CHAPTER I
The Duchess of Newcastle. Mrs. Behn. Mrs. Manley
In the many volumes containing the records of the past, the names of fewwomen appear, and the number is still smaller of those who have won famein art or literature. Sappho, however, has shown that poetic feeling andexpression are not denied the sex; Jeanne d'Arc was chosen to freeFrance; Mrs. Somerville excelled in mathematics; Maria Mitchell rankedamong the great astronomers; Rosa Bonheur had the stroke of a master.These women possessed genius, and one is tempted to ask why more womenhave not left enduring work, especially in the realm of art. The Madonnaand Child, what a subject for a woman's brush! Yet the joy of maternitywhich shines in a mother's eyes has seldom been expressed by her inwords or on canvas. It was left for a man, William Blake, to write someof our sweetest songs of childhood.
But as soon as the novel appeared, a host of women writers sprang up.Women have always been story-tellers. Long before Homer sang of the fallof Troy, the Grecian matrons at their spinning related to their maidsthe story of Helen's infidelity; and, as they thought of their husbandsand sons who had fallen for her sake, the story did not lack in fervour.But the minstrels have always had this advantage over the story-tellers:their words, sung to the lyre, were crystallised in rhythmic form, sothat they resisted the action of time, while only the substance of thestories, not the words which gave them beauty and power, could beretained, and consequently they crumbled away. When the novel took onliterary form, women began to write. They were not imitators of men, butopened up new paths of fiction, in many of which they excelled.
The first woman to essay prose fiction as an art was Margaret, Queen ofNavarre. In the seventy-two tales of _The Heptameron_, a book writtenbefore the dawn of realism, she related many anecdotes of her brother,Francis the First, and his courtiers. Woman's permanent influence overthe novel began about 1640, and was due directly to the HotelRambouillet, in whose grand _salon_ there mingled freely for half acentury the noblest minds of France. This _salon_ was presided over bythe Marquise de Rambouillet, who had left the licentious court of Henrythe Fourth, and had formed here in her home between the Louvre and theTuileries a little academy, where Corneille read his tragedies beforethey were published, and Bousset preached his first sermon, while amongthe listeners were the beautiful Duchess de Longueville, Madame deLafayette, Madame de Sevigne and Mademoiselle de Scuderi, besides otherpersons of royal birth or of genius. The ladies of this _salon_ becamethe censors of the manners, the literature, and even the language ofFrance. Here was the first group of women writers whose fame extendedbeyond their own country, and has lasted, though somewhat dimmed, to thepresent. Since the seventeenth century the influence of women novelistshas been ever widening.
In England, women entered the domain of literature later than in France,Spain, or Italy. Not until the Restoration did they take any active partin the world of letters; and not until the reign of George the Third didthey make any marked contribution to fiction.
The first woman writer of prose fiction in England was the thrice nobleand illustrious Princess Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle. During theCommonwealth, the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle had lived in exile, butwith the restoration of Charles the Second, in 1660, they returned toLondon, where the Duchess soon became a notable personage. Crowdsgathered in the park merely to see her pass, attracted partly by herfame as a writer, partly by the singularities she affected. Her blackcoach furnished with white curtains and adorned with silver trimmingsinstead of gilt, with the footmen dressed in long black coats, wasreadily distinguished from other carriages in the park. Herpeculiarities of dress were no less marked. Her long black_juste-au-corps_, her hair hanging in curls about her bared neck, hermuch beplumed velvet cap of her own designing, were objects of ridiculeto the court wits, who even asserted that she wore more than the usualnumber of black patches upon her comely face.
More singular than her habiliments were her pretentions as a woman ofletters, which caused the courtiers to laugh at her conceit. She wasevidently aware of this failing as she writes in her _Autobiography_:"I fear my ambition inclines to vain-glory, for I am very ambitious;yet 't is neither for beauty, wit, titles, wealth, or power, but as theyare steps to raise me to Fame's tower, which is to live by remembrancein after-ages."
