Dinner at Matching and Three Politicians:
it would be hard to have an affair at this house party without Mr. Bott telling on you
We’ll look at two chapters this week “Dinner at Matching” and “Three Politicians”. For those who haven’t read with us before we are a little over halfway through the first part of Can You Forgive Her? By Anthony Trollope and we are about to dig our teeth into the political backdrop of the novel.
I wanted to take a minute to plug a side project I started recently with my friend Elizabeth Held from What to Read If. We’re editing a short-run newsletter to celebrate the new Louise Penny book coming out in November. We’ll feature a lot of different writers and their perspectives on the universe of Three Pines that Penny has built through her work on the Inspector Gamache series. Subscribe now so you get the posts when they go live in the fall!
The last year has been just more of the same anxiety and upset that we’ve all come to expect since 2020 and having the comfortable and delicious world of Three Pines to return to over and over again has certainly helped me out. If you’ve never read Louise Penny I definitely suggest starting at the beginning with Still Life.
Summary:
We pick up at the dinner table with Alice seated between Mr. Jeffrey Palliser and the Duke of St. Bungay. The Duke sort of jokes to Alice that he wants to be a Radical (a political alignment) but can’t get beyond Whiggery (your basic liberal). She suggests he votes for the secret ballot if he wants to be a radical. He agrees with her but balks.
In the 1860s voters gave their vote in public which left them open to bribery and intimidation. Ballot reform was a real political topic and it shows up in the Palliser universe as a reoccurring theme in this book.
At dinner, Alice is conscious again of feeling inferior to Jeffrey Palliser and the Duchess of Bungay but she doesn’t mind feeling inferior to the Duke because he is a cabinet minister. We see again that while Alice is a radical she’s also quite conservative: she believes in the power of office even if she doesn’t believe in hierarchy.
There’s an amusing interlude where the ladies play billiards and the Duchess is lightly mocked by another guest. When the ladies retire Glencora comes to Alice’s room and says she didn’t visit her in London because she knew she would talk about the man she loves, Burgo Fitzgerald, and she was trying to forget him. She explains her husband has made her see Burgo socially so now she’s given up trying to forget him but she wants her cousin to help her do what’s right, but she complains that it’s difficult:
“But I've got you here because I don't think you will tell a falsehood. Oh, Alice, I do so want to go right, and it is so hard!"
Alice is left alone in her room overwhelmed by the events of the day but inspired to help Glencora.
The next chapter “Three Politicians” is sketches of Mr. Palliser, the Duke of St. Bungay, and Mr. Bott. Palliser had a romantic dalliance with a married woman before he married Glencora but it didn’t go very far. He knows about Burgo Fitzgerald but doesn’t rate it as very serious:
“The story of Burgo Fitzgerald was told to him, and he supposed that most girls had some such story to tell. He thought little about it, and by no means understood her when she said to him, with all the impressiveness which she could throw into the words, "You must know that I have really loved him." "You must love me now," he had replied with a smile; and then as regarded his mind, the thing was over.”
Palliser doesn’t mind his wife has loved someone else but he seems to imagine she can just transfer her affections without much work. I suppose this tells us all we need to know about his previous love affair with the married woman. The narrator calls Palliser dull and I’m not gonna fight him on it I’ll just say there’s something wonderful about nice dull people. The most important thing we learn about Palliser is that while he isn’t very brilliant politically he’s very hard working and serious and this, plus his immense wealth, mean he’s destined for public office. But he’s not motivated by pride or greed instead,
“He was an upright, thin, laborious man; who by his parts alone could have served no political party materially, but whose parts were sufficient to make his education, integrity, and industry useful in the highest degree. It is the trust which such men inspire which makes them so serviceable;—trust not only in their labour,—for any man rising from the mass of the people may be equally laborious; nor yet simply in their honesty and patriotism. The confidence is given to their labour, honesty, and patriotism joined to such a personal stake in the country as gives them a weight and ballast which no politician in England can possess without it.”
It’s this combined with Palliser’s devotion to his country which, even though he’s dull, makes him valuable to a political party.
In contrast, the Duke of St. Bungay is already at the height of a long political career and has held cabinet positions before. The Duke is also not portrayed as being brilliant, at least not obviously, but he has his own version of genius,
“But he was a walking miracle of the wisdom of common sense. He never lost his temper. He never made mistakes. He never grew either hot or cold in a cause. He was never reckless in politics, and never cowardly.”
