The Female Quixote

VOLUME I

BOOK I

1. Cervantes: Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), Spanish novelist, dramatist and poet, whose reputation rests almost exclusively on his novel Don Quixote (1605, 1615). It tells the story of Alonso Quijano, a gaunt, kindly country gentleman who lives in the region of La Mancha. His sense of reality severely impaired as a result of reading chivalric romances, he believes it is his duty to redress the wrongs of the whole world. Changing his name to Don Quixote de la Mancha, he is knighted by an innkeeper, whose miserable abode he mistakes for a castle. He later asks an ignorant rustic named Sancho Panza to be his squire, and together they set out on their quest – Don Quixote riding a bony old nag named Rocinante. Quixote’s over-excited imagination persuades him that windmills are giants, flocks of sheep armies and galley-slaves oppressed gentlemen, but after many fruitless battles he returns home. Tired and disillusioned, shortly before his death he renounces all books of knight-errantry. Although the novel is generally regarded as a satire of exaggerated chivalric romances, it is seen by some as an ironic tale of an idealist frustrated and mocked in a materialist society. By the eighteenth century, quixotism had become a by-word for an innocent or uninformed idealism. In his review of The Female Quixote, Henry Fielding identifies five points in which Lennox’s novel surpasses its model, four points in which Cervantes’ text is superior and some points of equality; he thought that Arabella’s gender was the novel’s greatest strength, because it was more probable that a young girl rather than an elderly gentleman would be ‘subverted by her reading Romances’ (‘The Covent-Garden Journal’ (see Introduction note 20), p. 161).

2. presided at the Council: Founded in the fourteenth century, the Privy Council was a group of royal advisers who exercised great power during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (the forerunner of the Cabinet). It dealt with matters of state, and members sat upon the bench at sessions of the courts. As Lord President of the Privy Council, the Marquis would indeed have been one of the most powerful men in ‘the whole Kingdom’.

3. The most laborious Endeavours… Epitome of Arcadia: Alluding to the English garden style of artful simplicity, which is implicitly contrasted to the formal ornateness of French gardens. Similarly, Arabella’s excesses are tied to her reading of French romances. Antagonism to things French was a significant aspect of British nationality throughout the eighteenth century, and was fostered by several prolonged military conflicts, including the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), King George’s War (1744–8), the American part of the War of the Austrian Succession and the third of four French and Indian wars. Arcadia was a district of the Greek Peloponnesus, the home of pastoral simplicity and happiness, according to Virgil.

4. Arabella: The name is not unusual in eighteenth-century fiction: Clarissa’s sister is an Arabella (Richardson, Clarissa), as is the Fool of Quality’s wife (Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality (1765–70)) and the Vicar of Wakefield’s daughter-in-law (Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)). But Wendy Motooka (‘Coming to a Bad End’, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 8.2 (1996), pp. 253–5) suggests that Lennox may have had in mind the Princess Arabella of England, whom she mentions as a potential bride for Henry the Great of France in a piece in the Lady’s Museum (1760–61): she was related to the Lennox family, which suggests something of Lennox’s investment in her romance heroine.

5. perfect Mistress of the French and Italian Languages: Arabella is an early example of the skills promoted by eighteenth-century conduct books for women. Hester Chapone, for example, claimed that ‘Dancing and the knowledge of the French tongue are now so universal that they cannot be dispensed with in the education of a gentlewoman… Italian would be easily learnt after French’; she found study of classical languages incompatible with femininity and unnecessary, ‘since the English, French, or Italian tongues afford tolerable translations of all the most valuable productions of antiquity, besides the multitude of original authors which they furnish’ (Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, addressed to a Young Lady (1773), in Vivien Jones, ed., Women in the Eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity (1990), pp. 104–5). For Chapone, see Introduction, note 4.

6. great Store of Romances… very bad Translations: Though this was a common opinion, it was not necessarily accurate; many French romances were translated into English in the seventeenth century by Sir Charles Cotteral and John Davies, among others, and achieved great popularity.

7. Singularity of her Dress: The first of many references to Arabella’s sartorial singularity; see the Introduction for discussion of the heroine’s ‘cross-historical’ dressing. Arabella would have been expected to wear a dress with a hoop and a tight bodice, and wide-brimmed hat to attend church.

8. took their Places behind her: According to the rules of social decorum, servants were expected to sit in the back of the church.

9. Sarsenet Hood… Veil: ‘Sarsenet is a very fine and soft silk material made both plain and twilled, in various colours’ (OED). It was distinctly out of fashion to wear a veil and thus marks Arabella as being out of touch with the present day. Arabella copies the fashion from Mandana and other heroines of romance (cf. Artamenes, Cleopatra).

10. called her favourite Woman… confided her most secret Thoughts: Arabella follows romance conventions in confiding in her personal servant, but female conduct literature of the period explicitly advised against making confidantes of one’s servants for such relationships transgressed class boundaries, spoiled the servants and debased the mistress (see John Gregory, A Father’s Legacy to his Daughters (1774), in The Young Lady’s Pocket Library, or Parental Monitor (1790), ed. Vivien Jones (1995); p. 29).

11. a couple of Guineas: English gold coins issued from 1663 to 1813; the guinea was fixed in 1717 at 21 shillings (that is, one pound and one shilling).

12. Master of no great Elegance in Letter-writing: In this lack of skill, Hervey resembles Solmes, Clarissa’s semi-literate suitor in Richardson’s Clarissa, which was the most widely read novel of the period.

13. Toilet: A ‘toilet-table’ or ‘dressing-table’; ‘a table on which articles are placed that are required for or used in dressing’ (OED).

14. Closet: ‘A room for privacy or retirement; a private room; an inner chamber’ (OED). Whereas decorum and custom would allow the Marquis and close family friends like Glanville to see Arabella in her ‘Chamber’ or ‘Apartment’, it was considered a breach of her privacy, and hence of decorum, if they were to ‘penetrate’ into her ‘Closet’ (see Book II, Chapter I).

15. the only Diversion she was allowed: Horseriding was an acceptable leisure pursuit for upper-class women, as evidenced by many portraits of women and horses; see note 17, Book IV for examples. As the century progressed, it was advocated as a healthy activity for middle-class women (see Gregory, Father’s Legacy, p. 20).

16. Hanger: ‘A kind of short sword, originally hung from the belt’ (OED).

17. Punctuality: ‘Minuteness; preciseness; circumstantialness’ (OED).

18. an Air very different from an Oroondates: A model of physical and intellectual perfection, Oroondates, prince of Scythia, is the central character in Cassandra. Oroondates takes on the disguise of a gardener to be near Statira (who also goes by the name of Cassandra), the woman he loves, after she has been imprisoned by Alexander (Cassandra, I, iv). As an archetypal romantic hero, he is often mentioned by eighteenth-century authors, who seem to expect their readers to recognize the allusion.

19. he was only going to make away with some of the Carp: Ponds in the landscaped gardens surrounding stately homes in the country were often stocked with fish such as carp to provide a constant supply of fresh fish for the family. Edward is therefore stealing from the Marquis’s larder, so to speak: hence the head gardener’s stern response to Edward’s ‘evil Designs’. Poaching was a highly contentious issue at the time. Only persons who met specified property qualifications, essentially gentlemen and the aristocracy, could legally hunt game (such as deer, rabbits or pheasants), and any infringement of these rights was regarded as an attack on their property. For the poor, however, poaching was often a dire necessity. Because of the eighteenth-century enclosure movement many small farmers lost their land and became labourers, with no food supply of their own. They saw poaching as a compensation to which they were entitled – it was a ‘social’ crime, which most people did not regard as a crime at all.

20. saluting: Giving a formal kiss of greeting.

21. Cavalier: A gentleman attending upon or escorting a lady, a ‘gallant’.

22. The Heroines… short Absence: In fact, romance heroines rarely condescend to embrace their admirers, and only do so at moments of great emotion and sadness (cf. Cleopatra, II, iii).

23. Billet: A short letter or note.

24. Basilisk: ‘A fabulous reptile, also called a cockatrice, alleged to be hatched by a serpent from a cock’s egg; ancient authors stated that its hissing drove away all other serpents, and that its breath, and even its look, was fatal’ (OED).

25. any Heroine that voluntarily left her Father’s House, however persecuted she might be: An ironic reference to Richardson’s beleaguered heroine. Clarissa, as Lennox’s first readers would remember, did leave her father’s house, and was suspected of eloping with what Arabella calls ‘a favoured Lover’. Her flight has tragic consequences, culminating in her rape and death.

26. resent: ‘To feel or experience (joy, sorrow, pain, etc.)’ (OED), frequently used in romances in this sense, and as such, one of the peculiarities of Arabella’s speech (highlighted by the use of italics).

27. he is certainly not unworthy of you, tho’ he has not a Title: Glanville is by no means middle class, but his class status is beneath that of Arabella, the daughter of a marquis. Arabella, of course, is not concerned with his title but rather with his ignorance of romances and romance conventions.

28. My first Wish… is to live single: Arabella repeats Clarissa’s oft-repeated wish for a single life over an enforced marriage.

29. affect: ‘Be drawn to, have affection or liking for; to take to, be fond of, show preference for; to fancy, like, or love’ (OED).

30. Statira, Parisatis, Clelia, Mandana: Statira and Parisatis are the daughters of the king of Persia in Cassandra. Statira is also one of the heroines of the play The Rival Queens; or, The Death of Alexander the Great (1677) by Nathanial Lee, often revived in the eighteenth century. Clelia is the eponymous heroine of Clelia, and Mandana is the princess beloved by Artamenes in Artamenes. Statira and Clelia are invoked as models by the precocious eleven-year-old heroine at the beginning of Lennox’s first novel, The Life of Harriot Stuart (1750).

31. Artaxerxes… Lover of Clelia: Artaxerxes, prince of Persia, is a leading character in Cassandra. Clelia, the daughter of Clelius, had several virtuous lovers, but the lover referred to here is the one who finally won her heart, Aronces.

