Woman's Work in English Fiction, from the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period, Page 3

  CHAPTER II

  Sarah Fielding. Mrs. Lennox. Mrs. Haywood. Mrs. Sheridan

  About the middle of the eighteenth century, some interesting novels werewritten by women, but their fame was so overshadowed by the earlymasters of English fiction, who were then writing, that they have beenalmost forgotten. For in 1740 _Pamela_ was published, the first novel ofSamuel Richardson; in 1771, _Humphry Clinker_ appeared, the last novelof Tobias Smollett; and during the thirty-one years between these twodates all the books of Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, and Smollett weregiven to the world, and determined the nature of the English novel. Theplot 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 ofhis prey, travels up and down the world, where he meets with a series ofadventures, all very much alike, and all bearing very little on the mainplot. At last fate leads the dashing hero to the church door, where heconfers a ring on the fair heroine, a paltry piece of gold, the onlyreward for her fidelity, with the hero thrown in, much the worse forwear, and the curtain falls with the sound of the wedding bells in thedistance.

  The range of these novels is narrow. They describe a world in which thechief occupation is eating, drinking, swearing, gambling, and fighting.Their chief artistic excellence is the strength and vigour with whichthese low scenes are described. Sidney Lanier says of them: "They playupon life as upon a violin without a bridge, in the deliberate endeavourto get the most depressing tones possible from the instrument." AndTaine, who could hardly endure any of them, writes of Fielding what heimplies of the others: "One thing is wanted in your strongly-builtfolks--refinement; the delicate dreams, enthusiastic elevation, andtrembling delicacy exist in nature equally with coarse vigour, noisyhilarity, and frank kindness."

  The women who essayed the art of fiction during these years did not haveso firm a grasp of the pen as their male contemporaries, and they haveadded no portraits to the gallery of fiction; but they saw and recordedmany interesting scenes of British life which quite escaped thequick-sighted Fielding, or Sterne with the microscopic eyes.

  In 1744, when Richardson had written only one book, and Fielding hadpublished only two, before _Tom Jones_ or _Clarissa Harlowe_ had seenthe light of day, Sarah Fielding published _David Simple_, under thetitle of _The Adventures of David Simple, containing an account of histravels through the cities of London and Westminster in the search of areal friend, by a Lady_. The author commenced the story as a satire onsociety. For a long time David's search is unsuccessful. Although hechanged his lodgings every week, he could hear of no one who could betrusted. Many, to be sure, dropped hints of their own excellence, andthe pity that they had to live with inferior neighbours. Among these wasMr. Spatter, who introduced him to Mr. Varnish. The former saw thefaults of people through a magnifying glass; while the latter, when hementioned a person's failings, added, "He was sure they had some good inthem." But David soon learned that Mr. Varnish was no readier to assista friend in need than the fault-finding Mr. Spatter.

  Like her brother Henry, Sarah Fielding is often sarcastic. In one of thechapters she leaves David to his sufferings, "lest it should bethought," she added, "I am so ignorant of the world as not to know theproper time of forsaking people." But the pessimistic vein of the firstvolume changes to a more optimistic tone in the second. David, in hissearch for one friend, finds three. Fortunately these consist of abrother and sister and a lady in love with the brother. Even at thisearly time, an author had no doubts as to how a novel should end. Theheading of the last chapter in the book informs us that it contains twoweddings, "and consequently the Conclusion of the Book."

  In its construction, the plot is similar to that of the other novels ofthe period. David has plenty of time at his disposal, and listens withmore patience than the reader to the detailed history of all the peoplehe meets, and often begs a casual acquaintance to favour him with thestory of his life.

  But Sarah Fielding's chief charm to her women readers is the feminineview of her times. In _David Simple_ we have the pleasure of travellingthrough England, but with a woman as our guide. As Harry Fieldingtravelled between Bath and London, the fair reader wonders what hereported to Mrs. Fielding of what he had seen and heard. Surely at thesevarious inns there must have been some by-play of real affection, someact of modest kindness, some incident of delicate humour. Did he regaleMrs. Fielding with the scenes he has described for his readers? Probablywhen she asked him if anything had happened _en route_, he merely yawnedand replied, "Oh, nothing worth while." He had too much reverence forhis wife to repeat these low scenes to her, and we suspect he had eyesfor no others. What would Addison or Steele have seen in the same place?

