The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSamuel Richardson's Introduction to Pamela

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSamuel Richardson's Introduction to PamelaThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Samuel Richardson's Introduction to PamelaAuthor: Samuel RichardsonEditor: Sheridan Warner BakerRelease date: March 17, 2008 [eBook #24860]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner, Chris Curnow andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL RICHARDSON'S INTRODUCTION TO PAMELA ***

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Samuel Richardson's Introduction to PamelaAuthor: Samuel RichardsonEditor: Sheridan Warner BakerRelease date: March 17, 2008 [eBook #24860]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner, Chris Curnow andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net

Title: Samuel Richardson's Introduction to Pamela

Author: Samuel RichardsonEditor: Sheridan Warner Baker

Author: Samuel Richardson

Editor: Sheridan Warner Baker

Release date: March 17, 2008 [eBook #24860]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Louise Hope, David Starner, Chris Curnow andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL RICHARDSON'S INTRODUCTION TO PAMELA ***

This text uses utf-8 (unicode) file encoding. If the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure that the browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser’s default font. In the 18th-century text, the variable form of long dashes as — or --- or——reproduces the original.The printed book used hand-drawn brackets and sidenotes to incorporate information from seven editions of the original text, as explained in the editor’s introduction. This e-text uses a combination ofunderliningandmouse-hovers. Details are givenat the end of the e-text.Users who find this behavior distractingmay keep their mouse or cursor in text-free areas such a margin or scroll bar.Editor’s IntroductionList of ChangesIntroduction toPamelaFirst LetterSecond LetterIntroduction to Second EditionThird LetterFourth LetterAugustan ReprintsA few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been marked in the text withmouse-hover popups.

The printed book used hand-drawn brackets and sidenotes to incorporate information from seven editions of the original text, as explained in the editor’s introduction. This e-text uses a combination ofunderliningandmouse-hovers. Details are givenat the end of the e-text.

Users who find this behavior distractingmay keep their mouse or cursor in text-free areas such a margin or scroll bar.

Editor’s IntroductionList of ChangesIntroduction toPamelaFirst LetterSecond LetterIntroduction to Second EditionThird LetterFourth LetterAugustan Reprints

A few typographical errors have been corrected. They have been marked in the text withmouse-hover popups.

GENERAL EDITORSRichard C. Boys,University of MichiganRalph Cohen,University of California, Los AngelesVinton A. Dearing,University of California, Los AngelesLawrence Clark Powell,Clark Memorial LibraryASSISTANT EDITORW. Earl Britton,University of MichiganADVISORY EDITORSEmmett L. Avery,State College of WashingtonBenjamin Boyce,Duke UniversityLouis Bredvold,University of MichiganJohn Butt,King’s College, University of DurhamJames L. Clifford,Columbia UniversityArthur Friedman,University of ChicagoEdward Niles Hooker,University of California, Los AngelesLouis A. Landa,Princeton UniversitySamuel H. Monk,University of MinnesotaErnest C. Mossner,University of TexasJames Sutherland,University College, LondonH. T. Swedenberg, Jr.,University of California, Los AngelesCORRESPONDING SECRETARYEdna C. Davis,Clark Memorial Library

