Roxana

“ At the end of this time I appeared again, but I must add that as I had in this time of retreat made hay, etc., so I did not come abroad again with the same lustre or shine with so much advantage as before; for as some people had got at least a suspicion of where I had been and who had had me all the while, it began to be public that Roxana was, in short, a mere Roxana, neither better nor worse, and not that woman of honour and virtue that was at first supposed. ”

“ Some gentlemen then danced with ladies all in masks, and when they stopped nobody rose up to dance, but all called out, Roxana! Roxana! In the interval my Lord —— had brought another masked person into my room, whom I knew not, only that I could discern it was not the same person that led me out before. This noble person (for I afterwards understood it was the Duke of ——) after a short compliment led me out into the middle of the room. ”

“ She displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot. Neither of the heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense; but Roxana, both in her original transgression and in her subsequent conduct, is actuated merely by avarice and selfishness—vices which are peculiarly offensive in connexion with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly repulsive. ”

“ Roxana, for her part, had to the full the independence, the initiative, which her woman was without,—or rather was without when acting for herself; for when acting in the interests of her mistress, Amy [Pg xi] was a different creature. Like all of Defoe's principal characters, Roxana is eminently practical, cold-blooded and selfish. After the first pang at parting with her five children, she seldom thinks of them except as encumbrances; she will provide for them as decently as she can without personal inconvenience, but even a slight sacrifice for the sake of one of them is too much for her. ”

“ I often asked after my mother, and some people said she went away with a man, but it was allowed by most people, that best knew her, that she, being brought to the greatest distress, was carried to the workhouse belonging to the parish, where she died soon after with grief.'
Nothing could give me more satisfaction than what Thomas had related; so now, I thought I would ask about the Lady Roxana (for he had been my nextdoor neighbour when I had that title conferred on me) . ”

“ This, I say, a little relieved my thoughts, but I was soon down again; for after some time the jade began to grow talkative, and as it was plain that she had told all that her head could retain of Roxana and the days of joy which I had spent at that part of the town, another accident had like to have blown us all up again. ”

“ I must put in a caution, however, here, that you must not understand me as if I let my friend the Quaker into any part of the secret history of my former life; nor did I commit the grand reserved article of all to her, viz. that I was really the girl’s mother, and the Lady Roxana. There was no need of that part being exposed, and it was always a maxim with me that secrets should never be opened without evident utility. It could be of no manner of use to me or her to communicate that part to her; besides, she was too honest herself, to make it safe to me. ”

“ Roxana declared cheerily. "Betty's so sort of gaysome to my way of thinking and there's stability to Elizabeth Ann. Lord knows, you're going to need a lot of stability before you find the way out of this."
"I know I am." As she spoke the Motherbird held her brood close to her, Doris and Helen kneeling beside her and Jean and Kit on each side. She leaned back her head and smiled at them. It was such a lovely face, they thought. Nobody in all the world had quite the same look or air as Mother. ”

“ But some time after, when Amy had almost persuaded her out of it, and that the girl began to be so confounded in her discourses of it that they made neither head nor tail, at last the passionate creature flew out in a kind of rage, and said to Amy that if she was not her mother, Madam Roxana was her mother then, for one of them, she was sure, was her mother; and then, all this that Amy had done for her was by Madam Roxana’s order. “And I am sure,” says she, “it was my Lady Roxana’s coach that brought the gentlewoman (whoever it was) to my uncle’s in Spitalfields, for the coachman told me so.” ”

“ Here, again, the mere student of "unmixed" history may start up and say, "Why! this Statira, who was also called Barsine [an independent personage here] was murdered by Roxana after Alexander's death!" But, as was also said, these romancers exercise the privilege of mercy freely; and though La Calprenède's Roxana is naughty enough for anything (she makes, of course, the most shameless love to Oroondates) , she is not allowed to kill her rival, who is made happy, after another series of endless adventures of her own, her lover's, and other people's. ”

