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 asromans à clefalthough 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 GreceandLes 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. Seeante, p. 25.
[5] Re-issued asThe 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 alsoThe Secret History ofMama Oello, 1733. "The Curaca Robilda's Character [i.e. Sir RobertWalpole's] will inform you that there were Evil Ministers even amongstthe simple Indians" … andThe Statesman's Progress: Or, Memoirs ofthe Life, Administration, and Fall of Houly Chan, Primier Minister toAbensader, Emperor of China(1733).
[7] A.C. Ewald,Sir Robert Walpole(1878), 444.
[8] A.C. Ewald,Sir Robert Walpole, 450.
[9] Lord Hervey'sMemoirs, 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 thatChapman was the publisher of Mrs. Haywood'sUtopia.
[13]Anne Mason, formerly Lady Macclesfield, and the Earl of Rivers, whomSavage 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 entitledClio, or a Secret History of the Amours of Mrs. S-n—m, was still known at the time ofPolly 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 inLa Belle Assemblée, 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-Intrigueswas 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'sDuchess of Malfi. I have not seen the book.
[21] Ascribed to Mrs. Haywood in the advertisements of her additionalWorks, 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 EighteenthCentury (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'sLetters 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'sPope, III, 279.
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 thosegreatLadies 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'dIn flow'r'd brocade by bounteousKirkalldress'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-shodMusestraipse along,In lofty madness meditating song,With tresses staring from poetic dreamsAnd never wash'd, but inCastalia'sstreams.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 myFemale Criticks, that they stand indebted to the entertaining Pen of Mrs.Eliza Haywoodfor the followingHistoryof 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 asdaringas it isnoble; and while it engages the Admiration and Applause of the worthy and judiciousFew, will certainly draw on you the Ridicule and Hatred of thatunnumber'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 theRival Modes. From these I propose to compile a very grand Work, which shall not be inferior toUtopia, Carimania, Guttiverania, Art of Flogging, Daily Journal, Epigrams on theDunciad, orOratory 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 calledThe 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'sPope, IV, 4.
[2] Elwin and Courthope'sPope, IV, 135, note 3.
[3] Elwin and Courthope'sPope, IV, 141.
[4] Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 232. Professor Lounsbury has apparently confused this work withA Cursory View of the History of Lilliput For these last forty three Years, 8vo,1727, a political satire containing no allusion to Pope. SeeThe 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 'sPope, IV, 282.
[8] A second engraving by Vertue after Parmentier formed the frontispiece ofSecret Histories, Novels, and Poems.
[9]E. Curll,Key to the Dunciad, 12. Some copies apparently read "peer"for "poet." See Elwin and Courthope'sPope, IV, 330, note pp.; and SirSidney Lee, articleHaywoodin the D.N.B.
[10] Elwin and Courthope'sPope, IV, 330, note ss.
[11] Elwin and Courthope'sPope, IV, 294.
[12] Elwin and Courthope'sPope, 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'sPope, IV, 141, note 5.
[15]Notes and Queries, Ser. I, X, 110. The words italicized by me refer toPope'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 saidIsland[Utopia] and described on the half-title as by E. H. andTheFair 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 theBritish Journal, 24 September, 1726. I am indebted to Miss Dorothy Brewster'sAaron 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 inhis treatment of this lady: it was supposed that she had given someprivate 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.Heywoodhad 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 theFemale Spectator, and theInvisible Spy…."
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 ofdulcewith herutile; 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 Scudéry 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 Calprenède, and the Scudérys 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. Herbillets-douxlike 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.
"Torture—Distraction—Hell—what will become of me—I cannot—I will not survive the Knowledge that you are mine no more—Yet this Suspence is worse than all yet ever bore the Name of Horror—Let me not linger in it, if you have Humanity—declare my Doom at once—be kind in Cruelty at least, and let one Death conclude the thousand, thousand Deaths which every Minute of Uncertainty brings with it, to
The Miserable, butStill AdoringMelantha.