Richard C. Boys,University of Michigan

Ralph Cohen,University of California, Los Angeles

Vinton A. Dearing,University of California, Los Angeles

Lawrence Clark Powell,Clark Memorial Library

W. Earl Britton,University of Michigan

Emmett L. Avery,State College of Washington

Benjamin Boyce,Duke University

Louis Bredvold,University of Michigan

John Butt,King’s College, University of Durham

James L. Clifford,Columbia University

Arthur Friedman,University of Chicago

Edward Niles Hooker,University of California, Los Angeles

Louis A. Landa,Princeton University

Samuel H. Monk,University of Minnesota

Ernest C. Mossner,University of Texas

James Sutherland,University College, London

H. T. Swedenberg, Jr.,University of California, Los Angeles

Edna C. Davis,Clark Memorial Library

INTRODUCTIONSince most publishers ofPamelahave preferred to print Richardson’s table of contents from the sixth edition, his complete introduction (his preface, together with letters to the editor and comments) is missing even from some of our best collections. Occasionally one finds the preface and the first two letters, but only four publishers since Richardson have attempted to reprint the full introduction. Harrison (London, 1785) -- who omits the first letter -- and Cooke (London, 1802-3) both follow Richardson’s eighth edition; Ballantyne (Edinburgh, 1824) uses the fourth; the Shakespeare Head (Oxford, 1929), the third. And even these printings leave one dissatisfied. The Shakespeare Head gives the fullest text, but naturally omits Richardson’s revisions; Cooke gives the introduction in its final form, but one misses the full text which accompanied the book in its heyday; and rarely are both Cooke and Shakespeare Head to be found in the same library.Richardson’s complete introduction gains importance when we note that he retained and revised it through seven of his eight editions ofPamela. To see the text and follow Richardson’s changes is to get an unusually intimate view of his attitude toward his book, of his concessions and tenacities, of Richardson the anonymous “editor” who could not keep the author’s laurels completely under his hat.This present reprint, therefore, intends to give the fullest text of Richardson’s introduction, and to indicate his changes. The text is that of the second edition, reproduced with permission of the Huntington Library. Brackets, added to thislithoprint, show Richardson’s principal corrections: “4th” means that the bracketed lines were deleted in the fourth and all subsequent editions; “4th, change 6” means that in the fourth and subsequent editions the bracketed lines were changed to the reading listed here as number six. Several changes within deleted passages are discussed but not marked on the text.Richardson’s own editions ofPamelaappeared as follows: (1) November 6, 1740, (2) February 14, 1741, (3) March 12, 1741, (4) May 5, 1741, (5) September 22, 1741, (6) May 10, 1742, (7) 1754, (8) October 28, 17611(three months after Richardson’s death). The first edition prints Richardson’s preface and two complimentary letters. To these the “Introduction to this Second Edition” adds twenty-four pages of letters and comment and the third edition makes no changes in the introduction whatsoever, even retaining “this Second Edition,”2The fourth makes some changes, and the fifth, considerably more. The sixth, a handsome quarto in a row of duodecimos, abandons the introductory letters; the seventh follows the fifth, and the eight makes some major cuts.Notwithstanding Richardson’s freedom in editing these letters -- and Fielding’s insinuation inShamelathat they were Richardson’s own copy -- he wrote none of them. Jean Baptiste de Freval, a Frenchman living in London, for whom Richardson wasprinting a book,3wrote the first. The second probably came from William Webster, clergyman and editor ofThe Weekly Miscellany, wherein the letter had appeared as an advertisement, the first public reference toPamela, on October 11, 1740.4Webster owed (an obligation eventually forgiven) “a debt of 140l.to my most worthy Friend, Mr.Richardson, thePrinter,”5and Richardson reprints the letter using Webster’s phrase: “To my worthy Friend, the Editor ofPamela.” These first two letters, de Freval’s and Webster’s, respond to an author’s request for criticism. The rest, new with the second edition, are unsolicited.All of these are the work of Aaron Hill, excepting only the anonymous letter which Richardson summarizes, beginning on page xxi6-- sent to Richardson in care of Charles Rivington, co-publisher ofPamela, on November 15, 1740, the first gratuitous response to Richardson’s book. To advertisements inThe Daily Gazeteer(November 20) andThe London Evening-Post(December 11-13), Richardson added a note:An anonymous Letter relating to this Piece is come to the Editor’s Hand, who takes this Opportunity (having no better) most heartily to thank the Gentleman for his candid and judicious Observations; and to beg Favour of a further Correspondence with him, under what Restrictions he pleases. Instruction, and not Curiosity, being sincerely the Motive for this request.7If the gentleman had answered, the introduction toPamelawould perhaps have been shorter. Some of Hill’s acerbity may have been absorbed from Richardson, hurt by the writer’s silence.The double-entendres mentioned on page xxii are given in the gentleman’s unpublished letter in the Forster collection, in the Victoria and Albert Museum:Jokes are often more Severe, and do more Mischief, than more Solid Objects -- to obviate some, why not omit P 175 --betwixt Fear and Delight-- and P 181 --I made shift to eat a bit ofetc.but I had no Appetite to any thing else.8In the light of this letter, the second edition ofPamelaattests a curious fact: while Hill pontificates in the introduction about ignoring such vulgarity of mind, Richardson has tiptoed back to Volume Two and changed the questioned passages. From the second edition forward, Pamela trembles during her wedding not “betwixt Fear and Delight” but “betwixt Fear and Joy”; and although Richardson leaves Pamela her shift on page 181, he changes her remark about appetite: “I made shift to get down abit of Apple-pie, and a little Custard; but that was all.” By omitting the specific objections from his summary, Richardson managed at one stroke to save his righteousness in the introduction and his face in the text.Hill’s authorship of the introductory letters is easily established. Anna Laetitia Barbauld includes Hill’s signature with a reduced version of the one which here begins on page xvi (December 17, 1740).9Thereafter, Richardson’s italicized remarks, two of them added in later editions, provide the links: “Abstract of a second Letter from the same Gentleman,” etc.With wonderful indirection, Richardson had sent a copy ofPamelato Hill’s daughters, along with some other books, and, as Hill writes Mallet, “without the smallesthint, that it washis, and with a grave apology, as for atrifle, of too light a species.”10Hill thanked Richardson in the letter of December 17, 1740. Hill asks who on earth the author might be, hinting, the while, by returning Richardson’s own phrase, that he understands that it is Richardson himself: “thisTrifle(for such, I dare answer for theAuthor, His Modesty misguides him to think it).” Though Hill tells Mallet that Richardson was “very loth ... a long time, to confess it,” Richardson did not dally long. By December 29, 1740, he has confirmed Hill’s guess. On that date Hill writes:Acquainted with the amiable goodness of your heart, I can foresee the pleasure it will give you, to have givenanother pleasure: and you heap it on me in the noblest manner, by the joy you make me feel, at findingPamela’sincomparable author is the person I not only hop’d to hear was so, but whom I should have been quite griev’d, disturb’d, and mortified, not to have really found so.Yet, I confess, till I began to read, I had not the least notion of it. But I presently took notice, that whateverPamelathought, said, or did, was all transfusion of your own fine spirit. And as I know not if there lives another writer, who could furnish her with such a sapid sweetness as she fills the table with, I could not therefor chuse but nameyouto my hope, as moulder of this maiden model.11Mrs. Barbauld omits this letter but prints another from Hill to Richardson, not to be found now in the Forster collection, bearing the same date -- December 29, 1740 (I, 56ff.). This letter furnishes the “delightful Story, so admirably related” beginning on page xxxi. From the second paragraph on (“We have a lively little Boy in the Family”), thePamelatext is substantially the same as Barbauld’s. But the first paragraph Richardson has contrived to suit his editorial fiction.The delightful story so gratified Mr. Richardson that he sent lively little Harry Campbell (“the dear amiable boy”) two books, an event almost enough to finish him:Out burst a hundredO Lords!in a torrent of voice rendered hoarse and half choaked by his passions. He clasped his trembling fingers together; and his hands were strained hard, and held writhing. His elbows were extended to the height of his shoulders, and his eyes, all inflamed with delight, turned incessantly round from one side, and one friend, to the other, scattering his triumphant ideas among us. His fairy-face (ears and all) was flushed as red as his lips; and his flying feet told his joy to the floor, in a wild and stamping impatience of gratitude.12The only other part of the introduction toPamelaelsewhere in print is the concluding poem. This, too, is Hill’s, printed inThe Weekly Miscellany, February 28, 1741, along with his December 17 letter, and collected with Hill’sWorks(III, 348-350). This is the poem, it would seem, of which Hill boasts that he has given “Pamela” a short “e” as Richardson intended, asserting that “Mr. Pope has taught half the women in England to pronounce it wrong.”13Pope in hisEpistle to Miss Blount(line 49), had made the “e” long:The gods, to curse Pamela with her prayers,Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares,The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,And, to complete her bliss, a fool for mate.Hill’s lines are somewhat less successful. He dedicated them to “the Unknown Author ofPamela” two months after Richardson had confessed his authorship.Richardson changes one line in the poem. In Hill’sWorksit reads: “Whencepublic wealthderives its vital course.” Richardson, a more modern man perhaps, reads “public Health.” His emendation, however, improves Hill’s metaphor concerning a blaze which is a pilot pointing out the source of public wealth, which is drunk to prevent gangrene from blackening to the bone. Further reflection led Richardson a year later to change “vital” to “moral.”Throughout the letters in his introduction, Richardson made changes, all largely stylistic. That Richardson removed the letters from the front of his book in response to criticism -- as Cross14and others have asserted -- is not quite accurate. He removed them from the sixth edition, but put them back in the seventh and eighth; and his alterations show him giving in to criticism only by inches, if indeed his changes to his introduction are not more simply those of any author trimming (and with Richardson, ever so little) his early extravagances.Richardson’s stubbornness here suggests other reasons for his substituting a table of contents for his introduction in the sixth edition. To print both would have been too prolix, even for Richardson; and it seems that the table of contents, detailing the entire action, together with the change to big quarto volumes, are Richardson’s efforts to authenticatePamelain the face of Chandler’s and Kelly’s unauthorized sequel,Pamela’s Conduct in High Life, printed to complete the two duodecimo volumes of Richardson’s original story. Richardson’s sixth edition is the first in which his own additional two volumes, written to forestall Chandler and Kelly, are included with the first two as a complete four-volume unit. Twelve years later, in 1754, his truePamelaestablished, he reverted to his introductory letters. Hill’s death in 1750 may also have moved Richardson to restore the introduction which was chiefly Hill’s work, recalling both his friend andPamela’sgreener days. In the eighth edition, at the end of his life, Richardson still kept the introductory letters, though with some final constrictions.Richardson makes the first changes to his introduction in the fourth edition. Excepting minor clarifications, all deal with Hill’s answer to the anonymous gentleman. The attitude toward this gentleman has softened. The “rashest of All his Advices”becomes merely the “least weigh’d” of his judgments, and his blindness becomes oversight. He is no longer pedantic; he no longer makes vulgar allusions, but only fears that they might be made.In the fifth edition, Richardson seems chiefly concerned with redundancy, but he also diminishes some of the praise. In deference to the gentleman, it would seem, Richardson deletes his flattery of Hill on pages xxix and xxxi, and “some of the most beautiful Letters that have been written in any Language” become simply “Letters.” Perhaps Richardson’s conscience was bothering him. Perhaps he had heard from his anonymous correspondent after all: he now identifies the gentleman’s remarks as coming “in a Letter from the Country.” Unless pure fancy, this is new information, for the letter, now in the Forster collection, in no way indicates its place of origin. Richardson’s seeking of the gentleman through advertisement in London newspapers suggests that he thought of his correspondent as a city man.In the fifth edition one detects a certain discomfort with the false editorship and the praise Richardson permits himself with it. His direct response to criticism is slight. He deletes “fromlowtohighLife,” sincePamela’s Conduct in High Lifehad appeared four months previous. From the passages which Fielding ridicules inShamela, he drops no more than “wonderful” from before “AUTHOR ofPamela.” In the passage introducing the new letters (page xv) Richardson now apologizes. The Author, he implies, wanted the praises omitted, but much to his sorrow the Editor could not disentangle them from the “critical remarks.” The author’s modesty, however, remains in the realm of possibility only.Where self-praise is strong a vague uneasiness sets Richardson to work on the style, unable to locate the center of his trouble. On page v “strongly interest them in the edifying Story” becomes “attach their regard to the Story,” but this is barely to nibble at his phrase “so probable, so natural, so lively” just preceding, which perished in the eighth edition.Similarly, he attempts to cure the last paragraph of his preface through minor incisions. He drops the parenthesis about the “great Variety of entertaining Incidents”, and he diminishes “these engaging Scenes” to “it”. But the paragraph is still too much for him. In the eighth edition he cuts all but the outlines of his editor-author pretext.The seventh edition does no more than sharpen punctuation. The eighth in general continues to trim little excesses, though the loss is scarcely noticeable. Richardson further reduces Hill’s praise of the book and his own praise of Hill, feeling his way toward a detached view of his book, looking to posterity. SincePamelahas fulfilled the prediction of foreign renown made by his French friend, de Freval, Richardson now omits de Freval’s obliging treachery to the literature of France (page ix). Since the “delightful story” is anecdotal and not critical, it too disappears. Other changes simply testify an author’s attention to his style, uninhibited by the fact that the style is indeed not his. He deletes a senseless remark about masculine flexibility. He removes “Nature” from the foundation of the narrative (title page and page v, though left on page viii) probably to avoid implying that Nature is in the foundation only.From the first, Richardson’s disguise as editor is little more than half-hearted. Its purpose was at first partly commercial, permitting advertising in the preface. Four ladies urged him on, so, Richardson confesses, he “struck a bold stroke in the preface... having the umbrage of the editor’s character to screen [him] self behind.”15But the author nevertheless threw rather distinct shadows on the screen. His preface speaks of the book altogether as a work of fiction: the editor has “set forth” social duties; he has “painted” vice and virtue, “drawn” characters, “raised,” “taught,” “effected,” and “embellished with a great variety of entertaining incidents.” Yet, suddenly, the editor also seems to have done nothing more than to have “perused these engaging scenes,” written a preface, and gotten them into print.Richardson cannot quite give the imaginary author substance. “These sheets” have accomplished all the wonders claimed for them, not “the author of these sheets.” Richardson speaks not oftheauthor, but ofanauthor, of authors in general. The implication hangs over the preface, and is strengthened by de Freval’s letter, that the editor himself has worked up the story from the barest details of real life (which is, of course, what Richardson did). De Freval continues to speak of the work entirely as of creative writing. The epistolary style is aptly devised; the book will become a pattern for this kind of fiction; it is contrived for readers of all tastes. But, quite in contradiction, de Freval also implies that the editor has shown him the author’s original work, together with certain editorial changes necessary to protect the real Pamela and Mr. B.The second letter, presumably Webster’s, toys with the suggestion that a young woman actually wrote the letters which Richardson edits: “let us havePamelaasPamelawrote it.” But this is only in play. Although the writer disparages “Novels,” the note which heads his letter when it first appeared inThe Weekly Miscellanyspeaks of the “Author of Pamela” who has “written anEnglish Novel,”16and his opening remarks are clearly those of a critic speaking of fiction.Hill’s first letter goes solidly for the conclusion that an author, a man of genius, wrote the book. The heading, “To the Editor ofPamela”, is Richardson’s only attempt to bring Hill’s letter into his already wavering line. In the fifth edition, however, he introduces this letter with his only straight statement that an author, distinct from the editor, is involved, an author who begged the editor not to include flattery.To the end of his days Richardson continued to sit under the editorial shade --Sir Charles Grandisonwas “published” by the “editor ofPamelaandClarissa” -- enjoying the sunshine of his authorship. His introduction toPamelaand the care he took with it suggest more succinctly than anything else Richardson’s flirtation with his adorers, which is not at all unlike that of his so modest heroine.Sheridan W. Baker, Jr.University of Michigan1.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record(New Haven, 1936), p. 13.2.The fourth carries “the Second Edition” before the new introductory letters; the fifth changes to “the Present Edition.”3.A translation of Abbé Noel Antoine Pluche:The History of the Heavens, 2 vols. (1740). (William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson: Master Printer[Cornell, 1950], p. 193.)4.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record, p. 15; William M. and Alan D. McKillop,Samuel Richardson(Chapel Hill, 1936), p. 42.5.McKillop, pp. 301-2. Richardson had printed theMiscellanybetween 1733 and 1736.6.Richardson mentions other letters but does not print them. Hill’s reference to “The Gentleman’s Advice” on page xxii is to a letter from Benjamin Slocock, who commendedPamelafrom his pulpit in St. Saviour’s, and thus helped provoke Henry Fielding. (Sale, ibid., p. 17.)7.McKillop, p. 49.8.For this and other information concerning the Forster collection of Richardson’s correspondence, I am indebted to Mr. Arthur Wheen, Keeper of the Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.9.The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson(London, 1804), I, 53-55.10.The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq.(London, 1753), II, 221. Letter dated January 23, 1741.11.Hill,WorksII, 292.12.Barbauld, I, 63-64.13.Barbauld, I, lxxviii.14.The History of Henry Fielding, I, 313.15.Barbauld, I, lxxvi.16.McKillop, p. 42.CHANGES1. ...here; and writes with the more Assurance of Success, as anEditormay be allowed to judge with more Impartiality than is often to be found in anAuthor.2.But Difficulties having arisen from different Opinions, some applauding the very Things that others found Fault with, we have found it necessary to insert thePraisesin the following Letters, with the critical Remarks; because the Writer has so kindly mix’d them, that they cannot be disjoin’d (however earnestly the Author of the Piece desire’d it) without obscuring, and indeed defacing, all the Spirit of the Reasoning.3.The following Objections to some Passages in Pamela were made by an anonymous Gentleman, in a Letter from the Country.4.The ingenious Writer of the two preceding Letters, answers these good natured Objections, as follows:5. Fourth: “least weigh’d”; fifth: “least considered.”6. ...it seems plain to me, that this Gentleman, however laudable his Intention may be on the whole, discerns not an Elegance,...7. In the Occasions this Gentleman, in his Postscript, is pleas’d to discover forJokes, I either find not, that he has any Signification at all, or, causelessly, as I think, apprehends that such coarse-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, may be made, thatnotto understand what is meant bythem, is both the cleanliest, and prudentest Way of confuting them.8. ...in the Mind of the Reader, an Honesty so sincere and unguarded.9. Deleted, fifth edition; replaced in eighth with: “In a Third Letter the same benevolent Gentleman writes, as follows:”.

