Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 5

  Produced by Julie C. Sparks

  CLARISSA HARLOWE

  or the

  HISTORY OF A YOUNG LADY

  Nine Volumes

  Volume V.

  CONTENTS OF VOLUME V

  LETTER I. Lovelace to Belford.--An agreeable airing with the lady. Delightfully easy she. Obsequiouslyrespectful he. Miss Howe's plot now no longer his terror. Gives theparticulars of their agreeable conversation while abroad.

  LETTER II. From the same.--An account of his ipecacuanha plot. Instructs Dorcas how to act surpriseand terror. Monosyllables and trisyllables to what likened. Politenesslives not in a storm. Proclamation criers. The lady now sees she loveshim. Her generous tenderness for him. He has now credit for a newscore. Defies Mrs. Townsend.

  LETTER III. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Acknowledged tenderness for Lovelace. Love for a man of errorspunishable.

  LETTER IV. Lovelace to Belford.--Suspicious inquiry after him and the lady by a servant in livery from oneCaptain Tomlinson. Her terrors on the occasion. His alarmingmanagement. She resolves not to stir abroad. He exults upon her notbeing willing to leave him.

  LETTER V. VI. From the same.--Arrival of Captain Tomlinson, with a pretended commission from Mr. JohnHarlowe to set on foot a general reconciliation, provided he can beconvinced that they are actually married. Different conversations on thisoccasion.--The lady insists that the truth be told to Tomlinson. Shecarries her point through to the disappointment of one of his privateviews. He forms great hopes of success from the effects of hisipecacuanha contrivance.

  LETTER VII. Lovelace to Belford.--He makes such a fair representation to Tomlinson of the situation betweenhim and the lady, behaves so plausibly, and makes an overture sogenerous, that she is all kindness and unreserved to him. Her affectingexultation on her amended prospects. His unusual sensibility upon it.Reflection on the good effects of education. Pride an excellentsubstitute to virtue.

  LETTER VIII. From the same.--Who Tomlinson is. Again makes Belford object, in order to explain hisdesigns by answering the objections. John Harlowe a sly sinner. Hard-hearted reasons for giving the lady a gleam of joy. Illustrated by astory of two sovereigns at war.

  Extracts from Clarissa's letter to Miss Howe. She rejoices in herpresent agreeable prospects. Attributes much to Mr. Hickman. DescribesCaptain Tomlinson. Gives a character of Lovelace, [which is necessary tobe attended to: especially by those who have thought favourably of himfor some of his liberal actions, and hardly of her for the distance sheat first kept him at.]

  LETTER IX. Lovelace to Belford.--Letter from Lord M. His further arts and precautions. His happy daypromised to be soon. His opinion of the clergy, and of going to church.She pities every body who wants pity. Loves every body. He owns heshould be the happiest of men, could he get over his prejudices againstmatrimony. Draughts of settlements. Ludicrously accounts for the reasonwhy she refuses to hear them read to her. Law and gospel two differentthings. Sally flings her handkerchief in his face.

  LETTER X. From the same.--Has made the lady more than once look about her. She owns that he ismore than indifferent to her. Checks him with sweetness of temper forhis encroaching freedoms. Her proof of true love. He ridicules marriagepurity. Severely reflects upon public freedoms between men and theirwives. Advantage he once made upon such an occasion. Has been after alicense. Difficulty in procuring one. Great faults and great virtuesoften in the same person. He is willing to believe that women have nosouls. His whimsical reasons.

  LETTER XI. Lovelace to Belford.--Almost despairs of succeeding (as he had hoped) by love and gentleness.Praises her modesty. His encroaching freedoms resented by her. Thewoman, he observes, who resents not initiatory freedoms, must be lost.He reasons, in his free way, upon her delicacy. Art of the Easternmonarchs.

  LETTER XII. From the same.--A letter from Captain Tomlinson makes all up. Her uncle Harlowe'spretended proposal big with art and plausible delusion. She acquiescesin it. He writes to the pretended Tomlinson, on an affecting hint ofher's, requesting that her uncle Harlowe would, in person, give his nieceto him; or permit Tomlinson to be his proxy on the occasion.--And now fora little of mine, he says, which he has ready to spring.

  LETTER XIII. Belford to Lovelace.--Again earnestly expostulates with him in the lady's favour. Remembersand applauds the part she bore in the conversation at his collation. Thefrothy wit of libertines how despicable. Censures the folly, theweakness, the grossness, the unpermanency of sensual love. Calls some ofhis contrivances trite, stale, and poor. Beseeches him to remove herfrom the vile house. How many dreadful stories could the horrid Sinclairtell the sex! Serious reflections on the dying state of his uncle.