“ Cousin Roxy waved to them and smiled.
"Come here," she called. "Yes, that tallest boy. 'Most twelve, aren't you, son? Old enough to hitch a horse. What's your name?"
"Yahn," answered the boy shyly.
"Yahn? Guess that's Johnnie in plain American, isn't it?" She jumped to the ground as nimbly as any girl, and handed him the hitch rope. "Doctor got over yet?"
Johnnie shook his head sadly, and the youngest girl broke suddenly into frantic, half-stifled sobbing.
"There's your work cut out for you, Jean," Roxana said briskly. "You amuse these children while your Mother and I go into the house." ”

“ This put me in mind that then she must certainly know me, and it would come out at last, which was death to me but to think of.
“Well, but, sister,” says the captain’s wife, “tell my lady about the ball, that’s the best of all the story, and of Roxana’s dancing in a fine outlandish dress.”
“That’s one of the brightest parts of her story indeed,” says the girl; “the case was this. We had balls and meetings in her ladyship’s apartments every week almost, but one time my lady invited all the nobles to come such a time and she would give them a ball; and there was a vast crowd indeed,” says she. ”

“ Again, there is a fairly successful attempt to copy Defoe's circumstantiality; there is an amount of detail in the continuation which makes it more graphic than much of the fiction which has been given to the world. And finally, in understanding and reproducing the characters of Roxana and Amy, the anonymous author has done remarkably well. The character of Roxana's daughter is less true to Defoe's conception; the girl, as he drew her, was actuated more by natural affection in seeking her mother, and less by interest. ”

“ For when she came to describe the Turkish dress, it was impossible but the Quaker, who was a sharp, penetrating creature, should receive the impression in a more dangerous manner than the girl; only that indeed she was not so dangerous a person, for if she had known it all I could more freely have trusted her than I could the girl, by a great deal; nay, I should have been perfectly easy in her.
However, as I have said, her talk made me dreadfully uneasy, and the more when the captain’s wife mentioned but the name of Roxana. ”

“ After she had ended her observations, I added: 'I observed, too, that the girl talked and looked oddly, and that she was mighty inquisitive, but I could not imagine what it was she aimed at.' 'Aimed at', says the Quaker, '’tis plain to me what she aims at. She believes thou art the same Lady Roxana that danced in the Turkish vest, but she is not certain.' 'Does she believe so?' says I ”

“ Rolanda warf sich ihr in die Arme und küßte ihre Hände und versprach, so sanft zu werden, so sanft, wie ein großer, stiller See! Frau Roxana lächelte und meinte, die Sanftmut werde kommen, wenn sie einmal Frau1 sei.
„Aber ich will keine Frau werden, ich will immer ein Mädchen bleiben und frei, frei, wie ein Vogel! ”

“ Before we went to bed, I went to his lordship to know why he would make us both look so little among our own servants, as to part, bed and board, so suddenly. He only said, 'My Lady Roxana knows the airs of quality too well to be informed that a scandal among nobility does not consist in parting of beds; if you cannot lie by yourself, you may send a letter to my Lord, whom you lived with as a mistress in London; perhaps he may want a bedfellow as well as you, and come to you at once ”

“ He said that when the three girls came down in the morning Harriet Ward’s voice would be heard briskly calling, “Here! take the broom; sweep up; make a fire; make haste!” Betsy Chittenden would say, “I wonder what ribbon it’s best to wear at that party?” But Roxana Foote would say, “Which do you think was the greater general, Hannibal or Alexander?”
Roxana took advantage of every opportunity for culture. From a French gentleman who, after the massacres at San Domingo had taken refuge in this country and settled in Guilford, she learned French and became able to speak it fluently. ”

“ The Seraglio at Ispahan, the 8th of the first moon of Rebiab, 1720.
Letter 161 Roxana to Usbek, at Paris
YES, I have deceived you; I have led away your eunuchs: I have made sport of your jealousy; and I have known how to turn your frightful seraglio into a place of pleasure and delight.
I am at the point of death; the poison courses through my veins: for what should I do here, since the only man who bound me to life is no more? I die; but my spirit shall not pass unaccompanied: I have dispatched before me those sacrilegious gaolers who spilt the sweetest blood in the world. ”

