Portuguese literature

La letteratura, dalla quale sola potrebbe aver sodo principio la rigenerazione della nostra patria. Giacomo Leopardi. This book was ready in October 1916, but the war delayed its publication. A few alterations have now been made in order to bring it up to date. It is needless to say how welcome will be further suggestions, especially for the bibliography. Only by such help can a book of this kind become useful, since its object is not to expatiate upon schools and theories but to give with as much accuracy as possible the main facts concerning the work and life of each individual author. AUBREY F. G. BELL. S. João do Estoril, Portugal. July 1921 CONTENTS PAGE Introduction Portuguese literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos—Dr. Theophilo Braga—Portuguese prose—Portuguese writers in Spanish and Latin—Character of the Portuguese—Special qualities of their literature—Splendid achievement—Lack of criticism and proportion but not of talent 13 I. 1185-1325. [i. e. from the accession of Sancho I to the death of Dinis.] 1. The Cossantes 22 Earliest poems—Their indigenous character and peculiar form—Their origin—Galicia in the Middle Ages—The pilgrimages—Dance-poems—Themes of the cossantes —Their relation to the poetry imported from Provence—Writers of cossantes : Nuno Fernandez Torneol—Joan Zorro—Pero Meogo—Pay Gomez Chariño—Airas Nunez’ pastorela —The cantigas de vilãos —Songs of women—Persistence of the cossante to modern times— Cossantes and cantigas de amor . 2. The Cancioneiros 37 Cancioneiro da Ajuda — Cancioneiro da Vaticana — Cancioneiro Colocci-Brancuti —Relations of Portugal with Spain, with France, with other countries—The Galician language—Its extension—Alfonso X—The Cantigas de Santa Maria —Poetry at the Court of Afonso III—Provençal poetry in Portugal—Monotony and technical skill of the Portuguese poets— Cantigas de amigo —Satiric poems—Joan de Guilhade—Pero Garcia de Burgos—Pero da Ponte—Joan Airas—Fernan Garcia Esgaravunha—Airas Nunez—King Dinis. II. 1325-1521. [i. e. from the accession of Sancho IV to the death of Manuel I.] 1. Early Prose 58 Comparatively late development of prose—Spanish influence in the second period of Portuguese literature—King Dinis’ translation of the Cronica Geral — Regra de S. Bento —Translations from the Bible—Sacred legends—Aesop’s Fables—Chronicles— Livros de Linhagens —The Breton cycle—The Quest of the Holy Grail— Livro de Josep ab Arimatia — Estorea de Vespeseano — Amadis de Gaula —Problem of its origin—Early allusions—Vasco de Lobeira—Probable