"Have you, miss? Well, for sure!"
A short time after she pursued: "I seed you go out with the master, but I didn't know you were gone to church to be wed"; and she basted away. John, when I turned to him, was grinning from ear to ear.
"I telled Mary how it would be," he said; "I knew what Mr. Edward"--(John was an old servant, and had known his master when he was the cadet of the house, therefore he often gave him his Christian name)--"I knew what Mr. Edward would do, and I was certain he would not wait long neither; and he's done right, for aught I know. I wish you joy, miss!" and he politely pulled his fore-lock.
"Thank you, John. Mr. Rochester told me to give you and Mary this." I put into his hand a five-pound note. Without waiting to hear more, I left the kitchen. In passing the door of that sanctum some time after, I caught the words--
"She'll happen do better for him nor ony o' t' grand ladies." And again, "If she ben't one o' th' handsomest, she's noan faaliq and varry good-natured; and i' his een she's fair beautiful, onybody may see that."
I wrote to Moor House and to Cambridge immediately, to say what I had done; fully explained also why I had thus acted. Diana and Mary approved the step unreservedly. Diana announced that she would just give me time to get over the honey-moon, and then she would come and see me.
"She had better not wait till then, Jane," said Mr. Rochester, when I read her letter to him; "if she does she will be too late, for our honey-moon will shine our life-long; its beams will only fade over your grave or mine."
How St. John received the news I don't know; he never answered the letter in which I communicated it; yet six months after, he wrote to me, without, however, mentioning Mr. Rochester's name or alluding to my marriage. His letter was then calm, and, though very serious, kind. He has maintained a regular, though not frequent, correspondence ever since; he hopes I am happy, and trusts I am not of those who live without God in the world, and only mind earthly things.122
You have not quite forgotten little Adele, have you, reader? I had not; I soon asked and obtained leave of Mr. Rochester to go and see her at the school where he had placed her. Her frantic joy at beholding me again moved me much. She looked pale and thin; she said she was not happy. I found the rules of the establishment were too strict, its course of study too severe, for a child of her age; I took her home with me. I meant to become her governess once more, but I soon found this impracticable; my time and cares were now required by another--my husband needed them all. So I sought out a school conducted on a more indulgent system; and near enough to permit of my visiting her often, and bringing her home sometimes. I took care she should never want for anything that could contribute to her comfort; she soon settled in her new abode, became very happy there, and made fair progress in her studies. As she grew up, a sound English education corrected in a great measure her French defects; and when she left school, I found in her a pleasing and obliging companion; docile, good-tempered, and well-principled. By her grateful attention to me and mine, she has long since well repaid any little kindness I ever had it in my power to offer her.
My tale draws to its close: one word respecting my experience of married life, and one brief glance at the fortunes of those whose names have most frequently recurred in this narrative, and I have done.
I have now been married ten years. I know what it is to live entirely for and with what I love best on earth. I hold myself supremely blessed--blessed beyond what language can express; because I am my husband's life as fully as he is mine. No woman was ever nearer to her mate than I am; ever more absolutely bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.123 I know no weariness of my Edward's society; he knows none of mine, any more than we each do of the pulsation of the heart that beats in our separate bosoms; consequently, we are ever together. To be together is for us to be at once as free as in solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long; to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thinking. All my confidence is bestowed on him; all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in character; perfect concord is the result.
Mr. Rochester continued blind the first two years of our union; perhaps it was that circumstance that drew us so very near--that knit us so very close; for I was then his vision, as I am still his right hand. Literally, I was (what he often called me) the apple of his eye. He saw nature--he saw books through me; and never did I weary of gazing for his behalf, and of putting into words the effect of field, tree, town, river, cloud, sunbeam--of the landscape before us; of the weather around us--and impressing by sound on his ear what light could no longer stamp on his eye. Never did I weary of reading to him; never did I weary conducting him where he wished to go; of doing for him what he wished to be done. And there was a pleasure in my services, most full, most exquisite, even though sad--because he claimed these services without painful shame or damping humiliation. He loved me so truly, that he knew no reluctance in profiting by my attendance; he felt I loved him so fondly, that to yield that attendance was to indulge my sweetest wishes.
