Read The English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare Page 11

  CHAPTER VII.

  AFTER SHAKESPEARE.

  I.

  In the works of Nash and his imitators, the different parts are badlydovetailed; the novelist is incoherent and incomplete; the fault lies insome degree with the picaresque form itself. Nash, however, pointed outthe right road, the road that was to lead to the true novel. He was thefirst among his compatriots to endeavour to relate in prose along-sustained story, having for its chief concern: the truth. Heleaves to his real heroes, Surrey, More, Erasmus, Aretino, theirhistorical character, and he gives to his fictitious ones caprices andqualities which make of them distinct and living beings like those ofevery-day life. He gives us no more languid shepherds, no more romanticdisguises, no more pretended warriors whose helmets cover, as inAriosto, a woman's fair locks. His style is flexible, animated, suitedto the circumstances, free from those ornaments of language so soughtafter in his time; no one, Ben Jonson excepted, possessed at that epoch,in so great a degree as himself, a love of the honest truth. With Nash,then, the novel of real life, whose invention in England is generallyattributed to Defoe, begins. To connect Defoe with the past of Englishliterature, we must get over the whole of the seventeenth century and goback to "Jack Wilton," the worthy brother of "Roxana," "Moll Flanders,"and "Colonel Jack."

  But shepherds were not yet silenced, nor had romantic heroes spokentheir last. On the contrary, their best time was still to come; in theseventeenth century they resumed their hardly interrupted speeches,conversations, correspondence, exploits and adventures, and flourishedmightily in the world. We come to the time of the heroic romance andheroic drama. The main originality of the romance literature in Englandduring this century was the increase and over-refinement of heroism inworks of fiction. For many among the reading public of that age,Shakespeare was barbarous and Racine tame; but Scudery was the "greatestwit" that ever lived.

  This kind of writing was thus partially renovated through certainsuperadded characteristics, the part allotted to "heroism" being theforemost; but the groundwork was as old as the very origin of thenation. For this new species of novel was mainly a development of theold chivalrous romances of early and mediaeval times. These romances, aswe know, had continued in Elizabethan times to enjoy some reputation,and under an altered shape to have a public of their own. Even in theseventeenth century they had not passed entirely out of sight.Palmerins, Dons Belianis and Esplandians continued to be written,translated, adapted, paraphrased, printed, purchased, and read. Therewas still a brisk trade in this sort of literature. People continued toread "the auncient, famous and honourable history of Amadis de Gaule,discoursing the adventures loves and fortunes of many princes;"[312] oragain "the famous history of Hercules of Greece, with the manner of hisencountering and overcoming serpents, lyons, monsters, giants, tyrantsand powerful armies."[313] Guy of Warwick, our friend of formerchapters, still carried on, with undaunted energy, his manifold exploitsthroughout the world. Only, as time passes, we find that he has becomecivilized; he has taken trouble to improve his mind, he has read books;he has even gone to the play. And his choice shows him a man of tasteand feeling; a man with a memory too; for reaching a cemetery somewherein his travels he "took up a worm-eaten skull, which he thus addressed:Perhaps thou wert a prince or a mighty monarch, a King, a Duke or aLord. But the King and the beggar must all return to the earth; andtherefore man hath need to remember his dying hour. Perhaps thoumightest have been a Queen or a Dutchess, or a Lady varnished with muchbeauty; but now thou art worms meat, lying in the grave, the sepolchreof all creatures." We are only surprised that "Alas poor Yorick" doesnot come in. The page is beautifully adorned with an engravingrepresenting Sir Guy in cocked hat, addressing a skull he carries in hishand.[314]

  SIR GUY OF WARWICK ADDRESSING A SKULL.]

  The same phenomenon was taking place in France, and from France were tocome the first examples of the regular heroic romance. "I have read[Lancelot]" says Sarasin, in a conversation reported by the well-knownJean Chapelain, the author of "La Pucelle," and "I have not found it toounpleasant. Among the things that have pleased me in it I found that itwas the source of all the romances which for four or five centurieshave been the noblest entertainment of all the courts of Europe and haveprevented barbarism from encompassing the whole world."[315] But as wellas Guy of Warwick, Lancelot wanted some "rajeunissement." His valour wasstill the fashion, but his manners, after so many centuries, and hisdress too, were a little out of date. The new heroism was to pervade thewhole man, and, in order to make him acceptable, to influence hiscostume as well as his mind. There was to be something Roman in him, andsomething French; he was to be represented in the style of Louis theFourteenth's statues, where the monarch appears in a Roman tunic and aFrench wig.

  BURIAL OF SIR GUY OF WARWICK.]

  The transformation occurred first in France, and was received with greatapplause. The times indeed were most propitious for a display, not ofthe barbaric heroism of olden times, but of courtly heroism; of anheroism which plumes, wigs and ribbons well fitted, and which, withscarcely any change, could be transferred from the battle field to thedrawing-room, from Rocroy to the Hotel de Rambouillet: no mean heroism,however, for all its ribbons. At this period, in France, manly and loftyvirtues, as well as worldly ones, were worshipped in life, in literatureand in art. From the commencement to the end of the century, examples ofundoubted heroes were not lacking; Henri IV., Richelieu, Mme. deLongueville, Conde, Louis XIV., Turenne, now by their good qualities,now by their caprices, now by their deeds and now by their looks,resembled heroes of romance, and popularized in France an ideal ofnobleness and greatness. In order to please and to be admired, it wasnecessary to show a lofty character; men must be superior to fortune,and women must appear superior to the allurements of passion; the heromade a display of magnanimity, the heroine of chastity. The hero won thebattle of Fribourg, and the heroine had Montausier to pay court to herfor thirteen years before she consented to be united to him in the bondsof wedlock. Such were the persons most admired in real life; such werethe characters of romance and tragedy whom the public liked best,without, however, distinguishing between them. The Cid, Alceste,Artaban, Nicomede, as well as Julie d'Angennes, Montausier and Conde,were all members of the same family, and not any one of them more thananother appeared comic or ridiculous: that is why Montausier was veryfar from being offended that traits of the character of Alceste werethought to be found in him, and that is why Mme. de Sevigne, apassionate admirer of Corneille, becomes as honestly enthusiastic overthe extravagant heroes of the new romances as over those of the greatCornelian tragedies. "I am mad for Corneille; everything must yield tohis genius ... My daughter, let us take good care not to compare Racinewith him. Let us feel the difference!"[316] She writes elsewhere withregard to the heroes of La Calprenede: "The beauty of the sentiments,the violence of the emotions, the grandeur of the incidents and themiraculous success of their invincible swords, all that delights me likea young girl."[317]

  This change, which consisted, not of course in the introduction ofheroism into novels, where it had in all times found place, but in themagnifying, to an extraordinary degree, of this source of interest, andin a transformation of costume and of tone of speech, appeared not onlyin romances, but in the drama also, and even in history. Everythingworthy of attention was for many years to be heroical. Heroes defy earthand heaven; they do not, like Aucassin, with a temper of ironicalsubmission, give up Paradise in the hope of joining Nicolete in thenether world; they make the nether world itself tremble on itsfoundations: for nothing can resist them. Even in serious historicalworks the old rulers of the French nation appear under an heroical garb.King Clovis is thus described by Scipion Dupleix, historiographer royal,in his "Histoire Generale de France," 1634: "The hour of Easter-eve atwhich the King was to receive the baptism at the hands of St. Remyhaving come, he appeared with a proud countenance, a dignified gait, amajestic port, very richly dressed, musked and powdered; his flowing wigwas curiously combed, curled, frizzed, undulated and
perfumed, accordingto the custom of the old french Kings;"[318] but much more it seemsaccording to the custom of less ancient sovereigns; and there is at theLouvre, a portrait of Louis XIII. bare-legged, periwigged,ermine-cloaked, which corresponds far better to this description thananything we know of Clovis.

  The same characteristics appear in the epic and the drama. Antoine deMontchrestien, besides having written the earliest treatise of politicaleconomy, and thus having stood, if nothing more, godfather to a newscience,[319] wrote a number of plays, flavoured most of them with agrandiloquence and heroism which give us a foretaste of Dryden. In his"Aman ou la vanite," he treats the same subject as Racine in his"Esther," but he has nothing in common with his successor, and much withthe dramatists of the heroical school. In order, doubtless, to justifyfrom the first the title of the play, Aman indulges his "vanite" in anopening monologue to the following effect:

  "Whether fair Phoebus coming out of the hollow waters brings back colourto the face of the world, whether with his warmer rays he sets dayablaze or departs to take his rest in his watery bower, he cannot see inall the inhabited world a single man to be compared with me forsuccesses of any sort. My glory is without peer, and if any of the godswere to exchange heaven for earth and dwell under the lunar disc, hewould content himself with such a brilliant fortune as mine."[320]

  Nearly all the dramas of Scudery are made up of such speeches, and theywere the rage in Paris before Corneille arose, Corneille in whomsomething of this style yet lingers. Each of Scudery's heroes, be it inhis dramas, in his epics, in his romances, is like his Alaric, nothingless than "le vainqueur des vainqueurs de la terre"; and havingconquered all the world is in his turn conquered by Love. To write thuswas supposed to be following the noble impulse given by the Renaissance,to be Roman, to outdo Seneca.[321]

  In the novel especially this style shone in all its lustre and beauty.All the heroes of the interminable romances of the time, by Gomberville,George and Madeleine de Scudery, La Calprenede and many others, be theyGreek, Roman, Turk or French, are all of them the conquerors of theworld and the captives of Love. "I can scarcely believe," wrote wisecensors, "that the Cyrus and the Alexanders have suddenly become, as Ihear it reported, so many Thyrsis and Celadons."[322] But their protestswere of no avail, for a time, and romance heroes continued to reign inFrance, having had from the first for their palace and chief place ofresort the famous Hotel de Rambouillet.

  This hotel had been building from 1610 to 1617 in the Rue St.Thomas-du-Louvre. Polite society began to gather there soon after itscompletion, and began to desert it only thirty years later. The heroicromances of the period were among the chief topics of conversation; andthis is easily understood: they were meant as copies of this same politesociety, and of its chiefs; under feigned names people recognized inCyrus the Grand Conde; in Mandane, Madame de Longueville; in Sapho, theauthoress herself, Mdlle. de Scudery; in Aristhee, the poet JeanChapelain. Persons thus designated often continued in real life to becalled by their romance appellations; thus Madame de Sevigne is wont tosubscribe herself "the very humble servant of the adorableAmalthee."[323] Men and women considered it a great honour to have theirportraits in a romance; they felt sure then of going down to theremotest posterity, a fond belief to which posterity has already giventhe lie. Much intrigue went on to obtain such a valuable favour. Whilewe are scarcely able now to plod on for a few chapters along the windingroad which led Cyrus to his victories, these volumes were awaited withintense interest and discussed with passion as soon as published.Neither the expectation of the next number of the "Revue des deuxMondes," when it contains some important new study of actual life, northe discussion about the last play of Dumas, can give us now an adequateidea of the amount of interest concentrated in Paris at that time uponthose heroical, grandiloquent, periwigged figures.

  And sometimes it was a very long time before the end of the adventures,and the answers of the lovers were known. These books were not writtenwithout care and thought and some attention to rules and style. In thepreface to his "Ibrahim" Scudery gives us a sort of "Ars poetica" forheroic romance writers; he states what precepts it is necessary tofollow, and those which may sometimes be dispensed with; he informs usthat attention is to be paid to the truth of history, and that mannersmust be observed. For example, in "Ibrahim" he has thought fit to usesome Turkish words, such as "Alla, Stambol"; these he calls "historicalmarks," and they correspond to what goes now under the name of localcolour; according to his way of thinking they give a realisticappearance to his story. His heroes in this particular romance are notkings, he confesses; his excuse is that they are worthy to be such, andthat besides they belong to very good families. He has been careful touse an easy, flowing style, and to avoid bombast "except in speeches."He has something to say about the unities, which have their part to playeven in romances. Nothing must be left to chance in those works; and asfor himself, he would have refused, he declares, the praise bestowedupon the Greek painter who, by throwing his brush against his work,obtained thus the finest effect in his picture. In Scudery's pictureeverything is drawn with a will and a purpose, everything is the resultof thought and calculation, and, if we are to believe him, much art wasthus spent by the gallant Gouverneur de Nostre Dame; much art that isnow entirely concealed from the dim eyes of posterity.[324]

  A MAP OF THE "TENDRE" COUNTRY.

  (_From an English translation of "Clelie."_)]

  Speeches, with descriptions, letters (which are always given in full asif they were documents of state), conversations and incidental anecdoticstories, were among the most usual means employed to fill up the manyvolumes of an ordinary heroical romance. For the volumes were many:"There never shone such a fine day as the one which was to be the eve ofthe nuptials between the illustrious Aronce and the admirable Clelie."Such is the beginning of the first volume of "Clelie, histoire romaine,"by Madeleine de Scudery, published in January, 1649. It happens that themarriage thus announced is delayed by certain little incidents, and isonly celebrated towards the end of the tenth and last volume publishedin September, 1654. Volume I. contained the famous "Carte du Tendre," toshow the route from "Nouvelle amitie" to "Tendre," with its variousrivers, its villages of "Tendre-sur-Inclination," "Tendre-sur-Estime,"with the ever-to-be-avoided hamlets of Indiscretion and Perfidy, theLake of Indifference and other frightful countries. Let us turn awayfrom them and go back to our heroes.

  One of their chief pleasures was to tell their own stories. Of thisneither they nor their listeners were ever tired. Whenever in the courseof the tale a new person is introduced, the first thing he is expectedto do is to tell us who he is and what he has seen of the world.Sometimes stories are included in his own, and when the first arefinished, instead of taking up again the thread of the main tale, wemerely resume the hearing of the speaker's own adventures: a customwhich sometimes proves very puzzling to the inattentive frivolous readerof to-day. As for the supposed listeners in the tale itself, the men orwomen the hero has secured for his audience, they well knew what toexpect, and took their precautions accordingly. We sometimes see them goto bed in order to listen more comfortably. In "Cassandre," the eunuchTireus has a story to tell to Prince Oroontades: "The prince went to hisbedroom and put himself to bed; he then had Tireus called to him, andhaving seats placed in the _ruelle_, he commanded us to sit," and thenthe story begins; and it goes on for pages; and when it is finished weobserve that it was included in another story told by Araxe; wherefore,instead of finding ourselves back among the actors of the principaltale, we alight only among those in Araxe's narrative.[325] Thesestories are thus enclosed in one another like Chinese boxes.