  Sarah Fielding also takes her characters on a stage-coach journey, buthere we sit beside the fair heroine, an intelligent lady, and gaze atthe men who sit opposite her. There is the Butterfly with his hairpinned up in blue papers, wearing a laced waistcoat, and humming anItalian air. He admires nothing but the ladies, and offered some littlefamiliarity to our heroine, which she repulsed; upon this he paid herthe greatest respect imaginable, being convinced, as she would notsuffer any intimacy from _him_, she must be one of the most virtuouswomen that had ever been born. There is the Atheist, who being alonewith 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 soughtin life, and assures her that she may follow her inclinations without acrime, "while she knew that nothing could so much oppose her _gratifyinghim_, as her _pleasing herself_." Then there is the Clergyman who makeshonourable love to her, but by doing so puts an end to the friendshipwhich she had hoped might be between them; until at the end of thejourney, "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 isan open question. But a gentleman mellowed and softened in the light ofladies' smiles is quite a different creature from the same gentlemanwhen seen among the sterner members of his own sex, and there arecertain phases of men's characters portrayed in the novels of womenwhich Fielding, Scott, and Thackeray seem never to have seen.

  Miss Fielding descants upon many familiar scenes in a manner that wouldhave made her a valuable contributor to the _Tatler_ or _Spectator_. Allkinds of human nature interested her. There is the man who advises Davidas a friend to buy a certain stock which he himself is secretly tryingto sell because he knows it has decreased in value, thus showing thatmoney transactions in London in the reigns of the Georges differedlittle from money transactions on the Stock Exchange to-day. In somerespects, however, society has improved since the days of SarahFielding. She describes the gentlemen of social prominence who tumble upto the carriages of ladies who are driving through Covent Garden in themorning, and present them with cabbages or other vegetables which theyhave picked up from the stalls, too intoxicated to know that theirconduct is ridiculous. There are the crowds at the theatres who showtheir displeasure with a playwright by making so much noise that hisplay cannot be heard on its first night and so is condemned. Otherwriters of the period complain of having received this kind of treatmentat the hands of the gentlemen mob. And then we are introduced to a scenein the fashionable West End which is a familiar one to-day, where theladies of quality have their whist assemblies and spend all the morningvisiting each other and discussing how the cards were played theprevious evening and why certain tricks were lost.

  We recognise the fact, however, that Miss Fielding's knowledge of lifewas but slight. She writes from the standpoint of a spectator, not likeher brother as one who had been a part of it. She was one of that groupof gentlewomen who gathered around Richardson and heard him read_Clarissa_, or discussed life and books with him at the breakfast tablein the summer-house at North End, Hammersmith. Life was not lived there,but philosophy often sat at the board, and there wa
s fine penetrationinto the characters and manners of men. Richardson transferred to MissFielding the compliment which Dr. Johnson had bestowed upon him, and itwas not undeserved by the author of _David Simple_:

  "What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge ofwriting say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of itwas not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as theknowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was thatof all the finer springs and movements of the inside."

  * * * * *

  It is not difficult to conjure up a picture of the literary gentlemenand gentlewomen who used to breakfast with Richardson in thesummer-house at North End; the gentlemen in their many-coloured velvetsuits, the ladies wearing broad hoops, loose sacques, and Pamela hats.One of these ladies was Charlotte Ramsay, better known by her marriedname of Mrs. Lennox. Her father, Colonel James Ramsay, waslieutenant-governor of New York, where his daughter Charlotte was bornin 1720. She was sent to England at the age of fifteen, and soon afterher father died, leaving her unprovided for. She turned her attention toliterature as a means of livelihood, and at once became a favourite inthe literary circles of London, where she met and won the esteem of thegreat Dr. Johnson.

