Portuguese Literature.—Portugal first acquired its position as an independent kingdom after the battle of Ourigne, in 1139. The date of the origin of its lite rature is nearly coeval with that of the monarchy. Ilermiguez and Monis, two knights who flourished under Alfonso I., wrote the first ballads. King Dionysius, who reigned from 1279 to 1325, and his son, Alfonso IV. were both as poets, but few vestiges of their writings remain. It was not until the fifteenth century, however, that Portuguese litera ture attained any considerable merit. Macias, a Portuguese knight engaged in the wars with the Moors of Grenada, was called El Enamorado, on account of the tender and glowing character of his ama tory poems. The first distinguished poet of the country was Bernardi]] Itilleyro, who flourished under the reign of Em manuel the Great, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. His most cele brated productions are his eclogues, the scenes of which are laid on the banks of the Tagus and the sca-shores of Portugal. Ills lyrics of love, the origin of which is attributed to an unholy passion for the king's daughter, are wonderfully sweet and melodious. The first prose work in Portuguese worthy of note, is a romance entitled The Innocent Girl, which ap peared about this period. Saa de Mi randa, who also attained celebrity as a Spanish author, was horn in Coimbra in 1495, and wrote many sonnets, lyrics and eclogues in his native tongue. He also wrote a series of poetical epistles, after the manner of Horace. Antonio Ferreira, who was horn in 1528, followed the ex ample of Miranda in his sonnets and eclogues, but surpassed hint in entering the field of dramatic literature. His Inez de Castro, founded on the tragic story of that lady, displays much power and pathos in the delineation of the char acters. The other poets of this genera tion were Andrade Caminlia, Diego Ber nardes and Rodriguez de Castro, all of wrote lyrics, sonnets and pastorals, few of which have survived them.
The sole star of Portuguese literature, who is now ahnost its only representative to other nations, NVZ1S Luis de Camei:ns.
who was born in 1525. After studying at Coimbra, where he was coldly treated by Ferreira, lie embraced the profession of arms, and lost an eye in Ilse siege of Ceuta. Sailing for India in 1533, he reached Goa in safety, participated in an expedition against the king of Cochin China, spent a winter in the islands of Ormuz, and afterwards, on account of a satire entitled Follies in India, directed against the Portuguese governor, was ban ished to Macao, on the coast of China. During his residence of fire years in that place, he wrote his great epic of The Lu b.iud, devoted to celebrating the passage of the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco de Gama, and the triumph of Portuguese arms and commerce in the Orient. On his return to Portugal he was shipwreck ed on the coast of Cambodia, and escaped by swimming, with the Lusiad in his hand, held above the waves. He died in great poverty, in 1579. Ile left behind hits many sonnets, songs and pastorals, but most of them are penetrated with a vein of deep and settled melancholy. Among the successors of CansoQns, the most noted are Gil Vicente, a dramatic writer, who is supposed to hare served as a model to Lope de Vega and Calderon ; and Rodriguez Lobo, who was at one time considered a rival of Camans. He wrote the i•VinteriVights, a series of philosoph ical conversations, Spring, a romance, and numberless pastorals. Corteread also described in a ponderous epic the adven tures of Manuel de Sousa Sepulveda., a distinguished Portuguese.
The age of Catimns also gave rise to a new branch of literature. John de Barros, born in 1496, is esteemed by his coun trymen as the Livy of Portugal. Ile
commenced his career by a romance en titled The Emperor Gin rimond, but after his return from service on the coast of Guinea, he devoted himself to the prepa ration of a, grand historical work on the Portuguese empire. Only one fourth of t his, entitled POrtlIglICSC light, which was published in 1352, appeared. This is one of the most comprehensive, accurate and interesting historical works of that age. Alfonso I l'Alburpoirque, one of Ibo most distinguished contemporaries of Ilarrtit, wrote a series of Com mentaries, and Couto and Cast:tithed:1 undertook to com plete the work which Barros had left un finished. Bernardo he Brito, born in 1370, designed to give a universal II istory of Portugal, lint, commencing with the Creation, Ito died by the time he reached the Christian Era. Osorio, Bishop of Sylvez, who died in 1380, wrote the His tory of King Emmanuel, describing tho religious troubles of that time in a most liberal and enlightened spirit. Manuel de Faris, born in 1590, almost rivalled Li.pe de Vega in the amount of his works ; his dissertations on the art of poetry are held in most value. Ile also wrote a 1listory of Portugal and a Com mentary on CamoUns. After the subju gation of Portugal by Philip II. of Spain, the literature of the country declined, and presents no distinguished name for nearly a century following. The first author of the last century is the Count of Eriecyra, born in 1673. Ile was a gene nil in ase army, and a scholar of splendid attainments. His chief work was the fenriqueide, a epic poem, describing the adventures of Ilenry of Burgundy, the founder of the Portuguese monarchy Towards the close of the last century, Antonio Garpae and the Countess de Vi mieiro acquired some celebrity by their dramatic productions. The only Portu guese authors of note, whom the present century has brought forth, are Antonio da Cruz e Silva, who imitated Pope and other English poets, and J. A. da Cunha, an eminent mathematician and elegiac poet. The Portuguese colonies have pro duced a few writers, the most noted of whom are Vascencelles and Claudio Man uel da Costa.
French of France was later in its development than that of the other nations of Southern Eu rope. It was necessary to wait rho de cline of the two rornance-tongues of Nor mandy and Provence betbre the language could fake a settled form, and a still fur ther time elapsed before itwas sufficiently matured for the purposes of the scholar and the author. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the kingdom produced many romances, in which the influence of the literature of the Trim soil Troubadours was manifest. Gilbert de Montreuil, Castellon de Coney and some others were noted for this she eies of composition ; many sacred ilra Mai and mysteries were written in the north of France, and about the middle of the fifteenth century, several romantic epics appeared. The only remarkable of this early period is the renosned chronicler, Froissort, who was horn in 1337, and in the course of his travels and sojourn at all the courts of Europe, was witness of many of the Olival. rims events he describes in his "Chron icles of France, Spain, Italy, England and Germany." Philip de Comines, who died in 1509, passed his life in the ser vice of Louis IX., and left behind him the ".Memoirs" of his time. The latter part of the fifteenth century produced many small writers of satires, odes, songs, &c., among whom, Charles, Duke of Or leans, takes the first rank. The sacred mysteries, the first attempt at theatrical representation, gradually gave place to a rude form of drama and comedy, and a very successful comedy of French life ap peared in 1475.