PIRES DE REBELLO.
Among the Portuguese chivalric romances, which were so assiduously read in the sixteenth century, may be numbered A Constante Florinda, (the Constant Florinda) of Gaspar Pires de Rebello, who was likewise the author of some short didactic novels, (novelas exemplares) which were published about the period at which Cervantes enriched Spanish literature with tales of a totally different standard, though bearing the same title.[237] Rebello entertained a very high opinion of the usefulness of his novels;[238] but his inventions are common place; and his unceasing display of mythological learning is as affected as are many of his similies and images.[239]