"Liberty, Sir, liberty is the Briton's boast, and by all the mines in Cornwall, I reverence its guardians."
 |
| The two volumes of the 1766 edition of The Vicar of Wakefield with title page inset. (source) |
 |
| William Powell Frith: Measuring Heights, 1863 (A scene from Chapter 16: Olivia Primrose and Squire Thornhill standing back to back, so that Mrs. Primrose can determine who is taller.) (source) |
Sense and Sensibility had been such a rich and rewarding read that I was tempted to proceed onward to Austen's second novel, and thus finally get my "Mr. Darcy lessons" down a tee. Such is the typical trajectory of a teenage girl who discovers Austen's works, and devours them one after another (in the old days before video games, when young men still read books, the male equivalent was probably Kurt Vonnegut).
So I delayed reading Pride and Prejudice for now and decided to jump back slightly in time to a earlier decade of the Georgian era, and to the most famous short novel written by author who was widely read throughout the 19th Century but who is not very well known today, namely Oliver Goldsmith.
The Vicar of Wakefield was written in 1761, the year that Frances Holmes was born, and published in 1766. Except for narrations of events by characters within story, it takes place mostly out in the English countryside. One can almost imagine the characters intersecting with the Holmes family of Hertfordshire on the roadways of that era.
The novel itself has a very interesting story of how it came to published, especially in how the famous Dr. Samuel Johnson came to Goldsmith's aid. I highly recommend checking out the Wikipedia article on it.
The entire work is short and reads very quickly. The percentage indicator on my Kindle increased rapidly as I flipped the pages, I could have plowed through the book in several days but once I got into it, and recognized it as a work of great genius and literary art, I purposely slowed down, and read it generously over the course of a week.
This reminds me of something Vonnegut said, if I recall, when someone asked him if he would ever want to take a speed reading course. He replied that he wanted to learn to read slower, not faster (the source of this quote escapes me).
Since most modern folks haven't read this book, I'll give a little summary of the story. As the title suggests, the protagonist is a country clergyman, in middle age, with a large happy family and a comfortable modest living and a tidy savings after many years at the pulpit. As a man of the cloth, he is an idealist, earnest but slightly pompous, and full of a comic self-importance about his influence over others, much like a man who writes a little blog and expect that anyone actually reads it.
The story opens with an hour of happiness at the impending marriage of one of his sons. Immediately in the story, and then over the course of time, almost everything goes wrong in his life. He loses all his savings, his living, and eventually much more. In this way, the story has the feel of the Book of Job. Just when you think things couldn't get worse for him, they do.
But this is a comedy, not a tragedy, and as we experience the calamities of the protagonist and his family one by one, we are guided through them by the vicar's unshakeable optimism and faith, despite his comic egoism. As a testimony of faith through difficulties, told in comedic perspective, it ironically feels a bit like Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, now that I think about. The protagonist's philosophy of life can be summed up in his observation of "how much kinder heaven was to us, than we to each other." (cf. Jaques' "Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind" in As You Like It).
Likewise, it is always in the power of individual to persevere with the help of Providence. "Man little knows what calamities are beyond his patience to bear till he tries them." (highlighted by 38 people in the Kindle edition).
Although Goldsmith can't compare to Austen when it comes to a feminine insight into the candid nuances of character motivation, he makes up for it with a masculine energy in weaving a compelling multi-stage narrative propelling the story through one episode to another over the course of years.
As such, he was even better than Austen at providing some of the meaty details of life in the countryside in Georgian England, in regard to my favorite topics: residences and lodging, food and meals, and (what is rapidly becoming my favorite bit of research) transportation by horse. I made many highlights in the Kindle whenever the protagonist stopped for the night at a inn. I loved finding the small details in these scenes, e.g "But the night was coming on, I put up by a little public-house by the roadside, and asked the landlord's company over a pint of wine."
I was especially deligthed to see some juicy scenes involving discussion of contemporary theater, and theater-going (see below). The most Austen had given me in that regard, besides an insight that Shakepear was popular reading, was a fleeting mention of two characters in London having encountered each other in the lobby of the Drury Lane Theatre.
Here are some of my specific takeovers for my own research purposes:
1. Do you know it was possible to rent a horse and ride it to another place, and leave it there? One simply dropped it off at the appropriate inn down the road. The stage inns were part of a system this way. This seemed rather odd to me until I realized it was pretty close to today's model of car rental. In any case, it is something that most middle and upper class people wouldn't have done, because they would have ridden in a post-chaise, which was the most common vehicle of that day. The most common way that it was driven was by a postillion.
WP: "The post-chaise was a fast carriage for traveling post in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It usually had a closed body on four wheels, sat two to four persons, and was drawn by two or four horses. The driver, especially when there was no coachman, rode postillion on the near horse of a pair or of one of the pairs attached to the post-chaise."This crops up in Jane Austen as well. We also learn of a smaller vehicle, called the curicle, which like the sports car of its day.
2. People sold their horses at fairs,and sometimes got conned by con men.
3. Walking thirty miles a day for several days in a row was not out of the question for a middle aged man in that era. Again this would have only have been necessary if you couldn't afford any other means of transportation.
