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.