But, notwithstanding her detractors, she received sufficient praise tofoster her belief in her own genius. Her plays were well received. Herpoems were declared by her admirers equal to Shakespeare's. Herphilosophical works, which she dedicated to the great universities ofOxford and Cambridge, were accepted with fulsome flattery of theirauthor. When she visited the Royal Society at Arundel House, the LordPresident met her at the door, and, with mace carried before him,escorted her into the room, where many experiments were performed forher pleasure. In 1676, a folio volume was published, entitled _Lettersand Poems in Honour of the Incomparable Princess Margaret, Duchess ofNewcastle_, written by men of high rank and of learning, with thefollowing dedication by the University of Cambridge:
To Margaret the First: Princess of Philosophers: Who hath dispelled errors: Appeased the difference of opinions: And restored Peace To Learning's Commonwealth.
Yet this praise was not all flattery, for the scholarly Evelyn alwaysspeaks of her with respect, and after visiting her writes, "I was muchpleased with the extraordinary fanciful habit, garb, and discourse ofthe Duchess."
Amid the arid wastes of her philosophical works are green spotsenlivened by good sense and humour that have a peculiar charm. At thetime when the trained minds of the Royal Society were broadeningscientific knowledge by careful experiments, this lady, with practicallyno education, sat herself down to write her thoughts upon the greatsubjects of matter and motion, mind and body. She was emboldened topublish her opinions, for, as she says: "Although it is probable, thatsome of the Opinions of Ancient Philosophers in Ancient times areerroneous, yet not all, neither are all Modern Opinions Truths, buttruly I believe, there are more Errors in the One than Truth in theOther." Some of her explanations are very artless, as when she decidesthat passions are created in the heart and not in the head, because"Passion and Judgment seldom agree."
Her philosophical works are often compounded of fiction and fact. Herbook called _The Description of a New World called the Blazing World_reminds one of some of the marvellous stories of Jules Verne. Accordingto the story a merchant fell in love with a lady while she was gatheringshells on the sea-coast, and carried her away in a light vessel. Theywere driven to the north pole, thence to the pole of another world whichjoined it. The conjunction of these two poles doubled the cold, so thatit was insupportable, and all died but the lady. Bear-men conducted herto a warmer clime, and presented her to the emperor of the BlazingWorld, whose palace was of gold, with floors of diamonds. The emperormarried the lady, and, at her desire to study philosophy, sent for theDuchess of Newcastle, "a plain and rational writer," to be her teacher.The story at this point rambles into philosophy.
_Nature's Pictures drawn by Fancy's Pencil_ contains many suggestionsfor poems and novels. Particularly beautiful is the fragment of a storyof a lord and lady who were forbidden to love in this world, but whodied the same night, and met on the shores of the Styx. "Their souls didmingle and intermix as liquid essences, whereby their souls became asone." They preferred to enjoy themselves thus rather than go to Elysium,where they might be separated, and where the talk of the shades wasalways of the past, which to them was full of sorrow.
The Duchess of Newcastle wrote a series of letters on beauty, eloquence,time, theology, servants, wit, and kindred subjects, often illustratedby a little story, reminding the reader of some of the _Spectator_papers, which delighted the next generation. As in those papers,characters were introduced. Mrs. P.I., the Puritan dame, appears inseveral letters. She had received sanctification, and consequentlyconsidered all vanities of dress, such as curls, bare necks, blackpatches, fans, ribbons, necklaces, and pendants, temptations of Satanand the signs of damnation. In a subsequent letter she bec
omes apreaching sister, and the Duchess has been to hear her, and thuscomments upon the meeting: "There were a great many holy sisters andholy brethren met together, where many took their turns to preach; foras they are for liberty of conscience, so they are for liberty ofpreaching. But there were more sermons than learning, and more wordsthan reason."
This is the first example of the use of letters in English fiction. Inthe next century it was adopted by Richardson for his three greatnovels, _Pamela_, _Clarissa Harlowe_, and _Sir Charles Grandison_; itwas used by Smollett in the novel of _Humphry Clinker_, and became apopular mode of composition with many lesser writers.
But posterity is chiefly indebted to the Duchess of Newcastle for herlife of her husband and the autobiography that accompanies it. Of theformer Charles Lamb wrote that it was a jewel for which "no casket isrich enough." Of the beaux and belles who were drawn by the ready pensof the playwrights of the court of Charles the Second none are worthy ofa place beside the Duke of Newcastle and his incomparable wife.
