_Philobillon Soc. Misc._, IV, 12. "Clio must be allowed to be a most complete poetess, if she really wrote those poems that bear 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." Quoted from the _British Journal_, 24 September, 1726. I am indebted to Miss Dorothy Brewster"s _Aaron Hill_, 189, for this reference.
[20]
See Clara Reeve, _The Progress of Romance_ (1785), I, 121.
[I have re-arranged the pa.s.sage for the sake of brevity.]
"_Soph._ I have heard it often said that Mr. Pope was too severe in his treatment of this lady: it was supposed that she had given some private offence, which he resented publicly, as was too much his way.
"_Euph._ Mr. Pope was severe in his castigations, but let us be just to merit of every kind. Mrs. _Heywood_ had the singular good fortune to 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 service of virtue.... Those works by which she is most likely to be known to posterity, are the _Female Spectator_, and the _Invisible Spy_...."
CHAPTER VI
LETTERS AND ESSAYS
The works of Mrs. Haywood"s maturity most renowned for their pious intent were not of the tribe of novels, but rather in the shape of letters or periodical essays such as "Epistles for the Ladies" (1749) and "The Female Spectator" (1746). Each of these forms, as practiced during the eighteenth century, permitted the introduction of short romantic stories either for the purpose of ill.u.s.trating a moral or to make the didacticism more palatable. Even as a votary of virtue Eliza did not neglect to mingle a liberal portion of _dulce_ with her _utile_; indeed in the first of the productions mentioned she manifested an occasional tendency to revert to the letter of amorous intrigue characteristic of her earlier efforts. In her latest and soberest writings, the conduct books called "The Wife" and "The Husband" (1756), she frequently yielded to the temptation to turn from dry precept to picturing the foibles of either s.e.x. Her long training in the school of romance had made gallantry the natural object of Eliza Haywood"s thoughts.
During the time that she was incessantly occupied with short tales of pa.s.sion she had experimented in both the letter and the essay form, using the former especially as an adjunct to her stories. One of her first attempts, also, to find her proper vein as an author was a translation from the French of the "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier," with a "Discourse concerning Writings of this Nature, by Way of Essay" for which the translator was responsible. In "The Tea-Table"
(1725), which never advanced beyond the second part, and "Reflections on the Various Effects of Love" (1726) the then well-known novelist returned to the essay form, and a comprehensive volume of "Love-Letters on All Occasions" (1730) closed the first period of her literary activity. But none of these departures was noticeably different in tone from her staple romances.
The sweets of love were perhaps most convincingly revealed in the amorous billets of which "Love in Excess" and many of Eliza"s subsequent pieces of fiction contained a plentiful supply. Letters languishing with various degrees of desire or burning with jealous rage were introduced into the story upon any pretext. Writing them was evidently the author"s forte, and perusing them apparently a pleasure to her readers, for they remained a conspicuous part of Mrs. Haywood"s sentimental paraphernalia.
As in the French romances of the Scudery type the missives were quoted at length and labeled with such headings as, "The Despairing D"Elmont to his Repenting Charmer," or "To the never enough Admir"d Count D"Elmont,"
and signed with some such formula as, "Your most pa.s.sionate and tender, but ("till she receives a favorable Answer) your unknown Adorer." The custom of inserting letters in the course of the story was, as has already been indicated, a heritage from the times of Gomberville, La Calprenede, and the Scuderys when miscellaneous material of all sorts from poetry to prosy conversations was habitually used to diversify the narrative. Mrs. Haywood, however, employed the letter not to ornament but to intensify. Her _billets-doux_ like the lyrics in a play represent moments of supreme emotion. In seeking vividness she too often fell into exaggeration, as in the following specimen of absolute pa.s.sion.
"Torture--Distraction--h.e.l.l--what will become of me--I cannot--I will not survive the Knowledge that you are mine no more--Yet this Suspence is worse than all yet ever bore the Name of Horror--Let me not linger in it, if you have Humanity--declare my Doom at once--be kind in Cruelty at least, and let one Death conclude the thousand, thousand Deaths which every Minute of Uncertainty brings with it, to
The Miserable, but Still Adoring Melantha.
