The poetical works of the Count da Ericeyra, among which are several in the Spanish language, are distinguished by a degree of polish in which it is impossible not to recognise the disciple and admirer of Boileau. But this nobleman was not destined to mark an epoch in Portuguese poetry. To regard him as a mere Gallicist would be extremely unjust, and to rank him among poets in the highest and strictest sense of the term, would be to form an equally erroneous judgment of poetic art. Ericeyra certainly was not a slavish imitator of the French style. He endeavoured to form his talent by the study of all the works which he conceived fitted to serve as models whatever might be the language in which they were written; and this spirit of liberality in literary cultivation was a peculiarly estimable trait in his character. In the metrical structure, as well as in the style of his poems, he remained faithful to the forms and spirit of the old Portuguese national poetry, and to the school of the sixteenth century. But with all his plastic capabilities, he was wanting in creative fancy; and with all his endeavours to attain classic correctness, he did not avoid faults, which are readily pardoned in the works of the older Portuguese poets, in consideration of the poetic energy which is manifest in those very faults. In that poetic energy all the writings of the Count da Ericeyra are deficient. His imagination, which never of itself took a lofty flight, was much more inclined to enlarge artificially upon any pleasing subject, than to seize with inspiration and freely fashion a subject of its own; and the rules of French criticism doubtless contributed to allure him to the cultivated occasional style, as that style may justly be denominated, which, whenever the opportunity for an occasional poem offers, is always at the command of a writer possessing no common share of descriptive talent. Accordingly not a few occasional poems are to be found in the works of the Count da Ericeyra. In compliance with the old Portuguese custom, he sometimes made choice of the eclogue form, to record in a pleasing strain of verse, certain events which occurred in the Royal family. In this form, for example, he deplores, through the medium of shepherds and shepherdesses, the death of the Infante Dom Miguel, which took place in the year 1724. After what has already been said respecting other works of this kind, to dwell longer on the eclogues of the Count da Ericeyra would be a superfluous labour; but in the history of Portuguese poetry, the Henriqueida claims a more particular notice.[339]