VISIT TO LONDON.--MR. EDGEWORTH'S DEATH.
Busily, happily, uneventfully time flowed on at Edgeworthstown, while
abroad Miss Edgeworth's fame was steadily on the increase. But whatever
the world might say, however kind, nay flattering, its verdict, this
preeminently sensible woman did not suffer herself to be deluded by
success. That she knew precisely and gauged correctly the extent and
limits of her power, is proved by a letter written to Mr. Elton Hammond,
who had over-zealously defended her from criticism:--
I thank you for your friendly zeal in defense of my powers of
pathos and sublimity, but I think it carries you much too far, and
you imagine that I refrain from principle or virtue from displaying
powers which I really do not possess. I assure you that I am not in
the least degree capable of writing a dithyrambic ode, or any other
kind of ode. Therefore it would be the meanest affectation in me to
pretend to refrain from such efforts of genius. In novel-writing I
certainly have from principle avoided all exaggerated sentiment;
but I am well aware that many other writers possess in a much
higher degree than I do the power of pathos and the art of
touching the passions. As to how I should use these powers if I had
them, perhaps I cannot fairly judge, but all I am at present sure
of is that I will not depreciate that which I do not possess.
Another letter to the same correspondent deserves quotation, as giving
her views on authorship. Mr. Hammond had consulted her as to the
advisability of his adventuring on that career. Miss Edgeworth
replied:--
If everybody were to wait till they could write a book in which
there should not be a single fault or error, the press might stand
still for ages yet unborn. Mankind must have arrived at the summit
of knowledge before language could be as perfect as you expect
yours to be. Till ideas are exact, just and sufficient, how can
words which represent them be accurate? The advantage of the art of
printing is that the mistakes of individuals in reasoning and
writing will be corrected in time by the public--so that the cause
of truth cannot suffer, and I presume you are too much of a
philosopher to mind the trifling mortification to your vanity which
the detection of a mistake might occasion. You know that some
sensible person has observed, only in other words, that we are
wiser to-day than we were yesterday.... I think that only little or
weak minds are so dreadfully afraid of being ever in the wrong.
Those who feel that they have resources, that they have means of
compensating for errors, have never this horror of being found in a
mistake.
In the spring of 1813 Mr., Mrs. and Miss Edgeworth visited London, where
they were much lionized. According to contemporaries it was the
daughter for whom the attentions were mainly meant, though she, of
course, deemed them intended for her father. Crabb Robinson said that
Miss Edgeworth gained the good will of every one during this visit. Not
so her father; his "cock-sureness," dictatorial and dogmatic manner gave
much offense in society.
They met every one worth meeting during their brief stay, and many
famous names glint across the pages of the one letter that has been
preserved treating of this London visit. Perhaps it was the only one
written, for she describes themselves as being, from morning till night,
in a whirl of gaiety and sight-seeing, "that how we got through the day
and night with our heads on our shoulders is a matter of astonishment to
me.... But I trust we have left London without acquiring any taste for
dissipation or catching the rage for finery and fine people." In this
one letter there are, unfortunately, none of those delightfully detailed
descriptions of persons and events that she gave from France. Among the
distinguished persons she met, Lord Byron is mentioned. Singularly
enough she dismisses him with just the last remark that one would have
expected concerning the poet, about whose good looks, at least, the
world was unanimous: "Of Lord Byron, I can only tell you that his
appearance is nothing that you would remark." He, on his part, was more
favorably impressed. He writes in his journal:--
I had been the lion of 1812. Miss Edgeworth and Mme. de Stael with
_The Cossack_, towards the end of 1813, were the exhibitions of the
succeeding year. I thought Edgeworth a fine old fellow, of a
clarety, elderly, red complexion, but active, brisk and restless.
He was seventy, but did not look fifty, no, nor forty-eight even. I
had seen poor Fitz-Patrick not very long before--a man of pleasure,
wit and eloquence, all things. He tottered, but still talked like a
gentleman, though feebly; Edgeworth bounced about and talked loud
and long; but he seemed neither weakly nor decrepit, and hardly
old.
Byron then remarks that he heard Mr. Edgeworth boast of having put down
Dr. Parr, a boast which Byron took leave to think not true. He adds:--
For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement, vivacious and full
of life. He bids fair for a hundred years. He was not much admired
in London, and I remember a "ryghte 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_, to
which all men had been called to subscribe; whereupon Thomas Moore,
of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper
should be _sub_scribed and _circum_scribed for the recall of Mr.
Edgeworth to Ireland. 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 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.
To turn from them to their works, I admire them; but they excite no
feeling and they leave no love, except for some Irish steward or
postilion. However, the impression of intellect and prudence is
profound, and may be useful.
