LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 1872. 



465 



A posthumous work of the late eminent 

 jurist, Prof. A. M. Schweigaard, " On Bank- 

 ruptcy and the Division of Successions," has 

 lately appeared; and we must not omit to 

 notice " Contributions to Norwegian Criminal 

 Law," by P. C. Lasson, Chief-Justice of the 

 Supreme Court, and D. Scbnitler's able work 

 " On the Police Laws of Norway." L. K. Daa, 

 an historical and political author of repute, has 

 started a political and literary review, the 

 Tids-Tavler (Chronicles of the Times). 



In belles-lettres few original works have 

 appeared during the last year. From tbe pen 

 of Henrik Ibsen, who is still resident in Dres- 

 den, we have a volume of poems ; and a third 

 edition of " Kongsemnerne " (" The Pretenders 

 to the Crown ") has left the press. Bjornst- 

 jerne Bjornson has completed a new drama, 

 "Sigurd Jorsalafare " (" King Sigurd the Cru- 

 sader"), the music by Edvin Grieg, a talented 

 young composer. A people's edition of Bjorn- 

 son's " Tales of Norwegian Peasant Life," in- 

 cluding "Brudeslaatten" ("The Wedding 

 Dance "), not before published, is just ready. 

 Students of Norse literature will be glad to 

 learn tbat we have now a biography of this 

 versatile author, including a full account of his 

 literary labors during a period of thirty years, 

 by Alfr. Larsen, with a complete bibliographi- 

 cal review by J. B. Halvorsen. There still 

 remain to notice a translation of Sir Walter 

 Scott's "Lady of the Lake," in the metre of 

 the original, by Prof. A. Munch, the poet ; and 

 a Norwegian metrical translation of Goethe's 

 "Faust," by Fr. Gjertsen, which, however, 

 had been previously known to the public from 

 the performance of that tragedy in Herr Gjert- 

 sen's version, at the Christiania Theatre. 



Paul Botten-Hansen, librarian to the Uni- 

 versity of Christiania, had completed, shortly 

 before his death, in 1869, a valuable work, en- 

 titled "La Norv&ge Litt6raire : Catalogue sys- 

 te"matique et raisonne" de tous les Ouvrages de 

 quelque valeur imprimis en Noryege ou com- 

 poses par des Auteurs Norvegiens au XIX" 

 Siecle, accompagne de Renvois, Notes, et Ex- 

 plications litte"raires, ainsi que de Notices bi- 

 bliographiques sur les auteurs, etc., prec6d6 

 d'une Introduction historique." This book 

 and "Norsk Bogfortegnelse, 1814-'47" ("List 

 of Norwegian Publications "), by Hartinus 

 Nissen, and "Norsk Bogfortegnelse, 1848- 

 '65," by P. Botten-Hansen and Siegwart Pe- 

 tersen, furnish complete information for those 

 years on the subject of Norse literature. 



PORTUGAL. The statement that Portuguese 

 literature is "a bad translation from the 

 French " is not far from being correct ; and 

 there is reason to fear that, if it be true, the 

 literature of Portugal is the expression of her 

 social state. The Napoleonic rule has passed 

 away, but it will be long before the South 

 throws off the moral infection of the manners 

 of the Second Empire, and the pernicious lit- 

 erature that empire encouraged will, for some 

 years to come, be the intellectual food of our 



VOL. XII. 30 A 



youth. The "Homme-Femme," of 31. Dumas, 

 and the sequel to it, have been translated, 

 read, and enjoyed 1 A second edition is an- 

 nounced, and some writers have lowered them- 

 selves by taking part in the discussion, " a pro- 

 ceeding," says M. Castello Branco, "more 

 discreditable than even the act discussed." 

 Thanks to the combined lack of moral sense 

 and of criticism that prevails among us, all 

 the literary sewerage of France is translated 

 into Portuguese, without respect either for 

 modesty or good taste. I pass in silence the 

 forty and odd novels which have appeared in 

 the last twelve months. 



We do not possess a single general history 

 of Portugal. Those which exist have been 

 written in France, England, or Germany ; but, 

 of course, the task is a difficult one for any 

 writer who has not access to the documents 

 reposing in the archives. The Government 

 has attempted to supply the defect by commis- 

 sioning certain litterateurs to write the histo- 

 ry of particular centuries a clumsy expedient, 

 which necessarily destroys the unity indis- 

 pensable to works of this kind. M. Rebello 

 da Silva, to whom was intrusted the history 

 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 

 has been overtaken by death at the moment 

 that he was giving to the world the fifth vol- 

 ume, which brings the work down to the end 

 of 1641. Half of the fourth volume, and the 

 whole of the fifth, are devoted to the social 

 and economical history of the monarchy at 

 that epoch. M. Latino Coelho, who, as I 

 write, is on the point of publishing the first 

 volume of the " History of the Peninsular 

 War," is likely, if one may judge of a book by 

 the talents of its author, to produce a most 

 remarkable work. 



M. Herculano, the first of the Portuguese 

 writers, is just issuing his miscellaneous works. 

 This is good news. It is a pity that, in forsak- 

 ing literature for agriculture, M. Herculano 

 leaves unfinished his "History of Portugal" 

 (4 vols.), a work which forms his real title to 

 fame, to which he devoted twenty years, and 

 which no one is competent to continue in a 

 proper manner. The " History of the Estab- 

 lishment of the Inquisition in Portugal " (3 

 vols.), the last of his historical labors, is 

 founded upon authentic documents, and de- 

 serves to be read in England. 



M. Theophilo Braga, Professor of the His- 

 tory of Literature in the Faculty of Arts, has 

 published his studies upon " Bernardin Ribeiro 

 and Bucolic Poetry," perhaps the best of his 

 books. Now, for the first time, the story of 

 the allegorical romance, "Menina e Moca," 

 which has given rise to so many conjectures, 

 has been cleared up. Camoens has been made 

 the subject of a monograph, "Camoens e os 

 Lusiadas," by M. Leoni. The author has not 

 had access to any documents that had not been 

 previously made known by the Viscount de 

 Juromenha ; but, having weighed again the 

 materials already published, M. Leoni has, I 