  II.

  This literature as soon as imported into England realized there the mostcomplete success. To find a parallel for it we must go back to the timewhen mediaeval Lancelot and Tristan were sung of by French singers, andafterwards by singers of all countries. Cyrus and Mandane, Oroontadesand Tireus, Grand Scipio and Illustrious Bassa, Astree and Celadon, ourheroes and our shepherds on
ce more began the invasion and conquest ofthe great northern island. As was to be expected from such unparalleledconquerors, they accomplished this feat easily, and their work hadconsequences in England for which France can scarcely offer any perfectequivalent. Through their exertions there arose in this country adramatic literature in the heroical style which, thanks especially toDryden, has still a literary interest. But in France our heroes offiction were curtailed of much of their glory by the inexorable Boileau.They left, it is true, some trace of their influence in the works ofCorneille and even of Racine, but the heroic drama, properly so called,was restricted to the works of the Scuderys and Montchrestiens, which issaying enough to imply that it was not meant to survive very long.

  During the greater part of the century French romances were in Englandthe main reading of people who had leisure. They were read in theoriginal, for French was a current language in society at that time, andthey were read in translations both by society and by the ordinarypublic. Most of them were rendered into English, and so important werethese works considered that sometimes several translators tried theirskill at the same romance, and published independently the result oftheir labours, as if their author had been Virgil or Ariosto, or anyclassical writer. French ideas in the matter of novels were adopted socordially that not only under Charles I., but even during the civil warand under Cromwell this rage for reading and translating did not abate.The contrary, it is true, has often been asserted, without inquiry, andas a matter of course; but this erroneous statement was due to a mere_a priori_ argument, and had no other ground than the improbability ofthe same fashion predominating in the London of the Roundheads and theParis of the Precieuses. What likelihood was there of any popularitybeing bestowed upon heroes who were nothing if not befeathered heroes,heroes _a panaches_ at a time when Puritans reigned supreme, staunchadversaries as we know of _panaches_, curls, vain talk, and every sortof worldly vanity? Was it not the time when books were published on "Theunlovelinesse of Love-lockes," being "a summarie discourse prooving thewearing and nourishing of a locke or love-locke to be altogetherunseemely, and unlawfull unto Christians. In which there are likewisesome passages collected out of Fathers, Councells and sundry authors andhistorians against face-painting, the wearing of supposititious,poudred, frizled or extraordinary long haire, the inordinate affectationof corporall beautie, and womens mannish, unnaturall, impudent, andunchristian cutting of their haire"?[326] So early in the century as1628 it was thus discovered that women's short hair and men's long wigswere equally unchristian. What was to be the fate of our well-curledheroes? They were received with open arms. "Polexandre," for example,was published in English in 1647; "Ibrahim ou l'illustre Bassa,""Cassandre," and "Cleopatre" in 1652; "Le Grand Cyrus" in 1653, the veryyear in which Cromwell became Protector; the first part of "Clelie" in1656; "Astree" in 1657; "Scipion" in 1660, &c.

  The English prefaces to these French novels plainly showed that,notwithstanding the puritanical taunts of the party in power, publishersfelt no doubt as to the success of their undertaking. These works werenot spread timidly among the public; they were announced noisily in themost pompous terms:

  "I shall waste no time to tell you how this book hath sold in Francewhere it was born: since nothing falls from Monsieur de Scudery's hand,but is receiv'd there as an unquestionable piece, by all that have ataste of wit or honour. The translator hath inserted no false stitchesof his own, having only turn'd the wrong side of the Arras towards us,for all translations, you know, are no other."[327]

  The translator of "Astree" was fain to inform his readers of a judgmentpassed, as he pretends, on this work by "the late famous Cardinall ofRichelieu. That he was not to be admitted in the Academy of wit who hadnot been before well read in Astrea." And he claims for his author ahighly beneficial purpose, that could be condemned by none exceptobdurate Puritans: "These are the true designs and ends of works of thisnature: these are academies for the lover, schools of war for thesoldier, and cabinets for the statesman; they are the correctives ofpassion, the restoratives of conversation, ... in a word, the mostdelightful accommodations of civill life."[328]

  Another goes so far as to give the lie direct to the Puritans, to"those morose persons" who condemn novels; in truth, "delight is theleast advantage redounding from such compositions." French romances(which seem to have altered somewhat in this respect) are nothing but aschool of morality, generosity, and self-restraint: "Not to say anythingconcerning the ground work which is generally some excellent piece ofancient history accurately collected out of the records of the mosteminent writers of old, ... the addition of fictitious adventures is soingenious, the incident discourses so handsome, free and fitted for theimprovement of conversation (which is not undeservedly accounted ofgreat importance to the contentment of human life), the descriptions ofthe passions so lively and naturally set forth; yea the idea of virtue,generosity and all the qualifications requisite to accomplish greatpersons so exquisitely delineated that ... I must speak it, though Ibelieve with the envy and regret of many, that [the French] haveapprov'd themselves the best teachers of a noble and generous moralitythat are to be met with."[329]

  ENDYMION PLUNGED INTO THE RIVER IN THE PRESENCE OF DIANA.

  (_French Engraving used in an English book._)]

  Sometimes both the engravings and the story were imported from France.As the illustrations to Harington's translation of "Ariosto" had beenoriginally made by an Italian artist, so now French engravings began tobe popularized in England. For example, when a translation appearedof "Endimion," the curious mythological novel of Gombauld, with itspleasant descriptions and incidents, half dreamy, half real, the platesfrom drawings by C. de Pas were sent over to England and used in theEnglish edition. Sometimes, too, the English copies had original platesor engraved titles; but even in these the French style was usuallyapparent. Robert Loveday, who translated La Calprenede's "Cleopatre,"prefaces his book with one such plate; and it is curious to notice whenreading his published correspondence that the engraving was madeaccording to his own minute directions. The bookseller "offer'd to be atthe charge of cutting my own face for the frontispiece, but I refusedhis offer." As, however, the publisher insisted on having something, "Idesign'd him this which is now a-cutting: Upon an altar dedicated toLove, divers hearts transfix'd with arrows and darts are to lye broilingupon the coals; and upon the steps of it, Hymen ... in a posture as ifhe were going to light [his taper] to the altar; when Cupid is to comebehind him and pull him by the saffron sleeve, with these wordsproceeding from his mouth: Nondum peracta sunt praeludia";[330] astatement that is only too true and in which Loveday summarizes unawaresthe truest criticism levelled at these romances. You may read volumeafter volume, and still "nondum peracta sunt praeludia," you have not yetdone with preliminaries.

  But this constant delaying of an event, sometimes announced, as in"Clelie," at the top of the first page, was not in the least displeasingto seventeenth-century readers. The lengthy episodes, the protractedconversations, enchanted them; it was an age when conversation was atits height in France, and from France the taste spread to othercountries. Translators, as we have seen, expressly mentioned as anattraction in their books the help they would give to conversation.Numberless examples of this polite pastime are provided in the heroicromances; in "Almahide, or the Captive Queen,"[331] among others, weread discussions as to whether it is better for a man to court a lady inverse or in prose, whether an illiterate lover is better than a learnedone, &c., &c.

  "HYMEN'S PRAELUDIA."

  (_Frontispiece of the translation of La Calprenede's "Cleopatre."_)]

  Such topics, and many more of a higher order, which were the subject ofpersistent debate in the drawing-rooms of the Hotel de Rambouillet, werealso discussed in England; there was, it is true, no Hotel deRambouillet, but there was the house of the Philips at Cardigan. Therewas no Marquise, but there was Catherine Philips, the "matchlessOrinda," who did much to acclimatize in England the refinements,elegancies, and heroism _a panache_ of he
r French neighbours. Withthe help of her friends she translated some of the plays of Corneille,not without adding something to the original to make it look moreheroical. The little society gathered round her imitated the feignednames bestowed upon the habitues of the Parisian hotel. While she wentby the name of Orinda, plain Mr. Philips, her husband, was re-baptizedAntenor; her friend Sir Charles Cotterel, translator of "Cassandre," wasPoliarchus; a lady friend, Miss Owen, was Lucasia;[332] fine names, tobe sure, which unfortunately will remind many a reader not only ofmatchless Arthenice, of the Hotel de Rambouillet, but of Moliere'sCathos and Madelon, who, too, had chosen to imitate the Marquise, andinsisted on being called Aminte and Polixene, to the astonishment oftheir honest father.[333]

  The high morality and delicacy, both of the "Hotel," and, alas, ofMoliere's "Precieuses," were also imitated at Cardigan. To get marriedwas a thing so coarse and vulgar that people with refined souls were toslip into that only at the last extremity. "A fine thing it would be,"says the Madelon of the "Precieuses," "if from the first Cyrus were tomarry Mandane and if Aronce were all at once wedded to Clelia!" We haveseen that such is not the case, and that ten volumes of adventuresinterpose between their love and their marriage. In the same way aneternal friendship, a marriage of soul to soul, having been swornbetween Orinda and Lucasia, it was a matter of great sorrow, shame anddespair for the first when the second, after thirteen years of thisrefined intercourse proved frail and commonplace enough to marry a loverof appropriate age, fortune and position.

  Another centre for heroic thoughts and refined morality was the countryhouse of the pedantic but pretty Duchess of Newcastle, a prolific writerof essays, letters, plays, poems, tales, and works of all kinds. To her,literature was a compensation for the impossibility, through want ofopportunity, of performing with her own hand heroical deeds: "I dare notexamine," says she, "the former times, for fear I should meet with suchof my sex that have out-done all the glory I can aime at or hope toattaine; for I confess my ambition is restless, and not ordinary;because it would have an extraordinary fame. And since all heroickactions, publick employments, powerfull governments and eloquentpleadings are denyed our sex in this age or at least would be condemnedfor want of custome, is the cause I write so much."[334]

  A FASHIONABLE CONVERSATION.]

  She wrote a great deal, and not without feeling a somewhat deep andnaively expressed admiration for her own performances. The epithet"restless" which she applies to her ambition, well fits her whole mind;there is restlessness about everything she did and wrote. She is neversatisfied with one epistle to the reader; she must have ten or twelveprefaces and under-prefaces, which forcibly remind us of hercontemporary, Oronte, in his famous sonnet scene with Alceste. Her"Natures pictures drawn by Fancies pencil to the life" is preceded byseveral copies of commendatory verses and a succession of preambles,entitled: "To the reader--An epistle to my readers--To the reader--Tothe reader--To my readers--To my readers"; each being duly signed "M.Newcastle." It seems as if the sight of her own name was a pleasure toher. These prefaces are full of expostulations, explanations andapologies, quite in the Oronte style: "The design of these my feignedstories, is to present virtue, the muses leading her and the gracesattending her.... Perchance my feigned stories are not so livelydescribed as they might have been.... As for those tales I nameromancicall, I would not have my readers think I write them either toplease or to make foolish whining lovers.... I must entreat my readersto understand, that though my naturall genius is to write fancy, yet ...Although I hope every piece or discourse in my book will delight myreaders or at least some one, and some another ... yet I do recommendtwo as the most solid and edifying." Great is the temptation to answerwith Alceste: "Nous verrons bien!"[335] But how could one say so whenshe was so pretty? The best preface to her volumes is in fact thecharming engraving representing a party meeting at her house to tell andhear tales round the fire, and of which we give a reproduction. The onlypity is that the figure meant as her portrait, though laurel-crowned,looks much more plain and commonplace than we might have expected.

  She wrote then abundantly "romancicall" tales, as she called them, witha touch of heroism; edifying tales in which she prescribes "that allyoung men should be kept to their studies so long as their effeminatebeauties doth last;" dialogues "of the wise lady, the learned lady andthe witty lady," the three being only too wise; plays in which shedepicts herself under the names of Lady Sanspareile, of Lady Chastity,&c., unpardonable sins, no doubt, to give oneself such names; but it isreported she was so beautiful!

  Among the mass of her writings, it must be added, ideas are scatteredhere and there which were destined to live, and through which sheanticipated men of true and real genius. To give only one example, shetoo may be credited with having anticipated Richardson in her "SociableLetters," in which she tries to imitate real life, to describe scenes,very nearly to write an actual novel: "The truth is," she writes, "theyare rather scenes than letters, for I have endeavoured under cover ofletters to express the humors of mankind, and the actions of man's lifeby the correspondence of two ladies, living at some short distance fromeach other, which make it not only their chief delight and pastime, buttheir tye in friendship, to discourse by letters as they would do ifthey were personally together."[336] Many collections of imaginaryletters had, as we have seen, been published before, but never had theuse to which they could be put been better foreseen by any predecessorof Richardson.

  CONVERSATION AND TELLING OF STORIES AT THE HOUSE OF THEDUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE, 1656.]

  The Duchess lived till 1674, surrounded by an ever-increasing groupof admirers, deaf to the jokes of courtly people concerning herold-fashioned chastity; more than consoled by the firm belief she had asto the strength of her mind and genius. In this persuasion "she kept,"wrote Theophilus Cibber, "a great many young ladies about her person,who occasionally wrote what she dictated. Some of them slept in a roomcontiguous to that in which Her Grace lay, and were ready at the call ofher bell to rise any hour of the night to write down her conceptions,lest they should escape her memory. The young ladies no doubt oftendreaded Her Grace's conceptions, which were frequent."[337] Here, again,her restless spirit was in some manner anticipating unawares anothergreat writer, namely, Pope.

