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The Life and Prose Works of Amelia Opie (1769-1853)

by

Clive Jones, M. A., B.Ed.

Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

to the Department of Literature, Faculty of Arts Open University

November 1,2001

In Two Volumes

Volume One: the Thesis 0261657 9 1111111111111111111111111111111111

Abstract: 'Life andProse Works of Amelia Opie (1769-1853))

by Clive Jones,M. A., B.Ed.

This thesisexamines the life andprose works of Amelia Opie. It exploresthe moral and social ideologyof the novelsand tales,setting them in the contextof Opie's own ideologicaldevelopment as shemoves from the radicalismof the 1790s,through a period of intellectualand religiousuncertainty to her conversionto Quakerismin 1825. It drawson a detailedanalysis of all Opie's extantwriting in prose,including a comprehensivesurvey of her letters. Biographicalcriticism hasbeen rather unfashionable in recent years,though this is beginningto change.The argumentput forward here is that only throughdetailed biographical case studies is it possibleto understandthe complexand shifting alignmentsand allegiancesof the period 1790to 1830. This hasoften beencharacterised as an era in which both societyand literaturewere highly polarised,with a clear division betweenradicals and conservatives.Careful analysis of Opie's life and work revealsthe difficulties involved in categorisingher in either camp, her and caseexemplifies the way in which this very limited, and limiting, perspectivecan misrepresentor oversimplify the position of individuals within this period. Opie's positionwas both complexat any given time, embodyingelements of both radicaland conservativethought, and developed and changedover time in responseto public and privateevents. Attempts to seeher as a radical, on the one hand,or conservative,on the other,are boundto distort the interpretationof her writings and the assessmentof her wider significanceas a writer. This thesistherefore aims to provide a new insight into the work of Amelia Opie andalso to representthe importanceand value of a biographicallysensitive criticism to a full understandingof both individual writers andthe periodsin which they work. An appendixto the thesis providesan annotatedregister of approximatelyfour hundredof her letters,giving detailsof their location.

.ýe -*.. -*. - *.. The Life and Prose Works of Amelia Opie (1769 - 1853)

Contents

Volume I

Introduction ...... 1. the First Writings I and ...... 2. The Young Radical, 1794 1798 47 - ...... 3. The LondonYears: Father Daughter, 1801 84 and ... 4. The London Years: Adeline Mowbray, 1805 131 ...... 5. The Prose the Middle Years, 1806 1824 201 of - ...... 6. The QuakerYears, 1825 After 283 and ......

Volume 11

Appendices

A. Amelia Opie's Earningsfrom Longman's 339 ...... B. PublicationData of Opie's Works Published by Longman's 340 ...... C. Annotated Register of the Letters of Amelia Opie 341 ...... Bibliography 432 ...... INTRODUCTION

his thesison the life and prosewritings of Amelia Opie (1769-

1853)is the first full-length analysisof this writer sincethat of

MargaretMacGregor, published in 1933.1Since that time, critical attitudeshave changed, further researchhas taken place and someof

Opie's works havebeen brought back into print in modem,scholarly editions.These factors make a re-assessmentof Opie's work very timely.

The presentstudy is basedon all her extantwritings, including, for the first time, a comprehensivesurvey of somefour hundredletters which havesurvived, as well as excerptsfrom herjoumal, now lost, but which havebeen recorded by previousbiographers.

Opie's life maybe seento fall into five phases.The first was that of her childhoodand youth, passedin her native city of Norwich, which sawthe publicationof her first tale, performanceof at leastone play and the productionof someverse. This led to a secondphase, that of political radicalismspanning the years1794 to 1798,in both Norwich and London,

1 Margaret Eliot MacGregor, 'Amelia Alderson Opie, Worldling and Friend', Smith College Studies in Modem Languages, 14 (1933), 3-127. ii whenshe contributed to the pro-revolutionaryperiodical TheCabinet, attendedthe TreasonTrials, probablyaddressed a largepolitical meeting andbecame part of a radicalclique which alsocomprised William

Godwin,Thomas Holcroft andElizabeth Inchbald. 2 Following her marriageto the portraitistJohn Opie camea decadeof life in fashionable

Londoncircles andthis period sawher establishmentas a writer of an extremely popular sentimental tale Father and Daughter (180 1), two volumes of verse, and the novel Adefine Mowbray (1805), often perceived as a roman6 clif becauseof her closeassociation with .

After the prematuredeath of her husband,Opie returnedto Norwich. This middle period sawthe productionof severalshorter tales as sheexploited the popularityof her earlier work. The final phaseemphasised her pre- occupationwith religiousmatters, and the year 1825,when shewas admittedto the Societyof Friends,forms a convenientwatershed to separatethese two later periodsof her life.

This thesisfollows a chronologicalstructure based on thesefive phases,identifying and discussingthe changesin her life and her writing as they occur. This biographicalapproach has been assisted by a scrutiny of all of Opie's extantletters, located in over forty archival sources,and broughttogether for the first time in an annotatedregister appended to the thesis. The lettersnot only form a counterpointto her publishedworks, but also modulateamong themselves so that four distinct but overlapping

2 Tusculan Society, Yhe Cabinet, 3 vols. (Norwich: J.March, 1795) iii groupsbecome discemable: the lettersof political import, written to such peopleas RobertSouthey, Sir JamesMackintosh and Lord Brougham; thoseof religiousmatters, written to her Quakerfriends such as Joseph

JohnGurney and Elizabeth Fry; thosepresenting the affairs of peopleof ton, addressedto suchpeople as Lady Charlevilleand Lady Boileau; and thosewhich seemto havebeen inspired by deepfriendship or family connections,such as thoseto SusannahTaylor, William Hayley and her cousinsEliza Aldersonand Henry Briggs.

Amelia Opie wasadept at self-constructionand the imagesof herselfthat shepresents are sometimescontradictory. The plain Friend doesnot sit easilywith the womanof worldly pleasures,nor the radicalof the 1790swith the conservativemoralist of her later years. These contradictions,sometimes startlingly revealedin her letters,refreshingly remind us of the complexityof humanexperience and the ideological plurality of any age. That critics haveattempted to apply suchreductive labelsas 'radical' or 'conservative'in a rigid and all-excludingfashion to a writer whosework spannedsuch a rangeas Opie's is curiousas well as clearly unhelpful. The knots in which somecritics havemanaged to tie themselvesin their examinationof aspectsof AdefineMowbray, for example,surely indicate the impossibility of sustainingsuch an unwieldy critical apparatus.This thesisprovides a lengthyreview and analysisof

AdefineMowbray as a totality, pointing out the inadequaciesof suchblunt critical instrumentsin dealingwith this complexnovel, and the cul-de-sac IV consequencesof a too-easyidentification of its protagonistswith William

Godwin andMary Wollstonecraft.

Additionally, this view of Adeline Mowbray as a roman i clif fatally confusesthe way in which this intriguing novel is read.No corroborativewritten evidenceby Opie suggestssuch a reading,although

the possibilityof suchan interpretationis there.If the novel is to be read

in this way, then a more workableapproach is suggestedwhich, in my

view, leads to more helpful and appropriate conclusions.

The thesisalso provides the opportunityfor full-length discussion

of otherworks by Opie which are worthy of more critical interestthan

they presentlyenjoy. Valentine'sEve (1816),for example,sets up some

intriguing tensionsbetween artisan virtues and aristocraticcorruption.

Similarly, the discussionof Opie's first novel, TheDangers of Coquetry

(1790)is the first critical essayto be written on this work. (Evidencein a

letter enablesthis tale, publishedanonymously, to be firmly attributedto

Opie.) Her most popularnovel, Father and Daughter(180 1) hasrecently

beenthe subjectof an interestingessay by EleanorT Y.3 This is welcome

interestevidence of a renewedinterest in a writer too often dismissedas

simply 'grimly conservative 4

3 SeeEleanor Ty, Empoweringthe Feminine (Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 1998),pp. 133 - 144. 4 ClaudiaJohnson, Jane Austen, Women, Politics and theNovel (Chicago:University of ChicagoPress, 1988), p. 121. V

Opie's ability to reconstructherself was not unique,and in some waysechoes the embarrassmentof William Godwin when, in 1834he lookedback at someof his earlierremarks in Political Justice,first

in 1793 The the 1790s in had published .5 radicalsof - always a minority - hadto realigntheir public personaefollowing the failure of the French

Revolutionto bring aboutthe universalfraternitj for which they had

hoped.In Englandthis realignmentwas assisted,it seems,by the

economic opportunities afforded by the Napoleonic wars, which enabled

manufacturingand financial industries- occupationsrepresenting a large

proportionof Dissenters- to developto the extentthat, in termsof the

generationof wealth,they challengedthe hegemonyof the land-owning

6 aristocracy. This thesis demonstratesways in which Opie reflected these

societaland ideologicalchanges in her writing from 1806onward.

Opie's first biographerwas her niece,Cecilia Brightwell, and

Brightwell's constructionof her subjectechoes the stempublic moresof

the mid-nineteenthcentury. 7 Later biographiesrely on Brightwell's

sourcesand sometimesunquestioningly follow someof her constructions.

For example,Brightwell makesno mentionof Opie's involvementwith

TheCabinet, nor of her electionspeech, nor of someof her later work,

5 William Godwin, Enquity ConcerningPolitical Justice, ed.by F.E. L. Priestley (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 197 1), p.xvii.

6 See,for example,J. C. D. Clark,English Society 1688-1832 (Cambridge: CUP, 1985), p.72; Eric Hobsbawm,Ae Age ofRevolution: 1789-1848(London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson,1962), p. 40. 7 Cecilia Brightwell, Memorials of the Life ofAmeha Opie (Norwich: Fletcher and Alexander, 1854). vi suchas Valentine'sEve which causedher Quakerfriends so much concern.Brightwell and later biographers,including MacGregor,had accessto a manuscriptarchive known as the Caff Collection.

Unfortunately,and despitethe bestefforts to traceit of not only myself but otherssuch as David Chandler,it seemsclear that this archivehas now

8 disappeared. We know that we havelost Opie'sjoumal andthe

manuscript of her play Adelaide and probably other items also. In referring

to these missing items, I have used Brightwell as a source, checking

againstMacGregor, whose approach was the more scholarlyof the two. In

the majority of caseswhere material is still extant,I havegenerally been

able to cite the original document.

In additionto her prosewritings, Opie publishedfour volumesof 9 verse. She also wrote song lyrics for composerssuch as George

Thomson (1757-1851) to set to music. A critical examination of her verse,

originally intendedto be a chapterof this thesis,has had to be excluded

for reasonsof length.However, in view of her closeinvolvement with the

abolition of slaveryover severalyears, 'The Black Man's Lament' has

beenincluded, since there is no treatmentof this importanttheme in her

prosewriting.

David Chandler,'Norwich Literature 1788-1797:A Critical Survey' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis,Oxford, 1997).

" Amelia Opie, Poems (London: Longman, 1802); Yhe Warrior's Return and Other Poems (London: Longman, 1808); Laysfor the Dead (London: Longman, 1834); Yhe BlackMan's Lament and Other Tales (London: Harvey & Darton, 1825). Vil

In orderto be consistent,Amelia Opie is referredto throughoutthe thesisby her marriedname, which is that underwhich all her acknowledgedworks were published.

.:. .:. .:. .:. CHAPTER I

Norwich andthe First Writings

N melia Opie, born on 12November 1769, was the only child of

amesAlderson (d. 1825), a physicianof Norwich, and his wife

Amelia Briggs, who died in 1784. The locationof her childhoodyears is significant.Norwich, a city of 40,000population at that time, was a centre of radical thought and home to a large Dissenting population, of which Dr. Aldersonand his daughterwere very much part. C. B.

Jewsonnotes that the city sharedwith Londonthe distinction of being

the only two cities in Englandto electtheir governingcorporations,

pointing out that manyother corporationswere 'self-perpetuating

oligarchies'.Although it had beenovertaken by Bristol as the second

city in the kingdomby 1788,Jewson emphasises thatapart from

London,Norwich wasprobably still the largestof thoseboroughs

which were democraticallygovemed. "

Dr. Alderson was evidently a prominent figure in the city, with

a very large practice.According to Hare, he 'prescribedfor four or five

hundredpersons every week, and for the poor alwaysfree'. 2 At the

time of Amelia's birth, he had a handsomeresidence in Calvert Street,

oppositethe mansionof the man who gavethat streetits name. Later

1 C. B. Jewson, YheJacohin City., a Portrait ofNorwich 1788-1802(Glasgow and London:Blackie, 1975),Introduction, unpaginated.

I C. D. Hare,The Gumeys ofEarlham, 2 vols. (London:Geo. Allen, 1895),L 95. 3 ZacharyClark, An Accountof theDifferent Charitiesbelonging to thePoor of the CountyofNorfolk (Norwich: 1811),p. 155. 2 he movedto 39 Colegate(since demolished), where he lived for the remainderof his life. Dr. Aldersonis mentionedin ZacharyClarles contempomryAccount ofthe Different Charitiesbelonging to thePoor ofthe CountyofNorfolk (1811) as a trusteeof the William Penning trust, whichlent out and advanced,by portionsof 251.each, to 20

tradesmen for the intereSf.3 young ... spaceof sevenyears, without

Among the othertrustees identified by Clark were 'JohnTaylor,

SurreyStreet JohnGurney, Esq., Earlham, Norwich.'. of ... and of near Both the Taylors and the Gurneys were to be very influential in Amelia

Alderson'slife. Eachfamily with its respectiveentourage represented two different strandsof Dissentthroughout the periodof her life. The

radical,atheistic Taylors were in favour of the democraticthrust of the

AmericanWar of Independence,and hopedfor a similar redressof

powerboth in Britain and in France. Their form of Dissentwas

political in outlook,and it wasthis foregroundingof the political which

wasto fascinateAmelia Aldersonin her youth, both in Norwich and in

London.By contrast the Quakerbanking dynasty of the Gurneys

representeda most conservativeDissent, whose values Amelia Opie

was to adoptfully in later life.

The differencesbetween these two groups,and the influences

they wereto haveon Opie, may be glimpsedin two of her later letters.

In 1801, shewrote to SusannahTaylor of a 'rot amongstroyalty' and

4 other mattersof politics and radicalismin retreat. Much later, in

1823,when SusannahTaylor was closeto the end of her life, Opie,the

Opie to SusannahTaylor, 1801; Huntington Library, OP6 1. 3 convincedQuaker, wrote concemedlyto JosephJohn Gurneyof her old confidante'sapparent indifference to spiritual salvation,which lamentablelapse Opie condemns,distancing herself from her old

5 confidanteand representingher to Gurneyas an atheisticreprobate.

JohnTaylor, a yam-maker,married Susannah Cook in 1777.

Walter Grahamrecords how, in the 'old-fashionedparlour [with its] hospitable,unpretentious fireside' in St. George's,Colegate,

Mrs.Taylor becamethe fulcrum for a groupof intellectualand literary figuresmaking 'her homein this provincial city a centreof advanced social and political thought'.6 Shebecame the confidanteto Amelia

Aldersonover a period of manyyears until her deathin June 1823.

Much later, Henry CrabbRobinson was to write of 'the obviously unequalledattachment of Amelia Aldersonto Mrs John Taylor'. 7

Othervisitors to SusannahTaylor's hearthincluded Sir James

Mackintosh,Crabb Robinson, , William Enfield and

Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Mrs Taylor was known familiarly as

'MadameRoland', a referenceto the Frenchrevolutionary Marion

Rolandde la Platiere,executed in 1793.Ross points to the physical resemblanceas explanationof this, but the political implication cannot

5 Opieto JJ Gurney,II Febmary1823, Society of Friends'Library, London, Gurney1.

6 Walter Graham,Mie Authorshipof the Norwich Cabinet,1794-S', Notes and Queries,162 (1932), p. 294.

7 Opie to SarahTaylor, 4 November1845, in JanetRoss Three Generations of English Women(London: T. FisherUnwin, 1893),p. 241. 4 be ignored.8 Sir James Mackintosh wrote to her of the salutary effect of her company: 'I oughtto be madepermanently better by

like Your kindnessis contemplatinga mind yours ... active a constant source of cheerfulness. '9

The Gurneybrothers John and Henry foundedthe and

Norwich Bank in 1775and enjoyedthe patronageof manyNorfolk

Quakers.A notice in the Norwich Mercury of 6 May 1775announced its openingfor business,under the managementof SimonMartin, a

Friend from London.10 Therewere two strandsof the Gurneyfamily in the Norwich area:the Gurneysof Keswick and the householdof

JohnGurney (d. 1779)of MagdalenStreet. John Gurney was a strict

Quaker,as was his wife CatherineBell of Tottenham.As their family grew andthe bank prospered,they movedto EarlharnHall, on the southernoutskirts of the city. Of their elevenchildren, Elizabeth Fry

(1780- 1847)was to becomeknown for her work with women prisoners,whereas Priscilla (1785- 1821) achievedrenown as a preacher.However, it wasthe tenth child, JosephJohn Gurney (1788

- 1847)with whom Amelia Opie's life wasto becomemost intertwined.

JosephJohn Gurney became an importantfigure in the developmentof Quakerism,particularly in the United States,where a sectcalled after him, predicatedon the needfor atonement,became

3 Ibid.

Hareýp. 22. 10W. IL Bidwell, Annalsofan EastAnglian Bank (Norwich:Goose, 1900), p. 10. 5 establishedfollowing his visits there. Braithwaiterecords a comment by Gurneywhich nicely summariseswhat for him was clearly a schism betweenthe Dissentingfactions in Norwich at the time, and servesto emphasisehis own self-righteousness:

Norwich was remarkableas the residenceof certaintalented unbelieverswho united decideddemocracy in politics with very low sentimentson the subjectof religion.'

Gurney'sethical stancewas stronglyagainst the pleasuresof the world

-a stancewhich may be more readily adoptedwhen one is comfortablyoff, perhaps- and his later writing to Opie was often to criticise her for her too-eagerembrace of suchpleasures, or to remind her of the perils that underlaythem. On 14 June 1814,he wrote to her:

I refer to the fashionableworld, of which I am apt to entertain two notions: the first is that thereis much in it of real evil: the secondthat thereis muchalso in it which hasa tendencyto produceforgetfulness of God andthus generateevil indirectly.12

Thesetwo fwnilies, JohnTaylor the artisanand his radical wife at their 'unpretentiousfireside' and the religious Gurneysliving in affluent frugality in their hall at Earlham,may be seento symbolisenot only the two strandsof Dissentin Norwich at the time, but also the principal tensionsthat wereto becomeevident in the life and writing of Amelia Opie herself

The city was a notedstronghold of political and religious

Dissent,and indeedwas refeffed to scathinglyby the Attorney-General

I J. B. BraithwaiteMemoirs ofJohn JosephGurney (Norwich: Fletcherand Alexander, 1854),p. 11. 12 Ibid., p.236. 6

13 in 1794 as 'the Jacobin city'. The growth in religious Dissent may be seenby examiningtwo city mapsof the period.In 1766,Samuel

King's map of Norwich showedfour Dissentingplaces of worship:the

QuakerMeeting on GoatLane, the PresbyterianMeeting (New

Chapel)on Colegate,the IndependentMeeting nearbyand the

Anabaptistson SouthergateStreet. By the time of Dallinger's map of

1830,no lessthan elevenbuildings described as chapelsor meeting-

housesare marked,together with four 'Romanist' chapelsand a French

Protestant (Huguenot) church.

The Aldersonswere Unitariansand attendedthe Unitarian

chapelknown as the Octagon,the most famousof the Norwich

meetinghouses. Unitarians were anti-Trinitarian,as were severalother

Dissentingsects, treating God as a singularfigure andJesus Christ as

his son. The Octagonstill standson Colegate,serving the purposefor

which it was first erected.Designed by the local architectThomas

Ivory, who also designedthe TheatreRoyal and the AssemblyRooms,

and built in 1756,the Octagonis evidencenot only of the well-

establishedpresence of Dissentin Norwich, but, as will be seenfrom

the slightly sardonicentry in John Wesley'sdiaries recording his visit,

of the affluent middle-classcomposition of the Dissenters,manifesting

itself in the building's expensivefurnishings:

I was shownDr. Taylor's new meetinghouse, perhaps the most in Europe The inside is finishedin highest elegant ... the taste and is as cleanas any nobleman'ssaloon. The communion table is of fine mahogany;the very latchesof the pew doorsare

13 Jewson,p. 80. 7

polishedbrass. How can it be that the old coarsegospel should find admissionhere. 14

The minister at the Octagon from 1785 to 1797 was William Enfield, who later commentedon the prevailingintellectual atmosphere in the city: 'There is no placein Englandwhere a man of lettersmay passhis daysmore happily than in Norwich!"5

Therewas indeeda numberof writers and scholarsin the city at the time, someof whom were womenfrom Dissentingfamilies.

Sectariandistinctions were especiallyimportant in termsof attitudesto the educationof women.In contrastto the views of the supportersof the establishedChurch, Dissenting sects such as the Unitariansvalued womenas equalto men in termsof intellectualability. Suchwomen had often receiveda bettereducation than the womenfrom Anglican families, sometimesstudying subjects such as scienceand Greek, which the moreconservative Anglican malestended to keepto themselves,as well as modemlanguages, mathematics and the

16 analyticalstudy of phenomenalater called 'science'. Opie's later writing wasto makereference to this, notably Temper(1812) and

Valentine'sEve (1816).Dissenting women, in consequence,were able discuss to politics - particularlythe eventsin France- with their male counterpartsin a way that seemsnot to havebeen possible in the more reactionaryculture of the time. David Chandlersuggests that there

14 ElizabethJay, ed., Ae Joumals ofJohn Wesley(London: Oxford UniversityPress, 1921),p. 315. 15 Monthly Repository, 2 1, p.486.

16See Ruth Watts,'Knowledge is Power- Unitarians,Gender and Education in the Eighteenthand Early NineteenthCenturies, Genderand Education,I (1989),3 5-50. 8 were two main groups of writers at the time, one connected with the

TheatreRoyal andthe otherat the Octagon.17 The latter group,known as the SpeculativeSociety, comprised Amelia Aldersonand her father,

the Plumptrefamily, ,William Taylor Jr. and Charles

Marsh,under the leadershipof William Enfield.

Whennews of the successof the stormingof the Bastille broke

in Norwich, therewas popular celebration. To manyDissenters, it

seemedas thoughthe birth of freedomin Francewould impel a similar

democratic breakthrough in England. Bonfires were lit in the streets

andthe marketplace, the wearingof revolutionarydress (such as the

Phrygiancap, the tricolouredribbons and trousersfor menand women)

wasto be seenand the singingof revolutionarysongs such as the Ta

Ira' washeard. Dissenters'expectations were sanguine- not

necessarilyfor a violent revolution in England,but at leastfor an

easingof the severaldisabilities that were appliedto them.As Alan

Wharamnotes:

It had not escaped[the Dissenters']notice that the principle of religious equalityhad beentreated as fundamental,both in America and in France: Article X of the Frenchdeclaration of Rights,as translatedin Paine'sbook, read'No man oughtto be molestedon accountof his opinions,not evenon accountof his religious opinions,provided his avowal of them doesnot disturbthe public orderas establishedby law.' 18

'7 Chandler,P. 2.

is Alan Wharam,The Treason Mals, 1794(Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1992)p. 15. 9

One eye-witness account of events at the National Assembly in 1789 which capturesthis excitementis that of EdwardRigby, nephewof Dr

William Taylor, also of Norwich but unrelatedto JohnTaylor:

I havebeen witness to the most extraordinaryrevolution that perhapsever took placein humansociety. A greatand wise peoplestruggled for freedomand the rights of humanity; their courage,prudence and perseverancehave been rewarded by successand an eventwhich will contributeto the happinessand prosperityof millions of their posterityhas taken place with very little lossof blood and with but a few daysinterruption of business.19

Similarly, on 3 August 1789, Joseph Kinghorn, minister of St Mary's

Baptist churchin Norwich, wrote in a letter to his father:

I rejoice in my very heartat the destructionof that infamous place,the Bastille, which the populaceare regularly demolishingwithout any interruptionfrom governmentwho 20 evidentlydare not meddlewith them.

In the following monthsthis feeling of revolutionaryoptimism

persistedin Norwich, whereasnationally the reactionaryBritish

governmentwas steppingup measuresto ensurethat therewas no

attackon its authority.Spies and agents-provocateurswere sentout

from London,and the radical city of Norwich was an obvioustarget.

Various societieswere set up on both sides. 'Church and King'

reactionariesset up groupsthroughout the country,secretly aided, it

seems,with governmentfunds laundered through intermediaries. The

pro-Jacobinsin Norwich establishedthe Revolution Societywith

William Taylor senioras secretaryin 1789. The title was meantto be

a disarmingreference to the English 'revolution' of 1688,but, as

19 Jewson, p. 14.

20Wilkin Papers,Norfolk CountyRecord Office, Norwich. 10

Jewson notes, 'those who formed it undoubtedly had had their eyes on 21 eventsin Franceas well'. On the first anniversaryof the fall of the

Bastille, the Societymet at the Maid's HeadInn on Cook Row, now

WensumStreet, drinking to suchheady toasts as 'The Revolution

Societiesin England', 'The Rightsof Man' and "The Philosophersof

France'. However,the antagonismbetween the two elementsof

societyand the political partieswhich representedthem, the

conservativeOrange and Purples and the radicalBlue and Whites,

spilled over into violenceon the secondanniversary of Bastille Day in

1791. Jewsonrecords how the Presbyteriansin Norwich 'provided

much of the intellectualleadership' of the Blue and Whites,but few 22 radicalsopenly toasted France that year.

In April 1792,Taylor wrote to the London Societyfor

ConstitutionalInformation seeking association with them,which was

duly endorsed.This Societyhad beenset up as long ago as 1780,with

the purposeof disseminatinginformation among its membersrelating

to constitutionalreform and governmentpolicies. It wasalso in contact

with similar organisationsin France. ThomasHolcroft, later to be tried

at the TreasonTrials in 1794,was a member,and, as a friend of James

Alderson,Amelia's father,enabled informal contactbetween radicals

in the two cities, which extendedto Holcroft's friend William Godwin

(1756- 1836),author of Political Justice(1793). Sincemost contact

21 Ibid., p. 17

22 Ibid., p.13 11 was by letter, these societies were sometimesknown as corresponding societies.

William Godwin had early connectionswith Norwich. Born in the fenlandtown of Wisbechto a 'Nonconformistfamily of the middle class',he was sentto schoolin Norwich during the years1767 to

1771.23His master was the SandemanianSamuel Newton, described by Woodcockas 'a religiousbigot', and whom, he says,Godwin found repugnant.24 Marshall's later biographyof Godwin is lessunfavourable to Newton, saying that he was 'no religious bigot', simply a strict enforcerof the codeof Sandemanianism,the most extremeform of 25 Calvinism. Marshall notesthat it wasNewton who Godwin later parodiedin his novelMandeville as the tutor Hilkiah Bradford.26

Godwin seemsto havehad an unhappyyouth, caughtbetween a

'tyrannical' fatherand the religiouszealot Newton. 27 Later, however, in 1794,he wasto meetAmelia Opie, 'the Belle of Norwich' accordingto Godwin's biographerBrown, and shewas able to introducehim to the Taylors.28

By II November1792, the forcesof reactionwere well entrenchedin Norwich: the pressreported that two-thirds of the

23 G. Woodcock, William Godwin: a Biographical Study (London: Porcupine Press, 1946), pA 24 jbiCL,P. 10. 25 P. H. Marshall, William Godwin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), p.22. 26 Ibid., p.20. 27 Woodcock, p.7. 28 Ford K. Brown, 7he Life of William Godwin (London: Dent 1926), p. 79. 12

Norfolk militia hadbeen embodied, that is, madeready. On the 11

December,it was reportedthat associations'for the preservationof

propertyagainst republicans and levellers' had beenformed throughout

the County,and on 2 January1793 that all remainingunits of militia 29 had been embodied. The initial optimism of 1789 had become

temperedwith discretionand secrecyamong the Dissenters.James

Aldersonadopted the practiceof burningall his lettersafter receipt,

andno doubtother prudentradicals were doing the same.For this

reason,very few letters of a political nature survived.

Amelia Opie's first writings datefrom this period,and includedat least

one play, 'Adelaide', written c. 1787. The Norfolk Chroniclereported a

performanceof this play which took placeon 6 January179 1:

On Thursday last was performed at Mr Plumptree's [sic] in the Close, before a select few, the Tragedy of Adelaide, the production of a lady of this place, whose abilities and accomplishments have long engrossedthe public admiration; and we are informed by those who had the pleasure of witnessing the performance, that few modem productions ought to be named with Adelaide.30

The homeof the ReverendDoctor RobertPlumptre, the Prebendaryof

Norwich, boasteda privatetheatre, and Amelia Opie and her two

friends,Anne and AnnabellaPlumptre, took the principal parts.

Unfortunately'Adelaide', togetherwith other Opie writings, including

29 1 Matche% ed., Norfolk andNorwich Remembrances(Norwick 1822), unpaginated. 30 Norfolk Chronicle, 8 January 1791, p. 3. 13 hcrjournal, formcd part of the Carr Collcction of manuscriptswhich is now missing.However, these manuscripts were intact in 1932when

MargaretMacGregor conducted her extensiveresearch into Opie's works.MacGregor therefore had sight of the script of 'Adelaide'. 1 Therewere two perfonnances,on 4th and 6th January179 1.3 'The dialogue'reports MacGregor'is often spirited,the characterization often good,and the plot is, on the whole, well-handled. The plot, as surnmarisedby MacGregor, hasseveral of the ingredientswhich were to occur in Opie's later writing, namelydeception, inheritances, jealousy,murder, misplaced suicide as in RomeoandJuliet, and,in a way that prefiguresThe Dangers of Coquetry,Father and Daughter and much of Opie's later writing, the pairing of two youngwomen of differing sensibilities.The settingis pre-RevolutionaryFrance, when

parentalcontrol over marriagewas similar to the situationprevailing in

Englandat the time: underthe termsof Lord Hardwicke'sMarriage

Act, enacted1754 and repealed1823, parents in Englandand Wales

were ableto forbid the marriagesof their childrenunder the ageof

twenty-one,if not to actuallydissolve them. This was intendedto

preventclandestine marriages presented later as afait accomph.32

Later both William Godwin and ThomasHolcroft were to

respondto a sight of the manuscriptof 'Adelaide'. MacGregorquotes

from a letter of William Godwin's dated8 September1794, which

fonned part of the Caff Manuscripts.Godwin wrote a friendly critique:

31 MacGregor, p. 14.

32See Caroline Gonda, Reading Daughters' Fictions, 1709-1834 (Cambridge: CUP, 1996), p.4. 14

'Your comedy has, in my opinion, no inconsiderable merit, [and] it 33 agreeably surprised me'. MacGregor also records that Thomas

Holcroft wrote a tantalising couplet on the back of the manuscript itself:

At seventeen,when sceneslike this occurred You promis'd much. Remember! Keep your word. T. H.

MacGregor notes that Amelia Opie, evidently flattered, could not help but to write below it, 'The above couplet was written in pencil by Mr

Holcroft. 04 In a recent study, David Chandler suggestedthat

'Holcroft's assessmentwas surelynot just the result of friendly partiality.05 Working from the informationin MacGregor,he goeson to saythat Adelaidemay well be the first Englishplay to reflect the direct influenceof Schiller's Die Rauber,although he also points out that no Englishtranslation appeared until 1792. This apparent contradictionmay be resolved,I suggest,by noticing Opie's

longstandingfriendship with William Taylor, Jr., who was to establish

a reputationas a translatorof contemporaryGerman writing and whose 36 translationof Berger'sLenore was publishedin 1790. It may be that

this exampleof GermanRomanticism inspired Adelaide, rather than

the Schiller.

Also now missing,but examinedby MacGregor,is

33 MacGregor,p. 13.

34 Ibid.

35Chandler, p. 102.

36 MacGregor,p. 10. 15

A Roman in blank [which] the play ... written verse, shows influence of Julius Caesar; [also] the second act of another, the theme of which is love and vengeance, [and which] is romantic in its treatment The synopsis play ... complete of another shows Amelia's interest in the Gothic romance. Whether the plays were completed and submitted to managers, we do not know. 37

Thereis somesuggestion from lettersstill extantto suggestthat at this stageof her developmentas a writer, Opie saw her future as that of a dramatistrather than a writer of tales.A letter of 1796to William

Godwin, for example,mentions that shehas dramatised his work 'The

Sorcerer'38 Also, is in letter to him . a new play mentioned a later 39 Throughouther approximatelynine months . youth shewas also producingverse in a sentimentaland bucolic style,reminiscent of that of William Hayley (1745- 1820),to whoseverse she had been introducedby her mother.40 In later years,Amelia Opie (as shehad become)was to form a closefriendship with Hayley until his death,as is evidencedby the severalletters still extant.41

In 1790,when Opie was twenty, TheDangers ofCoquetry was publishedanonymously. The attribution may be verified, however,by referringto a letter from Amelia Opie to SusannahTaylor dated22

37MacGregor, p. 13.

38Opie to Godwin, 12 February1796; Godwin Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford: B-Dep.6/210.

39Opie to Godwin,before I November1796; Godwin Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford: B.Dep. 6/210.

40 Opie to William Hayley, 23 January 1813; British Library, Add Mss 30805

41See Appendix: Letters, esp. years 1813 - 1820. 16

March 1801, which also thanksher for her kind remarksabout the work.

DespiteEarland! s dismissiveremark that the taleTailed to exciteattention', it is a pieceof writing of considerableinterest, not the leastbecause its competent,spare delivery providesit with a refreshing directnessand surenessof style which might not be expectedgiven the ageof its author.42 Only two copiesof the tale survive,although a new edition is presentlyunder preparation. 43

Beforeturning to the text itself, thereis an observationto make aboutOpie's nomenclature.She was always careful to call her works of prosefiction 'tales'. In the letter to Mrs Taylor mentionedabove, for example,she writes

I re-read[The Dangers of Coquetry]after I marriedand felt a greatrespect for it, and if I everwrite a collection of talesI shall correctand republishit as I originally wrote it, not as it is now in the shapeof a novel in chapters.I believeI told you that Mr Hoarewas so struck with it, as to intend writing a play 44 from it -I wish he would!

Often 'tales' formed part of the title, as in Talesofthe Heart (1820) or

Talesofthe PembertonFamily (1826). Whenthis was not so, the word generallyappeared in the sub-title,as in Father and Daughter-a

Tale,or Appearanceis AgainstHer: a Tale (1847). Even her longest and most importantwork, AdelineMowbray (1805)bears the sub-title

.4 Tale, in Three Volumes.Her consistencyin this is interesting:it seemsevident that shethought inappropriate such alternative

42 Ada Earland, andHis Circle (London:Hutchinson, 1911), p. 157. 43 Editedby ShelleyKing. Publicationexpected by BroadviewPress in 2002.

44 Opieto SusannahTaylor, 22 March 1801;Huntington Library, OP61. 17 descriptors as 'romance' or 'novel'. PerhapsOpie was aware of the cautionarycomments by both Dr Johnsonand James Beattie in their respectiveanalyses of the fiction writing of their time. The cautions arisefrom the dangersinherent in the applicabilityof the modem romancesto everydaylife: 'mischievouseffects', as Dr Johnsoncalls them.45 In TheRambler, Johnson writes of the dangersinherent in writers taking as their subjects'scenes of the universaldrama as may be the lot distinct from the heroic of any ... man', as natureof earlier romancesin which 'every transactionand sentimentwas so remote from all that passesamong men that the readerwas in very little danger of makingapplications to himself, the virtuesand crimeswere beyond his sphereof activity.'46He writes:

Thesebooks are written chiefly to the young,the ignorantand the idle, to whom they serveas lecturesof conduct,and introductionsinto life. the highestdegree ... of reverence be to indecent be should paid youth and ... nothing should sufferedto approachtheir eyesor ears.47

Opie's purposewas to write for this very audience.In her youth, it seems,the audiencewas only slightly more than an extensionof herself, liberally educatedbut, in her motherlessstate, aware of her vulnerability to the difficulties that facedyoung womenin negotiating a placein what may be termedpolite society.

JamesBeattie's essay'On Fable and Romance' (1783), which

45Samuel Johnson, 'On Fiction', YheRambler, 4, (April 1750).

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid. 18 sought to categorisethe writing of his day and differentiate it from

earlier genres,is also unequivocalabout the term 'romance':

'Romancesare a dangerousrecreation, ' he says:

A few, no doubt,of the bestmay be friendly to goodtaste and goodmorals; but far the greaterpart are unskillfully written, and tend to corruptthe heart,and stimulatethe passions. A habit of readingthem fills the mind with extravagant ... 4 thoughts,and too often with criminal propensities.

It follows that if shewere to avoid her works being seenas 'romances'

of the kind Beattiecondemns, Opie would haveto eschewthe

descriptor'romance', even though her taleswere romances. 'Novel',

too, wasa term with connotationsthat could be misunderstood,tending

1790S. 49 to be usedby the more radicalwriters of the Commenting

uponBeattie's essay, Geoffrey Day noteshow little the terms 'novel'

and 'novel-writer' figure in it. Opie's solutionwas to usea descriptor

that was free of the high-blownand potentially 'dangerous'qualities of

'romance',and alsofree of the radicalassociations of the term 'novel'.

The word 'tale' hasa disarmingingenuousness, as well as moral and

didacticconnotations: her understandingand usageof this word as

connotingsomething unpretentious but instructivecan be seenin the

Preface to Father and Daughter, which affinns that the work's

'highest pretension is to be a SIMPLE MORAL TALE' and her

capitalisationof the phraseemphasises her view of the significanceof

48 JamesBeattie, Dissertations Moral and Critical, ed.by GeofrreyDay, (London: Routledge,Kegan & PauL 1986),p. 59.

49Geoffrey Day, From Fiction to Novel (London: Routledge, Kegan & PauL 1987), P.59. 19 those reception aspectsof prose fiction at the time. The word 'tales' was alsomodish: Harriet Lee, writing of the first publicationof her

CanterhuryTales in 1797describes 'tale' as a mrrative which had the characteristicof 'either abruptlycommencing with, or breakinginto, a

in sort of dramaticdialogue' - as Opie's talesdo - as being 'a novelty the fictions of the day. 50 PerhapsOpie's friend ElizabethInchbald wasequally sensitive to theseissues of reception.Her work of fiction of a similar time andtheme, and with a similarly ingenuous protagonist,is entitledA SimpleStory. hereagain we seethe disarming,ferninising choice of terminology.As Gary Kelly observes: 51 'Amelia Opie deliberatelywrote "tales" and not "novels"'.

Most of Opie's prosefiction and poetryfall squarelywithin the canonof sentimentalwriting as regardssetting, characterisation, plot and particularlydiction. Despitethe view of JanetTodd and othersthat the sentimentalnovel was becomingpasse by 1790,it is unsurprising that TheDangers of Coquetryhas the characteristicsof sentimental fiction. 52 A later letter by Opie recallsher preferredreading at this time as being Mme. de Genlis (StephanieFdlicitd Ducrestde Saint-

Aubin, 1746-1830) and William Hayley (1745 - 1820), both writers in 53 this genre.

50 In Anne K. Mellor, and Gender (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 8. 51 Gary Kelly, 'Amelia Opie, Lady Caroline Lamb, and : Official and Unofficial Ideology' in J.Vinson, ed., Novelists andProse Writers (London: Macmillan, 1979), p.936. 52 Janet Todd, Sensihility (London: Methuen, 1986), p. 130.

53Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 28 January 1813; British Library, Add. Mss. 39871. 20

The sentimental tale is defined by Janet Todd as having the following characteristics:

The arousal of pathos through conventional situations, stock familial charactersand rhetorical devices.... Such literature buttonholes the reader and demandsan emotional, even physical response.54

It wasthis arousalthat causedHester Chapone, to write to her Young

55 Lady advisingher to avoid suchsentimental fiction. Conversely,

HannahMore encouragedher readersto be 'alive to everywoe by fiction dress'd', so that they may betterunderstand the human conditionin real life.56 As JaneSpencer points out, the catharsisof readingthe sentimentalnovel wasnot to be seenas an end in itself. it hadto give rise to 'benevolentfeelings' which in turn produced

'charitableaction' by the readerrather than 'sensationfor its own

57 Harriet Guest,in discussingAnna-Laetitia Barbauld, sake'. takes the view that the sentimentalnovel was genderedfeminine. 58

Spencer'searlier analysis corresponded with this, tracingtwo lines of developmentin novel-writing in the eighteenthcentury: that of

Smollettand that of Richardson.She sees Richardson's style as being

54 Todd, p2.

55 Hester Chapone,Letters on the Improvement of the Ming Addressed to a Young Lady 3 vols., (London: 1773), 2, p. 125. 56HannahMore, 'Sensibility: a Poetical Epistle' (1782), quoted by J. Mul Ian, 'Sentimental Novels' in John Richettiý ed., 77?e Eighteenth-Century Novel (London: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 248. 57 Jane Spencer, Me Rise of the WomanNovelist (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), p. 78.

58 Harriet Guest, 'Eighteenth Century Femininity: a supposedsexual characteristic' in Vivian Jones, ed., WomenandLiterature in Britain 1700-1800 (London: CUP, 2000), p.54. 21

59 the model that 'women [were] more likely to folloW,. This sentimental style, with its 'tender feeling and delicacy of expression'

60 was thus a 'conflation of literary and feminine values'. Jan Fergus, on the other hand,argues that to seethe readershipof sentimental fiction as exclusivelyfemale is an 'anecdotaland circular' assumption.The latter argumentcan be supportedby citing male reactions,such as thoseof Sir Walter Scottand PrinceHoare, to 61 readingAmelia Opie's sentimentalFather and Daughter.

Mullan points out how the meaningof the term 'sentimental' appearedto shift by the end of the eighteenthcentury as signallingan unwarrantedself-indulgence in 'superficialemotion'. For example,the delightful possibilitiesof misunderstandingthat he indicatesmay be seenin Sterne'sA SentimentalJourney (1768), which appealto a sophistryin the reader,are entirely absentin both TheDangers of

Coquetryand Father and Daughter.62 Todd explainsthat the

sentimentalnovel fell out of favour at that time because,whereas the

ultra-conservativeAnti-Jacobin Review claimed that it was a product

of Jacobinism,radicals considered the setcharacters and situationsof

sentimentalismunworldly and therebyremoved from the revolutionary

struggle.63 This view is sharedby Chris Jones.64Markman Ellis,

59Spencer, p. 90.

60Ibid., p.77.

61 Jan Fergus, 'Women Readers:a case study' in Jones, ed., p. 184. 62 Mullan in Richetti, ed., p.236.

63Todd, pp. 129-130. 64 SeeChris Jones, 'Radical Sensibility in the 1790s' in Reflections of Revolution: 22 however, shows none of the reluctance noted by Brissenden to

-confront directly the question of what is or was meant by sentimentalism or sensibility'. 65Ellis conteststhis critical 'consensus', claiming it to be 'unjustified' and illustrating his argument with satirical sourcessuch as Gillray and Canning.66 The root of his argument seemsto lie in the rapid expansion of published fiction in the late eighteenth century, which allowed 'unprecedentedaccess by the young, the under-educatedand women.1,67 Passing over the gender implications of this categorisation, Ellis points out that the taste of this expanding new market was for the emotional excessesof sentimentalism. The genre therefore continued to flourish despite the distaste felt for it by the intellectuals of the time. It must be said that both Opie's first two tales, The Dangers ofCoquetry and Father and

Daughter (180 1), are sentimental tales by Todd's definition. Father and Daughter, far from being outmoded by the date of its publication, was Opie's best-selling work and ran to nine editions. The reason for its popularity was exactly the emotional catharsis that Todd and others claim had becomepassi. The successof Opie's writing during the

1790sand the first decadesof the nineteenthcentury suggests that therewas still a considerablemarket for sentimentalprose. The successof her AdefineMowbray, partsof which interrogateGodwin's

Images OfRevolution, eds. Alison Yarrington and Kelvin Everest (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 68-82, p.68.

65R- F. Brissenden, Virtue in Distress (London: Macmillan, 1974), p. 11. 66 Markman Ellis, 7he Politics of Settsibility (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 191. 67 Ibid., P.193. 23

Political Justice and Caleb Willianu suggestsa complex pattem of readershipduring theseyears in which both sentimentaland philosophicalworks found audiences.

The two survivingcopies of TheDangers of Coquetryare in octavo, bearing the information on the title pages'LONDONPrinted for

W.Lane, Leadenhall Street MDCCXC'.There is a verseon the title page of eachof the two volumeswhich is unattributed.Since Opie wasto be scrupulousin attributingsuch envoys in her future works and no other sourcefor this one hasbeen found, I assumeit to havebeen written by herself-

On eachfond fool bestowingsome kind glance, Each conquestowing to someloose advance: The vain CoQuETus affect to be persued, And think they'revirtuous if not grosslylewd. 68

Readingthe tale, one is remindedof her playwriting experience:the charactersare clearly definedin contrastingpairs; their introductionis orderly, sequential,and so managedas to maximisethe contrasts.There are no superfluouscharacters cluttering up the narrative;neither is theredescription of set or setting-a feature

of her writing which was to be consistentthrough her creativecareer,

and one with which a playwright might easily identify.

The heroineof the tale is a young womanof seventeen,Louisa

Conolly, in possessionof all the virtues of appearanceand sensibility,

worth more than L100,000,but who, having lost her motherat an early

68 [Amelia Opie] Me Dangersof Coquetry,2 vols. Obondon:W. Lane, 1790),title 24 age, feels a consequentlack of 'restraint' and 'guidance' in her entry into the socialworld (1,7). Louisahas a friend, Caroline,who hasnone of her advantages,but who hasplainness and prudencein placeof the vanity and 'thoughtlessindiscretion' which will be Louisa's fatal flaws

(1,3). Indeed,a suitableepigram for the tale might havebeen from the first line of Haywood'stale BetsyThoughtless (175 1), which reads: 69 'fewer womenwere undoneby love than vanity. After a succession of beaux,Louisa meets Mortimer, the dark, handsome,wholesome

hero. Mortimer is attractedto Louisa,but put off by her 'dispositionto

coquetry'(1,30). However,he overcomeshis reservationsand marries

Louisa,bearing her 'weepingon his bosomfrom the abodeof her

ancestors'to London. Eschewinga heavy-handedauthoritarianism, he

resolvesthat he will guideher extrovertpersonality 'by silken chains

or not at all' (1,125).He is thus establishedby Opie as a youngman of

sensibility,which may be seenas a positiveattribute, but this very

sensibilityis alsothe flaw in his character:it will leadhim to be remiss

in performinga crucial task of guidanceand restraintlater in the tale.

In London,Louisa meets the black-cladwidow Mrs. Belmour.

Having been passedover by the rake Lord Ortnington, Belmour

decidesto usethis ingenueto get evenwith him. Ormington,in turn,

is affiancedto Lady JaneBertie: accordingto the rules of society, this

status,and Louisa's own, puts him off-limits for her flirtatious smiles,

page.Subsequent quotations are from this edition andincluded in parenthesesin the text. 69 ElizabethHaywood, The History ofMiss BetsyYhoughtless, ed. by Dale Spender (London:Pandora, 1986), p. 1. 25 despite Belmour's encouragements.

Like the end of the act beforethe interval,the first volume closeswith the audiencebeing aware of Louisa!s terrible innocence, her precociousness,herjoyful anticipationof her'entranceto the gay and fashionableworld (1,125),but knowing that thereis to be a strugglewith the black-garbedLady Belmour for Louisa!s goodname and happiness.

In the secondvolume Ormington,like Lovelacein

Richardson'sClarissa (1747), becomes obsessed with Louisaon

meetingher at Ranelagh,despite his engagementto JaneBertie. Opie's

descriptionof the flattery Louisa feels from his fascinationwith her is

entirely consistentwith the flaw in her naturewhich was evidentearly

in the first volume. The doublestandards of societyenable Ormington

to flirt with Louisawithout censurefrom the rest of society,although

he himself is hardly a characterthat the readerwill not censure.This

sametolerance, however, does not apply to Louisaand the worldly-

wise Mortimer is apprehensivethat her flirtatious behaviourtowards

Ormingtonwill not be tolerated. He resolvesto reprimandLouisa, but

doesnot do so becausehe is movedto tearsby an act of charity which

Louisasecretly perfonns and which he discovers.Fortimately, Louisa

recognisesher improprietyand resolvesto 'bestowno more on Lord

Ormingtonthose seducing smiles which had madehim forget the claim

of Lady Jane' (11,63). Six pageslater, however,her resolutionis put

to the test - and fails. With Mortimer away,Belmour tempts Louisa to

attenda ball whereOrmington and Lady Janewill alsobe present,and 26 she goes, for 'where is the merit in being virtuous, while unassailedby temptationT(H, 69) Belmour,in sight of her objective,feeds Louisa's vanity so that shebecomes 'too lively to think, and giving way to the naturalgaiety of her disposition,she excited the envy and censureof her own sex,while sheengrossed the attentionof the other' (11,83).As a resultof this 'thoughtlessindiscretion', she is called an 'infernal coquette'by JaneBertie's brother(11,84). Afterwards, she is repentant and 'resolvesto live for [her husband]alone, and renounce[her] follies for cver' (11,88).

The readerof todaymay be forgiven for failing to detectthe aspectsof Louisa'sbehaviour that causeher to be stigmatisedas a

coquette.She seems to possessthe behavioursand attitudesthat one

might expectany spirited,wealthy and sociableyoung womanto have.

And yet, sheis describedearly in the novel as 'at eighteen,a finished

coquette'(II, 4). Fortunatelyfor the modemreader, Amelia Opie

offers two definitionsof coquetry. The first appearsin the envoy,

quotedabove, with the warningin the last line:just becausea young

womancan seeherself as not being'grosslylewd'does not meanthat

in the eyesof the world sheis not a coquette.The seconddefinition is

put into the mouth of the principal male characterin the tale, Henry

Mortimer, whosegender reinforces the significanceof the statement:

To take painsto destroythe happinessof others,to woundan inexperiencedheart for the sakeof woundingit; to seduce loversfrom their affiancedbrides, husbands from their wives, and all to gratify a thirst of admirationand a despicablevanity is ... this the conductof a finishedcoquette. (11,42) 27

These two statementsreveal that a coquette is a young woman whosebehaviour is flirtatious, seekingto rousepassion but not to gratify it, and,as the abovequotation suggests, is motivatedby vanity ratherthan sexualdesire. This correspondswith our view of that time as beingone in which womenwere often perceivedas little morethan socialand decorativeadjuncts in a constructof societywhich was overwhelminglymale. However,the male equivalentof the coquette, known asthe libertine, was,at leastto Mortimer, equally reprehensible:'A coquettein your sex is as detestableas a libertine in ours,'he says(11,37). The distinctionis one of sexualgratification: whereasthe coquetteis flirtatious, sheis not sexual. Sheaims to inspiredesire but not fulfil it, for to do so would probablybar her from the very societyshe enjoys - as will be seenin this and other novelsof the type. The male libertine,however, is sexualised,and, like

Ormingtonhere, or Richardson'sLovelace, knows that he hasthe permissionof society,and to a large extentits forgiveness,to carry on a life of promiscuity. Opie demonstratesvery clearly in this novel that

sheis awareof this permissiveness,and also awarethat for the young woman the opposite applies: a zero tolerance of anything considered

unseemly.

To return to the tale: unfortunately,it is too late for Louisa's

resolutions.Mortimer hearsof his wife's coquetryand of Bertie's He is accusation. obliged- by this samerigid social codeof behaviour

- to fight a duel with Bertie. He doesso, is wounded'past recovery'

and expiresnobly in her lap (H, 121). Working squarelywithin the 28 canon of sentimental writing, Opie has Louisa miscarry the following morning (we had been informed only fleetingly of her pregnancy beforehand). The impact, both literal and symbolic, of this event is considerable, and points up the distinction between sentiment and mere sentimentality in Opie's tale. Louisa herself then dies in a theatrical tableau which prefigures most of Opie's heroines' deaths(Agnes in

Father and Daughter, Adeline in Adeline Mowhray, for examples). At her bedside are the beneficiaries of her charity, now rehabilitated. Her death is her nemesis,and, given the rigidity of social convention, as inevitable as that of Clarissa Harlowe. Of the libertine Ormington nothing further is said, nor need be, since Opie's purpose is served by the deathsof Louisa and Mortimer, neither of whom are malefactors, and their child. This narrative neatnessand economy is in contrast to her next published tale, Father and Daughter (180 1), which dilates

post-climactically and unnecessarilyon the remorse of the libertine.

The male view of womanhood in this tale is concerned with

appearancesand with woman as commodity. Conversely, the female

view is concerned with woman as she is beneath the outer layer of

appearance. These views come into being becausewoman is seen as

being sentimental at the expenseof rationality. John Gregory, for

example, in common with other conduct book writers of this period, 70 writes of a young woman's 'superior delicacy'. The attitude spanned

various ideological and political categories. For the conservative,

70John Gregory, MD, 'A Father's Legacy to his Daughter' (1774) in Female Education in the Age ofEnlightenment, ed. Janet Todd, 6 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 1996), 2, p.5. 29

JamesFordyce warned women that 'Nature seemsto have formed the

facultiesof your sex for the most part with lessvigour than thoseof

71 ours. EvenRousseau, exponent of social democracy,argued that

womenmust be restrainedto savethem from their own overactive

sensibilities.72 Theseviews of womenpredicate a vulnerability and a

needfor protection,even confinement, exemplified by the diminished

legal personalitywhich womenhad to toleratein terms,for example,

of their lossof title, in certaincircumstances, to propertyon marriage,

or for the review of the customof dower during the eighteenth 73 century.

The womendepicted in Opie's tale exist in a male-ordered

world and it is necessaryfor their survival that they also understand

and are seento subscribeto the maleview. They are thus requiredto

operatetwo systemsof perceptionin tandem:the dominant(male) one

which in this caseconcerns appearance and the subordinateperception

of the female.The possibilitiesfor subversionin the subordinateare

manifold. This bi-focalismis not too removedfrom Luce Irigaray's

conceptsof 'spheresof language'in which sheenvisages two

overlapping circles, one circle being a male linguistic domain, the

other female. The areaof overlapindicates that part of the male

71James Fordyce, DD, 'Sermons to Young Women' (1766) in Janet Todd, Female Education in the Age of the Enlightenment, 6 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 1996), 2, p.272.

72 See,for example, J. I Rousseau,La Nouvelle Heloise, trans. Philip Stewart (Hanover, NH: University of New England Press, 1997). 73 For a full discussion of the legal aspectsof women and property, see Susan Staves, Married Women'sSeparate Property (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), pp. 14. 30 domain in which women have acquired competenceas a means of survival. This aPPrOPriationis only one-way,female to male,because of the dominationof the male languageand constructof the world, 74 which Irigaray refersto asthe Law of the Father. Opie's writing relatesto Irigaray's 'spheres'as expressionsof hierarchy,dealing as it doeswith gender-basedways of perception.75 Opie is able to manipulateher useof languagevery skillfully so that the reader

(especiallythe femalereader) becomes aware of this bi-focal view, therebypresenting two modemand opposingviews of womanhood that reinforcethis bi-focalismof appearanceand actuality.

This is madeevident in Opie's depictionof Louisa!s female view of Ormington'sfiancde Jane Bertie in contrastwith the male view of Mortimer, and dependson sophisticatedrendering of different word- choice.Whilst Louisasees Jane as 'insipid!,'unmeaning' and

'insignificanf, Mortimer finds her'interestingand artless'and 'delicate but expressive'(11,18). Opie is marshallingtwo opposinggazes at what is recognisablythe sameperson here, and presentingtheir different perceptionsvery succinctly. Mortimer's descriptorsindicate a view consisting of a layering of rococo and bucolic stylistic conventionsover Louisa!s regardof Jane,which penetratesto the reality of the girl herself Amelia Opie is manipulatingher language very skilfully to show gender-drivenperceptions: the male seesthe

74 SeeLuce Irigaray, Ais Sex "ich Is Not One,trans. Catherine Parker and Carolyn Burke (Ithaca,NY: CornellUniversity Press, 1985), esp. pp. 136-7. 75 For a discussionof genderdifferences in perception,see, for example,Mary Poovey,Ihe ProperLady and the WomanWriter (Chicago,1984). 31 superficial style, the female, regarding another female, seesthe person.

This distinction is crucial to the presentationof the charactersand the view either gender takes of them: an observation which, to some degreeat least, can also be made about the principals in Father and

Daughter, Adeline Mowbray and Appearance is Against Her.

Opie communicatesthis dichotomy of view by the careful development of her main characters.It is evident that her earlier experience with dramatic writing enabled her to marshal a well- differentiated yet complementary range of plausible charactersfrom the realms of the haute bourgeoisie and petty aristocrats of her time, and to manipulate them effectively and realistically so that sufficient dramatic tension was createdto impel the tale to its conclusion.

The construction of the foil, Caroline, is in pointed contrast to Louisa.

Caroline is described as having'all those perfections Louisa wanted.

Shewas not beautiful [or accomplished,but] shebad an exquisite

(1,9-10). She, senseof propriety... charitable,and eventempered! too, is without a mother. Her father,unlike Louisa!s wealthyparent, is bankruptand hasto live economicallyin Lausanneand Paris. The conventionof the pairedcharacters is a well-usedtechnique in eighteenth-centurynovels of this type: the lettersof Julia and Caroline in Maria EdgewortlfsLettersfor Literary Ladies (1795),Eliza and

Lucy in HannahWebster Foster's The Coquette (1797), Hannah

Primroseand RebeccaRhymer in ElizabethInchbald's Nature and Art

(1796),even Richardson's Clarissa Harlowe and Anna Howe illustrate the frequencywith which this conventionwas employed. 32

However,the tensionis creatednotjust throughthe contrastof the protagonistLouisa with her virtuousfoil Caroline,but also with the

experienced'hoyden'Emily Hamilton. The tale is thus sustainedby a

triangularstructure rather than a simplebinary opposition.Hamilton

hasmarried, become widowed and reconstructedherself as the Lady

Belmour,a plausiblecontraction of 'bel amour, and a nameOpie

would useagain for a similar characterin the tale'A WomaWsLove

and a Wife's Duty' (1820). Lady Belmour now appearsin society as

'Amongst the leaders of the ton,' (1,125), superficially polished,

perhapsin a way that Mary Warnerin Opie's 1805taleAdeline

Mowbray would like to think of herself,but intrinsically vulgar and

corrupt-a further exampleof the tensionbetween appearance and

reality which is at the root of the bifocalism in this tale. 'Ibis dualismis

signalledby her apparel.Wearing black may not only denote

widowhood,but also evil intent, and the drabnessof the colour is

further, and contradictorily,suggestive of Dissenting(especially

Quaker)rectitude. The basedesire for revengemotivates Belmour.

Having beenjilted by Ormington,she 'fixes on Louisaas the future

vehicle of her maliceand revenge'(1,133).

As the plot movesforward, the readeris awareof a further

bifocal view. whereasthe virtuousbut not unworldly Mortimer sees

Louisa'sflirtation with the fickle Ormington'with pain, fearful lest it

shouldwear the censureof the world! (11,27), Mrs Belmour, the

vindictive manipulator,'on the contrary,rejoiced at Louisa'sconquest'

(11,28). The differentiationhere rests on motive, and so the readeris 33 madeaware of the developmentof dramatictension in the action arisingfrom the entrapmentof Louisa.

Just as eventhe modemreader can perceivethat Louisa!s situationis comingclose to beingirretrievable, Opie presentsanother facetof her personalitywhich hasbeen indicated in the first volume: her sympathyfor the deservingpoor. Louisa sees

a young woman whose dressbespoke the extreme of poverty; yet an endeavourat neatness,visible amidst her rags, [which] convinced [Louisa that] carelessness had in her Her no share tattered appearance.... countenancewas the imageof despair,and the paleness of her cheeksseemed occasioned by diseaseas much as sorrow. (11,49-50)

This patheticimage of povertyfalls squarelywithin the canonsof the

sentimentaltradition, whereit exists,as here,as a meansfor the writer

to displaythe sensitivityto the sufferingsof the less-fortunate.Janet

Todd points out how the 'liberal concerns'of Dissentingwriters such

as Opie 'were reinforcedby sentimentalinterests in the deprived.'76

Imagesof the poor or dispossessedreappear often in future writing by

Amelia Opie, examplesfrom her prosework beingFather and

Daughter, Adeline Mowbray, 'A Womaiýs Love and a Wife's Duty'in

Tales ofthe Heart (1820) and Tales ofthe Pemberton Family (1826).

Here,as with aspectsof the father-daughterrelationship discussed

above,Opie's presentationis highly conventionalin termsof the

didacticparameters of sentimentalfiction of the time.

In this description,it is clear that 'carelessness'has no part in

the poor womanvsappearance: the characterhas not becomeslovenly 34 and is makingthe bestof her situation. Sheis clearly a memberof the deservingpoor. Thematically,this virtue in the faceof difficulty connectsacross class boundaries with Caroline. Louisa,a sensibleand affluent memberof society,enquires the sourceof the miseryof the youngpauper, learns that it is financial and no fault of its victim, and paysthe debt for her. Like the heroinesof Richardson'sClarissa and of Opie's AdelineMowbray and otherworks, evenin dire times sheis awareof her dutiesto what ClarissaHarlowe terms as 'my poor'. This useof moneyis characteristicof the young womanof sensibility,who, in JanetTodd's words, 'benefitsothers, usually with exemplary prudence,and receivesrapt gratitudein return. 77 Todd briefly discussesthe gender-differenceduse of moneyfor thoseof sensibility, explaininghow a womanmight useit 'in the mannerof sensibility insteadof commerce.' 78 The threadof charity runsthroughout Opie's work: in AdefineMowbray sherefers to it as 'doing goodby stealth.279

In that tale, Opie then providesa genderedexample of giving money to the poor in the manipulativepromises made by O'Carrol to the poor cottagers,in suchproximity that the genderdifferences are a striking exampleof a subversionof the narrativeconvention.

In TheDangers ofCoquetry, Louisa's charity is an act vital to the progressionof the narrativetowards its climax, for Mortimer found

76 Todd, 1986,p. 11.

77 Todd, p.81.

78 Ibid., p. 119. 79 Amelia Opie,Adefine Mowbray ed.by ShelleyKing andJohn B. Pierce(Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1999), p. 58. 35 her actionso meritoriousthat, 'delightedwith her sensibility,and feeling his whole soul melt into tenderness,he could not bearthe thoughtsof giving her pain.... by calling her to task over her behaviour towardOrmington (11,60). His lapseof duty is crucial, and ultimately resultsin his own death.

Louisadies of a morbidity broughton by guilt.Who is to blame for this gruesomeclimax? It can be arguedthat Mortimer'svacillation

from his manly duty in disciplining his wife is his heroic flaw,

resultingin the deathof that which he lovesbest, in an inversionof the

Othello plot. Mortimer hasa duty to instruct his wife, and is negligent

in performingit. The world in which thesecharacters move is a male

construct,and it thereforefalls on the protectivehusband to makehis

wife awareof the rules governingthis construct. This is particularly

significantin Louisa'scase, since, like manyfictional heroines,she

had no motherto instructher. The male duty of careis the corollary of

the filial duty of obedience,and both are transferredfrom fatherto

husbandon the marriage.It is an awarenessof the seriousnessof this

lapseof duty on Mortimer's part thatjustifies his death,for his lapse

hasbeen a major factor in causingthe deathof Louisa.