P.S. I have order'd the Messenger to bring an Answer; if he comeswithout, depend I will murder him, and then myself."[1]
Such remnants of the romantic tradition as the verses on "The Unfortunate Camilla's Complaint to the Moon, for the Absence of her dear Henricus Frankville" in "Love in Excess" were soon discarded, but the letters, though they encumbered the progress of the narrative, made it more realistic by giving an opportunity for the display of passion at first hand. Their continued vogue was undoubtedly due in large measure to the popularity of the celebrated "Letters of a Portuguese Nun" (1669), which, with a note of sincerity till then unknown, aided the return to naturalness.[2]
The "Lettres Nouvelles de Monsieur Boursault … Avec Treize Lettres Amoureuses d'une Dame à un Cavalier," loosely translated by Mrs. Haywood as "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier" (1721),[3] was one of the numerous imitations of the Portuguese Letters. Like most of the other imitations it echoed the mannerisms rather than the fervor of its original. The lady's epistles do not reveal a story, but describe in detail the doubts, disappointments, fears, jealousies, and raptures of a married woman for a lover who in the last three letters has left France for England. Except for this remove there is no change in the situation of the characters. The lover apparently remains constant to the end. The reader is even left in some doubt as to the exact nature of their relationship. The lady at one time calls it a "criminal Conversation," but later resents an attempt upon her honor, and seems generally to believe that "a distant Conversation, if it is less sweet, will be, not only more pure, but also more durable."
But perhaps it is only fair to let the author speak for herself.
"The Lady, whose Letters I have taken the liberty to translate, tho she has been cautious enough in expressing any thing (even in those the most tender among them) which can give the Reader an Assurance she had forfeited her Virtue; yet there is not one, but what sufficiently proves how impossible it is to maintain such a Correspondence, without an Anxiety and continual Perturbation of Mind, which I think a Woman must have bid farewell to her Understanding, before she could resolve to endure.
"In the very first she plainly discovers the Agitation of her Spirits, confesses she knows herself in the wrong, and that every Expression her Tenderness forces from her, is a Stab to her Peace; she dreads the Effects of her Lover's too powerful Attractions, doubts her own Strength of resisting such united Charms as she finds in him, and trembles at the Apprehensions, that by some unlucky Accident the Secret should be known. Every thing alarms her … 'Tis impossible to be conscious of any thing we wish to conceal, without suspecting the most undesigning Words and Actions as Snares laid to entrap us … So this unfortunate Lady, divided between Excess of Love, and Nicety of Honour, could neither resolve to give a loose to the one, nor entirely obey the Precepts of the other, but suffered herself to be tossed alternately by both. And tho the Person she loved was most certainly (if such a thing can be) deserving all the Condescensions a Woman could make, by his Assiduity, Constancy, and Gratitude, yet it must be a good while before she could receive those Proofs; and the Disquiets she suffered in that time of Probation, were, I think, if no worse ensued, too dear a Price for the Pleasure of being beloved by the most engaging and most charming of his Sex."
The "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature," from which the above quotation is taken, makes no attempt to consider other series of amorous letters, but proceeds to enforce by platitudes and scraps of poetry the only too obvious moral of the lady of quality's correspondence. The author remembers how "a Lady of my Acquaintance, perhaps not without reason, fell one day, as she was sitting with me, into this Poetical Exclamation:
'The Pen can furrow a fond Female's Heart,And pierce it more than Cupid's talk'd-of Dart:Letters, a kind of Magick Virtue have,And, like strong Philters, human Souls enslave!'"
After thirty pages of moralizing the writer comes to a conclusion with the reflection, a commonplace of her novels, that "if the little I have done, may give occasion to some abler Pen to expose [such indiscretions] more effectually, I shall think myself happy in having given a hint, which improv'd, may be of so general a Service to my Sex." But the impression left by this and others of Mrs. Haywood's works is that the fair novelist was not so much interested in preventing the inadvertencies of her sex as in exposing them.
