Studies in Portuguese Literature. By Aubrey F. G. BelL (B.
H. Blackwell. (Is. net.)—Comparatively few English people possess any knowledge of Portuguese, and Mr. Bell's interesting collection of essays will therefore introduce many readers to a virgin field. We all know something about Camoens—or, as Mr. Bell more accurately calls him, CamBes —whom Sir Richard Burton, that overflowing polylinguist, took pains to render into English. One Mickle had done the work previously, but in so arid and jejune a fashion that it might as well have been left alone. When we learn that Mickle received 21,000 for his translation, we cannot help wishing that we too had lived in the eighteenth century. But Mr. Bell's appreciation of Camoens, like his other essays on less famous writers, is well worth reading. We note that "the chief defects of modern Portuguese are its vague pomposity and its inability to use two words where ten are possible."
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