No such homogeneity as marked the works of Mrs. Haywood's first decade of authorship can be discovered in the productions of her last fifteen years. The vogue of the short romantic tale was then all but exhausted, her stock of scandal was no longer new, and accordingly she was obliged to grope her way toward fresh fields, even to the barren ground of the moral essay. But besides the letters, essays, and conduct books, and the anonymous pamphlets of doubtful character that may have occupied her pen during this period, she engaged in several experiments in legitimate prose fiction of various sorts, which have little in common except their more considerable length. Although the name of Mrs. Eliza Haywood was not displayed upon the title-pages nor mentioned in the reviews of these novels, the authorship was not carefully concealed and was probably known to the curious. The titles of nearly all of them were mentioned by the "Biographia Dramatica" in the list of the novelist's meritorious works.
The earliest and the only one to bear the signature of Eliza Haywood at the end of the dedication was borrowed from the multifarious and unremarkable literary wares of Charles de Fieux, Chevalier de Mouhy. "The Virtuous Villager, or Virgin's Victory: Being The Memoirs of a very Great Lady at the Court of France. Written by Herself. In which the Artifices of designing Men are fully detected and exposed; and the Calamities they bring on credulous believing Woman, are particularly related," was given to the English public in 1742 as a work suited to inculcate the principles of virtue, and probably owed its being to the previous success of "Pamela."[1] In the original a dull and spiritless imitation of Marivaux, the work was not improved by translation, and met naturally the reception due its slender merits. But along with the English versions of Le Sage, Marivaux, and the Abbé Prévost, "The Virtuous Villager" helped to accustom the readers of fiction to two volume novels and to pave the way for the numerous pages of Richardson.
Not more than a year from the time when the four duodecimos of "Pamela" introduced kitchen morality into the polite world, the generosity of prominent men and women was directed toward a charity recently established after long agitation.[2] To furnish suitable decorations for the Foundling Hospital in Lamb's Conduit, Hogarth contributed the unsold lottery tickets for his "March to Finchley," and other well-known painters lent their services. Handel, a patron of the institution, gave the organ it still possesses, and society followed the lead of the men of genius. The grounds of the Foundling Hospital became in Georgian days a "fashionable morning lounge." Writers of ephemeral literature were not slow to perceive how the wind lay and to take advantage of the interest aroused by the new foundation. The exposed infant, one of the oldest literary devices, was copiously revived, and during the decade when the Hospital was being constructed mention of foundlings on title-pages became especially common. A pamphlet called "The Political Foundling" was followed by the well-known "Foundling Hospital for Wit and Humour" (1743), by Mrs. Haywood's "Fortunate Foundlings" (1744), by Moore's popular comedy, "The Foundling" (1748), and last and greatest by "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling" (1749), not to mention "The Female Foundling" (1750).
Eliza Haywood's contribution to foundling literature relates the history of twins, brother and sister, found by a benevolent gentleman named Dorilaus in the memorable year 1688. Louisa is of the tribe of Marianne, Pamela, and Henrietta, nor do her experiences differ materially from the course usually run by such heroines. Reared a model of virtue, she is obliged to fly from the house of her guardian to avoid his importunities. After serving as a milliner's apprentice long enough to demonstrate the inviolability of her principles, she becomes mistress of the rules of politeness at the leading courts of Europe as the companion of the gay Melanthe. Saved from an atrocious rake by an honorable lover, whom she is unwilling to accept because of the humbleness of her station, she takes refuge in a convent where she soon becomes so popular that the abbess lays a plot to induce her to become a nun. But escaping the religious snare, she goes back to Paris to be claimed by Dorilaus as his real daughter. Thus every obstacle to her union with her lover is happily removed.
Horatio, meanwhile, after leaving Westminster School to serve as a volunteer in Flanders, has encountered fewer amorous and more military adventures than usually fell to the lot of Haywoodian heroes. His promising career under Marlborough is terminated when he is taken captive by the French, but he is subsequently released to enter the service of the Chevalier. He then becomes enamored of the beautiful Charlotta de Palfoy, and in the hope of making his fortune equal to hers, resolves to cast his lot with the Swedish monarch. In the Saxon campaign he wins a commission as colonel of horse and a comfortable share of the spoils, but later is taken prisoner by the Russians and condemned to languish in a dungeon at St. Petersburg. After many hardships he makes his way to Paris to be welcomed as a son by Dorilaus and as a husband by his adored Charlotta.
In describing Horatio's martial exploits Mrs. Haywood may well have learned some lessons from the "Memoirs of a Cavalier." The narrative is direct and rapid, and diversified by the mingling of private escapades with history. Too much is made, of course, of the hero's personal relations with Charles XII, but that is a fault which few historical novelists have known how to avoid. The geographical background, as well as the historical setting, is laid out with a precision unusual in her fiction. The whole map of Europe is the scene of action, and the author speaks as one familiar with foreign travel, though her passing references to Paris, Venice, Vienna, and other cities have not the full vigor of the descriptions in "Peregrine Pickle."
From the standpoint of structure, too, "The Fortunate Foundlings" is an improvement over the haphazard plots of Mrs. Haywood's early romances, though the double-barreled story necessitated by twin hero and heroine could hardly be told without awkward interruptions in the sequence of one part of the narrative in order to forward the other. But the author doubtless felt that the reader's interest would be freshened by turning from the amorous adventures of Louisa to the daring deeds of Horatio, while a protagonist of each sex enabled her to exhibit at once examples of both male and female virtue. And in spite of inherent difficulties, she succeeded to some extent in showing an interrelation of plots, as where Dorilaus by going to the north of Ireland to hear the dying confession of the mother of his children, thereby misses Horatio's appeal for a ransom, and thus prevents him from rejoining Marlborough's standard. But there is nothing like Fielding's ingenious linking of events and careful preparation for the catastrophe, nor did Mrs. Haywood make much out of the hint of unconscious incest and the foundling motif which her book has in common with "Tom Jones." Occasionally also she cannot refrain from inserting a bit of court gossip or an amorous page in her warmest manner, but the number of intercalated stories is small indeed compared to that in a romance like "Love in Excess," and they are usually dismissed in a few paragraphs. Here for the first time the author has shown some ability to subordinate sensational incident to the needs of the main plot.
When Mrs. Haywood's inclination or necessities led her back to the novel four years later, she produced a work upon a still more consistent, if also more artificial plan than any of her previous attempts. "Life's Progress through the Passions: or, the Adventures of Natura" avowedly aims to trace the workings of human emotion. The author's purpose is to examine in "what manner the passions operate in every stage of life, and how far the constitution of theoutward frameis concerned in the emotions of theinternal faculties," for actions which we might admire or abhor "would lose much of theireclateither way, were the secret springs that give them motion, seen into with the eyes of philosophy and reflection." Natura, a sort of Everyman exposed to the variations of passion, is not the faultless hero of romance, but a mere ordinary mortal. Indeed, the writer declares that she is "an enemy to allromances, novels, and whatever carries the air of them … and as it is areal, notfictitiouscharacter I am about to present, I think myself obliged … to draw him such as he was, not such as some sanguine imaginations might wish him to have been."
The survey of the passions begins with an account of Natura's birth of well-to-do but not extraordinary parents, his mother's death, and his father's second marriage, his attack of the small-pox, his education at Eton, and his boyish love for his little play-mate, Delia. Later he becomes more seriously compromised with a woman of the streets, who lures him into financial engagements. Though locked up by his displeased father, he manages to escape, finds his lady entertaining another gallant, and in despair becomes a regular vagabond. Just as he is about to leave England, his father discovers him and sends him to make the grand tour under a competent tutor.
