she was well educated, though not highly accomplished,
and she certainly enjoyed that important element of
mental training, associating at home with persons
of cultivated intellect. It cannot be doubted
that her early years were bright and happy, living,
as she did, with indulgent parents, in a cheerful
home, not without agreeable variety of society.
To these sources of enjoyment must be added the first
stirrings of talent within her, and the absorbing
interest of original composition. It is impossible
to say at how early an age she began to write.
There are copy books extant containing tales some
of which must have been composed while she was a young
girl, as they had amounted to a considerable number
by the time she was sixteen. Her earliest stories
are of a slight and flimsy texture, and are generally
intended to be nonsensical, but the nonsense has much
spirit in it. They are usually preceded by a
dedication of mock solemnity to some one of her family.
It would seem that the grandiloquent dedications
prevalent in those days had not escaped her youthful
penetration. Perhaps the most characteristic
feature in these early productions is that, however
puerile the matter, they are always composed in pure
simple English, quite free from the over-ornamented
style which might be expected from so young a writer.
One of her juvenile effusions is given, as a specimen
of the kind of transitory amusement which Jane was
continually supplying to the family party.
DEDICATION.
TO THE REV. GEORGE AUSTEN.
SIR,—I humbly solicit your patronage to
the following Comedy, which, though an unfinished
one, is, I flatter myself, as complete a Mystery
as any of its kind.
I am, Sir, your most humble Servant,
THE AUTHOR.
THE MYSTERY, A COMEDY.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
Men. Women.
Col. ELLIOTT. FANNY ELLIOTT.
OLD HUMBUG. Mrs. HUMBUG
YOUNG HUMBUG. and
Sir Edward Spangle Daphne.
and
Corydon.
ACT I.
SCENE I.—A Garden.
Enter CORYDON.
Corydon. But hush: I am interrupted.
[Exit CORYDON.
Enter OLD HUMBUG and his SON, talking.
Old Hum. It is for that reason that I
wish you to follow my advice. Are you convinced
of its propriety?
Young Hum. I am, sir, and will certainly
act in the manner you have pointed out to me.
Old Hum. Then let us return to the house.
[Exeunt.
SCENE II.—A parlour in HUMBUG’S
house. MRS. HUMBUG and FANNY discovered
at work.
Mrs. Hum. You understand me, my love?