[Page 3] THE HISTORY OF Clarissa Harlowe. VOL. III. LETTER I. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; St. Albans, Monday Night. I snatch a few moments while my Beloved is retired [as I hope, to rest] to perform my promise. No pursuit---Nor have I apprehensions of any; tho' I must make my charmer dread that there will be one. And now, let me tell thee, that never was joy so complete as mine!---But let me enquire---Is not the angel flown away? O no! She is the next apartment!---Securely mine!---Mine for ever! O ecstasy!---My Heart will burst my breast, To leap into her bosom!--- I knew, that the whole stupid family were in a combination to do my business for me. I...
LETTER II. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wednesday, April 12. I will pursue my melancholy Story. Being thus hurried to the chariot, it would have been to no purpose to have refused entering into it, had he not in my fright lifted me in, as he did: And it instantly drove away a full gallop, and stopt not till it brought us to St. Albans; which was just as the day shut in. I thought I should have fainted several times by the way. With uplifted hands and eyes, God protect me, said I often to myself!---Can it be I, that am here!---My eyes running over, and my heart ready to burst with sighs as involuntary as my flight. How different, how inexpressibly different, the gay wretch; visibly triumphing (as I could...
LETTER III. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Tuesday, Wedn. Apr. 11. 12. You claim my promise, that I will be as particular as possible, in all that passes between me and my goddess. Indeed, I never had a more illustrious subject to exercise my pen upon. And, moreover, I have leisure; for by her good will, my access would be as difficult to her, as that of the humblest slave to an Eastern Monarch. Nothing, then, but inclination to write can be wanting: And since our friendship, and your obliging attendance upon me at the White Hart, will not excuse That, I will endeavour to keep my word. I parted with thee and thy brethren, with a full resolution, thou knowest, to rejoin ye, if she once again disappointed me, in order to...
LETTER IV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Wednesday Night, April 12. I have your narrative, my dear. You are the same noble creature you ever were. Above disguise, above art, above attempting to extenuate a failing. The only family in the world, yours, surely, that could have driven such a Daughter upon such extremities. But you must not be so very much too good for them, and for the case. You lay the blame so properly and so unsparingly upon your meeting him, that nothing can be added to that subject by your worst enemies, were they to see what you have written. I am not surprised, now I have read your narrative, that so bold, and so contriving a man---I am forced to break off--- You...
LETTER V. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Afternoon, April 13. I am infinitely concerned, my ever-dear and ever-kind friend, that I am the sad occasion of the displeasure between your Mother and you.---How many persons have I made unhappy! Had I not to console myself, that my error is not owing to wicked precipitation, I should be the most miserable of all creatures. As it is, I am enough punished in the loss of my character, more valuable to me than my life; and in the cruel doubts and perplexities which, conflicting with my hopes, and each getting the victory by turns, harrow up my soul between them. I think, however, that you should obey your Mother, and decline a correspondence with me; at least...
LETTER VI. To Miss Arabella Harlowe. [Inclosed to Miss Howe in the preceding.] St. Albans, Apr. 11. My dear Sister, I have, I confess, been guilty of an action which carries with it a rash and undutiful appearance. And I should have thought it an inexcusable one, had I been used with less severity than I have been of late; and had I not had too great reason to apprehend, that I was to be made a sacrifice to a man I could not bear to think of. But what is done, is done---Perhaps I could wish it had not; and that I had trusted to the relenting of my dear and honoured parents.---Yet this from no other motives, but those of duty to them.---To whom I am ready to return (if I may not be permitted to retire to The Grove) on...
LETTER VII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Mr. Lovelace, in continuation of his last Letter (No. iii.) gives an account to his Friend (pretty much to the same effect with the Lady's) of all that passed between them at the Inns, in the journey, and till their fixing at Mrs. Sorlings's. To avoid repetition, those passages in his Narrative are only extracted, which will serve to embellish hers; to [Page 50] open his views; or to display the humourous talent he was noted for. At their alighting at the Inn at St. Albans on Monday night, thus he writes: The people who came about us, as we alighted, seemed, by their jaw-fallen faces, and goggling eyes, to wonder at beholding a charming young Lady, majesty in...
LETTER VIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. I obliged the dear creature highly, I could perceive, by bringing Mrs. Greme to attend her, and to suffer that good woman's recommendation of lodgings to take place, on her refusal to go to The Lawn. She must believe all my views to be honourable, when I had provided for her no particular lodgings, leaving it to her choice, whether she would go to M. Hall, to The Lawn, to London, or to either of the Dowagers of my family. She was visibly pleased with my motion of putting Mrs. Greme into the chaise with her, and riding on horseback myself. Some people would have been apprehensive of what might pass between her and Mrs. Greme. But as all...
LETTER IX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. Never was there such a pair of scribbling Lovers as we;---yet perhaps whom it so much concerns to keep from each other what each writes. She won't have any-thing else to do. I would, if she'd let me. I am not reformed enough for a Husband.---Patience is a virtue, Lord M. says. Slow and sure, is another of his sentences. If I had not a great deal of that [Page 59] virtue, I should not have waited the Harlowes own time of ripening into execution my plots upon Themselves, and upon their Goddess-Daughter. My Beloved has been writing to her saucy friend, I believe, all that has befallen her, and what has passed between us hitherto. She will possibly have fine...
