SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS
Some tentative experiments in the way of scandal-mongering may be found
in Mrs. Haywood's work even before the first of her Duncan Campbell
pamphlets. Many of the short romances discussed in the second chapter
were described on the title-page as secret histories, while others
apparently indistinguishable from them in kind were denominated novels.
"Love in Excess" and "The Unequal Conflict," for instance, were given
the latter title, but a tale like "Fantomina," evidently imaginary,
purported to be the "Secret History of an Amour between two Persons of
Condition." "The British Recluse" was in sub-title the "Secret History
of Cleomira," and "Cleomelia: or, the Generous Mistress" claimed to be
the "Secret History of a Lady Lately arriv'd from Bengall." The writer
attached no particular significance to her use of the term, but employed
it as a means of stimulating a meretricious interest in her stories. In
fact she goes out of her way in the Preface to "The Injur'd Husband" to
defend herself and at the same time to suggest the possibility that her
novel might contain references to English contemporaries. The defence is
carefully worded so that it does not constitute an absolute denial, but
rather whets the curiosity.
"It is not, therefore, to excuse my Want of Judgment in the Conduct,
or my Deficiency of Expressing the Passions I have endeavour'd to
represent, but to clear myself of an Accusation, which, I am inform'd,
is already contrived and prepared to thunder out against me, as soon
as this is publish'd, that I take this Pains. A Gentleman, who
applies the little Ingenuity he is Master of to no other Study than
that of sowing Dissention among those who are so unhappy, and indeed
unwise, as to entertain him, either imagines, or pretends to do so,
that tho' I have laid the Scene in Paris, I mean that the Adventure
shou'd be thought to have happen'd in London; and that in the
Character of a French Baroness I have attempted to expose the
Reputation of an English Woman of Quality. I shou'd be sorry to think
the Actions of any of our Ladies such as you'd give room for a
Conjecture of the Reality of what he wou'd suggest. But suppose there
were indeed an Affinity between the Vices I have describ'd, and those
of some Woman he knows (for doubtless if there be, she must be of his
Acquaintance) I leave the World to judge to whom she is indebted for
becoming the Subject of Ridicule, to me for drawing a Picture whose
Original is unknown, or to him who writes her Name at the Bottom of
it.
"However, if I had design'd this as a Satyr on any Person whose Crimes
I had thought worthy of it, I shou'd not have thought the Resentment
of such a one considerable enough to have obliged me to deny it. But
as I have only related a Story, which a particular Friend of mine
assures me is Matter of Fact, and happen'd at the Time when he was in
Paris: I wou'd not have it made Use of as an Umbrage for the Tongue of
Scandal to blast the Character of any one, a Stranger to such detested
Guilt."
Before long the term "secret history" fell into disrepute, so that
writers found it necessary to make a special plea for the veracity of
their work. "The Double Marriage," "The Mercenary Lover," and
"Persecuted Virtue" were distinguished as "true secret histories," and
in the Preface to "The Pair Hebrew: or, a True, but Secret History of
Two Jewish Ladies, Who lately resided in London" Mrs. Haywood at once
confessed the general truth of the charge against the type and defended
the accuracy of her own production.
"There are so many Things, meerly the Effect of Invention, which have
been published, of late, under the Title of SECRET HISTORIES, that, to
distinguish this, I am obliged to inform my Reader, that I have not
inserted one Incident which was not related to me by a Person nearly
concerned in the Family of that unfortunate Gentleman, who had no
other Consideration in the Choice of a Wife, than to gratify a present
Passion for the Enjoyment of her Beauty."
About 1729 Eliza Haywood seems to have found the word "Life" or
"Memoirs" on the title-page a more effective means for gaining the
credence of her readers, and after that time she wrote, in name at
least, no more secret histories. The fictions so denominated in "Secret
Histories, Novels and Poems" were in no way different from her novels,
and had only the slightest, if any, foundation in fact.
A novel actually based upon a real occurrence, however, is "Dalinda, or
the Double Marriage. Being the Genuine History of a very Recent, and
Interesting Adventure" (1749), not certainly known to have been written
by Mrs. Haywood, but bearing in the turns of expression, the letters,
and the moralized ending, almost indubitable marks of her handiwork. One
at least of her favorite quotations comes in at an appropriate point,
and the Preface to the Reader states that the author's sole design is to
show the danger of inadvertently giving way to the passions--a stock
phrase with the author of "Love in Excess." The "Monthly Review" informs
us that the story is "the affair betwixt Mr. Cresswell and Miss Scrope,
thrown into the form of a novel."[1] The situation is somewhat similar
to that described in "The Mercenary Lover."
Dalinda's unhappy passion for Malvolio incites him to ruin her, and
though he deludes her with an unregistered marriage at the Fleet, he has
no scruples against marrying the rich Flavilla. Wishing to possess both
Flavilla's fortune and Dalinda's charms, he effects a reconciliation
with the latter by promising to own their prior contract, but when he
comes out into the open and proposes to entertain her as a mistress, she
indignantly returns to her grandmother's house, where she summons her
brother and her faithful lover, Leander, to force her perfidious husband
to do her justice. The latter half of the novel is a tissue of intrigue
upon intrigue, with a complication of lawsuits and letters in which
Malvolio's villainy is fully exposed, and he is forced to separate from
Flavilla, but is unable to exert his claims upon Dalinda. She in turn
cannot wring from him any compensation, nor can she in conscience
recompense the faithful love of Leander while her husband is living.
