where the spirit of modern times demanded more than he was capable of supplying. Besides, why did this poet, who was a master in the art of versification, write his dramas in prose? Wishing to adhere throughout to the nature of prose, he makes the principal persons of his dramas explain, chiefly in soliloquies, their own characters, with a garrulity, which though certainly natural, is nevertheless low and tedious; and the popular morality which floats in this prolix stream of vulgar phraseology affords no pleasurable compensation to the auditor or reader.[79] Faithful to his models, Miranda has not, in either of his two comedies, laid the scene of action in his native country, where he might have dramatized national customs; the events which he describes are supposed to take place in Italy, and the manners, and in general the characters which he paints, are Italian. In the selection of those characters, he however follows Plautus and Terence, without paying any apparent regard to the distinction between different ages, by which the choice of the dramatic poet ought to be directed. Of the principal characters there is only one perfectly modern in the _Estrangeiros_, and in like manner only one of the same description appears in the _Vilhalpandos_. The first is a pedantic doctor named _Juris_; the second is a lady named _Fausta_, a hypocrite, surrounded by a group of pretended devotees. The other characters in Miranda’s two dramas, besides valets and waiting maids, are some old men, ostentatious soldiers, and enamoured youths, a grumbling tutor, (_ayo,)_ two or three merchants, a parasite, (_truhaõ_,) a match-maker, (_casamenteiro_), and others of a still baser description, which the author seems to have thought could not be dispensed with in any imitation of the ancient drama. In the _Vilhalpandos_ the author has also incidentally introduced the modern characters of a hermit and a French page. No remarkable intricacy of events is produced by these characters being brought in contact with each other; for Saa de Miranda was not formed to be a writer of dramas of intrigue. His scenes are strung together, rather than drawn out of each other. It is not worth while more minutely to analyze the composition of these two dramas. No highly comic scenes occur in either of them. But their general tone is spirited; and, if well performed, they doubtless would, in the age in which they were produced, interest an audience disposed to be pleased with the comic delineation of character; for most of the scenes are of a kind which might enable a player to supply by good acting that comic force in which they are deficient. Thus it happened that though the Portuguese public took no particular interest in dramas of this class, no party was formed, as in Italy, avowedly hostile to them. The bitterest portion of the satire with which Miranda invigorates, not the comic spirit, but the morality of his dramas, is directed