France: Intriguing Adversary

Biographies

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
    Tobias Smollett was born in 1721 in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. At age 15 he was apprenticed to a Glasgow surgeon, during which time he began to build his literary reputation at the local university. Encouraged by the reaction to his satires, he moved to London when he was 18 to try breaking into the larger literary world. Unsuccessful, he joined the H.M.S. Chichester as surgeon's second mate in 1739 during the War of Jenkin's Ear  (or King George's War) against Spain. He returned to England in 1744, planning to start a medical career, but once again found little success and once again turned to writing. His first novel, The Adventures of Roderick Random, published in 1748, closely parallels the events of Smollett's own life. His health deteriorated rapidly during the following years as he developed asthma and tuberculosis, and in 1763 Smollett traveled to the continent in hopes of improving his condition. It was during this time he wrote his Travels Through France and Italy. The state of his health and the recent loss of his son would explain the often cynical attitude that pervades this work. Smollett died during a subsequent trip to northern Italy in 1771 (Tillotson 952-953).

Samuel Foote (1720-1777)
    Born to a wealthy Cornish family, Foote had the opportunity to study at Worcester College, Oxford in 1737, though he never received his degree. Accustomed to an extravagant lifestyle, he ran himself into debt while at University and was briefly incarcerated. Upon his release he took an interest in the theater and found success as an actor through his abilities of mimicry and satire. In order to avoid the restraints of the Licensing Act, Foote performed for his friends at "teas," which required them to pay for tea and chocolate and he would perform his satires as free entertainment. He was inadvertently injured while horseback riding as a result of a practical joke by the Duke of York. In compensation for the amputation of Foote’s leg, the latter obtained for him a life patent for a theater in Westminster. He built the new Haymarket in 1767. In 1777, he lost control of the Haymarket and was forced to leave the stage due to problems that arose from offending the Duchess of Kingston, a victim of one of his satires, and died in Dover on his way to France in hopes of recovering his health. Foote wrote and performed in many plays, including The Englishman in Paris (1753), and its sequel The Englishman Returned from Paris (1756) ("Samuel," "Foote").

Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope, Fourth Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
    Lord Chesterfield’s mother died when he was still very young and his father took little interest in him. He was therefore left to the care of his grandmother and a nurse from Normandy, who spoke French to him from the time he was in his cradle. When he was 18, he was sent to study at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Soon after he traveled to the continent and spent a great deal of time in Paris, where his love of French culture was solidified.  He then returned to England and succeeded to the earldom in 1726. In 1728 Chesterfield was made ambassador to Holland, where his illegitimate son, to whom his letters are addressed, was born in 1732. He returned to England the same year and began his parliamentary career as an opponent to Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister and a Whig. Chesterfield fell out of favor and he returned to Holland when affairs there needed to be tended to. In 1744, he was called from Holland to Ireland to accept the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, a post he had long anticipated and of which he wrote, "I would rather be called the Irish Lord-Lieutenant than go down to Posterity as the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland" (Chesterfield 18). The year he spent in this office is generally considered to be the most effective of his entire career, as he put more effort into maintaining the balance between Catholics and Protestants than did any Lord-Lieutenant before him. In 1746 he served a term as Secretary of State, but this office became more nominal than real as the King controlled his power. In 1748 he retired out of disdain for the rotten state of the political system and due to his increasing deafness. His contemporaries held Chesterfield’s social graces and wit in high regard, and he was friends with Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope (Chesterfield 6-22, "Chesterfield").

Helen Maria Williams (1761?-1827)
    Williams was born one of three daughters to a father of Welsh descent and a Scottish mother.  Her father died in 1769 at which time the family moved to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and she was educated by her mother in the ideals of the religious Dissent and the consequently the Enlightenment.  When she was eighteen, they moved to London and Williams began her literary career with the help of her mentor, Dr. Andrew Kippis.  She published several poems, a short story and an essay, before publishing her first novel, Julia: A Novel; Interspersed with Some Poetical Pieces, in 1790, which included her poem, The Bastille, A Vision.  She first traveled to France later that year, which further spurred her interest in and support of the Revolution.  Her visit resulted in her book, Letters Written in France, in the Summer of 1790, to a Friend in England; Containing, Various Anecdotes Relative to the French Revolution; and Memoirs of Mons. and Madame du Fossé.  While she supported the Revolution and the opportunities it provided for women she thoroughly condemned the inherent violence.  The reaction to her work was mixed as she had stepped well outside the expectations of English culture.  While her support of the Revolution was controversial, she generally received praise for her content, the negative criticism rising from her use of French phrases and spellings, which alienated her British audience.  She returned to France again in 1791 and 1792, the latter year having convinced her family to join her there permanently, and she was naturalized in 1818.  Williams became highly active in political circles, especially that of the Girondist party as she formed a close bond with one of its prominent members, John Hurtford Stone.  Over the years Williams was arrested and/or sent from France several times, yet always returned to the country about which she felt so passionate.  She and her works concerning France's turmoil became increasingly less popular and she made many enemies, including Napoleon Bonaparte, who in 1802 locked her up for a day because he had been annoyed by her poem, Ode on the Peace of Amiens.  Having found themselves penniless after the death of Stone in 1818, Williams and her remaining sister moved to Amsterdam to live with a nephew.  A few years later she returned to France with an annuity.  Williams later died in Paris in 1827 ("Helen").