branch: M P 408 In chapel they were obliged to divide, but Mr. Crawford took care not to be divided from the female branch; P 9 two branches of economy.

break through = break off: M P 200 (no) desire of breaking through her engagement.

bridemaid: M P 203 the two bridemaids were duly inferior. bride-people: E 6.

bring: S S 260 No time was to be lost … in endeavouring to bring her to hear it talked of (now only used reflexively?).

burst: E 437 ‘time, chance, circumstances, slow effects, sudden bursts’; 200 ‘at the very moment of this burst of any amor patriae’.

but however is very frequent in dialogue, but is I think hardly used except by the more illiterate characters—Mrs. Jennings, the Miss Steeles, Mrs. Bennet. Edmund Bertram says it once, M P 155. It occurs in Dr. Johnson’s Letters (23 June 1775, to Mrs. Thrale).

but only: E 104 ‘I am most happy to hear it—but only Jane Fairfax one knows to be so very accomplished and superior’. N A 195 ‘we were coming here to those rooms—but only— your father was with us’.

I. VOCABULARY

buz: M P 138 the buz of discussion; 245 As soon as a general buz gave him shelter.

call: M P 443 She was obliged to call herself to think of it… or it was escaping her.

candid is defined by Johnson as Free from malice; not desirous to find faults; and by Miss Austen thus (P P 14): ‘to be candid without ostentation or design—to take the good of every body’s character and make it still better, and say nothing of the bad—belongs to you alone’. M P 457 [Mary Crawford of Maria Bertram] ‘there will always be those who will be glad of her acquaintance; and there is, undoubtedly, more liberality and candour on those points than formerly’. Candid and candour seem never to mean telling the truth without regard to consequences.

capital = of the first importance: M P 425 such a capital piece of Mansfield news. (We say capital ship, capital error, &c., but a capital piece of news would mean good news.)

on the cards: M P 239 (speculation) ‘the easiest game on the cards’.

carry with a personal object, not in a literal sense: E 20 three ladies … who were fetched and carried home so often. to be carried wrong = to miscarry, E 296 ‘So seldom that a letter … is even carried wrong’.

on the catch: M P 189 [Mrs. Norris] ‘there were girls enough on the catch for him if we had been idle’.

cause: E 418 Apologies … must necessarily open the cause.

certify with impersonal subject: P 143 Ten minutes were enough to certify that.

character = reputation: E 23 a family … whom Emma well knew by character. M P 451 the hope of … snatching her from farther vice, though all was lost on the side of character; 465 Maria had destroyed her own character. a man etc. of character refers rather to morals than, as now, to strength of character: M P 441 if there was a woman of character in existence, who could treat as a trifle this sin of the first magnitude.

chat is used of familiar conversation without any slighting implication: M P 465 in their (Sir Thomas Bertram’s and Mrs. Norris’s) daily intercourse, in business, or in chat.