entirely national: the legendary love of the poet Bernardim Ribeiro for the daughter of King Manuel in _Um Auto de Gil Vicente_ (1838);[661] the patriotism of the Condessa de Athouguia in arming her two sons on the morning of December 1, 1640, to throw off the Spanish yoke, in _Dona Philippa de Vilhena_ (1840); an early incident in the life of one of the most chivalrous soldiers that the world has seen, the Constable Nun’ Alvarez, in _O Alfageme de Santarem_ (1842); the fall of Pombal in _A Sobrinha do Marquez_ (1848);[662] two famous episodes in the life of Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, the first of which, the setting fire to his palace rather than entertain the Spanish Governors, preserves the national atmosphere, in _Frei Luiz de Sousa_ (1844). These plays, with the exception perhaps of the hastily improvised _D. Philippa de Vilhena_, are all remarkable, although their merit is unequal. The characters, and especially the epoch in which they are presented, lend their chief interest to the first and third. The fifth, overpraised by some critics but praised by all--Menéndez y Pelayo called it ‘incomparable’--_Frei Luiz de Sousa_, far excels the others by reason of the concentration of interest and the really dramatic character of the plot (or at least of the anagnorisis of Act II) and by its intensity and deliberately simple execution. The intensity may be almost too unrelieved, but the conception of the play showed a fine dramatic instinct. Like most of Garrett’s work it was composed in a white heat, and the effect is enhanced by its excellently clear and restrained style, which brings out every shade and symptom of tragedy without distracting the attention by any extraneous ornaments. But all these plays are written in admirable prose. Indeed, a value is given even to Garrett’s slighter pieces--_Tio Simplicio_ (1844), _Fallar Verdade a Mentir_ (1845)[663]--apart from their indigenous character, by his pliant, transparent, glowing prose, to which perhaps even more than to his poetry he owes his foremost place in Portuguese literature. Although essentially a poet, his poems of enduring worth are a mere handful of beautiful episodes and graceful lyrics--in _Folhas Cahidas_ (1853) and vol. 1 (1843) of his _Romanceiro_--but his prose stamps with individuality works so diverse as his historical novel _O Arco de Santa Anna_ (2 vols., 1845, 51),[664] his charming miscellaneous _Viagens na minha terra_ (1846) with its famous episode of Joaninha of the nightingales, his treatises _Da Educação_ (1829), _Portugal na balança da Europa_ (1830), _Bosquejo da Litteratura Portuguesa_ (1826), as well as his plays. All his work was thoroughly national, and when he died a group of younger writers was at hand ready to continue it.