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PORTUGUESE 


LITERATURE 


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PORTUGUESE 
L  IT  ER  AT  U  R  E 


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AUBREY  F.'of'BELL 


OXFORD 

AT    THE    CLARENDON    PRESS 

1922 


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TO  THE  TRUE  PORTUGAL  OF  THE  FUTURE 

La  letteratura,  dalla  quale  sola  potrehhe  aver  sodo  principio 

la  rigenerazione  della  nostra  patria. 

GiACOMO  Leopardi. 


^  HIS  book^  was  ready  in  October  191 6, 
-^  but  the  war  delayed  its  picblication* 
^  few  alterations  have  now  been  ?nade  in 
order  to  bring  it  up  to  date.  It  is  need- 
less to  say  how  welcome  will  be  further 
suggestions^  especially  for  the  bibliography, 
Ofily  by  such  help  ca7^  a  book^  of  this  kind 
become  useful^  since  its  object  is  not  to  ex- 
patiate upon  schools  a?id  theories  but  to 
give  with  as  much  accuracy  as  possible  the 
main  facts  concerning  the  work^  and  life  of 
each  individual  author. 

AUBREY  F.  G.  BELL. 

s.  joao  do  estoril, 
Portugal. 
July  1 92 1 


CONTENTS 

Introduction 

PAGE 

Portuguese  literature  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  — 
D.  Carolina  Rlichaelis  de  Vasconcellos  —  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  — 
Portuguese  prose  —  Portuguese  writers  in  Spanish  and  Latin  — 
Character  of  the  Portuguese  —  Special  qualities  of  their  literature  — 
Splendid  achievement  —  Lack  of  criticism  and  proportion  but  not 
of  talent   ........  13 

I.  II85-I325. 

[i.  c.  from  the  accession  of  Sancho  I  to  the  death  of  Dinis.] 

§  I.    The  Cossantes  .         .  .  .  .22 

Earliest  poems  —  Their  indigenous  character  and  peculiar  form  — 
Their  origin  —  Galicia  in  the  Middle  Ages  —  The  pilgrimages  — 
Dance-poems  —  Themes  of  the  cossantes  —  Their  relation  to  the 
poetry  imported  from  Provence  —  Writers  of  cossantes  :  Nuno 
Fernandez  Torneol  —  Joan  Zorro  —  Pero  Meogo  —  Pay  Gomez 
Chariiio  —  Airas  Nunez'  pastorela  —  The  cantigas  de  vilaos  —  Songs 
of  women  —  Persistence  of  the  cossante  to  modem  times  —  Cossantes 
and  cantigas  de  amor. 

§  2.    The  Cancioneiros       .  .         .         .         '37 

Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda  —  Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana  —  Cancioneiro 
Colocci-Brancuti — Relations  of  Portugal  with  Spain,  with  France, 
with  other  countries  —  The  Galician  language  —  Its  extension  — 
Alfonso  X  —  The  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria  —  Poetry  at  the  Court  of 
Afonso  III  —  Proven9al  poetry  in  Portugal  —  Monotony  and 
technical  skill  of  the  Portuguese  poets  —  Cantigas  de  amigo  — 
Satiric  poems  —  Joan  de  Guilhade  —  Pero  Garcia  de  Burgos  — 
Pero  da  Ponte  —  Joan  Airas  —  Fernan  Garcia  Esgaravunha  — 
Airas  Nunez  —  King  Dinis. 

II.  I325-I52I. 

[i.  e.  from  the  accession  of  Sancho  IV  to  the  death  of  Manuel  I.] 

§  I.    Early  Prose      ......        58 

Com.paratively  late  development  of  prose  —  Spanish  influence  in  the 
second   period   of   Portuguese  literature  —  King  Dinis'  translation 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


of  the  Cronica  Geyal  —  Regra  de  S.  Bento  —  Translations  from  the 
Bible  —  Sacred  legends  —  Aesop's  Fables  —  Chronicles  —  Livros 
de  Linhagens  —  The  Breton  cycle  —  The  Quest  of  the  Holy  Grail  — 
Livro  de  Josep  ah  Arimatia  —  Estorea  de  Vespeseano  —  Amadis  de 
Gaiila  —  Problem  of  its  origin  —  Early  allusions  —  Vasco  de  Lobeira 

—  Probable  introduction  of  Amadis  into  the  Peninsula  through 
Portugal. 

§  2.    Epic  and  Later  Galician  Poets  .         .  .72 

Dearth  of  epics  —  Apocryphal  poems  —  Afonso  Giraldez  — 
Romances  —  Their  connexion  with  Spain  —  Survival  of  Galician 
lyrics  —  Alacias  —  Juan  Rodriguez  de  la  Camara  —  Fernam  Cas- 
quicio  —  Vasco  Perez  de  Camoes  —  Gonfalo  Rodriguez,  Archdeacon 
of  Toro  —  Garci  Ferrandez  de  Gerena  —  Alfonso  Alvarez  de  Villa- 
^andino  —  Cantigas  de  escarnho  —  The  Constable  D.  Pedro. 

§  3.    Tlie  Chroniclers         .....       81 

Fernam  Lopez  —  Cronica  do  Condestabre  —  Zurara  —  Ruy  de  Pina 

—  Cronica  do  Infante  Santo.  Other  prose  :  King  Joao  I  —  King 
Duarte  —  Pedro,  Duke  of  Coimbra  —  Letters  of  Lopo  de  Almeida  — 
Boosco  Delleytoso  —  Corte  Imperial  —  Flos  Sanctorum  —  Vita  Christi 

—  Espelho  de  Christina  —  Espelho  de  Perfeigam. 

§  4.    The  Cancioneiro  Geral       ....       96 

The  break  in  Portuguese  poetry  —  Its  revival  —  Garcia  de  Resende 

—  Cancioneiro  Geral  —  Its  shallow  themes  —  More  serious  poems  — 
Alvaro  de  Brito  —  The  Coudel  Mar  —  D.  Joao  de  Meneses  —  D. 
Joao  Manuel  —  Fernam  da  Silveira  —  Nuno  Pereira  —  Diogo  Bran- 
dam  —  Luis  Anriquez  —  Rodriguez  de  Sa  —  The  Conde  de  Vimioso 

—  Duarte  de  Brito  —  Spanish  influence. 

III.     The  Sixteenth  Century  [1502-80]. 
§  I.    Gil  Vicente       ......     106 

The  sixteenth  century  —  Gil  Vicente's  first  play  (1502)  —  The  year 
and  place  of  his  birth  —  His  life  —  Poet  and  goldsmith  —  His 
aiitos  —  Types  sketched  in  his  farsas  —  Devotional  plaj-s,  comedies 
and  tragicomedies  —  Origin  of  the  drama  in  Portugal  —  Enzina's 
influence  on  Vicente  —  French  influence  —  Other  Spanish  writers  — 
Traditional  satire  —  Number  of  Vicente's  plays  —  Their  character 
and  that  of  their  author  —  His  patriotism  and  serious  purpose  — 
His  achievement  and  influence  in  Spain  and  Portugal. 

§  2.    Lyric  and  Bucolic  Poets    .  .  .  .132 

Bernardim  Ribeiro  —  Cristovam  Falcao  —  Sa  de  Miranda  — 
D.  Manuel  de  Portugal  —  Diogo  Bernardez  —  Frei  Agostinho  da  Cruz 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

—  Antonio  Ferreira  —  Andrade  Caminha  —  Sd  de  Meneses  —  Falcao 
de  Resende  —  Jorge  de  Montemor  —  Fernam  Alvarez  do  Oriente  — 

—  Faria  e  Soiisa  —  Francisco  Rodriguez  Lobo. 

§  3.    The  Drama      ......     156 

Gil  Vicente's  successors  —  Anonymous  plays  —  Afonso  Alvarez  — 
Antonio  Ribeiro  Chiado  —  Balthasar  Diaz  —  Anrique  Lopez  — 
Jorge  Pinto  —  Antonio  Prestes  —  Jeronimo  Ribeiro  Soarez  —  Simao 
Machado  —  Francisco  Vaz  —  Gil  Vicente  de  Almeida  —  Frei 
Antonio  da  Estrella  —  Classical  drama  :  Sa  de  Miranda  —  Antonio 
Ferreira  —  Camoes  —  Jorge  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos. 

§  4.    Lilis  de  Camoes         .....     174 

Familj'  of  Camoes  —  His  birth  and  education  —  In  North  Africa 

—  In  India  —  Return  to  Portugal  —  Last  years  and  death  — 
Camoes  as  epic  and  lyric  poet  —  The  Lusiads  —  Its  critics  —  His 
greatness  —  Influence  on  the  language  —  His  Parnasso  —  Camoes 
and  Petrarca  —  Later  epic  poets  —  Corte  Real  —  Pereira  Brandao 

—  Francisco  de  Andrade. 

§  5.    The  Historians  .....     190 

Historians  of  India  —  Alvaro  Velho  — Lopez  de  Castanheda  —  Barros 

—  Couto  —  Correa  —  Bras  de  Albuquerque  —  Antonio  Galvam  — 
Special  narratives  —  Gaspar  Fructuoso  —  Frei  Bernardo  de  Brito  — 
Francisco  de  Andrade  —  Osorio  —  Bernardo  da  Cruz  —  Jeronimo 
de  Mend09a  —  Miguel  de  Moura  —  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam  — 
Damiao  de  Goes  —  Andre  de  Resende  —  Manuel  Severim  de  Faria 

—  Faria  e  Sousa. 

§6     Quinhentista  Prose    .....     217 

Vivid  prose  —  Historia  Tragico-Maritima.  Travels:  Duarte  Bar- 
bosa  —  Francisco  Alvarez  —  Gaspar  da  Cruz  —  Frei  Joao  dos 
Santos  —  Tenreiro  —  Mestre  Afonso  —  Frei  Gaspar  de  S.  Ber- 
nardino —  Manuel  Godinho  —  Fernam  Mendez  Pinto  —  Garcia  da 
Orta  —  Pedro  Nunez  —  Duarte  Pacheco  —  D.  Joao  de  Castro  — 
Afonso  de  Albuquerque  —  Soropita  —  Rodriguez  Silveira  —  Fer- 
nandez Ferreira  —  Francisco  de  Hollanda  —  Gon5alo  Fernandez 
Trancoso  —  Francisco  de  Moraes. 

§  7.    Religious  and  Mystic  Writers     .  .  .     235 

Mysticism  —  Frei  Heitor  Pinto  —  Arraez  —  Frei  Thome  dg  Jesus  — 
Frei  Luis  de  Sousa  —  Lucena  —  Preachers  :  Paiva  de  Andrade  — 
Fernandez  Galvao  —  Feo  —  Luz  —  Calvo  —  Veiga  —  Ceita  —  Lis- 
boa  —  Almeida  —  Alvarez  —  Samuel  Usque  —  Frei  Antonio  das 
Chagas  —  Manuel  Bernardes. 


CONTENTS  li 

IV.     1580-1706. 

[i.e.  from  the  accession  of  Philip  II  of  Spain  to  the  death  of 

Pedro  II.] 

PAGE 

The  Seiscentistas       .  .  .  .  .  .251 

Culteranismo  —  D.  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mello  —  Fenix  Renascida  — 
Soror  Violante  do  Ceo  —  Child  Rolim  de  Moura  —  Veiga  Tagarro  — 
Galhegos  —  The  epic  :  Pereira  de  Castro  —  Bras  Garcia  de  Mas- 
carenhas  —  Sa  de  Meneses  —  Sousa  de  Macedo  —  Mousinho  de 
Quevedo  —  The  Academies  —  Martim  Afonso  de  Miranda  —  Leitao 
de  Andrade  —  The  Love  Letters  —  Arte  de  Ftiriar  —  Ribeiro  de 
Macedo  —  Freire  de   Andrade  —  Antonio  Vieira. 

V.  1706-1816. 

[i.e.  from  the  accession  of  Joao  V  to  the  death  of  Maria  I.] 
The  Eighteenth  Century     .  .  .  .  .270 

The  Arcadias  —  Correa  Gar9ao  —  Quita  —  Diniz  da  Cruz  e  Silva  — 
Filinto    Elysio  —  Tolentino  —  The    Marquesa  de  Alorna  —  Bocage 

—  Xavier  de  Mattos  —  Gonzaga  —  Costa  —  Brazilian  epics  ^  Macedo 

—  The  Drama  :  Figueiredo  —  Antonio  Jose  da  Silva  —  Nicolau  Dias 

—  The  Academy  of  Sciences  —  Scholars  and  critics  —  Theodore  de 
Almeida  —  Letters. 

VI.  1816-1910. 

[i.  e.  from  the  accession  of  Joao  VI  to  the  fall  of  the  Monarchy.] 
§  I.    The  Romantic  School         ....     287 

Portugal  at  the  opening  of  the  century  —  Almeida  Garrett  — 
Herculano  —  Historical  novelists  —  Rebello  da  Silva  —  Camillo 
Castello  Branco  —  Poetry  :  Castilho  —  Mendes  Leal  —  Soares  de 
Passos  —  Gomes  de  Amorim  —  Xavier  de  Novaes  —  Thomaz  Ribeiro 

—  Bulhao  Pato. 

§  2.    The  Reaction  and  After     ....     304 

The  Coimbra  School  —  History  :  Oliveira  Martins  —  Pinheiro 
Chagas  —  Research  and  criticism  —  The  Drama  :  Ennes  —  Azevedo 

—  D.  Joao  da  Camara  —  Marcellino  Mesquita  —  Snr.  Lopes  de 
Mendon9a — Snr.  Julio  Dantas  —  The  Novel  :  Julio  Diniz  —  E9a 
de  Queiroz  —  J.  L.  Pinto  —  Snr.  Luiz  de  Magalhaes  —  Snr.  Maga- 
Ihaes  Lima — -Bento  Moreno  —  Snr.  Silva  Gayo — Snr.  Malheiro 
Dias  —  Abel   Botelho  —  Ramalho   Ortigao  —  Snr.   Teixeira   Gomes 

—  Snr.  Antero  de  Figueiredo  —  D.  Maria  Amalia  Vaz  de  Carvalho 

—  The  Conde  de  Sabugosa  —  The  Cotjto  :    Machado  —  The   Conde 


12  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

de  Ficalho  —  Fialho  de  Almeida  —  D.  Joao  da  Camara  —  Trindade 
Coelho  —  Snr.   Julio  Brandao  —  Poetry  :  Quental — Joao  de  Deus 

—  Cxuilherme  Braga  —  A.  da  Concei9ao  —  G.  de  Azevedo  —  Joao 
Penha  —  Cesario  Verde  —  Gon9alves  Crespo  —  Snr.  Guerra  Jun- 
queiro  —  Gonies  Leal —  Snr.  Teixeira  de  Pascoaes  —  Antonio  Nobre 

—  Colonel  Christovam  Ayres  —  Joaquim  de  Araujo  —  Antonio  Feijo 

—  Snr.  Eugenio  de  Castro  —  Snr.  Correa  de  Oliveira  —  Snr.  Afonso 
Lopes  Vieira. 

APPENDIX 

§  I.    Literature  of  the  People  .         .         .     338 

L'nwritten  literature  —  Traditional  themes  —  Floras  e  Branca  Flor 

—  Bandarra  —  The  Holy  Cobbler  —  Primaeval  elements  —  Con- 
nexion of  song  and  dance  —  Modern  cantigas  —  Links  with  ancient 
poetry  —  Cradle-songs  —  Alvoradas  —  Fados  —  Proverbs  —  Folk- 
tales. 

§  2.    The  Galician  Revival     ....     347 

Xogos  Froraes  of  1861  —  Anon  —  Posada  —  Camino  —  Rosalia  de 
Castro — Lamas  Carvajal — Sr.  Barcia  Caballero — Losada  —  Eduardo 
Pondal  —  Curros  Enriquez  —  Martelo  Pauman  —  Pereira  —  Garcia 
Ferreiro  —  Nunez  Gonzalez  —  Nun  de  Allariz —  Sr.  Rodriguez  Gon- 
zdlez  —  Sr.  Lopez  Abente  —  Sr.  Noriega  Varela  —  Sr.  Cabanillas  — 
Sr.  Key  Soto  —  Cancionero  Popular  Gallego  —  Prose  —  Perez 
Placer  —  D,  Francisca  Herrera. 


INTRODUCTION 

Portuguese  literature  may  be  said  to  belong  largely  to  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries.  Europe  can  boast  of  no  fresher 
and  more  charming  early  lyrics  than  those  which  slept  forgotten  ^ 
in  the  Vatican  Library  until  the  late  Professor  Ernesto  Monaci 
published  11  Canzoniere  Portoghese  in  1875.  And,  to  take  a  few 
more  instances  out  of  many,  the  poems  of  King  Alfonso  X, 
of  extraordinary  interest  alike  to  historian  and  literary  critic, 
first  appeared  in  1889  ;  the  plays  of  Gil  Vicente  were  almost 
unknown  before  the  Hamburg  (1834)  edition,  based  on  the  Gottin- 
gen  copy  of  that  of  1562  ;  Sa  de  Miranda  only  received  a  definitive 
edition  in  1885  ;  the  Cancioneiro  Geral  became  accessible  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  three  volumes  of 
the  Stuttgart  edition  were  published ;  the  exquisite  verses  ^  of 
Sa  de  Meneses,  which  haunted  Portuguese  poetry  for  a  century,^ 
then  sank  into  oblivion  till  they  were  discovered  by  Dr.  Sousa 
Viterbo  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo.^  The  abundant  literature  of  popu- 
lar quadras^  fados,  romances,  contos  has  only  begun  to  be  collected 
in  the  last  fifty  years. 

In  prose,  the  most  important  Leal  Conselkeiro  *  of  King  Duarte 

1  A  few  Portuguese  sixteenth-century  writers  in  touch  with  Italy  may 
have  known  of  their  existence.  But  they  were  neglected  as  rusficas  mitsas. 
The  references  to  King  Dinis  as  a  poet  by  Antonio  Ferreira  and  once  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Geral 6.0  not  of  course  imply  that  his  poems  were  known  and  read. 
Andre  de  Resende  seems  to  have  been  more  interested  in  tracing  an  ancestor, 
Vasco  Martinez  de  Resende,  than  in  the  poets  among  whom  this  ancestor 
figured  (see  C.  MichaeUs  de  Vasconcellos,  Randglosse  XV  in  Ztft.  fiir  roni.  Phil., 
XXV.  683). 

^  Illud  vero  poeniation  quod  viilgo  circumfertur  de  Lessa  .  .  .  nunc  vera  cum 
plurimum  illud  appelant  .  .  .  (Soares,  Theatrum).  Cf.  F.  Rodriguez  Lobo, 
Primavera,  ed.  1722.  pp.  240,  356,  469  ;  Eloy  de  Sa  de  Sottomayor,  Ribeiras 
do  Mondego,  i.  27  v.,  28  v.,  120-1,  186  ;  Cane.  Geral  of  A.  F.  Barata  (1836- 
1910),  p.  235  ;  Jeronimo  Bahia,  Ao  Mondego  (Fenix  Ren.,  ii.  377-9)-  Cf. 
Brito,  Mon.  Lus.  i.  ii.  2  :  0  rio  Leca  celebre  pelas  rimas  de  nosso  famoso  poeta. 

*  The  documents  of  the  Torre  do  Tombo  are  now  in  the  able  keeping  of 
Dr.  Pedro  de  Azevedo  and  Snr.  Antonio  Baiao. 

*  Even  its  title  was  inaccurately  given,  as  O  Fiel  Conselheiro  (Bernardo 
de  Brito),  De  Fideli  Consiliario  (N.  Antonio,  Bib.  Vetus,  ii .  241),  Del  Buen 
Consejero  (Faria  e  Sousa)  ;  correctly  by  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam.  A  Con- 
selheiro Fiel  by  Frei  Manuel  Guilherme  (1658-1734)  appeared  in  1727. 


14  INTRODUCTION 

was  rediscovered  in  the  Paris  Bibliotheque  Nationale  and  first 
printed  in  1842,  and  Zurara's  Cronica  da  Guine,  lost  even  in 
the  days  of  Damiao  de  Goes,^  similarly  in  1841  ;  Correa's  Lendas 
da  India  remained  in  manuscript  till  1858  ;  so  notable  a  book 
as  King  Joao  I's  Livro  da  Montaria  appears  only  in  the  twentieth 
century,  in  an  edition  by  Dr.  Esteves  Pereira,  and  the  first  trust- 
worthy text  of  a  part  of  Fernam  Lopez  was  published  by  Snr. 
Braamcamp  Freire  in  1915 ;  D.  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mello, 
who  at  the  end  of  his  second  Epanaphora  wrote  '  Se  por 
Ventura  tambem  despois  de  meus  dias  acontece  que  algum 
vindouro  honre  ao  meu  nome  quanto  eu  procuro  etcrnizar 
e  engrandecer  0  dos  passados ',  had  to  wait  two  and  a  half 
centuries  before  this  debt  was  paid  by  Mr.  Edgar  Prestage.^ 
Even  now  no  really  complete  history  of  Portuguese  literature 
exists,  but  the  first  systematic  work  on  the  subject  was  written 
by  Friedrich  Bouterwek  in  1804.  Other  histories  have  since 
appeared,  and  during  the  last  half-century  the  ceaseless,  ingenious, 
and  enthusiastic  studies  of  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  have  sifted 
Portuguese  literature,  chiefly  the  poetry,  in  all  directions,  and 
a  flood  of  light  has  been  thrown  on  it  by  the  works  of  D.  Carolina 
Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos.  Perhaps,  therefore,  one  may  be  for- 
given for  having  been  tempted  to  render  some  account  of  this 
'  new  '  literature  which  continues  to  be  so  strangely  neglected 
in  England  and  other  countries.^  Yet  a  quarter  of  a  century 
hence  would  perhaps  offer  better  conditions,  and  a  summary 
written  at  the  present  time  cannot  hope  to  be  complete 
or  definitive.  Every  year  new  studies  and  editions  appear,  new 
researches  and  alluring  theories  and  discoveries  are  made.  The 
Lisbon  Academy   of  Sciences   during  its  long  and  honourable 

•  De  que  nao  ha  noticia  (Goes,  Cronica  de  D.  Joao,  cap.  6). 

'  D.  Francisco  Manuel  de  Mello.  Esbofo  biographico.  Coimbra,  1914, 
an  admirably  clear  and  very  important  work,  in  which  much  light  from 
new  documents  is  thrown  on  Mello's  life. 

'  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many  English-speaking  persons 
have  ever  heard  cf  the  great  men  and  writers  that  were  King  Dinis,  Fernam 
Lopez,  Bcmardim  Ribeiro,  Diogo  Bernardez,  Heitor  Pinto,  Frei  Thome 
de  Jesus,  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos,  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa,  Antonio  Vieira,  Manuel 
Bemardes.  Their  neglect  has  been  largely  due  to  the  absence  of  good  or 
easily  available  texts  ;  there  is  still  nothing  to  correspond  to  the  Spanish 
Biblioteca  de  Autores  Espanoles  or  the  many  more  modern  Spanish  collections. 
But  is  not  even  CamSes  still '  an  abused  stranger ',  as  Mickle  called  him  in  1776  ? 


INTRODUCTION  15 

history  ^  has  rarely  if  ever  rendered  greater  services — '  essential 
services'  as  Southey  called  them  in  1803 — to  Portuguese  literature. 
A  short  history  of  that  literature  must,  apart  from  unavoidable 
errors  and  omissions,  do  less  than  justice  to  many  writers.  In 
appropriating  the  words  of  Damiao  de  Goes,  '  Haud  ignari  plurima 
esse  a  nobis  omissa  quibus  Hispania  ornatur  et  celebrari  possit,' 
one  may  hope  that  Mr.  Edgar  Prestage,  who  has  studied 
Portuguese  literature  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,^  and  whose 
ever-ready  help  and  advice  are  here  gratefully  acknowledged, 
will  eventually  write  a  mellower  history  in  several  volumes  and 
give  their  full  due  both  to  the  classics  and  to  contemporary 
authors  and  critics. 

