TO THE
Honoured and Worthily Esteem’d
Mrs. Katharine Leveson.
Madam,
A Clear Wit, sound Judgment and a Merciful Disposition, are things so rarelyunited, that it is almost inexcusable to entertain them with any thing lessexcellent in its kind. My knowledge of you were a sufficient Caution to me, toavoid your Censure of this Trifle, had I not as intire a knowledge of yourGoodness. Since I have drawn my Pen for a Rencounter, I think it better toengage where, though there be Skill enough to Disarm me, there is too muchGenerosity to Wound; for so shall I have the saving Reputation of anunsuccessful Courage, if I cannot make it a drawn Battle. But methinks theComparison intimates something of a Defiance, and savours of Arrogance;wherefore since I am Conscious to my self of a Fear which I cannot put off, letme use the Policy of Cowards and lay this Novel unarm’d, naked andshivering at your Feet, so that if it should want Merit to challengeProtection, yet, as an Object of Charity, it may move Compassion. It has beensome Diversion to me to Write it, I wish it may prove such to you when you havean hour to throw away in Reading of it: but this Satisfaction I have at leastbeforehand, that in its greatest failings it may fly for Pardon to thatIndulgence which you owe to the weakness of your Friend; a Title which I amproud you have thought me worthy of, and which I think can alone be superior tothat
Your most Humble and
Obliged Servant
CLEOPHIL.
Reader,
Some Authors are so fond of a Preface, that they will write one tho’there be nothing more in it than an Apology for its self. But to show thee thatI am not one of those, I will make no Apology for this, but do tell thee that Ithink it necessary to be prefix’d to this Trifle, to prevent thyoverlooking some little pains which I have taken in the Composition of thefollowing Story. Romances are generally composed of the Constant Loves andinvincible Courages of Hero’s, Heroins, Kings and Queens, Mortals of thefirst Rank, and so forth; where lofty Language, miraculous Contingencies andimpossible Performances, elevate and surprize the Reader into a giddy Delight,which leaves him flat upon the Ground whenever he gives of, and vexes him tothink how he has suffer’d himself to be pleased and transported,concern’d and afflicted at the several Passages which he has Read, viz.these Knights Success to their Damosels Misfortunes, and such like, when he isforced to be very well convinced that ’tis all a lye. Novels are of amore familiar nature; Come near us, and represent to us Intrigues in practice,delight us with Accidents and odd Events, but not such as are wholly unusual orunpresidented, such which not being so distant from our Belief bring also thepleasure nearer us. Romances give more of Wonder, Novels more Delight. And withreverence be it spoken, and the Parallel kept at due distance, there issomething of equality in the Proportion which they bear in reference to oneanother, with that betwen Comedy and Tragedy; but the Drama is the longextracted from Romance and History: ’tis the Midwife to Industry, andbrings forth alive the Conceptions of the Brain. Minerva walks upon the Stagebefore us, and we are more assured of the real presence of Wit when it isdelivered viva voce—
Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,
Quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, & quæ
Ipse sibi tradit spectator.—Horace.
Since all Traditions must indisputably give place