"However you came by the excellent Shamela, out with it, without Fear or Favour, Dedication and all; believe me, it will go through many Editions, be translated into all Languages, read in all Nations and Ages, and to say a bold Word, it will do more good than the C——y have done harm in the World..."
This is a comically hyperbolic accolade from the Editor to Himself, which is Fielding taking a dig at Richardson's fulsome, self-directed praise (sometimes from himself, sometimes from associates). The praise here is over-the-top—all languages? Every nation? Every age of history? Fielding takes delight in mocking Pamela's fawning supporters and the discourse that surrounded the text, which, in his opinion, has numerous shortcomings and problematic components.
"As soon as you have read this yourself five or six Times over (which may possibly happen within a Week) I desire you would give it to my little God-Daughter, as a Present from me. This being the only Education we intend henceforth to give our Daughters. And pray let your Servant-Maids read it over, or read it to them. Both your self and the neighbouring Clergy, will supply yourselves for the Pulpit from the Book-sellers, as soon as the fourth Edition is published."
This is another hyperbolic statement, this time put forth by Parson Tickletext, whose affection for Pamela is seemingly beyond bounds of rationality. He assumes Parson Oliver will read the text five or six times in a week, and encourages him to pass it along to everyone. This new crop of readers not only includes young women but the clergy as well; you can almost hear Fielding snickering as he has Tickletext propose that Pamela be read from the pulpit. These introductory effusions establish Fielding's goals even before he gets into the documents of Shamela's life themselves.
"Her Father had in his Youth the Misfortune to appear in no good Light at the Old-Bailey; he afterwards served in the Capacity of a Drummer in one of the Scotch Regiments in the Dutch Service; where being drummed out, he came over to England, and turned Informer against several Persons on the late Gin-Act; and becoming acquainted with an Hostler at an Inn, where a Scotch Gentleman's Horses stood, he hath at last by his Interest obtain'd a pretty snug Place in the Custom-house. Her Mother sold Oranges in the Play-House; and whether she was married to her Father or no, I never could learn."
Parson Oliver clarifies Shamela's less-than-illustrious parentage here. As Judith Hawley elucidates in her notes to the Penguin edition of the text, "Unlike Pamela's 'poor but honest' parents, Shamela's mother is a prostitute and her father a blackguard." He was criminally indicted, served in a turncoat regiment, and was then a stool-pigeon, "informing against those who dodged the financial restrictions imposed by the 1736 Gin Act," which was "highly unpopular." Henrietta is, of course, a model for Shamela herself; we are supposed to decry Henrietta's profession and understand that she helped shape Shamela into who she is at the outset of the novel.
"...and it came into my Head to pretend as how I intended to drown myself; so I stript off one of my Petticoats, and threw it into the Canal; and then I went and hid myself in the Coal-hole, where I lay all Night; and comforted myself with repeating over some Psalms, and other good things, which I had got by heart."
Shamela's penchant for dramatic antics is most conspicuous here. She decides that she should pretend to drown herself in order to stir up the other students and to make the Squire realize that he needs her in his life. Ironically, as she hides from everyone, she recites biblical verses to herself, reminding us once more of the superficiality of her religion.
"Remember the first lesson I taught you, that a Married Woman hurts only her Husband, but a single Person Herself."
This is one of the most memorable lines of the book, with Henrietta revealing her own worldview and suggesting to her daughter how she ought to approach the situation with the Squire and the parson. It is a nakedly self-interested statement, encouraging and condoning infidelity and ignoring the husband's feelings. Yet for a young woman like Shamela, it is a smart statement, for it reminds her that she has to be savvy about what she does and with whom she does it; she comes from nothing and may end up with nothing if she does not marry well.
"What a foolish Thing it is for a Woman to dally too long with her Lover's Desires; how many have owed their being old Maids to their holding out too long."
Readers are meant to raise their eyebrows at this statement, as Shamela is suggesting that she has to engage in sexual behavior with a man to secure him. Yet it is hard to completely disparage her, for in the patriarchal and classist society in which she lives, she is not wrong: she has to balance men's desires for her body with their desires for her to be virginal, and she has to get married or risk being in an economically insecure position. This latter interpretation might not be what Fielding wanted readers to take away from this quote, but it is a perspective worth considering nonetheless.
"...and some few Books: as, A full Answer to a plain and true Account, &c. The Whole Duty of Man, with only the Duty to one's Neighbour, torn out. The Third Volume of the Atalantis. Venus in the Cloyster: Or, the Nun in her Smock. God's Dealings with Mr. Whitefield. Orfus and Eurydice. Some Sermon-Books; and two or three Plays, with their Titles, and Part of the first Act torn off."
Shamela has bragged before that the parson told her to keep reading "good" books so she could repent of her sin, and here she lists a few titles that she takes with her. However, as Hawley points out, this is a "catalogue of literature unsound morally, religiously, and aesthetically." For example, Venus in the Cloyster was the subject of a pornographic trial; its publisher, Edmund Curll, was prosecuted. This list would have been clearly indicative to contemporary readers of Shamela's bad taste and imply that Pamela should be among such titles.
"That Disrespect for the Clergy, which I have formerly noted to you in that Villain your Master, hath now broke forth in a manifest Fact."
Parson Williams is not as nakedly ambitious as Shamela or as nakedly concupiscent as the Squire, but he is indeed both of those things and it is perhaps even more problematic since he is a man of the cloth and is putatively supposed to adhere to and model higher standards. He takes advantage of and cuckolds the Squire, manipulates Shamela in order to continue to get what he wants from her, and, as this quote indicates, is inclined toward whining and petulance when he perceives a slight.
"In my last I left off at our sitting down to Supper on our Wedding Night, where I behaved with as much Bashfulness as the purest Virgin in the World could have done. The most difficult Task for me was to blush; however, by holding my Breath, and Squeezing my Cheeks with my Handkerchief, I did pretty well."
One of the chief concerns of the religious and patriarchal society of England in the 18th century was women's virtue: how to keep it, how to demonstrate if it was kept or if it was lost. This obsession was absurd for many reasons, but Fielding in particular focuses on how indications and emblems of chastity are almost impossible to use in determining whether or not someone is truly chaste. After all, if Shamela can pretend to be chaste and fool the Squire when she has already been sexually active with the parson and has an illegitimate child by him, then how do we know which women are virgins and which are not?
"The strangest Fancy hath enter'd into my Booby's Head, that can be imagined. He is resolved to have a Book made about him and me; he proposed it to Mr. Williams, and offered him a Reward for his Pains; but he says he never writ any thing of that kind, but will recommend my Husband, when he comes to Town, to a Parson who does that Sort of Business for Folks, one who can make my Husband, and me, and Parson Williams, to be all great People; for he can make black white, it seems."
This quote clarifies how Pamela came into being according to Fielding's satire: the Squire wanted to tell the story of their great romance, which is laughable and an example of extreme hubris, and first reached out to Parson Williams (deeply ironic given the fact that the parson is sleeping with his wife), and upon the parson's refusal turned to another man for hire, which is Richardson, and ends up with a text that nicely obfuscates the truth of the whole affair because Richardson is apparently skilled at making "black white, it seems." This is classic Fielding: snarky and damning.
