ts of the Town, as if she had been born and bred in
_Covent_ Garden" (pp. 21-22). As a consequence, she appears "mighty
skillful" (p. 26) in her dealings with Mr. B. In spite of these hints,
_Pamela Censured_ stops short of concluding--as _Shamela_ does--that
Pamela is motivated by an immoral desire to trap Mr. B into marriage
rather than by an overwhelming desire to maintain her virtue at any
cost. Perhaps the author of _Pamela Censured_ contemplated this moral
ambiguity as the subject of his projected "Second Epistle" (p. 64), a
work which seems never to have appeared in print, if indeed it was ever
written.

_Pamela Censured_, nevertheless, casually makes a provocative comparison
which, if developed, might easily have thrown light on the artistic
reasons behind Pamela's morally questionable actions. In its opening
pages, _Pamela Censured_ indicates that _Pamela_, at least in its title,
is less "modest" than Chevalier de Mouhy's _La Paysanne parvenue_
(1735-37), published in English as _The Fortunate Country Maid. Being
the Entertaining Memoirs of the Present Celebrated Marchioness of L----
V----: Who from a Cottage, through a Great Variety of Diverting
Adventures, Became a Lady of the First Quality in the Court of France_
(1741). One can only wish that _Pamela Censured_ had developed its
comparison in a thorough and sophisticated fashion, indicating the moral
implications of the differences between these two stories.

_The Fortunate Country Maid_, first of all, bears a striking resemblance
to _Pamela_: in both works the heroines, almost identical in social
position, face similar trials and ultimately are rewarded in the same
fashion. A brief description of the plot of _The Fortunate Country Maid_
should adequately indicate these similarities to anyone already familiar
with _Pamela_. Jenny, the heroine of _The Fortunate Country Maid_, comes
from the lower social ranks, her father a common woodcutter in the
forest of Fountainbleau. The young Marquis of L---- V----, son of
Jenny's godfather, singles her out for his special attention because of
her beauty and charm. Though conscious of the social distinctions which
bar her marriage to the Marquis, Jenny nonetheless falls in love with
him, all the while uneasy that she might be "ruined." Her fears indeed
are not ill-founded. After learning social amenities in the household of
the Countess of N----, her godmother, Jenny embarks on a series of
trials, including an attempte