  Thus, in spite of Cromwell and the Puritans on the one side, and CharlesII. and his courtiers on the other, French ideas as to the possibledignity and purity of lives in which the worldly element was not wantinggrew to some extent on the English soil, though, it is true, with lesssuccess, being as we see mainly relegated at that time to the country.The true hour for virtues not the less real because sociable, virtuessuch as they were understood by Madame de Sevigne or Madame deRambouillet, had not yet come. They were to be thoroughly acclimatizedonly in the next century, principally through the exertions of Steeleand Addison.

  But the strictly heroical part of French tastes was accepted immediatelyand with great enthusiasm. The extraordinary number of folio heroicalromances still to be seen in old English country houses testifies atthe present day to their extraordinary hold upon the polite society ofthe time. The King gave the example. Charles I. had been a reader ofsuch novels; on the eve of his death he distributed a few souvenirs tohis most faithful friends, and we see him give away, besides Hooker's"Ecclesiastical Polity" and Dr. Andrews' sermons, the romance of"Cassandre," which he left to the Earl of Lindsey. During the troubloustimes of the civil war, Dorothy Osborne constantly alludes, in herletters to Sir William Temple, to the books she reads, and they aremostly these same French novels. While troops are marching to and fro;while rebellions and counter-rebellions are preparing or breaking out,the volumes of "Cleopatre" and "Grand Cyrus" go to and fro between thelovers and are the subject of their epistolary discussions. "Have youread 'Cleopatre'? I have six tomes on't here that I can lend you if youhave not; there are some stories in't you will like, I believe."--"Sinceyou are at leisure to consider the moon, you may be enough to read'Cleopatre,' therefore I have sent you three volumes.... There is ast
ory of Artimise that I will recommend to you; her disposition I likeextremely, it has a great deal of practical wit; and if you meet withone Brittomart, pray send me word how you like him."--"I have a thirdtome here [of "Cyrus"] against you have done with that second; and toencourage you, let me assure you that the more you read of them, youwill like them still better,"[338] and so on.

  The wife of Mr. Pepys was not less fond of French romances than DorothyOsborne, and we sometimes find her husband purchasing copies at hisbookseller's to bring home as presents. But he himself did not like themvery much; he seems to have been deterred from this kind of literatureby his wife's habit of reciting stories to him out of these works; somequarrel even took place between the couple about "Cyrus," though itseems that "Cyrus" was in this case more the pretext than the reason ofthe discussion, as honest Pepys with his usual frankness gives us tounderstand: "At noon home, where I find my wife troubled still at mychecking her last night in the coach in her long stories out of 'GrandCyrus,' which she would tell, though nothing to the purpose, nor in anygood manner. This she took unkindly, and I think I was to blame indeed;but she do find with reason that in the company of Pierce, Knipp, orother women that I love I do not value her as I ought. However very goodfriends by and by." As a penance doubtless we see him buying for herlater "L'Illustre Bassa in four volumes" and "Cassandra and some otherFrench books."[339]

  III.

  But reading and translating was not enough for a society so enamoured ofheroical romances; some original ones were to be composed for Englishreaders and the composing of them became a fashionable pastime. "My lordBroghill," writes again Dorothy Osborne to her future husband, SirWilliam Temple, the patron hereafter of the yet unborn Jonathan Swift,"sure will give us something worth the reading. My Lord Saye, I am told,has writ a romance since his retirement in the isle of Lundy, and Mr.Waller they say is making one of our wars, which if he does not minglewith a great deal of pleasing fiction, cannot be very diverting, sure,the subject is so sad."[340]

  The following year, that is 1654, the English public received, accordingto Dorothy's previsions, the first instalment of the most noticeableheroical romance composed in their language. It was called"Parthenissa,"[341] and had for its author Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill,afterwards Earl of Orrery, one of the matchless Orinda's greatfriends.[342]

  In this heroic romance, the imitation of France is as exact as possible;the few literary qualities perceptible in the vast compositions ofMdlle. de Scudery and of La Calprenede, do not shine with any brighterlustre in "Parthenissa." As in France ancient history is put to thetorture, though Scudery, as we have seen, had set up as a rule that thetruth of history was to be respected in romances; of observation ofnature there is little or none, and the conversations of the charactersare interminable. "Turning over the leaves of the large folio," wroteone of the last critics who busied themselves with this work, "Iperceived that ... the story some-how or other brought in Hannibal,Massinissa, Mithridates, Spartacus, and other persons equally wellknown.... How they came into the story or what the story is I cannottell you; nor will any mortal know any more than I do, between this anddoomsday; but there they all are, lively though invisible, like carp ina pond."[343] We must make bold, though doomsday has not yet come, todraw forth some of these carp out of the water, and, after all, this isnot the darkest pond in which we shall have fished.

  At the commencement, Boyle introduces us to a young and handsomestranger who comes to Syria in order to consult the oracle of Venus. Thepriest Callimachus appears before him, and quite suddenly asks for hishistory. The stranger is very willing to tell it. His name is Artabanesand he is the son of the King of Parthia; he is in love with thePrincess Parthenissa and has proved his affection for her in the mannerof Sidney's heroes: he met on one occasion an Arab prince, who wastravelling with a collection of twenty-four pictures, representing themistresses of twenty-four famous champions overthrown by him. Artabanesin his turn measured swords with the Arab and got possession of thetwenty-four paintings, and one in addition, which represented themistress of his adversary: whence it results that Parthenissa is themost beautiful woman in the world, exactly what the hero intended toprove.

  Artabanes has a rival, Surena; he fancies that Surena is the happy man,leaves Parthenissa and goes to live in solitude. Pirates carry him off,and sell him at Rome for a slave. Then under the name of Spartacus, hestirs up a revolt and accomplishes exploits attributed by ancientwriters to that rebel; however he does not die as in history, butreturns to Asia. There, Parthenissa, rather than surrender to a lover,swallows a drug and dies; but hers is only an apparent death and shereturns to life. Artabanes, in the same way, stabs himself, but he iscured; and then it is that he comes to consult the oracle.

  Callimachus thanks him for his interesting but somewhat lengthy story,and revenges himself by relating his own. Unfortunately he isinterrupted: they see a lady who looks exactly like Parthenissa herselfenter a neighbouring grove; she is accompanied by a young cavalier; theyembrace and disappear among the trees. Artabanes' anguish at this sightcannot be described. But here Roger Boyle found that he was tired andwrote no more. His romance, which already comprised five parts, waspublished by him in this unfinished form.

  For a long time the public was left in suspense. The Protector was dead,his son had fallen, the Stuarts had again ascended the throne, and noone knew the end of the loves of Prince Artabanes. The continuation ofthe romance is due to the charming Henrietta of England, Duchess ofOrleans. Ten or twelve years after the appearance of the first volume,she was curious to know what Parthenissa was doing in the wood, andbegged Roger Boyle to bring her out of it. He wrote a sixth part infour books and dedicated it to her.

  Are we to imagine that the author is now going to lead his impatientreaders in search of the heroine? Not at all. Callimachus, who wasunfairly interrupted in his tale, proposes to his companions to leaveone of them, Symander, on guard, and to go and refresh themselves. Whenthey were rested, "they conjur'd him to prosecute his story, though whatthey had seen and heard gave them impatiences which nothing but theirdesires of knowing so generous a friend's fortunes could have dispensedwith." The four books of the sixth part are devoted to this narrative;Boyle, as he said in his preface, had thought at first of concludingeverything in this supplement; but he was forced to recognize that itwas impossible to "confine it within so narrow a compass." Thisstatement will be found on page 808 of his folio volume. Why Parthenissaentered the grove was never to be known nor what she had to say in herjustification. Boyle, who had taken up his pen again at the instance ofthe young duchess, had very soon no reason to continue: Bossuet wascalling on the court of the Grand Roi to weep with him for the loss ofthis charming woman, whose beauty and grace had only blossomed "for onemorning."

  As soon as the book was out, Dorothy Osborne had a copy sent to her, butshe did not like it so much as the French models. She writes to Temple:"I'll ... tell you that 'Parthenissa' is now my company. My brother sentit down and I have almost read it. 'Tis handsome language; you wouldknow it to be writ by a person of good quality though you were not toldit; but on the whole I am not very much taken with it. All the storieshave too near a resemblance with those of other romances; there isnothing new and _surprenant_ in them; the ladies are all so kind theymake no sport."[344]

  Boyle, it is said, besides his dramas and other works, again tried hisfortune as a novel writer, and published in 1676 "English Adventures bya person of honour." It is in a style so absolutely different from hisformer romance that it is scarcely credible that both came from the samepen. "English Adventures" tell the story of the amours of King HenryVIII., of Brandon, and others. All the reserve in "Parthenissa" hasentirely disappeared, and scenes are presented to the eye which, exceptat the time of the Restoration, have usually been veiled. Love is inthis novel the subject of many discussions, and so it was in heroicromances, but while it was spoken of there with decency and dignity, itis never mentioned in "English Adventures" but in a tone of banter andraillery. The
discourses about this passion recall Suckling's ideas muchmore than those of Madeleine de Scudery. "Pardon me, madam, Wilmorereply'd, if I think you mistake the case, for I never said I was for asiege in Love: that is the dull method of those countries whosediscipline in amours I abominate. I am for the French mode, where thefirst day, I either conquer my mistress or my passion." Whether or notthis be according to "the French mode," we are obviously very far fromthe Montausier ideal. The author continues: "Nor indeed did I ever seeany woman (I mean in France) cry up constancy, but she was decaying; forwhen any thing but love is to maintain love 'tis a proof Beauty cannotdo it, and then, alas, nothing else can."[345] If this and the verylicentious adventures which follow are really Boyle's, it must beconceded that the change worked upon him by the new Restoration mannerswas indeed vast and comprehensive.

  Other original attempts at the heroical romance were made in England atthis period. It will be enough to mention one more. The two main defectsof the heroical dramas of Dryden and his contemporaries are bombast inthe ideas and bad taste in the expressions. In Crowne's heroical novelof "Pandion and Amphigenia"[346] both defects are pushed to an extremewhich, incredible as it may seem to the readers of Dryden, was never atany time reached by the laureate.

  The story is the usual heroical story of valorous deeds and peerlessloves; the author is careful to assert that he is perfectly original:"All ... is genuine, nothing stole, nothing strained." He has beenespecially careful to avoid imitating the French and the elegancies of"that ceremonious nation." After such a declaration we are rathersurprised to hear Periander thus answer a lady who, in the usual way,had asked him for his inevitable story: "Madam," said he, "yourexpressions speak you no less rich in virtue than beauty.... I shouldbe more savage then the beasts that Orpheus charmed into civility,should I remain inexorable to the intreaties of so sweet an orator,whose perfections are such that I cannot but account it as great a gloryto obey you, as it would make me sensible of shame to refuse any thingyou should command, though it were to sacrifice my life and honour,which are the only jewels I ever prized in my prosperity, and which isall that Fortune hath left to my disposal in my adversity." Then hetells his story, which we had better not listen to, for it begins: "Knowyou then that in the city of Corinth, there dwelt a gentleman calledEleutherius ...," and we know full well what such beginnings threaten.The romance goes on describing bloody feuds and matchless beauties. Hereis in characteristic style a portrait of a matchless beauty:

  "The pillow blest with a kiss from her cheeks, as pregnant with delight,swelled on either side.... A lock that had stollen from its sweetprison, folded in cloudy curls, lay dallying with her breath, sometimesstriving to get a kiss, and then repulsed flew back, sometimes obtainingits desired bliss, and then as rapt with joy, retreated in wantoncaperings.... Her breasts at liberty displayed were of so pure awhiteness as if one's eye through the transparent skin, had viewed themilky treasures they inclosed."

  Oh! for a Boileau, shall we exclaim, to cut off the flowers of suchpaper gardens! for a Defoe to show how prose fiction should be written!But Boileau is abroad and Defoe's time is yet to come. Wait, besides,for this is nothing and we have better in store; that was love, here iswar:

  "The signal for the battail being given, there began such a terribleconflict, as that within a short time thousands lay dead in the place,both sides maintaining their assaults with such impetuous rage as if theGyants had been come to heap mountains of carcasses to assail heaven andbesiege the gods; nothing but fury reigned in every breast, some thatwere thrust through with lances would yet run themselves farther on toreach their enemies and requite that mortal wound ... the earth grew ofa sanguine complexion, being covered with blood, as if every soldier hadbeen Death's herald, and had come to emblazon Mars's arms with a swordArgent on a field Gules.... In one place, lay heads deposed from theirsovereignties, yawning and staring as if they looked for theirbodies."[347] One refreshing thought is the remembrance of the pure,deep pleasure Crowne must have found in fastening together such anunparalleled series of conceits. "Peste," is he sure to have said withSosie:

  "Peste! ou prend mon esprit toutes ces gentillesses?"

  As for the final result of these wars and love-makings, it is a veryairy one; for Crowne seems to have entertained a higher ideal of puritythan even Montausier and Orinda. His ladies bestow upon their loversnothing at all, not even marriage, and the author, after having been atsome trouble to re-establish order in Thessaly and other countries,gives up all idea of getting Pandion and Amphigenia wedded, this lady,she of the pillow above described, being as he says so very "coy."

  Though not quite a match for Crowne's it must be conceded that neitheris Dryden's bombast of a mean order. The following passage which verynearly bears comparison with the above, will show how heroism appearedwhen transferred to the stage. In one of the dramas, the plot of whichDryden took from the French romances, Almanzor thus addresses a rival:

  "If from thy hands alone my death can be, I am immortal and a god to thee, If I would kill thee now, thy fate's so low That I must stoop ere I can give the blow: But mine is fixed so far above thy crown, That all thy men, Piled on thy back, can never pull it down: But at my ease, thy destiny I send, By ceasing from this hour to be thy friend. Like heaven, I need but only to stand still, And not concurring to thy life, I kill."[348]

  HEROES (MOORISH ONES) AS THEY APPEARED ON THE STAGE, FROMSETTLE'S "EMPRESS OF MOROCCO," 1673.]

