On reading plays, let me say we have quite a number of character who
read plays. All of them do among the younger characters in Mansfield
Park. At night the adults listen to Shakespeare's Henry 8 read aloud.
Sir Thomas has his sons enact Douglas by John Home, a Scottish blank
verse tragedy (reference to hero, Norval) In Sense and Sensibility the
Dashwoods and Willoughby are slowly making their way through Hamlet.
Granted a lot of Shakespeare, but in MP they know contemporary hits.
People with money can purchase or rent quartos and folios.
Ellen
On Sat, Nov 16, 2024 at 4:03?PM Dorothy Gannon via groups.io
<dorothy.gannon@...> wrote:
Arnie, I¡¯m convinced that whether or not she imagined her characters reading plays, we can probably be certain she herself certainly read them (and heard them read, ¨¤ la Henry Crawford¡¯s reading in the Mansfield Park family circle, growing up). Her dialog has that flavor, and of course, you and others have found many specific examples from plays she would have known.
Dorothy
Arnie:
And finally, the irony about the above discussion vis a vis Austen, is that
the majority of those who love Austen today are people who have never read
her novels, but have seen a movie or play adaptation. So novels she wrote
to be read are instead being experienced as if they were plays!
Ellen Moody