Thus a Portuguese poet was the first who made his countrymen acquainted with the spirit of genuine and elegantly cultivated prose in their native tongue; and, therefore, of all the writings of that poet, the work by which he extended the boundary of the polite literature of his nation, deserves, in the history of that literature, to hold the most conspicuous place. But Rodriguez Lobo ranks still higher among poets than among prose writers, though he neither introduced a new style nor a new form of poetry into Portuguese literature. His three connected pastoral romances, are the most luxuriant blossoms of this old branch of Portuguese poetry. Such a treasure of romantic bucolics as the united works present, is no where else to be found. The prose with which Rodriguez Lobo has incorporated the pastoral poems, can only be regarded as a poetic groundwork. In the present age these romances would not easily find, except in Portugal, and perhaps not even there, a reader possessing sufficient patience to peruse them throughout with attention. Were they even two thirds shorter than they are, their monotony would still be intolerably tiresome except to persons accustomed,—like the polite world of Portugal and Spain, in the time of Rodriguez Lobo,—to pastoralize their joys and sorrows, and to be satisfied with the constant sameness of pastoral composition, if it in some degree flatter the heart and the senses. In describing the subject of this romance, nothing further can be said, than that this or that shepherd and shepherdess occasionally meet, and occasionally separate. The general story unfolds no action which excites particular interest; and as little do the individual descriptions exhibit any character properly fitted for originating action. It may with tolerable certainty be inferred, that the story is a disguised picture of the romantic events of real life, in which the author was engaged. But though the disguises be less mysterious and singular than those of Ribeyro’s old pastoral romance,[216] still they present not the slightest attraction for posterity. If Lobo’s pastoral romance be compared with Montemayor’s Diana, the monotony of its subject will be found to be still more striking. However, notwithstanding that monotony, and also some ornamental excrescences of the old romantic kind, this romance well merits literary distinction, on account of the narrative and descriptive parts, which combine the most pleasing polish of language with a poetic tenderness of style, in which Lobo is not surpassed by Montemayor himself. The descriptions of scenery which frequently occur, are in particular remarkable for exquisite touches of romantic simplicity. They are, doubtless, sketched from nature: the scene is invariably laid in Portugal, and the country is sometimes accurately traced out by the rivers.[217] But the parts in verse are by far the most beautiful of the whole; and the best of the cantigas and canções which occur in this delicate representation of romantic pastoral life, may be regarded as classic models in their kind.
Primavera (Spring) is the title of the first of Lobo’s pastoral romances. Pastoral images of spring are here exhibited in contrast with the complaints of unhappy love. The inexhaustible fertility which Rodriguez Lobo has evinced in the execution of this contrast, seems totally incredible in this prosaic age; for the same impressions and situations are continually recurring in an ever varied form. A descriptive song of spring, full of cheerfulness, opens the beautiful gallery.[218] The spirit of a shepherd, who has been transformed into a fountain, sings the history of his tender passion. Sonnets, canções, tercets, octaves, and redondilhas, are by turns gracefully introduced in the succeeding cantos. Sometimes at the close of these lyric effusions the reader is surprised by ideas, which, however, were in some degree to be expected.[219] In general the enthusiasm of love is represented with somewhat less quaintness by Rodriguez Lobo than by Montemayor. When plays of sentiment running through several stanzas turn on a prevailing idea occurring in the last line of each stanza, Lobo, like Montemayor, usually expresses this idea merely by a simple exclamation. These plays of sentiment are also very pleasingly combined with the usual reflections on the perishableness of all earthly things.[220] The poetic salutations to nature, which to the poet appeared as though she sympathized with him, present, in this pastoral romance, all the charm of the tenderest simplicity.[221] Then again the same melancholy reflections recur in another form.[222] In many of these songs, however, the romantic complaints are carried to an excessive prolixity. That which might be sufficiently well expressed in five or six stanzas, sometimes occupies from thirty to forty. Scope is, however, advantageously given to romantic wit in the style of the age, by the poetic questions and answers with which Rodriguez Lobo’s shepherds and shepherdesses occasionally maintain conversation. In this way antiquated quaintness is successfully avoided, while the poetic character of these sportive exercises is carefully preserved. The plays of wit acquire indeed an augmented interest by being combined with a kind of poetic competition. Thus, for example, the question:—Whether love with or without hope be the truest love? is answered in two different songs.[223] The question in what degree love and jealousy are allied? receives three answers in three songs.[224] Rodriguez Lobo has not been surpassed by any ancient or modern poet in the ingenious simplicity and elegance of these fanciful compositions. But had he been less successful in productions of this class, still the poetic truth, intensity, delicacy and graceful ease of his pastoral cantigas and canções would have entitled him to one of the highest places among the lyric poets of all nations. The reader readily pardons the tedious length of the Primavera, as it could not otherwise include so many lyric poems. Even the antiquated division into Florestas (flower-beds), will not displease, if the exquisite lyric effusions which are scattered through the work, be allowed to represent the flowers. That this romance is arranged in geographical divisions according to the rivers of the district in which the scene is laid, must also be excused, though such a plan may not, perhaps, appear quite congenial with the spirit of romantic poetry.
