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Title: Pamela Censured
Author: Anonymous
Commentator: Charles Batten, Jr.
Release Date: September 16, 2010 [EBook #33735]
Language: English
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THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
PAMELA CENSURED
(_1741_)
_Introduction by_
CHARLES BATTEN, JR.
PUBLICATION NUMBER _175_
WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
_University of California, Los Angeles_
_1976_
GENERAL EDITORS
William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles
Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles
ADVISORY EDITORS
James L. Clifford, Columbia University
Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia
Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles
Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago
Louis A. Landa, Princeton University
Earl Miner, Princeton University
Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota
Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
James Sutherland, University College, London
H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Beverly J. Onley, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
INTRODUCTION
The publication of _Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded_ on 6 November 1740
occasioned the kind of immediate and hyperbolic praise which would have
turned the head of an author less vain than Richardson. Proclaimed by
Aaron Hill as being "the Soul of Religion," and by Knightley Chetwood as
the book next to the Bible which ought to be saved "if all the Books in
England were to be burnt," _Pamela_ seemed certain of universal acclaim,
especially when the Reverend Benjamin Slocock praised it extravagantly
from the pulpit of St. Saviour's in Southwark within two months of its
initial printing. Even the "Objections" voiced by several correspondents
and published at the beginning of the second edition of _Pamela_ (14
February 1741) seemed relatively inconsequential when weighed against
the _Gentleman's Magazine's_ assertion in January 1741 that every
Londoner with the slightest curiosity was reading _Pamela_.[1]
Literary and moral opposition to _Pamela_ gradually began to mount,
however. April 1741 saw the publication of the first and perhaps most
perceptive attacks on Richardson's novel: _An Apology for the Life of
Mrs. Shamela Andrews_ appeared on 2 April, followed by _Pamela Censured:
In a Letter to the Editor_ some twenty-three days later. While we now
feel certain that Henry Fielding wrote _Shamela_, the author of _Pamela
Censured_ has eluded us.[2] Though both works attack _Pamela_ on moral
grounds and incidentally make unflattering comments about Colley Cibber,
their literary methods differ so greatly that it is impossible to tell
whether or not _Shamela_ influenced _Pamela Censured_ to any extent.
Fielding's parody is too well known to be described in detail here.
Though his sophisticated wit lashes out in a number of directions, he
attacks _Pamela_ on primarily two fronts: in prefatory letters he
assails those who would praise Richardson's novel for its moral lessons,
while in the body of _Shamela_ he burlesques the psychological
motivations of Pamela herself, showing that she is motivated by
mercenary "vartue" rather than angelic virtue. In spite of its hasty
composition, _Shamela_ clearly displays a kind of literary charm and
insight that was soon to characterize _Joseph Andrews_ and _Tom Jones_.
Because it lacks Fielding's wit, _Pamela Censured_ is now almost
forgotten even though it elicited an even stronger response than
_Shamela_ from some of Richardson's defenders and detractors. The
"Introduction" to _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ (1741), for instance,
airily dismisses _Shamela's_ "low Humour adapted to the Standard of a
_petit Maitre's_ Capacity" which has been applauded only "among the Weak
and Vicious." By contrast, the same work devotes an entire four pages to
answering the various charges levelled by _Pamela Censured_ after first
attacking its author for giving readers "such an Idea of his own vicious
Inclination, that it would not ... wrong him to think the Shrieks of a
Woman in Labour would excite his Passions, and the Agonies of a dying
Woman enflame his Blood, and stimulate him to commit a Rape." Aaron
Hill, who had apparently ignored the publication of _Shamela_, angrily
conveyed to Richardson a rumor that _Pamela Censured_ was a bookseller's
contrivance written in order to promote sales among readers with
prurient interests. (Richardson, distressed over such a suggestion,
emphatically wrote "Quite mistaken!" in the margin of Hill's letter.)
But if this stratagem was not employed to boost sales in England, it
perhaps was used across the Channel, where _Pamela Censured_, under the
title _Pamela, Zedelyk Beoordeeld_, appeared in Holland some months
before a complete Dutch translation of Richardson's novel was ever
published.[3]
To Richardson's contemporaries, _Pamela Censured_ must consequently have
seemed a much more serious attack than _Shamela_. The humor of
Fielding's parody might be misinterpreted or at least dismissed as
"low"; in _Pamela Censured_, the rather personal attack on the author of
_Pamela_ and the precise censure of specific passages could not,
however, be misconstrued or ignored. Moreover, the critical principle
behind _Pamela Censured_ appears quite sound, at least on its most
simple level: _Pamela_ is bad because it violates what might be called a
literary "truth in labeling" law. Casting himself in the role of
"consumer advocate," the author of _Pamela Censured_ systematically
attempts to show that _Pamela_ fails to live up to the advertisement on
its title page:
a SERIES of FAMILIAR LETTERS FROM A Beautiful Young DAMSEL,
To her PARENTS. Now first Published in order 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 applying this test to _Pamela_, the author of _Pamela Censured_
displays a curious mixture of naiveté and sophistication. His first
attack involves a silly and perhaps consciously dishonest misreading of
the words "Now first Published" on _Pamela's_ title page. While this
phrase clearly means that Pamela's letters are now being published for
the first time, _Pamela Censured_ attacks _Pamela_ for claiming to be
the first work ever aimed at cultivating "the Principles of VIRTUE and
RELIGION in the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES." When _Pamela
Censured_ later assails _Pamela_ for not telling a true story, as the
title page advertises, it naively fails to understand that by the time
of _Pamela's_ publication the guise of telling a true story had
virtually become a fictional convention.
But when _Pamela Censured_ considers the implications of _Pamela's_
fictionality, it raises two valid literary problems, treating the first
in a cursory fashion and devoting to the second most of its space and
attention. If, as _Pamela Censured_ first of all asserts, the "editor"
of _Pamela_ is really the author, then all of the prefatory material in
_Pamela_ must be seen as proof of the author's immorality: he is a man
consumed by vanity. Secondly, this author must be convicted on even more
serious moral grounds: his fiction instructs readers to sin and enflames
those passions which he, as a moral man, should extinguish. Not only is
this a clear moral flaw in the author and in his book, but it also
blatantly contradicts the promises made on the title page.
In attacking _Pamela's_ morality, _Pamela Censured_ raises a problem
inherent in virtually all narrative fiction: stories inevitably lead
some readers to imitate the vicious characters rather than the virtuous
ones, in spite of any moral statements made by the author or any
punishments meted out at the end of the story. Even in "forbidding a
silly ostler to grease the horse's teeth," as Alithea says in _The
Country Wife_ (III, i), one may very easily teach him "to do't." Such
concerns, of course, are not new. From Plato and Horace to the
Neo-Humanists of the twentieth century, critics have dwelled in varying
degrees on the moral effects of literature. The eighteenth century,
reacting against the supposed immorality of the Restoration, often
emphasized the _utile_, losing sight of the _dulce_ in its criticism.
_Pamela Censured_ in its moral approach bears a striking similarity to
Jeremy Collier's _Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the
English Stage_ (1698): both virtually try to bludgeon to death literary
works for inciting immoral actions. In one respect, however, _A Short
View_ exercises a bit more control than does _Pamela Censured_. While
Collier refuses to quote directly from the offensive literature,
affirming that his intention is "rather to kill the _Root_ than
_Transplant_ it," the author of _Pamela Censured_ meticulously provides
his readers with a compendium of the so-called dirty parts of _Pamela_.
Such attention to the morality of literature, moreover, may easily
backfire. The anonymous author of _A Vindication of the Stage_ (1698)
concludes that Collier's "dwelling so long on the Subject of Debauchery,
argues something of Delight and Pleasure in the Case." Likewise, the
author of _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ sees the treatment of sexual
immodesty in _Pamela Censured_ as evidence of "how much of the Goat"
there is in the author's "Constitution."[4]
More importantly, however, _Pamela Censured_--as the first sustained
criticism of what is probably the first English novel--amasses much of
the moral ammunition which was to be fired at realistic novels during
the eighteenth century. Echoes of _Pamela Censured_ may, for instance,
be heard in Clara Reeve's _Progress of Romance_ (1785), where Hortensia
comments that in reading, "The seeds of vice and folly are sown in the
heart,--the passions are awakened,--false expectations are raised.--A
young woman is taught to expect adventures and intrigues." Euphrasia,
who expresses Clara Reeve's attitudes throughout the work, qualifies
this statement, pointing out that these ill effects come from reading
novels, but not romances.[5] Indeed, romances do not mislead readers
precisely because they are so removed from real life. Moreover,
romances morally instruct readers without hazarding the pitfalls
inherent in novels. Dr. John Gregory's _Comparative View_ (1765), for
instance, concludes that:
Notwithstanding the ridiculous extravagance of the old
Romance in many particulars, it seems calculated to produce
more favourable effects on the morals of Mankind, than our
modern Novels.--If the former did not represent men as they
really are, it represented them better; its Heroes were
patterns of courage, generosity, truth, humanity, and the
most exalted virtues. Its Heroines were distinguished for
modesty, delicacy, and the utmost dignity of manners.--The
latter [i.e., novels] represent Mankind too much what they
are, paint such scenes of pleasure and vice as are unworthy
to see the light, and thus in a manner hackney youth in the
ways of wickedness, before they are well entered into the
World; expose the fair sex in the most wanton and shameless
manner to the eyes of the world.[6]
Novels tend to "inflame the Passions and corrupt the Heart" of the
reader because they treat real life with all its sordid concerns: sex,
social status, pride, money, and the like. If the novel describes such
matters in a realistic fashion, "warm scenes" will inevitably creep into
it. As _Pamela Censured_ complains, men are inflamed by the description
of a woman's body, especially when she seems about to be ravished; women
are corrupted into believing they can seduce a man into a lucrative
marriage without any moral or physical danger. Novels, moreover, are
most likely to inflame and corrupt young readers, who lack experience
and who are frequently ruled by their passions.[7]
To a moral man like Richardson, the criticisms in _Pamela Censured_ must
have seemed painfully serious. The pamphlet virtually proclaims his
novel a total failure by showing that it tends "to _excite
Lasciviousness_"--not "the Principles of VIRTUE and RELIGION"--among its
readers. In addition, _Pamela_ is especially pernicious since its title
page advertises that it is written for the "YOUTH of BOTH SEXES,"
precisely those people who--according to _Pamela Censured_--must not
read this book. _Pamela Censured_ concludes with an appeal to the author
of _Pamela_ to emend or strike out entirely the offending passages from
his novel.
Richardson's revisions bear witness to the seriousness with which he
took such criticism. For the fifth edition (22 September, 1741), he
toned down the extravagant praises in the introductory letters, and for
the sixth edition (7 December 1741), he entirely omitted these letters,
substituting in their place a table of contents. The "warm scenes"
furthermore gradually began to loose their warmth. In the fifth edition,
Pamela now lies face down on the floor while Mr. B peeks through the
keyhole (Letter XV). _Pamela Censured_ had attacked the original passage
for exciting "Passions of Desire" by picturing Pamela stretched out on
the floor, presumably having collapsed on her back (p. 31). Richardson's
change indicates more about his sense of decorum and his attention to
_Pamela Censured_ than about his ignorance--as Eaves and Kimpel
imply--concerning sexual perversions.[8]
By the time Richardson's carefully corrected fourteenth edition appeared
in 1801, even more changes had crept into those passages which _Pamela
Censured_ found particularly objectionable. Mr. B no longer offers "to
take" Pamela "on his Knee, with some Force"; he now more modestly lifts
her up and offers "to set" her on his knee, without any mention of force
(Letter XV). While Mr. B originally "by Force Kissed" Pamela's "Neck and
Lips," he now simply kisses Pamela--no portion of her anatomy
mentioned--while she struggles against him (Letter XV). Likewise,
instead of passionately putting his hand in Pamela's bosom, Mr. B in the
revised version merely tries to kiss her neck (Letter XV) or continues
holding her in his arms (Letter XXV). Because of her lover's more modest
approach in Letter XXV, Pamela no longer breaks out "in a cold clammy
sweat." Pamela's reasons for not succumbing to Mr. B's advances (Letter
XIX), which _Pamela Censured_ found morally shoddy, are clarified
somewhat by the inclusion of a new moralizing passage concerning her
relation to Mr. B:
He may make me great offers, and may, perhaps, intend to
deck me out in finery, the better to gratify his own pride;
but I should be a wicked creature indeed, if, for the sake
of riches or favour, I should forfeit my good name; yea, and
worse than any other young body of my sex; because I can so
contentedly return to my poverty again, and think it less
disgrace to be obliged to live upon rye-bread and water, as
I used to do, than to be a harlot to the greatest man in the
world.
To make Pamela's moral purity even clearer, Richardson causes tears to
appear in Mrs. Jervis's eyes as she hears Pamela's virtuous
protestations. Though the reader originally watches Pamela pull off her
stays and "stockens," these details are now omitted (Letter XXV). Mr.
B's clothing loses some of its extravagance, his dressing gown no longer
being silver (Letter XXV) and his waistcoat no longer trimmed in gold
(Letter XXVII). Moreover, Mr. B exercises a bit more restraint (or at
least Pamela's descriptions seem a bit less ambiguous): while in the
first edition he comes to Pamela's bed, in the later version he simply
approaches her "bed-side" (Letter XV). For the fourteenth edition,
Richardson omits the "obscene ... double Entendre" in which Mr. B wishes
he could have Pamela "as Quick another Way" (Letter XXVII). In an almost
passive fashion, Mr. B releases Pamela from his clutches, "loosing his
arms with an air," while in the original version he obviously keeps a
passionate hold on her (Saturday Morning [37th day of confinement]).