Since most publishers ofPamelahave preferred to print Richardson’s table of contents from the sixth edition, his complete introduction (his preface, together with letters to the editor and comments) is missing even from some of our best collections. Occasionally one finds the preface and the first two letters, but only four publishers since Richardson have attempted to reprint the full introduction. Harrison (London, 1785) -- who omits the first letter -- and Cooke (London, 1802-3) both follow Richardson’s eighth edition; Ballantyne (Edinburgh, 1824) uses the fourth; the Shakespeare Head (Oxford, 1929), the third. And even these printings leave one dissatisfied. The Shakespeare Head gives the fullest text, but naturally omits Richardson’s revisions; Cooke gives the introduction in its final form, but one misses the full text which accompanied the book in its heyday; and rarely are both Cooke and Shakespeare Head to be found in the same library.

Richardson’s complete introduction gains importance when we note that he retained and revised it through seven of his eight editions ofPamela. To see the text and follow Richardson’s changes is to get an unusually intimate view of his attitude toward his book, of his concessions and tenacities, of Richardson the anonymous “editor” who could not keep the author’s laurels completely under his hat.

This present reprint, therefore, intends to give the fullest text of Richardson’s introduction, and to indicate his changes. The text is that of the second edition, reproduced with permission of the Huntington Library. Brackets, added to thislithoprint, show Richardson’s principal corrections: “4th” means that the bracketed lines were deleted in the fourth and all subsequent editions; “4th, change 6” means that in the fourth and subsequent editions the bracketed lines were changed to the reading listed here as number six. Several changes within deleted passages are discussed but not marked on the text.

Richardson’s own editions ofPamelaappeared as follows: (1) November 6, 1740, (2) February 14, 1741, (3) March 12, 1741, (4) May 5, 1741, (5) September 22, 1741, (6) May 10, 1742, (7) 1754, (8) October 28, 17611(three months after Richardson’s death). The first edition prints Richardson’s preface and two complimentary letters. To these the “Introduction to this Second Edition” adds twenty-four pages of letters and comment and the third edition makes no changes in the introduction whatsoever, even retaining “this Second Edition,”2The fourth makes some changes, and the fifth, considerably more. The sixth, a handsome quarto in a row of duodecimos, abandons the introductory letters; the seventh follows the fifth, and the eight makes some major cuts.

Notwithstanding Richardson’s freedom in editing these letters -- and Fielding’s insinuation inShamelathat they were Richardson’s own copy -- he wrote none of them. Jean Baptiste de Freval, a Frenchman living in London, for whom Richardson wasprinting a book,3wrote the first. The second probably came from William Webster, clergyman and editor ofThe Weekly Miscellany, wherein the letter had appeared as an advertisement, the first public reference toPamela, on October 11, 1740.4Webster owed (an obligation eventually forgiven) “a debt of 140l.to my most worthy Friend, Mr.Richardson, thePrinter,”5and Richardson reprints the letter using Webster’s phrase: “To my worthy Friend, the Editor ofPamela.” These first two letters, de Freval’s and Webster’s, respond to an author’s request for criticism. The rest, new with the second edition, are unsolicited.

