Miss Edgeworth died on the 21st of May 1849, after having lived to see her works take rank as English classics. Her influence was deep and lasting. Sir Walter Scott confesses that he was anxious to do for Scotland what Miss Edgeworth had done for Ireland; and it is said that O’Connell regretted deeply that one so powerful did not servo Ireland as an agitator. Her society was courted by the most distinguished of her contemporaries; and countless tourists, who visited her, returned home charmed by her lively conversation and by the domestic virtues which brightened the home of which she was the centre. With Scott she was on terms of the closest intimacy; Byron admired her works, in spite of his sarcastic reference to “Miss Edgeworth’s novels stepping from their covers;” and Lord Macaulay was one of her most enthusiastic worshippers. “Among all the incidents,” says Mr Trevelyan, “connected with the publication of his History, nothing pleased Macaulay so much as the gratification that he contrived to give to Maria Edge worth, as a small return for the enjoyment which, during more than forty years, he had derived from her charming writings.” Macaulay mentions Miss Edgeworth’s name in a note, in which he describes her delineation of King Corny, in Ormond, as “that admirable portrait.” Miss Edgeworth, in a letter to Dr Holland, speaks of the “self-satisfaction, vanity, pride, surprise, I had in finding my own name in a note.”
Castle Rackrent, the first and one of the most characteristic of her novels, is lit up throughout with sunny Irish humour, Sir Condy complaining that he “was very ill used by the Government about a place that was promised him and never given, after his supporting them against his conscience very honourably” (1857 edition, p. 39). Leonora has a painful plot. It treats of the seduction of an attached husband by a professed friend of his wife. Leonora’s forbearance, however, and her deep-seated love for her husband prove, in the end, too much for the hollow professions and vaunted “sensibility” of Olivia. The Tales of Fashionable Life include Ennui, The Dun, Manoeuvring, Almeria, Vivian, The Absentee, Madame de Fleury, and Émilie de Coulanges. Ennui is a powerful story, and relates how the earl of Glenthorn was cured of the disease which gives its name to the book. There are several fine character studies, including the Earl; M t Leod, the cool, but faithful, Scotch agent; witty Lady Geraldine; Christy, the blacksmith; and Ellinor, the Irish foster nurse, who said, on one occasion, that “if it plased God, she would like to die on a Christmas day, of all days, becaase the gates of Heaven, they say, will be open all that day, and who knows but a body might slip in unknowηst ?” (1857 edition, p. 231). The Dun portrays, with a realism almost too painful, the dreadful privations undergone by the poor who are unable to get in the money justly their due. Manoeuvring depicts the efforts of Mrs Beaumont, a clever, scheming, deceitful woman, to marry her son and daughter contrary to their inclinations. For a while all seems to go well with Mrs Beaumont, until she is herself entangled in her net of white lies, and finally thoroughly outwitted. Her character, and that of Mr Palmer, a wealthy merchant from Jamaica,· are worthy of the author’s high reputation. Almeria traces the rise of the worldly spirit in the breast of a young girl, and the debasing consequences of a passionate pursuit of fashion for its own sake, unredeemed by any ennobling feature. Vivian is an admirably told story, and illustrates the terrible evils which sometimes arise from indecision of character. Vivian, the undecided, brilliant, young noble; Russell, the faithful tutor; Wharton, the unscrupulous politician and voluptuary; self-willed Lord Glistonbury; prim Lady Glistonbury; and vivacious Lady Julia seem to start from the canvas. The Absentee, considered by many as Miss Edgeworth’s masterpiece, is written to expose the misery entailed on the tenantry by the Irish gentry, who deserted their native country for London, and abandoned their affairs to be managed by unscrupulous agents. The characters are among the most life-like in the annals of fiction. Lady Clonbrony makes herself exquisitely ridiculous in her vain endeavours to act the fine English lady; Lord Colambre, the hero of the novel, travels, under an assumed name, among bis father’s tenants in Ireland, finds out how rudely they have been oppressed, and champions their cause so skilfully as to win over even Lady Clonbrony; Lady Dashfort and her daughter are wonderfully real representations of heartless women of fashion; the sufferings of the Irish peasantry are drawn with a loving and masterly pencil; and the general sadness of the work is relieved by such humorous sketches as Colonel Heathcock, Sir Terence O’Fay, and Larry Brady, whose inimitable letter closes the book. Macaulay considered the scene in which Lord Colambre discovers himself to his father’s tenantry the best passage of the kind since the