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
Assemblee" 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
volumes and several in two or more parts. If we may judge by the number
and frequency of editions, most of the indefatigable scribbler's tales
found a ready sale, while the best of them, such as "Idalia" (1723),
"The Fatal Secret" (1724), "The Mercenary Lover" (1726), "The Fruitless
Enquiry" and "Philidore and Placentia" (1727), gained for her not a
little applause.

Nor was the young adventuress in letters unhailed by literary men. Aaron
Hill immediately befriended her by writing an epilogue for her first
play and another of Hill's circle, the irresponsible Richard Savage,
attempted to "paint the Wonders of Eliza's Praise" in verses prefixed to
"Love in Excess" and "The Rash Resolve" (1724).[21]

Along with Savage's first complimentary poem were two other effusions,
in one of which an "Atheist to Love's Power" acknowledged his conversion
through the force of Eliza's revelation of the tender passion, while the
other expressed with less rapture the same idea. But it remained for
James Sterling, the friend of Concanen, to state most vigorously the
contemporary estimate of Mrs. Haywood and her early writings.[22] "Great
Arbitress of Passion!" he exclaims,

"Persuasion waits on all your bright Designs,
And where you point the varying Soul inclines:
See! Love and Friendship, the fair Theme inspires
We glow with Zeal, we melt in soft Desires!
Thro' the dire Labyrinth of Ills we share
The kindred Sorrows of the gen'rous Pair;
Till, pleas'd, rewarded Vertue we behold,
Shine from the Furnace pure as tortur'd Gold:"

of _Love in Excess_, Part II, and at the front of each successive
edition, have never been reprinted. [Transcriber's note: wording in
original.] A specimen of his praise follows,

"Thy Prose in sweeter Harmony refines,
Than Numbers flowing t