"You have heard those charming lines of the poet" for Jane Austen's "Emma" (1905) by Hugh Thomson (p. 253, Chapter XXXIII)

[Victorian Web Home —> Jane Austen —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Hugh Thomson —> Next]

‘You have heard those charming lines of the poet’

Hugh Thomson

1905

Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing

14 by 6.5 cm (5 ½ by 3 ½ inches), vignetted

Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 252.

For passage illustrated and commentary, see below.

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Passage Illustrated: Such talents as hers must not be suffered to remain unknown

We must bring her forward. Such talents as hers must not be suffered to remain unknown. — I daresay you have heard those charming lines of the poet —

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its fragrance on the desert air.

We must not allow them to be verified in sweet Jane Fairfax. [Chapter XXXIII, 252]

Jane Fairfax and Oliver Goldsmith's “The Deserted Village” (1770)

The two-line quotation from Oliver Goldsmith’s “The Deserted Village,” a pre-Romantic elegy for the lives of noble members of the lower orders, suggests that this might be Jane Fairfax. However, the rich clothing, elaborate millinery and stylish cane all prove that the figure seated on the Woodhouses’ couch is in fact Mrs. Elton, the speaker throughout the paragraph that precedes the quotation. Having already alienated both Harriet and Emma, she now seems to be arguing for society’s supporting the beautiful, talented but socially inferior Jane Fairfax.

Related Material

Bibliography

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Austin Dobson. With forty pen-and-ink illustrations by Hugh Thomson. The Novels of Jane Austen. London: Macmillan, 1896, rpt. 1905.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 2 vols.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. George Justice. 4th edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011.

Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P., 2012.

Last modified 25 May 2026