[356] Rabelais by Urquhart, London, 1653, 8vo; Cervantes in 1612; and again by T. Shelton in 1620 and by J. Philips, 1687.
[357] Scarron's "Comical romance: or a facetious history of a company of strowling stage-players," London, 1676, fol. Preface to the continuation. The translator is at some pains to anglicize his original; when Scarron speaks of Paris, the translator puts London; Ragotin is heard defending Spenser (chapter xv.). The poet in Scarron brags of his acquaintance with Corneille and Rotrou, and in the English text, with Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Jonson (chap. viii.). There were other translations of Scarron: "The whole comical works of M. Scarron," translated by Mr. T. Brown, Mr. Savage, and others, London, 1700, 8vo; "The comic romance," translated by O. Goldsmith, Dublin, 1780(?) 2 vol. 12mo. His shorter novels or stories were separately translated by John Davies, who states in the preface of "The unexpected Choice," London, 1670, that he did so at the suggestion of the late Catherine Philips, the matchless Orinda.
[358] "The extravagant Shepherd, the anti-romance, or the history of the shepherd Lysis," London, 1653, another edition 1660. Strange to say, besides some adaptations from Spanish authors ("La Picara," 1665; "Donna Rosina," 1700?), a translation of Voiture's Letters, 1657, the same John Davies of Kidwelly, who had written this eloquent appeal against heroical romances, translated "Clelia," 1656, and part of "Cleopatra" in conjunction with Loveday.
[359] See also in Furetière's "Roman bourgeois" how the reading of "Astrée" made of Javotte "la plus grande causeuse et la plus coquette fille du quartier" (Ed. Janet, i. p. 173).
[360] "The Adventures of Covent Garden, in imitation of Scarron's city romance," London, 1699, 16mo. "Scarron" is here evidently for "Furetière." This work, the author of which is unknown, has long been forgotten, though deserving a better fate. It is dedicated "to all my ingenious acquaintance at Will's coffee-house."
[361] Cf. Molière: "Je voudrais bien savoir si la grande règle de toutes les règles n'est pas de plaire, et si une pièce de théâtre qui a attrapé son but n'a pas suivi un bon chemin.... Laissons nous aller de bonne foi aux choses qui nous prennent par les entrailles et ne cherchons point de raisonnements pour nous empècher d'avoir du plaisir" ("Critique de l'Ecole des Femmes," sc. 7).
[362] "Double Dealer," by Congreve; "Plot and no Plot," by Dennis; "Beauty in distress," by Motteux.
[363] By T. D., perhaps T. Duffet (Bullen), London, Bentley, 1676, 12mo.
[364] From his "Histoire d'Alcidalis et Zélide." Voiture had begun it in 1633 in the style fashionable at the Hôtel de Rambouillet, and even, as he pretends, with the help of Mdlle. de Rambouillet, to whom it is dedicated. It was left unfinished and was published after his death, being completed by Desbarres. A regular translation of it was published in English in 1678.
[365] These two pieces which appeared in 1730 and 1734 are not, as is often stated, caricatures of classical tragedy. In the same way as the Duke of Buckingham in his "Rehearsal" (1671), Fielding and Carey ridicule heroic drama, born of romance à la Scudéry, as Dryden and his followers had understood it.