No  one  can  study  Portuguese  literature  without  becoming 
deeply  indebted  to  D.  Carolina  Wilhelma  Michaelis  de 
Vasconcellos.  Her  concise  history,  contributed  to  Groeber's 
Grundriss  (1894),  necessarily  forms  the  basis  of  subsequent  studies, 
but  indeed  her  work  is  as  vast  as  it  is  scholarly  and  accurate,  and 
the  student  finds  himself  constantly  relying  on  her  guidance. 
Even  if  he  occasionally  disagrees,  he  cannot  fail  to  give  her  point 
of  view  the  deepest  attention  and  respect.  Born  in  1851,  the 
daughter  of  Professor  Gustav  Michaelis,  she  has  lived  in  Portugal 
during  the  last  forty  years  and  is  the  wife  of  the  celebrated  art 
critic,  Dr.  Joaquim  de  Vasconcellos  (born  in  1849).  Her  edition 
of  the  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda  (1904)  is  a  masterpiece  of  historical  re- 
construction and  literary  criticism,  and  her  influence  on  Portuguese 
literature  generally  is  as  wide  as  her  encouragement  and  assis- 
tance of  younger  scholars  are  generous.^  Femina,  as  was  said  of 
the  Princess  Maria,  undequaque  spectatissima  et  doctissima. 

Most  of  the  works  of  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  are  of  too  pro- 
visional a  nature  to  be  of  permanent  value,  but  a  summary,  Edade 
Medieval  (1909),   RenasceuQa  (1914),   Os  Seiscentistas  (1916),  Os 

1  See  F.  de  Figueiredo,  O  que  e  a  Acadeniia  das  Sciencias  de  Lisboa  (1779- 
191 5)  in  Revista  da  Historia.  vol.  iv,  191 5. 

*  His  valuable  study  on  Zurara,  which  has  not  been  superseded  by  any 
later  work  on  the  subject,  is  dated  1896. 

'  She  has,  indeed,  laid  the  Portuguese  people  under  an  obligation  which 
it  vnW  not  easily  redeem.  That  no  formal  recognition  has  been  bestowed 
in  England  on  her  work  (as  in  another  field  on  that  of  Dr.  Jose  Leite  de 
Vasconcellos,  of  Snr.  Braamcamp  Freire,  and  of  the  late  Dr.  Francisco  Adolpho 
Coelho)  is  a  striking  example  of  our  insularity. 


i6  INTRODUCTION 

Arcades  (1918),  gives  his  latest  views.  The  best  detailed  criticism  of 
the  Hterature  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  that  of  Dr.  Fidelino  de 
FiGUEiREDO,  Member  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  and  Editor  of 
the  Revista  de  Historia  :  Historia  da  Litteratura  Romantica  Portu- 
guesa  (1913)  and  Historia  da  Litteratura  Realista  (1914). 

The  only  completely  methodical  history  of  Portuguese  literature 
in  existence  is  the  brief  manual  by  the  learned  ex- Rector  of  Coim- 
bra  University,  Dr.  Joaquim  Mendes  dos  Remedios  :  Historia 
da  Literatura  Portuguesa  (5th  ed.,  Coimbra,  1921),  since  it  con- 
tains that  rarity  in  Portuguese  literature  :  an  index.^  Dr. 
Figueiredo  published  a  short  essay  in  its  general  bibliography 
in  1914  [Bibliographia  portuguesa  de  critica  litteraria),  largely 
increased  in  a  new  (1920)  edition,  but  otherwise  little  has  been 
done  in  this  respect  (apart  from  a  few  special  authors).  The 
bibliography  attached  to  the  present  book-  follows — longo  intervallo 
— the  lines  of  Professor  James  Fitzmaurice-Kelly's  Biblio- 
graphie  de  VHistoire  de  la  Litterature  Espagnole  (Paris,  1913). 
After  its  proved  excellence  it  would,  indeed,  have  been  folly  to 
adopt  any  other  method. 

It  has  been  thought  advisable  to  add  a  list  of  works  on  popular 
poetry,  folk-lore,  &c.  (since  in  no  country  are  the  popular  and 
the  written  literatures  more  intimately  connected),  and  of 
those  concerning  the  Portuguese  language.  Unless  energetic  and 
persistent  measures  are  taken  to  protect  this  language  it  will  be 
hopeless  to  look  for  a  great  Portuguese  hterature  in  the  future. 
Yet  with  the  gradually  developing  prosperity  of  Portugal  and  her 
colonics  such  expectations  are  not  unfounded.  A  new  poet  may 
arise  indigenous  as  Gil  Vicente  and  technically  proficient  as 
Camoes.  And  in  prose,  if  it  is  not  allowed  to  sink  into  a  mere 
verbiage  of  gallicisms,  great  writers  may  place  Portuguese  on 
a  level  with  and  indeed  above  the  other  Romance  languages.  The 
possibilities  are  so  vast,  the  quarry  ready  to  their  hand  so  rich — 
the  works  of  Manuel  Bernardes,  Antonio  Vieira,  Jorge  Ferreira  de 
Yasconcellos,  Luis  de  Sousa,  Joao  de  Lucena,  Heitor  Pinto, 
Arraez  ;    an  immense  mass  of  sermons  [milhoes  de  sermonarios), 

»  It  does  not  include  living  ^vTiters.  Its  dates  must  be  received  with 
caution. 

*  It  has  been  found  necessary  to  pubUsh  the  bibliography  separately. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

most  of  them  in  excellent  Portuguese,  as  those  of  Ceita,  Veiga, 
Feo,  Luz,  in  which,  as  in  a  large  number  of  political  tracts,  notably 
those  of  Macedo,  intense  conviction  has  given  a  glow  and  con- 
cision to  the  language  ;  old  constituigoes,  ordenagdes,  and  foros  ^ ; 
technical  treatises,^  folk-lore,  popular  phrases,^  proverbs.  But 
unless  a  scholarly  use  of  Portuguese  be  more  generally  imposed 
no  masterpieces  will  be  produced.  The  same  holds  good 
of  Brazilian  literature,  which,  although,  or  perhaps  because,  it 
has  provided  material  for  a  history  in  two  portly  volumes  (Sylvio 
Romero,  Historia  da  Litter atur a  Brazileira,  2nd  ed.,  1902-3),  is 
here,  with  few  exceptions,  omitted. 

A  supplementary  chapter  on  modern  Galician  literature  has 
been  added,  for  although  the  language  from  which  Portuguese 
parted  only  after  the  fourteenth  century  is  now  quite  indepen- 
dent,* modern  Galician  is  not  more  different  from  modern  Portu- 
guese than  is  the  language  of  the  Cancioneiros  with  which  Portu- 
guese literature  opens.  The  Portuguese  have  always  shown 
a  strong  aptitude  for  acquiring  foreign  languages,  and  the  indi- 
vidual's gain  has  been  the  literature's  loss.  Jorge  de  Montemor, 
who 

con  su  Diana 
Enriquecio  la  lengua  castellana, 

was  not  by  any  means  the  only  Portuguese  who  wrote  exclusively 
in  Spanish,  and  others  chose  Latin.  The  reason  usually  given  in 
either  case  was  that  Portuguese  was  less  widely  read.^     It  was 

*  e.g.  King  Sancho  II's  Foros  da  Guarda,  printed,  from  a  1305  manuscript, 
in  vol.  V  (1824)  of  the  Collecfao  de  Ineditos,  or  the  Foros  de  Santarem  (1385). 
The  Livro  Vermelho  do  Senhor  D.  Affonso  V ,  printed  in  the  CollecQcio  de  Livros 
Ineditos,  vol.  iii  (1793),  is  also  full  of  interest. 

'  e.  g.  the  fourteenth-century  Livro  de  Cetreria  of  Pero  Menino  ;  Mestre 
GiRALDo's  Tratado  das  Enfermidades  das  Aves  de  Caga  and  Livro  d' Alveitaria  ; 
the  Arte  da  Cavallaria  de  gineta  e  estardiota  (1678)  by  Antonio  Galvam  de 
Andrade  (161 3  ?-89)  ;  Correcgam  de  abusos  introduzidos  contra  o  verdadeiro 
methodo  da  medicina  (2  pts.,  1668-80)  by  the  Carmelite  Frei  Manuel  de 
Azevedo  (11672);  Agricultura  das  Vinhas  (171 1)  by  Vicente  Alarte 
(i.e.  SiLVESTRE  Gomez  de  Moraes  (1643-1723))  ;  Compendia  de  Botanica 
(2  vols.,  1788)  by  Felix  de  Avellar  Brotero  (i 744-1 828). 

'  Many  will  be  found  in  Portugalia  and  the  Revista  Lusitana. 

*  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  Galician  is  already  despised  in 
Portugal,  and  became  more  so  as  Portuguese  grew  more  latinized.  Cf.  Gil 
Vicente,  ii.  509  :  Pera  que  he  falar  galego  Sendo  craro  e  despachado  ?  ;  Chiado, 
Auto  das  Regateiras:     Eu  ndo  te  falo  galego. 

'  For  ser  lingua   mais  jeral   (Vera,   Lovvores),   mais    universal   (Sousa   de 

2362  B 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

a  short-sighted  view,  for  the  more  works  of  importance  that  were 
written  in  Portuguese  the  larger  would  naturally  become  the 
number  of  those  who  read  them.  While  Portuguese  literature  may 
be  taken  to  be  the  literature  written  in  the  Portuguese  language, 
in  a  sense  it  must  also  include  the  Latin  and  Spanish  works  of 
Portuguese  authors.  Of  the  former,  one  collection  alone,  the 
Corpus  Illustriiim  Poetarum  Lusitanorum  qui  latine  scripserunt 
(Lisbonae,  1745),  consists  of  eight  volumes,  and  Domingo  Garcia 
Peres'  Catdlogo  Razonado  (Madrid,  1890)  contains  over  600  names 
of  Portuguese  authors  who  wrote  in  Spanish. 

Portuguese  names  present  a  difficulty,  for  often  they  are  as 
lengthy  as  that  which  was  the  pride  of  Dona  Iria  in  Ennes' 
0  Saltimhanco.  The  course  here  adopted  is  to  relegate  the  full 
name  to  the  index  and  to  print  in  the  text  only  the  form  by  which 
the  writer  is  generally  known. ^ 

The  Portuguese,  a  proud  and  passionate  people  with  a  certain 

love  of  magnificence  and  adventure,  an  Athenian  receptivity,^  an 

Macedo).  Os  grandes  ingenios  ndo  se  contentao  de  ter  por  espera  de  sen  applauso 
a  hiia  s6  parte  do  tnundo  (D.  Francisco  de  Portugal).  Cf.  Osorio,  writing  in 
Latin,  De  Rebus,  p.  4,  and  Pedro  Nunez'  reason  for  translating  liis  Libra 
de  Algebra  into  Spanish  :  he  mais  comnm,  and  the  advice  given  to  Luis 
Marinho  de  Azevedo  to  write  in  Spanish  or  Latin  as  mais  serai  (Primeira 
Parte  da  Funda^ao,  Antiguidades  e  Grandezas  da  mvi  insigne  cidade  de  Lisboa. 
Prologo).  Faria  e  Sousa  condemns  the  practice  of  writing  Spanish  glosas 
to  a  Portuguese  mote,  and  declares  that  he  himself  wrote  in  Spanish  con  gran 
pesar  mio.  Frei  Antonio  da  Purifica^am  considered  that  had  he  written  his 
Cronica  in  Latin  or  Spanish  fora  digno  de  grande  nota,  in  this  following 
Frei  Bernardo  de  Brito,  who  indignantly  rejected  the  exhortation  to  use 
Latin  or  Spanish  {Mon.  Lus.  i,  Prologo),  although  he  wrote  under  Spanish 
rule.  Bernarda  Ferreira  de  Lacerda  wrote  in  Spanish  por  ser  idioma  claro 
y  casi  comun.  Simao  Machado  explains  why  he  wrote  Alfea  in  Spanish  as 
follows  (f.  72  v.)  :  Vendo  quam  mal  aceitais  As  obras  dos  naturais  Fiz  esta  em 
lingoa  estrangeira  Por  ver  se  desta  maneira  Como  a  eles  nos  tratais. 

'  Portuguese  spelling  is  a  vexed  and  vexing  question,  complicated  by  the 
positive  dislike  of  the  Portuguese  for  uniformity  (the  same  word  may  be  found 
spelt  in  two  ways  on  the  same  page  both  in  modern  and  ancient  books  ; 
the  same  person  will  spell  his  name  Manoel  and  Manuel).  In  proper  names 
their  owners'  spelling  has  been  retained,  although  no  one  now  writes  Prince 
Honry  the  Navigator's  name  as  he  wrote  it  :  Anrique.  Thus  Mello  (modern 
Melo)  ;  Nunez  (13th  c),  Nunes  (19th  c.)  ;  Bernardez  (i6th  c),  Bernardes 
(i7th-i8th  c).  The  late  Dr.  Gon9alves  Vianna  himself  adopted  the  form 
Gon^alvez  Viana.  In  quoting  ancient  Portuguese  texts  the  only  alteration 
made  has  been  occa.sionally  to  replace  y  and  i<  by  i  and  v, 

'  Este  desejo  {de  sempre  ver  e  ouvir  cousas  nouas)  he  moor  que  nas  outras 
nafdes  na  gente  Lusitana.  Andre  de  Burgos,  Ao  prudente  leitor  {Relafam, 
Evora,  1557).  It  is  displayed  in  their  fondness  for  foreign  customs,  for  the 
Spanish  language,  for  India  to  the  neglect  of  Portugal,  the  description  of 


INTRODUCTION  ig 

extensive  sea-board  and  vague  land-frontiers,  naturally  came  under 
foreign  influences.  Many  and  various  causes  made  their  country 
cosmopolitan  from  the  beginning.  It  is  customary  to  divide 
Portuguese  literature  into  the  Provencal  (13th  c),  Spanish  (14th 
and  15th  c),  Italian  (i6th  c),  Spanish  and  Italian  (17th  c),  French 
and  English  (i8th  c),  French  and  German  (19th  c.)  Schools. 
The  question  may  therefore  be  asked,  especially  by  those  who  con- 
fuse influence  with  imitation,  as  though  it  precluded  originality  : 
What  has  Portuguese  literature  of  its  own }  In  the  first  place, 
the  Celtic  satire  and  mystic  lyrism  of  the  Galicians  is  developed 
and  always  present  in  Portuguese  literature.  Secondly,  the  genius 
for  story- telling,  displayed  by  Fernam  Lopez,  grew  by  reason  of  the 
great  Portuguese  discoveries  in  Africa  and  Asia  to  an  epic  grandeur 
both  in  verse  and  prose.  Thirdly,  the  absence  of  great  cities,  the 
pleasant  climate,  and  fertile  soil  produced  a  peculiarly  realistic 
and  natural  bucolic  poetry.  And  in  prose,  besides  masterpieces 
of  history  and  travel — a  rich  and  fascinating  literature  of  the  East 
and  of  the  sea — a  fervent  religious  faith,  as  in  Spain,  with  a  more 
constant  mysticism  than  in  Spain,  led  to  very  high  achievement. 
Had  one  to  choose  between  the  loss  of  the  works  of  Homer,  or 
Dante,  or  Shakespeare,  and  that  of  the  whole  of  Portuguese 
literature,  the  whole  of  Portuguese  literature  must  go,  but  that  is 
not  to  say  that  the  loss  would  not  be  very  grievous.  Indeed,  those 
who  despise  Portuguese  literature  despise  it  in  ignorance,^  affecting 
to  believe,  with  Edgar  Quinet,  that  it  has  but  one  poet  and  a  single 
book ;  those  who  are  acquainted  with  it — with  the  early  lyrics, 
with  the  quaintly  alluring  eclogues  of  Ribeiro  and  Sa  de  Miranda, 
with  the  works  of  Fernam  Lopez,  described  by  Robert  Southey  as 
'  the  best  chronicler  of  any  age  or  nation  ',  nai'f,  exact,  touchant  et 
philosophe^;  of  Gil  Vicente,  almost  as  far  above  his  contemporary 
Juan  del  Enzina  as^Shakespeare  is  above  Vicente  ;  of  Bernardim 
Ribeiro,  whose  Menina  e  moga  is  the  earliest  and  best  of  those 
pastoral  romances  which  led  Don  Quixote  to  contemplate  a  quieter 

epic  deeds  rather  than  of  ordinary  life,  high-flown  language  as  opposed  to 
the  common  speech  {da  pra(a),  &c.  Antonio  Prestes  calls  the  Portuguese 
estranho  no  natural,  natural  no  estranjeiro. 

*  In  Spain  it  has  had  fervent  admirers,  notably  Gracian.  More  recently 
Juan  Valera  spoke  of  it  as  riquisima,  and  Menendez  y  Pelayo  explored  this 
wealth,  *  F.  Denis,  Resumi  (1R26),  p.  xx. 

B  2 


20  INTRODUCTION 

sequel  to  his  first  adventures ;  of  Camoes,  '  not  only  the  greatest 
lyric  poet  of  his  country,  but  one  of  the  greatest  lyric  poets  of 
all  time  '  ^ ;  with  Fernam  Mendez  Pinto's  travels,  '  as  diverting 
a  book  of  the  kind  as  ever  I  read  '  ^ ;  or  Corrca's  Lendas,  Frei 
Thome  de  Jesus'  Trabalhos,  or  the  incomparable  prose  of  Manuel 
Bernardes — know  that,  extraordinary  as  were  Portugal's  achieve- 
ments in  discovery  and  conquest,  her  literature  is  not  unworthy 
of  those  achievements.  Unhappily  the  Portuguese,  with  a  noto- 
rious carelessness,^  have  in  the  past  set  the  example  of  neglecting 
their  literature,  and  even  to-day  scarcely  seem  to  realize  their 
great  possessions  and  still  greater  possibilities  in  the  realm  of 
prose.*  The  excessive  number  of  writers,  the  excessive  production 
of  each  individual  writer,  and  the  desleixo  by  which  innumerable 
books  and  manuscripts  of  exceptional  interest  have  perished,  are 
all  traceable  to  the  same  source:  the  lack  of  criticism.  A  nation 
of  poets,  essentially  lyrical,^  with  no  dramatic  genius  but  capable 
of  writing  charmingly  and  naturally  without  apparent  effort, 
needed  and  needs  a  severely  classical  education  and  stern  critics, 
to  remind  them  that  an  epic  is  not  rhymed  history  nor  blank 
verse  mangled  prose,  that  in  bucolic  poetry  the  half  is  greater 
than  the  whole,  and  to  bid  them  abandon  abstractions  for  the 

'  Wilhelm  Storck,  Luis  de  Camoens'  Sammtliche  Werke,  Bd.  I  (1880). 

*  Dorothy  Osborne  to  Sir  William  Temple. 

*  For  a  good  instance  of  this  descuido  portugues  see  Manuel  Pereira  de 
Novaes,  Anacrisis  Historial  (a  history  of  the  city  of  Oporto  in  Spanish),  vol.  i 
(1912),  Predmhulo,  p.  xvii.  It  is  lamented  by  the  editors  of  the  Cancioneiro 
Geral  (15 16)  and  Fenix  Renascida  (17 16). 

*  Portuguese  literature  begins  for  most  Portuguese  with  Camoes  and 
Barros,  and  its  most  charming  and  original  part  thus  escapes  them.  Cf. 
F.  Dias  Gomes,  Obras  Poeticas  (1799),  p.  143:  Camoes  'without  whom 
there  would  have  been  no  Portuguese  poetry  '  ;  and  ibid.,  p.  310  :  Barros 
'  prepared  the  beautiful  style  for  our  epic  writers  '.  Faria  e  Sousa's  homely 
phrase  as  to  the  effect  of  Camoes  on  preceding  poets  (echdlos  todos  a  rodar) 
was  unfortunately  true. 

'  Much  of  their  finest  prose  is  of  lyrical  character,  personal,  fervent,  mystic. 
As  to  philosophy  proper  the  greatest  if  not  the  only  Portuguese  philosopher, 
Spinoza,  a  Portuguese  Jew,  left  Portugal  as  a  child,  and  Francisco  Sanchez 
(c.  1550-C.  1620),  although  probably  born  at  Braga,  not  at  a  soberba  Tuy, 
lived  in  France  and  wrote  in  Latin.  He  tells  us  that  he  in  1574  finished  his 
celebrated  treatise  Quod  nihil  scittir,  published  at  Lyon  in  1581,  in  which, 
at  a  time  of  great  intolerance,  he  revived  and  gave  acute  and  curious  expression 
to  the  old  theory  that  nothing  can  be  known.  To  modern  philosophy 
Dr.  Leonardo  Coimbra  (born  in  1883)  has  contributed  a  notable  but  somewhat 
abstruse  work  entitled  O  Criacionismo  (Porto,  191 2). 


INTRODUCTION  21 

concrete  and  particular  and  crystallize  the  vague  flow  of  their 
talent.  But  in  Portugal,  outside  the  circle  of  writers  themselves, 
a  reading  public  has  hitherto  hardly  existed,  and  in  the  close 
atmosphere  resulting  the  sense  of  proportion  was  inevitably  lost, 
even  as  a  stone  and  a  feather  will  fall  with  equal  speed  in  a 
vacuum.  The  criticism  has  been  mainly  personal,^  contesting 
the  originality  or  truthfulness  of  a  writer,  without  considering 
the  literary  merits  of  his  work.  To  deprecate  such  criticism 
became  a  commonplace  of  the  preface,  while  numerous  passages 
in  writers  of  the  sixteenth  century  show  that  they  feared  their 
countrymen's  scepticism,  expressed  in  the  proverb  De  longas  vias 
mui  longas  mentiras,  which  occurs  as  early  as  the  thirteenth 
century.-  The  fear  of  slovenly  or  prolix  composition  was  not 
present  in  the  same  degree.  But  these  are  defects  that  may  be 
remedied  partly  by  individual  critics,  partly  by  the  increasing 
number  of  readers.  Meanwhile  this  little  book  may  perhaps 
serve  to  corroborate  the  poet  Falcao  de  Resende's  words  : 

Engenhos  nascem  bons  na  Lusitania 
E  ha  copia  delles.^ 

'  Or  political,  or  anticlerical,  or  anything  except  literary.  The  critics 
seem  to  have  forgotten  that  an  auto-da-fS  does  not  necessarily  make  its 
victim  a  good  poet,  and  that  even  a  priest  may  have  literary  talent.  A  few 
literary  critics,  as  Dias  in  the  eighteenth,  Guilherme  Moniz  Barreto  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  are  only  exceptions  to  the  rule.  It  has  been  the  weakness 
of  Portuguese  criticism,  more  lenient  than  the  gods  and  booksellers  of  ancient 
Rome,  to  suffer  mediocres  gladly. 

-  C.  da  Vat.  979  (cf.  Jorge  Ferreira,  Eufrosina,  v.  5  :  como  dizia  0  Galego  : 
de  longas  vias  longas  mentiras). 

