The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood Part 6

[8]

Act I, sc. ii. In the novel the heroine is shut up by a miserly hunks of an uncle to force her into a detested mercenary match with his son. In the play the mistress is the wife of the old and jealous keeper of the asylum.

[9]

Preface to _The Mercenary Lover_, (1726).

[10]

_The Rash Resolve_, (1724).

[11]

_The Double Marriage_, (1726).

[12]

Lodge's _Rosalynde, ed._ E.C. Baldwin, p. 19. _Philidore and Placentia_ (1727), p. 12.

[13]

Miss C.E. Morgan, _The Novel of Manners_, (1911), 100.

[14]

A companion-piece to the third edition of _The Mercenary Lover_, (1728).

[15]

A companion-piece to _The Fatal Secret: or, Constancy in Distress_.

[16]

_Monthly Review_, x.x.xVIII, 412, May, 1768. _Clementina; or the History of an Italian Lady, who made her Escape from a Monastery,_ etc.

[17]

_Critical Review_, XXV, 59.

[18]

In both editions is advertised "Persecuted Virtue: or, the Cruel Lover.

A True Secret History, Writ at the Request of a Lady of Quality," which was advertised also in the _Daily Post_, 28 Nov. 1728. I have not found a copy.

[19]

An anonymous poem prefixed to Mrs. Elizabeth Boyd's _The Happy Unfortunate; or, the Female Page_ (1737) testifies to Mrs. Haywood's reputation in the following terms:

"Yeild [_sic_] Heywood yeild, yeild all whose tender Strains, Inspire the Dreams of Maids and lovesick Swains; Who taint the unripen'd Girl with amorous Fire, And hint the first faint Dawnings of Desire: Wing each Love-Atom, that in Embryo lies, And teach young Parthenissa's b.r.e.a.s.t.s to rise.

A new Elisa writes," etc., etc.

CHAPTER III

THE DUNCAN CAMPBELL PAMPHLETS

Only once did Eliza Haywood compete with Defoe upon the same ground.

Both novelists were alive to the value of sensational matter, but as we have seen, appealed to the reader's emotional nature from different sides. Defoe with his strong interest in practical life looked for stirring incidents, for strange and surprising adventures on land and sea, for unusual or uncanny occurrences; whereas Mrs. Haywood, less a journalist than a romancer, rested her claim to public favor upon the secure basis of the tender pa.s.sions. In the books exploiting the deaf and dumb prophet Duncan Campbell, whose fame, once ill.u.s.trated by notices in the "Tatler" and "Spectator,"[1] was becoming a little dimmed by 1720, each writer chose the kind of material that the natural propensity and previous experience of each had trained him or her to use with the greatest success.

Accordingly the "History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a gentleman who, though deaf and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first sight, with their future contingencies of fortune: Now living in Exeter Court, over against the Savoy in the Strand," published by Curll on 30 April, 1720, and written largely by Defoe, devoted only four chapters directly to the narrative of the conjuror's life, while four chapters and the Appendix were given over to disquisitions upon the method of teaching deaf and dumb persons to read and write; upon the perception of demons, genii, or familiar spirits; upon the second sight; upon magic in all its branches; and upon the laws against false diviners and soothsayers. Beside showing the keenness of his interest in the supernatural, the author deliberately avoided any occasion for talking gossip or for indulging "persons of airy tempers"

with sentimental love-tales. "Instead of making them a bill of fare out of patchwork romances and polluting scandal," reads the preface signed by Duncan Campbell, "the good old gentleman who wrote the adventures of my life has made it his business to treat them with a great variety of entertaining pa.s.sages which always terminate in morals that tend to the edification of all readers, of whatsoever s.e.x, age, or profession."

