Literary Success a Hundred Years Ago [pp. 432-437]

434 APPLETONS' JOURNAL.
the congregation," all desiring to see her at their
houses. From thence she went to stay in a country house full of visitors, and a friendship commenced between herself and every one of the
guests, which lasted during their respective lives!
All her letters at this time seem to be full of
a chastened worldliness, or rather of a desire to
cultivate two opposing worlds at once. She had
shown it even in childhood when she wished to
go to London to see publishers and bishops. She
showed it afterward in the worldly wisdom with
which she criticised her own title of "Sacred
Dramas." "The word sacred in the title is a
damper to the dramas. It is tying a millstone
about the neck of sensibility, which will drown
them both together." She showed it by going
to Sunday parties, and abusing the people who
gave them as soon as she returned home, and
asking Elijah (i. e., herself) what he had been doing there. In fact, the way in which the little
woman sipped the sweets of pleasure at this
time, and quarreled with their taste, is very droll.
" Pleasure," says she, "is by much the most laborious trade I know, especially for those who
have not a vocation to it. I worked with great
assiduity at this hard calling on Monday. The
moment I had breakfasted I went to Apsley
House, where I staid till near two. I then made
insignificant visits till four, when I went to Mrs.
Boscawen's to dinner, where I staid till eight,
and from thence went to spend the evening at
Mrs. Vesey's, where there was a small assemblage of about thirty people, and all clever." In
another place she naively says: "Mrs. Boscawen
came to see me the other day with the duchess
in her gilt chariot with four footmen. It is not
possible for anything to be more agreeable to my
taste than my present manner of living."
While at home in Bristol after one of these
triumphant visits to London, she one day said
laughingly to her sister, " I have been so fed with
praise that I really think I will venture to try what
is my real value by writing a slight poem and of fering it to Cadell myself." In a fortnight after
the idea was started she had completed "Sir El dred of the Bower," to which she added a short
poem of "The Bleeding Rock." Cadell at once
(publishers always do) offered her a price which
far exceeded her idea of its worth, very hand somely adding that, if she could hereafter discov er what Goldsmith obtained for "The Deserted
Village," he would make up what he had given
her to the same sum, be it what it might. Dr.
Johnson sat from nine till twelve at night reading
and criticising "Sir Eldred"; he even added a
stanza of his own to it; and, when we say that
the poem does not suffer from the introduction of
this, we have said enough to give an idea of its
style and merit.
In I777 she wrote "Percy"; Garrick composed and spoke the prologue and epilogue.
In a letter to her sister she tells how "several
very great ones made interest to hear him read
the play before it was acted, but he peremptorily
refused." Miss More was present at the first
night's performance, and had the delight of witnessing a brilliant success. "One tear," she
writes to her sister, "is worth a thousand hands,
and I had the satisfaction of seeing even men
shed them in abundance." (Tears, not hands,
we hope, but the gifted author leaves the point
unsettled.) When the play was over, the critics
met as usual at the Bedford to "fix its character," and, that being satisfactory, and more than
satisfactory, Miss More received praise and admiration on all sides. Dr. Percy (the Bishop)
was sent at once by the Duke of Northumberland and Earl Percy to thank her for the honor
which she had done their family. Four thousand
copies of the play sold in a fortnight. All the
great people went to the theatre night after night,
and some of them accepted no invitation without
making a proviso that they should be at liberty
to break the engagement if a desire to go to see
"Percy" again came into their heads. M. de
Calonne, Prime Minister of France, translated it
into French, some one else into German, and for
months its popularity was unbounded. How
cheaply this success was gained, any one who
has the courage to read "Percy" may see for
himself. To give an idea of the story: Elwina,
daughter of Earl Raby, is betrothed to Earl Percy. He goes to the Crusades (these Crusades,
by the by, occur, despite chronology, after the
battle of Chevy Chase). During Earl Percy's absence, Earl Raby insists on Elwina's marrying
a new suitor, Earl Douglas-to use the fair E1wina's own words "He dragged me trembling, dying to the altar,
I sighed, I struggled, fainted, and-complied."
Earl Douglas, after a while, finds Elwina's heart
is not his, is jealous, and asks her if " no interior
sense of guilt confounds her"? And so the play
pursues its feeble course to the dreary end. We
know "Percy" to be a tragedy because three peo ple come to a violent death in the last act, and be cause miseries are " pulled down" on guilty heads.
Had it not been a tragedy, it would have been
sufficient to draw them down. It is written in
the prosiest of prose; and yet it was an undoubt ed success. Mrs. Siddons as Elwina drew tears
from Fox, and Mrs. More drew six hundred
pounds from Cadell, the publisher. She wrote
another play, called "The Fatal Falsehood." It
was not quite so successful. Garrick, too, was
dead, and thus Mrs. More had lost the one link
which reconciled her to a profession of which her
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