It was two centuries before the novel,
in the time of Richardson, came into being; and it would be manifestly
absurd to expect to find in "Rosalynde" an anticipation either of
Scott's dramatic skill in plot construction or of George Eliot's
clairvoyance that divines the interior play of passion. All that we
can reasonably ask is that there be a coherent story told with
imaginative skill. In this we are not disappointed. The narrative
moves rapidly, at least in the earlier part of the story; and, though
in the latter part the setting seems from a modern point of view
over-emphasized, it is so charmingly idyllic as almost, if not quite,
to justify the over-emphasis. But Lodge really gives us more than we
have a right to expect, for, as Mr. Gosse has pointed out,[1] we may
trace in the book "certain qualities which have always been
characteristic of English fiction, a vigorous ideal of conduct, a love
of strength and adventure, an almost quixotic reverence for
womanhood."
[Footnote 1: "Seventeenth-Century Studies," p. 18.]
_Shakespeare's Dramatization of "Rosalynde."_ When Shakespeare wrote
"As You Like It" he did precisely what so many dramatists of to-day
are blamed for doing, that is, he dramatized a well-known novel.
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