xxviii Editor's Preface 



one " Plays " I do not believe to have given it a very proper 

 title ; for it would be too great a fondness to my works to 

 think such plays as these suitable to ancient rules, in which 

 I pretend no skill ; or agreeable to the modern humour, to 

 which I dare acknowledge my aversion : but having pleased 

 my fancy in writing many dialogues upon several subjects, 

 and having afterwards ordered them into acts and scenes, I 

 will venture in spite of the critics to call them " Plays " ; and 

 if you like them so, well and good ; if not, there is no harm 

 done ' 1 . 



But the philosophical, or rather scientific works of the 

 Duchess, were those of which she herself was most proud, and 

 those which were most famous in her time. The first of 

 these was the Philosophical Fancies (London, 1653), afterwards 

 developed into Philosophical Opinions (London, 1655), and 

 still further enlarged and amended in the second edition of 

 Philosophical Opinions in 1663. In some verses on this book, 

 quoted in the note to page 303, she terms it ' of all that I have 

 writ, my best beloved and greatest favourite'. Already, 

 in her Poems in 1653, and inTheWorld's Olio, published in 1655, 

 she had set forth some of her views on natural philosophy. 

 One of the dozen prefaces to her Poems is specially addressed 

 ' to natural philosophers '. She pleads her complete ignorance 

 of the works of former writers on the subject, and the fact 

 that she understands no language but her own, and only 

 colloquial English, as reasons for a kindly judgment of her 

 speculations. In the remarks attached to Philosophical 

 Opinions she prides herself that her views are all her own, 

 and all new. ' I desire all those that are friends to my book 

 to believe that whatsoever is new is my own, which I hope 

 all is ; for I never had any guide to direct me, nor intelligence 

 from any authors to advertise me, but writ according to my 

 own natural cogitations'. As might be expected from these 

 confessions, the ponderous tomes on science and philosophy 

 which the Duchess published are entirely valueless. This 

 was not only due to the ignorance of the writings of others, 

 which the Duchess admits, but to the method which she 

 adopted in reasoning on physical science. One of her cor- 

 respondents, Glanville, points this out to her. ' There are 



1 There is a very fine portrait of the Duchess by Diepenbeck as frontispiece to the 

 Plays. 



