undoubtedly a pleasant place to be in Jane Austen’s time:
THE lovely situation of Southampton, the elegance of its buildings, the amenity of its environs, and the various other attractions which it possesses, in a very high degree, will always render it a place of fashionable residence, as well as of frequent resort. As a sea-bathing place, indeed, it has less reputation than some others that are described in this work. It has no machines, nor is its beach favorable for immersion; the marine is, also, deeply mixed with the fresh water; but, if the opinion of those is correct, who maintain, that water acts only by the shock and ablution, and that one cold or one warm bath is the same as another, Southampton, notwithstanding the disadvantages we have mentioned, is as eligible as any other station on the coast, and, in many respects, it is superior. The air is soft and mild, and sufficiently impregnated with saline particles to render it agreeable, and even salutary, to those who cannot endure a full exposure to the sea, on a bleak and open shore.
(See: A Guide to all the Watering and Sea-bathing Places etc (1803) by John Feltham)
Jane Austen as we know from her letters was a keen play goer, and there was a theatre in Southampton which she could visit. However, the theatre in Southampton was a far cry from the theatres she knew in Bath and in London. It was a place where amateur and provincial theatre companies performed. I suppose we can assume that the performances Jane Austen saw there were probably not always first rate evenings.
The first theater built in Southampton as not at all salubrious, despite this description of it, again from The Guide to all the Watering Places etc by John Fletham (1803):
THE Theatre, which was built by subscription in 1766, is commodious, and capable of admitting a large audience. It is under the management of Messrs. Collins and Davies, who exert themselves to give satisfaction, and have a full attendance during the season.
They usually open their campaign in the beginning of August, and perform every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, till the end of October, after which they take a regular circuit to Portsmouth, Chichester, and Winchester.
This theatre was however thought to be in such a run down and dowdy condition that the Company-the fashionable people who visited Southampton to take the waters or to bathe, or lived in the fashionable villas, did not care to go there. So in 1803-4 a new theatre opened in French Street, almost exactly opposite the site of the old theatre:
The Theatric Tourist (1805) written by the actor/manager James Winston , gives this account of the history of the new theatre:
The elegant fashionables visiting Southampton refused to patronize the theatre on consequence of its ruinous condition and most deplorable entrance; therefore as the lease was nearly out on the 12th September 1803 they commenced campaigning in another built under the regulation of Mr Slater. Collins gave 450 guineas for St John’s Hospital and the ground on which it stood in French Street nearly opposite the former theatre: the charity being discontinued this old building furnished him with ample materials for this new one. He says his theatre cost him £3000 which with due deference we should suppose an error; if we give credit for £2000 besides the purchase of the ground we think it not amiss.
He did not think much of the interior of the theatre, and as an actor/manager his opinion has some worth:
It has a bad gallery; the Pit is much too low; the Stage is short and the Boxes so near the Pit that the lower tier resemble the Orchester (sic) boxes of Drury lane the company appearing to sit below the level of the stage. The old theatre had this fault also; but we acknowledge the Green Room to be good. The house holds upwards of £100; 4 shillings admission to the lower boxes, which have a good lobby; as have also the upper tier. Charges £23. The benefit of favourite performers generally amounts to £60 or £70 .
The illustration of the theatre which was included in The Theatric Tourist and was also drawn by James Winston has this withering “explanation”:
The right hand entrance is to the Boxes to which there are two lobbies, lighted by the only two windows in the elevation; the door on the left is to the Pit,gallery and Stage; here the old saying is verified,”spoil the ship”etc.,- for the niche over each door,meant undoubtedly for Statues of Tragedy and Comedy; and the plinth at the top for the Royal Arms, both remain blanks.
As Southampton had minor fashionable status as a spa and sea-bathing resort- Charles Dibdin, the dramatist,
who was born in Southampton, related the popularity of Southampton to the increasing number of;
“genteel families who have made it their residence-
it is no surprise that stars from the London stage made occasional visits-for example Mrs Siddons visited in 1802
and Dorothea Jordan, one of Jane Austen’s favourites
appeared there in 1803.
We know that Jane Austen took the opportunity, while in Southampton, to visit the theatre. She took her niece Fanny Knight to the theatre in French Street on 14th September 1807, (Fanny recorded the event in her diary) and that night they saw the famous comedy actor, John Bannister
in “The Way to Keep Him” .
