Caleb Williams

Caleb Williams

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Title: Caleb Williams Things As They Are
Author: William Godwin
Release Date: February 26, 2004 [EBook #11323]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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CALEB WILLIAMS
OR THINGS AS THEY ARE
BY WILLIAM GODWIN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ERNEST A. BAKER, M.A.
LONDON
1903

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MR. FERDINANDO FALKLAND, a high-spirited and highly cultured
gentleman, a country squire in "a remote county of England."

CALEB WILLIAMS, a youth, his secretary, the discoverer of his secret,
and the supposed narrator of the consequent events.
MR. COLLINS, Falkland's steward and Caleb's friend.
THOMAS, a servant of Falkland's.
MR. FORESTER, Falkland's brother-in-law.
MR. BARNABAS TYRREL, a brutal and tyrannical squire.
MISS EMILY MELVILLE, his cousin and dependent, whom he
cruelly maltreats and does to death.
GRIMES, a brutal rustic, suborned by Tyrrel to abduct Miss Melville.
DR. WILSON; MRS. HAMMOND, friends of Miss Melville. MR.
HAWKINS, farmer; YOUNG HAWKINS, his son, Victims of Tyrrel's
brutality, and wrongfully hanged as his murderers.
GINES, a robber and thief-taker, instrument of Falkland's vengeance
upon Caleb.
MR. RAYMOND, an "Arcadian" captain of robbers.
LARKINS, one of his band.
AN OLD HAG, housekeeper to the robbers.
A GAOLER.
MISS PEGGY, the gaoler's daughter.
MRS. MARNEY, a poor gentlewoman, Caleb's friend in distress.
MR. SPURREL, a friend who informs on Caleb.
MRS. DENISON, a cultivated lady with whom Caleb is for a while on
friendly terms.

INTRODUCTION
The reputation of WILLIAM GODWIN as a social philosopher, and the
merits of his famous novel, "Caleb Williams," have been for more than
a century the subject of extreme divergencies of judgment among
critics. "The first systematic anarchist," as he is called by Professor
Saintsbury, aroused bitter contention with his writings during his own
lifetime, and his opponents have remained so prejudiced that even the
staid bibliographer Allibone, in his "Dictionary of English Literature,"
a place where one would think the most flagitious author safe from
animosity, speaks of Godwin's private life in terms that are little less
than scurrilous. Over against this persistent acrimony may be put the
fine eulogy of Mr. C. Kegan Paul, his biographer, to represent the
favourable judgment of our own time, whilst I will venture to quote one

remarkable passage that voices the opinions of many among Godwin's
most eminent contemporaries.
In "The Letters of Charles Lamb," Sir T.N. Talfourd says:
"Indifferent altogether to the politics of the age, Lamb could not help
being struck with productions of its newborn energies so remarkable as
the works and the character of Godwin. He seemed to realise in himself
what Wordsworth long afterwards described, 'the central calm at the
heart of all agitation.' Through the medium of his mind the stormy
convulsions of society were seen 'silent as in a picture.' Paradoxes the
most daring wore the air of deliberate wisdom as he pronounced them.
He foretold the future happiness of mankind, not with the inspiration of
the poet, but with the grave and passionless voice of the oracle. There
was nothing better calculated at once to feed and to make steady the
enthusiasm of youthful patriots than the high speculations in which he
taught them to engage, on the nature of social evils and the great
destiny of his species. No one would have suspected the author of those
wild theories which startled the wise and shocked the prudent in the
calm, gentlemanly person who rarely said anything above the most
gentle commonplace, and took interest in little beyond the whist-table."
WILLIAM GODWIN (1756-1836) was son and grandson of Dissenting
ministers, and was destined for the same profession. In theology he
began as a Calvinist, and for a while was tinctured with the austere
doctrines of the Sandemanians. But his religious views soon took an
unorthodox turn, and in 1782, falling out with his congregation at
Stowmarket, he came up to London to earn his bread henceforward as a
man of letters. In 1793 Godwin became one of the most famous men in
England by the publication of his "Political Justice," a work that his
biographer would place side by side with the "Speech for Unlicensed
Printing," the "Essay on Education," and "Emile," as one of "the unseen
levers which have moved the changes of the times." Although the book
came out at what we should call a "prohibitive price," it had an
enormous circulation, and brought its author