SA SOTOMAYOR.
Many other Portuguese romances of different kinds were produced in the sixteenth century. The prize awarded to Rodriguez Lobo, as author of the most celebrated pastoral romance, had already been an object of ambition with Eloy de Sà Sotomayor, whose Ribeiras do Mondego, (Banks of the Mondego),[234] was not, however, so early known as Lobo’s work. From the preface to the Ribeiras, it is quite evident that Rodriguez Lobo had, according to the fashion of the age, introduced into his pastoral romances a disguised picture of affairs of love which personally interested himself. Sà Sotomayor, who was also a bachelor of canon law, was considered one of the most successful rivals of Rodriguez Lobo, in romantic composition. But as a poet, he was in every respect far inferior. His narrative and descriptive styles are not destitute of grace.[235] His verses, however, cannot bear comparison with those of Lobo: and even his most natural pictures of sentiment are deficient in novelty of idea and ingenious simplicity.[236]