LETTER X. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. This is Wednesday; the day that I was to have lost my Charmer for ever to the hideous Solmes! With what high satisfaction and heart's-ease can I now sit down, and triumph over my Men in Straw at Harlowe-Place! Yet 'tis perhaps best for them, that she got off as she did. Who knows what consequences might have followed upon my attending her in; or (if she had not met me) upon my projected visit, followed by my Myrmidons? [Page 63] But had I even gone in with her un-accompanied, I think I had but little reason for apprehension: For well thou knowest, that the tame Spirits which value themselves upon Reputation, and are held within the skirts of the Law...
LETTER XI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Night, April 13. I always loved writing, and my unhappy situation gives me now enough of it; and you I fear, too much. I have had another very warm debate with Mr. Lovelace. It brought on the subject which you advised me not to decline, when it handsomely offered. And I want to have either your acquittal or blame for having suffered it to go off without effect. The impatient wretch sent up to me several times, while I was writing my last to you, to desire my company: Yet his business nothing particular; only to hear him talk. The man seems pleased with his own volubility; and, whenever he has collected together abundance of smooth things, he wants me to find an ear for...
LETTER XII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Thursday, Apr. 13. ·Why, Jack, thou needest not make such a wonderment, as the girls say, if I should have taken large strides already towards reformation: For dost thou not see, that while I have been so assiduously, night and day, pursuing this single Charmer, I have infinitely less to answer for, than otherwise I should [Page 72] have had? Let me see, how many days and nights?---Forty, I believe, after open trenches, spent in the sap only, and never a mine sprung yet! ·By a moderate computation, a dozen kites might have fallen, while I have been only trying to ensnare this single lark. Nor yet do I see when I shall be able to bring her to my lure: More innocent days...
LETTER XIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. And do I not see that I shall need nothing but patience, in order to have all power with me? For what shall we say, if all these complaints of a character wounded; these declarations of encreasing regrets for meeting me; of resentments never to be got over for my seducing her away; these angry commands to leave her:---What shall we say, If all were to mean nothing but MATRIMONY! And what if my forbearing to enter upon that subject come out to be the true cause of her petulance and uneasiness? I had once before played about the skirts of the irrevocable obligation; but though myself obliged to speak in clouds, and to run away from the subject, as soon as...
LETTER XIV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. But is it not the divine CLARISSA [Harlowe let me not say; my soul spurns them all but her] whom I am thus by implication threatening?---If Virtue be the True Nobility, how is she ennobled, and how would an alliance with her ennoble, were not contempt due to the family from which she sprung, and prefers to me! But again, let me stop.---Is there not something wrong, has there not been something wrong, in this divine creature? And will not the reflections upon that wrong (what tho' it may be construed in my favour?) (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] make me unhappy, when Novelty has lost its charms, and when, mind and person, she is all my own? Libertines are nicer, if...
LETTER XV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [In answer to Letters v. xi.] Do not be so much concerned, my dearest friend, at the bickerings between my Mother and me. We love one another dearly notwithstanding. If my Mother had not me to find fault with, she must find fault with somebody else. And as to me, I am a very saucy girl; and were there not this occasion, there would be some other, to shew it. You have heard me say, that this was always the case between us. You could not otherwise have known it. For when you was with us, you harmonized us both; and indeed I was always more afraid of you than of my Mother. But then that Awe is accompanied with Love. Your reproofs, as I have always found, are so charmingly...
LETTER XVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. You tell me, my dear, that my cloaths and the little sum of money I left behind me, will not be sent me.---But I will still hope. It is yet early days. When their passions subside, they will better consider [Page 93] of the matter; and especially as I have my ever dear and excellent Mother for my friend in this request. O the sweet indulgence! How has my heart bled, and how does it still bleed for her! You advise me not to depend upon a Reconciliation. I do not, I cannot, depend upon it. But nevertheless it is the wish next my heart. And as to this man, what can I do? You see, that Marriage is not absolutely in my own power, if I were inclined to prefer it to the trial...
LETTER XVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. You may believe, my dear Miss Howe, that the circumstance of the noise and outcry within the garden-door, on Monday last, gave me no small uneasiness, to think that I was in the hands of a man, who could, by such vile premeditation, lay a snare to trick me out of myself, as I have so frequently called it. Whenever he came in my sight, the thought of this gave me an indignation that made his presence disgustful to me; and the more, as I fansied I beheld in his face a triumph which reproached my weakness on that account; altho' perhaps it was only the same vivacity and placidness that generally sit upon his features. I was resolved to task him upon this subject, the first...
LETTER XVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. My plaindealing with Mr. Lovelace, on seeing him again, and the free dislike I expressed to his ways, his manners, and his contrivances, as well as to his speeches, have obliged him to recollect himself a little. He will have it, that the menaces which he threw out just now against my Brother and Mr. Solmes, are only the effect of an unmeaning pleasantry. He has too great a stake in his Country, he says, to be guilty of such enterprizes as should lay him under a necessity of quitting it for ever. Twenty things, particularly, [Page 104] he says, he has suffered Joseph Leman to tell of him, that were not, and could not be true, in order to make himself formidable in some...
