to use dumb-bells, and some rather stringent measures were taken to
draw out her muscles and increase her stature. In vain; by nature she
was a small woman, and small she remained. She also learnt to dance
with grace in the days when dancing was something more dignified than
a tearing romp, but music she failed in utterly. She had no taste
for this art, and her music master, with a wisdom unhappily too rare,
advised her to abandon the attempt to learn. She had been so well
grounded in French and Italian, that when she came to do the exercises
set her, she found them so easy that she wrote out at once those
intended for the whole quarter, keeping them strung together in her
desk, and unstringing them as required. The spare time thus secured,
was employed in reading for her own pleasure. Her favorite seat during
play-time was under a cabinet, which stood in the school-room, and here
she often remained so absorbed in her book as to be deaf to all uproar.
This early habit of concentrated attention was to stand her in good
stead through life.
HELEN ZIMMERN: ‘Maria Edgeworth.’ (Famous Women Series.) Boston:
Roberts Bros., 1883.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: First stories.]
I beg that you will send me a little tale, about the length of a
‘Spectator,’ upon the subject of _Generosity;_ it must be taken from
history or romance, and must be sent the sennight after you receive
this; and I beg you will take some pains about it.
_Letter from Richard Lovell Edgeworth_ in 1780.... This was Maria’s
first story, and unfortunately it was not preserved. She used to say
“there was in it a sentence of inextricable confusion between a saddle,
a man, and his horse.”
She was remembered by her companions at both schools [Mrs.
Latiffiere’s, at Derby, and Mrs. Davis’s, Upper Wimpole Street,
London], for her entertaining stories; and she learned to know what
tale was most successful with her hearers, by the wakefulness it
caused. These stories were told at bed-time. Many of her narrations
were taken from her memory--she devoured books while her friends
played--but very many were original. The spirit of the _raconteur_ was
strong, and she had early the fertile brain of the true novelist.
[Sidenote: Her father’s influence.]
Mr. Edgeworth was essentially a utilitarian. He was a practical
illustration of Bentham’s theories. When he wrote the letter to his
daughter, by Mrs. Honora Edgeworth’s death-bed, the stress he lays upon
usefulness will easily be observed. [“Continue, my dear daughter, the
desire which you feel of becoming amiable, prudent, and of _use_.”] He
was a busy man himself, full of projects and plans. He impressed these
views on the developing mind of Maria. Mme. de Staël was reported long
after to have said Maria was “lost in sad utility”; and the question
naturally comes to the mind, when we see the irrepressible imagination
of the young girl, just what her life would have been without her
father’s peculiar influence.... He checked that superabundance of
sentiment which would have endangered her clearness of mind; he kept
her stimulated and encouraged to write, by his advice, criticism, and
approbation; but it is to be feared that he clipped the wings of fancy,
and harnessed Pegasus once again, as the rustics did in an ancient
myth. When she failed in her novels to inspire her characters with
romantic interest, it was because the paramount influence of her father
asserted itself. She was certainly gifted with genius of a high order;
but her nature was most affectionate, and long habits of respect and
devotion to her father made it absolutely impossible for her to free
herself from _his_ views. She was always the dutiful daughter--quite as
much so to the last as at the time he wrote her of his desire for the
tale on “Generosity.”
GRACE A. OLIVER: ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Her filial gratitude.]
“Nobody can know what I owe to my father: he advised and directed me in
everything; I never could have done any thing without him. These are
things I cannot be mistaken about, though other people can--I _know_
them.” As she said this the tears stood in her eyes, and her whole
person was moved.
GEORGE TICKNOR: ‘Life, Letters and Journals.’ Boston: James R. Osgood &
Co., 1876.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Miss Mitford speaks her mind.]
I am perfectly well inclined to agree with you in laying the tiresome
parts of her work to her prosing father, who is, Mr. Moore tells me,
such a nuisance in society, that in Ireland the person who is doomed to
sit next him at dinner is condoled with, just as if he had met with an
overturn, or a fall from his horse, or any other deplorable casualty.
MARY RUSSELL MITFORD: _Letter to Sir Wm. Elford_, in L’Estrange’s ‘Life
of Mary Russell Mitford.’ London: Richard Bentley, 1870.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Maria impressed with Irish life.]
