Hymen's Præludia: or Love's Master-Piece. Being that So-much-Admired Romance, intituled, Cleopatra. In Twelve Parts. Written originally in the French, and now rendered into English, by Robert Loveday [and John Coles, James Webb and John Davies].

Bookseller Notes

The Cleopatra of the title (also known as Cleopatra Selene) was daughter of Anthony and Cleopatra, was the consort of Juba II, King of Mauretania 1609-1663.The text has a convoluted publishing history. 'Having become proficient in French and Italian under the instruction of another member of the Clinton household, Loveday translated into English the first three parts of La Calprende's Cloptre under the title Hymen's Prludia, or, Love's Master-Piece; these appeared respectively in 1652, 1654, and 1655, and were reprinted many times. Despite the erroneous attribution of other parts of the romance to Loveday's hand in some later editions, it was only with the collaboration of John Coles that part 4 was completed and published in 1656. Loveday [who died in 1656] was an agreeable writer, and his translation is accurate and idiomatic' (ODNB). Coles was responsible for parts 5-7, James Webb for part 8, and John Davies for parts 9-12. Individual parts, and incomplete collections were published until the first collected edition appeared in 1668, and there were several editions until the mid-eighteenth century.