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Jane often says, when she is here, ‘I am sure, grandmama, you must have had very strong eyes to see as you do — and so much fine work as you have done too! — I only wish my eyes may last me as well.’”

All this spoken extremely fast obliged Miss Bates to stop for breath; and Emma said something very civil about the excellence of Miss Fairfax’s handwriting.

“You are extremely kind,” replied Miss Bates, highly gratified; “you who are such a judge, and write so beautifully yourself. I am sure there is nobody’s praise that could give us so much pleasure as Miss Woodhouse’s. My mother does not hear; she is a little deaf you know. Ma’am,” addressing her, “do you hear what Miss Woodhouse is so obliging to say about Jane’s handwriting?”

And Emma had the advantage of hearing her own silly compliment repeated twice over before the good old lady could comprehend it. She was pondering, in the meanwhile, upon the possibility, without seeming very rude, of making her escape from Jane Fairfax’s letter, and had almost resolved on hurrying away directly under some slight excuse, when Miss Bates turned to her again and seized her attention. [Chapter 19, pp. 217-218]

Commentary: Emma and Harriet pay an impromptu call upon the Bateses

Emma and Harriet had been walking together one morning, and, in Emma’s opinion, had been talking enough of Mr. Elton for that day. She could not think that Harriet’s solace or her own sins required more; and she was therefore industriously getting rid of the subject as they returned;—but it burst out again when she thought she had succeeded, and after speaking some time of what the poor must suffer in winter, and receiving no other answer than a very plaintive — “Mr. Elton is so good to the poor!” she found something else must be done.

They were just approaching the house where lived Mrs. and Miss Bates. She determined to call upon them and seek safety in numbers. There was always sufficient reason for such an attention; Mrs. and Miss Bates loved to be called on, and she knew she was considered by the very few who presumed ever to see imperfection in her, as rather negligent in that respect, and as not contributing what she ought to the stock of their scanty comforts.

She had had many a hint from Mr. Knightley and some from her own heart, as to her deficiency — but none were equal to counteract the persuasion of its being very disagreeable, — a waste of time — tiresome women — and all the horror of being in danger of falling in with the second-rate and third-rate of Highbury, who were calling on them for ever, and therefore she seldom went near them. But now she made the sudden resolution of not passing their door without going in — observing, as she proposed it to Harriet, that, as well as she could calculate, they were just now quite safe from any letter from Jane Fairfax. [Chapter 19, pp. 213-214 — the opening of the third volume in the 1815 edition]

Since the caption mentions Miss Hetty Bates, the elderly woman standing beside the seated Emma (still wearing her hat), the illustration requires a knowledge of this character, and of her niece, the talented Jane Fairfax, whom Emma envies, only partly owing to her excellent penmanship. The chapter heading has already established the motivation for the impromptu visit to these social inferiors in their rented apartment. Studying the ensuing illustration, we assume that the elderly lady to the right is Miss Bates's mother, the genteel though not particularly well-off Mrs. Bates, the widow of the former vicar of Highbury. Her eyesight requires, as Austen reiterates, the assistance of spectacles as she knits. The fashionably dressed young lady in the large hat, her back towards the viewer, is seventeen-year-old Harriet Smith, Emma's close companion. The pair are just recovering from Emma's blundering matchmaking as Emma had made Harriet believe that Mr. Elton was in love with her rather than Emma herself. The dowdiness of Miss Bates and her mother contrasts sharply with the fashionable dresses and millinery of Emma and Harriet.

Bibliography

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

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