While Richardson's revisions may seem extensive, they in no respect
remove or change all of the objectionable passages that _Pamela
Censured_ so severely criticizes. A considerable amount of hanky-panky
remains in the last version of _Pamela_. Mr. B, for instance, still
tries to examine Pamela "to her under Petticoat" (Letter XXIV), and he
even gets to grope--though only once--for her breasts (Tuesday Night
[40th day of confinement]). It should not be surprising, however, that
Richardson failed to achieve the "successful" expurgations found in
Victorian bowdlerizations of his novel. While he undoubtedly tried to
clean up his descriptions, Richardson nevertheless had to keep in mind
his novel's artistic integrity (something the bowdlerizers did not do).
In order to show the stages through which a virtuous young woman must
realistically pass when tempted by a physically attractive, though
morally reprehensible young man, Richardson had to describe attempted
rapes and their effects. In so doing, he undoubtedly hoped his readers
would keep in mind the morally unambiguous end of his novel (which,
incidentally, _Pamela Censured_ virtually ignores). Some "warm scenes,"
as a consequence, seem necessary in this novel, and to remove all of
them would, in effect, change _Pamela_ into something radically
different, namely a romance.
Though most of the attack in _Pamela Censured_ simply reflects the
author's prejudice against the sexual implications of realistic
descriptions, the pamphlet occasionally alludes to a further moral
problem, one which has bothered readers since the time of Fielding.
"Instead of being artless and innocent," Pamela seems to have "as much
Knowledge of the Arts of the Town, as if she had been born and bred in
_Covent_ Garden" (pp. 21-22). As a consequence, she appears "mighty
skillful" (p. 26) in her dealings with Mr. B. In spite of these hints,
_Pamela Censured_ stops short of concluding--as _Shamela_ does--that
Pamela is motivated by an immoral desire to trap Mr. B into marriage
rather than by an overwhelming desire to maintain her virtue at any
cost. Perhaps the author of _Pamela Censured_ contemplated this moral
ambiguity as the subject of his projected "Second Epistle" (p. 64), a
work which seems never to have appeared in print, if indeed it was ever
written.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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