DUCTION.

The 'sweet sentimental tragedy' of Agnes de Castro was founded by Mrs.
Behn upon a work by Mlle S. B. de Brillac, _Agnes de Castro, nouvelle
portugaise_ (1688), and various subsequent editions. In the same year
(1688) as Mrs. Behn's _Agnes de Castro; or, The Force of Generous Blood_
was published there appeared 'Two New Novels, i. _The Art of Making
Love_.[1] ii. _The Fatal Beauty of Agnes de Castro_: Taken out of the
History of Portugal. Translated from the French by P. B. G.[2] For
R. Bentley' (12mo). Each has a separate title page. Bellon's version
does not differ materially from Mrs. Behn, but she far exceeds him in
spirit and niceness of style.

So much legend has surrounded the romantic history of the beautiful Ines
de Castro that it is impossible fully to elucidate every detail of her
life. Born in the early years of the fourteenth century, she was the
daughter of Pedro Fernandez de Castro, major domo to Alphonso XI of
Castille. She accompanied her relative, Dona Constanca Manuel, daughter
to the Duke of Penafiel, to the court of Alphonso IV of Portugal when
this lady was to wed the Infante Don Pedro. Here Ines excited the
fondest love in Pedro's heart and the passion was reciprocated. She bore
him several children, and there can be no doubt that Dona Constanca was
madly jealous of her husband's amour with her fair friend. 13 November,
1345, Constanca died, and Pedro immediately married his mistress at
Braganza in the presence of the Bishop of Guarda. Their nuptials were
kept secret, and the old King kept pressing his son to take a wife.
Before long his spies found out the reason of the Infante's constant
refusals; and, beside himself with rage, he watched an opportunity
whilst Pedro, on a great hunting expedition, was absent from Coimbra
where they resided, and had Ines cruelly assassinated 7 January, 1355.
The grief of Pedro was terrible, he plunged the country into civil war,
and it was only by the tenderest solicitations of his mother and the
authority of several holy monks and bishops that he was restrained from
taking a terrible revenge upon his father. Alphonso died, his power
curtailed, his end unhappy, May, 1357.

A very literature has grown up around the lovely Ines, and many more
than a hundred items of interest could be enumerated. The best authority
is J. de Araujo, whose monumental _Bibliographia Inesiana_ was published
in 1897. Mrs. Behn's novel was immensely popular and is included,