By Devoney Looser, Arizona State University
During the 19th century, travel and tourism were for the prosperous people; having a way to get somewhere independently was a privilege. But once people of means arrived somewhere, they sought out things to do, including social visits, balls, and concerts. Unsurprisingly, these events and activities regularly serve as turning points in Austen’s stories.
‘Visits’: A Polite Leisure Activity
In the city, there were nights at the theatre, concerts, exhibitions, circuses, carnivals, and early amusement parks. More illicit forms of leisure activity included gambling, drinking, and visiting prostitutes. We’re never taken directly into such scenes of vice in Austen’s fiction, although they are alluded to.
Austen’s directly narrated leisure activities are the polite ones. Prominent among them are visits. Visits then operated according to a very specific set of rules. Morning visits and evening parties were the most common types among people who had already been introduced to each other as acquaintances. In the country, visits could be more spontaneous, as people were well known to each other. In town, pre-arrangement was more common. Morning visits were coded as feminine. Men were supposed to have better things to do, so the responsibility for them fell to women.
Once a visit was made by one party to another, a return visit was required. Visits were expected and codified, in ways that tried to ensure maintaining a connection. They were an obligation, regularly made and returned. Anyone new to the neighborhood had to be visited, especially a new bride or groom. But visits weren’t always made with direct personal contact. Calling cards were a way to announce one’s arrival and one’s intention to begin or renew a round of obligatory visits between households.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Life and Works of Jane Austen. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Leaving Cards
In Sense and Sensibility, when Elinor and Marianne Dashwood come to London, they “chiefly spent” the first morning there “leaving cards at the houses of [their host] Mrs. Jennings’s acquaintance”. Few would have welcomed her into their drawing rooms. Instead, she’d merely leave a calling card with the household’s servants. Recipients of these cards were expected to make a short return visit, which would take only a matter of minutes, or these acquaintances could do what Mrs. Jennings did and leave a card. That counted as returning a visit.
This is exactly what Willoughby does when the Dashwoods come to London after he needs to return their visit. He sneakily lays in wait until he sees them leave Mrs. Jennings’s house. Then he leaves his card with the servants. So he ‘returns’ the visit and completes his obligation, all without coming face to face with Marianne.
In Willoughby’s case, no one is home to receive him, as he well knows. But visits could be refused by people who were inside the house, too. Servants were told to declare the household “not at home”. Everyone involved knew that the person you were visiting might actually be inside. What “not at home” meant was not at home to visitors—not receiving visitors. Everyone accepted the terminology.
Balls and Dances
The etiquette for visits was simple compared to the complicated etiquette for behavior at balls and dances. Such events could be ticketed and, therefore, more or less public, for those who could pay, or private, invitation-only, events. Their etiquette varied. An assembly ball was a ticketed ball, with strangers in attendance. A private ball was more like a formal dance party with one’s friends and neighbors.
A ball could be quite long and physically grueling. Marianne Dashwood admires Willoughby for having danced from eight to four—eight straight hours—without once sitting down or taking a break. It was not uncommon for these events to last all night. They were much anticipated gatherings and had very specific preparations, expectations, customs, and structures.
As Austen famously tells us in Northanger Abbey, women at dances had power—the power of refusal. Men asked for a dance, and women said yes or no. But if a woman turned down a particular man’s invitation to dance, then it was understood she’d take no further partners that night. It certainly put pressure on her to say yes, even to a man she didn’t want to dance with!
Dances were people-watching extravaganzas. Some were there to observe. Observation was seen as the primary role of those beyond middle age. That must have had its pleasures. In later life, Austen writes about being pleased to have reached an age at which she’s allowed to sit on the sofa and drink as much wine as she likes, as a kind of chaperone. Others at a ball who were not dancing could play at cards.
Types of Dances
Most of the dances in Austen’s novels are English country dances. These dances featured lines of partners, standing directly across, and moving or progressing up and down what was called the set, or the order of the line. Certain kinds of dances and dancing went in and out of fashion. In her letters, Austen mentions having danced in her own youth at a French-style cotillion, which was like a square dance. Another kind of dance was the Boulanger, often the last dance of the evening, with a simple series of movements by dancers in a circle.
The waltz was known in England in Austen’s late life, but not yet much danced. A waltz required touching shoulders and waists—almost like an embrace—rather than just touching hands. It was considered scandalous.
Everyone at a dance would have known and studied the particular movements expected of them. Thus Austen rarely describes the dances themselves very minutely, because her first readers would have known them well. Yet she tells us a great deal about dances and dancers, sometimes with one phrase. We learn that as a dancer, Mr. Collins often moved “wrong without being aware of it”. This is a terrific phrase. He was a terrible dancer, but he had no idea that he was terrible. It’s a great insight into his character.
Common Questions about Leisure Activities in Jane Austen’s Era
Visits were polite leisure activities. Morning visits and evening parties were the most common types among people who had already been introduced to each other as acquaintances. In the country, visits could be more spontaneous, as people were well known to each other. In town, pre-arrangement was more common.
An assembly ball was a ticketed ball, with strangers in attendance. A private ball was more like a formal dance party with one’s friends and neighbors.
Calling cards were a way to announce one’s arrival and one’s intention to begin or renew a round of obligatory visits between households.
