found in other philosophical works; but in the interpretation of much of his thought he is treated as though he were himself a reckless teacher of error. Although Pope and many distinguished men of letters in this period assiduously cultivated epistolary composition, none of them could equal Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1690–1762) in brilliant letter-writing. She was the daughter of the Duke of Kingston, and was celebrated, even from her childhood, for the vivacity of her intellect, her precocious mental acquirements, and the beauty and graces of her person. Her education had been far more extensive and solid than was then usually given to women. Her acquaintance with history, and even with Latin, was considerable, and her studies had been in some degree directed by Bishop Burnet. In 1712 she married Mr. Edward Wortley Montagu, and accompanied him on his embassy to the court of Constantinople. She described her travels over Europe and the East in those delightful Letters which have given her in English literature a place resembling that of Madame de Sévigné in the literature of France (192). Admirable common sense, observation, vivacity, extensive reading without a trace of pedantry, and a pleasant tinge of half-playful sarcasm, are qualities of her correspondence. The style displays the simplicity and natural elegance of the high-born and high-bred lady combined with the ease of the thorough woman of the world. The moral tone, indeed, is not high, for the career of Lady Mary had not been such as to cherish a very scrupulous delicacy. But she had seen so much, and had been brought into contact with so many remarkble persons, and in a way that gave her such means of judging of them, that she is always sensible and amusing. The successful introduction of inoculation for the small-pox is mainly to be attributed to her intelligence and courage. She not only had the courage to try the experiment upon her own child, but with admirable constancy she resisted the furious opposition of bigotry and ignorance against the bold innovation. She was at one time the intimate friend of Pope, and the object of his most ardent adulation; but a violent quarrel occurred between them, and the spiteful poet pursued her for a time with an almost furious hatred. She is the Sappho of his satirical works. CHAPTER XX. THE FIRST GREAT NOVELISTS. PROSE FICTION was one of the latest departments of literature cultivated by English authors. It is true that Sydney's Arcadia was a chivalric form of this kind of writing, and Bacon's Atlantis and More's Utopia, written in Latin, were philosophical romances; but the use of prose narrative in the delineation of passions, characters, and incidents of real life was first developed by a constellation of great writers in the eighteenth century, among whom the names of Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne, are the most brilliant. The literature of fiction divides itself into two great branchesromances and novels. In the romance the characters and incidents are of a lofty, historical, or supernatural character; in the novel there is a recital of the events of ordinary life. "The two differ from each other in the element of truth. The typical novel has this complete. It adheres to the line of characters it has chosen to delineate, with thorough and exact representation, striving to make them clearly drawn counterparts of those real persons whom they represent. The romance lacks truth, and that in the worst of all ways, by insensible departures, by excessive coloring, by glaring and false lights. .. It is against the romance element, ever likely to appear in historical novels, as it appears in history itself, when it runs like a child after the glittering march and the sonorous sounds of war, that most of the moral objections to works of fiction hold." In the department of the novel, from its first appearance in our literature down to the present time, English writers have encountered few rivals and no superiors. * Bascom's Philosophy of English Literature, p. 271. Daniel Defoe (1661–1731) was the founder of the English novel. He was the son of a London butcher named Foe, and not liking the family name he attached a prefix to suit his taste. He was educated for the ministry in a dissenting sect, but chose a mercantile life, at various times carrying on the business of a hosier, a tilemaker, and a woolen draper. His interest in politics led him to take up the pen as a pamphleteer, and his radical Protestantism carried him to such extremes that he was frequently subjected to punishment: In spite of the pillory, of fines and of imprisonment, he fearlessly continued to publish pamphlet after pamphlet, full of irony, logic, and patriotism. In The Trueborn Englishman, a poem written in singularly tuneless rhymes, he defended William of Orange and the Dutch against the prejudices of his countrymen; in The Shortest Way with the Dissenters he gravely proposed as the easiest and speediest way of ridding the land of them, to hang their ministers and banish the people; and when the House of Commons pronounced the pamphlet a libel on the nation, and sentenced him to stand in the pillory, he coolly wrote his Ode to the Pillory, describing it as "A hieroglyphic state-machine During one of his imprisonments he commenced The Review, the prototype of our semi-political, semi-literary periodicals, publishing it three times a week. In 1719 the first part of Robinson Crusoe appeared. Its 1719] success among the humble readers whom Defoe generally addressed was instantaneous. The simplicity and probability of