[16] See Sarmiento’s Obras Posthumas, p. 323.
[17] The Cronica do Condestabre de Portugal Nun Alvarez Pereyra, printed in gothic letters at Lisbon 1526, in folio, may serve for an example. That this chronicle was composed about the end of the fourteenth century is a fact which admits of no doubt. Though written quite in the dry style of the chronicles, yet the author seems to have had a vague idea of historical arrangement; and he sometimes aims at a certain degree of skill and eloquence in antithesis. Thus in the preface, which commences in the following manner:—
Antigamente foy costume fazerem memoria das cousas que se faziam, assi erradas, como dos valentes e nobres feitos; dos erros, porque dellos soubessem guardar, e dos valentes e nobres feitos, aos boõs fizessem cobiça a ver peras cousas semelhantes fazerem.
With this artificial commencement, the simplicity of the following passage forms a remarkable contrast:—
E por nom fazer longo prollego (prologo), farei aqui começo em este virtuoso Senhor, do qual veo o valente y muy virtuoso conde estabre Dom Nunalvaréz Pereyra. E assi dehi em diante siguiremos nossa historia.
[18] See the preceding vol. p. [74].
[19] Dieze, in his Remarks on Velasquez p. 105, has printed a commencing stanza of one of these songs, which presents no great merit, together with a translated passage from Argote de Molina’s Nobleza de Andalusìa.
[20] Even Cervantes in his Journey to Parnassus, makes Mercury assign to Lusitania the supplying of Amores, in order to collect together the ingredients of romantic poetry.
[21] What is stated by Barbosa Machado shews how highly Garcia de Resende was esteemed by his contemporaries.
[22] Barbosa Machado likewise gives an account of this collection under the head D. Pedro I. p. 540, a place in which such a notice would scarcely be looked for.