The Monk | Page 3

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Bean- Many oddball caps, hyphens, punctuation. Ancient spellings. Adjusted the commas in a big way, and some hyphens. Left the spellings alone, unless an OCR error. Think I got 2 spaces after most of the periods,!,?. Went over this one twice- first time I've done that in over 100 of these books- another round wouldn't hurt, if somebody has a hardcopy.

This Etext prepared by Charles E. Keller

MATTHEW LEWIS

THE MONK - A ROMANCE
Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas, Nocturnos lemures, portentaque. Horat.
Dreams, magic terrors, spells of mighty power, Witches, and ghosts who rove at midnight hour.
PREFACE
IMITATION OF HORACE Ep. 20.--B. 1.
Methinks, Oh! vain ill-judging Book, I see thee cast a wishful look, Where reputations won and lost are In famous row called Paternoster. Incensed to find your precious olio Buried in unexplored port-folio, You scorn the prudent lock and key, And pant well bound and gilt to see Your Volume in the window set Of Stockdale, Hookham, or Debrett.
Go then, and pass that dangerous bourn Whence never Book can back return: And when you find, condemned, despised, Neglected, blamed, and criticised, Abuse from All who read you fall, (If haply you be read at all Sorely will you your folly sigh at, And wish for me, and home, and quiet.
Assuming now a conjuror's office, I Thus on your future Fortune prophesy:-- Soon as your novelty is o'er, And you are young and new no more, In some dark dirty corner thrown, Mouldy with damps, with cobwebs strown, Your leaves shall be the Book-worm's prey; Or sent to Chandler-Shop away, And doomed to suffer public scandal, Shall line the trunk, or wrap the candle!
But should you meet with approbation, And some one find an inclination To ask, by natural transition Respecting me and my condition; That I am one, the enquirer teach, Nor very poor, nor very rich; Of passions strong, of hasty nature, Of graceless form and dwarfish stature; By few approved, and few approving; Extreme in hating and in loving;
Abhorring all whom I dislike, Adoring who my fancy strike; In forming judgements never long, And for the most part judging wrong; In friendship firm, but still believing Others are treacherous and deceiving, And thinking in the present aera That Friendship is a pure chimaera: More passionate no creature living, Proud, obstinate, and unforgiving, But yet for those who kindness show, Ready through fire and smoke to go.
Again, should it be asked your page, 'Pray, what may be the author's age?' Your faults, no doubt, will make it clear, I scarce have seen my twentieth year, Which passed, kind Reader, on my word, While England's Throne held George the Third.
Now then your venturous course pursue: Go, my delight! Dear Book, adieu!
Hague, Oct. 28, 1794. M. G. L.
ADVERTISEMENT The first idea of this Romance was suggested by the story of the Santon Barsisa, related in The Guardian.--The Bleeding Nun is a tradition still credited in many parts of Germany; and I have been told that the ruins of the Castle of Lauenstein, which She is supposed to haunt, may yet be seen upon the borders of Thuringia.--The Water-King, from the third to the twelfth stanza, is the fragment of an original Danish Ballad--And Belerma and Durandarte is translated from some stanzas to be found in a collection of old Spanish poetry, which contains also the popular song of Gayferos and Melesindra, mentioned in Don Quixote.--I have now made a full avowal of all the plagiarisms of which I am aware myself; but I doubt not, many more may be found, of which I am at present totally unconscious.

VOLUME I


CHAPTER I
----Lord Angelo is precise; Stands at a guard with envy; Scarce confesses That his blood flows, or that his appetite Is more to bread than stone. Measure for Measure.
Scarcely had the Abbey Bell tolled for five minutes,and already was the Church of the Capuchins thronged with Auditors. Do not encourage the idea that the Crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or thirst of information. But very few were influenced by those reasons; and in a city where superstition reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be a fruitless attempt. The Audience now assembled in the Capuchin Church was collected by various causes, but all of them were foreign to the ostensible motive. The Women came to show themselves, the Men to see the Women: Some were attracted by curiosity to hear an Orator