The Notorious Impostor and Diego Redivivus

The Notorious Impostor and Diego Redivivus.

by Elkanah Settle.

INTRODUCTION

The great English novel of the eighteenth century was developed out of the long established traditions in the essay, letter, religious treatise, biography and personal memoir. Although this influence has been generally acknowledged, the critical investigation of its exact nature has often been hampered by the lack of readily available texts.

Especially is this true of the criminal biographies written in the late seventeenth century. The reprinting of Elkanah Settle"s _The Notorious Impostor_ (Part One) and the anonymous _Diego Redivivus_ is thus justified as providing the means for the further study of the early fiction-writer"s techniques. Published In 1692, the two pamphlets belong to a group of five closely-related narratives dealing with a real criminal named William Morrell. In the probable order of their publication, these were _Diego Redivivus_, _The Notorious Impostor_ (Part One), _The Second Part of the Notorious Impostor_, "_William Morrell"s_ Epitaph" in _The Gentleman"s Journal_, and _The Compleat Memoirs of the Life of that Notorious Impostor Will. Morrell_. The different accounts forcefully demonstrate how criminal fiction allied itself with both biography and the picaresque. In addition, _The Notorious Impostor_ serves as a representative work by Elkanah Settle whose criminal biographies have never received the attention they deserve.[1]

The combination of fact and fiction in the William Morrell narratives had been tried earlier in Settle"s first known criminal biography, _The Life and Death of Major Clancie, the Grandest Cheat of this Age_ (1680). Like Bunyan"s _Mr. Badman_, advertised in the same issue of _The Term Catalogues_ (I, 382), _Major Clancie_ purports to narrate "Real matter of Fact." Thus, in the background, significant historical events, from the Irish Rebellion to the Great Fire, are being enacted.

Important English worthies--Lord Ormonde, Bishop Compton, Charles II--become entangled in the villainies of the Major, an actual Irish criminal. None of this historical backdrop is to be found, however, in _The Notorious Impostor_; and the characters here, although Sir William Walters and Humphrey Wickham were well-known local personages, are not historically eminent. The picaresque in _Major Clancie_, too, is more readily identifiable than in _The Notorious Impostor_. For, contrary to its stated aim, the biography of Clancie is more fiction than fact.

Anthony Wood, noting the fictional elaborations, remarked: "Several stories in this book which belong to other persons are fathered on the said major; who, as I remember, was in Oxon in the plague year 1665 when the king and the queen kept their respective courts there."[2]

Wood then contributes a few of his own pungent stories about the Major, which have no counterparts in Settle"s narrative. Where the two writers provide parallel accounts, the "fiction" appears to be based on a substratum of truth surviving in anecdotes. Settle"s verisimilitude had an effect upon Theophilus Lucas"s _Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and Comical Adventures of the Most Famous Gamesters and Celebrated Sharpers_ (1714), which begins with a condensed version of _The Life and Death of Major Clancie_.[3] Lucas presents his account as if it were a true memoir.

_The Notorious Impostor_ was to experience a similar acceptance as a memoir. All modern biographical accounts of its villain-hero, William Morrell,[4] are based on the two separate parts of _The Notorious Impostor_ or _The Compleat Memoirs_. On January 3, 1692, he had died, a criminal at large; and the strange circ.u.mstances of his death became the talk of London. While the event was still a sensation, the bookseller Abel Roper rushed his "last will and testament" lives into print. The first to appear was _Diego Redivivus_, reprinted here from the rare copy at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Evidence for the publication of _Diego Redivivus_ before _The Notorious Impostor_ is fairly conclusive. _The Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers_ (III, 397) enters _Diego Redivivus_, on behalf of Abel Roper, for January 12, 1692, and _The Term Catalogues_ (II, 392) advertises _The Notorious Impostor_ in the quarterly issue published in February, but Anthony Wood (III, 384) states that he bought his copy of the latter "in the beginning of March." A comparison of the two texts, moreover, supports this order of the publication.

Events in _Diego Redivivus_, as in a news story, have greater immediacy. Morrell"s death, the t.i.tle a.s.serts, took place the third of "this instant January." The specific detail of _Diego_ (p. 2: "about a fortnight before _Christmas_") is paralleled by the general statement of _The Notorious Impostor_ (p. 30: "Some few days before _Christmas_"). Although its t.i.tle-page promises a "Full Relation" of Morrell"s cheats, _Diego Redivivus_ presents only the final "will"

episode, whereas _The Notorious Impostor_ ranges over the whole criminal career. Both narratives have in common the long will and codicil, except that _The Notorious Impostor_ (p. 34) drastically shortens the Latin pa.s.sage which, in _Diego Redivivus_ (p. 10), states that the will had been probated. Even more conclusive evidence may be found in comparing the dates of the final events in the two accounts. _Diego Redivivus_, licensed on January 12, stops short with the humble burial of Morrell on January 13. Considerably later, certainly, must be the occurrence described in the Postscript of _The Notorious Impostor_: the nurse"s and a.s.sistants" recollection that Morrell was laughing to himself in his last grim cheating of the world.

