The distress'd orphan
or, Love in a mad-house
by Eliza Haywood
1726 AD

1. In 1726 AD, Eliza Haywood wrote a play called, "The distress'd orphan" or, "Love in a mad-house", that highlighted a new phenomena of wicked husbands sending their rich and unwanted wives to a private mad house so they could get their wives money and be free to love their new mistress. Haywood shows that it was well known that being thrown into a mad house could actually cause madness since the rich heroine greatly feared going mad herself and "fall indeed into that Disorder of which the was accus'd." This shows that insanity was not a medical condition, but caused by cruel torture and abuse. The mad house is a small building that housed maybe 10 people in "several Apartments", chained naked to the floor on dirty straw with meager food rations. The keepers mocked and beat them into submission. In the play, a rich woman refuses to marry a man who is only after her money, "it was for her Wealth alone that he had seem'd so desirous of engaging her". The woman's "guardians" had likely made a deal with her "new husband" to get a cut of the money. When she refused, the "guardians" threw her into a mad house. While it is important to remember that the play exaggerates a fictional situation, the core of the situation is likely intended to be readily recognized by the audience perhaps as a method of bringing about change through theatre. Being kidnapped from her home, "thrust into the Coach, where the three Keepers immediately crowding in", she finds herself inside the madhouse: "disturb'd with Sounds, which struck so great a Dread into her, that nothing is more strange, than that she did nor die with the Fright, or fall indeed into that Disorder of which the was accus'd. The rattling of Chains, the Shrieks of those severely treated by their barbarous Keepers, mingled with Curses, Oaths, and the most blasphemous Imprecations, did from one quarter of the House shock her tormented Ears while from another, Howlings like that of Dogs, Shoutings, Roarings, Prayers, Preaching, Curses, Singing, Crying, promiscuously join'd to make a Chaos of the most horrible Confusion: but the Violence of this Uproar continued not long, it being only occasion'd by the Entrance of the Keepers into the Cells of those Wretches who were really Lunatick, and had, for the Addition of their Anguish, so much Remains of Sense, as to know what they were to suffer at the Approach of these inhuman Creatures, who never came to bring them fresh Straw, or that poor Pittance of Food allowed for the Support of their miserable Lives ; but they saluted them with Stripes in a manner so cruel, as if they delighted in inflicting Pain, excusing themselves in this Barbarity, by saying that there was a necessity to keep them in awe ; as if Chains, and Nakedness, and the small Portion of wretched Sustenance they suffer'd them to take, was not sufficient to humble their Fellow- Creature. Besides, what is there to be feared from those helpless Objects of Compassion, who being Hand-cuffed, and the Fetters on their Legs fast bolted into the floor, can air no farther than the length of their Chain!" Haywood's play follows Patrick Blair's "cure of madness by the fall of water", in 1725 AD where he actually gives a case of curing a disobedient wife of her madness by water torture. Then in 1728, Daniel Defoe makes a public effort to bring get authorities to stop this injustice to women. (The distress'd orphan or, Love in a mad-house, Eliza Haywood, 1726 AD)
2. "A WICKED GUARDIAN, a heroine imprisoned in a decaying, antique structure, and terrifying shrieks in the dark of night - all are conventions we readily associate with the Gothic novels popular in late eighteenth-century England. In fact, as Eve Sedgwick points out, most critics of the Gothic novel rely on the presence of such conventions to define the genre itself, and, if we accept such criteria, we must include Eliza Haywood's The Distress'd Orphan, or Love in a Mad-House (1726) in the Gothic genre.' Of course, we can find Gothic elements like persecuted lovers, wicked parents, and abducted heroines in many other early romances by Haywood and her contemporaries such as Penelope Aubin, Mary Davys, and Jane Barker. But The Distress'd Orphan uses these conventions to evoke a sense of terror, and this terror bears a striking resemblance to the horrors evoked by many late-century Gothic novels, particularly Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria; or, The Wrongs of Woman (1798). ... It is easy to see why this particular novel would be attractive to a late eighteenth-century reading audience thirsty for tales of Gothic horror. Like many of the Gothic novels from this period, The Distress'd Orphan focuses on a young woman whose wicked guardian locks her up when she refuses to comply with his matrimonial plans for her. But in place of the castle or convent we see in the typical Gothic novel, Annilia's uncle incarcerates her in a private madhouse, and this prison is just as psychologically terrifying as any of the supernatural horrors in the castles created by Radcliffe and her followers. Annilia's prison is also haunted, but it is haunted with the sounds of madness: "The rattling of Chains, the Shrieks of those severely treated by their barbarous Keepers, mingled with Curses, Oaths, and the most blasphemous Imprecations, did from one quarter of the House shock her tormented Ears; while from another, Howlings like that of Dogs, Shoutings, Roarings, Prayers, Preaching, Curses, Singing, Crying, promiscuously join'd to make a Chaos of the most horrible Confusion." (p 41-42) The most terrifying aspect of Annilia's situation is not her physical confinement and the state of powerlessness it represents but the danger to her sanity: her incarceration "struck so great a Dread into her, that nothing is more strange, than that she did not die with the Fright, or fall indeed into that Disorder of which she was accus'd" (p 41). The fear of being driven mad adds to the terror already experienced by Haywood's imprisoned heroine. A similar fear is evident in other literature representing individuals wrongfully committed to madhouses. As DeLamotte observes, "madness - the loss of power over one's inner realm - is one of the ultimate Gothic horrors" ... In the eighteenth century, the fear of wrongful incarceration and the potential loss of sanity that might accompany it was not entirely imaginary, especially for women. According to William Parry- Jones, the institution of the private madhouse, or the "trade in lunacy," was well established by the beginning of the eighteenth century, and asylums for profit continued to multiply and operate without regulation until the end of the century. A growing controversy, however, surrounded these institutions, which several contemporary critics accuse of abuses like the one Haywood represents in her novel. Daniel Defoe, among the earliest of such critics, addresses the issue in the Review (1706) and in Augusta Triumphans (1728) where he documents several cases of women incarcerated in private madhouses by their relatives for financial or sexual convenience. Thirty-five years later, the medically unjustified confinement of women in such institutions was still commonplace according to a 1763 parliamentary committee's published report on the abuses of the private madhouse: all but one of the cases reported by the committee involve women committed by relatives - usually husbands-for no valid medical reason. Looking beyond the immediate financial considerations that might motivate a husband or family to commit an unwanted heiress, Max Byrd argues that many of these women "are put away because they have refused to be good bourgeois daughters," and he suggests that, in many eighteenth-century minds, rebellion against accepted ideological beliefs constituted grounds for imprisonment: "hostility to ordinary middle-class values is associated instantly, automatically, with insanity; and insanity with confinement." As Foucault points out in Madness and Civilization, the mental hospital emerged during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a means of social control. In England the private madhouse was an especially powerful instrument for those with funds to pay for such incarceration of friends, enemies, or relatives. In exposing the corruption of social institutions and the abuse of patriarchal authority, Haywood's The Distress'd Orphan anticipates not only the Gothic fictions that would become so very popular at the end of the century but also the political, or Jacobin, novel as practiced by writers like Charlotte Smith, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Haywood's novel bears a strong resemblance to Wollstonecraft's Maria, which is part of the Gothic and the Jacobin traditions. Both novels focus on a heroine wrongfully imprisoned in a madhouse by a legal guardian for financial gain. The social criticism in Wollstonecraft's novel is, however, far more direct than anything we find in Haywood: while Maria speaks out against the unjust social institutions that allow her husband to imprison her and gain control of her fortune, Annilia does not explicitly connect her own situation to these wider social issues. Readers of both novels may draw similar conclusions about the horrors of unrestrained patriarchal authority, but Haywood's approach is more subtle and her conclusion less tragic. While the Gothic, Jacobin, and feminist aspects of The Distress'd Orphan will interest modern scholars of the novel, it is, like most of Haywood's early novels, primarily - a tale that illustrates the irrepressible power of love in excess. (The distress'd orphan or, Love in a mad-house, Eliza Haywood, 1726 AD, introduction by Deborah Nestor, 1995)

