The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works. Series II. Printed Writings, 1641–1700: Part 3, vol. 12 by Delarivier Manley (review)

167 new scientific genesis, which always promised, as Swift taught us in a work barely mentioned here, the possibilities of solving our toughest problems by refiguring human society on a hybrid model—a new scientific economic system derived from animal husbandry. Frank Boyle Fordham University DELARIVIER MANLEY. The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works. Series II. Printed Writings, 1641–1700: Part 3, vol. 12, selected and introd. Stephanie HodgsonWright . Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Pp. xiv ⫹ ca. 212 (no continuous pagination ). £99.95. Like the more illustrious—or, as some would say, notorious—Behn, Manley perfectly represents the contradictions haunting England’s first female dramatists. The conflict between woman ’s traditional role—chaste, housebound , safely under male control—and the public voice and persona of an author writing for the Restoration stage was almost irreconcilable. The theater of the period demanded witty dialogue, erotic wordplay, and complex intrigue. The intellectual sharpness necessary to produce this kind of text was hardly to be acquired in the course of a sheltered middle-class life. Not surprisingly, the vicissitudes of Manley’s early life—she was tricked by her guardian into a bigamous marriage, later found a place as companion to Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, but was dismissed for seducing the Duchess’s son, and finally became the mistress of Sir Thomas Skipwith, manager of the Drury Lane Theater—reflect the precariousness of any woman’s position at the period, but in particular that of a professional writer . The turn from dramatist to novelist offered a way out, or at least a softening of the predicament: the novelist, working from home, was less exposed to public scrutiny and scorn. Accordingly, in the course of the eighteenth century the ‘‘lady novelist’’ would come to constitute the epitome of the woman writer. This successful repositioning of women writers in the literary market continues to inform the views of literary criticism today. In consequence, the narrative works of Behn, Manley, and their contemporaries have received comparatively more critical attention than their dramatic writings. This edition helpfully brings together a selection of Manley’s earlier works, including her comedy The Lost Lover; or, The Jealous Husband and her greatest success on the London stage, the tragedy The Royal Mischief (both performed in 1696). Together with Manley’s prefaces and metadramatic poems —‘‘To the Author of Agnes de Castro ,’’ ‘‘Melpomene: The Tragick Muse,’’ and ‘‘Thalia: The Comick Muse’’—the plays fulfill the aim set out in the Introduction , namely to demonstrate ‘‘her early and important contribution to the literary and theatrical milieu of the late seventeenth century.’’ Ms. HodgsonWright is cautious about the plays’ aesthetic merit. Readers today will be rather puzzled by the overly complex plotting and counterplotting, and the protagonists—types rather than fully developed characters—may appear superficially drawn. But they are superbly caught by Manley’s sharp wit, even minor characters like the foolish ‘‘Beaux’’ Sir Amorous Courtall in The Lost Lover, ‘‘who is Fop enough, to think all Women that have fine Clothes Beauties.’’ While the foibles and self-delusions of these fops, rakes, and aging women in search of younger lovers are con- 168 ventionally satirized, on occasion we glimpse a more independent female strength. For example, the discarded mistress Belira, whose plot to regain her lost lover fails, is at least allowed to express her hurt and resentment: ‘‘But thy heart, Traytor, thy perjur’d Heart; tell me, how shall I get it back?’’ The pieces written within a theatrical context are supplemented by the Letters Writen by Mrs Manley, an epistolary account of a stage coach journey to the country. With its loosely strung episodes and keenly observed fellow travellers, the letters anticipate the great picaresque novels of the next century, but they also bear witness to the distance writers like Smollett and Fielding would have to travel in terms of characterization and plot. Manley is a transitional figure, bridging the gap between two very distinct literary epochs. This volume offers an interesting overview of one of the mothers of the English novel. Ms. Hodgson-Wright’s concise Introduction gives some indispensable information about the author and the selected texts. The carefully reproduced facsimiles convey a sense of...