In Paris the tutor dies, and the young man is left to the exercise of his own discretion. Benighted in a wood, he finds shelter in a monastery of noble ladies, where both the abbess and her sister fall in love with him. After fluctuating between the two, he tries to elope with the sister, is foiled by the abbess, and sets off again upon his travels. In Italy he hears of his father's difficulties and starts for home, but enters the French service instead. He is involved with a nobleman in an attempt to abduct a lady from a nunnery, and would have been tortured had not the jailor's wife eloped with him to England. There he enters Parliament and is about to contract a fortunate marriage when he incautiously defends the Chevalier in conversation, fights a duel, and, although his antagonist is only wounded, he finds his reputation blighted by the stigma of Jacobitism. After a long illness at Vienna where he is pestered by Catholic priests, he recovers his health at Spa, and falls in love with a young English girl. Her parents gladly give their consent, but Maria seems unaccountably averse to the match. And when our hero is assaulted by a jealous footman, he perceives that the lady has fixed her affections on a lower object. Natura on his return to England prospers and marries happily, but his joy is soon destroyed by the death of his father and of his wife in giving birth to a son. Consumed by ambition, the widower then marries the niece of a statesman, only to discover what misery there is in a luxurious and unvirtuous wife.
Natura soon experiences the passions of melancholy, grief, and revenge. His son dies, and his wife's conduct forces him to divorce her. In the hope of preventing his brother from inheriting his estate he is about to marry a healthy country girl when he hears that his brother is dead and that his sister's son is now his heir. Thereupon he buys off his intended bride. At his sister's house he meets a young matron named Charlotte, for whom he long entertains a platonic affection, but finally marries her and has three sons. Thereafter he sinks into a calm and natural decline and dies in his sixty-third year.
"Thus I have attempted to trace nature in all her mazy windings, and shew life's progress through the passions, from the cradle to the grave.—The various adventures which happened to Natura, I thought, afforded a more ample field, than those of any one man I ever heard, or read of; and flatter myself, that the reader will find many instances, that may contribute to rectify his own conduct, by pointing out those things which ought to be avoided, or at least most carefully guarded against, and those which are worthy to be improved and imitated."
The obvious and conventional moral ending and the shreds of romance that still adhere to the story need not blind us to its unusual features. Besides insisting upon the necessity for psychological analysis of a sort, the author here for the first time becomes a genuine novelist in the sense that her confessed purpose is to depict the actual conditions of life, not to glorify or idealize them. As Fielding was to do in "Tom Jones," Mrs. Haywood proclaims the mediocrity of her hero as his most remarkable quality. Had she been able to make him more than a lay figure distorted by various passions, she might have produced a real character. Although at times he seems to be in danger of acquiring the romantic faculty of causing every woman he meets to fall in love with him, yet the glamor of his youth is obscured by a peaceful and ordinary old age. Artificial in design and stilted in execution as the work is, it nevertheless marks Eliza Haywood's emancipation from the traditions of the romance.[3]
In "The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless" (1751) she reached the full fruition of her powers as a novelist. Her heroine, like Natura, is little more than a "humour" character, whose prevailing fault is denoted by her surname.[4] Though not fundamentally vicious, her heedless vanity, inquisitiveness, and vivacity lead her into all sorts of follies and embarrassments upon her first entry into fashionable life in London. Among all the suitors who strive to make an impression upon her heart Mr. Trueworth alone succeeds, but her levity and her disregard of appearances force him to think her unworthy of his attentions. Meanwhile her guardian's wife, Lady Mellasin, has been turned out of the house for an egregious infidelity, and Betsy is left to her own scant discretion. After somewhat annoying her brothers by receiving men at her lodgings, she elects under family pressure to marry a Mr. Munden, who quickly shows himself all that a husband should not be. Eventually she has to abandon him, but demonstrates her wifely devotion by going back to nurse him through his last illness. Mr. Trueworth's mate in the interim has conveniently managed to succumb, his old passion revives, and exactly upon the anniversary of Mr. Munden's death he arrives in a chariot and six to claim the fair widow, whose youthful levity has been chastened by the severe discipline of her unfortunate marriage. Told in an easy and dilatory style and interspersed with the inevitable little histories and impassioned letters, the story attained the conventional bulk of four duodecimo volumes.
As Mr. Austin Dobson has pointed out,[5] Mrs. Haywood's novel is remarkable for its scant allusions to actual places and persons. Once mention is made of an appointment "at General Tatten's bench, opposite Rosamond's pond, in St. James's Park," and once a character refers to Cuper's Gardens, but except for an outburst of unexplained virulence directed against Fielding,[6] there is hardly a thought of the novelist's contemporaries. Here is a change indeed from the method of thechronique scandaleuse, and a restraint to be wondered at when we remember the worthies caricatured by so eminent a writer as Smollett. But even more remarkable is the difference of spirit between "Betsy Thoughtless" and Mrs. Haywood's earlier and briefer romances. The youngromancièrewho in 1725 could write, "Love is a Topick which I believe few are ignorant of … a shady Grove and purling Stream are all Things that's necessary to give us an Idea of the tender Passion,"[7] had in a quarter of a century learned much worldly wisdom, and her heroine likewise is too sophisticated to be moved by the style of love-making that warmed the susceptible bosoms of Anadea, Filenia, or Placentia. One of Betsy's suitors, indeed, ventured upon the romantic vein with no very favorable results.
"'The deity of soft desires,' said he, 'flies the confused glare of pomp and public shews;—'tis in the shady bowers, or on the banks of a sweet purling stream, he spreads his downy wings, and wafts his thousand nameless pleasures on the fond—the innocent and the happy pair.'
"He was going on, but she interrupted him with a loud laugh. 'Hold, hold,' cried she; 'was there ever such a romantick description? I wonder how such silly ideas come into your head—"shady bowers! and purling streams!"—Heavens, how insipid! Well' (continued she), 'you may be the Strephon of the woods, if you think fit; but I shall never envy the happiness of the Chloe that accompanies you in these fine recesses. What! to be cooped up like a tame dove, only to coo, and bill, and breed? O, it would be a delicious life, indeed!'"[8]
Thus completely metamorphosed were the heroines of Mrs. Haywood's maturest fiction. Betsy Thoughtless is not even the innocent, lovely, and pliable girl typified in Fielding's Sophia Western. She is eminently hard-headed, inquisitive, and practical, and is justly described by Sir Walter Raleigh as "own cousin to Roderick Random."[9]
Whether she may be considered also the ancestor of Evelina must briefly be considered. Dunlop, who apparently originated the idea that "Betsy Thoughtless" might have suggested the plan of Miss Burney's novel, worked out an elaborate parallel between the plots and some of the chief characters of the two compositions.[10] Both, as he pointed out, begin with the launching of a young girl on the great and busy stage of life in London. Each heroine has much to endure from the vulgar manners of a Lady Mellasin or a Madam Duval, and each is annoyed by the malice and impertinence of a Miss Flora or the Misses Branghton. Through their inexperience in the manners of the world and their heedlessness or ignorance of ceremony both young ladies are mortified by falling into embarrassing and awkward predicaments. Both in the same way alarm the delicacy and almost alienate the affections of their chosen lovers. "The chief perplexity of Mr. Trueworth, the admirer of Miss Thoughtless, arose from meeting her in company with Miss Forward, who had been her companion at a boarding-school, and of whose infamous character she was ignorant. In like manner the delicacy of Lord Orville is wounded, and his attachment shaken, by meeting his Evelina in similar society at Vauxhall. The subsequent visit and counsel of the lovers to their mistresses is seen, however, in a very different point of view by the heroines." The likeness between the plots of the two novels is indeed sufficiently striking to attract the attention of an experienced hunter for literary parallels, but unfortunately there is no external evidence to show that Miss Burney ever read her predecessor's work. One need only compare any two parallel characters, the common profligate, Lady Mellasin, for instance, with the delightfully coarse Madam Duval, to see how little the author of "Evelina" could have learned from the pages of Mrs. Haywood.
