Mary Wollstonecraft Part 21

The children are both well, the infant in particular. It is the finest baby I ever saw. Wishing you peace and prosperity, I remain your humble servant,

ELIZA FENWICK.

Mr. G.o.dwin requests you will make Mrs. Bishop acquainted with the particulars of this afflicting event. He tells me that Mrs. G.o.dwin entertained a sincere and earnest affection for Mrs. Bishop.

The funeral was arranged by Mr. Basil Montague and Mr. Marshal for Friday, the 15th. All G.o.dwin's and Mary's intimate acquaintances were invited to be present. Among these was Mr. Tuthil, whose views were identical with G.o.dwin's. This invitation gave rise to another short correspondence, unfortunate at such a time. Mr. Tuthil considered it inconsistent with his principles, if not immoral, to take part in any religious ceremonies; and G.o.dwin, while he respected his scruples, disapproved of his coldness, which made such a decision possible. But he was the only one who refused to show this mark of respect to Mary's memory. G.o.dwin himself was too exhausted mentally and physically to appear at the funeral. When Friday morning came he shut himself up in Marshal's rooms and unburdened his heavy heart by writing to Mr.

Carlisle. At the same hour Mary Wollstonecraft was buried at old Saint Pancras, the church where but a few short months before she had been married. A monument was afterwards erected over her willow-shadowed grave. It bore this inscription:--

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT G.o.dWIN,

AUTHOR OF

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

BORN XVII. APRIL, MDCCLIX.

DIED X. SEPTEMBER, MDCCXCVII.

Many years later, when G.o.dwin's body lay by her side, the quiet old churchyard was ruined by the building of the Metropolitan and Midland Railways. But there were those living who loved their memory too dearly to allow their graves to be so ruthlessly disturbed. The remains of both were removed by Sir Percy Sh.e.l.ley to Bournemouth where his mother, Mary G.o.dwin Sh.e.l.ley, was already laid. "There," Kegan Paul writes, "on a sunny bank sloping to the west, among the rose-wreathed crosses of many who have died in more orthodox beliefs, lie those who at least might each of them have said,--

'Write me as one who loves his fellow-men.'"

Mary Wollstonecraft's death was followed by exhaustive discussion not only of her work but of her character. The result was, as Dr. Beloe affirms, "not very honorable to her fair fame as a woman, whatever it might be to her reputation as an author." The following pa.s.sage written at this time shows the estimation in which she was held by a number of her contemporaries:--

"She was a woman of strong intellect and of ungovernable pa.s.sions.

To the latter, when once she had given the reins, she seems to have yielded on all occasions with little scruple, and as little delicacy. She appears in the strongest sense a voluptuary and sensualist, but without refinement. We compa.s.sionate her errors, and respect her talents; but our compa.s.sion is lessened by the mischievous tendency of her doctrines and example; and our respect is certainly not extended or improved by her exclaiming against prejudices of some of the most dangerous of which she was herself perpetually the victim, by her praises of virtue, the sanct.i.ty of which she habitually violated, and by her pretences to philosophy, whose real mysteries she did not understand, and the dignity of which, in various instances, she sullied and disgraced."

It was to silence such base calumnies that G.o.dwin wrote his Memoirs. This was undoubtedly the wisest way to answer Mary's critics. As he says of Marguerite in "St. Leon," "The story of her life is the best record of her virtues. Her defects, if defects she had, drew their pedigree from rect.i.tude of sentiment and perception, from the most generous sensibility, from a heart pervaded and leavened with tenderness." That truth is mighty above all things is shown by this story to have been her creed. By it she regulated her feelings, her thoughts, and her deeds.

Whether her principles and conduct be applauded or condemned, she must always be honored for her integrity of motive, her fearlessness of action, and her faithful devotion to the cause of humanity. Like Heine, she deserves to have a sword laid upon her grave, for she was a brave soldier in the battle of freedom for mankind.

University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.

_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._

_Famous Women Series._

MRS. SIDDONS.

