ABSTRACT
The overwhelming majority of English authors that were active in the decades around 1800 quote William Shakespeare in a way that is completely indifferent to the larger design of his texts and their own. Even those writers that make fun of the faddish practice perpetuate it in their own texts. The one spectacular exception is Jane Austen. Austen’s treatment of casual quotations confirms, ex negativo, their popularity because she handles them exactly like other literary fads: with explicit mockery, with indirect criticism and, most characteristically, by simply and completely avoiding them in her own language. The most conspicuous user of foreign-language tags in Austen’s novels is one of her most cringe-making creations, Mrs. Elton in Emma, who keeps referring to her husband as ‘caro sposo’ or even ‘cara sposa’. Austen’s own independent mind is evident from the way in which she keeps her own narrative voice completely free of the stylish quotations that were so fashionable in her time.
