The Female Quixote

Miss Glanville is excited to arrive in London at last. She begins setting up social appointments across the city, but Arabella is reluctant to join her. Arabella has inherited her father’s “Resentments” of Court and other high society functions (333). When Mr. Glanville gives her a tour of the city, she compares everything unfavorably to her romances. At one social event, she causes a scandal by intervening in a dispute between an officer and his mistress. Mr. Glanville is annoyed at her behavior and resolves to never attend social events while she continues in “the same ridiculous Folly” (339).

Soon, the polluted city becomes too much for Arabella, and she goes to stay in the suburban area of Richmond, where Mr. Glanville visits her every day. When walking through a park with Lucy, Arabella hears a woman crying. She approaches and asks to hear the woman’s story. The woman introduces herself as Cynecia, the daughter of the Prince of Gaul, who is searching for an unfaithful lover named Ariamenes. She fled her homeland so that she would not be forced to marry a man she did not love, but she cannot find Ariamenes, who promised to wait for her.