"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.