The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood

by George Frisbie Whicher

[13] The Fortunate Mistress; or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau…. London: Printed for E. Applebee. 1740. p. 359. Pp. 300-59 are taken from The British Recluse.

CHAPTER IV

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."