JADG - Realization of True Love

Chug Time on the Jane Austen Drinking Game! Ah, the realization of true love! All the heart palpitation, sweaty palms, churning stomach, absent-mindedness, or whatever reaction humans are prone to when they fall in love. When two people actually fall in love with each other at the same time, what a physiological and psychological assault it is.

Cousin Geneviève has been in the company of Louis for some time now. Remember the handsome son of the friends of Sir Percy Blakeney? He fell for her like a load of bricks and quickly set about to winning her heart.  It looks like he's succeeded.

JADG - Retention of Countenance

It may be two drinks for loss of countenance, but keeping one's cool in the face of horrible events, slanderous attacks, or devastating news is a three-drink category in the Jane Austen Drinking Game. Retention of countenance is almost always a challenge directed at women, while men could vent their emotions much more freely, and appear more manly for it. 

The late18th century poet Mary Robinson lamented that women were so repressed in the expression of their emotions. "The heart must love," she wrote in her Memoirs, "or it will be dead to every noble, every sublime propensity." But in order to survive in the world arranged by men, she continued, a woman must learn to  be "a calmly thinking being, who can weigh the affections of the heart against the proprieties of Reason." Robinson herself fought a hopeless battle against her public reputation, as a former actress and one-time mistress of the young Prince George. A stunning beauty, she also had a brilliant mind, gaining the admiration and sincere friendship of some of the great thinkers of the day. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a close friend, called her "a woman of undoubted genius". She wrote plays and novels (not very good ones), but became most well-known for her fine poetry. Her writing became the outlet for her ideas and her deep feelings, and through them she hoped to "remake" herself, as is the modern trend, and literally overwrite (double pun there) her former reputation. Unfortunately, for the next 150 years, that reputation overshadowed all her work, and it was not until the latter half of the 20th century that Mary Robinson, poet, was valued without mention of "Perdita", the role in which the Prince of Wales became besotted with her.

There's something about Mother Ackermann's past that makes her an enigmatic figure. Always calm and wise, she occasionally pops out with a comment that makes one wonder what's going on in her mind. The portraits of the Ackermanns in their youth are actually Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville, and Princess Augusta Sophia Hanover, daughter of George III. They had nothing to do with each other in real life.

JADG - Loss of Countenance

We're up to the "two drinks" level on the Jane Austen Drinking Game! Loss of countenance was a big no-no in Austen's world. Keeping a straight face and one's emotions under control was a major sign of good manners, as is evident in just the title of Sense and Sensibility. I'm sure that most people today would not be able to explain the significance of those words in the context of the times. Sensibility was a full expression of what was received by one's senses. Marianne wore her heart on her sleeve and let her feelings rule over good sense, often to her detriment. In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Bennett's "poor nerves" made life very wearing for everyone around her, even leading to Mr Darcy's opinion that the whole family were a bunch of kooks. Outbursts of anger, spontaneous professions of affection, or bursting into tears were a sign of an inability to rule over one's emotions and keep reason in charge.

One of my absolute favorite voices from the past is the British politician Edmund Burke (history nerd that I am). His speeches left his audiences with their jaws on the floor and his political essays cut right to the heart of contemporary issues in terms that knew no boundaries of time. He recognized full well the effects of the Enlightenment worship of Reason and the unchecked human emotion that had destroyed the philosophical foundations of the French Revolution. His book, Reflections On The Revolution In France, focused the blame on the "sensibility" of Rousseau, as opposed to the "natural feelings" of mankind, based on sound moral principles. A good free Googlebook, if you are so disposed, is Peter Stanlis' Edmund Burke: The Enlightenment and Revolution. 

An acquaintance of Mother Ackermann is well-known for her wild outbursts.

JADG - Small Dogs

We love our dogs, and those little, tiny, miniature, teacup, lap dogs are soooo cute! Small dogs are really quite ideal. They take up such little space, don't eat much, can be carried easily, and won't crush you when jumping up. That's why you rarely see those dogs at the animal shelter. Everyone gives away the darling puppy that grew into a wolfhound, unless the dog is so weird they can't get attached to it. My sister got a Chihuahua/Raccoon/Hyena mix dog at the shelter and he is the love of her life.

As long as painters have been painting women, they have been painting small dogs with them. Many Ackermann fashion plates have included those little pets, who are obviously well-loved. One drink per dog!