32. Tiribases, Artaxes: A typical romance villain, the treacherous Tiribasus appears in Cleopatra, notably in the story of Candace, queen of Ethiopia (III, i and ii). Artaxes is the corrupt and mendacious opponent of the eponymous hero in Artamenes (see I, i and III, ii).

33. Thus Mazares… his adored Mistress: In Artamenes, Mazares is one of Mandana’s abductors. When he repents his crime, Mandana forces him to join his rival, Cyrus, to test the sincerity of his repentance and to regain her esteem.

34. Oroondates… commanded him to live: Oroondates, prince of Scythia, is in love with Princess Statira of Persia. Because the two states are at war, Oroondates visits his beloved at the Persian court disguised as Orontes, prince of the Massagetes. When his secret love for Statira causes his illness, he reveals the truth to the Princess. Because Orontes is a mere vassal prince, Statira is deeply offended by this revelation and orders Orontes/Oroondates to abstain from further impudence. Hereupon Oroondates’ condition worsens and it is at this point that he delivers the soliloquy from which Glanville quotes in the following scene (cf. Cassandra, I, ii). Eventually Oroondates reveals his true identity as well as the cause of his illness to Statira’s brother, Artaxerxes, who informs his sister and encourages her to be merciful. She then commands him to live. (This scene will later suggest to Arabella that Glanville’s and Sir George’s illnesses can be cured by a visit from her.)

35. sinking under the Weight of those voluminous Romances: Glanville’s horror at the length of the romances is not unfounded: Pope alludes slyly to their size in The Rape of the Lock, wherein the ‘alter’ dedicated to ‘Love’ in Belinda’s chamber is ‘built, / Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt’ (Canto I, lines 37–8). Hester Chapone claims that ‘the prolixity and poverty of the style is unsupportable. I have (and yet I am still alive) drudged through Le Grand Cyrus, in twelve huge volumes, Cleopatra, in eight or ten, Polexander, Ibrahim, Cleli, etc.’ (quoted in Miriam Rossiter Small, Charlotte Ramsay Lennox (1935), p. 91).

36. Artimisa, Candace… Daughter of Cleopatra: All three heroines had lovers who were imprisoned and awaiting death, and all three expressed their readiness to die with them – a sentiment here echoed by Arabella.

37. I’ll burn all I can lay my Hands upon: Probably a reference to the burning of Don Quixote’s books (ch. 6); that Arabella’s books are saved is one of Lennox’s many comic revisions to Cervantes’ more tragic text.

38. the heroic Valour of the brave Orontes: A reference to the real Orontes, prince of the Massagetes and lover of Thalestris, queen of the Amazons, whose adventures are featured in Cassandra.

BOOK II

1. The Great Sysigambis… in that Posture: In Cassandra (II, ii), Sysigambis responds in this way upon hearing of the death of both (not one) of her granddaughters, Statira and Parisatis.

2. Menecrates… with her Ashes: There are two minor characters called Menecrates in Artamenes, but given what she says about him, Arabella is probably thinking of Menesteus, who built two tombs after his wife’s death, buried her in one and lived himself for many years in the other (Artamenes, VIII, ii).

3. But for the inimitable… Scudery: Whether it is a mark of Lennox’s carelessness or of her heroine’s naivety, Arabella is here under the impression that the French romance writer Scudéry was a man, perhaps erroneously assuming that not Madeleine but her brother Georges de Scudéry was the author. She also mistakenly believes that it was Scudéry – not La Calprenède – who wrote Cassandra (in which Oroondates appears), Cleopatra (which features Juba, Artaban and Cleopatra herself, along with the historical figures here associated with her), and Clelia (in which Aronces is the hero).

4. true Cause… in the Camp: Clelia’s swimming of the Tiber at the head of the hostages in order to escape the power of Porsena and her long-sought reunion with her lover Aronces is the climax of Scudéry’s romance (Clelia V, ii, iii). Arabella’s speculation that Clelia swam the Tiber to preserve her honour appears to be her own invention; but at the close of Scudéry’s tale, Clelia is awarded a statue and other honours.

5. inimitable Poetess Sappho… Brother’s Affection: Sappho (b. 612 BC) was a native of Lesbos and one of the most famous lyric poets of all time. The legend that she flung herself into the sea on being rejected by the beautiful youth Phaon has been the subject of many works. For ‘The History of Sapho’, see Artamenes, X, ii.

6. that Cleopatra was really married to Julius Caesar: Cf. Cleopatra, I, ii.

7. that Caeserio… took Refuge: Cf. Cleopatra, I, iii. Caesario’s survival and his subsequent liaison with Candace, queen of Ethiopia, feature prominently in the romance.

8. the History of Jack the Giant killer… Tom Thumb: The ‘Giant Killer’ is mentioned in the first chapter of Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742), while Tom Thumb, the pygmy hero of a traditional nursery tale, is the eponymous hero of one of Fielding’s best-known plays (1730), a brilliant satirical burlesque of heroic tragedy.

9. Candace: See note 32, Book I.

10. Quadrille: A card-game played by four persons.

11. Assemblies: ‘The public assembly, which formed a regular feature of fashionable life in the 18th century, is described by Chambers (Cyclopaedia, 1751) as “a stated and general meeting of the polite persons of both sexes, for the sake of conversation, gallantry, news, and play” ’ (OED).

12. to spend… in riding… tender Years: Miss Groves approximates the social stereotype of the horsy Englishwoman, who was already being mocked in the polite press. Addison in the Spectator makes fun of ‘a rural Andromache, who… makes nothing of leaping over a Six bar Gate’ and ‘If a Man tells her a waggish Story, she gives him a Push with her Hand in jest’ (Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, et al., The Spectator, ed. Donald F. Bond, 5 vols. (1710–12; 1965), vol. 1, p. 241). Like Addison’s Andromache, Miss Groves is a rural romp, who mistakenly assumes that physicality on horseback and with men is acceptable female behaviour. In addition, through all this outdoor exercise, she loses her pale complexion, which was not only a mark of fashion but of upper-class standing.

13. Who would have thought… in their Court: Arabella draws on episodes of class and gender cross-dressing in Cleopatra, IV, I and Cassandra, II, iii and iv to validate the ‘disguises’ of the writing master and the gardener. See the Introduction for further discussion of the significance of such boundary crossings in the novel.

14. and yet this Prince… Lightness he accused her of: When Spitridates, Artamenes’ near-double, is killed, his head is shown to the distraught Mandana. Hiding in the enemy camp, Artamenes happens to see Mandana smile, and is overcome with anger and jealousy at her apparent infidelity (Artamenes, X, iii).

15. Here she formed her Equipage… favourite Diversion: Miss Groves’s staff of four enables her to function in fashionable society, where servants were an indicator of income. Her extravagant ‘Gaming’ was by no means unusual – throughout the century there is commentary on the nation’s passion for gambling, and there is much anti-gambling literature. Elite women addicted to gambling were represented as betraying their social responsibilities and their public reputation, and coming dangerously close to prostitution (Steele argued that men could mortgage their estates to pay their debts, but women risked their bodies). Lennox’s literary mentor Samuel Johnson devoted an early issue of his Rambler to the subject of gambling. Writing in the guise of the agony aunt ‘Mr Rambler’, Johnson observes:

There is no grievance, publick or private, of which, since I took upon me the office of a periodical monitor, I have received so many, or so earnest complaints, as of the predominance of play; of a fatal passion for cards and dice, which seems to have overturned, not only the ambition of excellence, but the desire of pleasure; to have extinguished the flames of the lover, as well as of the patriot; and threatens, in its further progress, to destroy all distinctions, both of rank and sex, to crush all emulation but that of fraud, to corrupt all those classes of our people, whose ancestors have, by their virtue, their industry, or their parsimony, given them the power of living in extravagance, idleness, and vice, and to leave them without knowledge, but of the modish games, and without wishes, but for lucky hands. (Rambler 15, 8 May 1750)

16. unwieldy German Ladies… his Majesty: The court of King George II (reigned 1727–60) and Queen Caroline (d. 1737) was infamous for its improprieties. Lennox is characteristically critical of court society, of which she had first-hand unpleasant experience in the period 1743–7, but she was not alone in her criticism of the Georges. Like her readers, she would also have remembered the scandalous court of George I. When he arrived in Britain in September 1714, George was accompanied by a full retinue of German friends, advisers and servants – all eager to cash in on the venture. He had also arrived with two mistresses but no wife (Sophia had been imprisoned for adultery). The English took very unkindly to the two mistresses, labelling the tall, thin Ehrengard Melusina von Schulenberg the ‘maypole’, and the short, fat Charlotte Sophia Kielmansegge the ‘elephant’. The whole political episode, which includes Lennox’s derogatory reference to the king’s mistresses, the king’s attentions to Miss Groves and the latter’s affair with an earl’s brother, provoked her publisher Andrew Millar to ask for alterations; she writes to Richardson that ‘he assures me that the History of Miss Groves / in the first Vol. will not be printed’ (Duncan Isles, ‘The Lennox Collection’ (1970), p. 339). As Isles speculates, ‘the manuscript version… could have been more lethal’ (p. 340).

17. several thousand Pounds in Debt: This was an enormous amount of money – the wealthy gentry possessed a yearly income of between £3,000 and £5,000, which gives some idea of the scale of her debts. However, other elite women far surpassed Miss Groves in this field: by 1792, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, owed £62,000.

18. even Mr. L——… abandoned her: The inset history of Miss Groves mixes elements from the life stories of Sally Martin and Polly Horton, Clarissa’s antagonists at Mrs Sinclair’s brothel, including a negligent but indulgent mother, vanity and extravagant gambling, as well as abandonment by her seducer. Miss Groves avoids their fate and instead contracts a secret marriage with a country gentleman related by marriage to her serving woman.

