diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:01:59 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:01:59 -0700 |
| commit | 64a8119a89e6867475b1b3afd9a58b34d83cb590 (patch) | |
| tree | 8212794f82d95f392fb45fed28e97ea7eb5a28f7 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613-8.txt | 7621 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 167717 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 180363 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613-h/34613-h.htm | 11072 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613.txt | 7621 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34613.zip | bin | 0 -> 167600 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
9 files changed, 26330 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34613-8.txt b/34613-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..108f575 --- /dev/null +++ b/34613-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7621 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Woman's Work in English Fiction, by Clara Helen Whitmore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman's Work in English Fiction + From the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period + +Author: Clara Helen Whitmore + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34613] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Woman's Work in + English Fiction + + + From the Restoration to the + Mid-Victorian Period + + + By + Clara H. Whitmore, A.M. + + + G. P. Putnam's Sons + New York and London + The Knickerbocker Press + 1910 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1909 + BY + CLARA H. WHITMORE + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +PREFACE + + +The writings of many of the women considered in this volume have sunk +into an oblivion from which their intrinsic merit should have preserved +them. This is partly due to the fact that nearly all the books on +literature have been written from a man's stand-point. While in other +arts the tastes of men and women vary little, the choice of novels is to +a large degree determined by sex. Many men who acknowledge +unhesitatingly that Jane Austen is superior as an artist to Smollett, +will find more pleasure in the breezy adventures of _Roderick Random_ +than in the drawing-room atmosphere of _Emma_; while no woman can read a +novel of Smollett's without loathing, although she must acknowledge that +the Scottish writer is a man of genius. + +This book is written from a woman's viewpoint. Wherever my own judgment +has been different from the generally accepted one, as in the estimate +of some famous heroines, the point in question has been submitted to +other women, and not recorded unless it met with the approval of a +large number of women of cultivated taste. + +This work was first undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. E. Charlton +Black of Boston University for a Master's thesis, and it was due to his +appreciative words that it was enlarged into book form. I also wish to +thank Professor Ker of London University, and Dr. Henry A. Beers and Dr. +Wilbur L. Cross of Yale University for the help which I obtained from +them while a student in their classes. It is with the deepest sense of +gratitude that I acknowledge the assistance given to me in this work by +Mr. Charles Welsh, at whose suggestion the scope of the book was +enlarged, and many parts strengthened. I wish especially to thank him +for calling my attention to _The Cheap Repository_ of Hannah More, and +to the literary value of Maria Edgeworth's stories for children. + +It is my only hope that this book may in a small measure fill a want +which a school-girl recently expressed to me: "Our Club wanted to study +about women, but we have searched the libraries and found nothing." + + C. H. W. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE (1624-1674)-- + APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)--MARY MANLEY (1672-1724) 1 + + CHAPTER II. + SARAH FIELDING (1710-1768)--ELIZA HAYWOOD (1693-1756)-- + CHARLOTTE LENNOX (1720-1766)--FRANCES SHERIDAN (1724-1766) 24 + + CHAPTER III. + FRANCES BURNEY (1752-1840) 45 + + CHAPTER IV. + HANNAH MORE (1745-1833) 62 + + CHAPTER V. + CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)--ELIZABETH INCHBALD (1753-1821) 73 + + CHAPTER VI. + CLARA REEVE (1725-1803)--ANN RADCLIFFE (1764-1822)--SOPHIA + LEE (1750-1824)--HARRIET LEE (1766-1851) 88 + + CHAPTER VII. + MARIA EDGEWORTH (1767-1849)--LADY MORGAN (1783-1859) 111 + + CHAPTER VIII. + ELIZABETH HAMILTON (1758-1816)--ANNA PORTER (1780-1832)--JANE + PORTER (1776-1850) 133 + + CHAPTER IX. + AMELIA OPIE (1769-1853)--MARY BRUNTON (1778-1818) 149 + + CHAPTER X. + JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817) 157 + + CHAPTER XI. + SUSAN EDMONSTONE FERRIER (1782-1854)--MARY RUSSELL MITFORD + (1787-1855)--ANNA MARIA HALL (1800-1881) 179 + + CHAPTER XII. + LADY CAROLINE LAMB (1785-1828)--MARY SHELLEY (1797-1851) 200 + + CHAPTER XIII. + CATHERINE GRACE FRANCES GORE (1799-1861)--ANNA ELIZA BRAY + (1790-1883) 216 + + CHAPTER XIV. + JULIA PARDOE (1806-1862)--FRANCES TROLLOPE (1780-1863)-- + HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802-1876) 231 + + CHAPTER XV. + EMILY BRONTË (1818-1848)--ANNE BRONTË (1820-1849)-- + CHARLOTTE BRONTË (1816-1855) 247 + + CHAPTER XVI. + ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (1810-1865) 274 + + CONCLUSION 293 + + INDEX 297 + + + + + WOMAN'S WORK IN + ENGLISH FICTION + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Duchess of Newcastle. Mrs. Behn. Mrs. Manley + + +In the many volumes containing the records of the past, the names of few +women appear, and the number is still smaller of those who have won fame +in art or literature. Sappho, however, has shown that poetic feeling and +expression are not denied the sex; Jeanne d'Arc was chosen to free +France; Mrs. Somerville excelled in mathematics; Maria Mitchell ranked +among the great astronomers; Rosa Bonheur had the stroke of a master. +These women possessed genius, and one is tempted to ask why more women +have not left enduring work, especially in the realm of art. The Madonna +and Child, what a subject for a woman's brush! Yet the joy of maternity +which shines in a mother's eyes has seldom been expressed by her in +words or on canvas. It was left for a man, William Blake, to write some +of our sweetest songs of childhood. + +But as soon as the novel appeared, a host of women writers sprang up. +Women have always been story-tellers. Long before Homer sang of the fall +of Troy, the Grecian matrons at their spinning related to their maids +the story of Helen's infidelity; and, as they thought of their husbands +and sons who had fallen for her sake, the story did not lack in fervour. +But the minstrels have always had this advantage over the story-tellers: +their words, sung to the lyre, were crystallised in rhythmic form, so +that they resisted the action of time, while only the substance of the +stories, not the words which gave them beauty and power, could be +retained, and consequently they crumbled away. When the novel took on +literary form, women began to write. They were not imitators of men, but +opened up new paths of fiction, in many of which they excelled. + +The first woman to essay prose fiction as an art was Margaret, Queen of +Navarre. In the seventy-two tales of _The Heptameron_, a book written +before the dawn of realism, she related many anecdotes of her brother, +Francis the First, and his courtiers. Woman's permanent influence over +the novel began about 1640, and was due directly to the Hotel +Rambouillet, in whose grand _salon_ there mingled freely for half a +century the noblest minds of France. This _salon_ was presided over by +the Marquise de Rambouillet, who had left the licentious court of Henry +the Fourth, and had formed here in her home between the Louvre and the +Tuileries a little academy, where Corneille read his tragedies before +they were published, and Bousset preached his first sermon, while among +the listeners were the beautiful Duchess de Longueville, Madame de +Lafayette, Madame de Sévigné and Mademoiselle de Scudéri, besides other +persons of royal birth or of genius. The ladies of this _salon_ became +the censors of the manners, the literature, and even the language of +France. Here was the first group of women writers whose fame extended +beyond their own country, and has lasted, though somewhat dimmed, to the +present. Since the seventeenth century the influence of women novelists +has been ever widening. + +In England, women entered the domain of literature later than in France, +Spain, or Italy. Not until the Restoration did they take any active part +in the world of letters; and not until the reign of George the Third did +they make any marked contribution to fiction. + +The first woman writer of prose fiction in England was the thrice noble +and illustrious Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. During the +Commonwealth, the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle had lived in exile, but +with the restoration of Charles the Second, in 1660, they returned to +London, where the Duchess soon became a notable personage. Crowds +gathered in the park merely to see her pass, attracted partly by her +fame as a writer, partly by the singularities she affected. Her black +coach furnished with white curtains and adorned with silver trimmings +instead of gilt, with the footmen dressed in long black coats, was +readily distinguished from other carriages in the park. Her +peculiarities of dress were no less marked. Her long black +_juste-au-corps_, her hair hanging in curls about her bared neck, her +much beplumed velvet cap of her own designing, were objects of ridicule +to the court wits, who even asserted that she wore more than the usual +number of black patches upon her comely face. + +More singular than her habiliments were her pretentions as a woman of +letters, which caused the courtiers to laugh at her conceit. She was +evidently aware of this failing as she writes in her _Autobiography_: +"I fear my ambition inclines to vain-glory, for I am very ambitious; +yet 't is neither for beauty, wit, titles, wealth, or power, but as they +are steps to raise me to Fame's tower, which is to live by remembrance +in after-ages." + +But, notwithstanding her detractors, she received sufficient praise to +foster her belief in her own genius. Her plays were well received. Her +poems were declared by her admirers equal to Shakespeare's. Her +philosophical works, which she dedicated to the great universities of +Oxford and Cambridge, were accepted with fulsome flattery of their +author. When she visited the Royal Society at Arundel House, the Lord +President met her at the door, and, with mace carried before him, +escorted her into the room, where many experiments were performed for +her pleasure. In 1676, a folio volume was published, entitled _Letters +and Poems in Honour of the Incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess of +Newcastle_, written by men of high rank and of learning, with the +following dedication by the University of Cambridge: + + To Margaret the First: + Princess of Philosophers: + Who hath dispelled errors: + Appeased the difference of opinions: + And restored Peace + To Learning's Commonwealth. + +Yet this praise was not all flattery, for the scholarly Evelyn always +speaks of her with respect, and after visiting her writes, "I was much +pleased with the extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and discourse of +the Duchess." + +Amid the arid wastes of her philosophical works are green spots +enlivened by good sense and humour that have a peculiar charm. At the +time when the trained minds of the Royal Society were broadening +scientific knowledge by careful experiments, this lady, with practically +no education, sat herself down to write her thoughts upon the great +subjects of matter and motion, mind and body. She was emboldened to +publish her opinions, for, as she says: "Although it is probable, that +some of the Opinions of Ancient Philosophers in Ancient times are +erroneous, yet not all, neither are all Modern Opinions Truths, but +truly I believe, there are more Errors in the One than Truth in the +Other." Some of her explanations are very artless, as when she decides +that passions are created in the heart and not in the head, because +"Passion and Judgment seldom agree." + +Her philosophical works are often compounded of fiction and fact. Her +book called _The Description of a New World called the Blazing World_ +reminds one of some of the marvellous stories of Jules Verne. According +to the story a merchant fell in love with a lady while she was gathering +shells on the sea-coast, and carried her away in a light vessel. They +were driven to the north pole, thence to the pole of another world which +joined it. The conjunction of these two poles doubled the cold, so that +it was insupportable, and all died but the lady. Bear-men conducted her +to a warmer clime, and presented her to the emperor of the Blazing +World, whose palace was of gold, with floors of diamonds. The emperor +married the lady, and, at her desire to study philosophy, sent for the +Duchess of Newcastle, "a plain and rational writer," to be her teacher. +The story at this point rambles into philosophy. + +_Nature's Pictures drawn by Fancy's Pencil_ contains many suggestions +for poems and novels. Particularly beautiful is the fragment of a story +of a lord and lady who were forbidden to love in this world, but who +died the same night, and met on the shores of the Styx. "Their souls did +mingle and intermix as liquid essences, whereby their souls became as +one." They preferred to enjoy themselves thus rather than go to Elysium, +where they might be separated, and where the talk of the shades was +always of the past, which to them was full of sorrow. + +The Duchess of Newcastle wrote a series of letters on beauty, eloquence, +time, theology, servants, wit, and kindred subjects, often illustrated +by a little story, reminding the reader of some of the _Spectator_ +papers, which delighted the next generation. As in those papers, +characters were introduced. Mrs. P.I., the Puritan dame, appears in +several letters. She had received sanctification, and consequently +considered all vanities of dress, such as curls, bare necks, black +patches, fans, ribbons, necklaces, and pendants, temptations of Satan +and the signs of damnation. In a subsequent letter she becomes a +preaching sister, and the Duchess has been to hear her, and thus +comments upon the meeting: "There were a great many holy sisters and +holy brethren met together, where many took their turns to preach; for +as they are for liberty of conscience, so they are for liberty of +preaching. But there were more sermons than learning, and more words +than reason." + +This is the first example of the use of letters in English fiction. In +the next century it was adopted by Richardson for his three great +novels, _Pamela_, _Clarissa Harlowe_, and _Sir Charles Grandison_; it +was used by Smollett in the novel of _Humphry Clinker_, and became a +popular mode of composition with many lesser writers. + +But posterity is chiefly indebted to the Duchess of Newcastle for her +life of her husband and the autobiography that accompanies it. Of the +former Charles Lamb wrote that it was a jewel for which "no casket is +rich enough." Of the beaux and belles who were drawn by the ready pens +of the playwrights of the court of Charles the Second none are worthy of +a place beside the Duke of Newcastle and his incomparable wife. + +With rare felicity she has described her home life in London with her +brothers and sisters before her marriage. Their chief amusements were a +ride in their coaches about the streets of the city, a visit to Spring +Gardens and Hyde Park; and sometimes a sail in the barges on the river, +where they had music and supper. She announces with dignity her first +meeting with the Duke of Newcastle in Paris, where she was maid of +honour to the Queen Mother of England: "He was pleased to take some +particular notice of me, and express more than an ordinary affection for +me; insomuch that he resolved to choose me for his second wife." And in +another place she writes: "I could not, nor had not the power to refuse +him, by reason my affections were fixed on him, and he was the only +person I ever was in love with. Neither was I ashamed to own it, but +gloried therein." Here is the charm of brevity. Richardson would have +blurred these clearly cut sentences by eight volumes. + +In the biography of her husband she relates faithfully his services to +Charles the First at the head of an army which he himself had raised; +his final defeat near York by the Parliamentary forces; and his escape +to the continent in 1644. Then followed his sixteen years of exile in +Paris, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, where "he lived freely and nobly," +entertaining many persons of quality, although he was often in extreme +poverty, and could obtain credit merely by the love and respect which +his presence inspired. What a sad picture is given of the return of the +exiles to their estates, which had been laid waste in the Civil War and +later confiscated by Cromwell! But how the greatness of the true +gentleman shines through it all, who, as he viewed one of his parks, +seven of which had been completely destroyed, simply said, "He had been +in hopes it would not have been so much defaced as he found it." + +In the closing chapter the Duchess gives _Discourses Gathered from the +Mouth of my noble Lord and Husband_. These show both sound sense and a +broad view of affairs. She writes: + + "I have heard My Lord say, + + I + + "That those which command the Wealth of a Kingdom, command + the hearts and hands of the People. + + * * * * * + + XXXIII + + "That many Laws do rather entrap than help the subject." + +Clarendon, who thought but poorly of the Duke's abilities as a general, +gives the same characterisation of him: a man of exact proportion, +pleasant, witty, free but courtly in his manner, who loved all that were +his friends, and hated none that were his enemies, and who had proved +his loyalty to his king by the sacrifice of his property and at the risk +of his life. + +Perhaps the Duchess of Newcastle has unwittingly drawn a true +representation of the great body of English cavaliers, and has partly +removed the stain which the immoralities of the court afterward put upon +the name. These biographies give a story of marital felicity with all +the characteristics of the domestic novel. + +At this time the English novel was a crude, formless thing, without +dignity in literature. The Duchess of Newcastle, who aspired to be +ranked with Homer and Plato, would have spurned a place among writers of +romance, although her genius was primarily that of the novelist. She +constantly thought of plots, which she jotted down at random, her common +method of composition. She has described characters, and has left many +bright pictures of the manners and customs of her age. Her style of +writing is better than that of many of her more scholarly +contemporaries, who studied Latin models and strove to imitate them. She +wrote as she thought and felt, so that her style is simple when not lost +in the mazes of philosophical speculation. She had all the requisites +necessary to write the great novel of the Restoration. + +But in the next century her voluminous writings were forgotten, and the +casual visitor to Westminster Abbey who paused before the imposing +monument in the north transept read with amused indifference the quaint +inscription which marks the tomb of the noble pair; that she was the +second wife of the Duke of Newcastle, that her name was Margaret Lucas; +"a noble family, for all the brothers were valiant and all the sisters +were virtuous." To Charles Lamb belongs the credit of discovering the +worth of her writings. Delighting in oddities, but quick to discern +truth from falsehood, he loved to pore over the old folios containing +her works, and could not quite forgive his sister Mary for speaking +disrespectfully of "the intellectuals of a dear favourite of mine of the +last century but one--the thrice noble, chaste and virtuous, but again +somewhat fantastical and original-brained, generous Margaret Newcastle." + +Her desire for immortality is nearer its fulfilment to-day than at any +previous time. A third edition of the _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_ +was published in 1675, the year after her death. Nearly two hundred +years later, in 1872, it was included in Russell Smith's "Library of Old +Authors," and since then a modernised English edition and a French +edition of this book have been published. No one can read this biography +without feeling the charm of the quaint, childlike personality of the +Duchess of Newcastle. + +While all London was talking of the "mad Duchess of Newcastle," another +lady was living there no less eminent as a writer, but so distinguished +for her wit, freedom of temper, and brilliant conversation, that even +the great Dryden sought her friendship, and Sothern, Rochester, and +Wycherley were among her admirers. She was named "Astrea," and hailed as +the wonder and glory of her sex. But Aphra Behn's talents brought her a +more substantial reward than fame. Her plays were presented to crowded +houses; her novels were in every library, and she obtained a large +income from her writings; she was the first English woman to earn a +living by her pen. + +In her early youth, Mrs. Behn lived for a time at Surinam in Dutch +Guiana, where her father was governor. On one of the plantations was a +negro in whose fate she became deeply interested. She learned from his +own lips about his life in Africa, and was herself an eye witness of the +indignities and tortures he suffered in slavery. She was so deeply +impressed by his horrible fate, that on her return to London she related +his story to King Charles the Second and at his request elaborated it +into the novel _Oroonoko_. + +According to the story, Oroonoko, an African warrior, was married to +Imoinda, a beautiful maiden of his own people. His grandfather, a +powerful chieftain, also fell in love with the beautiful Imoinda and +placed her in his harem. When he found that her love for Oroonoko still +continued, he sold her secretly into slavery and her rightful husband +could learn nothing of her whereabouts. Later Oroonoko and his men were +invited by the captain of a Dutch trading ship to dine on board his +vessel. They accepted the invitation, but, after dinner, the captain +seized his guests, threw them into chains, and carried them to the West +Indies, where he sold them as slaves. Here Oroonoko found his wife, +whose loss he had deeply mourned, and they were reunited. Oroonoko, +however, indignant at the treachery practised against himself and his +men, incited the slaves to a revolt. They were overcome, and Oroonoko +was tied to a whipping-post and severely punished. As he found that he +could not escape, he resolved to die. But rather than leave Imoinda to +the cruelty of her owners, he determined to slay first his wife, then +his enemies, lastly himself. He told his plans to Imoinda, who willingly +accompanied him into the forest, where he put her to death. When he saw +his wife dead at his feet, his grief was so great that it deprived him +of the strength to take vengeance on his enemies. He was again captured +and led to a stake, where faggots were placed about him. The author has +described his death with a faithfulness to detail that carries with it +the impress of truth: "'My Friends, am I to die, or to be whipt?' And +they cry'd, 'Whipt! no, you shall not escape so well.' And then he +reply'd, smiling, 'A blessing on thee'; and assured them they need not +tie him, for he would stand fix'd like a Rock, and endure Death so as +should encourage them to die: 'But if you whip me' [said he], 'be sure +you tie me fast.'" + +The popularity of the book was instantaneous. It passed through several +editions. It was translated into French and German, and adapted for the +German stage, while Sothern put it on the stage in England. It created +almost as great a sensation as did _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ two hundred years +later. Like Mrs. Stowe's novel it had a strong moral influence, as it +was among the earliest efforts to call the attention of Europe to the +evils of the African slave trade. Moreover, this her first novel gave +Mrs. Behn an acknowledged place as a writer. + +_Oroonoko_ marks a distinct advance in English fiction. Nearly all +novels before this had consisted of a series of stories held together by +a loosely formed plot running through a number of volumes, sometimes +only five, but occasionally, as in _The Grand Cyrus_, filling ten +quartos. Their form was such that like the _Thousand and One Nights_ +they could be continued indefinitely. Most of these novels belonged +either to the pastoral romance or the historical allegory. In the +former the ladies and gentlemen who in a desultory sort of way carried +on the plot were disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses and lived in +idyllic state in Arcadia. In the latter they masqueraded under the names +of kings and queens of antiquity and entered with the flourish of +trumpets and the sound of drums. + +_Oroonoko_ was the first English novel with a well developed plot. It +moves along rapidly, without digression, to its tragic conclusion. Not +until Fielding wrote _Joseph Andrews_ was the plot of any English novel +so definitely wrought. The lesser writer had a slight advantage over the +greater. Mrs. Behn's novel is constructed upon dramatic lines, so that +it holds the interest more closely to the main characters, and the end +is awaited with intense expectation; while Fielding chose the epic form, +which is more discursive, and _Joseph Andrews_ like all his novels is +excessively tame, almost hackneyed in its conclusion. Mrs. Behn's black +hero is the first distinctly drawn character in English fiction, the +first one that has any marked personality. Sometimes the enthusiasm with +which he is described brings a smile to the lips of the modern reader +and reminds one of the heroic savages of James Fenimore Cooper and Helen +Hunt Jackson. She writes of him: "He was pretty tall, but of a Shape the +most exact that can be Fancy'd: The most famous Statuary could not form +the Figure of a Man more admirably turned from Head to Foot.... There +was no one Grace wanting, that bears the Standard of true Beauty." And +thus she continues the description in the superlative degree. + +But the story is for the most part realistic. Although the scenes in +Africa show the influence of the French heroic novels, as if the author +were afraid to leave her story in its simple truth but must adorn it +with purple and ermine, as soon as it is transferred to Surinam, where +Mrs. Behn had lived, it becomes real. It has local colouring, at that +time an almost unknown attribute. It has the atmosphere of the tropics. +The descriptions are vivid, and often photographic. Occasionally they +are exaggerated, but few travellers to a region of which their hearers +know nothing have been able to resist the temptation to deviate from the +exact truth. But the whole novel, even at this late day, leaves one with +the impression that it is a true biography. + +In the history of the English novel, in which _Pamela_ is given an +important place as the morning star which heralded the great light of +English realism about to burst upon the world, this well arranged, +definite, picturesque story of _Oroonoko_, whose author was reposing +quietly within the hallowed precincts of Westminster Abbey fifty years +before Richardson introduced _Pamela_ to an admiring public, should not +be forgotten. Before _Pamela_ was published, the complete works of Mrs. +Behn passed through eight editions. The plots of all her novels are well +constructed, with little extraneous matter, but with the exception of +Oroonoko the characters are shadowy beings, many of whom meet with a +violent death. _The Nun or the Perjured Duty_ has only five characters, +all of whom perish in the meshes of love. _The Fair Jilt or the Amours +of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_, founded on incidents that came to the +author's knowledge during her residence in Antwerp, is well fitted for +the columns of a modern yellow journal; the beautiful heroine causes the +death of everyone who stands in the way of her love or her ambition, but +she finally repents and lives happy ever after. Mrs. Behn's style is +always careless, owing to her custom of writing while entertaining +friends. + +A great change took place in the public taste during the next hundred +years, so that Mrs. Behn's novels, plays, and poems fell into disrepute. +Sir Walter Scott tells the story of his grand-aunt who expressed a +desire to see again Mrs. Behn's novels, which she had read with delight +in her youth. He sent them to her sealed and marked "private and +confidential." The next time he saw her, she gave them back with the +words: + +"Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn, and, if you will take my advice, put +her in the fire, for I find it impossible to get through the very first +novel. But is it not a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and +upward, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which sixty +years ago I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles, +consisting of the first and most creditable society in London?" + +Mrs. Behn has been accused of great license in her conduct and of gross +immorality in her writings. Her friend and biographer says of the +former: "For my part I knew her intimately, and never saw ought +unbecoming the just modesty of our sex, though more free and gay than +the folly of the precise will allow." For the latter the fashion must be +blamed more than she. Mrs. Behn was not actuated by the high moral +principles of Mademoiselle de Scudéri and Madame de Lafayette, with whom +love was an ennobling passion, nor was she writing for the refined men +and women of the Hotel Rambouillet; she was striving to earn a living by +pleasing the court of Charles the Second, and in that she was eminently +successful. + + * * * * * + +Nearly a quarter of a century after the death of Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manley +published anonymously the first two volumes of the _New Atlantis_, the +book by which she is chiefly known, under the title of _Secret Memoirs +and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of both Sexes from the New +Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean_. Mrs. Manley was a Tory, and +she peopled the New Atalantis with members of the Whig party under +Marlborough as Prince Fortunatus. The book is written in the form of a +conversation carried on by Astrea, Virtue, and Intelligence, a +personification of the _Court Gazette_. They described the Whig leaders +so accurately, and related the scandal of the court so faithfully, that, +although fictitious names were used, no key was needed to recognise the +personages in the story. + +The publisher and printer were arrested for libel, but Mrs. Manley came +forward and owned the authorship. In her trial she was placed under a +severe cross-examination by Lord Sunderland, who attempted to learn +where she had obtained her information. She persisted in her statement +that no real characters were meant, that it was all a work of +imagination, but if it bore any resemblance to truth it must have come +to her by inspiration. Upon Lord Sunderland's objecting to this +statement, on the grounds that so immoral a book bore no trace of divine +impulse, she replied that there were evil angels as well as good, who +might possess equal powers of inspiration. The book was published in +May, 1709; in the following February, she was discharged by order of +the Queen's Bench. + +Soon after her discharge from court, she wrote a third and fourth volume +of the _New Atalantis_ under the title, _Memoirs of Europe toward the +Close of the Eighth Century written by Eginardus, Secretary and Favorite +to Charlemagne, and done into English, by the Translator of the New +Atalantis_. Here she has followed the French models. There is a loosely +constructed plot, and the characters tell a series of stories. Many of +the writers of Queen Anne's reign are described with none of that lustre +that surrounds them now, but as they appeared to a cynical woman who +knew them well. She refers to Steele as Don Phaebo, and ridicules his +search for the philosopher's stone; and laments that Addison, whom she +calls Maro, should prostitute his talents for gold, when he might become +a second Vergil. + +Mrs. Manley had been well trained to write a book like the _New +Atalantis_. At sixteen, an age when Addison and Steele were at the +Charterhouse preparing for Oxford, her father, Sir Roger Manley, died. A +cousin, taking advantage of her helplessness, deceived her by a false +marriage, and after three years abandoned her. Upon this she entered the +household of the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles the +Second, who soon tired of her and dismissed her from her service. She +then began to write, and by her plays and political articles soon won an +acknowledged place among the writers of Grub Street. + +From the many references to her in the letters and journals of the +period, she seems to have been popular with the writers of both +political parties. Swift writes to Stella that she is a very generous +person "for one of that sort," which many little incidents prove. She +dedicated her play _Lucius_ to Steele, with whom she was on alternate +terms of enmity and friendship, as a public retribution for her ridicule +of him in the _New Atalantis_, saying that "scandal between Whig and +Tory goes for not." Steele, equally generous, wrote a prologue for the +play, perhaps in retribution for some of the harsh criticisms of her in +the _Tatler_. All readers of Pope remember the reference to her in the +_Rape of the Lock_, where Lord Petre exclaims that his honour, name and +praise shall live + + As long as Atalantis shall be read. + +Although Mrs. Manley's pen was constantly and effectively employed in +the interest of the Tory party, she being at one time the editor of the +_Examiner_, the Tory organ, none of her writings had the popularity of +the _New Atalantis_. It went through seven editions and was translated +into the French. The book has no intrinsic merit; its language is +scurrilous and obscene; but it appealed to the eager curiosity of the +public concerning the private immoralities of men and women who were +prominent at court. Human nature in its pages furnishes a contemptible +spectacle. + +The _New Atalantis_ has now, however, assumed a permanent place in the +history of fiction. This species of writing had been common, in France, +but it was the first English novel in which political and personal +scandal formed the groundwork of a romance. Swift followed its general +plan in _Gulliver's Travels_, placing his political enemies in public +office in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, only he so wrought upon them with +his imagination that he gave to the world a finished work of art, while +Mrs. Manley has left only the raw material with which the artist works. +Smollett's political satire, _Adventures of an Atom_, was also suggested +by the _New Atalantis_, but here the earlier writer has surpassed the +later. All three of these writers took a low and cynical view of +humanity. + +The women novelists who directly followed Mrs. Manley did not have her +strength, but they had a delicacy that has given to their writings a +subtle charm. From the time of Sarah Fielding to the present threatened +reaction the writings of women have been marked by chastity of thought +and purity of expression. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Sarah Fielding. Mrs. Lennox. Mrs. Haywood. Mrs. Sheridan + + +About the middle of the eighteenth century, some interesting novels were +written by women, but their fame was so overshadowed by the early +masters of English fiction, who were then writing, that they have been +almost forgotten. For in 1740 _Pamela_ was published, the first novel of +Samuel Richardson; in 1771, _Humphry Clinker_ appeared, the last novel +of Tobias Smollett; and during the thirty-one years between these two +dates all the books of Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett were +given to the world, and determined the nature of the English novel. The +plot of most of their fifteen realistic novels is practically the same. +The hero falls in love with a beautiful young lady, not over seventeen, +and there is a conflict between lust and chastity. The hero, balked of +his prey, travels up and down the world, where he meets with a series of +adventures, all very much alike, and all bearing very little on the main +plot. At last fate leads the dashing hero to the church door, where he +confers a ring on the fair heroine, a paltry piece of gold, the only +reward for her fidelity, with the hero thrown in, much the worse for +wear, and the curtain falls with the sound of the wedding bells in the +distance. + +The range of these novels is narrow. They describe a world in which the +chief occupation is eating, drinking, swearing, gambling, and fighting. +Their chief artistic excellence is the strength and vigour with which +these low scenes are described. Sidney Lanier says of them: "They play +upon life as upon a violin without a bridge, in the deliberate endeavour +to get the most depressing tones possible from the instrument." And +Taine, who could hardly endure any of them, writes of Fielding what he +implies of the others: "One thing is wanted in your strongly-built +folks--refinement; the delicate dreams, enthusiastic elevation, and +trembling delicacy exist in nature equally with coarse vigour, noisy +hilarity, and frank kindness." + +The women who essayed the art of fiction during these years did not have +so firm a grasp of the pen as their male contemporaries, and they have +added no portraits to the gallery of fiction; but they saw and recorded +many interesting scenes of British life which quite escaped the +quick-sighted Fielding, or Sterne with the microscopic eyes. + +In 1744, when Richardson had written only one book, and Fielding had +published only two, before _Tom Jones_ or _Clarissa Harlowe_ had seen +the light of day, Sarah Fielding published _David Simple_, under the +title of _The Adventures of David Simple, containing an account of his +travels through the cities of London and Westminster in the search of a +real friend, by a Lady_. The author commenced the story as a satire on +society. For a long time David's search is unsuccessful. Although he +changed his lodgings every week, he could hear of no one who could be +trusted. Many, to be sure, dropped hints of their own excellence, and +the pity that they had to live with inferior neighbours. Among these was +Mr. Spatter, who introduced him to Mr. Varnish. The former saw the +faults of people through a magnifying glass; while the latter, when he +mentioned a person's failings, added, "He was sure they had some good in +them." But David soon learned that Mr. Varnish was no readier to assist +a friend in need than the fault-finding Mr. Spatter. + +Like her brother Henry, Sarah Fielding is often sarcastic. In one of the +chapters she leaves David to his sufferings, "lest it should be +thought," she added, "I am so ignorant of the world as not to know the +proper time of forsaking people." But the pessimistic vein of the first +volume changes to a more optimistic tone in the second. David, in his +search for one friend, finds three. Fortunately these consist of a +brother and sister and a lady in love with the brother. Even at this +early time, an author had no doubts as to how a novel should end. The +heading of the last chapter in the book informs us that it contains two +weddings, "and consequently the Conclusion of the Book." + +In its construction, the plot is similar to that of the other novels of +the period. David has plenty of time at his disposal, and listens with +more patience than the reader to the detailed history of all the people +he meets, and often begs a casual acquaintance to favour him with the +story of his life. + +But Sarah Fielding's chief charm to her women readers is the feminine +view of her times. In _David Simple_ we have the pleasure of travelling +through England, but with a woman as our guide. As Harry Fielding +travelled between Bath and London, the fair reader wonders what he +reported to Mrs. Fielding of what he had seen and heard. Surely at these +various inns there must have been some by-play of real affection, some +act of modest kindness, some incident of delicate humour. Did he regale +Mrs. Fielding with the scenes he has described for his readers? Probably +when she asked him if anything had happened _en route_, he merely yawned +and replied, "Oh, nothing worth while." He had too much reverence for +his wife to repeat these low scenes to her, and we suspect he had eyes +for no others. What would Addison or Steele have seen in the same place? + +Sarah Fielding also takes her characters on a stage-coach journey, but +here we sit beside the fair heroine, an intelligent lady, and gaze at +the men who sit opposite her. There is the Butterfly with his hair +pinned up in blue papers, wearing a laced waistcoat, and humming an +Italian air. He admires nothing but the ladies, and offered some little +familiarity to our heroine, which she repulsed; upon this he paid her +the greatest respect imaginable, being convinced, as she would not +suffer any intimacy from _him_, she must be one of the most virtuous +women that had ever been born. There is the Atheist, who being alone +with her for a few moments makes love to her in an insinuating manner, +and tries to prove to her that pleasure is the only thing to be sought +in life, and assures her that she may follow her inclinations without a +crime, "while she knew that nothing could so much oppose her _gratifying +him_, as her _pleasing herself_." Then there is the Clergyman who makes +honourable love to her, but by doing so puts an end to the friendship +which she had hoped might be between them; until at the end of the +journey, "she almost made a resolution never to speak to a man again, +beginning to think it impossible for a man to be civil to a woman, +unless he had some designs upon her." + +Whether or not women have ever portrayed the masculine sex truthfully is +an open question. But a gentleman mellowed and softened in the light of +ladies' smiles is quite a different creature from the same gentleman +when seen among the sterner members of his own sex, and there are +certain phases of men's characters portrayed in the novels of women +which Fielding, Scott, and Thackeray seem never to have seen. + +Miss Fielding descants upon many familiar scenes in a manner that would +have made her a valuable contributor to the _Tatler_ or _Spectator_. All +kinds of human nature interested her. There is the man who advises David +as a friend to buy a certain stock which he himself is secretly trying +to sell because he knows it has decreased in value, thus showing that +money transactions in London in the reigns of the Georges differed +little from money transactions on the Stock Exchange to-day. In some +respects, however, society has improved since the days of Sarah +Fielding. She describes the gentlemen of social prominence who tumble up +to the carriages of ladies who are driving through Covent Garden in the +morning, and present them with cabbages or other vegetables which they +have picked up from the stalls, too intoxicated to know that their +conduct is ridiculous. There are the crowds at the theatres who show +their displeasure with a playwright by making so much noise that his +play cannot be heard on its first night and so is condemned. Other +writers of the period complain of having received this kind of treatment +at the hands of the gentlemen mob. And then we are introduced to a scene +in the fashionable West End which is a familiar one to-day, where the +ladies of quality have their whist assemblies and spend all the morning +visiting each other and discussing how the cards were played the +previous evening and why certain tricks were lost. + +We recognise the fact, however, that Miss Fielding's knowledge of life +was but slight. She writes from the standpoint of a spectator, not like +her brother as one who had been a part of it. She was one of that group +of gentlewomen who gathered around Richardson and heard him read +_Clarissa_, or discussed life and books with him at the breakfast table +in the summer-house at North End, Hammersmith. Life was not lived there, +but philosophy often sat at the board, and there was fine penetration +into the characters and manners of men. Richardson transferred to Miss +Fielding the compliment which Dr. Johnson had bestowed upon him, and it +was not undeserved by the author of _David Simple_: + +"What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge of +writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of it +was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the +knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was that +of all the finer springs and movements of the inside." + + * * * * * + +It is not difficult to conjure up a picture of the literary gentlemen +and gentlewomen who used to breakfast with Richardson in the +summer-house at North End; the gentlemen in their many-coloured velvet +suits, the ladies wearing broad hoops, loose sacques, and Pamela hats. +One of these ladies was Charlotte Ramsay, better known by her married +name of Mrs. Lennox. Her father, Colonel James Ramsay, was +lieutenant-governor of New York, where his daughter Charlotte was born +in 1720. She was sent to England at the age of fifteen, and soon after +her father died, leaving her unprovided for. She turned her attention to +literature as a means of livelihood, and at once became a favourite in +the literary circles of London, where she met and won the esteem of the +great Dr. Johnson. + +When her first novel, _The Life of Harriet Stuart_, was published, he +showed his appreciation of its author in a unique manner. At his +suggestion, the Ivy Lane Club and its friends entertained Mrs. Lennox +and her husband at the Devil's Tavern with a night of festivity. After +an elaborate supper had been served, a hot apple-pie was brought in, +stuffed full of bay-leaves, and Johnson with appropriate ceremonies +crowned the author with a wreath of laurel. The night was passed in +mirth and conversation; tea and coffee were often served; and not until +the creaking of the street doors reminded them that it was eight o'clock +in the morning did the guests, twenty in number, leave the tavern. + +Mrs. Lennox's claim to a place in English literature rests solely upon +her novel, _The Female Quixote_, published in 1752. Arabella, the +heroine, is the daughter of a marquis who has retired into the country, +where he lives remote from society. Her mother is dead; her father is +immersed in his books, so that Arabella is left alone, and whiles away +the hours by reading the novels of Mademoiselle de Scudéri. Her three +great novels, _Clelia_, _The Grand Cyrus_ and _Ibrahim_, are historical +allegories, in which the France of Louis XIV is given an historical +setting, and his courtiers masquerade under the names of famous men of +antiquity. There is no attempt at historical accuracy. But to Arabella +these books represented true history and depicted the real life of the +world. + +In a fine satirical passage Arabella informs Mr. Selvin, a man so +deeply read in ancient history that he fixed the date of any occurrence +by Olympiads, not years, that Pisistratus had been inspired to enslave +his country because of his love for Cleorante. Mr. Selvin wonders how +this important fact could have escaped his own research, and conceives a +great admiration for Arabella's learning. + +In the novels of Mademoiselle de Scudéri the characters, even in moments +of extreme danger, entertain each other with stories of their past +experiences. When Arabella has unexpected guests she bids her maid +relate to them the history of her mistress. She instructs her to "relate +exactly every change of my countenance, number all my smiles, +half-smiles, blushes, turnings pale, glances, pauses, full-stops, +interruptions; the rise and falling of my voice, every motion of my +eyes, and every gesture which I have used for these ten years past: nor +omit the smallest circumstance that relates to me." + +All the people Arabella meets are changed by her fancy into the +characters of her favourite books. In common people she sees princes in +disguise. If a man approaches her, she fancies that he is about to bear +her away to some remote castle, or to mention the subject of love, which +would be unpardonable, unless he had first captured cities in her +behalf. Yet amid the wildest extravagances Arabella never loses her +charm. Her generosity and purity of thought make her a very lovable +heroine, much more womanly than Clarissa or Sophia Western, and we do +not wonder that Mr. Glanville continues to love her, although he is so +often annoyed by her ridiculous fancies. + +But her belief in her hallucinations is as firm as that of the Spanish +Quixote for whom the book was named. Everyone will remember his attack +on the windmills, which he mistook for giants. Arabella was equally +brave. Thinking herself and some other ladies pursued, when the Thames +cuts off their escape, she addresses her companions in language becoming +one of her favourite heroines: "Once more, my fair Companions, if your +honour be dear to you, if an immortal glory be worth your seeking, +follow the example I shall set you, and equal, with me, the Roman +Clelia." She plunged into the river, but was promptly rescued. The +doctor who attended her in the illness that followed this heroic deed +convinced her of the folly of trying to live according to these old +books, and she consented to marry her faithful and deserving lover. + +The character of Arabella is not drawn with the broad strong lines of +Fielding, nor with the attention to minute detail which gives life to +the characters of Richardson. But the girlish sweetness of Arabella, her +refusal to believe wrong of others, her ignorance of life, her contempt +for a lover who has not shed blood nor captured cities in her behalf, is +a reality, and shows that the author knew the nature of the romantic +girl. In the noble simplicity of Arabella, Mrs. Lennox has, perhaps +unconsciously, paid a high tribute to the moral effects of the novels of +Scudéri. Arabella is the only clearly drawn character in the book. But +one humorous situation follows another, so that the interest never +flags. + +The other novels of Mrs. Lennox have no value save as they show the +trend of thought of the period. In _Henrietta_, afterward dramatised as +_The Sister_, the heroine, granddaughter of an earl, rather than change +her religion, leaves her family and becomes the maid of a rich but +vulgar tradesman's daughter. Of course her mistress, who has treated her +scurrilously, in time learns her true rank and is properly humbled. The +name given to one of the chapters might suffice for the most of them: +"In which our heroine is in great distress." + +This would seem to be the proper heading for many chapters of many books +of the period. In the days of Good Queen Bess, heroines were good and +happy. In the merry reign of Charles, they were bad but happy. Pamela +set a fashion from which heroines seldom dared to deviate for over a +hundred years. They were good--but, oh, so wretched! This type of women +became such a favourite with both sexes, that even the sane-minded Scott +says: + + And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. + +During her period of distress Henrietta lodged with a milliner. Her +landlady showed her a small collection of books and pointed with +especial pleasure to her favourite novels: "There is Mrs. Haywood's +Novels, did you ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sick +passionate stories: I assure you, you'll like them vastly." Henrietta, +however, chose _Joseph Andrews_ for her diversion. Mrs. Eliza Haywood +was never admitted into that inner circle of highly respectable English +ladies who clustered around Richardson. She was more of an adventuress +in the domain of letters. In her first novels she followed the fashion +set by Mrs. Manley and supplied the public with scandals in high life. +_Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia_, published in 1725, +_The Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania_, published in 1727, are +the highly suggestive titles of two of the most popular of her early +works. + +After Richardson had made Virtue more popular than Vice, Mrs. Haywood +followed the literary fashion which he had set, and in 1751 wrote _The +History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_. This has sometimes been called a +domestic novel, but that is a misnomer, since the characters are seldom +found at home, but rather are met in the various pleasure resorts of +London. As was the fashion in the novels of this time, and probably not +an uncommon occurrence in the English capital, the heroine was often +forced into a chariot by some lawless libertine, but fortunately was +always rescued by some more virtuous lover. The whole story is but a new +arrangement of the one or two incidents with which Richardson had wrung +the heart of the British public. It has one advantage over the most of +the novels which had preceded it. There is little told that does not +bear directly on the plot, the characters of the sub-plot being +important personages in the main story, and the book has a definite +conclusion. + +None of the characters, however, are pleasing. The hero, Mr. Trueworthy, +a combination of Tom Jones and Sir Charles Grandison, is a hypocrite. +The other male characters are insignificant. Miss Betsey, the heroine, +is almost charming. Conscious of her own innocence, she repeatedly +appears in a light that makes her worldly lover, Mr. Trueworthy, suspect +her virtue, until at last he begs to be released from his engagement to +her. The author of the book stands as a duenna at Miss Betsey's side, +and points out by the misfortunes of the heroine how foolish it is for +girls to ignore public opinion, and strives to inculcate the lesson +that a husband is the best protection for a young girl. We are properly +shocked at Miss Betsey's levity, who, although she had arrived at the +mature age of fourteen, cared not a straw for any of the gentlemen who +sought her hand, but liked to have them about her only because they +flattered her vanity or afforded her a subject for mirth. Miss Betsey's +gaiety, wit, and generosity would be very attractive--in fact, she is +quite an up-to-date young lady--but we see how much better she would +"get on" if she had a little more worldly wisdom. She is punished, as +she deserves to be, by losing her lover, and marries a man who makes her +very unhappy. Mr. Trueworthy, however, learns of her innocence; her +husband fortunately dies, and the author takes the bold step of uniting +the widow to her former lover, after a year of mourning and passing +through much suffering, brought upon herself by her own thoughtlessness. +She is rewarded, however, very much as Pamela was rewarded, by marrying +a man of honour, who had judged her formerly by his own conduct, being +too willing to believe by appearances that she had lost her chastity, +or, at least, had sullied her good name. + +In this novel, Mrs. Haywood is very near the line that divides the +artist from the artisan. Like a young girl with good health and good +spirits, Miss Betsey is ever on the verge of sweeping aside the +prejudices of her duenna, and asserting her own individuality, but is +constantly held back by the sense of worldly propriety. Had Mrs. Haywood +permitted Miss Betsey to carry the plot whither she would without let or +hindrance, she would have won for herself an acknowledged place among +the heroines of fiction. + +_The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_ was an epoch-making book. The +adventures of its heroine in the city of London took possession of the +imagination of Fanny Burney, while little more than a child, and led to +the story of _Evelina_, the forerunner of Jane Austen and her school. + + * * * * * + +The fashion for weeping heroines was at its height, when, in 1761, Mrs. +Francis Sheridan published _The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph_. The +story is written in the form of letters, in which the heroine reveals to +a friend of her own sex all the secrets of her heart. All London +rejoiced over the virtues of Sidney Biddulph, and wept over her sorrows. +She had been educated "in the strictest principles of virtue; from which +she never deviated, through the course of an innocent, though unhappy +life." It was so pathetic a story that Dr. Johnson doubted if Mrs. +Sheridan had a right to make her characters suffer so much, and Charles +James Fox, who sat up all night to read it, pronounced it the best of +all novels of his time. + +The book, as first written, was in three volumes. The author had brought +the story to a most fitting close. Both Sidney's husband and the man +whom she had really loved were dead, and the widow could have spent her +days in pleasing melancholy, contented with the thought that she had +never done a wrong. But the public demanded a continuation of the story. +In 1767, two volumes were added, giving the history of Sidney's +daughters, who seem to have inherited from their mother the enmity of +the fates, for their sufferings were as great as hers. + +Authors are prone to draw upon their own history for the emotions they +depict. But Mrs. Sheridan's life did not furnish the tragic elements of +_Sidney Biddulph_, although it was not without romance. Before her +marriage, she wrote a pamphlet in praise of the conduct of one Thomas +Sheridan, the manager of the Theatre Royal in Dublin, during a riot that +occurred in the theatre. Sheridan read these words in his praise, sought +the acquaintance of their author, and before long married her. + +History furnishes a long list of women of talent whose sons were men of +genius. Mrs. Sheridan's second son, Richard Brinsley, the author of the +light and sparkling _Rivals_, inherited his mother's talents without her +gloom. But Mrs. Sheridan also had some ability as a writer of comedy, +and the most famous character of the _Rivals_ was first sketched by her. +In a comedy, _A Journey to Bath_, declined by Garrick, one of the +characters was Mrs. Twyford, whom Richard Brinsley Sheridan transformed +into that famous blundering coiner of words, Mrs. Malaprop. + +Mrs. Sheridan's place in literature rests upon _Sidney Biddulph_. This +novel was an innovation in English fiction. Nearly one hundred years +earlier, Madame de Lafayette had written _The Princess of Clèves_, one +of the most nearly perfect novels that has ever been written, and the +first that depended for its interest, not alone on what was done, but on +the subtle workings of the human heart which led to the doing of it. +From that time the novels of French women were largely introspective. +English women, however, were either less interested in the inner life, +or more reserved in laying bare its secrets. _Sidney Biddulph_ was the +first English novel of this kind, and it left no definite trace on +fiction, although it was the favourite novel of Charlotte Smith and had +some slight effect upon her writings, and Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Opie, and +Mary Brunton noted the feelings of their characters. Not until _Jane +Eyre_ was published, long after Mrs. Sheridan had been forgotten, was +there any great English novel of the inner life. + +In its day _Sidney Biddulph_ was exceedingly popular on the continent of +Europe as well as in England. It was translated into German, and an +adaptation of it was made in French by the Abbé Prévost, under the +title, _Memoirs pour servir a l'histoire de la vertu_. But after all, +Sidney's sorrows were not real, or she herself was not real; and we of +to-day smile or yawn over the pages that drew tears from the eyes of the +mighty Dr. Johnson. + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding the many excellencies of English fiction during the +middle of the eighteenth century, it was held in low repute. There had +been many writers attempting to portray real life who, without the +genius of the greater novelists, could imitate only their faults. In the +preface to _Polly Honeycomb_, which was acted at Drury Lane theatre in +1760, George Colman, the author, gives the titles of about two hundred +novels whose names appeared in a circulating library at that time. +_Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent_; _Beauty put to its +Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles_; _Bubbled Knights, or Successful +Contrivances, plainly evincing, in two Familiar Instances lately +transacted in this Metropolis, the Folly and Unreasonableness of Parents +Laying a Restraint upon their Children's Inclinations in the Affairs of +Love and Marriage_; _The Impetuous Lover, or the Guiltless Parricide_; +these are the titles of a few of the popular books of that period. +Colman in the character of Polly Honeycomb, an earlier Lydia Languish, +attempts to show the moral effects of such reading. Her head had been so +turned by these books that her father exclaims, "A man might as well +turn his daughter loose in Covent-Garden, as trust the cultivation of +her mind to A CIRCULATING LIBRARY." + +Fiction at this time lacked delicacy and refinement. The characters +lived largely in the streets or taverns, and were too much engrossed in +the pleasures of active life to give any heed to thoughts or emotions. +Though love was the constant theme of these books, as yet no true love +story had been written. The fires of home had not been lighted. The +refinements, the pure affections, the high ideals which cluster around +the domestic hearth had as yet no place in the novel. It needed the +feminine element, which, while no broader than that which had previously +made the novel, by its own addition gave something new to it and made it +truer to life. + +While no woman of marked genius had appeared, the number and influence +of women novelists continued to increase throughout the eighteenth +century. Tim Cropdale in the novel _Humphry Clinker_, who "had made +shift to live many years by writing novels, at the rate of five pounds a +volume," complains that "that branch of business is now engrossed by +female authors, who publish merely for the propagation of virtue, with +so much ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human +heart, and all in the serene tranquillity of high life, that the reader +is not only enchanted by their genius, but reformed by their morality." +Schlosser in his _History of the Eighteenth Century_ pays this tribute +to the moral influence of the women novelists: "With the increase of the +number of writers in England in the course of the eighteenth century, +women began to appear as authors instead of educating their children, +and their influence upon morals and modes of thinking increased, as that +of the clergy diminished." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Fanny Burney + + +A noteworthy transformation took place in the English novel during the +late years of the eighteenth century and the early part of the +nineteenth. This change cannot be explained by the great difference in +manners only. The mode of life described by the early novelists was in +existence sixty years after they wrote scenes typical of the customs and +manners of their day, just as the quiet home life described by Miss +Austen was to be found in England a hundred years before it graced the +pages of a book. This new era in the English novel was due not to a +change of environment, but to the new ideals of those who wrote. + +In 1778, English fiction was represented by the work of Miss Burney, and +for thirty-six years, until 1814, when _Waverley_ appeared, this rare +plant was preserved and kept alive by a group of women, who trimmed and +pruned off many of its rough branches and gave to the wild native fruit +a delicacy and fragrance unknown to it before. English women writers +did at that time for the English novel what French women had done in +the preceding century for the French novel; they made it so pure in +thought and expression that Bishop Huet was able to say of the French +romances of the seventeenth century, "You'll scarce find an expression +or word which may shock chaste ears, or one single action which may give +offence to modesty." + +This great change in the English novel was inaugurated by a young woman +ignorant of the world, whose power lay in her innocent and lively +imagination. At his home in Queen Square and later in St. Martin's +Street, Charles Burney, the father of Frances, entertained the most +illustrious men of his day. Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, and +Colman were frequent guests, while members of the nobility thronged his +parlours to listen to the famous Italian singers who gladly sang for the +author of the _History of Music_. Here Fanny, a bashful but observant +child, saw life in the drawing-room. But as Dr. Burney gave little heed +to the comings and goings of his daughters, they played with the +children of a wigmaker next door, where, perhaps, Fanny became +acquainted with the vulgar side of London life, which is so humorously +depicted in _Evelina_. She received but little education, nor was she +more than a casual reader, but she was familiar with _Pamela_, _Betsey +Thoughtless_, _Rasselas_, and the _Vicar of Wakefield_. Such was her +preparation for becoming a writer of novels. + +From her earliest years, she had delighted in writing stories and +dramas, although she received little encouragement in this occupation. +In her fifteenth year her stepmother proved to her so conclusively the +folly of girls' scribbling that Fanny burned all her manuscripts, +including _The History of Caroline Evelyn_. She could not, however, +banish from her mind the fate of Caroline's infant daughter, born of +high rank, but related through her grandmother to the vulgar people of +the East End of London. The many embarrassing situations in which she +might be placed haunted the imagination of the youthful writer, but it +was not until her twenty-sixth year that these situations were +described, when _Evelina or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_ was +published. + +The success of the book was instantaneous. The name of the author, which +had been withheld even from the publishers, was eagerly demanded. All +agreed that only a man conversant with the world could have written such +accurate descriptions of life both high and low. The wonder was +increased when it was learned that the author was a young woman who had +drawn her scenes, not from a knowledge of the world, but from her own +intuition and imagination. Miss Burney became at once an honoured +member of the literary circle which Mrs. Thrale had gathered at +Streatham, and a favourite of Dr. Johnson, who declared that _Evelina_ +was superior to anything that Fielding had written, and that some +passages were worthy of the pen of Richardson. The book was accorded a +place among English classics, which it has retained for over a century. +"It was not hard fagging that produced such a work as _Evelina_," wrote +Mr. Crisp to the youthful author. "It was the ebullition of true +sterling genius--you wrote it because you could not help it--it +came--and so you put it down on paper." + +The novel, following the form so common in the eighteenth century, is +written in the form of letters. The plot is somewhat time-honoured; +there is the nurse's daughter substituted for the real heiress, and a +mystery surrounding some of the characters; it is unfolded slowly with a +slight strain upon the readers' credulity at the last, but it ends to +the satisfaction of all concerned. In many incidents and in some of the +characters the story suggests _Betsey Thoughtless_, but Miss Burney had +greater powers of description than Mrs. Haywood. + +The plot of the novel is forgotten, however, in the lively, witty manner +in which the characters are drawn and the ludicrous situations in which +they are placed. So long had these men and women held the mind of the +author that they are intensely real as they are presented to us at +assemblies, balls, theatres, and operas, where we watch their oddities +with amusement. + +Indeed no woman has given so many graphic, droll, and minute +descriptions of life as Miss Burney. Her genius in this respect is +different from that of other women novelists. She has made a series of +snap-shots of people in the most absurd situations and ridicules them +while she is taking the picture. Few women writers can resist the +temptation of peeping into the hearts of their men and women, and the +knowledge thus gained gives them sympathy, while it often detracts from +the strong lines of the external picture; a writer will not paint a +villain quite so black if he believes he still preserves some remnants +of a noble nature. But Miss Burney has no interest in the inner life of +her men and women. She saw their peculiarities and was amused by them, +and has presented them to the reader with minute descriptions and lively +wit. + +She also makes fine distinctions between people. Sir Clement Willoughby, +the West End snob, and Mr. Smith, the East End beau, are drawn with +discrimination. With what wit Miss Burney describes the scene at the +_ridotto_ between Evelina and Sir Clement. He had asked her to dance +with him. Unwilling to do so, because she wished to dance with another +gentleman, if he should ask her, she told Sir Clement she was engaged +for that dance. He did not leave her, however, but remained by her side +and speculated as to who the beast was so hostile to his own interests +as to forget to come to her; pitied the humiliation a lady must feel in +having to wait for a gentleman, and pointed to each old and lame man in +the room asking if he were the miscreant; he offered to find him for her +and asked what kind of a coat he had on. When Evelina did not know, he +became angry with the wretch who dared to address a lady in so +insignificant a coat that it was unworthy of her notice. To save herself +from further annoyance she danced with him, for she now knew that Sir +Clement had seen through her artifice from the beginning. + +But the portrait of Mr. Smith, the East End snob, is even better than +that of Sir Clement Willoughby. Evelina is visiting her relatives at +Snow Hill, when Mr. Smith enters, self-confident and vulgar. His aim in +life, as he tells us, is to please the ladies. When Tom Branghton is +disputing with his sister about the place where they shall go for +amusement, he reprimands Tom for his lack of good breeding. + +"O fie, Tom,--dispute with a lady!" cried Mr. Smith. "Now, as for me, +I'm for where you will, providing this young lady [meaning Evelina] is +of the party; one place is the same as another to me, so that it be but +agreeable to the ladies. I would go anywhere with you, Ma'm, unless, +indeed, it were to church;--ha, ha, ha, you'll excuse me, Ma'm, but, +really, I never could conquer my fear of a parson;--ha, ha, ha,--really, +ladies, I beg your pardon, for being so rude, but I can't help laughing +for my life." + +Mr. Smith endeavoured to make himself particularly pleasing to Evelina, +and for that purpose bought tickets for her and her relatives to attend +the Hampstead Assembly. When he observed that Evelina was a little out +of sorts, he attributed her low spirits to doubts of his intentions +towards her. "To be sure," he told her, "marriage is all in all with the +ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing." He advised her +not to be discouraged, saying with a patronising air, "You may very well +be proud, for I assure you there is nobody so likely to catch me at last +as yourself." + +Both Sir Clement Willoughby and Mr. Smith are selfish and conceited; but +the former had lived among the gentlemen of Mayfair, the latter among +the tradespeople of Snow Hill, and this difference of environment is +shown in every speech they utter. + +It is the contrast between these two distinct classes of society that +saves the book from becoming monotonous. Evelina visits the Pantheon +with her West End friends. When Captain Mirvan wonders what people find +in such a place, Mr. Lovel, a fashionable fop, quickly rejoins: "What +the ladies may come hither for, Sir, it would ill become _us_ to +determine; but as to we men, doubtless we can have no other view, than +to admire them." At another time Evelina visits the opera with the +vulgar Branghtons, who all rejoiced when the curtain dropped, and Mr. +Branghton vowed he would never be caught again. The Branghtons at the +opera is hardly inferior to Partridge at the play. Tom Branghton is a +good representative of his class. He describes with glee the last night +at Vauxhall: "There's such squealing and squalling!--and then all the +lamps are broke,--and the women skimper scamper;--I declare I would not +take five guineas to miss the last night!" + +All the characters, even the heroine, take delight, in boisterous mirth. +Much of the humour of the book consists rather in ludicrous situations +than in any real delicacy of wit. Too often the laugh is at another's +discomfiture, and so fails to please the present age with its kindlier +feeling towards others. Such are the practical jokes which Captain +Mirvan plays upon Madame Duval. In one instance, disguised as a robber, +he waylays the lady's coach, and leaves her in a ditch with her feet +tied to a tree. The many tricks which the doughty Salt plays upon this +lady so much resemble some of the humorous scenes in _Joseph Andrews_, +and _Tom Jones_ that we may infer the readers of that century found +them laughable. The Captain and the French woman are two puppets which +serve to introduce much of this horse-play. They are not even +caricatures; they are entirely unlike anything in human life. With the +exception of these two characters, all the men and women who provoked +the mirth of the heroine are well portrayed. + +Miss Burney is less felicitous in her descriptions of serious +characters. Lord Orville, the same type of man as Sir Charles Grandison, +is true only in the sense that Miss Burney announces the truth of the +entire book. "I have not pretended to show the world what it actually +_is_, but what it _appears_ to a girl of seventeen," she wrote in the +preface to _Evelina_. Lord Orville, all dignity, nobility, charm, and +perfection, is but the ideal of a young girl. + +Evelina was a new woman in literature, a revelation to the men of the +time of George the Third. The sincerity of the book could not be +doubted. "But," they asked, "did Evelina represent the woman's point of +view of life? Surely no man ever held like views." The Lovelaces and Tom +Joneses are not so attractive as when seen through the eyes of their own +sex, and the heroines are not so soft and yielding as a man would create +them. Evelina, like all Miss Burney's heroines, is independent, +fearless, and witty, with scarcely a trace of the traditional heroine +of fiction. Saints and Magdalenes have always appealed to the masculine +imagination. _La donna dolorosa_ has occupied a prominent place in the +art and literature of man's creation. Here he has revealed his sex +egoism in all its nudity: the woman weeping for man, either lover, +husband, or son; man the centre of her thoughts, her hopes and fears. +This new heroine with a new regard towards man was a revelation to them. +Evelina was the first woman to break the spell, to show them woman as +woman, in lieu of woman as parasite and adjunct to man. Evelina is not +always pleasing; she hasn't always good manners; she sometimes laughs in +the faces of the dashing beaux who are addressing her. But she is a +woman of real flesh and blood; such women have existed in all time, and, +liked many women we meet every day and whom men in all ages have known, +Evelina insists on being the centre of every scene. + +In July, 1782, Miss Burney's second book, _Cecilia, or Memoirs of an +Heiress_, was published. This novel met with as enthusiastic a reception +as _Evelina_. Gibbon read the whole five volumes in a day; Burke +declared they had cost him three days, though he did not part with the +story from the time he first opened it, and had sat up a whole night to +finish it; and Sir Joshua Reynolds had been fed while reading it, +because he refused to quit it at the table. + +The book shows more care and effort than _Evelina_. That was an outburst +of youthful vivacity and spirits, but in _Cecilia_ the author is +striving to do her best. This is particularly revealed in the style, +which shows the influence of Doctor Johnson, for it has lost the +simplicity of _Evelina_. The diction is more ambitious, and the +sentences are longer, many of them balanced. Even some of the inferior +characters from their speech, appear to have received a lesson in +English composition from Dr. Johnson. + +But the novel owes its place among English classics to the varieties of +characters portrayed and the vivid pictures of English life. Here again +the gaieties of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marylebone and the Pantheon have +become immortal, drawn with colours as vivid and enduring as Hogarth +used in painting the sadder sides of London life. No other writer has +brought these places before our eyes as clearly and as fully as Fanny +Burney. + +The plot of _Cecilia_, like that of _Evelina_, is so arranged as to +present different classes of society. _Cecilia_ has three guardians, +with one of whom she must live during her minority. First she visits Mr. +Harrel, a gay, fashionable man, a spendthrift and a gambler, who lives +in a fashionable house in Portman Square, where Cecilia, during a +constant round of festivities, meets the fashionable people of London. +Next she visits Mr. Briggs in the City, "a short thick, sturdy man, with +very small keen black eyes, a square face, a dark complexion, and a snub +nose." He was so miserly that when Cecilia asked for pen, ink, and a +sheet of paper, he gave her a slate and pencil, as he supposed she had +nothing of consequence to say. He was as sparing of his words as of his +money, and used the same elliptical sentences in his speech as Dickens +afterwards put into the mouth of Alfred Jingle, the famous character in +_Pickwick Papers_. He thus advises Cecilia in regard to her lovers: +"Take care of sharpers; don't trust shoe-buckles, nothing but Bristol +stones! tricks in all things. A fine gentleman sharp as another man. +Never give your heart to a gold-topped cane, nothing but brass gilt +over. Cheats everywhere: fleece you in a year; won't leave you a groat. +But one way to be safe,--bring 'em all to me." Lastly she visits Mr. +Delvile, her third guardian, a man of family, who despised both the men +associated with him as trustees of Cecilia; he lived in such gloomy +state in his magnificent old house in St. James's Square that it +inspired awe, and repressed all pleasure. Pride in their birth and +prejudice against all parvenus were the faults of Mr. and Mrs. Delvile. + +Besides these characters, there were many others whose names were for a +long time familiar in every household. Sir Robert Floyer was as vain as +Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows was constantly bored to death; it was +insufferable exertion to talk to a quiet woman, and a talkative one put +him into a fever. At the opera the solos depressed him and the full +orchestra fatigued him. He yawned while ladies were talking to him, and +after he had begged them to repeat what they had said, forgot to listen. +"I am tired to death! tired of everything," was his constant expression. + +In his critical essay on Madame D'Arblay, Fanny Burney's married name, +under which her later works were published, Macaulay has thus dealt with +her treatment of character: + +"Madame D'Arblay has left us scarcely anything but humours. Almost every +one of her men and women has some one propensity developed to a morbid +degree. In _Cecilia_, for example, Mr. Delvile never opens his lips +without some allusion to his own birth and station; or Mr. Briggs +without some allusion to the hoarding of money; or Mr. Hobson, without +betraying the self-indulgence and self-importance of a purse-proud +upstart; or Mr. Simkins, without uttering some sneaking remark for the +purpose of currying favour with his customers; or Mr. Meadows, without +expressing apathy and weariness of life; or Mr. Albany, without +declaiming about the vices of the rich and the misery of the poor; or +Mrs. Belfield, without some indelicate eulogy on her son; or Lady +Margaret, without indicating jealousy of her husband. Morrice is all +skipping, officious impertinence, Mr. Gosport all sarcasm, Lady Honoria +all lively prattle, Miss Larolles all silly prattle; if ever Madame +D'Arblay aimed at more, as in the character of Monckton, we do not think +that she succeeded well.... The variety of humours which is to be found +in her novels is immense; and though the talk of each person separately +is monotonous, the general effect is not monotony, but a most lively and +agreeable diversity." + +While the character of Monckton is not strongly drawn, one or two scenes +in which he figures have great power. Mr. Monckton, who had married an +aged woman for her money, lived in constant hope of her dissolution. He +planned to keep Cecilia from marrying until that happy event, when he +schemed to make her his bride, and thus acquire a second fortune. He had +used his influence as a family friend to prejudice her lovers in her +eyes, and had just succeeded in breaking up an intimacy which he feared: +"A weight was removed from his mind which had nearly borne down even his +remotest hopes; the object of his eager pursuit seemed still within his +reach, and the rival into whose power he had so lately almost beheld her +delivered, was totally renounced, and no longer to be dreaded. A +revolution such as this, raised expectations more sanguine than ever; +and in quitting the house, he exultingly considered himself released +from every obstacle to his view,--till, just as he arrived home, he +recollected his wife!" + +Cecilia, the heroine of the novel, is only Evelina grown a little older, +a little sadder, a little more worldly wise. The humour is, too, a +little kindlier. The practical jokes so common in _Evelina_ do not mar +the pages of _Cecilia_. At times the latter novel becomes almost tragic. +The scene at Vauxhall where Mr. Harrel puts an end to his life of +dissipation is dramatic and thrilling. But Miss Burney had lost the +buoyancy and lively fancy which made the charm of _Evelina_. + +Miss Burney's last two novels, _Camilla, or a Picture of Youth_ and _The +Wanderer, or Female Difficulties_, have no claim to a place among +English classics. It is strange that, as she saw more of life, she +depicted it with less accuracy. This might seem to show that her first +novels owe their excellence to her vivid imagination rather than to her +powers of observation. Her weary life at court as second keeper of the +robes to Queen Charlotte; her marriage to Monsieur D'Arblay, and the +sorrows that came to her as the wife of a French refugee; all her +deeper experiences of life during the fourteen years between the +publication of _Cecilia_ and _Camilla_--these had completely changed her +light, humorous view of externals, and with that loss her power as an +artist disappeared. + +_Camilla_ has several heroines whose love affairs interest the reader. +It thus bears a resemblance to Miss Austen's novels, who speaks of it +with admiration and was, perhaps, influenced by it. Eugenia, who has +received the education of a man, is pleasing. Clermont Lynmere, like Mr. +Smith and Sir Robert Floyer, imagines that all the ladies are in love +with him. Sir Hugh Tyrold, with his love for the classics and his regret +that he had not been beaten into learning them when he was a boy, his +strict ideas of virtue and his desire to make everybody happy, is well +conceived, but the outlines are not strong enough to make him a living +character. _Camilla_ shows more than _Cecilia_ the style of Dr. Johnson. +It is heavy and slow, the words are long, and many of them of Latin +derivation. + +It was not until the year 1814, the year of _Waverley_, that her last +novel, _The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties_, was published, which, +following the style of _Camilla_, was in five volumes. It was partly +founded on incidents arising out of the French Revolution. The book was +eagerly awaited; the publishers paid fifteen hundred guineas for it; +but even the friendliest critic pronounced it a literary failure. + +To sum up, Macaulay in the essay before quoted makes clear Miss Burney's +place in fiction: + +"Miss Burney did for the English novel what Jeremy Collier did for the +English drama; and she did it in a better way. She first showed that a +tale might be written in which both the fashionable and the vulgar life +of London might be exhibited with great force and with broad comic +humour, and which yet should not contain a single line inconsistent with +rigid morality, or even with virgin delicacy. She took away the reproach +which lay on a most useful and delightful species of composition. She +vindicated the right of her sex to an equal share in a fair and noble +province of letters ... we owe to her not only _Evelina_, _Cecilia_, and +_Camilla_, but also _Mansfield Park_ and _The Absentee_." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Hannah More + + +During the time that Dr. Johnson dominated the literary conscience of +England, a group of ladies who had wearied of whist and quadrille, the +common amusements of fashion, used to meet at the homes of one another +to discuss literary and political subjects. They were called in ridicule +the "Blue Stocking Club," because Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who was +always present at these gatherings, wore hose of that colour. Among the +members distinguished by their wit and talents were Mrs. Elizabeth +Montagu, the author of an _Essay on the Genius of Shakespeare_; Mrs. +Elizabeth Carter, a poetess and excellent Greek scholar; Mrs. Chapone, +whose _Letters to Young Ladies_ formed the standard of conduct for young +women of two generations; Miss Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua; and +Mrs. Vesey, noted as a charming hostess. Dr. Johnson, David Garrick, +Reynolds, and Burke were frequenters of this club. One may well imagine +that the conversation and wit of the Blue Stockings were far too rare +to be understood by the grosser minds of the mere devotees of fashion, +who in consequence threw a ridicule upon them which has always adhered +to the name. + +Hannah More, who had already become known as a playwright, visited +London in 1773, and at once was welcomed by this group. In a poem called +_The Bas Bleu_, dedicated to Mrs. Vesey, she thus describes the pleasure +of these meetings: + + Enlighten'd spirits! You, who know + What charms from polish'd converse flow, + Speak, for you can, the pure delight + When kindling sympathies unite; + When correspondent tastes impart + Communion sweet from heart to heart; + You ne'er the cold gradations need + Which vulgar souls to union lead; + No dry discussion to unfold + The meaning caught ere well 't is told: + In taste, in learning, wit, or science, + Still kindled souls demand alliance: + Each in the other joys to find + The image answering to his mind. + +The Blue Stocking Club was composed largely of Tories, so that when all +Europe became restless under the influence of the French Revolution, +they strongly combated the levelling doctrines of democracy. Hannah More +in particular, who had been conducting schools for the very poor near +Bristol, saw how the teachings of the revolutionists affected men +already prone to idleness and drink. To offset these influences, she +published a little book with the following title-page: "Village +Politics. Addressed to all the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Labourers, in +Great Britain. By Will Chip, a country Carpenter." + +It is not a novel in the strict sense of the word, but in simple +language, easily understood, it teaches the labouring people the +inconsistent attitude of France, and the strength and safety of the +English constitution. It is not a deep book, but has good work-a-day +common-sense, such as keeps the world jogging on, ready to endure the +ills it has rather than fly to others it knows not of. + +The book is in the form of a dialogue between Jack Anvil, the +blacksmith, and Tom Hood, the mason. + +"TOM. But have you read the _Rights of Man_? + +"JACK. No, not I: I had rather by half read the _Whole Duty of Man_. I +have but little time for reading, and such as I should therefore only +read a bit of the best." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. And what dost thou take a _democrat_ to be? + +"JACK. One who likes to be governed by a thousand tyrants, and yet can't +bear a king." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. What is it to be _an enlightened people_? + +"JACK. To put out the light of the Gospel, confound right and wrong, and +grope about in pitch darkness." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. And what is _benevolence_? + +"JACK. Why, in the new-fangled language, it means contempt of religion, +aversion to justice, overturning of law, doating on all mankind in +general, and hating everybody in particular." + +For a long time the authorship of the book remained a secret, and Will +Chip became a notable figure. The clergy and the land-owners in +particular rejoiced over his homely common-sense, and distributed these +pamphlets broadcast over the land. One hundred thousand copies were sold +in a short time. _Village Politics_ is said to have been one of the +strongest influences in England to awaken the common people to the +dangers which lie in a sudden overthrow of government. The book was +timely, for that decade had become intoxicated by the name of Liberty. +To-day democracy and equality are no longer feared. + +During many years Hannah More worked industriously among the poor of +Cheddar and its vicinity. On a visit to the Cliffs of Cheddar she found +an ignorant, half-savage people, many of whom dwelt in the caves and +fissures of the rocks, and earned a miserable subsistence by selling +stalactites and other minerals native to the place, to the travellers +who were attracted thither by the beautiful scenery. Among these people +Hannah More opened a Sunday-school, and later a day school, where the +girls were taught knitting, spinning, and sewing. A girl trained in her +school was presented on her marriage day with five shillings, a pair of +white stockings, and a new Bible. The teaching in the schools was so +practical that within a year schools were opened in nine parishes. + +In this missionary work, Miss More became intimately acquainted not only +with the very poor, but also with the rich farmers living in the +neighbourhood and the prosperous tradespeople of the villages. From +these better educated men she met with great opposition. One petty +landlord met her request for assistance with the remark: "The lower +classes are fated to be poor, ignorant and wicked; and wise as you are, +you cannot alter what is decreed." Another man informed her that +religion was the worst thing for the poor, it made them so lazy and +useless. + + * * * * * + +But the minds of the people had been awakened by the French Revolution. +They were beginning to think. Books and ballads attacking church and +constitution were hawked through the country and placed within reach of +all. To counteract the influence of these "corrupt and inflammatory +publications" Hannah More, between the years 1795-1798, published _The +Cheap Repository_, the first regular issue of this kind. Every month a +story, a ballad, and a tract for Sunday were published. Hannah More knew +so well the common reasoning and the mental attitude of those for whom +she wrote, that she was able to make her lessons most effective. So +great was the demand for these chap-books that over two million were +sold the first year.[1] + + [1] For a complete bibliography of these chap-books, see the + _Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books_ in Harvard + College Library, pp. 8-10; compiled in part by Charles Welsh. + +These stories were divided into two classes, those for "persons of +middle rank" and those for the common people. The former point out the +dangers of pride and covetousness; of substituting abstract philosophy +for religion; and warn masters not to forget their moral obligations +towards their servants. The latter aim to teach neatness, sobriety, +regularity in church attendance, and point out the happiness of those +who follow these precepts, and the misery of those who neglect them. + +Her two best known stories are _Mr. Fantom_ and _The Shepherd of +Salisbury Plain_. _Mr. Fantom: or the History of the New-Fashioned +Philosopher, and his Man William_ was written to warn masters of the +danger of teaching their servants disrespect for the Bible and for civil +law. Mr. Fantom was a shallow man, who glided upon the surface of +philosophy and culled those precepts which relieved his conscience from +any moral obligations. When he was asked to help the poor in his own +parish, he refused to consider their wants because his mind was so +engrossed by the partition of Poland. Like Mrs. Jellyby of a later time, +he was so much troubled by sufferings which he could not see that he +neglected his family and servants. When he reprimanded his butler, +William, for being intoxicated, the young man replied: "Why, sir, you +are a philosopher, you know; and I have often overheard you say to your +company, that private vices are public benefits; and so I thought that +getting drunk was as pleasant a way of doing good to the public as any, +especially when I could oblige my muster at the same time." In course of +time William became a thief and a murderer, and expiated his crimes on +the scaffold. + +In contrast to this is _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_. This shepherd +was contented with his lot, and says: "David was happier when he kept +his father's sheep on such a plain as this, and employed in singing some +of his own psalms perhaps, than ever he was when he became king of +Israel and Judah. And I dare say we should never have had some of the +most beautiful texts in all those fine psalms, if he had not been a +shepherd, which enabled him to make so many fine comparisons and +similitudes, as one may say, from country life, flocks of sheep, hills +and valleys, fields of corn, and fountains of water." The shepherd's +neat cottage with its simple furnishings, his frugal wife and +industrious children are described in simple and convincing language. + +In the stories of the poor there are many interesting details of the +everyday life of that class that did not blossom into heroes and +heroines of romance for nearly half a century. Mrs. Sponge, in _The +History of Betty Brown, the St. Giles's Orange Girl_, is a character +that Dickens might have immortalised. Mrs. Sponge kept a little shop and +a kind of eating-house for poor girls near the Seven Dials. She received +stolen goods, and made such large profits in her business that she was +enabled to become a broker among the poor. She loaned Betty five +shillings to set her up in the orange business; she did not ask for the +return of her money, but exacted a sixpence a day for its use, and was +regarded by Betty, and the other girls whom she thus befriended, as a +benefactor. At last, Betty was rescued from the clutches of Mrs. Sponge. +By industry and piety she became mistress of a handsome sausage-shop +near the Seven Dials, and married a hackney coachman, the hero of one of +Miss More's ballads: + + I am a bold coachman, and drive a good hack + With a coat of five capes that quite covers my back; + And my wife keeps a sausage-shop, not many miles + From the narrowest alley in all broad St. Giles. + Though poor, we are honest and very content, + We pay as we go, for meat, drink, and for rent; + To work all the week I am able and willing, + I never get drunk, and I waste not a shilling; + And while at a tavern my gentleman tarries, + The coachman grows richer than he whom he carries, + And I'd rather (said I), since it saves me from sin, + Be the driver without, than the toper within. + +_The Cheap Repository_ was written to teach moral precepts. Neither +Hannah More nor her readers saw any artistic beauty in the sordid lives +of this lower stratum of society. They were not interested in the +superstitions of "Poor Sally Evans," who hung a plant called +"midsummer-men" in her room on Midsummer eve so that she might learn by +the bending of the leaves if her lover were true to her, and who +consulted all the fortune-tellers that came to her door to learn whether +the two moles on her cheek foretold two husbands or two children. +Hannah More recorded these simple fancies of poor Sally only to show her +folly and the misfortunes that afterwards befell her on account of her +superstitions. Writers of that century either laughed at the ignorant +blunders of the poor, or used them to point a moral. An interest in them +because they are human beings like ourselves with common frailties +belongs to the next century. Nothing proves more conclusively the growth +of the democratic idea than the changed attitude of the novel toward the +ignorant and the criminal. + + * * * * * + +Hannah More was always interested in the education of young ladies. She +wrote a series of essays called _Strictures on the Modern System of +Female Education_, in which she protested loudly against the tendency to +give girls an ornamental rather than a useful education. This was so +highly approved that she was asked to make suggestions for the education +of the Princess Charlotte. This led to her writing _Hints towards +Forming the Character of a Young Princess_. + +Hannah More finally embodied her theories on the education of women in a +book which she thought might appeal most strongly to the young ladies +themselves, _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_. Running through it, is a +slight romance. Coelebs, filled with admiration for Eve, as described +in _Paradise Lost_, where she is intent on her household duties, goes +forth into the world to find, if possible, such a helpmate for himself. +As he meets different women, he compares them with his ideal, and, +finding them lacking, passes a severe criticism upon female education +and accomplishments. Finally, he meets a lady with well-trained mind, +who delights in works of charity and piety, one well calculated to +conduct wisely the affairs of his household. She has besides proper +humility, and accepts with gratitude the honour of becoming Coelebs's +wife. + +Until her death at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, Hannah More +continued to write moral and religious essays, so that she was before +the public view for over fifty years, Mrs. S. C. Hall in her book +_Pilgrimages to English Shrines_ thus describes her in old age: + +"Hannah More wore a dress of very light green silk--a white China crape +shawl was folded over her shoulders; her white hair was frizzled, after +a by-gone fashion, above her brow, and that _backed_, as it were, by a +very full double border of rich lace. The reality was as dissimilar from +the picture painted by our imagination as anything could well be; such a +sparkling, light, bright, 'summery'-looking old lady--more like a +beneficent fairy, than the biting author of _Mr. Fantom_, though in +perfect harmony with _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Charlotte Smith. Mrs. Inchbald + + +While Hannah More was endeavouring to improve the condition of the poor +by teaching them diligence and sobriety, a group of earnest men and +women were writing books and pamphlets in which they claimed that +poverty and ignorance were due to unjust laws. The writings of Voltaire +and Rousseau had filled their minds with bright pictures of a democracy. +These theories were considered most dangerous in England, but they were +the theories which helped to shape the American constitution. Among +these English revolutionists were William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, +Charlotte Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and for a time Amelia Opie. + +The strongest political novel was _Caleb Williams_ by William Godwin. In +this he shows how through law man may become the destroyer of man. This +interest in the rights of man awakened interest in the condition of +women; and Mary Wollstonecraft, who afterward became Mrs. Godwin, wrote +_Vindication of the Rights of Woman_. This pamphlet was declared +contrary to the Bible and to Christian law, although all its demands +have now been conceded. Charlotte Smith was also interested in the +position of women and the laws affecting them. In _Desmond_ she +discussed freely a marriage problem which in her day seemed very bold, +while in her private life she ignored British prejudices. + +She was the mother of twelve children and the wife of a man of many +schemes, so that she was continually devising ways to extricate her +large family from the financial difficulties into which he plunged them. +At one time a friend suggested to her that her husband's attention +should be turned toward religion. Her reply was: "Oh, for heaven's sake, +do not put it into his head to take to religion, for if he does, he will +instantly begin by building a cathedral." She is supposed to have +caricatured him in the projector who hoped to make a fortune by manuring +his estate with old wigs. But when her husband was imprisoned for debt, +she shared his captivity, and began to write to support her family. +Although she died at the age of fifty-seven, she found time during her +manifold cares to write thirty-eight volumes. + +But not only did Mrs. Smith endure sorrows as great as those of her +favourite heroine, Sidney Biddulph, but one of her daughters was +equally unfortunate. She was married unhappily, and returned with her +three children for her mother to support. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, after +twenty-three years of married life, agreed to live in separate +countries, he in Normandy, and she in England, although they always +corresponded and were interested in each other's welfare. Yet this +separation, together with the revolutionary tendencies discovered in her +writings, raised a storm of criticism against her. + +In _Desmond_, which was regarded as so dangerous, Mrs. Smith has +presented the following problem: Geraldine, the heroine, is married to a +spendthrift, who attempts to retrieve his fortunes by forcing his wife +to become the mistress of his friend, the rich Duc de Romagnecourt. To +preserve her honour she leaves him, hoping to return to her mother's +roof; but her mother refuses to receive her and bids her return to her +husband. As she dares not do this, and is without money, a faithful +friend, Desmond, takes her under his protection, asking no reward but +the pleasure of serving her. Finally Geraldine receives a letter +informing her that her husband is ill. She returns to him, and nurses +him until he dies; after a year of mourning she marries Desmond. + +How could a woman have behaved more virtuously than Geraldine? She is +always high-minded and actuated by the purest motives. But it was +feared that her example might encourage wives to desert their husbands, +and consequently the novel was declared immoral. + +_Desmond_ was published in 1792, when the feeling against France was +very bitter in England. The plot, as it meanders slowly through three +volumes, is constantly interrupted by political discussions. The +author's clearly expressed preference for a republican government, and +her criticism of English law, met with bitter disapproval. One of the +characters pronounces a panegyric upon the greater prosperity and +happiness that has come to the French soldiers, farmers, and peasants, +since they came to believe that they were sharers in their own labours, +and the hero of the book, writing from France to a friend in England, +says: "I lament still more the disposition which too many Englishmen +show to join in this unjust and infamous crusade, against the holy +standard of freedom; and I blush for my country." In the same book, the +author censures the penal laws of England, by which robbery to the +amount of forty shillings is punishable with death; and criticises the +delay of the courts in dealing justice. + +This criticism is expressed tamely, barely more than suggested, when +compared with the vigorous attacks which Dickens made in the next +century on English law and the slow action of justice in the famous +"Circumlocution Office." Dickens wrote with such vigour that he brought +about a reform. A modern reader finds _Desmond_ earnest and sincere, but +tame to the point of dulness. It seems strange how the Tory party could +see in this book a menace to the British constitution. But a writer in +the _Monthly Review_ for December, 1792, advocated her cause. "She is +very justly of opinion," he writes, "that the great events that are +passing in the world are no less interesting to women than to men, and +that, in her solicitude to discharge the domestic duties, a woman ought +not to forget that, in common with her father and husband, her brothers +and sons, she is a citizen." + +The publication of _The Old Manor House_ in the following year won back +for her many of the friends that she had lost by _Desmond_. But in this +work also the same love of liberty, the same indifference to social +distinctions, occur. The hero of _The Old Manor House_ joins the English +army, and is sent to fight against the Americans; in the many +reflections upon this conflict, the author shows that her sympathies are +with the colonists. The father of the hero had married a young woman who +had nothing to recommend her but "beauty, simplicity, and goodness." The +hero himself falls in love with and marries a girl beneath him in rank, +but he does not seem to feel that he has done a generous thing, nor +does the heroine show any gratitude for this honour. Each seems +unconscious that their difference in rank should be a bar to their +union, provided they do not offend old Mrs. Rayland, the owner of the +manor. A great change had come over the novel since Pamela was +overpowered with gratitude to her profligate master, Mr. B, for +condescending to make her his wife. + +The revolutionary principles of Mrs. Smith's novels were soon forgotten, +but two new elements were introduced by her that bore fruit in English +fiction. Her great gift to the novel was the portrayal of refined, +quiet, intellectual ladies, beside whom Evelina and Cecilia seem but +school-girls. Her heroines may be poor, they may be of inferior rank, +but they are always ladies of sensitive nature and cultivated manners, +and are drawn with a feeling and tenderness which no novelist before her +had reached. A contemporary said of Emmeline, "All is graceful, and +pleasing to the sight, all, in short, is simple, femininely beautiful +and chaste." This might be said of all the women she has created. Old +Mrs. Rayland, the central personage in her most popular novel, _The Old +Manor House_, notwithstanding her exalted ideas of her own importance as +a member of the Rayland family, and the arbitrary manner in which she +compels all to conform to her old-fashioned notions, is always the +high-born lady. We smile at her, but she never forfeits our respect. +Scott said of her, "Old Mrs. Rayland is without a peer." + +Mrs. Smith's second gift to the novel was her charming descriptions of +rural scenery. Nature had for a long time been banished from the arts. +Wordsworth in one of his prefaces wrote: + +"Excepting _The Nocturnal Reverie_ of Lady Winchelsea, and a passage or +two in the _Windsor Forest_ of Pope, the poetry of the period +intervening between the publication of _Paradise Lost_ and _The Seasons_ +does not contain a single new image of external nature; and scarcely +presents a familiar one, from which it can be inferred that the eye of +the Poet had been steadily fixed upon his object, much less that his +feelings had urged him to work upon it in the spirit of genuine +imagination." + +Fiction was as barren of scenery as poetry. None of the novelists were +cognisant of the country scenes amid which their plots were laid, with +the possible exception of Goldsmith. _The Vicar of Wakefield_ has a +rural setting, and there are references to the trees, the blackbirds, +and the hayfields; but description is not introduced for the sake of its +own beauty as in the novels of Charlotte Smith. In _Ethelinda_ there are +beautiful descriptions of the English Lakes, part of the scene being +laid at Grasmere; _Celestina_ is in the romantic Provence; _Desmond_ in +Normandy; and in _The Old Manor House_ we have the soft landscape of the +south of England. + +In _The Old Manor House_ she thus describes one of the paths that led +from the gate of the park to Rayland Hall: + +"The other path, which in winter or in wet seasons was inconvenient, +wound down a declivity, where furze and fern were shaded by a few old +hawthorns and self-sown firs: out of the hill several streams were +filtered, which, uniting at its foot, formed a large and clear pond of +near twenty acres, fed by several imperceptible currents from other +eminences which sheltered that side of the park; and the bason between +the hills and the higher parts of it being thus filled, the water found +its way over a stony boundary, where it was passable by a foot bridge +unless in time of floods; and from thence fell into a lower part of the +ground, where it formed a considerable river; and, winding among willows +and poplars for near a mile, again spread into a still larger lake, on +the edge of which was a mill, and opposite, without the park paling, +wild heaths, where the ground was sandy, broken, and irregular, still +however marked by plantations made in it by the Rayland family." + +Every feature of the landscape is brought distinctly before the eye. +Such descriptions are not unusual now, but they were first used by +Charlotte Smith. + +Even more realistic is the picture of a road in a part of the New Forest +near Christchurch: + +"It was a deep, hollow road, only wide enough for waggons, and was in +some places shaded by hazel and other brush wood; in others, by old +beech and oaks, whose roots wreathed about the bank, intermingled with +ivy, holly, and evergreen fern, almost the only plants that appeared in +a state of vegetation, unless the pale and sallow mistletoe, which here +and there partially tinted with faint green the old trees above them. + + * * * * * + +"Everything was perfectly still around; even the robin, solitary +songster of the frozen woods, had ceased his faint vespers to the +setting sun, and hardly a breath of air agitated the leafless branches. +This dead silence was interrupted by no sound but the slow progress of +his horse, as the hollow ground beneath his feet sounded as if he trod +on vaults. There was in the scene, and in this dull pause of nature, a +solemnity not unpleasant to Orlando, in his present disposition of +mind." + +In 1842, Miss Mitford wrote to Miss Barrett: "Charlotte Smith's works, +with all their faults, have yet a love of external nature, and a power +of describing it, which I never take a spring walk without feeling." And +again she wrote to a friend referring to Mrs. Smith, "Except that they +want cheerfulness, nothing can exceed the beauty of the style." + + * * * * * + +The life and writings of Mrs. Inchbald had some things in common with +the life and writings of Mrs. Smith. Both were obliged to write to +support themselves as well as those dependent upon them. Both had seen +many phases of human nature, and both viewed with scorn the pretensions +of the rich and beheld with pity the sorrows of the poor. Both were +champions of social and political equality. Mrs. Inchbald, however, was +an actress and a successful playwright, hence her novels are the more +dramatic, but they lack the beautiful rural setting which gives a poetic +atmosphere to the writings of Charlotte Smith. + +_A Simple Story_, the first, of Mrs. Inchbald's two novels, has been +called the precursor of _Jane Eyre_. It is the first novel in which we +are more interested in what is felt than in what actually happens. Mr. +Dorriforth, a Catholic priest, and Miss Milner, his ward, fall in love +with each other, and we watch this hidden passion, which preys upon the +health of both. He is horrified that he has broken his vows; she is +mortified that she loves a man who, she believes, neither can nor does +return her feeling for him. When he is released from his vow, it is the +emotion, not external happenings, that holds the interest. The first +part of the story is brought to a close with the marriage of Mr. +Dorriforth, now Lord Elmwood, and Miss Milner. + +Seventeen years elapse between the two halves of the novel. During this +time trouble has come between them and they have separated. The +character of each has undergone a change. Traits of disposition that +were first but lightly observed have been intensified with years. Mrs. +Inchbald writes of the hero: "Dorriforth, the pious, the good, the +tender Dorriforth, is become a hard-hearted tyrant; the compassionate, +the feeling, the just Lord Elmwood, an example of implacable rigour and +justice." His friend Sandford has also changed with the years, but he +has been softened, not hardened by them--"the reprover, the enemy of the +vain, the idle, and the wicked, but the friend and comforter of the +forlorn and miserable." + +The story of Dorriforth gives unity to the two parts of the novel. The +conflict between his love and his anger holds the reader in suspense +until the conclusion. The characters of eighteenth-century fiction were +actuated by but a small number of motives. In nearly all the novels the +men were either generous and free or stingy and hypocritical; the women +were either virtuous and winsome, or immoral and brazen. Mrs. Inchbald +possessed, only in a less degree, George Eliot's power of +character-analysis; she observed minor qualities, and she was as +unflinching in following the development of evil traits to a tragic +conclusion as was the author of _Adam Bede_. + +In _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for March, 1791, some one wrote of _A +Simple Story_: + +"She has struck out a path entirely her own. She has disdained to follow +the steps of her predecessors, and to construct a new novel, as is too +commonly done, out of the scraps and fragments of earlier inventors. Her +principal character, the Roman Catholic lord, is perfectly new: and she +has conducted him, through a series of surprising well-contrasted +adventures, with an uniformity of character and truth of description +that have rarely been surpassed." + +There is, however, one hackneyed scene. A young girl is seized, thrust +into a chariot, and carried at full speed to a lonely place. There is +hardly an early novel where this bald incident is not worked up into one +or more chapters, with variations to suit the convenience of the plot. +It was as much a part of the stock in trade of the novelist of the +eighteenth century as a family quarrel is of the twentieth. With this +exception, _A Simple Story_ is new in its plot, incidents, characters, +and mode of treatment. Emotion did not play so important a part in a +novel again until Charlotte Brontë wrote _Jane Eyre_. + +Mrs. Inchbald's only other novel, _Nature and Art_, shows the +artificialities of society. Two cousins, William and Henry, are +contrasted. William is the son of a dean. Henry's father went to Africa +to live, whence he sent his son to his rich uncle to be educated. Henry +fails to comprehend the society in which he finds himself placed, and +cannot understand that there should be any poor people. + +"'Why, here is provision enough for all the people,' said Henry; 'why +should they want? why do not they go and take some of these things?' + +"'They must not,' said the dean, 'unless they were their own.' + +"'What, Uncle! Does no part of the earth, nor anything which the earth +produces, belong to the poor?'" + +His uncle fails to answer this question to his nephew's satisfaction. + +The vices and the fawning duplicity of William are contrasted with the +virtues and independent spirit of Henry. + +"'I know I am called proud,' one day said William to Henry. + +"'Dear Cousin,' replied Henry, 'it must be only then by those who do not +know you; for to me you appear the humblest creature in the world.' + +"'Do you really think so?' + +"'I am certain of it; or would you always give up your opinion to +that of persons in a superior state, however inferior in their +understanding? ... I have more pride than you, for I will never stoop +to act or to speak contrary to my feelings.'" + +William rises to eminence, in time becoming a judge. Henry, who is +always virtuous, can obtain no preferment. This contrast in the two +cousins is not so overdrawn as at first appears. William represents the +aristocracy of the old world; Henry, the free representative of a new +country. + +A tragic story runs through the novel, which becomes intensely dramatic +at the point where William puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence +on the girl whom he had ruined years before. He does not recognise her; +but she, who had loved him through the years, becomes insane, not at the +thought of death, but that he should be the one to pronounce the +sentence. It is doubtful if any novelist before Scott had produced so +thrilling a situation, a situation which grew naturally out of the plot, +and the anguish of the poor unfortunate Agnes has the realism of Thomas +Hardy or Tolstoi. + +Only by reading these old novels can one comprehend the change produced +in England by the next half-century. The teachings of Mrs. Charlotte +Smith and Mrs. Inchbald were declared dangerous to the state. That they +taught disrespect for authority, was one of the many charges brought +against them. Yet with what ladylike reserve they advance views which a +later generation applauded when boldly proclaimed by Dickens, Thackeray, +and Disraeli! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Clara Reeve. Ann Radcliffe. Harriet and Sophia Lee + + +The novel of the mysterious and the supernatural did not appear in +modern literature until Horace Walpole wrote _The Castle of Otranto_ in +1764, during the decade that was dominated by the realism of Smollett +and Sterne. The author says it was an attempt to blend two kinds of +romance, the ancient, which was all improbable, and the modern, which +was a realistic copy of nature. The machinery of this novel is clumsy. +An enormous helmet and a huge sword are the means by which an ancestor +of Otranto, long since dead, restores the castle to a seeming peasant, +who proves to be the rightful heir. + + * * * * * + +This book produced no imitators until 1777, when Clara Reeve wrote _The +Old English Baron_, which was plainly suggested by Walpole's novel, but +is more delicate in the treatment of its ghostly visitants. Here, as in +_The Castle of Otranto_, the rightful heir has been brought up a +peasant, ignorant of his high birth. Again his ancestors, supposedly +dead and gone, bring him into his own. One night he is made to sleep in +the haunted part of the castle, where his parents reveal to him in a +dream things which he is later able to prove legally. He learns the +truth about his birth, comes into his estate, and wins the lady of his +heart. When he returns to the castle as its master, all the doors fly +open through the agency of unseen hands to welcome their feudal lord. + +The characters of both these novels are without interest, and the +mysterious element fails to produce the slightest creepy thrill. + + * * * * * + +Twelve years passed before Walpole's novel found another imitator in +Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, who so far excelled her two predecessors that she +has been called the founder of the Gothic romance, and in this field she +remains without a peer. In her first novel, _The Castles of Athlin and +Dunbayne_, as in _The Old English Baron_ by Clara Reeve, a peasant +renowned for his courage and virtue loves and is beloved by a lady of +rank. A strawberry mark on his arm proves that he is the Baron Malcolm +and owner of the castle of Dunbayne, at which juncture amid great +rejoicings the story ends. + +The characters and the style foreshadow Mrs. Radcliffe's later work. +The usurping Baron of Dunbayne, who has imprisoned in his castle the +women who might oppose his ambition; the two melancholy widows; their +gentle and pensive daughters; their brave, loyal, and virtuous sons in +love respectively with the two daughters; the Count Santmorin, bold and +passionate, who endeavours by force to carry off the woman he +loves--these are types that Mrs. Radcliffe repeatedly developed until in +her later novels they became real men and women with strong conflicting +emotions. + +But superior to all her other powers is her ability to awaken a feeling +of the presence of the supernatural. The castle of Dunbayne has secret +doors and subterranean passages. The mysterious sound, as of a lute, is +wafted on the air from an unknown source. Alleyn, in endeavouring to +escape through a secret passage, stumbles over something in the dark, +and, on stooping to learn what it is, finds the cold hand of a corpse in +his grasp. This dead man has nothing to do with the story, but is +introduced merely to make the reader shudder, which Mrs. Radcliffe never +fails to do, even after we have learned all the secrets of her art. We +learn later in the book how the corpse happened to be left here +unburied; for in that day of intense realism, half-way between the +ancient belief in ghosts and the modern interest in mental suggestion, +every occurrence outside the known laws of physics was greeted with a +cynical smile. But, although Mrs. Radcliffe always explains the mystery +in her books, we hold our breath whenever she designs that we shall. + +_The Sicilian Romance_, _The Romance of the Forest_, _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_, and _The Italian_ were written and published during the next +seven years and each one shows a marked artistic advance over its +predecessor. With the opening paragraph of each, we are carried at once +into the land of the unreal, into regions of poetry rather than of +prose. Rugged mountains with their concealed valleys, whispering forests +which the eye cannot penetrate, Gothic ruins with vaulted chambers and +subterranean passages, are the scenes of her stories; while event after +event of her complicated plot happens either just as the mists of +evening are obscuring the sun, or while the moonlight is throwing +fantastic shadows over the landscape. It is an atmosphere of mystery in +which one feels the weird presence of the supernatural. This is +heightened by the ghostly suggestions she brings to the mind, as +incorporeal as spirits. A low hurried breathing in the dark, lights +flashing out from unexpected places, forms gliding noiselessly along the +dark corridors, a word of warning from an unseen source, cause the +reader to wait with hushed attention for the unfolding of the mystery. + +Sometimes the solution is trivial. The reader and the inmates of Udolpho +are held in suspense chapter after chapter by some terrible appearance +behind a black veil. When Emily ventures to draw the curtain, she drops +senseless to the ground. But this appearance turns out to be merely a +wax effigy placed there by chance. Often the explanation is more +satisfactory. The disappearance of Ludovico during the night from the +haunted chamber where he was watching in hopes of meeting the spirits +that infested it, makes the most sceptical believe for a time in the +reality of the ghostly visitants; and his reappearance at the close of +the book, the slave of pirates who had found a secret passage leading +from the sea to this room, and had used it as a place of rendezvous, is +declared by Sir Walter Scott to meet all the requirements of romance. + +But by a series of strange coincidences and dreams Mrs. Radcliffe still +makes us feel that the destiny of her characters is shaped by an unseen +power. Adeline is led by chance to the very ruin where her unknown +father had been murdered years before. She sees in dreams all the +incidents of the deed, and a manuscript he had written while in the +power of his enemies falls into her hands. Again by chance she finds an +asylum in the home of a clergyman, Arnaud La Luc, who proves to be the +father of her lover, Theodore Peyrou. It seems to be by the +interposition of Providence that Ellena finds her mother and is +recognised by her father. So in every tale we are made aware of powers +not mortal shaping human destiny. + +Mrs. Radcliffe adds to this consciousness of the presence of the +supernatural by another, perhaps more legitimate, method. She felt what +Wordsworth expressed in _Tintern Abbey_, written the year after her last +novel was published: + + And I have felt + A presence that disturbs me with the joy + Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; + A motion and a spirit, that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things. + +Mrs. Radcliffe seldom loses her feeling for nature, and has a strong +sense of the effect of environment on her characters. Julia, when in +doubt about the fate of Hippolitus, often walked in the evening under +the shade of the high trees that environed the abbey. "The dewy coolness +of the air refreshed her. The innumerable roseate tints which the +parting sun-beams reflected on the rocks above, and the fine vermil +glow diffused over the romantic scene beneath, softly fading from the +eye as the night shades fell, excited sensations of a sweet and tranquil +nature, and soothed her into a temporary forgetfulness of her sorrow." +As the happy lovers, Vivaldi and Ellena, are gliding along the Bay of +Naples, they hear from the shore the voices of the vine-dressers, as +they repose after the labours of the day, and catch the strains of music +from fishermen who are dancing on the margin of the sea. + +Sometimes nature is prophetic. The whole description of the castle of +Udolpho, when Emily first beholds it, is symbolical of the sufferings +she is to endure there: "As she gazed, the light died away on its walls, +leaving a melancholy purple tint, which spread deeper and deeper, as the +thin vapour crept up the mountain, while the battlements above were +still tipped with splendour. From these, too, the rays soon faded, and +the whole edifice was invested with the solemn duskiness of evening. +Silent, lonely, and sublime it seemed to stand the sovereign of the +scene, and to frown defiance on all who dared invade its solitary +reign." When Emily is happy in the peasant's home in the valley below, +she lingers at the casement after the sun has set: "But a clear +moonlight that succeeded gave to the landscape what time gives to the +scenes of past life, when it softens all their harsh features, and +throws over the whole the mellowing shade of distant contemplation." It +is this feeling for nature as a constant presence in daily life, now +elating the mind with joy, now awakening a sense of foreboding or +inspiring terror, and again soothing the mind to repose, that gives to +her books a permanent hold upon the imagination and marks their author +as a woman of genius. + +In her response to nature, she belongs to the Lake School. Scott said of +her: "Mrs. Radcliffe has a title to be considered as the first poetess +of romantic fiction, that is, if actual rhythm shall not be deemed +essential to poetry." Mrs. Smith describes nature as we all know it, as +it appears on the canvasses of Constable and Wilson. Mrs. Radcliffe's +descriptions of ideal and romantic nature have earned for her the name +of the English Salvator Rosa. + +Mrs. Radcliffe's characters are not without interest, although they are +often mere types. All her heroes and heroines are ladies and gentlemen +of native courtesy, superior education, and accomplishments. In _The +Mysteries of Udolpho_ she has set forth the education which St. Aubert +gave to his daughter, Emily: "St. Aubert cultivated her understanding +with the most scrupulous care. He gave her a general view of the +sciences, and an exact acquaintance with every part of elegant +literature. He taught her Latin and English, chiefly that she might +understand the sublimity of their best poets. She discovered in her +early years a taste for works of genius; and it was St. Aubert's +principle, as well as his inclination, to promote every innocent means +of happiness. 'A well informed mind,' he would say, 'is the best +security against the contagion of vice and folly.'" + +In all their circumstances her characters are well-bred. This type has +been nearly lost in literature, due, perhaps, to the minuter study of +manners and the analysis of character. When an author surveys his ladies +and gentlemen through a reading-glass, and points the finger at their +oddities and pries into their inmost secrets, even the Chesterfields +become awkward and clownish. But Mrs. Radcliffe, like Mrs. Smith, is a +true gentlewoman, and speaks of her characters with the delicate respect +of true gentility. Julia, Adeline, Emily, and Ellena, the heroines of +four of her books, love nature, and while away the melancholy hours by +playing on the lute or writing poetry, and are, moreover, well qualified +to have charge of a baronial castle and its dependencies. Her heroes are +worthy of her heroines. As they are generally seen in the presence of +ladies, if they have vices there is no occasion for their display. + +It is only in the characters of her villains that good and evil are +intertwined, and she awakens our sympathy for them equally with our +horror. Monsieur La Motte, a weak man in the power of an unscrupulous +one, is the best drawn character in _The Romance of the Forest_. He has +taken Adeline under his protection and has been as a father to her. But +before this he had committed a crime which has placed his life in the +hands of a powerful marquis. To free himself he consents to surrender +Adeline to the marquis, who has become enamoured of her beauty, hoping +by the sacrifice of her honour to save his own life. He is agitated in +the presence of Adeline, and trembles at the approach of any stranger. +Scott said of him, "He is the exact picture of the needy man who has +seen better days." + +In _The Italian_, Schedoni, a monk of the order of Black Penitents for +whom the novel is named, is guilty of the most atrocious crimes in order +that he may further his own ambition, but he is not devoid of natural +feeling. Scott says the scene in which he "is in the act of raising his +arm to murder his sleeping victim, and discovers her to be his own +child, is of a new, grand, and powerful character; and the horrors of +the wretch who, on the brink of murder, has just escaped from committing +a crime of yet more exaggerated horror, constitute the strongest +painting which has been produced by Mrs. Radcliffe's pencil, and form a +crisis well fitted to be actually embodied on canvas by some great +master." + +Every book has one or more gloomy, deep-plotting villains. But all the +people of rank bear unmistakable marks of their nobility, even when +their natures have become depraved by crime. In this she is the equal of +Scott. + +In every ruined abbey and castle there is a servant who brings in a +comic element and relieves the strained feelings. Peter, Annette, and +Paulo are all faithful but garrulous, and often bring disaster upon +their masters by overzeal in their service. + +When Vivaldi, the hero of _The Italian_, is brought before the tribunal +of the inquisition, his faithful servant, Paulo, rails bitterly at the +treatment his master has received. Vivaldi, well knowing the danger +which they both incur by too free speech, bids him speak in a whisper: + +"'A whisper,' shouted Paulo, 'I scorn to speak in a whisper. I will +speak so loud that every word I say shall ring in the ears of all those +old black devils on the benches yonder, ay, and those on that mountebank +stage, too, that sit there looking so grim and angry, as if they longed +to tear us in pieces. They--' + +"'Silence,' said Vivaldi with emphasis. 'Paulo, I command you to be +silent.' + +"'They shall know a bit of my mind,' continued Paulo, without noticing +Vivaldi. 'I will tell them what they have to expect from all their cruel +usage of my poor master. Where do they expect to go to when they die, I +wonder? Though for that matter, they can scarcely go to a worse place +than that they are in already, and I suppose it is knowing that which +makes them not afraid of being ever so wicked. They shall hear a little +plain truth for once in their lives, however; they shall hear--'" + +But by this time Paulo is dragged from the room. + +The plots of all Mrs. Radcliffe's novels are complicated. A whole skein +is knotted and must be unravelled thread by thread. _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_ is the most involved. Characters are introduced that are for a +time apparently forgotten; one sub-plot appears within another, but at +the end each is found necessary to the whole. + +_The Italian_ is simpler than the others: the plot is less involved, and +there are many strong situations. The opening sentence at once arouses +the interests of the reader: "Within the shade of the portico, a person +with folded arms, and eyes directed towards the ground, was pacing +behind the pillars the whole extent of the pavement, and was apparently +so engaged by his own thoughts as not to observe that strangers were +approaching. He turned, however, suddenly, as if startled by the sound +of steps, and then, without further pausing, glided to a door that +opened into the church, and disappeared." Another scene in which the +Marchesa Vivaldi and Schedoni are plotting the death of Ellena, is +justly famous. The former is actuated by the desire to prevent her son's +marriage to a woman of inferior rank; the latter hopes that he may gain +an influence over the powerful Marchesa that will lead to his promotion +in the church. Their conference, which takes place in the choir of the +convent of San Nicolo, is broken in upon by the faint sound of the organ +followed by slow voices chanting the first requiem for the dead. + +_The Italian_ is generally considered the strongest of Mrs. Radcliffe's +novels. It was published in 1797, and was as enthusiastically received +as were its predecessors, but for some reason it was the last book Mrs. +Radcliffe published. Neither the fame it brought her, nor the eight +hundred pounds she received for it from her publishers, tempted its +author from her life of retirement. Publicity was distasteful to her. At +the age of thirty-four, at an age when many novelists had written +nothing, she ceased from writing, and spent the rest of her years either +in travel or in the seclusion of her own home. + +The novel at this time was not considered seriously as a work of art, +and Mrs. Radcliffe may have considered that she was but trifling with +time by employing her pen in that way. In looking over the book reviews +in _The Gentlemen's Magazine_ for the years from 1790 to 1800, it is +significant that, while column after column is spent in lavish praise of +a book of medicine or science which the next generation proved to be +false, and of poetry that had no merit except that its feet could be +counted, seldom is a novel reviewed in its pages. _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_ was criticised for its lengthy descriptions, and _The Italian_ +was ignored. + +The direct influence of these novels on the literature of the nineteenth +century cannot be estimated. Mrs. Radcliffe's influence upon her +contemporaries can be more easily traced. The year after the publication +of _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ Lewis wrote _The Monk_. This has all the +horrors but none of the refined delicacy of Mrs. Radcliffe's work. +Robert Charles Maturin borrowed many suggestions from her, and the +gentle satire of _Northanger Abbey_ could never have been written if +Jane Austen had not herself come under the influence of _The Romance of +the Forest_. + +But her greatest influence was upon Scott. The four great realistic +novelists of the eighteenth century, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and +Sterne whose influence can be so often traced in Thackeray and Dickens, +seem never to have touched the responsive nature of Scott. He edited +their works and often spoke in their praise, but that which was deepest +and truest in him, which gave birth to his poetry and his novels, seems +never to have been aware of their existence. Mrs. Radcliffe and Maria +Edgewood were his most powerful teachers. + +Andrew Lang in the introduction to _Rob Roy_ in the Border edition of +the _Waverley Novels_ calls attention to the fact that Waverley, Guy +Mannering, Lovel of _The Antiquary_, and Frank Osbaldistone were all +poets. Not only these men, but others, as Edward Glendinning and Edgar +Ravenswood, bear a strong family resemblance to Theodore Peyrou, +Valancourt, and Vivaldi, as well as to some of the other less important +male characters in Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. Scott's men stand forth more +clearly drawn, while Mrs. Radcliffe's are often but dimly outlined. +Ellen Douglas, the daughter of an exiled family; the melancholy Flora +MacIvor, who whiled away her hours by translating Highland poetry into +English; Mary Avenel, dwelling in a remote castle, are all refined, +educated gentlewomen such as Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Radcliffe delighted in, +and are placed in situations similar to those in which Julia, Adeline, +and Emily are found. + +But the heroines of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Radcliffe have a quality which +not even Scott has been able to give to his women. It is expressed by a +word often used during the reign of the Georges, but since gone out of +fashion. They were women of fine sensibilities. Johnson defines this as +quickness of feeling, and it has been used to mean a quickness of +perception of the soul as distinguished from the intellect. The +sensibilities of women may not be finer than those of men, but they +respond to a greater variety of emotions. This gives to them a certain +evanescent quality which we find in Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Maggie +Tulliver, Romola, the portraits of Madame Le Brun and Angelica Kauffman, +and the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This quality men have +almost never grasped whether working with the pen or the brush. +Rosalind, Juliet, Viola, Beatrice, all possess it; and in a less degree, +Diana of the Crossways is true to her sex in this respect. But the +features of nearly every famous Madonna, no matter how skilful the +artist that painted her, are stiff and wooden when looked at from this +point of view, and Scott's heroines, with the possible exception of +Jeanie Deans, are immobile when compared with woman as portrayed by many +an inferior artist of her own sex. + +Scott's complicated plots and his constant introduction of characters +who are surrounded by mystery or are living in disguise again suggest +Mrs. Radcliffe. Again and again he selected the same scenes that had +appealed to her, and in his earlier novels and poems he filled them in +with the same details which she had chosen. Perhaps it is due to her +influence that all the hills of Scotland, as some critic has observed, +become mountains when he touches them: "The sun was nearly set behind +the distant mountain of Liddesdale" was the beginning of an early +romance to have been entitled _Thomas the Rhymer_. Knockwinnock Bay in +_The Antiquary_ is first seen at sunset, and it is night when Guy +Mannering arrives at Ellangowan Castle. Melrose is described by +moonlight. The sun as it sets in the Trossachs brings to the mind of +Scott the very outlines and colours which Mrs. Radcliffe had used in +giving the first appearance of Udolpho, a scene which Scott has highly +praised; while these famous lines of James Fitz-James have caught the +very essence of one of her favourite spots: + + On this bold brow, a lordly tower; + In that soft vale, a lady's bower; + On yonder meadow, far away, + The turrets of a cloister grey! + How blithely might the bugle horn + Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn! + How sweet, at eve, the lover's lute + Chime, when the groves were still and mute! + And, when the midnight moon should lave + Her forehead in the silver wave, + How solemn on the ear would come + The holy matin's distant hum. + +In his later works Scott is tediously prosaic in description, far +inferior to Mrs. Radcliffe, and in the romantic description of scenery +he never excels her. It would seem to be no mere chance that in his +poetry and in his earlier novels he has so often struck the same key as +did the author of _The Mysteries of Udolpho_. + + * * * * * + +Two sisters, Harriet and Sophia Lee, were writing books and finding +readers during the time of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and Mrs. +Radcliffe. In 1784, Sophia Lee published a three-volume novel, _The +Recess_, a story of the time of Queen Elizabeth, in which Elizabeth, +Mary Queen of Scots, and the earls Leicester, Norfolk, and Essex play +important rôles. The two heroines are unacknowledged daughters of Mary +Queen of Scots and Norfolk, to whom she has been secretly married during +her imprisonment in England. Many other situations in the book are +equally fictitious. + +The historical novels written in France during the reign of Louis XIV +paid no heed to chronology, but men and women whom the author knew well +were dressed in the garb of historical personages, and various periods +of the past were brought into the space of the story. _The Recess_ was +not a masquerade, but the plot and characters slightly picture the reign +of Elizabeth. This was one of the first novels in which there was an +attempt to represent a past age with something like accuracy. As this +was one of the first historical novels, using the term in the modern +sense, it had perhaps a right to be one of the poorest; for it is +impossible to conceive three volumes of print in which there are fewer +sentences that leave any impress on the mind than this once popular +novel. + +Sophia Lee wrote other novels which are said to be worse than this; but +in 1797 she and her sister Harriet, who had the greater imagination, +published _The Canterbury Tales_. Some of those written by Harriet are +excellent. According to the story a group of travellers have met at an +inn in Canterbury, where they are delayed on account of a heavy fall of +snow. To while away the weary hours of waiting, as they are gathered +about the fire in true English fashion, they agree, as did the +Canterbury pilgrims of long ago, that each one shall tell a story. But +the pilgrims whom Chaucer accompanied to the shrine of Thomas à Becket +are accurately described, and between the tales they discuss the stories +and exchange lively banter in which the nature of each speaker is +clearly revealed. In _The Canterbury Tales_ there is little +character-drawing. Any one of the stories might have been told by any +one of the narrators, and before the conclusion the authors dropped this +device. + +In the stories that are told the characters are weak, but the plots are +interesting and many of them original and clever. These _Tales_ +represent the beginning of the modern short story. + +In a preface to a complete edition of the _Tales_ published in 1832, +Harriet Lee wrote: + +"Before I finally dismiss the subject, I think I may be permitted to +observe that, when these volumes first appeared, a work bearing +distinctly the title of _Tales_, professedly adapted to different +countries, and either abruptly commencing with, or breaking suddenly +into, a sort of dramatic dialogue, was a novelty in the fiction of the +day. Innumerable _Tales_ of the same stamp, and adapted in the same +manner to all classes and all countries, have since appeared; with many +of which I presume not to compete in merit, though I think I may fairly +claim priority of design and style." + +_The Canterbury Tales_ were read and reread a long time after they were +written. A critic in _Blackwood's_ says of them: + +"They exhibit more of that species of invention which, as we have +already remarked, was never common in English literature than any of the +works of the first-rate novelists we have named, with the single +exception of Fielding." + +The most famous story of the collection is _Kruitzener, or the German's +Tale_. Part of the story is laid in Silesia during the Thirty Years' +War. Frederick Kruitzener, a Bohemian, is the hero, if such a term may +be used for so weak a man. In his youth he is thus described: + +"The splendour, therefore, which the united efforts of education, +fortune, rank, and the merits of his progenitors threw around him, was +early mistaken for a personal gift--a sort of emanation proceeding from +the lustre of his own endowments, and for which, as he believed, he was +indebted to nature, he resolved not to be accountable to man.... He was +distinguished!--he saw it--he felt it--he was persuaded he should ever +be so; and while yet a youth in the house of his father--dependent on +his paternal affection, and entitled to demand credit of the world +merely for what he was to be--he secretly looked down on that world as +made only for him." + +The tale traces the troubles which Kruitzener brings upon himself, his +misery and his death. It belongs to romantic literature; the mountain +scenes, a palace with secret doors, a secret gallery, a false friend, a +mysterious murder, all these remind us of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, but +the story does not possess her power or her poetic charm. Ernest +Hartley Coleridge said of this tale: "But the _motif_--a son predestined +to evil by the weakness and sensuality of his father, a father's +punishment for his want of rectitude by the passionate criminality of +his son, is the very key-note of tragedy." + +Byron read this story when he was about fourteen, and it affected him +powerfully. By a strange coincidence Kruitzener bears a strong +resemblance to Lord Byron himself. He was proud and melancholy, and, +while he led a life of pleasure, his spirits were always wrapped in +gloom. "It made a deep impression on me," writes Byron, "and may, +indeed, be said to contain the germ of much that I have since written." +In 1821, he dramatised it under the title of _Werner, or the +Inheritance_. The play follows the novel closely both in plot and +conversation. An editor of Byron's works wrote of it: "There is not one +incident in his play, not even the most trivial, that is not in Miss +Lee's novel. And then as to the characters--not only is every one of +them to be found in _Kruitzener_, but every one is there more fully and +powerfully developed." + +_The Landlady's Tale_ is far superior to all others in the collection, +if judged by present-day standards. This story of sin and its punishment +reminds one in its moral earnestness of George Eliot. Mr. Mandeville had +brought ruin upon a poor girl, Mary Lawson, whose own child died, when +she became the wet nurse of Robert, Mr. Mandeville's legitimate son and +heir. Mary grew to love the boy, but, when the father threatened to +expose her character unless she would continue to be his mistress, she +ran away, taking the infant with her. She became a servant in a +lodging-house in Weymouth, where she lived for fifteen years, respected +and beloved. At the end of that time, Mr. Mandeville came to the house +as a lodger, where he neither recognised Mary nor knew his son. But he +disliked Robert, and paid no heed to the fact that one of his own +servants was leading the boy into evil ways. When Robert was accused of +a crime which his own servant had committed, he saw him sent to prison +and later transported with indifference. The grief of the father when he +learned that Robert was his own child was most poignant, and his +unavailing efforts to save him are vividly told. He is left bowed with +grief, for he suffers under the double penalty of "a reproachful world +and a reproaching conscience." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Maria Edgeworth. Lady Morgan + + +"My real name is Thady Quirk, though in the family I have always been +known by no other than 'honest Thady'; afterward, in the time of Sir +Murtagh, diseased, I remember to hear them calling me 'old Thady,' and +now I'm come to 'poor Thady.'" Thus the faithful servant of the Rackrent +family introduces himself, before relating the history of the lords of +the castle, where he and his had lived rent-free time out of mind. And +what consummate art Maria Edgeworth showed in her first novel, _Castle +Rackrent_, in letting "poor Thady" ramble with all the garrulity of old +age. To him, who had never been farther than a day's tramp from the +castle, there was nothing in the world's history but it and its owners. +No servant but an Irish servant could have told the story as he did, +judging the characters of his masters with shrewd wit and relating their +worst failings with a "God bless them." + +And where out of Ireland could Thady have found such masters, ready to +spend all they had and another man's too, happy and free, and dying as +merrily as they had lived! There was Sir Patrick, who, as Thady tells +us, "could sit out the best man in Ireland, let alone the three +kingdoms"; Sir Kit, who married a Jewess for her money; and Sir Condy, +who signed away the estate rather than be bothered to look into his +steward's accounts, and then feigned that he was dead that he might hear +what his friends said of him at the wake. But he soon came to life, and +a merry time they had of it. "But to my mind," says Thady, "Sir Condy +was rather upon the sad order in the midst of it all, not finding there +was such a great talk about himself after his death, as he had expected +to hear." But Thady loved his master, and it is with genuine grief that +he records his ultimate death, and with simple and unconscious wit he +adds, "He had but a very poor funeral after all." + +In _The Absentee_, the manners and customs of the Irish peasants are +more broadly delineated than in _Castle Rackrent_. _The Absentee_ was +written to call the attention of the Irish landlords who were living in +England to the wretched condition of their tenants left in the power of +unscrupulous stewards. Lord Colambre, the son of Lord Clonbrony, an +absentee, visits his father's estates, which he has not seen for many +years, in disguise, and goes among the peasants, many of whom are in +abject poverty. But the quick generosity of the nation speaks in the +poor Widow O'Neil's "Kindly welcome, sir," with which she opens the door +to the unknown lord, and its enthusiastic loyalty in the joyful +acclamations of the peasants when he reveals himself to them,--a scene +which Macaulay has pronounced the finest in literature since the +twenty-second book of the _Odyssey_. + +_Ennui_ is another of her stories of Irish life, in which the supposed +Earl of Glenthorn, after a long residence in England, returns to his +Irish estates. The heroine of this tale is the old nurse, Ellinor +O'Donoghoe. As the nurses of many stories are said to have done, she had +substituted her own child for the rightful heir, and was frantic with +joy when she saw him the master of Glenthorn Castle. Her devotion to the +earl is pathetic, and her secret fears of the deception she had +practised on the old earl may have prompted her strange speech that, if +it pleased God, she would like to die on Christmas Day, of all days, +"because the gates of heaven will be open all that day; and who knows +but a body might slip in unbeknownst?" Ellinor is a woman of many +virtues and many failings, but she is always pure Celt. + +How well contrasted are the two cousins, friends of Ormond, Sir Ulick +O'Shane, a wily politician and a member of Parliament, and Mr. +Cornelius O'Shane, King of the Black Islands, called by his dependents +King Corny. The latter, bluff, generous, brave, open as the day, is yet +a match for his crafty kinsman. Sir Ulick's visit to King Corny is a +masterpiece. He has a purpose in his visit and a secret to guard, which +King Corny is watching to discover. Sir Ulick has been bantering his +kinsman on the old-fashioned customs observed on his estate and +ridicules his method of ploughing: + +"'Your team, I see, is worthy of your tackle,' pursued Sir Ulick. 'A +mule, a bull, and two lean horses. I pity the foremost poor devil of a +horse, who must starve in the midst of plenty, while the horse, bull, +and even mule, in a string behind him, are all plucking and munging away +at their hay ropes.' + +"Cornelius joined in Sir Ulick's laugh, which shortened its duration. + +"''Tis comical ploughing, I grant,' said he, 'but still, to my fancy, +anything's better and more profitable nor the tragi-comic ploughing you +practise every sason in Dublin.' + +"'I?' said Sir Ulick. + +"'Ay, you and all your courtiers, ploughing the half-acre, continually +pacing up and down that castle-yard, while you're waiting in attendance +there. Every one to his own taste, but, + + "'If there's a man on earth I hate, + Attendance and dependence be his fate.'" + +King Corny has been studying his diplomatic kinsman carefully to learn +his secret, until the wily politician, by unnecessary caution in +guarding it, overreaches himself, when King Corny exclaims to himself: + +"Woodcocked! That he has, as I foresaw he would." + +While the trained diplomat murmurs as he takes his leave, "All's safe." + +Native wit had got the better of artful cunning. + +And when Sir Ulick dies in disgrace, how pithy is the remark of one of +the men, as he is filling in the grave: + +"There lies the making of an excellent gentleman--but the cunning of his +head spoiled the goodness of his heart." + +In the same book, how generous and how Irish is Moriarty, lying on the +brink of death, as he thinks of Ormond, who had shot him in a fit of +passion but bitterly repented his rash deed: + +"I'd live through all, if possible, for his sake, let alone my +mudther's, or shister's or my own--'t would be too bad, after all the +trouble he got these two nights, to be dying at last, and hanting him, +maybe, whether I would or no." + +The quick kindness which so often twists an Irishman's tongue is +humorously illustrated in the _Essay on Irish Bulls_, which Maria +Edgeworth and her father wrote together. Mr. Phelim O'Mooney, disguised +as Sir John Bull, accepts his brother's wager that he cannot remain four +days in England without the country of his birth being discovered eight +times. Whenever his speech betrays him, it is the result of his +emotions. When he sees Bourke, a pugilist of his own country, overcome +by an Englishman, he cries to him excitedly: "How are you, my gay +fellow? Can you see at all with the eye that is knocked out?" A little +later, in discussing a certain impost duty, he grows angry and exclaims: +"If I had been the English minister, I would have laid the dog-tax upon +cats." The humour of his situation increases to a climax, so that the +fun never flags. Such stories as this in which the wit is simply +sparkling good-nature, with no attempt to use it as a weapon against +frail humanity as did Fielding and Thackeray, or to produce a smile by +exaggeration as did Dickens, but simply bubbling fun, as free from guile +as the sun's laughter on Killarney, show that Miss Edgeworth was a +comedian of the first rank. Like all true comedians, she is also strong +in the pathetic, but it is the Irish pathos, in which there is ever a +smile amid the tears. This is found in the story of the return of Lady +Clonbrony to her own country; the fall of Castle Rackrent; and the ruin +by their sudden splendour of the family of Christy O'Donoghoe. + +Whenever Miss Edgeworth writes of Ireland and its people, her pages glow +with the inspiration of genius. There is no exaggeration, no caricature; +all is told with simple truth. It has often been the fate of novelists +whose aim has been to depict the manners and customs of a locality to +win the ill-will of the obscure people they have brought into +prominence. But not so with Maria Edgeworth. Her family, although +originally English, had been settled for two hundred years in Ireland. +She loved the country and always wrote of it with a loving pen. Before +_Castle Rackrent_ was written, Ireland had been for many centuries an +outcast in literature, known only for her blunders and bulls. But, as +one of her characters says, "An Irish bull is always of the head, never +of the heart." Even though her characters are humorous, they are never +clowns. All the men have dignity, and all the women grace. She gave them +a respectable place in literature. + +But her influence was felt outside of Ireland. Old Thady, in his +garrulous description of the masters of Castle Rackrent, had introduced +the first national novel, in which the avowed object is to represent +traits of national character. Patriotic writers in other countries +learned through her how to serve their own land, and she was one of the +many influences which led to the writing of the Waverley novels. Scott +says in the preface of these books: + +"Without being so presumptuous as to hope to emulate the rich humour, +pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact which pervade the work of my +accomplished friend, I felt that something might be attempted for my own +country, of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately +achieved for Ireland--something which might introduce her natives to +those of the sister kingdom in a more favourable light than they had +been placed hitherto, and tend to procure sympathy for their virtues and +indulgence for their foibles." + +As the reader realises the power of Maria Edgeworth's mind, her ability +to describe manners and customs, to read character, and to depict comic +and tragic scenes, he wishes that her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, +had not so constantly interfered in her work, and insisted that every +book she wrote must illustrate some principle of education. He was not +singular in this respect. Rousseau, whom he greatly admired at one time, +had taught educational methods by a novel. Madame de Genlis, the teacher +of Louis Philippe, was writing novels that were celebrated throughout +Europe, in which she expounded rules for the training of the young. +Maria Edgeworth, with her father at her elbow, never lost sight of the +moral of her tale. Vivian, in the story of that name, was so weak that +he was always at the mercy of the artful. Ormond's passions led him into +trouble. Beauclerc was almost ruined by his foolish generosity. Lady +Delacour, with no object in life but pleasure, cast aside her own +happiness that she might outshine the woman she hated. Lady Clonbrony +squandered her fortune and health that she might be snubbed by her +social superiors. Mrs. Beaumont played a deep diplomatic game in her +small circle of friends, and finally overreached herself. Lady Cecilia, +the friend of Helen, brought sorrow to her and infamy upon herself by +her duplicity. In the analysis of motive, and the growth of Cecilia's +wrong-doing from a small beginning, the book resembles the novels of +George Eliot. But Maria Edgeworth could not know her own characters as +she otherwise would, because the moral was always uppermost. When Mrs. +Inchbald criticised her novel _Patronage_, she replied: "Please to +recollect, we had our moral to work out." Mr. Edgeworth, in his preface +to _Tales of Fashionable Life_, thus sets forth his daughter's purpose: + +"It has been my daughter's aim to promote by all her works the progress +of education from the cradle to the grave. All the parts of this series +of moral fiction bear upon the faults and excellencies of different +ages and classes; and they have all risen from that view of society +which we have laid before the public in more didactic works on +education." + +Such a method of writing tended to kill emotion, yet emotion breaks out +at times with genuine force, and always has a true ring. This is +especially true in the _Tales of Fashionable Life_. There society women +appear cold and heartless in the drawing-room, and so they have +generally been represented in fiction. So Thackeray regarded them. But +Maria Edgeworth followed them to the boudoir, and there reveals beneath +the laces and jewels many beautiful womanly traits. As we see in tale +after tale true feeling welling to the surface, and then choked up by +the moral, we recognise the pathetic truth that Mr. Edgeworth's +educational methods were fatal to genius. + +But strong emotion sways only a small part of the lives of most men and +women. Were it otherwise, like the great lyric poets, we should all die +young. And she has written about the common, everyday, prosaic life with +a truthfulness rarely excelled. + +One of the most interesting studies in a novel is to observe the +author's view of life. With the exception of those of Mademoiselle De +Scudéri nearly all the novels of French women considered love as the +ruling passion for happiness or woe, and all of the characters were +under its sway. Even Mademoiselle De Scudéri in the preface to _Ibrahim_ +announced it as her distinct purpose that all her heroes were to be +ruled by the two most sublime passions, love and ambition; but she was a +humorist and unconsciously interested her readers more by her witty +descriptions of people than by the loves of Cyrus and Mandane. But this +passion has seldom held such an exaggerated place in the stories of +English women. Maria Edgeworth in particular noticed that men and women +were actuated by many motives or passions. A large income or a title was +often capable of inspiring a feeling so akin to love that even the bosom +that felt its glow was unable to distinguish the difference. Loss of +respect could kill the strongest passion, and some of her heroines have +even remained single, or else married men whom at first they had +regarded with indifference, rather than marry the object of their first +love after he had forfeited their esteem. Sometimes the tameness of her +heroines shocked their author. While correcting _Belinda_ for Mrs. +Barbauld's "Novelists' Library," Miss Edgeworth wrote to a friend: + +"I really was so provoked with the cold tameness of that stick or stone +Belinda, that I could have torn the pages out." + +Propinquity, opportunity, almost a mental suggestion are quite enough +to produce a long chain of events affecting a lifetime. "Ask half the +men you are acquainted with why they are married, and their answer, if +they speak the truth, will be, 'Because I met Miss Such-a-One at such a +place, and we were continually together.' 