The last volume relating to the Scotch wizard did not appear until 1732, two years after Campbell's death. "Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbel, The famous Deaf and Dumb Gentleman. Written by Himself, who ordered they should be publish'd after his Decease," consisted of 164 pages devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes of the prophet, a reprint of Defoe's "Friendly Daemon" (p. 166), "Original Letters sent to Mr. Campbel by his Consulters" (p. 196), and "An Appendix, By Way of Vindication of Mr. Duncan Campbel, Against That groundless Aspersion cast upon him, That he but pretended to be Deaf and Dumb. By a Friend of the Deceased" (p. 225). The authorship of this book has received but slight attention from students of Defoe, and still remains something of a puzzle. No external evidence on the point has yet come to light, but some probable conclusions may be reached through an examination of the substance and style.

In the first place, there is no probability—the statement on the title-page notwithstanding—that Mr. Campbell himself had anything to do with the composition of the "Memoirs." Since the magician had taken no part in the literary exploitation of his fame during his lifetime, it is fair to infer that he did not begin to do so two years after his death. Moreover, each of the three writers, Bond, Defoe, and Eliza Haywood, already identified with the Campbell pamphlets was perfectly capable of passing off fiction as feigned biography. Both the author of "Memoirs of a Cavalier" and the scribbler of secret histories had repeatedly used the device. There is no evidence, however, that William Bond had any connection with the present work, but a large share of it was almost certainly done by Defoe and Mrs. Haywood.

The former had died full of years on 26 April, 1731, about a year before the "Secret Memoirs" was published. It is possible, however, that he may have assembled most of the material for the book and composed a number of pages. The inclusion of his "Friendly Daemon" makes this suspicion not unlikely. And furthermore, certain anecdotes told in the first section, particularly in the first eighty pages, are such stories as would have appealed to Defoe's penchant for the uncanny, and might well have been selected by him. The style is not different from that of pieces known to be his.

But that the author of "Robinson Crusoe" would have told the "little History" of the young woman without a fortune who obtains the husband she desires by means of a magic cake (p. 86) is scarcely probable, for the story is a sentimental tale that would have appealed to love-sick Lydia Languishes. As far as we know, Defoe remained hard-headed to the last. But Mrs. Haywood when she was not a scandal-monger, was a sentimentalist. The story would have suited her temperament and the tastes of her readers. It is told so much in her manner that one could swear that the originator of the anecdote was aut Eliza, aut diabola. A few pages further on (p. 104) appears the incident of a swaggerer who enters the royal vault of Westminster Abbey at dead of night on a wager, and having the tail of his coat twitched by the knife he has stuck in the ground, is frightened into a faint—a story which Mrs. Haywood later retold in different words in her "Female Spectator."[11] The "Secret Memoirs" further informs us by a casual remark of Mr. Campbell's that Eliza Haywood was well acquainted with the seer.

"Sometimes, when surrounded by my Friends, such as Anthony Hammond, Esq; Mr. Philip Horneck, Mr. Philips, Mr.——, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Fowk, Mrs. Eliza Haywood, and other celebrated Wits, of which my House, for some Years has been the general Rendezvous, a good Bowl of Punch before me, and the Glass going round in a constant Circle of Mirth and Good Humour, I have, in a Moment, beheld Sights which has froze my very Blood, and put me into Agonies that disordered the whole Company" (p. 131).

The last anecdote in the first section is a repetition at some length of the story of Campbell's adventures in Holland, not as related in Defoe's "Life and Adventures," but according to the version in Mrs Haywood's "Dumb Projector." The beginning, which has to do with a grave old gentleman who was bit by a viper, is told in almost the same words; indeed some letters that passed between the characters are identically the same, and the end, though much abbreviated, contains a number of sentences taken word for word from the earlier telling of the story. Finally, Mrs. Haywood was the first and hitherto the only writer of the Campbell pamphlets who had printed letters supposedly addressed to the prophet by his clients. The device was peculiarly hers. The "Original Letters sent to Mr. Campbel by his Consulters" in the "Secret Memoirs" are similar to those already composed by her for "A Spy upon the Conjurer." There is no reason to think that she did not invent the later epistles as well as the former.

If, then, a number of anecdotes in the "Secret Memoirs" are suggestive of Mrs. Haywood's known writings, and if one of them remained in her memory thirteen years later; if the pamphlet carefully alludes to Eliza Haywood as one of the dumb seer's particular friends, and if it repeats in slightly different form her peculiar account of the dumb projector's journey into Holland; and if, finally, the book contains a series of letters to Campbell from fictitious correspondents fashioned on the last already used by her, we may conclude that in all likelihood the authoress whose name had previously been associated with Duncan Campbell literature was again concerned in writing or revising this latest work. At least a cautious critic can say that there is no inherent improbability in the theory that Defoe with journalistic instinct, thinking that Campbell's death in 1730 might stimulate public interest in the wizard, had drafted in the rough the manuscript of a new biography, but was prevented by the troubles of his last days from completing it; that after his death the manuscript fell into the hands of Mrs. Haywood, or perhaps was given to her by the publishers Millan and Chrichley to finish; that she revised the material already written, supplemented it with new and old matter of her own, composed a packet of Original Letters, and sent the volume to press. The origin of the "Appendix, by Way of Vindication of Mr. Duncan Campbel" remains unknown, and any theory about the authorship of the "Secret Memoirs" must be regarded in last analysis as largely conjectural.[11a]

Though the author of the original "Life and Adventures" has received most of the credit due to Campbell's biographer, Mrs. Haywood, as we have seen, was not less active in exploiting the deaf and dumb gentleman. Her "Spy upon the Conjurer" was fubbed off upon the public as often as Defoe's earlier volume, and neither writer could claim any advantage over the other from his second and slighter contribution. Each held successfully his own coign of vantage. Eliza Haywood, in contemporary opinion, outranked Defoe almost as far as an interpreter of the heart as he surpassed her in concocting an account of a new marvel or a tale of strange adventure. The arbitress of the passions indeed wrote nothing to compare in popularity with "Robinson Crusoe," but before 1740 her "Love in Excess" ran through as many editions as "Moll Flanders" and its abridgments, while "Idalia: or, the Unfortunate Mistress" had been reprinted three times separately and twice with her collected novels before a reissue of Defoe's "Fortunate Mistress" was undertaken. When in 1740 Applebee published a new edition of "Roxana," he had it supplemented by "a continuation of nearly one hundred and fifty pages, many of which are filled with rubbish about women named Cleomira and Belinda."[12] Here again Mrs. Haywood's red herring crossed the trail of Defoe, for oddly enough the sheets thus accurately characterized were transcribed word for word from Eliza's second novel, "The British Recluse." At the point where the heroine swallows a sleeping potion supposing it poison, faints, and is thought to be dead, the narrative breaks off abruptly with the words:

"Though the History of Cleomira and Belinda's Misfortunes, may be thought foreign to my Affairs ... yet it is absolutely necessary I should give it a Place, because it is the Source, or Spring, of many strange and uncommon Scenes, which happened to me during the remaining Part of my Life, and which I cannot give an Account of without" ...[13]

The pages which follow relate how Roxana became reconciled to her daughter, died in peace, and was buried at Hornsey. The curious reader finds, however, no further mention of Belinda and her friend. Evidently Applebee's hack simply stole as much copy as he needed from an almost forgotten book, trusting to receive his money before the fraud was discovered. The volumes of Eliza Haywood were indeed a mine of emotional scenes, and those who wished to read of warm desires or palpitating passions had to turn to her romances or do without. Wretched as her work seems in comparison to the modern novel, it was for the time being the nearest approach to idealistic fiction and to the analysis of human feelings. Defoe's romances of incident were the triumphant culmination of the picaresque type; Mrs. Haywood's sentimental tales were in many respects mere vague inchoations of a form as yet to be produced. But when freed from the impurities of intrigue and from the taint of scandal, the novel of heart interest became the dominant type of English fiction. Unfortunately, however, Eliza Haywood was too practical a writer to outrun her generation. The success of "A Spy upon the Conjurer" may have convinced her that a ready market awaited stories of amorous adventure and hinted libel. At any rate, she soon set out to gratify the craving for books of that nature in a series of writings which redounded little to her credit, though they brought her wide notoriety.

FOOTNOTES [1] Tatler, No. 14; Spectator, Nos. 323, 474, 560.

[2] Particularly the incongruous description of Duncan Campbell's first appearance in London, where the writer finds the "heavenly youth" seated like a young Adonis in the "center of an angelic tribe" of "the most beautiful females that ever my eyes beheld," etc. G.A. Aitken's edition of The Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, 87-9.

[3] The Supernatural Philosopher ... by William Bond, of Bury St. Edmonds [Transcriber's note: sic], Suffolk. The preface signed by Campbell to Defoe's Life and Adventures states that the book was revised by "a young gentleman of my acquaintance." Professor Trent, however, includes Mrs. Haywood with Bond as a possible assistant in the revision. See The Cambridge History of English Literature, IX, 23.

[4] Neither Defoe nor Mrs. Haywood contributed to the little budget of miscellaneous matter prefixed to the second issue of the Life and Adventures (August, 1720) and sometimes found separately under the title: Mr. Campbell's Pacquet, for the Entertainment of Gentlemen and Ladies. Containing I. Verses to Mr. Campbell, Occasioned by the History of his Life and Adventures. By Mrs. Fowke, Mr. Philips, &c. II. The Parallel, a Poem. Comparing the Poetical Productions of Mr. Pope, with the Prophetical Predictions of Mr. Campbell. By Capt. Stanhope, [i. e. W. Bond.] III. An Account of a most surprizing Apparition; sent from Launceston in Cornwall. Attested by the Rev. Mr. Ruddie, Minister there. London: For T. Bickerton. 1720. See W. Lee, Daniel Defoe, 322-8.

