This image is from the 1995 film adaptation of Jane Austen's 1817 novel Persuasion. In this scene, Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) has met up with her former beau Captain Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds) on a rainy day in Bath, seeing him for the first time since the accident at Lyme. He is lending her his umbrella, and probably planning to offer to escort her home (yes! yes!) but her loathsome cousin Mr. Elliot (Samuel West) shows up at this inopportune moment to convey her there (no! no!).
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Valancy hurries home following the dinner party- too quickly, because she suffers an attack of heart pain which is the worst one she's had yet. Alone in her room, gasping in pain, she manages to take a dose of the medication Dr.Trent gave her and the attack gradually fades, leaving her drained and exhausted. Laying on her bed in the aftermath, Valancy suddenly finds herself laughing at the memory of the anniversary party and the shocked faces of her relatives as she said all the things that she had previously just thought. Her amusement is, however, tempered by loneliness and the wistful thought that she should be able to expect more from her final months than sardonic amusement at her family's hypocrasies. The next day Uncle Benjamin shows up, planning to take Valancy to see Dr. Marsh. He is stymied when she simply refuses to go, even when her mother implores her with floods of tears. Valancy tells them that she knows they think she's lost her mind, but not to worry: she doesn't plan on doing anything dreadful, she just means to have a little fun. The family next sends Olive, thinking that Valancy might listen to her cousin. Valancy mockingly refuses her blandishments as well and Olive, not used to being mocked, leaves offended and pretending to be grieved. Her mother tells her comfortingly that she must remember that Valancy's mind is affected. Uncle James goes to see Dr. Marsh himself and tells him of Valancy's behaviour, hoping that Marsh will declare that she needs to be locked up. Instead, Dr. Marsh points out that nothing Valancy has said or done is proof of lunacy and, worse, seems to be trying not to laugh at some of what James relates to him. Uncle James leaves disgusted and feeling that Cousin Adelaide hadn't married so well after all. Defeated on this front, the family decides that all they can do is keep a watchful eye on Valancy and hope that they can keep news of her mental instability from spreading beyond the family. Soon after this Roaring Abel, who is the town handyman as well as the town drunk, is hired by Valancy's mother to fix the front porch. He's only slightly inebriated when he shows up to work, but it's enough that Mrs. Stirling and Cousin Stickles retreat into the house in righteous indignation. They obviously expect Valancy to do the same, but to their horror she sits on the steps and chats with Abel while he's working. Mrs. Stirling tries to call her in, but Valancy just smiles and stays where she is. Roaring Abel Gay is, of course, a drunk and unrepentant reprobate, but an interesting and amusing conversationalist. Valancy asks after his daughter Cissy, whom she was at school with though Cissy was a little younger. Cissy's mother died when she was a child, but Abel, though never darkening the door of a church himself, had made sure that his daughter attended church and school. She grew up to be quietly pretty and shy, and most people in town liked her and felt sorry for her. This didn't stop them from turning on her when the fall came: four years previously she had gone to work at a Muskoka hotel as a waitress during tourist season. When she returned home, she stayed away from town but the scandal eventually leaked out and raged: Cissy was pregnant and that winter had a baby boy. Cissy refused to name the father, though gossip laid the blame at Barney Snaith's door, simply because there seemed to be no other suspects. The baby lived for only a year and now Cissy, stricken with tuberculosis, is dying as well. The elderly cousin who cared for Cissy has passed away and, because no decent woman will go to Roaring Abel's house, there's now no one nursing her. Abel gives his profane opinion of the "Christians" in Deerwood who shun his terminally ill daughter, much to Mrs. Stirling's horror as some of his words drift in the window... how can Valancy be listening to such shocking things? Valancy pays no heed to Roaring Abel's colourful language: she's only concerned with Cissy's lack of a caregiver. Abel says that Cissy is still able to get around a bit and care for herself, but is not strong enough to do much housework or cooking. He also says that Barney Snaith often stops by and does any jobs Cissy isn't strong enough for, and brings her oranges and flowers from town. He asks why Valancy is suddenly so interested in Cissy- she hasn't bothered to visit her up until now, though Cissy always thought a lot of her. Valancy says she should have visited, and that Abel wouldn't understand why she hadn't. Roaring Abel says he could pay good wages if he could find someone half decent to employ as a housekeeper; Valancy asks if she would do. Related Posts: In choir practice last night, we spent some time working on The Flight Of The Moon, which is an a cappella number with music composed by contemporary American composer/arranger Audrey Snyder. The lyrics are actually from a poem written by Oscar Wilde in 1881 entitled La Fuite De La Lune. This has nothing to do with the song, but just as a bit of trivia, Wilde would later use a bit of his poem in his 1891 play Salome: "She is like a little princess who wears a yellow veil." Then, later on, Herod orders the moon to be hidden, or "withdrawn". Well, there's nothing wrong with cannibalising one work for another, as long as it's your own work. Below is Wilde's poem in its entirety: La Fuite de la Lune TO outer senses there is peace, A dreamy peace on either hand, Deep silence in the shadowy land, Deep silence where the shadows cease. Save for a cry that echoes shrill 5 From some lone bird disconsolate; A corncrake calling to its mate; The answer from the misty hill. And suddenly the moon withdraws Her sickle from the lightening skies, 10 And to her sombre cavern flies, Wrapped in a veil of yellow gauze. And here's another choir performing the same arrangement we're doing:
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