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PORTUGAL (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.) 



KliieiilticuO ilits Palavras, Termos e Prases que em 

 Portugal untiguamente se vsaraS, &c., que hoje 

 regularmente se ignoraO &c. (Lisbon, 1798,2 vols.), 

 and in Balbi's Essai Statistique (1'aris, 1822, 

 2 vols.) 



Portuguese poetry flourished earlier than the 

 Castilian, and all accounts of the first civilization of 

 the Portuguese, says Routerwek, indicate an original 

 poetical direction of the mind of the whole nation. 

 The most ancient known Portuguese poets are of 

 the twelfth century Gonzalo Hermiguez and Egaz 

 Moniz, whose songs the Portuguese of the present 

 day do not readily understand. In the thirteenth 

 century, the language became more and more regu- 

 lar and distinct. King Dionysius, in the second 

 half of this century, was a patron of literature, and 

 even a poet himself. Alphonso IV. and Peter I. 

 are mentioned as poets of the fourteenth century. 

 Even in this early period, Italian poetry seems to 

 have had an influence on the Portuguese, as several 

 sonnets prove. Dom Pedro, son of John I., trans- 

 lated some of Petrarch's sonnets. But with the 

 fifteenth century, the era of the heroic age of Por- 

 tugal, begins the flourishing period of Portuguese 

 literature, when it vied with the Spanish. A tender 

 as well as heroic spirit, a fiery activity, and a soft 

 enthusiasm, war and love, poetry and glory, filled 

 the whole nation, which was carried, by its courage 

 and spirit of chivalrous enterprise, far over the 

 ocean to Africa and India. This separation from 

 home, and the dangers encountered on the ocan, 

 in distant climes and unknown regions, gave their 

 songs a tone of melancholy and complaining love, 

 which strangely contrasts with their enthusiasm for 

 action, their heroic fire, and even cruelty. The 

 cancioneri of the time of John II. contain such com- 

 plaints of love, but neither Bouterwek nor Sismondi 

 were able to find these collections. The Portu- 

 guese cancionero, discovered by Joaqnim Jose Fer- 

 reira Gordo, at Madrid, in 1790, comprising poems 

 by a hundred and fifty writers of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, is known only by what is contained respecting 

 it in the Memorias de Litteratura Portug. The 

 first celebrated Portuguese poet was Bernardim 

 Ribeyro, under Emanuel the Great (1495 1521). 

 He introduced into Portuguese literature the notion 

 of an ideal pastoral life, and was a learned man, 

 esteemed at the court of Emanuel. His romance 

 has been mentioned above. This direction of 

 taste gave rise to the many pastoral poets of 

 Portugal, who are tender, graceful, languishing, 

 but often monotonous and cold. This is a kind 

 of poetry with which our age has little sympathy. 

 The admiral and governor of Madeira, Christovao 

 Falcao, Ribeyro's contemporary, has expressed the 

 pain of unsuccessful love in the same romantic, 

 mystic tone, in an eclogue of 900 verses. It is a 

 remarkable fact, that several distinguished Portu- 

 guese poets composed at the same time in the 

 Castilian language, if they wished to sing of great 

 subjects, for instance, Franc, de Sa de Miranda 

 (Obras, Lisbon, 1784, 2 vols.; earlier, 1560, 1569 

 and 1614), who died in 1558. His two comedies 

 Os Estangeiros and Os Villalpandios are contained 

 in the second volume of the edition of 1784; but 

 he distinguished himself more in lyric and didactic 

 poetry. Ant. Ferreira, whom the Portuguese call 

 their Horace, still more successfully imitated the 

 ancients in the epistle. He died in 1569. His 

 Foemas Lusitanos appeared in Lisbon, 1598, 4to, 

 and the most recent edition, Lisbon, 1771, 2 vols. 

 His tragedy Castro (Ines de Castro, q. v.), in vol. 

 ii. of the edition of 1771, is formed after the Greek 

 model, and Sismondi prefers it to the Italian trage- 

 dies then existing. They were followed by Pedro 



de Andrnde Caminha (Poesias, recent edition, LIN 

 bon, 1701), and Diego Bernardes Pimenta (Rimat 

 t'arias ao bom Jesus, &c., Lisbon, 1594 ; Lima, 

 em o qual se content as suas Eclogas e Cartas, Lis 

 bon, 1596, and Mores do Lima, Lisbon, 1596), who 

 died in 1596. Sismondi compares him to Marini. 

