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Samuel Richardson
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Title: Samuel Richardson's Introduction to Pamela
Author: Samuel Richardson
Editor: Sheridan W. Baker, Jr.
Release Date: March 17, 2008 [EBook #24860]
Language: English
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Editor’s Introduction
List of Changes
Introduction to Pamela
First Letter
Second Letter
Introduction to Second Edition
Third Letter
Fourth Letter
Augustan Reprints
A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been
marked in the text with mouse-hover popups.
The Augustan Reprint Society
SAMUEL RICHARDSON’S
Introduction to Pamela
Edited, with an Introduction by
Sheridan W. Baker, Jr.
Publication Number 48
Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1954
GENERAL EDITORS
Richard C. Boys, University of
Michigan
Ralph Cohen, University of
California, Los Angeles
Vinton A. Dearing, University of
California, Los Angeles
Lawrence Clark Powell, Clark
Memorial Library
ASSISTANT EDITOR
W. Earl Britton, University of
Michigan
ADVISORY EDITORS
Emmett L. Avery, State College of
Washington
Benjamin Boyce, Duke
University
Louis Bredvold, University of
Michigan
John Butt, King’s College,
University of Durham
James L. Clifford, Columbia
University
Arthur Friedman, University of
Chicago
Edward Niles Hooker, University
of California, Los Angeles
Louis A. Landa, Princeton
University
Samuel H. Monk, University of
Minnesota
Ernest C. Mossner, University of
Texas
James Sutherland, University
College, London
H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University
of California, Los Angeles
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Edna C. Davis, Clark Memorial
Library
1
Since most publishers of Pamela have preferred to print
Richardson’s table of contents from the sixth edition, his complete
introduction (his preface, together with letters to the editor and
comments) is missing even from some of our best collections.
Occasionally one finds the preface and the first two letters, but only
four publishers since Richardson have attempted to reprint the full
introduction. Harrison (London, 1785) -- who omits the first letter --
and Cooke (London, 1802-3) both follow Richardson’s eighth edition;
Ballantyne (Edinburgh, 1824) uses the fourth; the Shakespeare Head
(Oxford, 1929), the third. And even these printings leave one
dissatisfied. The Shakespeare Head gives the fullest text, but naturally
omits Richardson’s revisions; Cooke gives the introduction in its final
form, but one misses the full text which accompanied the book in its
heyday; and rarely are both Cooke and Shakespeare Head to be found in
the same library.
Richardson’s complete introduction gains importance when we note that
he retained and revised it through seven of his eight editions of
Pamela. To see the text and follow Richardson’s changes is to get
an unusually intimate view of his attitude toward his book, of his
concessions and tenacities, of Richardson the anonymous “editor” who
could not keep the author’s laurels completely under his hat.
This present reprint, therefore, intends to give the fullest text of
Richardson’s introduction, and to indicate his changes. The text is that
of the second edition, reproduced with permission of the Huntington
Library. Brackets, added to this
2
lithoprint, show Richardson’s principal corrections: “4th” means that
the bracketed lines were deleted in the fourth and all subsequent
editions; “4th, change 6” means that in the fourth and subsequent
editions the bracketed lines were changed to the reading listed here as
number six. Several changes within deleted passages are discussed but
not marked on the text.
Richardson’s own editions of Pamela appeared as follows:
(1) November 6, 1740, (2) February 14, 1741, (3) March
12, 1741, (4) May 5, 1741, (5) September 22, 1741,
(6) May 10, 1742, (7) 1754, (8) October 28, 17611 (three months
after Richardson’s death). The first edition prints Richardson’s preface
and two complimentary letters. To these the “Introduction to this Second
Edition” adds twenty-four pages of letters and comment and the third
edition makes no changes in the introduction whatsoever, even retaining
“this Second Edition,”2 The fourth makes some changes, and the fifth,
considerably more. The sixth, a handsome quarto in a row of
duodecimos, abandons the introductory letters; the seventh follows the
fifth, and the eight makes some major cuts.
Notwithstanding Richardson’s freedom in editing these letters -- and
Fielding’s insinuation in Shamela that they were Richardson’s own
copy -- he wrote none of them. Jean Baptiste de Freval, a Frenchman
living in London, for whom Richardson was
3
printing a book,3 wrote the first. The second probably came from William
Webster, clergyman and editor of The Weekly Miscellany, wherein
the letter had appeared as an advertisement, the first public reference
to Pamela, on October 11, 1740.4 Webster owed (an obligation eventually
forgiven) “a debt of 140 l. to my most worthy Friend, Mr.
Richardson, the Printer,”5 and Richardson reprints the letter using
Webster’s phrase: “To my worthy Friend, the Editor of Pamela.”
These first two letters, de Freval’s and Webster’s, respond to an
author’s request for criticism. The rest, new with the second edition,
are unsolicited.
All of these are the work of Aaron Hill, excepting only the anonymous
letter which Richardson summarizes, beginning on page xxi6 -- sent to
Richardson in care of Charles Rivington, co-publisher of Pamela,
on November 15, 1740, the first gratuitous response to Richardson’s
book. To advertisements in The Daily Gazeteer (November 20) and
The London Evening-Post (December 11-13), Richardson added a
note:
4
An anonymous Letter relating to this Piece is come to the Editor’s Hand,
who takes this Opportunity (having no better) most heartily to thank the
Gentleman for his candid and judicious Observations; and to beg Favour
of a further Correspondence with him, under what Restrictions he
pleases. Instruction, and not Curiosity, being sincerely the Motive for
this request.7
If the gentleman had answered, the introduction to Pamela
would perhaps have been shorter. Some of Hill’s acerbity may have been
absorbed from Richardson, hurt by the writer’s silence.
The double-entendres mentioned on page xxii are given in the
gentleman’s unpublished letter in the Forster collection, in the
Victoria and Albert Museum:
Jokes are often more Severe, and do more Mischief, than more Solid
Objects -- to obviate some, why not omit P 175 -- betwixt Fear
and Delight -- and P 181 -- I made shift to eat a bit of
etc. but I had no Appetite to any thing else.8
In the light of this letter, the second edition of Pamela
attests a curious fact: while Hill pontificates in the introduction
about ignoring such vulgarity of mind, Richardson has tiptoed back to
Volume Two and changed the questioned passages. From the second edition
forward, Pamela trembles during her wedding not “betwixt Fear and
Delight” but “betwixt Fear and Joy”; and although Richardson leaves
Pamela her shift on page 181, he changes her remark about appetite:
“I made shift to get down a
5
bit of Apple-pie, and a little Custard; but that was all.” By omitting
the specific objections from his summary, Richardson managed at one
stroke to save his righteousness in the introduction and his face in the
text.
Hill’s authorship of the introductory letters is easily established.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld includes Hill’s signature with a reduced version
of the one which here begins on page xvi (December 17, 1740).9 Thereafter,
Richardson’s italicized remarks, two of them added in later editions,
provide the links: “Abstract of a second Letter from the same
Gentleman,” etc.
With wonderful indirection, Richardson had sent a copy of
Pamela to Hill’s daughters, along with some other books, and, as
Hill writes Mallet, “without the smallest hint, that it was
his, and with a grave apology, as for a trifle, of too
light a species.”10 Hill thanked Richardson in the letter of December 17,
1740. Hill asks who on earth the author might be, hinting, the while, by
returning Richardson’s own phrase, that he understands that it is
Richardson himself: “this Trifle (for such, I dare answer
for the Author, His Modesty misguides him to think it).” Though
Hill tells Mallet that Richardson was “very loth ... a long time,
to confess it,” Richardson did not dally long. By December 29, 1740, he
has confirmed Hill’s guess. On that date Hill writes:
Acquainted with the amiable goodness of your heart, I can foresee
the pleasure it will give you, to have given
6
another pleasure: and you heap it on me in the noblest manner, by the
joy you make me feel, at finding Pamela’s incomparable author is
the person I not only hop’d to hear was so, but whom I should have been
quite griev’d, disturb’d, and mortified, not to have really
found so.
Yet, I confess, till I began to read, I had not the least notion of
it. But I presently took notice, that whatever Pamela thought,
said, or did, was all transfusion of your own fine spirit. And as I know
not if there lives another writer, who could furnish her with such a
sapid sweetness as she fills the table with, I could not therefor
chuse but name you to my hope, as moulder of this maiden model.11
Mrs. Barbauld omits this letter but prints another from Hill to
Richardson, not to be found now in the Forster collection, bearing the
same date -- December 29, 1740 (I, 56ff.). This letter furnishes
the “delightful Story, so admirably related” beginning on page
xxxi. From the second paragraph on (“We have a lively little Boy in the
Family”), the Pamela text is substantially the same as
Barbauld’s. But the first paragraph Richardson has contrived to suit his
editorial fiction.
The delightful story so gratified Mr. Richardson that he sent lively
little Harry Campbell (“the dear amiable boy”) two books, an event
almost enough to finish him:
Out burst a hundred O Lords! in a torrent of voice rendered
hoarse and half choaked by his passions. He clasped his trembling
fingers together; and his hands were strained hard, and held writhing.