With rare felicity she has described her home life in London with herbrothers and sisters before her marriage. Their chief amusements were aride in their coaches about the streets of the city, a visit to SpringGardens and Hyde Park; and sometimes a sail in the barges on the river,where they had music and supper. She announces with dignity her firstmeeting with the Duke of Newcastle in Paris, where she was maid ofhonour to the Queen Mother of England: "He was pleased to take someparticular notice of me, and express more than an ordinary affection forme; insomuch that he resolved to choose me for his second wife." And inanother place she writes: "I could not, nor had not the power to refusehim, by reason my affections were fixed on him, and he was the onlyperson I ever was in love with. Neither was I ashamed to own it, butgloried therein." Here is the charm of brevity. Richardson would haveblurred these clearly cut sentences by eight volumes.
In the biography of her husband she relates faithfully his services toCharles the First at the head of an army which he himself had raised;his final defeat near York by the Parliamentary forces; and his escapeto the continent in 1644. Then followed his sixteen years of exile inParis, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, where "he lived freely and nobly,"entertaining many persons of quality, although he was often in extremepoverty, and could obtain credit merely by the love and respect whichhis presence inspired. What a sad picture is given of the return of theexiles to their estates, which had been laid waste in the Civil War andlater confiscated by Cromwell! But how the greatness of the truegentleman shines through it all, who, as he viewed one of his parks,seven of which had been completely destroyed, simply said, "He had beenin hopes it would not have been so much defaced as he found it."
In the closing chapter the Duchess gives _Discourses Gathered from theMouth of my noble Lord and Husband_. These show both sound sense and abroad view of affairs. She writes:
"I have heard My Lord say,
I
"That those which command the Wealth of a Kingdom, command the hearts and hands of the People.
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XXXIII
"That many Laws do rather entrap than help the subject."
Clarendon, who thought but poorly of the Duke's abilities as a general,gives the same characterisation of him: a man of exact proportion,pleasant, witty, free but courtly in his manner, who loved all that werehis friends, and hated none that were his enemies, and who had provedhis loyalty to his king by the sacrifice of his property and at the riskof his life.
Perhaps the Duchess of Newcastle has unwittingly drawn a truerepresentation of the great body of English cavaliers, and has partlyremoved the stain which the immoralities of the court afterward put uponthe name. These biographies give a story of marital felicity with allthe characteristics of the domestic novel.
At this time the English novel was a crude, formless thing, withoutdignity in literature. The Duchess of Newcastle, who aspired to beranked with Homer and Plato, would have spurned a place among writers ofromance, although her genius was primarily that of the novelist. Sheconstantly thought of plots, which she jotted down at random, her commonmethod of composition. She has described characters, and has left manybright pictures of the manners and customs of her age. Her style ofwriting is better than that of many of her more scholarlycontemporaries, who studied Latin models and strove to imitate them. Shewrote as she thought and felt, so that her style is simple when not lostin the mazes of philosophical speculation. She had all the requisitesnecessary to write the great novel of the Restoration.
But in the next century her voluminous writings were forgotten, and thecasual visitor to Westminster Abbey who paused before the imposingmonument in the north transept read with amused indifference the quaintinscription which marks the tomb of the noble pair; that she was thesecond wife of the Duke of Newcastle, that her name was Margaret Lucas;"a noble family, for all the brothers were valiant and all the sisterswere virtuous." To Charles Lamb belongs the credit of discovering theworth of her writings. Delighting in oddities, but quick to discerntruth from falsehood, he loved to pore over the old folios containingher works, and could not quite forgive his sister Mary for speakingdisrespectfully of "the intellectuals of a dear favourite of mine of thelast century but one--the thrice noble, chaste and virtuous, but againsomewhat fantastical and original-brained, generous Margaret Newcastle."
Her desire for immortality is nearer its fulfilment to-day than at anyprevious time. A third edition of the _Life of the Duke of Newcastle_was published in 1675, the year after her death. Nearly two hundredyears later, in 1872, it was included in Russell Smith's "Library of OldAuthors," and since then a modernised English edition and a Frenchedition of this book have been published. No one can read this biographywithout feeling the charm of the quaint, childlike personality of theDuchess of Newcastle.
