List of books with the subtitle "Virtue Rewarded"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a chronological list of books with the subtitle Virtue Rewarded. A subtitle will usually offer a generalization or moral drawn from the work's plot. Subtitles are a common feature of English literary works of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially plays. In the early 17th century, this convention is sometimes made fun of, as in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or, What You Will; while in the sententious 18th century, subtitles will normally point a serious morality, even in case of comic works. An example of a serious subtitle is "Virtue Rewarded", a reminder or boast to reader/audience that the neoclassical principle of poetic justice will be upheld by the plot. With changing cultural perceptions, such a principle has again become a joke, as witness the 20th-century items on this list. Note the rhyme Sordid/Rewarded in the title of Winifred Phelps' "Melodrama". In academic discourse in the 20th century, subtitles began to be full explanations of the subject of a work, while the title itself was a gnomic or cryptically poetic phrase. This reliance upon the subtitle is part of the comic density of literary reference brought into play in the Anatomy of Melancholy by Cook et al., implying that dissertation-writing is governed both by the poetic justice principle—virtue rewarded—and by the depressive symptoms described in Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1622).

This is a list of works whose full subtitle is "Virtue Rewarded". Thus The Crafty Chambermaid, or, Beauty and Virtue Rewarded (London, 1800) does not qualify, nor Virtue Rewarded, or, The Faithful Lady (London, 1795).

Author	Title	Genre	Year	Story	Virtuous person	Virtue	Reward
Colley Cibber	Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded	Play	1696	Amanda reclaims her rakish husband.	married woman	chastity and wifely tact	return of straying husband
Charles Shadwell	Irish Hospitality, or, Virtue Rewarded	Play	1720	Sir Patrick Worthy helps his children and neighbours.	middle-aged Irish squire	good nature, thoughtful fatherhood	chorus of praise, children well settled
Samuel Richardson	Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded	Novel	1740	Pamela rebuffs her aristocratic would-be seducer.	15-year-old lady's maid	humility and embattled chastity	grand marriage to aforesaid would-be seducer
Elizabeth Barrett Browning	"Sebastian, or, Virtue Rewarded"	Poem	1815	?	?	?	?
Eliza Pope	Henry and Julietta, or, Virtue Rewarded: A Tale, Founded on Fact	Novel	1818	?	?	?	?
M. Bryant	My Uncle’s Present, or, Virtue Rewarded	Collection of moral tales	1820	?	?	?	?
?	History of Constantius and Pulchera; or, Virtue rewarded ...[1]	A work of fiction.	1821	?	?	?	?
T. H. Cauldwell	History of Lorenzo and Virginia, or, Virtue Rewarded: An Address to the Young Ladies of Columbia		1834
John Charles Tarver	James, or, Virtue Rewarded	Novel	1896	?	?	?	?
Winifred Phelps	Temptation Sordid, or, Virtue Rewarded, A Melodrama	Play	1960	Two lovers defeat the machinations of a fortunehunter.	a pure-hearted young couple	resistance of diabolical wiles	union of love over dead bodies of enemies
David Slavitt (Henry Sutton)	Rochelle, or, Virtue Rewarded	Erotic fiction	1966	A young woman resists the lure of vice.	dull but virtuous girl	?	?
Stanley Cook, William Sullivan, Fred Moramarco	Anatomy of Melancholy, or, Virtue Rewarded: The Making of the Dissertation	Textbook	1969	A doctoral dissertation gets written.	the dissertation-writer	work ethic, overcoming writer's cramp	Ph.D.

[edit] References

• Cibber, Colley (first published 1740, ed. Robert Lowe, 1889). An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, vol.1, vol 2.
• Samuel French Inc. description in book catalogue of Temptation Sordid, or, Virtue Rewarded, at www.samuelfrench.com. Retrieved 12 September 2005.
• New York Public Library catalogue description of Barrett, "Sebastian, or, Virtue Rewarded". Retrieved 11 October 2005.
• "Shadwell, Charles", in Highfill et. al. (1973–93), Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800. 16 volumes. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Shadwell, Charles, Irish Hospitality, or, Virtue Rewarded is available, through subscription only, in the Chadwyck-Healey English Drama collection. Retrieved 11 October 2005.
• Watt, Ian (1957). The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. London: Chatto & Windus. Contains a classic sociological study of Pamela.
• Publisher's blurb for Rochelle, or, Virtue Rewarded, unknown edition. Retrieved 12 September 2005.