As I am now, I have no influence, I can do nothing: I have offended them, and they will not hear me; but when I have put them in good–humour by this concession, I am not without hopes of persuading them to confine the representation within a much smaller circle than they are now in the high road for. This will be a material gain. My object is to confine it to Mrs. Rushworth and the Grants.” (16)

I readily agree Edmund is ‘unwilling… to check a pleasure of Miss Crawford’s’ (7) or his own as it pertains to her but quitting the play is unlikely to stop Tom’s inviting their neighbors to audience the play. Actually I think Edmund could not do it without inviting disagreeable consequences. He has not the power to enforce any deal with Tom the later is not already disposed to oblige. It seems to me the threat to bring in any of “six young men within six miles of” (15) MP to play Anhalt was intended to force Edmund to do the deed himself and it and Miss Crawford’s newly formed scruples did the trick. However, as Edmund told Fanny (above) he also hoped agreeing to act would secure some influence with his brother about the size of the audience but it was not to be. I do not feel Tom was resolved to keep this promise when he made it:

Edmund… gave a hint of his hope as to the limitation of the audience, they [Maria & Tom] were ready, in the complaisance of the moment, to promise anything. (17)

It is true Edmund could have walked out when he learned:

‘…his brother, instead of being really guided by him as to the privacy of the representation, was giving an invitation to every family who came in his way’ (18)