During Mr. B's last attempt at rape, Pamela no longer offers up her
prayers "all undrest" (though she does have her underclothes in her
hand), and Mr. B no longer approaches her bed breathing "all quick and
short." Once the attempted rape is over and Pamela awakens from her
faint, she (in the revised version) does not speculate concerning "the
Liberties taken with her in her deplorable State" (Tuesday Night [40th
day of confinement]). Finally, Pamela is now less brazen when led by Mr.
B into the alcove where he proclaims his love. She now prudently
considers that she can safely go there for two reasons: the alcove has
"a passage through it" and Mr. B had already led her there "once without
stopping" (Wednesday Morning [41st day of confinement]).[9]
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.
_Pamela Censured_, nevertheless, casually makes a provocative comparison
which, if developed, might easily have thrown light on the artistic
reasons behind Pamela's morally questionable actions. In its opening
pages, _Pamela Censured_ indicates that _Pamela_, at least in its title,
is less "modest" than Chevalier de Mouhy's _La Paysanne parvenue_
(1735-37), published in English as _The Fortunate Country Maid. Being
the Entertaining Memoirs of the Present Celebrated Marchioness of L----
V----: Who from a Cottage, through a Great Variety of Diverting
Adventures, Became a Lady of the First Quality in the Court of France_
(1741). One can only wish that _Pamela Censured_ had developed its
comparison in a thorough and sophisticated fashion, indicating the moral
implications of the differences between these two stories.
_The Fortunate Country Maid_, first of all, bears a striking resemblance
to _Pamela_: in both works the heroines, almost identical in social
position, face similar trials and ultimately are rewarded in the same
fashion. A brief description of the plot of _The Fortunate Country Maid_
should adequately indicate these similarities to anyone already familiar
with _Pamela_. Jenny, the heroine of _The Fortunate Country Maid_, comes
from the lower social ranks, her father a common woodcutter in the
forest of Fountainbleau. The young Marquis of L---- V----, son of
Jenny's godfather, singles her out for his special attention because of
her beauty and charm. Though conscious of the social distinctions which
bar her marriage to the Marquis, Jenny nonetheless falls in love with
him, all the while uneasy that she might be "ruined." Her fears indeed
are not ill-founded. After learning social amenities in the household of
the Countess of N----, her godmother, Jenny embarks on a series of
trials, including an attempted rape, an offer to be set up as a kept
woman, threats of an arranged marriage, and even proposals for a
clandestine wedding. Held a virtual prisoner, Jenny ponders the
advisability of escape; ultimately she decides that it would be better
to forfeit her life rather than loose her reputation. One of her last
conflicts involves a menacing Swiss soldier who tries to take her into
his custody. When the Marquis appears to be on the point of death, Jenny
clearly recognizes the genuine depth of her love for him. At the
conclusion of the story, Jenny and the Marquis are married, the Marquis'
father finally accepting this unconventional alliance only after having
been convinced of Jenny's virtue. Everyone seems to live happily ever
after, including Jenny's parents, who move from their cottage to the
Estate de F---- A----, property which they will one day own. This
happiness, however, is tempered somewhat by the realization that Jenny
and the Marquis must carefully justify their marriage to the society in
which they live.
It is tempting, because of the obvious similarities between these two
works, to suggest that Richardson knew and was influenced by _The
Fortunate Country Maid_. On the other hand we perhaps should not doubt
Richardson's basic honesty when he says "I am not acquainted in the
least with the French Language or Writers: And that it was Chance and
not Skill or Learning, that made me fall into this way of
Scribbling."[10] In any event, these parallels must raise provocative
questions concerning Richardson's possible indebtedness to this work.
In spite of these overwhelming similarities, the plots of _Pamela_ and
_The Fortunate Country Maid_ fundamentally differ in one important
respect. In _Pamela_, Mr. B tries to rape the heroine; he offers to make
her his whore: he attempts to arrange for her a dishonorable marriage
with Parson Williams; and he ultimately weds her himself. In contrast,
the Marquis of L---- V---- stands virtually outside the action during
most of _The Fortunate Country Maid_. Jenny fends off a rape, but it is
attempted by Chevalier d'Elbieux; she rejects the position of a whore,
but it is offered by M. de G---- and his housekeeper (who incidentally
is much like Mrs. Jervis); she avoids an arranged marriage, but it is
proposed by M. de G---- and M. Gripart. Jenny does eventually, however,
marry the Marquis. Once the Chevalier d'Elbieux--villain of the first
part of the story--reforms and becomes a monk, the role of villain
devolves on the Marquis of L---- V----'s father, who tries to block at
all turns the impending marriage between his son and this peasant girl.
It is the elder Marquis who causes St. Fal to imprison Jenny, and it is
Jenny's plot to avoid the elder Marquis which causes her to be
threatened by the Colbrand-like Swiss. Throughout all this, the young
Marquis remains unblemished, his proposal of a clandestine marriage and
his excessive jealousy simply indicating his passionate love, not his
moral turpitude.
The implications of this important difference between Mr. B and the
Marquis of L---- V---- should be clear to us even if they were not to
the author of _Pamela Censured_. As Ralph Rader indicates in a recent
essay dealing with, among other things, the narrative form of _Pamela_:
"Richardson's chief problem in the novel is the need his form imposes to
make Mr. B. both a villain and a hero. B. must threaten Pamela and
threaten her increasingly, else our sense of her danger and the merit
which develops from her response to danger will not increase, as the
form requires, along lines that make her ultimate reward possible; but
the more directly and villainously he does threaten her, the less
acceptable he will appear as an ultimate and satisfactory reward for
her, something that the form requires also."[11] Jenny's reward, her
marriage to the Marquis of L---- V----, raises no serious moral
questions since the Marquis remains virtuous throughout the story.
Moreover, while Jenny carefully protects her chastity, she does not in
any sense seem motivated by mercenary desires since the preservation of
her chastity does not necessarily lead to her marriage with the Marquis.
Pamela's reward, on the other hand, is marriage to a vicious though
presumably reformed rake. The preservation of her chastity, furthermore,
seems motivated by mercenary goals. Finding herself in a situation where
she either looses her chastity and becomes Mr. B's whore or preserves
her chastity and becomes his wife, Pamela clearly chooses the more
profitable alternative.
The artistic success of _Clarissa_ undoubtedly reflects in part the
lesson Richardson learned from such moral attacks as _Pamela Censured_
and _Shamela_. While "warm scenes" remain in his second novel--as indeed
they must in any realistic portrayal of male-female
relations--Richardson continually tempers these scenes with clear
indications of Lovelace's vicious nature and careful forebodings of
Clarissa's tragic fate. Moreover, unlike Pamela, whose reward is
marriage to her would-be rapist, Clarissa escapes from her seducer,
achieving a morally unambiguous reward, her heroic death.
University of California
Los Angeles
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
[1] Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 17 December 1740, printed in
"Introduction to this Second Edition," _Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded_,
ed. T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1971), p. 9; Knightley Chetwood to Ralph Courteville, 27 January 1741,
cited in _Pamela_, ed. Eaves and Kimpel, p. vi; _Gentleman's Magazine_,
11 (1741), 56.
[2] For dates of publication, see T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel,
_Samuel Richardson: A Biography_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), pp.
127, 129; concerning Fielding's composition of _Shamela_, see Charles B.
Woods, "Fielding and the Authorship of _Shamela_," _PQ_, 25 (1946),
248-72.
[3] B. W., "Introduction," _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ (London: Ward
and Chandler, 1741), I, xii-xiii; Alan Dugald McKillop, _Samuel
Richardson: Printer and Novelist_ (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina
Press, 1936), p. 78; _The Richardson-Stinstra Correspondence and
Stinstra's Prefaces to Clarissa_, ed. William C. Slattery (Carbondale:
Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1969), pp. xxiii-xxiv.
[4] Collier, _A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the
English Stage_ (London: S. Keble, R. Sare, and H. Hindmarsh, 1698),
chap. I; _A Vindication of the Stage, with the Usefulness and Advantages
of Dramatick Representations_ (London: Joseph Wild, 1698), p. 6;
_Pamela's Conduct_, I, xiii.
[5] _The Progress of Romance and the History of Charoba, Queen of
AEgypt_ (1785; rpt. New York: Facsimile Text Society, 1930), II, 78.
[6] _A Comparative View of the State and Faculties of Man with Those of
the Animal World_ (London: J. Dodsley, 1765), pp. 138-39.
[7] As twentieth-century readers, we are probably more familiar
with--and more sympathetic to--the side that supported the ethical
superiority of novels over romances. Much of Catherine Moreland's
education in Jane Austen's _Northanger Abbey_ (1818), for instance,
involves her gradual realization of the inferiority of romances. Her
errors continue as long as she expects to lead a life like that of Emily
in Ann Radcliffe's _Mysteries of Udolpho_ (1794). Crucial to Catherine's
education is her discovery "that human nature, at least in the midland
counties of England," is not "to be looked for" in romances (chap. xxv).
Romances can be dangerous since they often provide faulty models of
moral action for readers who are likely to confuse romantic adventures
with the roles they must assume in real life. This attack on romances in
_Northanger Abbey_, moreover, is neither new nor unique, Catherine
Moreland being but the literary descendant of such eighteenth-century
"female quixotes" as Polly Peachum, Lydia Languish, Polly Honeycomb, and
Lydia Melford.
[8] Eaves and Kimpel, _Samuel Richardson_, p. 129.
[9] For a more thorough discussion of Richardson's revisions, see T. C.
Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, "Richardson's Revisions of _Pamela_,"
_Studies in Bibliography_, 20 (1967), 61-88.
[10] Richardson's letter to William Warburton, 14 April 1748, cited in
Eaves and Kimpel, _Samuel Richardson_, p. 118.
[11] "Defoe, Richardson, Joyce, and the Concept of Form in the Novel,"
in _Autobiography, Biography, and the Novel_ (Los Angeles: William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1973), p. 36.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The facsimile of _Pamela Censured_ (1741) is reproduced by permission
from the copy (Shelf Mark: *EC7/R3961/T741p) in the Houghton Library,
Harvard University. The total type-page (p. 7) measures 166 x 83 mm.
PAMELA CENSURED:
IN A LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
SHEWING
That under the Specious Pretence of Cultivating the Principles of Virtue
in the Minds of the Youth of both Sexes, the MOST ARTFUL and ALLURING
AMOROUS IDEAS are convey'd.
And that, instead of being divested of all Images that tend to
_inflame_; Her Letters abound with Incidents, which must necessarily
raise in the unwary Youth that read them, EMOTIONS _far distant_ from
the PRINCIPLES of VIRTUE.
Exemplified in many Quotations, with a CRITICAL REVIEW, and REMARKS upon
the _Whole_.
Ridet hoc, inquam, Venus ipsa; rident
Simplices Nymphæ, ferus & Cupido,
Semper ardentes acuens Sagittas
Cote Cruenta.
HORAT.
_LONDON:_
Printed for J. ROBERTS, at the _Oxford Arms_, in _Warwick-Lane_.
MDCCXLI.
[Illustration]
To the REVEREND
Doctor _SLOCOCK_,
CHAPLAIN of St. _Saviour's_ in _Southwark_.
REVEREND SIR,
When a Person, whose _Profession_ and _Character_ in the World claim a
_Reverence_ and _Attention_, exerts himself in earnestly recommending a
Piece to our Perusal, as he bespeaks Esteem for it, so consequently we
are induced to be more curious in our Inspection thereof; especially if
that Recommendation is back'd by the Sanction of being deliver'd from
the _most solemn Place_, and from whence we are to expect Nothing but
Truth and Virtue. _PAMELA_ has been honour'd in this Manner, both the
_Pulpit_ and the _Press_ have joined in its Praises, and extoll'd it as
the most perfect Piece of the Kind. This excited me to the Reading, and
pleas'd that this Age had been capable of producing so much finish'd
Excellence, which I concluded it must be from the extraordinary
Encomiums so lavishly bestow'd on it, I open'd the Book with an Esteem
but little short of Veneration; but upon Perusal was amazed to find
Passages, which a Gentleman who is set apart and devoted, not only to
Morality, but the strictest Virtue and Piety, must be conscious to
himself are inconsistent with either, and even blush at them while he
reads: No Divine, I imagine, would recommend any Thing in his Sacred
Function, but what might be repeated there, without Offence to Decency
and Morality, at least, or but what is even capable of inculcating in
our Minds the Doctrine there deliver'd. That I think _Pamela_ is
deficient in both is the Occasion of this Address to You, and Subject of
the following Epistle to the Editor, which I submit to Your Judgment; if
I am mistaken in my Censures I shall as readily retract them, as I hope
all those who have applauded it for the most perfect Pattern of Virtue
and Instruction, will their superabundant Praises, when they find the
Passages I have cited rather deserve Expulsion. I am,
_SIR_,
_Your Humble Servant_,
[Illustration]
Pamela _Censured_, &c.
_SIR_,
As You have pleased in Your _Third_ Edition of _Pamela_, or (what you
call) _Virtue Rewarded_, to insert Extracts from several curious
recommendatory Letters, to perswade us that nothing could every equal
this Performance, I hope as I dissent from those Gentlemens Opinion, you
will with Impartiality receive my Reasons for so doing; nor condemn me
less for _honestly disapproving_, than you caress them for _fulsomely
flattering_.
The Pompous Promise of your Title Page, the Manner in which it is
introduced, and your undertaking in a Series of familiar Letters, from
a beautiful Young Virgin to her Parents to inculcate Virtue, the very
Mention of such a Method of Instruction, has, I don't doubt induced
Numbers, as it did me, to read your _Pamela_, and by contributing to the
large Sale thereof, made the World (as is generally the Case) judge of
the Worth of it.