Interestingly The Way to Keep Him by Arthur Murphy includes the following lines, spoken by Sir Brilliant Fashion:
Never be so abrupt. Who knows but Lady Constant may be the happy wife, the Cara Sposa of the piece ! and then, you in love with her, and she laughing at you for it, will give a zest to the humour, which every body will relish in the most exquisite degree.
(Act II)
Paula Byrne in her book Jane Austen and the Theatre posits the theory that Jane Austen, after hearing the phrase Cara Spousa delivered with relish at Southampton, then took this ‘fashionable Italisniam” and ran with it in Emma:
For Emma there is no clearer mark of Mrs Elton’s vulgarity than her references to her husband as “Mr E “ and “my caro sposo”…Scholars have debated the source of Austen’s use of the phrase, but no one has noticed its presence in Murphy’s comedy, where spoken by the coxcomb Sir Brilliant Fashion, it surely got a laugh in the theatre.
Amateur dramatic performances took place in the theatre as well as professional ones.
In 1807 Hume’s tragedy Douglas- was performed at the French Street theatre by the local grammar school boys for the benefit of British prisoners of war in France.
This may explain why Jane Austen put these words into Tom Bertram’s mouth in Mansfield Park , when he was reminiscing about reading aloud at home as a young lad;
“And I am convinced to the contrary. Nobody is fonder of the exercise of talent in young people, or promotes it more, than my father, and for anything of the acting, spouting, reciting kind, I think he has always a decided taste. I am sure he encouraged it in us as boys. How many a time have we mourned over the dead body of Julius Caesar, and to be’d and not to be’d, in this very room, for his amusement? And I am sure, my name was Norval, every evening of my life through one Christmas holidays”
Mansfield Park , Chapter 13.
Jane Austen certainly had the opportunity of seeing this play at the theatre, and I would not be surprised if she had seen these productions at Southampton and they had made a mark.
I do love these speculations, don’t you?
Elliston, she tells us has just succeeded to a considerable fortune on the death of an Uncle. I would not have it enough to take him from the Stage; she should quit her business, & live with him in London
Letter to Cassandra Austen dated 20th Feburary ,1807
This of us who may occasionally be keen to hear some gossip about out favourite actors and actresses can take hart: Jane Austen like to gossip about her faves too. As this tiny snippet of gossip referring to Robert Elliston, rather confirms. He was it appears one of her favourite actors.
And his rise to fame coincided with Jane Austen’s stay in Bath from 1801-6.
He was born on the 7 April 1774 in Orange Street, London, the only child of Robert Elliston , a watchmaker, and his wife. Sadly, his father was an alcoholic,and Elliston was cared for by two uncles, Dr William Elliston, master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and Dr Thomas Martyn, professor of botany, of the same college. And it was form one of these uncles that in 1807 he inherited £17,000……but we are getting ahead of ourselves in his story….
Under his uncles supervision he was educated at St Paul’s School, London, where he took a special interest in oratory. It would appear that his uncles intended him for the church but spurning this role they had mapped out for him, he “ran away to the theatre” at Bath. Scandalous!
A this time as we have already noted, the Orchard Street theatre in Bath was second in importance in the English dramatic world only to the two London patent theatres- the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and Covent Garden. In conjunction with the theatre at Bristol the Bath company provided a very fashionable and knowledgeable audience with entertainment suitable for the most discerning of tastes.
Eliston made his first appearance at the Orchard Street Theatre in Bath in 1791. He stayed at the Bath theatre till 1804, performing many roles in plays with which Jane Austen was very familiar. Of particular note is the fact that he played the part of Frederick in Mrs Inchbald’s adaptation of Kotzebue’s Lover’s Vows at least ten times in that period.
In 1796 he eloped with and married Elizabeth Rundell, a Bath dance teacher. They had ten children before she died in 1821. Through her dancing academy she helped Elliston’s productions when he later became a theatre manager. Interestingly, she continued her occupation after her marriage despite Ellistons sucess as a leading actor. She first, from 1801, had premises in Trim Street and then from 1812 in Milsom Street. Hence Jane Austen’s rather interesting comment above…..
