History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature (Vol 2 of 2) - Friedrich Bouterwek

Ines. Eysso ey de ter na maõ?

Pero. Deitay as peras no cham.

Ines. As perlas pera infiar
tres chocalhos et hum nouelo
et as peas no capelo
et as peras onde estam?

Per. Nunca tal me aconteceo.
Algum rapaz mas comeo,
que as meti no capelo,
et ficou aqui o nouelo
et o pentem nam se perdeo:
pois trazias de boa mente. &c.

[104] The following is the whole of the stanza:—

A OS BONS ENGENHOS.

A vòs sò canto, spritos bem nascidos,
A vòs, e às Musas, offreço a lyra,
A o Amor meus ays e me us genuidos,
Compostos do seu fogo e da sua ira.
Em vossos peitos saõs, limpos ouvidos
Cayaõ meus versos, quas me Phebo inspira.
En desta gloria sò fico contente,
Que a minha terra amei, e a minha gente.

[105] The biographical sketch here given is collected from the well written Vida do Doutor Antonio Ferreira, prefixed to the new edition of Ferreira’s Poemas Lusitanos, Lisboa, 1771, in 2 volumes octavo. This edition, though not remarkable for elegance, is printed with tolerable correctness, and contains also the author’s dramas. Notices extracted from Nicolas Antonio and Barbosa Machado, respecting the older editions of Ferreira’s works, may be found in Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez.

[106] Ferreira in scanning, avails himself of the peculiarity of the Portuguese diphthongs, in order to omit at pleasure, as in latin verse, the m at the termination of words; for the Portuguese m in that situation is not an alphabetic character, but merely denotes the nasal sound which may also be marked by a circumflex over the diphthongs according to the fancy of the writer. Ferreira, for example, thus scans a line in his beautiful elegy on spring:—