Part One of _The Notorious Impostor_, as the sequel informs us, met with a "general Reception." Advertised in the February issue of _The Term Catalogues_, also, was a separate continuation. Interest in the impostor did not diminish during February. "The Death of _William Morrell_," complained _The Gentleman"s Journal_ of this month, "hath made too much Noise not to have reach"d you before this.... Had not his Will and Life been printed, I would have given you a large Account of both." The anonymous writer refers here, perhaps, to _Diego Redivivus_ ("Will") and _The Notorious Impostor_ ("Life") in the order of their publication. He then ironically lauds, in the verses of "_William Morrell"s_ Epitaph," the great skill of the impostor ("Columbus-like I a new World descry"d, / Of Roguery before untry"d").

Elkanah Settle"s two parts of _The Notorious Impostor_ were finally published together in 1694 as _The Compleat Memoirs of the Life of that Notorious Impostor Will. Morrell, alias Bowyer, alias Wickham, &c._ ...

under the imprint of Abel Roper and E. Wilkinson. So extensive are the re-arrangements of the episodes taken from Parts One and Two that _The Compleat Memoirs_ may be regarded as a fifth, very different narrative.

All the apologies for not resorting to "romance" are now dropped, and the humorous dedication is replaced by a direct appeal to Gabriel Balam, signed "E. Settle." _The Compleat Memoirs_ then reworks the texts of the two Parts into a smooth, chronologically consistent narrative.[5] Even more important in designating _The Compleat Memoirs_ as "new" are the "Considerable Additions never before Published"

announced by the t.i.tle-page. After using the incidents from _The Second Part of the Notorious Impostor_, Settle then adds: "Since the first Publication of our fore-going History of our Grand Guzman, we have receiv"d some Comical Adventures, worth inserting in his Memoirs, which though they now bring up the Rear of his Chronicle, however, they were the first of all his Wedlock Feats...." In the totally new adventures that end _The Compleat Memoirs_ (pp. 72-88), the cynical tone and raciness of the picaresque become even more dominant than in the earlier separate narratives.[6]

The importance of the Morrell narratives in the development of English fiction lies mainly in their deft combinations of the real and the picaresque and in their conscious effort to unify the action, draw out the humour, or handle realistic talk and setting. But the narratives also look backward to an older type, the picaresque. William Morrell makes his printed appearance as the new picaro. The t.i.tle _Diego Redivivus_ (i.e. James Revived) had overtones of the sensationally picaresque. The witty pseudonym "Don Diego Puede-Ser" had been used by James Mabbe in his translation (1623) of Aleman"s _Vita del Picaro Guzman_;[7] and more recent in English memories were the exploits of James Hind, the English Rogue. In the Dedication, _The Notorious Impostor_ describes itself as "_the Life of our English_ Guzman" and later promises to "paint our new _Guzman_ in some of his boldest and fairest Colours." But the picaresque traditions have shaded into one another. For Morrell is not simply the new Guzman; he is also Hudibras and, in _The Second Part_, Don Quixote.

Still another reason for the importance of the Morrell narratives is their consciousness of fictional techniques and theory. In _Diego Redivivus_, for example, the final deception is meticulously developed with closely-woven incidents which do not appear elsewhere. The motives of the characters, too, are sharply defined; and the action is unified by the two references to oath-taking (pp. 2-3). The anonymous author, at the outset, stresses the value of "the Particulars ... no disacceptable Entertainment" (p. 1). Aware of theory, he specifies that Morrell created "some Romantick narrative" to explain his poverty (p.

4). In fictional technique, Elkanah Settle approaches a unified theme especially in _The Second Part of the Notorious Impostor_ and the "Comical Adventures" of _The Compleat Memoirs_ where the incidents are mainly of one kind--matrimonial. Theorizing appears, too, in Part One somewhat in the manner of Daniel Defoe: "we dare not venture to play the Historian any farther than certain Intelligence (which yet we have not received) can guide us, being resolved not to load our Rambles with Romance or Fiction, his Life being furnisht with matter sufficiently voluminous without the addition of Flourish or Fancy" (p. 27). This may be Settle"s pointed reference to the "fiction" of _Diego Redivivus_.[8]

He maintains, also, that he had to delay for a fortnight the publication of _The Second Part of the Notorious Impostor_ in order to be certain of its authenticity.

