"In the very first she plainly discovers the Agitation of her Spirits, confesses she knows herself in the wrong, and that every Expression her Tenderness forces from her, is a Stab to her Peace; she dreads the Effects of her Lover's too powerful Attractions, doubts her own Strength of resisting such united Charms as she finds in him, and trembles at the Apprehensions, that by some unlucky Accident the Secret should be known. Every thing alarms her … 'Tis impossible to be conscious of any thing we wish to conceal, without suspecting the most undesigning Words and Actions as Snares laid to entrap us … So this unfortunate Lady, divided between Excess of Love, and Nicety of Honour, could neither resolve to give a loose to the one, nor entirely obey the Precepts of the other, but suffered herself to be tossed alternately by both. And tho the Person she loved was most certainly (if such a thing can be) deserving all the Condescensions a Woman could make, by his Assiduity, Constancy, and Gratitude, yet it must be a good while before she could receive those Proofs; and the Disquiets she suffered in that time of Probation, were, I think, if no worse ensued, too dear a Price for the Pleasure of being beloved by the most engaging and most charming of his Sex."
The "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature," from which the above quotation is taken, makes no attempt to consider other series of amorous letters, but proceeds to enforce by platitudes and scraps of poetry the only too obvious moral of the lady of quality's correspondence. The author remembers how "a Lady of my Acquaintance, perhaps not without reason, fell one day, as she was sitting with me, into this Poetical Exclamation:
'The Pen can furrow a fond Female's Heart,
And pierce it more than Cupid's talk'd-of Dart:
Letters, a kind of Magick Virtue have,
And, like strong Philters, human Souls enslave!'"
After thirty pages of moralizing the writer comes to a conclusion with the reflection, a commonplace of her novels, that "if the little I have done, may give occasion to some abler Pen to expose [such indiscretions] more effectually, I shall think myself happy in having given a hint, which improv'd, may be of so general a Service to my Sex." But the impression left by this and others of Mrs. Haywood's works is that the fair novelist was not so much interested in preventing the inadvertencies of her sex as in exposing them.
The tender passion was still the theme in "Love-Letters on All Occasions Lately passed between Persons of Distinction," which contains a number of letters, mainly disconnected, devoted to the warmer phases of gallantry. Some are essays in little on definite subjects: levity, sincerity, the pleasures of conjugal affection, insensibility, and so on. Most of them, however, are occasional: "Strephon to Dalinda, on her forbidding him to speak of Love," "Orontes to Deanira, entreating her to give him a meeting," and many others in which both the proper names and the situations suggest the artificial romances. None of the missives reveals emotions of any but the most tawdry romantic kind, warm desires extravagantly uttered, conventional doubts, causeless jealousies, and petty quarrels. Like Mrs. Behn's correspondence with the amorous Van Bruin these epistles have nothing to distinguish them except their excessive hyperbole. There is one series of twenty-four connected letters on the model of "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," relating the love story of Theano and Elismonda, but in the course of the whole correspondence nothing more momentous occurs than the lover's leaving town. Indeed so imperceptible is the narrative element in Mrs. Haywood's epistolary sequences that they can make no claim to share with the anonymous love story in letters entitled "Love's Posy" (1686), with the "Letters Written By Mrs. Manley" (1696),[4] or with Tom Brown's "Adventures of Lindamira" (1702) in twenty-four letters, the honor of having anticipated Richardson's method of telling a story in epistolary form.[5]