His elbows were extended to the height of his shoulders, and his eyes,
all inflamed with delight, turned incessantly round from one side, and
one friend, to the other, scattering his triumphant ideas among us. His
fairy-face (ears and all) was flushed as red as his lips; and his flying
feet told his joy to the floor, in a wild and stamping impatience of
gratitude.12
7
The only other part of the introduction to Pamela elsewhere in
print is the concluding poem. This, too, is Hill’s, printed in The
Weekly Miscellany, February 28, 1741, along with his December 17
letter, and collected with Hill’s Works (III, 348-350). This is
the poem, it would seem, of which Hill boasts that he has given “Pamela”
a short “e” as Richardson intended, asserting that “Mr. Pope has
taught half the women in England to pronounce it wrong.”13 Pope in his
Epistle to Miss Blount (line 49), had made the “e” long:
The gods, to curse Pamela with her prayers,
Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares,
The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,
And, to complete her bliss, a fool for mate.
Hill’s lines are somewhat less successful. He dedicated them to “the
Unknown Author of Pamela” two months after Richardson had
confessed his authorship.
Richardson changes one line in the poem. In Hill’s Works it
reads: “Whence public wealth derives its vital course.”
Richardson, a more modern man perhaps, reads “public
Health.” His emendation, however, improves Hill’s metaphor
concerning a blaze which is a pilot pointing out the source of public
wealth, which is drunk to prevent gangrene from blackening to the bone.
Further reflection led Richardson a year later to change “vital” to
“moral.”
Throughout the letters in his introduction, Richardson made changes,
all largely stylistic. That Richardson removed the letters from the
front of his book in response to criticism -- as Cross14
8
and others have asserted -- is not quite accurate. He removed them from
the sixth edition, but put them back in the seventh and eighth; and his
alterations show him giving in to criticism only by inches, if indeed
his changes to his introduction are not more simply those of any author
trimming (and with Richardson, ever so little) his early
extravagances.
Richardson’s stubbornness here suggests other reasons for his
substituting a table of contents for his introduction in the sixth
edition. To print both would have been too prolix, even for Richardson;
and it seems that the table of contents, detailing the entire action,
together with the change to big quarto volumes, are Richardson’s efforts
to authenticate Pamela in the face of Chandler’s and Kelly’s
unauthorized sequel, Pamela’s Conduct in High Life, printed to
complete the two duodecimo volumes of Richardson’s original story.
Richardson’s sixth edition is the first in which his own additional two
volumes, written to forestall Chandler and Kelly, are included with the
first two as a complete four-volume unit. Twelve years later, in 1754,
his true Pamela established, he reverted to his introductory
letters. Hill’s death in 1750 may also have moved Richardson to restore
the introduction which was chiefly Hill’s work, recalling both his
friend and Pamela’s greener days. In the eighth edition, at the
end of his life, Richardson still kept the introductory letters, though
with some final constrictions.
Richardson makes the first changes to his introduction in the fourth
edition. Excepting minor clarifications, all deal with Hill’s answer to
the anonymous gentleman. The attitude toward this gentleman has
softened. The “rashest of All his Advices”
9
becomes merely the “least weigh’d” of his judgments, and his blindness
becomes oversight. He is no longer pedantic; he no longer makes vulgar
allusions, but only fears that they might be made.
In the fifth edition, Richardson seems chiefly concerned with
redundancy, but he also diminishes some of the praise. In deference to
the gentleman, it would seem, Richardson deletes his flattery of Hill on
pages xxix and xxxi, and “some of the most beautiful Letters that
have been written in any Language” become simply “Letters.”
Perhaps Richardson’s conscience was bothering him. Perhaps he had heard
from his anonymous correspondent after all: he now identifies the
gentleman’s remarks as coming “in a Letter from the Country.”
Unless pure fancy, this is new information, for the letter, now in the
Forster collection, in no way indicates its place of origin.
Richardson’s seeking of the gentleman through advertisement in London
newspapers suggests that he thought of his correspondent as a city
man.
In the fifth edition one detects a certain discomfort with the false
editorship and the praise Richardson permits himself with it. His direct
response to criticism is slight. He deletes “from low to
high Life,” since Pamela’s Conduct in High Life had
appeared four months previous. From the passages which Fielding
ridicules in Shamela, he drops no more than “wonderful” from
before “AUTHOR of Pamela.” In the passage introducing the
new letters (page xv) Richardson now apologizes. The Author, he
implies, wanted the praises omitted, but much to his sorrow the Editor
could not disentangle them from the “critical remarks.” The author’s
modesty, however, remains in the realm of possibility only.
10
Where self-praise is strong a vague uneasiness sets Richardson to
work on the style, unable to locate the center of his trouble. On
page v “strongly interest them in the edifying Story”
becomes “attach their regard to the Story,” but this is barely to
nibble at his phrase “so probable, so natural, so lively” just
preceding, which perished in the eighth edition.
Similarly, he attempts to cure the last paragraph of his preface
through minor incisions. He drops the parenthesis about the “great
Variety of entertaining Incidents”, and he diminishes “these
engaging Scenes” to “it”. But the paragraph is still too much
for him. In the eighth edition he cuts all but the outlines of his
editor-author pretext.
The seventh edition does no more than sharpen punctuation. The eighth
in general continues to trim little excesses, though the loss is
scarcely noticeable. Richardson further reduces Hill’s praise of the
book and his own praise of Hill, feeling his way toward a detached view
of his book, looking to posterity. Since Pamela has fulfilled the
prediction of foreign renown made by his French friend, de Freval,
Richardson now omits de Freval’s obliging treachery to the literature of
France (page ix). Since the “delightful story” is anecdotal and not
critical, it too disappears. Other changes simply testify an author’s
attention to his style, uninhibited by the fact that the style is indeed
not his. He deletes a senseless remark about masculine flexibility. He
removes “Nature” from the foundation of the narrative (title page and
page v, though left on page viii) probably to avoid implying that Nature
is in the foundation only.
11
From the first, Richardson’s disguise as editor is little more than
half-hearted. Its purpose was at first partly commercial, permitting
advertising in the preface. Four ladies urged him on, so, Richardson
confesses, he “struck a bold stroke in the preface... having the umbrage
of the editor’s character to screen [him] self behind.”15 But the author
nevertheless threw rather distinct shadows on the screen. His preface
speaks of the book altogether as a work of fiction: the editor has “set
forth” social duties; he has “painted” vice and virtue, “drawn”
characters, “raised,” “taught,” “effected,” and “embellished with a
great variety of entertaining incidents.” Yet, suddenly, the editor also
seems to have done nothing more than to have “perused these engaging
scenes,” written a preface, and gotten them into print.
Richardson cannot quite give the imaginary author substance. “These
sheets” have accomplished all the wonders claimed for them, not “the
author of these sheets.” Richardson speaks not of the author, but
of an author, of authors in general. The implication hangs over
the preface, and is strengthened by de Freval’s letter, that the editor
himself has worked up the story from the barest details of real life
(which is, of course, what Richardson did). De Freval continues to speak
of the work entirely as of creative writing. The epistolary style is
aptly devised; the book will become a pattern for this kind of fiction;
it is contrived for readers of all tastes. But, quite in contradiction,
de Freval also implies that the editor has shown him the author’s
original work, together with certain editorial changes necessary to
protect the real Pamela and Mr. B.
12
The second letter, presumably Webster’s, toys with the suggestion
that a young woman actually wrote the letters which Richardson edits:
“let us have Pamela as Pamela wrote it.” But this is only
in play. Although the writer disparages “Novels,” the note which
heads his letter when it first appeared in The Weekly Miscellany
speaks of the “Author of Pamela” who has “written an English
Novel,”16 and his opening remarks are clearly those of a critic
speaking of fiction.
Hill’s first letter goes solidly for the conclusion that an author,
a man of genius, wrote the book. The heading, “To the Editor of
Pamela”, is Richardson’s only attempt to bring Hill’s letter into
his already wavering line. In the fifth edition, however, he introduces
this letter with his only straight statement that an author, distinct
from the editor, is involved, an author who begged the editor not to
include flattery.
To the end of his days Richardson continued to sit under the
editorial shade -- Sir Charles Grandison was “published” by the
“editor of Pamela and Clarissa” -- enjoying the sunshine
of his authorship. His introduction to Pamela and the care he
took with it suggest more succinctly than anything else Richardson’s
flirtation with his adorers, which is not at all unlike that of his so
modest heroine.
Sheridan W. Baker, Jr.
University of Michigan
13
1. ... here; and writes with the more Assurance of Success, as an
Editor may be allowed to judge with more Impartiality than is
often to be found in an Author.
2. But Difficulties having arisen from different Opinions, some
applauding the very Things that others found Fault with, we have found
it necessary to insert the Praises in the following Letters,
with the critical Remarks; because the Writer has so kindly mix’d them,
that they cannot be disjoin’d (however earnestly the Author of the Piece
desire’d it) without obscuring, and indeed defacing, all the Spirit of
the Reasoning.
3. The following Objections to some Passages in Pamela were made
by an anonymous Gentleman, in a Letter from the Country.