  When her first novel, _The Life of Harriet Stuart_, was published, heshowed his appreciation of its author in a unique manner. At hissuggestion, the Ivy Lane Club and its friends entertained Mrs. Lennoxand her husband at the Devil's Tavern with a night of festivity. Afteran elaborate supper had been served, a hot apple-pie was brought in,stuffed full of bay-leaves, and Johnson with appropriate ceremoniescrowned the author with a wreath of laurel. The night was passed inmirth and conversation; tea and coffee were often served; and not untilthe creaking of the street doors reminded them that it was eight o'clockin the morning did the guests, twenty in number, leave the tavern.

  Mrs. Lennox's claim to a place in English literature rests solely uponher novel, _The Female Quixote_, published in 1752. Arabella, theheroine, is the daughter of a marquis who has retired into the country,where he lives remote from society. Her mother is dead; her father isimmersed in his books, so that Arabella is left alone, and whiles awaythe hours by reading the novels of Mademoiselle de Scuderi. Her threegreat novels, _Clelia_, _The Grand Cyrus_ and _Ibrahim_, are historicalallegories, in which the France of Louis XIV is given an historicalsetting, and his courtiers masquerade under the names of famous men ofantiquity. There is no attempt at historical accuracy. But to Arabellathese books represented true history and depicted the real life of theworld.

  In a fine satirical passage Arabella informs Mr. Selvin, a man sodeeply read in ancient history that he fixed the date of any occurrenceby Olympiads, not years, that Pisistratus had been inspired to enslavehis country because of his love for Cleorante. Mr. Selvin wonders howthis important fact could have escaped his own research, and conceives agreat admiration for Arabella's learning.

  In the novels of Mademoiselle de Scuderi the characters, even in momentsof extreme danger, entertain each other with stories of their pastexperiences. When Arabella has unexpected guests she bids her maidrelate to them the history of her mistress. She instructs her to "relateexactly 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 myeyes, and every gesture which I have used for these ten years past: noromit the smallest circumstance that relates to me."

  All the people Arabella meets are changed by her fancy into thecharacters of her favourite books. In common people she sees princes indisguise. If a man approaches her, she fancies that he is about to bearher away to some remote castle, or to mention the subject of love, whichwould be unpardonable, unless he had first captured cities in herbehalf. Yet amid the wildest extravagances Arabella never loses hercharm. Her generosity and purity of thought make her a very lovableheroine, much more womanly than Clarissa or Sophia Western, and we donot wonder that Mr. Glanville continues to love her, although he is sooften annoyed by her ridiculous fancies.

  But her belief in her hallucinations is as firm as that of the SpanishQuixote for whom the book was named. Everyone will remember his attackon the windmills, which he mistook for giants. Arabella was equallybrave. Thinking herself and some other ladies pursued, when the Thamescuts off their escape, she addresses her companions in language becomingone of her favourite heroines: "Once more, my fair Companions, if yourhonour be dear to you, if an immortal glory be worth your seeking,follow the example I shall set you, and equal, with me, the RomanClelia." She plunged into the river, but was promptly rescued. Thedoctor who attended her in the illness that followed this heroic deedconvinced her of the folly of trying to live according to these oldbooks, and she consented to marry her faithful and deserving lover.

  The character of Arabella is not drawn with the broad strong lines ofFielding, nor with the attention to minute detail which gives life tothe characters of Richardson. But the girlish sweetness of Arabella, herrefusal to believe wrong of others, her ignorance of life, her contemptfor a lover who has not shed blood nor captured cities in her behalf, isa reality, and shows that the author knew the nature of the romanticgirl. In the noble simplicity of Arabella, Mrs. Lennox has, perhapsunconsciously, paid a high tribute to the moral effects of the novels ofScuderi. Arabella is the only clearly drawn character in the book. Butone humorous situation follows another, so that the interest neverflags.