19. being reduced to… less than an Hundred a Year: With this level of income, Miss Groves must leave London for cheaper rural accommodation and seems to maintain only Mrs Morris to wait on her; it would be regarded as a meagre income, on the borders of gentility. John Trusler in the Economist (1774) estimated an annual income of £370 to maintain a household with two servants.

20. do you think… those of Clelia: In Clelia, it is Celeres, friend and confidante of Aronces, who tells Lysimena, princess of the Leontines, ‘The History of Aronces and Clelia’. When his father wants to force Aronces into an unwelcome marriage, Lysimena allows him to feign love for her. Although Clelia is jealous, Lysimena is in fact loyal to both her and Aronces.

21. do not these Races… ride in Chariots: Arabella’s ‘Olympic Games’ are based on the descriptions of Roman chariot races she had read in Clelia. In Scudéry’s romance the races are part of ‘The History of the Princess Elismonda’, where they are turned into a tournament. Elismonda is thrilled to be able to award a crown (one, not three, as Arabella misremembers it) to her ‘secret Admirer’, Hortentius, who defeats, among others, two princes and a mysterious stranger, who were aspiring for her hand. If the country races they attend are not quite so grandiose as the Olympic Games, horse racing was, nevertheless, a very important eighteenth-century spectator sport. The races were sites for fashionable display and commerce (in the form of betting). Some racehorses attained celebrity status and many eighteenth-century paintings of racehorses, pre-eminently by George Stubbs, affirm the owner’s status as well as a national appreciation for equine beauty (see, for example, ‘Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a Trainer, Jockey and a Stable-lad’, c. 1765, painted for the horse’s owner, the second Viscount Bolingbroke).

22. Cestus: ‘A contrivance consisting of thongs of bull-hide, loaded with strips of iron and lead, and wound round the hands. Used by Roman boxers as a protection and to give greater weight to the blows’ (OED).

23. They were a kind of School… Justs and Tournaments: Lennox’s heroine is rephrasing a passage from Temple Stanyan’s Grecian History (2nd edn, 1739), in which he gives an account of the Olympic Games. Stanyan himself makes the suggestion that the Games resembled medieval jousts and tournaments, belying the tradition that women were not permitted to attend the Games. Diagoras of Rhodes, a boxer victorious in the 79th Olympiad, became a legend in his own time. He witnessed the victories of his two sons at the 83rd Olympiad.

24. I remember to have read… entered the Lists: Historical accounts of classical chariot races, available in Plutarch, Thucydides and others, confirm Arabella’s observation that prominent men conventionally would have favoured domestics drive their chariots for them. Alcibiades (5th century BC) was an Athenian statesman and brilliant general. Accounts of his successful chariot racing appear in Thucydides and Plutarch, among others. It is not clear where Arabella read of his exploits, but in Clelia the heroes drive their own chariots.

25. Morning Dress: A woman’s dress intended for informal day wear.

26. Haste and Negligence… lovely and genteel: Romance heroines often combined perfect beauty and taste in fashion with indifference to their appearance. Arabella transgresses conduct-book advice in so far as she is open to the charge of ‘the affectation of singularity’ in her dress, but conforms to it in that she spends as little time as possible in dressing (see Sarah Pennington, An Unfortunate Mother’s Advice to her Absent Daughters, in a Letter to Miss Pennington (1761), in The Young Lady’s Pocket Library, ed. Jones, pp. 82–3).

27. a young Baronet: A member of the lowest hereditary titled order, lower in rank than a baron, but above a knight.

28. as Hortensius did… at those Games: In fact, Hortensius did not keep ‘himself concealed’ at the Games. Arabella was probably thinking of the mysterious stranger (see also note 20), who was later discovered to be Attalus.

29. surprized at so uncommon a Civility: In romances it was conventional to bestow lavish hospitality upon complete strangers, but not in eighteenth-century polite English society.

30. Engaged in many Adventures: The clash between Arabella’s discourse of romance and the discourse of eighteenth-century British social life frequently leads to hilarious misunderstandings between Arabella and other characters. In this case Miss Glanville is shocked at what she believes is Arabella’s assumption that she must have had many amorous ‘adventures’. Later in this chapter Miss Glanville, this time confused by Arabella’s use of the word ‘favour’, confesses to ‘only’ having granted kisses to lovers, when her cousin was merely talking about giving small tokens of affection to lovers, like a scarf or a bracelet.

31. Pray do you remember… run away with: Detractors of the genre often complained about the number of times the heroines were abducted. In Artamenes, the hero Cyrus/Artamenes has to rescue Mandana eight times. As the Countess later points out, unlike a romance heroine, ‘a Beauty in this [age] could not pass thro’ the Hands of several different Ravishers, without bringing an Imputation on her Chastity’ (VIII, vii).

32. She was no Jew… nothing she asked: In Artamenes (VIII, ii), the eponymous hero freed the Jewish captives held in Babylon, though not, as Arabella here suggests, at the behest of Mandana.

33. for she refused… on his Knees: That Artamenes ‘begged it on his Knees’ is Arabella’s embellishment of the scene (cf. Artamenes, I, ii).

34. you put me in mind… in private: Antonia’s extreme disinclination to any kind of expression of love is featured prominently in Cleopatra.

35. inconsiderate: Careless, thoughtless. The history of Augustus’s daughter Julia is found in La Calprenède’s Cleopatra.

36. Smelling-bottle… cut her Lace: Lucy is probably planning to give Arabella smelling salts of carbonate of ammonia; the pungent smell restored people from fainting. Tightly laced corsets were already subject to criticism on health grounds, and cutting the laces which could constrict normal breathing is a common activity in eighteenth-century novels.

37. Ah! had Cylenia and Martesia… in their Captivity: Arabella confuses two captivity scenes: Cyllenia is not with Berenice when the latter is held captive by Arsacomes, but they are together when Berenice is imprisoned by her father for refusing to marry the man of his choice (Cassandra, IV, iv and vi). Mandana’s abductors are obliged to take her favourite waiting-woman, Martesia, with them not at Mandana’s request but because Martesia clings onto her mistress’s clothes.

38. Cypress: ‘A light transparent material resembling cobweb lawn or crape; like the latter it was, when black, much used for habiliments of mourning’ (OED).

39. Did not the wicked Arianta… insolent Lover: It was because of the treachery of her waiting-woman Arianta that Mandana was carried off by the king of Assyria (Artamenes, II, i and ii).

40. Arabella suffering… such Adventures: Newspapers of the period confirm that abductions and rapes occurred in real life, and novelists used such stories in their fiction, most famously, Richardson’s Clarissa. In The Female Spectator (1744), Eliza Haywood tells the tragic story of ‘the Innocent Erminia’, misled by a masquerade costume matching that of her brother’s to go home with a stranger who rapes her, then blindfolds her and abandons her in a dirty London lane (see Women in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Jones, pp. 38–44).

41. like Philidaspes… for his Wife: In Artamenes (II, ii and VIII, i), Philidaspes is the name by which the king of Assyria is known at the court of Mandana’s father, Ciaxares. Unhappy with his mother’s choice of a wife for him, Philidaspes attempts to get rid of this proposed bride in various ways, including having her abducted by an associate.

42. Mandana, Candace, Clelia… same Fate: In Artamenes, Mandana is carried away by the king of Assyria, by Mazares, prince of Saces, by the king of Pontus and by Prince Ariantes. Candace, in Cleopatra, is carried away by the pirate Zenodorus. Clelia, finally, is carried away by Horatius, by Tarquin’s men and by Sextus.

43. Parthenissa, or Cleopatra: The heroine of Roger Boyle’s romance Parthenissa is locked up in a castle for some months by an unwanted suitor. Cleopatra is carried away by the king of Armenia, and kept prisoner on his ship (though in her case only for a couple of days, not months, as Arabella claims). The confusion between the gentleman and Arabella arises from the fact that the former is talking about Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, and the latter about her daughter, the heroine of La Calprenède’s romance.

44. The same Treachery… her Jayl: When Tiribasus gained control over the army, Candace, queen of Ethiopia, was put under house arrest (Cleopatra, III, ii).

45. the poor Prince Thrasybulus… restored: A reference to an episode in Artamenes (III, iii), in which Thrasibulus is tempted to abduct Alcionida, but he repents in time and restores her to her father, Euphranor.

BOOK III

1. to drink her Chocolate: A secret delight only known to the Spanish, chocolate was a novelty during the 1700s in England. Initially chocolate was served alongside coffee in coffee houses, but in the course of the eighteenth century the chocolate house gained rapid popularity as a place where the local intelligentsia could play cards, hear the latest news and enjoy ‘the Spanish treat’. A common way to prepare a chocolate drink was to stew the cocoa for several hours, thus removing the cocoa butter, and then to reboil it with milk, flavouring and cane sugar and thicken it with eggs just before serving. In the eighteenth century, chocoLate was commonly thought to work as a fertility drug for women.

2. And truly… concealed Torments: Words to this effect are spoken by Mandana when she discovers that the king of Assyria is planning to carry her away (Artamenes, II, i).

3. The valiant Coriolanus… aimed at him: cf. Cleopatra, IX, iv. Characteristically, Arabella embellishes the story of Coriolanus’s adventures by adding a few colourful details of her own, such as his single combat against ‘Two hundred Men’.

4. Go, therefore, Glanville… in your Behalf. A partial quotation from Cleopatra’s speech (Cleopatra, IX, iv).

5. uttered a Groan… in the Pit: The pit is that part of the auditorium of a theatre which is on the floor of the house, next to the stage. In the early playhouses the stage and lower boxes were approximately at ground level and the whole space sunk between these was called the pit, from the Elizabethan cockpit used for cock-fighting. In the early nineteenth century, the old rows of pit seats were gradually replaced by the stalls. Pit seats were the cheapest seats in a theatre, and perhaps for that reason attracted some of the rowdiest theatre-goers, who were notorious for vociferously expressing their approval as well as their dissatisfaction with the performance, not infrequently punctuating their verbal comments by throwing missiles at the actors.

