In a New Yorker piece commemorating, and celebrating, the anniversary of the Book of Common Prayer , James Wood suggests that “perhaps the most inspired, and funniest, borrowing from the Book of Common Prayer occurs in Pride and Prejudice , when Mr. Collins makes his infamous marriage proposal to Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Collins proposal is arranged in three parts:

“My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish. Secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly—which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness. Every reader notes that the pompous parson neglects to mention love or even the happiness of the woman he wants to marry; every reader notes the sly vaudeville whereby Austen makes us think that Mr. Collins’s third reason for matrimony will be his most important (“which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier”), only to have him announce that his third reason is the approval of his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.”

Wood asks, “how many readers note that this classic comedy is really a joke, from an Anglican vicar’s daughter, about the order of the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer ?” Not me. Wood elaborates:

In the Prayer Book, “the priest begins by announcing three reasons for the existence of matrimony: ‘First, It was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name. Secondly, It was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry . . . . Thirdly, It was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.’ Not until the priest reaches reason No. 3 does he begin to get around to what most people would imagine to be the first and best reason to marry: ‘for the mutual society, help, and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other.’”

Wood speculates that “it struck the canny and satiric Jane Austen as intolerably pompous that the Church apparently prized the production of Christian children and the avoidance of fornication above the happiness of its congregants? And so she gave Mr. Collins a narcissistically exaggerated version of the Prayer Book’s liturgy. Thomas Cranmer’s words live on in Jane Austen’s, even if not in the form he would have desired.”