DEFOE.*
THE public has been often asked of late years to form an entirely fresh judgment with regard to the character of persons famous in literature or history. According to the new lights, Tiberius is no longer a monster of vice and cruelty, but a highly respectable and kindly-hearted monarch ; Catiline, who, in our fathers' eyes, was one of the worst characters in history, turns out a noble and brave man, whose fair name was filched from him by Cicero ; Henry VIII. was a mighty good king, after all ; "Bloody Mary" has lost the adjective which extinguished her virtues ; whilst, on the con- trary, the goodness of "good Queen Bess" has been ruthlessly assailed ; Charles I. is no longer a saint and martyr,—have we not been forced to expel him from the Prayer-Book? Oliver Crom- well is no longer the "brave, wicked man" portrayed by Clarendon,—shall we not place his statue in the Palace of Westminster ?
For another instance of the way in which the character of a notable man may be placed in a new and strange aspect we refer to the biography before us. Defoe, who has been regarded hitherto as a vigorous, hearty, strong-minded Dissenter, who held his sectarian creed with such tenacity as to be willing to suffer and even to die in its defence,—Defoe, who, in writing against "Occasional Conformity," declares in his blunt plain speech that "to say a man can be of two religions is a contradiction, unless there be two Gods to worship, or he has two souls to save," is now said to have been from first to last "a sincere, consistent upholder of the Church of England, its establishment, and its doctrines, though a dissenter from its forms of worship." Again, we had always innocentlysupposed that in his political views Defoe was what in the present day would be termed a Radical, but we now learn that he was a "Conservative." This is not all. A few years ago the discovery of six letters in the State Paper Office startled and grieved the admirers of Defoe. Before that discovery it was believed that throughout an arduous career, and amidst a thousand difficulties, he had preserved his moral integrity without a flaw
• Daniel Defoe: his Life and recently Discovered Writings, extending from 1718 to 1729. By William Lee. 3 vols. London: Hotten. 1869. and his political virtue unsullied. But when we discover from these letters that be was engaged for years in a persistent course of deception ; when we find that he undertook the management and even became part proprietor of Tory papers, in order to perform the despicable part of a Government spy, and that he did this so that those with whom he was bound to act as a friend should not suspect he was an enemy in disguise ; when he relates how for this purpose he was forced to bow in "the House of Rimmon," and to hear traitorous expressions against the King and Govern- ment, and to smile at them all, we are forced regretfully to the conviction that Defoe when approaching old age fell from the strict integrity of his earlier manhood. Mr. Lee, however, thinks otherwise. He has no doubt as to the authenticity of the six letters, he does not therefore deny that for a long period Defoe acted the part of an informer, but such is his obliquity of vision, he is totally incapable of seeing what such an admission involves. He perceives nothing in the engagement inconsistent with the highest honour, but allows that the suspicion of being concerned in it brought his hero into contempt with the public.
"From that period nearly all his works, excepting the Review, were anonymous until the publication of his Appeal to Ronour and Justice, on the front of which his name was printed in full. Gratitude,—that made him keep silence as to many acts of which he could not approve, and urged him to support the Government when be could conscientiously do so,—brought him under the unmerited obloquy of writing many things his soul abhorred. The weight of these reproaches seems to have settled into a morbid conviction that his name alone would suffice to blast the success of anything depending upon public approbation. Such conviction continued during the production of a long series of subsequent works that have made his fame undying; and it ended only with his life. Ho had previously shown a commendable pride in his literary reputation ; but after 1715 his works were apparently author- less, or issued under fictitious and assumed names ; and, with the exceptions of his initials to two translations and a newspaper, Daniel Defoe never appeared again before the world an an author in his proper person, nor laid any public claim to productions of his own pen that were so popular as to have passed through half-a-dozen editions in less than a month."
