MIRANDA, Saa de, an eminent Portuguese poet, was born of a noble family at Coimbra in 1495. Destined by his parents for the legal profession, he studied law, and was appointed professor of jurisprudence in his native city. But no sooner had his father died, than he threw up his appointment, and resigned himself to the far more congenial pursuit of poetry. A lengthened visit which he then paid to Spain and Italy was the cause of his introducing a new and striking feature into the literature of his country. On his return he began to publish elegues in the Spanish language, and in the forms of the Italian poets Dante and Petrarch. He was thus the introducer of the Italian style into Portuguese poetry, and of the custom which led many of the subsequent poets of his native country to write in the language of Spain. Saa de Miranda was greatly esteemed and liberally patronized during his lifetime. He held an appointment at the court in Lisbon, until a quarrel with some nobleman forced him to resign it. With no great reluctance he repaired to his country seat near Ponte-de-Lima, in the hope of spending the rest of his days in rural amusements, domestic enjoyments, and the cultivation of his genius. For some time his expectation was not disappointed. From the fondness he manifests of introducing into his poetry rural pictures and rural allusions, we may imagine how pleasantly his days would glide past amid the sights and
Mirandola sounds of the country. But the death of his son in 1553 cast a shadow over this pleasant scene. The loss of his wife soon afterwards surrounded his existence with a settled gloom; and he died in 1558 of a broken heart. Besides eclogues, San de Miranda wrote two dramas in the style of Macchiavelli and Ariosto, and several lyrics and poetical epistles. As a writer of the language of Spain he occupies a high position among the authors of that country. His compositions in his native language also place him in the first rank of Portuguese poets. Of the many editions of his works, that of 1614 is the best.