"Tot bon Christiá es molt obligat á tanir devoció á la Santo Creu de Jesu-Christ nostron Deu. de la captividat de nostron pecat. Y per tant devem usar de señar, y persignar fent tres creus. La primeza en lo front, perque ens deslliuz Deu dels mals pensemens. La segona en la boca, perque ons deslliuz Deu de las malas palauras. La tercera en los pits (pechos), perque en deslliuz Deu de las malas obras, dient axi : Per lo señal, de la Santa Creu de nostros inimichs deslliuzaunos 757 This is so very simple, that we shall not take up the room with a translation. We pass to the dialect spoken in Minorca. -Dr Ramis y Ramis, speaking of this dialect, says: "It is evident, that although our language is derived from the ancient Lemosin, which is spoken alike by Catalonians, Valencians, and Majorcans, this does not excuse us from the necessity of having some elementary reading-book in our own peculiar dialect; since there is a difference between it and that spoken by them, both in the pronunciation and the orthography."* To show the difference which exists between these two forms of the same dialect, we subjoin the Pater-noster and the Ave-Maria in both, marking those words wherein they differ : MAJORCAN. "Lo Pare nostro. "Pare nostro qui estan en lo cel, sia santificat lo vostro Sant Nom. Vinga á nosaltres lo vostro Sant Reyne. Fassas la vostre voluntat, axi en la terra, com se fà en lo MINORCAN. "El Pare nostro. "Pare nostro qui estan en el cel, sie santificat el vostro Sant Nom; venguie anosaltres el vostro Sant Reine; fassies la vostra voluntat axi en la terra com se fá en el "Aparex qu' encare qu'el nostre (idiome) síe trêt de l'antig llemosí del qual usan igualment los Cataláns, Valenciáns y Mallorquins, açó no nos escusa d' haver de tenir principis de lectura propis d'el nostro dialéctic; assent axi qu' aquest se diferencia d' el d'aquells lant en la pronúncia, com en l' ortografia."-Principis de la Lectura Menorquing. Per un Mahonés. Mahò. 1804. Prejaci. Cel. Lo nostro pá, de cada dia, donaulonos Señor en lo dia de vuy. Y perdonaunos las nostras culpas, axi com nosaltres perdonam á nostros deutors. Y no permeteu que nosaltres caygem en la tentaciò ans deslliuraunos Señor de qualsevol mal. Amen." "La Ave Maria. "Deu nos salve Maria plena de gracia lo Señor es ab vos. Beneyte sou Vos entre totas las donas, y beneyt es lo Fruyt del vostro Sant ventre, Jesus. Santa Maria Mara de Deu, pregau per nosaltres pecadors, are, y en la hora de la nostra mort. Amen." Cel. Nostro pá de cade die, donaunoslo Señor en el die d'avui, y perdonaunos las nostras culpas, axi com nosaltres perdonam a los nostros deutors, y no permeteu que nosaltres caiguem en la tentacio; ausbe alliberaunos, Señor, de qualsevol mal; axi sie." "La Salutacid Angelica. "Deu vos salve Maria plena de gracia; el Señor es ab vos; beneita sou vos entre totas las donas, y beneit es el fruit d'el vostro Sant ventre, Jesus. Santa Maria, Mara de Déu, pregau per nosaltres pecadors, are, y a l'hora de la nostra mort; axi sie." We now hasten to the last of the three leading dialects of Spain. III. THE GALICIAN. The name of this dialect,-Gallego or Lingoa Gallega,-sufficiently indicates its native province. Originally, however, it was not confined as now to the northwestern corner of Spain, but extended southward along the Atlantic sea-coast through what is now the kingdom of Portugal. From the old Galician Romance, the Portuguese language had its origin. The Galician dialect is now confined to a single province, and even there limited to the peasantry and common people ;-among the educated classes the Castilian is spoken. A strong resemblance appears to exist between the Gallego and the Catalan. "The bishop of Orenze," says Raynouard,+ "having been requested to examine the vulgar dialect of Galicia, and to ascertain whether it bore any resemblance to the Catalan, answered, that the common people, by whom alone the vulgar idiom of Galicia is spoken, employ not only nouns, and verbs, and other parts of speech identically the same as those of the Catalan, but even entire phrases." This dialect has been very little employed in literature. fonso X., however, composed in it a book of Cánticas; and Camoens two or three sonnets. § Some other writers are mentioned in the letter of the Marques de Santillana. || Adelung gives the Lord's prayer in the forms of this dialect. We subjoin them both. *Aldrete. Lib. II., Cap. 3. Tome VI. Discours Prélim., p. 36. Sanchez. T. I., p. 