4. Traveling theater companies toured the countryside giving performances in barns. This is one way that someone out in the countryside might have seen a Shakespeare play without going into "town." There is a great description of such a "strolling company" in in the story, which carried their "scenes and other theatrical furniture" from village to village in a cart, "where they were to exhibit."
"By the time the equipage of the strolling company was arrived at the village, which, it seems had been apprised of our approach, and as come out to gaze at us; for my companion observed, that strollers always have more spectators without doors than within. I did not consider the impropriety of my being in such company till I saw a mob gather about me. I therefore took shelter, as fast as possible, in the first ale-house that offered, and being shown to the common room, was accosted by a well-drest gentleman, who demanded whether I was the real chaplain of the company, or whether it was only my masquerade character in the play."5. Shakespeare was very popular in that era and well-known among all classes of people, with an enduring appeal despite being a century and half after the fact. Dryden is mentioned often as well, but considered a bit old fashioned.
"'Dryden and Row's manner, Sir, are quite out of fashion; our taste has gone back a whole century, Fletcher, Ben Johnson, and all the plays of Shakespear (sic), are the only things that go down."--'How', cried I, 'is it possible the present age can be pleased with that antiquated dialect, that obsolete humour, those overcharged characters, which abound in the works you mention?'---'Sir', returned my companion, 'the public think nothing about dialect, or humour, or character; for that is none of the business, they only go to be amused, and find themselves happy when they can enjoy a pantomime, under the sanction of Johnson's or Shakespear's name.'"
6. 'Squire was a common appellation given to someone with property.
7. People moved between the country and the town (London) a lot. Poor people of the countryside sometimes sent there children to work in town. "London was the mart where abilities of every kind were sure of meeting distinction and reward." Being an usher at a boy's school was considered a terrible job. One could make a meager living being a writer who churned out prose on philosophical topics (like a paid blogger today) and sold booklets in the City near St. Paul's Cathedral. Young women of poor families were often sent to work in the City to look for husbands (cf. Austen).
"...a single winter in town would make her little Sophia quite another thing. My wife warmly assented...; adding that there was nothing she more ardently wished than to give her girls a single winter's polishing."
8. Money was a huge reason why people chose their marriage partners. A man might marry for love, without regard to the property or inheritance his wife might bring to him, but this was considered wildly romantic, and privilege of men who already possessed money themselves.
9. When people went to ale-houses, they typically had their own small roomlet that was open and within earshot of other people.
10. Butlers could pretend to be masters of the house and fool people.
11. Something the vicar does, which sheds light on the meal process: "As soon as dinner was over, according to my old custom, I requested that the table might be taken away, to have the pleasure of seeing all my family assembled once more by a cheerful fire."
12. Sitting for family portraits was common even among the lower classes.
13. Someone might attempt to learn to play the French horn as a hobby.
14. Over dinner, gentleman might engage in lengthy and contentious discussion of politics, based on what he read in newspapers. "Now, I read all the politics that come. The Daily, the Public, the Ledger, the Chronicle, the London Evening, the Whitehall Evening, the seventeen magazines, and though they hate each other, I love them all." Chapter 19 of the book is an especially good example of this, and provides a marvelous debate on the concept of liberty, culminating in a defense of the monarchy as a protection of the people against the powerful. Contemporary readers will find much in there that pertains to the present era of American politics, including such issues as Free Trade and its affect on the rich versus the poor.
15. The Dutch were as eager to learn English back then as they are now, and an English person in Holland might make a living giving lessons.
16. One could insult someone by calling them a "reptile."
17. Educated people could make a living buying paintings in Paris, and do so without much knowledge of art by adopting simple rules of criticism of paintings. "The whole secret consisted in a strict adherence to two rules: the one always to observe, that the picture might have been better if the painter had taken more pains; and the other, to praise the works of Pietro Perugino."
18. Even if you weren't a criminal sentenced by the court, if you were really hard up in England, you could essentially sell yourself into slavery into the New World. "In this office Mr Cripse kindly offers all his majesty's subjects a generous promise of 30 pounds a year, for which promise all they give in return is their liberty for life, and permission to let him transport them to America as slaves...Here I found a number of poor creatures, all in circumstances like myself..."
19. Rich people always had people asking them for favor and money, like paparazzi. "As the doors of nobility are almost ever beset with beggars, all ready to thrust in some sly petition, I found it no easy to matter to gain admittance."
20. People often drank punch.
21. Playhouses were a place where people traded fashionable opinions, and trendy people scooped up conversational topics there in they way that people now share videos from their favorite television comedic pundits: "He could repeat all the observations that were retailed in the atmosphere of the playhouses, and had all the good things of the high wits by rote long before they made their into jest-books."
22. One could express contempt and disdain by the exclamation "FUDGE!"
23. Children played blind man's bluff.
24. Michaelmas was a much more important holiday in that era. "...we were invited to burn nuts and play tricks at neighbor Flamborough's."
25. Fortune-telling gypies toured the countryside, typically charging a shilling of silver.
26. Dancing was common among country folk. "...though the Miss Flamboroughs were reckoned the very best dancers in the parish, and understood the jig and the round-about to perfection."
27. The West Indies is mentioned a lot as a place where people made a lot of money. A respectable young man of modest means might, with the right recommendations, receive a commission in a regiment sent there.
No comments:
Post a Comment