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]