Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters Part 55

They all spent the evening together at Thorpe's.

It seems improbable that Jane Austen can have written anything other than 'at the Thorpes''; but no edition has had the courage to make the change.

4. Chapter XIII:--

And with these words she broke away and hurried off. Thorpe would have darted after her, but Morland withheld him. 'Let her go, let her go, if she will go. She is as obstinate as----'

Thorpe never finished the simile, for it could hardly have been a proper one.

So the first edition reads, followed by Bentley and the Winchester Edition. The Hamps.h.i.+re Edition boldly gives 'Morland,' and this seems the natural solution. The only alternative is to break up the sentence thus:--

. . . but Morland withheld him. 'Let her go, let her go, if she will.' 'She is as obstinate as----'

Thorpe never finished the simile, &c.

But this does not seem so natural; nor do we imagine that the impropriety of the simile would necessarily have debarred Thorpe from completing it.

5. Chapter XXII:--

And for his part, to his uncritical palate, the tea was as well flavoured from the clay of Staffords.h.i.+re as from that of Dresden or Seve. But this was quite an old set, purchased two years ago.

So the first edition, and the Hamps.h.i.+re and Winchester Editions; but Bentley emends to 'Sevres,' which must surely be correct.

6. Chapter XXVI:--

By ten o'clock the chaise-and-four conveyed the two from the abbey, and, after an agreeable drive of almost twenty miles, they entered Woodston, &c.

So all the editions; but is not 'two' a misprint for 'trio'--i.e.

General Tilney, Eleanor, and Catherine? It is certain that Eleanor was of the party, for we read a little later: 'His son and daughter's observations were of a different kind. They had seldom seen him eat so heartily at any table but his own'; nor is there anything to show that General Tilney rode on horseback.

For an example of the use of the word 'trio' by Jane Austen, see _Mansfield Park_, chapter xxix: 'They were now a miserable trio.'

'PERSUASION'

1. Chapter I: The Hamps.h.i.+re and Winchester Editions, following the first edition, print the opening pa.s.sage as follows:--

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersets.h.i.+re, was a man who, for his own amus.e.m.e.nt, never took up any book but the Baronetage; where he found occupation for an idle hour and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt. As he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century, and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed: this was the page at which his favourite volume always opened.

This obviously makes no sense as it stands; and to no less a light than Macaulay belongs the credit of putting it right.

Some of his old friends (says Sir G. O. Trevelyan in his _Life of Macaulay_[373]) may remember how he prided himself on a correction of his own in the first page of _Persuasion_ which he maintained to be worthy of Bentley, and which undoubtedly fulfils all the conditions required to establish the credit of an emendation; for, without the alteration of a word, or even of a letter, it turns into perfectly intelligible common-sense a pa.s.sage which has puzzled, or which ought to have puzzled, two generations of Miss Austen's readers.

And in a footnote, Sir George says:--

A slight change in the punctuation effects all that is required. According to Macaulay the sentence was intended by its author to run thus: 'There any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which his favourite volume opened.'

Whether or not the emendation would have satisfied Bentley the critic, it eventually satisfied Bentley the publisher, who adopted it in his later editions.

2. Chapter I, a page or two further on, all editions read:--

Be it known, then, that Sir Walter, like a good father (having met with one or two private disappointments in very unreasonable applications), prided himself on remaining single for his dear daughter's sake. For one daughter, his eldest, he would really have given up anything, which he had not been very much tempted to do. . . . His two other children were of very inferior value.

This is one more instance of a misplaced apostrophe, for, as Dr. Verrall pointed out in the _Cambridge Observer_, what Jane Austen must have written is 'for his dear daughters' sake.' Even if the ant.i.thesis implied in the next sentence did not demand this, it is obvious that the correct Sir Walter would never have allowed himself to state that he remained single for the sake of one daughter only. Indeed, we have a proof of this in Chapter V, when Elizabeth says: 'And as to my father, I really should not have thought that he who has kept himself single so long for our sakes need be suspected now.'

3. Chapter XXII: Bentley, following the first edition, reads:--

She was earnestly begged to return and dine, and give them all the rest of the day, but her spirits had been so long exerted that at present she felt unequal to move and fit only for home, where she might be sure of being as silent as she chose.

Promising to be with them the whole of the following morning, therefore, she closed the fatigues of the present by a toilsome walk to Camden Place, &c.

The Hamps.h.i.+re and Winchester Editions read 'more,' and this seems likely to be correct; for those acquainted with the road to Camden Place will know how inadvisable it would be for anyone 'unequal to move' to attempt it.

4. Chapter XXIII: Nearly all editions read: 'The weather was unfavourable, and she had grieved over the rain on her friend's account.'

There was no particular 'friend' in the case, as Anne had promised to spend her morning with the Musgroves, and it seems certain we should read 'on her friends' account.'

FOOTNOTES:

[372] Our references throughout are to Bentley's edition of 1885-6.

[373] Vol. ii. pp. 470-1, second edition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list of books is confined to the main editions of the novels and, with a few exceptions, to books dealing entirely, or almost entirely, with the author. It does not attempt to include all the cheap reprints of the novels, nor all the histories of English literature, &c., which make mention of Jane Austen, nor the innumerable magazine articles that have been devoted to her and her writings. Many of these last, however, will be found recorded in the bibliographies included in Mr. Goldwin Smith's and Mr. Oscar Fay Adams's volumes.

1811 [Oct.] _Sense and Sensibility._ A novel. In three volumes.

By a Lady. London: printed for the author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1811.

12mo.

1813 [Jan.] _Pride and Prejudice._ A novel. In three volumes.

By the author of _Sense and Sensibility_. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.

[Vol. I was printed by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; Vols. II and III by G. Sidney, Northumberland Street, Strand.]

1813 [Oct.] _Pride and Prejudice._ A novel. In three volumes.

By the author of _Sense and Sensibility_. Second edition. London: printed for T. Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.

[Printers as in first edition.]

1813 [Oct.] _Sense and Sensibility._ A novel. In three volumes.

By the author of _Pride and Prejudice_. The second edition. London: printed for the author, by C. Roworth, Bell-yard, Temple-bar; and published by T. Egerton, Whitehall, 1813. 12mo.