Even after the publication of "Pamela" and "Clarissa" Mrs. Haywood failed to realize the narrative possibilities of consecutive letters, for "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) hardly contains three missives on any one theme. Though the collection is not free from letters in the vein of gallantry, the emphasis on the whole is decidedly changed. There are few attempts to exploit the emotions by describing the palpitations of injured beauty or the expostulations and vows of love-sick cavaliers. Instead Aminta is praised for enduring with unusual self-possession the treachery of her lover and her most intimate friend. Sophronia encourages Palmira to persist in her resolution of living apart from her husband until she is convinced of the reformation of his manners, and Isabinda sends to Elvira a copy of a modest epithalamium on her sister's marriage. Occasionally a romantic love story runs through three or four letters, but any deviation from the strictest principles of delicacy— and there are not many—is sure to be followed by a fitting catastrophe. Some reprobation of the licentious manners of the age is permitted, but no catering to degenerate taste and no breath of scandal. The aim of the epistles, which were apparently not intended as models, was to convey moral precepts in an agreeably alleviated form, but the balance inclines rather heavily toward sober piety. A mother recommends poetry and history for the reading of her twelve year old daughter, though allowing an occasional indulgence in "well wrote Novels." Eusebia discusses the power of divine music with the Bishop of ***. Berinthia writes to Berenice to urge her to make the necessary preparations for futurity. Philenia assures the Reverend Doctor *** that she is a true penitent, and beseeches his assistance to strengthen her pious resolutions. Hillaria laments to Clio that she is unable to think seriously on death, and Aristander edifies Melissa by proving from the principles of reason and philosophy the certainty of a future existence, and the absurdity and meanness of those people's notions, who degrade the dignity of their species, and put human nature on a level with that of the brute creation. In all this devotion there was no doubt something of Mrs. Howe. "Epistles for the Ladies" was not the first "attempt to employ the ornaments of romance in the decoration of religion"[6] nor the best, but along with the pious substance the author sometimes adopts an almost Johnsonian weightiness of style, as when Ciamara gives to Sophronia an account of the finishing of a fine building she had been at an infinite expense in erecting, with some moral reflections on the vanity and disappointment of all sub-lunary expectations.
In her essays, even the most serious, Mrs. Haywood was a follower of Addison rather than Johnson. The first of them, if we disregard the slight discourse appended to the "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," was "The Tea-Table: or, A Conversation between some Polite Persons of both Sexes, at a Lady's Visiting Day. Wherein are represented the Various Foibles, and Affectations, which form the Character of an Accomplish'd Beau, or Modern Fine Lady. Interspersed with several Entertaining and Instructive Stories,"[7] (1725), which most resembles a "day" detached from the interminable "La Belle Assemblée" of Mme de Gomez, translated by Mrs. Haywood a few months before. There is the same polite conversation, the debate between love and reason, the poem,[8] and the story. But the moral reflections upon tea-tables, the description of Amiana's, where only wit and good humor prevail, and the satirical portraits of a titled coxcomb and a bevy of fine ladies, are all in the manner of the "Tatler." The manuscript novel read by one of the company savors of nothing but Mrs. Haywood, who was evidently unable to slight her favorite theme of passion. Her comment on contemporary manners soon gives place to "Beraldus and Celemena: or the Punishment of Mutability," a tale of court intrigue in her warmest vein. The authors of the "Tatler" and "Spectator" had, of course, set a precedent for the inclusion of short romantic stories in the essay of manners, and even the essays with no distinct element of fiction were preparing for the novelist the powerful tool of characterization. Writers of fiction were slow to apply the new art to their proper materials. In the present instance an experienced novelist employed the essay form to depict the follies and affectations of a beau and fine ladies, and immediately turned back to a story in which characterization is almost entirely neglected for incident. It is interesting to find the same writer using the realistic sketch of manners and the romantic tale of intrigue and passion without any thought of combining the two elements. In the second part of "The Tea-Table" Mrs. Haywood made no attempt to diversify the patchwork of verse and prose with any narrative, save one small incident illustrating pride. The sole point of interest is the long and laudatory tribute to her friend Aaron Hill in "A Pastoral Dialogue, between Alexis and Clarinda; Occasioned by Hillarius's intending a Voyage to America."