  Any number of speeches of this sort are to be found in the heroicaldramas of Dryden, Settle, Lee, and their contemporaries. Roman, Arab,Turk, Greek or Moorish heroes, pirates or princes, when they mean to setanything at defiance, choose nothing less than heaven and earth as theirobject; they divide the world between them as if it were an orange; theyrush to the fight or stop for a speech with a fine shake of the headwhich sends a majestic undulation round the wig worn by them, even bythe Moors, as we may see in one of the very rare dramas then publishedwith engravings. They are represented there with embroideredjustaucorps, wigs and ribbons.[349]

  Crowne besides his romance wrote several dramas that secured him a wide,if temporary, popularity. He also adapted Racine's "Andromaque" for theEnglish stage, but he was very much disgusted with this work; the Frenchoriginal, though not "the worst" of French plays, was after all so meanand tame! "If the play be barren of fancy, you must blame the originalauthor. I am as much inclined to be civil to strangers as any man; butthen they must be strangers of merit. I would no more be at the pains tobestow wit (if I had any) on a French play, than I would be at the costto bestow cloaths on every shabby Frenchman that comes over." Here wehave Racine put in his proper place; what claim had he to be considered"a stranger of merit"? True, some crabbed English critics seem to havetaken his part against the translator, and, incredible as it may seem,they have expressed a thought that "this suffered much in thetranslation.--I cannot tell in what," answers Crowne, "except in notbestowing verse upon it, which I thought it did not deserve. Forotherwise, there is all that is in the French play, verbatim, andsomething more, as may be seen in the last act, where what is dullyrecited in the French play is there represented, which is no smalladvantage."[350] And true, it is, Pyrrhus is slain before our eyes;there are "alarums" and other lively, if customary, ornaments.

  In this age obviously Racine could not please. Nor would Shakespearehave pleased a French audience, but as we know no attempt in thatdirection was made in Paris. The two nations lent one another, ifanything, their defects. "Alaric" was named with praise by Dryden;Scudery and La Calprenede continued to be most popular French authorsduring the century. Even in the next we find something remaining oftheir fame. Among the books in the library of the fashionable Leonora,Addison notices: "'Cassandra,' 'Cleopatra,' 'Astraea' ... the 'GrandCyrus,' with a pin stuck in one of the middle leaves ... 'Clelia,' whichopened of it self in the place that describes two lovers in abower,"[351] &c. The passions in them which seem to us now so incrediblyfrigid, had
not yet cooled down; their warmth was still felt: so much sothat in one of Farquhar's plays, "Cassandra" is mentioned as greatlyresponsible for Lady Lurewell's first and greatest fault, the beginningof many others: "After supper I went to my chamber and read 'Cassandra,'then went to bed and dreamt of it all night, rose in the morning andmade verses ..."[352] We cannot follow her in her account of theconsequences.

  All that was truly noble and simple in French literature was known, butat the same time generally misunderstood in England. To make Frenchauthors acceptable, grossness was added to Moliere, bombast to Racine;even Otway, when translating "Berenice," transformed Racine's "Titus"into a bully of romance who, in order to assuage his grief, goes tooverrun "the Universe" and make "the worlds" as wretched as he is.[353]Madame de la Fayette had shown how it was possible to copy from life, ina novel, true heroism and true tenderness without exaggeration; herexquisite masterpiece was translated of course as was everything thenthat was French; but oblivion soon gathered round the "Princess ofCleve," and the only proof we have that it did not pass unnoticed is aclumsy play by Lee, in which this best of old French novels ismercilessly caricatured.[354] There was no attempt to imitate theComtesse's pure and perfect style and high train of thought.

  IV.

  Reaction against the heroical romances did not wait, however, till theeighteenth century to assert itself in England; it set in early and veryamusingly: but it remained powerless. As the evil had chiefly come fromFrance, so did the remedy; but the remedy in France proved sufficientfor a cure. In that country at all times the tale had flourished, and atall times in the tale, to the detriment of chivalry and heroism, writershad prided themselves on seeking mere truth. Thus, in the charmingpreface of the Reine de Navarre's "Heptameron," Dame Parlamenteestablishes the theory of these narratives, and relates how, at thecourt, it had been decided to write a series of them, but to excludefrom the number of their authors "those who should have studied and bemen of letters; for Monseigneur the Dauphin did not wish their artificeto be introduced into them, and was also afraid lest the beauty ofrhetoric should in some place injure the truth of the tale."

  In the seventeenth century, the tradition of the old story-tellers iscarried on in France in more developed writings, in actual novels, suchas the "Baron de Foeneste" of D'Aubigne, 1617; the "Francion" of CharlesSorel, 1622(?); the "Berger extravagant" of the same, 1628; the "RomanComique" of Scarron, 1651; the "Roman bourgeois" of Furetiere, 1666, andmany others. Scarron, who had travestied Virgil, was not the man tospare La Calprenede, and he does not lose his opportunity. "I cannotexactly tell you," he writes of one of his characters, "whether he hadsup'd that night, or went to bed empty, as some Romance-mongers use todo, who regulate all their heroes' actions, making them rise early, andtell on their story till dinner time, then dine lightly, and after theirmeal proceed in the discourse: or else retire to some shady grove totalk by themselves, unless they have something to discover to the rocksand trees."

  Furetiere, writing in the same spirit, declares that he wishes toconcern himself with "persons who are neither heroes nor heroines, whowill neither raise armies nor overturn kingdoms; but who will be goodpeople of middling rank who quietly go on their usual way, of whom someare handsome and others plain, some wise and others foolish; and thelatter have the appearance indeed of forming the greatest number."[355]

  Without speaking of the more important works of Cervantes andRabelais,[356] most of these novels were translated into English, and inthe same spirit as they had been written, that is, to be used as enginesof war against heroes and heroism. "The French themselves," writes oneof the translators, "our first romantique masters ... have given overmaking the world otherwise than it was; are now come to represent it tous as it is and ever will be."[357] "Among all the books that ever werethought on," writes another, who curiously enough had about the sameopinion of the favourite novels of his time as Sidney had had of thedrama a century earlier, "those of knight errantry and shepherdry havebeen so excellently trivial and naughty, that it would amuse a goodjudgment to consider into what strange and vast absurdities someimaginations have straggled ... the Knight constantly killing the gyant,or it may be whole squadrons; the Damosel certainly to be relieved justupon the point of ravishing; a little childe carried away out of hiscradle after some twenty years discovered to be the sone of some greatprince; a girl after seven years wandring and co-habiting and beingstole, confirmed to be a virgin, either by a panterh, fire or afountain, and lastly all ending in marriage ... These are the nobleentertainments of books of this kinde, which how profitable they are,you may judge; how pernicious 'tis easily seen, if they meet but withan intentive melancholy and a spirit apt to be overborn by suchfollies;"[358] a spirit, in fact, such as Lady Lurewell's, whose readingof "Cassandra" had, as we have seen, such remarkable consequences.[359]

  A POET'S DREAM REALIZED, FROM "THE EXTRAVAGANT SHEPHERD,"1653.]

  Efforts made in England to imitate this style and to lead, by means ofthe romance itself, a reaction against the false heroism that theromance had introduced, proved sadly abortive. These attempts havefallen into a still more profound oblivion than those of thestory-tellers of Shakespeare's time. The English were not yet masters ofthe supple, crisp and animated language which suited that kind of tale,and which the French possessed from the thirteenth century. A feworiginal minds like Sidney in his "Apologie" had employed it; but theyformed rare exceptions, and in the seventeenth century most mencontinued to like either the pompous prose with its Latin periods, heldin highest honour by Bacon, or the various kinds of flowery prose usedby Lodge, Greene, Shakespeare and Sidney. So the romance writers whoattempted to bring about a reaction received no encouragement and wereforgotten less from want of merit than because even theircontemporaries paid no attention to them. Thinking to open up a newpath, they got entangled in a blind alley where they were left. Theground was to be broken anew by more robust hands than theirs, the handsof Defoe.

  Some of these attempts however are worthy of attention, notably one inwhich imitation of Scarron and Furetiere is to be found, entitled "TheAdventures of Covent Garden."[360] The scene is laid in London among thecultivated upper middle class: life is so realistically represented,that this work, now entirely unknown, is one of those that best aid usto re-constitute that society in which Dryden, Wycherley and Otwaylived.

  Peregrine, the hero of the tale, spends his evenings at the "Rose" or at"Will's," Dryden's favourite coffee-house, or at the theatre, where the"Indian Emperor," one of Dryden's heroic dramas, was being played. Withthe Lady Selinda, in whose box he sits, he discusses the merits of theplay, the value of the French rules and the license of Shakespeare andBen Jonson. Many interesting remarks occur in these conversations whichseem put in writing after nature, and are very curious in the history ofliterature. If they do not exactly recall the Moliere of the "Critiquede l'Ecole des Femmes," they will recall Furetiere, no insignificantpraise. It is, besides, a compliment difficult to apply to any otherEnglish novelist of the period. Here is a specimen of literary criticismif not deep, at least lively, such as was going on at the play, or inthe drawing-rooms at the time of the Restoration:

  "You criticks, said Selinda, make a mighty sputter about exactness ofplot, unity of time, place and I know not what, which I can never finddo any play the least good (Peregrine smiled at her female ignorance).But, she continued, I have one thing to offer in this dispute, which Ithink sufficient to convince you. I suppose the chief design of plays isto please the people,[361] and get the playhouse and poet a livelihood?

  "You must pardon me, madam, replyed Peregrine, Instruction is thebusiness of plays.

  "Sir, said the lady, make it the business of the audience first to bepleased with instruction, and then I shall allow you it to be the chiefend of plays.

  "But, suppose, madam, said he, that I grant what you lay down.

  "Then sir, answered she, you must allow that whatever plays most exactlyanswer this aforesaid end are most exact plays. Now I can instance youma
ny plays, as all those by Shakespeare and Johnson, and the most of Mr.Dryden's which you criticks quarrel at as irregular, which neverthelessstill continue to please the audience and are a continual support to theTheatre. There is very little of your unity of time in any of them, yetthey never fail to answer the proposed end very successfully....Certainly, these rules are ill understood, or our nature has changedsince they were made, for we find they have no such effects now as theyhad formerly. For instance, I am told the 'Double Dealer' and 'Plot andno Plot' are two very exact plays, as you call them, yet all their unityof time, place and action neither pleased the audience nor got the poetsmoney. A late play called 'Beauty in distress,'[362] in which the authorno doubt sweat as much in confining the whole play to one scene, as thescene-drawers should, were it to be changed a hundred times, this playhad indeed a commendatory copy from Mr. Dryden, but I think he hadbetter have altered the scene and pleased the audience; in short, hadthese plays been a little more exact as you call it, they had all beenexactly damn'd."

  Further, some traits of character almost worthy of Fielding are to beremarked in the course of the tale, though, it is true, it growsconfused towards the end, and touches the melodramatic in the same wayas Nash's novel. Thus the above conversation is interrupted by theentrance of the coquette Emilia, long before loved by Peregrine who hadvainly asked for her hand. "Peregrine would have answered, but a pluckby the sleeve obliged him to turn from Selinda to entertain a ladymask'd who had given him the nudg. He presently knew her to be Emilia,who whispered him in the ear: I find sir, what Guyomar said just now isvery true:

  That love which first took root will first decay; That of a fresher date will longer stay.

  Peregrine tho surprised was pleased with her pretty reprimand, beingdelivered without any anger, _but in murmuring, complaining accents,which never fail to move_ ..."

  Thus again, Peregrine goes to the famous St. Bartholomew fair, which wasstill, as in Ben Jonson's time, a place of general meeting. "Lord C." isthere discovered, who had a masked lady with him; she pulls off her maskand smiles at Peregrine, who again recognizes Emilia. The mixedimpressions that this sight makes on the hero are analysed in theseterms:

  "He took a secret pride in rivalling so great a man, and it confirmedhis great opinion of Emilia's beauty to see her admir'd by soaccomplish't a person and absolute a courtier as my lord C. Theseconsiderations augmenting his love increased his jealousy also, andevery little familiarity that my Lord us'd, heightened his love to herand hatred to his Lordship; he lov'd her for being admir'd by my Lord,yet hated my Lord for loving her."

  The vain woman for her part is sufficiently interested in Peregrine toput a stop to a dawning passion which she discovers in him for anotherwoman, and which might have ended in a marriage; but not at any rateenough to repay his sacrifice by true love. Emilia's artifices arestudied with much skill, and the author seems, here too, to be imitatingnature, and recounting personal experiences: "_Quorum pars magna fui_,"as he says on the title-page of his book. At one time Emilia feels thatPeregrine is escaping her; what does she conceive will keep him attachedto her? At such a crisis she is shrewd enough not to resort to vulgarcoquetries, feeling that they are no longer in season. With excellentinstinct she guesses that the only means of recovering possession ofhonest Peregrine is to appeal to his good heart: instead of promisinghim her favours, she asks of him a service. Peregrine would havedespised himself had he not rendered it, and it is only afterwards thathe perceives his chain is by this means newly forged. Emilia has fixedideas on the usefulness of men of this sort, and puts them very clearlybefore Lord C. Only unsubstantial favours must ever be granted them, inorder that the favours by which they see their rivals profit, may notgive them too gloomy suspicions. They are very useful for defendingpublicly their mistress' honour; they must if possible be men of a loftyand refined mind, for only such persons are simple enough to feed theirpassions on nothing.

  The direct satire and caricature of heroical novels in the style ofScudery and La Calprenede, which had been also practised in France, isto be found in a few English tales, of which the best, as entirelyforgotten as the worst, is entitled "Zelinda, an excellent new romance,translated from the French of Monsieur de Scudery."[363] With an amusingunconcern, and a very lively pen, the author hastens, on the firstpage, to give the lie to his title, and to inveigh against theimpertinences of publishers in general. "Book-sellers too are grown suchsaucy masterly companions, they do even what they please; my friend Mr.Bentley calls this piece an excellent romance; there I confess hisjustice and ingenuity. But then he stiles it a translation, when (asSancho Panca said in another case) 'tis no more so then the mother thatbore me. Ingrateful to envy his friend's fame.... But I write not forglory, nor self-interest, nor to gratifie kindness nor revenge. Now theimpertinent critical reader will be ready to ask, for what then? Forthat and all other questions to my prejudice, I will borrow Mr. Bays'sanswer and say, Because--I gad sir, I will not tell you--I desire toplease but one person in the world, and, as one dedicates his laboursand heroes to Calista, another to Urania, &c., at the feet of her myadored Celia, I lay all my giants and monsters."

