SOURCE: Knutson, Harold C. “‘La Princesse de Cleves’ on the English Stage: A 1681 Adaptation by Nathaniel Lee.” In Ouverture et Dialogue: Mélanges offerts á Wolfgang Leiner á l'occasion de son soixantième anniversaire, edited by Ulrich Döring, Antiopy Lyroudias, and Rianer Zaiser, pp. 497-504. Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1988.

In the following essay, Knutson argues that Lee's The Princess of Cleve is an artistically inferior effort to the French novel that served as its source.

Like many works of the French classical period, La Princesse de Clèves made an almost immediate impact on the English literary scene. It was translated in 1679, only one year after its publication in France, and two years later, a minor Restoration playwright, Nathaniel Lee,¹ drew upon this translation for the basis of his play, The Princess of Cleve.² Admirers of the French narrative would call the work a travesty, so brazenly...