In August 1811, we are told, she wrote a little play about landlords and tenants for the children of her sister, Mrs.
Beddoes.Mr.Edgeworth tried to get the play produced on the London boards.Writing to her aunt, Mrs.Ruxton, Maria says, 'Sheridan has answered as I foresaw he must, that in the present state of this country the Lord Chamberlain would not license THEABSENTEE; besides there would be a difficulty in finding actors for so many Irish characters.' The little drama was then turned into a story, by Mr.Edgeworth's advice.Patronage was laid aside for the moment, and THE ABSENTEE appeared in its place in the second part of TALES OF FASHIONABLE LIFE.We all know Lord Macaulay's verdict upon this favourite story of his, the last scene of which he specially admired and compared to the ODYSSEY.
[Lord Macaulay was not the only notable admirer of THE ABSENTEE.The present writer remembers hearing Professor Ruskin on one occasion break out in praise and admiration of the book.'You can learn more by reading it of Irish politics,' he said, 'than from a thousand columns out of blue-books.'] Mrs.Edgeworth tells us that much of it was written while Maria was suffering a misery of toothache.
Miss Edgeworth's own letters all about this time are much more concerned with sociabilities than with literature.We read of a pleasant dance at Mrs.Burke's; of philosophers at sport in Connemara; of cribbage, and company, and country houses, and Lord Longford's merry anecdotes during her visit to him.Miss Edgeworth, who scarcely mentions her own works, seems much interested at this time in a book called MARY AND HER CAT, which she is reading with some of the children.