'Propinquity, propinquity,' as +my father used to say, and he was married five times, and twice to +heiresses." So speaks Mrs. Broadhurst, a match-making mother in _The +Absentee_. And this is the reason why most of Miss Edgeworth's heroes +and heroines love. But the advances of a designing woman are quite +sufficient, as in _Vivian_, to make a fond lover forget his plighted +troth to another, and the flattery of an unscrupulous man makes him +suspicious of his real friends. Character is destiny, if the character +is strong, but circumstances are destiny, if the character is weak. It +is the aim of her novels to show how certain traits of character, as +indecision, pride, love of luxury, indolence, lead to misfortune, and +how these dangerous traits may be overcome. + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding her moral, her plots are never hackneyed and never +repeated. They are drawn from life and have the variety of life. In the +story of _Ennui_, there is the twice-told tale of the nurse's son +substituted for the real heir; but when he learns the true story of his +birth, and resigns the castle, the title, and all its wealth to the +rightful Earl of Glenthorn, who has been living in the village working +at the forge, there is a great change from the usual story. The heir of +the ancient family of Glenthorn accepts the earldom for his son, but +with reluctance. The manners of the peasant remain with the earl, and +the poor man, at last, begs the one who has been educated for the +position to accept the title and the estates. In this she emphasised +again what she constantly taught, that education and environment are +more powerful than heredity. + +As she taught that reason should be the guide of life, so she lived. Her +fourscore years and three were spent largely at her ancestral home of +Edgeworthstown. She assisted her father in making improvements to better +the condition of the tenantry, and to promote their happiness. When in +Paris, she met a Mr. Edelcrantz, a gentleman in the service of the king +of Sweden. Admiration was succeeded by love. But he could not leave the +court at Stockholm, and Miss Edgeworth felt that neither duty nor +inclination would permit her to leave her quiet life in Ireland. Reason +was stronger than love. So they parted like her own heroes and heroines. +All that history records of him is that he never married. She resumed +her responsibilities at home, and if the thought of this separation +sometimes brought the tears to her eyes, as her stepmother once wrote +to a friend, she was as cheerful, gay, and light-hearted in the home +circle as she had always been. + + * * * * * + +Besides her moral tales for adults, which were read throughout Europe, +Maria Edgeworth was always interested in the education of boys and +girls. The eldest sister in a family of twenty-one children, the +offspring of four marriages, she taught her younger brothers and +sisters, and thus grew to know intimately the needs of childhood and +what stories would appeal to them. As her father wrote, it was her "aim +to promote by all her works the progress of education from the cradle to +the grave." In her stories for children she inculcated lessons of +industry, economy, thoughtfulness, and unselfishness. + +If she helped to eradicate from the novel its false, highly colored +sentimental pictures of life, still greater was her work in producing +literature for young people. Hers were among the first wholesome stories +written for children. Before this the chapman had carried about with him +in his pack small paper-covered books which warned boys and girls of the +dangers of a life of crime. One book was named _An hundred godly lessons +which a mother on her death-bed gave to her children_. Another book of +religious and moral Sunday reading was called _The Afflicted Parent, or +the Undutiful Child Punished_. This gives the sad history of the two +children of a gentleman in Chester, a son and a daughter. The daughter +chided her brother for his wickedness, upon which he struck her and +killed her. He was hanged for this, but even then his punishment was not +completed. He came back to life, told the minister several wicked deeds +which he had committed, and was hanged a second time. In most of these +tales the gallows loomed dark and threatening. + + * * * * * + +In contrast to these morbid tales are the wholesome stories of Maria +Edgeworth. The boys and girls about whom she writes are drawn from life. +If they are bad, their crimes are never enormous, but simply a yielding +to the common temptations of childhood. Hal, in _Waste Not, Want Not_, +thinks economy beneath a gentleman's notice, and at last loses a prize +in an archery contest for lack of a piece of string which he had +destroyed. Fisher in _The Barring Out_, a cowardly boy, buys twelve buns +for himself with a half-crown which belonged to his friend, and then +gives a false account of the money. His punishment is expulsion from the +school. Lazy Lawrence has a worse fate. He will not work, plays pitch +farthing, is led by bad companions to steal, and is sent to Bridewell. +But he is not left in a hopeless condition. After he had served his term +of imprisonment he became remarkable for his industry. + +But there are more good boys and girls than bad ones in her stories. The +love of children for their parents, and the sacrifices they will make +for those they love, are beautifully told. In the story of _The +Orphans_, Mary, a girl of twelve, finds a home for her brothers and +sisters, after her father and mother die, in the ruins of Rossmore +Castle, where they support themselves by their labour. Mary finds that +she can make shoes of cloth with soles of platted hemp, and by this +industry the children earn enough for all their needs. As directions are +given for making these shoes, any little girl reading the story would +know how to follow the example of Mary. Jem in the story of _Lazy +Lawrence_ finds that there are many ways by which he can earn the two +guineas without which his horse Lightfoot must be sold. He works early +and late, and at last accomplishes his purpose. + +Mrs. Ritchie says of this story: "Lightfoot deserves to take his humble +place among the immortal winged steeds of mythology along with Pegasus, +or with Black Bess, or Balaam's Ass, or any other celebrated steeds." + +The story of _Simple Susan_ with its pictures of village life has the +charm of an idyl. The children by the hawthorn bush choosing their May +Queen; Susan with true heroism refusing this honour, in order that she +may care for her sick mother; the incident of the guinea-hen; Rose's +love for Susan; the old harper, playing tunes to the children grouped +about him--are all simply told. Susan's love for her pet lamb reminds +one of Wordsworth's poem of that name. + +And yet these children are not unusual. Most boys and girls have days +when they are as good as Mary, or Jem, or Susan. Maria Edgeworth is not +inculcating virtues which are impossible of attainment. + +A hundred years ago, these stories, as they came from the pen of Maria +Edgeworth, delighted boys and girls, and for at least fifty years were +read by parents and children. Then for a time they were hidden in +libraries, but a collection of them has lately been edited by Mr. +Charles Welsh under the appropriate title _Tales that never Die_, which +have proved as interesting to the children of to-day as to those of +by-gone generations. + +Whether Maria Edgeworth is writing for old or young, there is one marked +trait in all her stories, her kind feeling for all humanity. The vices +of her villains are recorded in a tone of sorrow. She seldom uses +satire; never "makes fun" of her characters. Her attitude towards them +is that of the lady of Edgeworthstown towards her dependents, or rather +that of the elder sister towards the younger members of the family. Such +broad and loving sympathy is found in Shakespeare and Scott, but seldom +among lesser writers. + + * * * * * + +In Sydney Owenson, better known by her married name of Lady Morgan, +Ireland found at this time another warm but less judicious friend. Her +life was more interesting than her books. Her father, an Irish actor, +introduced his daughter, while yet a child, to his associates, so that +she appeared in society at an early age. But Mr. Owenson was +improvident; debts accumulated, and Sydney at the age of fourteen began +to earn her own living. The position of a governess, which she filled +for a time, being unsuited to her gay, independent disposition, she +began to write. Like Johnson a half century or more earlier, with a play +in manuscript as her most valuable possession, she went alone to London. +She did not wait so long as he did for recognition. New books by new +authors were eagerly read. She earned money, a social position, fame, +and with it some disagreeable notoriety. An independent, witty Irish +woman of great charm, fearless in expressing her opinions, who had +introduced herself into society and for whom nobody stood as sponsor, +was looked upon by the old-fashioned English aristocracy as an +adventuress; and later, when she came forth as the champion of Irish +liberties, and upbraided England for tyranny, she was maliciously +denounced by the Tory party. + +She entered upon life with three purposes, to each of which she adhered: +to advocate the interest of Ireland by her writings; to pay her father's +debts; and to provide for his old age. All of these purposes she +accomplished. + +Besides plays and poems, and two or three insignificant stories, she +wrote four novels upon Irish subjects: _The Wild Irish Girl_, +_O'Donnel_, _Florence Macarthy_, and _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_. +In all these books the beauty of Irish scenery is depicted as +background; the fashionable life of Dublin is described, as well as the +peasant life in remote hamlets; while the natural resources of the land +and the native gaiety of the Celtic temperament are feelingly contrasted +with the poverty and misery brought about by unjust laws. + +She thus feelingly describes the condition of Ireland in the novel +_O'Donnel_. Its sincerity must excuse its overwrought style: "Silence +and oblivion hung upon her destiny, and in the memory of other nations +she seemed to hold no place; but the first bolt which was knocked off +her chain roused her from paralysis, and, as link fell after link, her +faculties strengthened, her powers revived; she gradually rose upon the +political horizon of Europe, like her own star brightening in the west, +and lifting its light above the fogs, vapours, and clouds, which +obscured its lustre. The traveller now beheld her from afar, and her +shores, once so devoutly pressed by the learned, the pious, and the +brave, again exhibited the welcome track of the stranger's foot. The +natural beauties of the land were again explored and discovered, and +taste and science found the reward of their enterprise and labours in a +country long depicted as savage, because it had long been exposed to +desolation and neglect." + +In this book a party of travellers visits the Giant's Causeway and its +scenery is described as an almost unfrequented place. + +The new interest in Ireland of which she writes was very largely due to +the novels of Maria Edgeworth, and partly to those of Lady Morgan +herself. + +Her last novel, _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_, is of historic +value. Its plot was furnished by the stirring events which took place +when the Society of United Irishmen were fighting for parliamentary +reforms. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the devoted patriot, is easily +recognised in the brave Lord Walter Fitzwalter, and the life of Thomas +Corbet furnished the thrilling adventures of the hero, Lord Arranmore. +When Thomas Moore visited Thomas Corbet at Caen he referred to the +account given of his escape from prison in Lady Morgan's novel as +remarkably accurate in its details. + +The style of Miss Owenson's earlier books was execrable and fully +justified the severe criticism in the first number of the _Quarterly +Review_. It gives this quotation from _Ida, or the Woman of Athens_: +"Like Aurora, the extremities of her delicate limbs were rosed with +flowing hues, and her little foot, as it pressed its naked beauty on a +scarlet cushion, resembled that of a youthful Thetis from its blushing +tints, or that of a fugitive Atalanta from its height." The wonder is +that any serious magazine should have wasted two pages of space upon +such nonsense. In ridiculing the book and the author, it gives her some +serious advice, with the encouragement that if she follow it, she may +become, not a writer of novels, but the happy mistress of a family. + +Whether Lady Morgan took this ill-meant advice or not, her style +improved with each book, until in _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_ it +became simple and clear, with only an occasional tendency to high +colouring and bombast. + +Maria Edgeworth has described the customs and manners of Ireland, and +unfolded the character of its people in a manner that has never been +equalled. But Lady Morgan, far inferior as an artist, has given fuller +and more picturesque descriptions of the landscape of the country, and +has made a valuable addition to the books bearing on the history of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Elizabeth Hamilton. Anna Porter. Jane Porter + + +Elizabeth Hamilton was also an Irish writer, but through her one novel +she will always be associated with Scotland. In _The Cottagers of +Glenburnie_ she did for the Scotch people what Maria Edgeworth had done +for the Irish, and represented for the first time in fiction the life of +the common people. It is a story of poor people of the serving class. +Mrs. Mason, who had been an upper servant in the family of a lord, has +been pensioned and takes up her abode with a cousin in the village of +Glenburnie. She was among the earliest of our settlement workers. This +little village with the pretty name, situated in a beautiful country, +had accumulated about its homes as much filth as the tenements of the +poorest ward of a large city, and for the same reason, that its +inhabitants did not understand the value of cleanliness. Its thatched +cottages, had it not been for their chimneys and the smoke issuing from +them, would have passed for stables or hog-sties, for there was a +dunghill in front of every door. + +Mrs. MacClarty's cottage, where Mrs. Mason was to live, was like all the +rest. It was as dirty inside as out. Mrs. MacClarty picked up a cloth +from the floor beside her husband's boots, with which to wipe her +dishes, and made her cheese in a kettle which had not been washed since +the chickens had eaten their last meal from it, although the remains of +their feast still adhered to the sides. When Mrs. MacClarty put her +black hands into the cheese to stir it, Mrs. Mason reminded her gently +that she had not washed them: + +"'Hoot,' returned the gudewife, 'my hands do weel eneugh. I canna be +fash'd to clean them at ilka turn.'" + +When Mrs. Mason proposed that the windows should be hung on hinges and +supplied with iron hooks, so that they could be opened at pleasure, Mr. +MacClarty objected to the plan: + +"'And wha do you think wad put in the cleek?' returned he. 'Is there +ane, think ye, aboot this hoose, that would be at sic a fash?' + +"'Ilka place has just its ain gait,' said the gudewife, 'and ye needna +think that ever we'll learn yours. And, indeed, to be plain wi' you, +cusine, I think you hae owre mony fykes. There, didna ye keep Grizzy for +mair than twa hours, yesterday morning, soopin' and dustin' your room +in every corner, an' cleanin' out the twa bits of buird, that are for +naething but to set your foot on after a'?'" + +It may be well to explain that the chickens had been roosting in this +chamber before Mrs. Mason's arrival. + +The story of Mr. MacClarty's death is pathetic. He is lying ill with a +fever in the press-bed in the kitchen, where not a breath of air reaches +him. The neighbours have crowded in to offer sympathy. The doors are +tightly closed, and his wife has piled blankets over him and given him +whiskey and hot water to drink. When Mrs. Mason, who knows that with +proper care his life can be saved, urges that he be removed to her room +where he can have air, all the neighbours violently oppose her advice. +But Peter MacGlashon, the oracle of the village, looks at it more +philosophically: + +"'If it's the wull o' God that he's to dee, it's a' ane whar ye tak him; +ye canna hinder the wull o' God.'" + +But upon Mrs. Mason's insisting that we should do our best to save the +life of the sick with the reason God has given us, Peter becomes +alarmed: + +"'That's no soond doctrine,' exclaimed Peter. 'It's the law of works.'" + +Elizabeth Hamilton had been a teacher and had written books on +education, so that her description of the school which Mrs. Mason +opened in the village gives an accurate idea of the Scottish schools for +the poorer classes. Each class was divided into landlord, tenants, and +under-tenants, one order being responsible for a specific amount of +reading and writing to the order above it. The landlord was responsible +to the master both for his own diligence and the diligence of his +vassals. If the tenants disobeyed the laws they were tried by a jury of +their mates. The results of the training at Mrs. Mason's school might +well be an aim of teachers to-day: "To have been educated at the school +of Glenburnie implied a security for truth, diligence and honesty." + +The pupils in the school gradually learned to love cleanliness and +order. The little flower-garden in front gave pleasure to all. The +villagers declared, "The flowers are a hantel bonnier than the midden +and smell a hantel sweeter, too." With this improvement in taste, the +"gude auld gaits" gave way to a better order of things. + +_The Cottagers of Glenburnie_ is more realistic in detail than anything +which had yet been written. It is a short simple story told in simple +language. There is a slight plot, but it is the village upon which our +attention is fastened. One individual stands out more strongly than the +rest: that is Mrs. MacClarty with her constant expression, "It is well +eneugh. I canna be fashed." + +This little book was read in every Scotch village, and many of the poor +people saw in it a picture of their own homes. But its sound +common-sense appealed to them. It was reasonable that butter without +hairs would sell for more than with them, and that gardens without weeds +would produce more vegetables than when so encumbered. The book did for +the cottagers of Scotland what Mrs. Mason had done for those of +Glenburnie. + + * * * * * + +The lives of Anna Maria and Jane Porter resemble in a few particulars +that of Elizabeth Hamilton. Like her they belonged, at least on the +father's side, to Ireland, and like her they lived in Scotland, and +their names will always be associated with that country. But Elizabeth +Hamilton wrote the first novel of Scotland's poor, the ancestor of _The +Window in Thrums_ and _Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush_; Jane Porter wrote +the first novel of Scotland's kings, the immediate forerunner of +_Waverley_, _The Abbot_, and _The Monastery_. + +Upon the death of Major Porter, who had been stationed for some years +with his regiment at Durham, Mrs. Porter removed to Edinburgh, where her +children were educated. Their quick lively imaginations found food for +growth on Scottish soil. At that time Caledonia was a land of cliff and +crag, inhabited by a quarrelsome people, whom the English still regarded +with something the same aversion which Dr. Johnson had so often +expressed to Boswell. But every castle had its story of brave knights +and fair ladies, and every brae had been the scene of renowned deeds of +arms. In every cottage the memory of the past was kept alive, and +fathers and mothers related to their children stories of Wallace and of +Bruce, until the romantic past became more real than the living present. +Mrs. Porter's servants delighted to relate to her eager children stories +of Scotland's glory. The maids would sing to them the songs of "Wallace +wight," and the serving-man would tell them tales of Bannockburn and +Cambus-Kenneth. + +Rarely have stories fallen on such fertile soil. In a short time, three +of these children became famous. Sir Robert Ker Porter, the brother of +Anna and Jane, followed closely in the footsteps of Scotland's heroes, +and became distinguished as a soldier and diplomat, as well as a famous +painter of battles. He painted the enormous canvas of _The Storming of +Seringapatam_, a sensational panorama, one hundred and twenty feet in +length, the first of its kind, but in a style that has often been +followed in recent years. The idol of his family, it would seem that he +was endowed with many of those qualities which his sisters gave to the +heroes of their romances. + +Anna Maria Porter, the youngest of the group, was the first to appear in +print. At the age of fifteen, she published a little volume called +_Artless Tales_. From this time until her death, at least every two +years a new book from her pen was announced. She wrote a large number of +historical romances, which were widely read and translated into many +languages. This kind of story, in the hands of Sophia Lee, was tame and +uninteresting. Anna Porter increased its scope and its popularity. Her +plots are well worked out with many thrilling adventures. Her +imagination, however, had been quickened by reading, not by observation, +and although her scenes cover many countries of Europe and many periods +of history, they differ but little in pictorial detail, and her +characters are lifeless. Her style of writing is, moreover, so inflated +that it gives an air of unreality to her books. + +She thus describes the Hungarian brothers: "They were, indeed, perfect +specimens of the loveliness of youth and the magnificence of manhood." +This novel, dealing with the French Revolution, was one of the most +popular of all her stories. It went through several editions both in +England and on the continent. Superlative expressions seem to have been +fashionable in that age which was still encumbered by much that was +artificial in dress and manners. Miss Porter with proper formality thus +writes of her heroine as she was recovering from a fainting fit: "With a +blissful shiver, Ippolita slowly unclosed her eyes, and turning them +round, with such a look as we may imagine blessed angels cast, when +awakening amid the raptures of another world, she met those of her sweet +and gracious uncle." + +Some of her society novels are witty and have a lively style, which +suggests the truth of Mr. S. C. Hall's description of the sisters. Anna, +a blonde, handsome and gay, he named L'Allegro, in contrast to Jane, a +brunette, equally handsome, but with the dignified manners of the +heroines of her own romances, whom he styled Il Penseroso. + + * * * * * + +Jane Porter took a more serious view of the responsibilities of +authorship than her sister. Her first novel, _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, was +written while England was agitated against France and excited over the +wrongs of Poland. It grew out of popular feeling. Miss Porter had become +acquainted with friends of Kosciusko, men who had taken part with him in +his country's struggle for liberty, and made him the hero of the story. +The scenery of Poland was so well described that the Poles refused to +believe that she had not visited their country; and events were related +in a manner so pleasing to them that they distinguished the author by +many honours. It is one thing to write an historical novel of people and +events that have long been buried in oblivion; but to write a story of +times so near the present that its chief actors are still living, is, +indeed, a rash task. And for any history to meet with the approval of +its hero and his friends bespeaks rare excellence in the work. + +In the light of the classic standing of the historical novel, due to the +genius of Scott and Dumas, it is interesting to read how _Thaddeus of +Warsaw_ came to be published. Miss Porter wrote the romance merely for +her own amusement, with no thought of its being read outside the circle +of her family and intimate friends. They urged her to publish it. But +for a long time she resisted their importunities on the ground that it +did not belong to any known style of writing: stories of real life, like +_Tom Jones_, or improbable romances, like _The Mysteries of Udolpho_, +were the only legitimate forms of fiction. _Thaddeus of Warsaw_ had the +exact details of history with a romance added to please the author's +fancy. Thus did Jane Porter discover to the world the possibilities of +the historical novel. + +Her next novel, _The Scottish Chiefs_, grew out of the stories she had +heard in her childhood. Besides the tales of Scotland's struggle for +independence which she heard from the servants in her own home, a +venerable old woman called Luckie Forbes, who lived not far from Mrs. +Porter's house, used to tell her of the wonderful deeds of William +Wallace. Of the influence these stories had upon her childish mind, Jane +Porter has thus written: + +"I must avow, that to Luckie Forbes's familiar, and even endearing, +manner of narrating the lives of William Wallace and his dauntless +followers; her representation of their heart-sacrifices for the good of +their country, filling me with an admiration and a reverential +amazement, like her own; and calling forth my tears and sobs, when she +told of the deaths of some, and of the cruel execution of the virtuous +leader of them all;--to her I must date my early and continued +enthusiasm in the character of Sir William Wallace! and in the friends +his truly hero-soul delighted to honour." + +Before writing _The Scottish Chiefs_, Miss Porter read everything she +could find bearing upon the history of England and Scotland during the +reigns of the first two Edwards. She personally visited the places she +described. She wrote in the preface: "I assure the reader that I seldom +lead him to any spot in Scotland whither some written or oral testimony +respecting my hero had not previously conducted myself." Besides these +sources of information, Miss Porter was familiar with the poem of +_Wallace_ by Blind Harry the Minstrel, the biographer of Scotland's +national hero. Blind Harry lived nearly two centuries after the death of +Wallace, but he had access to books now lost, and collected stories +about Scotland's struggle for independence while it was still prominent +in the public mind. Although he tells many exalted stories of the +numbers whom Wallace overcame by his single arm, the poem is on the +whole authentic. Sheriff Mackay in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_ writes that the life of Wallace by Blind Harry "became the +secular bible of his countrymen, and echoes through their later +history." Miss Porter introduced love scenes to vary the deeds of war, +but there is nothing else in _The Scottish Chiefs_ which is not true to +history, or to that more legitimate source of romance, the traditions +common among the people. + +From the opening chapter, in which Wallace is described as an outlaw +because he had refused to take the oath of allegiance to an English +king, to his death in London and the final crowning of Bruce, there is +not a dull page. Especially interesting is the scene between William +Wallace and the Earl of Carrick, after the battle of Falkirk, and the +appearance of Robert Bruce, who overheard this conversation, fighting by +the side of Wallace. The truth of this incident has been denied, but it +is related by Blind Harry. The trial of William Wallace in the great +hall at Westminster for treason, and his defence that he had never +acknowledged the English government, is most impressive, and is a matter +of record. + +_The Scottish Chiefs_ is the first historical novel in which the author +made diligent research in order to give a truthful representation of the +times. It has the atmosphere of feudal days. Notwithstanding the +ridicule cast upon Wallace as a lady's hero, he is drawn in heroic +proportions. Miss Mitford declared that she scarcely knew "one _herós de +roman_ whom it is possible to admire, except Wallace in Miss Porter's +story." The work is written in the style of the old epics. The many +puerile attempts of the last few years to write an historical romance in +which Washington or Lincoln should figure have shown how difficult is +the task. How weak and commonplace have these great men appeared in +fiction! It requires a nature akin to the heroic to draw it. In 1810, +when it was published, _The Scottish Chiefs_ was the only great +historical romance. Four years later _Waverley_ was published, the first +of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. This was superior in imagination and +in craftsmanship to Miss Porter's novel, but not in interest. _The +Scottish Chiefs_ has since been excelled by many others of the Waverley +novels, though not by all, by _Henry Esmond_, and _A Tale of Two +Cities_, but it preceded all these in time, and still holds a place as a +classic of the second rank. + +Critics of to-day smile at its enthusiastic style, but Miss Porter +speaks with no more enthusiasm than did the poor folk from whom she +heard the story. As long as enthusiastic youth loves an unblemished +hero, _The Scottish Chiefs_ will be read. It is impossible to analyse +these early impressions or to test their truth. One can only remember +them with gratitude. Jane Porter has, however, taught the youth of other +lands to reverence Scotland's popular hero, so that the mention of his +name awakens a thrill of pleasure, and the hills and glades associated +with his deeds glow with the light of romance. + +In 1815, Jane Porter wrote a third historical novel, _The Pastor's +Fireside_. This is far inferior to _The Scottish Chiefs_. It has the +same elevated style, and the mystery which surrounds the hero awakens +and holds the attention. But the novel deals with the later Stuarts, and +one feels that the author herself was but little interested in the +historical events about which she was writing. The book has no abiding +qualities. + +In 1832 was published a book bearing the title _Sir Edward Seaward's +Narrative of His Shipwreck and Consequent Discovery of certain Islands +in the Caribbean Sea, with a Detail of many extraordinary and highly +interesting Events in his Life from the year 1733 to 1749 as written in +his Own Diary. Edited by Jane Porter._ In the preface Miss Porter +explains how the manuscript was given to her by the relatives of Sir +Edward. The story reads like a second Robinson Crusoe. It has all the +minute details that give an air of verisimilitude to the writings of +Defoe. In the opening chapter, Edward Seaward supposedly gives this +account of himself: + +"Born of loyal and honest parents, whose means were just sufficient to +give a common education to their children, I have neither to boast of +pedigree nor of learning; yet they bequeathed to me a better +inheritance--a stout constitution, a peaceable disposition, and a proper +sense of what is due to my superiors and equals; for such an inheritance +I am grateful to God, and to them." + +In the story he is married to a woman of his own rank, and she embarks +with him for Jamaica, but they are shipwrecked on an island near Lat. 14 +deg. 30 min. N. and Long. 81 deg. W. They find bags of money hidden on +the island, some negroes come to them, and a schooner is driven to +their haven. Edward sees in this a purpose which afterward is fulfilled. +He says to his wife: "I should be the most ungrateful of men, to the +good God who has bestowed all this on me, if I did not feel that this +money, so wonderfully delivered into my hands, was for some special +purpose of stewardship. The providential arrival of the poor castaway +negroes, and then of the schooner,--all--all working together to give us +the means of providing every comfort, towards planting a colony of +refuge in that blessed haven of our own preservation,--seem to me, in +solemn truth, as so many signs from the Divine Will, that it is our duty +to fulfil a task allotted to us, in that long unknown island." + +This island becomes inhabited by a happy people, and Seaward is knighted +by George the Second. + +Everybody read the book. A second edition was called for within the +year. Old naval officers got out their charts, and hunted up the +probable locality of the places mentioned. Nobody at first doubted its +veracity. The _Quarterly_, however, decided that no such man had ever +existed and that the whole story was a fiction. It hunted for a schooner +mentioned and the names of the naval officers. The latter had never +served in his Majesty's navy and the former had not timed her voyages +according to the story. The uniform of a naval officer described in the +narrative was not worn until thirteen years after these adventures had +taken place, and no man by the name of Seaward had been knighted during +this time, nor was there any village in England having the name of the +village which he gave as his birthplace. Supposing the editor had +changed names and dates, the _Quarterly_ criticism becomes valueless. +Although the magazine declared it a work of fiction, it gave both the +story and the style high praise, and declared it far superior to her +romances. When Miss Porter was asked about it, she declined to answer, +but said that Scott had his great secret and she might be permitted to +have her little one. + +It is generally considered now to have been the work of Jane Porter. No +two books differ more in style than _The Scottish Chiefs_ and _Sir +Edward Seaward_. But twenty-two years had elapsed between them. The +former is written in dignified, stately language; the latter in simple +homely words, and both its invention and its style entitle it to a place +among English classics. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Amelia Opie. Mary Brunton + + +Every novel that touches upon the life of its generation naturally in +course of time becomes historical. These novels should be preserved, not +necessarily for their literary excellence, but because they bear the +imprint of an age. Such are the novels of Amelia Opie and Mary Brunton. + +Mrs. Opie, then Miss Alderson, left her quiet home in Norwich to visit +London at the height of the furor occasioned by the French Revolution. +The literary circles in which she was received were discussing excitedly +the rights of men and women, and the beauties of life lived according to +the dictates of nature. Among these enthusiasts, Miss Alderson met Mary +Wollstonecraft, the author of _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, and +esteemed her highly. Her own imagination did not, however, yield to the +intoxication of a life of perfect freedom, a dream which wrecked the +life of Mary Wollstonecraft. + +There is no sadder biography than that of Mary Wollstonecraft. In Paris, +she met Gilbert Imlay, an American, with whom she fell in love. When he +wished to marry her, she refused to permit him to make her his wife, +because she had family debts to pay, and she was unwilling to have him +legally responsible for them. But she had read the books of Rousseau, +and had been deeply impressed with the thought that marriage is a +bondage, not needed by true love. She took the name of Imlay, and passed +for his wife, but the marriage was not sanctioned either by the church +or by law. After the birth of a daughter, Imlay deserted her. At first +she tried to commit suicide, and there is the sad picture of this +talented woman walking about in the drenching rain, and then throwing +herself from the bridge at Putney. She was rescued, and a little over a +year later became the wife of William Godwin. + +The life-story of Mary Wollstonecraft suggested to Amelia Opie the novel +of _Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter_, which was not written +until after the death of the original. + +It is a tender pathetic story. Mrs. Mowbray, the mother of Adeline, +believed by her neighbours to be a genius, is interested in new theories +of education, and, while writing a book on that subject, occasionally +experiments with Adeline, although she neglects her for the most part. +In spite of this Adeline grows up beautiful and pure, totally ignorant +of the world and its wickedness. Her mother often quoted in her presence +the book of a Mr. Glenmurray, in which he proves marriage to be a +tyranny and a profanation of the sacred ties of love. Adeline is +captivated by the enthusiastic ideals of the young author. There is a +fine contrast in character and motive, where Adeline is entertaining Mr. +Glenmurray, the high-minded writer, and Sir Patrick O'Carrol, a man of +many gallantries. Sir Patrick is shocked to meet at her home the man +whose theories have banished him from respectable society. Adeline, +innocent of any low interpretation that may be put upon her words, makes +the frank avowal that, in her opinion, marriage is a shameless tie, and +that love and honour are all that should bind men and women. Sir Patrick +heartily agrees with her sentiments, and as a consequence accosts her +with a freedom repugnant to her, although she hardly understands its +import, while Glenmurray sits by gloomily, resolving to warn her in +private that the opinions she had expressed were better confined in the +present dark state of the public mind to a select and discriminating +circle. After they leave Adeline, Glenmurray, as the outcome of this +meeting, had the satisfaction of fighting a duel with Sir Patrick, +contrary to the tenets of his own book. + +But when, to escape the advances of Sir Patrick, Adeline places herself +under the protection of Glenmurray, who ardently loves her, he urges her +to marry him. This she refuses to do, and encourages him to show the +world the truth and beauty of his teachings. Glenmurray, a man of +sensitive nature, suffers more than Adeline from the indignities she +constantly receives when she frankly says she is Mr. Glenmurray's +companion, not his wife. He takes her from place to place to avoid them, +for he realises that the world censures her, while it excuses him. But +Adeline is so happy in her love for him, and in her faith in his +teachings, that she endures every humiliation with the faith of the +early Christian martyrs. When he urges her, as he so often does, to +marry him, he reads in her eyes only grief that he will not gladly +suffer for what he believes to be right, and desists rather than pain +her. But his death is hastened by the harassing thought that her whole +future is blighted by his teachings. As he says to her just before his +death: + +"Had not I, with the heedless vanity of youth, given to the world the +crude conceptions of four-and-twenty, you might at this moment have been +the idol of a respectable society; and I, equally respected, have been +the husband of your heart; while happiness would perhaps have kept that +fatal disease at bay, of which anxiety has facilitated the approach." + +It is a beautiful love story, but the hero and heroine were of too fine +a fibre to stand alone against the world. After the death of Glenmurray, +the interest flags. The conclusion is weak, not at all worthy of the +beginning. Love of every variety has been the theme of poets and +novelists, but there is no love story more beautiful for its +self-sacrificing devotion to principle and to each other, than the few +pages of this novel which tell of the unsanctioned married life of the +high-minded idealist and his bride. + +Mrs. Opie wrote _Simple Tales_ and _Tales of Real Life_. They are for +the most part pathetic stories in which unhappiness in the family circle +is caused either by undue sternness of a parent, the unfilial conduct of +a son or daughter, or a misunderstanding between husband and wife. The +feelings of the characters are often minutely described. A firm faith in +the underlying goodness of human nature is shown throughout all these +tales, and all teach love and forbearance. + + * * * * * + +Mary Brunton like Mrs. Opie wrote to improve the ethical ideals of her +generation. In the books of that day the theory was often advanced that +young men must sow their wild oats, and that men were more pleasing to +the ladies for a few vices. Her first novel, _Self-Control_, was written +to contradict this doctrine. In a letter to Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Brunton +wrote: + +"I merely intended to show the power of the religious principle in +bestowing self-command, and to bear testimony against a maxim as immoral +as indelicate, that a reformed rake makes the best husband." + +Laura, the heroine of _Self-Control_, ardently loved a man of rank and +fashion. When she learned of his amours, her love turned first to grief, +then to disgust. Stung by her abhorrence, he attempted to seduce her to +conquer her pride. The purity of the heroine triumphs. She meets a man +whom she esteems and afterwards marries. Many of Laura's adventures +border on the improbable, but her emotions are truthfully depicted. + +This was a bolder novel than appears on the surface. Long before this +the wicked heroine had been banished from fiction. The leading lady must +be virtuous to keep the love of the hero. Richardson laid down that law +of the novel. Mary Brunton asserted the same rule for the hero, and +maintained that a gentleman, handsome, noble, accomplished, could not +retain the love of a pure woman, if he were not virtuous. + +The book gave rise to heated discussions. Two gentlemen had a violent +dispute over it: one said it ought to be burnt by the common hangman; +the other, that it ought to be written in letters of gold. Beyond its +ethical import, the novel has no literary value. + +The kind reception given to _Self-Control_ led the author to begin her +second novel, _Discipline_. This was intended to show how the mind must +be trained by suffering before it can hope for true enjoyment when +self-control is lacking. Mary Brunton had read Miss Edgeworth's +description of the Irish people with pleasure; so she planned to set +forth in this novel the manners of the Scottish Highlands and of the +Orkneys, where she herself had been born. But before it was finished, +_Waverley_ was published. There the Scottish Highlands stood forth on a +large canvas, distinct and truthful, and Mrs. Brunton realised at once +how weak her own attempts were compared with Scott's masterly work. Her +interest in her book flagged, although it was published in December of +that year. Some of the Highland scenes are interesting because +accurately described, and her account of a mad-house in Edinburgh is +said to be an exact representation of an asylum for the insane in that +city. + +Mrs. Brunton died before her third novel, _Emmeline_, was finished. Her +husband, the Reverend Alexander Brunton, professor of Oriental +Languages at Edinburgh University, published the fragment of it with her +memoirs after her death. The aim of this novel was to show how little +chance of happiness there is when a divorced woman marries her seducer. +It only shows the inability of Emmeline to live down her past shame and +the unhappiness which follows the married pair. + +In the novels of Mrs. Opie and Mary Brunton the standard of conduct is +the same as to-day. Both men and women are expected to lead upright +lives, with true regard for the happiness of those about them. In +_Self-Control_ the hero refuses to fight a duel with the villain who has +injured him, and forgives him with a true Christian spirit. To be sure, +there are still seductions, and the world of fashion is without a heart. +But conduct which the former generation would have regarded with a smile +is here denominated SIN, and that which they named Prudery shines forth +as VIRTUE. The problems of life which these novels discuss are the same, +as we have said, which agitate the world to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Jane Austen + + +If in this age of steam and electricity you would escape from the noise +of the city, and experience for an hour the quiet joys of the English +countryside, at a time when a chaise and four was the quickest means of +reaching the metropolis from any part of the kingdom, turn to the pages +of Jane Austen. In them have been preserved faithful pictures of the +peaceful life of the south of England exactly as it existed a hundred +and more years ago. The gently sloping downs crossed by hedgerows, the +lazy rivers meandering through the valleys, the little villages half +hidden in the orchards of apple, pear, peach, and plum, all suggest the +land of happy homes. On the outskirts of every village there are the two +of three gentlemen's houses: the substantial mansion of the squire, with +its park of old elms, oaks, and beeches; a smaller house suitable for a +gentleman of slender income, like Mr. Bennet, the father of the four +girls of _Pride and Prejudice_, or for an elder son who will in time +take possession of the hall, like Charles Musgrove in the story of +_Persuasion_; and the still smaller parsonage standing in the garden of +vegetables and flowers, surrounded by a laurel hedge, where lives a +younger son or a friend of the family. + +The gentry that inhabit these homes carry on the plot of Jane Austen's +novels. And what an even, almost uneventful life they lead. Life with +them is one long holiday. Dance follows dance, varied only by a dinner +at the mansion, a picnic party, private theatricals, a brief sojourn at +Bath, a briefer one in London, or a ride to Lyme, seventeen miles away. +But Cupid ever hovers near, and in each one of these groups of gentle +folk we watch the course of true love, "which never did run smooth." For +in spite of match-making mammas and stern fathers with an eye that the +marriage settlements shall be sufficient to clothe sentiment with true +British respectability, the six novels of Jane Austen contain as many +true and tender love stories, differing from one another not so much in +the incidents as in the characters of the lovers. Unlike the older +novelists, who constantly drew the attention away from the main theme by +stories of thrilling adventure, Jane Austen holds closely to the great +problem of fiction, whether or not the youths and maidens will be +happily married at the conclusion of the book. + +When Darcy first meets Elizabeth, the heroine of _Pride and Prejudice_, +he shuns her and her family as vulgar. Elizabeth is so prejudiced +against him that she cannot forget his insulting arrogance. But Darcy's +love cannot be stemmed. Other heroes have plunged into raging floods to +rescue the fair heroine. Darcy does more. For love of Elizabeth he +accepts the whole Bennet family, including Mrs. Bennet, who always says +the silly thing, and Lydia, who had almost invited Wickham to elope with +her and was indifferent as to whether or not he married her, until Darcy +compelled him to do so--a bitter humiliation for a man whose greatest +fault was overweening pride of birth. At last, Elizabeth comprehends the +extent of his generosity, his superior understanding and strength of +character, and Darcy is rewarded by the hand of the sunniest heroine in +all fiction. Who but Elizabeth with her independent spirit, quick +intelligence and lively wit could curb his family pride! They marry, and +we know they will be happy. + +_Sense and Sensibility_ works out a problem for lovers. Like many +romantic girls, Marianne asserts that a woman can love but once. "He +never loved that loved not at first sight" is also part of her creed. +But after her infatuation for Willoughby has been cured, she contentedly +marries Colonel Brandon, although she knows that he frequently has +rheumatism and wears flannel waistcoats. Marianne will be much happier +as the wife of a man of mature years who loves her impulsive nature and +can control it than she would have been with the gallant who won her +first love. + +In the piquant satire of _Northanger Abbey_ there is another problem +suggested. This book is distinctly modern. Man is the pursued; woman the +pursuer. Bernard Shaw has treated this momentous question in a serious +manner in many of his plays. Jane Austen regards it with a humorous +smile. Did Henry Tilney ever know why he married Catherine Morland? Or +was this daughter of a country parsonage, without beauty, without +accomplishments, and without riches, aware that on her first visit to +Bath she used feminine arts that would have put Becky Sharp to +shame--who, by the way, was a little girl at that time--and would have +made Anne, the knowing heroine of _Man and Superman_, green with envy? +Yet her arts consisted simply in following the dictates of her heart. +She fell in love with Henry Tilney; looked for him whenever she entered +the pump-room; was unhappy if he were absent and expressed her joy at +his approach; saw in him the paragon of wisdom and looked at every thing +with his eyes. From first ignoring her, he began to seek her society, +and learn the true excellence of her character. And then Jane Austen +explains: + +"I must confess that this affection originated in nothing better than +gratitude; or in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for +him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new +circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an +heroine's dignity, but if it is as new in common life, the credit of a +wild imagination will be all my own." + +But lest we think that Miss Austen is asserting a rule that women take +the initiative in this matter of love and marriage, it is well to +remember that Darcy first loved Elizabeth Bennet, and forced her to +acknowledge his worth, and that Colonel Brandon married a young lady who +had formerly supposed him at the advanced age of thirty-five to be +occupied with thoughts of death rather than of love. + +And Mr. Knightley is another hero who fell in love and waited patiently +for its return. Emma is like Marianne in one respect, she needed +guidance. Almost from childhood the mistress of her father's house and +the first lady in the society of Highbury, she was threatened by two +evils, "the power of having too much her own way, and a disposition to +think a little too well of herself." Mr. Knightley, the elder brother of +her elder sister's husband, is the only person that sees that she is not +always wise and that she is sometimes selfish. He is the only one that +chides her. Emma is interested in promoting the welfare of all about +her, but she lacks that most feminine quality of insight, so that her +well-meant help, as in the case of her protégée, poor Harriet Smith, is +sometimes productive of evil. And yet Emma is brave and self-forgetful. +Not until she has schooled herself to think of Mr. Knightley as married +to Harriet, is she aware how much he is a part of her own life. But this +is only another instance of her blindness. When she learns that he has +loved her with all her faults ever since she was thirteen, she is very +happy. There is no tumultuous passion in this union, but we are assured +of a love that will abide through the years. + +In _Mansfield Park_ and in _Persuasion_, there is another variety of the +old story. Fanny Price and Anne Elliot, the one the daughter of a poor +lieutenant of marines, whose family is the most ill-bred in all Miss +Austen's books, the other the neglected daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, +Baronet, have more in common than any other of her heroines. Although +these stories are different, yet in each it is the devotion of the +heroine that guides the course of love through many obstacles into a +quiet haven. Who that reads their story will say that Miss Austen's +maidens are without passion? They do not analyse their feelings, nor do +they pour them forth in wild soliloquy. But the heart of each is +clearly revealed through little acts and expressions. Fanny Price, +cherishing a love for Edmund Bertram, who was kind to her when she was +neglected by everybody else, refuses to marry the rich, handsome, and +brilliant Mr. Crawford, although she herself is penniless. We feel her +misery as she realises that she is nothing but a friend to Edmund and +rejoice with her when her love awakens a response. Anne Elliot, the +gentlest of all her heroines, who in obedience to her father has broken +her engagement to Captain Wentworth eight years before, when she is +again thrown into his company, observes his every expression, and grows +sad and weak in health at his studied neglect. Other heroines have said +more, but none have felt more than Miss Austen's. Anne Elliot herself +has spoken for them: + +"All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable +one) is that of loving longest, when existence, or when hope, is gone." + +But Jane Austen, like Shakespeare, is a dramatist. So, lest this be +taken for Miss Austen's opinion, Captain Wentworth has the last word +here when he writes to Anne, "Dare not say that man forgets sooner than +woman, that his love has an earlier death. Unjust I have been, weak and +resentful I have been, but never inconstant." + +And so, at the close of these novels, two more happy homes are added to +those of rural England. + +Are there many heroes and heroines for whom we dare predict a happy +married life? Would Mr. B. and Pamela have written such long letters to +each other about the training of their children if conversation had not +been a bore? Evelina must have been disappointed to discover that Lord +Orville lived on roast beef, plum-pudding, and port wine instead of +music and poetry. Of all Scott's heroes and heroines none had sacrificed +more for each other than Ivanhoe and Rowena; he gave up Rotherwood, and, +as a disinherited son, sought forgetfulness of her charms in distant +Palestine; she put aside all hopes of becoming a Saxon queen, and was +true to the gallant son of Cedric. Yet we have Thackeray for authority +that they were not only unhappy, but often quarrelled after Scott left +them at the altar. And none of Thackeray's marriages turned out well, +although Becky Sharp made Rodney Crawley very happy until he discovered +her wiles. Dickens was perhaps more fortunate, but David was led away by +the cunning ways of Dora before he discovered a companion and helpmate +in Agnes, a heroine worthy to be placed beside Elizabeth and Jane +Bennet. George Eliot's books and those of later novelists are rather a +warning than an incentive to matrimony. Have all our sighs and tears +over the mishaps of ill-starred lovers been in vain, and is it true that +when the curtain falls at the wedding it is only to shut from view a +scene of domestic infelicity? + +Not so with Jane Austen. She is the queen of match-makers. The marriages +brought about by her guidance give a belief in the permanency of English +home life, quite as necessary for the welfare of the kingdom as the +stability of Magna Charta. Her heroes have qualities that wear well, and +her heroines might have inspired Wordsworth's lines: + + A creature not too bright or good + For human nature's daily food, + For transient sorrows, simple wiles, + Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles. + +Besides the lovers, many diverting people lived in these homes of the +gentry, quite as amusing as any of the peasants who were brought upon +the stage by the older dramatists for our entertainment; perhaps more +amusing, because of their self-sufficiency. These people seldom do +anything that is peculiar, nor are they the objects of practical jokes, +as were so many men and women in the earlier books; but they talk freely +both at home and abroad about whatever is of interest to them. They +seldom use stereotyped words or phrases, yet their conversation is a +crystal from which the whole mental horizon of the speaker shines +forth. When Mrs. Bennet learns that Netherfield Park has been let to a +single gentleman of fortune, her first exclamation comes from the +heart--"What a fine thing for our girls!" After Mr. Collins, upon whom +Mr. Bennet's estate is entailed, has resolved to make all possible +amends to his daughters by marrying one of them, and is making his +famous proposal to Elizabeth, he says with solemn composure: "But, +before I am run away with by my feelings on this subject, perhaps it +would be advisable for me to state my reasons for marrying--and, +moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a +wife, as I certainly did." No wonder Elizabeth laughed at such a lover. +Mr. Collins is the same type of man as Mr. Smith, whom Evelina meets at +Snow Hill, but infinitely more ridiculous because he is an educated man +of some attainments. + +Then there is Mr. Woodhouse, the father of Emma, with his constant +solicitude for everybody's health and his fears that they may have +indigestion. When his daughter and her family arrive from London, all +well and hearty, he says by way of hospitality: "You and I will have a +nice basin of gruel together. My dear Emma, suppose we all have a basin +of gruel." His friend Mrs. Bates is always voluble. She is describing +Mr. Dixon's country seat in Ireland to Emma: "Jane has heard a great +deal of its beauty--from Mr. Dixon, I mean--I do not know that she ever +heard about it from anybody else--but it was very natural, you know, +that he should like to speak of his own place while he was paying his +addresses--and as Jane used to be very often walking out with them--for +Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were very particular about their daughter's +not walking out often with only Mr. Dixon, for which I do not at all +blame them; of course she heard everything he might be telling Miss +Campbell about his own home in Ireland." One respects the mental power +of a woman who could remember the main thread of her discourse amid so +many digressions. + +How characteristic is Sir Walter Elliot's reply to the gentleman who is +trying to bring a neighbour's name to his mind. "Wentworth? Oh, ay! Mr. +Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. You misled me by the term +_Gentleman_. I thought you were speaking of some man of property." And +not the least amusing of these people is Mr. Elton's bride, a pert sort +of woman who for some reason patronises everybody into whose company she +is thrown. After meeting Mr. Knightley, by far the most consequential +person about Highbury, she expresses her approval of him to Emma: +"Knightley is quite the gentleman! I like him very much! Decidedly, I +think, a very gentlemanlike man." And Emma wonders if Mr. Knightley has +been able to pronounce this self-important newcomer as quite the lady. +Pick out almost any speech at random, and anyone who is at all familiar +with Miss Austen will easily recognise the speaker. + +This ability to describe people by such delicate touches has been highly +praised by Macaulay in the essay on Madame D'Arblay before quoted. He +thus compares Jane Austen with Shakespeare: + +"Admirable as he [Shakespeare] was in all parts of his art, we must +admire him for this, that, while he has left us a greater number of +striking portraits than all other dramatists put together, he has +scarcely left us a single caricature. Shakespeare has had neither equal +nor second. But among the writers who, in the point which we have +mentioned, have approached nearest to the manner of the great master, we +have no hesitation in placing Jane Austen, a woman of whom England is +justly proud. She has given us a multitude of characters, all, in a +certain sense, commonplace, all such as we meet every day. Yet they are +all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most +eccentric of human beings. There are, for instance, four clergymen, none +of whom we should be surprised to find in any parsonage in the kingdom, +Mr. Edward Ferrars, Mr. Henry Tilney, Mr. Edmund Bertram, and Mr. +Elton. They are all specimens of the upper part of the middle class. +They have all been liberally educated. They all lie under the restraints +of the same sacred profession. They are all young. They are all in love. +Not one of them has any hobbyhorse, to use the phrase of Sterne. Not one +has a ruling passion, such as we read of in Pope. Who would not have +expected them to be insipid likenesses of each other? No such thing. +Harpagon is not more unlike to Jourdain, Joseph Surface is not more +unlike to Sir Lucius O'Trigger, than every one of Miss Austen's young +divines to his reverend brethren. And almost all this is done by touches +so delicate that they elude analysis, that they defy the powers of +description, and that we know them to exist only by the general effect +to which they have contributed." + +Like Shakespeare Jane Austen knew the inner nature by intuition, and had +learned its outward expression by observation. Character not only +affects the speech of each one of her men and women, but determines +their destiny and shapes the plot of the story. The class she has chosen +to represent is the least under the sway of circumstances of any in +England. With money for all needs, and leisure for enjoyment, free from +obligations which pertain to higher rank, character here develops +freely and naturally. Not one of the matchmaking men or women, not even +the intelligent Emma, succeeds in changing the life of those whom they +attempt to influence. Character is stronger than any outside agency. In +this respect, Jane Austen is decidedly at variance with Thomas Hardy or +Tolstoi, but she is at one with Shakespeare. + +In the opening paragraph of each book, character begins to assert +itself. If Darcy had been without PRIDE, and Elizabeth had been without +PREJUDICE; if Marianne had had her sensibilities under control; if Emma +had not been blind; if Captain Wentworth had not been unjust and +resentful--there would have been no story to tell, the course of true +love would have run so smooth. But all of them are loving and faithful, +and these qualities in the end conquer, and bring the stories to a happy +conclusion. + +Edmund Gosse thus writes of her delineation of character: + +"Like Balzac, like Tourgenieff at his best, Jane Austen gives the reader +an impression of knowing everything there was to know about her +creations, of being incapable of error as to their acts, thoughts, or +emotions. She presents an absolute illusion of reality; she exhibits an +art so consummate that we mistake it for nature. She never mixes her +own temperament with those of her characters, she is never swayed by +them, she never loses for a moment her perfect, serene control of them. +Among the creators of the world, Jane Austen takes a place that is with +the highest and that is purely her own." + +This seeming control of her characters is due largely to the fact that +whatever happens to them is just what might have been expected. This is +particularly true of the bad people she has created. Innocence led +astray has been a popular means of exciting interest ever since +Richardson told the sad story of Clarissa Harlowe. But there is no such +incident in Jane Austen's books. Lydia, who hasn't a thought for anybody +nor anything but a red-coat, and Wickham, who elopes with her without +any intention of matrimony, are properly punished, by being married to +each other, and the future unhappiness which must be their lot is due to +their own natures. Willoughby had seduced one girl, trifled with the +affections of another, and married an heiress, but he finds only misery, +and sadly says: "I must rub through the world as well as I can." Henry +Crawford, and his sister, with so much that is good in their natures, +yet with a lack of moral fibre, are both unhappy. Each has lost the one +they respected and loved and might have married. With what wit she +leaves William Elliot, the all-agreeable man, the heir of Sir Walter, +who, that he may keep the latter single, has enticed the scheming Mrs. +Clay from his home: + +"And it is now a doubtful point whether his cunning or hers may finally +carry the day; whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir +Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the +wife of Sir William." + +And so punishment is meted out with that nicety of judgment which +distinguishes every detail of her novels. + +But Jane Austen has little interest in immorality. "Let other pens dwell +on guilt and misery; I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can," she +says in _Mansfield Park_. And her readers have observed that deeds of +evil take place off the stage, while she records only what is reported +of them in the drawing-room. + +She dwells as little on misery as on guilt. She shows in her letters +charitable regard for the poor people of Steventon and Chawton. She +describes minutely the unkempt house of Lieutenant Price at Portsmouth +with its incessant noise of heavy steps, banging doors, and untrained +servants, where every voice was loud excepting Mrs. Price's, which +resembled "the soft monotony of Lady Bertram's, only worn into +fretfulness." Miss Austen's pen was able to portray scenes of squalor +and vice; she chose to turn from them. Perhaps she felt instinctively +that true æsthetic pleasure cannot be produced by dwelling on a scene in +a book which would be repulsive to the eye. Miss Austen wrote before +there was much serious interest in the lives of the poor. Their only +function in literature had been to provoke laughter. The sensitive +daughter of the rector of Steventon may have felt, as others have, that +there was no occasion to laugh at the blunders and ill-manners of +peasants, which were proper and natural to their condition of life. She +did not need these people to entertain us. There were quite as funny +people in the hall as in the cottage, funnier, even, because their +humorous sayings spring from a humorous twist in their natures, not from +ignorance. + +Sir Walter Scott, after reading _Pride and Prejudice_ for the third +time, said: + +"That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and +feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most +wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself, like +any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary +commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the +description and the sentiment, is denied to me." + +Sir Walter Scott proved the truth of the above statement in _St. +Ronan's Well_, one of the least successful of his novels, which was +written in imitation of Jane Austen. + +Because Jane Austen confined her work so closely to ordinary +middle-class people, she has been called narrow. But if we judge men and +women not by dress and manners, but by what they are, these people +furnish as broad a view of humanity as could be obtained by travelling +up and down the world. A trained botanist will gather an herbarium from +a country lane that will give a more extended knowledge of botany than a +less skilful one could get by travelling through the woods and fields of +a continent. Very few novelists have portrayed greater varieties of +human nature than Miss Austen. + +Jane Austen's style has been praised by all critics. George William +Curtis wrote of her art: + +"She writes wholly as an artist, while George Eliot advocates views, and +Miss Brontë's fiery page is often a personal protest. In Miss Austen, on +the other hand, there is in kind, but infinitely less in degree, the +same clear atmosphere of pure art which we perceive in Shakespeare and +Goethe." + +While Miss Austen has been so often likened to Shakespeare, she is in no +sense a romantic writer. She belongs purely to the classic school. She +has the restraint, the perfect poise of the Greeks. She recognises +everywhere the need of law. She accepts society as it exists under the +restraints of law and religion. She no more questioned the English +prayer book and the English constitution than Homer questioned the +existence of the gods and the supreme power of kings. This feeling for +law shaped her art. Her plots are perfectly symmetrical. There is no +redundancy in expression. There is none of that wild luxuriance in fancy +or expression so common in romanticism. Each word used is needed in the +sentence, and is in its proper place. The strength of romanticism lies +in its impetuosity; the strength of classicism lies in its self-control. +This is the strength of Jane Austen. + +Emotion in her books is so restrained that the superficial reader doubts +its existence. Yet her characters feel deeply and are sensitive to the +acts and words of those about them. Although their feelings are under +control, they are none the less real. The reader watches, but is not +asked to participate in their griefs. + +As she never moves to tears, neither does she provoke laughter, but she +lightens every page with a quiet glow of humour. Humour was as natural +to her as to Elizabeth Bennet, whose sayings give the sparkle to _Pride +and Prejudice_. Much of the humour in her letters consists of an +unexpected turn to a sentence or an incongruous combination of words. +She writes of meeting "Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either +his mother, his wife or himself must be dead." She announces the +marriage of a gentleman to a widow by the laconic message, "Dr. Gardiner +was married yesterday to Mrs. Percy and her three daughters." And again +she says that a certain Mrs. Blount appeared the same as in September, +"with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, +and fat neck." She sees through the affectations of society and observes +the pleasure afforded by the small misfortunes of another as plainly as +did Thackeray later. The wife of a certain gentleman is discovered "to +be everything the neighbourhood could wish, silly and cross as well as +extravagant." She finds continual source of enjoyment in people's +foibles, and thinks that her own misfortunes ought to furnish jokes to +her acquaintances, or she will die in their debt for entertainment. + +In a less refined degree, this was the view of life of Miss Burney, her +favourite author. Miss Austen was but three years old when Evelina made +her début at Ranelagh, and not over seven when Cecilia visited her three +guardians in London: _Camilla_ was published in the year that it is +thought that Miss Austen began _Pride and Prejudice_. During these +years, Miss Burney's fame was undimmed. Consider yourself for a moment +in a circulating library, in the year 1797 or 1798, suppose you are fond +of novel reading, and have moreover the refined tastes of Miss Austen; +you will find there no novelist who can hold a rival place to Miss +Burney. Miss Austen refers to her both in her novels and letters. In +only one passage in her novels has she interrupted her story to express +a general opinion; that is in _Northanger Abbey_, where she praises the +art of the novelist, and refers particularly to _Cecilia_, _Camilla_, +and _Belinda_. In the same novel John Thorpe's lack of taste is +emphasised by his calling _Camilla_ a stupid book of unnatural stuff, +which he could not get through. She evidently discussed Miss Burney's +novels with the people she met; a certain young man just entered at +Oxford has heard that _Evelina_ was written by Dr. Johnson, and she +finds two traits in a certain Miss Fletcher very pleasing: "She admires +_Camilla_, and drinks no cream in her tea." But Miss Austen was no blind +disciple of Miss Burney. All the odd characters which Miss Burney culled +from the lower ranks of society were swept away by Miss Austen. +Everything approaching tragedy or the improbable is avoided, but what is +left is amplified and refined until there is no more trace of Miss +Burney than there is of Perugino in the paintings of Raphael. + +Artists in other lines have striven in their work for a unified whole. +Most novelists have been more intent on pointing a moral or producing a +sensation than on the technique of their writing. Their works as a whole +lack proportion. They obtrude unnecessarily in one part and are weak in +another. Miss Austen wrote because the characters in her brain demanded +expression. Who could remain silent with Elizabeth Bennet urging her to +utterance? She wrote with the greatest care because she could do nothing +slovenly. Whatever place may be assigned to her as the years go by, her +novels surpass all others written in English in their perfect art. + +Miss Austen's genius was but slowly recognised. Her first books were +published in 1811, only three years before _Waverley_, and her last +novels were published after it. Who will linger over the teacups while +knights in armour are riding the streets without? It is not until the +cavalcade has passed that home seems again a quiet, refreshing spot. So +the public, tired of the brilliant scenes and conflicting passions of +other novels, has in the last few years turned back to the simple, +wholesome stories of Jane Austen. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Miss Ferrier. Miss Mitford. Anna Maria Hall + + +Walter Scott, the most chivalrous of all writers, brought to an end +woman's supremacy in the novel, in 1814. At this time prose fiction was +far different from what it was in 1772, when Tobias Smollet died, and +much of this difference was due to women. Professor Masson, in his +lectures on the novel, gives the names of twenty novelists who wrote +between 1789-1814 who are remembered in the history of English +literature. "With the exception of Godwin," he writes, "I do not know +that any of the male novelists I have mentioned could be put in +comparison, in respect of genuine merit, with such novelists of the +other sex as Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Edgeworth, and Miss Austen." It is +equally worthy of note that, of the twenty names given, fourteen are +women. + +Although during these years women had developed the historical novel, +and had brought the novel of mystery to a high degree of perfection, +they left the most enduring stamp on literature as realists, as painters +of everyday life and commonplace people. Francis Jeffrey wrote: + +"It required almost the same courage to get rid of the jargon of +fashionable life and the swarms of peers, foundlings, and seducers, that +infested our modern fables as it did in those days to sweep away the +mythological persons of antiquity, and to introduce characters who spoke +and acted like those who were to peruse their adventures." + +Women awakened interest in the humdrum lives of their neighbours next +door, and this without any exaggeration, simply by minute attention to +little things, and quick sympathy in the joys and sorrows of others. +They described manners and customs; their view of life was largely +objective. It is a noteworthy fact that while Scott was casting over all +Europe the light of romanticism, the women writers of the time, with but +one or two exceptions, were viewing life with the clear vision of Miss +Edgeworth and Miss Austen, as if the world obtruded too glaringly upon +their eyes to be lost sight of in happy day-dreams. + + * * * * * + +Susan Edmonstone Ferrier is better known to-day as the friend of Scott, +and an occasional visitor at Abbotsford, than as a successful novelist. +She was born at Edinburgh in 1782, where her father, James Ferrier, was +Writer to the Signet, and at one time Clerk of Session, Scott being one +of his colleagues. That great genius was one of the earliest to +appreciate the excellence of her descriptions of Scottish life given in +her first book, entitled _Marriage_, published anonymously in 1818. In +the conclusion of the _Tales of my Landlord_ he paid the unknown writer +this graceful tribute: + +"There remains behind not only a large harvest, but labourers capable of +gathering it in; more than one writer has of late displayed talents of +this description, and if the present author, himself a phantom, may be +permitted to distinguish a brother, or perhaps a sister, shadow, he +would mention in particular the author of the very lively work entitled +_Marriage_." + +Miss Ferrier wrote but three novels, _Marriage_, _The Inheritance_, and +_Destiny_, a period of six years intervening between the appearance of +each of them. Like Miss Burney and Miss Edgeworth she depicts two grades +of society. She shows forth the fashionable life of Edinburgh and +London, and the cruder mode of living found in the Scottish Highlands. +But between her and her models there is the great difference of genius +and talent. They passed what they had seen through the alembic of +imagination; she has depicted what she saw with the faithfulness of the +camera, and the crude realism of these scenes does not always blend +with the warp and woof of the story. + +Like Miss Edgeworth, Miss Ferrier had a moral to work out. She treats +society as a satirist, and lays bare its heartlessness, and the +unhappiness of its members who to escape ennui are led hither and +thither by the caprice of the moment. While she may present one side of +the picture, one hesitates to accept Lady Juliana, Mrs. St. Clair, or +Lady Elizabeth as common types of a London drawing-room. + +Her plots as well as her characters suffer from this conscious attempt +to teach the happiness that must follow the practice of the Christian +virtues. In _Marriage_ there are two complete stories. Lady Juliana is +the heroine of the first part; her two daughters, who are born in the +first half, supplant their mother as heroines of the second half. The +plot of _Destiny_ is not much better. The denouement is tame, and the +characters lack consistency. _The Inheritance_ has the strongest plot of +the three; but Mrs. St. Clair and her secret interviews with the +monstrosity Lewiston, who, by the way, has the honour to be an American, +throw an air of unreality over a story in many respects intensely real. +In this story, as in so many old novels, the nurse's daughter had been +brought up as the rightful heiress. The scene in which she tells her +betrothed lover, the heir of the estate, the story of her birth, which +she had just learned, is said to have suggested to Tennyson the +beautiful ballad of _Lady Clare_. + +But when Miss Ferrier sees loom in imagination the sombre purple hills +of the Highlands, with the black tarns in the hollows half-hidden in +mist, her genius awakes. If she had devoted herself to these people and +this region, and ignored the fashionable life of the cities, she might +have written a book worthy to be placed beside the best of Miss +Edgeworth or Miss Mitford. At the time she wrote, the Highland chief no +longer summoned his clan about him at a blast from his bugle, but he had +lost little of his old-time picturesqueness. The opening of _Destiny_ +describes the wealth of the chief of Glenroy: + +"All the world knows that there is nothing on earth to be compared to a +Highland chief. He has his loch and his islands, his mountains and his +castle, his piper and his tartan, his forests and his deer, his +thousands of acres of untrodden heath, and his tens of thousands of +black-faced sheep, and his bands of bonneted clansmen, with claymores +and Gaelic, and hot blood and dirks." + +But Miss Ferrier also depicted a more sordid type of Highlander. +Christopher North in his _Noctes Ambrosianæ_ writes of her novels: + +"They are the works of a very clever woman, sir, and they have one +feature of true and melancholy interest quite peculiar to themselves. It +is in them alone that the ultimate breaking-down and debasement of the +Highland character has been depicted. Sir Walter Scott had fixed the +enamel of genius over the last fitful gleams of their half-savage +chivalry, but a humbler and sadder scene--the age of lucre-banished +clans,--of chieftains dwindled into imitation squires, and of chiefs +content to barter the recollections of a thousand years for a few gaudy +seasons of Almacks and Crockfords, the euthanasia of kilted aldermen and +steamboat pibrochs, was reserved for Miss Ferrier." + +Besides her descriptions of the Highlands, Miss Ferrier has drawn +several Scotch characters that deserve to live. What a delightful group +is described in _Marriage_, consisting of the three Misses Douglas, +known as "The girls," and their friend Mrs. Maclaughlan! Miss Jacky +Douglas, the senior of the trio, "was reckoned a woman of sense"; Miss +Grizzy was distinguished by her good-nature and the entanglement of her +thoughts; and it was said that Miss Nicky was "not wanting for sense +either"; while their friend Lady Maclaughlan loved and tyrannised over +all three of them. Sir Walter Scott admired the character of Miss Becky +Duguid, a poor old maid, who "was expected to attend all accouchements, +christenings, deaths, chestings, and burials, but she was seldom asked +to a marriage, and never to any party of pleasure." Joanna Baillie +thought the loud-spoken minister, M'Dow, a true representative of a few +of the Scotch clergy whose only aim is preferment and good cheer. But +none of her other characters can compare with the devoted Mrs. Molly +Macaulay, the friend of the Chief of Glenroy in _Destiny_. When Glenroy +has an attack of palsy, she hurries to him, and when she is told that he +has missed her, she exclaims with perfect self-forgetfulness: + +"Deed, and I thought he would do that, for he has always been so kind to +me,--and I thought sometimes when I was away, oh, thinks I to myself, I +wonder what Glenroy will do for somebody to be angry with,--for +Ben-bowie's grown so deaf, poor creature, it's not worth his while to be +angry at him,--and you're so gentle that it would not do for him to be +angry at you; but I'm sure he has a good right to be angry at me, +considering how kind he has always been to me." + +Christopher North said of Molly Macaulay, "No sinner of our gender could +have adequately filled up the outline." + +George Saintsbury, considering the permanent value of Miss Ferrier's +work, wrote for the _Fortnightly Review_ in 1882: + +"Of the four requisites of the novelist, plot, character, description, +and dialogue, she is only weak in the first. The lapse of an entire +half-century and a complete change of manners have put her books to the +hardest test they are ever likely to have to endure, and they come +through it triumphantly." + +But, besides the excellences mentioned by Mr. Saintsbury, Miss Ferrier +is master of humour and pathos. No story is sadder than that of Ronald +Malcolm, the hero of _Destiny_. He had been willed the castle of Inch +Orran with its vast estates, but with the provision that he was to have +no benefit from it until his twenty-sixth year. In case of his death the +property was to go to his father, an upright but poor man. As Ronald had +many years to wait before he could enjoy his riches, he entered the +navy. His ship was lost at sea and the news of his death reported in +Scotland. But Ronald had been rescued from the sinking ship, and +returned to his father's cottage. Here he met a purblind old woman, who +told him how his father, Captain Malcolm, had moved to the castle, and +what good he was doing among his tenantry. She described the sorrow of +the people at the death of Ronald, but added: "Och! it was God's +providence to tak' the boy out of his worthy father's way; and noo a' +thing 's as it should be, and he has gotten his ain, honest man; and +long, long may he enjoy it!" And then she said thankfully, "The poor +lad's death was a great blessing--och ay, 'deed was 't." The scene where +Ronald goes to the castle and looks in at the window upon the happy +family group, consisting of his father and mother, brothers and sisters, +resembles in many particulars the sad return of Enoch Arden. The close +of the scene is as touching in the novel as in the poem: "Yes, yes, they +are happy, and I am forgotten!" sobs the lad, as he turns away. + +Miss Ferrier, however, seldom touches the pathetic; she is first of all +a humourist. But there is a blending of the smiles and tears of human +life in the delightful character of Adam Ramsay. Engaged as a boy to +Lizzie Lundie, he had gone forth into the world to make a fortune, but +when he returned after many years he found that she had married in his +absence, and soon afterwards had died. Crabbed to all about him, he +still cherished the remembrance of his early love, and was quickly moved +by any appeal to her memory. + +The practical philosophy of the Scottish peasantry is amusingly set +forth in the scene where Miss St. Clair visits one of the cottages on +Lord Rossville's estate. She found the goodman very ill, and everything +about the room betokening extreme poverty. When she offered to send him +milk and broth, and a carpet and chairs to make the room more +comfortable, his wife interposed, "A suit o' gude bein comfortable dead +claise, Tammes, wad set ye better than aw the braw chyres an' carpets i' +the toon." Sometime afterward, when Miss St. Clair called to see how the +invalid was, she found him in the press-bed, while the clothes were +warming before the fire. His wife explained that she could not have him +in the way, and if he were cold, it could not be helped, as the clothes +had to be aired, and added, "An' I 'm thinkin' he 'll no be lang o' +wantin' them noo." + +But notwithstanding her humour, Miss Ferrier was a stern moralist, whose +attitude toward life had been influenced indirectly by the teachings of +John Knox. She sometimes seems to stand her characters in the stocks, +and call upon the populace to view their sins or absurdities. She seldom +throws the veil of charity over them. Men as novelists are prone to +exaggeration. Women have represented life with greater truth both in its +larger aspects and in details. Miss Ferrier carries this quality to an +extreme. She tells not only the truth, but, with almost heartless +honesty, reveals the whole of it, so that many of her men and women are +repugnant to the reader while they amuse him. The best judges of +Scottish manners have borne witness to the exactness of her portraiture. +She is, perhaps, an example of the artistic failure of over-realism. + +Mary Russell Mitford like Miss Ferrier painted her scenes and her +portraits from real life. But there is as wide a difference between +their writings as between the rocky ledges of the Grampian Hills and the +soft meadows bathed in the sunshine which stretch back of the cottages +of Our Village. Miss Mitford's, indeed, was a sunny nature, not to be +hardened nor embittered by a lifelong anxiety over poverty and debts. +Her father, Dr. Mitford, had spent nearly all his own fortune when he +married Miss Mary Russell, an heiress. Besides being constantly involved +in lawsuits, he was addicted to gambling, and soon squandered the +fortune which his wife had brought him, besides twenty thousand pounds +won in a lottery. He is said to have lost in speculations and at play +about seventy thousand pounds, at that time a large fortune. The +authoress was a little over thirty years of age when the poverty of the +family forced them to leave Bertram House, their home for many years, +and remove to a little labourer's cottage about a mile away, on the +principal street of a little village near Reading, known as Three Mile +Cross. Here the support of the family devolved upon the daughter, a +burden made harder by the continual extravagance of the father, whom she +devotedly loved. Although she received large sums for her writings, it +is with the greatest weariness that she writes to her friend Miss +Barrett, afterwards Mrs. Browning, of the struggles that have been hers +the greater part of her life, the ten or twelve hours of literary +drudgery each day, often in spite of ill health, and her hope that she +may always provide for her father his accustomed comforts. Not only was +she enabled to do this, but, through the help of friends, to pay, after +his death, the one thousand pounds indebtedness, his only legacy to her. + +Yet there is not a trace of this worry in the delightful series of +papers called _Our Village_, which she began to contribute at this time +to the _Lady's Magazine_. Before this she had become known as a poet and +a successful playwright, but had believed herself incapable of writing +good prose. Necessity revealed her fine power of description, and Three +Mile Cross furnished her with scenes and characters. + +_Our Village_ marked a new style in fiction. The year it was commenced, +she wrote to a friend: + +"With regard to novels, I should like to see one undertaken without any +plot at all. I do not mean that it should have no story; but I should +like some writer of luxuriant fancy to begin with a certain set of +characters--one family, for instance--without any preconceived design +farther than one or two incidents or dialogues, which would naturally +suggest fresh matter, and so proceed in this way, throwing in incidents +and characters profusely, but avoiding all stage tricks and strong +situations, till some death or marriage should afford a natural +conclusion to the book." + +Miss Mitford followed this plan as far as her great love of nature would +permit. For when she found her daily cares too great to be borne in the +little eight-by-eight living-room, she escaped to the woods and fields. +She loved the poets who wrote of nature, and next to Miss Austen, whom +she placed far above any other novelist, she delighted in the novels of +Charlotte Smith, and in her own pages there is the same true feeling for +nature. + +_Our Village_ follows in a few particulars Gilbert White's _History of +Selborne_. As he described the beauties of Selborne through the varying +seasons of the year, she describes her walks about Three Mile Cross, +first when the meadows are covered with hoar frost, then when the air is +perfumed with violets, and later when the harvest field is yellow with +ripened corn. All the lanes, the favourite banks, the shady recesses are +described with delicate and loving touch. How her own joyous, optimistic +nature speaks in this record of a morning walk in a backward spring: + +"Cold bright weather. All within doors, sunny and chilly; all without, +windy and dusty, It is quite tantalising to see that brilliant sun +careering through so beautiful a sky, and to feel little more warmth +from his presence than one does from that of his fair but cold sister, +the moon. Even the sky, beautiful as it is, has the look of that one +sometimes sees in a very bright moonlight night--deeply, intensely blue, +with white fleecy clouds driven vigorously along by a strong breeze, now +veiling and now exposing the dazzling luminary around whom they sail. A +beautiful sky! and, in spite of its coldness, a beautiful world!" + +But how naturally we meet the people of the village and become +interested in them. There is Harriet, the belle of the village, "a flirt +passive," who made the tarts and puddings in the author's kitchen; Joel +Brent, her lover, a carter by calling, but, by virtue of his personal +accomplishments, the village beau. There is the publican, the carpenter, +the washerwoman; little Lizzie, the spoilt child, and all the other boys +and girls of the village. It is very natural to-day to meet these poor +people in novels; at that time the poor people of Ireland and Scotland +had begun to creep into fiction, but it was as unusual in England as a +novel without a plot. Even to-day Miss Mitford's attitude toward these +people is not common. It seems never to have occurred to the author, and +certainly does not to her readers, that these men dressed in overalls +and these women in print dresses with sleeves rolled to the elbow were +not the finest ladies and gentlemen of the land. She greets them all +with a playful humour which reminds one of the genial smile of Elia. C. +H. Herford in _The Age of Wordsworth_ wrote of _Our Village_: + +"No such intimate and sympathetic portrayal of village life had been +given before, and perhaps it needed a woman's sympathetic eye for little +things to show the way. Of the professional story-teller on the alert +for a sensation there is as little as of the professional novelist on +the watch for a lesson." + +_Belford Regis_, a series of country and town sketches, was written soon +after the completion of _Our Village_. Here again is the happy blending +of nature and humanity; the same fusion of truth and fiction. As Belford +Regis is "Our Market Town," there is a wider range of characters, as +different classes are represented; and a more intimate view, since the +same people appear in more than one story. Stephen Lane, the butcher, +and his wife are often met with. He is so fat that "when he walks, he +overfills the pavement, and is more difficult to pass than a link of +full-dressed misses or a chain of becloaked dandies." Of Mrs. Lane she +writes: "Butcher's wife and butcher's daughter though she were, yet was +she a graceful and gracious woman, one of nature's gentlewomen in look +and in thought." There was Miss Savage, "who was called a sensible woman +because she had a gruff voice and vinegar aspect"; and Miss Steele, who +was called literary, because forty years ago she made a grand poetical +collection. Miss Mitford even does justice to Mrs. Hollis, the fruiterer +and the village gossip; "There she sits, a tall, square, upright figure, +surmounted by a pleasant, comely face, eyes as black as a sloe, cheeks +as rounds as an apple, and a complexion as ruddy as a peach, as fine a +specimen of a healthy, hearty English tradeswoman, the feminine of John +Bull, as one would desire to see on a summer's day.... As a gossip she +was incomparable. She knew everybody and everything; had always the +freshest intelligence, and the newest news; her reports like her plums +had the bloom on them, and she would as much have scorned to palm upon +you an old piece of scandal as to send you strawberries that had been +two days gathered." + +A reviewer in the _Athenæum_ thus criticises the book: + +"If (to be hypercritical) the pictures they contain be a trifle too +sunny and too cheerful to be real--if they show more generosity and +refinement and self-sacrifice existing among the middle classes than +does exist,--too much of the meek beauty, too little of the squalidity +of humble life,--we love them none the less, and their authoress all the +more." + +In _Belford Regis_ we miss the fields, the brooks, the flowers, and the +sky, which made the charm of _Our Village_. In some respects it is a +more ambitious book, but it has not the perennial charm of _Our +Village_. + +Miss Mitford's favourite author, as we have seen, was Jane Austen. She +had the same regard for her that Miss Austen felt for Fanny Burney. The +two authors have many points of resemblance. Both have the same clear +vision, and sunny nature; the same repugnance to all that is +sensational, or coarse, or low; the same dislike of strong pathos or +broad humour; and Miss Mitford has approached more closely than any +other writer to the elegance of diction and purity of style of Miss +Austen. + +They have another point in common, they both show excellent taste in +their writings. This quality of good taste is due to native delicacy and +refinement, a sensitive withdrawal from what is ugly, and a quick +feeling for true proportion; the very things which give to a woman her +superior tact, which Ruskin has called "the touch sense." In the novel +it is pre-eminently a feminine characteristic. Few men have it in a +marked degree. It adds all the charm we feel in the presence of a +refined woman to the novels of Miss Edgeworth, Miss Austen, and Miss +Mitford. + +But, while Miss Mitford and Miss Austen have many points of resemblance, +they have many points of difference. Miss Austen liked the society of +men and women, and during her younger days was fond of dinner-parties +and balls. Miss Mitford preferred the woods and fields, liked the +society of her dogs, and wrote to a friend before she was twenty that +she would never go to another dance if she could help it. Miss Austen +selects a small group of gentry, and by the intertwining of their lives +forms a beautiful plot; Miss Mitford rambles through the village and the +country walks of Three Mile Cross, and as she meets the butcher, the +publican, the boys at cricket, she gleans some story of interest, and +brings back to us, as it were, a basket in which have been thrown in +careless profusion violets and anemones, cowslips and daisies, and all +the other flowers of the field. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Anna Maria Hall, a country-woman of Miss Edgeworth, wrote of her +first novel: "_My Sketches of Irish Character_, my first dear book, was +inspired by a desire to describe my native place, as Miss Mitford had +done in _Our Village_, and this made me an author." Most of these +sketches were drawn from the county of Wexford, her native place, whose +inhabitants, she says in the preface, are descendants of the +Anglo-Norman settlers of the reign of Henry the Second, and speak a +language unknown in other districts of Ireland. + +The book is a series of well-told stories of the poor people, whom we +should have imagined to be pure Celt, if the author had not said they +resembled the English. There is the tender pathos, the quick humour, the +joke which often answers an argument, the guidance of the heart rather +than the head; but she has dwelt upon one characteristic but lightly +touched upon by Miss Edgeworth and Lady Morgan, the poetic feeling of +the Celt, the imagery that so often adorns their common speech. The old +Irish wife says to the bride who speaks disrespectfully of the fairies: +"Hush, Avourneen! Sure they have the use of the May-dew before it falls, +and the colour of the lilies and the roses before it's folded in the +tender buds; and can steal the notes out of the birds' throats while +they sleep." + +_The Irish Peasantry_, and _Lights and Shadows of Irish Life_, won Mrs. +Hall the ill-will rather than the love of her countrymen. She had lived +for a long time in England, and upon returning to her native land was +impressed by the lack of forethought which kept the country poor. Their +early marriages, their indifference to time, their frequent visits to +the public house, their hospitality to strangers even when they +themselves were in extreme poverty and debt--all made so deep an +impression upon her mind that she attempted to teach the Irish worldly +wisdom. But the lesson was distasteful to the people and probably +useless, as the characteristics which she would change were the very +essence of the Irish nature, the traits which made him a Celt, not a +Saxon. In these books, the wooings, weddings, and funerals are +portrayed, and there is a little glimpse of fairy lore. + +_Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love_, grew out of the fairy legends of +Ireland. It is said that a child whose father has died before its birth +is placed by nature under the peculiar guardianship of the fairies; and, +if born on Midsummer Eve, it becomes their rightful property; they take +it to their own homes and leave in its place one of their changelings. +The heroine of the story is a child of that nature, over whose birth the +fairies of air, earth, and water preside. But at the will of Nightstar, +Queen of the Fairies of the Air, she is left with her mother, but +adopted and watched over by the fairies as their own. Their great gift +to her is that of loving and being loved. The human element is not well +blended with the fairy element. The entire setting should have been +rural, for in the city of London, particularly in the exhibition of the +Royal Academy, where part of the story is placed, it is not easy to +keep the tranquil twilight atmosphere, which fairies love. The book is +like a song in which the bass and soprano are written in different keys. +But when we are back in Ireland, and the fairies again appear and +disappear, it is charming. The old woodcutter, Randy, who sees and talks +with the fairies, is a delightful creature, and gives to the story much +of its beauty. + +Mrs. Hall's novels have but little literary value, but she has brought +to light Irish characteristics and Irish traditions which were +overlooked by her predecessors, and for that reason they deserve to +live. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Lady Caroline Lamb. Mrs. Shelley + + +It is impossible to comprehend the Byronic craze which swept cool-headed +England off her feet during the regency. _Childe Harold_ was the +fashion, and many a hero of romance, even down to the time of +_Pendennis_, aped his fashions. Disraeli and Bulwer were among his +disciples. Bulwer's early novels, _Falkland_ and _Pelham_, were +influenced by him; and _Vivian Grey_ and _Venetia_ might have been the +offspring of Byron's prose brain, so completely was Disraeli under his +influence at the time. + +The poorest of the novels of this class, but the one which gives the +most intimate picture of Byron, is _Glenarvon_, by Lady Caroline Lamb. +Its hero is Byron. The plot follows the outlines of her own life, and +all the characters were counterparts of living people whom she knew. +Calantha, the heroine, representing Lady Caroline, is married to Lord +Avondale, or William Lamb, better known as Lord Melbourne, at one time +Premier of England. Lord and Lady Avondale are very happy, until +Glenarvon, "the spirit of evil," appears and dazzles Calantha. Twice +she is about to elope with him, but the thought of her husband and +children keeps her back. They part, and for a time tender _billets-doux_ +pass between them, until Calantha receives a cruel letter from +Glenarvon, in which he bids her leave him in peace. Other well-known +people appeared in the book. Lord Holland was the Great Nabob, Lady +Holland was the Princess of Madagascar, and Samuel Rogers was the Yellow +Hyena or the Pale Poet. The novel had also a moral purpose; it was +intended to show the danger of a life devoted to pleasure and fashion. + +Of course the book made a sensation. Lady Caroline Lamb, the daughter of +Earl Bessborough, the granddaughter of Earl Spencer, related to nearly +all the great houses of England, had all her life followed every impulse +of a too susceptible imagination. Her infatuation for Lord Byron had +long been a theme for gossip throughout London. She invited him +constantly to her home; went to assemblies in his carriage; and, if he +were invited to parties to which she was not, walked the streets to meet +him; she confided to every chance acquaintance that she was dying of +love for him. Yet, as one reads of this affair, one suspects that this +devotion was nothing more than the infatuation of a high-strung nature +for the hero of a romance. In writing to a friend about her husband, +she says, "He was privy to my affair with Lord Byron and laughed at it." +On her death-bed she said of her husband, "But remember, the only noble +fellow I ever met with was William Lamb." + +A month after her death, Lord Melbourne wrote a sketch of her life for +the _Literary Gazette_. In this he said: + +"Her character it is difficult to analyse, because, owing to the extreme +susceptibility of her imagination, and the unhesitating and rapid manner +in which she followed its impulses, her conduct was one perpetual +kaleidoscope of changes.... To the poor she was invariably +charitable--she was more: in spite of her ordinary thoughtlessness of +self, for them she had consideration as well as generosity, and delicacy +no less than relief. For her friends she had a ready and active love; +for her enemies no hatred: never perhaps was there a human being who had +less malevolence; as all her errors hurt only herself, so against +herself only were levelled her accusation and reproach." + +How far Byron was in earnest in this tragicomedy is more difficult to +determine. In one letter to her he writes: "I was and am yours, freely +and entirely, to obey, to honour, to love, and fly with you, where, +when, and how yourself might and may determine." That Byron was piqued +when he read the book, his letter to Moore proves: "By the way, I +suppose you have seen _Glenarvon_. It seems to me if the authoress had +written the truth--the whole truth--the romance would not only have been +more romantic, but more entertaining. As for the likeness, the picture +can't be good; I did not sit long enough." It was not pleasing to Lord +Byron's vanity to appear in her book as the spirit of evil, beside her +husband, a high-minded gentleman, ready to sacrifice for his friends +everything "but his honour and integrity." + +Notwithstanding the humorous elements in the connection of Lord Byron +and Lady Caroline Lamb, the story is pathetic. His poetic personality +attracted her as the light does the poor moth. Disraeli caricatured her +in the character of Mrs. Felix Lorraine in _Vivian Grey_, and introduced +her into _Venetia_ under the title of Lady Monteagle, where he made much +of her love for the poet Cadurcis, otherwise Lord Byron. + +Lady Caroline Lamb wrote two other novels, but they are of no value. In +her third, _Ada Reis_, considered her best, she introduced Bulwer as the +good spirit. + +The little poem written by Lady Caroline Lamb on the day fixed for her +departure from Brocket Hall, after it had been decided that she was to +live in retirement away from her husband and son, shows tenderness and +poetic feeling: + + They dance--they sing--they bless the day, + I weep the while--and well I may: + Husband, nor child, to greet me come, + Without a friend--without a home: + I sit beneath my favourite tree, + Sing then, my little birds, to me, + In music, love, and liberty. + +At the time that the British public was smiling graciously, even if a +little humorously, upon Lady Caroline Lamb, and was lionising Lord +Byron, it spurned from its presence with the greatest disdain Percy and +Mary Shelley. Even after the death of Shelley, when Mary returned to +London with herself and son to support, it received her as the prodigal +daughter for whom the crumbs from the rich man's table must suffice. + +Mary Shelley had inherited from her mother the world's frown. Mary +Wollstonecraft Godwin had been, the greater part of her life, at +variance with society. She was the author, as has been said, of the +_Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, and had for a long time been an +opponent of marriage, chiefly because the civil laws pertaining to it +deprived both husband and wife of their proper liberty. Her bitter +experience with Imlay had, however, so modified her views on this +latter subject that she became the wife of William Godwin a short time +before the birth of their daughter Mary, who in after years became Mrs. +Shelley. Although her mother died at her birth, Mary Godwin was deeply +imbued with her theories of life. She had read her books, and had often +heard her father express the same views concerning the bondage of +marriage and its uselessness. Her elopement with Shelley while his wife +Harriet was still living gains a certain sanction from the fact that she +plighted her troth to him at her mother's grave. After the sad death of +Harriet, however, Shelley and Mary Godwin conceded to the world's +opinion, and were legally married. But the anger of society was not +appeased, and, even after both had become famous, it continued to ignore +the poet Shelley and his gifted wife. + +At the age of nineteen Mrs. Shelley was led to write her first novel. +Mr. and Mrs. Shelley and Byron were spending the summer of 1816 in the +mountains of Switzerland. Continuous rain kept them in-doors, where they +passed the time in reading ghost stories. At the suggestion of Byron, +each one agreed to write a blood-curdling tale. It is one of the strange +freaks of invention that this young girl succeeded where Shelley and +Byron failed. Byron wrote a fragment of a story which was printed with +_Mazeppa_. Shelley also began a story, but when he had reduced his +characters to a most pitiable condition, he wearied of them and could +devise no way to bring the tale to a fitting conclusion. After listening +to a conversation between the two poets upon the possibilities of +science discovering the secrets of life, the story known as +_Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus_ shaped itself in Mary's mind. + +_Frankenstein_ is one of those novels that defy the critic. Everyone +recognises that the letters written by Captain Walton to his sister in +which he tells of his meeting with Frankenstein, and repeats to her the +story he has just heard from his guest, makes an awkward introduction to +the real narrative. Yet all this part about Captain Walton and his crew +was added at the suggestion of Shelley after the rest of the story had +been written. But the narrative of Frankenstein is so powerful, so real, +that, once read, it can never be forgotten. Mrs. Shelley wrote in the +introduction of the edition of 1839 that, before writing it, she was +trying to think of a story, "one that would speak to the mysterious +fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror--one to make the reader +dread to look round, to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the +heart." That she has done this the experience of every reader will +prove. + +But the story has a greater hold on the imagination than this alone +would give it. The monster created by Frankenstein is closely related to +our own human nature. "My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love +and sympathy," he says, "and, when wrenched by misery to vice and +hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture, +such as you cannot even imagine." There is a wonderful blending of good +and evil in this demon, and, while the magnitude of his crimes makes us +shudder, his wrongs and his loneliness awaken our pity. "The fallen +angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had +friends and associates in his desolation; I am quite alone," the monster +complains to his creator. Who can forget the scene where he watches +Frankenstein at work making for him the companion that he had promised? +Perhaps sadder than the story of the monster is that of Frankenstein, +who, led by a desire to widen human knowledge, finds that the fulfilment +of his lofty ambition has brought only a curse to mankind. + +In 1823, Mary Shelley published a second novel, _Valperga_, so named +from a castle and small independent territory near Lucca. Castruccio +Castracani, whose life Machiavelli has told, is the hero of the story. +The greatest soldier and satirist of his times, the man of the novel is +considered inferior to the man of history. Mrs. Shelley had read +broadly before beginning the book, and she has described minutely the +customs of the age about which she is writing. Shelley pronounced it "a +living and moving picture of an age almost forgotten." + +The interest centres in the two heroines, Euthanasia, Countess of +Valperga, and Beatrice, Prophetess of Ferrara. Strong, intellectual, and +passionate, not until the time of George Eliot did women of this type +become prominent in fiction. Euthanasia, a Guelph and a Florentine, with +a soul "adapted for the reception of all good," was betrothed to the +youth Castruccio, whom she at that time loved. Later, when his character +deteriorated under the influence of selfish ambition, she ceased to love +him, and said, "He cast off humanity, honesty, honourable feeling, all +that I prize." Castruccio belonged to the Ghibelines, so that the story +of their love is intertwined with the struggle between these two parties +in Italy. + +But more beautiful than the intellectual character of Euthanasia, is the +spiritual one of Beatrice, the adopted daughter of the bishop of +Ferrara, who is regarded with feelings of reverence by her countrymen, +because of her prophetic powers. Pure and deeply religious, she accepted +all the suggestions of her mind as a message from God. When Castruccio +came to Ferrara and was entertained by the bishop as the prince and +liberator of his country, she believed that together they could +accomplish much for her beloved country: "She prayed to the Virgin to +inspire her; and, again giving herself up to reverie, she wove a subtle +web, whose materials she believed heavenly, but which were indeed stolen +from the glowing wings of love." No wonder she believed the dictates of +her own heart, she whose words the superstition of the age had so often +declared miraculous. She was barely seventeen and she loved for the +first time. How pathetic is her disillusionment when Castruccio bade her +farewell for a season, as he was about to leave Ferrara. She had +believed that the Holy Spirit had brought Castruccio to her that by the +union of his manly qualities and her divine attributes some great work +might be fulfilled. But as he left her, he spoke only of earthly +happiness: + +"It was her heart, her whole soul she had given; her understanding, her +prophetic powers, all the little universe that with her ardent spirit +she grasped and possessed, she had surrendered, fully, and without +reserve; but, alas! the most worthless part alone had been accepted, and +the rest cast as dust upon the winds." + +Afterwards, when she wandered forth a beggar, and was rescued by +Euthanasia, she exclaimed to her: + +"You either worship a useless shadow, or a fiend in the clothing of a +God." + +The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft could fully sympathise with +Beatrice. In the grief, almost madness, with which Beatrice realises her +self-deception, there are traces of Frankenstein. Perhaps no problem +plucked from the tree of good and evil was so ever-present to Mary +Shelley as why misery so often follows an obedience to the highest +dictates of the soul. Both her father and mother had experienced this; +and she and Shelley had tasted of the same bitter fruit. In the analysis +of Beatrice's emotions Mrs. Shelley shows herself akin to Charlotte +Brontë. + +Three years after the death of Shelley, she published _The Last Man_. It +relates to England in the year 2073 when, the king having abdicated his +throne, England had become a republic. Soon after this, however a +pestilence fell upon the people, which drove them upon the continent, +where they travelled southward, until only one man remained. The plot is +clumsy; the characters are abstractions. + +But the feelings of the author, written in clear letters on every page, +are a valuable addition to the history of the poet Shelley and his wife. +Besides her fresh sorrow for her husband, Byron had died only the year +before. Her mind was brooding on the days the three had spent together. +Her grief was too recent to be shaken from her mind or lost sight of in +her imaginative work. Shelley, and the scenes she had looked on with +him, the conversations between him and his friends, creep in on every +page. Lionel Verney, the Last Man, is the supposed narrator of the +story. He thus describes Adrian, the son of the king: "A tall, slim, +fair boy, with a physiognomy expressive of the excess of sensibility and +refinement, stood before me; the morning sunbeams tinged with gold his +silken hair, and spread light and glory over his beaming countenance ... +he seemed like an inspired musician, who struck, with unerring skill, +the 'lyre of mind,' and produced thence divinest harmony.... His slight +frame was over informed by the soul that dwelt within.... He was gay as +a lark carrolling from its skiey tower.... The young and inexperienced +did not understand the lofty severity of his moral views, and disliked +him as a being different from themselves." Shelley, of course, was the +original of this picture. Lord Byron suggested the character of Lord +Raymond: "The earth was spread out as a highway for him; the heavens +built up as a canopy for him." "Every trait spoke predominate self-will; +his smile was pleasing, though disdain too often curled his lips--lips +which to female eyes were the very throne of beauty and love.... Thus +full of contradictions, unbending yet haughty, gentle yet fierce, +tender and again neglectful, he by some strange art found easy entrance +to the admiration and affection of women; now caressing and now +tyrannising over them according to his mood, but in every change a +despot." + +A large part of the three volumes is taken up with a characterisation of +Adrian and Lord Raymond, the latter of whom falls when fighting for the +Greeks. How impossible it was for her to rid her mind of her own sorrow +is shown at the end of the third volume, where Adrian is drowned, and +Lionel Verney is left alone. He thus says of his friend: + +"All I had possessed of this world's goods, of happiness, knowledge, or +virtue--I owed to him. He had, in his person, his intellect, and rare +qualities, given a glory to my life, which without him it had never +known. Beyond all other beings he had taught me that goodness, pure and +simple, can be an attribute of man." + +Mrs. Shelley made the great mistake of writing this novel in the first +person. _The Last Man_, who is telling the story, although he has the +name of Lionel, is most assuredly of the female sex. The friendship +between him and Adrian is not the friendship of man for man, but rather +the love of man and woman. + +Mrs. Shelley's next novel, _Lodore_, written in 1835, thirteen years +after the death of her husband, had a better outlined plot and more +definite characters. But again it echoes the past. Lord Byron's unhappy +married relations and Shelley's troubles with Harriet are blended in the +story, Lord Byron furnishing the character in some respects of Lord +Lodore, while his wife, Cornelia Santerre, resembles both Harriet and +Lady Byron. Lady Santerre, the mother of Cornelia, augments the trouble +between Lord and Lady Lodore, and, contrary to the evident intentions of +the writer, the reader's sympathies are largely with Cornelia and Lady +Santerre. When Lodore wishes Cornelia to go to America to save him from +disgrace, Lady Santerre objects to her daughter's accompanying him: + +"He will soon grow tired of playing the tragic hero on a stage +surrounded by no spectators; he will discover the folly of his conduct; +he will return, and plead for forgiveness, and feel that he is too +fortunate in a wife who has preserved her own conduct free from censure +and remark while he has made himself a laughing-stock to all." + +These words strangely bring to mind Lord Byron as having evoked them. + +Again Lady Lodore's letter to her husband at the time of his departure +to America reminds one of Lady Byron: + +"If heaven have blessings for the coldly egotistical, the unfeeling +despot, may those blessings be yours; but do not dare to interfere with +emotions too pure, too disinterested for you ever to understand. Give me +my child, and fear neither my interference nor resentment." + +Lady Lodore's character changes in the book, and becomes more like that +of Harriet Shelley. As Mrs. Shelley wrote, fragments of the past +evidently came into her mind and influenced her pen, and her original +conception of the characters was forgotten. Clorinda, the beautiful, +eloquent, and passionate Neapolitan, was drawn from Emilia Viviani, who +had suggested to Shelley his poem _Epipsychidion_, while both Horatio +Saville, who had "no thought but for the nobler creations of the soul, +and the discernment of the sublime laws of God and nature," and his +cousin Villiers, also an enthusiastic worshipper of nature, possessed +many of Shelley's qualities. + +Besides two other novels of no value, _Perkin Warbeck_ and _Falkner_, +Mrs. Shelley wrote numerous short stories for the annuals, at that time +so much in vogue. In 1891, these were collected and edited with an +appreciative criticism by Sir Richard Garnett. Many of them have the +intensity and sustained interest of Frankenstein. + +After the death of her husband, grief and trouble dimmed Mrs. Shelley's +imagination. But the pale student Frankenstein, the monster he created, +and the beautiful priestess, Beatrice, three strong conceptions, testify +to the genius of Mary Shelley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Mrs. Gore. Mrs. Bray + + +During the second decade of the nineteenth century, while Scott was +writing some of the most powerful of the Waverley novels, a host of new +writers sprang into popular notice. John Galt, William Harrison +Ainsworth, and G. P. R. James began their endless series of historical +romances, while in 1827, Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli introduced +to the reading public, as the representatives of fashionable society, +_Falkland_ and _Vivian Grey_. The decade was prolific also in novels by +women. Jane Austen had died in 1817, but Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, +the Porters, Amelia Opie, Miss Ferrier, Mrs. Shelley and Miss Mitford +were still writing; during this period, Mrs. S. C. Hall began her work +in imitation of Miss Mitford, while Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Bray took up the +goose-quill, piled reams of paper on their desks, and began their +literary careers. + +About a score of years before Thackeray tickled English society with +pictures of its own snobbery, Mrs. Gore, a young woman, wife of an +officer in the Life Guards, saw through the many affectations of the +polite world, and in a series of novels, pointed out its ludicrous +pretences with lively wit. Mrs. Gore has suffered, however, from the +multiplicity of her writings. During the years between 1823, when she +wrote her first novel, _Theresa Marchmont_, and 1850, when, quite blind, +she retired from the world of letters, she published two hundred volumes +of novels, plays, and poems. Her plots are often hastily constructed, +her men and women dimly outlined, but she is never dull. No writer since +Congreve has so many sparkling lines. She has been likened to Horace, +and if we compare her wit with that of Thackeray, who by the way +ridiculed her in his _Novels by Eminent Hands_, her humour has qualities +of old Falernian, beside which his too frequently has the bitter flavour +of old English beer. The Englishman is inclined to take his wit, like +his sports, too seriously, and to mingle with it a little of the spice +of envy. Mrs. Gore has none of this, however, and skims along the +surface of fashionable life with a grace and ease and humour extremely +diverting. + +Her writings are so voluminous that one can only make excerpts at +random. One of the liveliest is _Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb_, +a humorous satire on _Vivian Grey_. "The arch-coxcomb of his +coxcombical time" had become a coxcomb at the age of six months, when he +first saw himself in the mirror, from which time his nurse stopped his +crying by tossing him in front of a looking-glass. His curls made him so +attractive that at six years of age he was admitted to his mother's +boudoir, from which his red-headed brother was excluded, and he +superseded the spaniel in her ladyship's carriage. With the loss of his +curls went the loss of favour. He did not prosper at school, and was +rusticated after a year's residence at Oxford. Here he formed an +acquaintance which helped him much in the world of coxcombry. Though +this man was not well born, he was an admitted leader among gentlemen. +Cecil soon discovered that his high social position was due entirely to +his impertinence, and he made this wise observation: "Impudence is the +quality of a footman; impertinence of his master. Impudence is a thing +to be rebutted with brute force; impertinence requires wit for the +putting down." So he matched his wit with this man's impertinence, and +they became sworn friends. + +When Cecil went to London, he found that "people had supped full of +horrors, during the Revolution, and were now devoted to elegiac +measures. My languid smile and hazel eyes were the very thing to settle +the business of the devoted beings left for execution." Of course all +the women fell desperately in love with him. "I had always a +predisposition to woman-slaughter, with extenuating circumstances, as +well as a stirring consciousness of the exterminating power," he +explains to us. Like Childe Harold and Vivian Grey, this coxcomb soon +became weary of London, and travelled through Europe in an indolent way, +for after all it was his chief pleasure "to lie in an airy French bed, +showered over with blue convolvulus," and read tender billets from the +ladies. This book was an excellent antidote to the Byronic fever, then +at its height. + +In her _Sketches of English Character_, Mrs. Gore describes different +men who were in her time to be met with in the social life of London. +The Dining-Out Man thus speaks for himself: + +"Ill-natured people fancy that the life of a dining-out man is a life of +corn, wine, and oil; that all he has to do is to eat, drink and be +merry. I only know that, had I been aware in the onset of life, of all I +should have to go through in my vocation, I would have chosen some +easier calling. I would have studied law, physic, or divinity." + +In the sketches of _The Clubman_, she assigns John Bull's dislike of +ladies' society as the reason for the many clubs in the English +metropolis: + +"While admitting woman to be a divinity, he chooses to conceal his idol +in the Holy of Holies of domestic life. Duly to enjoy the society of +Mrs. Bull, he chooses a smoking tureen, and cod's head and shoulders to +intervene between them, and their olive branches to be around their +table.... For John adores woman in the singular, and hates her in the +plural; John loves, but does not like. Woman is the object of his +passion, rarely of his regard. There is nothing in the gaiety of heart +or sprightliness of intellect of the weaker sex which he considers an +addition to society. To him women are an interruption to business and +pleasure." + +Mrs. Gore could also unveil hypocrisy. In her novel _Preferment, or My +Uncle the Earl_, she thus describes a worthy ornament of the church: + +"The Dean of Darbington glided along his golden railroad--'mild as +moonbeams'--soft as a swansdown muff--insinuating as a silken eared +spaniel. His conciliating arguments were whispered in a tone suitable to +the sick chamber of a nervous hypochondriac, and his strain of argument +resembled its potations of thin, weak, well-sweetened barley water. +While Dr. Macnab succeeded with _his_ congregation by kicking and +bullying them along the path of grace, Dr. Nicewig held out his finger +with a coaxing air and gentle chirrup, like a bird-fancier decoying a +canary." + +A critic in the _Westminster Review_ in 1831 thus writes of her: + +"Mrs. Gore has a perfectly feminine knowledge of all the weaknesses and +absurdities of an ordinary man of fashion, following the routine of +London life in the season. She unmasks his selfishness with admirable +acuteness; she exposes his unromantic egotism, with delightful +sauciness. Her portraits of women are also executed with great spirit; +but not with the same truth. In transferring men to her canvas, she has +relied upon the faculty of observation, usually fine and vigilant in a +woman; but when portraying her own sex, the authoress has perhaps looked +within; and the study of the internal operations of the human machine is +a far more complex affair, and requires far more extensive experience, +and also different faculties, from those necessary to acquire a perfect +knowledge of the appearances on the surface of humanity." + +Notwithstanding Mrs. Gore touches so lightly on the surface of life, +certain definite sociological and moral principles underlie her work. +She is as democratic as Charlotte Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, Miss Mitford, or +even William Godwin. She asserts again and again that men of inferior +birth with the same opportunities of education may be as intellectual +and refined as the sons of a "hundred earls." Those members of the +aristocracy who fail to recognise the true worth of intelligent men of +plebeian origin are made very ridiculous. In her novel _Pin Money_, +published in 1831, how very funny is Lady Derenzy's speech when she +learns that a soap manufacturer is being fêted in fashionable society! +Lady Derenzy, by the way, is the social law-giver to her little coterie: + +"It is now some years," said she, "since the independence of America, +and the influence exerted in this country by the return of a large body +of enlightened men, habituated to the demoralising spectacle of an +equalisation of rank, was supposed to exert a pernicious influence on +the minds of the secondary and inferior classes of Great Britain. At +that critical moment I whispered to my husband, 'Derenzy! be true to +yourself, and the world will be true to you. Let the aristocracy of +Great Britain unite in support of the Order; and it will maintain its +ground against the universe!' Lord Derenzy took my advice, and the +country was saved. + +"Again, when the assemblage of the States General of France,--the fatal +tocsin of the revolution,--spread consternation and horror throughout +the higher ranks of every European country, and the very name of the +guillotine operated like a spell on the British peerage, I whispered to +my husband, 'Derenzy! be true to yourself, and the world will be true +to you. Let the aristocracy of Great Britain unite in support of the +Order; and it will maintain its ground against the universe!' Again Lord +Derenzy took my advice, and again the country was saved." + +Mrs. Gore has so cleverly mingled the so-called self-made men and men of +inherited rank in her books that one cannot distinguish between them. In +_The Soldier of Lyons_, one of her early novels, which furnished Bulwer +with the plot of his play _The Lady of Lyons_, the hero, a peasant by +birth and a soldier of the Republic, enters into a marriage contract +with the widow of a French marquis, in order to save her from the +guillotine. This lady of high rank learns to respect her husband, and +becomes the suitor for his love. In _The Heir of Selwood_, a former +field marshal of Napoleon, a peasant, devotes his energies to improving +the condition of the poor on the estate he had won by his services to +his country, and at his death his tenants erected a column to his +memory, bearing the inscription: "Most dear to God, to the king, and to +the people." + +Mrs. Gore constantly asserts that the only distinctions between men are +based upon character and ability. She says of one of her characters, a +poet: + +"His footing in society is no longer dependent upon the caprice of a +drawing-room. It is the security of that intellectual power which forces +the world to bend the knee. The poor, dreamy boy, self-taught, +self-aided, had risen into power. He wields a pen. And the pen in our +age weighs heavier in the social scale than a sword of a Norman baron." + +Mrs. Gore lived at a time when the introduction of machinery and the +establishment of large factories was producing a new type of man: men +like Burtonshaw in _The Hamiltons_: "A practical, matter-of-fact +individual, with plenty of money and plenty of intellect; the sort of +human power-loom one would back to work wonders against a dawdling old +spinning-jenny like Lord Tottenham." + +A critic in the _Westminster Review_ wrote in 1832 as follows: + +"The wealthy merchant or money-dealer is represented, perhaps for the +first time in fiction, as a man of true dignity, self-respect, +education, and thorough integrity, agreeable in manners, refined in +tastes, and content with, if not proud of, his position in society." + +Mrs. Gore was called by her contemporaries the novelist of the new era. + +She was also interested in the great ethical questions of life. She did +not write of the love of youthful heroes and more youthful heroines. She +often traced the consequences of sin on character and destiny. In _The +Heir of Selwood_, she is as stern a moralist in tracing the effects of +vice as George Eliot. _The Banker's Wife_, the scene of which is laid +among the merchants of London, is a serious study of the sorrows of a +life devoted to outward show. The picture of the banker among his +guests, whose wealth, unknown to them, he has squandered, reminds one of +the days before the final overthrow of Dombey and Son. + +Mrs. Gore was a woman of genius. With the stern principles of the +puritan, and feelings as republican as the mountain-born Swiss, she was +never controversial. She saw the absurdities of certain hollow +pretensions of society, but her good-humoured raillery offended no one. +If her two hundred volumes could be weeded of their verbiage by some +devotee of literature, and reduced to ten or fifteen, they would be not +only entertaining reading, but would throw strong lights upon the +_élite_ of London in the days when hair-oils, pomades, and strong +perfumes were the distinguishing marks of the Quality. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Gore owed her place in English letters to native wit and ability; +Mrs. Bray owed hers to hard study and painstaking endeavour. She was one +of the few women who followed the style of writing brought to perfection +by Sir Walter Scott. + +Mrs. Bray became imbued with the historic spirit early in life. Her +first husband was Charles Stothard, the author of _Monumental Effigies +of Great Britain_, with whom she travelled through Brittany, Normandy +and Flanders. While he made careful drawings of the ruins of castles and +abbeys, she read Froissart's _Chronicles_, visited the places which he +has described, and traced out among the people any surviving customs +which he has recorded. + +Two novels were the result of these studies. _De Foix, or Sketches of +the Manners and Customs of the Fourteenth Century_, is a story of Gaston +Phoebus, Count de Foix, whose court Froissart visited, and of whom he +wrote: "To speak briefly and truly, the Count de Foix was perfect in +person and in mind; and no contemporary prince could be compared with +him for sense, honour, or liberality." _The White Hoods_, a name by +which the citizens of Ghent were denominated, is laid in the +Netherlands, and tells of the conflict between the court and the +citizens of Ghent, under Philip von Artaveld, during the reign of +Charles the Fifth of France and the early kingship of Charles the Sixth. +As in all her novels, the accuracy for which she strove in the most +minute details retards the action of the plot, but adds to the +historical value of these romances. + +For the tragic romance of _The Talba, or Moor of Portugal_, Mrs. Bray, +as she had not visited the Spanish peninsula, depended upon her reading. +The plot was suggested to her by a picture of Ines de Castro in the +Royal Academy. It represented the gruesome coronation of the corpse of +Ines de Castro, six years after her death. Thus did her husband, Don +Pedro, show honour to his wife, who had been put to death while he, then +a prince, was serving in the army of Portugal. The whole story is a +fitting theme for tragedy, and was at one time dramatised by Mary +Mitford. In order to give her mind the proper elevation for the +impassioned scenes of this novel, it was Mrs. Bray's custom to read a +chapter of Isaiah or Job each day before beginning to write. + +After the death of her first husband, Mrs. Bray married the vicar of +Tavistock, and for thirty-five years lived in the vicarage of that town. +Here she became interested in the legends of Devon and Cornwall, and +wrote five novels founded upon the history of tradition of those +counties. _Henry de Pomeroy_ opens at the abbey of Tavistock, one of the +oldest abbeys in England, during the reign of Richard Coeur-de-Leon. +The scene of _Fitz of Fitz-Ford_ is also laid at Tavistock, but during +the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Another story of the reign of the Virgin +Queen was _Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak: a Legend of Devon_. _Courtenay of +Walreddon: a Romance of the West_ takes place in the reign of Charles +the First, about the commencement of the Civil War. A gypsy girl, by +name Cinderella Small, is introduced into the story, and has been highly +praised. The character, as well as some of the stories told of her, was +drawn from life. + +But the most famous of these novels is _Trelawny of Trelawne; or the +Prophecy: a Legend of Cornwall_, a story of the rebellion of Monmouth. +Like most of the romances upon English themes, the private history of +the family furnishes the romance, the historical happenings being used +only for the setting: the usual method of Scott. The hero of this novel +is Sir Jonathan Trelawny, one of the seven bishops who were committed to +the Tower by James the Second. When he was arrested by the king's +command, the Cornish men rose one and all, and marched as far as Exeter, +in their way to extort his liberation. Trelawny is a popular hero of +Cornwall, as the following lines testify: + + A good sword and a trusty hand! + A merry heart and true! + King James's men shall understand + What Cornish lads can do! + + And have they fixed the where and when? + And shall Trelawny die? + Here's twenty thousand Cornish men + Will know the reason why! + + Out spake their captain brave and bold, + A merry wight was he-- + "If London Tower were Michael's hold, + We'll set Trelawny free!" + + We'll cross the Tamar, land to land, + The Severn is no stay, + All side to side, and hand to hand, + And who shall say us nay? + + And when we come to London Wall, + A pleasant sight to view, + Come forth! Come forth! Ye cowards all, + To better men than you! + + Trelawny he's in keep and hold-- + Trelawny he may die, + But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold + Will know the reason why! + +Like Scott, Mrs. Bray went about with notebook in hand, and noted the +features of the landscape, the details of a ruin, or the furniture or +armour of the period of which she was writing. It is this painstaking +work, together with the fact that she had access to places and books +that were then denied to the ordinary reader, and chose subjects and +places not before treated in fiction, that gives permanent value to her +writings. She also had the proper feeling for the past, and dignity and +elevation of style. Sometimes an entire page of her romances might be +attributed to the pen of the "Mighty Wizard." Perhaps the highest +compliment that can be paid her as an artist is that she resembles Scott +when he is nodding. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Julia Pardoe. Mrs. Trollope. Harriet Martineau + + +Somewhere between the second and third decades of the nineteenth +century, the modern novel was born. The romances of the twenties are, +for the most part, old-fashioned in tone, and speak of an earlier age; +but in the thirties, the modern novel, with its exact reproduction of +places, customs, and speech, and strong local flavour, was full-grown. +Dickens, under the name of Boz, was contributing his sketches to _The +Old Monthly Magazine_ and the _Evening Chronicle_. Thackeray was +beginning to contribute articles to _Fraser's Magazine_, established in +1830. Annuals and monthlies sprang up in the night, and paid large sums +for long and short stories. The thirst for them was unquenchable. Many +women were supporting themselves by writing tales which did not live +beyond the year of their publication. Mrs. Marsh was writing stories of +fashionable life varied by historical romances. Mrs. Crowe wrote +stories of fashionable life varied by supernatural romances and tales of +adventure. In _The Story of Lilly Dawson_, published in 1847, the +heroine was captured and brought up by smugglers, and the gradual +development of her character was traced; thus giving to the story a +psychological interest. Lady Blessington earned two thousand pounds a +year for twenty years by novels and short stories of fashionable life. +Lady Blessington had a European reputation as a court beauty and a +brilliant and witty conversationalist. This with the coronet must have +helped to sell her books. They do not contain even a sentence that holds +the attention. A friend said of her, "Her genius lay in her tongue; her +pen paralysed it." More enduring work in fiction was done by Julia +Pardoe, Mrs. Trollope, and Harriet Martineau. + + * * * * * + +The novels of Julia Pardoe, like those of Mrs. Bray, owe their value, +not to their intrinsic merit, but to the comparatively unknown places to +which she introduces her readers. She accompanied her father, Major +Pardoe, to Constantinople, where they were entertained by natives of +high position, to whom they had letters of introduction, and Miss Pardoe +was the guest of their wives in the harem. Her knowledge of the mode of +life and habits of thought of Turkish women is considered second only +to that of Mary Wortley Montagu. + +The material for her story _The Romance of the Harem_ was obtained +during her visits to these Turkish ladies. In this she has caught the +languid, heavily perfumed atmosphere of the Orient. Besides the main +plot, stories of adventure and love are related which beguiled the +slowly passing hours of the inmates of the seraglio. Some of them might +have been told by Schehezerhade, if she had wished to add to her +entertainment of _The Thousand and One Nights_. + +After Miss Pardoe's return to England, she wrote a series of fashionable +novels, inferior to many of those of Mrs. Gore, and better than the best +of those by Lady Blessington. _Confessions of a Pretty Woman_, _The +Jealous Wife_, and _The Rival Beauties_ were the most popular of these, +although they have long since been forgotten. + +In 1849, Miss Pardoe published a collection of stories under the title +_Flies in Amber_. The title, she explains in the preface, was suggested +by a belief of the Orientals that amber comes from the sea, and attracts +about it all insects, which find in it both a prison and a posthumous +existence. Some of the stories of this collection were gathered in her +travels. _An Adventure in Bithynia_, _The Magyar and the Moslem, or an +Hungarian Legend_, and the _Yèrè-Batan-Seraï_, which means +Swallowed-up Palace, the great subterranean ruin of Constantinople, have +the interest which always attaches to tales gathered by travellers in +unfrequented places. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Frances Trollope, the mother of the more famous author Anthony +Trollope, like Miss Pardoe, found material for stories in unfamiliar +places. Mrs. Trollope had the nature of the pioneer. With her family, +she sought our western lands of the Mississippi Valley, where the virgin +forest had resounded to the axe of the first settler but a short time +before. She wrote the first book of any note describing the manners of +the Americans; the first strong novel calling attention to the evils of +slavery in our Southern States; and the first one describing graphically +the white slavery in the cotton-mills of Lancashire; and she is, +perhaps, the only writer who began a long literary career at the age of +fifty-two. + +On the fourth of November, 1827, Mrs. Trollope with her three children +sailed from London, and, after about seven weeks on the sea, arrived on +Christmas Day at the mouth of the Mississippi. After a brief visit in +New Orleans, this party of English travellers sailed up the river to +Memphis, where, remote from the comforts of civilisation, they abode for +a time under the direction of Mrs. Wright, an English lecturer who had +come to America for the avowed purpose of proving the perfect equality +of the black and white races. But Mrs. Trollope and her family soon +tired of life in the wilderness, and sought Cincinnati, at that time a +small city of wooden houses, not over thirty years of age. After two +years' residence in Cincinnati, she went by stage to Baltimore, visited +Philadelphia and New York, and returned to England, after a sojourn of +three and a half years in this country. + +During her residence in the United States, she made copious notes of +what she saw and heard. These she published the year after her return to +England, under the title _Domestic Manners of the Americans_. At once +the pens of all the critics were let loose upon the author. Her American +critics declared that she knew nothing about them or their country; and +their English friends refused to believe that the people of America had +such shocking bad manners. + +Mrs. Trollope reported truthfully what she saw and heard. But a frontier +city is made up of people gathered from the four corners of the earth: +each family is a law unto itself; so that the speeches Mrs. Trollope +carefully set down, and the customs she depicted, were often +peculiarities of individuals rather than of a community. But she has +left a vivid picture of American life in the twenties, less exaggerated +than the picture Charles Dickens gave of it in the forties. Mrs. +Trollope's attitude is no more hostile than his, but he is more +entertaining. He held us up to ridicule and laughed at us; she seriously +pointed out our errors in the hope that we might amend. She is slightly +inconsistent at times, for, while asserting the equality of whites and +blacks, she as bitterly resented the equality of white master and white +servant. Her purpose in writing this book was to warn her own countrymen +of the evils which must follow a government of the many. + +Although she never takes the broad view, but always the narrow and +partial one, her book gives a good picture of the everyday life and +habits of thought of the next generation to that which had fought and +won the American Revolution. The white heat of republican fervour, so +obnoxious to a European, welded the nation together as one people, and +filled their hearts with a religious reverence for the constitution. She +meant them as a reproach, but we read these words with pride: "I never +heard from anyone a single disparaging word against their government." + +Mrs. Trollope has been described by her friends as a refined woman of +charming personality. But as soon as she began to write, she donned her +armour and proclaimed her hostility either to her hero or to the larger +part of the characters of the book. This method is dangerous to art. +Even the genius of Thackeray is lessened by his lack of sympathy. + +In 1833 Mrs. Trollope published her first novel, _The Refugee in +America_. It is the story of an English lord who has fled to America to +escape English justice. He and his friends have settled in Rochester, +New York. It was written for the sole purpose of describing the manners +of the people of our Eastern cities. The author's attitude toward them +is well illustrated by a conversation between Caroline, the young +English girl, and her American _protégée_, Emily. After a dinner in +Washington, Caroline exclaims to her friend: + +"'Oh, my own Emily, you must not live and die where such things be.' + +"Emily sighed as she answered, 'I am born to it, Miss Gordon.' + +"'But hardly bred to it. We have caught you young, and we have spoiled +you for ever as an American lady.'" + +Three years later Mrs. Trollope published her strongest novel, _The Life +and Adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_. This is a powerful +picture of early life on the Mississippi; it was the first novel since +Mrs. Behn's _Oroonoko_ which called attention to the evils of African +slavery. It is marred, however, by want of sympathy with the community +she is describing. Mr. Jonathan Whitlaw Senior has "squat in the bush," +an expression to which Mrs. Trollope objects, but which brings to mind +at once the log cabin in the forest clearing, and the muscular, uncouth +pioneer. Jonathan furnishes firewood to the Mississippi steamers, and by +this means gains sufficient wealth to carry out his life's ambition: to +set up a store in Natchez, and to own "niggers." But the life of a +pioneer has made Jonathan as cunning as a fox. This cunning his son +Jonathan, the hero of the story, has inherited to the full. As a +slave-owner he is as grasping and cruel as Legree, whom Mrs. Stowe +immortalised some years later. His character, though drawn with strength +and vigour, is inconsistent. He is a miser, yet he is a gambler and a +spendthrift, qualities not often found together. He is not a true +representative of the son of a pioneer. Clio Whitlaw, the aunt of the +hero, belongs more truly to her environment. One suspects the English +family at Cincinnati had received neighbourly kindnesses from women like +her. With her physical strength and great courage she is kind and +neighbourly to all who need her help. The sad story of Edward Bligh, the +young Kentuckian who preached the gospel to the slaves, the victim of +lynch law, a word dreaded even then, is as thrilling as parts of _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_. + +Besides _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_, Mrs. Trollope created two other +characters that will cause her name to live as long as those of William +Harrison Ainsworth or G. P. R. James. The coarse scheming widow Barnaby +is the heroine of three novels, _Widow Barnaby_, _The Widow Married_, +and _The Widow Wedded, or the Barnabys in America_. In the last book +Mrs. Trollope somewhat humorously pays off her scores against her +American critics, who had dubbed her a cockney, unfamiliar with good +society in either England or America. The Widow Barnaby, who has come to +New Orleans with her husband after his little gambling ways have made +residence in London unpleasant, decides to earn some money by writing a +book on America. She describes the Americans, not as they are, but as +they think they are. She listens to all their boasts about themselves +and country, and puts it faithfully in her book. Of course they like it +and she becomes the literary lion of America. + +Anthony Trollope, in his book _An Autobiography_, said of his mother's +books on America: "Her volumes were very bitter; but they were very +clever, and they saved the family from ruin." She is also given the +credit of having improved the manners of American society. Whenever a +"gentleman" at his club put his feet on the table, or indulged in any +liberty of which she would not have approved, others cried, "Trollope! +Trollope! Trollope!" + +The _Vicar of Wrexhill_, the scene of which is laid in England, is an +attack on the evangelical clergy in the Episcopal Church. The vicar is +no truer to the great body of evangelical preachers than Jonathan +Jefferson Whitlaw is true to the great body of slave-owners. There is +the same exaggeration to prove a theory. Evangelical preaching is +harmful, is the theorem, and a man is selected to prove it who in any +walk of life would be a hypocrite and libertine. The book has many +interesting situations. The vicar's proposal to the rich widow, one of +his parishioners, is clever: "Let me henceforth be as the shield and +buckler that shall guard thee; so that thou shalt not be afraid for any +terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day." And he promises, +if she will marry him, to lead her "sinful children into the life +everlasting." No other book has shown, as this does, the powerful effect +upon sensitive natures of this kind of preaching. One feels that the +followers of the Reverend Vicar were under the influence of hypnotic +suggestion, and that their awakening from this spell was like the +awakening from a trance. + +Mrs. Trollope was actuated by humanitarian motives. This was not as +usual then as since Dickens popularised the humanitarian novel. Only +three years after he wrote _Sketches by Boz_, Mrs. Trollope wrote _The +Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong_, the story of a boy employed +in the mills of Lancashire. Negro slavery in the South, even as Mrs. +Trollope saw it, was a happy state of existence compared with child +slavery in the mills of Ashleigh and Deep Valley, Lancashire, where the +children were driven to work by the lash in the morning, and were +crippled by the "Billy roller," the name of the stick by which they were +beaten for inattention to their work during the day. If the truth of +these horrors were not attested by other writers of this time, one would +doubt the possibility of their existence in the same land and at the +same time in which Wordsworth was writing of the beauties of his own +childhood, where the river Derwent mingled its murmurs with his nurse's +song. + +Mrs. Trollope assailed injustice with a powerful pen. Woman's moral +nature is truer and more sensitive than man's. Even if her sympathies +cloud her judgment, it is better than that her judgment should reason +away her sympathies. Neither has woman in her philanthropy contented +herself with broad principles which would help all and therefore reach +none. The dusky slave in the cotton-fields, the pale-faced child in the +cotton-mills, have alike touched the hearts of women, who by their pens +have been able to awaken the conscience of a nation. The horror of child +labour wrung from Mrs. Browning the heart-felt poem, _The Cry of the +Children_. The four strong novels proclaiming the tyranny of the whites +over the blacks, _Oronooko_, _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_, _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_, and _The Hour and the Man_, were written by women. + + * * * * * + +The name of Harriet Martineau was a familiar one in every household +during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. Like Mrs. Trollope she +was a woman of fearless honesty. But Harriet Martineau was never the +_raconteur_, she was first the educator. She wrote story after story to +teach lessons in political and social science. Her method of work, as +set forth in her autobiography, was peculiar, and the result is not +uninteresting. In her _Political Economy Tales_, she selected certain +principles which she wished to set forth, and embodied each principle in +a character. The operations of these principles furnished the plot of +the story. Besides the illustrations of the principles by the +characters, the laws were discussed in conversation, and thus the lesson +was taught. In the story _Brooke and Brooke Farm_, she made use of an +expression which Ruskin almost paraphrased: "The whole nation, the whole +world, is obliged to him who makes corn grow where it never grew +before; and yet more to him who makes two ears ripen where only one +ripened before." In the tale _A Manchester Strike_, factory life and the +problems that face the working men are set forth, the aim being to show +that work and wages depend upon the great laws of supply and demand. + +Miss Martineau wrote two novels. _Deerbrook_, in 1839, was modelled on +_Our Village_. The village doctor, Mr. Hope, is the central figure. Firm +in his convictions, he loses the favour of the leading families, and +through their influence he is deprived of his practice. A fever, +however, sweeps over the place and his former enemies beg, not in vain, +for his skilful services. A double love story runs through the book. +Mrs. Rowland, a scheming woman, is the most cleverly drawn of the +characters, and was evidently suggested by some of Miss Edgeworth's +fashionable ladies. + +Harriet Martineau also visited America, but some years later than Mrs. +Trollope, when the slavery agitation was at its height. As she had +written upon the evils of slavery before she left England, she was +invited to attend a meeting of the Abolitionists in Boston. She accepted +this invitation, and expressed there her abhorrence of slavery. After +this she received letters from some of the citizens of the pro-slavery +States, threatening her life if she entered their domain. This +naturally threw her entirely with the Abolition party, and she wrote +many articles to help their cause. + +Miss Martineau's second novel, _The Hour and the Man_, grew out of her +sympathy and belief in the coloured race. Toussaint de L'Ouverture, the +devoted slave, soldier, liberator, and martyr, is the hero. Every scene +in which this wonderful black figures is vividly written. Many of the +minor incidents are but slightly sketched, and many of the minor +characters elude the reader's grasp. How far this book is a truthful +portrayal of the negro cannot be judged until the "race problem" is +surveyed with unprejudiced eyes. Then and not until then will its place +in literature be assigned. She gives the same characterisation of this +hero of St. Domingo as does Wendell Phillips in his wonderful speech of +which the following is the peroration: + +"But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History +will put Phocian for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for +England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consummate +flower of our earlier civilisation, then, dipping her pen in the +sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the +soldier, the statesman, the martyr, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE." + +_The Hour and the Man_ was published in 1840, and was warmly received by +the Abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison, after reading it, wrote the +following sonnet to the author: + + England! I grant that thou dost justly boast + Of splendid geniuses beyond compare; + Men great and gallant,--women good and fair,-- + Skilled in all arts, and filling every post + Of learning, science, fame,--a mighty host! + Poets divine, and benefactors rare,-- + Statesmen,--philosophers,--and they who dare + Boldly to explore heaven's vast and boundless coast, + To one alone I dedicate this rhyme, + Whose virtues with a starry lustre glow, + Whose heart is large, whose spirit is sublime, + The friend of liberty, of wrong the Foe: + Long be inscribed upon the roll of time + The name, the worth, the works of HARRIET MARTINEAU. + +Miss Martineau wrote on a variety of subjects, and generally held a view +contrary to the accepted one. She wrote upon mesmerism, positivism, +atheism, which she professed, and after each book warriors armed with +pens sprang up to assail the author. But she had many friends, even +among those who were most bitter against her doctrines. One wrote of +her, "There is the fine, honest, solid, North-country element in her." +R. Brimley Johnson in _English Prose_, edited by Craik in 1896, said of +her writings: + +"Her gift to literature was for her own generation. She is the exponent +of the infant century in many branches of thought:--its eager and +sanguine philanthropy, its awakening interest in history and science, +its rigid and prosaic philosophy. But her genuine humanity and real +moral earnestness give a value to her more personal utterances, which do +not lose their charm with the lapse of time." + +Harriet Martineau's name and personality will be remembered in history +after her books have been forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The Brontës + + +During the middle of the nineteenth century, English fiction largely +depicted manners and customs of different classes and different parts of +England. While Dickens, Thackeray, Disraeli, and Mrs. Gaskell were +writing realistic novels, romantic fiction found noble exponents in the +Brontë sisters. + +The quiet life lived by the Brontës in the vicarage on the edge of the +village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire seems prosaic to the +casual observer, but it had many weird elements of romanticism. The +purple moors stretching away behind the grey stone vicarage, the grey +sky, and the sun always half-frowning, and never sporting with nature +here as it does over the mountains in Westmoreland, make thought earnest +and deep, and suggest the mystery which surrounds human life. It is a +serious country, that of the Wharf valley; the people are a serious +people, silent and observant. The Brontës were a direct outcome of this +country and people, only in them their severity and silence were kindled +into life by a Celtic imagination. + +What a group of people lived within those grey stone walls! As the vicar +and his four motherless children gathered about their simple board, +while they engaged in conversation with each other or with the curate, +what scenes would have been enacted in that quiet room if the fancies +teeming in each childish brain could have been suddenly endowed with +life! How could even a dull curate, with an undercurrent of addition and +subtraction running in his brain, based upon his meagre salary and +economical expenditures, have been insensible to the thought with which +the very atmosphere must have been surcharged? The brother, Patrick +Branwell, found his audience in the public house, and delighted it with +his wit and conversation. The sisters, after their household tasks were +done, wrote their stories and often read them to each other. + +But fate had chosen her darkest hues in which to weave the warp and woof +of their lives. The wild dissipations and wilder talk of their brother +Branwell clouded the imaginations of his sisters, and in a short time +death was a constant presence in their midst. In September, 1848, +Branwell died at the age of thirty; in less than three months, Emily +died at the age of twenty-nine; and in five-months, Anne died at the +age of twenty-seven; and Charlotte, the eldest, was left alone with her +father. During the remaining six years of her life, her compensation for +her loss of companionship was her writing. Not long after the death of +her sisters, Mr. Nicholls proposed to her; was refused; proposed again +and was accepted; then came the separation caused by Mr. Brontë's +hostility to the marriage; then the marriage in the church under whose +pavement so many members of her family were buried, grim attendants of +her wedding; then the nine short months of married life; then the death +of the last of the Brontë sisters at the age of thirty-nine. Mr. Brontë +outlived her only six years, but he was the last of his family. Six +children had been born to Patrick Brontë, not one survived him. Forty +years had eliminated a family which yet lives through the imaginative +powers of the three daughters who reached years of maturity. + +Of the three sisters, the least is known of Emily, and her one novel, +_Wuthering Heights_, reveals nothing of herself. Not one of the +characters thought or felt as did the quiet, retiring author. Yet so +great was her dramatic power that her brother Branwell was credited with +the book, as it was deemed impossible for a woman to have conceived the +character of Heathcliff. And yet this arch-fiend of literature was +created by the daughter of a country vicar, whose only journeys from +home had been to schools, either as pupil or governess. Charlotte Brontë +has thrown but little light upon her sister's character. She says that +she loved animals and the moors, but was cold toward people and repelled +any attempt to win her confidence. The author of _Jane Eyre_ seems +neither to have understood Emily's nature nor her genius. Yet we are +told that Emily was constantly seen with her arms around the gentle +Anne, and that they were inseparable companions. If Anne Brontë could +have lived longer, she would have thrown much light upon the character +of the author of _Wuthering Heights_. But now, as we read of her brief +life and her one novel, she seems to belong to the great dramatists +rather than to the novelists, to the poets who live apart from the world +and commune only with the people of their own creating. + +_Wuthering Heights_ stands alone in the history of prose fiction. It +belongs to the wild region of romanticism, but it imitates no book, and +has never been copied. No incident, no character, no description, can be +traced to the influence of any other book, but the atmosphere is that of +the West Riding of Yorkshire. + +Charlotte Brontë thus speaks of it in a letter to a friend: + +"_Wuthering Heights_ was hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out +of homely materials. The statuary found a granite block on a solitary +moor; gazing thereon, he saw how from the crag might be elicited a head, +savage, swart, sinister: a form moulded with at least one element of +grandeur--power. He wrought with a rude chisel, and from no model but +the vision of his meditations. With time and labour, the crag took human +shape, and there it stands, colossal, dark and frowning, half statue, +half rock, in the former sense, terrible and goblin-like; in the latter, +almost beautiful, for its colouring is of mellow grey, and moorland moss +clothes it, and heath, with its blooming bells and balmy fragrance, +grows faithfully close to the giant's foot." + +All of this is true, but it gives only the general outlines, nothing of +the inner meaning. + +In all literature, there is not so repulsive a villain as Heathcliff, +the offspring of the gipsies. Insensible to kindness, but resentful of +wrong; hard, scheming, indomitable in resolution; quick to put off the +avenging of an injury until he can make his revenge serve his purpose; +the personification of strength and power; he is yet capable of a love +stronger than his hate. Heathcliff is so repulsive that he does not +attract, and drawn with such skill that, as has been said, he has not +been imitated. + +But the strong, dark picture of Heathcliff makes us forget that +Catharine is the centre of the story. The night that Mr. Lockwood spends +at Wuthering Heights he reads her books, and her spirit appears to him +crying for entrance at the window, and complaining that she has wandered +on the moors for twenty years. While living, she represents a human soul +balanced between heaven and hell, loved by both the powers of darkness +and of light. But in her earliest years, she had loved Heathcliff; their +thoughts, their affections were intertwined, and they were welded, as it +were, into one soul, not at first by love, but by their common hatred of +Hindley Earnshaw. When Catharine meets Edgar Linton, her finer nature +asserts itself. She loves him as a being from another world; he gives +her the first glimpse of real goodness, kindness, and gentleness. She +catches through him a gleam of Paradise. But she knows how transient +this is, and says to her old nurse, Nelly Dean: + +"I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in +heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so +low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry +Heathcliff now; and that, not because he's handsome, no, Nelly, but +because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his +and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from +lightning, or frost from fire." + +But Catharine is married to Edgar, and for three years her better nature +triumphs. Heathcliff is away; Edgar Linton loves her truly, and their +home is happy. Catharine alone knows that that house is not her true +place of abode. She alone knows that Edgar has not touched her inner +nature. She knows that her real self, the self that must abide through +the centuries, is indissolubly linked with another's. And when +Heathcliff returns, the intensity of her joy, her almost unearthly +delight, she neither can nor attempts to conceal. Not once is she +deceived as to his true nature. She knows the depth of his depravity, +and thus warns the girl who has fallen in love with him: + +"He's not a rough diamond--a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic;--he's +a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to him, let this or that +enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous or cruel to harm them,--I +say, let them alone, because I should hate them to be wronged: and he'd +crush you, like a sparrow's egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome +charge." + +But Catharine's nature is akin to his, and it is with almost brutal +delight that she helps forward this marriage, when she finds the girl +does not trust her word. + +Then comes the strife between Edgar and Heathcliff for the soul, so it +seems, of Catharine. There is no jealousy on Edgar's part. The book +never stoops to anything so earthly. Edgar loathes Heathcliff and cannot +understand Catharine's affection for her early playmate. Although she +never for a moment hesitates in her allegiance to Heathcliff, it is this +strife that causes her death. The strife between good and evil wears her +out. + +Even after her death, her soul cannot leave this earth. It is still +joined to Heathcliff's. It resembles here the story of Paola and +Francesca. Catharine is waiting for him and his only delight is in her +haunting presence. Heathcliff cannot be accused of keeping Catharine +from Paradise. In life she would not let him from her presence, and she +clings to him now. It is the story of _Undine_ reversed. Undine gained a +soul through a mortal's love. And we feel toward the close that +Catharine, selfish and passionate as she was, is yet Heathcliff's better +spirit. Catharine while living had prevented Heathcliff from killing her +brother. Although he loved Catharine better than himself, and would have +made any sacrifice at her request, he feels no more tenderness for her +offspring than for his own. But the spirit of Catharine lived in her +child and nephew, and when they looked at him with her eyes, he had no +pleasure in his revenge upon the son of Hindley nor on the daughter of +Edgar Linton. + +In the tenderness that once or twice comes over Heathcliff as he looks +at Hareton Earnshaw, there is a ray of promise that he may be redeemed. +And in the final outcome of the story, one can but hope that Catharine's +restless spirit, as it watches and waits for Heathcliff, is striving to +bring some blessing upon her house. The awakening of a better nature in +Hareton, through his love for Catharine's daughter, is a pretty, tender +idyl. The book is like a Greek tragedy in this, that at the close the +atmosphere has been purged; the sun once more shines through the windows +of Wuthering Heights; hatred is dead, and love reigns supreme. + +_Wuthering Heights_ is a novel not of externals, not of character, but +of something deeper, more vital. The love of Catharine and Heathcliff +has no physical basis; it is the union of souls evil, but not material. +It is the sex of spirit, not of body, that adds its might to the +resistless force that unites these two. Notwithstanding the external +pictures are so distinct that a painter could transfer them to his +canvas, the book is a soul-tragedy. + +_Wuthering Heights_ cannot be classed among the so-called popular +novels. It has appealed to the poets rather than to the readers of +fiction. It has received the warmest praise from the poet Swinburne. In +_The Athenæum_ of June 16, 1883, he thus eulogises it: + +"Now in _Wuthering Heights_ this one thing needful ['logical and moral +certitude'] is as perfectly and triumphantly attained as in _King Lear_ +or _The Duchess of Malfi_, in _The Bride of Lammermoor_ or _Notre-Dame +de Paris_. From the first we breathe the fresh dark air of tragic +passion and presage; and to the last the changing wind and flying +sunlight are in keeping with the stormy promise of the dawn. There is no +monotony, there is no repetition, but there is no discord. This is the +first and last necessity, the foundation of all labour and the crown of +all success, for a poem worthy of the name; and this it is that +distinguishes the hand of Emily from the hand of Charlotte Brontë. All +the works of the elder sister are rich in poetic spirit, poetic feeling, +and poetic detail; but the younger sister's work is essentially and +definitely a poem in the fullest and most positive sense of the term." + +At the close of this essay he writes: + +"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts; it is +certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in +the whole world of poetry or prose." + +All that we know of Emily Brontë's nature is consistent, such as we +would expect of the author of _Wuthering Heights_. The first stanza of +her last poem, written but a short time before her death, reveals her +strength of will and faith: + + No coward soul is mine, + No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere: + I see Heaven's glories shine, + And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. + +These lines evoked the following tribute from Matthew Arnold: + + ----she + (How shall I sing her?) whose soul + Knew no fellow for might, + Passion, vehemence, grief, + Daring, since Byron died, + That world-famed son of fire--she, who sank + Baffled, unknown, self-consumed; + Whose too bold dying song + Stirr'd, like a clarion-blast, my soul. + +The great books of prose fiction have been for the most part the work of +mature years. The lyric poets burst into rhapsody at the dawn of life; +but the powers of the novelist have ripened more slowly. The novelists +have done better work after thirty-five than at an earlier age but few +of them have written a classic at the age of twenty-eight, as did Emily +Brontë. + + * * * * * + +Anne Brontë's fame has been both augmented and dimmed by the greater +genius of her two sisters. She is remembered principally as one of the +Brontës, so that her books have been oftener reprinted and more +extensively read than their actual merit would warrant. In comparison +with the greater genius of Charlotte and Emily, her writings have been +declared void of interest, and without any ray of the brilliancy which +distinguishes their books. This latter statement is not true. Anne +Brontë did not have their imaginative power, but she reproduced what she +had seen and learned of life with conscientious devotion to truth. +_Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_, Anne Brontë's first book, were +published together in three volumes so as to meet the popular demand +that novels, like the graces, should appear in threes. It is a +photographic representation of the life of a governess in England during +the forties. Agnes's courage in determining to augment the family income +by seeking a position as governess; the high hopes with which she enters +upon her first position; her conscientious resolve to do her full +Christian duty to the spoiled children of the Bloomfields; her dismissal +and sad return home; her second position in the family of Mr. Murray, a +country squire; the two daughters, one determined to make a fine match +for herself, the other a perfect hoyden without a thought beyond the +horses and dogs; the disregard of the truth in both; Mr. Hatfield, the +minister, who cared only for the county families among his +parishioners; Miss Murray's marriage for position and the unhappiness +that followed it--form a series of photographs, which only a sensitive, +responsive nature could have produced. The contrast between the gentle, +refined governess, and the coarse natures upon whom she is dependent, is +well shown, although there is no attempt on the part of the author to +assert any superiority of one over the other. We have many books in +which the shrinking governess is described from the point of view of the +family or one of their guests, but here the governess of an English +fox-hunting squire has spoken for herself; she has described her trials +and the constant self-sacrifice which is demanded of her without +bitterness, and in a kindly spirit withal, and for that reason the book +is a valuable addition to the history of the life and manners of the +century. + +_The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_, her second novel, was a peculiar book to +have shaped itself in the brain of the gentle youngest daughter of the +Vicar of Haworth. But Anne Brontë had seen phases of life which must +have sorely wounded her pure spirit. She had been governess at Thorp +Green, where her brother Branwell was tutor, and where he formed that +unfortunate attachment for the wife of his employer, which, with the +help of liquor and opium, deranged his mind. Anne wrote in her diary at +this time, "I have had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of experience +of human nature." As we picture Anne Brontë, with her light brown hair, +violet-blue eyes, shaded by pencilled eyebrows, and transparent +complexion, she seems a spirit of goodness and purity made to behold +daily a depth of evil in the nature of one dear to her, which fills her +with wonderment and horror. + +Mr. Huntingdon of Wildfell Hall was drawn from personal observation of +her brother. She wrote with minuteness, because she believed it her duty +to hold up his life as a warning to others. The gradual change in Mr. +Huntingdon from the happy confident lover to the ruined debauchee is +well traced; the story of his infatuation for the wife of his friend, so +reckless that he attempted no concealment, is realistic in the extreme. +But what a change in the novel! A hundred years before, Huntingdon would +have made a fine hero of romance, but here he is disgraced to the +position of chief villain, and the reader feels for him only pity and +loathing. Probably a man's pen would have touched his errors more +lightly, but Anne Brontë painted him as he appeared to her. The author +attributes such a character as Huntingdon's to false education, and +makes her heroine say: + +"As for my son--if I thought he would grow up to be what you call a man +of the world,--one that has 'seen life,' and glories in his experience, +even though he should so far profit by it as to sober down, at length, +into a useful and respected member of society--I would rather that he +died to-morrow--rather a thousand times." + +Notwithstanding its defects--and it is full of them judged from the +stand-point of art--_Wildfell Hall_ is a book of promise. In the +descriptions of the Hall, the mystery that surrounds its mistress, the +rumours of her unknown lover, the heathclad hills and the desolate +fields, there are romantic elements that remind one of _Wuthering +Heights_. The book is more faulty than _Agnes Grey_, but the writer had +a deeper vision of life with its weaknesses and its depths of human +passion. If years had mellowed that "undreamt-of experience" of Thorp +Green, Anne Brontë with her truthful observation and sympathetic insight +into character might have written a classic. The material out of which +_Wildfell Hall_ was wrought, under a more mature mind, with a better +grasp of the whole and a better regard for proportion, would have made a +novel worthy of a place beside _Jane Eyre_. + + * * * * * + +That English fiction has produced sweeter and more varied fruit by being +grafted with the novels of women no one who gives the matter a serious +thought can for a moment doubt. One distinctive phase of woman's mind +made its way but slowly in the English novel. Women are by nature +introspective. They read character and are quick to grasp the motives +and passions that underlie action. The French women have again and again +embodied this view of human nature in their novels, which are +essentially of the inner life. _The Princess of Clèves_ by Madame de +Lafayette, written in 1678, is the first book in which all the conflicts +are those of the emotions; here the great triumph is that which a woman +wins over her own heart. Madame de Tencin in _Mémoires du Comte de +Comminges_ represents her hero and heroine under the influence of two +great passions, religion and love. Madame de Souza, Madame Cottin, +Madame de Genlis, Madame de Staël, and George Sand wrote novels of the +inner life. The Princess of Clèves with noble dignity controls her +emotion and at last conquers it. The pages of George Sand thrill with +unbridled passion. + +The English women, however, are more repressed by nature than the +French, and the English novel of the inner life advanced but slowly. The +emotions of the long-forgotten Sidney Biddulph are minutely told. _A +Simple Story_ by Mrs. Inchbald is a psychological novel. Amelia Opie, +Mary Brunton, and Mrs. Shelley wrote novels of the inner life. + +But _Jane Eyre_ is the first English novel which in sustained intensity +of emotion can compare with the novels of Madame de Staël or George +Sand. The style partakes of the high-wrought character of the heroine, +and the reader is whirled along in the vortex of feeling until he too +partakes of every varied mood of the characters, and closes the book +fevered and exhausted. It is one of the ironies of fate that Charlotte +Brontë with her strong pro-Anglican prejudices should belong to the +school of these French women. But there is the same difference between +their writings that there is between the French temperament and the +English. Even in the wildest moments of Jane Eyre her passion is rather +like the river Wharf when it has overflowed its banks; while theirs is +like the mountain torrent that bears all down before it. + +Much of the passion that Charlotte Brontë describes is pure imagination. +She wrote freely to her friends about herself and the people whom she +knew. The three rejected suitors caused her only a little amusement. Her +love for Mr. Nicholls, whom she afterwards married, was little warmer +than respect. We could as easily weave a romance out of Jane Austen's +remark that the poet Crabbe was a man whom she could marry as to make a +love story out of Charlotte's relations to Monseiur Héger, who figures +as the hero in three of her books. Here she is greater than the French +women writers: they knew by experience what they wrote; she by innate +genius. + +Perhaps no novelist ever had more meagre materials out of which to make +four novels than had Charlotte Brontë: her sisters, Monsieur and Madame +Héger, the curates, and herself; a small village in Yorkshire, two +boarding schools, two positions as governess, and a short time spent in +a school in Brussels. Compare this range with the material that Scott, +Dickens, or Thackeray had--then judge how much of the elixir of genius +was given to each. + +The early pages of _Jane Eyre_, the first novel which Charlotte Brontë +published, describe Lowood Institution, a place modelled upon Cowan's +Bridge School. The two teachers, the kind Miss Temple and the cruel Miss +Scatcherd, were drawn from two instructors there at the time the Brontës +attended it. Helen Burns, so untidy but so meek in spirit, was Maria +Brontë, the eldest sister, who died at the age of eleven, probably as a +result of the poor food and harsh treatment of the school. With what +calm she replies to Jane, when she would sympathise with her for an +unjust punishment: + +"I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, +things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should +learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I +cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements. This is all very +provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is naturally neat, punctual, and +particular." + +Helen Burns, with her calm submission, and Jane Eyre, with her +rebellious spirit, are finely contrasted. Jane's passionate resentment +of the punishments which Miss Scatcherd inflicted on Helen was genuine. +Charlotte was nine years old when she left Cowan's Bridge School, but +her suppressed anger at the punishments which her sister Maria had +received there flashed out years afterwards in _Jane Eyre_. + +Charlotte Brontë was writing _Jane Eyre_ at the same time that Emily and +Anne were writing _Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_. As they read +from their manuscripts, Charlotte objected to beauty as a requisite of a +heroine, and said, "I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as +myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours." So arose the +conception of Jane Eyre. If the slight, shy, Yorkshire governess, +without beauty or charm of manner, had appeared before the imagination +of any novelist either male or female, at that time, and asked to be +admitted into the house of fiction, she would have been refused entrance +as cruelly as Hannah shut the door in the face of Jane Eyre, when she +came to her dripping with the rain, cold and weak from two nights' +exposure on the moor, and asking for charity. But Charlotte Brontë, +with a woman's sympathetic eye made doubly penetrating and loving by +genius, chose this outcast from romance as a heroine, a woman without +beauty or charm, and boldly proclaimed that moral beauty was superior to +physical beauty, and that the attraction of one soul for another lay +quite beyond the pale of external form. + +Jane Eyre is not, however, Charlotte Brontë, as has been so often +asserted. She would not have gone back to comfort Mr. Rochester, after +she had once left the Hall. One suspects that he was drawn from reading, +since the author hardly trusted her knowledge of worldly men to draw a +fitting lover for Jane. Mr. Rochester is very much the same type of man +as Mr. B., whom Pamela married, and the independent Jane addresses him +as "My Master," an expression constantly on the lips of Pamela. Yet +Rochester leaves a permanent impression on the mind, for he represents a +strong man at war with destiny. He conceals his marriage because of his +determination to conquer fate. It is pointed out by critics to-day that +he is quite an impossible character, that he is, in fact, a woman's +hero. It is well to remember, however, that the author of _Jane Eyre_ +was believed at first to have been a man, as it was thought impossible +for a man like Rochester to have been conceived in a woman's brain, and +not until Mrs. Gaskell's life of the Brontës was published was +Charlotte's character as a modest woman established. But men have +repudiated Mr. Rochester, and so we must accept their judgment. + +The heroine of her next novel, _Shirley_, was suggested by Emily Brontë. +Only Shirley was not Emily. Shirley could not have conceived even the +dim outlines of _Wuthering Heights_, but she had many of the strong +qualities of Emily, and these, mingled with the softer stuff of her own +nature, make her contradictory but charming, and Louis Moore, an +agreeable tutor whom Emily Brontë would have quite despised, naturally +falls in love with his wayward pupil, as they pore over books in the +school-room. Shirley is contrasted with Caroline Helstone, of whom Mrs. +Humphry Ward says: "For delicacy, poetry, divination, charm, Caroline +stands supreme among the women of Miss Brontë's gallery." Even if other +admirers of Miss Brontë deny her this eminence, she certainly possesses +all the qualities, rare among heroines, which Mrs. Ward has attributed +to her. + +In many of the conversations between Shirley and Caroline, there are +reminders of what passed between the Brontë sisters in their own home. +The relative excellence of men and women novelists always interested +them. Shirley evidently expressed Charlotte's own views in the +following words: + +"If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; +but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about +women. They do not read them in a true light; they misapprehend them, +both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, +half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend. Then to hear them +fall into ecstasies with each other's creations, worshipping the heroine +of such a poem--novel--drama, thinking it fine,--divine! Fine and divine +it may be, but often quite artificial--false as the rose in my best +bonnet there. If I spoke all I think on this point, if I gave my real +opinion of some first-rate female characters in first-rate works, where +should I be? Dead under a cairn of avenging stones in half-an-hour." + +"After all," says Caroline, "authors' heroines are almost as good as +authoresses' heroes." + +"Not at all," Shirley replies. "Women read men more truly than men read +women. I'll prove that in a magazine article some day when I've time; +only it will never be inserted; it will be 'declined with thanks,' and +left for me at the publisher's." + +The greater part of the men in _Shirley_ were drawn from life, and are +as true to their sex as were the heroines of Dickens, Thackeray, or +Disraeli, who were then writing. As for the curates, they are perfect. +No man's hand could have executed their portraits so skilfully. They +have no more real use in the story than they seem to have had in their +respective parishes. But this daughter of a country vicar, who knew +nothing of the London cockney, who was then enlivening the books of +Dickens, seized upon the funniest people she knew, the curates, and they +have been immortalised. + +There is often in Charlotte Brontë's novels a separation of plot and +character, as if they formed themselves independently in her mind. This +is especially true of _Shirley_. At that time the attention of England +was directed toward the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire. +Mrs. Trollope and Harriet Martineau had written upon conditions of life +there. In _Sybil_ Disraeli considered broadly the underlying causes of +the misery of the operatives. Mrs. Gaskell wrote _Mary Barton_, a story +of Manchester life, the same year that Charlotte Brontë was writing +_Shirley_. The plot of the last named is laid in the early years of the +nineteenth century, and turns upon the opposition of the workmen to the +introduction of machinery. But the plot and characters are constantly +getting in each other's way and tripping each other up. Though the book +is full of defects, one cannot judge it harshly. When she began the +funny description of the curates' tea-drinking, her brother and sisters +were with her. Before it was finished, she and her father were left +alone. But at this time the public demanded melodrama. Fires, drownings, +and death-beds were popular methods of untying hard knots and of playing +upon the emotions of the reader. She, like Mrs. Gaskell, constantly +resorts to outside circumstances to help put things to rights when they +are drifting in the wrong direction, circumstances which Jane Austen +would not have admitted in a book of hers. + +Before Charlotte Brontë wrote _Jane Eyre_ or _Shirley_, she had finished +_The Professor_, and offered it to different publishers, but it was +rejected by all. Finally she herself lost faith in it, and transformed +it into the beautiful story of _Villette_, where the school of Madame +and Monseiur Héger in Brussels is made immortal. In the plot of +_Villette_, as in the plot of _Jane Eyre_ and of _Shirley_, many +extraneous events happen which are either unexpected or unnecessary. +Like _Jane Eyre_, _Villette_ is steeped in the romantic spirit, but the +hard light of reason again dispels the illusion. In the management of +the supernatural Charlotte is far inferior to Emily. The explanation of +the nun in _Villette_ is even childish. It is the mistake made by Mrs. +Radcliffe, by nearly all writers of the age of reason. They give a ray, +as it were, a whisper from the mysterious world which surrounds that +which is manifest to our everyday senses. Be it the fourth dimension, or +what not, we catch for a moment a message from this other world, which, +even indistinct, still tells us that this visible world is not all, that +there is something beyond. Then, with hard common-sense, they deny their +own message, and, so doing, deny to us the world of mystery, and leave +us only the material world in which to believe. Not so Emily Brontë. Not +so Scott or Shakespeare. We may believe in Hamlet's ghost or not; we may +believe or not in the White Lady of Avenel; we may believe or not that +Catharine's soul hovered near Heathcliff. But we are still left with a +belief in the life after death, and still believe in something beyond +experience, and still grope to find those things in heaven and earth of +which philosophy does not dream. + +But the characters, not the plot, remain in the mind, after reading +_Villette_. Madame Beck, whose prototype was Madame Héger, is as clever +as Cardinal Wolsey or Cardinal Richelieu; but she uses all her +diplomatic skill in the management of a lady's school, which, under her +ever watchful eye, with the aid of duplicate keys to the trunks and +drawers of the teachers and pupils, runs without friction of any kind. +Lucy Snowe, the English teacher in _Villette_, is far more pleasing than +Jane Eyre; she is not so passionate, but her view of life is deeper and +broader, and consequently kinder. And there is Paul Emanuel. Who would +have believed the rejected professor would have grown into that scholar +of middle age? He is so distinctly the foreigner in showing every +emotion under which he is labouring. How pathetic and how lovable he is +on the day of his fête when he thinks that the English governess has +forgotten him, and has not brought even a flower to make the day happier +for him! So fretful in little things, so heroic in large things, with so +many faults which every pupil can see, but with so many virtues, frank +even about his little deceptions, he is a lovable man. But many of Miss +Brontë's readers do not find Paul Emanuel as delightful as Paulina, the +womanly little girl who grows into the childlike woman. She is as +sensitive as the mimosa plant to the people about her. Every event of +her childhood, all the people she cared for then, remained indelibly +imprinted on her mind, so that, with her, friendship and love are strong +and abiding. + +Notwithstanding their many defects, Charlotte Brontë's novels have left +a permanent impression upon English fiction and have won an acknowledged +place among English classics. She first made a minute analysis of the +varying emotions of men and women, and noted the strange, unaccountable +attractions and repulsions which everybody has experienced. Paulina, a +girl of six, is happy at the feet of Graham, a boy of sixteen, although +he is unconscious of her presence. And so instance after instance can be +given of affinities and antipathies which lie beyond human reason. She, +like her sister Emily, though with less clear vision, was searching for +the hidden sources of human feeling and human action. + +Charlotte Brontë wrote to a friend: + +"I always through my whole life liked to penetrate to the real truth; I +like seeking the goddess in her temple, and handling the veil, and +daring the dread glance." + +Her truthfulness in painting emotion, which to her own generation seemed +most daring, even coarse, has given an abiding quality to her work. And +besides she created Paulina and Paul Emanuel. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Mrs. Gaskell + + +Ever since Eve gave Adam of the forbidden fruit, "and he did eat," the +relative position of the sexes has rankled in the heart of man. The sons +of Adam proclaim loudly that they were given dominion over the earth and +all that the earth contained; but they have been ever ready to follow +blindly the beckoning finger of some fair daughter of Eve. Perhaps it is +a consciousness of this domination of the weaker sex that has led man to +proclaim in such loud tones his mastery over woman, having some doubts +of its being recognised by her unless asserted in bold language. At a +time when the novels of women received as warm a welcome from the public +and as large checks from the publishers as those of men, a writer whose +sex need not be given thus discussed their relative merits: + +"What is woman, regarded as a literary worker? Simply an inferior +animal, educated as an inferior animal. And what is man? He is a +superior being, educated by a superior being. So how can they ever be +equal in that particular line?" + +Granted the premises, there can be but one conclusion. + +The perfect assurance with which men have asserted their own sufficiency +in all lines of art would be amusing if it had not been so disastrous in +distorting and warping at least three of them: music, the drama, and +prose fiction. As slow as the growth of spirituality, has been the +recognition of woman's mental and moral power. It seems almost +incredible that not many years ago only male voices were heard in places +of amusement. Deep, rich, full, and sonorous, no one disputes the beauty +of the male chorus; but modern opera would be impossible without the +soprano and alto voices, and Madame Patti, Madame Sembrich, and Madame +Lehman have proved that in natural gifts and in the technique of art +women are not inferior to their brethren. + +By the same slow process women have won recognition on the stage. Even +in Shakespeare's time men saw no reason why women should acquire the +histrionic art. Imagine Juliet played by a boy! Yet Essex, Leicester, +Southampton, in the boxes, the groundlings in the pit, and Ben Jonson +sitting as critic of all, were well satisfied with it, for they were +used to it, just as men have accepted the heroines of their own novels, +though every woman they meet is a refutation of their truth. It only +needed a woman in a woman's part to open the eyes of the audience to all +they had missed before. Not until the Restoration, did any woman appear +on the English stage. The following lines given in the prologue written +for the revival of _Othello_, in which the part of Desdemona was acted +for the first time by a woman, show how quick critics were to see the +folly of the old custom: + + For to speak truth, men act, that are between + Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen, + With bone so large, and nerve so uncompliant, + When you call Desdemona, enter Giant. + +As we cannot conceive of the English stage without such women as Mrs. +Siddons, Charlotte Cushman, and Ellen Terry, so we cannot conceive of +the English novel without such writers as Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, +Mary Mitford, the Brontës, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot, each one +of whom carried some phase of the novel to so high a point that she has +stood pre-eminent in her own particular line. Too often we confuse art +with its subject-matter. If it requires as much skill to give interest +to the everyday occurrences of the home as to the thrilling adventures +abroad; to depict the life of women as the life of men; to reveal the +joys and sorrows of a woman's heart as the exultations and griefs of +man's; then these women deserve a place equal to that held by +Richardson, Fielding, Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray. Their art, as their +subject-matter, is different. With the exception of George Eliot, they +have not virility with its strength and power, but they have femininity, +no less strong and powerful, a quality possessed by Scott, but by no +other of these masculine writers, with the possible exception of +Dickens, and in him it is a femininity, which tends to run to +sentimentalism, a different characteristic. + + * * * * * + +Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most feminine of writers, is so well known +as the author of _Cranford_, that delightful village whose only +gentleman dies early in the story, that many of its readers do not know +that its author was better known by her contemporaries through her +humanitarian novels; in which she discussed the great problems that face +the poor. + +Mrs. Gaskell, whose maiden name was Stevenson, was born in Chelsea in +1810. She spent the greater part of her childhood and girlhood at the +home of her mother's family, Knutsford in Cheshire, the place she +afterward made famous under the name of Cranford. In 1832, she married +the Reverend William Gaskell, minister of the Unitarian chapel in +Manchester, and that city became her home. She took an active interest +in all the affairs of the city, and constantly visited the poor. Her +husband's father, besides being the professor of English History and +Literature in Manchester New College, a Unitarian institution, was a +manufacturer; thus Mrs. Gaskell had the opportunity of hearing both +sides of the controversy which was then waging between labour and +capital. + +In the early forties, there was much suffering among the "mill-hands"; +many were dying of starvation, and consequently there were many strikes +and uprisings. These conditions led to her writing her first novel, +_Mary Barton_. The book was written during the years 1845-1847, although +it was not published until 1848. The nucleus of it, Mrs. Gaskell wrote +to a friend, was John Barton. Since she herself was constantly wondering +at the inequalities of fortune, which permitted some to starve, while +others had abundance, how must it affect an ignorant man, himself on the +verge of starvation, and filled with pity for the sufferings of his +friends? Driven almost insane by the condition of society, and hoping to +remedy it, he commits a crime, which preys so upon his conscience that +it finally wears out his own life. + +Mrs. Gaskell in this, her first novel, has left an undying picture of +that section of smoky Manchester where the mill-workers live: its +narrow lanes; small but not uncomfortable cottages, well supplied with +furniture in days when work was plentiful, but destitute even of a fire +when it was scarce; the undersized men and women, with irregular +features, pale blue eyes, sallow complexions, but with an intelligence +rendered quick and sharp by their life among the machinery, and by their +hard struggle for existence. The life of the poor had often furnished a +theme for the poets, but it was the life of shepherds and milkmaids, +above whom the blue sky arched, and whose labours were brightened by the +songs of the birds, and the colours and sweet odours of fruit and +flowers. But Mrs. Gaskell described the life of the poor in a town where +factory smoke obscured the light of the sun, and where the weariness of +labour was rendered more intense by the clanging factory bell, and the +constant whirr of machinery ringing in their ears. It is a gloomy +picture, but no gloomier than the reality. + +Disraeli in _Sybil_ discussed the questions of labour and capital in +their relations to the history of England, with a broad intellectual +grasp of the sociological causes which produced these conditions. He +wrote in the interests of two classes, the Crown and the People, with +the hope that England might again have a free monarchy and a prosperous +people. It is a well illustrated treatise on government, but the +principles advocated or discussed always overshadow the characters. He +had no such intimate knowledge of the lives of the poor as had Mrs. +Gaskell. She conducts us to the homes of John Barton, George Wilson, and +Job Legh, shows the simplicity of their lives, and their sense of the +injustice under which they are suffering, and their helpfulness to each +other in times of need. + +How simple and true is the friendship that binds Mary Barton, the +dressmaker's apprentice; Margaret, the blind singer; and Alice Wilson, +the aged laundress, whose mind is constantly dwelling on the green +fields and running brooks of her childhood's home. These women possess +the strength of character of the early Teutonic women. They are +reticent, not given to the exchange of confidences, but ready to help a +friend with all they have in the hour of need. When Margaret thinks that +the Bartons are in want of money, she says to Mary, "Remember, if you're +sore pressed for money, we shall take it very unkind if you do not let +us know." But she does not question her. Later when her great trouble +comes to Mary Barton, which she must bear alone, when she must free a +lover from the charge of murder without incriminating her father, she +shows presence of mind, clearness of vision, and both moral and physical +courage. + +Jem Wilson, the hero of the story, is as strong as Mary Barton, the +heroine. Although Dickens was writing of the poor, he always found some +means to educate his heroes, and generally placed them among gentlemen. +Jem Wilson's education was received in the factory, and the little rise +he made above his fellows was due to his better understanding of +machinery. He was a working man, proud of his skill, and of his good +name for honesty and sobriety. + +The plot of _Mary Barton_ is highly melodramatic, and its technique is +open to criticism. It should not be read, however, for the story, but +for the many home scenes in which we come into close sympathy with the +men and women of Manchester. There is no novel in which we feel more +strongly the heart-beats of humanity. It leaves the impression, not of +art, but of life. + +Mrs. Gaskell turned again to the struggles between labour and capital +for the plot of her novel _North and South_. Between this story and +_Mary Barton_ she had written _Cranford_ and _Ruth_, but her mind seemed +to revert, as it were, from the peaceful village life to the stirring +mill-towns of Lancashire. The great contrast between life in the +counties of England presided over by the landed gentry, and that in the +counties where the manufacturers formed the aristocracy, suggested this +book. It was published in 1855, seven years after _Mary Barton_. The +plot of _North and South_ is better proportioned than is that of _Mary +Barton_. There are fewer characters, better contrasted. It is a brighter +picture, with more humour, but it does not leave so strong an impression +on the mind as does the earlier work. Both, however, are more accurate +than _Hard Times_, a book with which Dickens himself was highly +dissatisfied. He knew little of the life in the manufacturing districts, +but, in a spirit of indignation at the poverty brought on by grasping +manufacturers, he caricatured the entire class in the persons of Mr. +Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby. When these men are compared with the +manufacturers as represented in _North and South_, Mrs. Gaskell's more +intimate knowledge of them is at once apparent. + +Mrs. Gaskell had been accused of taking sides with the working men, and +representing their point of view in _Mary Barton_. In _North and South_, +the hero, Mr. Thornton, is a rich manufacturer, a fine type of the +self-made man, but standing squarely on his right to do what he pleases +in his own factory. "He looks like a person who would enjoy battling +with every adverse thing he could meet with--enemies, winds, or +circumstances," was Margaret Hale's comment when she first met him. +"He's worth fighting wi', is John Thornton," said one of the leaders of +the strike. For although the condition of affairs in the mill-towns had +much improved since John Barton went to London as a delegate from his +starving townsmen, and was refused a hearing by Parliament, a large part +of the book is concerned with the story of a strike, which in its +outcome brought starvation to many of the men, and bankruptcy to some of +the masters, the acknowledged victors. + +Higgins, one of the leaders of the working men, is a true Lancashire +man, and like Thornton, the leader of the masters, has many traits of +character as truly American as English. His sturdy independence is well +shown in Margaret's first interview with him. The daughter of a vicar in +the south of England, she had been accustomed to call upon the poor in +her father's parish. Learning that Higgins's daughter, Bessy, is ill she +expresses her desire to call upon her. "I'm none so fond of having +stranger folk in my house," Higgins informs her, but he finally relents +and says, "Yo may come if yo like." + +But besides the conflict between the manufacturers and their employees, +with which much of the book is concerned, there is the sharp contrast +between the Hales, born and bred in the south of England, and the +mill-owners in whose society they are placed. Mr. Hale, indecisive, +inactive, in whom thought is more powerful than reality, is as helpless +as a child among these men of action, and utterly unable to cope with +the problems they are facing. Margaret, the refined daughter of a poor +clergyman, is contrasted with the proud Mrs. Thornton, the mother of a +wealthy manufacturer, who would make money, not birth, the basis of +social distinctions. But Margaret is even better contrasted with the +poor factory girl, Bessy Higgins, who turns to her for help and +sympathy. There is hardly a story of Mrs. Gaskell's which is not adorned +by the friendship of the heroine for some other woman in the book. + +In both these novels, she taught that the only solution of the great +problem of capital and labour was a recognition of the fact that their +interests were identical, and that friendly intercourse was the only +means of breaking down the barrier that divided them. + +Mrs. Gaskell was so versatile, she touched upon so many problems of +human life, that it is almost impossible to summarise her work. _Ruth_ +considers the question of the girl who has been betrayed. Ruth is as +pure as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and like her is a victim of +circumstances. A stranger who has taken her under her protection reports +that Ruth is a widow, and Ruth passively acquiesces in the deception, +hoping that her son may never know the disgrace of his birth. But the +truth comes to light, involving in temporary disgrace Ruth and her son, +and the household of Mr. Benson, the dissenting minister whose home had +been her place of refuge. But Mrs. Gaskell is always optimistic. By her +good deeds, Ruth wins the love and honour of the entire community. This +novel was loudly assailed. It was claimed that Mrs. Gaskell had condoned +immorality, and it was considered dangerous teaching that good deeds +were an atonement for such a sin. But if _Ruth_ found detractors, it +also found warm admirers, who recognised the broader teachings of the +story. Mrs. Jameson wrote to Mrs. Gaskell: + +"I hope I do understand your aim--you have lifted up your voice against +'that demoralising laxity of principle,' which I regard as the ulcer +lying round the roots of society; and you have done it wisely and well, +with a mingled courage and delicacy which excite at once my gratitude +and my admiration." + +The scene of _Sylvia's Lovers_ is laid in Whitby, at a time when the +press-gang was kidnapping men for the British navy. It is a story of the +loves, jealousies, and sorrows of sailors, shopkeepers, and small +farmers, among whom Sylvia moves as the central figure. Du Maurier, who +illustrated the second edition of this novel, was so charmed with the +heroine that he named his daughter Sylvia for her. This story, like +_Ruth_, has much of the sentimentalism so fashionable in the middle of +the nineteenth century. The leading canon of criticism at that time was +the power with which a writer could move the emotions of the reader, and +the novelist was expected either to convulse his readers with laughter +or dissolve them into tears. There are many funny scenes in _Sylvia's +Lovers_, but the key-note is pathos. Like many novels of Dickens, there +are death-bed scenes introduced only for the luxury of weeping over +sorrows that are not real, and there are melodramatic situations as in +her other books. Parts of this novel suggested to Tennyson the poem of +_Enoch Arden_. + +But, however powerful may be the novels dealing with the questions that +daily confront the poor, there is a perennial charm in the society of +people who dwell amid rural scenes. Mrs. Gaskell has written several +short stories of the pastoral type. Such a story is _Cousin Phillis_. It +is a beautiful idyl and reminds one of the old pastorals in which ladies +and gentlemen played at shepherds and shepherdesses. Cousin Phillis +cooks, irons, reads Dante, helps the haymakers, falls in love, and mends +a broken heart, and is brave, true, and unselfish. Her father is what +one would expect from such a daughter. He cultivates his small farm, +finds rest from his labours in reading, and neglects none of the many +duties which belong to him as the dissenting minister of a small +village. + +_Cranford_ and _Wives and Daughters_ have this in common, that the scene +of both is laid in the village of Knutsford. The former is a rambling +story of events in two or three households, and of the social affairs in +which all the village is concerned. It is without doubt the favourite of +Mrs. Gaskell's novels. _Wives and Daughters_ was Mrs. Gaskell's last +story, and was left unfinished at her death. It shows a great artistic +advance over her earlier work. The plot is more natural; it has not so +many sharp contrasts, which George Eliot criticised in Mrs. Gaskell's +stories. The characters are also more subtle. Molly, the daughter of the +village doctor, is an unselfish, thoughtful girl, but with none of that +unreal goodness which Dickens sometimes gave to his heroines. When she +receives her first invitation to a child's party, and her father is +wondering whether or not she can go, her speech is characteristic of her +nature: + +"Please, Papa,--I do wish to go--but I don't care about it." + +Molly feels very keenly, and longs for things with all the strength of +an ardent nature, but she always subordinates herself and her wishes to +others. In the character of Cynthia, Mrs. Gaskell makes a plea for the +heartless coquette. Cynthia is beautiful, she likes to please those in +whose company she finds herself, but quickly forgets the absent. It is +not her fault that young men's hearts are brittle, for it is as natural +for her to smile, and be gay and forget, as it is for Molly to love, be +silent, and remember. So it is Cynthia who has the lovers, while Molly +is neglected. Clare, Cynthia's mother, is more selfish than her +daughter, but she has learned the art of seeming to please others while +thinking only of pleasing herself. She is as crafty as Becky Sharp, but +softer, more feline, and more subtle; a much commoner type in real life +than Thackeray's diplomatic heroine. + +Mr. A. W. Ward, in the biographical introduction to the Knutsford +Edition of her novels, says of her later work: + +"When Mrs. Gaskell had become conscious that if true to herself, to her +own ways of looking at men and things, to the sympathies and hopes with +which life inspired her, she had but to put pen to paper, she found what +it has been usual to call her later manner--the manner of which +_Cranford_ offered the first adequate illustration, and of which _Cousin +Phillis_ and _Wives and Daughters_ represent the consummation." + +The same critic compares the later work of Mrs. Gaskell with the later +work of George Sand and finds that "in their large-heartedness" they are +similar. He also gives George Sand's tribute to her English +contemporary. "Mrs. Gaskell," she said, "has done what neither I nor +other female writers in France can accomplish: she has written novels +which excite the deepest interest in men of the world, and yet which +every girl will be the better for reading." + +It is not often that a novelist finds another writer to take up and +enlarge her work as did Mrs. Gaskell. Her novels contain the germ of +much of George Eliot's earlier writings. _The Moorland Cottage_ +suggested many parts of _The Mill on the Floss_. Edward and Maggie +Brown--the former important, consequential and dictatorial, the latter +self-forgetful, eager to help others, and by her very eagerness prone to +blunders--were developed by George Eliot into the characters of Tom and +Maggie Tulliver. The weak and fretful mothers in the two books are much +alike, while the love story and the catastrophe have the same general +outline. + +They both drew largely from the working people of the North or of the +Midlands, and both constantly introduced Dissenters. Silas Marner +belongs to the manufacturing North, and the people of Lantern Yard are +of the same class as those of Manchester and Milton. Felix Holt and Adam +Bede belong to the same type as Jem Wilson and Mr. Thornton, while +Esther Lyon is not unlike Margaret Hale. Both often presented life from +the point of view of the poor. + +Both were interested in the development of character, and in the +changes which it underwent for good or evil under the influence of +outward circumstances. But George Eliot had greater intellectual power +than Mrs. Gaskell. She had the broader view and the deeper insight. Mrs. +Gaskell could never have conceived the plots nor the characters of +_Romola_ nor _Middlemarch_. She constantly introduced extraneous matter +to shape her plots according to her will, while with George Eliot the +fate of character is as hard and unyielding as was the fate of +predestination in the sermons of the old Calvinistic divines. Mrs. +Gaskell, like Dickens, introduced death-bed scenes merely to play upon +the emotions. George Eliot was never guilty of this defect; with her, +character is a fatalism that is inexorable. + +But Mrs. Gaskell had a more hopeful view of life than had George Eliot. +The Unitarians believe in man and have faith in the clemency of God. +This makes them a cheerful people. However dark the picture that Mrs. +Gaskell paints, we have faith that conditions will soon be better, and +at the close of the book we see the dawn of a brighter day. George Eliot +had taken the suggestions of Mrs. Gaskell and amplified them with many +details that the woman of lesser genius had omitted. But to each was +given her special gift. If George Eliot's characters stand out as more +distinct personalities, they are drawn with less sympathy. George +Eliot's men and women are often hard and sharp in outline; Mrs. +Gaskell's, no matter how poor or ignorant, are softened and refined. + +It was this quality that made it possible for her to write that +inimitable comedy of manners, _Cranford_. Her other novels with their +deep pathos, strong passion, and dramatic situations must be read to +show the breadth of her powers, but _Cranford_ will always give its +author a unique place in literature. Imagine the material that furnished +the groundwork of this story put into the hands of any novelist from +Richardson to Henry James. It seems almost like sacrilege to think what +even Jane Austen might have said of these dear elderly ladies. As for +Thackeray, their little devices to keep up appearances would have seemed +to him instances of feminine deceit, and he might have put even Miss +Jenkyns with her admiration of Dr. Johnson into his _Book of Snobs_. +What tears Dickens would have drawn from our eyes over the love story of +Miss Matty and Mr. Holbrook. How George Eliot would have mourned over +the shallowness of their lives. Henry James would have squinted at them +and their surroundings through his eye-glass until he had discovered +every faded spot on the carpet or skilful darn in the curtain. Miss +Mitford would have appreciated these ladies and loved them as did Mrs. +Gaskell, only she would have been so interested in the flowers and +birds and clouds that she would have forgotten all about the Cranford +parties, and would probably have ignored the presence in their midst of +the Honourable Mrs. Jamieson, the sister-in-law of an earl. So we must +conclude that only Mrs. Gaskell could make immortal this village of +femininity, where to be a man was considered almost vulgar, but into +which she has introduced one of the most chivalrous gentlemen in the +person of Captain Browne, and one of the most faithful of lovers in the +person of Mr. Holbrook, while no book has a more lovable heroine than +fluttering, indecisive Miss Matty, over whose fifty odd years the +sorrows of her youth have cast their lengthening shadows. + +_Mary Barton_ is a work of genius. Only a woman of high ideals could +have drawn the character of Margaret Hale, an earlier Marcella, or Molly +Gibson, or Mr. Thornton, or Mr. Holman. Only a woman of deep insight +could have created a woman like Ruth: a book which in its problem and +its deep earnestness reminds one of _Aurora Leigh_. But her readers will +always love Mrs. Gaskell for the sake of the gentle ladies of +_Cranford_. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +Mrs. Gaskell died on the twelfth of November, 1865. Of the novelists who +have been considered in this book only three survived her, Mrs. Bray, +Mrs. S. C. Hall, and Harriet Martineau, but they added little to prose +fiction after that date. During the third quarter of the nineteenth +century, however, the number of books written by women continued to +increase each year. Julia Kavanagh was the author of several novels, the +first of which _The Three Paths_, was published in 1848; all her stories +were written with high moral aim and delicacy of feeling. _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1850, is probably the +most powerful novel ever written to plead the cause of oppressed +humanity. Dinah Maria Muloch Craik kept up the interest in the domestic +novel; her most popular book, _John Halifax, Gentleman_, has lost none +of its charm for young women, even if it does not meet the requirements +of a classic. Mrs. Henry Wood is still remembered as the author of the +melodramatic _East Lynne_, but her best stories are the _Johnny Ludlow +Papers_, which deal with character alone; her popularity is attested by +the fact that more than a million copies of her books have been issued. +Charlotte Yonge's forgotten novels were classed among the _Church +Stories_, because they contain so much piety and devotion. Of a +different type was Miss de la Ramée, who wrote under the name of Ouidà; +she had fine gifts of word-painting, but a fondness for the questionable +in conduct. Miss Braddon, the author of _Lady Audley's Secret_, excelled +in complicated plots. Mrs. Oliphant has been a most versatile writer, +and followed almost every style of prose fiction; her domestic stories +are generally considered her best. Anne Thackeray, better known as Mrs. +Ritchie, the daughter of the great novelist, has written several novels, +all of which have a delightfully feminine touch. Miss Rhoda Broughton +has entertained the reading public by love stories which hold the +attention until the marriage takes place. But all these women fade into +insignificance beside George Eliot, whose first story, _The Sad Fortunes +of the Rev. Amos Barton_, appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1857, +and whose last novel, _Daniel Deronda_, was published nearly twenty +years later, in 1876. + +It seems strange that any reader of her books should have thought them +the product of a man's brain, as was at first believed. For, +notwithstanding her power in developing a plot, her breadth of view, and +her mental grasp, her genius is essentially feminine. She excelled in +analysis of character, in attention to details, in ethical teaching, and +in artistic truthfulness, the qualities in which women have been +pre-eminent. Only a woman's pen could have drawn such characters as +Dinah Morris, Maggie Tulliver, and Dorothea Casaubon, or could have +followed the minute and subtle influences under which the plot of +_Middlemarch_ is shaped. George Eliot has left a larger portrait gallery +of women than any other novelist. Not only has she drawn different +grades of society, but, what is perhaps a more difficult task, she has +drawn the different grades of spiritual greatness and moral littleness. +She brought the psychological novel to a degree of perfection which has +never been surpassed. + +Mrs. Oliphant has thus written of George Eliot's place in literature: + +"Another question which has been constantly put to this age, and which +is pushed with greater zeal every day, as to the position of women in +literature and the height which it is in their power to attain, was +solved by this remarkable woman, in a way most flattering to all who +were and are fighting the question of equality between the two halves of +mankind; for here was visibly a woman who was to be kept out by no +barriers, who sat down quietly from the beginning of her career in the +highest place, and, if she did not absolutely excel all her +contemporaries in the revelation of the human mind and the creation of +new human beings, at least was second to none in those distinguishing +characteristics of genius." + +We are too near the nineteenth century to decide as to the relative +positions of its great novelists. At one time George Eliot was placed at +the head of all writers of fiction, with Dickens and Thackeray as rivals +for the second place. But she was dethroned by Thackeray, and there are +signs that the final kingship will be given to Charles Dickens, unless +Scott receives it instead. + +Fashions in novels change at least every fifty years. Exciting plots and +situations, strong emotional scenes, sharp contrasts, are not demanded +by present readers, who also turn away with disgust from the saintly +heroine and the irreclaimable villain. Of the many volumes of fiction +written in the eighteenth century only two are in general circulation +to-day, _Robinson Crusoe_ and _The Vicar of Wakefield_. But all those +once popular novels, even if their very names are now forgotten, have +done their work in shaping the thought and morals of their own and +succeeding generations. + + + + +INDEX + + + _Abbott, The_, 137 + _Absentee, The_, 61, 112-113, 122 + _Ada Reis_, 203 + _Adam Bede_, 84, 289, 295 + Addison, Joseph, 21, 28 + _Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter_, 150-153 + _Adventures of an Atom_, 23 + _Afflicted Parent, The, or the Undutiful Child Punished_, 125 + _Age of Wordsworth, The_, 193 + _Agnes Grey_, 258-259, 261, 265 + Ainsworth, William Harrison, 216, 239 + Alderson, Miss, _see_ Opie, Amelia + _Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent_, 42 + _Amos Barton_, 294 + _Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_, 18 + _Antiquary, The_, 102, 104 + _Arabian Nights_, 15, 233 + Arblay, Madame D', _see_ Burney, Frances + _Arblay, Madame D', Essay on_, 57-58, 61, 168-169 + Arden, Enoch, 187 + Arnold, Matthew, 257 + _Artless Tales_, 139 + _Athenæum, The_, 194, 256 + _Aurora Leigh_, 292 + Austen, Jane, 39, 45, 60, 101, 157-178, 179, 180, 191, 195, 196, + 216, 263, 270, 276, 291 + + Baillie, Joanna, 154, 155 + Balzac, Honoré de, 170 + _Banker's Wife, The_, 225 + Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia, 121 + Barrett, Miss, _see_ Browning, Elizabeth + _Barring Out, The_, 125 + _Bas Bleu_, 62, 63 + _Beauty Put to its Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles_, 42 + Behn, Aphra, 1, 13-19 + _Belford Regis_, 193-196 + _Belinda_, 121, 177 + _Beside the Bonny Brier Bush_, 137 + _Betsy Thoughtless, Miss, The History of_, 36-39, 46, 48 + _Bithynia, An Adventure in_, 233 + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 107, 294 + Blake, William, 2 + _Blazing World, Description of a New World Called the_, 6-7 + Blessington, Lady, 232, 233 + Blind Harry the Minstrel, 143, 144 + Bonheur, Rosa, 1 + _Book of Snobs, The_, 291 + Boswell, James, 138 + Bousset, 3 + Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, 294 + Bray, Ann Eliza, 216, 225-230, 232, 293 + _Bride of Lammermoor, The_, 256 + Brontë, Anne, 249, 250, 257-261 + Brontë, Charlotte, 85, 174, 210, 249, 250, 256, 258, 261-273 + Brontë, Emily, 248, 249-257, 258, 267, 270, 271, 273 + Brontës, The, 247-273, 276 + _Brooke and Brooke Farm_, 242 + Broughton, Rhoda, 294 + Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 81, 103, 190, 242 + Brunton, Alexander, 156 + Brunton, Mary, 41, 149, 153-156, 262 + _Bubbled Knights, or Successful Contrivances_, 42 + Bulwer, Edward, Lord Lytton, 200, 216, 223 + Burke, Edmund, 46, 54, 62 + Burney, Charles, 46 + Burney, Frances, 39, 45-61, 168, 176, 177, 181, 195 + Byron, Lord (George Gordon), 109, 200-206, 210-213, 257 + + _Caleb Williams_, 73 + _Camilla, or a Picture of Youth_, 59-60, 176, 177 + _Canterbury Tales, The_, 106-110 + _Caroline Evelyn, The History of_, 47 + Carter, Elizabeth, 62 + _Castle of Otranto, The_, 88 + _Castle Rackrent_, 111-112, 117 + _Castles of Athlyn and Dunbayne_, 89 + Cavendish, Margaret, _see_ Newcastle, Duchess of + Cavendish, William, _see_ Newcastle, Duke of + _Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb_, 217-219 + _Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress_, 54-59, 60, 61, 78, 176, 177 + _Celestina_, 80 + _Chap-Books_, 67 + Chapone, Hester, 62 + Chaucer, Geoffrey, 106 + _Cheap Repository, The_, 67-71 + _Childe Harold_, 200, 219 + Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), 10 + _Clarissa Harlowe_, 8, 26, 30, 171 + _Clelia_, 32 + _Clubman, The_, 219 + _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_, 71-72 + Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, 109 + Collier, Jeremy, 61 + Colman, George, 42, 43, 46 + _Confessions of a Pretty Woman_, 233 + Congreve, William, 217 + Cooper, James Fenimore, 16 + Corneille, 3 + _Cottagers of Glenburnie, The_, 16 + Cottin, Sophie, Madame de, 262 + _Court Gazette_, 20 + _Courtenay of Walreddon; a Romance of the West_, 227 + _Cousin Phillis_, 286-287, 288, 292 + Crabbe, George, 263 + Craik, Dinah Maria Muloch, 293 + Craik's _English Prose_, 245 + _Cranford_, 277, 281, 287, 288, 291-292 + Crewe, Catherine, 232 + _Cry of the Children, The_, 242 + Curtis, George William, 174 + + _Daniel Deronda_, 294 + Dante, Alighieri, 286 + David Copperfield, 164 + _David Simple_, 26-31 + _Deerbrook_, 243 + Defoe, Daniel, 146 + _De Foix, or Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Fourteenth + Century_, 226 + _Desmond_, 74-77, 80 + _Destiny_, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186-187 + Diana of the Crossways, 103 + Dickens, Charles, 56, 69, 76, 77, 87, 102, 116, 164, 231, 236, 240, + 247, 264, 268, 269, 277, 281, 282, 286, 290, 291, 296 + _Discipline_, 155 + Disraeli, Benjamin, 87, 200, 216, 247, 269, 279 + Dombey and Son, 225 + _Domestic Manners of the Americans_, 235-236 + Dryden, John, 13 + _Duchess of Malfi, The_, 256 + Du Maurier, 285 + + _East Lynne_, 293 + Edgeworth, Maria, 102, 111-128, 130, 131, 133, 155, 179, 180, 181, + 182, 183, 196, 197, 216, 243, 276 + Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 115, 118, 119, 121, 124 + _Eighteenth Century, History of the_, 44 + Elia, _see_ Lamb, Charles + Eliot, George, 84, 109, 119, 164, 174, 276, 277, 289-291, 294-296 + Emma, 161-162, 166-167, 168, 170 + _Emmeline_, 155 + _Ennui_, 113, 122 + _Enoch Arden_, 286 + _Epipsychidion_, 214 + _Essay on Irish Bulls_, see _Irish Bulls, Essay on_ + _Essay on Madame D'Arblay_, see _Arblay, Madame D', Essay on_ + _Ethelinda_, 79 + Evans, Marian, _see_ Eliot, George + _Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_, 39, 46, 47-54, + 55, 59, 61, 78, 164, 176, 177 + Evelyn, John, 5 + _Evening Chronicle_, 231 + _Examiner_, 22 + + _Fair Jilt, The_, 18 + _Falkland_, 200, 216 + _Falkner_, 214 + _Fantom, Mr.: or the History of the New-Fashioned Philosopher, + and his Man William_, 68, 72 + Felix Holt, 289 + _Female Education, Strictures on the Modern System of_, 71 + _Female Quixote, The_, 32-35 + Ferrier, Susan Edmonstone, 179-188, 189, 216 + Fielding, Henry, 16, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 48, 101, 116, 277 + Fielding, Sarah, 23, 24, 26-31 + _Fits of Fitz-Ford_, 227 + _Flies in Amber_, 233 + _Florence Macarthy_, 129 + _Fortnightly Review_, 185 + Fox, Charles James, 40 + _Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus_, 206-207, 215 + _Fraser's Magazine_, 231 + Froissart's _Chronicles_, 226 + + Gait, John, 216 + Garnett, Sir Richard, 214 + Garrick, David, 41, 46, 62 + Garrison, William Lloyd, 245 + Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 247, 267, 269, 270, 274-293 + Genlis, Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de, 118, 262 + _Gentleman's Magazine, The_, 101 + Gibbon, Edward, 54 + _Glenarvon_, 200-203 + Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, _see_ Wollstonecraft, Mary + Godwin, William, 73, 150, 179, 205, 210, 221 + Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 174 + Goldsmith, Oliver, 79 + Gore, Catherine Grace Frances, 216-225, 233 + Gosse, Edmund, 170 + _Grand Cyrus, The_, 15, 32, 121 + _Gulliver's Travels_, 23 + Guy Mannering, 102 + + _Hackney Coachman, The_, 70 + Hall, Anna Maria (Mrs. S. C.), 72, 179, 196-199, 216, 293 + Hall, S. C., 140 + Hamilton, Elizabeth, 133-137 + _Hamiltons, The_, 224 + Hamlet, 271 + _Hard Times_, 282 + Hardy, Thomas, 86, 170 + _Harriet Stuart, The Life of_, 31 + Harry, Blind, the Minstrel, _see_ Blind Harry the Minstrel + Haywood, Eliza, 24, 36-39, 48 + _Heir of Selwood, The_, 223, 225 + Helen, 119 + _Henrietta_, 35 + _Henry de Pomeroy_, 227 + _Henry Esmond_, 145 + _Heptameron_, The, 2 + Herford, C. H., 193 + _Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess_, 71 + Homer, 2, 11, 175 + Horace, 217 + _Hour and the Man, The_, 242, 244-245 + Huet, Bishop, Pierre Daniel, 46 + _Humphry Clinker_, 8, 24, 44 + _Hungarian Brothers_, 139 + + _Ibrahim_, 32, 121 + _Ida, or the Woman of Athens_, 131 + _Impetuous Lover, The, or the Guiltless Parricide_, 43 + Inchbald, Elizabeth, 41, 73, 82-87, 105, 119, 221, 262 + _Inheritance, The_, 181, 182-183, 184, 185, 187-188 + _Irish Bulls, Essay on_, 115-116 + _Irish Peasantry, Stories of the_, 197, 198 + _Italian, The_, 91, 94, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101 + Ivanhoe, 164 + + Jackson, Helen Hunt (H. H.), 16 + James, G. P. R., 216, 239 + James, Henry, 291 + Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 285 + _Jane Eyre_, 41, 82, 85, 250, 261, 263, 264-267, 270, 272 + _Jealous Wife, The_, 233 + Jeffrey, Francis, 180 + Joan of Arc, 1 + _John Halifax, Gentleman_, 293 + _Johnny Ludlow Papers_, 294 + Johnson, R. Brimley, 245 + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 30, 31, 32, 39, 42, 46, 48, 55, 60, 62, 103, 128, + 138, 291 + _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, The Life and Adventures of_, 237-239, 242 + Jonson, Ben, 275 + _Joseph Andrews_, 16, 36, 52 + _Journey to Bath_, 41 + Jules Verne, _see_ Verne, Jules + + Kauffman, Angelica, 103 + Kavanagh, Julia, 293 + _King Lear_, see _Lear_ + Knox, John, 188 + _Kruitzener, or the German's Tale_, 108-109 + + _Lady Audley's Secret_, 294 + _Lady Clare_, 183 + _Lady of Lyons, The_, 223 + _Lady's Magazine_, 190 + Lafayette, Madame de, 3, 19, 41, 262 + Lamb, Lady Caroline, 200-204 + Lamb, Charles, 8, 12, 193 + Lamb, William (Lord Melbourne), 200, 201, 202, 203, 204 + _Landlady's Tale, The_, 109 + Lang, Andrew, 102 + Lanier, Sidney, 25 + _Last Man, The_, 210-212 + _Lazy Lawrence_, 125, 126 + _Lear, King_, 256 + Lee, Harriet, 88, 105-110 + Lee, Sophia, 88, 105-110, 139 + Lennox, Charlotte, 24, 31-36 + _Letters of the Duchess of Newcastle_, 7-8 + _Letters to Young Ladies_, 62 + Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 101 + "Library of Old Authors," Russell Smith, 12 + _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_, see _Newcastle, Life of the Duke of_ + _Lights and Shadows of Irish Life_, 197-198 + _Lilly Dawson, The Story of_, 232 + _Literary Gazette_, 202 + _Lodore_, 212-214 + Longueville, Duchesse de, 3 + _Lucius_, 22 + Lytton, Bulwer, _see_ Bulwer, Edward (Lord Lytton) + + Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 57, 61, 113, 168 + Machiavelli, Niccolo, 207 + Mackay, Sheriff, 143 + _Magyar, The, and the Moslem_, 233 + _Man and Superman_, 160 + _Manchester Strike, A_, 243 + Manley, Mary, 1, 19-23, 36 + _Mansfield Park_, 61, 162-164, 171, 172 + Marcella, 292 + Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 2 + _Marriage_, 181, 182, 184 + Marsh, Anne, 231 + Martineau, Harriet, 231, 232, 242-246, 269, 293 + _Mary Barton_, 269, 278-281, 282, 283, 289, 292 + Masson, David, 179 + Maturin, Charles Robert, 101 + _Mazeppa_, 206 + Mémoires du Comte de Comminges, 262 + _Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la vertu_, 42 + _Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia_, 36 + _Michael Armstrong, The Life and Adventures of_, 241 + _Middlemarch_, 290, 295 + _Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love_, 198-199 + _Mill on the Floss_, The, 289, 295 + Mitford, Mary Russell, 81, 144, 179, 183, 189-196, 216, 221, 227, + 276, 291, 292 + _Monastery, The_, 137, 271 + _Monk, The_, 101 + Montagu, Elizabeth, 62 + Montagu, Mary Wortley, 233 + _Monthly Review_, 77 + _Monumental Effigies of Great Britain_, 226 + Moore, Thomas, 131 + _Moorland Cottage, The_, 289 + More, Hannah, 62-72, 73 + Morgan, Lady, 111, 197, 216 + _Music, History of_, 46 + _Mysteries of Udolpho, The_, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 101, 104, 105, + 141 + + _Nature and Art_, 85-86 + _Nature's Pictures Drawn by Fancy's Pencil_, 7 + _New Atalantis_, 19-23 + Newcastle, Duchess of, 1, 3-13 + Newcastle, Duke of, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 + _Newcastle, Life of the Duke of_, 10-12 + _Noctes Ambrosianæ_, 183 + _Nocturnal Reverie_, 79 + North, Christopher (John James Wilson), 183, 185 + _North and South_, 281-284, 289, 292 + _Northanger Abbey_, 101, 160-161, 177 + _Notre Dame de Paris_, 256 + "Novelists' Library," 121 + _Novels by Eminent Hands_, 217 + _Nun, The, or the Perjured Duty_, 18 + + _O'Briens, The, and the O'Flahertys_, 129, 130-131 + _O'Donnel_, 129-130 + _Odyssey_, 113 + _Old English Baron, The_, 88, 89 + _Old Manor House, The_, 77-78, 79, 80 + Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret, 294, 295 + Opie, Mrs. Amelia, 41, 73, 149-153, 156, 216, 262 + _Orange Girl of St. Giles's, The_, 69-70 + Ormond, 113-115 + _Oroonoko_, 13-18, 237, 242 + _Orphans, The_, 126 + _Othello_, 276 + Ouidà, 294 + _Our Village_, 189, 190-193, 195, 196, 243 + Owenson, Sydney, _see_ Morgan, Lady + + _Pamela_, 8, 17, 18, 24, 31, 35, 46, 78, 164, 266 + _Paradise Lost_, 72, 79 + Pardoe, Julia, 231-234 + _Pastor's Fireside, The_, 146 + _Patronage_, 119 + _Pelham_, 200 + _Pendennis_, 200 + _Perkin Warbeck, The Fortunes of_, 214 + _Persuasion_, 158, 162-164, 167, 170, 172 + Phillips, Wendell, 244 + _Pickwick Papers_, 56 + _Pilgrimages to English Shrines_, 72 + _Pin Money_, 222-223 + Plato, 11 + _Political Economy Tales_, 242-243 + _Polly Honeycomb_, 42, 43 + Pope, Alexander, 22, 79, 160 + Porter, Anna Maria, 133, 137-140, 216 + Porter, Jane, 133, 137, 138, 140-148, 216 + _Preferment, or My Uncle the Earl_, 220 + Prévost, Abbé, 42 + _Pride and Prejudice_, 157, 158-159, 161, 164, 166, 170, 171, 173, + 175, 176, 178 + Princess of Clèves, The, 41, 262 + _Professor, The_, 270 + + _Quarterly Review_, 131, 147, 148 + + Radcliffe, Ann, 88, 89-105, 108, 179, 270 + Rambouillet, Marquise de, 3 + Ramée, Louise de la, _see_ Ouidà + Ramsey, Charlotte, _see_ Lennox, Charlotte + _Rape of the Lock_, 22 + _Rasselas_, 46 + _Recess, The_, 105-106 + Reeve, Clara, 88-89 + _Refugee in America, The_, 237 + Richardson, Samuel, 8, 9, 17, 24, 26, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 48, 101, + 154, 171, 277, 291 + _Rights of Man_, 64 + _Rights of Woman, Vindication of the_, see _Vindication of the + Rights of Woman_ + Ritchie, Mrs., 126, 294 + _Rival Beauties, The_, 233 + _Rivals, The_, 41, 43 + _Rob Roy_, 102 + _Robinson Crusoe_, 146, 296 + Rogers, Samuel, 201 + _Romance of the Forest, The_, 91, 92, 93, 97, 101 + _Romance of the Harem, The_, 233 + _Romance of the West, A_, 228 + Romeo and Juliet, 275 + _Romola_, 290 + Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 73, 118 + Ruskin, 195 + _Ruth_, 281, 284-285, 286, 292 + + _St. Ronan's Well_, 174 + Saintsbury, George, 185, 186 + Sand, George, 262, 263, 288 + Sappho, 1 + Schlosser, 44 + Scott, Sir Walter, 18, 36, 102, 103, 104, 105, 118, 128, 141, 144, + 155, 164, 173, 179, 180, 181, 184, 216, 225, 228, 229, 230, + 264, 271, 277, 296 + _Scottish Chiefs, The_, 142-145 + Scudèri, Mlle. de, 3, 19, 32, 33, 35, 120, 121 + _Seasons, The_, 79 + _Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania, The_, 36 + _Selborne, The Natural History and Antiquities of_, 191 + _Self-Control_, 154-155, 156 + _Sense and Sensibility_, 159-160, 161, 170, 171 + Sévigné, Madame, de, 3 + Shakespeare, William, 5, 103, 128, 168, 169, 170, 174, 271, 275 + _Shakespeare, Essay on the Genius of_, 62 + Shaw, Bernard, 160 + Shelley, Mary, 200, 204-215, 262 + Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210-214 + _Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, The_, 68, 69, 72 + Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, 24, 39-42 + Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 40, 41 + _Shirley_, 267-270 + _Sicilian Romance, The_, 91, 93, 94 + _Sidney Biddulph, The Memoirs of Miss_, 39-42, 74 + _Silas Marner_, 289 + _Simple Story, A_, 82-84, 262 + _Simple Susan_, 126-127 + _Simple Tales_, 153 + _Sir Charles Grandison_, 8, 37, 53 + _Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative_, 146-148 + _Sister, The_, 35 + _Sketches by Boz_, 241 + _Sketches of English Character_, 219-220 + _Sketches of Irish Character_, 196-197 + Smith, Charlotte, 41, 73-82, 87, 102, 103, 105, 191, 221 + Smith Russell, "Library of Old Authors," _see_ "Library of + Old Authors" + Smollett, Tobias, 8, 23, 24, 88, 101, 179 + _Soldier of Lyons, The, a Tale of the Tuileries_, 223 + Sothern, Thomas, 13, 15 + Souza, Madame de, 262 + _Spectator Papers_, 7, 29 + Staël, Madame de (Anne Louise Necker), 262, 263 + Steele, Richard, 21, 22, 28 + Sterne, Laurence, 24, 25, 88, 102, 169 + _Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, see _Irish Peasantry, + Stories of the_ + Stothard, Charles, 226 + Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 15, 238, 293 + Swift, Jonathan, 22, 23 + Swinburne, Charles Algernon, 256 + _Sybil_, 269, 279 + _Sylvia's Lovers_, 285-286 + + Taine, 25 + _Talba, The, or Moor of Portugal_, 226 + _Tale of Two Cities_, 145 + _Tales of Fashionable Life_, 119-120 + _Tales of my Landlord, The_, 181 + _Tales of Real Life_, 153 + _Tales that Never Die_, 127 + _Tatler, The_, 22, 29 + _Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The_, 259-261 + Tencin, Mme. de, 262 + Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 183, 286 + Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 284 + Thackeray, Anna Isabella, _see_ Ritchie, Mrs. + Thackeray, William Makepeace, 87, 102, 116, 120, 164, 176, 216, + 217, 231, 237, 247, 264, 277, 288, 291, 296 + _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, 140-141 + _Theresa Marchmont_, 217 + _Thomas the Rhymer_, 104 + Thrale, Mrs. (Mrs. Piozzi), 48 + _Three Paths, The_, 293 + _Tintern Abbey_, 93 + Tolstoi, Count Leo, 86, 170 + _Tom Jones_, 26, 37, 53, 141 + Tourgenieff, 170 + _Trelawny of Trelawne; or the Prophecy: a Legend of Cornwall_, 228 + Trollope, Anthony, 234, 239 + Trollope, Frances, 231, 232, 234-242, 243, 269 + + _Udolpho, The Mysteries of_, see _Mysteries of Udolpho, The_ + _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 15, 238, 293 + _Undine_, 254 + + _Valperga: or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of + Lucca_, 207-210 + _Vanity Fair_, 164, 288 + _Venetia_, 200 + Verne, Jules, 6 + _Vicar of Wakefield, The_, 46, 79, 296 + _Vicar of Wrexhill, The_, 240 + _Village Politics: Addressed to all Mechanics, Journeymen, and + Labourers in Great Britain. By Will Chip, a Country + Carpenter_, 64-65 + _Villette_, 270-273 + _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, 74, 149, 204 + Vivian, 119, 122 + _Vivian Grey_, 200, 216, 217, 219 + Voltaire, François, 73 + + Wallace, 143 + Walpole, Horace, 88, 89 + _Wanderer, The, or Female Difficulties_, 59, 60 + Ward, A. W., 288 + Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 267 + _Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak; a Legend of Devon_, 227 + _Waste Not, Want Not_, 125 + _Waverley_, 45, 60, 137, 144, 155, 178 + _Waverley Novels_, 102, 117, 145, 216 + Welsh, Charles, 67, 127 + _Werner, or the Inheritance_, 109 + _Westminster Review_, 221, 224 + White, Gilbert, 191 + _White Hoods, The_, 226 + _Whole Duty of Man_, 64 + _Widow Barnaby_, 239 + _Widow Married, The_, 239 + _Widow Wedded, The, or the Barnabys in America_, 239 + _Wild Irish Girl, The_, 129 + _Will Chip, a Country Carpenter_, see _Village Politics_ + _Winchelsea, Lady_, 79 + _Window in Thrums, The_, 137 + _Windsor Forest_, 79 + _Wives and Daughters_, 287-288, 292, 293 + Wollstonecraft, Mary, 73, 74, 149, 150, 204, 205, 210 + Wood, Mrs. Henry, 293 + Wordsworth, William, 79, 93, 127, 165, 241 + _Wuthering Heights_, 249, 256, 258, 261, 265, 267, 271 + _Wycherley, William_, 13 + + _Yèrè-Batan-Seraï_, 234 + Yonge, Charlotte Mary, 294 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in English Fiction, by +Clara Helen Whitmore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34613-8.txt or 34613-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34613/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34613-8.zip b/34613-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf79602 --- /dev/null +++ b/34613-8.zip diff --git a/34613-h.zip b/34613-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2ac47a --- /dev/null +++ b/34613-h.zip diff --git a/34613-h/34613-h.htm b/34613-h/34613-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8738c6a --- /dev/null +++ b/34613-h/34613-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11072 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Woman's Work in English Fiction, by Clara H. Whitmore. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Woman's Work in English Fiction, by Clara Helen Whitmore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman's Work in English Fiction + From the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period + +Author: Clara Helen Whitmore + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34613] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>Woman's Work in<br /> +English Fiction</h1> + +<h4>From the Restoration to the<br /> +Mid-Victorian Period</h4> + +<h3>By</h3> +<h2>Clara H. Whitmore, A.M.</h2> + +<h4>G. P. Putnam's Sons<br /> +New York and London<br /> +The Knickerbocker Press<br /> +1910</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<h5> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1909</span><br /> +BY<br /> +CLARA H. WHITMORE<br /> +The Knickerbocker Press, New York</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>The writings of many of the women considered +in this volume have sunk into an oblivion +from which their intrinsic merit should have +preserved them. This is partly due to the +fact that nearly all the books on literature have +been written from a man's stand-point. While +in other arts the tastes of men and women vary +little, the choice of novels is to a large degree +determined by sex. Many men who acknowledge +unhesitatingly that Jane Austen is superior +as an artist to Smollett, will find more pleasure +in the breezy adventures of <i>Roderick Random</i> +than in the drawing-room atmosphere of +<i>Emma</i>; while no woman can read a novel of +Smollett's without loathing, although she must +acknowledge that the Scottish writer is a man +of genius.</p> + +<p>This book is written from a woman's viewpoint. +Wherever my own judgment has been +different from the generally accepted one, as in +the estimate of some famous heroines, the point +in question has been submitted to other women, +and not recorded unless it met with the approval +of a large number of women of cultivated taste.</p> + +<p>This work was first undertaken at the suggestion +of Dr. E. Charlton Black of Boston University +for a Master's thesis, and it was due to his +appreciative words that it was enlarged into +book form. I also wish to thank Professor +Ker of London University, and Dr. Henry A. +Beers and Dr. Wilbur L. Cross of Yale University +for the help which I obtained from them while a +student in their classes. It is with the deepest +sense of gratitude that I acknowledge the +assistance given to me in this work by Mr. +Charles Welsh, at whose suggestion the scope of +the book was enlarged, and many parts strengthened. +I wish especially to thank him for +calling my attention to <i>The Cheap Repository</i> +of Hannah More, and to the literary value of +Maria Edgeworth's stories for children.</p> + +<p>It is my only hope that this book may in a +small measure fill a want which a school-girl +recently expressed to me: "Our Club wanted to +study about women, but we have searched the +libraries and found nothing."</p> + +<p style='text-align:right'>C. H. W.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER I.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle</span> +(1624-1674)—<span class="smcap">Aphra Behn</span> +(1640-1689)—<span class="smcap">Mary Manley</span> (1672-1724)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER II.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sarah Fielding</span> (1710-1768)—<span class="smcap">Eliza +Haywood</span> (1693-1756)—<span class="smcap">Charlotte +Lennox</span> (1720-1766)—<span class="smcap">Frances Sheridan</span> +(1724-1766)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER III.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Frances Burney</span> (1752-1840)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hannah More</span> (1745-1833)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER V.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Charlotte Smith</span> (1749-1806)—<span class="smcap">Elizabeth +Inchbald</span> (1753-1821)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Clara Reeve</span> (1725-1803)—<span class="smcap">Ann Radcliffe</span> +(1764-1822)—<span class="smcap">Sophia Lee</span> +(1750-1824)—<span class="smcap">Harriet Lee</span> (1766-1851)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Maria Edgeworth</span> (1767-1849)—<span class="smcap">Lady +Morgan</span> (1783-1859)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Hamilton</span> (1758-1816)—<span class="smcap">Anna +Porter</span> (1780-1832)—<span class="smcap">Jane +Porter</span> (1776-1850)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Amelia Opie</span> (1769-1853)—<span class="smcap">Mary Brunton</span> +(1778-1818)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER X.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Jane Austen</span> (1775-1817)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Susan Edmonstone Ferrier</span> (1782-1854)—<span class="smcap">Mary +Russell Mitford</span> (1787-1855)—<span class="smcap">Anna +Maria Hall</span> (1800-1881)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lady Caroline Lamb</span> (1785-1828)—<span class="smcap">Mary +Shelley</span> (1797-1851)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Catherine Grace Frances Gore</span> (1799-1861)—<span class="smcap">Anna +Eliza Bray</span> (1790-1883)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Julia Pardoe</span> (1806-1862)—<span class="smcap">Frances +Trollope</span> (1780-1863)—<span class="smcap">Harriet Martineau</span> +(1802-1876)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Emily Brontë</span> (1818-1848)—<span class="smcap">Anne +Brontë</span> (1820-1849)—<span class="smcap">Charlotte +Brontë</span> (1816-1855)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell</span> (1810-1865)</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='center' colspan='2'> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h1>WOMAN'S WORK IN<br /> +ENGLISH FICTION</h1> +<hr style="width: 10%;" /> + + +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h2>The Duchess of Newcastle. Mrs. +Behn. Mrs. Manley</h2> + + +<p>In the many volumes containing the records +of the past, the names of few women appear, +and the number is still smaller of those who +have won fame in art or literature. Sappho, +however, has shown that poetic feeling and expression +are not denied the sex; Jeanne d'Arc +was chosen to free France; Mrs. Somerville excelled +in mathematics; Maria Mitchell ranked +among the great astronomers; Rosa Bonheur +had the stroke of a master. These women +possessed genius, and one is tempted to ask +why more women have not left enduring work, +especially in the realm of art. The Madonna and +Child, what a subject for a woman's brush! +Yet the joy of maternity which shines in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +mother's eyes has seldom been expressed by +her in words or on canvas. It was left for a +man, William Blake, to write some of our +sweetest songs of childhood.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the novel appeared, a host +of women writers sprang up. Women have +always been story-tellers. Long before Homer +sang of the fall of Troy, the Grecian matrons at +their spinning related to their maids the story +of Helen's infidelity; and, as they thought of +their husbands and sons who had fallen for her +sake, the story did not lack in fervour. But the +minstrels have always had this advantage over +the story-tellers: their words, sung to the lyre, +were crystallised in rhythmic form, so that they +resisted the action of time, while only the substance +of the stories, not the words which gave +them beauty and power, could be retained, and +consequently they crumbled away. When the +novel took on literary form, women began to +write. They were not imitators of men, but +opened up new paths of fiction, in many of +which they excelled.</p> + +<p>The first woman to essay prose fiction as +an art was Margaret, Queen of Navarre. In +the seventy-two tales of <i>The Heptameron</i>, a +book written before the dawn of realism, she +related many anecdotes of her brother, Francis +the First, and his courtiers. Woman's permanent +influence over the novel began about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +1640, and was due directly to the Hotel Rambouillet, +in whose grand <i>salon</i> there mingled +freely for half a century the noblest minds +of France. This <i>salon</i> was presided over by +the Marquise de Rambouillet, who had left +the licentious court of Henry the Fourth, and +had formed here in her home between the +Louvre and the Tuileries a little academy, +where Corneille read his tragedies before they +were published, and Bousset preached his first +sermon, while among the listeners were the +beautiful Duchess de Longueville, Madame de +Lafayette, Madame de Sévigné and Mademoiselle +de Scudéri, besides other persons of royal +birth or of genius. The ladies of this <i>salon</i> became +the censors of the manners, the literature, +and even the language of France. Here was +the first group of women writers whose fame extended +beyond their own country, and has lasted, +though somewhat dimmed, to the present. +Since the seventeenth century the influence of +women novelists has been ever widening.</p> + +<p>In England, women entered the domain of +literature later than in France, Spain, or Italy. +Not until the Restoration did they take any +active part in the world of letters; and not until +the reign of George the Third did they make any +marked contribution to fiction.</p> + +<p>The first woman writer of prose fiction in +England was the thrice noble and illustri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>ous +Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. +During the Commonwealth, the Duke and +Duchess of Newcastle had lived in exile, but +with the restoration of Charles the Second, in +1660, they returned to London, where the +Duchess soon became a notable personage. +Crowds gathered in the park merely to see her +pass, attracted partly by her fame as a writer, +partly by the singularities she affected. Her +black coach furnished with white curtains and +adorned with silver trimmings instead of gilt, +with the footmen dressed in long black coats, +was readily distinguished from other carriages +in the park. Her peculiarities of dress were no +less marked. Her long black <i>juste-au-corps</i>, her +hair hanging in curls about her bared neck, her +much beplumed velvet cap of her own designing, +were objects of ridicule to the court wits, who +even asserted that she wore more than the usual +number of black patches upon her comely face.</p> + +<p>More singular than her habiliments were her +pretentions as a woman of letters, which caused +the courtiers to laugh at her conceit. She was +evidently aware of this failing as she writes in +her <i>Autobiography</i>: "I fear my ambition inclines +to vain-glory, for I am very ambitious; yet 't is +neither for beauty, wit, titles, wealth, or power, +but as they are steps to raise me to Fame's +tower, which is to live by remembrance in +after-ages."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>But, notwithstanding her detractors, she received +sufficient praise to foster her belief in +her own genius. Her plays were well received. +Her poems were declared by her admirers equal +to Shakespeare's. Her philosophical works, +which she dedicated to the great universities +of Oxford and Cambridge, were accepted with +fulsome flattery of their author. When she +visited the Royal Society at Arundel House, the +Lord President met her at the door, and, with +mace carried before him, escorted her into the +room, where many experiments were performed +for her pleasure. In 1676, a folio volume was +published, entitled <i>Letters and Poems in Honour +of the Incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess +of Newcastle</i>, written by men of high rank and of +learning, with the following dedication by the +University of Cambridge:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +To Margaret the First:<br /> +Princess of Philosophers:<br /> +Who hath dispelled errors:<br /> +Appeased the difference of opinions:<br /> +And restored Peace<br /> +To Learning's Commonwealth.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Yet this praise was not all flattery, for the +scholarly Evelyn always speaks of her with +respect, and after visiting her writes, "I was +much pleased with the extraordinary fanciful +habit, garb, and discourse of the Duchess."</p> + +<p>Amid the arid wastes of her philosophical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +works are green spots enlivened by good sense +and humour that have a peculiar charm. At +the time when the trained minds of the Royal +Society were broadening scientific knowledge +by careful experiments, this lady, with practically +no education, sat herself down to write +her thoughts upon the great subjects of matter +and motion, mind and body. She was emboldened +to publish her opinions, for, as she +says: "Although it is probable, that some +of the Opinions of Ancient Philosophers in +Ancient times are erroneous, yet not all, neither +are all Modern Opinions Truths, but truly I +believe, there are more Errors in the One +than Truth in the Other." Some of her explanations +are very artless, as when she decides +that passions are created in the heart and not +in the head, because "Passion and Judgment +seldom agree."</p> + +<p>Her philosophical works are often compounded +of fiction and fact. Her book called <i>The Description +of a New World called the Blazing World</i> +reminds one of some of the marvellous stories +of Jules Verne. According to the story a +merchant fell in love with a lady while she was +gathering shells on the sea-coast, and carried +her away in a light vessel. They were driven +to the north pole, thence to the pole of another +world which joined it. The conjunction of these +two poles doubled the cold, so that it was insup<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>portable, +and all died but the lady. Bear-men +conducted her to a warmer clime, and presented +her to the emperor of the Blazing World, whose +palace was of gold, with floors of diamonds. +The emperor married the lady, and, at her desire +to study philosophy, sent for the Duchess +of Newcastle, "a plain and rational writer," +to be her teacher. The story at this point +rambles into philosophy.</p> + +<p><i>Nature's Pictures drawn by Fancy's Pencil</i> contains +many suggestions for poems and novels. +Particularly beautiful is the fragment of a story +of a lord and lady who were forbidden to love +in this world, but who died the same night, +and met on the shores of the Styx. "Their +souls did mingle and intermix as liquid essences, +whereby their souls became as one." They +preferred to enjoy themselves thus rather than +go to Elysium, where they might be separated, +and where the talk of the shades was always +of the past, which to them was full of sorrow.</p> + +<p>The Duchess of Newcastle wrote a series of +letters on beauty, eloquence, time, theology, +servants, wit, and kindred subjects, often illustrated +by a little story, reminding the reader of +some of the <i>Spectator</i> papers, which delighted the +next generation. As in those papers, characters +were introduced. Mrs. P.I., the Puritan dame, +appears in several letters. She had received +sanctification, and consequently considered all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +vanities of dress, such as curls, bare necks, +black patches, fans, ribbons, necklaces, and +pendants, temptations of Satan and the signs +of damnation. In a subsequent letter she +becomes a preaching sister, and the Duchess +has been to hear her, and thus comments upon +the meeting: "There were a great many holy +sisters and holy brethren met together, where +many took their turns to preach; for as they are +for liberty of conscience, so they are for liberty +of preaching. But there were more sermons +than learning, and more words than reason."</p> + +<p>This is the first example of the use of letters +in English fiction. In the next century it was +adopted by Richardson for his three great +novels, <i>Pamela</i>, <i>Clarissa Harlowe</i>, and <i>Sir +Charles Grandison</i>; it was used by Smollett in the +novel of <i>Humphry Clinker</i>, and became a popular +mode of composition with many lesser writers.</p> + +<p>But posterity is chiefly indebted to the Duchess +of Newcastle for her life of her husband and +the autobiography that accompanies it. Of the +former Charles Lamb wrote that it was a jewel +for which "no casket is rich enough." Of the +beaux and belles who were drawn by the ready +pens of the playwrights of the court of Charles +the Second none are worthy of a place beside the +Duke of Newcastle and his incomparable wife.</p> + +<p>With rare felicity she has described her home +life in London with her brothers and sisters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +before her marriage. Their chief amusements +were a ride in their coaches about the streets of +the city, a visit to Spring Gardens and Hyde +Park; and sometimes a sail in the barges on the +river, where they had music and supper. She +announces with dignity her first meeting with +the Duke of Newcastle in Paris, where she was +maid of honour to the Queen Mother of England: +"He was pleased to take some particular notice of +me, and express more than an ordinary affection +for me; insomuch that he resolved to choose me +for his second wife." And in another place +she writes: "I could not, nor had not the +power to refuse him, by reason my affections were +fixed on him, and he was the only person I +ever was in love with. Neither was I ashamed +to own it, but gloried therein." Here is the +charm of brevity. Richardson would have +blurred these clearly cut sentences by eight +volumes.</p> + +<p>In the biography of her husband she relates +faithfully his services to Charles the First at +the head of an army which he himself had +raised; his final defeat near York by the Parliamentary +forces; and his escape to the continent +in 1644. Then followed his sixteen years of +exile in Paris, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, where +"he lived freely and nobly," entertaining many +persons of quality, although he was often in +extreme poverty, and could obtain credit merely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +by the love and respect which his presence +inspired. What a sad picture is given of the +return of the exiles to their estates, which had +been laid waste in the Civil War and later confiscated +by Cromwell! But how the greatness +of the true gentleman shines through it all, +who, as he viewed one of his parks, seven of +which had been completely destroyed, simply +said, "He had been in hopes it would not have +been so much defaced as he found it."</p> + +<p>In the closing chapter the Duchess gives +<i>Discourses Gathered from the Mouth of my noble +Lord and Husband</i>. These show both sound +sense and a broad view of affairs. She writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have heard My Lord say,</p> + +<p>I</p> + +<p>"That those which command the Wealth of +a Kingdom, command the hearts and hands +of the People.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>XXXIII</p> + +<p>"That many Laws do rather entrap than help +the subject."</p></div> + +<p>Clarendon, who thought but poorly of the +Duke's abilities as a general, gives the same +characterisation of him: a man of exact proportion, +pleasant, witty, free but courtly in his +manner, who loved all that were his friends, +and hated none that were his enemies, and who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +had proved his loyalty to his king by the sacrifice +of his property and at the risk of his life.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the Duchess of Newcastle has unwittingly +drawn a true representation of the +great body of English cavaliers, and has partly +removed the stain which the immoralities of the +court afterward put upon the name. These +biographies give a story of marital felicity with +all the characteristics of the domestic novel.</p> + +<p>At this time the English novel was a crude, +formless thing, without dignity in literature. +The Duchess of Newcastle, who aspired to be +ranked with Homer and Plato, would have +spurned a place among writers of romance, although +her genius was primarily that of the +novelist. She constantly thought of plots, +which she jotted down at random, her common +method of composition. She has described +characters, and has left many bright pictures of +the manners and customs of her age. Her +style of writing is better than that of many of +her more scholarly contemporaries, who studied +Latin models and strove to imitate them. She +wrote as she thought and felt, so that her style +is simple when not lost in the mazes of philosophical +speculation. She had all the requisites +necessary to write the great novel of the +Restoration.</p> + +<p>But in the next century her voluminous +writings were forgotten, and the casual visitor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +to Westminster Abbey who paused before the +imposing monument in the north transept read +with amused indifference the quaint inscription +which marks the tomb of the noble pair; that she +was the second wife of the Duke of Newcastle, +that her name was Margaret Lucas; "a noble +family, for all the brothers were valiant and +all the sisters were virtuous." To Charles Lamb +belongs the credit of discovering the worth of her +writings. Delighting in oddities, but quick to +discern truth from falsehood, he loved to pore +over the old folios containing her works, and +could not quite forgive his sister Mary for speaking +disrespectfully of "the intellectuals of a dear +favourite of mine of the last century but one—the +thrice noble, chaste and virtuous, but again +somewhat fantastical and original-brained, generous +Margaret Newcastle."</p> + +<p>Her desire for immortality is nearer its fulfilment +to-day than at any previous time. A +third edition of the <i>Life of the Duke of Newcastle</i> +was published in 1675, the year after her +death. Nearly two hundred years later, in 1872, +it was included in Russell Smith's "Library +of Old Authors," and since then a modernised +English edition and a French edition of this +book have been published. No one can read +this biography without feeling the charm of the +quaint, childlike personality of the Duchess of +Newcastle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>While all London was talking of the "mad +Duchess of Newcastle," another lady was living +there no less eminent as a writer, but so distinguished +for her wit, freedom of temper, and +brilliant conversation, that even the great +Dryden sought her friendship, and Sothern, +Rochester, and Wycherley were among her admirers. +She was named "Astrea," and hailed as +the wonder and glory of her sex. But Aphra +Behn's talents brought her a more substantial +reward than fame. Her plays were presented +to crowded houses; her novels were in every +library, and she obtained a large income from +her writings; she was the first English woman +to earn a living by her pen.</p> + +<p>In her early youth, Mrs. Behn lived for a time +at Surinam in Dutch Guiana, where her father +was governor. On one of the plantations was +a negro in whose fate she became deeply interested. +She learned from his own lips about +his life in Africa, and was herself an eye witness +of the indignities and tortures he suffered in +slavery. She was so deeply impressed by his +horrible fate, that on her return to London +she related his story to King Charles the Second +and at his request elaborated it into the novel +<i>Oroonoko</i>.</p> + +<p>According to the story, Oroonoko, an African +warrior, was married to Imoinda, a beautiful +maiden of his own people. His grandfather, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +powerful chieftain, also fell in love with the +beautiful Imoinda and placed her in his harem. +When he found that her love for Oroonoko still +continued, he sold her secretly into slavery and +her rightful husband could learn nothing of her +whereabouts. Later Oroonoko and his men +were invited by the captain of a Dutch trading +ship to dine on board his vessel. They accepted +the invitation, but, after dinner, the captain +seized his guests, threw them into chains, and +carried them to the West Indies, where he sold +them as slaves. Here Oroonoko found his +wife, whose loss he had deeply mourned, and +they were reunited. Oroonoko, however, indignant +at the treachery practised against himself +and his men, incited the slaves to a revolt. +They were overcome, and Oroonoko was tied +to a whipping-post and severely punished. As +he found that he could not escape, he resolved +to die. But rather than leave Imoinda to the +cruelty of her owners, he determined to slay +first his wife, then his enemies, lastly himself. +He told his plans to Imoinda, who willingly +accompanied him into the forest, where he put +her to death. When he saw his wife dead at his +feet, his grief was so great that it deprived him +of the strength to take vengeance on his enemies. +He was again captured and led to a stake, +where faggots were placed about him. The author +has described his death with a faithfulness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +to detail that carries with it the impress of +truth: "'My Friends, am I to die, or to be +whipt?' And they cry'd, 'Whipt! no, you +shall not escape so well.' And then he reply'd, +smiling, 'A blessing on thee'; and assured them +they need not tie him, for he would stand fix'd +like a Rock, and endure Death so as should +encourage them to die: 'But if you whip me' +[said he], 'be sure you tie me fast.'"</p> + +<p>The popularity of the book was instantaneous. +It passed through several editions. It was translated +into French and German, and adapted for +the German stage, while Sothern put it on the +stage in England. It created almost as great a +sensation as did <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> two hundred +years later. Like Mrs. Stowe's novel it had a +strong moral influence, as it was among the +earliest efforts to call the attention of Europe +to the evils of the African slave trade. Moreover, +this her first novel gave Mrs. Behn an +acknowledged place as a writer.</p> + +<p><i>Oroonoko</i> marks a distinct advance in English +fiction. Nearly all novels before this had +consisted of a series of stories held together by +a loosely formed plot running through a number +of volumes, sometimes only five, but occasionally, +as in <i>The Grand Cyrus</i>, filling ten quartos. +Their form was such that like the <i>Thousand and +One Nights</i> they could be continued indefinitely. +Most of these novels belonged either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +to the pastoral romance or the historical allegory. +In the former the ladies and gentlemen who in a +desultory sort of way carried on the plot were +disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses and +lived in idyllic state in Arcadia. In the latter +they masqueraded under the names of kings and +queens of antiquity and entered with the flourish +of trumpets and the sound of drums.</p> + +<p><i>Oroonoko</i> was the first English novel with a +well developed plot. It moves along rapidly, +without digression, to its tragic conclusion. +Not until Fielding wrote <i>Joseph Andrews</i> was +the plot of any English novel so definitely +wrought. The lesser writer had a slight advantage +over the greater. Mrs. Behn's novel +is constructed upon dramatic lines, so that it +holds the interest more closely to the main +characters, and the end is awaited with intense +expectation; while Fielding chose the epic form, +which is more discursive, and <i>Joseph Andrews</i> +like all his novels is excessively tame, almost +hackneyed in its conclusion. Mrs. Behn's black +hero is the first distinctly drawn character in +English fiction, the first one that has any +marked personality. Sometimes the enthusiasm +with which he is described brings a smile to the +lips of the modern reader and reminds one of +the heroic savages of James Fenimore Cooper +and Helen Hunt Jackson. She writes of him: +"He was pretty tall, but of a Shape the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +exact that can be Fancy'd: The most famous +Statuary could not form the Figure of a Man +more admirably turned from Head to Foot.... +There was no one Grace wanting, that bears the +Standard of true Beauty." And thus she continues +the description in the superlative degree.</p> + +<p>But the story is for the most part realistic. +Although the scenes in Africa show the influence +of the French heroic novels, as if the author were +afraid to leave her story in its simple truth but +must adorn it with purple and ermine, as soon +as it is transferred to Surinam, where Mrs. Behn +had lived, it becomes real. It has local colouring, +at that time an almost unknown attribute. It +has the atmosphere of the tropics. The descriptions +are vivid, and often photographic. +Occasionally they are exaggerated, but few travellers +to a region of which their hearers know +nothing have been able to resist the temptation +to deviate from the exact truth. But the +whole novel, even at this late day, leaves one +with the impression that it is a true biography.</p> + +<p>In the history of the English novel, in which +<i>Pamela</i> is given an important place as the +morning star which heralded the great light of +English realism about to burst upon the world, +this well arranged, definite, picturesque story +of <i>Oroonoko</i>, whose author was reposing quietly +within the hallowed precincts of Westminster +Abbey fifty years before Richardson introduced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +<i>Pamela</i> to an admiring public, should not be +forgotten. Before <i>Pamela</i> was published, the +complete works of Mrs. Behn passed through +eight editions. The plots of all her novels are +well constructed, with little extraneous matter, +but with the exception of Oroonoko the characters +are shadowy beings, many of whom meet +with a violent death. <i>The Nun or the Perjured +Duty</i> has only five characters, all of whom perish +in the meshes of love. <i>The Fair Jilt or the +Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda</i>, founded +on incidents that came to the author's knowledge +during her residence in Antwerp, is well fitted +for the columns of a modern yellow journal; the +beautiful heroine causes the death of everyone +who stands in the way of her love or her ambition, +but she finally repents and lives happy +ever after. Mrs. Behn's style is always careless, +owing to her custom of writing while entertaining +friends.</p> + +<p>A great change took place in the public taste +during the next hundred years, so that Mrs. +Behn's novels, plays, and poems fell into disrepute. +Sir Walter Scott tells the story of his +grand-aunt who expressed a desire to see again +Mrs. Behn's novels, which she had read with delight +in her youth. He sent them to her sealed +and marked "private and confidential." The +next time he saw her, she gave them back +with the words:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn, and, if +you will take my advice, put her in the fire, for +I find it impossible to get through the very first +novel. But is it not a very odd thing that I, +an old woman of eighty and upward, sitting +alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which +sixty years ago I have heard read aloud for the +amusement of large circles, consisting of the +first and most creditable society in London?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Behn has been accused of great license in +her conduct and of gross immorality in her +writings. Her friend and biographer says of the +former: "For my part I knew her intimately, +and never saw ought unbecoming the just +modesty of our sex, though more free and gay +than the folly of the precise will allow." For +the latter the fashion must be blamed more than +she. Mrs. Behn was not actuated by the high +moral principles of Mademoiselle de Scudéri +and Madame de Lafayette, with whom love +was an ennobling passion, nor was she writing +for the refined men and women of the Hotel +Rambouillet; she was striving to earn a living +by pleasing the court of Charles the Second, +and in that she was eminently successful.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Nearly a quarter of a century after the death +of Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manley published anonymously +the first two volumes of the <i>New Atlantis</i>, +the book by which she is chiefly known,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +under the title of <i>Secret Memoirs and Manners of +Several Persons of Quality of both Sexes from the +New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean</i>. +Mrs. Manley was a Tory, and she peopled the +New Atalantis with members of the Whig party +under Marlborough as Prince Fortunatus. The +book is written in the form of a conversation +carried on by Astrea, Virtue, and Intelligence, a +personification of the <i>Court Gazette</i>. They described +the Whig leaders so accurately, and +related the scandal of the court so faithfully, +that, although fictitious names were used, no +key was needed to recognise the personages in +the story.</p> + +<p>The publisher and printer were arrested for +libel, but Mrs. Manley came forward and owned +the authorship. In her trial she was placed +under a severe cross-examination by Lord Sunderland, +who attempted to learn where she +had obtained her information. She persisted +in her statement that no real characters were +meant, that it was all a work of imagination, +but if it bore any resemblance to truth it must +have come to her by inspiration. Upon Lord +Sunderland's objecting to this statement, on the +grounds that so immoral a book bore no trace +of divine impulse, she replied that there were +evil angels as well as good, who might possess +equal powers of inspiration. The book was +published in May, 1709; in the following Febru<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>ary, +she was discharged by order of the Queen's +Bench.</p> + +<p>Soon after her discharge from court, she wrote +a third and fourth volume of the <i>New Atalantis</i> +under the title, <i>Memoirs of Europe toward the +Close of the Eighth Century written by Eginardus, +Secretary and Favorite to Charlemagne, and done +into English, by the Translator of the New Atalantis</i>. +Here she has followed the French models. +There is a loosely constructed plot, and the +characters tell a series of stories. Many of the +writers of Queen Anne's reign are described +with none of that lustre that surrounds them +now, but as they appeared to a cynical woman +who knew them well. She refers to Steele as +Don Phaebo, and ridicules his search for the +philosopher's stone; and laments that Addison, +whom she calls Maro, should prostitute his +talents for gold, when he might become a second +Vergil.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Manley had been well trained to write a +book like the <i>New Atalantis</i>. At sixteen, an +age when Addison and Steele were at the Charterhouse +preparing for Oxford, her father, Sir +Roger Manley, died. A cousin, taking advantage +of her helplessness, deceived her by a +false marriage, and after three years abandoned +her. Upon this she entered the household of the +Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles +the Second, who soon tired of her and dismissed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +her from her service. She then began to write, +and by her plays and political articles soon won +an acknowledged place among the writers of +Grub Street.</p> + +<p>From the many references to her in the letters +and journals of the period, she seems to have +been popular with the writers of both political +parties. Swift writes to Stella that she is a +very generous person "for one of that sort," +which many little incidents prove. She dedicated +her play <i>Lucius</i> to Steele, with whom she +was on alternate terms of enmity and friendship, +as a public retribution for her ridicule of him in +the <i>New Atalantis</i>, saying that "scandal between +Whig and Tory goes for not." Steele, equally +generous, wrote a prologue for the play, perhaps +in retribution for some of the harsh criticisms +of her in the <i>Tatler</i>. All readers of Pope remember +the reference to her in the <i>Rape of the Lock</i>, +where Lord Petre exclaims that his honour, name +and praise shall live</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +As long as Atalantis shall be read.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Although Mrs. Manley's pen was constantly +and effectively employed in the interest of the +Tory party, she being at one time the editor of +the <i>Examiner</i>, the Tory organ, none of her writings +had the popularity of the <i>New Atalantis</i>. +It went through seven editions and was translated +into the French. The book has no intrinsic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +merit; its language is scurrilous and obscene; +but it appealed to the eager curiosity of the +public concerning the private immoralities of +men and women who were prominent at court. +Human nature in its pages furnishes a contemptible +spectacle.</p> + +<p>The <i>New Atalantis</i> has now, however, assumed +a permanent place in the history of fiction. +This species of writing had been common, +in France, but it was the first English novel +in which political and personal scandal formed +the groundwork of a romance. Swift followed +its general plan in <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, placing his +political enemies in public office in Lilliput and +Brobdingnag, only he so wrought upon them +with his imagination that he gave to the world +a finished work of art, while Mrs. Manley has +left only the raw material with which the artist +works. Smollett's political satire, <i>Adventures of +an Atom</i>, was also suggested by the <i>New Atalantis</i>, +but here the earlier writer has surpassed the +later. All three of these writers took a low and +cynical view of humanity.</p> + +<p>The women novelists who directly followed +Mrs. Manley did not have her strength, but +they had a delicacy that has given to their +writings a subtle charm. From the time of +Sarah Fielding to the present threatened reaction +the writings of women have been marked by +chastity of thought and purity of expression.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h2>Sarah Fielding. Mrs. Lennox. +Mrs. Haywood. Mrs. Sheridan</h2> + + +<p>About the middle of the eighteenth century, +some interesting novels were written by +women, but their fame was so overshadowed +by the early masters of English fiction, who +were then writing, that they have been almost +forgotten. For in 1740 <i>Pamela</i> was published, +the first novel of Samuel Richardson; in 1771, +<i>Humphry Clinker</i> appeared, the last novel +of Tobias Smollett; and during the thirty-one +years between these two dates all the books +of Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett +were given to the world, and determined the +nature of the English novel. The plot of most +of their fifteen realistic novels is practically the +same. The hero falls in love with a beautiful +young lady, not over seventeen, and there is a +conflict between lust and chastity. The hero, +balked of his prey, travels up and down the +world, where he meets with a series of adventures, +all very much alike, and all bearing very +little on the main plot. At last fate leads the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +dashing hero to the church door, where he confers +a ring on the fair heroine, a paltry piece of +gold, the only reward for her fidelity, with the +hero thrown in, much the worse for wear, and +the curtain falls with the sound of the wedding +bells in the distance.</p> + +<p>The range of these novels is narrow. They +describe a world in which the chief occupation +is eating, drinking, swearing, gambling, and +fighting. Their chief artistic excellence is the +strength and vigour with which these low scenes +are described. Sidney Lanier says of them: +"They play upon life as upon a violin without +a bridge, in the deliberate endeavour to get the +most depressing tones possible from the instrument." +And Taine, who could hardly endure +any of them, writes of Fielding what he implies +of the others: "One thing is wanted in your +strongly-built folks—refinement; the delicate +dreams, enthusiastic elevation, and trembling +delicacy exist in nature equally with coarse +vigour, noisy hilarity, and frank kindness."</p> + +<p>The women who essayed the art of fiction during +these years did not have so firm a grasp of +the pen as their male contemporaries, and they +have added no portraits to the gallery of fiction; +but they saw and recorded many interesting +scenes of British life which quite escaped +the quick-sighted Fielding, or Sterne with the +microscopic eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1744, when Richardson had written only one +book, and Fielding had published only two, before +<i>Tom Jones</i> or <i>Clarissa Harlowe</i> had seen the light +of day, Sarah Fielding published <i>David Simple</i>, +under the title of <i>The Adventures of David Simple, +containing an account of his travels through the +cities of London and Westminster in the search of +a real friend, by a Lady</i>. The author commenced +the story as a satire on society. For a long time +David's search is unsuccessful. Although he +changed his lodgings every week, he could hear +of no one who could be trusted. Many, to be sure, +dropped hints of their own excellence, and the +pity that they had to live with inferior neighbours. +Among these was Mr. Spatter, who introduced +him to Mr. Varnish. The former saw the +faults of people through a magnifying glass; +while the latter, when he mentioned a person's +failings, added, "He was sure they had some +good in them." But David soon learned that +Mr. Varnish was no readier to assist a friend in +need than the fault-finding Mr. Spatter.</p> + +<p>Like her brother Henry, Sarah Fielding is +often sarcastic. In one of the chapters she +leaves David to his sufferings, "lest it should +be thought," she added, "I am so ignorant +of the world as not to know the proper time of +forsaking people." But the pessimistic vein of +the first volume changes to a more optimistic +tone in the second. David, in his search for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +one friend, finds three. Fortunately these consist +of a brother and sister and a lady in love +with the brother. Even at this early time, an +author had no doubts as to how a novel should +end. The heading of the last chapter in the +book informs us that it contains two weddings, +"and consequently the Conclusion of the +Book."</p> + +<p>In its construction, the plot is similar to that +of the other novels of the period. David has +plenty of time at his disposal, and listens with +more patience than the reader to the detailed +history of all the people he meets, and often +begs a casual acquaintance to favour him with +the story of his life.</p> + +<p>But Sarah Fielding's chief charm to her women +readers is the feminine view of her times. In +<i>David Simple</i> we have the pleasure of travelling +through England, but with a woman as our +guide. As Harry Fielding travelled between +Bath and London, the fair reader wonders what +he reported to Mrs. Fielding of what he had seen +and heard. Surely at these various inns there +must have been some by-play of real affection, +some act of modest kindness, some incident of +delicate humour. Did he regale Mrs. Fielding +with the scenes he has described for his readers? +Probably when she asked him if anything had +happened <i>en route</i>, he merely yawned and replied, +"Oh, nothing worth while." He had too much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +reverence for his wife to repeat these low scenes +to her, and we suspect he had eyes for no others. +What would Addison or Steele have seen in the +same place?</p> + +<p>Sarah Fielding also takes her characters on a +stage-coach journey, but here we sit beside the +fair heroine, an intelligent lady, and gaze at the +men who sit opposite her. There is the Butterfly +with his hair pinned up in blue papers, wearing +a laced waistcoat, and humming an Italian air. +He admires nothing but the ladies, and offered +some little familiarity to our heroine, which +she repulsed; upon this he paid her the greatest +respect imaginable, being convinced, as she +would not suffer any intimacy from <i>him</i>, she +must be one of the most virtuous women that +had ever been born. There is the Atheist, who +being alone with her for a few moments makes +love to her in an insinuating manner, and tries +to prove to her that pleasure is the only thing to +be sought in life, and assures her that she may +follow her inclinations without a crime, "while +she knew that nothing could so much oppose her +<i>gratifying him</i>, as her <i>pleasing herself</i>." Then +there is the Clergyman who makes honourable +love to her, but by doing so puts an end to the +friendship which she had hoped might be between +them; until at the end of the journey, "she +almost made a resolution never to speak to a +man again, beginning to think it impossible for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +a man to be civil to a woman, unless he had +some designs upon her."</p> + +<p>Whether or not women have ever portrayed the +masculine sex truthfully is an open question. +But a gentleman mellowed and softened in the +light of ladies' smiles is quite a different creature +from the same gentleman when seen among +the sterner members of his own sex, and there +are certain phases of men's characters portrayed +in the novels of women which Fielding, Scott, +and Thackeray seem never to have seen.</p> + +<p>Miss Fielding descants upon many familiar +scenes in a manner that would have made her a +valuable contributor to the <i>Tatler</i> or <i>Spectator</i>. +All kinds of human nature interested her. There +is the man who advises David as a friend to buy a +certain stock which he himself is secretly trying +to sell because he knows it has decreased in value, +thus showing that money transactions in London +in the reigns of the Georges differed little from +money transactions on the Stock Exchange +to-day. In some respects, however, society has +improved since the days of Sarah Fielding. She +describes the gentlemen of social prominence +who tumble up to the carriages of ladies who +are driving through Covent Garden in the +morning, and present them with cabbages or +other vegetables which they have picked up +from the stalls, too intoxicated to know that +their conduct is ridiculous. There are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +crowds at the theatres who show their displeasure +with a playwright by making so much noise +that his play cannot be heard on its first night +and so is condemned. Other writers of the +period complain of having received this kind of +treatment at the hands of the gentlemen mob. +And then we are introduced to a scene in the +fashionable West End which is a familiar one +to-day, where the ladies of quality have their +whist assemblies and spend all the morning +visiting each other and discussing how the +cards were played the previous evening and +why certain tricks were lost.</p> + +<p>We recognise the fact, however, that Miss +Fielding's knowledge of life was but slight. +She writes from the standpoint of a spectator, not +like her brother as one who had been a part of it. +She was one of that group of gentlewomen +who gathered around Richardson and heard him +read <i>Clarissa</i>, or discussed life and books with +him at the breakfast table in the summer-house +at North End, Hammersmith. Life was not +lived there, but philosophy often sat at the +board, and there was fine penetration into the +characters and manners of men. Richardson +transferred to Miss Fielding the compliment +which Dr. Johnson had bestowed upon him, and +it was not undeserved by the author of <i>David +Simple</i>:</p> + +<p>"What a knowledge of the human heart!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +Well might a critical judge of writing say, as he +did to me, that your late brother's knowledge +of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable +to yours. His was but as the knowledge of the +outside of a clock-work machine, while yours +was that of all the finer springs and movements +of the inside."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It is not difficult to conjure up a picture of the +literary gentlemen and gentlewomen who used +to breakfast with Richardson in the summer-house +at North End; the gentlemen in their +many-coloured velvet suits, the ladies wearing +broad hoops, loose sacques, and Pamela hats. +One of these ladies was Charlotte Ramsay, +better known by her married name of Mrs. +Lennox. Her father, Colonel James Ramsay, +was lieutenant-governor of New York, where +his daughter Charlotte was born in 1720. She +was sent to England at the age of fifteen, and +soon after her father died, leaving her unprovided +for. She turned her attention to literature as a +means of livelihood, and at once became a +favourite in the literary circles of London, where +she met and won the esteem of the great Dr. +Johnson.</p> + +<p>When her first novel, <i>The Life of Harriet +Stuart</i>, was published, he showed his appreciation +of its author in a unique manner. At his +suggestion, the Ivy Lane Club and its friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +entertained Mrs. Lennox and her husband at +the Devil's Tavern with a night of festivity. +After an elaborate supper had been served, a +hot apple-pie was brought in, stuffed full of +bay-leaves, and Johnson with appropriate ceremonies +crowned the author with a wreath +of laurel. The night was passed in mirth and +conversation; tea and coffee were often served; +and not until the creaking of the street doors +reminded them that it was eight o'clock in the +morning did the guests, twenty in number, leave +the tavern.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lennox's claim to a place in English +literature rests solely upon her novel, <i>The +Female Quixote</i>, published in 1752. Arabella, +the heroine, is the daughter of a marquis who +has retired into the country, where he lives +remote from society. Her mother is dead; her +father is immersed in his books, so that Arabella +is left alone, and whiles away the hours by +reading the novels of Mademoiselle de Scudéri. +Her three great novels, <i>Clelia</i>, <i>The Grand +Cyrus</i> and <i>Ibrahim</i>, are historical allegories, +in which the France of Louis XIV is given an +historical setting, and his courtiers masquerade +under the names of famous men of antiquity. +There is no attempt at historical accuracy. +But to Arabella these books represented true +history and depicted the real life of the world.</p> + +<p>In a fine satirical passage Arabella informs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +Mr. Selvin, a man so deeply read in ancient +history that he fixed the date of any occurrence +by Olympiads, not years, that Pisistratus had +been inspired to enslave his country because of +his love for Cleorante. Mr. Selvin wonders +how this important fact could have escaped his +own research, and conceives a great admiration +for Arabella's learning.</p> + +<p>In the novels of Mademoiselle de Scudéri the +characters, even in moments of extreme danger, +entertain each other with stories of their past +experiences. When Arabella has unexpected +guests she bids her maid relate to them the history +of her mistress. She instructs her to "relate +exactly every change of my countenance, +number all my smiles, half-smiles, blushes, turnings +pale, glances, pauses, full-stops, interruptions; +the rise and falling of my voice, every +motion of my eyes, and every gesture which I +have used for these ten years past: nor omit +the smallest circumstance that relates to me."</p> + +<p>All the people Arabella meets are changed by +her fancy into the characters of her favourite +books. In common people she sees princes in +disguise. If a man approaches her, she fancies +that he is about to bear her away to some remote +castle, or to mention the subject of love, +which would be unpardonable, unless he had +first captured cities in her behalf. Yet amid the +wildest extravagances Arabella never loses her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +charm. Her generosity and purity of thought +make her a very lovable heroine, much more +womanly than Clarissa or Sophia Western, and +we do not wonder that Mr. Glanville continues +to love her, although he is so often annoyed by +her ridiculous fancies.</p> + +<p>But her belief in her hallucinations is as firm +as that of the Spanish Quixote for whom the +book was named. Everyone will remember +his attack on the windmills, which he mistook +for giants. Arabella was equally brave. Thinking +herself and some other ladies pursued, when +the Thames cuts off their escape, she addresses +her companions in language becoming one of +her favourite heroines: "Once more, my fair +Companions, if your honour be dear to you, if +an immortal glory be worth your seeking, +follow the example I shall set you, and equal, with +me, the Roman Clelia." She plunged into the +river, but was promptly rescued. The doctor +who attended her in the illness that followed +this heroic deed convinced her of the folly of +trying to live according to these old books, +and she consented to marry her faithful and +deserving lover.</p> + +<p>The character of Arabella is not drawn with +the broad strong lines of Fielding, nor with the +attention to minute detail which gives life to the +characters of Richardson. But the girlish sweetness +of Arabella, her refusal to believe wrong of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +others, her ignorance of life, her contempt for +a lover who has not shed blood nor captured +cities in her behalf, is a reality, and shows that +the author knew the nature of the romantic +girl. In the noble simplicity of Arabella, Mrs. +Lennox has, perhaps unconsciously, paid a high +tribute to the moral effects of the novels of +Scudéri. Arabella is the only clearly drawn +character in the book. But one humorous +situation follows another, so that the interest +never flags.</p> + +<p>The other novels of Mrs. Lennox have no +value save as they show the trend of thought +of the period. In <i>Henrietta</i>, afterward dramatised +as <i>The Sister</i>, the heroine, granddaughter +of an earl, rather than change her +religion, leaves her family and becomes the +maid of a rich but vulgar tradesman's daughter. +Of course her mistress, who has treated her +scurrilously, in time learns her true rank and is +properly humbled. The name given to one of the +chapters might suffice for the most of them: +"In which our heroine is in great distress."</p> + +<p>This would seem to be the proper heading +for many chapters of many books of the period. +In the days of Good Queen Bess, heroines were +good and happy. In the merry reign of Charles, +they were bad but happy. Pamela set a +fashion from which heroines seldom dared to +deviate for over a hundred years. They were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +good—but, oh, so wretched! This type of +women became such a favourite with both +sexes, that even the sane-minded Scott says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>During her period of distress Henrietta +lodged with a milliner. Her landlady showed +her a small collection of books and pointed with +especial pleasure to her favourite novels: +"There is Mrs. Haywood's Novels, did you +ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sick +passionate stories: I assure you, you'll +like them vastly." Henrietta, however, chose +<i>Joseph Andrews</i> for her diversion. Mrs. Eliza +Haywood was never admitted into that inner +circle of highly respectable English ladies who +clustered around Richardson. She was more +of an adventuress in the domain of letters. +In her first novels she followed the fashion set +by Mrs. Manley and supplied the public with +scandals in high life. <i>Memoirs of a Certain +Island Adjacent to Utopia</i>, published in 1725, +<i>The Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania</i>, +published in 1727, are the highly suggestive titles +of two of the most popular of her early works.</p> + +<p>After Richardson had made Virtue more popular +than Vice, Mrs. Haywood followed the literary +fashion which he had set, and in 1751 +wrote <i>The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless</i>. +This has sometimes been called a domestic novel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +but that is a misnomer, since the characters +are seldom found at home, but rather are met +in the various pleasure resorts of London. As +was the fashion in the novels of this time, and +probably not an uncommon occurrence in the +English capital, the heroine was often forced +into a chariot by some lawless libertine, but +fortunately was always rescued by some more +virtuous lover. The whole story is but a new +arrangement of the one or two incidents with +which Richardson had wrung the heart of the +British public. It has one advantage over the +most of the novels which had preceded it. +There is little told that does not bear directly on +the plot, the characters of the sub-plot being +important personages in the main story, and the +book has a definite conclusion.</p> + +<p>None of the characters, however, are pleasing. +The hero, Mr. Trueworthy, a combination of +Tom Jones and Sir Charles Grandison, is a +hypocrite. The other male characters are insignificant. +Miss Betsey, the heroine, is almost +charming. Conscious of her own innocence, she +repeatedly appears in a light that makes her +worldly lover, Mr. Trueworthy, suspect her +virtue, until at last he begs to be released from +his engagement to her. The author of the book +stands as a duenna at Miss Betsey's side, and +points out by the misfortunes of the heroine +how foolish it is for girls to ignore public opinion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +and strives to inculcate the lesson that a husband +is the best protection for a young girl. We are +properly shocked at Miss Betsey's levity, who, +although she had arrived at the mature age +of fourteen, cared not a straw for any of the +gentlemen who sought her hand, but liked to +have them about her only because they flattered +her vanity or afforded her a subject for mirth. +Miss Betsey's gaiety, wit, and generosity would +be very attractive—in fact, she is quite an up-to-date +young lady—but we see how much better +she would "get on" if she had a little more +worldly wisdom. She is punished, as she deserves +to be, by losing her lover, and marries a man +who makes her very unhappy. Mr. Trueworthy, +however, learns of her innocence; her husband +fortunately dies, and the author takes +the bold step of uniting the widow to her +former lover, after a year of mourning and +passing through much suffering, brought upon +herself by her own thoughtlessness. She is rewarded, +however, very much as Pamela was +rewarded, by marrying a man of honour, who +had judged her formerly by his own conduct, +being too willing to believe by appearances that +she had lost her chastity, or, at least, had sullied +her good name.</p> + +<p>In this novel, Mrs. Haywood is very near the +line that divides the artist from the artisan. +Like a young girl with good health and good<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +spirits, Miss Betsey is ever on the verge of +sweeping aside the prejudices of her duenna, and +asserting her own individuality, but is constantly +held back by the sense of worldly propriety. +Had Mrs. Haywood permitted Miss Betsey to +carry the plot whither she would without let or +hindrance, she would have won for herself an +acknowledged place among the heroines of +fiction.</p> + +<p><i>The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless</i> was +an epoch-making book. The adventures of its +heroine in the city of London took possession of +the imagination of Fanny Burney, while little +more than a child, and led to the story of <i>Evelina</i>, +the forerunner of Jane Austen and her school.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The fashion for weeping heroines was at its +height, when, in 1761, Mrs. Francis Sheridan +published <i>The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph</i>. +The story is written in the form of letters, in +which the heroine reveals to a friend of her +own sex all the secrets of her heart. All London +rejoiced over the virtues of Sidney Biddulph, +and wept over her sorrows. She had +been educated "in the strictest principles of +virtue; from which she never deviated, through +the course of an innocent, though unhappy +life." It was so pathetic a story that Dr. +Johnson doubted if Mrs. Sheridan had a right +to make her characters suffer so much, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +Charles James Fox, who sat up all night to read +it, pronounced it the best of all novels of his +time.</p> + +<p>The book, as first written, was in three volumes. +The author had brought the story to a most +fitting close. Both Sidney's husband and the +man whom she had really loved were dead, and +the widow could have spent her days in pleasing +melancholy, contented with the thought that +she had never done a wrong. But the public +demanded a continuation of the story. In +1767, two volumes were added, giving the history +of Sidney's daughters, who seem to have +inherited from their mother the enmity of +the fates, for their sufferings were as great as +hers.</p> + +<p>Authors are prone to draw upon their own +history for the emotions they depict. But Mrs. +Sheridan's life did not furnish the tragic elements +of <i>Sidney Biddulph</i>, although it was not +without romance. Before her marriage, she +wrote a pamphlet in praise of the conduct of one +Thomas Sheridan, the manager of the Theatre +Royal in Dublin, during a riot that occurred in +the theatre. Sheridan read these words in his +praise, sought the acquaintance of their author, +and before long married her.</p> + +<p>History furnishes a long list of women of talent +whose sons were men of genius. Mrs. Sheridan's +second son, Richard Brinsley, the author of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +light and sparkling <i>Rivals</i>, inherited his mother's +talents without her gloom. But Mrs. Sheridan +also had some ability as a writer of comedy, +and the most famous character of the <i>Rivals</i> +was first sketched by her. In a comedy, <i>A +Journey to Bath</i>, declined by Garrick, one of +the characters was Mrs. Twyford, whom Richard +Brinsley Sheridan transformed into that famous +blundering coiner of words, Mrs. Malaprop.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Sheridan's place in literature rests upon +<i>Sidney Biddulph</i>. This novel was an innovation +in English fiction. Nearly one hundred years +earlier, Madame de Lafayette had written <i>The +Princess of Clèves</i>, one of the most nearly perfect +novels that has ever been written, and the first +that depended for its interest, not alone on +what was done, but on the subtle workings of +the human heart which led to the doing of it. +From that time the novels of French women +were largely introspective. English women, +however, were either less interested in the +inner life, or more reserved in laying bare its +secrets. <i>Sidney Biddulph</i> was the first English +novel of this kind, and it left no definite +trace on fiction, although it was the favourite +novel of Charlotte Smith and had some slight +effect upon her writings, and Mrs. Inchbald, +Mrs. Opie, and Mary Brunton noted the feelings +of their characters. Not until <i>Jane Eyre</i> was +published, long after Mrs. Sheridan had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +forgotten, was there any great English novel +of the inner life.</p> + +<p>In its day <i>Sidney Biddulph</i> was exceedingly +popular on the continent of Europe as well +as in England. It was translated into German, +and an adaptation of it was made in French by +the Abbé Prévost, under the title, <i>Memoirs pour +servir a l'histoire de la vertu</i>. But after all, +Sidney's sorrows were not real, or she herself +was not real; and we of to-day smile or yawn +over the pages that drew tears from the eyes of +the mighty Dr. Johnson.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Notwithstanding the many excellencies of English +fiction during the middle of the eighteenth +century, it was held in low repute. There +had been many writers attempting to portray +real life who, without the genius of the greater +novelists, could imitate only their faults. In +the preface to <i>Polly Honeycomb</i>, which was +acted at Drury Lane theatre in 1760, George +Colman, the author, gives the titles of about two +hundred novels whose names appeared in a circulating +library at that time. <i>Amorous Friars, +or the Intrigues of a Convent</i>; <i>Beauty put to its +Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles</i>; <i>Bubbled +Knights, or Successful Contrivances, plainly evincing, +in two Familiar Instances lately transacted +in this Metropolis, the Folly and Unreasonableness +of Parents Laying a Restraint upon their Children's</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +<i>Inclinations in the Affairs of Love and +Marriage</i>; <i>The Impetuous Lover, or the Guiltless +Parricide</i>; these are the titles of a few of the +popular books of that period. Colman in the +character of Polly Honeycomb, an earlier Lydia +Languish, attempts to show the moral effects of +such reading. Her head had been so turned by +these books that her father exclaims, "A man +might as well turn his daughter loose in Covent-Garden, +as trust the cultivation of her mind to +<small>A CIRCULATING LIBRARY</small>."</p> + +<p>Fiction at this time lacked delicacy and +refinement. The characters lived largely in the +streets or taverns, and were too much engrossed +in the pleasures of active life to give any heed to +thoughts or emotions. Though love was the +constant theme of these books, as yet no true love +story had been written. The fires of home had +not been lighted. The refinements, the pure affections, +the high ideals which cluster around +the domestic hearth had as yet no place in the +novel. It needed the feminine element, which, +while no broader than that which had previously +made the novel, by its own addition +gave something new to it and made it truer to +life.</p> + +<p>While no woman of marked genius had appeared, +the number and influence of women +novelists continued to increase throughout the +eighteenth century. Tim Cropdale in the novel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +<i>Humphry Clinker</i>, who "had made shift to +live many years by writing novels, at the +rate of five pounds a volume," complains that +"that branch of business is now engrossed by +female authors, who publish merely for the propagation +of virtue, with so much ease, and spirit, +and delicacy, and knowledge of the human +heart, and all in the serene tranquillity of high +life, that the reader is not only enchanted by +their genius, but reformed by their morality." +Schlosser in his <i>History of the Eighteenth Century</i> +pays this tribute to the moral influence of the +women novelists: "With the increase of the +number of writers in England in the course of +the eighteenth century, women began to appear +as authors instead of educating their children, +and their influence upon morals and modes +of thinking increased, as that of the clergy +diminished."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h2>Fanny Burney</h2> + + +<p>A noteworthy transformation took place +in the English novel during the late years +of the eighteenth century and the early part of +the nineteenth. This change cannot be explained +by the great difference in manners only. The +mode of life described by the early novelists was +in existence sixty years after they wrote scenes +typical of the customs and manners of their +day, just as the quiet home life described by +Miss Austen was to be found in England a +hundred years before it graced the pages of a +book. This new era in the English novel was +due not to a change of environment, but to the +new ideals of those who wrote.</p> + +<p>In 1778, English fiction was represented by +the work of Miss Burney, and for thirty-six +years, until 1814, when <i>Waverley</i> appeared, this +rare plant was preserved and kept alive by a +group of women, who trimmed and pruned off +many of its rough branches and gave to the +wild native fruit a delicacy and fragrance unknown +to it before. English women writers did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +at that time for the English novel what French +women had done in the preceding century for +the French novel; they made it so pure in +thought and expression that Bishop Huet was +able to say of the French romances of the seventeenth +century, "You'll scarce find an expression +or word which may shock chaste ears, or one +single action which may give offence to modesty."