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P.S. re that same passage in Chapter 46:



“They were to be off as soon as possible. “But what is to be done about
Pemberley?” cried Mrs. Gardiner. “John told us Mr. Darcy was here when you
sent for us;—was it so?”

“Yes; and I told him we should not be able to keep our engagement. *That* is
all settled.”

“What is all settled?” repeated the other, as she ran into her room to
prepare. “And are they upon such terms as for her to disclose the real
truth? Oh, that I knew how it was!”

*But wishes were vain; or, at best, could serve only to amuse her in the
hurry and confusion of the following hour.*”



In rereading that sentence in its larger context, above, I suddenly
realized tonight that there is yet a third sense or meaning of “to amuse”,
which makes sense, in addition to what at first appeared to be only two
choices: “to entertain” or “to mystify”. Now I see a third possible sense,
which is actually the final variant in Samuel Johnson’s mid-18th century
dictionary definition: “ to distract”. It makes interpreting that passage
even more complicated and interesting.



Here's the third interpretation I see: Mrs. Gardiner’s frantic wish to know
whether her suspicion (that Darcy and Elizabeth were already engaged) was
“the real truth” was in vain, because, rightly, she didn’t feel comfortable
just asking Elizabeth directly, especially right then when Elizabeth was in
obvious distress about the Lydia-Wickham snafu, and its repercussions.



However, at least during the hour of hurried packing, Mrs. Gardiner finds
welcome distraction from worry about damage to the Bennet family arising
from Lydia’s disappearance with Wickham, by dwelling for an hour in the
positive fantasy of learning “the real truth”, i.e. that Elizabeth being
engaged to Darcy.



It’s not particularly logical thinking on Mrs. G’s part, but that is
Austen’s acute psychological insight on display. I.e., Mrs. Gardiner seems
to be in denial about the seriousness of the potential damage to the Bennet
family; and so her fantasy provides “amusement”, i.e., distraction and
diversion from worry.



This third meaning of “to amuse” makes it even more curious that Austen
chose this word to describe Mrs. Gardiner’s state of mind at this dramatic
moment, rather than a word with only one meaning –– especially because
Austen had used that same word "amusement" 4 chapters earlier:


“The Gardiners stayed only one night at Longbourn, and set off the next
morning with Elizabeth in pursuit of novelty and amusement. One enjoyment
was certain—that of suitableness as companions; a suitableness which
comprehended health and temper to bear inconveniences—cheerfulness to
enhance every pleasure—and affection and intelligence, which might supply
it among themselves if there were disappointments abroad.”



The main point of the trip was to “amuse” i.e., distract Elizabeth from her
sour grapes over Wickham’s abrupt switch of his romantic attentions to Miss
King, and also perhaps from her upset over having her BFF move far away not
long before.


I still wonder about Austen picking such an ambiguous word in these two
instances, when she could have made the meaning of these passages much more
immediately clear (to use her phrase from her January 1813 letter about
P&P).



ARNIE

On Sun, Jan 5, 2025 at 2:53?PM Arnie Perlstein via groups.io
<arnieperlstein@...> wrote:

Thank you, Carolyn, Dorothy, and Tamar for your replies, which are fine as
far as they go. However, none of you addressed what I find to be the
curious part of the passage I quoted, which was the following sentence
describing Mrs. Gardiner’s thoughts as she got ready to leave the inn:

“But wishes were vain; or, at best, could serve only to amuse her in the
hurry and confusion of the following hour.”



When you stop and think about it, what in the world would Mrs Gardiner find
amusing in the Bennet family crisis she has just learned from Elizabeth,
that had caused the cancellation of their planned re-visit to Pemberley?

To answer that question, here are some relevant data regarding word usage
in P&P, which I believe shed some light on the seeming ambiguity of the
above sentence.



First, the archaic meaning of the verb “amuse” prior to Jane Austen’s
lifetime was very much like our modern verb “bemuse”, which means “puzzle”
or “mystify”; whereas, by JA’s lifetime, and still today in 2025, “amuse”
only means “entertain”.

Some of you then might object, that the context seems to clearly rule out
Mrs. Gardiner being entertained by the family crisis, so it must be that
Austen for some reason chose to use “amuse” in this case, despite the fact
that the “mystify” meaning was already archaic in her lifetime.



But here’s the thing. There are 28 other usages of “amuse” in P&P besides
the one in question, and I can tell you (but you’re welcome to check it out
if you are skeptical of me) that it is crystal clear in every one of those
28 other usages of “amuse” that the primary meaning is “entertain”.



And, in particular among those other 28 usages there is the following one
in Chapter 42, i.e., only 4 chapters earlier, which also pertains, notably,
to the Gardiners’s trip north that ends up at Pemberley:



“The Gardiners stayed only one night at Longbourn, and *set off the next
morning with Elizabeth in pursuit of novelty and amusement.* One enjoyment
was certain—that of suitableness as companions; a suitableness which
comprehended health and temper to bear inconveniences—cheerfulness to
enhance every pleasure—and affection and intelligence, which might supply
it among themselves *if there were disappointments abroad.”*



OK, so why in the world would Austen use that identical word in Chapters 42
and 46, both referring to Mrs. Gardiner, but with two opposite meanings?
Seems very careless and confusing for no reason.



And there would especially be no reason for creating this confusion, given
that Jane Austen used another word (which is sorta homophonic with “amuse”)
to describe a state of being mystified: “amaze”.



It turns out that the word “amaze” and its variants occur 19 times in P&P,
which is a much greater frequency in P&P than in any other Austen novel. So
if Austen had meant to clearly convey to her readers that Mrs. Gardiner was
experiencing amazement as she hurried to pack her things to head back to
Longbourn, why didn’t she write that sentence this way?:



“But wishes were vain; or, at best, could serve only to AMAZE her in the
hurry and confusion of the following hour.”



And that is the question I leave you with – why would Austen do this? And,
in that regard, is it noteworthy that the passage from Chapter 42 ends with
“if there were disappointments abroad”, which curiously describes exactly
what came to pass only 4 chapters later –– i.e., the Wickham-Lydia fracas
arising at the same time as the seeming beginning of a new, positive
relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy, while at Pemberley.



Speaking of “disappointment”, it is Darcy who, while debriefing the rocky
course of their courtship with Elizabeth, recalls the abrupt end of
Elizabeth’s visit at Pemberley:



“He then told her of Georgiana’s delight in her acquaintance, and of her
DISAPPOINTMENT at its sudden interruption….”



Isn’t it doubly curious, then, that we have this second subliminal echoing
of the Ch. 42 passage – as if Mrs. Gardiner somehow foresaw all that would
occur in Ch. 46; and, moreover, that she would be “amused” by that?



贬尘尘尘….



ARNIE