Jane Austen’s Advent Calendar – Day 22 – Darcy and Elizabeth in Venice

Jane Austen may have had reason to write disparagingly about the meaning and sense of an Italian love song, for we know that she actually transcribed one into her own song-book. This popular song was called “La Biondina in Gondoletta” (The Blonde Girl in the Gondola) by Antonio Lamberti (1757 – 1852) and the thought of Jane Austen singing these incongruous and rather spicy lyrics is certainly eye-opening:

“The other night I took my blonde out in the gondola

She slept in my arms…the lagoon lay becalmed…

But at last I had enough of her long slumbers…And so I acted cheekily…”

Hmm. 

Jane Austen knew more about Venice than these rather cheesy lyrics, of course. She enjoyed reading Corinne, or Italy, by Germaine de Stael, published in 1807 and famous for its travel descriptions. Austen jokingly wrote to Cassandra about the moment in Corinne when the heroine, in Venice, hears a cannon fire thrice across the lagoon. A gondolier explains to her that this “signifies the moment when a religeuse takes the veil in one of our convents in the midst of the sea. Our custom is for a girl, at the moment she pronounces her sacred vows, to cast behind her the bouquet of flowers she has carried throughout the ceremony, as a sign that she renounces the world, and a cannon is fired to announce the sacred moment.” Jane Austen, with her wicked sense of humor, related this in connection with a man who was so deaf he was said not to be able to hear a cannon fire. 

So Italy, and Venice, were known to Jane Austen at least in her imagination. And of course, there is no limit to our imagining Darcy and Elizabeth spending a winter season on the continent, is there? So let us go and join, just for a moment, the young married Darcys in beautiful Venice…

Elizabeth and Darcy in Venice

Winter still had its grip on Venice in March of 1816, when Darcy and Elizabeth arrived there after a month spent in Paris and then crossing the mountains into Italy. Their trip had commenced soon after their halcyon family Christmas at Pemberley, where roaring fires, the comforts of a grand Christmas feast, and the company of their favorite relatives and friends – particularly the Gardiners and the Bingleys – had made their home so blissfully warm and attractive that Elizabeth could have spent all winter there as happily as she had in the first five years of her marriage. In the beginning there had been the pleasures of simply learning to know all Pemberley and its environs, and enjoying being its lady; in succeeding years three little children had arrived, but this year her husband had other ideas than staying at home.

“You have traveled so little, Elizabeth, I have always longed to show you a bit of the world,” he told her. “And now that the wars are over, the continent is open to us. The dangers of travel are at an end; and we can spend a few months leisurely going through France and Italy. Would you not enjoy that, my dear?”

Elizabeth put down the silk thread of a little garment she was making. “I am rather surprised to find you so restless,” she commented. “I confess I am so happy at Pemberley, I would leave it with reluctance.”

“Oh, I did not mean a regular Grand Tour, Elizabeth,” he reassured her. “I did all that following my time at university, you know, and I do not intend an educational project; only a journey of pleasure and interest, lasting months, not years. Have you not always longed to see Versailles, and Florence, and the canals of Venice?”

“Ye-es,” she answered a little doubtfully, “to be sure; it would be fine to have images of such places as part of one’s mental furniture. But what of the children? Would it be healthful for them? The rigours of travel – and with three infants under the age of five!” “Why, we would have the best and most comfortable carriages, and out-riders,” Darcy assured her, “and a suitable number of nursemaids. We might persuade Georgiana and her intended to come along, as a kind of honey-moon trip for them. The children will do very well, with you and Georgiana to protect their healths, and we will take every precaution as to food and drink.”

Elizabeth thought for a few moments. “I have always wanted to see Venice,” she admitted. “It hardly looks as if it could really exist, from the pictures I have seen.”

“There you are, then,” said Darcy, beaming happily. “I will start to make the arrangements. Trust me to make all as comfortable as possible, won’t you?”

“Of course I will,” she said, smiling back at him.

That had been six months ago; and now on a cold sunny day that bore some promise of approaching spring in the blue sky and a few swelling tree-buds, they arrived at the top of the Grand Canal, to see the vision of Venice spread out before them. As she paused a moment before descending into the gondola, Elizabeth raised a face of wonder. 

“Tis too much,” she exclaimed, “it looks even less real than I had envisioned! It is a wonder, a fairy city indeed.”

“Mama,” cried Charles, their oldest boy, “do you see? The roads are all made of water!”

“Those are the canals of Venice, my boy,” Darcy explained. “We will be leaving our carriages, and travel to our lodgings by boat.”

The youngest nursery maid looked a bit frightened, so Elizabeth motioned for Georgiana to assist her, and she took her baby into her own arms as she seated herself in the gondola. 

“Will we have a house, papa?” little Charles asked. “Will it float?”

Darcy laughed. “No, the houses are built on wooden pilings, my boy, that go deeply into the soil under the water. They are very sound.”

“What kind of house have you taken, brother?” Georgiana wanted to know. Her young husband, Lord Stanley, laughed at her. “Are you afraid of it being a watery palazzo, my love?”

“It is a palazzo, as a matter of fact,” Darcy nodded. “With such an entourage as we have, I thought we would be needing the space. It is quite a grand place, called the Palazzo Mocenigo.”

“I hope it will be comfortable, and quiet, for the children,” Elizabeth worried. “And not damp.”

“I have no doubt it will be comfortable,” Darcy told her, “but quiet depends on the other residents, and I have lately heard that one of the suites, the piano nobile apartment, is to be taken by none other than Lord Byron.”

“Will that be suitable, brother?” asked Georgiana anxiously. “From all I have heard of him, he is a very doubtful character.”

“Well, he is a nobleman, and travels with a large staff – as we do, I might add,” said Darcy, “but instead of children, he has animals. A menagerie in fact, cats, a mastiff, a pair of cranes, monkeys, a fox, and a wolf.”

“A wolf! With children!” Elizabeth turned distressed eyes to her husband.

“Don’t you worry, my dear. The place is palatial in size, with endless apartments, cloistered gardens and walks, and more. We probably will never see Lord Byron at all.”

“I hope not,” said Georgiana nervously.

“Well, I don’t know if I care about seeing him, but oh, just look at this place! The water, and the palazzi, and the sunshine glittering on the windows – I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life, Darcy,” Elizabeth exclaimed rapturously.

“I thought you would like it, my beloved,” answered Darcy, smiling into her eyes.