It would seem
that the grandiloquent dedications prevalent in those days had not
escaped her youthful penetration. Perhaps the most characteristic
feature in these early productions is that, however puerile the matter,
they are always composed in pure simple English, quite free from the over-
ornamented style which might be expected from so young a writer. One of
her juvenile effusions is given, as a specimen of the kind of transitory
amusement which Jane was continually supplying to the family party.
THE MYSTERY.
AN UNFINISHED COMEDY.
DEDICATION.
TO THE REV. GEORGE AUSTEN.
SIR,--I humbly solicit your patronage to the following Comedy, which,
though an unfinished one, is, I flatter myself, as complete a _Mystery_
as any of its kind.
I am, Sir, your most humble Servant,
THE AUTHOR.
THE MYSTERY, A COMEDY.
_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_.
_Men_. _Women_.
Col. ELLIOTT. FANNY ELLIOTT.
OLD HUMBUG. Mrs. HUMBUG
YOUNG HUMBUG. _and_
Sir Edward Spangle Daphne.
and
Corydon.
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