In 1782 Maria was taken from school, and accompanied her parents and
younger brothers and sisters to Edgeworthstown. Her first visit to
Ireland was made at an exceedingly early age. This was practically her
real introduction to the scenes of her future life, the home of her
fathers. She was at the age when one is apt to notice new objects and
people with keen interest; and her new mode of life among the Irish
quickened all her thoughts, and roused her eager and animated nature.
She was very much struck by the many and extraordinary sights she
saw--the remarkable difference between the Irish and English character.
The wit, the melancholy, and gayety of the Irish were all so new and
strange to the young girl, accustomed to the stolid and unvarying
manners of the English servants, and the reserve and silence of the
upper classes, that the penetrating genius and powers of observation
of the future novelist and delineator of Irish character were vividly
impressed with her new surroundings.
GRACE A. OLIVER: ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Business habits.]
Some men live with their families without letting them know their
affairs, and, however great may be their affection and esteem for their
wives and children, think that they have nothing to do with business.
This was not my father’s way of thinking. On the contrary, not only
his wife, but his children, knew all his affairs. Whatever business he
had to do was done in the midst of his family, usually in the common
sitting-room: so that we were intimately acquainted, not only with his
general principles of conduct, but with the minute details of their
every-day application. I further enjoyed some peculiar advantages:
he kindly wished to give me habits of business; and for this purpose
allowed me, during many years, to assist him in copying his letters of
business, and in receiving his rents.
MARIA EDGEWORTH: ‘Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth.’ Boston: Wells &
Lilly, 1821.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Maria accepts a young stepmother.]
I flatter myself that you will find me gratefully exact _en
belle-fille_.... You need not, my dear Miss Beaufort, fence yourself
round with stony palings in this family, where all have been early
accustomed to mind their boundaries. As for me, you see my intentions,
or at least my theories, are good enough. If my practice be but half
as good, you will be content, will you not? But theory was born in
Brobdignag, and practice in Lilliput. So much the better for me. [She
alludes to her small stature.]
MARIA EDGEWORTH: _Letter to Miss Beaufort_, quoted in ‘A Study of Maria
Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Maria in 1802.]
I had, on entering, no eyes for any one but her. I had persuaded myself
that the author of the work on education, and of other productions,
useful as well as ornamental, would betray herself by a remarkable
exterior. I was mistaken. A small figure, eyes nearly always lowered, a
profoundly modest and reserved air, little expression in the features
when not speaking: such was the result of my first survey. But when
she spoke, which was much too rarely for my taste, nothing could have
been better thought, and nothing better said, though always timidly
expressed, than that which fell from her mouth.
MARC AUGUSTE PICTET: ‘Voyage de Trois Mois en Angleterre,’ translated
by Grace A. Oliver in ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: A little romance.]
Here, my dear aunt, I was interrupted in a manner that will surprise
you as much as it surprised me, by the coming in of M. Edelcrantz,
a Swedish gentleman, whom we have mentioned to you, of superior
understanding and mild manners: he came to offer me his hand and
heart! My heart, you may suppose, cannot return his attachment; for I
have seen but little of him, and have not had time to have formed any
judgment, except that I think nothing could tempt me to leave my own
dear friends and my own country to live in Sweden.
MARIA EDGEWORTH: _Letter to Mrs. Ruxton_, quoted in ‘A Study of Maria
Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
Maria was mistaken as to her own feelings. She refused M. Edelcrantz,
but she felt much more for him than esteem and admiration; she was
exceedingly in love with him. Mr. Edgeworth left her to decide for
herself; but she saw too plainly what it would be to us to lose her,
and what she would feel at parting from us.... She suffered much at the
time, and long afterwards.... ‘Leonora,’ which she began immediately
after our return home, was written with the hope of pleasing the
Chevalier Edelcrantz: it was written in a style he liked; and the idea
of what he would think of it was, I believe, present to her in every
page she wrote. She never heard that he had even read it.... I do not
think she ever repented of her refusal or regretted her decision: she
was well aware that she could not have made him happy, that she would
not have suited his position at the court of Stockholm, and that her
want of beauty might have diminished his attachment. It was better,
perhaps, that she should think so, as it calmed her mind; but, from
what I saw of M. Edelcrantz, I think he was a man capable of deeply
valuing her.... He never married. He was, except very fine eyes,
remarkably plain. Her father rallied Maria about her preference of
so ugly a man; but she liked the expression of his countenance, the
spirit and strength of his character, and his very able conversation.