4. The ingenious Writer of the two preceding Letters, answers
these good natured Objections, as follows:
5. Fourth: “least weigh’d”; fifth: “least considered.”
6. ...it seems plain to me, that this Gentleman, however laudable his
Intention may be on the whole, discerns not an Elegance,...
7. In the Occasions this Gentleman, in his Postscript, is pleas’d to
discover for Jokes, I either find not, that he has any
Signification at all, or, causelessly, as I think, apprehends that such
coarse-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, may be made, that
not to understand what is meant by
14
them, is both the cleanliest, and prudentest Way of confuting them.
8. ...in the Mind of the Reader, an Honesty so sincere and
unguarded.
9. Deleted, fifth edition; replaced in eighth with: “In a Third
Letter the same benevolent Gentleman writes, as follows:”.
PAMELA:
O R,
Virtue Rewarded.
In a SERIES of
Familiar Letters
FROM A
Beautiful Young Damsel,
To her PARENTS.
Now first Published
In order to cultivate the Principles of Virtue and Religion
in the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES.
A Narrative which has its Foundation in TRUTH and NATURE; and at the same time that it
agreeably entertains, by a Variety of curious and
affecting Incidents, is intirely
divested of all those Images, which, in too many Pieces calculated for
Amusement only, tend to inflame the Minds they should
instruct.
In Two Volumes.
The Second Edition.
To which are prefixed, Extracts
from several curious Letters written to
the Editor on the Subject.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
Printed for C. Rivington, in St.
Paul’s Church-Yard; and J. Osborn, in Pater-noster Row.
M DCC XLI.
iii
A3
PREFACE
BY THE
EDITOR.
F to Divert and Entertain,
and at the same time to Instruct, and Improve the
Minds of the Youth of both
Sexes:
IF to inculcate Religion and Morality in so easy
and agreeable a manner, as shall render them equally delightful
and profitable to
the younger Class of Readers, as well as worthy of the
Attention of Persons of maturer Years and
Understandings:
iv
IF to set forth in the most exemplary Lights, the
Parental, the Filial, and the Social Duties,
and that from low
to high Life:
IF to paint Vice in its
proper Colours, to make it deservedly Odious; and to set
Virtue in its own amiable
Light, to make it truly Lovely:
IF to draw Characters justly, and to support them
equally:
IF to raise a Distress from natural Causes, and to excite
Compassion from proper Motives:
IF to teach the Man of Fortune how to use it; the Man of
Passion how to subdue it; and the Man of Intrigue,
how, gracefully, and with Honour to himself, to
reclaim:
v
A4
IF to give practical Examples, worthy to be followed in
the most critical and affecting Cases, by the modest Virgin, the
chaste
Bride, and the obliging Wife:
IF to effect all these good Ends, in so probable, so natural, so lively a manner, as
shall engage the Passions of every sensible Reader, and strongly
interest them in the edifying Story:
AND all without
raising a single Idea throughout the Whole, that shall shock
the exactest Purity, even in those tender Instances where the exactest
Purity would be most apprehensive:
IF these, (embellished
with a great Variety of entertaining Incidents) be laudable or
worthy Recommendations of any Work, the Editor of the following Letters,
which have their Foundation in Truth and Nature, ventures to assert,
vi
that all these desirable Ends are obtained in these Sheets: And as he is therefore confident of the
favourable Reception which he boldly bespeaks for this little Work; he
thinks any further Preface or Apology for it,
unnecessary: And the rather for two Reasons, 1st. Because he can Appeal
from his own Passions, (which have been uncommonly
moved in perusing these engaging Scenes) to the Passions of
Every one who shall read them with the least Attention: And, in
the next place, because an Editor may reasonably be supposed to
judge with an Impartiality which is rarely to be met with in an
Author towards his own Works.
The Editor.
vii
To the Editor of the Piece intitled, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded.
Dear SIR,
I have had inexpressible Pleasure in the Perusal of
your Pamela. It intirely answers the
Character you give of it in your Preface; nor have you said one Word too
much in Commendation of a Piece that has Advantages and Excellencies
peculiar to itself. For, besides the beautiful Simplicity of the Style,
and a happy Propriety and Clearness of Expression (the Letters being
written under the immediate Impression of every Circumstance which
occasioned them, and that to those who had a Right to know the fair
Writer’s most secret Thoughts) the several Passions of the Mind must, of
course, be more affectingly described, and Nature may be traced in her
undisguised Inclinations with much more Propriety and Exactness, than
can possibly be found in a Detail of Actions long past, which are never
recollected with the same Affections, Hopes, and Dreads, with which they
were felt when they occurred.
This little Book will infallibly be looked upon as the hitherto
much-wanted Standard or Pattern for this Kind of Writing. For it abounds
with lively Images and Pictures; with Incidents natural, surprising, and
perfectly adapted to the Story; with Circumstances interesting to
Persons in common
viii
Life, as well as to those in exalted Stations. The greatest Regard is
every where paid in it to Decency, and to every Duty of Life: There is a
constant Fitness of the Style to the Persons and Characters described;
Pleasure and Instruction here always go hand in hand: Vice and Virtue
are set in constant Opposition, and Religion every-where inculcated in
its native Beauty and chearful Amiableness; not dressed up in stiff,
melancholy, or gloomy Forms, on one hand, nor yet, on the other, debased
below its due Dignity and noble Requisites, in Compliment to a too
fashionable but depraved Taste. And this I will boldly say, that if its
numerous Beauties are added to its excellent Tendency, it will be found
worthy a Place, not only in all Families (especially such as have in
them young Persons of either Sex) but in the Collections of the most
curious and polite Readers. For, as it borrows none of its Excellencies
from the romantic Flights of unnatural Fancy, its being founded in Truth
and Nature, and built upon Experience, will be a lasting Recommendation
to the Discerning and Judicious; while the agreeable Variety of
Occurrences and Characters, in which it abounds, will not fail to engage
the Attention of the gay and more sprightly Readers.
The moral Reflections and Uses to be drawn from the several Parts of
this admirable History, are so happily deduced from a Croud of different
Events and Characters, in the Conclusion of the Work, that I shall say
the less on that Head. But I think, the Hints you have given me, should
also prefatorily be given to the Publick; viz. That it will
appear from several Things mentioned in the Letters, that the Story must
have happened within these Thirty Years past: That you have been obliged
to vary some of the Names of Persons, Places, &c. and to
disguise a few of the Circumstances, in order to avoid giving Offence
ix
to some Persons, who would not chuse to be pointed out too plainly in
it; tho’ they would be glad it may do the Good so laudably intended by
the Publication. And as you have in Confidence submitted to my Opinion
some of those Variations, I am much pleased that you have so
managed the Matter, as to make no Alteration in the Facts; and, at the
same time, have avoided the digressive Prolixity too frequently used on
such Occasions.
Little Book, charming Pamela! face the
World, and never doubt of finding Friends and Admirers, not only in
thine own Country, but far from Home; where thou mayst give an Example of Purity to the Writers
of a neighbouring Nation; which now shall have an Opportunity to receive
English Bullion in Exchange for its own Dross, which has so long
passed current among us in Pieces abounding with all the Levities of its
volatile Inhabitants. The reigning Depravity of the Times has yet
left Virtue many Votaries. Of their Protection you need not despair. May
every head-strong Libertine whose Hands you reach, be reclaimed; and
every tempted Virgin who reads you, imitate the Virtue, and meet the
Reward of the high-meriting, tho’ low-descended, Pamela. I am, Sir,
Your most Obedient,
and Faithful Servant,
J. B. D. F.
x
To my worthy Friend, the Editor of Pamela.
SIR,
I
return the Manuscript of Pamela
by the Bearer, which I have read with a great deal of Pleasure. It is
written with that Spirit of Truth and agreeable Simplicity, which, tho’
much wanted, is seldom found in those Pieces which are calculated for
the Entertainment and Instruction of the Publick. It carries Conviction
in every Part of it; and the Incidents are so natural and interesting,
that I have gone hand-in-hand, and sympathiz’d with the pretty Heroine
in all her Sufferings, and been extremely anxious for her Safety, under
the Apprehensions of the bad Consequences which I expected, every Page,
would ensue from the laudable Resistance she made. I have
interested myself in all her Schemes of Escape; been alternately pleas’d
and angry with her in her Restraint; pleas’d with the little
Machinations and Contrivances she set on foot for her Release, and
angry for suffering her Fears to defeat them; always lamenting,
with a most sensible Concern, the Miscarriages of her Hopes and
Projects. In short, the whole is so affecting, that there is no reading
it without uncommon Concern and Emotion. Thus far only as to the
Entertainment it gives.
