Among the poetic works of Ribeyro, so far as they are known, his eclogues are particularly distinguished. If not the very oldest, they are certainly among the most ancient compositions of the kind in Portuguese and Spanish literature; and when compared with those of Juan del Enzina, who flourished about the same time in Spain, they may, in every respect, claim the priority. Juan del Enzina ingeniously sported with simple ideas; but Ribeyro sang from his inmost soul. However, even Ribeyro is poor in ideas. His language and composition are very remote from classical correctness, and his prolixity is tedious. But amidst the monotony of Ribeyro’s homely verses, there appears a spirit of truth and poetic feeling, which no art or study could have produced. The eclogues, which are unquestionably the production of Ribeyro’s pen, are four in number; but a fifth in the same style is attributed to him. They are all composed in _Redondilhas_, arranged in stanzas of nine or ten lines each, called _decimas_. Like most compositions in the class to which they belong, these eclogues assume the form of tales; but the lyric garb in which the simple materials are clothed, is the most interesting circumstance of the whole. Ribeyro has described in his eclogues only the scenery of his native country. The Tagus, the Mondego, the sea on the coast of Portugal, and even sometimes the city of Coimbra, and other towns, are exhibited in a poetic point of view. The names usually given to the shepherds are, Fauno, Persio, Franco, Jano, Sylvestre; but among the shepherdesses we find, a Catharina and a Joana introduced. Certain peculiarities and mysterious allusions sufficiently betray the object of the poet, which was to represent the romantic situations and events of the fashionable circles in which he moved at the court of Lisbon, under the poetic disguise of situations and events of pastoral life. In conformity with the notions of the age, this kind of disguise was, from its affinity to allegory, highly valued; and it afforded the poet an opportunity of unfolding the sentiments of his heart, to the mistress whom he dared not name, without the fear of compromising either her or himself. Ribeyro’s fancy revelled in this union of truth and fact with truth of poetic feeling. The characters in all his eclogues are nearly the same under different names, and among them an unhappy lover is always the most conspicuous. The fervent expression of tenderness and despair on the part of the lover, forms the soul of these little pastoral pictures.