beginning of the 22d book of the Odyssey. This is very high praise, especially when we remember that Macaulay seems to have read almost every novel—so much was he fascinated by narrative composition. Madame de Fleury is the story of a French lady who set up a school in Paris for neglected girls. The school came to grief at the great Revolution; and its benevolent founder had to fly to England, where she was supported mainly by donations from the girls, who were instigated by Victoire, the heroine of the book. Ultimately her return to France was secured by Basile, Victoire’s lover, who had obtained influence with his general through his valuable engineering knowledge. Emilie de Coulanges describes the mortifications two French refugees had to undergo in living with Mrs Somers, an excessively ill-tempered English lady, who was generous enough with her money, but neglectful of kindness of a more delicate order. Mrs Somers’s incessant outbursts of temper and reconciliations with Emilie, to be followed inevitably by fresh quarrels, are somewhat wearisome reading. The Modern Griselda, a story treating of the attempts of a wife to bring her husband to abject submission, manifests fine satiric power, and great liveliness—thedialogue being particularly animated. Patronage, which is in the same vein as the Tales of Fashionable Life, rather disappointed the critics, who concluded that Mr Edgeworth had written considerable parts of it. This, however, is expressly denied by Miss Edgeworth (Memoirs, ii. 323). Ormond is an Irish tale, and ranks among the best of Miss Edgeworth’s works. It shows how a youth, whose education had been neglected, and whose temper was naturally impetuous, managed to reach true nobility of character. King Corny, Ormond, Sir Ulick O’Shane, Moriarty Carroll, Dora, and Mademoiselle O’Faley are masterly creations. There is a true Irish ring about the book, although it is composed in the purest English. Helen is a novel of thrilling interest, and displays greater passion and a finer insight into the more subtle moods of the human mind than any of Miss Edge-worth's previous works. The moral is that falsehood and deceit almost invariably bring misery in their train. Although on a more elaborate scale than her other books, Helen surpasses them all in grace, charm, aud lightness of touch. Such powerfully conceived characters as Lady Davenant, Helen, Cecilia, Beauclerc, Churchill, and the Clarendons, leave an indelible impression on the memory.
Miss Edgeworth’s novels are distinguished by good sense, humour, and an easy flowing style. As the construction of a plot is not her strong point, she is generally more successful in tales than in lengthy novels. The vivacity of her dialogues is extraordinary; and in them her characters reveal themselves in the most natural way possible. Her books are character-studies, rather than intensely interesting narratives. Sobriety of judgment is seen throughout; and passion, romance, and poetry rarely, if ever, shed their lustre on her pages. Three of her aims were to paint national manners, to enforce morality, and to teach fashionable society by satirizing the lives of the idle and worldly. She expressly calls some of her stories “Moral Tales”; but they all fall under this category. The two poles of thought in regard to the moral tendency of Miss Edge worth’s works are well represented by Robert Hall, the eminent Baptist preacher, and Monsieur Taine Miss Edgeworth “does not,” says Hall, “attack religion or inveigh against it, but makes it appear unnecessary by exhibiting perfect virtue without it. No books ever produced so bad an effect on my own mind as hers. I did not expect any irréligion there: I was off my guard; their moral character beguiled me: I read volume after volume with eagerness; and the evil effects of them I experienced for weeks” (Hall’s IVorks, vol. i. Bohn’s edition, 1846, appendix, note A). Monsieur Taine, again, says that “this regular presence of a moral intention spoils the novel as well as the novelist. It must be confessed a volume of Thackeray has the cruel misfortune of recalling the novels of Miss Edgeworth” {English Literature, Criticism on Thackeray). To lιobert Hall’s criticism it is to be objected that a novel is scarcely the place to explain and inculcate the systematic theology of the evangelical school; while we must concede to Taine and the French critics that to burden a novel with a moral, or other special purpose, is artistically a blemish, especially when it is professedly made an aim as in Miss Edgeworth’s case. She remarks very beautifully of Sir Walter Scott, that “his morality is not in purple patches, ostentatiously obtrusive, but woven in through the very texture of the stuff” (Helen, 1838 edition, 123)—a statement which scarcely holds true of herself. Still, strong national tendencies must be allowed to assert themselves in fiction, ami there can be no doubt that the didactic or moralizing tendency is deeply seated in the English-speaking peoples.
