[17] The _Cronica do Condestabre de Portugal Nun Alvarez Pereyra_, printed in gothic letters at Lisbon 1526, in folio, may serve for an example. That this chronicle was composed about the end of the fourteenth century is a fact which admits of no doubt. Though written quite in the dry style of the chronicles, yet the author seems to have had a vague idea of historical arrangement; and he sometimes aims at a certain degree of skill and eloquence in antithesis. Thus in the preface, which commences in the following manner:-- Antigamente foy costume fazerem memoria das cousas que se faziam, assi erradas, como dos valentes e nobres feitos; dos erros, porque dellos soubessem guardar, e dos valentes e nobres feitos, aos boõs fizessem cobiça a ver peras cousas semelhantes fazerem. With this artificial commencement, the simplicity of the following passage forms a remarkable contrast:-- E por nom fazer longo prollego (_prologo_), farei aqui começo em este virtuoso Senhor, do qual veo o valente y muy virtuoso conde estabre Dom Nunalvaréz Pereyra. E assi dehi em diante siguiremos nossa historia. [18] See the preceding vol. p. 74. [19] Dieze, in his Remarks on Velasquez p. 105, has printed a commencing stanza of one of these songs, which presents no great merit, together with a translated passage from Argote de Molina’s _Nobleza de Andalusìa_. [20] Even Cervantes in his Journey to Parnassus, makes Mercury assign to _Lusitania_ the supplying of _Amores_, in order to collect together the ingredients of romantic poetry. [21] What is stated by Barbosa Machado shews how highly Garcia de Resende was esteemed by his contemporaries. [22] Barbosa Machado likewise gives an account of this collection under the head _D. Pedro I._ p. 540, a place in which such a notice would scarcely be looked for. [23] This is expressly mentioned by the Spanish writer Sarmiento, who says:--El cancionero Portuguez contiene _muchissimos mas_ poetas que el Castellano. Este contiene solos los del siglo xv. pero aquel contiene _algunos_ del Siglo xiv.--_Obras posth._ p. 323. [24] It will soon be necessary to make this author the subject of a particular notice. [25] I have met with no notice of a _Romanceiro_ distinguished from the Portuguese _Cancioneiro_ by any remarkable number of narrative romances. [26] Dieze, in his Remarks on Velasquez, p. 76, has collected notices of the lives of those Portuguese who in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries distinguished themselves by the composition of latin verse.