Excerpt from The New Atlantis

Ladies - Here is the dedication to our very own Delarivier Manley's novel, Secret Memoirs and Manners of Several Persons of Quality, of both sexes, from the New Atlantis, an Island in the Mediterranean, which describes the adventures that lie in the following story:

"To His Grace Henry Duke of Beaufort, Marquis and Earl of Worcester, Earl of Glamorgan, Baron Herbert, and Lord of Chepstow, Ragland, and Gower.

My Lord,

How vast must be the ambition of an unknown and meer translator, to dare hope from so Great a Prince, his most Noble Protection for so small a Trifle? But as he who enters not the List, can never pretend to win the Race, this Attempt, how daz'ling soever, had never been mine, without a propotionate degree of Admiration for those Heroic Qualities conspicuous in Your Grace; thence Inspir'd, my presumption may Hope to avoid your frowns, if the Performance be not so Happy to meet your Smiles.

The following Adventures First Spoke their own mixt Italian, a Speech Corrupted, and now much in Use thro' all the Islands of the Mediterranean; from whence some industrious Frenchman soon transported it into his own Country; and by giving it an Air and Habit, wherein the Foreigner was almost lost, seem'd to Naturalize it: A Friend of mine, that made the Campaign, mnet with it last Year at Bruxels; and thus, a la Francois, put it into my Hands, with a desire it might Visit the Court, and Great Britain.

That the unknown Translator has presum'd to lay it at Your Grace's Feet, proceeds not only form a long and profound Veneration to Your Grace's Family, and Your Own Eminent Virtues, and fix'd heroic Principles, but he fancy'd so near a resemblance of Yours to the Young Prince in the Prade, pag. 179. And in the continuation of His Character in the Second Part, where Virtue and Astrea repair to the Young Hero's Palace, That he thought in Justice it cou'd belong to none but Your Grace."[47]

 

Click Picture to go Home