The other two pastoral romances of Lobo are merely continuations of his Spring, which according to the plan on which it is written, might be protracted to infinity. The first continuation is entitled, O Pastor Peregrino, (the Wandering Shepherd). It is arranged in divisions, which, like the acts of the Spanish comedies, bear the name of jornadas. The second continuation, or the conclusion of the whole romance, is entitled, O Desenganado,[225] (the Disenchanted), and its divisions are called discursos (discourses). Here also a rich harvest of lyric flowers charm the reader, though the romance itself becomes even less interesting. Rodriguez Lobo has endeavoured to render this last portion of his romance in a peculiar way instructive. Towards the close, as the events become more romantic, he introduces a portion of his geographical, historical, and physical knowledge. Still sound judgment and a delicate spirit of observation are here manifest.
But Rodriguez Lobo who found only within the boundary or in the vicinity of pastoral poetry the objects and impressions for the poetic representation of which he was destined by nature, was induced to take part with the Portuguese and Spanish poets of his age in the absurd competition for the prize of epopœia. He wrote a work entitled, O Condestabre de Portugal, (the Generalissimo of Portugal), which he intended should be a national epic poem. It is, however, merely a versified biography of the renowned Nuno Alvarez Pereira, whom the Portuguese of that age eulogized with an enthusiasm equal to that with which the Spaniards celebrated their favourite Cid. Rodriguez Lobo has collected with all requisite patience the most remarkable events in the life of his hero. He has arranged them chronologically, dividing the whole into twenty cantos, and the long narrative is written in neat octaves. But all the advantage which a story can impart to a poem is wanting in this tedious work. It is difficult to conceive how a man of Rodriguez Lobo’s poetic taste, could have written verses in this style without being conscious that he was only rhyming historical prose. The imagination has had but little or no share either in the cultivation of the style or the painting of the situations; and the whole work exhibits no trace of poetic invention. But it is soon evident that from beginning to end the author is resolved never to be at variance with historical truth. Thus Rodriguez Lobo purposely repressed his natural poetic feeling in order to conform with the false notions of epic composition, which were at that time firmly established in Spain and Portugal. So much, indeed, was he under the dominion of those notions that he has not had the courage to mingle even as much poetry with his narrative, as the Spaniard Ercilla introduced in his Araucana.[226] The few stanzas which Camoens in his Lusiad consecrates to Nuno Alvarez,[227] are worth more than the twenty cantos of Lobo’s versified biography. In a philological point of view, however, the composition deserves praise, for the simplicity, correctness and elegance of its language. A gleam of poetic beauty here and there distinguishes some of the descriptive and pathetic passages, and repays the labour of a perusal.
The predilection which Rodriguez Lobo unconsciously and almost exclusively entertained for pastoral poetry, is more than sufficiently proved by the ten eclogues which are included among the works of this poet, independently of the three pastoral romances already noticed. He wished to combine didactic with bucolic poetry. On this idea he has explained himself in a preface to his didactic eclogues. Man, he says, has abandoned the state for which nature destined him, since he has exchanged the quietude of his rural occupations and wishes, for a restless and dissatisfied life by sea and by land. Abel was a shepherd, and all the succeeding patriarchs, on whom God bestowed his favour, devoted themselves to the care of flocks and herds. Amidst rustic occupations the virtues of the ancient Romans were fostered; and there have arisen in the pastoral state many great men who have been called to fill thrones. Country life must therefore be regarded as the only natural state of existence, and consequently it is that state to which all the precepts of morality have reference. Thus poetry cannot be more suitably combined with morality than through the medium of pastoral composition. It is therefore nothing surprising that the discourse of shepherds should be the vehicle of practical philosophy. The shepherd in his smock-frock has not less correct notions of virtue and vice than the courtier and man of the world. But poetry is, generally speaking, merely the clothing of truth.[228] According to these principles which may be regarded as a portion of the Portuguese art of poetry in the sixteenth century, Rodriguez Lobo chose for his didactic eclogues, a particular moral point of view. The first is directed against rudeness and ignorance; the second against hatred and envy; the third against avarice. In like manner each of the remaining eclogues censures some particular vice, and the censure is conveyed in a style of rural gentleness, while the opposite virtue is recommended by pleasing images. The simple morality which Rodriguez Lobo puts into the mouths of his shepherds is certainly not unnatural in their situation. Far removed also as the critic may be from the scholastic prejudices which formed the basis of the poetic art of the sixteenth century, and which would render poetry a mere robe for morality, still it is impossible entirely to reject the idea of this species of didactic eclogue. But such a homely morality, in union with pastoral poetry, could possess poetic interest, only at a time when the commonest remarks on moral relations, if divested of theological and monastic forms of expression, had all the charm of novelty. In the present age, however, when philosophy has long nourished poetry with more invigorating aliment, the didactic eclogues of Rodriguez Lobo cannot claim any particular favour among readers, who justly require that morality should not directly mix in the business of poetry, when it has nothing new to tell.