Those who came to consult the seer on affairs of the heart, therefore, received only the scantiest mention from his biographer, and never were the languishing and sighing of Mr. Campbell's devotees described with any romantic glamor. On the contrary, Defoe portrayed in terse and homely phrases the follies and affectations of the dumb man's fair clients. The young blooming beauty who found little Duncan "wallowing in the dust" and bribed him with a sugarplum to reveal the name of her future husband; the "sempstress with an itching desire for a parson"; housekeepers in search of stolen goods; the "widow who bounced" from one end of the room to the other and finally "scuttled too airily downstairs for a woman in her clothes"; and the chambermaid disguised as a fine lady, who by "the toss of her head, the jut of the b.u.m, the sidelong leer of the eye" proclaimed her real condition--these types are treated by Defoe in a blunt realistic manner entirely foreign to Eliza Haywood's vein. Some pa.s.sages,[2] perhaps, by a sentiment too exalted or by a description in romantic style suggest the hand of another writer, possibly Mrs. Haywood, but more probably William Bond, in whose name the reprint of 1728 was issued.[3] But in the main, the book reflected Defoe's strong tendency to speculate upon unusual and supernatural phenomena, and utterly failed to "divulge the secret intrigues and amours of one part of the s.e.x, to give the other part room to make favorite scandal the subject of their discourse."[4]

That Defoe had refrained from treating one important aspect of Duncan Campbell's activities he was well aware. "If I was to tell his adventures with regard, for instance, to women that came to consult him, I might, perhaps, have not only written the stories of eleven thousand virgins that died maids, but have had the relations to give of as many married women and widows, and the work would have been endless."[5] In his biography of the Scotch prophet he does not propose to clog the reader with any adventures save the most remarkable and those in various ways mysterious.

The "method of swelling distorted and commented trifles into volumes" he is content to leave to the writers of fable and romance. It was not long before the press-agents of the dumb presager found a romancer willing to undertake the task that Defoe neglected. Mrs. Haywood in her a.s.sociation with Aaron Hill and his circle could hardly have escaped knowing William Bond, who in 1724 was playing Steele to Hill's Addison in producing the numbers of the "Plain Dealer." Instigated perhaps by him, the rising young novelist contributed on 19 March, 1724, the second considerable work on the fortune-teller, under the caption: "A Spy upon the Conjurer: or, a Collection of Surprising Stories, with Names, Places, and particular Circ.u.mstances relating to Mr. Duncan Campbell, commonly known by the Name of the Deaf and Dumb Man; and the astonishing Penetration and Event of his Predictions. Written to my Lord---- by a Lady, who for more than Twenty Years past; has made it her Business to observe all Transactions in the Life and Conversation of Mr. Campbell."[5a]

"As long as Atalantis shall be read," some readers were sure to find little to their taste in the curious information contained in the first biography of Campbell, but Mrs. Haywood was not reluctant to gratify an appet.i.te for scandal when she could profitably cater to it. Developing the clue afforded her by the announcement in Defoe's "Life and Adventures" of a forthcoming little pocket volume of original letters that pa.s.sed between Mr. Campbell and his correspondents,[6] she composed a number of epistles as coming from all sorts of applicants to the prophet. These missives, however, were preceded by a long letter addressed to an anonymous lord and signed "Justicia," which was chiefly concocted of anecdotes ill.u.s.trative of the dumb man's powers. Unlike the incidents in Defoe's work, the greater number of the stories relate to love affairs in the course of which one party or the other invoked the seer's a.s.sistance. Although the author was thoroughly acquainted with the previous history of Mr. Campbell,[7] she was evidently more interested in the phenomena of pa.s.sion than in the theory of divination, A brief discussion of astrology, witchcraft, and dreams easily led her to a narrative of "Mr. Campbell's sincerity exemplify'd, in the story of a lady injured in the tenderest part by a pretended friend." A glance through the table of contents reveals the preponderance of such headings as "A strange story of a young lady, who came to ask the name of her husband"; "A whimsical story of an old lady who wanted a husband"; "Reflections on the inconstancy of men. A proof of it in a ruin'd girl, that came to ask Mr. Campbell's advice"; "A story of my Lady Love-Puppy"; "A merry story of a lady's chamber-maid, cook-maid, and coach-man," and so on. Evidences of an attempt to suggest, if not actual references to, contemporary scandal, are to be found in such items as "A strange instance of vanity and jealousy in the behaviour of Mrs. F--- "; "The particulars of the fate of Mrs. J---- L---- "; and "A story of the Duke of---- 's mistress." It is not surprising that "Memoirs of a Certain Island" appeared within six months of "A Spy upon the Conjurer."