The tender passion was still the theme in "Love-Letters on All Occasions Lately passed between Persons of Distinction," which contains a number of letters, mainly disconnected, devoted to the warmer phases of gallantry. Some are essays in little on definite subjects: levity, sincerity, the pleasures of conjugal affection, insensibility, and so on. Most of them, however, are occasional: "Strephon to Dalinda, on her forbidding him to speak of Love," "Orontes to Deanira, entreating her to give him a meeting," and many others in which both the proper names and the situations suggest the artificial romances. None of the missives reveals emotions of any but the most tawdry romantic kind, warm desires extravagantly uttered, conventional doubts, causeless jealousies, and petty quarrels. Like Mrs. Behn's correspondence with the amorous Van Bruin these epistles have nothing to distinguish them except their excessive hyperbole. There is one series of twenty-four connected letters on the model of "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," relating the love story of Theano and Elismonda, but in the course of the whole correspondence nothing more momentous occurs than the lover's leaving town. Indeed so imperceptible is the narrative element in Mrs. Haywood's epistolary sequences that they can make no claim to share with the anonymous love story in letters entitled "Love's Posy" (1686), with the "Letters Written By Mrs. Manley" (1696),[4] or with Tom Brown's "Adventures of Lindamira" (1702) in twenty-four letters, the honor of having anticipated Richardson's method of telling a story in epistolary form.[5]
Even after the publication of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" Mrs. Haywood failed to realize the narrative possibilities of consecutive letters, for "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) hardly contains three missives on any one theme. Though the collection is not free from letters in the vein of gallantry, the emphasis on the whole is decidedly changed. There are few attempts to exploit the emotions by describing the palpitations of injured beauty or the expostulations and vows of love-sick cavaliers. Instead Aminta is praised for enduring with unusual self-possession the treachery of her lover and her most intimate friend. Sophronia encourages Palmira to persist in her resolution of living apart from her husband until she is convinced of the reformation of his manners, and Isabinda sends to Elvira a copy of a modest epithalamium on her sister's marriage. Occasionally a romantic love story runs through three or four letters, but any deviation from the strictest principles of delicacy— and there are not many—is sure to be followed by a fitting catastrophe. Some reprobation of the licentious manners of the age is permitted, but no catering to degenerate taste and no breath of scandal. The aim of the epistles, which were apparently not intended as models, was to convey moral precepts in an agreeably alleviated form, but the balance inclines rather heavily toward sober piety. A mother recommends poetry and history for the reading of her twelve year old daughter, though allowing an occasional indulgence in "well wrote Novels." Eusebia discusses the power of divine music with the Bishop of ***. Berinthia writes to Berenice to urge her to make the necessary preparations for futurity. Philenia assures the Reverend Doctor *** that she is a true penitent, and beseeches his assistance to strengthen her pious resolutions. Hillaria laments to Clio that she is unable to think seriously on death, and Aristander edifies Melissa by proving from the principles of reason and philosophy the certainty of a future existence, and the absurdity and meanness of those people's notions, who degrade the dignity of their species, and put human nature on a level with that of the brute creation. In all this devotion there was no doubt something of Mrs. Howe. "Epistles for the Ladies" was not the first "attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion"[6] nor the best, but along with the pious substance the author sometimes adopts an almost Johnsonian weightiness of style, as when Ciamara gives to Sophronia an account of the finishing of a fine building she had been at an infinite expense in erecting, with some moral reflections on the vanity and disappointment of all sub-lunary expectations.
In her essays, even the most serious, Mrs. Haywood was a follower of Addison rather than Johnson. The first of them, if we disregard the slight discourse appended to the "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," was "The Tea-Table: or, A Conversation between some Polite Persons of both Sexes, at a Lady's Visiting Day. Wherein are represented the Various Foibles, and Affectations, which form the Character of an Accomplish'd Beau, or Modern Fine Lady. Interspersed with several Entertaining and Instructive Stories,"[7] (1725), which most resembles a "day" detached from the interminable "La Belle Assemblée" of Mme de Gomez, translated by Mrs. Haywood a few months before. There is the same polite conversation, the debate between love and reason, the poem,[8] and the story. But the moral reflections upon tea-tables, the description of Amiana's, where only wit and good humor prevail, and the satirical portraits of a titled coxcomb and a bevy of fine ladies, are all in the manner of the "Tatler." The manuscript novel read by one of the company savors of nothing but Mrs. Haywood, who was evidently unable to slight her favorite theme of passion. Her comment on contemporary manners soon gives place to "Beraldus and Celemena: or the Punishment of Mutability," a tale of court intrigue in her warmest vein. The authors of the "Tatler" and "Spectator" had, of course, set a precedent for the inclusion of short romantic stories in the essay of manners, and even the essays with no distinct element of fiction were preparing for the novelist the powerful tool of characterization. Writers of fiction were slow to apply the new art to their proper materials. In the present instance an experienced novelist employed the essay form to depict the follies and affectations of a beau and fine ladies, and immediately turned back to a story in which characterization is almost entirely neglected for incident. It is interesting to find the same writer using the realistic sketch of manners and the romantic tale of intrigue and passion without any thought of combining the two elements. In the second part of "The Tea-Table" Mrs. Haywood made no attempt to diversify the patchwork of verse and prose with any narrative, save one small incident illustrating pride. The sole point of interest is the long and laudatory tribute to her friend Aaron Hill in "A Pastoral Dialogue, between Alexis and Clarinda; Occasioned by Hillarius's intending a Voyage to America."