The _Porch_ erected with cunning Symmetry, and shining with agreeable
Colours allures us in; _Nature_, _Truth_, _Virtue_ and _Religion_; Words
that are sure to please not only the Innocent Youth, but the more
Thinking and experienced Sage, are press'd into the Service of the first
Page; and so artfully rank'd that they at once invite us to proceed and
assure us that the Production can be nothing less than a Miracle: Nay so
much are you convinc'd of it's _Worth_, so happy in the Consideration of
your own Desert, that, tacitly condemning all former Writings of the
like Kind, You assume to yourself the Merit of prescribing _Virtue_, and
cultivating both that and _Religion_ (which by the way I never knew were
distinct before) in the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES, and that you
have the Honour of now _First_ publishing these Things to the World: Was
no Romance or Novel ever published with a Design to recommend moral
Virtue?--Is _Pamela_ the First of that Kind! No surely; as to your
Title, _La Paysanne parvenue_ now translated into _English_, a little
_French_ Novel, is something more modest, and as much calculated for the
Encouragement of Virtue. That is a plain Tale, it is recommended and
received as such but _Pamela_ is first a _Series of Letters_ from a Girl
to her Parents, which it is presumed are offered us as Originals, and
then immediately we are told it is a _Narrative_ which has it's
_Foundation_ in _Truth_, and _Nature_; now what can any Man that would
reduce this to the Language of his own Opinion and Judgment call it,
but, _a Romance form'd in Manner of a literary Correspondence founded on
a Tale which the Author had heard, and modell'd into it's present
Shape_. Allowing this, which is the modestest Construction I can put
upon it, and that it was founded upon Truth, yet several Things may and
have been added thereto: Art and Invention, have been used; and however
_true_ the _Foundation_ may have been, yet a few _Removes_ and
_Transitions_, may make it deviate into a _downright Falsehood_: In all
Additions, and what may by some be called Embellishments to the Story,
_Fancy_ must take Place and where that presides, any Gentleman who is
too much troubled with it, knows the Consequence: From thence _Imaginary
Characters_ will arise, still spreading and increasing, and the busy
Phantom will ever be pleased at shadowy Beings of it's own Formation;
yet the Substance that gave those Shadows may be founded on _Truth_;
but thus extended like the Reflections from a declining Summer Evening's
Sun, it may please _Children_ with their seeming _gigantic_ Heights,
while _Men_ acknowledge it but as the last feeble _Efforts_ of his
_Light_.
But notwithstanding all the great Things you promise us at first, of
_Truth_, _Virtue_ and _Religion_, and that your Book is intirely
_divested_ of all those Images which in _too many_ Pieces tend only to
_inflame_ the Mind, yet give me Leave to say, Sir, that I believe you
will find but few of the many Pieces which you so self-assumingly
condemn that abound with more Instances of _inflaming_ Sentiments than
your own, as in the Course of this Epistle, I shall point out to you.
Nor does the Process of your Work fall short of your first setting out;
you there as an _Editor_ arrogate to yourself all the Praise that the
most lavish could bestow on your Desert, had it been real and silent;
_Fame_ founded by a Stranger's Breath, comes tuneful to the Ear, but
self-blown grows harsh and dissonant, and we condemn, the Conceitedness
and Affectation of what we might otherwise esteem.
And here give me Leave to observe, Sir, that tho' your great Modesty for
some particular Reasons, one of which appears to be, that you could not
otherwise be acquitted of intolerable Vanity in applauding yourself as
you have done, has induced you to stile yourself only _Editor_; yet,
Sir, from several Sentences undesignedly dropt, where the Current of
your own agreeable Flattery has carried you beyond your Depth, I can't
help thinking that you are more than barely _Editor_. The Story may have
it's _Foundation_ in _Truth_ and _Nature_; but the Superstructure is
_your own_; the fictitious _Pamela_ may bear the Resemblance of some
happy rural Maid, who for her Virtue and Beauty may have been raised
from the _Plain_ to the _Toilette_, from the _Sheepcote_ to the _Mansion
House_, but the _natural Air_, the _dignified Simplicity_, the _measur'd
Fulness_ in it are properly to be ascribed to you: I shall therefore
henceforward treat you as HALF-EDITOR, HALF-AUTHOR of _Pamela_. I am not
ignorant what Art and Industry have been employed, privately to intimate
that what gave Rise to this _inimitable_ and so much commended Piece,
was an Occurrence of the like Kind that happen'd some time since in the
Family of a certain _Noble Lord_; if this be the Case, I must confess
'tis so highly _shadow'd_ that the Outlines of your Draughts are almost
obscured, and suffer us only to guess at the Likeness. Nor can I help
joining with one of your complemental Friends, and acknowledge, that
your Picture in _resembling Life outglows it_.
First then, as _Editor_, you launch forth into all the extravagant
Praises that ever could enter the Heart of a young Author, before his
first favourite Performance was condemn'd by the Public. In this
Disguise you take a full Aim, and by presenting your Readers with a
_Prologue_ to your own _Praise_, you would _prepossess_ them with
_Applause_, and fondly _surfeit_ on the _Eccho_. The many Eulogia in
your Preface stated with Ifs, and artfully in the Conclusion bestowed on
_Pamela_ are but an Abstract of what fulsome Praises an Author wou'd
privately entertain himself with, or indeed look like what the
Booksellers are very often forced to say to make a bad Copy go off.
However they may tickle the Ears, they can never charm the Sense, and in
plain English may be render'd thus:
"_I the Editor_ tell you and command you to believe, that
this Book, called _Pamela_, will _divert_, _entertain_,
_instruct_, and _improve_ the _Youth of both Sexes_.
"It is the best System of _Religion_ and _Morality_ extant,
_delightful_ and _profitable_ to the _younger Class_ of
Readers, as well as those of _maturer Years_ and
Understanding.
"All the _social Duties_ in high and low Life, are set forth
in the most exemplary Lights. _Vice_ is made _odious_,
_Virtue_ truely _lovely_; the Characters _justly_ drawn, and
_equally_ supported; the _Man_ of _Fortune_, _Passion_, or
_Intrigue_ rightly instructed; practical _Examples_ given to
the Ladies in the most critical and affecting Cases, either
of _Virgin_, _Bride_, or _Wife_: These represented in so
_lively_ a Manner, that the Passions of every _sensible_
Reader must be affected; and his that are not, _I pronounce_
him a _Fool_. Yet though the Passions are so much touched,
there is not a _single Idea_ throughout the _Whole_ that
shall shock the _exactest Purity_, nor shall a Lady be put
to the Blush, even where she may very naturally expect it.
"Besides all this, believe me, Sirs, 'tis every Word _true_;
nor do I at all doubt the Success of the Sale; because I
confidently _assert_, that all the _desireable Ends_ are
_obtained in these Sheets_; and if any one should dispute
it, I will convince him by two incontestable Proofs. First,
that I know from MY OWN Passions, that I never perused these
engaging Scenes without being uncommonly _moved_: And, for
that Reason, I insist upon it, that every Man who reads them
must be the same: And next, that I, as an _Editor_, judge
with more Impartiality than an _Author_ can do."
What Vanity is this! Did it ever appear more conspicuous in the Writings
of any one? The worthy Gentleman who is appointed to preside over the
_British_ Muses, hath been frequently accused of being a perfect Master
in this Art; nay, so far indeed does it extenuate the Crime, that he
acknowledges the Foible. He has long been allowed to reign sole Monarch
of the Realms of _Effrontery_ and _Vanity_; but in you, Sir, let him
dread a formidable _Rival_.
The positively pronouncing a Thing quite perfect, and the only good one
of its Kind upon your meer _ipse Dixi_, is something so novel, and
tacitly calling all Fools who shall dare to swerve from that Opinion,
gives it such an Air of Consequence and assur'd Success, as may prevail
on many, who search no farther than the Surface to believe it to _be_
what it is _represented_; but to Persons who may be as _sensible_, tho'
perhaps not so bigotted to an Opinion, as the Editor, it must only
afford Matter for Laughter and Ridicule.
If it is not ludicrous, (tho' what can be too light a Counterpoise for
such frothy Affectation!) I once met with a Story from an honest Country
Man, which seems very applicable to the Case in Question. A Doctor, says
the Farmer, once did us the Honour of a Visit at our Village, he
appeared in all the Ornament of Dress necessary to excite Curiosity in
simple unmeaning Clowns, he began his Harangue, by inveighing bitterly
against the Errors and Tricks of his Brother Practitioners, their Advice
was deficient, their Drugs unwholsome, and instead of healing, they did
but taint the Body; he only prescribed what was proper, and his Arcanum
was the grand Restorative of Health then _first published_, with a
salutary Design of confirming the whole Country's Health to the utter
Ruin of all Physicians, Apothecaries, _&c._ Name what Disease you would,
his little Pill was an immediate and sovereign Remedy. During the
Doctor's Oration there appear'd behind him a surly Sort of a Fellow,
dress'd in all the Accoutrements that could be collected together to
make him look terrible, yet through all, you might discern a sly leering
Grin: No sooner had the Doctor pronounced his Nostrum universal, but
_Andrew_ (for he, it seems, was the formidable Hero in Disguise)
advancing forward with an Air military flourishes his broad Sword over
his Head; and being mildly ask'd by the Doctor, what was the Occasion
of that tremendous Visage, he boldly answered----_to Kill any one that
dare dispute it_.
Thus you, Sir, as _Editor_ stand boldly a _Swiss_ at your own Portal, to
invite in your Friends with recommendatory Letters, and hard strain'd
complemental Rhimes to yourself as _Author_, to usher your doughty
Performance into the World.
I shall pass over them in a cursory Manner, as they only appear to be
_Aiders_ and _Abetters_, and not principally concerned; they only tend
to sound forth the Praise of the Book, and amount to little more than
what the Vulgar call a _Puff_. The first of them insinuates a _French
Translation_, and as I see one is since advertised to be published, it
may not be amiss to congratulate the Gentleman, whoever he is, on his
lucky Thought, and wish him as much Success on his being _Translator_,
as you have met with in being _Editor_; tho' upon Consideration I must
confess that would be doing wrong, for as I think the Book to have a bad
Tendency in general, (which I shall endeavour to prove presently) to
transmit it into another Language is but spreading the Infection
farther.
The next Epistle abounds with the same fulsome Flattery as the former,
it is there--"full of Instruction and Morality,--a pure clear Fountain
of Truth and Innocence;--a Magazine of Virtue and unblemish'd
Thoughts:--ALL others tend only to corrupt our Principles and mislead
our Judgments, but _Pamela_ must be for the universal Benefit of
Mankind, 'twill reclaim the Vicious, and mend the Age in general."
The Introduction to the Second Edition is only calculated to load us
with still more Stuff of the same Kind as the former; You would do well,
Sir, before you so confidently affirm the Gentleman who hath given his
Opinion upon the Objections that have been offered to be a Person of
_distinguish'd Taste_ and _Abilities_, either to have let us known _who_
he was, or some of his former Works, which might have convinced us of
those _Abilities_, for I think the long Harangue prefix'd to _Pamela_
will never be deem'd a sufficient Proof thereof----The Gentleman himself
acknowledges that _when it has dwelt all Day long upon the Ear, it takes
Possession all night of the Fancy_; That is, I suppose, it contributes
to make his _Dreams_ something pleasanter than usual; and I am sorry if
I am mistaken, but it seems to me, that he wrote his Dissertation half
awake and half asleep, just as he was disturb'd from one of those
agreeable Reveries----His Return from his Walk in the Snow and the
Reflection there made, is far from holding good, if it shall appear that
the Author of _Pamela_, instead of being Father to _Millions of Minds_,
serves only to inspire them with Thoughts and Ideas, which must
infallibly make the Mind subservient to the Body, and Reason not only
fall a Victim to, but, quite debauch'd, assist the sensual Appetites.
The Objections pretended to be made by an anonymous Gentleman were in my
Opinion only formed on Purpose for the Sake of the Answers; so passing
over them:--_Parson_ Williams's _Dove_ without serpentine Mixture; the
natural Story of the little Boy, for which Sort of Admirers _Pamela_
seems to be more immediately calculated, &c. I come to the Objection the
Gentleman makes himself, which I cant think would be sufficiently
_obviated_ by any _Alteration_ in the _Front of another Edition_, while
the same is retained in the very Body of the Story; his Objection take
in his own Words.
"There are Mothers or Grandmothers (saith he) 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 though indeed it is true, all the World
would 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 beloved
Maid would be a Pamela_, in a Judgment obscured by her Influence."
Nor can I think he has stated his own Objection as strong as it might
be, or even sufficiently answer'd it as it is, for where he recommends
"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?----What a delightful Reformation, says he, should we see in
all Families, where the Vanity of their Maids took no Turn toward
Ambition to please, but by such innocent Pleasures as _Pamelia's_."