All of these are the work of Aaron Hill, excepting only the anonymous letter which Richardson summarizes, beginning on page xxi6-- sent to Richardson in care of Charles Rivington, co-publisher ofPamela, on November 15, 1740, the first gratuitous response to Richardson’s book. To advertisements inThe Daily Gazeteer(November 20) andThe London Evening-Post(December 11-13), Richardson added a note:

An anonymous Letter relating to this Piece is come to the Editor’s Hand, who takes this Opportunity (having no better) most heartily to thank the Gentleman for his candid and judicious Observations; and to beg Favour of a further Correspondence with him, under what Restrictions he pleases. Instruction, and not Curiosity, being sincerely the Motive for this request.7

If the gentleman had answered, the introduction toPamelawould perhaps have been shorter. Some of Hill’s acerbity may have been absorbed from Richardson, hurt by the writer’s silence.

The double-entendres mentioned on page xxii are given in the gentleman’s unpublished letter in the Forster collection, in the Victoria and Albert Museum:

Jokes are often more Severe, and do more Mischief, than more Solid Objects -- to obviate some, why not omit P 175 --betwixt Fear and Delight-- and P 181 --I made shift to eat a bit ofetc.but I had no Appetite to any thing else.8

In the light of this letter, the second edition ofPamelaattests a curious fact: while Hill pontificates in the introduction about ignoring such vulgarity of mind, Richardson has tiptoed back to Volume Two and changed the questioned passages. From the second edition forward, Pamela trembles during her wedding not “betwixt Fear and Delight” but “betwixt Fear and Joy”; and although Richardson leaves Pamela her shift on page 181, he changes her remark about appetite: “I made shift to get down abit of Apple-pie, and a little Custard; but that was all.” By omitting the specific objections from his summary, Richardson managed at one stroke to save his righteousness in the introduction and his face in the text.

Hill’s authorship of the introductory letters is easily established. Anna Laetitia Barbauld includes Hill’s signature with a reduced version of the one which here begins on page xvi (December 17, 1740).9Thereafter, Richardson’s italicized remarks, two of them added in later editions, provide the links: “Abstract of a second Letter from the same Gentleman,” etc.

With wonderful indirection, Richardson had sent a copy ofPamelato Hill’s daughters, along with some other books, and, as Hill writes Mallet, “without the smallesthint, that it washis, and with a grave apology, as for atrifle, of too light a species.”10Hill thanked Richardson in the letter of December 17, 1740. Hill asks who on earth the author might be, hinting, the while, by returning Richardson’s own phrase, that he understands that it is Richardson himself: “thisTrifle(for such, I dare answer for theAuthor, His Modesty misguides him to think it).” Though Hill tells Mallet that Richardson was “very loth ... a long time, to confess it,” Richardson did not dally long. By December 29, 1740, he has confirmed Hill’s guess. On that date Hill writes:

Acquainted with the amiable goodness of your heart, I can foresee the pleasure it will give you, to have givenanother pleasure: and you heap it on me in the noblest manner, by the joy you make me feel, at findingPamela’sincomparable author is the person I not only hop’d to hear was so, but whom I should have been quite griev’d, disturb’d, and mortified, not to have really found so.

Yet, I confess, till I began to read, I had not the least notion of it. But I presently took notice, that whateverPamelathought, said, or did, was all transfusion of your own fine spirit. And as I know not if there lives another writer, who could furnish her with such a sapid sweetness as she fills the table with, I could not therefor chuse but nameyouto my hope, as moulder of this maiden model.11

Mrs. Barbauld omits this letter but prints another from Hill to Richardson, not to be found now in the Forster collection, bearing the same date -- December 29, 1740 (I, 56ff.). This letter furnishes the “delightful Story, so admirably related” beginning on page xxxi. From the second paragraph on (“We have a lively little Boy in the Family”), thePamelatext is substantially the same as Barbauld’s. But the first paragraph Richardson has contrived to suit his editorial fiction.

The delightful story so gratified Mr. Richardson that he sent lively little Harry Campbell (“the dear amiable boy”) two books, an event almost enough to finish him:

Out burst a hundredO Lords!in a torrent of voice rendered hoarse and half choaked by his passions. He clasped his trembling fingers together; and his hands were strained hard, and held writhing. His elbows were extended to the height of his shoulders, and his eyes, all inflamed with delight, turned incessantly round from one side, and one friend, to the other, scattering his triumphant ideas among us. His fairy-face (ears and all) was flushed as red as his lips; and his flying feet told his joy to the floor, in a wild and stamping impatience of gratitude.12

The only other part of the introduction toPamelaelsewhere in print is the concluding poem. This, too, is Hill’s, printed inThe Weekly Miscellany, February 28, 1741, along with his December 17 letter, and collected with Hill’sWorks(III, 348-350). This is the poem, it would seem, of which Hill boasts that he has given “Pamela” a short “e” as Richardson intended, asserting that “Mr. Pope has taught half the women in England to pronounce it wrong.”13Pope in hisEpistle to Miss Blount(line 49), had made the “e” long:

The gods, to curse Pamela with her prayers,Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares,The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,And, to complete her bliss, a fool for mate.

The gods, to curse Pamela with her prayers,

Gave the gilt coach and dappled Flanders mares,

The shining robes, rich jewels, beds of state,

And, to complete her bliss, a fool for mate.

Hill’s lines are somewhat less successful. He dedicated them to “the Unknown Author ofPamela” two months after Richardson had confessed his authorship.

Richardson changes one line in the poem. In Hill’sWorksit reads: “Whencepublic wealthderives its vital course.” Richardson, a more modern man perhaps, reads “public Health.” His emendation, however, improves Hill’s metaphor concerning a blaze which is a pilot pointing out the source of public wealth, which is drunk to prevent gangrene from blackening to the bone. Further reflection led Richardson a year later to change “vital” to “moral.”

Throughout the letters in his introduction, Richardson made changes, all largely stylistic. That Richardson removed the letters from the front of his book in response to criticism -- as Cross14and others have asserted -- is not quite accurate. He removed them from the sixth edition, but put them back in the seventh and eighth; and his alterations show him giving in to criticism only by inches, if indeed his changes to his introduction are not more simply those of any author trimming (and with Richardson, ever so little) his early extravagances.

Richardson’s stubbornness here suggests other reasons for his substituting a table of contents for his introduction in the sixth edition. To print both would have been too prolix, even for Richardson; and it seems that the table of contents, detailing the entire action, together with the change to big quarto volumes, are Richardson’s efforts to authenticatePamelain the face of Chandler’s and Kelly’s unauthorized sequel,Pamela’s Conduct in High Life, printed to complete the two duodecimo volumes of Richardson’s original story. Richardson’s sixth edition is the first in which his own additional two volumes, written to forestall Chandler and Kelly, are included with the first two as a complete four-volume unit. Twelve years later, in 1754, his truePamelaestablished, he reverted to his introductory letters. Hill’s death in 1750 may also have moved Richardson to restore the introduction which was chiefly Hill’s work, recalling both his friend andPamela’sgreener days. In the eighth edition, at the end of his life, Richardson still kept the introductory letters, though with some final constrictions.

Richardson makes the first changes to his introduction in the fourth edition. Excepting minor clarifications, all deal with Hill’s answer to the anonymous gentleman. The attitude toward this gentleman has softened. The “rashest of All his Advices”becomes merely the “least weigh’d” of his judgments, and his blindness becomes oversight. He is no longer pedantic; he no longer makes vulgar allusions, but only fears that they might be made.

In the fifth edition, Richardson seems chiefly concerned with redundancy, but he also diminishes some of the praise. In deference to the gentleman, it would seem, Richardson deletes his flattery of Hill on pages xxix and xxxi, and “some of the most beautiful Letters that have been written in any Language” become simply “Letters.” Perhaps Richardson’s conscience was bothering him. Perhaps he had heard from his anonymous correspondent after all: he now identifies the gentleman’s remarks as coming “in a Letter from the Country.” Unless pure fancy, this is new information, for the letter, now in the Forster collection, in no way indicates its place of origin. Richardson’s seeking of the gentleman through advertisement in London newspapers suggests that he thought of his correspondent as a city man.

In the fifth edition one detects a certain discomfort with the false editorship and the praise Richardson permits himself with it. His direct response to criticism is slight. He deletes “fromlowtohighLife,” sincePamela’s Conduct in High Lifehad appeared four months previous. From the passages which Fielding ridicules inShamela, he drops no more than “wonderful” from before “AUTHOR ofPamela.” In the passage introducing the new letters (page xv) Richardson now apologizes. The Author, he implies, wanted the praises omitted, but much to his sorrow the Editor could not disentangle them from the “critical remarks.” The author’s modesty, however, remains in the realm of possibility only.

Where self-praise is strong a vague uneasiness sets Richardson to work on the style, unable to locate the center of his trouble. On page v “strongly interest them in the edifying Story” becomes “attach their regard to the Story,” but this is barely to nibble at his phrase “so probable, so natural, so lively” just preceding, which perished in the eighth edition.