One morning, at the end of the two years, as I was writing a letter to his dictation, he came and bent over me, and said, "Jane, have you a glittering ornament round your neck?"
I had a gold watch-chain; I answered, "Yes."
"And have you a pale blue dress on?"
I had. He informed me then, that for some time he had fancied the obscurity clouding one eye was becoming less dense; and that now he was sure of it.
He and I went up to London. He had the advice of an eminent oculist, and he eventually recovered the sight of that one eye. He cannot see very distinctly; he cannot read or write much; but he can find his way without being led by the hand; the sky is no longer a blank to him--the earth no longer a void. When his first-born was put into his arms, he could see that the boy had inherited his own eyes, as they once were-large, brilliant, and black. On that occasion, he again, with a full heart, acknowledged that God had tempered judgment with mercy.
My Edward and I, then, are happy; and the more so, because those we most love are happy likewise. Diana and Mary Rivers are both married. Alternately, once every year, they come to see us, and we go to see them. Diana's husband is a captain in the navy, a gallant officer and a good man. Mary's is a clergyman, a college friend of her brother's, and, from his attainments and principles, worthy of the connection. Both Captain Fitzjames and Mr. Wharton love their wives, and are loved by them.
As to St. John Rivers, he left England; he went to India. He entered on the path he had marked for himself; he pursues it still. A more resolute, indefatigable pioneer never wrought amid rocks and dangers. Firm, faithful, and devoted, full of energy, and zeal, and truth, he labors for his race; he clears their painful way to improvement; he hews down like a giant the prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it. He may be stern; he may be exacting; he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Great-heart, who guards his pilgrim-convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.124 His is the exaction of the Apostle, who speaks but for Christ, when he says--"Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me."125 His is the ambition of the high master-spirit, which aims to fill a place in the first rank of those who are redeemed from the earth--who stand without fault before the throne of God;126 who share the last mighty victories of the Lamb; who are called, and chosen, and faithful.
St. John is unmarried; he never will marry now. Himself has hitherto sufficed to the toil, and the toil draws near its close; his glorious sun hastens to its setting. The last letter I received from him drew from my eyes human tears, and yet filled my heart with divine joy. He anticipated his sure reward, his incorruptible crown.127 I know that a stranger's hand will write to me next, to say that the good and faithful servant has been called, at length, into the joy of his Lord.128 And why weep for this? No fear of death will darken St. John's last hour. His mind will be unclouded; his heart will be undaunted; his hope will be sure; his faith steadfast. His own words are a
pledge of this:
"My Master," he says, "has forewarned me. Daily he announces more distinctly--'Surely I come quickly'; and hourly I more eagerly respond--'Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!' "129
Endnotes
References to the Bible are to the New King James Version, except where noted otherwise.
PREFACE
1 (p. 6) Ahab did not like Micaiah: Ahab, king of Israel, did not believe Micaiah, son of Imlah, when Micaiah foretold that Ahab's armies faced disaster if they were to invade Ramoth Gilead; he imprisoned Micaiah and instead followed the false prophecy of Zedekiah that he would triumph. See the Bible, 2 Chronicles 18.
2 (p. 6) Vanity Fair: The reference is to Vanity Fair, a Novel without a Hero (serialized 1847-1848), by William Makepeace Thackeray.
3 (p. 7) Fielding: Henry Fielding (1707-1754), novelist and satirist best known for Tom Jones (1749).
CHAPTER I
4 (p. 12) Bewick's History of British Birds: The reference is to A History of British Birds, Vol. 2, Containing the History and Description of Water Birds (1804), by Thomas Bewick.
