exploits of the Portuguese nation, both ancient and modern, have afforded a noble theme for the epic muse, in the poem of El Condestable Nuño Alvarez, conqueror of the Castilians at Aljubarrota, by Rodriguez Lobo; in the Ulysea, or Foundation of Lisbon, by Pereira de Castro; in the Viriato Tragico of Bras de Mascarenha; in the Alphonso, or Foundation of the kingdom of Portugal, by Moraes Vasconcellos; and in the Enriqueida of the Conde de Erizeira. Of most of these poems, many of which are left altogether unnoticed by Bouterwek and Sismondi, M. Denis gives a tolerably exact analysis, which he has accompanied by extracts illustrative of the particular merits of each. We conceive that, in erotic, elegiac, and pastoral subjects, the Portuguese excel their neighbours, but fall short in the heroic, the moral, and the sacred. Of all the Spanish poets in the bucolic and erotic line, from the sixteenth century down to our own days, it is difficult to name one, the mellifluous Melendez excepted, who can be put in competition with Saa de Miranda, (who had also drunk at the Castilian fount,) with Antonio Ferreira, with Camoens, or with Diego Bernardez, Pedro Andrade Caminha, the strenuous opposer of those who versified in Spanish; or with Fernam Alvarez de Oriente, Rodriguez Lobo, (the solitary author of a collection of romances after the manner of the Spaniards, composed expressly to vindicate the Portuguese, who were bitterly censured for the want of this class of poetry in their language,) or with Manuel de Veiga. These were all writers of the sixteenth century, and of the school founded at its commencement by the pure taste of Saa de Miranda, and Antonio Ferreira, the acknowledged lawgivers of the Lusitanian Parnassus. Even in the seventeenth century, when the Portuguese groaned under the double yoke of the Inquisition and of dependance on the Spanish crown, and when they, too, had become infected with the pest of Gongorism, we may still note the Saudades of Antonio Barbosa, who, creating and perfecting a sort of elegy, as new as its name, difficult of translation, and not to be understood but in a language capable of lending itself to the expression of delicate and profound feeling, compensated for defects of the sonnetteers his contemporaries, and was alone worth the whole jumble of Faria é Souza, the nun Violante de Ceo, Vasconcellos, and Torrizon Coello. In the course of the eighteenth century the same kind of revival of literature is to be observed in Portugal as in Spain, and is attributable to causes and influences extremely similar. Thus the Conde de Erizeira, Antonio Garzaon, Denis da Cruz, and Francisco Dias Gomez, are in Portugal what Luzan, Luyando, Yriarte, and Don Nicolas Moratin are in Spain; while the Academy of the Arcades, and the Academy of Sciences, founded by the patriotic and enlightened zeal of the Duke de Lafoens, remind us of the circumstances to which Spain Owes owes the establishments of the Spanish Academy, and of that of History. But the protection, partial and equivocal, and even baneful to some men of genius, as in the case of the unfortunate Garzaon, afforded to letters by the Marquis of Pombal, was neither so benign nor could be so efficacious as that which was accorded to them in Spain by the three first monarchs of the dynasty of the Bourbons, then recently enthroned. To this same period belongs another estimable poet, Domingo Dos Rios Quita, who was very successful in the composition of idyls; a branch of the poetic art which was then new in Portuguese, notwithstanding its affinity to the bucolic. · Among the Portuguese poets, whose festive muse affords one of the most pleasing varieties in lyrical poetry, the name of Gonzalo de Bandarra deserves to be mentioned as one of those literary singularities which, as M. Denis observes, are to be remarked in almost all countries, and who, addressing themselves to the lowest classes of a nation, finally rise by their natural merit to a level with the most learned and refined. Bandarra was a poor cobbler of Troncozo, in the province of Beira. Amongst his humorous poems, he introduced several in which he assumed the tone of prophecy, and this brought on him the persecutions of the Holy Office during his lifetime, and after death the honour of an inscription, alluding to certain verses in which he is supposed to have predicted the liberation of the monarchy from Spanish domination. Satirical poetry, which goes hand in hand with the burlesque, reckons among its cultivators the great Camoens, whose verses entitled Disparates da India,' were the cause of his banishment from the Portuguese Indies. The same sort of humorous effusion was also indulged in by the respectable compiler of the works of Camoens, Lobo de Soropita. The jealous and