The Governess, or, The Little Female Academy PDF
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Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 1 This electronic material is under copyright protection and is provided to a single recipient for review purposes only. THE GOVERNESS broadview editions series editor:L.W.Conolly Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 2 Review Copy Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 3 Review Copy THE GOVERNESS; OR, THE LITTLE FEMALE ACADEMY Sarah Fielding edited by Candace Ward broadview editions Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 4 Review Copy © Candace Ward All rights reserved.The use of any part of this publication reproduced,transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise,or stored in a retrieval system,without prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying,a licence from Access Copyright (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency),One Yonge Street,Suite , Toronto,ON —is an infringement of the copyright law. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Fielding,Sarah,-. The governess,or,The little female academy / Sarah Fielding ;edited by Candace Ward. (Broadview editions) isbn--- I.Ward,Candace II.Title. III.Title:Little female academy. IV.Series. . '. -- Broadview Editions The Broadview Editions series represents the ever-changing canon of literature by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable lesser-known works. Advisory editor for this volume:Kathryn Prince Broadview Press Ltd.is an independent,international publishing house,incorporated in . Broadview believes in shared ownership,both with its employees and with the general public;since the year Broadview shares have traded publicly on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol . We welcome comments and suggestions regarding any aspect of our publications–please feel free to contact us at the addresses below or at [email protected] / www.broadviewpress.com North America POBox ,Peterborough,Ontario,Canada Tel:() -;Fax:() - email:[email protected] POBox, California Road,Orchard Park,, UK,Ireland,and continental Europe NBN Plymbridge Estover Road Plymouth UK Tel: () Fax: () Fax Order Line: () Customer Service:[email protected] Orders:[email protected] Australia and New Zealand UNIREPS,University of New South Wales Sydney,, Australia Tel: ;Fax: email:[email protected] PRINTED IN CANADA Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 5 Review Copy Contents Acknowledgements • Introduction • Sarah Fielding:A Brief Chronology • A Note on the Text • The Governess;or,The Little Female Academy • Appendix A:Sarah Trimmer’s Review of The Governess in The Guardian of Education (June ) • Appendix B:Selected Correspondence of Sarah Fielding • Appendix C:Excerpts from Sarah Fielding’s Remarks on ‘Clarissa’ () • Appendix D:Excerpts from Eighteenth-Century Educational Literature • . From John Locke,Some Thoughts Concerning Education () • . From John Gregory,A Father’s Legacy to His Daughters () • . From Thomas Day,The History of Sandford and Merton () • . From Sarah Trimmer,Fabulous Histories () • . From Mary Wollstonecraft,Original Stories from Real Life () • . From Mary Wollstonecraft,A Vindication of the Rights of Woman () • . From Mrs.Sherwood,The Governess () • Select Bibliography • Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 6 Review Copy Acknowledgements First,I would like to thank Julia Gaunce,Leonard Conolly,and the Broadview editorial team for their support of this project.I would also like to acknowledge the advice and encouragement of Jan Susina, Ron Fortune, and Susan Kim at Illinois State University.Thanks also to Linda Bree for sharing her enthusiasm for Sarah Fielding. I’m grateful to Madeline Gibson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for her assistance and good humor,and to Rita Smith,Curator of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature,George A.Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida,for help in locating Mrs.Sherwood’s The Governess.And last but not least,heartfelt thanks to Matthew Kopka for his patience and invaluable editorial advice. In Memorium:Carrie Frances Wagner,–,friend and teacher. Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 7 Review Copy Introduction Sarah Fielding’s Life After almost two centuries of obscurity, the works of Sarah Fielding,including The Governess;or,The Little Female Academy (),have recaptured the attention of literary critics.Fielding’s novels,literary criticism,translations,and experimental writings evidence a deep intelligence,which,like that of many of her female contemporaries,operated under cover of a self-deprecat- ing modesty.The full scope of Fielding’s particular genius has also been overshadowed by her brother Henry Fielding’s literary repu- tation,both in eighteenth-century criticism and that of more recent years. In fact, much of what we know about Sarah Fielding’s life and writings was initially recorded as a supplement to Henry’s biography. Although the dearth of information about Fielding is frustrat- ing,it’s not surprising given the tendency in eighteenth-century British culture to define women relationally,as daughters,sisters, wives,and mothers.The two latter relationships did not apply to Fielding as she never married or had children.Had she fulfilled either of these roles,which,according to contemporary wisdom, was the only real chance a woman had for happiness,she would most likely not have published,or at least not to the extent that she did.As Fielding herself claimed in the preface to her first novel,The Adventures of David Simple (),“Perhaps the best Excuse that can be made for a Woman’s venturing to write at all, is that which has really produced this Book: Distress in her Circumstances:which she could not so well remove by any other Means in her Power.” This attitude was shared by many women of the period,among them,as Linda Bree points out,Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a distant relative of Fielding. Montagu “heartily pit[ied] her [Fielding],constrained by her circumstances to seek her bread by a method I do not doubt she despises.” The Adventures of David Simple and Volume the Last,ed.Peter Sabor (Lexington:UP of Kentucky,),. Qtd.in Linda Bree,Sarah Fielding (New York:Twayne,),. ; , Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 8 Review Copy The circumstances alluded to by Fielding and Montagu were the consequence of Fielding’s position as a gentlewoman with no wealth of her own and no father or husband to provide for her financial security.Fielding’s precarious position as an adult represented a departure from the life she had been accustomed to in early childhood.Her mother,née Sarah Gould,was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and magistrate,Sir Henry Gould, and Lady Sarah