Ultimately, however,the messageof the tale is that Louisa!s

vanity is the authorof her grief and destruction,and that of two other

humanbeings, notwithstanding the deathbedre-appearance of the poor

womanand her child, now madewhole, who only add poignancyto the

final tableau,allowing Louisato expire with the words "'Fatherof

Mercies,let theseplead for me...(11,133). Louisa'sexpiry is the 36 penultimateparagraph. The moral of the tale quickly follows:

For the perusalof the thoughtlessand the young is this tale given to the world - it teachesthat indiscretionsmay produceas fatal effectsas ACTUALGUILT, and that eventhe appearance of improprietycannot be too carefully avoided.(11,133)

In Opie's depictionof Louisaand the morality of her fate, one is remindedof FrancesBurney's remarkabout her Evelina: 'I havenot pretendedto showthe world as it actuallyis, but as it appearsto a girl of seventeen.80 In this case,both Opie and her protagonistare close enoughto Bumey's 'seventeen'to sharethe sameadolescent apprehensionsof the consequencesof social indiscretion.In termsof this foregroundingof 'indiscretion' as distinct from 'actualguilf,

Chandlerusefully points out the similarities of this concludingmoral to

Fielding's Dedicationin TomJoneS. 81 Fielding writes:

I have endeavouredstrongly to inculcate that Virtue and Innocence can scarceever be injured but by Indiscretion; and that it is this alone which often betrays them into the snaresthat Villainy and Deceit spread for them. A moral which I have the more industriously laboured, as the teaching it is, of all others, the likeliest to be attended with Success; since, I believe, it is much easier to make good Men wise, than to make bad Men good. 82

The issuesof guilt, indiscretion,intention and ability to reform are all gender-driven,and the comparisonwith TomJones is highly

appropriatesince the fate of Opie's protagonistis in stark contrastwith

so FrancesBurney, Ae Diwy andLellers ofMme. D Arhlay 2 vols., (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1927), 14 p. 22.

81Chandler, p. 19. 92 SeeHenry Fielding, Tom Jones, eds. J. Bender & S. Stem (London: Oxford University Press, 1996), p.v. 37 that of Fielding's hero.It is evidentthat Opie follows conventionin her treatmentof Louisa'sfate: the femaleprotagonist who is not giventhe opportunityto reform in the way that male libertinesare, suchas Tom

Jonesand Robert Lovelace, is thoroughlyconventional.

In TheDangers of Coquetry,the youngOpie showsa clear awarenessof the socialmores of her time, and her tale may be comparedwith Inchbald'sA SimpleStory, publishedonly one year later, for the way in which inappropriateflirtatiousness leads to moral guilt. Whetheror not sheis attemptingto criticise them by pointing to

Louisa'snaivity and lack of maliciousintent, and thereforethe inappropriatenessof the penaltyshe pays, is opento interpretation. It is possibleto readthe tale as a radicalcritique of thesedouble standards,although not particularlyconvincingly. However, even if her treatmentof Louisais no more than a reiterationof a conventional situation,this neednot reduceits significance.The injusticeof

Louisa'sdeath, and that of Mortimer, for misdemeanoursof a comparitivelytrivial natureis clearly contrastedwith the muchgreater connivingsof Ormingtonthe libertine andMrs Belmour the manipulator,both of whom suffer no loss. Louisa's downfall is the result of no morethan indiscretion,the youthful responseto the excitementof beingseen as desirable.This is a featureof much of

Opie'sother writing, and hereas elsewhereshe takes pains partially to exculpateher heroineby carefully indicating causalfactors.

The consistentmessage is, as we saw in the envoy,that it is not 38 sufficientto avoid being'grosslylewd - societywill take stepsto ostracisea youngwoman simply for the appearanceof misconduct.

With sucha one-sidedsystem in place,it is hardly surprisingthat the dangersof social obloquywere enormousfor a youngwoman, especiallywhen contrastedwith the sexualpermissiveness which young men often enjoyed.

Tensionsbetween inner and outer drive the narrativein The

Dangersof Coquetry: in this case,tension between the keenemotions of youth and the circumscribedbehaviours and etiquettesof polite society. Louisa,the protagonist,is carefully describedby Opie very early in the novel in termsof her emotionalcharacteristics and her accomplishments.It is only severalpages later that the readeris given any physicaldescriptors, and theseare trivial by comparison:we are told only that shehas 'a profusionof pale brown haie and blue eyes(1,

34). In Opie's portrayal of her heroine, the external is constantly diminishedin favour of expressionsof character,by contrastwith the male gaze,as depictedin Mortimer's comments.Opie constructsher protagonistprimarily for the femalereader by emphasising characteristicsrather than outwardappearance, and only secondarily

for the male readerby havingthe externalfeatures signal her emotional

characteristics:

[Louisa was] more than beautiful: her countenance expressedevery emotion of her soul, and her voice was the tone of persuasion:when she walked, danced or sung, every eye persued,and every tongue applauded her, and silent attentionpaid its tribute of admiration. 39

(p.2)

Having offereda vision of perfection,Opie follows with a description of the fatal flaw, and thenrecovers with an expressionof her protagonist'svulnerability. The final sentenceindicates an understandingof the way in which we are often condemnedto repeat oureffors:

but Louisa the thoughtlessindiscretion. ... was slave of Though possessedof an understandingsuperior to that of most of her sex, shewas hurried by unguardedlevity into the commissionof follies, which the weakestof it would haveshunned and condemned. Vanity and love of admirationhad possessionof her heart.(pp. 2-3)

Nevertheless,Louisa had sensibility:

sheloved and felt for all: her ear was ever opento the tale of the distressed,and those whom her thoughtlessnesswounded, her heartbled to heal. Shewas therefore constantly repenting of her errors,and shewould retire from the assemblieswhere shewas the idol of the crowd to lamenther brokenresolutions and to form freshones for the morrow. (p.4)

The implication hereis that Amelia Opie is writing in sucha way that

almostany young bourgeoiseof eighteencould identify herselfin

these descriptions, at least to some degree. In many ways she is also

writing about herself, perhapsthereby exorcising a fear of social

ostracismthat must havehaunted her. One feelsthatý like manyother

youngwomen in her position, shemust havetrodden a narrow line

betweendaring, intelligent, radicalvivacity and the perils of coquetry.

Of her sentimentalexperience, MacGregor, with accessto ardhival

materialno longertraceable and engagingwith the samesentimental

idiom, writes: 40

She knew the being flattered excitement ... of and courted. Her soft, expressive eyes, her auburn hair, her plaintive singing, soon brought her admirers. In later years she admitted the 'girlish imprudence' of love at sixteen, but who the gentleman was, we do not know. 83

The characteristicsindicated here are presentin her protagonist

Louisa. One feelsthat the work revealsthe awakeningof a young writer's awarenessof the one-sidedway in which societyrestricts and

condemnsyoung womento the degreethat a lack of decorurain what

were,after all, supposedto be exciting social situationscould easily

result in total ostracism. Physically, Opie's description of Louisa is

very closeto a descriptionof herself. Brightwell notesthat her hair

rwas abundant and beautiful,of auburnhue, and waving in long

tresses'which is confirmedby John Opie's portrait of her paintedin

1798.84Her blue eyeswere alsothe subjectof severaladmiring

85 comments.

Ruth Watts summarisesthe behavioursadvocated by the

conductbooks of the day asbeing 'modesty,restraint, passivity,

compliance,submission, delicacy and, most importantof all, chastity'

while pointing out that the educationnecessary to producesuch a

paragonof virtue was conspicuouslylacking. 86 It will be seenthat

Louisa fails in the majority of thesebehaviours simply by being naive

and lacking in instruction.The piecemealand confusededucation

83 MacGregor,p. 9.

84 JohnOpie, RA, 'Amelia Opie', 1798National Portrait Gallery,London. 85 BrightwelL p.50.

86 Ruth Watts,Gender, Power and the Unitariansin England1760-1860 (London: Longman,1998), p. 19. 41 which a youngwoman of the day would havereceived is a significant contributorto their vulnerability.This paradoxwas identified by

HannahMore in the openingremarks in the Introductionto her

'Strictureson the Modem Systemof FemaleEducation' (1799):

It is a singular injustice, which is often exercised towards women, first to give them a very defective education, and then to expect from them the most undeviating purity of conduct; - to train them in such a manner as shall lay them open to the most dangerousfaults, and then to censurethem for not proving faultless.87

A similar point is madeby Wollstonecraftwhen discussingthe

88 'Lack of Learning' availableto women.

The second,and inter-relatedpoint, is the featureof Louisa's motherlessness,and the specialsignificance it hasfor a young woman in termsof her classand temperament.The major circumstancewhich connectsthe writer and her characteris that both lack a mother-figure

at this critical stageof their lives. On page7 of the novel, sherecords

Louisa!s feelingsof a lack of 'restraint!and 'guidance'due to her

motherlessness.Amelia Opie's mother,who died when shewas fifteen,

was describedby her daughteras being 'firm in principle as shewas

89Her gentlein disposition'. early death,according to Brightwell,

'bereavedher daughterof a mother'scare and guidanceat the most

critical period of a woman's life. '90

87Hannah More, 'Strictureson the Modem Systemof FemaleEducation' in Works (London,1863), p. ix.

88 SeeMary Wollstonecraft,A Vindicationof theRights of Women(London: Price, 1792),pp. 4042.

89Brightwell, p. 12.

90Ibid., p.7. 42

The significanceof a watchful motheris expressedin manyof the conductbooks of the time, most of which 'tendedto discusssociety

- whetherthey spokeof men's actionsor politics, or women's 91 behaviours- in termsof the disposalof women'sbodies'. Of these,

Advicefrom a Lady ofQuality to Her Children,attributed to Louis-

Antoine de Caraccioli (1719-1803), published in French in 1778 and translatedinto Englishby SamuelGlasse in severaleditions from 1778 onwards,was extremelypopular in both languagesand on both sidesof the Atlantic. It contains many salutary precepts for a young woman

aboutto entersociety. In 'ConferenceX the Lady writes to her

daughter:

I have long wished, my dear Daughter, for this opportunity of freely conversing with you on subjects of the utmost consequenceto you. Your youth, the world into which you are going, the snareswhich it lays,... all induce me to open my heart to you, and to give you some instructions relative to your dangerous situation. If you are so unhappy as to give yourself up to the distraction of the world, you will no longer be able to the dominion heart maintain over your own .... The world is never to be satisfied: the more we bestow upon it, the more unreasonableare its demands. Your sex requires the utmost circumspection; what among NIENis reputed a venial fault, is an absolute crime with us. If you are over-solicitous to please others, you will into A run a ridiculous affectation. ... woman, who sets herself to draw the attention and admiration of all upon her, will soon become an arrant coquette, if she is not one already.92

The phrases'utmost consequence', 'dangerous situation', 'utmost

91 William Hill, Ae Power ofSympathyand Hannah Webster Foster, Ae Coquette, ed. CarlaMulford (New York: PenguinBooks, 1996),p. 271. 92 Louis-Antoine de Caraccioli, Adviceftom a Lady ofQuality to Her Children, trans. Samuel Glasse (Boston: Cornhill, 1796), p 102. 43 circurnspection'and absolutecrime'make clear the seriousissues involved. This seriousnessis emphasisedin Amelia Opie'stale, in which not only doesthe coquetteLouisa die of grief and the after- effectsof a miscarriage,but the tale demandsthe life of her noble husbandand the miscarriedbaby. Further,the differentiationmade betweena man's'venial fault'and a woman's'absolute crime' for the sameact of sexualaggression again signals the hypocrisyof this rigid socialcode.

Opie'smother died in December1784. Shefelt the losskeenly, and sevenyears later, in 1791, on visiting Cromerfor the first time sinceher mother'sdeath, recalled her memoryin a sonnet.Eleven yearslater, it appearsshe was still grieving. Her poemEpistle to a

Friendon New Year'sDay, 1802'becomesa requiemfor her mother:

Remembrancewhispers, when the new-bomyear In time long past,by numbershailed, drew near, To me it gave,Alas! misfortunebirth,... That hour my motherclosed her eyeson earth. Moment to me with everydanger fraught, Thoughon thosedangers then I little thought; Suchwas my youth, the blow was big with fate, Yet suchmy youth I could not feel its weight.93 (11.53-60)

Later in the poem(11.94-95), she recalls her mother'sexacting influencein a way that seemssingularly appropriate to our present purpose:'But, lost instructor,monitor most dear,/Nor too indulgent found, nor too severe'. The choiceof the words 'instructor'and

'monitoe in particularbear out the sentimentsof the Lady of Quality,

93 Opie, 1808, p.62. 44 above.

By the time theselines were written, Opie's motherhad been deadfor seventeenyears, during which time shehad grown from a girl of fifteen to a marriedwoman, safely negotiating, as far as we can ascertain,the snaresof early adulthood. Only at this stageof maturity, asthe poemsubsequently makes clear, does she have the hindsightto recognisewith regrethow Time was,when gaily hurrying from thy sight/From homeI flew abroadto seekdelight' (11.98-99).She longs to 'Tell thee, that, tost upon the worlds wide sea,/ Too soon, alas, I leamt to sigh for thee' (11.116-117).

It is perhapsnot surprisingthat motherlessnessis to be a feature of othertales by Opie thoughouther writing life. In Father and

Daughter(180 1), the protagonistAgnes, in thrall to her father,can only find femalesupport from her old nurseFanny, who doesnot have the authority to instruct or reprove her. In describing the young protagonistof Appearanceis AgainstHer (1847),brought up by an aunt, Opie says,echoing Caraccioli, 'her wish to pleaseeveryone

her 94 In'Love, Mystery Superstition', makes appearcoquettiSif . and one of the talesin Talesofthe Heart (1820), Opie describesthe perils of disobedienceto the mother.However, it is also clear that the device of the motherlessdaughter figures frequently in the literatureof the period.One need only think of Moll Flanders;Sophia Western in Tom

Jones,Arabella in TheFemale Quixote; Betsy Thoughtless in

Haywood'seponymous tale; Miss Milner in Inchbald'sA Simple

94Amelia Opie,, 4ppearance is. 4gainst Her (London: Grove, 1847), p. 15. 45

Story; andNarcissa in RoderickRandom. Sucha deviceenables the authorsto createa plausiblyvulnerable young womanwhose unguided waysof dealingwith the world (successfullyor not) will be entertainingand instructiveto the reader.

The overall impressionof Opie's first novel is one of a tight structure,largely thanks to a minimising of the numberof characters and of sparsedescription of setting. The paceof TheDangers of

Coquetryis brisk. It proceedsineluctably and economicallyto a foresccableclimax which is wholly logical in tcrTnsof the charactcrs

andthe socialconventions in which they exist. Shortchapters, typically five or six pagesonly, permit a step-by-stepunfolding of the

plot, which in turn enablesthe readerto build up a titillating senseof

prescience.The final action unitesall the charactersin a resolution

which is effectiveand, in the bestsense of the term, theatrical.

Despite all this, The Dangers of Coquetry received poor

reviews.Although SusannahTaylor thoughtwell of it and Prince

Hoareonce thought of drarnatisingit, the work received little

attention.95 The Critical Reviewgave it a brief but damningnotice:

'The moral to be drawn from this work is so good,that we are blind to

the dulness,the insipidity, and improbability of the narrative.'%

Amelia Opie at this time had not yet met ,

althoughshe was to do this within the next four years. The1790s,

when shewas to spendmuch time in smartand radical circles in

95 MacGregor, p. 13.

96 Me CriticalReview, 70 (1790), p.339. 46

London,first as a visitor and then from 1796as a resident,was to be whenshe received her political education.

.:. .:. .:. .:. 47

CHAPTER 2

The Young Radical, 1794 - 1798

D espiteradical enthusiasm for the eventsin France,mainstream

reactionin Englandtowards the FrenchRevolution at the time was eitherhostile or noncommittal! Even in the headydays of the

Mirabeauperiod, October 1789 - April 1791, accordingto Burke, 'not

one in a hundred'of the English supportedit, althoughBurke could 2 hardly be seenas a disinterestedcommentator. However,his

Reflectionson the Revolutionin France (1790)articulated the

reactionsof conservativeopinion in Englandat the time. These

reactionsdid not go unanswered:Rous, Thelwall, CapelLofn,

Wollstonecraft,Priestley and othersengaged vigorously with his

3 argument. JohnBarrell pointsout that his opponentscriticised 'the

passionatequality of the imaginationdisplayed in the Reflections,

[which] cameto be treatedas a symbolof intellectualand political

immaturity. 4 At a time when,as Hobsbawmnotes, 'virtually every

personof education,talent and enlightenmentsympathized with the

' SeeEric Hobsbawni,The Age ofRevolution(London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1962),esp. p. 79.

2 EdmundBurke, Reflections on theRevolution in France ed. Leslie Mtchell (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1993), p. 79.

3 SeeJohn Barrell, Imagining theJUng's Death (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2000),esp. pp. 8- 20.

Ibid., p.11. 48

Revolution,at all eventsuntil the Jacobindictatorship, and often for very much longer', it is unsurprisingthat Burke's imaginingswere so frequentlychallenged. 5

The British governmenttook actionagainst such English radicalsas Tom Paine,whose Rights ofMan, publishedin March 1791, presentedthe radicaland democraticideals of the Revolution. One of theseactions was the sponsorshipby the governmentof the publication of 22,000copies of a pamphletlampooning Paine and castigatinghim as a traitor.6 Following the executionof Louis XVI on 21 January

1793and the declarationof war on Britain, the 'hereditaryenemy', by the RevolutionaryGovernment less than a month later, it becamevery difficult for Englishradicals to expressany sympathyfor the French

Revolutionor the democraticideals they believedit embodied.7

Many Dissenters,however, adhered to the republicancause, sinceit promisedthe besthope for the relief of severalof the disabilities,such as the denial of universityeducation, which operated againstthem. Paine's Rights qfMan set down the principle of religious tolerancewhich had becomeembodied in revolutionaryAmerica just as it had in revolutionaryFrance. Whararnpoints out how 'religious

freedomhad beenachieved in Catholic,despotic France, Whilst, a centuryafter the GloriousRevolution [of 1688],many English

5 Hobsbawin,p. 78.

6 John Keane, Tom Paine: a PoliticalLife (London: Bloomsbury, 1995), p.335.

7 Hobsbawm,p. 79. 49 protestantswere still disabled.'8 Conewrites of the English radicalsas sharing'a stateof mind, a clusterof indignantsensibilities, a faith in reason,a vision of the future', but citesthe radicalThelwall's comment that there 'many different to the were opinions ... as extentof change that was needed'.9

Burke's definition of Jacobinismas 'the revolt of the

enterprisingtalents against property' is highly interesting.10 Evidently

he graspedthat the 'speculatorsin public funds,bureaucrats [and]

technicians'who comprisedcentral elements of radicalismin both

Britain and Francewere what we shouldcall nascentforces of capital

and capitalism.Their interestsand ambitionswere often pitted against

thoseof the landowningaristocracy: a collision of financeand

manufacturingon one handwith land-rentand agricultureon the other,

leadingto the eventualtriumph of, as Hobsbawrnputs it, 'capitalist

industry [and] middle-class or "bourgeois" liberal society'. "

It wasthe very disabilitiesimposed by the establishment

hegemony on thosewho did not or could not conform- the ancient

proscriptionagainst Jews owning land, for example,as well as the disabilities appliedto Dissentersand RomanCatholics - that

workedto generatewealth and influenceby other means.By 1811,these non-establishment economies would be producing

3 VAwarn, p. 16.

9 Carl B. Cone,7he English Jacobins. Reformers in Late Eighteenth-Century England(New York: Scribner,1968).

10Burke, p.17.

" Hobsbawm,p. I. 50

twice the wealth as that generatedby property ownership and 12 agriculture.

Therewas consternationamong Norwich liberals in 1794when the standingMember of Parliament William Windham,became more reactionaryand cultivatedthe friendshipof Burke. Windham subsequentlycrossed the floor to acceptthe postof Secretaryof War in

Pitt's cabinet.13 In view of the increasinglyintolerant regime of the government,Norwich radicalsregarded the struggleas crucial. Their aim wasto unseathim in favour of Bartlett Gurney,but they were unsuccessful.However, according to a letter from SarahScott to her sisterElizabeth Montagu dated 15 July, 1794,a 'most curiousincident' occurredin the electioncampaign:

a youngwoman of uncommontalents of about25 yearsof age madea long speechin the Town Hall to about 1500of the Jacobins,assembled against Mr. Wyndham(sic), and two daughtersof a late Doctor of Divinity stoodone on eachside of her to encourageher in her proceeding.14

In her Introductionto a recentedition of Anna Plumptre's

SomethingNew; or Adventuresat CampbellHouse, Debomh McLeod claimsthat MacGregoridentifies the "young woman" as Amelia Opie and the "two daughters"as Anne and AnnabellaPlumptre'. 15 She gives no pagereferences, and I havebeen unable to find any trace of this anecdotein MacGregor. It is not mentionedin Brightwell nor in either

12 E. Hal6vy,England in 1815(London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1924),p. 203. 13 Norfolk Chronicle,12 July 1794,p. 2. 14 Citedin JohnBusse, Mrs Montagu,'Queen of theBlues'ed. R Blunt(London: Constable,1932), p. 303. 15 AnnaPlumptre, Something New; or Adventuresat CampbellHouse,ed. Deborah McLeod(Peterborough, Canada: Broadview, 1988), pp. ix-x. 51 of the two local papers,the Norfolk Chronicleand the Norwich

Mercury, during the time of the electioncampaign. However, it seems very likely that the youngwoman speaker was in fact Amelia Opie. If so,the incidentreveals her political commitment.From what is known of her outgoing,even dogmatic nature, it seemsnot outsideher characterto makesuch a public speech.

In May of that sameyear, a numberof radicalswere arrestedon chargesof sedition,including ThomasHardy, the founderof the

LondonCoffesponding Society, John Home Tooke,John Thelwall and

ThomasHolcroft. Thesearrests followed a round of arrestsof booksellersand the trial in absentiaof ThomasPaine, who had

hurriedly left for Francein 1792.16The trials which beganin October

1794at the Old Bailey becamethe focal point of the struggleagainst

Pitt's reactionaryregime. The trial of ThomasHardy, the first prisoner

to be broughtbefore Lord ChiefJusticeSir JamesEyre, lastedeight 17 daYSbefore he wasacquitted, amongst scenes ofjoy. Twelve days

later,the trial of Home Tooke began,also underEyre, and five days

later he, too, was acquitted,amidst similar scenesofjubilation. It is

clear from Barrell that much of the credit for his acquittalbelonged to

his counsel,the Hon. ThomasIrvine. 18 Medals and tokenswere struck

commemomfingthis victory for mdicalismand severalof thesedepict

16Kme, 344 aM ff.

17Barrell, p.364.

18See BarrA esp.p. 391. 52

19 Irvine.

Amelia Opie had long beeninterested by jurisprudence,and would remainso all her life, as her lettersconfirm. Brightwell quotes from herjournals of her enthusiasticchildhood attendances at the

Assize Court in Norwich-20Her father had contact with Thomas

Holcroft throughthe CorrespondingSociety, and therewas accommodationfor her at the houseof SamuelBoddington, the non- conformistminister, in Southgate.She was thus ableto attendthe

TreasonTrials. Barrell recordsher overhearingThomas Erskine, a prominentbarrister and later an MP, replying to a remarkby Eyre in a form implied to duet21 Duelling that of wordswhich a challenge a . at time was an anachronisticpractice which was not actuallyillegal but which was unpopularwith radicals.22 In AdelineMowbray (1805),

Opie's philosopherGlenmurray fidminated against the practice,as did

William Godwin in real life.23 It was,however, in Clark's words,

'proof of the survival and powerof the aristocraticideal as a code

separatefrom, and ultimately superiorto, the injunctionsof law and

religion.924 According to Barrell, Opie subsequentlymised this with

19 Ibid., ppA06 - 407.

20BrightweII, pp.23-27.

21Barrell, p.387.

22See I C. D. Clark, English &)Ciety 1688-1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 109.

23 See Opie, Adefine Mawbray, pp.29-30. Also Godwin, pp.94-96.

' Clark, p. 109. 53

Erskinein 1813,who confirmedthat he had so challengedEyre. 25 The incident,highly unprofessionaland watereddown by the press,is indicativeof the passionthe trial generated.

It is indicative of the uneasefelt by Dissentersat the outcome that Dr Aldersonburnt all Opie's lettersto him of the trial. However,a letter to her confidanteSusannah Taylor survives,in which her commentsindicate the gravity with which manyDissenters regarded the verdict and its possibleconsequences:

I hope we are at all eventsresolved to emigrateif the event of the trial be fatal. [We would] carry a little society along with us, in which we could be happy shouldPhiladelphia disappoint our expectations.26

The Aldersonswere not the only peopleto consideremigration.

JonathanWordsworth notes that this was'precisely the momentwhen

Coleridgeand Southey[were] planninga communeon the banksof the

Susquehanrd,continuing:

Priestley had emigrated earlier in the year; had Holcroft, Hardy, Tbelwall and other leading radicals indicted for treason,been England convicted ... would not have been a place in which French sympathisers could continueto live.27

Opie's accountof her experiencesat the trial revealsher

excitementat beinga witnessto a crucial legal event:

I heardthat at theseapproaching trials, to which I hoped to gain admission,I shouldnot only hearthe first

25Barrel), p387.

26Opie to SusannahTaylor, October1794; Huntington OP52.

27 AkMeliaOpie, Adefthe Mowbrioý Jonathan Wordsworth, ed. (Poole:Woodstock, 1995),introduction, unpaginated. 54

pleaders at the bar, but behold, and probably hear examined, the first magnatesof the land; and on the interests eventdepended ... of a public nature, and most nearly affecting the safety and prosperity of the nation: aye, and much personally interesting to myself, as I knew, in the secret of my heart, that my own prospect for life might probably be changedand darkened by the 28 result.

While stayingwith the Boddingtonsat the time of the Treason

Trials, Opie took the opportunityto visit William Godwin in nearby

SomersTown a few daysbefore they began.Godwin was a friend of her father,a critic of her play and the authorof Political Justice

(1793),which shehad rea(LAlso, shehad met him a few months previouslywhen he visited her father in Norwich. Her expectationsat that time hadbeen to find 'a manafter his own heart', but, as shelater told Wollstonecraft,she was disappointedto find him 'a man after the presentstate ot. ngs. 29

Both MacGregorand Julia Kavanaghquote her descriptionof meetingagain one of the most importantradical figuresof the day, containedin a letter to ýArsTaylor, the original of which was in the now-missingCaff Mss.:

Mr. J. Boddingtonand I set off for town yesterdayby way of Islington, that we might pay our first visit to GodwirL We ... arrived at about one o'clock at the philosopher'shouse, whom we found with his hair bien poudri, and in a pair of new, sharp-toed,red morocco slippers, not to mention his green coat and crimson under-waistcoat. He received me very kindly but I wonderedwhat shouldthink of being out of London; - could I be either amusedor instructed at Southgate? How did I passmy time? What were my pursuits?and a great deal more, which frightened my protector, and

28BrightwelL pp.49-50.

" Ibid., pp.41. 55

tired me, till at last I told him I had not yet outlived my affections and that they bound me to the family at Southgate. Rarely did little did he ... we agree,and gain on me by his mode of attack, but he seemedalarmed lest he shouldhave offended me, and apologisedseveral times for the harshnessof his expressions.30

It would appearfrom her letter that shefelt shehad made a considerableimpression on Godwin. A later letter to Mrs Taylor, during a further visit to the.Boddingtotfs, describes how, as he preparedto concludehis visit 'He wishedto saluteme, but his courage failed hine.31 He resolvedhis dilemmaby pocketingher slipperas a keepsake.'You haveno idea!,continued Opie, how gallanthe has become'.

Opie beganto visit Londonmore frequently,discovering what 32 shedescribed as a'wildernessof pleasure!. Shedid not comeentirely out of the blue: Henry CrabbRobinson recalls that 'There cameto visit

Miss Buck a young lady from Norwich who had alreadyacquired a 33 greatprovincial celebrity,Amelia Alderson. If CrabbRobinson intendeda literary 'celebrity', this must havebeen from TheDangers ofCoquetry, her only publishedwork, and anonymousat that, until her contributions to 7he Cabinet appeared,also anonymously, in 1795. He may, of course,have intended radical celebrity,which might lend more credenceto the incidentat the electionmeeting Alternatively, in view

of the oxymoronicnature of 'provincial celebritiy', he may have

30MacGregor, pp. 20-21.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid., p.22. 56 intendedirony.

TheCabinet, the joumal of the TusculaneumSociety of

Norwich, was publishedin threevolumes in that city during 1795.

William Taylor, Jnr., generallyregarded as being the editor and driving force behindthe publication,was then twenty-nine and Opie twenty- five.34 A slip of papersurvives recording the namesof the Members of the TusculanSchool'present at a meetingwhich took placeon 18th

October1793, although Opie'sname is not amongstthem. 35

The Tusculanspublished anonymously, most contributors signingtheir work with a single letter, an asteriskor other printer's device. In Opie'scase, the letter sheused was W, and this can be verified by cross-checkingseven of the poemsin TheCabinet which also appeareither in Poem (1802) or The Warrior's Returnand Other

Poems(1808). Regardingthe identity of the contributorsto The

Cabinet,Jewson makes reference toa manuscriptkey to someof the

36 codeS'. WalterGrahmn presents further evidence of authorshipbased on the existenceof a

'marked copy' in the Library of the University of Michigan, U. S.A. -a copy which, from the internal evidence,appears to have been once the property of Richard or Arthur Taylor - seemsto settle beyond a reasonabledoubt the identity of the writers.37

33H. CrabbRobinson, Books and their Writers,ed. Edith J Morley (London:Dent, 1938),p. 2.

34 Jewson,p. 59.

33 Norfolk Record Office, Norwich; 143924.

36Jewson, p.60. 37 Walter Graham,'The Authorshipof the Norwich Cabinet,1794-1795', Notes and 57

Graham'sarticle suggestedthat the copy in the University of

NfichiganLibrary hadbeen marked to showthe identitiesof the contributors.Richard and Arthur Taylor were brothersof William, the editor of TheCabinet. On exwnination,the copy in questionshows clear notesunder a heading'Signatures in the Cabinet' which list the contributorand their signson the flyleaf beforethe title pageof

Volume One.38 This would appearto confirm the attributionsbeyond reasonabledoubt, despite the list beingcompiled after May 1798,the dateof Amelia Alderson'smarriage to John Opie, as the entry for her 39 reads"Amelia Alderson,now Mrs. Opie'. The TusculaneumSociety, despitedescribing itself as a'Society of Gentlemere,nevertheless seemsto haveaccepted a considerableamount of work from Amelia

Opie and AnnabellaPlumptre (A. B.'), althoughtheirs are the only women'snames that appearon the list in the University of Michigan

copy. The matecontributors are identified as: JohnTaylor (II. D.),

T.S. Norgate(a small hand),Charles Marsh (X), William Enfield

('Homo','M), William Youngman('Alcanoe), John StewartTaylor

('Clio'), JohnPitchford (Y), EdwardRigby (W), IL Gardiner('***' ),

the Rev.T. DrummondCG. 1), William Dalrymple ('ooo'orme), Henry

CrabbRobinson (H. C.P, ') and William Taylor, who usedno mark4o

The closeresemblance of the TusculaneurnSociety to the Speculative

Quefies,162 (1932),294-295.

38 7heCabinet, Special Collections Library, Universityof Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid. 58

Societyidentified by Chandlerwill be seenfrom comparingthe names

41It that theseindividuals of the respectivemembers . seemsclear formedthe core of Dissentingradicalism in Norwich at the time.

An accountin Frazer'sThe Golden Bough records Tusculum as beingone of the townsto which the sacredgrove of Diana at Nemi was dedicatedby EgeriusBaebius, the Latin dictator, on behalf of the 42 peoplesof thosetowns. The grove is associatedwith Hippolytus, describedby Frazerasyoung, virginal and faie and the companionof

Artemis in the sylvansetting. According to legendHippolytus was killed by his father Theseus,but later revivedand takenby Artemis into her grove.The nameis thereforean apt one for a predominantly male groupof youngradical intellectualswho, in an emphatically patriarchalsociety, regarded themselves as alienatedfrom their

Government,if not their actualfathers.

The volumesof TheCabinet have a dedicatoryverse on the fly,

andthe first volume hasa Preface. The dedicatoryverse, attributed to

JamesThomson (1700-174 8), the sentimentalnature poet, reads:

The ... centuryclaims our active aid; Then let us roam,and wherewe find a spark Of public virtue, blow it into flame.

The metre,subject-matter and rhetoricalnature of theselines is

certainlyreminiscent of Thomson'sode 'Liberty' (pub.1750). 43ThiS

41 Chandler,p. 5.

12 Sir JamesFrazer, 7he GoldenBough(New York: Macmillan, 1922),2 vols.,l, p.6.

`3 JamesThomson, Works (London: A- Millar, 1750),4 vols., 2, unpaginated. 59 work presentsa conceptionof Ancient Greeceas being the perfect civilisation, blendingrational knowledgeand the imaginationto producehigh Art.

Furtherindication of the Tusculan'sradical zeal is found in the

Preface,identified by his mark as the work of ThomasNorgate (1772-

1859),which begins,not immodestly:

No work in the English language, perhaps, ever appeared to the world, under circumstancesmore inauspiciousand depressingthan THE CABINU. Its publication was announcedat a time, when the public mind seducedby the base artifices of a designingand profligate administration, rejected with a furious 44 disdain,every attempt at rationalreform.

Norgate'sdiscourse continues with further lofty phrases,including a

referenceto local obstaclesto publication,namely'the wretched effects

of misrepresentation,prejudice and party spirit' which havenow been

overcome.It continues:

One point only the Editors beg leave to insist on, viz. the purity of the intentions that gave birth to the undertaking. Tremblingly alive to the horrors of a ministerial despotism,unparalleled in the history of this countrysince the revolution [of 1688],they enteredon a path besetwith many dangers,in the courseof which they were to meetwith much and seriousdifficulty.

The FrenchRevolution is mentioned,which event'though

sullied by manya foul deed,still seemedto promisethe sublime

spectacleof a greatand powerful nation governingitself on the

principlesof liberty and equality'-. Having establishedtheir radical,

evenrevolutionary, ideals, the Editors concludethree pages later with a

44 Me Cabinet,1, pJ andff. Subsequentquotations are from this edition, andpage numbersare includedparenthetically in the text. 60 dedication'tothat public, whosepowerful arm hasso successfully defendedit againstthe attacksof an intolerantand malignantfaction'.

This is dated17 January 1795.

MacGregorlists a total of fifteen poemsin The Cabinetwhich

feels be Amelia Opie 45 Although MacGregor's she can attributedto . researchis usuallyscrupulous, she misses out the poem'Laud, which appearedin volumethree of TheCabinet, pp. 17-2 1, with the monogramW, and re-printedin Opie's first collection of verse publishedin 1802,also the poem'Carolineto Hcruy in volume three.

This latter poemis not credited,but it alsoappears in the 1802 anthology. The definitive numberis thereforeseventeen poems.

In addition,however, a shortstory appearedin TheCabinet which can be attributedto Amelia Opie by the deviceof the letter N', 46 andthis attributionis confinnedby Graham. 'Tbe Nun' appearedin volumetwo (pp.137 - 143). While it may be seenas little morethan a deviceto presenta vindication of the later stagesof the French

Revolutionat a time when sympathyfor the revolutionarycause was

rapidly ebbingin England,it doescontain certain ingredients which are to becomecharacteristic of Opie'slater prosewriting pathos,a subtly

contrivedsituation, and the deviceof an interlocutor. The tale is told

in the first personby an Englishmanstaying in Bruges,who is riding

out to escapethe RevolutionaryArmy as it advancestowards that city.

The ingenuous,itinerant, sentimental male narrator,reminiscent at

45 MacGregor, p. 12fn.

46 Graham,p. 294. 61

fleeing from once of Sterne's Yorick, passesa group of nuns also

Bruges and 'sincerely pitying their situation, [he] pulled off [his] hat

delicacy by respectfully as [he] passedthem, without alarming their the 47 gaze Of CUrioSiW.

Furtheralong the road from Brugeshe meetsanother nun sitting on the verge. Sheasks him the whereaboutsof her sisters,and

he feelsthat'I had beenin the presenceof the most haughtyprince on

earth'in tenus of theawe and embarrassmenfhe experiences

answering'thisforlorn and friendlessfemale' (p. 138). Yorick's persona

suggestsitself oncemore, particularly his interview with thefille de

48The informs Opie's traveller her paradoxical chambre. nun of situation:that sheis French,and althoughof noble birth, a fervent

Revolutionarybecause she has seen how

The tyrannyof the aristocracyand courtsis hateful in the sight of God: for the groansof millions, victims to their power,rise up againstthem, and... the blood that is now shedwill purchase the happinessof the thousandsyet unborn.(p. 139)

Thereare gender implications in her narrative. First, sheis the victim

of her father's,determination to passhis wealth to his son,hence her

present position as a nun. Second, somewhere in the approaching

RevolutionaryArmy is her male lover, from whom shemust flee, since

her vows may not be broken. But her flight is not without an internal

struggle:she tells the nan-ator,

'7 Amelia Opie, 'The Nun' in 7heCabinet, vol. 2, p. 138. Subsequentreferences to this tale areincluded parenthetically in the text.

48See Lawrence Steme, A SentimentalJourneyThrough France andItaly (U)ndon: Penguin,1986), p. 90 andff. 62

There were moments,when hurried away by the power of awakenedpassion, I felt resolutefrom despair,and almost determinedto brave the censureof the world, and the power of my superior,and stay to behold him once again,to hail with him the triumph of liberty, and then bid him farewell for ever. (p.142)

In sucha shortstory, written with political as well as aesthetic goals,Amelia Opie hasconstructed a paradoxof subtlecomplexity and onewhich stronglydraws on the difficult patha young womanmust tread,in waysthat arereminiscent of TheDangers of Coquetry.the nun is caughtbetween her virtuousvows to the orderand her arnorous desiresfor her lover, a tensionOpie, will revisit in her gothic tale

'Love, Mystery and Superstition'(1820). However,the order is servingthe corrupt instructionsof a qTannicalfather, a memberof the rigime sheexecrates, and the lover is a soldier of the forcesof liberty.

Sheowes duty to the corrupt patriarch,who opposesthe courseof young love and the liberationthat goeswith it. The pathosof this youngwomaWs plight stronglyaffects the sentimentalnarrator, who concludesthe tale with the single line, 'I know not how I got to

Ostend!'

This concludingparagraph, however, is precededby the political moral of the tale, which hasan increasedpotency, having affectedthe readerthrough the deviceof the sentimentalnarrator. it reads:

Farewell, sir! Blessingsattend you! and should you ever be tempted to execratethe French revolution on accountof the partial misery which it has occasioned, think on the victim of that governmentwhich it has destroyed,whose sorrows you yourself have witnessed, and forgive it for the sakeof SISTERANGELINA. 63

While this statementin itself legitimises,the FrenchRevolution on the 49 Rousseauean.grounds of the greatergood despite the 'partial MiSeryv, it also seemsclear that the nun!s divided loyaltiesand the paradoxical relationshipshe has with them to somedegree reflected a conflict presentin Amelia Opie!s own mind at this time. Sheevidently felt the probabilityof a popularuprising in Englandand other European countriesto be a strongone, which, given the radical natureof the societyin which shemoved in both Norwich and London,is perhaps understandable.She also realisedthat in this eventuality,the forcesof reactionwere well-prepared,as we haveseen from the report of the mobilisationof the Yeomanry,and that muchblood would be shed.50 in a letter to Mrs. Taylor, shewrites, with the customarylove of florid metaphorto signala matterof high importance:

I believe an hour to be approachingwhen salut et fraternitj will be the watchwordsfor civil slaughter throughoutEurope the the ... meridien glory of sun of Liberty, in France, will light us to courting the past dangers and horrors of the Republic in hopes of obtainingher presentpower and greatness.51

Clearly perceivingsuch an eventto be'an awful time', she

expressesa wish to 'meetit with fortitude, continuing:

But I shrink, and shrink only, from the idea of ties dear to my heart which it will forever break; of the friendships I must forego; of the dangers of those I love; and of friends equally dear to me, meetingin the

49 SeeJA. Rousseau,'The Social Contract' in D. A. Cress (ed.) Jean-Jacques Rousseaw 7he Basic Political Writings (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987), pp. 214 & ff.

50Matehett, ed., unpaginated.

31 BrightwelL p.58. 64

field of strife opposedin mortal combat.

The inferencethat, shieldedby her sex,Opie herselfdoes not expectto take part in any 'mortal combat'wasnot an assumption 52 sharedby manyof the womenRevolutionists in France. For all the rhetoric,we glimpsea romanticisedview of any armedstruggle, in keepingwith genderexpectations that existedin Englanduntil the twentiethcentury.

Jewsonwrites that 'After publishingfor twelve monthsit was judged wise to discontinueThe Cabinet.253 His commentrefers to the political tensionsof the time and the consequentneed for prudencefelt by manyradicals. The needto distancethemselves from the publicationis suggestednot only by the anonymityof the contributions but alsoby Opie's later comment:'What a pity TheCabinet is dangerous.I shouldhave enjoyed it elseso much.)54 The ironic phrase

'should have' suggeststhat shewas merelya potentialreader rather thanan actual contributor, or alternativelythat she read it but couldnot

enjoy it becauseof its political stance.Either way, her commentis

evidenceof the skill with which shemanipulated not only her language

but also her public persona.Significantly for her constructionof Opie

as a figure of respectability,Brightwell makesno direct mentionof The

Cabinet,merely quoting the abovein a longer letter without comment.

It will be seenfrom the foregoingtale and letter and someof

52 SeeDominique Godineau, Ae WomenofParis and their FrenchRevolution (London:University of California, 1998),esp. pp. 134and ff.

53C. B. Jewson,p. 60.

54Opie to SusannahTaylor; 1794:Huntington Library. 65 the poemsin TheCabinet that Amelia Opie was,at this time, a committedradical who could effectively useher narrativeand poetic skills to communicatea libertarian,democratic, pacifist political messageat a time whenthe agentsof repressionin Britain were at their mostactive, and British popularsentiment was alignedwith the British

military in reactingto the GrandAnnje of RevolutionaryFrance.

While the educatedclasses debated the successor otherwiseof

the Revolutionin France,the majority of the populationexperienced

greathardship. Riots and disturbancescontinued to breakout during

the early ninetiesas they had donesince 1740.55Most of thesewere

causedby increasesin the price of food. Ile areasaffected in 1792

wereNottingham, Leicester, Norwich and Sheffield. In 1793,towns in

Cornwall werevisited by miners'in searchof concealedcorn'. 56 In the

sameyear, on September30, a numberof peoplewere killed by the

military whenprotesting a toll imposedon a bridge in Bristol. During

1794,as well as unrestin Newcastle,'a continualferment existed in

the WestRiding of Yorkshire. In order to copewith any possible

disorder,a defencecorps was organisedat Leeds,Halifax, Bradford

and York.257 1795 is regardedby Wearmouthas 'the most turbulent

during the last twenty the 58 Evidence yearsof century'. of the desperationfor food is seenin the incidentat Knottingley, when a

55 SeeRobert Wearmouth, Methodism and the CommonPeople of theEighteenth Century(London: EpworthPress, 1945), pp. 19 - 50. 56Ibid., p.45.

57Ibid., p.46.

5" Ibid., p.47. 66 vesselloaded with com was detainedby protestersand not released until the yeomanryappeared. At the com mills in Halifax a demonstrationby womenand childrenwas dispersedby the cavalry of the Yorkshire Volunteers." This was class war, but it did not appearto connectwith the mdical concernsof English peopleof the middle rank.

Evenwhen the first Com Law was introducedin 1804,it was not vigorouslyopposed by the enfranchisedclasses. Discussing the relative weaknessof EnglishJacobinism at this time, Hobsbawmnotes that

'the very fleet at Spithead,which mutiniedat a crucial stageof the war

[1797],clamoured to be allowedto sail againstthe Frenchonce their demandshad been met'60 As Wearmouthpoints out the poor were not unpatriotic:they were in distress.61

By late 1795it wasappropriate for Opie to move closerto the vortex of political thoughtin London,where she subsequently lived for long periods,alternating with spellsin Norwich. Opie quickly became part of a coteriecomprised of William Godwin,Elizabeth Inchbald,

ThomasHolcroft and herselEHer lettersat that time recordher

intellectualexcitement: that of 28 August 1795to Godwin spedksof the 'new ideas' shehas gained from him.62 This letter is clearly

written to impress,for its languageis intellectualby comparisonwith

herusual informal tones, and in considerablecontrast to onedated II

59Ibid.

60Hobsbawm, p.79.

61 Wearmouth, p.5 1.

62 Opie to Godwin, 28/8/95; Bodleian Library, BDep. 6/210.6. 67

November1796, in which sheremonstrates with him for calling her a

'Coquette'and 'Bitch'. 63 'By 1796',writes MacGregor,'the friendship 64 betweenthe four occasionedconsiderable general interest! Both

MacGregorand Kavanagh quote Opie's letter of this period,now lost, which appearsin Brightwell. The letter is undated,which was not uncommonfor Opie. William St Clair, however,puts it at June 1795, 65 which appearsto be accurate. Opie writes:

Mrs Inchbald says the report of the world is, that Mr Holcroft is in love with her, she with Mr Godwin, Mr Godwin with me, and I in love with Mr. Holcroft! A pretty story indeed! This report Godwin brings to me, and he says Mrs I. always tells him that when she praiseshim, I praiseHolcroft. This is not fair in Mrs I. Sheappears to me to be jealous of G.'s attentionto me, so shemakes him believe that I prefer R to him. She often saysto me, 'Now that you are come,Mr. Godwin 66 doesnot comenear me. ' Is this not very womanish?

ElizabethInchbald is of significanceat this time of Amelia Opie's political education,for thereare two similaritiesbetween the two women. The first is their regionalconnection, and the secondis in the

way that neitherwoman was as doctrinaireas Godwin and Holcroft

might havewished. Writing of InchbaldýGary Kelly commentsthat:

Mrs Inchbald ... enjoyeda rangeof social connections. had fashionable than ... she always more acquaintance she needed,and more than some of her more rigid friends,such as Holcroft and Godwin, thought good for her. But owing to her East Anglian origins she also had extensive connections amongst that astonishing

63 Ibid.

64 MacGregor,p. 20. 65 William St. Clair, The Godwins and the Shelleys (London: Faber, 1989), p. 152.

66 Brightwell, p.59. 68

collection of Dissenting intelligentsia centred in Norwich, and active in every branch of religion, industryand the arts.67

William Godwinwas clearly a manwho hadthe powerto attractwomen, and construct relationships with them. In discussing him, Kelly notes:

there was always something androgynous about his cast he himself There be of mind, as admitted. .... can no other explanation for Godwin's attractivenessto such a wide range of female charactersas Elizabeth Inchbald, Amelia Alderson, Mary Robinson, Mary Hays and Mary Wollstonecraft. For these women, Godwin was more than a Mentor or father-figure, more, one might say, than a mere man. The letters and the novels of these women, if read with care and candour, witness their recognition of Godwitfs candid and catalyzing personality.68

The tenor of the group was unquestionably literary. Jonathan

Wordsworth points out that Elizabeth Inchbald asked [Godwin] to look over her Simple Story (179 1), and in turn read the proofs of Caleb

69 Williams (1794)'. Opie's letters indicate that she had dramatised his story 'The Sorcerer',to the sight of which he respondedfavourably.

Shealso mentions a new play written in the summerof 1796,which shesends to him for readingon I November1796, and discussesin subsequentletters. 70

Kelly discussesGodwin's interest in Inchbald,quoting from

67 Gary Kelly, 77wEnglish Jacobin Noveimo-mo. 5 (oxford: oup, 1976), p.5. " Ibid., p.266. 69 Wordsworth, ed., unpaginated. 70 Amelia Alderson to William Godwin, I April 1796; undated (before I November 1796); 1 November 1796; 13 November 1796 and 18 November 1796: Bodleian, B. Dep 6/210. 69

Godwin'sjounialentry for 16March 1793: 'Call on Inchbald,talk of

71 marriage.9 Of Mary Hays,Wordsworth writes that shewrote out of the blue to boffow a copy of Political Justice,and, although she was nevera favourite,Godwin! s lettersform a substantialpart of her autobiographicalEmma Courtney (1796). '72 Hays,who met Amelia

Opie at this time, expressedher opinion of her in a letter to Godwin dated6 June 1796: 'Assured,fearless and self-satisfied,Miss A must

long since have forgotten to blush or hesitate! 73Opie, on the other hand, expressedpleasure in reading Elays' Emma Courtney, both to

74 Wollstonecraftand to Godwin. Unflatteringas Hays' commentmay

be, it certainlyreveals Opie's youthful worldlinessat that time. The

assertivebehaviour implied in Hays"sketch of her indicateshow, as a

radical,she felt ableto trawgressthe limits of femalebehaviour

deemedappropriate by polite societyand expressed in the agonsof

Opie's The Dangers of Coquetry.75

In severalof the lettersreferred to above,Opie expressesher

concernand that of her fatherfor the dilettantepoet Robert Merry

(1755-1798), who had fled abroad to escapehis creditors. On 10 July

1796William Godwinjourneyedto Norwich to approachDr Alderson

71 Kelly, p. 13.

72 Wordsworth,ed., unpaginated.

73Mary Haysto William Godwin,6 June1796; Pforzheimer Collection, New York PublicLibrary. 74 AmeliaOpie to Mrs Imlay, 17December 1796 and to William Godwin,22 December1796; Bodleian, B. Dep 6/210. 75 PatriciaHowell MichaelsonSpeakng Volumes. - Wom&4 Rea&ng and Speechin AustenandHer Time(Stanford, Ca.: StanfordUniversity Press, 2001), p. 13 andff. 70 for fundsto relieveMerry's indebtedness.His diary entry for that day readsimply 'Proposeto Alderson.' This cryptic entry hasled certain biographersto assumethat the proposalwas one of marriageto Amelia

Alderson. William St Clair, Godwin'smost recent biographer, explainsthe misconception:

On 10 July Godwin had in his journal 'Propose to ... noted Alderson', as a result of which earlier biographers of Godwin and Wollstonecraft have believed, with insufficient surprise, that he made the journey to Norwich in order to propose marriage to Amelia Alderson. In fact, Godwin's proposal was addressedto her father - Amelia was not in Norwich at the time - and concerned a plan to buy off the creditors of [the poet] Robery Merry had been for debt days ... who arrested two before and who now wanted to emigmte to the United States.76

St. Clair's source is Kegan Paul, where it is possible to read

Godwin's own words. Godwin had first met Merry in 1792 when living in SomersTown, and the two menbecame friends. 77 In a review of the year 1796,Godwin states:

In the course of this summer, I paid a secondvisit to Norfolk, in the company of Merry, and had the happiness,by my interference and importuning with my friends, to relieve this admirable man from a debt of ;E200, for which he was arrested while I was under his roof, and would otherwise have been thrown in jail. 78

As a further corroboration, St. Clair also mentions in a footnote: 'Amelia Alderson was in London at the time of the proposal, as is clearfrom a referencein theJournals to Godwincalling on

76 W. St. Clair, p. 164.

77 P. MarshalL William Godwin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 145. 71ý It Kegan PauL William Godwin: His Ffiends and Coidempoywies (Izndon: Henry King, 1876), 2 vols., 1, p. 164. 71

Amelia Aldersonon his retum.'79According to Marshall,Dr Alderson rejectedGodwin's proposal. 80 This wasprobably because Merry hada reputationas an idle profligatewho hadalready spent his own fortune 81 in Florence,although he wasrevered by artistic liberalsin London.

The proposalincident is of significancebecause a numberof critics who thoughtthat Godwinwas proposing marriage to Amelia

Opie used it to explain one of Opie's motives in writing Adefine

Mowbray (1805) as attacking Mary Wollstonecraft with, as Claire

Tomalin put it in her biography of Wollstonecraft, 'distinctly malicious enthusiasm'.82

Nothingcould be further from the truth, for Amelia Opie was anxiousto meetthe authorofA Vindicationofthe Rightsof Woman.

MacGregorwrites, basing her commentson KeganPaul: The two met in 1796 becamefast friends. Amelia deeplyimpressed. and ... was

Two thingsonly, shesaid, had fulfilled her expectations- the Lake

Countryand Mmy WollstonecrafLt83 Kegan Paul, reading from

Godwin'sJournal, reports that Opie's actualwords were 'Mrs. Imlay andthe CumberlandLakes, ' but the impactof the comparisonisj ust as

79 St. Clair, p.536.

goMarshall, p. 182. "DictionmyofNational Biography ed. by S Lee (London: Smith, Elder, 1897), 13, 295.

32 Claire Tomalin, 7he Life andDeath ofMwy Wollstonecraft (London: Penguin, 1985), p.293. Seealso Marilyn Butler, Burke, Paine, Godwin wid the Revolution Controversy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 121; Jane Spencer, Ihe Rise of the WomanNovelist (London: Basil Blackwell, 1986); Matthew Grenby, 'Woman as She Should Be: Women, Writing and Counter-Revolution in the 1790s' paper delivered April 1996,London Women's Study Group.

83 MacGregor, p.2 1. 72 telling.84The original letter,unfortunately, is missing. On 28 August

1796Opie wrote warmly to Mrs Imlay, as Wollstonecraftthen styled

derive from Will herself 'I so muchpleasure thinking of you ... you help me accountfor the strongdesire I alwaysfeel whenwith you to sayaffectionate things to you?'85 The letter continuesby Opie saying that sheis readingWollstonecraft's 'Letters from Norway', meaning, presumably,the just-published Lettersfrom Scandinavia(1796).

Opie's gushingaffection was not returnedby Wollstonecraft, who, older,perhaps more devious and lesswilling to risk beinghurt, negotiatedher way into the clique with her eyeon Godwin,the philosopherwho had inveighedagainst marriage. Perhaps, like Opie, expectingto find a congruencebetween the manand his writings, she felt safewith him. On 17August Godwin and Wollstonecraft became lovers,as seenby his enigmaticdiary entry: 'chezmoi, toute.86 Letters from Opie duringNovember and December of thatyear indicatea clumsyoffer of financialassistance to 'Mrs Imlay' from an anonymous benefactor,Wollstonecraft's indignation at the offer and Opie's rather hurt response.87 Shewas also peeved by Godwin'schurlish acceptance

of a gift of apples,writing to him that 'My gift wasmeant in simple

courtesy,as a mark of attentionmerely. 88It seemsas though

" Kegan PauL 1, p. 158.

85Amelia Alderson to Mrs Way, 28 August 1796; Bodleian, B. Dep. 6/210.

86Tornalin, p.258.

" Alderson to Godwin, 18 November 1796; Alderson to Mrs Imlay, 18 December 1796; Alderson to Godwin, 22 December 1796: Bodleian, B. Dep. 6/2 10.

88Alderson to Godwin, 22 December 1796; Bodleian, B. Dep. &2 10. 73

Wollstonecraftwas asserting her territory in her new relationshipby usingher greatermaturity to rebuff Opie's ingenuousnessand keepher at a distance.Opie's next letter to 'Mrs Godwin', undatedbut written afterMarch 1797,is polite but coolerin toneand concernsobtaining a seat in her theatre box89 While it is important not to over-simplify this three-wayrelationship, it seemsclear that althoughOpie wasoffended by Wollstonecraft,she was never malicious towards her.

Godwinand Wollstonecraftdid not many immediately,but set up housetogether with Godwin keeping separatequarters across the roadin which to do his writing. Ve did not marry,'he writes in his

Memoirsof theAuthor of W Vindicationof the RightsofMan',

'nothingcan be so ridiculousupon the faceof it, or so contraryto the genuinemarch of sentimenýas to requirethe overflowingof the soul to wait upon a ceremony.190 Tbus it was that, as JonathanWordsworth writes, 'Wollstonecraft would be regardedfor the next century and a 91 half as a fallen woman!. This cohabitation lasted only six months or so, until Mary Wollstonecraft found herself pregnant, when the pair decidedto marry, which they did in March 1797.

The decisionobliged friends to notethat Wollstonecraft,who styledherself 'Mrs Imlay', did not haveto first divorceGilbert Imlay and theytherefore had to cometo termswith the fact that Mary

Wollstonecraftwas an unmarriedmother. Elizabeth Inchbald's

" Alderson to Mrs Godwin, undated, Bodleian, B. Dep.C, 507/15. 90 William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of 'A Vindication of the Rights ofMan' (London, 1798), p. 154. 91 Wordsworth, ed., unpaginated. 74 passionaterenouncement of their friendshipis a matterof record.

After her publicly insultingthe coupleat the theatreon the nineteenth of April, twenty-onedays after the wedding,the letter shesent reads in part: 'With the mostsincere sympathy in all you havesuffered - with the mostperfect forgiveness of all you havesaid to me, theremust neverthelessbe an endto our acquaintanceforever'. 92 Amelia Opie, who wasin Norwich at the time of the wedding,did not so muchsever her links with the Godwinsas remainin the circlesfrom which they hadexcluded themselves. Her pragmatismis revealedin a letterto

SusannahTaylor in Norwich, written early in 1797(dated, as washer wont, simply 'Tuesday'),where she is discussinghow newsof the

Godwin-Wollstonecraftmarriage, 'that wonder-creatingevent, was receivedin London. Writing of the apparentcontradiction of the marriageof two philosopherswho had eachrenounced the ideaof marriage,she takes a robustlypragmatic view:

Heigho,what charmingthings would sublimetheories be, if onecould makeone's practice keep up with them; but I am convincedit is inýpossible,and am resolvedto makethe bestof every-daynature. 3

Six monthslater, on 30th August,Mary Wollstoncraft,'femme

Godwin'as she called herself, gave birth, with pain and difficulty. Ten days afterwards she was dead, probably from septicemia. The making-public of his relationship with Wollstonecraft in Godwin's

Memoirs was to causea wave of reaction to passthrough English

92 Quotedby Stracheyin his introductionto EtizabethInchbald, A SimpleStory (London: HenryFroude, 1908), pp. xiii - xiv. 93 Brightwell, p.63. This important letter appearsto have been lost, 75 writing and publishingwhich lastedwell into the nineteenthcentury.

Opie's biographer,for example,writing in 1853 with her own reasons for distancingOpie from Wollstonecraft,refers to Wollstonecraftas 'a strange,incomprehensible woman, whose unhappy existence terminatedshortly after this marriage.'94

From 1795until 1798Amelia Opie wasevidently moving in oneof London'smost sophisticated and radicalcircles. In additionto the namesalready cited, we can addDr Geddesand Anna Laetitia

Barbauld;95 Helen Maria Williams; CharlotteSmith; 96 Prince Hoare; 97

Johnson,the publisher,98 the imigns the Duc dAiguillon and Charles

Lameth.99

JohnOpie, whom Amelia wasto marry,was a fashionable enigma.For his appearanceand behaviour, MacGregor, quoting

Southey'sdescription which appearsin Earland,notes that his speech

'wasstill half Cornish,his mannersfree, and there was a certain vulgarity in his appearance! And yet, sheadds: 'Opie, in 1797,was well establishedin his profession.' He had survivedthe vagariesof

94 BrightwelL p.61.

93 Julia Kavanagh, Fngfish Womenoftetters (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1863) p.247. 96 Mary K Tevis, 'Amelia Opie: Exponent and Critic of the Novel of Radical Propaganda'unpublished MA Thesis (Denton, Texas: Texas Women's University, 1941), p. 18.

97 A letter dd. 6 December(no year) from Amelia Opie asksHoare, a producer of plays and member of the Royal Academy, to read a play ms.; Knox College Archives, Galesburg.111.

98 Ibid.

99 MacGregor, p. 21. 76 fashionwithout losinghis head. Vis fellow artiststhought well of him. In 1787he waselected a Royal Academician. SirJoshua

Reynoldshad from the beginninggiven praiseand encouragement;

Northcote him 100Opie liad had little ... considered a man of genius'. schooling[but] had assiduouslyendeavoured to educatehimself He waswidely readin the works of a numberof writers, amongthem 101 Milton and Shakespeare,Pope, Dryden and Johnson. ' He is mentionedtwice, favourably,in Hazlitt's TableTalk. 102Crabb

Robinson,however, like Dr. Alderson,found his manners'coarse'. 103

Thereis no reluctanceon the part of any biographerof Amelia

Opie,or Opie himself,or evenElizabeth Fry, to discussthe courtship andmarriage. Unlike the radicals,he wasclearly a manthe nineteenth-centurybiographers favoured. Ada Earlandwrites of their

first meetingin the springof 1797,in eitherNorwich or London.104

MacGregor,working from accountsin both Brightwell andA. M. W.

Stirling'sCoke qfNorfiolk and His Friends,is clearthat the meeting

took placein Norwich, but not exactlywhere. 105 Brightwell mentions

that it took placeat the houseof 'oneof her [Opies] early friends, and

the subtexthere is that it wasnot at the Gurneys,who were a wealthy

loo Ibid., p.25.

10' Ibid., p.24. 102 William Hazlitt, Table Talk (1815) ed. by C. M. Maclean (London: Dent, 1959), p. 10 & p.296.

'03Crabb Robinson, p.8. 104 Ada Earland,John Opie andHis Circle (London: Hutchinson, 1911), p. 124.

105MacGregor, p.23. 77

Quaker family, treated reverentially by Cecilia Brightwell, but at the

home of a more radical family, perhapsthe Taylor's or the

Plumptre's.106

JohnOpie hadbeen married, his first wife, Mary Bunn, having

elopedwith a Major Andrewsin 1795. Opie hadbeen granted a

divorcethe following year.He had alsobeen attracted to Mary

Wollstonecraft,and a letter from Amelia Opie to Mary Wollstonecraft

dated18 December 1796 includes the remark'I hearin a letterjust

receivedfrom town that you are to marry Opie.... That he would be 107 mosthappy to marry you, I firmly believe. A note survives

recordinghis agreementto attendWollstonecraft's funeral on 15

September1797, which readsin its entirety:'Sincerely lamenting the

melancholyoccasion. I will not fail to attendon Friday at the time and

placeyou havementioned'. 108

JanetWhitney remarks: 'Amelia Aldersonhad not only to

overcomeher middle-classprejudice against Opie's low birth: shehad

alsoto swallowthe fact that he wasa divorcedman. His first wife had

elopedwith an army officer, andOpie haddivorced her. ' 109If, as

Kavanaghsuggests, 'he was smittenwith love life-long anddeep%

Amelia Opie wasless sure. ' 10 Shefeared the lossof her circle of

'06 Ibid.

107Amelia Alderson to Mrs. Imlay, 18 December1796; Bodleian Library, Oxford., Dep.210/6.

108Note ftom JohnOpie to JamesMarshall; Bodleian Library, Oxford,Dep. C.507/14.

109 JanetWhitney, Elizabeth Fry - Quaker Heroine (London: Harrap, 1937), p.55.

110Kavanagh, p.249. 78 glittering friends,but, on the otherhand, as MacGregor notes,'at twenty-six,was anxious to marry."ll Sheexpressed her irresolutionin a letterto Mrs. Taylor:

there being ... are momentswhen, ambitiousof a wife and a mother, and of securingto myself a companion for life I to break fetters, ... could almostresolve all and relinquish,too, that wide and often aristocraticcircle in which I now move, and becomethe wife of a man whosegenius has raisedhim from obscurityinto fame and comparativeaffluence; but indeedmy mind is on the pinnacleof its health when thus I feel; and on a pinnacleone cant remainfor long!112

Kavanaghnotes that Amelia'vowed at first that his chancesof successwere but oneto a thousand!.113 John Opie persisted,however, andfinally won the consentof both Amelia and her father. J. C. D.

Harewrote of Amelia!s relationshipwith her fatherand the deep affectionshe felt for him, resonantof her later work Father and

Daughter (180 1):

When Amelia Opie married in May 1798 her chief inducement to do so was [John Opie's] promise that he would never separateher from the father to whom she had entirely devoted herself from the time of her mother's death when she was fifteen. 114

The marriage took place at Marylebone,Church on 8th May

1798. The couple set up home at John Opie's house at 8 Bemers

III MacGregor, p. 24.