While all London was talking of the "mad Duchess of Newcastle," anotherlady was living there no less eminent as a writer, but so distinguishedfor her wit, freedom of temper, and brilliant conversation, that eventhe great Dryden sought her friendship, and Sothern, Rochester, andWycherley were among her admirers. She was named "Astrea," and hailed asthe wonder and glory of her sex. But Aphra Behn's talents brought her amore substantial reward than fame. Her plays were presented to crowdedhouses; her novels were in every library, and she obtained a largeincome from her writings; she was the first English woman to earn aliving by her pen.
In her early youth, Mrs. Behn lived for a time at Surinam in DutchGuiana, where her father was governor. On one of the plantations was anegro in whose fate she became deeply interested. She learned from hisown lips about his life in Africa, and was herself an eye witness of theindignities and tortures he suffered in slavery. She was so deeplyimpressed by his horrible fate, that on her return to London she relatedhis story to King Charles the Second and at his request elaborated itinto the novel _Oroonoko_.
According to the story, Oroonoko, an African warrior, was married toImoinda, a beautiful maiden of his own people. His grandfather, apowerful chieftain, also fell in love with the beautiful Imoinda andplaced her in his harem. When he found that her love for Oroonoko stillcontinued, he sold her secretly into slavery and her rightful husbandcould learn nothing of her whereabouts. Later Oroonoko and his men wereinvited by the captain of a Dutch trading ship to dine on board hisvessel. They accepted the invitation, but, after dinner, the captainseized his guests, threw them into chains, and carried them to the WestIndies, where he sold them as slaves. Here Oroonoko found his wife,whose loss he had deeply mourned, and they were reunited. Oroonoko,however, indignant at the treachery practised against himself and hismen, incited the slaves to a revolt. They were overcome, and Oroonokowas tied to a whipping-post and severely punished. As he found that hecould not escape, he resolved to die. But rather than leave Imoinda tothe cruelty of her owners, he determined to slay first his wife, thenhis enemies, lastly himself. He told his plans to Imoinda, who willinglyaccompanied him into the fore
st, where he put her to death. When he sawhis wife dead at his feet, his grief was so great that it deprived himof the strength to take vengeance on his enemies. He was again capturedand led to a stake, where faggots were placed about him. The author hasdescribed his death with a faithfulness to detail that carries with itthe impress of truth: "'My Friends, am I to die, or to be whipt?' Andthey cry'd, 'Whipt! no, you shall not escape so well.' And then hereply'd, smiling, 'A blessing on thee'; and assured them they need nottie him, for he would stand fix'd like a Rock, and endure Death so asshould encourage them to die: 'But if you whip me' [said he], 'be sureyou tie me fast.'"
The popularity of the book was instantaneous. It passed through severaleditions. It was translated into French and German, and adapted for theGerman stage, while Sothern put it on the stage in England. It createdalmost as great a sensation as did _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ two hundred yearslater. Like Mrs. Stowe's novel it had a strong moral influence, as itwas among the earliest efforts to call the attention of Europe to theevils of the African slave trade. Moreover, this her first novel gaveMrs. Behn an acknowledged place as a writer.
_Oroonoko_ marks a distinct advance in English fiction. Nearly allnovels before this had consisted of a series of stories held together bya loosely formed plot running through a number of volumes, sometimesonly five, but occasionally, as in _The Grand Cyrus_, filling tenquartos. Their form was such that like the _Thousand and One Nights_they could be continued indefinitely. Most of these novels belongedeither to the pastoral romance or the historical allegory. In theformer the ladies and gentlemen who in a desultory sort of way carriedon the plot were disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses and lived inidyllic state in Arcadia. In the latter they masqueraded under the namesof kings and queens of antiquity and entered with the flourish oftrumpets and the sound of drums.
