I think it due to truth and to myself to seize this opportunity of saying, that a little book published three years ago, and now perhaps forgotten, was not written for publication, nor would ever have been printed but for accidental circumstances. That the title under which it appeared was not given by the writer, but the publisher, who at the time knew nothing of the author. And that several false dates, and unimportant circumstances and characters were interpolated, to conceal, if possible, the real purport and origin of the work. Thus the intention was not to create an illusion, by giving to fiction the appearance of truth, but, in fact, to give to truth the air of fiction. I was not _then_ prepared for all that a woman must meet and endure, who once suffers herself to be betrayed into authorship. She may repent at leisure, like a condemned spirit; but she has passed that barrier from which there is no return. C'est assez,--I will not add a word more, lest it should be said that I have only disclaimed the title of the _Ennuyée_, to assume that of the _Ennuyeuse_. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Page CHAPTER I. A POET'S LOVE 1 CHAPTER II. LOVES OF THE CLASSIC POETS 7 CHAPTER III. THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS 14 CHAPTER IV. THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS (continued) 34 CHAPTER V. GUIDO CAVALCANTI AND MANDETTA.--CINO DA PISTOJA AND SELVAGGIA 55 CHAPTER VI. LAURA 64 CHAPTER VII. LAURA AND PETRARCH (continued) 85 CHAPTER VIII. DANTE AND BEATRICE PORTINARI 105 CHAPTER IX. DANTE AND BEATRICE (continued) 125 CHAPTER X. CHAUCER AND PHILIPPA PICARD.--KING JAMES AND LADY JANE BEAUFORT 133 CHAPTER XI. LORENZO DE' MEDICI AND LUCRETIA DONATI 161 CHAPTER XII. THE FAIR GERALDINE 185 CHAPTER XIII. ARIOSTO, GINEVRA, AND ALESSANDRA STROZZI 198 CHAPTER XIV. SPENSER'S ROSALIND. SPENSER'S ELIZABETH 219 CHAPTER XV. ON THE LOVE OF SHAKSPEARE 237 CHAPTER XVI. SYDNEY'S STELLA (LADY RICH) 249 CHAPTER XVII. COURT AND AGE OF ELIZABETH. DRAYTON, DANIEL, DRUMMOND, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, CLEMENT MAROT AND DIANA DE POICTIER, RONSARD'S CASSANDRE, RONSARD'S MARIE, RONSARD'S HELÈNE 263 CHAPTER XVIII. LEONORA D'ESTE 288 CHAPTER XIX. MILTON AND LEONORA BARONI 330 THE LOVES OF THE POETS. CHAPTER I. A POET'S LOVE.