6. You know… injurious Suspicion: Orontes, the lover of Thalestris, queen of the Amazons, unjustly suspected her of an amorous intrigue with Alexander; when he discovered his mistake, he withdrew from society and lived in a state of despondency in a cave, from which he only emerged from time to time to save Thalestris’s life during the seige of Babylon.

7. what became of this Queen… Siege of Troy: Glanville draws correctly on his classical education. The Amazons fought on the side of the Trojans, and Penthesilia, their queen, was killed by Achilles.

8. Juba… Artaban: Juba is another name for Cleopatra’s lover, Coriolanus, in La Calprenède’s romance. Artaban, also a character in Cleopatra, turns out to be the son of Pompey the Great.

9. good Reputation of a Lady… Noise and Bustle she makes in the World: Again, Arabella’s views are completely contrary to eighteenth-century notions of female decorum, as epitomized by John Gregory’s pronouncement that ‘One of the chief beauties in a female character, is that modest reserve, that retiring delicacy, which avoids the public eye’ (Father’s Legacy, p. 11).

10. a Duel or Two fought for me in Hyde-Park: Duelling was illegal in Britain (English Common Law treated the killing of someone in a duel as an act of murder), but it remained a common practice even at mid-century. Lennox, along with other writers such as Richardson, Fielding, Addison and Steele, criticized duelling, but the custom remained part of the upper classes’ aristocratic code of honour until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. Hyde Park was a fashionable London park; a former royal hunting ground, the park was a well-known venue for duels.

11. he was perfectly well acquainted… in that Romance: Sir George is right: Dryden took many of his characters and plots from French romances. Thus the chief source for Alamanzor and Almahide; or, The Conquest of Granada (1670–71) was Scudéry’s Almahide (1661–3). As Sir George says, the character of the hero, Almanzor, is also in part based on Artaban in La Caprenède’s Cleopatra (which Dryden acknowledges in his essay ‘Of Heroic Plays’). There appears to be little ground for Sir George’s claim that the character of Melantha in Dryden’s comedy Marriage-à-la-Mode (produced 1672; published 1673) is based on Berisa in Scudéry’s Artamenes, nor that the characters of Ozmyn and Benzayda in The Conquest of Granada were derived from the story of Sesostris and Timareta (not ‘Timerilla’) in that romance. Yet the story of Sesostris and Timareta did provide Dryden with the material from which he moulded the serious plot of Marriage-à-la-Mode.

12. the Ridicule: ‘A ridiculous or absurd thing, feature, characteristic, or habit; an absurdity’ [now rare] (OED).

13. as it happened to Artamenes… Gates of Death: Although Mandana’s visit and her ‘few kind Words’ had the extraordinary effect of healing his wounds, Artamenes was actually well out of danger by the time she visited him after he had been seriously wounded in battle (Artamenes, I, ii).

14. fair Statira… dying Orontes: In Cassandra (II, ii), Alexander wants to marry the Persian princess Parisatis to his friend Hephestion. Put in prison for attacking Hephestion, Lysimachus is determined to starve himself to death. Parisatis saves his life by writing him a letter in which she orders Lysimachus to live.

15. decent: ‘Suitable, appropriate, or proper to the circumstances or special requirements of the case; seemly, fitting’ (OED).

BOOK IV

1. brave Caesario… in Ethiopia: Cf. Cleopatra, III, i and ii.

2. unequalled Prince of Mauritania: That is, Coriolanus, the hero of Cleopatra.

3. what the fair Artemisa… to condemn: Cf. ‘The History of Alexander and the Princess Artemisa’ in Cleopatra (IV, i and ii). The ‘Action of that Princess’ that ‘some have not scrupled to condemn’ is a reference to Artemisa’s decision – virtually unprecedented in French romance – to run away with her hero.

4. Two celebrated Beauties: The ‘Two Sister Beauties’ – as the first edition of the novel has it – were Maria (1733–60) and Elizabeth Gunning (1734–90). They came over from Ireland to London in 1750 where they caused a stir. Early in 1752 Elizabeth married the Duke of Hamilton and Maria the Earl of Coventry. See the Introduction for more information on the Gunning girls.

5. Ranelagh: A pleasure garden in Chelsea, where people might walk, admire the ornamental lake or Chinese pavilion, listen to concerts, attend masquerades or dances, play cards, watch fireworks or take tea in the rotunda.

6. must stop their Ears… Siren Frasi sings: In Greek mythology, the sirens were sea-nymphs whose enticing song lured sailors to their death. Odysseus escaped from this ordeal by filling his companions’ ears with wax and strapping himself to the mast of his ship. Signora Giulia Frasi (dates unknown) was a celebrated Italian soprano, who first appeared in London in 1743. She most likely sang the part of ‘Pleasure’ in Handel’s one-act dramatic cantata ‘The Choice of Hercules’, which was first performed at Covent Garden on 1 March 1751 as ‘an additional New Act’ concluding a performance of the ode ‘Alexander’s Feast’.

7. the Side-box: The box seats at the theatre were more expensive than a place on the main floor, or pit, and thus were kept usually by upper-class patrons. Fashionable women in the boxes often came as much to display their finery and beauty as to watch the play – they were part of the theatre’s spectacle.

8. Soul-moving Garrick: David Garrick (1717–79) was the most celebrated and respected actor of the period, perhaps of the century. He promoted a revolutionary ‘natural’ style of speech delivery and gesture, and his own respectability helped to raise the status of the profession. He was also a playwright, the author of light comedies, and he managed the Drury Lane Theatre during the height of his career, where he did much to revive Shakespeare’s popularity. Sarah Pennington, advising her daughters on acceptable pursuits, advocated ‘THE THEATRE, which, by the indefatigable labour of the inimitable Mr. Garrick, has been brought to a very great perfection, will afford you an equally rational and improving entertainment’ (An Unfortunate Mother’s Advice, ed. Jones, p. 90). Garrick was a friend of Lennox’s mentor Samuel Johnson, and Lennox knew and corresponded with him over many years. Duncan Isles’s ‘The Lennox Collection’ includes four letters from Garrick to Lennox between 1753 and 1774. Garrick resented Lennox’s irreverent reading of his idol in Shakespear Illustrated; he rejected Philander and The Sister for production at Drury Lane, but praised her novel Henrietta and staged her adaptation Old City Manners at Drury Lane in November 1775. Despite his failure to produce two of her plays, they seem to have had a cordial relationship, and Lennox acknowledges Garrick’s ‘friendly assistance’ in the printed version of Old City Manners.

9. Congreve’s Comedies: The English dramatist William Congreve (1670–1729) is often regarded as the greatest master of the Restoration comedy of manners. Among his important stage successes were the comedies The Double Dealer (1693), Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700). Addison and Steele, among others, objected to the sexual frankness of Restoration comedy, and attempted to reform the English stage. The plays, however, remained popular, and were performed alongside the new ‘sentimental’ comedies.

10. those numerous and long Conversations: Scudéry’s romances – especially Clelia and Artamenes – are well known for their long and digressive ‘conversations’ in which the ‘greatest Conquerors and Heroes’ take part in ‘Disputes’ concerning topics such as the ones mentioned here by Arabella.

11. The great Oroondates… Divine Princess: In Cassandra (I, iv and v), Princess Roxana is in love with Oroondates and in order to drive a wedge between him and Princess Statira attempts to convince the latter that Oroondates was unfaithful.

12. the valiant and unfortunate Artamenes… Inconstancy: The cause of this suspicion of ‘Inconstancy’ on the part of Mandana was that when she was crying out for help as she was being abducted by the king of Assyria, the person she thought was her lover Artamenes was in fact Spitridates, to whom Artamenes bore an uncanny likeness (Artamenes, VI, iii).

13. the irresistible Juba… Mistress and Friend: In Cleopatra (II, iv and V, ii), the reputation of Juba – or Coriolanus – is compromised by his enemies’ lies, which cause him to be distrusted by both his mistress, Cleopatra, and his friend, Marcellus.

14. I said once before… Tempers and Inclinations: Arabella made this – uncomplimentary – comparison between Miss Glanville and the Princess Julia before, in Book II, Chapter IX (see note 35, Book II).

15. her Beauty… lay it at your Feet: Cf. Cleopatra, III, iii (although there is no exact match for Artaban’s speech in La Calprenède’s text).

16. great Artaban… successively: The ‘Three great Princesses’ successively loved by Artaban are Candace, queen of Ethiopia, Arsinoe, princess of Armenia, and Elisa, princess of Parthia. As Arabella suggests, in the world of the romance this would make Artaban an inconstant hero.

17. mounted her Horse… adorned with: Mid-eighteenth-century riding habits were often showy, colourful costumes. A significant tradition in English art shows English society ladies posing as equestriennes, either on horseback or simply in riding costume (equestrian paintings being the most expensive of the portrait genre). Stubbs’s painting of Sophia Musters (1777), and Reynolds’s of Lady Charles Spencer with her horse (1775), and of Lady Worsley, all show them in glorious ruby-red habits. Lady Worsley (1780) wears a red military-inspired outfit with a theatrical beaver hat trimmed with ostrich feathers. The sexual allure of such costumes is evident in the number of ‘Gallants’ who want to help Arabella mount her horse, and Glanville’s adulation of her charms. Advice books for women riders were not available until later in the century, but most emphasize the graceful visual spectacle of a woman on horseback, a combination of elegance and accomplishment. Throughout the century, there were anxieties about women’s participation in field sports – ‘let not such horrid joy / E’er stain the bosom of the British fair. / Far be the spirit of the chase from them!’, opined James Thomson in The Seasons (1730, 1744; ‘Autumn’, line 573) – but many women displayed their equestrian skills either in hare-coursing or foxhunting. That Miss Glanville is unable to ride is another sly indication that she lacks some essential parts of a lady’s education.

