of his age, Barros seizes every opportunity for putting forward his catholic opinions, though the result is by no means to the advantage of his historical work. LOPEZ DE CASTANHEDA DAMIAO DE GÓES In order to form a correct estimate of the rhetorical merit of Barros, with reference to the age in which he lived, it is necessary to compare his historical works with others which were written in Portugal at the same period and on the same subjects. In this comparison Barros will be found to shine forth as a light of superior lustre. With equal patriotism and industry, and with a greater sacrifice of his own interest, Fernao Lopez de Castanheda composed his history of the discovery and conquest of India by the Portuguese: a narrative of events, which, though compendious in form, exhibits the most laborious accuracy in the investigation of facts.* But whatever may be the historical merit of this work, it is, as to rhetorical character, merely a common chronicle. The diffuse chronicle of King Emanuel, which was about this virgem. Em seus trabalhos et paixões, era mui sofrido et senhor de si: et em ambas as fortunas humildoso, et taõ benigno em perdoar erros que lhe foi tachado. Teve grande memoria et concelho a cerca dos negocios: et muita authoridade pera os graves, et de muito peso.-Dec. II. livr. i. cap. 16. * This Historia do descobrimento e da conquista da India pelos Portuguezes, feita por Fernaõ Lopez de Castanheda, was on account of its historical merit reprinted with the old orthography at Lisbon, in the year 1797, in two octavo volumes. period edited by Damiaõ de Góes, is also interesting only to the historian. The life of the great Affonso d'Alboquerque, composed by his son, Affonso d'Alboquerque, the younger, is a biographical chronicle, which may be placed on a parallel with the works entitled, Histories, which have just been noticed.* No historical work enjoys greater esteem in Portuguese literature: and that a father so celebrated, should have found so worthy a narrator of his atchievements in his son, certainly was not a thing easily to be anticipated. But in the scale of rhetorical merit, these Commentaries, as the work is usually denominated, weigh but lightly. The language may be said to be pure, but the style is monotonous; and upon the whole it is merely a repetition of the old chronicle style.† • Commentarios do grande Affonso d'Alboquerque, &c. An elegant edition was published at Lisbon in 1774, in four octavo volumes. In order to understand this work the reader must not spare himself the pains of learning the maritime language of Portugal. The book will sufficiently repay this trifling labour. These celebrated Commentaries are written throughout nearly in the style of the following passage: Passadas todas estas cousas, mandou o grande Afonso Dalboquerque aos Capitães, que levassem suas amarras, e partio-se do porto de Adem a quatro dias do mes de Agosto, e com toda sua Armada foi á vista do cabo de Guardafum, e dali fizeram sua navegaçaõ á outra banda da terra, e afferrâram Diolocindi, e foram correndo toda a costa de longo, e chegáram a Diu, onde foram muito bem recebidos de Miliqueaz, e bem festejados de dadivas, que deo a todos os Capitães, e ali estave seis dias, e mandou concertar os bateis das náos, que vinham muito desbaratados; e como chegou, veio logo Miliqueaz velo á nào, e estiveram ambos praticando em cousas desapegadas.-Parte IV. cap. 12. BERNARDO DE BRITO. Bernardo de Brito, a Portuguese historian, who lived in the latter end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, possessed a far higher degree of historical cultivation. He was educated at Rome, and was master of several modern languages. He devoted himself to the ecclesiastical profession, but in the cloister he followed his predilection for Portuguese history; and as authorized Cronista of his convent, he undertook the arduous task of writing a complete history of the Portuguese monarchy. He died in the year 1617, in the forty-seventh year of his age, without having attained the object to which he honourably aspired. But, notwithstanding his early death, he might have succeeded in completing the history of his native country, had not the plan on which he proceeded placed that object beyond his reach. The idea of a history of the Portuguese monarchy, would have been properly fulfilled by commencing with the foundation of that monarchy, and in an introduction only, refering back somewhat beyond the eleventh century. But Bernardo de Brito contemplated the execution of a work of much greater magnitude. His Monarchia Lusitana was intended to be a complete history of the country, now called Portugal, from the most remote antiquity down to the latest period.* The ancient * Monarchia Lusitana, composta por Frey Bernardo de Brito, &c. The edition with which I am acquainted is in two folio volumes. The first volume was printed in the convent of Alcobaça, in the year 1597, and the second by a bookseller of Lisbon, in 1609. history of Portugal was with him a favourite part of his subject. It is probable that he wished his history to rank as a companion to the Spanish work of Florian de Ocampo, who in the reign of Charles V. commenced on a similar plan, a history of the Spanish monarchy from the time of the flood.* Brito, however, did not think that period sufficiently remote, but chose to start from the creation of the world. Whatever particulars are furnished by ancient authors, concerning Lusitania and the Lusitanians of the earliest ages, he has collected, examined, and arranged in historical connection. But a thick folio volume, which includes the four first books, brings the history no further than the birth of Christ; and towards the end of the second volume, where the history of modern Portugal commences, the work breaks off. Had it been completed, still it would not have been an easy matter to have brought the numerous notices respecting Portuguese antiquities, which Brito has introduced, under a point of view whereby they might have formed an appropriate union with the heterogeneous events of modern history. But the work is eminently distinguished for style and descriptive talent. The ingenious author seems like many other eminent persons of his age to have derived particular advantage from his residence in Italy. Without deteriorating by laborious polish, the vigorous style which is indispensable to historical composition, he gives even dry narratives of facts in a manner totally different from the compilers of the old chronicles; * See preceding vol. p. 315. and where the internal interest of the subject animates the description, Brito's historical pictures possess an impressive effect, which marks the pupil of the ancient classic writers.* Brito's preface, in which he gives an account of the spirit and plan of his history of the Portuguese monarchy, merits attention. He observes that even his own countrymen advised him to write his work, if not * In order to form a just notion of Brito's rhetorical merit, it is necessary to peruse the second part of his work, in which he had no longer the opportunity of following the ancient writers; for example, his description of the final stroke of fate which visited the Visigoth King Roderick, who lost the decisive battle against the Arabs. He thus describes how the king in his retreat took refuge in the church of a deserted convent: Chegado el Rey a este lugar co desejo de achar nelle alguma consolaçao pera seu spiritu, encontrou materia de mayor lastima, et dobrado sentimento, por que os mõges atemorizados co a nova que chegara poucos dias antes et solicitos por salvar os ornamentos, et cousas sagradas, huns eraõ jâ fugidos pera dentro de Merida, outros se retirarao pella terra dentro buscando guarida em outros conventos, et os menos aguardavao o fim do negocio dentro no mosteiro, desejando acabar a vida pella honra et defensaõ da Fé Catholica dentro naquelle santuario. Entrou el Rey na Igreja, et vendoa nua de ornamentos, et desempesada de Religiosos, se pos em oraçao com tanta dòr et angustia de coraçaõ, que desfeito em lagrimas, se naõ lembrava que podia ser ouvido de alguma pessoa, aquem o excesso dellas desse conhecimento de quem podia ser, et como a fraqueza de naõ ter comido alguns dias, o desfalecimento do cerebro, pella falta do sono, et o quebrantamento de caminhar a pé, lhe tivessem as forças debilitadas, se lhe cerrarao os spiritus, de maneira, que ficou em terra com hum desmayo em que esteve privado dos sentidos a te o achar hum monge antigo, &c.—Livr. VII. cap. 3. The facility of the accentuation in these long sentences is particularly remarkable. |