112 Ibid.

113 Kavanagk p. 249.

114 flarej, p. 95. 79

Street,London. Aldersonallowed his daughtertwo hundredguineas a year.115 The lossof socialposition that Amelia feareddid not take place. As Whitney states,after her marriageAmelia

foundmatters far otherwisethan shesupposed. Insteadof relinquishingaristocratic circles, she found the onein which shehad moved before narrow indeed compared to that which the wife of Opie could commandin London. Her rough- manneredbut intrinsicallynoble husband was the fashion.116

Shebecame known to suchfigures as Sir JoshuaReynolds, Mrs.

Siddonsand Lady CarolineLamb. 117

Opie,a committedpainter, encouraged his wife in her writing.

Kavanaghcites the following from Amclia!s later writing, when,

looking backon her marriage,she commented:

Knowing,at the time of our marriage,that my most favourite amusementwas writing, he did not checkmy ambitionto becomean author, on the contrary,he encouragedit, andour only quarrelwas, not that I wrote too much,but that I did not write moreand better. ' 18

Amelia Opie enjoyedher marriage,writing to SusannahTaylor

of her happinessand 'a youthful enthusiasmin her new life'. ' 19An

ideaof the opulentlifestyle that Amelia Opie enjoyedcan be gained

from the following extractfrom JuneRose's biography of Elizabeth

Fry, known in her youth as Betsy,a memberof the influential and

QuakerGurney family who wereto play sucha part in Amelia!s later

I's MacGregor, p. 27.

116 Whitney, p. 55.

117 Ibid., p. 56.

I's Kavanagh,p. 250. 119 MacGregor, p.27. 80 life. The excerptquotes from Betsy'sdiary, recordinga visit to the operain 1798,a few monthsafter the wedding:

With her Norwich friendsthe Opies,she visited the opera. To her delight, the Princeof Waleswas there, already a grossand flamboyantfigure but, for Betsy,enchanting. She confided to her diary: 'I do love I I felt grandcompany ... own more pleasurein looking at him than in seeingthe rest of the companyor hearingthe music.' That evening,encouraged by Amelia Opie, her hair was dressedaga tin and shewas painteda little. 'I did look quite pretty for me.' 120

Betsy Gurney,then agednineteen, is makingquite an admissionfor a youngwoman raised in a Quakerhousehold. Her parentswould havebeen scandalised by her useof make-up,and must havefelt very liberal in allowing her to attendthe opera. Therewould, in time, be a certainirony in the role reversalthat wasto take place: insteadof Amelia the socialiteseducing Betsy into the worldly pleasuresafforded by the capital, sometwenty-six years later Betsy and her family would admit Amelia into the Societyof Friendsin

Norwichas a convincedQuaker.

The social nichethat Amelia Opie occupiedat this time is the oneabout which shewrote. The heroinesof her first threetales and severalsubsequent works were usuallydrawn from the comfortable upper-middle-class.Amelia! s concernthat shewould loserank on her marriageto Opie, and her evidentrelief when shediscovered that she

had actuallyrisen in the socialhierarchy as a result of marryinghim, indicatesthat shewas very consciousof the subtlegradations of the

socialmilieu. This wasto becomeincreasingly evident in later life, as

120 ' June Rose, Elizabeth Fry (London: Macn-Oan, 1980), p.24. 81 when shecorrects a 'Dear friend', probablyHarriet Martineau,on her title and status:'I am not an old maid, but the widow of a distinguished 121 man.' Her later lettersare also scrupulousin their forms of address- 122 somethinginconsistent with the egalitarianprecepts of the .

By 1798 a chapterin Amelia Opie's life, that of the single, radicalyoung woman,was effectively over. The lively Godwin/

Holcroft coteriedid not surviveGodwin's marriageto Wollstonecraft.

The publicationof William Godwin'sMemoirs ofthe Author of ý4

Vindication ofthe Rights of Women'had the effect of turning public opinion againstWollstonecraft, saddling herwith a scandalous reputationso enduringthat throughthe Victorian eraadvocates of the equalityof womencircumspectly avoided references to her

Vindicatiom'123St. Clair explainshow Godwin had pulled few punchesin his Memoirs:

Boldly reversing the conventions of contemporary biography - which normally sought to demonstrate how admirable qualities lead to admirable achievements,the book is Mary Wollstonecraft a vindication of ... and an open celebration of characteristics which writers on women usually mentioned only to deplore.124

St. Clair also mentions 'the puzzling social conventions' in Godwin's

Memoirswhich 'had causedsome of Mary Wollstonecraft'swomen friendsto shunher as an unmarriedmother and then othersto shunher

121Amelia Opie to Harriet Martineau(? ), 28 February1842: Norfolk RecordOffice, Norwich, Ms6181.

122 See Appendix:Letters.

123Abrams et aL 7heNorton Anthology ofEngfish Literature (New York: W Norton, 1993)sixth ed., 2 vols., 2, p. 101.

124St. Clair, p. 182. 82

125 later after shehad married.' Although Godwin's diary recordsvisits

by the Opiesduring the last hoursof Wollstonecraft'slife, Opie's 126 lettersindicate very little referenceto her or Godwin after her death.

In addition,there was little sympathyfor RevolutionaryFrance,

in view of the ongoingwar, the regicideand the bloodlettingof the

Reign of Terror. Marilyn Butler, amongothers, writes of the'severe

setbacleEnglish radicalism encountered in the late 1790s,and how

supportfor the FrenchRevolution, and thereforethe possibility of a

similar eventin England,was no more: The tone of [literary London]

after 1800was caughtby CharlesLamb, who that year professedan

inability to interesthimself in the FrenchRevolution at all.'127 Other

examplesof contemporaryreferences which summarisethe

disenchantmentfelt by English radicalswith RevolutionaryFrance are,

first, William Taylor, architectof TheCabinet, who wrote to Robert

Southeyin the autumnof 1799,saying: 'I grow very anti-gallican. I

dislike the causeof nationalambition and aggrandisementas much as I 128 liked the causeof nationalrepresentation and liberty.' The second

is from JosephKinghom, the Norwich preacher,who had written so

enthusiasticallyto his father on 3 August 1789.129Kinghorn now wrote

at greatlength of his distastefor the French:

125 Ibid., p.399.

126 KeganPaul, 1, p.274-5.

117Marilyn Butler, Burke,Paine, Godwinand the RevolutionControversy (Cambridge,CUP, 1984),p. 12.

129 Jewson,P. 91.

129Wilkin Papers,County Record Office, Norwich. 83

The French are now awfull (sic) scourges on the Exaggeration is continent. ... very common among men and it is probable that they are not so black as they are by some described. But besides their cruelties, by lately in Europe, which are unequalled anything ... and their having strumpets drawn in processions as Godesses,(sic) &c., &c. All those liberty ... notions of which the French Revolution very generally raised a few years ago are at an end, they are the tyrants, not the deliverers of men.130

John Opie did well to encouragehis wife in her writing. He wasto hit a periodof time whencommissions for his work ceasedfor a while as a resultof the difficult conditionswhich were being experiencedthroughout the countryat the time of their marriage. The war with Francewas proving expensive:taxes were increasing,peace negotiationswere unproductiveand there was the constantfear of an invasionby Napoleon. Amelia Opie, on the other hand,was preparing to publishthe first novel to bearher name,Father and Daughter.

-.0- -*. - .*. -*. -

130 Jewson, p. 92. 84

CHAPTER 3

The London Years:Father and Daughter (1801).

n the early monthsof 1801, John and Amelia Opie experienceda

period of financial stringency. Settledinto John Opie's houseat 8

BernersStreet, in London'sWest End, they found themselvesshort of money: John had had threemonths almost entirely without commissions,in contrastto the successhe had enjoyedin 1799and

1800.' Brightwell includesa commentfrom Opie's now-missing journal statingthat 'great economyand self-denialwere necessaryand were strictly observedby us at that time'.2 Amelia Opie dedicated herselfto supportingher husbandthrough his despondency,partly by vigorouslycanvassing for sittersfor hiM.3 Shewas far from unhappy, however:a letter to RobertGarnham in Bury St. Edmondstells of her

6mostquiet, domestic,happy life' and how the world 'haslittle to bestowcapable of drawingme from my fireside without reluctanceI.4

Her surviving letters to SusannahTaylor discuss literary and

artistic figuresand mutual friendssuch as JamesNorthcote, George

Dyer, Eliza Fenwick,Mrs. Siddons,Elizabeth Fry and the Plumptre

MacGregor,p. 29.

Btightwell, p.69. 3 Seefor example:Amelia Opie to RobertGarnham, 1801 and Amelia Opie to Garnham,14 June1802; Crabb Robinson Collection, Dr Williams' Library, London: Amelia Opie to PrinceHoare, 6 Dec. Knox CollegeArchives, Galesbur& Ill. _; Amelia Opie to Garnham,180 1; Dr Williams' Library, London. 85 sisters,particularly Anne Plumptre's'entanglement' with Mr 5 Barthelemeand her previousaffair with RobertMerry. Sheinforms

Mrs Taylor that ElizabethInchbald is to look at her poems, commentingthat 'Poetryto her Unchbald]is an undiscovered country'.6 Her lettersto both Taylor and Garnharnalso speakof 7 political matters.To Taylor shedescribes a 'rot amongstroyalty'. To

Garnharnshe writes disparaginglyof Pitt, Addingtonand 'the Royal

Bigot' and recordsher pleasureat Home Tooke's gaininga (short- lived) seatin the House'at last'. The letter commentshow in 'times as gloomyas the present,where should we turn from the approaching 8 storin but to thosehearts which beatin unisonwith our own. A letter to Garnhamof a few monthslater recordsa visit by 'Citizen

Stanhope',the democraticthird earl, togetherwith William Smith,the radical candidatefor Norwich, and recordsher view of post- revolutionaryFrance as a failed Utopia but which yet retainedthe abolition of hereditarypeerages. 9 The political sentimentsin both lettersare thoseof the radicalin retreat,indicative perhapsof the tenor

of opinion of the time amongeducated persons of liberal temperament, as seenin Lamb's commentin the precedingchapter, and reveala

political perspectiveabsent in other lettersof the time. Here is

5 Amelia Opie to SusannahTaylor, 'Sunday evening' 1801 mid 22 March 1801; Huntington Institute, Ca., OP63 and OP64.

6 Ibid., 22 March 1801.

7 IbiCL

3 Opie to Ganiham, 1801.

9 Opie to Garnham, 14 June 1802; Dr Williams's Library, London. 86 evidenceof a trend which becomesapparent in readingthe rangeof

Opie's correspondencepresently extant: her ability to constructherself accordingto her correspondent.In lateryears this tendencybecomes more noticeable,writing as shedoes to threemain groupsof people:

Quakers,where religious and pious referencesabound; aristocratic connections,where issues of socialprecedence and nicetiesof manner occur,and her family, to whom sheseems to write without a mask.10

Opie alsorefers to her writing, which, accordingto Brightwell, sheartlessly describes in herjournal as 'my most favourite amusement'." Shewas evidentlyvery productiveat this time. In additionto working on Father and Daughter,her letter to PrinceHoare referredto above,for example,also askshim to readher comedy.

Sucha minimising of writing as an 'amusement"by womenwriters wasdeemed only decorousat the time, as JanFergus has pointed out in 12 writing of Jane Austen. Opie's describing her writing in the way she doesfollows the contemporarynotion that womenwriters were dangerousand misguidedpeople whose obsession with the pen caused them to neglectfamilial responsibilities:talked of in theseterms, the potencyof the activity of writing becomesdisarmed into amateurism.

Someyears later, Opie herselfpresented a view of the womanwriter at the time:

10 SeeAppendix: Letters.

11 BrightwelL p.70. 12 Ian Fergus, Jane Austen: A Literary Life (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991), p. 5. 87

The abstractidea of an authoressin ancientdays was a dirty, ill-dressed,ragged, snuffly-nosed woman who could not duties her performany of the commonand necessary of sex ... suchstill continuesto be, amongstmost men and manywomen, 13 the abstractidea of a femalewriter.

Even in mostthe progressivecircles in London,she continues,

'the very highestpraise which could be givento a femalewriter would be, "She is really an agreeablewoman and I nevershould have guessed

14 shewas an authoress."'

Similarly, Harriet Martineau,another Dissenting writer of

Norwich, later writes that

for a woman [writer] to have any sort of reputation (good or bad), was for her to have a bad name,and to be beyondthe literary pale. To seekpublic attention- and that was preciselywhat the publication of a book entailed- was for a womanto lay herself opento every chargeof indecency.15

Suchdescriptors indicate the way in which a womanwriter of the day thoughtit necessaryto constructherself, and Opie's later biographers,notably Brightwell, play their respectiveparts in aiding

this construction.A lessguarded comment on a woman,her reputation

and her writing is found in Opie's descriptionof HelenMaria Williams

in a letter to Mrs Taylor. After discussingAnne Plumptre's

relationshipwith Bartheleme,she writes of

the fair, perfidiousHelen Maria whom Mrs Barbauldpersists to think immaculatein virgin purity -& on no other groundthan that shewrites word that sheis still a virgin, and writes like a

13Amelia Opie,A Curefor Scandal,or DetractionDisph7jrd (London:Longman, 1828),p. 13 3.

14 Ibid.

" Harriet Martineau, Harriet Martineau on Women,ed. G. G. Yates (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1985), p.36. 88

simple, ingenuous, candid young woman - Ergo, if she were not a virgin, I supposeMrs B. concludes she would be so 16 sincere as to say So.

The commentbetrays a writerly interestin the conventionsof which Opie wrote: the contestedground between appearance, reputationand a personalreality, presentedin a witty, confiding mannertypical of Opie's style to her confidanteand otherswith whom shecould feel ableto talk intimately. The referenceto perfidy perhaps relatesto Williams's outspokensupport for the FrenchRevolution whenthe subjecthad become unfashionable, or to her elopementto

Pariswith a marriedman, John Hurford Stone.

EdwardCopeland has pointed out the significanceof a woman writer presentingherself as adeptat managingher own financesand thoseof her family. In discussingthe managementof a retrospective reconstructionof the self by a writer, Copelandnotes that

Yearslater, when [Frances]Burney, as Madame d'Arblay, wife, motherand respectablelady of letters,prepared her journals for publication,she painstakinýly 7 expunged passages that dealt with that one subject,money.

The significanceof stringentfinancial managementwas a

prevalentissue for both the womenwriting at this time and the

heroinesin their novelsand tales. Opie was to showher own

awarenessof the topicality of the issuein her portrayalof two of her

heroines:Agnes, in Father and Daughterand Adeline in, 4deline

Mowbray. To live in Londonat a time Copelandhas called 'one of the

16 Opie to Mrs Taylor, 22 March 1801.

17 EdwardCopeland, Women Writing About Money (Cambridge:CUP, 1995),p. 15. 89 most extravagantof the period' was to live expensively,particularly as the Opiesdid in a fashionablepart suchas the new WestEnd as distinct from, for example,Godwin's more bohemianaddress in

SomersTown. Suchextravagance risked the consequencesof inflation and the 'pressingdangers to womenfrom debt: harassment, humiliation, confinement."8 Charlotte Smith, for example, was constantly harassedby debt, a motif in all ten of her novels.19

Women'sfinancial precariousnesswas causedby two main factors,one social,the other legal: first, accordingto Copeland,the woman'scontrol of the domesticbudget was customarilyrestricted to a shillings and penceeconomy of subsistenceshopping, and shewas

20 dependanton her husbandor father for thesefunds. Second,women had few inheritancerights to land, traditionally the principal sourceof wealth,although this statuswas changingas wealth generatedfrom

21 manufactureand investmentgreW. Sucha situationdrives manya novel of the time, notablyAusten's Pride and Prejudice (1813),in which the Bennetsisters have to find a way to avoid the poverty which threatensthem on the deathof their father,whose income is derived from his property. Similarly FrancesBurney's The Witfings(1779) and Camilla (1796) reflectedher own severeproblems with debt.

DespiteAmelia Opie's anxiety,however, she was fairly well-

18 Ibid., p.7.

19 SeeCharlotte Smith to JosephWalker, 16 October1794; Huntington Library, San Marino, California,in Copeland,p. 7.

Copeland,pp. 17-19.

21See Susan Staves, esp. pp. 131 & ff. 90 placedcompared to severalother women writers: shelater recorded 22 how shehad marriedon a dowry from her father of E200p. a. 'sure'.

The two works which wereto signalthe end of this brief period of enforcedfrugality and firmly establishAmelia Opie as a popular authorof significancein her time wereFather and Daughter, publishedin 1801, andPoems, 1802.

The times had placedthis pair of artistsin interestingcontrast.

John,the painter,was obligedto seekcommissions and patronage,in a way which had not changedsince the Renaissancein Italy four hundredyears earlier. Conversely, Amelia plied the more modemart of fiction-writing, a forin of expressionwhich requiresno patronage: giventhe interestof a publisherand a favourablereview or two, the writer can providefor herself As JaneSpencer succinctly puts it, womenwriters turnedto novel-writing 'becausethey could make money from it'. " Cheryl Turner identifies the 'dramatic unparalleled surge'of womennovelists in the 1780sand producesgraphs to showa numberof womennovelists not rising abovetwenty from 1700to

1780,followed by a suddenfourfold increasebetween 1780 and

1800.24 Then, as now, not everynovel or tale was a money-spinner: first novels,particularly, were and are of low financial value.

Copelandnotes how JeanMarishall's Clarinda Cathcart (1766) was

purchasedby the publisherNoble for five guineas.Jane Austen's

22 Amelia Opie to HenryBriggs, dd. 25 July 1830;Huntington Institute, Ca., OP100.

23 Spencer,p. 7. " CherylTumer, Living by thePen (London:Routledge, 1992), p. 39. 91

Susan,published later asNorthanger Abbey, was sold for f 10 to

Crosby,who neverpublished it but sold it back to Austenyears later for the sameprice. " In contrastwith the painter,who can be seenas a consumerof wealth,with the investmentby the patronreflected in the value of the work of aM the writer is a creatorof wealth for herselfand others,through the utilisation of print technology,the processesof distributionand retailing,and the identificationof a market,all of which had becomeestablished by the end of the eighteenthcentury.

That the majority of fiction writers at this time were women not only putsthe term 'patronage'into a genderedcontext, but also suggeststhe radicalnature of the act of a womanwriting, andby extensionthe socialrisks that suchwomen writers ran. MacGregornotes how

Aside from financial worries, Mrs Opie had causefor anxiety. Father and Daughter was soon to be published. Unlike TheDangers of Coquetry,it was not to appear anonymously, and Mrs Opie was apprehensiveof an unfavourablereception. "'

Opie's anxietyover the receptionof Father and Daughter was

expressedin the lettersto Garnharnand Mrs Taylor referredto aboVe.27

Shewrote to Mrs Taylor: 'As usual,all the good I saw in my work,

beforeit was printed,is now vanishedfrom my sight, and I remember

only its faults."" However,there was more at stakethan the financial

rewardof a best-seller.Matthew Grenbyindicates the paradoxfaced

25 Copeland, p. 197.

26 MacGregor, p.32.

27 Amelia Opie to Garnham, 1801; to Mrs Taylor, 22 Much 1801.

28 Opie to Taylor, 22 March 1801. 92 by womenwriters, eventhose with a messagewhich was not overtly radical." The very act of writing in the first placehaving put her reputationinjeopardy, the femalewriter hadto assureher readersof the faultlessnessof her moral and religiousopinions. Grenbywrites:

'sheis mostworried that readerswill imaginethat her havingwritten a novel would haveinterfered with her true dutiesas a woman,the very dutiesshe was endorsingin the fiction! and later 'shefelt it necessary to addthat in writing the novel, no social or domesticduty had been sacrificedor postponed'.-' Here he is discussingEliza Parsons's

Womanas sheShould Be; or MemoirsofMrs Melville (1793),but one can seethat the paradoxmust haveapplied to all womenwriting at that time. The conflict betweenwriting and familial dutiesfor womenis

still an issue,amply describedin more recentwritings suchas Tillie 31 Olsen'sSilences. The issuehere, however, is more subtle:that of the

womanwriter departingfrom a preordainedmanner of existence,

namelyfamilial nurturing,by the very act of writing. Justas with

runningthe risk of beingbranded a coquetteand the ignominy

consequenton that, a womanwriter risked her reputation,and, as

Harriet Martineausuggests, by seekingpublication, lost it.

RogerSales, in JaneAusten and RepresentationsofRegency

England demonstrateshow biographersof femalewriters, in this case

JaneAusten, may havedistorted their subjectsso as to makethem

29 Grenby, p.2

30 Grenby,p. 3 andp. 8 respectively.

31Tillie Olsen, Silences (London: Virago, 1970). 93 appearvirtuous and farnily-orienteddespite having this disturbing propensityto be sufficiently unferninineas to write novels,and I have alreadyindicated how FannyBurney retrospectively defined herself in this way. "

On this point of the interfacesbetween the identity of the womanwriter, her work and society,Grenby continues:

Works which did transgress the limits of what it was proper to put in a novel, and particularly a novel by a woman, were, by the later 1790s, greeted by a solid front by of really quite vehement reprehension ... a variety of different groups, all self-appointed guardians literature." of ý4 ý" He instancespublishers, proprietors of bookshopsand, circulatinglibraries and critics suchas William Gifford (1756-1826), editor of the Tory-supportedQuarterly Review, and ThomasMathias

(1754?- 1835),the satirist,who were 'famouslyruining the reputations of authors[such as] Mary Robinsonand Mary Hays,and Charlotte

Smith too to an extent,by castigatingthem as "tainted with

34 democracy"' The taint for for . was not reserved women writers:

example,Holcroft had beena victim of loyalist denunciationsof the

verdict deliveredat his trial.35 Godwin had revisedhis Political Justice

of 1793for a secondedition, and later wrote distancinghimself from

32Roger Sales, Jam AustenandRepresentations of RegencyEnghzd (London: Routledge,1994).

33 Grenby,p. 10.

34 Ibid., p. 12.

35 Barrell, p.397. 94

36 someof his earlier i.

Whetherthe opprobriumderives from genderor from political ideologyis uncertain. It seemsclear, however, that membersof the establishmentfelt themselvesthreatened by the new generationof womenwriters. On the questionof political alignment,Amelia Opie wascertainly aware of the odium heapedon Mary Wollstonecraftafter her deathand GodwiWssubsequent publication of his biographyof her, andthe difficulties facing womenwriters who alignedthemselves with her and expressedsimilar radical views, suchas Mary Hays.William

Godwin himself was awareof the way in which, evenbefore the publicationof his biographyof Mary Wollstonecraft,public tastewas moving into a reactionaryphase: writing of the year 1797,he comments:

the [of like infection, I ... cry reaction]spread a general and havebeen told that not evena petty novel for boarding-school missesnow venturesto aspireto favour unlessit containssome expressionof dislike or abhorrenceto the new philosophy."

The extentof this reactionaryshift is surnmarisedby Marilyn Butler,

who writes: 'By the mid-1790sreaction against all that Revolution

stoodfor encompassedmost of the importantfeatures of sentimental

narrativewriting. "' Opie had beena memberof the Wollstonecraft-

Godwin circle from 1794to 1796:it would havebeen easy for a

reviewerto usethis againsther.

36 SeeGodwin, 'The PrincipalRevolutions of Opinion' in CollectedNovelsand Memoirsof William Godwin,ed. M Phelp,(London: Pickering, 1992), 1, p.53. 37 H. N. Brailsford,Shelley, GodWn and their Circle (London, 1913),p. 156.

381ýUrilyn Butter, Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1975),p. 7. 95

The title of Opie's secondtale, as given on the title page,is

Father and Daughter: a Tale, in Prose. Thereis a frontispieceplate designedby John Opie and engravedby JoshuaReynolds, then

Professorof Paintingat the Royal Academy,whom JohnOpie wasto succeedin 1805.It showsa youngwoman loosely attired and with her long hair reachingbelow her knees. As sheenters a dark room or cell, whereshe sees with evidenthorror an older man dressedin ragswho pointsto a graffitto,which reads'Agnes'. The accompanying subscriptionreads: 'she sawthat he had drawnthe shapeof a coffin andwas then writing on the lid the nameof Agnes'.

There is alsoa quotationon the title pageattributed to Anna

Laetitia Barbauld(1743-1825), the Suffolk teacher,critic and writer.

The versereads:

Thy sweetreviving smilesmight cheerdespair, On the pale lips detainthe partingbreath, And bid hopeto blossomin the shadesof death."

The significanceof this sentimentlies in the protagonist's struggleto

nurseher fatherback to healthand sanityafter the asylumhad

dischargedhim as incurable.Unfortunately, the attribution could not 40 be verified from a collection of Barbaud'sverse.

A dedicationto her father, Dr Aldersonof NorwicW,also

appearson the title pagewhich is signedAmelia Opie, BemersSt.,

39 Amelia Opie, Father andDaughter (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1801). Subsequentquotations are from this edition, and page numbers are included parenthetically in the text.

40 7hePoems ofAnna LaeundBarbauld, ed. by William McCarthy& Elizabeth Kraft (,Ga.: Universityof GeorgiaPress, 1994). 96

1800'. The Prefacestates that this work is not a novel: 'its highest pretensions are, to be a SIMPLE,MORAL TALE. ' (p. viii). It seems evident from the word 'tale' and her capitalizationthat Opie was anxiousthat the work wasto be seenas uncontentious,as notedin ChapterOne.

This evidentdetennination to avoid the conventionsof novelistic style is alsomanifest in the way the tale is told as a continuousnaffative, without beingsplit up into chapters.

The very ordinarinessof Opie's talesand their protagonists, within the frameof polite society,is one of their principal strengths andthe reasonfor their successin their day. Amelia Opie'ssuccess was in showingmany of her protagonistsas young middle-classwomen with whom youngmiddle-class readers n-dght easily identify. This kind of characterisationis consistentthrough her talesand her verse, evento someextent in her master-workAdefine Mowhray. As Clara

Whitmorewrote in 1910: 'Mese novelsshould be preserved,not

necessarilyfor their literary excellence,but becausethey bearthe

imprint of an age."' EleanorTy similarly commentsthat Father and

Daughter 'can be readas a gaugeof the valuesthat were prized,

toleratedor deemedunacceptable to English societyat the turn of the 42 century' .

The protagonistof Father and Daughter,Agnes Fitzhenry, is a

young womanin thrall to her widowed father and,as Julia Kavanagh

puts it, beautiful, accomplished,virtuous, a widowed father'sonly and

41 Ckra H. Whitmore, Women's Work in English Fiction (New York: Mnam, 1910), p. 149.

42Tyq1998, pp. 133-134. 97 belovedchild, andall that father could wish." Shebecomes the objectof a seducer'sattentions: Clifford, a soldier, 'lovesher as a man 44To can love who is resolvednot to marry'. Agnes,thoughts of pre- marital sex arerepugnant, but sheis so infatuatedwith the libertine that shefears to losehim. Amelia Opie is herepresenting an everyday situation,but from a point of view arguablydifferent from that of a radicalwriter suchas Wollstonecraft: the readeris persuadedof

Agnes'svirtue, and yet awareof how fragile this becomeswhen confrontedby the wiles of a seducer. This not only echoesher earlier work, TheDangers ofCoqueoy, but establishesa distancebetween

Opie and Wollstonecraftand her discipleMary Hays,whose heroines wishedto havesexual autonomy, free from the conventionsof contemporarysociety. Opie is writing in the sentimentaltradition, in which the fallen womanis generallyportrayed as victim of a callous, predatorymale ratherthan a sexualisedbeing. In this respect,the

sentimentaltradition maybe seenaý lessradical than the writing of

Haysand Wollstonecraft.This differencein writing is also a difference

in the lives of the womenwriters themselves.Clara Whitmore observes

succinctlythat Opie's'imagination did not, however,yield to the life

of perfectfreedom, a dreamwhich wreckedthe life of Mary

Wollstonecmft."'

From the beginningof the tale, the moral groundis with the

43 Kavanagh,p. 272.

44 Ibid.

45 "More, p. 149. 98 protagonist,and thereforethe mainstreamreader can readily identify with her dilemma. The tale's conventionalityactually servedthis purpose.Kavanagh remarked that 'Her very want of the highest literary qualities- thought,strength of languageand vigorouscharacter ' - gave [Opie] easyand prompt accessto everymind'. What may appearas a condemnationby Kavanaghis actuallya strength:Opie's work, althoughlimited, would thus be eminentlypublishable in an expandingmarket peopled by lesseducated readers and which was in a reactionaryswing away from Wollstonecraftianrhetoric. Indeed,

Opie's tale hasmany of the ingedients of the style of sentimentalism, which, for radicals,had becomesomewhat passe by 180L"' This retrospectivestyle hasthe twin effectsof distancingOpie's work from that of Wollstonecraftand her circle, and presentingto a readera familiar-seeming,and thereforeinnocuous vehicle for her tales.

What is of significance in Father and Daughter is Agnes's beautyand Opie'shandling of this feature. Isobel Grundydiscusses the conventionof the beautiful female." To be beautifial%she writes,

'is to be for the beautiful is the an object gaze... a outside sign of wisdomand goodnessinside, and the reversemeans stupidity, malevolenceor sin.' Later, discussingthe conventionsof female beautyin romanticwriting, shecontinues:

46 Kavanagh,p. 270.

47 SeeTodd, 1986,pp. 130-132.

48 IsobelGrundy, 'Against Beauty: Eighteenth-CenturyFiction Writers Confrontthe Problemof Woman-as-sign'in S. Neumannand G. Stephenson,eds., Re-imag(in)ing Women(Toronto: University of TorontoPress, 1993), p. 74. 99

The novelist may shape her characters according to the dictates of symbolic and gendered readings, or may seek to intervene in such systems of meaning. To give a fictional character beauty is to construct her as a sexual object, and more generally as material, as a sign traditionally placed to be responded to by the male subject.49

Shesummarises: 'Heroines must be beautiful because,with heroes,they exist as signsto be read.' And, in a discussionof Samuel

Richardson'sheroine Pamela, she writes of the samekind of balance betweenphysical beauty and virtue that Opie is at painsto construct for her threeprincipal protagonists,Louisa, Agnes and Adeline:

While the beautyof.... Pamelamakes her desirable,the delicacy and fragility which are perhaps the most important components of her beauty enable it to symbolise chastity and innocence rather than provocation."

Opie's longstandingfriend Anne Plumptre,took issuewith the conventionof the beautiful heroine in her work SomethingNew: or,

Adventuresat CambellHouse, published within weeksof Father and

Daughter. DeborahMcLeod, in her introduction to the most recent edition of this novel, cites its introductoryverse and remarksthat

It is the strangleholdof the beautiful heroineconvention upon the novel that Plumptre addressesin Something New. In a spirited prefatory poem, she declaresthe has its tyranny far too long. convention... exercised ... Plumptre challenges the primacy of the beautiful heroineconvention boldly:

'No, we'll the RIGHTSOF AUTHORS here defend, And in these pagesplace before your view

49 lbiii, p.75.

50 Ibid., p.76. 100

heroine An UGLY - Is't not SOMETIHNGNEWT51

In similar vein, SarahScott's Millenjum Hall (1762),which describesa femaleutopian community, departed from conventionalnotions of the beautifulheroine. It would appearthat as womenbegan to write in greaternumbers, they were ableto challengesome of the male-based conventionsof the novel, and it is not surprisingthat the notion of worth and virtue being signalledby physicalbeauty was one of the first to be called into question. Prior to that time, as McLeod notes,the conventionseems unopposed. She indicates how

Even Sarah Scott in Agreeable Ugliness: or, the Triumph of the Graces (1754) -a work predicatedon the ugliness of the heroine - ameliorates her main character'sunattractiveness by the end of the novel. 11

The conventionof beautyequating with virtue was thus under attackby 1801, and it is interestingto seehow Amelia Opie manages this characteristicin her protagonists.We havealready seen how

Louisa,in TheDangers ofCoquetry, is describedas'more than beautiful',but how descriptorsof her physicalbeauty are diminished by descriptorsof her character.53 Agnesis similarly described:the word 'beautiful'is only one of threedescriptors, the othertwo,

'accomplished'and 'virtuous', relating to non-physicalattributes, which conveya more abstractnotion of beauty. When Opie's masterpieceAdefine Mowbray was publishedfour yearslater, we find

51 Plumptre, pp.xvi-xvii.

52 Ibid., p.xvi.

33[Opie], 1790,1, p.2. 101 that Adeline'sphysical beauty is similarly downplayed.Despite possessingIsome pretensions to what is denominatedbeauty' in the

'uncommonfairness and delicacyof her complexion,the lustreof her hazeleyes, ' and so forth, Opie negatesthese descriptors of physical beautyby claiming thather own sex declaredshe was plain!." Her

beautymainly consistedin'the beautyof expressionof countenance'

and'the lightnessand graceof her movements'." While this maybe

an ironic writing of femalejealousy, nevertheless Opie is carefulto

makeneither Agnes nor Adeline actuallyglamorous, lest it impinge

uponher ingenuousnessand her virtue. EvenLouisa's glamour in Ae

Dangersof Coquetryis that of adolescenceand thereforelacking in

sophistication.

The pathossurrounding Louisa! s tale in TheDangers of

Coquetry is basedon the terrible vulnerability arising from the tension

between her outgoing,vain naturewith its habit of 'unguardedlevity'

and her inexperience. In Father and Daughter,however, Agnes's

characteris constructeddifferently: her virtue is symbolised,by an

externalbeauty, but not one that is unequivocallyluxurious, as with

Louisa.Instead of Opie'sdescription of Louisa as 'morethan beautiful

whenshe walked, danced or sung,every eye perused,and every

tongueapplauded her(v. 1, p.2), with her 'profusion of pale brown

hair' and other sensualphysical attributes (v. 1, p34), Agnesis

describedin more restrainedtones. While sheis sufficiently beautiful

54 Opie, Adeline Mawbray, 1999 edn., p. 19.

55 Ibid. 102 to attractthe malegaze which is the causeof her downfall, Opie's phrasingforegrounds her virtue. Following the conventionGrundy describes,the readerthus would appearto be left in no doubt as to her

innocence.Grundy points out in suchcases that this may be either

supportedor subverted,although the latter option doesnot seemto be

the casewith Opie's protagonist.56 As to her maidenhood,the text

downplaysthe sexualaspect of her cohabitationwith Clifford to the

extentthat the readerfeels that sheimagines she can live with him

without having sex. To his first suggestionsof cohabiting, 'against

her delicacy feeling Agnes fain which and every revolted ... would haveobjected in the strongestmannee(p. 22). It seemsthat it is not her

libido but her romanticemotions which are captivatedby the

opportunistClifford in a way which only emphasisesher

ingenuousnessand vulnerability. It is interestingthat in this

separationof the physicaland the emotionalor abstractconstructions

of desire,there are featureshere which prefigureAdeline Mowbray, in

which the protagonistis so convincedof the philosophicalrightness of

her cerebralrelationship with Glemnurraythat sheis constantly

surprisedby the ostracismshe experiences from otherswho, evenafter

Glenmurray'sdeath, only seethe inappropriatenessof a physical

relationshipbetween them. In Father and Daughter,Opie constructsa

tale of a womanwho is mistakenin love. Sheunderscores this with a

referencein a footnoteto remarkson love in ElizabethInchbald's

novelNature andArt (1796). The quotationto which sherefers reads

56 G,rundy, p. 74. 103 asfollows:

It hasbeen said by a celebratedwriter, uponthe affection subsistingbetween the two sexes,'that thereare manypersons who, if they had neverheard of the passionof love, would neverhave felt it. ' Might it not with equaltruth be added,that - thereare many more, who havingheard of it, and believing 57 most firmly that they feel it are neverthelessmistaken?

Ty haspointed out the similarity of Agnes'splight to a subplot in Inchbald'snovel. 58 There is further similarity in the descriptioneach

writer usesto portrayher heroine. Inchbald!s Hannah

was formedby the rareststructure of the humanframe, and fatedby the tenderestthrillings of the humansoul, to inspire andto experiencereal love - but her nice taste,her delicate thoughts,were so refinedbeyond the sphereof her own station in society.59

Thesewords conveythe samephysical beauty, emotional

capabilitiesand senseof proprietythat are drawn into Agnes's

character.Beyond this similarity, however,and the similar speedwith

which the beautifuland dutiful HannahPrimrose is seduced,

Inchbald'snovel is broaderand sternerof purpose,with its elementsof

social protestand pioneeringideas that the inferior classesare capable

of fine sensibilities. Opie is contentwith an emotivecautionary tale

which treatsthemes of guilt and remorse.A view of a moralistic

artisanideology does not appearuntil Temper(1812).

Clifford hashis way with the fragile virtue of Agnes. The

57 ElizabethInchbald, Nature and Art, 2 vols. (Oxford: WoodstockBooks, 1994),1, p. 141.

58 Ty, 1998, p. 141.

59 Inchbald, p. 142. 104 seducer'meditateswith savagedelight on the successof his plans'in enticingher to elopeto London,where he takesher virginity (p.23).

The narrativegives no indelicatedetails: the readeris only informed that Clifford'had triumphedover the virtue of Agnes'(p. 25). Having madehis conquesthe promptly rejoinshis regiment.

Anothersignifier of Agnes'svirtue is in the foil characterwhich

Opie constructs. In The Dangers of Coquetry, the foil of Caroline

Egertonis in total contrastto that of the protagonistLouisa. In Father and Daughter, Agnes's foil is the character Caroline Seymour, again a childhoodfriend, but the contrastbetween the two is much less marked. CarolineSeymour, who is able to retain her virtue, is sufficiently attractivefor Clifford to proposemarriage to her, in contrastto his ambitionsfor Agnes,which were solely sexual.The purposeof the foil hereis not to contrastpropriety with sexuality- for

Agneshas none - but social cachetwith social ostracism.

In comparingOpie's work with others,Susan Staves describes

Father and Daughteras an exampleof 'the seduced-maidennovel'. 60

Ty, however, makes the important point that 'in Opie's tale, the

seducedmaiden is the centralrather than the secondarycharacter of the

work', and that the conventionalroles of protagonistand foil havethus

been 61Ty 'In Father Daughter,Agnes is reversed. pointsout that and

60 SusanStaves, 'British SeducedMaidens', Eighteenth Century Stu&es, 14 (Winter 1980),p. 109.

61 Ty, 1998, p. 135. 105 the locusof interest,not an abjectother. -)62 Opie is thereforeable to conducta full analysisof the plight of the seducedwoman, particularly in termsof her socialisolation and her overwhelmingfeelings of guilt.

It is this primary role in the narrativethat enablesthose readers who censureAgnes's plight to becomeaware of their own hypocrisy.

A further important aspect of the differences between protagonistand foil is the role of the parent. Neither Agnesnor

CarolineSeymour has a living mother,a similarity with Louisain The

Dangers of Coquetry. However, whereas Agnes's father is disabled by

Clifford's seductionof his daughter,Caroline's father, unernasculated,

servesas her protector. The authorityof Seymourover his daughteris

in contrastwith Agnes'sfather, who had often indulgedher, thereby,so

the narrativesuggests, making her self-assuredenough to disobeyhim

in elopingwith Clifford. It is this act which driveshim to madness,

and it would be within the conventionsof father-daughterrelationships

in the late eighteenthcentury to seethis as a kind of nemesisfor his

indulgenceof his daughter." The spoiling of children is a themewhich

becomesa major preoccupationfor Opie, as revealedin Temper

(1812),Illustrations ofLying (1825)and Talesof the Pemberton

Family (1825),as well as severalof her short stories. The indulgent

father may alsobe comparedwith the indulgenthusband Mortimer in

TheDangers ofCoquetry. Opie's heroinesappear to test the

parametersof maleauthority and, when it is not exercisedwith

62 Ibid.

63 See,for example,Caroline Gonda, Reading Daughters, Ficfions (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1996). 106 sufficient vigour, disobeyit with disastrousconsequences. This conservative,authoritarian treatment is in contrastto the indulgence and respectthat Opie appearedto enjoy in her own life.

This contrastbetween the two womenbecause of their fatheringis madeclear in the incidentin which Agnes,totally destitute andwith her child, learnsof Clifford!s plan to marry Caroline.Aware of the placeof ignominyto which societyhas assigned her, she neverthelessattempts to seeCaroline at her father'shouse, to wam her of Cliffords faithlessnature. Oncethere, however, she is thrown out by Mr. Seymour: 'He desiredher to leavehis housedirectly, as it shouldbe no harbourfor abandonedwomen and unnaturalchildren'

(p.106). He doesthis to protecthis own daughter'sreputation.

Carolineis sympatheticto her friends plight, but powerlessto assist

further: shesurreptitiously gives Agnes twenty guineasout of pity.

Sheis also now in the positionof knowing that sheis contractedto

marry a sexualadventurer of the worst sort, althoughto dilate upon her

moreexquisitely painful situationis not within Opie'sambit or

purpose.Opie does,however, make plain that Mr Seymourwas not

unduly harshby the standardsof the day in taking this firm line with Agnes:

There was not a kinder-heartedman in the world than Mr Seymour; and in his severity towards Agnes, he acted more from what he thought his duty, than his inclination. He was the father of several daughters, and it was his opinion that a parent could not too forcibly inculcate on the minds of young women the salutarytruth that lossof virtue must be to them the loss of friends. (p. I 11) 107

Opie's word-choiceis interesting:'he thoughthis duty' (my italics). The readeris not entirely surewhether Opie agreeswith his thinking and consequentactions or not, and her cautiousnessin this respectis indicativeof the reactionarystate of the times.However, thereare distinct similaritiesbetween Mr Seymourand Opie's later creationDr Norberry in AdelineMowbray, who epitomisesthe cautiousfather, particularly when, after snubbingher when meeting her while with his daughters,he visits Adeline to explain andjustify his action (pp.88-89). With this link in mind, the readermay detect that Opie feels Seymour'sseverity requires exculpation and his hard- line attitudeto what he seesas his duty is mistaken.Any apologyfor

Seymour'sactions in Opie's phrasewould not, however,make life any easierfor Agnes,who, unawareof her father's madnessat this point in the narrative,only knowsthat shehas heard nothing from him. Her father'smadness is an incapacityto take any action on her behalf which might rehabilitateher in the eyesof society.In contrastto Mr.

Seymour'spowerful intervention,Agnes' father seemsto havebeen renderedimpotent in this matter,perhaps as the result of the terrible injury doneto him by her elopement.Caroline Gonda, discussing the magnitudeof this sin againstthe father,quotes from the conductbook

TheLadies'Calling (1673)by RichardAllestree, which was reprinted throughoutthe eighteenthcentury: daughters falling in love without their parents'consent was 'one of the highestinjuries they can do their

parents,who havesuch a native right in them'." This episodecertainly

64 Richard Allestree, Ihe La&es'Calfing, reprinted 1993, p. 160, in Gonda, p. 15. 108 indicatesthat indulgentfathers are not in their daughters'best interests, althoughthis conventionalview runs counterto Amelia Opie'sown situation - and we must recall that the book is dedicatedto Dr. Alderson.

An interestingrefinement in the narrativeis a ploy usedby

Clifford to impel Agnesinto a self-imposedisolation to avoid embarrassinghis chancesof marryingCaroline: he arrangesfor her to receivefalse informationthat her fatherhas remarried. Clifford knowsthat this, combinedwith the lack of communicationfrom her father,she will take as indicativeof her.fathers severingpaternal ties as an expressionof his angerat her elopement.He imaginesthat she will thereforebe unwilling to turn to her father for any assistance.

Sinceshe is also ostracisedby London society,her isolation is complete.

The portrayal of Agnes and Caroline together for the last time canbe seenas a depictionof womanas commodity,both in Agnes's

case(sampled and rejected)and Caroline's(saleable if kept intact), and by extension,the power of the rapaciousmale. Clifford is presented

herein a similar way to the odiousfigure Osborneof Mary Hay's The

Victim ofPrejudice (1799). Even Mr Seymour,kindest of men, father

of manydaughters, when he speaksof 'abandoned'women betrays the

consumeristnature of genderrelationships at that time.

The unequalordering of the sexesmeant that womenwere

almostinevitably the resistorsof male predation,although this is not to

imply that all maleswere necessarilypredators. Womenwere 109 vulnerableto loss,not only of reputation,but of family, legal meansof sustainingthemselves, and ultimately their health. Recallingthe legal nullity which mostwomen had to acceptas their base,as indicatedby both Wattsand Staves,it is hardly surprisingthat most could seeno way but to comply with, andthereby support; this inequality in orderto try to avoid theselosses. Caroline is a portrayalof that reluctant acceptance,Agnes of the price of non-compliance. In real life, the struggleof thosewomen who attemptedother courses,such as Mary

Wollstonecraftand Mary Hays,as in the fictional charactersthese writers created,attests to the verisimilitude of the fictional portrayal.

At this point in Opie'snarrative the paradigmof power is clearlyarticulated. Both the women,Agnes and Caroline,are in positionsof powerlessness.Agnes is unableto achieveany retribution againstClifford for his seductionof her, much lessfend for herselfand her child in a societywhich regardsher as outcast. Carolineis virtually powerlessto refuseto marry the man who hastreated her best friend so falsely. By contrast,both malesare enjoyingpositions of considerablepower. Clifford is able to marry whom he pleases, irrespectiveof his previousfalsity. This is clearly power derivedfrom the almostcompletely unassailable position of the male in society.

Seymouris exercisinghis paternalpower in forbidding Carolineto haveany contactwith Agnes,who alonecan infomi her of Clifford's duplicitousnature. This is the power of rectitude,of prudence,of

paternalprotection, coming from well within the boundsof acceptable

behaviour. From both within and without thesebounds, the maleshold 110 swayand the femalesare renderedpassive and incapableof any self- assertionsave the covertpassing of twenty guineasfrom oneto the other.

Agnes,in her indigentstate, can only seekto return to the familial homeby whatevermeans she can, taking her child with her.

Thereshe anticipates, and the readerwith her, that shemust throw herselfon the mercyof a further male,her father,whom shebelieves hasremarried and whom shedefied in elopingwith Clifford. It is hard to think of a situationwhich more poignantlyreveals the vulnerability of the ostracisedfemale.

In delineatingsituations such as this, Opie is simply defining the socialparadigm rather than taking a stand,neither endorsing it nor

it. Ty 'Opie betweenBurkean condemning commentsthat ... weaves and radicalbeliefs, not offering her readersa single,comfortable solid

position.... Like much [other] writing, her text revealsher uneasiness

with the masculinesymbolic order. "' This observationechoes that of

Gary Kelly, who earlier notedthe mixed messagesin Opie's work,

'incorporatingcriticism, but reaffirming social institutions'.66While

shedoes not take the opportunityfor an overt individual responseto

this situationwhich is in any way indicative of her radical past,she has

goodreason not to do this, given the conservatismof the historical

moment. But analysisof the situationshe creates, and an awarenessof

the accuracyof the depictionof the social forcesin play, enhancingthe

65Eleanor Ty, UnsexIdRevolutionwies. - Five WomenNovelists of the 1790s (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1993), p.30.

66 Kelly, 1981, p.5. III powerof the maleand diminishingthe alreadylesser power of the female,reveals a critical gazeat work. The needfor understatement in femalewriting is a constantmotif, and particularlypresent in the time of editorial reactionin which Opie was Publishing. Tell the truth: wrote Emily Dickinson,a centurylater, 'but tell it slant-

lieSt. 67 Successin circuit

It may alsobe pointedout that Opie is neveroffering social or socio-politicalsolutions, in keepingwith the conventionsof the novel form, which conveysits ideologythrough such individuated narratives.

Her talesare heavily individuatedand the onusis on the readerto take up the themeswhich form the strandsof her prosefiction, incorporatingthem into her/hisown view of the workingsof society- or not to. With their emphaseson individualisedsituations of intense emotion,the events and tensions described in hertales are remarkably consistent,having many of the characteristicsof the sentimentalnovel of the previousgeneration. Kelly commentson this consistencyin his

discussionof Father and Daughter,writing:

Like manywomen novelists of the eighteenthcentury, [Opie] was interestedonly in situationsof intenseemotion, and in spite of the fact that her manyvolumes of talespresent a fair rangeof [these],there is one basicsituation which occursagain and again. A heroineof sensibilityleaves or is banishedfrom home,due to her own moral inadequaciesor thoseof the home itself (a severeor profligate parent);the result of her departure is the through a seriesof scenesof remorseas plot moves... thesepassages of penitenceto a grandreconciliation. "

ý7 Emily Dickinson, Poem no. 1129 in Abrams et aL p.247 1.

68 Kelly in J.Vinson, ed., Novelists andProse Writers (London: Macmillan, 1979), p.936. 112

Furthercharacteristics of sentimentalwriting may be seenin the youth and ingenuousnessof not only Agnes,but Opie's other femaleprotagonists. As Butler comments,in discussingthe sentimentalwriting of the 1770s,'Heroes and heroinesare employed who readily attractidentification. They are often very young and inexperienced,and henceeasy victims of the corrupt or designing.""'

Opie's sentimentalAgnes or Louisa,or evenAdeline, may be contrastedwith Godwin's Caleb,who resolutelyapplies rational 70 principlesto overcomehis difficulties. JanetTodd makesan interestingpoint aboutsentimental writing which also appliesto Opie's protagonists:having indicatedthe philosophicalroots of sensibilityin the benignconcepts of societyof Hume,Locke, Hartley et al, 'pbsiting innatevirtues or goodnessin all humanity' shegoes on to point out

that the sentimentalprotagonist generally consists of a vulnerableand

susceptibleindividual adrift in a hostile society." One of the

fundamentaltenets of narrativeis that of conflict, and (notwithstanding

MacKenzie'sJulia de Roubignd,in which thereare no villains)

conflict arisesin sentimentalwriting when the purebut inexperienced

are thrown to the lions of self-interestand cynicism. Aside from the

reassuranceof a conventionalstyle, the attractionsof sucha plot make

it prime materialfor writing intendedor promotedas instructiveor

69 Butler, 1975, p. 17.

70 SeeWilliam Godwin,Caleb Williams,ed. by MauriceHindle (Harmondsworth: Penguin,1988).

71 Todd, 1986, p.94. 113 moralising.

Opie's treatmentof time in Father and Daughterdoes not follow the chronologicalunfolding of the tale in which I have

discussedit thus far. The following excerptfrom a point well on in the

chronologicaldevelopment of the plot forms the openingwords of the

tale:

The night was dark - the wind blew keenly over the frozen and rugged heath, when Agnes, pressing her moaningchild to her bosom, was travelling on foot to her father'shabitation. 'Would to God I had never left it! 'she exclaimed,as home and all its enjoymentsrose in fancy to her view. (p. 1)

Opie hasfractured the chronologicalexposition of the narrativeto

providethe readerwith a strongopening, which is then followed by an

invitation to discoverby readingon how this vividly depictedsituation

arose.In Father and Daughterthere are severalpositive attributes to

the techniqueof fi-amingan openingstatement taken from a point later

in the narrativeline, particularlyin enablingthe readerto view the

protagonistin a positivelight. First, the readeris inevitably movedby

the womatfs struggle against the forces of Nature. Second,Agnes may

be seenas a virtuousmother: she has not abandonedthe child but is

acting maternally,pressing him to her bosomagainst the wintry night.

Third, thereis evidenceof remorseand penitencein her utterance:she

wishesshe had neverleft her fatheeshouse, and in tenns of the

conventionof the 'perfectlady, it is clear that societyfeels that is

whereshe belongs. Finally, and significantly,because the readeris not

yet awareof the circumstancesthat lie behindthe situationnow to 114 view, it is not possibleto condemnAgnes with a moraljudgement.

The readeris thereforedrawn into the tale predisposedto sympathise, and for a femalereader perhaps to empathise,with Agnes:to be able to seethe tale as 'the ruin of a trustingwoman by a profligate majY,as

Julia Kavanaghexpressed it. 72The attentivereader has turned the blamefor Agnes'sruin and for her father's madnessaway from her, awareof this representationof her ingenuousnessand susceptibility.

JanetTodd includesthe latter term in her list of characteristicsof the qualitiesthat sentimentalistsascribed to women,along with 'intuitive sympathy,emotionalism and passivity', and it will be seenhow apt all four of theseterms are in describingAgnes. ' Again, in writing in the unfashionablebut familiar style of the sentimentalists,Opie is making her text and her protagonistmore accessibleto the kind of readershe wishesto attract.

It may be thoughtthat the relatingof this ruin is quite enough for what is purportedby its authorto be merelya'simple tale',but this is not so. Opie'sprincipal interestin this narrationis the analysisof the father/daughterrelationship, particularly the expiationof the guilt the daughterfeels for an act into which shewas drawnby a manipulating seducer. The genderreferencing is againclear: Agnes bears her child as symbolicnot only of her naivety and vulnerability, but also of her sin, and thereforemust feel guilt. The absentmale figure is the seducer:the male figure soonto be present,her father,is the arbiter of

72Kavanagh, p.272.

73Todd., 1986,p. I 10. 115 her guilt. An analysisof how the guilt arose,was manipulatedand the natureof its traumareveals an intriguing double-bindwhich goes beyondthe scopeof this tale to includethe father-daughterrelationship of Amelia Opie herselfand the fatherto whom the work is dedicated.

In raisingher, the widowedfather of an only daughter,on whom he dotes,implicitly presentshis daughterwith two objectives, which may be describedas 'I want you to be perfect'and 'I want to indulgeyou!. He wishesthe former for two main reasons:first because he is aware of the strictures of society regarding young women, and he wantsher to be acceptableand marry well and happily; and second becauseshe reminds him of his late and belovedwife, whom he has now mythologised,and he wantshis daughterto be like her. He wishesthe latter for not unrelatedreasons: she is the dearestotheeto him, becauseshe is at oncehis only child and his wife-substitute. Yet it will be seenthat thesetwo objectivesare potentiallyif not actually contradictory.

He activateshis first wish by giving guidance,by proscribing certainbehaviours and by nurturing,being awarethat becauseof the rigid genderroles that we haveseen manifest in thesetimes in the studyof TheDangers ofCoquetry, he is at besta poor substitutefor the girl's mother,and unableto adviseher in certainmatters. In Father and Daughter,the only other femalewith whom Agnescomes into

contacton a regularbasis and in a fwnilial settingis her nurse,a

womanof lower statuswho would not be credibleas a mother-

substitute.He activateshis secondwish by lavishingattention on his 116 daughterand grantingher wishes.

So it mustbe highly likely, due to the contradictorynature of the objectives,that for the father,his daughterwill displeasehim: eitherby falling shortof perfectionbecause she has been spoilt by his indulgences,or by failing to respondto his indulgencesbecause she is so perfectas to find them distasteful.In eithercase, the daughterfeels guilt, for sheknows that shehas failed her fatherand his objectives.

In Agnes'scase it is the first. For Agnes,the guilt stemsfrom two main causes,neither of which sheis totally responsiblefor. One of theseis real (within the scopeof a work of fiction) and the othercontrived by

Clifford. The real causeis her presentsituation: it hasall gonewrong for her. Sheis abandonedin a strangecity, with a child and without support. Sheknows that irrespectiveof fault, the world will blame her for this situation. Agneshas been carefully drawn as a young womanof lapsedvirtue, as distinct from a womanof an amoral nature, and shefeels shamefor her lapseand the ignominythat will accrueto her, her child and her fatheras a result. The second,contrived cause of her guilt is the way in which Clifford convincesher that her father communicateshis responseto her situationby withdrawingthe

attentionwhich he customarilylavishes upon her - and,further, is

remarrying. The attentionwhich had beenhers will now be transferred

to his new wife. Agneshas been ousted.

Sucha burdenof guilt is likely to be extremelytraumatic, and

this traumaadds to the woman!s other difficulties of sustenance,

isolation,estrangement by Clifford and social ostracism. Carol 117

Gilligan writes: 'Whenwomen feel excludedfrom direct participation in society, they seethemselves as subjectto a consensusorjudgement madeand enforcedby the men on whoseprotection and supportthey

174 dependand by whosenames they are known. TowardsClifford,

Agnesfeels only the bitternessof disillusion, but, as shenavigates the

stormyheath, she fears the judgement of her father.

A detail in the characterisationof Agnesanticipates Freud's

observationin 1908of the high incidenceof agoraphobia(which he

alsotermstopophobia') manifest in womenwho haveexperienced the

kind of traumathat shehas done, namely Opie's depictionof Agnes's

stateof distressin the openinglines of the tale."" The psychologyof a

centurylater thereforeendorses the accuracyof Opie'sdescription of

Agnes'sstate of distress:thejourney acrossthe heathwas more terrible

for her than for a healthywoman. It is clear that a closeand accurate

observationof disturbedbehaviour is at work here. This interestin

mentaldisturbance was not uncommonat the time, particularlyamong

Dissentingthinkers, who attemptedto apply rational principlesto the

ill. 76 treatmentof the mentally The first suchasylum in England,the

Retreatat York, was openedby the Quakersin 1796.Visiting an

asylumwas consideredan instructiveamusement. This interestwas

evidentin Opie from an early age,when, as sherecorded in her now-

74Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice:Psychological 7heory and Women's Development(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982) pp. 4445.

75See Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis(London: Allen & Unwin, 1929),p. 129.

76See, e. g, P. Nolan,A History ofMental Health Nursing (London:Chapman Hall, 1993),p. 74. 118 missingjournal,she would often look at the immatesthrough the iron gatesof the Norwich asylum.Brightwell quotesfrom thejournal how oneof the irunates,a manwith 'a look full of mournful expression' 77 wasthe model for the dementedfather in her talc. Her interestalso prefiguresher later work in prison with Fry and her plansfor hospital

78 reform.

Furtherevidence of Opie'sfascination with mentalinstability is evidentin the encounterAgnes has with an escapedmaniac, his chains

rattling aroundhim, as shecrosses the frozenheath at night. The

madmanlurches out of the darknesstowards her urging her to destroy

her child. Fearful for its safety,she hides. It is only with the light of

dawnthat sherecognises the terrible, derangedfigure as that of her

father. Far from beingremarried, as Clifford would havehad her

believe,she now realisesthat he hasnot communicatedwith her

becauseher elopementhas driven him mad. Synchronouswith, and

dependentfrom, her ruin in the sexualand social senseis his ruin in

the world of businessand in his health.He is confinedin an asylum

which, ironically, in happierdays, he had helpedto found. Her

discoveryof her father'ssituation is indeeda doublingof the burdenof

guilt for a daughterwho lovesher father and is desperatelyhoping for

his forgiveness.

From the point of view of a dramaticanalYsis, it appearsthat

the agonsof Agnesare at their most intenseat this point of

77Brightwell. p. 17.

78see for example, Amelia Opie to Robert Southey dd. 13 January 1830; Stanger Collection 2/100.5, Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere. 119 ddnouement.Her fortimesare clearly at their nadir. Curiously,Mrs

Kavanagh,writing in 1863,finds that'This dramaticpart of the story is by no meansthe best. It is too violent to be tenderor touching.'"'

Perhapsshe is anticipatingthe remarksof Ada Earlandin 1911, regardingthe tale'sloss of interestfor later readers,or perhapsshe is reflectinga mid-Victorian distastefor anythingforcefully stated.

Kavanagh,however, is apt to assessOpie in termsof her'sweetness',as we haveseen. By contrast,to the eyesof this readerat the end of the twentiethcentury, this part of the tale hasan admirablestrength and directnessthat communicatesthe pathosof the situationvery clearly.

Julia Kavanaghprefers the following episode,after Agneshas beenrescued by cottagers,herself and her child restoredto life after her suicideattempt, and both havefound respitewith her old nurse,

Fanny,in her nativetown. As Kavanaghcontentedly points out:

Scorn and contumely leave her not unmoved indeed, but find her resignedand penitent. The stings of her own conscienceare keener than maifs most bitter reproaches; and the thought of her father in a madhouse,and therethrough her guilt teachesher how to bear the worlds severity. The dignity she displays in her humbledstate, her quiet pride and independence in supportingherself and her child, and, above all, her passionate,unwearied hope that her sight and presence will ultimately restore her father to reason, are eminentlytouching. 10

It will be seenthat Kavanaghprefers the modestrehabilitation which

Agnesperforms under trying conditions,in orderto reconstructher

79 Kavanagh, p.273.

so Ibid., p.274. 120 goodname, although she makes no bonesabout according 'guilt' to

Agnesfor her actions,as distinct from, perhaps,'folly'. This seems thoroughlyVictorian, in the senseof the pursuit of virtue through modestyand industrybeing its own reward.

Agnes'sfather is confinedfor five yearsin the asylum,then pronouncedincurable and senthome. 'The greatinterest of his tale now hangson his cure', writes Kavanagh. 'Will sheachieve it or not?

Shewatches by him, anxious,vigilant, and is rewardedwith the fruit of all her toil: her father,wakening from a long sleep,recognises and forgivesher, then dies.'81 But the strainof guilt, remorseand vigilance overtakesher:

That blessing,the hope of obtaining which alone gave Agnes courageto endure contumely, poverty, fatigue and sorrow, was for one moment her own, and then snatchedfrom her for ever. No wonderthen, that when convincedher fatherwas really deadshe fell into a state of stupefactionfrom which shenever recovered; and at the sametime were borne to the samegrave the father and daughter.(p. 189)

'Here so beautiful and simplea story shouldhave ended. What more do we want to learn?'asks Kavanagh,not unreasonably.82 The conventionaloperation of climax predisposesus to finality. For some reason,despite her graspof dramaticconvention, Opie pensa further episodewhich treatsthe happysurvival of Edward,the child, snatched up by the odiousClifford, who is now respectablymarried to Caroline,

and who rearsthe boy in opulence.This is curiously similar to an

81 Ibid., p.275.

82 Ibid. 121 alternativeending put forward for Richardson'sClarissa, in which

Lovelacerepents his foul deedand after Clarissa'sdeath passes the rest of his sorry, short life in repentance." The importantthing in writing fiction, and which Opie might havelearned from watchingher husband paint, is knowing whento stop. Edward,the son of Agnesand

Clifford, underthe influenceof his amoralfather, is unlikely to be a figure of interestor approval,and his fate is certainlybeyond the ambit of the tale.

Once more, as with The Dangers ofCoquetry, it seemsthat

Opie's tale is basedon a dreadfulprojection of herselfwhen younger - a projectionwhich teststhe father/daughterrelationship in fiction in wayswhich would be devastatingin real life. As with Louisa!s tale,

Father and Daughteris that of a protagonistwho hasa certain characteristicto excess:a heroic flaw, which resultsin a particular nemesis.The flaw is mitigatedin both of Opie'sheroines by virtue - daughterlyand maternalcare in Agnesand pity in Louisa- but neither virtue is sufficient to preventthe awful climax.

As I havedemonstrated, there are narrativethemes, situations and similaritiesin style in Father and Daughter which recall Opie's earlierwork, TheDangers of Coquetry,and also anticipateher masterpiece,Adefine Mowbray, to be publishedfour yearslater.