  There follows a story in the manner of Scudery, the plot of which,however, is drawn not from Scudery, but from Voiture,[364] and which istreated in a playful accent, and with an air of persiflage that remindsus of Byron's tone when relating the adventures of Don Juan. It isVoiture indeed, but Voiture turned inside-out. As with Byron, theraillery is from time to time interrupted by poetical flights, and, aswith him, licentious scenes abound and are described with peculiarcomplacency.

  Alcidalis and Zelinda, both pursued by a contrary fate, adore oneanother, but at a distance: for tempests, pirates, family feuds separatethem, according to the classical standard of the grave romances of theday. They mutually seek one another; Alcidalis, who only dreams ofZelinda, has every good fortune he does not want. He believes his_fiancee_ has been married to an elderly Italian duke distractedly inlove with the young princess: "As we are never so fond of flowers, as inthe beginning of spring, or towards the end of autumne; the first fortheir novelty, and the others because we think we shall see them nomore: so the pleasures of love are at no time so dear to us as in thebeginning of our youth and the approaches of our age." Alcidalis,deceiving the jealous vigilance of the duke, makes the tour of apromontory in a boat by night, climbs to a window by means of arope-ladder, and in the second visit gains the favour of the duchess,who was not at all the lady whom he thought to find. "Ye gods! do Iagain behold the fair Zelinda? cries Alcidalis in his joy (a verypertinent question, for it is to be remembred there was no light)."

  Very unseasonably the husband arrives; Alcidalis has as much difficultyin escaping as Don Juan; and the duchess, just like the first mistressof Byron's hero, bursts out into reproaches against her bewilderedhusband, who has much trouble to obtain her pardon. "O woman! woman!"continues the author in an apostrophe Byron would not have disowned;"thou dark abysse of subtility; 'tis easier to trace a wandring swallowthrough the pathless air, then to explicate the crafty wyndings of thylove or malice."

  During this time, Alcidalis in flight, comes "to the sea side, where aship being just ready to leave the port (for that must never be wantingto a hero upon a ramble)," he gets on board and resumes his search forthe true Zelinda. He encounters many new adventures, and in a battledangerously wounds a warrior. This warrior is a woman, Zelinda herself.The lovers recognize one another, embrace, and relate their adventures.Alcidalis omits nothing except the episode of the duchess, and showshimself as fond a lover as at starting: "Were I racked to ten thousandpieces, as every part of a broken mirrour presents an entire face, inevery part of Alcidalis would appear the bright image of my adoredZelinda." At length they are married; the couple recline at theirbanquet of love, "and if no other pen raises them, they shall lye theretill Doomsday."

  V.

  Thus in two different ways a reaction showed itself against theliterature in fashion, and the merits of those who
attempted it onlymade its failure the more felt. The caricature of the heroic romance andthe attempt at the novel of common life were without effect. Theirauthors had come too soon, and remained isolated; the false heroism nowscoffed at in France continued in England until the eighteenth century.The writers under Queen Anne, in order to destroy it, were obliged torecommence the whole campaign. Addison, as we have seen, found heroismstill in fashion, and the great romances in their places in ladies'libraries. They were still being reprinted. There is, for example, anEnglish edition of "Cassandra" dated 1725, and one of "Cleopatra" dated1731. Fielding saw heroism still in possession of the stage, and hesatirized it in his amusing "Tom Thumb." Carey attacked it in his"Chrononotontologos."[365]

  The hundred years which follow Shakespeare's death are, therefore, takenaltogether, a period of little invention and progress for romanceliterature. The only new development it takes, consists in theexaggeration of the heroic element, of which there was enough already inmany an Elizabethan novel; it consists, in fact, in the magnifying of adefect. The imitation of France only resulted in absurd productionswhich were so successful and filled the literary stage so entirely thatthey left no space for other kinds of romances. In vain did a fewintelligent persons, such as the authors of "The Adventures of CoventGarden" and of "Zelinda," attempt to bring about a reaction; their wordsfound no echo. The other kinds of novels started in Shakespearean timescontinued to be cultivated, but were not improved. The picaresqueromance as Nash had understood it, includes in the seventeenth centuryno original specimen but Richard Head's "English Rogue,"[366] one ofthe worst compositions in this style to be found in any literature. Theallegorical, social, and political novel, as inaugurated by Sir ThomasMore, continued by Bacon, by Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, and byGodwin,[367] that novel which was to gain new life in the hands of Swiftand Johnson, is, if we except Bunyan's eloquent manual of devotion,mainly represented in the second half of the century by barrenallegories, such as Harrington's "Oceana," 1656, and Ingelow's"Bentivolio and Urania," 1660; or by short stories like "The perplex'dPrince," "The Court Secret," &c.[368] When we have read ten pages ofthese it is difficult to speak of them with coolness and without anaggressive animosity towards their authors.

  Persistent and close analysis of human emotion and of the passion oflove in the way in which Sir Philip Sidney had caught sight of it,disappeared from the novel until the day when a second "Pamela" was tofigure on the literary stage, and to fill with emotion all London andParis, down even to Crebillon fils, who was to write to LordChesterfield: "Without 'Pamela' we should not know what to read or tosay." And at reading it, the author of "The Sopha" was "moved to tears."

  One work alone was published towards the end of the century in which anoriginal thought is to be found, the "Oroonoko"[369] of Mrs. Behn. Thesentiment that animates it is of another epoch, and belongs to a quitepeculiar class of novel; with her begins the philosophical novel,crowded with dissertations on the world and humanity, on the vanity ofreligions, the innocence of negroes, and the purity of savages. Theseare the ideas of Rousseau before Rousseau: other ideas of Rousseau hadbeen, as we have seen, anticipated, in the history of the novel, byLyly.

  Remains of the ordinary heroic style are of course not wanting. Beinglove-struck Oroonoko, an African negro, well read in the classics,refuses to fight, and following Achilles' example, retires to his tent."For the world, said he, it was a trifle not worth his care. Go,continued he, sighing, and divide it amongst you, and reap with joy whatyou so vainly prize!" In trying to carry out this advice his companionsare utterly routed, until after two days Oroonoko consents to take uphis arms again, and the victors are at once all put to flight.Oroonoko's death is also in the heroical style, but a peculiar sort ofheroism which recalls Scudery, and at the same time Fenimore Cooper.

  But more striking are the parts in which the manners of the savages arecompared to those of civilized nations. "Everything is well," Rousseauwas to say later, "when it comes fresh from the hands of the Maker ofthings; everything degenerates in the hands of man."[370] Mrs. Behnexpressed many years before the very same ideas; her Oroonoko has beeneducated by a Frenchman who "was a man of very little religion, yet hehad admirable morals and a brave soul," an ancestor obviously ofRousseau himself, and a fit tutor for this black "Emile." The aboriginesof Surinam live in a state of perfection which reminds Mrs. Behn of Adamand Eve before the fall: "These people represented to me an absoluteidea of the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin: and'tis most evident and plain that single nature is the most harmless,inoffensive and virtuous mistress. 'Tis she alone, if she werepermitted, that better instructs the world than all the inventions ofman. Religion would here but destroy that tranquillity they possess byignorance, and laws would but teach 'em to know offences of which nowthey have no notion. They made once mourning and fasting for the deathof the English governor who had given his hand to come on such a day to'em and neither came nor sent; believing when a man's word is past,nothing but death could or should prevent his keeping it."

  The words "humanity," "mankind," are repeated also with a frequencyworthy of Rousseau, and the religion of humanity is set in opposition tothe religion of God with a clearness foreshadowing the theories ofAuguste Comte. When the sea captain refuses to take the word of Oroonokoas a pledge equivalent to his own, "which if he should violate, he mustexpect eternal torments in the world to come,"--"Is that all theobligations he has to be just to his oath? replyed Oroonoko. Let himknow, I swear by my honour; which to violate, would not only render mecontemptible and despised by all brave and honest men, and so give meperpetual pain, but it would be eternally offending and displeasing toall mankind, harming, betraying, circumventing and outraging allmen."[371]

  Most of these ideas, including an embryo-taste for landscape painting,were to be cherished and eloquently defended by Rousseau. Mrs. Behn, asa novelist, can only be studied with the authors of the middle of theeighteenth century; she carries us at once beyond the times of Defoe,Richardson, and Fielding, and takes us among the precursors of theFrench Revolution. With the change she foreshadows, philosophy andsocial science are perhaps more concerned than the novel proper.

  It can, all things considered, be stated with truth that, between theage of Elizabeth, and the age of Anne and the Georges, there is in thehistory of the novel a long period of semi-stagnation. The seventeenthcentury, which furnishes hardly any important name, added very little,apart from an exaggerated heroism, to the art of the novel. Defoe,Richardson and Fielding are, as novelists, more nearly related to themen of the time of Shakespeare than to the men of the time of Dryden.They have been thus so completely separated from their literaryancestors that the connection has been usually forgotten. It cannot,however, be doubted.

  Now that we have carried so far this sketch of the history of the earlyEnglish novel, as far indeed as the time of writers whose works arestill our daily reading, we have to take leave of our heroes, picaroons,and monsters, of Arthur and Lancelot, Euphues and Menaphon, Pyrocles andRosalind, Jack Wilton and Peregrine, Oroontades and Parthenissa; nor letus forget to include in this farewell our Lamias, Mantichoras, dragons,and all the menagerie of Topsell and of Lyly. Mummified, buried andforgotten as most of these romances have long been, they managed somehownot to die childless, but left behind them the seed of better things."No, those days are gone away," says Keats, thinking of the legends ofearly times,

  "And their hours are old and grey, And their minutes buried all Under the down trodden pall Of the leaves of many years.... Gone, the merry morris din; Gone, the song of Gamelyn; Gone, the tough-belted outlaw; All are gone away and past."

  With them many reputations are gone. White fingers circled with gold nolonger turn over the pages of "Euphues" or "Arcadia." But the writingsof the descendants of Greene and Nash and Sidney afford endless delightto-day. And that is why these old authors deserve not the lip-tribute ofcold respect, but the heart's offering of warmest gratitude; for theyhave had t
he most numerous and the most brilliant posterity, perhaps themost loved, that literary initiators have ever had in any time orcountry.

  AQUARIUS.]

  FOOTNOTES:

  [312] London, 1619, fol., translated by Anthony Munday (first edition offirst part, 1590, 4to). Another translation of the same romance was madeby F. Kirkman, and published in 1652, 4to.

  [313] Advertised by Ch. Bates at the end of "the history of Guy earl ofWarwick," London, 1680 (?), 4to (illustrated).

  [314] From a chap-book of the eighteenth century: "History of Guy earlof Warwick," 1750(?).

  [315] "De la Lecture des vieux romans," by Jean Chapelain, ed. Feillet,Paris, 1870, 8vo.

  [316] Edition of the "Grands Ecrivains de la France," vol. ii. pp. 529and 535.

  [317] 12th July, 1671, "Grands Ecrivains," vol. ii. p. 277. A few daysbefore, on the 5th, she had been writing: "Je suis revenue a 'Cleopatre'... et par le bonheur que j'ai de n'avoir point de memoire, cettelecture me divertit encore. Cela est epouvantable, mais vous savez queje ne m'accommode guere bien de toutes les pruderies qui ne me sont pasnaturelles, et comme celle de ne pas aimer ces livres la ne m'est pasencore entierement arrivee, je me laisse divertir sous le pretexte demon fils qui m'a mise en train."

  [318] "L'heure de la veille de Pasques, a laquelle le Roy devoitrecevoir le baptesme de la main de S. Remy estant venue, il s'y presentaavec une contenance relevee, une demarche grave, un port majestueux,tres richement vestu, musque, poudre, la perruque pendante, curieusementpeignee, gauffree, ondoiante, crespee et parfumee, selon la coustume desanciens rois Francois" ("Histoire Generale de France," Paris, 1634, vol.i. p. 58).

  [319] "Traicte de l'Economie politique," Rouen, 1615, 4to.

  [320]

  "Soit que le blond Phoebus, sortant du creux de l'onde Vienne recolorer le visage du monde; Soit que de rays plus chauds il enflame le jour, Ou qu'il s'aille coucher en l'humide sejour, Il ne void un seul homme en ce monde habitable Qui soit en tout bon-heur avec moi comparable: Ma gloire est sans pareille, et si quelqu'un des Dieux Vouloit faire a la terre un eschange des cieux, Et venir habiter sous le rond de la lune, Il se contenteroit de ma belle fortune."

  "Aman ou la vanite"; "Tragedies d'Antoine de Montchrestien," Rouen,1601, 8vo.

  [321]

  "Outre qu'on m'a vu naistre avec une couronne, La fortune qui m'aime est celle qui les donne, Et sans prendre la leur, ce bras a le pouvoir De m'en acquerir cent, si je les veux avoir. Mais souffrez mon discours, il est pour votre gloire; Je suy, je suy l'Amour et non pas la Victoire."

  ("L'amour tirannique," 1640. Speech by Tiridate.)

  "Je tiens en mon pouvoir les sceptres et la mort; Je t'arracherais l'un, je te donnerais l'autre ... Mais j'ay cette faiblesse," &c. ("Ibrahim," 1645.)

  [322] Boileau, "Les heros de romans, dialogue a la maniere de Lucien,"written in 1664, published 1713, but well known before in literarydrawing-rooms, where Boileau used himself to read it aloud.

  [323] _I.e._, Mme. du Plessis Guenegaud, who figures in "Clelie" underthis name. "Letter to Pompone, Nov. 18, 1664."

  [324] Scudery's preface to "Ibrahim, or the illustrious bassa ...englished by Henry Cogan," London, 1652, fol.

