f, I have employed all my care so to doe, that
all parts of my work may tend to that conclusion; that there may be
a strong connexion between them; and that, except the obstacle which
Fortune opposeth to the desires of my _Hero_'s, all things may
advance, or at leastwise endeavour to advance his marriage, which is
the end of my labour. Now those great Geniusses of antiquity, from
whom I borrow my light, knowing that well-ordering is one of the
principal parts of a piece, have given so excellent a one to their
speaking Pictures, that it would be as much stupidity, as pride, not
to imitate them. They have not done like those Painters, who present
in one and the same cloth a Prince in the Cradle, upon the Throne,
and in the Tombe, perplexing, by this so little judicious a
confusion, him that considers their work; but with an incomparable
address they begin their History in the midle, so to give some
suspence to the Reader, even from the first opening of the Book; and
to confine themselves within reasonable bounds they have made the
History (as I likewise have done after them) not to last above a
year, the rest being delivered by Narration. Thus all things being
ingeniously placed, and of a just greatness, no doubt, but pleasure
will redound from thence to him that beholds them, and glory to him
that hath done them. But amongst all the rules which are to be
observed in the composition of these works, that of true resemblance
is without question the most necessary; it is, as it were, the
fundamental stone of this building, and but upon which it cannot
subsist; without it nothing can move, without it nothing can please:
and if this charming deceiver doth not beguile the mind in
_Romanzes_, this kinde of reading disgusts, instead of entertaining
it: I have laboured then never to eloigne my self from it, and to
that purpose I have observed the Manners, Customs, Religions, and
Inclinations of People: and to give a more true resemblance to
things, I have made the foundations of my work Historical, my
principal Personages such as are marked out in the true History for
illustrious persons, and the wars effective. This is the way
doubtless, whereby one may arrive at his end; for when as falshood
and truth are confounded by a dexterous hand, wit hath much adoe to
disintangle them, and is not easily carried to destroy that which
pleaseth it; contrarily, whenas invention doth not make use of this
artifice, and that falshood is produced