Elizabeth Inchbald - Complete Works of Elizabeth Inchbald

The Complete Works of

ELIZABETH INCHBALD

(1753-1821)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2021

Version 1

Browse our Main Series

Browse ou r Ancient Classics

Browse our Poets

Brow se our Art eBooks

Browse our Classical M usic series

The Complete Works of

ELIZABETH INCHBALD

By Delphi Classics, 2021

Complete Works of Elizabeth Inchbald

First published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2021.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 80170 001 6

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

www.delphiclassics.com

Enlighten your digital library

explore the 18 th Century at Delphi Classics

Church of St Nicholas, Stanningfield, a village near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Inchbalds birthplace

Countryside surrounding the small village of Stanningfield

The two anonymously published epistolary novels Appearance is against Them (1786) and Emily Herbert: or, Perfidy Punished (1786) were later ascribed to the hand of Elizabeth Inchbald, though there is much dispute now whether she actually wrote them. Her biographer Annibel Jenkins points out that she was working on a novel as early as 1777 and submitted a completed text (though this was more likely an early draft of A Simple Story ) to a publisher in 1780. Therefore, she could have written the two novels in question. James Boaden, who had possession of Inchbalds diaries when he wrote the Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald (1833) makes no mention of the two novels, and neither does Jenkins. As the attribution to Inchbald came much later and the fact that Appearance is against Them shares its title with one of Inchbalds plays, first staged and published in 1785, a more likely explanation would be that at some point a cataloguer mistook the title for Inchbalds play. As the anonymously published Emily Herbert was advertised as being by the writer of Appearance is against Them , it is understandable how the mistake of attributing both works to Inchbald could arise. Still it is possible she did write the novels and they might exist as examples of her very earliest literary efforts.

Appearance is against Them is structured as a series of letters between Isabella Rochley and her dear friend Harriot. Rochleys family has recently fallen upon hard times, after the unwise speculations of her now deceased father. The main incident in this narrative is borrowed from Voltaires LEcossaix , a well-known comedy. Although it offers an interesting story, the language was deemed to be poor and weak by a reviewer in The Monthly Review . The critic explains:

At the opening of the performance, indeed, where the Author describes the feelings of a person once in affluence, but reduced to nearly a dependent state, we discovered a prettiness of thought and expression, and which really promised well. We were accordingly prepared to hail the coming good but, alas ! as our Author observes, appearances are often deceitful , and when we expected to embrace a Juno, we met with nothing but a cloud.

Inchbald by Samuel Freeman, c. 1780

MISS ROCHLEY, TO MISS LENOX.

W ARWICK .

WHY all this distress my kind Harriot, why so much anxiety on your Isabellas account? I hoped my last would have convinced you I am by no means so unhappy, as your fears would persuade you; no doubt we have suffered, severely suffered: the unexpected change in our situation is certainly a very mortifying circumstance; but, remember my dear, we are not the first, would to heaven we might be the last, who have been ruined by that destructive vice; twas my poor fathers only foible; do not then let us be too severe on his memory; nor are we Harriot left quite destitute as you suppose, far from it: my Orlandos commission is alone sufficient to maintain him as a gentleman, had he no more, but he has more after paying all my fathers debts, and sorry, sorry, am I to say, they were mostly what is falsely called debts of honor; we find a reversion of near two thousand pounds. What is this, you will perhaps ask, when compared to the noble estate he has lost at the gaming table? nothing yet Harriot, how many, no less worthy than ourselves are there at this moment, who would look upon even our present situation as enviable; tis by reflections of this nature I endeavour to reconcile myself to my fate, and, thank heaven, I am reconciled to it. O spare then, my dear Harriot yours on the memory of my unfortunate father. I know they are the effects of your tender affection to me; but they hurt my feelings, I can pity, I can lament his situation; this I can allow you to do; but, indeed you must spare your censures on a conduct, which, though faulty, a daughter ought not to condemn: alas, he suffered most severely his agony his remorse in his last moments would have pierced the most flinty heart. Orlandos behaviour but no words can do it justice twas great twas noble not a murmur not even a sigh escaped him for his own fate, all his feelings were for the sufferings of a father whose failings he pitied, and wished to forget he, Harriot, has indeed, a degree of manly fortitude, to which your poor Isabella has no pretensions: my resignation proceeds rather from an indifference for the superfluities of life, from a happy flow of spirits, which has ever led me to look on the bright side of the picture, and let me add, which should indeed have been first mentioned, a firm persuasion, that, the Almighty never wholly forsakes the virtuous, nor lays heavier burdens on any of his creatures, than they are able to bear. What have I then to fear? poverty be it so, far be it from me to believe all who are destitute of riches are miserable nor can I be deemed absolutely poor, having such a brother as my Orlando he may nay, he must rise in his profession, if merit can entitle him to it; and though that does not always follow, yet a very superior degree of it, is seldom wholly overlooked, and such is his have I not a kind affectionate friend too in my Harriot, who, I am positively certain will love me more truly now, if possible, than in my days of prosperity? adversity is justly said to be the test of friendship; I am under no apprehensions for the loss of yours those who may now look cool upon me, I have pride enough to despise, and thus we are quits it will shew me their real value, and that, let me tell you, is gaining no inconsiderable knowledge. Are you convinced my dear Harriot, that I am not so much to be pitied as you have hitherto kindly feared? believe me, happiness is an imaginary blessing, at least, tis in the mind we must seek for it, not in those outward trappings, which wealth bestows, and can only bestow. I am very much persuaded, I shall find myself as thoroughly satisfied and content, nay, as vain of my charms too, in a neat linen or muslin gown, as ever I was when adorned with more costly attire; indeed, I have somewhere read, that beauty when unadorned, is adorned the most tis a doctrine I am now determined to adopt, and, who knows, what may yet happen; if that maxim may be depended on, my days of conquest are yet to begin, that is to say, I am to be more capable of it than ever. I feared, you see, you should fancy I had lived to nearly my nineteenth year, without having done any execution, and, humbled as I am, felt my pride alarmed at such an idea thank heaven, however, I am setting out in my new plan of life, with my heart perfectly at ease no small consolation that, let me tell you not so, my darling Orlando; and that pains it indeed, more than any other wound it could have received he has now, I fear, a hopeless passion to struggle with, beside all his other misfortunes you are no stranger to his atachment to the lovely Caroline, nor her wretch of a brothers rooted aversion to mine an aversion, founded on his superiority; they were fellow collegians he there conceived that envy for his superior talents; and the universal esteem he met with from every creature, (himself excepted,) and by some other trifling circumstances which has since occurred, of which you have seen many proofs; it has, from that period, been his constant endeavour to do him every injury in his power, though, till now, he has met with few or no opportunities and, there is nothing more certain, I firmly believe, than that.