</p> + +<p>This great change in the English novel was +inaugurated by a young woman ignorant of the +world, whose power lay in her innocent and +lively imagination. At his home in Queen +Square and later in St. Martin's Street, Charles +Burney, the father of Frances, entertained the +most illustrious men of his day. Johnson, +Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, and Colman were +frequent guests, while members of the nobility +thronged his parlours to listen to the famous +Italian singers who gladly sang for the author of +the <i>History of Music</i>. Here Fanny, a bashful +but observant child, saw life in the drawing-room. +But as Dr. Burney gave little heed to +the comings and goings of his daughters, they +played with the children of a wigmaker next +door, where, perhaps, Fanny became acquainted +with the vulgar side of London life, which is so +humorously depicted in <i>Evelina</i>. She received +but little education, nor was she more than a +casual reader, but she was familiar with <i>Pamela</i>, +<i>Betsey Thoughtless</i>, <i>Rasselas</i>, and the <i>Vicar of Wakefield</i>. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +Such was her preparation for becoming +a writer of novels.</p> + +<p>From her earliest years, she had delighted +in writing stories and dramas, although she +received little encouragement in this occupation. +In her fifteenth year her stepmother +proved to her so conclusively the folly of +girls' scribbling that Fanny burned all her +manuscripts, including <i>The History of Caroline +Evelyn</i>. She could not, however, banish from +her mind the fate of Caroline's infant daughter, +born of high rank, but related through her +grandmother to the vulgar people of the East +End of London. The many embarrassing situations +in which she might be placed haunted the +imagination of the youthful writer, but it was +not until her twenty-sixth year that these situations +were described, when <i>Evelina or a Young +Lady's Entrance into the World</i> was published.</p> + +<p>The success of the book was instantaneous. +The name of the author, which had been withheld +even from the publishers, was eagerly +demanded. All agreed that only a man conversant +with the world could have written +such accurate descriptions of life both high and +low. The wonder was increased when it was +learned that the author was a young woman +who had drawn her scenes, not from a knowledge +of the world, but from her own intuition and +imagination. Miss Burney became at once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +an honoured member of the literary circle which +Mrs. Thrale had gathered at Streatham, and a +favourite of Dr. Johnson, who declared that +<i>Evelina</i> was superior to anything that Fielding +had written, and that some passages were +worthy of the pen of Richardson. The book +was accorded a place among English classics, +which it has retained for over a century. "It +was not hard fagging that produced such a +work as <i>Evelina</i>," wrote Mr. Crisp to the youthful +author. "It was the ebullition of true sterling +genius—you wrote it because you could not help +it—it came—and so you put it down on paper."</p> + +<p>The novel, following the form so common +in the eighteenth century, is written in the form +of letters. The plot is somewhat time-honoured; +there is the nurse's daughter substituted for the +real heiress, and a mystery surrounding some +of the characters; it is unfolded slowly with +a slight strain upon the readers' credulity at +the last, but it ends to the satisfaction of all +concerned. In many incidents and in some of the +characters the story suggests <i>Betsey Thoughtless</i>, +but Miss Burney had greater powers of description +than Mrs. Haywood.</p> + +<p>The plot of the novel is forgotten, however, in +the lively, witty manner in which the characters +are drawn and the ludicrous situations in which +they are placed. So long had these men and +women held the mind of the author that they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +intensely real as they are presented to us at +assemblies, balls, theatres, and operas, where we +watch their oddities with amusement.</p> + +<p>Indeed no woman has given so many graphic, +droll, and minute descriptions of life as Miss +Burney. Her genius in this respect is different +from that of other women novelists. She has +made a series of snap-shots of people in the most +absurd situations and ridicules them while she is +taking the picture. Few women writers can +resist the temptation of peeping into the hearts +of their men and women, and the knowledge +thus gained gives them sympathy, while it often +detracts from the strong lines of the external +picture; a writer will not paint a villain quite +so black if he believes he still preserves some +remnants of a noble nature. But Miss Burney +has no interest in the inner life of her men and +women. She saw their peculiarities and was +amused by them, and has presented them to the +reader with minute descriptions and lively wit.</p> + +<p>She also makes fine distinctions between people. +Sir Clement Willoughby, the West End +snob, and Mr. Smith, the East End beau, are +drawn with discrimination. With what wit +Miss Burney describes the scene at the <i>ridotto</i> +between Evelina and Sir Clement. He had +asked her to dance with him. Unwilling to do so, +because she wished to dance with another gentleman, +if he should ask her, she told Sir Clement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +she was engaged for that dance. He did not +leave her, however, but remained by her side +and speculated as to who the beast was so +hostile to his own interests as to forget to come +to her; pitied the humiliation a lady must feel +in having to wait for a gentleman, and pointed +to each old and lame man in the room asking +if he were the miscreant; he offered to find him +for her and asked what kind of a coat he had on. +When Evelina did not know, he became angry +with the wretch who dared to address a lady +in so insignificant a coat that it was unworthy +of her notice. To save herself from further +annoyance she danced with him, for she now +knew that Sir Clement had seen through her +artifice from the beginning.</p> + +<p>But the portrait of Mr. Smith, the East End +snob, is even better than that of Sir Clement +Willoughby. Evelina is visiting her relatives +at Snow Hill, when Mr. Smith enters, self-confident +and vulgar. His aim in life, as he +tells us, is to please the ladies. When Tom +Branghton is disputing with his sister about +the place where they shall go for amusement, he +reprimands Tom for his lack of good breeding.</p> + +<p>"O fie, Tom,—dispute with a lady!" cried +Mr. Smith. "Now, as for me, I'm for where +you will, providing this young lady [meaning +Evelina] is of the party; one place is the same +as another to me, so that it be but agreeable to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +the ladies. I would go anywhere with you, +Ma'm, unless, indeed, it were to church;—ha, ha, +ha, you'll excuse me, Ma'm, but, really, I never +could conquer my fear of a parson;—ha, ha, ha,—really, +ladies, I beg your pardon, for being +so rude, but I can't help laughing for my life."</p> + +<p>Mr. Smith endeavoured to make himself +particularly pleasing to Evelina, and for that +purpose bought tickets for her and her relatives +to attend the Hampstead Assembly. When he +observed that Evelina was a little out of sorts, +he attributed her low spirits to doubts of his +intentions towards her. "To be sure," he told +her, "marriage is all in all with the ladies; but +with us gentlemen it's quite another thing." He +advised her not to be discouraged, saying with +a patronising air, "You may very well be proud, +for I assure you there is nobody so likely to +catch me at last as yourself."</p> + +<p>Both Sir Clement Willoughby and Mr. Smith +are selfish and conceited; but the former had +lived among the gentlemen of Mayfair, the +latter among the tradespeople of Snow Hill, and +this difference of environment is shown in every +speech they utter.</p> + +<p>It is the contrast between these two distinct +classes of society that saves the book from +becoming monotonous. Evelina visits the Pantheon +with her West End friends. When Captain +Mirvan wonders what people find in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +a place, Mr. Lovel, a fashionable fop, quickly +rejoins: "What the ladies may come hither +for, Sir, it would ill become <i>us</i> to determine; +but as to we men, doubtless we can have no +other view, than to admire them." At another +time Evelina visits the opera with the vulgar +Branghtons, who all rejoiced when the curtain +dropped, and Mr. Branghton vowed he would +never be caught again. The Branghtons at the +opera is hardly inferior to Partridge at the play. +Tom Branghton is a good representative of his +class. He describes with glee the last night at +Vauxhall: "There's such squealing and squalling!—and +then all the lamps are broke,—and +the women skimper scamper;—I declare I would +not take five guineas to miss the last night!"</p> + +<p>All the characters, even the heroine, take delight, +in boisterous mirth. Much of the humour +of the book consists rather in ludicrous situations +than in any real delicacy of wit. Too often +the laugh is at another's discomfiture, and so +fails to please the present age with its kindlier +feeling towards others. Such are the practical +jokes which Captain Mirvan plays upon Madame +Duval. In one instance, disguised as a robber, +he waylays the lady's coach, and leaves her in a +ditch with her feet tied to a tree. The many +tricks which the doughty Salt plays upon this +lady so much resemble some of the humorous +scenes in <i>Joseph Andrews</i>, and <i>Tom Jones</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +that we may infer the readers of that century +found them laughable. The Captain and the +French woman are two puppets which serve to +introduce much of this horse-play. They are +not even caricatures; they are entirely unlike +anything in human life. With the exception +of these two characters, all the men and women +who provoked the mirth of the heroine are well +portrayed.</p> + +<p>Miss Burney is less felicitous in her descriptions +of serious characters. Lord Orville, the same +type of man as Sir Charles Grandison, is true +only in the sense that Miss Burney announces +the truth of the entire book. "I have not pretended +to show the world what it actually <i>is</i>, +but what it <i>appears</i> to a girl of seventeen," she +wrote in the preface to <i>Evelina</i>. Lord Orville, +all dignity, nobility, charm, and perfection, is +but the ideal of a young girl.</p> + +<p>Evelina was a new woman in literature, a +revelation to the men of the time of George the +Third. The sincerity of the book could not +be doubted. "But," they asked, "did Evelina +represent the woman's point of view of life? +Surely no man ever held like views." The +Lovelaces and Tom Joneses are not so attractive +as when seen through the eyes of their own +sex, and the heroines are not so soft and yielding +as a man would create them. Evelina, like all +Miss Burney's heroines, is independent, fearless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +and witty, with scarcely a trace of the traditional +heroine of fiction. Saints and Magdalenes +have always appealed to the masculine +imagination. <i>La donna dolorosa</i> has occupied +a prominent place in the art and literature of +man's creation. Here he has revealed his sex +egoism in all its nudity: the woman weeping +for man, either lover, husband, or son; man the +centre of her thoughts, her hopes and fears. +This new heroine with a new regard towards +man was a revelation to them. Evelina was the +first woman to break the spell, to show them +woman as woman, in lieu of woman as parasite +and adjunct to man. Evelina is not always +pleasing; she hasn't always good manners; +she sometimes laughs in the faces of the dashing +beaux who are addressing her. But she is a +woman of real flesh and blood; such women have +existed in all time, and, liked many women we +meet every day and whom men in all ages have +known, Evelina insists on being the centre of +every scene.</p> + +<p>In July, 1782, Miss Burney's second book, +<i>Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress</i>, was published. +This novel met with as enthusiastic a reception as +<i>Evelina</i>. Gibbon read the whole five volumes +in a day; Burke declared they had cost him +three days, though he did not part with the +story from the time he first opened it, and had +sat up a whole night to finish it; and Sir Joshua<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +Reynolds had been fed while reading it, because +he refused to quit it at the table.</p> + +<p>The book shows more care and effort than +<i>Evelina</i>. That was an outburst of youthful vivacity +and spirits, but in <i>Cecilia</i> the author +is striving to do her best. This is particularly +revealed in the style, which shows the influence +of Doctor Johnson, for it has lost the simplicity +of <i>Evelina</i>. The diction is more ambitious, and +the sentences are longer, many of them balanced. +Even some of the inferior characters from their +speech, appear to have received a lesson in +English composition from Dr. Johnson.</p> + +<p>But the novel owes its place among English +classics to the varieties of characters portrayed +and the vivid pictures of English life. Here +again the gaieties of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marylebone +and the Pantheon have become immortal, +drawn with colours as vivid and enduring as +Hogarth used in painting the sadder sides of +London life. No other writer has brought these +places before our eyes as clearly and as fully +as Fanny Burney.</p> + +<p>The plot of <i>Cecilia</i>, like that of <i>Evelina</i>, is so +arranged as to present different classes of society. +<i>Cecilia</i> has three guardians, with one of whom she +must live during her minority. First she visits +Mr. Harrel, a gay, fashionable man, a spendthrift +and a gambler, who lives in a fashionable house +in Portman Square, where Cecilia, during a con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>stant +round of festivities, meets the fashionable +people of London. Next she visits Mr. Briggs in +the City, "a short thick, sturdy man, with very +small keen black eyes, a square face, a dark +complexion, and a snub nose." He was so +miserly that when Cecilia asked for pen, ink, +and a sheet of paper, he gave her a slate and +pencil, as he supposed she had nothing of +consequence to say. He was as sparing of +his words as of his money, and used the same +elliptical sentences in his speech as Dickens +afterwards put into the mouth of Alfred Jingle, +the famous character in <i>Pickwick Papers</i>. +He thus advises Cecilia in regard to +her lovers: "Take care of sharpers; don't +trust shoe-buckles, nothing but Bristol stones! +tricks in all things. A fine gentleman sharp +as another man. Never give your heart to +a gold-topped cane, nothing but brass gilt over. +Cheats everywhere: fleece you in a year; won't +leave you a groat. But one way to be safe,—bring +'em all to me." Lastly she visits Mr. +Delvile, her third guardian, a man of family, +who despised both the men associated with +him as trustees of Cecilia; he lived in such +gloomy state in his magnificent old house +in St. James's Square that it inspired awe, +and repressed all pleasure. Pride in their birth +and prejudice against all parvenus were the +faults of Mr. and Mrs. Delvile.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>Besides these characters, there were many +others whose names were for a long time familiar +in every household. Sir Robert Floyer was +as vain as Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows was constantly +bored to death; it was insufferable exertion +to talk to a quiet woman, and a talkative one +put him into a fever. At the opera the solos depressed +him and the full orchestra fatigued +him. He yawned while ladies were talking to +him, and after he had begged them to repeat +what they had said, forgot to listen. "I am +tired to death! tired of everything," was his +constant expression.</p> + +<p>In his critical essay on Madame D'Arblay, +Fanny Burney's married name, under which +her later works were published, Macaulay has +thus dealt with her treatment of character:</p> + +<p>"Madame D'Arblay has left us scarcely anything +but humours. Almost every one of her +men and women has some one propensity +developed to a morbid degree. In <i>Cecilia</i>, +for example, Mr. Delvile never opens his lips +without some allusion to his own birth and +station; or Mr. Briggs without some allusion +to the hoarding of money; or Mr. Hobson, +without betraying the self-indulgence and self-importance +of a purse-proud upstart; or Mr. +Simkins, without uttering some sneaking remark +for the purpose of currying favour with his +customers; or Mr. Meadows, without expressing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +apathy and weariness of life; or Mr. Albany, +without declaiming about the vices of the rich +and the misery of the poor; or Mrs. Belfield, +without some indelicate eulogy on her son; +or Lady Margaret, without indicating jealousy +of her husband. Morrice is all skipping, officious +impertinence, Mr. Gosport all sarcasm, Lady +Honoria all lively prattle, Miss Larolles all silly +prattle; if ever Madame D'Arblay aimed at +more, as in the character of Monckton, we do +not think that she succeeded well.... The +variety of humours which is to be found in her +novels is immense; and though the talk of each +person separately is monotonous, the general +effect is not monotony, but a most lively and +agreeable diversity."</p> + +<p>While the character of Monckton is not strongly +drawn, one or two scenes in which he figures +have great power. Mr. Monckton, who had +married an aged woman for her money, lived in +constant hope of her dissolution. He planned +to keep Cecilia from marrying until that happy +event, when he schemed to make her his bride, +and thus acquire a second fortune. He had +used his influence as a family friend to prejudice +her lovers in her eyes, and had just succeeded +in breaking up an intimacy which he feared: +"A weight was removed from his mind which +had nearly borne down even his remotest hopes; +the object of his eager pursuit seemed still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +within his reach, and the rival into whose power +he had so lately almost beheld her delivered, was +totally renounced, and no longer to be dreaded. +A revolution such as this, raised expectations +more sanguine than ever; and in quitting the +house, he exultingly considered himself released +from every obstacle to his view,—till, just as he +arrived home, he recollected his wife!"</p> + +<p>Cecilia, the heroine of the novel, is only +Evelina grown a little older, a little sadder, a +little more worldly wise. The humour is, too, a +little kindlier. The practical jokes so common +in <i>Evelina</i> do not mar the pages of <i>Cecilia</i>. +At times the latter novel becomes almost tragic. +The scene at Vauxhall where Mr. Harrel puts +an end to his life of dissipation is dramatic and +thrilling. But Miss Burney had lost the buoyancy +and lively fancy which made the charm of +<i>Evelina</i>.</p> + +<p>Miss Burney's last two novels, <i>Camilla, or a +Picture of Youth</i> and <i>The Wanderer, or Female +Difficulties</i>, have no claim to a place among +English classics. It is strange that, as she saw +more of life, she depicted it with less accuracy. +This might seem to show that her first novels owe +their excellence to her vivid imagination rather +than to her powers of observation. Her weary +life at court as second keeper of the robes +to Queen Charlotte; her marriage to Monsieur +D'Arblay, and the sorrows that came to her as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +the wife of a French refugee; all her deeper +experiences of life during the fourteen years between +the publication of <i>Cecilia</i> and <i>Camilla</i>—these +had completely changed her light, humorous +view of externals, and with that loss her +power as an artist disappeared.</p> + +<p><i>Camilla</i> has several heroines whose love +affairs interest the reader. It thus bears a +resemblance to Miss Austen's novels, who speaks +of it with admiration and was, perhaps, influenced +by it. Eugenia, who has received the +education of a man, is pleasing. Clermont +Lynmere, like Mr. Smith and Sir Robert Floyer, +imagines that all the ladies are in love with him. +Sir Hugh Tyrold, with his love for the classics +and his regret that he had not been beaten into +learning them when he was a boy, his strict +ideas of virtue and his desire to make everybody +happy, is well conceived, but the outlines are not +strong enough to make him a living character. +<i>Camilla</i> shows more than <i>Cecilia</i> the style of +Dr. Johnson. It is heavy and slow, the words +are long, and many of them of Latin derivation.</p> + +<p>It was not until the year 1814, the year of +<i>Waverley</i>, that her last novel, <i>The Wanderer, +or Female Difficulties</i>, was published, which, +following the style of <i>Camilla</i>, was in five volumes. +It was partly founded on incidents arising +out of the French Revolution. The book +was eagerly awaited; the publishers paid fifteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +hundred guineas for it; but even the friendliest +critic pronounced it a literary failure.</p> + +<p>To sum up, Macaulay in the essay before +quoted makes clear Miss Burney's place in +fiction:</p> + +<p>"Miss Burney did for the English novel +what Jeremy Collier did for the English drama; +and she did it in a better way. She first showed +that a tale might be written in which both the +fashionable and the vulgar life of London might +be exhibited with great force and with broad +comic humour, and which yet should not contain +a single line inconsistent with rigid morality, +or even with virgin delicacy. She took away the +reproach which lay on a most useful and delightful +species of composition. She vindicated the +right of her sex to an equal share in a fair and +noble province of letters ... we owe to her +not only <i>Evelina</i>, <i>Cecilia</i>, and <i>Camilla</i>, but also +<i>Mansfield Park</i> and <i>The Absentee</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h2>Hannah More</h2> + + +<p>During the time that Dr. Johnson dominated +the literary conscience of England, +a group of ladies who had wearied of whist and +quadrille, the common amusements of fashion, +used to meet at the homes of one another to discuss +literary and political subjects. They were +called in ridicule the "Blue Stocking Club," because +Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who was always +present at these gatherings, wore hose of that +colour. Among the members distinguished by +their wit and talents were Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, +the author of an <i>Essay on the Genius of +Shakespeare</i>; Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, a poetess +and excellent Greek scholar; Mrs. Chapone, whose +<i>Letters to Young Ladies</i> formed the standard +of conduct for young women of two generations; +Miss Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua; and +Mrs. Vesey, noted as a charming hostess. Dr. +Johnson, David Garrick, Reynolds, and Burke +were frequenters of this club. One may well +imagine that the conversation and wit of the Blue<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +Stockings were far too rare to be understood +by the grosser minds of the mere devotees of +fashion, who in consequence threw a ridicule +upon them which has always adhered to the +name.</p> + +<p>Hannah More, who had already become known +as a playwright, visited London in 1773, and +at once was welcomed by this group. In a +poem called <i>The Bas Bleu</i>, dedicated to Mrs. +Vesey, she thus describes the pleasure of these +meetings:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Enlighten'd spirits! You, who know</span><br /> +What charms from polish'd converse flow,<br /> +Speak, for you can, the pure delight<br /> +When kindling sympathies unite;<br /> +When correspondent tastes impart<br /> +Communion sweet from heart to heart;<br /> +You ne'er the cold gradations need<br /> +Which vulgar souls to union lead;<br /> +No dry discussion to unfold<br /> +The meaning caught ere well 't is told:<br /> +In taste, in learning, wit, or science,<br /> +Still kindled souls demand alliance:<br /> +Each in the other joys to find<br /> +The image answering to his mind.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The Blue Stocking Club was composed largely +of Tories, so that when all Europe became +restless under the influence of the French +Revolution, they strongly combated the levelling +doctrines of democracy. Hannah More in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +particular, who had been conducting schools for +the very poor near Bristol, saw how the teachings +of the revolutionists affected men already prone +to idleness and drink. To offset these influences, +she published a little book with the following +title-page: "Village Politics. Addressed to +all the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Labourers, +in Great Britain. By Will Chip, a country +Carpenter."</p> + +<p>It is not a novel in the strict sense of the word, +but in simple language, easily understood, it +teaches the labouring people the inconsistent +attitude of France, and the strength and safety +of the English constitution. It is not a deep +book, but has good work-a-day common-sense, +such as keeps the world jogging on, ready to endure +the ills it has rather than fly to others it +knows not of.</p> + +<p>The book is in the form of a dialogue between +Jack Anvil, the blacksmith, and Tom Hood, +the mason.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Tom.</span> But have you read the <i>Rights of +Man</i>?</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Jack.</span> No, not I: I had rather by half read +the <i>Whole Duty of Man</i>. I have but little time +for reading, and such as I should therefore +only read a bit of the best."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Tom.</span> And what dost thou take a <i>democrat</i> +to be?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Jack.</span> One who likes to be governed by a +thousand tyrants, and yet can't bear a king."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Tom.</span> What is it to be <i>an enlightened people</i>?</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Jack.</span> To put out the light of the Gospel, +confound right and wrong, and grope about in +pitch darkness."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Tom.</span> And what is <i>benevolence</i>?</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Jack.</span> Why, in the new-fangled language, +it means contempt of religion, aversion to +justice, overturning of law, doating on all +mankind in general, and hating everybody in +particular."</p> + +<p>For a long time the authorship of the book +remained a secret, and Will Chip became a +notable figure. The clergy and the land-owners +in particular rejoiced over his homely common-sense, +and distributed these pamphlets broadcast +over the land. One hundred thousand +copies were sold in a short time. <i>Village Politics</i> +is said to have been one of the strongest +influences in England to awaken the common +people to the dangers which lie in a sudden +overthrow of government. The book was +timely, for that decade had become intoxicated +by the name of Liberty. To-day democracy and +equality are no longer feared.</p> + +<p>During many years Hannah More worked +industriously among the poor of Cheddar and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +its vicinity. On a visit to the Cliffs of Cheddar +she found an ignorant, half-savage people, +many of whom dwelt in the caves and fissures +of the rocks, and earned a miserable subsistence +by selling stalactites and other minerals native +to the place, to the travellers who were attracted +thither by the beautiful scenery. Among these +people Hannah More opened a Sunday-school, +and later a day school, where the girls were +taught knitting, spinning, and sewing. A girl +trained in her school was presented on her +marriage day with five shillings, a pair of white +stockings, and a new Bible. The teaching in +the schools was so practical that within a year +schools were opened in nine parishes.</p> + +<p>In this missionary work, Miss More became +intimately acquainted not only with the very +poor, but also with the rich farmers living in the +neighbourhood and the prosperous tradespeople +of the villages. From these better educated +men she met with great opposition. One petty +landlord met her request for assistance with the +remark: "The lower classes are fated to be poor, +ignorant and wicked; and wise as you are, you +cannot alter what is decreed." Another man +informed her that religion was the worst thing +for the poor, it made them so lazy and useless.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But the minds of the people had been awakened +by the French Revolution. They were begin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>ning +to think. Books and ballads attacking +church and constitution were hawked through +the country and placed within reach of all. +To counteract the influence of these "corrupt +and inflammatory publications" Hannah More, +between the years 1795-1798, published <i>The +Cheap Repository</i>, the first regular issue of this +kind. Every month a story, a ballad, and a +tract for Sunday were published. Hannah More +knew so well the common reasoning and the +mental attitude of those for whom she wrote, +that she was able to make her lessons most +effective. So great was the demand for these +chap-books that over two million were sold +the first year.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For a complete bibliography of these chap-books, +see the <i>Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books</i> +in Harvard College Library, pp. 8-10; compiled in part +by Charles Welsh.</p></div> + +<p>These stories were divided into two classes, +those for "persons of middle rank" and those +for the common people. The former point out +the dangers of pride and covetousness; of substituting +abstract philosophy for religion; and +warn masters not to forget their moral obligations +towards their servants. The latter aim to +teach neatness, sobriety, regularity in church +attendance, and point out the happiness of those +who follow these precepts, and the misery of +those who neglect them.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>Her +two best known stories are <i>Mr. Fantom</i> +and <i>The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain</i>. <i>Mr. +Fantom: or the History of the New-Fashioned +Philosopher, and his Man William</i> was written +to warn masters of the danger of teaching their +servants disrespect for the Bible and for civil +law. Mr. Fantom was a shallow man, who glided +upon the surface of philosophy and culled those +precepts which relieved his conscience from any +moral obligations. When he was asked to +help the poor in his own parish, he refused to +consider their wants because his mind was so +engrossed by the partition of Poland. Like +Mrs. Jellyby of a later time, he was so much +troubled by sufferings which he could not see +that he neglected his family and servants. +When he reprimanded his butler, William, for +being intoxicated, the young man replied: +"Why, sir, you are a philosopher, you know; +and I have often overheard you say to your +company, that private vices are public benefits; +and so I thought that getting drunk was as +pleasant a way of doing good to the public as +any, especially when I could oblige my muster +at the same time." In course of time William +became a thief and a murderer, and expiated +his crimes on the scaffold.</p> + +<p>In contrast to this is <i>The Shepherd of Salisbury +Plain</i>. This shepherd was contented with +his lot, and says: "David was happier when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +kept his father's sheep on such a plain as this, +and employed in singing some of his own psalms +perhaps, than ever he was when he became +king of Israel and Judah. And I dare say +we should never have had some of the most +beautiful texts in all those fine psalms, if he +had not been a shepherd, which enabled him to +make so many fine comparisons and similitudes, +as one may say, from country life, flocks of +sheep, hills and valleys, fields of corn, and +fountains of water." The shepherd's neat cottage +with its simple furnishings, his frugal +wife and industrious children are described in +simple and convincing language.</p> + +<p>In the stories of the poor there are many +interesting details of the everyday life of that +class that did not blossom into heroes and +heroines of romance for nearly half a century. +Mrs. Sponge, in <i>The History of Betty Brown, +the St. Giles's Orange Girl</i>, is a character that +Dickens might have immortalised. Mrs. Sponge +kept a little shop and a kind of eating-house for +poor girls near the Seven Dials. She received +stolen goods, and made such large profits in her +business that she was enabled to become a +broker among the poor. She loaned Betty five +shillings to set her up in the orange business; +she did not ask for the return of her money, but +exacted a sixpence a day for its use, and was +regarded by Betty, and the other girls whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +she thus befriended, as a benefactor. At last, +Betty was rescued from the clutches of Mrs. +Sponge. By industry and piety she became +mistress of a handsome sausage-shop near the +Seven Dials, and married a hackney coachman, +the hero of one of Miss More's ballads:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +I am a bold coachman, and drive a good hack<br /> +With a coat of five capes that quite covers my back;<br /> +And my wife keeps a sausage-shop, not many miles<br /> +From the narrowest alley in all broad St. Giles.<br /> +Though poor, we are honest and very content,<br /> +We pay as we go, for meat, drink, and for rent;<br /> +To work all the week I am able and willing,<br /> +I never get drunk, and I waste not a shilling;<br /> +And while at a tavern my gentleman tarries,<br /> +The coachman grows richer than he whom he carries,<br /> +And I'd rather (said I), since it saves me from sin,<br /> +Be the driver without, than the toper within.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p><i>The Cheap Repository</i> was written to teach +moral precepts. Neither Hannah More nor her +readers saw any artistic beauty in the sordid +lives of this lower stratum of society. They +were not interested in the superstitions of +"Poor Sally Evans," who hung a plant called +"midsummer-men" in her room on Midsummer +eve so that she might learn by the bending of +the leaves if her lover were true to her, and who +consulted all the fortune-tellers that came to her +door to learn whether the two moles on her +cheek foretold two husbands or two children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +Hannah More recorded these simple fancies of +poor Sally only to show her folly and the misfortunes +that afterwards befell her on account +of her superstitions. Writers of that century +either laughed at the ignorant blunders of the +poor, or used them to point a moral. An interest +in them because they are human beings like +ourselves with common frailties belongs to the +next century. Nothing proves more conclusively +the growth of the democratic idea than +the changed attitude of the novel toward the +ignorant and the criminal.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Hannah More was always interested in the +education of young ladies. She wrote a series +of essays called <i>Strictures on the Modern +System of Female Education</i>, in which she +protested loudly against the tendency to give +girls an ornamental rather than a useful education. +This was so highly approved that she was +asked to make suggestions for the education of +the Princess Charlotte. This led to her writing +<i>Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young +Princess</i>.</p> + +<p>Hannah More finally embodied her theories on +the education of women in a book which she +thought might appeal most strongly to the young +ladies themselves, <i>Cœlebs in Search of a Wife</i>. +Running through it, is a slight romance. Cœlebs, +filled with admiration for Eve, as described<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, where she is intent on her +household duties, goes forth into the world to +find, if possible, such a helpmate for himself. +As he meets different women, he compares +them with his ideal, and, finding them lacking, +passes a severe criticism upon female education +and accomplishments. Finally, he meets a +lady with well-trained mind, who delights in +works of charity and piety, one well calculated +to conduct wisely the affairs of his household. +She has besides proper humility, and accepts with +gratitude the honour of becoming Cœlebs's wife.</p> + +<p>Until her death at the advanced age of eighty-eight +years, Hannah More continued to write +moral and religious essays, so that she was before +the public view for over fifty years, Mrs. +S. C. Hall in her book <i>Pilgrimages to English +Shrines</i> thus describes her in old age:</p> + +<p>"Hannah More wore a dress of very light +green silk—a white China crape shawl was +folded over her shoulders; her white hair was +frizzled, after a by-gone fashion, above her brow, +and that <i>backed</i>, as it were, by a very full double +border of rich lace. The reality was as dissimilar +from the picture painted by our imagination as +anything could well be; such a sparkling, light, +bright, 'summery'-looking old lady—more like +a beneficent fairy, than the biting author of +<i>Mr. Fantom</i>, though in perfect harmony with +<i>The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h2>Charlotte Smith. Mrs. Inchbald</h2> + + +<p>While Hannah More was endeavouring +to improve the condition of the poor +by teaching them diligence and sobriety, a group +of earnest men and women were writing books +and pamphlets in which they claimed that poverty +and ignorance were due to unjust laws. +The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau had +filled their minds with bright pictures of a +democracy. These theories were considered most +dangerous in England, but they were the theories +which helped to shape the American +constitution. Among these English revolutionists +were William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, +Charlotte Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and for a time +Amelia Opie.</p> + +<p>The strongest political novel was <i>Caleb Williams</i> +by William Godwin. In this he shows +how through law man may become the destroyer +of man. This interest in the rights of +man awakened interest in the condition of women; +and Mary Wollstonecraft, who afterward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +became Mrs. Godwin, wrote <i>Vindication of the +Rights of Woman</i>. This pamphlet was declared +contrary to the Bible and to Christian law, +although all its demands have now been conceded. +Charlotte Smith was also interested in +the position of women and the laws affecting +them. In <i>Desmond</i> she discussed freely a +marriage problem which in her day seemed +very bold, while in her private life she ignored +British prejudices.</p> + +<p>She was the mother of twelve children and +the wife of a man of many schemes, so that +she was continually devising ways to extricate +her large family from the financial difficulties +into which he plunged them. At one time a friend +suggested to her that her husband's attention +should be turned toward religion. Her reply +was: "Oh, for heaven's sake, do not put it into +his head to take to religion, for if he does, he +will instantly begin by building a cathedral." +She is supposed to have caricatured him in the +projector who hoped to make a fortune by +manuring his estate with old wigs. But when +her husband was imprisoned for debt, she +shared his captivity, and began to write to support +her family. Although she died at the +age of fifty-seven, she found time during her +manifold cares to write thirty-eight volumes.</p> + +<p>But not only did Mrs. Smith endure sorrows +as great as those of her favourite heroine, Sidney<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +Biddulph, but one of her daughters was equally +unfortunate. She was married unhappily, and +returned with her three children for her mother +to support. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, after twenty-three +years of married life, agreed to live in +separate countries, he in Normandy, and she in +England, although they always corresponded +and were interested in each other's welfare. +Yet this separation, together with the revolutionary +tendencies discovered in her writings, +raised a storm of criticism against her.</p> + +<p>In <i>Desmond</i>, which was regarded as so dangerous, +Mrs. Smith has presented the following +problem: Geraldine, the heroine, is married to a +spendthrift, who attempts to retrieve his fortunes +by forcing his wife to become the mistress +of his friend, the rich Duc de Romagnecourt. +To preserve her honour she leaves him, hoping +to return to her mother's roof; but her mother +refuses to receive her and bids her return to her +husband. As she dares not do this, and is without +money, a faithful friend, Desmond, takes her +under his protection, asking no reward but the +pleasure of serving her. Finally Geraldine receives +a letter informing her that her husband +is ill. She returns to him, and nurses him until +he dies; after a year of mourning she marries +Desmond.</p> + +<p>How could a woman have behaved more +virtuously than Geraldine? She is always high-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>minded +and actuated by the purest motives. +But it was feared that her example might encourage +wives to desert their husbands, and +consequently the novel was declared immoral.</p> + +<p><i>Desmond</i> was published in 1792, when the +feeling against France was very bitter in England. +The plot, as it meanders slowly through three +volumes, is constantly interrupted by political +discussions. The author's clearly expressed +preference for a republican government, and her +criticism of English law, met with bitter disapproval. +One of the characters pronounces +a panegyric upon the greater prosperity and +happiness that has come to the French soldiers, +farmers, and peasants, since they came to believe +that they were sharers in their own labours, +and the hero of the book, writing from France +to a friend in England, says: "I lament still +more the disposition which too many Englishmen +show to join in this unjust and infamous +crusade, against the holy standard of freedom; +and I blush for my country." In the same +book, the author censures the penal laws of +England, by which robbery to the amount of +forty shillings is punishable with death; and +criticises the delay of the courts in dealing +justice.</p> + +<p>This criticism is expressed tamely, barely +more than suggested, when compared with the +vigorous attacks which Dickens made in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +next century on English law and the slow action +of justice in the famous "Circumlocution Office." +Dickens wrote with such vigour that he brought +about a reform. A modern reader finds <i>Desmond</i> +earnest and sincere, but tame to the point of +dulness. It seems strange how the Tory party +could see in this book a menace to the British +constitution. But a writer in the <i>Monthly +Review</i> for December, 1792, advocated her cause. +"She is very justly of opinion," he writes, +"that the great events that are passing in the +world are no less interesting to women than +to men, and that, in her solicitude to discharge +the domestic duties, a woman ought not to +forget that, in common with her father and +husband, her brothers and sons, she is a citizen."</p> + +<p>The publication of <i>The Old Manor House</i> in +the following year won back for her many of +the friends that she had lost by <i>Desmond</i>. But in +this work also the same love of liberty, the same +indifference to social distinctions, occur. The +hero of <i>The Old Manor House</i> joins the English +army, and is sent to fight against the Americans; +in the many reflections upon this conflict, the +author shows that her sympathies are with the +colonists. The father of the hero had married a +young woman who had nothing to recommend +her but "beauty, simplicity, and goodness." +The hero himself falls in love with and marries +a girl beneath him in rank, but he does not seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +to feel that he has done a generous thing, nor +does the heroine show any gratitude for this +honour. Each seems unconscious that their +difference in rank should be a bar to their union, +provided they do not offend old Mrs. Rayland, +the owner of the manor. A great change had +come over the novel since Pamela was overpowered +with gratitude to her profligate master, +Mr. B, for condescending to make her his wife.</p> + +<p>The revolutionary principles of Mrs. Smith's +novels were soon forgotten, but two new +elements were introduced by her that bore fruit +in English fiction. Her great gift to the novel +was the portrayal of refined, quiet, intellectual +ladies, beside whom Evelina and Cecilia seem +but school-girls. Her heroines may be poor, +they may be of inferior rank, but they are +always ladies of sensitive nature and cultivated +manners, and are drawn with a feeling and +tenderness which no novelist before her had +reached. A contemporary said of Emmeline, +"All is graceful, and pleasing to the sight, all, +in short, is simple, femininely beautiful and +chaste." This might be said of all the women +she has created. Old Mrs. Rayland, the central +personage in her most popular novel, <i>The Old +Manor House</i>, notwithstanding her exalted ideas +of her own importance as a member of the +Rayland family, and the arbitrary manner in +which she compels all to conform to her old-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>fashioned +notions, is always the high-born lady. +We smile at her, but she never forfeits our +respect. Scott said of her, "Old Mrs. Rayland +is without a peer."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Smith's second gift to the novel was her +charming descriptions of rural scenery. Nature +had for a long time been banished from the arts. +Wordsworth in one of his prefaces wrote:</p> + +<p>"Excepting <i>The Nocturnal Reverie</i> of Lady +Winchelsea, and a passage or two in the <i>Windsor +Forest</i> of Pope, the poetry of the period intervening +between the publication of <i>Paradise Lost</i> +and <i>The Seasons</i> does not contain a single new +image of external nature; and scarcely presents +a familiar one, from which it can be inferred +that the eye of the Poet had been steadily fixed +upon his object, much less that his feelings had +urged him to work upon it in the spirit of +genuine imagination."</p> + +<p>Fiction was as barren of scenery as poetry. +None of the novelists were cognisant of the +country scenes amid which their plots were laid, +with the possible exception of Goldsmith. +<i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i> has a rural setting, and +there are references to the trees, the blackbirds, +and the hayfields; but description is not introduced +for the sake of its own beauty as in the +novels of Charlotte Smith. In <i>Ethelinda</i> there +are beautiful descriptions of the English Lakes, +part of the scene being laid at Grasmere;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +<i>Celestina</i> is in the romantic Provence; <i>Desmond</i> +in Normandy; and in <i>The Old Manor House</i> +we have the soft landscape of the south of +England.</p> + +<p>In <i>The Old Manor House</i> she thus describes +one of the paths that led from the gate of the +park to Rayland Hall:</p> + +<p>"The other path, which in winter or in wet +seasons was inconvenient, wound down a declivity, +where furze and fern were shaded by +a few old hawthorns and self-sown firs: out of +the hill several streams were filtered, which, +uniting at its foot, formed a large and clear +pond of near twenty acres, fed by several imperceptible +currents from other eminences which +sheltered that side of the park; and the bason +between the hills and the higher parts of it +being thus filled, the water found its way over +a stony boundary, where it was passable by a +foot bridge unless in time of floods; and from +thence fell into a lower part of the ground, +where it formed a considerable river; and, +winding among willows and poplars for near +a mile, again spread into a still larger lake, on the +edge of which was a mill, and opposite, without +the park paling, wild heaths, where the ground +was sandy, broken, and irregular, still however +marked by plantations made in it by the +Rayland family."</p> + +<p>Every feature of the landscape is brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +distinctly before the eye. Such descriptions +are not unusual now, but they were first used +by Charlotte Smith.</p> + +<p>Even more realistic is the picture of a road +in a part of the New Forest near Christchurch:</p> + +<p>"It was a deep, hollow road, only wide enough +for waggons, and was in some places shaded by +hazel and other brush wood; in others, by old +beech and oaks, whose roots wreathed about the +bank, intermingled with ivy, holly, and evergreen +fern, almost the only plants that appeared +in a state of vegetation, unless the pale and +sallow mistletoe, which here and there partially +tinted with faint green the old trees above +them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Everything was perfectly still around; even +the robin, solitary songster of the frozen woods, +had ceased his faint vespers to the setting sun, +and hardly a breath of air agitated the leafless +branches. This dead silence was interrupted by +no sound but the slow progress of his horse, as the +hollow ground beneath his feet sounded as if he +trod on vaults. There was in the scene, and in +this dull pause of nature, a solemnity not unpleasant +to Orlando, in his present disposition +of mind."</p> + +<p>In 1842, Miss Mitford wrote to Miss Barrett: +"Charlotte Smith's works, with all their faults, +have yet a love of external nature, and a power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +of describing it, which I never take a spring walk +without feeling." And again she wrote to a +friend referring to Mrs. Smith, "Except that +they want cheerfulness, nothing can exceed the +beauty of the style."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The life and writings of Mrs. Inchbald had +some things in common with the life and writings +of Mrs. Smith. Both were obliged to write to +support themselves as well as those dependent +upon them. Both had seen many phases of +human nature, and both viewed with scorn the +pretensions of the rich and beheld with pity the +sorrows of the poor. Both were champions of +social and political equality. Mrs. Inchbald, +however, was an actress and a successful playwright, +hence her novels are the more dramatic, +but they lack the beautiful rural setting which +gives a poetic atmosphere to the writings of +Charlotte Smith.</p> + +<p><i>A Simple Story</i>, the first, of Mrs. Inchbald's +two novels, has been called the precursor of <i>Jane +Eyre</i>. It is the first novel in which we are more +interested in what is felt than in what actually +happens. Mr. Dorriforth, a Catholic priest, and +Miss Milner, his ward, fall in love with each +other, and we watch this hidden passion, which +preys upon the health of both. He is horrified +that he has broken his vows; she is mortified +that she loves a man who, she believes, neither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +can nor does return her feeling for him. When +he is released from his vow, it is the emotion, +not external happenings, that holds the interest. +The first part of the story is brought to a close +with the marriage of Mr. Dorriforth, now Lord +Elmwood, and Miss Milner.</p> + +<p>Seventeen years elapse between the two +halves of the novel. During this time trouble +has come between them and they have separated. +The character of each has undergone a change. +Traits of disposition that were first but lightly +observed have been intensified with years. +Mrs. Inchbald writes of the hero: "Dorriforth, +the pious, the good, the tender Dorriforth, is +become a hard-hearted tyrant; the compassionate, +the feeling, the just Lord Elmwood, +an example of implacable rigour and justice." +His friend Sandford has also changed with the +years, but he has been softened, not hardened +by them—"the reprover, the enemy of the +vain, the idle, and the wicked, but the friend +and comforter of the forlorn and miserable."</p> + +<p>The story of Dorriforth gives unity to the +two parts of the novel. The conflict between his +love and his anger holds the reader in suspense +until the conclusion. The characters of eighteenth-century +fiction were actuated by but a +small number of motives. In nearly all the +novels the men were either generous and free +or stingy and hypocritical; the women were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +either virtuous and winsome, or immoral and +brazen. Mrs. Inchbald possessed, only in a +less degree, George Eliot's power of character-analysis; +she observed minor qualities, and +she was as unflinching in following the development +of evil traits to a tragic conclusion as was +the author of <i>Adam Bede</i>.</p> + +<p>In <i>The Gentleman's Magazine</i> for March, +1791, some one wrote of <i>A Simple Story</i>:</p> + +<p>"She has struck out a path entirely her own. +She has disdained to follow the steps of her +predecessors, and to construct a new novel, +as is too commonly done, out of the scraps and +fragments of earlier inventors. Her principal +character, the Roman Catholic lord, is perfectly +new: and she has conducted him, through a +series of surprising well-contrasted adventures, +with an uniformity of character and truth of +description that have rarely been surpassed."</p> + +<p>There is, however, one hackneyed scene. A +young girl is seized, thrust into a chariot, and +carried at full speed to a lonely place. There +is hardly an early novel where this bald incident +is not worked up into one or more chapters, with +variations to suit the convenience of the plot. +It was as much a part of the stock in trade of +the novelist of the eighteenth century as a +family quarrel is of the twentieth. With this +exception, <i>A Simple Story</i> is new in its plot, +incidents, characters, and mode of treatment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +Emotion did not play so important a part in a +novel again until Charlotte Brontë wrote <i>Jane +Eyre</i>.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Inchbald's only other novel, <i>Nature and +Art</i>, shows the artificialities of society. Two +cousins, William and Henry, are contrasted. +William is the son of a dean. Henry's father +went to Africa to live, whence he sent his son +to his rich uncle to be educated. Henry fails +to comprehend the society in which he finds +himself placed, and cannot understand that +there should be any poor people.</p> + +<p>"'Why, here is provision enough for all the +people,' said Henry; 'why should they want? +why do not they go and take some of these +things?'</p> + +<p>"'They must not,' said the dean, 'unless they +were their own.'</p> + +<p>"'What, Uncle! Does no part of the earth, +nor anything which the earth produces, belong +to the poor?'"</p> + +<p>His uncle fails to answer this question to his +nephew's satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The vices and the fawning duplicity of William +are contrasted with the virtues and independent +spirit of Henry.</p> + +<p>"'I know I am called proud,' one day said +William to Henry.</p> + +<p>"'Dear Cousin,' replied Henry, 'it must be +only then by those who do not know you; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +to me you appear the humblest creature in the +world.'</p> + +<p>"'Do you really think so?'</p> + +<p>"'I am certain of it; or would you always give +up your opinion to that of persons in a superior +state, however inferior in their understanding? +... I have more pride than you, for I will +never stoop to act or to speak contrary to my +feelings.'"</p> + +<p>William rises to eminence, in time becoming +a judge. Henry, who is always virtuous, can +obtain no preferment. This contrast in the two +cousins is not so overdrawn as at first appears. +William represents the aristocracy of the old +world; Henry, the free representative of a new +country.</p> + +<p>A tragic story runs through the novel, which +becomes intensely dramatic at the point where +William puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence +on the girl whom he had ruined years +before. He does not recognise her; but she, +who had loved him through the years, becomes +insane, not at the thought of death, but that +he should be the one to pronounce the sentence. +It is doubtful if any novelist before Scott had +produced so thrilling a situation, a situation +which grew naturally out of the plot, and the +anguish of the poor unfortunate Agnes has the +realism of Thomas Hardy or Tolstoi.</p> + +<p>Only by reading these old novels can one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +comprehend the change produced in England +by the next half-century. The teachings of Mrs. +Charlotte Smith and Mrs. Inchbald were declared +dangerous to the state. That they taught disrespect +for authority, was one of the many charges +brought against them. Yet with what ladylike +reserve they advance views which a later generation +applauded when boldly proclaimed by +Dickens, Thackeray, and Disraeli!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h2>Clara Reeve. Ann Radcliffe. +Harriet and Sophia Lee</h2> + + +<p>The novel of the mysterious and the supernatural +did not appear in modern literature +until Horace Walpole wrote <i>The Castle +of Otranto</i> in 1764, during the decade that was +dominated by the realism of Smollett and Sterne. +The author says it was an attempt to blend two +kinds of romance, the ancient, which was all improbable, +and the modern, which was a realistic +copy of nature. The machinery of this +novel is clumsy. An enormous helmet and a +huge sword are the means by which an ancestor +of Otranto, long since dead, restores the castle +to a seeming peasant, who proves to be the +rightful heir.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>This book produced no imitators until 1777, +when Clara Reeve wrote <i>The Old English +Baron</i>, which was plainly suggested by Walpole's +novel, but is more delicate in the treatment +of its ghostly visitants. Here, as in <i>The Castle of Otranto</i>, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +the rightful heir has been brought up +a peasant, ignorant of his high birth. Again his +ancestors, supposedly dead and gone, bring him +into his own. One night he is made to sleep in +the haunted part of the castle, where his parents +reveal to him in a dream things which he is +later able to prove legally. He learns the truth +about his birth, comes into his estate, and wins +the lady of his heart. When he returns to the +castle as its master, all the doors fly open +through the agency of unseen hands to welcome +their feudal lord.</p> + +<p>The characters of both these novels are without +interest, and the mysterious element fails +to produce the slightest creepy thrill.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Twelve years passed before Walpole's novel +found another imitator in Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, +who so far excelled her two predecessors that +she has been called the founder of the Gothic +romance, and in this field she remains without +a peer. In her first novel, <i>The Castles of Athlin +and Dunbayne</i>, as in <i>The Old English Baron</i> by +Clara Reeve, a peasant renowned for his courage +and virtue loves and is beloved by a lady of rank. +A strawberry mark on his arm proves that he is +the Baron Malcolm and owner of the castle of +Dunbayne, at which juncture amid great rejoicings +the story ends.</p> + +<p>The characters and the style foreshadow Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +Radcliffe's later work. The usurping Baron +of Dunbayne, who has imprisoned in his castle +the women who might oppose his ambition; +the two melancholy widows; their gentle and +pensive daughters; their brave, loyal, and +virtuous sons in love respectively with the +two daughters; the Count Santmorin, bold and +passionate, who endeavours by force to carry +off the woman he loves—these are types that +Mrs. Radcliffe repeatedly developed until in +her later novels they became real men and +women with strong conflicting emotions.</p> + +<p>But superior to all her other powers is her +ability to awaken a feeling of the presence of +the supernatural. The castle of Dunbayne has +secret doors and subterranean passages. The +mysterious sound, as of a lute, is wafted on the +air from an unknown source. Alleyn, in endeavouring +to escape through a secret passage, +stumbles over something in the dark, and, on +stooping to learn what it is, finds the cold +hand of a corpse in his grasp. This dead man +has nothing to do with the story, but is introduced +merely to make the reader shudder, which +Mrs. Radcliffe never fails to do, even after we +have learned all the secrets of her art. We learn +later in the book how the corpse happened to be +left here unburied; for in that day of intense +realism, half-way between the ancient belief +in ghosts and the modern interest in mental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +suggestion, every occurrence outside the known +laws of physics was greeted with a cynical +smile. But, although Mrs. Radcliffe always +explains the mystery in her books, we hold +our breath whenever she designs that we +shall.</p> + +<p><i>The Sicilian Romance</i>, <i>The Romance of the +Forest</i>, <i>The Mysteries of Udolpho</i>, and <i>The +Italian</i> were written and published during the +next seven years and each one shows a marked +artistic advance over its predecessor. With the +opening paragraph of each, we are carried at +once into the land of the unreal, into regions of +poetry rather than of prose. Rugged mountains +with their concealed valleys, whispering forests +which the eye cannot penetrate, Gothic ruins +with vaulted chambers and subterranean passages, +are the scenes of her stories; while event +after event of her complicated plot happens +either just as the mists of evening are obscuring +the sun, or while the moonlight is throwing +fantastic shadows over the landscape. It is +an atmosphere of mystery in which one feels +the weird presence of the supernatural. This +is heightened by the ghostly suggestions she +brings to the mind, as incorporeal as spirits. +A low hurried breathing in the dark, lights +flashing out from unexpected places, forms +gliding noiselessly along the dark corridors, a +word of warning from an unseen source, cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +the reader to wait with hushed attention for the +unfolding of the mystery.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the solution is trivial. The reader +and the inmates of Udolpho are held in suspense +chapter after chapter by some terrible appearance +behind a black veil. When Emily ventures +to draw the curtain, she drops senseless to the +ground. But this appearance turns out to be +merely a wax effigy placed there by chance. +Often the explanation is more satisfactory. +The disappearance of Ludovico during the +night from the haunted chamber where he was +watching in hopes of meeting the spirits that +infested it, makes the most sceptical believe for +a time in the reality of the ghostly visitants; and +his reappearance at the close of the book, the +slave of pirates who had found a secret passage +leading from the sea to this room, and had used +it as a place of rendezvous, is declared by Sir +Walter Scott to meet all the requirements of +romance.</p> + +<p>But by a series of strange coincidences and +dreams Mrs. Radcliffe still makes us feel that +the destiny of her characters is shaped by an unseen +power. Adeline is led by chance to the +very ruin where her unknown father had been +murdered years before. She sees in dreams all +the incidents of the deed, and a manuscript +he had written while in the power of his enemies +falls into her hands. Again by chance she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +finds an asylum in the home of a clergyman, +Arnaud La Luc, who proves to be the father +of her lover, Theodore Peyrou. It seems to be +by the interposition of Providence that Ellena +finds her mother and is recognised by her father. +So in every tale we are made aware of powers +not mortal shaping human destiny.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Radcliffe adds to this consciousness of +the presence of the supernatural by another, perhaps +more legitimate, method. She felt what +Wordsworth expressed in <i>Tintern Abbey</i>, written +the year after her last novel was published:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">And I have felt</span><br /> +A presence that disturbs me with the joy<br /> +Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime<br /> +Of something far more deeply interfused,<br /> +Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,<br /> +And the round ocean and the living air,<br /> +And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;<br /> +A motion and a spirit, that impels<br /> +All thinking things, all objects of all thought,<br /> +And rolls through all things.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Radcliffe seldom loses her feeling for nature, +and has a strong sense of the effect of +environment on her characters. Julia, when +in doubt about the fate of Hippolitus, often +walked in the evening under the shade of +the high trees that environed the abbey. "The +dewy coolness of the air refreshed her. The +innumerable roseate tints which the parting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +sun-beams reflected on the rocks above, and the +fine vermil glow diffused over the romantic +scene beneath, softly fading from the eye as the +night shades fell, excited sensations of a sweet +and tranquil nature, and soothed her into a +temporary forgetfulness of her sorrow." As the +happy lovers, Vivaldi and Ellena, are gliding +along the Bay of Naples, they hear from the +shore the voices of the vine-dressers, as they +repose after the labours of the day, and catch +the strains of music from fishermen who are +dancing on the margin of the sea.</p> + +<p>Sometimes nature is prophetic. The whole +description of the castle of Udolpho, when +Emily first beholds it, is symbolical of the +sufferings she is to endure there: "As she +gazed, the light died away on its walls, leaving +a melancholy purple tint, which spread deeper +and deeper, as the thin vapour crept up the +mountain, while the battlements above were still +tipped with splendour. From these, too, the +rays soon faded, and the whole edifice was +invested with the solemn duskiness of evening. +Silent, lonely, and sublime it seemed to stand +the sovereign of the scene, and to frown defiance +on all who dared invade its solitary reign." +When Emily is happy in the peasant's home in +the valley below, she lingers at the casement +after the sun has set: "But a clear moonlight +that succeeded gave to the landscape what time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +gives to the scenes of past life, when it softens +all their harsh features, and throws over the +whole the mellowing shade of distant contemplation." +It is this feeling for nature as a constant +presence in daily life, now elating the mind with +joy, now awakening a sense of foreboding or inspiring +terror, and again soothing the mind to +repose, that gives to her books a permanent hold +upon the imagination and marks their author as +a woman of genius.</p> + +<p>In her response to nature, she belongs to the +Lake School. Scott said of her: "Mrs. Radcliffe +has a title to be considered as the first +poetess of romantic fiction, that is, if actual +rhythm shall not be deemed essential to poetry." +Mrs. Smith describes nature as we all know it, +as it appears on the canvasses of Constable and +Wilson. Mrs. Radcliffe's descriptions of ideal +and romantic nature have earned for her the +name of the English Salvator Rosa.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Radcliffe's characters are not without +interest, although they are often mere types. +All her heroes and heroines are ladies and +gentlemen of native courtesy, superior education, +and accomplishments. In <i>The Mysteries +of Udolpho</i> she has set forth the education +which St. Aubert gave to his daughter, Emily: +"St. Aubert cultivated her understanding with +the most scrupulous care. He gave her a general +view of the sciences, and an exact acquaintance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +with every part of elegant literature. He taught +her Latin and English, chiefly that she might +understand the sublimity of their best poets. +She discovered in her early years a taste for +works of genius; and it was St. Aubert's principle, +as well as his inclination, to promote every +innocent means of happiness. 'A well informed +mind,' he would say, 'is the best security +against the contagion of vice and folly.'"</p> + +<p>In all their circumstances her characters are +well-bred. This type has been nearly lost in literature, +due, perhaps, to the minuter study of +manners and the analysis of character. When an +author surveys his ladies and gentlemen through +a reading-glass, and points the finger at their +oddities and pries into their inmost secrets, even +the Chesterfields become awkward and clownish. +But Mrs. Radcliffe, like Mrs. Smith, is a true +gentlewoman, and speaks of her characters with +the delicate respect of true gentility. Julia, +Adeline, Emily, and Ellena, the heroines of four +of her books, love nature, and while away the +melancholy hours by playing on the lute or +writing poetry, and are, moreover, well qualified +to have charge of a baronial castle and its +dependencies. Her heroes are worthy of her +heroines. As they are generally seen in the +presence of ladies, if they have vices there is no +occasion for their display.</p> + +<p>It is only in the characters of her villains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +that good and evil are intertwined, and she +awakens our sympathy for them equally with +our horror. Monsieur La Motte, a weak man +in the power of an unscrupulous one, is the best +drawn character in <i>The Romance of the Forest</i>. +He has taken Adeline under his protection +and has been as a father to her. But before +this he had committed a crime which has placed +his life in the hands of a powerful marquis. To +free himself he consents to surrender Adeline +to the marquis, who has become enamoured +of her beauty, hoping by the sacrifice of her +honour to save his own life. He is agitated in +the presence of Adeline, and trembles at the +approach of any stranger. Scott said of him, +"He is the exact picture of the needy man who +has seen better days."</p> + +<p>In <i>The Italian</i>, Schedoni, a monk of the order +of Black Penitents for whom the novel is named, +is guilty of the most atrocious crimes in order +that he may further his own ambition, but he is +not devoid of natural feeling. Scott says the +scene in which he "is in the act of raising his +arm to murder his sleeping victim, and discovers +her to be his own child, is of a new, grand, and +powerful character; and the horrors of the +wretch who, on the brink of murder, has just +escaped from committing a crime of yet more +exaggerated horror, constitute the strongest +painting which has been produced by Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> +Radcliffe's pencil, and form a crisis well fitted +to be actually embodied on canvas by some +great master."</p> + +<p>Every book has one or more gloomy, deep-plotting +villains. But all the people of rank +bear unmistakable marks of their nobility, even +when their natures have become depraved by +crime. In this she is the equal of Scott.</p> + +<p>In every ruined abbey and castle there is a +servant who brings in a comic element and relieves +the strained feelings. Peter, Annette, and +Paulo are all faithful but garrulous, and often +bring disaster upon their masters by overzeal +in their service.</p> + +<p>When Vivaldi, the hero of <i>The Italian</i>, is +brought before the tribunal of the inquisition, +his faithful servant, Paulo, rails bitterly at the +treatment his master has received. Vivaldi, +well knowing the danger which they both incur +by too free speech, bids him speak in a whisper:</p> + +<p>"'A whisper,' shouted Paulo, 'I scorn to speak +in a whisper. I will speak so loud that every +word I say shall ring in the ears of all those +old black devils on the benches yonder, ay, +and those on that mountebank stage, too, that +sit there looking so grim and angry, as if they +longed to tear us in pieces. They—'</p> + +<p>"'Silence,' said Vivaldi with emphasis. 'Paulo, +I command you to be silent.'</p> + +<p>"'They shall know a bit of my mind,' contin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>ued +Paulo, without noticing Vivaldi. 'I will tell +them what they have to expect from all their +cruel usage of my poor master. Where do +they expect to go to when they die, I wonder? +Though for that matter, they can scarcely go +to a worse place than that they are in already, +and I suppose it is knowing that which makes +them not afraid of being ever so wicked. They +shall hear a little plain truth for once in their +lives, however; they shall hear—'"</p> + +<p>But by this time Paulo is dragged from the +room.</p> + +<p>The plots of all Mrs. Radcliffe's novels are +complicated. A whole skein is knotted and +must be unravelled thread by thread. <i>The +Mysteries of Udolpho</i> is the most involved. +Characters are introduced that are for a time +apparently forgotten; one sub-plot appears +within another, but at the end each is found +necessary to the whole.</p> + +<p><i>The Italian</i> is simpler than the others: the +plot is less involved, and there are many strong +situations. The opening sentence at once +arouses the interests of the reader: "Within +the shade of the portico, a person with folded +arms, and eyes directed towards the ground, +was pacing behind the pillars the whole extent +of the pavement, and was apparently so +engaged by his own thoughts as not to observe +that strangers were approaching. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> +turned, however, suddenly, as if startled by +the sound of steps, and then, without further +pausing, glided to a door that opened +into the church, and disappeared." Another +scene in which the Marchesa Vivaldi and Schedoni +are plotting the death of Ellena, is justly +famous. The former is actuated by the desire +to prevent her son's marriage to a woman of +inferior rank; the latter hopes that he may gain +an influence over the powerful Marchesa that +will lead to his promotion in the church. Their +conference, which takes place in the choir of +the convent of San Nicolo, is broken in upon +by the faint sound of the organ followed by +slow voices chanting the first requiem for the +dead.</p> + +<p><i>The Italian</i> is generally considered the strongest +of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. It was published +in 1797, and was as enthusiastically +received as were its predecessors, but for some +reason it was the last book Mrs. Radcliffe published. +Neither the fame it brought her, nor +the eight hundred pounds she received for it +from her publishers, tempted its author from +her life of retirement. Publicity was distasteful +to her. At the age of thirty-four, at an age +when many novelists had written nothing, she +ceased from writing, and spent the rest of her +years either in travel or in the seclusion of her +own home.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>The novel at this time was not considered +seriously as a work of art, and Mrs. Radcliffe +may have considered that she was but trifling +with time by employing her pen in that way. +In looking over the book reviews in <i>The Gentlemen's +Magazine</i> for the years from 1790 to 1800, +it is significant that, while column after column +is spent in lavish praise of a book of medicine +or science which the next generation proved +to be false, and of poetry that had no merit +except that its feet could be counted, seldom +is a novel reviewed in its pages. <i>The Mysteries +of Udolpho</i> was criticised for its lengthy descriptions, +and <i>The Italian</i> was ignored.</p> + +<p>The direct influence of these novels on the +literature of the nineteenth century cannot +be estimated. Mrs. Radcliffe's influence upon +her contemporaries can be more easily traced. +The year after the publication of <i>The Mysteries +of Udolpho</i> Lewis wrote <i>The Monk</i>. This has +all the horrors but none of the refined delicacy +of Mrs. Radcliffe's work. Robert Charles Maturin +borrowed many suggestions from her, and the +gentle satire of <i>Northanger Abbey</i> could never +have been written if Jane Austen had not herself +come under the influence of <i>The Romance of +the Forest</i>.</p> + +<p>But her greatest influence was upon Scott. +The four great realistic novelists of the eighteenth +century, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +Sterne whose influence can be so often traced +in Thackeray and Dickens, seem never to have +touched the responsive nature of Scott. He +edited their works and often spoke in their +praise, but that which was deepest and truest in +him, which gave birth to his poetry and his +novels, seems never to have been aware of their +existence. Mrs. Radcliffe and Maria Edgewood +were his most powerful teachers.</p> + +<p>Andrew Lang in the introduction to <i>Rob Roy</i> +in the Border edition of the <i>Waverley Novels</i> +calls attention to the fact that Waverley, Guy +Mannering, Lovel of <i>The Antiquary</i>, and Frank +Osbaldistone were all poets. Not only these +men, but others, as Edward Glendinning and +Edgar Ravenswood, bear a strong family +resemblance to Theodore Peyrou, Valancourt, +and Vivaldi, as well as to some of the other less +important male characters in Mrs. Radcliffe's +novels. Scott's men stand forth more clearly +drawn, while Mrs. Radcliffe's are often but dimly +outlined. Ellen Douglas, the daughter of an exiled +family; the melancholy Flora MacIvor, who +whiled away her hours by translating Highland +poetry into English; Mary Avenel, dwelling +in a remote castle, are all refined, educated +gentlewomen such as Mrs. Smith and Mrs. +Radcliffe delighted in, and are placed in situations +similar to those in which Julia, Adeline, +and Emily are found.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the heroines of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. +Radcliffe have a quality which not even Scott +has been able to give to his women. It is +expressed by a word often used during the reign +of the Georges, but since gone out of fashion. +They were women of fine sensibilities. Johnson +defines this as quickness of feeling, and it has +been used to mean a quickness of perception +of the soul as distinguished from the intellect. +The sensibilities of women may not be finer +than those of men, but they respond to a greater +variety of emotions. This gives to them a certain +evanescent quality which we find in Elizabeth +Bennet, Jane Eyre, Maggie Tulliver, Romola, the +portraits of Madame Le Brun and Angelica +Kauffman, and the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett +Browning. This quality men have almost never +grasped whether working with the pen or the +brush. Rosalind, Juliet, Viola, Beatrice, all possess +it; and in a less degree, Diana of the Crossways +is true to her sex in this respect. But the +features of nearly every famous Madonna, no +matter how skilful the artist that painted her, +are stiff and wooden when looked at from this +point of view, and Scott's heroines, with the +possible exception of Jeanie Deans, are immobile +when compared with woman as portrayed by +many an inferior artist of her own sex.</p> + +<p>Scott's complicated plots and his constant +introduction of characters who are surrounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +by mystery or are living in disguise again suggest +Mrs. Radcliffe. Again and again he selected +the same scenes that had appealed to her, and +in his earlier novels and poems he filled them in +with the same details which she had chosen. +Perhaps it is due to her influence that all the +hills of Scotland, as some critic has observed, +become mountains when he touches them: +"The sun was nearly set behind the distant +mountain of Liddesdale" was the beginning +of an early romance to have been entitled +<i>Thomas the Rhymer</i>. Knockwinnock Bay in +<i>The Antiquary</i> is first seen at sunset, and +it is night when Guy Mannering arrives at +Ellangowan Castle. Melrose is described by +moonlight. The sun as it sets in the Trossachs +brings to the mind of Scott the very outlines +and colours which Mrs. Radcliffe had used in +giving the first appearance of Udolpho, a scene +which Scott has highly praised; while these +famous lines of James Fitz-James have caught +the very essence of one of her favourite +spots:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +On this bold brow, a lordly tower;<br /> +In that soft vale, a lady's bower;<br /> +On yonder meadow, far away,<br /> +The turrets of a cloister grey!<br /> +How blithely might the bugle horn<br /> +Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn!<br /> +How sweet, at eve, the lover's lute<br /> +Chime, when the groves were still and mute!<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>And, when the midnight moon should lave<br /> +Her forehead in the silver wave,<br /> +How solemn on the ear would come<br /> +The holy matin's distant hum.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>In his later works Scott is tediously prosaic +in description, far inferior to Mrs. Radcliffe, +and in the romantic description of scenery he +never excels her. It would seem to be no mere +chance that in his poetry and in his earlier novels +he has so often struck the same key as did +the author of <i>The Mysteries of Udolpho</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Two sisters, Harriet and Sophia Lee, were +writing books and finding readers during the +time of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and Mrs. +Radcliffe. In 1784, Sophia Lee published a +three-volume novel, <i>The Recess</i>, a story of the +time of Queen Elizabeth, in which Elizabeth, +Mary Queen of Scots, and the earls Leicester, +Norfolk, and Essex play important rôles. The +two heroines are unacknowledged daughters of +Mary Queen of Scots and Norfolk, to whom +she has been secretly married during her imprisonment +in England. Many other situations +in the book are equally fictitious.</p> + +<p>The historical novels written in France during +the reign of Louis XIV paid no heed to chronology, +but men and women whom the author +knew well were dressed in the garb of historical +personages, and various periods of the past were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> +brought into the space of the story. <i>The Recess</i> +was not a masquerade, but the plot and +characters slightly picture the reign of Elizabeth. +This was one of the first novels in which there +was an attempt to represent a past age with +something like accuracy. As this was one +of the first historical novels, using the term +in the modern sense, it had perhaps a right to be +one of the poorest; for it is impossible to conceive +three volumes of print in which there are +fewer sentences that leave any impress on the +mind than this once popular novel.</p> + +<p>Sophia Lee wrote other novels which are said +to be worse than this; but in 1797 she and her +sister Harriet, who had the greater imagination, +published <i>The Canterbury Tales</i>. Some of +those written by Harriet are excellent. According +to the story a group of travellers have +met at an inn in Canterbury, where they are +delayed on account of a heavy fall of snow. +To while away the weary hours of waiting, as +they are gathered about the fire in true English +fashion, they agree, as did the Canterbury pilgrims +of long ago, that each one shall tell a story. +But the pilgrims whom Chaucer accompanied +to the shrine of Thomas à Becket are accurately +described, and between the tales they discuss +the stories and exchange lively banter in which +the nature of each speaker is clearly revealed. +In <i>The Canterbury Tales</i> there is little character-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>drawing. +Any one of the stories might have +been told by any one of the narrators, and before +the conclusion the authors dropped this device.</p> + +<p>In the stories that are told the characters +are weak, but the plots are interesting and +many of them original and clever. These <i>Tales</i> +represent the beginning of the modern short +story.</p> + +<p>In a preface to a complete edition of the +<i>Tales</i> published in 1832, Harriet Lee wrote:</p> + +<p>"Before I finally dismiss the subject, I think +I may be permitted to observe that, when these +volumes first appeared, a work bearing distinctly +the title of <i>Tales</i>, professedly adapted +to different countries, and either abruptly commencing +with, or breaking suddenly into, a sort +of dramatic dialogue, was a novelty in the fiction +of the day. Innumerable <i>Tales</i> of the same +stamp, and adapted in the same manner to all +classes and all countries, have since appeared; +with many of which I presume not to compete +in merit, though I think I may fairly claim +priority of design and style."</p> + +<p><i>The Canterbury Tales</i> were read and reread a +long time after they were written. A critic in +<i>Blackwood's</i> says of them:</p> + +<p>"They exhibit more of that species of invention +which, as we have already remarked, +was never common in English literature than +any of the works of the first-rate novelists<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +we have named, with the single exception of +Fielding."</p> + +<p>The most famous story of the collection is +<i>Kruitzener, or the German's Tale</i>. Part of the +story is laid in Silesia during the Thirty Years' +War. Frederick Kruitzener, a Bohemian, is +the hero, if such a term may be used for so weak +a man. In his youth he is thus described:</p> + +<p>"The splendour, therefore, which the united +efforts of education, fortune, rank, and the +merits of his progenitors threw around him, +was early mistaken for a personal gift—a sort +of emanation proceeding from the lustre of his +own endowments, and for which, as he believed, +he was indebted to nature, he resolved not to be +accountable to man.... He was distinguished!—he +saw it—he felt it—he was persuaded he +should ever be so; and while yet a youth in the +house of his father—dependent on his paternal +affection, and entitled to demand credit of the +world merely for what he was to be—he secretly +looked down on that world as made only for +him."</p> + +<p>The tale traces the troubles which Kruitzener +brings upon himself, his misery and his death. +It belongs to romantic literature; the mountain +scenes, a palace with secret doors, a secret gallery, +a false friend, a mysterious murder, all these +remind us of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, but the +story does not possess her power or her poetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +charm. Ernest Hartley Coleridge said of this +tale: "But the <i>motif</i>—a son predestined to evil +by the weakness and sensuality of his father, a +father's punishment for his want of rectitude +by the passionate criminality of his son, is the +very key-note of tragedy."</p> + +<p>Byron read this story when he was about +fourteen, and it affected him powerfully. By +a strange coincidence Kruitzener bears a strong +resemblance to Lord Byron himself. He was +proud and melancholy, and, while he led a life +of pleasure, his spirits were always wrapped in +gloom. "It made a deep impression on me," +writes Byron, "and may, indeed, be said to +contain the germ of much that I have since +written." In 1821, he dramatised it under the +title of <i>Werner, or the Inheritance</i>. The play +follows the novel closely both in plot and conversation. +An editor of Byron's works wrote +of it: "There is not one incident in his play, +not even the most trivial, that is not in Miss +Lee's novel. And then as to the characters—not +only is every one of them to be found in +<i>Kruitzener</i>, but every one is there more fully +and powerfully developed."</p> + +<p><i>The Landlady's Tale</i> is far superior to all +others in the collection, if judged by present-day +standards. This story of sin and its punishment +reminds one in its moral earnestness +of George Eliot. Mr. Mandeville had brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +ruin upon a poor girl, Mary Lawson, whose own +child died, when she became the wet nurse of +Robert, Mr. Mandeville's legitimate son and +heir. Mary grew to love the boy, but, when +the father threatened to expose her character +unless she would continue to be his mistress, +she ran away, taking the infant with her. She +became a servant in a lodging-house in Weymouth, +where she lived for fifteen years, respected +and beloved. At the end of that time, +Mr. Mandeville came to the house as a lodger, +where he neither recognised Mary nor knew his +son. But he disliked Robert, and paid no heed +to the fact that one of his own servants was +leading the boy into evil ways. When Robert +was accused of a crime which his own servant +had committed, he saw him sent to prison +and later transported with indifference. The +grief of the father when he learned that Robert +was his own child was most poignant, and his +unavailing efforts to save him are vividly told. +He is left bowed with grief, for he suffers under +the double penalty of "a reproachful world and +a reproaching conscience."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h2>Maria Edgeworth. Lady Morgan</h2> + + +<p>"My real name is Thady Quirk, though in +the family I have always been known +by no other than 'honest Thady'; afterward, in +the time of Sir Murtagh, diseased, I remember +to hear them calling me 'old Thady,' and now +I'm come to 'poor Thady.'" Thus the faithful +servant of the Rackrent family introduces himself, +before relating the history of the lords of +the castle, where he and his had lived rent-free +time out of mind. And what consummate art +Maria Edgeworth showed in her first novel, +<i>Castle Rackrent</i>, in letting "poor Thady" ramble +with all the garrulity of old age. To him, +who had never been farther than a day's tramp +from the castle, there was nothing in the world's +history but it and its owners. No servant but +an Irish servant could have told the story as he +did, judging the characters of his masters with +shrewd wit and relating their worst failings +with a "God bless them."</p> + +<p>And where out of Ireland could Thady have +found such masters, ready to spend all they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +had and another man's too, happy and free, +and dying as merrily as they had lived! There +was Sir Patrick, who, as Thady tells us, "could +sit out the best man in Ireland, let alone the +three kingdoms"; Sir Kit, who married a Jewess +for her money; and Sir Condy, who signed away +the estate rather than be bothered to look into +his steward's accounts, and then feigned that he +was dead that he might hear what his friends +said of him at the wake. But he soon came +to life, and a merry time they had of it. "But to +my mind," says Thady, "Sir Condy was rather +upon the sad order in the midst of it all, not +finding there was such a great talk about himself +after his death, as he had expected to hear." +But Thady loved his master, and it is with +genuine grief that he records his ultimate death, +and with simple and unconscious wit he adds, +"He had but a very poor funeral after all."</p> + +<p>In <i>The Absentee</i>, the manners and customs +of the Irish peasants are more broadly delineated +than in <i>Castle Rackrent</i>. <i>The Absentee</i> +was written to call the attention of the Irish +landlords who were living in England to the +wretched condition of their tenants left in +the power of unscrupulous stewards. Lord +Colambre, the son of Lord Clonbrony, an absentee, +visits his father's estates, which he has +not seen for many years, in disguise, and goes +among the peasants, many of whom are in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +abject poverty. But the quick generosity of +the nation speaks in the poor Widow O'Neil's +"Kindly welcome, sir," with which she opens +the door to the unknown lord, and its enthusiastic +loyalty in the joyful acclamations of the +peasants when he reveals himself to them,—a +scene which Macaulay has pronounced the +finest in literature since the twenty-second book +of the <i>Odyssey</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Ennui</i> is another of her stories of Irish life, in +which the supposed Earl of Glenthorn, after a +long residence in England, returns to his Irish +estates. The heroine of this tale is the old +nurse, Ellinor O'Donoghoe. As the nurses of +many stories are said to have done, she had substituted +her own child for the rightful heir, and +was frantic with joy when she saw him the +master of Glenthorn Castle. Her devotion to +the earl is pathetic, and her secret fears of +the deception she had practised on the old +earl may have prompted her strange speech +that, if it pleased God, she would like to die on +Christmas Day, of all days, "because the gates +of heaven will be open all that day; and who +knows but a body might slip in unbeknownst?" +Ellinor is a woman of many virtues and many +failings, but she is always pure Celt.</p> + +<p>How well contrasted are the two cousins, +friends of Ormond, Sir Ulick O'Shane, a wily +politician and a member of Parliament, and Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +Cornelius O'Shane, King of the Black Islands, +called by his dependents King Corny. The +latter, bluff, generous, brave, open as the day, +is yet a match for his crafty kinsman. Sir +Ulick's visit to King Corny is a masterpiece. +He has a purpose in his visit and a secret to +guard, which King Corny is watching to discover. +Sir Ulick has been bantering his kinsman +on the old-fashioned customs observed on +his estate and ridicules his method of ploughing:</p> + +<p>"'Your team, I see, is worthy of your tackle,' +pursued Sir Ulick. 'A mule, a bull, and two +lean horses. I pity the foremost poor devil +of a horse, who must starve in the midst of +plenty, while the horse, bull, and even mule, in +a string behind him, are all plucking and munging +away at their hay ropes.'</p> + +<p>"Cornelius joined in Sir Ulick's laugh, which +shortened its duration.</p> + +<p>"''Tis comical ploughing, I grant,' said he, +'but still, to my fancy, anything's better and +more profitable nor the tragi-comic ploughing +you practise every sason in Dublin.'</p> + +<p>"'I?' said Sir Ulick.</p> + +<p>"'Ay, you and all your courtiers, ploughing +the half-acre, continually pacing up and down +that castle-yard, while you're waiting in attendance +there. Every one to his own taste, but,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +"'If there's a man on earth I hate,<br /> +Attendance and dependence be his fate.'"<br /> +</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>King Corny has been studying his diplomatic +kinsman carefully to learn his secret, until the +wily politician, by unnecessary caution in guarding +it, overreaches himself, when King Corny +exclaims to himself:</p> + +<p>"Woodcocked! That he has, as I foresaw +he would."</p> + +<p>While the trained diplomat murmurs as he +takes his leave, "All's safe."</p> + +<p>Native wit had got the better of artful +cunning.</p> + +<p>And when Sir Ulick dies in disgrace, how +pithy is the remark of one of the men, as he +is filling in the grave:</p> + +<p>"There lies the making of an excellent gentleman—but +the cunning of his head spoiled the +goodness of his heart."</p> + +<p>In the same book, how generous and how +Irish is Moriarty, lying on the brink of death, +as he thinks of Ormond, who had shot him in a +fit of passion but bitterly repented his rash deed:</p> + +<p>"I'd live through all, if possible, for his sake, +let alone my mudther's, or shister's or my own—'t +would be too bad, after all the trouble he got +these two nights, to be dying at last, and hanting +him, maybe, whether I would or no."</p> + +<p>The quick kindness which so often twists +an Irishman's tongue is humorously illustrated +in the <i>Essay on Irish Bulls</i>, which Maria +Edgeworth and her father wrote together. Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +Phelim O'Mooney, disguised as Sir John Bull, accepts +his brother's wager that he cannot remain +four days in England without the country of his +birth being discovered eight times. Whenever +his speech betrays him, it is the result of his +emotions. When he sees Bourke, a pugilist +of his own country, overcome by an Englishman, +he cries to him excitedly: "How are you, +my gay fellow? Can you see at all with the +eye that is knocked out?" A little later, in +discussing a certain impost duty, he grows +angry and exclaims: "If I had been the English +minister, I would have laid the dog-tax upon +cats." The humour of his situation increases +to a climax, so that the fun never flags. Such +stories as this in which the wit is simply sparkling +good-nature, with no attempt to use it as +a weapon against frail humanity as did Fielding +and Thackeray, or to produce a smile by exaggeration +as did Dickens, but simply bubbling +fun, as free from guile as the sun's laughter on +Killarney, show that Miss Edgeworth was a +comedian of the first rank. Like all true comedians, +she is also strong in the pathetic, but it +is the Irish pathos, in which there is ever a +smile amid the tears. This is found in the story +of the return of Lady Clonbrony to her own country; +the fall of Castle Rackrent; and the ruin by +their sudden splendour of the family of Christy +O'Donoghoe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Whenever Miss Edgeworth writes of Ireland +and its people, her pages glow with the inspiration +of genius. There is no exaggeration, no +caricature; all is told with simple truth. It +has often been the fate of novelists whose aim +has been to depict the manners and customs +of a locality to win the ill-will of the obscure +people they have brought into prominence. +But not so with Maria Edgeworth. Her family, +although originally English, had been settled +for two hundred years in Ireland. She loved +the country and always wrote of it with a loving +pen. Before <i>Castle Rackrent</i> was written, Ireland +had been for many centuries an outcast +in literature, known only for her blunders and +bulls. But, as one of her characters says, "An +Irish bull is always of the head, never of the +heart." Even though her characters are humorous, +they are never clowns. All the men have +dignity, and all the women grace. She gave +them a respectable place in literature.</p> + +<p>But her influence was felt outside of Ireland. +Old Thady, in his garrulous description of the +masters of Castle Rackrent, had introduced the +first national novel, in which the avowed object +is to represent traits of national character. +Patriotic writers in other countries learned +through her how to serve their own land, +and she was one of the many influences +which led to the writing of the Waverley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +novels. Scott says in the preface of these +books:</p> + +<p>"Without being so presumptuous as to hope +to emulate the rich humour, pathetic tenderness, +and admirable tact which pervade the work +of my accomplished friend, I felt that something +might be attempted for my own country, +of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth +so fortunately achieved for Ireland—something +which might introduce her natives to +those of the sister kingdom in a more favourable +light than they had been placed hitherto, +and tend to procure sympathy for their virtues +and indulgence for their foibles."</p> + +<p>As the reader realises the power of Maria +Edgeworth's mind, her ability to describe manners +and customs, to read character, and to +depict comic and tragic scenes, he wishes that +her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, had not +so constantly interfered in her work, and insisted +that every book she wrote must illustrate +some principle of education. He was not singular +in this respect. Rousseau, whom he +greatly admired at one time, had taught educational +methods by a novel. Madame de +Genlis, the teacher of Louis Philippe, was +writing novels that were celebrated throughout +Europe, in which she expounded rules for the +training of the young. Maria Edgeworth, with +her father at her elbow, never lost sight of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +moral of her tale. Vivian, in the story of that +name, was so weak that he was always at +the mercy of the artful. Ormond's passions +led him into trouble. Beauclerc was almost +ruined by his foolish generosity. Lady Delacour, +with no object in life but pleasure, +cast aside her own happiness that she +might outshine the woman she hated. Lady +Clonbrony squandered her fortune and health +that she might be snubbed by her social superiors. +Mrs. Beaumont played a deep diplomatic +game in her small circle of friends, and +finally overreached herself. Lady Cecilia, the +friend of Helen, brought sorrow to her and +infamy upon herself by her duplicity. In the +analysis of motive, and the growth of Cecilia's +wrong-doing from a small beginning, the book +resembles the novels of George Eliot. But +Maria Edgeworth could not know her own +characters as she otherwise would, because the +moral was always uppermost. When Mrs. +Inchbald criticised her novel <i>Patronage</i>, she +replied: "Please to recollect, we had our moral +to work out." Mr. Edgeworth, in his preface +to <i>Tales of Fashionable Life</i>, thus sets forth +his daughter's purpose:</p> + +<p>"It has been my daughter's aim to promote +by all her works the progress of education from +the cradle to the grave. All the parts of this +series of moral fiction bear upon the faults and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +excellencies of different ages and classes; and +they have all risen from that view of society +which we have laid before the public in more +didactic works on education."</p> + +<p>Such a method of writing tended to kill emotion, +yet emotion breaks out at times with +genuine force, and always has a true ring. This +is especially true in the <i>Tales of Fashionable +Life</i>. There society women appear cold and +heartless in the drawing-room, and so they +have generally been represented in fiction. So +Thackeray regarded them. But Maria Edgeworth +followed them to the boudoir, and there +reveals beneath the laces and jewels many beautiful +womanly traits. As we see in tale after +tale true feeling welling to the surface, and +then choked up by the moral, we recognise the +pathetic truth that Mr. Edgeworth's educational +methods were fatal to genius.</p> + +<p>But strong emotion sways only a small part +of the lives of most men and women. Were +it otherwise, like the great lyric poets, we should +all die young. And she has written about the +common, everyday, prosaic life with a truthfulness +rarely excelled.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting studies in a +novel is to observe the author's view of life. +With the exception of those of Mademoiselle De +Scudéri nearly all the novels of French women +considered love as the ruling passion for happi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>ness +or woe, and all of the characters were under +its sway. Even Mademoiselle De Scudéri in the +preface to <i>Ibrahim</i> announced it as her distinct +purpose that all her heroes were to be ruled by +the two most sublime passions, love and ambition; +but she was a humorist and unconsciously +interested her readers more by her witty descriptions +of people than by the loves of Cyrus and +Mandane. But this passion has seldom held such +an exaggerated place in the stories of English +women. Maria Edgeworth in particular noticed +that men and women were actuated by many +motives or passions. A large income or a title +was often capable of inspiring a feeling so akin +to love that even the bosom that felt its glow +was unable to distinguish the difference. Loss +of respect could kill the strongest passion, and +some of her heroines have even remained single, +or else married men whom at first they had +regarded with indifference, rather than marry +the object of their first love after he had forfeited +their esteem. Sometimes the tameness +of her heroines shocked their author. While +correcting <i>Belinda</i> for Mrs. Barbauld's "Novelists' +Library," Miss Edgeworth wrote to a +friend:</p> + +<p>"I really was so provoked with the cold +tameness of that stick or stone Belinda, that I +could have torn the pages out."</p> + +<p>Propinquity, opportunity, almost a mental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +suggestion are quite enough to produce a long +chain of events affecting a lifetime. "Ask half +the men you are acquainted with why they are +married, and their answer, if they speak the +truth, will be, 'Because I met Miss Such-a-One +at such a place, and we were continually +together.' 'Propinquity, propinquity,' as my +father used to say, and he was married five +times, and twice to heiresses." So speaks +Mrs. Broadhurst, a match-making mother in +<i>The Absentee</i>. And this is the reason why most +of Miss Edgeworth's heroes and heroines love. +But the advances of a designing woman are +quite sufficient, as in <i>Vivian</i>, to make a fond +lover forget his plighted troth to another, and the +flattery of an unscrupulous man makes him suspicious +of his real friends. Character is destiny, +if the character is strong, but circumstances +are destiny, if the character is weak. It is the +aim of her novels to show how certain traits +of character, as indecision, pride, love of luxury, +indolence, lead to misfortune, and how these +dangerous traits may be overcome.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Notwithstanding her moral, her plots are +never hackneyed and never repeated. They are +drawn from life and have the variety of life. +In the story of <i>Ennui</i>, there is the twice-told +tale of the nurse's son substituted for the real +heir; but when he learns the true story of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +birth, and resigns the castle, the title, and all +its wealth to the rightful Earl of Glenthorn, who +has been living in the village working at the forge, +there is a great change from the usual story. The +heir of the ancient family of Glenthorn accepts +the earldom for his son, but with reluctance. The +manners of the peasant remain with the earl, and +the poor man, at last, begs the one who has been +educated for the position to accept the title and +the estates. In this she emphasised again what +she constantly taught, that education and environment +are more powerful than heredity.</p> + +<p>As she taught that reason should be the guide +of life, so she lived. Her fourscore years and +three were spent largely at her ancestral home +of Edgeworthstown. She assisted her father +in making improvements to better the condition +of the tenantry, and to promote their happiness. +When in Paris, she met a Mr. Edelcrantz, +a gentleman in the service of the king of Sweden. +Admiration was succeeded by love. But he +could not leave the court at Stockholm, and +Miss Edgeworth felt that neither duty nor inclination +would permit her to leave her quiet life +in Ireland. Reason was stronger than love. +So they parted like her own heroes and heroines. +All that history records of him is that he never +married. She resumed her responsibilities at +home, and if the thought of this separation +sometimes brought the tears to her eyes, as her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +stepmother once wrote to a friend, she was as +cheerful, gay, and light-hearted in the home +circle as she had always been.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Besides her moral tales for adults, which were +read throughout Europe, Maria Edgeworth was +always interested in the education of boys and +girls. The eldest sister in a family of twenty-one +children, the offspring of four marriages, +she taught her younger brothers and sisters, +and thus grew to know intimately the needs +of childhood and what stories would appeal +to them. As her father wrote, it was her +"aim to promote by all her works the progress +of education from the cradle to the grave." +In her stories for children she inculcated lessons +of industry, economy, thoughtfulness, and +unselfishness.</p> + +<p>If she helped to eradicate from the novel its +false, highly colored sentimental pictures of life, +still greater was her work in producing literature +for young people. Hers were among the +first wholesome stories written for children. +Before this the chapman had carried about with +him in his pack small paper-covered books +which warned boys and girls of the dangers +of a life of crime. One book was named <i>An +hundred godly lessons which a mother on her +death-bed gave to her children</i>. Another book +of religious and moral Sunday reading was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +called <i>The Afflicted Parent, or the Undutiful +Child Punished</i>. This gives the sad history +of the two children of a gentleman in Chester, +a son and a daughter. The daughter +chided her brother for his wickedness, upon +which he struck her and killed her. He was +hanged for this, but even then his punishment +was not completed. He came back to life, +told the minister several wicked deeds which +he had committed, and was hanged a second +time. In most of these tales the gallows loomed +dark and threatening.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In contrast to these morbid tales are the +wholesome stories of Maria Edgeworth. The +boys and girls about whom she writes are drawn +from life. If they are bad, their crimes are +never enormous, but simply a yielding to the +common temptations of childhood. Hal, in +<i>Waste Not, Want Not</i>, thinks economy beneath +a gentleman's notice, and at last loses a prize +in an archery contest for lack of a piece of string +which he had destroyed. Fisher in <i>The Barring +Out</i>, a cowardly boy, buys twelve buns for +himself with a half-crown which belonged to his +friend, and then gives a false account of the +money. His punishment is expulsion from +the school. Lazy Lawrence has a worse fate. +He will not work, plays pitch farthing, is led +by bad companions to steal, and is sent to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +Bridewell. But he is not left in a hopeless +condition. After he had served his term of imprisonment +he became remarkable for his +industry.</p> + +<p>But there are more good boys and girls than +bad ones in her stories. The love of children +for their parents, and the sacrifices they will +make for those they love, are beautifully told. +In the story of <i>The Orphans</i>, Mary, a girl of +twelve, finds a home for her brothers and sisters, +after her father and mother die, in the ruins of +Rossmore Castle, where they support themselves +by their labour. Mary finds that she +can make shoes of cloth with soles of platted +hemp, and by this industry the children earn +enough for all their needs. As directions are +given for making these shoes, any little girl +reading the story would know how to follow +the example of Mary. Jem in the story of +<i>Lazy Lawrence</i> finds that there are many ways +by which he can earn the two guineas without +which his horse Lightfoot must be sold. He +works early and late, and at last accomplishes +his purpose.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ritchie says of this story: "Lightfoot +deserves to take his humble place among the +immortal winged steeds of mythology along +with Pegasus, or with Black Bess, or Balaam's +Ass, or any other celebrated steeds."</p> + +<p>The story of <i>Simple Susan</i> with its pictures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +of village life has the charm of an idyl. The +children by the hawthorn bush choosing their +May Queen; Susan with true heroism refusing +this honour, in order that she may care for her +sick mother; the incident of the guinea-hen; +Rose's love for Susan; the old harper, playing +tunes to the children grouped about him—are +all simply told. Susan's love for her pet lamb +reminds one of Wordsworth's poem of that +name.</p> + +<p>And yet these children are not unusual. +Most boys and girls have days when they are +as good as Mary, or Jem, or Susan. Maria +Edgeworth is not inculcating virtues which are +impossible of attainment.</p> + +<p>A hundred years ago, these stories, as they +came from the pen of Maria Edgeworth, delighted +boys and girls, and for at least fifty years +were read by parents and children. Then for +a time they were hidden in libraries, but a collection +of them has lately been edited by Mr. +Charles Welsh under the appropriate title <i>Tales +that never Die</i>, which have proved as interesting +to the children of to-day as to those of by-gone +generations.</p> + +<p>Whether Maria Edgeworth is writing for old +or young, there is one marked trait in all her +stories, her kind feeling for all humanity. The +vices of her villains are recorded in a tone of +sorrow. She seldom uses satire; never "makes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +fun" of her characters. Her attitude towards +them is that of the lady of Edgeworthstown +towards her dependents, or rather that of the +elder sister towards the younger members of the +family. Such broad and loving sympathy is +found in Shakespeare and Scott, but seldom +among lesser writers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In Sydney Owenson, better known by her +married name of Lady Morgan, Ireland found +at this time another warm but less judicious +friend. Her life was more interesting than her +books. Her father, an Irish actor, introduced +his daughter, while yet a child, to his associates, +so that she appeared in society at an early age. +But Mr. Owenson was improvident; debts accumulated, +and Sydney at the age of fourteen +began to earn her own living. The position +of a governess, which she filled for a time, being +unsuited to her gay, independent disposition, +she began to write. Like Johnson a half century +or more earlier, with a play in manuscript +as her most valuable possession, she went alone +to London. She did not wait so long as he +did for recognition. New books by new authors +were eagerly read. She earned money, a social +position, fame, and with it some disagreeable +notoriety. An independent, witty Irish woman +of great charm, fearless in expressing her opinions, +who had introduced herself into society<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +and for whom nobody stood as sponsor, was +looked upon by the old-fashioned English +aristocracy as an adventuress; and later, when +she came forth as the champion of Irish liberties, +and upbraided England for tyranny, she was +maliciously denounced by the Tory party.</p> + +<p>She entered upon life with three purposes, to +each of which she adhered: to advocate the +interest of Ireland by her writings; to pay her +father's debts; and to provide for his old age. +All of these purposes she accomplished.</p> + +<p>Besides plays and poems, and two or three +insignificant stories, she wrote four novels upon +Irish subjects: <i>The Wild Irish Girl</i>, <i>O'Donnel</i>, +<i>Florence Macarthy</i>, and <i>The O'Briens and the +O'Flahertys</i>. In all these books the beauty of +Irish scenery is depicted as background; the +fashionable life of Dublin is described, as well +as the peasant life in remote hamlets; while the +natural resources of the land and the native +gaiety of the Celtic temperament are feelingly +contrasted with the poverty and misery brought +about by unjust laws.</p> + +<p>She thus feelingly describes the condition of +Ireland in the novel <i>O'Donnel</i>. Its sincerity +must excuse its overwrought style: "Silence and +oblivion hung upon her destiny, and in the +memory of other nations she seemed to hold +no place; but the first bolt which was knocked +off her chain roused her from paralysis, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +as link fell after link, her faculties strengthened, +her powers revived; she gradually rose upon +the political horizon of Europe, like her own +star brightening in the west, and lifting its light +above the fogs, vapours, and clouds, which +obscured its lustre. The traveller now beheld +her from afar, and her shores, once so devoutly +pressed by the learned, the pious, and the brave, +again exhibited the welcome track of the stranger's +foot. The natural beauties of the land +were again explored and discovered, and taste +and science found the reward of their enterprise +and labours in a country long depicted as +savage, because it had long been exposed to +desolation and neglect."</p> + +<p>In this book a party of travellers visits the +Giant's Causeway and its scenery is described +as an almost unfrequented place.</p> + +<p>The new interest in Ireland of which she +writes was very largely due to the novels of +Maria Edgeworth, and partly to those of Lady +Morgan herself.</p> + +<p>Her last novel, <i>The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys</i>, +is of historic value. Its plot was furnished +by the stirring events which took place when the +Society of United Irishmen were fighting for parliamentary +reforms. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, +the devoted patriot, is easily recognised in the +brave Lord Walter Fitzwalter, and the life of +Thomas Corbet furnished the thrilling adven<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>tures +of the hero, Lord Arranmore. When +Thomas Moore visited Thomas Corbet at Caen +he referred to the account given of his escape +from prison in Lady Morgan's novel as remarkably +accurate in its details.</p> + +<p>The style of Miss Owenson's earlier books +was execrable and fully justified the severe +criticism in the first number of the <i>Quarterly +Review</i>. It gives this quotation from <i>Ida, or +the Woman of Athens</i>: "Like Aurora, the extremities +of her delicate limbs were rosed with +flowing hues, and her little foot, as it pressed its +naked beauty on a scarlet cushion, resembled +that of a youthful Thetis from its blushing tints, +or that of a fugitive Atalanta from its height." +The wonder is that any serious magazine should +have wasted two pages of space upon such +nonsense. In ridiculing the book and the +author, it gives her some serious advice, with +the encouragement that if she follow it, she +may become, not a writer of novels, but the +happy mistress of a family.</p> + +<p>Whether Lady Morgan took this ill-meant +advice or not, her style improved with each +book, until in <i>The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys</i> +it became simple and clear, with only an occasional +tendency to high colouring and bombast.</p> + +<p>Maria Edgeworth has described the customs +and manners of Ireland, and unfolded the +character of its people in a manner that has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +never been equalled. But Lady Morgan, far +inferior as an artist, has given fuller and more +picturesque descriptions of the landscape of +the country, and has made a valuable addition +to the books bearing on the history of Ireland.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h2>Elizabeth Hamilton. Anna Porter. +Jane Porter</h2> + + +<p>Elizabeth Hamilton was also an Irish +writer, but through her one novel she will +always be associated with Scotland. In <i>The +Cottagers of Glenburnie</i> she did for the Scotch +people what Maria Edgeworth had done for the +Irish, and represented for the first time in +fiction the life of the common people. It is a +story of poor people of the serving class. Mrs. +Mason, who had been an upper servant in the +family of a lord, has been pensioned and takes +up her abode with a cousin in the village of +Glenburnie. She was among the earliest of our +settlement workers. This little village with the +pretty name, situated in a beautiful country, +had accumulated about its homes as much filth +as the tenements of the poorest ward of a large +city, and for the same reason, that its inhabitants +did not understand the value of cleanliness. +Its thatched cottages, had it not been for their +chimneys and the smoke issuing from them,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +would have passed for stables or hog-sties, for +there was a dunghill in front of every door.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacClarty's cottage, where Mrs. Mason +was to live, was like all the rest. It was as +dirty inside as out. Mrs. MacClarty picked up +a cloth from the floor beside her husband's +boots, with which to wipe her dishes, and made +her cheese in a kettle which had not been washed +since the chickens had eaten their last meal +from it, although the remains of their feast still +adhered to the sides. When Mrs. MacClarty +put her black hands into the cheese to stir it, +Mrs. Mason reminded her gently that she had +not washed them:</p> + +<p>"'Hoot,' returned the gudewife, 'my hands +do weel eneugh. I canna be fash'd to clean +them at ilka turn.'"</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Mason proposed that the windows +should be hung on hinges and supplied with +iron hooks, so that they could be opened at +pleasure, Mr. MacClarty objected to the plan:</p> + +<p>"'And wha do you think wad put in the +cleek?' returned he. 'Is there ane, think ye, +aboot this hoose, that would be at sic a fash?'</p> + +<p>"'Ilka place has just its ain gait,' said the +gudewife, 'and ye needna think that ever we'll +learn yours. And, indeed, to be plain wi' you, +cusine, I think you hae owre mony fykes. +There, didna ye keep Grizzy for mair than twa +hours, yesterday morning, soopin' and dustin'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +your room in every corner, an' cleanin' out the +twa bits of buird, that are for naething but to +set your foot on after a'?'"</p> + +<p>It may be well to explain that the chickens +had been roosting in this chamber before Mrs. +Mason's arrival.</p> + +<p>The story of Mr. MacClarty's death is pathetic. +He is lying ill with a fever in the press-bed +in the kitchen, where not a breath of air +reaches him. The neighbours have crowded in +to offer sympathy. The doors are tightly closed, +and his wife has piled blankets over him and +given him whiskey and hot water to drink. +When Mrs. Mason, who knows that with proper +care his life can be saved, urges that he be removed +to her room where he can have air, all +the neighbours violently oppose her advice. But +Peter MacGlashon, the oracle of the village, +looks at it more philosophically:</p> + +<p>"'If it's the wull o' God that he's to dee, it's +a' ane whar ye tak him; ye canna hinder the +wull o' God.'"</p> + +<p>But upon Mrs. Mason's insisting that we +should do our best to save the life of the sick +with the reason God has given us, Peter becomes +alarmed:</p> + +<p>"'That's no soond doctrine,' exclaimed +Peter. 'It's the law of works.'"</p> + +<p>Elizabeth Hamilton had been a teacher and +had written books on education, so that her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +description of the school which Mrs. Mason +opened in the village gives an accurate idea +of the Scottish schools for the poorer classes. +Each class was divided into landlord, tenants, +and under-tenants, one order being responsible +for a specific amount of reading and writing to +the order above it. The landlord was responsible +to the master both for his own diligence +and the diligence of his vassals. If the +tenants disobeyed the laws they were tried +by a jury of their mates. The results of the +training at Mrs. Mason's school might well be +an aim of teachers to-day: "To have been +educated at the school of Glenburnie implied +a security for truth, diligence and honesty."</p> + +<p>The pupils in the school gradually learned +to love cleanliness and order. The little flower-garden +in front gave pleasure to all. The +villagers declared, "The flowers are a hantel +bonnier than the midden and smell a hantel +sweeter, too." With this improvement in +taste, the "gude auld gaits" gave way to a +better order of things.</p> + +<p><i>The Cottagers of Glenburnie</i> is more realistic +in detail than anything which had yet been +written. It is a short simple story told in simple +language. There is a slight plot, but it is +the village upon which our attention is fastened. +One individual stands out more strongly than +the rest: that is Mrs. MacClarty with her con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>stant +expression, "It is well eneugh. I canna +be fashed."</p> + +<p>This little book was read in every Scotch +village, and many of the poor people saw in it +a picture of their own homes. But its sound +common-sense appealed to them. It was reasonable +that butter without hairs would sell +for more than with them, and that gardens +without weeds would produce more vegetables +than when so encumbered. The book did for +the cottagers of Scotland what Mrs. Mason had +done for those of Glenburnie.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The lives of Anna Maria and Jane Porter +resemble in a few particulars that of Elizabeth +Hamilton. Like her they belonged, at least +on the father's side, to Ireland, and like her +they lived in Scotland, and their names will +always be associated with that country. But +Elizabeth Hamilton wrote the first novel of +Scotland's poor, the ancestor of <i>The Window +in Thrums</i> and <i>Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush</i>; +Jane Porter wrote the first novel of Scotland's +kings, the immediate forerunner of <i>Waverley</i>, +<i>The Abbot</i>, and <i>The Monastery</i>.</p> + +<p>Upon the death of Major Porter, who had +been stationed for some years with his regiment +at Durham, Mrs. Porter removed to Edinburgh, +where her children were educated. Their quick +lively imaginations found food for growth on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +Scottish soil. At that time Caledonia was a +land of cliff and crag, inhabited by a quarrelsome +people, whom the English still regarded with +something the same aversion which Dr. Johnson +had so often expressed to Boswell. But every +castle had its story of brave knights and fair +ladies, and every brae had been the scene of +renowned deeds of arms. In every cottage the +memory of the past was kept alive, and fathers +and mothers related to their children stories +of Wallace and of Bruce, until the romantic +past became more real than the living present. +Mrs. Porter's servants delighted to relate to +her eager children stories of Scotland's glory. +The maids would sing to them the songs of +"Wallace wight," and the serving-man would +tell them tales of Bannockburn and Cambus-Kenneth.</p> + +<p>Rarely have stories fallen on such fertile soil. +In a short time, three of these children became +famous. Sir Robert Ker Porter, the brother of +Anna and Jane, followed closely in the +footsteps of Scotland's heroes, and became distinguished +as a soldier and diplomat, as well +as a famous painter of battles. He painted the +enormous canvas of <i>The Storming of Seringapatam</i>, +a sensational panorama, one hundred +and twenty feet in length, the first of its kind, +but in a style that has often been followed in +recent years. The idol of his family, it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +seem that he was endowed with many of those +qualities which his sisters gave to the heroes +of their romances.</p> + +<p>Anna Maria Porter, the youngest of the group, +was the first to appear in print. At the age of +fifteen, she published a little volume called +<i>Artless Tales</i>. From this time until her death, +at least every two years a new book from her +pen was announced. She wrote a large number +of historical romances, which were widely read +and translated into many languages. This kind +of story, in the hands of Sophia Lee, was tame +and uninteresting. Anna Porter increased its +scope and its popularity. Her plots are well +worked out with many thrilling adventures. +Her imagination, however, had been quickened +by reading, not by observation, and although +her scenes cover many countries of Europe +and many periods of history, they differ but +little in pictorial detail, and her characters are +lifeless. Her style of writing is, moreover, so +inflated that it gives an air of unreality to her +books.</p> + +<p>She thus describes the Hungarian brothers: +"They were, indeed, perfect specimens of the +loveliness of youth and the magnificence of +manhood." This novel, dealing with the French +Revolution, was one of the most popular of +all her stories. It went through several editions +both in England and on the continent. Super<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>lative +expressions seem to have been fashionable +in that age which was still encumbered by much +that was artificial in dress and manners. Miss +Porter with proper formality thus writes of +her heroine as she was recovering from a fainting +fit: "With a blissful shiver, Ippolita slowly +unclosed her eyes, and turning them round, +with such a look as we may imagine blessed +angels cast, when awakening amid the raptures +of another world, she met those of her sweet +and gracious uncle."</p> + +<p>Some of her society novels are witty and have +a lively style, which suggests the truth of Mr. +S. C. Hall's description of the sisters. Anna, +a blonde, handsome and gay, he named L'Allegro, +in contrast to Jane, a brunette, equally +handsome, but with the dignified manners of the +heroines of her own romances, whom he styled +Il Penseroso.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Jane Porter took a more serious view of the +responsibilities of authorship than her sister. +Her first novel, <i>Thaddeus of Warsaw</i>, was +written while England was agitated against +France and excited over the wrongs of Poland. +It grew out of popular feeling. Miss Porter had +become acquainted with friends of Kosciusko, +men who had taken part with him in his country's +struggle for liberty, and made him the +hero of the story. The scenery of Poland was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +so well described that the Poles refused to believe +that she had not visited their country; +and events were related in a manner so pleasing +to them that they distinguished the author by +many honours. It is one thing to write an +historical novel of people and events that have +long been buried in oblivion; but to write a story +of times so near the present that its chief actors +are still living, is, indeed, a rash task. And +for any history to meet with the approval of +its hero and his friends bespeaks rare excellence +in the work.</p> + +<p>In the light of the classic standing of the +historical novel, due to the genius of Scott and +Dumas, it is interesting to read how <i>Thaddeus +of Warsaw</i> came to be published. Miss Porter +wrote the romance merely for her own amusement, +with no thought of its being read outside +the circle of her family and intimate friends. +They urged her to publish it. But for a long +time she resisted their importunities on the +ground that it did not belong to any known +style of writing: stories of real life, like <i>Tom +Jones</i>, or improbable romances, like <i>The Mysteries +of Udolpho</i>, were the only legitimate forms +of fiction. <i>Thaddeus of Warsaw</i> had the exact +details of history with a romance added to +please the author's fancy. Thus did Jane +Porter discover to the world the possibilities +of the historical novel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>Her next novel, <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i>, grew +out of the stories she had heard in her childhood. +Besides the tales of Scotland's struggle for independence +which she heard from the servants +in her own home, a venerable old woman called +Luckie Forbes, who lived not far from Mrs. +Porter's house, used to tell her of the wonderful +deeds of William Wallace. Of the influence +these stories had upon her childish mind, Jane +Porter has thus written:</p> + +<p>"I must avow, that to Luckie Forbes's +familiar, and even endearing, manner of narrating +the lives of William Wallace and his +dauntless followers; her representation of their +heart-sacrifices for the good of their country, +filling me with an admiration and a reverential +amazement, like her own; and calling forth my +tears and sobs, when she told of the deaths of +some, and of the cruel execution of the virtuous +leader of them all;—to her I must date my +early and continued enthusiasm in the character +of Sir William Wallace! and in the friends his +truly hero-soul delighted to honour."</p> + +<p>Before writing <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i>, Miss Porter +read everything she could find bearing upon +the history of England and Scotland during +the reigns of the first two Edwards. She personally +visited the places she described. She +wrote in the preface: "I assure the reader that +I seldom lead him to any spot in Scotland<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +whither some written or oral testimony respecting +my hero had not previously conducted +myself." Besides these sources of information, +Miss Porter was familiar with the poem of +<i>Wallace</i> by Blind Harry the Minstrel, the +biographer of Scotland's national hero. Blind +Harry lived nearly two centuries after the death +of Wallace, but he had access to books now +lost, and collected stories about Scotland's +struggle for independence while it was still +prominent in the public mind. Although he +tells many exalted stories of the numbers whom +Wallace overcame by his single arm, the poem +is on the whole authentic. Sheriff Mackay +in the <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> writes +that the life of Wallace by Blind Harry "became +the secular bible of his countrymen, and echoes +through their later history." Miss Porter introduced +love scenes to vary the deeds of war, +but there is nothing else in <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i> +which is not true to history, or to that more +legitimate source of romance, the traditions +common among the people.</p> + +<p>From the opening chapter, in which Wallace +is described as an outlaw because he had refused +to take the oath of allegiance to an English +king, to his death in London and the final +crowning of Bruce, there is not a dull page. +Especially interesting is the scene between +William Wallace and the Earl of Carrick, after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +the battle of Falkirk, and the appearance of +Robert Bruce, who overheard this conversation, +fighting by the side of Wallace. The truth of +this incident has been denied, but it is related +by Blind Harry. The trial of William Wallace +in the great hall at Westminster for treason, +and his defence that he had never acknowledged +the English government, is most impressive, +and is a matter of record.</p> + +<p><i>The Scottish Chiefs</i> is the first historical novel +in which the author made diligent research in +order to give a truthful representation of the +times. It has the atmosphere of feudal days. +Notwithstanding the ridicule cast upon Wallace +as a lady's hero, he is drawn in heroic proportions. +Miss Mitford declared that she scarcely +knew "one <i>herós de roman</i> whom it is possible +to admire, except Wallace in Miss Porter's +story." The work is written in the style of +the old epics. The many puerile attempts of +the last few years to write an historical romance +in which Washington or Lincoln should figure +have shown how difficult is the task. How +weak and commonplace have these great men +appeared in fiction! It requires a nature akin +to the heroic to draw it. In 1810, when it was +published, <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i> was the only +great historical romance. Four years later +<i>Waverley</i> was published, the first of the novels +of Sir Walter Scott. This was superior in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +imagination and in craftsmanship to Miss Porter's +novel, but not in interest. <i>The Scottish +Chiefs</i> has since been excelled by many others +of the Waverley novels, though not by all, by +<i>Henry Esmond</i>, and <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>, but +it preceded all these in time, and still holds a +place as a classic of the second rank.</p> + +<p>Critics of to-day smile at its enthusiastic +style, but Miss Porter speaks with no more +enthusiasm than did the poor folk from whom +she heard the story. As long as enthusiastic +youth loves an unblemished hero, <i>The Scottish +Chiefs</i> will be read. It is impossible to analyse +these early impressions or to test their truth. +One can only remember them with gratitude. +Jane Porter has, however, taught the youth +of other lands to reverence Scotland's popular +hero, so that the mention of his name awakens +a thrill of pleasure, and the hills and glades +associated with his deeds glow with the light of +romance.</p> + +<p>In 1815, Jane Porter wrote a third historical +novel, <i>The Pastor's Fireside</i>. This is far inferior +to <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i>. It has the same +elevated style, and the mystery which surrounds +the hero awakens and holds the attention. +But the novel deals with the later Stuarts, and +one feels that the author herself was but little +interested in the historical events about which she +was writing. The book has no abiding qualities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> + +<p>In 1832 was published a book bearing the +title <i>Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative of His +Shipwreck and Consequent Discovery of certain +Islands in the Caribbean Sea, with a Detail of +many extraordinary and highly interesting Events +in his Life from the year 1733 to 1749 as written +in his Own Diary. Edited by Jane Porter.</i> In +the preface Miss Porter explains how the manuscript +was given to her by the relatives of Sir +Edward. The story reads like a second Robinson +Crusoe. It has all the minute details that +give an air of verisimilitude to the writings +of Defoe. In the opening chapter, Edward +Seaward supposedly gives this account of +himself:</p> + +<p>"Born of loyal and honest parents, whose +means were just sufficient to give a common +education to their children, I have neither to +boast of pedigree nor of learning; yet they bequeathed +to me a better inheritance—a stout +constitution, a peaceable disposition, and a +proper sense of what is due to my superiors +and equals; for such an inheritance I am grateful +to God, and to them."</p> + +<p>In the story he is married to a woman of his +own rank, and she embarks with him for Jamaica, +but they are shipwrecked on an island +near Lat. 14 deg. 30 min. N. and Long. 81 +deg. W. They find bags of money hidden on +the island, some negroes come to them, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +schooner is driven to their haven. Edward +sees in this a purpose which afterward is fulfilled. +He says to his wife: "I should be the +most ungrateful of men, to the good God who +has bestowed all this on me, if I did not feel +that this money, so wonderfully delivered into +my hands, was for some special purpose of stewardship. +The providential arrival of the poor +castaway negroes, and then of the schooner,—all—all +working together to give us the means +of providing every comfort, towards planting +a colony of refuge in that blessed haven of our +own preservation,—seem to me, in solemn +truth, as so many signs from the Divine Will, +that it is our duty to fulfil a task allotted to us, +in that long unknown island."</p> + +<p>This island becomes inhabited by a happy +people, and Seaward is knighted by George +the Second.</p> + +<p>Everybody read the book. A second edition +was called for within the year. Old naval +officers got out their charts, and hunted up +the probable locality of the places mentioned. +Nobody at first doubted its veracity. The +<i>Quarterly</i>, however, decided that no such man +had ever existed and that the whole story was +a fiction. It hunted for a schooner mentioned +and the names of the naval officers. The latter +had never served in his Majesty's navy and the +former had not timed her voyages according to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +the story. The uniform of a naval officer +described in the narrative was not worn until +thirteen years after these adventures had taken +place, and no man by the name of Seaward had +been knighted during this time, nor was there +any village in England having the name of the +village which he gave as his birthplace. Supposing +the editor had changed names and dates, +the <i>Quarterly</i> criticism becomes valueless. Although +the magazine declared it a work of +fiction, it gave both the story and the style +high praise, and declared it far superior to her +romances. When Miss Porter was asked about +it, she declined to answer, but said that Scott +had his great secret and she might be permitted +to have her little one.</p> + +<p>It is generally considered now to have been +the work of Jane Porter. No two books differ +more in style than <i>The Scottish Chiefs</i> and +<i>Sir Edward Seaward</i>. But twenty-two years +had elapsed between them. The former is +written in dignified, stately language; the latter +in simple homely words, and both its invention +and its style entitle it to a place among English +classics.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h2>Amelia Opie. Mary Brunton</h2> + +<p>Every novel that touches upon the life +of its generation naturally in course of +time becomes historical. These novels should +be preserved, not necessarily for their literary +excellence, but because they bear the imprint +of an age. Such are the novels of Amelia Opie +and Mary Brunton.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Opie, then Miss Alderson, left her quiet +home in Norwich to visit London at the height +of the furor occasioned by the French Revolution. +The literary circles in which she was +received were discussing excitedly the rights of +men and women, and the beauties of life lived +according to the dictates of nature. Among +these enthusiasts, Miss Alderson met Mary Wollstonecraft, +the author of <i>Vindication of the +Rights of Woman</i>, and esteemed her highly. +Her own imagination did not, however, yield +to the intoxication of a life of perfect freedom, +a dream which wrecked the life of Mary Wollstonecraft.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is no sadder biography than that of +Mary Wollstonecraft. In Paris, she met Gilbert +Imlay, an American, with whom she fell in +love. When he wished to marry her, she refused +to permit him to make her his wife, because she +had family debts to pay, and she was unwilling +to have him legally responsible for them. But +she had read the books of Rousseau, and had +been deeply impressed with the thought that +marriage is a bondage, not needed by true love. +She took the name of Imlay, and passed for his +wife, but the marriage was not sanctioned +either by the church or by law. After the birth +of a daughter, Imlay deserted her. At first +she tried to commit suicide, and there is the +sad picture of this talented woman walking +about in the drenching rain, and then throwing +herself from the bridge at Putney. She was +rescued, and a little over a year later became +the wife of William Godwin.</p> + +<p>The life-story of Mary Wollstonecraft suggested +to Amelia Opie the novel of <i>Adeline +Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter</i>, which +was not written until after the death of the +original.</p> + +<p>It is a tender pathetic story. Mrs. Mowbray, +the mother of Adeline, believed by her neighbours +to be a genius, is interested in new theories +of education, and, while writing a book on that +subject, occasionally experiments with Adeline,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +although she neglects her for the most part. +In spite of this Adeline grows up beautiful and +pure, totally ignorant of the world and its +wickedness. Her mother often quoted in her +presence the book of a Mr. Glenmurray, in +which he proves marriage to be a tyranny and +a profanation of the sacred ties of love. Adeline +is captivated by the enthusiastic ideals +of the young author. There is a fine contrast +in character and motive, where Adeline is entertaining +Mr. Glenmurray, the high-minded writer, +and Sir Patrick O'Carrol, a man of many gallantries. +Sir Patrick is shocked to meet at her +home the man whose theories have banished +him from respectable society. Adeline, innocent +of any low interpretation that may be put +upon her words, makes the frank avowal that, +in her opinion, marriage is a shameless tie, and +that love and honour are all that should bind +men and women. Sir Patrick heartily agrees +with her sentiments, and as a consequence +accosts her with a freedom repugnant to her, +although she hardly understands its import, +while Glenmurray sits by gloomily, resolving +to warn her in private that the opinions she +had expressed were better confined in the +present dark state of the public mind to a select +and discriminating circle. After they leave +Adeline, Glenmurray, as the outcome of this +meeting, had the satisfaction of fighting a duel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +with Sir Patrick, contrary to the tenets of his +own book.</p> + +<p>But when, to escape the advances of Sir +Patrick, Adeline places herself under the protection +of Glenmurray, who ardently loves her, +he urges her to marry him. This she refuses +to do, and encourages him to show the world +the truth and beauty of his teachings. Glenmurray, +a man of sensitive nature, suffers more +than Adeline from the indignities she constantly +receives when she frankly says she is +Mr. Glenmurray's companion, not his wife. +He takes her from place to place to avoid them, +for he realises that the world censures her, while +it excuses him. But Adeline is so happy in her +love for him, and in her faith in his teachings, +that she endures every humiliation with the +faith of the early Christian martyrs. When +he urges her, as he so often does, to marry him, +he reads in her eyes only grief that he will not +gladly suffer for what he believes to be right, +and desists rather than pain her. But his death +is hastened by the harassing thought that her +whole future is blighted by his teachings. As +he says to her just before his death:</p> + +<p>"Had not I, with the heedless vanity of +youth, given to the world the crude conceptions +of four-and-twenty, you might at this moment +have been the idol of a respectable society; and +I, equally respected, have been the husband<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +of your heart; while happiness would perhaps +have kept that fatal disease at bay, of which +anxiety has facilitated the approach."</p> + +<p>It is a beautiful love story, but the hero and +heroine were of too fine a fibre to stand alone +against the world. After the death of Glenmurray, +the interest flags. The conclusion is +weak, not at all worthy of the beginning. Love +of every variety has been the theme of poets +and novelists, but there is no love story more +beautiful for its self-sacrificing devotion to +principle and to each other, than the few pages +of this novel which tell of the unsanctioned +married life of the high-minded idealist and +his bride.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Opie wrote <i>Simple Tales</i> and <i>Tales of +Real Life</i>. They are for the most part pathetic +stories in which unhappiness in the family +circle is caused either by undue sternness of a +parent, the unfilial conduct of a son or daughter, +or a misunderstanding between husband and +wife. The feelings of the characters are often +minutely described. A firm faith in the underlying +goodness of human nature is shown +throughout all these tales, and all teach love +and forbearance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mary Brunton like Mrs. Opie wrote to improve +the ethical ideals of her generation. In the books +of that day the theory was often advanced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +that young men must sow their wild oats, and +that men were more pleasing to the ladies for +a few vices. Her first novel, <i>Self-Control</i>, was +written to contradict this doctrine. In a letter +to Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Brunton wrote:</p> + +<p>"I merely intended to show the power of the +religious principle in bestowing self-command, +and to bear testimony against a maxim as +immoral as indelicate, that a reformed rake +makes the best husband."</p> + +<p>Laura, the heroine of <i>Self-Control</i>, ardently +loved a man of rank and fashion. When she +learned of his amours, her love turned first to +grief, then to disgust. Stung by her abhorrence, +he attempted to seduce her to conquer her pride. +The purity of the heroine triumphs. She meets +a man whom she esteems and afterwards +marries. Many of Laura's adventures border +on the improbable, but her emotions are truthfully +depicted.</p> + +<p>This was a bolder novel than appears on the +surface. Long before this the wicked heroine +had been banished from fiction. The leading +lady must be virtuous to keep the love of the +hero. Richardson laid down that law of the +novel. Mary Brunton asserted the same rule +for the hero, and maintained that a gentleman, +handsome, noble, accomplished, could not retain +the love of a pure woman, if he were not +virtuous.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + +<p>The book gave rise to heated discussions. +Two gentlemen had a violent dispute over it: +one said it ought to be burnt by the common +hangman; the other, that it ought to be written +in letters of gold. Beyond its ethical import, +the novel has no literary value.</p> + +<p>The kind reception given to <i>Self-Control</i> led +the author to begin her second novel, <i>Discipline</i>. +This was intended to show how the mind must +be trained by suffering before it can hope for +true enjoyment when self-control is lacking. +Mary Brunton had read Miss Edgeworth's +description of the Irish people with pleasure; +so she planned to set forth in this novel the +manners of the Scottish Highlands and of the +Orkneys, where she herself had been born. +But before it was finished, <i>Waverley</i> was published. +There the Scottish Highlands stood +forth on a large canvas, distinct and truthful, +and Mrs. Brunton realised at once how weak +her own attempts were compared with Scott's +masterly work. Her interest in her book +flagged, although it was published in December +of that year. Some of the Highland scenes +are interesting because accurately described, +and her account of a mad-house in Edinburgh +is said to be an exact representation of an +asylum for the insane in that city.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Brunton died before her third novel, +<i>Emmeline</i>, was finished. Her husband, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +Reverend Alexander Brunton, professor of +Oriental Languages at Edinburgh University, +published the fragment of it with her memoirs +after her death. The aim of this novel was to +show how little chance of happiness there is +when a divorced woman marries her seducer. +It only shows the inability of Emmeline to +live down her past shame and the unhappiness +which follows the married pair.</p> + +<p>In the novels of Mrs. Opie and Mary Brunton +the standard of conduct is the same as to-day. +Both men and women are expected to lead +upright lives, with true regard for the happiness +of those about them. In <i>Self-Control</i> the hero +refuses to fight a duel with the villain who +has injured him, and forgives him with a true +Christian spirit. To be sure, there are still +seductions, and the world of fashion is without +a heart. But conduct which the former generation +would have regarded with a smile is here +denominated <span class="smcap">sin</span>, and that which they named +Prudery shines forth as <span class="smcap">virtue</span>. The problems +of life which these novels discuss are the +same, as we have said, which agitate the world +to-day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h2>Jane Austen</h2> + + +<p>If in this age of steam and electricity you +would escape from the noise of the city, +and experience for an hour the quiet joys of the +English countryside, at a time when a chaise +and four was the quickest means of reaching the +metropolis from any part of the kingdom, turn +to the pages of Jane Austen. In them have been +preserved faithful pictures of the peaceful life +of the south of England exactly as it existed +a hundred and more years ago. The gently sloping +downs crossed by hedgerows, the lazy rivers +meandering through the valleys, the little villages +half hidden in the orchards of apple, pear, +peach, and plum, all suggest the land of happy +homes. On the outskirts of every village there +are the two of three gentlemen's houses: the +substantial mansion of the squire, with its park +of old elms, oaks, and beeches; a smaller house +suitable for a gentleman of slender income, like +Mr. Bennet, the father of the four girls of <i>Pride +and Prejudice</i>, or for an elder son who will in +time take possession of the hall, like Charles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +Musgrove in the story of <i>Persuasion</i>; and the +still smaller parsonage standing in the garden +of vegetables and flowers, surrounded by a +laurel hedge, where lives a younger son or a +friend of the family.</p> + +<p>The gentry that inhabit these homes carry +on the plot of Jane Austen's novels. And what +an even, almost uneventful life they lead. Life +with them is one long holiday. Dance follows +dance, varied only by a dinner at the mansion, +a picnic party, private theatricals, a brief +sojourn at Bath, a briefer one in London, or a +ride to Lyme, seventeen miles away. But Cupid +ever hovers near, and in each one of these groups +of gentle folk we watch the course of true love, +"which never did run smooth." For in spite +of match-making mammas and stern fathers +with an eye that the marriage settlements shall +be sufficient to clothe sentiment with true +British respectability, the six novels of Jane +Austen contain as many true and tender love +stories, differing from one another not so much +in the incidents as in the characters of the lovers. +Unlike the older novelists, who constantly drew +the attention away from the main theme by +stories of thrilling adventure, Jane Austen holds +closely to the great problem of fiction, whether +or not the youths and maidens will be happily +married at the conclusion of the book.</p> + +<p>When Darcy first meets Elizabeth, the heroine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +of <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, he shuns her and her +family as vulgar. Elizabeth is so prejudiced +against him that she cannot forget his insulting +arrogance. But Darcy's love cannot be +stemmed. Other heroes have plunged into +raging floods to rescue the fair heroine. Darcy +does more. For love of Elizabeth he accepts +the whole Bennet family, including Mrs. Bennet, +who always says the silly thing, and Lydia, who +had almost invited Wickham to elope with her +and was indifferent as to whether or not he +married her, until Darcy compelled him to do so—a +bitter humiliation for a man whose greatest +fault was overweening pride of birth. At +last, Elizabeth comprehends the extent of his +generosity, his superior understanding and +strength of character, and Darcy is rewarded +by the hand of the sunniest heroine in all fiction. +Who but Elizabeth with her independent spirit, +quick intelligence and lively wit could curb his +family pride! They marry, and we know they +will be happy.</p> + +<p><i>Sense and Sensibility</i> works out a problem +for lovers. Like many romantic girls, Marianne +asserts that a woman can love but once. "He +never loved that loved not at first sight" is also +part of her creed. But after her infatuation for +Willoughby has been cured, she contentedly +marries Colonel Brandon, although she knows +that he frequently has rheumatism and wears<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +flannel waistcoats. Marianne will be much +happier as the wife of a man of mature years +who loves her impulsive nature and can control +it than she would have been with the gallant +who won her first love.</p> + +<p>In the piquant satire of <i>Northanger Abbey</i> +there is another problem suggested. This book +is distinctly modern. Man is the pursued; +woman the pursuer. Bernard Shaw has treated +this momentous question in a serious manner +in many of his plays. Jane Austen regards it +with a humorous smile. Did Henry Tilney ever +know why he married Catherine Morland? Or +was this daughter of a country parsonage, without +beauty, without accomplishments, and +without riches, aware that on her first visit to +Bath she used feminine arts that would have +put Becky Sharp to shame—who, by the way, +was a little girl at that time—and would have +made Anne, the knowing heroine of <i>Man and +Superman</i>, green with envy? Yet her arts +consisted simply in following the dictates of +her heart. She fell in love with Henry Tilney; +looked for him whenever she entered the pump-room; +was unhappy if he were absent and expressed +her joy at his approach; saw in him the +paragon of wisdom and looked at every thing with +his eyes. From first ignoring her, he began to +seek her society, and learn the true excellence of +her character. And then Jane Austen explains:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I must confess that this affection originated +in nothing better than gratitude; or in other +words, that a persuasion of her partiality for +him had been the only cause of giving her a +serious thought. It is a new circumstance in +romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory +of an heroine's dignity, but if it is as new +in common life, the credit of a wild imagination +will be all my own."