*  Poesias,  Sat.  2.  The  remark  of  Garrett  still  holds  good  :  Em  Portugal 
ha  mats  talento  e  menos  cultivafao  que  em  paiz  nenhum  da  Europa. 


ii85 


1    ^ 

-1325 


§1 
The  C  OSS  antes 

Under  the  Moorish  dominion  we  know  that  poetry  was  widely 
cultivated  in  the  Iberian  Peninsula,  by  high  and  low.  At  Silves 
in  Algarve  '  almost  every  peasant  could  improvise  ' }  But  the 
early  Galician-Portuguese  poetry  has  no  relation  with  that  of 
the  Moors,  despite  certain  characteristics  which  may  seem  to 
point  to  an  Oriental  origin.  The  indigenous  poems  of  Galicia 
and  Portugal,  of  which  thirteenth-century  examples  have  sur- 
vived, are  so  remarkable,  so  unlike  those  of  any  other  country, 
that  they  deserve  to  be  studied  apart  from  the  Provencal  imita- 
tions by  the  side  of  which  they  developed.  Half  buried  in  the 
Cancioneiros,  themselves  only  recently  discovered,  these  ex- 
quisite and  in  some  ways  astonishingly  modern  lyrics  are  even 
now  not  very  widely  known  and  escape  the  attention  of  many 
who  go  far'  afield  in  search  of  true  poetry.  The  earliest  poem 
dated  (1189)  by  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  in 
which  Pay  Soarez  de  Taveiroos,  a  nobleman  of  Galicia  or  North 
Portugal,  addresses  Maria  Paez  Ribeira,  the  lovely  mistress  of 
King  Sancho  I,  7nia  semior  branca  e  vermelha,  does  not  belong 
to  these  lyrics^;  but  the  second  earliest  (1199),  attributed  to  King 
Sancho  I  (1185-1211)  himself,  is  one  of  them  (C.  C.  B.  348).  This 
unique  form  of  lyric  requires  a  distinctive  name,  and  if  we  adopt 
that  used  by  the  Marques  de  Santillana's  father,  Diego  Furtado  de 
Mendoza(ti404),  we  shall  have  a  word  well  suited  to  convey  an  idea 
of  their  striking  character.^     HisSpanishpoem  written  in  parallel 

'  Kazwini  ap.  Keinhart  Dozy,  Spanish  Islam,  trans.  F.  G.  Stokes,  London, 
1913,  p.  663. 

*  C.  A.  38.  It  is  a  cantiga  de  meestria,  of  two  verses,  each  of  eight  octo- 
syllabic lines  (ahbaccde  bfhaccde). 

'  Although  neither  Knglish  nor  Portuguese,  it  is  a  name  for  these  poems, 
of  lines  pariler  plangtnles,  less  clumsy  than  parallelistic  songs  adopted  by 


THE    COSSANTES  23 

distichs,  A  aquel  arhol;  is  called  a  cossante}  In  an  age  when  all 
that  seemed  most  Spanish,  the  Poema  del  Cid,  for  instance,  or  the 
Lihro  de  Buen  Amor,  has  been  proved  to  derive  in  part  from 
French  sources,  it  is  peculiarly  pleasant  to  find  a  whole  series  of 
early  poems  which  have  their  roots  firmly  planted  in  the  soil  of 
the  Peninsula.  The  indigenous  character  of  the  cossantes  is  now 
well  established,  thanks  chiefly  to  the  skilful  and  untiring  re- 
searches of  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos.-  They  are 
wild  but  deliciously  scented  single  flowers  which  now  reappear 
in  all  their  freshness  as  though  they  had  not  lain  pressed  and 
dead  for  centuries  in  the  library  of  the  Vatican.  One  of  the 
earliest  is  quoted  by  Airas  Nunez  (C.  V.  454)  and  completed  in 
Grundriss,  p.  150  : 

1.  Solo  ramo  verde  frolido 
Vodas  fazen  a  meu  amigo, 
E  choran  olhos  d'amor. 

2.  Solo  verde  frolido  ramo  * 
Vodas  fazen  a  meu  amado, 
E  choran  olhos  d'amor. 

What  first  strikes  one  in  this  is  its  Oriental  immobility.     The 

second  distich  adds  nothing  to  the  sense  of  the  first,  merely 

intensifying  it  by  repetition.    Neither  the  poetry  of  the  trouveres 

of  the  North  of  France  nor  that  of  the  Vro\ex\(;di\  troubadours 

presents  any  parallel.     The  scanty  Basque  literature  contains 

Professor  Henry  R.  Lang  (who  also  uses  the  words  serranas — but  see  C.  D.  L., 
p.  cxxxviii,  note  2  ;  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  had  called  them  serranilhas — and 
Verkettimgslieder),  Parallelstrophenlieder  (D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vas- 
concellos), cantigas  parallelisticas  (D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos 
and  Snr.  J.  J.  Nunes),  chansons  a  ripSHtions  (M.  Alfred  Jeanroy).  Cantos 
dualisticos,  cantos  de  danza  prima,  and  bailadas  encadeadas  have  also  been 
proposed . 

*  Perhaps  =  rhyme  (consoante),  but  more  probably  it  is  derived  from  cosso, 
an  enclosed  place,  which  would  be  used  for  dancing  :  cf .  Cristobal  de  Castillejo, 
Madre,  un  caballero  Que  estaba  en  este  cosso  (bailia).  In  the  Relacion  de  los 
fechos  del  mui  magnifico  e  mas  virtuoso  senor  el  senor  Don  Miguel  Lucas  [de  Iramo] 
mui  digno  Condestable  de  Castilla,  p.  446  (a.d.  1470),  occurs  the  following 
passage  :  Y  despues  de  danzar  cantaron  un  gran  rato  de  cosante  (Memorial 
Histdrico  Espanol,  torn,  viii,  Madrid,  1855).  Rodrigo  Cota,  in  the  Didlogo 
entre  el  Amor  y  un  Viejo,  has  dangas  y  corsantes,  and  Anton  de  Montoro 
(el  Ropero)  asks  un  portugues  que  vido  vestido  de  muchos  colores  if  he  is  a  can- 
tador  de  corsante  (v.  1.  cosante)  {Cane.  General,  ed.  Bibliof .  Esp.,  ii.  270,  no.  1018). 

2  In  the  Grundriss  (1894),  Randglossen  (i 896-1905),  and  especially  vol.  ii 
of  the  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda  (1904). 

*  Or  Solo  ramo  verde  granado  :  the  green  branch  in  (red)  flower. 


24  I185-1325 

nothing  in  this  kind.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  go  for  a  parallel 
to  China.^  None  more  remarkable  will  be  found  than  those 
contained  in  the  books  of  that  religion  which  came  from  the  East 
and  imposed  its  forms  if  not  its  spirit  on  the  pagans  of  the 
Peninsula.  Verses  8,  9  of  Psalm  118  are  very  nearly  a.  cossante 
but  have  no  refrain.  The  resemblance  in  Psalm  136,  verses 
17,  18,  is  still  more  marked  : 

To  him  which  smote  great  kings, 
For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever, 

And  slew  famous  kings, 

For  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever. 

The  relations  between  Church  and  people  were  very  close  if  not 
always  very  friendly.  The  peasants  maintained  their  ancient 
customs,  and  their  pagan  jollity  kept  overflowing  into  the 
churches  to  the  scandal  of  the  authorities.  Innumerable  ordi- 
nances later  sought  to  check  their  delight  in  witchcraft  and 
mummeries,  feasts  and  funerals  (the  delight  in  the  latter  is  still 
evident  in  Galicia  as  in  Ireland  and  Wales).  Men  slept,  ate, 
drank,  danced,  sang  profane  songs,  and  acted  plays  and  parodies 
in  the  churches  and  pilgrimage  shrines.  The  Church  strove  to 
turn  their  midsummer  and  May-day  celebrations  into  Christian 
festivals,  but  the  change  was  rather  nominal  than  real.  But 
if  the  priests  and  bishops  remained  spiritually,  like  modern 
politicians,  shepherds  without  sheep,  the  religious  services,  the 
hymns, ^  the  processions  evidently  affected  the  people.  Especially 
was  this  the  case  in  Galicia,  since  the  great  saint  Santiago,  who 
farther  south  (as  later  in  India)  rode  into  battle  on  a  snow-white 

'  Translations   of    Chinese   poems   resembling  the   cossanies  are  given  by 
Dr.  Theophilo   Braga,   C.  V.  B.,  Introd.,  p.   ci,  and   Professor  H.   R.   Lang, 
C.  D.  L.,  Introd.,  p.  cxlii.     A  Proven9al  poem  with  resemblance  to  a  cossante 
is  printed  in  Bartsch,  p.  62  :    Li  tensz  est  bels,  les  vinnesz  sont  flories. 
*  Any  one  who  has  heard  peasants  at  a  Stabat  singing  the  hymn 

Stabat  Mater  dolorosa 

Jussa  crussa  larimosa 

Du  penebat  Filius 
realizes  that  the  words  for  them  have  no  meaning,  but  that  they  will  long 
remember  tune  and  rhythm.     Compare,  for  the  form,  the  Latin  hymn  to  the 
Virgin  by  the  Breton  poet  Adam  de  Saint  Victor  (tii77)  : 

Salve  Verbi  sacra  parens, 

Flos  de  spinis  spinis  carens, 

Flos  spineti  gloria. 


THE    COSSANTES  25 

steed  before  the  Christians,  gave  a  more  peaceful  prosperity 
to  the  North-west.  Pilgrims  from  all  countries  in  the  Middle 
Ages  came  to  worship  at  his  shrine  at  Santiago  de  Compostcla. 
They  came  a  motley  company  singing  on  the  road,^  criminals 
taking  this  opportunity  to  escape  from  justice,  tradesmen  and 
players,  jugglers  and  poets  making  a  livelihood  out  of  the 
gathering  throngs,  as  well  as  devout  pilgrims  who  had  '  left  alle 
gamys  '  for  their  soul's  good,  des  pelerins  qui  vont  chantant  et  des 
jongleurs.  Thus  the  eyes  of  the  whole  province  of  Galicia  as  the 
eyes  of  Europe  were  directed  towards  the  Church  of  Santiago  in 
Jakobsland.  The  inhabitants  of  Galicia  would  naturally  view 
their  heaven-sent  celebrity  with  pride  and  rejoice  in  the  material 
gain.  They  would  watch  with  eager  interest  the  pilgrims  passing 
along  the  camino  frances  or  from  the  coast  to  Santiago,  and  would 
themselves  flock  to  see  and  swell  the  crowds  at  the  religious 
services.  When  we  remember  the  frequent  parodies  of  religious 
services  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  that  the  Galicians  did  not  lag 
behind  others  in  the  art  of  mimicry,^  we  can  well  imagine  that 
the  Latin  hymns  sung  in  church  or  procession  might  easily  form 
the  germ  of  the  profane  cossante.  A  further  characteristic  of  the 
cossante  is  that  the  z-sound  of  the  first  distich  is  followed  by 
an  a-sound  in  the  second  [ricercando  ora  il  grave,  ora  Vacuto)  and 
this  too  maybe  traced  to  a  religious  source,  two  answering  choirs 
of  singers,  treble  and  bass.^    It  is  clear  at  least  that  these  alter- 

'  Cf.  Luis  Jose  Veldzquez,  Origenes  de  la  Poesia  Castellana  (Malaga,  1754) 
ap.  C.  M.  (1889),  i.  168  :  las  cantares  y  canciones  devotas  de  los  peregrinos  que 
iban  en  romeria  a  visitar  la  iglesia  de  Compostela  mantuvieron  en  Galicia  el 
gusto  de  la  poesia  en  tiempos  bdrbaros.  A  Latin  hymn  composed  in  the  twelfth 
century  by  Aimeric  Picaud  is  printed  in  Recuerdos  de  un  Viaje  a  Santiago 
de  Galicia  por  el  P.  Fidel  Fita  y  D.  Aureliano  Fernandez-Guerra  (Madrid, 
1880),  p.  45  :  Jacobi  Gallecia  Opem  rogat  piam  Glebe  cujus  gloria  Dat  insignem 
viani  Ut  precum  frequentia  Cantet  melodiam.  Herru  Sanctiagu  /  Grot  Sanc- 
tiagu  /   Eultreja  esuseja  !  Deus,  adjuva  nos  ! 

^  Cf.  Simao  de  Vasconcellos,  Cronica  da  Companhia  de  Jesu  do  Estado  do 
Brazil  (1549-62),  2nd  ed.  (1865),  Bk.  I,  §  22  :  chegamos  a  huma  praga  [in 
Santiago  de  Compostela]  onde  vimos  hum  ajuntamento  de  mulheres  Gallegas 
com  grande  risada  e  galhofa  ;  e  querendo  0  irmdo  meu  companheiro  pedir-lhe 
esmola  vio  que  estavdo  todas  ouvindo  a  huma  que  feita  pregadora  arremedava, 
como  por  zombaria,  o  sermao  que  eu  tinha  pregado. 

'  One  has  but  to  watch  a  Rogation  procession  passing  through  the  fields 
in  the  Basque  country  (which  until  recently  preserved  customs  of  immemorial 
eld  and  still  calls  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  introduced  by  Pope  Urban  IV 
in  1262,  '  the  New  Feast — Festa  Berria  ')  to  realize  the  singularly  impressive 


26  I185-1325 

nating  sounds  are  echoes  of  music  :  one  almost  hears  the  clash 
of  the  adiife  in  the  lougana  (answering  to  garrida)  or  ramo  (pinho). 
The  words  of  these  poems  were,  indeed,  always  accompanied 
by  the  son  {=  music).  But  if  born  in  the  Church,  the  cossante 
suffered  a  transformation  when  it  went  out  into  the  world. 
The  rhythm  of  many  of  the  songs  in  the  Cancioneiros  is  so 
obtrusive  that  they  seem  to  dance  out  of  the  printed  page. 
One  would  like  to  think  that  in  the  ears  of  the  peasants  the 
sound  of  the  wheel  mingled  with  the  echo  of  a  hymn  and  its 
refrain  as  they  met  at  what  was,  even  then,  no  doubt,  a  favourite 
gathering-place — the  mill  ^ — and  thus  a  lyric  poem  became 
a  dance-song.  The  cossante  Solo  ramo  would  thus  proceed,  sung 
by  '  the  dancers  dancing  in  tune  '  : 

(Verses  3  and  4)  Vodas  fazen  a  meu  amigo  (amado) 

Porque  mentiu  o  desmentido  (perjurado) 
E  choran  olhos  d'amor, 

the  first  line  of  the  third  distich  repeating  the  second  line  of  the 
first  (and  in  the  same  way  the  first  line  of  the  fifth  the  second 
line  of  the  third),  in  leixa-pren  [laisser  prendre)  corresponding 
evidently  to  the  movements  of  the  dance. '^  The  love-lorn  maidens 
danced  together,  the  men  forming  a  circle  to  look  on.  St.  Augus- 
tine considered  the  dance  to  be  a  circle  of  which  the  Devil  was 
the  centre  ;  in  real  life  the  Devil  was  often  replaced  by  a  tree  (or 
by  a  mayo).  The  refrain  was  a  notable  feature  of  the  cossante  in 
all  its  phases  as  it  went,  a  bailada  (dance-song)  from  the  terreiro, 
to  become  a  serranilha  on  the  hills,  or  at  pilgrimage  shrines 
a  cantiga  de  romaria,^  or  a  harcarola  (boat-song)  or  alvorada  (dawn- 

efifect  of  the  singing,  first  the  girls'  treble  Ave  Ave  Ave  Maria,  Ave  Ave  Ave 
Maria,  then  the  answering  bass  of  the  men  far  behind,  Ave  Ave  Ave  Maria, 
Ave  Ave  Ave  Maria  (with  the  slow  ringing  of  the  church  bell  for  a  refrain 
like  the  contemplando  and  tan  callando  in  the  Coplas  de  Manrique). 

'  Cf.  Gil  Vicente,  Tambor  em  cada  moinho.  It  is  a  curious  coincidence 
that  the  word  citola  (the  jogral's  fiddk )  =  mill-clapper.  Cf.  also  moinante  in 
Galicia  =  picaro. 

*  Cf.  the  Icixapren  and  refrain  of  the  cantiga  danced  and  sung  at  the  end 
of  Gil  Vicente's  Romagem  de  Aggravados  (Por  Maio  era,  par  Maio).  The 
parallelism  and  leixapren  are  present  also  in  religious  poems  by  Alfonso  X  : 
C.  M.  160,  250,  260.  Snr.  J.J.  Nunes  has  noted  that  in  motkrn  peasant 
dances,  accompanied  with  song,  the  dancers  sometimes  pause  while  the 
refrain  is  sung. 

»  C.  V.  contains  many  striking  pilgrimage  songs,  sometimes  wrongly  called 


THE    COSSANTES  27 

song).      A  marked  and  thoroughly  popular  characteristic  of  the 
cossante  is  its  wistful  sadness/  the  soidade  which  is  already  men- 
tioned more  than  once  in  the  Cancioneiros,^  and,  born  in  Galicia, 
continued  in  Portugal,  combined  with  a  more  garish  tone  under  the 
hotter  sun  of  the  South.     Thus  we  have  the  melancholy  Celtic 
temperament,  absorbed  in  Nature,  acting  on  the  forms  suggested 
by  an  alien  religion  till  they  become  vague  cries  to  the  sea,  to  the 
deer  of  the  hills,  the  flower  of  the  pine.    The  themes  are  as  simple 
and  monotonous — the  monotony  of  snowdrops  or  daffodils — as 
the  form  in  which  they  are  sung.     A  girl  in  the  gloom  of  the 
pine-trees  mourning  for  her  lover,  the  birds  in  the  cool  of  the  morn- 
ing singing  of  love,  the  deer  troubling  the  water  of  a  mountain- 
stream,  the  boats  at  anchor,  or  bearing  away  mens  amores,  or 
gliding  up  the  river  a  sahor.    The  amiga  lingers  at  the  fountain, 
she  goes  to  wash  clothes  or  to  bathe  her  hair  in  the  stream,  she 
meets  her  lover  and  dances  at  the  pilgrim  shrine,  she  waits  for 
him  under  the  hazel-trees,  she  implores  the  waves  for  news  of 
him,  she  watches  for  the  boats  pelo  mar  viir.     The  language  is 
native  to  the  soil,  far  more  so,  at  least,  than  in  the  cantigas  de 
amor  and  cantigas  de  amigo  written   under  foreign  influence. 
Their  French  or  Provencal  words  and  learned  forms  ^  are  replaced 
in  the  cossante  by  forms  Galician  or  Spanish.    Despite  its  striking 
appearance  to  us  now  among  sirventes  senes  sal  in  the  Cancioneiro 
Colocci-Brancuti,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  early  cossante  of 
King  Sancho  has  a  somewhat  meagre,  vinegar  aspect,  and  the 
genre  could  hardly  have  developed  so  successfully  in  the  next 
half-century  had  it  not  been  fixed  in  the  country-side,  ever  ready 
to   the  hand  of  the  poet  in  search  of  fresh  inspiration.      It  is 
possible  to  exaggerate  the  effect  of  war  on  the  life  of  the  peasant. 
Portugal   in  the  twelfth  century  was  only  gradually  and  by 
constant  conflict  winning  its  territory  and  independence.     It 
had  no  fixed  capital  and  Court  at  which  the  Provengal  poets 

cantigas  de  ledino.  The  word  probably  originated  in  a  printer's  error  (de 
ledino  for  dele  dino)  in  a  line  of  Chrisfal  :   canton  canto  de  ledino. 

»  Cf.  the  wailing  refrains  of  C.  V.  415,  417  ;  and,  for  the  form,  compare 
e  de  mi,  lougana  !  with  ;  ay  de  mi,  Alfama  !  In  the  sense  of  the  two  refrains  lies 
all  the  difference  between  the  poetry  of  Portugal  and  Spain. 

»  C.  C.  B.  135  (=  C.  A.  389)  ;    C.  V.  119,  181,  220,  527,  758,  964. 

*  Endurar,  besonha,  greu,  gracir,  cousir,  escarnir,  toste,  entendedor,  veiro 
(varius,  Fr.  vair,  CM.  213  has  egua  veira),  genta  (genser,  gensor). 


28  I185-1325 

might  gather.  But  while  king  and  nobles  and  the  members  of 
the  religious  and  military  orders  were  engaged  with  the  [Moors 
to  the  exclusion  of  the  Muses,  so  that  they  had  no  opportunity  to 
introduce  the  new  measures,  the  peasants  in  Galicia  and  Minho 
no  doubt  went  on  tilling  the  soil  and  singing  their  primitive  songs. 
In  the  thirteenth  century  Provengal  poetry  flourished  in  Portugal, 
but  so  monotonously  that  it  failed  to  kill  the  older  lyrics,  and  they 
reacted  on  the  imported  poetry.  In  the  trite  conventions  with 
which  the  latter  became  clothed  the  cossante  had  a  new  oppor- 
tunity of  life.  Trohadores  wearied  by  their  own  monotony, 
jograes  wishing  to  please  a  patron  with  a  novidade,  had  recourse 
to  the  cossante.  The  jogral  wandering  from  house  to  house  and 
town  to  town  necessarily  came  into  close  touch  with  the  peasants. 
Talented  men  among  them,  prompted  by  patrons  of  good  taste, 
no  doubt  exercised  the  third  requisite  of  a  good  jogral  [doair'  e  uoz 
e  aprenderdes  hen,  C.  C.  B.  388) — a  good  memory — not  only  in 
learning  his  patron's  verses  to  recite  at  other  houses  but  in  re- 
membering the  songs  that  he  caught  in  passing  from  the  lips  of 
the  peasants,  songs  of  village  mirth  and  dance,  of  workers  in  the 
fields  and  shepherds  on  the  hills.  These,  developed  and  adorned 
according  to  his  talent,  he  would  introduce  to  the  Court  among 
his  motz  recreamens  e  prazers.  When  Joan  de  Guilhade  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  complained  that  os  trohadores  ja 
van  para  mal  (C.  V.  370),  he  might  almost  be  referring  to  the 
fact  that  the  stereotyped  poems  of  the  Portuguese  trohadores 
could  no  longer  compete  with  the  fresh  charm  of  the  cossante. 
Alfonso  X  reproached  Pero  da  Ponte  for  not  singing  like  a  Pro- 
vengal but,  rather,  like  Bernaldo  de  Bonaval  (first  half  13th  c). 
King  Dinis  in  the  second  half  of  the  century  viewed  the  cossante 
with  such  favour  that  he  wrote  or  collected  some  of  the  most 
curious  and  delightful  that  we  possess.  But  although  King  Dinis 
set  his  name  to  a  handful  of  the  finest  cossantes,  most  of  the 
cossante-v^nttrs,  belonged  to  an  earlier  period  and  were  men  of 
humble  birth.  Of  Nuno  Fernandez  Torneol^  (first  half  13th  c), 
poet  and  soldier,  besides  conventional  cantigas  de  amor  we  have 
eight  simple  cossantes  of  which  the  alvorada  (C.  V.  242),  the  har- 
carola  (C.  V.  246),  and  C.  V.  245  with  its  dance  rhythm  are 
»  C.  V.  242-51,  979  ;   C.  C.  B.  159-71  (=  C.  A.  70-81,  402). 