[5] Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, 171.

[5a] This volume was announced in the British Journal as early as Dec. 15, 1722.

[6] She or Bond may have inserted the passage to advertise a projected work. Mr. Spectator had already remarked of the letters that came to his office: "I know some Authors, who would pick up a Secret History out of such materials, and make a Bookseller an Alderman by the Copy." (No. 619.)

[7] Defoe's Life and Adventures is mentioned on pp. 17 (with a quotation), 61, 111, 246, 257.

[8] Part II. Being a Collection of Letters found in Mr. Campbell's Closet. By the Lady who wrote the foregoing sheets. Part III. Containing some Letters from Persons of Mr. Campbell's more particular Acquaintance.

[9] "The Pleasure with which you received my Spy on the Conjurer, encourages me to offer you a little Supplement to it, having since my finishing that Book, had the opportunity of discovering something concerning Mr. Campbell, which I believe your Lordship will allow to be infinitely more surprizing than any Thing I have yet related." The Dumb Projector, 5. Mr. G. A. Aitken, in his introduction to Defoe's Life and Adventures, gives the two pieces unhesitatingly to Mrs. Haywood, while other students of Defoe,—Leslie Stephen, Lee, Wright, and Professor Trent,—are unanimous in their opinion that the first exploiter of the dumb wizard could have had no hand in the writing of these amplifications. The latest bibliographer of romances and tales, Mr. Arundell Esdaile, however, follows the B.M. catalogue in listing The Dumb Projector under the convenient name of Defoe.

[10] No. 125, Saturday. 23 November, 1728.

[11] The Female Spectator, 1745, II, 246.

[11a] In 1734 appeared a compilation of tables for computing Easter, etc., entitled Time's Telescope Universal and Perpetual, Fitted for all Countries and Capacities ... By Duncan Campbell. What connection, if any, this book had with the fortune-teller or with any of the persons connected with his biography appears not to have been determined.

[12] G.A. Aitken, Introduction to The Fortunate Mistress, viii.

[13] The Fortunate Mistress; or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau.... London: Printed for E. Applebee. 1740. p. 359. Pp. 300-59 are taken from The British Recluse.



CHAPTER IV

SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS

Some tentative experiments in the way of scandal-mongering may be found in Mrs. Haywood's work even before the first of her Duncan Campbell pamphlets. Many of the short romances discussed in the second chapter were described on the title-page as secret histories, while others apparently indistinguishable from them in kind were denominated novels. "Love in Excess" and "The Unequal Conflict," for instance, were given the latter title, but a tale like "Fantomina," evidently imaginary, purported to be the "Secret History of an Amour between two Persons of Condition." "The British Recluse" was in sub-title the "Secret History of Cleomira," and "Cleomelia: or, the Generous Mistress" claimed to be the "Secret History of a Lady Lately arriv'd from Bengall." The writer attached no particular significance to her use of the term, but employed it as a means of stimulating a meretricious interest in her stories. In fact she goes out of her way in the Preface to "The Injur'd Husband" to defend herself and at the same time to suggest the possibility that her novel might contain references to English contemporaries. The defence is carefully worded so that it does not constitute an absolute denial, but rather whets the curiosity.

"It is not, therefore, to excuse my Want of Judgment in the Conduct, or my Deficiency of Expressing the Passions I have endeavour'd to represent, but to clear myself of an Accusation, which, I am inform'd, is already contrived and prepared to thunder out against me, as soon as this is publish'd, that I take this Pains. A Gentleman, who applies the little Ingenuity he is Master of to no other Study than that of sowing Dissention among those who are so unhappy, and indeed unwise, as to entertain him, either imagines, or pretends to do so, that tho' I have laid the Scene in Paris, I mean that the Adventure shou'd be thought to have happen'd in London; and that in the Character of a French Baroness I have attempted to expose the Reputation of an English Woman of Quality. I shou'd be sorry to think the Actions of any of our Ladies such as you'd give room for a Conjecture of the Reality of what he wou'd suggest. But suppose there were indeed an Affinity between the Vices I have describ'd, and those of some Woman he knows (for doubtless if there be, she must be of his Acquaintance) I leave the World to judge to whom she is indebted for becoming the Subject of Ridicule, to me for drawing a Picture whose Original is unknown, or to him who writes her Name at the Bottom of it.

"However, if I had design'd this as a Satyr on any Person whose Crimes I had thought worthy of it, I shou'd not have thought the Resentment of such a one considerable enough to have obliged me to deny it. But as I have only related a Story, which a particular Friend of mine assures me is Matter of Fact, and happen'd at the Time when he was in Paris: I wou'd not have it made Use of as an Umbrage for the Tongue of Scandal to blast the Character of any one, a Stranger to such detested Guilt."

Before long the term "secret history" fell into disrepute, so that writers found it necessary to make a special plea for the veracity of their work. "The Double Marriage," "The Mercenary Lover," and "Persecuted Virtue" were distinguished as "true secret histories," and in the Preface to "The Pair Hebrew: or, a True, but Secret History of Two Jewish Ladies, Who lately resided in London" Mrs. Haywood at once confessed the general truth of the charge against the type and defended the accuracy of her own production.

"There are so many Things, meerly the Effect of Invention, which have been published, of late, under the Title of SECRET HISTORIES, that, to distinguish this, I am obliged to inform my Reader, that I have not inserted one Incident which was not related to me by a Person nearly concerned in the Family of that unfortunate Gentleman, who had no other Consideration in the Choice of a Wife, than to gratify a present Passion for the Enjoyment of her Beauty."

About 1729 Eliza Haywood seems to have found the word "Life" or "Memoirs" on the title-page a more effective means for gaining the credence of her readers, and after that time she wrote, in name at least, no more secret histories. The fictions so denominated in "Secret Histories, Novels and Poems" were in no way different from her novels, and had only the slightest, if any, foundation in fact.

A novel actually based upon a real occurrence, however, is "Dalinda, or the Double Marriage. Being the Genuine History of a very Recent, and Interesting Adventure" (1749), not certainly known to have been written by Mrs. Haywood, but bearing in the turns of expression, the letters, and the moralized ending, almost indubitable marks of her handiwork. One at least of her favorite quotations comes in at an appropriate point, and the Preface to the Reader states that the author's sole design is to show the danger of inadvertently giving way to the passions—a stock phrase with the author of "Love in Excess." The "Monthly Review" informs us that the story is "the affair betwixt Mr. Cresswell and Miss Scrope, thrown into the form of a novel."[1] The situation is somewhat similar to that described in "The Mercenary Lover."

Dalinda's unhappy passion for Malvolio incites him to ruin her, and though he deludes her with an unregistered marriage at the Fleet, he has no scruples against marrying the rich Flavilla. Wishing to possess both Flavilla's fortune and Dalinda's charms, he effects a reconciliation with the latter by promising to own their prior contract, but when he comes out into the open and proposes to entertain her as a mistress, she indignantly returns to her grandmother's house, where she summons her brother and her faithful lover, Leander, to force her perfidious husband to do her justice. The latter half of the novel is a tissue of intrigue upon intrigue, with a complication of lawsuits and letters in which Malvolio's villainy is fully exposed, and he is forced to separate from Flavilla, but is unable to exert his claims upon Dalinda. She in turn cannot wring from him any compensation, nor can she in conscience recompense the faithful love of Leander while her husband is living. Thus all parties are sufficiently unhappy to make their ways a warning to the youth of both sexes.

Evidently the history, though indeed founded on fact, differs from the works of Mrs. Haywood's imagination only in the tedious length of the legal proceedings and the uncertainty of the outcome. The only reason for basing the story on the villainy of Mr. Cresswell was to take advantage of the momentary excitement over the scandal. A similar appeal to the passion for diving into the intrigues of the great is apparent in the title of a novel of 1744, "The Fortunate Foundlings: Being the Genuine History of Colonel M——rs, and his Sister, Madame du P——y, the issue of the Hon. Ch——es M——rs. Son of the late Duke of R—— L——D. Containing many wonderful Accidents that befel them in their Travels, and interspersed with the Characters and Adventures of Several Persons of Condition, in the most polite Courts of Europe." The Preface after the usual assurances that the work is compiled from original documents and is therefore more veracious than "the many Fictions which have been lately imposed upon the World, under the specious Titles of Secret Histories, Memoirs, &c," informs us that the purpose of the publication is to encourage virtue in both sexes by showing the amiableness of it in real characters. Instead of exposing vice in the actions of particular persons, the book is a highly moral laudation of those scions of the house of Manners whose names are adumbrated in the title. It cannot, therefore, be classed as a scandal novel or secret history.

The latter term, though loosely applied to the short tale of passion for the purpose of stimulating public curiosity, meant strictly only that type of pseudo-historical romance which interpreted actual history in the light of court intrigue. In France a flood of histories, annals, anecdotes, and memoirs,—secret, gallant, and above all true,—had been pouring from the press since 1665. The writers of these works proceeded upon the ostensible theory that secret history in recognizing woman's influence upon the destiny of nations was more true than "pure" history, which took into account only religious, political, social, or moral factors in judging the conduct of kings and statesmen. Did not Anthony suffer the world to slip from his fingers for the love of Cleopatra? Although the grand romances had a little exhausted the vein of classical material, Mme Durand-Bedacier and Mme de Villedieu compiled sundry annals of Grecian and Roman gallantry.[2] But the cycle of French secret history was much more extensive. Romancing historians ferreted out a prodigious amount of intrigue in every court from that of Childeric to Louis XIV, and set out to remodel the chronicle of the realm from the standpoint of the heart. Nearly every reign and every romantic hero was the subject of one or more "monographs," among which Mme de La Fayette's "Princesse de Cleves" takes a prominent place. The thesaurus and omnium gatherum of the genus was Sauval's "Intrigues galantes de la cour de France" (1695), of which Dunlop remarks that "to a passion, which has, no doubt, especially in France, had considerable effect in state affairs, there is assigned ... a paramount influence." But romancers with a nose for gallantry had no difficulty in finding material for their pens in England during the times of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and Henrietta Maria. But most frequently of all was chosen the life of the Queen of Scots.

