In fact the verse and prose romances of the time are very closely connected: and Chamberlayne's _Pharonnida_--far the finest production of the English "heroic" school in prose, verse, or drama--was, when the fancy for abridging set in, condensed into a tiny prose _Eromena_.

But _Ornatus and Artesia_, if more modern, more decent, and less extravagant than _Parismus_, is nothing like so interesting to read.

It is indeed quite possible that there is, if not in it, in its popularity, a set-back to the _Arcadia_ itself, which had been directly followed in Lady Mary Wroth's _Urania_ (1621), and to which (by the time of the edition noted) Charles I.'s admiration--so indecently and ignobly referred to by Milton--had given a fresh attraction for all good anti-Puritans.

That an anti-Puritan should be a romance-lover was almost a necessity.
When the French "heroics" began to appear it was only natural that they should be translated, and scarcely less so that they should be imitated in England.

For they were not far off the _Arcadia_ pattern: and they were a distinct and considerable effort to supply the appetite for fiction which has been dwelt upon.