Within the narrative,these include: the motherlessnessof the protagonist;a clear depictionof the dangersinherent in a young womandefying conventionalmores; the wielding of male power,with

83 LadyEchlin, AnAltemativeFndingtoRichardson'sCiarissa(Bem: Franke Verlag, 1982). 122 or without the morality to which suchpower shouldascribe; the powerlessnessof the female,within or without the circle of conventionalbehaviour; the transferenceof guilt from male to female as a featureof the male hegemony;the relationshipsof classor rank, with not only the classniche of the main charactersvery well defined but also Opie'sportrayal of the deservingpoor who are at the mercyof the higherranks in so much of life (cf Fielding'sAmelia) andyet who areable to succourthe outcastbourgeoise; the depictionof an intricate patternof loyaltiesand friendships. For the telling of the tale, the readermay note a strong,straightforward style which helpsto propel the narrative;a brisk pace;an effectiveuse of foils and pairingsin the handlingof the characters;the useof patheticfallacy and signalsof darknessto promotethe effectivenessof the image;a well-manipulated plot development,especially as regardstransitions from chapterto chapterand volume to volume;the senseof an ineluctableprogress to an inevitableconclusion. At a time when the reactionagainst sentimentalnarrative had alreadytaken place, this is an emphatically sentimentaltale. Opie is aiming for her readerto becomeemotionally involved very quickly, and for a stateof emotionalcatharsis by the climax of the tale. If the principlesof the radical novel are 'its resoluterationality, its suspicionof the uncontrollableworkings of the unconsciousmind, as Butler puts it, they are certainly not present here." This is a narrativewhich, althoughwritten by a womanwho had earlieraligned herself with radicalismand Jacobinismin a very

84 Butler,1975, pp. 32-33. 123 vigorousmanner, harks back to the sentimentalstyles of discourseof the 1760s,in termsof both its fragmentationof narrativeand the 'new awarenessof the subjectivelife of the individual'." As such,it not only reflectsthe tasteof the time, which, as we haveseen, was away from the kind of radicalismof Godwin,Wollstonecraft and Hays,it also looks forward to somedegree to the socialrealism of the early nineteenth-centurynovelists for its treatmentof moresand values runningthrough the fabric of societyat that time, not leastas regards mentalillness.

Opie neednot haveworried aboutthe receptionher new tale would receive:Father and Daughterwas a triumph andthe subjectof both critical and privateacclaim. Mary Tevis notesthat unlike 'The

Dangers Coquetry, Father of which attractedalmost no attention... and Daughterwas heartily receivedby the public, who wannly approvedthe tale."' Kavanaghdescribes the work as'a beautiful and pathetictale, which had rapid and genuinesuccess! 97 MacGregor noteshowThe readingpublic applaudedthe pathosof this tale, and weremoved to tearswhen Agnes' seduction brought about her father's insanityand her own death."'

Although theselater critics areconsistent in claiming that the book was an immediatesuccess, contemporary reviews were in fact

85 Ibid.

86 Tevis, p.23.

87 yýaVanagh, p. 250.

88 McGregor, p.32. 124 varied. Dr. Brown, in the EdinburghReview, noted the interest generatedby the work, but perceptivelyfelt that

the merit of the novel does not consist in its action, nor in any varied exhibition of character. Agnes, in all the sad changesof fortune, is still the same; and the action, if we except a very few situations of the highest excitement, is the common history of every seduction in romance.89

The reviewerof TheMonthly Reviewfocussed on the tale'spathos, confessingto being personallyaffected by the tale but expressing consolationwhichunder the first impressionof our feelings,arose from the hopeand persuasionthat the story is not foundedon Fact.' 90

The Critical Review,in line with its customaryconservative stance, wasalert to the moral of the tale, which was found to be

impressive.It in the ... seriously exhibits most affecting point of view the misery consequentupon the illicit indulgenceof the passions; and the effect of the awful lesson which it teaches is not impaired by any intermixture of levity of dialogue or pruriency of description."

The reviewerthen addressesAmelia Opie'swriting style, which is found to be 'elegantand coffect, free from ambitiousornament, and

never degeneratinginto colloquial negligence.""

MacGregor describeshow the reviewer of The Monthly

Magazine'shed tears'and notes that The European Magazine gave the

" 7heEdinburgh Review, I (1802)p. 115.

90 7he Monthly Review, 35(1801), pp. 163-164.

91 7he Critical Review, 35 (1802), pp. 114-117.

92 Ibid. 125 tale a brief mention."' The tearshowever, were considerably delayed, sincethe work was not reviewedin that periodicaluntil 1820,when it went into a third edition.The reviewerof TheEuropean Magazine notedthe universalappeal of Father and Daughter. 'Theincidents, which are of a domesticnature, occur naturally, and comehome to everyclass of readers.' As with the other reviews,the 'force and effect' with which certainscenes are written was praised,'and the lessonswhich sheinculcates do credit to her headand heart.04 The reviewers at The Critical Review and the European Magazine were thusthe first to foregroundthe moral aspectsof Opie's tales,a characteristicof her writing which wasto becomemore evidentas she becameolder.

The emphasisplaced by later biographersand critics - all of whom, apartfrom MacGregor,cite the samesource, mmely,

Brightwell - is on the reactionsexpressed by private readers,rather than critics. Someof thesewere notablefigures. MacGregor, Tevis andKavanagh all agreethat, as MacGregorexpresses it, 'Sir Walter 95 Scott wept as he read!. MacGregor also quotes the first verse of an

eighteen-stanzapoem written, as far as canbe ascertained,

anonymously,and sentto Amelia Opie'in praiseof the tale which

made[the writer] and his Fannyweep. 96 Further, Even the matter-of-

93 MacGregor,p. 35.

94 Ae EuropeanMagazine, I (1801), p.262.

95MacGregor, p. 32.

96 Ibid., p.35. 126 fact ThomasRobinson, the brotherof Henry CrabbRobinson, was affecte&. The excerptshe quotes reveals that this is a misattribution, for the phraseactually occurs in a letter from Henry to Thomasdated

31"JulyI801. 97 Hewrites:

It is quite enoughfor me to saythat [Father and Daughter] interestedme and I waspleased to find that I havea few strings aboutmy heartwhich are capableof receivinga vibration of The is distress it sympathy.... story very simple and the of arisesfrom seduction.

This referenceto the tale's sexualmores leads him to consider

Opie's positionas a writer of suchtales, contrasting her with her recent mentorand fiiend Godwin. He considersthat shesupported a 'middle opinion betwixt the free notionsof Godwin on femalechastity on the onehand and the puritanicaland prudishdoctrine of Miss Hannah 98 More on the other'. It was thereforeevident to a perceptive contemporarycritic suchas Robinson that Opie hasdistanced herself from the moreextreme opinions of the 1790swith which shehad colluded,if not actuallypropounded. Just prior to publicationshe had felt apprehensiveabout the receptionher work would receive,but in a letter to RobertGarnham written at that time, shestates that shehad

'felt the pulseof the public and [found] that it beatkindly enough towards me.'99 Taken in the context of the rest of the letter to

Gamham,which was political in tone,the contradictionsurrounding

97Henry CrabbRobinson to Tom Robinson,31 July 1801;Crabb Robinson Collection,Dr Williams's Library, London,30/1/4 1.

98Ibid.

99Opie to Robert Garnharn, 1801; Crabb Robinson Collection. 127

Amelia Opie that wasto continuethroughout her life in one form or anotherbecomes evident. Because she wrote (and probablyspoke) in waysand aboutthemes which shefelt her audiencewanted to read, with the appropriatepolitical and socialbias, shenowadays seems elusive,if not pusillanimous.At onceoutspoken and engagingin manner,she is alsovacillatory in content.One contemporarywho was decidedlyunimpressed was Cecilia Clarkson,who wrote, also to

Garnham,that shehad received

a long letter from Mrs. Opie. I learn that sheis amazingly noticedand courtedby titl[ed flolk & learnedfolk & rich folk & fol[k] I do her. Her Book hasbeen all sort of ... not enjoy amazinglysuccessful which I consideras rathera misfortune than otherwise it will encourageher to scribbleon and I am - 100 almostcertain that shewill neverproduce anything better.

Ada Earland,writing in 1911,discusses reaction to the tale, contrastingits successat the time with its obscuritya hundredyears later:

Perhapsin someforgotten comer of an old library, or stowedaway in lumber rooms,copies of Father and Daughter,over which Sir Walter Scottcried; after readingwhich PrinceHoare could not sleepall night 'it madehim so wretched; may yet be found, yet if so, it is doubtful if the finder could, readingit, squeezea singletear. Are we harder-heartedthan our great- grandfathers,or doesthe keynoteof sentimentchange with eachgeneration? Its successfor a while was immense. It ran througha dozeneditions, the last in 1844[the publishersrecord only nine]. To a modem readerthe pathosis overdone;the characterslack individuality. Mrs Opie was deficient in literary style, and interruptedthe action of her story with banal didacticattempts to point the moral or pile on the pathos. But in an agewhen novelsand plays were

100Mrs Clarksonto RobertGarnharn dd. 20 May 1802;Crabb Robinson Collection. 128

coarse,she wrote purely, andMiss Lydia Languish would havehad no needto pushFather and Daughter underthe sofacushion when visitors were announced.101

Earland,like Kavanagh,draws attention to the shortfallsof

Opie's tale, but finds mitigation in her purity. By today's standards,

Opie writes a strongtale, told at a goodpace and certainto provokean emotionalresponse. One is remindedof her disarmingintroduction on the title pageof Father and Daughter,that the work is but'A simple moral tale'. It may not be of the highestcanon of literature,but it was long in the publisher'slists. MacGregornotes that'at the time of her death[1853] it was still consideredher bestwork. "" Its successcan be gaugedfrom the financial consequences.At this time JanetTodd

that 'to keepherself indifferently estimates respectably... an successfulwoman novelist would havehad to produceas manyas ten booksa year'.103 However, Jan Fergusand JaniceThaddeus estimate that Opie earnedfive hundredpounds a year from her writing. 104Her ability do so was dueto the successof Father and Daughter,selling an estimated6750 copiesand pavingthe way for subsequent

publications.105 Father and Daughteralso stimulatedseveral spin-off

publications,notably Ferdinando Paer's opera Agnese (1809), which,

101Earland, p. 157.

102 MacGregor,p. 35. 103 JanetTodd, Me SignofAngelfica: Women,Writing andFiction 1600- 1800 (London:Virago, 1989),p. 220.

104Jan Fergus and JaniceThaddeus, 'Women, Publishers and Money' in Stu&esin EighteenthCentury Culture, 17 (1987),p. 200.

105See Appendix B: PublicationData of Opie's Works Publishedby Longman's, p.340 below. 129 althoughit is not recordedin Groveas beingbased on Opie's tale,

neverthelesshas a heroinenamed Agnese de Fitzhendryand a very

106 similar plotline.

Father and Daughterand the collection of Poemspublished the

following year establishedMrs. Opie as a fashionablewriter in the

sentimentalstyle. Her next work of fiction, however,Adefine Mowbray

(1805),was to showa considerabledevelopment in termsof both

complexityof structureand seriousnessof purpose.

-*4.e.- -*..-.*-

106 SeeNew GroveDictionary of Operaed. by StanleySadie (New York: Macmillan, 1992),4 vols.; 1, p.35 and3, p.818. 130

CHAPTER 4

The London Years:Adeline Mowbray (1805)

Wen Amelia Opie producedAdefine Mowhray in 1805,there

is considerableevidence that sheintended the work to be regardedas more thanjust a simple 'moral tale'- the phrasewhich had prefacedFather and Daughter. Although the words 'A Tale' appear on the title pagesof eachof the threevolumes, it appearsthat she intendedto constructa fully-developednovel, contradictingthe disarmingstatement she had madepreviously in her efforts to avoid the useof the word 'novel' in describingher earlier prosefiction. In termsof its complexity,length and characterisation,Adefine Mowbray is unquestionablya novel, at leastas we usethe term nowadays.

One of theseindicators of differenceis the length,at approximately118,500 words, set out in chaptersof much greater lengthand developmentthan either of her earlier proseworks, and all boundinto threeduodecimo volumes, resulting in a work half as long againas her earliertales. As might be expectedfrom the successof her earlierattributed works, sheretained the statusof the sameLondon publisher,Longman, Hurst, Reesand Orme. A further connectionwith her earliertale Father andDaughter is madein the subtitle of the new work: Mother and Daughter.This phrasesignals a statementabout structurewhich shouldinform critical analysisof the novel, but which 131 hasbeen passed over by most critics until EleanorTy in her recent

publication.'

An indicatorof Opie's confidencein handlingprose fiction is

the elaboraterelationship she sets up betweenthe swelling population

of characters,with principal charactersnumbering seven significantly

different malesand five equallycontrasting females. In her earlier

tales,she had usedthe dramaticdevice of contrastingpairs, but, as we

shall see,the relationshipsand characteristicsin AdefineMowbray are

muchmore intricate.Further, the manipulationsof male and female

charactersdo morethan assistthe vehicle of the narrativeon its way:

they interactwith eachother in a world of male dominancepresented

from a femalewritees point of view - and yet the novel confounds

thosecritics who wish to classifyit as either Jacobinor conservative.

As ClaudiaJohnson says, 'Adeline Mowhray invalidatesall the

answers,conservative or radical. 92 Not only are issuesof marriage

problematised,as might be appropriatefor a radical work of fiction,

but also thoseof child-rearing.Additionally the reconciliationof how

life shouldbe with how it really is are investigated.However, for the

answersto be so invalid suggeststhat the wrong questionsare being

asked. Part of the purposeof this inquiry into Opie's problematical

novel is to seekto ask the right questions,based on a different

structuralmodel than that adoptedin the past.

Thereis a substantialelement of betrayalof womenby men in

1 See Ty, 1998, esp. p. 148-149.

2 Johnson,p. 22. 132 the novel, and the consequentactions of femalecharacters to cometo

termswith thesebetrayals. As the narrativeunfolds, the readeris

awareof what Kathryn Sutherland,in her essayHannahMore's

Counter-RevolutionaryFeminisrrf has identified as

the radicalmale public betrayalof women,and the sensethat, in their turn, womenof all political persuasionswere engagedin fashioningfrom the rhetoric of populardemocracy a discourseappropriate to their peculiarneeds as women.3

This statementindicates the breadthand complexityof the cultural and

ideologicalpattern of societyof the time, and the diversity of women

writers' responsesto it. The 'needsas womeif that Opie choosesto

depictin the novel are at oncepersonal and social,radical and

conservative.They drive the novel and in their different waysand

situationsact centripetallyto resolvethe struggleof womento

reconcilewhat the male-orderedworld deemsan acceptablerole with

their own moral valuesand senseof the pragmatic. As for the world

outsidethe novel, the needsof the womenauthors varied accordingto

individual circumstancesand motivations. It is thereforereasonable to

seewomen writers presentingillustrations of theseneeds and solutions

to (or at leastconsequences of) them in many different ways.

The eponymouscharacter herself, raised in 'an old family

mansion'is drawn from a socialrank superiorto that of Agnes(Father

3 Kathryn Sutherland, 'lUnnah More's Counter-Revolutionary Feminism' in Kelvin Everest, ed., Revolution in Writing. British Literwy Responsesto the French Revolution (Milton Keynes: OU Press, 1991), p.35. 133

4 and Daughter) or Louisa (The Dangers OfCoqUetly). She has

featuresabout her which, ratherthan makeher a universalmodel of a young bourgeoiseto which manyyoung womenin that socialniche

could easilyrelate, give Adeline a specialsingularity. The most

evidentof thesefeatures is a scaleof valuesregarding marriage

inculcatedby her dysfunctionalmother, widowed at agethirty when

Adeline wasten. The incidenceof mother-daughterrelationships in the

novelswritten by womenin the late eighteenth/earlynineteenth

centurieshas been remarked as'universally high'by EleanorTy, at

onceindicating its significanceat the time and its appropriatenessas an

5 avenueof studyin our time. Conversely,both Agnesand Louisa,the

heroinesof Opie'searlier tales,were motherless,like otherheroines of

popularnovels of the time suchas FannyBurney's Evelina and

Cecilia, andtherefore lacking in instructionin the waysof the world.

However,Adeline's mother is quickly demonstratedto be an egotist,

who considered'itas the chief duty of all who approachedher, to study

the gratificationof her whims and caprices'(p. 3). This deviceof the motherwho makesa negativecontribution to her daughteesunbringing propels the central issue throughout the entire novel: instead of lacking

moral and worldly instructiondue to motherlessness,Adeline would

grow up hostageto a thoroughlyunconventional set of values

propoundedby her mother,especially as they relateto marriage. This

4 Opie,Adefine Mowbray, ed. by ShelleyKing andJohn B. Pierce(Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress: 1999), p. 1. Subsequentquotations are from this edition except wherenoted otherwise, and page numbers arc includedparenthetically in the text.

5 Mary 11ays,Ae Ficfim ofPreju&ce, ed. by EleanorTy (Peterborough,Ont.: BroadviewPress, 1992), p. xii. 134 situationarises because of her mother'sintellectual fascination with the writings of a youngradical philosopher,Frederic Glemnurray, 'over whoseworks they [Mrs. Mowbray and Adeline] had long delightedto meditate,and who had completelyled their imaginationcaptive'(p. 20).

JonathanWordsworth, in his introductionto the facsimile

6 edition of this novel, calls ita studyof moral duty. This is a caseof critical reserve,however: it seemsto me to be a studyof moral confusion. The rationalrealm of the philosophercomes into contact with the moresand conventionsof everydaylife, and Adeline is caught at this interface. The novel exploresareas of public and private relationshipsat the heartof society: thoserelating to love, marriage andreputation. The public condemnationof the happyrelationship of

Adeline and Glemnurraycontrasts nicely with the public approvalof the miserablemarriage to Beffendale.

Thereare severalsimilarities with Amelia Opie'sexperience of her relationshipwith both William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft.

It hasbecome accepted that the novel is basedon their efforts to avoid the tyranny of marriage, their eventual capitulation and the public obloquy that resulted from their action. This assumption needsto be questioned, however, for Opie gave no indication in any of her letters

documents or other surviving that the tale was to be seen as a roman a clefin this way. The present-dayreader may thereforeeither approach it as a work of fiction for its own sake,as it were,or attemptto read

6 Opie,Adeline Mawbray, 1995edrL, unpaginated. 135 into it figuresfrom real life.

The critical responsehas been usually the latter option.Recent developments,however, signal a re-evaluationtowards a more open view. For example,in 1992,Ty statedunequivocally that the work is

'basedon the life of Mary Wollstonecraff.7 Her more recent publicationis moretentative: she writes that Adeline 'is the character

8 supposedlymodelled on Wollstonecraft'. Equally, as we move backwardsin time, the connectionappears less certain. In 1910, Clara

Whitmoreopined that The life story of Mary Wollstonecraftsuggested 9 [the novel] to Amelia Opie. In 1863 Julia Kavanagh made a more tenuousconnection, evidently anxious to protectthe subjectof her essay,Opie, from too closea contagionwith Wollstonecraft,in a mannerwhich indicatesforcefully how the odium surrounding

Wollstonecraftwas still presentmid-nineteenth century:

Mrs Opie knew Godwinbefore he marriedMary Wolstonecraft[sic], and if shedid not know that erring woman,she was well-acquaintedwith her history. It suggestedthe chief incidentsin the tale ofAdefine Mowbray, and it is well for Mrs Opie'scredit that she did not invent them herself,for they are so remotefrom the commonrealities of life that, had not the whole world known them to be true, few would havetolerated them.10

At the time of the novel's publication,the connectionbetween Adeline and Wollstonecraftwas neitheradmitted by Opie nor madeevident in

7 Ty, 1992,p. 28.

8 Ty, 1998,p. 153.

9 Whitmore,p. 151.

10Julia Kavanagh,P. 277. 136 the critical reviewsof the time of the novel's publication.

Much of the confusionarises, it seemsto me, because twentieth-centurycritics haveaPproached Opie via Wollstonecraft, with the consequencethat AdelineMowbray is perceivedonly as a constructionbased on Wollstonecraftand Godwin. This situation seemsto havearisen because of Wollstonecraft'srelatively greater importancein the eyesof the twentieth-centurycritics. At the time, however,and for much of the nineteenthcentury, as Kavanagh's commenttellingly reveals,Wollstonecraft was not as highly-regardeda figure as sheis today.

I suggesta freshanalysis based not on Godwin as Glemmurray and Wollstonecraftas Adeline, but the more satisfyingtriangular structureof Godwin as Glenmurray,Wollstonecraft as Editha,

Adeline's mother,and for Adeline herselfthe samekind of inverted projectionof Opie herselfthat was observedin her two previoustales.

Strongnarratives, as Opie knew, requiretriangular structures. All threeprose works that havebeen considered so far havesuch structures: in The Dangers of Coquety)4Louisa, Mortimer and Lady

Belmour; in Father and Daughter, Agnes, Clifford and her father, in

Adeline Mowbray, Adeline, Glenmurray and Editha. Berrendale,

Langley, O'Carrol, Mary Warner and similar characters,conversely, amply illustrate the gulf between what is and what should be.

Opie takessuch care and writes at suchlength in developing the characterof Mrs. Mowbray, Adeline'smother, that the readermight at first think that the novel will be abouther. The significanceof this 137 carefulconstruction is largely lost if the critical analysisis that of a bipolar structure,Glemnurray and Adeline. It is importantto realise the significanceof the motherfigure in Adeline's eyes. Ty suggests that Edithabecomes a 'lost objectof desire' for Adeline in a way not dissimilarto Agnes'sfather in Father and Daughter.11

Mrs. Mowbray'scharacter has two main strandswhich are constantthrough the work. The first of theseis her egotism,which is repeatedlyemphasised in the text: 'Mrs. Mowbray, as I havesaid before,was the spoiledchild of rich parents'(p.9); Mrs. Mowbray was,if I may be allowedthe expression,a showing-offwoman, and loved the informationwhich sheacquired! (p. 15). The other main strandis her fascinationwith dogmaand imposingit on others.She

'imaginedsystems for the goodof societyand the furtheranceof generalphilanthropy', but at the sametime neglectedthose around her

(p.5). The similarity to Wollstonecraft,a womanwho had written two seminalworks on what werethen regardedas idealistic and revolutionaryviews of humanrelationships, and yet hadbeen unable to sustainher own relationships,cannot be ignored.As a child Editha had read Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). She then setto teachingher parentshow to think, in an inversionof the customaryparent-child relationship that signalsnot only her egotism but thejudgemental view of her parentsthat Wollstonecrafthad achievedby her mid-teens(p. 12).12

" Ty, 1998, p. 147. 12 See, for example, Tomalin, p.23. 138

That Opie used Wollstonecraftas a model for Editha canbe supportedby an analysisof the social situationin which the two operated.As Amelia Alderson,Opie had known Godwin for several years,having first met him throughher father's acquaintanceshipwith

ThomasHolcroft. Godwin's first known communicationwith Amelia

Opie wasto respondto sight of the manuscriptof Adelaidein 1794.

Her earlier lettersto him, particularlythat of 28 August 1795,are girlish and flattering. Herjournal entries,notably that which describes her first visit to his houseand that which describesan incidentwith a 13 slipper,reveal an amusedsexual tension between them. The coterie had stabilisedaround Amelia Opie, Godwin, Inchbaldand Holcroft until Wollstonecraft,ten yearsolder than Opie and a womanof considerableinterest to her for her writings, becameinvolved with

Godwin in August 1796. A letter from Opie to Godwin dated 17

August 1796first mentionsWollstonecraft ('Mrs Imlay'), and hints at

Wollstonecraft'sdogmatic nature, stating that shefound

Wollstonecrafta much more rigid critic of her play manuscriptthan

Godwin had been.14 This is the first mentionof the fascination

Wollstonecrafthad for Opie which both attractedher and which she

found so difficult to deal with. In readingthe threeextant letters from

Opie to Wollstonecraft,one is struckby the rangeof emotionsshe

expresses,from the simperingtone of that of 28 August,with

expressionsof awestruckaffection suchas 'I derive so much pleasure

13Brightwell, pp. 4142 and pp. 56-57.

14Amelia Alderson to William Godwin, 17 August 1796: Bodleian Library, Oxford, B. Dep.6,210/6. 139 from thinking of you,' and the hurt defensivenessof that of 18

December,when a plan of Opie's to raisemoney for Wollstonecraft was snubbedby her, to the coolnessof the letter written after the 15 marriage of Wollstonecraft and Godwin four months later. Opie clearly found the intellectualclimate of the coteriestimulating - her letter to Godwin of 28 August 1795refers to his 'new ideas' shehad to take on.16 It wasalso animated:in November1796, she remonstrates 17 with him for calling her 'coquette' and 'bitch'. Wollstonecraft playedher part in this interchange:Tomalin notesthe 'arch references' to both Opie and Inchbaldin her lettersto Godwin at this time as she destabilisedthe coterie.18 In a retrospectof sevenor eight yearsfrom the time of writing the novel, Wollstonecraftmust haveappeared sufficiently complex,egotistical and caughtup in the inconsistencies

of reality and idealistic philosophyto makea rich sourcefor Opie's

characterof EdithaMowbray.

Editha Mowbray is thus a central figure, and the development

of her characterfocuses on the way her fascinationwith philosophy

works counterto her upbringingof her daughter. Ratherthan

providing an educationalframework for the girl, on which might be

developeda viable understandingand awarenessof life, moresand

15Amelia Aldersonto Mrs Imlay, 28 August 1796;Alderson to In-day,18 December 1796;both BodleianB. Dep. 6,210/6 andAlderson to Mrs Godwin,n. d., Bodleian, B.Dep. C, 507/15.

16Alderson to Godwin,28 August 1795;Bodleian, B. Dep. 210/6.

17Alderson to Godwin, I November1796; Bodleian, B Dep.6 210/6.

18Tornalin, p. 258. 140 morals,the philosophicaltheories that fascinateMrs. Mowbray are seenby her as endsin themselves,and so sheconsistently fails to carry the abstractionthrough to a practicalimplementation. When Adeline attemptsto makethis logical step,she is shockedand dumbfounded.

Later in the tale, this trait will be reversed,and it becomesAdeline who cannotsee the practicalconsequences of her philosophicaction of living with Glenmurray,to her mother's horror. Putting acrossthe point of Mrs Mowbray's cerebrally-basedparenting, Opie writes how

'After havingovernight arranged the tasksfor Adeline for the next day, lost in somenew speculationsfor the goodof her child, shewould lie in bed all the morning,exposing that child to the dangersof idleness!

(p.6). Julia Kavanagh'sobservation of this trait revealsa splendidly nineteenth-centurygloss:

Mrs. Mowbray is in ... so wrappedup the educational plansfor her only child, Adeline, that the young girl grows up nearly self-educated,and thoughendowed with the purestand most refined impulses,a greatdeal too self-reliant. New theoriesof moral and social dutiesare amongstMrs. Mowbray'sweaknesses, but shestops at theory,and Adeline, ingenuous, conscientiousand inexperiencedýventures on practice.19

The last few words of Kavanagh'scomment are brought into sharp focuswhen Mrs. Mowbray, who hasbeen 'inventing an easymethod of learningarithmetic, by which I [Mrs Mowbray] was going to teach her [Adeline] in a few months,' discoversthat Adeline, self-taught,is alreadybeen handling the family accountswhile her mother,too lofty

to deal with suchpracticalities, conjures her schemes(p. 10). Aswell

19Kavanagh, p.277. 141 as illustratingthe discrepancybetween theory and practice,there is a clear literary relationshiphere with the Trista-paediawritten by

Walter Shandy,an educationaltreatise which will form the basisof the educationof his sonTristram, of which the latter says: 'My father spunhis [book], everythread of it, out of his own brain, - or reeled and cross-twistedwhat all other spinnersand spinstershad spunbefore hinL920Indeed, one of Sterne'smain themesin this novel -the associationof ideasas causeof folly and peril - may be seenas significantin AdelineMowbray, but in reverse: it is the disassociation of abstracttruth from the processesof real life which Adeline fails to makewhich accountsfor the novel's centralagon. We know that

Opie was familiar with Sterne'sTristram Shandy (1759-1767), since

Glenmurrayrefers to 'Steme's dearJenny' (p. 141). However,there is no evidenceof an intentionalliterary connectionbetween Opie's writing and Sterne's.Neither the novel nor its writer are mentionedin the biographiesof Opie or in her letters.

The choiceof arithmeticalskills on which this incident is based

is highly topical for the time. Edward Copeland, in discussing the

significanceof this skill, points out how importantit was for a middle- be rank woman'swell-being to able to calctflateher 'competence'-

that amountof moneythat will enableher to live independently,

without the needto work - and review her prospectsof achievingit.

20 Lawrence Sterne, The Life md Opinions of Thstram Shandy (London: Penguin, 1985), p.25. 142

This preoccupationhighlights the precariousstate women were in without sucha competence,and the heroineof Opie's novel wasto serveas a salutaryexample of a womanin sucha state,dependent on eitherthe generosityor otherwiseof her partneror her own earning powersfor her support. Copelandcomments:

In contemporary women's fiction, the competenceledgers are kept meticulously clean, neat and well-balanced. No matter what the sceneryor the philosophy, the main plot or the subplots, the sound of adding and subtraction makes its way 21 to the Surface .

Copelandcontinues by quoting from a tract by JaneWest, a writer seenas holding the very conservativeviews prevalentat the time. Writing in 1806,West states:

Every girl oughtto possessa competentknowledge of arithmetic. It is also desirablethat this knowledgeought to be practicalas well as theoretical; that sheshould understand the value of commodities,be ableto calculateexpenses, and to tell what a specificincome should afford. 22

Adeline's failing is that althoughshe is able to demonstratecomputational skills in her childhood,she loses sight of their objectivein later life. This may be readas Opie's satirizingsuch pecuniarism as is found in JaneWest's aclumbrations,and is one small exampleof the pleasureshe takesin mocking conservativeideology suchas this. Love makesAdeline blind to suchmatters when sheis with

21 Copeland, p.23. 22 JaneWest, Letters to a YoungLady (London: 1806),p. 259. 143

Glemnurray,at leastas far as can be ascertainedfrom any

textualevidence, whereas her open-heartednature makes

Berrendale'smiserly and self-indulgentcruelties too hard to

bearin her marriedlife. Another opportunityfor this kind of

satireon parentingwas on the subjectof suitableclothing for

children,in which incidentMrs Mowbray is seenreading aloud

from a work on this debatablesubject. The excerptis worth

quoting in its entirety:

'Some personsare of the opinion that thin shoes are most beneficialto health;others, equally worthy of respect,think thick onesof most use:and the reasons for theseopinions we shall classunder two heads.'

'Dear me, ma'am,' cried Bridget, 'and in the meantime missAdeline will go without any shoesat all. ' 'Do not interruptme, Bridget,' cried Mrs. Mowbray, and proceededto readon. 'In the first placeit is not clear,says a learnedwriter, whetherchildren require any clothing at all for their feet.' At this momentAdeline burst openthe parlour door, and, crying bitterly, held up her bleedingtoes to her mother. 'Mamma,mamma! ' cried she,'you forgot to sendfor a pair of new shoesfor me, and seehow the stonesin the gravel havecut meV This sight,this appeal,decided the questionin dispute. The feet of Adeline bleedingon a new Turkey carpetproved that someclothing for the feet was necessary.(p. 7)

Satire is something new in Opie's prose writing, and indicates her

growing sophisticationand abilities as a writer. The way in which the

most obviousissues of practicality are carefully debatedwith neo-

classicalthoroughness and systemisation'undertwo heads'in an effort

to get back to first principlesis a swipe at the philosophyof the period.

The passageis reminiscentof Wollstonecraft's'Onthe Lack of 144

Learnine in A Vindicationofthe Rightsof Woman(1792), which

criticisedwomeWs lack of methodicalenquiry due to theirdisorderly

kind of educatiorf.23 It is the adoptionof an extremeform of

epistemologicalmethod: Mrs. Mowbray, vacillating betweenvarious

educationalpriorities and methodologies,has presented Adeline with

exactlythe disorderlyeducation which Wollstonecraftidentified.

Now it wasjudgedright that sheshould learn nothing,and now that sheshould learn everything. Now, her gracefulform and well-turnedlimbs wereto be free from any bandage,and any clothing savewhere decency required, - and now they were to be torturedby stiff stays,and fetteredby the stocksand the baCkboard.24

Non-Jacobinwriters suchas Maria Edgeworthalso wrote on

the educationof girls andyoung women. Maria and Richard

Edgeworth'sscientific rationalism,taken to similar extremes,would

also requiresuch a debateas we havejust seen.In Practical

Education(1798), the Edgeworthswrite on the needfor methodical

enquiry,but temperthis by addingyet [the pupil] must habitually feel

the nice senseof propriety,which is alonethe guardand chann of 25 everyfeminine virtue'. It is this senseof propriety,an awarenessOf

the conventionsof society,which Mrs Mowbray hasomitted to teach

to Adeline. HannahMore, in her Strictureson the Modern Systemof

FemaleEducation (1798) takes this idea further, pointing out in her

openingremarks how mistakenit is to give women 'a very defective

23 Mary Wollstonecraft,A Vindicationof theRights of Woman,ed by Miriam Brody Kramnick(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978)), p. 40.

24 Opie,p. 5. 25 R-L. and M. EdgewortI4 Practical Education (London: 1798), p. 534. 145 education,and then to expectfrom them the most undeviatingpurity of conduct.ý26

The characterof Gleninumayis a studyof a personwho, having madehis reputationas an enfantterrible in his youth with radical and skepticalpronouncements, finds that he is stuckwith them. As he maturesand his philosophicalabstractions are tempered by life- experience,he requires,in Carlyleantenns, new clothes,but thereis no opportunityfor sartor resartus. His reputationprecedes him, his juvenilia achievinga permanencein the immutability of the printed mediumwhich, as manyanother writer hasfound, can be embarrassing.One suchwriter was Godwin himself, who, in the prefaceto the secondedition of Caleh William (1832), writes how in 1794, first whenthe edition of the novel was published- but when,at he thirty-eight, could scarcelybe consideredjuvenile- he was'writing of different things of obscurenote, [which now] I ain inclined to

j27 suppress. As Marilyn Butler comments,'he no longersaw [Caleb

Williams] as dealingwith the socialand public perspectivesof the

Enlightemnent. Instead he reinterpreted his own career retrospectively in the aestheticand privateterminology of romanticism.' 28

Opie reflectsthis shift of Godwin's ideasand a larger radical ideologyin AdefineMowbray. Glemnurray'sideas, which, as Mary

26 HannahMore, Works(London: 1830),5, p.ix. 27 William Godwin,Caleb Williams,ed. by MauriceHindle (London:Penguin, 1988),p. 345. 28 Marilyn Butler, 'Godwin, Burke andCaleb Williams' in Romanticism:A Critical Reader,ed. DuncanWu (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995),p. 345. 146

KathrynTevis observes,are 'representativeof the whole schoolof 29 radicalthoughf, are no longerpopular. A young friend accompanyingAdeline is takenaback when shegreets him in the street."'My good gracious! and do you speakto him?...they say one

him becausehe is I do know but shouldnot notice ... not exactly what, I believe it is a French spy, or a Jesuit"' (p. 24). Opie again points out the conservativetenor of the times andthe preoccupationwith the war with France by showing Adeline's companion as being surprised by her forwardness.Unable to escapefrom his youthful writings,

Glenmurraylapses into a defensiveskepticism. "'I considermyself'he usedto say,"as a sceptic,not as a man really certainof the truth of any

thing which he advances"'(p. 20). Opie showsthis pusillanimity in

tragi-comicform when,having fulminated against duelling in his

writings, subsequentlyhe feels obligedto duel with the opportunistic

rakeO'Carrol who hasdebased Adeline, with whom Glenmurrayis

now in love. As the two men argueover issuesof marriageand

'honour'as relatingto Adeline and her virtue, and as sheinterposes her

naiveremarks, O'Carrol threatens a duel. Adeline quickly points out to

O'Carrolthe futility of his gesture: 'Why, you do not meanto

challengehim? You cant supposeMr Glenmurraywould do so absurd

a thing as to fight a duel? Sir, he haswritten a volumeto provethe

absurdityof the custom' (p.29). This may be seenas a direct

referenceto GodwiWsPolitical Justice,in which he denouncesthe

29 Tevis, p.39. 147

30 practiceof duelling. For his part, Glemnurrayfeels the conflict betweenabstract reason and individualisedemotion: To fight a duel would be, as Adeline observed,contrary to his principles;and to declineone, irritated as he was againstSir Patrick, was repugnantto his feelings'(p. 30). The duel is fought,and both men are wounded.'

ThusOpie nicely demonstratesthe flaw in Glenmurray'scharacter: the dissonancebetween a radicalphilosophy, which understandablyviews duelling asbarbaric, and the actualityof conventionalbehaviour - in this casethe codeof honourexisting at that time.

Thereis a further and seeminglyvery deliberateconnection betweenAdelineMowbray, Godwin and Godwins Caleb Williams.In describingAdeline's reflecting on a conversationbetween herself and

Glenmurrayrelating to the social implicationsof their non-married

relationship,Opie hasAdeline refer tothings as they are',the original title, later the subtitleof Godwin'snovel. The connectionbetween

Glenmuffayand Godwin becomesreinforced. At this point, Adeline is

lessthan satisfiedwith Glemnurraysconduct, to which she,in her

constancyto his ideals,attributes his willingnessto climb down from

the lofty purity of his philosophical position in order to deal with

pragmaticissues of acceptabilityin the social world -a centraltheme

of the novel. For Godwin, the phraseis an importantone, set against

its counterpoint,'things as they oughtto be, and hereagain we seethis

fundamentaldichotomy between the idealand the actual. In Caleb

Williams,it is the statusquo, 'thingsas they are',the British social

30Godwin, Political Justice, pp.94-96. 148 systemwhich is at the heartof Caleb'sfears, that overrulingforce which, asMaggie Kilgour points out, 'through a variety of insidious 1 means,destroys the naturally good individual.13 Adeline is destroyed by her failure to distinguishbetween 'the world as it is' and 'the world as it oughtto be'.

Opie'swork is clearly concernedwith the destructionof the naturallygood individual in the personof Adeline, and her deliberate useof Godwiifs phrasestrengthens the connectionbetween Godwin and Glentnurray.Earlier in her work, Kilgour, in discussingCaleb

Williams and Godwin'sideas on education,describes a central antagonismwhich also relatesto Opie'snovel:

While he [Godwin] insists on our essential autonomy, he also claims that people are not the true authors of their actions, as they are caught in a deterministic chain of Necessity: 'Man is in no case, strictly speaking, the beginner of any event or series of events that take place in the universe, but only the vehicle through which certain antecedentsoperate'(p. 35 1), and so 'we perpetually annex erroneous ideas to this phrase, that we are the authors. Though mind be a real and proper it is in first Thought is antecedent, no casea cause. ... the medium! 32

So,in AdelineMowbray, when Adeline is inculcatedwith

philosophicalnotions by her mother,taking them to be ethical values

on which shecould model her life, and sheis shownclearly as being

only the vehicle for theseideas and not the originator,Opie is recalling

Godwinianideas of detenninismhere also. Godwin's ideasare

31Maggie Kilgour, Ae Riseofthe GothicNovel (London:Routledge, 1995), p. 57.

32 Ibid., p.50. 149 thereforeoperating both within the frameworkof the narrativeand as phenomenologicalunderpinnings to it.

Both Godwin (b. 1756)and Wollstonecraft(b. 1759) had the authorityof ageover Amelia Alderson,as shethen was (b. 1769),as well as of intellectualstature. Wollstonecraft referred to her as

MademoiselleAlderson! in her notesto Godwin and the constant inferenceof her messagesto him abouther is to maximiseAlderson! s youthful ingenuousness.In short,Wollstonecraft is settingup a form of parentalrelationship in mattersintellectual and socialbetween herselfand Godwin as regardstheir youngprotegie (lit. 'protected person!) - preciselythe ambit of the novel. This is demonstratedin the narrativewhen Mrs Mowbray presentsGlenmuffay to Adeline as the proponentof certainphilosophies which meetwith her endorsement:a powerful position indeed. 'On the works of this writer Adeline had often heardher motherdescant in termsof the highestpraise' (p. 15).

Thereare echoesof this relationshipin the lettersOPie wrote to both

Godwin and the then Mrs. Imlay in 1795/6.Her letter of 28 August,

1795describes her visit to Norwich after spendingtime with them as

giving her 'the opportunity of entering into myself of thinking over Li

tete reposie the scenesand personsI have left, of marshallingthe new

ideasI havegained, and of acting in consequenceof them.03

If this relationshipof intellectualparents can be accepted,the

constructionof Adeline's relationshipwith her motherand her

mother'svalues indicates Amelia Opie writing in a spirit of disillusion

33 Opie to William Godwin, 28 August 1795; Bodleian, Dep. 6.210/6. 150 with the valuesheld by Wollstonecraftand Godwin,and also at

Godwin'ssubsequent departure from thesevalues. While she describeswith evidentanger the prejudiceof societywhich Adeline encounters- the actionsof Dr Norberry's wife and daughters(pp. 93-

96), the failure of the village school(pp. 167-170), the attitudesof

Langleyand Mary Warner(pp. 202-3) - shealso distancesherself, often by satire,from thosevalues and from their proponents,not merelybecause of the political expediencyof needingto be published, as discussedin my analysisof Father and Daughterabove, but also for the way they fly so hard in the faceof socialmores of her time, damagingany young womanwho might adoptthem on the adviceof her intellectualmentors. On this point, Tevis writes:

Amelia Opie, although she was intimate with Godwin and with many of his associates,could not share his view of marriage. On the contrary, it seemedto her to be shocking and immoral. Adeline Mowbray ably demonstratesher satiric intention to apply GodwiWs theory of marriage in actual life-situations and to note the outcome.34

Tevis'sview seemsa reductionistone: it is not merely a questionof noting outcomes,but the full-length descriptionof the fate of a young womanwho is presentedwith an intellectuallystimulating but societallyopposed set of values,and who refusesto departfrom them.

To refer to Opie's attitudestowards Godwin's view of marriageas

'shockingand immoral' is to mimimise the long and closerelationship the two shared.When Godwin finally married,Opie's reactionwas

34Tevis, p.36. 151 muchmore complex than that of, for example,Elizabeth Inchbald.

Tevis also suggeststhat Ms Mowbray might well be the mouthpiece of Amelia Opie herself, but Mrs Mowbray'scarefully constructed egotismis the reasonfor her dysfunctionas a parent,causing Adeline's incompatibleprinciples. 35

The disillusiomnentin connectionwith Godwin is evident when Opie writes of Glenmurray'sideas in the contextof corrupting

Adeline'spure heart and mind, both tabula rasa opento intellectual and emotionalstimuli:

Oneauthor in particular,by a train of reasoning captivatingthough sophistical, and plausiblethough absurd,made her a delightedconvert to his opinions, and preparedher youngand impassionedheart for the practiceof vice, by filling her mind, ardentin the love of virtue, with new and singularopinions on the subject of moral duty. (p. 14)

The incompatibilityof the valueswith which Adeline hasbeen inculcatedand the socialmores and conventionsof the day are sharply appositewhen Adeline informs her motherthat sheloves Glenmurray andhe her, andthat they wish to live together.The interview starts badly whenMrs. Mowbray realisesthat Adeline hasspent the afternoonalone with Glenmurrayin his apartments:"What! "

[exclaimsMrs. Mowbrayj "visit a man aloneat his lodgings,after the educationwhich you havereceived? " Adeline is nonplussed,and replies: "Indeed,madam,... my educationnever taught me that such conductwas improper;nor, as you did the samethis afternoon,could I 152 havedared think it so" (p.38). Opie neatly suggestsnot only the conflict betweenAdeline! s learnedvalues and thoseof society,but also the doublestandard which Mrs Mowbray,who hasbeen visiting her

suitor O'Caffol, seeksto apply. This interchangeof mutual

astonishmentand bafflementonly anticipatesthe larger matter. After

informing her motherof her plansand feelingsregarding Glenmurray,

and finding that her motheris lessthan pleasedthat shecontemplates

marryinga man of suchsmall fortune,and "'shunnedfor his principles

and profligacyby all the world"' (p.40), Amelia rushesto correcther

parent:

"But you are quite mistakenin supposingme so lost to consistency,and so regardlessof your liberal opinions,and the bookswhich we havestudied, as to think of marrying Mr Glenmurray." "Grant me patience!" cried Mrs Mowbray: "why, to be sure you do not think of living with him without being married?" "Certainly madam,that you may havethe pleasureof beholdingone union foundedon rational groundsand cemented by rational ties." "How! " cried Mrs Mowbray, turning pale. 'T -I have pleasurein seeingmy daughtera kept mistress! You are mad, quite mad.-I approvesuch unhallowed connections! " (p.40)

The conflict for Adeline, agednineteen, is the adolescentone

of expectingcertain black-and-white consistencies in adult behaviours,

and not finding them in practice. Mrs Mowbray is furious with her

daughter,who, in turn, finds her mother'sattitude hard to understand.

Adeline had expectedher mother'sapproval, not her astonished

disbeliefand inability to reconcilephilosophic theory with practice.

The exchangecontinues with Adeline expressingher confusionto her

35 Ibid. 153 mother,who takesappropriate, sudden action - but too late:

"My dearestmother, " repliedAdeline, "your agitation terrifies,me, - but indeedwhat I say is strictly true: and see here,in Mr Glenmurray'sbook, the very passagewhich I so often haveheard you admire." As shesaid this, Adeline pointedto the passage;but in an instantMrs Mowbray seizedthe book and threw it on the fire. (ibid.)

The following morning, Mrs. Mowbray attempts to reason further with

Adeline, with suchutterances as:

"Little did I think you were so romanticas to seeno differencebetween amusing one's imagination with new theoriesand new systems,and acting upon them in defianceof commoncustom, and the receivedusages of society. I admirethe convenienttrowsers and graceful dressof the Turkish women; but I would not wear them myself, lest it shouldexpose me to derision." (pp.40-41)

The effect on Adeline is carefully describedin a way which heightens

the ideologicaltension between abstract truth and conventional

behaviour:

Adeline listenedin silent astonishmentand consternation. Conscience,and the conviction of what is right, shethen for the first time learned,were not to be the "Would heaven, dear rule of action; ... to my " Adeline "that had mother, said ... you said all this to me eremy mind had beenindelibly impressedwith the truth of theseforbidden doctrines; for now my consciencetells me that I oughtto act upon them." (p.41)

Despite the sentimental characteristics in Opie's protagonist,

Adeline's rejectionof marriagefor the sakeof her philosophical

principlesconstitutes a challengeto conventionalwriting, just as

Godwin and Wollstonecraft'scohabitation was to conventional 154 society. Opie thus makesclear the gapbetween philosophical notions and socialconvention, and explicitly condemnsMrs Mowbray for presentingto her daughterthe former in the guiseof the latter.

This excerptalso presents further evidenceof someof the disillusionmentwhich existsin the writing. The implication is clearly that Amelia Opie felt shewas being persuadedto take on unworkable valuesfrom her philosophicalmentors. Thereis evidenceof this in someof the correspondencefrom Opie to Godwin,particularly that of

28 August 1795,in which shewrites from Norwich of needingtime to reflect on the 'new ideas' shehas gained from him while in London.36

It is a centralirony of the novel that Glenmurray,faced with the reality of social acceptance,is quite preparedto abandonhis philosophical stanceand marry Adeline, but it is shewho, havingtaken his reasoning to heart,cannot put it aside.This refusalcan be seenas a kind of hubris, challengingthe godsof social convention,which setsher up as a tragic heroinewho will thereforeeventually meet her nemesis. Given Opie'sinterest in the dramaticgenre - shewrote at leasttwo playsduring 1795-6,when shewas a memberof the Godwin-

Wollstonecraftcircle - and her useof dramaticstructures and conventionsin her tales,it is not surprisingthat the dramatic parametersof tragedyfit so easily to her narrative. From this perspective,it will be seenthat AdefineMowbray functionsas a tragedyin the Shakespeareanmanner.

Considered blame rationally, one cannot Adeline - or real-life m Opie to Godwin, 28 August 1795; Bodleian, B. Dep 6/210,6. 155 radicalphilosophers such as Wollstonecraft- for resistingthe her conventionof marriage. Mile Wollstonecraftwas openabout relationshipwith Godwin, shehad until thentaken the title of Mrs.

Imlay, althoughshe was neveractually married to the American,the implication being that shewished to presenta conventional

appearance.For the males,both Godwin and Glenmurraytake a

similar view: that marriageis an emotionalmindset shared between

two people,and doesnot requirethe sanctionof the legal and religious

institutionsof societyto makeit real. Godwin,describing his

relationshipwith Mary Wollstonecraftin the Memoirs(1798), wrote:

'We did be the faceof it, or not marry ... nothing can so ridiculous on

so contraryto the genuinemarch of sentiment,as to requirethe 37 overflowingof the soul to wait upona ceremony. In his earlier

writings, Godwin had pointedto the absurdityof expecting'the

inclinationsand wishesof two humanbeings [to] coincidethrough any

long period of time' andtherefore 'To oblige them to live together[in

marriage]is to subjectthem to someinevitable portion of thwarting,

bickering and unhappiness.08 Godwin elaboratesthis position in his

following remarks:'Marriage is laws, and the worst of all laws...

Marriageis an affair of property,and the worst of all properties.39

Glenmurrayechoes these sentiments when he speaksof 'no other ties

37 Godwin,Memoirs of theAuthor of 'A VinaUcationof theRights ofMan, p.155.

38Godwin, Enquiry ConcerningPoliticalJustice, 3rd ed. (London: 1798),Bk. IL in MarshalLed., 7heAnarchist Writing of William Godwin(London: Freedom Press, 1986),p. 82.

39 Ibid., p.83. 156 or sanctionthan those of love or reason'as the basisfor his philosophicalspeculations on the subjectof marriage(p. 36). Later,

Godwin wasto recantmuch of what he wrote in Political Justiceby claimingthat he was swayedby 'the unqualifiedcondemnation of privateaffections' at the time of writing.40 He further points out that as a 'timorous advocate',he often 'beganwith a skirmishingwar' in his considerationsof his subject-matter, and that 'This owing to a frequent miscarriageand experienceof my own inaccuracy'led him to take positionswhich later becameuntenable. 41 Godwin's aim in 1792had beenfrugality, whereasin later yearshe practiseda lessrigorous lifestyle. 42

But this is a male view of marriage,which drawson the male freedomsin suchmatters. A more cogentargument from the female point of view would be constructedalong issues of the abandomnentof legal personality and property rights which marriage involved for women,and the impossibility, for all practicalpurposes, of subsequentlyobtaining a divorce.From a philosophicalor rational standpoint, it is clear that for a woman of any means, marriage is quite illogical. The very enthusiasmwith which the male-dominatedsocial conventionspromoted marriage for women,while condoningsexual adventuringfor men, reinforcesthis rational view againstit: if marriagereally were suchan advantageousposition for a woman,it

40 Godwin'The PrincipalRevolutions of Opinion' in Phelp,ed., 1, p.53. 41 Ibid., p.55.

42 See NIMhall, p. 144& ff. 157 would not haverequired such fervent advocacy. Sucha construction of marriagewould seemto tie in with that of Wollstonecraftherself, who, in a letter written to Amelia Opie on April 11,1797,describes her own clear-cutsense of moral purpose,in phraseswhich Adeline

Mowbray might haveuttered. Wollstonecraft writes that'my conduct in life must be directedby my own judgementand moral principles!

Later in the sameletter sheadds: 'I am proud,perhaps, conscious of 43 my own purity and integrity. ' The larger context of the letter is concernedwith the issuethat was to be treatedin Opie'snovel: the conflict betweenthe social significanceof marriageand its erosionof a woman!s independence.This erosionis not Adeline's reasonfor opposingmarriage: she opposes it becauseshe has adopted

Glenmurray'sviews. Nevertheless,there is a certainheteroglossia presenthere, for the narrativevoice of the novel recognisesthe extent to which maintenanceof the institution of marriageis in the interests of the possessivemale. Opie's portmyalof Berrendaleand his relationshipwith Adeline leavesno doubt of that. In her letter

Wollstonecraftwrites of the way in which sheexpects both Godwin and herselfto retaina high degreeof individual autonomyeven though they are mamed:

It is my wish that Mr Godwin shouldvisit and dine out as formerly, and I shall do the same. In short,I still meanto be independent I fulfilling duty ... wished,while the of a mother, to havesome person of similar pursuits,bound to me by

43 Wollstonecraftto Opie,April 11,1797(Abinger Mss., 119), in RalphWardle, CollectedLetters ofMwy Wollstonecraft(ithaca: Cornell University, 1979),p. 3 89. 158

affeCtioIL44

Even the way in which the letter is signed,Temme Godwin!,suggests the difficulty Wollstonecrafthad in reconcilingher principleswith her recently-marriedstate. The odium gatheredaround anyone pointing out this illogicality in the marriedstate is representedin the novel by

Glemnurray'spublic reputationand in real life by that of Godwin and

Mary Wollstonecraft.Ty illustratesthe extentof this odiurnby pointing out how Wollstonecraft hadbeen maliciously listed in the

Anti-JacobinReview 1798 the Trostitution! 45 of under classification . Ty also suggeststhat womenwriters of the time who presentconflicting views on marriageare revealingtheir own confusionin the face of an illogical but socially-enforcedstate of being.Referring to Opie specifically,Ty saysthat to speak'onbehalf of marriageand then undercutit makesAdeline Mowbray an exampleof the kind of writing that is characteristicof thosewomen who were caughtbetween two camps unng e 1790s.' Shedevelops this view:

Perhapsto avoid being labelledand ridiculed as a follower of Wollstonecraft,then, manyof thesewriters developednarrative techniques and methodsof representationwhich enabledthem to explorehighly chargedpolitical topics without censure. Ratherthan usingpolemics and confrontation,they employedmore indirect meansof examiningthe legitimacyof masculineauthority, the prescribedideal of the docile female,or the properkind of educationfor women.46

44 Ibid.

45 Ty, 1993, p.23.

46 Ibid., p.20. 159

Ty againspecifies Opie, who, 'like Edgeworth,Radcliffe and

Hamilton, weavesbetween the Burkeanand the radicalbeliefs, not 47 offering her readersa single,comfortable, solid position. This is a ratherunsatisfactory way of approachingthe novel becauseit suggests only two ideologicalpositions, the Burkeanand the radical.There

were manyradicalisms, and, no doubt,many reactionary positions,

probablyoverlapping in areassuch as that of femaleeducation. The

range of responsesby women writers to social conventions at this time,

particularlyin tcrms of gcndcrrclations and powcr, is so broadas to

requiremore than two categoriesin which to placethem. However,

given only two categoriesin which to placea novel, it is unsurprising

that shefinds placingAdefine Mowbray problematic.Commenting on

Adeline's endorsementof marriagetowards the end of volume three,

Ty says:

While this renunciationof her conviction seemsto makethe novel an anti-Jacobintract againstthe new 'philosophy', severalother elementsin the text reveala contradictor view, an underlyingsympathy for revolutionaryadvocateS. 4,7

AdefineMowbray is a complexnovel, sustainedby a credibleand

penetratingview of the complexsociety it portrays. To expectit to fit

one of only two categoriesis reductive,and thereforegives rise to what

Ty seesas 'a kind of questioning,or evensubversion". 49 Her

observationis reminiscentofJohnson's commentof how the tale

47 Ibid.

48 Ibid., p.29.

49 Ibid., p.30. 160

'invalidatesall the answers'.50 The text itself, however,is perfectly lucid, andthe confusionseems to rest in the critical gaze.Ty's subsequentwriting on this novel recognisesthe limitation of the binary view, discussingits complexitiesthrough the focusof the mother- daughterrelationship. She writes of perceivinga new ideological perspectivebased on an objectivedistance:

I seeOpie as an authorwho sympathizedwith and understood what the radicalswere espousing,but who remaineddistant to the difficulties their theories enough perceive of practising51 without therebeing changesin societyat large.

This view at leastlegitimises the novel's ideology,rather than seeingit inconsistently'weaving' betweentwo extremes.

Male attitudesto the positionof womenwho do not obeythe male-centredconstruct of the institution of marriageare shownby the characterof Sir Patrick O'Carrol,who can only perceivethe umnarried, anti-marriageAdeline as a fruit ripe for plucking.

Adeline appearedin his eyesnot a deceivedenthusiast, but a susceptibleand forward girl, endeavouringto hide her frailty [i. e. her sexuality]under fine sentimentsand high-soundingtheories. Nor was Sir Patricles inferencean unusualone. Every man of the world would havethought the same;and on very plausible grounds.(p. 32)

We seeO'Carrol's opportunistic view of womenexpressed in the way in which he flattersand eventuallymarries Mrs. Mowbray, in the hopesof attachingAdeline to him one way or anotherand also resolvinghis financial difficulties. I-Esview of Adeline as a sexual

50Johnson, p. 22.

51 Ty, 1998, p. 151. 161 adventureris particularlyrevealed in the way in which he addresses himself to her on this subject.

'Now then,to openmy mind to you,' said the baronet, drawinghis chair closeto hers,'From the very first momentI sawyou, I felt that we were madefor one another,though, being botheredby my debts,I madeup to the old duchess,and shenibbled the bait directly.' 'How dreadfullyincoherent he is!' thoughtAdeline, not suspectingfor a momentthat, by the old duchess,he meanther still bloomingmother. (p.32)

O'Caffol'sdiscourse is wrongly chosenfor Adeline, but would

havebeen perfectly coherent to the femaleoppoftunist in the

novel, Mary Warner. Equally, he is so corruptedby the world

that he is unableto understandAdeline's naive directness,as

the ensuingdialogue illustrates clearly. Opie disarmsthis

male opportunismby making O'Caffol comic - evenhis timely

deathis comic - but, as shepoints out in the preceding

quotation,this male attitudeis prevalent. The warningwhich

shewrites into the characterof O'Carrolis reminiscentof the

tropesshe used in figuring the libertine Onningtonin The

Dangersof Coquetryand Clifford in Father and Daughter,

and also reminiscentof the rapaciousSir PeterOsborne in

Mary Hay's The Victim ofPrejudice (1799),of whom Eleanor

Ty writes:

In Osborne'slimited understanding,all women are stereotypedeither as the motheror the whore,the angel the He her [Mary, or mistress.... sees the protagonist] only as his 'other, projectinghis desireonto her, and 162

refusingto seeher as the individual sheis. His stereotypicaland automaticcategorisation of her is a form of victimisation. This is literalisedthrough his manipulations;she is reducedto'a daughterof Eve', a 52 figure of temptationin the eyesof men.

In Opie'sdepiction of O'Carrol,however, there is mockery. From the securityof her marriedstate and writing well within the stage conventionof the comic libertine, Opie treatsthis reprehensible characteras a figure of fun. He is reducedby humour,and the reader, particularlythe femalereader, can laughat his sexualopportunism ratherthan dreadit. The pen of the womanwriter is thus able to

negate,or at leastreduce, the threatof the libertine male.

O'Carrolthus servesas a foil for Glemmurray,enabling the

latter to be presentednot as a libertine but as a sensitiveand essentially

virtuous,if misguided,man -a conventionalcharacter of sentimental

fiction, in fact. For example,Glenmurray does not invadeAdeline's

spaceand person or assaulther sensibilitiesin the way O'Carrol

repeatedlyand insensitivelydoes, such as on p.33, wherehe presumes

to attemptto kiss her familiarly. There is a certainstereotyping here:

O'Carrolis an Irish baronet,and sucha characterin the eyesof the

readerof the time is a cue for comedyas the lascivious,forhme-

hunting Irishman: Lieutenant Fitzpatrick in Tom Jones for example.

The other Irishmanin Opie's narrativeis a ColonelMordaunt,

sensibleof Adeline'scharms, butnot a marrying man, as it is called!

(p.21). Asa man of honour,Mordaunt leavesBath, wherethey first

met, ratherthan become involved in an amour. WhereasO'Carrol is

52 Ty, ed.,p. xviii. 163 sexuallycorrupt, Mordaunt may be seenas a repressedsexual opportunist,and althoughhe doesreappear in the later stagesof the narrativeas a faithful admirer,his passionsare neverrequited.

Of Mary Warner,the maid, moremust be said, sinceOpie uses this characteras a contrastto that of Adeline herself. A working-class pragmatist,Mary is unableto shareAdeline's conviction of the moral superiorityof her umnarriedstate, and like O'Carrol,she has no eye for fine moral distinctions. Adeline, in her view, was'a kept miss'and she cheekilytells her: '... if masteris inclined to makean honestwoman of you, you had bettertake him at his word, I think' (p.117). This simple

statementis interestinglyrendered: the term 'honestwoman! reveals an

assumptionby the Mary Warnersof the world of a presentdishonesty

in Adeline'ssituation: a moral lack, in direct contrastto Adeline's

perceptionof her stateas being one of moral superiority. It is

incredibleto Mary that the social ostracismAdeline enduresis of her

ownmaking. Also, by her phrase'if masteris inclined%the initiative

for marriageis seento lie solely with the male and suggeststhat most

womenin what Mary takesto be Adeline'ssituation have to wait until

their partnerdecides to proposemarriage: further, that sucha proposal

is the bestof all outcomesof their liaison.

There is a direct effect on Many'sfuturejob prospects,and she

informs Adeline,of this as sheleaves her serviceto seekanother

employer: 'I must beg that you will not own that you are no better

than you shouldbe, when a lady comesto ask my character;for then

perhaps,I shouldnot find anyoneto take me'(p.117). Mary is furious 164 whenAdeline refusesto lie for her by referringto herselfas Mrs

Glenmurray,aware that this refusalwill makeit more difficult for her to find work. Opie herselfhad had difficulty with a maid, Anne, whom shefound doing laundrythat was supposedto be sentout, and charging extra for it. 'Her cry is "Give me a character,for God's sake!", but how can IT sheasked of SusannahTaylor. 53 Mary Warneris a vehicle for the opinionsof the demi-monde,who, like Moll Flanders,must tailor their morality to suit the exigenciesof their situation- another direct contrastto Adeline'smoral constancy.However, it must be

admittedthat Mary Warner,although an unattractivecharacter, does

havea point. The incidentmay be seenas a manifestationof how

Adeline's moral values,and henceher behaviour,have a deleterious

effect on thosearound her. Opie is herebydemonstrating the ripple

effect of unconventionalsocial behaviour, reminding us that no-one,

man or woman,is an island. This can be interpretedas a call to accept

the statusquo for the commongood of thosewith whom one comes

into contact,and as suchindicates a conservativepoint of view from

Opie. However,this terminologyis very loadedand thereforeliable to

mislead. Otherfacets of Opie's tale are radical:her challenge

regardingthe conventionof marriage,for example. Opie is a

Dissenting reformist, not a revolutionary, and we can therefore expect

to find manyshades of political opinion in her work.

Mary Warneris to reappearin the novel in an importantmiddle

stagewhen Adeline is attemptingto provethat Beffendale,

530pie to Mrs J. Taylor, 1802;Huntington library, OP64. 165

Glenmurray'scousin who marriesher after his death,was in fact her husband.Adeline encountersLangley, a lawyer (male, of course) whoseattitude to her is stronglysimilar to that of O'Carrol. A refinementis that Langleytreats her contemptuouslyat first because her opennessabout her non-marriedstate with Glemnurraybeing by then infamous,he assumesthat her liaison with Berrendaleis also as an unmarriedwoman, especially when sheis unableto produceany admissibleevidence to the contrary. Langley,however, reveals the hypocrisyof conventionalsociety, for he is privately involved with a womanwho is recognisedby Adeline asMary Warner,at what is probablythe apexof her careerof self-bettermentthrough sexual opportunism.Mary is just as scornfulof Adeline'sstate, as ignorantof her moral refinementand as uncaringof her philosophicalsophistry as

sheever was. Further,she now regardsherself and Adeline as equals, althoughOpie's brief yet engagingdescription of her makesit clear

that sheis not:

the door opened,and a lady, rougedlike a French countessof the ancienregime, her hair coveredwith a profusionof brown powder,and dressedin the height of fashion,ambled into the room; and saying"How dye do, miss Mowbray?" threw herselfcarelessly on the sofa. (pp.202-3)

Adeline finds the intrusiontoo painful, and the contrast

betweenthe parvenuand the decayedwoman of virtue is skilfully

portrayed.Even Langleyis movedby Adeline'sevident superiorityof

sensibilitiesand morality, and finds himself at a loss as to how so fine 166 a womancould havebeen so misconceivedin her valuesto live so openlywith a man in an unmarriedstate. The interchangebetween the two womenis markedby what PatriciaMichaelson describes as 'male language'on the part of Mary Warner,now styled 'Mrs.

