of mirth. “I have always dreamed of performing in the Theatre Royal, Lord Harold. To tread the boards was the dearest ambition of my vanished girlhood. I may hope to do you credit.”
“You have never failed me yet. It will be something merely to parade you in the box.”
There was a grimness to his tone I readily understood. All of Bath must be hoping for a glimpse of the notorious Trowbridges, so deeply and publicly embroiled in a violent murder; and the appearance of the Earl of Swithin in Bath must only fan the flames of speculation. “You hope, then, to show the scandal-mongers your bravest face?”
“And damn their eyes.”
“Sir!” I cried. It has not been my province to knowmuch of swearing, however I may subject my creatures to it. 8
“Tut, tut, my dear Miss Austen—do not grow missish on me, after all we have sustained!” Trowbridge seized his greatcoat and gloves. “Expect me tomorrow at two, about the interrogation of Mr. Cosway!”
1 This was (and remains) an exclusive men’s club.—
Editor’s note.
2 Eliza refers to the Honourable East India Company. The private trading consortium effectively ruled India throughout the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries. Her birth in India and ties to Warren Hastings, the most influential and effective governor the company had ever appointed, probably account for her knowledge of its trade.—
Editor’s note.
3 Elizabeth Billington (1768-1818) was a celebrated soprano of Austen’s day, who usually appeared in Bath at concerts conducted by Vincenzo Rauzzini (died 1810). Despite her disclaimers, Austen attended these concerts often, as is evidenced in her letters. They were generally held on Wednesday evenings, so as not to conflict with the theater on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or the Assemblies on Mondays and Fridays.—
Editor’s note.
4 Green Park Buildings was newly built at the time of the Austens’ lease, and known for the high water table at its foundation; Jane herself rejected lodgings here as unsuitable in 1801, when her family first removed to Bath, but the high cost of their first home at No. 4 Sydney Place forced an eventual change.—
Editor’s note.
5 Jane’s encounter with Geoffrey Sidmouth is detailed in the second Austen journal,
Jane and the Man of the Cloth.
(New York: Bantam Books, 1997.)—
Editor’s note.
6 Westgate Buildings is best known as the home of Anne Elliot’s school friend, Mrs. Smith, in
Persuasion.
It was by 1804 considered an unhealthy and dangerous neighborhood, fronting the River Avon; rats, pickpockets, and prostitutes frequented it, and it would be ravaged by cholera in the 1830s.—
Editor’s note.
7 The criminal justice system of Austen’s time was somewhat cruder than our own. Defendants charged with capital crimes were presumed guilty until proven innocent.—
Editor’s note.
8 Here Jane may be thinking of Catherine Morland, in
Northanger Abbey
, a clergyman’s daughter much incommoded by a suitor’s swearing; or of Mary Crawford, an admiral’s niece in
Mansfield Park
, whose glancing familiarity with adultery, naval sodomy, and a sailor’s tongue is designed to shock her less sophisticated country circle.—
Editor’s note.
Chapter 5
A Call in Camden Place
Thursday,
13 December 1804
~
T HE T HEATRE R OYAL IN O RCHARD S TREET IS HARDLY SO grand as Covent Garden or Drury Lane, being cramped and overheated in the extreme; its single entrance ensures a dreadful crush at the play’s commencement and close; and indeed, the space is so incommodious, as to have prompted the building of a new theatre in Beauford Square, immediately adjacent to Chandos Buildings, that is to open next season. But even the unfortunate nature of the present accommodation, and the possibility that my dress should be mussed, if not torn, in the attempt to gain my seat in Lord Harold’s box, could not dispel my intention of being as fine this evening as possible. Having condescended to escort a Miss Austen to the
“You have never failed me yet. It will be something merely to parade you in the box.”
There was a grimness to his tone I readily understood. All of Bath must be hoping for a glimpse of the notorious Trowbridges, so deeply and publicly embroiled in a violent murder; and the appearance of the Earl of Swithin in Bath must only fan the flames of speculation. “You hope, then, to show the scandal-mongers your bravest face?”
“And damn their eyes.”
“Sir!” I cried. It has not been my province to knowmuch of swearing, however I may subject my creatures to it. 8
“Tut, tut, my dear Miss Austen—do not grow missish on me, after all we have sustained!” Trowbridge seized his greatcoat and gloves. “Expect me tomorrow at two, about the interrogation of Mr. Cosway!”
1 This was (and remains) an exclusive men’s club.—
Editor’s note.
2 Eliza refers to the Honourable East India Company. The private trading consortium effectively ruled India throughout the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries. Her birth in India and ties to Warren Hastings, the most influential and effective governor the company had ever appointed, probably account for her knowledge of its trade.—
Editor’s note.
3 Elizabeth Billington (1768-1818) was a celebrated soprano of Austen’s day, who usually appeared in Bath at concerts conducted by Vincenzo Rauzzini (died 1810). Despite her disclaimers, Austen attended these concerts often, as is evidenced in her letters. They were generally held on Wednesday evenings, so as not to conflict with the theater on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or the Assemblies on Mondays and Fridays.—
Editor’s note.
4 Green Park Buildings was newly built at the time of the Austens’ lease, and known for the high water table at its foundation; Jane herself rejected lodgings here as unsuitable in 1801, when her family first removed to Bath, but the high cost of their first home at No. 4 Sydney Place forced an eventual change.—
Editor’s note.
5 Jane’s encounter with Geoffrey Sidmouth is detailed in the second Austen journal,
Jane and the Man of the Cloth.
(New York: Bantam Books, 1997.)—
Editor’s note.
6 Westgate Buildings is best known as the home of Anne Elliot’s school friend, Mrs. Smith, in
Persuasion.
It was by 1804 considered an unhealthy and dangerous neighborhood, fronting the River Avon; rats, pickpockets, and prostitutes frequented it, and it would be ravaged by cholera in the 1830s.—
Editor’s note.
7 The criminal justice system of Austen’s time was somewhat cruder than our own. Defendants charged with capital crimes were presumed guilty until proven innocent.—
Editor’s note.
8 Here Jane may be thinking of Catherine Morland, in
Northanger Abbey
, a clergyman’s daughter much incommoded by a suitor’s swearing; or of Mary Crawford, an admiral’s niece in
Mansfield Park
, whose glancing familiarity with adultery, naval sodomy, and a sailor’s tongue is designed to shock her less sophisticated country circle.—
Editor’s note.
Chapter 5
A Call in Camden Place
Thursday,
13 December 1804
~
T HE T HEATRE R OYAL IN O RCHARD S TREET IS HARDLY SO grand as Covent Garden or Drury Lane, being cramped and overheated in the extreme; its single entrance ensures a dreadful crush at the play’s commencement and close; and indeed, the space is so incommodious, as to have prompted the building of a new theatre in Beauford Square, immediately adjacent to Chandos Buildings, that is to open next season. But even the unfortunate nature of the present accommodation, and the possibility that my dress should be mussed, if not torn, in the attempt to gain my seat in Lord Harold’s box, could not dispel my intention of being as fine this evening as possible. Having condescended to escort a Miss Austen to the
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