From fifteen or sixteen French biographies of the romantic Mary[3] Mrs. Haywood drew materials for an English work of two hundred and forty pages. "Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots: Being the Secret History of her Life, and the Real Causes of all Her Misfortunes. Containing a Relation of many particular Transactions in her Reign; never yet Published in any Collection" (1725) is distinguishable from her true fiction only by the larger proportion of events between set scenes of burning passion which formed the chief constituent of Eliza's romances. As history it is worthless, and its significance as fiction lies merely in its attempt to incorporate imaginative love scenes with historical fact. It was apparently compiled hastily to compete with a rival volume, "The History of the Life and Reign of Mary Stuart," published a week earlier, and it enjoyed but a languid sale. Early in 1726 it passed into a second edition, which continued to be advertised as late as 1743.

"Mary Stuart" is the only one of Mrs. Haywood's romances that strictly deserves the name of secret history. But late in 1749 a little romance that satisfied nearly all the conditions of the type insinuated itself into the pamphlet shops without the agency of any publisher. "A Letter from H—G—g, Esq. One of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to the Young Chevalier, and the only Person of his own Retinue that attended him from Avignon, in his late Journey through Germany, and elsewhere; Containing Many remarkable and affecting Occurrences which happened to the P—— during the course of his mysterious Progress" has been assigned to Mrs. Haywood by the late Mr. Andrew Lang,[4] perhaps on the authority of the notice in the "Monthly Review" already quoted.

The pretended author of the letter was a certain Henry Goring, a gentleman known to be in attendance upon the last of the Stuarts. The preface gives a commonplace explanation of how the letter fell into the hands of the editor through a similarity of names. Apparently the pamphlet was thought seditious because it eulogized the Young Chevalier, hinting how advantageous it would be to have him on the throne. As the secret journey progresses, the Prince has a chance to expose his admirable political tenets in conversation with a nobleman of exalted rank; in rescuing a young woman from a fire, caring for her in distress, and refusing to take advantage of her passion for him, he gives evidence of a morality not accorded him by history and proves "how fit he is to govern others, who knows so well how to govern himself"; and when assaulted by hired assassins, he manifests courage and coolness, killing one of the bravos with his own hand. It is unnecessary to review the various stages in the Pretender's travels, which are related with a great air of mystery, but amount to nothing. The upshot is that the Prince has not renounced all thoughts of filling the throne of his ancestors, but has ends in view which the world knows nothing of and which will surprise them all some day. Had the Prince shown himself more susceptible to the charms of the merchants' daughters who fell in his way, this bit of romancing might claim the doubtful distinction of being Mrs. Haywood's only original secret history, but as it stands, no part of the story has the necessary motivation by passion. The intrigue is entirely political.

There would seem to be little dangerous stuff in this performance even five years after the insurrection of 1745, but if as the "Monthly Review" ill-naturedly hints, Eliza Haywood really suffered for her supposed connection with it, the lesson was at any rate effectual, for the small references to the P—— occasionally noticeable in her previous works suddenly ceased, and thereafter the novelist scrupulously refrained from mingling fiction and politics. Previously, however, she had at least once attempted to write a political satire elaborately disguised as a romance. In July, 1736, according to the list of books in the "Gentleman's Magazine," numerous duodecimo volumes emanated from the shop of S. Baker and were sold under the title of "Adventures of Eovaai, Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical History. Interspersed with a great Number of remarkable Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen, to several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular Great Men ... Written originally in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little understood.) First translated into Chinese ... and now retranslated into English, by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London."[5]

After the introduction has given a fantastic account of the Pre-Adamitical world, and explained with elaborate unconvincingness how the manuscript of the book came into existence, the tale commences like a moral allegory, but soon lapses into mere extravagant adventure. Capable at all times of using a deus ex machina as the readiest way of solving a situation, Mrs. Haywood here makes immoderate use of magic elements.

Eojaeu, King of Ijaveo, leaves to his daughter, Eovaai, a precious jewel, upon the keeping of which her happiness depends. One day as she is gazing at it in the garden, it slips from its setting and is carried away by a little bird. Immediately the princess is forsaken by her quarreling subjects and abandoned by her suitors, save only the wicked Ochihatou, prime minister of the neighboring kingdom of Hypotofa, who has gained ascendancy over his sovereign by black magic, caused the promising young prince to be banished, and used his power to promote his ambitions and lusts. By infernal agencies he conveys Eovaai to the Hypotofan court, where he corrupts her mind and is about to triumph in her charms when he is summoned to quell a political disturbance. The princess, left languishing in a bower, is saved by her good Genius, who enables her to discern the true deformity of her betrayer and to escape to the castle of the good Alhahuza, and ultimately into the kingdom of Oozoff, where Ochihatou's magic has no power over her. During her stay there she listens to much political theorizing of a republican trend. Ochihatou succeeds in kidnapping her, and she is only saved from his loathed embraces by discovering one of his former mistresses in the form of a monkey whom she manages to change back into human shape and substitutes in her stead. While the statesman is employed as a lover, the populace led by Alhahuza storm the palace. Ochihatou discovers the trick that has been played upon him, hastily transforms his unlucky mistress into a rat, and conveys himself and Eovaai through the air into a kingdom near at hand, where he hopes to make head against the rebels. His pretensions are encouraged, but learning by his magic that the Hypotofan monarch has been freed from the power of his spells, he persuades the princess to return to Ijaveo with him in hopes of regaining her kingdom. He transforms her into a dove, himself into a vulture, and flies with her to a wood near the Ijavean court. There he restores their natural shapes and makes a base attack upon her honor. In the struggle she manages to break his wand, and he in a fury hangs her up by the hair and is about to scourge her to death, when she is rescued by a glorious young stranger. The wicked Ochihatou dashes his brains out against an oak. Her deliverer turns out to be the banished prince of Hypotofa, who restores to her the lost jewel, weds her, and prosperously governs their united realms.

The fantastic story, however, was probably little calculated to sell the book. It was addressed to those who could read between the lines well enough to discern particular personages in the characters of the fiction, and especially a certain great man in the figure of the evil prime minister.

In 1736 when Eliza's novel first appeared, Walpole's defeated Excise Bill of 1733-4 and his policy of non-interference on the Continent had made him cordially disliked by the people, and by 1741 his unpopular ministry, like Lady Mary Montagu's stairs, was "in a declining way." Sir Robert had never shown himself a friend to letters, and there were not a few writers, among them one so illustrious as Henry Fielding, who were ready to seize upon any pretext for attacking him.[6] There can be no doubt that in the character of the villainous, corrupt, greedy, vain, lascivious, but plausible Ochihatou Mrs. Haywood intended her readers to recognize a semblance of the English minister. "Of all the statesmen who have held high office, it would be impossible to find one who has been more systematically abused and more unjustly treated than Sir Robert Walpole.... He is the 'Father of Parliamentary Corruption,' the 'foe to English liberty,' the 'man who maintained his power by the basest and most venal tactics'.... Whenever his administration is alluded to in Parliament a shudder runs through the House ... at the very thought that one so sordid, so interested, so schemingly selfish, should have attained to the position of Prime Minister, and have commanded a following. If we read the pamphlet literature of the eighteenth century, we see Walpole represented as the meanest and most corrupt of mankind."[7] Lord Chesterfield says of him: "His prevailing weakness was to be thought to have a polite and happy turn to gallantry, of which he had undoubtedly less than any man living; it was his favorite and frequent subject of conversation, which proved, to those who had any penetration, that it was his prevailing weakness, and they applied to it with success."[8] And Lord Hervey reports that the Queen remarked of Walpole's mistress, "dear Molly Skerritt": "She must be a clever gentlewoman to have made him believe she cares for him on any other score [but his money]; and to show you what fools we all are in some point or other, she has certainly told him some fine story or other of her love and her passion, and that poor man—avec ce gros corps, ces jambes enflees, et ce vilain ventre—believes her. Ah! what is human nature!"[9]

With this sketch of Walpole compare the account of Ochihatou, Prime Minister of Hypotofa. "This great Man was born of a mean Extraction, and so deformed in his own Person, that not even his own Parents cou'd look on him with Satisfaction.... As he was extremely amorous, and had so little in him to inspire the tender Passion, the first Proof he gave of his Art, was to ... cast such a Delusion before the Eyes of all who saw him, that he appeared to them such as he wished to be, a most comely and graceful Man.

