consequence: E 136 in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. P 17 ‘consequence has its tax’.

consider as, hardly ever consider with double object: M P 36 could not but consider it as absolutely unnecessary (similarly regard as is to-day in some danger of being shortened to regard). But see S S 261 considered her so totally unamiable.

consider of occurs M P 361 ‘She took three days to consider of his proposals’, and P P 122.

constancy = permanence: M P 341 ‘I do not know that I should be fond of preaching often; now and then, perhaps …; but not for a constancy; it would not do for a constancy’. conservation = theme of conversation, as we still say, the talk of the town: S S 196 ‘unfit to become the public conversation’.

conversible: E 100 the evening was quiet and conversible, as Mr. Woodhouse declined cards.

correspondence: N A 228 ‘till I can ask for your correspondence’: M P 364 ‘I have two favours to ask, Fanny; one is your correspondence’. This is not the same as the modern use, though it resembles it. A wholly different sense has been assumed in E 437 [Frank Churchill] ‘Every possibility of good was before me, and the first of blessings secured, in obtaining her promises of faith and correspondence’. Mr. A. K. Cook¹ holds that correspondence here = return of affection, and compares the use of corrispondenza in Italian; but there does not seem to be evidence of such a sense in English.

cotton: E 338 a… box… well lined with the softest cotton.

countenance, now virtually obsolete except in keep one’s countenance, is common, meaning almost always expression. M P 44 (Henry Crawford) was plain, to be sure, but then he had so much countenance, and his teeth were so good. P P 257 ‘he is not so handsome as Wickham; or rather he has not Wickham’s countenance, for his features are perfectly good’. In P P 174, c. = face.

country is very frequent in a sense now confined to such phrases as a good hunting country. Except when opposed to town, country always means a district. When General Tilney (N A 209) ‘wished the Lady Frasers had been in the country’ he did not mean that they were out of England. When Maria Bertram left Crawford, Mrs. Norris joined her, and an establishment was formed for them (M P 465) in another country. Generally the use is very like the modern specialized use of county (never so used by Miss Austen): E 214 a proper unobjectionable country family. M P 125 ‘invite all the country’; 293 ‘The Bertrams are undoubtedly some of the first people in this country’.

course: N A 179 (General Tilney wishing to avoid the narrow winding path) ‘would meet them by another course’.

of course is now almost interjectional and expresses the certainty in the speaker’s own mind. When we wish to be objective we expand it into matter of course. The following are different from the modern use: P P 71 Elizabeth, equally next to Jane in birth and beauty, succeeded her of course; 108 ‘You must give me leave to flatter myself, my dear cousin, that your refusal of my addresses is merely words of course’. E 288 ‘What I said just now, meant nothing. One says those sort of things, of course, without any idea of a serious meaning’.

cramp: N A 172 its first cramp line.

cross: E 112 ‘Such an imagination has crossed me, I own’. N A 114 no thought of Isabella or James had cross her during their walk (in some modern editions, crossed her mind).

cut up = cut short: E 129 she found her subject (the weather) cut up—her hand seized—her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton actually making violent love to her.

cry: very common in reports of conversation: M P 145 ‘Fanny’, cried Tom Bertram …, ‘we want your services’.