greater day by day.
Upon the feast of Pentecost from life he passed away.
For him and all of us the Grace of Christ let us implore.
And here ye have the story of my Cid Campeador.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: All the quotations in this chapter are taken from
translation, of "The Cid" by Ormsby.]

PORTUGUESE EPICS

Portuguese literature, owing to its late birth, shows little
originality. Besides, its earliest poems are of a purely lyrical and
not of an epical type. Then, too, its reigning family being of
Burgundian extraction, it borrowed its main ideas and literary
material from France. In that way Charlemagne, the Arthurian romances,
and the story of the Holy Grail became popular in Portugal, where it
is even claimed that Amadis de Gaule originated, although it received
its finished form in Spain.

The national epic of Portugal is the work of Luis de Camoens, who,
inspired by patriotic fervor, sang in Os Lusiades of the discovery of
the eagerly sought maritime road to India. Of course, Vasco da Gama is
the hero of this epic, which is described _in extenso_ further on.

In imitation of Camoens, sundry other Portuguese poets attempted epics
on historical themes, but none of their works possess sufficient
merits to keep their memory green.

During the sixteenth century, many versions of the prose epics or
romances of chivalry were rife, Amadis de Gaule and its sequel,
Palmerina d'Inglaterra, being the most popular of all.

Later on Meneses composed, according to strict classic rules, a
tedious epic entitled Henriqueida, in praise of the monarch Henry, and
de Macedo left O Oriente, an epical composition which: enjoyed a
passing popularity.

THE LUSIAD

_Introduction._ The author of the Portuguese epic, Luis de Camoens,
was born at Lisbon in 1524. Although his father, commander of a
warship, was lost at sea during his infancy, his mother contrived to
give him a good education, and even sent him to the University at
Coimbra, where he began to write poetry. After graduating Camoens
served at court, and there incurred royal displeasure by falling in
love with a lady his majesty chose to honor with his attentions.
During a period of banishment at Santarem, Camoens began the Lusiad,
Os Lusiades, an epic poem celebrating Vasco da Gama's journey to India
in 1497[14] and rehearsing with patriotic enthusiasm the glories of
Portuguese history. Owing to its theme, this epic, which a great
authority