A Modern Quest for Knowledge into a Past World of Literature;
or ... Why did Jane Austen write her Famous Strawberry Party Scene?
Austen and her Literature
Section Ch4/5 gives access to an Excel sheet containing more than two hundred titles of books and other reading materials that Jane Austen read. For each of these published works, searches have been performed to establish whether they contain references not only to strawberries but also to other types of fruit to see whether the application of fruit in a scene by an author was a novelty or a common place occurrence.
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I loaded electronic versions of books and other reading materials into a search engine dubbed 'Word-count' invented by a family member and positive or negative search results were returned. However, some texts are almost illegible, and large parts of some of the texts are unusable. Furthermore, some texts cannot be downloaded and therefore the 'Word-count' programme cannot be employed. If the required text was not available either in a web page which provided some kind of search facility, I had to omit that publication as there was no time for manual readings of the works in question.
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I have commented on my results, which are displayed in four graphs further down on this webpage.
I have also found an explanation for the results which I offer almost at the end of this webpage.
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There are many databases which are applicable for this project such as EEBO-Early English Books Online, Project Gutenberg, Folger Digital Texts and the British Library’s collection which includes books, journals and manuscript etc. (please see [Ch1/4] for further suggestions).
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This part of my BAP, i.e. the search for the contents of books and other reading materials, confirms my theory that everything is possible in this digital age that we are living in.
Ch4/51: Problems with Gothic Typesetting
Many problems are caused by the Gothic typesetting. When converting the texts to pdf files and to txt files some of the letters are converted incorrectly to weird symbols or to the wrong letters.
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A Gothic 's' resembles, for example, an 'f'. In the example to the right the words:
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master, banishment, superiors, less, himself, personage, scene, residing, seems, pleasant, consequence, instructing and stranger would convert to:
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mafter, banifhment, fuperiors, lefs, himfelf, perfonage, fcene, refiding, feems, pleafant, confequence, inftructing and ftranger.
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The result of the conversion of the words 'Irish' and 'English' will be even worse, as the 'h' will be read as a 'b'; the results will be 'Irifb' and 'englifb'. 'Scotch' will also be read as 'Scotcb'.
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In this short excerpt there would be at least eighteen mistakes. Therefore, the results that I have entered into the Excel sheet cannot be trusted, but they are the best that can be done based on the time available. They also give an indication of the trend.
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Letters from Italy, describing the customs and manners of that country
in the years 1765, and 1766. By Sharp, Samuel, 1700?-1778
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Source: https://archive.org/details/lettersfromitaly00shariala/page/216
Ch4/52: The results displayed in the Excel sheet are based on the following considerations:
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Sermons, grammar books, gardening books or books very concerned with gardening and cooking books are omitted.
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Only those terms that have to do with real fruit are included; terms which are used as a metaphor or comparison are omitted.
Examples: wax-apple, orangeries, cherry-cheeked, sour grapes, apple of his eye, ​orange-flower, prince of orange, orange-blossom, prickly pear, -
Singular and plural version of nouns are combined in one result.
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The frequently mentioned address 'Strawberry(-)hill' is omitted.
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Combinations of an edible fruit and another noun may have been included if the end result carries or contains edible or drinkable fruit, such as:
cherry tree, cherry-water, apple(-)pye, orange tree, plum cake, lemon juice, cherry brandy. -
Literature which it is certain that Austen had read but which was published after 1st March 1815 is not included as Emma was finished in March 1815 and I find it unlikely that the strawberry scene was written within the final fourteen days.
The results from the Excel sheet are as follows:
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Ch4/53: The ten publications which contain the most references to the selected types of fruit are:
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1 Descriptive Travels in the Southern and Eastern Parts of Spain and the Balearic Isles
2 Letters from England: by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, Vol. I, II, III
3 The Heroine, or, Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader
4 The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe …
5 The Mysteries of Udolpho
6 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
7 Life of Samuel Johnson Vol. II
8 A System of Geography and History Vol. V
9 Poems
10 A System of Geography and History Vol. IV
67 references
40 references
31 references
25 references
25 references
23 references
22 references
22 references
21 references
20 references
Based on Graph 1 below, it is noticeable that there is a trend towards the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century to employ more fruit terms than previously. Jane Austen's application of fruit terms falls within this trend.
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For a view of Graph 1 in ppt format, click the orange icon.
Graph 1
Ch4/54: All in all, there are thirty-one references to strawberries.
