[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Illustration —> Charles Edmund Brock —> Jane Austen —> Next]
With mixed feelings she seated herself at a little distance from the members around the instrument. (p. 321)
Charles Edmund Brock
1898, 1906
12.4 by 8.2 cm (5 by 3 ¼ inches), framed
Austens's Emma, Part I, facing p. 320.
[Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
She knew the limitations of her own powers too well to attempt more than she could perform with credit; she wanted neither taste nor spirit in the little things which are generally acceptable, and could accompany her own voice well. One accompaniment to her song took her agreeably by surprise — a second, slightly but correctly taken by Frank Churchill. Her pardon was duly begged at the close of the song, and every thing usual followed. He was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted. They sang together once more; and Emma would then resign her place to Miss Fairfax, whose performance, both vocal and instrumental, she never could attempt to conceal from herself, was infinitely superior to her own.
With mixed feelings, she seated herself at a little distance from the numbers round the instrument, to listen. Frank Churchill sang again. [Chapter 26, p. 321]
That the Coles own a grand piano rather than a square piano indicates both the comfortable size of their rooms and the extent of their disposable income. [Tandon, note 6, p. 254 for Volume II, Chapter 8]
Brock forces the viewer to construct Emma's "mixed feelings" about the whole situation in the Coles' parlour after tea, including Frank's accompanying the reserved by highly talented Miss Jane Fairfax, since the illustrator has positioned Emma with her back to the viewer. Helpfully turning the page of sheet-music for the evidently accomplished pianist, Frank enthusiastically takes up the burden of the song as Mr. Cole (left), Mrs. Weston, and Mr. Knightley (right, looking rather severely at Frank) listen attentively. The singer's apparent attention to the beautiful pianist reinforces the notion that he is interested in marrying her. However, as the text makes clear, Emma is much more concerned about the possibility, raised by Mrs. Weston to Emma just beforehand, of the senior Mr. Knightley's proposing to the accomplished Miss Fairfax. And it has already been settled in conversation with Mr. Woodhouse that Emma should stay after dessert and tea for the dancing at the close of this very long chapter.
The only quibble that the observant viewer might make is that handsome Frank Churchill's luxuriant hairstyle does not suggest that he has recently (supposedly) had his haircut in London, involving a sixteen-mile trip each way, as established in Chapter 25. Miss Jane Fairfax's curls, however, are much in the Irish fashion, as Frank observes. She does not, however, appear to be in "ill-health" (315) in this final illustration for the first volume.
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. R. Brimley Johnson. With coloured illustrations by C. E. and H. M. Brock. The Novels and Letters of Jane Austen. 2 vols. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906.
Austen, Jane. Emma: An Annotated Edition. Ed. Bharat Tandon. Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard U. P., 2012.
Created 11 April 2026