The second letter, presumably Webster’s, toys with the suggestion that a young woman actually wrote the letters which Richardson edits: “let us have _Pamela_ as _Pamela_ wrote it.” But this is only in play. Although the writer disparages “_Novels_,” the note which heads his letter when it first appeared in _The Weekly Miscellany_ speaks of the “Author of Pamela” who has “written an _English Novel_,”[16] and his opening remarks are clearly those of a critic speaking of fiction.
Hill’s first letter goes solidly for the conclusion that an author, a man of genius, wrote the book. The heading, “To the Editor of _Pamela_”, is Richardson’s only attempt to bring Hill’s letter into his already wavering line. In the fifth edition, however, he introduces this letter with his only straight statement that an author, distinct from the editor, is involved, an author who begged the editor not to include flattery.
To the end of his days Richardson continued to sit under the editorial shade -- _Sir Charles Grandison_ was “published” by the “editor of _Pamela_ and _Clarissa_” -- enjoying the sunshine of his authorship. His introduction to _Pamela_ and the care he took with it suggest more succinctly than anything else Richardson’s flirtation with his adorers, which is not at all unlike that of his so modest heroine.
Sheridan W. Baker, Jr. University of Michigan
[Footnote 1: William M. Sale, _Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record_ (New Haven, 1936), p. 13.]
[Footnote 2: The fourth carries “the Second Edition” before the new introductory letters; the fifth changes to “the Present Edition.”]
[Footnote 3: A translation of Abbé Noel Antoine Pluche: _The History of the Heavens_, 2 vols. (1740). (William M. Sale, _Samuel Richardson: Master Printer_ [Cornell, 1950], p. 193.)]
[Footnote 4: William M. Sale, _Samuel Richardson, a Bibliographical Record_, p. 15; William M. and Alan D. McKillop, _Samuel Richardson_ (Chapel Hill, 1936), p. 42.]
[Footnote 5: McKillop, pp. 301-2. Richardson had printed the _Miscellany_ between 1733 and 1736.]
[Footnote 6: Richardson mentions other letters but does not print them. Hill’s reference to “The Gentleman’s Advice” on page xxii is to a letter from Benjamin Slocock, who commended _Pamela_ from his pulpit in St. Saviour’s, and thus helped provoke Henry Fielding. (Sale, ibid., p. 17.)]