only by the Accidents that daily
happen in the World." Indeed if it were not for Fielding himself,
one might imagine from Johnson's unsteady and generally
unsatisfactory criticism of prose fiction that the old neo-classical
principles were completely out of date and useless.

Samuel Derrick, the editor of Dryden and friend of Boswell for whom
Johnson "had a kindness" but not much respect, the "pretty little
gentleman" described by Smollett's Lydia Melford, translated the
_Memoirs of the Count Du Beauval_ from _Le Mentor Cavalier, ou Les
Illustres Infortunez de Notre Siecle_ ("Londres," 1736) by the
Marquis d'Argens. Only the second paragraph of Derrick's preface
came from d'Argens, but the drift of the Frenchman's ideas toward
"le Naturel" is well sustained in Derrick's praise, no doubt based
on Warburton's, of writers who present scenes that "are daily found
to move beneath their Inspection." There are ties with the doctrines
of 1641 even in this preface, but the transformation of
_vraisemblance_ and _decorum_ was sufficiently advanced for the
needs of the day.

Benjamin Boyce
Duke University

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[1] Most scholars attribute the preface to Georges de
Scudery, but it seems impossible to say whether he collaborated with
his sister in writing the romance itself or whether the work was
written entirely by her.

Cogan's translation of _Ibrahim_ and the preface appeared first in
1652.

[2] See the texts in Allan H. Gilbert's _Literary
Criticism: Plato to Dryden_ (N.Y.: American Book Co., 1940) and the
discussion in A.E. Parsons' "The English Heroic Play," _MLR_, XXXIII
(1938), 1-14.

[3] _Clelia. An Excellent New Romance. The Fourth Volume
... Rendered into English by G.H._ (1677; Part IV, Book II), pp.
540-543.

[4] See _An Apology for the Life of Mr. Bempfylde-Moore
Carew ... The Sixth Edition_, p. xix; _Critical Remarks on Sir
Charles Grandison_ (1754), p. 20.

[5] IV, 184. The footnote could have come, contrary to the
assertion of Sir Walter Raleigh (_Six Essays_ [Oxford, 1910], p.
94), from either the original French (_Conversations sur Divers
Sujets_ [Paris, 1680], II, 586-587) or the English translation
(1683, II, 102). In both editions, the passage appears soon after
the dialogue on how to compose a romance. I am indebted to Dr.
Arthur M. Eastman for help in tracing Raleigh's vague reference.

[6] _The Moral Characters of Theophrastus_ (1725), pp.
31-32.

[7] Jane Colli