As to Instruction and Morality, the Piece is full of
both. It shews Virtue in the strongest Light, and renders the Practice
of it amiable and lovely.
xi
The beautiful Sufferer keeps it ever in her View, without the least
Ostentation, or Pride; she has it so strongly implanted in her, that
thro’ the whole Course of her Sufferings, she does not so much as
hesitate once, whether she shall sacrifice it to Liberty and Ambition,
or not; but, as if there were no other way to free and save herself,
carries on a determin’d Purpose to persevere in her Innocence, and wade
with it throughout all Difficulties and Temptations, or perish under
them. It is an astonishing
Matter, and well worth our most serious Consideration, that a young
beautiful Girl, in the low Scene of Life and Circumstance in which
Fortune placed her, without the Advantage of a Friend capable to relieve
and protect her, or any other Education than what occurr’d to her from
her own Observation and little Reading, in the Course of her Attendance
on her excellent Mistress and Benefactress, could, after having a Taste
of Ease and Plenty in a higher Sphere of Life than what she was born and
first brought up in, resolve to return to her primitive Poverty, rather
than give up her Innocence. I say, it is surprising, that a
young Person, so circumstanced, could, in Contempt of proffer’d Grandeur
on the one side, and in Defiance of Penury on the other, so happily and
prudently conduct herself thro’ such a Series of Perplexities and
Troubles, and withstand the alluring Baits, and almost irresistible
Offers of a fine Gentleman, so universally admired and esteemed, for the
Agreeableness of his Person and good Qualities, among all his
Acquaintance; defeat all his Measures with so much Address, and oblige
him, at last, to give over his vain Pursuit, and sacrifice his Pride and
Ambition to Virtue, and become the Protector of that Innocence which he
so long and so indefatigably labour’d to supplant: And all this without
ever having entertain’d the least previous
xii
Design or Thought for that Purpose: No Art used to inflame him, no
Coquetry practised to tempt or intice him, and no Prudery or Affectation
to tamper with his Passions; but, on the contrary, artless and
unpractised in the Wiles of the World, all her Endeavours, and even all
her Wishes, tended only to render herself as un-amiable as she could in
his Eyes: Tho’ at the same time she is so far from having any Aversion
to his Person, that she seems rather prepossess’d in his Favour, and
admires his Excellencies, whilst she condemns his Passion for her.
A glorious Instance of Self-denial! Thus her very Repulses became
Attractions: The more she resisted, the more she charm’d; and the very
Means she used to guard her Virtue, the more endanger’d it, by inflaming
his Passions: Till, at last, by Perseverance, and a brave and resolute
Defence, the Besieged not only obtain’d a glorious Victory over the
Besieger, but took him Prisoner too.
I am charmed with the beautiful Reflections she makes in the Course
of her Distresses; her Soliloquies and little Reasonings with herself,
are exceeding pretty and entertaining: She pours out all her Soul in
them before her Parents without Disguise; so that one may judge of, nay,
almost see, the inmost Recesses of her Mind. A pure clear Fountain
of Truth and Innocence; a Magazine of Virtue and unblemish’d
Thoughts!
I can’t conceive why you should hesitate a Moment as to the
Publication of this very natural and uncommon Piece. I could wish
to see it out in its own native Simplicity, which will affect and please
the Reader beyond all the Strokes of Oratory in the World; for those
will but spoil it: and, should you permit such a murdering Hand to be
laid upon it, to gloss and tinge it over with superfluous and needless
Decorations, which, like too
xiii
much Drapery in Sculpture and Statuary, will but encumber it; it may
disguise the Facts, mar the Reflections, and unnaturalize the Incidents,
so as to be lost in a Multiplicity of fine idle Words and Phrases, and
reduce our Sterling Substance into an empty Shadow, or rather
frenchify our English Solidity into Froth and
Whip-syllabub. No; let us have Pamela as Pamela wrote it;
in her own Words, without Amputation, or Addition. Produce her to us in
her neat Country Apparel, such as she appear’d in, on her intended
Departure to her Parents; for such best becomes her Innocence, and
beautiful Simplicity. Such a Dress will best edify and entertain. The
flowing Robes of Oratory may indeed amuse and amaze, but will never
strike the Mind with solid Attention.
In short, Sir, a Piece of this Kind is much wanted in the World,
which is but too much, as well as too early, debauched by pernicious
Novels. I know nothing Entertaining of that Kind that one
might venture to recommend to the Perusal (much less the Imitation) of
the Youth of either Sex: All that I have hitherto read, tends only to
corrupt their Principles, mislead their Judgments, and initiate them
into Gallantry, and loose Pleasures.
Publish then, this good, this edifying and instructive little Piece
for their sakes. The Honour of Pamela’s Sex demands Pamela
at your Hands, to shew the World an Heroine, almost beyond Example, in
an unusual Scene of Life, whom no Temptations, or Sufferings, could
subdue. It is a fine, and glorious Original, for the Fair to copy out
and imitate. Our own Sex, too, require it of you, to free us, in some
measure, from the Imputation of being incapable of the Impressions of
Virtue and Honour; and to
shew the Ladies, that we are not inflexible while they are
so.
xiv
In short, the Cause of Virtue calls for the Publication of such a
Piece as this. Oblige then, Sir, the concurrent Voices of both Sexes,
and give us Pamela for the Benefit of Mankind: And as I believe its Excellencies cannot
be long unknown to the World, and that there will not be a Family
without it; so I make no Doubt but every Family that has it, will be
much improv’d and better’d by it. ’Twill form the tender Minds of
Youth for the Reception and Practice of Virtue and Honour;
confirm and establish those of maturer Years on good and steady
Principles; reclaim the Vicious, and mend the Age in general; insomuch
that as I doubt not Pamela will become the bright Example and
Imitation of all the fashionable young Ladies of Great Britain;
so the truly generous Benefactor and Rewarder of her exemplary Virtue,
will be no less admired and imitated among the Beau Monde of our
own Sex. I am
Your affectionate Friend, &c.
xv
a
INTRODUCTION
TO THIS
Second Edition.
he
kind Reception which this Piece has met with from the Publick, (a large Impression having
been carried off in less than Three Months) deserves not only
Acknowlegdment,
but that some Notice should be taken of the Objections that have
hitherto come to hand against a few Passages in it, that
so the Work may be rendered as unexceptionable as possible, and, of
consequence, the fitter to answer the general Design of it; which is to
promote Virtue, and cultivate the Minds of the Youth of both
Sexes.
But Difficulties having
arisen from the different Opinions of Gentlemen, some of whom applauded
the very Things that others found Fault with, it was thought proper to
submit the Whole to the Judgment of a Gentleman of the most
distinguish’d Taste and Abilities; the Result of which will be seen in
the subsequent Pages.
xvi
We begin with the
following Letter, at the Desire of several Gentlemen, to whom, on a very
particular Occasion, it was communicated, and who wish’d to see it
prefixed to the New Edition. It was directed,
To the Editor of Pamela.
Dear Sir,
You
have agreeably deceiv’d me into a Surprize, which it will be as hard to
express, as the Beauties of Pamela.
Though I open’d this powerful little Piece with more Expectation than
from common Designs, of like Promise, because it came from your
Hands, for my Daughters, yet, who could have dreamt, he should
find, under the modest Disguise of a Novel, all the Soul
of Religion, Good-breeding, Discretion, Good-nature, Wit, Fancy, Fine
Thought, and Morality?---I have done nothing but read it to others,
and hear others again read it, to me, ever since it came into my Hands;
and I find I am likely to do nothing else, for I know not how long yet
to come: because, if I lay the Book down, it comes after me.——When it has dwelt all Day long upon the
Ear, It takes Possession, all Night, of the Fancy.——It has Witchcraft in every Page of it: but
it is the Witchcraft of Passion and Meaning. Who is there that will not
despise the false, empty Pomp of the Poets, when he observes in
this little, unpretending, mild Triumph of Nature, the whole
Force of Invention and Genius, creating new Powers of Emotion, and
transplanting Ideas of Pleasure into that unweeded low
Garden the
xvii
a2
Heart, from the dry and sharp Summit of Reason?
Yet, I confess, there is One,
in the World, of whom I think with still greater Respect, than of Pamela: and That is, of the wonderful AUTHOR of Pamela.——Pray, Who is he, Dear Sir? and where, and
how, has he been able to hide, hitherto, such an encircling and
all-mastering Spirit? He possesses every Quality that Art could have charm’d by: yet, has lent it to, and
conceal’d it in, Nature.——The Comprehensiveness of his Imagination
must be truly prodigious!——It
has stretch’d out this diminutive mere Grain of
Mustard-seed, (a poor Girl’s little, innocent, Story) into a
Resemblance of That Heaven, which the Best of Good Books has
compar’d it to.——All the
Passions are His, in their most close and abstracted Recesses: and by
selecting the most delicate, and yet, at the same time, most powerful,
of their Springs, thereby to act, wind, and manage, the Heart, He
moves us, every where, with the Force of a Tragedy.
What is there, throughout the
Whole, that I do not sincerely admire!——I admire, in it, the strong
distinguish’d Variety, and picturesque glowing Likeness to Life,
of the Characters. I know, hear, see, and live among ’em All: and,
if I cou’d paint, cou’d return you their Faces. I admire, in
it, the noble Simplicity, Force, Aptness, and Truth, of so many modest,
œconomical, moral, prudential, religious, satirical, and cautionary,
Lessons; which are introduc’d with such seasonable Dexterity, and
with so polish’d and exquisite a Delicacy, of Expression and Sentiment,
that I am only apprehensive, for the Interests of Virtue,
lest some of the finest, and most touching, of those
xviii
elegant Strokes of Good-breeding, Generosity, and Reflection, shou’d be
lost, under the too gross Discernment of an unfeeling Majority of
Readers; for whose Coarseness, however, they were kindly design’d, as
the most useful and charitable Correctives.