His trouble is that he is somewhat concerned regarding his wife. Like Palliser, he has a young less emotionally even partner but the Duchess is also truly terrified of being socially mocked and feels some of the guests at Glencora’s house are mocking her.
Enter Mr. Bott who is not born into the nobility like Palliser and Bungay but is the member for St. Helen’s and has made himself useful to the party. His motives are linked to greed and the narrator describes them, “they who sat on the same side with him in the House and watched his political manœuvres, knew that he was striving hard to get his finger into the public pie.”
What’s interesting is that when the Duchess tells the Duke she is being bullied, for really we should have some compassion-- she’s not very bright but she is being mocked-- he goes to Mr. Bott and then Mr. Bott tells Palliser and Palliser offers hints to Glencora. Glencora resents this and resents Mr. Bott for carrying tales and wishes she could kick him out of the house. It’s not a rift in their marriage because Palliser and Glencora have too much duty to have a strong argument and also Palliser is just so even-tempered and cool-- Glencora would probably rather he shouted at her but I don’t think he ever does.
Alice and Glencora:
Like Glencora, Alice longs to do the right thing but finds it hard. Alice doesn’t know what the right path is for Glencora her marriage has made the path obvious: have children and be a respectable wife. But just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s easy. As Glencora complained in the last chapter she has yet to get pregnant and to be blunt when she complains that her husband works alone till three in the morning… it becomes somewhat apparent why.
Glencora clings to her cousin as a kind of moral beacon but also as a secret confidante she can talk to about her deepest secret. Alice both knows Glencora is in love with Burgo Fitzgerald and can be relied upon to disapprove of him. Glencora doesn’t want a conspirator who will help her have an affair. What Glencora rebels against is everyone’s insistence that she pretend she and Burgo don’t have a history together
Women and Politics, Men and Privilege
Trollope draws a comparison between Jeffrey Palliser and Alice and their attitudes towards politics Jeffrey says:
“But Miss Vavasor, unfortunately I'm not a politician. I haven't a chance of a seat in the House, and so I despise politics."
And Alice answers:
"Women are not allowed to be politicians in this country."
Alice’s rebuke here is that she also has no chance of a seat at the house but that doesn’t mean she despises politics. She still takes an interest because she considers it important and perhaps because as someone who has no available role but is still ruled by it she considers it vital to her happiness and existence.
Jeffrey however is privileged enough without a vote or seat in the house of commons, he can vote in the elections after all and Alice cannot. Even if Jeffrey couldn’t vote his gender and social status elevate him far in the ranks of privilege-- so far that to consider him ineligible to vote even abstractly is basically a pointless exercise.
Alice and Glencora have social power: to chide gentlemen about how they vote or to mention that their husbands want certain positions-- as Glencora mentions her husband wishes to be Chancellor of the Exchequer in this chapter. But they don’t have political representation.
Women being alone with women
Reading this chapter it struck me how the whole purpose of inviting Alice is so that Glencora can confide in her but that they have trouble being alone. Most of the linear time Alice has been at Matching Glencora has been busy with a hostess or they’ve been together in public. There are ways the patriarchy (by which I suppose I mean the whole social order of societal expectations around a married woman’s behavior, especially when that woman is married to an important political man) encroaches on women even when appearing to leave them completely alone. This is represented palpably by the figure of Mr. Bott who spies and tells tales on the women and acts as a sort of liaison between the men to even out the social situation for their own comfort. Glencora invited Mr. Bott imagining he would keep to himself but instead he hangs around the other guests and she seems to view it as spying. If this were a queer book Mr. Bott might be a kind of queer character but he might be the kind in league with the powerful men making sure women aren’t together in that way.
I recently read The Heiress by Molly Greeley which is a sequel to Pride and Prejudice told from Anne de Bourgh’s perspective. It’s not really Victorian-- though the end of the book stretches into the Victorian era--but at one point Anne struggles to get alone time with a new “friend” because an upcoming wedding has given all the women so many little errands and tasks to do they have no time for their own pursuits. This is especially obvious when (and I try not to do spoilers but I’m making a point here) the women are pursuing one another. But even if they aren’t queer society still gets in the way of intimacy. As much as this section of the novel is about the relationship between Alice and Glencora most of the narrative is taken up describing other issues.
