Mrs. Haywood, as we have seen, looked to the booksellers for support when her husband disclaimed her. Of all the amazons of prose fiction who in a long struggle with neglect and disparagement demonstrated the fitness of their sex to follow the novelist's calling, none was more persistent, more adaptable, or more closely identified with the development of the novel than she. Mrs. Behn and Mrs. Manley must be given credit as pioneers in fiction, but much of their best work was written for the stage. Eliza Haywood, on the other hand, added little to her reputation by her few dramatic performances. She achieved her successes first and last as a writer of romances and novels, and unlike Mrs. Aubin and her other rivals continued to maintain her position as a popular author over a considerable period of time. During the thirty-six years of her activity the romances of Defoe and of Mrs. Jane Barker gave place to the novels of Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett, yet the "female veteran" kept abreast of the changes in the taste of her public and even contributed slightly to produce them. Nor was her progress accomplished without numerous difficulties and discouragements. In spite of all, however, Mrs. Haywood remained devoted to her calling and was still scribbling when the great Dr. Johnson crowned the brows of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox to celebrate the publication of "The Life of Harriot Stuart" (1750). After such recognition a career in letters was open to women without reproach. Though unlaureled by any lexicographer, and despised by the virtuous Mrs. Lennox,[5] Mrs. Haywood, nevertheless, had done yeoman service in preparing the way for modest Fanny Burney and quiet Jane Austen. Moreover she was the only one of the old tribe of _romancières_ who survived to join the new school of lady novelists, and in her tabloid fiction rather than in the criminal biography, or the _voyage imaginaire_, or the periodical essay, may best be studied the obscure but essential link between the "voluminous extravagances" of the "Parthenissa" kind and the hardly less long-winded histories of "Pamela" and "Clarissa." FOOTNOTES [1] _Letters from the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Everyman edition, 422. [2] _Tatler_, Nos. 32, 59, 63. [3] See also Horace Walpole, _Letters_, edited by Mrs. P. Toynbee, I, 354. [4] Only rarely did women like Mary Astell or Mrs. Elizabeth Rowe become authors to demonstrate a theory or to inculcate principles of piety, and still more seldom did such creditable motives lead to the writing of fiction. Perhaps the only one of the _romancières_ not dependent in some measure upon the sale of her works was Mrs. Penelope Aubin, who in the Preface to _Charlotta Du Pont_ (dedicated to Mrs. Rowe) declares, "My Design in writing, is to employ my leisure Hours to some Advantage to my self and others ... I do not write for Bread."