Reader's Theater Jane Austen's Juvenilia

Jane Austen, The History of England
British Library

“I soon forgot all my vexations in the pleasure of dancing and of having the most agreable partner in the room. As he is moreover heir to a very large Estate I could see that Lady Greville did not look very well pleased when she found who had been his Choice.” Excerpt From: Jane Austen. “Juvenilia – Volume II.” Apple Books. 

Event:       JASNA CWNY March Meeting

Topic:        Reader's Theater - Lady Greville and The Three Sisters

When:       Saturday, March 16, 2019 at 1 pm

Where:      Pittsford Barnes and Noble, Community Room

At our March meeting local members of JASNA will perform two plays which have been adapted from Jane Austen's Juvenilia. These works, written while Jane Austen was a teenager, contain some of her wittiest dialog. They also explore themes and characterizations that will reoccur in her major novels. 

The adaptations we will be performing were written by Cecily O'Neil. Lady Greville is based on Letter the Third from the second volume of the Juvenilia. The script notes for Lady Greville set the scene and describe the characters.

"The teenage Jane Austen is clearly very conscious of the significance of money, rank and position. In her exchanges with Maria, Lady Greville reveals her close kinship to Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice. Maria might be an early sketch for Elizabeth Bennet, who describes Lady Catherine’s manner as ‘dignified impertinence.’ Like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Lady Greville is outrageously rude, although her expressions are perhaps less decorous and genteel. It is unlikely that Lady Catherine would ever describe anyone as being ‘as poor as a rat.’"

In The Three Sisters, Jane Austen explores the romance of matrimony in a way that reminds us of Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet.

[Mr. Watts the suitor]“Fine weather, Ladies." Then turning to Mary, "Well, Miss Stanhope, I hope you have at last settled the Matter in your own mind; and will be so good as to let me know whether you will condescend to marry me or not."
"I think, Sir (said Mary) You might have asked in a genteeler way than that. I do not know whether I shall have you if you behave so odd.”
“Mary!" (said my Mother). "Well, Mama, if he will be so cross… "
"Hush, hush, Mary, you shall not be rude to Mr. Watts."
"Pray Madam, do not lay any restraint on Miss Stanhope by obliging her to be civil. If she does not choose to accept my hand, I can offer it else where, for as I am by no means guided by a particular preference to you above your Sisters, it is equally the same to me which I marry of the three.” 

The text continues with what is basically a financial negotiation.

“I should have thought, Miss Stanhope, that when such Settlements are offered as I have offered to you, there can be no great violence done to the inclinations in accepting of them." Mary mumbled out something, which I who sat close to her could just distinguish to be "What's the use of a great Jointure, if Men live forever?" And then audibly "Remember the pin-money; two hundred a year."
"A hundred and seventy-five, Madam."
"Two hundred indeed, Sir" said my Mother.” Excerpt From: Jane Austen. “Juvenilia – Volume I.” Apple Books.

At a very young age Jane Austen was thinking about the realities of marriage and beginning to construct characters that would serve her in her later writings.

The young Jane Austen gives us an insight into how Jane Austen will develop as a writer. Her work at this stage is also hilarious with an unreserved edge. Also, the 2020 JASNA AGM will concentrate on these youthful writings. All of which are good reasons to join us at our March meeting.