But if it deserves scant credit as a model for Miss Burney's infinitely more delicate art, "Betsy Thoughtless" should still be noticed as an early attempt to use the substance of everyday life as material for fiction. It has been called with some justice the first domestic novel in the language. Although the exact definition of a domestic novel nowhere appears, the term may be understood—by expanding the Frenchroman à la tasse de thé—as meaning a realistic piece of fiction in which the heroine serves as chief protagonist, and which can be read with a teacup in one hand without danger of spilling the tea. Mrs. Haywood indeed drew upon her old stock of love scenes tender or importunate, duels, marital disputes, and elopements to lend interest to her story, but except for the mock-marriage with a scoundrelly valet from which the imprudent Betsy is rescued in the nick of time by her former lover, no passage in the four volumes recommends itself particularly either to sense or to sensibility. There are few high lights in "Betsy Thoughtless"; the story keeps the even and loquacious tenor of its way after a fashion called insipid by the "Monthly Review," though the critic finally acknowledges the difficulty of the task, if not the success of the writer. "In justice to [our author], however, this may be further observed, that no other hand would, probably, have more happily finished a work begun on such a plan, as that of the history of a young inconsiderate girl, whose little foibles, without any natural vices of the mind, involve her in difficulties and distresses, which, by correcting, make her wiser, and deservedly happy in the end. A heroine like this, cannot but lay her historian under much disadvantage; for tho' such an example may afford lessons of prudence, yet how can we greatly interest ourselves in the fortune of one, whose character and conduct are neither amiable nor infamous, and which we can neither admire, nor love, nor pity, nor be diverted with? Great spirit in the writer, and uncommon beauties in the expression, are certainly necessary to supply the deficiency of such a barren foundation."[11] Neither of the latter qualities was at the command of the "female pen" that composed "Betsy Thoughtless," but in spite of the handicap imposed by the plan of her work and the deficiencies of her genius, she produced a novel at once realistic and readable. Without resorting to the dramatic but inherently improbable plots by which Richardson made his writings at once "the joy of the chambermaids of all nations"[12] and something of a laughing stock to persons capable of detecting their absurdities, Mrs. Haywood preserved his method of minute fidelity to actual life and still made her book entertaining to such a connoisseur of fiction as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.[13]Though rarely mentioned with entire approbation, "Betsy Thoughtless" was widely read for fifty years after its publication,[14] and undoubtedly deserves its place among the best of the minor novels collected in Harrison's "Novelist's Library."
In the same useful repertory of eighteenth century fiction is the second of Mrs. Haywood's domestic novels, only less famous than its predecessor. Like her earlier effort, too, "The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" (1753) contains a great number of letters quoted at full length, though the narrative is usually retarded rather than developed by these effusions. Yet all the letters, together with numerous digressions and inserted narratives, serve only to fill out three volumes in twelves. To readers whose taste for fiction has been cloyed by novels full of incident, movement, and compression, nothing could be more maddening than the leisurely footpace at which the story drags its slow length along. No wonder, then, that Scott recorded his abhorrence of the "whole Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy tribe," while to Coleridge and Thackeray "Jemmy Jessamy stuff" was a favorite synonym for the emotional inane.[15] But Mrs. Haywood made no pretense of interesting such readers. In the running fire of comment on the narrative contained in the lengthy chapter headings she confesses that her book "treats only on such matters as, it is highly probable, some readers will be apt to say might have been recited in a more laconick manner, if not totally omitted; but as there are others, the author imagines much the greater number, who may be of a different opinion, it is judged proper that the majority should be obliged." She has no hesitation either in recommending parts of the story that "cannot fail of giving an agreeable sensation to every honest and good-natured reader," or in sparing him a "digression of no consequence to the history" which may be "read or omitted at discretion." But those who love to "read in an easy-chair, either soon after dinner, or at night just going to rest," will find in the tale "such things as the author is pretty well convinced, from a long series of observations on the human mind, will afford more pleasure than offence."
We have every reason to believe that what the novelist terms her "distressful narrative" succeeded in its appeal to the Martha Buskbodys of the generation, for even Goethe's Charlotte took a heartfelt interest in the fortunes of Miss Jenny.[18] It was indeed so far calculated to stir the sensibilities that a most touching turn in the lovers' affairs is labeled "not fit to be read by those who have tender hearts or watry eyes." But though popular with sentimental readers, the new production was not wholly approved by the critic of the "Monthly Review."[17] He finds the character and conduct of Miss Jessamy more interesting to the reader than those of Miss Thoughtless, but he does not fail to point out that the fable is equally deficient in plot and in natural incidents. The history, in fact, though it does not want a hero, having like "The Fortunate Foundlings" double the usual number of protagonists, has a more uncommon want, that of a story.
When the novel begins, Jemmy, son of a landed gentleman, and his cousin Jenny, daughter of a wealthy merchant, have long been affianced by their respective parents, but each is left an orphan before their union can be accomplished. Thereupon Jemmy leaves Oxford and comes up to London, where he and Jenny indulge innocently, but with keen relish, in the pleasures of the town.
But the numerous instances of marital levity and unhappiness that come to their notice, make them decide to defer their marriage until they have gained more knowledge of the world and of their own sentiments. In pursuance of this delicate experiment each communicates to the other his observations on the jealousy, discontent, and misery attending marriage. Jenny notes how Mrs. Marlove's partiality for her froward maid promotes discord in the family, and Jemmy is shocked to find the fair Liberia so fond of cards that "though at present a profest enemy to religion, she would be the greatest devotee imaginable, were she once persuaded there were gaming-tables in heaven."
While the two lovers are thus engaged in a pleasant but indecisive daily round of amusement, Bellpine, a false friend, tries to turn Jemmy's affection to the fair musician, Miss Chit, in order to win Jenny for himself, but failing in that, circulates rumors of Jemmy's attachment to Miss Chit in hopes of alienating the lovers' regard. Emboldened by these reports of Jemmy's change of heart, Sir Robert Manley pays his court to Jenny on her way to Bath with her friends Miss Wingman and Lady Speck, but she gently repulses him and will believe nothing to Jemmy's disadvantage. She is saved from the rudeness of Celandine by the intrusion of the gallant's jealous mistress, who faints when foiled in her attempt to stab Jenny, but later relates the story of her ruin. This narrative is enough to disgust Lady Speck with her foppish admirer and to make her sensible of the merits of Mr. Lovegrove. In spite of Bellpine's industrious slander and in spite of seemingly incontrovertible proof of Jemmy's inconstancy, Jenny's faith in her lover remains unshaken. After tedious delays he finally rejoins her in London, but learning the full extent of Bellpine's treachery, he wounds him seriously in a duel and is obliged to seek safety in France. After causing the lovers untold anxiety, the injured man recovers, and Jenny forestalls her lover's return by joining her friends on their wedding journey to Paris. There she finds her adored Jessamy now fully sensible of the merits of his treasure. He does not fail to press for a speedy termination to their delays, and Jenny is not unwilling to crown his love by a "happy catastrophe."