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The works which contain references to strawberries are:
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The Life of King Henry V William Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice William Shakespeare
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides James Boswell
Tales of the Castle ; Or, Stories of Instruction and Delight, Vol. II Madame de Genlis
The Italian, or the confessional of the black penitents. Vol. I-III Ann Radcliffe
Lady Maclairn, the Victim of Villainy Vol. I Rachel Hunter
Lady Maclairn, the Victim of Villainy Vol. III Rachel Hunter
Letters from the Mountains, ... of a Lady, Vol. II Anne Grant of Laggan
King Richard III William Shakespeare
Practical Education Vol. I Maria Edgeworth
Belinda Maria Edgeworth
The Lake of Killarney, Vol. 2 Anna Maria Porter
Patronage Maria Edgeworth
Memoirs of an American Lady Anne Grant of Laggan
The Heroine, or, Adventures of a Fair Romance Reader Eaton Stannard Barrett
Tales of the Castle ; Or, Stories of Instruction and Delight, Vol. IV Madame de Genlis
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
1 reference
2 references
2 references
2 references
2 references
2 references
4 references
4 references
5 references
The wording of the excerpts containing references to strawberries
Now that we know which of the published works on the Excel sheet contain references to strawberries, the next step is to determine if the excerpts are likely to have been of inspiration to Jane Austen. However, a quick reading reveals that only one of them might be considered.
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It is the Tales of the Castle ; Or, Stories of Instruction and Delight, Vol. IV - Madame de Genlis, page 31:
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This wild place was full of broom, and they found a stream of pure water, which ran from a rock covered with moss, the fight of which gave Jacquelina great joy. Still to encrease [sic] their happiness, along the skirts of the forest they found plenty of nuts, mulberries, and wild raspberries, with an infinity of strawberries.
Jacquelina was quite enchanted at this garden of nature. Oh Michael ! cried she, let us always live here; for look you, there is water, and here are fruits, and they will be sufficient for us ;
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Here we have the heroine and the hero in a delightful garden of nature with water and strawberries. The heroine acknowledges her feelings for the hero and declares that she would like to stay in this peaceful place with him. It is not quite like the strawberry scene, but it is the excerpt that comes closest.
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To read all the excerpts, click the pdf icon.
The Tales of the Castle ; Or, Stories of Instruction and Delight, Vol. IV by Madame de Genlis is mentioned in the Godmersham Collection. It is, however, in the original French version: Les Veillées du Château, ou, cours de morale à l'usage des enfans, par l'auteur d'Adèle et Théodore.
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In the virtual library it is possible to see exactly where in the Godmersham Collection this book was located (Location: South Case: column 5, shelf 4).
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Click on the illustrations below, to access the virtual library.
As Edward Knight’s collection at Godmersham Park contained works by Bacon, it is highly likely that JA knew Bacon’s works [Ch2/8].[i] Sir Francis Bacon is among the authors who include strawberries in their texts. Bacon describes how ‘strawberry-leaves dying, yield an excellent cordial smell’ which suggests that strawberries were also admired for their scent. We know that vile malodors were a problem, even at court as, for example, Marie Antoinette’s perfumer complained of the ‘[t]he park, the gardens, even the château, turn the stomach with their dreadful odors.’[ii] Bacon is not the only poet inspired by the fruit. A search in Project Gutenberg shows as Shakespeare mentions strawberries in Richard III, Henry V and Othello, all works which likewise can be found in the Godmersham Collection (see green XLS icon) under the heading of Dramatic Works of Shakespeare. In Othello, Desdemona’s handkerchief is decorated with symbolic strawberries [Ch2/33],[iii] and Natasha Korda states that ‘the strawberry plant ... is among the most frequently occurring of such objects represented in English domestic embroidery surviving from the period.’ Korda explains that the handkerchief's status is thus underscore as something familiar and recognizable by the presence of the strawberries, and she finishes that it is ‘a quintessentially English form of frippery’[Ch2/30]. [iv] Philip Lee explains that in Richard III [v] (1592) and in Henry V [vi] (1599) Shakespeare links the same character i.e. a Bishop of Ely, with strawberries, and Lee informs that Richard III may actually have suffered from an allergic reaction caused by the proteins in strawberries given to him by a Bishop of Ely, and that another Bishop of Ely believed the newly crowned king, Henry V, to be hypocritical and possess adder-like qualities [Ch2/34].[vii]
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[i] Mariette, JB, ‘The Knight Collection - Excel Sheet’.
[ii] Gasik, ‘Hybrid Strawberry History’.
[iii] Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.
[iv] Korda, ‘Chapter 4. The Tragedy of the Handkerchief’, 125.
[v] Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard III.
[vi] Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry V.
[vii] Lee, ‘There’s More to Wild Strawberries than Meets the Eye’.
To access the Godmersham Collection, click the green XLS icon.
Ch4/55: Explanations to the graphs (Graph 2, Graph 3 and Graph 4)
In Graph 2, the references to strawberries obtained from all the titles in the Excel sheet have been added together for each publication year; based on this graph I conclude that it became more customary to include references to strawberries towards the end of the 18th century. However, there is one thing that one should bear in mind when examining this graph; the number of books that were printed increased towards the end of the 18th century. This Excel sheet thus contains more books from this later period than from the 17th century.
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In Graph 3 below, the references to the various types of fruit among all the titles have been added together for each publication year, and based on the Graph 2, I conclude that since the time of, for examples, Shakespeare and Milton, references to fruit have been included in the text, but that it was not until the middle of the 18th century that the application of fruit terms in novels and other works of literature gained momentum.
