are relatively of slight importance; they consist of one of
the many modern versions of the _Amphitruo_, and of two other comedies,
of which the earlier (_Filodemo_) was acted at Goa in 1553, the subjects
having a romantic colour.[73] Of greater importance were the
contributions to dramatic literature of F. de Sa de Miranda, who, being
well acquainted with both Spanish and Italian life, sought early in his
career to domesticate the Italian comedy of intrigue on the Portuguese
stage;[74] but he failed to carry with him the public taste, which
preferred the _autos_ of Gil Vicente. The followers of Miranda were,
however, more successful than he had been himself, among them the
already-mentioned Antonio Ferreira; the prose plays of Jorge Ferreira de
Vasconcellos, which bear some resemblance to the Spanish _Celestina_,
are valuable as pictures of contemporary manners in city and court.[75]

The later Portuguese dramatic literature seems also to have passed
through phases corresponding to those of the Spanish, though with
special features of its own. In the 18th century Alcino Mycenio
(1728-1770), known as Domingos dos Reis Quito in everyday life, in which
his avocation was that of Allan Ramsay, was remarkably successful with a
series of plays,[76] including of course an _Inez de Castro_, which in a
subsequent adaptation by J. B. Gomes long held the national stage.
Another dramatist, of both merit and higher aspirations, was Lycidas
Cynthio (_alias_ Manoel de Figueiredo, 1725-1801).[77] But the romantic
movement was very late in coming to Portugal. Curiously enough, one of
its chief representatives, the viscount da Almeida Garrett, exhibited
his sympathy with French, revolutionary and anti-English ideas by a
tragedy on the subject of Cato;[78] but his later works were mainly on
national subjects.[79] The expansive tendencies of later Portuguese
dramatic literature are illustrated by the translations of A. F. de
Castilho, who even ventured upon Goethe's _Faust_ (1872). Among
19th-century dramatists are to be noted Pereira da Cunha, R. Cordeiro,
E. Biester, L. Palmeirin, and Garrett's disciple F. G. de Amorim, by
whom both political and social themes have been freely treated. The
reaction against romanticism observable in Portuguese poetic literature
can hardly fail to affect (or perhaps has already affected) the growth
of the national drama; for the receptive qualities of both are not less
striking than the productive.

(e)