Written in Imitation of The Manner of CERVANTES, BY HENRY FIELDING, Efquire. The THIRD EDITION, illuftrated with CUTS. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed for A. MILLAR, oppofite to Katharine BRARY INDIANA U رمست PREFACE. A S it is poffible the mere English Reader may have a different Idea of Romance with the Author of thefe little Volumes; and may confequently expect a kind of Entertainment not to be found, nor which was even intended, in the following Pages; it may not be improper to premife a few Words concerning this kind of Writing, which I do not remember to have feen hitherto attempted in our Language. The EPIC, as well as the DRAMA, is divided into Tragedy and Comedy. HOMER, who was the Father of this Species of Poetry, gave us a Pattern of both thefe, tho' that of the latter kind is entirely left; which Aristotle tells us, bore the fame Relation to Comedy which his Iliad bears to Tragedy. And perhaps, that we have no more Inftances of it among the Writers of Antiquity, is owing to the Lofs of this great Pattern, which, had it fur A vived, |