berlayne's _Pharonnida_--far
the finest production of the English "heroic" school in prose, verse, or
drama--was, when the fancy for abridging set in, condensed into a tiny
prose _Eromena_. But _Ornatus and Artesia_, if more modern, more
decent, and less extravagant than _Parismus_, is nothing like so
interesting to read. It is indeed quite possible that there is, if not
in it, in its popularity, a set-back to the _Arcadia_ itself, which had
been directly followed in Lady Mary Wroth's _Urania_ (1621), and to
which (by the time of the edition noted) Charles I.'s admiration--so
indecently and ignobly referred to by Milton--had given a fresh
attraction for all good anti-Puritans. That an anti-Puritan should be a
romance-lover was almost a necessity.

When the French "heroics" began to appear it was only natural that they
should be translated, and scarcely less so that they should be imitated
in England. For they were not far off the _Arcadia_ pattern: and they
were a distinct and considerable effort to supply the appetite for
fiction which has been dwelt upon. But except for this, and for
fashion's sake, they did not contain much that would appeal to an
English taste: and it is a little significant that one great reader of
them who is known to us--Mrs. Pepys--was a Frenchwoman. Indeed, save for
the very considerable "pastime" of a kind that they gave to a time, much
of which required passing, it is difficult to understand their
attraction for English readers. Their interminable talk never (till
perhaps very recently) was a thing to suit our nation: and the "key"
interest strikes us at any rate as of the most languid kind. But they
_were_ imitated as well as translated: and the three most famous of the
imitations are the work of men of mark in their different ways. These
are the _Parthenissa_ (1654) of Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill and Earl of
Orrery; the _Aretina_ (1661) of Sir George Mackenzie; and the _Pandion
and Amphigeneia_ (1665) of "starch Johnny" Crowne.

Boyle was a strong Francophile in literature, and his not inconsiderable
influence on the development of the heroic _play_ showed it only less
decidedly than his imitation of the Scudery romance. I cannot say that I
have read _Parthenissa_ through: and I can say that I do not intend to
do so. It is enough to have read Sainte Madeleine of the Ink-Desert
herself, without reading bad imitations of her. But I have read enough
to know that _Parthenissa_ would never give