  LETTER XIV. Lovelace to Belford.--Cannot yet procure a license. Has secured a retreat, if not victory.Defends in anger the simplicity of his inventive contrivances. Entersupon his general defence, compared with the principles and practices ofother libertines. Heroes and warlike kings worse men than he. Epitomeof his and the lady's story after ten years' cohabitation. Caution tothose who would censure him. Had the sex made virtue a recommendation totheir favour, he says, he should have had a greater regard to his moralsthan he has had.

  LETTER XV. From the same.--Preparative to his little mine, as he calls it. Loves to write to themoment. Alarm begins. Affectedly terrified.

  LETTER XVI. From the same.--The lady frighted out of her bed by dreadful cries of fire. She awes himinto decency. On an extorted promise of forgiveness, he leaves her.Repenting, he returns; but finds her door fastened. What a triumph hasher sex obtained by her virtue! But how will she see him next morning,as he has given her.

  LETTER XVII. Lovelace to Belford.--Dialogue with Clarissa, the door between them. Her letter to him. Shewill not see him for a week.

  LETTER XVIII. From the same.--Copies of letters that pass between them. Goes to the commons to try toget the license. She shall see him, he declares, on his return. Loveand compassion hard to be separated. Her fluctuating reasons on theirpresent situation. Is jealous of her superior qualities. Does justiceto her immovable virtue.

  LETTER XIX. From the same.--The lady escaped. His rage. Makes a solemn vow of revenge, if once morehe gets her into his power. His man Will. is gone in search of her. Hishopes; on what grounded. He will advertise her. Describes her dress.Letter left behind her. Accuses her (that is to say, LOVELACE accusesher,) of niceness, prudery, affectation.

  LETTER XX. From the same.--A letter from Miss Howe to Clarissa falls into his hands; which, had itcome to her's, would have laid open and detected all his designs. In itshe acquits Clarissa of prudery, coquetry, and undue reserve. Admires,applauds, blesses her for the example she has set for her sex, and forthe credit she has done it, by her conduct in the most difficultsituations.

  [This letter may be considered as a kind of summary of Clarissa's trials,her persecutions, and exemplary conduct hitherto; and of Mr. Lovelace'sintrigues, plots, and views, so far as Miss Howe could be supposed toknow them, or to guess at them.]

  A letter from Lovelace, which farther shows the fertility of hiscontriving genius.

  LETTER XXI. Clarissa to Miss Howe.--Informs her of Lovelace's villany, and of her escape. Her only concern,what. The course she intends to pursue.

  LETTER XXII. Lovelace to Belford.--Exults on hearing, from his man Will., that the lady has refuged herselfat Hampstead. Observations in a style of levity on some passages in theletter she left behind her. Intimates that Tomlinson is arrived to aidhis purposes. The chariot is come; and now, dressed like a bri
degroom,attended by a footman she never saw, he is already, he says, atHampstead.

  LETTER XXIII. XXIV. Lovelace to Belford.--Exults on his contrivances.--By what means he gets into the lady'spresence at Mrs. Moore's. Her terrors, fits, exclamations. Hisplausible tales to Mrs. Moore and Miss Rawlins. His intrepid behaviourto the lady. Copies of letters from Tomlinson, and of pretended onesfrom his own relations, calculated to pacify and delude her.

  LETTER XXV. XXVI. From the same.--His farther arts, inventions, and intrepidity. She puts home questionsto him. 'Ungenerous and ungrateful she calls him. He knows not thevalue of the heart he had insulted. He had a plain path before him,after he had tricked her out of her father's house! But that now hermind was raised above fortune, and above him.' His precautionarycontrivances.

  LETTER XXVII. XXVIII. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. From the same.--Character of widow Bevis. Prepossesses the women against Miss Howe.Leads them to think she is in love with him. Apt himself to think so;and why. Women like not novices; and why. Their vulgar aphorismanimadverted on. Tomlinson arrives. Artful conversation between them.Miss Rawlins's prudery. His forged letter in imitation of Miss Howe's,No. IV. Other contrivances to delude the lady, and attach the women tohis party.

  LETTER XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. From the same.--Particulars of several interesting conversations between himself,Tomlinson, and the lady. Artful management of the two former. Her noblespirit. He tells Tomlinson before her that he never had any proof ofaffection from her. She frankly owns the regard she once had for him.'He had brought her,' she tells Tomlinson and him, 'more than once to ownit to him. Nor did his own vanity, she was sure, permit him to doubt ofit. He had kept her soul in suspense an hundred times.' Both menaffected in turn by her noble behaviour, and great sentiments. Theirpleas, prayers, prostrations, to move her to relent. Her distress.

  THE HISTORY

  OF

  CLARISSA HARLOWE