which the sun is so frequently introduced, that the absurdity of the conceits or disparates is, as it is said, rendered quite transparent. Narcissus also becomes fond of tracing genealogies, but he considers it beneath his dignity to study law, or to endeavour to acquire any other kind of practical knowledge. Being convinced by the heralds of his distinguished extraction, he withdraws himself from the public eye; but at the same time takes a lively interest in all that occurs at court, and soon becomes a minister of state. The love of wealth being now his governing passion, he rapidly enriches himself at the expense of the nation, and at last dies of vanity. What this satire occasionally wants in refinement, is compensated by its extraordinary features, in which Andrada's wit shines with peculiar lustre: and though the comic effusions of the ingenious author can only rank as poetic trifles, they are nevertheless entitled to some attention in consequence of their being chiefly directed against the absurd style which then distinguished and disfigured Spanish and Portuguese literature. 66 Andrada's Polyphemus is a direct ridicule of the monstrous production of Gongora which bears the same title. As an example of the kind of ridicule employed it may just be mentioned, that in this parody the Cyclops styles the conquering eyes of Galathæa, " Turks by land and Dutch by sea." The poetic works of Andrada include some comic sonnets and romances. He is also the author of a still more remarkable prose work which will be hereafter noticed. FURTHER DECLINE OF PORTUGUESE TASTE--RIBEIRO DE MACEDO-CORREA DE LA CERDA. During the second half of the seventeenth century, until the period of the first imitation of the French style in Portuguese literature, the defenders and partizans of classic correctness in Portugal seem to have been constantly diminishing. After the kingdom was emancipated from Spanish dominion, the old patriotic spirit of the Portuguese again found its way into their poetry; but that poetry gained little thereby in interior cultivation; and its boundaries were not farther extended. A species of mythological tales in the romantic form, but very dull and frigid, obtained some favour. In this stile did Duarte Ribeiro de Macedo, who was also a prose author, and who died in the year 1682, after filling several distinguished posts, relate the fable of Adonis in serious redondilhas. Undismayed by the ridicule with which Freire Andrada had overwhelmed poems formed of such materials, he says in his verses that" Adonis has obtained privileges from Cupid, and licences from Diana, for punishing wild beasts and enchanting the fair; that lightnings flash from his eyes, and arrows are shot from his hands; that the hills and valleys at once represent lamentation and horror, because in the former the beasts groan, and in the latter the goddesses sigh."* * There is only sufficient space for a short specimen of this prattling nonsense:— Leva de amor privilegios E de Diana licenças Fernaõ Correa de la Cerda, an ecclesiastic, who was Bishop of Oporto, may also be numbered among the versifiers of this class. In a sonnet on a lady who died a few days after an eclipse of the sun, he thought it pathetic to say, that "at the death of Phillis, the whole celestial sphere must be afflicted with deep sorrow, bitter anguish." And then he asks "if an eclipsed sun excites so much regret, what is to be expected from a dead sun?"* Para castigo de brutos, Para encanto de bellezas. E os moradores das penhas Monte, e valle representa, Naquelle gemendo brutos, Neste suspirando Deosas; &c. Even this sonnet is inserted in the Fenix renascida as a sample of excellence : Nao viste, ó Licio, o ar de horror vestido Arrastar negras sombras enlutado? Melancolico o Ceo como enfiado Naõ viste, que de luz destituido Deo ao orbe celeste esse cuidado O Sol, pallidamente agonizado, Pela morte de Filis toda a esfera Padecer alta dor, grave accidente. Que se em fim nesta ordem, que se altera, Por hum Sol eclipsado isto se sente Por hum Sol já defunto que se espera ? VIOLANTE DO CEO. A poetess whose name and rank probably contributed to raise her reputation at this period, shone conspicuously among the writers whom Freire de Andrada ridiculed. She was called Violante do Ceo, that is, if a name may be translated, " Violante of Heaven." As a nun of the order of Dominicans, she obtained the character of a pattern of piety. Portuguese writers, moreover mention, that she was an excellent performer on the harp, and a singer. Among her writings there are some spiritual meditations in prose. She was born in 1601, and died in 1693, having consequently attained the age of ninety-two. Her miscellaneous poems were for the first time collected after her death.* Violante do Ceo was certainly a woman of genius; but her genius had received a totally false cultivation. She delighted as much as any of the partizans of Faria e Sousa, in all the absurdities of Portuguese Gongorism and Marinism. With her no antithesis was too far-fetched, no play of words too trivial, if the idea she thereby expressed was, according to her opinion, extraordinary. When wanting a poetic image, she immediately has recourse to the sun, which constantly shines in her pages as in these of the other Portuguese Gongorists and Marinists, whose verses, on that account, were by the witty Andrada, pronounced transparent. The tenderness or *The collection is entitled, Parnasso Lusitano de divinos e humanos versos. Lisb. 1733, in two vols. octavo. Several of Violante do Ceo's poems, both Portuguese and Spanish, particularly sonnets, are included in the first volume of the Fenix renascida. warmth of feeling which in female poetry often gets the better of the judgment, is in the writings of Violante do Ceo unnaturally represented by a false overstrained wit, which, however, assumes the disguise of judgment. In a sonnet on a lady, named Marianna de Luna, Violante do Ceo apostrophizes the muses, as “the divinities, who, in the garden of the king of day, unloosing their sweet voices, arrest Zephyr;-who, admiring the thoughts, multiply the flowers which Apollo creates." She implores the muses" to abandon the society of the sun, since a moon (that is to say, Marianna de Luna,) which is at once a sun and a prodigy, prepares for them a garden of harmony." Whether Marianna de Luna was a musician, or whether she had really laid out a fine garden, is not clearly explained. After some unintelligible phrases, it is in conclusion declared, that 66 through the grace of the deity, this tuneful garden is secured by the immortal wall of eternity.' In this The whole sonnet is here subjoined. Were it not for the celebrity of the authoress, it would scarcely be worth while to augment this collection of examples by such a specimen:— VOL. II. Musas, que no jardim do Rey do dia Soltando a doce voz, prendeis o vento: Deixay, deixay do Sol a companhia, E porque nao cuideis que tal ventura X |