LETTER XIX. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Friday, April 14. Never did I hear of such a parcel of foolish toads as these Harlowes!---Why, Belford, the [Page 105] Lady must fall, if every hair of her head were a guardian angel, unless they were to make a visible appearance for her, or, snatching her from me at unawares, would draw her after them into the starry regions. All I had to apprehend, was, that a Daughter so reluctantly carried off, would offer terms to her Father, and would be accepted upon a mutual concedence; They to give up Solmes; She to give up me. And so I was contriving to do all I could to guard against the latter. But they seem resolved to perfect the work they have begun. What stupid creatures...
LETTER XX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, April 14. I will now give you the particulars of a conversation that has just passed between Mr. Lovelace and me; which I must call agreeable. It began with his telling me, that he had just received intelligence, that my friends were on a sudden come to a resolution, to lay aside all thoughts of pursuing me, or of getting me back: And that therefore he attended me to know my pleasure; and what I would do, or have him do? I told him, that I would have him leave me directly; and that, when it was known to every-body that I was absolutely independent of him, it would pass, that I had left my Father's house because of my [Page 108] Brother's ill usage of me:...
LETTER XXI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Friday, April 14. Thou hast often reproached me, Jack, with my vanity, without distinguishing the humorous turn that accompanies it; and for which, at the same time that thou robbest me of the merit of it, thou admirest me highly. Envy gives thee the indistinction: Nature inspires the admiration: Unknown to thyself it inspires it. But thou art too clumsy and too short-sighted a mortal, to know how to account even for the impulses by which thou thyself art moved. Well, but this acquits thee not of my charge of vanity, Lovelace, methinks thou sayest. And true thou sayest: For I have indeed a confounded parcel of it. But, if men of parts may not be allowed to be vain,...
LETTER XXII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; In Continuation. But is it not a confounded thing, that I cannot fasten an obligation upon this proud Beauty? I have two motives, in endeavouring to prevail upon her to accept of Money and Raiment from me: One, the real pleasure I should have in the accommodating of the haughty maid; and to think there was something near her, and upon her, that I could call mine: The other, in order to abate her severity, and humble her a little. Nothing more effectually brings down a proud spirit, [Page 122] than a sense of lying under pecuniary obligations. This has always made me solicitous to avoid laying myself under any such: Yet sometimes formerly have I been put to it, and...
LETTER XXIII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Saturday, April 15. Tho' pretty much pressed in time, and oppressed by my Mother's watchfulness, I will write a few lines upon the new light that has broken in upon your gentleman; and send it by a particular hand. I know not what to think of him upon it. He talks well; but judge him by Rowe's lines, he is certainly a dissembler, odious as the sin of Hypocrisy, and, as he says, that other of Ingratitude, are to him. And pray, my dear, let me ask, Could he have triumphed, as it is said he has done, over so many of [Page 126] our Sex, had he not been egregiously guilty of both sins? His Ingenuousness is the thing that staggers me: Yet is he cunning...
[Page 128] LETTER XXIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sat. Afternoon. I detain your messenger while I write in answer to yours; the poor old man not being very well. You dishearten me a good deal about Mr. Lovelace. I may be too willing from my sad circumstances, to think the best of him. If his pretences to Reformation are but pretences, what must be his intent? But can the heart of man be so very vile? Can he, dare he, mock the Almighty? But may I not, from one very sad reflection, think better of him; That I am thrown too much into his power, to make it necessary for him (except he were to intend the very utmost villainy by me) to be such a shocking hypocrite? He must, at least, be in earnest, at the time he...
LETTER XXV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Saturday Evening. Mr. Lovelace has seen divers apartments at Windsor; but not one, he says, that he thought fit for me, and which at the same time answered my description. He has been very solicitous to keep to the Letter of my instructions: Which looks well: And the better I liked him, as, altho' he proposed that town, he came back, dissuading me from it: For he said, that, in his journey from thence, he had thought Windsor, altho' of his own proposal, a wrong choice; because I coveted privacy, and that was a place generally visited and admired (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] . I told him, that if Mrs. Sorlings thought me not an incumbrance, I would be willing to stay here a little...
LETTER XXVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday Night (April 16.) ·I may send to you, altho' you are forbid to write to me; may I not?---For that is not a cor-respondence (Is it?) where Letters are not answered. ·I am strangely at a loss what to think of this man. He is a perfect Proteus. I can but write according to the shape he assumes at the time. Don't think me the changeable person, I beseech you, if in one Letter I contradict what I wrote in another; nay, [Page 142] if I seem to contradict what I said in the same Letter: For he is a perfect chameleon; or rather more variable than the chameleon; for that, it is said, cannot assume the red and the white; but this man can. And tho' black seems to be his natural...
LETTER XXVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. You may believe, my dear, that these Letters put me in good humour with him. He saw it in my countenance, and congratulated himself upon it. Yet I cannot but repeat my wonder, that I could not have the contents of them communicated to me last night (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] . He then urged me to go directly to Lady Betty's, on the strength of her Letter. But how, said I, can I do that, were I even out of all hope of a Reconciliation with my friends (which yet, however unlikely to be effected, is my duty to attempt) as her Ladyship has given me no particular invitation? That, he was sure, was owing to her doubt that it would be accepted---Else she had done it...
