| Notes |
['Ed. Dublin, Beatty, 1778 (Chawton copy)\r\n\r\nConcerning paratext:\r\n{Dedication present}\r\np.III\r\nTo her Grace the Duchess of Bedford.\r\n_May it please your Grace._\r\nI am aware of the surprise you must be in at seeing a work addressed to you, without your consent, without your knowledge, or perhaps your having ever heard of the book which I here present you with.\r\nAll writers propose doing honour to their works, by dedicating them to some great personage; no one can have/\r\np.IV\r\nthis motive more in view than I, when I take the liberty of addressing this volume to your Grace. [...]\r\nI present you Madam, with the produce of my leisure, as the antients were wont to bequeath their unportioned orphans to the noblest and most generous of their patrons; and as your Grace\'s character has already declared you possessed of their other excellencies, I will not doubt your kind adoption of this little foundling, sent into the world without/\r\np. V\r\na _name_, or any metit but what it may be intitled to from _Your\'s_. [...]\r\nAs I tremble at the apprehension of appearing in print without a mask, I shall not subscribe my name to this address, and am very certain that I may still remain concealed amidst a crowd [...]\r\np. VI\r\n[sign.] The TRANSLATOR\r\n\r\np.VII\r\n[second dedication, to the translator herself]\r\nTo Mrs. .......\r\nUpon reading this work\r\nWhilst Ninon\'s spirit kindles all love\'s fire, \r\nThy moral chastens every loose desire [...]\r\n\r\np. IX\r\n{Preface present} by the translator\r\nThe Introduction\r\nIn a weekly paper, lately published, stiled The World, (Numb. 28) I met with the following extraordinary passage [about Ninon de L and her son falling in love with her]\r\np.XI\r\nThis extract naturally raised my curiosity to inquire a little farther after so extraordinary a woman [...]\r\np. XII\r\nBut first, I must premise a hint, that if anyone should take the trouble of comparing these pages with the original ones, they may, perhaps, discover a method of translating, quite new [...] not being perfect _mistress_ of the French idiom, I was obliged to read the letters frequently over in order to cathch the spirit of the writers; which I have endeavoured to convey to the readers, in such a free manner as one tells a story, or repeats a conversation [...]\r\np. XIII\r\nNeed I make any apology for leaving out passages, that I did not think would entertain [...]?\r\n\r\nthen p. 1-23 : Letters between Ninon and St.Evremond\r\n\r\np. 24-27 The Translator to the Reader\r\np. 25 [...] One may well imagine that I could not rest satisfied here, or aquiesce in an opinion that there had not been any memoirs of so remarkable a woman [..]\r\na friend of mine procured me an entertaining collection of detached pieces, lately published in France, under the title of Le Petit Réservoir [NB The Hague, 1750-1; cf BnF], where I met with the following memoirs of this famous personage; which will afford a very high entertainment to the English reader, even through a translation. [...]\r\n\r\np.28-59 The Life and Character of Ninon de L\'Enclos\r\n\r\np. 60-88 The Translator to the Reader\r\n\r\n[...] The method I made use of was this: I read over all the papers which any way related to this extraordinary woman; and when I had made myself perfectly _mistress_ of the subject, I digested the whole of her life and character into as regular and/\r\np. 61\r\nconsistent a series as I was able. Upon the whole, I may be said, rather to have rewritten her history, than to have translated the _Petit Réservoir_.\r\nNow, with regard to the freedom and libertinism of her principles, we are not to judge too strictly about the morals of a French lady, upon the point of gallantry; when it has so long since become, by the corruption of manners, part of polite breeding among them, as the playing of cards is with us. [...]\r\n{Diff. source-target culture}\r\np. 62\r\nI have made these general reflecions, not in strictness as a _justification_, but in some sort as an _apology_, for the libertine life of our frail heroine. Perhaps, had she been educated in our manners and religion, she might have left a more consistent character behind her; and not have been recorded both as an honour and disgrace to our poor helpless sex. [...]\r\n\r\np. 63-73 Dialogue between Maintenon and Lenclos\r\n\r\np. 78- An Essay on Classic Translation\r\nThe reason why translations are so rarely found worth reading, is, that those who are capable of/\r\np. 79\r\ndoing justice to a work of this kind, would not condescend to so servile an office. Men of genius scorn to turn interpreters. [...]\r\n\r\np. 89-291 Letters of N de L to the Marquis de Sévigné\r\n\r\np. 293-296. The Conclusion. The Translator to the Reader.\r\np. 293\r\n[N de L influenced by "the greatest male wits of France"] For the cynical manner in which she treats the subject of love, is but part of that disingenuous philosophy, which the French writers in general, apply to every human affection or moral [...]\r\n\r\nsvdjun10chawton']
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