When "Justicia" refers to her personal relations with the lord to whom her letter is addressed, her comments are still more in keeping with the acknowledged forte of the lady novelist. They are permeated with the tenderest emotions. The author of "Moll Flanders" and "The Fortunate Mistress" might moralize upon the unhappy consequences of love, but he was inclined to regard pa.s.sion with an equal mind. He stated facts simply. Love, in his opinion, was not a strong motive when uncombined with interest. But Eliza Haywood held the romantic watchword of all for love, and her books are a continual ill.u.s.tration of _Amor vincit omnia_.

In the present case her words seem to indicate that the pa.s.sions of love and jealousy so often experienced by her characters were not unfamiliar to her own breast. Even Duncan Campbell's predictions were unable to alter her destiny.

"But tho' I was far enough from disbelieving what he said, yet Youth, Pa.s.sion, and Inadvertency render'd his Cautions ineffectual. It was in his Hand-Writing I first beheld the dear fatal Name, which has since been the utter Destruction of my Peace: It was from him I knew I should be undone by Love and the Perfidy of Mankind, before I had the least Notion of the one, or had seen any of the other charming enough to give me either Pain or Pleasure.... Yet besotted as I was, I had neither the Power of defending myself from the a.s.saults of Love, nor Thought sufficient to enable me to make those Preparations which were necessary for my future Support, while I had yet the means" ...(p.

13).

"Yet so it is with our inconsiderate s.e.x!--To vent a present Pa.s.sion, --for the short liv'd Ease of railing at the Baseness of an ungrateful Lover,--to gain a little Pity,--we proclaim our Folly, and become the Jest of all who know us.--A forsaken Woman immediately grows the Object of Derision,--rallied by the Men, and pointed at by every little Flirt, who fancies herself secure in her own Charms of never being so, and thinks 'tis want of Merit only makes a Wretch.

"For my dear Lord, I am sensible, tho' our Wounds have been a long time heal'd, there yet remains a Tenderness, which, if touch'd, will smart afresh.--The Darts of Pa.s.sion, such as we have felt, make too indeliable an Impression ever to be quite eraz'd;--they are not content with the eternal Sear they leave on the Reputation ..."

(p.76).

These pa.s.sages are in substance and style after Eliza Haywood's manner, while the experiences therein hinted at do not differ essentially from the circ.u.mstances of her own life.

The various aspects of love and jealousy are also the theme of the second and third parts of "A Spy upon the Conjurer."[8] The two packets of letters were merely imaginary, unless the pseudonymous signatures of some of the missives may have aided contemporary readers to "smoke"

allusions to current gossip. At any rate the references are now happily beyond our power to fathom.

Apparently the taste for Duncan Campbell anecdotes was stimulated by the piquant sauce of scandal, for beside the several issues of "A Spy upon the Conjurer" a second and smaller volume of the same sort was published on 10 May, 1725. This sixpenny pamphlet of forty pages, ent.i.tled "The Dumb Projector: Being a Surprizing Account of a Trip to Holland made by Mr. Duncan Campbell. With the Manner of his Reception and Behaviour there. As also the various and diverting Occurrences that happened on his Departure," was, like the former work, couched in the form of a letter to a n.o.bleman and signed "Justicia." Both from internal evidence[9] and from the style it can be a.s.signed with confidence to the author of "A Spy upon the Conjurer." The story, relating how Mr.

Campbell was induced to go into Holland in the hope of making his fortune, how he was disappointed, the extraordinary instances of his power, and his adventures amatory and otherwise, is of little importance as a narrative. The account differs widely from that of Campbell's trip to the Netherlands in the "Life and Adventures" of 1720.

Soon after the publication of "The Dumb Projector" Defoe also made a second contribution to the now considerable Duncan Campbell literature under the t.i.tle of "The Friendly Daemon: or, the Generous Apparition.

Being a True Narrative of a Miraculous Cure newly performed upon ... Dr.

Duncan Campbell, by a familiar Spirit, that appeared to him in a white surplice, like a Cathedral Singing Boy." The quotation of the story from Glanvil already used by the prophet's original biographer, and the keen interest in questions of the supernatural displayed by the writer, make the attribution of this piece to Defoe a practical certainty. Evidently, then, Eliza Haywood was not the only one to profit by keeping alive the celebrity of the fortune-teller.

