n the heart of London in an antiquarian bookseller's
shop.

Fortunately, however, for our literature and for students of the
manners of the commonality of the period it was seen by a colleague,
who wondered why he did not know it. After purchasing it he found the
reason why--the Bodleian Library alone possessed a copy of the work
(imperfect); later a copy of the first part (only) appeared in the
last portion of the sale of the great Huth Collection. The present
text is taken from the perfect copy mentioned above.

The curious title rather damns the literary interest of the book,
which presents pictures of the cit and his wife at work and play
which Fielding, had he lived in the seventeenth century, might have
written. It is thought that the book was printed in Holland, and if
so, it may well be that the ship carrying the printed sheets to
England foundered in the North Sea, or was sunk by enemy craft. There
can be no doubt that such a work would not have escaped the wits of
the time; if it had survived for ordinary circulation, mention would
have been made of it, however small an edition had been sold. No other
so likely reason for its extreme rarity presents itself.

It is reprinted, as faithfully as the altered manners of our time
permit, with a Preface by John Harvey, who attributes the work to the
industrious and sometimes brilliant Mrs Aphra Behn, a discovery which
the Navarre Society believe to be well grounded. They hope that the
issue of the book to their subscribers may help to confirm or refute
that lady's responsibility for so graceless an attack upon her sex.
Whether she did or did not write it, the fact remains that a work so
vividly representative of Restoration life and literature is rescued
from the obscurity to which its scarceness has hitherto condemned it
and worthily preserved for scholars and amateurs of the future.

* * * * *

THE TEN

PLEASURES

OF

MARRIAGE.

* * * * *

THE TEN

PLEASURES

OF

MARRIAGE,

_Relating_

All the delights and contentments that are mask'd under the bands of
Matrimony.

Written by A. MARSH, Typogr.

LONDON,

Printed in the Year, 1682.

* * * * *

TO THE READER.

Courteous Reader,

_This small Treatise which I here present unto th