without a doubt his decision was a wise one. For three years the manuscript remained in the hands of the authoress, and then in 1798, she, with the restlessness inseparable from disappointment, published the unrepresented and rejected drama. She would have consulted better for her fame, if she had allowed it to remain in obscurity. The last of Harriet Lee's publications issued from the press in the year 1826, about two years after her sister's death. Before Lord Byron made the "German's Tale" the subject of "Werner," the authoress had herself dramatised that story. Immediately Byron's tragedy appeared, Miss Lee felt it due to herself to make her own drama known, so that she might not be charged with imitating his lordship's imitation. "The Three Strangers," a play in five acts, was immediately offered (Nov. 1822), to the Covent Garden Theatre, and was accepted. It was not, however, acted till the 10th of December, 1825, when it was received with unquestionable disapprobation, though such a story as it is based upon could not fail to interest. It is written in prose; and there are many who will find amusement in comparing it with the rythmical version of Lord Byron. On these two ladies it is impossible to look without feelings of respect, and even of admiration. Neither of them married; yet it would be difficult to point to two sisters who are, or were, greater ornaments to their sex. By faithful and affectionate exertions they endeared themselves to their numerous pupils; by persevering and honourable industry they raised themselves from indigence to affluence; and by their genius they produced works which delighted, instructed, and permanently influenced for the better, their generation-as well the most remarkable members of it, as the common herd. CHAPTER XIII. CLARA REEVE. THE writings of the authoress of "The Old English Baron," are so well known, at least by tradition, amongst novel readers, that, bad as they are, it would not be right to pass them over without notice. By birth Clara Reeve was respectably placed in the middle class, her father and grandfather having in their day been Suffolk rectors. Her father was rector of Freston and Kerton, and curate of St. Nicholas, Ipswich; and her grandfather was rector first of Storeham Aspal, and afterwards of St. Mary Stoke, in Ipswich. Her father, it would seem, did not reside on either of his livings, but, following what was the frequent custom of the time with country clergymen, lived in the principal county town, for the sake of society, and educational advantages for his family. The Rev. William Reeve, (the rector of Freston, &c., &c.) although he was one of eight children, was blessed with easy circumstances, for, besides his church preferment, he had some property in right of his wife, who was, before her marriage, a Miss Smithies, her father being George the First's goldsmith and jeweller, But the worthy clergyman having just as numerous a family as his father, did not at his death leave a very ample provision for them. Upon his demise his widow, with three daughters, removed to Colchester for permanent residence. Clara made her début in literature with a volume of very ordinary poems indeed, published by subscription in 1769. Amongst the subscribers were most of the influential people in her native district of Suffolk, and her poems were at the time perhaps calculated to excite provincial interest-certainly no other. The following lines will give a fair taste of the lady's muse. EPIGRAM. "With what glory assemble, what spirit advance, For a wise man, who knows what will happen hereafter, Is now planting laurels to crown them victorious. Certainly the explanation of the note was requisite to make apparent the point of the epigram. What queer creatures our great-grandfathers must have been to subscribe largely for a volume of such stuff! And they did not fall into the absurdity of such conduct once in a while, but were continually furnishing guineas to stimulate the producers of bad verses. Miss Reeve's second appearance as an authoress was in 1772, when she put forth under the title of "The Phoenix," a translation of Barclay's well known Argenis, to which the fictitious literature of Europe is so much indebted. John Barclay was a Scotchman by parentage, but by birth and education a Frenchman. He was born Jan. 28, 1582, and died August 12, 1621. His "Argenis," which was written in Latin, called forth from Grotius a scholarly compliment, in the following lines: "Gente Caledonius Gallus natalibus hic est, Romam Romani qui docet ore loqui." "The Argenis" had already been twice translated from the Latin into English-the first time at the order of Charles the First, by Sir Robert le Grys and Thomas May; and In the year 1758, a gentleman known to all his friends by the epithet of the prophet, was planting a garden, and wrote to a friend to send him all the different kinds of laurels ; he received upwards of thirty sorts, which occasioned the above. the second time by Kingsmill Long, in 1636. Miss Reeve supplied the world with a third English reading, and accomplished the task respectably, but by no means brilliantly. But it was in 1777, five years after the publication of "The Phoenix," that Miss Reeve published a story which, bad and utterly absurd as it is, obtained a popularity which entitles its authoress to mention in these pages. Mr. Dilly, of the Poultry, bought the copyright of the tale for ten pounds, and published the first edition under the title of "The Champion of Virtue, a Gothic Story," and a second edition under the equally imposing name of "The Old English Baron." "The Old English Baron, a Modern Story," was succeeded by "The Two Monitors," "The Progress of Romance, through Times, Countries, and Manners," "The Exile, or Memoirs of the Count de Cronstadt," based on a novel by M. d'Arnaud, "The School for Widows," a novel; "Plans of Education, with remarks on the System of other Writers," and "The Memoirs of Sir Roger de Clarendon, a natural son of Edward the Black Prince; with Anecdotes of many other Eminent Persons of the Fourteenth Century." "The Progress of Romance" was published at Colchester,in 1785, and is a book worthy of perusal, not that it gives correct information, or takes a comprehensive view of the subject, or contains just criticisms, but because it is a good picture of the field of reading open to the novel devourers of that time. The book itself is composed of four prose dialogues, called "Evenings," between Hortensius, Sophronia, and Euphrasia, and commences in the following style. EVENING L 66 HORTENSIUS, SOPHRONIA, EUPHRASIA. "EUPH.-Hortensius, I am proud of a visit from you, tho' I.am ignorant of the motive, to which I am indebted for it. "HORT.-What madam, do you think that you can give a challenge, and go off with impunity? &c., &c." The result is that the trio employ twelve evenings in discussing, in Platonic fashion, the novels then current in circulating libraries, having first made mention of the principal romances and their dates. Euphrasia is Miss Reeve herself, and when the conversation touches on her translation of the "Argenis," that classical personage makes contemptuous allusions to all the critics who have been unkind to "The Phoenix.” Besides, the works and writers treated of in the preceding pages, Euphrasia and her friends pass judgment on Mrs. Lennox's "Female Quixote," published in 1752, and that lady's " Henrietta” and "Maria," Dr. Shebbeare's "Marriage Act," in the second edition called "Matrimony," and his "Lydia, or Filial Piety." "The Card," a work by a notorious clergyman, imitating the styles of different eminent novel-writers, "Pompey the Little," "Peter Wilkins," Mrs. Sheridan's "Sidney Biddulph," Dr. Hawksworth's "Almena and Harriet," and Dr. Langhorne's "Soliman and Almena," in imitation of "Rasselas," Mrs. Brooke's "Lady Catesby's Letters," and her "Lady Julia Mandeville" and "Emily Montague," "Sir George Ellison," "Sir Charles Beaufort," "John Bunde, Esq.," all three published in 1766, "The Fair American, or Emmóra," published in 1767, "Lucy Watson," ""The Life and Adventures of Common Sense," "Arthur O'Bradley," Mr. Mulso's "Callistus, or the Man of Fashion," Mrs. Cooper's "Exemplary Mother," Mr. Jenner's "Placid Man," Mr. Brooke's "Fool of Quality," and his "Juliet Greville," Mrs. Griffith's novels, "The Delicate Distress," "The Gordian Knot," "Lady Barton," and "Lady Juliana Harley," the "Letters from Altamont in Town to his Friends in the Country," "The History of • We believe "The Card" was the first of the burlesques of English novel writers. |