In the second part (15S0-1700) of this long period the number of writers is legion, but the great majority of them lacked originality and force. Many Camonistas or disciples of Camoes essay the epic, e.g. Francisco de Andrade (Primei ro cerco de Diu, 1589). Sit de Menezes (Malacca conquistada), Pereira Brand (Elegiada, 158S. commemorating the disastrous campaign of Dom Sebastian), Quevedo e Castellobranco (Alfonso Africano, 1611), Pereira de Castro (Clyssea, 1636), but none rise above mediocrity. The sad ness and gloom resultant upon subordination to Spanish rule were not favorable to the eomposi Hon of eminent or stirring epics. The tightening of the political bonds to Spain superinduced an even larger degree of servility to Castilian liter ary fashions and Gongorism with its formal excesses, its bombast, its studied obscurity of style, and its strained conceits, invaded Portugal. Among the lyric poets of the time are Rodrigues de Castro, Lobo Soropita, Frei Bernardo de Brito, the nun Violante do Ceo (1601-93), and Manoel de Faria e Sousa; writers of pastoral poems and romances are Francisco Rodrigues Lobo (Prima vera, Pastor peregrino, and 0 desenganado), Al vares do Oriente (Lusitania transformada), and Manoel da Veiga Tagarro. The taint of culter anism is deplorably clear iu the verse contained in the collections entitled A fenix renaseida and Ecos que o Elarim da fama da. A natural note is struck in the unaffected lyrics of the historian Manoel de Mello. Spanish siglo de oro plays held full sway on the Portuguese stage; but Manoel Coelho P,ebello did produce humorous interludes in the home speech.
Composition in prose toward the middle of the sixteenth century was largely concerned with pastoral and chivalrous romances and with tales. The renowned chivalrous romance, Amadis de Gallia, so persistently claimed for Portugal by certain historians of her literature, was an ex ceedingly popular book, and it led to the writing of continuations and imitations of it. as an ex ample of which may be cited the Pahnerim d*In platen.° of 1\loraes (1544). The story of Castile is somewhat less drastically copied by Jorge Ferreira de Vasconeellos in three tales, and a more native tradition appears in the talc. of Fernandes Trancoso. Unfortunately for Portu gal. the best pastoral poem of the age, the Diana of the Portuguese Jorge de Montemor, was writ ten in Spanish. The sonorous and rhetorical qualities of Portuguese prose were excellently shown forth by Rodrigues Lobo in his Co;-te na aldeia e noitcs de inrerno. The historians di rect their attention particularly to the adven tures of Portuguese heroes and arms in the Indies. The romantic side of the expeditions of exploration and conquest is made prominent in the collection termed Ilistoria tragico-maritima.
Other ambitious efforts are those of Barros in his Dccadas and Albuquerque the Younger in his story of his father's deeds (Commentarios): per sonal observation guided the records left n: by Pinto, by Fernam Lopes de Castanheda. and by Correia. Several chronicles register the note worthy events of the lives of the monarchs of the period of conquest ; and a number of works of a comprehensive nature seek to furnish a general history of the fatherland. Manoel de Mello wrote most of his historical treatises in Spanish; his Epac,phoras de raria historic portugurn I 1660) is in Portuguese. Pulpit eloquence is most ably represented by the discourses and ser mons of the Jesuit Antonio Vieira (1608-97) ; and Portuguese epistolary style is seen at its best in the eartas of both Vieira and Manuel de Mello.
(5) During the period from 1700 to 1825 French Classicism ruled supreme in Portugal. Xavier de Menescs promulgated his verse transla tion of Boileau's Art poetique and sought to ap ply its precepts in his tedious epic, the Hen riqucida. The Academia Real Portugueza was founded in the hope that it would con trol the literary destinies of the land; but it proved to be powerless, though the coterie of poets banded together in the Arcadia be came really influential. The Arcadians were actuated somewhat by the wholesome principle of combining the plastic and correct forms of French Classicism with elements derived from domestic models of the sixteenth century: but in the main the native tradition was slighted. Correa Garcao and Antonio Diniz da Cruz e Silva were Arcadians who preached Horace and Boileau to their compatriots; Antonio Diniz's Hyssopc modeled on Boileau's Lutrin—is the most noted mock-heroic in Portuguese. Dramatic production is almost wholly in accordance with French rules. To the second half of the century belong its two most eminent authors, Francisco Manoel do Nas cimento (1734-1819; known in the Arcadia by the pseudonym of Filinto Elysio) and Manoel Maria Barbosa du Boccage (1765-1805). Nas cimento was a gifted lyric poet, with a refined and pleasing diction, which stood him in good stead also in his prose translation of Osorio's Latin history of Emanuel the Great. The poetic talent of Boccage, who founded the Nova Arcadia (in which he was styled Elmano), was even more pronounced; no Portuguese poet has surpassed him in the use of the sonnet. Both Nascimento and Boccage had followers, To Poccage's imitators is due a new form of culteranism, for which the master has been unjustly blamed and to which the term Elmanismo has been im properly applied. A pretentious rival of CamFles was Josi! Agostinho de Macedo (1761-1831). who has now lost a good deal of the prestige that he once enjoyed by reason of his epic 0 Oricntc.