Chapter XV: Book VI: Disguised as her husband, a villain carries off the young

Matilda from a masquerade and ruins her. Alexis sends her away to the country and endeavors to forget her in the pleasures of the town. The contents of a lady's pocket:--a catalogue of imaginary books attributed to the initials of well known persons of quality; two letters, the first from Philetes to excuse his attendance, and the other from Damon making an appointment on the spot where the pocket was found. The foppish Miss Loiter is contrasted with the well trained children of Amadea. Narcissa, endeavoring to avoid marriage with the detested Oakly, is entrapped by the brother of her waiting-maid, who though only a common soldier, poses as Captain Pike.

Though the novel exhibits some pictures of life which at the time were considered natural,[19] and some bits of satire rather extravagant than striking, its appearance was a tacit admission of the failing of the author's powers. Much experience of human nature Mrs. Haywood had undoubtedly salvaged from her sixty years of buffeting about in the world, but so rapid and complete had been the development of prose fiction during her literary life that she was unable quite to comprehend the magnitude of the change. Her early training in romance writing had left too indelible a stamp upon her mind. She was never able to apprehend the full possibilities of the newer fiction, and her success as a novelist was only an evidence of her ability to create the image of a literary form without mastering its technique. So at the maturity of her powers she lacked a vessel worthy of holding the stores of her experience, and first and last she never exceeded the permutations of sensationalism possible in the short amatory romance.

Long after Mrs. Haywood's death in 1756 came out the last novel presumably of her composing. "The History of Leonora Meadowson," published in two volumes in 1788, is but a recombination of materials already familiar to the reading public. Leonora rashly yields to the wishes of her first lover, weds another, and makes yet a second experiment in matrimony before she finds her true mate in the faithful Fleetwood, whom she had thought inconstant. Thus she is a near relation of the thoughtless Betsy, and possibly a descendant of the much married heroine of "Cleomelia." Another of Mrs. Haywood's earlier fictions, "The Agreeable Caledonian," had previously been used as the basis of a revision entitled "Clementina" (1768). The reviewer of "Leonora" in the "Critical," though aware of the novel's shortcomings, still laments the passing of "the author of Betsy Thoughtless, our first guide in these delusive walks of fiction and fancy."[20]

"The spirit which dictated Betsy Thoughtless is evaporated; the fire
of the author scarcely sparkles. Even two meagre volumes could not be
filled, without a little History of Melinda Fairfax;--without the Tale
of Cornaro and the Turk,--a tale told twice, in verse and prose,--a
tale already often published, and as often read. Alas, poor author! we
catch with regret thy parting breath."

FOOTNOTES [1] A rival translation called _The Fortunate Countrymaid_ had already been published in 1740-1, and may be read in the seventh tome of _The Novelist's Magazine_ (Harrison). Clara Reeve speaks of both translations as "well known to the readers of Circulating Libraries." _Progress of Romance_ (1785), I, 130.

[2] Austin Dobson, _Eighteenth Century Vignettes_, First Series, 44. "Captain Coram's Charity."

[3] In one other respect Natura belongs to the new rather than to the old school: he takes genuine delight in the wilder beauties of the landscape. "Whether you climb the craggy mountains or traverse the flowery vale; whether thick woods set limits to the sight, or the wide common yields unbounded prospect; whether the ocean rolls in solemn state before you, or gentle streams run purling by your side, nature in all her different shapes delights.... The stupendous mountains of the Alps, after the plains and soft embowered recesses of Avignon, gave perhaps a no less grateful sensation to the mind of Natura." Such extraordinary appreciation in an age that regarded mountains as frightful excrescences upon the face of nature, makes the connoisseur of the passions a pioneer of the coming age rather than a survival of the last.

[4] J. Ireland and J. Nichols, _Hogarth's Works_, Second Series, 31, note. "Mrs. Haywood's _Betsy Thoughtless_ was in MS entitled _Betsy Careless_; but, from the infamy at that time annexed to the name, had a new baptism." The "inimitable Betsy Careless" is sufficiently immortalized in Fielding's _Amelia_, in Mrs. Charke's _Life_, and in Hogarth's _Marriage à la Mode_, Plate III.

[5] Austin Dobson, _Eighteenth Century Vignettes_, Third Series, 99.

[6] "There were no plays, no operas, no masquerades, no balls, no publick shews, except at the Little Theatre in the Hay Market, then known by the name of F----g's scandal shop, because he frequently exhibited there certain drolls, or, more properly, invectives against the ministry; in doing which it appears extremely probable that he had two views; the one to get money, which he very much wanted, from such as delighted in low humour, and could not distinguish true satire from scurrility; and the other, in the hope of having some post given him by those he had abused, in order to silence his dramatick talent. But it is not my business to point either the merit of that gentleman's performances, or the motives he had for writing them, as the town is perfectly acquainted both with his abilities and success, and has since seen him, with astonishment, wriggle himself into favour, by pretending to cajole those he had not the power to intimidate." _The Novelist's Magazine_, XIII, 23. Quoted by Austin Dobson, _Op. cit._, 100.

[7] Dedication of _The Fatal Secret_.

[8] _The Novelist's Magazine_, XIII, 106. Quoted by W. Forsyth, _Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Century_ (1871), 211.

[9] W. Raleigh, _The English Novel_ (Fifth edition, 1910), 139.

[10] J.C. Dunlop, _History of Prose Fiction_, edited by H. Wilson, II, 568.

[11] _Monthly Review_, V, 393, October, 1751.

[12] _Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Everyman edition, 392.

[13] _Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Everyman edition, 457.

[14] _Notes and Queries_, Series VIII, IX, 366. In Smollett's _Ferdinand Count Fathom_, Chap. XXXIX, Captain Miniken recommends as "modern authors that are worth reading" the _Adventures of Loveill, Lady Frail, Bampfylde Moore Carew, Young Scarron_, and _Miss Betsy Thoughtless_. See also A.L. Barbauld, _Correspondence of Samuel Richardson_ (1804), IV, 55-6, and the _Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs. Delaney_ (1861), First series, III, 79, 214.

[15] J.G. Lockhart, _Life of Scott_, Everyman edition, 34. Coleridge's _Letters_, I, 368.

[16] W. Scott, _Old Mortality_, Conclusion. Goethe's _Werke_ (E. Schmidt, Leipsig, 1910), III, 17.

[17] That the _Monthly's_ review of _Betsy Thoughtless_, complaining of that novel's lack of "those entertaining introductory chapters, and digressive essays, which distinguish the works of a _Fielding_, a _Smollett_, or the author of _Pompey_ the little," rankled in the fair novelist's memory is illustrated by a retort in her next work, _Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy_, III, Chap. XVIII, which "contains none of those beautiful digressions, those remarks or reflections, which a certain would-be critick pretends are so much distinguished in the writings of his two favorite authors; yet it is to be hoped, will afford sufficient to please all those who are willing to be pleased." For the review of _Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy_, see _Monthly Review_, VIII, 77.

[18] A possible return to scandal-mongering should be noted. _Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Everyman edition, 461. "You should have given me a key to the Invisible Spy, particularly to the catalogue of books in it. I know not whether the conjugal happiness of the D. of B. [Duke of Bedford] is intended as a compliment or an irony."

[19] _Gentleman's Magazine_, XXIV, 560, December 1754.

[20] _Critical Review_, LXV; 236, March 1788.