JADG - Spontaneous Equestrianism

In the "one drink" category of the Jane Austen Drinking Game we have men leaping on to or off of horses to relay news of great import. With a clattering of hooves, scattering of gravel, and whinnying of a protesting steed, some impetuous male would be off to deal with some important business, usually in London.

I recently heard on the radio a sad anecdote from the early 1800s. Samuel Morse, a famed painter, was commissioned to paint the portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette, who was visiting in Washington, D.C. Morse traveled from his home in New Haven, Connecticut, over 300 miles, leaving behind his wife who was soon expecting a child. While working on the portrait, a rider arrived with a letter informing him that his wife was "convalescent". He prepared to leave, but not before another letter reported his wife's unexpected death. He rode hard, day and night, but did not arrive home until after her burial. It was then that Morse began to focus on a way that messages could be transmitted more quickly, sparing others such heartbreak. Over the next 20 years, he worked on a method of transferring electromagnetic signals through wires - the telegraph - using an alphabetic system of clicks - the Morse Code. Of course, receiving telegrams has become a symbol of heartbreaking news.

JADG - Conceited Independence

On with the Drinking Game!  No Jane Austen novel is complete without the young woman who just goes off and does something rash, usually ending up with mud-splattered stockings, ruined shoes, or a serious chill that develops into pneumonia. What were you thinking, foolish girl?

An interesting series of Ackermann prints are the Poetical Sketches of Scarborough, etched by the well-known artist Thomas Rowlandson. Scarborough was one of the many popular seaside resorts of the late 18th-early 19th centuries, but Rowlandson's pictures show a place I would avoid completely. If  it's not dumping buckets of rain and blowing up a storm, the sky is gray and heavily overcast. Visitors arrive in the rain, struggle up the beach through strong headwinds, and line up in the drizzle to see tourist attractions. Some misguided girls plan a picnic on a wind-battered beach, only to find themselves caught in a furious thunderstorm. If that wasn't bad enough, Cousin Delphine, always the independent spirit, decides to take off in search of assistance. What good can come of that, Delphine?

The Jane Austen Drinking Game -- Dowries

courtesy of Mostly Water Theatre

After seeing this skit a few years ago, we Austen fans in the family could never see one of her movies without continually calling out categories and raising imaginary glasses to our lips. Ah, the themes of Austen's world come up again and again, instructing us how important and ubiquitous they were in her times, and how much society has changed since then. So let us, and Dolly and Minerva, go through them, shall we?

The whole concept of dowry and bridewealth seems, at very least, degrading to the modern mind, although it continues to be practiced in many cultures around the world. It's interesting to see which cultures have adopted the dowry system (in which the woman brings goods to the man or his family) or the bridewealth system (in which the man brings goods to the woman and her family). It's also horrifying to see how dowries have become the root of terrible violence and abuse of brides, particularly in present-day South Asia. If we can abandon the modern mindset that the woman is being bartered in some fashion, they each have their merits.

In bridewealth cultures, the man must offer the woman's family a substantial amount of property in order to marry her, the rationale behind this being that the family is losing a valuable contributing member. This was common among North American native nations, as was reported by white "mountain men" who took native wives, and were required to come up with hefty gifts of horses, blankets, and such items. It is still common in many parts of Africa, where men must purchase cattle to offer to the woman's father.

The original purpose of a dowry was for her family to give her something to bring into her marriage in order to set up a home and have something to fall back on in case the marriage did not work out. It was also her inheritance, given to her as she left her family, rather than at the death of a parent. In Islam, a woman brings property into the union, but in case of divorce, she is entitled to take it with her. However, as laws or custom concerning women's property throughout the years have not been favorable to women, dowries became the property of the husband to do with whatever he wished. The higher up in society one went, in Regency times as an example, the more mercenary this trade became. The Prince Regent's marriage to Princess Caroline of Brunswick was nothing more than a way to pay off his looming debts with her dowry. In Jane Austen's social class, an inadequate dowry could seriously hamper a girl's prospects of landing a man of an equal or better standing.

The September 1813 issue of Ackermann's Repository has an interesting article on the question of dowries among the wealthy class. The author is definitely against the custom, but his solution (to forbid them altogether) ignores the most obvious remedy, to legislate equitable inheritance and ownership laws.