CHINESE MANNERS.*

[North American Review, October, 1828.]

'You have made me bounce off my chair,' said lady Bradshaigh in a letter to the author of Sir Charles Grandison, 'you have made me bounce off my chair with reading that two good girls were in love with your hero, and that he was fond of both. I have such despicable notions of a divided love, that I cannot have an idea how a worthy object can entertain such a thought.' It is so long since we indulged ourselves with a reperusal of the celebrated work in question, that we are not able to say from our own recollection how far her ladyship's censure of the conduct of Sir Charles and his two enamoradas is justified by the standing rules of the code of romance, and the multiplied reports of cases illustrating it, that occupy the shelves of the circulating libraries. But if such was the horror of this sentimental person at the mere imagination f a double attachment, what would have been her astonshment and indignation, had Richardson wound up the ovel, by actually marrying his pink of moral perfection to oth the fair pretenders? The least violent result of such a proceeding would doubtless have been the immediate termination of the quiet little practical romance, which her immaculate ladyship (without disparagement to the claims of good Mrs. Richardson) was enacting in con

* Yu-Kiao-Li, ou les Deux Cousines; Roman Chinois, traduit par M. Abel Remusat; précédé d'une Préface où se trouve un Parallèle entre les Romans de la Chine et ceux de l'Europe. 4 vol. 12mo. Paris. 1828.

nexion with the ingenious bookseller. Such, however, is in fact the catastrophe of the Chinese novel to which we are now to invite the reader's attention.

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The hero Sa-Yupe,* a young man far more learned and accomplished than Sir Charles, and not less handsome, elegant, and virtuous, after running the gauntlet for the space of four volumes, through the long train of cruel fathers, cross uncles, eccentric fortune-tellers, stupid rivals, and knowing chambermaids, which, it seems, forms the regular staple of an oriental as well as an occidental novel; besides passing with brilliant success several literary examinations, and making a great deal of first-rate poetry, achievements which the heroes of our romances, and, we fear we may add, the writers of them, would probably, in most cases, decline attempting, — is finally rewarded for his merit and trouble, with the hands of the two cousins, Houngiu, or Red-Jasper, and Lo-Mengli, Dream-of-a-Peartree, whom he espouses on the same evening, both being by general acknowledgment among the prettiest and most amiable young women, as well as the best poetesses of the Celestial Empire. We are informed by the translator, that the work before us is not singular in this respect; and that this mode of disposing of their heroes and heroines, at the end of the story, is rather a favorite one with the Chinese laborers in this seductive department of the literary vineyard.

Richardson does not appear to have been much alarmed by lady Bradshaigh's bouncing, and is reported as having, in his answer to the letter from which we have made the above extract, thrown out hints that polygamy itself was not so bad a thing, as she seemed to suppose, principle more lax than we should have expected from

a

* In this and the other Chinese words introduced in this article, the vowels express the sounds usually given to them in English; a as in make, &c.

the author of Pamela' and Clarissa,' although we have lately been surprised with something of the same kind from so exemplary a character as Milton, and which, as we understand the matter, is vicious as a reply to her ladyship's objection, since the doublemindedness of Sir Charles must, on our view of the subject, be justified, if at all, as an exception from the general rule, and not as an example of it. However this may be, it is obvious that the question of morality does not come into view in reference to a foreign production, which faithfully represents the manners of the country where it is written. The fault, if there be one in this respect, lies with the lawgivers and moralists rather than the poets of China.

Leaving this point, therefore, entirely out of the case, we may inquire with propriety, which of the two systems is preferable for the purpose of poetical machinery, and whether the plan of allowing two heroines to a hero, be equally judicious, considering merely the effect of the novel as a work of art, with that of confining him to one, according to the uniform and immemorial practice of the western world. It is generally admitted that the denouement of a story is by far the most difficult part of the fable to manage. Dryden, towards the close of his career, was reduced to such distress on this point, that he is known to have bestowed, in the bitterness of his soul, repeated imprecations on the man who invented fifth acts; and such has been of late the great demand for new novels, that the dealers in this article are evidently reduced to their wits' ends for catastrophes. Sir Walter Scott complains loudly of the straits to which he is driven, for means to disentangle his plots; and it must be owned that some of his productions do but too strongly corroborate the statement. If the Chinese system could be proved to be preferable to ours, or even positively valuable in itself, (and a dispensation could also be obtained on the

score of morality) the generation of novel-writers would find, for a time at least, a very sensible alleviation of their present embarrassment, and would be supplied with a new and most convenient and seasonable resource for varying the tenor of their concluding chapters.

But notwithstanding our willingness to consult the accommodation of these meritorious persons, to whom we are all so much indebted for their unwearied efforts to amuse us, we cannot, in conscience, hold up to them much prospect of relief from this quarter; and we are compelled, however reluctantly, to dissent from the opinion of the able and ingenious translator of the work before us, who is evidently inclined to believe that the introduction of the system of a plurality of heroines would have the effect of a sort of discovery in the science of novelwriting, and would tend to throw a new and agreeable light over the whole field of romance; which, as he seems to suppose, is, in its present state, if not absolutely a place of skulls (which are far from being out of the question), rather too liberally watered with tears and blood, to suit the taste of the more nervous and sensitive class of readWe owe it to the high character of M. Abel Remusat to quote his remarks upon this point, and shall afterwards suggest, with suitable deference to his superior knowledge and judgment, our reasons for entertaining a different notion.

ers.

'A union of three persons, cemented by a conformity of taste and character, constitutes,' says M. Remusat, 'in the opinion of the Chinese, the perfection of earthly happiness, a sort of ideal bliss, reserved by Heaven for peculiar favorites as a suitable reward for their talent and virtue. Looking at the subject under this point of view, their novel-writers not unfrequently arrange matters so as to secure this double felicity to their heroes at the close of the work; and a catastrophe of this kind is regarded as the most satisfactory that can be employed. Without exposing

ourselves to the danger incurred by one of the German divines, who was nearly torn to pieces by the mob of Stockholm for defending polygamy, we may venture to remark, that for the mere purposes of art, this system certainly possesses very great advantages. It furnishes the novel-writer with an easy method of giving general satisfaction to all his characters, at the end of the tale, without recurring to the fatal though convenient intervention of consumption and suicide, with us the only resources, when there happens to be a heroine too many. What floods of tears would not the Chinese method have spared to the high-minded Corinna, to the interesting and poetical Clementina! From what bitter pangs would it not have relieved the irresolute Oswald, perhaps even the virtuous Grandison himself!'

Notwithstanding the plausibility of these considerations and the high authority upon which they are offered, we are satisfied that they involve a material error; which lies in confounding the interest of the novel reader and writer with that of the personages of the tale, and supposing that everything, which tends directly to promote the immediate comfort and well-being of the latter, must also redound to the advantage of the former. This idea, though in our view not only false but directly the reverse of the truth, has been entertained by others as well as M. Remusat, and in particular by the committee of bluestocking ladies, with whom Richardson was in the habit of taking counsel, as to the conduct of his plots, while he was composing his novels. It is well known that those tender souls implored him, with tears in their eyes, to reform Lovelace and permit him to marry Clarissa. It is also understood that Mrs Klopstock, a correspondent and kindred spirit of the womankind of Richardson, interceded powerfully with her gifted spouse, in favor of one of the fallen angels called Abaddona, who showed rather more symptoms of remorse than his fellow reprobates, treating that he might, by some means to her unknown,

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