_Oroonoko_ was the first English novel with a well developed plot. Itmoves along rapidly, without digression, to its tragic conclusion. Notuntil Fielding wrote _Joseph Andrews_ was the plot of any English novelso definitely wrought. The lesser writer had a slight advantage over thegreater. Mrs. Behn's novel is constructed upon dramatic lines, so thatit holds the interest more closely to the main characters, and the endis awaited with intense expectation; while Fielding chose the epic form,which is more discursive, and _Joseph Andrews_ like all his novels isexcessively tame, almost hackneyed in its conclusion. Mrs. Behn's blackhero is the first distinctly drawn character in English fiction, thefirst one that has any marked personality. Sometimes the enthusiasm withwhich he is described brings a smile to the lips of the modern readerand reminds one of the heroic savages of James Fenimore Cooper and HelenHunt Jackson. She writes of him: "He was pretty tall, but of a Shape themost exact that can be Fancy'd: The most famous Statuary could not formthe Figure of a Man more admirably turned from Head to Foot.... Therewas no one Grace wanting, that bears the Standard of true Beauty." Andthus she continues the description in the superlative degree.
But the story is for the most part realistic. Although the scenes inAfrica show the influence of the French heroic novels, as if the authorwere afraid to leave her story in its simple truth but must adorn itwith purple and ermine, as soon as it is transferred to Surinam, whereMrs. Behn had lived, it becomes real. It has local colouring, at thattime an almost unknown attribute. It has the atmosphere of the tropics.The descriptions are vivid, and often photographic. Occasionally theyare exaggerated, but few travellers to a region of which their hearersknow nothing have been able to resist the temptation to deviate from theexact truth. But the whole novel, even at this late day, leaves one withthe impression that it is a true biography.
In the history of the English novel, in which _Pamela_ is given animportant place as the morning star which heralded the great light ofEnglish realism about to burst upon the world, this well arranged,definite, picturesque story of _Oroonoko_, whose author was reposingquietly within the hallowed precincts of Westminster Abbey fifty yearsbefore Richardson introduced _Pamela_ to an admiring public, should notbe forgotten. Before _Pamela_ was published, the complete works of Mrs.Behn passed through eight editions. The plots of all her novels are wellconstructed, with little extraneous matter, but with the exception ofOroonoko the characters are shadowy beings, many of whom meet with aviolent death. _The Nun or the Perjured Duty_ has only five characters,all of whom perish in the meshes of love. _The Fair Jilt or the Amoursof Prince Tarquin and Miranda_, founded on incidents that came to theauthor's knowledge during her residence in Antwerp, is well fitted forthe columns of a modern yellow journal; the beautiful heroine causes thedeath of everyone who stands in the way of her love or her ambition, butshe finally repents and lives happy ever after. Mrs. Behn's style isalways careless, owing to her custom of writing while entertainingfriends.
A great change took place in the public taste during the next hundredyears, so that Mrs. Behn's novels, plays, and poems fell into disrepute.Sir Walter Scott tells the story of his grand-aunt who expressed adesire to see again Mrs. Behn's novels, which she had read with delightin her youth. He sent them to her sealed and marked "private andconfidential." The next time he saw her, she gave them back with thewords:
"Take back your bonny Mrs. Behn, and, if you will take my advice, puther in the fire, for I find it impossible to get through the very firstnovel. But is it not a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty andupward, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which sixtyyears ago I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles,consisting of the first and most creditable society in London?"
Mrs. Behn has been accused of great license in her conduct and of grossimmorality in her writings. Her friend and biographer says of theformer: "For my part I knew her intimately, and never saw oughtunbecoming the just modesty of our sex, though more free and gay thanthe folly of the precise will allow." For the latter the fashion must beblamed more than she. Mrs. Behn was not actuated by the high moralprinciples of Mademoiselle de Scuderi and Madame de Lafayette, with whomlove was an ennobling passion, nor was she writing for the refined menand women of the Hotel Rambouillet; she was striving to earn a living bypleasing the court of Charles the Second, and in that she was eminentlysuccessful.
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Nearly a quarter of a century after the death of Mrs. Behn, Mrs. Manleypublished anonymously the first two volumes of the _New Atlantis_, thebook by which she is chiefly known, under the title of _Secret Memoirsand Manners of Several Persons of Quality of both Sexes from the NewAtalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean_. Mrs. Manley was a Tory, andshe peopled the New Atalantis with members of the Whig party underMarlborough as Prince Fortunatus. The book is written in the form of aconversation carried on by Astrea, Virtue, and Intelligence, apersonification of the _Court Gazette_. They described the Whig leadersso accurately, and related the scandal of the court so faithfully, that,although fictitious names were used, no key was needed to recognise thepersonages in the story.