"With this Advantage, join'd to the most soothing and insinuating Behaviour, he came to Court, and, by his Artifices, so wound himself into the Favour of some great Officers, that he was not long without being put into a considerable Post. This he discharged so well, that he was soon promoted to a better, and at length to those of the highest Trust and Honour in the Kingdom. But that which was most remarkable in him, and very much contributed to endear him to all Sorts of People, was that his Elevation did not seem to have made the least Change in his Sentiments. His natural Pride, his Lust, his exorbitant Ambition, were disguised under the Appearance of Sweetness of Disposition, Chastity, and even more Condescension, than was consistent with the Rank he then possest. By this Behaviour, he render'd himself so far from exciting Envy, that those, by whose Recommendation he had obtained what he enjoy'd, and with some of whom he was now on more than an Equality, wish'd rather to see an Augmentation, than Diminution of a Power he so well knew to use; and so successful was his Hypocrisy, that the most Discerning saw not into his Designs, till he found means to accomplish them, to the almost total Ruin of both King and People."[10] Ochihatou worms his way into the favor of the king, and after gaining complete ascendancy over his royal master, uses the power for his own ends. He fills the positions at court with wretches subservient to his own interests. "He next proceeded to seize the publick Treasure into his own Hands, which he converted not to Works of Justice or Charity, or any Uses for the Honour of the Kingdom, but in building stately Palaces for himself, his Wives, and Concubines, and enriching his mean Family, and others who adhered to him, and assisted in his Enterprizes." Lest this reference should not be plain enough in its application to Walpole's extravagances at Houghton, Mrs. Haywood adds in a footnote, "Our Author might have saved himself the Trouble of particularizing in what manner Ochihatou apply'd the Nation's Money; since he had said enough in saying, he was a Prime Minister, to make the Reader acquainted with his Conduct in that Point." Further allusions to a standing army of mercenaries and to an odious tribe of tax-collectors—two of the most popular grievances against Walpole—give additional force to the satire. There is a suspicion that in the character of the young prince banished by Ochihatou readers of a right turn of mind were intended to perceive a cautious allusion to the Pretender. [Transcriber's note: Quotes in paragraph in original, not block quote.]

That Walpole not only perceived, but actively resented the affront, we may infer, though evidence is lacking, from the six years of silence that followed the publication of the satire. Perhaps the government saw fit to buy off the troublesome author by a small appointment, but such indulgent measures were not usually applied to similar cases. More probably Eliza found it wise to seek in France or some neighboring country the safety from the malignant power of the Prime Minister that her heroine sought in the kingdom of Oozoff.

The "Adventures of Eovaai" contains almost the last of the dedications written in a servile tone to a patron whose favor Mrs. Haywood hoped to curry. Henceforward she was to be more truly a woman of letters in that her books appealed ostensibly at least only to the reading public. The victim of her final eulogy was the redoubtable Sarah, Duchess Dowager of Marlborough, who, when finding herself addressed as "O most illustrious Wife, and Parent of the Greatest, Best, and Loveliest! it was not sufficient for you to adorn Posterity with the Amiableness of every Virtue," etc., etc., may perhaps have recalled how her shining character had been blackened some twelve years before in a licentious volume called "Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of Utopia."[11] Had her Grace been aware that the reputed author of that comprehensive lampoon was none other than the woman who now outdid herself in praise, Eliza Haywood would probably have profited little by her panegyric. For though the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" like the "Adventures of Eovaai" made a pretence of being translated into English from the work of a celebrated Utopian author, the British public found no difficulty in attributing it by popular acclaim to Mrs. Haywood, and she reaped immense notoriety from it. In prefaces to some of her subsequent works she complained of the readiness of the world to pick meanings in whatever was published by a struggling woman, or protested that she had no persons or families in view in writing her stories, but she never disclaimed the authorship of this production. Undoubtedly the world was right in "smoking" the writer.[12]

If before she had retailed secret histories of late amours singly, Mrs. Haywood dealt in them now by the wholesale, and any reader curious to know the identity of the personages hidden under such fictitious names as Romanus, Beaujune, Orainos, Davilla, Flirtillaria, or Saloida could obtain the information by consulting a convenient "key" affixed to each of the two volumes. In this respect, as in the general scheme of her work, Mrs. Haywood was following the model set by the celebrated Mrs. Manley in her "New Atalantis." She in turn had derived her method from the French romans a clef or romances in which contemporary scandal was reported in a fictitious disguise. The imitation written by Mrs. Haywood became only less notorious than her original, and was still well enough known in 1760 to be included in the convenient list of novels prefixed to the elder Colman's "Polly Honeycombe." It consists of a tissue of anecdotes which, if retold, would (in Fuller's words) "stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in," all set in an allegorical framework of a commonplace kind.

A noble youth arrives upon the shores of a happy island [England], where he encounters the God of Love, who conveys him to a spacious court in the midst of the city. There Pecunia and Fortuna, served by their high priest Lucitario [J. Craggs, the elder] preside over an Enchanted Well [South Sea Company] while all degrees of humanity stand about in expectation of some wonderful event. From amid the throng the God of Love selects certain persons as examples of perverted love. The stories he relates about them range from mere anecdotes to elaborate histories containing several love-letters. In substance these tales consist of the grossest scandal that could be collected from the gossip of profligate society. After hearing more than a satiety of these illustrations, the youth beholds the Genius of the Isle, supported by Astrea and Reason, exposing the fraud of the Enchanted Well to the dismay of the greedy rabble. The young stranger then sinks to rest in a perfumed bower, while the God of Love and the Genius of the Isle set about a much needed reformation of manners.

None of the skimmings of contemporary gossip poured out in the two volumes deserves the least consideration, save such as reveal the fair writer's relations with other authors. In return for Savage's eulogy of her "Love in Excess" and "Rash Resolve" the scribbling dame included in her scandal novel the story of his noble parentage substantially as it had already been told by Aaron Hill in the "Plain Dealer" for 24 June, 1724. But in addition she prefaced the account with a highly colored narrative of the amours of Masonia and Riverius.[13] However much the author of "The Bastard" may have desired to prove his noble origin, he might easily have resented a too open flaunting of his mother's disgrace. Moreover, Mrs. Haywood hinted that his unfeeling mother was not the only woman whom the poet had to fear. By the insinuations of a female fury, a pretender to the art of poetry, for whom Eliza has no words too black—in fact some of her epithets are too shady to be quoted—he has been led into actions, mean, unjust, and wicked. The vile woman, it seems, has been guilty of defaming the reputations of others.

"The Monster whose Soul is wholly compos'd of Hipocrisy, Envy, and Lust, can ill endure another Woman should be esteem'd Mistress of those Virtues she has acted with too barefaced an Impudence to pretend to, and is never so happy as when by some horrid Stratagem she finds the means to traduce and blast the Character of the Worthy.... With how much readiness the easily deceiv'd Riverius [Savage] has obliged her in spreading those Reports, coin'd in the hellish Mint of her own Brain, I am sorry to say.... It cannot be doubted but that he has lost many Friends on her account, in particular one there was who bore him a singular Respect, tho' no otherways capacitated to serve him than by good Wishes.—This Person receiv'd a more than common Injury from him, thro' the Instigations of that female Fury; but yet continuing to acknowledge his good Qualities, and pitying his falling into the contrary, took no other Revenge than writing a little Satire, which his having publish'd some admirable fine things in the praise of Friendship and Honour, gave a handsome opportunity for." (Vol. I, p. 184.)

From the exceptional animus displayed by Eliza Haywood in describing her colleague in the school for scandal, one may suspect that the lightning had struck fairly near home. One is almost forced to believe that Savage's well-wisher, the writer of the little satire, "To the Ingenious Riverius, on his writing in the Praise of Friendship," was none other than Eliza herself.[14] Exactly what injury she had sustained from him and his Siren is not known, but although he still stood high in her esteem, she was implacable against that "worse than Lais" whom in a long and pungent description she satirized under the name of Gloatitia.

"Behold another ... in every thing as ridiculous, in some more vile— that big-bone'd, buxom, brown Woman.... Of all the Gods there is none she acknowledges but Phoebus, him she frequently implores for assistance, to charm her Lovers with the Spirit of Poetry.... She pretends, however, to have an intimate acquaintance with the Muses— has judgment enough to know that ease and please make a Rhyme, and to count ten Syllables on her Fingers.—This is the Stock with which she sets up for a Wit, and among some ignorant Wretches passes for such; but with People of true Understanding, nothing affords more subject of ridicule, than that incoherent Stuff which she calls Verses.—She bribed, with all the Favours she is capable of conferring, a Bookseller [Curll] (famous for publishing soft things) to print some of her Works, ["The Amours of Clio and Strephon," 1719] on which she is not a little vain: tho' she might very well have spared herself the trouble. Few Men, of any rank whatsoever, but have been honour'd with the receipt of some of her Letters both in Prose and Measure—few Coffee-Houses but have been the Repository of them."[15]

The student of contemporary secret history does not need to refer to the "key" to discover that the woman whose power to charm Savage was so destructive to Eliza's peace of mind was that universal mistress of minor poets, the Mira of Thomson, the Clio of Dyer and Hill, the famous Martha Fowke, who at the time happened to have fixed the scandal of her affections upon the Volunteer Laureate.[16] That the poet's opinion of her remained unchanged by Mrs. Haywood's vituperation may be inferred from some lines in her praise in a satire called "The Authors of the Town," printed soon after the publication of "Memoirs of a Certain Island."[17]

"Clio, descending Angels sweep thy Lyre, Prompt thy soft Lays, and breathe Seraphic Fire. Tears fall, Sighs rise, obedient to thy Strains, And the Blood dances in the mazy Veins!.... In social Spirits, lead thy Hours along, Thou Life of Loveliness, thou Soul of Song!"

But not content with singing the praises of her rival, Savage cast a slur upon Mrs. Haywood's works and even upon the unfortunate dame herself.

"First, let me view what noxious Nonsense reigns, While yet I loiter on Prosaic Plains; If Pens impartial active Annals trace, Others, with secret Histr'y, Truth deface: Views and Reviews, and wild Memoirs appear, And Slander darkens each recorded year."

