1 ‘Richardson, Barbauld, and the Construction of an Early Modern Fan Club’ Annie Watkins Thesis Submitted For The Degree of MPhil (2011) Queen Mary, University of London 2 DECLARATION I, Annie Watkins, declare that this thesis is entirely my own work, written in my own words. Signed: _________________________________________________ Date: ________________ 3 ABSTRACT Much has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him. This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project such as this can never be completed single-handedly, and it would be unfair of me to imply that this was the case. I would like to thank all of the staff at the British Library, particularly those in the Maps reading room and the Rare Books and Music reading room who have always managed to provide me with calm efficiency, and a steady flow of books. The staff of the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum allowed me to peruse, at my leisure, the wonderful manuscripts letters of Samuel Richardson which presented me with the idea for this thesis. The Bodleian Library at Oxford was also a great resource for me, and its staff was never anything but welcoming, helpful and professional. Perhaps my favourite haven was the Cambridge University Library, where many hours were spent reading through first editions of Clarissa, whilst pondering over why anyone would take on such an enormous task. This brings me to the focal point of this dissertation: Samuel Richardson, who at times I have loved and, at times, loathed. His works and letters are truly amazing. I would like to take a moment to thank both Queen Mary, University of London, and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters for providing me with a much needed, and these days rare, studentship. To my wonderful friends and family I thank you for your patience, understanding, unrelenting faith, and of course, your love. I could not have done this without you. Special mention has to go to Molly MacDonald, Amy Culley, Sarah Hussain, and Pete Langman – you all rock! As for my dissertation supervisor, Professor Markman Ellis, I cannot quite sum up what I need to say. Words truly are not enough. Thank you for your direction, your wisdom, your kindness, your enduring faith in me, and your friendship (not to mention the endless cups of tea). Thank you. Finally, I would like to thank my hero: my kind, and very patient, partner Francis whose determination and courage never ceases to amaze me. Thank you darling. 5 CONTENTS Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Contents 5 List of Illustrations 6 Abbreviations 7 Introduction: The Editor, Her Publisher, and The Media Machine 9 Chapter 1: An Editor’s Apparatus: Anna Laetitia Barbauld’s “Life of Richardson” 28 Chapter 2: Friends or Fan Club: Richardson, His Correspondents, and Social Largesse 105 Illustrations 178-192 Chapter 3: Case Study 1: Sarah Wescomb 193 Chapter 4: Case Study 2: “Belfour” 230 Conclusion: 279 Appendix: 283 Bibliography: 285 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Samuel Richardson, by Mason Chamberlin. Oil on copper, 1754 or before. National Portrait Gallery, London 2. Sir Richard Phillips, by James Saxon. Oil on canvas, 1806. National Portrait Gallery 3. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, by John Chapman, after unknown artist. Stipple engraving, published 1798. National Portrait Gallery, London 4. The Nine Muses of Great Britain: portraits in the characters of the Muses of Great Britain in the Temple of Apollo, by Richard Samuel. Oil on canvas. 1778. National Portrait Gallery, London 5. Samuel Richardson, the Novelist (1684-1761), Seated, Surrounded by his Second Family 1740-1741, by Francis Hayman. Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London 6. Samuel Richardson by Joseph Highmore. Oil on canvas, 1750. National Portrait Gallery, London 7. Selected Members of Richardson’s Fan Club (individually named on pages) 8. Sarah Wescomb painted in the circle of Thomas Hudson. Oil on canvas, circa 1780. Courtesy of the Lucas-Scudamore Family, Kentchurch Court, Herefordshire. 9. Lady Dorothy Bradshaigh. Engraving, after C. Watson, no date. Copied from volume V of Correspondence, ed. by Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1804). 10. ‘Mr. Richardson, reading the Manuscript of Sir Charles Grandison in 1751, to his Friends in the Grotto of his House at North End, from a drawing made at the time by Miss Highmore’, by Joseph Constantine Stadler, after Miss Highmore. Colour aquatint, published 1804. National Portrait Gallery, London 7 ABBREVIATIONS OED Oxford English Dictionary ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography MM Monthly Magazine National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Forster Forster Collection, National Art Library BOD Bodleian Library, University of Oxford CUL Cambridge University Library Correspondence 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, ed. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 6 vols (London: Richard Phillips, 1804) Pamela Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. In a Series of Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel to her Parents: and Afterwards in her Exalted Condition, between her, and Persons of Figure and Quality, upon the most Important and Entertaining subjects, in Genteel Life (London: No name, 1740-41) Clarissa Clarissa or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending The Most Important Concerns of Private Life And particularly showing the distresses that may attend the misconduct both of parents and children in relation to marriage. Published by the Editor of Pamela (London: S. Richardson, 1747-8) Sir Charles Grandison The History of Sir Charles Grandison in a series of letters. Published from the Originals by the Editor of Pamela and Clarissa (London: S. Richardson, 1753-54) 8 He worked over his correspondence, preparing it for possible eventual publication. Even before he began to write Pamela he had saved the letters of such correspondents as Aaron Hill and Dr. Cheyne. During the 1740’s he began to keep copies of the letters he wrote. Especially after the publication of Clarissa, when he was making new friends and probably writing and receiving more letters than before, he made a more or less systematic effort to preserve his correspondence. That part of it which is still extant shows that he went over it late in life, arranging it in volumes, sometimes with indexes, deleting passages he did not consider suitable for publication and disguising names. T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, Samuel Richardson: A Biography, pp. 436-437. 9 INTRODUCTION The Editor, Her Publisher, and The Media Machine Fame, or celebrity, is the grand principle upon which the choice of subjects for a general biography must be founded; for this, on the whole, will be found to coincide with the two chief reasons that make us desirous of information concerning an individual, - curiosity, and the desire of enlarging our knowledge of mankind. But under the general notion of 1 celebrity many subordinate considerations arise. In late February 1804 the London-based author, bookseller and publisher Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), furnished with his newly acquired private correspondence of the novelist Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), had approached Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) with a proposition that she found hard to refuse.2 Phillips proposed to hand over the largely studied archive to Barbauld and award her the opportunity of making a selection of her preferred letters. By making a selection, she was to form an edition, to be published by him, and to include her own account and ‘the first full-length study of’ Richardson.3 Barbauld’s edition is made up of six very readable volumes, packaged together by Phillips in three leather-bound duodecimo volumes. The work comes complete with portraits, drawings, examples of hand-written letters, a comprehensive index (at the end of volume six) and a contents page which elucidates each new volume. The edition’s aesthetic is designed to seduce its reader into the appropriate climate for the embarkation of a journey through the life and letters of, arguably, the first ever celebrity novelist: Samuel Richardson. 1 Lucy Aikin, Memoir of John Aikin, M.D., 2 vols, I (London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1823), p. 21. 2 William McCarthy, Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of Enlightenment (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p.