8 Matching Annotations
  1. Jan 2021
  2. May 2017
    1. take orders

      To "take orders" means to ordain as a clergyman to the Anglican Church. In the Regency era, many young gentlemen looked to the church as a professional option, especially younger sons who had no other inheritance or estate.

    2. fillagree

      "Rolledpaper work, filigree work, or as it is now known, quilling, was a popular pastime for accomplished young ladies in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. The first known forms of this type of decoration, which is made by decorating items with many, many rolled and pinched or crimped pieces of paper, set in pleasing patterns, date from the 15th and 16th centuries" (Austenonly, Ladies Accomplishments, p 1).

      *The above image is a tea-caddy decorated with fillagree work.

    3. traded

      The tradesmen or middle sort are below Gentry and make their money by working. They could have as much or more money than the gentry class in some cases, but their status was always considered as lower.

      http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/hist/crom/brit/socstruc.html

    1. Marianne was discovered to be musical, she was invited to play. The instrument was unlocked, every body prepared to be charmed, and Marianne, who sang very well, at their request went through the chief of the songs which Lady Middleton had brought into the family on her marriage, and which perhaps had lain ever since in the same position on the pianoforte; for her ladyship had celebrated that event by giving up music

      The comparison between Marianne showing her talents in music and displaying her abilities, and Lady Middleton, who used to play piano before marriage, depicts the importance of “female accomplishments” during this time. Women were to attain certain achievements (drawing, playing music, etc.) to appeal to their male suitors (Hughes, "Gender Roles in the 19th Century,"British Library).

  3. Apr 2017
    1. drove about town in very knowing gigs

      A gig is "a light two-wheeled one-horse carriage" (OED). Austen is saying these gigs are very fashionable and flashy. These carriages relate lawyers to the association of wealth. Aoife Byrne states that "gigs in Austen's works highlight their owner's social aspirations, and they illustrate contextual attitudes to those aspirations" (Byrne, "'Very Knowing Gigs': Social Aspiration and the Gig Carriage in Jane Austen's Works," Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal, vol. 37 (2015)). . For the lawyers that "drove about" in these carriages, Austen is suggesting the connection of carriages relating lawyers to wealth and fashion.

    2. who had chambers in the Temple,

      In other words, "who were lawyers." Edward's referencing the barrister's chambers in the Temple, an area of London.

    3. there was no necessity for my having any profession at all, as I might be as dashing and expensive without a red coat on my back as with one, idleness was pronounced on the whole to be the most advantageous and honourable,

      A 1799 income tax put a particular strain on the middle and upper classes at this time. For Edward, being idly rich could also be beneficial. His options for rewarding work are few.