Montgomery'.54Michaelson defines the 'female language'of the day as including featuresof 'positive politeness',an 'exaggerated vocabulary'andbeing of a 'quantity and emptiness'which was, moreover,'a stablecategory that all womenwere presumed to 55 utilize'. By contrast,Warner is aggressiveand sarcastic: '"But come, sit down, my dear," cried Mary; "no ceremony,you know, among friendsand equals,you know, and you and I havebeen mighty

familiar, you know, beforenoW" (p.203). Warnercontinues in this manner,flaunting her triumph and gloatingover Adeline's

misfortimes.

Opie is hereemphasising Warner's parvenu qualities in a

regenderingof her discourse,making Adeline immobile in hoffor, and

the inappropriatespeech she places in Warner'smouth is crucial to the

effectivenessof this interchange.The contrastbetween the public

rectitude/privatevice of Langleyand Mary Warner,deemed acceptable

by society,and the public obloquy/private morality of Adeline and

Glemnuffay,is neverso well shownas here.

This leadsus back to the issueof Adeline'segotistical parent,

andthe contrastwith the truly nurturing charactersof the novel, her

54 Mchaelson, p. 152.

55Ibid., pp. 121-123. 167 parentsin all but the familial sense,who provideher with, on the one hand,fatherly care and, on the other,a way of dealingwith the world without beingostracised from it. Thesetwo charactersare Dr Norberry andMrs Pemberton.The depictionof the quasi-parentalroles of these two charactersis reinforcedby Opie's scrupuloususe of their titles in her narrative: 'MistressPemberton' and 'Doctor Norberry' are never referredto solely by their surnames,as is the casewith Langley,for example. This carefulconsistency in the writing servesto suggestthe respectwith which thesetwo charactersare invested.

In his introduction,Wordsworth writes that Dr Norberry is basedon Amelia Opie'sfather, Dr Alderson.Certainly, both are medicaldoctors, both sharethe samegiven name,and both espouse liberal views. By the valuesof the day,these make Norberry

somethingof a radical figure. At the time of writing the novel,

Norberry interposesin certainepisodes of Adeline'sstory as

infrequentlybut as influentially as doesDr Aldersonin Amelia!s life in

London- his disapprovalbut later acceptanceof John Opie, for 56 example. The same role of background support is shared between

the two men,one fictional, the other real life. Describedby

Wordsworthas 'stubbornand truth-telling!,Norberry has someof the

characteristicsof the paternalparent that we saw in the personof Mr

Seymourin Father and Daughter,and representsthe soberbut liberal-

f 57 thinking patriarchal Igure. It is Norberry, for example,who makes

56See MacGregor, p.24.

57Wordswortk ed.,unpaginated. 168 the utterancewhichfixed [the youngAdeline] in the pathof literary ambition!(p. 16), a positivereinforcement of her love of study,in contrastto her mother'sdisparaging remarks.

Later in the tale, Norberryreappears after writing Adeline to inform her of the effect of her elopementon her mother,who had

'declareda solemnresolution never to seeyou more, and to renounce you for ever'(p. 86). His letter endswith a fatherly expression:he salutesher as 'child of my affection!and his subscribingquestion clearly showsthe parentalconcern he feels for her: 'Why must I blush to subscribemyself / Your sincerefriend! (ibid. ). After snubbingher in public, when he is with his daughtersand shewith her lover

Glenmurray,in a further echoof Mr Seymour'sattitude, he visits her privately, wherehe explainshis conductas the fulfillment of a painful task - that is, of havingto be seento deliver the snub. 'I obeyedmy headwhen I passedyou so cavalierly,and I thoughtI shouldnever havegone through my task as I did; - but then,for the sakeofmy daughters,I gavea gulp and called up a fierce loole (p.88, my italics).

In the dialoguewhich follows, Norberrytakes the role of a fatherly figure, interlocutory,patient and rational,while Glenmurray andAdeline explain their umnarriedstate, particularly when

Glemnuffaymakes it clear that he is willing to marry Adeline, and she rebutshim. 'I becamethe mistressof Glenmurrayfrom the dictatesof my reason,'says Adeline, not my weaknessor his persuasions'.(p. 88)

At this point in the tale, Opie introducesMrs. Norberry and the

daughters,and theserun throughoutthis part of the narrative 169 contrapuntallyto the Doctor. Wherehe is stem but caringand willing to enterinto dialogue,these women are contemptuouslycondescending towardsAdeline, losing no oppommityto put her in her placebeneath them as a fallen woman. Opie'spoint is that in her intellectualand emotionalintegrity Adeline is superiorto their small-mindedness:it is just that sheis horribly mistaken. Even the Doctor finds his daughters' attitudesdisheartening.

Norberrynext appearsin the tale at a low point in the fortunes of Adeline and Glenmurray,though not in person. They write to him, invoking his constantoffers of assistance,and receivea reply from

Mrs. Norberry, informing them that the Doctor is ill, and enclosingthe contemptiblegift of a poundnote from eachof the daughters,which they are able to returnas a salveto their woundeddignity (p. 141).

Norberry is then instrumentalin assistingMrs. Mowbray to locateAdeline when shewishes to seeher daughteragain to forgive her. Finally he appearsat the deathbed,knowing that he, a physician, cannotsave Adeline and movedto tearsby her fate. A deathbed appearanceis a conventional signal employed by Opie to indicate emotionalbonds between the charactersand an opportunityfor reconciliation(as in both TheDangers ofCoquetry andFather and

Daughter)and this is certainlythe casehere.

As a parent,then, Norberry presents characteristics of integrity and compassion. He despairsof Adeline'shubris in refusingto marry, and fearsfor the consequences.He is the moral arbiter andtouchstone of true valuesthat, for reasonsof her egotism,Adeline's mother was 170 neverable to be. After his initial greetingof "Seducer," to Glemnurray,

he is ableto respectAdelines partner,if not agreewith him (p.88).

These,it may be said,seem to be fatherlyvalues of the bestkind.

Also presentat the deathbedis Mrs. Pemberton.It is this

characterwho providesAmelia with the moral instructionwhich,

accordingto the patternsof mother-daughterdiscourse, is necessaryif

protagonistssuch as thosein the talesof Opie and otherwomen

writers- and,by extension,the young femalereaders of the tales- are

to threadthe mazeof social acceptabilityand the marriagemarket.

Mrs. Pembertonfirst appearsin volume two, at a point in the narrative

whenthe ineluctablenature of the declinein Adeline'sfortunes is

quickly becomingplain. Glenmurrayis dying of consumption- he

will not last anotherthirty pages- and Mary Warner,the maid, is

seekinganother post. Adeline is in needof somefirm valuesto cling

to as her world crumblesaround her, and theseappear in the personof

Mrs. Pemberton,who is enquiringabout Mary's suitability for

employment.Aware of the way in which sheis perceivedby the world

at large,Adeline is nervousabout meeting Mrs Pemberton:'for the

first time shefelt that shewas going to appearbefore a fellow-creature

as an object of scom,and though an enthusiastfor virtue, to be

consideredas a votary of vice' (p. 119). Nevertheless,she resolutely

hasherself announced asmiss Mowbray.

Mrs Pembertonappears as a womanof moral authority,for she

is 'dressedin the neat,modest garb of the strict Quaker -a garb which

createsan immediateidea in the mind, of more than commonrigidness 171 of principlesand sanctityof conductin the wearerof if (ibid.). This descriptionof a Quakerwoman as a moral entity is propheticof

Amelia Opie'sown life, for nineteenyears after the publicationof

AdefineMowbray, shewas to announceher own convictionsas a

Quakerand apply to join the Societyof Friends. Thereisoneother referenceto Quakerismearlier in thenovel: in volumeone, when

Adeline and Glenmurrayhave moved to Lisbon in an effort to restore

his health,she is describedby anotherEnglishman whom they meetas being 'In dress her ... as neatas a quaker... and mind seemsas pure as her dress'(p. 73).

Opie sometimesrepeats certain names in her works, and

Pembertonis one of these:in 1826,the yearafter her acceptanceinto

the Society,she was to producea volume of talesfor children entitled

Talesofthe PembertonFamily. Opie's friendshipwith the influential

Quakersthe Gurneysof Earlhamprobably contributed to the positive

presentationof Quakersin her writing. We havealready seen how the

longstandingfriendship of Amelia with the Gurneydaughters, Louisa,

Priscilla and Betsy(later ElizabethFry), survivedAmelia! s

involvementwith radical politics and London social life.

Another clue to the moral natureof the characterof Mrs

Pembertonis her discourse,which Friendsrefer to as'plain speech'. A

featureof this style of addressis the useof the secondperson singular,

alreadysufficiently disappearedfrom normal speechto makeit a

distinctivefeature in 1805;another is the useof archaictags on the

verbsin this form, so that Mrs. Pembertoifsconversation is madeup of 172 constructionssuch as 'thou arf (p.120), 'thine excuse!(ibid. ) and 'thou judgest'(p.121). The form of the verb givesthe discoursea directness and personal,even intimate quality (c.f Frenchtz4 German A, etc.) no longerpresent in standardEnglish, while its scripturalnature provides an authoritativenessrich in moral underpinnings,since this is the languageof the seventeenth-centurytranslations of the Bible which were in commonuse at this time. Opie herselfwas to makeher adoptionof plain speechone of the first signifiersof her entry to the

Quakersin 1825. Michaelsonpoints out how plain speechis 'an unchangingmode of languagein all circumstances'and 'the opposite of conversationalpoliteness'. 58

As with Norberiys first contactwith Glemmurray,Mrs

Pernberton'smanner is one of 'cold dignity, but after somefurther dialogue,she becomes convinced of Adeline'sinherent purity (p. 121).

There follows a discussionof Adeline'ssituation, during which, in accordancewith the principlesof plain speech,Mrs Pembertonis able to point out to Adeline that, in giving her ummarriedstate 'an air of

respectability,thou hastonly madeit more dangerous.' On this point, expectedly,Adeline disagrees,and so the readeris left, as with the

dialoguebetween Norberry and Glenmurray,with two rational people

agreeingto disagree,each allowing the other that liberty of thought

which hadbeen so much in contentiona decadeearlier. Ultimately,

Adeline recognisesthat Mrs Pembertonis right. The processshe goes

throughto arrive at this conclusionis typical of the Quakerpractice of

59Michaelson, p. 120. 173 resistinga dogmaticapproach but enablingthe enquirerto arrive at her

own recognitionof what is right.

In presentingus with sucha characteras Mrs Pemberton,to be

seenin conjunctionwith the otherparental figure of Dr Norberry,

Opie is presentingtwo significantly non-establishmentfigures: an

extremeDissenter and a radical,although benign, philosophe who is

sensibleof a middle way betweenstark principle and social

convention. This combinationis rich in allusion,both to the outcome

of the novel and to the circumstancesof Opie'sown life. Her choiceof

thesefigures to effect Adeline's salvationunderscores the importance

Opie placedon the forceseither figure representedin societyas moral

arbiters:after all the falsetrails - Glemnurray,Mrs. Mowbray, Langley

and the rest- it is the reformingphilosophe and the frugal,

unhypocriticalQuaker who are presented as embodying some truth and

integrity. Not only is Opie's ideologicalposition becomingworked

out, but the novel is an uncannyprediction of the path that sheherself

would follow in the comingyears. It appearsthat sheis testingin

fiction the valuesthat shewould later apply to her own life. Mrs

Pembertonmay be seenas the creationof a fictional chamcterthat in

this casesupports with social moresrather than strugglesagainst them.

Both Norberry and Mrs Pembertonhave salutary effects on

Adeline'smental and materialwellbeing, although they cannotundo

the harmthat hasbeen done to the latter by her earlier adherenceto an

extremephilosophy. They are able to provide supportand steadfast 174 counselling,in line with the nurturingrole of parents,when all others seemopposed. However, they do not meeteach other until the final stagesof the narrative,when they are foregatheredfor the deathbed

scene(p. 260 and ff. ). The point of this meetingis that eachis ableto

find a reconciliationwith the otheesviews at this emotionallY-Charged

time. Norberry is cautiousat the meetingat first, sayingthat 'no doubt

she[Mrs Pemberton]was a very good sort of woman,but that he did

not like pretensionsto righteousnessover much, and had a particular

aversionto a pieceof formal drabcoloured morality' (p.248).

However,on meetingMrs Pembertonsobbing loudly on the bosomof

Mrs Mowbray, he gazesat her with astonishment.'where was the

repulsiveformality that he had expected?"Zounds! " thoughthe, "this

womancan feel like otherwomen, and is as gooda handat a crying-

bout as myself" (p.267). This may be seenas a rather late exampleof

the cult of tears,which indicated benevolentsorrow directedtowards

an individual's misfortune.After describinga brief interchange

betweenMrs Pembertonand the Doctor, Opie writes that

he was nevereasy but when he could conversewith Mrs Pemberton The invalid [Adeline] herself his .... observed her friend the attentionto ... and suchwas respectwith which [Mrs Pemberton]inspired him that he told Adeline, that she ... wereall quakcrslike Mrs Pemberton,he shouldbe temptedto cry 'Drab is your only wear.' (p.267)

Mrs Pembertonherself is satisfiedthat the cycle of Adeline's

erring, contrition, penitenceand reconciliationhas run its courseto

achievesalvation. Importantly,Adeline had earlier revisedher views

on marriage,confessingmy full conviction of the fallacy of my past 175 opinions'(p. 216) and subscribingthis changeto 'a more serious, unimpassionedand unprejudicedview of the subjectthan I hadbefore taken!(p. 218). Mrs Pembertontells Adeline 'At RosevalleyI beheld theeinnocent, at Richmondguilty, and hereI seethee penitent, and, I hope,resigned to thy fate(p. 266). The Christianthemes of sin, repentanceand forgivenessare thus madeplain.

It is this act of reconciliationof Adeline with her mother, symbolisinga reconciliationof ideologies,that causesthe tale to be

Ggenerally regarded as a grimly and patly conservativenovel ". 59 From the perspectiveof a critic determinedto readthe work as either radical or conservative,the deathbedcapitulation of Adeline's standagainst marriagerenders it as unequivocallyconservative, and thereforeall the worsefor appearingto endorseradical values, but finally dismissing them. Suchcritics arethen unableto accountfor the way in which severalaspects of the narrativeand severalcharacters are far from conservative:the unhappystate of Adeline's marriage,for example.

Johnsonpoints out that 'Opie doesnot endorsethe statusquo without seriousqualification. [She] dutifully denouncesreformist zeal, only to tuck awayparallel plots which indicateliberty, private conscienceand 60 the defianceof authority'. In her recentpublication, Ty gives emphasisto the tensionsbetween Adeline and her motheras being at the core of the narrative:in that light, a resolutionof that conflict is

59Johnson, p. 12 1.

60 Ibid., p.xxi. 176 equallyfundamental to the narrativestructure. 61 If we allow that the novel is indeedsome form of romana clef and the representationof the iconic figure of Wollstonecraftis realignedfrom earlier readingsof her as protagonistto my readingof her as the mother-figure,in keeping with the triangularstructure of the narrativetensions, then it follows that the ideologicalloading of the tale is much too complexto allow a binary categorisationof either/or,radical/conservative. A clue to this complexitymight be seenin the behaviourof both Norberry and

Pemberton:just as thereis a time whenNorberry cannotrecognise

Adeline and Glenmurrayin the streetbut yet visits her covertly to explain (p.88), so thereis Pemberton'sinitial 'cold dignity' which later changesto warmth and support(p. 119). In both instances,the earlier behaviouris that conservativepattern which societydemands but which is subvertedby the later behaviour.One is of appearance,the other of content, reminiscent of The Dangers of Coquetry. It is thereforepossible to argue,as Gary Kelly does,that the novel may havcthe appearanccof conformity with the dcmandsof socicty,but, like life itself, seeksto subvertthose appearances. Even this is somewhat unsatisfactory becauseKelly's comment, like that of Ty, still attemptsto placethe novel in one of two camps,thus oversimplifyingthe complexfabric of ideologicalaffinities of the 62 time.

In the bringing-togetherof the figuresof Norberry and

61Ty, 1998, p. 146. 62 SeeKelly, 1981, p. 11. 177

Pemberton,Ople presentsus with a reconciliationbetween radical

thoughtand Quakerismby pointing to the commonhumanity which

underscoresboth: an awarenessthat the right action of Quakerismis

not so removedftom the democratichumanitarianism of radical

politics as may be thought,and the stylisedspeech and dressof the one

can alsobe seenin different waysin the other. Theremay havebeen

the beginningsof a similar senseof ameliorationin her own life at this

time, andthese would accelerateafter her widowhoodand her

subsequentreturn to Norwich, wherereligious Dissent and political

and social reform seemedto exist in the symbioticharmony depicted in

thesetwo charactersfrom her novel.

A further contrastin the charactersof the novel must now be

examined:that of the characterof her lover Glenmurraywith that of

her husbandBeffendale, for this is a tale of life single and married,and

the depictionof Adeline'smarriage must be attendedto. This

marriageis at the root different to Opie's own, in which shecoexisted

with John Opie as an equalpartner, but hascertain overtones of the

financial difficulties the Opieshad to face,especially in the period of

shortfalljust beforethe publicationof Father and Daughter in 1801.

The marriageof the Berrendalesis no doubttypical of many in a time

whenthe womanwas so dependenton the man for the fulfilment of her

materialand emotionalneeds. Indeed,this very dependencymay be

seenas one of the reasonsfor the novel's existence.

WhereasGlenmurray clearly loved her, Beffendale,'a

pamperedchild'and, like her mother,another egotist, seems unable to 178 do so, beingtoo wrappedup in his own well-beingand amusement

(p.182). Ratherthan treat her as an equal,as Glemnurraydoes, in accordancewith his radical principles,Berrendale must mark her down as an inferior and try to control her. Opie thus presentsan imageof a patriarchalrelationship within marriage,and showsthe readerquite plainly just how demeaningit is for the woman,in contrastto the equalityand regardAdeline had enjoyedfrom her lover. The foremost

exponentof conservativeideas of marriageat the time was perhaps

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), whose Reflections on the Revolution in

France (1790) madeclear his views on the centrality of a benevolent

patriarchy. In this depictionof a marriedrelationship, Opie is

distancingherself from this doctrineand positing againher own views

on its potential for tyranny. It is particularly on this topic of marriage

that, asRoxanne Eberle has observed,

Opie's novel moves beyond the parameters of the seduction novel and focuses on the philosophical conflicts of the early nineteenth century.... The story of the 'sexual woman' is the vehicle for a critique of the unjust system of social and legal regulation.63

Eberle's identificationof the 'critique of the unjust system'

may be seen,for example,six monthsinto the marriage,when

Beffendalerealises what it is costinghim. He first remonstrateswith

her over the cost of provisions,but then proceedsto 'resumehis old

habit of dining out amongsthis friends,geting good dinnersby that

63Roxanne Eberle 'Amelia Opie's Adeline Mowbray: Diverting the Libertine Gaze; or the Vindicationof a FallenWoman' in Stu&esin Me Novel, 26,2 (1994),pp. 121- 146),p. 123. 179 meanswithout paying for them'(p. 183), leaving her to subsist on'the simplestfare' (p. 182). This is too much for her servantSavannah, who declareswar on Beffendalefor his neglectof her belovedmistress, buying her sweetmeatsout of her own moneyand ostentatiously offering them to her in front of him. Similarly, Kathryn Sutherland, writing on HannahMore, points out this inequalitythrough the exerciseof patriarchy: 'while the man is enjoyinghimself, as it is 64 called,his wife and children areragged and starving'. The class

settingis different, but the result is the same. Opie points out that

someof the blamefor Berrendale'sfinancial difficulties restswith

Adcline, for buying high-quality food. Shehas Adeline explain to him

that 'good dinnerscan not be had without good ingredients,and good

ingredientscost money', and that she'had not beenused to

oeconomize,but I will try to learn' (p. 181). This is reminiscentof

commentsAmelia Opie madeabout the early stagesof her marriage,

whenJohn Opie 'saw himself at the end of that year, and the beginning

of the next, almostwholly without employment;and evenmy sanguine

temperyielding to the trial, I beganto fear that, small as our

expenditurewas, it must becomestill smaller.'.65However, Amelia

Opie was able to avoid the dire straitsin which shedepicts Adeline

Mowbray, and there is no evidencethat shewas unhappilymarried.

The conversationsover moneyin the novel are reminiscentof Elisa

flaywood's 7heHistory ofMiss BetsyThoughtless (175 1) in that all

64 Sutherland, p.39.

65 BrightwelL p.93. 180 the power was on one side, that of the man. Beffendale is similar to the characterof Mr Mundenin that novel, for whom a wife was 'a sort 66 of upperservant, bound to studyand obey' the patriarchalhusband.

Wollstonecraft'sunfinished novel Maria (1798) similarly emphasises

the needfor thrift andthe easewith which a woman'ssavings may be

lost throughno fault of her own: Peggy,the soldier's widow losing her

laundry,for example,or the constanttension between sexual obligation

and independence.67 The heroineof FrancesBurney's Camilla (1796)

also discoversfinancial hardshipand its relationshipto the crucial

matterof appearance.As Kristina Straubobserves,

The twists and turns in Camilla's courtship make her economically vulnerable.... Although she is by no means extravagant, the decorum of the public feminine role demands expensespast her meanS.68

The incidentwith the ballgownarrayed on her bed, 'as superfluousas

it was expensive',dramatically conveys the precariousfinancial

69 situationof the womanwho is economicallyvulnerable in this way.

Adeline is with child at this point, and Opie usesthe time of her

giving birth to haveAdeline makea further comparisonbetween

Beffendaleand Glemmurray.On Beffendale'sattending her after the

delivery, 'he rejoicedin Adeline'ssafety; but he said within himself,

"Children are expensivethings, and we may havea large famiV"

66Elisa Haywood,p. 138.

67Mary Wollstonecraft,Mmy. Mkwiaýed. by JanetTodd 01armondsworth:Penguin, 1991),P. 99. 68 Kristina Straub,DividedFictions (Lexington:University of Kentucky, 1987), p. 192.

69Frances Burney, Gunilk ed. by E. A. Bloom & L. D. Bloom (London:Oxford UniversityPress, 1972), p. 710. 181

(p. 183). He leavesthe bedside'as soonas he could' to go for 'an aftemoon!s nap' (ibid.). Shefeels his self-absorptionand contrastsit with Glemnurray'sattitude. "How different... would havebeen IIIS feelingsand MS expressionsof them at sucha time!" (ibid.).

A further point of comparisonis in the waysboth men leave

her. Glemnurrayis claimedby tuberculosis,and dies anxiousfor her

safetyand well-being. Beffendaleleaves her for the West Indies,

wherehe marriesanother woman. The two leavings,one involuntary,

the othera consciousact, indicatethe qualitiesof lover and husband

respectively.True to the barrennessheard in his name,Beffendale is

indeedinhospitable and non-nurturingfor Adeline.

Both relationshipshad madeher vulnerable,but in different

ways. Her refusalto marry Glenmurray,even though he was willing to

abandonhis earlierprinciples on the superfluityof marriageto the

loving couple,had exposedboth of them,but Adeline particularly,to

the socialostracism that is plainly shownin the tale, evenbeyond his

death. Within marriage,however, she is vulnerablefinancially as well

as emotionally,and at the mercy of an egotistin the sameway as she

wasas a child, and the statesof marriedwoman and child are directly

analogous in these respects.It is in the interests of a patriarchal society

to keepwomen in a child-like state:naive, temperamental, capricious,

andthus easily-managed.Although capableof independence,as seen

from the episodeof runninga school,Adeline is not permittedto

exercisethese abilities within marriage,but must remaina chattelfor 182

Beffendale's amusement.

If Opie really was solely the conservativewriter that some

critics feel her to be, shewould havecertainly handled the institution

of marriagerather differently. Her own marriagewas a happyone, and

shecould havebased that of Adeline and Beffendaleon this. The fact

that, after her portrayalof a liaison in which Adeline flourishes,Opie

portraysa marriagein which sheis reduced,makes too simplean

aligmnentof her as a conservativewriter ratherawkward. It would

havcbccn casyfor Opic to constructa plot in which, oncc marricd,

Adeline is forgiven her youthful dogmatismon the subject,even

findingjoy in the marriedstate, and is reconciledto living a life of

matronlyvirtue and public approval. But this is not so: the depiction

of her marriageis a depictionof her miseryand victimisation, not of a

benevolentpatriarchy in a Burkeanmould, and the readeris left in no

doubtthat Adeline's marriageis not the blessedstate of harmony

which the conservativewriter would propound.

Carol Howard recentlyinvestigated how the desiresand actions

of both Glenmurrayand Berrendalework againstAdeline in some 70 way. Howard's analysis of the relationship between Adeline and

Glemnurrayfocuses on the pineappleincident (p. 135and ff. ). This

occursas Glenmurrayis terminally ill, and when the pair are very

shortof money. Seekinga treat for Glenmurray,and with only three

guineasin her pocket,Adeline seesa pineapple,but decidesit is too

70 CarolHoward, 'The Storyof the Pineapple:Sentimental andMoral Motherhoodin Amelia Opie'sAdeline Mawbray'in Slu&esin the Novel, 30,3 (1997), pp.355-376. 183 extravagant and buys him grapes instead. On her return she tells him

of the pineapple.

'A pine-apple!' said Glenmurraylanguidly turning over the grapes,and with a sort of distasteputting one of them in his mouth, 'a pine-apple!-I wish you had boughtit with all my heart.' (p. 136)

Glemmurraycontinues to ignorethe grapesand verbaliseabout

the pineapple,that icon of luxuriousliving in the eighteenthcentury.

Howard seesthis incident as a manifestationof 'the masculinedesire

for food and the consumptionof luxury' which shecontrasts with

71 Adeline's frugality and self-denial. In this respect,she claims,

Glenmurrayis not so different from Beffendaleand O'Carrol, the

charactersmost given to the satisfactionof their appetites.Howard

points out that this urgeto consumeis locatedby Opie in the masculine

gender;finiher, that it signifies a cultural attitude. Shesees the

pineapple representing 'what Opie considers Britain's selfish and

irresponsibleconsumption of the literal and metaphysicalfruits of 72 other lands'. Shesupports this view by pointing to other evidencein

Opie's work, notablythe poem 'The Black Man's Lament,or How to

Make Sugar'. Howard is thus preparedto readOpie as propounding

an abolitionistview, clearly more philanthropicthan conservativeand

more in keepingwith the liberal views of the 1790sthan the neo-

conservatismof the early nineteenthcentury.

Another manifestationof Opie's critical view of societyis her

71 Ibid., p.359.

72Ibid., p.360. 184 portrayal of its hypocrisy and double standards.Adeli Inevs story is told with a bitternesstowards the public'sinability to understand,much less forget,and its inclination to act viciously in the prurient nameof morality. As Mrs Beauclere,the wife of the village doctor,tells

Adeline when sheinforms her that sheis withdrawingher child from the school:

"I shouldconsider your exampleas a warningto all young people; and to preservemy children from evil, I shouldonly wish them to hearyour story, as it inculcatesmost powerfully how vain are personal graces,talents, sweetness of temper,and evenactive benevolence,to ensurerespectability and confer happiness,without a strict regardfor the long- establishedrules for conduct,and a continuancein thosepaths of virtue and decorumwhich the wisdom of ageshas pointed out to the stepsof everyone." (p. 170)

This is the moral warningof the tale. Its heightenedlanguage, careful syntaxand extendedsentence-length is at variancewith Opie'soften skilful handlingof natural,extemporaneous conversation. It is hard to envisagesuch a polishedstatement ever being spokenspontaneously by anyone,which is the conventionthe twentieth-centuryreader expects,although not everyeighteenth-century writer followed. The pieceis thus elevatedfrom the narrativeto greatersignificance, while remainingembedded in it. Its developmentis measuredand authoritative,reminiscent of a preparedspeech such as a sermon,and it

is deliveredby a femalecharacter who hasno other function in the novel. It is the voice of the righteousconservative, and it condemns.

ýArsBeauclere is the type of 'evolving, but stablefigure from 185 bourgeois ideology' that Mary Poovey has called 'the Proper Lady'.

This personPoovey describes as someonepossessing 'sufficient cultural authority', which, as the doctor's wife in a lonely Cumberland village, Mrs. Beaucleredoes. Pooveyis discussingthe womanwriter, but her wordsare appropriateto Adeline's situationwhen sheis attemptingto run a village school: 'What shecould not do wasto flee

73 the ProperLady's shadows.-)

The remainingcharacters in this studyof the patternof contrastsand pairingsin the tale are thoseof Adeline'sBlack servant

Savannahand her son,the tawny boy. Thesecontrast with the other servantcharacter, Mary Warner,in that whereshe is self-seeking, judgementalto the point of malice,compromises her own sexual integrity, and abandonsAdeline at a time of need,Savannah and her sonare constantand devotedattendants, even to the point of Adeline's death. As we haveseen in other representationsof Black peoplein

Opie'sfiction, this is a positivepresentation of virtues of loyalty, honestyand generosity,and thesequalities are particularlyevident when contrastedwith thoseof Mary Warner.

Two critics havewritten recentlyon the relationshipbetween

Adeline Mowbray and Savannah.Ann Mellor writes that 'Savannah consistentlyspeaks Black English while her educatedson speaks

StandardEnglish', and accusesOpie of endorsinga view that

73 Poovey, p.vii. 186

74 'Standard English' is a superior discourse to Black English. This commentappears misguided, to saythe least. First, the tawny boy's speechis accuratelydepicted as normalisingto the prevailingEnglish dialect,except for the early sceneswhen he speaksbaby-talk. His mother'sspeech retains characteristics of her native dialect. Not only is this usuallythe case,but it also reflectsOpie's accurateobservation of this phenomenon.Second, Mellor's suggestionthat Opie, by her accuratedepiction of linguistic differencebetween Savannah and her son in someway indicatesthat sheis endorsinga view of the innate superiorityof so-called'standard English' seemsto be an exampleof a transferenceof twentieth-centuryattitudes to a pasttime, for the equal valuing of eachvariety of the languageis a recentconcept. Opie, I suggest,is merelydepicting her characters'respective styles of discourseas accuratelyas shecan in the interestsof characterisation, without attemptingto suggestthe superiorityof one dialect form over another.

Carol Howard also discussesaspects of Savannah'srelationship with Adeline. Shesees Adeline's buying-off of Savannah'shusband's debt as representing'an idealised.and nostalgicrelationship of... fealty 75 betweentwo women. Howardsees this transactionas indicative of

Opie's political objectivein writing, namelythe provision of 'a melioristic ratherthan revolutionarysolution to both the problemof

74 AnneMellor, 'Am I Not a Womanand a Sister?:Slavery, Romanticism and Gender'in Richard& HofkoshRomanticism, Race andImperial Culture 178o 1834 (Bloomington:U. Indiana,1996), p. 323. 75 Howard,p. 356. 187 slaveryand the problemof marriage'.76The justification for this argumentis contextual:Howard points to the cautiouspolitical atmospherein 1805and suggestshow, as a result of it, abolitionism, which hadbeen an active causein 1780-1792,became a secondary issuein the light of the prosecutionof the war with Franceand the consequentfear of invasion. However,the connectionof British womenwith slaverywas establishedby Mary Wollstonecraft's observationthat ' [Women]may well be convenientslaves, but slaverywill haveits constanteffect, degradingthe masterand the object dependant.'77 A further connectionbetween Opie and

Wollstonecraftis establishedin the relationshipsbetween Adeline and

Beffendale- and in somerespects, Glerunuffay - and Savannahto

Adeline. Both womenfrom a financial point of view havelittle choice but to serve,but whereasAdeline doesso from a senseof the duty incumbentwith marriage,Savannah gives her mistressa wholehearted devotion,based what Howard identifies as 'fealty'.

Contraryto Marilyn Butler's view, expressedin 1975, that

Opie's work was a 'striking exampleof the insidiousspread of reaction',78 Howard goes on to say that AdelineMowbray 'clearly betraysa lingering affection for the proponentsof the now dormant liberal philosophies.'79 Thesetwo opposingviews indicatehow ways

76 Ibid., p.354. 77 Wollstonecraft,Vin&calions of theRights of Women,p. 5.

78Butler, 1975,p. 12 1.

79 Howard,p. 357. 188 of readingthe text havemoved over the last twenty-five yearsto be more awareof the multiplicity of ideologicalpositions from which a writer suchas Opie could write.

To sumup, a studyof the charactersin the novel revealssome

interesting contrasts and combinations. The positive and beneficial

influenceson Adeline, otherthan thoseof Glenmurray,come from

three figureswho certainlydo not representthe establishment:a

liberal, pro-revolutionarydoctor, a zealousQuaker and a Black

servant.The destructiveinfluences come from the different ranksof

society,but all hold conventionalvalues and these destructive forces

arisethrough bigotry, sexualadventuring, malice, meannessand

ignorance. It is difficult to reconcilethese aspects with the ideaof a

wholly conservativewriter writing uncritically of establishedmores

andvalues and attacidngonly the radical and unorthodox. Rather,it

indicatesthe complexityof radical discourseat this time and,

following the collapseof supportfor the FrenchRevolution in

England,a growing recognitionof the needto combineidealism with

realism,as Dr. Norberry and Mrs. Pembertondo.

The prevailingcritical reactionto AdefineMowbray hastended

to be dismissive,seeing the work as, in Marilyn Butler's words, 'the 80 usual cautionary tale of the anti-Jacobins'. This view is echoed by

other writers suchas Matthew Grenby,who discussesAdeline

Mowbray in the light of remarkson marriageby Godwin in Political

Justice,where he had written that the 'abolition of marriagewill be

soButler, p. 121. 189 attendedwith no evils'.81 Grenbyclaims that Opie and otherwriters

contrivedto imbuethis speculationwith suchsignificance that it could serveas the peg on which all their attackson Jacobininsmcould hang. In doing so they utterly deniedthe new philosophythe statusof a cogentpolitical philosophy,and renderedit manytimes morevulnerable to affack.82

In this analysis,both Butler and Grenbyseem to be restatingthe earlier judgementmade by Claire Tornalin in her biographyYhe Life and

Death ofMary Wollstonecraft(1974). Tornalin pulled few punches whendescribing her view of the relationshipbetween Opie and Wollstonecraft:

Another of Mary's Dissentingfriends, Amelia Alderson, turnedagainst her with distinctly maliciousenthusiasm. Herethere were personalmotives at work: in May 1798she married John Opie, and shemay have felt sensitiveabout the fact that he was a divorcedman, that he had oncebeen an admirerof Mary's, and that he and Godwin had alsobeen close friends. "

Tomalin supportsher view of Opie'smotives for attacking

Wollstonecraftwith suchmalice by quoting from Father and

Daughter,where Opie is discussingthe reactionof societyto unmarriedmothers. The excerptand Tomalin's commentsare worth examining in their entirety. Opie writes:

It is the slangof the presentday, if I may be allowed this vulgar but forcible expression,to inveigh bitterly againstsociety for excludingfrom its circle, with unrelentingvigour, the woman who hasonce transgressed the salutarylaws of chastity; and somebrilliant and persuasivewriters of both sexeshave

81 Godwin,Political Justice,2, p.852. 82 Grenby, p.20. 83 Tomalin, p.293. 190

endeavouredto provethat manyan amiablewoman has forever beenlost to virtue and the world, and becomethe victim of prostitution,merely because her first fault was treatedwith ill- judging and criminal severity.84

In the excerpt,Opie is describingthe view of societyat large,and the ostracismwhich the unmarriedmother endured. Tomalin, however, seesthis as 'a direct hit at her old friend's views', and Opie's wordsas a defenceof the systemof patriarchy.85 Sheadmits that, in the wake of Godwin'sMemoirs, women writers had to distancethemselves from

Wollstonean if be but radicalism they were to publishedat all, . interpretsthis as shamefuldesertion by Opie: 'Mrs Opie set to work on a seriesof novelsdesigned to makeher own respectabilityabsolutely clear'.86 Tomalin's readingof AdelineMowbray seemsflawed, first becauseof her misunderstandingof motive; secondbecause of her ignoringthe codeddelivery of the more radical aspectsof the tale; third, becauseshe reads the tale as thoughit were centredon

Wollstonecraft.

Wheremy analysisdiffers fundamentallyfrom that of Tornalin is on the issueof intendedmalice. Tomalin writes that

AdefineMowbray was a travestyof the story of Godwin and Mary [Wollstonecraft],but there is no doubt that it used their experienceand held them uX to ridicule for their theoreticalrejection of marriage.

84 Amelia Opie,Father andDaughter(London: Longman, Hurst, Reesand Orme, 1801),p. 93.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 Ibid. 191

TomaliWschoice of words conveysher disapprovalof Opie'snovel:

'travesty'is a potenttenn. It is very difficult to seewhy Tomalin feels

that Opie's tale 'held them up to ridicule' whenthe prevailing

sentimentsin the treatmentof the protagonistsare pathosand empathy.

Whereridicule is employed,it is to satirisechauvinistic males such as

O'Carrol and Langley. Tornalin continues:'it is hard to forgive

Amelia Opie for the cool way in which shethus madeuse of the

woman who had certainly done her no harm. '88 In making such

statements,Tomalin, it seems,falls into a trap spiedby Jeanette

Winterson,namely that AdefineMowhray is not 'a moral tale about

womenwho thoughtthey were clever enoughto live outsidesociety. ' 89

Wintersontakes the oppositeview to Tomalin and her followers,

namelythat Opie's tale hasthose elements which makeit radical

fiction and rejectingthe idea ofAdeline Mowbray as a moral tale, for, 90 she claims, 'it makes no moral judgements'. MoraIjudgements are

madein the tale: Mrs Pemberton,Dr. Norberry, his wife and daughters,

Mrs. Beauclereand evenMary Warnerand Langleyexercise their

moral views aboutAdeline at variouspoints in the narrative.This is

not quite the same,however, as the tale itself settingitself up as a work

of moraljudgement, and it that respectWinterson is quite right. The

impactof the tale runs counterto moraIjudgementalismand seeksto

broadenthe reader'smoral perspectiverather than restrict it.

88 Ibid.

89 Mrs. Opie,Adefine Mowbray. theMother and Daughter,ed. JeanetteWinterson (London:Pandora, 1986), p. viii. 90 Ibid., pp.vi and vii. 192

Wintersonforegrounds the commoncause made by several writers in the immediatelypost-Revolutionary years with the French

Revolutionitself, pointing out that 'there weremany suchfigures who liked to saythat personaland virtuous choiceswere more importantthan arbitraryand restrictingsocial codes',clearly including 91 Opie among these. After reviewing how Adeline's upbringing is in the natureof a socialexperiment by her mother,Winterson presents a succinctoutline of Adeline's predicamentwith the dichotomybetween

Glemnuffay'sphilosophy and his own life in a way which highlights the dichotomyin Godwin: 'Glemnuffay her same ... goeson pestering to marry him, which is a bit of a blow for an ardentyoung womanwho thoughtshe'd met a genuinefreethinker' (p.vi). The tensionshe indicatesbetween a woman'sconstancy and a man's ambivalenceis not only one of literature'scentral motifs, but also a main site of feminist criticism, and thereforea potentdevice for establishing commoncause between women then and womennow. It is worth noting Winterson'ssummative remarks and her sharpnessof observationregarding the glossput on the tale on its reissuein 1844:

This witty, sharpand ultimately painful novel is not a moral tale; it is challenging in the way Mary Wollstonecraft is challenging,in the waymuch bluestocking writing at this time challenged male When assumptions. ... this novel was in 1844, Victorians, decided reissued the 92 not surprisingly, to readit asa moraltale.

91 Ibid., ps.

92 Ibid., p.viii. 193

On turning to the reissuededition, we discovera pageentitled

'Opinions of the Press',which extractsreviews ofAdeline Mowbray 93 and otherworks by Opie. Theseemphasise Opie's 'charm' and her work's 'pathos' and 'melancholytenderness'. Nothing herehas any hint of radicalism:in contrastto Winterson'semphasis on Opie's ideas,it is feelingswhich are foregrounded.The tale is thus denatured into the smnemoralistic writing which Opie herself,as a Quaker,had beenproducing in the 1820sand 1830s,and which her readerswere thereforepredisposed to expect.

More recentviews of Opie's work, particularly,4deline

Mowbray, seeit in termsof a dualism. There is a historical precedent

for this that is contemporarywith Opie herself.that of Sir James

Mackintosh,who glimpsedwhat Gary Kelly hascalled the 'unofficial'

text in the 'official' one. Mackintoshwrites:

Mrs Opie haspathetic scenes, but the object is not attained;for the distressis not madeto arisefrom the unnuptialunion itself; but from the opinionsof the world againstit; so that it may as well be takento be a satireon our prejudicesin favour of marriage,as on the paradoxesof the sophistsagainst it. 94

Kelly, writing in 1981, advancesthe view that 'the readerwho wishes

to find in the "official" text a covert subversivetext may certainly do

so. '95 He continues

93Mrs. Opie,Adeline Mowbray (London:Longman, Brown, Green& Longmans, 1844),flyleaf, unpaginated.

94& J. Mackintosh, Life ofSir James Mackintosh (London: Moxon, 1832), 2 vols., 1, p. 155.

95Kelly, 1981, p. 11. 194

there is enoughevidence from women's- and men's- letters and diaries,as well as their novels,to incline oneto believethat sucha secretreadership could and did exist, a readershipwho could seea model relationshipbetween woman and man in the 96 relationshipbetween Adeline and Glenmuffay.

This is to posit Opie as somethingmore than simply a conservative writer, contraryto the earlierjudgements of Tomalin andButler, since to performthe 'unofficial' readingof the text, as hinted at by

Mackintosh,is to foregroundthe happyand loving relationship enjoyedby Adeline and Glenmurrayand contrastit with the misery

andhumiliation sheendures with Berrendale,rather than focuson the

deathbedacknowledgement that in cohabitingso contentedlyshe has

effed. It would be very difficult to makethis 'unofficial' readingof

any text without such'unofficial ideology' being written into it.

Kelly, continuinghis explorationof 'official' and 'unofficial'

readings,is discussingLady CarolineLamb's Glenarvon(1816) when

he observes:'The novel appearsto arguethat the individual, private,

passionate"woman's7' world of experiencemust be sacrificedto

social,public and conventionalpatriarchal standards if thereis a

two 797 conflict betweenthe . This seemsto anticipateWinterson's

remarkabout 'personal and virtuous choices'in the faceof 'arbitrary 98 and restrictingsocial codes'. It is clear that his words could apply

equallywell to a readingofAdeline Mowbray. It also seemsapparent

that a readerof the late-eighteenthlearly-nineteenthcentury looking for

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid., p. 17.

98Winterson, ed., p.v. 195 an 'unofficial' ideologyin a work fiction of the time would be aware that the radicalaspects of the narrativewould haveto be setin a frame of conventionalityby the writer, in orderto be publishable.To do this effectivelywould requirethe useof a subversivecode of languageand other signs. As PatriciaIngham points out,

Every stageof the developmentof a societyhas its own special andrestricted circle of itemswhich alonehave access to that society'sattention and which are endowedwith evaluative accentuationby that attention. Only items within that circle will achievesign formulationby that attentionand become objectsin semioticcommunication. "

The processof creatingnew signswithin a languageis

continuous,but especiallyprevalent when its creatorsidentify

themselvesas a persecutedor vulnerablesection of society,as radicals

are wont to do. In view of this, if we acceptSir JamesMackintosh's

verdict on AdefineMowbray only at facevalue, the messageis that he

is awarethat thereis a new manipulationof languageand novelistic

conventionoccuring within the tale, but that he doesn'tfully

understandit. A more likely readingof Mackintoshis that his

evaluationis similarly coded:the phrase'it may as well be' suggestsa

hint that he knows full well what the radical implicationsof the tale

are,but, for reasonsof prudenceconnected with his position, he must

not indicateto the world at largethat he is awareof the unofficial

discoursein the tale for reasonsof risking social censure.The function

of codeddiscourse is to communicateto otherswho know the code

that the speakeris one of them,but to obscurethis fact to thosewho

99 Patricia Ingharn, 7he binguage of Gender mid Cl= (London: Routledge, 1996), p.2. 196 are not. It is not difficult to supposethat sucha codeddiscourse existed in Britain at the time in question,when even the ancientprotection of habeascorpus had beensuspended by a repressivegoverrunent, and when a respectableprovincial doctorburned his daughter'sletters from

London for fear of entrapment.Mackintosh - like Opie - seemsto

havemoved easily amongcircles of both establishmentand non-

establishmentfigures, and if anyonecould successfullynegotiate the

two positions,it would be he.

Eleanor Ty, writing in 1993, mentions some non-conservative

aspectsof the tale, concludingwith the commentthat 'while Opie

seennto be ridiculing Adeline's false notions,she reveals at the same

time the inadequacyand folly of conventionalmoral judgement. ' 100

My italics point out the delightful possibilitiessuggested by Kelly of a

codedand radicaltext, andthis in turn suggeststhat earlier critics such

as Butler andTomalin may havedepended on too literal a readingin

orderto arrive at their classificationof this novel as conservativeor

evenmalicious. Ty explainsthat

A numberof recentscholars have pointed out that the two camps,whose views seemeddiametrically opposed, in fact sharedmany concerns and employedcomparable techniques to propagatetheir beliefs.' 101

However,Ty is ableto draw a distinctionbetween the two setsof

writers that sheidentifies:

the essentialdifference between the more moderate writers and the radicalnovelists of the 1790sis the

looTy, 1993, p.29.

101Ty, 1993, p.4. 197

willingness of the latter to carry out the implications of their perceptionsto the fullest. Wollstonecraft, Hays and Inchbald would not have let their heroines be rescuedquite as fortuitously as did Radcliffe, who thereby diminished somewhat the political ramifications 102 of the novel.

The issueof a full commitmentto a mdical idea is a significant criterion in termsof AdelineMowhray. Adeline, it must be said, renouncesher earlierattitude against marriage before shedies. Sheis not'rescued'however, in the senseof escapingthe fate which her hubris hasascribed for her shedies a martyr to philosophical absolutism. Throughoutmost of her life shehas steadfastly carried out'the implicationsof her perceptionsto the fullest', and these perceptionsare certainlyradical, yet sheis not a Jacobin,and neitheris sheOpie's vehicle for an assertionof femalesexuality. These variations,first from our expectationsof the conservativenovel, then from our expectationsof the radicalnovel againindicate how difficult it is to restrict our classificationto this simplebinary choice.

The centralquestion regarding the radical natureof this novel shouldbe whetheror not Opie challengesthe notion of the benevolent patriarchyand its institutions. This notion centresaround Burke and his insistenceon the patriarchas headof the household.As Ty points out, his associationof the political with the familial can be seenfrom his rcmarks in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), particularlywhen he describesthe captureof the Frenchroyal 103 family. AlongsideBurke can be placedother, more extremevoices

102 Ibid., p.26.

103 Burke, pp.69-71. 198 of rabid reactionist,anti-Jacobin, anti-female, pro-patriarchy sentimentssuch as Rev TJ Mathias's 'The Pursuitsof Literature' 104 (1794)and Rev RichardPolwhele's 'rhe Unsex!d Females'(1798).

The latter verseinvites the reader,presumably male, to

Surveywith me, what ne'er our fatherssaw, A femaleband despising NATURE'S law, As 'proud defiance' flashesfrom their arms, And vengeancesmothers all their softercharms. 105

Suchpolemic verses expressed the views of a widely-heldreactionary

mindsetat the time. Theseattacks on radicalwomen writers therefore

obligedthem to resortto subversivetextual ambiguityof the kind we

haveseen above. EleanorTy, in writing of Ann Radcliffe, oncemore

presentsthe equivocalcharacteristics of her work:

Like Edgeworthand Opie, Radcliffe seemsto be writing on the side of the anti-Jacobinsor the conservatives,but her romancescan be readas attempts to subvertor challengethe notion of the benevolent patriarchyand the ideologicalconstruction of the docile, delicateeighteenth-century woman. "

Of significancehere is the natureof the radical solutionsoffered to

resolveAdeline's dilemma: a working-togetherof religiousDissent and

benignradicalism, as discussedabove. Not only is this reminiscentof

Amelia Opie'sown upbringingin Norwich, but it also hasto be seen

againstpreconceived ideas of radicalismthat exist in our time. Some

critics, indicatedabove, seem to perceivethe notion of radicalismto

104T. J. Mathias,Pursuits (London: J. Owen, 1794),unpaginated; Rev. P, Polwhele 'The Unsex'dFemales' in V. Jones,ed., p. 186.

105Polwhele, 11.11-14,inJones, ed., p. 186.

106Ty, p. 23. 199 meanonly Jacobinism,quite forgettingother strandsof thoughtand action which were of servicein enablingwomeifs writing, andthe consequenttask of recognisingand evaluatingthat writing. Kathryn

Sutherlandclearly felt the sarnedifficulty with this polarisedview when,in her discussionof HannahMore, shepointed out that More hasbeenlong stigmatisedas the enemyof women'srights [but now] is being re-evaluatedin the contextof a more historically sensitivenotion of femaleasserfiveness. '107

The two ideologies put forward in the novel, religious Dissent and radicalphilosophy, both contributedto the developmentof democracyand the establishmentof greaterequality for womenduring the nineteenthcentury. Quakersand Unitarianspromoted the establishmentof womeWscolleges, such as Bedford Collegeand

Queen!s. The democraticreformism of Dr Norberry was to be successfulin producing change,both in the capitalist nexus of employmentand the passing,eventually, of the Married Womaifs

PropertyActs of 1870and 1884,which servedto makethe institution of marriagesomething less of an irrational choicefor women.

Significantly,what was achievedby the Jacobinmdicalism of Godwin,

Wollstonecraftand othersis lesseasily established,despite the retrospectiveappeal of manyof their ideas.

.0. - 41. -:- 0.- -*. -

107Sutherland in Everestýed., p.3 1. 200

CHAPTER 5

The Prose of the Middle Years, 1806- 1822

elia Opie was adeptat recognisingthe changingtenor of the

new centuryand mouldingboth her writing and her identity to expresssome of its complexities. In the mid-1790sshe had appeared as a radicaland had written pro-revolutionaryprose and verse. In the daysof d6tentesurrounding the Treatyof Amiens shehad held a salon whereinEnglish and French,radicals and ancienshad met.' During thesemiddle yearsof her life and writing sheconstructed her writing to embodythe notion of what Carol Howardcalls the 'neo-conservatism' 2 of the new century. JanetTodd similarly rcfcrs to the new mood as 3 'the triumph of conservativevalues'. Contemporaryexpressions of

this ideologicalshift were madeboth by Amelia Opie in a letter dated

22 January1807 to Sir JamesMackintosh at Bombay,and by

Mackintoshin a letter to Mrs. JohnTaylor dated 10 October 1808.

Opie wrote of 'The awful, the cruel changesin the political world 4 here'. Mackintoshexpressed his sympathyfor 'MrsOpie on her

widowhoodand addeda commentwhich nicely surnmarises

intellectualand liberal contemporaryattitudes: 'The dreadful

I SeeMacGregor, p.29 and ff.

2 Howard,p. 359. 3 CatherineMacaulay, 'Letters on Education'(1790) in Todd, ed., 1996,4, forenote, unpaginated.

Amelia Opie to Sir JamesMackintosh, 22 January1807; British Library, Add Mss 52451b,ff. 133-135. 201 disappointmentof the FrenchRevolution, and the reactionof the generalmind producedby it, havemade many things unpopular besideslibeq. 5

With her needto write for the contemporarymarket in mind, it is thereforeunsurprising to find that, in this middle period,most of

Opie's works,particularly the shorttales, have conservative narrative modes,plot structuresand moral bases.These formal elements, however,propel charactersthrough situations and conflicts which cover a range of ideological positions from endorsementsof hegemonicpatriarchal values of obedienceto the law of the father

('The Black Velvet Pelisse','On Bringing Up Children', 'The Two

Sons',for example)to representationsof confident,articulate and

democratically-mindedwomanhood such as that of Lucy Merle in

Valentine'sEve (1816). Again, while manyof the plots of her tales

depict conservatively-constructedmores, she strained the toleranceof

someof her more moralisticreaders with others:the frosty receptionof

Valentine'sEve by her spiritual mentorJoseph John Gurney(1788 -

1847),who found that the work had alludedto 'things not to be named,

by is in There especially a woman', a case point.6 are sufficient non- conservativeelements in thesetales to suggestOpie's less-than-

wholeheartedembrace of the conservativevalues that her other tales

Wckintosk 1, p.439.

6 Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 28 February 1816 and 3 May 1816; Fitzwilliarn Museum, Cambridge. 202 adumbrate,reflecting the tensionsof the ideologicalcomplexities of theseyears.

Opie's taleswere far from unpopular,as her publisher'srecords 7 and her table of earningswill testify. Following the deathof her husband,her financial survivalwas to rely much more on her viability and successas a popularwriter. This is evidentfrom her correspondence:for example,a letter to her lawyer, William Chisholm, dated28 November1809 records her constemationat leaminghow

little shehad beenleft with after JohnOpie's estatehad beenwound

UP.8 Much of Opie's writing during the twenty yearsbetween the

publicationof AdefineMowbray in 1805and her admissionto the

Societyof Friendsin 1825was gearedto the prevailingmarket: stolid,

predictableand moralistic.It achievedwhat Mary Mitford, writing of

Madeline,referred to as a 'plum-pudding' quality:

So much commonsense (for the flour); so much vulgarity (for the suet);so much love (for the sugar); so many songs(for the plums); so much wit (for the spices);so much fine binding morality (for the eggs);and so much meremawkishness and insipidity (for the milk and water wherewiththe saidpudding is mixed up).9

The non-conservativefeatures which someof her characters,

such as Lucy Merle, occasionally present, especially when they are in

conflict with the ancienregime of aristocraticpatronage, reveal a more

questioninggaze which hasits roots in the bourgeoisidentities of the

7 SeeAppendices A andB, pp. 339-340,below.

Amelia Opie to W. Chisholm, Lincoln's Inn, 28 November 1809; Pforzheimer Collection, New York Public Ubrary.

9 F, Brinley Johnson, ed., Letters OfMOrY RussellMiffiord (London: Bodley Head, 1925), p. 170. 203

Dissenting classesto which she belonged. The Dissenters, obliged to

distancethemselves from sympathywith France,found a social

legitimacyin the manufacturingtrades of the new century.Ruth Watts

pointsout how the Dissenterswere predominantly of the middle ranks

of society,and how they beganto seethemselves as a distinct 'class', a

lexical innovationwhen the termsin generaluse were 'rank' or 10 dsort'. The OxfordEnglish Dictionary givesan early usagefor this

meaningdated 1772, with other usagesappearing early in the

nineteenthcentury. Further, this 'middle class' sawitself as, in the

wordsof P.J. Corfield, 'the goldenmean', 'the most virtuous,most

enlightened,the most independentpart of the community'.II

Hobsbawmdescribes the fortunesof thesemanufacturing and

professionalmiddle-classes as 'buoyant' at this time.12 Clark similarly

describesthe restructuringof wealth in Englandshowing the steady

growth of families havingan incomeof at leastE700 p. a. at the 13 expenseof the 'traditional elites'. He claims that this was not a new

hierarchicalpattern, but ratherwealth 'flowing into the hands'of this

new bourgeoisie.14 It is to this classthat Opie herselfbelonged. Her

protagonists, for the most part, continued to be drawn from the lesser

gentry,the traditional sourcefor sentimentalfiction. Exceptionsto this

10 Watts, 1998, p.35.

P.J. Corfield, 'Classby nameand number in eighteenth-centuryBritain' History, 72 (Feb.1987), pp.55-6.

12 Hobsbawm,p. 40.

13 Clark p.72.

14 Ibid., p.71. 204 generalisation include Lucy Merle in Valentine's Eve (1816), Opie's articulationof a lower-middle-classwoman from a republican backgroundasserting herself in a morehigh-ranking milieu. The

Orwells of Temper(1812) also representartisan-class frugality and combinedwith moral integrity.

The range of Opie's writing reflects shifts and realigmnents in

Englishsociety and cultureas the clearerpolarisations of the 1790s elided into complexand contradictorypatterns at the beginningof the new century. In concluding his study of the Jacobin novel, Gary Kelly writes of the contradictionsof this time, pointing out that,

just as the FrenchRevolution proclaimed itself to embodythe Enlightenmentat the sametime that it invertedmost of the principlesof the Age of Reason,so romanticismin England both absorbedand rejectedEnglish Jacobinism. as the domestic manifestationof the Revolutionaryspirit. 15

In a later publication,Kelly expandson this collusion of contradictory

ideologicalpositions and commentsthat

In the 1800s 181 Os Maria and ... some novelists, such as Edgeworth, Amelia Opie, Elizabeth Hamilton and Hannah More, devised new techniques of formal realism and focussed on supposedly 'ordinary' characters in everyday settings experiencing commonplace events, thereby suggesting that the public political sphere was remote fromreality'as lived by most people.16

Many of the charactersin Opie's writings are unremarkablein

themselvesor the situationsin which they are depicted,in keepingwith

15Kelly, 1976, p.269.

16Gary Kelly, 'Religion and Politics' in Yhe Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen ed. by E Copeland &J McMaster (London: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 149-169, p. 152. 205

Kelly's observation.They extendher tendency,seen in TheDangers of Coquetry and Father and Daughter, to deal in stereotyWs, enabling her readersto identify with her charactersmore readily.

J. PaulHunter points out that it would be a mistaketo imagine that by 1800novel-reading was confinedto the middle classes.Hunter writes that 'Readershipof novelsextended down the social scaleto includenot only clerksand tradespeoplebut also considerablenumbers

of domestic servants.'17 He points out that in 1799, with literacy rates

of over 60% for males and 40% for females, there were twice as many

literateBritons as therehad been in 1700.It will be seenthat if the

naturalaspirations of a stratifiedsociety are upwards,as Jane West

suggestedat the time, then writing of the upperbourgeoisie and the

lessergentry will encompassa wide readershipthat embracesthe 's newly-literateclasses. The new literati wishedto readnovels of

traditional form and plot: it was up to the writers to exploreand help to

definewhat Kelly calls 'a post-Revolutionarysocial consensus'by

manipulating,as Opie does,these traditional componentsin ways

which would reflect the complexityof the ideologiesof the new 19 century.

The wars with Francehad effectively silencedEnglish

Jacobinism,although the Dissenters,who had formed a large part of

17J. PaulHunter, 'The Novel and Social/CulturalHistory'., Me Eighteenih-Cenjury Novel ed. by JohnRichetti (London:Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 19.

18 West, p.3.

19Kelly, 1997, p. 152. 206

Jacobinsupport in 1789,continued to suffer the political and social disadvantagesthat had rankledin the eighteenthcentury. As the historianElie Halevy points out, the Tory goverment 'had been supportedduring the greaterpart of the [Napoleonic]war by the same combinationof interestswhich had formerly supportedthe Whigs- finance,commerce and industry'.20 This relationshipwas succoured by a longstandinggovemmental commitment to economicgrowth, despite,as Frank O'Gormannotes, setbacks such as the collapseof the 21 American market. These areasof wealth-generation, however, were not thoseof the Tory landedgentry. Finance,commerce and industry were often in the control of Whig-supporting'middle-class

Dissenters',who, as O'Gormanremarks, 'were not dauntedby the repressiveapparatus of the state.'22 Hobsbawmpoints out that

6privateprofit and economicdevelopment had become accepted as the

Politics supreme objects of govenunent policy. ... were geared to profit. 23Crucial to the cultureof the assertive'middle class' is the fact that by 1811the nascentmanufacturing and financial areasof the

economyproduced nearly twice the wealth of the traditional mainstay of the aristocracy,land ownershipand farming.24 E.P. Thompson

referredto the evolutionfrom the eighteenthto the nineteenthcenturies

20Elie Hal6vy,p. 199. 21 FrankO'Gonnan, Ae Long DghteenthCentury (London: Arnold, 1997),p. 240.

22Ibid., p.250.

23Hobsbawm P. 3 1.

24Hal6vy, pp. 203-204. 207 as that of the transitionfrom the 'breadnexus' to the 'wage nexus', summarisingthe shift from old valuesof food-productionto a market- basedeconomy. 25 An indicator of the recognitionof the importanceof the growthof thesenew areasof financeand business is seenin Lord

ChancellorHardwicke's decision of 1761whereby he recognisedwhat

Stavescalls 'the arrival of new forms of propertylike stocksand

then that be treated consols,and moves... stocksand consolsshould asthe equivalentof freeholdland' in assessingjointures in marriage.26

The remarkablepoint hereis that this nascentsector is precisely that in which the Dissentersand the equally-disadvantagedJewish populationwere very well represented.The disenfranchised

Dissentingradical had thusbecome part of the statusquo, and thereforesought to achieveradical objectivesby reform ratherthan revolution:the old polaritiesof the 1790selided into the beginningsof the greatreform movementof the nineteenthcentury.

Amelia Opie's transitionfrom the Jacobinrevolutionist of the daysof TheCabinet to her position in thesemiddle yearsas what may be termeda proto-Quaker,when her writing investigatesissues of autonomy,morality and respectability,follows thesenational ideologicaland economicshifts. Evidenceof this consciousre- presentationof her identity is found in variousletters, but particularly one written to Archibald Constable,the Edinburghpublisher, in 1817.

Her motive in writing wasto 'kill a calumny', contradictingthe story

25E. P. Thompson, 'Eighteenth Century English Society: Class Struggle Without Class?' Social History, 4 (1979), pp. 133-166.

26 Drury v. Drury (1760-61), 2 Eden 39 in Staves, p. 10. 208 of her kissingHome Tooke in opencourt when his acquittalwas announcedat the TreasonTrials in 1794.27She then moveson to state that shefirst met Helen Maria Williams only in 1802in Paris,and 'Mrs

WollstonecraftI only knew first as Mrs Imlay - when sheseemed to be the desertedwife of Imlay - subsequentlyas Mrs Godwin'. Williams's

residencein Parisand active supportof the Revolution,and

Wollstonecraft'sposing as Imlay's wife had madeboth women

unequivocally persona non grata in England post 1795. Opie's skill in

constructingherself to suit the prevailingideologies of the day is

seldommore clearly seenthan in this letter.

This processof ideologicalshift, accordingto Kelly, was

causedby the collapseof what he termsthe 'Republic of Reason"and

the failure of the 'Revolution of Fraternity'. He writes that these

events

seemedto suggestthat men were indeed essentially isolated, and essentially alone. The disintegration of the brotherhood of in man nationalistic wars and resistances... causeda despondencywhich was universal, and which may be traced in the progressthrough dejection of Wordsworth, or the philosophical restlessnessof Coleridge. They tried to bolster their crumbling necessitarianphilosophy with values they had 28 once rejected.

As wider evidenceof the changingtimes in which Opie

lived and attemptedto makea living, the Corn Laws of 1804and 1815

may be seenas examplesof legislationby which the small numberof

landowners,mostly aristocrats,sought to protecttheir profits against

27 Amelia Opie to ArchibaldConstable, 18 September1817; Brotherton Library, LeedsUniversity: Misc. LettersCONS.

28Kelly, 1976, p.264. 209 the boom-and-bustcycles of the economy,particularly in the post-war

Gsevereeconomic dislocation' of 1815.29

The Englisharistocratic ethic, articulatedby EdmundBurke in

1790as 'the spirit of a gentlemanand the spirit of religion', was called into questionin the early nineteenth.30 Clark assertsthat whereasin the eighteenthcentury, 'Anglican plebianswould havewished to become gentlemenif they could', theseaspirations tended to disappearin the 31 early nineteenth century. Nevertheless,there was a complex interweavingof old moneyand new.

Opie's life at this time becamemore influencedby the , affluent Quakerbankers of non-aristocraticorigins who lived

like countrygentry on their estates,Earlham Hall and Keswick Hall,

southof Norwich, and at Runcton,south of Kings Lynn. SamGurney,

the millionaire discounter,acquired Hain Housein Richmond.

