JOkEs AbOuT MuSiC

Elizabeth is very cruel about my writing Music; _& as a punishment for her, I should insist upon always writing out all hers for her in future, if I were not punishing myself at the same time’ writes Jane Austen to Cassandra[1]

[1]Deirdre Le Faye, ed., Jane Austen’s Letters, third edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1996), Letter 17 to Cassandra Austen, 9 January 1799, p.33.

Jane Austen’s Letters “I liked her for being in a hurry to have the Concert over & get

away, & for getting away at last with a great deal of decision & promptness”

“Even the Concert will have more than its usual charm with me, as the Gardens are large enough for me to get pretty well beyond the reach of its sound”

To Replace ‘Strike the harp in praise of Bragela’, Austen wrote ‘Prike pe Parp pin praise pof Prapela’.

Jack and Alice

“She [her Aunt] provided me with some of the first rate Masters, who taught me all the accomplishments requisite for one of my sex and rank. Under their instructions I learned Dancing, Music, Drawing and various Languages, by which means I became more accomplished than any other Taylor’s Daughter in Wales” (p.19)

Catharine

“ Miss Stanley had been attended by the most capital Masters from the time of her being six years old to the last Spring, which comprehending a period of twelve Years had been dedicated to the acquirement of Accomplishments which were now to be displayed and in a few Years entirely neglected […] Years which ought to have been spent in the attainment of useful knowledge and Mental Improvement had been all bestowed in learning Drawing, Italian and Music, especially the latter, and she now united to these Accomplishments, an Understanding unimproved by reading and a Mind totally devoid either of Taste or Judgement” (p.191)

Frederic and Elfrida

***When Corydon went to the fair

He bought a red ribbon for BessWith which she encircled her hairAnd made herself look very fess

***

Allan Ramsay’s “Bessy Bell and Mary Gray/O Bessy Bell”

O Bessy Bell and Mary Gray

They are twa bonny lasses

They bigg’d a bower on yon burn brae

And theek’d it o’er with rashes

[…]

Now Bessy’s hair’s like a lint-tap

She smiles like a May morning

Henry and Eliza

Though misfortunes my footsteps may ever attend

I hope I shall never have need of a Friend

As an innocent Heart I will ever preserve

And will never from Virtue’s dear boundaries swerve

The First Act of a Comedy

I go to town

And when I come down

I shall be married to Stree-phon

And that to me will be fun

Chorus: Be fun, be fun, be fun

And that to me will be fun

The First Act of a Comedy

I am going to have my dinner

After which I shan’t be thinner

I wish I had here Strephon

For he would carve the partridge if it should

Be a tough one

Chorus: Tough one, tough one, tough one,

For he would carve the partridge if it

should be a tough one.

An Extract from Music Book 7: Juvenile Amusement

There was an old womanAnd what do you think she liv’d upon

Nothing but victuals and drinkAnd though victuals and drink was the chief

of her dietThis plaguey old woman could never be quietAnd though victuals and drink was the chief

of her dietThis plaguey old woman could never be quiet