Sir Charles Grandison and the Sexual Politics of Toleration

Two concerns preoccupied eighteenth-century readers of Sir Charles Grandison: that the hero's ability to love two women simultaneously compromised the emotional, if not the moral, integrity of his character; and that the novel's willingness to entertain the idea of an interfaith marriage set a dangerous precedent.On the fi rst subject, Lady Bradshaigh announced, "Say what you will, it is impossible for a Man to be equally in Love with two Angels at the same time."1 On the second, the Reverend Cox Macro bemoaned the novel's contribution to a growing tide of mixed marriages: "if you had pleased to have made use of that Handle to expose the Iniquitys of such a Practice ... some few of those Reasons which you would have then brought might have done more Service towards putting a stop to so wicked a practice, than the best Discourses upon it could have done."2 Richardson, as usual, had ample defences ready but conceded that "the Delicacy of the Situations" his "double love" involved might strain the sympathy of his readers. 3Regarding the novel's fl irtation with a Protestant-Catholic union, he emphasized that the hero's willingness to make religious accommodations was borne of compulsion rather than desire.In his "Concluding Note" to the novel, he allowed to stand unchallenged his readers' assessment that this willingness to bend constituted "a blot in the character" of Sir Charles. 4 This essay suggests that these two concerns -the integrity of the heart and the limits of religious toleration -prove intimately related in 1 Quoted by Richardson in a letter to Lady Bradshaigh, 8 Dec

Criminology · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Toleration · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Irish and British Studies · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Psychology · Law

• Toward a Postsecular Eighteenth Century

  Open Access•Alison Conway, Corrinne Harol•Literature Compass•2015

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