CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION by the Editor. A tri- bute from partial friendship to departed excellence, without any base admixture of envy or vanity, containing the life and opinions of the late Mrs. Prudentia Home- CHAPTER I. CHAPTER II. The heroine liberated from a convent to be confined in a castle, where, having en- VOL. I. b CHAPTER VI. An instance of Mrs. Prudentia's bad man. agement. Hymen pops into the first volume with very little pre-arrangement, ΤΗΣ REFUSAL. INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR. I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. What if he should only counterfeit ! SHAKESPEARE. It is with the deepest concern that I announce to the public the demise of that inimitable author, Mrs. Prudentia Homespun. Her unrivalled talents and unimpeached celebrity render eulogium impertinent; otherwise I should observe, that she was matchless in taste, unique in style, and absolutely transcendent in every department of literature. Yet, by a singular felicity of temperament, this lofty eminence in the temple of fame did B not in the least injure the engaging simplicity of her character; and, by a rare concurrence of events, she was courted and respected by her superiors, admired and loved by her equals, and revered by her inferiors. Slander never tainted her fame, and envy never haunted her steps. So great was her literary reputation, so enchanting were her manners, that I am convinced the highest connections, and the most lucrative places and pensions, courted her acceptance; nay, (though she never told me so) that she absolutely refused many valuable presents. I can only attribute it to some almost blameable peculiarity in her disposition, that she rejected these splendid allurements, and with more than Spartan rigidity spent her life in parsimonious obscurity. I confess, these are conjectures of my own, but I can no otherwise account for such an author remaining in a first floor at Danbury, during an age so distinguished for its liberal patronage of science and intellect. Probably this mystery will be developed in the next volume of "Public Characters," as that inimitable work is constantly enriched with a profusion of anecdotes, and a disclosure of motives, which absolutely astonish the most intimate associates of the parties of whom they are related. To return to my lamented, incomparable—friend, I was going to add, but recollecting that such a term might be twisted into an insinuation that I meant to affect reciprocity of character, and knowing that not only humility but also self-abasement is strictly required in every new adventurer on the ocean of literature, I here proclaim, with blushing consciousness, my total unworthiness of that inestim |