150. Obras de Grande Luis de Camões. T. III., pp. 148, 149. Al "Padre nostro que estas no ceo, santificado sea o teu nome; venja a nosoutros o teu Renjo; fagase a tua voluntade asi na terra, come no ceo; o pan nostro de cada dia danolo oje; e perdonainos as nostras deudas, asi come nosoutros perdonaimos aos nostros deudores; e non nos deixes cair na tentazon; mas libra nos de male." "Padre noso, que estais no ceo, santificado sea il tu numbre; venja a nos il tu renjo; hajase tu voluntade asi na tierra, come nel cielo ; il pan noso de cada dia da nosle oje; e perdonanos as nosas deudas, asi come nosautros perdonamos a os nosos deudores; e non nos deixes cair na tentazon; mas librainos de male." Thus have we given, as briefly as possible, a sketch of the several languages or dialects of Spain. Perhaps we have not gone sufficiently into detail for the professed scholar, but the majority of our readers will, we think, pardon us any omissions on this head. Our object has been to present the most striking features in the history of a language which is justly popular among us. We have given the broad and general outlines;those who would fill them up are referred to the works from which we have drawn our illustrations, and which we have had occasion to cite in the course of this article. CHAPTER X. PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE AND POETRY. THE HE Portuguese language is that form which the Romance assumed on the Atlantic seaboard of the Peninsula, and was originally one and the same with the Galician dialect of Spain. It is a sister dialect of the Spanish or Castilian, to which it bears a striking resemblance. "Daughters of the same country," says a Portuguese writer, "but differently educated, they have distinct features, and a different genius, gait, and manner; and yet there is in the features of both that family likeness (ar de familia), which is recognised at the first glance." The Portuguese is softer and more musical than the Spanish, but wants the Spanish strength and majesty. It has discarded the Arabic guttural, but has adopted the equally unmusical nasal of the French. * Sismondi calls it un Castillan désossé, "boned Castilian." * "The Romance, out of which the present Portuguese language has grown (says Bouterwek, in the Introduction to his "History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature," Vol. I., pp. 12-14), "was probably spoken along the coast of the Atlantic long before a kingdom of Portugal was founded. Though iar more nearly allied to the Castilian dialect than to the Catalonian, it resembles the latter in the remarkable abbreviation of words, both in the grammatical structure and in the pronunciation. At the same time, it is strikingly distinguished from the Castilian by the total rejection of the guttural, by the great abundance of its hissing sounds, and by a nasal pronunciation common to no people in Europe The history of Portuguese poetry may be divided into three periods, corresponding with those of the Spanish. I. From 1150 to 1500. II. From 1500 to 1700. III. From 1700 to the present time. I. From 1150 to 1500. The first names recorded in the annals of Portuguese poetry are those of Gonzalo Hermiguez and Egaz Moniz. They flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, during the reign of Alfonso the First. They were knights of his court, and, like all poetic knights, since knighthood first began, sang of love and its despairs,-"the sweet pains and pleasant woes of true love." Some specimens of their songs have been published by Faria y Souza. To the same period belongs also the first essay in Portuguese epic poetry; the fragment of an old chronicle of the conquest of Spain by the Moors, from the hand of an unknown author. During the thirteenth century, no advance was made in Portuguese poetry, though the language became more fixed and subject to rules. In the last half of this century, King Diniz (Dionysius), like his contemporary, Alfonso the Wise, of Spain, displayed himself as a poet and the friend of poets. He likewise founded, in 1290, the National University. His poems are preserved in Cancioneiros, as yet unpublished. In the fourteenth century, the entire Portuguese Parnassus seems to have escheated to the crown. Hardly a poetic name of that century survives which does not belong to the royal family. Alfonso the Fourth, son of King Diniz, was a poet; so was his brother, Alfonso Sanchez; so was Pedro the First, the poetical part of whose history is not in what he wrote, but in what he did, in the romantic episode of "Ignez de Castro." The Portuguese poetry of the fifteenth century, like the Spanish, is preserved, for the most part, in the Song-books, or Cancioneiros Geraes.