Besides being unwarrantably expanded by a wealth of tedious detail, the novel has little merit as a piece of realism. The society of Lord Humphreys and Lady Specks was not that in which Eliza Haywood commonly moved, but she had lived upon the skirts of gay life long enough to imitate its appearances. Although she exhibits the diamond tassels sparkling in St. James's sun or the musk and amber that perfume the Mall, she never penetrates beyond externalities. The sentiments of her characters are as inflated as those of a Grandison and her picture of refined society as ridiculously stilted as Richardson's own. The scene whether in London, Bath, Oxford, or Paris, is described with more attention to specific detail than appeared in her early romances, but compared with the setting of "Humphrey Clinker" her glittering world appears pale and unreal. Mrs. Haywood had so framed her style to suit the short, rapid tale of passion that she never moved easily in the unwieldy novel form. Consequently her best narrative is to be found in the digressions, a chapter or two long, which are equivalent to little histories upon the old model. In them the progress of the action is unimpeded, compressed, and at times even sprightly.
Recognizing, perhaps, her inability to cope with a plot of any extent, Mrs. Haywood adopted in her next novel a plan that permitted her to include a pot-pourri of short narratives, conversations, letters, reflections, and miscellaneous material without damaging the comprehensive scheme of her story. Except that it lacks the consistent purpose of traducing the fair fame of her contemporaries,[18] "The Invisible Spy" (1755), written under the pseudonym of "Exploralibus," is not essentially different in structure from the "Memoirs of a Certain Island." Love is still the theme of most of the anecdotes, no longer the gross passion that proves every woman at heart a rake, but rather a romantic tenderness that inclines lovely woman to stoop to folly. From the world of Lady Mellasin, Harriot Loveit, Mr. Trueworth, Lord Huntley, Miss Wingman, and other Georgian fashionables that filled the pages of "Betsy Thoughtless" and "Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy" we are transported again to the pale company of Celadon, Alinda, Placentia, Adario, Melanthe. A framework analogous to that in Le Sage's "Le Diable Boiteux" takes the place of a plot. With a belt of invisibility and a recording tablet, Exploralibus is able to collect whatever is affecting, ludicrous, vicious, or otherwise noteworthy in the conversation, actions, and manners of society. But the shadowy nature of the observer fails to give to the necessarily disconnected incidents even the slight unity possible in the adventures of a lap-dog, a cat, a mouse, a flea, or a guinea. The contents of a single section of "The Invisible Spy" is enough to show how little thought the author expended upon the sequence of the narrative.
Though the novel exhibits some pictures of life which at the time were considered natural,[19] and some bits of satire rather extravagant than striking, its appearance was a tacit admission of the failing of the author's powers. Much experience of human nature Mrs. Haywood had undoubtedly salvaged from her sixty years of buffeting about in the world, but so rapid and complete had been the development of prose fiction during her literary life that she was unable quite to comprehend the magnitude of the change. Her early training in romance writing had left too indelible a stamp upon her mind. She was never able to apprehend the full possibilities of the newer fiction, and her success as a novelist was only an evidence of her ability to create the image of a literary form without mastering its technique. So at the maturity of her powers she lacked a vessel worthy of holding the stores of her experience, and first and last she never exceeded the permutations of sensationalism possible in the short amatory romance.
Long after Mrs. Haywood's death in 1756 came out the last novel presumably of her composing. "The History of Leonora Meadowson," published in two volumes in 1788, is but a recombination of materials already familiar to the reading public. Leonora rashly yields to the wishes of her first lover, weds another, and makes yet a second experiment in matrimony before she finds her true mate in the faithful Fleetwood, whom she had thought inconstant. Thus she is a near relation of the thoughtless Betsy, and possibly a descendant of the much married heroine of "Cleomelia." Another of Mrs. Haywood's earlier fictions, "The Agreeable Caledonian," had previously been used as the basis of a revision entitled "Clementina" (1768). The reviewer of "Leonora" in the "Critical," though aware of the novel's shortcomings, still laments the passing of "the author of Betsy Thoughtless, our first guide in these delusive walks of fiction and fancy."[20]
"The spirit which dictated Betsy Thoughtless is evaporated; the fire of the author scarcely sparkles. Even two meagre volumes could not be filled, without a little History of Melinda Fairfax;—without the Tale of Cornaro and the Turk,—a tale told twice, in verse and prose,—a tale already often published, and as often read. Alas, poor author! we catch with regret thy parting breath."
FOOTNOTES [1] A rival translation calledThe Fortunate Countrymaidhad already been published in 1740-1, and may be read in the seventh tome ofThe Novelist's Magazine(Harrison). Clara Reeve speaks of both translations as "well known to the readers of Circulating Libraries."Progress of Romance(1785), I, 130.
[2]Austin Dobson,Eighteenth Century Vignettes, First Series, 44."Captain Coram's Charity."
[3] In one other respect Natura belongs to the new rather than to the old school: he takes genuine delight in the wilder beauties of the landscape. "Whether you climb the craggy mountains or traverse the flowery vale; whether thick woods set limits to the sight, or the wide common yields unbounded prospect; whether the ocean rolls in solemn state before you, or gentle streams run purling by your side, nature in all her different shapes delights…. The stupendous mountains of the Alps, after the plains and soft embowered recesses of Avignon, gave perhaps a no less grateful sensation to the mind of Natura." Such extraordinary appreciation in an age that regarded mountains as frightful excrescences upon the face of nature, makes the connoisseur of the passions a pioneer of the coming age rather than a survival of the last.
[4] J. Ireland and J. Nichols,Hogarth's Works, Second Series, 31, note. "Mrs. Haywood'sBetsy Thoughtlesswas in MS entitledBetsy Careless; but, from the infamy at that time annexed to the name, had a new baptism." The "inimitable Betsy Careless" is sufficiently immortalized in Fielding'sAmelia, in Mrs. Charke'sLife, and in Hogarth'sMarriage à la Mode, Plate III.
[5] Austin Dobson,Eighteenth Century Vignettes, Third Series, 99.
[6] "There were no plays, no operas, no masquerades, no balls, no publick shews, except at the Little Theatre in the Hay Market, then known by the name of F——g's scandal shop, because he frequently exhibited there certain drolls, or, more properly, invectives against the ministry; in doing which it appears extremely probable that he had two views; the one to get money, which he very much wanted, from such as delighted in low humour, and could not distinguish true satire from scurrility; and the other, in the hope of having some post given him by those he had abused, in order to silence his dramatick talent. But it is not my business to point either the merit of that gentleman's performances, or the motives he had for writing them, as the town is perfectly acquainted both with his abilities and success, and has since seen him, with astonishment, wriggle himself into favour, by pretending to cajole those he had not the power to intimidate."The Novelist's Magazine, XIII, 23. Quoted by Austin Dobson,Op. cit., 100.
[7] Dedication ofThe Fatal Secret.
[8]The Novelist's Magazine, XIII, 106. Quoted by W. Forsyth,Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century(1871), 211.
[9] W. Raleigh,The English Novel(Fifth edition, 1910), 139.
[10] J.C. Dunlop,History of Prose Fiction, edited by H. Wilson, II, 568.
[11]Monthly Review, V, 393, October, 1751.
[12]Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 392.
[13]Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 457.
[14]Notes and Queries, Series VIII, IX, 366. In Smollett'sFerdinand Count Fathom, Chap. XXXIX, Captain Miniken recommends as "modern authors that are worth reading" theAdventures of Loveill, Lady Frail, Bampfylde Moore Carew, Young Scarron, andMiss Betsy Thoughtless. See also A.L. Barbauld,Correspondence of Samuel Richardson(1804), IV, 55-6, and theAutobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delaney(1861), First series, III, 79, 214.
