The English Novel and the Principle of its DevelopmentLanier, Sidney
History
The English Novel and the Principle of its Development
Lanier, Sidney
English fiction -- History and criticism
I have already given the substance of the first two volumes in which
the rich squire, Mr. B. (as he is called throughout the novel),
finally marries and takes home the girl who had been the servant of
his wife and against whom, ever since that lady's death, he had been
plotting with an elaborate baseness which has never before been, and I
sincerely hope will never hereafter be described. By this action Mr.
B. has, in the opinion of Richardson, of his wife, the servant girl,
and of the whole contemporary world, saturated himself with such a
flame of saintliness as to have burnt out every particle of any little
misdemeanors he may have been guilty of in his previous existence; and
I need only read you an occasional line from the first four letters of
the third volume in order to show the marvellous sentimentality, the
untruth towards nature, and the purely commercial view of virtue and
of religion which make up this intolerable book. At the opening of
Volume III. we find that Goodman Andrews, the father of the bride, and
his wife have been provided with a comfortable farm on the estate of
Mr. B., and the second letter is from Andrews to his daughter, the
happy bride, Pamela. After rhapsodizing for several pages, Andrews
reaches this climax--and it is worth while observing that though only
a rude farmer of the eighteenth century whose daughter was a servant
maid, he writes in the most approved epistolary style of the period:
"When here in this happy dwelling and this well-stocked farm, in
these rich meadows and well-cropped acres, we look around us and
whichever way we turn our heads see blessings upon blessings and
plenty upon plenty; see barns well stored, poultry increasing,
the kine lowing and crowding about us, and all fruitful; and are
bid to call all these our own. And then think that all is the
reward of our child's virtue! O, my dear daughter, who can bear
these things! Excuse me! I must break off a little! For my eyes
are as full as my heart; and I will retire to bless God and your
honored husband."
Here there is a break in the page, by which the honest farmer is
supposed to represent the period of time occupied by him in retiring,
and, as one hopes, dividing his blessing impartially between the
Creator and Pamela's honored husband--and the farmer resumes his
writing:
"So, my dear child, I now again take up my pen. But reading what
I had written, in order to carry on the thread, I can hardly
forbear again being in like sort affected."
And here we have a full stop and a dash, during which it is only fair
to suppose that the honest Andrews manages to weep and bless up to
something like a state of repose.
Presently Pamela:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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