Thus all parties are sufficiently unhappy to make their ways a warning
to the youth of both sexes.
Evidently the history, though indeed founded on fact, differs from the
works of Mrs. Haywood's imagination only in the tedious length of the
legal proceedings and the uncertainty of the outcome. The only reason
for basing the story on the villainy of Mr. Cresswell was to take
advantage of the momentary excitement over the scandal. A similar appeal
to the passion for diving into the intrigues of the great is apparent in
the title of a novel of 1744, "The Fortunate Foundlings: Being the
Genuine History of Colonel M----rs, and his Sister, Madame du P----y,
the issue of the Hon. Ch----es M----rs. Son of the late Duke of R----
L----D. Containing many wonderful Accidents that befel them in their
Travels, and interspersed with the Characters and Adventures of Several
Persons of Condition, in the most polite Courts of Europe." The Preface
after the usual assurances that the work is compiled from original
documents and is therefore more veracious than "the many Fictions which
have been lately imposed upon the World, under the specious Titles of
Secret Histories, Memoirs, &c," informs us that the purpose of the
publication is to encourage virtue in both sexes by showing the
amiableness of it in real characters. Instead of exposing vice in the
actions of particular persons, the book is a highly moral laudation of
those scions of the house of Manners whose names are adumbrated in the
title. It cannot, therefore, be classed as a scandal novel or secret
history.
The latter term, though loosely applied to the short tale of passion for
the purpose of stimulating public curiosity, meant strictly only that
type of pseudo-historical romance which interpreted actual history in
the light of court intrigue. In France a flood of histories, annals,
anecdotes, and memoirs,--secret, gallant, and above all true,--had been
pouring from the press since 1665. The writers of these works proceeded
upon the ostensible theory that secret history in recognizing woman's
influence upon the destiny of nations was more true than "pure" history,
which took into account only religious, political, social, or moral
factors in judging the conduct of kings and statesmen. Did not Anthony
suffer the world to slip from his fingers for the love of Cleopatra?
Although the grand romances had a little exhausted the vein of classical
material, Mme Durand-Bedacier and Mme de Villedieu compiled sundry
annals of Grecian and Roman gallantry.[2] But the cycle of French secret
history was much more extensive. Romancing historians ferreted out a
prodigious amount of intrigue in every court from that of Childeric to
Louis XIV, and set out to remodel the chronicle of the realm from the
standpoint of the heart. Nearly every reign and every romantic hero was
the subject of one or more "monographs," among which Mme de La Fayette's
"Princesse de Clèves" takes a prominent place. The thesaurus and omnium
gatherum of the genus was Sauval's "Intrigues galantes de la cour de
France" (1695), of which Dunlop remarks that "to a passion, which has,
no doubt, especially in France, had considerable effect in state
affairs, there is assigned ... a paramount influence." But romancers
with a nose for gallantry had no difficulty in finding material for
their pens in England during the times of Henry VIII, Elizabeth, and
Henrietta Maria. But most frequently of all was chosen the life of the
Queen of Scots.
From fifteen or sixteen French biographies of the romantic Mary[3] Mrs.
Haywood drew materials for an English work of two hundred and forty
pages. "Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots: Being the Secret History of her
Life, and the Real Causes of all Her Misfortunes. Containing a Relation
of many particular Transactions in her Reign; never yet Published in any
Collection" (1725) is distinguishable from her true fiction only by the
larger proportion of events between set scenes of burning passion which
formed the chief constituent of Eliza's romances. As history it is
worthless, and its significance as fiction lies merely in its attempt to
incorporate imaginative love scenes with historical fact. It was
apparently compiled hastily to compete with a rival volume, "The History
of the Life and Reign of Mary Stuart," published a week earlier, and it
enjoyed but a languid sale. Early in 1726 it passed into a second
edition, which continued to be advertised as late as 1743.
"Mary Stuart" is the only one of Mrs. Haywood's romances that strictly
deserves the name of secret history. But late in 1749 a little romance
that satisfied nearly all the conditions of the type insinuated itself
into the pamphlet shops without the agency of any publisher. "A Letter
from H--G--g, Esq. One of the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to the Young
Chevalier, and the only Person of his own Retinue that attended him from
Avignon, in his late Journey through Germany, and elsewhere; Containing
Many remarkable and affecting Occurrences which happened to the P----
during the course of his mysterious Progress" has been assigned to Mrs.
Haywood by the late Mr. Andrew Lang,[4] perhaps on the authority of the
notice in the "Monthly Review" already quoted.