It’s a very different novel if Glencora invited Alice by herself to Matching to help her adjust to her new marriage. It’s a very different novel if they have an affair (it’s basically fanfiction written just for me). But Glencora can’t live in that novel because she is socially obligated to throw parties and go places. What also stands out is that Alice and Glencora agreeing to see one another in London almost sounds like two women having an affair and looking for cover.
“"I will go to you," said Lady Glencora, "of course,—why shouldn't I? But you know what I mean. We shall have dinners and parties and lots of people."
"And we shall have none," said Alice, smiling.
"And therefore there is so much more excuse for your coming to me;”
Of course, I ship Glencora/Alice (except as we’ll find out I really have a soft spot for Glencora’s husband). Still, I think even if you don’t go looking for it this chapter shows the difficulty of having intimate relationships in strict social hierarchies. There’s a lot of three-day-weekend discourse on Twitter right now because we need time to rest, see friends, and clean but even women like Glencora who clean nothing and don’t work a 9-5 had trouble seeing their close friends and social visits were an essential part of an upper-class woman’s life in Victorian England.
“Do pretty”
Hopefully, by now readers feel some real affection for Glencora and Alice. I’ve read opinions that Glencora is introduced to sort of take over the plot of what was otherwise a failing novel, and I know I talk about this each installment but Alice really does get a lot of hate for all her dithering over John Grey and George Vavasor. Perhaps part of my love of Glencora is that she takes Alice far away and honestly socially far above her two suitors and gives her time alone and diversion and fun. Alice has been stewing in her own thoughts for most of the novel and it’s good for her to get out of her troubles and into someone else's.
Glencora’s trouble in these chapters isn’t necessarily that she’s in love with a man who isn’t her husband but that she’s having trouble growing into her role as a social hostess. If her husband is courting a great position it means that she will hold great power as well and as a great heiress married to the heir to a great dukedom she already holds considerable social power now.
Alice reflects on Glencora’s social duties while worrying she won’t be able to claim much of her attention in a previous chapter,
“Moreover, she was aware that Lady Glencora could not devote herself, especially to any such guest as she was. Lady Glencora must of course look after her duchesses, and do pretty, as she called it, to her husband's important political alliances.”
Pretty the way Glencora seems to use it can refer to manners or looks or perhaps a sort of combination of social behaviors including physical grooming, She says
“Well, now, my dear, I must go down. The Duchess of St. Bungay is here, and Mr. Palliser will be angry if I don't do pretty to her.”
To do pretty is to behave the way a person’s rank and station demands it but the way Glencora treats it makes it seem slightly coercive like it is part of her marital duties and she doesn’t like it. What she probably doesn’t like is having to behave politely and not have fun because when she does have to talk to the Duchess she lightly, the narrator suggests almost unintentionally, mocks her back. Glencora feels constrained by the social functions of her role and she sees her relationship with Alice as a way to be true and genuine. In this way, Glencora sort of reminds me of the Romantics living for ideals. We learn she has some poetry memorized by heart for example and she loves to escape to her dressing room where her guests can’t bother her. Her guests however are thorough Victorians.
After thoughts:
Trollope gives us a rather good look into the Palliser marriage by showing at length what it isn’t. When reflecting on Glencora’s continued love of Burgo the narrator tells us:
“I do not know that Lady Glencora's heart was made of that stern stuff which refuses to change its impressions; but it was a heart, and it required food. To love and fondle someone,—to be loved and fondled, were absolutely necessary to her happiness. She wanted the little daily assurance of her supremacy in the man's feelings, the constant touch of love, half accidental half contrived, the passing glance of the eye telling perhaps of some little joke understood only between them two rather than of love, the softness of an occasional kiss given here and there when chance might bring them together, some half-pretended interest in her little doings, a nod, a wink, a shake of the head, or even a pout. It should have been given to her to feed upon such food as this daily, and then she would have forgotten Burgo Fitzgerald. But Mr. Palliser understood none of these things; and therefore the image of Burgo Fitzgerald in all his beauty was ever before her eyes”
Implied then is that all these daily kisses and assurances don’t happen between Plantagenant and Glencora. Which makes me sad! I love these two kids and watching them stumble around the early days of their marriage is kind of tough. I don’t know, to be honest, that they ever develop the kind of affectionate habits that the narrator suggests here but I promise Glencora and Alice find happiness.