HAYWOOD, ELIZA (1693?-1756), English writer, daugh ter of a London tradesman named Fowler, was born about 1693. She made an early and unhappy marriage, and her literary enemies circulated scandalous stories about her, possibly founded on her works rather than her real history. She appeared on the stage as early as 1715, and in 1721, after her elopement, she re vised for Lincoln's Inn Fields The. Fair Captive, by a Captain Hurst. Two other pieces followed, but she made her mark as a follower of Mrs. Manley in writing about 7o scandalous and voluminous novels. To Memoirs of a certain Island adjacent to Utopia, written by a celebrated author of that country. Now translated into English (1725), she appended a key in which the characters were explained by initials denoting living persons. The names are supplied to these initials in the copy in the British Museum. The Secret History of the Present Intrigues of the Court of Carasnania (5727) was explained in a similar manner. Pope attacked her in a coarse passage in The Dunciad (bk. ii. I I, 157 et seq.), which is aggravated by a note alluding to the "profligate licentiousness of those shameless scribblers (for the most part of that sex which ought least to be capable of such malice or impudence) who in libellous Memoirs and Novels reveal the faults or misfortunes of both sexes, to the ruin of public fame, or disturbance of private happiness." After some 16 years of practical silence, Mrs. Haywood achieved a certain success by her Fortunate Foundlings (1744) ; Female Spectator her ambitious character novel, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless (1751) and The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy (1753). She died on Feb. 25, 1756.
A collected edition of her novels, plays and poems appeared in 1724, and her Secret Histories, Novels and Poems in 1725. See C. H. Whicher, Life and romances of Mrs. Haywood (1915) which contains a list of her writings and gives substantial extracts.