an idea of music, I were to exhibit a piano-forte to his view, and point out the ingenious construction by which each touch draws from the strings tones of which he can form no conception. Then I might address him in the words which I now address to the French reader: "You ought to believe that when men of superior talent employ means so ingenious to arrive at some unknown end, that end is one worthy of their powers. If they speak with rapture of the ethereal pleasure they experience from its tones, believe that music has in reality a power over the mind which you have never been able to feel; and without arguing upon the subject, without requiring the intellect to account for the sensations of the heart, believe that this harmony, whose mechanism you perceive without recognising its power, is a wonderful revelation of the secrets of nature, a mysterious association of the soul with its Creator." The harmony of language is in fact, as much as that of any instrument, a secret power, of which those who may not have extended their knowledge beyond the French are incapable of forming any idea. Monotonous and dead, without dignity in its consonants, as without melody in its vowels, the French language appeals powerfully only to the understanding. It is the most clear, logical, and striking, perhaps, of any tongue; but it exercises no influence over the senses; and that enjoyment which we receive from the Italian, the Spanish, the Portuguese, or the Provençal poetry, is of a sensual cast, though proceeding, perhaps, from the most ethereal portion of our physical nature. It is, in fine, music; for nothing can convey the delightful impression of its tones but the tones themselves. We yield ourselves to its charm before we can comprehend it; we listen, and the pleasure is in the voice, and in the order of the words, and not in the meaning they may contain. We seem to rise by degrees above ourselves and the objects that surround us; our griefs become calm, our cares die away for a moment, a dream appears to suspend our very existence, and we feel as if we were borne into the precincts of a happier world. Approaching the close of our inquiries into the beautiful language of the South, we must likewise bid farewell to its rich and bright imaginations. We find music and painting every where combined in romantic poetry, Its writers do not attempt to engage our attention with ideas, but with images richly coloured, which incessantly pass before our view. Neither do they ever name any object that they do not paint to the eye. The whole creation seems to grow brighter around us, and the world always appears to us through the medium of this poetry as when we gaze on it near the beautiful waterfalls of Switzerland, while the sun is upon their waves. The landscape suddenly brightens under the bow of heaven, and all the objects of nature are tinged with its colours. It is quite impossible for any translation to convey a feeling of this pleasure. The romantic poet seizes the most bold and lofty image, and is little solicitous to convey its full meaning, provided it glows brightly in his verse. In order to translate it into another language, it would first of all be requisite to soften it down, in order that it might not stand forward out of all proportion with the other figures; to combine it with what precedes and follows, that it might neither strike the reader unexpectedly, nor throw the least obscurity over the style; and to express, perhaps, by a periphrasis, the happiest and most striking word, because the French language, abounding in expressions adapted for ideas, is but scantily furnished with such as are proper for imagery. At every word we must study to change, to correct, to curtail; the rich and glowing imagination of the South is no longer an object of interest, and may be compared to an artificial firework, of which we are permitted to see the preparation, while the ignition is unfortunately withheld. I have in the preceding pages conducted my reader only to the vestibule of the temple, if I may so express myself, of the romantic literatures of the South. I have pointed out to him at a distance the extent of their riches, enclosed within a sanctuary into which we have not as yet been permitted to penetrate; and it henceforward remains with himself to initiate himself further into its secrets, if he resolve to pursue the task. Let me exhort him not to be daunted. These southern languages, embracing such a variety of treasures, will not long delay his progress by their trifling difficulties. They are all sisters of the same family, and he may easily vary his employment by passing successively from one to the other. The application of a very few months will be found sufficient to acquire a knowledge of the Spanish or the Italian; and after a short period, the perusal of them will be attended only with pleasure. Should I be 604 LITERATURE OF THE PORTUGUESE. permitted at some future time to complete a work similar to the present, relating to the literature of the North, it will then become my duty to bring into view poetical beauties of a severer character, of a nature more foreign to our own, and the knowledge of which is not to be attained, without far more painful and assiduous study. Yet in this pursuit the recompense will be proportioned to the sacrifices made; and the Muses of other lands have always shewn themselves grateful for the worship which strangers have offered up at their shrine. ABDALRAHMAN, a patron of letters, i. 81. Accolti, Bernardo, an Italian poet, i. 428. Adelgizo, imprisons Louis II., i. 38. Albuquerque, Alfonso d', ii. 525; his Aleman, Matteo, author of Gusman d' Alexander, poem of, the origin of the Alfieri, Vittorio, his confessions, i. 568; Algarotti, Francesco, his genius, ii. 60. Ali, the fourth Caliph, a patron of letters, Almeida, Nicolas,Tolentino de, his poems, Al-Mamoun, the Augustus of Bagdad, the father of Arabic literature, i. 52. Amadis de Gaul, ii. 150; its character and Amadises, the various romances of, i. 203. Andrade Caminha, Pedro de, his works, Andrade, Jacinto Freire de, his burlesque Andres, his History of Literature, i. 32. Arabian Nights' Entertainments, only a Argensola, Lupercio Leonardo de, his Argote y Molina, Gonzoles de, his poems, Ariosto, his allusions to the Chronicle of Aristotle studied by the Arabians, i. 65; Armesto, Don Manuel Francisco de, his Arnaud de Marveil, the most celebrated Attila, his court the subject of the Lay of Aucassin and Nicolette, the most cele- Aurispa, Giovanni, his collection of Greek Autos-da-fé, the last celebrated, ii. 427. Averrhoes, a commentator of Aristotle,i.65. Ayala, Pedro Lopez de, his poems, ii. 149. Azzo VII. invites the Troubadours to Bacellar, Antonio Barbosa, his Portuguese Backtischwah, George, his Arabian trans- lations of Greek medical works, i. 51. Barbazan, his collection of Fabliaux, i. Barberino, Francesco di, i. 274. Beccari, Agostino, his poem of Il Sacri- Beccaria, Marquis, his treatise on Crimes, Bembo, Pietro, his life and works, i. 426. Berceo, Gonzales de, his poems, ii. 122; Bernardes, Diego, his life, ii. 473; his Berni, Francesco, character of his genius, i. 423; his Orlando Innamorato, i. 424. Bettinelli, Xavier, his works, ii. 61. Bocarro, Antonio, his History of the Boiardo, Maria, i. 322; his Orlando In- Bondi, C., his poems, ii. 73. Borja, Francisco de, Prince of Esquillace, Boscan, produced a revolution in Castilian Bracciolini, Francesco, his comic-heroic Bracciolini, Poggio, his history, i. 311; Brito, Bernardo de, his History of Portu- Byron, Lord, specimen of his unpublished Calderon de la Barca, Don Pedro de, ii. the Inquisition, ii. 379; his fanaticism; 480; episode of Inez de Castro, ii. 497; Cancer, Don Hieronymo, ii. 424. Cardozo, Francisco, ii. 600. Carmentiere, his lives of the Troubadours, Carpio, Bernard del, ii. 141; his history, Carthagena, Alonzo de, ii. 165. Castañeda, Fernando Lopez de, his His- Casti, his Gli Animali Parlanti and Novelli, Castiglione, Baldassare, i. 436. Castro, Estevan Rodriguez de, ii. 475. Ceo, Violante de, ii. 582; translation of Cerda, Fernam Correa de la, ii. 582. |