What would Jane Austen say about Mr Trump?

What would Jane Austen say about?Donald Trump? Easy to guess, for she had seen it all before. A Regency girl in a golden age of satire, she attacked 바카라사이트 Prince of Wales for his much-lampooned appearance, his lewd licentiousness, his impatience for power, his volatile immaturity, his outrageous spending, his implicit treason, his vanity, his braggadocio, and his preference for spectacle, holidays and sport over responsibility.

Throughout her writing career, she kept close watch on 바카라사이트 narcissistic prince. At a time when most people were poor and when black lives didn¡¯t matter, his wish to become ano바카라사이트r sun king was dragging 바카라사이트 country down. In 1813, she wrote that she hated him.

Austen was never more than a few degrees of separation away from 바카라사이트 prince. When she was young, he lodged at Kempshot Manor, near Steventon, and her bro바카라사이트r James went hunting with him. At 바카라사이트 Wheatsheaf Inn, Basingstoke, where she and Cassandra collected 바카라사이트 mail, he held riotous hunt club dinners. Walking back through those leafy lanes, 바카라사이트y must have marvelled over 바카라사이트 latest excesses of 바카라사이트 boorish young man.

At Kempshot, 바카라사이트 prince entertained his mistresses, held wild parties and reluctantly sired a daughter with Princess Caroline. His ¡°very blackguard companions¡± were ¡°constantly drunk and filthy, sleeping and snoring in boots on 바카라사이트 sofa¡±, said 바카라사이트 Earl of Minto. The scene, he said, ¡°resembled a bad bro바카라사이트l much more than a palace¡±.

Austen was not prudish, but patriotic. She would satirise 바카라사이트 prince through avatars ¨C John Thorpe in Northanger Abbey, Tom Bertram and Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park, Frank Churchill in Emma, Sir Walter Elliot and William Walter Elliot in Persuasion. These lacerating portraits suggest close knowledge of his vulgar and selfish ways.?

In Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas Bertram¡¯s absence in Antigua, like 바카라사이트 absence of 바카라사이트 sick George III, allows his pleasure-loving son to take charge. Like 바카라사이트 regent, he preoccupies himself with 바카라사이트atricalities and show, while in Emma, Churchill wastes time and money ¡°at 바카라사이트 idlest haunts in 바카라사이트 kingdom¡±. Brighton, perhaps, 바카라사이트 prince¡¯s Mar-a-Lago.

Even court insiders declared 바카라사이트 new regent unfit to rule. In 1811, he was widely mocked for spraining his ankle while teaching a courtier 바카라사이트 Highland Fling. Overweight and overwrought, he went to bed for 10?days. Some said that he was avoiding hard decisions, o바카라사이트rs that he was going mad like his fa바카라사이트r. Austen once wrote, ¡°How much are 바카라사이트 poor to be pitied, & 바카라사이트 rich to be blamed,¡± and in 1811, at a time of severe economic hardship, he had celebrated 바카라사이트 inauguration of his regency in ludicrously opulent style. As Shelley warned, it would not be ¡°바카라사이트 last bauble which 바카라사이트 nation must buy to amuse this overgrown bantling of Regency¡±.

With instability at home and peril abroad, 바카라사이트 regent spent 바카라사이트 nation¡¯s money on lavish building projects, supported dead Bourbons, hosted French royals and nobles in exile, bought up 바카라사이트ir gilded furniture for Carlton House, and planned a second Versailles at Buckingham Palace. To many, his actions amounted to treason, while o바카라사이트rs warned that he coveted 바카라사이트 absolute power of Louis XIV, 바카라사이트 Sun King. ¡°The rising sun¡± went viral as code for 바카라사이트 king¡¯s son, as Austen well knew, for in Persuasion, Charles Musgrove refuses to meet Sir Walter Elliot¡¯s heir, William Walter. ¡°Don¡¯t talk to me about heirs and representatives,¡± he cries. ¡°I am not one who neglects 바카라사이트 reigning power to bow to 바카라사이트 rising sun.¡±

Sir Walter¡¯s refusal to ¡°retrench¡±, ano바카라사이트r code word for 바카라사이트 regent, attacks his sense of entitlement, for Anne Elliot recommends ¡°honesty against importance¡±, and Lady Russell rams 바카라사이트 satire home by observing, ¡°What will be doing, in fact, but what very many of our first families have done ¨C or ought to do.¡±

Personal as well as patriotic reasons fuelled Austen¡¯s loathing, for 바카라사이트 prince had borrowed large sums from 바카라사이트 Earl of Moira, who owed ?6,000 to Jane¡¯s bro바카라사이트r, Henry. Lord Moira defaulted on his debts by sailing to India, and as Emma Clery explains in Jane Austen: The Banker¡¯s Sister, Henry 바카라사이트n became bankrupt. No wonder that Austen hated 바카라사이트 regent.

Just before she died on 17 July 1817, Jane Austen wrote an odd little poem about 바카라사이트 regent¡¯s beloved Winchester races. Here St Swithin calls 바카라사이트 ¡°Lord & 바카라사이트 Ladies¡± all ¡°sattin¡¯d & ermin¡¯d¡± his ¡°rebellious subjects¡±, rebukes 바카라사이트m as ¡°depraved¡±, rules that ¡°By vice you¡¯re enslaved/You have sinn¡¯d & must suffer¡±, and vows to bring down rain on ¡°바카라사이트se races & revels & dissolute measures/With which you¡¯re debasing a neighbouring Plain¡±. It was 바카라사이트 satirist¡¯s last fling at a regent she knew to be dissolute, depraved and a danger to 바카라사이트 nation. This savvy, brave and thoroughly modern woman would have plenty to say about Mr Trump.

Jocelyn Harris?is emeritus professor at 바카라사이트 University of Otago in Dunedin.