“Though the History of Cleomira and Belinda’s Misfortunes, may be thought foreign to my Affairs ... yet it is absolutely necessary I should give it a Place, because it is the Source, or Spring, of many strange and uncommon Scenes, which happened to me during the remaining Part of my Life, and which I cannot give an Account of without” ...[13]

The pages which follow relate how Roxana became reconciled to her daughter, died in peace, and was buried at Hornsey.  The curious reader finds, however, no further mention of Belinda and her friend.  Evidently Applebee’s hack simply stole as much copy as he needed from an almost forgotten book, trusting to receive his money before the fraud was discovered.  The volumes of Eliza Haywood were indeed a mine of emotional scenes, and those who wished to read of warm desires or palpitating passions had to turn to her romances or do without.  Wretched as her work seems in comparison to the modern novel, it was for the time being the nearest approach to idealistic fiction and to the analysis of human feelings.  Defoe’s romances of incident were the triumphant culmination of the picaresque type; Mrs. Haywood’s sentimental tales were in many respects mere vague inchoations of a form as yet to be produced.  But when freed from the impurities of intrigue and from the taint of scandal, the novel of heart interest became the dominant type of English fiction.  Unfortunately, however, Eliza Haywood was too practical a writer to outrun her generation.  The success of “A Spy upon the Conjurer” may have convinced her that a ready market awaited stories of amorous adventure and hinted libel.  At any rate, she soon set out to gratify the craving for books of that nature in a series of writings which redounded little to her credit, though they brought her wide notoriety.

FOOTNOTES [1] Tatler, No. 14; Spectator, Nos. 323, 474, 560.

[2] Particularly the incongruous description of Duncan Campbell’s first appearance in London, where the writer finds the “heavenly youth” seated like a young Adonis in the “center of an angelic tribe” of “the most beautiful females that ever my eyes beheld,” etc.  G.A.  Aitken’s edition of The Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, 87-9.

[3] The Supernatural Philosopher ... by William Bond, of Bury St. Edmonds [Transcriber’s note:  sic], Suffolk.  The preface signed by Campbell to Defoe’s Life and Adventures states that the book was revised by “a young gentleman of my acquaintance.”  Professor Trent, however, includes Mrs. Haywood with Bond as a possible assistant in the revision.  See The Cambridge History of English Literature, IX, 23.