P.S. I have order"d the Messenger to bring an Answer; if he comes without, depend I will murder him, and then myself."[1]
Such remnants of the romantic tradition as the verses on "The Unfortunate Camilla"s Complaint to the Moon, for the Absence of her dear Henricus Frankville" in "Love in Excess" were soon discarded, but the letters, though they enc.u.mbered the progress of the narrative, made it more realistic by giving an opportunity for the display of pa.s.sion at first hand. Their continued vogue was undoubtedly due in large measure to the popularity of the celebrated "Letters of a Portuguese Nun"
(1669), which, with a note of sincerity till then unknown, aided the return to naturalness.[2]
The "Lettres Nouvelles de Monsieur Boursault ... Avec Treize Lettres Amoureuses d"une Dame a un Cavalier," loosely translated by Mrs. Haywood as "Letters from a Lady of Quality to a Chevalier" (1721),[3] was one of the numerous imitations of the Portuguese Letters. Like most of the other imitations it echoed the mannerisms rather than the fervor of its original. The lady"s epistles do not reveal a story, but describe in detail the doubts, disappointments, fears, jealousies, and raptures of a married woman for a lover who in the last three letters has left France for England. Except for this remove there is no change in the situation of the characters. The lover apparently remains constant to the end. The reader is even left in some doubt as to the exact nature of their relationship. The lady at one time calls it a "criminal Conversation,"
but later resents an attempt upon her honor, and seems generally to believe that "a distant Conversation, if it is less sweet, will be, not only more pure, but also more durable."
But perhaps it is only fair to let the author speak for herself.
"The Lady, whose Letters I have taken the liberty to translate, tho she has been cautious enough in expressing any thing (even in those the most tender among them) which can give the Reader an a.s.surance she had forfeited her Virtue; yet there is not one, but what sufficiently proves how impossible it is to maintain such a Correspondence, without an Anxiety and continual Perturbation of Mind, which I think a Woman must have bid farewell to her Understanding, before she could resolve to endure.
"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 a.s.siduity, Constancy, and Grat.i.tude, 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 s.e.x."
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 plat.i.tudes and sc.r.a.ps 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 s.e.x." 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 s.e.x as in exposing them.
The tender pa.s.sion was still the theme in "Love-Letters on All Occasions Lately pa.s.sed 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 ent.i.tled "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 antic.i.p.ated 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 a.s.sures the Reverend Doctor *** that she is a true penitent, and beseeches his a.s.sistance 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 s.e.xes, 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 a.s.semblee" 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 t.i.tled c.o.xcomb and a bevy of fine ladies, are all in the manner of the "Tatler." The ma.n.u.script novel read by one of the company savors of nothing but Mrs. Haywood, who was evidently unable to slight her favorite theme of pa.s.sion. 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 pa.s.sion 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 ill.u.s.trating 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 ill.u.s.trating the consequences of pa.s.sion. 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 a.s.sistants 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 auth.o.r.ess, 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 lat.i.tude 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 _deshabille_, chastises a female figure of Luxuria lolling in a chariot pulled by one inadequate gra.s.shopper. 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 pa.s.sed 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 sc.r.a.p of conversation by way of a text or by a letter from a correspondent setting forth some particular grievance. The discussion is frequently ill.u.s.trated 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 ill.u.s.trative 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 ill.u.s.trations of life.
One of the most lively is a story told to show the inevitable unhappiness of a marriage between persons of different sects. The husband, a High Church man, and the wife, of Presbyterian persuasion, were happy enough during the first months of married life, "tho" he sometimes expressed a Dissatisfaction at being denied the Pleasure of leading her to Westminster-Abbey, for he would hear no Divine Service out of a Cathedral, and she was no less troubled that she could not prevail with him to make his Appearance with her at the Conventicle."
Consequently when their first child was born, they were unable to agree how the boy was to be baptized. "All their Discourse was larded with the most piquant Reflections," but to no purpose. The father insisted upon having his own way, but Amonia, as his consort was not inappropriately named, was no less stubborn in her detestation of lawn sleeves, and on the eve of the christening had the ceremony privately performed by her own minister. When the bishop and the guests were a.s.sembled, she announced with "splenetic Satisfaction" that the child had already been "made a Christian" and that his name was John. The astonished husband lapsed into an "adequate rage," and though restrained by the company from doing an immediate violence to his help-mate, was permanently estranged from her through his resentment. Two other stories from "The Female Spectator" were quoted by Dr. Nathan Drake in his "Gleaner."