THE    COSSANTES  29 

especially  beautiful.  Pedr'  Anez  Solaz*  (early  13th  c.)  wrote 
a  cossante  (C.  V.  415)  celebrated  for  its  refrain,  lelia  doura,  leli 
leli  par  deus  leli,  in  which  some  have  seen  a  vestige  of  Basque 
{il  =  dead).  Of  Meendinho  (first  half  13th  c.)  we  have  only 
one  poem,  a  cantiga  de  romaria  (C,  V,  438),  but  its  beauty  has 
brought  him  fame  ;  ^  and  another  jogral,  Fernand'  Esguio  ^ 
(second  half  13th  c),  is  remembered  in  the  same  way  chiefly  for 
C.  V.  902  :  Vayamos,  irmana.  Bernaldo  de  Bonaval,  one  of  the 
earliest  Galician  poets,  and  the  jograes  Pero  de  Veer,  Joan 
Servando,  Airas  Carpancho,*  Martin  de  Ginzo,^  Lopo  and  Lou- 
rengo,  composed  some  charming  pilgrimage  songs  in  the  second 
third  of  the  thirteenth  century.  This  was  a  popular  theme,  but 
the  two  poets  who  seem  to  have  felt  most  keenly  the  attraction 
of  the  popular  poetry  and  to  have  cultivated  it  most  successfully 
are  Joan  Zorro  (fi.  1250)  and  Pero  Meogo  (fl.  1250).  The 
cossantes  of  Zorro,  one  of  the  most  talented  of  all  these  singers, 
tell  of  Lisbon  and  the  king's  ships  and  the  sea.  In  this  series  of 
barcarolas  (C.  V.  751-60)  and  in  his  delightful  bailada  (C.  V. 
761)  ^  he  evidently  sought  his  inspiration  in  popular  sources,  as 
with  equal  felicity  a  little  later  did  Pero  Meogo,'  whose  cossantes 
(C.  V.  789-97),  each  with  its  biblical  reference  to  the  deer  of  the 
hills  [cervos  do  monte),  are  as  singular  as  they  are  beautiful. 
Martin  Codax  at  about  the  same  time  was  singing  graceful 
songs  of  the  ondas  do  mar  of  Vigo  (C.  V.  884-90).  But  the  real 
poet  of  the  sea  was  the  Admiral  of  Castille,  Pay  Gomez  Charino  ® 
(■|"i295).  He  belonged  to  an  ancient  family  of  Galicia,  was 
>  c.  V.  414-16,  824-s ;  c.  A.  281. 

2  Meen  di  nho  in  the  C.  V.  M.  index.     Thus  he  is  scarcely  even  a  name. 

'  Or  Esquio  (?  =  esquilo,  'squirrel  '). 

«  Or  Corpancho  (Broade)  or  Campancho  (Broadacre)  ;  but  the  word 
carpancho  (=  basket)  exists  in  the  region  of  Santander  {La  Montana). 
There  is  a  modem  Peruvian  poet  Manuel  Nicolas  Corpancho  (1830-63). 

*  This  is  the  most  probable  form  of  his  name,  although  modern  critics 
have  presented  him  with  various  others. 

*  M.  Alfred  Jeanroy  (Les  Origines,  2^  ed.,  1904,  p.  320)  compares  with  this 
bailada  the  fragments  Tuit  cil  qui  sunt  enamouraf  Vignent  dangar,  li  autre  non 
and  N'en  nostra  compaignie  ne  soit  nus  S'il  n'est  amans,  but  even  if  there  was 
direct  imitation  here,  which  is  doubtful,  that  would  not  affect  the  indigenous 
character  of  the  cossantes. 

'  Or,  according  to  D.  C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  Moogo  (from  monachus). 
Meogo  (=  meio)  occurs  in  C.  M.  65  and  161,  moogo  (=  monk)  in  C.  M.  75  and  149. 

«  C.  V.  392-402,  424-30,  1 1 58-9;  C.  A.  246-56.  Chariiio  is  buried  at 
Pontevedra,  in  the  Franciscan  convent  which  he  founded. 


30  I185-1325 

prominent  at  the  Courts  of  Alfonso  X  (between  whose  character 
and  the  sea  he  draws  an  elaborate  parallel  in  C.  A.  256)  and  of 
his  son  Sancho  IV,  played  an  important  part  in  the  troubled 
history  of  the  time,  and  fought  by  land  and  sea  in  Andalucia,  at 
Jaenini246  andSevilleini247.  On  the  lips  of  his  amz'g'a  he  places 
a  touching  cantiga  de  amigo  (C.  V.  424  :  she  expresses  her  relief 
that  her  amigo  has  ceased  to  be  almirante  do  mar ;  no  longer 
will  she  listen  in  sadness  to  the  wind,  now  her  heart  may  sleep 
and  not  tremble  at  the  coming  of  a  messenger)  and  the  two 
sea  cossantes  C.  V.  401,  with  its  plaining  refrain : 

E  van-se  as  frores  d'aqui  ben  con  mcus  amores, 
idas  son  as  frores  d'aqui  ben  con  mcus  amores, 

— one  can  imagine  it  sung  as  a  chanty  ^ — and  C.  V.  429,  in  which 
she  prays  Santiago  to  bring  him  safely  home  :  '  Now  in  this  hour 
'Over  the  sea  He  is  coming  to  me.  Love  is  in  flower.'  Beauty  of 
expression  and  a  loyal  sincerity  are  conspicuous  in  his  poems,  as 
well  as  a  certain  individuality  and  vigour.  He  escaped  the  perils 
of  the  sea,  the  miii  gran  coita  do  mar  (C.  A.  251),  but  to  fall  by  the 
hand  of  an  assassin  on  shore.  His  sea  lyrics  are  only  excelled 
by  the  enchanting  melody  of  the  poem  (C.  V.  488)  of  his  con- 
temporary and  fellow-countryman  Roy  Fernandez  (second  half 
13th  c),  who  was  apparently  a  professor  at  Salamanca  University, 
Canon  of  Santiago,  and  Chaplain  to  Alfonso  the  Learned.  Of  the 
later  poets  Estevam  Coelho,  perhaps  father  of  one  of  the  assassins 
of  Ines  (ti355),  wrote  a  cossante  of  haunting  beauty  (C.  V.  321)  : 

Sedia  la  fremosa,  seu  sirgo  torcendo, 
Sa  voz  manselinha  fremoso  dizendo 
Cantigas  d'amigo, 

and  D.  Afonso  Sanchez  {c.  1285-1329)  in  C.  V.  368  {Dizia  la 
fremosinha — Ay  Deus  val)  proved  that  he  had  inherited  part  of  his 
father  King  Dinis'  genius  and  instinct  for  popular  poetry.  King 
Dinis,  having  thrown  wide  his  palace  doors  to  these  thyme- 
scented  lyrics,  would  turn  again  to  the  now  musty  chamber  of 
Provengal  song  (C.  V.  123)  : 

Quer'eu  en  maneira  de  provengal 
Fazer  agora  un  cantar  d'amor. 

'  Cf.  the  modern  Ai  U  16  U,  marinheiro  vira  a  ri  or  Ai  IS  U  U  Rihamar 
e  S.  Josi. 


THE    COSSANTES  31 

The  cossantes  had  become  so  familiar  that  Airas  Nunez,  of 
Santiago,  could  string  them  together,  as  it  were,  by  the  head, 
without  troubling  himself  to  givemore  than  the  first  lines,  precisely 
as  Gil  Vicente  treated  romances  three  centuries  later.  The  reader 
or  listener  would  easily  complete  them.  His  pastorela  (C.  V.  454) 
would  be  an  ordinary  imitation  of  a  pastourelle  of  the  trouveres  ^ 
were  it  not  for  the  five  cossante  fragments  inserted.  Riding  along 
a  stream  he  hears  a  solitary  shepherdess  singing  and  stays  to 
listen.  First  she  sang  Solo  ramo  verde  frolido,^  then — as  if  to 
prove  that  she  is  a  shepherdess  of  Arcady,  not  of  real  life — 

Ay,  estornino  do  avelanedo, 
Cantades  vos  e  moir'eu  e  peno, 
D'amores  ei  mal, 

an  impassioned  cry  of  the  heart  only  comparable  with 

Thine  earth  now  springs,  mine  fadeth  : 

Thy  thorn  without,  my  thorn  my  heart  invadeth  ; 

or  that  wonderful  line  of  a  wonderful  poem  : 

Ilia  cantat,  nos  tacemus  :    quando  ver  venit  meum  ?  ^ 

Next  she  sang  the  first  lines  of  a  cossante  by  Nuno  Fernandez 
Torneol  (C.  V.  245)  with  its  dance  refrain  E  pousarei  solo  avelanal. 
The  refrain  is  identical  in  C.  V.  245  and  C.  V.  454,  but  the  distich 
has  variations  which  seem  to  imply  that  Airas  Nunez  was  not 
quoting  Fernandez,  rather  that  both  drew  from  a  popular  source. 
The  fourth  cossante  we  also  have  complete,  a  lovely  harcarola 
by  Joan  Zorro  (C.  V.  757)  : 

Pela  ribeira  do  rio  (alto) 

Cantando  ia  la  dona  virgo  (d'algo) 

D'amor  : 

Venhan  as  barcas  pelo  rio 

A  sabor.* 

'  For  later  reminiscences  of  the  pastorela  see  C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos, 
Jodo  LourenQo  da  Ctinha,  a  '  Flov  de  Altura  '  e  a  cantiga  Ay  Donas  por  que 
em  tristura  ?  (Separata  da  Revista  Lusitana,  vol.  xix)  Porto  (1916),  pp.  14-15. 
^  See  supra,  p.  23. 
'  A  modern  Portuguese  quatrain  runs 

Passarinho  que  cantaes 
Nesse  raminho  de  flores, 
Cantae  vos,  chorarei  eu  : 
Assim  faz  quem  tern  amores. 
*  By  the  margin  of  a  river  Went  a  maiden  singing,  ever  Of  love  sang  she  : 


32  I185-1325 

Lastly  she  (or  he),  as  he  rides  on  his  way,  sings  : 

Quen  amores  ha 
Como  dormira, 
Ai  bela  fror  ! 

i.e.  este  cantar  which  is  familiar  in  the  villancico  [Por  una  gentil 
floresta)  by  the  Marques  de  Santillana  (1398-1458)  : 

La  nifia  que  amores  ha 
I  Sola  como  dormira  ? 

Very  few,  if  any,  of  the  cossantes  were  anonymous,  which  only 
means  that  modern  folk-lore  was  unknown;  it  was  not  the  fashion 
to  collectsongs  from  the  lips  of  the  people  withoutulteriorpurpose. 
A  variety  known  as  cantiga  de  vildos  existed,  but  it  was  deliber- 
ately composed  by  the  trohadores  and  jograes}  A  specimen  is 
given  in  C.  V.  1043  : 

O  pee  d'hQa  torre 
Baila  corpo  piolo,^ 
Vedes  o  cos,  ay  cavaleiro. 

No  drawing-room  lyric,  evidently  :  more  likely  to  be  sung  in 
taverns  ;  composed  perhaps  by  a  knight  like  him  of  C.  V.  965, 
whose  songs  were  not  fremosos  e  rimados.  Like  the  Provencal 
poet  Guilherme  Figueira  who  mout  se  fetz  grazir  .  .  .  als  ostes  et 
als  taverniers,  this  knight's  songs  pleased  '  tailors,  furriers  and 
millers  ' ;  they  had  not  the  good  taste  of  the  tailor's  wife  in  Gil 
Vicente  who  sings  the  beautiful  cantiga 

Donde  vindes  filha 
Branca  e  colorida? 

The  cantiga  de  vildos  was  no  such  simple  popular  lyric,  but  rather 

a  drinkers'  song,  picaresquely  allusive,    sung  by  a  jogral  who 

non  fo  horn  que  saubes  caber  entre  Hs  baros  ni  entre  la  bona  gen 

but  sang  vilmen  et  en  gens  bassas,  entre  gens  bassas  per  pauc 

d'aver  (Riquier),  cantares  de  que  la  gente  baja  e  de  servil  condicion 

se   alegra  (Santillana).      The  cossante,   on  the   contrary,   came 

straight  from  field  and  hill  into  palace  and  song-book.    Probably 

Up  the  stream  the  boats  came  gliding  Gracefully.  All  along  the  river-bent 
The  fair  maiden  singing  went  Of  love's  dream  :  Fair  to  see  the  boats  came 
gliding  Up  the  stream.  *  Poetica  (C.  C.  B.,  p.  3,  11.  50-1). 

'  It  probablyjdoes  not  rhyme  (e  morre  or  corre)  purposely.  D.  Carolina 
Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  proposes  ^raci'oso  or  friolo  (A  Saudade  Portuguesa, 
Porto,  1914,  pp.  84,  140). 


THE    COSSANTES  33 

many  of  them  were  composed,  as  they  were  sung,  and  sung  danc- 
ing, by  the  women.  The  women  of  Galicia  have  always  been 
noted  for  their  poetical  and  musical  talent.  We  read  of  the 
choreas  psalleritiiim  mulierum,  like  Miriam,  the  sister  of  Moses, 
at  Santiago  in  1116,^  and  there  is  a  cloud  of  similar  witnesses. 
But  whether  any  of  the  cossantes  that  we  have  in  the  Cancio- 
neiros  is  strictly  of  the  people  or  not,  their  traditional  indigenous 
character  is  no  longer  doubtful.  It  would  surely  be  a  most 
astounding  fact  had  the  Galician-Portuguese  Court  poets,  who 
in  their  cantigas  de  amor  reduced  Provencal  poetry  to  a  colourless 
insipidity,  succeeded  so  much  better  with  the  cossantes  that,  while 
the  originals  from  which  they  copied  have  vanished,  the  imita- 
tions stand  out  in  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros  like  crimson 
poppies  among  corn.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  of  the  three 
kinds  of  poem  in  the  old  Cancioneiros,  satire,  love  song,  and 
cossante,  the  first  two  remain  in  the  Cancioneiro  de  Resende 
(1516),  but  the  third  has  totally  disappeared.  The  explanation 
is  that  as  Court  and  people  drew  apart  and  the  literary  influence 
of  Castille"  grew,  the  poems  based  on  songs  of  the  people  were 
no  longer  in  favour.  But  they  continued,  like  the  Guadiana, 
underground,  and  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  has 
traced  their  occasional  reappearances  in  poets  of  popular  leanings, 
like  Gil  Vicente  and  Cristobal  de  Castillejo,  from  the  thirteenth 
century  to  the  present  day,^  while  Dr.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos  has 
discovered  whole  cossantes  sung  by  peasants  at  their  work  in  the 
fields  in  the  nineteenth  century.^  Dance  or  action  always  accom- 
panies the  cossante  as  it  does  in  the  danza  prima  of  Asturias  (to  the 
words  Ay  un  galan  d'esta  villa,  ay  un  galan  d'esta  casa)*    If  it 

*  Espana  Sa-^rada,  xx.  211. 

"  C.  A.  M.  V.  ii.  928-36.  Almeida  Garrett  had  written  in  a  general  sense  : 
05  vestigios  d'essa  poesia  indigena  ainda  duram  (Revista  Univ.  Ltsbonense, 
vol.  V  (1846),  p.  843). 

'  At  Rebordainhos,  in  Tras-os-Montes,  e.g.  Na  ribeirinha  ribetra  Naquella 
ribeira  Anda  Id  nm  peixinho  vivo  (bravo)  Naquella  ribeira.  Other  examples 
of  the  i-a  sequence  are  amigo  (amado),  cosido  (assado),  villa  (praga),  ermida 
(oraga),  linda  (clara),  Abril  (Natal),  ceitil  (real).  See  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos, 
Annnario  para  0  estudo  das  tradigoes  populares  portnguezas  (Porto,  1882), 
pp.  19-24.  Cf.  the  modem  Asturian  song  with  its  refrain  ;  Ay  Juana  cuerpo 
garrido,  ay  Juana  cuerpo  galano  ! 

*  Francisco  Alvarez,  Verd.  Inf.,  p.  125,  speaks  of  cantigas  de  bailhos  e  de 
terreiro  (dance-songs). 

2362  C 


34  I185-1325 

be  objected  that  the  songs  printed  by  Dr.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos 
are  rude  specimens  by  the  side  of  a  poem  like  Ay  flores,  ay  flores 
do  verde  pinko,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  quadra  (or 
perhaps  one  should  say  distich  without  refrain)  has  now  replaced 
the  cossante  on  the  lips  of  the  people,  and  that  among  these 
quatrains  something  of  the  old  cossante' s  charm  and  melancholy 
is  still  found.  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  and  others 
have  remarked  that  these  quadras  pass  from  mouth  to  mouth 
and  are  perfected  in  the  process,  smoothed  and  polished  like 
a  stone  by  the  sea,  and  this  may  well  have  been  true  of  the  earlier 
cossantes?-  The  jogral  who  hastened  to  his  patron  with  a  lovely 
new  poem  was  but  reaping  the  inspiration  of  a  succession  of 
anonymous  singers,  an  inspiration  quickened  by  competition 
in  antiphonies  of  song  at  many  a  pilgrimage.  One  singer  would 
give  a  distich  of  a  cossante,  as  to-day  a  quadra,  another  would 
take  it  up  and  return  it  with  variations.  The  cossante  did  not 
always  preserve  its  simple  form,  or,  rather,  the  more  complicated 
poems  renewed  themselves  in  its  popularity.  We  find  it  as 
a  hailada  (C.  V.  761),  balleta  (cf.  C.  A.  123  :  Se  vos  eu  amo  mats 
que  outra  ren),  as  cantiga  de  amor  (C.  A.  360  or  361,  C.  V.  657- 
60),  cantiga  de  maldizer  (C.  V.  1026-7),  or  satirical  alba  (C.  V. 
1049).  But  these  hybrid  forms  are  not  the  true  cossante,  which 
is  always  marked  by  dignity,  restraint,  simple  grace,  close 
communion  with  Nature,  delicacy  of  thought,  and  a  haunting 
felicity  of  expression.  The  cossante  written  by  King  Sancho 
seems  to  indicate  a  natural  development  of  the  indigenous  poetry. 
In  its  form  it  owed  nothing  to  the  poetry  of  Provence  or 
North  France,  but  its  progress  was  perhaps  quickened,  and  at 
least  its  perfection  preserved,  by  the  systematic  cultivation  of 
poetry  introduced  from  abroad  at  a  time  when  no  middle 
class  separated  Court  and  peasant.  The  tantalizing  frag- 
ments that  survive  in  Gil  Vicente's  plays  show  all  too  plainly 
what  marvels  of  popular  song  might  flower  and  die  unknown. 
In  spirit  the  original  grave  religious  character  of  the  cossante 
may  in  some  measure  have  affected  the  new  poetry.     To  this 

'  Cf.  Barros,  Dial,  em  lovvor  da  nossa  ling.,  1785  ed.,  p.  226:  Pois  as  cantigas 
composlas  do  povo,  sent  cabega,  sent  pees,  sent  nome  oti  verbo  que  se  entenda, 
quern  cuidas  que  as  Iraz  e  leva  da  terra  ?  Quern  as  faz  serem  tratadas  e  recebidas 
do  comum  consintimenlo  ?     O  tempo. 


THE    COSSANTES  35 

in  part  may  be  ascribed  the  monotony,  the  absence  of  particular 
descriptions  in  the  cantigas  de  amor.  In  religious  hymns  obviously 
reverence  would  not  permit  the  Virgin  to  be  described  in  greater 
detail  than,  for  example,  Gil  Vicente's  vague  branca  e  colorada, 
and  the  reverence  might  be  transferred  unconsciously  to  poems 
addressed  to  an  earthly  dona.  (Only  in  the  extravagant  devotional 
mannerisms  {gongorismo  ao  divino)  of  the  seventeenth  century 
could  Soror  Violante  do  Ceo  describe  Christ  as  a  galan  de  ojos 
verdes.)  Dona  genser  quHeu  no  sai  dir  or  la  genser  que  sia  says 
Arnaut  de  Marueil  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  The 
Portuguese  poet  would  make  an  end  there  :  his  lady  is  fairest 
among  women,  fairer  than  he  can  say.  He  would  never  go  on 
to  describe  her  grey  eyes  and  snowy  brow :  huelhs  vairs  and 
fron  pus  blanc  que  lis.  But  introduced  into  alien  and  artificial 
forms,  like  mountain  gentians  in  a  garden,  the  monotony 
can  no  longer  please.  In  the  cantigas  de  amor  the  iteration 
becomes  a  tedious  sluggishness  of  thought,  whereas  in  the 
cossantes  it  is  part  of  the  music  of  the  poem. 


C2 


C.  A.  =  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda. 

C.  A.  M.  V.  =  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda.     Ed.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos. 

2  vols.     Halle,  1904. 
C.  A.  S.=  Fragmentos  de  hum  Cancioneiro  Inedito  que  se   acha  na  Livraria 

do  Real  CoUegio  dos  Nobres  de  Lisboa.      Impresso  a  custa  de  Carlos 

Stuart,  Socio  da  Academia  Real  de  Lisboa.     Paris,  1823. 
C.  A.  V.  =  Trovas  e  Cantares  de  um  Codice   do  xiv  Seculo.     Ed.    Francisco 

Adolpho  de  Varnhagen.     Madrid,  1849. 
C.  V.  =  Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana. 
C.  V.  M.  =  Il  Canzoniere  Portoghese  della  Biblioteca  Vaticana.     Ed.  Ernesto 

Monaci.     Halle,  1875. 
C.  V.  B.  =  Cancioneiro    Portuguez    da    Vaticana.       Ed.     Theophilo     Braga. 

Lisboa,  1878. 
C.  T.  A.  =  Cancioneirinho  das  Trovas  Antigas  colligidas  de  um  grande  Can- 
cioneiro da  Bibliotheca  do  Vaticano.     Ed.  F.  A.  de  Varnhagen.     Vienna 

(1870),  2nd  ed.  1872. 
C.  A.  P.  =  Cantichi  Antichi   Portoghesi  tratti  dal  Codice  Vaticano  4803  con 

traduzione  e  note,  a  cura  di  Ernesto  Monaci.     Imola,  1873. 
C.  L.  =  Cantos  de  Ledino  tratti  dal  grande  Canzoniere  portoghese  della  Biblio- 
teca Vaticana.     Ed.  E.  Monaci.     Halle,  1875. 
C.  D.  M.=:  Cancioneiro  d'  El  Rei  D.  Diniz,  pela  primeira  vez  impresso  sobre 

o  manuscripto  da  Vaticana.    Ed.  Caetano  Lopes  de  Moura.     Paris,  1847. 
C.  D.  L.  =  Das  Liederbuch  des  Konigs  Denis  von  Portugal.     Ed.  Henry  R. 

Lang.     Halle,  1894. 
C.C.  B.  =  I1  Canzoniere  Portoghese  Colocci-Brancuti.     Ed.   Enrico  Mclteni. 

Halle,  1880. 
C.  M.  =  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria  de  Don  Alfonso  el  Sabio.     2  vols.     Madrid, 

1889. 
C.  G.  C.  =  Cancioneiro  Gallego-Castelhano.     Ed.   H.   R.Lang.     Vol.  i.     New 

York,  London,   1902. 
C.  M.  B.  =  Cancionero  Musical  de  los  Siglos  xv  y  xvi.    Transcrito  y  comentado 

por  Francisco  Asenjo  Barbieri.     Madrid  (1890). 
C.  B.  =  Cancionero  de  Juan  Alfonso  de  Baena.     Madrid,  1851. 
C.  G.  =  Cancionero  General  (1511). 
C.  R.  =  Cancioneiro  de  Resende.     Lisboa.  1516  (  =  Cancioneiro  Geral). 


§2. 

The   Cancioneiros 

If,  besides  the  Cancioneiros  da  Vaticana,  Colocci-Brancuti, 
and  da  Ajuda,  we  include  King  Alfonso  X's  Cantigas  de  Santa 
Maria  (C,  M.)  we  have  over  2,000  poems,  by  some  200  poets. 
Of  these  the  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda  (C.  A.)  contains  310. 
Preserved  in  the  Lisbon  Collegio  dos  Nohres  and  later  in  the 
Royal  Library  of  Ajuda  at  Lisbon,  it  was  first  published  in  an 
edition  of  twenty-five  copies  by  Charles  Stuart  (afterwards 
Lord  Stuart  of  Rothesay),  British  Minister  at  Lisbon  (C.  A.  S.). 
Another  edition,  by  Varnhagen,  appeared  in  1849  (C.  A.  V.), 
and  the  splendid  definitive  edition  by  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de 
Vasconcellos  in  1904  (C.  A.  M.  V.).  C.  A.  M.  V.  contains  467 
poems,  in  part  reproduced  from  C.  V.  M.  and  C.  C.  B.  The 
third  volume,  of  notes,  is  still  unpublished. 