The "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love" (1726), however, takes full advantage of the looseness of the essay form to become a mere tissue of short narratives illustrating the consequences of passion. The stories of Celia and Evandra, one cursing her betrayer, the other wishing him always happy, exemplify revengeful and generous love. There are two model epistles from Climene to Mirtillo, the first upon his absence, the second upon his desertion of her. Soon the trite remarks degenerate into a scandal novel, relating the history of Sophiana, abandoned by Aranthus and sought by Martius, with many of her letters describing her gradual change of heart in favor of the beseeching lover. In the midst of exposing Hibonio's sudden infatuation for a gutter-nymph, the essay abruptly ends with the exclamation, "More of this in our next." Though there was no lack of slander at the end of Mrs. Haywood's pen, she never attempted to continue the "Reflections."
But almost twenty years later she made a more noteworthy excursion into the field of the periodical essay. "The Female Spectator," begun in April, 1744, and continued in monthly parts until May, 1746, bid fair to become the best known and most approved of her works. The twenty-four numbers (two months being omitted) were bound in four volumes upon the completion of the series and sold with such vigor that an edition labeled the third was issued at Dublin in 1747. In 1771 the seventh and last English edition was printed. As in the original "Spectator" the essays are supposed to be the product of a Club, in this case composed of four women. After drawing her own character in the terms already quoted,[9] Mrs. Haywood mentions as her coadjutors in the enterprise "Mira, a Lady descended from a Family to which Wit seems hereditary, married to a Gentleman every way worthy of so excellent a Wife…. The next is a Widow of Quality" who has not "buried her Vivacity in the Tomb of her Lord…. The Third is the Daughter of a wealthy Merchant, charming as an Angel…. This fine young Creature I shall call Euphrosine." The suspiciously representative character of these assistants may well make us doubt their actuality; and from the style of the lucubrations, at least, no evidence of a plurality of authors can readily be perceived. Indeed after the first few numbers we hear nothing more of them. "Mira" was the pseudonym used by Mrs. Haywood in "The Wife" (1756), while a periodical called "The Young Lady" began to appear just before her death under the pen-name of Euphrosine.
Whether written by a Female Spectator Club or by a single authoress, the essays in purpose, method, and style are evidently imitated from their famous model. The loose plan and general intention to rectify the manners of the age allowed the greatest latitude in the choice of subject matter. In a single paper are jumbled together topics so diverse as the degradation of the stage, the immoderate use of tea, and the proper choice of lovers. The duty of periodical essayists to castigate the follies of the time is graphically represented in the frontispiece to the second volume, where Apollo, seated on some substantial clouds and holding in his hand "The Female Spectator," despatches a flying Mercury, who in spite of the efforts of two beaux with drawn swords and a belle indéshabillé, chastises a female figure of Luxuria lolling in a chariot pulled by one inadequate grasshopper. In the essays themselves the same purpose led to the censure of gambling, lying, affectation of youth by the aged, jilts, "Anti-Eternitarians," scandal bearing, and other petty sins and sinners. For political readers a gentleman contributes a conversation between a Hanoverian and an English lady, in which the latter has the best of the argument. An account of Topsy-Turvy Land satirizes illogical practices in a manner familiar to the readers of "The Bab Ballads." The few literary papers are concerned with true and false taste, the delights of reading, Mr. Akenside's "Pleasures of the Imagination" and the horrors of the same, the outwearing of romance, and love-letters passed between Augustus Caesar and Livia Drusilla, which last Mrs. Haywood was qualified to judge as an expert. Essays on religion and the future life reveal something of the sober touch and moral earnestness of Johnson, but nothing of his compact and weighty style. As in the "Spectator," topics are often introduced by a scrap of conversation by way of a text or by a letter from a correspondent setting forth some particular grievance. The discussion is frequently illustrated by anecdotes or even by stories, though the author makes comparatively small use of her talent for fiction. Indeed she records at one point that "Many of the Subscribers to this Undertaking … complain that … I moralize too much, and that I give them too few Tales." The Oriental setting used by Addison with signal success is never attempted and even scandal stories are frowned upon. Instead of the elaborate and elegantly turned illustrative narratives of the "Spectator," Mrs. Haywood generally relates anecdotes which in spite of the disguised names savor of crude realism. They are examples rather than illustrations of life.