One of the best-judg’d Peculiars, of
the Plan, is, that These Instructions being convey’d, as in a Kind of
Dramatical Representation, by those beautiful Scenes, Her own
Letters and Journals, who acts the most moving and suffering
Part, we feel the Force in a threefold Effect,——from the Motive, the Act, and the
Consequence.
But what, above All, I am charm’d
with, is the amiable Good-nature of the Author; who, I am convinc’d, has one of the
best, and most generous Hearts, of Mankind: because, mis-measuring
other Minds, by His Own, he can draw Every thing, to
Perfection, but Wickedness.——I became inextricably in Love
with this delightful Defect of his Malice;—for, I found it
owing to an Excess in his Honesty. Only observe, Sir, with
what virtuous Reluctance he complies with the Demands of his
Story, when he stands in need of some blameable Characters. Tho’ his
Judgment compels him to mark ’em with disagreeable Colourings, so that
they make an odious Appearance at first, He can’t forbear, by an
unexpected and gradual Decline from Themselves, to soften and transmute
all the Horror conceiv’d for their Baseness, till we are arriv’d,
through insensible Stages, at an Inclination to forgive it intirely.
I must venture to add, without
mincing the matter, what I really believe, of this Book.---It will live
on, through Posterity, with such unbounded Extent of Good Consequences,
that
xix
a3
Twenty Ages to come may be the Better and Wiser, for its Influence. It
will steal first, imperceptibly, into the Hearts of the Young and
the Tender: where It will afterwards guide and moderate their
Reflections and Resolves, when grown Older. And so, a gradual moral
Sunshine, of un-austere and compassionate Virtue, shall break out
upon the World, from this Trifle
(for such, I dare answer for the Author, His Modesty
misguides him to think it).——No
Applause therefore can be too high, for such Merit. And,
let me abominate the contemptible Reserves of mean-spirited Men,
who while they but hesitate their Esteem, with Restraint, can be
fluent and uncheck’d in their Envy.——In an Age so deficient in Goodness, Every
such Virtue, as That of this Author, is a salutary Angel, in
Sodom. And One who cou’d stoop to conceal, a Delight
he receives from the Worthy, wou’d be equally capable of
submitting to an Approbation of the Praise of the
Wicked.
I was thinking, just now, as I
return’d from a Walk in the Snow, on that Old Roman
Policy, of Exemptions in Favour of Men, who had given a few, bodily,
Children to the Republick.——What
superior Distinction ought our Country, to find (but that Policy and We are at
Variance) for Reward of this Father, of Millions of Minds, which are to owe new Formation to the
future Effect of his Influence!
Upon the whole, as I never met with
so pleasing, so honest, and so truly deserving a Book, I shou’d
never have done, if I explain’d All my Reasons for admiring its
Author.——If it is not a
Secret, oblige me so far as to tell me his Name: for since
I feel him the Friend of my Soul, it would be a
xx
Kind of Violation to retain him a Stranger.——I am not able to thank you enough, for
this highly acceptable Present. And, as for my Daughters, They have
taken into their Own Hands the Acknowledgment due from their Gratitude.
I am,
Dear Sir,
Your, &c.
Dec. 17, 1740.
Abstract of a second Letter from the same Gentleman.
---No Sentiments which I have here, or
in my last, express’d, of the sweet Pamela, being more than the
bare Truth, which every Man must feel, who lends his Ear to the
inchanting Prattler, why does the Author’s Modesty mislead his Judgment,
to suspect the Style wants Polishing?---No, Sir, there is an
Ease, a natural Air, a dignify’d
Simplicity, and measured Fullness, in it, that, resembling Life,
outglows it! He has reconciled the Pleasing to the Proper.
The Thought is every-where exactly cloath’d by the
Expression: And becomes its Dress as roundly, and as close, as
Pamela her Country-habit. Remember, tho’ she put it on with
humble Prospect, of descending to the Level of her Purpose, it
adorn’d her, with such unpresum’d Increase of Loveliness;
sat with such neat Propriety of Elegant Neglect about her, that it threw
out All her Charms, with tenfold, and resistless Influence.---And so,
dear Sir, it will be always found.---When modest Beauty seeks to hide
itself by casting off the Pride of Ornament, it but
displays itself without a Covering: And so, becoming more
distinguished, by its Want of
xxi
a4
Drapery, grows stronger, from its purpos’d
Weakness.
There were formed by an
anonymous Gentleman, the following Objections to some Passages in the
Work.
1. That the Style ought to be a little raised, at least so soon as
Pamela knows the Gentleman’s Love is honourable, and when his Diffidence is changed
to Ease: And from about the fourth Day after Marriage, it should be
equal to the Rank she is rais’d to, and charged to fill becomingly.
2. That to avoid the Idea apt to be join’d with the Word
’Squire, the Gentleman should be styled Sir James; or Sir
John, &c. and Lady Davers in a new Edition might
procure for him the Title of a Baronet.
3. That if the sacred Name were seldomer repeated, it would be
better; for that the Wise Man’s Advice is, Be not righteous
over-much.
4. That the Penance which Pamela suffers from Lady
Davers might be shorten’d: That she is too timorous after owning
her Marriage to that Lady, and ought to have a little more Spirit, and
get away sooner out at the
Window, or call her own Servants to protect, and carry her to her
Husband’s Appointment.
5. That Females are too apt to be struck with Images of Beauty; and
that the Passage where the Gentleman is said to span the Waist of
Pamela with his Hand, is enough to ruin a Nation of Women by
Tight-lacing.
6. That the Word naughty had better be changed to some other,
as Bad, Faulty, Wicked, Vile,
Abominable, Scandalous: Which in most Places would
xxii
give an Emphasis, for which recourse must otherwise be had to the
innocent Simplicity of the Writer; an Idea not necessary to the Moral of
the Story, nor of Advantage to the Character of the Heroine.
7. That the Words, p. 305. Foolish Thing that I am, had
better be Foolish that I am. The same Gentleman observes by way
of Postscript, that Jokes are often more severe, and do more
Mischief, than more solid Objections; and would have one or two Passages
alter’d, to avoid giving Occasion for the Supposition of a double
Entendre, particularly in two Places which he mentions, viz.
p. 175. and 181.
He is pleased to take notice of several other Things of less Moment,
some of which are merely typographical; and very kindly expresses, on
the Whole, a high Opinion of the Performance, and thinks it may do
a great deal of Good: For all which, as well as for his Objections, the
Editor gives him very sincere Thanks.
Others are of Opinion, That the Scenes in many Places, in the Beginning
especially, are too low; and that the Passions of Lady Davers,
in particular, are carried too high, and above Nature.
And others have intimated, That Pamela ought, for Example sake,
to have discharg’d Mrs. Jewkes from her Service.
These are the most material Objections that have come to hand, all which
are considered in the following Extracts
from some of the most beautiful Letters that have been written in any Language:
The Gentleman’s Advice, not to alter Pamela at all, was both
friendly, and solidly just. I run in, with full Sail, to his
Anchorage, that the low Scenes are no more out of Nature, than the
xxiii
a5
high Passions of proud Lady Davers. Out of Nature, do they say?
’Tis my Astonishment how Men of Letters can read with such absent
Attention! They are so far from Out of Nature, They are
absolute Nature herself! or, if they must be confess’d her
Resemblance; they are such a Resemblance, at least, as our
true Face gives our Face in the Looking-glass.
I wonder indeed, what it is, that the Gentlemen, who talk of Low
Scenes, wou’d desire should be understood by the Epithet?---Nothing,
properly speaking, is low, that suits well with the Place it is
rais’d to.----The Passions of Nature are the same, in the Lord,
and his Coach-man. All, that makes them seem different consists
in the Degrees, in the Means, and the Air, whereto
or wherewith they indulge ’em. If, in painting Distinctions like these,
(which arise but from the Forms of Men’s Manners, drawn from
Birth, Education, and Custom) a Writer
falls short of his Characters, there his Scene is a low one,
indeed, whatever high Fortune it flatter’d. But, to imagine that Persons
of Rank are above a Concern for what is thought, felt, or acted, by
others, of their Species, between whom and themselves is no
Difference, except such as was owing to Accident, is to reduce Human
Nature to a Lowness,--too low for the Truth of her
Frailty.--
In Pamela, in particular, we owe All to her Lowness. It is
to the docile Effects of this Lowness of that amiable Girl, in
her Birth, her Condition, her Hopes, and her Vanities, in every thing,
in short, but her Virtue,---that her Readers are indebted, for
the moral Reward, of that Virtue. And if we are to look
for the Low among the Rest of the Servants, less lovely tho’
xxiv
they are, than a Pamela, there is something however, so glowingly
painted, in the Lines whereby the Author has mark’d their
Distinctions----Something, so movingly forceful, in the Grief at
their Parting, and Joy at the happy Return,---Something so
finely, at once, and so strongly and feelingly, varied, even in
the smallest and least promising, little Family Incidents! that I need
only appeal from the Heads, to the Hearts of the Objectors
themselves, whether these are low Scenes to be censur’d?
