After relating at some length the typical absurdities of the chronique scandaleuse—­deaths by poison, the inevitably dropped letter, and intrigues of passion and jealousy—­he became more specific in describing various authors.  Among others

  “A cast-off Dame, who of Intrigues can judge,
  Writes Scandal in Romance—­A Printer’s Drudge! 
  Flush’d with Success, for Stage-Renown she pants,
  And melts, and swells, and pens luxurious Rants.”

The first two lines might apply to the notorious Mrs. Manley, lately deceased, who had for some time been living as a hack writer for Alderman Barber, but she had written no plays since “Lucius” in 1717.  Mrs. Haywood, however, equally a cast-off dame and a printer’s drudge, had recently produced her “Fair Captive,” a most luxurious rant.  The passage, then, may probably refer to her.

If, as is possible, the poem was circulated in manuscript before its publication, this intended insult may be the injury complained of by Mrs. Haywood in “Memoirs of a Certain Island.”  Though she was content to retaliate only by heaping coals of fire upon the poet’s bays, and though she even heightens the pathos of his story by relating how he had refused the moiety of a small pension from his mother upon hearing that she had suffered losses in the collapse of the South Sea scheme, Savage remained henceforth her implacable enemy.  Perhaps her abuse of the divine Clio, the suspected instigator of his attacks upon her, may have been an unforgivable offense.

No need to particularize further.  We need not vex the shade of Addison by repeating what Eliza records of his wild kinsman, Eustace Budgell (Bellario).  No other person of literary note save Aaron Hill, favorably mentioned as Lauranus, appears in all the dreary two volumes.  The vogue of the book was not due to its merits as fiction, which are slight, but to the spiciness of personal allusions.  That such reading was appreciated even in the highest circles is shown by young Lady Mary Pierrepont’s defence of Mrs. Manley’s “New Atalantis."[18] In the history of the novel, however, the roman a clef deserves perhaps more recognition than has hitherto been accorded it.  Specific delineation was necessary to make effective the satire, and though the presence of the “key” made broad caricature possible, since each picture was labeled, yet the writers of scandal novels usually drew their portraits with an amount of detail foreign to the method of the romancers.[19] While the tale of passion developed the novelist’s power to make the emotions seem convincing, the chronique scandaleuse emphasized the necessity of accurate observation of real men and women.  But satire and libel, though necessitating detailed description, did not, like burlesque or parody, lead to the creation of character.  In that respect the “Memoirs of a Certain Island” and all its tribe are notably deficient.