RICHARDSON, SAMUEL, a novelist of great celebrity, was born in the year 1689, in Derbyshire, but in what particular place has not been ascertained. His father, the descendant of a reputable family in the county of Surrey, followed the occupation of a joiner. The son was at first intended for the church; but after his father had sustained some heavy losses, he was left, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, to make choice of some employment which did not require so expensive a preparation. He only appears to have received the most ordinary training of a country school. Latin words and phrases are to be found in his works, but there is no reason to believe that he had acquired even an elementary knowledge of that language, nor was he afterwards induced to make the more easy acquisition of French. But he had access to the rich and ample treasures of English literature, and he became deeply read in the book of human nature. He was a bashful boy, and gave an early preference to the society of the other sex. From his childhood he delighted in letter-writing; and to this early taste we may trace the germ of his principal works. "I was not more than thirteen," he informs us, "when three of these young women, unknown to each other, having an high opinion of my taciturnity, revealed to me their love-secrets, in order to induce me to give them copies to write, alter, or correct, for answers to their lovers' letters; nor did any one of them ever know that I was the secretary to the others."
In his choice of an employment he was chiefly guided by his love of reading. In 1706 he was bound apprentice to John Wilde, a printer at Stationers Hall. Although he served a rigid master, he contrived to steal from his hours of rest and relaxation some precious intervals for the improvement of his mind. After the completion of his apprenticeship, he continued for five or six years to work as a compositor and corrector in a printing office, and part of this time as an overseer. Thus he gradually emerged to the situation of a master-printer, having first taken an office in a court in Fleet-street, and afterwards in Salisbury-court. As an apprentice he had been diligent and conscientious, as a master he was assiduous and liberal. In addition to the proper avocations of a printer, he on various occasions undertook to write indices, prefaces, and, as he describes them, honest dedications. The punctuality, together with the integrity and liberality of his dealings, speedily procured him friends, and his business became very prosperous. Through the interest of the Speaker, Mr Onslow, he was employed to print the Journals of the House of Commons, in twenty-six volumes folio. In 1754 he was chosen master of the Stationers' Company. In 1760 he purchased a moiety of the patent of law-printer to his majesty, and in this branch of his business he was conjoined with Miss Catherine Lintot. He was thus enabled to live in comfort, and to make a suitable provision for his family. Like other prosperous citizens, he set a due value on country air, and had first a residence at North-end near Hammersmith, and afterwards at Parsons-green near Fulham, where he spent such intervals of time as he could spare from business, and where he was seldom without visitors.
The first work that recommended him to public notice was "Pamela, or Virtue rewarded," published in the year 1741. The two volumes, of which it originally consisted, appear to have been written in less than three months. Its
success was almost unprecedented, for it reached a fifth edition within the space of a year. "The printer in Salisbury-court," says Mrs Barbauld, "was to create a new species of writing; his name was to be familiar in the mouths of the great, the witty, and the gay, and he was destined to give one motive more to the rest of Europe to learn the language of his country." The moral tendency of this novel was considered as so excellent, that it was even recommended from the pulpit, particularly by Dr Slocock of Christ Church in Surrey. This estimate may now excite some degree of surprise; and Dr Watts, to whom the author had sent his two volumes, wrote to him that he understood the ladies could not read them without blushing. Other inconsistencies in the work were powerfully ridiculed by Fielding in his History of Joseph Andrews, whom he introduces to his readers as the brother of Pamela. This was an injury which Richardson, though an amiable and benevolent man, found it very difficult, if not impossible to forgive. In his correspondence with his admiring friends, he predicted that Fielding would speedily sink into oblivion. But, in the present age, for every reader of Pamela and Clarissa there are at least five hundred of Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones.
The brilliant success of this novel prompted some nameless individual to write and publish a continuation of the story, under the title of "Pamela in high Life." Richardson, who might very safely have disregarded such an attempt to invade his province, was thus induced to add a second part, which however made no addition to his reputation. "These volumes," says Mrs Barbauld, "two in number, are, like most second parts, greatly inferior to the first. They are superfluous, for the plan was already completed; and they are dull, for instead of incident and passion, they are filled with heavy sentiment, in diction far from elegant. A great part of it aims to palliate, by counter-criticism, the faults which had been found in the first parts. It is less a continuation, than the author's defence of himself." On the story of Pamela, the famous dramatist Goldoni has written two of his plays, Pamela Nubile and Pamela Maritata.
In the year 1749, he published the first two volumes of "The History of Clarissa Harlowe." This work, which he extended to eight volumes, is the chief foundation of his celebrity as an original and inventive writer. Notwithstanding its inordinate length, the book long continued to enjoy an almost unrivalled share of public favour, and, whatever may be its defects or redundancies, this favour could only be secured by the author's power over the imagination and moral feelings. The outline of the story is sufficiently simple, nor is the curiosity of the reader excited by intricate plots and marvellous adventures. It is a work, not of action and enterprise, but of character and sentiment. Clarissa was exhibited in a French dress by Prevost; but he has given an abridgement rather than a translation; and, as he has stated, the book required some softening to adapt it to the more delicate taste of his countrymen. A more faithful version was afterwards published by Le Tourneur. It was translated into Dutch by Stinstra, and into German under the auspices of the illustrious Haller.
