Jane Austen (41 page)

worthwhile carrying to his employer. The Regent asked Mr. Clarke to invite Miss Jane Austen to see the library at Carlton House, and to show her every attention in his power. Jane had been distressed at Henry's habit of doing away with her anonymity wherever he went, but here was a result of his behavior that could not but please her.

Carlton House, built for the Regent by Holland, presented a classical exterior, with the pillars that now adorn the National Gallery, but behind this façade, the ruling tone was one of Gothic fantasy. The hall, it is true, with its black-and-white marble pavement, its walls of verd-antique and pillars of brown sienna marble, was classical in design; but the rooms were decorated in such colors as recall Horace Walpole's descriptions of the emotional effects of Gothic art: there were the anterooms in crimson and gold, blue and rose color; the blue velvet closet in blue, gold and bronze, the great crimson drawing room, decorated in green and crimson, rose color and gilt; the dining room was all Gothic, with pillars whose

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capitals were formed by the carved plumes of the Prince of Wales; the conservatory was also Gothic, with a fan-vaulted roof, a nave and two aisles; from scientific regard to the plants, the tracery of the roof was filled in with clear glass, but the windows to the north and south were of rich stained glass, showing armorial bearings.

Into this astonishing establishment walked Miss Jane Austen on the morning of November 13th. Mr. Clarke was exceptionally attentive, and kindness itself. He not only had had instructions from the Prince Regent to do everything in his power, but he was a personal admirer of Jane Austen's work, and his care of her dispelled the nervousness that attends the private person on first entering a royal residence; not that Jane Austen was likely to have been so much overcome as

many; she was accustomed to large houses. Carlton House itself was not the size of Stoneleigh Abbey, but the scene was so extraordinary that whether from nervousness or interest and surprise, or from all three, when she had come away she realized that she was not

absolutely certain of what Mr. Clarke had said; she
thought
he had said that the Prince Regent would take it kindly if her next novel were dedicated to him; and that if she would like so to dedicate it, he was empowered to tell her that she could do so without any further ceremony; but it was so dream-like in her recollection that she could not feel certain of it. She was obliged to send a note to Mr. Clarke, asking him to repeat what he had said; she apologized for troubling him, but it was really necessary to be quite sure, as she said: "I should be equally concerned to appear presumptuous or ungrateful."

Mr. Clarke replied the following day. He said: "It is certainly not incumbent on you to dedicate your work now in the Press to His Royal Highness; but if you wish to do the

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Regent that honor, either now or at any future period, I am happy to send you that permission which need not require any more trouble or solicitation on your part." He went on to praise the novels already published. "Your late works, Madam, and in particular
Mansfield
Park
, reflect the highest honor on your genius and your principles; in every new work your mind seems to increase its energy and powers of discrimination. The Regent has read and admired all your

publications." There was an idea very near to Mr. Clarke's heart, which was that he himself was a very interesting man, both from character and attainments and because he was one who, like

Dogberry, had had losses, and was now in a very honorable worldly position. He thought that the story of such a man would take the reading world by storm if presented by the genius of this remarkable novelist. He said: "I also, dear Madam, wish to be allowed to ask you, to delineate in some future work the habits of life, and character and enthusiasm of a clergyman--who should pass his time between the metropolis and the country--who should be like Beattie's

Minstrel--

Silent when glad, affectionate tho' shy

And now his look was most demurely sad

And now he laughed aloud, yet none knew why."

The clergyman was to be "fond of, and entirely engaged in literature" and "no man's enemy but his own."

Mr. Clarke wrote from the metropolis--from Carlton House, in fact--

but said in the postscript that he was just going into the country.

When Jane Austen wrote in December to tell Mr. Clarke that
Emma
was on the eve of publication, and that she had not forgotten his kind recommendation of "an early copy

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for Carlton House," she replied also to his letter of the previous month. She thanked him most sincerely for his high praise of her novels and said: "I am too vain to wish to convince you that you have praised them beyond their merits." Her greatest anxiety at present, she said, was that
Emma
should not disgrace what was good in the four others; but she was, she admitted, "strongly haunted with the idea that to those readers who have preferred
Pride and
Prejudice
it will appear inferior in wit, and to those who have preferred
Mansfield Park
inferior in good sense." Then she dealt with perfect seriousness with Mr. Clarke's suggestion.

"I am quite honored by your thinking me capable of drawing such a clergyman as you gave me the sketch of in your note of Nov. 16th.

But I assure you I am not. The comic part of the character I might be equal to, but not the good, the enthusiastic, the literary. Such a man's conversation must at times be on subjects of science and philosophy, of which I know nothing; or at least be occasionally abundant in quotation and allusions which a woman who, like me, knows only her own mother tongue and has read little in that, would be totally without the power of giving. A classical education, or, at any rate, a very extensive acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears to me quite indispensable for the person who would do any justice to your clergyman; and I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress."

In her haste to prove herself quite unequal to the demands of Mr.

