The vogue of the historical romance was carried to its height by a brother and a sister, Georges de Scudery (1601-1667) and Madeleine de Scudery (1608-1701), who represented in their own persons all the extravagant, tempestuous and absurd elements of the age, and whose elephantine romances remain as portents in the history of literature. These novels--there are five of them--were signed by Georges de Scudery, but it is believed that all were in the main written by Madeleine. The earliest was _Ibrahim, ou l'Illustre Bassa_ (1641); it was followed by _Le Grand Cyrus_ (1648-1653) and the final, and most preposterous member of the series was _Clelie_ (1649-1654). The romances of Mlle de Scudery (for to her we may safely attribute them) are much inferior in style to those of la Calprenede. They are pretentious, affected and sickly. The author abuses the element of analysis, and pushes a psychology, which was beyond the age in penetration, to a wearisome and excessive extent. Nothing, it is probable, in the whole evolution of the Historical Romances has attracted so much attention as the "Carte de Tendre" which occurs in the opening book of _Clelie_. This celebrated map, drawn by the heroine in order to show the route from New Friendship to Tender, and a geographical symbol, therefore, of the progress of love, with its city of Tender-upon-Esteem, its sea of Enmity, its river of Inclination, its rock-built citadel of Pride, its cold lake of Indifference, is a miracle of elaborate and incongruous ingenuity. But, amusing as it is, it shows into what depths of puerility the amorous casuistry of these romances had fallen. These novels formed the chief topic of conversation and of correspondence in the literary society which gathered at and around the Hotel de Rambouillet, and in the personages of Mlle de Scudery's romances could be recognized all the famous leaders of that society. The mawkish love-making and the false heroism of these monstrous novels went rapidly out of fashion in France soon after 1660, when the epoch of the Heroic Romance came to an end. In England the Heroic Romance had a period of flourishing popularity. All the principal French examples were very promptly translated, and "he was not to be admitted into the academy of wit who had not read _Astrea_ and _The Grand Cyrus_." The great vogue of these books in England lasted from about 1645 to 1660. It led, of course, to the composition of original works in imitation of the French. The most remarkable and successful of these was _Parthenissa_, published in 1654 by Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill and afterwards Earl of Orrery (1621-1679), which was greatly admired by Dorothy Osborne and her correspondents. Addison speaks in the "Spectator" of the popularity of all these huge books, "the _Grand Cyrus_, with a pin stuck in one of the middle leaves, _Clelie_, which opened of itself in the place that describes two lovers in a bower."