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Among the bulky forms and stooping shoulders
Hugh Thomson
1905
Photomechanical reproduction of a pen-and-ink drawing
12 by 8.5 cm (5 ⅜ by 4 ¼ inches), vignetted
Jane Austen, Emma, facing page 293.
See below for passage illustrated and commentary.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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There he was, among the standers-by, where he ought not to be; he ought to be dancing, — not classing himself with the husbands, and fathers, and whist-players, who were pretending to feel an interest in the dance till their rubbers were made up, — so young as he looked! — He could not have appeared to greater advantage perhaps anywhere, than where he had placed himself. His tall, firm, upright figure, among the bulky forms and stooping shoulders of the elderly men, was such as Emma felt must draw every body’s eyes; and, excepting her own partner, there was not one among the whole row of young men who could be compared with him. — He moved a few steps nearer, and those few steps were enough to prove in how gentlemanlike a manner, with what natural grace, he must have danced, would he but take the trouble. — Whenever she caught his eye, she forced him to smile; but in general he was looking grave. She wished he could love a ballroom better, and could like Frank Churchill better. — He seemed often observing her. She must not flatter herself that he thought of her dancing, but if he were criticising her behaviour, she did not feel afraid. There was nothing like flirtation between her and her partner. They seemed more like cheerful, easy friends, than lovers. That Frank Churchill thought less of her than he had done, was indubitable. [Chapter XXXVIII, 291-293]
Thomson has made the much younger-looking Mr. Knightley the focal point of the elderly group who are observing the dancing but not joining in. Austen indicates that Emma is disturbed about Knightley’s not dancing rather than “classing himself with the husbands, and fathers, and whist-players, who were pretending to feel an interest in the dance” (291) because he is clearly much younger and more fit than they. We can readily identify Knightley by his “tall, firm, upright figure” (291), juxtaposed against the bulky figures outside the card room who remain unidentified.
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. 2 vols. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906.
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 26 May 2026