The pretended author of the letter was a certain Henry Goring, a
gentleman known to be in attendance upon the last of the Stuarts. The
preface gives a commonplace explanation of how the letter fell into the
hands of the editor through a similarity of names. Apparently the
pamphlet was thought seditious because it eulogized the Young Chevalier,
hinting how advantageous it would be to have him on the throne. As the
secret journey progresses, the Prince has a chance to expose his
admirable political tenets in conversation with a nobleman of exalted
rank; in rescuing a young woman from a fire, caring for her in distress,
and refusing to take advantage of her passion for him, he gives evidence
of a morality not accorded him by history and proves "how fit he is to
govern others, who knows so well how to govern himself"; and when
assaulted by hired assassins, he manifests courage and coolness, killing
one of the bravos with his own hand. It is unnecessary to review the
various stages in the Pretender's travels, which are related with a
great air of mystery, but amount to nothing. The upshot is that the
Prince has not renounced all thoughts of filling the throne of his
ancestors, but has ends in view which the world knows nothing of and
which will surprise them all some day. Had the Prince shown himself more
susceptible to the charms of the merchants' daughters who fell in his
way, this bit of romancing might claim the doubtful distinction of being
Mrs. Haywood's only original secret history, but as it stands, no part
of the story has the necessary motivation by passion. The intrigue is
entirely political.
There would seem to be little dangerous stuff in this performance even
five years after the insurrection of 1745, but if as the "Monthly
Review" ill-naturedly hints, Eliza Haywood really suffered for her
supposed connection with it, the lesson was at any rate effectual, for
the small references to the P---- occasionally noticeable in her
previous works suddenly ceased, and thereafter the novelist scrupulously
refrained from mingling fiction and politics. Previously, however, she
had at least once attempted to write a political satire elaborately
disguised as a romance. In July, 1736, according to the list of books in
the "Gentleman's Magazine," numerous duodecimo volumes emanated from the
shop of S. Baker and were sold under the title of "Adventures of Eovaai,
Princess of Ijaveo. A Pre-Adamitical History. Interspersed with a great
Number of remarkable Occurrences, which happened, and may again happen,
to several Empires, Kingdoms, Republicks, and particular Great Men ...
Written originally in the Language of Nature, (of later Years but little
understood.) First translated into Chinese ... and now retranslated into
English, by the Son of a Mandarin, residing in London."[5]
After the introduction has given a fantastic account of the
Pre-Adamitical world, and explained with elaborate unconvincingness how
the manuscript of the book came into existence, the tale commences like
a moral allegory, but soon lapses into mere extravagant adventure.
Capable at all times of using a _deus ex machina_ as the readiest way of
solving a situation, Mrs. Haywood here makes immoderate use of magic
elements.
Eojaeu, King of Ijaveo, leaves to his daughter, Eovaai, a precious
jewel, upon the keeping of which her happiness depends. One day as she
is gazing at it in the garden, it slips from its setting and is carried
away by a little bird. Immediately the princess is forsaken by her
quarreling subjects and abandoned by her suitors, save only the wicked
Ochihatou, prime minister of the neighboring kingdom of Hypotofa, who
has gained ascendancy over his sovereign by black magic, caused the
promising young prince to be banished, and used his power to promote his
ambitions and lusts. By infernal agencies he conveys Eovaai to the
Hypotofan court, where he corrupts her mind and is about to triumph in
her charms when he is summoned to quell a political disturbance. The
princess, left languishing in a bower, is saved by her good Genius, who
enables her to discern the true deformity of her betrayer and to escape
to the castle of the good Alhahuza, and ultimately into the kingdom of
Oozoff, where Ochihatou's magic has no power over her. During her stay
there she listens to much political theorizing of a republican trend.
Ochihatou succeeds in kidnapping her, and she is only saved from his
loathed embraces by discovering one of his former mistresses in the form
of a monkey whom she manages to change back into human shape and
substitutes in her stead. While the statesman is employed as a lover,
the populace led by Alhahuza storm the palace. Ochihatou discovers the
trick that has been played upon him, hastily transforms his unlucky
mistress into a rat, and conveys himself and Eovaai through the air into
a kingdom near at hand, where he hopes to make head against the rebels.
His pretensions are encouraged, but learning by his magic that the
Hypotofan monarch has been freed from the power of his spells, he
persuades the princess to return to Ijaveo with him in hopes of
regaining her kingdom. He transforms her into a dove, himself into a
vulture, and flies with her to a wood near the Ijavean court. There he
restores their natural shapes and makes a base attack upon her honor. In
the struggle she manages to break his wand, and he in a fury hangs her
up by the hair and is about to scourge her to death, when she is rescued
by a glorious young stranger. The wicked Ochihatou dashes his brains out
against an oak. Her deliverer turns out to be the banished prince of
Hypotofa, who restores to her the lost jewel, weds her, and prosperously
governs their united realms.
The fantastic story, however, was probably little calculated to sell the
book. It was addressed to those who could read between the lines well
enough to discern particular personages in the characters of the
fiction, and especially a certain great man in the figure of the evil
prime minister.
