Delarivier Manley
Encyclopedia
Delarivier Manley (1663 or c. 1670–1724) was an English
novelist of amatory fiction
, playwright, and political pamphleteer. (Some outdated sources list her first name as Mary, but recent scholarship has demonstrated that this was in error; that was the name of one of her sisters, and she always referred to herself as Delarivier or Delia.)
Manley is sometimes referred to as (with Aphra Behn
and Eliza Haywood
) one of The Fair Triumvirate of Wit—a later attribution.
in 1714. Curll added further details on the publication history behind the Rivella in the first posthumous edition of the quasi fictional and not entirely reliable autobiography in 1725.
Manley was probably born in Jersey
, the third of six children of Sir Roger Manley, a royalist army officer and historian, and a woman from the Spanish Netherlands, who died when Delarivier was young. It seems that she and her sister Cornelia moved with their father to his various army postings.
After their father's death in 1687, the girls became wards of their cousin, John Manley (1654–1713), a Tory MP. John Manley had married a Cornish heiress and, later, bigamously
, married Delarivier. They had a son in 1691, also named John. In January 1694 Manley left her husband and went to live with Barbara Villiers, the 1st Duchess of Cleveland, at one time the mistress of Charles II
. She remained there only six months, at which time she was expelled by the duchess for allegedly flirting with her son.
During the period of 1694–1696 Manley travelled extensively in England, principally in the south-west. At this time she wrote her first play, a comedy, The Lost Lover, or, The Jealous Husband (1696). There is some indication that she may have been by then reconciled with her husband, for a time.
Manley's satirical attacks on the Whigs at one point resulted in payment from the then Prime Minister Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
. Her career as an author effectively began with the publication of her New Atalantis in 1709, a work that spotted present British politics on the fabulous Mediterranean Island. Manley was immediately questioned by the authorities in preparation of a libel case against her. She had discredited half the arena of ruling Whig politicians—John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
, who, she said, had begun his career at court in the bed of the then royal mistress, Barbara Villiers. Manley answered the authorities, so her Adventures of Rivella, insisting that her work was entirely fictional. Whigs who felt offended should prove that she had actually told their stories. The result was a silent agreement over the preferable fictional status of her works under which she continued to publish another volume of the Atalantis and two more of the Memoirs of Europe. The latter found a different fictional setting to allow the wider European picture. Later editions sold the Memoirs, however, as volumes three and four of the Atalantis. The Atalantis was not only the attractive work to embrace the Memoirs it sparkled several imitations and persuaded the publishers to sell the Secret History of Queen Zarah, an anonymous work that had appeared four years earlier as an "appendix" to the New Atalantis.
In 1714 Manley had almost suffered the misfortune of becoming the object of a biographical text planned by Charles Gildon
. Curll, Gildon's prospective publisher warned Manley of the work in progress. She contacted Gildon and arranged for an agreement: she would write the work in question herself within a certain time span. The result were her Adventures of Rivella, a book evolving between two male protagonists: The young chevalier D'Aumont has left France to have sex with the authoress, he finds a rejected lover and friend who does not only offer his assistance in arranging the contact but who also the story of her life, both as related in public gossip and as only her friends know it.
Manley temporally joined Jonathan Swift
as co-author of the Examiner
. Her last major work, The Power of Love in Seven Novels (London: J. Barber/ J. Morphew, 1720) is a revised version of selected novellas first published in William Painter
's Palace of Pleasure well furnished with pleasaunt Histories and excellent Novelles (1566).
satirised the eternal fame she was about to acquire in his Rape of the Lock
in 1712—it would last "as long as the Atalantis shall be read."
The revision of her fame and status as an author began in the early decades of the 18th century and led to manifest defamations in the 19th and early 20th centuries: Manley became a scandalous female author, one of those that did not deserve to be ever read again, so said John J. Richetti as late as 1969.