Elliston finally left Bath for London in 1804, as Richard Sheriden wanted him to appear at his Drury Lane theatre . Initially Elliston had refused a permanent postion in Sheridan’s company but gradually the lure of the London theatre and the riches it could command sucked him in. On 20 September 1804 Elliston began appearing as the leading actor at Drury Lane. He had played successfully in London during the summers of 1796 and 1797, mainly at the Haymarket Theatre, run by the playwright George Colman, but cannily waited until his reputation in Bath was secure before making a complete break with Bath and Bristol in order to move to London.
Although he was versatile, Elliston’s appearance was thought rather against him for the playing of tragedy, for his face was described as:
…the very Mirror of Comedy. His countenance was round and open, his features small, yet highly expressive; laughter lay cradled in his eye, and there was a muscular play of lip, so pregnant of meaning, as frequently to leave the words that followed but little to explain.
(See G. Raymond, Memoirs of Robert William Elliston,(1844)
He seems to have been best in the Charles Surface sort of role from Sheridan’s play The School for Scandal: rakish but generous and warm-hearted chaps, versions of which character were available by the score in the comedies of this era.
He was known as a great lover on stage, just as he was a notorious womanizer off stage……The theatrical critic Leigh Hunt has left us an interesting analysis of Elliston’s skill in this area, when Elliston played opposite Dorothy Jordan in 1805 in the facre Matrimony by James Kenney . They provided
‘altogether the most complete scene of amorous quarrel that I have witnessed’
(see Leigh Hunt Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres (1807)page 190.)
When Drury Lane was destroyed by fire in 1809, Elliston looked around for new worlds -or rather theatres- to conquer and hit upon theatre management. He became known as ‘the Great Lessee’ and ‘the Napoleon of the Theatre’ for his interest in acquiring new property. He also tried very hard to break the monopoly held by the two patent theatres on performing plays. In this aim he was not successful.
He began his theatrical property empire with the Royal Circus in St George’s Fields, which he transformed and managed for five years. At the same time he leased the Manchester Theatre Royal from 1809–10 then purchased Croydon in 1810 but it was seized by creditors in 1826. He leased Birmingham from 1813–18,
to which he added Worcester and Shrewsbury in 1815 to make up a midlands area theatrical circuit, where his company of players could perform.
He then purchased the Olympic Pavilion in London-also known as Astleys for it was built by none other than Phillip Astley- in 1813,and this may have been the site of Harriet Smith and Robert Martin’s reconciliation in Emma!
Elliston leased Lynn in Norfolk from 1817–18, Leicester, and Northampton both from 1818 and Leamington (where he also had a lending library and assembly rooms!!) from 1817, and Coventry in 1821.
When he became the manager of the newly built Drury Lane in 1819 Elliston was indeed “king of the theatre”, and was soon to play that role in his magnificent coronation spectacle of 1821. During his “reign” at Drury Lane, Elliston had many successes with spectacular melodramas, operas, and pantomimes but with not a single new ‘legitimate’ play of any significance ,even though he was at last the manager of a patent theatre which could legitimately perform plays. Theatrical extravaganzas, not drama, and novelty of every kind were what the public now demanded. Edmund Bertram would clearly not have approved 
Following a severe stroke in August 1825, by which time the now sadly severely alcoholic Elliston was but a shadow of his former self, his place as manager was taken over by his eldest son, William Gore Elliston, who formed a successful partnership with his brother, Henry Twissleton Elliston. The results of his pressured lifestyle and alcoholism were making themselves felt earlier than this, however. Certainly in 1814, Jane Austen-that very acute observer- on seeing him perform in London had noted that something was taking a toll on his performance and his appearance:
(Elliston in 1813)
We were quite satisfied with Kean. I cannot imagine better acting, but the part was too short; and, excepting him and Miss Smith, and she did not quite answer my expectation, the parts were ill filled and the play heavy. We were too much tired to stay for the whole of “Illusion” (“Nour-jahad”), which has three acts; there is a great deal of finery and dancing in it, but I think little merit. Elliston was “Nour-jahad,” but it is a solemn sort of part, not at all calculated for his powers. There was nothing of the best Elliston about him. I might not have known him but for his voice.