This social interweavinghad its impact on Amelia Opie. Her

cousinEdward Alderson, a wealthylawyer, becameennobled as a

Baron.Opie herselfcultivated acquaintance with the rich and titled:

Lord Bury, Lady Charleville,Lady Cork, for example.32 This view of

an inherentlyupward mobility is reinforcedby Nancy Armstrong,who,

after describinga nascentbourgeois class 'in the senseof a permanent,

self-consciousurban class in oppositionto a landedaristocracy,, points

29O'Gorman, P.25 1.

30 Edmund Burke, p.255.

31 Clark, pp.92,93.

32 SeeAppendix: Letters of Amelia Opie, esp. to Lady Charleville, 3 June 1810; to JamesAlderson, 18 July 1814; to J. I Gurney, 9 August 1815. 210 out the collusivenature of a classthat 'no soonerdid one generationof townsmensucceed in businessor tradethan they soughtto revisetheir statusby becomingcountry gentlemen.33 Evidenceof theseambitions appearedlater in the centuryas affluent manufacturersand traders constructedlavish countryhouses for themselves,sometimes with startlingcombinations of fake mediaevalismand technological 34 modeMity.

Opie's writing reflects this social interweaving in that its settings,as with most other fiction of the day,are thoseenvirons of the privilegedclasses, although the Dissentingvalues of thrift, modesty and personalintegrity are often deployedwithin thesesettings to producea more complexpicture, especially when membersof the artisanclasses are presentedas more worthy than the corrupted

membersof the hegemonicelite. One of the most succinctrecitals of theseDissenting values in Opie's writing of this period occursin Tales

ofthe Heart: discussingthe emigrationof two brothersto the United

States,she says: 'They carriedout with them,besides money, 35 enterprise, industry, integrity and talents,. (vol. 2, p.203) The italics

are hers,and the phraseis a perfectdistillation of the valuesof the

" NancyArmstrong, 'The Riseof the DomesticWoman' in Armstrong& Tannenhouse,eds., Yhe IdeoloSy of Conduct(London: Methuen, 1987), p. 10 1.

34See Mark Girmard, Ae Victollan Country House (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), esp. pp. 148-212.

35 Amelia Opie, Tales ofthe Heart, 2 vols. (London: Longman, 1820), 2, p.203. Subsequentquotations are from this edition, and page numbers are included parenthetically in the text. 211 enterpriseculture of the early nineteenthcentury. The brothers prospered.

PatriciaMichaelson, in her studyof Opie's useof language, remarksthat it is at this time,

and especiallyin the seriesof letterswritten in the 1814season, that Opie representsspeech in waysthat violate bourgeois normsfor women... ShedIcts a salonculture in which wit 6 and reparteeare privileged.

It is not difficult to find examplesof this violation of the normsof femalespeech. Her lettersto William Elayleyare remarkablyforthright and intimate;her letter to J. J. Gurneyof 15 August 1815demands to know what might be 'improper' in reading.To her cousinJames

Aldersondated 22 June 1814she writes of her conversationof

spolitics,science, literature, morals, church government infidelity,

sects,philosophy, characters' at a dinner given by Sir James

Mackintosh.37 Most of thesetopics would havebeen considered

improperin mixed company.Michaelson also points out that wit was a

contestedarea for womenin the eighteenthand early nineteenth

centuries,and to be known as a witty womanthreatened one's

modesty.38 Opie, shesays, 'seems to be situatingherself as a hopeful

enftwt to the aristocracy'at this time, and Opie's lettersof this period

certainlyforeground persons of title, fashionor influence.

Michaelson'sobservation foregrounds the realismof Opie's

dialogue,which ties in with PatriciaMeyer Spacks'semphasis on the

36Patricia Howell Michaelsork p. 130.

37See Appendix C: Lettersof Amelia Opie. 212 significanceof plot in the fiction of this period. Ratherthan being consideredas unrealisticbecause of dependenceon a romance tradition, shesees plot as constructinga cosmologywhich is

&profoundly realistic - that is, [the characters]speak of the realitiesof the culturefrom which they emerge,and are consistentlydaring in their explorationof formal, psychologicaland social possibility. 39

Thesetwo observationsprovide a useful platform for scrutinyof the shorttales, concerned as they were with presentinga moral view in a conservativeform, in keepingwith the appetitesof the readership.

Opie's fiction writing of this period foregroundsthe individual, and the readerbecomes interested in who sheor he is ratherthan what sheor he might represent.This solipsismneed not be seenas necessarilyconservative, however, but merely in keepingwith

conventionalliterary modes. As one of her heroinesexclaims in

Talesof the Heart:

My trials havebeen, and will no doubt continueto be, the trials of thousandsof my sex; but the mannerin which I actedunder them,and their effect on my feelingsand character,must be peculiarto myself (2, p.2)

In familiar the works of this middle period,the Opie heroine- a naiveyoung womanwho, out of intellectualstubbornness (Adefine

Mowbray), impulsiveness(Father and Daughter)or vanity (The

Dangersof Coquetry)becomes the victim of a sexualadventurer,

suffersthe opprobriumof societyand meetsa terrible and premature

39 Mchaelson, p. 123. 39 PatriciaMeyer Spacks,Desire and Truth (Chicago:University of Chicago,1990), p.3. 213 death- is still evidentin, for example,Simple Tales(1806) and

Temper(1812). In the latter work particularly,the focus hasshifted to

includean examinationof the actualmechanics of the faulty

upbringingwhich the protagonistexperienced as a child and

demonstrationsof how the upbringingaffects the characterand

behaviourof the adult. This examinationalso occurredin Adefine

Mowbray,but thereis a fundwnentaldifference in the drawingof the

eponymouscharacter in that novel from the protagonistswho inhabit

the writing of her middle period. Opie presentsin Adeline a unique,

individualisedentity, whereasthe protagonistsof her othertales do not

havethis uniqueness.In earlier works suchas Father and Daughter

and TheDangers of Coquetry,as in later works, Opie was constructing

protagonistswith whom the young femalereader could easily identify

as an extensionof herself The differenceis that with the later works,

as with AdefineMowbray, Opie is mediatingbetween the several

different ideologiesof the early 1800s.

The principal themesof Opie's shorttales are often concerned

with femalequalities and behaviours.In thesecases, they often closely

modelthe conservativevalues promulgated by conductbooks. A

relationshipbetween the two Icindsof writing existswherebyjust as

conductbooks promulgate certain behaviours, so fiction often indicates deviationfrom the consequencesof the strait pathsof rectitude- by,

for example,extravagance in 'The DeathBed' (TalesofReal Life, 214

1813)and 'A Woman'sLove' (Talesofthe Heart, 1820),or unguarded naiveteas in 'The FashionableWife' (TalesqfReal Life).

Opie usesher techniqueof pairing femalecharacters to produce a story which, asPenny Mahon points out, is evidenceof her anti-war feelings40 The tale 'The Soldier'sReturn, in SimpleTales, . published whenthe war with Francewas in progress,tells of a youngman,

Lewellyn, whojoined the army to pleasehis fiancde,Fanny, despite his strongestmisgivings about doing so. Fannywas stronglyattracted to the soldierswho cometo the village, and Lewellyn fearedthat he

would loseher if he did not enlist. Fanny'scousin Mary, however,

deteststhe soldiers. Lewellyn is sentto Holland, wherehe writes

hometwice of being involved in fighting. When no further lettersare

received,he is assumedto haveperished. The cousins'subsequent

behavioursreveal their true natures:whereas Fanny resumes her

flirting with the soldiersin the village, Mary grievesfor Lewellyn.

EventuallyLewellyn returns,horribly scarred,to find his parentsdead

Fanny follower 41 It is Mary for him, they and a camp . who cares and

eventuallymarry. Fanny,overcome by remorse,drowns herself

Mahon points out that thereis 'a lack of emphasison the

horrorsof war itself and how 'Opie appearsto be foregrounding

femaleresponses to the war machine,which polarisearound the

40Penny Mahon, 'In Sermonand Story: contrastinganti-war rhetoric in the work of AnnaBarbauld and Amelia Opie' in Women'sWriting, 7,1 (2000),pp. 23-3 8.

"' Amelia Opie,Simple Tales, 4 vols. (London:Longman, 1806), 1, p.60. Subsequent quotationsare from the edition,and page numbers are includedparenthetically in the text. 215 resistantin Mary and the complicit in Fanny.v42 Mahon cites the openingwords of the tale, which challengethe readerin a time of a nationalstate of war: "Is war an irremediableevil? " Having identified

Opie's political interestsand her fascinationwith suchfigures as

Napoleon,Wellington Lafayetteand Kosciusko,Mahon concludesthat

Opie was presenting'pacificist ratherthan pacifist' views in her tale.

The fine distinctionbetween these two terms,according to Mahon, is that whereasthe pacifist is opposedto all war, the pacificist considers war a 'conceivable,if distastefulpossibility. t43 She points out that Opie wasa memberof the PeaceSociety, founded in 1816,by 1835, althoughthat is severalyears after the publicationof SimpleTales and appearsto be a statementabout her subscriptionto the tenetsof

Quakerismat that time ratherthan the consciousadoption of either of the views Mahon so carefully identifies.

A recurringtheme in the shorttales, partly illustratedin the

depictionof the two femalecharacters in 'The Soldier's Return', is that

of womanas commodity. Opie had written on this themein her earlier

tales,and it appearsthroughout the four 6ollectionsof shorttales. How

womenrepresent themselves, and how they are both representedand

perceivedby othersis as part of the prevailing commercialnexus of the

times. Like the depersonalised'hands' neededto operatethe new

machines,women were seenas a commodity,which is to say,having a

value which could be calculatedin monetaryas well as abstractterms.

The most strildng exampleof this occursin 'The Uncle andNephew'

42 Niahon,p. 33 216 in Simple Tales, when Morley fixes a value on his ward Augusta at

00,000 - the sumhe feels obligedto offer his nephewto marry her becauseshe can bring nothingto the matchother than 'beauty,temper and accomplishments'(p. 50).

In 'The Black Velvet Pelisse'in the samepublication, the tensionis createdbecause the father of Julia, the protagonist,gives her moneyto buy this garmentso that shemay dressto advantageat a social gatheringwhere an elegibleyoung nobleman is expected.Julia, sensitiveand educated,gives this moneyto a poor family. At the social

gathering,in which Opie presentsa fine depictionof womanas commodity,Julia is embarrassedand her father outragedat her

unwillingnessto displayherself, especially after 'having squanderedso

much on your education,' as he bitterly informs her (vol. 1, p.24).

However,the educationhe haspurchased has provided Julia with keen

sensibilityand shereceives the admirationof all when the poor family,

now decentlyclad and nourished,come to thank her,just as Adeline

Mowbray's generosityearned her the tirelessdevotion of Savannah

andthe Tawny Boy. Opie foregrounds,the valuesof modestyand

empathyin this tale at the protagonist'sexpense of losing an

opportunityfor personaldisplay in a group gatheredfor the purposeof

arranginga profitable marriage. In this tale is seenthe combiningof

theseDissenting values, together with the valuing of education,

arrayedwith the conservativetropes of familial authorityand

preoccupationswith marriageability.Julia doesnot refuseto attendthe

43Ibid., p.35, fiz. 217 lev,oe, as a radicalwriter might depict on the basisof endowingthe characterwith a desirefor sexualautonomy, although she shows anxietyfor the consequencesof usingthe moneyher father hasgiven her for the pelisseto purchasethe freedomof the poor family. Despite this inner conflict, sheknows, by virtue of her educatedmoral integrity that her action is the right one.The tale is thereforeambiguous: the ethosof the charitablelady is a well-establishedtheme of conservative

writing. On the other hand,the tale may be seenas depictingradical valuesof modesty,empathy and generosityin a conservativewoman-

as-commoditysetting. It is more in keepingwith the complexitiesof

the times,however, to seethe tale as exemplifyinga numing-together

of severalideologies, conservative and dissenting,individuated and

collective,along lines describedabove.

The shorttales 'The DeathBed', 'The FashionableWife',

'White Lies', 'Proposalsof Marriage', 'The Uncle andNephew' and

'Lady Anne and Lady Jane' all treat aspectsof womanas commodity.

The last tale mentionedhere enlarges this market-ledview of

femininity by presentingthe tensionthat ariseswhen two womenwho

are cousinsand competingfor the sameman. From our distance,such a

blatanttreatment of the commodificationof femininity is surprisingin

a writer who hasportrayed so many womenas victims of the male

gaze:Agnes in Father and Daughter,Adeline in AdelineMowbray,

andJulia in 'The Black Velvet Pelisse'. The ideologicalcomplexity of

the new century,with its emphasison the creationof wealth through 218

tradeand manufacture,is an appropriatecontext for this articulationof

sensibilityand desiremodulated by the criteria of the marketplace.

The dialogueof wealthand value-givenis reflectedin the main strand

of this tale, which concernswomen's dependency on othersfor money.

This is wovenin with commodificationissues based on appearanceand

virtue.

The tale beginswith two men,father and son,discussing the

figures merits of the titular of the tale. Henry Percy - one of Opie's

name-borrowingsfrom Shakespeare- commentson the changeable

temperofJane Langley,likening it to the varying coloursof her eyes:

I know they be blue hazel like am sure not whether gray, or ... a beautiful silk, they are beautifulto the sight without one's being able to

tell what is the predominanthue. ' His father thett replies: 'That may

be a recommendationto a mistress,Harry, but surely not to a Wife.'44

He comparesher with Anne Mortimer, sayingof Anne that sheis 'not

so daizling as her cousin,but I think her more estimable'(p. 5). In the

discussionof womanas consumerdurable from which thesespeeches

are extracted,it is clear that the male hegemonyis as prevalentas ever.

The shamelessassertion by a father to his son of taking a mistress

demonstratesthis, as doesthe apparentlyunconscious conflation the

menmake between appearance and characterin the women. The

prettyJane has 'charm' (p.3), but Anne's plainnessis presentedas

betokeninggreater worth. The whole interchangeis reminiscentof the

44 Amelia Opie, Tales ofReal Life (London: Longman, 1813), 3 vols., 1, p.2. Subsequentquotations are from this edition, and page numbers are included parenthetically in the text. 219 way in which Adeline Mowbray is discussedby two young men in the 45 street,one of which thentries to pick her UP.

The womenthemselves reflect this conflation of appearanceand character:we quickly seethat plain Anne lovesHenry with the quiet intensityof the moral woman,whereas pretty Jane

merelyflirts with him. Anne hasambition to be 'an independentand rationalbeing', which might be takenas a statementof progressive

Dissentingvalues, whereas Jane only requiresmoney to supporther

lavish and narcissisticlifestyle. The dependenceof womenon men for

moneyis shownwhen Jane approaches Anne for a loan:

"What I want you to do is, lend me moneysufficient to pay someheavy bills. " "Give you money,you mean,Jane; lending it is out of the question." "Indeedit is not; I meanto pay you back every farthing." "Yes, no doubtyou meanit, - but you will neverbe able." (p.66)

Jane'sextravagance is shownas being learnedfrom her mother,and in

this Opie is rehearsingher concernsabout parenting that appearedin

TheDangers of Coquetry,Adeline Mowbray, Temperand other short

tales,including othersin this publication.Anne informs her,

"My dearJane, our mothersand our fatherswere as different in their habitsas you and I are.... I havealways felt my affectionatepity for your errorsincreased by the consciousness that I owe to your mother's warningexample. "

As the tale progresses,Henry marriesJane but Anne, out of

love for him, continuesto subsidiseJane's extravagances. However,

theseare the causeof her untimely end,murdered by the wife of a

45Opie, AdelineMawhray, 1999 ed., p.206. 220 creditor shehas ruined through non-payment. As shedies in the customaryOpie tableau,her last act is to join the handsof Janeand

Henry. The moral is implied, but clear enough.

Much of Opie's fiction during this middle period of her writing also addressesanother construction of womanwhich overlapsthat of the commodityitem - that which is calledby Armstrongthe 'new domesticwoman' of the early nineteenthcentury, partner to the 'new economicman [who] first encroachedupon aristocraticculture and

itý. 46 seizedauthority from 'To the qualitiesof the innocentmaiden,

[later] conductbooks appended those of the efficient wife. 47 Earlier conductbook writers suchas Fordyce(1766) and Gregory(1774) admit the domesticroles of women: HesterChapone (1773), however, is the first to articulatethe needfor skills of 'oeconomy',namely the managementof financial and humanresources, which shedescribes as canart as well as a virtue'.48 The domestic,interior womanwas the counterpartto the exteriorman of enterprise.Chapone continues by writing to her Young Lady: 'I hopeit will not be long beforeyour motherentrusts you with somepart, at least,of the managementof your father's house.249 Issues of genderand ownershipare present herewhich point to the dispossessedstatus of womenas far as property-ownershipwas concerneduntil the reformist governmentsof

46Armstrong, p. 96.

47 Ibid., p. 104. 48 HesterChapone, 'Letters on the Improvementof the Mind, Addressedto a Young Lady' in Todd, ed.,2, p. 147.

Ibid. 221 the mid-nineteenthcentury produced the first Married Women's

PropertyAct (1870).

Annstrongsummarises the genderroles in sucha householdas 50 that of the man, 'to accumulate' and for the woman, 'to regulate'.

Norbert Elias further points out how this control of domesticeconomy enabledmale dominanceto be 'broken for the first time. The social power of the wife is almostequal to that of the husband.Social opinion is determinedto a high degreeby women. 51 Elias is taking a long view, but his observationis sound:control of the householdcan be seenas part of the greaterpicture of the movementtowards female empowermentwhich, with the aid of an educationequal to that of their brothers,will enableyoung middle-class women to progressto a

demandfor emancipationby the end of the nineteenthcentury.

By mid-centurythis notion of the womanas domesticmanager

found its full expressionin works by both male and femalenovelists

suchas the protagonistin Jane Eyre (1847)and EstherSummerson in

Dicken's BleakHouse (1853) -a further exampleof a heroinewho is

valuedfor her naturerather than her looks- althoughit must be noted

that both theseheroines turn out to be beautiful after all. Opie's

heroinesoffer different representationsof this trope of the domestic

manager,again showing the validity of the conductbooks'

prescriptionsby detailing instancesof their non-observation:Mrs

50Armstrong & Tennenhouse,p. 120.

51 Norbert Elias, 7he Civilizing Process, trans. E Jephcott (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), p. 151. 222

Belmour in 'The DeathBed' is too extravagantin her spending,as is the fashionablewife in the tale of that nameand Lady Anne in 'Lady

Anne and Lady Jane'. As such,these protagonists offer a contrastto

Adeline Mowbray, who managesaffairs perfectlywell when with

Glenmurraybut who is then unableto overcomeher husband

Beffendale'sselfishness. Also, Opie's writing becomesincreasingly concernedwith the correctupbringing of children, andthis aspectof domesticmanagement is treatedin 'On Bringing Up Children', 'Austin and His Wife', 'The Two Sons', 'Mrs. Arlington' and 'The Uncle and

Nephew'. Similarly, the topic receivedconsiderable attention in vol. one of Adeline Mowbray. As a growing preoccupation,this childless

womanwas to write increasingly,and increasinglyprescriptively, of

child-rearingin her Quakeryears: Illustrations ofLying and Talesof

the PembertonFamily, both publishedin 1825,and Detraction

Displayed (1828).

JaneWest's Letters to a YoungLady of 1811identifies the

emergenceof the new classand the impactthis had on the lives of

thoseit embraced:

The sentiments and regulations [of society] had lately, as far as concerns women, undergone an alarming change, [mainly affecting] that numerous and important body the middle classes of society, whose duties are most complicated, and consequently most difficult, being generally overlooked [by conduct-book writers]; and yet the change in manners among these are so marked that the most superficial observers must be alarmed at the prospect of what it portends.52

52 West, pp.34. 223

Westgoes on to indicatethe moralisticrole that a writer of popular fiction suchas Opie shouldassume:

A popular author is in consciencebound to employ the (perhaps) transient period of public approbation in using her to that turn to the taste most strenuousendeavour ... give and be beneficial to its morals of society which would most ... interests.53

Shethen presentsa taxonomyof valuesfor the new 'oeconomicclass' in Letter III. While there is no evidencefrom correspondencethat Opie everread West's work, the themesin her shorttales model West's taxonomyof changingvalues remarkably closely:

West'sTaxonomy Opie's Tales Femalevanity 'The Black Velvet Pelisse', 'Mrs. Arlington', 'The FashionableWife'

Misery and 'The DeathBed', guilt of extravagance 'Appearanceis Against Her', 'Lady Anne and Lady Jane'

Importanceof moral 'Mrs. Arlington' instruction, 'On Bringing Up Children', 'Austin and his Wife', 'The Two Sons'. 'Tales of the PembertonFamily'

Luxury injurious to trade 'The DeathBed', and morals 'The FashionableWife, 'White Lies'

Effects of conduct 'Tales of the PembertonFamily' of middle classes 'Mrs Arlington', on the lower orders 'The Black Velvet Pelisse', 'White Lies', 'The Uncle and Nephew'

53 Ibid. 224

Sucha closecongruence of fiction and conduct-bookadumbmtion confirmsnot only the public awarenessof the emergenceof the new bourgeoisie,but alsothe confonnity of readers'behavioural expectations.Opie is clearly basingthe themesof theseof her short taleson conservativeinterpretations of the ideologiesof the day, even if the outcomesquestion them. This helpsto accountfor the tales' popularityand alsohelps to explain why the reviewersof the more literary reviewstended to lose interestin her new publicationsas time went on. For example, reviewing Simple Tales, Opie's first collection publishedin 1806,the EdinburghReview found that

There is somethingdelightfully feminine in all Mrs 0[pie]'s writings; an apparentartlessness in the compositionof her that narrative... givesa powerful effect to the occasional beautiesand successesof her genius.54

The themeof reinforcinga conservativeview of femininity is but barelyconcealed. This was seenas sucha favourablereview by the critic of the Critical Reviewthat he suggestedthat Opie wrote it herself.55 He disagreedwith theEdinburgh Review, saying that 'Mrs.

Opie the that in favour was of opinion ... when once with the public, shehad nothingto do but go to sleep.56

By 1820,favourable reviews had becomescarce: only the

ScotsMagazine seems to havenoticed Tales ofthe Heart, Opie's last collection of shorttales. Its reviewercommented that Mrs Opie did not improve 'in the her tales her her manufactureof ... greatstaple was

54 EdinburghReWew, 8 (1806),pp. 46547 1.

55 Critical Review, 8 (1806), p.444.

56 Ibid. 225 pathos and that she seems,pretty nearly, to have exhausted- nor has

it. -)57 shemuch talent for incident or characterto makeup for The wearynegativity of the revieweris evident.By the time of the publicationof her last tale Madelinein 1822,her saleshad slwnped and her earningsdeclined by two-thirds. It is clear that shewas

comingto the end of things as far as fiction writing is concerned.In a

letter of 1822to RobertSouthey, she claimed that her writing 'lends its

aid, howeverfeeble, to the causeof moralsand religion.'58 The phrase

clearly rcflccts her conccmto be seenas a memberof the Dissenting

middle-class:whether this necessarilyidentifies her as a conservative

sui generisis questionablegiven the moresof the time and her needto

write for money.

Beforemoving to the final phaseof Opie's writing the longer

tales from the middle periodmust be considered,together with other

writing from that time. Theseare: Opie's Memoir in her husband's

posthumously-publishedLectures on Painting (1809),her 'character'

of Mrs. Roberts,Valentine's Eve, Madeline andthe Gothic tale 'Love,

Mystery and Superstition' in Tales ofthe Heart.

In 1809,two yearsafter John Opie's death, Longman's

publishedby subscription his Lectureson Painting deliveredat the

Royal Academyof Arts. Theselectures were part of his dutiesas

Professorof Paintingfor the last two yearsof his life. The volume

57 ScotsMagazine, New Series, EdinburgI4 7 (1820), pp 152-155.

58Amelia Opie to Robert Southey, 10 March 1822; Huntington Library, HM23043. 226 includedtributes by ElizabethInchbald, the dramatistand critic Prince

Hoareand the presidentof the Royal Academy,Benjamin West, as well as a lengthyeulogy by Amelia Opie. Theseflourishes, as well as the publicationby subscription,suggest that the venturewas to be a financial benefitto his widow as well as a tribute to Opie himself

Thereare four pagesof subscribers'names, including not only society

figuressuch as the Countessof Cork, namesof Londonradicals and

Dissenterssuch as SamuelBoddington, Dr Disney and Thomas

Holcroft; bankerssuch as the Hoares,the Barclaysand the Gumeys;

but alsomany people from Norwich andNorfolk, suchas the Taylors,

Miss Plumptre(which Miss is not stated),the Martineausand Thomas

Coke,UP.

The contentsof Amelia Opie's memoir of her late husbandare

conventional,praising his painterly skills and his personalattributes.

Sheis at painsto drop namessuch as thoseof Holcroft, Inchbald,

HannahMore - from whose'Poem on Sensibility' shequotes, Fox,

Coke,Northcote and Thomson,who completedthe last of JohnOpie's

canvasses,all thereby increasing Opie's status by association. Several

of thesenames had beenclients and sittersfor the portraitist.

Of interestin her Memoir is the way in which Opie, one of the

more prolific and popularwriters of her day, minimisesher writing,

making it seemlittle more thana pastime,in contrastto the financial

realitiesof her life. Shewrites of 'the little power of writing which it 227 has been my amusementto cultivate. '59 This may be no more than the conventionalmodest disclaimer of the day, althoughit is cleverly done, for it alsoby implication connotesher own artistic proclivities.

However,minimising one's occupationin this way revealshow uneasilythe public viewed the womanwriter. RogerSales has pointed out how JaneAusteds nineteenth-century biographers Henrietta

Keddie (SarahTytler) and Rev.James Edward Austen presented her as

'a personwho was contentto be everythingto her family and nothing to the world', eventhough this seemsnot to havebeen the caseat all,

with Austenvigorously prosecuting her careeras a writer.60 Similarly,

ShelleyKing writes of 'the extraordinaryway in which Amelia seems

to havebeen marketing "Mrs. Opie". 61 In this case,her self-

marketingtechnique is to dismissexactly what shewishes to promote:

her writing. This contradictionis an exampleof the fundamental

paradoxwith which womenwriters had to deal:namely, to commend

the everydayvirtue of domesticityover the specialtalent of writing.

JanFergus refers to this as 'the ambiguouscultural status'of women

writers at this time. This helpsto explain why both their biographers

and the womenwriters themselvesfelt that they had to protesttheir

domesticityand were so keento denythat they had any professional

aspirationsas a writer. Fergusemphasizes this cultural uneaseby

continuing:'Only womenwho self-consciouslypresented themselves

59 John Opie, Lectures on Painting (London: Longman, 1809), p.xi.

60 Sales,p. 3.

61 ShelleyKing, Queen'sUniversity, Canada: private communication, 28 June 1999. 228 to the readingpublic as deservingcases for charity were authorisedto 62 write for money'. This valuing of domesticity over professional endeavouris restatedin a shorter'character' that Opie wrote later for

MargaretRoberts' novel Duty (1814)and which forms a prefaceto that tale, in which shesays: 'I am mostanxious to exhibit her as a wife, that

characterwhich is bestcalculated to call forth the virtues of a

wornan.63 This busy person,wife to ReverendRichard Roberts, the

Provostof Eton College,and thus surrogatemother to scoresof little

boys,is praisedby Opie as being 'never idle, neverfor a moment

unemployed'and yet 'though everydomestic duty was regularly

fulfilled, sheseemed, when in the companyof her guests,to have

nothingto do but to mnuseherself and them. '64 Robert's writing itself

is unacknowledged.This constructionby Opie of both herselfand

Robertsis a conservativeone in that it follows the valuesarticulated by

Burke and othersof the benevolentpatriarch and the subordinatewife,

and yet in keepingwith the Dissentingvalues of domesticindustry.

Sinceboth prefacesare, in effect, marketingdevices to promotethe

titular work, they can be takenas reflectingthe prevailing ideologiesof

the times.Here is evidenceof a collusive chamcteristic,in which

conservativeand Dissenting values become indistinguishable from

62 Jan Fergus,Jane Austen: A Litermy Life (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991), p.5.

63Margaret Roberts, Duty (London: Longman, 1814), p. 5.

64 Ibid., p.7. 229 eachother and the two womenexemplify Poovey's conceptof the 65 6properlady'.

Temper,or DomesticScenes (1812) was Opie's first full-length

pieceof prosefiction publishedin thesemiddle years,of which

Brightwell remarksthat it was 'a tale in which shediverged from the

patheticstyle of writing which shehad hitherto most affected,and

evidentlyaimed more, in the characterof a moralist,at practical

usefulness.' Perhaps Opie had beenstung by the reviewer'scomment

to SimpleTales. 66 Temperdoes indeed mark a turning point in Opie's

writing, reflectingher increasingpreoccupation with moralising,

particularlyregarding child-rearing. Eleanor Ty points out that the 67 work is virtually ignoredtoday. Shenotes how, 'of those[critics]

that haveread it, Ann H. Jonessays it is the worst novel Opie ever

wrote, becauseit is utterly didactic and told with an absolutelack of

artistry. 1,68Despite this, Temper was Opie's most popular prose

publicationafter Father and Daughter,selling approximatelythree

thousandcopies and earning her over six hundredpounds from

Longman's.First publishedin 1812,it ran to threeeditions and was not

remaindereduntil 1838.

65 Poovey,p. 27.

" Brightwell, p. 144.

67Tyl 1998, p. 161.

69See Ann H. Jones,Ideas and Innovations.Best Sellers ofJane Austen'sAge (New York: AMS Press,1986), p. 59. 230

Before discussingthe work in detail, I shouldpoint out

that the title bearsa resemblanceto an earlier,so-called 'Heroi-comic'

epic poem 'The Triumph of Temper'by William Hayley (1748-1820),

identified by Chan 'his 69Hayley Opie as most successfulwork' . and formeda closefriendship which seemsto havebegun with her writing

to him to praisethe 'Triumphs [sic] of Temper' in 1813,and his

speedyresponse in which he salutesher as 'Dear thoughunseen

Amelia'.70 In a later letter to DawsonTaylor, sherecalled:

I became acquainted with Mr Hayley in 1814... Ithen weritto see him and staid with him a whole month nearly t8te a t8te. I 71 repeatedmy visit next year...

Hayley subsequentlyreferred to Opie as 'Serena',the natneof the

heroineof his epic, which in part exploresthe relationshipbetween

Serenaand her father,Sir Gilbert. While suchexploration is not

unusualin fiction of that era,Gilbert displaysan ideological

ambivalencewhich is characteristicof the complexideologies Opie is

creatingin her fiction of thesemiddle yearsand which hassimilarities

withTemper. In Hayley's epic, Sir Gilbert is a 'faithful Whig' in all

aspectsof life otherthan that of his relationshipwith his daughter,

whenhe 'turned to a Tory', demanding'passive obedience' from 72 Serena. She,described as 'a lovelier nymph [which] pencil never

69 Victor Chan,Leader qfMy Angels.- WillimnBayley and His Circle (Edmonton: EdmontonArt Gallery, 1982),p. 74.

70Opie to Hayley,28 January1813 and Hayley to Opie,29 January1813; Add. Ms. 39781and Add. Ms. 30805respectively, British Library.

71Amelia Opie to Dawson Turner, 17 March 1823; Trinity College Library.

72 Chan, P.2. 231 drew', in turn, hasher tempertested by Spleen,a monsterof suchevil powerthat 'Hell stoodaghast'. Her succouris 'Temper,the nurseof

Love', and her temperbefits her nameso well that shefinally

73 triump . In her letter to Hayley, Opie wrote that 'Triumphs of Temper' was

one of the first booksof poetrywhich I readaloud to my mother;and, as shejudiciously held up its admirableheroine as a model for imitation, the delight which I felt in the beautyof the poemwas increasedby a consciousnessthat it pleasedme. 74

The tone of this letter is complimentary,respectful and yet warm. It wasto be the first of a lengthycorrespondence and friendshipbetween the two. Hayley's prompt reply exhortedher, 'still in the prime of

i, 75 life', to 'fresh literary Exertions .

Opie's tale is told as continuousnarmtive, as was TheDangers ofCoquetry but unlike AdefineMowbray, which enjoyedthe convenienceof chapterbreaks. Despite this, Opie recountsher tale over a spanof threegenerations in orderto showthe extentof the damagea faulty upbringingcan produce,the traumaticnature of the experienceswhich are met as a result and the reflection and reconstructionnecessary to overcomethis maladli ustment. This transgenerationalframing was usedby Jacobinwriters, notably

ElizabethInchbald in A SimpleStory (1791), which, as a retelling of A

Winter's Tale necessarilyhad a long timespan. The pathsof the two

73 Ibid., p. 11.

74Opie to William Hayley, 28 January 1813.

75Hayley to Opie, 29 January 1813. 232 novelsare quite different,however. Inchbald's tale - and

Shakespeare'splay, and the anonymousItalian romancePandosto, on which the play is based- requirestime for Matilda (Perditain the play), to matureso that the sequenceof hubris,nemesis, contrition, penance,forgiveness and reconciliationmay be worked out. While this processis entirely in keepingwith Inchbald'sRoman Catholicism, it is not one with which a Dissentersuch as Opie would identify.

Part of the significanceof Temperis its studyof the relationshipbetween society and the individual. In the moralising tradition of Dissentingliterature, her purposeis to showthe perfectibility of her protagonistsfollowing the faulty upbringingof the first of the youngwomen, Agatha. Radicalshave two wayswith which to attempttheir aims,revolution or reform: a transgenerational novel is essentiallya refonnist construct. No revolutionaryinsight or suddenepiphany, but a slow processof change,damage-repair,

ameliorationand - in both Temperand A SimpleStory - reconciliation.

Similarly, thereare conservativetropes in the moralisingin both tales:

the exerciseof patriarchalpower and the objectiveof a satisfactory

marriage,which almostinevitably demandsportrayal of the womanas

commodity. However,the parametersof radical and conservative

simply becomeunhelpful in evaluatingTemper, since the work, in

keepingwith its times, hasa more complexpattern, just as Sir Gilbert

in Hayley's epic was part Whig, part Tory. In Temper,the male

characterTorrington exercisespatriarchal power and yet is an 233 enlightenedman who recognisesthe potentialof marryingan educated womanin orderthat shemay be 'a rational companionand the 76 instructressas well as the motherof my children'. This is clearly an articulationof a radicalview sinceit voicesthe Dissenters'valuing of femaleeducation. The seemingcontradiction points the inadequacyof the parameters,and may be explainedby referringback to Halevy's evidencethat by this time, the valuesof the Dissentershad become absorbedinto the statusquo, just as the Dissentersthemselves had beerL77Temper therefore reflects a combiningof valuespreviously

seenas diversein the more divergenttimes of the 1790s.

The foregroundingof the propereducation of womenand girls

is one of the centralthemes of Temper,as it is with A SimpleStory.

The spareand elegantprose style of Inchbald,with its 'bitternessand

78 concentrationof style' remindedLytton Stracheyof Stendhal. In

Inchbald'sfinal threeparagraphs, however, the style becomesmuch

more effusive,like that of Opie, and concludeswith the following

phrase, capitalized and centred: 'A PROPEREDUCATION'. 79

Hobsbawmdescribes education in Englandat this time as 'a

80 joke in poor taste' when comparedto otherEuropean countries.

Amelia Opie, Temper(London: Longman, 18 12) 3 vols., 1, p. 103.Subsequent quotationsare from this edition, andpage numbers are shownparenthetically in the text.

77 Halevy,p. 203.

78Elizabeth Inchbald, A SimpleStory, ed. by Lytton Strachey(London: Henry Froude, 1908),p. v

79Inchbald, p. 299. soHobsbawrn, p. 30. 234

However,the issueof femaleeducation had been popular among writers andphilosophes from both sidesof the polarizedsocial frameworkduring the 1790s.Those in favour tendedto be drawn from the Dissentingcommunity, especially the Unitarians,or were heavily influencedby its teaching. A list of suchwriters would includeMary

Wollstonecraft:her Thoughtson the EducationofDaughters (1787),

Mary (1788)and her discussionof educationin A Vindicationofthe

Rightsof Women(1792). Although not a Unitarian, Wollstonecraftwas

heavily influencedby their teachingin her time at NewingtonGreen in

1784,where she mingled with Dissenterssuch as RichardPrice, Ann

Jebband Anm Barbauld.

Despitethe shift in liberal intellectualfeeling from the 1790sto

the ostensiblyconservative tenor of the early 1800s,the views

expressedin works on the educationof middle-classgirls are

remarkablyconsistent, with the possibleexception of thoseof Hannah

More, who frequentlyemployed very conservativeand authoritarian

modesof writing addressedto artisanclasses, yet who, in the final 81 analysis,was on the side of educatinggirlS. The sharedobjectives of

the other writers werethat girls shouldreceive an educationequal in

contentand organisationas that which their brothersenjoyed and that

the teachingof scienceand economicswas not wastedon young

femaleminds, as neitherwas the opportunityto study Greekas well as

Latin. Perhapsthe reasonfor this consistencyis that thesewere the

views of the Dissenters,especially the Unitarians. In the middle years 235 of the eighteenthcentury, Unitarian figuressuch as andDavid Hartley had establishedprinciples which, accordingto Ruth

Watts, 'had becomethe cornerstoneof Unitarianeducational thought in the eighteenthand early nineteenthcenturies', and on which, indeed,

Mary Wollstonecraftwas to draw later.82 Watts quotesPriestley's commentthat 'Certainly,the minds of womenare capableof the same

83 improvementand the samefurniture as thoseof men'. At that time, however,these views were distinctly progressiveand radical, and emanatedfrom the centraltenet of Unitarianismthat the two sexes were of equalstatus and so equivalenteducational opportunities should be available,although differing in their content.

By contrast,the establishmentview of the educationof girls reflectedthe reactionarybelief in a benevolentpatriarchy, which saw

womanas subordinateto man, weakand in needof protectionbut a figure of succourfor their children,and the patternof educationof

girls was developedto propagatethis view. Conservativeviews were articulatedin ThomasGisborne's Enquiry into the Duties ofthe

FemaleSex (179 8), which assertedthat 'God had not given women

male powersof closeand comprehensivereasoning because men

neededsuch powers for the abstractlearning and variety of skilled 84 concernsassigned to them'. There was,therefore, not only little

81Hannah More, 'Strictureson the Modem Systemof FemaleEducation' in Works (London:Cadell, 1830).

82Watts, 1998, p.35.

93 Ibid.

84 Ibid., p.20. 236 point in educatingfemales, but it was also contraryto God's wishesto do so: hencethe advicegiven to womenby one Anglican cleric, John

Gregory,that 'if you happento haveany leaming,keep it a profound 85 secret,especially from the men. The femalerole, accordingto such a view, was to be only amiableand affectionate,and Watts quotes anotherconduct book of the time which asks'gentlemen to makemore allowancefor the imbecility of thosewho were formed to delight us'.86

The establishmentof a self-consciousbourgeoisie, with its

large componentof Dissenters,foregrounded social rank as well as

questioninggender roles and expectations.As far as the attributeof

temperis concerned,for Opie it is commonto all: 'I am convincedthat

the conductof the low and the high-born,when underthe dominance

of temper,is commonlythe same;and that temperis the greatestof all

levellers,the greatestof all equalisers'(3, p.63). The text hereis

egalitarianbut the contextis one of right behaviour- the true or poor

temperof the individual. The whole hasthe boldnessof the valuesof

the new centuryin that it doesnot assertthe militant egalitarianismof

a Jacobin,but neitherattempts to subordinatethe 'low-born' in the way

a conservativewriter would. The ideoloff is moral, not hierarchicalas

was found in Simple Tales. This concernwith morality is the single

importantfeature whereby Opie's writing of this century,including

AdefineMowbray, differs from her earlier work, which, one way or

another,was concernedwith issuesof propriety within a gendered

85 Ibid., p. 13.

86 Ibid. 237 social hierarchy. The articulation develops: in a later work,

Valentine's Eve (1816), she was to present a more fully realised view of degreesof morality as being separatefrom degreesof rank; in

Detraction Displayed (1828) she dismissestraditional notions of

87 precedence.

Opie takescare to upholdthese Unitarian valuesin her depictionof the educationand roles of the threefemale characters aroundwhom the tale revolves,as shewill also in a different way in

Valentine'sEve. Early in the first volume of Temper,the enlightened middle-classpaterfamilias Mr. Torrington explainsto his wife why he choseto marry her and his explanation,already quoted in part, may be

seenas a descriptionof a womanwho, the productof a rational

upbringing,exemplified the Unitarianmodel. The full quotationreads:

"If you had beenweak and foolish, thoughyoung, rich and beautiful, I have No. I ... would never madeyou my wife. saw in you a womancapable of beinga rational companion,and the instructressas well as the motherof my children." (l, p.9)

Torrington's emphasison rationality for his wife and children

can be clearly differentiatedfrom the conservativeparadigm of

submissiveignorance indicated above, and comesat a momentwhen

their daughterAgatha has been reprimanded and sentto her room,

whereshe howls her anger. With thesewords Torrington is restraining

his wife Emmafrom going to her, an instinct which he finds

contradictoryto the virtues he hasjust describedand dismissesas 'the

pueriletenderness that shrinksappalled at the cries of an angry child'.

97See Amelia Opie, A Curefor Scandal, or Detraction Displayed (London: Longman, 1828), esp. ch. 6. 238

Opie points out that after this reproof,Emma's 'love and reverencefor her husbandmade [her] submissiveto his will' (1, p. 10).

Opie makesconsiderable reference in her novel to Richardson's

Clarissa(1747). Her purposein doing so is to foregroundmanners and maximsof polite society,as in volume three,pp. 120 and

following, but the momentin that work to which sheparticularly refers

is that when Lovelaceadmonishes the glover's wife for calling her

husbandinto the shopby usinghis first name.88 It is the duty of a wife

4notto speakdisrespectfully to the being whom shehas swom to

honour', shewrites, and this is further evidenceof her useof a

conservativemodel of marital relations(v. 3, p. I 11).There is

somethingironic in the writer of AdelineMowbray, the story of a

womandamned by societysteeped in the doublestandards of a male

hegemony,turning to a libertine charactersuch as Lovelace for her

authority in this matter.Eleanor Ty noticesthe connectionand points

out the similaritiesbetween the two novels:

Like ClarissaHarlowe, Agatha Torrington's confidencein her ownjudgement leads her to ignorethe adviceof a parent,and sheis whiskedaway in a chaiseby her lover, who subsequently claims sexualfavours from her. Thoughthe circumstancesare not exactlythe same,both Clarissaand Agathabecome from their families, estranged and89 must spendthe rest of their lives atoningfor their mistake.

It is the exerciseof parentalfinnness such as that displayedby

Torrington which, accordingto Opie, is crucial to the successful

upbringingof children. The title pageof the book bearsan

88 Samuel Richardson, Chwissa, ed by Angus Ross (London: Penguin, 1985), p.928.

89 Ty(1998), p. 162. 239 unattributedenvoy which makesthis clear at the outset: 'A horsenot brokenbecometh headstrong, and a child left to himself will be wilfal. '

This phraseis similar in meaningto the proverbialsaying, 'The best horseneeds brealdng, and the aptestchild needsteaching'. 90 On page two, the authoropines that childrenare similar to lunatics'in the

powerof self-guidanceand self-restriction',while on the following page,she suggests the benefitsof early chastisement'by judicious and

firm control' ratherthan later beatings.The overt didacticismon this

topic is also met at appropriate points in the development of the plot as

the tale progresses.For exwnple,the readerencounters the observation

that

Sureit is that Temper- like the unseenbut busy subterranean fires in the bosomof a volcano- is alwaysat work where it has Parents,beware how oncegained an existence.... you omit to checkthe first evidencesof its empirein your children. (1, P.95)

This statementsummarises the centralthread of the tale. Torrington,

the preceptorof parentalfirmness, dies, leavinghis widow Emmato

bring up their daughterAgatha in an indulgentmanner, so that by the

time the girl is in her teens,she has become a tyrant. Agatha's

particularweakness is 'falsehood'- lying, a weaknessof which Opie

wasto makea full expositionin her publicationIllustrations ofLying

in 1825.Headstrong and acting againsther mother's instructions,

Agathaelopes (cf Father and Daughter)with the libertine and

bigamistDanvers. The settingfor the elopementis further reminiscent

90F.P. Wilson, ed., 7he Word Dictionmy of Fxgfish Proverbs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), p.632. 240 of Richardson'sClarissa: the 'wood nearthe park' in the symbolic

91 darkness.

For the modemreader, the centralissue in Opie's novelsand most of her otherwriting is of the strong-mindedfemale and her

survival in a censorioussociety which modelsfemales as passive representationsof familial virtues and as subjectsof paternalauthority.

Ty points out that this tensionmay not havebeen what Opie intended:

finds 'more [Opie] she compelling... the resultingcomplexity as works out the lessonabout the needfor control and temperance 92 throughthe headstrongfemale. Here againwe seethe caution

neededin imposingagendas from the presentday. Tempermay be

seenas an expressionof the collusionof social values. It predicates

self-control,a learningby parentaldiscipline and a sweetconformity

ratherthan an angryrebellion: a fusion of conservativeand Dissenting

valuesindicative of the culture of the day, and modelledin such

conductbooks of the time as that of JaneWest The title Temperis

seenas connotingtrueness to purposeand resiliencethrough - to

developOpie's metallurgicalanalogy -a tensilestrength analogous to

integrity and wisdom,virtues ratedhighly by Dissentersin both

femalesand males,expressed in figurative languagein keepingwith

the nascentindustrialism of the early nineteenthcentury.

Danversmarries Agatha, but he takescare that there will be no

evidenceto provethis: both the clergymanand the only witnessdie

91Richardson, p.502.

92 Ty, p. 163. 241 soonafterwards, and he hassecreted the certificate.Agatha's

subsequentdifficulty in proving her marriageis reminiscentof that of

Adeline,Mowbray after her marriageto Berrendale.The marriageis

not a success:with two self-centredpeople such as these,it is hardly

likely to be so. Opie's lucid picture of the couple'slife togetherseems

to havebeen taken straight from Hogarth's 'Marriage A la Mode', plate

11(1745). OnceDanvers has spent most of Agatha's inheritanceof

E10,000in settlinghis debts,there seemslittle inducementto maintain

the illusion of a relationship.For Agathato havea child and to

discoverher husbandwalking in St. James'Park in the companyof

otheryoung ladiesis only a matterof a few pages.Just as in Father

and Daughterand Adeline Mowbray, Agatha is sooncast out and

pennilesswith an infant in her arms,whom shenames Emma, after her

mother:

Agathawas married,yet had no husband;had a mother,yet was motherless;she was herselfa parentwithout the meansof prolongingthe existenceof her child; shewas spotlessin virtue, yet was believedcriminal evenby the motherwho bore her in her bosom.(v. 1, p.72)

Agathais takenin by the Orwells, a tradesmanand his wife,

peopleforced by circumstanceto live frugally, and this class-inversion

of charity servesto emphasisethe Orwell's integrity and Opie's

emphasisingvirtue over high rank. Opie refersto them as 'Christians',

andthere is the strongestsuggestion, through factors such as

occupation,morality and modesty,that they are Dissenters.In return

for their charity,Agatha toils to contributeto their incomeby the only

meansher privilegededucation has given her: painting watercolour 242 sketchesof flowers,which the shopkeepersells. Agathais reconstructedas a womanof patience,modesty and diligencein the light of the examPlesset by her artisan-classbenefactors and her own experiencesof hardshipand abuseby her husband.This is not the only tale by Opie which depictsthe triumph of simpleartisan values over the connivingsof the wealthierclasses: as well as the devotedservant in Father and Daughterand Savannain AdefineMowbray, there will be Lucy Merle in Valentine'sEve (1816). This is a crucial developmentand indicateshow well Opie wasaware of her changing audience:when members of the artisanclass become agents of change centralto the developmentof the character,and their frugal values elk indulgences shownin oppositionto the of thosewith more money,then a moral hierarchyis set up which invertsthe social hierarchy. Here are all the characteristicsof robustDissenting protestantism - thrift, industry,integrity, charity and a dealingwith othersthat is mindful of a commonhumanity - but without the buttressesof middle-class affluenceor formal education.These virtues may be contrastedwith the narcissisticidleness of manyof the wealthy figuresportrayed in

Opie's fictiom In an increasinglyindustrial and business-oriented societywith its mind on reformsthat will minimise land-ownership qualificationsfor enfranchisementand put an endto rotten boroughs,it appearsthat the wealthyare being portrayedas consumersof wealth ratherthan producers.Additionally, their morality is often suspect,of which the bestexamples in Opie's fiction of thesemiddle yearsare

Mrs. St. Aubin of Temper,who stealsa five-poundnote (v.2, p. 192) 243 and Mrs Boughtonof Valentine'sEve, who deliberatelymisrepresents

her brother'swishes on an importantmatter. A new social order was

being set up in Opie's fiction of this timejust as it was in the real

world: while the aristocracywas no longer in dangerof being forcibly

oustedfrom power in an EnglishJacobin revolution, another influential 93 social groupingbased on industryand tradewas being depicted.

Additionally, the rise in literacy,particularly among the urban

artisanclass, offered writers suchas Opie new opportunitiesfor 94 portrayals of virtue. The hermeneutic experience has more than a

little narcissism:the readerwishes to seehim or herselfreflected in St.

Rdal's 'mirror travelling down a road', and Opie's sentimentaltales for

youngfemale readers have already been discussed in this light. In this

keenawareness of audienceshe is no different from other women

writers of her time: consequently,her framing artisanfigures in these

positiveterms suggests an awarenessof a developingaudience and a

desireto include figuresfrom that stratumof society.

It is inaccurate,however, to seeOpie as a championof the poor: in

keepingwith the conventionsof her time, shehas a tendencyto

romanticisetherniust as sheromanticises Black slavesand Indian

women. Justas with the ardentJacobinism in her youngerlife, sheis

articulatingin the Orwells an idealisedartisanalisme based on their

frugality, thrift and industry.This romanticisingof the artisanclass

was to be very mucha featureof the literatureof the new century,as

93see, e.g., Clark, p. 62-63, p.67; Hobsbawm, p. 32-3, p.40.

94 Hunter 19. 9p. 244

the readershipbase expanded with the developmentsin literacy

opportunitiesfor this class. The novelsof later writers, Gaskelland

Dickens,for instance,often includeddepictions of artisansturdiness

and integrity - the Rouncewellsfrom Bleak House,for example:

artisan readersare thus given role models from their own class.95

As regardsthe forin of the tale, the transgenerationalchange of

charactersis an innovationin Opie's fiction, in which hitherto one of

the strengthshas been the maintainingof a sharpfocus on the

protagonistsin orderthat the consistencyof the story as it unfolds is

clear andunambiguous. The youngEmma grows up in a way

reminiscentof Evelina,of whom EdwardBloom, in his introductionto

Evelina, writes, 'like any education,hers is cumulative,with virtue and

self-awarenessdirected to social fulfilment. Being alreadyendowed

with virtue, shemust now ensureits preservation.96

Emmamoves into a circle in which Opie is able to show

certainstereotypes in interaction,in keepingwith her didactic purpose:

a studyof temper,in the sensein which a metal is temperedto give it

certaincharacteristics, the terminologyof which, suchas 'malleable',

we find helpful in defining humancharacteristics. Each of these

character-t3Wsis drawn with a broadbrush: the egotisticalMr.

Hargrave,who, Opie informs us, 'could neverbe an amiableman, an

agreeablecompanion, or a belovedfriend. He wasthe slaveof a bold

and incorrigible temper' (1, p. 183).He contrastswith the young Henry

95Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ed. by Nicola Bradbury (London: Penguin, 1996).

96 FrancesBurney, Evelina, ed. E Bloom (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), p.xix. 245

St. Aubyn, a man of somevirtue and humility, but one of whom his authorwrites that 'his most striking characteristicwas filial piety' -a man in love with his motherand boundby a deathbedpromise made to his fatherto look after her (1, p.173). The other male is Egerton himself, a clergymanwho hasnever recovered from the deathof his

first love who expiredwhile he waswaiting for an adequateliving to

comehis way in orderto marry her. Of the femalecharacters, Miss

Hargraveis the foremost,an incautiousyoung woman whose 'folly

and flippancyhad so far counteractedthe power of her beauty' in a

way reminiscentof Louisa,the protagonistof TheDangers of

Coquetry(1, p. 197).These characters are arrayedfor the youngEmma

to observe,so that their strengthsand weaknessesmay be instructiveto

her - andby extension,to the young reader.

Emmaherself, raised by her motherand the Orwells in such

exemplaryconditions that value industryand truthfulness,cornerstones

of Dissentingvirtue, and yet investedwith hereditaryfineness, is

perceivedas a paragon.This bringing togetherof robustmodem

Dissentingvirtue with a conservativeemphasis on breedingis a

combinationof featuresthat Opie usesfrequently, perhaps enabling the

young femalemiddle-class reader to identify with her protagonist,

althoughshe will usefully separatethese characteristics in Valentine's

Eve. Mrs. St. Aubyn describesEmma as having 'No art -all pure

naturethere, and then so learnedand so sensible,and yet shenever

givesherself airs, ' and later saysthat shehas 'all the modesty 246 becomingher Sheis like sexand age. ... the six-hour primrose,that closesup its flowers in a bright and dazzlingday, and only displaysits beautiesin the shade'(2, pp.137,139). The imageconstructed here is very similar to that which Opie constructedof the authoressMrs

Roberts,the writer of Duty, which work carriesa commendatory forewordby Opie in which shedescribes Roberts's temper described as being

equalto any trial; and unimpaired,or rather,perfected by trials, it shonein the benignexpression of her dark and animatedeye, it dimpledher cheekwith a smile the most endearingand benevolent, and spoke in the mild and tuneful accents of a voice which no-one ever heard without feeling disposed to love the being who possessedit. 97

The similaritiesbetween these two women,one fictional and

the other real, suggestjust how structuredthe imagingof womenas

modelsof perfectibility had to be, and how closelythe epitomeshad to

conform to the imageof femininity of the time: sanguine,benevolent,

madewise by trial and easilylovable. As EdwardBloom writes of

Evelina in Burney's novel, the constructionis of 'a representationof 98 femaledecorum'. Not only do Evelina and Emmafunction as

individuatedfictional charactersand Mrs Robertsas a womanin real

life, but each also representsa paradigm - that which Poovey has 99 described as 'the perfect lady'. The common factor in Opie's writing

of Emmaand Mrs Robertsis the minimising of either woman's is by education,which asserted the comment'no art - all pure nature'

97 Roberts,p. 12.

98 Bloom, in Burney, p.xx. 247

in Emma'scase, and the emphasiswhich both shareon learningby

experience:a sentimentaleducation rather than a formal one.

Emmahas become, in effect, the antithesisof the protagonistof

Opie's first novel, TheDangers of Coquetry,written twenty-twoyears

earlier.Also, shehas become the antithesisof her mother,in a manner

reminiscentof Inchbald'sSimple Story (1791). By virtue of her

experiences,she has acquired all the educatedvirtues of restraintand

self-analysisthat the self-centredand extrovertedingenue Louisa of

The Dangers of Coquetry lacks. This trait is also present in Valentine's

Eve, which Gary Kelly seesas a rewriting of TheDangers of 100 Coquetry. In placeof Louisa's nalve self-centredness,we seein

TemperEmma's self-questioning.'I do not alwaysspeak well, ' she

says(v. 2, p. 162),and later showsher willingnessto learn: 'I hopeto

by lessons by (v.2, 302). As profit ... your and my own experience' p. a result of her mother'sdiscipline, she does not lie. 'I consideredlying

to be so terrible an offencefrom the unusualseverity in my indulgent

mother,that I wasterrified from committing it again' (v.2, p.252).

Further,Emma is awareof the efforts of her motheron her behalf. 'I

am well convincedthat whateverof goodthere is in my temperor

disposition,I owe to herjudicious correctingin the early stagesof my

childhood'(v.3, p. 116). Presentinga femaleprotagonist with whom

the young femalereader can easily identify is not unusualin termsof

didactic purpose,and a favouritetechnique not only of Opie but of

99 Poovey, p. 27.

100Kelly, 1981, p. 12. 248 manywriters beforeand since. Victoria Coren,writing on Jane

Austen,is not the only critic to observethat 'Romanticheroines are alwaysexaggerated versions of their prospectiveaudience'. 101

Opie driveshome the point of maternalresponsibility shortly

after, when shewrites that 'on motherschiefly dependsthe conduct

which forms the temperof the child' (0, p. 116). Ty takesthis a stage

further by remarkingthat 'Daughtersatone for their mothers'effors',

and usefully analysesthe mother-daughterrelationship in termsof the

amibivalencesin the relationshipsof mother,daughter and grand- 102 daughter. It is this responsibilitywhich, despitethe goodintentions

of men suchas Torrington andEgerton in this novel and Dr. Norberry

in AdefineMowbray, womenare expectedto take to themselves.As in

Opie's verse,men are frequentlydistant, often absentfrom the familial

hearth,or preoccupiedwith their own vanities.The vulnerability of the

womanas sheattempts to negotiatethe male-constructedworld with a

child in her armsis a recurringmotif throughoutOpie's tales,although

only in AdelineMowhray doesshe attempt to questionwhy this motif

persists- perhapsfurther indicationof her intendingthat work for a

more sophisticatedaudience.

Opie's other full-length talesand novelsto this datehave

concludedtragically with the deathof the protagonist,usually as the

centralfigure of a morbid tableauand surroundedby friends. The

themesare of forgivenessand gratitudefor generosity,and the

101 Victoria Coren, 'In Search of Mr Right' The Guar&ag April 20,1999, p. G2/5.

102Ty, 1998, p. 163. 249 wrongedheroine dies a nobledeath. Temper,however, enjoys a

comedicresolution in keepingwith Opie's purposeof demonstrating

that thosewho live accordingto her values,that is, are modest,truthful

and receptiveto instruction,will be rewarded.Emma comes to marry

the man sheloves, and Danvers,the seducerof her motherAgatha,

finally admitstheir marriagebefore having the graceto expire. The

final pagesdiscourse on the topic of temper,so that the readeris left

with no doubtsabout either the didacticnature of the tale or the

messageit imparts. The tale Temper tells is one of a conventional

admixturingof fictional commonplaces,but this very banality was

perhapsthe secretof its success.

The reviewers'reaction to Temperwas mixed. TheCritical

Reviewfelt, quite reasonably,that it wasthe equalof neither The 103 Father and Daughternor. 4 deline Mowbray. TheMonthly Review

found the tale lessattractive, but 'more useful' than its predecessors.104

Its utility was alsothe themeof TheGentleman's Magazine, which

approvedof Opie's depictionof 'the banefuleffects of uncontrolled

105 temper'. As the reviewerswere quick to perceive,the literary merits

of Opie's work from this time forward wereto be subordinatedto her

didacticobjectives.

103Ihe Ciltical ReWew, 1 (1812), p. 62 1.

104Ae Monthly ReWew,68 (1812), p.326.

105Ae Gentleman's Magazine, 82, Part 11(1812), p.464. 250

By 1814, Opie was starting to seek some further involvement with religion. Shewas spendingincreasing amounts of time when in

Norwich with the QuakerJoseph John Gurneyand visiting his sister, now ElizabethFry, at her homein Sussex.Quakers at that time deeply disapprovedof music,art, theatreand fiction-writing, unlessthe fiction was a simple,didactic and thoroughly moral tale. Gurneyhad written to her on 4 June 1814indicating his reservationsabout her immersion in what he termedthe 'fashionableworld', expressingthe views

first, that thereis much in it of real evil; the secondthat thereis much also in it, which, thoughnot evil in itself, yet hasa decidedtendency to produceforgetfulness of God, and thus to generateevil indirectly.106

A later letter dated22 July 1814made his ambitionsfor her perfectlyclear: 'My chief desireis that thou mayestbe willing to give up everythingwhich the light of Truth may point out as being 107 inconsistentwith the holy will of God.' Gurneythus set up in Opie an awarenessof the tensionbetween the two main strandsof her life: the provincialQuakerism of herNorwich circle and the glittering faqadesof her life in London. This tensionwas to becomean increasing pre-occupation with her.

Opie's lettersto William Hayley reveal someof her awareness of JosephJohn's ambitionsfor her. On 25 July shewrote 'I seehe is not consciousof how much he wishesto makea Quakerof me. 108A

106Braithwaite, p.236.

107 JbiCL,p. 237.

108Amelia Opie to William Hayley,25 July 1814;FitzwiUiam Museum, Cambridge. 251 further letter to Hayley speaksof the two intermingledpaths of her life at this time:

Strange,inconsistent being that I am! One day I am at a Countess'assembly, the other at a Quakers'meeting... now hearingsermons from public friends,now seeingplays - now walking alongthe streetson the arm of a plain Quaker,now leaningon the arm of a volatile Viscourit.109

While stayingwith Hayley, shewrote to Gurneyof the two pleasuresshe derived from worldliness,namely conversation and music, questioning'how far my life may be consideredas belonging to the gay worlcl.'110 The latter enjoyment in particular was one that manyQuakers eschewed, and therewas a long-running tensionbetween Opie and the Norwich Quakersconcerning her 'gay life': more than twenty yearslater, when Opie had beena convinced

Friend for over a decade,Lucy Aggs, sisterof J. J. Gurneyand doyenneof the Norwich Friends,wrote to him with, it seems,a certain malice of encounteringOpie's 'gay life in London. 111However, the

letter of Opie to Gurneyreminded him that shewas becomingmore soberin her choiceof activities while in London,having passedover

an engagementwith the socialiteLady Cork to spendan eveningwith

him and William Forster,a Quakerwho lived in Tottenham.

The reconciliationof a radicalismwhich shestill felt she

possessedwith her emerginginterest in religious mattersis discussed

109Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 5 June 1815; Friends' Collection, Swarthmore, Pa.

110 Amelia Opie to J. J. Gurney, 9 August 1815; Society of FriendsýLondon. 111 Lucy Aggs to J. I Gurney, 27 August 1838; Society of Friends, London. 252

112 at length in a later letter to Hayley. In this letter, she tries to reconcilerepublicanism with Christianityin a way which indicates considerablemental unease. In anotherletter to Gurney,Opie also recordsfeeling a 'degreeof temperand republicanpride' when she 113 subsequentlyencountered Lady Cork. It is preciselythese tensions - republicanismversus the ancienregime, sober intelligence versus the life of a courtesan- which receivefull considerationin the tale on which shewas working at the time, Valentine'sEve.

However,a further tensionentered her life: that of her love for

JosephJohn Gurney. Almost twenty yearsolder than he, shemust haveknown that it was unlikely that he would reciprocate.

Nevertheless,this writer of emotionaltales evidently found herselfthe victim of her own emotions. Shewrote to Hayley on 6 March 1815of 114 'Josephtrying to woo a younglady' - JaneBirkbeck of Kings Lynn.

Discountenancedby this, sheconfided to Hayley that 'I am far more

admittedto the depthsof [Gurney's] heartthan any one.' A month

later, as thoughpowerlessly watching a nightmareunfold, shewrote to

Hayley of her writer's block with Valentine'sEve, then addswhat can

be in denial: 'Josephis likely to He only seenas writing not marry ... is in love the lady I for he not with young ... am the only one whom

112Amelia Opie to William Hayley,5 November1815; Fitzwilliam, Museum.

113 Amelia Opie to J. I Gurney,15 August 1815; Society of Friends, London.

114Amelia Opic to Willam Hayley, 8 February 1815; Fitzwilliam Museum. 253 feels any friendshipand that fondnessof which love is ultimately

15 made."

