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Indiana University Studies 



this be true, it may be said that what Madame D'Arblay acquired 

 from others she made as much her own as did Shakspere the novella 

 and the other sources of his dramas. 



It is probable, however, that Mrs. Heywood's Betsy Thoughtless 

 suggested to her the main outlines of the plot of Evelina. Dunlop 

 points our certain similarities. ''In the novel of Mrs. Hey wood," he 

 says, ''a young lady -makes, at an early age, her first appearance in 

 London on the great and busy stage of life. In the city she resides 

 under the protection of Lady Melassin, a woman of low birth, of 

 vulgar manners, and dissolute character, whose husband had been 

 appointed the guardian of Miss Thoughtless by her father. From this 

 woman, and from the malice and impertinence of her daughter. Miss 

 Flora, the heroine, suffers much uneasiness on her entrance into life. 

 Though possessed of a virtuous mind, a good understanding, and a 

 feeling heart, her heedlessness of ceremony, her ignorance of forms, 

 and inexperience of the manners of the world, occasion many per- 

 plexing incidents, and lead her into awkward situations, most morti- 

 fying to her vanity, which, at length, alarm the delicacy, and almost 

 forever alienate the affections of an amiable and devoted lover .... 

 The chief perplexity of Mr. Trueworth, the admirer of Miss Thought- 

 less, arose from meeting her in company with Miss Forward, who had 

 been her companion at a boarding school, and of whose infamous 

 character she was ignorant. In like manner the delicacy of Lord 

 Orville is wounded and his attachment shaken, by meeting his Evelina 

 in similar society at Vauxhall. . . . But not only is the plan of 

 Betsy Thoughtless analogous to that of Evelina, but many of the char- 

 acters coincide with those delineated in that celebrated performance. 

 Mr. Trueworth is the same generous and pleasing lover as Lord Or- 

 ville. Lady Mellasin ... is the same low-born, coarse, and dissolute 

 woman with Mad. Duval. . . . While in the novel of Mrs. Heywood, 

 and of Miss Burney, we may trace the same assurance, affected 

 indifference, and impertinent gallantry, in many of the secondary 

 characters. "^^^ These likenesses seem more than coincidences. In 

 all probability, this novel, working unconsciously in Madame 

 D'Arblay's mind, suggested to her the main elements of her first 

 story.ii^ jf ^]^jg ^YiQ transformation which the plot underwent 



only serves to show the superior genius of the later work. Evelina 



113 J. C. DuBlop, History of Prose Fiction, II, 568 flf. 



114 Mrs. Annie Raine Ellis, however, says: "Mrs. Haywood, who was no credit 

 to novelists, has been said, far from correctly, to have given Fanny the hint for Evelina 

 in her novel of Betsy Thoughtless.'' Cf. Introd., The Early Diary of Frances Burney, 

 I, Ixxxv ff. 