The unexpected mention of his name, or even that of Sweden, in a book
or newspaper, always moved her so much that the words and lines in the
page became a mass of confusion before her eyes, and her voice lost all
power.
MRS. EDGEWORTH: ‘Memoir,’ quoted in ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Mr. Edgeworth’s want of tact.]
The Edgeworths ... are staying in London, and the daughter gains the
good-will of every one; not so the father. They dined at Sotheby’s.
After dinner Mr. Edgeworth was sitting next Mrs. Siddons, Sam Rogers
being on the other side of her. “Madam,” said he, “I think I saw you
perform ‘Millamont’ thirty-five years ago.”--“Pardon me, sir.”--“Oh!
then it was forty years ago: I distinctly recollect it.”--“You will
excuse me, sir, I never played ‘Millamont.’”--“Oh, yes! madam, I
recollect.”--“I think,” she said, turning to Mr. Rogers, “it is time
for me to change my place;” and she rose with her own peculiar dignity.
HENRY CRABB ROBINSON: ‘Diary and Correspondence,’ edited by T. Sadler.
Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co., 1871.
* * * * *
In 1813 I recollect to have met them in the fashionable world of
London.... I thought Edgeworth a fine old fellow, of a clarety,
elderly, red complexion, but active, brisk, and endless. He was
seventy, but did not look fifty,--no, nor forty-eight even....
Edgeworth bounced about and talked loud and long; ... he seemed neither
weakly nor decrepit, and hardly old.
[Sidenote: Mr. Edgeworth.]
He began by telling “that he had given Dr. Parr a dressing, who had
taken him for an Irish bog-trotter,” etc. Now I, who know Dr. Parr, and
who know ... that it is not so easy a matter to dress him, thought Mr.
Edgeworth an asserter of what was not true. He could not have stood
before Parr an instant. For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement,
vivacious and full of life. He bids fair for a hundred years.
[Sidenote: “A merry jest.”]
He was not much admired in London; and I remember a “ryght merrie” and
conceited jest which was rife among the gallants of the day; viz., a
paper had been presented for _the recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage_.
Whereupon Thomas Moore, of profane and poetical memory, did propose ...
a similar paper ... for the recall of Mr. Edgeworth to Ireland.
[Moore, in a foot-note, disclaims the authorship of the jest.]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Maria described.]
The fact was, everybody cared more about _her_. She was a nice, little,
unassuming “Jeanie Deans looking body,” as we Scotch say, and if not
handsome, certainly not ill-looking. Her conversation was as quiet as
herself. One would never have guessed that she could write _her name_;
whereas her father talked, _not_ as if he could write nothing else, but
as if nothing else was worth writing.
As for Mrs. Edgeworth, I forget, except that I think she was the
youngest of the party. Altogether, they were an excellent cage of the
kind, and succeeded for two months, till the landing of Mme. de Staël.
LORD BYRON: _Diary_, 1821, in ‘Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with
Notices of His Life,’ edited by Thomas Moore. New York: Harper & Bros.,
1868.
* * * * *
Her face was pale and thin, her features irregular: they may have been
considered plain, even in youth; but her expression was so benevolent,
her manners were so perfectly well-bred, partaking of English dignity
and Irish frankness, that one never thought of her with reference
either to beauty or plainness. She ever occupied, without claiming,
attention, charming continually by her singularly pleasant voice;
while the earnestness and truth that beamed from her bright blue--very
blue--eyes increased the value of every word she uttered.... She was
ever neat and particular in her dress; her feet and hands were so
delicate and small as to be almost childlike.
MRS. S. C. HALL: ‘Book of Memories.’ London: Virtue & Co., 1871.
* * * * *
Her personal appearance was that of a woman plain of dress, sedate in
manners, and remarkably small of person. She told us an anecdote on
that head. Travelling in a mail-coach, there was a little boy, also
a passenger, who, wanting to take something from the seat, asked her
if she would be so kind as to stand up. “Why, I am standing up,” she
answered. The lad looked at her with astonishment, and then, realizing
the verity of her declaration, broke out with: “Well, you are the very
littlest lady I ever did see!”
