Manley, Rivella (1714):Introduction

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Note on the Text

Text and page reproductions of the Marteau edition of Delarivier Manley's The Adventures of Rivella follow the first edition as published by Edmund Curll, London, 1714, copy of the British Library, shelf-mark: L: 1419.f.23, ESTC: t065369.


Contents


Publication History

The following history of the publication of Delarivier Manley’s Adventures of Rivella (1714) was offered in 1725, a couple of months after her death, by Edmund Curll, her publisher – as a preface to his new, posthumous edition:

Edmund Curll's Preface to the Posthumous Edition, 1725

To the Reader

It must be confessed, That these Memoirs have been written above Ten Years; and likewise, That they have been published as long, though under a different Title. The Reason of which, as well as to prove them Genuine, I shall lay before the Reader with as much Brevity, as the Fact will admit of.

In the Year 1714. Mr. Gildon, upon a Pique, the Cause of which I cannot assign wrote some account of Mrs. Menley’s Life, under the Title of, The History of Rivella, Author of the Atalantis. Of this Piece, Two Sheets only were printed, when Mrs. Manley hearing it was in the Press, and sus-|<iv>pecting it to be, what it really was, A severe Invective upon some Part of her Conduct, she sent me the following Letter;

SIR,
As I have never, Personally, disobliged, I have no Reason to fear your being inexorable as to any Point of Friendship, or Civility, which I shall require of you, provided I make it your own Interest to oblige me. If the Pamphlet you have advertised be not already published I beg the Favour of you to defer it ’till I have spoken to you: Please to send me Word what Hour after Four o’Clock, this Day, you will be at Home when this Note comes, pray send me a Line or Two when I shall wait on you, which will very much oblige,
SIR,
your humble Servant
D. MANLEY
Tues. Mar. 1714.
past 12 a Clock|<v>

I returned for Answer to this Letter, That I should be proud of such a Visitant. Acordingly, Mrs. Manley, and her sister, come to my House in Fleet-Street, whom, before that Time I had never seen, and requested a Sight of Mr. Gildon’s Papers. Such a Request, I told her, I could not by any Means, grant, without asking Mr. Gildon’s Consent; Bur, upon hearing her own Story, which no Pen, but her own, can relate in the agreeable Manner wherein she delivered it. I promised to write to Mr. Gildon the next Day; and not only obtained his Con-sent to let Mrs. Manley see what Sheets were printed, but also brought them to an Interview, by which Means, all Resentments between them were thoroughly reconciled, Mr. Gildon was, likewise, so generous, as to order a Total Suppression of all his Papers; and Mrs. Manley, as generously resolved to write The History of her own Life, and Times, under the same Title which Mr. Gildon had made Choice of. The Truth of which will appear by this Letter.

SIR,
I Am to thank you for your honourable Treatment, which I shall never forget: In Two or Three Days, I hope to begin the Work.|<vi>
I like your Design of continuing the same Title: I am resolved to have it out as soon as possible: I believe you will agree to print it as it is writ: When you have a Mind to see me, send me Word, and I will come to your House; for if you come upon this Hill, B. will find it out; for God’s sake let us try if this Affair can be kept a Secret. I am, with all Respects,
SIR,
Your most obliged humble
Servant
D. MANLEY
Wednesday Noon.
15 Mar.
P. S. I have Company, and Time to tell you only, That your Services are such to me, that can never be enough valued. My Pen, my Purse, my Interst, are all at your Service: I shall never be easy, 'till I am grateful.|<vii>

About a Week after, I received the greatest Part of the Manuscript, with the following Letter.

SIR,
JUDGE that I have not been idle, when I just have sent you so much Copy. How can I deserve all this Friendship from you? I must ask you to pity me; for I am plagued to Death for want of Time, and forced to write by Stealth. I beg the Printer may not have any other to interfere with him, especially because I shall want Time to finish it with that Eclat I intend. I dread the Noise ’twill make when it comes out; it concerns us all to keep the Secret. I design to wait on you, to tell you part of that extream Acknowledgment, which, my Heart tells me, is due to so sincere a Friend.
Yours, &c.
D.M.|<viii>

While these Memoirs were in the Press, I had the Favour of several other obliging Letters from Mrs. MANLEY, in one of which she says, “Though the World may like what I write of others, they despise whatever an Author is thought to say of themselves.

This being the sole Reason of her throwing it into the Disguise of a Translation, and insisting, that it should be kept a Secret during her Life-time; I hope what is now produced, will be allowed to be a sufficient Proof of her being the Genuine Author.

19. Sept. 1724.

E. CURLL.

Some Observations

Literature

  • Anderson, Paul Bunyan, "Delariviere Manley's Prose Fiction", Philological Quarterley, 13 (1934), 168-88.
  • Anderson, Paul Bunyan, "Mistress Delarivière Manley's Biography", Modern Philology, 33 (1936), 261-78.
  • Needham, Gwendolyn, "Mary de la Rivière Manley, Tory Defender", Huntington Library Quarterley, 12 (1948/49), 255-89.
  • Needham, Gwendolyn, "Mrs Manley. An Eighteenth-Century Wife of Bath", Huntington Library Quarterley, 14 (1950/51), 259-85.
  • Morgan, Fidelis, A Woman of No Character. An Autobiography of Mrs. Manley (London, 1986).
  • Todd, Janet, "Life after Sex: The Fictional Autobiography of Delarivier Manley", Women's Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15 (1988), p.43-55.
  • Todd, Janet, The Sign of Angellica. Women, Writing, and Fiction, 1660-1800 (London, 1989).
  • Gallagher, Catharine, "Political Crimes and Fictional Alibis. The Case of Delarivier Manley", Eighteenth Century Studies, 23 (1990), 502-21.
  • Olaf Simons, Marteaus Europa oder Der Roman, bevor er Literatur wurde (Amsterdam, 2001).