have no means of knowing, as we are not in possession of the respective epochs of his life. The reader will perhaps judge, from the following stanzas, that he did not consider his passion for his mistress inconsistent with the matrimonial fidelity due to a wife : I am not married, lady, For though I've given my hand, And it is at your command. Not dreaming that I e'er should see A husband, not a lover! My eyes and heart are still my own, They say a marriage is not binding With perfect resignation. My thoughts, my liberty, my rest- Is shrined within your lovely breast; But rather cause of pleasure, That I one little hand have lost, Since you, meanwhile, may justly boast, Yours is the rest, with love in fullest measure. The eclogues of Ribeyro are his most celebrated productions, and very superior to those of Juan de la Encina, who flourished in Spain about the same time. But though they exhibit much feeling, the ideas are poor, and there is a diffuseness and inaccuracy about them which bespeaks the infancy of composition. Ribeyro's style is, in its principal features, that of the old Roman, and his eclogues are for the most part in redondillas. The idea that pastoral is the poetic model of human life became a sort of romantic creed with the Portuguese, and it threw a character of sweetness and elegance over the poetry of the sixteenth century, though at the same time it produced a monotony and tedious affectation which runs through all their works. There remains a singular work of Ribeyro in prose, an unfinished romance, entitled 'The Innocent Maid,' in which, under feigned names and obscure allusions, he discloses in part the history of his own adventures. It is a mixed poetic and chivalrous story, and it gave birth to a host of similar romances both in Spain and France. Bouterwek, who is almost the only authority we have on Portuguese literature, affirms that, in point of intricacy, this fragment has no parallel in the whole range of romantic literature; that it would be impossible to furnish an abstract of it; and that, indeed, so great is its obscurity, it requires the utmost effort of attention to comprehend the circumstances. He adds that the prolixity of the narrative, and the monotony of amorous complaints, are tedious; but it is nevertheless easy to recognise a spirit truly poetic; more remarkable, however, for susceptibility than for energy. INTRODUCTION OF THE ITALIAN STYLE. SAA DE MIRANDA. John III., the successor of Emmanuel on the Portuguese throne, failed to secure to his subjects the prosperity they had enjoyed under his father. He not only involved himself imprudently in distant wars, but he invaded the civil and religious liberties of his European subjects. In 1540 he introduced the Inquisition; he also received the Jesuits into his kingdom, and consigned to them the education of the young Don Sebastian, the heir to the throne. But though the weakness and folly of John were preparing the ruin of the monarchy, the patronage he bestowed on literature was the means of raising that of Portugal to a high degree of excellence. The introduction of the Italian style into Portuguese poetry was not attended by any remarkable struggle; the more educated people were not so decidedly attached to the old romance versification as the Castilians were, nor was it so difficult to bend their language to the Italian forms. Moreover, the poet with whose works the new era commences, was so successful in seizing the delicate tone by which the blending of the Italian and the old Portuguese styles was to be effected, that the national taste seemed to have found in him exactly what it wanted, and the innovation was accommodated to Portuguese feeling in the most pleasing manner. The romantic Theocritus, Saa de Miranda, has already been noticed in the History of Spanish Literature. He was born of a noble family at Coimbra in the year 1495. His parents designed him for the profession of jurisprudence, and for their gratification he pursued it till the death of his father. He then consulted only his own taste, and travelled through Spain and Italy in order to gain an acquaintance with the literature of those countries. On his return, he received an appointment at the court of Lisbon, and was looked upon as one of the most pleasing and accomplished men of his age. It is related of him, however, that he would often sit silent and abstracted in mixed companies, and that tears, of which no one understood the cause, would flow plentifully from his eyes, while he seemed quite unconscious of the circumstance, and indifferent to the observation thus attracted towards him. These emotions were of course attributed to poetic thoughts and romantic attachments. One of his eclogues, in which a Portuguese nobleman considered himself as the object of unpleasant allusion, drew upon the poet a quarrel, which became so warm that he was obliged to quit the court. He retired to his country-seat, and devoted himself to literary pursuits and the cultivation of domestic