Copyright, 1923,
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
Published, April, 1923
Second printing, April, 1923
Third printing, January, 1925
Fourth printing, January, 1925
Fifth printing, July, 1925
Sixth printing, October, 1925
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
PREFACE
“The Chaste Diana.”
This romance of “The Beggar’s Opera” introducesmany real persons but all imaginatively treated. LordBaltimore, “The American Prince,” as he was calledat the time in society, has come down to us with a reputationfor heartlessness of which I have made the most,and it would be difficult for any novelist to exaggeratethe whims of the famous and beautiful Duchess ofQueensberry—or Queensbury, as I have preferred tospell her title, that being her own and (generally speaking)the contemporary method. The Duke of Bolton’smarriage I have antedated. My picture of the Royaltiesis fully sanctioned by history. As to the charmingfigure of Lavinia Fenton, it offers a wide field tothe imagination, and will doubtless from time to timebe filled in according to the man that draws it and themind that conceives it, for there are few records. Butwhat is known of her story is compatible with thepicture I present.
E. Barrington,
Canada.
THE CHASTE DIANA
THE CHASTE DIANA
CHAPTER I
T was the winter season of the year 1727and the great Mr. Rich, patentee andmanager of the playhouse in PortugalStreet, Lincoln’s Inn Fields; was seatedin his own parlour where he received thebudding players of both sexes and made and marredcareers like a very Fate. To Portugal Street cometrembling beauties whose voices die in their throats asthat piercing eye falls on them appraising every featurewith no thought but how many guineas are like to bemade on the strength of it. To Portugal Street, Lincoln’sInn Fields, come also the anxious dramatists from GrubStreet, some with a cheap