Behold, Reader, that which I had to say to you, but what defence soever, I have imployed, I know that it is of works of this nature, as of a place of War, where notwithstanding all the care the Engineer hath brought to fortifie it, there is alwayes some weak part found, which he hath not dream’d of, and whereby it is assaulted; but this shall not surprize me; for as I have not forgot that I am a man, no more have I forgot that I am subject to erre.

THE

Secret History

OF

Queen ZARAH,

AND THE

Zarazians;

BEING A

Looking-glass

FOR

----- --------

In the Kingdom of

ALBIGION.

Faithfully Translated from the Italian Copy now lodg’d in the Vatican at Rome, and never before Printed in any Language.

Albigion, Printed in the Year 1705.

Price Stitch’d 1 s. Price Bound 1 s. 6 d.

  TO THE

  READER.

The Romances in France have for a long Time been the Diversion and Amusement of the whole World; the People both in the City and at Court have given themselves over to this Vice, and all Sorts of People have read these Works with a most surprizing Greediness; but that Fury is very much abated, and they are all fallen off from this Distraction:  The Little Histories of this Kind have taken Place of Romances, whose Prodigious Number of Volumes were sufficient to tire and satiate such whose Heads were most fill’d with those Notions.

These little Pieces which have banish’d Romances are much more agreeable to the Brisk and Impetuous Humour of the English, who have naturally no Taste for long-winded Performances, for they have no sooner begun a Book, but they desire to see the End of it:  The Prodigious Length of the Ancient Romances, the Mixture of so many Extraordinary Adventures, and the great Number of Actors that appear on the Stage, and the Likeness which is so little managed, all which has given a Distaste to Persons of good Sense, and has made Romances so much cry’d down, as we find ’em at present.  The Authors of Historical Novels, who have found out this Fault, have run into the same Error, because they take for the Foundation of their History no more than one Principal Event, and don’t overcharge it with Episodes, which wou’d extend it to an Excessive Length; but they are run into another Fault, which I cannot Pardon, that is, to please by Variety the Taste of the Reader, they mix particular Stories with the Principal History, which seems to me as if they reason’d Ill; in Effect the Curiosity of the Reader is deceiv’d