Jane Austen by Nicholas Ennos

Author:Nicholas Ennos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Senesino Books Limited
Published: 2013-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

In Henry and Eliza the author says of Sir George and Lady Harcourt, who find Eliza as a three month old baby in a Haycock:

“Being good People themselves, their first & principal care was to incite in her a Love of Virtue & a Hatred of Vice, in which they so well succeeded (Eliza having a natural turn that way herself) that when she grew up, she was the delight of all who knew her.”

Eliza here alludes to her “natural turn” to a “Love of Virtue”, mocking the youthful pomposity of her own dedication to Evelina where she refers to the “Love of Virtue” glowing in her heart. In the story the baby Eliza is an illegitimate child found in a Haycock. This is a far from subtle pun on the illegitimate Eliza’s surname at birth, Hancock. The author in Henry and Eliza also twice makes a joke similar to that made by Eliza in her letter to her cousin Phylly, dated 16th February 1798, where she wrote:

“however I do believe that they [the French] will make an attempt on this Country, and Government appears to be convinced of it, for we have received orders to add one hundred & fifty Men to our Regiment, and hold ourselves in readiness to march at the shortest notice, so that I am going to be drilled and to bespeak my Regimentals without further delay”.

In Henry and Eliza the author writes “Eliza, being perfectly conscious of the derangement in their affairs, immediately on her Husband’s death set sail for England, in a man of War of 55 Guns, which they had built in their more prosperous Days” and “No sooner was she reinstated in her accustomed power at Harcourt Hall, than she raised an Army, with which she entirely demolished the Dutchess’s Newgate, snug as it was, and by that act, gained the Blessings of thousands, & the Applause of her own Heart.”

Another of the Juvenilia, The History of England, is a sophisticated parody of a history textbook written by Eliza. As a satire, it clearly shows the deep knowledge of English history required on the part of the author in order for her to make such clever jokes about the reign of each monarch she reviews. It is also generally agreed to be a parody of the informal historical style of the popular historian of the time, Oliver Goldsmith. Its humour is similar to that of Sellar and Yeatman’s parody of schoolboy history 1066 and all That in that it can only be appreciated fully by someone who has a very good education in English history. Nobody would seriously suggest that Sellar and Yeatman wrote their book whilst still schoolchildren, prior to writing proper history books when they grew up. In The History of England, the author shows a hatred of Queen Elizabeth and sympathy towards Mary Queen of Scots. This may be because of Eliza’s Roman Catholic leanings. In her entry for James the 1st, the author of The History of

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