In 1736 when Eliza's novel first appeared, Walpole's defeated Excise
Bill of 1733-4 and his policy of non-interference on the Continent had
made him cordially disliked by the people, and by 1741 his unpopular
ministry, like Lady Mary Montagu's stairs, was "in a declining way." Sir
Robert had never shown himself a friend to letters, and there were not a
few writers, among them one so illustrious as Henry Fielding, who were
ready to seize upon any pretext for attacking him.[6] There can be no
doubt that in the character of the villainous, corrupt, greedy, vain,
lascivious, but plausible Ochihatou Mrs. Haywood intended her readers to
recognize a semblance of the English minister. "Of all the statesmen who
have held high office, it would be impossible to find one who has been
more systematically abused and more unjustly treated than Sir Robert
Walpole.... He is the 'Father of Parliamentary Corruption,' the 'foe to
English liberty,' the 'man who maintained his power by the basest and
most venal tactics'.... Whenever his administration is alluded to in
Parliament a shudder runs through the House ... at the very thought that
one so sordid, so interested, so schemingly selfish, should have
attained to the position of Prime Minister, and have commanded a
following. If we read the pamphlet literature of the eighteenth century,
we see Walpole represented as the meanest and most corrupt of
mankind."[7] Lord Chesterfield says of him: "His prevailing weakness was
to be thought to have a polite and happy turn to gallantry, of which he
had undoubtedly less than any man living; it was his favorite and
frequent subject of conversation, which proved, to those who had any
penetration, that it was his prevailing weakness, and they applied to it
with success."[8] And Lord Hervey reports that the Queen remarked of
Walpole's mistress, "dear Molly Skerritt": "She must be a clever
gentlewoman to have made him believe she cares for him on any other
score [but his money]; and to show you what fools we all are in some
point or other, she has certainly told him some fine story or other of
her love and her passion, and that poor man--_avec ce gros corps, ces
jambes enflées, et ce vilain ventre_--believes her. Ah! what is human
nature!"[9]
With this sketch of Walpole compare the account of Ochihatou, Prime
Minister of Hypotofa. "This great Man was born of a mean Extraction, and
so deformed in his own Person, that not even his own Parents cou'd look
on him with Satisfaction.... As he was extremely amorous, and had so
little in him to inspire the tender Passion, the first Proof he gave of
his Art, was to ... cast such a Delusion before the Eyes of all who saw
him, that he appeared to them such as he wished to be, a most comely and
graceful Man.
"With this Advantage, join'd to the most soothing and insinuating
Behaviour, he came to Court, and, by his Artifices, so wound himself
into the Favour of some great Officers, that he was not long without
being put into a considerable Post. This he discharged so well, that he
was soon promoted to a better, and at length to those of the highest
Trust and Honour in the Kingdom. But that which was most remarkable in
him, and very much contributed to endear him to all Sorts of People, was
that his Elevation did not seem to have made the least Change in his
Sentiments. His natural Pride, his Lust, his exorbitant Ambition, were
disguised under the Appearance of Sweetness of Disposition, Chastity,
and even more Condescension, than was consistent with the Rank he then
possest. By this Behaviour, he render'd himself so far from exciting
Envy, that those, by whose Recommendation he had obtained what he
enjoy'd, and with some of whom he was now on more than an Equality,
wish'd rather to see an Augmentation, than Diminution of a Power he so
well knew to use; and so successful was his Hypocrisy, that the most
Discerning saw not into his Designs, till he found means to accomplish
them, to the almost total Ruin of both King and People."[10] Ochihatou
worms his way into the favor of the king, and after gaining complete
ascendancy over his royal master, uses the power for his own ends. He
fills the positions at court with wretches subservient to his own
interests. "He next proceeded to seize the publick Treasure into his own
Hands, which he converted not to Works of Justice or Charity, or any
Uses for the Honour of the Kingdom, but in building stately Palaces for
himself, his Wives, and Concubines, and enriching his mean Family, and
others who adhered to him, and assisted in his Enterprizes." Lest this
reference should not be plain enough in its application to Walpole's
extravagances at Houghton, Mrs. Haywood adds in a footnote, "Our Author
might have saved himself the Trouble of particularizing in what manner
Ochihatou apply'd the Nation's Money; since he had said enough in
saying, he was a _Prime Minister_, to make the Reader acquainted with
his Conduct in that Point." Further allusions to a standing army of
mercenaries and to an odious tribe of tax-collectors--two of the most
popular grievances against Walpole--give additional force to the satire.
There is a suspicion that in the character of the young prince banished
by Ochihatou readers of a right turn of mind were intended to perceive a
cautious allusion to the Pretender.
[Transcriber's note: Quotes in paragraph in original, not block quote.]
That Walpole not only perceived, but actively resented the affront, we
may infer, though evidence is lacking, from the six years of silence
that followed the publication of the satire. Perhaps the government saw
fit to buy off the troublesome author by a small appointment, but such
indulgent measures were not usually applied to similar cases. More
probably Eliza found it wise to seek in France or some neighboring
country the safety from the malignant power of the Prime Minister that
her heroine sought in the kingdom of Oozoff.
The "Adventures of Eovaai" contains almost the last of the dedications
written in a servile tone to a patron whose favor Mrs. Haywood hoped to
curry. Henceforward she was to be more truly a woman of letters in that
her books appealed ostensibly at least only to the reading public. The
victim of her final eulogy was the redoubtable Sarah, Duchess Dowager of
Marlborough, who, when finding herself addressed as "O most illustrious
Wife, and Parent of the Greatest, Best, and Loveliest! it was not
sufficient for you to adorn Posterity with the Amiableness of every
Virtue," etc., etc., may perhaps have recalled how her shining character
had been blackened some twelve years before in a licentious volume
called "Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent to the Kingdom of
Utopia."[11] Had her Grace been aware that the reputed author of that
comprehensive lampoon was none other than the woman who now outdid
herself in praise, Eliza Haywood would probably have profited little by
her panegyric. For though the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" like the
"Adventures of Eovaai" made a pretence of being translated into English
from the work of a celebrated Utopian author, the British public found
no difficulty in attributing it by popular acclaim to Mrs. Haywood, and
she reaped immense notoriety from it. In prefaces to some of her
subsequent works she complained of the readiness of the world to pick
meanings in whatever was published by a struggling woman, or protested
that she had no persons or families in view in writing her stories, but
she never disclaimed the authorship of this production. Undoubtedly the
world was right in "smoking" the writer.[12]
If before she had retailed secret histories of late amours singly, Mrs.