To the Edgeworths' regret they left London before the arrival of Madame
de Stael, for whom all the world was eagerly looking. The poet Rogers,
noted for malicious sayings, asserted at a dinner-party that this was
not accident, but design; that Madame de Stael would not arrive till
Miss Edgeworth had gone. "Madame de Stael would not like two stars
shining at the same time." Fortunately, for once, he was reproved; for
it happened that, unknown to him, Madame de Stael's son was of the
company, who indignantly repelled the insinuation that his mother could
be capable of such meanness.
As always, Miss Edgeworth was glad to get home again:--
The brilliant panorama of London is over, and I have enjoyed more
pleasure and have had more amusement, infinitely more than I
expected, and received more attention, more kindness, than I could
have thought it possible would be shown to me; I have enjoyed the
delight of seeing my father esteemed and honored by the best judges
in England; I have felt the pleasure of seeing my true friend and
mother--for she has been a mother to me--appreciated in the best
society; and now, with the fullness of content, I return home,
loving my own friends and my own mode of life preferably to all
others, after comparison with all that is fine and gay, and rich
and rare.
* * * * *
I feel that I return with fresh pleasure to literary work from
having been so long idle, and I have a famishing appetite for
reading. All that we saw in London I am sure I enjoyed, while it
was passing, as much as possible; but I should be sorry to live in
that whirling vortex, and I find my taste and conviction confirmed
on my return to my natural friends and my dear home.
Seeing _Patronage_ through the press, and writing the continuations of
_Frank_, _Rosamond_, and _Harry and Lucy_, were Miss Edgeworth's
immediate occupations on her return.
Early in 1814 Mr. Edgeworth showed the first infirmities of age, which
resulted in a long and painful illness. During its course Miss
Edgeworth's letters were only bulletins of his health. The anxiety the
family had so long felt concerning Lovell Edgeworth, on whom, on Mr.
Edgeworth's death, all his duties would devolve, and who was still a
prisoner, was heightened by this event. It was, therefore, an increased
joy when, upon the entrance of the Allies into Paris, after a forcible
detention of eleven years, Lovell Edgeworth was at last released and
able to hasten home. The pleasure of seeing him helped to restore his
father's health; but it was evident that Mr. Edgeworth's constitution
had received a shock, and he himself never swerved from the opinion that
his existence might be prolonged a year, or even two, but that permanent
recovery was out of all question. This did not depress him. As before,
he continued to be actively employed, interested in all new things, in
all the life about him, and repeatedly exclaimed, "How I enjoy my
existence!" "He did not for his own sake desire length of life," says
his daughter, "but it was his prayer that his mind might not decay
before his body." He assured his friends that as far as this might be
allowed to depend on his own watchful care over his understanding and
his temper, he would preserve himself through the trials of sickness and
suffering to the last, such as they could continue to respect and love.
This assurance he faithfully redeemed, by dint of a self-control and a
regard for the comfort of others that cannot be too much commended, and
which of itself alone would win pardon for many of his irritating
faults.
_Waverley_ had just appeared, and every one was reading and discussing
it. Scott, who had always been an ardent admirer of Miss Edgeworth, and
who said in after-years that he should in all likelihood never have
thought of a Scotch novel had he not read Maria Edgeworth's exquisite
pieces of Irish character, had desired his publisher to send her a copy
on its first appearance, inscribed, "From the Author." She had, however,
not yet received this copy when late one night, after having finished
hearing the story read aloud to her family, in all the first fervor of
her admiration, she sat down to write to the unknown author. Mrs.
Edgeworth, who had been the reader, relates that as she closed the
volume Mr. Edgeworth exclaimed, "_Aut Scotus, aut Diabolus_," and with
these words Miss Edgeworth began her long and ardently-appreciative
letter to the nameless novelist. All Miss Edgeworth's ready, generous,
truly Irish enthusiasm breaks forth in this epistle, which is too
laudatory, too much written _a la volee_ to be truly critical. But Miss
Edgeworth never was critical when her feelings came into play, or were
allowed their course unchecked. She narrates to Scott how the story was
read aloud, how when ended they all felt depressed to think that they
must return to the flat realities of life, and how little disposed they
were to read the "Postscript, which should have been a Preface." While
she was writing her letter Mrs. Edgeworth opened the book again and
noticed this chapter.
"Well, let us hear it," said my father. Mrs. Edgeworth read on. Oh!
my dear sir, how much pleasure would my father, my mother, my whole
family, as well as myself, have lost if we had not read to the last
page! And the pleasure came upon us so unexpectedly--we had been so
completely absorbed, that every thought of ourselves, of our own
authorship, was far, far away. I thank you for the honor you have
done us and for the pleasure you have given us, great in proportion
to the opinion we had formed of the work we had just perused, and,
believe me, every opinion I have in this letter expressed was
formed before any individual in the family had peeped to the end of
the book, or knew how much we owed you.
Your obliged and grateful
MARIA EDGEWORTH.