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In Graph 4, the figures for apples, apricots and strawberries from the Excel sheet with all the literature Austen read have been inserted together with the figures for apples, apricots and strawberries from the table in Ch4/51: Examples of Fruit used in Austen's Works and their Frequency. It appears that Austen's high number of references to apples do not constitute a novelty. When comparing her apricot-peaks with, for example, the literature list's 1809-peak and her strawberry peaks with the peaks in the literature list seen in the 1780, one must remember that the peaks in the literature list derives from several books and her peaks are based on only three books, namely Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Emma. So, even though Jane Austen is not presenting us with anything new, she is still raising the bar.
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Graph 2
Graph 3
Graph 4
Ch4/56: A possible reason for this upsurge in the application of fruit terms in the second half of the 18th century
This new-found interest in incorporating not only fruits but also plants into novels and other books in the second half of the eighteenth century is not accidental. According to Deidre Shauna Lynch this trend gains momentum with the publication in 1735 of Carl Linnaeus’s The System of Nature (Systema Naturae). Lynch informs us that Linnaeus’s taxonomies of plant marriages brought order to the chaos created by the inpouring of thousands of plant species from the European colonies; she states that the Linnaeans heralded a new era in the relations between natural science and British literature.[i] We know that Austen knew Linnaeus as an 1813 letter to her brother Francis Austen states:
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It must be real enjoyment to you, since you are obliged to leave England, to be where you are, seeing something of a new Country, & one that has been so distinguished as Sweden.—You must have great pleasure in it.—I hope you may have gone to Carlscroon.—Your Profession has its’ douceurs to recompense for some of its’ Privations;—[…] Gustavus-Vasa, & Charles 12th & Christiana, & Linneus—do their Ghosts rise up before You?[ii]
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Lynch continues to explain that this interest in horticulture is further popularised by a flood of texts such as James Lee’s Introduction to Botany (1760) and Dr Erasmus Darwin’s The Loves of the Plants (1789). This ties in with the gardening book Every Man His Own Gardener (1767) by John Abercrombie mentioned in [Ch2/6] and [Ch4/34]. Lynch writes that
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[i]n Emma Mr. Woodhouse’s, Mrs. Elton’s, and […] Mrs. Weston’s eagerness to speak the language of flowers may, like the eagerness of other Austenian characters to collect, plant, and grow them, be read as an index of how over the second half of the eighteenth century Britons’ ways of incorporating the knowledges and products of horticultural science into their social practices and cultural systems had undergone a sweeping transformation.[iii]
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Lynch explains that the Lake School embraced this ‘green Romanticism,’ that Wordsworth and Coleridge maintained Nature’s authority over human affairs, and that this was the moment when ‘Nature’s lore became something that a romantic poet would always experience “in translation,” even in the landscape in which he had his native roots.’[iv] Lynch sees Austen’s fiction as the result of what happens when greenhouse romanticism meets the history of novelistic realism.
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Lynch notes that when Mr Woodhouse discovers that Jane Fairfax has walked in the rain to the post office, he ‘reminds her of the dangers of wet stockings and observes, sweepingly, that “Young ladies are delicate plants” (E:230).’[v] Lynch declares that the ‘characterization of Jane as a delicate plant is a reminder, as well, that Austen’s career coincided not only with the popularization of botanical science but also with an attendant shift in the preoccupations of the English gardener.’[vi]
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Lynch suggests that the fact that the novel needed to be more natural by the end of the eighteenth century proved pivotal for Jane Austen’s canonization,[vii] and that Austen was fluent in speaking ‘the forcing gardener’s or florist’s language of flowers.’[viii] Lynch writes that the latter is obvious partly based on the many references in Austen’s letters to names of flowers and other gardening terms, and partly based on the numerous descriptions in her novels of people’s hothouses and their green fingers. We have General Tilney who has a veritable ‘village of hothouses’ in ‘which a whole parish’ appears to be at work (NA:130), Mr Rushworth and his suggestions for improvements (MP:42-44), Mrs Norris, who is ‘excessively fond of’ ‘planting and improving’ (MP:43), Mrs Grant at Mansfield Parsonage who ‘made a choice collection of plants and poultry’ (MP:32), Catherine Morland who is ‘"naturally indifferent about flowers,"’ but who has '"... learnt [sic] to love a hyacinth,”' (NA:127) and finally Fanny Price who gives 'air to her geraniums so that she might inhale a breeze of mental strength herself' (MP:120). Lynch reminds us here that Fanny has been ‘transplanted’ herself.[ix]
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I thus conclude that Lynch offers a credible explanation for the trend indicated in the graphs, and that we are indirectly to thank Carl Linnaeus for Austen’s references to strawberries in Emma and apricots in Mansfield Park.
[i] Lynch, ‘Young Ladies Are Delicate Plants’, 691.
[ii] Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters, 223.
[iii] Lynch, ‘Young Ladies Are Delicate Plants’, 690.
[iv] Lynch, 692.
[v] Lynch, 689.
[vi] Lynch, 693.
[vii] Lynch, 709.
[viii] Lynch, 708.
[ix] Lynch, 712.