Hi, my name is Ellie Dashwood and this
is another episode of Dashie Notes. Today, we'll be talking about
forms of address in period dramas and classic literature. Oh, Mr.Darcy, he's just so wonderful. He has a beautiful estate, good
manners, well, by the end of the book, he has good manners, and such
a noble sounding name, doesn't he? Mr Darcy. But does he have a first name? If you really think about
it, everyone calls him Mr. Darcy, Lizzie, Bingley, even
his aunt calls him Darcy. Did his mom not give them a first name
or is he just too stuck up to use it? Those are good questions. And today we'll be answering them
for you right here on Dashie Notes, where we answer your modern day
questions about classic literature. So does Mr. Darcy have a first name? Yes. Yes, he does. It is: Fitzwilliam. Doesn't that sound noble. You probably recognize Mr. Darcy's first name, Fitzwilliam, as his
cousin Colonel Fitzwilliams' last name. But why does he have this cousin's
last name as his first name? Because it was his mother's maiden name. And since it was a name of distinction and
he was given it as his first name as sort of like a hereditary nod to her family. So if his first name is Fitzwilliam, then
why does no one call him Fitzwilliam? They're always calling him Darcy. In fact, we only have two instances in
the book where we learned his name at all. And one of them is when he signs
that passionate letter, he writes to Elizabeth defending himself against
all of her slanderous lies about him. The answer lies in the social customs
of Victorian and Georgian England. England of 1800s had a lot of strict
rules about names, titles, honorifics. And all of those things that seem
very, very different from today. So today we'll be going over sort of
four rule areas with regard to names so we can understand them better. One is titles and respect. Two is dealing with multiples. Three is first names. And four is love and marriage. First, forms of address and respect. So coming from our modern sensibilities,
where we run around calling everyone by their first name, it might seem extremely
formal and stiff when we watch period dramas, or we read classic literature. Here, we have Mrs. Bennet, and all those like her,
running around calling their husbands by their title and last name. AKA Mr. Bennet, AKA "Mr Bennet! My poor nerves!" Hopefully, not all the wives
are that dramatic though. But really we have to understand
the Regency mindset to appreciate why they did this. It was an era where they were
very, very concerned with stuff like honor and respect. And calling someone by their title and
last name was a sign of respect and honor, and their position in society,
even if you were related to them. Usually the use of a first name was
very limited and it denoted either a highly close relationship such
as siblings or very close friends. Or it was even a mark of
disrespect or lower honor. In that often servants were called
by their first name before they worked their way up to that higher
ranking of being either like the head housekeeper or the butler. At which point, they got the dignity
of being called by their last name. So in this video, we'll be talking
more about the titles, Mr., Mrs. and Miss. And I'll leave the other more peerage
titles, such as Lord and lady and Duke and Duchess and all those for
another episode of Dashie Notes. Just very looking forward to that one. I will tell you in that one about
how I almost met a Duchess once. Yeah. Me. Yeah, I know. It's quite exciting. So have you ever wondered what
the term Mister came from? Well, it's simply a title that's been
used in England for a very long time. And it's the rank below baronet. AKA, if you don't make it up to baronet,
then you just gotta be a Mister and below. And what about Mrs? And Miss? Where did those come from? Well, Mrs and Miss are both
contractions of the word Mistress. Okay. So if you watch Masterpiece Theater's
Poldark, which if you don't, I suggest you should, you get to see them
use the full term Mistress a lot. They're always calling Demelza or
Elizabeth Mistress Poldark, because in reality, the term Missus is
just a shortened form of Mistress. Also, Miss is another
shortened form of Mistress. Only, Miss applies to
women who are not married. Mrs, of course, applies
to women who are married. Also, if you're a servant and you reach
a certain rank in the household, such as being a head housekeeper or the head
nanny, or you're maybe the cook in a really big household, then you get to
be called Mrs, even if you're single. Because it's just such
a title of distinction. Now, have you ever wondered, is
there a male equivalent of Miss? Sort of like there's Mr and Mrs
and then there's Miss and then? The answer is yes, there is. And it is Master. And you may have seen this in some
period dramas or in some classic books you've read where they call a young
man who's not coming of age yet Master. And that is the term for it. It's fallen mostly out of use today. You don't really see anyone
calling anyone Master. And even if you did,
that'd sound kind of weird. So we actually see this in
Return to Cranford where Tom Hiddleston plays, I believe, his
character is named William Buxton. And the old ladies are like,
"Oh, Master Buxton's come back." Only, he's all grown up now. And they're like, "Oh, he's
not Master Buxton anymore. He's Mr. Buxton." Because unlike Miss which transitions
from Miss to Mrs upon marriage, men transfer from Master to Mister upon
growing up and becoming an adult. Part two, dealing with multiples. Okay. So we've established that in
Regency England, to show people honor, we're going to call them Mr,
Miss, Mrs, then their last name. But, what if there's a bunch of them? Like in the Bennet family,
there's like five girls. Are they all Miss Bennet? How do you keep them straight? And here enters the rule
for multiples with siblings. Which is the oldest sibling
gets simply have the honor of being titled plus last name. Henceforth, Jane Bennet, since she's