</p> + +<p>But lest we think that Miss Austen is asserting +a rule that women take the initiative in +this matter of love and marriage, it is well to +remember that Darcy first loved Elizabeth +Bennet, and forced her to acknowledge his +worth, and that Colonel Brandon married a +young lady who had formerly supposed him at +the advanced age of thirty-five to be occupied +with thoughts of death rather than of love.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Knightley is another hero who fell +in love and waited patiently for its return. +Emma is like Marianne in one respect, she +needed guidance. Almost from childhood the +mistress of her father's house and the first +lady in the society of Highbury, she was threatened +by two evils, "the power of having too +much her own way, and a disposition to think +a little too well of herself." Mr. Knightley, +the elder brother of her elder sister's husband, +is the only person that sees that she is not always +wise and that she is sometimes selfish. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +is the only one that chides her. Emma is interested +in promoting the welfare of all about her, +but she lacks that most feminine quality of +insight, so that her well-meant help, as in the +case of her protégée, poor Harriet Smith, is +sometimes productive of evil. And yet Emma +is brave and self-forgetful. Not until she has +schooled herself to think of Mr. Knightley as +married to Harriet, is she aware how much he is +a part of her own life. But this is only another +instance of her blindness. When she learns +that he has loved her with all her faults ever +since she was thirteen, she is very happy. There +is no tumultuous passion in this union, but we +are assured of a love that will abide through the +years.</p> + +<p>In <i>Mansfield Park</i> and in <i>Persuasion</i>, there is +another variety of the old story. Fanny Price +and Anne Elliot, the one the daughter of a poor +lieutenant of marines, whose family is the most +ill-bred in all Miss Austen's books, the other +the neglected daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, +Baronet, have more in common than any other +of her heroines. Although these stories are +different, yet in each it is the devotion of the +heroine that guides the course of love through +many obstacles into a quiet haven. Who that +reads their story will say that Miss Austen's +maidens are without passion? They do not +analyse their feelings, nor do they pour them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +forth in wild soliloquy. But the heart of each +is clearly revealed through little acts and +expressions. Fanny Price, cherishing a love +for Edmund Bertram, who was kind to her +when she was neglected by everybody else, refuses +to marry the rich, handsome, and brilliant +Mr. Crawford, although she herself is penniless. +We feel her misery as she realises that she is +nothing but a friend to Edmund and rejoice +with her when her love awakens a response. +Anne Elliot, the gentlest of all her heroines, +who in obedience to her father has broken her +engagement to Captain Wentworth eight years +before, when she is again thrown into his company, +observes his every expression, and grows +sad and weak in health at his studied neglect. +Other heroines have said more, but none have +felt more than Miss Austen's. Anne Elliot herself +has spoken for them:</p> + +<p>"All the privilege I claim for my own sex +(it is not a very enviable one) is that of loving +longest, when existence, or when hope, is gone."</p> + +<p>But Jane Austen, like Shakespeare, is a dramatist. +So, lest this be taken for Miss Austen's +opinion, Captain Wentworth has the last word +here when he writes to Anne, "Dare not say +that man forgets sooner than woman, that his +love has an earlier death. Unjust I have been, +weak and resentful I have been, but never +inconstant."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>And so, at the close of these novels, two more +happy homes are added to those of rural England.</p> + +<p>Are there many heroes and heroines for whom +we dare predict a happy married life? Would +Mr. B. and Pamela have written such long letters +to each other about the training of their +children if conversation had not been a bore? +Evelina must have been disappointed to discover +that Lord Orville lived on roast beef, +plum-pudding, and port wine instead of music +and poetry. Of all Scott's heroes and heroines +none had sacrificed more for each other than +Ivanhoe and Rowena; he gave up Rotherwood, +and, as a disinherited son, sought forgetfulness +of her charms in distant Palestine; she put +aside all hopes of becoming a Saxon queen, and +was true to the gallant son of Cedric. Yet we +have Thackeray for authority that they were +not only unhappy, but often quarrelled after +Scott left them at the altar. And none of +Thackeray's marriages turned out well, although +Becky Sharp made Rodney Crawley very happy +until he discovered her wiles. Dickens was +perhaps more fortunate, but David was led +away by the cunning ways of Dora before he +discovered a companion and helpmate in Agnes, +a heroine worthy to be placed beside Elizabeth +and Jane Bennet. George Eliot's books and +those of later novelists are rather a warning +than an incentive to matrimony. Have all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> +our sighs and tears over the mishaps of ill-starred +lovers been in vain, and is it true that +when the curtain falls at the wedding it is only +to shut from view a scene of domestic infelicity?</p> + +<p>Not so with Jane Austen. She is the queen +of match-makers. The marriages brought about +by her guidance give a belief in the permanency +of English home life, quite as necessary for +the welfare of the kingdom as the stability of +Magna Charta. Her heroes have qualities that +wear well, and her heroines might have inspired +Wordsworth's lines:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +A creature not too bright or good<br /> +For human nature's daily food,<br /> +For transient sorrows, simple wiles,<br /> +Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Besides the lovers, many diverting people +lived in these homes of the gentry, quite as +amusing as any of the peasants who were +brought upon the stage by the older dramatists +for our entertainment; perhaps more amusing, +because of their self-sufficiency. These people +seldom do anything that is peculiar, nor are +they the objects of practical jokes, as were so +many men and women in the earlier books; but +they talk freely both at home and abroad about +whatever is of interest to them. They seldom +use stereotyped words or phrases, yet their +conversation is a crystal from which the whole +mental horizon of the speaker shines forth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +When Mrs. Bennet learns that Netherfield Park +has been let to a single gentleman of fortune, +her first exclamation comes from the heart—"What +a fine thing for our girls!" After Mr. +Collins, upon whom Mr. Bennet's estate is entailed, +has resolved to make all possible amends +to his daughters by marrying one of them, and +is making his famous proposal to Elizabeth, he +says with solemn composure: "But, before I +am run away with by my feelings on this subject, +perhaps it would be advisable for me to state +my reasons for marrying—and, moreover, for +coming into Hertfordshire with the design of +selecting a wife, as I certainly did." No wonder +Elizabeth laughed at such a lover. Mr. +Collins is the same type of man as Mr. Smith, +whom Evelina meets at Snow Hill, but infinitely +more ridiculous because he is an educated man +of some attainments.</p> + +<p>Then there is Mr. Woodhouse, the father of +Emma, with his constant solicitude for everybody's +health and his fears that they may have +indigestion. When his daughter and her family +arrive from London, all well and hearty, he +says by way of hospitality: "You and I will +have a nice basin of gruel together. My dear +Emma, suppose we all have a basin of gruel." +His friend Mrs. Bates is always voluble. She +is describing Mr. Dixon's country seat in Ireland +to Emma: "Jane has heard a great deal of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +beauty—from Mr. Dixon, I mean—I do not +know that she ever heard about it from anybody +else—but it was very natural, you know, that +he should like to speak of his own place while +he was paying his addresses—and as Jane used +to be very often walking out with them—for +Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were very particular +about their daughter's not walking out often +with only Mr. Dixon, for which I do not at all +blame them; of course she heard everything he +might be telling Miss Campbell about his own +home in Ireland." One respects the mental +power of a woman who could remember the +main thread of her discourse amid so many +digressions.</p> + +<p>How characteristic is Sir Walter Elliot's reply +to the gentleman who is trying to bring a neighbour's +name to his mind. "Wentworth? Oh, +ay! Mr. Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. +You misled me by the term <i>Gentleman</i>. I +thought you were speaking of some man of +property." And not the least amusing of these +people is Mr. Elton's bride, a pert sort of woman +who for some reason patronises everybody +into whose company she is thrown. After +meeting Mr. Knightley, by far the most consequential +person about Highbury, she expresses +her approval of him to Emma: "Knightley is +quite the gentleman! I like him very much! +Decidedly, I think, a very gentlemanlike man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +And Emma wonders if Mr. Knightley has been +able to pronounce this self-important newcomer +as quite the lady. Pick out almost any +speech at random, and anyone who is at all +familiar with Miss Austen will easily recognise +the speaker.</p> + +<p>This ability to describe people by such delicate +touches has been highly praised by Macaulay +in the essay on Madame D'Arblay before +quoted. He thus compares Jane Austen with +Shakespeare:</p> + +<p>"Admirable as he [Shakespeare] was in all +parts of his art, we must admire him for this, +that, while he has left us a greater number of +striking portraits than all other dramatists +put together, he has scarcely left us a single +caricature. Shakespeare has had neither equal +nor second. But among the writers who, in +the point which we have mentioned, have approached +nearest to the manner of the great +master, we have no hesitation in placing Jane +Austen, a woman of whom England is justly +proud. She has given us a multitude of characters, +all, in a certain sense, commonplace, all +such as we meet every day. Yet they are all +as perfectly discriminated from each other +as if they were the most eccentric of human +beings. There are, for instance, four clergymen, +none of whom we should be surprised +to find in any parsonage in the kingdom, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +Edward Ferrars, Mr. Henry Tilney, Mr. Edmund +Bertram, and Mr. Elton. They are all +specimens of the upper part of the middle +class. They have all been liberally educated. +They all lie under the restraints of the same +sacred profession. They are all young. They +are all in love. Not one of them has any hobbyhorse, +to use the phrase of Sterne. Not one +has a ruling passion, such as we read of in Pope. +Who would not have expected them to be insipid +likenesses of each other? No such thing. +Harpagon is not more unlike to Jourdain, +Joseph Surface is not more unlike to Sir Lucius +O'Trigger, than every one of Miss Austen's +young divines to his reverend brethren. And +almost all this is done by touches so delicate +that they elude analysis, that they defy the +powers of description, and that we know them +to exist only by the general effect to which they +have contributed."</p> + +<p>Like Shakespeare Jane Austen knew the +inner nature by intuition, and had learned its +outward expression by observation. Character +not only affects the speech of each one of her +men and women, but determines their destiny +and shapes the plot of the story. The class she +has chosen to represent is the least under the +sway of circumstances of any in England. +With money for all needs, and leisure for enjoyment, +free from obligations which pertain to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +higher rank, character here develops freely and +naturally. Not one of the matchmaking men +or women, not even the intelligent Emma, succeeds +in changing the life of those whom they +attempt to influence. Character is stronger +than any outside agency. In this respect, Jane +Austen is decidedly at variance with Thomas +Hardy or Tolstoi, but she is at one with +Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>In the opening paragraph of each book, +character begins to assert itself. If Darcy +had been without <small>PRIDE</small>, and Elizabeth had +been without <small>PREJUDICE</small>; if Marianne had had +her sensibilities under control; if Emma had not +been blind; if Captain Wentworth had not +been unjust and resentful—there would have +been no story to tell, the course of true love +would have run so smooth. But all of them +are loving and faithful, and these qualities in +the end conquer, and bring the stories to a +happy conclusion.</p> + +<p>Edmund Gosse thus writes of her delineation +of character:</p> + +<p>"Like Balzac, like Tourgenieff at his best, +Jane Austen gives the reader an impression of +knowing everything there was to know about +her creations, of being incapable of error as to +their acts, thoughts, or emotions. She presents +an absolute illusion of reality; she exhibits an +art so consummate that we mistake it for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +nature. She never mixes her own temperament +with those of her characters, she is never swayed +by them, she never loses for a moment her +perfect, serene control of them. Among the +creators of the world, Jane Austen takes a place +that is with the highest and that is purely her +own."</p> + +<p>This seeming control of her characters is due +largely to the fact that whatever happens to +them is just what might have been expected. +This is particularly true of the bad people she +has created. Innocence led astray has been a +popular means of exciting interest ever since +Richardson told the sad story of Clarissa Harlowe. +But there is no such incident in Jane +Austen's books. Lydia, who hasn't a thought +for anybody nor anything but a red-coat, and +Wickham, who elopes with her without any +intention of matrimony, are properly punished, +by being married to each other, and the future +unhappiness which must be their lot is due to +their own natures. Willoughby had seduced +one girl, trifled with the affections of another, +and married an heiress, but he finds only misery, +and sadly says: "I must rub through the world +as well as I can." Henry Crawford, and his +sister, with so much that is good in their natures, +yet with a lack of moral fibre, are both unhappy. +Each has lost the one they respected and loved +and might have married. With what wit she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +leaves William Elliot, the all-agreeable man, +the heir of Sir Walter, who, that he may keep +the latter single, has enticed the scheming Mrs. +Clay from his home:</p> + +<p>"And it is now a doubtful point whether his +cunning or hers may finally carry the day; +whether, after preventing her from being the +wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled +and caressed at last into making her the wife +of Sir William."</p> + +<p>And so punishment is meted out with that +nicety of judgment which distinguishes every +detail of her novels.</p> + +<p>But Jane Austen has little interest in immorality. +"Let other pens dwell on guilt and +misery; I quit such odious subjects as soon as +I can," she says in <i>Mansfield Park</i>. And her +readers have observed that deeds of evil take +place off the stage, while she records only what +is reported of them in the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>She dwells as little on misery as on guilt. She +shows in her letters charitable regard for the +poor people of Steventon and Chawton. She +describes minutely the unkempt house of +Lieutenant Price at Portsmouth with its incessant +noise of heavy steps, banging doors, +and untrained servants, where every voice was +loud excepting Mrs. Price's, which resembled +"the soft monotony of Lady Bertram's, only +worn into fretfulness." Miss Austen's pen was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +able to portray scenes of squalor and vice; +she chose to turn from them. Perhaps she felt +instinctively that true æsthetic pleasure cannot +be produced by dwelling on a scene in a +book which would be repulsive to the eye. +Miss Austen wrote before there was much +serious interest in the lives of the poor. Their +only function in literature had been to provoke +laughter. The sensitive daughter of the rector +of Steventon may have felt, as others have, +that there was no occasion to laugh at the +blunders and ill-manners of peasants, which +were proper and natural to their condition of +life. She did not need these people to entertain +us. There were quite as funny people in the +hall as in the cottage, funnier, even, because +their humorous sayings spring from a humorous +twist in their natures, not from ignorance.</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott, after reading <i>Pride and +Prejudice</i> for the third time, said:</p> + +<p>"That young lady had a talent for describing +the involvements and feelings and characters +of ordinary life, which is to me the most wonderful +I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow +strain I can do myself, like any now going; but +the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary +commonplace things and characters interesting +from the truth of the description and the sentiment, +is denied to me."</p> + +<p>Sir Walter Scott proved the truth of the above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +statement in <i>St. Ronan's Well</i>, one of the least +successful of his novels, which was written in +imitation of Jane Austen.</p> + +<p>Because Jane Austen confined her work so +closely to ordinary middle-class people, she has +been called narrow. But if we judge men and +women not by dress and manners, but by what +they are, these people furnish as broad a view +of humanity as could be obtained by travelling +up and down the world. A trained botanist +will gather an herbarium from a country lane +that will give a more extended knowledge of +botany than a less skilful one could get by +travelling through the woods and fields of a +continent. Very few novelists have portrayed +greater varieties of human nature than Miss +Austen.</p> + +<p>Jane Austen's style has been praised by all +critics. George William Curtis wrote of her +art:</p> + +<p>"She writes wholly as an artist, while George +Eliot advocates views, and Miss Brontë's fiery +page is often a personal protest. In Miss Austen, +on the other hand, there is in kind, but infinitely +less in degree, the same clear atmosphere of +pure art which we perceive in Shakespeare and +Goethe."</p> + +<p>While Miss Austen has been so often likened +to Shakespeare, she is in no sense a romantic +writer. She belongs purely to the classic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +school. She has the restraint, the perfect poise +of the Greeks. She recognises everywhere the +need of law. She accepts society as it exists +under the restraints of law and religion. She +no more questioned the English prayer book +and the English constitution than Homer questioned +the existence of the gods and the supreme +power of kings. This feeling for law shaped +her art. Her plots are perfectly symmetrical. +There is no redundancy in expression. There +is none of that wild luxuriance in fancy or expression +so common in romanticism. Each +word used is needed in the sentence, and is in +its proper place. The strength of romanticism +lies in its impetuosity; the strength of classicism +lies in its self-control. This is the strength of +Jane Austen.</p> + +<p>Emotion in her books is so restrained that +the superficial reader doubts its existence. +Yet her characters feel deeply and are sensitive +to the acts and words of those about them. +Although their feelings are under control, they +are none the less real. The reader watches, but +is not asked to participate in their griefs.</p> + +<p>As she never moves to tears, neither does she +provoke laughter, but she lightens every page +with a quiet glow of humour. Humour was as +natural to her as to Elizabeth Bennet, whose +sayings give the sparkle to <i>Pride and Prejudice</i>. +Much of the humour in her letters consists of an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> +unexpected turn to a sentence or an incongruous +combination of words. She writes of +meeting "Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning +that either his mother, his wife or himself must +be dead." She announces the marriage of a +gentleman to a widow by the laconic message, +"Dr. Gardiner was married yesterday to Mrs. +Percy and her three daughters." And again +she says that a certain Mrs. Blount appeared +the same as in September, "with the same broad +face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink +husband, and fat neck." She sees through the +affectations of society and observes the pleasure +afforded by the small misfortunes of another as +plainly as did Thackeray later. The wife of a +certain gentleman is discovered "to be everything +the neighbourhood could wish, silly and +cross as well as extravagant." She finds continual +source of enjoyment in people's foibles, +and thinks that her own misfortunes ought to +furnish jokes to her acquaintances, or she will +die in their debt for entertainment.</p> + +<p>In a less refined degree, this was the view of +life of Miss Burney, her favourite author. Miss +Austen was but three years old when Evelina +made her début at Ranelagh, and not over +seven when Cecilia visited her three guardians +in London: <i>Camilla</i> was published in the year +that it is thought that Miss Austen began <i>Pride +and Prejudice</i>. During these years, Miss Bur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>ney's +fame was undimmed. Consider yourself +for a moment in a circulating library, in the +year 1797 or 1798, suppose you are fond of +novel reading, and have moreover the refined +tastes of Miss Austen; you will find there no +novelist who can hold a rival place to Miss +Burney. Miss Austen refers to her both in her +novels and letters. In only one passage in her +novels has she interrupted her story to express +a general opinion; that is in <i>Northanger Abbey</i>, +where she praises the art of the novelist, and +refers particularly to <i>Cecilia</i>, <i>Camilla</i>, and +<i>Belinda</i>. In the same novel John Thorpe's lack +of taste is emphasised by his calling <i>Camilla</i> +a stupid book of unnatural stuff, which he could +not get through. She evidently discussed Miss +Burney's novels with the people she met; a +certain young man just entered at Oxford has +heard that <i>Evelina</i> was written by Dr. Johnson, +and she finds two traits in a certain Miss Fletcher +very pleasing: "She admires <i>Camilla</i>, and drinks +no cream in her tea." But Miss Austen was no +blind disciple of Miss Burney. All the odd +characters which Miss Burney culled from the +lower ranks of society were swept away by +Miss Austen. Everything approaching tragedy +or the improbable is avoided, but what is left +is amplified and refined until there is no more +trace of Miss Burney than there is of Perugino +in the paintings of Raphael.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>Artists in other lines have striven in their +work for a unified whole. Most novelists have +been more intent on pointing a moral or producing +a sensation than on the technique of +their writing. Their works as a whole lack +proportion. They obtrude unnecessarily in one +part and are weak in another. Miss Austen +wrote because the characters in her brain demanded +expression. Who could remain silent +with Elizabeth Bennet urging her to utterance? +She wrote with the greatest care because she +could do nothing slovenly. Whatever place +may be assigned to her as the years go by, her +novels surpass all others written in English in +their perfect art.</p> + +<p>Miss Austen's genius was but slowly recognised. +Her first books were published in 1811, +only three years before <i>Waverley</i>, and her last +novels were published after it. Who will linger +over the teacups while knights in armour +are riding the streets without? It is not until +the cavalcade has passed that home seems again +a quiet, refreshing spot. So the public, tired +of the brilliant scenes and conflicting passions +of other novels, has in the last few years turned +back to the simple, wholesome stories of Jane +Austen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h2>Miss Ferrier. Miss Mitford. +Anna Maria Hall</h2> + + +<p>Walter Scott, the most chivalrous of +all writers, brought to an end woman's +supremacy in the novel, in 1814. At this time +prose fiction was far different from what it was +in 1772, when Tobias Smollet died, and much +of this difference was due to women. Professor +Masson, in his lectures on the novel, gives the +names of twenty novelists who wrote between +1789-1814 who are remembered in the history +of English literature. "With the exception of +Godwin," he writes, "I do not know that any +of the male novelists I have mentioned could +be put in comparison, in respect of genuine +merit, with such novelists of the other sex as +Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Edgeworth, and Miss Austen." +It is equally worthy of note that, of the +twenty names given, fourteen are women.</p> + +<p>Although during these years women had developed +the historical novel, and had brought the +novel of mystery to a high degree of perfection,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +they left the most enduring stamp on literature +as realists, as painters of everyday life and commonplace +people. Francis Jeffrey wrote:</p> + +<p>"It required almost the same courage to get +rid of the jargon of fashionable life and the +swarms of peers, foundlings, and seducers, that +infested our modern fables as it did in those +days to sweep away the mythological persons of +antiquity, and to introduce characters who +spoke and acted like those who were to peruse +their adventures."</p> + +<p>Women awakened interest in the humdrum +lives of their neighbours next door, and this +without any exaggeration, simply by minute +attention to little things, and quick sympathy +in the joys and sorrows of others. They described +manners and customs; their view of +life was largely objective. It is a noteworthy +fact that while Scott was casting over all Europe +the light of romanticism, the women writers of +the time, with but one or two exceptions, were +viewing life with the clear vision of Miss Edgeworth +and Miss Austen, as if the world obtruded +too glaringly upon their eyes to be lost sight +of in happy day-dreams.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Susan Edmonstone Ferrier is better known +to-day as the friend of Scott, and an occasional +visitor at Abbotsford, than as a successful +novelist. She was born at Edinburgh in 1782,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +where her father, James Ferrier, was Writer to the +Signet, and at one time Clerk of Session, Scott +being one of his colleagues. That great genius +was one of the earliest to appreciate the excellence +of her descriptions of Scottish life given in +her first book, entitled <i>Marriage</i>, published +anonymously in 1818. In the conclusion of the +<i>Tales of my Landlord</i> he paid the unknown +writer this graceful tribute:</p> + +<p>"There remains behind not only a large harvest, +but labourers capable of gathering it in; +more than one writer has of late displayed +talents of this description, and if the present +author, himself a phantom, may be permitted to +distinguish a brother, or perhaps a sister, shadow, +he would mention in particular the author of the +very lively work entitled <i>Marriage</i>."</p> + +<p>Miss Ferrier wrote but three novels, <i>Marriage</i>, +<i>The Inheritance</i>, and <i>Destiny</i>, a period of six +years intervening between the appearance of +each of them. Like Miss Burney and Miss +Edgeworth she depicts two grades of society. +She shows forth the fashionable life of Edinburgh +and London, and the cruder mode of +living found in the Scottish Highlands. But +between her and her models there is the great +difference of genius and talent. They passed +what they had seen through the alembic of +imagination; she has depicted what she saw +with the faithfulness of the camera, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +crude realism of these scenes does not always +blend with the warp and woof of the story.</p> + +<p>Like Miss Edgeworth, Miss Ferrier had a +moral to work out. She treats society as a +satirist, and lays bare its heartlessness, and +the unhappiness of its members who to escape +ennui are led hither and thither by the caprice +of the moment. While she may present one side +of the picture, one hesitates to accept Lady +Juliana, Mrs. St. Clair, or Lady Elizabeth as +common types of a London drawing-room.</p> + +<p>Her plots as well as her characters suffer from +this conscious attempt to teach the happiness +that must follow the practice of the Christian +virtues. In <i>Marriage</i> there are two complete +stories. Lady Juliana is the heroine of the +first part; her two daughters, who are born in +the first half, supplant their mother as heroines +of the second half. The plot of <i>Destiny</i> is not +much better. The denouement is tame, and +the characters lack consistency. <i>The Inheritance</i> +has the strongest plot of the three; but +Mrs. St. Clair and her secret interviews with +the monstrosity Lewiston, who, by the way, +has the honour to be an American, throw an +air of unreality over a story in many respects +intensely real. In this story, as in so many old +novels, the nurse's daughter had been brought +up as the rightful heiress. The scene in which +she tells her betrothed lover, the heir of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +estate, the story of her birth, which she had just +learned, is said to have suggested to Tennyson +the beautiful ballad of <i>Lady Clare</i>.</p> + +<p>But when Miss Ferrier sees loom in imagination +the sombre purple hills of the Highlands, +with the black tarns in the hollows half-hidden +in mist, her genius awakes. If she had devoted +herself to these people and this region, and +ignored the fashionable life of the cities, she +might have written a book worthy to be placed +beside the best of Miss Edgeworth or Miss +Mitford. At the time she wrote, the Highland +chief no longer summoned his clan about him +at a blast from his bugle, but he had lost little +of his old-time picturesqueness. The opening +of <i>Destiny</i> describes the wealth of the chief of +Glenroy:</p> + +<p>"All the world knows that there is nothing on +earth to be compared to a Highland chief. He +has his loch and his islands, his mountains and +his castle, his piper and his tartan, his forests +and his deer, his thousands of acres of untrodden +heath, and his tens of thousands of black-faced +sheep, and his bands of bonneted clansmen, +with claymores and Gaelic, and hot blood and +dirks."</p> + +<p>But Miss Ferrier also depicted a more sordid +type of Highlander. Christopher North in his +<i>Noctes Ambrosianæ</i> writes of her novels:</p> + +<p>"They are the works of a very clever woman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +sir, and they have one feature of true and melancholy +interest quite peculiar to themselves. +It is in them alone that the ultimate breaking-down +and debasement of the Highland character +has been depicted. Sir Walter Scott had fixed +the enamel of genius over the last fitful gleams +of their half-savage chivalry, but a humbler and +sadder scene—the age of lucre-banished clans,—of +chieftains dwindled into imitation squires, +and of chiefs content to barter the recollections +of a thousand years for a few gaudy seasons +of Almacks and Crockfords, the euthanasia of +kilted aldermen and steamboat pibrochs, was +reserved for Miss Ferrier."</p> + +<p>Besides her descriptions of the Highlands, +Miss Ferrier has drawn several Scotch characters +that deserve to live. What a delightful +group is described in <i>Marriage</i>, consisting of the +three Misses Douglas, known as "The girls," +and their friend Mrs. Maclaughlan! Miss +Jacky Douglas, the senior of the trio, "was +reckoned a woman of sense"; Miss Grizzy was +distinguished by her good-nature and the entanglement +of her thoughts; and it was said +that Miss Nicky was "not wanting for sense +either"; while their friend Lady Maclaughlan +loved and tyrannised over all three of them. +Sir Walter Scott admired the character of +Miss Becky Duguid, a poor old maid, who +"was expected to attend all accouchements,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +christenings, deaths, chestings, and burials, but +she was seldom asked to a marriage, and never +to any party of pleasure." Joanna Baillie +thought the loud-spoken minister, M'Dow, a +true representative of a few of the Scotch clergy +whose only aim is preferment and good cheer. +But none of her other characters can compare +with the devoted Mrs. Molly Macaulay, the +friend of the Chief of Glenroy in <i>Destiny</i>. When +Glenroy has an attack of palsy, she hurries to +him, and when she is told that he has missed +her, she exclaims with perfect self-forgetfulness:</p> + +<p>"Deed, and I thought he would do that, +for he has always been so kind to me,—and +I thought sometimes when I was away, oh, +thinks I to myself, I wonder what Glenroy will +do for somebody to be angry with,—for Ben-bowie's +grown so deaf, poor creature, it's not +worth his while to be angry at him,—and you're +so gentle that it would not do for him to be +angry at you; but I'm sure he has a good right +to be angry at me, considering how kind he +has always been to me."</p> + +<p>Christopher North said of Molly Macaulay, +"No sinner of our gender could have adequately +filled up the outline."</p> + +<p>George Saintsbury, considering the permanent +value of Miss Ferrier's work, wrote for the +<i>Fortnightly Review</i> in 1882:</p> + +<p>"Of the four requisites of the novelist, plot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +character, description, and dialogue, she is only +weak in the first. The lapse of an entire half-century +and a complete change of manners +have put her books to the hardest test they are +ever likely to have to endure, and they come +through it triumphantly."</p> + +<p>But, besides the excellences mentioned by +Mr. Saintsbury, Miss Ferrier is master of humour +and pathos. No story is sadder than that of +Ronald Malcolm, the hero of <i>Destiny</i>. He had +been willed the castle of Inch Orran with its +vast estates, but with the provision that he was +to have no benefit from it until his twenty-sixth +year. In case of his death the property was +to go to his father, an upright but poor man. +As Ronald had many years to wait before he +could enjoy his riches, he entered the navy. His +ship was lost at sea and the news of his death +reported in Scotland. But Ronald had been +rescued from the sinking ship, and returned to +his father's cottage. Here he met a purblind +old woman, who told him how his father, Captain +Malcolm, had moved to the castle, and what +good he was doing among his tenantry. She +described the sorrow of the people at the death +of Ronald, but added: "Och! it was God's +providence to tak' the boy out of his worthy +father's way; and noo a' thing 's as it should be, +and he has gotten his ain, honest man; and long, +long may he enjoy it!" And then she said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +thankfully, "The poor lad's death was a great +blessing—och ay, 'deed was 't." The scene +where Ronald goes to the castle and looks in at +the window upon the happy family group, consisting +of his father and mother, brothers and +sisters, resembles in many particulars the sad +return of Enoch Arden. The close of the scene +is as touching in the novel as in the poem: +"Yes, yes, they are happy, and I am forgotten!" +sobs the lad, as he turns away.</p> + +<p>Miss Ferrier, however, seldom touches the +pathetic; she is first of all a humourist. But +there is a blending of the smiles and tears of +human life in the delightful character of Adam +Ramsay. Engaged as a boy to Lizzie Lundie, +he had gone forth into the world to make a +fortune, but when he returned after many years +he found that she had married in his absence, +and soon afterwards had died. Crabbed to all +about him, he still cherished the remembrance +of his early love, and was quickly moved by +any appeal to her memory.</p> + +<p>The practical philosophy of the Scottish +peasantry is amusingly set forth in the scene +where Miss St. Clair visits one of the cottages +on Lord Rossville's estate. She found the +goodman very ill, and everything about the +room betokening extreme poverty. When she +offered to send him milk and broth, and a carpet +and chairs to make the room more comfortable,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +his wife interposed, "A suit o' gude bein comfortable +dead claise, Tammes, wad set ye better +than aw the braw chyres an' carpets i' the toon." +Sometime afterward, when Miss St. Clair called +to see how the invalid was, she found him in +the press-bed, while the clothes were warming +before the fire. His wife explained that she +could not have him in the way, and if he were +cold, it could not be helped, as the clothes had +to be aired, and added, "An' I 'm thinkin' he 'll +no be lang o' wantin' them noo."</p> + +<p>But notwithstanding her humour, Miss Ferrier +was a stern moralist, whose attitude toward +life had been influenced indirectly by the +teachings of John Knox. She sometimes seems +to stand her characters in the stocks, and call +upon the populace to view their sins or absurdities. +She seldom throws the veil of charity +over them. Men as novelists are prone to +exaggeration. Women have represented life +with greater truth both in its larger aspects and +in details. Miss Ferrier carries this quality to +an extreme. She tells not only the truth, but, +with almost heartless honesty, reveals the whole +of it, so that many of her men and women are +repugnant to the reader while they amuse him. +The best judges of Scottish manners have borne +witness to the exactness of her portraiture. +She is, perhaps, an example of the artistic failure +of over-realism.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mary Russell Mitford like Miss Ferrier painted +her scenes and her portraits from real life. But +there is as wide a difference between their +writings as between the rocky ledges of the +Grampian Hills and the soft meadows bathed +in the sunshine which stretch back of the cottages +of Our Village. Miss Mitford's, indeed, +was a sunny nature, not to be hardened nor +embittered by a lifelong anxiety over poverty +and debts. Her father, Dr. Mitford, had spent +nearly all his own fortune when he married +Miss Mary Russell, an heiress. Besides being +constantly involved in lawsuits, he was addicted +to gambling, and soon squandered the fortune +which his wife had brought him, besides twenty +thousand pounds won in a lottery. He is said +to have lost in speculations and at play about +seventy thousand pounds, at that time a large +fortune. The authoress was a little over thirty +years of age when the poverty of the family +forced them to leave Bertram House, their +home for many years, and remove to a little +labourer's cottage about a mile away, on the +principal street of a little village near Reading, +known as Three Mile Cross. Here the support +of the family devolved upon the daughter, a +burden made harder by the continual extravagance +of the father, whom she devotedly loved. +Although she received large sums for her writings, +it is with the greatest weariness that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +writes to her friend Miss Barrett, afterwards +Mrs. Browning, of the struggles that have been +hers the greater part of her life, the ten or twelve +hours of literary drudgery each day, often in +spite of ill health, and her hope that she may +always provide for her father his accustomed +comforts. Not only was she enabled to do this, +but, through the help of friends, to pay, after his +death, the one thousand pounds indebtedness, +his only legacy to her.</p> + +<p>Yet there is not a trace of this worry in the +delightful series of papers called <i>Our Village</i>, +which she began to contribute at this time to +the <i>Lady's Magazine</i>. Before this she had become +known as a poet and a successful playwright, +but had believed herself incapable of +writing good prose. Necessity revealed her +fine power of description, and Three Mile Cross +furnished her with scenes and characters.</p> + +<p><i>Our Village</i> marked a new style in fiction. +The year it was commenced, she wrote to a +friend:</p> + +<p>"With regard to novels, I should like to see +one undertaken without any plot at all. I do +not mean that it should have no story; but I +should like some writer of luxuriant fancy to +begin with a certain set of characters—one +family, for instance—without any preconceived +design farther than one or two incidents or +dialogues, which would naturally suggest fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +matter, and so proceed in this way, throwing +in incidents and characters profusely, but +avoiding all stage tricks and strong situations, +till some death or marriage should afford a +natural conclusion to the book."</p> + +<p>Miss Mitford followed this plan as far as her +great love of nature would permit. For when +she found her daily cares too great to be borne +in the little eight-by-eight living-room, she escaped +to the woods and fields. She loved the +poets who wrote of nature, and next to Miss +Austen, whom she placed far above any other +novelist, she delighted in the novels of Charlotte +Smith, and in her own pages there is the same +true feeling for nature.</p> + +<p><i>Our Village</i> follows in a few particulars Gilbert +White's <i>History of Selborne</i>. As he described +the beauties of Selborne through the varying +seasons of the year, she describes her walks +about Three Mile Cross, first when the meadows +are covered with hoar frost, then when the air +is perfumed with violets, and later when the +harvest field is yellow with ripened corn. All +the lanes, the favourite banks, the shady recesses +are described with delicate and loving touch. +How her own joyous, optimistic nature speaks +in this record of a morning walk in a backward +spring:</p> + +<p>"Cold bright weather. All within doors, +sunny and chilly; all without, windy and dusty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +It is quite tantalising to see that brilliant sun +careering through so beautiful a sky, and to +feel little more warmth from his presence than +one does from that of his fair but cold sister, +the moon. Even the sky, beautiful as it is, has +the look of that one sometimes sees in a very +bright moonlight night—deeply, intensely blue, +with white fleecy clouds driven vigorously along +by a strong breeze, now veiling and now exposing +the dazzling luminary around whom +they sail. A beautiful sky! and, in spite of its +coldness, a beautiful world!"</p> + +<p>But how naturally we meet the people of the +village and become interested in them. There +is Harriet, the belle of the village, "a flirt +passive," who made the tarts and puddings +in the author's kitchen; Joel Brent, her lover, +a carter by calling, but, by virtue of his personal +accomplishments, the village beau. There is +the publican, the carpenter, the washerwoman; +little Lizzie, the spoilt child, and all the other +boys and girls of the village. It is very natural +to-day to meet these poor people in novels; +at that time the poor people of Ireland and +Scotland had begun to creep into fiction, but +it was as unusual in England as a novel without +a plot. Even to-day Miss Mitford's attitude +toward these people is not common. It seems +never to have occurred to the author, and +certainly does not to her readers, that these men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +dressed in overalls and these women in print +dresses with sleeves rolled to the elbow were +not the finest ladies and gentlemen of the land. +She greets them all with a playful humour +which reminds one of the genial smile of Elia. +C. H. Herford in <i>The Age of Wordsworth</i> wrote +of <i>Our Village</i>:</p> + +<p>"No such intimate and sympathetic portrayal +of village life had been given before, and +perhaps it needed a woman's sympathetic eye +for little things to show the way. Of the professional +story-teller on the alert for a sensation +there is as little as of the professional novelist +on the watch for a lesson."</p> + +<p><i>Belford Regis</i>, a series of country and town +sketches, was written soon after the completion +of <i>Our Village</i>. Here again is the happy blending +of nature and humanity; the same fusion +of truth and fiction. As Belford Regis is +"Our Market Town," there is a wider range of +characters, as different classes are represented; +and a more intimate view, since the same people +appear in more than one story. Stephen Lane, +the butcher, and his wife are often met with. +He is so fat that "when he walks, he overfills +the pavement, and is more difficult to pass than +a link of full-dressed misses or a chain of becloaked +dandies." Of Mrs. Lane she writes: +"Butcher's wife and butcher's daughter though +she were, yet was she a graceful and gracious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +woman, one of nature's gentlewomen in look +and in thought." There was Miss Savage, +"who was called a sensible woman because +she had a gruff voice and vinegar aspect"; +and Miss Steele, who was called literary, because +forty years ago she made a grand poetical +collection. Miss Mitford even does justice to +Mrs. Hollis, the fruiterer and the village gossip; +"There she sits, a tall, square, upright figure, +surmounted by a pleasant, comely face, eyes +as black as a sloe, cheeks as rounds as an apple, +and a complexion as ruddy as a peach, as fine +a specimen of a healthy, hearty English tradeswoman, +the feminine of John Bull, as one would +desire to see on a summer's day.... As a +gossip she was incomparable. She knew everybody +and everything; had always the freshest +intelligence, and the newest news; her reports +like her plums had the bloom on them, and +she would as much have scorned to palm +upon you an old piece of scandal as to send +you strawberries that had been two days +gathered."</p> + +<p>A reviewer in the <i>Athenæum</i> thus criticises +the book:</p> + +<p>"If (to be hypercritical) the pictures they +contain be a trifle too sunny and too cheerful to +be real—if they show more generosity and +refinement and self-sacrifice existing among +the middle classes than does exist,—too much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +of the meek beauty, too little of the squalidity +of humble life,—we love them none the less, +and their authoress all the more."</p> + +<p>In <i>Belford Regis</i> we miss the fields, the brooks, +the flowers, and the sky, which made the charm +of <i>Our Village</i>. In some respects it is a more +ambitious book, but it has not the perennial +charm of <i>Our Village</i>.</p> + +<p>Miss Mitford's favourite author, as we have +seen, was Jane Austen. She had the same +regard for her that Miss Austen felt for Fanny +Burney. The two authors have many points +of resemblance. Both have the same clear +vision, and sunny nature; the same repugnance +to all that is sensational, or coarse, or low; the +same dislike of strong pathos or broad humour; +and Miss Mitford has approached more closely +than any other writer to the elegance of diction +and purity of style of Miss Austen.</p> + +<p>They have another point in common, they +both show excellent taste in their writings. +This quality of good taste is due to native delicacy +and refinement, a sensitive withdrawal +from what is ugly, and a quick feeling for true +proportion; the very things which give to a +woman her superior tact, which Ruskin has +called "the touch sense." In the novel it is +pre-eminently a feminine characteristic. Few +men have it in a marked degree. It adds all +the charm we feel in the presence of a refined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +woman to the novels of Miss Edgeworth, Miss +Austen, and Miss Mitford.</p> + +<p>But, while Miss Mitford and Miss Austen have +many points of resemblance, they have many +points of difference. Miss Austen liked the +society of men and women, and during her +younger days was fond of dinner-parties and +balls. Miss Mitford preferred the woods and +fields, liked the society of her dogs, and wrote +to a friend before she was twenty that she +would never go to another dance if she could +help it. Miss Austen selects a small group of +gentry, and by the intertwining of their lives +forms a beautiful plot; Miss Mitford rambles +through the village and the country walks of +Three Mile Cross, and as she meets the butcher, +the publican, the boys at cricket, she gleans +some story of interest, and brings back to us, as +it were, a basket in which have been thrown in +careless profusion violets and anemones, cowslips +and daisies, and all the other flowers of the +field.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. Anna Maria Hall, a country-woman of +Miss Edgeworth, wrote of her first novel: +"<i>My Sketches of Irish Character</i>, my first dear +book, was inspired by a desire to describe +my native place, as Miss Mitford had done in +<i>Our Village</i>, and this made me an author." +Most of these sketches were drawn from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +county of Wexford, her native place, whose +inhabitants, she says in the preface, are descendants +of the Anglo-Norman settlers of the +reign of Henry the Second, and speak a language +unknown in other districts of Ireland.</p> + +<p>The book is a series of well-told stories of the +poor people, whom we should have imagined +to be pure Celt, if the author had not said they +resembled the English. There is the tender +pathos, the quick humour, the joke which often +answers an argument, the guidance of the heart +rather than the head; but she has dwelt upon +one characteristic but lightly touched upon by +Miss Edgeworth and Lady Morgan, the poetic +feeling of the Celt, the imagery that so often +adorns their common speech. The old Irish +wife says to the bride who speaks disrespectfully +of the fairies: "Hush, Avourneen! Sure they +have the use of the May-dew before it falls, and +the colour of the lilies and the roses before it's +folded in the tender buds; and can steal the +notes out of the birds' throats while they sleep."</p> + +<p><i>The Irish Peasantry</i>, and <i>Lights and Shadows +of Irish Life</i>, won Mrs. Hall the ill-will rather +than the love of her countrymen. She had +lived for a long time in England, and upon returning +to her native land was impressed by the +lack of forethought which kept the country +poor. Their early marriages, their indifference +to time, their frequent visits to the public house,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +their hospitality to strangers even when they +themselves were in extreme poverty and debt—all +made so deep an impression upon her mind +that she attempted to teach the Irish worldly +wisdom. But the lesson was distasteful to the +people and probably useless, as the characteristics +which she would change were the very +essence of the Irish nature, the traits which +made him a Celt, not a Saxon. In these books, +the wooings, weddings, and funerals are portrayed, +and there is a little glimpse of fairy lore.</p> + +<p><i>Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love</i>, grew +out of the fairy legends of Ireland. It is said +that a child whose father has died before its +birth is placed by nature under the peculiar +guardianship of the fairies; and, if born on +Midsummer Eve, it becomes their rightful +property; they take it to their own homes and +leave in its place one of their changelings. The +heroine of the story is a child of that nature, +over whose birth the fairies of air, earth, and +water preside. But at the will of Nightstar, +Queen of the Fairies of the Air, she is left with +her mother, but adopted and watched over +by the fairies as their own. Their great gift +to her is that of loving and being loved. The +human element is not well blended with the +fairy element. The entire setting should have +been rural, for in the city of London, particularly +in the exhibition of the Royal Academy, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> +part of the story is placed, it is not easy to keep +the tranquil twilight atmosphere, which fairies +love. The book is like a song in which the +bass and soprano are written in different keys. +But when we are back in Ireland, and the fairies +again appear and disappear, it is charming. +The old woodcutter, Randy, who sees and talks +with the fairies, is a delightful creature, and +gives to the story much of its beauty.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hall's novels have but little literary +value, but she has brought to light Irish characteristics +and Irish traditions which were overlooked +by her predecessors, and for that reason +they deserve to live.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h2>Lady Caroline Lamb. Mrs. Shelley</h2> + + +<p>It is impossible to comprehend the Byronic +craze which swept cool-headed England +off her feet during the regency. <i>Childe Harold</i> +was the fashion, and many a hero of romance, +even down to the time of <i>Pendennis</i>, aped his +fashions. Disraeli and Bulwer were among +his disciples. Bulwer's early novels, <i>Falkland</i> +and <i>Pelham</i>, were influenced by him; and +<i>Vivian Grey</i> and <i>Venetia</i> might have been the +offspring of Byron's prose brain, so completely +was Disraeli under his influence at the time.</p> + +<p>The poorest of the novels of this class, but +the one which gives the most intimate picture +of Byron, is <i>Glenarvon</i>, by Lady Caroline Lamb. +Its hero is Byron. The plot follows the outlines +of her own life, and all the characters were +counterparts of living people whom she knew. +Calantha, the heroine, representing Lady Caroline, +is married to Lord Avondale, or William +Lamb, better known as Lord Melbourne, at +one time Premier of England. Lord and Lady +Avondale are very happy, until Glenarvon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +"the spirit of evil," appears and dazzles Calantha. +Twice she is about to elope with him, +but the thought of her husband and children +keeps her back. They part, and for a time +tender <i>billets-doux</i> pass between them, until +Calantha receives a cruel letter from Glenarvon, +in which he bids her leave him in peace. Other +well-known people appeared in the book. Lord +Holland was the Great Nabob, Lady Holland +was the Princess of Madagascar, and Samuel +Rogers was the Yellow Hyena or the Pale Poet. +The novel had also a moral purpose; it was +intended to show the danger of a life devoted +to pleasure and fashion.</p> + +<p>Of course the book made a sensation. Lady +Caroline Lamb, the daughter of Earl Bessborough, +the granddaughter of Earl Spencer, related +to nearly all the great houses of England, +had all her life followed every impulse of a too +susceptible imagination. Her infatuation for +Lord Byron had long been a theme for gossip +throughout London. She invited him constantly +to her home; went to assemblies in his +carriage; and, if he were invited to parties to +which she was not, walked the streets to meet +him; she confided to every chance acquaintance +that she was dying of love for him. Yet, +as one reads of this affair, one suspects that this +devotion was nothing more than the infatuation +of a high-strung nature for the hero of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +romance. In writing to a friend about her +husband, she says, "He was privy to my affair +with Lord Byron and laughed at it." On her +death-bed she said of her husband, "But remember, +the only noble fellow I ever met with +was William Lamb."</p> + +<p>A month after her death, Lord Melbourne +wrote a sketch of her life for the <i>Literary Gazette</i>. +In this he said:</p> + +<p>"Her character it is difficult to analyse, +because, owing to the extreme susceptibility +of her imagination, and the unhesitating and +rapid manner in which she followed its impulses, +her conduct was one perpetual kaleidoscope of +changes.... To the poor she was invariably +charitable—she was more: in spite of her ordinary +thoughtlessness of self, for them she had +consideration as well as generosity, and delicacy +no less than relief. For her friends she had a +ready and active love; for her enemies no hatred: +never perhaps was there a human being who had +less malevolence; as all her errors hurt only +herself, so against herself only were levelled her +accusation and reproach."</p> + +<p>How far Byron was in earnest in this tragicomedy +is more difficult to determine. In one +letter to her he writes: "I was and am yours, +freely and entirely, to obey, to honour, to love, +and fly with you, where, when, and how yourself +might and may determine." That Byron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +was piqued when he read the book, his letter to +Moore proves: "By the way, I suppose you +have seen <i>Glenarvon</i>. It seems to me if the +authoress had written the truth—the whole +truth—the romance would not only have +been more romantic, but more entertaining. +As for the likeness, the picture can't be good; +I did not sit long enough." It was not pleasing +to Lord Byron's vanity to appear in her book +as the spirit of evil, beside her husband, a +high-minded gentleman, ready to sacrifice for +his friends everything "but his honour and +integrity."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the humorous elements in +the connection of Lord Byron and Lady Caroline +Lamb, the story is pathetic. His poetic personality +attracted her as the light does the poor +moth. Disraeli caricatured her in the character +of Mrs. Felix Lorraine in <i>Vivian Grey</i>, +and introduced her into <i>Venetia</i> under the title +of Lady Monteagle, where he made much of +her love for the poet Cadurcis, otherwise Lord +Byron.</p> + +<p>Lady Caroline Lamb wrote two other novels, +but they are of no value. In her third, <i>Ada +Reis</i>, considered her best, she introduced Bulwer +as the good spirit.</p> + +<p>The little poem written by Lady Caroline +Lamb on the day fixed for her departure from +Brocket Hall, after it had been decided that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +she was to live in retirement away from her +husband and son, shows tenderness and poetic +feeling:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +They dance—they sing—they bless the day,<br /> +I weep the while—and well I may:<br /> +Husband, nor child, to greet me come,<br /> +Without a friend—without a home:<br /> +I sit beneath my favourite tree,<br /> +Sing then, my little birds, to me,<br /> +In music, love, and liberty.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>At the time that the British public was smiling +graciously, even if a little humorously, upon +Lady Caroline Lamb, and was lionising Lord +Byron, it spurned from its presence with the +greatest disdain Percy and Mary Shelley. Even +after the death of Shelley, when Mary returned +to London with herself and son to support, it +received her as the prodigal daughter for whom +the crumbs from the rich man's table must +suffice.</p> + +<p>Mary Shelley had inherited from her mother +the world's frown. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin +had been, the greater part of her life, at +variance with society. She was the author, as +has been said, of the <i>Vindication of the Rights +of Woman</i>, and had for a long time been an +opponent of marriage, chiefly because the civil +laws pertaining to it deprived both husband +and wife of their proper liberty. Her bitter +experience with Imlay had, however, so modi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>fied +her views on this latter subject that she +became the wife of William Godwin a short +time before the birth of their daughter Mary, +who in after years became Mrs. Shelley. Although +her mother died at her birth, Mary +Godwin was deeply imbued with her theories +of life. She had read her books, and had often +heard her father express the same views concerning +the bondage of marriage and its uselessness. +Her elopement with Shelley while +his wife Harriet was still living gains a certain +sanction from the fact that she plighted her +troth to him at her mother's grave. After the +sad death of Harriet, however, Shelley and +Mary Godwin conceded to the world's opinion, +and were legally married. But the anger of +society was not appeased, and, even after both +had become famous, it continued to ignore the +poet Shelley and his gifted wife.</p> + +<p>At the age of nineteen Mrs. Shelley was led +to write her first novel. Mr. and Mrs. Shelley +and Byron were spending the summer of 1816 +in the mountains of Switzerland. Continuous +rain kept them in-doors, where they passed +the time in reading ghost stories. At the suggestion +of Byron, each one agreed to write a +blood-curdling tale. It is one of the strange +freaks of invention that this young girl succeeded +where Shelley and Byron failed. Byron +wrote a fragment of a story which was printed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +with <i>Mazeppa</i>. Shelley also began a story, +but when he had reduced his characters to a +most pitiable condition, he wearied of them and +could devise no way to bring the tale to a fitting +conclusion. After listening to a conversation +between the two poets upon the possibilities of +science discovering the secrets of life, the story +known as <i>Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus</i> +shaped itself in Mary's mind.</p> + +<p><i>Frankenstein</i> is one of those novels that +defy the critic. Everyone recognises that the +letters written by Captain Walton to his sister +in which he tells of his meeting with Frankenstein, +and repeats to her the story he has just +heard from his guest, makes an awkward introduction +to the real narrative. Yet all this part +about Captain Walton and his crew was added +at the suggestion of Shelley after the rest of the +story had been written. But the narrative of +Frankenstein is so powerful, so real, that, once +read, it can never be forgotten. Mrs. Shelley +wrote in the introduction of the edition of 1839 +that, before writing it, she was trying to think +of a story, "one that would speak to the mysterious +fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling +horror—one to make the reader dread to look +round, to curdle the blood and quicken the +beatings of the heart." That she has done +this the experience of every reader will prove.</p> + +<p>But the story has a greater hold on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +imagination than this alone would give it. The +monster created by Frankenstein is closely related +to our own human nature. "My heart +was fashioned to be susceptible of love and +sympathy," he says, "and, when wrenched by +misery to vice and hatred, it did not endure the +violence of the change without torture, such +as you cannot even imagine." There is a wonderful +blending of good and evil in this demon, +and, while the magnitude of his crimes makes us +shudder, his wrongs and his loneliness awaken +our pity. "The fallen angel becomes a malignant +devil. Yet even that enemy of God and +man had friends and associates in his desolation; +I am quite alone," the monster complains to his +creator. Who can forget the scene where he +watches Frankenstein at work making for him +the companion that he had promised? Perhaps +sadder than the story of the monster is that of +Frankenstein, who, led by a desire to widen +human knowledge, finds that the fulfilment of +his lofty ambition has brought only a curse to +mankind.</p> + +<p>In 1823, Mary Shelley published a second +novel, <i>Valperga</i>, so named from a castle and +small independent territory near Lucca. Castruccio +Castracani, whose life Machiavelli has +told, is the hero of the story. The greatest +soldier and satirist of his times, the man of the +novel is considered inferior to the man of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +history. Mrs. Shelley had read broadly before +beginning the book, and she has described +minutely the customs of the age about which +she is writing. Shelley pronounced it "a +living and moving picture of an age almost +forgotten."</p> + +<p>The interest centres in the two heroines, +Euthanasia, Countess of Valperga, and Beatrice, +Prophetess of Ferrara. Strong, intellectual, +and passionate, not until the time of George +Eliot did women of this type become prominent +in fiction. Euthanasia, a Guelph and a Florentine, +with a soul "adapted for the reception of +all good," was betrothed to the youth Castruccio, +whom she at that time loved. Later, +when his character deteriorated under the influence +of selfish ambition, she ceased to love +him, and said, "He cast off humanity, honesty, +honourable feeling, all that I prize." Castruccio +belonged to the Ghibelines, so that the story +of their love is intertwined with the struggle +between these two parties in Italy.</p> + +<p>But more beautiful than the intellectual +character of Euthanasia, is the spiritual one of +Beatrice, the adopted daughter of the bishop of +Ferrara, who is regarded with feelings of reverence +by her countrymen, because of her prophetic +powers. Pure and deeply religious, she accepted +all the suggestions of her mind as a message from +God. When Castruccio came to Ferrara and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +was entertained by the bishop as the prince +and liberator of his country, she believed that +together they could accomplish much for her +beloved country: "She prayed to the Virgin to +inspire her; and, again giving herself up to +reverie, she wove a subtle web, whose materials +she believed heavenly, but which were indeed +stolen from the glowing wings of love." No +wonder she believed the dictates of her own +heart, she whose words the superstition of the +age had so often declared miraculous. She +was barely seventeen and she loved for the first +time. How pathetic is her disillusionment when +Castruccio bade her farewell for a season, as +he was about to leave Ferrara. She had believed +that the Holy Spirit had brought Castruccio +to her that by the union of his manly +qualities and her divine attributes some great +work might be fulfilled. But as he left her, +he spoke only of earthly happiness:</p> + +<p>"It was her heart, her whole soul she had +given; her understanding, her prophetic powers, +all the little universe that with her ardent spirit +she grasped and possessed, she had surrendered, +fully, and without reserve; but, alas! the most +worthless part alone had been accepted, and the +rest cast as dust upon the winds."</p> + +<p>Afterwards, when she wandered forth a +beggar, and was rescued by Euthanasia, she +exclaimed to her:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You either worship a useless shadow, or a +fiend in the clothing of a God."</p> + +<p>The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft could +fully sympathise with Beatrice. In the grief, +almost madness, with which Beatrice realises +her self-deception, there are traces of Frankenstein. +Perhaps no problem plucked from the +tree of good and evil was so ever-present to +Mary Shelley as why misery so often follows +an obedience to the highest dictates of the soul. +Both her father and mother had experienced +this; and she and Shelley had tasted of the same +bitter fruit. In the analysis of Beatrice's emotions +Mrs. Shelley shows herself akin to Charlotte +Brontë.</p> + +<p>Three years after the death of Shelley, she +published <i>The Last Man</i>. It relates to England +in the year 2073 when, the king having abdicated +his throne, England had become a republic. +Soon after this, however a pestilence fell upon +the people, which drove them upon the continent, +where they travelled southward, until +only one man remained. The plot is clumsy; +the characters are abstractions.</p> + +<p>But the feelings of the author, written in +clear letters on every page, are a valuable +addition to the history of the poet Shelley and +his wife. Besides her fresh sorrow for her husband, +Byron had died only the year before. Her +mind was brooding on the days the three had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +spent together. Her grief was too recent to be +shaken from her mind or lost sight of in her imaginative +work. Shelley, and the scenes she had +looked on with him, the conversations between +him and his friends, creep in on every page. +Lionel Verney, the Last Man, is the supposed +narrator of the story. He thus describes Adrian, +the son of the king: "A tall, slim, fair boy, with +a physiognomy expressive of the excess of sensibility +and refinement, stood before me; the +morning sunbeams tinged with gold his silken +hair, and spread light and glory over his beaming +countenance ... he seemed like an inspired +musician, who struck, with unerring skill, the +'lyre of mind,' and produced thence divinest harmony.... +His slight frame was over informed +by the soul that dwelt within.... He was gay as +a lark carrolling from its skiey tower.... The +young and inexperienced did not understand +the lofty severity of his moral views, and disliked +him as a being different from themselves." +Shelley, of course, was the original of this picture. +Lord Byron suggested the character of +Lord Raymond: "The earth was spread out as +a highway for him; the heavens built up as a +canopy for him." "Every trait spoke predominate +self-will; his smile was pleasing, though +disdain too often curled his lips—lips which to +female eyes were the very throne of beauty and +love.... Thus full of contradictions, unbending<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +yet haughty, gentle yet fierce, tender and again +neglectful, he by some strange art found easy +entrance to the admiration and affection of +women; now caressing and now tyrannising +over them according to his mood, but in every +change a despot."</p> + +<p>A large part of the three volumes is taken +up with a characterisation of Adrian and Lord +Raymond, the latter of whom falls when fighting +for the Greeks. How impossible it was for +her to rid her mind of her own sorrow is shown +at the end of the third volume, where Adrian +is drowned, and Lionel Verney is left alone. +He thus says of his friend:</p> + +<p>"All I had possessed of this world's goods, +of happiness, knowledge, or virtue—I owed to +him. He had, in his person, his intellect, and +rare qualities, given a glory to my life, which +without him it had never known. Beyond all +other beings he had taught me that goodness, +pure and simple, can be an attribute of man."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Shelley made the great mistake of writing +this novel in the first person. <i>The Last +Man</i>, who is telling the story, although he has +the name of Lionel, is most assuredly of the +female sex. The friendship between him and +Adrian is not the friendship of man for man, +but rather the love of man and woman.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Shelley's next novel, <i>Lodore</i>, written in +1835, thirteen years after the death of her hus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>band, +had a better outlined plot and more definite +characters. But again it echoes the past. +Lord Byron's unhappy married relations and +Shelley's troubles with Harriet are blended in +the story, Lord Byron furnishing the character +in some respects of Lord Lodore, while his wife, +Cornelia Santerre, resembles both Harriet and +Lady Byron. Lady Santerre, the mother of +Cornelia, augments the trouble between Lord +and Lady Lodore, and, contrary to the evident +intentions of the writer, the reader's sympathies +are largely with Cornelia and Lady Santerre. +When Lodore wishes Cornelia to go to America +to save him from disgrace, Lady Santerre +objects to her daughter's accompanying him:</p> + +<p>"He will soon grow tired of playing the tragic +hero on a stage surrounded by no spectators; +he will discover the folly of his conduct; he will +return, and plead for forgiveness, and feel that +he is too fortunate in a wife who has preserved +her own conduct free from censure and remark +while he has made himself a laughing-stock to +all."</p> + +<p>These words strangely bring to mind Lord +Byron as having evoked them.</p> + +<p>Again Lady Lodore's letter to her husband +at the time of his departure to America reminds +one of Lady Byron:</p> + +<p>"If heaven have blessings for the coldly +egotistical, the unfeeling despot, may those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +blessings be yours; but do not dare to interfere +with emotions too pure, too disinterested for +you ever to understand. Give me my child, +and fear neither my interference nor resentment."</p> + +<p>Lady Lodore's character changes in the book, +and becomes more like that of Harriet Shelley. +As Mrs. Shelley wrote, fragments of the past +evidently came into her mind and influenced +her pen, and her original conception of the +characters was forgotten. Clorinda, the beautiful, +eloquent, and passionate Neapolitan, was +drawn from Emilia Viviani, who had suggested +to Shelley his poem <i>Epipsychidion</i>, while both +Horatio Saville, who had "no thought but for +the nobler creations of the soul, and the discernment +of the sublime laws of God and +nature," and his cousin Villiers, also an enthusiastic +worshipper of nature, possessed many of +Shelley's qualities.</p> + +<p>Besides two other novels of no value, <i>Perkin +Warbeck</i> and <i>Falkner</i>, Mrs. Shelley wrote numerous +short stories for the annuals, at that time +so much in vogue. In 1891, these were collected +and edited with an appreciative criticism +by Sir Richard Garnett. Many of them +have the intensity and sustained interest of +Frankenstein.</p> + +<p>After the death of her husband, grief and +trouble dimmed Mrs. Shelley's imagination.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +But the pale student Frankenstein, the monster +he created, and the beautiful priestess, +Beatrice, three strong conceptions, testify to +the genius of Mary Shelley.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h2>Mrs. Gore. Mrs. Bray</h2> + + +<p>During the second decade of the nineteenth +century, while Scott was writing +some of the most powerful of the Waverley +novels, a host of new writers sprang into popular +notice. John Galt, William Harrison Ainsworth, +and G. P. R. James began their endless +series of historical romances, while in 1827, +Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli introduced +to the reading public, as the representatives +of fashionable society, <i>Falkland</i> and +<i>Vivian Grey</i>. The decade was prolific also in +novels by women. Jane Austen had died in 1817, +but Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, the Porters, +Amelia Opie, Miss Ferrier, Mrs. Shelley and +Miss Mitford were still writing; during this +period, Mrs. S. C. Hall began her work in imitation +of Miss Mitford, while Mrs. Gore and +Mrs. Bray took up the goose-quill, piled reams +of paper on their desks, and began their literary +careers.</p> + +<p>About a score of years before Thackeray +tickled English society with pictures of its own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +snobbery, Mrs. Gore, a young woman, wife of +an officer in the Life Guards, saw through the +many affectations of the polite world, and in a +series of novels, pointed out its ludicrous pretences +with lively wit. Mrs. Gore has suffered, +however, from the multiplicity of her writings. +During the years between 1823, when she wrote +her first novel, <i>Theresa Marchmont</i>, and 1850, +when, quite blind, she retired from the world of +letters, she published two hundred volumes of +novels, plays, and poems. Her plots are often +hastily constructed, her men and women dimly +outlined, but she is never dull. No writer +since Congreve has so many sparkling lines. +She has been likened to Horace, and if we compare +her wit with that of Thackeray, who by the +way ridiculed her in his <i>Novels by Eminent +Hands</i>, her humour has qualities of old Falernian, +beside which his too frequently has the +bitter flavour of old English beer. The Englishman +is inclined to take his wit, like his sports, +too seriously, and to mingle with it a little of +the spice of envy. Mrs. Gore has none of this, +however, and skims along the surface of fashionable +life with a grace and ease and humour +extremely diverting.</p> + +<p>Her writings are so voluminous that one can +only make excerpts at random. One of the +liveliest is <i>Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb</i>, +a humorous satire on <i>Vivian Grey</i>. "The arch-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>coxcomb +of his coxcombical time" had become +a coxcomb at the age of six months, when he +first saw himself in the mirror, from which time +his nurse stopped his crying by tossing him in +front of a looking-glass. His curls made him +so attractive that at six years of age he was +admitted to his mother's boudoir, from which +his red-headed brother was excluded, and he +superseded the spaniel in her ladyship's carriage. +With the loss of his curls went the loss of favour. +He did not prosper at school, and was rusticated +after a year's residence at Oxford. Here he +formed an acquaintance which helped him much +in the world of coxcombry. Though this man +was not well born, he was an admitted leader +among gentlemen. Cecil soon discovered that +his high social position was due entirely to his +impertinence, and he made this wise observation: +"Impudence is the quality of a footman; +impertinence of his master. Impudence is a +thing to be rebutted with brute force; impertinence +requires wit for the putting down." So +he matched his wit with this man's impertinence, +and they became sworn friends.</p> + +<p>When Cecil went to London, he found that +"people had supped full of horrors, during the +Revolution, and were now devoted to elegiac +measures. My languid smile and hazel eyes +were the very thing to settle the business of the +devoted beings left for execution." Of course<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +all the women fell desperately in love with him. +"I had always a predisposition to woman-slaughter, +with extenuating circumstances, as +well as a stirring consciousness of the exterminating +power," he explains to us. Like Childe +Harold and Vivian Grey, this coxcomb soon +became weary of London, and travelled through +Europe in an indolent way, for after all it was +his chief pleasure "to lie in an airy French +bed, showered over with blue convolvulus," +and read tender billets from the ladies. This +book was an excellent antidote to the Byronic +fever, then at its height.</p> + +<p>In her <i>Sketches of English Character</i>, Mrs. +Gore describes different men who were in her +time to be met with in the social life of London. +The Dining-Out Man thus speaks for himself:</p> + +<p>"Ill-natured people fancy that the life of a +dining-out man is a life of corn, wine, and oil; +that all he has to do is to eat, drink and be +merry. I only know that, had I been aware in +the onset of life, of all I should have to go +through in my vocation, I would have chosen +some easier calling. I would have studied law, +physic, or divinity."</p> + +<p>In the sketches of <i>The Clubman</i>, she assigns +John Bull's dislike of ladies' society as +the reason for the many clubs in the English +metropolis:</p> + +<p>"While admitting woman to be a divinity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +he chooses to conceal his idol in the Holy of +Holies of domestic life. Duly to enjoy the +society of Mrs. Bull, he chooses a smoking +tureen, and cod's head and shoulders to intervene +between them, and their olive branches +to be around their table.... For John adores +woman in the singular, and hates her in the +plural; John loves, but does not like. Woman +is the object of his passion, rarely of his regard. +There is nothing in the gaiety of heart or sprightliness +of intellect of the weaker sex which he +considers an addition to society. To him +women are an interruption to business and +pleasure."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore could also unveil hypocrisy. In +her novel <i>Preferment, or My Uncle the Earl</i>, she +thus describes a worthy ornament of the church:</p> + +<p>"The Dean of Darbington glided along his +golden railroad—'mild as moonbeams'—soft as +a swansdown muff—insinuating as a silken +eared spaniel. His conciliating arguments +were whispered in a tone suitable to the sick +chamber of a nervous hypochondriac, and his +strain of argument resembled its potations of +thin, weak, well-sweetened barley water. While +Dr. Macnab succeeded with <i>his</i> congregation +by kicking and bullying them along the path +of grace, Dr. Nicewig held out his finger with +a coaxing air and gentle chirrup, like a bird-fancier +decoying a canary."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>A critic in the <i>Westminster Review</i> in 1831 +thus writes of her:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Gore has a perfectly feminine knowledge +of all the weaknesses and absurdities +of an ordinary man of fashion, following the +routine of London life in the season. She +unmasks his selfishness with admirable acuteness; +she exposes his unromantic egotism, with +delightful sauciness. Her portraits of women +are also executed with great spirit; but not +with the same truth. In transferring men to +her canvas, she has relied upon the faculty of +observation, usually fine and vigilant in a +woman; but when portraying her own sex, the +authoress has perhaps looked within; and the +study of the internal operations of the human +machine is a far more complex affair, and requires +far more extensive experience, and also +different faculties, from those necessary to acquire +a perfect knowledge of the appearances on +the surface of humanity."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding Mrs. Gore touches so lightly +on the surface of life, certain definite sociological +and moral principles underlie her work. +She is as democratic as Charlotte Smith, Mrs. +Inchbald, Miss Mitford, or even William Godwin. +She asserts again and again that men of inferior +birth with the same opportunities of education +may be as intellectual and refined as the sons +of a "hundred earls." Those members of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +aristocracy who fail to recognise the true worth +of intelligent men of plebeian origin are made +very ridiculous. In her novel <i>Pin Money</i>, published +in 1831, how very funny is Lady Derenzy's +speech when she learns that a soap manufacturer +is being fêted in fashionable society! +Lady Derenzy, by the way, is the social law-giver +to her little coterie:</p> + +<p>"It is now some years," said she, "since the +independence of America, and the influence +exerted in this country by the return of a large +body of enlightened men, habituated to the +demoralising spectacle of an equalisation of +rank, was supposed to exert a pernicious influence +on the minds of the secondary and inferior +classes of Great Britain. At that critical +moment I whispered to my husband, 'Derenzy! +be true to yourself, and the world will be true +to you. Let the aristocracy of Great Britain +unite in support of the Order; and it will maintain +its ground against the universe!' Lord +Derenzy took my advice, and the country was +saved.</p> + +<p>"Again, when the assemblage of the States +General of France,—the fatal tocsin of the +revolution,—spread consternation and horror +throughout the higher ranks of every European +country, and the very name of the guillotine +operated like a spell on the British peerage, I +whispered to my husband, 'Derenzy! be true<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +to yourself, and the world will be true to you. +Let the aristocracy of Great Britain unite in +support of the Order; and it will maintain its +ground against the universe!' Again Lord +Derenzy took my advice, and again the country +was saved."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore has so cleverly mingled the so-called +self-made men and men of inherited rank in +her books that one cannot distinguish between +them. In <i>The Soldier of Lyons</i>, one of her early +novels, which furnished Bulwer with the plot +of his play <i>The Lady of Lyons</i>, the hero, a +peasant by birth and a soldier of the Republic, +enters into a marriage contract with the widow +of a French marquis, in order to save her from +the guillotine. This lady of high rank learns +to respect her husband, and becomes the suitor +for his love. In <i>The Heir of Selwood</i>, a former +field marshal of Napoleon, a peasant, devotes +his energies to improving the condition of the +poor on the estate he had won by his services +to his country, and at his death his tenants +erected a column to his memory, bearing the +inscription: "Most dear to God, to the king, and +to the people."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore constantly asserts that the only +distinctions between men are based upon character +and ability. She says of one of her characters, +a poet:</p> + +<p>"His footing in society is no longer dependent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +upon the caprice of a drawing-room. It is the +security of that intellectual power which forces +the world to bend the knee. The poor, dreamy +boy, self-taught, self-aided, had risen into power. +He wields a pen. And the pen in our age weighs +heavier in the social scale than a sword of a +Norman baron."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore lived at a time when the introduction +of machinery and the establishment +of large factories was producing a new type +of man: men like Burtonshaw in <i>The Hamiltons</i>: +"A practical, matter-of-fact individual, with +plenty of money and plenty of intellect; the sort +of human power-loom one would back to work +wonders against a dawdling old spinning-jenny +like Lord Tottenham."</p> + +<p>A critic in the <i>Westminster Review</i> wrote in +1832 as follows:</p> + +<p>"The wealthy merchant or money-dealer is +represented, perhaps for the first time in fiction, +as a man of true dignity, self-respect, education, +and thorough integrity, agreeable in manners, +refined in tastes, and content with, if not proud +of, his position in society."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore was called by her contemporaries +the novelist of the new era.</p> + +<p>She was also interested in the great ethical +questions of life. She did not write of the +love of youthful heroes and more youthful +heroines. She often traced the consequences<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +of sin on character and destiny. In <i>The Heir +of Selwood</i>, she is as stern a moralist in tracing +the effects of vice as George Eliot. <i>The Banker's +Wife</i>, the scene of which is laid among the merchants +of London, is a serious study of the sorrows +of a life devoted to outward show. The +picture of the banker among his guests, whose +wealth, unknown to them, he has squandered, +reminds one of the days before the final overthrow +of Dombey and Son.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore was a woman of genius. With the +stern principles of the puritan, and feelings as +republican as the mountain-born Swiss, she was +never controversial. She saw the absurdities +of certain hollow pretensions of society, but her +good-humoured raillery offended no one. If her +two hundred volumes could be weeded of +their verbiage by some devotee of literature, +and reduced to ten or fifteen, they would be not +only entertaining reading, but would throw +strong lights upon the <i>élite</i> of London in the days +when hair-oils, pomades, and strong perfumes +were the distinguishing marks of the Quality.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. Gore owed her place in English letters +to native wit and ability; Mrs. Bray owed hers +to hard study and painstaking endeavour. She +was one of the few women who followed the +style of writing brought to perfection by Sir +Walter Scott.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Bray became imbued with the historic +spirit early in life. Her first husband was +Charles Stothard, the author of <i>Monumental +Effigies of Great Britain</i>, with whom she travelled +through Brittany, Normandy and Flanders. +While he made careful drawings of the ruins +of castles and abbeys, she read Froissart's +<i>Chronicles</i>, visited the places which he has +described, and traced out among the people any +surviving customs which he has recorded.</p> + +<p>Two novels were the result of these studies. +<i>De Foix, or Sketches of the Manners and Customs +of the Fourteenth Century</i>, is a story of Gaston +Phoebus, Count de Foix, whose court Froissart +visited, and of whom he wrote: "To speak +briefly and truly, the Count de Foix was perfect +in person and in mind; and no contemporary +prince could be compared with him for sense, +honour, or liberality." <i>The White Hoods</i>, a name +by which the citizens of Ghent were denominated, +is laid in the Netherlands, and tells of +the conflict between the court and the citizens +of Ghent, under Philip von Artaveld, during +the reign of Charles the Fifth of France and the +early kingship of Charles the Sixth. As in all +her novels, the accuracy for which she strove +in the most minute details retards the action +of the plot, but adds to the historical value of +these romances.</p> + +<p>For the tragic romance of <i>The Talba, or Moor of Portugal</i>, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +Mrs. Bray, as she had not visited +the Spanish peninsula, depended upon her reading. +The plot was suggested to her by a picture +of Ines de Castro in the Royal Academy. It +represented the gruesome coronation of the +corpse of Ines de Castro, six years after her +death. Thus did her husband, Don Pedro, +show honour to his wife, who had been put to +death while he, then a prince, was serving in the +army of Portugal. The whole story is a fitting +theme for tragedy, and was at one time dramatised +by Mary Mitford. In order to give her +mind the proper elevation for the impassioned +scenes of this novel, it was Mrs. Bray's custom +to read a chapter of Isaiah or Job each day +before beginning to write.</p> + +<p>After the death of her first husband, Mrs. +Bray married the vicar of Tavistock, and for +thirty-five years lived in the vicarage of that +town. Here she became interested in the +legends of Devon and Cornwall, and wrote five +novels founded upon the history of tradition +of those counties. <i>Henry de Pomeroy</i> opens +at the abbey of Tavistock, one of the oldest +abbeys in England, during the reign of Richard +Cœur-de-Leon. The scene of <i>Fitz of Fitz-Ford</i> is +also laid at Tavistock, but during the reign of +Queen Elizabeth. Another story of the reign of +the Virgin Queen was <i>Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak: +a Legend of Devon</i>. <i>Courtenay of Walreddon: a</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +<i>Romance of the West</i> takes place in the reign of +Charles the First, about the commencement +of the Civil War. A gypsy girl, by name Cinderella +Small, is introduced into the story, and +has been highly praised. The character, as well +as some of the stories told of her, was drawn +from life.</p> + +<p>But the most famous of these novels is <i>Trelawny +of Trelawne; or the Prophecy: a Legend +of Cornwall</i>, a story of the rebellion of Monmouth. +Like most of the romances upon English +themes, the private history of the family +furnishes the romance, the historical happenings +being used only for the setting: the usual method +of Scott. The hero of this novel is Sir Jonathan +Trelawny, one of the seven bishops who were +committed to the Tower by James the Second. +When he was arrested by the king's command, +the Cornish men rose one and all, and marched +as far as Exeter, in their way to extort his +liberation. Trelawny is a popular hero of Cornwall, +as the following lines testify:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +A good sword and a trusty hand!<br /> +A merry heart and true!<br /> +King James's men shall understand<br /> +What Cornish lads can do!<br /> +<br /> +And have they fixed the where and when?<br /> +And shall Trelawny die?<br /> +Here's twenty thousand Cornish men<br /> +Will know the reason why!<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span><br /> +Out spake their captain brave and bold,<br /> +A merry wight was he—<br /> +"If London Tower were Michael's hold,<br /> +We'll set Trelawny free!"<br /> +<br /> +We'll cross the Tamar, land to land,<br /> +The Severn is no stay,<br /> +All side to side, and hand to hand,<br /> +And who shall say us nay?<br /> +<br /> +And when we come to London Wall,<br /> +A pleasant sight to view,<br /> +Come forth! Come forth! Ye cowards all,<br /> +To better men than you!<br /> +<br /> +Trelawny he's in keep and hold—<br /> +Trelawny he may die,<br /> +But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold<br /> +Will know the reason why!<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Like Scott, Mrs. Bray went about with notebook +in hand, and noted the features of the +landscape, the details of a ruin, or the furniture +or armour of the period of which she was writing. +It is this painstaking work, together with the +fact that she had access to places and books +that were then denied to the ordinary reader, +and chose subjects and places not before treated +in fiction, that gives permanent value to her +writings. She also had the proper feeling for +the past, and dignity and elevation of style. +Sometimes an entire page of her romances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +might be attributed to the pen of the "Mighty +Wizard." Perhaps the highest compliment +that can be paid her as an artist is that she +resembles Scott when he is nodding.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h2>Julia Pardoe. Mrs. Trollope. +Harriet Martineau</h2> + + +<p>Somewhere between the second and third +decades of the nineteenth century, the +modern novel was born. The romances of +the twenties are, for the most part, old-fashioned +in tone, and speak of an earlier age; but in the +thirties, the modern novel, with its exact reproduction +of places, customs, and speech, and +strong local flavour, was full-grown. Dickens, +under the name of Boz, was contributing his +sketches to <i>The Old Monthly Magazine</i> and the +<i>Evening Chronicle</i>. Thackeray was beginning +to contribute articles to <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>, +established in 1830. Annuals and monthlies +sprang up in the night, and paid large sums +for long and short stories. The thirst for them +was unquenchable. Many women were supporting +themselves by writing tales which did +not live beyond the year of their publication. +Mrs. Marsh was writing stories of fashionable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +life varied by historical romances. Mrs. Crowe +wrote stories of fashionable life varied by supernatural +romances and tales of adventure. In +<i>The Story of Lilly Dawson</i>, published in 1847, +the heroine was captured and brought up by +smugglers, and the gradual development of her +character was traced; thus giving to the story a +psychological interest. Lady Blessington earned +two thousand pounds a year for twenty years by +novels and short stories of fashionable life. +Lady Blessington had a European reputation +as a court beauty and a brilliant and witty +conversationalist. This with the coronet must +have helped to sell her books. They do not +contain even a sentence that holds the attention. +A friend said of her, "Her genius lay in her +tongue; her pen paralysed it." More enduring +work in fiction was done by Julia Pardoe, Mrs. +Trollope, and Harriet Martineau.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The novels of Julia Pardoe, like those of Mrs. +Bray, owe their value, not to their intrinsic +merit, but to the comparatively unknown places +to which she introduces her readers. She accompanied +her father, Major Pardoe, to Constantinople, +where they were entertained by +natives of high position, to whom they had +letters of introduction, and Miss Pardoe was +the guest of their wives in the harem. Her +knowledge of the mode of life and habits of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +thought of Turkish women is considered second +only to that of Mary Wortley Montagu.</p> + +<p>The material for her story <i>The Romance of +the Harem</i> was obtained during her visits to +these Turkish ladies. In this she has caught +the languid, heavily perfumed atmosphere of +the Orient. Besides the main plot, stories of +adventure and love are related which beguiled +the slowly passing hours of the inmates of the +seraglio. Some of them might have been told +by Schehezerhade, if she had wished to add to +her entertainment of <i>The Thousand and One +Nights</i>.</p> + +<p>After Miss Pardoe's return to England, she +wrote a series of fashionable novels, inferior +to many of those of Mrs. Gore, and better than +the best of those by Lady Blessington. <i>Confessions +of a Pretty Woman</i>, <i>The Jealous Wife</i>, +and <i>The Rival Beauties</i> were the most popular +of these, although they have long since been +forgotten.</p> + +<p>In 1849, Miss Pardoe published a collection +of stories under the title <i>Flies in Amber</i>. The +title, she explains in the preface, was suggested +by a belief of the Orientals that amber comes +from the sea, and attracts about it all insects, +which find in it both a prison and a posthumous +existence. Some of the stories of this collection +were gathered in her travels. <i>An +Adventure in Bithynia</i>, <i>The Magyar and the</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> +<i>Moslem, or an Hungarian Legend</i>, and the <i>Yèrè-Batan-Seraï</i>, +which means Swallowed-up Palace, +the great subterranean ruin of Constantinople, +have the interest which always attaches to tales +gathered by travellers in unfrequented places.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mrs. Frances Trollope, the mother of the more +famous author Anthony Trollope, like Miss +Pardoe, found material for stories in unfamiliar +places. Mrs. Trollope had the nature of the +pioneer. With her family, she sought our +western lands of the Mississippi Valley, where +the virgin forest had resounded to the axe of +the first settler but a short time before. She +wrote the first book of any note describing the +manners of the Americans; the first strong +novel calling attention to the evils of slavery +in our Southern States; and the first one describing +graphically the white slavery in the +cotton-mills of Lancashire; and she is, perhaps, +the only writer who began a long literary career +at the age of fifty-two.</p> + +<p>On the fourth of November, 1827, Mrs. Trollope +with her three children sailed from London, +and, after about seven weeks on the sea, arrived +on Christmas Day at the mouth of the Mississippi. +After a brief visit in New Orleans, this +party of English travellers sailed up the river +to Memphis, where, remote from the comforts +of civilisation, they abode for a time under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +direction of Mrs. Wright, an English lecturer +who had come to America for the avowed +purpose of proving the perfect equality of the +black and white races. But Mrs. Trollope and +her family soon tired of life in the wilderness, +and sought Cincinnati, at that time a small city +of wooden houses, not over thirty years of age. +After two years' residence in Cincinnati, she +went by stage to Baltimore, visited Philadelphia +and New York, and returned to England, after +a sojourn of three and a half years in this +country.</p> + +<p>During her residence in the United States, +she made copious notes of what she saw and +heard. These she published the year after her +return to England, under the title <i>Domestic +Manners of the Americans</i>. At once the pens +of all the critics were let loose upon the author. +Her American critics declared that she knew +nothing about them or their country; and their +English friends refused to believe that the people +of America had such shocking bad manners.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trollope reported truthfully what she saw +and heard. But a frontier city is made up of +people gathered from the four corners of the +earth: each family is a law unto itself; so that +the speeches Mrs. Trollope carefully set down, +and the customs she depicted, were often peculiarities +of individuals rather than of a community. +But she has left a vivid picture of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +American life in the twenties, less exaggerated +than the picture Charles Dickens gave of it in +the forties. Mrs. Trollope's attitude is no more +hostile than his, but he is more entertaining. +He held us up to ridicule and laughed at us; +she seriously pointed out our errors in the hope +that we might amend. She is slightly inconsistent +at times, for, while asserting the equality +of whites and blacks, she as bitterly resented +the equality of white master and white servant. +Her purpose in writing this book was to warn +her own countrymen of the evils which must +follow a government of the many.</p> + +<p>Although she never takes the broad view, +but always the narrow and partial one, her book +gives a good picture of the everyday life and +habits of thought of the next generation to that +which had fought and won the American Revolution. +The white heat of republican fervour, +so obnoxious to a European, welded the nation +together as one people, and filled their hearts +with a religious reverence for the constitution. +She meant them as a reproach, but we read +these words with pride: "I never heard from +anyone a single disparaging word against their +government."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trollope has been described by her +friends as a refined woman of charming personality. +But as soon as she began to write, +she donned her armour and proclaimed her hos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>tility +either to her hero or to the larger part of +the characters of the book. This method is +dangerous to art. Even the genius of Thackeray +is lessened by his lack of sympathy.</p> + +<p>In 1833 Mrs. Trollope published her first +novel, <i>The Refugee in America</i>. It is the story +of an English lord who has fled to America to +escape English justice. He and his friends +have settled in Rochester, New York. It was +written for the sole purpose of describing the +manners of the people of our Eastern cities. +The author's attitude toward them is well +illustrated by a conversation between Caroline, +the young English girl, and her American +<i>protégée</i>, Emily. After a dinner in Washington, +Caroline exclaims to her friend:</p> + +<p>"'Oh, my own Emily, you must not live and +die where such things be.'</p> + +<p>"Emily sighed as she answered, 'I am born +to it, Miss Gordon.'</p> + +<p>"'But hardly bred to it. We have caught +you young, and we have spoiled you for ever +as an American lady.'"</p> + +<p>Three years later Mrs. Trollope published her +strongest novel, <i>The Life and Adventures of Jonathan +Jefferson Whitlaw</i>. This is a powerful picture +of early life on the Mississippi; it was the +first novel since Mrs. Behn's <i>Oroonoko</i> which +called attention to the evils of African slavery. +It is marred, however, by want of sympathy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +with the community she is describing. Mr. Jonathan +Whitlaw Senior has "squat in the bush," +an expression to which Mrs. Trollope objects, +but which brings to mind at once the log cabin +in the forest clearing, and the muscular, uncouth +pioneer. Jonathan furnishes firewood +to the Mississippi steamers, and by this means +gains sufficient wealth to carry out his life's +ambition: to set up a store in Natchez, and +to own "niggers." But the life of a pioneer +has made Jonathan as cunning as a fox. This +cunning his son Jonathan, the hero of the story, +has inherited to the full. As a slave-owner he +is as grasping and cruel as Legree, whom Mrs. +Stowe immortalised some years later. His +character, though drawn with strength and +vigour, is inconsistent. He is a miser, yet he is +a gambler and a spendthrift, qualities not often +found together. He is not a true representative +of the son of a pioneer. Clio Whitlaw, the +aunt of the hero, belongs more truly to her environment. +One suspects the English family at +Cincinnati had received neighbourly kindnesses +from women like her. With her physical +strength and great courage she is kind and +neighbourly to all who need her help. The sad +story of Edward Bligh, the young Kentuckian +who preached the gospel to the slaves, the victim +of lynch law, a word dreaded even then, is +as thrilling as parts of <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p> + +<p>Besides <i>Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw</i>, Mrs. +Trollope created two other characters that will +cause her name to live as long as those of +William Harrison Ainsworth or G. P. R. James. +The coarse scheming widow Barnaby is the +heroine of three novels, <i>Widow Barnaby</i>, <i>The +Widow Married</i>, and <i>The Widow Wedded, or +the Barnabys in America</i>. In the last book Mrs. +Trollope somewhat humorously pays off her +scores against her American critics, who had +dubbed her a cockney, unfamiliar with good society +in either England or America. The Widow +Barnaby, who has come to New Orleans with her +husband after his little gambling ways have made +residence in London unpleasant, decides to earn +some money by writing a book on America. +She describes the Americans, not as they are, +but as they think they are. She listens to all +their boasts about themselves and country, +and puts it faithfully in her book. Of course +they like it and she becomes the literary lion +of America.</p> + +<p>Anthony Trollope, in his book <i>An Autobiography</i>, +said of his mother's books on America: +"Her volumes were very bitter; but they were +very clever, and they saved the family from +ruin." She is also given the credit of having +improved the manners of American society. +Whenever a "gentleman" at his club put his +feet on the table, or indulged in any liberty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +which she would not have approved, others +cried, "Trollope! Trollope! Trollope!"</p> + +<p>The <i>Vicar of Wrexhill</i>, the scene of which is +laid in England, is an attack on the evangelical +clergy in the Episcopal Church. The vicar +is no truer to the great body of evangelical +preachers than Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw is +true to the great body of slave-owners. There +is the same exaggeration to prove a theory. +Evangelical preaching is harmful, is the theorem, +and a man is selected to prove it who in any +walk of life would be a hypocrite and libertine. +The book has many interesting situations. +The vicar's proposal to the rich widow, one of +his parishioners, is clever: "Let me henceforth +be as the shield and buckler that shall guard +thee; so that thou shalt not be afraid for any +terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth +by day." And he promises, if she will marry +him, to lead her "sinful children into the life +everlasting." No other book has shown, as +this does, the powerful effect upon sensitive +natures of this kind of preaching. One feels +that the followers of the Reverend Vicar were +under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, and +that their awakening from this spell was like the +awakening from a trance.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trollope was actuated by humanitarian +motives. This was not as usual then as since +Dickens popularised the humanitarian novel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +Only three years after he wrote <i>Sketches by +Boz</i>, Mrs. Trollope wrote <i>The Life and Adventures +of Michael Armstrong</i>, the story of a boy +employed in the mills of Lancashire. Negro +slavery in the South, even as Mrs. Trollope saw +it, was a happy state of existence compared +with child slavery in the mills of Ashleigh and +Deep Valley, Lancashire, where the children +were driven to work by the lash in the morning, +and were crippled by the "Billy roller," the +name of the stick by which they were beaten +for inattention to their work during the day. +If the truth of these horrors were not attested +by other writers of this time, one would doubt +the possibility of their existence in the same +land and at the same time in which Wordsworth +was writing of the beauties of his own childhood, +where the river Derwent mingled its murmurs +with his nurse's song.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trollope assailed injustice with a powerful +pen. Woman's moral nature is truer +and more sensitive than man's. Even if her +sympathies cloud her judgment, it is better than +that her judgment should reason away her +sympathies. Neither has woman in her philanthropy +contented herself with broad principles +which would help all and therefore reach none. +The dusky slave in the cotton-fields, the pale-faced +child in the cotton-mills, have alike +touched the hearts of women, who by their pens<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +have been able to awaken the conscience of a +nation. The horror of child labour wrung from +Mrs. Browning the heart-felt poem, <i>The Cry +of the Children</i>. The four strong novels proclaiming +the tyranny of the whites over the +blacks, <i>Oronooko</i>, <i>Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw</i>, +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, and <i>The Hour and the Man</i>, +were written by women.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The name of Harriet Martineau was a familiar +one in every household during the early years +of Queen Victoria's reign. Like Mrs. Trollope +she was a woman of fearless honesty. But +Harriet Martineau was never the <i>raconteur</i>, she +was first the educator. She wrote story after +story to teach lessons in political and social +science. Her method of work, as set forth +in her autobiography, was peculiar, and the +result is not uninteresting. In her <i>Political +Economy Tales</i>, she selected certain principles +which she wished to set forth, and embodied +each principle in a character. The operations +of these principles furnished the plot of the story. +Besides the illustrations of the principles by the +characters, the laws were discussed in conversation, +and thus the lesson was taught. In the +story <i>Brooke and Brooke Farm</i>, she made use of +an expression which Ruskin almost paraphrased: +"The whole nation, the whole world, is obliged +to him who makes corn grow where it never grew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> +before; and yet more to him who makes two ears +ripen where only one ripened before." In the +tale <i>A Manchester Strike</i>, factory life and the +problems that face the working men are set +forth, the aim being to show that work and +wages depend upon the great laws of supply +and demand.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau wrote two novels. <i>Deerbrook</i>, +in 1839, was modelled on <i>Our Village</i>. The +village doctor, Mr. Hope, is the central figure. +Firm in his convictions, he loses the favour of +the leading families, and through their influence +he is deprived of his practice. A fever, however, +sweeps over the place and his former +enemies beg, not in vain, for his skilful services. +A double love story runs through the +book. Mrs. Rowland, a scheming woman, is +the most cleverly drawn of the characters, and +was evidently suggested by some of Miss +Edgeworth's fashionable ladies.</p> + +<p>Harriet Martineau also visited America, but +some years later than Mrs. Trollope, when the +slavery agitation was at its height. As she had +written upon the evils of slavery before she left +England, she was invited to attend a meeting +of the Abolitionists in Boston. She accepted +this invitation, and expressed there her abhorrence +of slavery. After this she received +letters from some of the citizens of the pro-slavery +States, threatening her life if she entered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +their domain. This naturally threw her entirely +with the Abolition party, and she wrote +many articles to help their cause.</p> + +<p>Miss Martineau's second novel, <i>The Hour and +the Man</i>, grew out of her sympathy and belief +in the coloured race. Toussaint de L'Ouverture, +the devoted slave, soldier, liberator, and martyr, +is the hero. Every scene in which this wonderful +black figures is vividly written. Many +of the minor incidents are but slightly sketched, +and many of the minor characters elude the +reader's grasp. How far this book is a truthful +portrayal of the negro cannot be judged until +the "race problem" is surveyed with unprejudiced +eyes. Then and not until then will its +place in literature be assigned. She gives the +same characterisation of this hero of St. Domingo +as does Wendell Phillips in his wonderful +speech of which the following is the peroration:</p> + +<p>"But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a +hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocian +for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden +for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington +as the bright, consummate flower of our +earlier civilisation, then, dipping her pen in +the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above +them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, +the martyr, <span class="smcap">Toussaint L'Ouverture</span>."</p> + +<p><i>The Hour and the Man</i> was published in +1840, and was warmly received by the Aboli<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>tionists. +William Lloyd Garrison, after reading +it, wrote the following sonnet to the author:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +England! I grant that thou dost justly boast<br /> +Of splendid geniuses beyond compare;<br /> +Men great and gallant,—women good and fair,—<br /> +Skilled in all arts, and filling every post<br /> +Of learning, science, fame,—a mighty host!<br /> +Poets divine, and benefactors rare,—<br /> +Statesmen,—philosophers,—and they who dare<br /> +Boldly to explore heaven's vast and boundless coast,<br /> +To one alone I dedicate this rhyme,<br /> +Whose virtues with a starry lustre glow,<br /> +Whose heart is large, whose spirit is sublime,<br /> +The friend of liberty, of wrong the Foe:<br /> +Long be inscribed upon the roll of time<br /> +The name, the worth, the works of <span class="smcap">Harriet Martineau</span>.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Miss Martineau wrote on a variety of subjects, +and generally held a view contrary to the +accepted one. She wrote upon mesmerism, +positivism, atheism, which she professed, and +after each book warriors armed with pens +sprang up to assail the author. But she had +many friends, even among those who were most +bitter against her doctrines. One wrote of her, +"There is the fine, honest, solid, North-country +element in her." R. Brimley Johnson in <i>English +Prose</i>, edited by Craik in 1896, said of her +writings:</p> + +<p>"Her gift to literature was for her own generation. +She is the exponent of the infant century +in many branches of thought:—its eager and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> +sanguine philanthropy, its awakening interest +in history and science, its rigid and prosaic +philosophy. But her genuine humanity and real +moral earnestness give a value to her more personal +utterances, which do not lose their charm +with the lapse of time."</p> + +<p>Harriet Martineau's name and personality +will be remembered in history after her books +have been forgotten.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h2>The Brontës</h2> + + +<p>During the middle of the nineteenth +century, English fiction largely depicted +manners and customs of different classes and +different parts of England. While Dickens, +Thackeray, Disraeli, and Mrs. Gaskell were writing +realistic novels, romantic fiction found noble +exponents in the Brontë sisters.</p> + +<p>The quiet life lived by the Brontës in the +vicarage on the edge of the village of Haworth +in the West Riding of Yorkshire seems prosaic +to the casual observer, but it had many weird +elements of romanticism. The purple moors +stretching away behind the grey stone vicarage, +the grey sky, and the sun always half-frowning, +and never sporting with nature here as it does +over the mountains in Westmoreland, make +thought earnest and deep, and suggest the +mystery which surrounds human life. It is a +serious country, that of the Wharf valley; the +people are a serious people, silent and observant. +The Brontës were a direct outcome of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> +country and people, only in them their severity +and silence were kindled into life by a Celtic +imagination.</p> + +<p>What a group of people lived within those +grey stone walls! As the vicar and his four +motherless children gathered about their simple +board, while they engaged in conversation +with each other or with the curate, what scenes +would have been enacted in that quiet room +if the fancies teeming in each childish brain +could have been suddenly endowed with life! +How could even a dull curate, with an undercurrent +of addition and subtraction running in +his brain, based upon his meagre salary and +economical expenditures, have been insensible +to the thought with which the very atmosphere +must have been surcharged? The brother, +Patrick Branwell, found his audience in the public +house, and delighted it with his wit and conversation. +The sisters, after their household +tasks were done, wrote their stories and often +read them to each other.</p> + +<p>But fate had chosen her darkest hues in which +to weave the warp and woof of their lives. The +wild dissipations and wilder talk of their brother +Branwell clouded the imaginations of his sisters, +and in a short time death was a constant presence +in their midst. In September, 1848, Branwell +died at the age of thirty; in less than three +months, Emily died at the age of twenty-nine;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +and in five-months, Anne died at the age of +twenty-seven; and Charlotte, the eldest, was +left alone with her father. During the remaining +six years of her life, her compensation for her +loss of companionship was her writing. Not +long after the death of her sisters, Mr. Nicholls +proposed to her; was refused; proposed again +and was accepted; then came the separation +caused by Mr. Brontë's hostility to the marriage; +then the marriage in the church under whose +pavement so many members of her family were +buried, grim attendants of her wedding; then +the nine short months of married life; then the +death of the last of the Brontë sisters at the +age of thirty-nine. Mr. Brontë outlived her only +six years, but he was the last of his family. +Six children had been born to Patrick Brontë, +not one survived him. Forty years had eliminated +a family which yet lives through the imaginative +powers of the three daughters who +reached years of maturity.</p> + +<p>Of the three sisters, the least is known of +Emily, and her one novel, <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, +reveals nothing of herself. Not one of the +characters thought or felt as did the quiet, +retiring author. Yet so great was her dramatic +power that her brother Branwell was credited +with the book, as it was deemed impossible for +a woman to have conceived the character of +Heathcliff. And yet this arch-fiend of litera<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>ture +was created by the daughter of a country +vicar, whose only journeys from home had been +to schools, either as pupil or governess. Charlotte +Brontë has thrown but little light upon +her sister's character. She says that she loved +animals and the moors, but was cold toward +people and repelled any attempt to win her +confidence. The author of <i>Jane Eyre</i> seems +neither to have understood Emily's nature nor +her genius. Yet we are told that Emily was +constantly seen with her arms around the gentle +Anne, and that they were inseparable companions. +If Anne Brontë could have lived +longer, she would have thrown much light upon +the character of the author of <i>Wuthering +Heights</i>. But now, as we read of her brief life +and her one novel, she seems to belong to the +great dramatists rather than to the novelists, +to the poets who live apart from the world and +commune only with the people of their own +creating.</p> + +<p><i>Wuthering Heights</i> stands alone in the history +of prose fiction. It belongs to the wild region +of romanticism, but it imitates no book, and +has never been copied. No incident, no character, +no description, can be traced to the +influence of any other book, but the atmosphere +is that of the West Riding of Yorkshire.</p> + +<p>Charlotte Brontë thus speaks of it in a letter +to a friend:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>Wuthering Heights</i> was hewn in a wild workshop, +with simple tools, out of homely materials. +The statuary found a granite block +on a solitary moor; gazing thereon, he saw how +from the crag might be elicited a head, savage, +swart, sinister: a form moulded with at least +one element of grandeur—power. He wrought +with a rude chisel, and from no model but the +vision of his meditations. With time and labour, +the crag took human shape, and there it stands, +colossal, dark and frowning, half statue, half +rock, in the former sense, terrible and goblin-like; +in the latter, almost beautiful, for its +colouring is of mellow grey, and moorland moss +clothes it, and heath, with its blooming bells +and balmy fragrance, grows faithfully close +to the giant's foot."</p> + +<p>All of this is true, but it gives only the general +outlines, nothing of the inner meaning.</p> + +<p>In all literature, there is not so repulsive a +villain as Heathcliff, the offspring of the gipsies. +Insensible to kindness, but resentful of wrong; +hard, scheming, indomitable in resolution; quick +to put off the avenging of an injury until he +can make his revenge serve his purpose; the +personification of strength and power; he is +yet capable of a love stronger than his hate. +Heathcliff is so repulsive that he does not +attract, and drawn with such skill that, as has +been said, he has not been imitated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the strong, dark picture of Heathcliff +makes us forget that Catharine is the centre +of the story. The night that Mr. Lockwood +spends at Wuthering Heights he reads her +books, and her spirit appears to him crying for +entrance at the window, and complaining that +she has wandered on the moors for twenty +years. While living, she represents a human +soul balanced between heaven and hell, loved +by both the powers of darkness and of light. +But in her earliest years, she had loved Heathcliff; +their thoughts, their affections were intertwined, +and they were welded, as it were, into +one soul, not at first by love, but by their +common hatred of Hindley Earnshaw. When +Catharine meets Edgar Linton, her finer nature +asserts itself. She loves him as a being from +another world; he gives her the first glimpse +of real goodness, kindness, and gentleness. She +catches through him a gleam of Paradise. But +she knows how transient this is, and says to +her old nurse, Nelly Dean:</p> + +<p>"I've no more business to marry Edgar +Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the +wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff +so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It +would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; +and that, not because he's handsome, no, +Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. +Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +are the same, and Linton's is as different as a +moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."</p> + +<p>But Catharine is married to Edgar, and for +three years her better nature triumphs. Heathcliff +is away; Edgar Linton loves her truly, and +their home is happy. Catharine alone knows +that that house is not her true place of abode. +She alone knows that Edgar has not touched +her inner nature. She knows that her real self, +the self that must abide through the centuries, +is indissolubly linked with another's. And when +Heathcliff returns, the intensity of her joy, +her almost unearthly delight, she neither can +nor attempts to conceal. Not once is she deceived +as to his true nature. She knows the +depth of his depravity, and thus warns the girl +who has fallen in love with him:</p> + +<p>"He's not a rough diamond—a pearl-containing +oyster of a rustic;—he's a fierce, pitiless, +wolfish man. I never say to him, let this or +that enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous +or cruel to harm them,—I say, let +them alone, because I should hate them to be +wronged: and he'd crush you, like a sparrow's +egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome +charge."</p> + +<p>But Catharine's nature is akin to his, and it +is with almost brutal delight that she helps +forward this marriage, when she finds the girl +does not trust her word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then comes the strife between Edgar and +Heathcliff for the soul, so it seems, of Catharine. +There is no jealousy on Edgar's part. The book +never stoops to anything so earthly. Edgar +loathes Heathcliff and cannot understand Catharine's +affection for her early playmate. Although +she never for a moment hesitates in her +allegiance to Heathcliff, it is this strife that +causes her death. The strife between good and +evil wears her out.</p> + +<p>Even after her death, her soul cannot leave +this earth. It is still joined to Heathcliff's. +It resembles here the story of Paola and Francesca. +Catharine is waiting for him and his +only delight is in her haunting presence. Heathcliff +cannot be accused of keeping Catharine +from Paradise. In life she would not let him +from her presence, and she clings to him now. +It is the story of <i>Undine</i> reversed. Undine +gained a soul through a mortal's love. And +we feel toward the close that Catharine, selfish +and passionate as she was, is yet Heathcliff's +better spirit. Catharine while living had prevented +Heathcliff from killing her brother. +Although he loved Catharine better than himself, +and would have made any sacrifice at her +request, he feels no more tenderness for her +offspring than for his own. But the spirit of +Catharine lived in her child and nephew, and +when they looked at him with her eyes, he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +no pleasure in his revenge upon the son of +Hindley nor on the daughter of Edgar Linton.</p> + +<p>In the tenderness that once or twice comes +over Heathcliff as he looks at Hareton Earnshaw, +there is a ray of promise that he may be +redeemed. And in the final outcome of the +story, one can but hope that Catharine's restless +spirit, as it watches and waits for Heathcliff, is +striving to bring some blessing upon her house. +The awakening of a better nature in Hareton, +through his love for Catharine's daughter, is a +pretty, tender idyl. The book is like a Greek +tragedy in this, that at the close the atmosphere +has been purged; the sun once more shines +through the windows of Wuthering Heights; +hatred is dead, and love reigns supreme.</p> + +<p><i>Wuthering Heights</i> is a novel not of externals, +not of character, but of something deeper, more +vital. The love of Catharine and Heathcliff +has no physical basis; it is the union of souls +evil, but not material. It is the sex of spirit, +not of body, that adds its might to the resistless +force that unites these two. Notwithstanding +the external pictures are so distinct that a +painter could transfer them to his canvas, the +book is a soul-tragedy.</p> + +<p><i>Wuthering Heights</i> cannot be classed among +the so-called popular novels. It has appealed +to the poets rather than to the readers of fiction. +It has received the warmest praise from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +poet Swinburne. In <i>The Athenæum</i> of June +16, 1883, he thus eulogises it:</p> + +<p>"Now in <i>Wuthering Heights</i> this one thing +needful ['logical and moral certitude'] is as +perfectly and triumphantly attained as in <i>King +Lear</i> or <i>The Duchess of Malfi</i>, in <i>The Bride of +Lammermoor</i> or <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i>. From +the first we breathe the fresh dark air of tragic +passion and presage; and to the last the changing +wind and flying sunlight are in keeping with +the stormy promise of the dawn. There is no +monotony, there is no repetition, but there is no +discord. This is the first and last necessity, +the foundation of all labour and the crown of all +success, for a poem worthy of the name; and +this it is that distinguishes the hand of Emily +from the hand of Charlotte Brontë. All the +works of the elder sister are rich in poetic spirit, +poetic feeling, and poetic detail; but the younger +sister's work is essentially and definitely a poem +in the fullest and most positive sense of the +term."</p> + +<p>At the close of this essay he writes:</p> + +<p>"It may be true that not many will ever take +it to their hearts; it is certain that those who do +like it will like nothing very much better in the +whole world of poetry or prose."</p> + +<p>All that we know of Emily Brontë's nature +is consistent, such as we would expect of the +author of <i>Wuthering Heights</i>. The first stanza<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +of her last poem, written but a short time before +her death, reveals her strength of will and +faith:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +No coward soul is mine,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:</span><br /> +I see Heaven's glories shine,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.</span><br /> +</p></div> + +<p>These lines evoked the following tribute from +Matthew Arnold:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">——she</span><br /> +(How shall I sing her?) whose soul<br /> +Knew no fellow for might,<br /> +Passion, vehemence, grief,<br /> +Daring, since Byron died,<br /> +That world-famed son of fire—she, who sank<br /> +Baffled, unknown, self-consumed;<br /> +Whose too bold dying song<br /> +Stirr'd, like a clarion-blast, my soul.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The great books of prose fiction have been +for the most part the work of mature years. +The lyric poets burst into rhapsody at the dawn +of life; but the powers of the novelist have +ripened more slowly. The novelists have done +better work after thirty-five than at an earlier +age but few of them have written a classic at the +age of twenty-eight, as did Emily Brontë.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Anne Brontë's fame has been both augmented +and dimmed by the greater genius of her two +sisters. She is remembered principally as one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +of the Brontës, so that her books have been +oftener reprinted and more extensively read +than their actual merit would warrant. In +comparison with the greater genius of Charlotte +and Emily, her writings have been declared +void of interest, and without any ray of the +brilliancy which distinguishes their books. This +latter statement is not true. Anne Brontë did +not have their imaginative power, but she +reproduced what she had seen and learned of +life with conscientious devotion to truth. <i>Wuthering +Heights</i> and <i>Agnes Grey</i>, Anne Brontë's +first book, were published together in three +volumes so as to meet the popular demand +that novels, like the graces, should appear in +threes. It is a photographic representation of +the life of a governess in England during the +forties. Agnes's courage in determining to +augment the family income by seeking a position +as governess; the high hopes with which +she enters upon her first position; her conscientious +resolve to do her full Christian duty +to the spoiled children of the Bloomfields; her +dismissal and sad return home; her second +position in the family of Mr. Murray, a country +squire; the two daughters, one determined to +make a fine match for herself, the other a +perfect hoyden without a thought beyond the +horses and dogs; the disregard of the truth in +both; Mr. Hatfield, the minister, who cared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +only for the county families among his parishioners; +Miss Murray's marriage for position and +the unhappiness that followed it—form a series +of photographs, which only a sensitive, responsive +nature could have produced. The contrast +between the gentle, refined governess, and the +coarse natures upon whom she is dependent, is +well shown, although there is no attempt on the +part of the author to assert any superiority of +one over the other. We have many books in +which the shrinking governess is described from +the point of view of the family or one of their +guests, but here the governess of an English +fox-hunting squire has spoken for herself; she +has described her trials and the constant self-sacrifice +which is demanded of her without +bitterness, and in a kindly spirit withal, and for +that reason the book is a valuable addition to the +history of the life and manners of the century.</p> + +<p><i>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall</i>, her second novel, +was a peculiar book to have shaped itself in the +brain of the gentle youngest daughter of the +Vicar of Haworth. But Anne Brontë had seen +phases of life which must have sorely wounded +her pure spirit. She had been governess at Thorp +Green, where her brother Branwell was tutor, +and where he formed that unfortunate attachment +for the wife of his employer, which, with the +help of liquor and opium, deranged his mind. +Anne wrote in her diary at this time, "I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> +had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of +experience of human nature." As we picture +Anne Brontë, with her light brown hair, violet-blue +eyes, shaded by pencilled eyebrows, and +transparent complexion, she seems a spirit of +goodness and purity made to behold daily a +depth of evil in the nature of one dear to her, +which fills her with wonderment and horror.</p> + +<p>Mr. Huntingdon of Wildfell Hall was drawn +from personal observation of her brother. She +wrote with minuteness, because she believed +it her duty to hold up his life as a warning to +others. The gradual change in Mr. Huntingdon +from the happy confident lover to the ruined +debauchee is well traced; the story of his infatuation +for the wife of his friend, so reckless +that he attempted no concealment, is realistic +in the extreme. But what a change in the novel! +A hundred years before, Huntingdon would +have made a fine hero of romance, but here he +is disgraced to the position of chief villain, +and the reader feels for him only pity and +loathing. Probably a man's pen would have +touched his errors more lightly, but Anne +Brontë painted him as he appeared to her. The +author attributes such a character as Huntingdon's +to false education, and makes her heroine +say:</p> + +<p>"As for my son—if I thought he would grow +up to be what you call a man of the world,—one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +that has 'seen life,' and glories in his experience, +even though he should so far profit by it as to +sober down, at length, into a useful and respected +member of society—I would rather +that he died to-morrow—rather a thousand +times."</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding its defects—and it is full +of them judged from the stand-point of art—<i>Wildfell +Hall</i> is a book of promise. In the +descriptions of the Hall, the mystery that surrounds +its mistress, the rumours of her unknown +lover, the heathclad hills and the desolate fields, +there are romantic elements that remind one of +<i>Wuthering Heights</i>. The book is more faulty +than <i>Agnes Grey</i>, but the writer had a deeper +vision of life with its weaknesses and its depths of +human passion. If years had mellowed that +"undreamt-of experience" of Thorp Green, +Anne Brontë with her truthful observation and +sympathetic insight into character might have +written a classic. The material out of which +<i>Wildfell Hall</i> was wrought, under a more mature +mind, with a better grasp of the whole and a +better regard for proportion, would have made +a novel worthy of a place beside <i>Jane Eyre</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That English fiction has produced sweeter +and more varied fruit by being grafted with the +novels of women no one who gives the matter +a serious thought can for a moment doubt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +One distinctive phase of woman's mind made +its way but slowly in the English novel. Women +are by nature introspective. They read character +and are quick to grasp the motives and +passions that underlie action. The French +women have again and again embodied this +view of human nature in their novels, which +are essentially of the inner life. <i>The Princess +of Clèves</i> by Madame de Lafayette, written in +1678, is the first book in which all the conflicts +are those of the emotions; here the great triumph +is that which a woman wins over her own heart. +Madame de Tencin in <i>Mémoires du Comte de +Comminges</i> represents her hero and heroine +under the influence of two great passions, religion +and love. Madame de Souza, Madame +Cottin, Madame de Genlis, Madame de Staël, and +George Sand wrote novels of the inner life. +The Princess of Clèves with noble dignity controls +her emotion and at last conquers it. The +pages of George Sand thrill with unbridled +passion.</p> + +<p>The English women, however, are more repressed +by nature than the French, and the +English novel of the inner life advanced but +slowly. The emotions of the long-forgotten +Sidney Biddulph are minutely told. <i>A Simple +Story</i> by Mrs. Inchbald is a psychological novel. +Amelia Opie, Mary Brunton, and Mrs. Shelley +wrote novels of the inner life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<p>But <i>Jane Eyre</i> is the first English novel which +in sustained intensity of emotion can compare +with the novels of Madame de Staël or George +Sand. The style partakes of the high-wrought +character of the heroine, and the reader is +whirled along in the vortex of feeling until he +too partakes of every varied mood of the characters, +and closes the book fevered and exhausted. +It is one of the ironies of fate that +Charlotte Brontë with her strong pro-Anglican +prejudices should belong to the school of these +French women. But there is the same difference +between their writings that there is between +the French temperament and the English. Even +in the wildest moments of Jane Eyre her passion +is rather like the river Wharf when it has overflowed +its banks; while theirs is like the mountain +torrent that bears all down before it.</p> + +<p>Much of the passion that Charlotte Brontë +describes is pure imagination. She wrote freely +to her friends about herself and the people whom +she knew. The three rejected suitors caused +her only a little amusement. Her love for Mr. +Nicholls, whom she afterwards married, was +little warmer than respect. We could as easily +weave a romance out of Jane Austen's remark +that the poet Crabbe was a man whom she could +marry as to make a love story out of Charlotte's +relations to Monseiur Héger, who figures as the +hero in three of her books. Here she is greater<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +than the French women writers: they knew by +experience what they wrote; she by innate +genius.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no novelist ever had more meagre +materials out of which to make four novels than +had Charlotte Brontë: her sisters, Monsieur and +Madame Héger, the curates, and herself; a small +village in Yorkshire, two boarding schools, two +positions as governess, and a short time spent +in a school in Brussels. Compare this range +with the material that Scott, Dickens, or +Thackeray had—then judge how much of the +elixir of genius was given to each.</p> + +<p>The early pages of <i>Jane Eyre</i>, the first novel +which Charlotte Brontë published, describe +Lowood Institution, a place modelled upon +Cowan's Bridge School. The two teachers, the +kind Miss Temple and the cruel Miss Scatcherd, +were drawn from two instructors there at the +time the Brontës attended it. Helen Burns, +so untidy but so meek in spirit, was Maria +Brontë, the eldest sister, who died at the age +of eleven, probably as a result of the poor food +and harsh treatment of the school. With what +calm she replies to Jane, when she would sympathise +with her for an unjust punishment:</p> + +<p>"I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I +seldom put, and never keep, things in order; +I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I +should learn my lessons; I have no method; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +sometimes I say, like you, I cannot bear to be +subjected to systematic arrangements. This +is all very provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is +naturally neat, punctual, and particular."</p> + +<p>Helen Burns, with her calm submission, and +Jane Eyre, with her rebellious spirit, are finely +contrasted. Jane's passionate resentment of the +punishments which Miss Scatcherd inflicted on +Helen was genuine. Charlotte was nine years +old when she left Cowan's Bridge School, but +her suppressed anger at the punishments which +her sister Maria had received there flashed out +years afterwards in <i>Jane Eyre</i>.</p> + +<p>Charlotte Brontë was writing <i>Jane Eyre</i> at +the same time that Emily and Anne were writing +<i>Wuthering Heights</i> and <i>Agnes Grey</i>. As they +read from their manuscripts, Charlotte objected +to beauty as a requisite of a heroine, and said, +"I will show you a heroine as plain and as small +as myself, who shall be as interesting as any +of yours." So arose the conception of Jane +Eyre. If the slight, shy, Yorkshire governess, +without beauty or charm of manner, had appeared +before the imagination of any novelist +either male or female, at that time, and asked +to be admitted into the house of fiction, she +would have been refused entrance as cruelly as +Hannah shut the door in the face of Jane Eyre, +when she came to her dripping with the rain, +cold and weak from two nights' exposure on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +moor, and asking for charity. But Charlotte +Brontë, with a woman's sympathetic eye made +doubly penetrating and loving by genius, chose +this outcast from romance as a heroine, a woman +without beauty or charm, and boldly proclaimed +that moral beauty was superior to physical +beauty, and that the attraction of one soul for +another lay quite beyond the pale of external +form.</p> + +<p>Jane Eyre is not, however, Charlotte Brontë, +as has been so often asserted. She would not +have gone back to comfort Mr. Rochester, after +she had once left the Hall. One suspects that +he was drawn from reading, since the author +hardly trusted her knowledge of worldly men +to draw a fitting lover for Jane. Mr. Rochester +is very much the same type of man as Mr. B., +whom Pamela married, and the independent +Jane addresses him as "My Master," an expression +constantly on the lips of Pamela. Yet +Rochester leaves a permanent impression on the +mind, for he represents a strong man at war +with destiny. He conceals his marriage because +of his determination to conquer fate. It is +pointed out by critics to-day that he is quite an +impossible character, that he is, in fact, a +woman's hero. It is well to remember, however, +that the author of <i>Jane Eyre</i> was believed +at first to have been a man, as it was thought +impossible for a man like Rochester to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +been conceived in a woman's brain, and not +until Mrs. Gaskell's life of the Brontës was +published was Charlotte's character as a modest +woman established. But men have repudiated +Mr. Rochester, and so we must accept their +judgment.</p> + +<p>The heroine of her next novel, <i>Shirley</i>, was +suggested by Emily Brontë. Only Shirley was +not Emily. Shirley could not have conceived +even the dim outlines of <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, but +she had many of the strong qualities of Emily, +and these, mingled with the softer stuff of her +own nature, make her contradictory but charming, +and Louis Moore, an agreeable tutor whom +Emily Brontë would have quite despised, +naturally falls in love with his wayward pupil, +as they pore over books in the school-room. +Shirley is contrasted with Caroline Helstone, +of whom Mrs. Humphry Ward says: "For +delicacy, poetry, divination, charm, Caroline +stands supreme among the women of Miss +Brontë's gallery." Even if other admirers of +Miss Brontë deny her this eminence, she certainly +possesses all the qualities, rare among +heroines, which Mrs. Ward has attributed to her.</p> + +<p>In many of the conversations between Shirley +and Caroline, there are reminders of what passed +between the Brontë sisters in their own home. +The relative excellence of men and women +novelists always interested them. Shirley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +evidently expressed Charlotte's own views in +the following words:</p> + +<p>"If men could see us as we really are, they +would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, +the acutest men are often under an illusion +about women. They do not read them in a true +light; they misapprehend them, both for good +and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half +doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always +a fiend. Then to hear them fall into ecstasies +with each other's creations, worshipping the +heroine of such a poem—novel—drama, thinking +it fine,—divine! Fine and divine it may be, +but often quite artificial—false as the rose in my +best bonnet there. If I spoke all I think on +this point, if I gave my real opinion of some +first-rate female characters in first-rate works, +where should I be? Dead under a cairn of +avenging stones in half-an-hour."</p> + +<p>"After all," says Caroline, "authors' heroines +are almost as good as authoresses' heroes."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," Shirley replies. "Women read +men more truly than men read women. I'll +prove that in a magazine article some day when +I've time; only it will never be inserted; it will +be 'declined with thanks,' and left for me at +the publisher's."</p> + +<p>The greater part of the men in <i>Shirley</i> were +drawn from life, and are as true to their sex as +were the heroines of Dickens, Thackeray, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> +Disraeli, who were then writing. As for the +curates, they are perfect. No man's hand +could have executed their portraits so skilfully. +They have no more real use in the story than +they seem to have had in their respective parishes. +But this daughter of a country vicar, +who knew nothing of the London cockney, who +was then enlivening the books of Dickens, +seized upon the funniest people she knew, the +curates, and they have been immortalised.</p> + +<p>There is often in Charlotte Brontë's novels a +separation of plot and character, as if they +formed themselves independently in her mind. +This is especially true of <i>Shirley</i>. At that time +the attention of England was directed toward +the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and +Yorkshire. Mrs. Trollope and Harriet Martineau +had written upon conditions of life +there. In <i>Sybil</i> Disraeli considered broadly +the underlying causes of the misery of the +operatives. Mrs. Gaskell wrote <i>Mary Barton</i>, +a story of Manchester life, the same year that +Charlotte Brontë was writing <i>Shirley</i>. The plot +of the last named is laid in the early years of +the nineteenth century, and turns upon the +opposition of the workmen to the introduction +of machinery. But the plot and characters are +constantly getting in each other's way and +tripping each other up. Though the book is full +of defects, one cannot judge it harshly. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +she began the funny description of the curates' +tea-drinking, her brother and sisters were with +her. Before it was finished, she and her father +were left alone. But at this time the public +demanded melodrama. Fires, drownings, and +death-beds were popular methods of untying +hard knots and of playing upon the emotions of +the reader. She, like Mrs. Gaskell, constantly +resorts to outside circumstances to help put +things to rights when they are drifting in the +wrong direction, circumstances which Jane +Austen would not have admitted in a book of +hers.</p> + +<p>Before Charlotte Brontë wrote <i>Jane Eyre</i> or +<i>Shirley</i>, she had finished <i>The Professor</i>, and +offered it to different publishers, but it was +rejected by all. Finally she herself lost faith +in it, and transformed it into the beautiful story +of <i>Villette</i>, where the school of Madame and +Monseiur Héger in Brussels is made immortal. +In the plot of <i>Villette</i>, as in the plot of <i>Jane +Eyre</i> and of <i>Shirley</i>, many extraneous events +happen which are either unexpected or unnecessary. +Like <i>Jane Eyre</i>, <i>Villette</i> is steeped +in the romantic spirit, but the hard light of +reason again dispels the illusion. In the management +of the supernatural Charlotte is far +inferior to Emily. The explanation of the nun +in <i>Villette</i> is even childish. It is the mistake +made by Mrs. Radcliffe, by nearly all writers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> +of the age of reason. They give a ray, as it +were, a whisper from the mysterious world +which surrounds that which is manifest to our +everyday senses. Be it the fourth dimension, +or what not, we catch for a moment a message +from this other world, which, even indistinct, +still tells us that this visible world is not all, that +there is something beyond. Then, with hard +common-sense, they deny their own message, +and, so doing, deny to us the world of mystery, +and leave us only the material world in which +to believe. Not so Emily Brontë. Not so +Scott or Shakespeare. We may believe in +Hamlet's ghost or not; we may believe or not +in the White Lady of Avenel; we may believe +or not that Catharine's soul hovered near Heathcliff. +But we are still left with a belief in the +life after death, and still believe in something +beyond experience, and still grope to find those +things in heaven and earth of which philosophy +does not dream.</p> + +<p>But the characters, not the plot, remain in +the mind, after reading <i>Villette</i>. Madame Beck, +whose prototype was Madame Héger, is as +clever as Cardinal Wolsey or Cardinal Richelieu; +but she uses all her diplomatic skill in the +management of a lady's school, which, under +her ever watchful eye, with the aid of duplicate +keys to the trunks and drawers of the teachers +and pupils, runs without friction of any kind.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> +Lucy Snowe, the English teacher in <i>Villette</i>, is +far more pleasing than Jane Eyre; she is not so +passionate, but her view of life is deeper and +broader, and consequently kinder. And there +is Paul Emanuel. Who would have believed the +rejected professor would have grown into that +scholar of middle age? He is so distinctly the +foreigner in showing every emotion under which +he is labouring. How pathetic and how lovable +he is on the day of his fête when he thinks that +the English governess has forgotten him, and +has not brought even a flower to make the day +happier for him! So fretful in little things, so +heroic in large things, with so many faults which +every pupil can see, but with so many virtues, +frank even about his little deceptions, he is a +lovable man. But many of Miss Brontë's +readers do not find Paul Emanuel as delightful +as Paulina, the womanly little girl who grows +into the childlike woman. She is as sensitive +as the mimosa plant to the people about her. +Every event of her childhood, all the people she +cared for then, remained indelibly imprinted on +her mind, so that, with her, friendship and love +are strong and abiding.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding their many defects, Charlotte +Brontë's novels have left a permanent +impression upon English fiction and have won +an acknowledged place among English classics. +She first made a minute analysis of the varying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> +emotions of men and women, and noted the +strange, unaccountable attractions and repulsions +which everybody has experienced. Paulina, +a girl of six, is happy at the feet of Graham, a +boy of sixteen, although he is unconscious of her +presence. And so instance after instance can +be given of affinities and antipathies which lie +beyond human reason. She, like her sister +Emily, though with less clear vision, was searching +for the hidden sources of human feeling +and human action.</p> + +<p>Charlotte Brontë wrote to a friend:</p> + +<p>"I always through my whole life liked to +penetrate to the real truth; I like seeking the +goddess in her temple, and handling the veil, +and daring the dread glance."</p> + +<p>Her truthfulness in painting emotion, which +to her own generation seemed most daring, +even coarse, has given an abiding quality to her +work. And besides she created Paulina and +Paul Emanuel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h2>Mrs. Gaskell</h2> + + +<p>Ever since Eve gave Adam of the forbidden +fruit, "and he did eat," the relative +position of the sexes has rankled in the heart +of man. The sons of Adam proclaim loudly +that they were given dominion over the earth +and all that the earth contained; but they have +been ever ready to follow blindly the beckoning +finger of some fair daughter of Eve. Perhaps +it is a consciousness of this domination of the +weaker sex that has led man to proclaim in such +loud tones his mastery over woman, having +some doubts of its being recognised by her +unless asserted in bold language. At a time +when the novels of women received as warm a +welcome from the public and as large checks +from the publishers as those of men, a writer +whose sex need not be given thus discussed +their relative merits:</p> + +<p>"What is woman, regarded as a literary +worker? Simply an inferior animal, educated +as an inferior animal. And what is man? He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +is a superior being, educated by a superior +being. So how can they ever be equal in that +particular line?"</p> + +<p>Granted the premises, there can be but one +conclusion.</p> + +<p>The perfect assurance with which men have +asserted their own sufficiency in all lines of art +would be amusing if it had not been so disastrous +in distorting and warping at least three +of them: music, the drama, and prose fiction. +As slow as the growth of spirituality, has been +the recognition of woman's mental and moral +power. It seems almost incredible that not +many years ago only male voices were heard in +places of amusement. Deep, rich, full, and +sonorous, no one disputes the beauty of the male +chorus; but modern opera would be impossible +without the soprano and alto voices, and Madame +Patti, Madame Sembrich, and Madame +Lehman have proved that in natural gifts and +in the technique of art women are not inferior +to their brethren.</p> + +<p>By the same slow process women have won +recognition on the stage. Even in Shakespeare's +time men saw no reason why women +should acquire the histrionic art. Imagine +Juliet played by a boy! Yet Essex, Leicester, +Southampton, in the boxes, the groundlings +in the pit, and Ben Jonson sitting as +critic of all, were well satisfied with it, for they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> +were used to it, just as men have accepted +the heroines of their own novels, though every +woman they meet is a refutation of their truth. +It only needed a woman in a woman's part to +open the eyes of the audience to all they had +missed before. Not until the Restoration, did +any woman appear on the English stage. The +following lines given in the prologue written +for the revival of <i>Othello</i>, in which the part of +Desdemona was acted for the first time by a +woman, show how quick critics were to see the +folly of the old custom:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p> +For to speak truth, men act, that are between<br /> +Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen,<br /> +With bone so large, and nerve so uncompliant,<br /> +When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>As we cannot conceive of the English stage +without such women as Mrs. Siddons, Charlotte +Cushman, and Ellen Terry, so we cannot conceive +of the English novel without such writers +as Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, Mary Mitford, +the Brontës, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George +Eliot, each one of whom carried some phase +of the novel to so high a point that she has stood +pre-eminent in her own particular line. Too +often we confuse art with its subject-matter. +If it requires as much skill to give interest to the +everyday occurrences of the home as to the +thrilling adventures abroad; to depict the life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +of women as the life of men; to reveal the joys +and sorrows of a woman's heart as the exultations +and griefs of man's; then these women +deserve a place equal to that held by Richardson, +Fielding, Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray. +Their art, as their subject-matter, is different. +With the exception of George Eliot, they have +not virility with its strength and power, but +they have femininity, no less strong and powerful, +a quality possessed by Scott, but by no +other of these masculine writers, with the +possible exception of Dickens, and in him it is +a femininity, which tends to run to sentimentalism, +a different characteristic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most feminine +of writers, is so well known as the author of +<i>Cranford</i>, that delightful village whose only +gentleman dies early in the story, that many +of its readers do not know that its author was +better known by her contemporaries through +her humanitarian novels; in which she discussed +the great problems that face the poor.