After relating at some length the typical absurdities of the chronique scandaleuse—deaths by poison, the inevitably dropped letter, and intrigues of passion and jealousy—he became more specific in describing various authors. Among others

"A cast-off Dame, who of Intrigues can judge, Writes Scandal in Romance—A Printer's Drudge! Flush'd with Success, for Stage-Renown she pants, And melts, and swells, and pens luxurious Rants."

The first two lines might apply to the notorious Mrs. Manley, lately deceased, who had for some time been living as a hack writer for Alderman Barber, but she had written no plays since "Lucius" in 1717. Mrs. Haywood, however, equally a cast-off dame and a printer's drudge, had recently produced her "Fair Captive," a most luxurious rant. The passage, then, may probably refer to her.

If, as is possible, the poem was circulated in manuscript before its publication, this intended insult may be the injury complained of by Mrs. Haywood in "Memoirs of a Certain Island." Though she was content to retaliate only by heaping coals of fire upon the poet's bays, and though she even heightens the pathos of his story by relating how he had refused the moiety of a small pension from his mother upon hearing that she had suffered losses in the collapse of the South Sea scheme, Savage remained henceforth her implacable enemy. Perhaps her abuse of the divine Clio, the suspected instigator of his attacks upon her, may have been an unforgivable offense.

No need to particularize further. We need not vex the shade of Addison by repeating what Eliza records of his wild kinsman, Eustace Budgell (Bellario). No other person of literary note save Aaron Hill, favorably mentioned as Lauranus, appears in all the dreary two volumes. The vogue of the book was not due to its merits as fiction, which are slight, but to the spiciness of personal allusions. That such reading was appreciated even in the highest circles is shown by young Lady Mary Pierrepont's defence of Mrs. Manley's "New Atalantis."[18] In the history of the novel, however, the roman a clef deserves perhaps more recognition than has hitherto been accorded it. Specific delineation was necessary to make effective the satire, and though the presence of the "key" made broad caricature possible, since each picture was labeled, yet the writers of scandal novels usually drew their portraits with an amount of detail foreign to the method of the romancers.[19] While the tale of passion developed the novelist's power to make the emotions seem convincing, the chronique scandaleuse emphasized the necessity of accurate observation of real men and women. But satire and libel, though necessitating detailed description, did not, like burlesque or parody, lead to the creation of character. In that respect the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" and all its tribe are notably deficient.

A less comprehensive survey of current tittle-tattle, perhaps modeled on Mrs. Manley's "Court Intrigues" (1711), stole forth anonymously on 16 October, 1724, under the caption, "Bath-Intrigues: in four Letters to a Friend in London," a title which sufficiently indicates the nature of the work. Like the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" these letters consist of mere jottings of scandal. Most probably both productions were from the same pen, though "Bath-Intrigues" has been attributed to Mrs. Manley.[20] Opposite the title-page Roberts, the publisher, advertised "The Masqueraders," "The Fatal Secret," and "The Surprise" as by the same author. One of Mrs. Haywood's favorite quotations, used by her later as a motto for the third volume of "The Female Spectator," stands with naive appropriateness on the title-page:

"There is a Lust in Man, no Awe can tame, Of loudly publishing his Neighbor's Shame."

The writer of "Bath-Intrigues," moreover, did not hesitate to recommend Eliza's earlier novels to the good graces of scandal-loving readers, for she describes a certain letter as "amorous as Mrs. O—- F—-d's Eyes, or the Writings of the Author of Love in Excess." Most curious of all is the fact that the composer of the four letters, who signs herself J.B., refers en passant to Belinda's inconstancy to Sir Thomas Worthly, an allusion to the story of the second part of "The British Recluse." This reference would indicate either that there was some basis of actuality in the earlier fiction, or that Mrs. Haywood was using imaginary scandal to pad her collection. However that may be, this second chronique scandaleuse was apparently no less successful, though less renowned, than the first, for a third edition was imprinted during the following March.

The scribbling dame again used the feigned letter as a vehicle for mildly infamous gossip in "Letters from the Palace of Fame. Written by a First Minister in the Regions of Air, to an Inhabitant of this World. Translated from an Arabian Manuscript."[21] Its pretended source and the sham Oriental disguise make the work an unworthy member of that group of feigned Oriental letters begun by G.P. Marana with "L'Espion turc" in 1684, continued by Dufresny and his imitator, T. Brown, raised to a philosophic level by Addison and Steele, and finally culminant in Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes" (1721) and Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World" (1760).[22] The fourth letter is a well-told Eastern adventure, dealing with the revenge of Forzio who seduces the wife of his enemy, Ben-hamar, through the agency of a Christian slave, but in general the "Letters" are valuable only as they add an atom of evidence to the popularity of pseudo-Oriental material. Eliza Haywood was anxious to give the public what it wanted. She had found a ready market for scandal, and knew that the piquancy of slander was enhanced and the writer protected from disagreeable consequences if her stories were cast in some sort of a disguise. She had already used the obvious ruse of an allegory in the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" and had just completed a feigned history in the "Court of Carimania." The well known "Turkish Spy" and its imitations, or perhaps the recent but untranslated "Lettres Persanes," may have suggested to her the possibility of combining bits of gossip in letters purporting to be translated from the Arabic and written by some supermundane being. The latter part of the device had already been used by Defoe in "The Consolidator." Mrs. Haywood merely added the suggestion of a mysterious Oriental source. She makes no attempt to satirize contemporary society, but is content to retail vague bits of town talk to customers who might be deluded into imagining them of importance. "The new created Vizier," the airy correspondent reports, "might have succeeded better in another Post, than in this, which with so much earnestness he has sollicited. For, notwithstanding the Plaudits he has received from our Princess, and the natural Propensity to State-Affairs, given him by his Saturnine Genius; his Significator Mars promis'd him greater Honours in the Field, than he can possibly attain to in the Cabinet." And so on. Both "Bath-Intrigues" and "Letters from the Palace of Fame" may be classed as romans a clef although no "key" for either has yet been found. In all other respects they conform to type.

The only one of Mrs. Haywood's scandal novels that rivaled the fame of her "Memoirs of a Certain Island" was the notorious "Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of Carimania" (1727), a feigned history on a more coherent plan than the allegorical hodge-podge of the former compilation. The incidents in this book are all loosely connected with the amours of Theodore, Prince of Carimania, with various beauties of this court. The chronicle minutely records the means he employed to overcome their scruples, to stifle their jealousies and their reproaches, and finally to extricate himself from affairs of gallantry grown tedious. Nearly all the changes are rung on the theme of amorous adventure in describing the progress of the royal rake and his associates. The "key"[23] at the end identifies the characters with various noble personages at the court of George II when Prince of Wales. The melting Lutetia, for instance, represented "Mrs. Baladin" or more accurately Mary Bellenden, maid of honor to the Princess, to whose charms Prince George was in fact not insensible. Barsina and Arilla were also maids of honor: the former became the second wife of John, Duke of Argyle (Aridanor), while the latter was that sister of Sir Sidney Meadows celebrated by Pope for her prudence. Although the "key" discreetly refrained from identifying the amorous Theodore, no great penetration was necessary to see in his character a picture of the royal George himself. A tradition not well authenticated but extremely probable states that printer and publisher were taken up in consequence of this daring scandal.

But more important in its effect upon the author's fortunes than any action of the outraged government was the resentment which her defamation of certain illustrious persons awakened in the breast of the dictator of letters. In chosing [Transcriber's note: sic] to expose in the character of her chief heroine, Ismonda, the foibles of Mrs. Henrietta Howard, the neighbor of Pope, the friend of Swift and Arbuthnot, and the admired of Lord Peterborough, Mrs. Haywood made herself offensive in the nostrils of the literary trio. The King's mistress, later the Countess of Suffolk, conducted herself with such propriety that her friends affected to believe that her relations with her royal lover were purely platonic, and they naturally failed to welcome the chronicle of her amours and the revelation of the slights which George II delighted to inflict upon her. Swift described the writer of the scandal as a "stupid, infamous, scribbling woman";[24] Peterborough writing to Lady Mary Montagu in behalf of his friend, the English Homer, sneered at the "four remarkable poetesses and scribblers, Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Haywood, Mrs. Manley, and Mrs. Ben [sic]";[25] and Pope himself pilloried the offender to all time in his greatest satire.

FOOTNOTES [1] Monthly Review, I, 238. July, 1749.

[2] Mme de Villedieu, Annales galantes de Grece and Les exiles de la cour d'Auguste. Mme Durand-Bedacier, Les belles Grecques, ou l'histoire des plus fameuses courtisanes de la Grece.

[3] B.M. Catalogue.

[4] A. Lang, History of English Literature (1912), 458. See ante, p. 25.

[5] Re-issued as The Unfortunate Princess, or, the Ambitious Statesman, 1741.

[6] J.E. Wells, Fielding's Political Purpose in Jonathan Wilde, PMLA, XXVIII, No. I, pp. 1-55. March, 1913. See also The Secret History of Mama Oello, 1733. "The Curaca Robilda's Character [i.e. Sir Robert Walpole's] will inform you that there were Evil Ministers even amongst the simple Indians" ... and The Statesman's Progress: Or, Memoirs of the Life, Administration, and Fall of Houly Chan, Primier Minister to Abensader, Emperor of China (1733).

[7] A.C. Ewald, Sir Robert Walpole (1878), 444.

[8] A.C. Ewald, Sir Robert Walpole, 450.

[9] Lord Hervey's Memoirs, London, 1884, II, 143.

[10] The Unfortunate Princess, 18, etc.

