Section II, 1921 [123] Tr.\ns. R.S.C. 



Maturin and Diderot 



By Dr. H. Ashton 



Presented by Judge F. W. Howay, F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1921) 



I. 



In spite of Professor Saintsbury's statement that "the immense 

 influence of Maturin in France is an old story, "^ the ordinary reader of 

 EngHsh literature has little knowledge of Maturin or of his works. 

 The name will probably recall a chapter in Coleridge's Biographia 

 literaria,- and if one does not remember that this chapter of invective 

 was written by Coleridge because Maturin 's Bertram had been 

 accepted in preference to a play of his own,^ a false impression may 

 remain in the mind. 



Coleridge's opinion of the play was not shared by the theatre- 

 going public, nor by such men as Byron and Scott. The latter shows 

 the real situation when he writes to Maturin urging him not to let 

 his reply to Coleridge appear in the preface to Women:* "Let me 

 entreat you to view Coleridge's violence as a thing to be contemned, 

 not retaliated^ — the opinion of a British public may surely be set in 

 opposition to that of one disappointed and wayward man. You 

 should also consider, en bon Chrétien, that Coleridge has had some 

 room to be spited at the world, and you are, I trust, to continue to be 

 a favourite with the public — so that you should totally neglect and 

 despise criticism, however virulent, which arises out of his bad fortune 

 and your good. . . ."^ 



Maturin and Scott had in common that they were both "slaves 

 to the pen." Curate of St. Peter's Church, Dublin, Maturin kept a 

 "crammer's shop" and was very successful in preparing pupils for 

 the University. His pecuniary difficulties were caused by his rash 

 good-nature, for he became security for a large sum of money at the 

 request of a relative. This person failed in his enterprise, and Maturin 



^Saintsbury, A History of the FrencJi Novel. London, 1917. 2 vols. 4°. 

 Vol. II, p. 166, Note 3. 



-Chapter XXIII, Critique on Bertram. J. M. Dent. (Everyman's Library.) 

 ^ TJie Fall of Robespierre. 



^"A Tale by the Author of Sé-r/rom." 3 vols. 12». London, 1818. 

 "Lockhart's Scott, Vol. 5. Edinburgh, 1839. 