His next production was "The History of Sir Charles Grandison," published in 1753, in seven volumes. In his previous works he had given ample delineations of female character, and he now endeavoured to exhibit a pattern of a perfect man. Whatever is graceful and engaging in the man of spirit and the fine gentleman, it was his aim to unite with every moral virtue, and with the strict observance of Christian principles. This was certainly a difficult enterprise; and the writer's genius is more successfully displayed in delineating the character of Clementina, than in delineating that of his hero. Of all the representations of madness, says Dr Warton, that of Clementina "is the
most deeply interesting. I know not whether even the madness of Lear is wrought up, and expressed by so many little strokes of nature and passion. It is absolute pedantry to prefer the madness of Orestes in Euripides to that of Clementina." But it is the great fault of Richardson, that he never knows when to withdraw his hand from the canvass; and he has diminished the effect of this character by prolonging her appearances beyond the proper crisis for her retirement.
The nervous system of Richardson was naturally weak; and during his latter years his hand shook, and he was subject to frequent fits of giddiness. His disorders having at length terminated in apoplexy, he died on the 4th of July 1761, at the age of seventy-two. He left behind him the character of a virtuous and benevolent man, highly respected in all the relations of private life. His chief weakness seems to have been vanity, which is sufficiently displayed in his private correspondence. His success in literature was so great and so unexpected, and he received so much flattery from his friends, especially from his female friends, that it would have required a very firm texture of mind to resist the access of that passion which so easily converts a wise man into a fool.
Richardson was twice married. His first wife was Martha the daughter of Allington Wilde, a printer of Clerkenwell. She bore him five sons and a daughter, who all died young. His second wife, who survived him for many years, was Elizabeth the sister of Mr Leake, a bookseller of Bath. She became the mother of a son and five daughters. The son died at an early age, but four of the daughters survived him; Mary, married in 1757 to Mr Ditcher, an eminent surgeon of Bath; Martha, married in 1762 to Edward Bridgen, Esq.; Anne, who died unmarried in 1804; and Sarah, married to Mr Crowther, surgeon of Boswell-court.
Besides his three novels in nineteen volumes, he published some other works. 1. The Negotiations of Sir Thomas Roe, in his Embassy to the Ottoman Porte, from 1621 to 1628 inclusive. 1740, fol. 2. An edition of Æsop's Fables, with Reflections. 3. Familiar Letters to and from several Persons upon business, and other subjects. He furnished some additions to the sixth edition of De Foe's Tour through Great Britain; and some of his contributions are to be found in periodical works. Long after his death appeared "The Correspondence of Samuel Richardson, author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison; selected from the original manuscripts bequeathed by him to his family. To which are prefixed a biographical account of that author, and observations on his writings, by Anna Lætitia Barbauld." Lond. 1804, 6 vols. 12mo. This publication has no tendency to augment his reputation.
The most eminent writers of our own, and even of foreign countries, have paid their tribute to the talents of Richardson, whose works have been published in almost every language and country of Europe. They have been greatly admired, notwithstanding every dissimilitude of manners, and every disadvantage of translation. Diderot, in his Essay on Dramatic Poetry, speaking of the means employed to move the passions, mentions Richardson as a perfect master of that art. "How striking," says he, "how pathetic are his descriptions! His personages, though silent, are alive before me; and of those who speak, the actions are still more affecting than the words." Rousseau, in his letter to M. d'Alembert, speaking of the novels of Richardson, asserts, "that nothing was ever written equal to, or even approaching them, in any language." Dr Johnson, in his introduction to the ninety-seventh number of the Rambler, which was written by Richardson, observes that the reader was indebted for that day's entertainment to an author "from whom the age has received greater favours, who has enlarged the knowledge of human nature, and taught the passions to move at the command of virtue." In his
Richardson. Life of Rowe, he says, "The character of Lothario seems to have been expanded by Richardson into that of Love-lace; but he has excelled his original in the moral effect of the fiction. Lothario, with gaiety which cannot be hated, and bravery which cannot be despised, retains too much of the spectator's kindness. It was in the power of Richardson alone to teach us at once esteem and detestation; to make virtuous resentment overpower all the benevolence which wit, and elegance, and courage, naturally excite; and to lose at last the hero in the villain." Dr Young has remarked, that Richardson, with the mere advantages of nature, improved by a very moderate progress in education, struck out at once, and of his own accord, into a new province of writing, in which he succeeded to admiration. And, what is more remarkable, he not only began, but finished, the plan on which he set out, leaving no room for any one after him to render it more complete; and not one of the various writers that have ever since attempted to imitate him, have in any respect equalled, or at all approached near him. This kind of romance is peculiarly his own; and "I consider him," he continues, "as a truly great natural genius; as great and supereminent in his way as Shakespeare and Milton were in theirs."