Regarded as a work of art, Palmerin of England is second only to the Amadis of Gaul, among the romances of chivalry. Like that great prototype of the whole class, it has among its actors two brothers,--Palmerin, the faithful knight, and Florian, the free gallant,--and, like that, it has its great magician, Deliante, and its perilous isle, where occur not a few of the most agreeable adventures of its heroes. In some respects, it may be favorably distinguished from its model. There is more sensibility to the beauties of natural scenery in it, and often an easier dialogue, with quite as good a drawing of individual characters. But it has greater faults; for its movement is less natural and spirited, and it is crowded with an unreasonable number of knights, and an interminable series of duels, battles, and exploits, all of which claim to be founded on authentic English chronicles and to be true history, thus affording new proof of the connection between the old chronicles and the oldest romances. Cervantes admired it excessively. “Let this Palm of England,” says his curate, “be cared for and preserved, as a thing singular in its kind, and let a casket be made for it, like that which Alexander found among the spoils of Darius, and destined to keep in it the works of the poet Homer”; praise, no doubt, much stronger than can now seem reasonable, but marking, at least, the sort of estimation in which the romance itself must have been generally held, when the Don Quixote appeared. But the family of Palmerin had no further success in Spain. A third and fourth part, indeed, containing “The Adventures of Duardos the Second,” appeared in Portuguese, written by Diogo Fernandez, in 1587; and a fifth and sixth are said to have been written by Alvarez do Oriente, a contemporary poet of no mean reputation. But the last two do not seem to have been printed, and none of them were much known beyond the limits of their native country.[383] The Palmerins, therefore, notwithstanding the merits of one of them, failed to obtain a fame or a succession that could enter into competition with those of Amadis and his descendants. [383] Barbosa, Bib. Lusit., Tom. I. p. 652, Tom. II. p. 17. * * * * *