Similarly, he attempts to cure the last paragraph of his preface through minor incisions. He drops the parenthesis about the “great Variety of entertaining Incidents”, and he diminishes “these engaging Scenes” to “it”. But the paragraph is still too much for him. In the eighth edition he cuts all but the outlines of his editor-author pretext.

The seventh edition does no more than sharpen punctuation. The eighth in general continues to trim little excesses, though the loss is scarcely noticeable. Richardson further reduces Hill’s praise of the book and his own praise of Hill, feeling his way toward a detached view of his book, looking to posterity. SincePamelahas fulfilled the prediction of foreign renown made by his French friend, de Freval, Richardson now omits de Freval’s obliging treachery to the literature of France (page ix). Since the “delightful story” is anecdotal and not critical, it too disappears. Other changes simply testify an author’s attention to his style, uninhibited by the fact that the style is indeed not his. He deletes a senseless remark about masculine flexibility. He removes “Nature” from the foundation of the narrative (title page and page v, though left on page viii) probably to avoid implying that Nature is in the foundation only.

From the first, Richardson’s disguise as editor is little more than half-hearted. Its purpose was at first partly commercial, permitting advertising in the preface. Four ladies urged him on, so, Richardson confesses, he “struck a bold stroke in the preface... having the umbrage of the editor’s character to screen [him] self behind.”15But the author nevertheless threw rather distinct shadows on the screen. His preface speaks of the book altogether as a work of fiction: the editor has “set forth” social duties; he has “painted” vice and virtue, “drawn” characters, “raised,” “taught,” “effected,” and “embellished with a great variety of entertaining incidents.” Yet, suddenly, the editor also seems to have done nothing more than to have “perused these engaging scenes,” written a preface, and gotten them into print.

Richardson cannot quite give the imaginary author substance. “These sheets” have accomplished all the wonders claimed for them, not “the author of these sheets.” Richardson speaks not oftheauthor, but ofanauthor, of authors in general. The implication hangs over the preface, and is strengthened by de Freval’s letter, that the editor himself has worked up the story from the barest details of real life (which is, of course, what Richardson did). De Freval continues to speak of the work entirely as of creative writing. The epistolary style is aptly devised; the book will become a pattern for this kind of fiction; it is contrived for readers of all tastes. But, quite in contradiction, de Freval also implies that the editor has shown him the author’s original work, together with certain editorial changes necessary to protect the real Pamela and Mr. B.

The second letter, presumably Webster’s, toys with the suggestion that a young woman actually wrote the letters which Richardson edits: “let us havePamelaasPamelawrote it.” But this is only in play. Although the writer disparages “Novels,” the note which heads his letter when it first appeared inThe Weekly Miscellanyspeaks of the “Author of Pamela” who has “written anEnglish Novel,”16and his opening remarks are clearly those of a critic speaking of fiction.

Hill’s first letter goes solidly for the conclusion that an author, a man of genius, wrote the book. The heading, “To the Editor ofPamela”, is Richardson’s only attempt to bring Hill’s letter into his already wavering line. In the fifth edition, however, he introduces this letter with his only straight statement that an author, distinct from the editor, is involved, an author who begged the editor not to include flattery.

To the end of his days Richardson continued to sit under the editorial shade --Sir Charles Grandisonwas “published” by the “editor ofPamelaandClarissa” -- enjoying the sunshine of his authorship. His introduction toPamelaand the care he took with it suggest more succinctly than anything else Richardson’s flirtation with his adorers, which is not at all unlike that of his so modest heroine.

Sheridan W. Baker, Jr.

University of Michigan

1.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record(New Haven, 1936), p. 13.2.The fourth carries “the Second Edition” before the new introductory letters; the fifth changes to “the Present Edition.”3.A translation of Abbé Noel Antoine Pluche:The History of the Heavens, 2 vols. (1740). (William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson: Master Printer[Cornell, 1950], p. 193.)4.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record, p. 15; William M. and Alan D. McKillop,Samuel Richardson(Chapel Hill, 1936), p. 42.5.McKillop, pp. 301-2. Richardson had printed theMiscellanybetween 1733 and 1736.6.Richardson mentions other letters but does not print them. Hill’s reference to “The Gentleman’s Advice” on page xxii is to a letter from Benjamin Slocock, who commendedPamelafrom his pulpit in St. Saviour’s, and thus helped provoke Henry Fielding. (Sale, ibid., p. 17.)7.McKillop, p. 49.8.For this and other information concerning the Forster collection of Richardson’s correspondence, I am indebted to Mr. Arthur Wheen, Keeper of the Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.9.The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson(London, 1804), I, 53-55.10.The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq.(London, 1753), II, 221. Letter dated January 23, 1741.11.Hill,WorksII, 292.12.Barbauld, I, 63-64.13.Barbauld, I, lxxviii.14.The History of Henry Fielding, I, 313.15.Barbauld, I, lxxvi.16.McKillop, p. 42.

1.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record(New Haven, 1936), p. 13.

2.The fourth carries “the Second Edition” before the new introductory letters; the fifth changes to “the Present Edition.”

3.A translation of Abbé Noel Antoine Pluche:The History of the Heavens, 2 vols. (1740). (William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson: Master Printer[Cornell, 1950], p. 193.)

4.William M. Sale,Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record, p. 15; William M. and Alan D. McKillop,Samuel Richardson(Chapel Hill, 1936), p. 42.

5.McKillop, pp. 301-2. Richardson had printed theMiscellanybetween 1733 and 1736.

6.Richardson mentions other letters but does not print them. Hill’s reference to “The Gentleman’s Advice” on page xxii is to a letter from Benjamin Slocock, who commendedPamelafrom his pulpit in St. Saviour’s, and thus helped provoke Henry Fielding. (Sale, ibid., p. 17.)

7.McKillop, p. 49.

8.For this and other information concerning the Forster collection of Richardson’s correspondence, I am indebted to Mr. Arthur Wheen, Keeper of the Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

9.The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson(London, 1804), I, 53-55.

10.The Works of the Late Aaron Hill, Esq.(London, 1753), II, 221. Letter dated January 23, 1741.

11.Hill,WorksII, 292.

12.Barbauld, I, 63-64.

13.Barbauld, I, lxxviii.

14.The History of Henry Fielding, I, 313.

15.Barbauld, I, lxxvi.

16.McKillop, p. 42.

1. ...here; and writes with the more Assurance of Success, as anEditormay be allowed to judge with more Impartiality than is often to be found in anAuthor.

2.But Difficulties having arisen from different Opinions, some applauding the very Things that others found Fault with, we have found it necessary to insert thePraisesin the following Letters, with the critical Remarks; because the Writer has so kindly mix’d them, that they cannot be disjoin’d (however earnestly the Author of the Piece desire’d it) without obscuring, and indeed defacing, all the Spirit of the Reasoning.

3.The following Objections to some Passages in Pamela were made by an anonymous Gentleman, in a Letter from the Country.

4.The ingenious Writer of the two preceding Letters, answers these good natured Objections, as follows:

5. Fourth: “least weigh’d”; fifth: “least considered.”

6. ...it seems plain to me, that this Gentleman, however laudable his Intention may be on the whole, discerns not an Elegance,...

7. In the Occasions this Gentleman, in his Postscript, is pleas’d to discover forJokes, I either find not, that he has any Signification at all, or, causelessly, as I think, apprehends that such coarse-tasted Allusions to loose low-life Idioms, may be made, thatnotto understand what is meant bythem, is both the cleanliest, and prudentest Way of confuting them.

8. ...in the Mind of the Reader, an Honesty so sincere and unguarded.

9. Deleted, fifth edition; replaced in eighth with: “In a Third Letter the same benevolent Gentleman writes, as follows:”.

