Mrs. Manley,[300] a gentlewoman of good family, the daughter of Sir Roger Manley, was left an orphan while still young. Her guardian, a cousin twenty years older than herself, tricked her into a false marriage, and then, on the birth of a child, announced the cheat and disappeared. Most of the fortune left by her father had also vanished. The details of her life after this until she began her career of authorship are but vaguely known. In 1696 she made a threefold appeal to the public in _Letters written by Mrs. Manley_;[301] _The Lost Lover_, a comedy written in seven days, produced at Drury Lane, and not successful; and _The Royal Mischief_, successfully brought out at Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the Preface to her _Letters_ (1696) Mrs. Manley spoke of the eager contention between the theaters as to which should bring her on the stage, but drama was not her natural medium. When, after a silence of nine years, she again appeared as an author, it was with _The Secret History of Queen Zarah_ (1705), a precursor of the scandalous personal and political memories for which she became known. In 1709 she published _Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes. From the New Atalantis, an Island in the Mediterranean._ The popularity of this book brought a second volume the same year. In 1710 appeared _Memoirs of Europe towards the Close of the Eighth Century_. This and a second volume were afterwards reprinted as the third and fourth volumes of _The New Atalantis_. The sixth edition of _The New Atalantis_ had a _Key_ at the end of the fourth volume. This book purported to be by an Italian and put into English by an anonymous translator. The plan of the romance is that of a journey where Astræa (Mrs. Behn revisiting the earth), Fame, and Virtue are conducted invisibly about while their guide, "Intelligence," tells them the secret histories of the persons they meet. Under this thin disguise the statesmen, wits, and beauties of the reign of William and Mary and Queen Anne were at once recognized. Mrs. Manley, the publisher, and the printer, were arrested. On her own testimony, however, the blame was counted hers and she was examined before the court, but after about three months she was discharged. And the later volumes followed with no public expression of disapproval. In 1711 Mrs. Manley succeeded Swift as editor of _The Examiner_. In 1714 appeared _The Adventures of Rivella, or, the History of the Author of Atalantis, by Sir Charles Lovemore_. In 1724 Curll brought this out as _Mrs. Manley's History of Her own Life and Times_, and it was probably written by her. In 1720 _The Power of Love in Seven Volumes, and Verses_, in Anthony Hammond's _New Miscellany_, close her contributions to literature. She died at the house of Alderman Barker whose mistress she had been for several years.