in the camp of Croesus. Drums and fifes are kept in constant employment. Splendid pleasure gardens adorned with statues add to the pomp of the spectacle. But Esop, whose puns and quibbles are inexhaustible, is always the hero of the peice. At last, after bringing about a peace between Croesus, and the poeple of Athens, he is appointed governor of the city. Thus ends the Æsopeid, which might with more propriety be entitled the Buffooniad. Amidst this grotesque jumble, however, sparks of no common fancy are occasionally elicited; but the anonymous author seems to have been totally destitute of literary cultivation, and to have had no higher aim than to give a humorous colouring to the rudeness of his combinations. The rest of the Portuguese comic operas are, upon the whole, still more rude than the Æsopeid, though some are richer in the musical part of the composition, and possess grave or even pathetic airs and duets in the style of the serious Italian opera. It might, at first sight, be supposed, that a nation which could be pleased by dramas of this kind, must be for ever excluded from the path of higher cultivation. In Lisbon, the Italian opera-house continued to be the real court theatre. But the Portuguese opera which stood like a spurious child beside the Italian, maintained its ground in spite of its parent. Had not the taste for this kind of dramatic entertainment prevailed down to the second half of the eighteenth century, a new edition of the Æsopeid, and other theatrical caricatures, would not have been published in 1787. The restoration of a truly noble style in Portuguese poetry, could not therefore be expected to derive its origin from the drama. RESUMPTION OF AN IMPROVED STYLE IN PORTU GUESE POETRY. MANOEL DA COSTA. To obtain this object, it was, however, only necessary that a poet should arise, who, charmed by the renewed union of Portuguese and Italian poetry, might be induced to place himself under the tutelage of the early Italian poets. Thus would the Italian opera have rendered compensation for the evils to which it had given birth. A Brazilian, named Claudio Manoel da Costa, was one of the first writers who in this way contributed to reintroduce an elevated style into Portuguese poetry.* Born in the province of Minas Geraes, that part of Brazil where the chief object is the working of mines, he seems not to have been destined for the service of the muses. He indeed passed through a course of academic studies in Europe; but he himself states that during the five years which he spent at the university of Coimbra, no kind of poetry was there held in esteem, save that which was composed in the corrupt but fashionable style of the Portuguese Marinists. That young Da Costa, while at the university of Coimbra, should have applied himself to the study and imitation of the older Italian poets, and of Metastasio, was a circumstance peculiarly favourable to his improvement, while at the same time it afforded the first proof of his * Obras de Claudio Manoel da Costa, &c. Coimbra 1768, in 8vo. The preface in which this amiable author unaffectedly communicates some notices respecting himself, is a very instructive contribution to the history of Portuguese poetry. being destined to arrive at a point of purer cultivation than his contemporaries. He even ventured on the composition of Petrarchic sonnets in the Italian language, and in this attempt he was not unsuccessful. On his return to Brazil his poetic studies were continued in the region of gold and diamond treasures, to which he seems to have attached but little value; for he complains that amidst these mountains, no Arcadian stream awakes by its sweet murmur harmonious verse: and that the turbid waters of the brooks only serve to call to recollection the rapacious perseverance of the miners by whose labour they are discoloured. On his own poems he pronounces a remarkable judgment. He observes that he was too late in learning the rules of good taste from the Greeks, Italians and French; and that influenced by bad example, he sinned against principles, the justice of which he recognized. The perverted manner of the sonnetists of the seventeenth century is certainly here and there perceptible in the writings of Da Costa. But upon the whole, it may be said, that for nearly the space of a century, no Portuguese writer had so well succeeded in that kind of sonnet poetry, which most charmingly approximates to the style of Petrarch; and that in the other compositions of this Brazilian poet, the faults are counterbalanced by merits of the most pleasing kind. The sonnets included in the collection of his poetic works, amount to nearly a hundred; and among them are some in Italian, but none in the Spanish language. The style of these sonnets, nearly all of which have love for their subject, is, however, not altogether that of Petrarch. They possess a certain tone of poignancy, which betrays the spirit of modern times. Nevertheless, Da Costa's style, alike free from exaggeration and fantastic ornaments, exhibits the truth of nature and of poetry so happily united with Petrarchic intensity of feeling, and expressed in language so elegant and unostentatious, that his sonnets may justly be numbered among the very best in Portuguese literature.* While perusing them, the reader cannot fail sometimes to fancy that he recognizes the simple tone of the old Portuguese lyric poetry, reflected by an Italian echo.† Though the influence of French taste was The following may serve as a specimen of the modern style of the Portuguese sonnet: Onde estou? Este sitio desconheço: Quem fez tao differente aquelle prado ! E em contemplallo timido esmoreço. Alli em valle hum monte està mudado. Arvores aqui vi taõ florescentes, Que faziaō perpetua a primavera: Nem troncos vejo agora decadentes. Eu me engano: a regiaõ esta naõ era. Mas que venho a estranhar, se estaõ prezentes Meus males, com que tudo degenera. Nize? Nize? onde estás? A onde espera Achar-te huma alma, que por ti suspira: Ah se ao menos teu nome ouvir pudéra far less powerful than the Italian with Da Costa, it still had some effect on his poetry. It appears to have guided him in the choice of a metre for his epicedios, or elegies. These poems, however, are not composed in Alexandrines, but in iambics of five feet, without any complexity in the rhymes. This is a kind of verse which is frequently used by English writers; and yet Da Costa seems never to have turned his attention to English poetry. But though such verse was quite uncommon, similar measures had long before been known in Portugal, and perhaps Da Costa was not the first Portuguese poet who in this way attempted to approximate to the French style, as far as the diversity of the languages would, with propriety, permit the experiment to be carried. This dull style of rhyming, appears, however, always somewhat foreign and inharmonious in Portuguese poetry. In other respects, these epicedios possess the merit of noble, inartificial, and pleasing expression; but they want the high charm of the author's sonnets, and some of his other poetic compositions. He himself appears to have attached Nize, cuido, que diz; mas he mentira. Nize, cuidei que ouvia; e tal naõ era. Grutas, troncos, penhascos da espessura, Se o meu bem, se a minha alma em vós se esconde, Nem ao menos o ecco me responde! Ah como he certa a minha desventura! Nize? Nize? onde estás? aonde? aonde ? * One of Da Costa's epicedios on the death of a friend com mences thus: Commigo fallas; eu te escuto; eu vejo, Quanto a pezar de meu lethargo, e pejo, |