PAMELA:O R,VirtueRewarded.In a SERIES ofFamiliar LettersFROM ABeautiful YoungDamsel,To herPARENTS.Now first PublishedIn order to cultivate the Principles ofVirtueandReligionin the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES.A Narrative which has its Foundation in TRUTHand NATURE; and at the same time that it agreeably entertains, by a Variety ofcuriousandaffectingIncidents, is intirely divested of all those Images, which, in too many Pieces calculated for Amusement only, tend toinflamethe Minds they shouldinstruct.InTwo Volumes.TheSecond Edition.To which are prefixed,Extractsfrom several curiousLetterswritten to theEditoron the Subject.VOL. I.LONDON:Printed forC. Rivington, inSt. Paul’s Church-Yard; andJ. Osborn, inPater-noster Row.M DCC XLI.PREFACEBY THEEDITOR.IF toDivertandEntertain, and at the same time toInstruct, andImprovethe Minds of theYouthofboth Sexes:IF to inculcateReligionandMoralityin so easy and agreeable a manner, as shall render them equallydelightfulandprofitableto theyounger Classof Readers, as well as worthy of the Attention of Persons ofmaturerYears and Understandings:IF to set forth in the most exemplary Lights, theParental, theFilial, and theSocialDuties,and that fromlowtohighLife:IF to paintVicein its proper Colours, to make itdeservedly Odious; and to setVirtuein its own amiable Light, to make it trulyLovely:IF to draw Charactersjustly, and to support themequally:IF to raise a Distress fromnaturalCauses, and to excite Compassion fromproperMotives:IF to teach the Man ofFortunehow to use it; the Man ofPassionhow to subdue it; and the Man ofIntrigue, how, gracefully, and with Honour to himself, toreclaim:IF to givepracticalExamples, worthy to be followed in the mostcriticalandaffectingCases, by themodestVirgin, thechasteBride, and theobligingWife:IF to effect all these good Ends,in so probable, so natural, solivelya manner, as shall engage the Passions of every sensible Reader, and strongly interest them in the edifying Story:AND allwithout raising a singleIdeathroughout the Whole, that shall shock the exactest Purity, even in those tender Instances where the exactest Purity would be most apprehensive:IF these, (embellished with a great Variety of entertaining Incidents)be laudable or worthy Recommendations of any Work, the Editor of the following Letters, which have their Foundation inTruthandNature, ventures to assert,that all these desirable Ends are obtainedin these Sheets: And as he is therefore confident of the favourable Reception which he boldly bespeaks for this little Work; he thinks anyfurther PrefaceorApologyfor it, unnecessary: And the rather for two Reasons, 1st. Because he can Appeal fromhis ownPassions, (which have been uncommonlymovedin perusing these engaging Scenes) to the Passions ofEvery onewho shall read them with the least Attention: And, in the next place, because anEditormay reasonably be supposed to judge with an Impartiality which is rarely to be met with in anAuthortowards his own Works.The Editor.

In order to cultivate the Principles ofVirtueandReligionin the Minds of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES.

A Narrative which has its Foundation in TRUTHand NATURE; and at the same time that it agreeably entertains, by a Variety ofcuriousandaffectingIncidents, is intirely divested of all those Images, which, in too many Pieces calculated for Amusement only, tend toinflamethe Minds they shouldinstruct.

IF toDivertandEntertain, and at the same time toInstruct, andImprovethe Minds of theYouthofboth Sexes:

IF to inculcateReligionandMoralityin so easy and agreeable a manner, as shall render them equallydelightfulandprofitableto theyounger Classof Readers, as well as worthy of the Attention of Persons ofmaturerYears and Understandings:

IF to set forth in the most exemplary Lights, theParental, theFilial, and theSocialDuties,and that fromlowtohighLife:

IF to paintVicein its proper Colours, to make itdeservedly Odious; and to setVirtuein its own amiable Light, to make it trulyLovely:

IF to draw Charactersjustly, and to support themequally:

IF to raise a Distress fromnaturalCauses, and to excite Compassion fromproperMotives:

IF to teach the Man ofFortunehow to use it; the Man ofPassionhow to subdue it; and the Man ofIntrigue, how, gracefully, and with Honour to himself, toreclaim:

IF to givepracticalExamples, worthy to be followed in the mostcriticalandaffectingCases, by themodestVirgin, thechasteBride, and theobligingWife:

IF to effect all these good Ends,in so probable, so natural, solivelya manner, as shall engage the Passions of every sensible Reader, and strongly interest them in the edifying Story:

AND allwithout raising a singleIdeathroughout the Whole, that shall shock the exactest Purity, even in those tender Instances where the exactest Purity would be most apprehensive:

IF these, (embellished with a great Variety of entertaining Incidents)be laudable or worthy Recommendations of any Work, the Editor of the following Letters, which have their Foundation inTruthandNature, ventures to assert,that all these desirable Ends are obtainedin these Sheets: And as he is therefore confident of the favourable Reception which he boldly bespeaks for this little Work; he thinks anyfurther PrefaceorApologyfor it, unnecessary: And the rather for two Reasons, 1st. Because he can Appeal fromhis ownPassions, (which have been uncommonlymovedin perusing these engaging Scenes) to the Passions ofEvery onewho shall read them with the least Attention: And, in the next place, because anEditormay reasonably be supposed to judge with an Impartiality which is rarely to be met with in anAuthortowards his own Works.

The Editor.

To the Editor of the Piece intitled,Pamela; or,VirtueRewarded.DearSIR,Ihavehad inexpressible Pleasure in the Perusal of yourPamela. It intirely answers the Character you give of it in your Preface; nor have you said one Word too much in Commendation of a Piece that has Advantages and Excellencies peculiar to itself. For, besides the beautiful Simplicity of the Style, and a happy Propriety and Clearness of Expression (the Letters being written under the immediate Impression of every Circumstance which occasioned them, and that to those who had a Right to know the fair Writer’s most secret Thoughts) the several Passions of the Mind must, of course, be more affectingly described, and Nature may be traced in her undisguised Inclinations with much more Propriety and Exactness, than can possibly be found in a Detail of Actions long past, which are never recollected with the same Affections, Hopes, and Dreads, with which they were felt when they occurred.This little Book will infallibly be looked upon as the hitherto much-wanted Standard or Pattern for this Kind of Writing. For it abounds with lively Images and Pictures; with Incidents natural, surprising, and perfectly adapted to the Story; with Circumstances interesting to Persons in commonLife, as well as to those in exalted Stations. The greatest Regard is every where paid in it to Decency, and to every Duty of Life: There is a constant Fitness of the Style to the Persons and Characters described; Pleasure and Instruction here always go hand in hand: Vice and Virtue are set in constant Opposition, and Religion every-where inculcated in its native Beauty and chearful Amiableness; not dressed up in stiff, melancholy, or gloomy Forms, on one hand, nor yet, on the other, debased below its due Dignity and noble Requisites, in Compliment to a too fashionable but depraved Taste. And this I will boldly say, that if its numerous Beauties are added to its excellent Tendency, it will be found worthy a Place, not only in all Families (especially such as have in them young Persons of either Sex) but in the Collections of the most curious and polite Readers. For, as it borrows none of its Excellencies from the romantic Flights of unnatural Fancy, its being founded in Truth and Nature, and built upon Experience, will be a lasting Recommendation to the Discerning and Judicious; while the agreeable Variety of Occurrences and Characters, in which it abounds, will not fail to engage the Attention of the gay and more sprightly Readers.The moral Reflections and Uses to be drawn from the several Parts of this admirable History, are so happily deduced from a Croud of different Events and Characters, in the Conclusion of the Work, that I shall say the less on that Head. But I think, the Hints you have given me, should also prefatorily be given to the Publick;viz.That it will appear from several Things mentioned in the Letters, that the Story must have happened within these Thirty Years past: That you have been obliged to vary some of the Names of Persons, Places,&c.and to disguise a few of the Circumstances, in order to avoid giving Offenceto some Persons, who would not chuse to be pointed out too plainly in it; tho’ they would be glad it may do the Good so laudably intended by the Publication. And as you have in Confidence submitted to my Opinion some of those Variations, I am much pleased that you have so managed the Matter, as to make no Alteration in the Facts; and, at the same time, have avoided the digressive Prolixity too frequently used on such Occasions.Little Book, charmingPamela! face the World, and never doubt of finding Friends and Admirers, not only in thine own Country, but far from Home;where thou mayst give an Example of Purity to the Writers of a neighbouring Nation; which now shall have an Opportunity to receiveEnglishBullion in Exchange for its own Dross, which has so long passed current among us in Pieces abounding with all the Levities of its volatile Inhabitants.The reigning Depravity of the Times has yet left Virtue many Votaries. Of their Protection you need not despair. May every head-strong Libertine whose Hands you reach, be reclaimed; and every tempted Virgin who reads you, imitate the Virtue, and meet the Reward of the high-meriting, tho’ low-descended,Pamela. I am, Sir,Your most Obedient,and Faithful Servant,J. B. D. F.