* That of Garcia de Resende is said to except the French and the Portuguese. In the Spanish province of Galicia, only politically separated from Portugal, this dialect, known under the name of lingoa Gallega, is still as indigenous as in Portugal itself, and was at an early period so highly esteemed that Alfonso the Tenth, king of Castile, surnamed the Wise (el Sabio), composed verses in it. But the Galician modification of this dialect of the western shores of the Peninsula has sunk, like the Catalonian Romance of the opposite coast, into a mere provincial idiom, in consequence of the language of the Castilian court being adopted by the higher classes in Galicia. Indeed, the Portuguese language, which, in its present state of improvement, must no longer be contounded with the popular idiom of Galicia, would have experienced great difficulty in obtaining a literary cultivation, had not Portugal, which, even in the twelfth century, formed an independent kingdom, constantly vied in arts and in arms with Castile, and during the sixty years of her union with Spain, from 1580 to 1640, zealously maintained her particular national character." The Cancioneiro usually spoken of is that of Garcia de Resende, published in 1516. Another was made in 1577, by Father Pedro contain the names of more authors than the Spanish collectionthat is, more than one hundred and thirty-six. Among these, the most distinguished are Bernardim Ribeyro and Christovao Falcao. Ribeyro is called the Portuguese Ennius; and his fame rests chiefly upon his eclogues, and his pastoral romance in prose," Menina e Moça" (The Innocent Maiden), the prototype of Montemayor's "Diana." Falcao was a knight of the order of Christ, an admiral, and a governor of Madeira, as well as a poet. His principal work is the eclogue of "Crisfal,” in which, as in the writings of Ribeyro, the Tagus, the Mondego, and the rocks and groves of Cintra, form the scenery, and the heroine is the poet's mistress. At the conclusion of this pastoral a wood nymph, who has overheard the lover's complaints, "inscribes them on a poplar, in order, as it is said, that they may grow with the tree to a height beyond the reach of vulgar ideas." To this century belong, doubtless, many of the Portuguese ballads, of which no collection has yet been published. This was the heroic age of Portugal, when "a tender as well as heroic spirit, a fiery activity and a soft enthusiasm, war and love, poetry and glory, filled the whole nation; which was carried, by its courage and spirit of chivalrous enterprise, far over the ocean to Africa and India. This separation from home, and the dangers encountered on the ocean, in distant climes, and unknown regions, gave their songs a tone of melancholy and complaining love, which strangely contrasts with their enthusiasm for action, their heroic fire, and even cruelty." II. From 1500 to 1700. This is the most illustrious period of Portuguese literature. At its commencement, the classic or Italian taste was introduced by Saa de Miranda, and Antonio Ferreira, as it was in Spain by Boscan and Garcilaso. Saa de Miranda is called the Portuguese Theocritus, as indicating his supremacy in bucolic poetry. Living for the most part in the seclusion of the country, he made his song an image of his life; for he divided his hours between domestic ease, hunting the wolf through the forests of Entre Douro e Minho, and, as he himself expresses it, “culling flowers with the Muses, the Loves, and the Graces." From his solitude he sang to his countrymen the charms of a simple life, the dangers of foreign luxuries, and the enervating effects of "the perfumes of Indian spices." Antonio Ferreira was surnamed the Portuguese Horace. He is distinguished for the beauty of his odes, which have become the models for the poets of his nation, as those of Herrera and Luis de Leon are for those of Spain. To these distinguished names may be added a third, of equal, if not greater, distincRibeyro, but never printed. One of the series of the "Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins, in Stuttgart, now in press, is entitled "Der Portuguesische Cancioneiro, herausgegeben von Archivrath Kausler." The full title is not given. |