LETTER XXVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In Continuation. As this subject was introduced by himself, and treated so lightly by him, I was going on to tell him more of my mind; but he interrupted me---Dear, dear Madam, spare me. I am sorry that I have lived to this hour for nothing at all. But surely you could not have quitted a subject so much more agreeable, and so much more suitable, I will say, to our present situation, if you had not too cruel a pleasure in mortifying a man, who the less needed to be mortified, as he before looked up to you with a diffidence in his own merits too great to permit him to speak half his mind to you. Be pleased but to return to the subject we were upon; and at another time I will gladly embrace...
CHAP. XXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In Continuation. Mr. Lovelace told me, that on the supposition that his proposal in relation to my Cousin Morden might not be accepted, he had been studying to find out, if possible, some other expedient that might be agreeable, in order to convince me, that he preferred my satisfaction to his own. He then offered to go himself, and procure my Hannah to come and attend me. As I had declined the service of either of the young Mrs. Sorlings's, he was extremely solicitous, he said, that I should have a servant, in whose integrity I might confide. I told him, that you would be so kind, as to send to engage Hannah, if possible. If any-thing, he said, should prevent Hannah...
LETTER XXX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In Continuation. Monday Morning, April 17. Late as I went to bed, I have had very little rest. Sleep and I have quarrelled; and altho' I court it, it will not be friends. I hope its Fellow-irreconcileables at Harlowe-Place enjoy its balmy comforts. Else, that will be an aggravation of my fault. My Brother and Sister, I dare say, want it not. Mr. Lovelace, who is an early riser, as well as I, joined me in the garden about Six; and, after the usual salutations, asked me to resume our last night's subject. It was upon lodgings at London, he said. I think you mentioned one to me, Sir---Did you not? Yes, Madam, but [watching the turn of my countenance] rather as what you would...
LETTER XXXI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Sat. Sunday, Monday. He gives, in several Letters, the substance of what is contained in the last seven of the Lady's. He tells his friend, that calling at the Lawn, in his [Page 161] way to M. Hall (for he owns that he went not to Windsor) he found the Letters from Lady Betty Lawrance, and his Cousin Montague, which Mrs. Greme was about sending to him by a special messenger. He gives the particulars from Mrs. Greme's report, of what passed between the Lady and her, as in p. 21-23. and makes such declarations to Mrs. Greme of his honour and affection to the Lady, as put her upon writing the Letter to her Sister Sorlings, the contents of which are given in p. 128, 129. He...
LETTER XXXII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [In Answer to Letters xxiv.-xxx. inclusive] Tuesday, April 18. You have a most implacable family. Another visit from your Uncle Antony has not only confirmed my Mother an enemy to our correspondence, but has almost put her upon treading in their steps.--- But, to other subjects: You plead generously for Mr. Hickman. Perhaps, with regard to him, I may have done, as I have often done in singing---Begun a note or key too high; and yet, rather than begin again, proceed, tho' I strain my voice, or spoil my tune. But this is evident, the man is the more observant for it; and you have [Page 170] taught me, that the spirit which is the humbler for ill usage,...
LETTER XXXIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wedn. Morn. April 19. I am glad, my dear friend, that you approve of my Removal to London. The disagreement between your Mother and you gives me inexpressible affliction. I hope I think you both more unhappy than you are. But I beseech you let me know the particulars of the debate you call a very pretty one. I am well acquainted with your dialect. When I am informed of the whole, let your Mother have been ever so severe upon me, I shall be easier a great deal.---Faulty people should rather deplore the occasion they have given for anger than resent it. If I am to be obliged to any-body in England for money, it shall be to you. Your Mother need not [Page 177] know...
LETTER XXXIV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday, April 20. Mr. Lovelace's servant is already returned with an Answer from his friend Mr. Doleman, who has taken pains in his enquiries, and is very particular. Mr. Lovelace brought me the Letter as soon as he had [Page 178] read it; and as he now knows that I acquaint you with every-thing that offers, I desired him to let me send it to you for your perusal. Be pleased to return it by the first opportunity. You will see by it, that his friends in town have a notion that we are actually married. To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Tuesday Night, April 18. Dear Sir, I am extremely rejoiced to hear, that we shall so soon have you in town, after so long an...
LETTER. XXXV. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Thursday, April 20. He begins with communicating to him the Letter he wrote to Mr. Doleman, to procure suitable Lodgings in Town, and which he sent away by the Lady's approbation: And then gives him a copy of the Answer to it (See p. 178.): Upon which he thus expresses himself: Thou knowest the Widow; thou knowest her Nieces; thou knowest the Lodgings: And didst thou ever read a Letter more artfully couched, than this of Tom Doleman? Every possible objection anticipated! Every accident provided against! Every tittle of it plotproof Who could forbear smiling, to see my Charmer, like a farcical Dean and Chapter, chuse what was before chosen for her; and sagaciously (...
