The Augustan Reprint Society Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, Preface to _Parthenissa_ (1655) Sir George Mackenzie, “Apologie for Romances,” prefixed to _Aretina, the Serious Romance_ (1660) Nathaniel Ingelo, Preface to _Bentivolio and Urania_ (1660) Robert Boyle, Preface to _Theodora and Didymus_ (1687) With an Introduction by Charles Davies Publication Number 42 Los Angeles William Andrews Clark Memorial Library University of California 1953 GENERAL EDITORS H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_ RICHARD G. BOYS, _University of Michigan_ RALPH COHEN, _University of California, Los Angeles_ VINTON A. DEARING, _University of California, Los Angeles_ ASSISTANT EDITOR W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_ ADVISORY EDITORS EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_ BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_ LOUIS BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_ JOHN BUTT, _King’s College, University of Durham_ JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_ ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_ EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_ LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_ SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_ ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_ JAMES SUTHERLAND, _University College, London_ H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_ CORRESPONDING SECRETARY EDNA C. DAVIS, _Clark Memorial Library_ INTRODUCTION The four _Prefaces_ here reprinted occupy a place in the long argument about Romance somewhat apart from the developments which preceded the emergence of the novel proper in eighteenth-century England. The secret antinomy in their authors with regard to the art they are practising is as clearly revealed by the compulsion to give Romance a new and, above all, a serious purpose as by the embarrassing discovery of so much that was otiose in the already existing forms. At heart they shared with Arnauld the opinion he expressed of Scudéry’s _Clelie_ in his famous letter to Perrault. “Que ce soit, si vous voulez, le plus beau de tous les Romans; mais enfin c’est un Roman. C’est tout dire.”