The History of England

Life is constant activity these days, in spite of purposefully trying to slow down. Today all the pipes are being replaced in my house — there is plastic all over everything, and they’re in the process of cutting out large sections of sheetrock to get to all that darn polybutylene. Argh!

Today’s quote is from one of Austen’s Juvenilia pieces (all the writing she did when she was young, pre-publication). This is from The History of England, which Ms. Place has posted about on Jane Austen’s World. I love the spirit here. Jane wrote it and Cassandra illustrated it. It’s available online at The British Library and there’s a wonderful edition from Algonquin which shows the manuscript and Cassandra’s drawings.

Enjoy!

Henry the 4th

“Henry the 4th ascended the throne of England much to his own satisfaction in the year 1399, after having prevailed on his cousin and predecessor Richard the 2d, to resign it to him, and to retire for the rest of his Life to Pomfret Castle, where he happened to be murdered. It is to be supposed that Henry was Married, since he had certainly four sons, but it is not in my power to inform the Reader who was his Wife. Be that as it may, he did not live for ever, but falling ill, his son the Prince of Wales came and took away the crown; whereupon the King made a long speech, for which I must refer the Reader to Shakespear’s Plays, and the Prince made a still longer. Things being thus settled by them the King died…”

Jane was about 16 when she wrote this.