S. C. HALL: ‘Retrospect of a Long Life.’
* * * * *
Miss Edgeworth’s personal appearance was not attractive; but her
vivacity, good humor, and cleverness in conversation quite equalled my
expectations. I should say she was more sprightly and brilliant than
refined. She excelled in the raciness of Irish humor, but the great
defect of her manner, as it seemed to me, was an excess of compliment,
or what in Ireland is called “blarney”; and in one who had moved in the
best circles, both as to manners and mind, it surprised me not a little.
MRS. FLETCHER: ‘Autobiography.’ Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1876.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The Whippity Stourie.]
We saw, you will readily suppose, a great deal of Miss Edgeworth, and
two very nice girls, her younger sisters. It is scarcely possible
to say more of this very remarkable person than that she not only
completely answered, but exceeded, the expectations which I had formed.
I am particularly pleased with the _naïveté_ and good-humored ardor of
mind which she unites with such formidable powers of acute observation.
In external appearance she is quite the fairy of our nursery-tale,--the
Whippity Stourie, if you remember such a sprite, who came flying
through the window to work all sorts of marvels. I will never believe
but what she has a wand in her pocket, and pulls it out to conjure
a little before she begins to draw those very striking pictures of
manners.
SIR WALTER SCOTT: _Letter to Joanna Baillie_, 1823, in the former’s
‘Memoirs,’ by J. G. Lockhart. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1871.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Conversation.]
Miss Edgeworth was delightful, so clever and sensible. She does not say
witty things, but there is such a perfume of wit runs through all her
conversation as makes it very brilliant.
SIDNEY SMITH: Quoted in ‘Memoir,’ by his daughter, Lady Holland.
London: Longmans, Green & Co.
* * * * *
We could but liken her to the benevolent fairy from whose lips were
perpetually dropping diamonds; there was so much of kindly wisdom in
every sentence she uttered.
S. C. HALL: ‘Retrospect of a Long Life.’
* * * * *
In the evening Miss Edgeworth delightful--not from display, but from
repose and unaffectedness--the least pretending person of the company.
THOMAS MOORE: _Extract from Diary_, 1818.
* * * * *
Miss Edgeworth, with all her cleverness, is anything but agreeable.
The moment any one begins to speak, off she starts too, seldom more
than a sentence behind them, and in general continues to distance every
speaker. Neither does what she says, though of course very sensible,
at all make up for this over-activity of tongue.
THOMAS MOORE: _Extract from Diary_, 1831, in ‘Memoirs, Journal and
Correspondence,’ edited by Lord John Russell. London: Longman, Brown,
Green & Longmans, 1854.
* * * * *
In conversation we found her delightful. She was full of anecdotes
about remarkable people, and often spoke from her personal knowledge of
them. Her memory, too, was stored with valuable information; and her
manner of narrating was so animated that it was difficult to realize
her age. In telling an anecdote of Mirabeau, she stepped out before us,
and, extending her arms, spoke a sentence of his in the impassioned
manner of a French orator, and did it so admirably that it was quite
thrilling.
ELIZA FARRAR: ‘Recollections of Seventy Years.’ Boston: Ticknor &
Fields, 1866.
* * * * *
There was a life and spirit about her conversation, she threw herself
into it with such _abandon_, she retorted with such brilliant repartee,
and, in short, she talked with such extraordinary flow of natural
talent, that I don’t know whether anything of the kind could be finer.
GEORGE TICKNOR: ‘Life, Letters and Journals.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Activity.]
There was a charm in all she looked and said and did. Incessant and yet
genial activity was a marked feature of her nature. She seemed to be as
nearly ubiquitous as a human creature can be, and always busy; not only
as a teacher of her younger brothers and sisters (she was nearly fifty
years older than one of them), but as the director and controller of
the household.
S. C. HALL: ‘Retrospect of a Long Life.’
* * * * *
I have not the pen of our friend Miss Edgeworth, who writes all the
while she laughs, talks, eats and drinks, and I believe, though I do
not pretend to be so far in the secret, all the time she sleeps, too.
She has good luck in having a pen which walks at once so unweariedly
and so well.
SIR WALTER SCOTT: _Letter to Joanne Baillie_, in the former’s
‘Memoirs,’ by J. G. Lockhart.