In another chapter Mr. Lee recurs to the same subject, observing that there are some grounds for extenuation in favour of Defoe's enemies, who could not know that he was in the confidential service of the Government, and had been so for several years. "This is the key to the reproaches and calumnies that continued to be heaped upon him,—to the silence with which he bore insult and scandal without deserving it,—and to the anonymous publica- tion, and non-recognition by himself subsequently, of even his most celebrated works." Many similar passages might be quoted from the biography, all proving by the writer's own admission that Defoe found, as he well might, the yoke to which he had submitted was sometimes intolerably irksome. Mr. Lee is justified in saying that the discovery of the six letters opens a new page in the biography of Defoe, and he is right, too, in considering that there are substantial reasons for the publication of a fresh memoir. If great enthusiasm and enormous assiduity can fit a man for such a task, Mr. Lee's qualifications are not to be gain- said. But these are not the sole requisites of a biographer. Mr. Lee makes a few points clear that have been heretofore doubtful, he discovers a few facts hitherto unknown, he expatiates without knowing that he does so on the iniquity of his hero, he corrects some blunders made by former biographers (notably the tradition concerning Drelincourt and Mrs. Veal, and the statement that in his old age Defoe suffered from pecuniary embarrassment), and he writes throughout with perspicacity and a considerable knowledge of his subject. Yet assuredly the memory of Defoe is not vindi- cated by the publication of this memoir. Mr. Lee's critical sagacity is small, his literary ability scarcely rises above common- place, and despite the hero-worship of the writer, which has prompted much patient toil, we venture to predict that while his book may be frequently consulted, it will very seldom be read. The painstaking research of Mr. Lee, like that of his predecessor, Mr. Wilson, only proves how little of life-like incident, how few personal characteristics, the biographer of Defoe has to record. A memoir of the novelist, unless it be comprised within a small volume, must be in effect a history of his times and a description of his works. The man for the most part is lost in the author. Mr. Lee rejects several publications previously accepted as Defoe's, and adds many hitherto unknown. His catalogue contains 254 works, yet he does not believe that the list comprises all that Defoe wrote, but that "continued research might result in further discoveries." The two bulky volumes which accompany the memoir, and contain a selection from Defoe's "recently dis- covered writings," will be found extremely entertaining, but can scarcely add to the reputation of the accredited author. Some of them are wise and witty ; some of them, coarse and vigorous in style, are written with the ready pen of an accomplished journalist; but we cannot pronounce with Mr. L30 that" many are unsurpassed for beauty by the best essays in the Taller or Spectator." Such a comparison is unfortunate. The beat essays in those celebrated papers are perhaps unequalled as specimens of exquisite literary workmanship. For delicate irony, for graceful humour, for unaffected pathos, for purity of language Addison still holds his place at the head of English essayists, nor does Sir Richard Steele lag far behind. Defoe was a greater man than either, and a consummate artist, too, after his own fashion ; but he needed a broader canvas, and cannot compete with so perfect a master as Addison in the production of cabinet pictures.
Mr. Lee affirms that Defoe was the parent of all the works he has ascribed to him, and since for years he has been a careful student of Defoe's writings, some weight must be allowed to his opinion. It must not be forgotten, however, that he has no direct evidence to justify his conclusions, which are derived from the general style of his author. Moreover, he allows that in the latter part of his life Defoe had many imitators. In most instances, Mr. Lee may be right ; but it is scarcely possible he can be right in all, and in rejecting works hitherto acknowledged he is bound, we think, to give a reason for his decision. Thus, when Mr. Wilson, whose judgment on such a matter is entitled to respect, distinctly states that Defoe wrote the lampoon entitled Speculum C'rape- Gownorum, and gives his reasons for that belief, it is not enough for Mr. Lee to pronounce dogmatically that Defoe had nothing whatever to do with it. We should add, however, that while the biographer rejects a number of works in this summary fashion, he takes the trouble in some instances to defend his position, as, for example, when he states that before omitting Carleton's Memoirs from his catalogue, he read the book carefully and critically several times.
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