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Richardsoniana
by
T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D.
Kimpel
All scholars who have worked on Samuel Richardson have used the six large bound volumes of manuscript material in the Forster Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum—for the most part letters to Richardson and copies or first drafts of his replies, once part of his own collection. But most of them seem not to have been aware of a bound volume of printed matter labeled "Richardsoniana" which also forms part of the Forster Collection. Comparison of this volume with Richardson's manuscript indices to items about Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison [1] shows that all but the second of these printed works in the "Richardsoniana" volume are from Richardson's own collection and that it, therefore, answers several minor questions which Richardson scholars have been unable to settle conclusively.
The first item is the anonymous pamphlet entitled Remarks on Clarissa, Addressed to the Author (London, 1749).[2] Professor Alan Dugald McKillop states that this pamphlet was probably written by Sarah Fielding: "A manuscript bearing exactly this title is entered in the Index to Clarissa material, Forster MS XV, 3, f. 2, but is no longer to be found in the collection. The entry is marked in Richardson's hand, 'By Miss F------g.' The pagination recorded in the Index shows that this piece was over fifty pages long, thus corresponding in length to the printed pamphlet."[3] The index to the Clarissa material reads "p: 216:—Remarks on Clarissa address'd to ye Author. By Miss F------g." The next item in the index is on page 272. The last page of "Remarks on Clarissa" should, therefore, be page 271; and the pamphlet in the "Richardsoniana" volume is, in fact, numbered in ink from 216 through 271. This confirms Professor McKillop's conjecture that the item listed in the index is Remarks on Clarissa, and that Remarks on Clarissa is, therefore, by Sarah Fielding.
The second item is a copy of the catalogue of the Southgate sale of January 21-22, 1828, at which the Richardson material in the Forster Collection was purchased.
The third item is Answer to the Letter of a Very Reverend and Worthy Gentleman, Objecting to the Warmth of a Particular Scene in the History of Clarissa, an eleven-page pamphlet without a title-page (the verso of
A good deal of Richardson's defence of the fire scene is, as Dobson says, on artistic grounds. Richardson carefully analyzes the situation which makes such a scene necessary and the character of Lovelace (who describes the scene) which justifies the terms of the description. "You, [sic] know Sir, what is required of Writers, who aim at personating (in order to describe the more naturally) a particular Character, whether good or bad" (page 7). He also points out that unless such a scene is detailed and vivid there will be no apparent justification for Clarissa's flight to Hampstead. However, Dobson implies that Richardson justifies the scene only on artistic grounds, whereas he justifies it on moral grounds as well. Young women should be warned by being shown "the sly, the artful Progressions to a criminal Attempt" (page 5), and should also be shown how to triumph, as Clarissa does, if such an attempt is made. If the scene had not been described, the licentious would have been ready to blame Lovelace for not succeeding "and to boast what They would have done on the like Occasion" (page 7). If the attempt had not been particularly described, the licentious would have imagined "that the Indignities offered to her were of an higher and grosser Nature, than now there is room to suppose they were" (page 8). Richardson mentions another worthy gentleman and several ladies of his acquaintance who have also objected to the scene, but he himself cannot imagine that it can really be inflaming: in writing it "the Passion I found strongest in me, whenever I supposed myself a Reader only, and the Story real, was Anger, or Indignation: I had too great an Aversion to the intended Violator of the Honour of a CLARISSA, to suffer any-thing but alternate Admiration and Pity of her, and Resentment against him, to take place in my Mind, on the Occasion" (page 7); "What a Mind must that be, that could make Sport to itself, or even light, of what was Death, or worse than Death, to a Fellow-creature supremely excellent!" (page 11).
The fourth and fifth items are clippings from the Gentleman's Magazine, XIX (June, August, 1749), 245-246, 345-349, which contain a character of Clarissa "by an Ingenious Foreigner" and remarks on and objections to
The last two items are two copies of the printed letters "Copy of a Letter to a Lady" and "Answer to a Letter from a Friend," written by Richardson and described by Professor Sale (pages 94-95). The first page of the first copy is numbered in ink 157, and the first page of the second copy 277. In Richardson's manuscript index to the Sir Charles Grandison material are two items "Printed Letters--------p. 157" and "Printed Letters--------p. 277." The letters are eight pages long and eight pages are left for them in the index in the first place and nine in the second.
Notes
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