“I thank you for your translation, and will, by the first carrier, send off the plays of Ferreira and Quita, and the Saudades.
“You have mistaken the meaning of Xarifalte. Portuguese orthography is very loose in any but modern authors, and it is sometimes necessary to hunt a word through every possible mutation of labial or guttural letters. Under gérafalte it is to be found, which is the ger-falcon of our ancestors.
“The story of Iñez is, in any point of view, sufficiently atrocious, but the
poets have not been true to history. It is expressly asserted by Fernan Lopez, that Pedro denied his marriage during his father’s life, and
never affirmed it till some years afterwards: what is still worse, that
Affonso repeatedly asked him
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 161 |
“If your play be of modern date, Nicola Luiz is probably a modern author, and that removes all difficulty concerning him. There was a tragedy upon the same subject, published by Dr. Simmonds about ten years ago, which obtained considerable praise.
“Your translation, I dare say, does justice to the original; had it been still unprinted, I would have noticed a few instances in which the proper names are mis-accented. What pleases me best in the play, is to perceive that the author has avoided the fault of Camoens, and not made his heroine talk about Hyrcanian tigers, and such other commonplaces which pass current for passion and for poetry.”
“I have seen the Fonte das Lagrimas; Link omits to mention that two beautiful cedars brush its surface with their boughs. I have also seen the tombs of Iñez and Pedro; they are covered with bas-relief, which ought to be accurately copied and engraved.
| 162 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 34. |
“There is a shocking story of one of the children of Iñez,—the Infant D. Joam, who murdered his wife; it is a worse story than even the murder of his mother. If at any time chance should bring you this way, I shall have great pleasure in showing you all those facts of Portuguese history relating to your subject, which have occurred to me in the course of long and laborious employment upon the history and literature of Portugal.