To this letter Ballantyne replied; thus, even towards Miss Edgeworth,
Scott kept up his anonymity. A little later she tells a friend: "Scott
says upon his honor that he had nothing to do with _Guy Mannering_,
though he had a little to do, he says, with _Waverley_."
The following winter was spent by the family at Dublin, for the sake of
first-class medical advice for Mr. Edgeworth. That indefatigable,
active-minded old man meantime, though far from well, made experiments
on wheel carriages and published a report. There was much gaiety and
some interesting society to enliven the winter, but nothing worthy of
note is recorded by Miss Edgeworth. Anxiety on account of her beloved
father was uppermost in her mind, yet she continued to write, and was
busy upon some plays and upon preparing a third edition of _Patronage_.
In this third edition she made some important alterations, changing the
_denouement_ to gratify remonstrances that had reached her. She did not
like this alteration, and doubted the propriety of making it after a
work had gone through two editions. Her father, however, approved, and
the public was more satisfied. There was certainly much that was
unnatural in the previous course of the tale, in which the newly-married
wife refuses to go abroad with her adored husband, but lets him go alone
and remains with her father, who, it is true, was in grief, but who had
another daughter to console him. This might be Edgeworthian, but it was
not human nature; and the incident gave universal offense.
Every new book of value found its way to Edgeworthstown, and was eagerly
read and discussed by the family. Miss Austen was soon an established
favorite, while Mrs. Inchbald had long been valued. An occasional
correspondence was maintained with her. Writing of the _Simple Story_,
Miss Edgeworth says:--
By the force that is necessary to repress feelings we judge of the
intensity of the feeling, and you always contrive to give us by
intelligible but simple signs the measure of this force. Writers of
inferior genius waste their words in describing feeling, in making
those who pretend to be agitated by passion describe the effects of
that passion and talk of the _rending of their hearts_, etc.--a
gross blunder, as gross as any Irish blunder; for the heart cannot
feel and describe its own feelings at the same moment. It is
"_being like a bird in two places at once_." ... Did you really
draw the characters from life, or did you invent them? You excel, I
think, peculiarly, in avoiding what is commonly called _fine
writing_--a sort of writing which I detest, which calls the
attention away from the _thing_ to the _manner_, from the feeling
to the language, which sacrifices everything to the sound, to the
mere rounding of a period, which mistakes _stage effect_ for
_nature_. All who are at all used to writing know and detect the
_trick of the trade_ immediately, and, speaking for myself, I
_know_ that the writing which has the least appearance of literary
_manufacture_ almost always pleases me the best. It has more
originality in narration of fictitious events: it most surely
succeeds in giving the idea of reality and in making the biographer
for the time pass for nothing. But there are few who can in this
manner bear the _mortification_ of staying behind the scenes. They
peep out, eager for applause, and destroy all illusion by crying,
"_I_ said it! _I_ wrote it! _I_ invented it all! Call me to the
stage and crown me directly!"
Mrs. Inchbald had written praising _Patronage_, but she had also found
some faults. To this Miss Edgeworth replied:--
MY DEAR MRS. INCHBALD:
Nobody living but yourself could or would have written the letter I
have just received from you. I wish you could have been present
when it was read at our breakfast-table, that you might have seen
what hearty entertainment and delight it gave to father, mother,
author, aunts, brothers and sisters, all to the number of twelve.
Loud laughter at your utter detestation of poor Erasmus "as
nauseous as his medicines," and your impatience at all the variety
of impertinent characters who distract your attention from Lord
Oldborough. Your clinging to him quite satisfied us all. It was on
this character my father placed his dependence, and we all agreed
that if you had not liked him there would have been no hope for us.
We are in the main of your opinion, that Erasmus and his letters
are tiresome; but then please recollect that we had our moral to
work out, and to show to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the
reader how in various professions young men may get on without
patronage. To the good of our moral we were obliged to sacrifice;
perhaps we have sacrificed in vain. Wherever we are tiresome we may
be pretty sure of this, and after all, as Madame de Stael says,
"good intentions go for nothing in works of art"--much better in
French, "_La bonne intention n'est de rien en fait d'esprit_."
You will make me foreswear truth altogether, for I find whenever I
meddle with the least bit of truth I can make nothing of it, and it
regularly turns out ill for me. Three things to which you object
are facts, and that which you most abhor is most true. A nobleman
whom I never saw and whose name I have forgotten, else I should
not have used the anecdote--the word which you thought I could not
have written and ought not to have known how to spell. But pray
observe, the _fair_ authoress does not say this odious word in her
own proper person. Why impute to me the characteristic
improprieties of my characters? I meant to mark the contrast
between the niceness of his grace's pride and the coarseness of his
expression. I have now changed the word _severe_ into _coarse_ to
mark this to the reader. But I cannot alter without spoiling the
fact. I tried if saliva would do, but it would not. So you must
bear it as well as you can and hate His Grace of Greenwich as much
as you will, but don't hate me. Did you hate Cervantes for drawing
Sancho Panza eating behind the door?