5 (p. 12) "Where the Northern Ocean": Bewick's quotation is from The Seasons ("Autumn," lines 862-865), by James Thomson (1700-1748).
6 (p. 13) Pamela ... Moreland: The references are to Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), by Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), and The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland (1781), by John Wesley (1703-1791); the latter is an abridgment of The Fool of Quality (1765-1770), by Henry Brooke (1703-1783).
7 (p. 15) History of Rome: The reference is to The Roman History (1769), by Oliver Goldsmith (1731-1774); the work was abridged for schools in 1772.
CHAPTER III
8 (p. 25) apothecary... physician: An apothecary, though less well trained than a physician, not only sold drugs but also administered them as a general medical practitioner.
9 (p. 27) Gulliver's Travels: Written by the satirical novelist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and published in 1726, this book describes the hero's visit to the fantastic regions of Lilliput and Brobdignag.
10 (p. 28) all gone out of England: See Bronte's novel Shirley (1849), at the end of which it is remarked, "That was the last fairish [fairy] seen on this countryside." See also p. 138.
11 (p. 29) another ballad ... a really doleful one: The quoted lines are from "In the Days We Went Gipsying" (1837), a popular song composed by Edward Ransford (1805-1876).
CHAPTER IV
12 (p. 42) heart of flesh: See the Bible, Ezekiel 11:19.
13 (p. 44) Child's Guide: The Reverend William Carus-Wilson, the original basis for the character of Brocklehurst, was a wealthy evangelical clergyman who founded and ran the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, attended by all the Bronte sisters. He published a monthly tract, The Children's Friend, that warned of damnation for sinful children.
CHAPTER V
14 (p. 52) "stony street": The reference is to Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812): "The car rattling o'er the stony street" (canto 3, stanza 22, line 2).
15 (p. 58) organ of veneration: This is one of several references in Jane Eyre to phrenology, a popular pseudoscience that emerged in the early nineteenth century; it posited a relation between the physical shaping ("bumps") of the skull and various moral or character traits.
16 (p. 60) Rasselas: The reference is to a didactic romance published in 1759 by Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
CHAPTER VI
17 (p. 68) like Felix: Felix, a Roman governor, put off the Apostle Paul's trial for two years. See the Bible, Acts 24:22-27.
18 (p. 69) dream: In the journal she kept as a pupil at Roe Head, Charlotte Bronte speaks of being lost in a "divine unseen land of thought."
19 (p. 70) Love your enemies: The reference is to Christ's Sermon on the Mount; see the Bible, Matthew 5:44.
20 (p. 71) hope to all: This was known as the doctrine of Universal Salvation, as contrasted with the evangelical view of damnation for sinners espoused by Brocklehurst.
CHAPTER VII
21 (p. 74) Eutychus: As Paul preached, Eutychus was "overcome by sleep" and "fell down from the third story and was taken up dead" (the Bible, Acts 20:9).
22 (p. 76) take up their cross and follow him: The reference is to the Bible, Mark 8:34; see also pp. 526-527.
23 (p. 76) bread alone: This is another in a series of references to the Bible, here to Matthew 4:4.
24 (p. 76) suffer hunger: Here the biblical reference is to 1 Peter 3:14: "If you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed."
25 (p. 77) evangelical: In this context, the term means aimed at in-stilling religious principles of the Methodist revivalist movement, including the corrupted state of human nature after the Fall.
26 (p. 77) outside of the cup and platter: The reference is to the Bible, Matthew 23:25: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence."
27 (p. 77) kingdom is not of this world: The reference is to the Bible, John 18:36.
28 (p. 80) Bethesda: In the Bible (John 5:2-4), Jesus heals the blind, sick, and lame at the pool of Bethesda.
CHAPTER VIII
29 (p. 89) Solomon said: The reference is to the Bible, Proverbs 15:17.
CHAPTER IX
30 (p. 91) fog-bred pestilence: The theory of disease prevalent in the early to mid-nineteenth century held that susceptible persons could catch disease from noxious odors or atmosphere. The germ theory of disease was not well known until later in the nineteenth century.