18. But as it happened… in their Defence: This passage is a slightly inaccurate rendering of an episode in Cleopatra (I, iv). Juba (Coriolanus) and Cleomedon (Caesario) were facing fewer than two dozen (not ‘some hundred’) men when their assailants’ ‘Commander’, the pirate Zenodorus, carried away Candace and her woman Clitie (not Cleopatra and Candace, or Juba’s and Cleomedon’s ‘Princesses’).

19. Olympia… enamoured of her: Cf. ‘The History of Olympia’ in Cleopatra (VI, i).

20. Maherbal… adore her: In fact, it is Adherbal, prince of Numi-dia, who later turns out to be Clelia’s long-lost brother Octavius, not Maherbal, who is briefly her lover at Carthage.

21. the Uncle of… Alcyone… in his Power: See ‘The History of Alcione’ in Cassandra (II, vi). It is actually not her uncle but the uncle of Alcione’s husband, Theander, who is in love with her.

VOLUME II

BOOK V

1. the fair Amalazontha: In Pharamond (V, iii and iv), Amalazontha, the haughty princess of the Thuringians, resists the suit of Ambiomer, the man her father wanted her to marry. At her father’s request, she does agree to visit the wounded and languishing hero.

2. Airing: ‘A walk, ride, or drive to take the air’ (OED).

3. Doralisa: Cf. Artamenes, V, i. In contrast to what Arabella claims, Doralisa does eventually listen to the lover’s discourse of Prince Myrsiles, and subsequently agrees to marry him.

4. you, who have granted Favours… such Liberties: Again confusion arises because Arabella adheres to the courting rituals of French romances (which proscribe all sorts of socially acceptable eighteenth-century behaviour), while Miss Glanville is shocked that Arabella could consider visiting a man, unrelated by close blood ties, in his bedroom (which would be viewed as compromising the reputation of a modern woman).

5. chaste Ladies… their Husband: The heroines of romance are on the whole very chaste, especially in the work of Scudéry. There are some exceptions, for example, Statira and Oroondates kiss each other quite intimately, once their marriage has been arranged (Cassandra, I, iv).

6. two powerful Kingdoms: Cappadocia and Media.

7. Cleonice… his Bed: There is no such episode in ‘The History of Ligdamus and Cleonice’ in Artamenes (IV, iii).

8. jealous Transports of an enraged Orontes: See note 6, Book III.

9. great Actions… Cilicians: In Cassandra (II, iv), Orontes, disguised as Orithia, valiantly leads the Amazon force against Naobarzanes and rescues his captive, Thalestris.

10. Memnon… a Visit: When in Cassandra (V, iii) Prince Oxyatres falls seriously ill as a result of his unrequited love for Barsina, his rival, Memnon, resigns his amorous claims to her in order to relieve the plight of his prince (but he does not actually persuade Barsina to visit Oxyatres, as Arabella believes). In an equally chivalrous move, Oxyatres responds by conquering his love for Barsina.

11. complaisant Husband… for her Sake: In Cassandra (II, ii), Hephestion insists his wife Parisatis visit her disappointed lover Lysimachus, who was languishing dangerously close to death following the marriage of Parisatis to his rival.

12. Parisatis… insupportable Misfortune: See note 14, Book III.

13. Agilmond… before my Eyes: In Pharamond (X, ii), Agilmond, king of Lombardy, and Gilismene, princess of the Sarmatians, are lovers. But when intriguers convince Gilismene that her lover is dishonest, Agilmond hurries to her and, to prove his ‘Fidelity and Love’, throws himself on his sword at her feet. Fortunately, he survives.

14. since you so well know… Parisatis: Parisatis acts upon her grandmother’s desire that she marry Hephestion, but that does not prevent her from informing Lysimachus that she esteems him at least as much as her husband.

15. prepare to give me Satisfaction… his Challenge: Lennox, like other writers of the period, including Addison, Steele, Fielding and Richardson, found duelling a reprehensible practice. She often exposes its irresponsibility through making its participants look ridiculous (early in Harriot Stuart, Harriot’s brother and Belmein attempt to fight a duel, but first their swords are whisked away by a doctor and then their pistols turn out to be uncharged – they end up torn between rage and a desire to laugh; see The Life of Harriot Stuart, ed. Susan Kubica Howard (1995), pp. 94–5).

16. pretend: ‘To aspire to, aim at, make pretension to; to be a suitor or candidate for’ (OED).

17. offered her the chief Command of their Forces: During the campaign to liberate Statira and Parisatis from their captivity by the Babylonians, Thalestris was called upon to take the command, but she declined, on account of her gender (Cassandra, III, iii).

18. the Spirit of Julia… Infidelity: See note 14, Book IV.

19. a Gypsey: Sir Charles probably refers to Cleopatra’s nationality as Egyptian (when they first appeared in England about the beginning of the sixteenth century, Gypsies were commonly believed to have come from Egypt and they continued to be classified as a separate race in England because of their dark skins).

20. Rake: A debauched man of fashion, whose career of seduction or reform is the subject of many eighteenth-century novels. Samuel Richardson constantly inveighed against the popular notion that a reformed rake made the best husband (for example, in Familiar Letters on Important Occasions (1741), a father reminds his daughter ‘that the wild assertion, of a rake making a good husband, was the most dangerous opinion a young woman could imbibe’, Women in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Jones, p. 38).

BOOK VI

1. not much more than eight Hundred Years… bequeath to him: Acting on Richardson’s advice, Lennox amended the manuscript to curtail somewhat Bellmour’s genealogical pretensions to the kingdom of Kent. Rather than the manuscript’s recent claim, the published novel makes Bellmour’s family the rulers of Kent in the distant past, having lost the kingdom at some unspecified point. His grandfather is allowed to retain the title ‘Prince Veridomer’ but is reduced to being an improver of a ‘small Pittance of Ground’. See Richardson’s letter to Lennox of 8 or 15 November 1751 (Isles, ‘The Lennox Collection’ (1970), p. 338).

2. Fear of a Halter: That is, fear of hanging.

3. your Affair with the pretty Milk-maid: Both Glanville and Sir Charles are indulgent about Sir George’s dalliance with the milk-maid, who turns out to be one Dolly Acorn; in the mid eighteenth century it was socially acceptable for upper-class men to have sexual liaisons with lower-class women, especially servants of the family, as Dolly appears to have been. The virtuous resistance of Richardson’s Pamela to Mr B’s seductions is unusual and ridiculed within the novel itself: as Sir Simon puts it, ‘ “Why, what is all this, my dear, but that our neighbour has a mind to his mother’s waiting-maid! And if he takes care she wants for nothing, I don’t see any great injury will be done her. He hurts no family by this” ’ (Pamela, (1740), Vol. I, Letter XXXII).

4. rhodomontade Speech: Extravagant speech.

5. I made her a declaration… to forget: Sir George’s ‘romance’ replicates eighteenth-century distinctions of rank and emphasizes the sexual vulnerability of rural women and domestic servants. Sir George’s history constantly ignores romance codes of courtship and narrates a series of seductions; his inauthentic history of infidelity earns Arabella’s dismissal.

6. fair Arsinoe… Daughter of a King: Cf. Cleopatra (IV, iii and iv), ‘The History of Philadelph’.

7. Philoxipes… equal to his own: Cf. Artamenes (II, iii), ‘The History of Philoxypes and Policrite’.

8. do but reflect… made to turn: Arabella’s rendition of the exploits of the heroes of romance is not devoid of hyperbole. Thus, in Cleopatra (IX, iv), Coriolanus (‘the brave Prince of Mauritania’) defends Cleopatra and Artemisa armed only with his sword, but the number of his opponents is not revealed in La Calprenède’s text. Alexander (‘The young Prince of Egypt’) and his friend Cepio indeed engage all of the king of Armenia’s guards, but instead of putting them to flight, Cepio gets killed and Alexander is recaptured (IV, ii). Although Ariobasanes is certainly a brave man, we are told that during the defence of Byzantium his forces were seriously outnumbered by his opponents and were unable to resist them (VII, i). Arabella repeats her earlier exaggeration of Artaban’s valour and prowess (see Book III, Chapter VI).

9. To give you a Description… Priority of Beauty: Sir George’s Sydimiris is obviously modelled after Arabella.

10. a Lover, whose Mistress… of his Blood: Not identified.

11. taking his Enemy Prisoner… over again: In Roger Boyle’s Parthenissa (IV, iv), Artabenes, king of Media, leads an army against Surena in order to secure the release of Parthenissa. Having captured Surena, Artabenes immediately sets him free again – releasing Parthenissa being his real mission. Surena subsequently refuses to let Parthenissa go, and Artabenes ‘has all his Work to do over again’.

12. violent Friendship… in Person: His intense friendship for Artaxerxes, prince of Persia, and love of Statira, leads Oroondates, prince of Scythia, to fight with the Persians against his own people (Cassandra, I, ii). In the conflict between duty and love, the hero of romance chooses the latter.

13. An extraordinary Instance… in Cassandra: A reference to an episode in Cassandra (IV, v), in which Arsaces (Artaxerxes) surrenders himself to the king of Scythia in the hope that that might deter the King from marrying his daughter Berenice to the hateful Arsacomes. The ‘extraordinary Instance of Generosity’ is mirrored a little later in this chapter in Bellmour giving himself up to Prince Marcomire in order ‘to free that excellent Lady [Sydimiris, Marcomire’s sister] from the Imputation you have laid on her’.

14. flattered: In this context, ‘flattered’ means that the place both mirrored and fostered his despair.

15. Chance at last… admit the Light: Sir George’s cave bears a general resemblance to the cave to which Orontes penitently retires after having misjudged Thalestris (Cassandra, V, ii).