the events narrated, and the author's skill in identifying himself with the character of his recluse, gave the book an intense interest. The impression it leaves on the memory of every reader is deep and permanent. The hero is without pretensions to extraordinary knowledge or intelligence, and is therefore such a person as every one, ignorant or cultivated, old or young, can sympathize with. The more thoughtful the reader, the more does he appreciate Defoe's wonderful art in throwing the air of reality over every part of his fiction. Scott remarks that the author has shown his skill in this work, by studiously pitching it in a low key, both as regards its style and its incidents. Among Defoe's other works of fiction, The Memoirs of a Cavalier deserves special mention. The work professes to have been written by one who had taken part in the great Civil War; and so successfully was the pretence carried out, that it deceived even the great Chatham into citing the volume as an authentic narrative. In A Journal of the Great Plague in London (193), he shows the same marvelous faculty for representing fiction as truth. The imaginary annalist, a respectable London shopkeeper, describes the terrible sights and incidents of that fearful time with a vividness that is appalling. The Adventures of Colonel Jack, Moll Flanders, Roxana, and Captain Singleton, show the same power of feigning reality. His True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal was one of the boldest experiments ever made upon human credulity, and yet so plausibly was the story told that searching enquiries were made concerning the facts alleged. His only object in telling the story was to secure the sale of a dull and unsaleable book; and his purpose was accomplished, for the whole edition of Drelincourt on Death quit the bookseller's shelves in consequence of its recommendation by the visitor from another world. Defoe's success in fiction attracted the attention of other writers. The field was inviting; for the stage was not in favor, the periodical essays were written out, and the popular demand for literary entertainment was increasing. To supply the demand a company of story-tellers put themselves at work. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) was the pioneer in that branch of fiction which grows out of the incidents of private and commonplace affairs. His life presents little matter for comment; its main features belong to the ordinary career of a prudent and successful tradesman. He was born in Derbyshire,—the son of a poor carpenter. At fifteen years of age he went to London to become a printer's apprentice. The diligence with which he pursued his calling secured him rapid advancement; he was taken into partnership with his master, and ultimately became the head of an extensive business. At fifty years of age, he stumbled into a path leading him to literary fame. Letter-writing, in those days, was regarded as an important branch of composition,—a means of literary culture. Richardson had been known from his youth as a fluent letter-writer; and a London firm wishing to publish a series of model letters as an epistolary manual to the lower classes, applied to him as the suitable person to prepare them. After he had accepted the commission, he conceived the happy idea of making the letters tell a connected story. The result of his undertaking was his first novel, Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded. 1741] The heroine is represented as a poor, beautiful, and innocent country girl, who enters the service of a rich gentleman. Most of the letters, in which the master's wickedness and the maid's virtue are narrated, are written by Pamela herself. Her minute descriptions of her situation and surroundings, her trials and heart-conflicts, and the various events of her anxious life, seem tedious to the modern reader. But they possess an air of reality, and often introduce exquisite touches of nature and pathos. The sensation made among readers of the old school of chivalric fable by this "romance of real life" was unparalleled. It captivated public fancy as Hudibras had done a century before. Fashionable circles made it the theme of their enthusiasm; grave moralists praised its fidelity to nature, and popular preachers applauded the high tone of its morality. Five editions were exhausted in a single year. Richardson suddenly found himself famous; but his was not a mind to be unsettled by success. He continued to exercise laudable and prosaic industry in his busiHe was first Printer of the House of Commons; in 1754 he became Master of the Stationers' Company, and in 1760 he bought a half-share in the lucrative office of Printer to the King. In the intervals of business, however, writing in the parlor of his back shop, he assiduously labored to develop his new-found resources. Clarissa Harlowe, published in 1749, and Sir Charles Grandison, in 1753, gave fresh evidence of his literary talent, and attained a popularity equal to that of their predecessor. Richardson's pleasure in his own fame was somewhat alloyed by his oversensitive temperament. He could not endure with complacency the free and sometimes caustic criticism passed upon his work. For some years before his death he withdrew himself from general society, and passed most of his time in his suburban home at Parson's Green, London. There he was the adored centre of a little group of admiring women. His published correspondence and literary remains, give a curious picture of the enervating and twaddling flattery which soothed his timidity and nourished his self-satisfaction. ness. |