During Johnson's age there was also great activity in the literature of theology, philosophy, and political economy, but the work done in these fields was too special in character to be included here. In lighter prose the most important names are those of the letter-writers, for letter-writing was at this time assiduously cultivated both as a pastime and as an art. Of these, three call for mention-LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU (16891782), PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD (1694-1773), and HORACE WALPOLE (1717-97). The letters of Lady Mary cover a period of nearly half a century, and are almost equally readable throughout, but they are perhaps particularly interesting when they deal in the author's characteristically vivacious way with her varied experiences abroad. Those of Chesterfield, addressed to his son, were intended as a manual in polite behaviour for the young man's guidance, and their tone is that of the typical man of the world. Those of Walpole are exceedingly amusing as a lively chronicle of social doings, politics, personalities, scandals, and small talk, in the charmed circles in which that dilettante trifler played his part; but their flippancy, their triviality of style, and their frequent spitefulness, give us a rather poor impression of his character. His name will come up again presently in connection with the novel.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE AGE OF JOHNSON (Continued).

The Novel.

72. Prose Fiction in England before Richardson. Though it is impossible to dogmatise, and useless to quarrel about the actual beginnings in England of that particular kind of prose fiction which we now call the novel, it is quite safe to say that its firm establishment and assured popularity date from the age of Johnson, and may indeed be accounted the greatest achievement of that age. It may also be fairly contended that it was with Richardson that prose fiction passed definitely into its modern form. We will here, therefore, take his work as a fresh point of departure. But a rapid survey of the evolution of English fiction before his time is necessary, in order that we may place him in his proper historical position.

We have seen that a certain amount of prose fiction had been produced during the age of Shakespeare, notwithstanding the fact that imaginative energy had then found its chief outlet in the drama. Most of this fiction had been purely romantic, as with Sidney, Lodge, and Greene; or didactic, as with More, Lyly, and Bacon; but a slight tendency to realism had been shown in the picaresque work of Nash. A little later, the long-winded Heroic Romance a strange compound of sham chivalry, sham

pastoralism, pseudo-history, and the extravagant gallantry of a sophisticated society-was imported from France, where for the moment it was immensely popular, and, along with many other French fashions, enjoyed a temporary vogue on English soil. Then, in reaction against the terrible prolixity and absolute unreality of this type, APHRA BEHN (1640-89), and several other women-writers, began to cultivate a form of story which was marked by brevity and concentration of treatment, and which, while still radically conventional in matter and method, showed by contrast a certain desire to get back to truth and nature. Meanwhile a number of extraneous influences were at work, all contributing, as we can now see, to the transformation of prose fiction into something which, despite all superficial similarities, was to be essentially unlike any of its previous varieties; among them, as we have noted, the work of the Character-writers, and, much more important, of Addison and Steele in the periodical essay. Moreover, Bunyan's marvellously effective use of fiction as allegory has to be recognised, and emphasis must also be laid upon the increasing popularity of biography, the forms and methods of which, it is evident, could very easily be carried over from historical into fictitious narrative. This is a matter which, as we remember, is of special interest in connection with the tales of Defoe; and here the question, already touched upon, definitely confronts us, of the place which Defoe occupies in the evolution of fiction. That by rejecting as he did all the fantastic conventions of romance, and adopting with studious preciseness the manner and tone of actual biography, he came very near indeed to the genuine novel, cannot be denied. Yet, none the less, it may still be maintained that he just missed his way. His tales are so far removed from normal life and character, they deal

so largely with strange adventure and crime, and the picaresque element in them is so strong, that, speaking strictly, it would seem that they should be classed rather as romances than as novels. This indeed is a question of mere nomenclature, and no great importance needs to be attached to it. But recognition of the qualities of Defoe's art will at least help to bring the peculiar character of Richardson's work into relief. Before him, a good deal had been done in prose fiction along many lines. But no one, not even Defoe, had yet written a novel of contemporary social and domestic life, the interest of which should depend upon the doings of ordinary people in a familiar setting. Such a novel Richardson produced in Pamela; and it is in view of the fresh movement which he thus initiated that he may not unjustly be called the father of the modern novel.

73. Historical Significance of the Novel. Before we turn to Richardson, however, we may fittingly pause to lay stress upon the great historical significance of the novel from both the literary and the social points of view. The following points should be carefully considered. In the first place, the popularity of the novel, like that of the periodical essay which immediately preceded it, coincided with, and very largely depended upon, the growth of a miscellaneous reading public, and of a public in which women were becoming increasingly numerous and influential. Secondly, as practically a new form of literary art, the novel was a sign that literature was beginning to outgrow the cramping limitations of classicism, and to abandon the doctrine that modern genius was bound to go in the leading-strings of tradition. In the epic and the drama it was impossible as yet that men should reject altogether the authority of antiquity. In the novel that authority could be ignored. There was indeed, as

notably in Fielding's case, some discussion of technical questions from the classicist standpoint and an occasional parade of classical learning. But, in general, the novel offered a fresh field, in which modern writers were able to work independently. Thirdly, the rise of the novel was one result of the democratic movement in eighteenth century England. The romance, like tragedy, had been almost consistently aristocratic in the range of its interests and characters; and even Defoe, while he repudiated romantic conventions in this as in all other respects, still, as we have said, held aloof from the ordinary social world, merely substituting adventurers and criminals for princes and Arcadian shepherds. The comprehensiveness of the novel, its free treatment of the characters and doings of all sorts and conditions of men, and especially its sympathetic handling of middle-class and low life, are unmistakable evidences of its democratic quality. It was not by accident, therefore, that it appeared at a time when, under Sir Robert Walpole's firm rule, this country was settling down after a long period of military excitement, and when, with the consequent growth of commerce and industry, the prestige of the old feudal nobility was on the wane, and the middle classes were increasing steadily in social and political power. As Lord Morley has said of Pamela, it was the "landmark of a great social, no less than a great literary transition, when all England went mad with enthusiasm over the trials, the virtues, the triumphs, of a rustic lady's maid." Finally, as the form of the novel gives a far wider scope than is allowed by the corresponding form of the drama for the treatment of motives, feelings, and all the phenomena of the inner life, it tended from the first to take a peculiar place as the typical art-form of the introspective and analytical modern world.

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