This is first of all making an Objection, then denying it to be one; for
what does he defend in the last Paragraph, but the very Thing that is
allowed to be the general bad Tendency of the Book, _viz_: That every
Maid Servant from what low Stock soever she sprung, if she is pretty
modest, _&c._ has an undoubted Right to attempt to entice her Master to
Marriage:----Nay in what he allows is proposed to teach the _Gay World_
and the _Fortunate_, he more particularly acknowledges it to be
this.----"By Comparison with that infinite Remoteness of her Condition
from the Reward which her Virtue procured her, one great Proof is
derived, (_which_, says he expressly; _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 of _Behaviour_ and Temper of Mind:
Because where the _last_ are not added, all the _first_ will be boasted
in Vain. Whereas she who possesses the last, finds _no Want_ of the
first in her Influence."----If this is proper Instructions for young
Ladies I am deceived, for by the same Rule that it may hold good with
_Servant Maids_ in regard to their obtaining their _Young Masters_
(which he would call as above----_the Reward their Virtue procured
them._). It must equally make the Ladies conclude that if they can find
any thing mere deserving in their _Footmen_ than the _Young Gentlemen_,
who by a suitable Rank and Fortune are designed to be their Suitors,
they are under no Obligation to chuse the latter, but _are
meritoriously_ throwing down all Distinction of _Family_ and taking up
with the former.
Thus much, Sir, I have thought proper to observe in regard to your
Assistants; now give me Leave to say, that I think your _Pamela_ so far
from being a proper Entertainment for the Youth of both Sexes,
especially the young Ladies, that it is indisputable no young Girl
however innocent she may be; at the Age when Nature softens and moulds
the tender yielding Heart to Love can possibly read several Passages in
it, which I shall point out, without conceiving Ideas she otherwise
might never have dream'd of; and instead of recommending it to my
Daughters I would keep it from their Sight, as too pernicious for them
to converse with.
But before I enter into any particular Parts, I will take a short
Summary of the whole Tale as you would willingly have it represented,
with my Objections thereto, and wherein I think you fall short of what
you have promised in your Title Page, and is directly the Reverse of the
Encomiums bestow'd in your Preface.
The Foundation of _Pamela_'s Story is _Truth_ and _Nature_ as you have
laid it down at first, pursuant to this you would have represented to
us, in the Characters you have drawn, a Young Girl born of honest but
mean Parents, who by some Means or other had procured for their only
surviving Child a Place in a Lady of Fashion's Family, where her
Education and growing Beauty just at her blooming Age, by the Death of
her old Lady, left her a warm Temptation to a succeeding Heir, who had
joined all the Prejudices of modern polite Education to the insulting
Affluence of Fortune; he accordingly among his deceased Mother's
Treasure finds this beauteous Virgin, and thinking that his Fortune
might or juvenile Gaiety attract her an easy devoted Prey to his amorous
Inclinations, he tries all Arts to seduce her thereto, but finding them
all ineffectual, he at last flies even to Threats and Anger to force her
to gratify a then raging brutal Passion which became too fierce to be
endured, and too predominant to be stifled or overcome, and in order to
bring her to Compliance, he is guilty of the basest Treachery and
Perfidiousness; for instead of letting her return in Safety to her
Father and Mother as he had promised her, and which more speciously to
make her believe, he complements her with his own Chariot to carry her,
but at the same Time gives private Orders to his Servants to convey her
far from the Place she desires to go to, there to be immur'd like a
Prisoner, and all this in Hopes of forcing her into Compliance. There
commited to the safe Custody of a _Swiss_, and one that is nothing
better than an _old Bawd_; there a thousand Difficulties surround her,
the poor artless Maid still unacquainted with Love, and all it's little
Artifices, here lights of a Minister, who professing a Value and Esteem
For her, undertakes at the Hazard and Expence of his own Welfare and
Subsistence to engage in her Cause and procure her Liberty; but meeting
with a severe Disappointment even to his then seeming utter Ruin, the
Design proves abortive, and the poor Girl is still left to further and
terrible Trials of her Chastity; 'till at last overcomeing all, she
captivates her Tyrant, binds him in _soft Fetters of Love_, when he only
means to enslave her in _Chains of Lust_. Thus by a quick Transition
from a Servant Maid, she becomes the lawful Mistress of the Dwelling she
so lately waited in; and is supposed to give as excellent Example as a
_Wife_, as she gave of _Chastity_ as a Maid. And _thus is Virtue
Rewarded_.
The most sanguine of your Admirers could not, I fancy, more inpartially
state the Case, as it has been represented by them in your Behalf. Now
let us examine what is the Opinion of as many on the other Side. Their
first great Charge, is, that in the narrative Part of her Letters, you
have interspersed too many Scenes that directly tend to inflame the
Minds of Youth: Next, that _Pamela_ instead of being artless and
innocent sets out at first with as much Knowledge of the Arts of the
Town, as if she had been born and bred in _Covent_ Garden, all her Life
Time; that your fine Gentleman does not come up to the Character you
would fain have him be thought to assume, that his Sister Lady _Davers_,
is little better than a downright _Billingsgate_, and her poor Lord is
the only one who meets with Pity. That Mrs. _Jewkes_ might take
_Colbrand_ with her and set up in a House somewhere in the Purlieus of
_St. Giles_, while honest Mother _Jervis_ might marry _Jonathan_, and
perhaps be promoted to a little Inn of Squire _B_'s in the Country, even
that Mrs. _Pamela_ stopp'd at in her Journey to the _Lincolnshire_
Estate. Thus, Sir, do many enter into Conversation with the Character of
Men of Taste and Pleasantry, find Fault in Opposition to the exuberant
Praises bestow'd on _Pamela_ by others.
I however was much more pleas'd for my own Part with the Opinion of a
stay'd sober Gentleman, who was then call'd upon to declare his
Sentiments, tho' I don't send it to you as an Extract from a _Curious
Letter_, neither was it submitted to him, as a Gentleman of the MOST
distinguish'd Taste and Abilities. But to the best of my Remembrance he
express'd himself something like the following Manner.
I don't approve, said he, of the _Extravagancies_ which People have run
into on both sides of the Question in regard to _Pamela_, neither of
those who have cried it up as a Masterpiece in its Kind and the most
perfect Thing that ever was published; nor of those who depreciate it as
the most insignificant Trifle they ever met with, and hardly worth
Notice, on the contrary, I think it is very artfully work'd up, and the
Passions so strongly touch'd that it is impossible for Youth to read it
without Sympathy, and even wishing themselves in such a Situation, which
must be attended with very bad Consequences. _Pamela_ under the Notion
of being a Virtuous Modest Girl will be introduced into all Families,
and when she gets there, what Scenes does she represent? Why a fine
young Gentleman endeavouring to debauch a beautiful Girl of Sixteen. The
Advances are regular, and the amorous Conflicts so agreeably and warmly
depicted, that the young Gentleman Reader will at the best be tempted to
rehearse some of the same Scenes with some _Pamela_ or other in the
Family, and the Modest Young Lady can never read the Description of
Naked Breasts being run over with the Hand, and Kisses given with such
Eagerness that they cling to the Lips; but her own soft Breasts must
heave at the Idea and secretly sigh for the same Pressure; what then can
she do when she comes to the closer Struggles of the Bed, where the
tender Virgin lies panting and exposed, if not to the last Conquest,
(which I think the Author hath barely avoided) at least to all the
Liberties which ungoverned Hands of a determined Lover must be supposed
to take? If she is contented with only wishing for the same Trial to
shew the Steadiness of her Virtue it is sufficient; but if Nature should
be too powerful, as Nature at Sixteen is a very formidable Enemy tho'
Shame and the Censure of the World may restrain her from openly
gratifying the criminal Thought, yet she privately may seek Remedies
which may drive her to the most unnatural Excesses.
This then, said he, in short is my Opinion of _Pamela_; that the _Story_
is prettily related, the _Passions_ finely wrought up, and the
_Catastrophe_ beautifully concluded, but in the Course of the Narrative,
and almost interspersed throughout the Whole, there are such _Scenes_ of
_Love_, and such _lewd Ideas_, as must fill the Youth that read them
with _Sentiments_ and _Desires_ worse than ROCHESTER can, and for this
Reason, they will start at a gross Expression, which if nicely and
artfully convey'd they'll dwell on with Rapture. Therefore I think it
wholly _unfit_ for _Youth_, and declare freely I would by no Means trust
my _Daughters_ with reading it.
This Gentleman's Opinion induced me to read over your _Pamela_, and I
really find it too true: There is a perfect System of Intrigue, and
they begin so gently by Degrees, and are led on so methodically to the
last Grand Attack, and this with amorous Attacks in View, even thro' the
gravest Sentences of Morality that it is impossible to read it without
endeavouring to gratify the Passion he hath raised; let us view _Pamela_
then, divested of the Drapery in which she is enclos'd, tho' not hid,
and then her Charms will appear thus: The wise Father will never think
it proper for his Son's Closet, and the careful Mother banish that with
other Novels and Romances from her Daughter's Cabinet.
_PAMELA_ begins from the Death of her Lady, and tho' she gives the
Narrative in her own Person, yet let us take it as a Tale only, without
any Consideration had to it's being epistolary, and the loose Images
will be the more connected, and glare the stronger; which Mr. Editor,
that I may not misrepresent, I will quote in your own Words, and make
Remarks on them as they occur.
The young Gentleman coming to take Possession of his Treasure, finds
this young Virgin among it, the good old Gentlewoman, on her Death-bed,
recommends her to his Care with one Design, and he receives her with
quite another. Here's a fine Field open'd for a luscious Tale, the Game
is started, and the Author like a staunch Sportsman never once loses
Sight;----Mr. _B._ begins very tenderly: After a little Toying, Kissing,
_&c._ he makes Miss a Present of several fine Things, and here, says the
Author, I'll just give my Readers a soft Touch to see how they will
entertain amorous Reflections; _p._ 12. "I was inwardly ashamed to take
the Stockens; for Mrs. _Jervis_ was not there; If she had, it would have
been nothing. I believe I received them very awkwardly; for he smiled at
my Awkwardness, and said, _Don't blush_, Pamela: _Dost think I don't
know pretty Maids wear Shoes and Stockens?_" Yes, to be sure, and
Garters and Stomachers and Smocks,----but ola! little Miss would have
cried, that's a Pah Word, and my Mamma wont let me read such naughty
Books!
Well! the young Gentleman grows a little bolder, his Sister indeed the
good Lady _Davers_! She thinks the poor Girl is designed to be ruin'd:
And she does no more to prevent it then shake her Head and cry, _Ah
Brother!_ Now Miss is at Work in the Summer House, and let us see the
Interview, I assure you the Scene rises a little, and the _innocent
Girl_ appears mighty skillful; p. 17, 18. "I saw some Reason to
_suspect_; for he would _look upon me_, whenever he saw me, _in such a
manner as shew'd not well_; and at last he came to me, as I was in the
Summer-house in the little Garden, at work with my Needle, and Mrs.
_Jervis_ was just gone from me; and I would have gone out; but he said,
No, don't go, _Pamela_; I have something to say to you; and you always
fly me, when I come near you, as if you were afraid of me. I was much
out of Countenance, you may well think; but said at last, It does not
become your poor Servant to stay in your Presence, Sir, without your
Business requir'd it; and I hope I shall always know my Place. Well,
says he, my Business does require it sometimes, and I have a Mind you
should stay to hear what I have to say to you. I stood all-confounded,
and began to tremble, and the more when he took me by the Hand; for now
no Soul was near us. My Sister _Davers_, said he (and seem'd, I thought,
to be as much at a Loss for Words as I) would have had you live with
_her_; but she would not do for you what I am resolved to do, if you
continue faithful and obliging. What say'st thou, my Girl? said he, with
some Eagerness; had'st thou not better stay with me, than go to my
Sister _Davers_? _He look'd so_, as fill'd me with Affrightment; _I
don't know how_; wildly, I thought. I said, when I could speak, Your
Honour will forgive me; but as you have no Lady for me to wait upon, and
my good Lady has been now dead this Twelvemonth, I had rather, if it
would not displease you, wait upon Lady _Davers_, _because_--I was
proceeding, and he said a little hastily _Because_ you are a little
Fool, and know not what's good for yourself. I tell you, I will make a
Gentlewoman of you, if you'll be obliging, and don't stand in your own
Light, and so saying, _he put his Arm about me and kiss'd me_! Now you
will say, all his Wickedness appear'd plainly. I _struggled, and
trembled_, and was so benumb'd with Terror, _that I sunk down, not in a
Fit, and yet not myself; and I found myself in his Arms, quite void of
Strength; and he kissed me two or three times, with frightful
Eagerness_.----At last I burst from him, and was getting out of the
Summer House; but he held me back, and shut the Door." He then bids her
have done blubbering, and offers her some Money. After this Miss is
afraid to lie alone, and wants a Confidante. Well good Mrs. _Jervis_ to
be sure is glad of the Offer, and some Time passes 'till the 'Squire
comes to Town again. And here the Author (fearing least his Male Readers
should have no Entertainment, the former being more adapted to improve
the Female,) contrives to give us an Idea of _Pamela_'s hidden Beauties,
and very decently to spread her upon the Floor, for all who will peep
thro' the Door to surfeit on the Sight; but first takes care to put them
in Life by a Flurry lest they should appear too dead and languid: _p._
30. "At last he came in again, but, alas! with Mischief in his heart!
and raising me up, he, said, Rise, _Pamela_, rise; you are your own
Enemy. Your perverse Folly will be your Ruin; I tell you this, that I am
very much displeased with the Freedoms you have taken with my Name to my
House-keeper, as also to your Father and Mother; and you may as well
have _real_ Cause to take these Freedoms with me, as to make my Name
suffer for _imaginary_ ones. And saying so, he offered _to take me on
his Knee, with some Force_. O how I was terrify'd! I said, like as I had
read in a Book a Night or two before, Angels, and Saints, and all the
Host of Heaven, defend me! And may I never survive one Moment, that
fatal one in which I shall forfeit my Innocence. Pretty Fool! said he,
how will you forfeit your Innocence, if you are oblig'd to yield to a
Force you cannot withstand? Be easy, said he; for let the worse happen
that can, _you'll_ have the Merit, and I the Blame; and it will be a
Subject for Letters to your Father and Mother, and a Tale in the Bargain
for Mrs. _Jervis_. He by Force kissed my Neck and Lips; Who even blamed
_Lucretia_, but the _Ravisher_ only? And I am content to take all the
Blame upon me; as I have all ready born too great a Share for what I
have deservd. May I, said I, _Lucretia_ like, justify myself with my
Death, if I am used barbarously? O my good Girl! said he, tauntingly,
you are well read, I see; and we shall make out between us, before we
have done, a pretty Story in Romance, I warrant ye. He then put his Hand
in my Bosom, and the Indignation gave me double Strength, and I got
loose from him by a sudden Spring, and ran out of the Room and the next
Chamber being open, I made shift to get into it, and threw-to the Door;
and the Key being of the Inside, it locked; but he followed me so close,
he got hold of my Gown, and tore a Piece off, which hung without the
Door. I just remember I got into the Room; for I knew nothing further of
the Matter till afterwards; for I fell into a Fit with my Fright and
Terror, _and there I lay, till he, as I suppose, looking through the
Key-hole,_ SPY'D ME LYING ALL ALONG UPON THE FLOOR, STRETCH'D OUT AT MY
LENGTH; and then he call'd Mrs. _Jervis_ to me, who, by his Assistance,
bursting open the Door, he went away, I seeming to be coming to myself;
and bid her say nothing of the Matter, if she was wise. Poor Mrs.