16. Apelles’s Art: Apelles (c. 352–308 BC) was born on Kos and was to become one of the most praised painters of the ancient world. Nothing of his work has survived, but we know about it through other writers’ descriptions. He painted Alexander the Great many times, and one of these paintings hung in the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Apelles also painted scenes from mythology, such as Venus Anadyomene and Calumny, personifying Ignorance, Suspicion and Envy. He is also credited with having painted the first self-portrait in the world.

17. Agione: Cf. Pharamond, IX, i.

18. Delia… Olympia… Eliza: Cf. Cleopatra, IV, iii; VI, iii; III, iv.

19. Grub-street: The former name of a street in London, famous in the eighteenth century for the needy literary hacks and struggling writers who lived there. Samuel Johnson defined ‘Grub Street’ in his Dictionary as ‘much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems; whence any mean production is called grubstreet’.

20. Bedford Coffee-house: A famous coffee house near Covent Garden Theatre. Frequented by such prominent writers and actors as Pope, Fielding, Garrick, Sheridan and Horace Walpole, it was described by ‘Mr Town’, the ‘Critic and Censor-General’ of the Connoisseur, as ‘every night crowded with men of parts. Almost every one you meet is a polite scholar and a wit. Jokes and bon mots are echo’d from box to box; every branch of literature is critically examined, and the merit of every production of the press, or performance at the theatres, weighed and determined’ (31 January 1754, p. 4). But the patrons drank a lot more than just coffee, and thus the Bedford Coffee House became a byword for excessive drinking and rowdy behaviour.

21. the rest of your Brothers… more Merit, than those that do: Mr Glanville defends the newly professionalized activity of authorship against dilettante writers and critics. Specifically, he valorizes the work of Edward Young (1683–1765), writer of prose, satires, dramatic tragedies and poetry, most famously Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality (1742–5); Samuel Richardson, successful printer and author of the phenomenally successful novels Pamela and Clarissa; and Samuel Johnson, English lexicographer, essayist, poet and moralist. The Rambler (1750–52) was a series of semi-weekly essays by Samuel Johnson, dealing with social mores and literature.

22. Bath: The town of Bath (about 100 miles west of London) became a fashionable health and pleasure resort during the reigns of George II (1727–60) and George III (1760–1820). Its natural hotspring waters were regarded as having medicinal qualities, but by the mid eighteenth century Bath serviced more than the sick. People could attend concerts and the theatre, engage in fashionable shopping and dance at the Assembly Rooms. Bath was the most famous of the English resorts in the eighteenth century, the favoured destination of royalty and aristocracy, but also attracting middle- and lower-class holiday-makers.

BOOK VII

1. Coach and Six: A large carriage drawn by six horses.

2. Knights of the Road: Highwaymen. Between 1650 and 1800 highwaymen were common in England, with many of them becoming legendary and romantic figures. In an age when travel was already hazardous due to the lack of decent roads, no one rode alone without fear of being robbed, and people often joined company or hired escorts. In fact, travellers would often write their wills before they set off. As this episode demonstrates once again, ‘real life’ turns out to be quite as adventurous as Arabella’s romances.

3. ’T was in such a Place… Hortensius: Scudéry describes the Vale of Tempe in Clelia, in ‘The History of the Princess Elismonda’ (IV, i), wherein appears Arabella’s story about Andronice, the princess of Messina, who saves the life of Hortensius when he is condemned for killing a stork (storks were regarded as sacred in classical mythology and killing one was therefore considered a crime).

4. Indians of America: American Indians featured more prominently in Lennox’s first novel, Harriot Stuart, in which the heroine at one point is taken into Indian captivity.

5. in Turky: When the novel appeared (1752), Macedonia was still part of the Ottoman Empire. The Vale of Tempe was noted by many classical authors, and remains a celebrated tourist stop in Thessaly.

6. Great Mogul’s Country: That is, India. The Great Mogul was the sovereign of the empire founded in India by the Moguls (Indian Muslims) in the sixteenth century. As Glanville points out, Sir Charles confuses the Great Mogul, the Emperor of Delhi, with the Grand Signior, or the Sultan of Turkey. Despite the benefits of a masculine education, Sir Charles’s historical and geographical knowledge is limited, while Arabella, drawing her information from romances, appears well informed.

7. a great many beautiful Princesses… each other: The numbers are indicated by the conclusion of Cleopatra, when eleven princesses are married off in a single ceremony.

8. Pump-Room: A room at a spa where guests would drink the water of supposedly medicinal springs to improve or retain their health. However, many people would gather at the pump-rooms of resorts such as Bath or Bristol Hotwells to socialize, dance, gossip and to see and be seen as much as to ‘take the waters’.

9. went in an Undress: Partial or incomplete dress, informal morning wear. To discard any item of full dress (a hoop, a periwig or a long gown) was to be ‘undressed’.

10. Capuchin… of Black Gauze: A ‘capuchin’ was a soft hood, often worn by women in the eighteenth century. Arabella’s decision to wear a veil clearly marks her out as being ‘not in the fashion’ (cf. note 9, Book I).

11. Pretty-Fellows: Fops

12. Countess of——went to Court in a Farthingale: Perhaps an allusion to Maria Gunning, the Countess of Coventry; see the Introduction for an example of her play with fashion codes. A farthingale is a ‘frame-work of hoops, usually of whalebone, worked into some kind of cloth, formerly used for extending the skirts of women’s dresses’ (OED). It was fashionable in the seventeenth century, but old-fashioned by the middle of the eighteenth century.

13. Dutchess of—— sat astride upon a Horse: No specific historical figure has been identified. The point of the allusion is the unconventionality of a lady riding astride, rather than side-saddle.

14. Olympiad: ‘A period of four years reckoned from one celebration of the Olympic games to the next, by which the ancient Greeks computed time, the year 776 BC being taken as the first year of the first Olympiad’ (OED).

15. famous Springs… new Lustre: The Springs of Thermopylae and the tale of Pisistratus, the Athenian, his rivals Lycurgus and Theocrites, ‘the fair Cerinthe’, and ‘the beautiful Cleorante’, to which Arabella subsequently refers, all occur in ‘The History of Pisistrates’ in Artamenes (IX, iii).

16. posed: Perplexed, nonplussed.

17. Springs at Thermopylœ: As the etymology of the name suggests, Arabella’s romance-derived information may be correct. Institutions making use of the medicinal waters have long been established at Thermopylae.

18. Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch, have indeed quoted him frequently: Herodotus (c. 480-c. 425 BC), a famous Greek historian, often called the Father of History; Thucydides (c. 460c. 400 BC), an Athenian historian; and Plutarch (AD c. 46c. 120), a Greek biographer. Arabella and Mr Selvin assume that Scudéry is a male writer, see note 3, Book II.

19. Which contains some excellent Rules for Raillery: Arabella’s analysis of raillery in this chapter, as well as the remarks made by Mr Glanville, are based in part on a conversation on the same subject in ‘The History of Pisistrates’ in Artamenes (IX, iii).

20. young Beau: ‘A man who gives particular, or excessive, attention to dress, mien, and social etiquette; an exquisite, a fop, a dandy’ (OED). The pump-rooms at spa resorts like Bath and pleasure gardens like Ranelagh and Vauxhall were favourite haunts of beaux.

21. Robe… Princess Julia’s: There is no such model of Princess Julia’s robe in Cleopatra.

22. Mantua-maker: Dressmaker.

23. She wore no Hoop… greatest Advantage: Arabella’s ‘singular’ dress lacks a fashionable hoop and the lace cap normally worn by women of her class; the profusion of diamonds advertises her wealth and status.

24. Julia… Ovid… Banishment: Ovid (43 BC-AD 17), Roman poet known for his Ars amatoria (The Art of Love, c. AD 1) and the Metamorphoses (AD 2 onwards), was banished from Rome by Augustus in AD 8 to Tomis on the Black Sea, possibly for having had an affair with a female relative of the emperor. Princess Julia, in whose affairs Ovid may have been involved, was the daughter of Emperor Augustus’s daughter, also called Julia (39 BC-AD 14), whom her father had married off after her first husband’s death to his chief military adviser, Agrippa (64–12 BC), a man older than her father. Ovid’s account of his relationship with Princess Julia is found in ‘The History of Ovid, Cipassis, and Julia’ (Cleopatra, VII, iii).

25. Gibraltar: The Rock of Gibraltar was seized by an Anglo-Dutch force led by Sir George Rooke in 1704. The territory was ceded to Great Britain by Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht as part of the settlement of the War of the Spanish Succession. However, the military and commercial rivalry between Britain and Spain, mainly involving conflicting territorial claims in America and the trade (including the slave trade) with the West Indies, continued to cause tensions between the two nations. From time to time hostilities would flare up, resulting in a string of military campaigns and several full-scale wars, in which the position of Gibraltar was invariably at stake. The War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–20) had left the Rock firmly in possession of the British, and despite a Spanish siege of Gibraltar in 1727, the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–9 did not change this. The Spanish besieged Gibraltar again in an attempt to wrest it from the British in 1739, as part of what is known as the War of Jenkins’s Ear (1739–43).

26. died gloriously before the Walls of Carthagena: Cartagena is a city and port in the northwest of present-day Colombia, on the Bay of Cartagena in the Caribbean Sea. As part of the West Indian front of the War of Jenkins’s Ear, a British fleet and troops landed at Playa Grande, near Cartagena, and began a two-month assault on the city’s defences. The ultimate plan was to march across the Isthmus to capture Panama City in conjunction with Anson’s Pacific fleet. However, the campaign ended in disaster, with most of the proposed actions called off due to the ravages of yellow fever and other diseases. Six hundred men of the British expeditionary force died before reaching the first action at Cartagena. The war sputtered out in 1742–3 for lack of troops to continue it.

