235 



papers of the former, sliould have been attributed to the latter by the 

 anonymous editor of the MS. ^^Memoires," whose inaccurate recollec- 

 tion of other circumstances connected with these " Memoires" I think I 

 have established. 



MADAME D'AULlirOY, 



JS'er Voyage d' Espagne,'''' and Cour d'' EspagneP 



I now come to a brief examination of Madame d'Aulnoy's celebrated 

 " Travels in Spain," and her less known, but to us more interesting 

 " Memoirs of the Court of Spain." This inquiry has an historical im- 

 portance, which, in a bibliographical point of view, perhaps, it cannot 

 lay claim to. The very curious statements contained in both works, 

 particularly in the latter, would, if taken merely on her own authority, 

 possess little if any value. It is therefore important to discover, if pos- 

 sible, the source from which she derived those minute details of courtly 

 intrigue which form so large a portion of her amusing narratives. 



Her Relation du Voyage d'Espagne" was first published at Paris 

 in 1691. It has frequently been reprinted, my own copy being that 

 published at the Hague in 1715. It has always been very popular in 

 England, under the name of The Lady's Travels," of which the eleventh 

 edition was published in 1808, in two volumes. Her Memoires de la 

 Cour d'Espagne" were first published, as I have already said, at Paris 

 in 1690. This book seems at first to have met with the same favourable 

 reception in England as her travels, which it does not appear to have 

 retained. It was translated into English by the facetious Tom Brown, 

 in 1692, but I am not aware of its having been ever reprinted. 



These works appear to have met with less favour in Erance than in 

 foreign countries, at least as far as any belief in their marvellous state- 



* " Memoirs of the Court of Spain. In Two Parts. Written by an Ingenious 

 French Lady. Done into English by T. Brown. Utile Dulci." London, 1692. 



Since this paper was written, 1 have met with a later edition of this translation, having 

 the following fuller title, but differing in no other respect, except being printed on better 

 and larger paper, from the edition of 1692, which it does not mention : — " Memoirs of the 

 Present State of the Court and Councils of Spain. In Two Parts. With the true Reasons wliy 

 this vast Monarchy, which in the last Century made so considerable a Figure in the World, 

 is in this so Feeble and Paralytick." London, 1701. They both contain an amusing 

 " Epistle Dedicatory" " To His Honest Friend Mr. William Pate of London, Woollen- 

 Draper," in which the facetious Tom Brown translates the line, Fenitus toto divisos 

 Orbe Britannos," " The Britons are the most divided people in the whole world." I have 

 another old translation, but of a different book altogether, called " The Present Court of 

 Spain, Or the Modern Gallantry of the Spanish Mobility unfolded, &c. By the Inge- 

 nious Lady — — , Author of ' The Memoirs and Travels into Spain.' Done into English 

 by J. P. London, 1693."' 



This last seems to be a mere fabrication. It is a collection of love-letters, more senti- 

 mental and more unreal, however, than the " Memoires de la Cour d'Angleterre," also 

 attributed to Madame d'Aulnoy, of which the Duke of Monmouth may be considered 

 the hero, and of which I have an edition, in two small volumes, printed at the Hague in 

 1795. 



E. I. A, PEOC. VOL. VIII. 2 I 