(See Letter to Cassandra Austen dated 5th March 1814)
Elliston returned to the stage, however, to create his last original role, “Falstaff” in The First Part of King Henry IV, in May 1826. As sometimes happens, he was brilliant in the final rehearsal but unable to reproduce that quality in public. Elliston finished his career as a theatrical manager of the Surrey theatre , where he also acted out his last appearances.His last appearance was as “Sheva” in Cumberland’s The Jew, one of his most popular characters, on 24 June 1831. Two weeks later, on 8 July 1831, Elliston died of an ‘apoplexy’,which was, presumably, a cerebral haemorrhage, and was buried at St John’s Church, Waterloo Road London’
Given his womanising reputation, it would seem that Jane Austen’s advice to his wife was, as ever, quite perceptive….
A few days ago I commented on the wonderful news that the British Library is to make available to Kindle users some of its rare first editions as free digital downloads.
More details of the digital books have now been released. All are unique to the British Library collection. Go here to read a press release from the British Library with all the delightful details.
As a fan of early 19th century theatre I can’t wait to read The Amorous Knight and the Belle Widow, (1809): a three act original comedy produced in dedication of Valentine’s Day…and the intriguingly titled The Bishop and the Parson’s Beard, a tale in verse (1810)
And this book, A Useful Compendium of Many Important and Curious Branches of Science and General Knowledge by the Rev. Thomas Watson (1812) sounds irresistible
These will also be available to buy as print-on-demand editions. So we will have the best of both worlds. Amazing.
but not the Deirdre Le Faye edition…..the Brabourne edition;-)
This may initially appear to you as a strange thing to include in a book review, a set of books that have been out of print for over 100 years…but wait …you well probably be as surprised and pleased as I was to discover that Cambridge University Press have recently taken on the concept of print-on-demand books and have made it into something that has the potential to be very special indeed.
They are re-issuing scholarly out of print books from the unimaginably wide range of books in their libraries.
The edition of Jane Austen’s letters edited by Jane Austen’s nephew, Lord Brabourne, is among the first digitally reprinted books to be issued in the new series –The Cambridge Library Collection
It comes in the form of two very reasonably priced volumes, both in paperback editions.
They are facsimiles of the original books, first published in 1884 by Richard Bentley and Son.
The originals have become so expensive that I have long since put my reasonably-priced-when-bought-all those- years-ago volumes on The Not To Be Touched Shelf.
So now I am pleased to own these two volumes in this accessible form so that I can examine them once again without fear of breaking the spine, spilling tea over them or otherwise damaging them in my usual klutzy way.
This Brabourne collection is, of course, available on-line, and has been superseded by the Le Faye Edition, but it still has some merits, the introductions by Lord Barbourne and interesting family documents etc, and there is a charm in examining the first proper selection of Jane Austen’s letters in its original form. Especially when the original volumes are now so scarce and…so ruinously and hideously expensive. And despite, or rather because of being a fond Kindle owner, I find I do like to hold a book in my hands, rather than read one on line, especially if I’m doing it for prolonged periods of time. So this re-issue is wonderful.
My only gripe is that the two illustrations in the books are quite fuzzy and indistinct.
The portrait supposedly of Jane Austen as a child, commonly known as The Rice Portrait ,
is rendered (as in the original books) in black and white but as you can see, below, this version is very blurred :
The view of Godmersham from The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 7 (1798) by Edward Hasted in Volume II of the letters is also not particularly clear…
…especially if you compare it with the original print , of which I have a copy
However this is nitpicking on my part, a minor quibble. It is the text that is important and these books deliver it in a perfectly legible way.
The Cambridge University Press have only just begun to reissue many titles on many subjects in this series. Follow this link here to read a general introduction, and this link here gives the current list, subject by subject
Below is a very lovely and informative video of the whole process-accompanied by heavenly music by William Byrd sung by the choir of Girton College. Just click on it to play….
I love the idea that they are open to suggestions for further reprints and I am compiling a list with a few suggestions. Their own collection of books must be mind bogglingly immense, but if you suggest a title of merit that they do not own or is not out of copyright but out of print ,they will attempt to pursue the matter and try to produce their own edition of the books.
As someone whose ancestor was John Baskerville, who was commissioned to print books for Cambridge University in the 18th century, I have always had an affection for the CUP. I can only laud this whole process, and urge you to take advantage of this opportunity to own your own copies of hard to find and sometimes impossibly expensive texts.
