Price Stitch'd 1 _s._ Price Bound 1 _s._ 6 _d._




TO THE

READER.


_The Romances in_ France _have for a long Time been the Diversion
and Amusement of the whole World; the People both in the City and at
Court have given themselves over to this Vice, and all Sorts of
People have read these Works with a most surprizing Greediness; but
that Fury is very much abated, and they are all fallen off from this
Distraction: The Little_ Histories _of this Kind have taken Place
of_ Romances, _whose Prodigious Number of Volumes were sufficient to
tire and satiate such whose Heads were most fill'd with those
Notions._

_These little Pieces which have banish'd_ Romances _are much more
agreeable to the Brisk and Impetuous Humour of the_ English, _who have
naturally no Taste for long-winded Performances, for they have no
sooner begun a Book, but they desire to see the End of it: The
Prodigious Length of the Ancient_ Romances, _the Mixture of so many
Extraordinary Adventures, and the great Number of Actors that appear
on the Stage, and the Likeness which is so little managed, all which
has given a Distaste to Persons of good Sense, and has made Romances
so much cry'd down, as we find 'em at present. The Authors of