In her bold attempt to rival Addison upon his own ground Mrs. Haywood was more than moderately successful in the estimation of many of her contemporaries. Rambling and trite as are the essays in her periodical, their excellent intentions, at least, gained them a degree of popularity. A writer in the "Gentleman"s Magazine" for December, 1744, applauding the conspicuous merit of the "fair philosophers in virtue"s cause," declared that
"Were your great predecessor yet on earth, He"d be the first to speak your page"s worth, There all the foibles of the fair you trace; There do you shew your s.e.x"s truest grace; There are the various wiles of man display"d, In gentle warnings to the cred"lous maid; Politely pictur"d, wrote with strength and ease, And while the wand"rer you reclaim, you please....
Women, the heart of women best can reach; While men from maxims--you from practice teach."
The latter part of the panegyric shows that the fair romancer had not been entirely smothered in the fair philosopher and moral essayist.
Perhaps encouraged by the success of "The Female Spectator" to publish more frequently, or actuated by a desire to appeal to the public interest in the political excitement of 1745-6, Mrs. Haywood next attempted to combine the periodical essay with the news-letter, but the innovation evidently failed to please. "The Parrot, with a Compendium of the Times" ran only from 2 August to 4 October, 1746. The numbers consisted commonly of two parts: the first being moralizings on life and manners by a miraculous parrot; and the second a digest of whatever happenings the author could sc.r.a.pe together. The news of the day was concerned chiefly with the fate of the rebels in the last Stuart uprising and with rumors of the Pretender"s movements. From many indications Eliza Haywood would seem to have taken a lively interest in the Stuart cause, but certainly she had no exceptional facilities for reporting the course of events, and consequently her budget of information was often stale or filled with vague surmises. But she did not overlook the opportunity to narrate _con amore_ such pathetic incidents as the death of Jemmy Dawson"s sweetheart at the moment of his execution, later the subject of Shenstone"s ballad. The vaporizings of the parrot were also largely inspired by the trials of the rebels, but the sagacious bird frequently drew upon such stock subjects as the follies of the gay world, the character of women, the unreliability of venal praise and interested personal satire, and the advantages of making one"s will--the latter ill.u.s.trated by a story. Somewhat more unusual was a letter from an American Poll, representing how much it was to the interest of England to preserve, protect, and encourage her plantations in the New World, and complaining of the tyranny of arbitrary governors. But the essay parts of "The Parrot" are not even equal to "The Female Spectator" and deserve no lightening of the deep and speedy oblivion cast upon them.
Besides her periodical essays Mrs. Haywood wrote during her declining years several conduct books, which, beyond showing the adaptability of her pen to any species of writing, have but small importance. One of them, though inheriting something from Defoe, owed most to the interest in the servant girl heroine excited by Richardson"s first novel. No sociologist has yet made a study of the effect of "Pamela" upon the condition of domestics, but the many excellent maxims on the servant question uttered by Lord B---- and his lady can hardly have been without influence upon the persons of the first quality who pored over the volumes. In popular novels, at any rate, abigails and scullions reigned supreme. In 1752 the "Monthly Review" remarked of a recent work of fiction, "The History of Betty Barnes," that it seemed "chiefly calculated for the amus.e.m.e.nt of a cla.s.s of people, to whom the _Apprentice"s Monitor_, or the _Present for a servant maid_ might be recommended to much better purpose," but the reviewer"s censure failed to quell the demand for romances of the kitchen. Mrs. Haywood, however, might have approved of his recommendation, since she happened to be the author of the little manual of household science especially urged upon the females below stairs.
"A Present for a Servant-Maid. Or, the Sure Means of Gaining Love and Esteem" was frequently reprinted both in London and Dublin during the years 1743-4, and as late as 1772 a revision was mentioned in the "Monthly Review" as a "well-designed and valuable tract."[10] The work is a compendium of instructions for possible Pamelas, teaching them in brief how to wash, to market, to dress any sort of meat, to cook, to pickle, and to preserve their virtue. The maids are cautioned against such female errors as s.l.u.ttishness, tale-bearing, staying on errands, telling family affairs, aping the fashion, and giving saucy answers.
