nations. We find music and painting every where combined in romantic poetry. Its writers do not attempt to engage our attention with ideas, but with images richly coloured, which incessantly pass before our view. Neither do they ever name any object that they do not paint to the eye. The whole creation seems to grow brighter around us, and the world always appears to us through the medium of this poetry as when we gaze on it near the beautiful waterfalls of Switzerland, while the sun is upon their waves. The landscape suddenly brightens under the bow of heaven, and all the objects of nature are tinged with its colours. It is quite impossible for any translation to convey a feeling of this pleasure. The romantic poet seizes the most bold and lofty image, and is little solicitous to convey its full meaning, provided it glows brightly in his verse. In order to translate it into another language, it would first of all be requisite to soften it down, in order that it might not stand forward out of all proportion with the other figures; to combine it with what precedes and follows, that it might neither strike the reader unexpectedly, nor throw the least obscurity over the style; and to express, perhaps, by a periphrasis, the happiest and most striking word, because the French language, abounding in expressions adapted for ideas, is but scantily furnished with such as are proper for imagery. At every word we must study to change, to correct, to curtail; the rich and glowing imagination of the South is no longer an object of interest, and may be compared to an artificial firework, of which we are permitted to see the preparation, while the ignition is unfortunately withheld. I have in the preceding pages conducted my reader only to the vestibule of the temple, if I may so express myself, of the romantic literatures of the South. I have pointed out to him at a distance the extent of their riches, enclosed within a sanctuary into which we have not as yet been permitted to penetrate; and it henceforward remains with himself to initiate himself further into its secrets, if he resolve to pursue the task. Let me exhort him not to be daunted. These southern languages, embracing such a variety of treasures, will not long delay his progress by their trifling difficulties. They are all sisters of the same family, and he may easily vary his employment by passing successively from one to the other. The application of a very few months will be found sufficient to acquire a knowledge of the Spanish or the Italian; and after a short period, the perusal of them will be attended only with pleasure. Should I be permitted at some future time to complete a work similar to the present, relating to the literature of the North, it will then become my duty to bring into view poetical beauties of 572 LITERATURE OF THE PORTUGUESE. a severer character, of a nature more foreign to our own, and the knowledge of which is not to be attained, without far more painful and assiduous study. Yet in this pursuit the recompense will be proportioned to the sacrifices made; and the Muses of other lands have always shewn themselves grateful for the worship which strangers have offered up at their shrine. INDEX. ALARCON, Don Juan Ruys de, 207. Albuquerque, Alfonso d', 414. his Commentaries, 497. Alfonso IV. of Portugal, his poems, 263. Almeida, Nicolas Tolentino de, 565. Andrade Caminha, Pedro de, 310. Andrade, Jacinto Freire de, his burlesque poems, 525. his Life Apontes, Fernandez de, his edition of the plays of Calderon, 188. Bartolomeo Leonardo de, ibid. Argote y Molina, Gonzales de, 71. Armesto, Don Manuel Francisco de, his two religious plays, 212. Autos-da-fe, the last celebrated, 213. Azavedo, Araujo de, his translations from English poetry, 564. Bacellar, Antonio Barbosa, 524. Bahia, Jeronymo, 529. Translation from, 530. Barros, John de, 488. His Romance The Emperor Clarimond, Bernardes, Diego, 311. His Eclogues, 312. Bocarro, Antonio, his History of the Portuguese Conquests in Boccage, Manuel de Barbosa du, 564. Borja, Francisco de, Prince of Esquillace, 95. Brito, Bernardo de, his History of Portugal, 498. Calderon de la Barca, Don Pedro de, 102. Estimate of his Lances de Amor y Fortuna, 172. Alcaide de Zamalea; El Cancioneiro, Portuguese, written in the fifteenth century, 270. Cancer, Don Hieronymo, 207. Cañizarez, Don Joseph, his plays, 206. His Picarillo en Es- Cardoso, Francisco, 564. Castenheda, Fernand Lopez de; his History of the Portuguese Castro, Guillen de, 207. Castro, Estevan Rodriguez de, 314. Ceo, Violante de, 527. Translation of sonnet from, 528. Charles II., reign of, epoch of the last decline of Spain, 209. Coelho, Simaō Torezaō, 527. Comella, Don Luciano Francisco, 234. Cortereal, Jeronymo, 466. His poem on the misfortunes of Costa, Claudio Manuel da, 548. His sonnets, ib. His Epicedios, Couto, continues the work of de Barros, 497. Cruz e Sylva, Antonio Diniz da, 556. His imitations of English Cubillo, Don Alvaro, 207. Cunha, J. A. da, 559. Translation from, 560. Dionysius, King of Portugal, his poems, 262. Drama, conclusion of the Spanish, 195. Its decline and ob- |