Of  the  Cancioneiro  preserved  as  Codex  Vaticanus  4803,  and 
now  commonly  known  as  Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana  (C.  V.),  frag- 
ments were  published  soon  after  its  rediscovery  :  viz,  that 
portion  attributed  to  King  Dinis,  edited  by  Moura  in  1847 
(C.  D.  M.).  This  part  received  a  critical  edition  at  the  hands 
of  Professor  H.  R.  Lang  in  1892  ;  and  ed.,  with  introduction, 
Halle,  1894  (C.  D,  L.).  A  few  more  crumbs  were  given  to  the 
world  by  Varnhagen  in  1870,  2nd  ed.  1872  (C.  T,  A.),  and  in 
1873  (C.  A.  P.)  and  1875  (C.  L.)  by  Ernesto  Monaci,  who 
printed  his  diplomatic  edition  of  the  complete  text  (1,205 
poems)  in  the  latter  year  (C.  V.  M.),  and  with  it  an  indgx  of 
a  still  larger  Cancioneiro  (it  has  1,675  entries)  compiled  by 
Angelo  Colocci  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  discovered  by, 
Monaci  in  the  Vatican  Library  (codex  3217).  Dr.  Theophilo 
Braga's  critical  edition  appeared  in  1878  (C.  V.  B.). 

In  this  very  year  a  large  Cancioneiro  (355  ff.),  corresponding 
nearly  but  not  precisely  to  the  Colocci  index,  was  discovered 
in  the  library  of  the  Conte  Paolo  Antonio  Brancuti  (C.  C.  B. 


38  I185-1325 

For  convenience'  sake  C.  C.  B.  also  =  the  fragment  published  by 
Enrico  Gasi  Molteni),  and  the  442  of  its  poems,  lacking  in  C.  V. 
(but  nearly  half  of  which  are  in  C.  A.),  were  published  in 
diplomatic  edition  by  Enrico  Molteni  in  1880  (C.  C.  B.).  All 
these  (C.  A.,  C.  V.,  and  C.  C.  B.)  were  in  all  probability  derived 
from  the  Cayicioneiro  compiled  by  the  Conde  de  Barcellos. 
When  his  father,  King  Dinis,  died,  silence  fell  upon  the  poets. 
The  new  king,  Afonso  IV,  showed  no  sign  of  continuing  to 
collect  the  smaller  Cancioneiros  kept  by  nobles  and  men  of 
humbler  position,  a  custom  inaugurated  by  his  grandfather, 
Afonso  III  (if  the  Livro  de  Trovas  del  Rei  D.  Afonso  in  King 
Duarte's  library  was  his),  continued  by  King  Dinis  {Livro  de 
Trovas  del  Rei  D,  Dinis),  and  perhaps  revived  by  King  Duarte 
a  century  later  {Livro  de  Trovas  del  Rei).  It  was  thus  a  time 
suitable  for  a  '  definitive  edition ',  and  Count  Pedro,  who 
was  the  last  of  the  Cancioneiro  poets  and  who  was  more 
collector  than  poet,  probably  took  the  existing  Cancioneiros 
(of  Afonso  III  and  Dinis)  and  added  a  third  part  consisting  of 
later  poems.  Besides  the  chronological  order  there  was  a  division 
by  subject  into  cantigas  de  amor,  cantigas  de  amigo,  and  cantigas 
d'escarnho  e  de  maldizer  (Santillana's  cantigas,  serranas  e  dezires, 
or  cantigas  serranas,  the  Archpriest  of  Hita's  cantares  serranos 
e  dezires).  C.  V.  is  divided  into  these  three  kinds  ;  in  the  older 
and  incomplete  C.  A.  304  of  the  310  poems  are  cantigas 
de  amor.  Eleven  years  after  the  death  of  King  Duarte  the 
Marques  de  Santillana  wrote  (1449)  to  the  Constable  of  Portugal, 
D.  Pedro,  describing  the  Galician- Portuguese  Cancioneiro — 
un  grant  volume — which  he  had  seen  in  his  boyhood  in  the  pos- 
session of  D.  Mencia  de  Cisneros.  (This  may  have  been  the 
actual  manuscript  compiled  by  D.  Pedro,  Conde  de  Barcellos 
and  Jsequeathed  by  him  in  1350  to  Alfonso  XI  of  Castille  and 
Leon — a  few  days  after  Alfonso  XI's  death.  Or  it  may  have 
been  a  copy  of  the  Cancioneiro  of  D.  Pedro  or  the  Cancioneiro 
of  Afonso  III  or  of  Dinis.)  It  is  significant  that  in  this  very 
important  letter  it  is  a  foreigner  informing  a  Portuguese. 
Under  the  predominating  influence  first  of  Spain  then  of  the 
Renaissance,  the  old  Portuguese  poems,  even  if  they  were 
known  to  exist,  excited  no  interest   in  Portugal.     They  were 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  39 

musas  rusticas,  musas  in  illo  tempore  rudes  et  incultas.^  With  this 
disdain  the  Cayicioneiro  became  a  real  will-o'-the-wisp.  Even 
as  late  as  the  nineteenth  century  one  disappeared  mysteriously 
from  a  sale,  another  emerged  momentarily  (see  C.  T.  A.)  from 
the  shelves  of  a  Spanish  grandee  only  to  fall  back  into  the 
unknown.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  evidence  as  to  its 
being  known  is  contradictory.  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam  in  1585 
says  of  King  Dinis  that  extant  hodie  eius  carmina.  Antonio  de 
Vasconcellos  in  1621  declares  that  time  has  carried  them  away : 
obliviosa  praeripuit  vetustas. 

A  few  vague  allusions  (as  that  of  Sa  de  Miranda  concerning 
the  echoes  of  Provencal  song)  were  all  that  was  vouchsafed  in 
Portugal  to  the  Cancioneiro,  although  prominent  Portuguese 
men  of  letters — as  Sa  de  Miranda,  Andre  de  Resende,  Damiao 
de  Goes — travelled  in  Italy  and  met  there  Cardinal  Pietro 
Bembo  (1470-1547),  who  had  probably  owned  the  Cancioneiros 
(copies  by  an  Italian  hand  of  a  Portuguese  original)  acquired 
by  Angelo  Colocci ;  yet  at  this  very  time  Colocci  (11549)  was 
eagerly  indexing  and  annotating  the  Cancioneiros  in  Rome,  It 
is  this  Portuguese  neglect  and  indifference  to  the  things  of 
Portugal  which  explains  the  survival  of  the  cossantes  only  in 
Rome  while  the  more  solemn  and  less  indigenous  poems  of  the 
Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda  remained  in  the  land  of  their  birth. 
A  fuller  account  of  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros,  with  the 
fascinating  and  complicated  question  of  their  descent  and  inter- 
relations, will  be  found  in  the  Grundriss  (pp.  199-202)  and  D. 
Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos'  edition  of  the  Cancioneiro 
da  Ajuda  (vol.  ii,  pp.  180-288). ^ 

When  the  poetry  of  the  troubadours  flourished  in  Provence 
Portugal  was  scarcely  a  nation.  The  first  Provengal  poet, 
Guilhaume,  Comte  de  Poitou  (1087-1127),  precedes  by  nearly 
a  century  Sancho  I  (1154-1211),  second  King  of  Portugal,  who 
wrote  poems  and  married  the  Princess  Dulce  of  Aragon  ;  and 
the  Gascon  Marcabrun,  the  first  foreign  poet  to  refer  to  Portugal, 
in  his  poems  Al  prim  comens  del  ivernaill  and  Emperaire  per  mi 

'  Antonio  de  Vasconcellos,  Anacephalaeoses,  id  est  Svmmn  Capita  Actorum 
Regum  Lusitaniae  (Antverpiae,  162 1),  p.  79. 
2  See  also  C.  V.  B.,  pp.  xcv-vi. 


40  I185-1325 

mezeis,  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  spoke  not  of  her 
poetry  but  of  her  warrior  deeds  :  la  valor  de  Portegal.  Gavaudan 
similarly  refers  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  to  the  Galicians 
and  Portuguese  among  other  (Castille,  &c.)  barriers  against 
the  '  black  dogs  '  (the  Moors).  It  was  in  Spain  that  the  Portu- 
guese had  opportunity  of  meeting  Proven9al  poets.  The  Penin- 
sula in  the  thirteenth  century  was,  like  Greece  of  old,  divided 
into  little  States  and  Courts,  each  harbouring  exiles  and  refugees 
from  neighbouring  States.  Civil  strife  or  the  death  of  a  king  in 
Portugal  would  scatter  abroad  a  certain  number  of  noblemen 
on  the  losing  side,  who  would  thus  come  into  contact  with  the 
troubadours  as  Provengal  poetry  spread  to  the  Courts  of 
Catalonia  and  Aragon,  Navarre,  Castille  and  Leon.  The  first 
King  of  Portugal,  although  a  prince  of  the  House  of  Burgundy, 
held  his  kingdom  in  fief  to  Leon,  and  all  the  early  kings  were 
in  close  touch  with  Leon  and  Castille.  Fernando  III,  King  of 
Castille  and  Leon  (St.  Ferdinand),  was  a  devoted  lover  of  poetry, 
and  his  son  Alfonso  X  gathered  at  his  cort  sen  erguelh  e  sen 
vilania  a  galaxy  of  talented  troubadours,  Provengal  and  Galician. 
Portugal  came  into  more  direct  touch  with  France  in  other 
ways,  but  the  influence  might  have  been  almost  exclusively 
that  of  the  trouveres  of  the  North  had  not  the  more  generous 
enthusiasm  of  Provence  penetrated  across  the  frontier  into 
Spain.  Trade  was  fairly  active  in  the  thirteenth  century 
between  Portugal  and  England,  North  France  and  Flanders. 
Many  of  the  members  of  the  religious  orders — as  the  Cluny 
Benedictines — who  occupied  the  territory  of  the  Moors  in 
Portugal  were  Frenchmen.  With  foreign  colonists  the  new 
towns  were  systematically  peopled.  The  number  of  French 
pilgrims  was  such  that  the  road  to  Santiago  became  known  as 
the  '  French  Road  '.  The  Crusades  also  brought  men  of  many 
languages  to  Portugal.'  The  Court  by  descent  and  dynastic 
intermarriage  was  cosmopolitan ;  but  indeed  the  life  of  the 
whole  Peninsula  was  cosmopolitan  to  an  extent  which  tallies 
ill  with  the  idea  of  the  Middle  Ages  as  a  period  of  isolation  and 
darkness.     The  Portuguese  had  already  begun  to  show  their 

'  An  English  Crusader  writing  from  Lisbon  speaks  of  inter  hos  tot  linguarum 
populos  {Crucesignati  Anglici  Epistola  de  ExpugnationeOlisiponis,  ad.  1147). 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  41 

fondness  for  novedades.  Yet  it  was  they  who  imposed  their, 
the  Galician,  language.  As  the  Marques  de  Santillana  observed 
and  the  Cancioneiros  prove,  lyric  poets  throughout  the  Peninsula 
used  Galician.^  Probably  the  oldest  surviving  instance  of  this 
language  in  verse  by  a  foreigner  is  to  be  found  (ten  lines)  in 
a  descort  {descordo)  written  by  Raimbaud  de  Vaqueiras  (1158- 
1217)  at  the  Court  of  Bonifazio  II  of  Montferrat  towards  the  end 
of  the  twelfth  century.  We  cannot  doubt  that  the  character 
and  conditions  of  the  north-west  of  the  Peninsula  had  permitted 
a  thread  of  lyric  poetry  to  continue  there  ever  since  Silius 
Italicus  had  heard  the  youth  of  Galicia  wailing  {ululantem) 
their  native  songs,  and  that  both  language  and  literature  had 
the  opportunity  to  develop  earlier  there  than  in  the  rest  of 
Spain.  The  tide  of  Moorish  victory  only  gradually  ebbed 
southward,  and  the  warriors  in  the  sterner  country  of  Castille, 
with  its  fiery  sun  and  battles  and  epics,  would  look  back  to  the 
green  country  of  Galicia  as  the  idyllic  land  of  song,  a  refuge 
where  sons  of  kings  and  nobles  could  spend  their  minority  in 
comparative  peace.  When  from  the  ninth  century  Galicia 
became  a  second  Holy  Land  its  attractions  and  central 
character  were  immeasurably  increased.  Pilgrims  thither  from 
every  country  would  return  to  their  native  land  with  some 
words  of  the  language,  and  those  acquainted  with  Provengal 
might  note  the  similarity  and  the  musical  softness  of  Galician. - 
It  is  not  certain  that  the  eldest  of  the  ten  children  of  San 
Fernando,  Alfonso  X  (i22i?-84),  el  Sabio,  King  of  Castille  and 
Leon,  Lord  of  Galicia,  and  brother-in-law  of  our  Edward  I, 
passed  his  boyhood  in  Galicia.  But  when  he  was  compiling 
a  volume  of  poems  referring  to  many  parts  of  the  world  besides 
Spain,  to  Canterbury  and  Rome,  Paris  and  Alexandria,  Lisbon, 
Cologne,  Cesarea,  Constantinople,  he  would  naturally  choose 
Galician  not  only,  or  indeed  chiefly,  because  it  was  the  more 
graceful  and  pliant  medium  for  lyric  verse  but  because  it  was 
the  most  widely  known,  and,  like  French,  plus  commune  a  toutes 

*  Coleccidn  de  Poesias  Castellanas  (1779),  vol.  i,  p.  Ivii.  The  important 
passages  of  Santillana's  letter  have  been  so  often  quoted  that  the  reader  may 
be  referred  to  them,  e.g.  in  the  Grundriss,  p.  168. 

•  Mild  y  Fontanals  {De  los  Trobadores,  p.  522)  lays  much  stress  on  the  resem- 
blance between  Galician  and  Proven9al. 


42  I185-1325 

gens}  He  had  no  delicate  ear  for  its  music  and  made  such 
poor  use  of  its  pliancy  that  it  often  becomes  as  hard  as  the 
hardest  Castilian  in  his  hands.  His  songs  of  miracles  offer 
a  striking  contrast  to  contemporary  Portuguese  lyrics  in  the 
same  language.  Their  jingles  are  only  possible  as  a  descort  in 
the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros.  At  the  same  time  he  would  be 
influenced  in  his  choice  of  language  by  his  knowledge  of  Galicia 
as  the  traditional  home  of  the  lyric,  of  the  encouraging  patronage 
extended  to  Galician  poets  by  his  son-in-law  Afonso  HI,  of  the 
Santiago  school  of  poets,  and  of  the  promising  future  before  the 
Galician  language  in  the  hands  of  the  conquering  Portuguese. 
Multas  et  perpulchras  composuit  cantilenas,  says  Gil  de  Zamora, 
and  likens  him  to  David.  But  when  we  remember  the  prodigious 
services  rendered  by  Alfonso  X  to  Castilian  prose,  the  first 
question  that  arises  is  whether  he  was  indeed  the  author  of  the 
450  fioems  in  Galician  -  that  we  possess  under  his  name.  Of 
these  poems  426,  or,  cancelling  repetitions,  420,  are  of  a  religious 
character,  written,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  in  honour  of 
the  Virgin  :  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria.  Many  of  these  poems 
themselves  provide  an  answer  to  the  question  :  they  record  his 
illnesses  and  enterprises  and  his  trobar  in  such  a  way  that  they 
could  only  have  been  written  by  himself  :  he  is  the  entendedor 
of  Santa  Maria  (C.  M.  130),  he  exhorts  other  trohadores  to  sing 
her  praises  (C.  M.  260),  he  himself  is  resolved  to  sing  of  no  other 
dona  (C.  M.  10  :  dou  ao  demo  os  otros  amores)  ;  and  his  attractive 
and  ingenuous  pride  in  these  poems  accords  ill  with  an  alien 
authorship.  When  he  lay  sick  at  Vitoria  and  was  like  to  die  it 
was  only  when  the  Livro  das  Cantigas  was  placed  on  his  body 
that  he  recovered  (C.  M.  209),  and  he  directed  that  they  should 
be  preserved  in  the  church  in  which  he  was  buried.  There  is 
little  reason  to  doubt  that  he  was  the  author,  in  a  strictly 
limited  sense,  of  the  majority  of  the  poems,  although  not  of  all. 

'  It  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  early  thirteenth  century  (12 13)  the 
range  of  the  Gahcian-Portuguese  lyric  already  extended  to  Navarre  (C.  V.  937). 

•  Guiraut  Riquier  and  Nat  de  Mons  placed  Proven9al  poems  on  his  lips, 
which  may  be  taken  as  an  indication  that  he  also  wrote  in  Proven9al.  As 
proof  that  he  wrote  poems  in  Castilian  we  have  a  single  cantiga  of  eight  lines 
(C.  C.  B.  363  :  Senora  por  amor  dios).  The  other  poem  of  the  Cancioneiros 
in  Castilian  (with  traces  of  Galician)  is  by  the  victor  of  Salado,  Alfonso  XI 
(1312-50),  King  of  Castille  and  Leon  :    En  un  tiempo  cogi  flores  (C.  V.  209). 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  43 

Various  phrases  seem  to  imply  a  double  method.  C.  M.  219 
says  :  '  I  will  have  that  miracle  placed  among  the  others '  ; 
C.  M.  295  :  '  I  ordered  it  to  be  written.'  On  the  other  hand, 
C.  M.  47  is  '  a  fair  miracle  of  which  I  made  my  song  '  ;  CM.  84 
'  a  great  miracle  of  which  I  made  a  song  '  ;  of  106  '  I  know  well 
that  I  will  make  a  goodly  song  '  ;  of  64  '  I  made  verses  and 
tune  '  ;  for  188  '  I  made  a  good  tune  and  verses  because  it 
caught  my  fancy  '  ;  for  307  '  according  to  the  words  I  made 
the  tune  '  ;  of  347  '  I  made  a  new  song  with  a  tune  that  was 
my  own  and  not  another's '.  The  inference  seems  to  be  that, 
the  personal  poems  and  the  loas  apart,  if  a  miracle  especially 
attracted  the  king  he  took  it  in  hand  ;  otherwise  he  might 
leave  it  to  one  of  the  joglares,  and  he  would  perhaps  revise  it 
and  be  its  author  to  the  extent  that  the  Portuguese  jograes 
were  authors  of  the  early  cossantes.  We  know  that  he  had  at 
his  Court  a  veritable  factory  of  verse.  The  vignettes^  to  these 
Cantigas  show  him  surrounded  by  scribes,  pen  and  parchment 
in  hand,  by  joglares  and  joglaresas.  Poets  thronged  to  his 
Court  and  he  was  in  communication  with  others  in  foreign 
lands.  Some  of  the  miracles  might  come  to  him  in  verse,  the 
work  of  a  friendly  poet  or  of  a  sacred  jogral  such  as  Pierres  de 
Siglar,  whom  C.  M.  8  shows  reciting  his  poems  from  church  to 
church  :  en  todalas  eigreias  da  Uirgen  que  non  a  par  un  seu 
lais  senpre  dizia,^  and  this  would  account  for  the  variety  of 
metre  and  treatment.  Of  raw  material  for  his  art  there  was 
never  a  scarcity,  nor  was  the  idea  of  turning  it  into  verse 
original.  In  France  Gautier  de  Coincy  (i  177-1236)  had  already 
written  his  Miracles  de  la  Sainte  Vierge  in  verse,  and  the  Spanish 
poet  Gonzalo  de  Berceo  (1180-1247)  had  composed  the  Milagros 
de  Nuestra  Sennora.  But  there  was  no  need  for  direct  imitation. 
If  the  starry  sky  were  parchment  and  the  ocean  ink,  the  miracles 

*  Their  antiquarian  interest  was  recognized  over  three  centuries  ago. 
Cf.  Argote  de  Molina,  Nobleza  de  Andalvzia  (Seuilla,  1588),  f.  151  v.  :  es 
un  libro  de  mucha  curiosidad  assi  por  la  poesia  como  por  los  trages  de  aquella 
edad  q  se  veen  en  stts  pinturas. 

*  Some  of  King  Alfonso's  Cantigas  were  recited  in  the  same  way.  C.  M. 
172  implies  this  in  the  lines : 

Et  d'esto  cantar  fezemos 
Que  cantassen  os  iograres 
And  of  this  we  made  a  song  for  the  joglares  to  sing). 


