A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Morgan, Sydney, Lady
MORGAN, SYDNEY LADY,
Whose maiden name was Sydney Owenson, was born in Dublin, about 1783. Her father, Mr. Robert Owenson, was a respectable actor at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, and gave his daughter the best advantages of education he could command. He was a man of decided talents, a favourite in the society of the city, and author of some popular Irish songs. His daughter, Sydney, inherited his predilection for national music and song. Very early in life, when she was a mere child, she published a small volume of poetical effusions; and soon after, "The Lay of the Irish Harp," and a selection of twelve Irish melodies, set to music. One of these is the well-known song of "Kate Kearney;" probably this popular lyric will outlive all the other writings of this authoress. Her next work was a novel, "St. Clair, or the Heiress of Desmond," published when she was about sixteen. It was soon followed by "The Novice of St. Dominick;" and then her most successful work, "The Wild Irish Girl," which appeared in the winter of 1801.
The book had a prodigious sale. Within the first two years, seven editions were published in Great Britain, besides two or three in America. It gained for Miss Owenson a celebrity which very few writers, of either sex, have won at so early an ago. It gained her the love and blessings of the Irish people, of course; and a far more difficult achievement, it won for her a high reputation out of her own country.
What are the peculiar merits of the work which won this popularity? As a novel, it certainly cannot be rated very high. The plot shows little inventive talent, and is, moreover, liable to some objection on the score of moral tendency. Nor is the merit of the work in its style, which is both high-flown and puerile. The exaggerated sentiment, so often poured out by the fervid, but uncultivated writer, appears more nonsensical from the pompous phraseology in which it is frequently expressed.
Such is the prevailing style of the book, though occasionally, when giving utterance to some strong deep feeling, which usually finds its appropriate language, the author is truly eloquent. How could a novel so written, gain such popularity? Because it had a high aim, a holy purpose. It owed its success entirely to the simple earnestness with which Miss Owenson defended her country. It is all Irish. She seemed to have no thought of self, nothing but patriotism was in her soul, and this feeling redeemed the faults of inflated style, French sentimentalism, false reasoning, and all the extravagances of her youthful fancy. Ireland was her inspiration and her theme. Its history, language, antiquities, traditions, and wrongs, these she had studied as a zealot does his creed, and with a fervour only inferior in sacredness to that of religion, she poured her whole heart and mind forth in the cause of her own native land.
After such remarkable success, it was a matter of course that Miss Owenson should continue her literary career. "Patriotic Sketches," "Ida," and "The Missionary," followed each other in quick succession. Her next work was "O'Donnell;" then "Florence Macarthy, an Irish Tale," was published in 1818. Previously to this Miss Owenson became Lady Morgan, by marrying Sir Charles Morgan, M.D., a gentleman of considerable talents, as his own work, "Sketches of the Philosophy of Life and Morals," shows. The marriage seemed to give new energy and a wider scope to the genius of Lady Morgan; the tastes of the husband and wife were, evidently, in sympathy. They went abroad, and "France" and "Italy," two clever specimens of Lady Morgan's powers of observation and description, were the result. These works are lively and entertaining. Lord Byron has borne testimony to the fidelity and excellence of "Italy:" if the authoress had been less solicitous of making a sensation, her book would have been more perfect, yet now it is among the best of its kind.
"The O'Briens and the O'Flahertys," a novel intended to portray national manners, appeared in 1827; "The Book of the Boudoir" in 1829. Among her other works are, "The Princess," a story founded on the Revolution in Belgium, "Dramatic Scenes from Real Life," "The Life and Times of Salvator Rosa," and "Woman and her Master," published in London, 1840. Two volumes of this work were then issued: the authoress, suffering under that painful affliction, a weakness of the eyes, which terminated in loss of sight, was unable to complete her plan, and it has never been finished. It is a philosophical history of woman down to the fall of the Roman Empire,—a work on which Lady Morgan evidently laboured with great zeal. It should be carefully read by all who wish to gain a compendious knowledge of woman's history, and a graphic sketch of her influence in the early ages. Many new and valuable truths are promulgated; and though some of the opinions are unsound, because unscriptural, yet the earnest wish to benefit her sex, and improve society, has gifted the writer with great power in setting forth much that is true, and of the utmost importance.
It appears to us that the greatest blemish in the works of this indefatigable writer, is the under-current, more or less strong, running through many of them, bearing the philosophical opinions, or sayings rather, of the French sentimental school of infidels. We do not think Lady Morgan an unbeliever; but she gives occasion for censure by expressions, occasionally, that favour free-thinkers. If she had but served God, in her writings, with the same enthusiastic zeal she served her country, what a glorious woman she would have been!
Before she quite relinquished her literary labours, Lady Morgan, in conjunction with her husband, produced two volumes of sketches, which appeared under the title of "A Book without a Name." Lady Morgan has made large sacrifices for liberal principles, which she has at all times boldly avowed, and the pension of three hundred pounds a year from the Civil List, conferred on her by Lord Grey during his ministry, was well deserved for this and her services to the world of letters.