Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash, or, Wash Your Mouth Out With Soap and Water

[liadnan]

I was reading Mansfield Park today, and was struck by a line I don't remember before. Miss Crawford turns away from discussion of Fanny's brother, a mere midshipman, with a comment that she only knows Admirals, but of those she knows many "Rears and Vices". And then, disingenuosly, she disclaims having made any kind of vulgar pun.

The thing is, I can only conceive of one pun that might be involved here, and it isn't something one expects to find in the mouth of even an inimical Austen character. Not that blatantly, and certainly not from a woman. And while Edmund and Fanny mutter about her afterwards, their indignation seems directed more at the fact Miss Crawford has been rude in public about her uncle, Admiral Crawford. Am I missing something here? Is it I who need my brain scrubbed out?

***

Spent the weekend being quite the observant Catholic at the cathedral (yes, despite being a heretic on several counts, a semi-agnostic at least half the time, and the rest, I still do go to mass on and off-and a Happy Easter to those who observe it in some way) and then seeing my mother (and sister and family for Easter Sunday lunch). Somewhat trying, this seeing family most weekends. Love them dearly as I do. And the bloody paperwork seems never-ending: mum can't really cope with it all, and while my siblings have done an awful lot, probably more than me, two of them have babies under six months and the other lives at the other end of the country.

Comments

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Me too - Austen probably *had* heard the jokes.

Miss Crawford may have heard the jokes but may not have fully understood them - while she knew she was saying something risque, she may not have known just how risque it was.