The publisher and printer were arrested for libel, but Mrs. Manley cameforward and owned the authorship. In her trial she was placed under asevere cross-examination by Lord Sunderland, who attempted to learnwhere she had obtained her information. She persisted in her statementthat no real characters were meant, that it was all a work ofimagination, but if it bore any resemblance to truth it must have cometo her by inspiration. Upon Lord Sunderland's objecting to thisstatement, on the grounds that so immoral a book bore no trace of divineimpulse, she replied that there were evil angels as well as good, whomight possess equal powers of inspiration. The book was published inMay, 1709; in the following February, she was discharged by order ofthe Queen's Bench.
Soon after her discharge from court, she wrote a third and fourth volumeof the _New Atalantis_ under the title, _Memoirs of Europe toward theClose of the Eighth Century written by Eginardus, Secretary and Favoriteto Charlemagne, and done into English, by the Translator of the NewAtalantis_. Here she has followed the French models. There is a looselyconstructed plot, and the ch
aracters tell a series of stories. Many ofthe writers of Queen Anne's reign are described with none of that lustrethat surrounds them now, but as they appeared to a cynical woman whoknew them well. She refers to Steele as Don Phaebo, and ridicules hissearch for the philosopher's stone; and laments that Addison, whom shecalls Maro, should prostitute his talents for gold, when he might becomea second Vergil.
Mrs. Manley had been well trained to write a book like the _NewAtalantis_. At sixteen, an age when Addison and Steele were at theCharterhouse preparing for Oxford, her father, Sir Roger Manley, died. Acousin, taking advantage of her helplessness, deceived her by a falsemarriage, and after three years abandoned her. Upon this she entered thehousehold of the Duchess of Cleveland, the mistress of Charles theSecond, who soon tired of her and dismissed her from her service. Shethen began to write, and by her plays and political articles soon won anacknowledged place among the writers of Grub Street.
From the many references to her in the letters and journals of theperiod, she seems to have been popular with the writers of bothpolitical parties. Swift writes to Stella that she is a very generousperson "for one of that sort," which many little incidents prove. Shededicated her play _Lucius_ to Steele, with whom she was on alternateterms of enmity and friendship, as a public retribution for her ridiculeof him in the _New Atalantis_, saying that "scandal between Whig andTory goes for not." Steele, equally generous, wrote a prologue for theplay, perhaps in retribution for some of the harsh criticisms of her inthe _Tatler_. All readers of Pope remember the reference to her in the_Rape of the Lock_, where Lord Petre exclaims that his honour, name andpraise shall live
As long as Atalantis shall be read.
Although Mrs. Manley's pen was constantly and effectively employed inthe interest of the Tory party, she being at one time the editor of the_Examiner_, the Tory organ, none of her writings had the popularity ofthe _New Atalantis_. It went through seven editions and was translatedinto the French. The book has no intrinsic merit; its language isscurrilous and obscene; but it appealed to the eager curiosity of thepublic concerning the private immoralities of men and women who wereprominent at court. Human nature in its pages furnishes a contemptiblespectacle.
The _New Atalantis_ has now, however, assumed a permanent place in thehistory of fiction. This species of writing had been common, in France,but it was the first English novel in which political and personalscandal formed the groundwork of a romance. Swift followed its generalplan in _Gulliver's Travels_, placing his political enemies in publicoffice in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, only he so wrought upon them withhis imagination that he gave to the world a finished work of art, whileMrs. Manley has left only the raw material with which the artist works.Smollett's political satire, _Adventures of an Atom_, was also suggestedby the _New Atalantis_, but here the earlier writer has surpassed thelater. All three of these writers took a low and cynical view ofhumanity.
The women novelists who directly followed Mrs. Manley did not have herstrength, but they had a delicacy that has given to their writings asubtle charm. From the time of Sarah Fielding to the present threatenedreaction the writings of women have been marked by chastity of thoughtand purity of expression.
Woman's Work in English Fiction, from the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period Page 2