They are forbidden to play with fire or candles, to quarrel with fellow domestics, to waste victuals or to give them away. A fine example of the morality of scruples inculcated by the tract is the pa.s.sage on the duty of religious observance. A maidservant should not neglect to go to church at least every other Sunday, and should never spend the time allowed her for that purpose walking in the fields or drinking tea with an acquaintance. "Never say you have been at Church unless you have, but if you have gone out with that Intention, and been diverted from it by any Accident or Persuasions, confess the Truth, if asked." Girls so unhappy as to live with people who "have no Devotion themselves" should entreat permission to go to church, and if it is refused them, rather leave their place than be deprived of sacred consolation. "If you lose _one_, that G.o.d, for whose sake you have left it, will doubtless provide another, and perhaps a better for you." Scarcely more edifying are the considerations of self-interest which should guide a maidservant into the paths of virtue. "Industry and Frugality are two very amiable Parts of a Woman"s Character, and I know no readier Way than attaining them, to procure you the Esteem of Mankind, and get yourselves good Husbands.
Consider, my dear Girls, that you have no Portions, and endeavour to supply the Deficiencies of Fortune by Mind." And in pure Pamela vein is the advice offered to those maids whose honor is a.s.sailed. If the temptation come from the master, it will be well to reflect whether he is a single or a married man and act accordingly. One cannot expect the master"s son to keep a promise of marriage without great difficulty, but the case may be different with a gentleman lodger, especially if he be old and doting. And the moral of all is: Don"t sell yourselves too cheap. Finally to complete the usefulness of the pamphlet were added, "Directions for going to Market: Also, for Dressing any Common Dish, whether Flesh, Fish or Fowl. With some Rules for Washing, &c. The whole calculated for making both the Mistress and the Maid happy."
More especially intended to promote the happiness of the mistress of the family, "The Wife, by Mira, One of the Authors of the Female Spectator, and Epistles for Ladies" (1756) contains advice to married women on how to behave toward their husbands in every conceivable situation, beginning with the first few weeks after marriage "vulgarly call"d the honey-moon," and ending with "How a Woman ought to behave when in a state of Separation from her Husband"--a subject upon which Mrs. Haywood could speak from first-hand knowledge. Indeed it must be confessed that the writer seems to be chiefly interested in the infelicities of married life, and continually alleviates the rigor of her didactic pasages [Transcriber"s note: sic] with lively pictures of domestic jars, such as the following:
"The happy day which had join"d this pair was scarce six weeks elapsed, when lo! behold a most terrible reverse;--the hurry of their fond pa.s.sion was over;--dalliance was no more,--kisses and embraces were now succeeded by fighting, scratching, and endeavouring to tear out each other"s eyes;--the lips that before could utter only,--my dear,--my life,--my soul,--my treasure, now pour"d forth nothing but invectives;--they took as little care to conceal the proofs of their animosity as they had done to moderate those of a contrary emotion;-- they were continually quarreling;--their house was a Babel of confusion;--no servant would stay with them a week;--they were shunn"d by their most intimate friends, and despis"d by all their acquaintance; till at last they mutually resolv"d to agree in one point, which was, to be separated for ever from each other" (p. 16).
So the author discusses a wife"s behavior toward a husband when laboring under disappointment or vexatious accidents; sleeping in different beds; how a woman should act when finding that her husband harbors unjust suspicions of her virtue; the great indiscretion of taking too much notice of the unmeaning or transient gallantries of a husband; the methods which a wife is justified to take after supporting for a long time a complication of all manner of ill-usage from a husband; and other causes or effects of marital infelicity. Though marriage almost inevitably terminates in a "brulee," the wife should spare no efforts to ameliorate her husband"s faults.
"If addicted to drinking, she must take care to have his cellar well stor"d with the best and richest wines, and never seem averse to any company he shall think fit to entertain:--If fond of women, she must endeavour to convince him that the virtuous part of the s.e.x are capable of being as agreeable companions as those of the most loose principles;--and this, not by arguments, for those he will not listen to;--but by getting often to her house, the most witty, gay, and spirituous of her acquaintance, who will sing, dance, tell pleasant stories, and take all the freedoms that innocence allows" (p. 163).