_Jervis_ thought it was worse."
Was not the Squire very modest to withdraw? for she lay in such a pretty
Posture that Mrs. _Jervis thought it was worse_, and Mrs. _Jervis_ was
a Woman of Discernment; but however _Pamela_ did no more than what
Ladies of Fashion do to their Footmen every Morning, shew herself in
Dishabille or so.
The Young Lady by thus discovering a few latent Charms, as the snowy
Complexion of her Limbs, and the beautiful Symmetry and Proportion which
a Girl of about fifteen or sixteen must be supposed to shew by tumbling
backwards, after being put in a Flurry by her Lover, and agitated to a
great Degree takes her smelling Bottle, has her Laces cut, and all the
pretty little necessary Things that the most luscious and warm
Description can paint, or the fondest Imagination conceive. How artfully
has the Author introduced an Image that no Youth can read without
Emotion! The Idea of peeping thro' a Key-hole to see a fine Woman
extended on a Floor in a Posture that must naturally excite Passions of
Desire, may indeed be read by one in his _grand Climacteric_ without
ever wishing to see one in the same Situation, but the Editor of
_Pamela_ directs himself to the _Youth_ of both Sexes, therefore all the
Instruction they can possibly receive from this Passage is, first to the
young Men that the more they endeavour to find out the hidden Beauties
of their Mistresses, the more they must approve them; and for that
Purpose all they have to do, is, to move them by some amorous Dalliance
to give them a _transient View_ of the _Pleasure_ they are afterwards to
reap from the _beloved Object_. And Secondly, to the young Ladies that
whatever Beauties they discover to their Lovers, provided they grant not
the last Favour, they only ensure their Admirers the more; and by a
Glimpse of Happiness captivate their Suitor the better. So that a young
Lover in order to encourage his _growing Virtue_ is not to blame to see
his Mistress in her Shift, nor the young Lady to permit it, if she can
discreetly do it so as not to let him think she is sensible of it, 'tis
as much as to say, ye Rakes! Raise the Inclination of the Girls 'till
they can scarce refuse complying, then let them fly from ye to their
Chambers, and there reveal in private to your longing Sight the Beauties
which upon no Account they would openly entertain ye with.
The lovely, the innocent _Pamela_, after her Master had seen her like _a
new born Venus rising from the Waves_, as one of the Poets expresses it,
seems to know nothing of the Matter, and yet with all the Inconsistence
imaginable expresses herself as cunningly and knowing upon the Subject
as the best bred Town Lass of them all could have done: The Squire
offers her Money, which she refuses; and in her Conversation with Mrs.
_Jervis_, upon that Head, she expresses herself thus: _p._ 41. "After
such Offers, and such Threatnings, and his comparing himself to a wicked
Ravisher, in the very Time of his last Offer; and making a Jest of me,
that we should make a pretty Story in Romance; can I stay, and be safe?
Has he not demean'd him self twice? And it behoves me to beware of the
third Time, for fear he should lay his Snares surer; for mayhap he did
not expect a poor Servant would resist her Master so much. And must it
not be look'd upon as a sort of Warrant for such Actions, if I stay
after this? For I think, when one of our Sex finds she is attempted, it
is an Encouragement to a Person to proceed, if one puts one's self in
the Way of it, when one can help it; and it shews one can forgive what
in short ought, _not_ to be forgiven: Which is no small Countenance to
foul Actions, I'll assure you."
Yet notwithstanding all this, her _Virtue_ is only founded on _Shame_,
and she seems to imply that could she be secure from the Censure of the
World she would not hesitate to commit the Sin, _p._ 44. "Well, but,
Mrs. _Jervis_, said I, let me ask you, if he can stoop to like such a
poor Girl as I, as perhaps he may (for I have read of Things almost as
strange, from great Men to poor Damsels) What can it be _for_?--He may
condescend, mayhap, to think I may be good enough for his Harlot; and
those Things don't disgrace Men, that ruin poor Women, as the World
goes. And so, if I was wicked enough, he would keep me till I was
undone, and 'till his Mind changed; for even wicked Men, I have read,
soon grow weary of Wickedness of _one_ Sort, and love _Variety_. Well
then, poor _Pamela_ must be turn'd off, and look'd upon as a vile
abandon'd Creature, and every body would despise her; ay, and _justly_
too, Mrs. _Jervis_; for she that can't keep her Virtue, ought to live in
Disgrace." Fine Instruction truly! That is, My Master lik'd me, he would
have made a Harlot of me, but then if I should consent, he may be tired
perhaps in a Month or two, or meet with Somebody he likes better, then
poor _Pamela_ will be turn'd off, and the World will call her a Fool.
I must now address you Sir, as Author and acknowledge that your Skill in
Intrigue is most apparent, not content with permitting us to fill our
Fancy with the naked Charms of the lovely _Pamela_, luxuriant in your
Art, you contrive to give us her Picture in a simple rural Dress; the
Squire fir'd at the View of those lovely Limbs is still kept warm by
Variety, and, cloath'd in a Disguise, they are again to attack him in
another Shape: She, who could charm so much in a loose Undress on the
Floor, must doubtless keep that Ardour still alive, dress'd in the
unaffected Embellishments of a neat Country Girl. And tho' the _Servant
Maid_ might fail to please, the _Farmer's Daughter_ must inevitably
catch the _Country Squire_; yet how artfully is this _Masquerade_
introduced! The poor Girl for not complying at once to his Request, is
threaten'd to be turn'd away, and accordingly to go Home to her Father
and Mother, in a Condition agreeable to theirs, dresses herself in the
most alluring Habit that her Circumstances will afford: p. 63. "I
trick'd myself up as well as I could in my Garb, and put on my
round-ear'd Cap; _but with a green Knot however_, and my home-spun Gown
and Petticoat, and plain-leather Shoes; but yet they are what they call
_Spanish_ Leather, and my ordinary Hose, ordinary I mean to what I have
been lately used to; tho' I shall think good Yarn may do very well for
every Day, when I come home. A plain Muslin Tucker I put on, and my
black Silk Necklace, instead of the _French_ Necklace my Lady gave me;
and put the Ear-rings out of my Ears; and when I was quite 'quipp'd, I
took my Straw Hat in my Hand, with its two blue Strings, and look'd
about me in the Glass, as proud as any thing----To say Truth, I never
lik'd myself so well in my Life."
_PAMELA_ is now become a beautiful young Rustic, each latent Grace, and
every blooming Charm is called forth to wound, not in affected Finery,
but in an artful Simplicity; nor is your Conduct less, Sir, in
introducing her to the Squire: Beauties that might grow familiar to the
Eye and pall upon the Passion by being often seen in one Habit, thus
varied take a surer Aim to strike.----The Instruction here then is to
the _Ladies_, that by altering their Appearance they are more likely to
catch their Lover's Affections than by being always the same; and that a
neat cherry cheek'd Country Lass tripping along with a Straw Hat in her
Hand may _allure_, when perhaps a pale faced Court Lady might be
_despised_; and I dare say, that no young Gentleman who reads this, but
wishes himself in Mrs. _Jervis_'s Place to _turn_ Pamela _about and
about and examine all her Dress to her under Petticoat_.
The next Thing is how to introduce her to the Squire, and in that Mrs.
_Jervis_ is as decently drawn in for a Procuress as can be; he sees her
talking with Mrs. _Jervis_, and thinking her to be a _fresh Lady_, sends
for Mrs. _Jervis_ to him, who notwithstanding she would do all she can
to preserve the Maiden's Virtue, yet insists upon her going to him in
her new Garb, tho' she must certainly know it could only tend to
_inflame_ his Desire the more, and urge him to still greater Liberties:
_p._ 65, 66: "She stept to me, and told me, I must go in with her to my
Master; but, said she, for Goodness sake, let him not find you out; for
he don't know you. O fie, Mrs. _Jervis_, said I, how could you serve me
so? Besides, it looks too free both _in me_, and _to him_. I tell you,
said she, you _shall_ come in; and pray don't reveal yourself till he
finds you out. So I went in, foolish as I was; tho' I must have been
seen by him another Time, if I had not then. And she would make me take
my Straw-hat in my Hand. I dropt a low Curt'sy, but said never a Word. I
dare say, he knew me as soon as he saw my Face; but was as cunning as
_Lucifer_. He came up to me, and took me by the Hand, and said, whose
pretty Maiden are you?--I dare say you are _Pamela_'s Sister, you are so
like her. So neat, so clean, so pretty! Why, Child, you far surpass your
Sister _Pamela_! I was all Confusion, and would have spoken, but he took
me about the Neck; Why, said he, you are very pretty, Child; I would not
be so free with your Sister, you may believe; but I must kiss you. O
Sir, said I, I am _Pamela_, indeed I am _Pamela_, _her ownself_! He
kissed me for all I could do; and said, Impossible! You are a lovelier
Girl by half than _Pamela_; and sure I may be innocently free with you,
tho' I would not do her so much Favour. This was a sad Bite upon me
indeed, and what I could not expect; and Mrs. _Jervis_ look'd like a
Fool as much as I, for her Officiousness. At last I got away, and ran
out of the Parlour, _most sadly vex'd, as you may well think_."
This occasioned an Emotion in him, which is admirably described, but in
a Piece designed only to encourage Virtue, no ways necessary to be
introduced: _p._ 67. "He then took me in his Arms, and presently push'd
me from him. Mrs. _Jervis_, said he, take the little Witch from me; I
can neither bear, nor forbear her! (Strange Words these!)--But stay, you
shan't go! Yet begone!--No, come back again. I thout he was mad, for my
Share; for he _knew not what he would have_. But I was going however,
and he stept after me, and took hold of my Arm, and brought me in again:
I am sure he made my Arm black and blue; for the Marks are upon it
still. Sir, Sir, said I, pray have Mercy; I will, I will come in! He sat
down, and _look'd at me_, and, as I thought afterwards, as sillily as
such a poor Girl as I."
Nat. _Lee's fiery Kisses_, _melting Raptures_, and the most luxuriant
Flowers of amorous Rhetoric cannot more fully express the Onset of a
declining stifled Passion kindled anew; the warm Struggle, the sudden
Grasp, and the languishing Eye can hardly be painted in stronger Terms:
And tho' I think it beautiful Colouring, yet I should be sorry my Son or
Daughter should be delighted with it. What follows this, is what any one
might expect, the Squire, fired with this View of his _Pamela_, grows
more eager to accomplish his Designs; but least the Reader should
mistake the Purport of the Author, he takes Care to inform them of it by
the Mouth of Mrs. _Jervis_: p. 73, 74. "Upon my Word, says she,
_Pamela_, I don't wonder he loves you; for, without Flattery, you are a
charming Girl! and I never saw you look more lovely in my Life, than in
that same new Dress of yours. And then it was such a Surprize upon us
all!----I believe truly, you owe some of your Danger to the lovely
_Appearance_ you made."
Squire _B._ supposed to be quite impatient, as I observed before, had
now resolved to have a last Trial; and for that Purpose concealed
himself in the Room where _Pamela_ lay; _p._ 71. "I went to Mrs.
_Jervis_'s Chamber; and, O my dear Father and Mother, my wicked Master
had hid himself, base Gentleman as he is! In her Closet, where she has a
few Books, and Chest of Drawers, and such-like. I little suspected it;
tho' I used, till this sad Night, always to look into that Closet,
another in the Room, and under the Bed, ever since the Summer House
Trick, but never found any Thing; and so I did not do it then, being
fully resolved to be angry with Mrs. _Jervis_ for what had happened in
the Day, and so thought of nothing else. I sat myself down on one Side
of the Bed, and she on the other, and we began to undress ourselves." A
very fine Instruction this Passage must give us truly! Here he again is
to feast his Eyes with her naked Charms, and wait but a little longer
before he rushes out to seize them as his own: _p._ 74. "Hush! said I,
Mrs. _Jervis_, did you not hear something stir in the Closet? No, silly
Girl! said she; your Fears are always awake.----But indeed, said I, I
think I heard something rustle.----May-be, says she, the Cat may be got
there: But I hear nothing. I was hush, but she said, Pr'ythee, my good
Girl, make haste to-bed. See if the Door be fast. So I did, and was
thinking to look in the Closet; but hearing no more Noise, thought it
needless, and so went again and sat myself down on the Bed-side, and
went on undressing myself. And Mrs. _Jervis_, being by this Time
undress'd, stepp'd into Bed, and bid me hasten, for she was sleepy. I
don't know what was the Matter; but my Heart sadly misgave me; but Mr.
