Charlotte Temple · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide editorial commentary on the text of Charlotte Temple, clarifying sources of quoted lines, historical context of locations like Fleet Prison, and biographical details of real-life figures such as Colonel Montrésor and Co
What happens
The endnotes provide editorial commentary on the text of Charlotte Temple, clarifying sources of quoted lines, historical context of locations like Fleet Prison, and biographical details of real-life figures such as Colonel Montrésor and Colonel Blakeney. They also discuss textual variations, the identification of Charlotte's house in New York, and connections to the sequel Lucy Temple.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Money
Endnotes discuss the wealth and social standing of figures like Colonel Blakeney and the Montrésor family, as well as the financial implications of inheritances.
Repentance and Forgiveness
The notes reference Mrs. Rowson's fidelity to real events, implying a narrative of consequence and moral reflection.
Characters to notice
- Colonel Blakeney
Identified as a possible hero of the novels; his death and connection to Lucy Temple are noted.
- Charlotte Temple
Her house in New York is identified; her daughter Lucy Temple is mentioned.
- Lucy Temple
Mentioned as the daughter of Charlotte Temple; inherits £20,000 from Colonel Blakeney.
- Montraville
Given the same Christian name as Montrésor; his later life as Colonel Franklin is described.
- Colonel Montrésor
Real-life counterpart to Montraville; his family and career details are provided.
- Julia Franklin
Noted as not being a real person, contrary to some earlier beliefs.
- Henry Temple
Mentioned in connection with Blakeney bringing him and Lucy Eldridge together.
- Lucy Eldridge
Mentioned as the mother of Charlotte Temple, brought together with Henry Temple by Blakeney.
Key passages
“The famous Fleet Prison in London for centuries had been a general receptacle for debtors. In the eighteenth century it had become a scene of the worst forms of brutality, and even vice, in consequence of the extortions exacted by keepers, but primarily chargeable to a system by which wardens were able to underlet privileges.”
Fleet Prison was a London debtors' prison that became notorious in the 1700s for its brutal and immoral conditions, caused by corrupt keepers and a system that allowed wardens to profit from subleasing.
Provides historical context for the prison mentioned in the novel.
“If there be a hero in “Charlotte Temple” and “Lucy Temple,” it is Blakeney, and yet this is the last that the reader sees of him. There is something fine in a romance which makes of the man who thus brought together Henry Temple and Lucy Eldridge, the benefactor, a quarter of a century afterward, of the daughter of their unfortunate child, Charlotte.”
Blakeney is arguably the hero of both novels, though he disappears from the story; it is a touching narrative device that the same man who united Henry Temple and Lucy Eldridge later becomes the benefactor of their daughter Charlotte's child.
Highlights Blakeney's role as a connecting figure across the two novels.
“Colonel Montrésor, it will be recalled, sailed from New York with his family in the autumn of 1778, never to return. Mrs. Rowson, in “Lucy Temple,” says Colonel Franklin (that is, Montraville) “returned to his own country, which he had left nine years before a captain of artillery, with little besides his pay, an honorable descent, and fair character, to receive the thanks of royalty for his intrepidity... and to dash into the world of splendor and gaiety.””
Colonel Montrésor left New York in 1778 for good; in Lucy Temple, his counterpart Colonel Franklin returns to England after nine years as a captain, is honored by royalty, and enters high society.
Connects the fictional Montraville to the historical Montrésor and describes his later life.