The "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love" (1726), however, takes full advantage of the looseness of the essay form to become a mere tissue of short narratives illustrating the consequences of passion. The stories of Celia and Evandra, one cursing her betrayer, the other wishing him always happy, exemplify revengeful and generous love. There are two model epistles from Climene to Mirtillo, the first upon his absence, the second upon his desertion of her. Soon the trite remarks degenerate into a scandal novel, relating the history of Sophiana, abandoned by Aranthus and sought by Martius, with many of her letters describing her gradual change of heart in favor of the beseeching lover. In the midst of exposing Hibonio's sudden infatuation for a gutter-nymph, the essay abruptly ends with the exclamation, "More of this in our next." Though there was no lack of slander at the end of Mrs. Haywood's pen, she never attempted to continue the "Reflections."
But almost twenty years later she made a more noteworthy excursion into the field of the periodical essay. "The Female Spectator," begun in April, 1744, and continued in monthly parts until May, 1746, bid fair to become the best known and most approved of her works. The twenty-four numbers (two months being omitted) were bound in four volumes upon the completion of the series and sold with such vigor that an edition labeled the third was issued at Dublin in 1747. In 1771 the seventh and last English edition was printed. As in the original "Spectator" the essays are supposed to be the product of a Club, in this case composed of four women. After drawing her own character in the terms already quoted,[9] Mrs. Haywood mentions as her coadjutors in the enterprise "Mira, a Lady descended from a Family to which Wit seems hereditary, married to a Gentleman every way worthy of so excellent a Wife…. The next is a Widow of Quality" who has not "buried her Vivacity in the Tomb of her Lord…. The Third is the Daughter of a wealthy Merchant, charming as an Angel…. This fine young Creature I shall call Euphrosine." The suspiciously representative character of these assistants may well make us doubt their actuality; and from the style of the lucubrations, at least, no evidence of a plurality of authors can readily be perceived. Indeed after the first few numbers we hear nothing more of them. "Mira" was the pseudonym used by Mrs. Haywood in "The Wife" (1756), while a periodical called "The Young Lady" began to appear just before her death under the pen-name of Euphrosine.
Whether written by a Female Spectator Club or by a single authoress, the essays in purpose, method, and style are evidently imitated from their famous model. The loose plan and general intention to rectify the manners of the age allowed the greatest latitude in the choice of subject matter. In a single paper are jumbled together topics so diverse as the degradation of the stage, the immoderate use of tea, and the proper choice of lovers. The duty of periodical essayists to castigate the follies of the time is graphically represented in the frontispiece to the second volume, where Apollo, seated on some substantial clouds and holding in his hand "The Female Spectator," despatches a flying Mercury, who in spite of the efforts of two beaux with drawn swords and a belle in déshabillé, chastises a female figure of Luxuria lolling in a chariot pulled by one inadequate grasshopper. In the essays themselves the same purpose led to the censure of gambling, lying, affectation of youth by the aged, jilts, "Anti-Eternitarians," scandal bearing, and other petty sins and sinners. For political readers a gentleman contributes a conversation between a Hanoverian and an English lady, in which the latter has the best of the argument. An account of Topsy-Turvy Land satirizes illogical practices in a manner familiar to the readers of "The Bab Ballads." The few literary papers are concerned with true and false taste, the delights of reading, Mr. Akenside's "Pleasures of the Imagination" and the horrors of the same, the outwearing of romance, and love-letters passed between Augustus Caesar and Livia Drusilla, which last Mrs. Haywood was qualified to judge as an expert. Essays on religion and the future life reveal something of the sober touch and moral earnestness of Johnson, but nothing of his compact and weighty style. As in the "Spectator," topics are often introduced by a scrap of conversation by way of a text or by a letter from a correspondent setting forth some particular grievance. The discussion is frequently illustrated by anecdotes or even by stories, though the author makes comparatively small use of her talent for fiction. Indeed she records at one point that "Many of the Subscribers to this Undertaking … complain that … I moralize too much, and that I give them too few Tales." The Oriental setting used by Addison with signal success is never attempted and even scandal stories are frowned upon. Instead of the elaborate and elegantly turned illustrative narratives of the "Spectator," Mrs. Haywood generally relates anecdotes which in spite of the disguised names savor of crude realism. They are examples rather than illustrations of life.