This will be farther explained in Letter 113. ↩
Mr. Lovelace might have spared this caution on this occasion, since many of the sex (we mention it with regret) who on the first publication had read thus far, and even to the lady’s first escape, have been readier to censure her for over-niceness, as we have observed in a former note, [note 57], than him for artifices and exultations not less cruel and ungrateful, than ungenerous and unmanly. ↩
The particular attention of such of the fair sex, as are more apt to read for the sake of amusement than instruction, is requested to this letter of Mr. Lovelace. ↩
The story tells us, that whoever drank of this cup, if his wife were chaste, could drink without spilling; if otherwise, the contrary. ↩
This word, whenever used by any of these gentlemen, was agreed to imply an inviolable secret. ↩
See his Letter to Joseph Leman, Letter 95, towards the end, where he tells him, he would contrive for him a letter of this nature to copy. ↩
Mr. Lovelace is as much out in his conjecture of Solomon, as of Socrates. The passage is in Ecclesiasticus, chap. 25.
Ecclesiasticus is a book originally included within the King James Bible, but now regarded as part of the Apocrypha. —Editor ↩
See his reasons for proposing Windsor, Letter 117—and her Hannah, Letter 118. ↩
That he proposes one day to reform, and that he has sometimes good motions, see Letter 34. ↩
He had said, Letter 110, that he would make reformation his stalking-horse, etc. ↩
This letter Mrs. Greme (with no bad design on her part) was put upon writing by Mr. Lovelace himself, as will be seen in Letter 127. ↩
This inference of the Lady in his favour is exactly what he had hoped for. See Letter 117. ↩
See this confirmed by Mr. Lovelace, Letter 103. ↩
See Letter 120. ↩
See Letter 111. ↩
See Letter 100. ↩
The reader will see how Miss Howe accounts for this, in Letter 128. ↩
Luke 15:7. The parable is concerning the Ninety-nine Sheep, not the Prodigal Son, as Mr. Lovelace erroneously imagines. ↩
See Letter 116. ↩
The reader, perhaps, need not be reminded that he had taken care from the first (see Letter 31) to deprive her of any protection from Mrs. Howe. See in his next letter, a repeated account of the same artifices, and his exultations upon his inventions to impose upon the two such watchful ladies as Clarissa and Miss Howe. ↩
The reader is referred to Mr. Lovelace’s next letter, for his motives in making the several proposals of which the Lady is willing to think so well. ↩
Antonio Perez was first minister of Philip II king of Spain, by whose command he caused Don Juan de Escovedo to be assassinated: which brought on his own ruin, through the perfidy of his viler master.
—Gedde’s TractsSee Letter 123. ↩
See Letter 128. ↩
The contents of the Letter referred to are given in Letter 116. ↩
The reader who has seen his account, which Miss Howe could not have seen, when she wrote thus, will observe that it was not possible for a person of her true delicacy of mind to act otherwise than she did, to a man so cruelly and so insolently artful. ↩
See Letter 137. ↩
See Letter 110. ↩
See Letter 118. ↩
This letter was from Miss Arabella Harlowe. See Letter 147. ↩
Notwithstanding what Mrs. Hervey here says, it will be hereafter seen that this severe letter was written in private concert with the implacable Arabella. ↩
Mr. Lovelace, in his next Letter, tells his friend how extremely ill the Lady was, recovering