“ He makes us understand that Moll Flanders was a woman on her own account and not only material for a succession of adventures. In proof of this she begins, as Roxana also begins, by falling passionately, if unfortunately, in love. That she must rouse herself and marry some one else and look very closely to her settlements and prospects is no slight upon her passion, but to be laid to the charge of her birth; and, like all Defoe's women, she is a person of robust understanding. ”

“ ⁠But Roxana looks on them,
⁠The silver-shielded warriors,
⁠The warriors of the world!
In the east the day was reddening,
When the warriors pass'd;
In the west the night was deadening,
As they looked their last;
⁠As they looked their last on him—
He, their comrade—their commander—
He, the earth's adored—
He, the godlike Alexander!
Who can wield his sword?
⁠As they went their eyes were dim,
⁠The silver-shielded warriors,
⁠The warriors of the world! ”

“ It is another surprise that in writing of women, Defoe often seems ahead of his age. In the argument between Roxana and her Dutch merchant about a woman's independence, Roxana talks like a character in a "problem" play or novel of our own day. This, perhaps, is not to Defoe's credit, but it is to his credit that he has said elsewhere: [2] "A woman well-bred and well-taught, furnished with the ... accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison; her society is the emblem of sublime enjoyments ”

“ Again, when shipwreck threatens her and Amy, her emotion and repentance are due as much to the thought that she has degraded Amy to her own level as to thoughts of her more flagrant sins. That she is capable of feeling gratitude, she shows in her generosity to the Quakeress. And in her rage and remorse, on suspecting that her daughter has been murdered, and [Pg xii] in her emotion several times on seeing her children, Roxana shows herself a true woman. In short, though for the most part monumentally selfish, she is yet saved from being impossible by several displays of noble emotion. ”

“ Mrs. Macy says Roxana sits 'n' weeps straight along, but she says she didn't have no choice as to her drawin', for between her bein' No. 9 'n' only havin' a trundle-bed Roxana was just forced right down her throat, so she ain't botherin' over her a tall. She come out to make calls this afternoon, 'n' she says she sh'll see to her own marketin' same 's ever, 'n' Roxana c'n weep or not weep to suit herself."
"I'm glad you—" said Mrs. Lathrop thoughtfully.
"I am too," said Susan quickly, "I'm glad 'n' I sh'll always stay glad. ”

“ But Moll Flanders, the account of the Plague, &c. &c. are all of one family, and have the same stamp of character."
[Pg 539]
One point in this 1822 criticism requires notice—that touching the first edition of Roxana. According to a letter from Lamb to Wilson, Lamb considered the curiosity of Roxana's daughter to be the best part of Roxana. But the episode of the daughter does not come into the first edition of the book (1724) at all, and is thought by some critics not to be De Foe's. Mr. Aitken, De Foe's latest editor, doubts the Southerne story altogether. ”

“ Hu! Da habe ich mich gefürchtet! So ein Kerl! Ich habe ihm aber gesagt, daß ich Urlanda heiße und so böse bin, daß mich gar niemand heiraten kann. Ich will auch gar keinen Mann, ich will bei Euch bleiben, so lange Ihr mich nicht hinausjagt!“
Frau Roxana hatte alle Mühe, die hervorsprudelnden Worte zu verstehen und hatte dann noch mehr zu thun, 19 das aufgeregte Mädchen zu beruhigen. Sie zog sie an ihr Herz, glättete die wilden Locken und führte sie dann in die kleine weiße Kammer, die sie schon oft bewohnt, und sagte ihr, hier solle ihr Heim sein, so lange ein Dach über dem Hause sei. ”

“ Later he was reconverted and at his death in 1640 held the living of Therfield, Herts. He wrote on mystical theology, and a manuscript collection of 43 sonnets, mostly unprinted, is described by B. Dobell in Athenaeum (1903) , ii. 856.
[208]
Roxana. c. 1592
[MSS.] T. C. C. MS. (‘Authore Domino Alabaster’) ; Camb. Univ. MS. Ff. ii. 9; Lambeth MS. 838 (‘finis Roxanae Alabastricae’) .
S. R. 1632, May 9 (Herbert) . ‘A Tragedy in Latyn called Roxana &c.’ Andrew Crooke (Arber, iv. 277) . ”