THE PREFACE.

THE Age is grown so Critical, now a-days, that a Book dares not appear without a Preface, or an Epistle to it; for fear of being Cen∣sur'd, which obliges me not to be singular. As to this Decameron of Novels; they are Spanish Relations, Written by a Fa∣mous Author of that Kingdom. One of the most Refin'd Wits of France, thought it worth his Pains, to render it into the Language of his Country, with all the Graces and Advantages it might derive from either; I have done it out of the Latter, with a Freedom of Alteration, and Addition, as my Fancy led me, to make it the most divertive I could in ours, which is the only Recommendation of things of this Nature. The Word Deca∣meron is derived from the Greek; tho the Learned Boccace thought fit to make use of it, in his Book of Tales; which Page  [unnumbered] he divides into ten Days, of whom Count Balthazar in his Preface to his Courtier, makes mention, and affirms, that his Work of Recreation (meaning his De∣cameron) brought him more Honour, than all those more Serious Pieces which he Compos'd. As to these Novels in the main, they are Concise, and carried on with much ease and freedom; whereby the Reader might be diverted, and not tir'd, and receive profitable Advice how to avoid those Dangers, and Inconve∣niences others have run themselves into. As to the Plots, and Contrivances of these Stories, in the Original they have been so well approv'd of, by many of our Modern, and most Ingenious Poets, in∣somuch, that many of their Plays have been built upon these Foundations. I have no more to satisfie the Reader in at the present, only, that the Englishing of them has been a Diversion to me, and I hope to others they will not be unplea∣sant.