Note 17 — BOOK I. FROM THE END OF THE THIRTEENTH TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

The Cronica do Condestabre de Portugal Nun Alvarez Pereyra, printed in gothic letters at Lisbon 1526, in folio, may serve for an example. That this chronicle was composed about the end of the fourteenth century is a fact which admits of no doubt. Though written quite in the dry style of the chronicles, yet the author seems to have had a vague idea of historical arrangement; and he sometimes aims at a certain degree of skill and eloquence in antithesis. Thus in the preface, which commences in the following manner:—

Antigamente foy costume fazerem memoria das cousas que se faziam, assi erradas, como dos valentes e nobres feitos; dos erros, porque dellos soubessem guardar, e dos valentes e nobres feitos, aos boõs fizessem cobiça a ver peras cousas semelhantes fazerem.

With this artificial commencement, the simplicity of the following passage forms a remarkable contrast:—

E por nom fazer longo prollego (prologo), farei aqui começo em este virtuoso Senhor, do qual veo o valente y muy virtuoso conde estabre Dom Nunalvaréz Pereyra. E assi dehi em diante siguiremos nossa historia.