would excite his Passions, and the Agonies of a dying
Woman enflame his Blood, and stimulate him to commit a Rape." Aaron
Hill, who had apparently ignored the publication of _Shamela_, angrily
conveyed to Richardson a rumor that _Pamela Censured_ was a bookseller's
contrivance written in order to promote sales among readers with
prurient interests. (Richardson, distressed over such a suggestion,
emphatically wrote "Quite mistaken!" in the margin of Hill's letter.)
But if this stratagem was not employed to boost sales in England, it
perhaps was used across the Channel, where _Pamela Censured_, under the
title _Pamela, Zedelyk Beoordeeld_, appeared in Holland some months
before a complete Dutch translation of Richardson's novel was ever
published.[3]

To Richardson's contemporaries, _Pamela Censured_ must consequently have
seemed a much more serious attack than _Shamela_. The humor of
Fielding's parody might be misinterpreted or at least dismissed as
"low"; in _Pamela Censured_, the rather personal attack on the author of
_Pamela_ and the precise censure of specific passages could not,
however, be misconstrued or ignored. Moreover, the critical principle
behind _Pamela Censured_ appears quite sound, at least on its most
simple level: _Pamela_ is bad because it violates what might be called a
literary "truth in labeling" law. Casting himself in the role of
"consumer advocate," the author of _Pamela Censured_ systematically
attempts to show that _Pamela_ fails to live up to the advertisement on
its title page:

a SERIES of FAMILIAR LETTERS FROM A Beautiful Young DAMSEL,
To her PARENTS. Now first Published in order In order to
cultivate the Principles of VIRTUE and RELIGION in the Minds
of the YOUTH of BOTH SEXES. A Narrative which has its
Foundation in TRUTH and NATURE; and at the same time that it
agreeably entertains, by a Variety of _curious_ and
_affecting_ INCIDENTS, is intirely divested of all those
Images, which, in too many Pieces calculated for Amusement
only, tend to _inflame_ the Minds they should _instruct_.

In applying this test to _Pamela_, the author of _Pamela Censured_
displays a curious mixture of naivete and sophistication. His first
attack involves a silly and perhaps consciously dishonest misreading of
the words "Now first Published" on _Pamela's_ title page. While this
phrase clearly means that Pamela's letters are now being published for
the first time