The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood | Page 6

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"Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier" Chetwood had also
advertised for speedy publication "a Book entitled, The Danger of
giving way to Passion, in Five Exemplary Novels: First, The British

Recluse, or the Secret History of Cleomira, supposed dead. Second,
The Injur'd Husband, or the Mistaken Resentment. Third, Lasselia, or
the Unfortunate Mistress. Fourth, The Rash Resolve, or the Untimely
Discovery. Fifth, Idalia, or the Self-abandon'd.[19] Written by Mrs.
Eliza Haywood." During the next three years the five novels were
issued singly by Chetwood with the help of other booksellers, usually
Daniel Browne, Jr., and Samuel Chapman. This pair, or James Roberts,
Chetwood's successor, published most of Mrs. Haywood's early
writings. The staple of her output during the first decade of authorship
was the short amatory romance like "Love in Excess" and the
"exemplary novels" just mentioned. These exercises in fiction were
evidently composed _currente calamo_, with little thought and less
revision, for an eager and undiscriminating public. Possibly, as Mr.
Gosse conjectures,[20] they were read chiefly by milliners and other
women on the verge of literacy. But though persons of solid education
avoided reading novels and eastern tales as they might the drinking of
drams, it is certain that no one of scanty means could have afforded
Mrs. Haywood's slender octavos at the price of one to three shillings.
The Lady's Library ("Spectator" No. 37) containing beside numerous
romances "A Book of Novels" and "The New Atalantis, with a Key to
it," which last Lady Mary Montagu also enjoyed, and the dissolute
country-gentleman's daughters ("Spectator" No. 128) who "read
Volumes of Love-Letters and Romances to their Mother," a
_ci-devant_ coquette, give us perhaps a more accurate idea of the
woman novelist's public. Doubtless Mrs. Haywood's wares were known
to the more frothy minds of the polite world and to the daughters of
middle-class trading families, such as the sisters described in Defoe's
"Religious Courtship," whose taste for fashionable plays and novels
was soon to call the circulating library into being.
Beside the proceeds arising from the sale of her works, Mrs. Haywood
evidently expected and sometimes received the present of a guinea or
so in return for a dedication. Though patrons were not lacking for her
numerous works, it does not appear that her use of their names was
always authorized. In putting "The Arragonian Queen" under the
protection of Lady Frances Lumley, in fact, the author confessed that
she had not the happiness of being known to the object of her praise,

but wished to be the first to felicitate her publicly upon her nuptials.
We may be sure that the offering of "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-
Lunenburgh" to the hero's namesake, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was
both unsanctioned and unacknowledged. Sometimes, however, the
writer's language implies that she had already experienced the bounty
of her patron, while in the case of the novel dedicated to Sir Richard
Steele at a time when his health and credit were fast giving way, Eliza
can hardly be accused of interested motives. Apparently sincere, too,
though addressed to a wealthy widow, was the tribute to Lady
Elizabeth Germain prefixed to "The Fruitless Enquiry"; and at least one
other of Mrs. Haywood's productions is known to have been in Lady
Betty's library. But these instances are decidedly exceptional. Usually
the needy novelist's dedications were made up of servile adulation and
barefaced begging. With considerable skill in choosing a favorable
moment she directed a stream of panegyric upon William Yonge (later
Sir) within two months after his appointment as one of the
commissioners of the treasury in Great Britain. Soon after Sir Thomas
Lombe was made a knight, the wife of that rich silk weaver had the
pleasure of seeing her virtues and her new title in print. And most
remarkable of all, Lady Elizabeth Henley, who eloped with a rake early
in 1728, received Mrs. Haywood's congratulations upon the event in the
dedication of "The Agreeable Caledonian," published in June, though if
we may trust Mrs. Delany's account of the matter, the bride must
already have had time for repentance. Even grief, the specialist in the
study of the passions knew, might loosen the purse strings, and
accordingly she took the liberty to condole with Col. Stanley upon the
loss of his wife while entreating his favor for "The Masqueraders." But
of all her dedications those addressed to her own sex were the most
melting, and from their frequency were evidently the most fruitful.
The income derived from patronage, however, was at best uncertain
and necessitated many applications. To the public, moreover, a novel
meant nothing if not something new. Eliza Haywood's productiveness,
therefore, was enormous. When she had settled to her work, the
authoress could produce little pieces, ranging from sixty to nearly two
hundred pages in