Davidge Gould.In when their daughter married Edmund Fielding,a soldier who had served in France and Lisbon,her parents disapproved,even though his family connections included the Earls of Denbigh and Desmond. Perhaps the Goulds foresaw that aristocratic connections did not translate into economic solvency:their son-in-law was a soldier and thus subject to the fortunes (or misfortunes) of war and mili- tary patronage;moreover,he was not a good economist.Sir Henry,then,determined to provide for his daughter and grand- children and,in ,the year that Sarah was born,arranged for the purchase of a small farm in East Stour,Dorset. The farmhouse in East Stour would prove a mixed blessing for the Fieldings.For the first seven and a half years of her life, Sarah (the third daughter and one of seven children) enjoyed the pleasant and privileged life typical of a wealthy county family, their house staffed by servants,including a governess for the girls’ education.For a time after Sir Henry’s death in ,Lady Gould lived with the Fieldings and no doubt influenced the way the household was run.As for Edmund,he had been put on half-pay in and was transforming himself from a soldier into a gentleman-farmer.This transformation was interrupted in April by the death of Sarah’s mother.Edmund left for London soon after,leaving his children in the care of their maternal great- aunt,Katherine Cottington. The following year Edmund, having received a colonel’s appointment,remarried Anne Blanchfield Rapha and brought her to East Stour in .Sarah’s new stepmother was the widow of an Italian Roman Catholic with two daughters of her own,both Henry was born in ;Catharine in ;Ursula in ;Anne in (d.); Beatrice in ;and Edmund in . Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 9 Review Copy of whom were receiving convent educations abroad. Neither Colonel Fielding’s marriage nor his new wife’s Catholicism sat well with Lady Gould and Mrs.Cottington,and relations between Edmund and his in-laws—which had never been smooth—wors- ened with the new household arrangements.Edmund found it so uncomfortable that he and his wife returned to London.He did not,however,take his children with him.Instead Edmund decided that Henry was to go to Eton to prepare for a university educa- tion,and that the three older girls (Catharine,Ursula,and Sarah) were to be enrolled in Mrs.Rookes’s boarding school in Salisbury, where Lady Gould had moved in . As for Lady Gould,she had always been suspicious of Edmund’s handling of the East Stour property,the rents of which Sir Henry had always intended for the care of his daughter and grandchil- dren.In February she filed suit against her son-in-law in hopes of retaining custody of the children and guaranteeing the farm income for their exclusive use.By all accounts,the lawsuit— based on Lady Gould’s assertions that Colonel Fielding and his wife neglected and mistreated the children—was bitter and espe- cially devastating for Sarah and her brothers and sisters.Whether or not the allegations were true,intimate details of the family life were aired in public,and the antagonisms between the two parties must have colored the children’s perception of adult life.Certainly in Fielding’s writings (including The Governess) there are a number of wicked stepmothers and weak and/or negligent fathers. One of the most dramatic of these portrayals appears in The Adventures of David Simple. In that text,Camilla and Valentine, brother and sister, lose their mother. Soon after their father remarries and his new wife does all she can to alienate her husband from his children.Jealous of the influence that Camilla and Valentine might retain over their father,Livia confides to him that their “remarkable Fondness”for one another is based on an incestuous relationship.The father believes her and banishes his Sarah gained six stepbrothers from this marriage.Her stepbrother Sir John Fielding (b. ) was a Middlesex magistrate who provided Sarah Fielding with financial assistance later in her life (Martin C.Battestin and Clive T.Probyn,eds.The Correspondence of Henry and Sarah Fielding[Oxford:Clarendon P,],).Sir John is also credited,along with Henry,with establishing the Bow Street Runners,London’s first police force. ; , Governess main 7/16/05 5:23 AM Page 10 Review Copy children. Although incest was a common theme in eighteenth- century fiction,the inclusion of sibling incest in Fielding’s text has attracted critical attention,not least because of her close relation- ship with Henry.(Henry’s first novel Joseph Andrews,written two years before David Simple,also deals with incest.) One of Henry’s biographers,Martin Battestin,suggests that Sarah’s and Henry’s fascination with this theme arose from their memories of the lawsuit between Edmund Fielding and Lady Gould.According to the court records,a family maid testified that Henry,at the time aged ,“was guilty of committing some indecent actions with his Sister Beatrice,”then aged . The testimony does not reveal what those indecent actions were, nor is it clear how much credence was given to the report.What is clear—evidenced by the numerous close relationships between sisters and brothers in Fielding’s fiction—is that she understood the significance and fragility of such close ties,especially for economically dependent women.As Jenny Peace’s mother explains to her in The Governess, “[R]emember how much [your] Brother’s superior Strength might assist in his being [your] Protector;and ...in return ...use [your] utmost Endeavours to oblige him;and ...then [you] should be mutual Assistants to each other throughout Life”(p.of this edition). Mutual assistance between brother and sister was even more crucial in the absence of a strong father figure. That Edmund Fielding was not a model father—he was never able to provide financial security for his children, and was committed,the year before his death in ,to debtor’s prison— was reflected in the outcome of the lawsuit,which was finally settled in Lady Gould’s favor in .The close of the court case also marks the close of the public records that provide details of Sarah Fielding’s early family life.Biographers are fairly certain As Martin Battestin points out,there is another accusation of sibling incest in the “History of Anna Boleyn,”which has been attributed to Sarah and which appears in Henry’s A Journey from This World into the Next(Miscellanies ):“I [Anne Boleyn] was brought to my trial,and to blacken me the more,accused of conversing crimi- nally with my own Brother,whom indeed I loved extremely well,but never looked on him in any other Light than as my Friend”(“Henry Fielding,Sarah Fielding,and ‘the dreadful Sin of Incest,’”Novel:A Forum on Fiction .[Fall ]:). Qtd.in Battestin,“Henry Fielding ...Incest”. All page references to The Governess will refer to this edition.
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