 The most celebrated of all Portuguese poets is Luis 

 de Camoens. The best edition of his poems was 

 published under the care of Thorn. Jos. tie Aquino 

 and Fern. Loho Surrupita (Obran de L. de Camoens, 

 Principe dos Poetas de Hespanha, Seg. Edic. Lisb. 

 Na Offic. de S. Th. Ferreira, 178^ and 1783.) It 

 contains a preliminary discourse, the life of the poet, 

 an index, various readings and stanzas, in 4 vols., 

 12mo. A pretty edition of the Lusiad, in 16m<>, 

 appeared at Coimbra, from the printing-office of 

 the university, in 1800, 2 vols., with two engrav- 

 ings, the life of the poet, an index, various readings, 

 &c. The first edition of the Lusiad appeared at 

 Lisbon, 1572, 4to ; his Rimas Farias, with a full 

 commentary by Manoel de Faria e Soaza, Lisbon, 

 1685, 1 vol. fol. ; the third and fourth volumes in 

 1688, and the Commentary on the Lusiad. Madrid, 

 1639, 4 vols. folio. Another commentary is that of 

 dom Manoel de Faria Severin, in the Obras de Ca- 

 moens (Lisbon, 1720) ; a third is by Manoel Correa 

 (Lisbon, 16'13, 4to), and Obras do grande L. de 

 Camoens (Lisbon, 1720, folio) ; a fourth by Ignacio 

 Garcez Ferreira, Lusiade lllustrata com varias 

 Notas (vol. L, Naples, 1731, 4to ; vol. ii., Rome, 

 1732, 4to.) The hero of Camoens's epic is his 

 country. It breathes the most intense patriotism, a 

 noble pride and an enthusiastic feeling of love, 

 animated by a powerful imagination. This work is 

 the noblest monument of Portuguese greatness, at- 

 tractive to every who cherishes patriotic feelings 

 and a love of glory. Several sonnets of Camoens 

 and other productions (RAytmas, Cancaos, t. ii. ; 

 Eclogas, t. iii. ; Comedias ; El Rei Seleuco ; Os Am- 

 phitrioes and Filodemo, with Fragmcntos and Obras 

 attribuidas a Luis de Camoens, t. iv.), breathe the 

 spirit of a great and deeply stirred soul. In his 

 dramatic attempts, his countryman Gil Vicente, 

 whom the Portuguese call their Plautits, and who 

 died in 1557, was his model. The collection of the 

 dramatic works of Gil Vicente, who preceded the 

 Spanish and English dramatists, and whose fame 

 spread all over Europe, so that Erasmus learned 

 Portuguese, in order to read this pioneer of tlie 

 modern drama in the original, appeared at Lisbon, 

 1562, folio (Copilacam de todas las Obras de Gil 

 Vicente, a qual se reparte em cinco Livros.) On 

 the model of Gil Vicente, rude as his works were, 

 Lope de Vega and Calderon formed themselves. 

 In Portugal itself, dramatic poetry was neglected. 

 The ruling taste, unfortunately, was pleased only 

 with pastorals. Franc. Rodriguez Lobo brought 

 out tedious pastoral romances, in which, however, 

 some ballads and canzoni breathe a true spirit of 

 poetry ; his epic Nuno Alvarez Pereira, High Con- 

 stable of Portugal (0 Contestabre de Portugal, 

 Poema heroico, Lisbon, 1610, 4to) is only rhymed 

 prose; Eclogas (1605, 4to) ; A Primavera (1619, 

 4to) ; Pastor Peregrino (1608, 4to) ; and several 

 others. Yet he was the first who showed the purity, 

 tenderness and harmony of which Portuguese prose 

 is capable. The merits of Jeronymo Corte Real 

 are higher, as shown in his Naufragio, o lasiimoso 

 Successo da Pardicao de Manoel de Sousa de Seput- 

 veda e D. Leonor de Sa, sua Mulher (Lisbon, 1594, 

 4to ) This poet also sung the famous siege of Diu, 

 valiantly defended by Mascarenhas ; he himself was 

 a brave soldier (Successo do segundo Cerco de Dio, 

 Poema, Lisbon, 1574, 4to.) He and Lobo showed 

 to Portuguese historians the way in which Joao de 



