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vessels stealing in every direction along its surface, presented a prospect as grand as the landscape was beautiful." There are other descriptive passages, which, like those in The Mysteries of Udolpho, approach more nearly to the style of Salvator Rosa.

The Italian was received with as much ardour as Mrs. Radcliffe's two previous novels, and it was from no coldness on the part of the public, that, like an actress in full possession of, applauded powers, she chose to retreat from the stage in the blaze of her fame. After the publication of The Italian, in 1797, the public were not favoured with any more of Mrs. Radcliffe's publications.

We are left in vain to conjecture the reasons, which for more than twenty years, condemned an imagination so fertile, so far as the public were concerned, to sterility. The voice of unfriendly criticism, always as sure an attendant upon merit as envy herself, may perhaps have intimidated the gentleness of her character, or Mrs. Radcliffe, as frequently happens, may have been disgusted at seeing the mode of composition, which she had brought into fashion, profaned by the host of servile imitators who could only copy and render more prominent her defects, without aspiring to her merits. But so steadily did she keep her reso lution, that for more than twenty years the name of Mrs. Radcliffe was never mentioned, unless with reference to her former productions, and in general (so

retired was the current of her life) there was a belief that Fate had removed her from the scene.

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Notwithstanding her refraining from publication, it is impossible to believe that an imagination so strong, supported by such ready powers of expression, should have remained inactive during so long a period; but the manuscripts on which she was occasionally employed have as yet been withheld from the public. We have some reason to believe, that arrangements were at one time almost concluded between Mrs. Radcliffe and a highly respectable publishing house, respecting a poetical romance, but were broken off in consequence of the author changing or delaying her intention of publication. It is to be hoped, that the world will not be ultimately deprived of what undoubtedly must be the source of much pleasure whenever it shall see the light.

The tenor of Mrs. Radcliffe's private life seems to have been peculiarly calm and sequestered. She probably declined the sort of personal notoriety, which, in London society, usually attaches to persons of literary merit; and perhaps no author, whose works were so universally read and admired, was so little personally known, even to the most active of that class of people of distinction, who rest their peculiar pretentions to fashion upon the selection of literary society. Her estate was certainly not the less gracious; and it did not disturb Mrs. Radcliffe's domestic comforts, although many of her admirers be

lieved, and some are not yet undeceived, that, in consequence of brooding over the terrours which she depicted, her reason had at length been overturned, and that the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho only existed as the melancholy inmate of a private madhouse. This report was so generally spread, and so confidently repeated in print, as well as in conversation, that the editor believed it for several years, until, greatly to his satisfaction, he learned, from good authority, that there neither was, nor ever had been, the most distant foundation for this unpleasing rumour.

A false report of another kind gave Mrs. Radcliffe much concern. In Miss Seward's Correspondence, among the literary gossip of the day, it is roundly stated, that the Plays upon the Passions were Mrs. Radcliffe's, and that she owned them. Mrs. Radcliffe was much hurt at being reported capable of borrowing from the fame of a gifted sister; and the late Miss Seward would probably have suffered equally, had she been aware of the pain she inflicted by giving currency to a rumour so totally unfounded. The truth is, that, residing at a distance from the metropolis, and living upon literary intelligence as her daily food, Miss Seward was sometimes imposed upon by those friendly caterers who were more anxious to supply her with the newest intelligence, than solicitous about is accuracy,

During the last twelve years of her life, Mrs. Radcliffe suffered from a spasmodic asthma, which considerably affected her general health and spirits. This

chronic disorder took a more fatal turn upon the 9thof January, 1822, and upon the 7th of February following, terminated the life of this ingenious and amiable lady, at her own house in London.

Mrs. Radcliffe, as an author, has the most decided claim to take her place among the favoured few, who have been distinguished as the founders of a class, or school. She led the way in a peculiar style of composition, affecting powerfully the mind of the reader, which has since been attempted by many, but in which no one has attained or approached the excellencies of the original inventor,' unless, perhaps, the author of The Family of Montorio.

The species of romance which Mrs. Radcliffe introduced bears nearly the same relation to the novel that the modern anomaly entitled a melo drama does to the proper drama. It does not appeal to the judgment by deep delineations of human feeling, or stir the pas sions by scenes of deep pathos, or awaken the fancy by tracing out, with spirit and vivacity, the lighter traces of life and manners, or excite mirth by strong representations of the ludicrous or humourous. In other words, it attains its interest neither by the path of tragedy nor of comedy; and yet it has, notwithstanding, a deep, decided, and powerful effect, gained by means independent of both-by an appeal, in one

word, to the passion of fear, whether excited by natural dangers, or by the suggestions of superstition. The force therefore of the production, lies in the delineation of external incident, while the characters of the agents, like the figures in many landscapes, are entirely subordinate to the scenes in which they are placed; and are only distinguished by such outlines as make them seem appropriate to the rocks and trees, which have been the artist's principal objects. The persons introduced,—and here also the correspondence holds betwixt the melo-drama and such romances as The Mysteries of Udolpho,-bear the features, not of individuals, but of the class to which they belong. A dark and tyrannical count; an aged crone of a housekeeper, the depository of many a family legend; a garrulous waiting-maid; a gay and light-hearted valet; a villain or two of all-work; and a heroine, fulfilled with all perfections, and subjected to all manner of hazards, form the stock in trade of a romancer or a melodramatist; and if these personages be dressed in their proper costume, and converse in language sufficiently appropriate to their stations and qualities, it is not expected that the audience shall shake their sides at the humour of the dialogue, or weep over its pathos.

On the other hand, it is necessary that these characters, though not delineated with individual features, should be truly and forcibly sketched in the outline; that their dress and general appearance should correspond with and support the trick of the scene; and that

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