DearSIR,

Ihavehad inexpressible Pleasure in the Perusal of yourPamela. It intirely answers the Character you give of it in your Preface; nor have you said one Word too much in Commendation of a Piece that has Advantages and Excellencies peculiar to itself. For, besides the beautiful Simplicity of the Style, and a happy Propriety and Clearness of Expression (the Letters being written under the immediate Impression of every Circumstance which occasioned them, and that to those who had a Right to know the fair Writer’s most secret Thoughts) the several Passions of the Mind must, of course, be more affectingly described, and Nature may be traced in her undisguised Inclinations with much more Propriety and Exactness, than can possibly be found in a Detail of Actions long past, which are never recollected with the same Affections, Hopes, and Dreads, with which they were felt when they occurred.

This little Book will infallibly be looked upon as the hitherto much-wanted Standard or Pattern for this Kind of Writing. For it abounds with lively Images and Pictures; with Incidents natural, surprising, and perfectly adapted to the Story; with Circumstances interesting to Persons in commonLife, as well as to those in exalted Stations. The greatest Regard is every where paid in it to Decency, and to every Duty of Life: There is a constant Fitness of the Style to the Persons and Characters described; Pleasure and Instruction here always go hand in hand: Vice and Virtue are set in constant Opposition, and Religion every-where inculcated in its native Beauty and chearful Amiableness; not dressed up in stiff, melancholy, or gloomy Forms, on one hand, nor yet, on the other, debased below its due Dignity and noble Requisites, in Compliment to a too fashionable but depraved Taste. And this I will boldly say, that if its numerous Beauties are added to its excellent Tendency, it will be found worthy a Place, not only in all Families (especially such as have in them young Persons of either Sex) but in the Collections of the most curious and polite Readers. For, as it borrows none of its Excellencies from the romantic Flights of unnatural Fancy, its being founded in Truth and Nature, and built upon Experience, will be a lasting Recommendation to the Discerning and Judicious; while the agreeable Variety of Occurrences and Characters, in which it abounds, will not fail to engage the Attention of the gay and more sprightly Readers.

The moral Reflections and Uses to be drawn from the several Parts of this admirable History, are so happily deduced from a Croud of different Events and Characters, in the Conclusion of the Work, that I shall say the less on that Head. But I think, the Hints you have given me, should also prefatorily be given to the Publick;viz.That it will appear from several Things mentioned in the Letters, that the Story must have happened within these Thirty Years past: That you have been obliged to vary some of the Names of Persons, Places,&c.and to disguise a few of the Circumstances, in order to avoid giving Offenceto some Persons, who would not chuse to be pointed out too plainly in it; tho’ they would be glad it may do the Good so laudably intended by the Publication. And as you have in Confidence submitted to my Opinion some of those Variations, I am much pleased that you have so managed the Matter, as to make no Alteration in the Facts; and, at the same time, have avoided the digressive Prolixity too frequently used on such Occasions.

Little Book, charmingPamela! face the World, and never doubt of finding Friends and Admirers, not only in thine own Country, but far from Home;where thou mayst give an Example of Purity to the Writers of a neighbouring Nation; which now shall have an Opportunity to receiveEnglishBullion in Exchange for its own Dross, which has so long passed current among us in Pieces abounding with all the Levities of its volatile Inhabitants.The reigning Depravity of the Times has yet left Virtue many Votaries. Of their Protection you need not despair. May every head-strong Libertine whose Hands you reach, be reclaimed; and every tempted Virgin who reads you, imitate the Virtue, and meet the Reward of the high-meriting, tho’ low-descended,Pamela. I am, Sir,

Your most Obedient,

and Faithful Servant,

J. B. D. F.

To my worthy Friend, the Editor ofPamela.SIR,Ireturnthe Manuscript ofPamelaby the Bearer, which I have read with a great deal of Pleasure. It is written with that Spirit of Truth and agreeable Simplicity, which, tho’ much wanted, is seldom found in those Pieces which are calculated for the Entertainment and Instruction of the Publick. It carries Conviction in every Part of it; and the Incidents are so natural and interesting, that I have gone hand-in-hand, and sympathiz’d with the pretty Heroine in all her Sufferings, and been extremely anxious for her Safety, under the Apprehensions of the bad Consequences which I expected, every Page, would ensue from the laudable Resistance she made. I have interested myself in all her Schemes of Escape; been alternately pleas’d and angry with her in her Restraint;pleas’dwith the little Machinations and Contrivances she set on foot for her Release, andangryfor suffering her Fears to defeat them; always lamenting, with a most sensible Concern, the Miscarriages of her Hopes and Projects. In short, the whole is so affecting, that there is no reading it without uncommon Concern and Emotion. Thus far only as to theEntertainmentit gives.As toInstructionandMorality, the Piece is full of both. It shews Virtue in the strongest Light, and renders the Practice of it amiable and lovely.The beautiful Sufferer keeps it ever in her View, without the least Ostentation, or Pride; she has it so strongly implanted in her, that thro’ the whole Course of her Sufferings, she does not so much as hesitate once, whether she shall sacrifice it to Liberty and Ambition, or not; but, as if there were no other way to free and save herself, carries on a determin’d Purpose to persevere in her Innocence, and wade with it throughout all Difficulties and Temptations, or perish under them.It is an astonishing Matter, and well worth our most serious Consideration, that a young beautiful Girl, in the low Scene of Life and Circumstance in which Fortune placed her, without the Advantage of a Friend capable to relieve and protect her, or any other Education than what occurr’d to her from her own Observation and little Reading, in the Course of her Attendance on her excellent Mistress and Benefactress, could, after having a Taste of Ease and Plenty in a higher Sphere of Life than what she was born and first brought up in, resolve to return to her primitive Poverty, rather than give up her Innocence.I say, it is surprising, that a young Person, so circumstanced, could, in Contempt of proffer’d Grandeur on the one side, and in Defiance of Penury on the other, so happily and prudently conduct herself thro’ such a Series of Perplexities and Troubles, and withstand the alluring Baits, and almost irresistible Offers of a fine Gentleman, so universally admired and esteemed, for the Agreeableness of his Person and good Qualities, among all his Acquaintance; defeat all his Measures with so much Address, and oblige him, at last, to give over his vain Pursuit, and sacrifice his Pride and Ambition to Virtue, and become the Protector of that Innocence which he so long and so indefatigably labour’d to supplant: And all this without ever having entertain’d the least previousDesign or Thought for that Purpose: No Art used to inflame him, no Coquetry practised to tempt or intice him, and no Prudery or Affectation to tamper with his Passions; but, on the contrary, artless and unpractised in the Wiles of the World, all her Endeavours, and even all her Wishes, tended only to render herself as un-amiable as she could in his Eyes: Tho’ at the same time she is so far from having any Aversion to his Person, that she seems rather prepossess’d in his Favour, and admires his Excellencies, whilst she condemns his Passion for her. A glorious Instance of Self-denial! Thus her very Repulses became Attractions: The more she resisted, the more she charm’d; and the very Means she used to guard her Virtue, the more endanger’d it, by inflaming his Passions: Till, at last, by Perseverance, and a brave and resolute Defence, the Besieged not only obtain’d a glorious Victory over the Besieger, but took him Prisoner too.I am charmed with the beautiful Reflections she makes in the Course of her Distresses; her Soliloquies and little Reasonings with herself, are exceeding pretty and entertaining: She pours out all her Soul in them before her Parents without Disguise; so that one may judge of, nay, almost see, the inmost Recesses of her Mind. A pure clear Fountain of Truth and Innocence; a Magazine of Virtue and unblemish’d Thoughts!I can’t conceive why you should hesitate a Moment as to the Publication of this very natural and uncommon Piece. I could wish to see it out in its own native Simplicity, which will affect and please the Reader beyond all the Strokes of Oratory in the World; for those will but spoil it: and, should you permit such a murdering Hand to be laid upon it, to gloss and tinge it over with superfluous and needless Decorations, which, like toomuch Drapery in Sculpture and Statuary, will but encumber it; it may disguise the Facts, mar the Reflections, and unnaturalize the Incidents, so as to be lost in a Multiplicity of fine idle Words and Phrases, and reduce our Sterling Substance into an empty Shadow, or ratherfrenchifyourEnglishSolidity into Froth and Whip-syllabub. No; let us havePamelaasPamelawrote it; in her own Words, without Amputation, or Addition. Produce her to us in her neat Country Apparel, such as she appear’d in, on her intended Departure to her Parents; for such best becomes her Innocence, and beautiful Simplicity. Such a Dress will best edify and entertain. The flowing Robes of Oratory may indeed amuse and amaze, but will never strike the Mind with solid Attention.In short, Sir, a Piece of this Kind is much wanted in the World, which is but too much, as well as too early, debauched by perniciousNovels. I know nothing Entertaining of that Kind that one might venture to recommend to the Perusal (much less the Imitation) of the Youth of either Sex: All that I have hitherto read, tends only to corrupt their Principles, mislead their Judgments, and initiate them into Gallantry, and loose Pleasures.Publish then, this good, this edifying and instructive little Piece for their sakes. The Honour ofPamela’s Sex demandsPamelaat your Hands, to shew the World an Heroine, almost beyond Example, in an unusual Scene of Life, whom no Temptations, or Sufferings, could subdue. It is a fine, and glorious Original, for the Fair to copy out and imitate. Our own Sex, too, require it of you, to free us, in some measure, from the Imputation of being incapable of the Impressions of Virtue and Honour;and to shew the Ladies, that we are not inflexible while they are so.In short, the Cause of Virtue calls for the Publication of such a Piece as this. Oblige then, Sir, the concurrent Voices of both Sexes, and give usPamelafor the Benefit of Mankind:And as I believe its Excellencies cannot be long unknown to the World, and that there will not be a Family without it; so I make no Doubt but every Family that has it, will be much improv’d and better’d by it.’Twill form the tender Minds ofYouthfor the Reception and Practice of Virtue and Honour; confirm and establish those ofmaturer Yearson good and steady Principles; reclaim the Vicious, and mend the Age in general; insomuch that as I doubt notPamelawill become the bright Example and Imitation of all the fashionable young Ladies ofGreat Britain; so the truly generous Benefactor and Rewarder of her exemplary Virtue, will be no less admired and imitated among theBeau Mondeof our own Sex. I amYour affectionate Friend,&c.

