The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 | Page 5

of an admirer of Dorothy,
who, having had access to the original letters, had made faithful and
loving copies of each one,--accurate even to the old-world spelling.
These labours had been followed up by much patient research, the
fruits of which were now to be generously offered to the present Editor
on condition that he would prepare the letters for the press. The owner
of the letters having courteously expressed his acquiescence, nothing
remained but to give to the task that patient care that it is easy to give to
a labour of love.
A few words of explanation as to the arrangement of the letters.
Although few of them were dated, it was found possible, by minute
analysis of their contents, to place them in approximately correct order;
and if one could not date each letter, one could at least assign groups of

letters to specific months or seasons of the year. The fact that New
Year's day was at this period March 25--a fact sometimes ignored by
antiquarians of high repute--adds greatly to the difficulty of
ascertaining exact dates, and as an instance of this we find in different
chronicles of authority Sir Peter Osborne's death correctly, yet
differently, given as happening in March 1653 and March 1654.
Throughout this volume the ordinary New Year's day has been retained.
The further revision and preparation that the letters have undergone is
shortly this. The spelling has been modernized, the letters punctuated
and arranged in paragraphs, and names indicated by initials have been,
wherever it was possible, written in full. A note has been prefixed to
each letter, printed in a more condensed form than the letter itself, and
dealing with all the allusions contained in it. This system is very fit to
be applied to Dorothy's letters, because, by its use, Dorothy is left to
tell her own story without the constant and irritating references to
footnotes or Appendix notes that other arrangements necessitate. The
Editor has a holy horror of the footnote, and would have it relegated to
those "_biblia a-biblia_" from which class he is sure Elia would
cheerfully except Dorothy's letters. In the notes themselves the
endeavour has been to obtain, where it was possible, parallel references
to letters, diaries, or memoirs, and the Editor can only regret that his
researches, through both MSS. and printed records, have been so little
successful. In the case of well-known men like Algernon Sydney, Lord
Manchester, Edmund Waller, etc., no attempt has been made to write a
complete note,--their lives and works being sufficiently well known;
but in the case of more obscure persons,--as, for instance, Dorothy's
brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Peyton,--all the known details of their
history have been carefully collected. Yet in spite of patience, toil, and
the kindness of learned friends, the Editor is bound to acknowledge that
some names remain mere words to him, and but too many allusions are
mysteriously dim.
The division of the letters into chapters, at first sight an arbitrary
arrangement, really follows their natural grouping. The letters were
written in the years 1653 and 1654, and form a clear and connected
story of the love affairs of the young couple during that time. The most
important group of letters, both from the number of letters contained in

it and the contents of the letters themselves, is that entitled "Life at
Chicksands, 1653." The Editor regards this group as the very mainland
of the epistolary archipelago that we are exploring. For it is in this
chapter that a clear idea of the domestic social life of these troublous
times is obtainable, none the less valuable in that it does not tally
altogether with our preconceived and too romantic notions. Here, too,
we find what Macaulay longed for--those social domestic trivialities
which the historians have at length begun to value rightly. Here are,
indeed, many things of no value to Dryasdust and his friends, but of
moment to us, who look for and find true details of life and character in
nearly every line. And above all things, here is a living presentment of
a beautiful woman, pure in dissolute days, passing quiet hours of
domestic life amongst her own family, where we may all visit her and
hear her voice, even in the very tones in which she spoke to her lover.
And now the Editor feels he must augment Macaulay's sketch of
Dorothy Osborne with some account of the Osborne family, of whom it
consisted, what part it took in the struggle of the day, and what was the
past position of Dorothy's ancestors. All that can be promised is, that
such account shall be as concise as may be consistent with clearness
and accuracy, and that it shall contain nothing but ascertained facts.
There were Osbornes--before there were Osbornes of Chicksands--who,
coming