Haywood dealt in them now by the wholesale, and any reader curious to
know the identity of the personages hidden under such fictitious names
as Romanus, Beaujune, Orainos, Davilla, Flirtillaria, or Saloida could
obtain the information by consulting a convenient "key" affixed to each
of the two volumes. In this respect, as in the general scheme of her
work, Mrs. Haywood was following the model set by the celebrated Mrs.
Manley in her "New Atalantis." She in turn had derived her method from
the French _romans à clef_ or romances in which contemporary scandal was
reported in a fictitious disguise. The imitation written by Mrs. Haywood
became only less notorious than her original, and was still well enough
known in 1760 to be included in the convenient list of novels prefixed
to the elder Colman's "Polly Honeycombe." It consists of a tissue of
anecdotes which, if retold, would (in Fuller's words) "stain through the
cleanest language I can wrap them in," all set in an allegorical
framework of a commonplace kind.
A noble youth arrives upon the shores of a happy island [England], where
he encounters the God of Love, who conveys him to a spacious court in
the midst of the city. There Pecunia and Fortuna, served by their high
priest Lucitario [J. Craggs, the elder] preside over an Enchanted Well
[South Sea Company] while all degrees of humanity stand about in
expectation of some wonderful event. From amid the throng the God of
Love selects certain persons as examples of perverted love. The stories
he relates about them range from mere anecdotes to elaborate histories
containing several love-letters. In substance these tales consist of the
grossest scandal that could be collected from the gossip of profligate
society. After hearing more than a satiety of these illustrations, the
youth beholds the Genius of the Isle, supported by Astrea and Reason,
exposing the fraud of the Enchanted Well to the dismay of the greedy
rabble. The young stranger then sinks to rest in a perfumed bower, while
the God of Love and the Genius of the Isle set about a much needed
reformation of manners.
None of the skimmings of contemporary gossip poured out in the two
volumes deserves the least consideration, save such as reveal the fair
writer's relations with other authors. In return for Savage's eulogy of
her "Love in Excess" and "Rash Resolve" the scribbling dame included in
her scandal novel the story of his noble parentage substantially as it
had already been told by Aaron Hill in the "Plain Dealer" for 24 June,
1724. But in addition she prefaced the account with a highly colored
narrative of the amours of Masonia and Riverius.[13] However much the
author of "The Bastard" may have desired to prove his noble origin, he
might easily have resented a too open flaunting of his mother's
disgrace. Moreover, Mrs. Haywood hinted that his unfeeling mother was
not the only woman whom the poet had to fear. By the insinuations of a
female fury, a pretender to the art of poetry, for whom Eliza has no
words too black--in fact some of her epithets are too shady to be
quoted--he has been led into actions, mean, unjust, and wicked. The vile
woman, it seems, has been guilty of defaming the reputations of others.
"The Monster whose Soul is wholly compos'd of Hipocrisy, Envy, and Lust,
can ill endure another Woman should be esteem'd Mistress of those
Virtues she has acted with too barefaced an Impudence to pretend to, and
is never so happy as when by some horrid Stratagem she finds the means
to traduce and blast the Character of the Worthy.... With how much
readiness the easily deceiv'd Riverius [Savage] has obliged her in
spreading those Reports, coin'd in the hellish Mint of her own Brain, I
am sorry to say.... It cannot be doubted but that he has lost many
Friends on her account, in particular one there was who bore him a
singular Respect, tho' no otherways capacitated to serve him than by
good Wishes.--This Person receiv'd a more than common Injury from him,
thro' the Instigations of that female Fury; but yet continuing to
acknowledge his good Qualities, and pitying his falling into the
contrary, took no other Revenge than writing a little Satire, which his
having publish'd some admirable fine things in the praise of Friendship
and Honour, gave a handsome opportunity for." (Vol. I, p. 184.)
From the exceptional animus displayed by Eliza Haywood in describing her
colleague in the school for scandal, one may suspect that the lightning
had struck fairly near home. One is almost forced to believe that
Savage's well-wisher, the writer of the little satire, "To the Ingenious
Riverius, on his writing in the Praise of Friendship," was none other
than Eliza herself.[14] Exactly what injury she had sustained from him
and his Siren is not known, but although he still stood high in her
esteem, she was implacable against that "worse than Lais" whom in a long
and pungent description she satirized under the name of Gloatitia.