[11] Memoirs of a Certain Island, II, 249. "Marama [the Duchess of Marlborough] has been for many Years a Grandmother; but Age is the smallest of her Imperfections:—She is of a Disposition so perverse and peevish, so designing, mercenary, proud, cruel, and revengeful, that it has been a matter of debate, if she were really Woman, or if some Fiend had not assumed that Shape on purpose to affront the Sex, and fright Mankind from Marriage."

[12] J. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, III, 649, records the tradition that Chapman was the publisher of Mrs. Haywood's Utopia.

[13] Anne Mason, formerly Lady Macclesfield, and the Earl of Rivers, whom Savage claimed as his father.

[14] She had a way of rechristening her friends by romantic titles. See her poem, "To Mr. Walter Bowman ... Occasion'd by his objecting against my giving the Name of Hillarius to Aaron Hill, Esq."

[15] Memoirs of a Certain Island, I, 43-7 condensed.

[16] For an account of Clio see an article by Bolton Corney, "James Thomson and David Mallet," Athenaeum, II, 78, 1859. And Miss Dorothy Brewster, Aaron Hill, 188. Her unsavory biography entitled Clio, or a Secret History of the Amours of Mrs. S-n—m, was still known at the time of Polly Honeycombe, 1760.

[17] The Authors of the Town; a Satire. Inscribed to the Author of the Universal Passion. For J. Roberts, 1725. A number of lines from this poem appear later in Savage's "On False Historians," Poems (Cooke's ed.), II, 189.

[18] Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 4.

[19] Compare the picture of Gloatitia, for instance, with the following of a lady in La Belle Assemblee, I, 22. "To form any Idea of what she was, one must imagine all that can be conceived of Perfection—the most blooming Youth, the most delicate Complection, Eyes that had in them all the Fire of Wit, and Tenderness of Love, a Shape easy, and fine proportion'd Limbs; and to all this, a thousand unutterable Graces accompanying every Air and little Motion."

[20] Miss C.E. Morgan, The Novel of Manners, 221. Bath-Intrigues was included in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1727. Another work contained in the same two volumes, The Perplex'd Duchess; or, Treachery Rewarded: Being some Memoirs of the Court of Malfy. In a Letter from a Sicilian Nobleman, who had his Residence there, to his Friend in London (1728), may be a scandal novel, though the title suggests a reworking of Webster's Duchess of Malfi. I have not seen the book.

[21] Ascribed to Mrs. Haywood in the advertisements of her additional Works, 1727. The B.M. copy, catalogued under "Ariel," contains only a fragment of 24 pages.

[22] Miss M.P. Conant, The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth Century (1908), passim.

[23] The "key" is almost the sole contribution to Mrs. Haywood's bibliography in Bohn's Lowndes. Most of the personages mentioned are described in the notes of John Wilson Croker's Letters to and from the Countess of Suffolk (1824).

[24] The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. by F. Elrington Ball (1913), Vol. IV, 264, 266. The Countess of Suffolk, in a playful attack on Swift, wrote (25 Sept. 1731) ... "I should not have despaired, that ... this Irish patriot ... should have closed the scene under suspicions of having a violent passion for Mrs. Barber, and Lady M—— [Montagu] or Mrs. Haywood have writ the progress of it." In reply Swift wrote (26 Oct. 1731) that he could not guess who was intended by Lady M—— and that he had heard Mrs. Haywood characterized in the terms quoted above.

[25] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, III, 279.



CHAPTER V

THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD"

Mr. Pope's devious efforts to make the gratification of his personal animosities seem due to public-spirited indignation have been generally exposed. Beside the overwhelming desire to spite Theobald for his presumption in publishing "Shakespeare Restored" the aggrieved poet was actuated by numerous petty grudges against the inhabitants of Grub Street, all of which he masked behind a pretence of righteous zeal. According to the official explanation "The Dunciad" was composed with the most laudable motive of damaging those writers of "abusive falsehoods and scurrilities" who "had aspersed almost all the great characters of the age; and this with impunity, their own persons and names being utterly secret and obscure." He intended to seize the "opportunity of doing some good, by detecting and dragging into light these common enemies of mankind; since to invalidate this universal slander, it sufficed to show what contemptible men were the authors of it. He was not without hopes, that by manifesting the dulness of those who had only malice to recommend them, either the booksellers would not find their account in employing them, or the men themselves, when discovered, would want courage to proceed in so unlawful an occupation. This it was that gave birth to the 'Dunciad,' and he thought it a happiness, that by the late flood of slander on himself, he had acquired such a peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design."[1] But gentlemanly reproof and delicate satire would be wasted on "libellers and common nuisances." They must be met upon their own ground and overwhelmed with filth. "Thus the politest men are obliged sometimes to swear when they have to do with porters and oyster-wenches." Moreover, those unexceptionable models, Homer, Virgil, and Dryden had all admitted certain nasty expressions, and in comparison with them "our author ... tosses about his dung with an air of majesty."[2] In the episode devoted to the "authoress of those most scandalous books called the Court of Carimania, and the new Utopia," remarks the annotator of "The Dunciad, Variorum," "is exposed, in the most contemptuous manner, the profligate licentiousness of those shameless scribblers (for the most part of that sex, which ought least to be capable of such malice or impudence) who in libellous Memoirs and Novels, reveal the faults and misfortunes of both sexes, to the ruin of public fame, or disturbance of private happiness. Our good poet (by the whole cast of his work being obliged not to take off the irony) where he could not show his indignation, hath shewn his contempt, as much as possible; having here drawn as vile a picture as could be represented in the colours of Epic poesy."[3] On these grounds Pope justified the coarseness of his allusions to Mrs. Thomas (Corinna) and Eliza Haywood. But a statement of high moral purpose from the author of "The Dunciad" was almost inevitably the stalking-horse of an unworthy action. Mr. Pope's reasons, real and professed, for giving Mrs. Haywood a particularly obnoxious place in his epic of dullness afford a curious illustration of his unmatched capacity ostensibly to chastise the vices of the age, while in fact hitting an opponent below the belt.

The scourge of dunces had, as we have seen, a legitimate cause to resent the licentious attack upon certain court ladies, especially his friend Mrs. Howard, in a scandalous fiction of which Eliza Haywood was the reputed author. Besides she had allied herself with Bond, Defoe, and other inelegant pretenders in the domain of letters, and was known to be the friend of Aaron Hill, Esq., who stood not high in Pope Alexander's good graces. And finally Pope may have honestly believed that she was responsible for a lampoon upon him in person. In "A List of Books, Papers, and Verses, in which our Author was Abused, Before the Publication of the Dunciad; with the True Names of the Authors," appended to "The Dunciad, Variorum" of 1729, Mrs. Haywood was credited with an anonymous "Memoirs of Lilliput, octavo, printed in 1727."[4] The full title of the work in question reads, "Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput. Written by Captain Gulliver. Containing an Account of the Intrigues, and some other particular Transactions of that Nation, omitted in the two Volumes of his Travels. Published by Lucas Bennet, with a Preface, shewing how these Papers fell into his hands." The title, indeed, is suggestive of such productions as "The Court of Carimania." In the Preface Mr. Lucas Bennet describes himself as a schoolfellow and friend of Captain Gulliver, which is reason enough to make us doubt his own actuality. But whether a real personage or a pseudonym for some other author, he was probably not Mrs. Haywood, for the style of the book is unlike that of her known works, and the historian of Lilliput indulges in some mild sarcasms at the expense of women who "set up for Writers, before they have well learned their Alphabet," Either before or after composing his lines on Eliza, however, Pope chose to attribute the volume to her. The passage which doubtless provoked his noble rage against shameless scribblers was part of a debate between Lilliputian Court ladies who were anxious lest their having been seen by Gulliver in a delicate situation should reflect on their reputations. The speaker undertakes to reassure her companions.

"And besides, the inequality of our Stature rightly consider'd, ought to be for us as full a Security from Slander, as that between Mr. P—pe, and those great Ladies who do nothing without him; admit him to their Closets, their Bed-sides, consult him in the choice of their Servents, their Garments, and make no scruple of putting them on or off before him: Every body knows they are Women of strict Virtue, and he a Harmless Creature, who has neither the Will, nor Power of doing any farther Mischief than with his Pen, and that he seldom draws, but in defense of their Beauty; or to second their Revenge against some presuming Prude, who boasts a Superiority of Charms: or in privately transcribing and passing for his own, the elaborate Studies of some more learned Genius."[5]

Such an attack upon the sensitive poet's person and pride did not go unnoticed. More than a year later he returned the slur with interest upon the head of the supposed author. The lines on Eliza, which still remain the coarsest in the satire, were in the original "Dunciad" even more brutal.[6] Nothing short of childish personal animus could account for the filthy malignity of Pope's revenge.

"See in the circle next, Eliza plac'd; Two babes of love close clinging to her waste; Fair as before her works she stands confess'd In flow'r'd brocade by bounteous Kirkall dress'd, Pearls on her neck, and roses in her hair, And her fore-buttocks to the navel bare."[7]

The Goddess of Dullness offers "yon Juno of majestic size" as the chief prize in the booksellers' games. "Chetwood and Curll accept this glorious strife," the latter, as always, wins the obscene contest, "and the pleas'd dame soft-smiling leads away." Nearly all of this account is impudent slander, but Mr. Pope's imputations may have had enough truth in them to sting. His description of Eliza is a savage caricature of her portrait by Kirkall prefixed to the first edition of her collected novels, plays, and poems (1724).[8] Curll's "Key to the Dunciad," quoted with evident relish by Pope in the Variorum notes, recorded on the authority of contemporary scandal that the "two babes of love" were the offspring of a poet[9] and a bookseller. This bit of libel meant no more than that Mrs. Haywood's relations with Savage and other minor writers had been injudiciously unconventional. As for the booksellers, Curll had not been professionally connected with the authoress before the publication of "The Dunciad," and the part he played in the games may be regarded as due entirely to Pope's malice. W. R. Chetwood was indeed the first publisher of Eliza's effusions, but his name was even more strongly associated with the prize which actually fell to his lot.[10] In 1735 Chapman was substituted for Chetwood, and in the last revision Thomas Osborne, then the object of Pope's private antipathy, gained a permanent place as Curll's opponent. Taken all in all, the chief virulence of the abuse was directed more against the booksellers than against Mrs. Haywood.