And as for the opposite Extreme they wou’d quarrel with, the
high-passion’d, and un-tam’d Lady Davers,---I cou’d direct
’em to a Dozen or two of Quality Originals, from whom (with
Exception perhaps of her Wit) one wou’d swear the Author had
taken her Copy.---What a Sum might these Objectors ensure, to be paid,
by the Husbands and Sons, of such termagant, hermaphrodite
Minds, upon their making due Proof, that they were no longer to be
found, in the Kingdom!
I know, you are too just to imagine me capable of giving any other
Opinion than my best-weigh’d and true one. But, because it is fit you
should have Reasons, in Support of a Judgment that can neither
deserve nor expect an implicit Reception, I will run over the
Anonymous Letter I herewith return you; and note with what Lightness
even Men of good-natur’d Intention fall into Mistakes, by
Neglect in too hasty Perusals, which their Benevolence wou’d take
Pleasure in blushing at, when they discover their Weakness, in a cooler
Revisal.
The Writer of this Letter is for having the Style rais’d, after
Pamela’s Advance in her Fortune. But surely, This was hasty
Advice:
xxv
a6
because, as the Letters are writ to her Parents, it wou’d have look’d
like forgetting, and, in some sort, insulting, the Lowliness of their
inferior Condition, to have assum’d a new Air in her Language, in Place
of retaining a steady Humility. But, here, it must not be pass’d
unobserv’d, that in her Reports of Conversations that follow’d her
Marriage, she does, aptly and beautifully, heighten her Style,
and her Phrases: still returning however to her decent Simplicity, in
her Addresses to her Father and Mother.
I am against giving a Gentleman (who has ennobled himself, by reforming
his Vices, and rewarding the Worth of the Friendless) the
unnecessary new Toy of a Title. It is all strong in Nature, as it
stands in the Letters: and I don’t see how Greatness, from Titles, can
add Likeness or Power, to the Passions. So complete a Resemblance of
Truth stands in need of no borrow’d Pretensions.
The Only of this Writer’s Objections, which, I think, carries
Weight, is That, which advises some little Contraction of the
Prayers, and Appeals to the Deity. I say little Contraction:
for they are nobly and sincerely pathetic. And I say it only in Fear,
lest, if fansied too long, by the fashionably Averse to the
Subject, Minds, which most want the purpos’d Impression, might
hazard the Loss of its Benefit, by passing over those
pious Reflections, which, if shorter, would catch their Attention.
Certainly, the Gentleman’s Objection against the Persecution that
Pamela suffers from lady Davers, in respect to the
Relation this Madwoman bears to the Brother, is the rashest of All his Advices!
And when he thinks she ought rather
xxvi
to have assum’d the Protection of her Servants, he seems unaware of the
probable Consequence; where there was a Puppy, of Quality, in the
Case, who had, even without Provocation, drawn his Sword on the poor
passive Pamela. Far from bearing a
Thought of exciting an abler Resentment, to the Danger of a Quarrel with
so worthless a Coxcomb, how charmingly natural, apprehensive, and
generous, is her Silence (during the Recital she makes of her
Sufferings) with regard to this masculine Part of the Insult! as
also her Prevention of Mrs. Jewkes’s less delicate Bluntness,
when she was beginning to complain of the whelp Lord’s Impertinence!
If I were not afraid of a Pun, I shou’d tell the anonymous
Letter-writer, that he made a too tight-laced Objection, where he
quarrels with the spann’d Waist of Pamela. What, in the Name of
Unshapeliness! cou’d he find, to complain of, in a beautiful Girl of
Sixteen, who was born out of Germany, and had not, yet, reach’d
ungraspable Roundness!——These are wonderful Sinkings from Purpose,
where a Man is considering such mental, and passionate Beauties, as this
Gentleman profess’d to be touch’d by!
But, when he goes on, to object against the Word naughty, (as
apply’d in the Phrase naughty Master) I grow mortified, in Fear for our human Sufficiency,
compar’d with our Aptness to blunder! For, here, ’tis plain, this
Director of Another’s Discernment is quite blind, Himself, to an
Elegance, one wou’d have thought it impossible not to be
struck by?---Faulty, wicked, abominable, scandalous, (which are the
angry Adjectives, he prefers to that sweet one) wou’d have carried Marks
of her Rage, not Affliction—whereas
xxvii
naughty contains, in One single significant Petulance, twenty thousand
inexpressible Delicacies!---It insinuates, at once, all the beautiful
Struggle, between her Contempt of his Purpose, and tender Regard for his
Person; her Gratitude to Himself and his Family; her Recollection of his
superior Condition.—There is in the elegant Choice of this
half-kind, half-peevish, Word, a never-enough to be prais’d
speaking Picture of the Conflict betwixt her Disdain, and her Reverence!
See, Sir, the Reason I had,
for apprehending some Danger that the refin’d Generosity in many of the
most charming of the Sentiments wou’d be lost, upon the too
coarse Conception of some, for whose Use the Author intended
them.
It is the same Case again, in foolish Thing that I am! which this
nice, un-nice,
Gentleman wou’d advise you to change, into foolish that I am! He
does not seem to have tasted the pretty Contempt of Herself, the
submissive Diminutive, so distant from Vanity, yet allayed by the
gentle Reluctance in Self-condemnation ;---and the other fine Touches of Nature: which wou’d All
have been lost, in the grave, sober Sound of his Dutch
Emendation.
As to his Paragraph in
Postscript, I shall say the less of it, because the
Gentleman’s own good Sense seems to confess, by the Place he has chosen
to rank it in, that it ought to be turn’d out of Doors, as too
dirty for the rest of his Letter.—— In the Occasions he is pleas’d to discover for Jokes,
I either find not, that he has any Signification at all, or such
vulgar, coarse-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, that
not to understand what he means, is both the cleanliest, and
prudentest Way of confuting him.
xxviii
And now, Sir, you will easily gather how far I am from thinking it
needful to change any thing in Pamela. I would not scratch
such a beautiful Face, for the Indies!
You can hardly imagine how
it charms me to hear of a Second Edition already! but the News of still
new upon new ones, will be found no Subject of Wonder. As ’tis sure,
that no Family is without Sisters, or Brothers, or Daughters, or Sons,
who can read; or wants Fathers, or Mothers, or Friends, who can
think; so equally certain it is, that the Train to a Parcel of
Powder does not run on with more natural Tendency, till it sets the
whole Heap in a Blaze, than that Pamela, inchanting from Family
to Family, will overspread all the Hearts of the Kingdom.
As to the Objection of those warm Friends to Honesty, who are for
having Pamela dismiss Mrs. Jewkes; there is not One, among
All these benevolent Complainers, who wou’d not discern himself to have
been, laudably, in the wrong, were he only to be ask’d
this plain Question---Whether a Step, both ill-judg’d, and undutiful,
had not been the Reverse of a Pamela’s
Character?---Two or three times over, Mr. B—— had inform’d her, that Mrs.
Jewkes and Himself having been equally involv’d in One
Guilt, she must forgive, or condemn, Both together. After
this, it grew manifest Duty not to treat her with Marks of
Resentment.---And, as here was a visible Necessity to appear not
desirous of turning her away, so, in point of mere Moral Regard
to the bad Woman Herself, it was nobler, to retain her, with a Prospect
of correcting, in Time, her loose Habit of thinking, than, by casting
her off, to the licentious Results of her Temper, abandon
xxix
her to Temptations and Danger, which a Virtue like Pamela’s cou’d not wish her expos’d to.
The Manner in which
this admirable Gentleman gives his Opinion of the Piece, and runs thro’
the principal Characters, is so masterly, that the Readers of
Pamela will be charm’d by it, tho’ they should suppose, that
his inimitable Benevolence has over-valu’d the Piece
itself.
Inspir’d, without doubt, by some Skill, more than human, and
comprehending in an humble, and seemingly artless, Narration,
a Force that can tear up the Heart-strings, this Author has
prepar’d an enamouring Philtre for the Mind, which will excite
such a Passion for Virtue, as scarce to leave it in the Power of
the Will to neglect her.
Longinus, I remember, distinguishing by what Marks we may
know the Sublime, says, it is chiefly from an Effect that will
follow the Reading it: a delightfully-adhering Idea, that clings
fast to the Memory; and from which it is difficult for a Man to
disengage his Attention.---If this is a Proof of the
Sublime, there was never Sublimity so lastingly felt, as
in Pamela!
Not the Charmer’s own prattling Idea stuck so close to the Heart of her
Master, as the Incidents of her Story to the Thoughts of a Reader.---The
Author transports, and transforms, with a Power more extensive than
Horace requires, in his Poet!---
Mr. B——, and the Turns of
his Passions---and the Softness, yet Strength, of their amiable
Object---after having given us the most masterly Image of Nature, that
ever was painted!
xxx
take Possession of, and dwell in, the Memory.
And there, too, broods the kind and the credulous Parson Williams’s Dove, (without serpentine
Mixture) hatching Pity and Affection, for an Honesty so sincere, and so
silly!