27. Her Habit… all French: Part of a traditional anti-French critique, evident throughout the century. Disparaging views of imported French fashions had much to do with the economic competition that underpinned the persistent military conflict between the two nations. Critics, such as Addison, found the manners of Frenchwomen lacking proper feminine ‘Discretion and Modesty’ (Spectator, no. 45, 21 April 1711). The super-elegant Frenchwoman who despises English simplicity turns out to be the daughter of an innkeeper.

28. One of our great Sea Commanders: Possibly Admiral Charles Knowles, whose Dictionary of National Biography entry records his second marriage at Aix-la-Chapelle, near Spa, to Maria Magdalena Teresa, daughter of the Comte de Bouget. Elsewhere she is described as of German origin. Tinsel’s gossip perhaps plays on speculations about her background.

29. detatched Pieces of Satire on particular Persons: Tinsel’s stories are reminiscent of the scandalous, racy narratives of Aphra Behn, Delarivier Manley and Eliza Haywood, Lennox’s novelistic predecessors, which often involved recognizable figures from contemporary life, but they are also typical spa town fare.

30. The Ugliness of Vice… restrain’d: Arabella’s language recalls Samuel Johnson’s similar sentiments about the undesirability of representing vice. Writing at a time when ‘new’ realistic novels such as Tobias Smollett’s Roderick Random (1748) and Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749) had begun to eclipse the once popular romances that Arabella still adores, Johnson commented in Rambler 4 (31 March 1750):

In narratives where historical veracity has no place, I cannot discover why there should not be exhibited the most perfect idea of virtue; of virtue not angelical, nor above probability, for what we cannot credit, we shall never imitate, but the highest and purest that humanity can reach, which, exercised in such trials as the various revolutions of things shall bring upon it, may, by conquering some calamities, and enduring others, teach us what we may hope, and what we can perform. Vice, for vice is necessary to be shewn, should always disgust; nor should the graces of gaiety, or the dignity of courage, be so united with it, as to reconcile it to the mind. Wherever it appears, it should raise hatred by the malignity of its practices, and contempt by the meanness of its stratagems: for while it is supported by either parts or spirit, it will be seldom heartily abhorred.

31. sublime Courage… other Side: See note 4, Book II. (In fact, it is not Tarquin Clelia is trying to escape from, but his son, Sextus.)

32. noble Resolution… Mercy of the Waves: Cf. Cleopatra, III, ii.

33. Constancy… for him: As a mark of her constancy and fidelity to Cyrus, Mandana refused the kings of Assyria and Pontus, as well as several princes.

34. Alcamenes: See ‘The History of Alcamenes and Melanippa’ in Cleopatra, VIII, ii–iv.

35. the Parade… Rooms: In the Spa town of Bath, the ‘Parade’ or Grand Parade was where the fashionable visitors walked, displaying their fine clothes; the ‘Rooms’ were the Assembly Rooms, where people met, danced and ate.

36. Cyrus the Great… at Sardis: Arabella remembers this incorrectly, for Mandana had been carried away by the king of Pontus before Cyrus could dance with her (Artamenes, VIII, iii).

37. King of Scythia… at Alexandria: Arabella misremembers the conversation of Alcamenes, king of Scythia, and Cleopatra at Alexandria as a dance.

38. brave Cleomedon… at Ethiopia: Again, there is no parallel for this in ‘The History of Caesario [Cleomedon], and the Queen Candace’ (Cleopatra, I, iii and III, i).

39. pink’d in a Duel: Pierced with a bullet, or pricked (‘pink’d’) or stabbed with a pointed weapon.

40. the Fate of the Princess Melisintha: In Pharamond (VI, ii), Melisintha is saved from ‘the Embraces of a King’ by her father during a fire in the palace in which they were held.

41. surpriz’d Lover… undesign’d Offence: In Cassandra (II, iii), Thalestris discovers that Orontes, prince of the Massagetes, is in love with her when she overhears his soliloquy, not a conversation with a confidante.

42. The Method which the great Artamenes took… permitted to hope: The events are found in Artamenes, II, i.

43. great Prince of Persia: Artaxerxes, prince of Persia, at long last reveals his love (and true identity) to Berenice in Cassandra, IV, ii.

44. mal a propos: French, literally, ‘ill to purpose’ or ‘inappropriate’.

45. Billet-doux: A love letter.

46. Mercury: The Roman equivalent of the Greek messenger god Hermes; a grandiose term for Tinsel’s messenger.

47. beautiful Princess of Cappadocia: That is, Mandana.

48. Seramenes: There is no such character in ‘The History of Cleobuline Queen of Corinth’ (Artamenes, VII, ii).

49. you use me… wise Antonia: In Cleopatra, the eponymous heroine asks Antonia to read a love letter to her (IX, ii).

50. I am much in the same Situation with the Princess Serena: In fact, Arabella’s situation is quite dissimilar to that of Princess Serena. In Pharamond (VII, iii), Princess Serena has three real (not imagined) suitors, two of whom plot against the favoured lover.

51. this Adventure… than hers was: Again Arabella’s ‘Adventure’ is not ‘exactly like what befel the beautiful Statira’. In Statira’s case, she visited Barsina not knowing that Oroondates was staying with Barsina; Oroondates’ ‘Stratagem’ was to hide in Barsina’s closet and then throw himself at Statira’s feet (Cassandra, I, vi).

52. all Ladies… fainting Fit: The heroines of seventeenth-century French romances faint a lot but so do the heroines of mid-eighteenth-century realist novels. Fainting, like blushing and weeping, became one of the dominant eighteenth-century cultural codes of femininity.

53. Examples of Artamenes, Aronces: In Artamenes (I. i), the hero promises his rival, the king of Assyria, that he will not marry Mandana before he has conquered him honourably in combat. In Clelia (V, iii), Aronces makes a similar promise to his rival Horatius with regard to the fate of the heroine.

54. you imitate… as you have done: In Artamenes (I, i), the hero spares the ravisher of Mandana, the king of Assyria, when he had both the opportunity and just cause to take his life.

BOOK VIII

1. Princess Udosia… entertain’d for her: When Thrasimond (not Thrasimedes), king of the Vandals, falls in love with Eudoxia at the court of Constantinople, she banishes him as soon as she finds out about it. Thrasimond later dies of lover’s grief (Pharamond, VII, ii).

2. Protestant Nunneries: Mary Astell famously proposed a women’s seminary, which would combine religion and rationality, in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their True and Greatest Interest (1694); Sarah Scott’s novel Millenium Hall (1762) offers an approximation of Astell’s ‘Monastery’ in its portrait of a community of women. Millenium Hall functions as a retreat from the world and as a place of good works.

3. Perinthus die for… Panthea: The sorrowful tale of Perinthus is related in Artamenes (V, i).

4. Barsina bring… to the Grave: In Cassandra (V, iii), Oxyatres’ violent fever is a consequence of his failure to woo her away from her other suitor.

5. Statira… kill’d by it: When Statira, after she has married Alexander, demands that Oroondates respect her virtue and her conjugal duty to her husband, he acquiesces; since he has now lost the sole reason to live, he decides to throw himself upon his sword – only to be saved in the nick of time by Barsina, who knocks the sword aside (Cassandra, I, vi).

6. Princess of Media… his Disaster: These adventures of Mandana are related in Artamenes (IX, i).

7. Actions… testify: The test these heroes of romance were facing was the choice between love and duty: between the women they loved and their duty to their relatives and their country. For the choice faced by Oroondates, see note 12, Book VI. In Cassandra, Artaxerxes, prince of Persia, is in love with Berenice, princess of Scythia. In order to be with her, he lives in disguise at the Scythian court, and even fights alongside the Scythians while his own country is overrun by the Macedonians. In Artamenes, Spitridates, prince of Bithynia, is in love with Araminta, princess of Pontus, but because their countries are involved in a lengthy war he is forced to choose between his honour and his love.

8. I shall live… take Care of: Arabella is apparently quoting from Cassandra, but the passage has not been identified.

9. Say only… to conquer: Again, there is no exact match for this passage in Cleopatra.

10. The celebrated Countess of——: Not identified, though contemporary readers speculated about her identity. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) begged her daughter, ‘Tell me who is that accomplish’d Countess she celebrates. I left no such person in London’ (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Letters, ed. Clare Brant (1992): letter from Adrianople, 1 April 1717). Montagu thought the novel was the work of Sarah Fielding.

11. Elisa… she detested: The beautiful Elisa, princess of Parthia, is a character in Cleopatra. Her particular plight is that she is under pressure from her father to marry Tigranes, king of Media.

12. Daughter of Antony… to her: In Cleopatra, Augustus tries to force Cleopatra ‘into the Arms of Tyberius’ a fate she narrowly escapes when Tiberius ultimately renounces his claim on her.

13. Elisa… Pyrates: Cf. Cleopatra, III, iv.

14. Cleopatra… fair Breast: Cleopatra was held captive by Artaxus, king of Armenia, on his ship; when her rescuers approached the ship, he held a sword to her breast to keep them at bay.

15. And in fine… cruel Death: Arabella’s point is clear: while Elisa’s lover Artaban, though imprisoned, is not in mortal danger, both Cleopatra’s brother, Caesario, and her lover, Coriolanus, are not only imprisoned by Augustus but also threatened with death (cf. Cleopatra, XII, iv).

16. Oroondates… was he belov’d: See note 12, Book VI.

17. Chair: ‘A light vehicle drawn by one horse; a chaise’ (OED).

18. her Women having been sent away before in the Stage: Whereas the members of well-to-do families would travel by private coaches, servants usually travelled separately by public stagecoach (often sent on beforehand in order to investigate the route or to prepare the residence at which the family was going to stay).

BOOK IX

1. St. James’s Square: Located just north of St James’s Park, St James’s Square, laid out by Henry Jermyn in the 1670s, was one of London’s earliest squares. It was lined by exclusive houses for those people whose business made it essential to live near St James’s Palace, and for fifty years was the most fashionable address in London, with seven dukes and seven earls in residence by the 1720s.