the oldest gets to be Miss Bennet. However, her younger siblings have
to be Title First Name Last Name. That's why when they're introduced
there is Miss Bennet, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, Miss Mary Bennet, Miss
Catherine Bennet and Miss Lydia Bennet. That all changes when one of
the older sisters get married. So when both Elizabeth and Jane
get married, that means the next oldest girl in line is Mary. So Mary now gets to be Miss Bennet. And Kitty's just stuck
being Miss Catherine Bennet. Honestly, I think Miss Catherine
Bennet though, is going to be a much better match than Miss Mary Bennet. Got feel kind of sorry for her. And the same rule applies to guys. For example, in Mansfield
Park, we have two sons and the older one, Tom, gets to be Mr. Bertram. And the younger one is Mr. Edmund Bertram. Only the whole marriage thing doesn't work
there, cause guys last names don't change. So he's going to be stuck being Mr. Edmund Bertram for a long time. So part three, first names. So you have all these rules, all these
people being Title plus Last Name. Did they ever use their first name? Well, of course they did, but
just like everything else, there was rules to this too. Firstly, women were more likely to
be on a first name basis with their friends and family the men were. That's why we see so many people calling
Elizabeth, Lizzy, in Pride and Prejudice. Meanwhile, most men, the most
endearing people got to them was that they left off the title and
just called them by their last name. So if you were Mr. Darcy's really, really best friend, you've
got to move up to calling him Darcy. I know it's so much like closer than Mr. Darcy. And this is really demonstrated
well in the newer version of Emma with Romola Garai, when Mrs. Elton comes along and calls Mr. Knightley, Knightley. And she barely met him and Emma's
just like, "I have known Mr. Knightley my entire life. And I don't even call him that." Yeah. It's quite an outrage. It's like she dropped off Mr. What does she think? That they're best friends. That is getting too close right there. So one of the exceptions in the first name
world is if your siblings, cousins, or childhood friends that grew up together. Since children were often called by their
first name while they grew up, friends who grew up together were used to calling
each other by their first name too. We see different examples
of this principle play out. For example, with brother and
sister, we have Mary Crawford who always calls her brother, Henry. We also in Mansfield Park have Fanny
Price, who calls her cousin Edmund because they're cousins and they grew up together. In Emma, we have a great example
of childhood friends calling each other by their first name. Or in fact, this one is a little
bit different because Emma and Mr. Knightley, were somewhat children
at the same time, cause he was 16 when she was born, but they still
sort of grew up childhood friends. And so that's why he calls her
Emma, but she calls him Mr. Knightley, because he's
still so much older than her. And of course, this is also why Mr. Collins can come in and start talking
to his Cousin Elizabeth by her first name because it's his cousin. Which I'm not quite a fan of the rule
in that area when it comes to Mr. Collins. Part four, love and marriage. So outside of siblings and childhood
friends, it really was not appropriate for a man to call a lady by her
first name, unless they were engaged. In fact, if the guy started calling
you by like your first name and you weren't engaged to him, you'd be like,
"Um, Are you asking me to marry you? I'm kind of confused. I don't know what's happening here." So much drama is happening in the Regency
England of my imagination, apparently. But we see this in Pride and Prejudice,
because as soon as Mr Darcy proposes to Lizzy again, and she accepts him, he
says, "My sweetest, loveliest Elizabeth." And that right there is him
immediately jumping on the chance to use her first name. Because up until that time, he
did not have the social right to, but now he can call her Elizabeth. But have you ever noticed, even
though he starts calling her Elizabeth, she still calls him Darcy. One reason could be because nobody
uses his first name and that'd be kind of weird to start all of a sudden. But we still see that high
level of formality, even between wives and husbands. Or they would call each other by their
first name in private, but in the company, or when talking to someone
else, they still refer to him as Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so. So she would be like, "Mr. Darcy is home, you know,
to my giant mansion." So in conclusion, does Mr. Darcy have a first name? Yes. Yes, he does. It is Fitzwilliam, but he doesn't
hear that name often because of the very formal way people were
addressed during Regency England time. And that's why a lot of people
don't even know he has a first name because it's hidden deep in the
secrets of Pride and Prejudice. Okay.
It's not that secret. You just, you know, open
the book and look for it. But still, it's unknown to many. So in the comments below, tell me
what would your name and title be if you lived in Regency England? I would, of course be Miss Dashwood
because I'm the oldest and I would be Miss Dashwood until I got married. And then of course I'd be Mrs. Darcy. Okay. No, not really. I think if I was really going to
marry, like any of Jane Austen's heroes, I'd want to marry Henry Tilney. So I guess I'd be Mrs. Tilney, but still it's not. I don't know, Mrs. Tilney. Interesting thoughts there. Okay. So thank you again for watching
my episode of Dashie Notes. My name is Ellie Dashwood and I hope
this has answered a modern day question you have about classic literature. Please subscribe to my channel
for more videos about Jane Austen, classic literature and period dramas. And I hope you have a wonderful day. Check me out on Instagram
@elliedashie because that's where I post stuff and stuff. So if you want to see stuff
about stuff, go there and stuff.