A letter to Gurneysix monthslater beginswith an admissionof the realisationof how dearhe is to her and developsinto a letter of intriguing ambiguity. The surfacemeaning is of Gurney'sengagement to JaneBirkbeck: shewrites of the value of a good friend who one

&maymarry for esteemonly, and in time love may comeindeed'. She

'feels encouragedto hopethat the man of all my acquaintanceswhom I think most likely to makea good,nay, most excellent,husband, namelyyour own dearself, will ere long possessthat domestic happinesswhich he so well deserves.' 116 The ambiguityrests in these words,for it seemsclear that, giventhe conventionsof the time and the codeddeliveries which havebeen encountered in Opie's other writing, they could apply equally well to herselfas to Birkbeck. In this light, the letter is a startlingdeclaration of her own love for Gurney.

This interpretationof a possiblycoded message is strengthened by a letter to her confidantHayley a few dayslater which speaks almostunintelligibly of illness,death and "muchsuffering': unusually

in her lettersto him, her handwritingis almostindecipherable, ' 17 probablyindicative of considerabledistress. Hayley's reply did not

meether needs:she rebuked him for his 'few cold lines'.' 18Some six

115Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 6 March 1815; Fitzwilliam Museum.

116Amelia Opie to II Gurney,31 December1815; Society of Friends,London.

117Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 7 January 1816; Fitzwilliarn Museum.

118Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 13 February1816; Fitzwilliam Museum. 254 monthslater - an unusuallapse of time - shewrote to Gurneyagain, this time from London.The tone of this letter is one of negotiationboth with him and with herself,'I could not shutup my hearttowards you, ' ' 19 shesays, but 'it neveropens so widely as it oncedid'. This and a

subsequentletter written two dayslater expressalmost defiantly her

immersioninto the Londonseason: 'I am a completeworldling now'.

Shementions a week 'of extremegaiety' with her cousinTom, a

spendthriftsolicitor with lodgingsin CareyStreet: 'Tom hasbeen my

companionand I havebeen interested to seeye strugglebetween his

love of dancingand his love of me... ' 120Correspondence as catharsis:

considerablerearrangement of her affectionshad evidentlytaken place.

Opie's cultivation of other friendssuggests her determinationto put the

matterto rest. Gurneymarried Jane Birkbeck in 1817.As far as can be

ascertained,Opie would not write to Gurneyagain until 1822:

ironically, sheis offering her condolenceson the deathof Birkbeck.

Valentine'sEve, publishedin 1816,appears to havebeen an

attemptto write a tale of which her Quakerfriends would approve,and

yet retain her existingreadership. While working on the tale, shehad

expresseda resolveto make'my heroinea patternof Christian 121 faith'. Brightwell reinforcesthis view in the overtly religious and

didactic motivesshe ascribes to the tale, thus emphasisingher aunt's

119Amelia Opie to J. J. Gurney, 15 June 1816; Society of Friends, London.

120 lbicL

121Amelia Opie to William Hayley, 18 November 1814; Fitzwilliam Museum. 255 moral integrity: 'The lessonit inculcatesis the superiorityof religious principle as a rule of actionand as a supportunder affliction and 122 unmeritedcalumny. ' Nevertheless,Opie informs Hayley of how her publisherhad warnedher of the necessaryemphasis she must placeon strongemotion: 'Indeed, madam, you must be horrid pathetic,'

Longmanhad told her.123 A three-volumenovel publishedby Longman in 1816,it sold almosttwo thousandcopies but was finally remainderedin 1833.124

The tale presentsmany of the well-usedfictional devicesthat her readershad cometo expectin Opie's fiction: the beau-monde setting;the tensionsof credibility - in this case,of family connection betweenthe protagonistCatherine and her grandfather,General

Shirley,who becomesher patron;the expositionof valuesof conservativemoral virtue; the libertine and the low-rankingevil-doer who repents,set againstloosely-sketched backgrounds of Vauxhall

Gardens,fireworks and fashionablesalons.

Gary Kelly seesthe tale as 'a revisionof the themesand charactersof her first fiction, TheDangers of Coquetry, althoughhe 125 doesnot elaborateon this observation. Similarly, there is no evidencefrom lettersor other writing of Opie's that indicatesthat she wished Valentine'sEve to be seenin this way. However,just as The

122Brightwell, p. 179.

123Amelia Opie to William Hayley,27 November1815; Fitzwilliam Museum. 124 SeeAppendix A: Amelia Opie's Earningsfrom Longmans,p. 339.

125Kelly, 1981, p. 12. 256

Dangers ofCoquetry showed a young woman being ushered into

societyand losing her reputationby giving in to temptations- to attend

a party when her husbandwas away,to gamble,to respondto a

libertine's suggestions- so Catherine,the protagonistof this tale, is

able to successfullynegotiate the socialmaze up to a point, when,

althoughshe is innocentof any wrongdoing,her reputationis soiledby

a libertine. This resultsin her husbandLord Shirley, ratherthan being

too gentleand circumspectas is Mortimer in TheDangers of Coquetry,

fearingthe worst and estranginghimself from her. Again, thereare

connectionsbetween both talesand FrancesBurney's Evelina (1778).

Spencerdescribes Evelina, discoveredwalking with two prostitutes,as

tan unconsciouscoquette', and Louisaof TheDangers ofCoquetry 126 may be saidto fit that descriptionalso. Conversely,in Valentine's

Eve, Cathcrincis painfully awarcof the way in which hcr rcputation

hasbeen compromised.

Of particularinterest is the useOpie makesof Lucy Merle, the

foil to Catherine,and the role sheplays in the narrative.Opie appears

to usethis characteras a vehicle for manyof her frustratedradical

hopesand opinionsin the aggressivelyConservative post-

Revolutionaryperiod. Opie's stifled political awarenessesare

glimpsedin elliptical referencesin her lettersand in other

contemporanesIPcomments about her. A letter to RobertGarnham of

1801, talks of 'times as gloomy as the present'and ' the approaching

126Spencer, p. 153. 257

127 storm'. In 1814Crabb Robinson recalled that she,like Mrs Barbauld

andHelen-Maria Williams, talked 'freely on political subjectsto us 128 without restraint. The fact that CrabbRobinson makes a special

point of groupingthese three women together suggests how unusualit

was for womenof that time to talk politics. Conversely,many letters

written by Opie are relatively free of the topic, eventhose to William

Hayley, perhapsindicating her awarenessof the improprietyof 129 political expressionwhen in a more permanentform.

Opie hasemployed foils beforein orderto set off socially-

acceptablebehaviour against the impulsiveactions of her protagonist,

notably in Father and Daughter. In Valentine'sEve, however,the

differenceis of classor rank, and Opie usesthe characterof Lucy to

constructa rationalefor a retentionof certainrevolutionary principles

which might serveto assuagenot only her own consciencebut also that

of her readers.Such a constructionportrays the shift in valuesaway

from the old polarisationsof the 1790sto one in which Dissenterstook

a more centristrole in politics and society.Having openedthe tale at

the momentwhen newsof Nelson's victory at Trafalgar(1805)

reachedLondon, Opie then tells us that Lucy's father was

one of the manyrepublicans, or democrats,some twenty years ago,who profligacy and poverty led to rally round that respectablestandard, which was originally erectedfrom the

127Amelia Opie to RobertGarnharn, 1801; Crabb Robinson Collection, Dr Williams's Library, London.

128H. CrabbRobinson, p. 147.

129See Appendix C: Letters,esp. those letters relating to 1814. 258

purest and most disinterested love of civil and religious liberty. 130

Lucy herself,'led by her father's conviction andthat of the politiciansassembled at his house,[imbibed] the purestform of liberty andthe purestlove of Republicanism'(p.55). This upbringing manifestsitself in her fearlessspeaking-out, particularly to thosewho deemedthemselves superior by rank, but whosediscourse might be corrupt,as when sheexplains her departurefrom the companyof the wealthyMrs Sawstonand ViscountessLady X, who are discussinga love affair:

I darenot stay;you are so beautiful and so fascinatingthat I darenot exposemyself to the dangerof havingmy principles corruptedby listeningto the praisesof adulteryfrom a being so calculatedto makethe wrong appearthe better course. (p.276)

This articulationof the ethical superiorityof uncompromising morality over the more slipperyvalues of the aristocracyreflects the valuesnot only of the revolutionariesmanqui, fictionalizedby Lucy's father,but of the middle-classDissenting readership. Having excused republicansand democratsfrom social obloquyby pointing to their pure motives,Opie then excusesthose who havesince discarded

by Lucy that 'as radicalvalues sayingof shegrew older ... shegrew more moderatein her feelings,more enlargedin her ideas,and more reservedin disclosingthem' (p.56). Lucy thus representsan idealised model of contemporarywomanhooda 'tall, dignified and beautiful girl ... with republicanpride ... and the consciousnessof morethan

130 Amelia Opie, Valentine'sEve (London:Longman, 1816), p. 54. Subsequent quotationsare from this edition,and page numbers are includedparenthetically in the text. 259 her sex's usual intellect and eloquence' (p.57). This depiction is especiallysignificant given the year of publicationof the work, because,in an agewhen radicalismcould be mistakenfor sympathy with France,it foregroundsthe reformistvalues of intellect, morality and plain speakingby referringback to republicanmores but then pointing out an enlargementof view and a maturationof values.Opie's techniqueof creatingcharacters with which the readercan readily identify hasdeveloped in that in Lucy sheis creatinga characterwho doesnot aspireto gentility, as doesthe protagonistCatherine and the successionof beautiful heroinesin her earlier works, but one who has the integrity of the new middle class,sure of itself in the manner

Corfield describes,and with moral valuespresented as superiorto the aristocracy,who are referredto as having 'flinty hearts' (p.68).

Catherine,the high-bombut initially downcastprotagonist, is anotherin the line of Opie heroines:young, beautiful and inclined to worthy acts. Lessinteresting than her foil Lucy, in terms of narrative focusshe is clearly the principal, who, as MacGregorsays, was to be seenas 'an ideal of Christianwomanhood'. 131 In constructing charactersso equallyworthy, one by birth and piety, the other by intelligence,and by depictingthe classdifferences as equallyworthy,

Opie is extendingthe ways in which her readershipmay identify with the centralfigures of the tale. It is no longer necessaryfor the readerto

acceptthe aspirationto gentility and its valuesin order to identify with

a centralfigure. This lack of aspirationmakes Lucy much lessprone to

131MacGregor, p.65. 260 indulgein the kind of courtshipintrigues and risky manoeuvresin which a youngwoman such as Catherinehas to participateso that she may be seenas a viable commodity.

Lucy servesas a vehicle by which to advancethe dissenter's causeof femaleeducation, since her behavioursand attitudescontrast very favourablywith thoseof the old dowagers.When one of them,

Mrs. Boughton,derides her in condescendingtones for havingthe nerveto advancean opinion which the readercan seeis a worthy one,

Opie is attemptingto arousethe reader'sdislike of privilegedreaction:

'Your opinion, indeed!' repliedMrs. Boughtonwith a sneer, 4youropinion! And pray, child, what right haveyou to have any opinionT (p.260, author'sitalics)

Mrs Boughtonis in the role of the disagreeablesenex in the tale. Malignanttowards Lucy and suspiciousof Catherine'sbirth, she is an inversionof the pantomimedame, who is generallya benign figure and playedby a man in women'scostume, but equallyrisible:

Mrs. Boughtonmay be seenas a womandressed in all the worst characteristicsof a male hegemony,not dissimilar to Mme. Duval,

Evelina's in FannyBurney's 132WS Boughton grandmother novel. . representsan ancienregime of duplicity, vestedinterest, adultery, ignoranceand arrogancewhich contrastsnicely with Lucy's assertive intelligenceand high morality to showa modemyoung middle-class womanin a positive light.

Lucy's ability to expressherself is in markedcontrast with that of Catherineand her lover and husband,Lord Shirley, nephewof the 261

General. Their relationshipis constrainedby the polite forms of

addresswhich they habituallyuse to eachother and,more importantly, the silenceswhich occurwhenever either of them is repressedby their

gentrifiedupbringing. Their interactionsare prescribedby rigid and

repressiveconvention, and the effect of this is to createconfusion,

uncertaintyand eventuallydeepest suspicion. This breakdownin

dialogueis madeclearly evidentin the depictionof Lord Shirley with

suchlines as: 'But why was Catherineso pale,and why was Lucy

Merle distressed,thought Lord Shirley he had demand ... no right to an explanation'(p.348). The demandingof an explanationis a

manifestationof the male hegemony,with its denotations;of imperious

will in the verb. Other approachesmight be more appropriate:offering

sympathy,for example,which might leadto a spontaneous

explanation,but Shirley,a victim of the repressivenature of the social

conventionshe represents,does not do this, and yet feels unableto do

anythingelse except fret. He feels obligedto respectthe senseof duty

that he attributesto his wife, which makesit impossiblefor him to

broachthe subjectthat is destroyinghis emotionalbalance and

poisoninghis relationshipwith her: 'He well knew that, whatevershe

felt, this was a subjectwhich her strongsense of a wife's duty would

forbid her to talk upon' (3, p.44). His inability to talk to his wife leads

to assumptionsand his vulnerability to gossip. When Opie hashim

expresshis worst fear aboutCatherine, it is wordedas an assertion,not

opento question: '... fallen as sheis' is his commentto himself (p.45).

132Fanny Burney, Evelina (London: T. Lowndes, 1778). 262

Whenhis uncle,the General,attempts to discoverwhy Shirley is so

upsetand why he hasbanished his wife from his house,well-bred

reservedisintegrates into unmanlybut equally uninformativetears:

"'For mercy's sake,Lionel, tell me what hashappened to you." Lord

Shirley wrung the handhe offeredin silence,and burst into tears'

(ibid.).

Justas with her studyof Agnes'sagoraphobia and her father's

madnessin Father and Daughter,Opie's awarenessof human

behaviouris very sound.Shirley is revealinga lack of ability in what

JonathanRutherford describes as the 'languageof affect, the putting

into wordsof instinctuallife', anda readingof Opie's novel makesit

clearthat it is his upbringingas a memberof the ruling classwhich has 113 madehim So. The contrastwith Lucy's fearlesseloquence is well

made,and the readeris left with an awarenessof the shortcomingsof

those figures claiming privileged positions in the social hegemony.

The genderimplications as well as the advancementof dissenting(and

thereforemiddle-class) capabilities cannot be ignored:Lucy indeed

posesa threatto the non-analyticalcomplacency of the ruling class,

with its assumptionthat the womenin it - suchas Mrs. Sawston,

ViscountessX and Mrs Boughton,will also participatein its exercise

of hegemony,and its consequentinability to articulatethe affective

domain. In this respect,in contrastwith Lucy, the womenwho see

themselvesas part of this hegemonyare obliged to constructtheir

discoursein a similar way, so as to be seenas not wishing to subvertit. 263

What we know of Shirley's upbringing may be gathered from the epitaphson his parents'graves. That for his motherreinforced the subordinate,supportive and ultimatelydecorative role of the woman:

'A virtuouswoman is a crown to her husband'. That for his father implies military glory which also suggestsabsence, neglect of his child and suppressionof affect: the line from Horace, Dulce et decorumest 134 pro patria mori'(v. 1, p.247). 'The failure to achievethis [language of affect]', continuesRutherford, 'marks a silence,a gapor absence within an individual subjectivity', and it is exactlythis we seepassed down to the son(ibid. ).

It is this silencewhich engendersthe misunderstandingsaround which the plot revolves,and hereOpie hasno hesitationin making

overt referencesto Shakespeare's01hello. The similaritiesare evident:

the growing suspicion,based on silenceand compoundedby rumour,

the dutiftd, moral, naiveyoung woman,victimised by a man's inability

to confront his wife until he haswhat he acceptsas proof

The climactic scenesof Valentine'sEve closely follow the

resolutionof the plot, in which the mysteriousstranger is identified and

the suspicionsharboured by Shirley regardingCatherine's fidelity are

overcome.In this sense,the outcomeis comedicrather than tragic by

Shakespeareanconvention. Nevertheless,the sentimentalconventions

haveto be honouredby depictingthe deathof the protagonist.In the

final scene,a typical Opie tableau,she dies happythat her reputationis

133 jonghM RUthe rf ord, Men s Silences(L4Dndon: Routledge, 1992), p. x.

134Horace, Me CompleteOdes andEpodes, trans. & ed.by David West (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1997), 4 vols., 2,13. 264 oncemore secure,that her husbandis reconciledto her, and forgiving him his suspicions.Also presentare GeneralShirley, her grandfather and patron,and Lucy Merle: the readercannot but reflect that the reasonwhy Lucy is in goodhealth is becauseshe has consistently refusedto be drawn into the gendernegotiations of the beaumonde.

In runningthe two charactersof Catherineand Lucy together throughoutthe tale, Opie appearsto be assertingthe superiorityof a morally-drivenmiddle-class life, in which the womancan so much more be her own mistressbecause she is not willing to become perceivedas commodity,over that of the upperranks, in which a womanis perceivedas, and trainedto seeherself as, eligible. We must not carry the commodityanalogy too far, for both Lucy and Catherine haveminds of their own:just that Catherine,from an aristocratic family, follows the path laid out for her by her birth, whereasLucy, bom into a lesserTank, is not undersuch an obligation.After the turgidity of Temper,the didacticvalue of Valentine'sEve is thus much less overt, and Opie is again attempting not unsuccessfully to articulate ideasof classand femaleidentity in a writerly way.

At the time Valentine'sEve was being written, Opie herself was exploringthe autonomypossible for a vigorouswidow of comfortablemeans and somefame in her mid-forties.During the period of conceptualisingand beginningto write, as we haveseen, she was becomingincreasingly involved with the Norwich Quakers, althoughby the time the tale was readyfor publication shehad, for the 265 time being,severed that connectionfollowing her disappointmentwith

J. J. Gurney. In Valentine'sEve, therefore, she questions the valuesof the glamorouscosmopolitan life of the wealthyand constructsher most interestingcharacter in the tale, Lucy Merle, as a thoroughlymodem woman:educated, middle-class and confident.

William Hayley admiredthe work and wrote to her in verse:

Thy Catherinefollows thee- howjust her Claim To to Amelia's Fame! share,and encrease, ... Thou, in whoseBooks and Life we doubly find SuchHeaven-taught Morals as exalt the Mind! Be Thou in Trials that the Heart perplex, The Guardian-Geniusof thy lovely Sex!135

Opie may haveexpected her spiritual advisorGumey to have beenequally appreciative: indeed, on receivingthe first volume,

Josephpaid her the complimentof laying asidea learnedbook to the day in her To on religion spend perusing work. ... ConvincedFriends the readingof a novel was a ffivolity amountingto worldliness; Joseph,though his consciencewas uneasy,was absorbedin the tale.136

However,his absorptionturned to abhorrenceby the time he encounteredvolume three. Opie givesan accountof a painful interview betweenher and Gurneyin a letter to Hayley dated3 May

1816,which must havebeen especially difficult given the situation 137 betweenthe two of them at that time. The letter describes'the pain my late new work had given someof my bestand most respectable friends from its impurity' and that she'had alludedto adultery,

135 MacGregor,p. 64. 136 JacobineMenzies-Wilson & HelenLloyd, Amelia. the Taleofa Plain Friend (London:Oxford UniversityPress, 1937), p. 163.

137Amelia Opie to William Hayley,3 May 1816;Fitzwilliam Museum. 266 seduction&c &a houseof ill-fame, things not to be named, especially by a woman Joseph'sbrother Hudson Gurney, a person'of the world, and not [a] seriouscharacter' (i. e. not religious) opinedthat

Opie had 'injured [her] own considerationin Societyby writing such things,& that [she] was makingthe minds of youngwomen impure by

communicationson suchsubjects. ' Whetherthe capital 'S' on society

shouldindicate the Societyof Friendsor simply societyin generalis

not clear:if the former, it particularlyindicates Opie's confusedstate

of mind at that time.

Brightwell doesnot alludeto the poor receptionValentine's

Eve receivedfrom the personOpie most wishedto impress,nor to the

interview which followed, sincethis would undo her constructionof

Opie as a figure of rectitude. Shealso fails to mentionthe

unfavourablecomments of the reviewers. The Monthly Reviewstated

that 'This story is not calculatedeither by its conductor by its

circumstancesto displayadvantageously the talentsof the writer.' 138

The British Lady's Magazinewas equallyunimpressed, stating that

Valentine's Eve is every way unworthy of Mrs Opie we have been disappointed has ... woefully ... she attempted something more [than her usual productions] and failed. Her heroine, too, is in very bad taste; for we are not to be misled by the into folly religious garb ... admiration of and inconsistency.139

It is temptingto readboth Gurney'sdispleasure and the critics'

negativecomments as a tribute to Opie's efficacy in articulatingan

ideologywhich wastoo closeto the truth to be acceptablein a society

138 Monthly Review, Enlarged Series, 79 (1816), pp.438-439.

139Biltish Lady's Magazine, 4 (1816), p. 180. 267 which dcpendedso muchon the exerciseof a double-standardof the topical issuesof sex,class and gender. By comparisonwith her other works of this middle period, Valentine'sEve showsa critical gaze. It displaysreconciliations of political and social differencesin her treatmentof Lucy Merle alongsidedivisions and questionableintegrity in the presentationof the ruling class. The indication is of a complex ideologyat work: one that cannotbe classifiedas eitherconservative or radical. This positiveview of the work appearsto correspondwith

ideology' Gary Kelly's concept of an 'unofficial at work -a concept which he appliesto the writings of the 1790s,but which can apply equallywell to the work of a writer whoseformative years were during that time and who hasmanifested this unofficial ideology in her earlier works.140 One can seehis criteria of 'the riven family, brokenby excessiveconformity to social convention'in this tale, and the workingsof 'a dominantand hegemonicpatriarchal attitude to the relationbetween self and society,and a submergedand therefore covert feminist one.' The political and social polaritiesof the 1790s had,by 1816,given way to a more complexset of ideological positions.Neo-conservatism, with its strongdistaste for Jacobinism, had found its own validation in the defeatof the RevolutionaryAnnies of Francein 1815. However,radical and reformist ideasfound expressionin other spheressuch as thoseOpie dealt with at this time: anti-slaveryand the educationof girls, for example,so the needfor an unofficial ideologyin the texts of the day was still there. 268

TalesOfthe Heart (1820)included 'Love, Mystery and

Superstition',a tale of sufficient unusualnessto warrantspecial 141 scrutiny. In this tale, Opie again employs the conceit of non- authorship,claiming only to haveedited the tale for a man who had found it 'amongthe samehoard of family manuscripts'(v. 1, p.2).

Immediatelythe readeris confrontedwith the sectariandivide: the narratorrecords how she'did not like to injure the unity of a Catholic story by the commentsof a Protestanteditor' (ibid.). The tale is set in

1683,the year the Rye Houseplot to assassinateCharles II was discovered,and oneyear after 58,000French Huguenots were forced to conversionas severalthousand others fled, manyto England.

The relationshipbetween Roman Catholicism and

Protestantismin Englandat the time assistsin evaluatingOpie's tale.

Englandwas a Protestantcountry which eyedwhat Carsonterms

6continentaldespotism' with a mixture of xenophobichorror and a senseof superiority.142 The senseof cultural isolation from Europe wasvery real. As RobertSouthey comments, 'the constitutionof the countrywas, by the collectedvoice of the people,declared to be 143 essentiallyand exclusivelyProtestant. ' RomanCatholics were

140Kelly, 1981, pp.3-24.

141 Amelia Opie, Talesof theHeart, 2 vols. (London:Longman, 1820), 1, pp. 1-276. Subsequentquotations are from this edition, andpage numbers are included parentheticallyin the text. 142 J. P. Carson,'Enlighterunent, Popular Culture and Gothic Fiction' in RichettLed., p.261. 143 RobertSouthey, Ihe Book Ofthe Church(London, 1824), 2 vols., 2, p.257. 269 regardedwith suspicionin this countrywhere Church and Statewere closely intertwined. JCD Clark, while not endorsingthe view himself, explainswhy this was so.

A societybound by Christianoaths could not, Anglicans maintained,accept those - whetheratheists or papists- who could not give guaranteesof their behaviour; andthe Roman doctrineof 'exclusivesalvation' could be expectedto make 144 Catholicsunreliable fellow citizens[in] a Protestantsociety.

Therehad beenthe anti-CatholicGordon Riots of 1780,and the

war with Franceand the FrenchEmpire, not to mentionthe Irish

Revolution of 1798, had only reinforced the senseof mistrust. Clark

mentionsLord Eldon's commentsin the parliamentarydebate on what

had becomeknown as the 'Catholic question'in 1819,which

emphasisesthe suspicionwith which Catholicswere regarded:

'RomanCatholics had systematicallypursued the accomplishmentof

the destruction Church 9145A their own objectsand of our national . Roman Catholic historian, however, presentsa different perspective:

shewrites that Catholicismin Englandwas 'renderedtotally impotent

by persecution,penal restrictions and a goverment policy intendedto 146 liquidate it. 1- Emancipation, attempted repeatedly over this period,

was not achieveduntil 1829.

For most of the populationof England,therefore, Roman

Catholicsmwas chargedwith a distinct othernessarising from these

threeroots: foreignnessin a time of nationalisolation; superstitionin a

144Clark, p. 355.

145 Ibid., p. 384.

146Joan Connell, Yhe Roman Calholic Churchin Engkng 1780-1850(Philadelphia: AmericanPhilosophical Society, 1984), p. 3. 270 time of rationality;potential treachery in a time of socialconformity.

Opie's tale exploresall threeof theseothernesses in a darkly Gothic

narrativewhich titillates the sensibilities,largely throughher

successfuluse of the young,blonde English protestantLady Barbara,

who mediatesbetween the readerand the darknessof the tale.

Michel Foucaultwrites of this titillation when he discussesthe

anti-Augustanqualities of the Gothic,

especiallythe fear of darkenedspaces, of the pall of gloom which preventsthe full visibility of things, men and truth. Now theseimaginary spaces are the negativeof the transparencyand visibility which [non-Gothic writers] aimed to establish.' 147

The senseof an obfuscatingdarkness is evidentenough.

Paradoxically,this very gloom, however,could revealand even

liberate:the paradoxturns on the interfacebetween the outer world of

societyand the inner world of the emotions. Eve Sedgewick,

discussingaspects of de Quinceyand CharlotteBronte, writes that the

function of the Gothic is 'to openhorizons beyond social patterns,

rational decisions,[to be] a greatliberator of feeling.' 148Sedgewick

goeson to identify severalcharacteristics which comprisethe Gothic

tale, and it is as thoughOpie had readthis list beforeputting pen to

paper.Those of Sedgewick'scharacteristics found in Opie's tale, in

order in which they occur,are: a deathlikestate, use of exotic names,

subterraneandarkness, being buried alive, echoesand silences,a tale

147 Mchel Foucault,'The Eye of Power' in C Gordon,ed., PowerlKnowledge (New York: Pantheon,1980), p. 153.

148Eve KosofskySedgewick, 7he COherenceOf GothicConvention (Undon: Methuen,1980), p. 4. 271 within a tale, holy orders,paranoia, wanderings and feelingsof guilt and shame.

In Opie's tale, Lady Barbara,a memberof the English nobility and agedfifteen at the beginningof the tale, is fascinatedby a beautiful and exotic womanin dire circumstanceswho is broughtto the housein the darknessof night. This is the telling of a resurrection,for the manservant,O'Carroll, calls: 'For the love of the Holy Virgin, I conjureyou to let me in, for I havea deadwoman in my arms,whom I want to bring to life' (p. 5). The religious invocation, the manservant's nameand his terrible messageare powerful mise-en-sc6nedevices and comparewith the introductionof Frankensteinin Mary Shelley'stale of that name,published two yearsearlier, in which the narrator,

Walton, anotherProtestant intermediary figure like Lady Barbara,tells

'a the brink destruction His limbs of meeting man on of ... were nearly frozen,and his body dreadfullyemaciated by fatigueand suffering.' 149

The mysteriouswoman recovers in the warmth of the house.

Her physicaldescription evokes a senseof frailty in contrastto the robustLady Barbarawhich emphasisesher otherness:

pale andthin, almostto emaciation:her eyeswere dark and shadedwith still-darkereye-lashes, while her black and glossy hair, parteda la madonnaon the forehead,was twisted round her small and gracefulhead. (p. 24)

The othernessis further developedin the namesthe woman givesas sheidentifies herself, strange names which seemexotic in the

149 Mary Shelley, Franknslein, ed. by M. Hindle (London: Penguin, 1992), p.24. 272 bracingair of northernEngland, causing Barbara to exclaim: 'What pretty names- Rosalie,Madeleine, Rinaldo! ' Sometime later,Barbara's brother Tyrconnel finds himself 'at eight o'clock of a Novembernight, travelling in mountainouscountry without a guideor companion',a Gothic situationin itself (p.71). He

'an building be encounters extensive ... which appearedto a ruin', and, seekingshelter, finds that it is the homeof thesethree strangers. He encountersMadeleine, whom he describes:

Her dress black her black was of sik veil also ... the marked eye-browand the long eye-lashesformed the strongestpossible contrastto the transparentskin beneaththem. That clear,pale cheektold a tale of approachingdissolution, and the rapid heavingof the dresswhich was folded over her bosomdeclared that her fluttering hearthad nearlybeaten its last. (p.9 1)

The descriptionof Madeleinecontrasts with that of Lady

Barbara,grown to adulthoodand marriageand depictedas a 'happy being', a 'kind girl' whosehusband and dog were 'still her two prime passions,but shehas, I own, addedto them two or threeothers: two lovely children,working chairsin tent-stitchfor her drawing-roomand making up baby-linen' (p. 112). This imageof productive,fulfilled womanhood,subtly matronisedin the term 'girl', emphasisesthe othernessof Madeleine,beautiful but sickly, ennervatedand preoccupied.Here the light and the dark, the healthyand the dissolute arejuxtaposedto greateffect. The deathlikestate is plain. Opie developsher themeas Tyrconnelis led by Dupont into 'a large Gothic hall wherea few faintly-burningfaggots lay expiring on the capacious hearth' andthe connectionbetween the fire and the inhabitantsis very clear (p.74). The feeling is subterranean,of being buried alive and the 273 echoesand silencescreate an unsettlingatmosphere of concealment.

Almost by accidenthe meetsthe lovely Rosalieand falls in love with her, establishingthe connectionof darknesswith emotions.

That night, he is awakenedby 'deepgroans, as of one in agony' and cries of'O mercy,mercy, thou offendedGod' (pp.83-84). He discoversDupont evidentlyflagellating himself, but Tyrconnel's enquiryis met with polite secrecy.

JaneSpencer remarks that the castlein the Gothic romanceis 'the trap of womanhood',and this is evidenthere: Rosalie is effectively incarceratedand the dreadfulsight of the tubercular

Madeleineseems to be a harbingerof her own fate.150 Ann Radcliffe's

TheMysteries of Udolpho(1794) exercised a similar theme,as did the earlier TheCastle of0tranto by Horatio Walpole (1765). In Opie's tale, however,there is no breathtakingflight throughdark subterranean passagesas with Manfred and Isabella. The flight is containedin the tale within a tale, told by Dupont on his deathbedand after the deathof Madeleine.

Dupont's tale is of passionand guilt. He reveals himself as 'Rinaldo, CountManfredi di Guastella'and how as a youth he loved Rosamunda.Both took holy ordershoping to divert their passionto the adorationof the Christ. Even this stepwas a causefor

Rinaldo's guilt, since 'my first degreesin sanctitywere takenby a violation of the duty of obedienceto my father' (p.219). Rinaldo clopeswith Rosamunda,who, on taking her vows took the nameSister

150 Spencer, p. 152. 274

Angela. In ProtestantSwitzerland she takes the nameMadeleine.

They flee to Calvinist Scotlandwhere they are marriedas Protestants and Rosalieis bom, but find no haventhere. Rinaldo - Dupont- vows neverto caresshis daughter,so that shewill not cometo seehim as her fathcr and hcr parcntagcwill thus ncvcr bc suspcctcd.Thcir paranoia takesthe fonn of fear of the Church'savengers. As their friend

Monrosewarns, them, 'Have they not to punish sinnersif they cannot reclaim them?' (p.249). Their wanderingstake them to England,where they live underthe shadowof the poisonouseffects of guilt and shame in an alien countrywhich existsin spiritual darkness.

The climax of the tale is the dying man's plea: 'Rosalie is pious;Rosalie is pure. But then I own that sheis the child of parents who committedgreat sin beforethey could be the authorsof her being'

(p.260). 'The truth was that to us [Rinaldo and Rosamunda/

Madeleine] the GREATESTOF ALL TRIALS was the idea of

SEPARAT10N'(p. 263, Opie's capitalisation). 'Give my daughter

[Rosalie] to your son [Tyrconnel] and let me go on my way rejoicing. '

The bargain is quickly agreed to, and the senseof fulfillment of destiny is similar to the final utterance of Frankenstein, who tells Walton 'I thankyou for your sympathy,but it is useless;my fate is nearly fulfilled. I want but for one eventand then I shall reposein peace.151

'Gothic fiction' writes ElizabethMacAndrew 'gives shapeto conceptsof the placeof evil in the humanmind, ' and later 'good and

151Shelley, p. 292. 275

evil [in Gothic romances]are starklydifferentiated absolutes. ' 152 This

is the casein Opie's tale: the force of goodis seenas the humanspirit

with its capacityfor love and its passion,whereas the powersof evil

are seenin the hierarchies,rituals and superstitionsof the Roman

Catholic church,with the sensesof guilt and fear that it engenders.

This moral frameworkis presentedvia the mediationof the English

interlocutors,particularly Lady Barbaraand Tyrconnel, who, being

aristocrats,we may take to be Anglicans. They display right actions-

hospitality,concern, domesticity and valour - towardstheir Italian

friends. The messageof the story,therefore, is that it is the institution

of the RomanCatholic church which is to be despisedrather than

individualscaught up in Catholicismwho are strugglingto exist within

that system.The implication of the final action,the giving of Rosalie

to Tyrconnel,is that Rosaliewill adoPtthe Anglican faith on her

marriageto him. This presentsthe possibility of salvation,in keeping

with the tenetsof the Anglican Church.

Opie's tate thereforefits the conventionalviews held in English

societyat the time regardingCatholicism, presented as an otherness

throughouther tale. Her own views on Catholicismseem emphatic that

it is an othernessand they are madeplain in a letter to RobertSouthey

written somefifteen yearslater. Discussingthe needfor hospital

reform, shenotes the efforts of the Sistersof Mercy in France,seeing

their goodwork as an incitementto begin somethingin Englandbefore

the Catholic Churchtakes the initiative, which would only contribute

ý152 ElizabethMacAndrew, Ae Gothic Tra&tion in Fidion (New York: Columbia 276 to 'the spreadof their pestilentsuperstition'. 153 The almostprurient thrill of this investigationof suchother lives as thoseof the Italian

Catholicsin the tale, throughthe mediationof the familiar English characters,would serveto increasethe reader'shostility to the Catholic

Churchby virtue of the depictionof the dark Gothic elementsOpie usesin describingit.

Opie wasto becomea comn-tittedQuaker in 1825,but the publicationof her next work, Madeline,in 1822already demonstrates someof the reconciliationsshe was experiencing,and servedto earn

JosephJohn Gurney'sapprobation - an importantconsideration in view of the difficulties he had experiencedin readingValentine's Eve and the relianceOpie placedon him regardingher admission,in due course,to the Societyof Friends.The fact that his first wife, Jane

Birkbeck, died in June 1822after a long illness,also seemsto have stimulatedOpie's wish to pleaseGurney. Whetherthe remodellingof an etchingof her by Mrs. Mary Turner,taken from John Opie's portrait of her of 1798,was a further sign of wishing to pleasehim is unclear.

However,her letter to DawsonTurner thankingMrs Turner for the etchingexpresses pleasure that she'cut her off at the shoulders', fearingthat the dressin Opie's portrait was too 'slovenly and bedgownishaccording to the modeof the day'.154 The new etching

UniversityPress, 1979), pp. 2&4.

153Amelia Opie to RobertSouthey, 13 January1830; Wordsworth Collection, Grasmere,Stanger 21100.5. See also Southeyto Opie of 30 August 1829;Brotherton Collection,Leeds University. See Appendix: Letters.

154Amelia Opie to Dawson Turner, 4 March 1822 and 7 March 1822; Trinity College, Cambridge, Dawson Turner Collection. 277

reflectedthe currentconservative mode of dress,as well as havingthe

hair rearrangedin a more restrainedstyle.

The cost of pleasingthe unworldly Gurneywas the production

of a very dull book indeed. The narrative,published in two volumes,

beginswith anotherconceit of non-authorship.This disingenuous

claim is developedin the first paragraphs,which advisethe readerthat

here is 'an opportunity of reading the SECRETDETAILS of the faults,

the cares,the sorrows,the hopes,the sentiments,the actionsand the

adventures'of the protagonistsof her tale (v. 1, p.2). 155Prurient

interestthus excited,the readerfinds a narrativein the forin of a young

woman'sjournal. Unfortunately,the style is so stagnantand lacking in

tension,the plot so indiscernableand the charactersso commonplace

that the initial excitementsoon evaporates. By the end of the first

volume,we are awarethat Madeline,the eponymousheroine whose

private j ournals are exposedto our gaze, is expected to marry Maclean,

whereasher heartinclines to Glencarron.This regrettablestate of

affairs is compoundedwhen they secretlypromise themselves to each

other in a form of marriage,but are unableto 'declare' the marriage

openly(vol. 2, P-86). The letterswhich passto and fro betweenthe

couPle,in the style of eighteenth-centurywriters suchas Richardson,

are curiouslybland. Opie, known (andpresumably read) for her

depictionsof emotionality,is unsuccessfullyattempting to reconcilea

Quakeristquietism with a traditional romanticconflict. The plot

ýAmefia 155 Opie, Madeline (London: Longman, 1822), 3 vols., I p.2. Subsequent quotations are from this edition, and page numbers are included parenthetically in the text. 278 becomesanother interrogation ofAdeline Mowbray.,the secret marriageis the oppositeof the opennon-marriage, except that given the manoeuvring necessaryto guard the secret, it seemsinfinitely more trouble.

The epistolarystyle is interruptedfor an omniscientnarrator to infonn the readerof an accidentbefalling Glencarron.Madeline, thinking that he is dying, resolvesto throw cautionto the wind and go to him. Sheleaves a note for her parents,which is not seen. All the ingredientsare assembled for somelively prose,but Opie lets us down.

Sherelies on a narrationin which the action is reportedfrom (as it were) offstage,and shedeals unsuccessfully with problemsof the narrativevoice. As a result,there is no tensionto drive the plot forward. We know from her earlier works and her senseof the dramaticthat Opie is capableof writing at a sustainedlevel of tension

- Father and Daughter,for exwnple,or the more recentValentine's

Eve. In thesetales, as in AdelineMowbray, her main strengthhas been her naturalisticdialogue, a deviceshe is not ableto employto great effect in ajoumalistic narrative,since speech must be reportedrather than viva voce.

Madelineand Glencarronflee to France,only returningto

Englandfor Madelineto give birth. After the arrival of the child,

Glencarronbegins to ignoreher. At first he claims that he 'forced himself to stayaway' to 'teach [Madeline]a lessonfor the future' (v.2, p. 193). However,his headis soonturned by the attractiveLady Jane, and Opie, after quoting from her own verse'Song of the Hindustani 279

Girl', hasMadeline free him from his obligationsto her. 'I believe my heartis broken, shesays (v. 2, p.213).

Her fortunessuddenly reverse, however, when Lady Jane marriesanother. Glencarronmarries Madeline in a churchceremony, but, alas,she is worn out. Besideher deathbedhe berateshimself, exclaiming'You havebeen the victim of my want of firmnessof character,and my irresolution' (v.2, p.32 1). This 'want of firmness' recallsMortimer in YheDangers ofCoquetry and contrastswith

Torrington, the firm father of Temper, Mr Seymour of Father and

Daughterand Doctor NorberryofAdeline Mowbray. Opie seemsto be sayingthat whereasthe last three,as fathers,exercised firmness in the upbringingof their daughters,both Glencarronand Mortimer, as husbands,failed to exercisetheir duty of careto their wives with sufficient vigour, with fatal results. Husbandsclearly had to strike a balancebetween being insufficiently firm and yet avoiding the harshnessof figuressuch as BerrendaleofAdeline Mowbray.

The customaryOpie deathbedtableau is assembledand the usualscenes of forgivenessand reconciliationare constructed.At this point Opie must haverevolted from the predictabilityof this turgid tale, for Madelinemiraculously recovers and lives a life of happiness with the man shehas always loved.

Despitemanoeuvring by Opie and her friend Southey,

Madeline was not noticedby the reviewers.She wrote to him twice 280 askingfor a review to appearin the Quarterly Review,but whetheror 156 not he wrote one,it neverappeared.

Mary Mitford's commentabout the qualitiesof

Madeline is indeedfitting. 157Mtford writes that shehad at one time praisedher, togetherwith Maria Edgeworthand JoanneBaillie as being 'three suchwomen [writers] as haveseldom adorned one age and one country'. Readingthe proseof thesemiddle years,it seemson balancethat Mitford's commentsindicate the declineof Opie's abilities as a writer of tales.This is reflectednot only in the quality of her writing, but also in the sharpdecrease in her earningsduring this period:whereas Temper earned her over E600and had a run of three thousandcopies, Madeline, with a run of only fifteen hundred,brought in only one third of that sum. As the yearsof this middle period progressthe predictabilityof the talesonly increases,the experiments shemakes with narrativevoice and format are often clumsyand the writing becomesmore turgid. It seemsincreasingly plain that shewas writing from a financial ratherthan an artistic motive and that the complexityof her personallife took its toll on her artistic competence.

What is equally evidentis that her nineteenth-centurywriting reflectsthe complexityof ideologiesthat arosein responseto the shifting power-basesin societyduring the yearsafter the French revolution.

..*M -.*M -0.- 40. - *..

156Amelia Opie to Robert Southey, 10 March 1822 and 16 March 1822; Huntington Library and Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL respectively.

157R. Brinley Johnson,p. 170. 281

CHAPTER 6

The Quaker Years, 1825 and After

rightwell's biographyis unequivocalthat Amelia Opie became

a convincedQuaker in 1825for the bestof reasons.'

Nevertheless,her practiceof Quakerism,particularly in termsof dress and speech,comprised a constantmediation between polite societyand the Societyof Friends. Oneof the objectivesof this sectionof the thesisis to detail this mediation;the other is to review her work after heradoption of Quakerism.

Opie's lettersto ElizabethFry and J. J. Gurneyevince the

increasinginterest that Quakerism held for heras a meansof

combattingsome pervasive sense of low self-worth: 'I neverfeel so

comfortedas whenI feel humbled,and experiencea deepsense of my

own sinfulness',she wrote in January1824.2 The letter continues:'I

feel my relianceon my Saviourgrowing strongerevery day, and a sort

of loathingof worldly society.' A letter to Gurney,marked 'Private',

indicatesnot only her religious aspirations,but also how shehad

rearrangedher feelingsfor him after the grief of 1815.This letter

showsher desirefor the certaintyof the 'convincedChristian', which

shehopes to achieveunder the guidanceof Gurney,his sisterPriscilla

(1785-1821) and William Forster,and continueswith an expressionof

SeeBrightwelL p. 172 and ff.

2 Amelia Opie to ElizabethFry, 18 January1824; Huntington Library. 282 curiosity as to how 'two Youngcreatures', J. J. Gurneyand Priscilla

Gurney,were 'prime instrumentsin leadingme to the point whereI now am.' Priscilla, who had died two yearsearlier, was a powerful

and well-known preacher.Opie continues:'I often look back with

wonderat the celerity with which I divestedmyself of much of my 3 worldly trappingsand assumedthe plain dress. The term 'convinced'

hasa specialsignificance for Quakers,indicating a personwho joins

the Societyrather than havingbeen bom into it. Her useof the phrase

'convincedChristian' may be takenas indicativeof her desireto

becomeformally admittedto the Society.

Theseannouncements come after her friends' noting Opie's

depressionduring a prolongedperiod in the early twenties. Menzies-

Wilson and Lloyd corroboratethis unhappinessand dissatisfaction

with herselfby quotingfrom herjournal, which, as part of the Carr

collection of manuscripts,is now missing. 'Passeda self-indulgent

day' and 'Realisedto-day I am utterly vile' are two of the entriesthat

they quote.4 Her contemporaryMary RussellMitford wrote in April

1822that Opie had the habit of calling herself 'vile and cold and 5 dead'. It would havebeen highly indecorousat the time to attribute

the distressof a womanin her fifties to her menopause,although today

we might makesuch a connectionbetween the psychologicalstate and

3 Amelia Opie to J. I Gurney, 4 August 1823; Society of Friends' Library.

4 Menzies-Wilson & Lloyd, p.218.

5 P, Brinley Johnson,ed., p. 170. 283 the physiologicalone, with the rider that the distressmust havebeen all the moreacute because its causewas unmentionable.

After readingBrightwell's Memoirs,Mitford commentedthat

Opie had made'a miserablehash of her existence'during the years after sheembraced Quakerism, and Mitford's observationprovides evidenceof Opie's mediationbetween her two worlds:

Nothing is clearerthan the hankeringshe had after her old artistic and literary world. Sheeven contrived to mix gay parties with May meetings[annual Quaker conferences] to the very last. But the want of congruityjars in the book, andmust havejarred still more in actuallife; moreespecially as thoseFry and Gurney people- popesmale and femalein their way - seemto have takenupon them to lecturethe dearsoul. How shedeclined in tasteand in intelligenceafterjoining the Friends!6

Brightwell commentsthat 'Of the perplexitiesand anxietiesof her this time, her letters mind at ... give sufficient proof' and we thus seegreat attention paid to the moral careerof her subjectin a way that is appropriatefor her purposeof constructingAmelia Opie as a woman 7 writer of rectitude. Brightwell, it seemsclear, had no intention of depictingin her memoirsthe tensionthat Mitford discovered.A full review of Opie's lettersover this period certainly showthese

&perplexities'when writing to the Gumeys,but also revealsa healthy correspondencewith otherson a variety of topics including verse, books,publication of her work, Mrs Turner's etchingof her, and other matterssuggesting an engagedand intelligent life.

6kG. VEstrange,Me Life ofMary RussellMifford (London:Richard Bentley, 1870),3 vols., 3, p.293.

BrightwelLp. 287. 284

Brightwell foregrounds,how Opie had long beenfriends with the

Gumeyfamily, particularlyElizabeth Fry (1780-1845)and Joseph

John Gurney. Gurneyhimself wasknown and admiredas a man who embodiedall the virtues of non-conformistministry, who travelledand wrote extensivelyabout Christian morality and whoseJournal contains suchentries as that for 16December 1845, which saysin part: 'I pray that I may be enabledto maintainthe whole blessedTruth as it is in

Jesusin the firmness,yet patience and meeknesswhich are in Christ.A

The teachingsof Gurney,a wealthybanker, made sufficient impacton

Quakerismfor themore traditionally-minded Quakers, whose

particularbeliefs Michaelson terms 'conservativeevangelism', to name 9 their sect after him. This fusion of free-trade commerce and

conservativereligious ideologyreveals the oeconomically-minded

righteousnessof an haute-bourgoisiewhich had little scrupleto profit,

sinceit was,as Adam Smith observed,no morethan the compensation

for the inconvenienceand expenseof bringing togetherthe three

necessarycomponents of production.10 Smith further validatesthe

growth of capitalismwhen he points out that

the uniform, constantand uninterruptedeffort of everyman to betterhis is frequently condition ... powerful enoughto maintainthe naturalprogress of thingstowards improvement, in spiteboth of the extravaF, ance of governmentand of the greatest errorsin administration.

J. B. Braithwaite,facsimile opposite 2, p.485.

9 Mchaelson, p. 135.

10Adam Smith, 7he WealthofNations, ed.Andrew Skinner(London: Penguin, 1986),p. 151.

" Ibid., p.443. 285

The tacit permissionthus given to manufacturersand financiers- namelythat they are operatingfor the commongood as well as their own - squaresnicely with the frugality-amid-wealthmindset of the wealthyQuaker business families, further reinforcedby the non- conformistethic of work beingrewarded by God-givensuccess which ratified the perceivedrightness of expansionistcapitalism such as

Gurney represents.

After Gurney'sdeath his longstandingfriend JohnAlexander wrote of him that 'The lossto this world in the withdrawal sucha man, the removalof suchan example,the quenchingof sucha light is more 12 and greaterthan any of us can imagine.' Sucha man was the intimate friend, advisorand moral exampleto Amelia Opie, and it was clearly his influencethat encouragedher to adoptQuakerism and eventuallyfonnally to apply to join the Society.Gurney endorsed her applicationto the Societyin phraseswhich denoteall the distastethat

Quakersfelt at thetime for outwardshow, worldliness and novel- writing. He stated:

No person had drunk deeper of the cup of fashionable life than she had. Admired for her amiability, her talents and her accomplishments, she was received in London at the housesof many of the nobility, and wherever she went, she was a welcome guest. But she gradually discovered that all her vanities, her place in the great world and her novel-writing in which her reputation was high, must be laid down at the foot of the cross of ChfiSt.13

On 4 July 1825Opie wrote of her drainingexperience at the

Monthly Committee,where she was interrogatedon her applicationto

12Braithwaite, 2, p.516.

13Menzies-Wilson & Lloyd, p.218. 286 join the Society.14 The membersof this committeeshe names as

Gurney,Lucy Aggs andMr andMrs Blake. When shedescribes the meetingas beingat 'Lucy Aggs's foundry' we may take her expression metaphorically,since no iron-foundryof that nameexisted in Norwich at that time. Shewrote that Gurneywas supportiveand that she responded'conscientiously' to their enquiries. Her applicationwas successfuland shebecame a convincedFriend on II August 1825.

Many of her worldly acquaintancesreacted to the newsof her conversionwith a suitablylaconic response.Janet Whitney statesthat

'WhenAmelia Opie abandoned fashions and went Quaker a few years

later, Maria Edgeworthwrote that "Amelia wasall-over Quakerized,to

the greatbenefit of her appearance.It is indeeda pretty dress.'" 15Both

MargaretMacGregor and Menzies-Wilson and Lloyd put a similar

quotationas comingfrom the pen of Mary Mitford, but the effect is the

same:a witty and ironic commentwhich deliberatelyfocuses on the

externalappearance rather than the inward decision,and all the more

pointedfor Opie's love of fine clothesand fashion. On this matter,

Harriet Martineaususpected that shesawa spiceof dandyismin the

demuresimplicity of her dress'and Menzies-Wilsonand Lloyd point

out that shecontinued to 'order the grey satin for her gownsand the 16 green-blacksilk for her bonnetfrom Paris'. Another responsewas

14 Amelia Opie to Alfred Corder,4 July 1825;Society of Friends'Library. 15 Whitney, p. 206.

16 Harriet Martineau, A uIobiqgrcT*y (London: Longman, 1871), 3 vols., 2, p.277; Menzies-Wilson & Lloyd, p.217. 287

from the Frenchartist Pieffe-JeanneDavid d'Angers,a long-standing

friend of Opie's (not to be confusedwith Jacques-LouisDavid, the

artist of the FrenchRevolution) who commentedthat the Quakercap,

so like a revolutionist'sPhrygian bonnet, gave her 'un air classique.'

David subsequentlycarved a medallionshowing a profile of Opie in 17 her Quakercap, and to which sherefers in her letters. The medallion

displeasedthe righteous Lucy Aggs precisely becausethe cap looked

ideology like a Phrygian bonnet - an indication of the conservative of

the Quakers at the time and emphasisingtheir distancing themselves

from other, more left-leaning radical groups who were generally anti-

18 religion.

Oneof themost significant characteristics of Quakerswas (and

remains) attentionto their mannerof speech.Patricia Howell

Michaelsoninvestigates how Quakers''plain speech'contrasts with

the polite speechof the day, especiallyin its useby women.Among

the differencesare that honorifics andtitles are neverused, in order to

emphasisepeople's equality in the eyesof God. Similarly, 'because

they believedtheir lives were directedby God, they couldn't say

somethinghappened "luckily", "fortunately" or "by chance".' 19

Further,the Quakersociolcct was 'an unchangingmode of languagein

1-20 all circumstances.

-Amelia 17 Opie to Eliza Alderson,13 July 1829and 24 July 1829;Huntington Library.

18Amelia Opie to Eliza Aldersondd. 9 December1829. Huntington Library.

19Nfichaelson, p. 146.

20 Ibid., p. 120. 288

By contmst,Mchaelson elabomtesa model of women's languageat the time of JaneAusten based on a wide variety of sources, from eighteenthand early nineteenthcentury comments by Johnson,

Addison,Fordyce and othersto modemanalysts such as Deborah

Tannenand Luce Irigary. The characteristicsthat emerge,both positive and negative,are of loquaciousness,quantity and emptiness,an exaggeratedvocabulary, positive politeness, inoffensiveness, a guarded 21 useof wit, and facilitativeness- 'doing the conversationalwork'.

Shedemonstrates how Quaker'plain speech'is opposedto such linguistic parameters:'Plainness of speechis indeedthe oppositeof conventionalpoliteness. The Quakersociolect rejects the face-saving conventionsof [the speechofl mainstremnsociety, ' and indeedis 'the 22 very oppositeof women'slanguage'. Michaelsonhas analysed the transitionthat Opie, 'known for her verbal stylishness'made in her speechand lettersto accommodatethe demandsof QuakeriSM.23 Her conclusionis thatOpie 'adopted a verymediated form of Quaker 24 language,used for particularends'. This is clear from the evidence of the differing stylesof discoursein her letters,which extendto contentas well as to ideolect:the lettersto Quakersare not only written in a studiedplain speech,but containnumerous references to faith. By contrast,her lettersto her cousinsSarah, Eliza and Tom

21 Ibid., pp.121,152,125,1261%i -i c and 152respectively.

22 Ibid., pp. 147 and 121 respectively.

23Ibid., p. 164.

24 Ibid. 289

Aldersonare informal: humorous,admonishing, gossipy and thoroughlyfamilial. Her lettersto friendsamongst the nobility, such as Lord and Lady Boileau,are of worldly matters. Thesethree

different stylistic strandsappear consistently in her correspondence from the mid-twentiesonwards.

Michaelsonidentifies a male discursivestyle which 'cameto be

the oppositeof polite forms that were increasinglystigmatized as

French that is dense and effeminate... a style plain, straighforward, 25 ratherthan elaborated'. Using Austen'sEmma (1816) as an example,

Michaelsonpoints out the distinctionbetween the 'plain, "manly"

speech'of Mr Knightley and that of 'Frank Churchill's gallicismsand 26 Emma's father's effeminatemode'. Plain speechthus carries

resonancesof male ratherthan femalestyles of address,and Opie

would later adaptthis to producewriting that trespasseson male

domainsof scholarship,particularly in her A Curefor Scandal,or

Detraction Disp*ed (1828).

Opie herselfrecords her first useof plain speechin a letter to

ElizabethFry dated,in the Quakerway, '3d mo., 2nd,1824' (i. e. March

2,1824) - clearly a pivotal momentin her adoptionof Quakerism,

when

a stranger,chancing to comeand call on her that morning,she spokethe plain languageto him and had continuedto do so ever since;and shesays, 'Nor haveIa misgiving, but feel so calm and satisfied,that I am convincedI havedone right; and now I feel utterly castfor comfort, supportand guidance,on the

25Michaelson, private communication, 2d November1999.

26 Ibid. 290

searcherof hearts, and the Great Shepherd,the merciful Redeemer.P27

Notwithstandingthe vehemenceof the religious rhetoric, appropriateto its intendedreader, it is not difficult to find examplesof

Opie's deviationsfrom plain speech.She continued to usehonorifics, both directly and in reference:her lettersare repletewith such expressionsas 'Oh dearLord Morpeth! How glad I am to seethee! '

28 (1848). Conversely, her notebook contained several referencesto people by their initials, although titles such as 'Lady Cork' and 29 'Mrs. T. ' are still evident (1833). In 1824, Henry Crabb Robinson wrote in his diary for 14 July:

Called on Mrs. Opie, who had thenbecome a Quakeress.She receivedme very kindly, but as a Quakerin dressand diction. I found her agreeableand not materiallychanged. Her dresshad in it I dare somethingcoquettish ... yet shewas not conscious, say,of any unworthy motive. Shetalked in her usualgraceful andaffectionate manner. Shementioned Lord Gifford - surelya 30 slip of the tongue.

Robinson'smischievous remark highlights one of the consistent

tensionsof Opie's Quakerlife: that betweenthe earnestnessof her

religiosity, expressedin both her correspondenceand her published

works unwaveringlyand with increasingdogmatism as sheages, and

her love of fine things and titled people. A month later, Robinsonwas

able to commentthat 'Mrs Opie haslost noneof her attractivenessby

27Brightwell, p. 198.

29 Ibid., p.379.

29 Ibid., p.303.

30 Thos.Sadler, ed., Diwy, Reminiscencesand Correqýmdenceof H,e n ry Crab b Robinson(Boston: James Osgood, 1871), 2 vols., 2, p.9. 291 assumingQuaker garb, ' and after a further five monthsconcluded that 31 'Mrs Opie is, to my mind, greatlyimproved by her changeof habits.

In October 1826, Robert Southey records her use of the Quaker plain speech as 'corrupting the King's English with more malice

thou V and thee'd with great intrepidity [but] the sinful prepense... she lips... like her in word 'Lady' slipped not infrequently from her I spite it., 32 importance of her Quakerism, my, perhapsbecause of The of

linguistic consistency for Quakers was emphasisedby an

admonishment to them from an author concerned with the way some

Quakers in Opie's time were drifting from the patterns establishedby

their founder, George Fox.

How can you act so inconsistentlywith the professionyou are makingas to salutepersons by the title of Mr. or Mrs., bow, and hats thus trampling take off your to them ... violating and underfootthose precious testimonies, the faithful supportof which costmany of our predecessorsthe lossof all in this world that is most dear?33

Othercommentators were lesssure that Opie's conversionto

Quakerismarose from such pure motives.'sfirst

wife, JaneBirkbeck had died in 1821.In his biographyof the Gurney

family, Hare wrote that JosephJohn Gurney 'did not realisewhat

everyoneelse saw, that [Opie] greatlywished to becomethe second

Mrs. JosephJohn Gurney.' 34As possiblecorroboration, the

31Crabb Robinson, p. 311.

32 KennethCurry, ed.,New Letters ofRobert Southey(New York: ColumbiaPress, 1965),p. 108.

33Anthony Benezet (attr.), Observationsof Plainnessand Simplicity in Conductand Conversationin Accordancewith thePfinciples of the SocietyofFriends (Stockport: Claye,n. d. ), p.3.

34Hare, 2, p. 13. 292 correspondenceto DawsonTurner in 1822about the importanceof modestdress and plain yet flattering hairstylein the etchingMary

Turner was preparingof her may indicateher wish to appearsuitable 35 asa Quakerwife, or simplyto be ulAo-date. Conversely,Opie's 36 letter to Cordcrindicated her reconciliationto a single life. Although their friendshipwas intense,it seemsclear that they had arrived at a platonic understanding.Crabb Robinson wrote of meetingGurney in

1826,and relateshow he spokeof Mrs Opie 'very kindly, but not like a 37 lover or one who wasabout to becomea lover.

The tensionsbetween the tropesof polite speechand plain speech,and between the soberand modest Quaker dress and Crabb,

Robinson'simpression of coquettishnessboth supportMichaelson's view that Opie held a mediatedposition between the polite world and that of the Quakers.In this regard,Hare's speculationas to motive may be dismissedon the groundsthat the couple'scrise de coeur had occurredin 1815and wasnow resolved.

A shift in someone'sideology is often madefirmer by an encounterwith a figure from that person'spast. For Opie, this opportunityarose when shevisited her longtime confidanteand mother-substituteSusannah Taylor, who, by 1823,was fatally ill.

Opie's letter to Gurneydated II Februaryclearly showsher

ideologicalrealigmment. She accuses Taylor of 'preparingas it were to

" SeeAppendix C: Letters,esp. those for 1822.

36 Amelia Opie to Alfred Corder,4 July 1825,op. cit

37 Robinson, p.336. 293 act a sort of Heathenphilosopher's death, which mannerof dying,

'polite and attentiveto the last! Full ofpetits soinsto men' can be seen as that of a fearlessRevolutionist philosophe. For Opie it holds only horror, for Mrs Taylor doesnot mention 'her Saviour' and, furthermore,Opie 'was shockedto seethe love ofdisplay uppermost 38 on what is probablyher couchofdeath! -P

The italics are Opie's, and promptthe thoughtthat for a person consciouslyemploying plain speech- particularlyin addressing

Gurney- the frequentitalicisation must be seenas an abberation:as

Michaelsonsays, an adaptive and mediated use of theQuaker socioleCt.39 The messageitself hasan undertoneof concernfor Mrs

Taylor, but is couchedin termsof righteouscounsel ignored, thereby emphasisingOpie's evangelicalQuakerism in the mannerwhich was to becomeknown amongFriends as Gurneyite. Thereis no hint of recognitionof SusannahTaylor's electedmode of deathas being somethingwhich Opie herselfwould havewholeheartedly endorsed in previousyears, and one seesthat superficially,at least,Opie hastaken on the languagecharacteristics of her latter-daymentor at the expense of the ideologicalvalues of her earlier mentor. Her distancingherself from the valuesMrs Taylor representsis further evidenceof Opie's collusionwith conservativeQuaker rhetoric.

At the time of makingthe commitmentto the Quakers,Opie had beenworking on a new novel, to be called Ae Painter and His Wife,

39 Opieto Gurney,II Febnwy 1823;Gurney MSS, 336, Friends' Library, London.

39 Nfichaelson,p. 122. 294 which shewas obligedto abandonin compliancewith the Quakers' proscriptionon novel-writing. This complianceis consistentwith the way in which Opie, like Austen,minimises, the act of writing, as the excerptsfrom her memoir of her husbandand of Mrs Robertshave demonstrated.Of this tale, the manuscriptof which also forms a part of the missingCarr collection,the following is known: it wasto have beenin epistolaryform -a techniqueshe had worked with in Madeline

- and the narrativewould concerntwo womenwho both loved the sameman. Menzies-Wilsonand Lloyd, who were able to examinethe manuscriptbefore its loss,comment that the tale

was interestingbecause it revealedthe secretsof someof Amelia's successin the world. Only a womanwho had madea businessof understandingmen could havewritten as Amelia did. The in the book chief characters ... werethe passionateand captivatingEmily Sawbridgeand the lovely but insipid Maria Delavel,who had becomethe betrothedof the man Emily loved.40

MacGregormentions this incompletetale, althoughher commenton themain characters, even to their names,differs from the one above,despite the fact that sheis working from the same manuscriptsource:

The manuscriptof the tale, found amongMrs Opie's literary remains,consists of ten lettersand a few pagesof The is straightforwardnarrative. ... situation that of two young womenin love with the sameman. EudoraVillars is the usual type of virtue and prudence;Marcia Delaval, with her extravagance,her disregardof convention,her uncontrolled emotions,is patternedclosely on Corinne.41

40 Menzies-Wilson &Lloyd, p.212.

41 MacGregor, p. 86. 295

Both biographicalsources are in agreementthat Opie had to give up copy moneyto the value of one thousandpounds arising from advanceorders for the work, and did so as token of her commitmentto her new religiousconviction. The sourcefor this is commonto both

d. 42 biographies:a commentb y h4aryMitf or Brightwell doesnot mention anything of 'The Painter and His Wife' except to note that

Opie was working on anothernovel at this time, but 'it was never

43 completedI.

It is clear from all threebiographies that Opie felt shehad to make clearto the Gumeysthat work on the new novel had ceased.

