University of Virginia Library

B to R 25 Nov. 1750 (B, VI, 40-42, 45-48; FM, XI, ff. 19-20);
B to R Late Feb. (B, VI, 42-45).

As it is printed in the Correspondence, Lady Bradshaigh's letter of 25 Nov. 1750 is a composite. It contains material not in the version in the Forster Collection as well as passages at variance with it. The manuscript also

contains some short passages not in the printed version. When one compares complete letters that exist both in the Forster Collection and the Correspondence, one can see how Mrs. Barbauld often attempted to improve upon the correspondents' phrasing and style; therefore, when variants exist, the manuscript version must be taken as the more authoritative one.

Lady Bradshaigh's discussion of the "moderate rake" (B, VI, 42-45) is not answered by Richardson until his letter of 14 March. The frequency of their correspondence, their hastiness to answer and argue, the fact that the "moderate rake" passage does not appear in the manuscript, and the internal evidence found in Richardson's reply leave no room to doubt that Lady Bradshaigh's reflections on the "moderate rake" were written in late February. An early March dating is unlikely since there exists an early March letter from her. There is also no room to doubt that Richardson's letter of 14 March is his reply to the interpolation as printed in the 25 Nov. letter. For the sake of argument he directly quoted from her letter saying, "Well, but for fear I should be called scurrilous again, let me see how your Ladyship explains yourself.—'A man may DESERVE the name of a rake, without being QUITE an abandoned profligate; as a man may sometimes drink A LITTLE TOO MUCH without being a sot" (B, VI, 64; cf., B, VI, 42-43).[4] Richardson then went on to paraphrase other of her passages and to reply to them.

The passage interpolated into the 25 Nov. letter in addition to having had to have come before Richardson's letter of 14 March can be shown to have had to have come after her letter of 9 Feb. and Richardson's Feb. reply. After her discussion of the "moderate rake" there are two paragraphs, one dealing with "prudent girls" and another with the "age," that are clarifications of passages that appear in the last paragraph of her letter of 9 Feb. (B, VI, 44-45; cf., B, VI, 74-75). On 9 Feb. she had written of "our prudent girls, whose number, I hope, is not a few, even in such an age as this, which age you are to understand I do not think worse than former ages." Lady Bradshaigh's first full paragraph on B, VI, 44 clarifies her meaning of "prudent" and continues her discussion of rakes. The paragraph also reaffirms her statement on the age with the words, "I do not really, Sir, think this age worse than former ages." These two passages place the interpolated section in the 25 Nov. letter after her letter of 9 February.

Lady Bradshaigh's next paragraph, though, places the interpolation as having been written not only after her 9 Feb. letter but also after Richardson's Feb. reply to it. Richardson's reply had included the sentence "Why, I attempted to draw a good woman; and the poor phantom has set half her own sex against her" (B, VI, 82). Lady Bradshaigh opens the first paragraph on B, VI, 45 saying, "But do not say, Sir, that 'by drawing a good woman you have set half her sex against her.' I protest I cannot bear it. You are downright scurrilous." This passage not only places the interpolation after Richardson's Feb. reply but also unites the entire interpolated section (B, VI, 42-45)

by supplying the evidence to show that it is also from the "moderate rake" letter. The "sot" passage I quoted from Richardson's 14 March reply to Lady Bradshaigh opened with the words "Well, but for fear I should be called scurrilous again." This sentence allows us to see that Richardson was replying to material in both the first and the last paragraphs of the interpolation; we can, therefore, conclude that the entire interpolation is one whole fragment from a missing letter.

The various pieces of internal evidence, then, establish that B, VI, 42-45 of Lady Bradshaigh's 25 Nov. 1750 letter does not belong with it but belongs between Richardson's letters of Feb. and 14 March. The 25 Nov. 1750 letter, therefore, is B, VI, 40-42, 45-48 and FM, XI, ff. 19-20, with the Forster manuscript version being the preferred text when discrepancies between the two exist.