The Letters of a Portuguese Nun — Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, vicomte de Guilleragues
The Letters Of A Portuguese Nun, by Marianna Alcoforado— You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Letters of a Portuguese Nun Author : vicomte de Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne Guilleragues Dubious author : Mariana Alcoforado Translator : Edgar Prestage Release date : June 26, 2018 [eBook #57403] Language : English, French Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57403 Credits : Produced by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF THE LETTERS OF A PORTUGUESE NUN All rights reserved THE LETTERS OF A PORTUGUESE NUN (MARIANNA ALCOFORADO) TRANSLATED BY EDGAR PRESTAGE BALLIOL COLLEGE OXFORD LONDON Published by DAVID NUTT in the Strand 1893 Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable Printers to Her Majesty TO THE AUTHOR OF ‘PORTUGAL CONTEMPORANEO’ J. P. DE OLIVEIRA MARTINS I DEDICATE THIS BOOK The Letters Of A Portuguese Nun, by Marianna Alcoforado— [1] But during the two centuries which have elapsed since their first publication quite a small literature has grown up around them, and they have been turned into several European tongues, the French editions alone amounting to more than thirty. If the numerous so-called ‘Replies’ and ‘Imitations’ were added to this reckoning the number would be nearly doubled, and this without taking into account the critiques and studies which have appeared about them. I do not propose here to enter into a comparison of the Letters with those of Heloïse, as many writers have done, but shall content myself with referring the curious to the excellent work of Senhor Cordeiro, ‘ Soror Marianna. A Freira Portugueza ,’ Lisbon, 1888; 2nd edition, 1891. It is from him that I have learnt nearly all that I know about Marianna, and in my Introduction I have made a liberal use of his book, as well as of M. Asse’s preface to the edition of the ‘ Lettres Portuguises avec les Réponses ,’ Paris, 1889, upon which I have based my rendering. If my translation should arouse any interest in things Portuguese, and lead others to read and make versions of such masterpieces of the world’s literature as the ‘ Frei Luiz de Sousa ’ and the ‘ Folhas Cahidas ’ of Garrett, or the poems of João de Deus, I should be more than rewarded for any trouble the present work may have cost me. But who can hope to succeed where Burton has apparently failed? The English public—and the critics too—will probably continue to believe that there is nothing worth reading in Portuguese literature with the exception of the Lusiads. Here too there is perhaps a lesson to be learnt from the Germans, especially from such as Storck, Reinhardstoettner, and Michaëlis de Vasconcellos. I should like to thank Mr. York Powell of Christ Church for the kind help which he has given me in the difficult task of translation. My aim has been throughout to keep as close to the French text as possible—seeing that the original Portuguese is lost,—aided by the masterly re-translation of Senhor Cordeiro. L’Estrange’s version—‘Five Love Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier,’ London, 1678,—is somewhat free at times, but it has aided me in the Third Letter. I have followed Cordeiro in his re-arrangement of the order of the Letters, the Second and Fourth changing places. The historical facts which concern the hero and heroine of these Letters I have given briefly in the Introduction, and a Bibliography and Appendix will be found at the end of the volume. The text of the first French edition of 1669 has been copied in Paris purposely for this work, and will, it is hoped, add much to its interest and value. And so I deliver poor Marianna’s passionate Epistles to the consideration of those who can appreciate them and feel for her. And weeping then she made her moan, ‘The night comes on that knows not morn, When I shall cease to be all alone, To live forgotten and love forlorn.’ EDGAR PRESTAGE. Bowdon , 1892. The Letters Of A Portuguese Nun, by Marianna Alcoforado—The Project Gutenberg eBook CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE, ix INTRODUCTION, 3 THE LETTERS, 37 FRENCH TEXT, 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY, 169 APPENDIX, 175 The Letters Of A Portuguese Nun, by Marianna Alcoforado— A todos arriedran del bien soberano, Jamas no aplazen que no den tristeza, Aforjan cadenas del sotil Volcano, Con que encarcelan a toda nobleza. Cancioneiro de Resende. ‘IN 1663,’ says Sainte-Beuve, ‘it became the policy of Louis XIV. to help Portugal against Spain, but the succour which he gave was indirect; subsidies were secretly furnished, the levying of troops was favoured, and a crowd of volunteers hastened there. Between this small army, commanded by Schomberg, and the feeble Spanish troops which disputed the soil with it, there were each summer many marches and counter-marches with but few results, many skirmishes and small fights, and among the latter, perhaps, one victory. Who troubles himself about it now? The curious reader, however, who only looks to his own pleasure, cannot help saying that all this was good, since the “Letters of the Portuguese Nun” grew from it. As Sainte-Beuve indicates, the subject of the ‘Letters’ forms one of the episodes of the war between Spain and Portugal which followed as a consequence of the Restoration of 1640 and the achievement of the latter’s independence under the House of Braganza. This war, which lasted for twenty-eight years, until the final peace in 1668, was intermittent, and carried on only at long intervals owing to the state of the two contending parties. Spain had now entered on the period of her decline, and Portugal was in a hardly better condition after her sixty years’ captivity and the exhaustion of her forces which had taken