The distress'd orphan or, Love in a mad-house, Eliza Haywood, 1726 AD

Note: old english used an "f" in place of the letter "s", except when there were two "ss", then they used, "fs". We have fixed a few.

( 40 )

The Hour appointed for the Execution of this Enterprize being near at hand [ie the time she was cast into the mental hospital], Giraldo order'd all his Family to retire to their. Beds, except one Servant, in whom he plac'd great Confidence, and was the same who occation'd his discovering the Correspondence between Marathon and Annilia, by giving him Intelligence out of what place he had seen Ofepha come. The unhappy Niece of this barbarous Man was compell'd to rise out of her Bed, where the was sleeping as secure as her Discontents and Fears would let her, and oblig'd to put on her Clothes at that unseasonable Hour ; not that the would have done it at his requeft, but the appearance of all thofe ill-look'd Fellows in her Chamber, (he having without any regard to Decency, or the Modefty of her Sex, brought them to her Bed-side made her, with all the haste the could, throw on a loose Night-Gown, which the had no fooner done, than like a Lamb among a Herd of Wolves, the was feiz'd by there inhuman Ruffians; and some stopping her Mouth, and threatning her if the attempted to refill ; and another taking hold of her, the was rather dragg'd than carry'd down Stairs, and thrust into the Coach, where the three Keepers immediately crowding in, render'd frustrate all the faint Hopes she had conceived of escaping.

