Crime of Passion — Unravelling the Mystery of the Portuguese Letters

[In 17th century Europe, scandalous letters written by Mariana, a Portuguese nun, to her lover became an instant sensation, becoming known as the Portuguese Letters. Was it all a hoax?]

“I am writing to you for the last time, and I hope to let you see by the difference in the terms and manner of this letter that you have at last persuaded me that you no longer love me, and that therefore I ought no longer to love you, I will send you on the first opportunity all that I still have of yours. Do not be afraid that I shall write to you; I will not even put your name on the packet.” — Mariana Alcoforado

These words were written over 400 years ago, by a jilted woman to the man she loved. More surprisingly the woman was a nun, called ‘Mariana’ in the original manuscript. She became frustrated by the act of pouring her heart and soul and not receiving word back from her beloved, so she penned her fifth and final letter, the opening words establishing that it’s the beginning of the end of her love for him.

According to the story of how the letters came to fruition, a beautiful young nun from the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Beja fell madly in love with a visiting French soldier, the Marquise de Chamilly, stationed in the garrison town. She caught a glimpse of this young nobleman through a window inside the cloister of the convent where she slept and became instantly infatuated with him. De Chamilly also became enamoured, initiating a clandestine affair before abandoning her. Left heartbroken, she wrote to him imploring him never to forget her, in return, as proof of his amorous conquests abroad, he had all five of her impassioned letters to him distributed at court where they became an instant sensation. To this day, they are known as the Portuguese Letters.

The Portuguese Letters became an instant hit in Europe, republished over the centuries they received admirers as diverse as Stendhal, Albert Camus, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning who admired the work for its romantic prose and psychology behind heartbreak. In spite of the love story, questions surrounding the author and her circumstances were still left unanswered. Who was this nun and did she even exist, if she did exist were her letters fabricated? Did de Chamilly fall in love with a Mariana or perhaps another nun? Did a secret liaison ever take place in the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição?

Identity of the Nun of Beja

In the early part of the nineteenth century, French scholar Jean-François Boissonade identified the author of the letters as Mariana Alcoforado. Prior to this, the identity of the nun was not so certain other than the fact that the supposed author was called ‘Mariana’ she was simply referred to as a Portuguese nun or canoness from Lisbon. Boissonade was able to confirm that there had lived a Maria-Ana Alcoforado and that she had lived in the 17th century in the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Beja and was in her mid to late 20s when the French contingent headed by the count of Schomberg took part in the Portuguese war of restoration in the 1660s.

Mariana was born in 1640 to a landowning family in Beja. Due to Beja being a garrison town and scene of action, Mariana and her sister were immediately put in a convent for their protection by their father, a practice common at the time. The 1660s was a turbulent time as Portugal was mired in war for independence with Spain. France had sided with Portugal and sent a French contingent to secure the town of Beja. One such officer who was stationed at Beja was Noel Bouton, a French nobleman, later became Marquise de Chamilly. It has been long believed that it was this Noel Bouton who seduced and abandoned the young nun. What wasn’t true was that Bouton had published her letters to humiliate her. Instead, the letters were published in Paris by someone else.

The Publisher

The Portuguese Letters first appeared in print in 1669 published by the Parisian publisher Claude Barbin. The letters became an instant continental bestseller, so popular that pirated copies were printed in Cologne and Amsterdam. Barbin hit back by publishing a second edition with new letters and subsequent sequels. Despite their popularity, eyebrows were raised on the authenticity of the letters, the prose seemed too perfect almost and read like the epistolary fiction popular at the time and the tone far too sentimental.

Although the author was anonymous, simply referred to as a ‘nun’, it was believed to have been translated from a Portuguese manuscript. Barbin had received a manuscript translated by a certain ‘Guilleraqcue’. Gabrielle-Joseph de Lavergne de Guilleragues was a French aristocrat and one time ambassador to Constantinople. Scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries looked to Guilleragues as the potential author of the letters, citing the lack of an original Portuguese manuscript and the literary style of the letters which was similar to the French grand siècle which Guilleragues would have been familiar with.

The letters received little to no attention from their country of origin (only to be published in the early nineteenth century) though this could have been as a result of the Inquisition. Scholars used the epistolary style of the Portuguese Letters as proof of ‘French paternity’ that inspired subsequent French works of epistolary fiction such as Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters) in 1721 and Françoise de Graffigny’s Lettres d’une Péruvienne (Letters from a Peruvian Woman) in 1747.

Enduring Mystery

Translations in Portuguese believed to have come from an original were brought by Portuguese aristocrats Filinito Elísio in 1819 and José Maria de Sousa Botelho in 1825 both published in Paris. The Portuguese translations gained renewed interest in Portugal and the tragic figure of Mariana Alcoforado became an enduring symbol of Portugal over the centuries and her epistolary masterpiece part of the Portuguese tradition. Visitors today can visit the convent of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Beja where she first laid eyes on the dashing young officer, which is now a museum and has become somewhat of a pilgrimage site in Portugal. The circumstances of the romance remain a mystery — but what is unquestionable is the letters’ power in conveying betrayal and heartbreak.

“I was young; I was trustful. I had been shut up in this convent since my childhood. I had only seen people whom I did not care for. I had never heard the praises which you constantly gave me. Methought I owed you the charms and the beauty which you found in me, and which you were the first to make me perceive. I heard you well talked of; every one spoke in your favour. You did all that was necessary to awaken love in me.” — Mariana Alcoforado

Are they the words of a deceived young woman by the man she loved or the concocted imagination of a bored and talented aristocrat with knowledge of the female psyche — scholars over the centuries have been split.

By the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th century, the Portuguese Letters gained a new appreciation during the appropriately named ‘romantic’ period of Europe. Romanticism represented an ideal state fuelled by the senses, concerning beauty, music, nature, literature, and romantic love. The French writer Stendhal (who also gave his name to Stendhal syndrome) was an avid admirer, and used Mariana as an example of passionate love in his treatise On Love (1822), declaring ‘one has not loved until they have loved like the Portuguese nun’.

References

Anna Klobucka, The Portuguese Nun: Formation Of A National Myth, Bucknell University Press 2000

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Portuguese_Nun/hVia4MIVSIMC?hl=en&gbpv=1

Anonymous, The Letters of A Portuguese Nun, Project Gutenberg- https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57403/57403-h/57403-h.htm