The present re-appreciation began with Patricia Köster's ground breaking edition of her works. The more accessible edition of the Atalantis, which Ros Ballaster turned into a Penguin Classic, brought Manley wider recognition among students of early 18th century literature. Janet Todd
, Catherine Gallagher and Ros Ballaster provided the perspective of Manley as a proto-feminist. Fidelis Morgan's, A Woman of No Character. An Autobiography of Mrs. Manley (London, 1986) put the (auto-)biographical information into the first more coherent picture.
Delarivier Manley has been erroneously claimed to have written The Secret History of Queen Zarah (1705). This was first doubted in Patricia Köster's edition of her works (which still included the title). The claim was openly rejected by Olaf Simons (2001) who re-read the wider context of early 18th century Atalantic novels. J. Alan Downie (2004) went a step further and cast light on the presumable author of the Queen Zarah: Dr Joseph Browne
.
She also edited Jonathan Swift
's Examiner
. In her writings she played with classical names and spelling. She was an uninhibited and effective political writer.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist of amatory fiction
Amatory fiction
Amatory fiction is a genre of British literature popular during the late 17th century and 18th century. Amatory fiction predates, and in some ways predicts, the invention of the novel. Amatory fiction was written by women and for women. As its name implies, amatory fiction is preoccupied with...
, playwright, and political pamphleteer. (Some outdated sources list her first name as Mary, but recent scholarship has demonstrated that this was in error; that was the name of one of her sisters, and she always referred to herself as Delarivier or Delia.)
Manley is sometimes referred to as (with Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn
Aphra Behn was a prolific dramatist of the English Restoration and was one of the first English professional female writers. Her writing contributed to the amatory fiction genre of British literature.-Early life:...
and Eliza Haywood
Eliza Haywood
Eliza Haywood , born Elizabeth Fowler, was an English writer, actress and publisher. Since the 1980s, Eliza Haywood’s literary works have been gaining in recognition and interest...
) one of The Fair Triumvirate of Wit—a later attribution.
Biography
Much of our knowledge about Delarivier Manley is rooted in her insertion of "Delia's story" in the New Atalantis (1709), and the Adventures of Rivella she published as the biography of the author of the Atalantis with Edmund CurllEdmund Curll
Edmund Curll was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary...
in 1714. Curll added further details on the publication history behind the Rivella in the first posthumous edition of the quasi fictional and not entirely reliable autobiography in 1725.
Manley was probably born in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, the third of six children of Sir Roger Manley, a royalist army officer and historian, and a woman from the Spanish Netherlands, who died when Delarivier was young. It seems that she and her sister Cornelia moved with their father to his various army postings.
After their father's death in 1687, the girls became wards of their cousin, John Manley (1654–1713), a Tory MP. John Manley had married a Cornish heiress and, later, bigamously
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
, married Delarivier. They had a son in 1691, also named John. In January 1694 Manley left her husband and went to live with Barbara Villiers, the 1st Duchess of Cleveland, at one time the mistress of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. She remained there only six months, at which time she was expelled by the duchess for allegedly flirting with her son.
During the period of 1694–1696 Manley travelled extensively in England, principally in the south-west. At this time she wrote her first play, a comedy, The Lost Lover, or, The Jealous Husband (1696). There is some indication that she may have been by then reconciled with her husband, for a time.
Manley's satirical attacks on the Whigs at one point resulted in payment from the then Prime Minister Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer
Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG was a British politician and statesman of the late Stuart and early Georgian periods. He began his career as a Whig, before defecting to a new Tory Ministry. Between 1711 and 1714 he served as First Lord of the Treasury, effectively Queen...
. Her career as an author effectively began with the publication of her New Atalantis in 1709, a work that spotted present British politics on the fabulous Mediterranean Island. Manley was immediately questioned by the authorities in preparation of a libel case against her. She had discredited half the arena of ruling Whig politicians—John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...
