Elizabeth Jenkins writes that even though the affair between Nelson and his mistress, Lady Hamilton, was against the principles of the Austen family, their famous relationship did embody what Austen described in her stories about sailors and the love of their life. However, Nelson’s loyalty to Lady Hamilton was so complete that in many people’s eyes their relationship ‘ranked as the devotion of a husband to his wife’. Jenkins quotes Nelson for saying: ‘If there were more Emmas, there would be more Nelsons.’[i]

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Jane Austen had two sailor brothers, Charles and Frank, who also saw action during the wars. Frank, an admirer of Nelson, took part in the capture of French and Spanish ships,[ii] and he later rose to become First Admiral of the Fleet. Robert L. Mack states that Frank’s letters during the war against France were treasured by the family, and that they were an important factor in shaping Austen’s allegiances throughout that campaign. He adds that it was by means of Frank’s eye-witness accounts that Jane Austen learned about battles and naval strategies.[iii] Frank admired Lord Nelson and spoke of him, and it may not be a coincidence that the heroine of Emma carries the same name as Emma Hart, Lord Nelson’s mistress, and that Emma’s home is called ‘Hartfield’.

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Margaret Doody argues that ‘Emma Woodhouse’ of ‘Hart-field’ is a reference to Emma Hart (Lady Hamilton),[iv] and that it would have been impossible for Austen’s readers to ignore the associations with another leading ‘Emma' who was often seen in the media of that time.[v] Doody adds that even though Nelson was wrong in believing that ‘a grateful nation would look after Emma,’ her beauty, his heroism, and their love affair ‘streaked across Britain like a meteor.’[vi] Doody claims that fact that Harriet Smith is instructed to pose for an oil painting like Emma Hart did several times (E:34-39) is one of the proofs that Austen had the voluptuous performer in mind. Emma Hart was painted by George Romney as, for example, the sorceress Circe from Greek mythology. According to Tate’s description, ‘Hart wears loose white drapery exposing her throat and chest, her auburn hair piled ‘high’ in a top-knot whipped by the wind, with loose hair trailing over her bare shoulder.’[vii] This is how Harriet is posing in the BBC film adaption of Emma from 2009 by Jim O’Hanlon.[viii] Furthermore, when Mrs. Weston says to Mr Knightley that ‘[t]here is health, not merely in her bloom, but in her air, her head, her glance. One hears sometimes of a child being “the picture of health,”' (E:31-32) it might be a reference to Emma Hart who worked at the ‘Temple of Health and Hymen’ run by James Graham, who worked as a sex therapist helping couples to conceive. Doody further suggests that Emma Woodhouse – like Emma Hart – plays men, as she leads Mr. Elton on though unwittingly, and she amuses herself with the idea of Frank Churchill as a suitor.[ix] Towards the end of her book, Doody maintains a final time, that ‘Emma Woodhouse, "the picture of grown-up health,”’ like ‘the other Emma, the lowborn and beautiful Emma Lyon, later Hart, later Hamilton,’ was not free from sin.[x]

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Doody has convinced me that the naming of the heroine is no coincidence.

 

[i]   Elizabeth Jenkins, Jane Austen, A Biography, 116.

[ii]  Lane, Jane Austen’s Family, 119.

[iii] Mack, ‘2 The Austen Family Writing: Gossip, Parody, and Corporate Personality’, 38.

[iv] Doody, Jane Austen’s Names, 18.

[v]  Doody, 170.

[vi]  Doody, 171.

[vii] Myrone, ‘“Emma Hart as Circe”, George Romney, c.1782’.

[viii] O’Hanlon, Emma.

[ix]  Doody, Jane Austen’s Names, 172.

[x]  Doody, 395.

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