The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood | Page 2

its development,
and for whose forthcoming "Life and Times of Daniel Defoe" this
monograph is intended as a footnote.
G.F.W.
URBANA, ILLINOIS.

[a] Through the kindness of Professor J.M. Clapp I am provided with
the following evidence of the decline of Eliza Haywood's popularity. In
W. Bent's General Catalogue of Books (1786) fourteen of her
productions are advertised, namely: _Works_, 4 vols; _Clementina;
Dalinda; Epistles for the Ladies; La Belle Assemblée; Female Spectator;
Fortunate Foundlings; Fruitless Enquiry; Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy;
Betsy Thoughtless; The Husband; Invisible Spy; Life's Progress
through the Passions; Virtuous Villager_. In 1791 only
four--_Clementina; Dalinda; Female Spectator; Jemmy and Jenny
Jessamy_--appeared in Bent's _London Catalogue_, and of these the
first two had fallen in value from 3/6 to 3 shillings.

CONTENTS
I. ELIZA HAYWOOD'S LIFE
II. SHORT ROMANCES OF PASSION
III. THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS
IV. SECRET HISTORIES AND SCANDAL NOVELS
V. THE HEROINE OF "THE DUNCIAD"
VI. LETTERS AND ESSAYS
VII. LATER FICTION: THE DOMESTIC NOVEL
VIII. CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST
INDEX

THE LIFE AND ROMANCES OF MRS. ELIZA HAYWOOD

CHAPTER I
ELIZA HAYWOOD'S LIFE
Autobiography was almost the only form of writing not attempted by
Eliza Haywood in the course of her long career as an adventuress in
letters. Unlike Mme de Villedieu or Mrs. Manley she did not publish
the story of her life romantically disguised as the Secret History of
Eliza, nor was there One of the Fair Sex (real or pretended) to chronicle

her "strange and surprising adventures" or to print her passion-stirring
epistles, as had happened with Mrs. Aphra Behn's fictitious exploits
and amorous correspondence[1]. Indeed the first biographer of Mrs.
Haywood[2] hints that "from a supposition of some improper liberties
being taken with her character after death by the intermixture of truth
and falsehood with her history," the apprehensive dame had herself
suppressed the facts of her life by laying a "solemn injunction on a
person who was well acquainted with all the particulars of it, not to
communicate to any one the least circumstance relating to her." The
success of her precaution is evident in the scantiness of our information
about her. The few details recorded in the "Biographia Dramatica" can
be amplified only by a tissue of probabilities. Consequently Mrs.
Haywood's one resemblance to Shakespeare is the obscurity that covers
the events of her life.
She was born in London, probably in 1693, and her father, a man by
the name of Fowler, was a small shop-keeper.[3] She speaks vaguely of
having received an education beyond that afforded to the generality of
her sex. Her marriage to Valentine Haywood,[4] a clergyman at least
fifteen years older than his spouse, took place before she was twenty,
for the Register of St. Mary Aldermary records on 3 December, 1711,
the christening of Charles, son of Valentine Haywood, clerk, and
Elizabeth his wife. Her husband held at this time a small living in
Norfolk, and had recently been appointed lecturer of St. Mathews,
Friday Street. Whether the worthy cleric resided altogether in London
and discharged his duties in the country by proxy, or whether Mrs.
Haywood, like Tristram Shandy's mother, enjoyed the privilege of
coming to town only on certain interesting occasions, are questions
which curious research fails to satisfy. At any rate, one of the two
children assigned to her by tradition was born, as we have seen, in
London.
No other manifestation of their nuptial happiness appeared until 7
January, 1721, on which date the "Post Boy" contained an
Advertisement of the elopement of Mrs. Eliz. Haywood, wife of Rev.
Valentine Haywood.[5] The causes of Eliza's flight are unknown. Our
only knowledge of her temperament in her early life comes from a

remark by Nichols that the character of Sappho in the "Tatler"[6] may
be "assigned with ...probability and confidence, to Mrs. Elizabeth
Heywood, who ...was in all respects just such a character as is exhibited
here." Sappho is described by Steele as "a fine lady, who writes verses,
sings, dances, and can say and do whatever she pleases, without the
imputation of any thing that can injure her character; for she is so well
known to have no passion but self-love, or folly but affectation, that
now, upon any occasion, they only cry, 'It is her way!' and 'That is so
like her!' without farther reflection." She quotes a "wonderfully just"
passage from Milton, calls a licentious speech from Dryden's "State of
Innocence" an "odious thing," and says "a thousand good things at
random, but so strangely mixed, that you would be apt to say, all her
wit is mere good luck, and not the effect of reason and judgment." In
the second paper Sappho quotes examples of generous love from
Suckling and Milton, but takes offence at a letter containing some
sarcastic remarks on married women.