"Lewis Theobald to Mrs Heywood, as a testimony of his esteem, presents this book called The Dunciad, and acquaints her that Mr. Pope, by the profits of its publication, saved his library, wherein unpawned much learned lumber lay."[15]
shows that the two victims of Pope's most bitter satire felt a sort of companionship in misfortune. But there is no evidence to show that Eliza took any part in the War of the Dunces.
But that the immortal infamy heaped upon her by "The Dunciad" injured her prospects cannot be doubted. She was far from being a "signal illustration of the powerlessness of this attack upon the immediate fortunes of those assailed," as Professor Lounsbury describes her.[16] It is true that she continued to write, though with less frequency than before, and that some of her best-sellers were produced at a time when Pope's influence was at its height, but that the author was obliged to take extreme measures to avoid the ill consequences of the lampoon upon her may be proved by comparing the title-pages of her earlier and later novels.
Before the publication of "The Dunciad" the adventuress in letters had enjoyed a large share of popularity. Most of her legitimate works were advertised as "Written by Mrs. Eliza Haywood" and bore her name in full prominently displayed on the title-page. That her signature possessed a distinct commercial value in selling popular fiction was amusingly illustrated by a bit of literary rascality practiced in 1727, when Arthur Bettesworth, the bookseller, issued a chapbook called "The Pleasant and Delightful History of Gillian of Croydon." After a long summary of the contents in small type came the statement, "The Whole done much after the same Method as those celebrated Novels, By Mrs. ELIZA HAYWOOD," the forged author's name being emphasized in the largest possible type in the hope that a cursory glance at the title-page might deceive a prospective buyer.[17] Of her forty publications before 1728 only fifteen, of which five from their libelous nature could not be acknowledged, failed to sail openly under her colors. Only once did she employ any sort of pseudonym, and only in one case was her signature relegated to the end of the dedication.[18] A word of scorn from the literary dictator, however, was enough to turn the taste of the town, not indeed away from sensational and scandalous fictions, but away from the hitherto popular writer of them. Eliza Haywood was no longer a name to conjure with; her reputation was irretrievably gone. It was no unusual thing in those days for ladies in semi-public life to outlive several reputations. The quondam Clio had already found the notoriety of that name too strong for her comfort, and had been rechristened Mira by the dapper Mr. Mallet.[19] Instead of adopting some such expedient Mrs. Haywood found it more convenient simply to lapse into anonymity. Of the four novels published within a year after "The Dunciad" none bore her name on the title-page, though two had signed dedications and the others were advertised as by her. Not one of them was re-issued. The tragedy "Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh," known to be of her make, was a complete failure, and "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) with "Collected by Mrs. Eliza Haywood" on the title-page never reached a second edition. Both her translations from the French, "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" (1734) and "The Virtuous Villager" (1742), were acknowledged at the end of the dedications, and both were unsuccessful, although the anonymous predecessor of the former, "La Belle Assemblee" (1725), ran through eight editions. The single occurrence of Mrs. Haywood's name on a title-page after 1730, if we except the two reprints of "Secret Histories," was when the unacknowledged "Adventures of Eovaai" (1736) re-appeared five years later as "The Unfortunate Princess" with what seems to be a "fubbed" title-page for which the author was probably not responsible. And the successful works referred to by Professor Lounsbury were all either issued without any signature or under such designations as "the Author of the Fortunate Foundlings," or "Mira, one of the Authors of the Female Spectator," or "Exploralibus," so that even the reviewers sometimes appeared to be ignorant of the writer's identity.
Moreover, Mrs. Haywood's re-establishment as an anonymous author seems to have been a work of some difficulty, necessitating a ten years' struggle against adversity. Between 1731 and 1741 she produced fewer books than during any single year of her activity after the publication of "Idalia" and before "The Dunciad." Her probable share in the "Secret Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbel" was merely that of a hack writer, her contributions to the "Opera of Operas" were of the most trifling nature, and the two volumes of "L'Entretien des Beaux Esprits" were not original. For six years after the "Adventures of Eovaai" she sent to press no work now known to be hers, and not until the catch-penny "Present for a Servant-Maid" (1743) and the anonymous "Fortunate Foundlings" (1744) did her wares again attain the popularity of several editions. All due credit must be allowed Mrs. Haywood for her persistent efforts to regain her footing as a woman of letters, for during this time she had little encouragement. Pope's attack did destroy her best asset, her growing reputation as an author, but instead of following Savage's ill-natured advice to turn washerwoman, she remained loyal to her profession and in her later novels gained greater success than she had ever before enjoyed. But it was only her dexterity that saved her from literary annihilation.[20]
The lesson of her hard usage at the hands of Pope and his allies, however, was not lost upon the adaptable dame. After her years of silence Mrs. Haywood seems to have returned to the production of perishable literature with less inclination for gallantry than she had evinced in her early romances. Warm-blooded creature though she was, Eliza could not be insensible to the cooling effect of age, and perhaps, too, she perceived the more sober moral taste of the new generation. "In the numerous volumes which she gave to the world towards the latter part of her life," says the "Biographia Dramatica," somewhat hastily, "no author has appeared more the votary of virtue, nor are there any novels in which a stricter purity, or a greater delicacy of sentiment, has been preserved." Without discussing here the comparative decency of Mrs. Haywood's later novels, we may admit at once, with few allowances for change of standard, the moral excellence of such works as "The Female Spectator" and "Epistles for the Ladies." Certainly if the penance paid by the reader is any test, the novelist was successful in her effort to atone for the looseness of her early writings, when she left the province of fiction for that of the periodical essay.
FOOTNOTES [1] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 4.
[2] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 135, note 3.
[3] Elwin and Courthope's Pope, IV, 141.
[4] Elwin and Courthope 's Pope, IV, 232. Professor Lounsbury has apparently confused this work with A Cursory View of the History of Lilliput For these last forty three Years, 8vo,1727, a political satire containing no allusion to Pope. See The Text of Shakespeare, 287.