The works of Rodriguez Lobo, also include about a hundred romances, which, with the exception of a few, are written in Spanish. The first half contributed nothing to the advancement of Portuguese literature. It consists of fifty-six occasional poems in redondilhas, which are all pompous salutations of Philip III. who in the year 1619 visited his Portuguese dominions. Such occasional poems were at the period denominated romances. But the works of Rodriguez Lobo conclude with some real romances in the old spirit and style, which cast a new light on that part of Portuguese literature. They prove, that which more ancient data leave doubtful, namely, that the epic or heroic romance, which in Castile is as old as the Castilian language, was never completely naturalized in Portugal.[229] The narrative romances in particular, the subjects of which are borrowed from the history of Moorish knights and ladies, and in which Spanish poetry is so profusely rich, seem only to have found their way into Portugal from Spain, and never to have been perfectly congenial with the national taste of the Portuguese. This kind of romance seems indeed to be essentially attached to the Castilian language. It appears that in the age of Rodriguez Lobo, the Spaniards made it a reproach to the Portuguese that they wanted the talent necessary for inventing these romances. Rodriguez Lobo, who was a zealous patriot, wrote a whole series, but only with the view of ridiculing this species of composition which appeared to him too vain-glorious. In an introductory romance he apostrophizes the romancistas (romance writers) of his native country. He conjures them, instead of continuing to plunder the Spanish language, to soar to distinction by means of originality, since where there were so many pens, wings could not be wanting. He begs them to observe, that the laurel tree on Parnassus had been completely stripped, since to every Spanish romancist a whole branch had been assigned as a garland.[230] He adds, that they might roam to the Alhambra and the Alpuxarra in quest of the fair ladies Daraja and Celinda, Adalifa and Celidaxa.[231] Lobo follows up this satirical address with a considerable number of Spanish romances of his own composition, apparently with the view of proving how easy it is to write such pieces. Indeed to a poet of Rodriguez Lobo’s talent it certainly could not be difficult to produce an exaggerated imitation of the style of the Spanish national romance. But such extravagant imitation will not deprive the best of those romances of the merit which they really possess. Lobo seems purposely to have introduced among these compositions, some pastoral romances in the Portuguese language; as if it were not as easy and even easier to ridicule pastoral poetry; or as if an exuberance of pastoral poetry were to be a proof that Portuguese literature could well dispense with the beautiful epic romance.
Rodriguez Lobo laid the foundation of that excessive accumulation of pastoral poetry, existing in the Portuguese language. He exerted his utmost endeavours to fix the taste of the nation in that direction. Before he appeared, the poetic genius of the Portuguese earnestly and zealously sought distinction in different ways. But after the period in which Rodriguez Lobo flourished, the Portuguese poets evinced an exclusive predilection for the pastoral style, even in other classes of poetic composition.
STATE OF PORTUGUESE ELOQUENCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
Though Portuguese poetry had now attained a degree of consideration which in the following century it was unable to surpass, eloquence, or the elegant literature of prose remained far behind. That no writer of talent should have produced a work in Portuguese prose, which in a rhetorical point of view is worthy to mark an epoch, may in some respects be accounted for by peculiar circumstances, and must in others be attributed merely to the caprice of chance. The same restrictions on intellectual freedom, which in Portugal so effectually opposed the full developement of pure eloquence, had likewise held captive the thinking faculty in Spain. In Spain, however, a few, but still some men of talent, who pretended to no distinction in poetry, learned to move, even in their fetters, with rhetorical freedom and dignity, and there was nothing to prevent the occurrence of similar instances at an equally early period in Portugal. But it appears, that the Portuguese authors who had no ambition to be poets, were not endowed with the true talent for cultivating the art of rhetorical representation, and that the poets were too much engaged with their own art, to take any particular interest in the improvement of any other branch of polite literature. With the single exception of Rodriguez Lobo, whose Corte na Aldea afforded in Portugal the first example how a poet could elevate the language of common life, without confounding the boundaries of poetry and elegant prose, no Portuguese poet of the sixteenth century in any way contributed to the cultivation of eloquence; and the period when Rodriguez Lobo enjoyed his utmost celebrity was not earlier than the commencement of the seventeenth century. Now the Portuguese language was then, as the loud complaint of Lobo sufficiently proves, frequently denied, even in Portugal, any claim to the possession of that accuracy and elegance, without which poetry, deficient merely in cultivation, might indeed exist, but which is indispensably necessary to prose composition, when it is to be elevated above the formal style of ceremony, and the negligent expression of common life. Thus it seems to have happened that some Portuguese historians and moralists, who, even in the first half of the sixteenth century, had actually formed their style to a certain extent on the ancient models, still unconsciously fell into the rude manner of the chronicle and monastic prose. In Spain elegant prose was afforded the opportunity of an earlier developement, for the national pride of the Castilians had at all times powerfully protected the Castilian language; and men of learning who entertained a different opinion had not the deciding voice.[232]