My next fact, you say, is an old story. May be so, and may be it
belonged to your writer originally, but I can assure you it
happened very lately to a gentleman in Ireland, and only the
parting with the servant was added. I admit the story is ill told
and not worth telling, and you must admit that it is very natural
or it would not have happened twice.
The sixpence under the seal is my third fact. This happened in our
own family. One of my own grandfather's uncles forged a will, and
my grandfather recovered the estate my father now possesses by the
detection of the forgery of a sixpence under the seal.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for liking the two Clays. But pray
don't envelop _all_ the country gentlemen of England in English
Clay.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, says my father, for liking Lady
Jane Grandville. Her ladyship is his favorite, but nobody has ever
mentioned her in their letters but you. I cannot believe that you
ever resembled that selfish, hollow Lady Angelica. Would you ever
have guessed that the character of Rosamond is like--M. E.? All who
know me intimately say it is as like as possible. Those who do not
know me intimately would never guess it.
_Harrington_ came next. The idea of writing a story of which the hero
should be a Jew was not her own, but suggested by an unknown
correspondent in the United States, a Jewish lady, who gently reproached
her for having so often made Jews ridiculous, and begged she would write
a story that should treat of a good Jew. Scarcely was it finished than
she began _Ormond_. In February, 1817, she read the first chapter to her
father as they were driving out to pay a visit, the last Mr. Edgeworth
ever paid. His health had become a source of grave anxiety, and though
he masked all his sufferings with cheerfulness and touching
unselfishness, it was too evident that his case was serious. The
interest and delight he took in Ormond, and his desire to see the story
finished, encouraged Miss Edgeworth to go on.
Her stepmother writes:--
In all her anguish of mind at the state of his health, Maria, by a
wonderful effort of affection and genius, produced those gay and
brilliant pages, some of the gayest and most brilliant she ever
composed.... The admirable characters of King Corny and Sir Ulick
O'Shane, and all the wonderful scenes full of wit, humor and
feeling, were written in agony of anxiety, with trembling hand and
tearful eyes. As she finished chapter after chapter, she read them
out, the whole family assembling in their father's room to listen
to them. Her father enjoyed these readings so exceedingly as to
reward her for the wonderful efforts she made.
Enfeebled as he was by illness, and often while enduring pain, Mr.
Edgeworth nevertheless continued as before to revise his daughter's
manuscript with "an acuteness, a perseverance of attention of which I
cannot bear to think," she writes in after years. "He would work at it
in his bed for hours together, once at an end for six hours, during an
interval of sickness and exquisite pain."
Thanks to the kindness of her publisher, she was able on Mr. Edgeworth's
birthday (May, 1817) to put the printed volumes into his hands. It was
the last book of hers to which he was to write a preface, and it was
characteristic, like his others:--
In my seventy-fourth year I have the satisfaction of seeing another
work of my daughter brought before the public. This was more than I
could have expected from my advanced age and declining health. I
have been reprehended by some of the public critics for the notices
which I have annexed to my daughter's works. As I do not know their
reasons for this reprehension, I cannot submit even to their
respectable authority. I trust, however, the British public will
sympathize with what a father feels for a daughter's literary
success, particularly as this father and daughter have written
various works in partnership. The natural and happy confidence
reposed in me by my daughter puts it in my power to assure the
public that she does not write negligently. I can assert that twice
as many pages were written for these volumes as are now printed.
And now, indulgent reader, I beg you to pardon this intrusion, and
with the most grateful acknowledgments I bid you farewell forever.
RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH.
This preface was dated May 31st, 1817. On June 13th Mr. Edgeworth died,
retaining to the last, as he had prayed, his intellectual faculties. His
death was an acute grief to the whole family, a terrible, an irreparable
blow to his eldest daughter. She was almost overwhelmed by sorrow, and
during the first months that followed her father's death she wrote
scarcely any letters. She had not the heart to do so; besides, her
eyesight had been so injured by weeping, as well as by overwork the
previous winter, when she had been sitting up at night, struggling with
her grief and writing _Ormond_, that it caused real alarm to her
friends. She was unable to use her eyes without pain; "the tears," she
said, "felt like the cutting of a knife." On this account, as well as
from her sorrow, the rest of the year is a blank in her life. In the
late autumn she went to stay at Black Castle with Mrs. Ruxton, who
cheered and nursed her. With rare strength of mind she followed the
medical directions to abstain from reading and writing. Needlework, too,
of which she was fond, was forbidden to her; she therefore learned to
knit in order to employ herself. With patience, fortitude and cheerful
disregard of self she bore the mental and physical sufferings that
marked the year 1817 a black one in her life.