and some which, though apparently frivolous, occasionally remind the reader of Propertius.[390] The satire of this Portuguese poet, however, very seldom degenerates into grossness. DONA CATHARINA DE SOUSA--HER TRAGEDY OF OSMIA. But dramatic poetry in Portugal required some particular excitement to make it keep pace with the new cultivation of the nation; and an impulse of this kind was given when the Lisbon academy of sciences, which, during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, was constantly embracing new objects, turned its attention to polite literature. The academy offered a prize for the best tragedy in the Portuguese language. Competitors came eagerly forward. But none of the tragedies which have been crowned by the academy, obtained so much popularity as the _Osmîa_ of Dona Catharina de Sousa.[391] It is probable that no other female writer who has acquired celebrity in the eighteenth century, could have produced such a work, though, perhaps, in other respects she might rank higher as a poetess than Catharina de Sousa. The fable of the tragedy, according to the conditions required by the academy, in the year 1785, is selected from the Portuguese national history. Three tragedies were produced within the space of three years. In the year 1788 the academy awarded the prize to _Osmîa_; and on opening the sealed note, in which the author’s name was supposed to be inscribed, it was found to contain only a reference to a prize question respecting improvements in the cultivation of the olive in Portugal, with a request that the academy would apply to that object the prize which was renounced for the tragedy of Osmia. But the equally generous and ingenious authoress soon became known. The tragedy was first printed without her name; but a second edition was published in the year 1795. It owes its celebrity not merely from the circumstance of its being the production of a female pen. In several scenes of this drama, tragic pathos is, in the happiest way, combined with an elegance which from the sex of the writer was more to be expected than the former quality. The subject is chosen from the history of the ancient inhabitants of Portugal, rather than of the Portuguese. A story from the age of romance would have better fulfilled the idea of a national tragedy; but Dona Catharina de Sousa, in the spirit of modern cosmopolite education, in a great measure formed by French reading, followed the Gallic taste even in a predilection for the Roman age in tragic drama. Osmia, the heroine of the tragedy, is a Lusitanian Princess of the race of the Turdetani, who in the second century of the Christian era, sought to emancipate themselves from the Roman yoke. She is, contrary to her inclination, united to Prince Rindacus, who heads the Turdetani in their insurrection against the Romans. Osmia combats like a heroine. The Turdetani are, however, defeated; Rindacus disappears, and Osmia is made prisoner by the Romans. The Roman Prætor