severe Jacinto Freire de Andrada combated with much humour and keenness, but with a certain levity wholly void of learning, the absurd style which prevailed in his day, to the degradation of the literature both of Spain and Portugal. His Polifemo ridicules a monstrous production of Gongora, which bears the same name; and his Narcisso is a delightful parody on the extravagances of innumerable sonnetteers. Andrada composed his satires as a mere pastime; but the tone of his raillery convinces us, that had he attached more importance to these amusements, he would have been beyond dispute one of the first humorous writers. As it is, he unquestionably bears away the palm from all the writers of burlesque poetry to the end of the seventeenth century, not excepting the jovial Tomas de Noronha. In the eighteenth century, and when, towards the end of it, taste had become much purified, the Abate Paulino Cabral de Vasconcellos published his 145 sonnets, all very estimable for uncommon elegance and perspi 6 cuity, and for a liveliness seasoned with the irony of Horatian philosophy. Lastly, Denis da Cruz, before alluded to, and who, among modern poets, is distinguished by the name of the Portuguese Pindar, is not, perhaps, less deserving of fame than the Abate Cabral. He is principally indebted for his reputation to his mock-heroic poem, entitled 'O Hyssopo,' in which he very successfully imitates Boileau, and still more happily Tassoni in his Secchia Rapita.' Nicolas Tolentino de Almeida, also, has acquired just celebrity by his pungent satires, most of them relating to various local incidents in Lisbon, and written, for the greater part, in the ancient short metres of the early Portuguese poetry. Their Didactic poetry stands conspicuous for merit, from the poem of the Creation of Man,' ascribed to Camoens, and which is an allegory in most singular taste, down to the Georgicas Portuguesas' of Señor Mazinho de Albuquerque, which in our days has obtained the applause of the intelligent, and especially, among others, of the delicate Moratin. Deserving an honourable post in the rank of the works of this kind are the epistles of Saa de Miranda. Some of these, however, are written in Spanish. Francisco Manuel do Nascimiento, besides various other satires and epistles of the didactic kind, composed a piece of such length, and so rich in good materials, that it might be considered as a poem. In it he developes his literary principles, and declaring against the new modes introduced into the language, opposes himself to the Gallicists, inclines to the Latin purity, and among the Portuguese poets of the golden age, awards the palm to Antonio de Ferreira, as the most worthy imitator of Horace. To this class belong also translations, by this same Nascimiento, of the fables of Lafontaine, the simplicity of which he has rendered with admirable fidelity. The two didactic pieces of Señor Augustin Macedo, entitled 'Meditation,' and 'Newton,' and published in our times, are very commendable for a character of grandeur in their images and sentiments, and for no slight degree of beauty of style. At this moment the taste of the nation as regards poetry, appears to be divided between the French and English schools. Each of these has its enthusiastic and respectable partisans. The Conde de Barca has employed himself with great success in translations from the works of several English poets, such as Gray and Dryden; and Souza de Camara has been equally happy in versions of Voltaire. While classical literature finds a new enthusiast in Ribeiro dos Santos, the translator of Horace, the French party is strengthened by the valuable productions of Francisco Manuel do Nascimiento, Torres, and Barbier du Bocage. The limited space which we have yet remaining will allow us to to say but little of the drama. Yet we cannot but notice the fatal opposition which seems ever to have been declared in Portugal against this most important branch. As early as 1505, the prolific and original Gil Vicente gave to the world his first pieces. In a few years, his works formed a collection, divided into parts or dramas, on sacred subjects, and into comedies, tragi-comedies, farces and pantomimes. It has been said of this dramatist, by some that he imitated Plautus, by others, that Terence was his model. Of the latter opinion is Erasmus, who learned Portuguese for the sole purpose of reading the plays of Vicente; the first specimens of the romantic Peninsular drama, which incontestably contributed to form the great Lope de Vega, and by so doing gave origin to the most illustrious improvements on the celebrated ancient drama of Spain. The most probable fact, however, is, that the genius of Gil Vicente neither could, nor would, submit to the yoke of any imitation, in spite of the endeavours made by his contemporary, the polished Ferreira, to induce him to follow good models. Bouterwek and Denis produce extracts from two of his plays, and to these we refer our readers, while we content ourselves with giving of him the following portrait, drawn by an impartial Portuguese writer, and inserted in the Transactions of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, a work which may be advantageously consulted for the more thorough knowledge of the dramatic character and taste of one of the most venerable founders of the Peninsular theatre. 