tic form to which
Campoamor has given a new name; his invention goes no further. It cannot
be denied that in the _Doloras_ Campoamor's special gifts of irony,
grace and pathos find their best expression. Taking a commonplace theme,
he presents in four, eight or twelve lines a perfect miniature of
condensed emotion. By his choice of a vehicle he has avoided the fatal
facility and copiousness which have led many Spanish poets to
destruction. It pleased him to affect a vein of melancholy, and this
affectation has been reproduced by his followers. Hence he gives the
impression of insincerity, of trifling with grave subjects and of using
mysticism as a mask for frivolity. The genuine Campoamor is a poet of
the sunniest humour who, under the pretence of teaching morality by
satire, is really seeking to utter the gay scepticism of a genial,
epicurean nature. His influence has not been altogether for good. His
formula is too easily mastered, and to his example is due a plague of
_doloras_ and _humoradas_ by poetasters who have caricatured their
model. Campoamor, as he himself said, did not practise art for art's
sake; he used art as the medium of ideas, and in ideas his imitators are
poor. He died at Madrid on the 12th of February 1901. Of late years a
deep silence had fallen upon him, and we are in a position to judge him
with the impartiality of another generation. The overwhelming bulk of
his work will perish; we may even say that it is already dead. His
pretensions, or the pretensions put forward in his name, that he
discovered a new poetic _genre_ will be rejected later, as they are
rejected now by all competent judges. The title of a philosophic poet
will be denied to him. But he will certainly survive, at least in
extract, as a distinguished humorist, an expert in epigrammatic and
sententious aphorism, an artist of extremely finished execution.
(J. F. K.)

CAMPOBASSO, a city of Molise, Italy, the capital of the province of
Campobasso, 172 m. E.S.E. of Rome by rail, situated 2132 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1901) town 11,273; commune 14,491. The town itself
contains no buildings of antiquarian interest, but it has some fine
modern edifices. Its chief industry is the manufacture of arms and
cutlery. Above the town are the picturesque ruins of a castle of the
15th century. The date of the foundation of Campobasso is unknown. The
town, with the territory surrounding it, was under the feudal rule of
counts until 17