44  1185-1325 

could  not  all  be  written  down,  says  King  Alfonso  (C.  M.  no). 
Churches  and  rival  shrines  preserved  an  unfailing  store  for 
collectors.  Gautier  de  Coincy  spoke  of  tant  miracles,  a  grant 
livre  of  them,  and  King  Alfonso  chooses  one  from  among  300 
in  a  book  (C.  M.  33),  finds  one  written  in  an  ancient  book  (265) 
written  among  many  others  (258),  in  a  book  among  many  others 
(284),  and  refers  to  a  book  full  of  them  at  Soissons.  The 
miracles  were  recorded  more  systematically  in  France,  and  the 
books  of  Soissons  and  Rocamadour  {Liber  Miraculonim  S. 
Mariae  de  Rupe  Amatoris)  provided  the  king  with  many 
subjects,  as  did  also  Vincent  de  Beauvais'  Speculum  Historiale, 
of  which  he  possessed  a  copy.  But  the  sources  in  the  Peninsula 
were  very  copious,  as,  for  instance,  the  Book  of  the  Miracles  of 
Santiago,  of  which  a  copy,  in  Latin,  exists  in  the  Paris  Biblio- 
theque  Nationalc.  Of  other  miracles  the  king  had  had  personal 
experience,  or  they  were  recent  and  came  to  him  by  word  of 
mouth.  Thus  he  often  does  not  profess  to  invent  his  subject  : 
he  merely  translates  it  into  verse  and  sometimes  appraises 
it  as  he  does  so.  It  is  '  a  marvellous  great  miracle'  (C.  M.  257), 
'  very  beautiful '  (82),  '  one  in  which  I  have  great  belief  '  (241), 
'  one  almost  incredible  ',  mui  cruu  de  creer  (242),  or  '  famous  '  (195), 
'known  throughout  Spain'  (191).  Many  of  these  miracles  occurred 
to  the  peasants  and  unlettered :  then  as  now  the  humbler  the 
subject  the  greater  the  miracle.  Accordingly  we  find  the  king 
in  his  poems  dealing  not  with  the  conventional  shepherdesses 
of  the  pastorelas  but  with  lowly  folk  of  real  life,  peasants, 
gleaners,  sailors,  fishermen,  beggars,  pilgrims,  nuns ;  and  it  is 
one  of  the  king's  titles  to  be  considered  a  true  poet  that  he  takes 
an  evident  pleasure  in  these  themes  and  retains  their  graphic, 
artless  presentment.  The  collection  abounds  in  charming 
glimpses  of  the  life  of  the  people.  Indeed,  in  many  of  the  poems 
there  is  more  of  the  people  than  of  King  Alfonso,^  and  he 
sings  diligently  of  the  misdeeds  of  clerics  and  usurers,  of  the 
incompetence  of  doctors,  and  of  massacres  of  Jews.  He  seems 
to  have  followed  the  originals  very  closely,  and  evident  traces 

1  Their  popular  origin  is  borne  out  by  the  music.  See  H.  Collet  et 
L.  Villalba,  Contribution  a  I'itude  dcs  Cantigas  (1911).  Cf.  also  P.  Meyer, 
Types  de  quelques  chansons  de  Gautier  de  Coinci  {Romania,  vol.  xvii  (iJ 
pp.  429—37)  :   paroles  pieuses  d  des  miladies  profanes. 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  45 

of  their  language  remain,  French,  English,  and  perhaps 
Provengal.  The  poems  are  often  of  considerable  length,  some- 
times twenty  or  thirty  verses,  and  as  a  rule  the  last  line  of  each 
verse  must  rhyme  with  the  refrain.  The  attention  thus  neces- 
sarily bestowed  upon  the  rhymes  sometimes  mars  the  pathos 
of  the  subject,  and  the  reader  is  reminded  that  he  has  to  do  with 
a  skilful,  eager,  and  industrious  craftsman  but  not  with  a  great 
original  poet.  In  the  remarkable  Ben  vennas  Mayo  and  in 
many  of  his  other  poems  materialism  and  poetical  ecstasy  go 
hand  in  hand.  Yet  in  several  of  the  more  beautiful  legends 
the  poet  proves  himself  equal  to  his  theme.  Some  of  these 
legends  are  still  famous,  that  of  the  Virgin  taking  the  place  of 
the  nun  (C.  M.  55  and  94),  of  the  knight  and  the  pitcher  (155), 
of  the  stone  miraculously  warded  from  the  statue  of  the  Virgin 
and  Child  (136  and  294),  of  the  monk's  mystic  ecstasy  at  the 
lais  of  the  bird  in  the  convent  garden  (103).  Others  had  probably 
an  equal  celebrity  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  that  of  the  captive 
miraculously  brought  from  Africa  and  awaking  free  in  Spain 
at  dawn  (325),^  of  the  painter  with  whom  the  Devil  was  wroth 
for  always  painting  him  so  ugly  (74),  or  of  the  peasant  whose 
vineyard  alone  was  saved  from  the  hail  (161).  Every  tenth 
poem  (the  collection  was  intended  originally  to  consist  of  one 
hundred)  interrupts  the  narratives  of  miracles  by  a  purely 
lyrical  cantiga  de  loor,  and  some  of  these,  written  with  the 
fervour  with  which  the  king  always  sang  as  gragas  muy  granadas 
of  the  Madre  de  Deus  Manuel,  are  of  great  simplicity  and  beauty 
The  king  had  not  always  written  thus,  and  of  his  profane 
poems  we  possess  thirty  ^  (since  no  one  who  has  read  the  lively 
essay  by  Cesare  de  Lollis  will  doubt  that  C.  V.  61-79  and 
C.  C.  B.  359-72  (  =  467-78)  were  written  by  Alfonso  X).  The 
most  important  of  these  are  historical,   and  invoke  curses  on 

'  Padre  Nobrega  came  upon  a  crowd  of  pobres  pedintes  peregrtnos  at  San- 
tiago feasting  merrily  an^  having  grandes  contendas  entre  si  as  to  which  of 
them  was  cleverest  at  taking  people  in.  The  trick  of  one  of  them  was  to 
declare  that,  being  captive  in  Turkey,  encommendando-me  miiito  d  Senhora  .  .  . 
achei-me  ao  oittro  dia  ao  romper  da  alva  em  terra  de  Christaos  (Simao  de  Vascon- 
cellos,  Cronica,  Lib.  I,  §  22).  Cf.  Jeronymo  de  Mendo9a,  Jornada  de  Africa, 
1904  ed.,  ii.  34,  and  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa,  Hist,  de  S.  Domingos,  i.  i.  5. 

2  i.  e.  besides  the  Spanish  caw/Z^a  (C.  C.  B.  363),  C.  C.  B.  359,  which  belongs 
to  the  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria,  and  C.  C.  B.  372,  which  consists  of  a  single 
line. 


46  I185-1325 

false  or  recalcitrant  knights,  non  ven  al  mayo  !  C.  V.  74  is 
a  battle-scene  description  so  swift  and  impetuous  that  we  must 
go  to  the  Poema  del  Cid  for  a  parallel.  And  indeed  some  of  the 
old  spirit  peeps  out  from  the  Caniigas  de  Santa  Maria,  as  when 
he  prays  to  be  delivered  from  false  friends  or  praises  the  Virgin 
for  giving  his  enemies  '  what  they  deserved  '. 

From  the  return  and  enthronement  of  Afonso  III  imitation 
of  French  and  Provencal  poetry  was  in  full  swing  in  Portugal. 
The  long  sojourn  of  the  prince  in  France,  accompanied  by 
several  noblemen  who  figure  in  the  Cancioneiros  (as  Rui  Gomez 
de  Briteiros  and  D.  Joan  de  Aboim),  had  an  important  bearing 
on  the  development  of  Portuguese  poetry.  He  came  back 
determined  to  act  the  part  of  an  enlightened  patron  of  letters ; 
he  encouraged  the  immigration  of  men  of  learning  from  France 
and  maintained  three  jograes  permanently  in  his  palace.^ 
Princes  and  nobles  as  trohadores  for  their  own  pastime,  the 
segreis,^  knights  who  went  from  Court  to  Court  and  received 
payment  for  the  recital  of  their  own  verses,  the  jograes,  belonging 
to  a  lower  station,  who  recited  the  poems  of  their  patrons  the 
trohadores,  all  vied  in  imitation  of  the  love  songs  of  Provence. 
In  general,  i.  e.  in  the  structure  of  their  poems,  the  resemblance 
is  close  and  clear  enough.  The  decasyllabic  love  song  in  three 
or  four  stanzas  with  an  envoi,  the  satirical  sirventes,  the  tenson 
(jocs-partits)  in  which  two  poets  contended  in  dialogue,  the 
descort  in  which  the  discordant  sounds  expressed  the  poet's 
distress  and  grief,  the  halada  of  Provence,  the  balletic  and 
pastourelle  of  North  France,  were  all  faithfully  reproduced. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  look  for  imitations  in  detail  it  is 
perhaps   natural    that  we  should   find    them    less    frequently."^ 

^  El  Rei  aia  tres  jograes  en  sa  casa  e  non  mats. 

2  Riquier's  segricrs  per  tolas  cortz  (King  Alfonso  X  (C.  M.  194)  speaks  of 
a  jograr  andando  pelas  cortes).  See  also  C.  V.  556.  The  word  probably  has 
no  connexion  with  scguir  (to  follow).  Possibly  it  was  used  originally  to 
differentiate  singers  of  profane  songs,  caniigas  profanas  e  seculares.  Frei  Joao 
Alvarez  in  his  Cronica  do  Infanle  Sanlo  has  '  obras  ecclesiasticas  e  segraaes  '  ; 
King  Duarte  counted  among  os  pecados  da  boca  '  cantar  cantigas  sagraaes  ', 
The  Cancioneiros  show  that  the  segrel  was  far  less  common  than  the  jogral 
in  the  thirteenth  century.     For  segre  {  =  saeculum)  see  infra,  p.  93,  n.  2. 

^  For  instances  see  H.  R.  Lang,  The  Relations  of  the  Earliest  Portuguese 
Lyric  School  with  the  Troubadours  and  Trouvdres  {Modern  Language  Notes 
(April,  1895),  pp.  207-31),  and  C.  D.  L.,  pp.  xlviii  etseq. 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  47 

The  conventional  character  of  the  Portuguese  poems  would 
sufficiently  account  for  this,  and  moreover  their  models  were 
probably  more  often  heard  than  read,  so  that  reproduction  of 
the  actual  thought  or  words  would  be  difficult.  When  Airas 
Nunez  in  a  poem  of  striking  beauty,  which  is  almost  a  sonnet 
(C.  V.  456),  wrote  the  lines  : 

Que  muito  m'eu  pago  d'este  verao 
Por  estes  ramos  et  por  estas  flores 
Et  polas  aves  que  cantan  d'amores, 

he  need  not  have  read  Peire  de  Bussinac's  lines  : 

Quan  lo  dous  temps  d'Abril 
Fa  'Is  arbres  sees  fulhar 
E  'Is  auzels  mutz  cantar 
Quascun  en  son  lati, 

in  order  to  know  that  birds  sing  and  trees  grow  green  in  spring. 
And  generally  it  is  not  easy  to  say  whether  an  apparent  echo  is 
a  direct  imitation  or  merely  a  stereotyped  phrase.  The  Portu- 
guese trobadores  introduced  little  of  the  true  spirit  of  the 
Provengal  troubadours — that  had  passed  to  Palestine  and  to 
the  Lady  of  Tripoli.  In  their  cantigas  de  amor  is  no  sign  of 
action — unless  it  be  to  die  of  love ;  no  thought  of  Nature. 
Jaufre  Rudel  (1140-70),  that  prince  of  lovers,  had  '  gone  to 
school  to  the  meadows  '  and  might  sing  in  his  maint  bons  vers 
of  la  flor  aiglentina  or  of  flors  d'albespis,  but  in  the  Portuguese 
cantigas  nothing  relieves  the  conventional  dullness  and  excessive 
monotony  (which  likewise  marked  the  Provengal  school  of 
poets  in  Sicily).  Composed  for  the  most  part  in  iambic  deca- 
syllabics they  describe  continually  the  poet's  coita  d'amor, 
grave  d'endurar,  his  grief  at  parting,  his  loss  of  sleep,  his  pleasure 
in  dying  for  his  fremosa  sennor.  She  is  described  merely  as 
beautiful,  or,  at  most,  as 

Tan  mansa  e  tan  fremosa  e  de  bon  sen  (C.  C.  B.  206). 

Fremosa  e  mansa  e  d'outro  ben  comprida  (C.  C.  B.  278). 
Vocabulary  and  thought  are  spectre-thin.     Indeed,  it  was  part 
of    the    convention   to   sing   vaguely.       Eu  ben  falarei   de  sa 
fremosura,  says  one  poet  ^  (C.  C.  B.  337) — he  will  sing  of   her 

'  This  poet,  Femam  Gon9alvez  de  Seabra  or  Fernant  Gonzalez  de  Sanabria 
(C.  V.  338;  C.  C.  B.  330-7  ;    C.  A.  210-21,  445-7),  apparently  obtained  some 


48  I185-1325 

beauty,  but  not  in  such  a  way  that  the  curious  who  non  0  poden 
adeuinhar  should  guess  his  secret  As  to  allusions  to  Nature, 
perhaps  the  climate,  with  less  marked  divisions  than  in  Provence, 
furnished  less  incentive  to  sing  of  spring  and  the  earth's  renewal 
or  to  imitate  Guiraut  de  Bornelh  in  going  to  school  all  the 
winter  {Vivern  estavaa  escola  a  aprerider)  and  singing  only  with 
the  return  of  spring.  King  Dinis,  perhaps  in  reference  to  that 
troubadour,  declares  that  his  love  is  independent  of  the  seasons 
and  more  sincere  than  that  of  the  singers  of  Provence  : 

-  Proengaes  soen  mui  ben  trobar 
E  dizen  eles  que  e  con  amor, 
Mais  OS  que  troban  no  tempo  da  frol 
E  non  en  outro  sei  eu  ben  que  non 
An  tan  gran  coita  .  .  .  (C.  V.  127) 

and  even  as  he  wrote  the  words  he  was  unconsciously  imitating 
the  thought  of  the  Provengal  poet  Gace  Brule,  who  had  spoken 
.  of  les  fans  amoureus  d'este.  The  exceeding  similarity  of  the 
cantigas  de  amor  did  raise  doubts  as  to  the  sincerity  of  all  this 
dying  of  love  (cf.  C.  V.  353  and  C.  V.  988)  and  as  to  whether 
a  poem  was  a  cantar  novo  or  an  article  at  second  hand  (C.  V. 
819).  Yet  the  poets  evidently  had  talent  and  poetic  feeling ; 
indeed,  their  skill  in  versification  contrasts  remarkably  with 
their  entire  absence  of  thought  or  individuality.  They  appear 
to  revel  in  monotony  of  ideas  and  pride  themselves  on  the  icy 
smoothness  of  their  verse.  All  their  originality  consisted  in  the 
introduction  of  technical  devices,  such  as  the  repetition  at 
intervals  of  certain  words  [dohre],  or  of  different  tenses  of  .the 
same  verb  {mordohre,  as  C.  V.  681),  to  carry  on  the  poem  without 
stop  from  beginning  to  end  by  means  of  '  for  ',  '  but ',  &c.,  at 
the  beginning  of  each  verse  [cantigas  de  atafiinda,^  as  C.  V.  130, 

fame  by  his  mystification,  unless  the  object  of  his  devotion  was  as  high-placed 
as  the  Portuguese  princess  for  love  of  whom,  according  to  legend,  D.  Joan 
Soarez  de  Paiva  died  in  Galicia.  The  latter  wrote  in  the  first  years  of 
the  thirteenth  century  (C.  V.  937,  Randglosse  xi).  They  are  the  only  two 
Galician-Portuguese  poets — besides  King  Dinis — mentioned  in  Santillana's 
letter. 

^  Poetica,  11.  126,  130.  Much  of  the  information  of  this  Poetica  (printed 
in  C.  C.  B.)  may  be  gleaned  from  the  Cancioneiros,  but  it  shows  how  carefully 
the  different  kinds  of  poem  were  distinguished.  There  were  apparently 
special  names  for  poems  to  trick  and  deceive :    de  logr'  e  d'artciro,  and  for 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  49 

C.  A.  205),  to  begin  and  end  each  verse  with  the  same  line 
[cangdo  redonda,  as  C.  V.  685),  to  repeat  the  last  line  of  one 
verse  as  the  first  line  of  the  next  {leixapren),  to  use  the  same 
word  at  the  end  of  each  line  (as  vi  in  C.  A.  7).  The  poet 
who  addressed  cantigas  de  amor  to  his  lady  also  provided  her 
with  poems  for  her  to  sing,  cantigas  de  amigo  in  complicated 
form,  or  as  the  simpler  cossante,  which  the  cantigas  de  amigo 
include.  These  are  poems  with  more  life  and  action,  often  in 
dialogue.  Perhaps  the  dona  herself,  wearied  by  the  monotonous 
cantigas  de  amor,  had  pointed  to  the  songs  of  the  peasant  women, 
and  the  form  of  these  cantigas  de  amigo  was  a  compromise 
between  the  Provengal  cantiga  de  meestria  and  the  popular 
cantiga  de  refran.  The  peasant  woman  composed  her  own 
songs,  and  the  poet  places  his  song  on  the  lips  of  his  love :  thus 
we  find  her  describing  herself  as  beautiful,  eu  velida  ;  eufremosa  ; 
trisV  e  fremosa ;  fremosa  e  de  mui  bon  prez  ;  0  men  hon  semelhar. 
Poetical  shepherdesses  sing  these  cantigas  de  amigo ;  the  fair 
dona  sings  them  as  she  sits  spinning  (C.  V.  321).  The  old 
Poetica  (11.  2-12)  distinguishes  between  the  cantigas  de  amor,  in 
which  the  amigo  speaks  first,  and  the  cantigas  de  amigo,  in  which 
the  first  to  speak  is  the  amiga.  Both  were  artificial  forms,  but 
the  latter  are  clearly  more  popular  in  theme  (the  amiga  waiting 
and  wailing  for  her  lover),  and  in  treatment  sometimes  convey 
a  real  intensity  of  feeling.^  The  favourite  subject  of  the  cantiga 
de  amigo  is  that  the  cruel  mother  prevents  the  lovers  from 
meeting.  The  daughter  is  kept  in  the  house  :  a  manda  muito 
guardar  (C.  V.  535).  She  reproaches  and  entreats  her  mother, 
who  answers  her  as  choir  to  choir ;  she  bewails  her  lot  to  her 
friends,  or  to  her  sister.  She  is  dying  of  love  and  begs  her 
mother  to  tell  her  lover.  Her  mother  and  lover  are  reconciled. 
Her  lover  is  false  and  fails  to  meet  her  at  the  trysted  hour. 
She  waits  for  him  in  vain,  and  her  mother  comforts  her  in  her 

festive  laughter  poems  :  de  risadelha  (or  refestela  ?)  =  de  riso  e  mote.  San- 
tillana's  mansobre  is,  it  seems,  a  misprint  for  ntordobre.  It  occurs  again  in 
the  Requesta  de  Ferrant  Manuel  contra  Alfonso  Alvarez  (Cane,  de  Baena, 
i860  ed.,  i.  253)  : 

Sin  lai,  sin  deslai,  sin  cor,  sin  descor. 

Sin  dobre,  mansobre,  sensilla  o  menor. 

Sin  encadenado,  dexar  o  prender. 
'  e.  g.  C.  V.  300  :  Por  Deus,  se  ora,  se  era  chegasse  Con  el  mui  leda  seria. 

2362  D 


50  1185-1325 

distress.     She  pines  and  dies  of  love  while  her  amigo  is  away 
serving  the  king  in  battle  or  en  cas'  del  rei. 

The  third  section  of  the  Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana  does  not 
sin  by  monotony.  We  may  divide  Pope's  line,  since  if  the 
cantigas  de  amor  are  '  correctly  cold '  many  of  the  satiric  poems 
are  '  regularly  low  '.  In  these  verses,  containing  violent  invec- 
tive and  abuse  [cantigas  de  maldizer)  or  more  covert  sarcasm  and 
ridicule  [cantigas  d'escarnho),  the  themes  are  often  scandalous, 
the  language  ribald  and  unseemly.  They  were  written  with 
great  zest,  although  without  the  fiery  indignation  of  the  Proven- 
gal  and  Catalan  sirventeses.  They  are  concerned  with  persons  : 
the  haughty  trobador  may  take  a  jogral  to  task  for  writing  verses 
that  do  not  rhyme  or  scan,  but  even  then  it  is  a  personal  matter 
and  he  rebukes  his  insolence  for  daring  to  raise  his  thoughts  to  ' 
altas  donas  in  song.  Some  of  these  poems  should  never  have 
been  written  or  printed,  but  many  of  them  give  a  lively  idea  of 
the  society  of  that  time.  They  laugh  merrily  or  venomously  at 
the  poverty-stricken  knight  with  nothing  to  eat ;  at  the  knight 
who  set  his  dogs  on  those  who  called  near  dinner-time  ;  the 
jogral  who  knows  as  much  of  poetry  as  an  ass  of  reading  ;  the 
poet  who  pretended  to  have  gone  as  a  pilgrim  to  the  Holy  Land 
but  never  went  beyond  Montpellier ;  the  physician  (Mestre 
Nicolas)  whose  books  were  more  for  show  than  for  use  [E  sab'  os 
cadernos  ben  cantar  quen^  non  sabe  por  elles  leer,  C.  V.  11 16)  ; 
the  Galician  unjustifiably  proud  of  his  poetical  talent  [non  0 
sabia  ben,  C.  V.  914)  ;  the  jogral  who  gave  up  poetry— shaved 
off  his  beard  and  cut  his  hair  short  about  his  ears — in  order  to 
take  holy  orders,  in  hope  of  a  fat  living,  but  was  disappointed  ; 
the  jogral  who  played  badly  and  sang  worse  ;  the  poet  who  was 
the  cause  of  good  poetry  in  others  ;  the  gentleman  who  spent 
most  of  his  income  on  clothes  and  wore  gilt  shoes  winter  and 
summer.  We  read  of  the  excellent  capon,  kid,  and  pork  provided 
by  the  king  for  dinner  ;  of  the  fair  malniaridada,  married  or 
rather  sold  by  her  parents  ;  of  the  impoverished  lady,  one  of 
those  for  whom  later  Nun'  Alvarez  provided  ;  of  the  poet  pining 
in  exile  not  of  love  but  hunger ;   of  the  lame  lawyer,  the  unjust 

'  g'cot  (C.  V.  M.),  qua/ cor  (C.  V.  B.).    D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vascon- 
cellos  proposes  quifa  (cf.  C.  V.  1006,  1.  8). 


I 


I 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  51 

judgC;  the  parvenu  villao,  the  knighted  tailor,  the  seers  and 
diviners  {veedeiros,  agoreiros,  divinhos).  These  cantigas  d'escarnho 
e  de  maldizer  were  a  powerful  instrument  of  satire  from  which 
there  was  no  escape.  A  hapless  infanQon,  slovenly  in  his  ways, 
drew  down  upon  himself  the  wit  of  D.  Lopo  Diaz,  who  in 
a  series  of  eleven  songs  (C.  V.  945-55)  ridiculed  him  and  his 
creaking  saddle  till  at  Christmas  he  was  fain  to  call  a  truce. 
But  the  implacable  D.  Lopo  forthwith  indited  a  new  song : 
'  I  won't  deny  that  I  agreed  to  a  truce  about  the  saddle,  but — it 
didn't  include  the  mare ',^  and  so  no  doubt  continued  till  pa^^OdJ 
fiorida  or  la  trinite.  But  the  majority  of  these  verses  are  not  so 
innocently  merry.  Many  of  the  poets  of  the  Cancioneiros  wrote 
in  all  three  kinds  :  cantigas  de  amor,  de  amigo,  and  de  maldizer. 
Of  Joan  de  Guilhade  ^  (fl.  1250)  we  have  over  fifty  poems. -"^  He 
imitated  both  French  and  Provengal  models,  and,  having  learnt 
lightness  of  touch  from  them,  would  appear  to  have  contented 
himself  with  writing  cantigas  de  amigo  (besides  cantigas  de  amor 
and  escarnho)  without  having  recourse  to  the  cossante.  There  is 
life  and  poetical  feeling  as  well  as  facility  of  technique  in  his 
poems. 

Pero  Garcia  de  Burgos  (fl.  1250)  is,  with  Joan  de  Guilhade, 
one  of  the  more  voluminous  writers  of  the  Cancioneiros.  He 
shows  himself  capable  of  deep  feeling  in  his  love  songs,  but 
speaks  with  two  voices,  descending  to  sad  depths  in  his  poems 
of  invective.  His  contemporary,  the  segrel  Pero  da  Ponte,  is 
also  an  accomplished  poet  of  love,  in  the  even  flow  of  his  verse 
far  more  accomplished  than  Pero  Garcia,  and  in  his  satirical 
poems  wittier  and,  as  a  rule,  more  moderate.  He  placed  his 
poetical  gift  at  the  service  of  kings  to  sing  their  praises  for  hire, 
and  celebrated  San  Fernando's  conquest  of  Seville  in  1248  ; 
Seville,  of  which,  he  says,  '  none  can  adequately  tell  the  praises  '. 
To  satire  almost  exclusively  the  powerful  courtier  of  King 
Dinis'  reign,  Stevam  Guarda,  devoted  his  not  inconsiderable 
talent,  and  the  segrel  Pedr'  Amigo  de  Sevilha  (fi.  1250)  shone 
in  the  same  kind  with  a  great  variety  of  metre  as  well  as  in 

'  Aqueste  cantar  da  egoa  que  non  andou  na  tregoa  (C.  V.  956). 
'  Or  D.  Joan  Garcia  de  Guilhade.     See  C.  A.  M.  V.  ii.  407-15. 
*  C.  V.  28-38,  343-61,  1097-1 1 10  ;   C.  A.  235-9  ;   C.  C.  B.  373-6. 