"Behold another ... in every thing as ridiculous, in some more vile--
that big-bone'd, buxom, brown Woman.... Of all the Gods there is none
she acknowledges but Phoebus, him she frequently implores for
assistance, to charm her Lovers with the Spirit of Poetry.... She
pretends, however, to have an intimate acquaintance with the Muses--
has judgment enough to know that _ease_ and _please_ make a Rhyme, and
to count ten Syllables on her Fingers.--This is the Stock with which
she sets up for a Wit, and among some ignorant Wretches passes for
such; but with People of true Understanding, nothing affords more
subject of ridicule, than that incoherent Stuff which she calls
Verses.--She bribed, with all the Favours she is capable of
conferring, a Bookseller [Curll] (famous for publishing soft things)
to print some of her Works, ["The Amours of Clio and Strephon," 1719]
on which she is not a little vain: tho' she might very well have
spared herself the trouble. Few Men, of any rank whatsoever, but have
been honour'd with the receipt of some of her Letters both in Prose
and Measure--few Coffee-Houses but have been the Repository of
them."[15]
The student of contemporary secret history does not need to refer to the
"key" to discover that the woman whose power to charm Savage was so
destructive to Eliza's peace of mind was that universal mistress of
minor poets, the Mira of Thomson, the Clio of Dyer and Hill, the famous
Martha Fowke, who at the time happened to have fixed the scandal of her
affections upon the Volunteer Laureate.[16] That the poet's opinion of
her remained unchanged by Mrs. Haywood's vituperation may be inferred
from some lines in her praise in a satire called "The Authors of the
Town," printed soon after the publication of "Memoirs of a Certain
Island."[17]
"Clio, descending Angels sweep thy Lyre,
Prompt thy soft Lays, and breathe Seraphic Fire.
Tears fall, Sighs rise, obedient to thy Strains,
And the Blood dances in the mazy Veins!....
In social Spirits, lead thy Hours along,
Thou Life of Loveliness, thou Soul of Song!"
But not content with singing the praises of her rival, Savage cast a
slur upon Mrs. Haywood's works and even upon the unfortunate dame
herself.
"First, let me view what noxious Nonsense reigns,
While yet I loiter on Prosaic Plains;
If Pens impartial active Annals trace,
Others, with secret Histr'y, Truth deface:
Views and Reviews, and wild Memoirs appear,
And Slander darkens each recorded year."
After relating at some length the typical absurdities of the _chronique
scandaleuse_--deaths by poison, the inevitably dropped letter, and
intrigues of passion and jealousy--he became more specific in describing
various authors. Among others
"A cast-off Dame, who of Intrigues can judge,
Writes Scandal in Romance--A Printer's Drudge!
Flush'd with Success, for Stage-Renown she pants,
And melts, and swells, and pens luxurious Rants."
The first two lines might apply to the notorious Mrs. Manley, lately
deceased, who had for some time been living as a hack writer for
Alderman Barber, but she had written no plays since "Lucius" in 1717.
Mrs. Haywood, however, equally a cast-off dame and a printer's drudge,
had recently produced her "Fair Captive," a most luxurious rant. The
passage, then, may probably refer to her.
If, as is possible, the poem was circulated in manuscript before its
publication, this intended insult may be the injury complained of by
Mrs. Haywood in "Memoirs of a Certain Island." Though she was content to
retaliate only by heaping coals of fire upon the poet's bays, and though
she even heightens the pathos of his story by relating how he had
refused the moiety of a small pension from his mother upon hearing that
she had suffered losses in the collapse of the South Sea scheme, Savage
remained henceforth her implacable enemy. Perhaps her abuse of the
divine Clio, the suspected instigator of his attacks upon her, may have
been an unforgivable offense.
No need to particularize further. We need not vex the shade of Addison
by repeating what Eliza records of his wild kinsman, Eustace Budgell
(Bellario). No other person of literary note save Aaron Hill, favorably
mentioned as Lauranus, appears in all the dreary two volumes. The vogue
of the book was not due to its merits as fiction, which are slight, but
to the spiciness of personal allusions. That such reading was
appreciated even in the highest circles is shown by young Lady Mary
Pierrepont's defence of Mrs. Manley's "New Atalantis."[18] In the
history of the novel, however, the _roman à clef_ deserves perhaps more
recognition than has hitherto been accorded it. Specific delineation was
necessary to make effective the satire, and though the presence of the
"key" made broad caricature possible, since each picture was labeled,
yet the writers of scandal novels usually drew their portraits with an
amount of detail foreign to the method of the romancers.[19] While the
tale of passion developed the novelist's power to make the emotions seem
convincing, the _chronique scandaleuse_ emphasized the necessity of
accurate observation of real men and women. But satire and libel, though
necessitating detailed description, did not, like burlesque or parody,
lead to the creation of character. In that respect the "Memoirs of a
Certain Island" and all its tribe are notably deficient.
A less comprehensive survey of current tittle-tattle, perhaps modeled on
Mrs. Manley's "Court Intrigues" (1711), stole forth anonymously on 16
October, 1724, under the caption, "Bath-Intrigues: in four Letters to a
Friend in London," a title which sufficiently indicates the nature of
the work. Like the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" these letters consist
of mere jottings of scandal. Most probably both productions were from
the same pen, though "Bath-Intrigues" has been attributed to Mrs.
Manley.[20] Opposite the title-page Roberts, the publisher, advertised
"The Masqueraders," "The Fatal Secret," and "The Surprise" as by the
same author. One of Mrs. Haywood's favorite quotations, used by her
later as a motto for the third volume of "The Female Spectator," stands
with naïve appropriateness on the title-page:
"There is a Lust in Man, no Awe can tame,
Of loudly publishing his Neighbor's Shame."
