Pamela, Part ii: Richardson’s Trial by Theatre

In 1741, Henry Giffard adapted Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela (1740–41) for the stage, embodying the Antipamelist critique about the theatrical origins of Richardson’s heroine. In Pamela, Part ii, Richardson answered in kind by writing an episode of Pamela at the theatre that foreshadows Pamela’s mock trial for her husband and, eventually, Lovelace’s theatricalized testing of Clarissa in Richardson’s novel Clarissa. Resituating Pamela, Part ii in a multimedia landscape of print and performance, I introduce the term “trial by theatre” to show how Richardson acknowledged and defended both novel and heroine against the thriving network of vocal authors and readers who would not accept any claims of “virtue rewarded” without a fair trial. By examining what happens when Richardson and Pamela go to the theatre and subsequently to the courtroom, this article contends that Richardson’s sequel transforms the theatre into a means of virtuous authorship.