LETTERS OF JANE AUSTEN
time a very unlikely thing to occur; and I suppose no man ever lived who was less likely to “cheat” or take advantage of another than my grandfather, Edward Austen. It is in the same vein of fun, or of originality, if the phrase be better, that she speaks (letter seven) of “the Captain John Gore, commanded by the ‘Triton,’” instead of “the ‘Triton,’ commanded by Captain John Gore,” and, in the postscript to the same letter, of her brother Frank being “much pleased with the prospect of having Captain Gore under his command,” when of course the relative position of the two was precisely the reverse. Many people will think this explanation superfluous, but I have so often met with matter-of-fact individuals who persist in taking everything in its plain and literal sense, that I think it well to make it. It is to this day a peculiarity of some of the Austens (and doubtless not confined to them) to talk and write nonsense to each other which, easily understood between themselves at the time, might have a curious appearance if published a hundred years hence.Such expressions as a “chutton mop” for “a mutton chop,” to clerge (i.e. to perform the duties of a clergyman), and to “ronge”—i.e. “to affect with a pleasing melancholy”—are well enough when used and appreciated in family letters and conversations, but might give rise[208]