The second mention of Eliza was also in connection with Corinna in a passage now canceled.

"See next two slip-shod Muses traipse along, In lofty madness meditating song, With tresses staring from poetic dreams And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams. H—— and I——, glories of their race!"[11]

The first initial is written in the manuscript "Heywood," and the second was doubtless intended for Mrs. Thomas. But in this case the very catholicity of Pope's malice defeated its own aim. Originally the first line stood: "See Pix and slip-shod W—— [Wortley?] traipse along." In 1729 the place of the abused Corinna was given to Mrs. Centlivre, then five years dead, in retaliation for a verse satire called "The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentation: a Ballad about Homer's Iliad," (1715).[12] Evidently abuse equally applicable to any one or more of five women writers could not be either specific or strikingly personal. Nothing can be inferred from the lines except that Pope despised the whole race of female wits and bore particular malice against certain of their number. Eliza Haywood sustained the largest share of anathema, for not only was she vilified in the poem, but "Haywood's Novels" and the offensive "Court of Carimania" occupied a conspicuous position in the cargo of books carried by the "ass laden with authors" which formed the well-known vignette to the quarto edition of 1729.

In the universal howl raised against the persecutor by the afflicted dunces the treble part was but weakly sustained. Mrs. Thomas indeed produced a small sixpenny octavo, written for, and perhaps in conjunction with Curll, entitled "Codrus; or the Dunciad dissected. To which is added Farmer Pope and his Son" (1729), but Mrs. Haywood's contribution was probably on her part unintentional, and was due entirely to the activity of the same infamous bookseller, who was among the first to get his replies and counter-slanders into print.[13] The "Key to the Dunciad" already mentioned ran through three editions in competition with an authorized key. "The Popiad" and "The Curliad" were rapidly huddled together and placed upon the market. Close upon the heels of these publications came "The Female Dunciad," containing beside the "Metamorphosis of P. into a Stinging Nettle" by Mr. Foxton, a novel called "Irish Artifice; or, the History of Clarina" by Mrs. Eliza Haywood. In a short introduction to the piece, Curll explained how it happened to fall into his hands.

"I am likewise to inform my Female Criticks, that they stand indebted to the entertaining Pen of Mrs. Eliza Haywood for the following History of Clarina. It was sent to me, by herself, on communicating to some of my Friends the Design I had of writing a Weekly Paper, under the title of the ROVER, the Scope of which is in some Measure explain'd in her Address to me, and this Project I may yet perhaps put in Execution."

The novelette submitted to Curll for inclusion in his projected periodical relates how an Irish housekeeper named Aglaura craftily promotes a runaway match between her son Merovius and the young heiress Clarina, who, deserted by her husband and disowned by her father, falls into the utmost misery. The story has no possible bearing either on Pope or on "The Dunciad," but was evidently seized by the shifty publisher as the nearest thing to hand when he came to patch up another pamphlet against Pope. Nothing could be more characteristic of Curll than his willingness to make capital out of his own disgrace. So hurried was the compilation of "The Female Dunciad" that he even printed the letter designed to introduce Mrs. Haywood's tale to the readers of the "Rover." Pope, who assiduously read all the libels directed against himself, hastened to use the writer's confession of her own shortcomings in a note to "The Dunciad, Variorum" of 1729.[14]

Mrs. Haywood admires at some length the Rover's intention of "laying a Foundation for a Fabrick, whose spacious Circumference shall at once display the beautiful Images of Virtue in in all her proper Shapes, and the Deformities of Vice in its various Appearances.... An Endeavour for a Reformation of Manners, (in an Age, where Folly is so much the Fashion, that to have run thro' all the courses of Debauchery, seem requisite to complete the fine Gentleman) is an Attempt as daring as it is noble; and while it engages the Admiration and Applause of the worthy and judicious Few, will certainly draw on you the Ridicule and Hatred of that unnumber'd Crowd, who justly dread the Lash of a Satire, which their own dissolute Behaviour has given sting to. But I, who am perfectly acquainted with the Sweetness of your Disposition, and that Tenderness with which you consider the Errors of your Fellow Creatures, need not be inform'd, that while you expose the Foulness of those Facts, which renders them deservedly Objects of Reproach, you will [not] forget to pity the Weakness of Humanity and Lethargy of Reason, which at some unguarded Hours, steals on the Souls of even the wisest Men; and tho' I shou'd find, in the Course of your Papers, all the little Inadvertencies of my own Life recorded, I am sensible it will be done in such a Manner as I cannot but approve."

No particular intimacy between the author and the bookseller can be inferred from this extravagant but conventional flattery. The interpretation of what Mrs. Haywood terms inadvertencies—a word almost invariably used in her writings as a euphemism—is a more difficult problem, for definite evidence of the authoress' gallantries is entirely lacking. But however damaging to herself her frankness may have been, there was little in the production to arouse the ire of Pope. The only instance in which the maligned novelist may have intended to show her resentment was in the Preface to her tragedy "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh" (1729) where with veiled sarcasm she confessed herself "below the Censure of the Gyant-Criticks of this Age."

Although Mrs. Haywood was evidently not responsible for the inclusion of her tale in "The Female Dunciad," and although the piece itself was entirely innocuous, her daring to raise her head even by accident brought down upon her another scurrilous rebuke, not this time from the poet himself, but from her former admirer, Richard Savage. In "An Author to be Let" (1732) Pope's jackal directed against the members of a supposed club of dunces, presided over by James Moore-Smith and including Theobald, Welsted, Curll, Dennis, Cooke, and Bezaleel Morris, a tirade of abuse, in which "the divine Eliza" came in for her full share of vituperation.

"When Mrs. Haywood ceas'd to be a Strolling Actress, why might not the Lady (tho' once a Theatrical Queen) have subsisted by turning Washer-woman? Has not the Fall of Greatness been a frequent Distress in all Ages? She might have caught a beautiful Bubble as it arose from the Suds of her Tub, blown it in Air, seen it glitter, and then break! Even in this low Condition, she had play'd with a Bubble, and what more, is the Vanity of human Greatness? She might also have consider'd the sullied Linnen growing white in her pretty red Hands, as an Emblem of her Soul, were it well scoured by Repentance for the Sins of her Youth: But she rather chooses starving by writing Novels of Intrigue, to teach young Heiresses the Art of running away with Fortune-hunters, and scandalizing Persons of the highest Worth and Distinction."

Savage's mention of eloping heiresses shows that he had been looking for exceptionable material in "Irish Artifice," but finding little to his purpose there, had reverted to the stock objections to the scandal novels, where he was upon safe but not original ground. In the body of the pamphlet he returned to assault the same breach. The supposed writer, Iscariot Hackney, in stating his qualifications for membership in the Dunces' Club, claims to be "very deeply read in all Pieces of Scandal, Obscenity, and Prophaneness, particularly in the Writings of Mrs. Haywood, Henley, Welsted, Morley, Foxton, Cooke, D'Foe, Norton, Woolston, Dennis, Nedward, Concanen, Journalist-Pit, and the Author of the Rival Modes. From these I propose to compile a very grand Work, which shall not be inferior to Utopia, Carimania, Guttiverania, Art of Flogging, Daily Journal, Epigrams on the Dunciad, or Oratory Transactions." ... Although the author of "Utopia" and "Carimania" was pilloried in good company, she suffered more than she deserved. She was indeed a friend of Theobald's, for a copy of "The Dunciad: with Notes Variorum, and the Prolegomena of Scriblerus," bearing on the fly-leaf the following inscription:

"Lewis Theobald to Mrs Heywood, as a testimony of his esteem, presents this book called The Dunciad, and acquaints her that Mr. Pope, by the profits of its publication, saved his library, wherein unpawned much learned lumber lay."[15]

shows that the two victims of Pope's most bitter satire felt a sort of companionship in misfortune. But there is no evidence to show that Eliza took any part in the War of the Dunces.

But that the immortal infamy heaped upon her by "The Dunciad" injured her prospects cannot be doubted. She was far from being a "signal illustration of the powerlessness of this attack upon the immediate fortunes of those assailed," as Professor Lounsbury describes her.[16] It is true that she continued to write, though with less frequency than before, and that some of her best-sellers were produced at a time when Pope's influence was at its height, but that the author was obliged to take extreme measures to avoid the ill consequences of the lampoon upon her may be proved by comparing the title-pages of her earlier and later novels.