, who, she said, had begun his career at court in the bed of the then royal mistress, Barbara Villiers. Manley answered the authorities, so her Adventures of Rivella, insisting that her work was entirely fictional. Whigs who felt offended should prove that she had actually told their stories. The result was a silent agreement over the preferable fictional status of her works under which she continued to publish another volume of the Atalantis and two more of the Memoirs of Europe. The latter found a different fictional setting to allow the wider European picture. Later editions sold the Memoirs, however, as volumes three and four of the Atalantis. The Atalantis was not only the attractive work to embrace the Memoirs it sparkled several imitations and persuaded the publishers to sell the Secret History of Queen Zarah, an anonymous work that had appeared four years earlier as an "appendix" to the New Atalantis.
In 1714 Manley had almost suffered the misfortune of becoming the object of a biographical text planned by Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon , was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or...
. Curll, Gildon's prospective publisher warned Manley of the work in progress. She contacted Gildon and arranged for an agreement: she would write the work in question herself within a certain time span. The result were her Adventures of Rivella, a book evolving between two male protagonists: The young chevalier D'Aumont has left France to have sex with the authoress, he finds a rejected lover and friend who does not only offer his assistance in arranging the contact but who also the story of her life, both as related in public gossip and as only her friends know it.
Manley temporally joined Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
as co-author of the Examiner
Examiner
The Examiner was a weekly paper founded by Leigh and John Hunt in 1808. For the first fifty years it was a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles, but from 1865 it repeatedly changed hands and political allegiance, resulting in a rapid decline in readership and loss of...
. Her last major work, The Power of Love in Seven Novels (London: J. Barber/ J. Morphew, 1720) is a revised version of selected novellas first published in William Painter
William Painter
William Painter was an English author and translator.William Painter was a native of Kent. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554. In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a position in which he appears to have amassed a fortune out of the public funds...
's Palace of Pleasure well furnished with pleasaunt Histories and excellent Novelles (1566).
Reception
Delarivier Manley lived on the fame of her notorious personality as early as 1714. Her precarious marriage past, numerous quarrels, her obesity, her political stance were topics she sold in constant revisions of the fame she had acquired. This was apparently no problem before the 1740s—Manley was translated into French and German in the early 18th century, and received new English editions during the first half of the century. Alexander PopeAlexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
satirised the eternal fame she was about to acquire in his Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos , but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version...
in 1712—it would last "as long as the Atalantis shall be read."
The revision of her fame and status as an author began in the early decades of the 18th century and led to manifest defamations in the 19th and early 20th centuries: Manley became a scandalous female author, one of those that did not deserve to be ever read again, so said John J. Richetti as late as 1969.
The present re-appreciation began with Patricia Köster's ground breaking edition of her works. The more accessible edition of the Atalantis, which Ros Ballaster turned into a Penguin Classic, brought Manley wider recognition among students of early 18th century literature. Janet Todd
Janet Todd
Janet Margaret Todd is a Welsh-born academic and a well-respected author of many books on women in literature. Todd was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Florida, where she undertook a doctorate on the poet John Clare...
, Catherine Gallagher and Ros Ballaster provided the perspective of Manley as a proto-feminist. Fidelis Morgan's, A Woman of No Character. An Autobiography of Mrs. Manley (London, 1986) put the (auto-)biographical information into the first more coherent picture.
Delarivier Manley has been erroneously claimed to have written The Secret History of Queen Zarah (1705). This was first doubted in Patricia Köster's edition of her works (which still included the title). The claim was openly rejected by Olaf Simons (2001) who re-read the wider context of early 18th century Atalantic novels. J. Alan Downie (2004) went a step further and cast light on the presumable author of the Queen Zarah: Dr Joseph Browne
Joseph Browne
Joseph Browne is a Fijian civil servant, who was Official Secretary to the late President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, prior to Mara's possibly forced resignation during the insurrection which deposed the constitutional government in 2000...
.