_Jonathan_'s Note was enough to make it do so, with what Mrs. _Jervis_
had said. _I pulled off my Stays and my Stockens; and all my Cloaths to
an Under Petticoat_; and then hearing a rustling in the Closet; I said,
Heaven protect us! but before I say my Prayers, I must look into the
Closet. And so was going to it slip-shod, when, O dreadful! out rush'd
my Master, in a rich silk and silver Morning Gown. I scream'd, and ran
to the Bed; and Mrs. _Jervis_ scream'd too; and he said, I'll do you no
Harm, if you forbear this Noise; but otherwise take what follows:
Instantly he came to the Bed, (for I had crept into it, to Mrs.
_Jervis_, with my Coat on, and my Shoes) and, taking me in his Arms,
said, Mrs. _Jervis_, rise, and just step up Stairs, to keep the Maids
from coming down at this Noise; I'll do no Harm to this Rebel."
Here the lovely Nymph is undress'd in her Bed Chamber, without Reserve,
and doing a Hundred little Actions, which every one's Fancy must help
him to form who reads this Passage, and in the Midst of all this, the
Squire is introduced: And however she and Mrs. _Jervis_ may endeavour to
keep down the _Under Petticoat_, yet few Youths but would secretly wish
to be in the Squire's Place, and naturally conclude they would not let
the Nymph escape so easily.--Now the Scene rises, the Colours begin to
glow and rise to the Life: _p._ 75. "_I found his Hand in my Bosom_, and
when my Fright let me know it, _I was ready to die; and I sigh'd, and
screamed, and fainted away_. And still he had his Arms about my Neck;
and Mrs. _Jervis_ was about my Feet, and upon my Coat. And all in a cold
clammy Sweat was I. _Pamela! Pamela!_ said Mrs. _Jervis_, as she tells
me since, O--h, and gave another Shriek, my poor _Pamela_ is dead for
certain!--And so, to be sure I was for a Time; _for I knew nothing more
of the Matter_, one Fit following another, till about three Hours after,
as it prov'd to be, I found myself in Bed, and Mrs. _Jervis_ sitting up
on one Side, with her Wrapper about her, and _Rachel_ on the other."
_Feeling of the Breasts, fainting, and dying away_, may, in your
Opinion, Sir, be Excitements to _Virtue_, but they are too VIRTUOUS a
Description in my Mind for any young untainted Mind to peruse.
Miss after this is ill, and when she had _blubber'd_, and cried three or
four Days, the Squire to bring her to herself, and allure her Fancy,
takes care to shew himself to her in all the Advantages of Dress and
Finery; _p._ 81. 'Yesterday he had a rich Suit of Cloaths brought home,
which they call a Birth-day Suit.' Here is the Contraste to _Pamela_'s
plain Neatness, he had found that her amiable Figure had caused fresh
Emotions in him, and consequently he imagined his must have the same
Effect on her. _p._ 81. 'He had these Cloaths come home, and he try'd
them on. And before he pull'd them off, he sent for me, when nobody else
was in the Parlor with him: _Pamela_, said he, you are so neat and so
nice in your own Dress, (Alack-a-day, I did'n't know I was!) that you
must be a Judge of ours. How are these Cloaths made? Do they fit me? I
am no Judge, said I, and please your Honour; but I think they look very
fine. His Waistcoat stood an End with Gold Lace, and he look'd very
grand.'
And at the same Time that he endeavours to charm her with his own
Person, he as artfully allures her with the most fulsome Flattery: _p._
83. 'Well, said he, you are an ungrateful Baggage; but I am thinking it
would be Pity, with _these soft Hands_, and that _lovely Skin_, (as he
called it, and took hold of my Hand) that you should again return to
hard Work, as you must, if you go to your Father's; and so _I would
advise her to take a House in_ London, _and let Lodgings to us Members
of Parliament_, when we come to Town; and such a _pretty Daughter_ as
you may pass for, will always _fill her House_, and she'll get a great
deal of Money.'
This Compliment was a little of the grossest for a fine Gentleman! But
the Heightening is still behind: After some little tart Repartees and
Sallies aiming at Wit, the Author seems to indulge his Genius with all
the Rapture of lascivious Ingenuity: _p._ 84, 85. 'I wish, said he,
(I'am almost ashamed to write it, _impudent Gentleman_) I wish, I had
thee as QUICK ANOTHER WAY, as thou art in thy Repartees.----And he
laugh'd, and I snatch'd my Hands from him, and I tripp'd away as fast I
could. _Ah! thought I marry'd?_ I'm sure _'tis Time you were married_,
or at this Rate no honest Maiden ought to live with you!' Here's Virtue
encouraged with a Vengeance and the most obscene Idea express'd by a
double Entendre, which falls little short of the coarsest Ribaldry; yet
_Pamela_ is designed to _mend_ the _Taste_ and _Manners_ of the Times,
and _instruct_ and _encourage Youth in Virtue_; if that were the Case
there was no absolute Necessity in my Opinion for the inserting of this
Passage. How artfully is the Turn of the Entendre wrought up for the
INSTRUCTION of both _Sexes_. The young Gentleman will find the Squir's
Wish to be, that his beloved _Pamela_ would quite the _cold Air_ of a
reserved Modesty, immediately yield to his Wishes, and meet him in an
_amorous Conflict_, with all the _Vivacity_ that simple Nature
unrestrain'd by Art could inspire. And little Miss, who just begins to
sigh and wish for she knows not what, will be encouraged to wish for a
Husband, and think a _double Entendre_ strictly virtuous, even tho' it
turns upon the _Closet Commerce_ between the Sexes: And should any one
intrusted with her Education inform her that she is in the Wrong, or
strive to check the rising Passion; may she not pertly answer. _Why
sure! There's no Harm in it, for_ Pamela _does so; there are several
such Things in that_ good Book, _and my_ Mother _recommended me to the
reading of it, nay, and the_ Parson _says it is the_ best Book in the
World _except the_ Bible.
Miss _Pamela_ tho' very angry with her Master, yet in some Measure seems
to be very fond of excusing him: 'He's very wicked indeed, says she, but
then there are others as bad, 'tis Time he was married truely; for he
grows so rampant he'll overrun the Parish else, but if he does there are
others that will keep him in Countenance; there's Squire _Martin_ he
keeps a Seraglio of his own, and has had _three Lyings in_, it seems, in
his House, within these three Months; and several more of my Master's
Companions who are as bad as he. Alack a day! What a World we live in!
It is grown more Wonder that Men are _resisted_ than that Women
_comply_.' Indeed Mr. _Pamela_ is very discerning of her Age!
Mrs. _Jervis_ notwithstanding her motherly Goodness, seems still to be
Procuress in Ordinary, though indeed she doth not prove so pac'd an One
as Mrs. _Jewkes_ doth afterwards; but wou'd any sober Matron after what
Attempts have been made before, ever so far comply with the loose
Inclinations of her Master as to introduce him into a Closet to overhear
a private Conversation and her Charge? But the _five Guineas_ the Squire
gave her upon closing her yearly Accounts seem to have soften'd her a
little more to his Interest, for in _p._ 95. she conveys him into the
Green Room, where was a Sash Door and a Curtain conveniently that he
might both hear and see, tho' _Pamela_ confesses _she had reason to
remember the last Closet Work_.
Her harmless Tattle o'er her Things whilst she was seperating them from
those she intended to leave behind her, but added fresh Fuel to the
Squire's Flame; and here he first takes Heart to make an Open
Declaration of his Love. _p._ 102, 103. 'He took me up, in a kinder
manner, than ever I had known; and he said, Shut the Door, _Pamela_, and
come to me in my Closet: I want to have a little serious Talk with you.
How can I, Sir, said I, how can I? and wrung my Hands! O pray, Sir, let
me go out of your Presence, I beseech you. By the God that made me, said
he, I'll do you no harm, Shut the Parlour-door, and come to me in my
Library. He then went into his Closet, which is his Library, and full of
rich Pictures besides; a noble Apartment, tho' called a Closet, and next
the private Garden, into which it has a Door that opens. I shut the
Parlour-door, as he bid me; but stood at it irresolute. Place some
Confidence in me surely, said he, you may, when I have spoken thus
solemnly. So I crept towards him with trembling Feet, and my Heart
throbing through my Handkerchief. Come in, said he, when I bid you. I
did so. Pray, Sir, said I, pity and spare me. I will said he, as I hope
to be sav'd. He sat down upon a rich Settee; and took hold of my Hand,
and said, Don't doubt me, _Pamela_. From this Moment I will no more
consider you as my Servant; and I desire you'll not use me with
Ingratitude for the Kindness I am going to express towards you. This a
little embolden'd me; and he said, holding both my Hands in his, You
have too much Wit and good Sense not to discover, that I, inspite of my
Heart, and all the Pride of it, cannot _but love you_. Yes, look up to
me, my sweet-fac'd Girl! I must say I love you; and have put on a
Behaviour to you, that was much against my Heart, in hopes to frighten
you to my Purposes. You see I own it ingenously.'
By this Means he perswades the Maid to stay a Fortnight longer, and then
Parson _Williams_ is first introduced: Thinks he if I can debauch this
Girl 'tis but marrying her to my Chaplain afterwards, giving him a good
Living and all's right; and this he brings in with an Offer of Fifty
Guineas. However all will not do and she is to go away when she pleases;
upon which melancholy occasion Miss must grow poetical and entertain us
with a Ditty.
The Squire's Intrigues, the Author has laid the Scene of himself; which
take in his own Words: _p._ 114, 115. 'Here it is necessary to observe,
that the fair _Pamela_'s Trials were not yet over; but the worst of all
were yet to come, at a Time when she thought them at an End, and that
she was returning to her Father: For when her Master found that her
Virtue was not to be subdu'd, and he had in vain tried to conquer his
Passion for her, _being a Gentleman of Intrigue_, he had order'd his
_Lincolnshire_ Coachman to bring his travelling Chariot from thence, not
caring to trust his Body Coachman, who, with the rest of the Servants,
so greatly lov'd and honour'd the fair Damsel; and having given him
Instructions accordingly, and prohibited his other Servants, on Pretence
of resenting _Pamela_'s Behaviour, from accompanying her any Part of the
Way, he drove her Five Miles on the Way to her Father's; and then
turning off, cross'd the Country, and carried her onward towards his
_Lincolnshire_ Estate. It is also to be observ'd, that the Messenger of
her Letters to her Father, who so often pretended Business that Way, was
an Implement in his Master's Hands, and employ'd by him for that
Purpose; and who always gave her Letters first to him, and his Master
used to open and read them, and then send them on.'
Not to mention the little Occurrences upon the Road, the _Chaste_
Discourse at the Inn, her Interview with Mrs. _Jewkes_, &c. we now
transpose the Scene from _Bedfordshire_ to the Mansion House in
_Lincolnshire_, where the poor Turtle is now coop'd up; and certainly it
must be allowed, that the Author has contrived to heighten his _Amorous
Tale_ by just Degrees, so as at once to court the Expectation, and raise
the glowing Passions 'till it is almost impossible but they must burst
forth in a Blaze.
Mrs. _Jewkes_ enters into the Business with all the Assurance of an
experienc'd Bawd. It was contrived that Miss should bait at an Inn upon
the Road, kept by her Sister, and there Mrs. _Jewkes_ receives her fair
Charge: p. 136. 'The naughty Woman came up to me with an Air of
Confidence, and _kiss'd me_: See, Sister, said she, here's a _charming
Creature_! Would she not tempt the best Lord in the Land to run away
with her? O frightful! thought I; here's an Avowal of the Matter at
once: I am now gone, that's certain. And so was quite silent and
confounded; and seeing no Help for it, (for she would not part with me
out of her Sight) I was forc'd to set out with her in the Chariot.'
Her behaviour there was a Piece with the first Onset; _p._ 137. 'Every
now and then she would be _staring in my Face_, in the Chariot, and
_squeezing my Hand_, and saying, Why you are very pretty, my silent
Dear! And once she offer'd to kiss me. But I said, I don't like this
Sort of Carriage, Mrs. _Jewkes_; _it is not like two Persons of one
Sex_. She fell a laughing very confidently, and said, That's prettily
said, _I vow! Then thou hadst rather be kiss'd by the other Sex?
"Isackins, I commend thee for that"!_' There are at present, I am sorry
to say it, too many who assume the Characters of Women of Mrs.
_Jewkes_'s Cast, I mean _Lovers of their own Sex_, _Pamela_ seems to be
acquainted with this, and indeed shews so much Virtue, that she has no
Objection to the Male Sex as too many of her own have.
_Pamela_ begins now to shew her Skill in Intrigue. It is a trite
Observation, that Confinement and Restraint will drive a Woman to the
most desperate Applications for a Remedy. She is lock'd up, and no
_Spanish Lady_ whatever could be closer confined by the most watchful
_Duenna_; but Miss comforts herself that she shall be too hard for them
all: _p._ 157. 'Well, thought I, I hope still, _Argus_, to be too hard
for thee. Now _Argus_, the Poets say, had an Hundred Eyes, and was made
to watch with them all, as she does.' The Parson here is brought upon
the Tapis, and instead of the _harmless Dove_ hatching Piety and
Affection, he enters into his Patron's Affairs with so much affected
Business, as makes him rather a _Medlar_ than a _Friend_. A fine
Complement to the Clergy by the Way!