I have been unable to travel to New York (Begone dull and dreaded credit crunch! ) to see the much lauded Jane Austen exhibition currently on show at the Morgan Library. Luckily for me , one of my good friends and superb fellow blogger, Karen of Bookish NYC, undertook this onerous task and visited it this week, on my behalf, promising at the same time to write a reveiw of the exhibit for AustenOnly.
Before reading her review, may I formally introduce you to Karen? ( though I think some of you may already be visitors to her witty site. ) Her blog is about her life in New York and her reading habits. She is a voracious reader -a trait we share- a fellow lawyer, and all round good egg. Her wickedly funny Seen on the Subway feature, which appears very Friday, always brightens up my day with its keen observations of her fellow New Yorkers and their sometimes surprising reading material.
Do go and explore her blog- I am sure you will enjoy it and her
And now to her review……..
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I finally got to see the superb exhibit at the Morgan Library here in New York, entitled: A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy. The Morgan, housed in a Renaissance-style palazzo specially built by Pierpont Morgan to contain his unparalleled collection of priceless manuscripts (later expanded and opened to the public by his son, J.P. Morgan), has amongst its many treasures the largest collection of Austen’s letters in the world. (Scholars estimate that she wrote approximately 3,000; 160 survive; the Morgan owns 51.)
The title of this exhibition derives from Rosalind’s speech in the fourth act of As You Like It:
“Make the doors upon a woman’s wit and it will out at the casement; shut that, and ‘twill out at the keyhole; stop that, ‘twill fly with the smoke out of the chimney.”
Austen’s wit is in full evidence in the dozen or so of her letters that form the core of this exhibit. The oldest letter in the Morgan’s collection dates from 15th September 1796, written from Rowling to her most constant correspondent, her sister Cassandra. She write of a party at Nackington from which her party “return[ed] by Moonlight,” at which “Miss Fletcher and I were very thick, but I am the thinnest of the two – She wore her purple Muslin, which is pretty enough, tho’ it does not become her complexion. There are two Traits in her Character which are pleasing; namely, she admires Camilla, & drinks no cream in her Tea.”
(Do note- you can enlarge all the extracts and pictures in this post by clicking on them- jfw)
Another letter given pride of place in the exhibition is an example of a “crossed” letter, in which, in order to save paper, Austen filled a page, then turned it ninety degrees and wrote over the original text, rendering it impossible for this modern reader to decipher it! (In Emma, Miss Bates refers to having received such a crossed letter from her niece, Jane Fairfax.) Austen’s letter, dated 8-9 February, 1807, was written to Cassandra from Southampton. She begins the letter lamenting that she has “nothing to say,” but manages to fill four sheets, crossing two, and concludes,
“There, I flatter myself I have constructed you a Smartish Letter, considering my want of Materials. But like my dear Dr. Johnson, I believe I have dealt more in Notions than Facts.”
Perhaps my favorite of the letters in the exhibit was that written by Jane to Cassandra on 24 May 1813, from London, where she had gone with her brother Henry to a picture exhibition where she was
“very well pleased – particularly (pray tell Fanny) with a small portrait of Mrs. Bingley, excessively like her; I went in hopes of seeing one of her Sister, but there was no Mrs. Darcy; — perhaps however, I may find her in the Great Exhibitions which we shall go to, if we have time; . . . Mrs. Bingley’s is exactly like herself, size, shaped face, features & sweetness; there never was a greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown, with green ornaments, which convinces me of what I had always supposed, that green was a favorite colour with her. I dare say Mrs. Darcy will be in Yellow.”
This teasing letter, in which Austen imagines the appearances of two of her most loved characters (Jane and Elizabeth Bennett), is displayed next to another treasure from the Morgan’s seemingly bottomless collection – a pristine engraving of the very portrait that she viewed that reminded her of Mrs. Bingley – Portrait of Mrs. Q (Mrs. Harriett Quentin), by William Blake:
But this marvelous exhibit contains much more than Austen’s precious letters. There are pristine – and no doubt priceless – first editions of each of “The Six” (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion.) Also displayed is a twelve-page fragment of a rough draft of The Watsons in Austen’s hand, full of revisions and cross-outs, and a fair copy, also in her hand, of the first six letters of the epistolary novel, Lady Susan. (The Morgan has been able to date this copy to 1805, based upon the watermark of the paper on which it was written.) I myself covet the exquisite 1907/08 edition of The Six with watercolor illustrations by Charles E. Brock, which was displayed in a case adjacent to the first editions.
