GONZALO HERMIGUEZ AND EGAZ MONIZ.
These circumstances may serve to explain how two Portuguese poets came to be celebrated at so early a period as the reign of Alphonso I. in the twelfth century. One of these poets is Gonzalo Hermiguez, and the other Egaz Moniz; two knights descended from the most distinguished families of the country. The verses of these ancient bards which have been preserved, are not wholly intelligible even to natives of Portugal.[5] But though their meaning can only be partially conjectured, they nevertheless merit attention; for no Spanish cancion of that age, by any known author, now exists; and in these oldest records of Portuguese poetry, the germ of the common character and metrical form of the national songs of Spain and Portugal is plainly discernible. Gonzalo Hermiguez and Egaz Moniz wrote no rhymed chronicles or legends. They did not even compose in the Provençal metres. Their lyric effusions, which are popular songs in the proper sense of the term, are composed in short trochaic verses, precisely in the style of the well-known Spanish and Portuguese ballads of the fifteenth centuries. In the verses of Hermiguez scarcely any regular measure is discernible.[6] But Egaz Moniz exhibits precisely that metrical form, for which, during some succeeding centuries the Portuguese and the Spaniards manifested a particular predilection.[7]
These oldest relics of lyric composition in the Portuguese language seem to confirm the opinion, that the prevailing tone of romantic love, which characterised the poetry of the Spaniards and Portuguese, until the imitation of the Italian style was generally adopted, originated in Portugal. To paint romantic despair, and all the storms of passion, combined with the deepest resignation, existing not only in fancy, but in real life, appears to have formed the poetic costume of chivalry in Portugal even earlier than in Spain. Thus, the susceptible Egaz Moniz is said to have survived only a short time the poetic expression of the anguish occasioned by the infidelity of his beloved Violante.