Mrs. _Jewkes_ takes all Opportunities of insinuating her Master's _good
Qualities_, but especially his Manhood, and _Pamela_ seems as desirous
of hearing of them: _p._ 163. 'Well, well, Lambkin, (which the Foolish
often calls me) if I was in his Place, he should not have his Property
in you long questionable. Why, what would you do, said I, if you were
he?----_Not stand shill-I, shall-I, as he does; but put you and himself
both out of your Pain._'
After a long Series of Intrigue carried on between her and the Parson,
to no Purpose, but to swell _the Grain of Mustard Seed_ to _Two
Volumes_, a Swiss is introduced as an Assistant Guard, and Miss then
begins to dream: _p._ 221. 'I dream'd they were both coming to my
Bed-side, with the worst Designs; and I jump'd out of Bed in my Sleep,
and frighted Mrs. _Jewkes_; 'till, waking with the Terror, I told her my
Dream: And the wicked Creature only laughed, and said, _All I fear'd_
was but a _Dream_, as well as that; and when it was _over_, and I was
well awake, I should laugh at it as such!' These Words tho' spoke by
Mrs. _Jewkes_ in the Character of an abandon'd Profligate, yet can be of
no Service to Youth, who may take the latter Part only, and be apt to
conclude, that all _Virtue_ is but a _Dream_; and certainly they were
much better omitted than put in.
Well at Length the Squire arrives in his Fine Chariot, and now the
_Trenches_ are open'd again, and the amorous War is pursued with more
Vigour than ever; _p._ 247, 248. 'When he had supp'd, he stood up, and
said, O how happy for you it is, that you can at Will, thus make your
speaking Eyes overflow in this manner, without losing any of their
Brilliancy! You have been told, I suppose, that you are _most_ beautiful
in your Tears!--Did you ever, said he to _her_, (who all this while was
standing in one Corner of the Parlour) see a _more charming Creature
than this_? Is it to be wonder'd at, that I demean myself thus to take
Notice of her!--See, said he, and took the Glass with one Hand, and
turn'd me round with the other, _What a Shape! what a Neck! what a Hand!
and what a Bloom in that lovely Face!_----But who can describe the
Tricks and Artifices, that lie lurking in her little, plotting, guileful
Heart! 'Tis no Wonder the poor Parson was infatuated with her----I blame
him less than I do her; for who could expect such Artifice in so young a
Sorceress! Come hither, Hussy, said he; you and I have a dreadful
Reckoning to make. Why don't you come, when I bid you?--Fie upon it!
Mrs. _Pamela_, said she, what! Not stir, when his Honour commands you to
come to him!----Who knows but his Goodness will forgive you? He came to
me, (for I had no Power to stir) and put his Arms about my Neck, and
would kiss me; and said, Well, Mrs. _Jewkes_, if it were not for the
Thought of this cursed Parson, I believe in my Heart, so great is my
Weakness, that I could _yet_ forgive this intriguing little Slut, and
take her to my Bosom. O, said the Sycophant, you are very good, Sir,
very forgiving, indeed!--But come, added the profligate Wretch, I hope
you will be so good, as to take her to your Bosom; and that, by
to-morrow Morning, you'll bring her to a better Sense of her Duty!
Then follows a Proposal at large to induce her to commence a kept
Mistress: The Particulars of which, the Author hath fully set forth, in
order to _instruct_ the young Gentlemen of Fortune how to proceed in
such a Case, and that young Girls of small Fortunes may see what
tempting Things they have to trust to. 'Tis true he makes her refuse it,
but with an Insinuation that the Offers are very advantageous.
Next follows the grand _Coup d'Eclat_: A Scene so finely work'd up, that
the warmest Imagination could scarcely form one more prevalent in the
Cause of Vice. 'Tis true, the Sentences are artfully wrapt up, but
whether the Ideas divested of their Tinsel Trappings and Coverings are
too gross to _entertain_, much less capable of _instructing_ the Youth
of either Sex: Take the Author's own Words, and let the impartial World
determine, at least, let every Father or Mother of a Family read them,
and seriously say, whether they ought for the Sake of this and the
foregoing Quotations, to receive _Pamela_ into the Closets of their
Children, or condemn it to the Flames, with the most lustful Pieces
that ever appeared in Print? The Squire after forming a Pretence of
going into the Country further for a Day or two, by the Assistance of
Mrs. _Jewkes_, (who contrives to make _Nan_ her fellow Guard, drunk) is
convey'd into the Room in the Disguise of the Maid, she patiently sits,
and sees the lovely Creature undress herself, _&c._ but take her own
_modest Relation_ as follows: _p._ 270, 271, 272, 273, 274. 'So I looked
into the Closets, and kneeled down, as I used to do, to say my Prayers,
and this _with my under Cloaths, all undrest_; and passed by the poor
sleeping Wench, as I thought, in my Return. But, Oh! little did I think,
it was my wicked, wicked Master in a Gown and Petticoat of hers, and her
Apron over his Face and Shoulders. Mrs. _Jewkes_ by this Time, was got
to-bed, on the further Side, as she used to be; and, to make room for
the Maid, when she should awake, I got into Bed, and lay close to her.
And I said, Where are the Keys? tho', said I, I am not so much afraid
to-Night. Here, said the wicked Woman, put your Arm under mine, and you
shall find them about my Wrist, as they used to be. So I did, and the
abominable Designer _held my Hand with her Right Hand_, as my Right Arm
was under her Left. In less than a quarter of an Hour, I said, There's
poor _Nan_ awake; I hear her stir. Let us go to sleep, said she, and
not mind her; She'll come to bed, when she's quite awake. Poor Soul!
said I, I'll warrant she'll have the Head-ach finely to-morrow for it!
Be silent said she, and go to sleep; you keep me awake; and I never
found you in so talkative a Humour in my Life. Don't chide me, said I; I
will say but one Thing more: Do you think _Nan_ could hear me talk of my
Master's Offers? No, no, said she; she was dead asleep. I'm glad of
that, said I; because I would not expose my Master to his common
Servants, and I knew _you_ were no Stranger to his _fine_ Articles. Said
she, I think they were fine Articles, and you were bewitch'd you did not
close in with them: But let us go to sleep. So I was silent; and the
pretended _Nan_ (O wicked base villainous Designer! What a Plot, what an
unexpected Plot, was this!) seem'd to be awaking; and Mrs. _Jewkes_,
abhorred Creature! said, Come, _Nan_!--What, are you awake at last?
Prithee come to-bed; for Mrs. _Pamela_ is in a talking Fit, and wont go
to sleep one while. At that the pretended She came to the Bed-side; and
sitting down in a Chair, where the Curtain hid her, began to undress.
Said I, poor Mrs. _Ann_, I warrant your Head aches most sadly! How do
you do?--She answered not one Word. Said the superlatively wicked Woman,
You know I have order'd her not to answer you. And this Plot, to be
sure, was laid when she gave her these Orders, the Night before. I heard
her, as I thought, _breathe all quick and short_: Indeed, said I, Mrs.
_Jewkes_, the poor Maid is not well. What ails you, Mrs. _Ann_? And
still no Answer was made. But, I tremble to relate it! the pretended She
came into Bed; but _quiver'd like an Aspen-leaf_; and I, poor Fool that
I was! pitied her much.----But well might the barbarous Deceiver tremble
at his vile Dissimulation, and base Designs. What Words shall I find, my
dear Mother, (for my Father should not see this shocking Part) to
describe the rest, and my Confusion, when the guilty Wretch took my
_left Arm_, and laid it under his Neck, as the vile Procuress held my
_Right_; and then _he clasp'd me round my Waist_! Said I, Is the Wench
mad! Why, how now Confidence? thinking still it had been _Nan_. But he
kissed me with frightful Vehemence; and then his Voice broke upon me
like a Clap of Thunder. Now, _Pamela_, said he, is the dreadful Time of
Reckoning come, that I have threaten'd.----I scream'd out in such a
Manner, as never any Body heard the like. But there was no body to help
me: And both my Hands were secured, as I said. Sure never poor Soul was
in such Agonies as I. Wicked Man! said I; wicked, abominable Woman! O
God! my God! this _Time_, this _one_ Time! deliver me from this
Distress! or strike me dead this Moment. And then I scream'd again and
again. Says he, One Word with you, _Pamela_; one Word hear me but; and
hitherto you see I offer nothing to you. Is this _nothing_, said I, to
be in Bed here? To hold my Hands between you? I will hear, if you will
instantly leave the Bed, and take this villainous Woman from me. Said
she, (O Disgrace of Womankind!) What you do, Sir, do; don't stand
dilly-dallying. She cannot exclaim worse than she has done. And she'll
be quieter when she knows the worst. Silence! Said he to her; I must say
one Word to you, _Pamela_; it is this: You see, now you are in my
Power!----You cannot get from me, nor help yourself: Yet have I not
offer'd any Thing amiss to you. But if you resolve not to comply with my
Proposals, I will not lose this Opportunity: If you do I will yet leave
you. O Sir, said I, leave me, leave me but, and I will do any Thing I
ought to do. Swear then to me, said he, that you will accept my
Proposals!--And then (for this was all detestable Grimace) _he put his
Hand in my Bosom_. With Struggling, Fright, Terror, _I fainted away
quite_, and did not come to myself soon; so that they both, from the
cold Sweats that I was in, thought me dying--_And I remember no more_,
than that, when, with great Difficulty, they brought me to myself, she
was sitting on one side of the Bed, with her Cloaths on; and and he on
the other with his, and in his Gown and Slippers. Your poor _Pamela_
cannot _answer for the Liberties taken with her in her deplorable State
of Death_. And when I saw them there, I sat up in my Bed, without any
Regard to what Appearance I made, and nothing about my Neck; and he
soothing me, with an Aspect of Pity and Concern, I put my Hand to his
Mouth, and said, O tell me, yet tell me not, what I have suffered in
this Distress! And I talked quite wild, and knew not what; for to be
sure, I was on the Point of Distraction. He most solemnly, and with a
bitter Imprecation, vow'd, that he had not _offer'd_ the _least
Indecency_; that he was frighten'd at the terrible manner I was taken
with the Fit: That he would desist from his Attempt; and begg'd but to
see me easy and quiet, and he would leave me directly, and go to his own
Bed. O then, said I, take from me this most wicked Woman, this vile Mrs.
_Jewkes_, as an Earnest that I may believe you! And will you, Sir, said
the wicked Wretch, for a _Fit or two_, give up such an _Opportunity as
this?--I thought you had known the Sex better_.--She is now, you see,
quite well again! This I heard; more she might say; but _I fainted away
once more_, at these Words, and at his clasping his Arms about me
again. And when I came a little to myself, I saw him sit there, and the
Maid Nan, holding a Smelling-bottle to my Nose, and no Mrs. _Jewkes_.'
Is this an affecting Incident entirely divested of all loose Images?
Will any one in his Senses take upon him to say so? Can any Youth bear
the Image of _seeing her kneel naked_, though at her Prayers, without
Emotion: A lewd Scene suits but ill with Religion; and what an
inconsistent Mixture of both is this? Her going to Bed, and the _proper
Posture_ in which she is laid, may be _modest_, but I defy the most
innocent Virgin to read it in Company without being constrain'd to
stifle a _Conscious Blush_; or in her Closet without causing a
Palpitation which must amount to little less than a _burning Desire_;
_how then can any thing be said to encourage_ Virtue, _that must
infallibly rouse each latent_ vicious Inclination _in the Heart?
Breathing quick and short;----spreading the Arms_, while they are both
in Bed together;----_clasping round the Waist;--putting his Hand in her
Bosom,--struggling--fainting quite away_----'till she owns herself that
_she cannot answer for the Liberties taken with her in that deplorable
State of Death_. These are Images which I think no Youth can read
without Emotion, and yet I'm afraid are such as they will chuse to
converse with rather than any in the Book. For here the blooming Nymph,
the long desired Object of the eager Lover's Passion, lies naked,
defenceless and exposed in Bed, he rushes on her with all the glowing
Ardour of an ungoverned Passion, and tho' the Author has with much ado
just saved her from _Ravishment_, yet 'tis with the greatest Difficulty,
and that too with a plain Confirmation, that _all Liberties were taken
but the last_: And even that Mrs. _Jewkes_ is made to upbraid him for,
as one that ought to know the Sex better. However, had it ended here, we
had been deprived of another Volume; so that at all Events she must be
saved a little longer, and the poor Squire withdraws shaking his Ears
like a Dog that has burnt his Tail.
He had tried Force long enough; in order therefore to spin out the
Narration, he must take another Method, and try what artful Insinuations
and Perswasions would do: _p._ 280. 'After walking about, he lead me
into a little Alcove--He began to be very teizing, and made me sit on
his Knee, and was so often kissing me, that I said, Sir, I don't like to
be here at all, I assure you. Indeed you make me afraid!--And what made
me the more so, was that he once said to Mrs. _Jewkes_, and did not
think I heard him.--Said he, I will try _once_ more; but I have begun
wrong. For I see Terror does but add to her Frost; but she is a charming
Girl, and may be _thaw'd_ by _Kindness_; and I should have MELTED her
by LOVE, instead of FREEZING her by FEAR.'
