Romances and Novels. 157 



Don Quixote. This performance was expressly 

 intended to pour ridicule on those masses of ab- 

 surdity and impurity which had so long maintained 

 an influence over the w r orld. Few works were 

 ever so much read, or so effectually answered 

 their proposed end. Its effect was equal to the 

 most sanguine expectations of the author. It 'de- 

 stroyed the reign of chivalry; produced a new 

 modification of public taste; occasioned the death 

 of the old romance; and gave birth to another 

 species of fictitious writing. 



This may be called romance divested of its most 

 extravagant and exceptionable characters. In the 

 works of this kind the heroism and the gallantry 

 of the old romance were in a degree retained ; but 

 the dragons, the necromancers, and the enchanted 

 castles, were chiefly banished, and a nearer ap- 

 proach made to the descriptions of real life. The 

 JstneaofM. D'Urfe, and the Grand Cyrus, the 

 Clelia, and the Cleopatra, of Madame Scudery, 

 are among the most memorable specimens of ro- 

 mance thus pruned and improved. These works, 

 however, had still too much of the improbable and 

 unnatural to please a just taste; and therefore gave 

 way to a further improvement, which was the in- 

 troduction of the modern Novel. 



The word Novel is intended to express that kind 

 of fictitious history, which presents natural and 

 probable exhibitions of modern manners and cha- 

 racters." In this species of writing the extrava- 



n Most writers on this subject employ the word Romance to express both 

 those performances which pourtrayed ancient manners, with all the ex- 

 travagance and folly of chivalry ; and those which depict modern manners 

 true to nature and life. But since the word Romance is considered as in- 

 variably expressive of something wild, unreal, and far removed from com- 

 mon practice, ought not some other word to be adopted, to designate those 

 fictitious works which profess to instruct or entertain by describing com- 

 mon life and real characters ? And is not the word Novel well suited to 

 this purpose of discrimination ? This word has long been used ; but, if I 

 do not mistake, in many instances, without that accuracy of application 

 which is desirable. 



