In Elizabeth Inchbald’s traditional story of forbidden love, a Catholic priest named Dorriforth loves his Protestant ward, Miss Milner, a character who in her youth had been indulged “to the extreme of folly.” Inchbald’s career as an actress informs the melodrama in the novel, which is didactic fiction, as does her lifelong devotion to Catholicism.

The novel can be considered the first Catholic novel, not because she dwells on questions of faith, but rather because most of its characters are among England’s Catholic minority. She models the character of Dorriforth on her own lover, the great actor John Philip Kemble.

According to editor J. M. S. Tompkins, Inchbald’s contemporary, novelist Maria Edgeworth, wrote to her that unlike any other novel, hers “possessed me with the belief in the real existence of all the people it represents.” Edgeworth believed that was due to the fact that Inchbald left “more than most other writers do to the imagination.” Inchbald used her dramatic training to accomplish that feat through, for example, the description of her characters’ body language. Like Henry Fielding did, she used the experience of the dramatist, but she had the added advantage of having been an actor herself.

Although the Miss Milner character is flirtatious, she is also somewhat sophisticated, so she does not attempt to act on her feelings, understanding Dorriforth’s vow of chastity. She enjoys the attention of several suitors, and is accustomed to being “too frequently told” the “high value” of her beauty. Their situation changes when Dorriforth becomes Lord Elmwood due to inheritance and leaves the priesthood.

Inchbald did not design Dorriforth as a priest without dedication, although she shows him involved in only one major religious duty, private prayer. She may have feared the reaction against her story of a mainly non-Catholic readership had she included further detail regarding his duties, or gone beyond suggesting the importance of maintaining the Catholic nobility. That importance, as well as Dorriforth’s dedication to his vows, prompt his actions.

At that point, Dorriforth, now Lord Elmwood, can marry Miss Milner. However, the story is one of a mutual attraction between people who by nature remain incompatible, and their marriage cannot last. As Lady Elmwood, Miss Milner becomes involved in an affair with Sir Frederick Lawnley, despite the fact that Elmwood loves her and they have a young daughter, Matilda.

Elmwood orders her to leave with the child. When she later dies, never having received forgiveness from Elmwood, Lady Matilda is left alone and is in danger. Only after Matilda is kidnapped does Elmwood realize his loss, helped by his replacement as spiritual adviser, Father Sandford. He finds her abductor and brings her home as his heir.

Biographers suggest Inchbald based Dorriforth on Kemble, an attractive and impressive scholarly fellow Catholic who originally intended to enter the priesthood. Inchbald’s characterization received later critical praise, even that of her minor characters. Mrs. Horton’s slightly comic tone provides relief from extended tension, while Sandford’s fear of the former pupil he once goaded to love the exquisite Miss Fenton, because “to resemble her, I believe, is above your ability,” adds irony.

In addition, Matilda’s displays of temper add dimension to a characterization that could have simply dissolved into a victim stereotype. Inchbald excused the scenes of passion and the theme of infidelity by claiming in a note to her readers to be an invalid who only wrote because she had to. Critics later praised her simple style, and the book remained in print through 1908. It returned to print with the rising interest in women’s writing in the mid-20th century, supported by feminist criticism.

Bibliography

Jenkins, Annabelle. I’ll Tell You What: The Life of Elizabeth Inchbald. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002.

Tompkins, J. M. S. Introduction to A Simple Story, by Elizabeth Inchbald. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967, vii–xvi.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

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