D  2 


52  1185-1325 

numerous  cantigas  de  amigo.  Martin  Soarez  (first  half  13th  c), 
born  at  Riba  dc  Lima,  and  considered  the  best  trohador  of  his 
time  (by  those  who  could  not  appreciate  the  charm  of  the 
indigenous  poetry),  wrote  no  cossante  nor  canliga  de  amigo,  and 
in  his  satirical  poems  displayed  a  contemptuous  insolence 
— towards  those  whom  he  regarded  as  his  inferiors  in  lineage 
or  talent — which  places  him  in  no  attractive  light.  A  notable 
poet  at  the  Courts  of  Spain  and  Portugal  was  Joan  Airas  of 
Santiago  de  Compostela  (fi.  1250),  of  whom  we  have  over  twenty 
cantigas  de  amor  and  fifty  cantigas  de  amigo.  Contemporary 
criticism  apparently  viewed  their  quantity  with  disfavour,^  for 
he  complains  that  Dizen  que  meus  cantares  non  valen  ren  porque 
tan  muitos  son  (C.  V.  533).  But  if  his  poems  lack  the  variety 
of  those  of  King  Dinis,  which  they  almost  rival  in  number,  they 
are  nevertheless  marked  not  only  by  harmony  but  by  many 
a  touch  of  real  life.  Of  most  of  the  other  singers  we  have  far  fewer 
poems.  Like  Meendinho  and  Estevam  Coelho,  Pero  Vyvyaes 
(first  half  13th  c.)  is  known  chiefly  for  a  single  song  :  his  hailada 
(C.  V.  336).  By  D.  Joan  Soarez  Coelho  {c.  1210-80)  there 
are  two  cossantes  (C.  V.  291,  292)  and  numerous  other  poems. 
He  was  prominent  at  the  Court  of  Afonso  III  (1248-79)  and 
in  the  conquest  of  Algarve,  as  was  also  D.  Joan  .  de  Aboim 
{c.  1215-87),  whose  poems  are  less  numerous  but  include  a  dozen 
cantigas  de  amigo  and  a  pastorela  (C.  V.  278  :  Cavalgava  noutro  dia 
per  hun  caminho  frances),  and  Fernan  Garcia  Esgaravunha,^ 
whose  cantigas  de  amor  show  characteristic  life  and  vigour,  and 
a  good  command  of  metre.  There  is  an  engaging  grace  and  spirit 
in  the  cantigas  de  amigo  written  in  dancing  rhythm  by  Fernan 
Rodriguez  de  Calheiros  (fi.  in  or  before  1250),  who  preceded 
those  soldier  poets  ;  deep  feeling  and  melancholy  in  the  cantigas 
de  amor  of  D.  Joan  Lopez  de  Ulhoa,  their  contemporary. 
Neither  of  these,  however,  possessed  the  poetical  genius  and 
versatility  of  the  priest  of  Santiago,  Airas  Nunez  (second  half 

'  A  large  number  of  cantigas  by  the  same  hand  would  emphasize  the 
monotony  of  the  kind  and  provide  an  unwelcome  mirror  for  contemporary 
bards.  Of  Roy  Queimado  (fl.  1250)  other  love-lorn  poets  said  that  he  was 
always  dying  of  love — in  verse. 

*  Soares  de  Brito  in  his  Theatriim  mentions  '  Ferdinandus  Garcia  Espara- 
vanha,  optimus  poeta  '  (=  horn  trovador). 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  53 

13th  c.) — the  name  appears  in  a  marginal  note  to  one  of  King 
Alfonso's  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria  (C.  M.  223  in  the  manuscript 
j.  b.  2)— whose  poems  show  a  perfect  mastery  of  rhythm  and 
a  true  instinct  for  beauty.  He  wrote  a  pastorela  in  the  manner  of 
the  troiiveres,  and  combined  it  with  some  of  the  most  exquisite 
specimens  of  the  indigenous  poetry,^  The  fact  that  one  of  these 
was  by  Joan  Zorro  makes  it  probable  that  Nunez'  celebrated 
bailada  (C.  V.  462)  is  but  a  development  of  Zorro's  (C.  V.  761), 
unless  both  drew  from  a  common  popular  source.  Another  of 
his  poems  (C.  V.  468)  reads  like  an  anticipatory  slice  out  of 
Juan  Ruiz'  Libro  de  Buen  Amor.  Great  importance  has  been 
attached  to  another  (C.  V.  466)  as  a  remnant  of  a  cantar  de  gesta, 
but  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  has  shown  that  it 
was  written  to  commemorate  a  contemporary  event,  probably 
in  1289.2  More  than  any  other  poet  of  the  Cancioneiros,  with 
the  exception,  perhaps,  of  King  Dinis,  Nunez  anticipated  that 
doce  estylo,  the  introduction  of  which  cost  Sa  de  Miranda  so 
many  perplexities. 

The  Cancioneiros  contain  poems  by  high  and  low,  prince  and,  one 
would  fain  say,  peasant,  noble  trohador  and  hnmhXe  jogral,  soldiers 
and  civilians,  priests  and  laymen,  singers  of  Galicia,  Portugal, 
and  Spain,  but  more  especially  of  Galicia  and  North  Portugal. 
As  in  the  case  of  C.  V.  466,  the  interest  of  many  of  the  poems 
is  historical  :  C.  V.  1088,  for  instance,  written  by  a  partisan  of 
the  dethroned  King  Sancho  H  ;  or  C.  V.  1080,  a  gesta  de  maldizer 
of  fifty-six  lines  in  three  rhymes,  with 'the  exclamation  Ef^y  /  at 
the  change  of  the  rhyme,  which  was  written  by  D.  Afonso 
Lopez  de  Bayan  [c.  1220-80)^  clearly  in  imitation  of  the  Chanson 
de  Roland.^  Almost  equally  prominent,  though  not  from  any 
historical  associations,  is  the  curiously  modern  C.  A.  429  ( =  C.  C.  B. 
314)  among  the  cantigas  de  amor.  It  tells  of  a  girl  forced  against 
her  will  to  enter  a  convent,  and  who  says  to  her  lover  :  '  My 
dress  may  be  religious,  but  God  shall  not  have  my  heart.' 
(For   the  metre,   cf.   C.  V.  342.)     Its    author  was    the  fidalgo 

*  See  p.  31. 

^  See  Randglosse  xii.  An  incidental  interest  belongs  to  this  poem  of 
eighteen  dodecasyllabic  lines  from  the  fact  that  in  C.  V.  B.  it  is  printed  in 
thirty-six  lines,  as  a  proof  of  the  early  predominance  of  the  redondilha. 

^  Cf.  the  Proven9al  passage  in  Mild  y  Fontanals,  De  los  Trohadores,  p.  62. 


54  1185-1325 

D.  Rodrig'  Eanez  de  Vasconcellos,  one  of  the  pre-Dionysian 
poets.  But  indeed  no  further  proofs  are  needed  to  show  that, 
even  had  King  Dinis  never  existed,  the  contents  of  the  early 
Portuguese  Cancioneiros  would  have  been  remarkable  for  their 
variety  and  beauty.  When  Alfonso  X  died  his  grandson  Dinis 
(1261-1325)  ^  had  sat  for  five  years  on  the  throne  of  Portugal. 
Plentifully  educated  by  a  Frenchman,  Aymeric  d'£brard, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Coimbra,  married  to  a  foreign  princess, 
Isabel  of  Aragon  (the  Oueen-Saint  of  Portugal),  profoundly 
impressed,  no  doubt,  by  the  world-fame  of  Alfonso  X,  to  whom 
he  was  sent  on  a  diplomatic  mission  when  not  yet  in  his  teens, 
he  became  nevertheless  one  of  the  most  national  of  kings.  If 
he  imitated  Alfonso  X  in  his  love  of  literature,  he  showed  him- 
self a  far  abler  and  firmer  sovereign,  being  more  like  a  rock 
than  like  the  sea,  to  which  the  poet  compared  Alfonso.  Far- 
sighted  in  the  conception  of  his  plans  and  vigorous  in  their 
execution,  the  Rei  Lavrador,  whom  Dante  mentions,  though  not 
by  name  :  quel  di  Portogallo  [Paradiso  xix),  fostered  agriculture, 
increased  his  navy,  planted  pine-forests,  fortified  his  towns, 
built  castles  and  convents  and  churches,  and  legislated  for  the 
safety  of  the  roads  and  for  the  general  welfare  and  security  of 
his  people.  Among  his  great  and  abiding  services  to  his  country 
was  the  foundation  of  the  first  Portuguese  University  in  the 
year  1290,  and  in  the  same  spirit  he  ordered  the  translation  of 
many  notable  books  from  the  Spanish,  Latin,  and  Arabic  into 
Portuguese  prose,  including  the  celebrated  works  of  the  Learned 
King,  so  that  it  is  truer  of  prose  than  of  poetry  to  say  that  he 
inaugurated  a  golden  age.^  Had  he  written  no  line  of  verse  his 
name  must  have  been  for  ever  honoured  in  Portugal  as  the  real 
founder  of  that  imperishable  glory  which  was  fulfilled  two 
centuries  later.  But  he  also  excelled  as  a  poet,  d'amor  trobador. 
It  had  no  doubt  been  part  of  his  education  to  write  convention- 
ally in  the  Provencal  manner,  but  his  skill  in  versification, 
remarkable  even  in  an  age  in  which  Portuguese  poetry  had 
attained    exceptional    proficiency    in    technique,    would    have 

^  '  He  thus  overlapped  Dante's  life  by  four  years  at  either  end. 

•  T.  A.  Craveiro,  Compendio  (1833),  cap.   5  :    D.  Diniz  trouxe  a  idade  de 
ouro  a  Portugal. 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  55 

availed  him,  or  at  least  us,  little  had  he  not  also  possessed  an 
instinct  for  popular  themes,  perhaps  directly  encouraged  by 
Alfonso  X.  The  Dedaratio  placed  by  Guiraut  Riquier  of  Nar- 
bonne  on  the  lips  of  that  king  in  1275  marked  the  coming 
asphyxia  of  Provengal  poetry,  for  it  showed  the  tendency  to 
take  the  jogral  ^  away  from  tavern  and  open  air  and  to  cut  off 
his  poetry  from  the  life  of  the  people.  It  was  owing  to  the 
personal  encouragement  of  Dinis  that  the  waning  star  of  both 
Provengal  and  indigenous  poetry  continued  to  shine  in  Portugal 
for  another  half-century.  The  grandson  of  Alfonso  X  was  the 
last  hope  of  the  trohadores  and  jograes  of  the  Peninsula.  From 
Leon  and  Castille  and  Aragon  they  came  to  reap  an  aftermath 
of  song  and  panos  at  his  Court,  and  after  his  death  remained 
silent  or  unpaid  (C.  V.  708).  The  poems  of  King  Dinis  are  not 
only  more  numerous  but  far  more  various  than  those  of  any 
other  trobador,  with  the  exception  of  Alfonso  X,  and  it  may 
perhaps  be  doubted  whether  they  are  all  the  work  of  his  own 
hand.  In  poetry's  old  age  he  might  well  wish  to  collect  speci- 
mens of  various  kinds  for  his  Livro  de  Trovas.  But  many  of  the 
138  poems  ^  that  we  possess  under  his  name  are  undoubtedly 
his,  and  display  a  characteristic  force  and  sincerity  as  well  as 
true  poetic  delicacy  and  power.  Among  them  are  some  colour- 
less cantigas  de  amor  and  others  more  individual  in  tone, 
pastorelas  (C.  V.  102,  137,  150),  cantigas  de  amigo  (more  Provengal 
than  Portuguese  in  their  spirit  of  vigorous  reproach  are  C.  V.  186  : 
Amigo  fals'  e  desleal,  and  C.  V,  198  :  At  fals'  amigo  e  sen  lealdade), 
a  jingle  worthy  of  the  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria  (C.  V.  136), 
a  poem  in  8.8.4.8  metre  (C.  V.  131),  atafiindas  (e.  g.  C.  V.  130),  a 
mordohre  in  querer  (C.  V.  113,  Quix  hen,  amigos,  e  quef  e  querrei 
Ua  mother  que  me  quis  e  quer  mat  E  querrd),  and  cossantes  of  an 
unmistakably  popular  flavour  :  Ay  flares,  ay  flores  do  verde  pino 
(C.  V.  171),  two  albas  (C.  V.  170,  172),  C.  V.  168,  169,  with  their 
refrains  lougana  and  ai  madre,  moiro  d'amor,  C.  V.  173  with  its 

'  A  late  echo  of  the  early  (Alfonso  X)  legislation  against  the  jogral  is  to  be 
found  in  King  Duarte's  Leal  Conselheiro,  cap.  70  :  Dos  Pecados  da  Obra. 
These  include  dar  aos  jograaees.  Nunez  de  Learn  translates  joglar  as  iruao 
(1606). 

C.  V.  80-208  (=  C.  D.L.  1-75,77-128,  76)  and  C.  C.  B.  406-15  (=  C.D.L. 
12Q-38).     C.  V.  ii6  =  C.  V.  174. 


56  I185-1325 

quaint  charm:  Vede-la  Jrol  do  pinho — Valha  Deus,  and  the 
bailada-cossante  (C.  V.  195  :  Mia  niadre  velida,  Vouni'  a  la  bailia 
Do  amor).  If  the  king  wrote  these  cossantes  he  must  be  reckoned 
not  only  as  a  musical  and  skilful  versifier  but  as  a  great  poet. 
And  certainly,  at  least,  his  graciosas  e  dukes palavras  well  earned 
him  the  reputation  of  being  not  only  the  best  king  but  the  best 
poet  of  his  time  in  the  Peninsula. 

It  would  seem  that,  unlike  his  grandfather,  who  had  begun 
with  profane  and  ended  with  religious  verse,  King  Dinis,  no 
doubt  at  his  grandfather's  bidding,  who  would  be  delighted 
to  find  a  disciple  {Dized\  ai  trobadores,  A  Semior  das  Sennores 
Por  que  a  non  loades  ?),  began  writing  songs  in  honour  of  the 
Virgin  and  sent  them  to  the  Castilian  king.  His  book  of  Louvores 
da  Virgem  Nossa  Senhora  is  said  to  have  been  seen  in  the  Escorial 
Library  and  in  the  Lisbon  Torre  do  Tombo,  and  it  is  impossible 
altogether  to  set  aside  the  statements  of  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam  ^ 
and  Antonio  de  Sousa  de  Macedo,  who  says  that  he  read  religious 
poems  by  King  Dinis  at  the  Escorial.^  On  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  it  was  the  common  opinion  that 
King  Dinis  had  been  the  first  to  write  Portuguese  poetry,  and 
the  temptation  to  attribute  ancient  poems  to  him  would  be 
strong.  The  possibility  of  confusion  with  the  Livro  de  Cantigas 
of  Alfonso  X  (to  which  his  grandson  may  well  have  contributed 
poems)  ^  is  also  obvious.  But  the  statement  of  Sousa  de  Macedo, 
who  was  no  passing  traveller  in  a  hurry,  and  who  had  wide 
experience  of  books  and  libraries,*  is  very  precise.     No  trace  or 

'  Cronica  del  Rei  D.  Diniz,   1677  ed.,  f.  113  v. 

'  Mandou  hum  livro  delles  escrito  por  sua  mdo  a  seu  avo  ...  0  qual  eu  vi  na 
livraria  do  Real  Convento  do  Escurial,  emfolha  depapel  grosso,  de  marca  pequena, 
volume  de  tres  ou  quatro  dedos  de  alto,  de  letra  grande,  latina,  bem  legivel,  e  o  que 
ly  era  de  Louvores  a  Nossa  Senhora,  e  outras  cousas  ao  divino  (Eva  e  Ave,  1676  ed., 
pp.  128-9)  •  This  interesting  passage  is  not  included  in  those  quoted  in  C.  A.M.  V. 
ii.  1 12-17  »  it  is  obviously  the  source  of  no.  17.  It  does  not  imply  that  the 
poems  were  exclusively  religious.  Can  the  book  three  or  four  fingers  in  height 
have  been  the  Cane,  da  Ajuda  (460  millimetres)  from  which  a  section  of 
sacred  poems  may  have  been  torn  ?  If  so  the  letters  Rey  Do  Denis  (C.  A.  M.  V. 
i.  141)  would  explain  the  attribution  to  King  Dinis. 

*  The  language  of  C.  M.  and  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros  was  of  course  the 
same.    Identical  phrases  occur. 

*  He  twice  visited  Oxford,  he  says,  in  order  to  see  the  library,  which  he 
describes — hiia  das  grandes  cousas  do  mundo  (Eva  e  Ave,  1676  ed.,  p.  156). 
At  the  Escorial  he  also  examined  an  original  manuscript  of  St.  Augustine 
(ibid.,  p.  150). 


THE    CANCIONEIROS  57 

memory  of  the  existence  of  this  manuscript  exists,  however,  at 
the  Escorial  Library,  nor  is.  to  be  found  in  the  Catdlogo  de  los 
Manuscritos  existentes  antes  del  incendio  de  iGyi.  The  subjects 
of  King  Dinis'  ten^  satirical  poems  are  trivial,  but  he  had 
too  much  force  of  character  to  descend  to  such  vilenesses  as 
were  common  among  profagadores.  (His  concise  definition  of 
a  bore  :  falou  mutt'  e  mal  (C.  C.  B.  411)  is  worthy  of  Afonso  de 
Albuquerque.)  Of  his  illegitimate  sons,  besides  D.  Afonso 
Sanchez,  D.  Pedro,  Conde  de  Barcellos,  long  had  a  reputation 
as  a  poet  almost  equal  to  that  of  his  father,  owing  to  the 
association  of  his  name  with  the  Cancioneiro  ;  but  of  his  ten 
poems  six  (C.  V.  1037-42)  are  satirical,  and  the  four  cantigas 
deamor  (C.  V.  210-13)  are  perhaps  the  heaviest  and  most  prosaic 
in  the  collection.  It  was  as  a  prose-writer  and  editor  of  the 
Livro  de  Linhagens  that  he  worthily  carried  on  the  literary 
tradition  of  King  Dinis. 

1  C.  C.  B.  406-15. 


II 

§1 

Early  Prose 

With  prose  a  new  period  opens,  since,  although  there  are 
Portuguese  documents  of  the  late  twelfth  century  ^  and  the 
Latin  chrysalis  was  in  an  advanced  stage  of  development  even 
earlier,  prose  as  a  literary  instrument  does  not  begin  before  the 
fourteenth  century  or  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  at  the  earliest. 
The  fragments  of  an  early  Poetica'^  clearly  show  how  slow  and 
awkward  were  still  the  movements  of  prose  at  a  time  when 
poetry  had  attained  an  exceedingly  graceful  expression.  The 
next  two  centuries  redressed  the  balance  in  the  favour  of  prose. 
The  victory  of  Aljubarrota  (1385)  made  it  possible  to  carry  on 
the  national  work  begun  by  King  Dinis — the  preparation  of 
Portugal's  resources  for  a  high  destiny.  In  this  constructive 
process  literature  was  not  forgotten,  and  indeed  its  deliberate 
encouragement,  as  though  it  were  an  industry  or  a  pine-forest, 
may  account  for  the  fact  that  it  consisted  mainly  of  prose — 
chronicles,  numerous  translations  from  Latin,  Spanish,  and 
other  languages,  works  of  religious  or  practical  import.  The 
first  kings  of  the  dynasty  of  Avis,  who  rendered  noble  service 
to  Portuguese  literature,  were  not  poets,  and  in  the  second  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century  Spanish  influence,  checked  at  Alju- 
barrota, succeeded  by  peaceful  penetration  in  recovering  all 
and  more  than  all  that  it  had  lost,  till  it  became  common  to  hear 
lyrics  of  Boscan  sung  in  the  streets  of  Lisbon,^  and  uncommon 
for  a  Portuguese  poet  to  versify  in  his  mother  tongue.^     Prose 

*  Portuguese  is  then  uma  lingua  coherente,  clara,  um  instrumento  perfeito 
para  a  expressdo  do  pensamento,  cuja  maior  plaslicidade  dependerd  apenas 
da  cultura  litteraria,  F.  Adolpho  Coelho,  A  Lingua  Portugiieza  (1881),  p.  87. 

'  See  supra,  p.  48. 
»  See  p.  160. 

*  Cf.    for  the   seventeenth  century    Galhegos'    preface    and    Mon.    Lusit. 


EARLY    PROSE  59 

was  more  national.  King  Dinis  had  encouraged  translation 
into  Portuguese,  and  among  other  works  his  grandfather  King 
Alfonso  the  Learned's  Cronica  General  was  translated  by  his 
order.  The  only  edition  that  we  have,  Historia  Geral  de 
Hespanha  (1863),  is  cut  short  in  the  reign  of  King  Ramiro  (cap. 
ccii,  p.  192).  The  first  *0'  of  thp  preface  in  the  manuscript 
contains  the  king  in  purple  robe  and  crown  of  gold,  pen  in  hand, 
with  a  book  before  him.  The  style  is  primitive,  often  a  succes- 
sion of  short  sentences  beginning  with  '  And  ' }  In  the  convents 
brief  lives  of  saints,  portions  of  the  Bible,  prayers  and  regula- 
tions were  written  in  Portuguese.  Thus  we  have  thirteenth-  or 
fourteenth-century  fragments  of  the  rules  of  S,  Bento,  Fragmentos 
de  uma  versdo  antiga  da  regra  de  S.  Bento,  with  its  traces  of  a  Latin 
original  (e.  g.  os  desprezintes  Deos  =  contemnentes  Dewn)  ;  the 
Ados  dos  Apostolos,  written  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 
by  Frei  Bernardo  de  Alcobaga  and  Frei  Nicolao  Vieira,  that  is, 
copied  by  them  from  an  older  manuscript ;  the  eloquent  prayers 
[Libra  de  Moras)  translated  by  another  Alcobaga  monk,  Frei 
Joao  Claro  (ti520.?);  the  Historias  ahreviadas  do  Testamento 
Velho,  printed  from  a  manuscript  of  the  fourteenth  century,  or 
of  the  thirteenth  retouched  in  the  fourteenth.  The  translation 
is  close ;  the  style  foreshadows  that  of  the  Leal  Conselheiro.  The 
importance  of  these  and  other  fragmentary  versions  of  the 
Bible,  in  which  there  can  rarely  be  a  doubt  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  words,  is  obvious.  Extracts  from  the  Vida  de  Eufrosina 
and  the  Vida  de  Maria  Egipcia,  published  in  1882  by  Jules 
Cornu  from  the  manuscripts  formerly  in  the  Monastery  of 
Alcobaga,  now  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo,  show  that  they  were 
written  in  vigorous  if  primitive  prose  (14th  c).  A  Lenda  dos 
Santos  Barlaam  e  Josaphat  is  perhaps  a  little  later  (end  of  the 
fourteenth  or  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century).  The  Visao  de 
Tundalo,  of  which  the  Latin  original,  Visio  Tundali,  was  written 
by  Frei  Marcos  not  long  after  the  date  of  the  vision  (1140), 

V.  xvi.  3  :    achandose  neste  reino  poncos  que  escrevdo  versos  e  nao  seja  na  lingua 
estranjeira  de  Castilla. 

'  e.g.  E  matou  a  grande  serpente  dallagoa  de  lerne  que  auja  sete  cabegas. 
E  persegujo  as  pias  filhas  de  finees  que  Ihe  aujd  odio  e  o  querid  desherdar. 
E  foy  CO  jaasson  o  que  adusse  o  velloso  dourado  da  ylha  de  colcos.  E  destroyu 
troya.  Sec. 


6o  1325-1521 

exists  in  two  Portuguese  versions,  probably  both  of  the  fifteenth 
century  (Monastery  of  Alcobaga).  The  Vida  de  Santo  Aleixo 
also  exists  in  two  codices  belonging  to  the  middle  and  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  Dr.  Esteves  Percira,  who  pub- 
lished the  latter,  considers  that  the  variants  point  to  an  earlier 
manuscript  of  the  beginning,  of  the  fourteenth  or  end  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  To  about  the  same  period  (i4th-i5th  c.) 
belong  the  Lenda  de  Santo  Eloy,  the  Vida  de  Santo  Amaro,  the 
Vida  de  Santa  Pelagia,  and  many  similar  short  devout  treatises 
and  legends  which  concern  literature  less  than  the  development 
of  the  Portuguese  language.  Both  literature  and  philology  are 
interested  in  the  early  fifteenth-century  work  printed  by  Dr. 
Leite  de  Vasconcellos  from  the  manuscript  in  the  Vienna  HoJ- 
bibliothek  :  0  Livro  de  Esopo,  which  consists  not  of  direct  transla- 
tions ^  from  Exopo  greguo  of  Antioch  but  of  estorias  ffremosas 
de  animalias,  told  in  the  manner  of  Aesop,  half  a  century  before 
William  Caxton  and  Robert  Henryson,  with  great  naturalness, 
vigour,  and  brevity. 