* * * * *
What do you think is my employment out of doors, and what it has
been this week past? My garden? No such elegant thing: but making a
gutter, a sewer, and a pathway, in the street of Edgeworthstown; and I
do declare I am as much interested about it as I ever was in writing
anything in my life. We have never here yet found it necessary to have
recourse to public contributions for the poor; but it is necessary to
give some assistance to the laboring class, and I find that making the
said gutter and pathway will employ twenty men for three weeks.
MARIA EDGEWORTH: _Letter_, quoted in ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The Edgeworth homestead in 1842.]
Edgeworthstown was, and is, a large country mansion, to which additions
have been from time to time made, but made judiciously. An avenue of
venerable trees leads to it from the public road. It is distant about
seven miles from the town of Longford. The only room I need specially
refer to is the library: it belonged more peculiarly to Maria,
although the general sitting-room of the family. It was the room in
which she did nearly all her work; not only that which was to gratify
and instruct the world, but that which, in a measure, regulated the
household. It is by no means a stately, solitary room, but large,
spacious, and lofty, well stored with books, and furnished with
suggestive engravings. Seen through the window is the lawn, embellished
by groups of trees. If you look at the oblong table in the centre, you
will see the rallying-point of the family, who are usually around it,
reading, writing, or working; while Miss Edgeworth, only anxious that
the inmates of the house shall each do exactly as he or she pleases,
sits in her own peculiar corner on the sofa: a pen given her by Sir
Walter Scott while a guest at Edgeworthstown (in 1825) is placed before
her on a little, quaint, unassuming table, constructed, and added to,
for convenience.
MR. AND MRS. S. C. HALL: ‘Book of Memories.’
* * * * *
For a long time Miss Edgeworth used a little desk in this room, on
which, two years before her father’s death, he inscribed the following
words:
[Sidenote: Maria’s desk.]
“On this humble desk were written all the numerous works of my
daughter, Maria Edgeworth, in the common sitting-room of my family. In
these works, which were chiefly written to please me, she has never
attacked the personal character of any human being, or interfered
with the opinions of any sect or party, religious or political; while
endeavoring to inform and instruct others, she improved and amused her
own mind and gratified her heart, which I do believe, is better than
her head.
“R. L. E.”
After Mr. Edgeworth’s death she used a writing-desk which had belonged
to him; and it was placed on a table of his construction, to which she
added a bracket for her candlestick, and other little conveniences.
GRACE A. OLIVER: ‘A Study of Maria Edgeworth.’
* * * * *
The house and many of its arrangements--the bells, the doors,
etc.--bear witness to that love of mechanical trifling of which Mr.
Edgeworth was so often accused. It was only this morning that I
fully learnt how to open, shut, and lock our chamber-door; and the
dressing-glass, at which I have shaved for three mornings, is somewhat
of a mystery to me still.
GEORGE TICKNOR: ‘Life, Letters and Journals.’
* * * * *
When shown to our bedroom, we found such an extraordinary lock on the
door that we dared not shut it for fear of not being able to open it
again. We were shown other contrivances of the former owner, such as a
door in the entrance hall (through which the servants were continually
passing), the motion of which wound up a clock, the face being over
the sideboard, in the dining-room. Several doors in the house were
made double, in a way that I could not see the use of. Two doors were
fastened together at the hinge side, making a right angle with each
other, so that in opening one door you shut the other, and had to open
that before you could enter, and when that opened the one behind you
shut. Miss Edgeworth said it was for safety in times of danger. She
always mentioned her father with great respect, and even reverence, in
her manner; but nothing that I saw or heard there raised my opinion of
him.
ELIZA FARRAR: ‘Recollections of Seventy Years.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Power of abstraction.]
She had a singular power of abstraction; apparently hearing all that
was said, and occasionally taking part in the conversation, while
pursuing her own occupation, and seemingly attending only to it. Now
and then she would rise and leave the room, perhaps to procure a toy
for one of the children, to mount the ladder and bring down a book
that could explain or illustrate some topic on which some one was
conversing: immediately she would resume her pen, and continue to write
as if the thought had been unbroken for an instant.
MR. AND MRS. S. C. HALL: ‘Book of Memories.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Daily life.]