  [325] "Cassandre," vol. i book v.

  [326] By William Prynne, London, 1628, 4to.

  [327] Preface to "Artamenes, or the Grand Cyrus," London, 1653-1654,five vols. fol.

  [328] "Astrea ... translated by a person of quality," _i.e._, J.D[avies?], London, 1657-8, 3 vols. fol.; prefaces to vols. i and ii.Dramas with their plots taken from "Astree" were written in England andin France, such as "Tragi-comedie pastorale ou les amours d'Astree ...par le Sieur de Rayssiguier," Paris, 1632, 8vo; "Astrea, or true love'smirrour, a pastoral," by Leonard Willan. London, 1651, 8vo.

  [329] "The Grand Scipio ... by Monsieur de Vaumoriere, rendered intoEnglish by G. H.," London, 1660, fol.

  [330] "Loveday's letters, domestick and foreign," seventh impression.London, 1684, 8vo, p. 146 (first edition 1659).

  [331] By Scudery, translated by J. Philips, London, 1677, fol. part ii.bk. ii. p. 166. Books entirely made up of "conversations" were publishedby Mdlle. de Scudery, treating of pleasures, of passions, of theknowledge of others and of ourselves, &c. They read very much likedialogued essays; and it is interesting to compare them with Addison'sessays which treat sometimes of the same subjects. They were receivedwith great applause; Madame de Sevigne highly praises them. They weretranslated into English: "Conversations upon several subjects, ... doneinto English by F. Spence," London, 1683, 2 vol. 12mo.

  [332] About this curious little society see Mr. Gosse's "SeventeenthCentury Studies," 1883, pp. 205 _et seq._

  [333] "_Cathos_: Le nom de Polixene que ma cousine a choisi et celuid'Aminte que je me suis donne ont une grace dont il faut que vousdemeuriez d'accord" ("Precieuses Ridicules," sc. v.).

  [334] "Natures pictures," London, 1656, fol., preface No. 2.

  [335] Her "Playes," 1662, are preceded by two dedications, one prologue,and _eleven_ prefaces.

  [336] "CCXI. Sociable Letters," London, 1664, fol.

  [337] "Lives of the Poets ... to the time of Dean Swift," London. 1753,5 vols. 12mo; vol. ii. p. 164.

  [338] "Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-4," ed.Parry, London, 1888, 8vo. Letter ix. p. 60; Letter x. p. 64; Letterxxiv. p. 124, year 1653.

  [339] May 13, 1666; Feb. 24, 1667-8; Nov. 16, 1668.

  [340] Letter xxxiv. p. 162. Year 1653.

  [341] "Parthenissa, that most fam'd romance," London, 1654.

  [342] He assisted her in getting her translation of Corneille's "Pompee"represented at Dublin with embellishments, consisting in dances, music,songs, &c. He was born in 1621 and was held in great esteem both byCromwell and by the Stuarts. He left dramas and other works and died in1679.

  [343] "British Novelists," by David Masson, Cambridge, 1859, 8vo. p. 72.

  [344] Letter LI. p. 236, year 1654.

  [345] P. 54. Part of the tale, viz.: the adventures of Brandon, suppliedOtway with the plot of his "Orphan" (performed 1680).

  [346] "Pandion and Amphigenia, or the history of the coy lady orThessalia adorned with sculptures," London, 1665, 8vo. Crowne died about1703; his dramatic works have been published in four vols., 1873.

  [347] Pp. 140, 141.

  [348] "Almanzor and Almahide, or the Conquest of Granada," performed(with great success) in the winter, 1669-70, act iii. sc. 1.

  [349] Settle's "Empress of Morocco," London, 1673, 4to. The engraving wereproduce represents the interior of a Moorish prison, with Muley Labas,son of the Emperor of Morocco, and the Princess Morena.

  [350] "Andromache, a tragedy, as it is acted at the Dukes Theatre,"London, 1675, 4to.

  [351] _Spectator_, April 12, 1711.

  [352] "The Constant Couple, or a trip to the Jubilee," 1700, act iii.,last scene.

  [353] "Titus and Berenice; a tragedy," 1677.

  [354] "The Princess of Montpensier," 1666; "The Princess of Cleve ...written by the greatest wits of France, rendred into English by a personof quality at the request of some friends," 1688: "Zayde," 1688. Nat.Lee's play is entitled, "The Princess of Cleve," London, 1689, 4to. Asto the popularity of this novel in France, it will be enough to noticeMadame de Sevigne's allusion to "ce chien de Barbin," who does notfulfil her orders when she wants books, because she does not write "desPrincesses de Cleves."

  [355] "Je ne vous dirai pas exactement s'il avait soupe et s'il secoucha sans manger comme font quelques faiseurs de romans qui reglenttoutes les heures du jour de leurs heros, les font se lever de bonmatin, confer leur histoire jusqu'a l'heure du diner, reprendre leurhistoire ou s'enfoncer dans un bois pour y aller parler tout seuls, sice n'est quand ils out quelque chose a dire aux arbres et aux rochers"("Roman comique," chap. ix. ed. 1825).

  "Je vous raconteray sincerement et avec fidelite plusieurs historietteset galanteries arrivees entre des personnes qui ne seront ny heros n
yheroines, qui ne dresseront point d'armees, ny ne renverseront point deroyaumes, mais qui seront de ces bonnes gens de mediocre condition, quivont tout doucement leur grand chemin, dont les uns seront beaux et lesautres laids, les uns sages et les autres sots; et ceux-cy out bien lamine de composer le plus grand nombre" ("Roman bourgeois," ed. Janet, p.6).

  [356] Rabelais by Urquhart, London, 1653, 8vo; Cervantes in 1612; andagain by T. Shelton in 1620 and by J. Philips, 1687.

  [357] Scarron's "Comical romance: or a facetious history of a company ofstrowling stage-players," London, 1676, fol. Preface to thecontinuation. The translator is at some pains to anglicize his original;when Scarron speaks of Paris, the translator puts London; Ragotin isheard defending Spenser (chapter xv.). The poet in Scarron brags of hisacquaintance with Corneille and Rotrou, and in the English text, withShakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson (chap. viii.). There were othertranslations of Scarron: "The whole comical works of M. Scarron,"translated by Mr. T. Brown, Mr. Savage, and others, London, 1700, 8vo;"The comic romance," translated by O. Goldsmith, Dublin, 1780(?) 2 vol.12mo. His shorter novels or stories were separately translated by JohnDavies, who states in the preface of "The unexpected Choice," London,1670, that he did so at the suggestion of the late Catherine Philips,the matchless Orinda.

  [358] "The extravagant Shepherd, the anti-romance, or the history of theshepherd Lysis," London, 1653, another edition 1660. Strange to say,besides some adaptations from Spanish authors ("La Picara," 1665; "DonnaRosina," 1700?), a translation of Voiture's Letters, 1657, the same JohnDavies of Kidwelly, who had written this eloquent appeal againstheroical romances, translated "Clelia," 1656, and part of "Cleopatra" inconjunction with Loveday.

  [359] See also in Furetiere's "Roman bourgeois" how the reading of"Astree" made of Javotte "la plus grande causeuse et la plus coquettefille du quartier" (Ed. Janet, i. p. 173).

  [360] "The Adventures of Covent Garden, in imitation of Scarron's cityromance," London, 1699, 16mo. "Scarron" is here evidently for"Furetiere." This work, the author of which is unknown, has long beenforgotten, though deserving a better fate. It is dedicated "to all myingenious acquaintance at Will's coffee-house."

  [361] _Cf._ Moliere: "Je voudrais bien savoir si la grande regle detoutes les regles n'est pas de plaire, et si une piece de theatre qui aattrape son but n'a pas suivi un bon chemin.... Laissons nous aller debonne foi aux choses qui nous prennent par les entrailles et necherchons point de raisonnements pour nous empecher d'avoir du plaisir"("Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes," sc. 7).

  [362] "Double Dealer," by Congreve; "Plot and no Plot," by Dennis;"Beauty in distress," by Motteux.

  [363] By T. D., perhaps T. Duffet (Bullen), London, Bentley, 1676, 12mo.

  [364] From his "Histoire d'Alcidalis et Zelide." Voiture had begun it in1633 in the style fashionable at the Hotel de Rambouillet, and even, ashe pretends, with the help of Mdlle. de Rambouillet, to whom it isdedicated. It was left unfinished and was published after his death,being completed by Desbarres. A regular translation of it was publishedin English in 1678.

  [365] These two pieces which appeared in 1730 and 1734 are not, as isoften stated, caricatures of classical tragedy. In the same way as theDuke of Buckingham in his "Rehearsal" (1671), Fielding and Careyridicule heroic drama, born of romance _a la_ Scudery, as Dryden and hisfollowers had understood it.

  [366] "The English Rogue described in the life of Meriton Latroon,"London, 1665, 8vo, continued by F. Kirkman, 1661, _et seq._, 4 vols.(reprinted by Pearson).

  [367] The "Mundus alter et idem," by Hall, was written about 1600, andappeared some years later on the continent, without date. "The Man inthe Moon or a discourse of a voyage thither," by F. Godwin, appeared in1638, and was translated into French, which allowed Cyrano de Bergeracto become acquainted with it: "L'Homme dans la Lune ou le voyagechimerique fait au monde de la Lune" ... by Dominique Gonzales (pseud.),Paris, 1648, 8vo. The translation is by that same Baudoin who hadalready turned Sidney's "Arcadia" into French. Barclay's "Argenis"belongs to European rather than to English literature.

  [368] "The perplex'd Prince," by T. S. In this romance Westenia isWales; Otenia, England; Bogland, Scotland; the amours of Charles II. andthose of the Duke of York (the Prince of Purdino) are related in itunder fictitious names. "The Court Secret," 1689; Selim I. and Selim II.represent Charles I. and Charles II.; Cha-abas, Louis XIV., &c. In"Oceana," Parthenia is Queen Elizabeth; Morpheus, James I.; in Ingelow'swork, Bentivolio represents "Good will," and Urania "Heavenly light.""Oceana" and "Bentivolio" are didactic treatises rather than romances;the first is a political treatise, and the second a religious treatise,an enormous morality in prose. "The Pilgrim's Progress" must be placedamong religious literature properly so-called, as being its master-workin England.

  [369] "The plays histories and novels of the ingenious Mrs. Aphra Behn,"London (Pearson's reprint), 1871, 6 vols., 8vo, vol. i. "Oroonoko or theroyal slave," first printed, 1698. The adventures and virtues ofOroonoko made him very popular; his story was transferred to the stageby Th. Southern; his life was translated into German, and into French(by La Place, 1745). Mrs. Behn's other novels show much lessoriginality. She died in 1689.

  [370] Beginning of "Emile."

  [371] "Oroonoko," _ibid._, pp. 121, 79, 135.

  INDEX.

  INDEX.

  A.

  Acolastus, 316

  Actors, Nash on, 316; as playwrights, 156-158

  Addison, 25, 381, 396, 412

  "Adventures of Covent Garden," 404-408; 412

  "Alcida," Greene's, 112, 155

  Alexander, poem imitated from the French romance, 39

  Alfarache, Guzman d', 292, 293, 294

  Alfred, literature under, 33

  "Almahide," 370

  "Almanzor and Almahide," 392

  Amadis of Gaul, Munday's translation of, 349

  Amourists, The, 245

  "Anatomie of Absurditie," Nash's, 169 _note_, 279

  Andrews, Dr., Sermons by, 382

  "Andromaque," Racine's, English translation of, 395, 396

  Angennes, Julie d', 352

  Anglo-Saxons, songs and legends of the, 32; gloom of the literature of the, 33, 34

  "Apologie for Poetrie," Sidney's, 229-233; 235, 254, 255, 301

  Apulaeus, 86

  "Arbasto," 155; 175-178

  "Arcadia," Sidney's, 226, 229; account and criticism of, 234-262; popularity, imitations and translations of, 262-283; criticised in the eighteenth century by Addison, Cowper and Young, 270-272; Milton's and Horace Walpole's criticism of, 272; Niceron on, 283; drawings from editions of, 16, 17, 273, 275, 277

  "Arcadianism," Dekker and Ben Jonson on, 261

  Arcady, land of, 218, 219

  Architecture, Elizabethan, 12, 99, 100, 101, 102

  Aretino, 298, 348

  "Argalus and Parthenia," Quarles', 16, 264, 267; as a chap-book, 271-275

  D'Argenson's opinion of England, 24

  "Ariosto," 43, 173, 237, 363; Harington's translation of, 13, 76, 77, 79, 80, 366

  "Arisbas," Dickenson's, 146

  Arthur, the Celtic hero, 39; and his knights, 35

  Arundel, Earl of, 159

  Ascham, Roger, denounces foreign travel and literature, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 79 _note_, 85, 318; condemns Morte d'Arthur, 63, 74; on the study of Greek and Latin, 87, 88; his views on the old romances endorsed by Nash, 307, 308

  "Astree," d'Urfe's, 205, 247, 364, 365

  "Astrophel and Stella," 229, 233, 234

  D'Aubigne, 398

  "Aucassin and Nicolete," 36, 37, 59, 60, 353

  B.