LETTER. XXXVI. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Wednesday, April 19. I have a piece of intelligence to give you, which concerns you much to know. Your Brother having been assured, that you are not married, has taken a resolution to find you out, waylay you, and carry you off. A friend of his, a captain of a ship, undertakes to get you on ship-board; and to sail away with you, either to Hull or Leith, in the way to one of your Brother's houses. They are very wicked: For in spite of your virtue they conclude you to be ruined. But if they can be assured when they have you, that you are not, they will secure you till they can bring you out Mrs. Solmes. Mean time, in order to give Mr. Lovelace full employment, they talk...
LETTER XXXVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday, April 20. I should think myself utterly unworthy of your friendship, did my own concerns, heavy as they are, so engross me, that I could not find leisure for a few lines to declare to my beloved friend my sincere disapprobation of her conduct, in an instance where she is so generously faulty, that the consciousness of that very generosity may hide from her the fault, which I, more than any other, have reason to deplore, as being the unhappy occasion of it. You know, you say, that your account of the contentions between your Mother and you will trouble me; and so you bid me spare myself the pains to tell you that they do. [Page 196] You did not use, my...
LETTER XXXVIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In Continuation. But this subject must not be pursued. Another might, with more pleasure (tho' not with more approbation) upon one of your lively excursions. It is upon the high airs you give yourself upon the word approve. How comes it about, I wonder, that a young Lady so noted for a predominating generosity, should not be uniformly generous?---That your generosity should fail in an instance, where policy, prudence, gratitude, would not permit it to fail? Mr. Hickman (as you confess) has indeed a worthy mind. If I had not long ago known that, he would never have found an advocate in me for my Anna Howe's favour to him. Often and often have I been concerned, when I was your happy...
LETTER XXXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe. In Continuation. And now, my dear, a few words, as to the prohibition laid upon you; a subject, that I have frequently touched upon, but cursorily, because I was afraid to trust myself with it, knowing that my judgment, if I did, would condemn my practice. You command me not to attempt to dissuade you from this correspondence; and you tell me how kindly Mr. Hickman approves of it; and how obliging he is to me, to permit it to be carried on under cover to him---But this does not quite satisfy me. I am a very bad Casuist; and the pleasure I take in writing to you, who are the only one to whom I can disburden my mind, may make me, as I have hinted, very partial to my own wishes...
LETTER XL. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Friday Morn. April 21. My Mother will not comply with your condition, my dear. I hinted it to her, as from myself. But the Harlowes (excuse me) have got her entirely in with them. It is a scheme of mine, she told me, formed to draw her into your party against your parents. Which, for her own sake, she is very careful about. Don't be so much concerned about my Mother and me, once more, I beg of you. We shall do well enough together---Now a falling-out, now a falling-in. It used to be so, when you were not in the question. Yet do I give you my sincere thanks for every line of your reprehensive Letters; which I intend to read as often as I find my temper rises. I will...
LETTER XLI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, April 21. Mr. Lovelace communicated to me this morning early, from his intelligencer, the news of my Brother's Scheme. I like him the better for making very light of it; and for his treating it with contempt. And indeed, had I not had the hint of it from you, I should have suspected it to be some contrivance of his, in order to hasten me to town, where he has long wished to be himself. He read me the passage in that Leman's Letter, which is pretty much to the effect of what you wrote to me from Miss Lloyd; with this addition, that one Singleton, a master of a Scots vessel, is the man, who is to be the principal in this act of violence. I have seen him. He has been...
LETTER XLII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Friday, April 21. As it was not probable, that the Lady could give so particular an account of her own confusion, in the affecting scene she mentions on Mr. Lovelace's offering himself to her acceptance; the following extracts are made from his Letter of the above date. And now, Belford, what wilt thou say, if like the fly buzzing about the bright taper, I had like to have sindged the silken wings of my liberty? Never was man in greater danger of being caught in his own snares: All my views anticipated; all my schemes untried; the admirable creature not brought to town; nor one effort made to know if she be really Angel or Woman. I offered myself to her acceptance,...
LETTER XLIII. To Robert Lovelace, Esq; His Honner. Sat. April 15. ·May it please your Honner, This is to let your Honner kno', as how I have been emploied in a bisness I would have been excused from, if so be I could. For it is to gitt evidense from a young man, who is of late com'd out to be my Cuzzen by my Grandmother's side; and but lately come to live in these partes, about a very vile thing, as younge master calls it, relating to your Honner. God forbid I should call it so without your leave. It is not for so plane a man as I be, to tacks my betters. It is consarning one Miss Batirton, of Notingam; a very pritty crature, belike. ·Your Honner got her away, it seems, by a false Letter to her, macking believe as...
LETTER XLIV. Mr. Lovelace, To Joseph Leman. Monday, Apr. 17. ·Honest Joseph, You have a worse opinion of your invention than you ought to have. I must praise it again. Of a plain man's head I have not known many better than yours. How often have your forecast and discretion answered my wishes in cases which I could not foresee, not knowing how my general directions would succeed, or what might happen in the execution of them! You are too doubtful of your own abilities, honest Joseph; that's your fault. But it being a fault that is owing to natural modesty, you ought rather to be pitied for it than blamed. ·The affair of Miss Betterton was a youthful frolick. I love dearly to exercise my invention. I do assure you,...
