Jane Austen For Dummies (22 page)

Bath, located in Somerset, England, was a fashionable spa city in Austen's day, attracting thousands of annual visitors. Because of its popularity and social elegance (just about anybody who was anybody spent some time in Bath), Bath was the perfect place to go to check out eligible young women and gentlemen as future marriage partners.

Bath, built on a hill, had two splendid assembly rooms, the older Lower Rooms located near Bath Abbey in the lower part of the city (built in 1709), and the Upper or new Assembly Rooms located near The Circus and Bennett Street in the upper part of the city (built between 1768 and 1771 because the Lower Rooms did not provide enough space). The Lower Rooms were destroyed by fire in 1820, but the Upper Rooms, though bombed in World War II, have been refurbished and are a popular tourist site as well as a beautiful venue for social functions.

To avoid competition, the Upper and Lower Rooms arranged their respective event schedules to allow people to take advantage of dancing at both assembly rooms on different evenings. Because Bath was a haven for the ill (who came for the mineral waters, which provided a colonic irrigation), as well as the healthily social, the balls in the rooms began at 8:00 p.m. and ended much earlier than the private balls that Jane Austen and Fanny Price attended in the country. Not that the sick were attending balls. This earlier time was in consideration of them, probably causing the streets to be quieter at night.

The exterior of the Upper Rooms, which means the entire building, is quite plain. But once inside, the vestibule and the four inter- connected social rooms are breathtakingly splendid:

The Ballroom:
Decorated with five glass chandeliers and mirrors, the elegant high-ceiling Ballroom was 100 feet long, 42 feet wide and high, with a capacity of 1,200 people (no wonder Catherine Morland and Mrs. Allen were nearly crushed in it on a packed night). The Ballroom includes a balcony, known as the Musicians' Gallery, for the players of mostly stringed instruments.

The Tea Room:
Guests took tea in this magnificent room (hence the name), but it was also used as a concert venue. The room was adorned with chandeliers, pillars, statues, carved scrolls, and a wrought-iron balcony.

The Octagon Room:
This central room, with its beautiful domed roof and sculptured wall painting, served as a meeting place, as well as a music room.
Persuasion
's Dowager Viscountess Dalrymple hosts a concert of Italian singing in the gorgeous green and gold Octagon Room (2: 7, 8). It is also here that the novel's heroine and hero, Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, have an emotionally important reunion, causing Anne to wonder, “How was the truth to reach him?” (P 2:8).

The Card Room:
This handsome room provided a space where guests could play cards; today it's a bar. When Catherine Morland and the Allens arrived at the Upper Rooms, Mr. Allen “repaired directly to the card-room, and left them to enjoy a mob by themselves” (NA 1:2).

Now what about the young ladies present who had a bad track record for getting asked to dance? Mary Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice
was in her late teens and, unfortunately (I hate to say it, but I must speak the truth), a little nerdy. But, in fact, all gentry ladies, nerdy or not, were expected to play their share of dance music on the
pianoforte,
the predecessor to the modern piano, sounding more like a harpsichord with soft (piano) and loud (forte) tones. So, for Mary Bennet, providing the dance music at an informal dance gladdens her heart and ego, saving her, of course, from the humiliation of not being asked to dance.

Another factor for avoiding dancing was age (not that there was a definite cut-off age for dancing). A letter dated January 30, 1809, reports the unmarried, 33-year-old Jane Austen dancing at a ball. But in a letter to her sister written on November 6–7, 1813, Austen, now nearly 39 years old, says, “By the bye, as I must leave off being young, I find many Douceurs in being a sort of Chaperon for I am put on the Sofa near the Fire & can drink as much wine as I like.” Staying at Godmersham, her brother Edward's estate in Kent, she is probably referring to attending a ball in Canterbury with her nieces, nephews, and their friends the previous Thursday evening (Letter, November 3, 1813).

Austen's characters also shied away from dancing as they got older. At the Musgroves' informal dances, Anne Elliot is a pretty, “elegant little woman” of 27, who in her happier, younger days undoubtedly enjoyed her share of dancing (P 2:8). When Captain Wentworth dines with Anne and the Musgroves and the evening ends with dancing, he asks if Anne ever dances anymore. Someone answers, “‘Oh, no; never. She's quite given up dancing'” (P 1:8). At 27, Anne Elliot would still be dancing if it weren't for her poor spirits. You will, though, have to finish
Persuasion
to see if Anne's future holds any promise of dancing again!

So while we have no records to say that ladies stopped dancing at age 39, Austen's reports of dancers and dancing indicate that it is the younger folks who fill the dance floor.

Gentlemen, however, kept their dancing shoes on for as long as they were able. In
Emma, f
or example, Mr. Weston, who is probably in his 40s, dances. That his wife, who is probably in her early 30s, isn't dancing should not be seen as a sign of any particular rule, for Mrs. Weston is pregnant and taking it easy.

While private dances, whether formal or impromptu, were made up of people who were friends, family, and neighbors who — like Mrs. Weston — encouraged idle young gentlemen to ask seated young women to dance, the large assemblies, such as those held at the Upper and Lower Rooms in Bath, employed Masters of Ceremonies (MC). The responsibilities of the MC included the following:

In
Northanger Abbey,
the MC of the Lower Rooms introduced Henry Tilney to Catherine Morland, who eventually marry. As Henry and Catherine converse, Henry mentions that Mr. King introduced them. Mr. James King was the MC for the Lower Rooms from 1785 to 1805 and then moved to the Upper Rooms. While not every couple matched by the MCs ended up married the way Catherine and Henry did, the MCs still played a successful role as cupid (at least some of the time).

Aside from meeting a potential marriage partner, one went to a ball simply to dance and have fun! So it wasn't uncommon to see young ladies dancing with friends and family members. Women dancing with women, especially at private balls and impromptu dances at home, was common because the female attendees usually outnumbered the men. Some public assemblies, however, had a rule that same-gender dancing was allowed only when no gentlemen partners were available and only with the MC's permission.

Jane Austen clearly loved dancing and happily wrote to her sister in her letters of December 24–26, 1798. She stated that she attended a ball where “There were twenty Dances & I danced them all, & without any fatigue.” In the same letter, she numbers her male partners: “Of the Gentleman present You may have some idea from a list of my Partners. Mr. Wood, G. Lefroy, Rice, a Mr. Butcher ( . . . a sailor & not of the 11th Light Dragoons) Mr. Temple (not the horrid one of all) Mr. Wm Orde . . . Mr. John Harwood & Mr. Calland.” Clearly, she mentioned men that her sister knew. They are friends, neighbors, or friends of friends or other family members familiar to both sisters. (Jane Austen had several brothers, and having brothers usually gets one introduced to their male friends.)

But on November 1, 1800, the 24-year-old Jane Austen wrote to her sister about attending a different ball the previous Thursday evening: “It was a pleasant Ball . . . for there were nearly 60 people. . . . There was a scarcity of Men in general, & a still greater scarcity of any that were good for very much. . . . There was commonly a couple of ladies standing up together.” In fact, Jane Austen performed four dances with her good friend Catherine Bigg at this ball.