SIR,

Ireturnthe Manuscript ofPamelaby the Bearer, which I have read with a great deal of Pleasure. It is written with that Spirit of Truth and agreeable Simplicity, which, tho’ much wanted, is seldom found in those Pieces which are calculated for the Entertainment and Instruction of the Publick. It carries Conviction in every Part of it; and the Incidents are so natural and interesting, that I have gone hand-in-hand, and sympathiz’d with the pretty Heroine in all her Sufferings, and been extremely anxious for her Safety, under the Apprehensions of the bad Consequences which I expected, every Page, would ensue from the laudable Resistance she made. I have interested myself in all her Schemes of Escape; been alternately pleas’d and angry with her in her Restraint;pleas’dwith the little Machinations and Contrivances she set on foot for her Release, andangryfor suffering her Fears to defeat them; always lamenting, with a most sensible Concern, the Miscarriages of her Hopes and Projects. In short, the whole is so affecting, that there is no reading it without uncommon Concern and Emotion. Thus far only as to theEntertainmentit gives.

As toInstructionandMorality, the Piece is full of both. It shews Virtue in the strongest Light, and renders the Practice of it amiable and lovely.The beautiful Sufferer keeps it ever in her View, without the least Ostentation, or Pride; she has it so strongly implanted in her, that thro’ the whole Course of her Sufferings, she does not so much as hesitate once, whether she shall sacrifice it to Liberty and Ambition, or not; but, as if there were no other way to free and save herself, carries on a determin’d Purpose to persevere in her Innocence, and wade with it throughout all Difficulties and Temptations, or perish under them.It is an astonishing Matter, and well worth our most serious Consideration, that a young beautiful Girl, in the low Scene of Life and Circumstance in which Fortune placed her, without the Advantage of a Friend capable to relieve and protect her, or any other Education than what occurr’d to her from her own Observation and little Reading, in the Course of her Attendance on her excellent Mistress and Benefactress, could, after having a Taste of Ease and Plenty in a higher Sphere of Life than what she was born and first brought up in, resolve to return to her primitive Poverty, rather than give up her Innocence.I say, it is surprising, that a young Person, so circumstanced, could, in Contempt of proffer’d Grandeur on the one side, and in Defiance of Penury on the other, so happily and prudently conduct herself thro’ such a Series of Perplexities and Troubles, and withstand the alluring Baits, and almost irresistible Offers of a fine Gentleman, so universally admired and esteemed, for the Agreeableness of his Person and good Qualities, among all his Acquaintance; defeat all his Measures with so much Address, and oblige him, at last, to give over his vain Pursuit, and sacrifice his Pride and Ambition to Virtue, and become the Protector of that Innocence which he so long and so indefatigably labour’d to supplant: And all this without ever having entertain’d the least previousDesign or Thought for that Purpose: No Art used to inflame him, no Coquetry practised to tempt or intice him, and no Prudery or Affectation to tamper with his Passions; but, on the contrary, artless and unpractised in the Wiles of the World, all her Endeavours, and even all her Wishes, tended only to render herself as un-amiable as she could in his Eyes: Tho’ at the same time she is so far from having any Aversion to his Person, that she seems rather prepossess’d in his Favour, and admires his Excellencies, whilst she condemns his Passion for her. A glorious Instance of Self-denial! Thus her very Repulses became Attractions: The more she resisted, the more she charm’d; and the very Means she used to guard her Virtue, the more endanger’d it, by inflaming his Passions: Till, at last, by Perseverance, and a brave and resolute Defence, the Besieged not only obtain’d a glorious Victory over the Besieger, but took him Prisoner too.

I am charmed with the beautiful Reflections she makes in the Course of her Distresses; her Soliloquies and little Reasonings with herself, are exceeding pretty and entertaining: She pours out all her Soul in them before her Parents without Disguise; so that one may judge of, nay, almost see, the inmost Recesses of her Mind. A pure clear Fountain of Truth and Innocence; a Magazine of Virtue and unblemish’d Thoughts!

I can’t conceive why you should hesitate a Moment as to the Publication of this very natural and uncommon Piece. I could wish to see it out in its own native Simplicity, which will affect and please the Reader beyond all the Strokes of Oratory in the World; for those will but spoil it: and, should you permit such a murdering Hand to be laid upon it, to gloss and tinge it over with superfluous and needless Decorations, which, like toomuch Drapery in Sculpture and Statuary, will but encumber it; it may disguise the Facts, mar the Reflections, and unnaturalize the Incidents, so as to be lost in a Multiplicity of fine idle Words and Phrases, and reduce our Sterling Substance into an empty Shadow, or ratherfrenchifyourEnglishSolidity into Froth and Whip-syllabub. No; let us havePamelaasPamelawrote it; in her own Words, without Amputation, or Addition. Produce her to us in her neat Country Apparel, such as she appear’d in, on her intended Departure to her Parents; for such best becomes her Innocence, and beautiful Simplicity. Such a Dress will best edify and entertain. The flowing Robes of Oratory may indeed amuse and amaze, but will never strike the Mind with solid Attention.

In short, Sir, a Piece of this Kind is much wanted in the World, which is but too much, as well as too early, debauched by perniciousNovels. I know nothing Entertaining of that Kind that one might venture to recommend to the Perusal (much less the Imitation) of the Youth of either Sex: All that I have hitherto read, tends only to corrupt their Principles, mislead their Judgments, and initiate them into Gallantry, and loose Pleasures.

Publish then, this good, this edifying and instructive little Piece for their sakes. The Honour ofPamela’s Sex demandsPamelaat your Hands, to shew the World an Heroine, almost beyond Example, in an unusual Scene of Life, whom no Temptations, or Sufferings, could subdue. It is a fine, and glorious Original, for the Fair to copy out and imitate. Our own Sex, too, require it of you, to free us, in some measure, from the Imputation of being incapable of the Impressions of Virtue and Honour;and to shew the Ladies, that we are not inflexible while they are so.

In short, the Cause of Virtue calls for the Publication of such a Piece as this. Oblige then, Sir, the concurrent Voices of both Sexes, and give usPamelafor the Benefit of Mankind:And as I believe its Excellencies cannot be long unknown to the World, and that there will not be a Family without it; so I make no Doubt but every Family that has it, will be much improv’d and better’d by it.’Twill form the tender Minds ofYouthfor the Reception and Practice of Virtue and Honour; confirm and establish those ofmaturer Yearson good and steady Principles; reclaim the Vicious, and mend the Age in general; insomuch that as I doubt notPamelawill become the bright Example and Imitation of all the fashionable young Ladies ofGreat Britain; so the truly generous Benefactor and Rewarder of her exemplary Virtue, will be no less admired and imitated among theBeau Mondeof our own Sex. I am

Your affectionate Friend,&c.

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