A Sicilian Romance
By Ann Ward Radcliffe
Towards the close of the sixteenth century, this castle was in the possession of Ferdinand, the fifth marquis of Mazzini, and was for some years the principal residence of his family. He was a man of a voluptuous and imperious character. To his first wife, he married Louisa Bernini, second daughter of the Count della Salario, a lady yet more distinguished for the sweetness of her manners and the gentleness of her disposition, than for her beauty. She brought the marquis one son and two daughters, who lost their amiable mother in early childhood. The arrogant and impetuous character of the marquis operated powerfully upon the mild and susceptible nature of his lady: and it was by many persons believed, that his unkindness and neglect put a period to her life. However this might be, he soon afterward married Maria de Vellorno, a young lady eminently beautiful, but of a character very opposite to that of her predecessor. She was a woman of infinite art, devoted to pleasure, and of an unconquerable spirit. The marquis, whose heart was dead to paternal tenderness, and whose present lady was too volatile to attend to domestic concerns, committed the education of his daughters to the care of a lady, who completely qualified for the undertaking, and who was distantly related to the late marchioness.
He quit Mazzini soon after his second marriage, for the gaieties and splendor of Naples, whither his son accompanied him. Though naturally of a haughty and overbearing disposition, he was governed by his wife. His passions were vehement, and she had the address to bend them to her purpose; and so well to conceal her influence, that he thought himself most independent when he was most enslaved. He paid an annual visit to the castle of Mazzini, but the marchioness seldom attended him, and he stayed only to give such general directions concerning the education of his daughters, as his pride, rather than his affection, seemed to dictate.
Emilia, the elder, inherited much of her mother’s disposition. She had a mild and sweet temper, united with a clear and comprehensive mind.
Her younger sister, Julia, was of a more lively cast.
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Ann Ward Radcliffe
Radcliffe was born Ann Ward in Holborn, London, on July 9, 1764. She was the only child of William Ward (1737–1798) and Ann Oates (1726–1800), and her mother was 36 years old when she gave birth.
Biography.
Her father worked as a haberdasher in London before moving the family to Bath in 1772 to manage a porcelain shop for his business partners Thomas Bentley and Josiah Wedgwood. Both of her parents were relatively well-connected. Her father had a famous uncle, William Cheselden, who was King George II’s surgeon. Her mother descended from the De Witt family of Holland and had a cousin, Sir Richard Jebb, a fashionable London physician. Growing up, Radcliffe often visited her maternal uncle, Thomas Bentley, in Chelsea, London, and later Turnham Green. Bentley was business partners with a fellow Unitarian, Josiah Wedgwood, maker of the Wedgwood China. Wedgwood’s daughter Sukey stayed in Chelsea and is Radcliffe’s only known childhood companion. Sukey later married Dr. Robert Darwin and had a son, the naturalist Charles Darwin. Although mixing in some distinguished circles, Radcliffe seems to have made little impression in this society and was described by Wedgwood as “Bentley’s shy niece.”
Ann Ward Radcliffe
