The Adventures of Roderick Random

Failed Courtship of Miss Gripewell and Descent into Drinking

Finding his finances diminished by more than half and his project no further advanced than on his first arrival in town, the narrator despairs of success and grows melancholy at the prospect of approaching want. He turns to the bottle and keeps more company than ever, becoming particularly attached to the playhouse, conversing with actors behind the scenes, and growing acquainted with a body of templars. In a short time, he commences a professed wit and critic, though he is better qualified than his companions who are generally the most ignorant and assuming of all creatures. Through these diversions, he masters the art of shoving aside gloomy reflections and calling agreeable reveries to his assistance. This is not the case with Strap, who practices a thousand shifts to conceal his sorrow, which has reduced him to a skeleton.

Receipt of Billet-Doux from an Unknown Admirer

One day the narrator receives by the penny post a letter written in a woman’s hand containing high-flown compliments, warm protestations of love in a poetical style, and earnest desire to know whether his heart is engaged. The letter is signed “Your incognita” and directs an answer to a certain place directed to R. B. The narrator is transported with joy, admiring the letter as a masterpiece of tenderness, and imagines the author as a lady of fortune in the bloom of youth and beauty. He composes an elaborate answer expressing admiration of her wit and imploring the honor of an interview. He sends Strap to deliver the letter at the appointed place, a milliner’s house near Bond Street, and instructs him to watch and discover who calls for it.