Had Rodriguez Lobo written not better but less, his pastoral romances would probably be far more widely read. But his finest work is of a different kind, a long dialogue, _Corte na Aldea e Noites de Inverno_ (1619), between a _fidalgo_, D. Julio, and four friends in the long winter evenings near Lisbon. Suggested by Baldassare Castiglione’s famous _Il Cortigiano_, which had been popularized in Spain by Boscán’s excellent translation (1534), this work, for which Gracián prophesied immortality, is full of the most varied interest. The prose, excellent as is all that of this champion of the Portuguese language, _jardineiro da lingua portuguesa_ (which his countrymen, he complained, patch and patch like a beggar’s cloak), is here more vigorous and compact in its construction without losing its harmonious rhythm, attractive as the conversations which it records. Besides the beautiful verses lavishly scattered through his prose works, Rodriguez Lobo wrote a long epic on Nun’ Alvarez in twenty cantos of _oitavas_: _O Condestabre de Portugal D. Nuno Alvarez Pereira_ (1610),[350] a volume of _Eglogas_ (1605), in which he is a recognized master, a volume of _Romances_ (1596) written, with two exceptions, in Spanish,[351] and, perhaps, a Christmas play entitled _Auto del Nascimiento de Christo y Edicto del Emperador Avgvsto Cesar_, published in 1676. It is written in _redondilhas_ in Spanish and Portuguese.[352] This _auto_ is followed by an _Entremes do Poeta_ in Portuguese. A poet, an obdurate Gongorist (_Do Gongora tive sempre opinadas preferencias_), recites a sonnet to a lady: _Celicola substancia procreada_, which she does not understand, and a _ratinho_, also at a loss (_he para mim cousa grega_), advises him to give over his jargon for a more natural language: Gerigonças no fallar, Que amor nam he contrafeito. But Rodriguez Lobo has no need of such attributions to justify his great and enduring fame. FOOTNOTES: [302] Cf. H. Lopes de Mendonça, _O Salto Mortal_, Act iii: _Tanto gostaes d’este livro: É por ser triste?--É por ser verdadeiro._ [303] Eclogue 5 (_a qual dizem ser do mesmo autor_), which is undoubtedly by Ribeiro, refers to Coimbra in the lines: _É lembrarme os sinceiraes De Coimbra que me mata_. [304] As in the case of Gil Vicente, we are vexed with homonyms--a notary, an admiral, &c. Dr. Theophilo Braga, skilfully dovetailing hypotheses, develops his biography fully. _Casi todo lo que de él se ha escrito son fábulas sin fundamento alguno_, wrote Menéndez y Pelayo in 1905. [305] Fray Luis de Leon may have remembered this passage in _De los Nombres de Cristo_, Bk. 3 (1917 ed., t. 1, p. 198; _Bib. Aut. Esp._, t. 37, p. 182). [306] _Nossos amores contados por um modo que os não entenderá ninguem_, Garrett, _Um Auto de Gil Vicente_. [307] _La Voluntad_, Barcelona, 1902. Camillo Castello Branco held similar views.