- Apr 2017
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annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net annotatingausten.sfsuenglishdh.net
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casement
"A window that opens like a door" (OED).
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abstruse
"Difficult... opposite of obvious and easy" (OED).
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fettered
"To bind; to enchain; to tie" (OED).
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disposition
"temper of mind," (OED).
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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.
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— —
These dashes don't have any grammatical meaning. Instead, Austen was notorious for her erratic punctuation. These dashes are her way of strengthening the emotional impact of whatever she just wrote.
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Columella’s.”
A reference to a 1779 novel, Columella, or The Distressed Anchoret, a colloquial tale by Richard Graves. Susan Allen Ford points out how this rather esoteric reference to literature makes Elinor more alike her mother than previously indicated.
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smart
"Smart" here meaning fashionable or trendy. The church isn't fashionable enough for Edward's family, but the army is too much so for him.
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cottage;
An example of an early 19th century cottage, this one being the birthplace of author Thomas Hardy -
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.
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