One of my favorite aspects of the exhibit was the inclusion of several perfectly preserved cartoons by James Gillray from the Morgan’s collection. Gillray, a contemporary of Austen’s, shared her satirical eye. My favorite of these cartoons is a beautifully-colored three-parter satirizing the laboriousness of ladies’ fashions, entitled Progress of the Toilet: The Stays, The Wig, and Dress Completed. The caption accompanying this display points out that Austen, while herself enjoying being as well-dressed as her limited budget would allow, had scant patience for those consumed solely by finery, such as the foolish Mrs. Allen in Northanger Abbey.
Regular readers of Austen Only may be familiar with the incident whereby Austen, after the publication of Emma, was urged by no less than James Stanier Clarke,
the domestic chaplain and librarian to the Prince Regent (despised by Austen), to write a new novel bearing a marked resemblance to Stanier’s own life. The Morgan exhibit contains a Plan of a Novel, according to Hints from a Certain Quarter, dated 1816. This document, in Austen’s hand, was obviously constructed as a fireside amusement, and in the margins indicates which of Austen’s friends and family suggested and/or improved upon certain plot points. A wicked piece of fun!
The curator also decided to treat us to some Austen-related gems from the Library’s vast holdings. There is a letter from William Butler Yeats to Lady Gregory, dated 14 June 1920, written while he was on a lengthy lecture tour of the U.S. “I read all Miss Austen in America with great satisfaction.” Also featured are the original lecture notes of Vladimir Nabokov (of Lolita fame) while he was a professor at Cornell teaching a course entitled “Masters of European Fiction,” circa 1948. His notes on Mansfield Park include his hand-drawn and detailed floor plans of both Mansfield Park and Sotherton, his sketch of a barouche (with a notation comparing it to a convertible), as well as a chronology of the novel.
The most poignant item in the exhibit is a letter from Cassandra Austen’s pen to Fanny Knight, relaying the details of Jane’s final hours. Dated 20 July 1817, Cassandra laments her beloved sister as the
“sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow . . . “
The only fault of this otherwise faultless exhibition: NO CATALOGUE!! Not even so much as a flimsy pamphlet handed out in the gallery. However, those who are interested in the exhibit but cannot make it in person may check out the Morgan’s website, on which one can watch a fifteen-minute film featuring various modern authors and Austen aficionados commenting on her work and what it’s meant to them. This film was, frankly, the least interesting part of the exhibit, but does show a few of the original letters being handled in the Library’s archives.
The exhibit runs through March 14th at the Morgan Library and Museum, 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, New York.
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Thank you so much, Karen. What a fabulous review- I almost feel as if I’ve been there I too lament the fact that no catalogue of any kind was published to commemorate this exhibit. And I daresay that I speak for deprived Janeites all over the world on that score. I’m sure it would have been a sure-fire best seller. Frankly, I’d have loved a facsimile edition of the Plan of a Novel etc., complete with scholarly introduction and explanatory notes… Ah, well. Let’s see (D.V.) what 2017 will bring. Not too long to wait
So, tonight PBS airs Persuasion starring Rupert Penry-Jones and Sally Hawkins. This is not my favourite adaptation of Persuasion, sadly, not by any stretch of the imagination. No, my favourite is Nick Dear’s wonderfully atmospheric film which first appeared in 1995. The latest version contains too many oddities and anachronisms for my addled brain to compute. Too many to list here. And the sight of poor Anne Elliot running up and down the incredibly steep Bath terrain was (unintentionally) hilarious rather than touching to my eyes, I’m afraid.
Still, each to his or her own.
So, tomorrow we begin a new season and as we have concentrated on the novels recently I thought it was time to give some space to the woman who so inspired us. So from tomorrow, for a few days, we will concentrate on Jane;-)
The season will begin with my first post written by a Guest Blogger, Karen of Bookish NYC, who will be reviewing the Morgan Library of New York’s exhibition devoted to entirely to Jane Austen- A Woman’s Wit: Jane Austen’s Life and Legacy
I do hope you will join me.
