A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Haywood, Mrs. Eliza
Haywood, Mrs. Eliza (Fowler) (1693-1756).—Dramatist and novelist, b. in London, was early m. to a Mr. H., but the union turning out unhappily, she took to the stage, upon which she appeared in Dublin about 1715. She afterwards settled in London, and produced numerous plays and novels, into which she introduced scandalous episodes regarding living persons whose identity was very thinly veiled, a practice which, along with her political satires, more than once involved her in trouble, and together with certain attacks upon Pope, made in concert with Curll the bookseller, procured for her a place in The Dunciad. Her enemies called her reputation in question, but nothing very serious appears to have been proved. She is repeatedly referred to by Steele, and has been doubtfully identified with his "Sappho." Some of her works, such as The History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy had great popularity. Others were The Fair Captive (1721), Idalia (1723), Love in Excess (1724), Memoirs of a Certain Island adjacent to Utopia (anonymously) (1725), Secret History of Present Intrigues at the Court of Caramania (anonymously) (1727). She also conducted The Female Spectator, and other papers.