CMP #214: Mrs. Foster has thoughts: review of Light and Shade, 1803 
​  Of the several thousand novels published during the long eighteenth century, The Woman of Colour has a special place in the hearts of the academy because the protagonist is a woman of colour. I reviewed the novel here. Some academics speculate that the author of The Woman of Colour might actually be a woman of colour. I will weigh up the case for that, but Mrs. E.M. Foster and Mrs. E.G. Bayfield are the top candidates for the answer to the question: “who wrote The Woman of Colour”? The answer isn't clear because Foster and Bayfield have been attributed as authors of the same titles. For example, Bayfield and not Foster is listed as the author of Light and Shade in some references.
   Therefore, I am following the tangled trail of title page attributions and—here’s a novel thought—actually reading the books authored by Foster and Bayfield to look for similarities with The Woman of Colour in language, plot, tropes, and themes...

   In the first three volumes of Sons of the Viscount and the Daughters of the Earl, we have read about the protracted angst of two couples who can't marry each other because of a feud between two noble families, and another pair of lovers, Elvira and Sidney, who are parted forever because she married someone else. Sidney is now married to Julia, a sweet and deserving girl. 
   The unhappy Cecil (a girl) and Robert, Lord Desmond, along with Henry Fortescue and Angeline de Courci, are unable to marry because more than twenty years ago Emma, (Robert's mother and Angeline's aunt), could not marry Viscount Fortescue (Cecil and Henry's father), because of the family feud described in earlier posts. What is needed--obviously--is for Emma, now widowed, to go to her old sweetheart Viscount Fortescue and beg him to put aside the family feud so the young people can marry. This solution does not occur to her. What can I do to help? she asks her unhappy son, all bewildered. What could I possibly do?...
       “Oh, my adored mother! I would die sooner than you should be put to the trial… [Robert answers]. I cannot tell you—I would not for the world you should suppose me capable of wishing to expose you to such a painful task.”
    “And will you refuse to give me the information I demand? Then, Angeline, I must appeal to you.”
   “Oh, not to me, dear aunt, not to me, I would not wound you by the mention of such an idea.” ​

    In an earlier post, I shared some strong feminist characters I had saved up from various novels to present all at once. This week, it's time for homosexuals to step up. Yes, they feature in some old novels. 
   The thing is, they didn't have a word for it back then, not in polite society, anyway. Yes, if you consult a Georgian slang dictionary, they had words for everything, but no words a well-bred lady or gentleman would use in company or even in print. The act, between men, was referred to as "the abominable vice" or the "unspeakable vice." 
    My aim is to give you some examples of how homosexuality was depicted in novels read by young ladies, as compared to the inferences being drawn by modern scholars. Frankly, some 18th-century habits and expressions strike us differently today and I think some people are misinterpreting behaviour that was normal between the sexes back then. Mr. Elton walks arm-in-arm with Mr. Cole in Emma, and Sir Walter walked arm in arm with his heir, W.W. Elliot, in Persuasion. One modern scholar looks at the affectionate loyalty Emma has toward Miss Taylor/Mrs. Weston and concludes their relationship had a sexual component. As for Harriet, "her beauty happened to be of a sort which Emma particularly admired" and this is enough for some moderns to conclude that there's an erotic attraction there--Emma likes girls. How was Emma supposed to react to a pretty girl? With jealousy? Is that the only natural and authentic reaction they think girls have toward another beautiful girl? I mean, what are the options here?

CMP#191          Two minor novels--the foundling plot and the seduction plot
    ​    Here are quick samples of two popular genres of the long eighteenth century. Both novels rely on improbable coincidence for their resolutions: ​

Miriam (1800) by Mrs. E.M. Foster
   “Oh, for mercy’s sake turn back! You know not on what a precipice you stand—a terrible gulph yawns beneath it, and you will be swallowed up for ever!”
     The young man standing on the edge of a cliff, about to jump, must be impressed at our heroine’s eloquence, because even during such a dramatic moment, she is speaking metaphorically, not literally, as she warns him of the damnation awaiting the person who commits suicide.
    “Think of your merciful Creator; --for what did he send you into this world? Oh blessed, thrice blessed are those whom he chasteneth! Turn back, I conjure you turn back…”
   The persuasions of this beautiful girl who has appeared out of nowhere do the trick, and our unknown young man steps back from the edge, totally smitten. But he soon disappears and Miriam only knows that his name is Henry....