One of the most lively is a story told to show the inevitable unhappiness of a marriage between persons of different sects. The husband, a High Church man, and the wife, of Presbyterian persuasion, were happy enough during the first months of married life, "tho' he sometimes expressed a Dissatisfaction at being denied the Pleasure of leading her to Westminster-Abbey, for he would hear no Divine Service out of a Cathedral, and she was no less troubled that she could not prevail with him to make his Appearance with her at the Conventicle." Consequently when their first child was born, they were unable to agree how the boy was to be baptized. "All their Discourse was larded with the most piquant Reflections," but to no purpose. The father insisted upon having his own way, but Amonia, as his consort was not inappropriately named, was no less stubborn in her detestation of lawn sleeves, and on the eve of the christening had the ceremony privately performed by her own minister. When the bishop and the guests were assembled, she announced with "splenetic Satisfaction" that the child had already been "made a Christian" and that his name was John. The astonished husband lapsed into an "adequate rage," and though restrained by the company from doing an immediate violence to his help-mate, was permanently estranged from her through his resentment. Two other stories from "The Female Spectator" were quoted by Dr. Nathan Drake in his "Gleaner."
In her bold attempt to rival Addison upon his own ground Mrs. Haywood was more than moderately successful in the estimation of many of her contemporaries. Rambling and trite as are the essays in her periodical, their excellent intentions, at least, gained them a degree of popularity. A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for December, 1744, applauding the conspicuous merit of the "fair philosophers in virtue's cause," declared that
"Were your great predecessor yet on earth,He'd be the first to speak your page's worth,There all the foibles of the fair you trace;There do you shew your sex's truest grace;There are the various wiles of man display'd,In gentle warnings to the cred'lous maid;Politely pictur'd, wrote with strength and ease,And while the wand'rer you reclaim, you please….Women, the heart of women best can reach;While men from maxims—you from practice teach."
The latter part of the panegyric shows that the fair romancer had not been entirely smothered in the fair philosopher and moral essayist.
Perhaps encouraged by the success of "The Female Spectator" to publish more frequently, or actuated by a desire to appeal to the public interest in the political excitement of 1745-6, Mrs. Haywood next attempted to combine the periodical essay with the news-letter, but the innovation evidently failed to please. "The Parrot, with a Compendium of the Times" ran only from 2 August to 4 October, 1746. The numbers consisted commonly of two parts: the first being moralizings on life and manners by a miraculous parrot; and the second a digest of whatever happenings the author could scrape together. The news of the day was concerned chiefly with the fate of the rebels in the last Stuart uprising and with rumors of the Pretender's movements. From many indications Eliza Haywood would seem to have taken a lively interest in the Stuart cause, but certainly she had no exceptional facilities for reporting the course of events, and consequently her budget of information was often stale or filled with vague surmises. But she did not overlook the opportunity to narratecon amoresuch pathetic incidents as the death of Jemmy Dawson's sweetheart at the moment of his execution, later the subject of Shenstone's ballad. The vaporizings of the parrot were also largely inspired by the trials of the rebels, but the sagacious bird frequently drew upon such stock subjects as the follies of the gay world, the character of women, the unreliability of venal praise and interested personal satire, and the advantages of making one's will—the latter illustrated by a story. Somewhat more unusual was a letter from an American Poll, representing how much it was to the interest of England to preserve, protect, and encourage her plantations in the New World, and complaining of the tyranny of arbitrary governors. But the essay parts of "The Parrot" are not even equal to "The Female Spectator" and deserve no lightening of the deep and speedy oblivion cast upon them.