  The other novels of Mrs. Lennox have no value save as they show thetrend of thought of the period. In _Henrietta_, afterward dramatised as_The Sister_, the heroine, granddaughter of an earl, rather than changeher religion, leaves her family and becomes the maid of a rich butvulgar tradesman's daughter. Of course her mistress, who has treated herscurrilously, in time learns her true rank and is properly humbled. Thename 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 booksof the period. In the days of Good Queen Bess, heroines were good andhappy. In the merry reign of Charles, they were bad but happy. Pamelaset a fashion from which heroines seldom dared to deviate for over ahundred years. They were good--but, oh, so wretched! This type of womenbecame such a favourite with both sexes, that even the sane-minded Scottsays:

  And love is loveliest when embalmed in tears.

  During her period of distress Henrietta lodged with a milliner. Herlandlady showed her a small collection of books and pointed withespecial pleasure to her favourite novels: "There is Mrs. Haywood'sNovels, did you ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sickpassionate stories: I assure you, you'll like them vastly." Henrietta,however, chose _Joseph Andrews_ for her diversion. Mrs. Eliza Haywoodwas never admitted into that inner circle of highly respectable Englishladies who clustered around Richardson. She was more of an adventuressin the domain of letters. In her first novels she followed the fashionset 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, arethe highly suggestive titles of two of the most popular of her earlyworks.

  After Richardson had made Virtue more popular than Vice, Mrs. Haywoodfollowed the literary fashion which he had set, and in 1751 wrote _TheHistory of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_. This has sometimes been called adomestic novel, but that is a misnomer, since the characters are seldomfound at home, but rather are met in the various pleasure resorts ofLondon. As was the fashion in the novels of this time, and probably notan uncommon occurrence in the English capital, the heroine was oftenforced into a chariot by some lawless libertine, but fortunately wasalways rescued by some more virtuous lover. The whole story is but a newarrangement of the one or two incidents with which Richardson had wrungthe heart of the British public. It has one advantage over the most ofthe novels which had preceded it. There is little told that does notbear dir
ectly on the plot, the characters of the sub-plot beingimportant personages in the main story, and the book has a definiteconclusion.

  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 repeatedlyappears in a light that makes her worldly lover, Mr. Trueworthy, suspecther virtue, until at last he begs to be released from his engagement toher. 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 forgirls to ignore public opinion, and strives to inculcate the lessonthat a husband is the best protection for a young girl. We are properlyshocked at Miss Betsey's levity, who, although she had arrived at themature age of fourteen, cared not a straw for any of the gentlemen whosought her hand, but liked to have them about her only because theyflattered her vanity or afforded her a subject for mirth. Miss Betsey'sgaiety, wit, and generosity would be very attractive--in fact, she isquite 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, asshe deserves to be, by losing her lover, and marries a man who makes hervery unhappy. Mr. Trueworthy, however, learns of her innocence; herhusband fortunately dies, and the author takes the bold step of unitingthe widow to her former lover, after a year of mourning and passingthrough much suffering, brought upon herself by her own thoughtlessness.She is rewarded, however, very much as Pamela was rewarded, by marryinga man of honour, who had judged her formerly by his own conduct, beingtoo 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 theartist from the artisan. Like a young girl with good health and goodspirits, Miss Betsey is ever on the verge of sweeping aside theprejudices of her duenna, and asserting her own individuality, but isconstantly held back by the sense of worldly propriety. Had Mrs. Haywoodpermitted Miss Betsey to carry the plot whither she would without let orhindrance, she would have won for herself an acknowledged place amongthe heroines of fiction.

  _The History of Miss Betsey Thoughtless_ was an epoch-making book. Theadventures of its heroine in the city of London took possession of theimagination of Fanny Burney, while little more than a child, and led tothe 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_. Thestory is written in the form of letters, in which the heroine reveals toa friend of her own sex all the secrets of her heart. All Londonrejoiced over the virtues of Sidney Biddulph, and wept over her sorrows.She had been educated "in the strictest principles of virtue; from whichshe never deviated, through the course of an innocent, though unhappylife." It was so pathetic a story that Dr. Johnson doubted if Mrs.Sheridan had a right to make her characters suffer so much, and CharlesJames Fox, who sat up all night to read it, pronounced it the best ofall novels of his time.