[15] J.G. Lockhart,Life of Scott, Everyman edition, 34. Coleridge'sLetters, I, 368.
[16]W. Scott,Old Mortality, Conclusion. Goethe'sWerke(E. Schmidt,Leipsig, 1910), III, 17.
[17] That theMonthly'sreview ofBetsy Thoughtless, complaining of that novel's lack of "those entertaining introductory chapters, and digressive essays, which distinguish the works of aFielding, aSmollett, or the author ofPompeythe little," rankled in the fair novelist's memory is illustrated by a retort in her next work,Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, III, Chap. XVIII, which "contains none of those beautiful digressions, those remarks or reflections, which a certain would-be critick pretends are so much distinguished in the writings of his two favorite authors; yet it is to be hoped, will afford sufficient to please all those who are willing to be pleased." For the review ofJemmy and Jenny Jessamy, seeMonthly Review, VIII, 77.
[18] A possible return to scandal-mongering should be noted.Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 461. "You should have given me a key to the Invisible Spy, particularly to the catalogue of books in it. I know not whether the conjugal happiness of the D. of B. [Duke of Bedford] is intended as a compliment or an irony."
[19]Gentleman's Magazine, XXIV, 560, December 1754.
[20]Critical Review, LXV; 236, March 1788.
Though Eliza Haywood produced nothing which the world has not willingly let die, yet at least the obituary of her works deserves to be recorded in the history of fiction. Of the many kinds of writing attempted by her during the thirty-six years of her literary adventuring none, considered absolutely, is superior to the novels of her last period. "Betsy Thoughtless" contains at once her best developed characters, most extensive plot, and most nearly realistic setting. But before it was sent to press in 1751, Richardson, Fielding, and Sarah Fielding had established themselves in public favor, and Smollett was already known as their peer. Even in company with "David Simple" Eliza Haywood's most notable effort could not hope to shine. The value, then, of what is, all in all, her best work is greatly lessened by the obvious inferiority of her productions to the masterpieces of the age. As a writer of amatory romances and scandal novels, on the contrary, Mrs. Haywood was surpassed by none of her contemporaries. The immense reputation that she acquired in her own day has deservedly vanished, for though her tales undoubtedly helped to frame the novel of manners, they were properly discarded as useless lumber when once the new species of writing had taken tangible form. Perhaps they are chiefly significant to the modern student, not as revealing now and then the first feeble stirrings of realism, but as showing the last throes of sensational extravagance. The very extreme to which writers of the Haywoodian type carried breathless adventure, warm intrigue, and soul-thrilling passion exhausted the possibilities of their method and made progress possible only in a new direction.
On the technical development of the modern novel theroman à clefcan hardly have exercised a strong influence. Nor can the lampoons in Mrs. Haywood's anthologies of scandal be valued highly as attempts to characterize. To draw a portrait from the life is not to create a character, still less when the lines are distorted by satire. But the caricaturing of fine ladies and gentlemen cannot have been without effect as a corrective to the glittering atmosphere of courtly life that still permeated the pages of the short, debased romances. The characters of the scandal novels were still princes and courtiers, but their exploits were more licentious than the lowest pothouse amours of picaros and their doxies. The chivalrous conventions of the heroic romances had degenerated into the formalities of gallantry, the exalted modesty of romantic heroines had sunk into a fearful regard for shaky reputations, and the picture of genteel life was filled with scenes of fraud, violence, and vice. As the writers of anti-romances in the previous century had found a delicately malicious pleasure in exhibiting characters drawn from humble and rustic life performing the ceremonies and professing the sentiments of a good breeding foreign to their social position, so the scandal-mongering authors like Mrs. Haywood helped to make apparent the hollowness of the aristocratic conventions even as practiced by the aristocracy and the incongruity of applying exalted ideals derived from an outworn system of chivalry to everyday ladies and gentleman of the Georgian age. Undoubtedly the writers ofromans à clefdid not bargain for this effect, for they clung to their princes and court ladies till the last, leaving to more able pens the task of making heroes and heroines out of cobblers and kitchen wenches. But in representing people of quality as the "vilest and silliest part of the nation" Mrs. Haywood and her ilk prepared their readers to welcome characters drawn from their own station in society, and paved the way for that "confounding of all ranks and making a jest of order," which, though deplored by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,[1] was nevertheless a condition of progress toward realism.
Quite apart from the slight merit of her writings, the very fact of Mrs. Haywood's long career as a woman of letters would entitle her to much consideration. About the middle of the seventeenth century women romancers, like women poets, were elegant triflers, content to add the lustre of wit to their other charms. While Mme de La Fayette was gaining the plaudits of the urbane world for thedélicatesseof "La Princesse de Clèves" and the eccentric Duchess of Newcastle was employing her genius upon the fantastic, philosophical "Description of a New World, called the Blazing World" (1668), women of another stamp were beginning to write fiction. With the advent of Mme de Villedieu in France and her more celebrated contemporary, Mrs. Behn, in England, literature became a profession whereby women could command a livelihood. The pioneerromancièreswere commonly adventuresses in life as in letters, needy widows like Mrs. Behn, Mme de Gomez, and Mrs. Mary Davys, or cast mistresses like Mme de Villedieu, Mile de La Force, and Mrs. Manley, who cultivated Minerva when Venus proved unpropitious. But although the divine Astraea won recognition from easy-going John Dryden and approbation from the profligate wits of Charles II's court, her memory was little honored by the coterie about Pope and Swift. When even the lofty ideals and trenchant style of Mary Astell served as a target for the ridicule of Mr. Bickerstaff 's friends,[2] it was not remarkable that such authoresses as Mrs. Manley and Mrs. Haywood should be dismissed from notice as infamous scribbling women.[3] Inded [Transcriber's note: sic] the position of women novelists was anything but assured at the beginning of the eighteenth century. They had to support the disfavor and even the malign attacks of established men of letters who scouted the pretensions of the inelegant to literary fame, and following the lead of Boileau, discredited the romance as absurd and unclassical. Moreover, the moral soundness of fictitious fables was questioned by scrupulous readers, and the amatory tales turned out in profusion by most of the female romancers were not calculated to reassure the pious, even though prefaced by assertions of didactic aim and tagged with an exemplary moral. Nevertheless the tribe of women who earned their living chiefly by the proceeds of their pens rapidly increased.[4]
Mrs. Haywood, as we have seen, looked to the booksellers for support when her husband disclaimed her. Of all the amazons of prose fiction who in a long struggle with neglect and disparagement demonstrated the fitness of their sex to follow the novelist's calling, none was more persistent, more adaptable, or more closely identified with the development of the novel than she. Mrs. Behn and Mrs. Manley must be given credit as pioneers in fiction, but much of their best work was written for the stage. Eliza Haywood, on the other hand, added little to her reputation by her few dramatic performances. She achieved her successes first and last as a writer of romances and novels, and unlike Mrs. Aubin and her other rivals continued to maintain her position as a popular author over a considerable period of time. During the thirty-six years of her activity the romances of Defoe and of Mrs. Jane Barker gave place to the novels of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, yet the "female veteran" kept abreast of the changes in the taste of her public and even contributed slightly to produce them. Nor was her progress accomplished without numerous difficulties and discouragements. In spite of all, however, Mrs. Haywood remained devoted to her calling and was still scribbling when the great Dr. Johnson crowned the brows of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox to celebrate the publication of "The Life of Harriot Stuart" (1750). After such recognition a career in letters was open to women without reproach. Though unlaureled by any lexicographer, and despised by the virtuous Mrs. Lennox,[5] Mrs. Haywood, nevertheless, had done yeoman service in preparing the way for modest Fanny Burney and quiet Jane Austen. Moreover she was the only one of the old tribe ofromancièreswho survived to join the new school of lady novelists, and in her tabloid fiction rather than in the criminal biography, or thevoyage imaginaire, or the periodical essay, may best be studied the obscure but essential link between the "voluminous extravagances" of the "Parthenissa" kind and the hardly less long-winded histories of "Pamela" and "Clarissa."