  Bacon, Francis, 24, 43; "New Atlantis," 50; and English prose, 52; essay on Gardens, 241; 300, 403, 413

  Bacon, Friar, stories about, 28

  Bandello, 81 _note_, 86, 147

  "Baron de Foeneste," 398

  Baudoin, translation of Sidney's "Arcadia" into French, 276-280

  Baxter's "Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania," 262

  Beattie, 26<
br />
  Beckett, engraver, 19

  Behn, Mrs., 414-417

  Bell's "Theatre," engraving from, 14, 97

  Belleforest's tales translated and imitated by Paynter, 86; "Histoires tragiques," 147

  "Bentivolio and Urania," Ingelow's, 413

  "Beowulf," the oldest English romance, 11; fac-simile of the beginning of the MS., 31; 33, 34; want of tenderness in, 35

  "Berenice," Racine's, translated by Otway, 397

  "Berger extravagant," 21, 280, 398, 401

  Bergerac, Cyrano de, his "Etats et empires de la lune et du soleil," 50; his "Pedant joue," 128 _note_; style of, 258; humour of, 289, 290

  Berners, Lord, 106-107

  Bestiaries, 108, 111, 112, 115, 116, 119

  Blount, Charles, Lord Mountjoy, Earl of Devonshire, 227

  Blount, Edward, publisher of Lyly's comedies, 137, 138

  Boccaccio, 43; "Filocopo," "Amorous Fiammetta," "Decameron," English translations of, 75, 76; 86

  Boileau, 258, 356 _note_, 363, 390

  Borde, Dr. Andrew, 288, 289, 326

  Bossuet, 387

  Bovon of Hanstone, poem imitated from a French romance, 39

  Boyle, Roger, Lord Broghill, 384-389

  Bozon, Nicole, 111

  Breton, Nicholas, 192, 198-202

  Brunne, Robert Manning de, 38, 39

  Bullen, 22

  Bunyan, John, 159, 413

  Burghley House, 12, 101, 102

  Byron's "Don Juan," 409, 410

  C.

  Caesarius, 48, 49

  Callot, 317, 337

  Camden Society, 18

  "Campaspe," Lyly's, 138

  Carey, 412

  "Carte du Tendre," 19, 359, 361

  "Cassandra," 396, 403, 412; "Cassandre," 362, 364, 382, 383

  Castiglione's "Courtier," 76

  Caxton's woodcut of Chaucer's pilgrims, 12, 45; his editions of Chaucer and work as a printer, 52-55; 60

  "Cent Nouvelles," 47, 48

  Cervantes, 43, 88, 399

  Chappelain, Mdlle. G., translator of Sidney's "Arcadia," 277-280

  Chapelain, Jean, author of "La Pucelle," 294, 350, 357

  Characters, books of, 201-2 _note_

  Charlemagne, poem imitated from French romance of, 39

  Charles I., 84; 250, 252; 366, 382

  Charles II., 381

  Charles IX., 220

  Chartley, 223

  Chateaubriand, 231, 283

  Chateaumorand, Diane de, 276

  Chatterton, 26

  Chaucer, Caxton's engraving of his pilgrims, 12, 45; a story-teller, but with small influence on the Elizabethan novel, 43, 44; homage of Pope and Dryden to, 44; faculty of observation in, 49; and mediaeval story-tellers, 89; "Cooke's Tale," 204; read by Nash, 296

  Chesterfield, Lord, 414

  Chettle's edition of "Groats-worth of Wit," 165 _note_, 321; "Piers Plain," 328, 330, 331

  "Chrononotontologos," 412

  Cibber, Theophilus, 381

  "Civile Conversation," Guazzo's, 72, 73, 76

  "Clarissa Harlowe," 25, 26, 31

  "Clelie," 361, 364, 370; frontispiece of "La Fausse," 20, 375

  "Cleopatra," 412; Queen, as represented on the English stage, 14, 97; "Cleopatre," 364, 369; frontispiece of, 20, 371

  Clovis, 354

  Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, 87

  Comte, Auguste, 416

  Conde, 352, 357

  "Contes Moralises," Bozon's, 111

  Cooper, Fenimore, 415

  Copland, 12

  Corneille, 278, 282, 343, 355, 363, 373

  Coryat, 302 _note_

  Cotterel, Sir Charles, translator of "Cassandre," 373

  "Cour Bergere," play derived by Mareschal from Sidney's "Arcadia," 282

  "Court Secret," 413

  Cowper, on Sidney's "Arcadia," 271

  Coxon (or Cockson), Thomas, engraver, portraits by, 13

  Crebillon _fils_, 414

  Cromwell, 84, 363, 381

  Crowne's "Pandion and Amphigenia," 19, 389-391; 392, 395

  D.

  Davenport, 173

  Davies, John, drawing from his translation of Sorel's "Berger extravagant," 21

  Day, John, "Ile of Guls," 263; collaborator of Dekker, 331

  "Debat de folie et d'amour," 173

  Dedekind, 339

  Defoe, 25, 26; protest against the abbreviation of "Robinson Crusoe," 123, 124; 199, 260, 270, 294, 313, 320, 335, 345, 348, 390, 404, 417

  Dekker, portrait of, 333; on _Arcadianism_ and _Euphuism_, 261; on Nash in the Elysian fields, 327; plays and pamphlets by, 330-346; love of literature, 332; gaiety, 333; Lamb on, 332; Nash and, 334; "Wonderfull Yeare," 335-338; advice on behaviour at a play-house, 340-343

  Desperriers, Bonaventure, 86

  Devereux, Penelope, afterwards Lady Rich, Sidney's "Stella," 223, 224, 225, 227, 228

  Dickens, Charles, 124

  Dickenson, imitator of Lyly, 145, 146, 161 _note_

  Disguises, fondness for, in Elizabethan times, 237-239

  "Don Simonides," Rich's, 146, 147

  Drayton, 331

  Dryden, 354, 363, 389, 392, 396, 404, 417

  Du Bartas, 271

  Du Bellay, 70

  Dupleix, Scipion, historiographer royal, 354

  Dyce, reprint by, 18

  E.

  "Ecclesiastical Polity," Hooker's, 382

  Eliot, George, 36, 124

  Elizabeth, Queen, portrait by Rogers, 11, 96, 256; by Zucchero, 14; in pastoral romance, 218; manners of, 91-96; learning of, 92; toilettes of, 92; Hentzner on, 96

  Elizabethan houses, 101, 102; dress, 128; literary men, 161; amusements, 18, 287, 298

  "Emile," Rousseau's, 415

  "Empress of Morocco," Settle's, 393, 395

  "Endimion," Lyly's, 138, 139; Gombauld's, 19, 367, 369

  English, ancestry of the, 40, 41, 42; effect of the French conquest on the literature of the, 43

  "English Adventures," Boyle's, 388, 389

  "English Rogue," Head's, 413

  Erasmus, 51, 87, 88, 348

  Essex, Earl of, 159

  "Euphues," Lyly's, 103-142; written for women, 104, 105; on women in, 127-130, 133; natural history in, 107, 108-120; moral teaching in, 123, 124, 127; bringing up of children in, 130-132; popularity of, 137-142; Nash on, 139, 140; abbreviation of, 141

  "Euphues his censure to Philautus," Greene's, 146, 168

  _Euphuism_, Lyly and, 105; acclimatization of, in England, 106, 107; Shakespeare on, 140; Dekker and, 261

  Exeter, Joseph of, 38

  Exeter, Marquis of, seat of the, 12

  F.

  Fayette, Mme. de la, 397

  Fenelon's, "Telemaque," 50; "Lettre a l'Academie," 229

  Fenton's, "Tragicall Discourses," 80, 81

  Fielding, 25, 124, 270, 313, 317, 406, 412, 417

  Floire and Blanchefleur, 36

  Florio's Montaigne, 227

  Ford, Emanuel, disciple of Lyly, 192; "Parismus," 193-198; collaborator of Dekker, 331

  Fortescue's, "Foreste," 81

  Fouquet, 281

  Fournival, Richard de, 107, 108

  Fox, George, the Quaker, 158

  "Francesco's Fortunes," drawings from, 11

  "Francion," 293, 398

  French, gaiety of the literature of the, 33, 34

  Froissart, 43, 47, 86

  Furetiere, 398, 399, 404, 405

  Furnivall, F. J., 39, 90, 102, 140, 162, 223

  G.

  Gaedertz, of Berlin, 17

  "Gallathea," Lyly's, 139

  "Gamelyne," tale of, 204

  Gargantua and Pantagruel, story of, 50

  Gascoigne, "Adventures passed by Master F. T.," 81

  Gawain, a metrical romance imitated from the French, 89

  "Genereuse Allemande," Mareschal's, 282

  Gheeraedts, 16

  Gil Bias, 24

  Godwin, F., 413

&
nbsp; "Golden boke of Marcus Aurelius," translated by Lord Berners and Sir Thomas North, 106, 107

  Gomberville, 356

  Gosse, 373

  Gower, 296

  "Grand Cyrus," romance of, 364, 383, 396

  Green Knight, metrical romance from the French, 39

  Greene, Robert, illustrations to his work, 11, 15; stories of, translated into French, 27; denounces foreign travel, 73 _note_; natural history of, 112; imitator of Lyly, 145, 146, 170, 171 _note_; Warner on, 149, 150; character, birth, and education, 152, 153, 154; travels, 74, 154; writings, 151, 155; "Groats-worth of Wit," 156, 157, 158; "Repentances," 158, 159, 162; marriage, 159, 160, 166, 167; Nash on, 160, 161; complaint against plagiarists, 163; abuse of Shakespeare, 164, 165; illness and death, 162, 163, 165, 166, 167; Ben Jonson on, 166; contributions to the novel literature of Elizabethan times, 167-192; _Euphuism_ of, 170-173; "Penelope," 174; imitated by Breton, 198, 199, 201; by Lodge, 202; style of his novels, 290; 295, 296, 300, 418

  Greville Fulke, Lord Brooke, 220, 226, 245

  Grimestone's translation of tales by Goulart, 81

  "Groats-worth of Wit," 156, 157, 165 _note_, 328

  _Grobianism_, 339, 344, 345, 346

  "Grobianus," 338, 339

  Guazzo's "Civile Conversation," translation of, 76

  Guevara, 86, 106

  "Gulliver's Travels," 50, 51

  "Guls Horne-booke," Dekker's, 28, 261, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343

  "Gwydonius," Greene's, 155

  H.

  Hall, Joseph, bishop of Norwich, 73 _note_, 413

  Hampole, Rolle de, story of a scholar of Paris, 48, 49

  Harington's translation of "Ariosto," 13, 76, 77, 79, 80, 366

  Harrington's "Oceana," 413

  Harrison's "Description of Britaine," 101

  Hartley, Mrs., as Cleopatra, 14, 97

  Harvey, Gabriel, Nash and, 297, 298

  Hastings, battle of, results of, 33

  Hathaway, 331

  Haughton, 331

  Havelock the Dane, a metrical romance, 39

  Head, Richard, writer of a picaresque novel, 294, 412, 413

  Henri IV., 352

  Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans, 386, 387

  Henry VIII., learning of, 87

  Henslowe, 328, 331

  Hentzner on Elizabeth, 96

  "Heptameron," Reine de Navarre's, 398

  Herbert, William, Shakespeare's friend, 234

  "Hercules of Greece," romance, 349

  Heroical novels and plays in England and France, 347-397; reaction against, 397-412

  Heywood, T., 331

  "History of the Ladye Lucres," 81; drawing from German edition of, 14, 82

  Hood, Robin, stories about, 28

  Hooker, Richard, 382

  Hurst, Richard, drawing from his version of Gombauld's "Endimion," 19

  "Hystorie of Hamblet," 81

  I.

  "Ibrahim ou l'illustre Bassa," 364

  "Ile of Guls," Day's, 263

  Ingelow's "Bentivolio and Urania," 413

  "Isle of Dogs," Nash's, 297, 298 _note_

  J.

  "Jack Wilton," Nash's novel of, 297; account of, 308-321

  Jessopp, Dr., 218

  Johnson, Dr., 151, 413

  Jones, Inigo, sketches by, 14, 100; architecture of, 100, 101

  Jonson, Ben, 151, 261, 270, 331, 341 _note_, 348, 404, 407

  K.

  Keats, 418

  Kemp, the actor, 18, 287, 298

  Kenilworth, festivities at, 223; park of, 241, 242

  King Horn, a metrical romance, 39

  "Knight of the Swanne," frontispiece of, 12, 61, 64

  L.

  Labe, Louise, "Debat de Folie et d'Amour," 173

  La Calprenede, 356, 369, 384, 398, 408; Mme. de Sevigne on, 353

  "Lady of May," Sidney's masque of, 229, 289

  La Fontaine, 232

  Landmann, Dr., 106, 123 _note_

  Laneham, Robert, account of the Kenilworth Festivities, 85

  Languet, Hubert, the French Huguenot and friend of Sidney, on English manners, 136, 137; correspondence with Sidney, 221, 223, 288; poem on, in the "Arcadia," 222

  "La Pucelle," 294, 350

  Layamon, 39, 40

  Lee, 392, 397

  Leicester, Earl of, 91, 96, 159, 223

  "Lenten Stuff," Nash's, 324, 325

  Le Sage, style of, 47; "Gil Blas," 294

  "Le Sopha," 24

  "Lettre a l'Academie," Fenelon's, 229

  "Life and Death of Ned Browne," Greene's, 187, 188

  Lindsey, Earl of, 382

  Lodge, Thomas, imitator of Lyly, 145, 150, 151; birth, education, travels, 202; novels, 203; "Rosalynde," 144, 204, 205, 206, 207-215; 290, 403

  Longueville, Mme. de, 352, 357

  "Looking Glasse for London and England," by Greene and Lodge, 215

  Louis XIII., 354

  Louis XIV., 352

  Loveday, Robert, translator of La Calprenede's "Cleopatre," 369; frontispiece of, 20, 369, 371

  Ludlow Castle, 219, 220

  Lyly, John, editions of "Euphues," 27; denounces foreign travel, 73 _note_; writes for women, 104, 105; his style, 107; knowledge of plants and animals, 119, 120; the moral teaching of Lyly's "Euphues," 126-135; comedies by, 137-139; imitators of, 145-215; Sidney's style compared with, 255; kind of novel, 290; and the Martin Marprelate Controversy, 297; an ancestor of Richardson, 317; anticipates Rousseau, 131, 415

  M.

  Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," 54-57, 60-63

  "Mamillia," Greene's, 154, 155, 168

  Mandeville, 296

  Map, Walter, 38; his faculty of observation, 49

  Mareschal, Antoine, 282

  "Margarite of America," Lodge's, 202, 203

  "Marianne," 24

  Marlowe, heroes and heroines of, 247, 249; dies young, 295; Nash's criticisms of, 299, 306, 307

  Mary, Queen of Scots, 92

  Massinger, 331

  Master Reynard, 292

  "Matchless Orinda," The, 384, 391

  Medicis, Marie de, 276

  Melbancke, imitator of Lyly, 145

  Melville, Sir James, ambassador of Mary Queen of Scots to the English court, on the manners of the English, 91-95; on the liking of the Elizabethans for disguises, 239

  "Menaphon," Greene's, 146, 155, 160, 185-187

  Meres, Francis, 198 _note_, 254 _note_, 300

  Merimee's style, 305

  "Midas" comedy by Lyly, 139

  Middleton, 331

  Milton's "Comus," 220, 221; opinion of Sidney's "Arcadia," 250, 251

  Moliere, his love for old songs, 232; his denunciation of the behaviour of gallants at the playhouse, 343, 344; the "Precieuses ridicules," 373; English translations of, 397; the "Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes," 405

  Monmouth, Geoffrey of, 38, 41

  Montaigne, 43

  Montausier, 352, 388, 391

  Montchrestien, Antoine de, 354, 355

  Montemayor's "Diane," 76; translation of, 227; style of, 229; imitated by Sidney, 236

  Montesquieu's "Lettres persanes," 132

  More, Sir Thomas, writes in Latin; the "Utopia," 50, 51; Erasmus' opinion of, 87; hero in Nash's novel, 348; his "Utopia," a political novel, 413

  Morris, William, 63

  "Morte d'Arthur," Malory's, 54-59; Ascham on, 63

  Munday, Anthony, imitator of Lyly, 145, 193, 331, 349

  Muerger's "Scenes de la vie de Boheme," 150, 151

  "Myrrour of Modesty," Greene's, 155, 168, 349

  N.

  Nash, Thomas, portrait of, 18; his stories translated into French, 27; initiator of the _picaresque_ novel, 294; birth, education, studies, and travels, 295, 296; works of, 297; love of poetry, 299, 300; style and vocabulary of, 302-307; Dekker on, 327, 334; begins the novel of real life, 347, 348; 406, 412, 418

  Navarre, Queen of, 86

  Newcastle, Duchess
of, drawing from "Nature's Pictures," 20, 379; literary works of the, 374-381

  Newton, 24

  North, Sir Thomas, 106, 107

  Novels, in Tudor times, 80-102; as sermons, 123, 124, 127; pastoral, 235-283; picaresque, 291-346; heroical, 348-414; philosophical, 414-416

  Nucius, Nicander, on the study of Italian and French in England, 87; on the manners of English women, 91

  O.

  "Oceana," Harrington's, 413

  Octavian, romance imitated from the French, 39

  Oliver, Isaac, miniature of Sir Philip Sidney, 15, 221, 243; drawing by, 69

  "Oroonoko," Mrs. Behn's, 414-417

  "Orlando Furioso," Ariosto's, 76, 77, 79, 80

  Osborne, Dorothy, letters to Sir William Temple, 382-384, 387, 388

  Otway, 389 _note_, 397, 404

  Owen, Miss, 373

  P.

  Padua, John of, architect, 12, 101

  "Pamela," Richardson's, 127, 249, 250, 414

  "Pandion and Amphigenia," Crowne's heroical novel of, 389, 390, 391

  "Pandosto," Greene's, 155, 168, 169, 175, 178-185

  "Parismus," Ford's, 193; compared with "Romeo and Juliet," 194-198

  "Parthenissa," Lord Broghill's, 384, 385; Dorothy Osborne on, 386, 387

  Pas, C. de, drawings by, 19, 369

  Paynter, translations of tales by, 28; "Palace of Pleasure," 80; tales by, 86

  Peele, 295

  "Penelopes Web," Greene's, 155

  Penshurst, Sidney's birthplace, Ben Jonson's description of, 16; drawing of, 217

  Pepys, Mr., 383

  Percival, romance imitated from the French, 39

  Percy, 26

  "Perimedes," Greene's, 155

  "Perplexed Prince," 413

  "Petit Jehan de Saintre," 47

  Petrarca, 43

  Pettie, George, on English prose, 72, 73; "Pettie Pallace," 81

  Philips, Catherine, "matchless Orinda," 19; 370-373

  Philips, Mr., husband of "matchless Orinda," 373

  "Philomela," Greene's, 171-173

  "Philotimus," Melbancke's, 148

  "Pierce Penilesse," Nash's, 322-324

  "Piers Plain," Chettle's, 328-330

  "Pilgrimage to Parnassus," 140

  Pinturicchio, 174

  Pius II., 83

  "Planetomachia," Greene's, 155

  "Polexandre," 364

  Pope, Alexander, 218, 237, 381

  Porro, Girolamo, engraver, 13

  Poussin, Gaspard, 237

  "Princesse de Cleves," 24, 397

  Prose, little cultivated in England, 50

  Prynne, 382

  Puritans, and Charles I., 250; manners of, 364, 366; and Cromwell, 381

  Pytheas, an old traveller, 33

  Q.

  Quarles, Francis, drawings from his "Argalus and Parthenia," 16; "Emblemes," 264, 267

  "Quinze joyes de Mariage," 338, 345, 346

  "Quip for an upstart Courtier," Greene's, frontispiece of, 15, 265; description of, 189-192

  R.

  Rabelais, 43; and the "Utopia," 51, 52; 88, 128, 289, 297, 304, 305, 399

  Racine, 355, 363, 395, 396, 397

  Racine, Louis, 123

  "Railleur ou la Satyre du Temps," Mareschal's, 282

  Raleigh, 218

  Rambouillet, Hotel de, 352, 356, 357, 370-373; Mme. de, 381

  Renaissance, tentative, of the fourteenth century, 43; short stories, outcome of, 47; period of the, 60, 68; effects of the, 69, 70; art of the, 79; women at the time of the, 133; costumes and furniture in Sidney's "Arcadia" pure, 244; characteristics of, 303

  "Returne from Parnassus," 140 _note_, 316 _note_, 326

  Rich, "Farewell to militarie profession," 81; imitator of Lyly, 145; works of, 146, 147

  Rich, Lord, husband of Sidney's "Stella," 223, 227

  Richardson, 25, 26, 123, 124, 127, 131; "Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe," 169, 202; borrows from Sidney, 249, 250; 270, 317, 378, 417

  Richelieu, 352

  Rivers, Lord, 134

  Robert the Devil, drawing of, 57

  "Robinson Crusoe," 123, 124, 159

  Robinson, Ralph, translator of More's "Utopia," 50, 51

  Rogers, William, engraving by, 11, 256

  "Roland," poem imitated from a French romance, 34, 39

  "Roman bourgeois," 398

  "Roman comique," 398

  Romances, end of chivalrous, 25; pastoral, 217-283; heroical, reaction against, 397, 398, 411; French, translated and read in England, 363-384

  Ronsard, 43, 88

  "Rosalynde," Lodge's, compared with "As you like it," 202-213

  Rousseau's "Emile," 130, 131; "Social contract," 221; and Mrs. Behn, 414-416

  Rowley, 331

  S.

  Sainte More, Benoit de, poems by, 34, 35

  Saint Dunstan, literature under, 33

  Salisbury, John of, 38

  "Sapho and Phao," Lyly's, 138

  Sarasin, 350

  Scarron, 398, 400 _note_, 404

  "Scipion," 365

  Scott, Sir Walter, 26, 36

  Scudery, George de, 278, 348, 355, 356; preface to "Ibrahim," 358, 408, 409, 415; Madeleine de, "Clelie," 20; 355-357; 361, 384, 388, 396

  Settle's "Empress of Morocco," 20, 21, 293; 392-395

  Sevigne, Mme. de, admirer of heroism in romances and plays, 352, 353, 357, 381

  Shakespeare, interior view of a theatre in time of, 17, 18, 286; 24; glory of, 26; editions of the plays of, 27; 43; his daily reading, 85; outcome of his age, 88; Cleopatra, 97, 99, 156; source of "Twelfth Night," 147; of "Winter's Tale," 155, 178-185; "Parismus" compared with "Romeo and Juliet," 194-198; of "As you like it," 202-213; source of part of "Lear," 262; source of "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 149, 150, 236 _note_; little known in France, 279; a copy of, in Louis XIV.'s library, 281; earliest French criticism on, 282; humour of, 289; beginning of career of, 299, 300; on music, 300, 301; interposes himself in his plays, 314, 315; and Moliere, 343; style of, 403, 404

  Shirley, 288

  Sidney, Mary, Countess of Pembroke, portrait of, 16; fame of, 234, 235; works dedicated to, 263

  Sidney, Sir Philip, 217-283; miniature and portraits of, 221, 222; "Arcadia," 16, 17, 226, 229, 234-283; stories of, translated, 27; birth, 219; education and travels, 74, 220, 221; love for "Stella," 222-225; "Shepheardes Calender," dedicated to, 225; at Wilton, 226; Marriage and death, 226, 227; literary work and style, 228-263; "Apologie," 229-233, 235, 254, 255, 301; Du Bartas on, 274; known to Florian, 283; humour of, 288-290; Nash on, 299; ancestor of Richardson, 317; prose of, 403; analysis of feeling by, 414

  "Sir Charles Grandison," 31

  Smith, Wentworth, 331

  Smollett, 294

  Smyth's "Straunge and tragicall histories," 81

  "Sociable letters," Duchess of Newcastle's, 378

  "Sopha," 414

  Sorel, Charles, 280, 298

  Spenser, Edmund, 43; Nash on, 298, 299, 300

  Steele, Richard, 25, 381

  "Stella," books dedicated to, 227, 228

  Sterne, 313

  "Strange Fortunes," Breton's, 199, 200

  Suckling, Sir John, 388

  Surrey, Earl of, 74, 245; Nash on, 300; 348

  Swift, 345, 384, 413

  Swinburne, 63

  Sylvius, AEneas (Piccolomini), 81

  T.

  Tacitus' opinion of the English, 123

  Tarleton, 298

  Tasso, 43; translations in English of, 76

  "Telemaque," 50

  Temple, Sir William, 382, 384, 387, 388

  "Tendre" country, Map of, 19, 20, 359, 361

  Teniers, 317

  Tennyson, 63

  Thackeray, 124; "Vanity Fair," 291

  Thorpe, John, architect, 12, 101

  "Til Eulenspiegel," 292

  Tintoretto, 244

  Titian, 244

  "Tom Thumb," Fielding's, 412


  Tom-a-Lincoln, stories of, 28

  "Tom Jones," 26

  Topsell's Natural History, 14, 15, 103, 109, 111-113; 115-117; 119, 121, 125, 145, 171, 417

  Tormes, Lazarillo de, 292-294

  "Tragicall Discourses," 80, 81

  Tristan, tales of, 25

  "Trojan War," romance imitated from the French, 39

  Turberville, drawings from his "Booke of Faulconrie," and "Noble Art of Venerie," 15

  Turenne, 352

  U.

  Universities, Lyly's experience of, 153

  D'Urfe, 247

  "Utopia," More's, 50, 51

  V.

  Villemain's lectures on the eighteenth century, 31, 32

  Vinci, 231

  Virgil, 363, 398

  Voiture, 409

  Voltaire's prose tales, 47, 51

  W.

  Wace, 39

  Walpole, Horace, 272

  Walsingham, Sir Francis, 220, 226

  Warner, imitator of Lyly, 145; "Pan his Syrinx," and "Albion's England," 148, 149

  Warwick, Guy of, metrical romance from the French, 19, 39, 67, 349-351

  Watson, Thomas, 139, 245

  Webster, heroines of, 249; 331

  Wentworth, 331

  Whetstone, collections of tales translated by, 28; "Heptameron," 81

  William the Silent, 226

  Wilson, 331

  Wilt, John O., drawing by, 17

  Wireker, Nigel, 38, 49

  Women, their learning and manners in Tudor times, 89, 90, 91; Ascham and Harrison on, 90, 91; Caxton on, 133, 134; English and Italian compared, 133, 134; Rich's stories for, 147; excluded from the stage, 301, 302

  "Wonderfull Yeare," 335-338

  Worde, Wynkyn de, 12, 64

  Wroth, Lady Mary, "Urania," 268-270; Ben Jonson on, 270

  Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 74, 245

  Wycherley, 404

  Wyle, Nicolaus von, 82

  X.

  Xenophon, 86

  Y.

  Young, on the "Arcadia," 271, 272

  Z.

  "Zelauto, the Fountain of Fame," Munday's, 146, 147, 148

  "Zelinda," adaptation of Voiture's, 408-412

  Zucchero's portrait of Elizabeth, 14, 329

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  =An Outcast of the Islands.= By JOSEPH CONRAD. Second Edition

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  =The Ebbing of the Tide.= By LOUIS BECKE. Second Edition.

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  THE EBBING OF THE TIDE

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  LOUIS BECKE

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  A FIRST FLEET FAMILY:BEING A HITHERTOUNPUBLISHED NARRATIVEOF CERTAIN REMARKABLEADVENTURESCOMPILEDFROM THE PAPERS OFSERGEANT WILLIAMDEW, OF THE MARINES

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  +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Notes | | | | Page 2: Shakesperean amended to Shakespearean | | Page 55: marvaylous _sic_ ("marvayllous" in the excerpt | | in footnote 22) | | Page 129: Duplicate "and" let as is ("... seeme thou | | carelesse, and and then will she be carefull"). | | Page 317: pourtraying amended to portraying | | Page 424: The index reference to Dekker's portrait has been | | amended from page 19 to page 333.
| | | | Footnote 68: "conscience' sake" _sic_ | | Footnote 310: "Bouvart et Pecuchet" _sic_ | | | | Generally punctuation has been standardised, with the | | exception of punctuation in the Index. Hyphenation has | | generally been standardised. However, when a word appears | | hyphenated and unhyphenated an equal number of times, both | | versions have been retained (bonheur/bon-heur; | | nowadays/now-a-days; playhouse/play-house; | | re-baptized/rebaptized; some-how/somehow). | | | | Accented letters have generally been standardized, unless | | different versions of the word appear an equal number of | | times (Celadon/Celadon; Heptameron/Heptameron). | +--------------------------------------------------------------+

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