The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood

The Life and Romances of Mrs.
Eliza Haywood

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Title: The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood
Author: George Frisbie Whicher
Release Date: January 31, 2004 [EBook #10889]
Language: English
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THE LIFE AND ROMANCES OF
MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD
BY
GEORGE FRISBIE WHICHER, PH.D.
INSTRUCTOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

1915

_This Monograph has been approved by the Department of English and
Comparative Literature in Columbia University as a contribution to
knowledge worthy of publication._
A. H. THORNDIKE,
Executive Officer

PREFACE
The purpose of the following study is not to revive the reputation of a
forgotten author or to suggest that Mrs. Haywood may yet "come into
her own." For the lover of eighteenth century fashions her numerous
pages have indeed a stilted, early Georgian charm, but with the passing
of Ramillies wigs and velveteen small-clothes the popularity of her
novels vanished once for all. She had her world in her time, but that
world and time disappeared with the French Revolution [a]. Now even
professed students of the novel shrink from reading many of her
seventy odd volumes, nor can the infamous celebrity conferred by
Pope's attack in "The Dunciad" save her name from oblivion. But the
significance of Mrs. Haywood's contributions cannot safely be ignored.
Her romances of palpitating passion written between 1720 and 1730
formed a necessary complement to Defoe's romances of adventure
exactly as her Duncan Campbell pamphlets supplied the one element
lacking in his. The domestic novels of her later life foreshadowed the
work of Miss Burney and Miss Austen, while her career as a woman of
letters helped to open a new profession to her sex. Since even the
weakest link in the development of a literary form is important, I have
endeavored to provide future historians of English fiction with a
compact and accurate account of this pioneer "lady novelist."
Hitherto the most complete summary of Mrs. Haywood's life and
writings has been Sir Sidney Lee's article in the "Dictionary of National
Biography," which adds much information not found in the earlier
notices in Baker's "Biographia Dramatica" and Chalmers' "Biographical
Dictionary." The experienced palates of Mr. Edmund Gosse and Mr.
Austin Dobson have tested the literary qualities respectively of the

earlier and later aspects of her work. Professor Walter Raleigh, Dr.
Charlotte E. Morgan, and Professor Saintsbury have briefly estimated
the importance of her share in the change from romance to novel.
Perhaps the main reason for the inadequacy of these notices lies in the
fact that no one library contains anything like a complete collection of
Mrs. Haywood's innumerable books. In pursuit of odd items I have
ransacked the British Museum, the Bodleian, and several minor literary
museums in England, and in America the libraries of Columbia,
Harvard, Yale, and Brown Universities, the Peabody Institute, and the
University of Chicago. The search has enabled me to correct many
inaccuracies in Miss Morgan's tentative list of prose fiction and even to
supplement Mr. Esdaile's admirable "List of English Tales and Prose
Romances printed before 1740," which mentions only works now
extant in British libraries.
In the Bibliography I have adopted an alphabetical arrangement as most
convenient for ready reference. Under the various editions of each book
I have referred to libraries, English or American, where copies are to be
found. Or when no copy was to be had, I have referred to
advertisements, either in the newspapers of the Burney Collection, in
the "Gentleman's Magazine," the "Monthly," or the "Critical," or in the
catalogues of modern booksellers. In the Chronological List I have
dated each work from the earliest advertisement of its publication.
Naturally I have incurred obligations to scholars who have previously
passed over the same little-cultivated territory. Mr. Arundell Esdaile of
the British Museum staff both facilitated the course of my
investigations in England by valuable suggestions and cheered it by his
cordial hospitality. To Professors R.P. Utter of Amherst, J.M. Clapp of
Lake Forest College, A.H. Upham of Miami University, and A.H.
Thorndike of Columbia I am indebted for friendly advice,
encouragement, and helpful criticism. And above all my thanks are due
to Professor W.P. Trent, whose love of eighteenth century letters
suggested the subject of this research, whose sage and kindly
supervision fostered the work through every stage in