( 41 )

She saw little of the Horrors of her Prison that Night, every Wretch, whom either the Malice of their false Friends, or the Misfortune of their own Distemper, had brought there, being close lock'd into their several Apartments; and all the Family, who profited by their Misery, retir'd to Bed, except two Women-Servants, who humouring this new guest in all the Extravagancies her Wrongs enforc'd her to utter, made her know that it was to a Mad-House the was brought, and that they took her for one labouring under that unhappy Circumstance. They compelled her to go into a Bed they had prepar'd for her, but 'tis not to be imagin'd the could admit the Approach of Sleep that Night; and earlier than the Day, was the disturb'd with Sounds, which struck so great a Dread into her, that nothing is more strange, than that she did nor die with the Fright, or fall indeed into that Disorder of which the was accus'd. The rattling of Chains, the Shrieks of those severely treated by their barbarous Keepers, mingled with Curses, Oaths, and the most blasphemous Imprecations, did from one quarter of the House shock

( 42 )

her tormented Ears while from another, Howlings like that of Dogs, Shoutings, Roarings, Prayers, Preaching, Curses, Singing, Crying, promiscuously join'd to make a Chaos of the most horrible Confusion: but the Violence of this Uproar continued not long, it being only occasion'd by the &II Entrance of the Keepers into the Cells of those Wretches who were really Lunatick, and had, for the Addition of their Anguish, so much Remains of Sense, as to know what they were to suffer at the Approach of these inhuman Creatures, who never came to bring them fresh Straw, or that poor Pittance of Food allowed for the Support of their miserable Lives ; but they saluted them with Stripes in a manner so cruel, as if they delighted in inflicting Pain, excusing themselves in this Barbarity, by saying that there was a necessity to keep them in awe ; as if Chains, and Nakedness, and the small Portion of wretched Sustenance they suffer'd them to take, was not sufficient to humble their Fellow- Creature. Besides, what is there to be feared from those helpless Objects of Compassion, who being Hand-cuffed, and the Fetters on their Legs fast bolted into the floor, can air no farther than the length of their Chain ! Yet with Barbarity do these

( 43 )

there pityless Monsters exert the Power they have over them, that whoever is witness of it, would imagine they were rather placed there for the Punishment of some Capital Crime, for which Law has provided no sufficient Torture, than for the Cure of a Disease, by their nearest and dearest Relations. To find herself in such a Place, and that it was made so secure by Locks, by Bolts, and Bars, that all Thoughts of making her Escape would be in vain, was enough to have made a Woman lets endued with Fortitude, consent to any thing for her Enlargement ; but she, in the middle of her Distress, justly reflecting that those who could be capable of using her in this inhuman manner to force her to a Compliance, might hereafter, when satiated with Enjoyment, or the leak Disgust, have recourse to the fame means to get rid of her, as now they took to gain her, resolved rather to die, than yield to put a greater power into the hands of Persons, who had made so detestable a Use of what they had already. The Remembrance of Marathon, and the Impossibility there appear'd of ever seeing that dear Man again, was a considerable Augmentation of her Sorrows ; the doubted not but the was confined for

( 44 )

Life, and being deprived of all means of fending to him, or letting him know what 'twas stee fuffer'd for his fake, made the. Tears liream from her fair Eyes, when nothing else could call them forth. She continued in this dejected State for about fourteen Weeks, without being able to entertain the least hope of Relief; in all which time Giraldo had vifited her but twice, the Preffures he now made her in behalf of his Son were so faint, that it was ear)/ for her to perceive, he was indifferent whether the comply'd or nor, which confirmed that Opinion the before had but too much reason to harbour, that it was for her Wealth alone that he had seem'd so desirous of engaging her; and tho' it was infinite Trouble to her to think that they enjoy'd that, yet the Satisfaction it gave her to rale& that he had not her Person alto, very much alleviated the Pain. Some kind Turn of Fate, laid she to herself; may difclole the villainous Praaices of these abandon'd Wretches, and put me in poffelfion of my own; but had the Marriage Ceremony pat}, all had been irrevocably lost, and I undone beyond all hope of Vengeance or Red refs. In this Condition, beguiling as much as pollible her miferable Hours, let us leave

( 45 )

leave her for a time, and fee in what manner her Lover relented this fudden Alteration in his Fortune. Ofephas had no fooner been difcharg'd by Giraldo, than he went to the Colonel, acquainting him with the Truth of all that happen'd to him : that Gentleman was too generous to let him fuller for having been faithful to him, and immediately' receiv'd him into his Service. He found fo much difference between thefe two Matters, that the Goodnefs of the latter engaged him in Ties more strong than thole of Duty ; there was nothing he would not have done CO procure him Satisfaaion : and finding he prod igiousty lamented the Lofs of Annrlia, he kept his Brain on a continual Rack for some Invention to reftoro her to him. In the Neighbourhood of Giraldo he was inform'd of the Report of her being Lunatick, and soon after that the was remov'd from the Houfe of her Uncle, but to what Place, none knew. This Intelligence render'd the im- patient Marathon almoft in the fame Condition in reality, as the was feign'd to be: He went to every one of thole Receptacles of unhappy Perfons, and en, quir'd for Annilia in a manner which might have made him pats for one as little in his Senses as any they had the Charge of;

By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.

Send us your story about your experience with modern Psychiatry

Go To Start: WWW.BIBLE.CA