Besides her periodical essays Mrs. Haywood wrote during her declining years several conduct books, which, beyond showing the adaptability of her pen to any species of writing, have but small importance. One of them, though inheriting something from Defoe, owed most to the interest in the servant girl heroine excited by Richardson's first novel. No sociologist has yet made a study of the effect of "Pamela" upon the condition of domestics, but the many excellent maxims on the servant question uttered by Lord B—— and his lady can hardly have been without influence upon the persons of the first quality who pored over the volumes. In popular novels, at any rate, abigails and scullions reigned supreme. In 1752 the "Monthly Review" remarked of a recent work of fiction, "The History of Betty Barnes," that it seemed "chiefly calculated for the amusement of a class of people, to whom theApprentice's Monitor, or thePresent for a servant maidmight be recommended to much better purpose," but the reviewer's censure failed to quell the demand for romances of the kitchen. Mrs. Haywood, however, might have approved of his recommendation, since she happened to be the author of the little manual of household science especially urged upon the females below stairs.
"A Present for a Servant-Maid. Or, the Sure Means of Gaining Love and Esteem" was frequently reprinted both in London and Dublin during the years 1743-4, and as late as 1772 a revision was mentioned in the "Monthly Review" as a "well-designed and valuable tract."[10] The work is a compendium of instructions for possible Pamelas, teaching them in brief how to wash, to market, to dress any sort of meat, to cook, to pickle, and to preserve their virtue. The maids are cautioned against such female errors as sluttishness, tale-bearing, staying on errands, telling family affairs, aping the fashion, and giving saucy answers. They are forbidden to play with fire or candles, to quarrel with fellow domestics, to waste victuals or to give them away. A fine example of the morality of scruples inculcated by the tract is the passage on the duty of religious observance. A maidservant should not neglect to go to church at least every other Sunday, and should never spend the time allowed her for that purpose walking in the fields or drinking tea with an acquaintance. "Never say you have been at Church unless you have, but if you have gone out with that Intention, and been diverted from it by any Accident or Persuasions, confess the Truth, if asked." Girls so unhappy as to live with people who "have no Devotion themselves" should entreat permission to go to church, and if it is refused them, rather leave their place than be deprived of sacred consolation. "If you loseone, that God, for whose sake you have left it, will doubtless provide another, and perhaps a better for you." Scarcely more edifying are the considerations of self-interest which should guide a maidservant into the paths of virtue. "Industry and Frugality are two very amiable Parts of a Woman's Character, and I know no readier Way than attaining them, to procure you the Esteem of Mankind, and get yourselves good Husbands. Consider, my dear Girls, that you have no Portions, and endeavour to supply the Deficiencies of Fortune by Mind." And in pure Pamela vein is the advice offered to those maids whose honor is assailed. If the temptation come from the master, it will be well to reflect whether he is a single or a married man and act accordingly. One cannot expect the master's son to keep a promise of marriage without great difficulty, but the case may be different with a gentleman lodger, especially if he be old and doting. And the moral of all is: Don't sell yourselves too cheap. Finally to complete the usefulness of the pamphlet were added, "Directions for going to Market: Also, for Dressing any Common Dish, whether Flesh, Fish or Fowl. With some Rules for Washing, &c. The whole calculated for making both the Mistress and the Maid happy."
More especially intended to promote the happiness of the mistress of the family, "The Wife, by Mira, One of the Authors of the Female Spectator, and Epistles for Ladies" (1756) contains advice to married women on how to behave toward their husbands in every conceivable situation, beginning with the first few weeks after marriage "vulgarly call'd the honey-moon," and ending with "How a Woman ought to behave when in a state of Separation from her Husband"—a subject upon which Mrs. Haywood could speak from first-hand knowledge. Indeed it must be confessed that the writer seems to be chiefly interested in the infelicities of married life, and continually alleviates the rigor of her didactic pasages [Transcriber's note: sic] with lively pictures of domestic jars, such as the following:
"The happy day which had join'd this pair was scarce six weeks elapsed, when lo! behold a most terrible reverse;—the hurry of their fond passion was over;—dalliance was no more,—kisses and embraces were now succeeded by fighting, scratching, and endeavouring to tear out each other's eyes;—the lips that before could utter only,—my dear,—my life,—my soul,—my treasure, now pour'd forth nothing but invectives;—they took as little care to conceal the proofs of their animosity as they had done to moderate those of a contrary emotion;— they were continually quarreling;—their house was a Babel of confusion;—no servant would stay with them a week;—they were shunn'd by their most intimate friends, and despis'd by all their acquaintance; till at last they mutually resolv'd to agree in one point, which was, to be separated for ever from each other" (p. 16).