2. Cards: Part of the convention of paying social visits in the eighteenth century was to leave a card with a domestic servant, who would then announce your visit by presenting the card to the hosts, or to have one’s card delivered in advance of one’s visit.

3. Ranelagh: See note 5, Book IV.

4. Rout: ‘Fashionable gathering or assembly, large evening party or reception’ (OED).

5. Vaux-Hall: Vauxhall Gardens (known as ‘New Spring Gardens’ until 1785) were opened to the public in 1661. Jonathan Tyers bought the gardens in 1728 and developed them into the fashionable pleasure gardens they became by 1752. Vauxhall was located about two miles from the city of London, on the south side of the Thames – going across the water added to the gardens’ rural appeal. Other attractions included outdoor concerts, a theatre, lighted gardens and refreshments. The Vauxhall crowds were mixed in terms of gender (it was a socially acceptable place for female leisure) and class (the price of admission being one shilling until 1792, when it was increased to two shillings). For some commentators, Vauxhall represented an ideal public space, while others reprobated its rowdiness and the illicit sexual encounters that took place in the dark walks.

6. incog.: Incognito.

7. Lion Lysimachus kill’d: See Cassandra, II, ii.

8. Temple… suppos’d Death: Because it had been foretold by the magi that Cyrus would one day be ruler over Media, there was much rejoicing among the Medes when the news of Cyrus’s supposed death reached them. When Mandana is in the temple thanking the gods for his death, Cyrus (disguised as Artamenes) overhears her (Artamenes, I, i).

9. sail in Barges… upon the Tyber: Cf. Cleopatra, IX, ii.

10. Season for Vaux-Hall being not yet over: Vauxhall was open approximately three months of the year, usually from May to August. The last night of the season, in particular, was infamous for the rowdy behaviour of the crowds. The drunken and aggressive naval officer and the intoxicated prostitute whom Arabella encounters are plausible frequenters of Vauxhall.

11. Gardens of Lucullus… admirable Persons: Arabella is thinking of a scene in Cleopatra (IX, ii), in which Augustus entertains Terentia, Maecenas’s wife, with music and ‘many gallant Conversations’ in the famous Gardens of Lucullus in Rome.

12. her Misfortunes… express’d for her: In Cleopatra (IX, iii), Artesia (not Aspasia) escapes from the advances of Phraates, king of Parthia, by disguising herself as a man.

13. Mock-Heroicks: In a manner ridiculing or burlesquing the heroic style, character and discourse of the romance.

14. Peruke: A kind of wig worn from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century.

15. Candace… carry’d her away: See note 18, Book IV.

16. Hermione… desir’d thee: In Cassandra (III, iii, iv; V, i), Demetrius, prince of Phrygia, is attacked by an inexperienced warrior, who, without inflicting any wounds on him, falls on the Prince’s sword, speaking the words here cited by Arabella (‘Oh! Death… desir’d thee!’). The warrior turns out to be a woman, Hermione, in a man’s dress. She is mortally wounded, but lives long enough for Demetrius to fall in love with her and for her to tell at length of her passion for Alexander. At first torn by remorse, rage and guilt, Demetrius later falls in love with Deidamia, who herself was bemoaning the loss of Agis.

17. Commission of Lunacy: According to a thirteenth-century statute, De Praerogativa Regis (On the King’s Prerogative) gave the crown custody of the lands of natural fools and wardship of the property of the insane during their insanity. The process of establishing lunacy (before a jury) was sometimes known as a ‘commission of lunacy’.

18. gross Air… Health so much: Eighteenth-century London was notorious for its intense air pollution. Because of the massive burning of coal, the air over the city became filled with huge amounts of smoke and soot containing sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, which often made breathing difficult, if not life-threatening. What made the situation worse was that the smoke combined with London’s equally notorious fog to create what later came to be known as ‘smog’.

19. Richmond: Then a small town in Surrey on the River Thames, not far from London. Named after the fabulous Richmond Palace that Henry VII had built there (around 1610), Richmond became a fashionable resort after the opening of Richmond Wells in 1696. Apart from the palace and the many splendid homes, the town vaunted the luscious Richmond Park (once a favoured royal hunting ground) and Richmond Hill, which affords beautiful views over the Thames Valley.

20. Twickenham: A village in the present London borough of Richmond-upon-Thames. In the eighteenth century it became an exclusive retreat from court life, with the building of many elegant country houses. It was also popular with the foremost writers and artists. Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II and a friend of Horace Walpole, had Marble Hill House built for her and regularly entertained the greatest poets and wits of the day. Both Horace Walpole and Alexander Pope left their mark on Twickenham: Pope built his Grotto there, and, after he had bought Strawberry Hill in 1749, Walpole began to convert the modest home over the next fifty years into his own vision of a ‘gothic fantasy’ – thereby setting a new trend in gothic architecture.

21. Mr. Glanville… fell to the Ground: This climactic duel is a farcical version of the duel in Clarissa between Colonel Morden and Lovelace; Bellmour, unlike Lovelace, does not have to die to expiate his sins, but he is condemned to marry the frivolous Charlotte Glanville.

22. Brag: ‘A game at cards, essentially identical with the modern game of poker’ (OED).

23. Rescue of… an absolute Stranger: The rescues of Statira and Berenice are related in Cassandra, IV, v and IV, vi.

24. that beauteous Roman Lady… impious Sextus: See note 42, Book II.

25. she plung’d into the Thames… Tyber: At the end of Perdou de Subligny’s The Mock-Clelia: Being a Comical History of French Gallantries, and Novels, in Imitation of Dom Quixote (which seems to have been one of the models for Lennox’s novel), a deluded heroine rides her horse into a canal in imitation of Clelia’s plunge into the Tiber. The mock-Clelia is partly cured by the cold water she imbibes (The Mock-Clelia (1678), p. 267).

26. Kew-Lane: A street in Richmond, at one time the home of the well-known poet James Thomson (1700–1748).

27. quit the Kingdom: Because English common law treated the killing of someone in a duel as an act of murder, those who had overcome their adversaries in a duel would often evade prosecution by fleeing to the continent or to one of the colonies.

28. Pious and Learned Doctor——: This character is generally considered to be modelled on Lennox’s mentor, Dr Samuel Johnson.

29. Being in the Author’s Opinion, the best Chapter in this History: Critics have speculated since the mid nineteenth century that Samuel Johnson wrote this chapter but there is no conclusive evidence. Recent critics, following Duncan Isles, have doubted this theory (see Duncan Isles, Appendix to The Female Quixote, ed. Dalziel (1989), pp. 419–28).

30. Clelia… Thrasymenian Lake: A reference to an episode in Clelia, in which the heroine is carried away by Horatius, who keeps her on an island in Lake Trasimene.

31. Candace… on the Seas: See Cleopatra, III, ii.

32. Accidents… Cleopatra: Among the ‘Accidents’ that embittered the life of Cleopatra was the fact that Augustus did not allow her to marry the man she loved (Coriolanus), and that she was abducted by Artaxus, king of Armenia, unwelcome or thwarted love being the primary sufferings of a Romance heroine.

33. Persecutions… Elisa miserable: The afflictions that beset the ‘fair Elisa’ were many. Thus, she was captured by pirates, married against her will to Tigranes, king of Media, and was separated from the man she loved, Artaban.

34. Olympia… Deidamia: The sufferings that these heroines of romance underwent are manifold but basically of two kinds: facing various obstructions on the road to true love (notably parental pressure, false rumours and abductions), and being exposed to the unwelcome attentions of undesirable lovers. Bellamira is the previously unmentioned heroine in Pharamond, which also features the characters of Albysinda and Placidia.

35. Child of Integrity: A reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth. When Malcolm, son of the murdered King Duncan of Scotland and legitimate heir to the throne, confesses to the loyal Macduff that he is too weak to oppose his father’s murderer and usurper to the throne, Macbeth, Macduff gives up all hope that Scotland will ever be liberated from its tyrant ruler and breaks down in deep and black despair. Malcolm is so touched by Macduff’s deeply felt patriotism, calling it ‘this noble passion, / Child of integrity’ (IV.3.114–15), that he regains faith in his own abilities to lead an army against Macbeth.

36. Has taught the Passions to move at the Command of Virtue: This praise of Richardson by Johnson appears in the opening lines of the Rambler 97 (19 February 1751); the rest of the Rambler text is then turned over to a guest author, Samuel Richardson himself. Lennox engages in complex and potentially ironic ways in the contemporary debate about novels versus romances. As David Marshall observes, ‘At the moment that the author of the chapter evokes the example of Richardson – a model for the author who would write novels rather than romances – and cites the words and the authority of the author of the Rambler, she or he alludes to an instance in which “the author” has transferred the authority for his text to another author’ (‘Writing Masters’, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 5.2 (1993), p. 128).

37. Fables of Æsop… Locman the Wise: According to tradition, the author of Aesop’s Fables was a Phrygian slave who probably lived from 620 to 560 BC. However, there is little information on Aesop’s life, and some scholars even doubt whether he existed at all. The earliest extant collections of his work were made by Greek versifiers and Latin translators; tales from the Orient and from ancient sources were added to form what we now know as Aesop’s Fables. Locman, or Lokman, who is said to have lived around 1050 BC, is one of the most celebrated sages of the East. A well-known collection of Arabic fables bears the name of Lokman. Since he was also black, and since Aesop appears to have adapted some of Lokman’s fables for his own use, Lokman is often confused with Aesop. However, Aesop lived about 500 years later than Lokman.

38. Ariosto: Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), Italian poet and playwright, best known for his epic poem Orlando Furioso (1516, 1532).

39. Punctilio: ‘A fine-drawn or fastidious objection, a scruple’ (OED).

40. Equipage: All that is needed for a domestic establishment.

Notes

[DEDICATION]