editions. Most of the subjects treated in the Rhythmas have already been noticed in "Camoens, his Life and his Lusiads"; and to these two volumes the student is referred.
It may conciliate some enmities and captivate, perhaps, some good-will when I abjure all pretensions to rank as a Poet. No one more fully appreciates the difference between "making" and translating; between the Poétés (the Creator) and the copier who aspires only to second prizes, to "increase the returns or revenues of knowledge, but not the stock or inheritance." My ambition is limited to the humbler boast,—
Pus dieus m' a dat saber
E entendemen ver
De trobar, etc.
Also let me request English readers, who would form a critical estimate of the Camonian Sonnet, to renew their acquaintance with those of Shakespeare and Spenser. Finally they might oblige me by remembering the weighty words of Milton:—"Books are not dead things, but do contain, as in a phiall, the potent efficacy of the spirit that bred them." They will not find a nobler spirit than Camoens.
In preparing this volume I have been aided by a host of "with-workers." Amongst them I must mention with cordial expressions of gratitude the names of my correspondents, M. J. J. Aubertin and Dr. Wilhelm Storck, Professor der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, at Münster. This learned German,
