the composition does not exclude from Saa de Miranda's eclogues, those mysterious allusions to the romantic manners of the age, which are so common in the writings of the old Portuguese poets. The first eclogue which he wrote in his native language, abounds in such allusions, though it is in other respects one of the least artificial of the poet's productions in the class to which it belongs. It is a pastoral dialogue in tercets concerning love and indifference, happiness and unhappiness. Three cantigas, the first in octaves, the second in redondillas and in the Spanish language, and the third in the syllabic measure of an Italian canzone, form the poetic essence of this simple composition. The disposition to prefer the Spanish language for imagery, and the Portuguese for reasoning, which is a striking feature in Saa de Miranda's poetry, plainly betrays itself in this eclogue. The romantic conversation which forms the frame work to the cantigas in this eclogue, consists chiefly of general observations, which in the simple pastoral language in which they are expressed, have a very piquant character, but which are rendered scarcely intelligible to a foreigner, by the occurrence of broken popular phrases in a half ironical, half serious tone.* To the * The following passage with which this eclogue commences, affords a fair specimen of Miranda's style, while at the same time it presents nothing very obscure to the foreign reader: Gonç. Quantas cousas Ines, madrinha, et tia, Se me vaõ descobrindo de ora em ora, philological obscurity of several passages is added the enigmatical expression of suppressed pain, which, however, is natural enough in the mouths of the persons to whom it is assigned. In a word this eclogue is entirely national. None but a Portuguese can justly estimate its poetic merits and demerits. To a foreigner the cantigas are decidedly the best portion.* Bem pouco se lhe dá de que a fé sancta Se quebre com graõ culpa on com piquena. * The following elegant and simple stanzas form the commencement of the first cantiga which is sung by the complaining shepherd Gonçalo : Onde me acolherey? tudo he tomado, Que o seu fermoso Amor lhe adormentára. The second Portuguese eclogue, included in the works of Saa de Miranda, has essentially the same tone and character as the first; with this difference, that it is versified throughout in national stanzas of ten lines (decimas). Descriptions of the general instability and transitory nature of earthly things are particularly conspicuous in this as well as in several of Miranda's other poems. But it would be in vain to look in these Portuguese eclogues for passages of such exquisite beauty as those which occur in the Spanish eclogues of the same author. It was only on the Castilian Parnassus that Saa de Miranda established his fame as one of the most distinguished of bucolic poets. With the excep For example: Ves tu cousa, que esté queda ? Ora he noite, ora amanhece, Ora corre huma moeda, Ora outra, tudo envelhece, Em Como o tanger naõ alcançam, Mais pés, nem braços naõ mandam. Do sangue, et leite empollado O Bezerrinho viçoso Corre, et salta pollo prado, O brincar d'antes lhe esquece, O boy velho, que enfraquece. tion of elegant language and versification, his Portuguese eclogues are not much superior to the cordial effusions of Ribeyro. Saa de Miranda seems to have wished to display his native language to advantage in another department of composition, in which, however, he did not shine with equal lustre. A series of poetic epistles which in the collection of his works follow the pastoral poems, are all, except one, written in Portuguese. At the time of their appearance, no similar productions existed in Portuguese literature: but they were speedily surpassed by other writers. Nevertheless it is not merely for the circumstance of their being first attempts that they claim attention. They are distinguished from other poems of this class by the delicate and characteristic union of that peculiar style of pastoral poetry which Miranda formed for his eclogues, with a didactic diction which indicates the disciple of Horace. At the same time Horatian ideas are but thinly scattered through these epistles, and Miranda's elegance of language is far from reaching the force and precision of the latin model. The poetry in which he endeavoured to approach the style of Horace, is of the romantic didactic classfull of sound morality, conveyed in ingenious reflections and pleasing representations-full of truth and warmth of feeling—but like all romantic poetry, it is somewhat too prolix, and its learning like the most of that which has passed through the scholastic conduits of the cloister, is not drawn from a very profound source. Το interest by new views and ideas in didactic poetry, was not a task suited to a catholic poet of the sixteenth century, and least of all to one who so piously adhered to the principles of his faith as Saa de Miranda. The most interesting ideas of this poet, in so far as the value of such ideas is to be considered, must be estimated by their truth and not by their novelty; and their natural application to manners and characters within the scope of the poet's own observation, constitutes the basis of their poetic merit. The verse chiefly employed consists of light redondilhas, running in stanzas of five lines; and thus, even in metrical form, these epistles depart considerably from the style of Horace. The two last, which, together with those written in the Spanish language, are versified in tercets, must in other respects be ranked in the same class with the rest. Miranda, according to the old custom, styles the whole series of these compositions Cartas (letters), and not Epistolas, the term which at a somewhat later period was properly, though not generally employed by Portuguese writers, to designate poems of a didactic or amusing description under the form of individual correspondence. The first is addressed to the king. After a long series of introductory compliments, full of the accustomed phrases of servile devotion to the throne, the author enters into popular reflections on the art of government, and particularly on the risk of deception, to which sovereigns of the best intentions are constantly exposed. Some of these reflections resolve very happily into practical traits of didactic description.* Miranda must be forgiven for * For example: E por muito que os Reys olhem |