The year 1728 was marked by the reissue of the "Life and Adventures" as "The Supernatural Philosopher ... by William Bond," whose probable connection with the work has already been discussed, and by the publication in the "Craftsman"[10] of a letter, signed "Fidelia,"

describing a visit to Duncan Campbell. The writer, who professes an intense admiration for Mr. Caleb D'Anvers and all his works, relates how the dumb oracle, after writing down her name, had prophesied that the Craftsman would certainly gain his point in 1729. She concludes with praise of Mr. Campbell, and an offer to conduct Caleb to visit him on the ensuing Sat.u.r.day. That the communication was not to be regarded as a companion-piece to the letter from Dulcibela Thankley in the "Spectator"

(No. 474), was the purport of the editorial statement which introduced it: "I shall make no other Apology for the Vanity, which I may seem guilty of in publishing the following Letter, than a.s.suring the Reader it is _genuine_, and that I do it in Complyance with the repeated Importunity of a _fair Correspondent_." The style of the letter does not strongly suggest that of "A Spy upon the Conjurer," though the concluding sentence, "_Love_ shall be there too, who waits forever upon _Wit_," is a sentiment after Eliza's heart. And moreover, though "Fidelia" and "Justicia" may be one and the same persons, Mr. D'Anvers'

a.s.surances that the letter is genuine are not to be relied upon with too much confidence, for had he wished to praise himself, he would naturally have resorted to some such device.

The last volume relating to the Scotch wizard did not appear until 1732, two years after Campbell's death. "Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbel, The famous Deaf and Dumb Gentleman. Written by Himself, who ordered they should be publish'd after his Decease," consisted of 164 pages devoted to miscellaneous anecdotes of the prophet, a reprint of Defoe's "Friendly Daemon" (p. 166), "Original Letters sent to Mr.

Campbel by his Consulters" (p. 196), and "An Appendix, By Way of Vindication of Mr. Duncan Campbel, Against That groundless Aspersion cast upon him, That he but pretended to be Deaf and Dumb. By a Friend of the Deceased" (p. 225). The authorship of this book has received but slight attention from students of Defoe, and still remains something of a puzzle. No external evidence on the point has yet come to light, but some probable conclusions may be reached through an examination of the substance and style.

In the first place, there is no probability--the statement on the t.i.tle-page notwithstanding--that Mr. Campbell himself had anything to do with the composition of the "Memoirs." Since the magician had taken no part in the literary exploitation of his fame during his lifetime, it is fair to infer that he did not begin to do so two years after his death.

Moreover, each of the three writers, Bond, Defoe, and Eliza Haywood, already identified with the Campbell pamphlets was perfectly capable of pa.s.sing off fiction as feigned biography. Both the author of "Memoirs of a Cavalier" and the scribbler of secret histories had repeatedly used the device. There is no evidence, however, that William Bond had any connection with the present work, but a large share of it was almost certainly done by Defoe and Mrs. Haywood.

The former had died full of years on 26 April, 1731, about a year before the "Secret Memoirs" was published. It is possible, however, that he may have a.s.sembled most of the material for the book and composed a number of pages. The inclusion of his "Friendly Daemon" makes this suspicion not unlikely. And furthermore, certain anecdotes told in the first section, particularly in the first eighty pages, are such stories as would have appealed to Defoe's penchant for the uncanny, and might well have been selected by him. The style is not different from that of pieces known to be his.

But that the author of "Robinson Crusoe" would have told the "little History" of the young woman without a fortune who obtains the husband she desires by means of a magic cake (p. 86) is scarcely probable, for the story is a sentimental tale that would have appealed to love-sick Lydia Languishes. As far as we know, Defoe remained hard-headed to the last. But Mrs. Haywood when she was not a scandal-monger, was a sentimentalist. The story would have suited her temperament and the tastes of her readers. It is told so much in her manner that one could swear that the originator of the anecdote was _aut Eliza, aut diabola_.

A few pages further on (p. 104) appears the incident of a swaggerer who enters the royal vault of Westminster Abbey at dead of night on a wager, and having the tail of his coat twitched by the knife he has stuck in the ground, is frightened into a faint--a story which Mrs. Haywood later retold in different words in her "Female Spectator."[11] The "Secret Memoirs" further informs us by a casual remark of Mr. Campbell's that Eliza Haywood was well acquainted with the seer.