By NINA H. KENNARD.

The latest contribution to the "Famous Women Series" gives the life of Mrs. Siddons, carefully and appreciatively compiled by Nina H.

Kennard. Previous lives of Mrs. Siddons have failed to present the many-sided character of the great tragic queen, representing her more exclusively in her dramatic capacity. Mrs. Kennard presents the main facts in the lives previously written by Campbell and Boaden, as well as the portion of the great actress's history appearing in Percy Fitzgerald's "Lives of the Kembles;" and beyond any other biographer gives the more tender and domestic side of her nature, particularly as shown in her hitherto unpublished letters.

The story of the early dramatic endeavors of the little Sarah Kemble proves not the least interesting part of the narrative, and it is with a distinct human interest that her varying progress is followed until she gains the summit of popular favor and success.

The picture of her greatest public triumphs receives tender and artistic touches in the view we are given of the idol of brilliant and intellectual London sitting down with her husband and father to a frugal home supper on retiring from the glare of the footlights.--_Commonwealth._

We think the author shows good judgment in devoting comparatively little s.p.a.ce to criticism of Mrs. Siddons's dramatic methods, and giving special attention to her personal traits and history. Hers was an extremely interesting life, remarkable no less for its private virtues than for its public triumphs. Her struggle to gain the place her genius deserved was heroic in its persistence and dignity. Her relations with the authors, wits, and notables of her day give occasion for much entertaining and interesting anecdotical literature. Herself free from humor, she was herself often the occasion of fun in others. The stories of her tragic manner in private life are many and ludicrous.... The book abounds in anecdotes, bits of criticism, and pictures of the stage and of society in a very interesting transitional period.--_Christian Union._

A fitting addition to this so well and so favorably known series is the life of the wonderful actress, Sarah Siddons, by Mrs. Nina Kennard. To most of the present generation the great woman is only a name, though she lived until 1831; but the present volume, with its vivid account of her life, its struggles, triumphs, and closing years, will give to such a picture that is most lifelike. A particularly pleasant feature of the book is the way in which the author quotes so copiously from Mrs. Siddons's correspondence.

These extracts from letters written to friends, and with no thought of their ever appearing in print, give the most spontaneous expressions of feeling on the part of the writer, as well as her own account of many events of her life. They furnish, therefore, better data upon which to base an opinion of her real personality and character than anything else could possibly give. The volume is interesting from beginning to end, and one rises from its perusal with the warmest admiration for Sarah Siddons because of her great genius, her real goodness, and her true womanliness, shown in the relations of daughter, wife, and mother. Modern actresses, amateur or professional, with avowed intentions of "elevating the stage,"

should study this n.o.ble woman's example; for in this direction she accomplished more, probably, than any other one person has ever done, and at greater odds.--_N. E. Journal of Education._

ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON.

_Already published:_

GEORGE ELIOT. By Mathilde Blind.

EMILY BRONTe. By Miss Robinson.

GEORGE SAND. By Miss Thomas.

MARY LAMB. By Mrs. Gilchrist.

MARGARET FULLER. By Julia Ward Howe.

MARIA EDGEWORTH. By Miss Zimmern.

ELIZABETH FRY. By Mrs. E. R. Pitman.

THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. By Vernon Lee.

MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. By Mrs. E. R. Pennell.

HARRIET MARTINEAU. By Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller.

RACHEL. By Mrs. Nina H. Kennard.

MADAME ROLAND. By Mathilde Blind.

SUSANNA WESLEY. By Eliza Clarke.

MARGARET OF ANGOULeME. By Miss Robinson.

MRS. SIDDONS. By Mrs. Nina H. Kennard.

MADAME DE STAeL. By Bella Duffy.

HANNAH MORE. By Charlotte M. Yonge.

ADELAIDE RISTORI. An Autobiography.

ELIZ. BARRETT BROWNING. By J. H. Ingram.

JANE AUSTEN. By Mrs. Charles Malden.

SAINT THERESA. By Mrs. Bradley Gilman.