FOOTNOTES [1]Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Everyman edition, 422.
[2]Tatler, Nos. 32, 59, 63.
[3] See also Horace Walpole,Letters, edited by Mrs. P. Toynbee, I, 354.
[4] Only rarely did women like Mary Astell or Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe become authors to demonstrate a theory or to inculcate principles of piety, and still more seldom did such creditable motives lead to the writing of fiction. Perhaps the only one of theromancièresnot dependent in some measure upon the sale of her works was Mrs. Penelope Aubin, who in the Preface toCharlotta Du Pont(dedicated to Mrs. Rowe) declares, "My Design in writing, is to employ my leisure Hours to some Advantage to my self and others … I do not write for Bread."
[5] The salacious landlady in Mrs. Lennox'sHenriettatries to discourage the heroine from readingJoseph Andrewsby recommending Mrs. Haywood's works, "… 'there is Mrs. Haywood's Novels, did you ever read them? Oh! they are the finest love-sick, passionate stories; I assure you, you'll like them vastly: pray take a volume of Haywood upon my recommendation.'—'Excuse me,' said Henrietta," etc.The Novelist's Magazine(Harrison), XXIII, 14.
A. The Works of Mrs. Eliza Haywood; Consisting of Novels, Letters,Poems, and Plays…. In Four Volumes. For D. Browne Junr., and S.Chapman. 1724. 8vo. 4 vols.
Vol. I. Love in Excess, ed. 5; Vol. II. The British Recluse, ed. 2,The Injur'd Husband, ed. 2, The Fair Captive, ed. 2 (ed. I, Chicago);Vol. III. Idalia, ed. 2, Letters from a Lady of Quality to aChevalier, ed. 2; Vol. IV. Lasselia, ed. 2, The Rash Resolve, ed. 2, AWife to be Lett, Poems on Several Occasions.B.M. (12611. ce. 20). University of Chicago. Daily Journal, 12Aug. 1723, 3 vols.; 31 Jan. 1724, 4 vols.
B. Secret Histories, Novels and Poems. In Four Volumes. Written by Mrs.Eliza Haywood…. For D. Browne, Jun., and S. Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 4vols.Daily Journal, 23 Dec. 1724, "just published."
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, Jun., and S.Chapman. 1725. 12mo. 4 vols.Vol. I. Love in Excess, ed. 6; Vol. II. The British Recluse, ed. 3,The Injur'd Husband, ed. 3, Poems on Several Occasions, ed. 2; Vol.III. Idalia, ed. 3, The Surprise, ed. 2, The Fatal Secret, ed. 3.Fantomina; Vol. IV. The Rash Resolve, ed. 3, The Masqueraders,Lasselia, The Force of Nature.B.M. (12612. ce. 8). Yale. Daily Post, 6 Aug. 1725, "latelypublished."
[Another issue of Vols. II, III.] For D. Browne, jun., and S. Chapman.1725. 12mo. 2 vols.Vol. I is a duplicate of Vol. III, Vol. II of Vol. II of the precedingissue.B.M. (12614. c. 14).
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch,D. Browne, T. Astley, and T. Green. 1732. 12mo. 4 vols.B.M. (012612. df. 48).
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For R. Ware, S. Birt, D.Browne, C. Hitch, S. Austen. 1742. 12mo. 4 vols.B. M. (12614. e. 13).
C. Secret Histories, Novels, &c. Written or translated by Mrs. ElizaHaywood. Printed since the Publication of the four Volumes of her Works.For D. Browne. 2 vols.
Vol. I. The Distrest Orphan, The City Jilt, The Double Marriage,Letters from the Palace of Fame, The Lady's Philosopher's Stone; Vol.II. Memoirs of the Baron de Brosse, 2 parts, Bath-Intrigues, TheMasqueraders, Part II, The Perplex'd Dutchess.Daily Post, 2 Nov. 1727.
D. Haywood's (Mrs.) Select Collection of Novels and Histories. Writtenby the most celebrated Authors, in several languages. All new translatedfrom the originals, by several hands. London. 1729. 12mo. 6 vols.Sir George Cockrane, Catalogue of the Library at Abbotsford, 1838,Maitland Club, Vol. XLV, p. 139. I have not found a copy of thiswork.
1. 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. With some Account of the Religion, Laws, Customs, and Policies of those Times. Written originally in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little understood.) First translated into Chinese, at the command of the Emperor, by a Cabal of Seventy Philosophers; and now retranslated into English, by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London. For S. Baker. 1736. 12mo. Dedicated to the Duchess Dowager of Marlborough. Bodl. (250. q. 232). Gentleman's Magazine, July 1736.
[Another issue.] The Unfortunate Princess, or, the AmbitiousStatesman. Containing the Life and Surprizing Adventures of thePrincess of Ijaveo. Interspers'd with several curious and entertainingNovels. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For T. Wright. 1741. 12mo.B.M. (12604. bb. 20). Columbia. Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1740.
2. The Agreeable Caledonian: or, Memoirs of Signiora di Morella, a RomanLady, Who made her Escape from a Monastery at Viterbo, for the Love of aScots Nobleman. Intermix'd with many other Entertaining little Historiesand Adventures which presented themselves to her in the Course of herTravels, etc. For R. King: And sold by W. Meadows, T. Green, J. Stone,J. Jackson, and J. Watson. 1728, 1729. 8vo.The Dedication to Lady Elizabeth Henley is signed Eliza Haywood.Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 2121/6, 7). Peabody Institute, Baltimore. PartI. Daily Post, 21 June 1728. Part II. Daily Journal, 10 Jan. 1729.
[Another issue.] Clementina; or the History of an Italian Lady, whomade her Escape from a Monastery, for the Love of a Scots Nobleman.For Noble. 1768. 12mo.Monthly Review, May 1768.
3. The Arragonian Queen. A Secret History. For J. Roberts. Dedicated to Lady Prances Lumley. Daily Journal, 11 Aug. 1724.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 1724. 8vo.University of Chicago. Daily Post, 16 Oct. 1724.
[Another edition?] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, and sold by E.Nutt.Daily Post, 4 Jan. 1727, "lately published, written by Mrs. ElizaHaywood."
4. Bath-Intrigues: in four Letters to a Friend in London…. For J. Roberts. 1725. 8vo. Letters signed J.B. Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional Works, 1727. B.M. (1080. i. 42). Daily Post, 16 Oct. 1724.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition?
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For J. Roberts. 1725.Daily Post, 5 March 1725.
5. La Belle Assemblée: or, the Adventures of Six Days. Being a CuriousCollection of Remarkable Incidents which happen'd to some of the FirstQuality in France. Written in French for the Entertainment of the King,and dedicated to him By Madam de Gomez. Translated into English.Compleat, in Three Parts. For D. Browne, jun., and S. Chapman.From the French of Madeleine Angélique Poisson de Gomez.Part I. Daily Journal, 26 Aug. 1724. Part II. Daily Journal, 26Oct. 1724. Part III. Daily Post, 9 Dec. 1724.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. Compleat, in Three Parts. ForD. Browne junr.; and S. Chapman. 1725. 8vo. 3 vols.B.M. (12511. f. 25). Daily Journal, 21 June 1725.
