Writing to Johannes Stinstra in 1753, Samuel Richardson revealed his childhood fascination for learning the secrets of the heart. He began his writing career as a precocious busybody whose curiosity thrived in his crowded urban world. Neighbors, particularly young women, revealed small sins and desires to serious young Samuel. One victim under his surveillance took offense. Richardson was “not Eleven Years old when [he] wrote, spontaneously, to a Widow of near Fifty … who was … continually fomenting Quarrels & Disturbances, by Backbiting & Scandal.” Adopting “the Stile and Address of a Person in Years,” Richardson “expostulated with her. But my Handwriting was known.” The boy was discovered and “chid” for his freedoms, but he continued to be an “early Favourite with all the young Women of Taste & Reading in the Neighbourhood,” reading to them while they sewed. When he was “not more than Thirteen,” he served as “Secretary” to several young women who needed help in writing their love letters. We have then a “bashful” and grave adolescent writer in the making, given to impersonations, happy to act as amanuensis to encourage or chide, “at the very time that the Heart … was open before me, overflowing,” and the lover was “dreading to be taken at her Word.”

Just as happy to expostulate with a backbiting zealot, Richardson finds power in assuming a character while exposing the heart. In both examples the power of the impersonated style, that of the elderly scold or the nervous lover disguising her feelings, is profound.