LETTER XLV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Mrs. Hervey; [Inclosed in her last to Miss Howe.] Thursday, April 20. Honoured Madam, Having not had the favour of an Answer to a Letter I took the liberty to write to you on the 14th, I am in some hopes that it may have miscarriod; for I had much rather it should, than to have the mortification to think that my Aunt Hervey deemed me unworthy of the honour of her notice. In this hope, having kept a copy of it, and not being able to express myself in terms better suited to the unhappy circumstance of things, I transcribe and inclose what I then wrote (a) [Footnote a: 1Kb] . And I humbly beseech you to favour the contents of it with your interest. Hitherto it is in...
LETTER XLVI. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Sat. April 22. I cannot for my life account for your wretch's teazing ways. But he certainly doubts your Love of him. In this He is a modest man, as well as somebody else; and tacitly confesses, that he does not deserve it. Your Israelitish hankerings after the Egyptian onions (testified still more in your Letter to your Aunt); Your often-repeated regrets for meeting him; for being betrayed away by him---These he cannot bear. I have been looking back on the whole of his conduct, and comparing it with his general character; and find, that he is more consistently, more uniformly, mean, revengeful, and proud, than either of us once imagined. From his cradle, as I may...
LETTER XLVII. Mr. Belford, To Robert Lovelace, Esq; Friday, April 21. Thou, Lovelace, hast been long the Entertainer; I the Entertained. Nor have I been solicitous to animadvert, as thou wentest along, upon thy inventions, and their tendency. For I believed, that with all thy airs, the unequalled perfections and fine qualities of this Lady would always be her protection and security. But now, that I find, thou hast so far succeeded, as to induce her to come to town, and to chuse her lodgings in a house, the people of which will too probably damp and suppress any honourable motions which may arise in thy mind in her favour, I cannot help writing: And that professedly in her behalf. My inducements to this are not owing to...
LETTER XLVIII. Mrs. Hervey, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [In answer to Letter xlv.] Dear Niece, It would be hard not to write a few lines, so much pressed to write, to one I ever loved. Your former Letter I received; yet was not at liberty to answer it. I break my word to answer you now. Strange informations are every day received about you. The wretch you are with, we are told, is every [Page 248] hour triumphing and defying---Must not these informations aggravate? You know the uncontroulableness of the man. He loves his own humour better than he loves you---tho' so fine a creature as you are! I warned you over and over: No young Lady was ever more warned!---Miss Clarissa Harlowe to do such a thing! You...
LETTER XLIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. With the preceding. Sat. Morn. April 22. I have just now received the inclosed from my Aunt Hervey. Be pleased, my dear, to keep her secret of having written to the unhappy wretch her Niece. [Page 253] I may go to London, I see, or where I will. No matter what becomes of me. I was the willinger to suspend my journey thither, till I heard from Harlowe-Place. I thought, if I could be encouraged to hope for a Reconciliation, I would let this man see, that he should not have me in his power, but upon my own terms, if at all. But I find I must be his, whether I will or not; and perhaps thro' still greater mortifications than those great ones...
[Page 257] LETTER L. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Saturday Afternoon, April 22. O my best, my only friend! Now indeed is my heart broken! It has received a blow it never will recover. Think not of corresponding with a wretch who now seems absolutely devoted. How can it be otherwise, if a parent's curses have the weight I always attributed to them, and have heard so many instances in confirmation of that weight!---Yes, my dear Miss Howe, superadded to all my afflictions, I have the consequences of a Father's Curse to struggle with! How shall I support this reflection!---My past and my present situation so much authorizing my apprehensions! I have, at last, a Letter from my unrelenting Sister. Would to Heaven I...
LETTER LI. To Miss Clarissa Harlowe; To be left at Mr. Osgood's, near Soho-Square. Friday, April 21. It was expected you would send again to me, or to my Aunt Hervey. The inclosed has lain ready for you therefore by direction. You will have no Answer from any-body, write to whom you will, and as often as you will, and what you will. [Page 258] It was designed to bring you back by proper authority, or to send you whither the disgraces you have brought upon us all, should be in the likeliest way, after a while, to be forgotten. But I believe that design is over: So you may range securely---Nobody will think it worth while to give themselves any trouble about you. Yet my Mother has obtained leave to send you...
LETTER LII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Tuesday, April 25. Be comforted; be not dejected; do not despond, my dearest and best-beloved friend. God Almighty is just and gracious, and gives not his assent to rash and inhuman curses. Can you think that Heaven will seal to the black passions of its depraved Creatures? If it did, Malice, Envy, and Revenge would triumph; and the best of the human race, blasted by the malignity of the worst, would be miserable in both worlds. This Outrageousness shews only what manner of Spirit they are of, and how much their sordid Views exceed their parental Love. 'Tis all owing to Rage and Disappointment---Disappointment in designs proper to be frustrated. ·If you consider this...
LETTER LIII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wednesday Morning, April 26. Your Letter, my beloved Miss Howe, gives me great comfort. How sweetly do I experience the truth of the Wise man's observation, That a faithful friend is the medicine of life! Your messenger finds me just setting out for London: The chaise at the door. Already I have taken leave of the good Widow, who has obliged me with the company of her eldest Daughter, at Mr. Lovelace's request, while he rides by us. The young gentlewoman is to return in two or three days with the chaise, in its way to my Lord M's Hertfordshire Seat. I received my Sister's dreadful Letter on Sunday, when Mr. Lovelace was out. He saw, on his return, my extreme anguish and...
