Hale: Madame D'Arhlay 



29 



Madame D'Arblay's ethical sense may be crude ; it may be largely a 

 matter of convention yet in none of her novels do we become 

 acquainted with the vile in life. As Macaulay says, her works do 

 ''not contain a single line inconsistent with rigid morality, or even 

 virgin delicacy. "^^^ We appreciate this change of atmosphere, 

 especially when just from the unvarnished portions of Defoe or 

 Fielding or Smollett — or even the moral Richardson. 



VII. Sources 



Without doubt, Samuel Richardson was this author's master. It 

 must not be supposed, however, that in her first novel, at least, she 

 slavishly followed him or anyone else. Mr. Howells correctly says, 

 ''She looked in her glass for her model, and wrought with the naivete 

 of the true artist, especially the true artist who is also young. "^^^ 

 At the time of the composition of Evelina, however, it is certain that 

 she had read the more important novels of her day.^^'^ Mr. Jeaffreson 

 says that she got "her familiarity with mankind, and her early capabil- 

 ity as a writer of fiction from the careful perusal of novels"; and he 

 adds, "Dunlop would fix the plagiarisms of Evelina especially in one 

 quarter,^^^ but we do not hesitate to say that style, incidents, senti- 

 ments, and portions of the plot were filched from all quarters— very 

 probably, however, without the knowledge of the authoress.""^ If 



♦ 107 An extract from Madame D'Arblay's Diary will show how serious a thing a 

 violated convention was to her: "Startled, as if awakened from a dream, I fixed her and 

 perceived the same figure I had seen at the salon. I now felt sure I was already in the 

 royal presence of the Duchess d'Angouleme, with whom I had seated myself almost 

 cheek by jowl, without the smallest suspicion of my situation. 



"I really seemed thunderstruck. I had approached her with so little formality 

 I had received all her graciousness with so little apparent sense of her condescension, 

 1 had taken my seat, nearly unasked, so completely at my ease, and I had pronounced 

 so unceremoniously the plain vous, without softening it off with one single Altesse 

 Royale, that I had given her reason to think me either the most forward person in my 

 nature, or the worst bred in my education, existing. 



"I was in consternation and a confusion that robbed me of breath; and my first 

 impulse was to abruptly rise, confess my error, and offer every respectful apology I 

 could devise; but as my silence and strangeness produced silence, a pause ensued that 

 gave me a moment for reflection which represented to me that Son Altesse Royale 

 might be seriously hurt, that nothing in her demeanour had announced her rank; and 

 such a discovery might lead to increased distance and reserve in her future conduct upon 

 extra audiences, that could not but be prejudicial to her popularity, which already was 

 injured by an opinion extremely unjust, but very generally spread, of her haughtiness. 

 It was better, therefore to be quiet, and to let her suppose that embarrassment, and 

 English awkwardness and mauvaise honte, had occasioned my unaccountable man- 

 ners." Diary and Letters, ed. Austin Dobson, VI, 137 ff. 

 Select Essays of Macaulay (ed. Thurber), 179. 



109 w. D. Howells, Heroines of Fiction, I, 14. 



Cf. p. 9 above. In the Preface of Evelina Madame D'Arblay speaks of "the 

 knowledge of Johnson", "the eloquence of Rousseau", "the pathetic powers of Rich- 

 ardson", "the wit of Fielding", and "the humour of Smollet". 



111 Cf. quotation below from Dunlop. 



112 J. Cordy Jeaffreson, Novels and Novelists, 337 ff. 