Before the publication of "The Dunciad" the adventuress in letters had enjoyed a large share of popularity. Most of her legitimate works were advertised as "Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood" and bore her name in full prominently displayed on the title-page. That her signature possessed a distinct commercial value in selling popular fiction was amusingly illustrated by a bit of literary rascality practiced in 1727, when Arthur Bettesworth, the bookseller, issued a chapbook called "The Pleasant and Delightful History of Gillian of Croydon." After a long summary of the contents in small type came the statement, "The Whole done much after the same Method as those celebrated Novels, By Mrs. ELIZA HAYWOOD," the forged author's name being emphasized in the largest possible type in the hope that a cursory glance at the title-page might deceive a prospective buyer.[17] Of her forty publications before 1728 only fifteen, of which five from their libelous nature could not be acknowledged, failed to sail openly under her colors. Only once did she employ any sort of pseudonym, and only in one case was her signature relegated to the end of the dedication.[18] A word of scorn from the literary dictator, however, was enough to turn the taste of the town, not indeed away from sensational and scandalous fictions, but away from the hitherto popular writer of them. Eliza Haywood was no longer a name to conjure with; her reputation was irretrievably gone. It was no unusual thing in those days for ladies in semi-public life to outlive several reputations. The quondam Clio had already found the notoriety of that name too strong for her comfort, and had been rechristened Mira by the dapper Mr. Mallet.[19] Instead of adopting some such expedient Mrs. Haywood found it more convenient simply to lapse into anonymity. Of the four novels published within a year after "The Dunciad" none bore her name on the title-page, though two had signed dedications and the others were advertised as by her. Not one of them was re-issued. The tragedy "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh," known to be of her make, was a complete failure, and "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) with "Collected by Mrs. Eliza Haywood" on the title-page never reached a second edition. Both her translations from the French, "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" (1734) and "The Virtuous Villager" (1742), were acknowledged at the end of the dedications, and both were unsuccessful, although the anonymous predecessor of the former, "La Belle Assemblee" (1725), ran through eight editions. The single occurrence of Mrs. Haywood's name on a title-page after 1730, if we except the two reprints of "Secret Histories," was when the unacknowledged "Adventures of Eovaai" (1736) re-appeared five years later as "The Unfortunate Princess" with what seems to be a "fubbed" title-page for which the author was probably not responsible. And the successful works referred to by Professor Lounsbury were all either issued without any signature or under such designations as "the Author of the Fortunate Foundlings," or "Mira, one of the Authors of the Female Spectator," or "Exploralibus," so that even the reviewers sometimes appeared to be ignorant of the writer's identity.

Moreover, Mrs. Haywood's re-establishment as an anonymous author seems to have been a work of some difficulty, necessitating a ten years' struggle against adversity. Between 1731 and 1741 she produced fewer books than during any single year of her activity after the publication of "Idalia" and before "The Dunciad." Her probable share in the "Secret Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbel" was merely that of a hack writer, her contributions to the "Opera of Operas" were of the most trifling nature, and the two volumes of "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" were not original. For six years after the "Adventures of Eovaai" she sent to press no work now known to be hers, and not until the catch-penny "Present for a Servant-Maid" (1743) and the anonymous "Fortunate Foundlings" (1744) did her wares again attain the popularity of several editions. All due credit must be allowed Mrs. Haywood for her persistent efforts to regain her footing as a woman of letters, for during this time she had little encouragement. Pope's attack did destroy her best asset, her growing reputation as an author, but instead of following Savage's ill-natured advice to turn washerwoman, she remained loyal to her profession and in her later novels gained greater success than she had ever before enjoyed. But it was only her dexterity that saved her from literary annihilation.[20]

The lesson of her hard usage at the hands of Pope and his allies, however, was not lost upon the adaptable dame. After her years of silence Mrs. Haywood seems to have returned to the production of perishable literature with less inclination for gallantry than she had evinced in her early romances. Warm-blooded creature though she was, Eliza could not be insensible to the cooling effect of age, and perhaps, too, she perceived the more sober moral taste of the new generation. "In the numerous volumes which she gave to the world towards the latter part of her life," says the "Biographia Dramatica," somewhat hastily, "no author has appeared more the votary of virtue, nor are there any novels in which a stricter purity, or a greater delicacy of sentiment, has been preserved." Without discussing here the comparative decency of Mrs. Haywood's later novels, we may admit at once, with few allowances for change of standard, the moral excellence of such works as "The Female Spectator" and "Epistles for the Ladies." Certainly if the penance paid by the reader is any test, the novelist was successful in her effort to atone for the looseness of her early writings, when she left the province of fiction for that of the periodical essay.

FOOTNOTES [1] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 4.

[2] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 135, note 3.

[3] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 141.

[4] Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 232. Professor Lounsbury has apparently confused this work with A Cursory View of the History of Lilliput For these last forty three Years, 8vo,1727, a political satire containing no allusion to Pope. See The Text of Shakespeare, 287.

[5] Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput, 16.

[6] The Dunciad. 1728. Book II, lines 137-48, and 170; Book III, lines 149-53.

[7] Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 282.

[8] A second engraving by Vertue after Parmentier formed the frontispiece of Secret Histories, Novels, and Poems.

[9] E. Curll, Key to the Dunciad, 12. Some copies apparently read "peer" for "poet." See Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 330, note pp.; and Sir Sidney Lee, article Haywood in the D.N.B.

[10] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 330, note ss.

[11] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 294.

[12] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 232. See also 159, note I.

[13] T.E. Lounsbury, The Text of Shakespeare, 281. "'The Popiad' which appeared in July, and 'The Female Dunciad' which followed the month after ... were essentially miscellanies devoted to attacks upon the poet, and for them authors were not so much responsible as publishers."

[14] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 141, note 5.

[15] Notes and Queries, Ser. I, X, 110. The words italicized by me refer to Pope's description of Theobald's library, The Dunciad, (1728), Book I, line 106.

[16] T. R. Lounsbury, The Text of Shakespeare, 275. "But the attack upon Mrs. Haywood exceeded all bounds of decency. To the credit of the English race nothing so dastardly and vulgar can be found elsewhere in English literature. If the influence of 'The Dunciad' was so all-powerful as to ruin the prospects of any one it satirized, it ought certainly to have crushed her beyond hope of any revival. As a matter of fact Mrs. Haywood's most successful and popular writings were produced after the publication of that poem, and that too at a period when Pope's predominance was far higher than it was at the time the satire itself appeared."

[17] A. Esdaile, English Tales and Romances, Introduction, xxviii.

[18] The Mercenary Lover.... Written by the Author of Memoirs of the said Island [Utopia] and described on the half-title as by E. H. and The Fair Captive, a tragedy not originally written by her.

[19] Philobillon Soc. Misc., IV, 12. "Clio must be allowed to be a most complete poetess, if she really wrote those poems that bear her name; but it has of late been so abused and scandalized, that I am informed she has lately changed it for that of Myra." Quoted from the British Journal, 24 September, 1726. I am indebted to Miss Dorothy Brewster's Aaron Hill, 189, for this reference.

[20] See Clara Reeve, The Progress of Romance (1785), I, 121. [I have re-arranged the passage for the sake of brevity.]

"Soph. I have heard it often said that Mr. Pope was too severe in his treatment of this lady: it was supposed that she had given some private offence, which he resented publicly, as was too much his way.

"Euph. Mr. Pope was severe in his castigations, but let us be just to merit of every kind. Mrs. Heywood had the singular good fortune to recover a lost reputation and the yet greater honour to atone for her errors.—She devoted the remainder of her life and labours to the service of virtue.... Those works by which she is most likely to be known to posterity, are the Female Spectator, and the Invisible Spy...."



CHAPTER VI

LETTERS AND ESSAYS

The works of Mrs. Haywood's maturity most renowned for their pious intent were not of the tribe of novels, but rather in the shape of letters or periodical essays such as "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) and "The Female Spectator" (1746). Each of these forms, as practiced during the eighteenth century, permitted the introduction of short romantic stories either for the purpose of illustrating a moral or to make the didacticism more palatable. Even as a votary of virtue Eliza did not neglect to mingle a liberal portion of dulce with her utile; indeed in the first of the productions mentioned she manifested an occasional tendency to revert to the letter of amorous intrigue characteristic of her earlier efforts. In her latest and soberest writings, the conduct books called "The Wife" and "The Husband" (1756), she frequently yielded to the temptation to turn from dry precept to picturing the foibles of either sex. Her long training in the school of romance had made gallantry the natural object of Eliza Haywood's thoughts.

During the time that she was incessantly occupied with short tales of passion she had experimented in both the letter and the essay form, using the former especially as an adjunct to her stories. One of her first attempts, also, to find her proper vein as an author was a translation from the French of the "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," with a "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature, by Way of Essay" for which the translator was responsible. In "The Tea-Table" (1725), which never advanced beyond the second part, and "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love" (1726) the then well-known novelist returned to the essay form, and a comprehensive volume of "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) closed the first period of her literary activity. But none of these departures was noticeably different in tone from her staple romances.

The sweets of love were perhaps most convincingly revealed in the amorous billets of which "Love in Excess" and many of Eliza's subsequent pieces of fiction contained a plentiful supply. Letters languishing with various degrees of desire or burning with jealous rage were introduced into the story upon any pretext. Writing them was evidently the author's forte, and perusing them apparently a pleasure to her readers, for they remained a conspicuous part of Mrs. Haywood's sentimental paraphernalia. As in the French romances of the Scudery type the missives were quoted at length and labeled with such headings as, "The Despairing D'Elmont to his Repenting Charmer," or "To the never enough Admir'd Count D'Elmont," and signed with some such formula as, "Your most passionate and tender, but ('till she receives a favorable Answer) your unknown Adorer." The custom of inserting letters in the course of the story was, as has already been indicated, a heritage from the times of Gomberville, La Calprenede, and the Scuderys when miscellaneous material of all sorts from poetry to prosy conversations was habitually used to diversify the narrative. Mrs. Haywood, however, employed the letter not to ornament but to intensify. Her billets-doux like the lyrics in a play represent moments of supreme emotion. In seeking vividness she too often fell into exaggeration, as in the following specimen of absolute passion.