LETTER LIV. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Thursday, April 27. I am sorry you sent back my Norris. But you must be allowed to do as you please. So must I, in my turn. We must neither of us perhaps expect absolutely of the other what is the rightest to be done: And yet few folks, so young as we are, better know, what that rightest is. I cannot separate myself from you; altho' I give a double instance of my vanity in joining myself with you in this particular assertion. I am most heartily rejoiced, that your prospects are so much mended; and that, as I hoped, good has been produced out of evil. What must the man have been, what must have been his views, had he not taken such a turn, upon a Letter so vile, and upon a...
LETTER LV. From Miss Howe. Inclosed in the above. Thursday, April 27. I have been making enquiry, as I told you I would, whether your Relations had really (before you left them) resolved upon that change of measures which your Aunt mentions in her Letter; and by laying together several pieces of intelligence, some drawn from my Mother, thro' your Uncle Antony's communications; some from Miss Lloyd, by your Sister's; and some by a third way, that I shall not tell you of; I have reason to think the following a true State of the Case. 'That there was no intention of a change of measures, till within two or three days of your going away. On the contrary, your Brother and Sister, tho' they had no hope of prevailing with you...
LETTER LVI. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Monday, April 24. Fate is weaving a whimsical web for thy friend; and I see not but I shall be inevitably manacled. Here have I been at work, dig, dig, dig, like a cunning miner, at one time, and spreading my snares, like an artful fowler, at another, and exulting in my contrivances to get this inimitable creature absolutely [Page 275] into my power. Every-thing made for me. Her Brother and Uncles were but my pioneers: Her Father stormed as I directed him to storm. Mrs. Howe was acted by the springs I set at work: Her Daughter was moving for me, and yet imagined herself plumb against me: And the dear creature herself had already run her stubborn neck into my gin, and knew not...
LETTER LVII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Tuesday, April 25. All hands at work in preparation for London. What makes my heart beat so strong? Why rises it to my throat, in such half-choaking flutters, when I think of what this removal may do for me? I am hitherto resolved to be honest: And that encreases my wonder at these involuntary commotions. 'Tis a plotting villain of a heart: It ever was; and ever will be, I doubt. Such a joy when any roguery is going forward!---I so little its master! A head likewise so well turned to answer the triangular varlet's impulses!---No matter. I will have one struggle with thee, old friend; and if I cannot overcome thee now, I never will again attempt to conquer thee. The dear...
[Page 283] LETTER LVIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Wedn. Apr. 26. At last my lucky Star has directed us into the desired Port, and we are safely landed. Well says Rowe: The wise and active conquer difficulties By daring to attempt them. Sloth and folly Shiver and shrink at sight of toil and hazard, And make th' impossibility they fear. But in the midst of my exultation, something, I know not what to call it, checks my joys, and glooms over my brighter prospects. If it be not Conscience, it is wondrously like what I thought so, many, many years ago. Surely, Lovelace, methinks thou sayst, thy good motions are not gone off already! Surely thou wilt not now at...
LETTER LIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Wedn. Afternoon, Apr. 26. At length, my dearest Miss Howe, I am in London, and in my new lodgings. They are neatly furnished, and the situation, for the Town, is pleasant. But, I think, you must not ask me, how I like the old gentlewoman. Yet she seems courteous and obliging. Her kinswomen just appeared to welcome me at my alighting. They seem to be genteel young women. But more of their Aunt and of them, as I shall see more. Miss Sorlings has an Uncle at Barnet, whom she found so very ill, that her uneasiness on that account (having large expectations from him) made me comply with her desire to stay with him. Yet I wished, as her Uncle did not expect her, that she would see me...
LETTER LX. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. With her two last Letters, No liv. lv. inclosed. Thursday Night, April 27. I have yours; just brought me. Mr. Hickman has help'd me to a lucky expedient, which, with the assistance of the Post, will enable me to correspond with [Page 298] you every day. An honest higler [Simon Collins his name] by whom I shall send this, and the two inclosed (now I have your direction whither) goes to town constantly on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; and can bring back to me from Mr. Wilson's what you shall have caused to be left for me. I congratulate you on your arrival in town, so much amended in spirits. I must be brief. I hope you'll have no cause to repent returning my Norris. It...
LETTER LXI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday Morning, Eight o'Clock. I am more and more displeased with Mr. Lovelace, on reflection, for his boldness in hoping to make me, tho' but passively, as I may say, testify to his great untruth. And I shall like him still less for it, if his view in it does not come out to be the hope of accelerating my resolution in his favour, by the difficulty it will lay me under as to my behaviour to him. He has sent me his compliments by Dorcas, with a request that I will permit him to attend me in the Dining-room;---perhaps, that he may guess from thence, whether I will meet him in good humour, or not: But I have answered, that as I shall see him at breakfast-time, I desire to be excused...
