birth, dangerous
symptoms began with the mother; ten days of dread anxiety ensued,
and not all the care of intelligent watchers, nor the constant waiting for
service of the husband's faithful intimate friends, nor the skill of the
first doctors could save the life which was doomed: Fate must wreak its
relentless will. Her work remains to help many a struggling woman,
and still to give hope of more justice to follow; perchance at one
important moment it misled her own child. And so the mysteries of the
workings of Fate and the mysteries of death joined with those of a new
life.
CHAPTER II
.
GIRLHOOD OF MARY--PATERNAL TROUBLES.
And now with the beginning of this fragile little life begin the anxieties
and sorrow of poor Godwin. The blank lines drawn in his diary for
Sunday 10th September 1797, show more than words how unutterable
was his grief. During the time of his wife's patient agony he had
managed to ask if she had any wishes concerning Fanny and Mary. She
was fortunately able to reply that her faith in his wisdom was entire.
On the very day of his wife's death Godwin himself wrote some letters
he considered necessary, nor did he neglect to write in his own
characteristic plain way to one who he considered had slighted his wife.
His friends Mr. Basil Montague and Mr. Marshall arranged the funeral,
and Mrs. Reveley, who had with her the children before the mother's
death, continued her care till they returned to the father on the 17th.
Mrs. Fenwick, who had been in constant attendance on Mary, then took
care of them for a time. Indeed, Mary's fame and character brought
forward many willing to care for the motherless infant, whose life was
only saved from a dangerous illness by this loving zeal. Among others
Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson appeared with offers of help, and as early as
September 18 we find that Godwin had requested Mr. Nicholson to
give an opinion as to the infant's physiognomy, with a view to her
education, which he (with Trelawny later) considered could not begin
too soon, or as the latter said: "Talk of education beginning at two years!
Two months is too late."
Thus we see Godwin conscientiously trying to bring in an imperfect
science to assist him in the difficult task of developing his infant's mind,
in place of the watchful love of an intelligent mother, who would check
the first symptoms of ill-temper, be firm against ill-placed
determination, encourage childish imagination, and not let the idea of
untruth be presented to the child till old enough to discriminate for
itself. A hard task enough for any father, still harder for Godwin, beset
by all kinds of difficulties, and having to work in the midst of them for
his and the two children's daily sustenance. Friends, and good friends,
he certainly had; but most people will recognise that strength in these
matters does not rest in numbers. The wet nurse needed by little Mary,
though doubtless the essential necessity of the time, would not add to
the domestic comfort, especially to that of Miss Louisa Jones, a friend
of Harriet Godwin, who had been installed to superintend Godwin's
household. This latter arrangement, again, did not tend to Godwin's
comfort, as from Miss Jones's letters it is evident that she wished to
marry him. Her wish not being reciprocated, she did not long remain an
inmate of his house, and the nurse, who was fortunately devoted to the
baby, was then over-looked from time to time by Mrs. Reveley and
other ladies.
Of anecdotes of Mary's infancy and childhood there are but few, but
from the surroundings we can picture the child. Her father about this
time seems to have neglected all his literary work except the one of
love--writing his wife's "Memoirs" and reading her published and
unpublished work. In this undertaking he was greatly assisted by Mr.
Skeys. Her sisters, on the contrary, gave as little assistance as possible,
and ended all communication with Godwin at this difficult period of his
life, and for a long while utterly neglected their poor sister's little
children, when they might have repaid to some extent the debt of
gratitude they owed to her.
All these complicated and jarring circumstances must have suggested
to Godwin that another marriage might he the best expedient, and he
accordingly set to work in a systematic way this time to acquire his end.
Passion was not the motive, and probably there was too much system,
for he was unsuccessful on two occasions. The first was with Miss
Harriet Lee, the authoress of several novels and of The Canterbury
Tales. Godwin seems to have been much struck by her, and, after four
interviews at Bath, wrote on his return
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