Page:Lusitania illustrata- notices on the history, antiquities, literature, etc., of Portugal. Literary department. Part I. Selection of sonnets, with biographical sketches of the authors (IA lusitaniaillustr00adam 0).pdf/139

Rh them as divided into the Romance, in which the Epic predominates, the poet relating and singing the events -The Xacara or Chacra, where the Dramatic prevails, the poet saying little and leaving nearly all to the personages introduced—and the Solaõ, which is of a more plaintive and Lyric character, expressive of sorrow rather than recounting facts.

Of most of these relics only fragments have been handed down, several of which are found in the Cancioneiros, or dispersed in some of the earliest works of the Portugueze authors. It is to the indefatigable exertions of the Senhor de Almeida-Garrett that not only Portugal but the literary world are indebted for the preservation of so many of these antient pieces. With peculiar elegance he has selected the oldest, and, clothing them in more modern language, given to the public specimens of their interesting Remains.

It was when resident in London, in 1828, that he published a Romance founded on one of these Relies under the title of Adozinda, and which appears as the first article of that portion of his works, which is dedicated to illustrate the Minstrelsy of Portugal. This poem is too long and the subject is too painful to be admitted in this selection. When it was published the writer of these remarks submitted it and the