Clarke, Jane Austen very naturally exaggerated her own limitations; she sank her knowledge of French and Italian altogether and belittled the extent of her reading in English literature; what she said about her own acquirements in this context is not of value: but her first-hand

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opinion of the influence which personal circumstances must exert upon the novelist's choice of material makes the letter as valuable as those she wrote to Anna Lefroy upon
Which is the Heroine?
The getting of
Emma
through the press was now a matter of doubled urgency. Jane wanted to leave town in December, and she could not do so till she had corrected the proofs, and she also wanted

personally to make sure that the Prince Regent's copy had been dispatched. Her relations with Mr. Murray, despite their financial dealings, became very much more cordial. It was impossible to

withstand the charm of Mr. Murray's courtesy. He lent Henry a copy of Scott's
Field of Waterloo
and Miss Williams' Narrative of the events which have lately taken place in France; and when he

apologized to Jane for a delay in transmitting the proof sheets, which, he said, was the printer's fault, not his, Jane said: "He is so very polite indeed that it is quite overcoming." She made a mistake when she asked him to see that the title page bore the dedication to H.R.H. the Prince Regent. Mr. Murray, in some surprise, wrote to ask if she really meant the title page? Of course she did not; her having said so was owing to her ignorance only, and to her never having noticed the proper place for a dedication. She thanked him for putting her right; as she said: "Any deviation from what is usually done in such cases is the last thing I should wish for. I feel happy in having a friend to save me from the ill-effect of my own blunder." When she was about to leave town, she returned the books Mr. Murray had lent her, saying: "I am very sensible, I assure you, of the attention you have paid to my convenience and amusement."

In the meantime Mr. Clarke did not despair of persuading Jane

Austen to write such a biographical romance as he wished to see. He became wider and wider of the mark. "Make all your friends send sketches to help you--and

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Memoirs pour servir
--as the French term it." As for the clergyman:

"Do let us have an English clergyman after
your
fancy--much novelty may be introduced--show, dear Madam, what good would be done if tithes were taken away entirely, and describe him burying his own mother--as I did --because the High Priest of the parish in which she died did not pay her remains the respect he ought to do. . . .

Carry your clergyman to sea as the friend of some distinguished character about a court." He had asked Mr. Murray to send to Jane Austen two little works of his: "Sermons I wrote and preached on the ocean." It is difficult to see where Jane Austen's own fancy was to have come in.

Mr. Clarke's next letter was written in an official capacity, and from the Pavilion at Brighton.

"DEAR MISS AUSTEN,

I have to return you the thanks of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent for the handsome copy you sent him of your last excellent novel. Pray, dear Madam, soon write again and again. Lord St. Helen and many of the nobility who have been staying here, paid you the just tribute of their praise."

The marriage of the Princess Charlotte to Prince Leopold of Coburg was about to be celebrated, and the Regent had just appointed Mr.

Clarke Private English Secretary to the bridegroom. Mr. Clarke was to remain at the Pavilion "with His Serene Highness and a select party" until the marriage, and this turn in his fortunes had given him a new idea to suggest to Jane Austen. "Perhaps when you again appear in print," he said, "you may choose to dedicate your volumes to Prince Leopold: any historical romance, illustrative of

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the history of the august house of Coburg, would just now be very interesting."

Mr. Clarke was naive in his foolishness, but he was very kind, and Jane Austen was sincerely grateful to him. Of his advancement, she said: "You have my best wishes. Your recent appointments are I hope a step to something still better. In my opinion, the service of a court can hardly be too well paid, for immense must be the sacrifice of time and feeling required by it." She showed her genuine appreciation of Mr. Clarke's kindness and admiration by the serious manner in which she dealt with his suggestion of an historical romance. "I am fully sensible that an historical romance founded on the House of Saxe-Coburg, might be much more to the purpose of profit or popularity than such pictures of domestic life in country villages as I deal in." But she went on to say--and here was the pearl produced by the foreign body of Mr. Clarke's preposterousness: "I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or at other people, I am sure, I should be hung before I have finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other." She signed herself: "Your very much obliged and sincere friend, J. Austen."

The pleasure of the Prince Regent's notice must have been very great; but such a tribute to success did not make her any more absorbed in herself, or one degree less interested in the daily life going on around her. Indeed, by the accounts she was now sending to Cassandra at Chawton, she

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gave evidence of that wonderful power to shut away concerns of self and participate with single-minded eager sympathy in the interests of other people, which is one of her most revealing attributes. For Cassandra had been replaced in Henry's house by Fanny, the only person who could be regarded as Cassandra's substitute. Henry was much better and able to sit up to dinner, and Mr. Haden was not only in professional attendance but he came to dine as well. He was immediately attracted by the very pretty Miss Knight, and Miss Knight, who had now ceased to speak of Mr. Plumtree, was

immediately attracted by the lively, intelligent, delightfully mannered Mr. Haden. "Tomorrow," wrote Jane, "Mr. Haden is to dine with us. There's happiness!--We really grow so fond of Mr.

Haden that I do not know what to expect." They had a very pleasant little evening circle; Fanny played and Mr. Haden sat and listened and suggested improvements; and he did not appear less attractive in the eyes of the company because when the footman came in to tell him that "the Doctor was waiting for him at Captain Blake's," he jumped up and rushed away with all imaginable speed. Jane said:

"He never does appear in the least above his profession or out of humor with it." But though Mr. Haden left the piano at the call of professional duty, he was so extremely fond of music that he quite shocked Jane by what he said about it. After one of his visits to Henry, she wrote: "I have been listening to dreadful insanity,--it is Mr. Haden's firm belief that a person not musical is fit for every sort of wickedness." She said: "I ventured to assert a little on the other side, but wished the cause in abler hands." It was bad enough when people rhapsodized about music; it was too much to bear when those who could not take an ecstatic delight in it were supposed thereby to exhibit a criminal tendency.

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But even this did not seriously detract from Mr. Haden's charms. He came to another evening party. Henry had invited two ladies, Mrs.

Latouche and Miss East. After dinner Henry and Jane sat with the two ladies on the sofa, "making the best of it," while opposite to them sat Fanny and Mr. Haden in two chairs ("I
believe
at least they had
two
chairs"), talking together uninterruptedly. "Fancy the scene!