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The phrase “highly caressed” has only four matches in C- H, one of which is in Richardson. Again, the phrase “private capacity” has only three occurrences in C-H, with one instance in Pamela. The adverb “conformably” has only six instances in C-H, and two are in Clarissa. The phrase “moral obligations” occurs only six times in C-H, and all instances are in Richardson.
The phrase “Ill Example” is suspicious: of the only three instances in C-H, two are in Pamela and another in Grandison. Curiously, “wicked Men” is not a commonplace among the seventy-seven novels in C-H: of the sixteen matches altogether, nine are in Richardson. Similarly, of the sixty-three matches for “wicked man,” forty-seven are in Richardson. Even “Dependencies” is a significant term: out of the six total instances, three are in the first edition of Clarissa.
“Obsequiousness” finds twenty-one occurrences in C-H, with eleven instances in the third edition of Clarissa and two in Grandison. The image of how the splendor of those in power “do so dazle [sic] and confound People of weak Minds, that they can see nothing, during such Prepossessions, in a true Light” occurs in all three of Richardson's novels. But perhaps the closest parallel is found in the sequel to Pamela, where Mr. B. expresses his admiration of his wife's power: “No Wonder, when one looks back to thy first promising Dawn of Excellence, that thy fuller Day should thus irresistibly dazzle such weak Eyes as mine” (Pamela, 1st edn., 4:213). The term “Prepossessions” is also a favorite with Richardson, with twelve instances out of a total of twenty-eight in C-H. The phrase “common appearances” occurs only once in C-H, that instance is in Pamela.
The verb “palliate” also seems to bear the Richardsonian stamp. Although there are as many as sixty-five occurrences in C-H, thirty are in Richardson's novels.
The phrase “a servile Herd” may have been more unusual than we think for the 1720s. The notion of the “herd” as mere cattle following a leader has fifty-four instances in the CD version C-H, of which twelve are in Richardson's novels. Although less unusual than “palliate,” still the proportion of occurrences in Richardson is significant. Even the term “Flatterers” is not all that commonplace for the novelists in C-H, where only thirty examples appear, of which eight are in Richardson's novels. The word “sycophant” has only nineteen instances in C-H, with five matches in Richardson.
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