6 In whatever light we regard the rules of the drama,' says the Academician, we shall seek for them in vain in the plays of Gil Vicente. Of every thing like connexion he seems entirely ignorant. The interlocutors appear on the scenes, speak and go off again, at the whim of the poet. The episodes are often wholly void of relation to the principal action. Lastly, the pieces themselves are written in Spanish and Portuguese, in roundelays or unequal stanzas, and in hendecasyllabic verses. Yet his rich invention, the vivacity and truth of his dialogues, the sweetness and poetical harmony of his language, the beauty of his phraseology, and the frequent use of sayings preserved, and in a measure held sacred in succeeding ages, the delicacy and wit to be found in the greater part of his plays, but more especially in his sacred pieces and farces, are qualities which constitute a just claim to the title of a poet of real merit, and account for the enthusiasm which he inspires, not only in his compatriots but in foreigners.' Contemporary with Gil Vicente, but differing from him both in the tendency of his pieces and in dramatic erudition, were the learned and ingenious Sa de Miranda and Antonio Ferreira. The first composed Os Estrangeros' and 'Os Villalpandos,' with the professed object of establishing classical comedy: and both productions · productions are respectable, as good models of such an attempt, still more as specimens of Portuguese style and language. Ferreira is superior to his master, Miranda, in his comprehension of the nature of comedy, and has left a proof of this in his Zeloso,' which is, in truth, one of the best genteel comedies in Europe. Another piece also, entitled Brito,' although not so perfect in plot as the Zeloso, proves the author to be as far superior to Miranda in the disposition of the dramatic fable, as he falls below him in style and humour. Ferreira was also the author of the celebrated Ines de Castro,' which may rank as the second regular tragedy in modern literature, and which is admirable for its grandeur, for its exquisite sensibility, for the deep interest of the situations, and for the tender and forcible expression of the passions; although in the plot, it adheres too closely to the plan, and even character of the Greek tragedy. Camoens, too, exercised himself in the drama, being the first to follow in the track of Gil Vicente, in his three pieces, the 'Amphitryones,' 'Seleuco,' and Filodemo.' The last of these portrays to the life the adventurous characters of the poet's age. It abounds in the extravagant sentiment, the exalted passions, and chivalrous ideas, which distinguished those times, and which, combined, constitute a mass of materials so truly dramatic, that we regret that they have not been developed sufficiently to acquire a substantial being, and to form a theatre entirely original. These first symptoms of a national drama ended in disappointment; and neither Jorge Ferreira, who flourished shortly after Camoens, nor the tragi-comedies on martyrological events, which the Jesuits composed in Latin, and performed in their colleges; nor the Comedias Magicas,' introduced by Machado; nor those written by the many avowed imitators of Gil Vicente, of which Lope da Costa made a collection, (now extremely scarce and hardly to be procured,) entitled, Primera parte de Autos i comedias Portuguesas;' nor lastly, the veneration in which the classic efforts in this way of Miranda and Ferreira have ever been held, have been sufficient to prevent the Spaniards, seconded by their political domination, from taking possession exclusively of the Portuguese stage, on which the plays of Lope de Vega and Calderon were represented with general applause, while the very estimable productions of the native genius of the preceding century were abandoned to oblivion, if not to contempt. Many years after the revival of literature, and on the elevation to the throne of the house of Braganza, a tendency towards forming a drama in Portugal, again began, though very faintly, to show itself, in the imitations and translations of the best French pieces; when, by a singular revolution in taste, ascribable, VOL. I. NO. I. perhaps, |