There too, take their Places All the lower Supports of this
beautiful Fabrick.---
I am sometimes transform’d into plain Goodman Andrews, and sometimes the good Woman, his Wife.
As for old Mr. Longman, and Jonathan, the Butler, they are sure of me both, in
their Turns.
Now and-then, I am Colbrand the
Swiss: but, as broad as I stride, in that
Character, I can never escape Mrs. Jewkes: who often keeps me awake in the Night---
Till the Ghost of Lady Davers, drawing
open the Curtains, scares the Scarer, of me, and of Pamela!---
And, then, I take Shelter with poor penitent John, and the rest of the Men and the
Maids, of all whom I may say, with compassionate Marcia,
————The
YouthsDIVIDE their Reader.
And this fine
Writer adds:
I am glad I made War, in my last, upon the Notion of altering the Style:
for, having read it twice over since then, (and to Audiences, where the
Tears were applausively eloquent) I could hardly, here and
there, find a Place, where one Word can be chang’d for a better.
There are some indeed, where ’twere possible to leave out,
a few, without making a Breach in the Building. But,
xxxi
in short, the Author has put so bewitching a Mixture together, of the
Rais’d with the Natural, and the Soft with the
Strong and the Eloquent---thatnever Sentiments were finer,
and fuller of Life! never any were utter’d so sweetly!---Even in what
relates to the pious and frequent Addresses to God, I now retract
(on these two last Revisals) the Consent I half gave, on a
former, to the anonymous Writer’s Proposal, who advis’d the
Author to shorten those Beauties.——Whoever considers his Pamela with a
View to find Matter for Censure, is in the Condition of a passionate
Lover, who breaks in upon his Mistress, without Fear or Wit, with Intent
to accuse her, and quarrel---He came to her with Pique in his Purpose;
but his Heart is too hard for his Malice---and he goes
away more enslav’d, for complaining.
The following
delightful Story, so admirably related, will give great Pleasure to the
Reader; and we take the Liberty of inserting it, for that very
Reason.
What a never-to-be satisfied
Length has this Subject always the Power of attracting me into!
And yet, before I have done, I must by your means tell the Author a
Story, which a Judge not so skilful in Nature as he is, might be
in Danger perhaps of mistaking, for a trifling and silly one.
I expect it shou’d give him the clearest Conviction, in a Case he
is subject to question.
We have a lively little Boy
in the Family, about seven Years old---but, alas for him, poor Child!
quite unfriended; and born to no Prospect. He is the Son of an honest,
poor Soldier, by a Wife, grave, unmeaning, and innocent. Yet the Boy,
(see the Power of connubial Simplicity)
xxxii
is so pretty, so genteel, and gay-spirited, that we have made him, and
design’d him, our own, ever since he could totter, and waddle.
The wanton Rogue is half Air: and every Motion he acts by has a Spring,
like Pamela’s when she threw down the Card-table. All this
Quickness, however, is temper’d by a good-natur’d Modesty: so that the
wildest of his Flights are thought rather diverting than troublesome. He
is an hourly Foundation for Laughter, from the Top of the House to the
Parlours: and, to borrow an Attribute from the Reverend Mr.
Peters, (tho’ without any Note of his Musick) plays a very
good Fiddle in the Family.
I have told you the History of this Tom-tit of a Prater,
because, ever since my first reading of Pamela, he puts in for a Right to be one of
her Hearers; and, having got half her Sayings by heart, talks in no
other Language but hers: and, what really surprises, and has charm’d me
into a certain Fore-taste of her Influence, he is, at once,
become fond of his Book; which (before) he cou’d never be brought to
attend to---that he may read Pamela, he says, without stopping. The first
Discovery we made of this Power over so unripe and unfix’d an Attention,
was, one Evening, when I was reading her Reflections at the Pond
to some Company. The little rampant Intruder, being kept out by the
Extent of the Circle, had crept under my Chair, and was sitting before
me, on the Carpet, with his Head almost touching the Book, and his Face
bowing down toward the Fire.---He had sat for some time in this Posture,
with a Stillness, that made us conclude him asleep: when, on a sudden,
we heard a Succession of heart-heaving Sobs; which while he strove to
xxxiii
conceal from our Notice, his little Sides swell’d, as if they wou’d
burst, with the throbbing Restraint of his Sorrow. I turn’d his
innocent Face, to look toward me; but his Eyes were quite lost, in his
Tears: which running down from his Cheeks in free Currents, had
form’d two sincere little Fountains, on that Part of the Carpet he hung
over. All the Ladies in Company were ready to devour him with Kisses:
and he has, since, become doubly a Favourite---and is perhaps the
youngest of Pamela’s Converts.
The same incomparable
Writer has favour’d us with an Objection,
that is more material than
any we have mention’d; which cannot be better stated nor
answer’d, than in his own beautiful Words; viz.
An Objection is come into my Thoughts, which I should be glad the Author
would think proper to obviate in the Front of the Second Edition.
There are Mothers, or Grandmothers, in all Families of affluent Fortune,
who, tho’ they may have none of Lady Davers’s Insolence,
will be apt to feel one of her Fears,---that the Example of a
Gentleman so amiable as Mr. B--- may be follow’d, by the Jackies,
their Sons, with too blind and unreflecting a Readiness. Nor does
the Answer of that Gentleman to his Sister’s Reproach come quite up to
the Point they will rest on. For, tho’ indeed it is true, all the World
wou’d acquit the best Gentleman in it, if he married such a
Waiting-maid as Pamela, yet, there is an ill-discerning
Partiality, in Passion, that will overthrow all the Force of that
Argument: because every belov’d Maid will be Pamela, in a Judgment obscur’d by her Influence.
xxxiv
And, since the Ground of this Fear will seem solid, I don’t
know how to be easy, till it is shewn (nor ought it to be left to the
Author’s Modesty) that they who consider his Design in that Light will
be found but short-sighted Observers.
Request it of him then to suffer it to be told them, that not a limited,
but general, Excitement to Virtue was the first and great End to his
Story: And that this Excitement must have been deficient, and very
imperfectly offer’d, if he had not look’d quite as low as he
cou’d for his Example: because if there had been any Degree or
Condition, more remote from the Prospect than that which he had chosen
to work on, that Degree might have seem’d out of Reach of the Hope,
which it was his generous Purpose to encourage.---And, so, he was under
an evident Necessity to find such a Jewel in a Cottage:
and expos’d, too, as she was, to the severest Distresses of Fortune,
with Parents unable to support their own Lives, but from the daily hard
Product of Labour.
Nor wou’d it have been sufficient to have plac’d her thus low and
distressful, if he had not also suppos’d her a Servant:
and that too in some elegant Family; for if she had always remain’d a
Fellow-cottager with her Father, it must have carried an Air of
Romantick Improbability to account for her polite Education.
If she had wanted those Improvements, which she found means to
acquire in her Service, it wou’d have been very unlikely, that
she shou’d have succeeded so well; and had destroy’d one great
Use of the Story, to have allow’d such uncommon Felicity to the
Effect of mere personal Beauty.---And
xxxv
it had not been judicious to have represented her as educated in
a superior Condition of Life with the proper Accomplishments, before she
became reduc’d by Misfortunes, and so not a Servant, but rather an
Orphan under hopeless Distresses---because Opportunities which had made
it no Wonder how she came to be so winningly qualified, wou’d have
lessen’d her Merit in being so. And besides, where had then been the
purpos’d Excitement of Persons in Pamela’s Condition of Life, by an Emulation of her
Sweetness, Humility, Modesty, Patience, and Industry, to attain some
faint Hope of arriving, in time, within View of her
Happiness?——And what a
delightful Reformation shou’d we see, in all Families, where the Vanity
of their Maids took no Turn toward Ambition to please, but
by such innocent Measures, as Pamela’s!
As it is clear, then, the Author was under a Necessity to suppose her a
Servant, he is not to be accountable for mistaken Impressions,
which the Charms he has given her may happen to make, on wrong Heads, or
weak Hearts, tho’ in Favour of Maids the Reverse of her Likeness.
What is it then (they may say) that the Lowness, and Distance of
Pamela’s Condition from the Gentleman’s who married her, proposes
to teach the Gay World, and the Fortunate?---It is
this---By Comparison with that infinite Remoteness of her Condition
from the Reward which her Virtue procur’d her, one great Proof is
deriv’d, (which is Part of the Moral of Pamela) that Advantages from Birth, and
Distinction of Fortune, have no Power at all, when consider’d
against those from Behaviour, and Temper of Mind: because
where the Last are not added, all
xxxvi
the First will be boasted in vain. Whereas she who possesses the
Last finds no Want of the First, in her Influence.
In that Light alone let the Ladies of Rank look at Pamela.---Such an alarming Reflection as that
will, at the same time that it raises the Hope and Ambition of the
Humble, correct and mortify the Disdain of the Proud. For
it will compel them to observe, and acknowledge, that ’tis the Turn of
their Mind, not the Claims of their Quality, by which (and
which only) Womens Charms can be lasting: And that, while the haughty
Expectations, inseparable from an elevated Rank, serve but to
multiply its Complaints and Afflictions, the Condescensions of
accomplish’d Humility, attracting Pity, Affection, and Reverence,
secure an hourly Increase of Felicity.---So that the moral
Meaning of Pamela’s Good-fortune,
far from tempting young Gentlemen to marry such Maids as are
found in their Families, is, by teaching Maids to deserve to be
Mistresses, to stir up Mistresses to support their
Distinction.
