Page:Omniana 2.djvu/291

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OMNIANA.
281

This is, no doubt, a faithful picture. Man had contrived to convert this place into a Purgatory for himself, but as far as man was concerned, it was for animals a perfect Eden.

Nadie puede entrar a caza,
En estos bosques sombrios,
Ni pescar en sus estanques,
Y arroyuelos cristalinos.

D. Bernarda's poem is divided into twenty short parts, or sections. A few smaller pieces follow, upon the same subject. Some are in Portugueze, one in Italian, two in Latin rhymes: one of these I shall transcribe. The book which contains them is exceedingly rare, even in Portugal, and however the classical reader may smile at the barbarism of the metre, and at the latinity, he will consider them as no unpleasing specimens of the attainments of a Portugueze lady of noble family, and high rank, in the early part of the 17th century.