The writer of "Bath-Intrigues," moreover, did not hesitate to recommend
Eliza's earlier novels to the good graces of scandal-loving readers, for
she describes a certain letter as "amorous as Mrs. O--- F---d's Eyes,
or the Writings of the Author of Love in Excess." Most curious of all is
the fact that the composer of the four letters, who signs herself J.B.,
refers _en passant_ to Belinda's inconstancy to Sir Thomas Worthly, an
allusion to the story of the second part of "The British Recluse." This
reference would indicate either that there was some basis of actuality
in the earlier fiction, or that Mrs. Haywood was using imaginary scandal
to pad her collection. However that may be, this second _chronique
scandaleuse_ was apparently no less successful, though less renowned,
than the first, for a third edition was imprinted during the following
March.
The scribbling dame again used the feigned letter as a vehicle for
mildly infamous gossip in "Letters from the Palace of Fame. Written by a
First Minister in the Regions of Air, to an Inhabitant of this World.
Translated from an Arabian Manuscript."[21] Its pretended source and the
sham Oriental disguise make the work an unworthy member of that group of
feigned Oriental letters begun by G.P. Marana with "L'Espion turc" in
1684, continued by Dufresny and his imitator, T. Brown, raised to a
philosophic level by Addison and Steele, and finally culminant in
Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes" (1721) and Goldsmith's "Citizen of the
World" (1760).[22] The fourth letter is a well-told Eastern adventure,
dealing with the revenge of Forzio who seduces the wife of his enemy,
Ben-hamar, through the agency of a Christian slave, but in general the
"Letters" are valuable only as they add an atom of evidence to the
popularity of pseudo-Oriental material. Eliza Haywood was anxious to
give the public what it wanted. She had found a ready market for
scandal, and knew that the piquancy of slander was enhanced and the
writer protected from disagreeable consequences if her stories were cast
in some sort of a disguise. She had already used the obvious ruse of an
allegory in the "Memoirs of a Certain Island" and had just completed a
feigned history in the "Court of Carimania." The well known "Turkish
Spy" and its imitations, or perhaps the recent but untranslated "Lettres
Persanes," may have suggested to her the possibility of combining bits
of gossip in letters purporting to be translated from the Arabic and
written by some supermundane being. The latter part of the device had
already been used by Defoe in "The Consolidator." Mrs. Haywood merely
added the suggestion of a mysterious Oriental source. She makes no
attempt to satirize contemporary society, but is content to retail vague
bits of town talk to customers who might be deluded into imagining them
of importance. "The new created Vizier," the airy correspondent reports,
"might have succeeded better in another Post, than in this, which with
so much earnestness he has sollicited. For, notwithstanding the Plaudits
he has received from our Princess, and the natural Propensity to
State-Affairs, given him by his Saturnine Genius; his Significator Mars
promis'd him greater Honours in the Field, than he can possibly attain
to in the Cabinet." And so on. Both "Bath-Intrigues" and "Letters from
the Palace of Fame" may be classed as _romans à clef_ although no "key"
for either has yet been found. In all other respects they conform to
type.
The only one of Mrs. Haywood's scandal novels that rivaled the fame of
her "Memoirs of a Certain Island" was the notorious "Secret History of
the Present Intrigues of the Court of Carimania" (1727), a feigned
history on a more coherent plan than the allegorical hodge-podge of the
former compilation. The incidents in this book are all loosely connected
with the amours of Theodore, Prince of Carimania, with various beauties
of this court. The chronicle minutely records the means he employed to
overcome their scruples, to stifle their jealousies and their
reproaches, and finally to extricate himself from affairs of gallantry
grown tedious. Nearly all the changes are rung on the theme of amorous
adventure in describing the progress of the royal rake and his
associates. The "key"[23] at the end identifies the characters with
various noble personages at the court of George II when Prince of Wales.
The melting Lutetia, for instance, represented "Mrs. Baladin" or more
accurately Mary Bellenden, maid of honor to the Princess, to whose
charms Prince George was in fact not insensible. Barsina and Arilla were
also maids of honor: the former became the second wife of John, Duke of
Argyle (Aridanor), while the latter was that sister of Sir Sidney
Meadows celebrated by Pope for her prudence. Although the "key"
discreetly refrained from identifying the amorous Theodore, no great
penetration was necessary to see in his character a picture of the royal
George himself. A tradition not well authenticated but extremely
probable states that printer and publisher were taken up in consequence
of this daring scandal.
But more important in its effect upon the author's fortunes than any
action of the outraged government was the resentment which her
defamation of certain illustrious persons awakened in the breast of the
dictator of letters. In chosing [Transcriber's note: sic] to expose in
the character of her chief heroine, Ismonda, the foibles of Mrs.
