quibbling.[355] Another philosopher, named Xanthus enters, accompanied by his disciples Periander and Ennius. He puts Æsop’s wit to the test, and purchases him.[356] The scene now changes. Filena, the daughter of Xanthus, confides the secrets of her heart to an old and ugly female slave, named Gerigonza. They are joined by Euripedes, the wife of the philosopher, who reprimands her daughter, and sings a silly scolding duet with her.[357] Æsop enters and again makes a display of his wit. Then follows a tender scene between Filena and her lover; Gerigonza becomes enamoured of Æsop; and the philosopher and his wife quarrel together, singing a duet of the most vulgar character. By a succession of scenes of this sort, the action is carried on through the first act. In the second act King Crœsus of Lydia arrives with an army to besiege Athens: and Themistocles appears on horse-back in the suite of Crœsus. The scene is now alternately in Athens and in the camp of Crœsus. Drums and fifes are kept in constant employment. Splendid pleasure gardens adorned with statues add to the pomp of the spectacle. But Æsop, whose puns and quibbles are inexhaustible, is always the hero of the piece. At last, after bringing about a peace between Crœsus, and the people of Athens, he is appointed governor of the city. Thus ends the Æsopeid, which might with more propriety be entitled the Buffooniad. Amidst this grotesque jumble, however, sparks of no common fancy are occasionally elicited; but the anonymous author seems to have been totally destitute of literary cultivation, and to have had no higher aim than to give a humorous colouring to the rudeness of his combinations. The rest of the Portuguese comic operas are, upon the whole, still more rude than the Æsopeid, though some are richer in the musical part of the composition, and possess grave or even pathetic airs and duets in the style of the serious Italian opera. It might, at first sight, be supposed, that a nation which could be pleased by dramas of this kind, must be for ever excluded from the path of higher cultivation. In Lisbon, the Italian opera-house continued to be the real court theatre. But the Portuguese opera which stood like a spurious child beside the Italian, maintained its ground in spite of its parent. Had not the taste for this kind of dramatic entertainment prevailed down to the second half of the eighteenth century, a new edition of the Æsopeid, and other theatrical caricatures, would not have been published in 1787. The restoration of a truly noble style in Portuguese poetry, could not therefore be expected to derive its origin from the drama. RESUMPTION OF AN IMPROVED STYLE IN PORTUGUESE POETRY. MANOEL DA COSTA.