University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 9-16-1999 The Reform'd Coquet, Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady, and The Accomplish'd Rake Mary Davys Martha F. Bowden Kennesaw State University Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Davys, Mary and Bowden, Martha F., "The Reform'd Coquet, Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady, and The Accomplish'd Rake" (1999). Literature in English, British Isles. 4. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/4 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY NovELS BY WoMEN Isobel Grundy, Editor Advisory Board Paula R. Backscheider David L. Blewett Margaret A. Doody Jan Fergus J. Paul Hunter John Richetti Betty Rizzo This page intentionally left blank THE REFoRM'D CoQUET; OR MEMOIRS OF AMORANDA FAMILIAR LETTERS BETWIXT A GENTLEMAN AND A LADY AND THE AccoMPLisH'D RAKE, oR MoDERN FINE GENTLEMAN Mary Davys Martha F. Bowden, Editor THE U NIVI~RSITY PRI!SS OJr' KrsNTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 1999 by Th e University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Th e Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offi ces: Th e University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Davys, Mary, 1674–1731. [Novels. Selections] Th e reform’d coquet, or, Memoirs of Amoranda ; Familiar letters betwixt a gentleman and a lady ; and, Th e accomplish’d rake, or, Modern fi ne gentleman / Martha F. Bowden, editor. p. cm. — (Eighteenth-century novels by women) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8131-2127-2 (acid-free paper) ISBN 0-8131-0969-8 (pbk. : acid-free paper) 1. England—Social life and customs—18th century—fi ction. I. Bowden, Martha F. II. Title. III. Series. PR3397.D6 A6 1999 823’.5—dc21 99-13687 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-0969-5 (pbk. : acid-free paper) Th is book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses CoNTENTs Acknowledgments vu Introduction ix Chronology xlvii Note on the Text xlix The Reform'd Coquet; or Memoirs ofAmoranda 1 Familiar Letters Betwixt a Gentleman and a Lady 8 5 The Accomplish'd Rake, or Modern Fine Gentleman 123 Appendix: The Grub-Street journal Letters 227 Notes on the Novels 231 Bibliography 251 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS would like to thank the following people for their assistance and support I in preparing this edition: James Bowden; Anne Brennan of the Hibernian Genealogical Society; my colleagues on C18-L, the eighteenth-century dis­ cussion group; Douglas Chambers; Brian Corman; Frans De Bruyn; Antonia Forster; Isobel Grundy; the librarians at Kennesaw State University, especially Beverly Brasch, the interlibrary loan librarian; the librarians at the British Li­ brary, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the Cambridge County Records Office, and Trinity College, Dublin; Dr. Muriel McCarthy, Keeper of Marsh's Li­ brary, Dublin; Dr. Raymond Refausse of the Representative Church Body Library, Dublin; Frances Short; the late the Rt. Rev. H.V.R. Short; The Very Rev. Dr. Maurice Stewart, Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral; and Patricia Hamilton. I would also like to thank my students, particularly Julie Lieber and Judy Oberste, for reading and responding to typescript versions of this edition. I received travel money from the English Department at Kennesaw State University, my institution, and a grant to fund genealogical research from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Kennesaw. I would especially like to thank my husband, Bill Bowden, without whose support I would never have ventured into this or any other project. This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION ary Davys was born in about 1674, in either Ireland or England. Her M parentage, family name, and origins are all lost to us and she herself was not particularly helpful in establishing when and where and to whom she was born. In The Fugitive (1705) she suggests her origins may have been En­ glish: "when I was in the sixth year of my Age, I began my Ramble, being about that time carried by my Mother into Ireland, a place very much de­ spised by those that know it not, and valu'd by them that do."1 Note that while the lines from The Fugitive do not state categorically that she was born in England, they certainly suggest that she was, for her wanderings begin when she leaves England for Ireland. When she revised the book as The Merry W'ltn­ derer in 1725, however, she makes herself indisputably Irish: To tell the Reader I was born in Ireland, is to bespeak a general Dislike to all I write, and he will, likely, be surprized if every Paragraph does not end with a Bull: but a Potato's a fine light Root, and makes the Eater brisk and alert; while Beef and Pudding, that gross heavy Food, dulls a Man's Brain as bad as too much Sleep. And I am going to say a bold Word in defence of my own Country; The very brightest Genius in the King's Dominion drew his first Breath in that Nation: and so much for the Honour of Ireland, of which I am just going to take a finalleave. 2 Jacob's Poetical Register (1719), which was published between The Fugitive and The Merry W'ltnderer, gives her birth place as Ireland and lends further weight to her assertions in the later book. 3 If she had any reason to hide her Irish birth in 1705, by 1719 it was public knowledge. Her birth date has been posited on her assertion of her husband's age and her own at the time of his death: "I once had a Husband, and knew the Pleasure of fine Conversation; he was a Man without exception, whom I lost in the twenty-fourth Year of my Age, and the twenty-ninth ofhis."4 We know Introduction I x without any doubt when Peter Davys died; his burial is registered at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on 6 November 1698. It is therefore a straightforward arithmetical matter to subtract twenty-four years from 1698 and get 1674 (assuming her birthday did not occur sometime in the next few weeks, before the New Year). But that in itself is problematic, for, according to the records at Trinity College, Peter was seventeen when he entered in May, 1685, making him at least thirty when he died. Not only was Davys's imprecision about geography equal to her careless­ ness about dates (she announces at the beginning of The Fugitive that she wandered about for eighteen to twenty years before returning to England, making her between twenty-four and twenty-six in 1700 when she left Dublin), but the desire for fact on the part of her readers is further frustrated by her placement of the few hints she gives us. The references to Ireland and England and the beloved spouse do not appear in the dedications or prefaces of The Fugitive and The Merry Wanderer, where the author may be assumed to be speaking in her own voice. Rather they appear in the body of the narrative, which is at best autobiographical fiction, told by a narrator whose character has changed over the years, as the titles suggest. It is difficult to know whether or not to give any more credence to these personal references than to the wealthy merchant brother in the East Indies, who seems more distinctly a fictional device, particularly since he reappears in The Reform'd Coquet. Davys's construction of herself as writer and woman is a topic to which I shall return below, but it is important to point out how effective that effort was, and the extent to which it has governed most of what we know about her. Of her husband, we can be a little more certain. He was born in Dublin, around 1668, and his father was a shoemaker. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar and graduated with his B.A. in 1689 and his M.A. in 1692.5 He seems to have had an ordinary enough career there, in the company of some more illustrious classmates, including Jonathan Swift and William Congreve. The time of his marriage to Mary is unknown, as are his activities between 1692 and 1694. But in the latter year several momentous events took place. Narcissus Marsh became Archbishop of Dublin in May~' and at some time that year he appointed Davys as headmaster of the Free Schools attached to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Davys himself had been a student?Also in 1694, Davys published a book, Adminiculum Puerile, or An Help for School Boys, "for the Use of St. Patricks-School," which he dedicated to Archbishop Marsh.