The reader who compares the _Lusiads_, not with the _Faërie Queen_, which belongs to a very different mansion in the house of literature, but with the masterpieces of the class to which it really belongs, the purely literary epic, done by an accomplished writer according to rule, is, it may be, liable to be rendered impatient by the loud calls made on him for extreme admiration. He finds stanza following stanza of smooth, but somewhat nerveless, _ottava rima_, full of matter which might equally well be expressed in prose, and would not then appear to differ essentially from much of Hakluyt’s voyages. Now and then he will find incidents--the vision of the Spirit of the Cape, for example, and the episode of the island of Love--where the intention to be poetical is visible enough, but which do not come of necessity, and have no consequences. A tender lyric spirit there is, and that is what is most truly poetical and genuine in Camoens. And of that again there are better and more spontaneous examples in his sonnets. On the whole, one has to come to the conclusion that he was a real poet, though of no wide scope, who could express a certain tenderness and melancholy in forms he had learnt from the Italians, but who owes his great name mainly to the fact that he is the only man his country can quote as worthy to rank with the great poets of the world. Therefore he has a whole nation to sing his praise, and nobody is concerned to contradict.[25] FOOTNOTES: [5] I have used the first edition of Boscan, Barcelona, 1543, but have seen mention of a modern reprint by William J. Knapp, Madrid, 1875. [6] _Tesoro del Parnaso Español_ of Quintana, 41-51. _Biblioteca de Ribadeneyra_, vol. xxxii. [7] The _Arte Poética Española_, which goes under the name of Juan Diaz Rengifo, a schoolmaster of Ávila, is believed to have been written by his brother Alfonso, a Jesuit. With the addition of a dictionary of rhymes, it became the handbook of Spanish poetasters, a numerous tribe. It appeared at Salamanca in 1592. [8] The _Egemplar Poético_ is the first piece quoted in vol. viii. of the _Parnaso Español_ of Sedaño, 1774. [9] This seems the most convenient place to note that fairly ample specimens of Spanish literature will be found in the very useful collection known as the _Biblioteca de Aribau_, or _de Ribadeneyra_--seventy-one somewhat ponderous volumes printed with middling skill on poor paper. The texts are the best where few are really good, and the introductions of value. It is well indexed. I prefer to make my references to this rather than to earlier editions or better editions published by societies, and therefore not easily accessible in this country. [10] A very interesting study of this phase of Spanish poetry, and some account of its writers, will be found in the introduction written by M. Alfred Morel-Fatio to his reprint of a _Cancionero General_ of 1535, in his _L’Espagne au XVI^{me}. et au XVII^{me}. Siècle_. Heilbronn, 1878.