Two articles of mine on the poetry of Ḥāfiẓ1 were recently criticized severely, even violently, by Dr. N. E. M. Boyce in an article written in a kind of informal collaboration with Professor W. B. H. Henning.2 Dr. Boyce was good enough to send me a page-proof copy of her article very shortly before publication, and I noted at the time how widely divergent were our respective views, both as regarded general approach and also in matters of detailed interpretation. This, however, occasioned no surprise, and in the normal way I should probably have been content to bring my observations privately to Dr. Boyce's notice; but, for personal reasons, I eventually decided to circulate a reply on my own initiative, for the information of colleagues who might have had the original critique brought to their notice before its publication.

I realized that, by taking this action, I might prejudice any chance the reply had of appearing subsequently in print. But such prospects already appeared slender in view of my article's length and largely negative value; and the ordinary delays attending publication appeared even more unwelcome than the probability that the reply might never be read at all in printed form.