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell, whose maiden name was Stevenson, +was born in Chelsea in 1810. She +spent the greater part of her childhood and girlhood +at the home of her mother's family, Knutsford +in Cheshire, the place she afterward made +famous under the name of Cranford. In 1832, +she married the Reverend William Gaskell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> +minister of the Unitarian chapel in Manchester, +and that city became her home. She took an +active interest in all the affairs of the city, and +constantly visited the poor. Her husband's +father, besides being the professor of English +History and Literature in Manchester New +College, a Unitarian institution, was a manufacturer; +thus Mrs. Gaskell had the opportunity +of hearing both sides of the controversy which +was then waging between labour and capital.</p> + +<p>In the early forties, there was much suffering +among the "mill-hands"; many were dying of +starvation, and consequently there were many +strikes and uprisings. These conditions led to +her writing her first novel, <i>Mary Barton</i>. The +book was written during the years 1845-1847, +although it was not published until 1848. The +nucleus of it, Mrs. Gaskell wrote to a friend, +was John Barton. Since she herself was constantly +wondering at the inequalities of fortune, +which permitted some to starve, while others +had abundance, how must it affect an ignorant +man, himself on the verge of starvation, and +filled with pity for the sufferings of his friends? +Driven almost insane by the condition of society, +and hoping to remedy it, he commits a crime, +which preys so upon his conscience that it finally +wears out his own life.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell in this, her first novel, has left +an undying picture of that section of smoky<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> +Manchester where the mill-workers live: its +narrow lanes; small but not uncomfortable +cottages, well supplied with furniture in days +when work was plentiful, but destitute even of +a fire when it was scarce; the undersized men +and women, with irregular features, pale blue +eyes, sallow complexions, but with an intelligence +rendered quick and sharp by their life +among the machinery, and by their hard struggle +for existence. The life of the poor had +often furnished a theme for the poets, but it was +the life of shepherds and milkmaids, above whom +the blue sky arched, and whose labours were +brightened by the songs of the birds, and the +colours and sweet odours of fruit and flowers. +But Mrs. Gaskell described the life of the poor +in a town where factory smoke obscured the +light of the sun, and where the weariness of +labour was rendered more intense by the clanging +factory bell, and the constant whirr of machinery +ringing in their ears. It is a gloomy picture, +but no gloomier than the reality.</p> + +<p>Disraeli in <i>Sybil</i> discussed the questions of +labour and capital in their relations to the history +of England, with a broad intellectual grasp +of the sociological causes which produced these +conditions. He wrote in the interests of two +classes, the Crown and the People, with the +hope that England might again have a free +monarchy and a prosperous people. It is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> +well illustrated treatise on government, but the +principles advocated or discussed always overshadow +the characters. He had no such intimate +knowledge of the lives of the poor as had Mrs. +Gaskell. She conducts us to the homes of John +Barton, George Wilson, and Job Legh, shows +the simplicity of their lives, and their sense of +the injustice under which they are suffering, and +their helpfulness to each other in times of need.</p> + +<p>How simple and true is the friendship that +binds Mary Barton, the dressmaker's apprentice; +Margaret, the blind singer; and Alice +Wilson, the aged laundress, whose mind is constantly +dwelling on the green fields and running +brooks of her childhood's home. These women +possess the strength of character of the early +Teutonic women. They are reticent, not given +to the exchange of confidences, but ready to +help a friend with all they have in the hour of +need. When Margaret thinks that the Bartons +are in want of money, she says to Mary, "Remember, +if you're sore pressed for money, we +shall take it very unkind if you do not let us +know." But she does not question her. Later +when her great trouble comes to Mary Barton, +which she must bear alone, when she must free +a lover from the charge of murder without incriminating +her father, she shows presence of +mind, clearness of vision, and both moral and +physical courage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> + +<p>Jem Wilson, the hero of the story, is as strong +as Mary Barton, the heroine. Although Dickens +was writing of the poor, he always found some +means to educate his heroes, and generally +placed them among gentlemen. Jem Wilson's +education was received in the factory, and the +little rise he made above his fellows was due to +his better understanding of machinery. He +was a working man, proud of his skill, and of his +good name for honesty and sobriety.</p> + +<p>The plot of <i>Mary Barton</i> is highly melodramatic, +and its technique is open to criticism. +It should not be read, however, for the story, +but for the many home scenes in which we come +into close sympathy with the men and women +of Manchester. There is no novel in which we +feel more strongly the heart-beats of humanity. +It leaves the impression, not of art, but of life.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell turned again to the struggles +between labour and capital for the plot of her +novel <i>North and South</i>. Between this story +and <i>Mary Barton</i> she had written <i>Cranford</i> and +<i>Ruth</i>, but her mind seemed to revert, as it were, +from the peaceful village life to the stirring +mill-towns of Lancashire. The great contrast +between life in the counties of England presided +over by the landed gentry, and that in +the counties where the manufacturers formed +the aristocracy, suggested this book. It was +published in 1855, seven years after +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +<i>Mary Barton</i>. The plot of <i>North and South</i> is better +proportioned than is that of <i>Mary Barton</i>. +There are fewer characters, better contrasted. +It is a brighter picture, with more humour, but +it does not leave so strong an impression on the +mind as does the earlier work. Both, however, +are more accurate than <i>Hard Times</i>, a book +with which Dickens himself was highly dissatisfied. +He knew little of the life in the +manufacturing districts, but, in a spirit of indignation +at the poverty brought on by grasping +manufacturers, he caricatured the entire class +in the persons of Mr. Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby. +When these men are compared with +the manufacturers as represented in <i>North and +South</i>, Mrs. Gaskell's more intimate knowledge +of them is at once apparent.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell had been accused of taking sides +with the working men, and representing their +point of view in <i>Mary Barton</i>. In <i>North and +South</i>, the hero, Mr. Thornton, is a rich manufacturer, +a fine type of the self-made man, but +standing squarely on his right to do what he +pleases in his own factory. "He looks like a +person who would enjoy battling with every +adverse thing he could meet with—enemies, +winds, or circumstances," was Margaret Hale's +comment when she first met him. "He's +worth fighting wi', is John Thornton," said +one of the leaders of the strike. For although<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> +the condition of affairs in the mill-towns had +much improved since John Barton went to +London as a delegate from his starving townsmen, +and was refused a hearing by Parliament, +a large part of the book is concerned with the +story of a strike, which in its outcome brought +starvation to many of the men, and bankruptcy +to some of the masters, the acknowledged +victors.</p> + +<p>Higgins, one of the leaders of the working men, +is a true Lancashire man, and like Thornton, +the leader of the masters, has many traits of +character as truly American as English. His +sturdy independence is well shown in Margaret's +first interview with him. The daughter of a +vicar in the south of England, she had been +accustomed to call upon the poor in her father's +parish. Learning that Higgins's daughter, +Bessy, is ill she expresses her desire to call +upon her. "I'm none so fond of having +stranger folk in my house," Higgins informs +her, but he finally relents and says, "Yo may +come if yo like."</p> + +<p>But besides the conflict between the manufacturers +and their employees, with which much +of the book is concerned, there is the sharp +contrast between the Hales, born and bred in +the south of England, and the mill-owners in +whose society they are placed. Mr. Hale, +indecisive, inactive, in whom thought is more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +powerful than reality, is as helpless as a child +among these men of action, and utterly unable +to cope with the problems they are facing. +Margaret, the refined daughter of a poor clergyman, +is contrasted with the proud Mrs. Thornton, +the mother of a wealthy manufacturer, who +would make money, not birth, the basis of +social distinctions. But Margaret is even better +contrasted with the poor factory girl, Bessy +Higgins, who turns to her for help and sympathy. +There is hardly a story of Mrs. Gaskell's which +is not adorned by the friendship of the heroine +for some other woman in the book.</p> + +<p>In both these novels, she taught that the only +solution of the great problem of capital and +labour was a recognition of the fact that their +interests were identical, and that friendly intercourse +was the only means of breaking down +the barrier that divided them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell was so versatile, she touched +upon so many problems of human life, that it +is almost impossible to summarise her work. +<i>Ruth</i> considers the question of the girl who has +been betrayed. Ruth is as pure as Tess of the +D'Urbervilles, and like her is a victim of circumstances. +A stranger who has taken her +under her protection reports that Ruth is a +widow, and Ruth passively acquiesces in the +deception, hoping that her son may never know +the disgrace of his birth. But the truth comes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +to light, involving in temporary disgrace Ruth +and her son, and the household of Mr. Benson, +the dissenting minister whose home had been +her place of refuge. But Mrs. Gaskell is always +optimistic. By her good deeds, Ruth wins the +love and honour of the entire community. This +novel was loudly assailed. It was claimed that +Mrs. Gaskell had condoned immorality, and it +was considered dangerous teaching that good +deeds were an atonement for such a sin. But +if <i>Ruth</i> found detractors, it also found warm +admirers, who recognised the broader teachings +of the story. Mrs. Jameson wrote to Mrs. +Gaskell:</p> + +<p>"I hope I do understand your aim—you have +lifted up your voice against 'that demoralising +laxity of principle,' which I regard as the ulcer +lying round the roots of society; and you have +done it wisely and well, with a mingled courage +and delicacy which excite at once my gratitude +and my admiration."</p> + +<p>The scene of <i>Sylvia's Lovers</i> is laid in Whitby, +at a time when the press-gang was kidnapping +men for the British navy. It is a story of the +loves, jealousies, and sorrows of sailors, shopkeepers, +and small farmers, among whom Sylvia +moves as the central figure. Du Maurier, who +illustrated the second edition of this novel, was +so charmed with the heroine that he named +his daughter Sylvia for her. This story, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> +<i>Ruth</i>, has much of the sentimentalism so fashionable +in the middle of the nineteenth century. +The leading canon of criticism at that time was +the power with which a writer could move the +emotions of the reader, and the novelist was +expected either to convulse his readers with +laughter or dissolve them into tears. There +are many funny scenes in <i>Sylvia's Lovers</i>, but +the key-note is pathos. Like many novels of +Dickens, there are death-bed scenes introduced +only for the luxury of weeping over sorrows +that are not real, and there are melodramatic +situations as in her other books. Parts of this +novel suggested to Tennyson the poem of +<i>Enoch Arden</i>.</p> + +<p>But, however powerful may be the novels +dealing with the questions that daily confront +the poor, there is a perennial charm in the society +of people who dwell amid rural scenes. +Mrs. Gaskell has written several short stories +of the pastoral type. Such a story is <i>Cousin +Phillis</i>. It is a beautiful idyl and reminds one +of the old pastorals in which ladies and gentlemen +played at shepherds and shepherdesses. +Cousin Phillis cooks, irons, reads Dante, helps +the haymakers, falls in love, and mends a broken +heart, and is brave, true, and unselfish. Her +father is what one would expect from such a +daughter. He cultivates his small farm, finds +rest from his labours in reading, and neglects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> +none of the many duties which belong to him +as the dissenting minister of a small village.</p> + +<p><i>Cranford</i> and <i>Wives and Daughters</i> have this +in common, that the scene of both is laid in the +village of Knutsford. The former is a rambling +story of events in two or three households, and +of the social affairs in which all the village is +concerned. It is without doubt the favourite +of Mrs. Gaskell's novels. <i>Wives and Daughters</i> +was Mrs. Gaskell's last story, and was left unfinished +at her death. It shows a great artistic +advance over her earlier work. The plot is +more natural; it has not so many sharp contrasts, +which George Eliot criticised in Mrs. +Gaskell's stories. The characters are also more +subtle. Molly, the daughter of the village +doctor, is an unselfish, thoughtful girl, but with +none of that unreal goodness which Dickens +sometimes gave to his heroines. When she +receives her first invitation to a child's party, +and her father is wondering whether or not she +can go, her speech is characteristic of her nature:</p> + +<p>"Please, Papa,—I do wish to go—but I don't +care about it."</p> + +<p>Molly feels very keenly, and longs for things +with all the strength of an ardent nature, but +she always subordinates herself and her wishes +to others. In the character of Cynthia, Mrs. +Gaskell makes a plea for the heartless coquette. +Cynthia is beautiful, she likes to please those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +in whose company she finds herself, but quickly +forgets the absent. It is not her fault that +young men's hearts are brittle, for it is as natural +for her to smile, and be gay and forget, as it is +for Molly to love, be silent, and remember. So +it is Cynthia who has the lovers, while Molly +is neglected. Clare, Cynthia's mother, is more +selfish than her daughter, but she has learned +the art of seeming to please others while thinking +only of pleasing herself. She is as crafty as +Becky Sharp, but softer, more feline, and more +subtle; a much commoner type in real life +than Thackeray's diplomatic heroine.</p> + +<p>Mr. A. W. Ward, in the biographical introduction +to the Knutsford Edition of her novels, +says of her later work:</p> + +<p>"When Mrs. Gaskell had become conscious +that if true to herself, to her own ways of looking +at men and things, to the sympathies and +hopes with which life inspired her, she had but +to put pen to paper, she found what it has been +usual to call her later manner—the manner of +which <i>Cranford</i> offered the first adequate illustration, +and of which <i>Cousin Phillis</i> and <i>Wives +and Daughters</i> represent the consummation."</p> + +<p>The same critic compares the later work of +Mrs. Gaskell with the later work of George +Sand and finds that "in their large-heartedness" +they are similar. He also gives George Sand's +tribute to her English contemporary. "Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +Gaskell," she said, "has done what neither I +nor other female writers in France can accomplish: +she has written novels which excite the +deepest interest in men of the world, and yet +which every girl will be the better for reading."</p> + +<p>It is not often that a novelist finds another +writer to take up and enlarge her work as did +Mrs. Gaskell. Her novels contain the germ of +much of George Eliot's earlier writings. <i>The +Moorland Cottage</i> suggested many parts of <i>The +Mill on the Floss</i>. Edward and Maggie Brown—the +former important, consequential and dictatorial, +the latter self-forgetful, eager to help +others, and by her very eagerness prone to +blunders—were developed by George Eliot into +the characters of Tom and Maggie Tulliver. +The weak and fretful mothers in the two books +are much alike, while the love story and the +catastrophe have the same general outline.</p> + +<p>They both drew largely from the working +people of the North or of the Midlands, and +both constantly introduced Dissenters. Silas +Marner belongs to the manufacturing North, +and the people of Lantern Yard are of the same +class as those of Manchester and Milton. Felix +Holt and Adam Bede belong to the same type +as Jem Wilson and Mr. Thornton, while Esther +Lyon is not unlike Margaret Hale. Both often +presented life from the point of view of the poor.</p> + +<p>Both were interested in the development of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +character, and in the changes which it underwent +for good or evil under the influence of +outward circumstances. But George Eliot had +greater intellectual power than Mrs. Gaskell. +She had the broader view and the deeper insight. +Mrs. Gaskell could never have conceived the +plots nor the characters of <i>Romola</i> nor <i>Middlemarch</i>. +She constantly introduced extraneous +matter to shape her plots according to her will, +while with George Eliot the fate of character is +as hard and unyielding as was the fate of predestination +in the sermons of the old Calvinistic +divines. Mrs. Gaskell, like Dickens, introduced +death-bed scenes merely to play upon the emotions. +George Eliot was never guilty of this +defect; with her, character is a fatalism that is +inexorable.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Gaskell had a more hopeful view +of life than had George Eliot. The Unitarians +believe in man and have faith in the clemency +of God. This makes them a cheerful people. +However dark the picture that Mrs. Gaskell +paints, we have faith that conditions will soon +be better, and at the close of the book we see +the dawn of a brighter day. George Eliot had +taken the suggestions of Mrs. Gaskell and amplified +them with many details that the woman +of lesser genius had omitted. But to each was +given her special gift. If George Eliot's characters +stand out as more distinct personalities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> +they are drawn with less sympathy. George +Eliot's men and women are often hard and sharp +in outline; Mrs. Gaskell's, no matter how poor +or ignorant, are softened and refined.</p> + +<p>It was this quality that made it possible for +her to write that inimitable comedy of manners, +<i>Cranford</i>. Her other novels with their deep +pathos, strong passion, and dramatic situations +must be read to show the breadth of her powers, +but <i>Cranford</i> will always give its author a unique +place in literature. Imagine the material that +furnished the groundwork of this story put into +the hands of any novelist from Richardson to +Henry James. It seems almost like sacrilege +to think what even Jane Austen might have +said of these dear elderly ladies. As for Thackeray, +their little devices to keep up appearances +would have seemed to him instances of feminine +deceit, and he might have put even Miss Jenkyns +with her admiration of Dr. Johnson into +his <i>Book of Snobs</i>. What tears Dickens would +have drawn from our eyes over the love story +of Miss Matty and Mr. Holbrook. How George +Eliot would have mourned over the shallowness +of their lives. Henry James would have +squinted at them and their surroundings through +his eye-glass until he had discovered every faded +spot on the carpet or skilful darn in the curtain. +Miss Mitford would have appreciated these +ladies and loved them as did Mrs. Gaskell, only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> +she would have been so interested in the flowers +and birds and clouds that she would have forgotten +all about the Cranford parties, and would +probably have ignored the presence in their +midst of the Honourable Mrs. Jamieson, the +sister-in-law of an earl. So we must conclude +that only Mrs. Gaskell could make immortal this +village of femininity, where to be a man was +considered almost vulgar, but into which she +has introduced one of the most chivalrous +gentlemen in the person of Captain Browne, +and one of the most faithful of lovers in the +person of Mr. Holbrook, while no book has +a more lovable heroine than fluttering, indecisive +Miss Matty, over whose fifty odd years the +sorrows of her youth have cast their lengthening +shadows.</p> + +<p><i>Mary Barton</i> is a work of genius. Only a +woman of high ideals could have drawn the +character of Margaret Hale, an earlier Marcella, +or Molly Gibson, or Mr. Thornton, or Mr. Holman. +Only a woman of deep insight could have +created a woman like Ruth: a book which in its +problem and its deep earnestness reminds one +of <i>Aurora Leigh</i>. But her readers will always +love Mrs. Gaskell for the sake of the gentle +ladies of <i>Cranford</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONCLUSION</h2> + + +<p>Mrs. Gaskell died on the twelfth of +November, 1865. Of the novelists who +have been considered in this book only three +survived her, Mrs. Bray, Mrs. S. C. Hall, and +Harriet Martineau, but they added little to prose +fiction after that date. During the third quarter +of the nineteenth century, however, the number +of books written by women continued to increase +each year. Julia Kavanagh was the +author of several novels, the first of which +<i>The Three Paths</i>, was published in 1848; all her +stories were written with high moral aim and +delicacy of feeling. <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, by +Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1850, is +probably the most powerful novel ever written +to plead the cause of oppressed humanity. +Dinah Maria Muloch Craik kept up the interest +in the domestic novel; her most popular book, +<i>John Halifax, Gentleman</i>, has lost none of its +charm for young women, even if it does not meet +the requirements of a classic. Mrs. Henry Wood +is still remembered as the author of the melodramatic +<i>East Lynne</i>, but her best stories are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +<i>Johnny Ludlow Papers</i>, which deal with character +alone; her popularity is attested by the +fact that more than a million copies of her books +have been issued. Charlotte Yonge's forgotten +novels were classed among the <i>Church Stories</i>, +because they contain so much piety and devotion. +Of a different type was Miss de la +Ramée, who wrote under the name of Ouidà; +she had fine gifts of word-painting, but a fondness +for the questionable in conduct. Miss +Braddon, the author of <i>Lady Audley's Secret</i>, +excelled in complicated plots. Mrs. Oliphant +has been a most versatile writer, and followed +almost every style of prose fiction; her domestic +stories are generally considered her best. +Anne Thackeray, better known as Mrs. Ritchie, +the daughter of the great novelist, has written +several novels, all of which have a delightfully +feminine touch. Miss Rhoda Broughton has +entertained the reading public by love stories +which hold the attention until the marriage takes +place. But all these women fade into insignificance +beside George Eliot, whose first story, +<i>The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton</i>, +appeared in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> in 1857, and +whose last novel, <i>Daniel Deronda</i>, was published +nearly twenty years later, in 1876.</p> + +<p>It seems strange that any reader of her books +should have thought them the product of a +man's brain, as was at first believed. For,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> +notwithstanding her power in developing a plot, +her breadth of view, and her mental grasp, her +genius is essentially feminine. She excelled +in analysis of character, in attention to details, +in ethical teaching, and in artistic truthfulness, +the qualities in which women have been pre-eminent. +Only a woman's pen could have +drawn such characters as Dinah Morris, Maggie +Tulliver, and Dorothea Casaubon, or could +have followed the minute and subtle influences +under which the plot of <i>Middlemarch</i> is shaped. +George Eliot has left a larger portrait gallery +of women than any other novelist. Not only +has she drawn different grades of society, but, +what is perhaps a more difficult task, she has +drawn the different grades of spiritual greatness +and moral littleness. She brought the psychological +novel to a degree of perfection which has +never been surpassed.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Oliphant has thus written of George Eliot's +place in literature:</p> + +<p>"Another question which has been constantly +put to this age, and which is pushed with +greater zeal every day, as to the position of +women in literature and the height which it is +in their power to attain, was solved by this +remarkable woman, in a way most flattering +to all who were and are fighting the question of +equality between the two halves of mankind; +for here was visibly a woman who was to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +kept out by no barriers, who sat down quietly +from the beginning of her career in the highest +place, and, if she did not absolutely excel all +her contemporaries in the revelation of the +human mind and the creation of new human +beings, at least was second to none in those +distinguishing characteristics of genius."</p> + +<p>We are too near the nineteenth century to +decide as to the relative positions of its great +novelists. At one time George Eliot was placed +at the head of all writers of fiction, with Dickens +and Thackeray as rivals for the second place. +But she was dethroned by Thackeray, and there +are signs that the final kingship will be given to +Charles Dickens, unless Scott receives it instead.</p> + +<p>Fashions in novels change at least every fifty +years. Exciting plots and situations, strong +emotional scenes, sharp contrasts, are not demanded +by present readers, who also turn away +with disgust from the saintly heroine and the irreclaimable +villain. Of the many volumes of fiction +written in the eighteenth century only two are +in general circulation to-day, <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> +and <i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i>. But all those once +popular novels, even if their very names are +now forgotten, have done their work in shaping +the thought and morals of their own and succeeding +generations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +<i>Abbott, The</i>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> +<br /> +<i>Absentee, The</i>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112-113</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> +<br /> +<i>Ada Reis</i>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a> +<br /> +<i>Adam Bede</i>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a> +<br /> +Addison, Joseph, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a> +<br /> +<i>Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter</i>, <a href="#Page_150">150-153</a> +<br /> +<i>Adventures of an Atom</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a> +<br /> +<i>Afflicted Parent, The, or the Undutiful Child Punished</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a> +<br /> +<i>Age of Wordsworth, The</i>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a> +<br /> +<i>Agnes Grey</i>, <a href="#Page_258">258-259</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a> +<br /> +Ainsworth, William Harrison, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +Alderson, Miss, <i>see</i> Opie, Amelia +<br /> +<i>Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> +<br /> +<i>Amos Barton</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +<i>Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> +<br /> +<i>Antiquary, The</i>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> +<br /> +<i>Arabian Nights</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +Arblay, Madame D', <i>see</i> Burney, Frances +<br /> +<i>Arblay, Madame D', Essay on</i>, <a href="#Page_57">57-58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168-169</a> +<br /> +Arden, Enoch, <a href="#Page_187">187</a> +<br /> +Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> +<br /> +<i>Artless Tales</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> +<br /> +<i>Athenæum, The</i>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +<i>Aurora Leigh</i>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +Austen, Jane, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157-178</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Baillie, Joanna, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a> +<br /> +Balzac, Honoré de, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Banker's Wife, The</i>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a> +<br /> +Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia, <a href="#Page_121">121</a> +<br /> +Barrett, Miss, <i>see</i> Browning, Elizabeth +<br /> +<i>Barring Out, The</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a> +<br /> +<i>Bas Bleu</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a> +<br /> +<i>Beauty Put to its Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> +Behn, Aphra, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13-19</a> +<br /> +<i>Belford Regis</i>, <a href="#Page_193">193-196</a> +<br /> +<i>Belinda</i>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> +<br /> +<i>Beside the Bonny Brier Bush</i>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> +<br /> +<i>Betsy Thoughtless, Miss, The History of</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36-39</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a> +<br /> +<i>Bithynia, An Adventure in</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +<i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +Blake, William, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> +<br /> +<i>Blazing World, Description of a New World Called the</i>, <a href="#Page_6">6-7</a> +<br /> +Blessington, Lady, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +Blind Harry the Minstrel, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a> +<br /> +Bonheur, Rosa, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> +<br /> +<i>Book of Snobs, The</i>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> +<br /> +Boswell, James, <a href="#Page_138">138</a> +<br /> +Bousset, <a href="#Page_3">3</a> +<br /> +Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +Bray, Ann Eliza, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225-230</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>Bride of Lammermoor, The</i>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +Brontë, Anne, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257-261</a> +<br /> +Brontë, Charlotte, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261-273</a> +<br /> +Brontë, Emily, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249-257</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a> +<br /> +Brontës, The, <a href="#Page_247">247-273</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a> +<br /> +<i>Brooke and Brooke Farm</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> +<br /> +Broughton, Rhoda, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> +<br /> +Brunton, Alexander, <a href="#Page_156">156</a> +<br /> +Brunton, Mary, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153-156</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Bubbled Knights, or Successful Contrivances</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> +<br /> +Bulwer, Edward, Lord Lytton, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> +<br /> +Burke, Edmund, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Burney, Charles, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> +<br /> +Burney, Frances, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45-61</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a> +<br /> +Byron, Lord (George Gordon), <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200-206</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-213</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Caleb Williams</i>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> +<br /> +<i>Camilla, or a Picture of Youth</i>, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> +<br /> +<i>Canterbury Tales, The</i>, <a href="#Page_106">106-110</a> +<br /> +<i>Caroline Evelyn, The History of</i>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a> +<br /> +Carter, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +<i>Castle of Otranto, The</i>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a> +<br /> +<i>Castle Rackrent</i>, <a href="#Page_111">111-112</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a> +<br /> +<i>Castles of Athlyn and Dunbayne</i>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> +Cavendish, Margaret, <i>see</i> Newcastle, Duchess of +<br /> +Cavendish, William, <i>see</i> Newcastle, Duke of +<br /> +<i>Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217-219</a> +<br /> +<i>Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress</i>, <a href="#Page_54">54-59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> +<br /> +<i>Celestina</i>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> +<br /> +<i>Chap-Books</i>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a> +<br /> +Chapone, Hester, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Chaucer, Geoffrey, <a href="#Page_106">106</a> +<br /> +<i>Cheap Repository, The</i>, <a href="#Page_67">67-71</a> +<br /> +<i>Childe Harold</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a> +<br /> +Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), <a href="#Page_10">10</a> +<br /> +<i>Clarissa Harlowe</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a> +<br /> +<i>Clelia</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> +<br /> +<i>Clubman, The</i>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a> +<br /> +<i>Coelebs in Search of a Wife</i>, <a href="#Page_71">71-72</a> +<br /> +Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> +<br /> +Collier, Jeremy, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> +<br /> +Colman, George, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> +<br /> +<i>Confessions of a Pretty Woman</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +Congreve, William, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> +<br /> +Cooper, James Fenimore, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> +<br /> +Corneille, <a href="#Page_3">3</a> +<br /> +<i>Cottagers of Glenburnie, The</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a> +<br /> +Cottin, Sophie, Madame de, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Court Gazette</i>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a> +<br /> +<i>Courtenay of Walreddon; a Romance of the West</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> +<br /> +<i>Cousin Phillis</i>, <a href="#Page_286">286-287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +Crabbe, George, <a href="#Page_263">263</a> +<br /> +Craik, Dinah Maria Muloch, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Craik's <i>English Prose</i>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> +<br /> +<i>Cranford</i>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291-292</a> +<br /> +Crewe, Catherine, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> +<br /> +<i>Cry of the Children, The</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> +<br /> +Curtis, George William, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Daniel Deronda</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +Dante, Alighieri, <a href="#Page_286">286</a> +<br /> +David Copperfield, <a href="#Page_164">164</a> +<br /> +<i>David Simple</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26-31</a> +<br /> +<i>Deerbrook</i>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a> +<br /> +Defoe, Daniel, <a href="#Page_146">146</a> +<br /> +<i>De Foix, or Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Fourteenth Century</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +<i>Desmond</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74-77</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> +<i>Destiny</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186-187</a> +<br /> +Diana of the Crossways, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> +<br /> +Dickens, Charles, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a> +<br /> +<i>Discipline</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a> +<br /> +Disraeli, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a> +<br /> +Dombey and Son, <a href="#Page_225">225</a> +<br /> +<i>Domestic Manners of the Americans</i>, <a href="#Page_235">235-236</a> +<br /> +Dryden, John, <a href="#Page_13">13</a> +<br /> +<i>Duchess of Malfi, The</i>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +Du Maurier, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>East Lynne</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Edgeworth, Maria, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111-128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a> +<br /> +Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a> +<br /> +<i>Eighteenth Century, History of the</i>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> +<br /> +Elia, <i>see</i> Lamb, Charles +<br /> +Eliot, George, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289-291</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-296</a> +<br /> +Emma, <a href="#Page_161">161-162</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166-167</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Emmeline</i>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a> +<br /> +<i>Ennui</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> +<br /> +<i>Enoch Arden</i>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a> +<br /> +<i>Epipsychidion</i>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a> +<br /> +<i>Essay on Irish Bulls</i>, see <i>Irish Bulls, Essay on</i> +<br /> +<i>Essay on Madame D'Arblay</i>, see <i>Arblay, Madame D', Essay on</i> +<br /> +<i>Ethelinda</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +Evans, Marian, <i>see</i> Eliot, George +<br /> +<i>Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47-54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> +<br /> +Evelyn, John, <a href="#Page_5">5</a> +<br /> +<i>Evening Chronicle</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> +<br /> +<i>Examiner</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Fair Jilt, The</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> +<br /> +<i>Falkland</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +<i>Falkner</i>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a> +<br /> +<i>Fantom, Mr.: or the History of the New-Fashioned Philosopher, and his Man William</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> +<br /> +Felix Holt, <a href="#Page_289">289</a> +<br /> +<i>Female Education, Strictures on the Modern System of</i>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> +<br /> +<i>Female Quixote, The</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32-35</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> +Ferrier, Susan Edmonstone, <a href="#Page_179">179-188</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +Fielding, Henry, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a> +<br /> +Fielding, Sarah, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26-31</a> +<br /> +<i>Fits of Fitz-Ford</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> +<br /> +<i>Flies in Amber</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +<i>Florence Macarthy</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> +<br /> +<i>Fortnightly Review</i>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a> +<br /> +Fox, Charles James, <a href="#Page_40">40</a> +<br /> +<i>Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus</i>, <a href="#Page_206">206-207</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a> +<br /> +<i>Fraser's Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> +<br /> +Froissart's <i>Chronicles</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Gait, John, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +Garnett, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_214">214</a> +<br /> +Garrick, David, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Garrison, William Lloyd, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> +<br /> +Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274-293</a> +<br /> +Genlis, Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Gentleman's Magazine, The</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +Gibbon, Edward, <a href="#Page_54">54</a> +<br /> +<i>Glenarvon</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200-203</a> +<br /> +Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, <i>see</i> Wollstonecraft, Mary +<br /> +Godwin, William, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> +<br /> +Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> +<br /> +Goldsmith, Oliver, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +Gore, Catherine Grace Frances, <a href="#Page_216">216-225</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +Gosse, Edmund, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Grand Cyrus, The</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a> +<br /> +<i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a> +<br /> +Guy Mannering, <a href="#Page_102">102</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hackney Coachman, The</i>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a> +<br /> +Hall, Anna Maria (Mrs. S. C.), <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196-199</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Hall, S. C., <a href="#Page_140">140</a> +<br /> +Hamilton, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_133">133-137</a> +<br /> +<i>Hamiltons, The</i>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> +<br /> +Hamlet, <a href="#Page_271">271</a> +<br /> +<i>Hard Times</i>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a> +<br /> +Hardy, Thomas, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Harriet Stuart, The Life of</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a> +<br /> +Harry, Blind, the Minstrel, <i>see</i> Blind Harry the Minstrel<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> +Haywood, Eliza, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36-39</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a> +<br /> +<i>Heir of Selwood, The</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a> +<br /> +Helen, <a href="#Page_119">119</a> +<br /> +<i>Henrietta</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a> +<br /> +<i>Henry de Pomeroy</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> +<br /> +<i>Henry Esmond</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a> +<br /> +<i>Heptameron</i>, The, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> +<br /> +Herford, C. H., <a href="#Page_193">193</a> +<br /> +<i>Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess</i>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> +<br /> +Homer, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a> +<br /> +Horace, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> +<br /> +<i>Hour and the Man, The</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244-245</a> +<br /> +Huet, Bishop, Pierre Daniel, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> +<br /> +<i>Humphry Clinker</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> +<br /> +<i>Hungarian Brothers</i>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Ibrahim</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a> +<br /> +<i>Ida, or the Woman of Athens</i>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a> +<br /> +<i>Impetuous Lover, The, or the Guiltless Parricide</i>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a> +<br /> +Inchbald, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82-87</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Inheritance, The</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182-183</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187-188</a> +<br /> +<i>Irish Bulls, Essay on</i>, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a> +<br /> +<i>Irish Peasantry, Stories of the</i>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a> +<br /> +<i>Italian, The</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +Ivanhoe, <a href="#Page_164">164</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Jackson, Helen Hunt (H. H.), <a href="#Page_16">16</a> +<br /> +James, G. P. R., <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +James, Henry, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> +<br /> +Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), <a href="#Page_285">285</a> +<br /> +<i>Jane Eyre</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264-267</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a> +<br /> +<i>Jealous Wife, The</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +Jeffrey, Francis, <a href="#Page_180">180</a> +<br /> +Joan of Arc, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> +<br /> +<i>John Halifax, Gentleman</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>Johnny Ludlow Papers</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +Johnson, R. Brimley, <a href="#Page_245">245</a> +<br /> +Johnson, Dr. Samuel, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> +<br /> +<i>Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, The Life and Adventures of</i>, <a href="#Page_237">237-239</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> +<br /> +Jonson, Ben, <a href="#Page_275">275</a> +<br /> +<i>Joseph Andrews</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +<i>Journey to Bath</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a> +<br /> +Jules Verne, <i>see</i> Verne, Jules +<br /> +<br /> +Kauffman, Angelica, <a href="#Page_103">103</a> +<br /> +Kavanagh, Julia, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>King Lear</i>, see <i>Lear</i> +<br /> +Knox, John, <a href="#Page_188">188</a> +<br /> +<i>Kruitzener, or the German's Tale</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108-109</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Lady Audley's Secret</i>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +<i>Lady Clare</i>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a> +<br /> +<i>Lady of Lyons, The</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> +<br /> +<i>Lady's Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a> +<br /> +Lafayette, Madame de, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +Lamb, Lady Caroline, <a href="#Page_200">200-204</a> +<br /> +Lamb, Charles, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a> +<br /> +Lamb, William (Lord Melbourne), <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a> +<br /> +<i>Landlady's Tale, The</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> +<br /> +Lang, Andrew, <a href="#Page_102">102</a> +<br /> +Lanier, Sidney, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> +<br /> +<i>Last Man, The</i>, <a href="#Page_210">210-212</a> +<br /> +<i>Lazy Lawrence</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> +<br /> +<i>Lear, King</i>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +Lee, Harriet, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105-110</a> +<br /> +Lee, Sophia, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105-110</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a> +<br /> +Lennox, Charlotte, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31-36</a> +<br /> +<i>Letters of the Duchess of Newcastle</i>, <a href="#Page_7">7-8</a> +<br /> +<i>Letters to Young Ladies</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Lewis, Matthew Gregory, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +"Library of Old Authors," Russell Smith, <a href="#Page_12">12</a> +<br /> +<i>Life of the Duke of Newcastle</i>, see <i>Newcastle, Life of the Duke of</i> +<br /> +<i>Lights and Shadows of Irish Life</i>, <a href="#Page_197">197-198</a> +<br /> +<i>Lilly Dawson, The Story of</i>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> +<br /> +<i>Literary Gazette</i>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a> +<br /> +<i>Lodore</i>, <a href="#Page_212">212-214</a> +<br /> +Longueville, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_3">3</a> +<br /> +<i>Lucius</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a> +<br /> +Lytton, Bulwer, <i>see</i> Bulwer, Edward (Lord Lytton) +<br /> +<br /> +Macaulay, Thomas Babington, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a> +<br /> +Machiavelli, Niccolo, <a href="#Page_207">207</a> +<br /> +Mackay, Sheriff, <a href="#Page_143">143</a> +<br /> +<i>Magyar, The, and the Moslem</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +<i>Man and Superman</i>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> +<br /> +<i>Manchester Strike, A</i>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a> +<br /> +Manley, Mary, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19-23</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a> +<br /> +<i>Mansfield Park</i>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162-164</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a> +<br /> +Marcella, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +Margaret, Queen of Navarre, <a href="#Page_2">2</a> +<br /> +<i>Marriage</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a> +<br /> +Marsh, Anne, <a href="#Page_231">231</a> +<br /> +Martineau, Harriet, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-246</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>Mary Barton</i>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278-281</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +Masson, David, <a href="#Page_179">179</a> +<br /> +Maturin, Charles Robert, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +<i>Mazeppa</i>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a> +<br /> +Mémoires du Comte de Comminges, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de la vertu</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a> +<br /> +<i>Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a> +<br /> +<i>Michael Armstrong, The Life and Adventures of</i>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a> +<br /> +<i>Middlemarch</i>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a> +<br /> +<i>Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love</i>, <a href="#Page_198">198-199</a> +<br /> +<i>Mill on the Floss</i>, The, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a> +<br /> +Mitford, Mary Russell, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189-196</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +<i>Monastery, The</i>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a> +<br /> +<i>Monk, The</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +Montagu, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Montagu, Mary Wortley, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +<i>Monthly Review</i>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a> +<br /> +<i>Monumental Effigies of Great Britain</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +Moore, Thomas, <a href="#Page_131">131</a> +<br /> +<i>Moorland Cottage, The</i>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a> +<br /> +More, Hannah, <a href="#Page_62">62-72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> +<br /> +Morgan, Lady, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +<i>Music, History of</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> +<br /> +<i>Mysteries of Udolpho, The</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Nature and Art</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85-86</a> +<br /> +<i>Nature's Pictures Drawn by Fancy's Pencil</i>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a> +<br /> +<i>New Atalantis</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19-23</a> +<br /> +Newcastle, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3-13</a> +<br /> +Newcastle, Duke of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a> +<br /> +<i>Newcastle, Life of the Duke of</i>, <a href="#Page_10">10-12</a> +<br /> +<i>Noctes Ambrosianæ</i>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a> +<br /> +<i>Nocturnal Reverie</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +North, Christopher (John James Wilson), <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> +<i>North and South</i>, <a href="#Page_281">281-284</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +<i>Northanger Abbey</i>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160-161</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a> +<br /> +<i>Notre Dame de Paris</i>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +"Novelists' Library," 121 +<br /> +<i>Novels by Eminent Hands</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> +<br /> +<i>Nun, The, or the Perjured Duty</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>O'Briens, The, and the O'Flahertys</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130-131</a> +<br /> +<i>O'Donnel</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129-130</a> +<br /> +<i>Odyssey</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a> +<br /> +<i>Old English Baron, The</i>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a> +<br /> +<i>Old Manor House, The</i>, <a href="#Page_77">77-78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a> +<br /> +Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a> +<br /> +Opie, Mrs. Amelia, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149-153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Orange Girl of St. Giles's, The</i>, <a href="#Page_69">69-70</a> +<br /> +Ormond, <a href="#Page_113">113-115</a> +<br /> +<i>Oroonoko</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13-18</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a> +<br /> +<i>Orphans, The</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> +<br /> +<i>Othello</i>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a> +<br /> +Ouidà, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +<i>Our Village</i>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190-193</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a> +<br /> +Owenson, Sydney, <i>see</i> Morgan, Lady +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pamela</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a> +<br /> +<i>Paradise Lost</i>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +Pardoe, Julia, <a href="#Page_231">231-234</a> +<br /> +<i>Pastor's Fireside, The</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a> +<br /> +<i>Patronage</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a> +<br /> +<i>Pelham</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a> +<br /> +<i>Pendennis</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a> +<br /> +<i>Perkin Warbeck, The Fortunes of</i>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a> +<br /> +<i>Persuasion</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162-164</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a> +<br /> +Phillips, Wendell, <a href="#Page_244">244</a> +<br /> +<i>Pickwick Papers</i>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> +<br /> +<i>Pilgrimages to English Shrines</i>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> +<br /> +<i>Pin Money</i>, <a href="#Page_222">222-223</a> +<br /> +Plato, <a href="#Page_11">11</a> +<br /> +<i>Political Economy Tales</i>, <a href="#Page_242">242-243</a> +<br /> +<i>Polly Honeycomb</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a> +<br /> +Pope, Alexander, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> +<br /> +Porter, Anna Maria, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137-140</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +Porter, Jane, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140-148</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +<i>Preferment, or My Uncle the Earl</i>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> +<br /> +Prévost, Abbé, <a href="#Page_42">42</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> +<i>Pride and Prejudice</i>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158-159</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a> +<br /> +Princess of Clèves, The, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Professor, The</i>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Quarterly Review</i>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Radcliffe, Ann, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89-105</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a> +<br /> +Rambouillet, Marquise de, <a href="#Page_3">3</a> +<br /> +Ramée, Louise de la, <i>see</i> Ouidà +<br /> +Ramsey, Charlotte, <i>see</i> Lennox, Charlotte +<br /> +<i>Rape of the Lock</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a> +<br /> +<i>Rasselas</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a> +<br /> +<i>Recess, The</i>, <a href="#Page_105">105-106</a> +<br /> +Reeve, Clara, <a href="#Page_88">88-89</a> +<br /> +<i>Refugee in America, The</i>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a> +<br /> +Richardson, Samuel, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a> +<br /> +<i>Rights of Man</i>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a> +<br /> +<i>Rights of Woman, Vindication of the</i>, see <i>Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i> +<br /> +Ritchie, Mrs., <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a> +<br /> +<i>Rival Beauties, The</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +<i>Rivals, The</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a> +<br /> +<i>Rob Roy</i>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a> +<br /> +<i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a> +<br /> +Rogers, Samuel, <a href="#Page_201">201</a> +<br /> +<i>Romance of the Forest, The</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a> +<br /> +<i>Romance of the Harem, The</i>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> +<br /> +<i>Romance of the West, A</i>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> +<br /> +Romeo and Juliet, <a href="#Page_275">275</a> +<br /> +<i>Romola</i>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a> +<br /> +Rousseau, Jean Jacques, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a> +<br /> +Ruskin, <a href="#Page_195">195</a> +<br /> +<i>Ruth</i>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284-285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>St. Ronan's Well</i>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> +<br /> +Saintsbury, George, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a> +<br /> +Sand, George, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> +<br /> +Sappho, <a href="#Page_1">1</a> +<br /> +Schlosser, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> +<br /> +Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a> +<br /> +<i>Scottish Chiefs, The</i>, <a href="#Page_142">142-145</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> +Scudèri, Mlle. de, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a> +<br /> +<i>Seasons, The</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +<i>Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania, The</i>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a> +<br /> +<i>Selborne, The Natural History and Antiquities of</i>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a> +<br /> +<i>Self-Control</i>, <a href="#Page_154">154-155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a> +<br /> +<i>Sense and Sensibility</i>, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a> +<br /> +Sévigné, Madame, de, <a href="#Page_3">3</a> +<br /> +Shakespeare, William, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_275">275</a> +<br /> +<i>Shakespeare, Essay on the Genius of</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> +<br /> +Shaw, Bernard, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> +<br /> +Shelley, Mary, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204-215</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +Shelley, Percy Bysshe, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-214</a> +<br /> +<i>Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, The</i>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a> +<br /> +Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39-42</a> +<br /> +Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a> +<br /> +<i>Shirley</i>, <a href="#Page_267">267-270</a> +<br /> +<i>Sicilian Romance, The</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a> +<br /> +<i>Sidney Biddulph, The Memoirs of Miss</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39-42</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a> +<br /> +<i>Silas Marner</i>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a> +<br /> +<i>Simple Story, A</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82-84</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Simple Susan</i>, <a href="#Page_126">126-127</a> +<br /> +<i>Simple Tales</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> +<br /> +<i>Sir Charles Grandison</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a> +<br /> +<i>Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative</i>, <a href="#Page_146">146-148</a> +<br /> +<i>Sister, The</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a> +<br /> +<i>Sketches by Boz</i>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a> +<br /> +<i>Sketches of English Character</i>, <a href="#Page_219">219-220</a> +<br /> +<i>Sketches of Irish Character</i>, <a href="#Page_196">196-197</a> +<br /> +Smith, Charlotte, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-82</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> +<br /> +Smith Russell, "Library of Old Authors," <i>see</i> "Library of Old Authors" +<br /> +Smollett, Tobias, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a> +<br /> +<i>Soldier of Lyons, The, a Tale of the Tuileries</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a> +<br /> +Sothern, Thomas, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a> +<br /> +Souza, Madame de, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +<i>Spectator Papers</i>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a> +<br /> +Staël, Madame de (Anne Louise Necker), <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a> +<br /> +Steele, Richard, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a> +<br /> +Sterne, Laurence, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> +<br /> +<i>Stories of the Irish Peasantry</i>, see <i>Irish Peasantry, Stories of the</i> +<br /> +Stothard, Charles, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +Stowe, Harriet Beecher, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Swift, Jonathan, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> +Swinburne, Charles Algernon, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> +<br /> +<i>Sybil</i>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a> +<br /> +<i>Sylvia's Lovers</i>, <a href="#Page_285">285-286</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Taine, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> +<br /> +<i>Talba, The, or Moor of Portugal</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +<i>Tale of Two Cities</i>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a> +<br /> +<i>Tales of Fashionable Life</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119-120</a> +<br /> +<i>Tales of my Landlord, The</i>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a> +<br /> +<i>Tales of Real Life</i>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a> +<br /> +<i>Tales that Never Die</i>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> +<br /> +<i>Tatler, The</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a> +<br /> +<i>Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The</i>, <a href="#Page_259">259-261</a> +<br /> +Tencin, Mme. de, <a href="#Page_262">262</a> +<br /> +Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a> +<br /> +Tess of the D'Urbervilles, <a href="#Page_284">284</a> +<br /> +Thackeray, Anna Isabella, <i>see</i> Ritchie, Mrs. +<br /> +Thackeray, William Makepeace, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a> +<br /> +<i>Thaddeus of Warsaw</i>, <a href="#Page_140">140-141</a> +<br /> +<i>Theresa Marchmont</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a> +<br /> +<i>Thomas the Rhymer</i>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a> +<br /> +Thrale, Mrs. (Mrs. Piozzi), <a href="#Page_48">48</a> +<br /> +<i>Three Paths, The</i>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>Tintern Abbey</i>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a> +<br /> +Tolstoi, Count Leo, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Tom Jones</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a> +<br /> +Tourgenieff, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> +<br /> +<i>Trelawny of Trelawne; or the Prophecy: a Legend of Cornwall</i>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> +<br /> +Trollope, Anthony, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +Trollope, Frances, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234-242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Udolpho, The Mysteries of</i>, see <i>Mysteries of Udolpho, The</i> +<br /> +<i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +<i>Undine</i>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Valperga: or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca</i>, <a href="#Page_207">207-210</a> +<br /> +<i>Vanity Fair</i>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a> +<br /> +<i>Venetia</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a> +<br /> +Verne, Jules, <a href="#Page_6">6</a> +<br /> +<i>Vicar of Wakefield, The</i>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> +<i>Vicar of Wrexhill, The</i>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a> +<br /> +<i>Village Politics: Addressed to all Mechanics, Journeymen, and Labourers in Great Britain. By Will Chip, a Country Carpenter</i>, <a href="#Page_64">64-65</a> +<br /> +<i>Villette</i>, <a href="#Page_270">270-273</a> +<br /> +<i>Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a> +<br /> +Vivian, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> +<br /> +<i>Vivian Grey</i>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a> +<br /> +Voltaire, François, <a href="#Page_73">73</a> +<br /> +<br /> +Wallace, <a href="#Page_143">143</a> +<br /> +Walpole, Horace, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a> +<br /> +<i>Wanderer, The, or Female Difficulties</i>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a> +<br /> +Ward, A. W., <a href="#Page_288">288</a> +<br /> +Ward, Mrs. Humphry, <a href="#Page_267">267</a> +<br /> +<i>Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak; a Legend of Devon</i>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a> +<br /> +<i>Waste Not, Want Not</i>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a> +<br /> +<i>Waverley</i>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a> +<br /> +<i>Waverley Novels</i>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a> +<br /> +Welsh, Charles, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> +<br /> +<i>Werner, or the Inheritance</i>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> +<br /> +<i>Westminster Review</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a> +<br /> +White, Gilbert, <a href="#Page_191">191</a> +<br /> +<i>White Hoods, The</i>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a> +<br /> +<i>Whole Duty of Man</i>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a> +<br /> +<i>Widow Barnaby</i>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +<i>Widow Married, The</i>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +<i>Widow Wedded, The, or the Barnabys in America</i>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> +<br /> +<i>Wild Irish Girl, The</i>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> +<br /> +<i>Will Chip, a Country Carpenter</i>, see <i>Village Politics</i> +<br /> +<i>Winchelsea, Lady</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +<i>Window in Thrums, The</i>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a> +<br /> +<i>Windsor Forest</i>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> +<br /> +<i>Wives and Daughters</i>, <a href="#Page_287">287-288</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Wollstonecraft, Mary, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a> +<br /> +Wood, Mrs. Henry, <a href="#Page_293">293</a> +<br /> +Wordsworth, William, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a> +<br /> +<i>Wuthering Heights</i>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a> +<br /> +<i>Wycherley, William</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Yèrè-Batan-Seraï</i>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a> +<br /> +Yonge, Charlotte Mary, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in English Fiction, by +Clara Helen Whitmore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34613-h.htm or 34613-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34613/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/34613.txt b/34613.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7a92c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/34613.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7621 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Woman's Work in English Fiction, by Clara Helen Whitmore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Woman's Work in English Fiction + From the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period + +Author: Clara Helen Whitmore + +Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34613] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Woman's Work in + English Fiction + + + From the Restoration to the + Mid-Victorian Period + + + By + Clara H. Whitmore, A.M. + + + G. P. Putnam's Sons + New York and London + The Knickerbocker Press + 1910 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1909 + BY + CLARA H. WHITMORE + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +PREFACE + + +The writings of many of the women considered in this volume have sunk +into an oblivion from which their intrinsic merit should have preserved +them. This is partly due to the fact that nearly all the books on +literature have been written from a man's stand-point. While in other +arts the tastes of men and women vary little, the choice of novels is to +a large degree determined by sex. Many men who acknowledge +unhesitatingly that Jane Austen is superior as an artist to Smollett, +will find more pleasure in the breezy adventures of _Roderick Random_ +than in the drawing-room atmosphere of _Emma_; while no woman can read a +novel of Smollett's without loathing, although she must acknowledge that +the Scottish writer is a man of genius. + +This book is written from a woman's viewpoint. Wherever my own judgment +has been different from the generally accepted one, as in the estimate +of some famous heroines, the point in question has been submitted to +other women, and not recorded unless it met with the approval of a +large number of women of cultivated taste. + +This work was first undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. E. Charlton +Black of Boston University for a Master's thesis, and it was due to his +appreciative words that it was enlarged into book form. I also wish to +thank Professor Ker of London University, and Dr. Henry A. Beers and Dr. +Wilbur L. Cross of Yale University for the help which I obtained from +them while a student in their classes. It is with the deepest sense of +gratitude that I acknowledge the assistance given to me in this work by +Mr. Charles Welsh, at whose suggestion the scope of the book was +enlarged, and many parts strengthened. I wish especially to thank him +for calling my attention to _The Cheap Repository_ of Hannah More, and +to the literary value of Maria Edgeworth's stories for children. + +It is my only hope that this book may in a small measure fill a want +which a school-girl recently expressed to me: "Our Club wanted to study +about women, but we have searched the libraries and found nothing." + + C. H. W. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE (1624-1674)-- + APHRA BEHN (1640-1689)--MARY MANLEY (1672-1724) 1 + + CHAPTER II. + SARAH FIELDING (1710-1768)--ELIZA HAYWOOD (1693-1756)-- + CHARLOTTE LENNOX (1720-1766)--FRANCES SHERIDAN (1724-1766) 24 + + CHAPTER III. + FRANCES BURNEY (1752-1840) 45 + + CHAPTER IV. + HANNAH MORE (1745-1833) 62 + + CHAPTER V. + CHARLOTTE SMITH (1749-1806)--ELIZABETH INCHBALD (1753-1821) 73 + + CHAPTER VI. + CLARA REEVE (1725-1803)--ANN RADCLIFFE (1764-1822)--SOPHIA + LEE (1750-1824)--HARRIET LEE (1766-1851) 88 + + CHAPTER VII. + MARIA EDGEWORTH (1767-1849)--LADY MORGAN (1783-1859) 111 + + CHAPTER VIII. + ELIZABETH HAMILTON (1758-1816)--ANNA PORTER (1780-1832)--JANE + PORTER (1776-1850) 133 + + CHAPTER IX. + AMELIA OPIE (1769-1853)--MARY BRUNTON (1778-1818) 149 + + CHAPTER X. + JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817) 157 + + CHAPTER XI. + SUSAN EDMONSTONE FERRIER (1782-1854)--MARY RUSSELL MITFORD + (1787-1855)--ANNA MARIA HALL (1800-1881) 179 + + CHAPTER XII. + LADY CAROLINE LAMB (1785-1828)--MARY SHELLEY (1797-1851) 200 + + CHAPTER XIII. + CATHERINE GRACE FRANCES GORE (1799-1861)--ANNA ELIZA BRAY + (1790-1883) 216 + + CHAPTER XIV. + JULIA PARDOE (1806-1862)--FRANCES TROLLOPE (1780-1863)-- + HARRIET MARTINEAU (1802-1876) 231 + + CHAPTER XV. + EMILY BRONTE (1818-1848)--ANNE BRONTE (1820-1849)-- + CHARLOTTE BRONTE (1816-1855) 247 + + CHAPTER XVI. + ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL (1810-1865) 274 + + CONCLUSION 293 + + INDEX 297 + + + + + WOMAN'S WORK IN + ENGLISH FICTION + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Duchess of Newcastle. Mrs. Behn. Mrs. Manley + + +In the many volumes containing the records of the past, the names of few +women appear, and the number is still smaller of those who have won fame +in art or literature. Sappho, however, has shown that poetic feeling and +expression are not denied the sex; Jeanne d'Arc was chosen to free +France; Mrs. Somerville excelled in mathematics; Maria Mitchell ranked +among the great astronomers; Rosa Bonheur had the stroke of a master. +These women possessed genius, and one is tempted to ask why more women +have not left enduring work, especially in the realm of art. The Madonna +and Child, what a subject for a woman's brush! Yet the joy of maternity +which shines in a mother's eyes has seldom been expressed by her in +words or on canvas. It was left for a man, William Blake, to write some +of our sweetest songs of childhood. + +But as soon as the novel appeared, a host of women writers sprang up. +Women have always been story-tellers. Long before Homer sang of the fall +of Troy, the Grecian matrons at their spinning related to their maids +the story of Helen's infidelity; and, as they thought of their husbands +and sons who had fallen for her sake, the story did not lack in fervour. +But the minstrels have always had this advantage over the story-tellers: +their words, sung to the lyre, were crystallised in rhythmic form, so +that they resisted the action of time, while only the substance of the +stories, not the words which gave them beauty and power, could be +retained, and consequently they crumbled away. When the novel took on +literary form, women began to write. They were not imitators of men, but +opened up new paths of fiction, in many of which they excelled. + +The first woman to essay prose fiction as an art was Margaret, Queen of +Navarre. In the seventy-two tales of _The Heptameron_, a book written +before the dawn of realism, she related many anecdotes of her brother, +Francis the First, and his courtiers. Woman's permanent influence over +the novel began about 1640, and was due directly to the Hotel +Rambouillet, in whose grand _salon_ there mingled freely for half a +century the noblest minds of France. This _salon_ was presided over by +the Marquise de Rambouillet, who had left the licentious court of Henry +the Fourth, and had formed here in her home between the Louvre and the +Tuileries a little academy, where Corneille read his tragedies before +they were published, and Bousset preached his first sermon, while among +the listeners were the beautiful Duchess de Longueville, Madame de +Lafayette, Madame de Sevigne and Mademoiselle de Scuderi, besides other +persons of royal birth or of genius. The ladies of this _salon_ became +the censors of the manners, the literature, and even the language of +France. Here was the first group of women writers whose fame extended +beyond their own country, and has lasted, though somewhat dimmed, to the +present. Since the seventeenth century the influence of women novelists +has been ever widening. + +In England, women entered the domain of literature later than in France, +Spain, or Italy. Not until the Restoration did they take any active part +in the world of letters; and not until the reign of George the Third did +they make any marked contribution to fiction. + +The first woman writer of prose fiction in England was the thrice noble +and illustrious Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. During the +Commonwealth, the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle had lived in exile, but +with the restoration of Charles the Second, in 1660, they returned to +London, where the Duchess soon became a notable personage. Crowds +gathered in the park merely to see her pass, attracted partly by her +fame as a writer, partly by the singularities she affected. Her black +coach furnished with white curtains and adorned with silver trimmings +instead of gilt, with the footmen dressed in long black coats, was +readily distinguished from other carriages in the park. Her +peculiarities of dress were no less marked. Her long black +_juste-au-corps_, her hair hanging in curls about her bared neck, her +much beplumed velvet cap of her own designing, were objects of ridicule +to the court wits, who even asserted that she wore more than the usual +number of black patches upon her comely face. + +More singular than her habiliments were her pretentions as a woman of +letters, which caused the courtiers to laugh at her conceit. She was +evidently aware of this failing as she writes in her _Autobiography_: +"I fear my ambition inclines to vain-glory, for I am very ambitious; +yet 't is neither for beauty, wit, titles, wealth, or power, but as they +are steps to raise me to Fame's tower, which is to live by remembrance +in after-ages." + +But, notwithstanding her detractors, she received sufficient praise to +foster her belief in her own genius. Her plays were well received. Her +poems were declared by her admirers equal to Shakespeare's. Her +philosophical works, which she dedicated to the great universities of +Oxford and Cambridge, were accepted with fulsome flattery of their +author. When she visited the Royal Society at Arundel House, the Lord +President met her at the door, and, with mace carried before him, +escorted her into the room, where many experiments were performed for +her pleasure. In 1676, a folio volume was published, entitled _Letters +and Poems in Honour of the Incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess of +Newcastle_, written by men of high rank and of learning, with the +following dedication by the University of Cambridge: + + To Margaret the First: + Princess of Philosophers: + Who hath dispelled errors: + Appeased the difference of opinions: + And restored Peace + To Learning's Commonwealth. + +Yet this praise was not all flattery, for the scholarly Evelyn always +speaks of her with respect, and after visiting her writes, "I was much +pleased with the extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and discourse of +the Duchess." + +Amid the arid wastes of her philosophical works are green spots +enlivened by good sense and humour that have a peculiar charm. At the +time when the trained minds of the Royal Society were broadening +scientific knowledge by careful experiments, this lady, with practically +no education, sat herself down to write her thoughts upon the great +subjects of matter and motion, mind and body. She was emboldened to +publish her opinions, for, as she says: "Although it is probable, that +some of the Opinions of Ancient Philosophers in Ancient times are +erroneous, yet not all, neither are all Modern Opinions Truths, but +truly I believe, there are more Errors in the One than Truth in the +Other." Some of her explanations are very artless, as when she decides +that passions are created in the heart and not in the head, because +"Passion and Judgment seldom agree." + +Her philosophical works are often compounded of fiction and fact. Her +book called _The Description of a New World called the Blazing World_ +reminds one of some of the marvellous stories of Jules Verne. According +to the story a merchant fell in love with a lady while she was gathering +shells on the sea-coast, and carried her away in a light vessel. They +were driven to the north pole, thence to the pole of another world which +joined it. The conjunction of these two poles doubled the cold, so that +it was insupportable, and all died but the lady. Bear-men conducted her +to a warmer clime, and presented her to the emperor of the Blazing +World, whose palace was of gold, with floors of diamonds. The emperor +married the lady, and, at her desire to study philosophy, sent for the +Duchess of Newcastle, "a plain and rational writer," to be her teacher. +The story at this point rambles into philosophy. + +_Nature's Pictures drawn by Fancy's Pencil_ contains many suggestions +for poems and novels. Particularly beautiful is the fragment of a story +of a lord and lady who were forbidden to love in this world, but who +died the same night, and met on the shores of the Styx. "Their souls did +mingle and intermix as liquid essences, whereby their souls became as +one." They preferred to enjoy themselves thus rather than go to Elysium, +where they might be separated, and where the talk of the shades was +always of the past, which to them was full of sorrow. + +The Duchess of Newcastle wrote a series of letters on beauty, eloquence, +time, theology, servants, wit, and kindred subjects, often illustrated +by a little story, reminding the reader of some of the _Spectator_ +papers, which delighted the next generation. As in those papers, +characters were introduced. Mrs. P.I., the Puritan dame, appears in +several letters. She had received sanctification, and consequently +considered all vanities of dress, such as curls, bare necks, black +patches, fans, ribbons, necklaces, and pendants, temptations of Satan +and the signs of damnation. In a subsequent letter she becomes a +preaching sister, and the Duchess has been to hear her, and thus +comments upon the meeting: "There were a great many holy sisters and +holy brethren met together, where many took their turns to preach; for +as they are for liberty of conscience, so they are for liberty of +preaching. But there were more sermons than learning, and more words +than reason." + +This is the first example of the use of letters in English fiction. In +the next century it was adopted by Richardson for his three great +novels, _Pamela_, _Clarissa Harlowe_, and _Sir Charles Grandison_; it +was used by Smollett in the novel of _Humphry Clinker_, and became a +popular mode of composition with many lesser writers. + +But posterity is chiefly indebted to the Duchess of Newcastle for her +life of her husband and the autobiography that accompanies it. Of the +former Charles Lamb wrote that it was a jewel for which "no casket is +rich enough." Of the beaux and belles who were drawn by the ready pens +of the playwrights of the court of Charles the Second none are worthy of +a place beside the Duke of Newcastle and his incomparable wife. + +With rare felicity she has described her home life in London with her +brothers and sisters before her marriage. Their chief amusements were a +ride in their coaches about the streets of the city, a visit to Spring +Gardens and Hyde Park; and sometimes a sail in the barges on the river, +where they had music and supper. She announces with dignity her first +meeting with the Duke of Newcastle in Paris, where she was maid of +honour to the Queen Mother of England: "He was pleased to take some +particular notice of me, and express more than an ordinary affection for +me; insomuch that he resolved to choose me for his second wife." And in +another place she writes: "I could not, nor had not the power to refuse +him, by reason my affections were fixed on him, and he was the only +person I ever was in love with. Neither was I ashamed to own it, but +gloried therein." Here is the charm of brevity. Richardson would have +blurred these clearly cut sentences by eight volumes. + +In the biography of her husband she relates faithfully his services to +Charles the First at the head of an army which he himself had raised; +his final defeat near York by the Parliamentary forces; and his escape +to the continent in 1644. Then followed his sixteen years of exile in +Paris, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, where "he lived freely and nobly," +entertaining many persons of quality, although he was often in extreme +poverty, and could obtain credit merely by the love and respect which +his presence inspired. What a sad picture is given of the return of the +exiles to their estates, which had been laid waste in the Civil War and +later confiscated by Cromwell! But how the greatness of the true +gentleman shines through it all, who, as he viewed one of his parks, +seven of which had been completely destroyed, simply said, "He had been +in hopes it would not have been so much defaced as he found it." + +In the closing chapter the Duchess gives _Discourses Gathered from the +Mouth of my noble Lord and Husband_. These show both sound sense and a +broad view of affairs. She writes: + + "I have heard My Lord say, + + I + + "That those which command the Wealth of a Kingdom, command + the hearts and hands of the People. + + * * * * * + + XXXIII + + "That many Laws do rather entrap than help the subject." + +Clarendon, who thought but poorly of the Duke's abilities as a general, +gives the same characterisation of him: a man of exact proportion, +pleasant, witty, free but courtly in his manner, who loved all that were +his friends, and hated none that were his enemies, and who had proved +his loyalty to his king by the sacrifice of his property and at the risk +of his life. + +Perhaps the Duchess of Newcastle has unwittingly drawn a true +representation of the great body of English cavaliers, and has partly +removed the stain which the immoralities of the court afterward put upon +the name. These biographies give a story of marital felicity with all +the characteristics of the domestic novel. + +At this time the English novel was a crude, formless thing, without +dignity in literature. The Duchess of Newcastle, who aspired to be +ranked with Homer and Plato, would have spurned a place among writers of +romance, although her genius was primarily that of the novelist. She +constantly thought of plots, which she jotted down at random, her common +method of composition. She has described characters, and has left many +bright pictures of the manners and customs of her age. Her style of +writing is better than that of many of her more scholarly +contemporaries, who studied Latin models and strove to imitate them. She +wrote as she thought and felt, so that her style is simple when not lost +in the mazes of philosophical speculation. She had all the requisites +necessary to write the great novel of the Restoration. + +But in the next century her voluminous writings were forgotten, and the +casual visitor to Westminster Abbey who paused before the imposing +monument in the north transept read with amused indifference the quaint +inscription which marks the tomb of the noble pair; that she was the +second wife of the Duke of Newcastle, that her name was Margaret Lucas; +"a noble family, for all the brothers were valiant and all the sisters +were virtuous." To Charles Lamb belongs the credit of discovering the +worth of her writings. Delighting in oddities, but quick to discern +truth from falsehood, he loved to pore over the old folios containing +her works, and could not quite forgive his sister Mary for speaking +disrespectfully of "the intellectuals of a dear favourite of mine of the +last century but one--the thrice noble, chaste and virtuous, but again +somewhat fantastical and original-brained, generous Margaret Newcastle." + +Her desire for immortality is nearer its fulfilment to-day than at any +previous time. A third edition of the _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_ +was published in 1675, the year after her death. Nearly two hundred +years later, in 1872, it was included in Russell Smith's "Library of Old +Authors," and since then a modernised English edition and a French +edition of this book have been published. No one can read this biography +without feeling the charm of the quaint, childlike personality of the +Duchess of Newcastle. + +While all London was talking of the "mad Duchess of Newcastle," another +lady was living there no less eminent as a writer, but so distinguished +for her wit, freedom of temper, and brilliant conversation, that even +the great Dryden sought her friendship, and Sothern, Rochester, and +Wycherley were among her admirers. She was named "Astrea," and hailed as +the wonder and glory of her sex. But Aphra Behn's talents brought her a +more substantial reward than fame. Her plays were presented to crowded +houses; her novels were in every library, and she obtained a large +income from her writings; she was the first English woman to earn a +living by her pen. + +In her early youth, Mrs. Behn lived for a time at Surinam in Dutch +Guiana, where her father was governor. On one of the plantations was a +negro in whose fate she became deeply interested. She learned from his +own lips about his life in Africa, and was herself an eye witness of the +indignities and tortures he suffered in slavery. She was so deeply +impressed by his horrible fate, that on her return to London she related +his story to King Charles the Second and at his request elaborated it +into the novel _Oroonoko_. + +According to the story, Oroonoko, an African warrior, was married to +Imoinda, a beautiful maiden of his own people. His grandfather, a +powerful chieftain, also fell in love with the beautiful Imoinda and +placed her in his harem. When he found that her love for Oroonoko still +continued, he sold her secretly into slavery and her rightful husband +could learn nothing of her whereabouts. Later Oroonoko and his men were +invited by the captain of a Dutch trading ship to dine on board his +vessel. They accepted the invitation, but, after dinner, the captain +seized his guests, threw them into chains, and carried them to the West +Indies, where he sold them as slaves. Here Oroonoko found his wife, +whose loss he had deeply mourned, and they were reunited. Oroonoko, +however, indignant at the treachery practised against himself and his +men, incited the slaves to a revolt. They were overcome, and Oroonoko +was tied to a whipping-post and severely punished. As he found that he +could not escape, he resolved to die. But rather than leave Imoinda to +the cruelty of her owners, he determined to slay first his wife, then +his enemies, lastly himself. He told his plans to Imoinda, who willingly +accompanied him into the forest, where he put her to death. When he saw +his wife dead at his feet, his grief was so great that it deprived him +of the strength to take vengeance on his enemies. He was again captured +and led to a stake, where faggots were placed about him. The author has +described his death with a faithfulness to detail that carries with it +the impress of truth: "'My Friends, am I to die, or to be whipt?' And +they cry'd, 'Whipt! no, you shall not escape so well.' And then he +reply'd, smiling, 'A blessing on thee'; and assured them they need not +tie him, for he would stand fix'd like a Rock, and endure Death so as +should encourage them to die: 'But if you whip me' [said he], 'be sure +you tie me fast.'" + +The popularity of the book was instantaneous. It passed through several +editions. It was translated into French and German, and adapted for the +German stage, while Sothern put it on the stage in England. It created +almost as great a sensation as did _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ two hundred years +later. Like Mrs. Stowe's novel it had a strong moral influence, as it +was among the earliest efforts to call the attention of Europe to the +evils of the African slave trade. Moreover, this her first novel gave +Mrs. Behn an acknowledged place as a writer. + +_Oroonoko_ marks a distinct advance in English fiction. Nearly all +novels before this had consisted of a series of stories held together by +a loosely formed plot running through a number of volumes, sometimes +only five, but occasionally, as in _The Grand Cyrus_, filling ten +quartos. Their form was such that like the _Thousand and One Nights_ +they could be continued indefinitely. Most of these novels belonged +either to the pastoral romance or the historical allegory. In the +former the ladies and gentlemen who in a desultory sort of way carried +on the plot were disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses and lived in +idyllic state in Arcadia. In the latter they masqueraded under the names +of kings and queens of antiquity and entered with the flourish of +trumpets and the sound of drums. + +_Oroonoko_ was the first English novel with a well developed plot. It +moves along rapidly, without digression, to its tragic conclusion. Not +until Fielding wrote _Joseph Andrews_ was the plot of any English novel +so definitely wrought. The lesser writer had a slight advantage over the +greater. Mrs. Behn's novel is constructed upon dramatic lines, so that +it holds the interest more closely to the main characters, and the end +is awaited with intense expectation; while Fielding chose the epic form, +which is more discursive, and _Joseph Andrews_ like all his novels is +excessively tame, almost hackneyed in its conclusion. Mrs. Behn's black +hero is the first distinctly drawn character in English fiction, the +first one that has any marked personality. Sometimes the enthusiasm with +which he is described brings a smile to the lips of the modern reader +and reminds one of the heroic savages of James Fenimore Cooper and Helen +Hunt Jackson. She writes of him: "He was pretty tall, but of a Shape the +most exact that can be Fancy'd: The most famous Statuary could not form +the Figure of a Man more admirably turned from Head to Foot.... There +was no one Grace wanting, that bears the Standard of true Beauty." And +thus she continues the description in the superlative degree. + +But the story is for the most part realistic. Although the scenes in +Africa show the influence of the French heroic novels, as if the author +were afraid to leave her story in its simple truth but must adorn it +with purple and ermine, as soon as it is transferred to Surinam, where +Mrs. Behn had lived, it becomes real. It has local colouring, at that +time an almost unknown attribute. It has the atmosphere of the tropics. +The descriptions are vivid, and often photographic. Occasionally they +are exaggerated, but few travellers to a region of which their hearers +know nothing have been able to resist the temptation to deviate from the +exact truth. But the whole novel, even at this late day, leaves one with +the impression that it is a true biography. + +In the history of the English novel, in which _Pamela_ is given an +important place as the morning star which heralded the great light of +English realism about to burst upon the world, this well arranged, +definite, picturesque story of _Oroonoko_, whose author was reposing +quietly within the hallowed precincts of Westminster Abbey fifty years +before Richardson introduced _Pamela_ to an admiring public, should not +be forgotten. Before _Pamela_ was published, the complete works of Mrs. +Behn passed through eight editions. The plots of all her novels are well +constructed, with little extraneous matter, but with the exception of +Oroonoko the characters are shadowy beings, many of whom meet with a +violent death. _The Nun or the Perjured Duty_ has only five characters, +all of whom perish in the meshes of love. _The Fair Jilt or the Amours +of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_, founded on incidents that came to the +author's knowledge during her residence in Antwerp, is well fitted for +the columns of a modern yellow journal; the beautiful heroine causes the +death of everyone who stands in the way of her love or her ambition, but +she finally repents and lives happy ever after. Mrs. Behn's style is +always careless, owing to her custom of writing while entertaining +friends. + +A great change took place in the public taste during the next hundred +years, so that Mrs. Behn's novels, plays, and poems fell into disrepute. +Sir Walter Scott tells the story of his grand-aunt who expressed a +desire to see again Mrs. Behn's novels, which she had read with delight +in her youth. He sent them to her sealed and marked "private and +confidential." The next time he saw her, she gave them back with the +words: + +"Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn, and, if you will take my advice, put +her in the fire, for I find it impossible to get through the very first +novel. But is it not a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and +upward, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which sixty +years ago I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles, +consisting of the first and most creditable society in London?" + +Mrs. Behn has been accused of great license in her conduct and of gross +immorality in her writings. Her friend and biographer says of the +former: "For my part I knew her intimately, and never saw ought +unbecoming the just modesty of our sex, though more free and gay than +the folly of the precise will allow." For the latter the fashion must be +blamed more than she. Mrs. Behn was not actuated by the high moral +principles of Mademoiselle de Scuderi and Madame de Lafayette, with whom +love was an ennobling passion, nor was she writing for the refined men +and women of the Hotel Rambouillet; she was striving to earn a living by +pleasing the court of Charles the Second, and in that she was eminently +successful. + + * * * * * + +Nearly a quarter of a century after the death of Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manley +published anonymously the first two volumes of the _New Atlantis_, the +book by which she is chiefly known, under the title of _Secret Memoirs +and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of both Sexes from the New +Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean_. Mrs. Manley was a Tory, and +she peopled the New Atalantis with members of the Whig party under +Marlborough as Prince Fortunatus. The book is written in the form of a +conversation carried on by Astrea, Virtue, and Intelligence, a +personification of the _Court Gazette_. They described the Whig leaders +so accurately, and related the scandal of the court so faithfully, that, +although fictitious names were used, no key was needed to recognise the +personages in the story. + +The publisher and printer were arrested for libel, but Mrs. Manley came +forward and owned the authorship. In her trial she was placed under a +severe cross-examination by Lord Sunderland, who attempted to learn +where she had obtained her information. She persisted in her statement +that no real characters were meant, that it was all a work of +imagination, but if it bore any resemblance to truth it must have come +to her by inspiration. Upon Lord Sunderland's objecting to this +statement, on the grounds that so immoral a book bore no trace of divine +impulse, she replied that there were evil angels as well as good, who +might possess equal powers of inspiration. The book was published in +May, 1709; in the following February, she was discharged by order of +the Queen's Bench. + +Soon after her discharge from court, she wrote a third and fourth volume +of the _New Atalantis_ under the title, _Memoirs of Europe toward the +Close of the Eighth Century written by Eginardus, Secretary and Favorite +to Charlemagne, and done into English, by the Translator of the New +Atalantis_. Here she has followed the French models. There is a loosely +constructed plot, and the characters tell a series of stories. Many of +the writers of Queen Anne's reign are described with none of that lustre +that surrounds them now, but as they appeared to a cynical woman who +knew them well. She refers to Steele as Don Phaebo, and ridicules his +search for the philosopher's stone; and laments that Addison, whom she +calls Maro, should prostitute his talents for gold, when he might become +a second Vergil. + +Mrs. Manley had been well trained to write a book like the _New +Atalantis_. At sixteen, an age when Addison and Steele were at the +Charterhouse preparing for Oxford, her father, Sir Roger Manley, died. A +cousin, taking advantage of her helplessness, deceived her by a false +marriage, and after three years abandoned her. Upon this she entered the +household of the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles the +Second, who soon tired of her and dismissed her from her service. She +then began to write, and by her plays and political articles soon won an +acknowledged place among the writers of Grub Street. + +From the many references to her in the letters and journals of the +period, she seems to have been popular with the writers of both +political parties. Swift writes to Stella that she is a very generous +person "for one of that sort," which many little incidents prove. She +dedicated her play _Lucius_ to Steele, with whom she was on alternate +terms of enmity and friendship, as a public retribution for her ridicule +of him in the _New Atalantis_, saying that "scandal between Whig and +Tory goes for not." Steele, equally generous, wrote a prologue for the +play, perhaps in retribution for some of the harsh criticisms of her in +the _Tatler_. All readers of Pope remember the reference to her in the +_Rape of the Lock_, where Lord Petre exclaims that his honour, name and +praise shall live + + As long as Atalantis shall be read. + +Although Mrs. Manley's pen was constantly and effectively employed in +the interest of the Tory party, she being at one time the editor of the +_Examiner_, the Tory organ, none of her writings had the popularity of +the _New Atalantis_. It went through seven editions and was translated +into the French. The book has no intrinsic merit; its language is +scurrilous and obscene; but it appealed to the eager curiosity of the +public concerning the private immoralities of men and women who were +prominent at court. Human nature in its pages furnishes a contemptible +spectacle. + +The _New Atalantis_ has now, however, assumed a permanent place in the +history of fiction. This species of writing had been common, in France, +but it was the first English novel in which political and personal +scandal formed the groundwork of a romance. Swift followed its general +plan in _Gulliver's Travels_, placing his political enemies in public +office in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, only he so wrought upon them with +his imagination that he gave to the world a finished work of art, while +Mrs. Manley has left only the raw material with which the artist works. +Smollett's political satire, _Adventures of an Atom_, was also suggested +by the _New Atalantis_, but here the earlier writer has surpassed the +later. All three of these writers took a low and cynical view of +humanity. + +The women novelists who directly followed Mrs. Manley did not have her +strength, but they had a delicacy that has given to their writings a +subtle charm. From the time of Sarah Fielding to the present threatened +reaction the writings of women have been marked by chastity of thought +and purity of expression. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Sarah Fielding. Mrs. Lennox. Mrs. Haywood. Mrs. Sheridan + + +About the middle of the eighteenth century, some interesting novels were +written by women, but their fame was so overshadowed by the early +masters of English fiction, who were then writing, that they have been +almost forgotten. For in 1740 _Pamela_ was published, the first novel of +Samuel Richardson; in 1771, _Humphry Clinker_ appeared, the last novel +of Tobias Smollett; and during the thirty-one years between these two +dates all the books of Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett were +given to the world, and determined the nature of the English novel. The +plot of most of their fifteen realistic novels is practically the same. +The hero falls in love with a beautiful young lady, not over seventeen, +and there is a conflict between lust and chastity. The hero, balked of +his prey, travels up and down the world, where he meets with a series of +adventures, all very much alike, and all bearing very little on the main +plot. At last fate leads the dashing hero to the church door, where he +confers a ring on the fair heroine, a paltry piece of gold, the only +reward for her fidelity, with the hero thrown in, much the worse for +wear, and the curtain falls with the sound of the wedding bells in the +distance. + +The range of these novels is narrow. They describe a world in which the +chief occupation is eating, drinking, swearing, gambling, and fighting. +Their chief artistic excellence is the strength and vigour with which +these low scenes are described. Sidney Lanier says of them: "They play +upon life as upon a violin without a bridge, in the deliberate endeavour +to get the most depressing tones possible from the instrument." And +Taine, who could hardly endure any of them, writes of Fielding what he +implies of the others: "One thing is wanted in your strongly-built +folks--refinement; the delicate dreams, enthusiastic elevation, and +trembling delicacy exist in nature equally with coarse vigour, noisy +hilarity, and frank kindness." + +The women who essayed the art of fiction during these years did not have +so firm a grasp of the pen as their male contemporaries, and they have +added no portraits to the gallery of fiction; but they saw and recorded +many interesting scenes of British life which quite escaped the +quick-sighted Fielding, or Sterne with the microscopic eyes. + +In 1744, when Richardson had written only one book, and Fielding had +published only two, before _Tom Jones_ or _Clarissa Harlowe_ had seen +the light of day, Sarah Fielding published _David Simple_, under the +title of _The Adventures of David Simple, containing an account of his +travels through the cities of London and Westminster in the search of a +real friend, by a Lady_. The author commenced the story as a satire on +society. For a long time David's search is unsuccessful. Although he +changed his lodgings every week, he could hear of no one who could be +trusted. Many, to be sure, dropped hints of their own excellence, and +the pity that they had to live with inferior neighbours. Among these was +Mr. Spatter, who introduced him to Mr. Varnish. The former saw the +faults of people through a magnifying glass; while the latter, when he +mentioned a person's failings, added, "He was sure they had some good in +them." But David soon learned that Mr. Varnish was no readier to assist +a friend in need than the fault-finding Mr. Spatter. + +Like her brother Henry, Sarah Fielding is often sarcastic. In one of the +chapters she leaves David to his sufferings, "lest it should be +thought," she added, "I am so ignorant of the world as not to know the +proper time of forsaking people." But the pessimistic vein of the first +volume changes to a more optimistic tone in the second. David, in his +search for one friend, finds three. Fortunately these consist of a +brother and sister and a lady in love with the brother. Even at this +early time, an author had no doubts as to how a novel should end. The +heading of the last chapter in the book informs us that it contains two +weddings, "and consequently the Conclusion of the Book." + +In its construction, the plot is similar to that of the other novels of +the period. David has plenty of time at his disposal, and listens with +more patience than the reader to the detailed history of all the people +he meets, and often begs a casual acquaintance to favour him with the +story of his life. + +But Sarah Fielding's chief charm to her women readers is the feminine +view of her times. In _David Simple_ we have the pleasure of travelling +through England, but with a woman as our guide. As Harry Fielding +travelled between Bath and London, the fair reader wonders what he +reported to Mrs. Fielding of what he had seen and heard. Surely at these +various inns there must have been some by-play of real affection, some +act of modest kindness, some incident of delicate humour. Did he regale +Mrs. Fielding with the scenes he has described for his readers? Probably +when she asked him if anything had happened _en route_, he merely yawned +and replied, "Oh, nothing worth while." He had too much reverence for +his wife to repeat these low scenes to her, and we suspect he had eyes +for no others. What would Addison or Steele have seen in the same place? + +Sarah Fielding also takes her characters on a stage-coach journey, but +here we sit beside the fair heroine, an intelligent lady, and gaze at +the men who sit opposite her. There is the Butterfly with his hair +pinned up in blue papers, wearing a laced waistcoat, and humming an +Italian air. He admires nothing but the ladies, and offered some little +familiarity to our heroine, which she repulsed; upon this he paid her +the greatest respect imaginable, being convinced, as she would not +suffer any intimacy from _him_, she must be one of the most virtuous +women that had ever been born. There is the Atheist, who being alone +with her for a few moments makes love to her in an insinuating manner, +and tries to prove to her that pleasure is the only thing to be sought +in life, and assures her that she may follow her inclinations without a +crime, "while she knew that nothing could so much oppose her _gratifying +him_, as her _pleasing herself_." Then there is the Clergyman who makes +honourable love to her, but by doing so puts an end to the friendship +which she had hoped might be between them; until at the end of the +journey, "she almost made a resolution never to speak to a man again, +beginning to think it impossible for a man to be civil to a woman, +unless he had some designs upon her." + +Whether or not women have ever portrayed the masculine sex truthfully is +an open question. But a gentleman mellowed and softened in the light of +ladies' smiles is quite a different creature from the same gentleman +when seen among the sterner members of his own sex, and there are +certain phases of men's characters portrayed in the novels of women +which Fielding, Scott, and Thackeray seem never to have seen. + +Miss Fielding descants upon many familiar scenes in a manner that would +have made her a valuable contributor to the _Tatler_ or _Spectator_. All +kinds of human nature interested her. There is the man who advises David +as a friend to buy a certain stock which he himself is secretly trying +to sell because he knows it has decreased in value, thus showing that +money transactions in London in the reigns of the Georges differed +little from money transactions on the Stock Exchange to-day. In some +respects, however, society has improved since the days of Sarah +Fielding. She describes the gentlemen of social prominence who tumble up +to the carriages of ladies who are driving through Covent Garden in the +morning, and present them with cabbages or other vegetables which they +have picked up from the stalls, too intoxicated to know that their +conduct is ridiculous. There are the crowds at the theatres who show +their displeasure with a playwright by making so much noise that his +play cannot be heard on its first night and so is condemned. Other +writers of the period complain of having received this kind of treatment +at the hands of the gentlemen mob. And then we are introduced to a scene +in the fashionable West End which is a familiar one to-day, where the +ladies of quality have their whist assemblies and spend all the morning +visiting each other and discussing how the cards were played the +previous evening and why certain tricks were lost. + +We recognise the fact, however, that Miss Fielding's knowledge of life +was but slight. She writes from the standpoint of a spectator, not like +her brother as one who had been a part of it. She was one of that group +of gentlewomen who gathered around Richardson and heard him read +_Clarissa_, or discussed life and books with him at the breakfast table +in the summer-house at North End, Hammersmith. Life was not lived there, +but philosophy often sat at the board, and there was fine penetration +into the characters and manners of men. Richardson transferred to Miss +Fielding the compliment which Dr. Johnson had bestowed upon him, and it +was not undeserved by the author of _David Simple_: + +"What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge of +writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of it +was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the +knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was that +of all the finer springs and movements of the inside." + + * * * * * + +It is not difficult to conjure up a picture of the literary gentlemen +and gentlewomen who used to breakfast with Richardson in the +summer-house at North End; the gentlemen in their many-coloured velvet +suits, the ladies wearing broad hoops, loose sacques, and Pamela hats. +One of these ladies was Charlotte Ramsay, better known by her married +name of Mrs. Lennox. Her father, Colonel James Ramsay, was +lieutenant-governor of New York, where his daughter Charlotte was born +in 1720. She was sent to England at the age of fifteen, and soon after +her father died, leaving her unprovided for. She turned her attention to +literature as a means of livelihood, and at once became a favourite in +the literary circles of London, where she met and won the esteem of the +great Dr. Johnson. + +When her first novel, _The Life of Harriet Stuart_, was published, he +showed his appreciation of its author in a unique manner. At his +suggestion, the Ivy Lane Club and its friends entertained Mrs. Lennox +and her husband at the Devil's Tavern with a night of festivity. After +an elaborate supper had been served, a hot apple-pie was brought in, +stuffed full of bay-leaves, and Johnson with appropriate ceremonies +crowned the author with a wreath of laurel. The night was passed in +mirth and conversation; tea and coffee were often served; and not until +the creaking of the street doors reminded them that it was eight o'clock +in the morning did the guests, twenty in number, leave the tavern. + +Mrs. Lennox's claim to a place in English literature rests solely upon +her novel, _The Female Quixote_, published in 1752. Arabella, the +heroine, is the daughter of a marquis who has retired into the country, +where he lives remote from society. Her mother is dead; her father is +immersed in his books, so that Arabella is left alone, and whiles away +the hours by reading the novels of Mademoiselle de Scuderi. Her three +great novels, _Clelia_, _The Grand Cyrus_ and _Ibrahim_, are historical +allegories, in which the France of Louis XIV is given an historical +setting, and his courtiers masquerade under the names of famous men of +antiquity. There is no attempt at historical accuracy. But to Arabella +these books represented true history and depicted the real life of the +world. + +In a fine satirical passage Arabella informs Mr. Selvin, a man so +deeply read in ancient history that he fixed the date of any occurrence +by Olympiads, not years, that Pisistratus had been inspired to enslave +his country because of his love for Cleorante. Mr. Selvin wonders how +this important fact could have escaped his own research, and conceives a +great admiration for Arabella's learning. + +In the novels of Mademoiselle de Scuderi the characters, even in moments +of extreme danger, entertain each other with stories of their past +experiences. When Arabella has unexpected guests she bids her maid +relate to them the history of her mistress. She instructs her to "relate +exactly every change of my countenance, number all my smiles, +half-smiles, blushes, turnings pale, glances, pauses, full-stops, +interruptions; the rise and falling of my voice, every motion of my +eyes, and every gesture which I have used for these ten years past: nor +omit the smallest circumstance that relates to me." + +All the people Arabella meets are changed by her fancy into the +characters of her favourite books. In common people she sees princes in +disguise. If a man approaches her, she fancies that he is about to bear +her away to some remote castle, or to mention the subject of love, which +would be unpardonable, unless he had first captured cities in her +behalf. Yet amid the wildest extravagances Arabella never loses her +charm. Her generosity and purity of thought make her a very lovable +heroine, much more womanly than Clarissa or Sophia Western, and we do +not wonder that Mr. Glanville continues to love her, although he is so +often annoyed by her ridiculous fancies. + +But her belief in her hallucinations is as firm as that of the Spanish +Quixote for whom the book was named. Everyone will remember his attack +on the windmills, which he mistook for giants. Arabella was equally +brave. Thinking herself and some other ladies pursued, when the Thames +cuts off their escape, she addresses her companions in language becoming +one of her favourite heroines: "Once more, my fair Companions, if your +honour be dear to you, if an immortal glory be worth your seeking, +follow the example I shall set you, and equal, with me, the Roman +Clelia." She plunged into the river, but was promptly rescued. The +doctor who attended her in the illness that followed this heroic deed +convinced her of the folly of trying to live according to these old +books, and she consented to marry her faithful and deserving lover. + +The character of Arabella is not drawn with the broad strong lines of +Fielding, nor with the attention to minute detail which gives life to +the characters of Richardson. But the girlish sweetness of Arabella, her +refusal to believe wrong of others, her ignorance of life, her contempt +for a lover who has not shed blood nor captured cities in her behalf, is +a reality, and shows that the author knew the nature of the romantic +girl. In the noble simplicity of Arabella, Mrs. Lennox has, perhaps +unconsciously, paid a high tribute to the moral effects of the novels of +Scuderi. Arabella is the only clearly drawn character in the book. But +one humorous situation follows another, so that the interest never +flags. + +The other novels of Mrs. Lennox have no value save as they show the +trend of thought of the period. In _Henrietta_, afterward dramatised as +_The Sister_, the heroine, granddaughter of an earl, rather than change +her religion, leaves her family and becomes the maid of a rich but +vulgar tradesman's daughter. Of course her mistress, who has treated her +scurrilously, in time learns her true rank and is properly humbled. The +name given to one of the chapters might suffice for the most of them: +"In which our heroine is in great distress." + +This would seem to be the proper heading for many chapters of many books +of the period. In the days of Good Queen Bess, heroines were good and +happy. In the merry reign of Charles, they were bad but happy. Pamela +set a fashion from which heroines seldom dared to deviate for over a +hundred years. They were good--but, oh, so wretched! This type of women +became such a favourite with both sexes, that even the sane-minded Scott +says: + + And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears. + +During her period of distress Henrietta lodged with a milliner. Her +landlady showed her a small collection of books and pointed with +especial pleasure to her favourite novels: "There is Mrs. Haywood's +Novels, did you ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sick +passionate stories: I assure you, you'll like them vastly." Henrietta, +however, chose _Joseph Andrews_ for her diversion. Mrs. Eliza Haywood +was never admitted into that inner circle of highly respectable English +ladies who clustered around Richardson. She was more of an adventuress +in the domain of letters. In her first novels she followed the fashion +set by Mrs. Manley and supplied the public with scandals in high life. +_Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia_, published in 1725, +_The Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania_, published in 1727, are +the highly suggestive titles of two of the most popular of her early +works. + +After Richardson had made Virtue more popular than Vice, Mrs. Haywood +followed the literary fashion which he had set, and in 1751 wrote _The +History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_. This has sometimes been called a +domestic novel, but that is a misnomer, since the characters are seldom +found at home, but rather are met in the various pleasure resorts of +London. As was the fashion in the novels of this time, and probably not +an uncommon occurrence in the English capital, the heroine was often +forced into a chariot by some lawless libertine, but fortunately was +always rescued by some more virtuous lover. The whole story is but a new +arrangement of the one or two incidents with which Richardson had wrung +the heart of the British public. It has one advantage over the most of +the novels which had preceded it. There is little told that does not +bear directly on the plot, the characters of the sub-plot being +important personages in the main story, and the book has a definite +conclusion. + +None of the characters, however, are pleasing. The hero, Mr. Trueworthy, +a combination of Tom Jones and Sir Charles Grandison, is a hypocrite. +The other male characters are insignificant. Miss Betsey, the heroine, +is almost charming. Conscious of her own innocence, she repeatedly +appears in a light that makes her worldly lover, Mr. Trueworthy, suspect +her virtue, until at last he begs to be released from his engagement to +her. The author of the book stands as a duenna at Miss Betsey's side, +and points out by the misfortunes of the heroine how foolish it is for +girls to ignore public opinion, and strives to inculcate the lesson +that a husband is the best protection for a young girl. We are properly +shocked at Miss Betsey's levity, who, although she had arrived at the +mature age of fourteen, cared not a straw for any of the gentlemen who +sought her hand, but liked to have them about her only because they +flattered her vanity or afforded her a subject for mirth. Miss Betsey's +gaiety, wit, and generosity would be very attractive--in fact, she is +quite an up-to-date young lady--but we see how much better she would +"get on" if she had a little more worldly wisdom. She is punished, as +she deserves to be, by losing her lover, and marries a man who makes her +very unhappy. Mr. Trueworthy, however, learns of her innocence; her +husband fortunately dies, and the author takes the bold step of uniting +the widow to her former lover, after a year of mourning and passing +through much suffering, brought upon herself by her own thoughtlessness. +She is rewarded, however, very much as Pamela was rewarded, by marrying +a man of honour, who had judged her formerly by his own conduct, being +too willing to believe by appearances that she had lost her chastity, +or, at least, had sullied her good name. + +In this novel, Mrs. Haywood is very near the line that divides the +artist from the artisan. Like a young girl with good health and good +spirits, Miss Betsey is ever on the verge of sweeping aside the +prejudices of her duenna, and asserting her own individuality, but is +constantly held back by the sense of worldly propriety. Had Mrs. Haywood +permitted Miss Betsey to carry the plot whither she would without let or +hindrance, she would have won for herself an acknowledged place among +the heroines of fiction. + +_The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_ was an epoch-making book. The +adventures of its heroine in the city of London took possession of the +imagination of Fanny Burney, while little more than a child, and led to +the story of _Evelina_, the forerunner of Jane Austen and her school. + + * * * * * + +The fashion for weeping heroines was at its height, when, in 1761, Mrs. +Francis Sheridan published _The Memoirs of Miss Sidney Biddulph_. The +story is written in the form of letters, in which the heroine reveals to +a friend of her own sex all the secrets of her heart. All London +rejoiced over the virtues of Sidney Biddulph, and wept over her sorrows. +She had been educated "in the strictest principles of virtue; from which +she never deviated, through the course of an innocent, though unhappy +life." It was so pathetic a story that Dr. Johnson doubted if Mrs. +Sheridan had a right to make her characters suffer so much, and Charles +James Fox, who sat up all night to read it, pronounced it the best of +all novels of his time. + +The book, as first written, was in three volumes. The author had brought +the story to a most fitting close. Both Sidney's husband and the man +whom she had really loved were dead, and the widow could have spent her +days in pleasing melancholy, contented with the thought that she had +never done a wrong. But the public demanded a continuation of the story. +In 1767, two volumes were added, giving the history of Sidney's +daughters, who seem to have inherited from their mother the enmity of +the fates, for their sufferings were as great as hers. + +Authors are prone to draw upon their own history for the emotions they +depict. But Mrs. Sheridan's life did not furnish the tragic elements of +_Sidney Biddulph_, although it was not without romance. Before her +marriage, she wrote a pamphlet in praise of the conduct of one Thomas +Sheridan, the manager of the Theatre Royal in Dublin, during a riot that +occurred in the theatre. Sheridan read these words in his praise, sought +the acquaintance of their author, and before long married her. + +History furnishes a long list of women of talent whose sons were men of +genius. Mrs. Sheridan's second son, Richard Brinsley, the author of the +light and sparkling _Rivals_, inherited his mother's talents without her +gloom. But Mrs. Sheridan also had some ability as a writer of comedy, +and the most famous character of the _Rivals_ was first sketched by her. +In a comedy, _A Journey to Bath_, declined by Garrick, one of the +characters was Mrs. Twyford, whom Richard Brinsley Sheridan transformed +into that famous blundering coiner of words, Mrs. Malaprop. + +Mrs. Sheridan's place in literature rests upon _Sidney Biddulph_. This +novel was an innovation in English fiction. Nearly one hundred years +earlier, Madame de Lafayette had written _The Princess of Cleves_, one +of the most nearly perfect novels that has ever been written, and the +first that depended for its interest, not alone on what was done, but on +the subtle workings of the human heart which led to the doing of it. +From that time the novels of French women were largely introspective. +English women, however, were either less interested in the inner life, +or more reserved in laying bare its secrets. _Sidney Biddulph_ was the +first English novel of this kind, and it left no definite trace on +fiction, although it was the favourite novel of Charlotte Smith and had +some slight effect upon her writings, and Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Opie, and +Mary Brunton noted the feelings of their characters. Not until _Jane +Eyre_ was published, long after Mrs. Sheridan had been forgotten, was +there any great English novel of the inner life. + +In its day _Sidney Biddulph_ was exceedingly popular on the continent of +Europe as well as in England. It was translated into German, and an +adaptation of it was made in French by the Abbe Prevost, under the +title, _Memoirs pour servir a l'histoire de la vertu_. But after all, +Sidney's sorrows were not real, or she herself was not real; and we of +to-day smile or yawn over the pages that drew tears from the eyes of the +mighty Dr. Johnson. + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding the many excellencies of English fiction during the +middle of the eighteenth century, it was held in low repute. There had +been many writers attempting to portray real life who, without the +genius of the greater novelists, could imitate only their faults. In the +preface to _Polly Honeycomb_, which was acted at Drury Lane theatre in +1760, George Colman, the author, gives the titles of about two hundred +novels whose names appeared in a circulating library at that time. +_Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent_; _Beauty put to its +Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles_; _Bubbled Knights, or Successful +Contrivances, plainly evincing, in two Familiar Instances lately +transacted in this Metropolis, the Folly and Unreasonableness of Parents +Laying a Restraint upon their Children's Inclinations in the Affairs of +Love and Marriage_; _The Impetuous Lover, or the Guiltless Parricide_; +these are the titles of a few of the popular books of that period. +Colman in the character of Polly Honeycomb, an earlier Lydia Languish, +attempts to show the moral effects of such reading. Her head had been so +turned by these books that her father exclaims, "A man might as well +turn his daughter loose in Covent-Garden, as trust the cultivation of +her mind to A CIRCULATING LIBRARY." + +Fiction at this time lacked delicacy and refinement. The characters +lived largely in the streets or taverns, and were too much engrossed in +the pleasures of active life to give any heed to thoughts or emotions. +Though love was the constant theme of these books, as yet no true love +story had been written. The fires of home had not been lighted. The +refinements, the pure affections, the high ideals which cluster around +the domestic hearth had as yet no place in the novel. It needed the +feminine element, which, while no broader than that which had previously +made the novel, by its own addition gave something new to it and made it +truer to life. + +While no woman of marked genius had appeared, the number and influence +of women novelists continued to increase throughout the eighteenth +century. Tim Cropdale in the novel _Humphry Clinker_, who "had made +shift to live many years by writing novels, at the rate of five pounds a +volume," complains that "that branch of business is now engrossed by +female authors, who publish merely for the propagation of virtue, with +so much ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the human +heart, and all in the serene tranquillity of high life, that the reader +is not only enchanted by their genius, but reformed by their morality." +Schlosser in his _History of the Eighteenth Century_ pays this tribute +to the moral influence of the women novelists: "With the increase of the +number of writers in England in the course of the eighteenth century, +women began to appear as authors instead of educating their children, +and their influence upon morals and modes of thinking increased, as that +of the clergy diminished." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +Fanny Burney + + +A noteworthy transformation took place in the English novel during the +late years of the eighteenth century and the early part of the +nineteenth. This change cannot be explained by the great difference in +manners only. The mode of life described by the early novelists was in +existence sixty years after they wrote scenes typical of the customs and +manners of their day, just as the quiet home life described by Miss +Austen was to be found in England a hundred years before it graced the +pages of a book. This new era in the English novel was due not to a +change of environment, but to the new ideals of those who wrote. + +In 1778, English fiction was represented by the work of Miss Burney, and +for thirty-six years, until 1814, when _Waverley_ appeared, this rare +plant was preserved and kept alive by a group of women, who trimmed and +pruned off many of its rough branches and gave to the wild native fruit +a delicacy and fragrance unknown to it before. English women writers +did at that time for the English novel what French women had done in +the preceding century for the French novel; they made it so pure in +thought and expression that Bishop Huet was able to say of the French +romances of the seventeenth century, "You'll scarce find an expression +or word which may shock chaste ears, or one single action which may give +offence to modesty." + +This great change in the English novel was inaugurated by a young woman +ignorant of the world, whose power lay in her innocent and lively +imagination. At his home in Queen Square and later in St. Martin's +Street, Charles Burney, the father of Frances, entertained the most +illustrious men of his day. Johnson, Reynolds, Garrick, Burke, and +Colman were frequent guests, while members of the nobility thronged his +parlours to listen to the famous Italian singers who gladly sang for the +author of the _History of Music_. Here Fanny, a bashful but observant +child, saw life in the drawing-room. But as Dr. Burney gave little heed +to the comings and goings of his daughters, they played with the +children of a wigmaker next door, where, perhaps, Fanny became +acquainted with the vulgar side of London life, which is so humorously +depicted in _Evelina_. She received but little education, nor was she +more than a casual reader, but she was familiar with _Pamela_, _Betsey +Thoughtless_, _Rasselas_, and the _Vicar of Wakefield_. Such was her +preparation for becoming a writer of novels. + +From her earliest years, she had delighted in writing stories and +dramas, although she received little encouragement in this occupation. +In her fifteenth year her stepmother proved to her so conclusively the +folly of girls' scribbling that Fanny burned all her manuscripts, +including _The History of Caroline Evelyn_. She could not, however, +banish from her mind the fate of Caroline's infant daughter, born of +high rank, but related through her grandmother to the vulgar people of +the East End of London. The many embarrassing situations in which she +might be placed haunted the imagination of the youthful writer, but it +was not until her twenty-sixth year that these situations were +described, when _Evelina or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_ was +published. + +The success of the book was instantaneous. The name of the author, which +had been withheld even from the publishers, was eagerly demanded. All +agreed that only a man conversant with the world could have written such +accurate descriptions of life both high and low. The wonder was +increased when it was learned that the author was a young woman who had +drawn her scenes, not from a knowledge of the world, but from her own +intuition and imagination. Miss Burney became at once an honoured +member of the literary circle which Mrs. Thrale had gathered at +Streatham, and a favourite of Dr. Johnson, who declared that _Evelina_ +was superior to anything that Fielding had written, and that some +passages were worthy of the pen of Richardson. The book was accorded a +place among English classics, which it has retained for over a century. +"It was not hard fagging that produced such a work as _Evelina_," wrote +Mr. Crisp to the youthful author. "It was the ebullition of true +sterling genius--you wrote it because you could not help it--it +came--and so you put it down on paper." + +The novel, following the form so common in the eighteenth century, is +written in the form of letters. The plot is somewhat time-honoured; +there is the nurse's daughter substituted for the real heiress, and a +mystery surrounding some of the characters; it is unfolded slowly with a +slight strain upon the readers' credulity at the last, but it ends to +the satisfaction of all concerned. In many incidents and in some of the +characters the story suggests _Betsey Thoughtless_, but Miss Burney had +greater powers of description than Mrs. Haywood. + +The plot of the novel is forgotten, however, in the lively, witty manner +in which the characters are drawn and the ludicrous situations in which +they are placed. So long had these men and women held the mind of the +author that they are intensely real as they are presented to us at +assemblies, balls, theatres, and operas, where we watch their oddities +with amusement. + +Indeed no woman has given so many graphic, droll, and minute +descriptions of life as Miss Burney. Her genius in this respect is +different from that of other women novelists. She has made a series of +snap-shots of people in the most absurd situations and ridicules them +while she is taking the picture. Few women writers can resist the +temptation of peeping into the hearts of their men and women, and the +knowledge thus gained gives them sympathy, while it often detracts from +the strong lines of the external picture; a writer will not paint a +villain quite so black if he believes he still preserves some remnants +of a noble nature. But Miss Burney has no interest in the inner life of +her men and women. She saw their peculiarities and was amused by them, +and has presented them to the reader with minute descriptions and lively +wit. + +She also makes fine distinctions between people. Sir Clement Willoughby, +the West End snob, and Mr. Smith, the East End beau, are drawn with +discrimination. With what wit Miss Burney describes the scene at the +_ridotto_ between Evelina and Sir Clement. He had asked her to dance +with him. Unwilling to do so, because she wished to dance with another +gentleman, if he should ask her, she told Sir Clement she was engaged +for that dance. He did not leave her, however, but remained by her side +and speculated as to who the beast was so hostile to his own interests +as to forget to come to her; pitied the humiliation a lady must feel in +having to wait for a gentleman, and pointed to each old and lame man in +the room asking if he were the miscreant; he offered to find him for her +and asked what kind of a coat he had on. When Evelina did not know, he +became angry with the wretch who dared to address a lady in so +insignificant a coat that it was unworthy of her notice. To save herself +from further annoyance she danced with him, for she now knew that Sir +Clement had seen through her artifice from the beginning. + +But the portrait of Mr. Smith, the East End snob, is even better than +that of Sir Clement Willoughby. Evelina is visiting her relatives at +Snow Hill, when Mr. Smith enters, self-confident and vulgar. His aim in +life, as he tells us, is to please the ladies. When Tom Branghton is +disputing with his sister about the place where they shall go for +amusement, he reprimands Tom for his lack of good breeding. + +"O fie, Tom,--dispute with a lady!" cried Mr. Smith. "Now, as for me, +I'm for where you will, providing this young lady [meaning Evelina] is +of the party; one place is the same as another to me, so that it be but +agreeable to the ladies. I would go anywhere with you, Ma'm, unless, +indeed, it were to church;--ha, ha, ha, you'll excuse me, Ma'm, but, +really, I never could conquer my fear of a parson;--ha, ha, ha,--really, +ladies, I beg your pardon, for being so rude, but I can't help laughing +for my life." + +Mr. Smith endeavoured to make himself particularly pleasing to Evelina, +and for that purpose bought tickets for her and her relatives to attend +the Hampstead Assembly. When he observed that Evelina was a little out +of sorts, he attributed her low spirits to doubts of his intentions +towards her. "To be sure," he told her, "marriage is all in all with the +ladies; but with us gentlemen it's quite another thing." He advised her +not to be discouraged, saying with a patronising air, "You may very well +be proud, for I assure you there is nobody so likely to catch me at last +as yourself." + +Both Sir Clement Willoughby and Mr. Smith are selfish and conceited; but +the former had lived among the gentlemen of Mayfair, the latter among +the tradespeople of Snow Hill, and this difference of environment is +shown in every speech they utter. + +It is the contrast between these two distinct classes of society that +saves the book from becoming monotonous. Evelina visits the Pantheon +with her West End friends. When Captain Mirvan wonders what people find +in such a place, Mr. Lovel, a fashionable fop, quickly rejoins: "What +the ladies may come hither for, Sir, it would ill become _us_ to +determine; but as to we men, doubtless we can have no other view, than +to admire them." At another time Evelina visits the opera with the +vulgar Branghtons, who all rejoiced when the curtain dropped, and Mr. +Branghton vowed he would never be caught again. The Branghtons at the +opera is hardly inferior to Partridge at the play. Tom Branghton is a +good representative of his class. He describes with glee the last night +at Vauxhall: "There's such squealing and squalling!--and then all the +lamps are broke,--and the women skimper scamper;--I declare I would not +take five guineas to miss the last night!" + +All the characters, even the heroine, take delight, in boisterous mirth. +Much of the humour of the book consists rather in ludicrous situations +than in any real delicacy of wit. Too often the laugh is at another's +discomfiture, and so fails to please the present age with its kindlier +feeling towards others. Such are the practical jokes which Captain +Mirvan plays upon Madame Duval. In one instance, disguised as a robber, +he waylays the lady's coach, and leaves her in a ditch with her feet +tied to a tree. The many tricks which the doughty Salt plays upon this +lady so much resemble some of the humorous scenes in _Joseph Andrews_, +and _Tom Jones_ that we may infer the readers of that century found +them laughable. The Captain and the French woman are two puppets which +serve to introduce much of this horse-play. They are not even +caricatures; they are entirely unlike anything in human life. With the +exception of these two characters, all the men and women who provoked +the mirth of the heroine are well portrayed. + +Miss Burney is less felicitous in her descriptions of serious +characters. Lord Orville, the same type of man as Sir Charles Grandison, +is true only in the sense that Miss Burney announces the truth of the +entire book. "I have not pretended to show the world what it actually +_is_, but what it _appears_ to a girl of seventeen," she wrote in the +preface to _Evelina_. Lord Orville, all dignity, nobility, charm, and +perfection, is but the ideal of a young girl. + +Evelina was a new woman in literature, a revelation to the men of the +time of George the Third. The sincerity of the book could not be +doubted. "But," they asked, "did Evelina represent the woman's point of +view of life? Surely no man ever held like views." The Lovelaces and Tom +Joneses are not so attractive as when seen through the eyes of their own +sex, and the heroines are not so soft and yielding as a man would create +them. Evelina, like all Miss Burney's heroines, is independent, +fearless, and witty, with scarcely a trace of the traditional heroine +of fiction. Saints and Magdalenes have always appealed to the masculine +imagination. _La donna dolorosa_ has occupied a prominent place in the +art and literature of man's creation. Here he has revealed his sex +egoism in all its nudity: the woman weeping for man, either lover, +husband, or son; man the centre of her thoughts, her hopes and fears. +This new heroine with a new regard towards man was a revelation to them. +Evelina was the first woman to break the spell, to show them woman as +woman, in lieu of woman as parasite and adjunct to man. Evelina is not +always pleasing; she hasn't always good manners; she sometimes laughs in +the faces of the dashing beaux who are addressing her. But she is a +woman of real flesh and blood; such women have existed in all time, and, +liked many women we meet every day and whom men in all ages have known, +Evelina insists on being the centre of every scene. + +In July, 1782, Miss Burney's second book, _Cecilia, or Memoirs of an +Heiress_, was published. This novel met with as enthusiastic a reception +as _Evelina_. Gibbon read the whole five volumes in a day; Burke +declared they had cost him three days, though he did not part with the +story from the time he first opened it, and had sat up a whole night to +finish it; and Sir Joshua Reynolds had been fed while reading it, +because he refused to quit it at the table. + +The book shows more care and effort than _Evelina_. That was an outburst +of youthful vivacity and spirits, but in _Cecilia_ the author is +striving to do her best. This is particularly revealed in the style, +which shows the influence of Doctor Johnson, for it has lost the +simplicity of _Evelina_. The diction is more ambitious, and the +sentences are longer, many of them balanced. Even some of the inferior +characters from their speech, appear to have received a lesson in +English composition from Dr. Johnson. + +But the novel owes its place among English classics to the varieties of +characters portrayed and the vivid pictures of English life. Here again +the gaieties of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, Marylebone and the Pantheon have +become immortal, drawn with colours as vivid and enduring as Hogarth +used in painting the sadder sides of London life. No other writer has +brought these places before our eyes as clearly and as fully as Fanny +Burney. + +The plot of _Cecilia_, like that of _Evelina_, is so arranged as to +present different classes of society. _Cecilia_ has three guardians, +with one of whom she must live during her minority. First she visits Mr. +Harrel, a gay, fashionable man, a spendthrift and a gambler, who lives +in a fashionable house in Portman Square, where Cecilia, during a +constant round of festivities, meets the fashionable people of London. +Next she visits Mr. Briggs in the City, "a short thick, sturdy man, with +very small keen black eyes, a square face, a dark complexion, and a snub +nose." He was so miserly that when Cecilia asked for pen, ink, and a +sheet of paper, he gave her a slate and pencil, as he supposed she had +nothing of consequence to say. He was as sparing of his words as of his +money, and used the same elliptical sentences in his speech as Dickens +afterwards put into the mouth of Alfred Jingle, the famous character in +_Pickwick Papers_. He thus advises Cecilia in regard to her lovers: +"Take care of sharpers; don't trust shoe-buckles, nothing but Bristol +stones! tricks in all things. A fine gentleman sharp as another man. +Never give your heart to a gold-topped cane, nothing but brass gilt +over. Cheats everywhere: fleece you in a year; won't leave you a groat. +But one way to be safe,--bring 'em all to me." Lastly she visits Mr. +Delvile, her third guardian, a man of family, who despised both the men +associated with him as trustees of Cecilia; he lived in such gloomy +state in his magnificent old house in St. James's Square that it +inspired awe, and repressed all pleasure. Pride in their birth and +prejudice against all parvenus were the faults of Mr. and Mrs. Delvile. + +Besides these characters, there were many others whose names were for a +long time familiar in every household. Sir Robert Floyer was as vain as +Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows was constantly bored to death; it was +insufferable exertion to talk to a quiet woman, and a talkative one put +him into a fever. At the opera the solos depressed him and the full +orchestra fatigued him. He yawned while ladies were talking to him, and +after he had begged them to repeat what they had said, forgot to listen. +"I am tired to death! tired of everything," was his constant expression. + +In his critical essay on Madame D'Arblay, Fanny Burney's married name, +under which her later works were published, Macaulay has thus dealt with +her treatment of character: + +"Madame D'Arblay has left us scarcely anything but humours. Almost every +one of her men and women has some one propensity developed to a morbid +degree. In _Cecilia_, for example, Mr. Delvile never opens his lips +without some allusion to his own birth and station; or Mr. Briggs +without some allusion to the hoarding of money; or Mr. Hobson, without +betraying the self-indulgence and self-importance of a purse-proud +upstart; or Mr. Simkins, without uttering some sneaking remark for the +purpose of currying favour with his customers; or Mr. Meadows, without +expressing apathy and weariness of life; or Mr. Albany, without +declaiming about the vices of the rich and the misery of the poor; or +Mrs. Belfield, without some indelicate eulogy on her son; or Lady +Margaret, without indicating jealousy of her husband. Morrice is all +skipping, officious impertinence, Mr. Gosport all sarcasm, Lady Honoria +all lively prattle, Miss Larolles all silly prattle; if ever Madame +D'Arblay aimed at more, as in the character of Monckton, we do not think +that she succeeded well.... The variety of humours which is to be found +in her novels is immense; and though the talk of each person separately +is monotonous, the general effect is not monotony, but a most lively and +agreeable diversity." + +While the character of Monckton is not strongly drawn, one or two scenes +in which he figures have great power. Mr. Monckton, who had married an +aged woman for her money, lived in constant hope of her dissolution. He +planned to keep Cecilia from marrying until that happy event, when he +schemed to make her his bride, and thus acquire a second fortune. He had +used his influence as a family friend to prejudice her lovers in her +eyes, and had just succeeded in breaking up an intimacy which he feared: +"A weight was removed from his mind which had nearly borne down even his +remotest hopes; the object of his eager pursuit seemed still within his +reach, and the rival into whose power he had so lately almost beheld her +delivered, was totally renounced, and no longer to be dreaded. A +revolution such as this, raised expectations more sanguine than ever; +and in quitting the house, he exultingly considered himself released +from every obstacle to his view,--till, just as he arrived home, he +recollected his wife!" + +Cecilia, the heroine of the novel, is only Evelina grown a little older, +a little sadder, a little more worldly wise. The humour is, too, a +little kindlier. The practical jokes so common in _Evelina_ do not mar +the pages of _Cecilia_. At times the latter novel becomes almost tragic. +The scene at Vauxhall where Mr. Harrel puts an end to his life of +dissipation is dramatic and thrilling. But Miss Burney had lost the +buoyancy and lively fancy which made the charm of _Evelina_. + +Miss Burney's last two novels, _Camilla, or a Picture of Youth_ and _The +Wanderer, or Female Difficulties_, have no claim to a place among +English classics. It is strange that, as she saw more of life, she +depicted it with less accuracy. This might seem to show that her first +novels owe their excellence to her vivid imagination rather than to her +powers of observation. Her weary life at court as second keeper of the +robes to Queen Charlotte; her marriage to Monsieur D'Arblay, and the +sorrows that came to her as the wife of a French refugee; all her +deeper experiences of life during the fourteen years between the +publication of _Cecilia_ and _Camilla_--these had completely changed her +light, humorous view of externals, and with that loss her power as an +artist disappeared. + +_Camilla_ has several heroines whose love affairs interest the reader. +It thus bears a resemblance to Miss Austen's novels, who speaks of it +with admiration and was, perhaps, influenced by it. Eugenia, who has +received the education of a man, is pleasing. Clermont Lynmere, like Mr. +Smith and Sir Robert Floyer, imagines that all the ladies are in love +with him. Sir Hugh Tyrold, with his love for the classics and his regret +that he had not been beaten into learning them when he was a boy, his +strict ideas of virtue and his desire to make everybody happy, is well +conceived, but the outlines are not strong enough to make him a living +character. _Camilla_ shows more than _Cecilia_ the style of Dr. Johnson. +It is heavy and slow, the words are long, and many of them of Latin +derivation. + +It was not until the year 1814, the year of _Waverley_, that her last +novel, _The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties_, was published, which, +following the style of _Camilla_, was in five volumes. It was partly +founded on incidents arising out of the French Revolution. The book was +eagerly awaited; the publishers paid fifteen hundred guineas for it; +but even the friendliest critic pronounced it a literary failure. + +To sum up, Macaulay in the essay before quoted makes clear Miss Burney's +place in fiction: + +"Miss Burney did for the English novel what Jeremy Collier did for the +English drama; and she did it in a better way. She first showed that a +tale might be written in which both the fashionable and the vulgar life +of London might be exhibited with great force and with broad comic +humour, and which yet should not contain a single line inconsistent with +rigid morality, or even with virgin delicacy. She took away the reproach +which lay on a most useful and delightful species of composition. She +vindicated the right of her sex to an equal share in a fair and noble +province of letters ... we owe to her not only _Evelina_, _Cecilia_, and +_Camilla_, but also _Mansfield Park_ and _The Absentee_." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Hannah More + + +During the time that Dr. Johnson dominated the literary conscience of +England, a group of ladies who had wearied of whist and quadrille, the +common amusements of fashion, used to meet at the homes of one another +to discuss literary and political subjects. They were called in ridicule +the "Blue Stocking Club," because Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, who was +always present at these gatherings, wore hose of that colour. Among the +members distinguished by their wit and talents were Mrs. Elizabeth +Montagu, the author of an _Essay on the Genius of Shakespeare_; Mrs. +Elizabeth Carter, a poetess and excellent Greek scholar; Mrs. Chapone, +whose _Letters to Young Ladies_ formed the standard of conduct for young +women of two generations; Miss Reynolds, the sister of Sir Joshua; and +Mrs. Vesey, noted as a charming hostess. Dr. Johnson, David Garrick, +Reynolds, and Burke were frequenters of this club. One may well imagine +that the conversation and wit of the Blue Stockings were far too rare +to be understood by the grosser minds of the mere devotees of fashion, +who in consequence threw a ridicule upon them which has always adhered +to the name. + +Hannah More, who had already become known as a playwright, visited +London in 1773, and at once was welcomed by this group. In a poem called +_The Bas Bleu_, dedicated to Mrs. Vesey, she thus describes the pleasure +of these meetings: + + Enlighten'd spirits! You, who know + What charms from polish'd converse flow, + Speak, for you can, the pure delight + When kindling sympathies unite; + When correspondent tastes impart + Communion sweet from heart to heart; + You ne'er the cold gradations need + Which vulgar souls to union lead; + No dry discussion to unfold + The meaning caught ere well 't is told: + In taste, in learning, wit, or science, + Still kindled souls demand alliance: + Each in the other joys to find + The image answering to his mind. + +The Blue Stocking Club was composed largely of Tories, so that when all +Europe became restless under the influence of the French Revolution, +they strongly combated the levelling doctrines of democracy. Hannah More +in particular, who had been conducting schools for the very poor near +Bristol, saw how the teachings of the revolutionists affected men +already prone to idleness and drink. To offset these influences, she +published a little book with the following title-page: "Village +Politics. Addressed to all the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Labourers, in +Great Britain. By Will Chip, a country Carpenter." + +It is not a novel in the strict sense of the word, but in simple +language, easily understood, it teaches the labouring people the +inconsistent attitude of France, and the strength and safety of the +English constitution. It is not a deep book, but has good work-a-day +common-sense, such as keeps the world jogging on, ready to endure the +ills it has rather than fly to others it knows not of. + +The book is in the form of a dialogue between Jack Anvil, the +blacksmith, and Tom Hood, the mason. + +"TOM. But have you read the _Rights of Man_? + +"JACK. No, not I: I had rather by half read the _Whole Duty of Man_. I +have but little time for reading, and such as I should therefore only +read a bit of the best." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. And what dost thou take a _democrat_ to be? + +"JACK. One who likes to be governed by a thousand tyrants, and yet can't +bear a king." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. What is it to be _an enlightened people_? + +"JACK. To put out the light of the Gospel, confound right and wrong, and +grope about in pitch darkness." + + * * * * * + +"TOM. And what is _benevolence_? + +"JACK. Why, in the new-fangled language, it means contempt of religion, +aversion to justice, overturning of law, doating on all mankind in +general, and hating everybody in particular." + +For a long time the authorship of the book remained a secret, and Will +Chip became a notable figure. The clergy and the land-owners in +particular rejoiced over his homely common-sense, and distributed these +pamphlets broadcast over the land. One hundred thousand copies were sold +in a short time. _Village Politics_ is said to have been one of the +strongest influences in England to awaken the common people to the +dangers which lie in a sudden overthrow of government. The book was +timely, for that decade had become intoxicated by the name of Liberty. +To-day democracy and equality are no longer feared. + +During many years Hannah More worked industriously among the poor of +Cheddar and its vicinity. On a visit to the Cliffs of Cheddar she found +an ignorant, half-savage people, many of whom dwelt in the caves and +fissures of the rocks, and earned a miserable subsistence by selling +stalactites and other minerals native to the place, to the travellers +who were attracted thither by the beautiful scenery. Among these people +Hannah More opened a Sunday-school, and later a day school, where the +girls were taught knitting, spinning, and sewing. A girl trained in her +school was presented on her marriage day with five shillings, a pair of +white stockings, and a new Bible. The teaching in the schools was so +practical that within a year schools were opened in nine parishes. + +In this missionary work, Miss More became intimately acquainted not only +with the very poor, but also with the rich farmers living in the +neighbourhood and the prosperous tradespeople of the villages. From +these better educated men she met with great opposition. One petty +landlord met her request for assistance with the remark: "The lower +classes are fated to be poor, ignorant and wicked; and wise as you are, +you cannot alter what is decreed." Another man informed her that +religion was the worst thing for the poor, it made them so lazy and +useless. + + * * * * * + +But the minds of the people had been awakened by the French Revolution. +They were beginning to think. Books and ballads attacking church and +constitution were hawked through the country and placed within reach of +all. To counteract the influence of these "corrupt and inflammatory +publications" Hannah More, between the years 1795-1798, published _The +Cheap Repository_, the first regular issue of this kind. Every month a +story, a ballad, and a tract for Sunday were published. Hannah More knew +so well the common reasoning and the mental attitude of those for whom +she wrote, that she was able to make her lessons most effective. So +great was the demand for these chap-books that over two million were +sold the first year.[1] + + [1] For a complete bibliography of these chap-books, see the + _Catalogue of English and American Chap-Books_ in Harvard + College Library, pp. 8-10; compiled in part by Charles Welsh. + +These stories were divided into two classes, those for "persons of +middle rank" and those for the common people. The former point out the +dangers of pride and covetousness; of substituting abstract philosophy +for religion; and warn masters not to forget their moral obligations +towards their servants. The latter aim to teach neatness, sobriety, +regularity in church attendance, and point out the happiness of those +who follow these precepts, and the misery of those who neglect them. + +Her two best known stories are _Mr. Fantom_ and _The Shepherd of +Salisbury Plain_. _Mr. Fantom: or the History of the New-Fashioned +Philosopher, and his Man William_ was written to warn masters of the +danger of teaching their servants disrespect for the Bible and for civil +law. Mr. Fantom was a shallow man, who glided upon the surface of +philosophy and culled those precepts which relieved his conscience from +any moral obligations. When he was asked to help the poor in his own +parish, he refused to consider their wants because his mind was so +engrossed by the partition of Poland. Like Mrs. Jellyby of a later time, +he was so much troubled by sufferings which he could not see that he +neglected his family and servants. When he reprimanded his butler, +William, for being intoxicated, the young man replied: "Why, sir, you +are a philosopher, you know; and I have often overheard you say to your +company, that private vices are public benefits; and so I thought that +getting drunk was as pleasant a way of doing good to the public as any, +especially when I could oblige my muster at the same time." In course of +time William became a thief and a murderer, and expiated his crimes on +the scaffold. + +In contrast to this is _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_. This shepherd +was contented with his lot, and says: "David was happier when he kept +his father's sheep on such a plain as this, and employed in singing some +of his own psalms perhaps, than ever he was when he became king of +Israel and Judah. And I dare say we should never have had some of the +most beautiful texts in all those fine psalms, if he had not been a +shepherd, which enabled him to make so many fine comparisons and +similitudes, as one may say, from country life, flocks of sheep, hills +and valleys, fields of corn, and fountains of water." The shepherd's +neat cottage with its simple furnishings, his frugal wife and +industrious children are described in simple and convincing language. + +In the stories of the poor there are many interesting details of the +everyday life of that class that did not blossom into heroes and +heroines of romance for nearly half a century. Mrs. Sponge, in _The +History of Betty Brown, the St. Giles's Orange Girl_, is a character +that Dickens might have immortalised. Mrs. Sponge kept a little shop and +a kind of eating-house for poor girls near the Seven Dials. She received +stolen goods, and made such large profits in her business that she was +enabled to become a broker among the poor. She loaned Betty five +shillings to set her up in the orange business; she did not ask for the +return of her money, but exacted a sixpence a day for its use, and was +regarded by Betty, and the other girls whom she thus befriended, as a +benefactor. At last, Betty was rescued from the clutches of Mrs. Sponge. +By industry and piety she became mistress of a handsome sausage-shop +near the Seven Dials, and married a hackney coachman, the hero of one of +Miss More's ballads: + + I am a bold coachman, and drive a good hack + With a coat of five capes that quite covers my back; + And my wife keeps a sausage-shop, not many miles + From the narrowest alley in all broad St. Giles. + Though poor, we are honest and very content, + We pay as we go, for meat, drink, and for rent; + To work all the week I am able and willing, + I never get drunk, and I waste not a shilling; + And while at a tavern my gentleman tarries, + The coachman grows richer than he whom he carries, + And I'd rather (said I), since it saves me from sin, + Be the driver without, than the toper within. + +_The Cheap Repository_ was written to teach moral precepts. Neither +Hannah More nor her readers saw any artistic beauty in the sordid lives +of this lower stratum of society. They were not interested in the +superstitions of "Poor Sally Evans," who hung a plant called +"midsummer-men" in her room on Midsummer eve so that she might learn by +the bending of the leaves if her lover were true to her, and who +consulted all the fortune-tellers that came to her door to learn whether +the two moles on her cheek foretold two husbands or two children. +Hannah More recorded these simple fancies of poor Sally only to show her +folly and the misfortunes that afterwards befell her on account of her +superstitions. Writers of that century either laughed at the ignorant +blunders of the poor, or used them to point a moral. An interest in them +because they are human beings like ourselves with common frailties +belongs to the next century. Nothing proves more conclusively the growth +of the democratic idea than the changed attitude of the novel toward the +ignorant and the criminal. + + * * * * * + +Hannah More was always interested in the education of young ladies. She +wrote a series of essays called _Strictures on the Modern System of +Female Education_, in which she protested loudly against the tendency to +give girls an ornamental rather than a useful education. This was so +highly approved that she was asked to make suggestions for the education +of the Princess Charlotte. This led to her writing _Hints towards +Forming the Character of a Young Princess_. + +Hannah More finally embodied her theories on the education of women in a +book which she thought might appeal most strongly to the young ladies +themselves, _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_. Running through it, is a +slight romance. Coelebs, filled with admiration for Eve, as described +in _Paradise Lost_, where she is intent on her household duties, goes +forth into the world to find, if possible, such a helpmate for himself. +As he meets different women, he compares them with his ideal, and, +finding them lacking, passes a severe criticism upon female education +and accomplishments. Finally, he meets a lady with well-trained mind, +who delights in works of charity and piety, one well calculated to +conduct wisely the affairs of his household. She has besides proper +humility, and accepts with gratitude the honour of becoming Coelebs's +wife. + +Until her death at the advanced age of eighty-eight years, Hannah More +continued to write moral and religious essays, so that she was before +the public view for over fifty years, Mrs. S. C. Hall in her book +_Pilgrimages to English Shrines_ thus describes her in old age: + +"Hannah More wore a dress of very light green silk--a white China crape +shawl was folded over her shoulders; her white hair was frizzled, after +a by-gone fashion, above her brow, and that _backed_, as it were, by a +very full double border of rich lace. The reality was as dissimilar from +the picture painted by our imagination as anything could well be; such a +sparkling, light, bright, 'summery'-looking old lady--more like a +beneficent fairy, than the biting author of _Mr. Fantom_, though in +perfect harmony with _The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain_." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Charlotte Smith. Mrs. Inchbald + + +While Hannah More was endeavouring to improve the condition of the poor +by teaching them diligence and sobriety, a group of earnest men and +women were writing books and pamphlets in which they claimed that +poverty and ignorance were due to unjust laws. The writings of Voltaire +and Rousseau had filled their minds with bright pictures of a democracy. +These theories were considered most dangerous in England, but they were +the theories which helped to shape the American constitution. Among +these English revolutionists were William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, +Charlotte Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and for a time Amelia Opie. + +The strongest political novel was _Caleb Williams_ by William Godwin. In +this he shows how through law man may become the destroyer of man. This +interest in the rights of man awakened interest in the condition of +women; and Mary Wollstonecraft, who afterward became Mrs. Godwin, wrote +_Vindication of the Rights of Woman_. This pamphlet was declared +contrary to the Bible and to Christian law, although all its demands +have now been conceded. Charlotte Smith was also interested in the +position of women and the laws affecting them. In _Desmond_ she +discussed freely a marriage problem which in her day seemed very bold, +while in her private life she ignored British prejudices. + +She was the mother of twelve children and the wife of a man of many +schemes, so that she was continually devising ways to extricate her +large family from the financial difficulties into which he plunged them. +At one time a friend suggested to her that her husband's attention +should be turned toward religion. Her reply was: "Oh, for heaven's sake, +do not put it into his head to take to religion, for if he does, he will +instantly begin by building a cathedral." She is supposed to have +caricatured him in the projector who hoped to make a fortune by manuring +his estate with old wigs. But when her husband was imprisoned for debt, +she shared his captivity, and began to write to support her family. +Although she died at the age of fifty-seven, she found time during her +manifold cares to write thirty-eight volumes. + +But not only did Mrs. Smith endure sorrows as great as those of her +favourite heroine, Sidney Biddulph, but one of her daughters was +equally unfortunate. She was married unhappily, and returned with her +three children for her mother to support. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, after +twenty-three years of married life, agreed to live in separate +countries, he in Normandy, and she in England, although they always +corresponded and were interested in each other's welfare. Yet this +separation, together with the revolutionary tendencies discovered in her +writings, raised a storm of criticism against her. + +In _Desmond_, which was regarded as so dangerous, Mrs. Smith has +presented the following problem: Geraldine, the heroine, is married to a +spendthrift, who attempts to retrieve his fortunes by forcing his wife +to become the mistress of his friend, the rich Duc de Romagnecourt. To +preserve her honour she leaves him, hoping to return to her mother's +roof; but her mother refuses to receive her and bids her return to her +husband. As she dares not do this, and is without money, a faithful +friend, Desmond, takes her under his protection, asking no reward but +the pleasure of serving her. Finally Geraldine receives a letter +informing her that her husband is ill. She returns to him, and nurses +him until he dies; after a year of mourning she marries Desmond. + +How could a woman have behaved more virtuously than Geraldine? She is +always high-minded and actuated by the purest motives. But it was +feared that her example might encourage wives to desert their husbands, +and consequently the novel was declared immoral. + +_Desmond_ was published in 1792, when the feeling against France was +very bitter in England. The plot, as it meanders slowly through three +volumes, is constantly interrupted by political discussions. The +author's clearly expressed preference for a republican government, and +her criticism of English law, met with bitter disapproval. One of the +characters pronounces a panegyric upon the greater prosperity and +happiness that has come to the French soldiers, farmers, and peasants, +since they came to believe that they were sharers in their own labours, +and the hero of the book, writing from France to a friend in England, +says: "I lament still more the disposition which too many Englishmen +show to join in this unjust and infamous crusade, against the holy +standard of freedom; and I blush for my country." In the same book, the +author censures the penal laws of England, by which robbery to the +amount of forty shillings is punishable with death; and criticises the +delay of the courts in dealing justice. + +This criticism is expressed tamely, barely more than suggested, when +compared with the vigorous attacks which Dickens made in the next +century on English law and the slow action of justice in the famous +"Circumlocution Office." Dickens wrote with such vigour that he brought +about a reform. A modern reader finds _Desmond_ earnest and sincere, but +tame to the point of dulness. It seems strange how the Tory party could +see in this book a menace to the British constitution. But a writer in +the _Monthly Review_ for December, 1792, advocated her cause. "She is +very justly of opinion," he writes, "that the great events that are +passing in the world are no less interesting to women than to men, and +that, in her solicitude to discharge the domestic duties, a woman ought +not to forget that, in common with her father and husband, her brothers +and sons, she is a citizen." + +The publication of _The Old Manor House_ in the following year won back +for her many of the friends that she had lost by _Desmond_. But in this +work also the same love of liberty, the same indifference to social +distinctions, occur. The hero of _The Old Manor House_ joins the English +army, and is sent to fight against the Americans; in the many +reflections upon this conflict, the author shows that her sympathies are +with the colonists. The father of the hero had married a young woman who +had nothing to recommend her but "beauty, simplicity, and goodness." The +hero himself falls in love with and marries a girl beneath him in rank, +but he does not seem to feel that he has done a generous thing, nor +does the heroine show any gratitude for this honour. Each seems +unconscious that their difference in rank should be a bar to their +union, provided they do not offend old Mrs. Rayland, the owner of the +manor. A great change had come over the novel since Pamela was +overpowered with gratitude to her profligate master, Mr. B, for +condescending to make her his wife. + +The revolutionary principles of Mrs. Smith's novels were soon forgotten, +but two new elements were introduced by her that bore fruit in English +fiction. Her great gift to the novel was the portrayal of refined, +quiet, intellectual ladies, beside whom Evelina and Cecilia seem but +school-girls. Her heroines may be poor, they may be of inferior rank, +but they are always ladies of sensitive nature and cultivated manners, +and are drawn with a feeling and tenderness which no novelist before her +had reached. A contemporary said of Emmeline, "All is graceful, and +pleasing to the sight, all, in short, is simple, femininely beautiful +and chaste." This might be said of all the women she has created. Old +Mrs. Rayland, the central personage in her most popular novel, _The Old +Manor House_, notwithstanding her exalted ideas of her own importance as +a member of the Rayland family, and the arbitrary manner in which she +compels all to conform to her old-fashioned notions, is always the +high-born lady. We smile at her, but she never forfeits our respect. +Scott said of her, "Old Mrs. Rayland is without a peer." + +Mrs. Smith's second gift to the novel was her charming descriptions of +rural scenery. Nature had for a long time been banished from the arts. +Wordsworth in one of his prefaces wrote: + +"Excepting _The Nocturnal Reverie_ of Lady Winchelsea, and a passage or +two in the _Windsor Forest_ of Pope, the poetry of the period +intervening between the publication of _Paradise Lost_ and _The Seasons_ +does not contain a single new image of external nature; and scarcely +presents a familiar one, from which it can be inferred that the eye of +the Poet had been steadily fixed upon his object, much less that his +feelings had urged him to work upon it in the spirit of genuine +imagination." + +Fiction was as barren of scenery as poetry. None of the novelists were +cognisant of the country scenes amid which their plots were laid, with +the possible exception of Goldsmith. _The Vicar of Wakefield_ has a +rural setting, and there are references to the trees, the blackbirds, +and the hayfields; but description is not introduced for the sake of its +own beauty as in the novels of Charlotte Smith. In _Ethelinda_ there are +beautiful descriptions of the English Lakes, part of the scene being +laid at Grasmere; _Celestina_ is in the romantic Provence; _Desmond_ in +Normandy; and in _The Old Manor House_ we have the soft landscape of the +south of England. + +In _The Old Manor House_ she thus describes one of the paths that led +from the gate of the park to Rayland Hall: + +"The other path, which in winter or in wet seasons was inconvenient, +wound down a declivity, where furze and fern were shaded by a few old +hawthorns and self-sown firs: out of the hill several streams were +filtered, which, uniting at its foot, formed a large and clear pond of +near twenty acres, fed by several imperceptible currents from other +eminences which sheltered that side of the park; and the bason between +the hills and the higher parts of it being thus filled, the water found +its way over a stony boundary, where it was passable by a foot bridge +unless in time of floods; and from thence fell into a lower part of the +ground, where it formed a considerable river; and, winding among willows +and poplars for near a mile, again spread into a still larger lake, on +the edge of which was a mill, and opposite, without the park paling, +wild heaths, where the ground was sandy, broken, and irregular, still +however marked by plantations made in it by the Rayland family." + +Every feature of the landscape is brought distinctly before the eye. +Such descriptions are not unusual now, but they were first used by +Charlotte Smith. + +Even more realistic is the picture of a road in a part of the New Forest +near Christchurch: + +"It was a deep, hollow road, only wide enough for waggons, and was in +some places shaded by hazel and other brush wood; in others, by old +beech and oaks, whose roots wreathed about the bank, intermingled with +ivy, holly, and evergreen fern, almost the only plants that appeared in +a state of vegetation, unless the pale and sallow mistletoe, which here +and there partially tinted with faint green the old trees above them. + + * * * * * + +"Everything was perfectly still around; even the robin, solitary +songster of the frozen woods, had ceased his faint vespers to the +setting sun, and hardly a breath of air agitated the leafless branches. +This dead silence was interrupted by no sound but the slow progress of +his horse, as the hollow ground beneath his feet sounded as if he trod +on vaults. There was in the scene, and in this dull pause of nature, a +solemnity not unpleasant to Orlando, in his present disposition of +mind." + +In 1842, Miss Mitford wrote to Miss Barrett: "Charlotte Smith's works, +with all their faults, have yet a love of external nature, and a power +of describing it, which I never take a spring walk without feeling." And +again she wrote to a friend referring to Mrs. Smith, "Except that they +want cheerfulness, nothing can exceed the beauty of the style." + + * * * * * + +The life and writings of Mrs. Inchbald had some things in common with +the life and writings of Mrs. Smith. Both were obliged to write to +support themselves as well as those dependent upon them. Both had seen +many phases of human nature, and both viewed with scorn the pretensions +of the rich and beheld with pity the sorrows of the poor. Both were +champions of social and political equality. Mrs. Inchbald, however, was +an actress and a successful playwright, hence her novels are the more +dramatic, but they lack the beautiful rural setting which gives a poetic +atmosphere to the writings of Charlotte Smith. + +_A Simple Story_, the first, of Mrs. Inchbald's two novels, has been +called the precursor of _Jane Eyre_. It is the first novel in which we +are more interested in what is felt than in what actually happens. Mr. +Dorriforth, a Catholic priest, and Miss Milner, his ward, fall in love +with each other, and we watch this hidden passion, which preys upon the +health of both. He is horrified that he has broken his vows; she is +mortified that she loves a man who, she believes, neither can nor does +return her feeling for him. When he is released from his vow, it is the +emotion, not external happenings, that holds the interest. The first +part of the story is brought to a close with the marriage of Mr. +Dorriforth, now Lord Elmwood, and Miss Milner. + +Seventeen years elapse between the two halves of the novel. During this +time trouble has come between them and they have separated. The +character of each has undergone a change. Traits of disposition that +were first but lightly observed have been intensified with years. Mrs. +Inchbald writes of the hero: "Dorriforth, the pious, the good, the +tender Dorriforth, is become a hard-hearted tyrant; the compassionate, +the feeling, the just Lord Elmwood, an example of implacable rigour and +justice." His friend Sandford has also changed with the years, but he +has been softened, not hardened by them--"the reprover, the enemy of the +vain, the idle, and the wicked, but the friend and comforter of the +forlorn and miserable." + +The story of Dorriforth gives unity to the two parts of the novel. The +conflict between his love and his anger holds the reader in suspense +until the conclusion. The characters of eighteenth-century fiction were +actuated by but a small number of motives. In nearly all the novels the +men were either generous and free or stingy and hypocritical; the women +were either virtuous and winsome, or immoral and brazen. Mrs. Inchbald +possessed, only in a less degree, George Eliot's power of +character-analysis; she observed minor qualities, and she was as +unflinching in following the development of evil traits to a tragic +conclusion as was the author of _Adam Bede_. + +In _The Gentleman's Magazine_ for March, 1791, some one wrote of _A +Simple Story_: + +"She has struck out a path entirely her own. She has disdained to follow +the steps of her predecessors, and to construct a new novel, as is too +commonly done, out of the scraps and fragments of earlier inventors. Her +principal character, the Roman Catholic lord, is perfectly new: and she +has conducted him, through a series of surprising well-contrasted +adventures, with an uniformity of character and truth of description +that have rarely been surpassed." + +There is, however, one hackneyed scene. A young girl is seized, thrust +into a chariot, and carried at full speed to a lonely place. There is +hardly an early novel where this bald incident is not worked up into one +or more chapters, with variations to suit the convenience of the plot. +It was as much a part of the stock in trade of the novelist of the +eighteenth century as a family quarrel is of the twentieth. With this +exception, _A Simple Story_ is new in its plot, incidents, characters, +and mode of treatment. Emotion did not play so important a part in a +novel again until Charlotte Bronte wrote _Jane Eyre_. + +Mrs. Inchbald's only other novel, _Nature and Art_, shows the +artificialities of society. Two cousins, William and Henry, are +contrasted. William is the son of a dean. Henry's father went to Africa +to live, whence he sent his son to his rich uncle to be educated. Henry +fails to comprehend the society in which he finds himself placed, and +cannot understand that there should be any poor people. + +"'Why, here is provision enough for all the people,' said Henry; 'why +should they want? why do not they go and take some of these things?' + +"'They must not,' said the dean, 'unless they were their own.' + +"'What, Uncle! Does no part of the earth, nor anything which the earth +produces, belong to the poor?'" + +His uncle fails to answer this question to his nephew's satisfaction. + +The vices and the fawning duplicity of William are contrasted with the +virtues and independent spirit of Henry. + +"'I know I am called proud,' one day said William to Henry. + +"'Dear Cousin,' replied Henry, 'it must be only then by those who do not +know you; for to me you appear the humblest creature in the world.' + +"'Do you really think so?' + +"'I am certain of it; or would you always give up your opinion to +that of persons in a superior state, however inferior in their +understanding? ... I have more pride than you, for I will never stoop +to act or to speak contrary to my feelings.'" + +William rises to eminence, in time becoming a judge. Henry, who is +always virtuous, can obtain no preferment. This contrast in the two +cousins is not so overdrawn as at first appears. William represents the +aristocracy of the old world; Henry, the free representative of a new +country. + +A tragic story runs through the novel, which becomes intensely dramatic +at the point where William puts on his black cap to pronounce sentence +on the girl whom he had ruined years before. He does not recognise her; +but she, who had loved him through the years, becomes insane, not at the +thought of death, but that he should be the one to pronounce the +sentence. It is doubtful if any novelist before Scott had produced so +thrilling a situation, a situation which grew naturally out of the plot, +and the anguish of the poor unfortunate Agnes has the realism of Thomas +Hardy or Tolstoi. + +Only by reading these old novels can one comprehend the change produced +in England by the next half-century. The teachings of Mrs. Charlotte +Smith and Mrs. Inchbald were declared dangerous to the state. That they +taught disrespect for authority, was one of the many charges brought +against them. Yet with what ladylike reserve they advance views which a +later generation applauded when boldly proclaimed by Dickens, Thackeray, +and Disraeli! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Clara Reeve. Ann Radcliffe. Harriet and Sophia Lee + + +The novel of the mysterious and the supernatural did not appear in +modern literature until Horace Walpole wrote _The Castle of Otranto_ in +1764, during the decade that was dominated by the realism of Smollett +and Sterne. The author says it was an attempt to blend two kinds of +romance, the ancient, which was all improbable, and the modern, which +was a realistic copy of nature. The machinery of this novel is clumsy. +An enormous helmet and a huge sword are the means by which an ancestor +of Otranto, long since dead, restores the castle to a seeming peasant, +who proves to be the rightful heir. + + * * * * * + +This book produced no imitators until 1777, when Clara Reeve wrote _The +Old English Baron_, which was plainly suggested by Walpole's novel, but +is more delicate in the treatment of its ghostly visitants. Here, as in +_The Castle of Otranto_, the rightful heir has been brought up a +peasant, ignorant of his high birth. Again his ancestors, supposedly +dead and gone, bring him into his own. One night he is made to sleep in +the haunted part of the castle, where his parents reveal to him in a +dream things which he is later able to prove legally. He learns the +truth about his birth, comes into his estate, and wins the lady of his +heart. When he returns to the castle as its master, all the doors fly +open through the agency of unseen hands to welcome their feudal lord. + +The characters of both these novels are without interest, and the +mysterious element fails to produce the slightest creepy thrill. + + * * * * * + +Twelve years passed before Walpole's novel found another imitator in +Mrs. Ann Radcliffe, who so far excelled her two predecessors that she +has been called the founder of the Gothic romance, and in this field she +remains without a peer. In her first novel, _The Castles of Athlin and +Dunbayne_, as in _The Old English Baron_ by Clara Reeve, a peasant +renowned for his courage and virtue loves and is beloved by a lady of +rank. A strawberry mark on his arm proves that he is the Baron Malcolm +and owner of the castle of Dunbayne, at which juncture amid great +rejoicings the story ends. + +The characters and the style foreshadow Mrs. Radcliffe's later work. +The usurping Baron of Dunbayne, who has imprisoned in his castle the +women who might oppose his ambition; the two melancholy widows; their +gentle and pensive daughters; their brave, loyal, and virtuous sons in +love respectively with the two daughters; the Count Santmorin, bold and +passionate, who endeavours by force to carry off the woman he +loves--these are types that Mrs. Radcliffe repeatedly developed until in +her later novels they became real men and women with strong conflicting +emotions. + +But superior to all her other powers is her ability to awaken a feeling +of the presence of the supernatural. The castle of Dunbayne has secret +doors and subterranean passages. The mysterious sound, as of a lute, is +wafted on the air from an unknown source. Alleyn, in endeavouring to +escape through a secret passage, stumbles over something in the dark, +and, on stooping to learn what it is, finds the cold hand of a corpse in +his grasp. This dead man has nothing to do with the story, but is +introduced merely to make the reader shudder, which Mrs. Radcliffe never +fails to do, even after we have learned all the secrets of her art. We +learn later in the book how the corpse happened to be left here +unburied; for in that day of intense realism, half-way between the +ancient belief in ghosts and the modern interest in mental suggestion, +every occurrence outside the known laws of physics was greeted with a +cynical smile. But, although Mrs. Radcliffe always explains the mystery +in her books, we hold our breath whenever she designs that we shall. + +_The Sicilian Romance_, _The Romance of the Forest_, _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_, and _The Italian_ were written and published during the next +seven years and each one shows a marked artistic advance over its +predecessor. With the opening paragraph of each, we are carried at once +into the land of the unreal, into regions of poetry rather than of +prose. Rugged mountains with their concealed valleys, whispering forests +which the eye cannot penetrate, Gothic ruins with vaulted chambers and +subterranean passages, are the scenes of her stories; while event after +event of her complicated plot happens either just as the mists of +evening are obscuring the sun, or while the moonlight is throwing +fantastic shadows over the landscape. It is an atmosphere of mystery in +which one feels the weird presence of the supernatural. This is +heightened by the ghostly suggestions she brings to the mind, as +incorporeal as spirits. A low hurried breathing in the dark, lights +flashing out from unexpected places, forms gliding noiselessly along the +dark corridors, a word of warning from an unseen source, cause the +reader to wait with hushed attention for the unfolding of the mystery. + +Sometimes the solution is trivial. The reader and the inmates of Udolpho +are held in suspense chapter after chapter by some terrible appearance +behind a black veil. When Emily ventures to draw the curtain, she drops +senseless to the ground. But this appearance turns out to be merely a +wax effigy placed there by chance. Often the explanation is more +satisfactory. The disappearance of Ludovico during the night from the +haunted chamber where he was watching in hopes of meeting the spirits +that infested it, makes the most sceptical believe for a time in the +reality of the ghostly visitants; and his reappearance at the close of +the book, the slave of pirates who had found a secret passage leading +from the sea to this room, and had used it as a place of rendezvous, is +declared by Sir Walter Scott to meet all the requirements of romance. + +But by a series of strange coincidences and dreams Mrs. Radcliffe still +makes us feel that the destiny of her characters is shaped by an unseen +power. Adeline is led by chance to the very ruin where her unknown +father had been murdered years before. She sees in dreams all the +incidents of the deed, and a manuscript he had written while in the +power of his enemies falls into her hands. Again by chance she finds an +asylum in the home of a clergyman, Arnaud La Luc, who proves to be the +father of her lover, Theodore Peyrou. It seems to be by the +interposition of Providence that Ellena finds her mother and is +recognised by her father. So in every tale we are made aware of powers +not mortal shaping human destiny. + +Mrs. Radcliffe adds to this consciousness of the presence of the +supernatural by another, perhaps more legitimate, method. She felt what +Wordsworth expressed in _Tintern Abbey_, written the year after her last +novel was published: + + And I have felt + A presence that disturbs me with the joy + Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime + Of something far more deeply interfused, + Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air, + And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; + A motion and a spirit, that impels + All thinking things, all objects of all thought, + And rolls through all things. + +Mrs. Radcliffe seldom loses her feeling for nature, and has a strong +sense of the effect of environment on her characters. Julia, when in +doubt about the fate of Hippolitus, often walked in the evening under +the shade of the high trees that environed the abbey. "The dewy coolness +of the air refreshed her. The innumerable roseate tints which the +parting sun-beams reflected on the rocks above, and the fine vermil +glow diffused over the romantic scene beneath, softly fading from the +eye as the night shades fell, excited sensations of a sweet and tranquil +nature, and soothed her into a temporary forgetfulness of her sorrow." +As the happy lovers, Vivaldi and Ellena, are gliding along the Bay of +Naples, they hear from the shore the voices of the vine-dressers, as +they repose after the labours of the day, and catch the strains of music +from fishermen who are dancing on the margin of the sea. + +Sometimes nature is prophetic. The whole description of the castle of +Udolpho, when Emily first beholds it, is symbolical of the sufferings +she is to endure there: "As she gazed, the light died away on its walls, +leaving a melancholy purple tint, which spread deeper and deeper, as the +thin vapour crept up the mountain, while the battlements above were +still tipped with splendour. From these, too, the rays soon faded, and +the whole edifice was invested with the solemn duskiness of evening. +Silent, lonely, and sublime it seemed to stand the sovereign of the +scene, and to frown defiance on all who dared invade its solitary +reign." When Emily is happy in the peasant's home in the valley below, +she lingers at the casement after the sun has set: "But a clear +moonlight that succeeded gave to the landscape what time gives to the +scenes of past life, when it softens all their harsh features, and +throws over the whole the mellowing shade of distant contemplation." It +is this feeling for nature as a constant presence in daily life, now +elating the mind with joy, now awakening a sense of foreboding or +inspiring terror, and again soothing the mind to repose, that gives to +her books a permanent hold upon the imagination and marks their author +as a woman of genius. + +In her response to nature, she belongs to the Lake School. Scott said of +her: "Mrs. Radcliffe has a title to be considered as the first poetess +of romantic fiction, that is, if actual rhythm shall not be deemed +essential to poetry." Mrs. Smith describes nature as we all know it, as +it appears on the canvasses of Constable and Wilson. Mrs. Radcliffe's +descriptions of ideal and romantic nature have earned for her the name +of the English Salvator Rosa. + +Mrs. Radcliffe's characters are not without interest, although they are +often mere types. All her heroes and heroines are ladies and gentlemen +of native courtesy, superior education, and accomplishments. In _The +Mysteries of Udolpho_ she has set forth the education which St. Aubert +gave to his daughter, Emily: "St. Aubert cultivated her understanding +with the most scrupulous care. He gave her a general view of the +sciences, and an exact acquaintance with every part of elegant +literature. He taught her Latin and English, chiefly that she might +understand the sublimity of their best poets. She discovered in her +early years a taste for works of genius; and it was St. Aubert's +principle, as well as his inclination, to promote every innocent means +of happiness. 'A well informed mind,' he would say, 'is the best +security against the contagion of vice and folly.'" + +In all their circumstances her characters are well-bred. This type has +been nearly lost in literature, due, perhaps, to the minuter study of +manners and the analysis of character. When an author surveys his ladies +and gentlemen through a reading-glass, and points the finger at their +oddities and pries into their inmost secrets, even the Chesterfields +become awkward and clownish. But Mrs. Radcliffe, like Mrs. Smith, is a +true gentlewoman, and speaks of her characters with the delicate respect +of true gentility. Julia, Adeline, Emily, and Ellena, the heroines of +four of her books, love nature, and while away the melancholy hours by +playing on the lute or writing poetry, and are, moreover, well qualified +to have charge of a baronial castle and its dependencies. Her heroes are +worthy of her heroines. As they are generally seen in the presence of +ladies, if they have vices there is no occasion for their display. + +It is only in the characters of her villains that good and evil are +intertwined, and she awakens our sympathy for them equally with our +horror. Monsieur La Motte, a weak man in the power of an unscrupulous +one, is the best drawn character in _The Romance of the Forest_. He has +taken Adeline under his protection and has been as a father to her. But +before this he had committed a crime which has placed his life in the +hands of a powerful marquis. To free himself he consents to surrender +Adeline to the marquis, who has become enamoured of her beauty, hoping +by the sacrifice of her honour to save his own life. He is agitated in +the presence of Adeline, and trembles at the approach of any stranger. +Scott said of him, "He is the exact picture of the needy man who has +seen better days." + +In _The Italian_, Schedoni, a monk of the order of Black Penitents for +whom the novel is named, is guilty of the most atrocious crimes in order +that he may further his own ambition, but he is not devoid of natural +feeling. Scott says the scene in which he "is in the act of raising his +arm to murder his sleeping victim, and discovers her to be his own +child, is of a new, grand, and powerful character; and the horrors of +the wretch who, on the brink of murder, has just escaped from committing +a crime of yet more exaggerated horror, constitute the strongest +painting which has been produced by Mrs. Radcliffe's pencil, and form a +crisis well fitted to be actually embodied on canvas by some great +master." + +Every book has one or more gloomy, deep-plotting villains. But all the +people of rank bear unmistakable marks of their nobility, even when +their natures have become depraved by crime. In this she is the equal of +Scott. + +In every ruined abbey and castle there is a servant who brings in a +comic element and relieves the strained feelings. Peter, Annette, and +Paulo are all faithful but garrulous, and often bring disaster upon +their masters by overzeal in their service. + +When Vivaldi, the hero of _The Italian_, is brought before the tribunal +of the inquisition, his faithful servant, Paulo, rails bitterly at the +treatment his master has received. Vivaldi, well knowing the danger +which they both incur by too free speech, bids him speak in a whisper: + +"'A whisper,' shouted Paulo, 'I scorn to speak in a whisper. I will +speak so loud that every word I say shall ring in the ears of all those +old black devils on the benches yonder, ay, and those on that mountebank +stage, too, that sit there looking so grim and angry, as if they longed +to tear us in pieces. They--' + +"'Silence,' said Vivaldi with emphasis. 'Paulo, I command you to be +silent.' + +"'They shall know a bit of my mind,' continued Paulo, without noticing +Vivaldi. 'I will tell them what they have to expect from all their cruel +usage of my poor master. Where do they expect to go to when they die, I +wonder? Though for that matter, they can scarcely go to a worse place +than that they are in already, and I suppose it is knowing that which +makes them not afraid of being ever so wicked. They shall hear a little +plain truth for once in their lives, however; they shall hear--'" + +But by this time Paulo is dragged from the room. + +The plots of all Mrs. Radcliffe's novels are complicated. A whole skein +is knotted and must be unravelled thread by thread. _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_ is the most involved. Characters are introduced that are for a +time apparently forgotten; one sub-plot appears within another, but at +the end each is found necessary to the whole. + +_The Italian_ is simpler than the others: the plot is less involved, and +there are many strong situations. The opening sentence at once arouses +the interests of the reader: "Within the shade of the portico, a person +with folded arms, and eyes directed towards the ground, was pacing +behind the pillars the whole extent of the pavement, and was apparently +so engaged by his own thoughts as not to observe that strangers were +approaching. He turned, however, suddenly, as if startled by the sound +of steps, and then, without further pausing, glided to a door that +opened into the church, and disappeared." Another scene in which the +Marchesa Vivaldi and Schedoni are plotting the death of Ellena, is +justly famous. The former is actuated by the desire to prevent her son's +marriage to a woman of inferior rank; the latter hopes that he may gain +an influence over the powerful Marchesa that will lead to his promotion +in the church. Their conference, which takes place in the choir of the +convent of San Nicolo, is broken in upon by the faint sound of the organ +followed by slow voices chanting the first requiem for the dead. + +_The Italian_ is generally considered the strongest of Mrs. Radcliffe's +novels. It was published in 1797, and was as enthusiastically received +as were its predecessors, but for some reason it was the last book Mrs. +Radcliffe published. Neither the fame it brought her, nor the eight +hundred pounds she received for it from her publishers, tempted its +author from her life of retirement. Publicity was distasteful to her. At +the age of thirty-four, at an age when many novelists had written +nothing, she ceased from writing, and spent the rest of her years either +in travel or in the seclusion of her own home. + +The novel at this time was not considered seriously as a work of art, +and Mrs. Radcliffe may have considered that she was but trifling with +time by employing her pen in that way. In looking over the book reviews +in _The Gentlemen's Magazine_ for the years from 1790 to 1800, it is +significant that, while column after column is spent in lavish praise of +a book of medicine or science which the next generation proved to be +false, and of poetry that had no merit except that its feet could be +counted, seldom is a novel reviewed in its pages. _The Mysteries of +Udolpho_ was criticised for its lengthy descriptions, and _The Italian_ +was ignored. + +The direct influence of these novels on the literature of the nineteenth +century cannot be estimated. Mrs. Radcliffe's influence upon her +contemporaries can be more easily traced. The year after the publication +of _The Mysteries of Udolpho_ Lewis wrote _The Monk_. This has all the +horrors but none of the refined delicacy of Mrs. Radcliffe's work. +Robert Charles Maturin borrowed many suggestions from her, and the +gentle satire of _Northanger Abbey_ could never have been written if +Jane Austen had not herself come under the influence of _The Romance of +the Forest_. + +But her greatest influence was upon Scott. The four great realistic +novelists of the eighteenth century, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and +Sterne whose influence can be so often traced in Thackeray and Dickens, +seem never to have touched the responsive nature of Scott. He edited +their works and often spoke in their praise, but that which was deepest +and truest in him, which gave birth to his poetry and his novels, seems +never to have been aware of their existence. Mrs. Radcliffe and Maria +Edgewood were his most powerful teachers. + +Andrew Lang in the introduction to _Rob Roy_ in the Border edition of +the _Waverley Novels_ calls attention to the fact that Waverley, Guy +Mannering, Lovel of _The Antiquary_, and Frank Osbaldistone were all +poets. Not only these men, but others, as Edward Glendinning and Edgar +Ravenswood, bear a strong family resemblance to Theodore Peyrou, +Valancourt, and Vivaldi, as well as to some of the other less important +male characters in Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. Scott's men stand forth more +clearly drawn, while Mrs. Radcliffe's are often but dimly outlined. +Ellen Douglas, the daughter of an exiled family; the melancholy Flora +MacIvor, who whiled away her hours by translating Highland poetry into +English; Mary Avenel, dwelling in a remote castle, are all refined, +educated gentlewomen such as Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Radcliffe delighted in, +and are placed in situations similar to those in which Julia, Adeline, +and Emily are found. + +But the heroines of Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Radcliffe have a quality which +not even Scott has been able to give to his women. It is expressed by a +word often used during the reign of the Georges, but since gone out of +fashion. They were women of fine sensibilities. Johnson defines this as +quickness of feeling, and it has been used to mean a quickness of +perception of the soul as distinguished from the intellect. The +sensibilities of women may not be finer than those of men, but they +respond to a greater variety of emotions. This gives to them a certain +evanescent quality which we find in Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Maggie +Tulliver, Romola, the portraits of Madame Le Brun and Angelica Kauffman, +and the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This quality men have +almost never grasped whether working with the pen or the brush. +Rosalind, Juliet, Viola, Beatrice, all possess it; and in a less degree, +Diana of the Crossways is true to her sex in this respect. But the +features of nearly every famous Madonna, no matter how skilful the +artist that painted her, are stiff and wooden when looked at from this +point of view, and Scott's heroines, with the possible exception of +Jeanie Deans, are immobile when compared with woman as portrayed by many +an inferior artist of her own sex. + +Scott's complicated plots and his constant introduction of characters +who are surrounded by mystery or are living in disguise again suggest +Mrs. Radcliffe. Again and again he selected the same scenes that had +appealed to her, and in his earlier novels and poems he filled them in +with the same details which she had chosen. Perhaps it is due to her +influence that all the hills of Scotland, as some critic has observed, +become mountains when he touches them: "The sun was nearly set behind +the distant mountain of Liddesdale" was the beginning of an early +romance to have been entitled _Thomas the Rhymer_. Knockwinnock Bay in +_The Antiquary_ is first seen at sunset, and it is night when Guy +Mannering arrives at Ellangowan Castle. Melrose is described by +moonlight. The sun as it sets in the Trossachs brings to the mind of +Scott the very outlines and colours which Mrs. Radcliffe had used in +giving the first appearance of Udolpho, a scene which Scott has highly +praised; while these famous lines of James Fitz-James have caught the +very essence of one of her favourite spots: + + On this bold brow, a lordly tower; + In that soft vale, a lady's bower; + On yonder meadow, far away, + The turrets of a cloister grey! + How blithely might the bugle horn + Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn! + How sweet, at eve, the lover's lute + Chime, when the groves were still and mute! + And, when the midnight moon should lave + Her forehead in the silver wave, + How solemn on the ear would come + The holy matin's distant hum. + +In his later works Scott is tediously prosaic in description, far +inferior to Mrs. Radcliffe, and in the romantic description of scenery +he never excels her. It would seem to be no mere chance that in his +poetry and in his earlier novels he has so often struck the same key as +did the author of _The Mysteries of Udolpho_. + + * * * * * + +Two sisters, Harriet and Sophia Lee, were writing books and finding +readers during the time of Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, and Mrs. +Radcliffe. In 1784, Sophia Lee published a three-volume novel, _The +Recess_, a story of the time of Queen Elizabeth, in which Elizabeth, +Mary Queen of Scots, and the earls Leicester, Norfolk, and Essex play +important roles. The two heroines are unacknowledged daughters of Mary +Queen of Scots and Norfolk, to whom she has been secretly married during +her imprisonment in England. Many other situations in the book are +equally fictitious. + +The historical novels written in France during the reign of Louis XIV +paid no heed to chronology, but men and women whom the author knew well +were dressed in the garb of historical personages, and various periods +of the past were brought into the space of the story. _The Recess_ was +not a masquerade, but the plot and characters slightly picture the reign +of Elizabeth. This was one of the first novels in which there was an +attempt to represent a past age with something like accuracy. As this +was one of the first historical novels, using the term in the modern +sense, it had perhaps a right to be one of the poorest; for it is +impossible to conceive three volumes of print in which there are fewer +sentences that leave any impress on the mind than this once popular +novel. + +Sophia Lee wrote other novels which are said to be worse than this; but +in 1797 she and her sister Harriet, who had the greater imagination, +published _The Canterbury Tales_. Some of those written by Harriet are +excellent. According to the story a group of travellers have met at an +inn in Canterbury, where they are delayed on account of a heavy fall of +snow. To while away the weary hours of waiting, as they are gathered +about the fire in true English fashion, they agree, as did the +Canterbury pilgrims of long ago, that each one shall tell a story. But +the pilgrims whom Chaucer accompanied to the shrine of Thomas a Becket +are accurately described, and between the tales they discuss the stories +and exchange lively banter in which the nature of each speaker is +clearly revealed. In _The Canterbury Tales_ there is little +character-drawing. Any one of the stories might have been told by any +one of the narrators, and before the conclusion the authors dropped this +device. + +In the stories that are told the characters are weak, but the plots are +interesting and many of them original and clever. These _Tales_ +represent the beginning of the modern short story. + +In a preface to a complete edition of the _Tales_ published in 1832, +Harriet Lee wrote: + +"Before I finally dismiss the subject, I think I may be permitted to +observe that, when these volumes first appeared, a work bearing +distinctly the title of _Tales_, professedly adapted to different +countries, and either abruptly commencing with, or breaking suddenly +into, a sort of dramatic dialogue, was a novelty in the fiction of the +day. Innumerable _Tales_ of the same stamp, and adapted in the same +manner to all classes and all countries, have since appeared; with many +of which I presume not to compete in merit, though I think I may fairly +claim priority of design and style." + +_The Canterbury Tales_ were read and reread a long time after they were +written. A critic in _Blackwood's_ says of them: + +"They exhibit more of that species of invention which, as we have +already remarked, was never common in English literature than any of the +works of the first-rate novelists we have named, with the single +exception of Fielding." + +The most famous story of the collection is _Kruitzener, or the German's +Tale_. Part of the story is laid in Silesia during the Thirty Years' +War. Frederick Kruitzener, a Bohemian, is the hero, if such a term may +be used for so weak a man. In his youth he is thus described: + +"The splendour, therefore, which the united efforts of education, +fortune, rank, and the merits of his progenitors threw around him, was +early mistaken for a personal gift--a sort of emanation proceeding from +the lustre of his own endowments, and for which, as he believed, he was +indebted to nature, he resolved not to be accountable to man.... He was +distinguished!--he saw it--he felt it--he was persuaded he should ever +be so; and while yet a youth in the house of his father--dependent on +his paternal affection, and entitled to demand credit of the world +merely for what he was to be--he secretly looked down on that world as +made only for him." + +The tale traces the troubles which Kruitzener brings upon himself, his +misery and his death. It belongs to romantic literature; the mountain +scenes, a palace with secret doors, a secret gallery, a false friend, a +mysterious murder, all these remind us of Mrs. Radcliffe's novels, but +the story does not possess her power or her poetic charm. Ernest +Hartley Coleridge said of this tale: "But the _motif_--a son predestined +to evil by the weakness and sensuality of his father, a father's +punishment for his want of rectitude by the passionate criminality of +his son, is the very key-note of tragedy." + +Byron read this story when he was about fourteen, and it affected him +powerfully. By a strange coincidence Kruitzener bears a strong +resemblance to Lord Byron himself. He was proud and melancholy, and, +while he led a life of pleasure, his spirits were always wrapped in +gloom. "It made a deep impression on me," writes Byron, "and may, +indeed, be said to contain the germ of much that I have since written." +In 1821, he dramatised it under the title of _Werner, or the +Inheritance_. The play follows the novel closely both in plot and +conversation. An editor of Byron's works wrote of it: "There is not one +incident in his play, not even the most trivial, that is not in Miss +Lee's novel. And then as to the characters--not only is every one of +them to be found in _Kruitzener_, but every one is there more fully and +powerfully developed." + +_The Landlady's Tale_ is far superior to all others in the collection, +if judged by present-day standards. This story of sin and its punishment +reminds one in its moral earnestness of George Eliot. Mr. Mandeville had +brought ruin upon a poor girl, Mary Lawson, whose own child died, when +she became the wet nurse of Robert, Mr. Mandeville's legitimate son and +heir. Mary grew to love the boy, but, when the father threatened to +expose her character unless she would continue to be his mistress, she +ran away, taking the infant with her. She became a servant in a +lodging-house in Weymouth, where she lived for fifteen years, respected +and beloved. At the end of that time, Mr. Mandeville came to the house +as a lodger, where he neither recognised Mary nor knew his son. But he +disliked Robert, and paid no heed to the fact that one of his own +servants was leading the boy into evil ways. When Robert was accused of +a crime which his own servant had committed, he saw him sent to prison +and later transported with indifference. The grief of the father when he +learned that Robert was his own child was most poignant, and his +unavailing efforts to save him are vividly told. He is left bowed with +grief, for he suffers under the double penalty of "a reproachful world +and a reproaching conscience." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Maria Edgeworth. Lady Morgan + + +"My real name is Thady Quirk, though in the family I have always been +known by no other than 'honest Thady'; afterward, in the time of Sir +Murtagh, diseased, I remember to hear them calling me 'old Thady,' and +now I'm come to 'poor Thady.'" Thus the faithful servant of the Rackrent +family introduces himself, before relating the history of the lords of +the castle, where he and his had lived rent-free time out of mind. And +what consummate art Maria Edgeworth showed in her first novel, _Castle +Rackrent_, in letting "poor Thady" ramble with all the garrulity of old +age. To him, who had never been farther than a day's tramp from the +castle, there was nothing in the world's history but it and its owners. +No servant but an Irish servant could have told the story as he did, +judging the characters of his masters with shrewd wit and relating their +worst failings with a "God bless them." + +And where out of Ireland could Thady have found such masters, ready to +spend all they had and another man's too, happy and free, and dying as +merrily as they had lived! There was Sir Patrick, who, as Thady tells +us, "could sit out the best man in Ireland, let alone the three +kingdoms"; Sir Kit, who married a Jewess for her money; and Sir Condy, +who signed away the estate rather than be bothered to look into his +steward's accounts, and then feigned that he was dead that he might hear +what his friends said of him at the wake. But he soon came to life, and +a merry time they had of it. "But to my mind," says Thady, "Sir Condy +was rather upon the sad order in the midst of it all, not finding there +was such a great talk about himself after his death, as he had expected +to hear." But Thady loved his master, and it is with genuine grief that +he records his ultimate death, and with simple and unconscious wit he +adds, "He had but a very poor funeral after all." + +In _The Absentee_, the manners and customs of the Irish peasants are +more broadly delineated than in _Castle Rackrent_. _The Absentee_ was +written to call the attention of the Irish landlords who were living in +England to the wretched condition of their tenants left in the power of +unscrupulous stewards. Lord Colambre, the son of Lord Clonbrony, an +absentee, visits his father's estates, which he has not seen for many +years, in disguise, and goes among the peasants, many of whom are in +abject poverty. But the quick generosity of the nation speaks in the +poor Widow O'Neil's "Kindly welcome, sir," with which she opens the door +to the unknown lord, and its enthusiastic loyalty in the joyful +acclamations of the peasants when he reveals himself to them,--a scene +which Macaulay has pronounced the finest in literature since the +twenty-second book of the _Odyssey_. + +_Ennui_ is another of her stories of Irish life, in which the supposed +Earl of Glenthorn, after a long residence in England, returns to his +Irish estates. The heroine of this tale is the old nurse, Ellinor +O'Donoghoe. As the nurses of many stories are said to have done, she had +substituted her own child for the rightful heir, and was frantic with +joy when she saw him the master of Glenthorn Castle. Her devotion to the +earl is pathetic, and her secret fears of the deception she had +practised on the old earl may have prompted her strange speech that, if +it pleased God, she would like to die on Christmas Day, of all days, +"because the gates of heaven will be open all that day; and who knows +but a body might slip in unbeknownst?" Ellinor is a woman of many +virtues and many failings, but she is always pure Celt. + +How well contrasted are the two cousins, friends of Ormond, Sir Ulick +O'Shane, a wily politician and a member of Parliament, and Mr. +Cornelius O'Shane, King of the Black Islands, called by his dependents +King Corny. The latter, bluff, generous, brave, open as the day, is yet +a match for his crafty kinsman. Sir Ulick's visit to King Corny is a +masterpiece. He has a purpose in his visit and a secret to guard, which +King Corny is watching to discover. Sir Ulick has been bantering his +kinsman on the old-fashioned customs observed on his estate and +ridicules his method of ploughing: + +"'Your team, I see, is worthy of your tackle,' pursued Sir Ulick. 'A +mule, a bull, and two lean horses. I pity the foremost poor devil of a +horse, who must starve in the midst of plenty, while the horse, bull, +and even mule, in a string behind him, are all plucking and munging away +at their hay ropes.' + +"Cornelius joined in Sir Ulick's laugh, which shortened its duration. + +"''Tis comical ploughing, I grant,' said he, 'but still, to my fancy, +anything's better and more profitable nor the tragi-comic ploughing you +practise every sason in Dublin.' + +"'I?' said Sir Ulick. + +"'Ay, you and all your courtiers, ploughing the half-acre, continually +pacing up and down that castle-yard, while you're waiting in attendance +there. Every one to his own taste, but, + + "'If there's a man on earth I hate, + Attendance and dependence be his fate.'" + +King Corny has been studying his diplomatic kinsman carefully to learn +his secret, until the wily politician, by unnecessary caution in +guarding it, overreaches himself, when King Corny exclaims to himself: + +"Woodcocked! That he has, as I foresaw he would." + +While the trained diplomat murmurs as he takes his leave, "All's safe." + +Native wit had got the better of artful cunning. + +And when Sir Ulick dies in disgrace, how pithy is the remark of one of +the men, as he is filling in the grave: + +"There lies the making of an excellent gentleman--but the cunning of his +head spoiled the goodness of his heart." + +In the same book, how generous and how Irish is Moriarty, lying on the +brink of death, as he thinks of Ormond, who had shot him in a fit of +passion but bitterly repented his rash deed: + +"I'd live through all, if possible, for his sake, let alone my +mudther's, or shister's or my own--'t would be too bad, after all the +trouble he got these two nights, to be dying at last, and hanting him, +maybe, whether I would or no." + +The quick kindness which so often twists an Irishman's tongue is +humorously illustrated in the _Essay on Irish Bulls_, which Maria +Edgeworth and her father wrote together. Mr. Phelim O'Mooney, disguised +as Sir John Bull, accepts his brother's wager that he cannot remain four +days in England without the country of his birth being discovered eight +times. Whenever his speech betrays him, it is the result of his +emotions. When he sees Bourke, a pugilist of his own country, overcome +by an Englishman, he cries to him excitedly: "How are you, my gay +fellow? Can you see at all with the eye that is knocked out?" A little +later, in discussing a certain impost duty, he grows angry and exclaims: +"If I had been the English minister, I would have laid the dog-tax upon +cats." The humour of his situation increases to a climax, so that the +fun never flags. Such stories as this in which the wit is simply +sparkling good-nature, with no attempt to use it as a weapon against +frail humanity as did Fielding and Thackeray, or to produce a smile by +exaggeration as did Dickens, but simply bubbling fun, as free from guile +as the sun's laughter on Killarney, show that Miss Edgeworth was a +comedian of the first rank. Like all true comedians, she is also strong +in the pathetic, but it is the Irish pathos, in which there is ever a +smile amid the tears. This is found in the story of the return of Lady +Clonbrony to her own country; the fall of Castle Rackrent; and the ruin +by their sudden splendour of the family of Christy O'Donoghoe. + +Whenever Miss Edgeworth writes of Ireland and its people, her pages glow +with the inspiration of genius. There is no exaggeration, no caricature; +all is told with simple truth. It has often been the fate of novelists +whose aim has been to depict the manners and customs of a locality to +win the ill-will of the obscure people they have brought into +prominence. But not so with Maria Edgeworth. Her family, although +originally English, had been settled for two hundred years in Ireland. +She loved the country and always wrote of it with a loving pen. Before +_Castle Rackrent_ was written, Ireland had been for many centuries an +outcast in literature, known only for her blunders and bulls. But, as +one of her characters says, "An Irish bull is always of the head, never +of the heart." Even though her characters are humorous, they are never +clowns. All the men have dignity, and all the women grace. She gave them +a respectable place in literature. + +But her influence was felt outside of Ireland. Old Thady, in his +garrulous description of the masters of Castle Rackrent, had introduced +the first national novel, in which the avowed object is to represent +traits of national character. Patriotic writers in other countries +learned through her how to serve their own land, and she was one of the +many influences which led to the writing of the Waverley novels. Scott +says in the preface of these books: + +"Without being so presumptuous as to hope to emulate the rich humour, +pathetic tenderness, and admirable tact which pervade the work of my +accomplished friend, I felt that something might be attempted for my own +country, of the same kind with that which Miss Edgeworth so fortunately +achieved for Ireland--something which might introduce her natives to +those of the sister kingdom in a more favourable light than they had +been placed hitherto, and tend to procure sympathy for their virtues and +indulgence for their foibles." + +As the reader realises the power of Maria Edgeworth's mind, her ability +to describe manners and customs, to read character, and to depict comic +and tragic scenes, he wishes that her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, +had not so constantly interfered in her work, and insisted that every +book she wrote must illustrate some principle of education. He was not +singular in this respect. Rousseau, whom he greatly admired at one time, +had taught educational methods by a novel. Madame de Genlis, the teacher +of Louis Philippe, was writing novels that were celebrated throughout +Europe, in which she expounded rules for the training of the young. +Maria Edgeworth, with her father at her elbow, never lost sight of the +moral of her tale. Vivian, in the story of that name, was so weak that +he was always at the mercy of the artful. Ormond's passions led him into +trouble. Beauclerc was almost ruined by his foolish generosity. Lady +Delacour, with no object in life but pleasure, cast aside her own +happiness that she might outshine the woman she hated. Lady Clonbrony +squandered her fortune and health that she might be snubbed by her +social superiors. Mrs. Beaumont played a deep diplomatic game in her +small circle of friends, and finally overreached herself. Lady Cecilia, +the friend of Helen, brought sorrow to her and infamy upon herself by +her duplicity. In the analysis of motive, and the growth of Cecilia's +wrong-doing from a small beginning, the book resembles the novels of +George Eliot. But Maria Edgeworth could not know her own characters as +she otherwise would, because the moral was always uppermost. When Mrs. +Inchbald criticised her novel _Patronage_, she replied: "Please to +recollect, we had our moral to work out." Mr. Edgeworth, in his preface +to _Tales of Fashionable Life_, thus sets forth his daughter's purpose: + +"It has been my daughter's aim to promote by all her works the progress +of education from the cradle to the grave. All the parts of this series +of moral fiction bear upon the faults and excellencies of different +ages and classes; and they have all risen from that view of society +which we have laid before the public in more didactic works on +education." + +Such a method of writing tended to kill emotion, yet emotion breaks out +at times with genuine force, and always has a true ring. This is +especially true in the _Tales of Fashionable Life_. There society women +appear cold and heartless in the drawing-room, and so they have +generally been represented in fiction. So Thackeray regarded them. But +Maria Edgeworth followed them to the boudoir, and there reveals beneath +the laces and jewels many beautiful womanly traits. As we see in tale +after tale true feeling welling to the surface, and then choked up by +the moral, we recognise the pathetic truth that Mr. Edgeworth's +educational methods were fatal to genius. + +But strong emotion sways only a small part of the lives of most men and +women. Were it otherwise, like the great lyric poets, we should all die +young. And she has written about the common, everyday, prosaic life with +a truthfulness rarely excelled. + +One of the most interesting studies in a novel is to observe the +author's view of life. With the exception of those of Mademoiselle De +Scuderi nearly all the novels of French women considered love as the +ruling passion for happiness or woe, and all of the characters were +under its sway. Even Mademoiselle De Scuderi in the preface to _Ibrahim_ +announced it as her distinct purpose that all her heroes were to be +ruled by the two most sublime passions, love and ambition; but she was a +humorist and unconsciously interested her readers more by her witty +descriptions of people than by the loves of Cyrus and Mandane. But this +passion has seldom held such an exaggerated place in the stories of +English women. Maria Edgeworth in particular noticed that men and women +were actuated by many motives or passions. A large income or a title was +often capable of inspiring a feeling so akin to love that even the bosom +that felt its glow was unable to distinguish the difference. Loss of +respect could kill the strongest passion, and some of her heroines have +even remained single, or else married men whom at first they had +regarded with indifference, rather than marry the object of their first +love after he had forfeited their esteem. Sometimes the tameness of her +heroines shocked their author. While correcting _Belinda_ for Mrs. +Barbauld's "Novelists' Library," Miss Edgeworth wrote to a friend: + +"I really was so provoked with the cold tameness of that stick or stone +Belinda, that I could have torn the pages out." + +Propinquity, opportunity, almost a mental suggestion are quite enough +to produce a long chain of events affecting a lifetime. "Ask half the +men you are acquainted with why they are married, and their answer, if +they speak the truth, will be, 'Because I met Miss Such-a-One at such a +place, and we were continually together.' 'Propinquity, propinquity,' as +my father used to say, and he was married five times, and twice to +heiresses." So speaks Mrs. Broadhurst, a match-making mother in _The +Absentee_. And this is the reason why most of Miss Edgeworth's heroes +and heroines love. But the advances of a designing woman are quite +sufficient, as in _Vivian_, to make a fond lover forget his plighted +troth to another, and the flattery of an unscrupulous man makes him +suspicious of his real friends. Character is destiny, if the character +is strong, but circumstances are destiny, if the character is weak. It +is the aim of her novels to show how certain traits of character, as +indecision, pride, love of luxury, indolence, lead to misfortune, and +how these dangerous traits may be overcome. + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding her moral, her plots are never hackneyed and never +repeated. They are drawn from life and have the variety of life. In the +story of _Ennui_, there is the twice-told tale of the nurse's son +substituted for the real heir; but when he learns the true story of his +birth, and resigns the castle, the title, and all its wealth to the +rightful Earl of Glenthorn, who has been living in the village working +at the forge, there is a great change from the usual story. The heir of +the ancient family of Glenthorn accepts the earldom for his son, but +with reluctance. The manners of the peasant remain with the earl, and +the poor man, at last, begs the one who has been educated for the +position to accept the title and the estates. In this she emphasised +again what she constantly taught, that education and environment are +more powerful than heredity. + +As she taught that reason should be the guide of life, so she lived. Her +fourscore years and three were spent largely at her ancestral home of +Edgeworthstown. She assisted her father in making improvements to better +the condition of the tenantry, and to promote their happiness. When in +Paris, she met a Mr. Edelcrantz, a gentleman in the service of the king +of Sweden. Admiration was succeeded by love. But he could not leave the +court at Stockholm, and Miss Edgeworth felt that neither duty nor +inclination would permit her to leave her quiet life in Ireland. Reason +was stronger than love. So they parted like her own heroes and heroines. +All that history records of him is that he never married. She resumed +her responsibilities at home, and if the thought of this separation +sometimes brought the tears to her eyes, as her stepmother once wrote +to a friend, she was as cheerful, gay, and light-hearted in the home +circle as she had always been. + + * * * * * + +Besides her moral tales for adults, which were read throughout Europe, +Maria Edgeworth was always interested in the education of boys and +girls. The eldest sister in a family of twenty-one children, the +offspring of four marriages, she taught her younger brothers and +sisters, and thus grew to know intimately the needs of childhood and +what stories would appeal to them. As her father wrote, it was her "aim +to promote by all her works the progress of education from the cradle to +the grave." In her stories for children she inculcated lessons of +industry, economy, thoughtfulness, and unselfishness. + +If she helped to eradicate from the novel its false, highly colored +sentimental pictures of life, still greater was her work in producing +literature for young people. Hers were among the first wholesome stories +written for children. Before this the chapman had carried about with him +in his pack small paper-covered books which warned boys and girls of the +dangers of a life of crime. One book was named _An hundred godly lessons +which a mother on her death-bed gave to her children_. Another book of +religious and moral Sunday reading was called _The Afflicted Parent, or +the Undutiful Child Punished_. This gives the sad history of the two +children of a gentleman in Chester, a son and a daughter. The daughter +chided her brother for his wickedness, upon which he struck her and +killed her. He was hanged for this, but even then his punishment was not +completed. He came back to life, told the minister several wicked deeds +which he had committed, and was hanged a second time. In most of these +tales the gallows loomed dark and threatening. + + * * * * * + +In contrast to these morbid tales are the wholesome stories of Maria +Edgeworth. The boys and girls about whom she writes are drawn from life. +If they are bad, their crimes are never enormous, but simply a yielding +to the common temptations of childhood. Hal, in _Waste Not, Want Not_, +thinks economy beneath a gentleman's notice, and at last loses a prize +in an archery contest for lack of a piece of string which he had +destroyed. Fisher in _The Barring Out_, a cowardly boy, buys twelve buns +for himself with a half-crown which belonged to his friend, and then +gives a false account of the money. His punishment is expulsion from the +school. Lazy Lawrence has a worse fate. He will not work, plays pitch +farthing, is led by bad companions to steal, and is sent to Bridewell. +But he is not left in a hopeless condition. After he had served his term +of imprisonment he became remarkable for his industry. + +But there are more good boys and girls than bad ones in her stories. The +love of children for their parents, and the sacrifices they will make +for those they love, are beautifully told. In the story of _The +Orphans_, Mary, a girl of twelve, finds a home for her brothers and +sisters, after her father and mother die, in the ruins of Rossmore +Castle, where they support themselves by their labour. Mary finds that +she can make shoes of cloth with soles of platted hemp, and by this +industry the children earn enough for all their needs. As directions are +given for making these shoes, any little girl reading the story would +know how to follow the example of Mary. Jem in the story of _Lazy +Lawrence_ finds that there are many ways by which he can earn the two +guineas without which his horse Lightfoot must be sold. He works early +and late, and at last accomplishes his purpose. + +Mrs. Ritchie says of this story: "Lightfoot deserves to take his humble +place among the immortal winged steeds of mythology along with Pegasus, +or with Black Bess, or Balaam's Ass, or any other celebrated steeds." + +The story of _Simple Susan_ with its pictures of village life has the +charm of an idyl. The children by the hawthorn bush choosing their May +Queen; Susan with true heroism refusing this honour, in order that she +may care for her sick mother; the incident of the guinea-hen; Rose's +love for Susan; the old harper, playing tunes to the children grouped +about him--are all simply told. Susan's love for her pet lamb reminds +one of Wordsworth's poem of that name. + +And yet these children are not unusual. Most boys and girls have days +when they are as good as Mary, or Jem, or Susan. Maria Edgeworth is not +inculcating virtues which are impossible of attainment. + +A hundred years ago, these stories, as they came from the pen of Maria +Edgeworth, delighted boys and girls, and for at least fifty years were +read by parents and children. Then for a time they were hidden in +libraries, but a collection of them has lately been edited by Mr. +Charles Welsh under the appropriate title _Tales that never Die_, which +have proved as interesting to the children of to-day as to those of +by-gone generations. + +Whether Maria Edgeworth is writing for old or young, there is one marked +trait in all her stories, her kind feeling for all humanity. The vices +of her villains are recorded in a tone of sorrow. She seldom uses +satire; never "makes fun" of her characters. Her attitude towards them +is that of the lady of Edgeworthstown towards her dependents, or rather +that of the elder sister towards the younger members of the family. Such +broad and loving sympathy is found in Shakespeare and Scott, but seldom +among lesser writers. + + * * * * * + +In Sydney Owenson, better known by her married name of Lady Morgan, +Ireland found at this time another warm but less judicious friend. Her +life was more interesting than her books. Her father, an Irish actor, +introduced his daughter, while yet a child, to his associates, so that +she appeared in society at an early age. But Mr. Owenson was +improvident; debts accumulated, and Sydney at the age of fourteen began +to earn her own living. The position of a governess, which she filled +for a time, being unsuited to her gay, independent disposition, she +began to write. Like Johnson a half century or more earlier, with a play +in manuscript as her most valuable possession, she went alone to London. +She did not wait so long as he did for recognition. New books by new +authors were eagerly read. She earned money, a social position, fame, +and with it some disagreeable notoriety. An independent, witty Irish +woman of great charm, fearless in expressing her opinions, who had +introduced herself into society and for whom nobody stood as sponsor, +was looked upon by the old-fashioned English aristocracy as an +adventuress; and later, when she came forth as the champion of Irish +liberties, and upbraided England for tyranny, she was maliciously +denounced by the Tory party. + +She entered upon life with three purposes, to each of which she adhered: +to advocate the interest of Ireland by her writings; to pay her father's +debts; and to provide for his old age. All of these purposes she +accomplished. + +Besides plays and poems, and two or three insignificant stories, she +wrote four novels upon Irish subjects: _The Wild Irish Girl_, +_O'Donnel_, _Florence Macarthy_, and _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_. +In all these books the beauty of Irish scenery is depicted as +background; the fashionable life of Dublin is described, as well as the +peasant life in remote hamlets; while the natural resources of the land +and the native gaiety of the Celtic temperament are feelingly contrasted +with the poverty and misery brought about by unjust laws. + +She thus feelingly describes the condition of Ireland in the novel +_O'Donnel_. Its sincerity must excuse its overwrought style: "Silence +and oblivion hung upon her destiny, and in the memory of other nations +she seemed to hold no place; but the first bolt which was knocked off +her chain roused her from paralysis, and, as link fell after link, her +faculties strengthened, her powers revived; she gradually rose upon the +political horizon of Europe, like her own star brightening in the west, +and lifting its light above the fogs, vapours, and clouds, which +obscured its lustre. The traveller now beheld her from afar, and her +shores, once so devoutly pressed by the learned, the pious, and the +brave, again exhibited the welcome track of the stranger's foot. The +natural beauties of the land were again explored and discovered, and +taste and science found the reward of their enterprise and labours in a +country long depicted as savage, because it had long been exposed to +desolation and neglect." + +In this book a party of travellers visits the Giant's Causeway and its +scenery is described as an almost unfrequented place. + +The new interest in Ireland of which she writes was very largely due to +the novels of Maria Edgeworth, and partly to those of Lady Morgan +herself. + +Her last novel, _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_, is of historic +value. Its plot was furnished by the stirring events which took place +when the Society of United Irishmen were fighting for parliamentary +reforms. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the devoted patriot, is easily +recognised in the brave Lord Walter Fitzwalter, and the life of Thomas +Corbet furnished the thrilling adventures of the hero, Lord Arranmore. +When Thomas Moore visited Thomas Corbet at Caen he referred to the +account given of his escape from prison in Lady Morgan's novel as +remarkably accurate in its details. + +The style of Miss Owenson's earlier books was execrable and fully +justified the severe criticism in the first number of the _Quarterly +Review_. It gives this quotation from _Ida, or the Woman of Athens_: +"Like Aurora, the extremities of her delicate limbs were rosed with +flowing hues, and her little foot, as it pressed its naked beauty on a +scarlet cushion, resembled that of a youthful Thetis from its blushing +tints, or that of a fugitive Atalanta from its height." The wonder is +that any serious magazine should have wasted two pages of space upon +such nonsense. In ridiculing the book and the author, it gives her some +serious advice, with the encouragement that if she follow it, she may +become, not a writer of novels, but the happy mistress of a family. + +Whether Lady Morgan took this ill-meant advice or not, her style +improved with each book, until in _The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys_ it +became simple and clear, with only an occasional tendency to high +colouring and bombast. + +Maria Edgeworth has described the customs and manners of Ireland, and +unfolded the character of its people in a manner that has never been +equalled. But Lady Morgan, far inferior as an artist, has given fuller +and more picturesque descriptions of the landscape of the country, and +has made a valuable addition to the books bearing on the history of +Ireland. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Elizabeth Hamilton. Anna Porter. Jane Porter + + +Elizabeth Hamilton was also an Irish writer, but through her one novel +she will always be associated with Scotland. In _The Cottagers of +Glenburnie_ she did for the Scotch people what Maria Edgeworth had done +for the Irish, and represented for the first time in fiction the life of +the common people. It is a story of poor people of the serving class. +Mrs. Mason, who had been an upper servant in the family of a lord, has +been pensioned and takes up her abode with a cousin in the village of +Glenburnie. She was among the earliest of our settlement workers. This +little village with the pretty name, situated in a beautiful country, +had accumulated about its homes as much filth as the tenements of the +poorest ward of a large city, and for the same reason, that its +inhabitants did not understand the value of cleanliness. Its thatched +cottages, had it not been for their chimneys and the smoke issuing from +them, would have passed for stables or hog-sties, for there was a +dunghill in front of every door. + +Mrs. MacClarty's cottage, where Mrs. Mason was to live, was like all the +rest. It was as dirty inside as out. Mrs. MacClarty picked up a cloth +from the floor beside her husband's boots, with which to wipe her +dishes, and made her cheese in a kettle which had not been washed since +the chickens had eaten their last meal from it, although the remains of +their feast still adhered to the sides. When Mrs. MacClarty put her +black hands into the cheese to stir it, Mrs. Mason reminded her gently +that she had not washed them: + +"'Hoot,' returned the gudewife, 'my hands do weel eneugh. I canna be +fash'd to clean them at ilka turn.'" + +When Mrs. Mason proposed that the windows should be hung on hinges and +supplied with iron hooks, so that they could be opened at pleasure, Mr. +MacClarty objected to the plan: + +"'And wha do you think wad put in the cleek?' returned he. 'Is there +ane, think ye, aboot this hoose, that would be at sic a fash?' + +"'Ilka place has just its ain gait,' said the gudewife, 'and ye needna +think that ever we'll learn yours. And, indeed, to be plain wi' you, +cusine, I think you hae owre mony fykes. There, didna ye keep Grizzy for +mair than twa hours, yesterday morning, soopin' and dustin' your room +in every corner, an' cleanin' out the twa bits of buird, that are for +naething but to set your foot on after a'?'" + +It may be well to explain that the chickens had been roosting in this +chamber before Mrs. Mason's arrival. + +The story of Mr. MacClarty's death is pathetic. He is lying ill with a +fever in the press-bed in the kitchen, where not a breath of air reaches +him. The neighbours have crowded in to offer sympathy. The doors are +tightly closed, and his wife has piled blankets over him and given him +whiskey and hot water to drink. When Mrs. Mason, who knows that with +proper care his life can be saved, urges that he be removed to her room +where he can have air, all the neighbours violently oppose her advice. +But Peter MacGlashon, the oracle of the village, looks at it more +philosophically: + +"'If it's the wull o' God that he's to dee, it's a' ane whar ye tak him; +ye canna hinder the wull o' God.'" + +But upon Mrs. Mason's insisting that we should do our best to save the +life of the sick with the reason God has given us, Peter becomes +alarmed: + +"'That's no soond doctrine,' exclaimed Peter. 'It's the law of works.'" + +Elizabeth Hamilton had been a teacher and had written books on +education, so that her description of the school which Mrs. Mason +opened in the village gives an accurate idea of the Scottish schools for +the poorer classes. Each class was divided into landlord, tenants, and +under-tenants, one order being responsible for a specific amount of +reading and writing to the order above it. The landlord was responsible +to the master both for his own diligence and the diligence of his +vassals. If the tenants disobeyed the laws they were tried by a jury of +their mates. The results of the training at Mrs. Mason's school might +well be an aim of teachers to-day: "To have been educated at the school +of Glenburnie implied a security for truth, diligence and honesty." + +The pupils in the school gradually learned to love cleanliness and +order. The little flower-garden in front gave pleasure to all. The +villagers declared, "The flowers are a hantel bonnier than the midden +and smell a hantel sweeter, too." With this improvement in taste, the +"gude auld gaits" gave way to a better order of things. + +_The Cottagers of Glenburnie_ is more realistic in detail than anything +which had yet been written. It is a short simple story told in simple +language. There is a slight plot, but it is the village upon which our +attention is fastened. One individual stands out more strongly than the +rest: that is Mrs. MacClarty with her constant expression, "It is well +eneugh. I canna be fashed." + +This little book was read in every Scotch village, and many of the poor +people saw in it a picture of their own homes. But its sound +common-sense appealed to them. It was reasonable that butter without +hairs would sell for more than with them, and that gardens without weeds +would produce more vegetables than when so encumbered. The book did for +the cottagers of Scotland what Mrs. Mason had done for those of +Glenburnie. + + * * * * * + +The lives of Anna Maria and Jane Porter resemble in a few particulars +that of Elizabeth Hamilton. Like her they belonged, at least on the +father's side, to Ireland, and like her they lived in Scotland, and +their names will always be associated with that country. But Elizabeth +Hamilton wrote the first novel of Scotland's poor, the ancestor of _The +Window in Thrums_ and _Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush_; Jane Porter wrote +the first novel of Scotland's kings, the immediate forerunner of +_Waverley_, _The Abbot_, and _The Monastery_. + +Upon the death of Major Porter, who had been stationed for some years +with his regiment at Durham, Mrs. Porter removed to Edinburgh, where her +children were educated. Their quick lively imaginations found food for +growth on Scottish soil. At that time Caledonia was a land of cliff and +crag, inhabited by a quarrelsome people, whom the English still regarded +with something the same aversion which Dr. Johnson had so often +expressed to Boswell. But every castle had its story of brave knights +and fair ladies, and every brae had been the scene of renowned deeds of +arms. In every cottage the memory of the past was kept alive, and +fathers and mothers related to their children stories of Wallace and of +Bruce, until the romantic past became more real than the living present. +Mrs. Porter's servants delighted to relate to her eager children stories +of Scotland's glory. The maids would sing to them the songs of "Wallace +wight," and the serving-man would tell them tales of Bannockburn and +Cambus-Kenneth. + +Rarely have stories fallen on such fertile soil. In a short time, three +of these children became famous. Sir Robert Ker Porter, the brother of +Anna and Jane, followed closely in the footsteps of Scotland's heroes, +and became distinguished as a soldier and diplomat, as well as a famous +painter of battles. He painted the enormous canvas of _The Storming of +Seringapatam_, a sensational panorama, one hundred and twenty feet in +length, the first of its kind, but in a style that has often been +followed in recent years. The idol of his family, it would seem that he +was endowed with many of those qualities which his sisters gave to the +heroes of their romances. + +Anna Maria Porter, the youngest of the group, was the first to appear in +print. At the age of fifteen, she published a little volume called +_Artless Tales_. From this time until her death, at least every two +years a new book from her pen was announced. She wrote a large number of +historical romances, which were widely read and translated into many +languages. This kind of story, in the hands of Sophia Lee, was tame and +uninteresting. Anna Porter increased its scope and its popularity. Her +plots are well worked out with many thrilling adventures. Her +imagination, however, had been quickened by reading, not by observation, +and although her scenes cover many countries of Europe and many periods +of history, they differ but little in pictorial detail, and her +characters are lifeless. Her style of writing is, moreover, so inflated +that it gives an air of unreality to her books. + +She thus describes the Hungarian brothers: "They were, indeed, perfect +specimens of the loveliness of youth and the magnificence of manhood." +This novel, dealing with the French Revolution, was one of the most +popular of all her stories. It went through several editions both in +England and on the continent. Superlative expressions seem to have been +fashionable in that age which was still encumbered by much that was +artificial in dress and manners. Miss Porter with proper formality thus +writes of her heroine as she was recovering from a fainting fit: "With a +blissful shiver, Ippolita slowly unclosed her eyes, and turning them +round, with such a look as we may imagine blessed angels cast, when +awakening amid the raptures of another world, she met those of her sweet +and gracious uncle." + +Some of her society novels are witty and have a lively style, which +suggests the truth of Mr. S. C. Hall's description of the sisters. Anna, +a blonde, handsome and gay, he named L'Allegro, in contrast to Jane, a +brunette, equally handsome, but with the dignified manners of the +heroines of her own romances, whom he styled Il Penseroso. + + * * * * * + +Jane Porter took a more serious view of the responsibilities of +authorship than her sister. Her first novel, _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, was +written while England was agitated against France and excited over the +wrongs of Poland. It grew out of popular feeling. Miss Porter had become +acquainted with friends of Kosciusko, men who had taken part with him in +his country's struggle for liberty, and made him the hero of the story. +The scenery of Poland was so well described that the Poles refused to +believe that she had not visited their country; and events were related +in a manner so pleasing to them that they distinguished the author by +many honours. It is one thing to write an historical novel of people and +events that have long been buried in oblivion; but to write a story of +times so near the present that its chief actors are still living, is, +indeed, a rash task. And for any history to meet with the approval of +its hero and his friends bespeaks rare excellence in the work. + +In the light of the classic standing of the historical novel, due to the +genius of Scott and Dumas, it is interesting to read how _Thaddeus of +Warsaw_ came to be published. Miss Porter wrote the romance merely for +her own amusement, with no thought of its being read outside the circle +of her family and intimate friends. They urged her to publish it. But +for a long time she resisted their importunities on the ground that it +did not belong to any known style of writing: stories of real life, like +_Tom Jones_, or improbable romances, like _The Mysteries of Udolpho_, +were the only legitimate forms of fiction. _Thaddeus of Warsaw_ had the +exact details of history with a romance added to please the author's +fancy. Thus did Jane Porter discover to the world the possibilities of +the historical novel. + +Her next novel, _The Scottish Chiefs_, grew out of the stories she had +heard in her childhood. Besides the tales of Scotland's struggle for +independence which she heard from the servants in her own home, a +venerable old woman called Luckie Forbes, who lived not far from Mrs. +Porter's house, used to tell her of the wonderful deeds of William +Wallace. Of the influence these stories had upon her childish mind, Jane +Porter has thus written: + +"I must avow, that to Luckie Forbes's familiar, and even endearing, +manner of narrating the lives of William Wallace and his dauntless +followers; her representation of their heart-sacrifices for the good of +their country, filling me with an admiration and a reverential +amazement, like her own; and calling forth my tears and sobs, when she +told of the deaths of some, and of the cruel execution of the virtuous +leader of them all;--to her I must date my early and continued +enthusiasm in the character of Sir William Wallace! and in the friends +his truly hero-soul delighted to honour." + +Before writing _The Scottish Chiefs_, Miss Porter read everything she +could find bearing upon the history of England and Scotland during the +reigns of the first two Edwards. She personally visited the places she +described. She wrote in the preface: "I assure the reader that I seldom +lead him to any spot in Scotland whither some written or oral testimony +respecting my hero had not previously conducted myself." Besides these +sources of information, Miss Porter was familiar with the poem of +_Wallace_ by Blind Harry the Minstrel, the biographer of Scotland's +national hero. Blind Harry lived nearly two centuries after the death of +Wallace, but he had access to books now lost, and collected stories +about Scotland's struggle for independence while it was still prominent +in the public mind. Although he tells many exalted stories of the +numbers whom Wallace overcame by his single arm, the poem is on the +whole authentic. Sheriff Mackay in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_ writes that the life of Wallace by Blind Harry "became the +secular bible of his countrymen, and echoes through their later +history." Miss Porter introduced love scenes to vary the deeds of war, +but there is nothing else in _The Scottish Chiefs_ which is not true to +history, or to that more legitimate source of romance, the traditions +common among the people. + +From the opening chapter, in which Wallace is described as an outlaw +because he had refused to take the oath of allegiance to an English +king, to his death in London and the final crowning of Bruce, there is +not a dull page. Especially interesting is the scene between William +Wallace and the Earl of Carrick, after the battle of Falkirk, and the +appearance of Robert Bruce, who overheard this conversation, fighting by +the side of Wallace. The truth of this incident has been denied, but it +is related by Blind Harry. The trial of William Wallace in the great +hall at Westminster for treason, and his defence that he had never +acknowledged the English government, is most impressive, and is a matter +of record. + +_The Scottish Chiefs_ is the first historical novel in which the author +made diligent research in order to give a truthful representation of the +times. It has the atmosphere of feudal days. Notwithstanding the +ridicule cast upon Wallace as a lady's hero, he is drawn in heroic +proportions. Miss Mitford declared that she scarcely knew "one _heros de +roman_ whom it is possible to admire, except Wallace in Miss Porter's +story." The work is written in the style of the old epics. The many +puerile attempts of the last few years to write an historical romance in +which Washington or Lincoln should figure have shown how difficult is +the task. How weak and commonplace have these great men appeared in +fiction! It requires a nature akin to the heroic to draw it. In 1810, +when it was published, _The Scottish Chiefs_ was the only great +historical romance. Four years later _Waverley_ was published, the first +of the novels of Sir Walter Scott. This was superior in imagination and +in craftsmanship to Miss Porter's novel, but not in interest. _The +Scottish Chiefs_ has since been excelled by many others of the Waverley +novels, though not by all, by _Henry Esmond_, and _A Tale of Two +Cities_, but it preceded all these in time, and still holds a place as a +classic of the second rank. + +Critics of to-day smile at its enthusiastic style, but Miss Porter +speaks with no more enthusiasm than did the poor folk from whom she +heard the story. As long as enthusiastic youth loves an unblemished +hero, _The Scottish Chiefs_ will be read. It is impossible to analyse +these early impressions or to test their truth. One can only remember +them with gratitude. Jane Porter has, however, taught the youth of other +lands to reverence Scotland's popular hero, so that the mention of his +name awakens a thrill of pleasure, and the hills and glades associated +with his deeds glow with the light of romance. + +In 1815, Jane Porter wrote a third historical novel, _The Pastor's +Fireside_. This is far inferior to _The Scottish Chiefs_. It has the +same elevated style, and the mystery which surrounds the hero awakens +and holds the attention. But the novel deals with the later Stuarts, and +one feels that the author herself was but little interested in the +historical events about which she was writing. The book has no abiding +qualities. + +In 1832 was published a book bearing the title _Sir Edward Seaward's +Narrative of His Shipwreck and Consequent Discovery of certain Islands +in the Caribbean Sea, with a Detail of many extraordinary and highly +interesting Events in his Life from the year 1733 to 1749 as written in +his Own Diary. Edited by Jane Porter._ In the preface Miss Porter +explains how the manuscript was given to her by the relatives of Sir +Edward. The story reads like a second Robinson Crusoe. It has all the +minute details that give an air of verisimilitude to the writings of +Defoe. In the opening chapter, Edward Seaward supposedly gives this +account of himself: + +"Born of loyal and honest parents, whose means were just sufficient to +give a common education to their children, I have neither to boast of +pedigree nor of learning; yet they bequeathed to me a better +inheritance--a stout constitution, a peaceable disposition, and a proper +sense of what is due to my superiors and equals; for such an inheritance +I am grateful to God, and to them." + +In the story he is married to a woman of his own rank, and she embarks +with him for Jamaica, but they are shipwrecked on an island near Lat. 14 +deg. 30 min. N. and Long. 81 deg. W. They find bags of money hidden on +the island, some negroes come to them, and a schooner is driven to +their haven. Edward sees in this a purpose which afterward is fulfilled. +He says to his wife: "I should be the most ungrateful of men, to the +good God who has bestowed all this on me, if I did not feel that this +money, so wonderfully delivered into my hands, was for some special +purpose of stewardship. The providential arrival of the poor castaway +negroes, and then of the schooner,--all--all working together to give us +the means of providing every comfort, towards planting a colony of +refuge in that blessed haven of our own preservation,--seem to me, in +solemn truth, as so many signs from the Divine Will, that it is our duty +to fulfil a task allotted to us, in that long unknown island." + +This island becomes inhabited by a happy people, and Seaward is knighted +by George the Second. + +Everybody read the book. A second edition was called for within the +year. Old naval officers got out their charts, and hunted up the +probable locality of the places mentioned. Nobody at first doubted its +veracity. The _Quarterly_, however, decided that no such man had ever +existed and that the whole story was a fiction. It hunted for a schooner +mentioned and the names of the naval officers. The latter had never +served in his Majesty's navy and the former had not timed her voyages +according to the story. The uniform of a naval officer described in the +narrative was not worn until thirteen years after these adventures had +taken place, and no man by the name of Seaward had been knighted during +this time, nor was there any village in England having the name of the +village which he gave as his birthplace. Supposing the editor had +changed names and dates, the _Quarterly_ criticism becomes valueless. +Although the magazine declared it a work of fiction, it gave both the +story and the style high praise, and declared it far superior to her +romances. When Miss Porter was asked about it, she declined to answer, +but said that Scott had his great secret and she might be permitted to +have her little one. + +It is generally considered now to have been the work of Jane Porter. No +two books differ more in style than _The Scottish Chiefs_ and _Sir +Edward Seaward_. But twenty-two years had elapsed between them. The +former is written in dignified, stately language; the latter in simple +homely words, and both its invention and its style entitle it to a place +among English classics. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Amelia Opie. Mary Brunton + + +Every novel that touches upon the life of its generation naturally in +course of time becomes historical. These novels should be preserved, not +necessarily for their literary excellence, but because they bear the +imprint of an age. Such are the novels of Amelia Opie and Mary Brunton. + +Mrs. Opie, then Miss Alderson, left her quiet home in Norwich to visit +London at the height of the furor occasioned by the French Revolution. +The literary circles in which she was received were discussing excitedly +the rights of men and women, and the beauties of life lived according to +the dictates of nature. Among these enthusiasts, Miss Alderson met Mary +Wollstonecraft, the author of _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, and +esteemed her highly. Her own imagination did not, however, yield to the +intoxication of a life of perfect freedom, a dream which wrecked the +life of Mary Wollstonecraft. + +There is no sadder biography than that of Mary Wollstonecraft. In Paris, +she met Gilbert Imlay, an American, with whom she fell in love. When he +wished to marry her, she refused to permit him to make her his wife, +because she had family debts to pay, and she was unwilling to have him +legally responsible for them. But she had read the books of Rousseau, +and had been deeply impressed with the thought that marriage is a +bondage, not needed by true love. She took the name of Imlay, and passed +for his wife, but the marriage was not sanctioned either by the church +or by law. After the birth of a daughter, Imlay deserted her. At first +she tried to commit suicide, and there is the sad picture of this +talented woman walking about in the drenching rain, and then throwing +herself from the bridge at Putney. She was rescued, and a little over a +year later became the wife of William Godwin. + +The life-story of Mary Wollstonecraft suggested to Amelia Opie the novel +of _Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter_, which was not written +until after the death of the original. + +It is a tender pathetic story. Mrs. Mowbray, the mother of Adeline, +believed by her neighbours to be a genius, is interested in new theories +of education, and, while writing a book on that subject, occasionally +experiments with Adeline, although she neglects her for the most part. +In spite of this Adeline grows up beautiful and pure, totally ignorant +of the world and its wickedness. Her mother often quoted in her presence +the book of a Mr. Glenmurray, in which he proves marriage to be a +tyranny and a profanation of the sacred ties of love. Adeline is +captivated by the enthusiastic ideals of the young author. There is a +fine contrast in character and motive, where Adeline is entertaining Mr. +Glenmurray, the high-minded writer, and Sir Patrick O'Carrol, a man of +many gallantries. Sir Patrick is shocked to meet at her home the man +whose theories have banished him from respectable society. Adeline, +innocent of any low interpretation that may be put upon her words, makes +the frank avowal that, in her opinion, marriage is a shameless tie, and +that love and honour are all that should bind men and women. Sir Patrick +heartily agrees with her sentiments, and as a consequence accosts her +with a freedom repugnant to her, although she hardly understands its +import, while Glenmurray sits by gloomily, resolving to warn her in +private that the opinions she had expressed were better confined in the +present dark state of the public mind to a select and discriminating +circle. After they leave Adeline, Glenmurray, as the outcome of this +meeting, had the satisfaction of fighting a duel with Sir Patrick, +contrary to the tenets of his own book. + +But when, to escape the advances of Sir Patrick, Adeline places herself +under the protection of Glenmurray, who ardently loves her, he urges her +to marry him. This she refuses to do, and encourages him to show the +world the truth and beauty of his teachings. Glenmurray, a man of +sensitive nature, suffers more than Adeline from the indignities she +constantly receives when she frankly says she is Mr. Glenmurray's +companion, not his wife. He takes her from place to place to avoid them, +for he realises that the world censures her, while it excuses him. But +Adeline is so happy in her love for him, and in her faith in his +teachings, that she endures every humiliation with the faith of the +early Christian martyrs. When he urges her, as he so often does, to +marry him, he reads in her eyes only grief that he will not gladly +suffer for what he believes to be right, and desists rather than pain +her. But his death is hastened by the harassing thought that her whole +future is blighted by his teachings. As he says to her just before his +death: + +"Had not I, with the heedless vanity of youth, given to the world the +crude conceptions of four-and-twenty, you might at this moment have been +the idol of a respectable society; and I, equally respected, have been +the husband of your heart; while happiness would perhaps have kept that +fatal disease at bay, of which anxiety has facilitated the approach." + +It is a beautiful love story, but the hero and heroine were of too fine +a fibre to stand alone against the world. After the death of Glenmurray, +the interest flags. The conclusion is weak, not at all worthy of the +beginning. Love of every variety has been the theme of poets and +novelists, but there is no love story more beautiful for its +self-sacrificing devotion to principle and to each other, than the few +pages of this novel which tell of the unsanctioned married life of the +high-minded idealist and his bride. + +Mrs. Opie wrote _Simple Tales_ and _Tales of Real Life_. They are for +the most part pathetic stories in which unhappiness in the family circle +is caused either by undue sternness of a parent, the unfilial conduct of +a son or daughter, or a misunderstanding between husband and wife. The +feelings of the characters are often minutely described. A firm faith in +the underlying goodness of human nature is shown throughout all these +tales, and all teach love and forbearance. + + * * * * * + +Mary Brunton like Mrs. Opie wrote to improve the ethical ideals of her +generation. In the books of that day the theory was often advanced that +young men must sow their wild oats, and that men were more pleasing to +the ladies for a few vices. Her first novel, _Self-Control_, was written +to contradict this doctrine. In a letter to Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Brunton +wrote: + +"I merely intended to show the power of the religious principle in +bestowing self-command, and to bear testimony against a maxim as immoral +as indelicate, that a reformed rake makes the best husband." + +Laura, the heroine of _Self-Control_, ardently loved a man of rank and +fashion. When she learned of his amours, her love turned first to grief, +then to disgust. Stung by her abhorrence, he attempted to seduce her to +conquer her pride. The purity of the heroine triumphs. She meets a man +whom she esteems and afterwards marries. Many of Laura's adventures +border on the improbable, but her emotions are truthfully depicted. + +This was a bolder novel than appears on the surface. Long before this +the wicked heroine had been banished from fiction. The leading lady must +be virtuous to keep the love of the hero. Richardson laid down that law +of the novel. Mary Brunton asserted the same rule for the hero, and +maintained that a gentleman, handsome, noble, accomplished, could not +retain the love of a pure woman, if he were not virtuous. + +The book gave rise to heated discussions. Two gentlemen had a violent +dispute over it: one said it ought to be burnt by the common hangman; +the other, that it ought to be written in letters of gold. Beyond its +ethical import, the novel has no literary value. + +The kind reception given to _Self-Control_ led the author to begin her +second novel, _Discipline_. This was intended to show how the mind must +be trained by suffering before it can hope for true enjoyment when +self-control is lacking. Mary Brunton had read Miss Edgeworth's +description of the Irish people with pleasure; so she planned to set +forth in this novel the manners of the Scottish Highlands and of the +Orkneys, where she herself had been born. But before it was finished, +_Waverley_ was published. There the Scottish Highlands stood forth on a +large canvas, distinct and truthful, and Mrs. Brunton realised at once +how weak her own attempts were compared with Scott's masterly work. Her +interest in her book flagged, although it was published in December of +that year. Some of the Highland scenes are interesting because +accurately described, and her account of a mad-house in Edinburgh is +said to be an exact representation of an asylum for the insane in that +city. + +Mrs. Brunton died before her third novel, _Emmeline_, was finished. Her +husband, the Reverend Alexander Brunton, professor of Oriental +Languages at Edinburgh University, published the fragment of it with her +memoirs after her death. The aim of this novel was to show how little +chance of happiness there is when a divorced woman marries her seducer. +It only shows the inability of Emmeline to live down her past shame and +the unhappiness which follows the married pair. + +In the novels of Mrs. Opie and Mary Brunton the standard of conduct is +the same as to-day. Both men and women are expected to lead upright +lives, with true regard for the happiness of those about them. In +_Self-Control_ the hero refuses to fight a duel with the villain who has +injured him, and forgives him with a true Christian spirit. To be sure, +there are still seductions, and the world of fashion is without a heart. +But conduct which the former generation would have regarded with a smile +is here denominated SIN, and that which they named Prudery shines forth +as VIRTUE. The problems of life which these novels discuss are the same, +as we have said, which agitate the world to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Jane Austen + + +If in this age of steam and electricity you would escape from the noise +of the city, and experience for an hour the quiet joys of the English +countryside, at a time when a chaise and four was the quickest means of +reaching the metropolis from any part of the kingdom, turn to the pages +of Jane Austen. In them have been preserved faithful pictures of the +peaceful life of the south of England exactly as it existed a hundred +and more years ago. The gently sloping downs crossed by hedgerows, the +lazy rivers meandering through the valleys, the little villages half +hidden in the orchards of apple, pear, peach, and plum, all suggest the +land of happy homes. On the outskirts of every village there are the two +of three gentlemen's houses: the substantial mansion of the squire, with +its park of old elms, oaks, and beeches; a smaller house suitable for a +gentleman of slender income, like Mr. Bennet, the father of the four +girls of _Pride and Prejudice_, or for an elder son who will in time +take possession of the hall, like Charles Musgrove in the story of +_Persuasion_; and the still smaller parsonage standing in the garden of +vegetables and flowers, surrounded by a laurel hedge, where lives a +younger son or a friend of the family. + +The gentry that inhabit these homes carry on the plot of Jane Austen's +novels. And what an even, almost uneventful life they lead. Life with +them is one long holiday. Dance follows dance, varied only by a dinner +at the mansion, a picnic party, private theatricals, a brief sojourn at +Bath, a briefer one in London, or a ride to Lyme, seventeen miles away. +But Cupid ever hovers near, and in each one of these groups of gentle +folk we watch the course of true love, "which never did run smooth." For +in spite of match-making mammas and stern fathers with an eye that the +marriage settlements shall be sufficient to clothe sentiment with true +British respectability, the six novels of Jane Austen contain as many +true and tender love stories, differing from one another not so much in +the incidents as in the characters of the lovers. Unlike the older +novelists, who constantly drew the attention away from the main theme by +stories of thrilling adventure, Jane Austen holds closely to the great +problem of fiction, whether or not the youths and maidens will be +happily married at the conclusion of the book. + +When Darcy first meets Elizabeth, the heroine of _Pride and Prejudice_, +he shuns her and her family as vulgar. Elizabeth is so prejudiced +against him that she cannot forget his insulting arrogance. But Darcy's +love cannot be stemmed. Other heroes have plunged into raging floods to +rescue the fair heroine. Darcy does more. For love of Elizabeth he +accepts the whole Bennet family, including Mrs. Bennet, who always says +the silly thing, and Lydia, who had almost invited Wickham to elope with +her and was indifferent as to whether or not he married her, until Darcy +compelled him to do so--a bitter humiliation for a man whose greatest +fault was overweening pride of birth. At last, Elizabeth comprehends the +extent of his generosity, his superior understanding and strength of +character, and Darcy is rewarded by the hand of the sunniest heroine in +all fiction. Who but Elizabeth with her independent spirit, quick +intelligence and lively wit could curb his family pride! They marry, and +we know they will be happy. + +_Sense and Sensibility_ works out a problem for lovers. Like many +romantic girls, Marianne asserts that a woman can love but once. "He +never loved that loved not at first sight" is also part of her creed. +But after her infatuation for Willoughby has been cured, she contentedly +marries Colonel Brandon, although she knows that he frequently has +rheumatism and wears flannel waistcoats. Marianne will be much happier +as the wife of a man of mature years who loves her impulsive nature and +can control it than she would have been with the gallant who won her +first love. + +In the piquant satire of _Northanger Abbey_ there is another problem +suggested. This book is distinctly modern. Man is the pursued; woman the +pursuer. Bernard Shaw has treated this momentous question in a serious +manner in many of his plays. Jane Austen regards it with a humorous +smile. Did Henry Tilney ever know why he married Catherine Morland? Or +was this daughter of a country parsonage, without beauty, without +accomplishments, and without riches, aware that on her first visit to +Bath she used feminine arts that would have put Becky Sharp to +shame--who, by the way, was a little girl at that time--and would have +made Anne, the knowing heroine of _Man and Superman_, green with envy? +Yet her arts consisted simply in following the dictates of her heart. +She fell in love with Henry Tilney; looked for him whenever she entered +the pump-room; was unhappy if he were absent and expressed her joy at +his approach; saw in him the paragon of wisdom and looked at every thing +with his eyes. From first ignoring her, he began to seek her society, +and learn the true excellence of her character. And then Jane Austen +explains: + +"I must confess that this affection originated in nothing better than +gratitude; or in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for +him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought. It is a new +circumstance in romance, I acknowledge, and dreadfully derogatory of an +heroine's dignity, but if it is as new in common life, the credit of a +wild imagination will be all my own." + +But lest we think that Miss Austen is asserting a rule that women take +the initiative in this matter of love and marriage, it is well to +remember that Darcy first loved Elizabeth Bennet, and forced her to +acknowledge his worth, and that Colonel Brandon married a young lady who +had formerly supposed him at the advanced age of thirty-five to be +occupied with thoughts of death rather than of love. + +And Mr. Knightley is another hero who fell in love and waited patiently +for its return. Emma is like Marianne in one respect, she needed +guidance. Almost from childhood the mistress of her father's house and +the first lady in the society of Highbury, she was threatened by two +evils, "the power of having too much her own way, and a disposition to +think a little too well of herself." Mr. Knightley, the elder brother of +her elder sister's husband, is the only person that sees that she is not +always wise and that she is sometimes selfish. He is the only one that +chides her. Emma is interested in promoting the welfare of all about +her, but she lacks that most feminine quality of insight, so that her +well-meant help, as in the case of her protegee, poor Harriet Smith, is +sometimes productive of evil. And yet Emma is brave and self-forgetful. +Not until she has schooled herself to think of Mr. Knightley as married +to Harriet, is she aware how much he is a part of her own life. But this +is only another instance of her blindness. When she learns that he has +loved her with all her faults ever since she was thirteen, she is very +happy. There is no tumultuous passion in this union, but we are assured +of a love that will abide through the years. + +In _Mansfield Park_ and in _Persuasion_, there is another variety of the +old story. Fanny Price and Anne Elliot, the one the daughter of a poor +lieutenant of marines, whose family is the most ill-bred in all Miss +Austen's books, the other the neglected daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, +Baronet, have more in common than any other of her heroines. Although +these stories are different, yet in each it is the devotion of the +heroine that guides the course of love through many obstacles into a +quiet haven. Who that reads their story will say that Miss Austen's +maidens are without passion? They do not analyse their feelings, nor do +they pour them forth in wild soliloquy. But the heart of each is +clearly revealed through little acts and expressions. Fanny Price, +cherishing a love for Edmund Bertram, who was kind to her when she was +neglected by everybody else, refuses to marry the rich, handsome, and +brilliant Mr. Crawford, although she herself is penniless. We feel her +misery as she realises that she is nothing but a friend to Edmund and +rejoice with her when her love awakens a response. Anne Elliot, the +gentlest of all her heroines, who in obedience to her father has broken +her engagement to Captain Wentworth eight years before, when she is +again thrown into his company, observes his every expression, and grows +sad and weak in health at his studied neglect. Other heroines have said +more, but none have felt more than Miss Austen's. Anne Elliot herself +has spoken for them: + +"All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable +one) is that of loving longest, when existence, or when hope, is gone." + +But Jane Austen, like Shakespeare, is a dramatist. So, lest this be +taken for Miss Austen's opinion, Captain Wentworth has the last word +here when he writes to Anne, "Dare not say that man forgets sooner than +woman, that his love has an earlier death. Unjust I have been, weak and +resentful I have been, but never inconstant." + +And so, at the close of these novels, two more happy homes are added to +those of rural England. + +Are there many heroes and heroines for whom we dare predict a happy +married life? Would Mr. B. and Pamela have written such long letters to +each other about the training of their children if conversation had not +been a bore? Evelina must have been disappointed to discover that Lord +Orville lived on roast beef, plum-pudding, and port wine instead of +music and poetry. Of all Scott's heroes and heroines none had sacrificed +more for each other than Ivanhoe and Rowena; he gave up Rotherwood, and, +as a disinherited son, sought forgetfulness of her charms in distant +Palestine; she put aside all hopes of becoming a Saxon queen, and was +true to the gallant son of Cedric. Yet we have Thackeray for authority +that they were not only unhappy, but often quarrelled after Scott left +them at the altar. And none of Thackeray's marriages turned out well, +although Becky Sharp made Rodney Crawley very happy until he discovered +her wiles. Dickens was perhaps more fortunate, but David was led away by +the cunning ways of Dora before he discovered a companion and helpmate +in Agnes, a heroine worthy to be placed beside Elizabeth and Jane +Bennet. George Eliot's books and those of later novelists are rather a +warning than an incentive to matrimony. Have all our sighs and tears +over the mishaps of ill-starred lovers been in vain, and is it true that +when the curtain falls at the wedding it is only to shut from view a +scene of domestic infelicity? + +Not so with Jane Austen. She is the queen of match-makers. The marriages +brought about by her guidance give a belief in the permanency of English +home life, quite as necessary for the welfare of the kingdom as the +stability of Magna Charta. Her heroes have qualities that wear well, and +her heroines might have inspired Wordsworth's lines: + + A creature not too bright or good + For human nature's daily food, + For transient sorrows, simple wiles, + Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles. + +Besides the lovers, many diverting people lived in these homes of the +gentry, quite as amusing as any of the peasants who were brought upon +the stage by the older dramatists for our entertainment; perhaps more +amusing, because of their self-sufficiency. These people seldom do +anything that is peculiar, nor are they the objects of practical jokes, +as were so many men and women in the earlier books; but they talk freely +both at home and abroad about whatever is of interest to them. They +seldom use stereotyped words or phrases, yet their conversation is a +crystal from which the whole mental horizon of the speaker shines +forth. When Mrs. Bennet learns that Netherfield Park has been let to a +single gentleman of fortune, her first exclamation comes from the +heart--"What a fine thing for our girls!" After Mr. Collins, upon whom +Mr. Bennet's estate is entailed, has resolved to make all possible +amends to his daughters by marrying one of them, and is making his +famous proposal to Elizabeth, he says with solemn composure: "But, +before I am run away with by my feelings on this subject, perhaps it +would be advisable for me to state my reasons for marrying--and, +moreover, for coming into Hertfordshire with the design of selecting a +wife, as I certainly did." No wonder Elizabeth laughed at such a lover. +Mr. Collins is the same type of man as Mr. Smith, whom Evelina meets at +Snow Hill, but infinitely more ridiculous because he is an educated man +of some attainments. + +Then there is Mr. Woodhouse, the father of Emma, with his constant +solicitude for everybody's health and his fears that they may have +indigestion. When his daughter and her family arrive from London, all +well and hearty, he says by way of hospitality: "You and I will have a +nice basin of gruel together. My dear Emma, suppose we all have a basin +of gruel." His friend Mrs. Bates is always voluble. She is describing +Mr. Dixon's country seat in Ireland to Emma: "Jane has heard a great +deal of its beauty--from Mr. Dixon, I mean--I do not know that she ever +heard about it from anybody else--but it was very natural, you know, +that he should like to speak of his own place while he was paying his +addresses--and as Jane used to be very often walking out with them--for +Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were very particular about their daughter's +not walking out often with only Mr. Dixon, for which I do not at all +blame them; of course she heard everything he might be telling Miss +Campbell about his own home in Ireland." One respects the mental power +of a woman who could remember the main thread of her discourse amid so +many digressions. + +How characteristic is Sir Walter Elliot's reply to the gentleman who is +trying to bring a neighbour's name to his mind. "Wentworth? Oh, ay! Mr. +Wentworth, the curate of Monkford. You misled me by the term +_Gentleman_. I thought you were speaking of some man of property." And +not the least amusing of these people is Mr. Elton's bride, a pert sort +of woman who for some reason patronises everybody into whose company she +is thrown. After meeting Mr. Knightley, by far the most consequential +person about Highbury, she expresses her approval of him to Emma: +"Knightley is quite the gentleman! I like him very much! Decidedly, I +think, a very gentlemanlike man." And Emma wonders if Mr. Knightley has +been able to pronounce this self-important newcomer as quite the lady. +Pick out almost any speech at random, and anyone who is at all familiar +with Miss Austen will easily recognise the speaker. + +This ability to describe people by such delicate touches has been highly +praised by Macaulay in the essay on Madame D'Arblay before quoted. He +thus compares Jane Austen with Shakespeare: + +"Admirable as he [Shakespeare] was in all parts of his art, we must +admire him for this, that, while he has left us a greater number of +striking portraits than all other dramatists put together, he has +scarcely left us a single caricature. Shakespeare has had neither equal +nor second. But among the writers who, in the point which we have +mentioned, have approached nearest to the manner of the great master, we +have no hesitation in placing Jane Austen, a woman of whom England is +justly proud. She has given us a multitude of characters, all, in a +certain sense, commonplace, all such as we meet every day. Yet they are +all as perfectly discriminated from each other as if they were the most +eccentric of human beings. There are, for instance, four clergymen, none +of whom we should be surprised to find in any parsonage in the kingdom, +Mr. Edward Ferrars, Mr. Henry Tilney, Mr. Edmund Bertram, and Mr. +Elton. They are all specimens of the upper part of the middle class. +They have all been liberally educated. They all lie under the restraints +of the same sacred profession. They are all young. They are all in love. +Not one of them has any hobbyhorse, to use the phrase of Sterne. Not one +has a ruling passion, such as we read of in Pope. Who would not have +expected them to be insipid likenesses of each other? No such thing. +Harpagon is not more unlike to Jourdain, Joseph Surface is not more +unlike to Sir Lucius O'Trigger, than every one of Miss Austen's young +divines to his reverend brethren. And almost all this is done by touches +so delicate that they elude analysis, that they defy the powers of +description, and that we know them to exist only by the general effect +to which they have contributed." + +Like Shakespeare Jane Austen knew the inner nature by intuition, and had +learned its outward expression by observation. Character not only +affects the speech of each one of her men and women, but determines +their destiny and shapes the plot of the story. The class she has chosen +to represent is the least under the sway of circumstances of any in +England. With money for all needs, and leisure for enjoyment, free from +obligations which pertain to higher rank, character here develops +freely and naturally. Not one of the matchmaking men or women, not even +the intelligent Emma, succeeds in changing the life of those whom they +attempt to influence. Character is stronger than any outside agency. In +this respect, Jane Austen is decidedly at variance with Thomas Hardy or +Tolstoi, but she is at one with Shakespeare. + +In the opening paragraph of each book, character begins to assert +itself. If Darcy had been without PRIDE, and Elizabeth had been without +PREJUDICE; if Marianne had had her sensibilities under control; if Emma +had not been blind; if Captain Wentworth had not been unjust and +resentful--there would have been no story to tell, the course of true +love would have run so smooth. But all of them are loving and faithful, +and these qualities in the end conquer, and bring the stories to a happy +conclusion. + +Edmund Gosse thus writes of her delineation of character: + +"Like Balzac, like Tourgenieff at his best, Jane Austen gives the reader +an impression of knowing everything there was to know about her +creations, of being incapable of error as to their acts, thoughts, or +emotions. She presents an absolute illusion of reality; she exhibits an +art so consummate that we mistake it for nature. She never mixes her +own temperament with those of her characters, she is never swayed by +them, she never loses for a moment her perfect, serene control of them. +Among the creators of the world, Jane Austen takes a place that is with +the highest and that is purely her own." + +This seeming control of her characters is due largely to the fact that +whatever happens to them is just what might have been expected. This is +particularly true of the bad people she has created. Innocence led +astray has been a popular means of exciting interest ever since +Richardson told the sad story of Clarissa Harlowe. But there is no such +incident in Jane Austen's books. Lydia, who hasn't a thought for anybody +nor anything but a red-coat, and Wickham, who elopes with her without +any intention of matrimony, are properly punished, by being married to +each other, and the future unhappiness which must be their lot is due to +their own natures. Willoughby had seduced one girl, trifled with the +affections of another, and married an heiress, but he finds only misery, +and sadly says: "I must rub through the world as well as I can." Henry +Crawford, and his sister, with so much that is good in their natures, +yet with a lack of moral fibre, are both unhappy. Each has lost the one +they respected and loved and might have married. With what wit she +leaves William Elliot, the all-agreeable man, the heir of Sir Walter, +who, that he may keep the latter single, has enticed the scheming Mrs. +Clay from his home: + +"And it is now a doubtful point whether his cunning or hers may finally +carry the day; whether, after preventing her from being the wife of Sir +Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last into making her the +wife of Sir William." + +And so punishment is meted out with that nicety of judgment which +distinguishes every detail of her novels. + +But Jane Austen has little interest in immorality. "Let other pens dwell +on guilt and misery; I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can," she +says in _Mansfield Park_. And her readers have observed that deeds of +evil take place off the stage, while she records only what is reported +of them in the drawing-room. + +She dwells as little on misery as on guilt. She shows in her letters +charitable regard for the poor people of Steventon and Chawton. She +describes minutely the unkempt house of Lieutenant Price at Portsmouth +with its incessant noise of heavy steps, banging doors, and untrained +servants, where every voice was loud excepting Mrs. Price's, which +resembled "the soft monotony of Lady Bertram's, only worn into +fretfulness." Miss Austen's pen was able to portray scenes of squalor +and vice; she chose to turn from them. Perhaps she felt instinctively +that true aesthetic pleasure cannot be produced by dwelling on a scene in +a book which would be repulsive to the eye. Miss Austen wrote before +there was much serious interest in the lives of the poor. Their only +function in literature had been to provoke laughter. The sensitive +daughter of the rector of Steventon may have felt, as others have, that +there was no occasion to laugh at the blunders and ill-manners of +peasants, which were proper and natural to their condition of life. She +did not need these people to entertain us. There were quite as funny +people in the hall as in the cottage, funnier, even, because their +humorous sayings spring from a humorous twist in their natures, not from +ignorance. + +Sir Walter Scott, after reading _Pride and Prejudice_ for the third +time, said: + +"That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and +feelings and characters of ordinary life, which is to me the most +wonderful I ever met with. The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself, like +any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary +commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the +description and the sentiment, is denied to me." + +Sir Walter Scott proved the truth of the above statement in _St. +Ronan's Well_, one of the least successful of his novels, which was +written in imitation of Jane Austen. + +Because Jane Austen confined her work so closely to ordinary +middle-class people, she has been called narrow. But if we judge men and +women not by dress and manners, but by what they are, these people +furnish as broad a view of humanity as could be obtained by travelling +up and down the world. A trained botanist will gather an herbarium from +a country lane that will give a more extended knowledge of botany than a +less skilful one could get by travelling through the woods and fields of +a continent. Very few novelists have portrayed greater varieties of +human nature than Miss Austen. + +Jane Austen's style has been praised by all critics. George William +Curtis wrote of her art: + +"She writes wholly as an artist, while George Eliot advocates views, and +Miss Bronte's fiery page is often a personal protest. In Miss Austen, on +the other hand, there is in kind, but infinitely less in degree, the +same clear atmosphere of pure art which we perceive in Shakespeare and +Goethe." + +While Miss Austen has been so often likened to Shakespeare, she is in no +sense a romantic writer. She belongs purely to the classic school. She +has the restraint, the perfect poise of the Greeks. She recognises +everywhere the need of law. She accepts society as it exists under the +restraints of law and religion. She no more questioned the English +prayer book and the English constitution than Homer questioned the +existence of the gods and the supreme power of kings. This feeling for +law shaped her art. Her plots are perfectly symmetrical. There is no +redundancy in expression. There is none of that wild luxuriance in fancy +or expression so common in romanticism. Each word used is needed in the +sentence, and is in its proper place. The strength of romanticism lies +in its impetuosity; the strength of classicism lies in its self-control. +This is the strength of Jane Austen. + +Emotion in her books is so restrained that the superficial reader doubts +its existence. Yet her characters feel deeply and are sensitive to the +acts and words of those about them. Although their feelings are under +control, they are none the less real. The reader watches, but is not +asked to participate in their griefs. + +As she never moves to tears, neither does she provoke laughter, but she +lightens every page with a quiet glow of humour. Humour was as natural +to her as to Elizabeth Bennet, whose sayings give the sparkle to _Pride +and Prejudice_. Much of the humour in her letters consists of an +unexpected turn to a sentence or an incongruous combination of words. +She writes of meeting "Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either +his mother, his wife or himself must be dead." She announces the +marriage of a gentleman to a widow by the laconic message, "Dr. Gardiner +was married yesterday to Mrs. Percy and her three daughters." And again +she says that a certain Mrs. Blount appeared the same as in September, +"with the same broad face, diamond bandeau, white shoes, pink husband, +and fat neck." She sees through the affectations of society and observes +the pleasure afforded by the small misfortunes of another as plainly as +did Thackeray later. The wife of a certain gentleman is discovered "to +be everything the neighbourhood could wish, silly and cross as well as +extravagant." She finds continual source of enjoyment in people's +foibles, and thinks that her own misfortunes ought to furnish jokes to +her acquaintances, or she will die in their debt for entertainment. + +In a less refined degree, this was the view of life of Miss Burney, her +favourite author. Miss Austen was but three years old when Evelina made +her debut at Ranelagh, and not over seven when Cecilia visited her three +guardians in London: _Camilla_ was published in the year that it is +thought that Miss Austen began _Pride and Prejudice_. During these +years, Miss Burney's fame was undimmed. Consider yourself for a moment +in a circulating library, in the year 1797 or 1798, suppose you are fond +of novel reading, and have moreover the refined tastes of Miss Austen; +you will find there no novelist who can hold a rival place to Miss +Burney. Miss Austen refers to her both in her novels and letters. In +only one passage in her novels has she interrupted her story to express +a general opinion; that is in _Northanger Abbey_, where she praises the +art of the novelist, and refers particularly to _Cecilia_, _Camilla_, +and _Belinda_. In the same novel John Thorpe's lack of taste is +emphasised by his calling _Camilla_ a stupid book of unnatural stuff, +which he could not get through. She evidently discussed Miss Burney's +novels with the people she met; a certain young man just entered at +Oxford has heard that _Evelina_ was written by Dr. Johnson, and she +finds two traits in a certain Miss Fletcher very pleasing: "She admires +_Camilla_, and drinks no cream in her tea." But Miss Austen was no blind +disciple of Miss Burney. All the odd characters which Miss Burney culled +from the lower ranks of society were swept away by Miss Austen. +Everything approaching tragedy or the improbable is avoided, but what is +left is amplified and refined until there is no more trace of Miss +Burney than there is of Perugino in the paintings of Raphael. + +Artists in other lines have striven in their work for a unified whole. +Most novelists have been more intent on pointing a moral or producing a +sensation than on the technique of their writing. Their works as a whole +lack proportion. They obtrude unnecessarily in one part and are weak in +another. Miss Austen wrote because the characters in her brain demanded +expression. Who could remain silent with Elizabeth Bennet urging her to +utterance? She wrote with the greatest care because she could do nothing +slovenly. Whatever place may be assigned to her as the years go by, her +novels surpass all others written in English in their perfect art. + +Miss Austen's genius was but slowly recognised. Her first books were +published in 1811, only three years before _Waverley_, and her last +novels were published after it. Who will linger over the teacups while +knights in armour are riding the streets without? It is not until the +cavalcade has passed that home seems again a quiet, refreshing spot. So +the public, tired of the brilliant scenes and conflicting passions of +other novels, has in the last few years turned back to the simple, +wholesome stories of Jane Austen. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Miss Ferrier. Miss Mitford. Anna Maria Hall + + +Walter Scott, the most chivalrous of all writers, brought to an end +woman's supremacy in the novel, in 1814. At this time prose fiction was +far different from what it was in 1772, when Tobias Smollet died, and +much of this difference was due to women. Professor Masson, in his +lectures on the novel, gives the names of twenty novelists who wrote +between 1789-1814 who are remembered in the history of English +literature. "With the exception of Godwin," he writes, "I do not know +that any of the male novelists I have mentioned could be put in +comparison, in respect of genuine merit, with such novelists of the +other sex as Mrs. Radcliffe, Miss Edgeworth, and Miss Austen." It is +equally worthy of note that, of the twenty names given, fourteen are +women. + +Although during these years women had developed the historical novel, +and had brought the novel of mystery to a high degree of perfection, +they left the most enduring stamp on literature as realists, as painters +of everyday life and commonplace people. Francis Jeffrey wrote: + +"It required almost the same courage to get rid of the jargon of +fashionable life and the swarms of peers, foundlings, and seducers, that +infested our modern fables as it did in those days to sweep away the +mythological persons of antiquity, and to introduce characters who spoke +and acted like those who were to peruse their adventures." + +Women awakened interest in the humdrum lives of their neighbours next +door, and this without any exaggeration, simply by minute attention to +little things, and quick sympathy in the joys and sorrows of others. +They described manners and customs; their view of life was largely +objective. It is a noteworthy fact that while Scott was casting over all +Europe the light of romanticism, the women writers of the time, with but +one or two exceptions, were viewing life with the clear vision of Miss +Edgeworth and Miss Austen, as if the world obtruded too glaringly upon +their eyes to be lost sight of in happy day-dreams. + + * * * * * + +Susan Edmonstone Ferrier is better known to-day as the friend of Scott, +and an occasional visitor at Abbotsford, than as a successful novelist. +She was born at Edinburgh in 1782, where her father, James Ferrier, was +Writer to the Signet, and at one time Clerk of Session, Scott being one +of his colleagues. That great genius was one of the earliest to +appreciate the excellence of her descriptions of Scottish life given in +her first book, entitled _Marriage_, published anonymously in 1818. In +the conclusion of the _Tales of my Landlord_ he paid the unknown writer +this graceful tribute: + +"There remains behind not only a large harvest, but labourers capable of +gathering it in; more than one writer has of late displayed talents of +this description, and if the present author, himself a phantom, may be +permitted to distinguish a brother, or perhaps a sister, shadow, he +would mention in particular the author of the very lively work entitled +_Marriage_." + +Miss Ferrier wrote but three novels, _Marriage_, _The Inheritance_, and +_Destiny_, a period of six years intervening between the appearance of +each of them. Like Miss Burney and Miss Edgeworth she depicts two grades +of society. She shows forth the fashionable life of Edinburgh and +London, and the cruder mode of living found in the Scottish Highlands. +But between her and her models there is the great difference of genius +and talent. They passed what they had seen through the alembic of +imagination; she has depicted what she saw with the faithfulness of the +camera, and the crude realism of these scenes does not always blend +with the warp and woof of the story. + +Like Miss Edgeworth, Miss Ferrier had a moral to work out. She treats +society as a satirist, and lays bare its heartlessness, and the +unhappiness of its members who to escape ennui are led hither and +thither by the caprice of the moment. While she may present one side of +the picture, one hesitates to accept Lady Juliana, Mrs. St. Clair, or +Lady Elizabeth as common types of a London drawing-room. + +Her plots as well as her characters suffer from this conscious attempt +to teach the happiness that must follow the practice of the Christian +virtues. In _Marriage_ there are two complete stories. Lady Juliana is +the heroine of the first part; her two daughters, who are born in the +first half, supplant their mother as heroines of the second half. The +plot of _Destiny_ is not much better. The denouement is tame, and the +characters lack consistency. _The Inheritance_ has the strongest plot of +the three; but Mrs. St. Clair and her secret interviews with the +monstrosity Lewiston, who, by the way, has the honour to be an American, +throw an air of unreality over a story in many respects intensely real. +In this story, as in so many old novels, the nurse's daughter had been +brought up as the rightful heiress. The scene in which she tells her +betrothed lover, the heir of the estate, the story of her birth, which +she had just learned, is said to have suggested to Tennyson the +beautiful ballad of _Lady Clare_. + +But when Miss Ferrier sees loom in imagination the sombre purple hills +of the Highlands, with the black tarns in the hollows half-hidden in +mist, her genius awakes. If she had devoted herself to these people and +this region, and ignored the fashionable life of the cities, she might +have written a book worthy to be placed beside the best of Miss +Edgeworth or Miss Mitford. At the time she wrote, the Highland chief no +longer summoned his clan about him at a blast from his bugle, but he had +lost little of his old-time picturesqueness. The opening of _Destiny_ +describes the wealth of the chief of Glenroy: + +"All the world knows that there is nothing on earth to be compared to a +Highland chief. He has his loch and his islands, his mountains and his +castle, his piper and his tartan, his forests and his deer, his +thousands of acres of untrodden heath, and his tens of thousands of +black-faced sheep, and his bands of bonneted clansmen, with claymores +and Gaelic, and hot blood and dirks." + +But Miss Ferrier also depicted a more sordid type of Highlander. +Christopher North in his _Noctes Ambrosianae_ writes of her novels: + +"They are the works of a very clever woman, sir, and they have one +feature of true and melancholy interest quite peculiar to themselves. It +is in them alone that the ultimate breaking-down and debasement of the +Highland character has been depicted. Sir Walter Scott had fixed the +enamel of genius over the last fitful gleams of their half-savage +chivalry, but a humbler and sadder scene--the age of lucre-banished +clans,--of chieftains dwindled into imitation squires, and of chiefs +content to barter the recollections of a thousand years for a few gaudy +seasons of Almacks and Crockfords, the euthanasia of kilted aldermen and +steamboat pibrochs, was reserved for Miss Ferrier." + +Besides her descriptions of the Highlands, Miss Ferrier has drawn +several Scotch characters that deserve to live. What a delightful group +is described in _Marriage_, consisting of the three Misses Douglas, +known as "The girls," and their friend Mrs. Maclaughlan! Miss Jacky +Douglas, the senior of the trio, "was reckoned a woman of sense"; Miss +Grizzy was distinguished by her good-nature and the entanglement of her +thoughts; and it was said that Miss Nicky was "not wanting for sense +either"; while their friend Lady Maclaughlan loved and tyrannised over +all three of them. Sir Walter Scott admired the character of Miss Becky +Duguid, a poor old maid, who "was expected to attend all accouchements, +christenings, deaths, chestings, and burials, but she was seldom asked +to a marriage, and never to any party of pleasure." Joanna Baillie +thought the loud-spoken minister, M'Dow, a true representative of a few +of the Scotch clergy whose only aim is preferment and good cheer. But +none of her other characters can compare with the devoted Mrs. Molly +Macaulay, the friend of the Chief of Glenroy in _Destiny_. When Glenroy +has an attack of palsy, she hurries to him, and when she is told that he +has missed her, she exclaims with perfect self-forgetfulness: + +"Deed, and I thought he would do that, for he has always been so kind to +me,--and I thought sometimes when I was away, oh, thinks I to myself, I +wonder what Glenroy will do for somebody to be angry with,--for +Ben-bowie's grown so deaf, poor creature, it's not worth his while to be +angry at him,--and you're so gentle that it would not do for him to be +angry at you; but I'm sure he has a good right to be angry at me, +considering how kind he has always been to me." + +Christopher North said of Molly Macaulay, "No sinner of our gender could +have adequately filled up the outline." + +George Saintsbury, considering the permanent value of Miss Ferrier's +work, wrote for the _Fortnightly Review_ in 1882: + +"Of the four requisites of the novelist, plot, character, description, +and dialogue, she is only weak in the first. The lapse of an entire +half-century and a complete change of manners have put her books to the +hardest test they are ever likely to have to endure, and they come +through it triumphantly." + +But, besides the excellences mentioned by Mr. Saintsbury, Miss Ferrier +is master of humour and pathos. No story is sadder than that of Ronald +Malcolm, the hero of _Destiny_. He had been willed the castle of Inch +Orran with its vast estates, but with the provision that he was to have +no benefit from it until his twenty-sixth year. In case of his death the +property was to go to his father, an upright but poor man. As Ronald had +many years to wait before he could enjoy his riches, he entered the +navy. His ship was lost at sea and the news of his death reported in +Scotland. But Ronald had been rescued from the sinking ship, and +returned to his father's cottage. Here he met a purblind old woman, who +told him how his father, Captain Malcolm, had moved to the castle, and +what good he was doing among his tenantry. She described the sorrow of +the people at the death of Ronald, but added: "Och! it was God's +providence to tak' the boy out of his worthy father's way; and noo a' +thing 's as it should be, and he has gotten his ain, honest man; and +long, long may he enjoy it!" And then she said thankfully, "The poor +lad's death was a great blessing--och ay, 'deed was 't." The scene where +Ronald goes to the castle and looks in at the window upon the happy +family group, consisting of his father and mother, brothers and sisters, +resembles in many particulars the sad return of Enoch Arden. The close +of the scene is as touching in the novel as in the poem: "Yes, yes, they +are happy, and I am forgotten!" sobs the lad, as he turns away. + +Miss Ferrier, however, seldom touches the pathetic; she is first of all +a humourist. But there is a blending of the smiles and tears of human +life in the delightful character of Adam Ramsay. Engaged as a boy to +Lizzie Lundie, he had gone forth into the world to make a fortune, but +when he returned after many years he found that she had married in his +absence, and soon afterwards had died. Crabbed to all about him, he +still cherished the remembrance of his early love, and was quickly moved +by any appeal to her memory. + +The practical philosophy of the Scottish peasantry is amusingly set +forth in the scene where Miss St. Clair visits one of the cottages on +Lord Rossville's estate. She found the goodman very ill, and everything +about the room betokening extreme poverty. When she offered to send him +milk and broth, and a carpet and chairs to make the room more +comfortable, his wife interposed, "A suit o' gude bein comfortable dead +claise, Tammes, wad set ye better than aw the braw chyres an' carpets i' +the toon." Sometime afterward, when Miss St. Clair called to see how the +invalid was, she found him in the press-bed, while the clothes were +warming before the fire. His wife explained that she could not have him +in the way, and if he were cold, it could not be helped, as the clothes +had to be aired, and added, "An' I 'm thinkin' he 'll no be lang o' +wantin' them noo." + +But notwithstanding her humour, Miss Ferrier was a stern moralist, whose +attitude toward life had been influenced indirectly by the teachings of +John Knox. She sometimes seems to stand her characters in the stocks, +and call upon the populace to view their sins or absurdities. She seldom +throws the veil of charity over them. Men as novelists are prone to +exaggeration. Women have represented life with greater truth both in its +larger aspects and in details. Miss Ferrier carries this quality to an +extreme. She tells not only the truth, but, with almost heartless +honesty, reveals the whole of it, so that many of her men and women are +repugnant to the reader while they amuse him. The best judges of +Scottish manners have borne witness to the exactness of her portraiture. +She is, perhaps, an example of the artistic failure of over-realism. + +Mary Russell Mitford like Miss Ferrier painted her scenes and her +portraits from real life. But there is as wide a difference between +their writings as between the rocky ledges of the Grampian Hills and the +soft meadows bathed in the sunshine which stretch back of the cottages +of Our Village. Miss Mitford's, indeed, was a sunny nature, not to be +hardened nor embittered by a lifelong anxiety over poverty and debts. +Her father, Dr. Mitford, had spent nearly all his own fortune when he +married Miss Mary Russell, an heiress. Besides being constantly involved +in lawsuits, he was addicted to gambling, and soon squandered the +fortune which his wife had brought him, besides twenty thousand pounds +won in a lottery. He is said to have lost in speculations and at play +about seventy thousand pounds, at that time a large fortune. The +authoress was a little over thirty years of age when the poverty of the +family forced them to leave Bertram House, their home for many years, +and remove to a little labourer's cottage about a mile away, on the +principal street of a little village near Reading, known as Three Mile +Cross. Here the support of the family devolved upon the daughter, a +burden made harder by the continual extravagance of the father, whom she +devotedly loved. Although she received large sums for her writings, it +is with the greatest weariness that she writes to her friend Miss +Barrett, afterwards Mrs. Browning, of the struggles that have been hers +the greater part of her life, the ten or twelve hours of literary +drudgery each day, often in spite of ill health, and her hope that she +may always provide for her father his accustomed comforts. Not only was +she enabled to do this, but, through the help of friends, to pay, after +his death, the one thousand pounds indebtedness, his only legacy to her. + +Yet there is not a trace of this worry in the delightful series of +papers called _Our Village_, which she began to contribute at this time +to the _Lady's Magazine_. Before this she had become known as a poet and +a successful playwright, but had believed herself incapable of writing +good prose. Necessity revealed her fine power of description, and Three +Mile Cross furnished her with scenes and characters. + +_Our Village_ marked a new style in fiction. The year it was commenced, +she wrote to a friend: + +"With regard to novels, I should like to see one undertaken without any +plot at all. I do not mean that it should have no story; but I should +like some writer of luxuriant fancy to begin with a certain set of +characters--one family, for instance--without any preconceived design +farther than one or two incidents or dialogues, which would naturally +suggest fresh matter, and so proceed in this way, throwing in incidents +and characters profusely, but avoiding all stage tricks and strong +situations, till some death or marriage should afford a natural +conclusion to the book." + +Miss Mitford followed this plan as far as her great love of nature would +permit. For when she found her daily cares too great to be borne in the +little eight-by-eight living-room, she escaped to the woods and fields. +She loved the poets who wrote of nature, and next to Miss Austen, whom +she placed far above any other novelist, she delighted in the novels of +Charlotte Smith, and in her own pages there is the same true feeling for +nature. + +_Our Village_ follows in a few particulars Gilbert White's _History of +Selborne_. As he described the beauties of Selborne through the varying +seasons of the year, she describes her walks about Three Mile Cross, +first when the meadows are covered with hoar frost, then when the air is +perfumed with violets, and later when the harvest field is yellow with +ripened corn. All the lanes, the favourite banks, the shady recesses are +described with delicate and loving touch. How her own joyous, optimistic +nature speaks in this record of a morning walk in a backward spring: + +"Cold bright weather. All within doors, sunny and chilly; all without, +windy and dusty, It is quite tantalising to see that brilliant sun +careering through so beautiful a sky, and to feel little more warmth +from his presence than one does from that of his fair but cold sister, +the moon. Even the sky, beautiful as it is, has the look of that one +sometimes sees in a very bright moonlight night--deeply, intensely blue, +with white fleecy clouds driven vigorously along by a strong breeze, now +veiling and now exposing the dazzling luminary around whom they sail. A +beautiful sky! and, in spite of its coldness, a beautiful world!" + +But how naturally we meet the people of the village and become +interested in them. There is Harriet, the belle of the village, "a flirt +passive," who made the tarts and puddings in the author's kitchen; Joel +Brent, her lover, a carter by calling, but, by virtue of his personal +accomplishments, the village beau. There is the publican, the carpenter, +the washerwoman; little Lizzie, the spoilt child, and all the other boys +and girls of the village. It is very natural to-day to meet these poor +people in novels; at that time the poor people of Ireland and Scotland +had begun to creep into fiction, but it was as unusual in England as a +novel without a plot. Even to-day Miss Mitford's attitude toward these +people is not common. It seems never to have occurred to the author, and +certainly does not to her readers, that these men dressed in overalls +and these women in print dresses with sleeves rolled to the elbow were +not the finest ladies and gentlemen of the land. She greets them all +with a playful humour which reminds one of the genial smile of Elia. C. +H. Herford in _The Age of Wordsworth_ wrote of _Our Village_: + +"No such intimate and sympathetic portrayal of village life had been +given before, and perhaps it needed a woman's sympathetic eye for little +things to show the way. Of the professional story-teller on the alert +for a sensation there is as little as of the professional novelist on +the watch for a lesson." + +_Belford Regis_, a series of country and town sketches, was written soon +after the completion of _Our Village_. Here again is the happy blending +of nature and humanity; the same fusion of truth and fiction. As Belford +Regis is "Our Market Town," there is a wider range of characters, as +different classes are represented; and a more intimate view, since the +same people appear in more than one story. Stephen Lane, the butcher, +and his wife are often met with. He is so fat that "when he walks, he +overfills the pavement, and is more difficult to pass than a link of +full-dressed misses or a chain of becloaked dandies." Of Mrs. Lane she +writes: "Butcher's wife and butcher's daughter though she were, yet was +she a graceful and gracious woman, one of nature's gentlewomen in look +and in thought." There was Miss Savage, "who was called a sensible woman +because she had a gruff voice and vinegar aspect"; and Miss Steele, who +was called literary, because forty years ago she made a grand poetical +collection. Miss Mitford even does justice to Mrs. Hollis, the fruiterer +and the village gossip; "There she sits, a tall, square, upright figure, +surmounted by a pleasant, comely face, eyes as black as a sloe, cheeks +as rounds as an apple, and a complexion as ruddy as a peach, as fine a +specimen of a healthy, hearty English tradeswoman, the feminine of John +Bull, as one would desire to see on a summer's day.... As a gossip she +was incomparable. She knew everybody and everything; had always the +freshest intelligence, and the newest news; her reports like her plums +had the bloom on them, and she would as much have scorned to palm upon +you an old piece of scandal as to send you strawberries that had been +two days gathered." + +A reviewer in the _Athenaeum_ thus criticises the book: + +"If (to be hypercritical) the pictures they contain be a trifle too +sunny and too cheerful to be real--if they show more generosity and +refinement and self-sacrifice existing among the middle classes than +does exist,--too much of the meek beauty, too little of the squalidity +of humble life,--we love them none the less, and their authoress all the +more." + +In _Belford Regis_ we miss the fields, the brooks, the flowers, and the +sky, which made the charm of _Our Village_. In some respects it is a +more ambitious book, but it has not the perennial charm of _Our +Village_. + +Miss Mitford's favourite author, as we have seen, was Jane Austen. She +had the same regard for her that Miss Austen felt for Fanny Burney. The +two authors have many points of resemblance. Both have the same clear +vision, and sunny nature; the same repugnance to all that is +sensational, or coarse, or low; the same dislike of strong pathos or +broad humour; and Miss Mitford has approached more closely than any +other writer to the elegance of diction and purity of style of Miss +Austen. + +They have another point in common, they both show excellent taste in +their writings. This quality of good taste is due to native delicacy and +refinement, a sensitive withdrawal from what is ugly, and a quick +feeling for true proportion; the very things which give to a woman her +superior tact, which Ruskin has called "the touch sense." In the novel +it is pre-eminently a feminine characteristic. Few men have it in a +marked degree. It adds all the charm we feel in the presence of a +refined woman to the novels of Miss Edgeworth, Miss Austen, and Miss +Mitford. + +But, while Miss Mitford and Miss Austen have many points of resemblance, +they have many points of difference. Miss Austen liked the society of +men and women, and during her younger days was fond of dinner-parties +and balls. Miss Mitford preferred the woods and fields, liked the +society of her dogs, and wrote to a friend before she was twenty that +she would never go to another dance if she could help it. Miss Austen +selects a small group of gentry, and by the intertwining of their lives +forms a beautiful plot; Miss Mitford rambles through the village and the +country walks of Three Mile Cross, and as she meets the butcher, the +publican, the boys at cricket, she gleans some story of interest, and +brings back to us, as it were, a basket in which have been thrown in +careless profusion violets and anemones, cowslips and daisies, and all +the other flowers of the field. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Anna Maria Hall, a country-woman of Miss Edgeworth, wrote of her +first novel: "_My Sketches of Irish Character_, my first dear book, was +inspired by a desire to describe my native place, as Miss Mitford had +done in _Our Village_, and this made me an author." Most of these +sketches were drawn from the county of Wexford, her native place, whose +inhabitants, she says in the preface, are descendants of the +Anglo-Norman settlers of the reign of Henry the Second, and speak a +language unknown in other districts of Ireland. + +The book is a series of well-told stories of the poor people, whom we +should have imagined to be pure Celt, if the author had not said they +resembled the English. There is the tender pathos, the quick humour, the +joke which often answers an argument, the guidance of the heart rather +than the head; but she has dwelt upon one characteristic but lightly +touched upon by Miss Edgeworth and Lady Morgan, the poetic feeling of +the Celt, the imagery that so often adorns their common speech. The old +Irish wife says to the bride who speaks disrespectfully of the fairies: +"Hush, Avourneen! Sure they have the use of the May-dew before it falls, +and the colour of the lilies and the roses before it's folded in the +tender buds; and can steal the notes out of the birds' throats while +they sleep." + +_The Irish Peasantry_, and _Lights and Shadows of Irish Life_, won Mrs. +Hall the ill-will rather than the love of her countrymen. She had lived +for a long time in England, and upon returning to her native land was +impressed by the lack of forethought which kept the country poor. Their +early marriages, their indifference to time, their frequent visits to +the public house, their hospitality to strangers even when they +themselves were in extreme poverty and debt--all made so deep an +impression upon her mind that she attempted to teach the Irish worldly +wisdom. But the lesson was distasteful to the people and probably +useless, as the characteristics which she would change were the very +essence of the Irish nature, the traits which made him a Celt, not a +Saxon. In these books, the wooings, weddings, and funerals are +portrayed, and there is a little glimpse of fairy lore. + +_Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love_, grew out of the fairy legends of +Ireland. It is said that a child whose father has died before its birth +is placed by nature under the peculiar guardianship of the fairies; and, +if born on Midsummer Eve, it becomes their rightful property; they take +it to their own homes and leave in its place one of their changelings. +The heroine of the story is a child of that nature, over whose birth the +fairies of air, earth, and water preside. But at the will of Nightstar, +Queen of the Fairies of the Air, she is left with her mother, but +adopted and watched over by the fairies as their own. Their great gift +to her is that of loving and being loved. The human element is not well +blended with the fairy element. The entire setting should have been +rural, for in the city of London, particularly in the exhibition of the +Royal Academy, where part of the story is placed, it is not easy to +keep the tranquil twilight atmosphere, which fairies love. The book is +like a song in which the bass and soprano are written in different keys. +But when we are back in Ireland, and the fairies again appear and +disappear, it is charming. The old woodcutter, Randy, who sees and talks +with the fairies, is a delightful creature, and gives to the story much +of its beauty. + +Mrs. Hall's novels have but little literary value, but she has brought +to light Irish characteristics and Irish traditions which were +overlooked by her predecessors, and for that reason they deserve to +live. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Lady Caroline Lamb. Mrs. Shelley + + +It is impossible to comprehend the Byronic craze which swept cool-headed +England off her feet during the regency. _Childe Harold_ was the +fashion, and many a hero of romance, even down to the time of +_Pendennis_, aped his fashions. Disraeli and Bulwer were among his +disciples. Bulwer's early novels, _Falkland_ and _Pelham_, were +influenced by him; and _Vivian Grey_ and _Venetia_ might have been the +offspring of Byron's prose brain, so completely was Disraeli under his +influence at the time. + +The poorest of the novels of this class, but the one which gives the +most intimate picture of Byron, is _Glenarvon_, by Lady Caroline Lamb. +Its hero is Byron. The plot follows the outlines of her own life, and +all the characters were counterparts of living people whom she knew. +Calantha, the heroine, representing Lady Caroline, is married to Lord +Avondale, or William Lamb, better known as Lord Melbourne, at one time +Premier of England. Lord and Lady Avondale are very happy, until +Glenarvon, "the spirit of evil," appears and dazzles Calantha. Twice +she is about to elope with him, but the thought of her husband and +children keeps her back. They part, and for a time tender _billets-doux_ +pass between them, until Calantha receives a cruel letter from +Glenarvon, in which he bids her leave him in peace. Other well-known +people appeared in the book. Lord Holland was the Great Nabob, Lady +Holland was the Princess of Madagascar, and Samuel Rogers was the Yellow +Hyena or the Pale Poet. The novel had also a moral purpose; it was +intended to show the danger of a life devoted to pleasure and fashion. + +Of course the book made a sensation. Lady Caroline Lamb, the daughter of +Earl Bessborough, the granddaughter of Earl Spencer, related to nearly +all the great houses of England, had all her life followed every impulse +of a too susceptible imagination. Her infatuation for Lord Byron had +long been a theme for gossip throughout London. She invited him +constantly to her home; went to assemblies in his carriage; and, if he +were invited to parties to which she was not, walked the streets to meet +him; she confided to every chance acquaintance that she was dying of +love for him. Yet, as one reads of this affair, one suspects that this +devotion was nothing more than the infatuation of a high-strung nature +for the hero of a romance. In writing to a friend about her husband, +she says, "He was privy to my affair with Lord Byron and laughed at it." +On her death-bed she said of her husband, "But remember, the only noble +fellow I ever met with was William Lamb." + +A month after her death, Lord Melbourne wrote a sketch of her life for +the _Literary Gazette_. In this he said: + +"Her character it is difficult to analyse, because, owing to the extreme +susceptibility of her imagination, and the unhesitating and rapid manner +in which she followed its impulses, her conduct was one perpetual +kaleidoscope of changes.... To the poor she was invariably +charitable--she was more: in spite of her ordinary thoughtlessness of +self, for them she had consideration as well as generosity, and delicacy +no less than relief. For her friends she had a ready and active love; +for her enemies no hatred: never perhaps was there a human being who had +less malevolence; as all her errors hurt only herself, so against +herself only were levelled her accusation and reproach." + +How far Byron was in earnest in this tragicomedy is more difficult to +determine. In one letter to her he writes: "I was and am yours, freely +and entirely, to obey, to honour, to love, and fly with you, where, +when, and how yourself might and may determine." That Byron was piqued +when he read the book, his letter to Moore proves: "By the way, I +suppose you have seen _Glenarvon_. It seems to me if the authoress had +written the truth--the whole truth--the romance would not only have been +more romantic, but more entertaining. As for the likeness, the picture +can't be good; I did not sit long enough." It was not pleasing to Lord +Byron's vanity to appear in her book as the spirit of evil, beside her +husband, a high-minded gentleman, ready to sacrifice for his friends +everything "but his honour and integrity." + +Notwithstanding the humorous elements in the connection of Lord Byron +and Lady Caroline Lamb, the story is pathetic. His poetic personality +attracted her as the light does the poor moth. Disraeli caricatured her +in the character of Mrs. Felix Lorraine in _Vivian Grey_, and introduced +her into _Venetia_ under the title of Lady Monteagle, where he made much +of her love for the poet Cadurcis, otherwise Lord Byron. + +Lady Caroline Lamb wrote two other novels, but they are of no value. In +her third, _Ada Reis_, considered her best, she introduced Bulwer as the +good spirit. + +The little poem written by Lady Caroline Lamb on the day fixed for her +departure from Brocket Hall, after it had been decided that she was to +live in retirement away from her husband and son, shows tenderness and +poetic feeling: + + They dance--they sing--they bless the day, + I weep the while--and well I may: + Husband, nor child, to greet me come, + Without a friend--without a home: + I sit beneath my favourite tree, + Sing then, my little birds, to me, + In music, love, and liberty. + +At the time that the British public was smiling graciously, even if a +little humorously, upon Lady Caroline Lamb, and was lionising Lord +Byron, it spurned from its presence with the greatest disdain Percy and +Mary Shelley. Even after the death of Shelley, when Mary returned to +London with herself and son to support, it received her as the prodigal +daughter for whom the crumbs from the rich man's table must suffice. + +Mary Shelley had inherited from her mother the world's frown. Mary +Wollstonecraft Godwin had been, the greater part of her life, at +variance with society. She was the author, as has been said, of the +_Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, and had for a long time been an +opponent of marriage, chiefly because the civil laws pertaining to it +deprived both husband and wife of their proper liberty. Her bitter +experience with Imlay had, however, so modified her views on this +latter subject that she became the wife of William Godwin a short time +before the birth of their daughter Mary, who in after years became Mrs. +Shelley. Although her mother died at her birth, Mary Godwin was deeply +imbued with her theories of life. She had read her books, and had often +heard her father express the same views concerning the bondage of +marriage and its uselessness. Her elopement with Shelley while his wife +Harriet was still living gains a certain sanction from the fact that she +plighted her troth to him at her mother's grave. After the sad death of +Harriet, however, Shelley and Mary Godwin conceded to the world's +opinion, and were legally married. But the anger of society was not +appeased, and, even after both had become famous, it continued to ignore +the poet Shelley and his gifted wife. + +At the age of nineteen Mrs. Shelley was led to write her first novel. +Mr. and Mrs. Shelley and Byron were spending the summer of 1816 in the +mountains of Switzerland. Continuous rain kept them in-doors, where they +passed the time in reading ghost stories. At the suggestion of Byron, +each one agreed to write a blood-curdling tale. It is one of the strange +freaks of invention that this young girl succeeded where Shelley and +Byron failed. Byron wrote a fragment of a story which was printed with +_Mazeppa_. Shelley also began a story, but when he had reduced his +characters to a most pitiable condition, he wearied of them and could +devise no way to bring the tale to a fitting conclusion. After listening +to a conversation between the two poets upon the possibilities of +science discovering the secrets of life, the story known as +_Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus_ shaped itself in Mary's mind. + +_Frankenstein_ is one of those novels that defy the critic. Everyone +recognises that the letters written by Captain Walton to his sister in +which he tells of his meeting with Frankenstein, and repeats to her the +story he has just heard from his guest, makes an awkward introduction to +the real narrative. Yet all this part about Captain Walton and his crew +was added at the suggestion of Shelley after the rest of the story had +been written. But the narrative of Frankenstein is so powerful, so real, +that, once read, it can never be forgotten. Mrs. Shelley wrote in the +introduction of the edition of 1839 that, before writing it, she was +trying to think of a story, "one that would speak to the mysterious +fears of our nature, and awaken thrilling horror--one to make the reader +dread to look round, to curdle the blood and quicken the beatings of the +heart." That she has done this the experience of every reader will +prove. + +But the story has a greater hold on the imagination than this alone +would give it. The monster created by Frankenstein is closely related to +our own human nature. "My heart was fashioned to be susceptible of love +and sympathy," he says, "and, when wrenched by misery to vice and +hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without torture, +such as you cannot even imagine." There is a wonderful blending of good +and evil in this demon, and, while the magnitude of his crimes makes us +shudder, his wrongs and his loneliness awaken our pity. "The fallen +angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had +friends and associates in his desolation; I am quite alone," the monster +complains to his creator. Who can forget the scene where he watches +Frankenstein at work making for him the companion that he had promised? +Perhaps sadder than the story of the monster is that of Frankenstein, +who, led by a desire to widen human knowledge, finds that the fulfilment +of his lofty ambition has brought only a curse to mankind. + +In 1823, Mary Shelley published a second novel, _Valperga_, so named +from a castle and small independent territory near Lucca. Castruccio +Castracani, whose life Machiavelli has told, is the hero of the story. +The greatest soldier and satirist of his times, the man of the novel is +considered inferior to the man of history. Mrs. Shelley had read +broadly before beginning the book, and she has described minutely the +customs of the age about which she is writing. Shelley pronounced it "a +living and moving picture of an age almost forgotten." + +The interest centres in the two heroines, Euthanasia, Countess of +Valperga, and Beatrice, Prophetess of Ferrara. Strong, intellectual, and +passionate, not until the time of George Eliot did women of this type +become prominent in fiction. Euthanasia, a Guelph and a Florentine, with +a soul "adapted for the reception of all good," was betrothed to the +youth Castruccio, whom she at that time loved. Later, when his character +deteriorated under the influence of selfish ambition, she ceased to love +him, and said, "He cast off humanity, honesty, honourable feeling, all +that I prize." Castruccio belonged to the Ghibelines, so that the story +of their love is intertwined with the struggle between these two parties +in Italy. + +But more beautiful than the intellectual character of Euthanasia, is the +spiritual one of Beatrice, the adopted daughter of the bishop of +Ferrara, who is regarded with feelings of reverence by her countrymen, +because of her prophetic powers. Pure and deeply religious, she accepted +all the suggestions of her mind as a message from God. When Castruccio +came to Ferrara and was entertained by the bishop as the prince and +liberator of his country, she believed that together they could +accomplish much for her beloved country: "She prayed to the Virgin to +inspire her; and, again giving herself up to reverie, she wove a subtle +web, whose materials she believed heavenly, but which were indeed stolen +from the glowing wings of love." No wonder she believed the dictates of +her own heart, she whose words the superstition of the age had so often +declared miraculous. She was barely seventeen and she loved for the +first time. How pathetic is her disillusionment when Castruccio bade her +farewell for a season, as he was about to leave Ferrara. She had +believed that the Holy Spirit had brought Castruccio to her that by the +union of his manly qualities and her divine attributes some great work +might be fulfilled. But as he left her, he spoke only of earthly +happiness: + +"It was her heart, her whole soul she had given; her understanding, her +prophetic powers, all the little universe that with her ardent spirit +she grasped and possessed, she had surrendered, fully, and without +reserve; but, alas! the most worthless part alone had been accepted, and +the rest cast as dust upon the winds." + +Afterwards, when she wandered forth a beggar, and was rescued by +Euthanasia, she exclaimed to her: + +"You either worship a useless shadow, or a fiend in the clothing of a +God." + +The daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft could fully sympathise with +Beatrice. In the grief, almost madness, with which Beatrice realises her +self-deception, there are traces of Frankenstein. Perhaps no problem +plucked from the tree of good and evil was so ever-present to Mary +Shelley as why misery so often follows an obedience to the highest +dictates of the soul. Both her father and mother had experienced this; +and she and Shelley had tasted of the same bitter fruit. In the analysis +of Beatrice's emotions Mrs. Shelley shows herself akin to Charlotte +Bronte. + +Three years after the death of Shelley, she published _The Last Man_. It +relates to England in the year 2073 when, the king having abdicated his +throne, England had become a republic. Soon after this, however a +pestilence fell upon the people, which drove them upon the continent, +where they travelled southward, until only one man remained. The plot is +clumsy; the characters are abstractions. + +But the feelings of the author, written in clear letters on every page, +are a valuable addition to the history of the poet Shelley and his wife. +Besides her fresh sorrow for her husband, Byron had died only the year +before. Her mind was brooding on the days the three had spent together. +Her grief was too recent to be shaken from her mind or lost sight of in +her imaginative work. Shelley, and the scenes she had looked on with +him, the conversations between him and his friends, creep in on every +page. Lionel Verney, the Last Man, is the supposed narrator of the +story. He thus describes Adrian, the son of the king: "A tall, slim, +fair boy, with a physiognomy expressive of the excess of sensibility and +refinement, stood before me; the morning sunbeams tinged with gold his +silken hair, and spread light and glory over his beaming countenance ... +he seemed like an inspired musician, who struck, with unerring skill, +the 'lyre of mind,' and produced thence divinest harmony.... His slight +frame was over informed by the soul that dwelt within.... He was gay as +a lark carrolling from its skiey tower.... The young and inexperienced +did not understand the lofty severity of his moral views, and disliked +him as a being different from themselves." Shelley, of course, was the +original of this picture. Lord Byron suggested the character of Lord +Raymond: "The earth was spread out as a highway for him; the heavens +built up as a canopy for him." "Every trait spoke predominate self-will; +his smile was pleasing, though disdain too often curled his lips--lips +which to female eyes were the very throne of beauty and love.... Thus +full of contradictions, unbending yet haughty, gentle yet fierce, +tender and again neglectful, he by some strange art found easy entrance +to the admiration and affection of women; now caressing and now +tyrannising over them according to his mood, but in every change a +despot." + +A large part of the three volumes is taken up with a characterisation of +Adrian and Lord Raymond, the latter of whom falls when fighting for the +Greeks. How impossible it was for her to rid her mind of her own sorrow +is shown at the end of the third volume, where Adrian is drowned, and +Lionel Verney is left alone. He thus says of his friend: + +"All I had possessed of this world's goods, of happiness, knowledge, or +virtue--I owed to him. He had, in his person, his intellect, and rare +qualities, given a glory to my life, which without him it had never +known. Beyond all other beings he had taught me that goodness, pure and +simple, can be an attribute of man." + +Mrs. Shelley made the great mistake of writing this novel in the first +person. _The Last Man_, who is telling the story, although he has the +name of Lionel, is most assuredly of the female sex. The friendship +between him and Adrian is not the friendship of man for man, but rather +the love of man and woman. + +Mrs. Shelley's next novel, _Lodore_, written in 1835, thirteen years +after the death of her husband, had a better outlined plot and more +definite characters. But again it echoes the past. Lord Byron's unhappy +married relations and Shelley's troubles with Harriet are blended in the +story, Lord Byron furnishing the character in some respects of Lord +Lodore, while his wife, Cornelia Santerre, resembles both Harriet and +Lady Byron. Lady Santerre, the mother of Cornelia, augments the trouble +between Lord and Lady Lodore, and, contrary to the evident intentions of +the writer, the reader's sympathies are largely with Cornelia and Lady +Santerre. When Lodore wishes Cornelia to go to America to save him from +disgrace, Lady Santerre objects to her daughter's accompanying him: + +"He will soon grow tired of playing the tragic hero on a stage +surrounded by no spectators; he will discover the folly of his conduct; +he will return, and plead for forgiveness, and feel that he is too +fortunate in a wife who has preserved her own conduct free from censure +and remark while he has made himself a laughing-stock to all." + +These words strangely bring to mind Lord Byron as having evoked them. + +Again Lady Lodore's letter to her husband at the time of his departure +to America reminds one of Lady Byron: + +"If heaven have blessings for the coldly egotistical, the unfeeling +despot, may those blessings be yours; but do not dare to interfere with +emotions too pure, too disinterested for you ever to understand. Give me +my child, and fear neither my interference nor resentment." + +Lady Lodore's character changes in the book, and becomes more like that +of Harriet Shelley. As Mrs. Shelley wrote, fragments of the past +evidently came into her mind and influenced her pen, and her original +conception of the characters was forgotten. Clorinda, the beautiful, +eloquent, and passionate Neapolitan, was drawn from Emilia Viviani, who +had suggested to Shelley his poem _Epipsychidion_, while both Horatio +Saville, who had "no thought but for the nobler creations of the soul, +and the discernment of the sublime laws of God and nature," and his +cousin Villiers, also an enthusiastic worshipper of nature, possessed +many of Shelley's qualities. + +Besides two other novels of no value, _Perkin Warbeck_ and _Falkner_, +Mrs. Shelley wrote numerous short stories for the annuals, at that time +so much in vogue. In 1891, these were collected and edited with an +appreciative criticism by Sir Richard Garnett. Many of them have the +intensity and sustained interest of Frankenstein. + +After the death of her husband, grief and trouble dimmed Mrs. Shelley's +imagination. But the pale student Frankenstein, the monster he created, +and the beautiful priestess, Beatrice, three strong conceptions, testify +to the genius of Mary Shelley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Mrs. Gore. Mrs. Bray + + +During the second decade of the nineteenth century, while Scott was +writing some of the most powerful of the Waverley novels, a host of new +writers sprang into popular notice. John Galt, William Harrison +Ainsworth, and G. P. R. James began their endless series of historical +romances, while in 1827, Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli introduced +to the reading public, as the representatives of fashionable society, +_Falkland_ and _Vivian Grey_. The decade was prolific also in novels by +women. Jane Austen had died in 1817, but Maria Edgeworth, Lady Morgan, +the Porters, Amelia Opie, Miss Ferrier, Mrs. Shelley and Miss Mitford +were still writing; during this period, Mrs. S. C. Hall began her work +in imitation of Miss Mitford, while Mrs. Gore and Mrs. Bray took up the +goose-quill, piled reams of paper on their desks, and began their +literary careers. + +About a score of years before Thackeray tickled English society with +pictures of its own snobbery, Mrs. Gore, a young woman, wife of an +officer in the Life Guards, saw through the many affectations of the +polite world, and in a series of novels, pointed out its ludicrous +pretences with lively wit. Mrs. Gore has suffered, however, from the +multiplicity of her writings. During the years between 1823, when she +wrote her first novel, _Theresa Marchmont_, and 1850, when, quite blind, +she retired from the world of letters, she published two hundred volumes +of novels, plays, and poems. Her plots are often hastily constructed, +her men and women dimly outlined, but she is never dull. No writer since +Congreve has so many sparkling lines. She has been likened to Horace, +and if we compare her wit with that of Thackeray, who by the way +ridiculed her in his _Novels by Eminent Hands_, her humour has qualities +of old Falernian, beside which his too frequently has the bitter flavour +of old English beer. The Englishman is inclined to take his wit, like +his sports, too seriously, and to mingle with it a little of the spice +of envy. Mrs. Gore has none of this, however, and skims along the +surface of fashionable life with a grace and ease and humour extremely +diverting. + +Her writings are so voluminous that one can only make excerpts at +random. One of the liveliest is _Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb_, +a humorous satire on _Vivian Grey_. "The arch-coxcomb of his +coxcombical time" had become a coxcomb at the age of six months, when he +first saw himself in the mirror, from which time his nurse stopped his +crying by tossing him in front of a looking-glass. His curls made him so +attractive that at six years of age he was admitted to his mother's +boudoir, from which his red-headed brother was excluded, and he +superseded the spaniel in her ladyship's carriage. With the loss of his +curls went the loss of favour. He did not prosper at school, and was +rusticated after a year's residence at Oxford. Here he formed an +acquaintance which helped him much in the world of coxcombry. Though +this man was not well born, he was an admitted leader among gentlemen. +Cecil soon discovered that his high social position was due entirely to +his impertinence, and he made this wise observation: "Impudence is the +quality of a footman; impertinence of his master. Impudence is a thing +to be rebutted with brute force; impertinence requires wit for the +putting down." So he matched his wit with this man's impertinence, and +they became sworn friends. + +When Cecil went to London, he found that "people had supped full of +horrors, during the Revolution, and were now devoted to elegiac +measures. My languid smile and hazel eyes were the very thing to settle +the business of the devoted beings left for execution." Of course all +the women fell desperately in love with him. "I had always a +predisposition to woman-slaughter, with extenuating circumstances, as +well as a stirring consciousness of the exterminating power," he +explains to us. Like Childe Harold and Vivian Grey, this coxcomb soon +became weary of London, and travelled through Europe in an indolent way, +for after all it was his chief pleasure "to lie in an airy French bed, +showered over with blue convolvulus," and read tender billets from the +ladies. This book was an excellent antidote to the Byronic fever, then +at its height. + +In her _Sketches of English Character_, Mrs. Gore describes different +men who were in her time to be met with in the social life of London. +The Dining-Out Man thus speaks for himself: + +"Ill-natured people fancy that the life of a dining-out man is a life of +corn, wine, and oil; that all he has to do is to eat, drink and be +merry. I only know that, had I been aware in the onset of life, of all I +should have to go through in my vocation, I would have chosen some +easier calling. I would have studied law, physic, or divinity." + +In the sketches of _The Clubman_, she assigns John Bull's dislike of +ladies' society as the reason for the many clubs in the English +metropolis: + +"While admitting woman to be a divinity, he chooses to conceal his idol +in the Holy of Holies of domestic life. Duly to enjoy the society of +Mrs. Bull, he chooses a smoking tureen, and cod's head and shoulders to +intervene between them, and their olive branches to be around their +table.... For John adores woman in the singular, and hates her in the +plural; John loves, but does not like. Woman is the object of his +passion, rarely of his regard. There is nothing in the gaiety of heart +or sprightliness of intellect of the weaker sex which he considers an +addition to society. To him women are an interruption to business and +pleasure." + +Mrs. Gore could also unveil hypocrisy. In her novel _Preferment, or My +Uncle the Earl_, she thus describes a worthy ornament of the church: + +"The Dean of Darbington glided along his golden railroad--'mild as +moonbeams'--soft as a swansdown muff--insinuating as a silken eared +spaniel. His conciliating arguments were whispered in a tone suitable to +the sick chamber of a nervous hypochondriac, and his strain of argument +resembled its potations of thin, weak, well-sweetened barley water. +While Dr. Macnab succeeded with _his_ congregation by kicking and +bullying them along the path of grace, Dr. Nicewig held out his finger +with a coaxing air and gentle chirrup, like a bird-fancier decoying a +canary." + +A critic in the _Westminster Review_ in 1831 thus writes of her: + +"Mrs. Gore has a perfectly feminine knowledge of all the weaknesses and +absurdities of an ordinary man of fashion, following the routine of +London life in the season. She unmasks his selfishness with admirable +acuteness; she exposes his unromantic egotism, with delightful +sauciness. Her portraits of women are also executed with great spirit; +but not with the same truth. In transferring men to her canvas, she has +relied upon the faculty of observation, usually fine and vigilant in a +woman; but when portraying her own sex, the authoress has perhaps looked +within; and the study of the internal operations of the human machine is +a far more complex affair, and requires far more extensive experience, +and also different faculties, from those necessary to acquire a perfect +knowledge of the appearances on the surface of humanity." + +Notwithstanding Mrs. Gore touches so lightly on the surface of life, +certain definite sociological and moral principles underlie her work. +She is as democratic as Charlotte Smith, Mrs. Inchbald, Miss Mitford, or +even William Godwin. She asserts again and again that men of inferior +birth with the same opportunities of education may be as intellectual +and refined as the sons of a "hundred earls." Those members of the +aristocracy who fail to recognise the true worth of intelligent men of +plebeian origin are made very ridiculous. In her novel _Pin Money_, +published in 1831, how very funny is Lady Derenzy's speech when she +learns that a soap manufacturer is being feted in fashionable society! +Lady Derenzy, by the way, is the social law-giver to her little coterie: + +"It is now some years," said she, "since the independence of America, +and the influence exerted in this country by the return of a large body +of enlightened men, habituated to the demoralising spectacle of an +equalisation of rank, was supposed to exert a pernicious influence on +the minds of the secondary and inferior classes of Great Britain. At +that critical moment I whispered to my husband, 'Derenzy! be true to +yourself, and the world will be true to you. Let the aristocracy of +Great Britain unite in support of the Order; and it will maintain its +ground against the universe!' Lord Derenzy took my advice, and the +country was saved. + +"Again, when the assemblage of the States General of France,--the fatal +tocsin of the revolution,--spread consternation and horror throughout +the higher ranks of every European country, and the very name of the +guillotine operated like a spell on the British peerage, I whispered to +my husband, 'Derenzy! be true to yourself, and the world will be true +to you. Let the aristocracy of Great Britain unite in support of the +Order; and it will maintain its ground against the universe!' Again Lord +Derenzy took my advice, and again the country was saved." + +Mrs. Gore has so cleverly mingled the so-called self-made men and men of +inherited rank in her books that one cannot distinguish between them. In +_The Soldier of Lyons_, one of her early novels, which furnished Bulwer +with the plot of his play _The Lady of Lyons_, the hero, a peasant by +birth and a soldier of the Republic, enters into a marriage contract +with the widow of a French marquis, in order to save her from the +guillotine. This lady of high rank learns to respect her husband, and +becomes the suitor for his love. In _The Heir of Selwood_, a former +field marshal of Napoleon, a peasant, devotes his energies to improving +the condition of the poor on the estate he had won by his services to +his country, and at his death his tenants erected a column to his +memory, bearing the inscription: "Most dear to God, to the king, and to +the people." + +Mrs. Gore constantly asserts that the only distinctions between men are +based upon character and ability. She says of one of her characters, a +poet: + +"His footing in society is no longer dependent upon the caprice of a +drawing-room. It is the security of that intellectual power which forces +the world to bend the knee. The poor, dreamy boy, self-taught, +self-aided, had risen into power. He wields a pen. And the pen in our +age weighs heavier in the social scale than a sword of a Norman baron." + +Mrs. Gore lived at a time when the introduction of machinery and the +establishment of large factories was producing a new type of man: men +like Burtonshaw in _The Hamiltons_: "A practical, matter-of-fact +individual, with plenty of money and plenty of intellect; the sort of +human power-loom one would back to work wonders against a dawdling old +spinning-jenny like Lord Tottenham." + +A critic in the _Westminster Review_ wrote in 1832 as follows: + +"The wealthy merchant or money-dealer is represented, perhaps for the +first time in fiction, as a man of true dignity, self-respect, +education, and thorough integrity, agreeable in manners, refined in +tastes, and content with, if not proud of, his position in society." + +Mrs. Gore was called by her contemporaries the novelist of the new era. + +She was also interested in the great ethical questions of life. She did +not write of the love of youthful heroes and more youthful heroines. She +often traced the consequences of sin on character and destiny. In _The +Heir of Selwood_, she is as stern a moralist in tracing the effects of +vice as George Eliot. _The Banker's Wife_, the scene of which is laid +among the merchants of London, is a serious study of the sorrows of a +life devoted to outward show. The picture of the banker among his +guests, whose wealth, unknown to them, he has squandered, reminds one of +the days before the final overthrow of Dombey and Son. + +Mrs. Gore was a woman of genius. With the stern principles of the +puritan, and feelings as republican as the mountain-born Swiss, she was +never controversial. She saw the absurdities of certain hollow +pretensions of society, but her good-humoured raillery offended no one. +If her two hundred volumes could be weeded of their verbiage by some +devotee of literature, and reduced to ten or fifteen, they would be not +only entertaining reading, but would throw strong lights upon the +_elite_ of London in the days when hair-oils, pomades, and strong +perfumes were the distinguishing marks of the Quality. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Gore owed her place in English letters to native wit and ability; +Mrs. Bray owed hers to hard study and painstaking endeavour. She was one +of the few women who followed the style of writing brought to perfection +by Sir Walter Scott. + +Mrs. Bray became imbued with the historic spirit early in life. Her +first husband was Charles Stothard, the author of _Monumental Effigies +of Great Britain_, with whom she travelled through Brittany, Normandy +and Flanders. While he made careful drawings of the ruins of castles and +abbeys, she read Froissart's _Chronicles_, visited the places which he +has described, and traced out among the people any surviving customs +which he has recorded. + +Two novels were the result of these studies. _De Foix, or Sketches of +the Manners and Customs of the Fourteenth Century_, is a story of Gaston +Phoebus, Count de Foix, whose court Froissart visited, and of whom he +wrote: "To speak briefly and truly, the Count de Foix was perfect in +person and in mind; and no contemporary prince could be compared with +him for sense, honour, or liberality." _The White Hoods_, a name by +which the citizens of Ghent were denominated, is laid in the +Netherlands, and tells of the conflict between the court and the +citizens of Ghent, under Philip von Artaveld, during the reign of +Charles the Fifth of France and the early kingship of Charles the Sixth. +As in all her novels, the accuracy for which she strove in the most +minute details retards the action of the plot, but adds to the +historical value of these romances. + +For the tragic romance of _The Talba, or Moor of Portugal_, Mrs. Bray, +as she had not visited the Spanish peninsula, depended upon her reading. +The plot was suggested to her by a picture of Ines de Castro in the +Royal Academy. It represented the gruesome coronation of the corpse of +Ines de Castro, six years after her death. Thus did her husband, Don +Pedro, show honour to his wife, who had been put to death while he, then +a prince, was serving in the army of Portugal. The whole story is a +fitting theme for tragedy, and was at one time dramatised by Mary +Mitford. In order to give her mind the proper elevation for the +impassioned scenes of this novel, it was Mrs. Bray's custom to read a +chapter of Isaiah or Job each day before beginning to write. + +After the death of her first husband, Mrs. Bray married the vicar of +Tavistock, and for thirty-five years lived in the vicarage of that town. +Here she became interested in the legends of Devon and Cornwall, and +wrote five novels founded upon the history of tradition of those +counties. _Henry de Pomeroy_ opens at the abbey of Tavistock, one of the +oldest abbeys in England, during the reign of Richard Coeur-de-Leon. +The scene of _Fitz of Fitz-Ford_ is also laid at Tavistock, but during +the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Another story of the reign of the Virgin +Queen was _Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak: a Legend of Devon_. _Courtenay of +Walreddon: a Romance of the West_ takes place in the reign of Charles +the First, about the commencement of the Civil War. A gypsy girl, by +name Cinderella Small, is introduced into the story, and has been highly +praised. The character, as well as some of the stories told of her, was +drawn from life. + +But the most famous of these novels is _Trelawny of Trelawne; or the +Prophecy: a Legend of Cornwall_, a story of the rebellion of Monmouth. +Like most of the romances upon English themes, the private history of +the family furnishes the romance, the historical happenings being used +only for the setting: the usual method of Scott. The hero of this novel +is Sir Jonathan Trelawny, one of the seven bishops who were committed to +the Tower by James the Second. When he was arrested by the king's +command, the Cornish men rose one and all, and marched as far as Exeter, +in their way to extort his liberation. Trelawny is a popular hero of +Cornwall, as the following lines testify: + + A good sword and a trusty hand! + A merry heart and true! + King James's men shall understand + What Cornish lads can do! + + And have they fixed the where and when? + And shall Trelawny die? + Here's twenty thousand Cornish men + Will know the reason why! + + Out spake their captain brave and bold, + A merry wight was he-- + "If London Tower were Michael's hold, + We'll set Trelawny free!" + + We'll cross the Tamar, land to land, + The Severn is no stay, + All side to side, and hand to hand, + And who shall say us nay? + + And when we come to London Wall, + A pleasant sight to view, + Come forth! Come forth! Ye cowards all, + To better men than you! + + Trelawny he's in keep and hold-- + Trelawny he may die, + But here's twenty thousand Cornish bold + Will know the reason why! + +Like Scott, Mrs. Bray went about with notebook in hand, and noted the +features of the landscape, the details of a ruin, or the furniture or +armour of the period of which she was writing. It is this painstaking +work, together with the fact that she had access to places and books +that were then denied to the ordinary reader, and chose subjects and +places not before treated in fiction, that gives permanent value to her +writings. She also had the proper feeling for the past, and dignity and +elevation of style. Sometimes an entire page of her romances might be +attributed to the pen of the "Mighty Wizard." Perhaps the highest +compliment that can be paid her as an artist is that she resembles Scott +when he is nodding. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Julia Pardoe. Mrs. Trollope. Harriet Martineau + + +Somewhere between the second and third decades of the nineteenth +century, the modern novel was born. The romances of the twenties are, +for the most part, old-fashioned in tone, and speak of an earlier age; +but in the thirties, the modern novel, with its exact reproduction of +places, customs, and speech, and strong local flavour, was full-grown. +Dickens, under the name of Boz, was contributing his sketches to _The +Old Monthly Magazine_ and the _Evening Chronicle_. Thackeray was +beginning to contribute articles to _Fraser's Magazine_, established in +1830. Annuals and monthlies sprang up in the night, and paid large sums +for long and short stories. The thirst for them was unquenchable. Many +women were supporting themselves by writing tales which did not live +beyond the year of their publication. Mrs. Marsh was writing stories of +fashionable life varied by historical romances. Mrs. Crowe wrote +stories of fashionable life varied by supernatural romances and tales of +adventure. In _The Story of Lilly Dawson_, published in 1847, the +heroine was captured and brought up by smugglers, and the gradual +development of her character was traced; thus giving to the story a +psychological interest. Lady Blessington earned two thousand pounds a +year for twenty years by novels and short stories of fashionable life. +Lady Blessington had a European reputation as a court beauty and a +brilliant and witty conversationalist. This with the coronet must have +helped to sell her books. They do not contain even a sentence that holds +the attention. A friend said of her, "Her genius lay in her tongue; her +pen paralysed it." More enduring work in fiction was done by Julia +Pardoe, Mrs. Trollope, and Harriet Martineau. + + * * * * * + +The novels of Julia Pardoe, like those of Mrs. Bray, owe their value, +not to their intrinsic merit, but to the comparatively unknown places to +which she introduces her readers. She accompanied her father, Major +Pardoe, to Constantinople, where they were entertained by natives of +high position, to whom they had letters of introduction, and Miss Pardoe +was the guest of their wives in the harem. Her knowledge of the mode of +life and habits of thought of Turkish women is considered second only +to that of Mary Wortley Montagu. + +The material for her story _The Romance of the Harem_ was obtained +during her visits to these Turkish ladies. In this she has caught the +languid, heavily perfumed atmosphere of the Orient. Besides the main +plot, stories of adventure and love are related which beguiled the +slowly passing hours of the inmates of the seraglio. Some of them might +have been told by Schehezerhade, if she had wished to add to her +entertainment of _The Thousand and One Nights_. + +After Miss Pardoe's return to England, she wrote a series of fashionable +novels, inferior to many of those of Mrs. Gore, and better than the best +of those by Lady Blessington. _Confessions of a Pretty Woman_, _The +Jealous Wife_, and _The Rival Beauties_ were the most popular of these, +although they have long since been forgotten. + +In 1849, Miss Pardoe published a collection of stories under the title +_Flies in Amber_. The title, she explains in the preface, was suggested +by a belief of the Orientals that amber comes from the sea, and attracts +about it all insects, which find in it both a prison and a posthumous +existence. Some of the stories of this collection were gathered in her +travels. _An Adventure in Bithynia_, _The Magyar and the Moslem, or an +Hungarian Legend_, and the _Yere-Batan-Serai_, which means +Swallowed-up Palace, the great subterranean ruin of Constantinople, have +the interest which always attaches to tales gathered by travellers in +unfrequented places. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Frances Trollope, the mother of the more famous author Anthony +Trollope, like Miss Pardoe, found material for stories in unfamiliar +places. Mrs. Trollope had the nature of the pioneer. With her family, +she sought our western lands of the Mississippi Valley, where the virgin +forest had resounded to the axe of the first settler but a short time +before. She wrote the first book of any note describing the manners of +the Americans; the first strong novel calling attention to the evils of +slavery in our Southern States; and the first one describing graphically +the white slavery in the cotton-mills of Lancashire; and she is, +perhaps, the only writer who began a long literary career at the age of +fifty-two. + +On the fourth of November, 1827, Mrs. Trollope with her three children +sailed from London, and, after about seven weeks on the sea, arrived on +Christmas Day at the mouth of the Mississippi. After a brief visit in +New Orleans, this party of English travellers sailed up the river to +Memphis, where, remote from the comforts of civilisation, they abode for +a time under the direction of Mrs. Wright, an English lecturer who had +come to America for the avowed purpose of proving the perfect equality +of the black and white races. But Mrs. Trollope and her family soon +tired of life in the wilderness, and sought Cincinnati, at that time a +small city of wooden houses, not over thirty years of age. After two +years' residence in Cincinnati, she went by stage to Baltimore, visited +Philadelphia and New York, and returned to England, after a sojourn of +three and a half years in this country. + +During her residence in the United States, she made copious notes of +what she saw and heard. These she published the year after her return to +England, under the title _Domestic Manners of the Americans_. At once +the pens of all the critics were let loose upon the author. Her American +critics declared that she knew nothing about them or their country; and +their English friends refused to believe that the people of America had +such shocking bad manners. + +Mrs. Trollope reported truthfully what she saw and heard. But a frontier +city is made up of people gathered from the four corners of the earth: +each family is a law unto itself; so that the speeches Mrs. Trollope +carefully set down, and the customs she depicted, were often +peculiarities of individuals rather than of a community. But she has +left a vivid picture of American life in the twenties, less exaggerated +than the picture Charles Dickens gave of it in the forties. Mrs. +Trollope's attitude is no more hostile than his, but he is more +entertaining. He held us up to ridicule and laughed at us; she seriously +pointed out our errors in the hope that we might amend. She is slightly +inconsistent at times, for, while asserting the equality of whites and +blacks, she as bitterly resented the equality of white master and white +servant. Her purpose in writing this book was to warn her own countrymen +of the evils which must follow a government of the many. + +Although she never takes the broad view, but always the narrow and +partial one, her book gives a good picture of the everyday life and +habits of thought of the next generation to that which had fought and +won the American Revolution. The white heat of republican fervour, so +obnoxious to a European, welded the nation together as one people, and +filled their hearts with a religious reverence for the constitution. She +meant them as a reproach, but we read these words with pride: "I never +heard from anyone a single disparaging word against their government." + +Mrs. Trollope has been described by her friends as a refined woman of +charming personality. But as soon as she began to write, she donned her +armour and proclaimed her hostility either to her hero or to the larger +part of the characters of the book. This method is dangerous to art. +Even the genius of Thackeray is lessened by his lack of sympathy. + +In 1833 Mrs. Trollope published her first novel, _The Refugee in +America_. It is the story of an English lord who has fled to America to +escape English justice. He and his friends have settled in Rochester, +New York. It was written for the sole purpose of describing the manners +of the people of our Eastern cities. The author's attitude toward them +is well illustrated by a conversation between Caroline, the young +English girl, and her American _protegee_, Emily. After a dinner in +Washington, Caroline exclaims to her friend: + +"'Oh, my own Emily, you must not live and die where such things be.' + +"Emily sighed as she answered, 'I am born to it, Miss Gordon.' + +"'But hardly bred to it. We have caught you young, and we have spoiled +you for ever as an American lady.'" + +Three years later Mrs. Trollope published her strongest novel, _The Life +and Adventures of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_. This is a powerful +picture of early life on the Mississippi; it was the first novel since +Mrs. Behn's _Oroonoko_ which called attention to the evils of African +slavery. It is marred, however, by want of sympathy with the community +she is describing. Mr. Jonathan Whitlaw Senior has "squat in the bush," +an expression to which Mrs. Trollope objects, but which brings to mind +at once the log cabin in the forest clearing, and the muscular, uncouth +pioneer. Jonathan furnishes firewood to the Mississippi steamers, and by +this means gains sufficient wealth to carry out his life's ambition: to +set up a store in Natchez, and to own "niggers." But the life of a +pioneer has made Jonathan as cunning as a fox. This cunning his son +Jonathan, the hero of the story, has inherited to the full. As a +slave-owner he is as grasping and cruel as Legree, whom Mrs. Stowe +immortalised some years later. His character, though drawn with strength +and vigour, is inconsistent. He is a miser, yet he is a gambler and a +spendthrift, qualities not often found together. He is not a true +representative of the son of a pioneer. Clio Whitlaw, the aunt of the +hero, belongs more truly to her environment. One suspects the English +family at Cincinnati had received neighbourly kindnesses from women like +her. With her physical strength and great courage she is kind and +neighbourly to all who need her help. The sad story of Edward Bligh, the +young Kentuckian who preached the gospel to the slaves, the victim of +lynch law, a word dreaded even then, is as thrilling as parts of _Uncle +Tom's Cabin_. + +Besides _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_, Mrs. Trollope created two other +characters that will cause her name to live as long as those of William +Harrison Ainsworth or G. P. R. James. The coarse scheming widow Barnaby +is the heroine of three novels, _Widow Barnaby_, _The Widow Married_, +and _The Widow Wedded, or the Barnabys in America_. In the last book +Mrs. Trollope somewhat humorously pays off her scores against her +American critics, who had dubbed her a cockney, unfamiliar with good +society in either England or America. The Widow Barnaby, who has come to +New Orleans with her husband after his little gambling ways have made +residence in London unpleasant, decides to earn some money by writing a +book on America. She describes the Americans, not as they are, but as +they think they are. She listens to all their boasts about themselves +and country, and puts it faithfully in her book. Of course they like it +and she becomes the literary lion of America. + +Anthony Trollope, in his book _An Autobiography_, said of his mother's +books on America: "Her volumes were very bitter; but they were very +clever, and they saved the family from ruin." She is also given the +credit of having improved the manners of American society. Whenever a +"gentleman" at his club put his feet on the table, or indulged in any +liberty of which she would not have approved, others cried, "Trollope! +Trollope! Trollope!" + +The _Vicar of Wrexhill_, the scene of which is laid in England, is an +attack on the evangelical clergy in the Episcopal Church. The vicar is +no truer to the great body of evangelical preachers than Jonathan +Jefferson Whitlaw is true to the great body of slave-owners. There is +the same exaggeration to prove a theory. Evangelical preaching is +harmful, is the theorem, and a man is selected to prove it who in any +walk of life would be a hypocrite and libertine. The book has many +interesting situations. The vicar's proposal to the rich widow, one of +his parishioners, is clever: "Let me henceforth be as the shield and +buckler that shall guard thee; so that thou shalt not be afraid for any +terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day." And he promises, +if she will marry him, to lead her "sinful children into the life +everlasting." No other book has shown, as this does, the powerful effect +upon sensitive natures of this kind of preaching. One feels that the +followers of the Reverend Vicar were under the influence of hypnotic +suggestion, and that their awakening from this spell was like the +awakening from a trance. + +Mrs. Trollope was actuated by humanitarian motives. This was not as +usual then as since Dickens popularised the humanitarian novel. Only +three years after he wrote _Sketches by Boz_, Mrs. Trollope wrote _The +Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong_, the story of a boy employed +in the mills of Lancashire. Negro slavery in the South, even as Mrs. +Trollope saw it, was a happy state of existence compared with child +slavery in the mills of Ashleigh and Deep Valley, Lancashire, where the +children were driven to work by the lash in the morning, and were +crippled by the "Billy roller," the name of the stick by which they were +beaten for inattention to their work during the day. If the truth of +these horrors were not attested by other writers of this time, one would +doubt the possibility of their existence in the same land and at the +same time in which Wordsworth was writing of the beauties of his own +childhood, where the river Derwent mingled its murmurs with his nurse's +song. + +Mrs. Trollope assailed injustice with a powerful pen. Woman's moral +nature is truer and more sensitive than man's. Even if her sympathies +cloud her judgment, it is better than that her judgment should reason +away her sympathies. Neither has woman in her philanthropy contented +herself with broad principles which would help all and therefore reach +none. The dusky slave in the cotton-fields, the pale-faced child in the +cotton-mills, have alike touched the hearts of women, who by their pens +have been able to awaken the conscience of a nation. The horror of child +labour wrung from Mrs. Browning the heart-felt poem, _The Cry of the +Children_. The four strong novels proclaiming the tyranny of the whites +over the blacks, _Oronooko_, _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw_, _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_, and _The Hour and the Man_, were written by women. + + * * * * * + +The name of Harriet Martineau was a familiar one in every household +during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. Like Mrs. Trollope she +was a woman of fearless honesty. But Harriet Martineau was never the +_raconteur_, she was first the educator. She wrote story after story to +teach lessons in political and social science. Her method of work, as +set forth in her autobiography, was peculiar, and the result is not +uninteresting. In her _Political Economy Tales_, she selected certain +principles which she wished to set forth, and embodied each principle in +a character. The operations of these principles furnished the plot of +the story. Besides the illustrations of the principles by the +characters, the laws were discussed in conversation, and thus the lesson +was taught. In the story _Brooke and Brooke Farm_, she made use of an +expression which Ruskin almost paraphrased: "The whole nation, the whole +world, is obliged to him who makes corn grow where it never grew +before; and yet more to him who makes two ears ripen where only one +ripened before." In the tale _A Manchester Strike_, factory life and the +problems that face the working men are set forth, the aim being to show +that work and wages depend upon the great laws of supply and demand. + +Miss Martineau wrote two novels. _Deerbrook_, in 1839, was modelled on +_Our Village_. The village doctor, Mr. Hope, is the central figure. Firm +in his convictions, he loses the favour of the leading families, and +through their influence he is deprived of his practice. A fever, +however, sweeps over the place and his former enemies beg, not in vain, +for his skilful services. A double love story runs through the book. +Mrs. Rowland, a scheming woman, is the most cleverly drawn of the +characters, and was evidently suggested by some of Miss Edgeworth's +fashionable ladies. + +Harriet Martineau also visited America, but some years later than Mrs. +Trollope, when the slavery agitation was at its height. As she had +written upon the evils of slavery before she left England, she was +invited to attend a meeting of the Abolitionists in Boston. She accepted +this invitation, and expressed there her abhorrence of slavery. After +this she received letters from some of the citizens of the pro-slavery +States, threatening her life if she entered their domain. This +naturally threw her entirely with the Abolition party, and she wrote +many articles to help their cause. + +Miss Martineau's second novel, _The Hour and the Man_, grew out of her +sympathy and belief in the coloured race. Toussaint de L'Ouverture, the +devoted slave, soldier, liberator, and martyr, is the hero. Every scene +in which this wonderful black figures is vividly written. Many of the +minor incidents are but slightly sketched, and many of the minor +characters elude the reader's grasp. How far this book is a truthful +portrayal of the negro cannot be judged until the "race problem" is +surveyed with unprejudiced eyes. Then and not until then will its place +in literature be assigned. She gives the same characterisation of this +hero of St. Domingo as does Wendell Phillips in his wonderful speech of +which the following is the peroration: + +"But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History +will put Phocian for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for +England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consummate +flower of our earlier civilisation, then, dipping her pen in the +sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the +soldier, the statesman, the martyr, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE." + +_The Hour and the Man_ was published in 1840, and was warmly received by +the Abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison, after reading it, wrote the +following sonnet to the author: + + England! I grant that thou dost justly boast + Of splendid geniuses beyond compare; + Men great and gallant,--women good and fair,-- + Skilled in all arts, and filling every post + Of learning, science, fame,--a mighty host! + Poets divine, and benefactors rare,-- + Statesmen,--philosophers,--and they who dare + Boldly to explore heaven's vast and boundless coast, + To one alone I dedicate this rhyme, + Whose virtues with a starry lustre glow, + Whose heart is large, whose spirit is sublime, + The friend of liberty, of wrong the Foe: + Long be inscribed upon the roll of time + The name, the worth, the works of HARRIET MARTINEAU. + +Miss Martineau wrote on a variety of subjects, and generally held a view +contrary to the accepted one. She wrote upon mesmerism, positivism, +atheism, which she professed, and after each book warriors armed with +pens sprang up to assail the author. But she had many friends, even +among those who were most bitter against her doctrines. One wrote of +her, "There is the fine, honest, solid, North-country element in her." +R. Brimley Johnson in _English Prose_, edited by Craik in 1896, said of +her writings: + +"Her gift to literature was for her own generation. She is the exponent +of the infant century in many branches of thought:--its eager and +sanguine philanthropy, its awakening interest in history and science, +its rigid and prosaic philosophy. But her genuine humanity and real +moral earnestness give a value to her more personal utterances, which do +not lose their charm with the lapse of time." + +Harriet Martineau's name and personality will be remembered in history +after her books have been forgotten. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +The Brontes + + +During the middle of the nineteenth century, English fiction largely +depicted manners and customs of different classes and different parts of +England. While Dickens, Thackeray, Disraeli, and Mrs. Gaskell were +writing realistic novels, romantic fiction found noble exponents in the +Bronte sisters. + +The quiet life lived by the Brontes in the vicarage on the edge of the +village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire seems prosaic to the +casual observer, but it had many weird elements of romanticism. The +purple moors stretching away behind the grey stone vicarage, the grey +sky, and the sun always half-frowning, and never sporting with nature +here as it does over the mountains in Westmoreland, make thought earnest +and deep, and suggest the mystery which surrounds human life. It is a +serious country, that of the Wharf valley; the people are a serious +people, silent and observant. The Brontes were a direct outcome of this +country and people, only in them their severity and silence were kindled +into life by a Celtic imagination. + +What a group of people lived within those grey stone walls! As the vicar +and his four motherless children gathered about their simple board, +while they engaged in conversation with each other or with the curate, +what scenes would have been enacted in that quiet room if the fancies +teeming in each childish brain could have been suddenly endowed with +life! How could even a dull curate, with an undercurrent of addition and +subtraction running in his brain, based upon his meagre salary and +economical expenditures, have been insensible to the thought with which +the very atmosphere must have been surcharged? The brother, Patrick +Branwell, found his audience in the public house, and delighted it with +his wit and conversation. The sisters, after their household tasks were +done, wrote their stories and often read them to each other. + +But fate had chosen her darkest hues in which to weave the warp and woof +of their lives. The wild dissipations and wilder talk of their brother +Branwell clouded the imaginations of his sisters, and in a short time +death was a constant presence in their midst. In September, 1848, +Branwell died at the age of thirty; in less than three months, Emily +died at the age of twenty-nine; and in five-months, Anne died at the +age of twenty-seven; and Charlotte, the eldest, was left alone with her +father. During the remaining six years of her life, her compensation for +her loss of companionship was her writing. Not long after the death of +her sisters, Mr. Nicholls proposed to her; was refused; proposed again +and was accepted; then came the separation caused by Mr. Bronte's +hostility to the marriage; then the marriage in the church under whose +pavement so many members of her family were buried, grim attendants of +her wedding; then the nine short months of married life; then the death +of the last of the Bronte sisters at the age of thirty-nine. Mr. Bronte +outlived her only six years, but he was the last of his family. Six +children had been born to Patrick Bronte, not one survived him. Forty +years had eliminated a family which yet lives through the imaginative +powers of the three daughters who reached years of maturity. + +Of the three sisters, the least is known of Emily, and her one novel, +_Wuthering Heights_, reveals nothing of herself. Not one of the +characters thought or felt as did the quiet, retiring author. Yet so +great was her dramatic power that her brother Branwell was credited with +the book, as it was deemed impossible for a woman to have conceived the +character of Heathcliff. And yet this arch-fiend of literature was +created by the daughter of a country vicar, whose only journeys from +home had been to schools, either as pupil or governess. Charlotte Bronte +has thrown but little light upon her sister's character. She says that +she loved animals and the moors, but was cold toward people and repelled +any attempt to win her confidence. The author of _Jane Eyre_ seems +neither to have understood Emily's nature nor her genius. Yet we are +told that Emily was constantly seen with her arms around the gentle +Anne, and that they were inseparable companions. If Anne Bronte could +have lived longer, she would have thrown much light upon the character +of the author of _Wuthering Heights_. But now, as we read of her brief +life and her one novel, she seems to belong to the great dramatists +rather than to the novelists, to the poets who live apart from the world +and commune only with the people of their own creating. + +_Wuthering Heights_ stands alone in the history of prose fiction. It +belongs to the wild region of romanticism, but it imitates no book, and +has never been copied. No incident, no character, no description, can be +traced to the influence of any other book, but the atmosphere is that of +the West Riding of Yorkshire. + +Charlotte Bronte thus speaks of it in a letter to a friend: + +"_Wuthering Heights_ was hewn in a wild workshop, with simple tools, out +of homely materials. The statuary found a granite block on a solitary +moor; gazing thereon, he saw how from the crag might be elicited a head, +savage, swart, sinister: a form moulded with at least one element of +grandeur--power. He wrought with a rude chisel, and from no model but +the vision of his meditations. With time and labour, the crag took human +shape, and there it stands, colossal, dark and frowning, half statue, +half rock, in the former sense, terrible and goblin-like; in the latter, +almost beautiful, for its colouring is of mellow grey, and moorland moss +clothes it, and heath, with its blooming bells and balmy fragrance, +grows faithfully close to the giant's foot." + +All of this is true, but it gives only the general outlines, nothing of +the inner meaning. + +In all literature, there is not so repulsive a villain as Heathcliff, +the offspring of the gipsies. Insensible to kindness, but resentful of +wrong; hard, scheming, indomitable in resolution; quick to put off the +avenging of an injury until he can make his revenge serve his purpose; +the personification of strength and power; he is yet capable of a love +stronger than his hate. Heathcliff is so repulsive that he does not +attract, and drawn with such skill that, as has been said, he has not +been imitated. + +But the strong, dark picture of Heathcliff makes us forget that +Catharine is the centre of the story. The night that Mr. Lockwood spends +at Wuthering Heights he reads her books, and her spirit appears to him +crying for entrance at the window, and complaining that she has wandered +on the moors for twenty years. While living, she represents a human soul +balanced between heaven and hell, loved by both the powers of darkness +and of light. But in her earliest years, she had loved Heathcliff; their +thoughts, their affections were intertwined, and they were welded, as it +were, into one soul, not at first by love, but by their common hatred of +Hindley Earnshaw. When Catharine meets Edgar Linton, her finer nature +asserts itself. She loves him as a being from another world; he gives +her the first glimpse of real goodness, kindness, and gentleness. She +catches through him a gleam of Paradise. But she knows how transient +this is, and says to her old nurse, Nelly Dean: + +"I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in +heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so +low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry +Heathcliff now; and that, not because he's handsome, no, Nelly, but +because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his +and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from +lightning, or frost from fire." + +But Catharine is married to Edgar, and for three years her better nature +triumphs. Heathcliff is away; Edgar Linton loves her truly, and their +home is happy. Catharine alone knows that that house is not her true +place of abode. She alone knows that Edgar has not touched her inner +nature. She knows that her real self, the self that must abide through +the centuries, is indissolubly linked with another's. And when +Heathcliff returns, the intensity of her joy, her almost unearthly +delight, she neither can nor attempts to conceal. Not once is she +deceived as to his true nature. She knows the depth of his depravity, +and thus warns the girl who has fallen in love with him: + +"He's not a rough diamond--a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic;--he's +a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to him, let this or that +enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous or cruel to harm them,--I +say, let them alone, because I should hate them to be wronged: and he'd +crush you, like a sparrow's egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome +charge." + +But Catharine's nature is akin to his, and it is with almost brutal +delight that she helps forward this marriage, when she finds the girl +does not trust her word. + +Then comes the strife between Edgar and Heathcliff for the soul, so it +seems, of Catharine. There is no jealousy on Edgar's part. The book +never stoops to anything so earthly. Edgar loathes Heathcliff and cannot +understand Catharine's affection for her early playmate. Although she +never for a moment hesitates in her allegiance to Heathcliff, it is this +strife that causes her death. The strife between good and evil wears her +out. + +Even after her death, her soul cannot leave this earth. It is still +joined to Heathcliff's. It resembles here the story of Paola and +Francesca. Catharine is waiting for him and his only delight is in her +haunting presence. Heathcliff cannot be accused of keeping Catharine +from Paradise. In life she would not let him from her presence, and she +clings to him now. It is the story of _Undine_ reversed. Undine gained a +soul through a mortal's love. And we feel toward the close that +Catharine, selfish and passionate as she was, is yet Heathcliff's better +spirit. Catharine while living had prevented Heathcliff from killing her +brother. Although he loved Catharine better than himself, and would have +made any sacrifice at her request, he feels no more tenderness for her +offspring than for his own. But the spirit of Catharine lived in her +child and nephew, and when they looked at him with her eyes, he had no +pleasure in his revenge upon the son of Hindley nor on the daughter of +Edgar Linton. + +In the tenderness that once or twice comes over Heathcliff as he looks +at Hareton Earnshaw, there is a ray of promise that he may be redeemed. +And in the final outcome of the story, one can but hope that Catharine's +restless spirit, as it watches and waits for Heathcliff, is striving to +bring some blessing upon her house. The awakening of a better nature in +Hareton, through his love for Catharine's daughter, is a pretty, tender +idyl. The book is like a Greek tragedy in this, that at the close the +atmosphere has been purged; the sun once more shines through the windows +of Wuthering Heights; hatred is dead, and love reigns supreme. + +_Wuthering Heights_ is a novel not of externals, not of character, but +of something deeper, more vital. The love of Catharine and Heathcliff +has no physical basis; it is the union of souls evil, but not material. +It is the sex of spirit, not of body, that adds its might to the +resistless force that unites these two. Notwithstanding the external +pictures are so distinct that a painter could transfer them to his +canvas, the book is a soul-tragedy. + +_Wuthering Heights_ cannot be classed among the so-called popular +novels. It has appealed to the poets rather than to the readers of +fiction. It has received the warmest praise from the poet Swinburne. In +_The Athenaeum_ of June 16, 1883, he thus eulogises it: + +"Now in _Wuthering Heights_ this one thing needful ['logical and moral +certitude'] is as perfectly and triumphantly attained as in _King Lear_ +or _The Duchess of Malfi_, in _The Bride of Lammermoor_ or _Notre-Dame +de Paris_. From the first we breathe the fresh dark air of tragic +passion and presage; and to the last the changing wind and flying +sunlight are in keeping with the stormy promise of the dawn. There is no +monotony, there is no repetition, but there is no discord. This is the +first and last necessity, the foundation of all labour and the crown of +all success, for a poem worthy of the name; and this it is that +distinguishes the hand of Emily from the hand of Charlotte Bronte. All +the works of the elder sister are rich in poetic spirit, poetic feeling, +and poetic detail; but the younger sister's work is essentially and +definitely a poem in the fullest and most positive sense of the term." + +At the close of this essay he writes: + +"It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts; it is +certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in +the whole world of poetry or prose." + +All that we know of Emily Bronte's nature is consistent, such as we +would expect of the author of _Wuthering Heights_. The first stanza of +her last poem, written but a short time before her death, reveals her +strength of will and faith: + + No coward soul is mine, + No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere: + I see Heaven's glories shine, + And faith shines equal, arming me from fear. + +These lines evoked the following tribute from Matthew Arnold: + + ----she + (How shall I sing her?) whose soul + Knew no fellow for might, + Passion, vehemence, grief, + Daring, since Byron died, + That world-famed son of fire--she, who sank + Baffled, unknown, self-consumed; + Whose too bold dying song + Stirr'd, like a clarion-blast, my soul. + +The great books of prose fiction have been for the most part the work of +mature years. The lyric poets burst into rhapsody at the dawn of life; +but the powers of the novelist have ripened more slowly. The novelists +have done better work after thirty-five than at an earlier age but few +of them have written a classic at the age of twenty-eight, as did Emily +Bronte. + + * * * * * + +Anne Bronte's fame has been both augmented and dimmed by the greater +genius of her two sisters. She is remembered principally as one of the +Brontes, so that her books have been oftener reprinted and more +extensively read than their actual merit would warrant. In comparison +with the greater genius of Charlotte and Emily, her writings have been +declared void of interest, and without any ray of the brilliancy which +distinguishes their books. This latter statement is not true. Anne +Bronte did not have their imaginative power, but she reproduced what she +had seen and learned of life with conscientious devotion to truth. +_Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_, Anne Bronte's first book, were +published together in three volumes so as to meet the popular demand +that novels, like the graces, should appear in threes. It is a +photographic representation of the life of a governess in England during +the forties. Agnes's courage in determining to augment the family income +by seeking a position as governess; the high hopes with which she enters +upon her first position; her conscientious resolve to do her full +Christian duty to the spoiled children of the Bloomfields; her dismissal +and sad return home; her second position in the family of Mr. Murray, a +country squire; the two daughters, one determined to make a fine match +for herself, the other a perfect hoyden without a thought beyond the +horses and dogs; the disregard of the truth in both; Mr. Hatfield, the +minister, who cared only for the county families among his +parishioners; Miss Murray's marriage for position and the unhappiness +that followed it--form a series of photographs, which only a sensitive, +responsive nature could have produced. The contrast between the gentle, +refined governess, and the coarse natures upon whom she is dependent, is +well shown, although there is no attempt on the part of the author to +assert any superiority of one over the other. We have many books in +which the shrinking governess is described from the point of view of the +family or one of their guests, but here the governess of an English +fox-hunting squire has spoken for herself; she has described her trials +and the constant self-sacrifice which is demanded of her without +bitterness, and in a kindly spirit withal, and for that reason the book +is a valuable addition to the history of the life and manners of the +century. + +_The Tenant of Wildfell Hall_, her second novel, was a peculiar book to +have shaped itself in the brain of the gentle youngest daughter of the +Vicar of Haworth. But Anne Bronte had seen phases of life which must +have sorely wounded her pure spirit. She had been governess at Thorp +Green, where her brother Branwell was tutor, and where he formed that +unfortunate attachment for the wife of his employer, which, with the +help of liquor and opium, deranged his mind. Anne wrote in her diary at +this time, "I have had some very unpleasant and undreamt-of experience +of human nature." As we picture Anne Bronte, with her light brown hair, +violet-blue eyes, shaded by pencilled eyebrows, and transparent +complexion, she seems a spirit of goodness and purity made to behold +daily a depth of evil in the nature of one dear to her, which fills her +with wonderment and horror. + +Mr. Huntingdon of Wildfell Hall was drawn from personal observation of +her brother. She wrote with minuteness, because she believed it her duty +to hold up his life as a warning to others. The gradual change in Mr. +Huntingdon from the happy confident lover to the ruined debauchee is +well traced; the story of his infatuation for the wife of his friend, so +reckless that he attempted no concealment, is realistic in the extreme. +But what a change in the novel! A hundred years before, Huntingdon would +have made a fine hero of romance, but here he is disgraced to the +position of chief villain, and the reader feels for him only pity and +loathing. Probably a man's pen would have touched his errors more +lightly, but Anne Bronte painted him as he appeared to her. The author +attributes such a character as Huntingdon's to false education, and +makes her heroine say: + +"As for my son--if I thought he would grow up to be what you call a man +of the world,--one that has 'seen life,' and glories in his experience, +even though he should so far profit by it as to sober down, at length, +into a useful and respected member of society--I would rather that he +died to-morrow--rather a thousand times." + +Notwithstanding its defects--and it is full of them judged from the +stand-point of art--_Wildfell Hall_ is a book of promise. In the +descriptions of the Hall, the mystery that surrounds its mistress, the +rumours of her unknown lover, the heathclad hills and the desolate +fields, there are romantic elements that remind one of _Wuthering +Heights_. The book is more faulty than _Agnes Grey_, but the writer had +a deeper vision of life with its weaknesses and its depths of human +passion. If years had mellowed that "undreamt-of experience" of Thorp +Green, Anne Bronte with her truthful observation and sympathetic insight +into character might have written a classic. The material out of which +_Wildfell Hall_ was wrought, under a more mature mind, with a better +grasp of the whole and a better regard for proportion, would have made a +novel worthy of a place beside _Jane Eyre_. + + * * * * * + +That English fiction has produced sweeter and more varied fruit by being +grafted with the novels of women no one who gives the matter a serious +thought can for a moment doubt. One distinctive phase of woman's mind +made its way but slowly in the English novel. Women are by nature +introspective. They read character and are quick to grasp the motives +and passions that underlie action. The French women have again and again +embodied this view of human nature in their novels, which are +essentially of the inner life. _The Princess of Cleves_ by Madame de +Lafayette, written in 1678, is the first book in which all the conflicts +are those of the emotions; here the great triumph is that which a woman +wins over her own heart. Madame de Tencin in _Memoires du Comte de +Comminges_ represents her hero and heroine under the influence of two +great passions, religion and love. Madame de Souza, Madame Cottin, +Madame de Genlis, Madame de Stael, and George Sand wrote novels of the +inner life. The Princess of Cleves with noble dignity controls her +emotion and at last conquers it. The pages of George Sand thrill with +unbridled passion. + +The English women, however, are more repressed by nature than the +French, and the English novel of the inner life advanced but slowly. The +emotions of the long-forgotten Sidney Biddulph are minutely told. _A +Simple Story_ by Mrs. Inchbald is a psychological novel. Amelia Opie, +Mary Brunton, and Mrs. Shelley wrote novels of the inner life. + +But _Jane Eyre_ is the first English novel which in sustained intensity +of emotion can compare with the novels of Madame de Stael or George +Sand. The style partakes of the high-wrought character of the heroine, +and the reader is whirled along in the vortex of feeling until he too +partakes of every varied mood of the characters, and closes the book +fevered and exhausted. It is one of the ironies of fate that Charlotte +Bronte with her strong pro-Anglican prejudices should belong to the +school of these French women. But there is the same difference between +their writings that there is between the French temperament and the +English. Even in the wildest moments of Jane Eyre her passion is rather +like the river Wharf when it has overflowed its banks; while theirs is +like the mountain torrent that bears all down before it. + +Much of the passion that Charlotte Bronte describes is pure imagination. +She wrote freely to her friends about herself and the people whom she +knew. The three rejected suitors caused her only a little amusement. Her +love for Mr. Nicholls, whom she afterwards married, was little warmer +than respect. We could as easily weave a romance out of Jane Austen's +remark that the poet Crabbe was a man whom she could marry as to make a +love story out of Charlotte's relations to Monseiur Heger, who figures +as the hero in three of her books. Here she is greater than the French +women writers: they knew by experience what they wrote; she by innate +genius. + +Perhaps no novelist ever had more meagre materials out of which to make +four novels than had Charlotte Bronte: her sisters, Monsieur and Madame +Heger, the curates, and herself; a small village in Yorkshire, two +boarding schools, two positions as governess, and a short time spent in +a school in Brussels. Compare this range with the material that Scott, +Dickens, or Thackeray had--then judge how much of the elixir of genius +was given to each. + +The early pages of _Jane Eyre_, the first novel which Charlotte Bronte +published, describe Lowood Institution, a place modelled upon Cowan's +Bridge School. The two teachers, the kind Miss Temple and the cruel Miss +Scatcherd, were drawn from two instructors there at the time the Brontes +attended it. Helen Burns, so untidy but so meek in spirit, was Maria +Bronte, the eldest sister, who died at the age of eleven, probably as a +result of the poor food and harsh treatment of the school. With what +calm she replies to Jane, when she would sympathise with her for an +unjust punishment: + +"I am, as Miss Scatcherd said, slatternly; I seldom put, and never keep, +things in order; I am careless; I forget rules; I read when I should +learn my lessons; I have no method; and sometimes I say, like you, I +cannot bear to be subjected to systematic arrangements. This is all very +provoking to Miss Scatcherd, who is naturally neat, punctual, and +particular." + +Helen Burns, with her calm submission, and Jane Eyre, with her +rebellious spirit, are finely contrasted. Jane's passionate resentment +of the punishments which Miss Scatcherd inflicted on Helen was genuine. +Charlotte was nine years old when she left Cowan's Bridge School, but +her suppressed anger at the punishments which her sister Maria had +received there flashed out years afterwards in _Jane Eyre_. + +Charlotte Bronte was writing _Jane Eyre_ at the same time that Emily and +Anne were writing _Wuthering Heights_ and _Agnes Grey_. As they read +from their manuscripts, Charlotte objected to beauty as a requisite of a +heroine, and said, "I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as +myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours." So arose the +conception of Jane Eyre. If the slight, shy, Yorkshire governess, +without beauty or charm of manner, had appeared before the imagination +of any novelist either male or female, at that time, and asked to be +admitted into the house of fiction, she would have been refused entrance +as cruelly as Hannah shut the door in the face of Jane Eyre, when she +came to her dripping with the rain, cold and weak from two nights' +exposure on the moor, and asking for charity. But Charlotte Bronte, +with a woman's sympathetic eye made doubly penetrating and loving by +genius, chose this outcast from romance as a heroine, a woman without +beauty or charm, and boldly proclaimed that moral beauty was superior to +physical beauty, and that the attraction of one soul for another lay +quite beyond the pale of external form. + +Jane Eyre is not, however, Charlotte Bronte, as has been so often +asserted. She would not have gone back to comfort Mr. Rochester, after +she had once left the Hall. One suspects that he was drawn from reading, +since the author hardly trusted her knowledge of worldly men to draw a +fitting lover for Jane. Mr. Rochester is very much the same type of man +as Mr. B., whom Pamela married, and the independent Jane addresses him +as "My Master," an expression constantly on the lips of Pamela. Yet +Rochester leaves a permanent impression on the mind, for he represents a +strong man at war with destiny. He conceals his marriage because of his +determination to conquer fate. It is pointed out by critics to-day that +he is quite an impossible character, that he is, in fact, a woman's +hero. It is well to remember, however, that the author of _Jane Eyre_ +was believed at first to have been a man, as it was thought impossible +for a man like Rochester to have been conceived in a woman's brain, and +not until Mrs. Gaskell's life of the Brontes was published was +Charlotte's character as a modest woman established. But men have +repudiated Mr. Rochester, and so we must accept their judgment. + +The heroine of her next novel, _Shirley_, was suggested by Emily Bronte. +Only Shirley was not Emily. Shirley could not have conceived even the +dim outlines of _Wuthering Heights_, but she had many of the strong +qualities of Emily, and these, mingled with the softer stuff of her own +nature, make her contradictory but charming, and Louis Moore, an +agreeable tutor whom Emily Bronte would have quite despised, naturally +falls in love with his wayward pupil, as they pore over books in the +school-room. Shirley is contrasted with Caroline Helstone, of whom Mrs. +Humphry Ward says: "For delicacy, poetry, divination, charm, Caroline +stands supreme among the women of Miss Bronte's gallery." Even if other +admirers of Miss Bronte deny her this eminence, she certainly possesses +all the qualities, rare among heroines, which Mrs. Ward has attributed +to her. + +In many of the conversations between Shirley and Caroline, there are +reminders of what passed between the Bronte sisters in their own home. +The relative excellence of men and women novelists always interested +them. Shirley evidently expressed Charlotte's own views in the +following words: + +"If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; +but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about +women. They do not read them in a true light; they misapprehend them, +both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, +half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend. Then to hear them +fall into ecstasies with each other's creations, worshipping the heroine +of such a poem--novel--drama, thinking it fine,--divine! Fine and divine +it may be, but often quite artificial--false as the rose in my best +bonnet there. If I spoke all I think on this point, if I gave my real +opinion of some first-rate female characters in first-rate works, where +should I be? Dead under a cairn of avenging stones in half-an-hour." + +"After all," says Caroline, "authors' heroines are almost as good as +authoresses' heroes." + +"Not at all," Shirley replies. "Women read men more truly than men read +women. I'll prove that in a magazine article some day when I've time; +only it will never be inserted; it will be 'declined with thanks,' and +left for me at the publisher's." + +The greater part of the men in _Shirley_ were drawn from life, and are +as true to their sex as were the heroines of Dickens, Thackeray, or +Disraeli, who were then writing. As for the curates, they are perfect. +No man's hand could have executed their portraits so skilfully. They +have no more real use in the story than they seem to have had in their +respective parishes. But this daughter of a country vicar, who knew +nothing of the London cockney, who was then enlivening the books of +Dickens, seized upon the funniest people she knew, the curates, and they +have been immortalised. + +There is often in Charlotte Bronte's novels a separation of plot and +character, as if they formed themselves independently in her mind. This +is especially true of _Shirley_. At that time the attention of England +was directed toward the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire. +Mrs. Trollope and Harriet Martineau had written upon conditions of life +there. In _Sybil_ Disraeli considered broadly the underlying causes of +the misery of the operatives. Mrs. Gaskell wrote _Mary Barton_, a story +of Manchester life, the same year that Charlotte Bronte was writing +_Shirley_. The plot of the last named is laid in the early years of the +nineteenth century, and turns upon the opposition of the workmen to the +introduction of machinery. But the plot and characters are constantly +getting in each other's way and tripping each other up. Though the book +is full of defects, one cannot judge it harshly. When she began the +funny description of the curates' tea-drinking, her brother and sisters +were with her. Before it was finished, she and her father were left +alone. But at this time the public demanded melodrama. Fires, drownings, +and death-beds were popular methods of untying hard knots and of playing +upon the emotions of the reader. She, like Mrs. Gaskell, constantly +resorts to outside circumstances to help put things to rights when they +are drifting in the wrong direction, circumstances which Jane Austen +would not have admitted in a book of hers. + +Before Charlotte Bronte wrote _Jane Eyre_ or _Shirley_, she had finished +_The Professor_, and offered it to different publishers, but it was +rejected by all. Finally she herself lost faith in it, and transformed +it into the beautiful story of _Villette_, where the school of Madame +and Monseiur Heger in Brussels is made immortal. In the plot of +_Villette_, as in the plot of _Jane Eyre_ and of _Shirley_, many +extraneous events happen which are either unexpected or unnecessary. +Like _Jane Eyre_, _Villette_ is steeped in the romantic spirit, but the +hard light of reason again dispels the illusion. In the management of +the supernatural Charlotte is far inferior to Emily. The explanation of +the nun in _Villette_ is even childish. It is the mistake made by Mrs. +Radcliffe, by nearly all writers of the age of reason. They give a ray, +as it were, a whisper from the mysterious world which surrounds that +which is manifest to our everyday senses. Be it the fourth dimension, or +what not, we catch for a moment a message from this other world, which, +even indistinct, still tells us that this visible world is not all, that +there is something beyond. Then, with hard common-sense, they deny their +own message, and, so doing, deny to us the world of mystery, and leave +us only the material world in which to believe. Not so Emily Bronte. Not +so Scott or Shakespeare. We may believe in Hamlet's ghost or not; we may +believe or not in the White Lady of Avenel; we may believe or not that +Catharine's soul hovered near Heathcliff. But we are still left with a +belief in the life after death, and still believe in something beyond +experience, and still grope to find those things in heaven and earth of +which philosophy does not dream. + +But the characters, not the plot, remain in the mind, after reading +_Villette_. Madame Beck, whose prototype was Madame Heger, is as clever +as Cardinal Wolsey or Cardinal Richelieu; but she uses all her +diplomatic skill in the management of a lady's school, which, under her +ever watchful eye, with the aid of duplicate keys to the trunks and +drawers of the teachers and pupils, runs without friction of any kind. +Lucy Snowe, the English teacher in _Villette_, is far more pleasing than +Jane Eyre; she is not so passionate, but her view of life is deeper and +broader, and consequently kinder. And there is Paul Emanuel. Who would +have believed the rejected professor would have grown into that scholar +of middle age? He is so distinctly the foreigner in showing every +emotion under which he is labouring. How pathetic and how lovable he is +on the day of his fete when he thinks that the English governess has +forgotten him, and has not brought even a flower to make the day happier +for him! So fretful in little things, so heroic in large things, with so +many faults which every pupil can see, but with so many virtues, frank +even about his little deceptions, he is a lovable man. But many of Miss +Bronte's readers do not find Paul Emanuel as delightful as Paulina, the +womanly little girl who grows into the childlike woman. She is as +sensitive as the mimosa plant to the people about her. Every event of +her childhood, all the people she cared for then, remained indelibly +imprinted on her mind, so that, with her, friendship and love are strong +and abiding. + +Notwithstanding their many defects, Charlotte Bronte's novels have left +a permanent impression upon English fiction and have won an acknowledged +place among English classics. She first made a minute analysis of the +varying emotions of men and women, and noted the strange, unaccountable +attractions and repulsions which everybody has experienced. Paulina, a +girl of six, is happy at the feet of Graham, a boy of sixteen, although +he is unconscious of her presence. And so instance after instance can be +given of affinities and antipathies which lie beyond human reason. She, +like her sister Emily, though with less clear vision, was searching for +the hidden sources of human feeling and human action. + +Charlotte Bronte wrote to a friend: + +"I always through my whole life liked to penetrate to the real truth; I +like seeking the goddess in her temple, and handling the veil, and +daring the dread glance." + +Her truthfulness in painting emotion, which to her own generation seemed +most daring, even coarse, has given an abiding quality to her work. And +besides she created Paulina and Paul Emanuel. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +Mrs. Gaskell + + +Ever since Eve gave Adam of the forbidden fruit, "and he did eat," the +relative position of the sexes has rankled in the heart of man. The sons +of Adam proclaim loudly that they were given dominion over the earth and +all that the earth contained; but they have been ever ready to follow +blindly the beckoning finger of some fair daughter of Eve. Perhaps it is +a consciousness of this domination of the weaker sex that has led man to +proclaim in such loud tones his mastery over woman, having some doubts +of its being recognised by her unless asserted in bold language. At a +time when the novels of women received as warm a welcome from the public +and as large checks from the publishers as those of men, a writer whose +sex need not be given thus discussed their relative merits: + +"What is woman, regarded as a literary worker? Simply an inferior +animal, educated as an inferior animal. And what is man? He is a +superior being, educated by a superior being. So how can they ever be +equal in that particular line?" + +Granted the premises, there can be but one conclusion. + +The perfect assurance with which men have asserted their own sufficiency +in all lines of art would be amusing if it had not been so disastrous in +distorting and warping at least three of them: music, the drama, and +prose fiction. As slow as the growth of spirituality, has been the +recognition of woman's mental and moral power. It seems almost +incredible that not many years ago only male voices were heard in places +of amusement. Deep, rich, full, and sonorous, no one disputes the beauty +of the male chorus; but modern opera would be impossible without the +soprano and alto voices, and Madame Patti, Madame Sembrich, and Madame +Lehman have proved that in natural gifts and in the technique of art +women are not inferior to their brethren. + +By the same slow process women have won recognition on the stage. Even +in Shakespeare's time men saw no reason why women should acquire the +histrionic art. Imagine Juliet played by a boy! Yet Essex, Leicester, +Southampton, in the boxes, the groundlings in the pit, and Ben Jonson +sitting as critic of all, were well satisfied with it, for they were +used to it, just as men have accepted the heroines of their own novels, +though every woman they meet is a refutation of their truth. It only +needed a woman in a woman's part to open the eyes of the audience to all +they had missed before. Not until the Restoration, did any woman appear +on the English stage. The following lines given in the prologue written +for the revival of _Othello_, in which the part of Desdemona was acted +for the first time by a woman, show how quick critics were to see the +folly of the old custom: + + For to speak truth, men act, that are between + Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen, + With bone so large, and nerve so uncompliant, + When you call Desdemona, enter Giant. + +As we cannot conceive of the English stage without such women as Mrs. +Siddons, Charlotte Cushman, and Ellen Terry, so we cannot conceive of +the English novel without such writers as Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, +Mary Mitford, the Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, and George Eliot, each one +of whom carried some phase of the novel to so high a point that she has +stood pre-eminent in her own particular line. Too often we confuse art +with its subject-matter. If it requires as much skill to give interest +to the everyday occurrences of the home as to the thrilling adventures +abroad; to depict the life of women as the life of men; to reveal the +joys and sorrows of a woman's heart as the exultations and griefs of +man's; then these women deserve a place equal to that held by +Richardson, Fielding, Scott, Dickens, and Thackeray. Their art, as their +subject-matter, is different. With the exception of George Eliot, they +have not virility with its strength and power, but they have femininity, +no less strong and powerful, a quality possessed by Scott, but by no +other of these masculine writers, with the possible exception of +Dickens, and in him it is a femininity, which tends to run to +sentimentalism, a different characteristic. + + * * * * * + +Elizabeth Gaskell, one of the most feminine of writers, is so well known +as the author of _Cranford_, that delightful village whose only +gentleman dies early in the story, that many of its readers do not know +that its author was better known by her contemporaries through her +humanitarian novels; in which she discussed the great problems that face +the poor. + +Mrs. Gaskell, whose maiden name was Stevenson, was born in Chelsea in +1810. She spent the greater part of her childhood and girlhood at the +home of her mother's family, Knutsford in Cheshire, the place she +afterward made famous under the name of Cranford. In 1832, she married +the Reverend William Gaskell, minister of the Unitarian chapel in +Manchester, and that city became her home. She took an active interest +in all the affairs of the city, and constantly visited the poor. Her +husband's father, besides being the professor of English History and +Literature in Manchester New College, a Unitarian institution, was a +manufacturer; thus Mrs. Gaskell had the opportunity of hearing both +sides of the controversy which was then waging between labour and +capital. + +In the early forties, there was much suffering among the "mill-hands"; +many were dying of starvation, and consequently there were many strikes +and uprisings. These conditions led to her writing her first novel, +_Mary Barton_. The book was written during the years 1845-1847, although +it was not published until 1848. The nucleus of it, Mrs. Gaskell wrote +to a friend, was John Barton. Since she herself was constantly wondering +at the inequalities of fortune, which permitted some to starve, while +others had abundance, how must it affect an ignorant man, himself on the +verge of starvation, and filled with pity for the sufferings of his +friends? Driven almost insane by the condition of society, and hoping to +remedy it, he commits a crime, which preys so upon his conscience that +it finally wears out his own life. + +Mrs. Gaskell in this, her first novel, has left an undying picture of +that section of smoky Manchester where the mill-workers live: its +narrow lanes; small but not uncomfortable cottages, well supplied with +furniture in days when work was plentiful, but destitute even of a fire +when it was scarce; the undersized men and women, with irregular +features, pale blue eyes, sallow complexions, but with an intelligence +rendered quick and sharp by their life among the machinery, and by their +hard struggle for existence. The life of the poor had often furnished a +theme for the poets, but it was the life of shepherds and milkmaids, +above whom the blue sky arched, and whose labours were brightened by the +songs of the birds, and the colours and sweet odours of fruit and +flowers. But Mrs. Gaskell described the life of the poor in a town where +factory smoke obscured the light of the sun, and where the weariness of +labour was rendered more intense by the clanging factory bell, and the +constant whirr of machinery ringing in their ears. It is a gloomy +picture, but no gloomier than the reality. + +Disraeli in _Sybil_ discussed the questions of labour and capital in +their relations to the history of England, with a broad intellectual +grasp of the sociological causes which produced these conditions. He +wrote in the interests of two classes, the Crown and the People, with +the hope that England might again have a free monarchy and a prosperous +people. It is a well illustrated treatise on government, but the +principles advocated or discussed always overshadow the characters. He +had no such intimate knowledge of the lives of the poor as had Mrs. +Gaskell. She conducts us to the homes of John Barton, George Wilson, and +Job Legh, shows the simplicity of their lives, and their sense of the +injustice under which they are suffering, and their helpfulness to each +other in times of need. + +How simple and true is the friendship that binds Mary Barton, the +dressmaker's apprentice; Margaret, the blind singer; and Alice Wilson, +the aged laundress, whose mind is constantly dwelling on the green +fields and running brooks of her childhood's home. These women possess +the strength of character of the early Teutonic women. They are +reticent, not given to the exchange of confidences, but ready to help a +friend with all they have in the hour of need. When Margaret thinks that +the Bartons are in want of money, she says to Mary, "Remember, if you're +sore pressed for money, we shall take it very unkind if you do not let +us know." But she does not question her. Later when her great trouble +comes to Mary Barton, which she must bear alone, when she must free a +lover from the charge of murder without incriminating her father, she +shows presence of mind, clearness of vision, and both moral and physical +courage. + +Jem Wilson, the hero of the story, is as strong as Mary Barton, the +heroine. Although Dickens was writing of the poor, he always found some +means to educate his heroes, and generally placed them among gentlemen. +Jem Wilson's education was received in the factory, and the little rise +he made above his fellows was due to his better understanding of +machinery. He was a working man, proud of his skill, and of his good +name for honesty and sobriety. + +The plot of _Mary Barton_ is highly melodramatic, and its technique is +open to criticism. It should not be read, however, for the story, but +for the many home scenes in which we come into close sympathy with the +men and women of Manchester. There is no novel in which we feel more +strongly the heart-beats of humanity. It leaves the impression, not of +art, but of life. + +Mrs. Gaskell turned again to the struggles between labour and capital +for the plot of her novel _North and South_. Between this story and +_Mary Barton_ she had written _Cranford_ and _Ruth_, but her mind seemed +to revert, as it were, from the peaceful village life to the stirring +mill-towns of Lancashire. The great contrast between life in the +counties of England presided over by the landed gentry, and that in the +counties where the manufacturers formed the aristocracy, suggested this +book. It was published in 1855, seven years after _Mary Barton_. The +plot of _North and South_ is better proportioned than is that of _Mary +Barton_. There are fewer characters, better contrasted. It is a brighter +picture, with more humour, but it does not leave so strong an impression +on the mind as does the earlier work. Both, however, are more accurate +than _Hard Times_, a book with which Dickens himself was highly +dissatisfied. He knew little of the life in the manufacturing districts, +but, in a spirit of indignation at the poverty brought on by grasping +manufacturers, he caricatured the entire class in the persons of Mr. +Gradgrind and Mr. Bounderby. When these men are compared with the +manufacturers as represented in _North and South_, Mrs. Gaskell's more +intimate knowledge of them is at once apparent. + +Mrs. Gaskell had been accused of taking sides with the working men, and +representing their point of view in _Mary Barton_. In _North and South_, +the hero, Mr. Thornton, is a rich manufacturer, a fine type of the +self-made man, but standing squarely on his right to do what he pleases +in his own factory. "He looks like a person who would enjoy battling +with every adverse thing he could meet with--enemies, winds, or +circumstances," was Margaret Hale's comment when she first met him. +"He's worth fighting wi', is John Thornton," said one of the leaders of +the strike. For although the condition of affairs in the mill-towns had +much improved since John Barton went to London as a delegate from his +starving townsmen, and was refused a hearing by Parliament, a large part +of the book is concerned with the story of a strike, which in its +outcome brought starvation to many of the men, and bankruptcy to some of +the masters, the acknowledged victors. + +Higgins, one of the leaders of the working men, is a true Lancashire +man, and like Thornton, the leader of the masters, has many traits of +character as truly American as English. His sturdy independence is well +shown in Margaret's first interview with him. The daughter of a vicar in +the south of England, she had been accustomed to call upon the poor in +her father's parish. Learning that Higgins's daughter, Bessy, is ill she +expresses her desire to call upon her. "I'm none so fond of having +stranger folk in my house," Higgins informs her, but he finally relents +and says, "Yo may come if yo like." + +But besides the conflict between the manufacturers and their employees, +with which much of the book is concerned, there is the sharp contrast +between the Hales, born and bred in the south of England, and the +mill-owners in whose society they are placed. Mr. Hale, indecisive, +inactive, in whom thought is more powerful than reality, is as helpless +as a child among these men of action, and utterly unable to cope with +the problems they are facing. Margaret, the refined daughter of a poor +clergyman, is contrasted with the proud Mrs. Thornton, the mother of a +wealthy manufacturer, who would make money, not birth, the basis of +social distinctions. But Margaret is even better contrasted with the +poor factory girl, Bessy Higgins, who turns to her for help and +sympathy. There is hardly a story of Mrs. Gaskell's which is not adorned +by the friendship of the heroine for some other woman in the book. + +In both these novels, she taught that the only solution of the great +problem of capital and labour was a recognition of the fact that their +interests were identical, and that friendly intercourse was the only +means of breaking down the barrier that divided them. + +Mrs. Gaskell was so versatile, she touched upon so many problems of +human life, that it is almost impossible to summarise her work. _Ruth_ +considers the question of the girl who has been betrayed. Ruth is as +pure as Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and like her is a victim of +circumstances. A stranger who has taken her under her protection reports +that Ruth is a widow, and Ruth passively acquiesces in the deception, +hoping that her son may never know the disgrace of his birth. But the +truth comes to light, involving in temporary disgrace Ruth and her son, +and the household of Mr. Benson, the dissenting minister whose home had +been her place of refuge. But Mrs. Gaskell is always optimistic. By her +good deeds, Ruth wins the love and honour of the entire community. This +novel was loudly assailed. It was claimed that Mrs. Gaskell had condoned +immorality, and it was considered dangerous teaching that good deeds +were an atonement for such a sin. But if _Ruth_ found detractors, it +also found warm admirers, who recognised the broader teachings of the +story. Mrs. Jameson wrote to Mrs. Gaskell: + +"I hope I do understand your aim--you have lifted up your voice against +'that demoralising laxity of principle,' which I regard as the ulcer +lying round the roots of society; and you have done it wisely and well, +with a mingled courage and delicacy which excite at once my gratitude +and my admiration." + +The scene of _Sylvia's Lovers_ is laid in Whitby, at a time when the +press-gang was kidnapping men for the British navy. It is a story of the +loves, jealousies, and sorrows of sailors, shopkeepers, and small +farmers, among whom Sylvia moves as the central figure. Du Maurier, who +illustrated the second edition of this novel, was so charmed with the +heroine that he named his daughter Sylvia for her. This story, like +_Ruth_, has much of the sentimentalism so fashionable in the middle of +the nineteenth century. The leading canon of criticism at that time was +the power with which a writer could move the emotions of the reader, and +the novelist was expected either to convulse his readers with laughter +or dissolve them into tears. There are many funny scenes in _Sylvia's +Lovers_, but the key-note is pathos. Like many novels of Dickens, there +are death-bed scenes introduced only for the luxury of weeping over +sorrows that are not real, and there are melodramatic situations as in +her other books. Parts of this novel suggested to Tennyson the poem of +_Enoch Arden_. + +But, however powerful may be the novels dealing with the questions that +daily confront the poor, there is a perennial charm in the society of +people who dwell amid rural scenes. Mrs. Gaskell has written several +short stories of the pastoral type. Such a story is _Cousin Phillis_. It +is a beautiful idyl and reminds one of the old pastorals in which ladies +and gentlemen played at shepherds and shepherdesses. Cousin Phillis +cooks, irons, reads Dante, helps the haymakers, falls in love, and mends +a broken heart, and is brave, true, and unselfish. Her father is what +one would expect from such a daughter. He cultivates his small farm, +finds rest from his labours in reading, and neglects none of the many +duties which belong to him as the dissenting minister of a small +village. + +_Cranford_ and _Wives and Daughters_ have this in common, that the scene +of both is laid in the village of Knutsford. The former is a rambling +story of events in two or three households, and of the social affairs in +which all the village is concerned. It is without doubt the favourite of +Mrs. Gaskell's novels. _Wives and Daughters_ was Mrs. Gaskell's last +story, and was left unfinished at her death. It shows a great artistic +advance over her earlier work. The plot is more natural; it has not so +many sharp contrasts, which George Eliot criticised in Mrs. Gaskell's +stories. The characters are also more subtle. Molly, the daughter of the +village doctor, is an unselfish, thoughtful girl, but with none of that +unreal goodness which Dickens sometimes gave to his heroines. When she +receives her first invitation to a child's party, and her father is +wondering whether or not she can go, her speech is characteristic of her +nature: + +"Please, Papa,--I do wish to go--but I don't care about it." + +Molly feels very keenly, and longs for things with all the strength of +an ardent nature, but she always subordinates herself and her wishes to +others. In the character of Cynthia, Mrs. Gaskell makes a plea for the +heartless coquette. Cynthia is beautiful, she likes to please those in +whose company she finds herself, but quickly forgets the absent. It is +not her fault that young men's hearts are brittle, for it is as natural +for her to smile, and be gay and forget, as it is for Molly to love, be +silent, and remember. So it is Cynthia who has the lovers, while Molly +is neglected. Clare, Cynthia's mother, is more selfish than her +daughter, but she has learned the art of seeming to please others while +thinking only of pleasing herself. She is as crafty as Becky Sharp, but +softer, more feline, and more subtle; a much commoner type in real life +than Thackeray's diplomatic heroine. + +Mr. A. W. Ward, in the biographical introduction to the Knutsford +Edition of her novels, says of her later work: + +"When Mrs. Gaskell had become conscious that if true to herself, to her +own ways of looking at men and things, to the sympathies and hopes with +which life inspired her, she had but to put pen to paper, she found what +it has been usual to call her later manner--the manner of which +_Cranford_ offered the first adequate illustration, and of which _Cousin +Phillis_ and _Wives and Daughters_ represent the consummation." + +The same critic compares the later work of Mrs. Gaskell with the later +work of George Sand and finds that "in their large-heartedness" they are +similar. He also gives George Sand's tribute to her English +contemporary. "Mrs. Gaskell," she said, "has done what neither I nor +other female writers in France can accomplish: she has written novels +which excite the deepest interest in men of the world, and yet which +every girl will be the better for reading." + +It is not often that a novelist finds another writer to take up and +enlarge her work as did Mrs. Gaskell. Her novels contain the germ of +much of George Eliot's earlier writings. _The Moorland Cottage_ +suggested many parts of _The Mill on the Floss_. Edward and Maggie +Brown--the former important, consequential and dictatorial, the latter +self-forgetful, eager to help others, and by her very eagerness prone to +blunders--were developed by George Eliot into the characters of Tom and +Maggie Tulliver. The weak and fretful mothers in the two books are much +alike, while the love story and the catastrophe have the same general +outline. + +They both drew largely from the working people of the North or of the +Midlands, and both constantly introduced Dissenters. Silas Marner +belongs to the manufacturing North, and the people of Lantern Yard are +of the same class as those of Manchester and Milton. Felix Holt and Adam +Bede belong to the same type as Jem Wilson and Mr. Thornton, while +Esther Lyon is not unlike Margaret Hale. Both often presented life from +the point of view of the poor. + +Both were interested in the development of character, and in the +changes which it underwent for good or evil under the influence of +outward circumstances. But George Eliot had greater intellectual power +than Mrs. Gaskell. She had the broader view and the deeper insight. Mrs. +Gaskell could never have conceived the plots nor the characters of +_Romola_ nor _Middlemarch_. She constantly introduced extraneous matter +to shape her plots according to her will, while with George Eliot the +fate of character is as hard and unyielding as was the fate of +predestination in the sermons of the old Calvinistic divines. Mrs. +Gaskell, like Dickens, introduced death-bed scenes merely to play upon +the emotions. George Eliot was never guilty of this defect; with her, +character is a fatalism that is inexorable. + +But Mrs. Gaskell had a more hopeful view of life than had George Eliot. +The Unitarians believe in man and have faith in the clemency of God. +This makes them a cheerful people. However dark the picture that Mrs. +Gaskell paints, we have faith that conditions will soon be better, and +at the close of the book we see the dawn of a brighter day. George Eliot +had taken the suggestions of Mrs. Gaskell and amplified them with many +details that the woman of lesser genius had omitted. But to each was +given her special gift. If George Eliot's characters stand out as more +distinct personalities, they are drawn with less sympathy. George +Eliot's men and women are often hard and sharp in outline; Mrs. +Gaskell's, no matter how poor or ignorant, are softened and refined. + +It was this quality that made it possible for her to write that +inimitable comedy of manners, _Cranford_. Her other novels with their +deep pathos, strong passion, and dramatic situations must be read to +show the breadth of her powers, but _Cranford_ will always give its +author a unique place in literature. Imagine the material that furnished +the groundwork of this story put into the hands of any novelist from +Richardson to Henry James. It seems almost like sacrilege to think what +even Jane Austen might have said of these dear elderly ladies. As for +Thackeray, their little devices to keep up appearances would have seemed +to him instances of feminine deceit, and he might have put even Miss +Jenkyns with her admiration of Dr. Johnson into his _Book of Snobs_. +What tears Dickens would have drawn from our eyes over the love story of +Miss Matty and Mr. Holbrook. How George Eliot would have mourned over +the shallowness of their lives. Henry James would have squinted at them +and their surroundings through his eye-glass until he had discovered +every faded spot on the carpet or skilful darn in the curtain. Miss +Mitford would have appreciated these ladies and loved them as did Mrs. +Gaskell, only she would have been so interested in the flowers and +birds and clouds that she would have forgotten all about the Cranford +parties, and would probably have ignored the presence in their midst of +the Honourable Mrs. Jamieson, the sister-in-law of an earl. So we must +conclude that only Mrs. Gaskell could make immortal this village of +femininity, where to be a man was considered almost vulgar, but into +which she has introduced one of the most chivalrous gentlemen in the +person of Captain Browne, and one of the most faithful of lovers in the +person of Mr. Holbrook, while no book has a more lovable heroine than +fluttering, indecisive Miss Matty, over whose fifty odd years the +sorrows of her youth have cast their lengthening shadows. + +_Mary Barton_ is a work of genius. Only a woman of high ideals could +have drawn the character of Margaret Hale, an earlier Marcella, or Molly +Gibson, or Mr. Thornton, or Mr. Holman. Only a woman of deep insight +could have created a woman like Ruth: a book which in its problem and +its deep earnestness reminds one of _Aurora Leigh_. But her readers will +always love Mrs. Gaskell for the sake of the gentle ladies of +_Cranford_. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +Mrs. Gaskell died on the twelfth of November, 1865. Of the novelists who +have been considered in this book only three survived her, Mrs. Bray, +Mrs. S. C. Hall, and Harriet Martineau, but they added little to prose +fiction after that date. During the third quarter of the nineteenth +century, however, the number of books written by women continued to +increase each year. Julia Kavanagh was the author of several novels, the +first of which _The Three Paths_, was published in 1848; all her stories +were written with high moral aim and delicacy of feeling. _Uncle Tom's +Cabin_, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1850, is probably the +most powerful novel ever written to plead the cause of oppressed +humanity. Dinah Maria Muloch Craik kept up the interest in the domestic +novel; her most popular book, _John Halifax, Gentleman_, has lost none +of its charm for young women, even if it does not meet the requirements +of a classic. Mrs. Henry Wood is still remembered as the author of the +melodramatic _East Lynne_, but her best stories are the _Johnny Ludlow +Papers_, which deal with character alone; her popularity is attested by +the fact that more than a million copies of her books have been issued. +Charlotte Yonge's forgotten novels were classed among the _Church +Stories_, because they contain so much piety and devotion. Of a +different type was Miss de la Ramee, who wrote under the name of Ouida; +she had fine gifts of word-painting, but a fondness for the questionable +in conduct. Miss Braddon, the author of _Lady Audley's Secret_, excelled +in complicated plots. Mrs. Oliphant has been a most versatile writer, +and followed almost every style of prose fiction; her domestic stories +are generally considered her best. Anne Thackeray, better known as Mrs. +Ritchie, the daughter of the great novelist, has written several novels, +all of which have a delightfully feminine touch. Miss Rhoda Broughton +has entertained the reading public by love stories which hold the +attention until the marriage takes place. But all these women fade into +insignificance beside George Eliot, whose first story, _The Sad Fortunes +of the Rev. Amos Barton_, appeared in _Blackwood's Magazine_ in 1857, +and whose last novel, _Daniel Deronda_, was published nearly twenty +years later, in 1876. + +It seems strange that any reader of her books should have thought them +the product of a man's brain, as was at first believed. For, +notwithstanding her power in developing a plot, her breadth of view, and +her mental grasp, her genius is essentially feminine. She excelled in +analysis of character, in attention to details, in ethical teaching, and +in artistic truthfulness, the qualities in which women have been +pre-eminent. Only a woman's pen could have drawn such characters as +Dinah Morris, Maggie Tulliver, and Dorothea Casaubon, or could have +followed the minute and subtle influences under which the plot of +_Middlemarch_ is shaped. George Eliot has left a larger portrait gallery +of women than any other novelist. Not only has she drawn different +grades of society, but, what is perhaps a more difficult task, she has +drawn the different grades of spiritual greatness and moral littleness. +She brought the psychological novel to a degree of perfection which has +never been surpassed. + +Mrs. Oliphant has thus written of George Eliot's place in literature: + +"Another question which has been constantly put to this age, and which +is pushed with greater zeal every day, as to the position of women in +literature and the height which it is in their power to attain, was +solved by this remarkable woman, in a way most flattering to all who +were and are fighting the question of equality between the two halves of +mankind; for here was visibly a woman who was to be kept out by no +barriers, who sat down quietly from the beginning of her career in the +highest place, and, if she did not absolutely excel all her +contemporaries in the revelation of the human mind and the creation of +new human beings, at least was second to none in those distinguishing +characteristics of genius." + +We are too near the nineteenth century to decide as to the relative +positions of its great novelists. At one time George Eliot was placed at +the head of all writers of fiction, with Dickens and Thackeray as rivals +for the second place. But she was dethroned by Thackeray, and there are +signs that the final kingship will be given to Charles Dickens, unless +Scott receives it instead. + +Fashions in novels change at least every fifty years. Exciting plots and +situations, strong emotional scenes, sharp contrasts, are not demanded +by present readers, who also turn away with disgust from the saintly +heroine and the irreclaimable villain. Of the many volumes of fiction +written in the eighteenth century only two are in general circulation +to-day, _Robinson Crusoe_ and _The Vicar of Wakefield_. But all those +once popular novels, even if their very names are now forgotten, have +done their work in shaping the thought and morals of their own and +succeeding generations. + + + + +INDEX + + + _Abbott, The_, 137 + _Absentee, The_, 61, 112-113, 122 + _Ada Reis_, 203 + _Adam Bede_, 84, 289, 295 + Addison, Joseph, 21, 28 + _Adeline Mowbray, or the Mother and Daughter_, 150-153 + _Adventures of an Atom_, 23 + _Afflicted Parent, The, or the Undutiful Child Punished_, 125 + _Age of Wordsworth, The_, 193 + _Agnes Grey_, 258-259, 261, 265 + Ainsworth, William Harrison, 216, 239 + Alderson, Miss, _see_ Opie, Amelia + _Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent_, 42 + _Amos Barton_, 294 + _Amours of Prince Tarquin and Miranda_, 18 + _Antiquary, The_, 102, 104 + _Arabian Nights_, 15, 233 + Arblay, Madame D', _see_ Burney, Frances + _Arblay, Madame D', Essay on_, 57-58, 61, 168-169 + Arden, Enoch, 187 + Arnold, Matthew, 257 + _Artless Tales_, 139 + _Athenaeum, The_, 194, 256 + _Aurora Leigh_, 292 + Austen, Jane, 39, 45, 60, 101, 157-178, 179, 180, 191, 195, 196, + 216, 263, 270, 276, 291 + + Baillie, Joanna, 154, 155 + Balzac, Honore de, 170 + _Banker's Wife, The_, 225 + Barbauld, Mrs. Anna Letitia, 121 + Barrett, Miss, _see_ Browning, Elizabeth + _Barring Out, The_, 125 + _Bas Bleu_, 62, 63 + _Beauty Put to its Shifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles_, 42 + Behn, Aphra, 1, 13-19 + _Belford Regis_, 193-196 + _Belinda_, 121, 177 + _Beside the Bonny Brier Bush_, 137 + _Betsy Thoughtless, Miss, The History of_, 36-39, 46, 48 + _Bithynia, An Adventure in_, 233 + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 107, 294 + Blake, William, 2 + _Blazing World, Description of a New World Called the_, 6-7 + Blessington, Lady, 232, 233 + Blind Harry the Minstrel, 143, 144 + Bonheur, Rosa, 1 + _Book of Snobs, The_, 291 + Boswell, James, 138 + Bousset, 3 + Braddon, Mary Elizabeth, 294 + Bray, Ann Eliza, 216, 225-230, 232, 293 + _Bride of Lammermoor, The_, 256 + Bronte, Anne, 249, 250, 257-261 + Bronte, Charlotte, 85, 174, 210, 249, 250, 256, 258, 261-273 + Bronte, Emily, 248, 249-257, 258, 267, 270, 271, 273 + Brontes, The, 247-273, 276 + _Brooke and Brooke Farm_, 242 + Broughton, Rhoda, 294 + Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 81, 103, 190, 242 + Brunton, Alexander, 156 + Brunton, Mary, 41, 149, 153-156, 262 + _Bubbled Knights, or Successful Contrivances_, 42 + Bulwer, Edward, Lord Lytton, 200, 216, 223 + Burke, Edmund, 46, 54, 62 + Burney, Charles, 46 + Burney, Frances, 39, 45-61, 168, 176, 177, 181, 195 + Byron, Lord (George Gordon), 109, 200-206, 210-213, 257 + + _Caleb Williams_, 73 + _Camilla, or a Picture of Youth_, 59-60, 176, 177 + _Canterbury Tales, The_, 106-110 + _Caroline Evelyn, The History of_, 47 + Carter, Elizabeth, 62 + _Castle of Otranto, The_, 88 + _Castle Rackrent_, 111-112, 117 + _Castles of Athlyn and Dunbayne_, 89 + Cavendish, Margaret, _see_ Newcastle, Duchess of + Cavendish, William, _see_ Newcastle, Duke of + _Cecil, or the Adventures of a Coxcomb_, 217-219 + _Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress_, 54-59, 60, 61, 78, 176, 177 + _Celestina_, 80 + _Chap-Books_, 67 + Chapone, Hester, 62 + Chaucer, Geoffrey, 106 + _Cheap Repository, The_, 67-71 + _Childe Harold_, 200, 219 + Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), 10 + _Clarissa Harlowe_, 8, 26, 30, 171 + _Clelia_, 32 + _Clubman, The_, 219 + _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_, 71-72 + Coleridge, Ernest Hartley, 109 + Collier, Jeremy, 61 + Colman, George, 42, 43, 46 + _Confessions of a Pretty Woman_, 233 + Congreve, William, 217 + Cooper, James Fenimore, 16 + Corneille, 3 + _Cottagers of Glenburnie, The_, 16 + Cottin, Sophie, Madame de, 262 + _Court Gazette_, 20 + _Courtenay of Walreddon; a Romance of the West_, 227 + _Cousin Phillis_, 286-287, 288, 292 + Crabbe, George, 263 + Craik, Dinah Maria Muloch, 293 + Craik's _English Prose_, 245 + _Cranford_, 277, 281, 287, 288, 291-292 + Crewe, Catherine, 232 + _Cry of the Children, The_, 242 + Curtis, George William, 174 + + _Daniel Deronda_, 294 + Dante, Alighieri, 286 + David Copperfield, 164 + _David Simple_, 26-31 + _Deerbrook_, 243 + Defoe, Daniel, 146 + _De Foix, or Sketches of the Manners and Customs of the Fourteenth + Century_, 226 + _Desmond_, 74-77, 80 + _Destiny_, 181, 182, 183, 185, 186-187 + Diana of the Crossways, 103 + Dickens, Charles, 56, 69, 76, 77, 87, 102, 116, 164, 231, 236, 240, + 247, 264, 268, 269, 277, 281, 282, 286, 290, 291, 296 + _Discipline_, 155 + Disraeli, Benjamin, 87, 200, 216, 247, 269, 279 + Dombey and Son, 225 + _Domestic Manners of the Americans_, 235-236 + Dryden, John, 13 + _Duchess of Malfi, The_, 256 + Du Maurier, 285 + + _East Lynne_, 293 + Edgeworth, Maria, 102, 111-128, 130, 131, 133, 155, 179, 180, 181, + 182, 183, 196, 197, 216, 243, 276 + Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 115, 118, 119, 121, 124 + _Eighteenth Century, History of the_, 44 + Elia, _see_ Lamb, Charles + Eliot, George, 84, 109, 119, 164, 174, 276, 277, 289-291, 294-296 + Emma, 161-162, 166-167, 168, 170 + _Emmeline_, 155 + _Ennui_, 113, 122 + _Enoch Arden_, 286 + _Epipsychidion_, 214 + _Essay on Irish Bulls_, see _Irish Bulls, Essay on_ + _Essay on Madame D'Arblay_, see _Arblay, Madame D', Essay on_ + _Ethelinda_, 79 + Evans, Marian, _see_ Eliot, George + _Evelina, or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World_, 39, 46, 47-54, + 55, 59, 61, 78, 164, 176, 177 + Evelyn, John, 5 + _Evening Chronicle_, 231 + _Examiner_, 22 + + _Fair Jilt, The_, 18 + _Falkland_, 200, 216 + _Falkner_, 214 + _Fantom, Mr.: or the History of the New-Fashioned Philosopher, + and his Man William_, 68, 72 + Felix Holt, 289 + _Female Education, Strictures on the Modern System of_, 71 + _Female Quixote, The_, 32-35 + Ferrier, Susan Edmonstone, 179-188, 189, 216 + Fielding, Henry, 16, 24, 25, 26, 27, 34, 48, 101, 116, 277 + Fielding, Sarah, 23, 24, 26-31 + _Fits of Fitz-Ford_, 227 + _Flies in Amber_, 233 + _Florence Macarthy_, 129 + _Fortnightly Review_, 185 + Fox, Charles James, 40 + _Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus_, 206-207, 215 + _Fraser's Magazine_, 231 + Froissart's _Chronicles_, 226 + + Gait, John, 216 + Garnett, Sir Richard, 214 + Garrick, David, 41, 46, 62 + Garrison, William Lloyd, 245 + Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 247, 267, 269, 270, 274-293 + Genlis, Stephanie Felicite, Comtesse de, 118, 262 + _Gentleman's Magazine, The_, 101 + Gibbon, Edward, 54 + _Glenarvon_, 200-203 + Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, _see_ Wollstonecraft, Mary + Godwin, William, 73, 150, 179, 205, 210, 221 + Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 174 + Goldsmith, Oliver, 79 + Gore, Catherine Grace Frances, 216-225, 233 + Gosse, Edmund, 170 + _Grand Cyrus, The_, 15, 32, 121 + _Gulliver's Travels_, 23 + Guy Mannering, 102 + + _Hackney Coachman, The_, 70 + Hall, Anna Maria (Mrs. S. C.), 72, 179, 196-199, 216, 293 + Hall, S. C., 140 + Hamilton, Elizabeth, 133-137 + _Hamiltons, The_, 224 + Hamlet, 271 + _Hard Times_, 282 + Hardy, Thomas, 86, 170 + _Harriet Stuart, The Life of_, 31 + Harry, Blind, the Minstrel, _see_ Blind Harry the Minstrel + Haywood, Eliza, 24, 36-39, 48 + _Heir of Selwood, The_, 223, 225 + Helen, 119 + _Henrietta_, 35 + _Henry de Pomeroy_, 227 + _Henry Esmond_, 145 + _Heptameron_, The, 2 + Herford, C. H., 193 + _Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess_, 71 + Homer, 2, 11, 175 + Horace, 217 + _Hour and the Man, The_, 242, 244-245 + Huet, Bishop, Pierre Daniel, 46 + _Humphry Clinker_, 8, 24, 44 + _Hungarian Brothers_, 139 + + _Ibrahim_, 32, 121 + _Ida, or the Woman of Athens_, 131 + _Impetuous Lover, The, or the Guiltless Parricide_, 43 + Inchbald, Elizabeth, 41, 73, 82-87, 105, 119, 221, 262 + _Inheritance, The_, 181, 182-183, 184, 185, 187-188 + _Irish Bulls, Essay on_, 115-116 + _Irish Peasantry, Stories of the_, 197, 198 + _Italian, The_, 91, 94, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101 + Ivanhoe, 164 + + Jackson, Helen Hunt (H. H.), 16 + James, G. P. R., 216, 239 + James, Henry, 291 + Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 285 + _Jane Eyre_, 41, 82, 85, 250, 261, 263, 264-267, 270, 272 + _Jealous Wife, The_, 233 + Jeffrey, Francis, 180 + Joan of Arc, 1 + _John Halifax, Gentleman_, 293 + _Johnny Ludlow Papers_, 294 + Johnson, R. Brimley, 245 + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 30, 31, 32, 39, 42, 46, 48, 55, 60, 62, 103, 128, + 138, 291 + _Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, The Life and Adventures of_, 237-239, 242 + Jonson, Ben, 275 + _Joseph Andrews_, 16, 36, 52 + _Journey to Bath_, 41 + Jules Verne, _see_ Verne, Jules + + Kauffman, Angelica, 103 + Kavanagh, Julia, 293 + _King Lear_, see _Lear_ + Knox, John, 188 + _Kruitzener, or the German's Tale_, 108-109 + + _Lady Audley's Secret_, 294 + _Lady Clare_, 183 + _Lady of Lyons, The_, 223 + _Lady's Magazine_, 190 + Lafayette, Madame de, 3, 19, 41, 262 + Lamb, Lady Caroline, 200-204 + Lamb, Charles, 8, 12, 193 + Lamb, William (Lord Melbourne), 200, 201, 202, 203, 204 + _Landlady's Tale, The_, 109 + Lang, Andrew, 102 + Lanier, Sidney, 25 + _Last Man, The_, 210-212 + _Lazy Lawrence_, 125, 126 + _Lear, King_, 256 + Lee, Harriet, 88, 105-110 + Lee, Sophia, 88, 105-110, 139 + Lennox, Charlotte, 24, 31-36 + _Letters of the Duchess of Newcastle_, 7-8 + _Letters to Young Ladies_, 62 + Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 101 + "Library of Old Authors," Russell Smith, 12 + _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_, see _Newcastle, Life of the Duke of_ + _Lights and Shadows of Irish Life_, 197-198 + _Lilly Dawson, The Story of_, 232 + _Literary Gazette_, 202 + _Lodore_, 212-214 + Longueville, Duchesse de, 3 + _Lucius_, 22 + Lytton, Bulwer, _see_ Bulwer, Edward (Lord Lytton) + + Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 57, 61, 113, 168 + Machiavelli, Niccolo, 207 + Mackay, Sheriff, 143 + _Magyar, The, and the Moslem_, 233 + _Man and Superman_, 160 + _Manchester Strike, A_, 243 + Manley, Mary, 1, 19-23, 36 + _Mansfield Park_, 61, 162-164, 171, 172 + Marcella, 292 + Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 2 + _Marriage_, 181, 182, 184 + Marsh, Anne, 231 + Martineau, Harriet, 231, 232, 242-246, 269, 293 + _Mary Barton_, 269, 278-281, 282, 283, 289, 292 + Masson, David, 179 + Maturin, Charles Robert, 101 + _Mazeppa_, 206 + Memoires du Comte de Comminges, 262 + _Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la vertu_, 42 + _Memoirs of a Certain Island Adjacent to Utopia_, 36 + _Michael Armstrong, The Life and Adventures of_, 241 + _Middlemarch_, 290, 295 + _Midsummer Eve, a Fairy Tale of Love_, 198-199 + _Mill on the Floss_, The, 289, 295 + Mitford, Mary Russell, 81, 144, 179, 183, 189-196, 216, 221, 227, + 276, 291, 292 + _Monastery, The_, 137, 271 + _Monk, The_, 101 + Montagu, Elizabeth, 62 + Montagu, Mary Wortley, 233 + _Monthly Review_, 77 + _Monumental Effigies of Great Britain_, 226 + Moore, Thomas, 131 + _Moorland Cottage, The_, 289 + More, Hannah, 62-72, 73 + Morgan, Lady, 111, 197, 216 + _Music, History of_, 46 + _Mysteries of Udolpho, The_, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 101, 104, 105, + 141 + + _Nature and Art_, 85-86 + _Nature's Pictures Drawn by Fancy's Pencil_, 7 + _New Atalantis_, 19-23 + Newcastle, Duchess of, 1, 3-13 + Newcastle, Duke of, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 + _Newcastle, Life of the Duke of_, 10-12 + _Noctes Ambrosianae_, 183 + _Nocturnal Reverie_, 79 + North, Christopher (John James Wilson), 183, 185 + _North and South_, 281-284, 289, 292 + _Northanger Abbey_, 101, 160-161, 177 + _Notre Dame de Paris_, 256 + "Novelists' Library," 121 + _Novels by Eminent Hands_, 217 + _Nun, The, or the Perjured Duty_, 18 + + _O'Briens, The, and the O'Flahertys_, 129, 130-131 + _O'Donnel_, 129-130 + _Odyssey_, 113 + _Old English Baron, The_, 88, 89 + _Old Manor House, The_, 77-78, 79, 80 + Oliphant, Mrs. Margaret, 294, 295 + Opie, Mrs. Amelia, 41, 73, 149-153, 156, 216, 262 + _Orange Girl of St. Giles's, The_, 69-70 + Ormond, 113-115 + _Oroonoko_, 13-18, 237, 242 + _Orphans, The_, 126 + _Othello_, 276 + Ouida, 294 + _Our Village_, 189, 190-193, 195, 196, 243 + Owenson, Sydney, _see_ Morgan, Lady + + _Pamela_, 8, 17, 18, 24, 31, 35, 46, 78, 164, 266 + _Paradise Lost_, 72, 79 + Pardoe, Julia, 231-234 + _Pastor's Fireside, The_, 146 + _Patronage_, 119 + _Pelham_, 200 + _Pendennis_, 200 + _Perkin Warbeck, The Fortunes of_, 214 + _Persuasion_, 158, 162-164, 167, 170, 172 + Phillips, Wendell, 244 + _Pickwick Papers_, 56 + _Pilgrimages to English Shrines_, 72 + _Pin Money_, 222-223 + Plato, 11 + _Political Economy Tales_, 242-243 + _Polly Honeycomb_, 42, 43 + Pope, Alexander, 22, 79, 160 + Porter, Anna Maria, 133, 137-140, 216 + Porter, Jane, 133, 137, 138, 140-148, 216 + _Preferment, or My Uncle the Earl_, 220 + Prevost, Abbe, 42 + _Pride and Prejudice_, 157, 158-159, 161, 164, 166, 170, 171, 173, + 175, 176, 178 + Princess of Cleves, The, 41, 262 + _Professor, The_, 270 + + _Quarterly Review_, 131, 147, 148 + + Radcliffe, Ann, 88, 89-105, 108, 179, 270 + Rambouillet, Marquise de, 3 + Ramee, Louise de la, _see_ Ouida + Ramsey, Charlotte, _see_ Lennox, Charlotte + _Rape of the Lock_, 22 + _Rasselas_, 46 + _Recess, The_, 105-106 + Reeve, Clara, 88-89 + _Refugee in America, The_, 237 + Richardson, Samuel, 8, 9, 17, 24, 26, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 48, 101, + 154, 171, 277, 291 + _Rights of Man_, 64 + _Rights of Woman, Vindication of the_, see _Vindication of the + Rights of Woman_ + Ritchie, Mrs., 126, 294 + _Rival Beauties, The_, 233 + _Rivals, The_, 41, 43 + _Rob Roy_, 102 + _Robinson Crusoe_, 146, 296 + Rogers, Samuel, 201 + _Romance of the Forest, The_, 91, 92, 93, 97, 101 + _Romance of the Harem, The_, 233 + _Romance of the West, A_, 228 + Romeo and Juliet, 275 + _Romola_, 290 + Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 73, 118 + Ruskin, 195 + _Ruth_, 281, 284-285, 286, 292 + + _St. Ronan's Well_, 174 + Saintsbury, George, 185, 186 + Sand, George, 262, 263, 288 + Sappho, 1 + Schlosser, 44 + Scott, Sir Walter, 18, 36, 102, 103, 104, 105, 118, 128, 141, 144, + 155, 164, 173, 179, 180, 181, 184, 216, 225, 228, 229, 230, + 264, 271, 277, 296 + _Scottish Chiefs, The_, 142-145 + Scuderi, Mlle. de, 3, 19, 32, 33, 35, 120, 121 + _Seasons, The_, 79 + _Secret Intrigues of the Count of Caramania, The_, 36 + _Selborne, The Natural History and Antiquities of_, 191 + _Self-Control_, 154-155, 156 + _Sense and Sensibility_, 159-160, 161, 170, 171 + Sevigne, Madame, de, 3 + Shakespeare, William, 5, 103, 128, 168, 169, 170, 174, 271, 275 + _Shakespeare, Essay on the Genius of_, 62 + Shaw, Bernard, 160 + Shelley, Mary, 200, 204-215, 262 + Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 204, 205, 206, 208, 210-214 + _Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, The_, 68, 69, 72 + Sheridan, Mrs. Frances, 24, 39-42 + Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 40, 41 + _Shirley_, 267-270 + _Sicilian Romance, The_, 91, 93, 94 + _Sidney Biddulph, The Memoirs of Miss_, 39-42, 74 + _Silas Marner_, 289 + _Simple Story, A_, 82-84, 262 + _Simple Susan_, 126-127 + _Simple Tales_, 153 + _Sir Charles Grandison_, 8, 37, 53 + _Sir Edward Seaward's Narrative_, 146-148 + _Sister, The_, 35 + _Sketches by Boz_, 241 + _Sketches of English Character_, 219-220 + _Sketches of Irish Character_, 196-197 + Smith, Charlotte, 41, 73-82, 87, 102, 103, 105, 191, 221 + Smith Russell, "Library of Old Authors," _see_ "Library of + Old Authors" + Smollett, Tobias, 8, 23, 24, 88, 101, 179 + _Soldier of Lyons, The, a Tale of the Tuileries_, 223 + Sothern, Thomas, 13, 15 + Souza, Madame de, 262 + _Spectator Papers_, 7, 29 + Stael, Madame de (Anne Louise Necker), 262, 263 + Steele, Richard, 21, 22, 28 + Sterne, Laurence, 24, 25, 88, 102, 169 + _Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, see _Irish Peasantry, + Stories of the_ + Stothard, Charles, 226 + Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 15, 238, 293 + Swift, Jonathan, 22, 23 + Swinburne, Charles Algernon, 256 + _Sybil_, 269, 279 + _Sylvia's Lovers_, 285-286 + + Taine, 25 + _Talba, The, or Moor of Portugal_, 226 + _Tale of Two Cities_, 145 + _Tales of Fashionable Life_, 119-120 + _Tales of my Landlord, The_, 181 + _Tales of Real Life_, 153 + _Tales that Never Die_, 127 + _Tatler, The_, 22, 29 + _Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The_, 259-261 + Tencin, Mme. de, 262 + Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 183, 286 + Tess of the D'Urbervilles, 284 + Thackeray, Anna Isabella, _see_ Ritchie, Mrs. + Thackeray, William Makepeace, 87, 102, 116, 120, 164, 176, 216, + 217, 231, 237, 247, 264, 277, 288, 291, 296 + _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, 140-141 + _Theresa Marchmont_, 217 + _Thomas the Rhymer_, 104 + Thrale, Mrs. (Mrs. Piozzi), 48 + _Three Paths, The_, 293 + _Tintern Abbey_, 93 + Tolstoi, Count Leo, 86, 170 + _Tom Jones_, 26, 37, 53, 141 + Tourgenieff, 170 + _Trelawny of Trelawne; or the Prophecy: a Legend of Cornwall_, 228 + Trollope, Anthony, 234, 239 + Trollope, Frances, 231, 232, 234-242, 243, 269 + + _Udolpho, The Mysteries of_, see _Mysteries of Udolpho, The_ + _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, 15, 238, 293 + _Undine_, 254 + + _Valperga: or the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of + Lucca_, 207-210 + _Vanity Fair_, 164, 288 + _Venetia_, 200 + Verne, Jules, 6 + _Vicar of Wakefield, The_, 46, 79, 296 + _Vicar of Wrexhill, The_, 240 + _Village Politics: Addressed to all Mechanics, Journeymen, and + Labourers in Great Britain. By Will Chip, a Country + Carpenter_, 64-65 + _Villette_, 270-273 + _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, 74, 149, 204 + Vivian, 119, 122 + _Vivian Grey_, 200, 216, 217, 219 + Voltaire, Francois, 73 + + Wallace, 143 + Walpole, Horace, 88, 89 + _Wanderer, The, or Female Difficulties_, 59, 60 + Ward, A. W., 288 + Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 267 + _Warleigh, or the Fatal Oak; a Legend of Devon_, 227 + _Waste Not, Want Not_, 125 + _Waverley_, 45, 60, 137, 144, 155, 178 + _Waverley Novels_, 102, 117, 145, 216 + Welsh, Charles, 67, 127 + _Werner, or the Inheritance_, 109 + _Westminster Review_, 221, 224 + White, Gilbert, 191 + _White Hoods, The_, 226 + _Whole Duty of Man_, 64 + _Widow Barnaby_, 239 + _Widow Married, The_, 239 + _Widow Wedded, The, or the Barnabys in America_, 239 + _Wild Irish Girl, The_, 129 + _Will Chip, a Country Carpenter_, see _Village Politics_ + _Winchelsea, Lady_, 79 + _Window in Thrums, The_, 137 + _Windsor Forest_, 79 + _Wives and Daughters_, 287-288, 292, 293 + Wollstonecraft, Mary, 73, 74, 149, 150, 204, 205, 210 + Wood, Mrs. Henry, 293 + Wordsworth, William, 79, 93, 127, 165, 241 + _Wuthering Heights_, 249, 256, 258, 261, 265, 267, 271 + _Wycherley, William_, 13 + + _Yere-Batan-Serai_, 234 + Yonge, Charlotte Mary, 294 + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman's Work in English Fiction, by +Clara Helen Whitmore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN'S WORK IN ENGLISH FICTION *** + +***** This file should be named 34613.txt or 34613.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/1/34613/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34613.zip b/34613.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3dba3b --- /dev/null +++ b/34613.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9cff61 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #34613 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34613) |