Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source: Google Books
Philip Augustus, or, The brothers in arms
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford), 1801?-1860
Published 1837
Publisher London: R. Bentley; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute
Web Archive: https://archive.org/details/philipaugustusor00jame
2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].

STANDARD

NOVELS.

No. LIX.

"No kind of literature is so generally attractive as Fiction. Pictures of life and manners, and Stories of adventure, are more eagerly received by the many than graver productions, however important these latter maybe. APULEIUS is better remembered by his fable of Cupid and Psyche than by his abstruser Platonic writings; and the Decameron of BOCCACCIO has outlived the Latin Treatises, and other learned works of that author."

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PHILIP AUGUSTUS.

COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME.

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LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; J. CUMMING, DUBLIN. 1837.

London: Printed by A. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square.

PHILIP AUGUSTUS;

OR,

THE BROTHERS IN ARMS.

------------------- "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."--Henry IV. -------------------

BY THE AUTHOR OF "DARNLEY," "ATTILA," &c.

REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES, ETC. BY THE AUTHOR.

-------------------

LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET; BELL AND BRADFUTE. EDINBURGH; J. CUMMING, DUBLIN. 1837.

TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. LL.D.

MY DEAR SIR,

Were this book even a great deal better than an author's partiality for his literary offspring can make me believe, I should still have some hesitation in dedicating it to you, if the fact of your allowing me to do so implied any thing but your own kindness of heart. I think now, on reading it again, as I thought twelve months ago when I wrote it, that it is the best thing that I have yet composed; but were it a thousand times better in every respect than any thing I ever have or ever shall produce, it would still, I am conscious, be very unworthy of your acceptance, and very inferior to what I could wish to offer.

Notwithstanding all your present fame, I am convinced that future years, by adding hourly to the reputation you have already acquired, will justify my feelings towards your works, and that your writings will be amongst the few--the very few--which each age in dying bequeaths to the thousand ages to come.

However, it is with no view of giving a borrowed lustre to my book that I distinguish this page by placing in it your name. Regard, esteem, and admiration, are surely sufficient motives for seeking to offer you some tribute, and sufficient apology, though that tribute be very inferior to the wishes of,

My dear Sir,
Your very faithful Servant,

G. P. R. JAMES.

Maxpoffle, near Melrose, Roxburghshire,
May 25, 1831.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE NEW EDITION IN THE STANDARD NOVELS. ---------------

I have little to say regarding this work, which has been received by the public with so much favour, as to dispense with the necessity of any apology on the part of the author for the faults that it contains. Some persons, indeed, have objected to that part of the dedication to the first edition, in which I stated my belief that Philip Augustus was the best romance I had at that time written. I cannot, however, see any presumption in comparing my own works amongst themselves, when I neither make any reference to those of others, nor seek to bow public taste to my individual opinion. I am perfectly sensible that Philip Augustus has many errors; the chief of which, perhaps, is the slender connection between the two stories which run through the book. This I have found it utterly impossible to remedy, and I have, therefore, in this edition, confined my alterations to some verbal corrections, to the addition of some notes, and to the cutting out of some heavy poetry which had nothing to do with the story.

Fair Oak Lodge,
Aug. 15, 1837.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FIRST EDITION. ---------------

Very few words of preface are necessary to the following work. In regard to the character of Philip Augustus himself, I have not been guided by any desire of making him appear greater, or better, or wiser than he really was. Rigord his physician, William the Breton, his chaplain, who was present at the battle of Bovines, and various other annalists comprised in the excellent collection of memoirs published by Monsieur Guizot, have been my authorities. A different view has been taken of his life by several writers, inimical to him, either from belonging to some of the factions of those times, or to hostile countries; but it is certain, that all who came in close contact with Philip loved the man, and admired the monarch. All the principal events here narrated, in regard to that monarch and his queen, are historical facts, though brought within a shorter space of time than that which they really occupied. The sketch of King John, and the scenes in which he was unavoidably introduced, I have made as brief as possible, under the apprehension of putting my writings in comparison with something inimitably superior. The picture of the mischievous idiot, Gallon the Fool, was taken from a character which fell under my notice for some time in the South of France.

PHILIP AUGUSTUS.

CHAPTER I.