CHARACTER
OF THE
PRINCESS OF CLEVES,
BY THE EDITOR.
THE story of the Princess of Cleves[1], which we now present to our readers, has been long universally allowed to stand foremost in that peculiar species of writing, where historical facts are intermixed with the anecdotes and adventures of private personages. The scene is laid in the court of France, at an era when galantry had risen to its greatest height in that polite nation; though the romantic notions of ancient chivalry had begun to grow obsolete, but were not yet intirely exploded; for we here meet with a tournament, appointed in honour of the princess Elizabeth's marriage with
- ↑ The original of this Novel is in French. The author
has not put any name to the piece, and gives this modest reason for it; "That he would wait 'till he found how it was received by the public, before he would venture to declare himself." The secret has never since transpired.
In this uncertainty, every one is left at liberty to frame a conjecture about the Author; and, in my opinion, this work seems to have been written by some ingenious woman of the age in which it appeared; as the delicacy of sentiment, and peculiar nicety of manners, with which the princess of Cleves conducted herself in the most difficult situations, could only have arisen in the female breast. Men are not apt to imagine such refinements; and even, perhaps, less so to impute them to the sex.