We shall only add,
That it was intended to prefix two neat Frontispieces to this
Edition, (and to present them to the Purchasers of the first) and one
was actually finished for that Purpose; but there not being Time for the
other, from the Demand for the new Impression; and the Engraving Part of
that which was done (tho’ no Expence was spared) having fallen very
short of the Spirit of the Passages they were intended to represent, the
Proprietors were advised to lay them aside. And were the rather induced
to do so, from the following Observation of a most ingenious Gentleman,
in a Letter to the Editor. “I am so jealous, says he, in
Behalf of our inward Idea
xxxvii
of Pamela’s Person, that I dread
any figur’d Pretence to Resemblance. For it will be pity to look
at an Air, and imagine it Hers, that does not carry some
such elegant Perfection of Amiableness, as will be sure to find place in
the Fancy.”
VERSES, sent to the Bookseller, for the Unknown Author of the beautiful new Piece
call’d PAMELA.
B
Lest be thy pow’rful Pen, whoe’er thou art,
Thou skill’d, great Moulder of the
master’d Heart!
Where hast thou lain conceal’d!---or why thought fit,
At this dire Period, to unveil thy Wit?
O! late befriended Isle! had this broad Blaze,
With earlier Beamings, bless’d our Fathers Days,
The Pilot Radiance, pointing out the Source,
Whence public Health derives its vital Course,
Each timely Draught some healing Power had shown,
Ere gen’ral Gangrene blacken’d, to the Bone.
But, fest’ring now, beyond all Sense of Pain,
’Tis hopeless: and the Helper’s Hand is vain.
Sweet Pamela! forever-blooming Maid!
Thou dear, unliving, yet immortal, Shade!
Why are thy Virtues scatter’d to the Wind?
Why are thy Beauties flash’d upon the Blind?
What, tho’ thy flutt’ring Sex might learn, from thee,
That Merit forms a Rank, above Degree?
That Pride, too conscious, falls, from ev’ry Claim,
While humble Sweetness climbs, beyond its Aim?
What, tho’ Religion, smiling from thy Eyes,
Shews her plain Power, and charms without
Disguise?
What, tho’ thy warmly-pleasing moral Scheme
Gives livelier Rapture, than the Loose can dream?
What, tho’ thou build’st, by thy persuasive Life,
Maid, Child, Friend, Mistress, Mother, Neighbour, Wife?
Tho’ Taste like thine each Void of Time, can fill,
Unsunk by Spleen, unquicken’d by Quadrille!
What, tho’ ’tis thine to bless the lengthen’d Hour!
Give Permanence to Joy, and Use to Pow’r?
Lend late-felt Blushes to the Vain and Smart?
And squeeze cramp’d Pity from the Miser’s Heart?
What, tho’ ’tis thine to hush the Marriage Breeze,
Teach Liberty to tire, and Chains to please?
Thine tho’, from Stiffness to divest Restraint,
And, to the Charmer, reconcile the Saint?
Tho’ Smiles and Tears obey thy moving Skill,
And Passion’s ruffled Empire waits thy Will?
Tho’ thine the fansy’d Fields of flow’ry Wit,
Thine, Art’s whole Pow’r, in Nature’s Language writ!
Thine, to convey strong Thought, with modest Ease,
And, copying Converse, teach its Style to
please?
Tho’ thine each Virtue, that a God cou’d lend?
Thine, ev’ry Help, that ev’ry Heart, can mend?
’Tis Thine in vain!——Thou wak’st a dying Land;
And lift’st departed Hope, with fruitless Hand:
Death has no Cure. Thou hast
mis-tim’d thy Aim;
Rome had her Goths: and
all, beyond, was Shame.
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Publications for the eighth year [1953-1954]
The notation [*] means that the title was apparently never published.
The Sarbiewski collection is currently in preparation for Project
Gutenberg. The song collection was published with the title
“...Songbooks”.
(At least six items, most of them from the following
list, will be reprinted.)
John Baillie: An Essay on the
Sublime (1747). Introduction by Samuel H. Monk.
Contemporaries of the Tatler and Spectator.
Introduction by Richmond P. Bond.
John Dart and George Ogle on Chaucer. Introduction by William
L. Alderson. [*]
John T. Desaguliers: The
Newtonian System of the World the Best Model of Government (1728).
Introduction by Marjorie H. Nicolson. [*]
Sale Catalogue of Mrs. Piozzi’s Effects (1816). Introduction
by John Butt. [*]
M. C. Sarbiewski: The Odes of
Casimire (1646). Introduction by Maren-Sofie Rœstvig.
Selections from Seventeenth-Century Songs. Introduction by
Jennifer W. Angel.
A Sermon Preached at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (1745).
[Probably by Samuel Johnson]. Introduction by James L. Clifford. [*]
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
Many of the listed titles are available from Project Gutenberg. Where
possible, links are included.
First Year (1946-1947)
Numbers 1-6 out of print.
Titles:
1.
Richard Blackmore’s Essay upon Wit (1716),
and Addison’s Freeholder No. 45 (1716).
2.
Anon., Essay on Wit (1748), together with Characters by Flecknoe,
and Joseph Warton’s Adventurer Nos. 127 and 133.
3.
Anon., Letter to A. H. Esq.; concerning the Stage (1698), and
Richard Willis’ Occasional Paper No. IX (1698).
4.
Samuel Cobb’s Of Poetry and Discourse
on Criticism (1707).
5.
Samuel Wesley’s Epistle to a Friend Concerning Poetry (1700)
and Essay on Heroic Poetry (1693).
6.
Anon., Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the Stage
(1704) and anon., Some Thoughts Concerning the Stage (1704).
Second Year (1947-1948)
7.
John Gay’s The Present State of Wit (1711); and a section on Wit
from The English Theophrastus (1702).
8.
Rapin’s De Carmine Pastorali, translated by Creech (1684).
9.
T. Hanmer’s (?) Some Remarks on the Tragedy of Hamlet (1736).
10.
Corbyn Morris’ Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit,
etc. (1744).
11.
Thomas Purney’s Discourse on the Pastoral (1717).
12.
Essays on the Stage, selected, with an Introduction by Joseph Wood
Krutch.
Third Year (1948-1949)
13.
Sir John Falstaff (pseud.), The Theatre (1720).
14.
Edward Moore’s The Gamester(1753).
15.
John Oldmixon’s Reflections on Dr. Swift’s Letter to Harley
(1712); and Arthur Mainwaring’s The British Academy (1712).
16.
Nevil Payne’s Fatal Jealousy (1673).
17.
Nicholas Rowe’s Some Account of the Life of Mr. William
Shakespeare (1709).
18.
“Of Genius,” in The Occasional Paper, Vol. III, No. 10
(1719); and Aaron Hill’s Preface to The Creation (1720).
Fourth Year (1949-1950)
19.
Susanna Centlivre’s The Busie Body (1709).
20.
Lewis Theobold’s Preface to The Works of Shakespeare (1734).
21. Critical Remarks on Sir Charles Grandison, Clarissa, and
Pamela (1754).
22.
Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and Two
Rambler papers (1750).
23.
John Dryden’s His Majesties Declaration Defended (1681).
24. Pierre Nicole’s An Essay on True and Apparent Beauty in Which
from Settled Principles is Rendered the Grounds for Choosing and
Rejecting Epigrams, translated by J. V. Cunningham.
Fifth Year (1950-1951)
25.
Thomas Baker’s The Fine Lady’s Airs (1709).
26.
Charles Macklin’s The Man of the World (1792).
27.
Frances Reynolds’ An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Taste, and
of the Origin of Our Ideas of Beauty, etc. (1785).
28.
John Evelyn’s An Apologie for the Royal Party (1659); and
A Panegyric to Charles the Second (1661).
29.
Daniel Defoe’s A Vindication of the Press (1718).
30.
Essays on Taste from John Gilbert Cooper’s Letters Concerning
Taste, 3rd edition (1757), & John Armstrong’s
Miscellanies (1770).
Sixth Year (1951-1952)
31.
Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard (1751); and
The Eton College Manuscript.
32.
Prefaces to Fiction; Georges de Scudéry’s Preface to Ibrahim
(1674), etc.
33.
Henry Gally’s A Critical Essay on Characteristic-Writings
(1725).
34. Thomas Tyers’ A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson
(1785).
35.
James Boswell, Andrew Erskine, and George Dempster. Critical
Strictures on the New Tragedy of Elvira, Written by Mr. David
Malloch (1763).
36.
Joseph Harris’s The City Bride (1696).
Seventh Year (1952-1953)
37.
Thomas Morrison’s A Pindarick Ode on Painting (1767).
38. John Phillips’ A Satyr Against Hypocrites (1655).
39. Thomas Warton’s A History of English Poetry.
40. Edward Bysshe’s The Art of English Poetry (1708).
41. Bernard Mandeville’s “A Letter to Dion” (1732).
42. Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances.
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