[Another volume.] The 2d and last volume. For D. Browne, S. Chapman,and W. Bickerton.The three parts first issued comprise Vol. I, ed. 2.Daily Journal, 27 July 1726.
[Another edition.] La Belle Assemblée; or, the Adventures of TwelveDays…. The Second Edition, Adorn'd with Copper-Plates. For D.Browne, W. Bickerton, and W. Pote. 1728. 12mo. 2 vols.B.M. (635. a. 27, 28). Daily Post, 4 March 1728.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, W. Bickerton, T.Astley, and F. Cogan. 1735. 12mo. 4 vols.B.M. (12512. c. 12), Vol. IV only.
[Another edition.] The Third Edition?
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For J. Brotherton, J. Hazard,W. Meadows, T. Cox, W. Hinchcliffe, D. Browne, W. Bickerton, T.Astley, S. Austen, L. Gilliver, R. Willock, and F. Cogan. 1736. 12mo.4 vols.B.M. (12512. c. 12), Vols. I-III only.
[Another edition.] The Fifth Edition. For D. Browne, etc. 1743. 12mo.4 vols.Boston Public Library.
[Another edition.] The Sixth Edition. For D. Browne, J. Brotherton, W.Meadows, R. Ware, H. Lintot, T. Cox, T. Astley, S. Austen, J. Hodges,and E. Comins. 1749. 12mo. 4 vols.Brown University.
[Another edition.] The Seventh Edition. 1754. 12mo. 4 vols.Malkan Catalogue.
[Another edition.] The Eighth Edition. For H. Woodfall, W. Strahan, J.Rivington, E. Horsfield, G. Keith, W. Nichol, C. and R. Ware, M.Richardson, J. and T. Pote, and T. Burnet. 1765. 12mo. 4 vols.B.M. (12330. f. 17). Boston Public Library.
6. The British Recluse: or, the Secret History of Cleomira, Suppos'd Dead. A Novel…. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood, Author of Love in Excess; or, the Fatal Enquiry. For D. Browne, Jun; W. Chetwood and J. Woodman; and S. Chapman. 1722. 8vo. Boston Public Library. Daily Post, 16 April 1722.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, Jun., W.Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 1722. 8vo.B.M. (635. f. 11/4). Daily Conrant, 24 Dec. 1722.The third and fourth editions are a part of Secret Histories,etc., 1725, 1732.
[Another edition.] The British Recluse…. And The Injur'd Husband:Or, The Mistaken Resentment. Two Novels. Written by Mrs. ElizaHaywood…. The Third Edition. Dublin: For J. Watts. 1724. 8vo.B.M. (12611. f. 10).
7. The City Jilt: or, the Alderman turn'd Beau. A Secret History…. ForJ. Roberts. 1726.Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additional Works, 1727.Daily Journal, 24 June 1726.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 1726. 8vo.B.M. (012611. e. 13). Daily Post, 30 Sept. 1726, "a new edition."
[A pirated edition?] Printed by T. Bailey, at the Ship and Crown,Leadenhall-street, where Tradesmans Bills are printed at theLetter-press, and off Copper-plates, [**Symbol: three asterisks] WhereMaredant's Antiscorbutic Drops are Sold at Six Shillings the Bottle,which Cures the most inveterate Scurvy, Leprosy, &c. [n.d.]B.M. (12611. ee. 3).
CLEMENTINA, see The Agreeable Caledonian.
8. Cleomelia: or, the Generous Mistress. Being the Secret History of aLady Lately arriv'd from Bengall, A Kingdom in the East-Indies. By Mrs.Eliza Haywood. To which is added, I. The Lucky Rape: Or, Fate the BestDisposer. II. The Capricious Lover: Or, No Trifling with a Woman…. ForJ. Millan, and sold by J. Roberts, T. Astley, W. Meadows, J. Mackeuen,H. Northcock. 1727. 8vo.Daily Post, 5 Dec. 1726.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Millan, and sold by J.Roberts, H. Northcock. 1727. 8vo.Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 1308).
9. Dalinda: or, the Double Marriage. Being the Genuine History of a very Recent, and Interesting Adventure. Addressed to all the Young and Gay of both Sexes…. For C. Corbett, and G. Woodfall. 1749. 12mo. Probably by Mrs. Haywood. B.M. (012611. e. 41). Gentleman's Magazine, June 1749.
10. The Disguis'd Prince: or, the Beautiful Parisian. A True History,Translated from the French. For T. Corbett, and Sold by J. Roberts.1728, 1729. 8vo.The Dedication to Lady Lombe is signed Eliza Haywood.From the French of the Sieur de Préchac or Mme de Villedieu.B.M. (12511. h. 5), Part I only. Harvard, 2 parts. Part I, DailyPost, 16 Aug. 1728. Part II, Daily Journal, 14 May 1729.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For T. Corbett, and sold by J.Roberts. 1733. 8vo.Bodl. (Godw. Pamph. 1231/4).
11. The Distress'd Orphan, or Love in a Mad-House. 1726?
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 1726. 8vo.
A second edition was advertised for D. Browne as a part of Mrs.Haywood's additional Works, Daily Post, 4 Jan. 1727.University of Chicago.
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For J. Roberts. 1726. 8vo.B.M. (12611. f. 14).
[A revision.] Love in a Madhouse; or, the History of Eliza Hartley.The Distressed Orphan. Written by herself after her happy Union withthe Colonel. For T. Sabine. [n.d.] 8vo.1770? (B.M. Catalogue). 1810 (Miss Morgan).B.M. (12403, aa. 34/2).
12. The Double Marriage: or, the Fatal Release. A True Secret History.For J. Roberts. 1726. 8vo.Included in the two volumes of Mrs. Haywood's additionalWorks, 1727.University of Chicago. Daily Journal, 5 Aug. 1726.
13. The Dumb Projector: Being a Surprizing Account of a Trip to Holland made by Mr. Duncan Campbell. With the Manner of his Reception and Behaviour there. As also the various and diverting Occurrences that happened on his Departure. For W. Ellis, J. Roberts, Mrs. Billingsly, A. Dod, and J. Fox. 1725. 8vo. Written as a letter, signed Justicia. B.M. (G. 13739/2). Copy owned by Professor Trent. Daily Journal, 10 May 1725.
14. L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits. Being the Sequel to La BelleAssemblée. Containing the following Novels…. Written for theEntertainment of the French Court, by Madam de Gomez, Author of La BelleAssemblée. For F. Cogan, and J. Nourse. 1734. 12mo. 2 vols.The Dedication to "the High Puissant and most noble Prince," CharlesSeymour, Duke of Somerset, is signed Eliza Haywood. From the French ofMadeleine Angelique Poisson de Gomez.B.M. (12512. c. 13).
15. Epistles for the Ladies…. For T. Gardner. 1749, 1750. 8vo. 2 vols.B.M. (8416. dd. 34). Columbia. Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1748,&c.
[Another edition.] A New Edition. For T. Gardner.Advertised in The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 1753.
[Another edition.] Epistles for Ladies. A New Edition. For H. Gardner.1776. 12mo. 2 vols.Yale.
16. The Fair Captive: a Tragedy. As it is Acted By His Majesty'sServants. For T. Jauney and H. Cole. 1721. Svo.Dedicated to Lord Viscount Gage.B.M. (162. h. 18). Columbia.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, and S. Chapman.1724.Included with separate title-page and imprint in Works, 1724.
