THE LETTERS OFA PORTUGUESE NUN

[ix]

PREFACE

MY attempt at anEnglish renderingof the Lettersis, I think,the first since thedays of Bowles’‘Letters from a PortugueseNun to an Officer in theFrench Army,’ London, 1808.[1]But during the two centurieswhich have elapsed since their[x]first publication quite a smallliterature has grown up aroundthem, and they have been turnedinto several European tongues,the French editions aloneamounting to more than thirty.If the numerous so-called‘Replies’ and ‘Imitations’were added to this reckoningthe number would be nearlydoubled, and this without takinginto account the critiquesand studies which have appearedabout them. I do notpropose here to enter intoa comparison of the Letterswith those of Heloïse, as manywriters have done, but shallcontent myself with referringthe curious to the excellent[xi]work of Senhor Cordeiro, ‘SororMarianna. A Freira Portugueza,’Lisbon, 1888; 2ndedition, 1891. It is from himthat I have learnt nearly allthat I know about Marianna,and in my Introduction I havemade a liberal use of his book,as well as of M. Asse’s prefaceto the edition of the ‘LettresPortuguises avec les Réponses,’Paris, 1889, upon which Ihave based my rendering.

If my translation shouldarouse any interest in thingsPortuguese, and lead others toread and make versions of suchmasterpieces of the world’sliterature as the ‘Frei Luizde Sousa’ and the ‘Folhas[xii]Cahidas’ of Garrett, or thepoems of João de Deus, Ishould be more than rewardedfor any trouble the presentwork may have cost me. Butwho can hope to succeed whereBurton has apparently failed?The English public—and thecritics too—will probably continueto believe that thereis n