Incognita

Incognita

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Incognita, by William Congreve
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Title: Incognita or, Love & Duty Reconil'd. A Novel
Author: William Congreve
Release Date: May 8, 2005 [eBook #2363]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
INCOGNITA***

Transcribed from the text of the first edition by David Price, email
[email protected]

INCOGNITA: OR, LOVE AND DUTY RECONCIL'D A NOVEL by
William Congreve
TO THE Honoured and Worthily Esteem'd Mrs. Katharine Leveson.
Madam,
A Clear Wit, sound Judgment and a Merciful Disposition, are things so
rarely united, that it is almost inexcusable to entertain them with any
thing less excellent in its kind. My knowledge of you were a sufficient
Caution to me, to avoid your Censure of this Trifle, had I not as intire a
knowledge of your Goodness. Since I have drawn my Pen for a
Rencounter, I think it better to engage where, though there be Skill
enough to Disarm me, there is too much Generosity to Wound; for so
shall I have the saving Reputation of an unsuccessful Courage, if I

cannot make it a drawn Battle. But methinks the Comparison intimates
something of a Defiance, and savours of Arrogance; wherefore since I
am Conscious to my self of a Fear which I cannot put off, let me use
the Policy of Cowards and lay this Novel unarm'd, naked and shivering
at your Feet, so that if it should want Merit to challenge Protection, yet,
as an Object of Charity, it may move Compassion. It has been some
Diversion to me to Write it, I wish it may prove such to you when you
have an hour to throw away in Reading of it: but this Satisfaction I
have at least beforehand, that in its greatest failings it may fly for
Pardon to that Indulgence which you owe to the weakness of your
Friend; a Title which I am proud you have thought me worthy of, and
which I think can alone be superior to that
Your most Humble and Obliged Servant CLEOPHIL.

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.
Reader,
Some Authors are so fond of a Preface, that they will write one tho'
there be nothing more in it than an Apology for its self. But to show
thee that I am not one of those, I will make no Apology for this, but do
tell thee that I think it necessary to be prefix'd to this Trifle, to prevent
thy overlooking some little pains which I have taken in the
Composition of the following Story. Romances are generally composed
of the Constant Loves and invincible Courages of Hero's, Heroins,
Kings and Queens, Mortals of the first Rank, and so forth; where lofty
Language, miraculous Contingencies and impossible Performances,
elevate and surprize the Reader into a giddy Delight, which leaves him
flat upon the Ground whenever he gives of, and vexes him to think how
he has suffer'd himself to be pleased and transported, concern'd and
afflicted at the several Passages which he has Read, viz. these Knights
Success to their Damosels Misfortunes, and such like, when he is
forced to be very well convinced that 'tis all a lye. Novels are of a more
familiar nature; Come near us, and represent to us Intrigues in practice,
delight us with Accidents and odd Events, but not such as are wholly
unusual or unpresidented, such which not being so distant from our
Belief bring also the pleasure nearer us. Romances give more of

Wonder, Novels more Delight. And with reverence be it spoken, and
the Parallel kept at due distance, there is something of equality in the
Proportion which they bear in reference to one another, with that
betwen Comedy and Tragedy; but the Drama is the long extracted from
Romance and History: 'tis the Midwife to Industry, and brings forth
alive the Conceptions of the Brain. Minerva walks upon the Stage
before us, and we are more assured of the real presence of Wit when it
is delivered viva voce--
Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, Quam quae sunt oculis
subjecta fidelibus, & quae Ipse sibi tradit spectator.--Horace.
Since all Traditions must indisputably give place to the Drama, and
since there is no possibility of giving that life to the Writing or
Repetition of a Story which it has in the Action, I resolved in another
beauty to imitate Dramatick Writing, namely, in the Design, Contexture
and Result of the Plot. I have not observed it before in a Novel. Some I
have seen begin with