31 (p.98) "Resurgam": This is a Latin word meaning "I shall rise again," expressing the Christian faith in resurrection. Thackeray also used the word in Vanity Fair, chap. 14.
CHAPTER XI
32 (p. 122) La Ligue des Rats: "The League of Rats" is a fable by the seventeenth-century French author Jean de la Fontaine.
33 (p. 125) the Hebrew ark: See descriptions of the ark, including golden cherubs, in the Bible, Exodus 25.
34 (p. 126) life's fitful fever: The reference is to Macbeth (act 3, scene 2), by William Shakespeare.
35 (p. 127) Bluebeard's castle: In the folktale, Bluebeard locked the bodies of his murdered wives in a secret chamber of his castle.
CHAPTER XII
36 (p. 137) like heath: The quotation is from "Fallen Is Thy Throne," lines 19-20, published in Sacred Songs (1816), by Thomas Moore (1779-1852).
37 (p. 138) too easy chair: The reference is to The Dunciad, by Alexander Pope (1688-1744): "Stretched on the rack of a too easy chair" (book 4, line 342).
CHAPTER XIII
38 (p. 147) head and front: The reference is to Othello (act 1, scene 3), by William Shakespeare.
39 (p. 150) "Likeness ... the shape": The reference is to Paradise Lost, by John Milton: "The other shape, If shape it might be call'd that shape had none Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb, ... what seem'd his head The likeness of a kingly crown had on. / Satan was now at hand ..." (book 2, lines 666-673).
CHAPTER XIV
40 (p. 158) intellectual organs: This pertains to phrenology; see chap. V, note 2.
41 (p. 159) pride in his port: The reference is to The Traveller (1764), by Oliver Goldsmith (1731-1774): "Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, / I see the lords of humankind pass by" (line 327).
42 (p. 162) bad eminence: The reference is to Paradise Lost, by John Milton: "Satan exalted sat, by merit rais'd / To that bad eminence" (book 2, line 6).
CHAPTER XV
43 (p. 168) shuttlecock: This is the object hit back and forth in the game of battledore and shuttlecock, or badminton. See p. 166.
44 (p. 171) the spear, the dart, and the habergeon: A habergeon is a medieval jacket of flexible armor, or mail; Mr. Rochester's words are a reference to the Bible, Job 41:26: "Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; / Nor does spear, dart, or javelin."
45 (p. 171) heart's core: The reference is to Hamlet, by William Shakespeare: "Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and
I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart" (act 3, scene 2).
46 (p. 181) Beulah: Beulah--a word that means "married" in Hebrew--is a place of delight in the Bible (Isaiah 62:4), as well as in Pilgrim's Progress (1678-1684), by John Bunyan (1628-1688).
CHAPTER XVI
47 (p. 190) unvarnished tale: The reference is to Othello, by William Shakespeare: "I will a round unvarnished tale deliver / Of my whole course of love" (act 1, scene 3).
CHAPTER XVII
48 (p. 197) a very pleasant refuge: The reference is to the Bible, Psalms 46:1: "God is our refuge and strength / A very present help in trouble."
49 (p. 198) Some natural tears: The reference is to Paradise Lost, by John Milton: "Some natural tears they dropped . . ." (book 12, line 645). See also the preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800), by William Wordsworth (1770-1850): "Poetry shed no tears 'such as angels weep,' but natural and human tears."
50 (p. 212) Rizzio: A secretary of Mary, Queen of Scots, Rizzio was murdered by nobles hostile to Mary with the help of Lord Darnley, her husband; the nobles had persuaded Darnley that Rizzio was Mary's lover.
51 (p. 212) James Hepburn: Hepburn, the earl of Bothwell, is said to have engineered the murder of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, in order to marry her, though the nobles forced Mary to renounce him shortly after the marriage.
CHAPTER XVIII