Both MacGregorand Menzies-Wilson and Lloyd quotefrom the letter which Brightwell includes.44 Dated6 December1823 and addressed to ElizabethFry, it affirms that althoughLongman had advertisedthe work, it was 'only begunwork [and that it] is not written, nor ever will be.' The letter continuesby sayinghow pleasedJoseph and Catherine

Gurneywere with 'my new work, on "Lying in all its branches"'.45

Evidently Opie felt the needto impresson the Gumeysthe totality of her writerly reform, all the more so sincethe unpleasantreception given to Madeline.Menzies-Lloyd and Wilson commentthat

Never again was Amelia to write those romantic stories of love, pathos and passion which had endearedher to a sentimental public. Only dull and didactic tales would henceforth come from her pen.46

42 SeeL'Estrange, 2, pp.198-199.

43 BrightwelLp. 190.

44 Ibid.

45 Amelia Opie to Elizabeth Fry, 6 December 1823: Huntington Library.

46 Menzies-Lloyd & Wilson, p.213. 296

A mentionmust be madeof Opie's contributionsto what

MacGregordescribes as 'a new sort of publication- the annual', which first madeits appearancein 1823.47Opie contributedextensively to one entitledFriendship's Offering from its first edition of 1824until

1829,submitting songs, hymns and verse. Shewas also a contributor to threeother annuals, The Spirit andMannersofthe Age, TheAmulet, and The Literary Souvenir, while The European Magazine also furnishedher with a marketfor her verse. Annualsaimed to presenta topicality, and Opie's inclusion in so manycan be seenas an endorsementof her continuingpopularity. A letter to ThomasHood

48 concernshis rejectionof a prosetale for The Gemin 1828. She rathercrossly points out that shewas 'not a volunteer', but had been askedto submit somethingthe previousyear to the former editor,

which had beenfound acceptable.Ten yearslater, shewrote to J. J.

Gurneyon one of his Americantours, informing him that shehad

to 'at Dr. Sprague'sdesire' 49 Sprague contributed an annual . was the minister of the PresbyterianChurch at Albany, New York.

In 1825Opie publishedtwo works, one of which was the

Illustrations ofLying in All Its Branchespublished by Longmanin two

47MacGregor, p. 96.

48Amelia Opie to ThomasHood, 10August 1828;Society of Friends'Library, London:Ms Box 12/l/l.

49Amelia0pietoLJ. Gurney, 25 October 1838; Society of Friends' Library: Mss 434/1. 297 volumesin 1825and dedicated,as before,to her father.This publicationintroduced her new position as a writer of moral works, and,as MacGregorpoints out, the critic of TheLondon Magazine was 50 quick to noticethe change.

Amelia is a late convertto closecaps and dove-coloured lutestring,and havingbeen a pretty considerablenumber of yearsaddicted to gay parties,excessive novels, the luxuriesof societyand gorgeousapparel, she feels called uponto be doubly diligent in her new character,and to her anxiety to atonefor certainprevious publications not foundedon fact, we presumeit is owing that shenow hastaken to writing goodbooks. 51

Not only is this work an exhaustivetreatise on a vice which has preoccupiedher previouswritings, it is also an ingenioussolution to the situationshe found herselfin - that of a fiction-writer, almost wholly reliant on her incomefrom writing, who voluntarily joins a sect which prohibits the writing of fiction - for sheemploys illustrative talesto reinforceher analysisof typesof lying. In her Preface,Opie finds it prudentto apologisefor 'calling lying and lies by their real names',butjustifies this by pointing out the needfor languageto be

4mostconsonant to the strict truth.t52 In this way, sheis rationalising her useof languagein a way that the Quakerswould find to be appropriateto their requirementof plain speechand truthfulness,and this small exampleis indicativeof the mannerin which sheis negotiatingthe requirementsof Quakerdiscourse.

50 MacGregor,p. 93.

51 7heLondon Magazine, New Series,11 (1825),p. 103.

52Amelia Opie,Illustrations ofLjdng, in All its Branc-bes,2 vols. (London: Longman,1825), 1, p.viii. Subsequentquotations are from this edition,and page numbersare includedparenthetically in the text. 298

The first sectionof the book classifieslies by their various types:'Active andPassive Lies of Vanity'; 'Lies of Flattery'; 'Lies of

Fear'; 'Lies of Benevolence';'Lies of Convenience';'Lies of Interest';

lies of 'Malignity' (two categorieshere); 'Lies of Wantonness';

'Practical Lies'. This disquisitionaccounts for the first elevenchapters

of the work, and the format is the samein each:a brief definitive

discussionfollowed by an illustrative tale. One of the tales,'White

Lies' hadbeen published earlier in New Tales(1818): the othersmay

havebeen written especiallyfor the new publication,or - and Opie had

donethis with manyof the poemsin The Warrior's Return (1808)-

they may havebeen tales written manyyears earlier and unpublished:

writers who publish everythingthey write are rare indeed.

Unfortunately,there is no clue in any correspondenceto substantiate

either possibility. If they were written earlier,as with 'White Lies',

that would further removeOpie from any chargesof infringing the

rules of the Society. Severalof the taleswhich appearin Illustrations

ofLying were later publishedin 1845as TheStage Coach and Other

Tales,and 'White Lies' was also publishedbetween its own boards

with 'The Soldier'sReturn' in the sameyear.

'White Lies' may be takenas typical of the kind of tale Opie

usesto illustrateher points in Lying: there is the blanket indication of

abhorrencewhich requiresagreement by the listener,such as when the

virtuous character,in this casea Mr Field, exclaims,'I hatelying, it is

sucha meanvice; do you not hateit, Miss MusgraveT,to which she

can only reply, 'I do' (2, p. 101). Then there is the accusationof lying, 299 accompaniedby a characterjudgementof the liar, as when Field later saysto Miss Musgrave:'... thoughyou are handsomeas an angel,you lie like a chamber-maid!' The consequencesof lying are depictedas terrible and out of proportionto the lie: in this tale, a duel is arranged, althoughthe possiblyfatal outcomeis avoidedwhen Miss Musgrave confessesher lie (2, p. 109). The classslur implicit in Field's remarkis given further treatmentwhen Miss Musgraveis askedby a footmanto

saythat he was at an appointedplace when he was not. 'Do you expectme to lie for your sakeT shedemands, with all the outraged

authorityof a social superior. His reply is quick and accurate: 'Why

not, miss?I haveoften told my masterlies, and other peopletoo, for

yours' (2, p. 121). The momenthas echoes of the incident in Adeline

Mowbray, whereAdeline feels unableto lie aboutbeing marriedin the

'character'she writes for Mary Wamer,her maid. 53

In the secondsection of Lying, Opie suddenlyappears as the

studentof moral philosophy. The shift in style is innovative:the

readerhas not seenher write in an academicfashion until this point.

Her range of reading and grasp of argument reveals a mind far more

penetrativethan might havebeen supposed from her other writing, and

this is the more remarkablesince her formal education,like that of

other womenof the day, did not trespassinto male domainsof reason

and rhetoric. Mchaelson haspointed out the similaritiesbetween

Quakerdiscourse and male discourse and also how, when Quaker

womenemployed plain speech,they were not perceivedas threatening

53Opie, Adefine Mowbray, 1999 edn., 2, p. 100 300

to the male hegemony. Here we seea situationwhere Opie is able to

utilize a Quakerrhetoric to produceserious and reasonedargument that

hasall the characteristicsof male scholarlywriting.

Shequotes from FrancisBacon's essay'On Truth', to

substantiateher calls for 'truth, or ratherveracity in civil business'

(vol.2, p.98); 54 also from JosephAddison, whom shefinds

disappointingas a sourceof moral wisdom,commenting that he

gappearsto havedone very little as an advocatefor spontaneoustruth,

[havingbeen] much lesszealous than eitherHawkesworth or Johnson'

(p.99). The letter in TheSpectator from which shequotes, no. 352,

which dealswith truth and reputation,is in fact attributedto Richard

55 Steele. Having perusedDr Watts's list of moral writers, shefurther

includesmention of the following works: YheAdventurer,founded by

JohnHawkesworth to be a periodicalin the style of his friend and

mentorJohnson's The Rambler, except aiming to appealto only the 56 'highestand purest' in his readers; Boswell's observationsof 57 Johnson'sconsistent regard for the truth, Sketchesof the History of

Man (1774)by Henry Home,Lord Kames,whose moral philosophy

shewould havefound attractivebecause it departsfrom the classical

debatebetween primitivism andHobbsian progress and promotesa

ý54 Sir Francis Bacon 7he EsWs or Counsels, CiWII wdMorall, ed. by M Kiernan, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), p. 8.

55 D. F. Bond, ed., 7heSpecwor (Oxford: Clarendon,1965), 3, letter 352, Monday, April 14,1712.

56 SeeJ. L. Abbotý JohnHawkesworth (Madison: Univ. WisconsinPress, 1982). 57 G. 13.fEll, ed., Boswell's Life ofJohnson. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1934), 5 vols., 4, p.334. 301 third way in which man,having fallen from a goldenage, retained the 58 possibility of attaining perfection; and Moral Philosophy by

William Paley,a work which, like her own, aimedto 'instruct in the dutiesof everydaylife' ratherthan engagein metaphysicaldialogue. 59

Her useof Paleyis to constructa demonstrationof the distinction between morality and legality, employing such quotations as a 'lie may be perniciousin its generaltendency; and thereforecriminal, thoughit produceno particularor visible mischiefto anyone.'60 Her academic style becomesevident in suchphrases as

I feel entireunity of sentimentwith Paleyon all that he has advanced,except in thosepassages which are printed in Italic; but Chalmersand Scotthave given a completerefutation of [this part of Paley'sargument]. 61

Opie's useof Kamesis interestingbecause his work was expresslywritten for the readershipthat sheherself aimed at: the

frugal, literateand ambitiousmiddle-class, 'removed from the corruption of opulence and from the depressionof bodily labour [but]

62 bent on a useful knowledgev. Paley, too, is particularly appropriate

for Opie because,as one critic wrote, he felt very keenly that 'men

laboured under a strong obligation to relieve the distress of the poor. t63

58 HenryHome, Lord Karnes,Sketches on theHistory ofMan (Edinburgh:1774), 2 vols.

M. L. Clarke,Paley (London:SPC& 1974),p. 57.

60 Opie,2, p. 126.

61 Ibid., p. 130.

62 Home, 1, p.v.

63 D. L. LeMahieu,Ae Mind of WilliamPaley (Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska,1976), p. 134. 302

As well as beinga constantmotif throughouther fiction writing, poor relief was somethingthat Opie involved herselfin very energetically.

MacGregornotes how

[Opie] was a memberof the Sick Poor Committee,served as a collector for the Bible Societyand interestedherself in the Infant School Bracondale in the MagdalenSociety. Probably at ... and her most extensivework was donein connectionwith the Norwich Ladies' Associationfor PrisonReform. 64

The latter referenceis to her prisonvisiting with ElizabethFry, referredto in an importantletter to Southeyin 1830,in which she agreesto participatewith Fry in his project for hospitalreform. 'Sick of prison duties' which seemto do no good,she was awareof the dire conditionsin the hospitals:'such is the stateof the Londonhospitals that no modestfemale dares go to them. 65

Her discussionof 'Extracts' (chaptersXW and Xv) concludesby citing Dr. Reid and Dr ThomasBrown (not Browne the seventeenth-

centuryphilosopher, although she adds the final -e, but her 66 contemporaryof Edinburgh). Sheuses Brown's constructof

4veracity'as 'a duty' to investigatethe power of language,pointing out

it is 'profitless but for the truth that dictatesit'. 67To that ... abusethis powerby lying is, in Brown's words,which sheuses, to 'throw back

64 MacGregor, p.92.

65 Amelia Opie to RobertSouthey, 13 January1830; Wordsworth Collection, Grasmere.

66 Thomas Reid, DD,Fmays on the Power ofthe Human Mind (Edinburgh: 1803) Dr Thomas Brown, Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind (Edinburgh: 1820).

67 Opie, p. 141. 303 the whole raceinto that barbarismfrom which they haveemerged, "'

Her argumentbuilds to questionthe relativity of lying, consistentwith the analysisof different VM of lies in the first part of the book. She takesan absoluteposition, concluding that 'there is only one wrong

the little lies [may be] and one right ... utterersof withjustice called liars, becausethey showthat they are strangersto the restrainingand inimitable principle of truth' (p.15 1). This is reinforcedshortly after with the phrase 'that RAPOSSIBLEthing, an INNOCENTlie' (p. 154).

Having establishedthe moral absolute,her disquisition continueswith a chapterentitled 'Religion the Only Basisof Truth'.

Hcr first task is to dismissthe idca of a morality without rcligion:

It hasbeen asserted that morality might exist in all its power and purity werethere no suchthing as religion, sinceit is conducive to the earthlyinterests and happinessof man. But, are moral motivessufficient to protectus in times of particulartemptation? (p. 166)

Shedemolishes this ideaby quoting from Leviticus, Psalms,

John, Colossians,Proverbs, James, Isaiah, II Kings and the Acts

(pp.168-172), asserting that the 'only meansby which the possibility of resistingthe temptationto utter falsehoodmight be [through] obedienceto the will of God' (p.174). Shemoves on to illustmte this by citing at lengththree examples of martyrswho preferredto take an absolutistposition in defenceof their beliefs ratherthan compromise them:Jerome of Prague,a Wycliffian; ThomasBilney, who rejected his ordinationto preachin fields and streetsprior to his executionin the Lollards' Pit, underSt Leonard'sHill, Norwich; and Thomas

Brown, 4, p.225. 304

Cranmer,the victim of QueenMary's religious persecutions.Her sourcefor theseexamples is given as 'Maclane's Eccles.History' - probablyArchibald Maclaine'sA Supplementto Dr. Mosheim's

EcclesiasticalHistory of 1768. Shefurther cites the examplesof St.

Peter,a manaware of his own sinfulness,who tells Jesus'Depart from

me, for I am a sinful man,0 Lord! ' only to find couragethrough faith

(p.236), Daniel (p.241), and the early Quakers:

The early FRMNDSwere exemplary instances of the power of faith to lift the Christian above all fear of man [and] were known to be personswho would rather have died than spoken a lie. (p.243; her capitals and italics)

Opie thus reinforcesher own position with the Quakersby aligning the

early Friendswith the Christianmartyrs in the nameof truth. Sheis

also consistentwith the Gumeyiteemphasis on atonement,as her

treatmentof St Peterreveals. Of equalinterest is her useof plain

languageto elide into male domainsof discoursein order to advocate

an absolutistmorality.

Although Brightwell doesnot mentionother, more problematic,

works suchas Madeleine, she records the beneficialeffect of Lying:

shequotes from a letter to ElizabethFry, in which Opie says:'Joseph

and Catherine[Gurney] are highly pleasedwith my new work on 69 'Lying, in all its branches',and they think it must do good'.

Brightwell further describesthe format of the book as 'novel and

ingenious',and claims for it 'the bestof all sanctions,that of success,'

''9 Amelia Opie to Elizabeth Fry, 6 December 1823; Huntington Library. Cited in Brightwell, p. 192. 305

continuingby relatingan incident 'somefew yearsafterwards' when

someAmericans to whom Opie was introducedassured her that it 'was

universallyacknowledged to havedone good in their country' (ibid.).

We take this remarkat its facevalue, gettingaside Americans'

customaryconfusion of adjectiveand adverband the alternative

meaningthat this would suggest.Once more Brightwell thus reinforces

the imageof Opie as a worthy and moral womanwriter. Longman's

recordsshow a singlerun of 1500copies for the work, althoughit was

also takenup by Americanpublishers later.

The other publicationin 1825was Talesofthe Pemberton

Family, written particularlyfor children and,as thoughto makethe

break from novel-writing more evident,published not by Longmanbut

the Londonpublisher Harvey & Darton,and by Wilkin of Norwich.

At this point it is appropriateto outline the Quakerview on

educatingchildren. In an effort to indicatethe specialnature of the

Quakers'position, Harold Loukesmakes the helpful analysisof

attitudesto religion as 'dogmatic,anti-dogmatic, and undoginatic'.70

Having rejectedthe first two positions,the Quakermust take up the

more difficult burdenof the last. Loukescontinues:

The first Friendsadvanced the principle that the very searchfor an externalreligious authoritywas misconceived.To dependon an externalauthority was to shift from the individual the religious responsibilitywhich only he (sic) could exercise. For the authorityof the priest and book, the Quakerssubstituted the authorityof the Inward Light of Christ, by which they meant an illumination of the spirit, a heightenedsensitiveness and

ý.. 70 . ... HaroldLoukes, Friends and their ChiUren (London:Harrap, 1958),p. 7. 306

powerofjudgement, a clearnessof perceptionand capacityfor responsegained from a deepdevotion to the personof Christ. 71

Since,in the Quakerview, one personhas no power to determinethe religiousand moral perspectivesof another,Quaker parentsare unableto determinethese things for their children. 'There is thusa needfor instructionand nurture,' saysLoukes, 'but with the emphasislaid on understandingand not on passiveacceptance. The

be told -)72The Quaker integrity, child will shown,not . valuesof truthfulnessand pacifism- the last tenetbarring censoriousnessof anotherperson - areto be apprehendedby the child by observationand reflection. 'They areto be known, as early Friendswould say, 73 experimentally',or as we might say today, experientially. The purposeof a Quakereducation, then, was to openthe mind ratherthan closeit by dogmaticstatements. As Loukesputs it, 'Man cannot dignify ignoranceby calling it faith'. This empirical attitudemade the early Quakersvery opento the studyof science:any science/religion dilemma,as was articulatedlater in the nineteenthcentury over such mattersas evolution/creation, was, to the Quakers,'an unreal question',since the object of their studyof sciencewas 'a searchfor 74 God at work in the world'.

Sucha needfor showing,not telling would point readily to the writing of a book of moral talesfor children, and this is what Opie

71 Ibid., p. 13.

72 Ibid., p.14.

73 Ibid., p. 19.

74 Ibid., p.20. 307 produced in Tales ofthe Pemherton Family. The subtitle 'For the use of Children' reinforcesits didactic purpose,as doesOpie's remarkon p.39 that 'a story is nothing without a moral' and the observationthat 75 'the only true pleasuresare those which pleasein recollection'. Me book sizeis small, the font size is larger than usualat about 12 point andthere are a numberof line drawings,the frontispiecebeing tinted.

The storiesthemselves, in a bucolic settingthat might be the rural

Norfolk that Opie knew well, centrearound the family of the

Pembertons,a family noble in both sensesof the word. Lady

Pembertonis describedas 'wise and pious', with 'a careful eye' (p.3).

Her two sonsare paired,in typical fashion:one who does,one who doesn't- in this casegive of his sweetsto help a poor family. 'Self- denial,' remarksthe narrator,'is the foundationof all true generosity.'

The boy who refusedto sharehis sweetseats them all greedilyand achieveshis nemesisby becomingill throughdoing so. This pairing is not only a featureof many of Opie's adult tales,but also of perhapsthe best-knowncollection of tales for children of the time, ThomasDay's

(1783). 76 Sandfordand Merton

Lady Pemberton,as one would expect,regularly visits the poor in her parish. On one suchexpedition she encounters a womanand her children. The woman'sstory is of a bad marriageagainst parents'

75 Amelia Opie, Talesof thePemberton Family (London:Harvey & Dartonand Norwich, S.Wilkin, 1825),p. 1. Subsequentquotations are from this edition, andpage numbersare includedparenthetically in the text. 76 ThomasDay, Ae History of SanayordandMerjon (New York: Garland Publishing,1977), 3 vols. 308 wishcsto a soldicr (cf Father and Daughter)who becamcdissipatcd anddied in a debtors'prison. The poor woman,however, does not castigateher husbandfor her impoverishment.Rather, she points out that sheknows her placeand her duty: 'It is a wife's duty to throw a veil over the faults of her husband,be he living or dead,' shesays in responseto Lady Pemberton'squestions (p. 3 1). Knowing placeand duty is a highly significant characteristicwhich is duly rewardedby the bountiful Lady, who promisesseveral good works to her grateful auditorsbecause they are deservingpeople. The greatnessof God and one's duty to be awareof this - which the poor family readily acknowledge- is a centralstrand of the narrative. Despitethe material benefitsthat the poor family will enjoy, however,the readersenses that manystrings are attached.To a readerfrom our own time, Lady

Pembertoncomes across as an interfering, insensitiveand haughty person,confident in her own senseof bounty,particularly expressed when shelooks aroundthe humblecottage and remarksdecisively: 'I shall moveyou. ' Her wisdom and piety seemto needto be told rather than shown,and the telling is so heavy-handedas to indicatea writer ignorantof the acutesensibilities of children.

Another story featuresthe charmingly-namedboy, Herbert

Mildmay. Herbert is on his way to seea balloon ascentwith some pals,an eventwhich Opie herselfhad witnessedon 29 June 1802.77As he leavesthe village, his dog is run over by the cart carrying the party and suffersa broken leg. Despitehis disappointment,Herbert elects to

77 Earland,p. 170. 309

stayand help his dog ratherthan go to the ascent. The Pembertons

encounterhim as they drive throughthe village on their way to seethe balloon,hear his tale, take him homewith the dog and then allow him

to accompanythem to the ascentwhere he hasa bettervantage point

with them than he would havehad with his commonfriends. The

noblefamily, finding him a boy of natural morality, readyintelligence

and kind-heartedness,take him undertheir wing, promisinghim an

education.In this story the moral is more ably shownrather than told,

althoughthe condescensionof the do-goodersis clear in the narrative-

a reflectionof the natureof charity in the times. Opie's writing

indicatesthe shift in her ideology:the discourseof the radical

Dissenterof the 1790s,advocating democracy and evenrevolution, has

now becomethe discourseof the conservativeDissenter advocating a

social stasiswith its inequalitieslubricated by charity for the deserving

poor. This is a direct precursorof the view takenby the Unitarian

writer ElizabethGaskell in suchworks asMary Barton twenty-three

yearslater, althoughGaskell's analysis of the social tensionsin her

novel for adult readersis more complex.The importanceof the duty of

charity for womenand the relationshipbetween having and giving is

madeclear by DonnaT. Andrew's article 'NoblesseOblige: Female 78 Charity in an Age of Sentiment'. It is also broughtinto sharpfocus

by Opie's correspondence,notably a letter of 1829to JoanneBaillie, of

1844to Sir John Boileau and,most acutely,by a note of 1848

78 DonnaT. Andrew,'Noblesse Oblige: FemaleCharity in an Age of Sentiment'in J. Brewerand S. Staves,eds., Rwly Modem Conceptionsof Property(London: Routledge,1995), pp. 275-300. 310 addressedto a 'Dear Friend', explainingthat Opie, apparentlycharged with distributingsome form of charitablerelief, perhapsin connection with the Sick Poor Committee,has refused assistance to a man who, shethinks, hasapplied before under a different name.79 JohnArcher writes of the apparentlyincessant hardship suffered by the poor in

Norfolk at this time, and the motivesof thosewho performedacts of 80 charity.

In 1825,Opie followed up this ventureinto the new marketof children's literaturewith a long poemdealing with a subjectthat was closeto the heartof manyQuakers, especially that of her mentor

JosephJohn Gurney,that of slavery:'The Black Man's Lament,or

How to Make Sugar.' While this thesishas hitherto restricteditself to

Opie's prosewriting, I feel that an exceptionhas to be madefor this poem,since it focuseson the importantissue of Abolition, with which

Opie was heavilYinvolved at this time, and aboutwhich shewrote no publishedprose. Haydon's portrait of the assemblyat the 1840Anti-

SlaveryConvention, reproduced in Midgeley, showsher seated,third

81 from left. Opie also refersto her involvementin Abolitionism in

82 severalletters.

79See Appendix C: Letters. go SeeJohn E. Archer,By a Flash and a Scare(Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1990), esp. pp.56-57. a' ClareMidgeley, WomenAgainst Slavery. - the British Campaigns1780-1870 (London:Routledge, 1992), p. 80. 92 SeeAppendix C: Letters,notably the following: 6 May 1835to H Briggs; 13 March 1838to Lord Brougham;25 March 1838to J. J. Gurney;II June1840 to Lucy Aggs Q); 25 June 1840to II Gurney;29 June 1840to an un-namedrecipient; 311

As with Talesofthe PembertonFamily, this publicationis evidentlyintended to be an instructivework for children:the font size is quite largeat approximatelyfourteen point and on almostevery page is a handsomehandcoloured drawing. In Opie's poem,these illustrationsform a graphicsequence which complementsthe Black man'snarrative as he describeshow he was broughtto the West Indies in the crowdedslave ship, his landing and being sold, his waiting in line wearingleg-irons, a whipping, and the processesof making sugar: hoeing,planting, manuring, cutting down the cane,the bruising mill, boiling the canejuice, filling the casksand shipping.The copy of

Opie's poemavailable in the British Library is publishedjointly with other itemson the oppressionof slavesincluding 'The Negro's

Complaint'by William Cowper(1731-1800), and'a Narrative of

RemarkableIncidents in the Life of SolomonBayley, formerly a Slave in the Stateof Delaware,N. A., written by himself 1,83Although this appearsto be an anthology,no compiler's nameis given. The work is indexedby the Library underOpie's name,although there is no mentionof her working on suchan anthologyin her correspondence.

The slavetrade had beenabolished as far as Britain was concernedin 1808,after bills introducedby William Wilberforce in

1789,1791,1792,1795 and 1804 had been defeated. Slave labour persistedon the West Indies sugarplantations just as oppositionto it

I July 1840,also un-named;I September1843 to Lord Brougham;15 February1850 to Lady Boileau; II October1851 to Mss Cogan. 13 Amelia Opie, 7heBlackMan'sLmnentand0ther Works(London: Harvey& Darton, 1825). 312 persisted in Britain, particularly among the Dissenting population.

Slavesunder British control were not to be liberateduntil

Wilberforce'sEmancipation Bill becameenacted in 1833.In the

United States,where abolitionist pressure was also active,Lincoln

proclaimedemancipation on the first of January1863 and Congress

ratified this in December1865. However, the Quaker-runState of

Pennsylvaniahad freed its slavesbefore 1776,for Adam Smith records

this in his WealthofNations. Smith points out that 'The plantingof

sugarand tobacco can afford the expenseof slave-cultivation.The

raisingof corn, it seems,in the presenttimes, cannot.' The Quakersof

Pennsylvaniawere corn-growers,and, as Smith sardonicallyobserved,

'the late resolutionof the Quakersin Pennsylvaniato set at liberty all

their Negro slaves,may satisfyus that their numbercannot be very

A4 great.

JosephJohn Gurney,Opie's mentor,is a goodexample of an

Abolitionist of the time: he felt so stronglyabout slavery that he

refusedto take sugarin his tea. Whetherhis cook below stairsalso

refrainedfrom using sugarin her baking is not known.

Therehad beena rangeof abolitionist writing producedduring

the later yearsof the eighteenthcentury, particularly following the

establishmentof the Anti-Slavery Committeein 1787.The causehad

considerablepopularity, indeed, as Anna Laetitia Barbauldwrote in

1792,on the occasionof Wilberforce's bill being rejectedin the Lords

that year,

" Smith, p.489. 313

Thy countryknows the sin and standsthe shame! The preacher,poet, senator,in vain Has in her the Negro's 85 rattled sight chain .... This poemrefers to the samemoment in the strugglementioned by

Wordsworthin ThePrelude, who wrote

Whento my native land (After a whole year's absence)I returned, I found the air yet busy with the stir Of a contentionwhich had beenraised up Againstthe traffickers in Negro blood, An effort which, thoughbaffled, nevertheless Had called back old forgottenprinciples Dismissedfrom service,had diffused sometruths And more of virtuous feeling throughthe heart Of the English people.86

Abolitionist writing in versetended to fall into two main categories:the first narratedan incident or incidentsin the life of the slave,particularly with regardto the tensionbetween the white man and the teachingsof Christianity,his religion. This categoryincludes

Ann Yearsley'spoem 'On the Inhumanityof the SlaveTrade' (1788), which told of the torture and deathof the slaveLuco at the handsof the white Thristian' (11.225,259,281); 87 William Blake's 'Little Black

Boy' (1789),which emphasisesequality in that both Black and White boys will aroundGod's 'golden tent like lambsrejoice' ; 88 the poem

'The Sorrowsof Yamba' publishedby HannahMore as a Cheap

85 , 'Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq., on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade' in Poems (London: 1792), p.5.

86 William Wordsworth, 'The Thirteen Book Prelude' (1799-1806) book 10,11.201- 2 10 in Romanticism: An Anthology ed. Duncan Wu (London: Blackwell, 1994), pp.284474

87 In Wu, p.47. 88 In Wu, p.57. 314

Repositorybroadside circa 1795,but not written by her, in which

Yamba'ssalvation is assuredfollowing her baptismby a 'good 89 missionary man' (1.118); Thomas Campbell's 'On Slavery' (1799), which depictsthe 'Congo chief as a noble savagenow 'Fainting, bleeding,bound' (1.515)-90and Opie's own 'The Negro Boy's Tale'

(1802). The secondcategory of versedescribes the loathing with which the Englishmanor womanmust view the practiceof slavery, suchas in the way Barbauldpresents the disgustshe feels at the Lords' rejectionof the1792Bill in her poemabove, and William Cowper describestwice: first with dark, ironic humourin his poem 'Sweet

Meat hasSour Sauce,or the SlaveTrader in the Dumps' (1788), 91 then with gravitasin Book 11of The Task,in which he writes

My ear is pain'd, My soul is sick, of evry day's report Of wrong and outrage,with which Earth is fill'd. Thereis no flesh in man's obdurateheart, It does feel for not man; ... He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not coloured.like his own; and havingpow'r Venforce the wrong, for sucha worthy cause Doomsand devoteshim as lawful prey. (2,11.5-13)

and later I would not havea slaveto till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinewsbought and sold haveever earned. (11.27-30)92

89 In Wu, p.27.

90 In Wu, p.63 9.

91 In Wu, p. 11.

92 William Cowper,Yhe Task (London: for JohnSharpe, 1817), p. 4. 315

Theseexamples of this canonof writing emphasiseboth the salvationavailable to the Black slavethrough conversion to

Christianity,and the signally unchristianbehaviour of the White slavers.The significanceof the issueof slaveryand the imageof the slaveas contemporarycurrency in the 1790smay be seenin

Wollstonecraft'stheorizing on stateeducation, in which sheuses the 93 word 'slaves' to apply to women 'in a political and civil sense'.

Extendingthis themeof menial labour and poverty,with its crucial

characteristicsof a personbeing the propertyof another,thereby

havinga total lack of power,no exerciseof will, a denial of autonomy

and a superimposedidentity, writers of the 1790ssuch as GeorgeDyer

andWilliam Godwin were attemptingto establishconnections between

the topical issueof overseasslavery with the plight of the English

poor. Both Dyer's 'The complaintsof the Poor Peopleof England'

(1793)and Godwin's 'On Property' have undertonesof the egalitarian

principlesof the Diggersand the Levellersof the previouscentury, and

both condemnthe ruling classfor propagatingthis misery.

Given the enormouseconomic significance of the slavetrade, it

is not surprisingthat not all writing on slaverywas abolitionist:

Laetitia Matilda Hawkins's view of slavery,published in 1793,is that,

first, the oppressionisjustifiable on groundsof inferiority of the Black

race: 'The intellect of a negro,' shewrites, 'cannot reasonablybe

expectedto show itself as strongor as comprehensiveas that of a white

93 WolI stonecraft, A Vindicationof theRights of Women,p. 386. 316 person'.94 Second,given a paternal,protective attitude by the slave- owner,life would be 'not only easy,but in a short time [this would ensure]that freedomwould be no temptation.95 This appealto reasonableness,as distinct from reason,is almostalways, as here,a characteristicof reactionaryrhetoric. It is a soporific at oncesoothing and numbingwhich enablesa line of argumentto be developedthat makesthe repulsiveseem plausible, and Hawkins is clever at this.

By contrast,Opie's poemis clearly Abolitionist and its tone is didactic. In the first stanza,the readeris urgedto action: 'Oh! try to endthe griefs you hear' (st.1). In the second,the contrastis made between'the Black man's woes' and 'the White man's crime' (st.4).

The Black narrator,afler bewailing the hardshipshe endures, apostrophises'Ah! No. But Englishmencan work wheneverthey like, and stopfor breath' (st.28) and later, 'Who daresan English peasant flog?' (st.29). Put into the mouth of the Black narratorthe comparison is valid enough:however, it doespresent an interestingaspect of his creator.The relationship between reader and text is disturbedby the writer'sevident ignorance of the livesof theEnglish working poor.

Opie'sverse was published in the sameyear that Trade Unions were first legalised,and nine years before the transportation of themen knownas the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The findings of theParliamentary

Commissionersset up by theFactory Act of 1819record Elizabeth

Bentley'stestimony of working,at agesix, from six a.m. to sevenp. m.

94Laetitia Matilda Hawkins,Letters on the FemaleMing Its PowersandPursuits (London: Hookharn& Carpenter,1793), p. 134. 95 Ibid., p. 136. 317 normally,and 'From 5 in the morning until 9 at night, when they were thronged[i. e., busy], and of the,overlooker's use of his scourge.'% If the Englishpeasants and urbanpoor were only rarely flogged,they certainlysuffered disproportionate punishment in other forms for relativelyminor misdemeanours.Flogging itself wasthe preferred punishmentfor lower-deckbreaches of the Articles of War in the

Royal Navy, as it was in the Army and the prison system.

Examplesfrom Dyer and Godwin indicatehow the middle ranks of English societywere becomingmore awareof the plight of the poor: in the early nineteenthcentury this awarenesswas to grow, as indeedis indicatedby the setting-upof the ParliamentaryCommissioners and similar reformistmeasures. Opie herselfhad treated the subjectof povertyin her Poemsof 1802:'Fatherless Fanny', 'The OrphanBoy's

Tale' and 'The DespairingWanderer', for example- yet sheseems unableto makeany connectionbetween the exploitationof labour overseasand similar exploitationat home.

Opie's contrastof Black and White simply demonstratesthe opacityof her view towardsoppression. Even when shedescribes the

Black slave's food, she is describing fare which would have been

if little consideredpalatable - a strange- by many British workersat a time when food was expensiveand often in short supply:

All food ... our Is rice, dried fish and Indian meal. Hard, scantyfare! Oh would I could MakeWhite men Negroes' miseries feel! (st.32)

96 In JohnCarey, ed., Ae Faber Book ofReportage(London: Faber & Faber,1987), pp.295-298. 318

The solutionto the Black slave'shardship is an articulationof the reactionaryvalues of the religiousright, in a rehearsalof the valuesof salvationthat are presentin 'The Sorrowsof Yamba':

Well must I learn to bearmy pain; And lately, I am grown more calm; For Christianmen comeo'er the main To pour in Negroes'souls a balm.

They tell me if, with patientheart, I bearmy wrongs from day to day, I shall at deathto realmsdepart WhereGod wipes everytear away! (sts.49 & 50)

This aquiescencein the face of exploitationis in strangecontrast to the goal of emancipation,although it certainlymakes an acceptable doctrinefor the oppressingclass, and is in contrastto Opie's exhortationsto liberty in suchearlier publicationsas TheCabinet. Her attitudeis more in keepingwith the Dissentingwriters of the next generationsuch as ElizabethGaskell, who, in Mary Barton (1848), a novel basedon an incident during industrial unrestin Manchesterin

1831, articulatesan anti-unionperspective along with imposedvirtues of religiosity and self-relianceat a time of hardshipwhen children are dying of starvation.97

In commonwith other nineteenth-centuryauthors such as

Gaskelland GeorgeEliot, and in contrastto her youthful revolutionism,Opie was not sympatheticto rank-and-fileprotest.

During the protestsagainst mechanisation in agricultureof 1821 known as the Swing riots, shewrites of travelling to Londonvia the

97See Elie Halivy, 7he Mumph OfReform(London: Ernest Benn, 1927),p. 16. 319

'slowestbut safest'method, 'the broadwheeled wagon' - threedays from Norwich ratherthan the usualtwo - becauseof the dangerof " military firing on the rioting population. This, coupled with her fear of going out late at that time indicatesthe impactthe disturbanceshad on her, yet thereis not indicationof any awarenesson her part of the reasonsfor them, let aloneany mention of sympathyor otherwise.

Agrarian unrestsimmered until 1830,when specialpowers, including the deathsentence, were given to local magistratesand in one month over nine hundredarrests were made,particularly in EastAnglia. 99

Opie makesno referenceto this. While shewrites of the 'starving population' of Norwich weaversin 1829,her only remedyis charity.100 When they begansmashing looms in desperationher only reactionis a fear for her own safety.101 The marchof ten thousand skilled workmenon Westminsterto demandwork on 13 December

1830passes unremarked, although it must be said shewas in Paris on

102 that day, writing to SarahRose of the political situationin that City.

Opie prefersdistant causes and grandgestures, both of which may attain a patinaof romance:she twice mentions'poor Poland' in letterswritten during the Polish insurrectionand its invasionby Russia

98Amelia Opie to Eliza Alderson,31 July 1821;Huntington Library. 99 SeeHalevy, 1927, p. 15.

'00 Amelia Opie to Mle du Vauld, 15 December1829; Friends' Collection, Swarthmore.

101 Amelia Opie to HenryBriggs, 19 December1829; Huntington Library. 102 Amelia Opie to SarahRose, 13 December1830; Huntington Library. 320 in 1831.103 She is delighted to find that during her audience with the

Queenof Francein 1831, the Queenis knitting footwarmersfor the poor- it is this kind of charitableact that seemsso worthy to her, ratherthan, say,the Queenestablishing a small factory to produce 104 rathermore of theseitems than shecould herself It is to be seenfor the gesturerather than the usefulness,like the 'Queen's Scarves'of the

1914-1918War.

Shebegins to seethe weaknessof relianceon charity as a social remedywhen describingfurther hardshipsin Norwich in 1841: '1 cannotgive to all, ' shewrites, but recordsin the sameletter how the local Chartistswere 'easily dispersed'by the police.105 In keeping with the massof public opinion, Opie did not align herselfwith revolutionaryRadicalism in the 183Os. 106 She describes herself as a

Whig lady on three occasionsin her letters,although not when writing to Friends.107 It is quite clear that, in keepingwith the times, she alignedherself with the substantialcentrist, bourgeois element of

English life with a faith in reform and an equalabhorrence of revolution.

103Amelia Opie to Eliza Briggs, II February 1831; Amelia Opie to Sarah Rose, 7 March 1831: both Huntington Library.

104Amelia Opie to SarahRose, 7 March 1831; HuntingtonLibrary

105Amelia Opie to Lady Charleville,8 December1841; Marlay Collection, Universityof Nottingham.

106 SeeHalevy, p. 28. 107 Amelia Opie to Eliza Briggs, 16 April 1835and 17May 1839;both Huntington Library: Amelia Opie to Lady CatherineBoileau, 18 April 1845;Norfolk Record Office. 321

However, Opie's purpose in 'The Black Man's Lament' is to focusthe reader'sattention on the singularissue of slaveryand the needfor its abolition. Sinceshe certainly does not try to persuadeus that slaveryis reasonable,as Hawkins does,we can seethis poemas a mediatedview, wherethe polesof acceptanceand abhorrenceof slaveryare avoided,and a strongappeal is madeto the enslavedto acceptt ir ot.

Cowper'spoem 'The Negro's Complaint' which sharesthe samevolume, has a more radical ideologicalunderpinning. Also structuredas a first-personnarrative, it effectivelyjuxtaposes the Black slaveand his slave-master,who himself is but a 'slave of gold, whose

sordiddealings/ Tarnish all [his] boastedpowers' (st.2). The narrator is in no doubtas to the derelictmorality of the white man, but also of the commonalityof humanity,a themewhich Cowperpresented earlier in TheTask: 'Skins may differ, ' he says,'but affection / Dwells in

white andblack the same'(st. 4). Indeed,his climactic appealmay be seenas a cry againstany parasiticclass by any slave,waged or

otherwise,irrespective of skin-colour:

Lolling at yourjovial boards, Think how manybacks have smarted For the sweetsyour caneaffords.

Coming from the pen of someonewhose name headed the

femaleanti-slavery petition of 1833and who wasto be conspicuously

presentat the Anti-Slavery Conventionof 1840,Opie's verseis a poor

thing comparedto Cowper's,which is much more tightly focussed.108

log SeeMidgeley, p. 80. 322

The modem-day reader is perhaps put in mind of the well-meaning but hopelessly ignorant Mrs. Jellyby of Dickens' Bleak House (1853), with her 'telescopic philanthropy' towards the Africans, 'with a view to the 109 general cultivation of the coffee-berry' at Borrioboola-Gha. Mrs

Jellyby was not to know of the disastrous consequencesof single-crop plantation farming for the colonised countries, and her daughter

Caddy's upbringing is not so different from that of Adeline Mowbray,

who also suffered a mother obsessed.With this poem, as with The

Negro Boy's Tale, which originally appearedin the anthology Poems

(1802), but which was reprinted between its own boards in 1824 as 'a

poem addressedto children', it seemsthat Opie is attempting to

convince her sponsorsin the Society of Friends, especially Gurney,

that she was wholeheartedly 'convinced. The doctrine of acceptance,

which the Friends would recognise, is in contrast to the revolutionary

doctrines of her youth but in keeping with her Whig identity of the

Thirties and Forties.

In 1828,Longman published Opie's elegantly-writtenenquiry

into the causesand remediesof maliciousgossip, A Curefor Scandal,

or Detraction Displayed. As with many of her other later works, it

also appearedlater from a Bostonpublisher, in this caseJames Loring,

1839.Following the deathof her father in November1825 - only three

monthsafter shehad been formally receivedinto membershipof the

Societyof Friends-a senseof lonelinessf iguresin her Preface. It is

109 Dickens, Charles, Bleak House (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1853), p.58. 323 evidentfrom her remarksthat that neitherJohn Opie nor the still-living

JosephJohn Gurney could usurpthe significanceJames Alderson held for her, and her fictitious treatmentsof father-daughterrelationships in everymajor work exceptAdefine Mowbray are pulled into focuswhen shewrites:

I havesometimes turned round, while writing, to ask for counsel and advice[and] I havebeen painfully remindedthat the judicious critic, as well as the tenderparent was removedfrom me forever.' 10

The fact that Amelia Opie arrangedfor her fatherto be buried in the

QuakerBurial Groundin Norwich, althoughhe was not a Quaker,in the plot shewould later share,indicates the strengthof the bond betweenthem.

In Detraction Displayed,Opie describesmalicious gossip - It is 'detraction' - in religiousterms, as a 'besettingsin'. especially

shunnedby Quakersas it implies passinga judgementon a fellow

hurnanbeing, which is contraryto Quakerconduct.

Sheadds that in writing the work, shehad been'influenced by

the wish to effect my own refonnationas well as that of others' (p. 10).

This indicatesher priorifising of attentionto discourse,and recallsthe

commentsmade by Southey,Mitford, Crabb,Robinson and otherson

her discursivestyle and its mediationwith the Friends' plain speech

analysedby Michaelson. Shelists detractorsas 'Gossips,Talkers-

over, Laughers-at,Banterers, Nicknamers, Stingers, Scomers,

110Amelia Opie,A Curefor Scandal,or DetractionDisplayed (Boston: James Loring, 1839),preface, unpaginated. Subsequent quotations are from this edition,and pagenumbers are includedparenthetically in the text. 324

Swearers,Eye-inflictors, Mimicks, Caricaturists and Epigrammatists', eachholding a powerto humiliateor injure (p.75). As will be seen,she is particularlysensitive to detractionagainst women writers.

Opie attributes'competition' as the causeof this sin, statingthat

'when we are consciousthat thosewith whom we are put in

distinguishedthan competition... are more noticedand we are ... envy is excitedin our hearts,and that envy leadsto detraction'(p. 11). The themeof competitionreappears when shewrites 'in a metropolis, competitionis general,in a provincial town it becomesparticular: as the narrowerthe field of rivalry, the more pointedis thejealousy'

(p. 13). 'Competition' is a term more redolentof the valuesof trade than its synonym'rivalry'. The offspring of competitionand tradeis advertising,and shechooses to makethis connectionwhen shequotes

Dr Johnson'scomment on Oliver Goldsmith'sconstant self- advertisement:'he is so afraid of being unnoticedthat he often talks lest one shouldforget that he is in the company'(p. 30). This is the languageof business,and its foregroundingindicates its strengthand currencyas a metaphorin the early nineteenthcentury, and further suggeststhe collusion of businessand religion, especiallynon-

Conformist religion.

'The Two Sir Williams' in Opie's Talesofthe Heart fictionalisedthe sticky social conventionsof precedence,and it is this issuewhich Opie takesup in Chaptervi of Detraction Disp*ed.

Indeed,one sensesthat having fictionalisedthe consequencesof acts condemnedin conductbooks, Opie is now writing her own. 325

Precendenceis an anomalyto Quakers,just as is the useof honorifics, sinceit arbitratesagainst the God-givenequality of man. Given Opie's expenenceas a socialhostess in more glittering times, shewas well qualified to treatthe topic, althoughher treatmentis carefulto take a suitablyQuaker view. Shepokes fun at the precedenceto be accorded a 'lady of an earl's youngerson's wife' (p.49) after pointing out the distinctionbetween 'a lady and a lady'(her italics) 'to be honoured beforethe otherpretenders, who were simplemistresses, though

"honorable' precededtheir names'(p. 48). Her subtextis of respectabilityover rank, and this is an articulationof Quakervalues in additionto being an echoof Lucy Merle's integrity when comparedto the corrupt aristocraticMrs. Boughtonin Valentine'sEve. Thosemost insistenton proceduralcorrectness are they 'whose rights to it are dubious',she says, and presentsan alternativeto precedenceby rank:

'give precedenceto the stranger,and to the oldestin the company'

(p.67). Her counselto individuals,strongly based in Quakerideology, is 'That it would be bestto strugglewith the desireof precedenceas an unchristianfeeling. That it would be wisestto endeavourto be indifferent to going first or last' (p.59). Much later shewas to corroboratethis in a letter to Lady Charleville, saying'No-one can be more opposedto forms & ceremonies& mummeriesas I am'. 111This view wasnot to preventher from writing, probablyto Sir John

Boileau, with a certainsatisfaction following the processionat I J.

Gurney'sfuneral: 'Thou wast not right in thy suppositionthat I should

111Amelia Opie to Lady Charleville,26 June 1849;Marlay Collection,University of 326

112 not return in the High Sheriff s caffiage - no indeed!' In addition, thereare severalexamples in her correspondenceof her requestinga specialticket for an event,notably the annualexhibition at the Royal

Academyand the coronationof QueenVictoria. 113 At this point one feels her professionsof equalitybeing overcomeby her feelingsof entitlement. This latter is reinforcedby her strictnessregarding how shewas to be addressed:'I am not an old maid, but the widow of a distinguishedman, ' sheinformed Haniet Martineau.114

After a disquisitionon 'Religious Competition',during which sheobserves that 'Christian purposesdo not alwaysensure the existenceof a Christianspirit' (p.60), Opie shifts her attentionto 'The

Vocabularyof Detraction', and lists termswhich shefinds offensive:

'The fellow, the old fellow, mother such-a-one,old mother such-a-one, the old girl, the old maid' (p. 126). The usageof phrasessuch as these wasevidently as widespreadthen as it is now, for shewrites that 'I haveheard them from the lips of thosewho would indignantlyrepel the chargeof vulgarity' (p. 127). Sherefines her argumentin termsof

'Authoressesand Bluestockings','the most favourite subjectsof detractionin the circles in which they move.' Sherejects criticisms of unnaturalness(such as that levelledby RichardPolwhele's poem of

Nottingham

112Amelia Opie to Sir JohnBoileau (? ), 24 July 1847;Norfolk RecordOffice, Norwich.

113 See,for example:Amelia Opie to Eliza Briggs, 27 March 1832,Huntington Library, Amelia Opie to JJ Gurney,29 May 1838, Societyof Friends'Library; Amelia Opie to Eliza Briggs, 9 June1838, Huntington Library. 114 Amelia Opie to HarrietMartineau (? ), 28 February1842; Norfolk RecordOffice, Norwich. 327

1798,'The Unsex'd Females')with a rebuttalthat epitomisesQuaker thinking aboutthe useof one's talents: 'If the giver of all goodthings hasbestowed on womanthe power of writing, sheis justified in

exertingit' (ibid.). Sheis now ableto usethe authorityof

nonconformistthinking, which hasbecome a prevalentand accepted

ideology,in contrastto earliertimes when nonconformismwas

regardedwith suspicionof Jacobindisloyalty by the majority of

Englishpeople. Sheextends this by presentinga picture of an

authoress,old-style, and comparingit with a contemporaryimage

(p.133). Even in most the progressivecircles in London, 'the very

highestpraise which could be given to a femalewriter would be "she is

really an agreeablewoman and I nevershould have guessed she was an

authoress"'(ibid. ). The prevailingvalues were of motherhoodand the 'the familial role - hencethe referenceto commonand necessary

duties' of womanhood,of which, it was assumed,the 'authoress'was

incapableof This excerptshows some softening of receivedview from

the angrytones of reactionin the 1790s,but thereis still clear unease

at the idea of a womanattempting to write professionallyforty years

later.

Opie counselstwo defencesagainst detraction, both from

oneselfand from others:eschewing worldliness, so that the needto

competeis reduced,and 'self-examination',meaning reflection on

one's speechand action (P.181 and ff. ). In her final chapter,she

addresses'the youngermembers of the Societyof Friends', thus 328 leavingno doubt in her readers'minds that sheis communicatingfrom an authoritativeposition within that Society. Shereminds them of the

Quakerdoctrine quoted at Meeting: 'Are Friendspreserved in love towardseach other, and arethey careful to avoid tale-bearingand detraction?' (p. 196). Finally sheoffers four rules:to combatthe urge to satirise,'to which all youngpeople are inclined' (p. 197);self- examination(p. 198); thinking beforewe speak(p. 202); and 'do unto othersas you would that othersshould do unto you' (p.203).

Opie's non-fiction seemsto havebenefitted from her writing her fiction first. The style of Detraction Displayedis refreshinglyspare and almostepigrammatic in places,suggesting a maturity and authoritativeness,in contrastto the fuller, occasionallyoverblown style of her tales. This againis indicativeof Opie usinga style somewhere betweenthe sociolectof the Friendsand her earlier style. Opie, says

Michaelson,'refused to speakeither as a womanor as a Friend', but to mediatebetween the two.' 15Given the characteristicsMichaelson identifiesas 'women's speech',i. e. loquaciousness,exaggeration and quantityover depth,it is clearthat Detraction Displayedis written in a style more in keepingwith thoseof other bluestockings,whose assertivestyles of discourseand weighty ratherthan frivolous topics of conversationwere threateningtraditional male territory. Opie's style in this work is investedwith the 'plainnessof speech[which] is indeed the oppositeof conventionalpoliteness. " 16Just as sheemphasised her

Michaelson,p. 122.

Ibid., p. 146. 329 useof the terms'lies' and 'lying' in her prefaceto her earlier publication,Opie scruplesover mattersof language,as we haveseen in her remarksabout the vocabularyof detractionand her distinction betweena 'lady' and a 'lady. Detraction Displayedthus representsa maturework which, in manyways, anticipates the plainerwriting style of the mid-nineteenth-century.

Detraction Displayed was reviewed in The Monthly Review as

&very it fail to simply, and often very sweetly,written ... that will not answerin somedegree the praiseworthypurpose for which it hasbeen composed'.117 Brightwell includesa letter from ArchdeaconJohn

Wrangham,who had written to her in 1822praising Madeleine. ' 18He pmisedDetraction Displayed as 'the conscientiouswork of a very gifted writer [which] cannotbe readwithout producing,by God's " accompanying blessing, excellent effects. 19

Opie's shift from sentimentaltales to didacticismmay be seenas part of the shift to the mechanisticzietgeist that ThomasCarlyle identifiesin his essay'Signs of the Times', publishedin the sameyear asDetraction Disp*ed. 'It is the Age of Machinery,' he says,'in every outwardand inward senseof that word'. 120Not only does

Carlyle foregroundthe impact of industrialisationin Britain at the time, using it as a centralmetaphor in his essay,he also examinesthe

117 7heMonthly Review,New Series,9 (1828),p. 280. 118 Opie repliedto his letter on 30 April 1822; PforzheimerCollection, NYPL. 119 Brightwell, p.219. 120Thomas Carlyle, 'Signs of the Times' in PeterKeating, ed., 7he Victorian Prophets(Fontana: Glasgow, 198 1), p.47. 330 insinuating influence exerted by this mechanisation on human ambitions and expectations. 'To those of us who live in the midst of all this,' he writes, 'it is apt to seem quite natural, and as if it had never been otherwise.' Opie herself records some of these changesin her

letters: in 1838 she remarks how the transatlantic vessel The Great

Eastern,powered by both steam and sail, enabled rapid crossings, 121 'annihilating time and space'. She wrote equally enthusiastically in

1845 of travelling from Norwich to London by train in only three and a

half hours.122

Carlyle pointsout how mechanisationpermeates all aspectsof

life, includingthose with which Opie is most concerned,religion and

education.For the former,Carlyle reminds us that, prior to the

mechanicalage, the divine spirit 'arosein the mystic deepsof man's

soul.... Man's highestattainment was accomplished Dynamically, not

Mechanically.' Religiousawareness, he says,does not grow by

'institutions,establishments and well-arranged systems of

mechanism.' 123 Carlyle doesnot dismissthe benefitsof

mechanisation,but pointsout that they areall external,and do nothing

for the soul. Dickens' later satireof a mechanisticeducation in the

M'Choakumchildschool, where all wasfact, is a fictional development

of Carlyle's observations.Although writing in a long tradition of

prescriptiveconduct guides, Opie's writing post-1820 developed this

121Amelia Opic to Henry Briggs, 23 October 1838; Huntington Library.

122Amelia Opie to Lady Catherine Boileau, 8 April 1845; Norfolk Record Office, Norwich.

123 Carlyle, p. 57. 331 mechanistic, prescriptive characteristic: this is evident from her non- fiction andfrom the simpletales that illustrateher preceptsfor both adult readersand children, and maybe seenbest in the instructionsto youngQuakers in DetractionDisplayed. The focusshe found in her later life wasa faith basednot on mystic enthusiasm,but regulated observancemanifested by costume, speechand demeanourclearly diffcrcnced from the world-at-largc. She had her own evolutionary reasonsfor developing in this way, as we have seen. The point of the comparison is to show how, consciously or otherwise, Opie was sensitiveto the shiffing valuesof the timesthrough which shehad lived. The paradoxesof Quakerism- conspicuityby silenceand plainness,frugality in affluence - representher in later life just as

Revolutionist ardour and intellectual brightness representedher in the

1790s.Her youthful blacksand whites have become the greysof her

Quakerdress, but this changeis no morenor lessthan the changein her times.

Oneof the morecharming unpublished tales remains in a manuscript dated at North Repps Cottage on I r" mo., 20'h 1829 (20 124 January). This was the home of and SarahBuxton, near Cromer, where Opie stayedfrom New Years Day to 24 January,

1829.125The cottage still exists, and was the site of a school kept by these women for local children. The tale, which covers four sides and

124 Ms. PF227, A014 Pforzheimer Collection, NYPL. 123 BrightwelL p.220. 332 is autographed,was originally entitled 'The Birthday', but this has beenamended to 'The Blow Forgiven'. It concernsthe story of repentanceby a youngchild for a blow to anotheroccasioned by irritability. It is the youngchild's birthday,and her repentanceenables forgiveness,and so the happinessof the birthdaycelebration is not clouded. The tale signifies first, that Opie was continuing to write fiction, particularlythat of a moral and didacticnature, second that this did not causecensure by the Quakers,probably because it foregroundedthe Gurneyite concept of repentance.

The two moralistictales in HappyFaces, or Benevolenceand

Seyishnessappear to havebeen published in 1830by the London publisher S.O. Beeton. The first, of the samename, concerns Sir

EdwardMeredith, a wealthy philanthropistwho 'liked to seethe

126 HAPPY FACES which wealthcould sometimesmake'. The debtto

Sternefor this phraseis amusinglyacknowledged (p. 6). 127 In typical

Opie fashion,Meredith is contrastedwith Mr. Ferguson,who is not readily generous. The tale is of the bourgeois world Opie knew. of playing-cards, courtship, rivalries and power games. But if the affluent in the tale are stereotypical, so are the depictions of those in need: 'a poor woman,whose dress bespoke excessive indigence [with] a child of a year old, who seemedin pain [and] a little shoelessgirl' (p. 121).

12's Ws. Opie, Happy Faces or Benevolenceand Seýlshness(London: S. 0. Beeton, undated), pA Subsequentquotations are from this edition, and page numbers are included parenthetically in the text.

127 Cf Uncle Toby in Sterne, YheLife Opinions Shwidy. . and of Tristrwn 333

However, the poor woman, a beneficiary of Meredith's generosity, is ableto help him find the manwho haseluded him: the moral is thus madeimplicitly, unusuallyfor Opie, that generousacts may have unanticipatedrewards. The secondtale in this volume,entitled

'Revenge',is one in which the rectitudeof a youngwoman is testedby her suitor a themeof literaturesince Chaucer's knight testedGriselda.

As in other Opie tales, the woman's virtue enablesher to triumph and makea goodmarriage thereby.

Opie was not to escapecensure from JosephJohn Gurney, however,when a collectededition of her works waspublished in twelve volumes in 1845.128Although the matter is not mentioned in

Brightwell, MacGregor records Opie's reply to a letter of disapproval from him, in which shestoutly defended her position,and that of novel-readersand writers in general,although she manages a nice conflationbetween novels and simplemoral tales.129 The letter reads in part:

I never thought, nor do I now think that in doing this I have at all violated my engagementas a Friend -I promised never to write things of the same sort again, nor have I done so - but though I freely that has tendency to admit novel-reading ... a make young personsdisinclined to serious and more instructive reading, and is therefore pernicious, I never said, becauseI fiction never thought, that works of were never to he read - on the contrary, I believe simple moral tales the very best mode of instructing the young and the poor... My own books (which Friends never read and know nothing about), are, in my belief, moral tales.130

129 wS. Opie,Miscellaneous Tales (London: 1845-7), 12 vols. 129 MacGregor, p. 121. 130 Amelia Opie to JosephJohn Gurney, 17 November 1845; Friends' Library, London. 334

Sheregrets that shehas 'given pain to theeby permittingto be done what I felt an act ofjustice to myself' (ibid.) Gurney'sreply is not known.

At heart,Opie felt ignored:'Of late I feel that both [JohnOpie] andI arepersons so forgotten,' shehad told her cousinMargaret

Alderson in 1838.131Popular taste had moved on from Opie's simple matronising tales: for example, Dickens' Sketcheshy Boz, a collection of his humourousand observant articles published in various periodicals, had been published in one volume in 1836. Also at that time Tennysonwas creatinghis escapistworld of mediaevalEngland in poemssuch as 'Mariana', 'Morte dArthur' and 'Locksley Hall'. The newly-literatelower-middle-class did not wish to be lectured,and if it did, it would go to a Mechanics'Institute. To takean analogyfrom a centurylater, the talldeshad arrivedand the silent films of the Regency writers had becomepassi.

Despitethis, her sociallife seemsto havebeen very full, andthe biographiesof both Brightwell andMacGregor include with some relish namesof her callers and correspondents,which read like a roll- call of Regencytalent and ton: Robert Southey, , Mary

Mitford, Letitia Landon(L. E. L. ), Lady Cork and,of course,Elizabeth

Fry and her brotherJoseph John Gurney.The latter had favouredher by mentioningher namein the title of a collectionof his letters,

131 MacGregor, p. 120. 335 published privately in 1841.132 (She could not resist writing to a friend

'addressedto Me!1,133 ) Scrutiny of the Register of Letters appendedto this thesis reveals many more correspondents,such as reformist Whigs

Russell and Brougham. During the years 1832 to 1846 she conducted a vigorous correspondencewith her cousins Eliza Alderson and Henry

Briggs, which letters strike the reader as being free of the gloss of religiosity on the one hand and aristocratic name-dropping on the other and reveal domestic entanglementsworthy of a popular novel.

During the 1840s,Grove, a new publisherfor Opie, publisheda clutch of her works: WhileLies and TheStage Coach and Other Tales

(1845)and Appearance is AgainstHer, a tale in onevolume (1847).

TheStage Coach, dedicated to 'Dr. Aldersonof Norwich' and with the aim of promoting'the moral and religiouswelfare of mankind' (title page),was presented in duodecimobut with largetype, suggestinga volumeintended for children. It carriedthe talespreviously published in Illustrations ofLying, but without the analyticalcommentary. The foregroundingof morality and religion on the reappearanceof these talesdemonstrates society's concern for public expressionsof moralitiesof respectwhich characterisethe mid-Victorianperiod. In this way, the presentationis similar to that of Longman'sreissue of

AdelineMowbray in 1844,which presented,as Jeannette Winterson

132j. J. Gurney,A Journeyin North AmericaDescribed in Familiar Lettersto Amelia Opie (Norwich: 1841).

133Amelia Opie to Lady Charleville, 20 October 1841: Marlay Collection, University of Nottingham. 336 pointed out, as a 'a moral tale about women who thought they were cleverenough to live outsidesociety I. 134Since Opie's own views had becomemore outwardly moral in keepingwith the preceptsof

GumeyiteQuakerism, which emphasiseatonement and proseletizing, theserepublications would seemappropriate, especially when seen in the context of the critical reception afforded by mid-century writers such as Julia Kavanagh. After commenting that 'she was not much of a thinker', Kavanagh praises her 'one gift -a great one, a beautiful one,

knew how to to the heart.' 135In these a woman's gift ... she appeal terms,this is a comment,and an approvingone, on Opie's morality.

Kavanagh'sdiscussion of AdefineMowbray emphasisesthe morality of the tale andits instructiveness,talldng of 'sin' and a 'lesson'136 Her comments on Opie's later work acknowledge the change in the times that I haverefeffed to in this thesis:discussing the inclusionof religious teaching in these works, Kavanagh says that this was

'significant of a changein the times as well as in Mrs Opie's own mind'. The religiouswritings did not pleaseher, however,except whenOpie usedpathos: 'It wasby pathosthat shetaught, ' says

Kavanagh,'as Miss Edgeworthtaught by wit and wisdom' (p.282).

The subtexthere - that a work of fiction shouldhave a didactic element- supportsthe view that the mid-century perspectiveon fiction

134 ý&S.Opic, Adeline Mowbray. theMother andDaughter, ed. Jeanette Winterson (London:Pandora, 1986), p. viii. 135 Kavanagk 2, p.268. 136 Ibid., p. 280. 337 should be, if not improving, then blamelessly moral. Opie's later work maybe seento reflect that view.

Despiteperiods of ill-health andthe deathof Gurneyin 1847 after a riding accident,she remained indefatigable. In 1848she attendedmeetings and visited old friendsin London,collected for the victims of the Irish famineand moved to her final abodeon Castle

Meadow in Norwich. Her senseof fun was still in evidence in 1851, whenat ageeighty-two, she attended the GreatExhibition, admitted with otherwheelchair-users before the doorswere open to the general public. On meeting Mary Berry, an acquaintance,she challenged her to a mcedown the straightaisles of the CrystalPalace. 137 Her last years,although lucid, wereones of physicalpain, andboth Brightwell

(who waspresent) and MacGregor record her deathon 2 December

1853with someeloquence. She is buried in the QuakerBurial

Ground,Norwich, in the samegrave as her father. An anonymous handwrittenobituary in the Wood Collectionat Swartlmore,entitled

'A Portraitof Amelia Opie, after mentioningher worldly life, says that 'she sawat lengththat her peaceconsisted in withdrawingfrom those deniedthe After who atonement... greatconflict of mind sheat lengthresigned herself to the guidanceof the Spirit of truth and found

138 true peaceher portion. '

.:. .:. .:. .:.

137 MacGregor, p. 126; Brightwell, p.3 89.

139Wood Collection,Friends' Collection, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.