The national peculiarities which, even under the Spanish dominion, continued to distinguish the Portuguese from the Spaniards, were attended by consequences remarkably favourable to Portuguese literature, when at last, in the year 1640, the long prepared blow was struck, which rescued Portugal from the yoke of the Spanish sovereigns, and placed John of Braganza on the throne amidst the acclamations of the people. At this period, Spanish poetry had already declined, while on the contrary Portuguese poetry once more revived. The general re-action against every thing Spanish had an inspiring influence on the Portuguese poets, even though they took no part in political affairs. If no second Camoens arose in that age, it nevertheless gave birth to several poets, whose lyric compositions honourably maintained the reputation of their country; and they were eminently successful in gathering the last blossoms of the poetry of romantic love, which had taken the deepest root in Portugal. CAUSES OF THE CONTINUED CULTIVATION OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE IN PORTUGAL. To causes of a totally different nature and in which political interests were but remotely concerned, must be attributed the zeal with which the Portuguese, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, cultivated the language and literature of Spain, along with their mother tongue and the learning of their own country; while the Spaniards of the same period regarded the Portuguese poetry as a mere scion of the Spanish, and besides, generally speaking, looked down with contempt on the language and literature of Portugal. That this unequal conduct of the two nations was not the effect of political causes, is evident from the favour which the Portuguese poets extended to the Castilian language, in the first half of the sixteenth century, when certainly no expectation was entertained of the union of the two kingdoms. Even at that period it was a custom, and indeed a high style of fashion in literature for Portuguese poets to write verses in Castilian as well as in their mother tongue. Saa de Miranda, the poet with whom the most brilliant period of Portuguese literature commences, also holds a place among Spanish poets. Compositions in the Castilian language are indeed interspersed through the works of all the Portuguese poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but nothing could be more extraordinary than to find either verse or prose written in the Portuguese language by a Spaniard.