BOOK I.
FROM THE END OF THE THIRTEENTH TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
RISE OF PORTUGUESE POETRY.
That songs in the Portuguese language were sung on the banks of the Tagus, before any kingdom of Portugal existed cannot be doubted. Indeed even Spanish writers, who have considered the question with impartiality, do not deny that Portuguese poetry flourished at an earlier period than the Castilian; and all accounts of the first dawnings of modern civilization in Portugal denote an original poetic tendency in the national genius. That destiny, however, by which Portugal has been from an early period politically severed from the other parts of the Peninsula could alone have prevented the Portuguese poetry from being like the Galician, completely absorbed and lost in the Castilian; for the Galician and Portuguese languages and poetry, were originally, and even after the separation of Portugal from the Castiles, scarcely distinguishable from each other.[1]
The foreigner, who is not prepossessed by any national partiality, in favour of either the Castilian or the Portuguese modifications of the Hispanic romance, might, perhaps, be induced to conclude that poetry would on the whole have sustained no essential loss, had the language of Portugal been rejected by literature, and reduced like the Galician dialect to the rank of a common popular idiom; for the Castilian poetry was from its origin, so closely allied to the Portuguese, that it is certain the former might easily have incorporated into itself the latter without producing the slightest inconsistency in any of its characteristic features. Still, however, to him who is capable of feeling the more delicate relations of the beautiful in nature and in art, it must be an increased pleasure to hear the same melody performed on two similar, yet differently constructed instruments. The historian of Portuguese literature ought, therefore, to direct his particular attention to those apparently unimportant, and yet in themselves very remarkable properties, whereby Portuguese poetry has in the varied progress of its cultivation more or less deviated from the Castilian, or, as it is now usually styled, the Spanish;[2] and also to the manner in which the differences not only of the two sister languages, but of the two nations, whose respective characters are impressed on those languages, have constantly preserved the boundary which divides the polite literature of Portugal and Spain, and which must otherwise have soon been obliterated.
The harmonious softness of the Portuguese language, probably contributed no less to its early cultivation in general than to its applicability to poetry in particular. Even the characteristic nasal sound, which the pronunciation of this language has in common with the French, is in no way detrimental to the rhythm of the Portuguese syllables; for that rhythm, as in the Spanish and Italian languages, depends on a certain accentuation, which is a valuable remnant of the latin syllabic forms, and which is not, as in the French, annihilated by a new rule of orthoepy. That this ancient accentuation, and with it the groundwork of metrical perfectibility, should be preserved in the Portuguese language, is a circumstance rendered the more remarkable by that of a French prince having been the founder of the first dynasty of the kings of Portugal; for from this incidental occurrence, some critics and philologists have endeavoured to explain the similarity between the Portuguese and French pronunciation. The prince to whose influence this effect has been attributed is Henry of Burgundy, who was, in the year 1094, appointed, by his father-in-law, Alphonso VI. of Castile, governor of the country situated at the mouth of the Tagus, and who afterwards held that territory in sovereignty with the title of Count; but however numerous might be the noble families, brought by this prince from France to Portugal, neither he nor they could be able to produce an essential change in the national language among all classes of the people.[3] Moreover the same dialect was and still is vernacular in Galicia, where no French prince ever ruled. It is however not a little extraordinary, that under the dominion and influence of French princes and nobles, Portuguese poetry should from its origin have preserved unimpaired those romantic national forms, in which it soon appeared perfectly to coincide with the Castilian poetry; for notwithstanding that most of the French nobles, who settled in Portugal, came from the south of France, whence they brought with them the genuine poetry of the Troubadours, still the introduction of that poetry did not impede the developement of those poetic forms, which constituted a common source of pleasure for the Portuguese, the Galician, and the Castilian.[4]
The favourable situation of Portugal could not fail to contribute in a considerable degree to the early developement of the Portuguese tongue. While the Castilians descending from their mountains, obtained no increase of wealth until they wrested it sword in hand from the Arabs, the Portuguese, particularly after they recovered possession of Lisbon, enriched themselves by the peaceful pursuits of trade and navigation. Lisbon soon became a flourishing commercial city; and the nation learned to unite civic industry with warlike achievements. The Portuguese, generally speaking, acquired a degree of practical dexterity which even to this day seems to distinguish them from the Spaniards, and which indeed is not sufficiently valued by the enemies of the Portuguese name, amongst whom must be more particularly included their Castilian neighbours. The benefits of civil industry, which were widely diffused from Lisbon, fortified in the Portuguese that feeling of self-esteem, which was necessary for the maintenance of their independence on so small a territory. In the reign of Alphonso I. the son of Henry of Burgundy, the Portuguese dominions acquired nearly their present extent by conquests made from the Moors, as far as the Algarvas. The romance dialect of Portugal now advanced southward into the conquered districts, and thus acquired the dignity of a prevailing national language, the formation of which proceeded from a great capital.
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.