Henrietta Howard, the neighbor of Pope, the friend of Swift and
Arbuthnot, and the admired of Lord Peterborough, Mrs. Haywood made
herself offensive in the nostrils of the literary trio. The King's
mistress, later the Countess of Suffolk, conducted herself with such
propriety that her friends affected to believe that her relations with
her royal lover were purely platonic, and they naturally failed to
welcome the chronicle of her amours and the revelation of the slights
which George II delighted to inflict upon her. Swift described the
writer of the scandal as a "stupid, infamous, scribbling woman";[24]
Peterborough writing to Lady Mary Montagu in behalf of his friend, the
English Homer, sneered at the "four remarkable poetesses and scribblers,
Mrs. Centlivre, Mrs. Haywood, Mrs. Manley, and Mrs. Ben [_sic_]";[25]
and Pope himself pilloried the offender to all time in his greatest
satire.
FOOTNOTES
[1]
_Monthly Review_, I, 238. July, 1749.
[2]
Mme de Villedieu, _Annales galantes de Grece_ and _Les exiles de la cour
d'Auguste_. Mme Durand-Bedacier, _Les belles Grecques, ou l'histoire des
plus fameuses courtisanes de la Grece._
[3]
B.M. Catalogue.
[4]
A. Lang, _History of English Literature_ (1912), 458. See _ante_, p. 25.
[5]
Re-issued as _The Unfortunate Princess, or, the Ambitious Statesman_,
1741.
[6]
J.E. Wells, _Fielding's Political Purpose in Jonathan Wilde_, PMLA,
XXVIII, No. I, pp. 1-55. March, 1913. See also _The Secret History of
Mama Oello_, 1733. "The Curaca Robilda's Character [i.e. Sir Robert
Walpole's] will inform you that there were Evil Ministers even amongst
the simple Indians" ... and _The Statesman's Progress: Or, Memoirs of
the Life, Administration, and Fall of Houly Chan, Primier Minister to
Abensader, Emperor of China_ (1733).
[7]
A.C. Ewald, _Sir Robert Walpole_ (1878), 444.
[8]
A.C. Ewald, _Sir Robert Walpole_, 450.
[9]
Lord Hervey's _Memoirs_, London, 1884, II, 143.
[10]
_The Unfortunate Princess_, 18, etc.
[11]
_Memoirs of a Certain Island_, II, 249. "Marama [the Duchess of
Marlborough] has been for many Years a Grandmother; but Age is the
smallest of her Imperfections:--She is of a Disposition so perverse and
peevish, so designing, mercenary, proud, cruel, and revengeful, that it
has been a matter of debate, if she were really Woman, or if some Fiend
had not assumed that Shape on purpose to affront the Sex, and fright
Mankind from Marriage."
[12]
J. Nichols, _Literary Anecdotes_, III, 649, records the tradition that
Chapman was the publisher of Mrs. Haywood's _Utopia_.
[13]
Anne Mason, formerly Lady Macclesfield, and the Earl of Rivers, whom
Savage claimed as his father.
[14]
She had a way of rechristening her friends by romantic titles. See her
poem, "To Mr. Walter Bowman ... Occasion'd by his objecting against my
giving the Name of Hillarius to Aaron Hill, Esq."
[15]
_Memoirs of a Certain Island_, I, 43-7 condensed.
[16]
For an account of Clio see an article by Bolton Corney, "James Thomson
and David Mallet," _Athenaeum_, II, 78, 1859. And Miss Dorothy Brewster,
_Aaron Hill_, 188. Her unsavory biography entitled _Clio, or a Secret
History of the Amours of Mrs. S-n--m_, was still known at the time of
_Polly Honeycombe_, 1760.
[17]
_The Authors of the Town; a Satire. Inscribed to the Author of the
Universal Passion_. For J. Roberts, 1725. A number of lines from this
poem appear later in Savage's "On False Historians," _Poems_ (Cooke's
ed.), II, 189.
[18]
_Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Everyman edition, 4.
[19]
Compare the picture of Gloatitia, for instance, with the following of a
lady in _La Belle 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-Intrigues_ was
included in Mrs. Haywood's Works, 1727. Another work contained in the
same two volumes, _The Perplex'd Duchess; or, Treachery Rewarded: Being
some Memoirs of the Court of Malfy. In a Letter from a Sicilian
Nobleman, who had his Residence there, to his Friend in London_ (1728),
may be a scandal novel, though the title suggests a reworking of
Webster's _Duchess of Malfi_. I have not seen the book.
[21]
Ascribed to Mrs. Haywood in the advertisements of her additional
_Works_, 1727. The B.M. copy, catalogued under "Ariel," contains only a
fragment of 24 pages.
[22]
Miss M.P. Conant, _The Oriental Tale in England in the Eighteenth
Century (1908), passim._
[23]
The "key" is almost the sole contribution to Mrs. Haywood's bibliography
in Bohn's Lowndes. Most of the personages mentioned are described in the
notes of John Wilson Croker's _Letters to and from the Countess of
Suffolk_ (1824).
[24]
The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, ed. by F. Elrington Ball (1913),
Vol. IV, 264, 266. The Countess of Suffolk, in a playful attack on
Swift, wrote (25 Sept. 1731) ... "I should not have despaired, that ...
this Irish patriot ... should have closed the scene under suspicions of
having a violent passion for Mrs. Barber, and Lady M---- [Montagu] or
Mrs. Haywood have writ the progress of it." In reply Swift wrote (26
Oct. 1731) that he could not guess who was intended by Lady M---- and
that he had heard Mrs. Haywood characterized in the terms quoted above.
[25]
Elwin and Courthope's _Pope_, III, 279.