LETTER LXII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Friday, April 28. Mr. Lovelace is returned already. My Brother's projects were his pretence. I could not but look upon this short absence as an evasion of his promise; especially as he had taken such precautions with the people below; and as he knew that I proposed to keep close within-doors. I cannot bear to be dealt meanly with; and angrily insisted, that he should directly set out for Berkshire, in order to engage his Cousin, as he had promised. O my dearest Life, said he, why will you banish me from your presence? I cannot leave you for so long a time, as you seem to expect I should. I have been hovering about town ever since I left you. Edgware was the farthest place I...
LETTER LXIII. Mr. Lovelace, To John Belford, Esq; Sunday. Have been at Church, Jack---Behaved admirably well too! My Charmer is pleased with me now: For I was exceedingly attentive to the discourse, and very ready in the auditor's part of the Service.---Eyes did not much wander. How could they, when the loveliest object, infinitely the loveliest, in the whole Church, was in my view? Dear creature! how fervent, how amiable, in her [Page 324] devotions! I have got her to own, that she prayed for me. I hope a prayer from so excellent a mind will not be made in vain. There is, after all, something beautifully solemn in devotion. The Sabbath is a charming institution to keep the heart right, when it is right. One day in...
LETTER LXIV. ·Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Sunday, April 30. ·Mr. Lovelace in his last Letters having taken notice of the most material passages contained in this Letter, the following Extracts from it are only inserted. ·She gives pretty near the same account that he does of what passed between them, on her resolution to go to church; and of his proposal of St. Paul's, and desire of attending her. She praises his good behaviour there; as also the discourse, and the preacher: Is pleased with its seasonableness: Gives particulars of the conversation between them afterwards, and commends the good observations he makes upon the sermon. ·I am willing, says she, to have hopes of him: But am so unable to know how to depend...
LETTER LXV. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Monday Night, May 1. I have just escaped from the very disagreeable company I was obliged, so much against my will, to be in. As a very particular relation of this evening's conversation would be painful to me, you must content yourself with what you shall be able to collect from the outlines, as I may call them, of the characters of the persons; assisted by the little histories Mr. Lovelace gave me of each yesterday. The names of the gentlemen are Belton, Mowbray, Tourville, and Belford. These four, with Mrs. Sinclair, Miss Partington, the great heiress mentioned in my last, Mr. Lovelace, and myself, made up the company. I gave you before the favourable side of Miss...
LETTER LXVI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Monday Midnight. I am very much vex'd and disturbed at an odd incident. Mrs. Sinclair has just now left me; I believe in displeasure, on my declining to comply with a request she made me: Which was, To admit Miss Partington to a share in my bed; her house being crouded by her Nieces guests and by their attendants, as well as by those of Miss Partington. There might be nothing in it; and my denial carried a stiff and ill-natured appearance. But instantly, upon her making the request, it came into my thought, 'that I was in a manner a stranger to every-body in the house: Not so much as a servant I could call my own, or of whom I had any great opinion: That there were four men of...
LETTER LXVII. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Tuesday, May 2. With infinite regret I am obliged to tell you, that I can no longer write to you, or receive Letters from you. Your Mother has sent me a Letter inclosed in a cover to Mr. Lovelace, directed for him at Lord M's (and which was brought him just now) reproaching me on this subject in very angry terms, and forbidding me, 'as I would not be thought to intend to make her and you unhappy, to write to you without her leave.' [Page 341] This, therefore, is the last you must receive from me, till happier days: And as my prospects are not very bad, I presume we shall soon have leave to write again; and even to see each other: Since an alliance with a family so...
LETTER LXVIII. Miss Howe, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. Wedn. May 3. I am astonished that my Mother should take such a step---purely to exercise an unreasonable act of authority; and to oblige the most remorsless hearts in the world. If I find, that I can be of use to you either by advice or information, do you think I will not give it?---Were it to any other person, much less dear to me than you are, do you think, in such a case, I would forbear giving it? Mr. Hickman, who pretends to a little casuistry in such nice matters, is of opinion, that I ought not to decline a correspondence thus circumstanced. And 'tis well he is; for my Mother having set me up, I must have somebody to quarrel with. This I will come into, if it...
LETTER LXIX. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, To Miss Howe. Thursday, May 4. I forego every other engagement, I suspend every wish, I banish every other fear, to take up my pen, to beg of you, that you will not think of being guilty of such an act of Love as I can never thank you for; but must for ever regret. If I must continue to write to you, I must. I know full well your impatience of controul, when you have the least imagination that your generosity or friendship is likely to be wounded by it. My dearest, dearest creature, would you incur a maternal, as I have a paternal, malediction? Would not the world think there was an infection in my fault, if it were to be followed by Miss Howe? There are some points so flagrantly wrong,...
LETTER LXX. Mr. Hickman, To Miss Clarissa Harlowe. [Sent to Wilson's by a particular hand.] Friday, May 5. Madam, I have the honour of dear Miss Howe's commands, to acquaint you, without knowing the occasion, 'That she is excessively concerned for the concern she has given you in her last Letter: And that, if you will but write to her, under cover as before, she will have no thoughts of what you are so very apprehensive about.'---Yet she bid me write, 'That if she has but the least imagination that she can serve you, and save you,' those are her words, 'all the censures of the world will be but of second consideration with her.' I have great temptations on this occasion, to express my own resentments upon your...