Works
- Letters written by Mrs Manley (1696)
- The Lost Lover or The Jealous Husband (1696), a comedy
- The Royal Mischief (1696), a tragedy
- Almyna, or the Arabian Vow (1707), a tragedy
- Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality of Both Sexes, from the new Atlantis, an island in the Mediterranean (1709), a satire in which great liberties were taken with WhigBritish Whig PartyThe Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
notables - Memoirs of Europe towards the Close of the Eighth Century. Written by Eginardus (1710)
- The Adventures of Rivella, or the History of the Author of The New Atalantis (1714)
- Delarivier Manley revising William Painter: The Power of Love in Seven Novels (London: J. Barber/ J. Morphew, 1720).
She also edited Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's Examiner
Examiner
The Examiner was a weekly paper founded by Leigh and John Hunt in 1808. For the first fifty years it was a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles, but from 1865 it repeatedly changed hands and political allegiance, resulting in a rapid decline in readership and loss of...
. In her writings she played with classical names and spelling. She was an uninhibited and effective political writer.
Literature
- Paul Bunyan Anderson, "Delariviere Manley's Prose Fiction", Philological Quarterley, 13 (1934), p. 168-88.
- Paul Bunyan Anderson, "Mistress Delarivière Manley's Biography", Modern Philology, 33 (1936), p. 261-78.
- Gwendolyn Needham, "Mary de la Rivière Manley, Tory Defender", Huntington Library Quarterley, 12 (1948/49), p. 255-89.
- Gwendolyn Needham, "Mrs Manley. An Eighteenth-Century Wife of Bath", Huntington Library Quarterley, 14 (1950/51), p. 259-85.
- Patricia Köster, "Delariviere Manley and the DNB. A Cautionary Tale about Following Black Sheep with a Challenge to Cataloguers", Eighteenth-Century Live, 3 (1977), p. 106-11.
- Manley, (Mary) Delarivier, The Adventures of Rivella. Ed. Katherine Zelinsky. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1551111216. http://www.broadviewpress.com/product.php?productid=12&cat=67&page=1
- Fidelis Morgan, A Woman of No Character. An Autobiography of Mrs. Manley (London, 1986).
- Rachel Carnell, A Political Biography of Delarivier Manley (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2008).
- Ruth Herman, The Business of a Woman: The Political Writings of Delarivier Manley (London: AUP, 2003).
- Rachel Carnell and Ruth Herman, The Selected Works of Delarivier Manley (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2005).
- Dale SpenderDale SpenderDale Spender is an Australian feminist scholar, teacher, writer and consultant.-Early life:Spender was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, a niece of the crime writer Jean Spender . The eldest of three, she has a younger sister Lynne, and a much younger brother Graeme. She attended the Burwood...
in Mothers of the Novel (1986). - Janet Todd, "Life after Sex: The Fictional Autobiography of Delarivier Manley", Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15 (1988), p. 43-55.
- Janet Todd (ed.), "Manley, Delarivier." British Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide. London: Routledge, 1989. 436-440.
- Rosalind Ballaster, "Introduction" to: Manley, Delariviere, New Atalantis, ed. R. Ballaster (London, 1992), p.v-xxi.
- Ros Ballaster, 'Delarivier Manley (c. 1663-1724)' at www.chawton.org
- Catharine Gallagher, "Political Crimes and Fictional Alibis. The Case of Delarivier Manley", Eighteenth Century Studies, 23 (1990), p. 502-21.
- Olaf Simons, Marteaus Europa oder Der Roman, bevor er Literatur wurde (Amsterdam/ Atlanta: Rodopi, 2001), p. 173-179, 218-246.
- J. Alan Downie, "What if Delarivier Manley Did Not Write The Secret History of Queen Zarah?", The Library (2004) 5(3):247-264 http://library.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/5/3/247.
- Ros Ballaster, ‘Manley, Delarivier (c.1670–1724)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.