stream of panegyric upon William Yonge (later Sir) within two months
after his appointment as one of the commissioners of the treasury in
Great Britain. Soon after Sir Thomas Lombe was made a knight, the wife
of that rich silk weaver had the pleasure of seeing her virtues and her
new title in print. And most remarkable of all, Lady Elizabeth Henley,
who eloped with a rake early in 1728, received Mrs. Haywood's
congratulations upon the event in the dedication of "The Agreeable
Caledonian," published in June, though if we may trust Mrs. Delany's
account of the matter, the bride must already have had time for
repentance. Even grief, the specialist in the study of the passions
knew, might loosen the purse strings, and accordingly she took the
liberty to condole with Col. Stanley upon the loss of his wife while
entreating his favor for "The Masqueraders." But of all her dedications
those addressed to her own sex were the most melting, and from their
frequency were evidently the most fruitful.

The income derived from patronage, however, was at best uncertain and
necessitated many applications. To the public, moreover, a novel meant
nothing if not something new. Eliza Haywood's productiveness, therefore,
was enormous. When she had settled to her work, the authoress could
produce little pieces, ranging from sixty to nearly two hundred pages in
length, with extraordinary rapidity. In 1724, for instance, a year of
tremendous activity, she rushed into print no less than ten original
romances, beside translating half of a lengthy French work, "La Belle
Assemblée" by Mme de Gomez. At this time, too, her celebrity had become
so great that "The Prude, a Novel, written by a Young Lady" was
dedicated to her, just as Mrs. Hearne at the beginning of her career had
put a romance, "The Lover's Week," under the protection of the famous
Mrs. Manley. Between 1720 and 1730 Mrs. Haywood wrote, beside plays and
translations, thirty-eight works of her own composing, one in two stout