ly exposed. Beside the overwhelming desire to spite Theobald for his presumption in publishing "Shakespeare Restored" the aggrieved poet w

himself, he had acquired such a peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design."[1] But gentlemanly reproof and delicate satire would be wasted on "libellers and common nuisances." They must be met upon their own ground and overwhelmed with filth. "Thus the politest men are obliged sometimes to swear when they have to do with porters and oyster-wenches." Moreover, those unexceptionable models, Homer, Virgil, and Dryden had all admitted certain nasty expressions, and in comparison with them "our author ... tosses about his dung with an air of majesty."[2] In the episode devoted to the "authoress of those most scandalous books called the Court of Carimania, and the new Utopia," remarks the annotator of "The Dunciad, Variorum," "is exposed, in the most contemptuous manner, the profligate licentiousness of those shameless scribblers (for the most part of that sex, which ought least to be capable of such malice or

ad, Variorum" of 1729, Mrs. Haywood was credited with an anonymous "Memoirs of Lilliput, octavo, printed in 1727."[4] The full title of the work in question reads, "Memoirs of the Court of Lilliput. Written by Captain Gulliver. Containing an Account of the Intrigues, and some other particular Transactions of that Nation, omitted in the two Volumes of his Travels. Published by Lucas Bennet, with a Preface, shewing how these Papers fell into his hands." The title, indeed, is suggestive of such productions as "The Court of Carimania." In the Preface Mr. Lucas Bennet describes himself as a schoolfellow and friend of Captain Gulliver, which is reason enough to make us doubt his own actuality. But whether a r

oice of their Servents, their Garments, and make no scruple of putting them on or off before him: Every body knows they are Women of strict Virtue, and he a Harmless Creature, who has neither the Will, nor Power of doing any farther Mischief than with his Pen

terest upon the head of the supposed author. The lines on Eliza, which still remain the coarsest in the satire, were in the origina

circle next,

ve close clingi

her works she s

ade by bounteous

neck, and rose

uttocks to the

24).[8] Curll's "Key to the Dunciad," quoted with evident relish by Pope in the Variorum notes, recorded on the authority of contemporary scandal that the "two babes of love" were the offspring of a poet[9] and a bookseller. This bit of libel meant no more than that Mrs. Haywood's relations with Savage and other minor writers had been injudiciously unconventional. As for the booksellers, Curll had not been professionally connected with the authoress before the publication of "The Dunciad," and the part he played in

s also in connection with Cori

slip-shod Muse

dness medit

staring from

'd, but in Cas

glories of th

aliation for a verse satire called "The Catholic Poet, or Protestant Barnaby's Sorrowful Lamentation: a Ballad about Homer's Iliad," (1715).[12] Evidently abuse equally applicable to any one or more of five women writers could not be either specific or strikingly personal. Nothing can be inferred from the lines except that Pope despised the whole race of female wits and b

robably on her part unintentional, and was due entirely to the activity of the same infamous bookseller, who was among the first to get his replies and counter-slanders into print.[13] The "Key to the Dunciad" already mentioned ran through three editions in competition with an authorized key. "The Popiad" and "The Curliad" were rapidly huddled together

y of Clarina. It was sent to me, by herself, on communicating to some of my Friends the Design I had of writing a Weekly Paper, under the ti

ossible bearing either on Pope or on "The Dunciad," but was evidently seized by the shifty publisher as the nearest thing to hand when he came to patch up another pamphlet against Pope. Nothing could be more characteristic of Curll than his willingness to make capital out of his own disgrace. So hurried was the comp

n) is an Attempt as daring as it is noble; and while it engages the Admiration and Applause of the worthy and judicious Few, will certainly draw on you the Ridicule and Hatred of that unnumber'd Crowd, who justly dread the Lash of a Satire, which their own dissolute Behaviour has given sting to. But I, who am perfectly acquainted with the Sweetness of your Disposition, and that Tenderness with which you consider the Errors of your Fellow Creatures, nee

s a more difficult problem, for definite evidence of the authoress' gallantries is entirely lacking. But however damaging to herself her frankness may have been, there was little in the production to arouse the ire of Pope. The only instance in whic

down upon her another scurrilous rebuke, not this time from the poet himself, but from her former admirer, Richard Savage. In "An Author to be Let" (1732) Pope's jackal directed against the members of a supposed c

e Suds of her Tub, blown it in Air, seen it glitter, and then break! Even in this low Condition, she had play'd with a Bubble, and what more, is the Vanity of human Greatness? She might also have consider'd the sullied Linnen growing white in her pretty red Hands, as an Embl

for membership in the Dunces' Club, claims to be "very deeply read in all Pieces of Scandal, Obscenity, and Prophaneness, particularly in the Writings of Mrs. Haywood, Henley, Welsted, Morley, Foxton, Cooke, D'Foe, Norton, Woolston, Dennis, Nedward, Concanen, Journalist-Pit, and the Author of the Rival Modes. From these I propose to compile a very grand Work, which shall not be inferior to Utopia,

ok called The Dunciad, and acquaints her that Mr. Pope, by the profits of its

a sort of companionship in misfortune. But there is no eviden

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 i

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 O

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

, 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 dece

win and Courthop

urthope's Pope,

Courthope's

work with A Cursory View of the History of Lilliput For these last forty three Years, 8vo

f the Court o

k II, lines 137-48, and 17

Courthope 's

r Parmentier formed the frontispiece

9

unciad, 12. Some copie

nd Courthope's Pope, IV

rticle Haywoo

ourthope's Pope,

d Courthope's

ope's Pope, IV, 232.

'The Female Dunciad' which followed the month after ... were essentially miscellanies devot

ourthope's Pope,

1

I, X, 110. The words i

heobald's library, The

e 1

lish literature. If the influence of 'The Dunciad' was so all-powerful as to ruin the prospects of any one it satirized, it ought certainly to have crushed her beyond hope of any revival. As a matter of fact Mrs.

sh Tales and Romances,

1

. Written by the Autho

scribed on the half-ti

agedy not original

ar her name; but it has of late been so abused and scandalized, that I am informed she has lately changed it for that of Myra." Q

2

he Progress of Rom

the passage for th

is treatment of this lady: it was supposed that she had given some

recover a lost reputation and the yet greater honour to atone for her errors.-She devoted the remainder of her life and labours to the se