  The book, as first written, was in three volumes. The author had broughtthe story to a most fitting close. Both Sidney's husband and the manwhom she had really loved were dead, and the widow could have spent herdays in pleasing melancholy, contented with the thought that she hadnever done a wrong. But the public demanded a continuation of the story.In 1767, two volumes were added, giving the history of Sidney'sdaughters, who seem to have inherited from their mother the enmity ofthe fates, for their sufferings were as great as hers.

  Authors are prone to draw upon their own history for the emotions theydepict. But Mrs. Sheridan's life did not furnish the tragic elements of_Sidney Biddulph_, although it was not without romance. Before hermarriage, she wrote a pamphlet in praise of the conduct of one ThomasSheridan, the manager of the Theatre Royal in Dublin, during a riot thatoccurred in the theatre. Sheridan read these words in his praise, soughtthe acquaintance of their author, and before long married her.

  History furnishes a long list of women of talent whose sons were men ofgenius. Mrs. Sheridan's second son, Richard Brinsley, the author of thelight and sparkling _Rivals_, inherited his mother's talents without hergloom. 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 thecharacters was Mrs. Twyford, whom Richard Brinsley Sheridan transformedinto that famous blundering coiner of words, Mrs. Malaprop.

  Mrs. Sheridan's place in literature rests upon _Sidney Biddulph_. Thisnovel was an innovation in English fiction. Nearly one hundred yearsearlier, Madame de Lafayette had written _The Princess of Cleves_, oneof the most nearly perfect novels that has ever been written, and thefirst that depended for its interest, not alone on what was done, but onthe 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 thefirst English novel of this kind, and it left no definite trace onfiction, although it was the favourite novel of Charlotte Smith and hadsome slight effect upon her writings, and Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Opie, andMary Brunton noted the feelings of their characters. Not until _JaneEyre_ was published, long after Mrs. Sheridan had been forgotten, wasthere any great English novel of the inner life.

  In its day _Sidney Biddulph_ was exceedingly popular on the continent ofEurope as well as in England. It was translated into German, and anadaptation of it was made in French by the Abbe Prevost, under thetitle, _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 ofto-day smile or yawn over the pages that drew tears from the eyes of themighty Dr. Johnson.

  * * * * *

  Notwithstanding the many excellencies of English fiction during themiddle of the eighteenth century, it was held in low repute. There hadbeen many writers attempting to portray real life who, without thegenius of the greater novelists, could imitate only their faults. In thepreface to _Polly Honeycomb_, which was acted at Drury Lane theatre in1760, George Colman, the author, gives the titles of about two hundrednovels whose names appeared in a circulating library at that time._Amorous Friars, or the Intrigues of a Convent_; _Beauty put to itsShifts, or the Young Virgin's Rambles_; _Bubbled Knights, or SuccessfulContrivances, plainly evincing, in two Familiar Instances latelytransacted in this Metropolis, the Folly and Unreasonableness of ParentsLaying a Restraint upon their Children's Inclinations in the Affairs ofLove 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 soturned by these books that her father exclaims, "A man might as wellturn his daughter loose in Covent-Garden, as trust the cultivation ofher mind to A CIRCULATING LIBRARY."

  Fiction at this time lacked delicacy and refinement. The characterslived largely in the streets or taverns, and were too much engrossed inthe 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 lovestory had been written. The fires of home had not been lighted. Therefinements, the pure affections, the high ideals which cluster aroundthe domestic hearth had as yet no place in the novel. It needed thefeminine element, which, while no broader than that which had previouslymade the novel, by its own addition gave something new to it and made ittruer to life.

  While no woman of marked genius had appeared, the number and influenceof women novelists continued to increase throughout the eighteenthcentury. Tim Cropdale in the novel _Humphry Clinker_, who "had madeshift to live many years by writing novels, at the rate of five pounds avolume," comp
lains that "that branch of business is now engrossed byfemale authors, who publish merely for the propagation of virtue, withso much ease, and spirit, and delicacy, and knowledge of the humanheart, and all in the serene tranquillity of high life, that the readeris not only enchanted by their genius, but reformed by their morality."Schlosser in his _History of the Eighteenth Century_ pays this tributeto the moral influence of the women novelists: "With the increase of thenumber 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 thatof the clergy diminished."