17. The Fair Hebrew: or, a True, but Secret History of Two JewishLadies, Who lately resided in London. For J. Brindley, W. Meadows and J.Walthoe, A. Bettesworth, T. Astley, T. Worral, J. Lewis, J. Penn, and R.Walker. 1729. 8vo.Advertised as by Mrs. Haywood in Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, 1729.B.M. (635. f. 11/8). Daily Post, 29 Jan. 1729.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Brindley, W. Meadows andJ. Walthoe, A. Bettesworth, T. Astley, T. Worral, J. Lewis, J. Pennand R. Walker. 1729. Svo.B.M. (12614. d. 8).
18. Fantomina: or, Love in a Maze. Being a Secret History of an Amour between two Persons of Condition. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For D. Browne jun, and S. Chapman. 1725. Included in the various editions of Secret Histories, etc.
19. Fatal Fondness: or, Love its own Opposer. (Being the Sequel of TheUnequal Conflict.) A Novel. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood…. For J. Walthoe,and J. Crokatt. 1725. 8vo.Sir John Soane's Museum. University of Chicago.Daily Post, 19 May 1725.
20. The Fatal Secret: or, Constancy in Distress. By the Author of theMasqueraders; or, Fatal Curiosity. For J. Roberts. 1724.Dedicated to (Sir) William Yonge.Daily Journal, 16 May 1724.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For J. Roberts. 1724. 8vo.University of Chicago. The third edition with separate title-pageand imprint is a part of Secret Histories, etc., 1725.
THE FEMALE DUNCIAD, see Irish Artifice.
21. The Female Spectator. For T. Gardner. 1745. 8vo. 4 vols. The monthly parts, April, 1744, to May, 1746 (two months omitted), bound up with a general title-page, but each part retains its separate title-page and imprint. Books I-VI, 1744; VII-XX, 1745; XXI-XXIV, 1746. Vol. I dedicated to the Duchess of Leeds, Vol. II to the Duchess of Bedford, Vol. III to the Duchess of Queensberry and Dover, Vol. IV to the Duchess Dowager of Manchester. B.M. (94. c. 12-15).
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For George and Alexander Ewing.Dublin. 1747. 12mo. 4 vols.Columbia.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For T. Gardner. 1748. 12mo. 4vols.B.M. (P.P. 5251. ga). Harvard.
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For T. Gardner. 1750. 12mo. 4vols.Harvard.
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition?
[Another edition.] The Fifth Edition. For T. Gardner. 1755. 12mo. 4vols.Boston Public Library, Vol. I only.
[Another edition.] The Sixth Edition?
[Another edition.] The Seventh Edition. For T. Gardner. 1771. 12mo. 4vols.B.M. (P.P. 5251. g). Boston Public Library.
[A French translation.] La Nouvelle Spectatrice. Paris. 1751. 4 partsin 2 vols. 12mo."Traduction abregée avec gout," by Jean-Arnold Trochereau de laBerliere.P. Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire Universel, 1873.
ADDENDUM:The Female Spectator. Glasgow. 1775. 4 vols. 12mo.Catalogue of Cadmus Book Shop, New York.
22. The Force of Nature: or, the Lucky Disappointment: A Novel. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. Included in the various editions of Secret Histories, etc.
23. The Fortunate Foundlings: Being the Genuine History of ColonelM——rs, and his Sister, Madam du P——y, the Issue of the Hon. Ch——esM——rs, Son of the late Duke of R—L—D. Containing Many wonderfulAccidents that befel them in their Travels, and interspersed with theCharacters and Adventures of Several Persons of Condition, in the mostpolite Courts of Europe. The Whole calculated for the Entertainment andImprovement of the Youth of both Sexes. For T. Gardner. 1744. 12mo.B.M. (12614. eee. 16). Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1744.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition?
[Another edition.] The Third Edition. For T. Gardner. 1748. 12mo.Yale.
24. Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh. A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields…. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood. For W. Mears, and J. Brindley. 1729. 8vo. Dedicated to Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales. B.M. (643. e. 1). Boston Public Library.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For W. Mears, and J. Brindley.1729. 8vo.B.M. (162. h. 19). Yale.
25. The Fruitless Enquiry. Being a Collection of Several Entertaining Histories and Occurrences, Which Fell under the Observation of a Lady in her Search after Happiness. By Mrs. Eliza Haywood, Author of Love in Excess…. For J. Stephens. 1727. 12mo. Dedicated to Lady Elizabeth Germain. Bodl. (8vo. B. 433. Line.). Peabody Institute. Daily Post, 24 Feb. 1727.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. By the Author of the History ofMiss Betsy Thoughtless. For T. Lowndes. 1767. 12mo.B.M. (1208. e. 31). Yale.
[An abridgment.] A Collection of Novels, selected and revised by Mrs.Griffith. For G. Kearsly. 1777. 12mo. 2 vols.The Fruitless Enquiry occupies pp. 159-267 of Vol. II.B.M. (12614. cc. 14). Boston Public Library.
26. The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy. In Three Volumes. By the Author of Betsy Thoughtless. For T. Gardner. 1753. 12mo. 3 vols. B.M. (12611. b. 23). Yale. Gentleman's Magazine, Dec. 1752.
[Another edition.] Dublin: For R. Main. 1753. 12mo. 3 vols.B.M. (12611. b. 23), Vols. II and III only.
[Another edition.] For Harrison and Co. 1785. 8vo. 3 vols.In Vol. XVII of The Novelist's Magazine.B.M. (1207. e. 7). New York Public Library.
27. The History of Leonora Meadowson. By the Author of Betsy Thoughtless. For Noble. 1788. 12mo. 2 vols. Halkett and Laing. Critical Review, March 1788.
28. The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless, In Four Volumes. For T.Gardner. 1751. 12mo. 4 vols.B.M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). New YorkPublic Library. Gentleman's Magazine, Oct. 1751.
[Another edition.] Dublin. 1751. 12mo. 4 vols. in 2. J. TregaskisCatalogue.
[Another edition.] Dublin: Printed by Oli. Nelson. 1765. 12mo. 4 vols.in 2.Yale.
[Another edition.] The Fourth Edition. For L. Gardner. 1768. 12mo. 4vols. in 2.South Kensington Museum. Columbia.
[Another edition.] For Harrison and Co. 1783. 8vo. 4 vols.In Vol. XIII of The Novelist's Magazine.B.M. (1207. c. 12). New York Public Library.
ADDENDUM:Etourdie ou Histoire de Mis Betsy Tatless, Traduite de l'Anglois.Paris. 1754. 3 parts in 2 vols. Bound for Mme du Barry, with her armsimpressed on the sides. Southeby, Wilkinson, and Hodge Sale, Dec.11,1913.
29. The Husband. In Answer to The Wife. For T. Gardner. 1756. 12mo.B.M. (836. c. 6). Yale.
30. Idalia: or, the Unfortunate Mistress. A Novel. Written by Mrs. ElizaHaywood. For D. Browne junr; W. Chetwood; and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo.B.M. (12614. d. 10). Daily Journal, 24 April 1723. Parts II andIII which compleats the whole, Daily Journal, 21 June 1723.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, junr; W. Chetwood; and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. Advertised in The Rash Resolve, 1724. Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1724. The third edition is a part of Secret Histories, etc., 1725.
31. The Injur'd Husband: or, the Mistaken Resentment. A Novel. Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood…. For D. Browne, W. Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. Dedicated to Lady Howe. B.M. (recently acquired from the Huth Sale, Part III). Daily Courant, 24 Dec. 1722.
[Another edition.] The Second Edition. For D. Browne, W. Chetwood and J. Woodman, and S. Chapman. 1723. 8vo. Advertised in The Rash Resolve, 1724. Included with separate title-page and imprint in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1724. The third edition is a part of Secret Histories, etc., 1725.