University of Virginia Library

II

The final revisions of Clarissa were made in 1759, when the author published it for the fourth and last time. There has been almost no discussion of this edition. On the rare occasions when scholars have referred to it in print, their remarks have reflected a general uncertainty about the extent of its changes. In his introduction to his Riverside abridgment, George Sherburn is the only one to comment explicitly on this version, and even he speaks cautiously about it: "The 1759 text (not printed with scrupulous care) makes perhaps final revisions and additions." His own abridgment, he says, "follows the tradition of conflation: it is based on the faulty text given in Everyman's Library, which has been collated with that of 1759, which in turn, chiefly for misprints, omissions of essential words, etc. has been compared with the texts of 1748 and 1751."[25]

The fourth edition is the only one published during Richardson's lifetime that exactly duplicates the pagination of its predecessor. It is also the only one with relatively few changes in accidentals. In the second and third editions there are as many as one or two dozen

changes in spelling, capitalization or punctuation per page. In most cases these are not isolated changes, for they form deliberate patterns introduced by either Richardson or his printer to alter the appearance of the text. Proper nouns are systematically capitalized in 1749 and 1751; the number of commas is reduced; other forms of punctuation are simplified; contractions are spelled out. In contrast, most pages of the fourth edition have no changes whatsoever, either substantive or accidental. The scattered variations found here and there are errors in printing, or in some cases, acceptable alternatives recognized among eighteenth-century printers.

Other than alterations in accidentals, there are only 5 changes in the fourth edition necessary to consider here, and at least one of them is an error. This simple fact is in startling contrast to all we know about each of the earlier editions, so scrupulously revised, page by page, by the author. It also rules out the need to consider the fourth edition as a serious source of evidence for Richardson's final intentions.

The error is in the date of Lovelace's letter XXVI to Belford, shown as "Sat., Aug. 23" in the fourth edition, when it should be "Sat., Aug. 5," the date that is found in all earlier editions, and which can be reconstructed from the contents of the first paragraph of that letter.

The other four changes are quite minor, and may not all have been by Richardson's hand. In Volume VI there is a double alteration in the phrase "without saying, By your leave, Mrs. Rose-bush, to the author of it" (3rd ed., VI, 214) to "without saying to the mother of them, By your leave, Mrs. Rose-bush" (4th ed., VI, 214). Volume VII contains a revision in Arabella's closing to her letter XXIII of Thursday, August 3, from "Your grieved Sister (3rd ed., VII, 76) to "Your afflicted Sister" (4th ed., VII, 76). Finally, there are two minor alterations in the Postscript, perhaps not even made by Richardson, in sections that had been added in 1751. The first moves a footnote into the main body of the text (4th ed., VIII, 292); the second changes "the character of Mr. Hickman" to "Mr. Hickman's character" (4th ed., VIII, 292).

The fact that there are literally no other additions, deletions or alterations means that for all practical purposes Richardson's work on Clarissa closed with the expanded edition of 1751. This tallies with comments in his correspondence to the effect that he was interested in devoting his last years to revisions of Pamela, so that "she may not appear, for her Situation, unworthy of her Younger Sisters."[26]

In March, 1761, two years after the fourth edition was published, one of Richardson's daughters wrote to Lady Bradshaigh requesting her marked copies of Pamela and Clarissa. But it is primarily Pamela that Richardson is still interested in, for the letter makes it plain that a new edition of that novel is needed: "the four Vols. of Pamela being almost out of Print, and a new Edition called for, and being delighted to hear, that your Ladiship has remarked upon that Piece and Clarissa, he [Richardson] directs me to express his earnest Wishes, that you will favour him with the Perusal of your Observations, with Liberty to add to new ones of his own such of your Ladiship's, as may make ye future Edition more perfect than otherwise it can be."[27]

Eaves and Kimpel point out that her marked copy of Clarissa is still in the possession of Lady Bradshaigh's descendants, and that it does in fact recommend a number of changes Richardson would have been likely to listen to.[28] Just which of her suggestions he might have incorporated into a new edition became an academic question all too soon, because his death on July 4, 1761 deprived him of that opportunity.