Fantomina is a short piece of fiction detailing the events of an unnamed young woman’s seduction of the gentleman Beauplaisir. This young woman’s curiosity was awakened one evening at the playhouse, when she noticed the attention that a prostitute was receiving from the men surrounding her. The young lady’s curiosity grew as she wondered “in what Manner these Creatures were address’d” (Haywood 713). In order to satisfy her curiosity, she disguised herself as a prostitute and acted the part one evening at the playhouse. She attracted the attention of Beauplaisir, and “they were infinitely charm’d with each other” (Haywood 714). The following night after the play, and after taking her disguise too far to retreat, Beauplaisir ignored the young lady’s protest and raped her. After this act, Beauplaisir realized that the she was not actually a prostitute because of her lamenting her lost honor, and he desired her to tell him who she really was. Keeping her true identity a secret, she told him her name was Fantomina. Beauplaisir passionately declared his affection for Fantomina and they continued their secret relationship together, happily ever after or that is until he “…varied not so much from his sex as to be able to prolong Desire, to any great Length after Possession…” (Haywood 718).
Beauplaisir’s passion for Fantomina disappears and Fantomina recognizes the weakening of his affections, but she “remembering the Height of Transport she enjoyed when the agreeable Beauplaisir kneeled at her Feet, imploring her first Favours, she longed to prove the same again” (Haywood 718). And Fantomina does gain Beauplaisir’s affections again… and again… and again. She again disguises herself, first as the chambermaid Celia, then as the mourning Widow Bloomer, and finally as the mysterious Fair Incognita. While Fantomina is congratulating herself on her continued conquest, she is interrupted in her schemes by the arrival of her mother and her actions are then constrained. At this same time, “She found the consequences of her amorous Follies would be, without almost a Miracle, impossible to be concealed: - She was with child…” (Haywood 728). Even after this discovery, she disguises herself until her labor pains begin, at which point her mother and Beauplaisir discover her schemes and she is then sent to a monastery as her punishment.
