bining bits
of gossip in letters purporting to be translated from the Arabic and
written by some supermundane being. The latter part of the device had
already been used by Defoe in "The Consolidator." Mrs. Haywood merely
added the suggestion of a mysterious Oriental source. She makes no
attempt to satirize contemporary society, but is content to retail vague
bits of town talk to customers who might be deluded into imagining them
of importance. "The new created Vizier," the airy correspondent reports,
"might have succeeded better in another Post, than in this, which with
so much earnestness he has sollicited. For, notwithstanding the Plaudits
he has received from our Princess, and the natural Propensity to
State-Affairs, given him by his Saturnine Genius; his Significator Mars
promis'd him greater Honours in the Field, than he can possibly attain
to in the Cabinet." And so on. Both "Bath-Intrigues" and "Letters from
the Palace of Fame" may be classed as _romans a clef_ although no "key"
for either has yet been found. In all other respects they conform to
type.

The only one of Mrs. Haywood's scandal novels that rivaled the fame of
her "Memoirs of a Certain Island" was the notorious "Secret History of
the Present Intrigues of the Court of Carimania" (1727), a feigned
history on a more coherent plan than the allegorical hodge-podge of the
former compilation. The incidents in this book are all loosely connected
with the amours of Theodore, Prince of Carimania, with various beauties
of this court. The chronicle minutely records the means he employed to
overcome their scruples, to stifle their jealousies and their
reproaches, and finally to extricate himself from affairs of gallantry
grown tedious. Nearly all the changes are rung on the theme of amorous
adventure in describing the progress of the royal rake and his
associates. The "key"[23] at the end identifies the characters with
various noble personages at the court of George II when Prince of Wales.
The melting Lutetia, for instance, represented "Mrs. Baladin" or more
accurately Mary Bellenden, maid of honor to the Princess, to whose
charms Prince George was in fact not insensible. Barsina and Arilla were
also maids of honor: the former became the second wife of John, Duke of
Argyle (Aridanor), while the latter was that sister of Sir Sidney
Meadows celebrated by Pope for her prudence. Although the "key"
discreetly refrained from identifying the amorous Theodore, no great