No writer teaches a more admirable practical philosophy than Miss Edgeworth; and she reaches her object by making her characters natural, and capable, as well as worthy, of imitation. She plainly belongs to the realistic school of fiction; and it is interesting to remember that her Tales are expressly founded on a carefully thought out philosophy of education. She thus gives no countenance to the popular fallacy that teaching is a mere trick or knack, rather than a science resting on well-ascertained mental phenomena. Few novelists display less extravagance than Miss Edgeworth. We feel that her minor characters especially are genuine flesh and blood. Sometimes the hero or heroine of the story is liable to the charge of being the incarnation of a single quality, rather than a man or woman. However, in the case of one who writes with a didactic purpose, this is almost inevitable. Miss Edgeworth has drawn attention to the less brilliant faculties of humanity, and always prefers to be useful, where others would have endeavoured to be striking. In her pages the heroic virtues give place to prudence, industry, kindness, and sweetness of temper. There are few instances of overwhelming emotions or tumultuous passions in her works; and it is remarkable how little the love of nature appears. She never uses material which does not yield some direct moral lesson. All this is the natural consequence of Miss Edge worth’s method and utilitarian aim. But, working under such self-imposed conditions, she has done wonders. Her representations of the humour, pathos, and generous character of the Irish peasantry are an imperishable monument of her genius. Nor is it fair to depreciate the English novels in comparison, Helen being quite equal to any of her distinctively national tales. The freshness of her stories, her insight into character, lively dialogues, originality of invention, and delightfully clear style render it quite possible to read her works in succession without any sense of weariness. As a painter of national life and manners, and an illustrator of the homelier graces of human character, Miss Edgeworth is surpassed by Sir Walter Scott alone; while as a direct moral teacher she has no peer among novelists. Among the many sweet memories her unsullied pages have bequeathed to the world, not the least precious is her own noble character, which ever responded to all that is best and most enduring in human nature.
In 1832 a collected edition of Miss Edgeworth’s novels was published in London In 18 volumes:— I. Castle Rackrent; Essay on Irish Bulls; Essay on Self-J ustifi-cation. II. Forester; the Prussian Vase; the Good Aunt. III. Angelina; the Good French Governess; Mademoiselle Panache; the Knapsack. IV. Lame Jervas; the Will; the Limerick Gloves; out of Debt, out of Danger; the Lottery; Rosanna. V. Murad the Unlucky; the Manufacturers; the Contrast; the Grateful Negro; To-morrow. VI. Ennui; the Dun. VII. Manoeuvring; Almeria. VIII Vivian. IX. Ths Absentee. X. Absentee (concluded); Madame de Fleury; Emilie de Coulanges; the Modern Griselda. XI. andXII. Belinda. XIII. Leonora; Letters: XIV. and XV. Patronage. XVI. Comic Dramas. XVII. Harrington; Thoughts on Bores. XVIII. Ormond. To this list are to be added Essays on Practical Education, written in conjunction with Mr Edgeworth (1798), Helen (1834), and numerous stories and books for children. In 1848 a new collected edition of Miss Edgeworth’s works appeared in London in nine volumes; and, after her death, an edition was published in ten volumes, with steel engravings.
EDGEWORTH, Richard Lovell (1744-1817), father of the subject of the foregoing notice, and her associate in many literary undertakings, was born at Bath in 1744. The greater part of his life, however, was spent at Edgeworthtown, or Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford, Ireland, where the Edgeworth family had been settled for upwards of 150 years. He was of gentle blood his father being the son of Colonel Francis Edgeworth, and his mother, Jane Lovell, being the daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge. Richard’s mother taught him to read at a very eauly age; his young imagination was nurtured on the beautiful stories in the book of Genesis and on Shakespeare’s characters of Coriolanus and Julius Caesar; and, when he was only seven years old, a Mr Deane explained to him the uses and structure of several pieces of machinery, a circumstance to which he ever afterwards traced his strong love for mechanical science. The Rev. Patrick Hughes initiated him in Lilly’s Latin Grammar—z tn office he also performed for Goldsmith, who was born on the property of the Edgeworths—and his public education began, m August 1752, in a school at Warwick. He subsequently attended Drogheda school, then reputed the best in Ireland; and, after spending two years at a school in Longford, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1761, from which he was transferred to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in October of the same year. While still at college, he made a runaway match, marrying at Gretna Green one of the daughters of Mr Paul Elers, an old friend of his father, by whom he had a son, who was born before Edgeworth reached his twentieth birth-day, and his daughter Maria. Shortly after the birth of his son, he and his wife went to Edge worthtown, where he met a severe trial in the death of his mother. Her dying