happiness. He insisted on marrying a lady who was neither young nor handsome, and whom he had never seen, having been captivated only by her reputation for amiability and discretion. He became so attached to her, that when she died, which was after some years, he remained an inconsolable widower; he renounced all the previous pursuits and purposes of his life; he refused even to shave his beard and pare his nails; and three years after, he followed her to the grave. He died, universally beloved, in the year 1558, aged sixty-three. Saa de Miranda is chiefly celebrated for his lyric and pastoral poetry, of which the following may be taken as a pleasing speci men: As now the sun grows broader in the west, The birds retire, the cooler breezes blow, The murmuring waters from the mountains flow, But woe's the heart that trusts to scenes like these!- As clouds and shadows on a summer day- In the collection of Saa de Miranda's works a series of poetical epistles follow the eclogues. They form a union of romantic and didactic verse, of which the attraction consists chiefly in the truth and feeling it displays; for it is admitted to be somewhat verbose and superficial. At the time these epistles made their appearance, there was nothing else of the same kind in the language, but they were soon excelled by other writers. In one of them there is a singular passage, in which the poet adverts with sad foreboding to the progress of luxury and dissipation in his native country : Our ancestors, 'tis said, were rough and rude. Is it our classic lore, our poets' lays? Oh no! but perfumes brought from India's shore. Will yet unnerve our arm, and blunt our spear; At Trebia, Cannæ, or Thrasimeně, In Capua fell, a slave to luxury. This prediction was but too soon verified; and the increase of wealth, which was often obtained by the infliction of ferocious cruelties, gave rise to profusion, indolence, and corruption, which shed a baneful influence over the country. Montemayor was contemporary with Miranda, and also a native of Portugal; but he declined holding any literary position in his own country. He introduced the pastoral romance into Spain, and all his works are in the Castilian language except two little songs. FERREIRA. The next century, however, produced a poet who devoted his talents exclusively to his country, and obtained the appellation of the Horace of Portugal. Antonio Ferreira was born at Lisbon in the year 1528. His parents, who belonged to the highest class of nobility, looked forward to his filling some important office in the state, and sent him to study law at Coimbra. While at his studies the works of Horace engaged his admiration, but they did not lead him to write Latin verses like his fellow-students, who disdained the vernacular. Ferreira was such an enthusiastic admirer of his mother-tongue, that he would not compose a line in any other, not even in Spanish. He formed his taste by the study of Horace, and set it as the great object of his ambition to become a classical writer, and to impart to his native poetry a new and more elevated diction. With this view he found it necessary to abandon the old versification, and adopt the Italian structure; and so assiduous were his labours, that at the age of twenty-nine he published the first collection of his works, consisting chiefly of sonnets. In these pursuits he was joined by several young men of talent, who formed a literary circle of some influence. On quitting the university, he repaired to the court, having been appointed a gentleman of the royal household. The most brilliant prospects were now open before him; but in his forty-first year he fell a victim to the plague which raged in Lisbon in 1569. The epistles of Ferreira are his best productions. But while in all his works there is much correctness and even elegance, in none do we recognise those higher efforts of genius which strike the imagination or fire the spirit. The distinctive feeling which marks this poet is his patriotism; and it was this enthusiasm alone that made him a great man. The glory, the advancement, and the civilisation of his country were his darling themes; and he exhorts his friends not to suffer the Muses in Portugal to speak any language but Portuguese.' Many similar writers shed a lustre over this the brightest, and indeed the only brilliant period of Portuguese literature. They are all more remarkable for taste and elegance of language than for richness of invention; and unless we possess an insatiable appetite for love-ditties, and untiring patience for the repetition of the same ideas, we must weary in their perusal. EPIC POETRY. CAMOENS. We are now prepared to introduce to the reader that illustrious poet who has long been considered the chief, and almost the only boast of his country in a literary point of view. Camoens is indeed the only Portuguese writer that has obtained celebrity beyond the Peninsula: his works alone have been translated into most of the modern languages, and he has been counted worthy |