Finally, the importance of the Morrell narratives may be seen in terms of the realistic fiction that was to achieve fulfillment in the eighteenth-century novel. The clear presence of fictional elaboration, in _The Notorious Impostor_, caught the attention of both Frank Wadleigh Chandler and Ernest Bernbaum.[9] Elkanah Settle thus rightly belongs with writers, like Francis Kirkman, who masked fiction as the truth. Historians of the novel, moreover, attach significance to _The Notorious Impostor_ in its resemblance to the novels of Defoe, Mrs.

Heywood, and Smollett. Only the claim of influence on Smollett"s _Ferdinand Count Fatham_ has been investigated to any extent. In a full a.n.a.lysis of Smollett"s novel, Chandler"s strong statement will have to be taken into account: "The resemblance, indeed, between the two anti-heroes and the terms in which the accounts of their cheating are couched is so strong as to suggest actual borrowing on the part of Smollett."[10]

Spiro Peterson

Miami University Oxford, Ohio

Since writing the above, I have been informed by G. F. Osborn, archivist of the City of Westminster Public Libraries, that the registers of St. Clement Danes, in his keeping, have the following entry under 12 January 169-1/2: "William Morrell alias Bowier a man bur[ied] poor."

Notes to the Introduction

[1] See F. C. Brown, _Elkanah Settle: His Life and Works_ (1910), pp.

22, 29, 127.

[2] _The Life and Times of Anthony Wood_, ed. Andrew Clark (1892), II, 48-49.

[3] _Games and Gamesters of the Restoration_, ed. Cyril Hughes Hartmann (The English Library, 1930), pp. 123-137.

[4] E.g. Alfred Beasley"s in _The History of Banbury_ (1841), pp.

448-492, and G. T. Crook"s in _The Complete Newgate Calendar_ (1926), pp. 117-124.

[5] The text of _The Compleat Memoirs_ is indeed a composite.

Paragraph one of p. 1 unites a paragraph from p. 1 of Part One and a paragraph from pp. 34-35 of Part Two; pp. 1-27 are the same as pp.

5-27 of Part One; pp. 27-46: pp. 2-21 of Part Two; pp. 46-50: pp.

27-29 of Part One; pp. 50-57: pp. 22-29 of Part Two; pp. 57-65: pp.

30-36 of Part One; pp. 66-71: pp. 29-36 of Part Two.

[6] _The Post Boy_ advertised _The Compleat Memoirs_ from February 17 to April 23, 1698. See also W. Carew Hazlitt (_Bibliographical Collections_, Third Series, p. 229) for a description of a copy dated 1699.

[7] Morrell"s last impersonation involving the fake will resembles Pantalon"s "last Will and Testament" jest in Mabbe"s _The Rogue or The Life of Guzman de Alfarache_ (The Tudor Translations, 1924), II, 184-186.

[8] Settle"s authorship of _The Notorious Impostor_ is confirmed by his name appended to the Dedication of _The Compleat Memoirs_.

Although _Diego Redivivus_ occasionally resembles _The Notorious Impostor_, it need not necessarily be Settle"s work. The similar style and the identical doc.u.mentation (e.g. the will) may be due to Settle"s direct use of the earlier narrative. None of its minutely-drawn description, curiously, is perpetuated in _The Compleat Memoirs_. The authorship of _Diego Redivivus_ remains an unsettled question.

[9] _The Literature of Roguery_ (1907), I, 153: _The Mary Carleton Narratives_ (1914), p. 6.

[10] I, 153. Ernest A. Baker makes a similar statement (_The History of the English Novel_ [1937], III, 46). With respect to the influence of _The Notorious Impostor_ on Mrs. Eliza Haywood, he should have cited _Miss Betsy Thoughtless_ (1751)--the very book praised by Captain Minikin as "worth reading" in _Ferdinand Count Fathom_ (Chap. x.x.xIX).

THE

Notorious Impostor,

Or the History of the LIFE of

William Morrell,

ALIAS

BOWYER,

Sometime of _Banbury_, Chirurgeon.

Who lately personated _Humphrey Wickham_ of _Swackly_, in the County of _Oxon_, Esquire, at a Bakers House in the _Strand_, where he Died the third of _Jan. 169-1/2_

Together