advice to him, to “learn how to say no,” was the germ of Vivian, one of Miss Edgeworth’s best novels. For some time after this Edgeworth devoted himself to scientific reading and experiments; and he claims to be the reviver of telegraphic communication in modern times (Memoirs, second edition, i. 144). His home was now at Hare Hatch, in Berkshire, where he endeavoured to educate his son according to the method explained in Rousseau’s Émile. In later life, however, he saw reason to doubt many of Rousseau’s views (Memoirs, ii. 374). At the same time he went on keeping terms at the Temple, and formed the greatest friendship of his life with Thomas Day—an able man, of noble character, excessively eccentric, and known to all boys as the author of Sandford and Merton, which was written at Edgeworth’s suggestion. In 1769, on the death of his father, he gave up the idea of being a barrister; but, instead of immediately settling on his Irish estate, he spent a considerable time in England and France, mainly in Day’s company. In Lyons, where he resided for about two years, he took an active part in the management of public works intended to turn the course of the Rhone. He was summoned to England by the death of his wife, with whom his autobiography tells us plainly he was not happy. Edgeworth hurried to Lichfield, to Dr Erasmus Darwin’s, one of his greatest friends, and at once declared his passion for Miss Honora Sneyd, which had been the cause of his flight to France two years before. They were married (1773) in the cathedral, and after residing at Edgeworthtown for three years, settled at Northchurch, in Hertfordshire. When six years of great domestic happiness had elapsed, Mrs Honora Edgeworth died, after recommending her husband to marry her sister Elizabeth —which he did, on Christmas Day 1780. In 1782 Edgeworth returned to Ireland, determined to improve his estate, educate his seven children, and ameliorate the condition of the tenants. Up to this point Edgeworth has told his own story. The rest of his life is written by his daughter, and opens with an account of the improvements he effected, and a lengthy panegyric on Mr Edgeworth as a model landlord (Memoirs, ii. 12-36). In 1785 he was associated with others in founding the Royal Irish Academy; and, during the two succeeding years, mechanics and agriculture occupied most of his time. In October 1789 his friend Day was killed by a fall from his horse, and this trial was soon followed by the loss of a daughter, who had just reached her fifteenth year. The first thing that broke the monotony of his grief was the arrival of Dr Darwin’s poem, the Botanic Garden, about which the author says, “It was your early approbation that contributed to encourage me to go on with the poem” (Memoirs, ii. 113). In 1792 the health of one of Edgeworth’s sons took him to Clifton, where he remained with his family for about two years, returning in 1794 to Edgeworthtown. Ireland was, at that time, harassed by internal disturbances, and threats of a French invasion, and Edgeworth offered to establish telegraphic communication of his own invention throughout the country. This offer was declined. A full account of the matter is given in Edgeworth’s Letter to Lord Charlemont on the Telegraph; and his apparatus is explained in an “Essay on the Art of Conveying Swift and Secret Intelligence,” published in the sixth volume of the Transactions of the Poyal Irish Academy. In the autumn of 1797 Mrs Edgeworth fell a victim to decline. Practical Education, a work which embodied the experience of the authors in dealing with children, was published in 1798. “So commenced,” says Miss Edgeworth,
“that literary partnership which, for so many years, was the pride and joy of my life” (Memoirs, ii. 170). In the same year Edgeworth married Miss Beaufort, and was elected M.P. for the borough of St John’s Town, Longford. The same year, too, saw a hostile landing of the French and a formidable rebellion; and for a short time the Edgeworths took refuge in Longford. The spring of 1802 brought the depressing announcement of Dr Darwin’s death; and the winter of that year was spent by the Edgeworths in Paris, where, among many friends, they particularly valued M. Dumont. On his return home he was gratified by Government accepting of his telegraphic apparatus, which worked admirably. In 1802 appeared the Essay on Irish Bulls by Mr and Miss Edgeworth; and in 1806 Edgeworth was elected a member of the Board of Commissioners to inquire into Irish education. From 1807 till 1809 much of his time was spent on mechanical experiments and in writing the story of his life. In 1808 appeared Professional Education, and in 1813 his Essay on the Construction of Roads and Carriages. He died on the 13th of June 1817, and was buried in the family vault in Edgeworthtown churchyard.
Many of Edgeworth’s works were suggested by his zeal for the education of his own children. Such were Poetry Explained for Young People, Readings on Poetry, A Rational Primer, and the farts of Early Lessons contributed by him. His speeches in the rish Parliament have also been published; and numerous essays, mostly on scientific subjects, have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, the Monthly Magazine, and Nicholson's Journal. The story of his early life, told by himself, is fully as entertaining as the continuation by Maria, as it contains less dissertation and more incident. (T. GI. )