This leads us on to Soothings and Blandishments, till he forms a Trap
wherein he is caught himself, and forms an Introduction for fresh
Characters; but even amidst all he can't forbear now and then breaking
partly tending to the Obscene; for he supposes that had not _Pamela_
been with him, she might have been Wife to some Plough Boy. And upon her
answering that had it been so, she should have been content, he replies
(V. II. _p._ 18.) intimating that the whole Manor must be at the Lord's
Command. In _p._ 20. poor _Pamela_ is to be _press'd to Death_; _p._ 21.
he stoops to enquire where she _garters_, and wants to _examine her
Knees_. Which by the Way shews the Squire to be a little ignorant, or
certainly by seeing her _undress_ twice he might have known.
After a great Deal of Chitchat and Courtship, we are last arrived at the
fixing of the last Holy Rite:--But to shew our Author's Inclination for
a Joke (for he must doubtless be a very Merry Man) he makes Honest Sir
_Simon Darnford_ praise her Fingers, and laughing tells her they were
made _to touch any Key_: The fluttering Heart before Marriage is
prettily described, Lady _Davers_'s Passion tho' a little too violent,
and carried to the very highest Extravagance of Nature, affords us
Matter of Diversion, as does her running a Race with _Collbrand_ of
Laughter.----_Pamela_ herself in _p._ 167, tells us, she shan't _sleep a
Wink the first Night_, but concludes with this comfortable Reflection,
_that she supposes all young Maidens are the same_; and therefore very
prudently resolves to undergo it. But in order to encourage her the
Squire desires Good Mrs. _Jewkes_ (who is now her chief Favourite) to
entertain her with some _pleasant_ Stories, _suitable to the Occasion_.
And his desiring to spoil the _pretty Waist of his Pamela_, _p._ 216, so
far from making half the Women in _England_ hurt themselves by
Strait-lacing, that I am of Opinion, most of them assisted by that and
some other foregoing Passages, wou'd rather endeavour to _enlarge_
themselves in that Part, than decrease it. Nor do Mr. _Longman_ or Mrs.
_Jervis_ seem to be of a contrary Opinion to the Squire, but both
facetiously drink a Bumper to the _Hans in Kelder_.
Thus, Sir, thro' a Series of Intrigue interwoven with Amorous Incidents
have we traced the Lovely _Pamela_ from the _Servant Maid_ to the
_Mistress_ of the _Mansion House_, and as I think I have marked out
several Passages, that tend only to _inflame_ without any View at all to
_Instruction_, that the Images they present are so far from being
innocent, they could not be stronger invented, or more naturally
expressed, to _excite Lasciviousness_ in the Minds of the Youth of both
_Sexes_. I shall conclude at present, hoping that in your next Edition
you will either amend them or entirely strike them out; not that I have
pointed all that I think exceptionable, as it would be too long for a
Thing of this Kind, and am of Opinion that there are Faults enough of
different Sorts, which may possibly be the Subject of a Second Epistle:
In the mean time, let me address myself in the most earnest Manner to
those of maturer Years, who may chance to be your Readears, that they
would weigh what _Virtue_ is, and how much these amorous Expressions may
tend to corrupt their Children, before they suffer them to peruse it,
nor be led away by the slight Viel of a few Religious Sentiments, which
are thinly spread over them, to permit the Youth under their Care to
discover the naked Charms of an _inflaming Passion_, which is too much
exposed in almost every Page of this _much-admir'd_ PAMELA. I am, SIR,
_Your's_, &c.
[Illustration]
NOTES TO _PAMELA CENSURED_
Title page
The epigraph is from Horace's Odes II. viii. 13-16: "All this but makes
sport for Venus (upon my word, it does!) and for the artless Nymphs, and
cruel Cupid, ever whetting his fiery darts on blood-stained stone"
(_Horace: The Odes and Epodes_, trans. C. E. Bennett [Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard Univ. Press, Loeb Classics, 1952], p. 127).
Title page
Little is known about James Roberts, the bookseller (see Henry R.
Plomer, _A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work
in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725_, ed. Arundell
Esdaile [Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1922], p. 255). Undoubtedly
familiar with Richardson, Roberts sold the _Weekly Miscellany_, which
Richardson printed during the 1730's, and he printed Charles Povey's
_Virgin in_ Eden (1741), which like _Pamela Censured_ attacks the
morality of Richardson's novel.
Dedication
After recommending _Pamela_ from his pulpit sometime before 6 January
1741, Dr. Benjamin Slocock (1691-1753) earned the undeserved reputation
of having been paid by Richardson for this praise (see Eaves and Kimpel,
_Samuel Richardson_, pp. 123-24).
5.1-2
The third (duodecimo) edition of _Pamela_, published 12 March 1741, is
virtually the same in content and collation as the second edition,
published less than a month earlier (see William Merritt Sale, Jr.,
_Samuel Richardson: A Bibliographical Record_ [New Haven: Yale Univ.
Press, 1936], pp. 18-19).
6.9-8.17
An attack on the various promises made by Richardson on the title page
of _Pamela_.
8.18-12.27
An attack on _Pamela_'s "Preface by the Editor." Concerning these
objections, the "Introduction" to _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ finds
fault with the author of _Pamela Censured_: "I shall pass by his
Contradictions with Regard to the Character he draws of the Editor, or
as he will have it _Author_, who appears in his Party-colour'd Writing a
very _artful, silly_ Writer, a Man of fine Sense, and excellent in his
Method of conducting the whole Piece, but at the same time vain,
ignorant, and incorrect" (I, xiii).
9.26
The "certain _Noble Lord_" is probably either Sir Arthur Hesilrige or
Lord Gainsborough (see McKillop, _Samuel Richardson_, pp. 27-29).
10.1-3
Quotation from the "Abstract of a second Letter from the Same Gentleman"
in the "Introduction to this Second Edition." The "complemental" friend
is Aaron Hill.
10.21-12.5
Paraphrase of Richardson's "Preface by the Editor."
12.8
Colley Cibber (1671-1757), the "worthy Gentleman" who then presided over
the muses as poet laureate, frequently mentions his own vanity in _An
Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian_ (1740).
14.16
Advertised during the spring of 1741, the first French translation of
_Pamela_ did not appear until the end of October 1741 (see McKillop,
_Samuel Richardson_, p. 92). Jean Baptiste de Freval, author of "_To the
Editor of the Piece intitled_ Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded," probably had
at least some hand in this French translation (see Paul Dottin, _Samuel
Richardson_ [Paris: Perrin et Cie., 1931], p. 117).
15.2-10
Partially a paraphrase, partially a quotation of "_To my worthy Friend,
the Editor of_ Pamela, _&c._"
15.17-19.2
An attack on the "Introduction to This Second Edition." Aaron Hill is
the "Person of distinguish'd _Taste_ and _Abilities_."
22.22-24
_Pamela Censured_ here refuses to employ _Pamela_'s tactic of including
parts of letters to support opinions.
26.7-13
Quotation from Letter VII.
26.13-25
_Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ brands the remarks on this page "too
poor to censure" and "downright _silly_" (I, xiii).
26.26-28.17
Quotation from Letter XI.
28.22-29.1
This comment, according to _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_, "is like the
Roman Persecution of the Christians, who sewed them in Bears Skins and
then baited them. How unfair he is, and how much of the Goat he has in
his Constitution are visible" (I, xiii).
29.1-30.27
Quotation from Letter XV. Concerning this passage, _Pamela's Conduct in
High Life_ asks: "What is there immodest in this Account, what to excite
any Passions but those of Pity for a virtuous young Creature, and
Indignation to a tyrannical lewd Man of Fortune? How do the Fright, the
Terror, and Apprehensions of a defenceless Virgin kindle Desire? and
when they have deprived her of Sense, how can we fairly from the Words
of _Pamela_'s Letter gather, that she fell in an indecent Posture?" "The
Warmth of Imagination in this virtuous Censurer," continues _Pamela's
Conduct in High Life_, "supplies the rest: He can't suppose that she
could possibly fall but as he has painted her, and if the Editor has
been defective in CONVEYING THE MOST ARTFUL AND ALLURING AMOROUS IDEAS,
if the Letters do not abound with Incidents which must necessarily raise
in the unwary Youth that read them EMOTIONS _far distant_ from the
PRINCIPLES of VIRTUE. If they are not replete with _Images to enflame_,
the Censurer endeavours to repair the Fault[. H]e, not the Editor,
contrives to give an Idea of _Pamela_'s hidden Beauties, and would have
you imagine she lies in the most immodest Posture, such a one as Mrs.
_Jervis_ thought Things had gone farther, but can this be gathered from
_Pamela_'s Account, or is not this virtuous Censurer endeavouring to
impress in the Minds of Youth that read his Defence of Modesty and
Virtue, _Images_ that may _enflame_? _Was not_, says he, _the 'Squire
very modest to withdraw? for she lay in such a pretty Posture that
Mrs._ Jervis _thought it was worse_. Why did Mrs. _Jervis_ think this
from the pretty Posture? Nay, how could she think it from any Posture?
when the same Account tells us she and the 'Squire were obliged to burst
open the Door, for Mrs. _Jervis_ to get in to her Assistance; Is it not
more reasonable for Mrs. _Jervis_ to conclude as she did, from the
unruly lawless Passion with which she knew her Master tormented, from
the Obstinacy of his Temper, and from the Hopes he might entertain,
being Master of a large Fortune, that he might, born up by that, stem
the Tide of Justice, and perpetrate the greatest Villainy with Impunity?
We are told in the Letters that she fainted away, and fell on the Floor
stretch'd at her Length, and as her Gown was caught in, and torn by the
Door, she must fall too near it, in whatever Posture, to shew any
_latent_ Beauties, but what is there indecent in this Relation? Is there
any particular Posture described? Oh, but the Censurer lays her in one
which may _enflame_, you must imagine as lusciously as he does; if the
Letter has not discover'd enough, the pious Censurer lends a Hand, and
endeavours to _surfeit your Sight_ by lifting the Covering which was
left by the Editor, and with the Hand of a boisterous Ravisher takes the
Opportunity of _Pamela_'s being in a Swoon to ----" (I, xiv-xv).
30.28
Concerning "whether the 'Squire was not modest," _Pamela's Conduct in
High Life_ explains that Mr. B "shews he had some Humanity, and was
touch'd with Remorse at the Distress he himself occasioned. This, no
doubt the Censurer, who seems as much divested of Humanity as a Stranger
to Virtue or even Decency, blames the 'Squire for in his Heart, thinks
him a silly Country Booby, a half-paced Sinner, a Milk-sop to be capable
of Compassion, and no doubt would gladly have had him gone thorough,
that he might have had the Pleasure of imaginary Pimping, and have
_surfeited his Sight_" (I, xv-(xvi)).
31.6-32.19
Concerning this passage, _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ sums up its
argument by saying: "But this unfair Censurer fearing he has not yet
warm'd the Imagination of his Readers, lays Pamela in a Posture, and
particularizes her latent charms, _p._ 31, and then charges his own
luxurious Fancy on the Author, as he calls the Editor" (I, [xvi]).
33.1-20
Quotation from Letter XVIII.
33.25-34.13
Quotation from Letter XIX. Concerning this passage, _Pamela's Conduct in
High Life_ exclaims: "Pamela talks very rationally to Mrs. _Jervis_,
foresees Consequences, and concludes, _she that can't keep her Virtue
ought to live in Disgrace_. At this our Censurer cries out, _Fine
Instructions truly!_" With this, _Pamela's Conduct in High Life_ makes
its parting stab at _Pamela Censured_: "But it is impossible with
Decency to follow this luscious Censurer, really I had scarce Patience
to read, and therefore you will not expect me to rake longer in his
Dirt. I have written enough to shew you of what Stamp are all the
Calumniators of the virtuous _Pamela_. How sensual and coarse their
Ideas, how inhumane their Sentiments, how immoral their Principles, how
vile their Endeavours, how unfair their Quotations, how lewd and weak
their Remarks" (I. [xvi]).
35.12-29
Quotation from Letter XXIV.
37.2-38.6
Quotation from Letter XXIV.
38.10-25
Quotation from Letter XXIV.
39.12-20
Quotation from Letter XXV.
39.24-40.10
Quotation from Letter XXV.
40.15-41.19
Quotation from Letter XXV.
42.2-17
Quotation from Letter XXV.
42.26-28
Quotation from Letter XXVII.
43.5-16
Quotation from Letter XXVII.
43.20-44.3
Quotation from Letter XXVII.
44.9-17
Quotation from Letter XXVII.
45.20-46.3
Quotation from Letter XXVII.
46.19-20
Reference to Letter XXIX.
46.26-48.4
Quotation from Letter XXX.
48.17-49.15
Quotation from the narrative break at the end of Letter XXXI.
50.3-13
Quotation from Letter XXXII.
50.15-25
Quotation from Letter XXXII.
51.10-14
Quotation from the journal entry for "TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY," the 6th
and 7th days of "Bondage."
51.23-52.2
Quotation from the journal entry for "THURSDAY," the 8th day of
"Bondage."
52.7-15
Quotation from the journal entry for "MONDAY, TUESDAY, _the 25th and
26th Days of my heavy Restraint_."
52.25-54.5
Quotation from the journal entry for "SATURDAY _Morning_," the 37th day
of "Bondage."
55.10-60.4
Quotation from the journal entry for "TUESDAY _Night_," the 40th day of
"Bondage."
61.18-62.2
Quotation from the journal entry for "WEDNESDAY _Morning_," the 41st day
of "Bondage."
62.11-16
References to the journal entry for "SATURDAY, _Six o'Clock_," the 44th
day of "Bondage."
63.2-6
Reference to the journal entry for "WEDNESDAY _Evening_," the night
before Pamela's wedding.
63.10-11
Reference to the journal entry for "SUNDAY, _the Fourth Day of my
Happiness_."
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pamela Censured, by Anonymous
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