So the author discusses a wife's behavior toward a husband when laboring under disappointment or vexatious accidents; sleeping in different beds; how a woman should act when finding that her husband harbors unjust suspicions of her virtue; the great indiscretion of taking too much notice of the unmeaning or transient gallantries of a husband; the methods which a wife is justified to take after supporting for a long time a complication of all manner of ill-usage from a husband; and other causes or effects of marital infelicity. Though marriage almost inevitably terminates in a "brulée," the wife should spare no efforts to ameliorate her husband's faults.
"If addicted to drinking, she must take care to have his cellar well stor'd with the best and richest wines, and never seem averse to any company he shall think fit to entertain:—If fond of women, she must endeavour to convince him that the virtuous part of the sex are capable of being as agreeable companions as those of the most loose principles;—and this, not by arguments, for those he will not listen to;—but by getting often to her house, the most witty, gay, and spirituous of her acquaintance, who will sing, dance, tell pleasant stories, and take all the freedoms that innocence allows" (p. 163).
Occasionally the advice to married women is very practical, as the following deterrent from gluttony shows:
"I dined one day with a lady, who the whole time she employ'd her knife and fork with incredible swiftness in dispatching a load of turkey and chine she had heap'd upon her plate, still kept a keen regard on what she had left behind, greedily devouring with her eyes all that remain'd in the dish, and throwing a look of envy on every one who put in for the smallest share.—My advice to such a one is, that she would have a great looking-glass fix'd opposite the seat she takes at table; and I am much mistaken, if the sight of herself in those grim attitudes I have mention'd, will not very much contribute to bring her to more moderation" (p. 276).
The method of "The Husband, in Answer to the Wife" (1756) is similar to that of its companion-piece; in fact, much of the same advice is merely modified or amplified to suit the other sex. The husband is warned to avoid drinking to excess and some other particulars which may happen to be displeasing to his spouse, such as using too much freedom in his wife's presence with any of her female acquaintance. He is instructed in the manner in which it will be most proper for a married man to carry himself towards the maidservants of his family, and also the manner of behavior best becoming a husband on a full detection of his wife's infidelity. As in "The Wife" the path of marriage leads but to divorce. One is forcibly reminded of Hogarth's "Marriage à la Mode."
Not altogether different is the conception of wedlock in Mrs. Haywood's novels of domestic life written at about the same period, but the pictures there shown are painted in incomparably greater detail, with a fuller appreciation of character, and without that pious didacticism which even the most lively exertions of Eliza Haywood's romancing genius failed to leaven in her essays.
FOOTNOTES [1]Memoirs of a Certain Island, I, 141. The letter is one of a packet conveyed away by Sylphs much resembling those inThe Rape of the Lock.
[2] Miss C.E. Morgan,The Novel of Manners, 72.
[3]The author herself describes it in the Preface as "more properly … aParaphrase than a Translation."
[4] LaterA Stage-Coach Journey to Exeter, 1725.
[5]A. Esdaile,English Tales and Romances, Introduction, xxxiii.B.[6]Robert Boyle'sMartyrdom of Theodora, 1687, is thus described by Dr.Johnson. Boswell'sJohnson, Oxford ed., I, 208.
[7] Not to be confused with a periodical entitledThe Tea-Table. To be continued every Monday and Friday. No. 1-36, 21 February to 22 June, 1724. B.M. (P.P. 5306).
[8]Ximene fearing to be forsaken by Palemon, desires he would kill her.Quoted by Dyce,Specimens of British Poetesses, 1827, p. 186.
[9] Seeante, p. 24.
[10]Monthly Review, XLVI, 463. April, 1772.