The  earliest  entry  of  the  Cronica  Breve  do  Archivo  Nacional  is 
dated  1391,  and  both  it  and  the  Cromcas  Breves  e  memorias 
avulsas  de  Santa  Cruz  de  Coimbra  are  laconic  annals  of  the  first 
kings  of  Portugal,  a  few  lines  covering  a  whole  reign.  The  Livro  da 
Noa  de  Santa  Cruz  de  Coimbra  is  an  extract  from  the  Livro  das 
Heras  of  the  same  convent,  and  is,  as  the  latter  title  indicates, 
a  similar  simple  chronicle  of  events  by  years.^  It  begins  in  Latin, 
then  Latin  and  Portuguese  entries  alternate  till  1405.  From 
1406  to  the  end  (1444)  they  are  exclusively  Portuguese.  The 
Cronica  da  Ordem  dos  Frades  Menores  (1209-85)  is  a  fifteenth- 
century  Portuguese  translation  of  a  fourteenth-century  Latin 
chronicle,  and  has  been  carefully  edited  by  Dr.  J,  J.  Nunes  from 
the  manuscript  in  the  Lisbon  Bibliotcca  Nacional ;  the  Vida  de 
D.  Tello  (15th  c),  and  the  Vida  de  S.  Isabel,  the  Queen-consort 
of   King   Dinis   (earlier   15th   c),    are    '  historical  '   biographies 

'  Cf .  Por  este  enxcmplo  este  doutor  nos  mostra,  or  este  poeia  nos  dd  cnsinamento, 
&c.  The  Fables  of  Aesop  were  translated  into  Portuguese  prose  by  Manuel 
Mendez,  a  schoolmaster  at  Lagos  (Algarve)  :  Vida  e  I'abulas  do  Insigne 
Fabulador  Grego  Esopo.     Evora,  1603. 

*  e.  g.  of  an  earthquake :  Era  de  mil  e  quatrocentos  e  quatro  desoito  dias  do 
ntez  de  Junho  tremeo  a  terra  ao  serao  muy  rijamente  e  foi  por  espafo  que 
disserum  u  Pater  tres  vezes. 


EARLY    PROSE  6i 

which  contain  more  legend  and  less  history  than  the  Cronica 
da  Fiindagam  do  Moesteiro  de  S.  Vicente  de  Lixhoa  {Cronica 
dos  Vicentes),  a  fifteenth-century  version  from  a  Latin  original, 
Indiculum,  of  the  eleventh  century.  There  is  far  more  life  if 
equal  brevity  in  the  Cronica  da  Conquista  do  Algarve  [Coronica 
de  como  Dom  Payo  Correa  .  .  .  tomou  este  reino  de  Algarve  aos 
Moros) — a  rapid,  vivid  sketch  which  reads  almost  like  a  chapter 
out  of  Fernam  Lopez.  Here  at  last  was  some  one  with  will  and 
power  to  make  the  dry  bones  live.-^  But  meanwhile  history  of 
another  kind  had  been  written  from  a  very  early  date.  As 
a  first  rough  catalogue  of  names  the  livros  de  linhagens,  books 
of  descent,  as  they  were  called  by  their  compilers,^  go  back 
farther  than  the  chronicles  or  religious  prose,  but  so  far  asconcerns 
their  claim  to  literary  form  they  belong  like  those  to  the  four- 
teenth century.  Of  the  four  that  have  come  down  to  us  the 
Livro  Velho  is  a  jejune  family  register  (iith-i4th  c.)  ;  the  second 
is  a  mere  fragment  of  the  same  kind.  The  manuscript  of  the 
third  {0  Nobiliario  do  Collegia  dos  Nohres)  w^as  bound  up  with 
the  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda,  and  together  with  the  fourth,  0  Nobi- 
liario do  Conde  D.  Pedro,  represents  the  lost  original  of  the 
Livro  de  Linhagens  of  D.  Pedro,  Conde  de  Barcellos  (1289- 
1354)-  The  Nobiliario  do  Conde  has  been  shown  by  Alexandre 
Herculano,  who  printed  it  from  the  manuscript  in  the  Torre  do 
Tombo,  to  be  the  work  of  various  authors  extending  over  more 
than  a  century  (i3th-i4th),  the  Conde  de  Barcellos  being  but 
one  of  them.  It  was  in  fact  compiled  like  a  modern  peerage,^ 
and  was  not^  intended  to  be  final,  new  entries  being  added  as 
time  made  them  necessary,  so  that  the  passage  diz  0  Conde 
D.  Pedro  em  seu  livro  is  as  natural  as  the  mention  of  Innocencio 
da  Silva  in  a  later  volume  of  his  great  dictionary.  But  it  was 
this  son  of  ;King  Dinis  who  with  infinite  diligence  searched  for 
documents  far  and  wide,  had  recourse  to  the  writings  of  King 
Alfonso  X  and  others,  and  spared  no  pains  to  give  the  work 

*  The  Cronica  Troyana,  edited  in  1900  by  the  Spanish  scholar  and  patient 
investigator  D.  Andres  Martinez  Salazar,  is  a  fourteenth-century  Galician 
version  of  Benoit  de  Saint-More's  Roman  de  Troie. 

^  The  name  Nobiliario  is  one  of  the  erudite  words  which  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  here  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  ousted  the  indigenous. 

'  Its  object  was  por  sabereni  os  homens  fidalgos  de  Portugal  de  qual  linhagetn 
vem  e  de  quaes  coutos,  honras,  mosteiros  e  igreias  som  naiuraes. 


62  1325-1521 

an  historical  as  well  as  a  genealogical  character.  His  researches 
{Ouue  de  catar,  he  says,  por  gram  trahalho  por  muitas  terras 
escriptiiras  que  fallauam  das  linhagees)  set  an  excellent  example 
to  Fernam  Lopez.  Certainly  the  Livro  de  Linhagens  is  a  vast 
catalogue  of  names,  with  at  most  a  brief  note  after  the  name,  as 
'  he  was  a  good  priest '  or  *  a  very  good  poet  '  ;  but  it  also  gives 
succinct  stories  of  the  Kings  of  the  Earth  from  Adam,  including 
Priam,  Alexander,  Julius  Caesar,  and  the  early  kings  of  Portugal, 
and  it  contains  rare  but  charming  intervals,  green  oases  of 
legend  and  anecdote,  such  as  the  tale  of  King  Lear  with  its 
happy  ending,  or  the  account  of  King  Ramiro  going  to  see  his 
wife,  who  was  a  captive  of  the  Moors. ^  Count  Pedro,  by  his 
humanity  and  his  generous  conception  of  what  a  genealogy 
should  be,  really  made  the  book  his  own.  It  was  naturally  con- 
sulted by  the  early  chroniclers,  its  worth  was  recognized  by  the 
ablest  author  of  the  Monarchia  Liisitana,^  and  recently,  in  the 
skilful  hands  of  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  it  has 
rendered  invaluable  service  in  reconstructing  the  lives  of  the 
thirteenth-century  poets. ^ 

The  Livro  de  Linhagens  refers  not  only  to  King  Lear  but  to 
Merlin,  King  Arthur,  Lancelot,  and  the  Isle  of  Avalon.  Many 
other  allusions,  both  earlier  and  later,  to  the  Breton  cycle, 
the  matiere  de  Bretagne,  are  to  be  found  in  early  Portuguese 
literature  :  to  the  lovers  Tristan  and  Iseult,  to  the  cantares  de 
Cornoalha,^  to  the  chivalry  of  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  many  in  Portugal  were  baptized 
with  the  name  of  Lancelot,  Tristan,  and  Percival ;  and  Nun' 
Alvarez  (1360-1431)  chose  Galahad  for  his  model,  and  came 
as  near  realizing  his  ideal  as  may  be  given  to  mortal  man.  In 
Gil  Vicente's  time  the  name  Percival  had  already  descended 
to   the  sphere  of  the  peasants  :    as    Passival   (i.    11)   in    1502 

'  His  successful  wile  is  similar  to  the  stratagem  in  Macbeth  :  e  pots  que 
a  nave  entrou  pela  foz  cobrio-a  de  panos  verdes  em  tal  guisa  que  cuidassem  que 
eram  ramos,  ca  entonce  o  Douro  era  cuberto  de  hua  parte  e  da  outra  darvores. 

'  A  escritura  de  maior  utilidade  que  tetnos  em  Espanha  (Frei  Francisco 
Brandao,  Mon.  Lus.  V.  xvii.  5). 

*  i.  e.  the  copy  printed  in  Portug.  Mon.  Hist,  from  the  only  existing  manu- 
script (=  the  copy  by  Caspar  Alvarez  de  Lousada  Machado  (i 554-1634)  in 
the  Lisbon  Torre  do  Tombo). 

*  The  '  songs  of  Cornwall  '  are  mentioned  in  C.  V.  1007.     Cf.   1 140. 


EARLY    PROSE  63 

{Auto  Pastoril  Castelhano)  and  Pessival  (i.  117)  in  1534  [Auto  de 
Mofina  Mendes). 

The  early  Portuguese  Cancioneiros  contain  many  references  to 
this  cycle,  and  the  Cancioneiro  Colocci-Brancuti  opens  with  five 
celebrated  songs/ imitations  of  Breton  lais,  with  rubrics  explain- 
ing their  subjects,  and  mentioning  King  Arthur  and  Tristan, 
Iseult,  Cornwall,  Maraot  of  Ireland,  and  Lancelot.  Whether  they 
were  incorporated  in  the  Cancioneiro  from  a  Portuguese  Tristam 
earlier  than  the  Spanish  version  (1343  ?),  or,  as  is  more  probable, 
directly  from  the  Old- French  Historia  Tristani,  their  presence 
here  is  a  sufficient  witness  to  the  Portuguese  fondness  for  such 
themes.  It  was  but  natural  that  a  Celtic  people  living  by  the 
sea,  delighting  in  vague  legends  and  in  foreign  novelties,  should 
have  felt  drawn  towards  these  misty  tales  of  love  and  wandering 
adventure,  which  carried  them  west  as  far  as  Cornwall  and 
Ireland,  and  also  East,  through  the  search  for  the  Holy  Grail. 
It  was  natural  that  they  should  undergo  their  influence  earlier 
and  more  strongly  than  their  more  direct  and  more  national 
neighbours  the  Castilians,  whose  clear,  definite  descriptions  in 
the  twelfth- century  Poema  del  Cid  would  send  those  legends 
drifting  back  to  the  dim  regions  of  their  birth.  (Even  to-day 
connexion  with  and  sympathy  for  Ireland  is  far  commoner  in 
Galicia  than  in  any  other  part  of  Spain.)  Unhappily,  most  of 
the  early  Portuguese  versions  of  the  Breton  legends  have  been 
lost.  King  Duarte  in  his  library  possessed  Merlim,  0  Livro  de 
Tristam,  and  0  Livro  de  Galaaz.  The  probability  that  these 
were  written  in  Portuguese,  not  in  Spanish,  is  increased  by  the 
survival  of  A  Historia  dos  Cavalleiros  da  Mesa  Redonda  e  da 
Demanda  do  Santo  Graall,  as  yet  only  partially  published  from 
the  manuscript  (2594)  in  the  Vienna  Hofbibliothek.  It  was  written 
probably  in  the  fourteenth  century,  perhaps  at  the  end  of  the 
thirteenth,  although  the  Vienna  manuscript  is  more  recent  and 
belongs  to  the  fifteenth  century,  in  which  the  work  was  referred 
to  by  the  poet  Rodriguez  de  la  Camara.^  It  is  a  Portuguese 
version  of   the  story   of  the  Holy  Grail,  and,   although  not  a 

*  See  C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda,  ii.  479-525. 
They  are  called  lais,  layx  (C.  C.  B.  7,  8). 

^  En  la  grand  demanda  de  Santo  Greal  Se  lee.  Gral  is  still  a  common  Portu- 
guese word  {—  almofariz,  a  mortar). 


64  1325-1521 

continuous  translation,  was  evidently  written  with  the  French 
original  (doubtfully  ascribed  to  Robert  de  Boron/  author  of 
a  different  work  on  the  same  subject)  constantly  in  view.  Traces 
of  French  remain  in  its  prose.-  This  was  clearly  part  of  a  larger 
work,^  perhaps  of  a  whole  cycle  of  works  dealing  with  the  search 
for  the  Holy  Grail.  The  only  others  that  we  have  in  print  are 
'  the  Estorea  de  Vespeseano  and  the  Livro  de  Josep  ah  Arimatia, 
the  manuscript  of  which  was  discovered  in  the  nineteenth 
century  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo.  This,  in  the  same  way  as  the 
Demanda  do  Santo  Graall,  is  a  later  (i6th  c.)  copy  of  a  thirteenth- 
fourteenth-century  Portuguese  translation  or  adaptation  from 
the  French,  and  retains  in  its  language  signs  of  French  origin. 
The  incunable  Estorea  de  Vespeseano  (Lixboa,  1496)  is  a  work 
in  twenty-nine  short  chapters,  which  only  incidentally  *  refers 
to  the  Holy  Grail,  but  recounts  vividly  the  event  mentioned  in 
the  Demanda  ^ :  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Vespasian  and 
Titus.  It  was  also  known  formerly  as  Destroygam  de  Jerusalem.^ 
It  is  an  anonymous  translation,  made  in  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  not  from  the  French  Destruction  de  Jerusalem, 
but  from  the  Spanish  Estoria  del  noble  Vespesiano  {c.  1485  and 
1499).  'Dr.  Esteves  Pereira  believes  that  the  1499  Spanish 
edition  is  a  retranslation  from  the  Portuguese  text  originally 
translated  from  the  Spanish. 

Tennyson's  revival  of  the  Arthurian  legend  in  England 
evoked  no  corresponding  interest  in  Portugal  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  primitive  and  touching  story  as  published  in 
1887  has  left  Sir  Percival  in  the  very  middle  of  an  adventure 
for  over  a  generation.  The  descent  of  the  Amadis  romances 
from  the  noble  ideal  of  chivalry  of  King  Arthur's  Court  is  obvious, 
but  their  exact  pedigree,  the  date  and  nationality  of  the  first 
ancestor  of  the  Amadis  who  is  still  with  us,  has  been  the  subject 
of  some  little  contention. 

*  ruberte  de  borem  is  mentioned,   1887  ^d.,  p.  44. 

'  Not  to  speak  of  certas,  onta,  febre  (=  faible),  a  voso  sciente,  which  may  be 
found  in  other  Portuguese  works  of  the  fifteenth  century,  son  (p.  136  ad  fin.) 
apparently  =  Fr.  s'en. 

*  Cf.  asi  como  o  conto  a  ja  deuisado  (1887  ed.,  p.  7). 

*  1905  ed.,  p.  95. 

*  1887  ed.,  p.  43  :    despots  uespesiom  os  eyxerdou  e  os  destruio. 

*  1905  ed.,  pp.  17,  23,  106. 


EARLY    PROSE  55 

Amadis  de  Gaula  has  indeed  been  doubly  fortunate.  The 
successor  of  Lancelot,  Galahad,  and  Tristan  as  a  fearless  and 
loyal  knight,  he  early  won  his  way  in  the  Peninsula ;  he  was 
spared  by  the  priest  and  barber  in  the  Don  Quixote  scrutiny, 
and  now  when  Vives'  '  pestiferous  books  ',1  those  '  serious 
follies  ',  are  no  longer  read  widely,  he  has  received  a  new  span 
of  immortality  as  a  corpse  of  Patroclus  between  the  contending 
critics.  The  problem  of  the  date  and  authorship  has  become 
more  fascinating  than  the  book.  Champions  for  Spain  and 
Portugal  come  forward  armed  for  the  fight :  Braunfels,  Gayangos, 
Baist  are  met  by  Theophilo  Braga,  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vas- 
concellos,  Marcelino  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  while  Dr.  Henry 
Thomas  holds  the  scales.  The  ground  is  thick  with  their 
arrows.  And  beneath  them  all  lies  the  simple  ingenuous  story 
as  retold  by  Garci  Rodriguez  de  Montalvo  in  or  immediately 
after  1492  and  published  in  1508,  still  worth  reading  for 
its  freshness  and  for  its  clear  good  style,  which  Braunfels, 
following  up  the  praise  in  Juan  de  Valdes'  Didlogo  de  la  Lengua 
[c-  1535),  declared  could  not  be  a  translation. ^  The  argument, 
conclusive  in  the  case  of  the  masterpiece  of  prose  that  is  Palmeirim 

■  De  Institutione  Christianae  Feminae,  Bk.  I,  cap.  5  :  '  Turn  et  de  pestiferis 
libris  cuiusmodi  sunt  in  Hispania  [=  the  whole  Peninsula],  Amadisius,  Splan- 
dianus,  Florisandus,  Tirantus,  Tristanus,  quarum  ineptianim  nullus  est 
finis  ;  quotidie  prodeunt  novae  :  Caelistina  laena,  nequitiarum  parens, 
career  amorum  :  in  Gallia  Lancilotus  a  Lacu,  Paris  et  Vienna,  Ponthus  et 
Sydonia,  Petrus  Provincialis  et  Magelona,  Melusina,  domina  inexorabilis  : 
in  hac  Belgica  Florius  et  Albus  Flos,  Leonella  et  Cana  morus.  Curias  et 
Floreta,  Pyramus  et  Thisbe  '  (loannis  Ludovici  Vivis  Valentini  Opera  Omnia, 
7  vols.,  Valentiae  Edetanorum,  1782-8,  iv.  87).  A  Portuguese  Tristan  may 
have  existed,  a  Portuguese  original  of  Tirant  lo  Blanch  less  probably,  although 
Pedro  Juan  Martorell,  who  began  it  in  the  Valencian  or  Lemosin  a  ii  de 
Giner  de  lany  1460,  declares  that  he  had  not  only  translated  it  from  English 
into  Portuguese  but  (mas  encara)  from  Portuguese  into  Valencian.  He 
dedicated  it  to  the  molt  illustre  Princep  Ferdinand  of  Portugal.  Very  prob- 
ably the  fame  and  origin  of  Amadis  accounted  for  this  'English'  original, 
as  mythical  as  the  Hungarian  origin  of  Las  Sergas  de  Esplandian,  and  for 
its  alleged  translation  into  Portuguese. 

^  Braunfels,  Versuch:  'Montalvo  hatte,  um  ciner  Uebersetzung  den 
Ruhm  des  mustergiltigen  Styls  und  des  reinsten  Kastilianisch  zu  verscliaffen, 
ein  Geist  ersten  Rangs  sein  miissen,  was  er  nicht  war.'  Montalvo  was  probably 
not  the  real  author  even  of  the  fourth  book.  The  words  (in  this  Prdlogo 
of  his  Amadis),  que  hasta  aqiii  no  es  memoria  de  ninguno  ser  visto,  refer  not  to 
the  fourth  book  but  to  Montalvo's  Sergas  de  Esplandian,  which  is  conveniently 
replaced  by  dots  in  T.  Braga,  Questoes  (1881),  p.  99,  and  Hist,  da  Litt. 
Port.,  i  (1909),  p.  313,  and  which  the  priest  in  Don  Quixote  properly  consigned 
to  the  flames. 

2362  E 


66  1325-1521 

de  Inglaferra,  loses  its  force  here,  since  Montalvo  himself  tells  us 
that  he  corrected  the  work  from  old  originals.  Naturally  we 
are  curious  to  know  what  these  antiguos  originales  were,  but  the 
question  did  not  arise  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  : 
readers  did  not  then  concern  themselves  greatly  with  the  origin 
and  authorship  of  a  book ;  they  were  content  to  enjoy  it. 
Evidently  Amadis  was  enjoyed  both  in  Spain  and  Portugal. 
It  is  mentioned  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  in  the 
Spanish  translation,  by  Johan  Garcia  de  Castrogeriz,  of  Egidio 
Colonna's  De  regimine  principum,  at  the  very  time,  that  is, 
when  the  Spanish  poet  and  chronicler,  Pero  Lopez  de  Ayala 
(1332-1407),  was  reading  Amadis  in  his  youth. ^  Half  a  century 
later,  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  poem  by 
Pero  Fcrrus  in  the  Cancionero  de  Baena  refers  to  Amadis  as 
written  in  three  books.  This  is  one  of  the  most  definite  early 
references  to  Amadis,  but  of  course  reference  to  the  book  by 
a  Spaniard  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  it  was  written  in 
Spanish,  and  indeed  some  of  the  vaguer  allusions  may  refer  to 
a  French  or  Anglo-French  original.  The  most  frequent  Spanish 
references  occur  in  the  Cancionero  de  Baena,  which  was  compiled 
in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  at  a  period,  that  is,  which 
the  last  Galician  lyrics  written  in  Spain  connected  with  the  time 
when  all  eyes  were  turned  to  Portuguese  as  the  universal  language 
of  Peninsular  lyrics.  Because  the  Portuguese  language  was  used 
throughout  Spain  in  lyric  poetry,  it  is  sometimes  argued  as  if 
the  Portuguese  had  no  prose,  could  only  sing.  (The  more  real 
division  was  not  between  verse  and  prose  but  between  the 
Portuguese  lyrical  love  literature  and  the  Spanish  epic  battle 
literature,  and  the  early  romances  of  chivalry,  although  written 
in  prose,  belong  essentially  to  the  former.)  The  prose  rubrics 
of  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros  and  the  Poetica  of  the  Cancioneiro 
Colocci-  Brancuti  are  sufficient  to  dispel  this  delusion.  Whether 
this  Poetica  be  contemporary  (13th  c.)  of  the  lyrics  or  later 
(14th  c),  it  offers  a  striking  contrast  between  the  clumsiness  of 
its  prose  and  the  smooth  perfection  of   the   poetry  for   which 

'  His  connexion  with  Portugal  was  not  voluntary.  It  was  probably  when 
he  was  a  prisoner  after  the  battle  of  Aljubarrota  (1385)  that  he  wrote  the 
Rimado  de  Palacio,  in  which  (st.  162)  Amadis  is  mentioned. 


EARLY    PROSE  67 

it  theorizes.  Miguel  Leite  Ferreira's  statement  (1598)  that 
Amadis  is  contemporary  with  the  lyrics  is  therefore  remarkable. 
He  says  that  the  archaic  (time  of  King  Dinis)  language  of  the 
two  sonnets — Bom  Vasco  de  Loheira  and  Vinha  Amor  pelo  campo 
trebelhando — written  by  his  father,  Antonio  Ferreira  (1528-69), 
is  the  same  as  that  in  which  Vasco  de  Lobeira  wrote  Amadis 
of  Gaul.  We  know  that  King  Dinis  encouraged  not  only  lyric 
poetry  but  also  translations  into  Portuguese  prose,  but  all  the 
early  Portuguese  prose  works  are  assigned  to  the  fourteenth, 
not  the  thirteenth  century.  One  of  the  earliest,  the  Demanda 
do  Santo  Graall,  the  language  of  which  bears  a  close  relation  to 
that  of  the  Cancioneiros,  still  belongs  to  the  fourteenth  century. 
Probably  the  later  development  of  prose  misled  Leite  Ferreira 
into  making  fourteenth-century  prose  contemporary  with  thir- 
teenth-century verse.  The  Infante  whom  he  here  on  the  strength 
of  the  passage  in  Montalvo's  Amadis  identifies  with  the  son  of 
King  Dinis,  not  with  the  earlier  Prince  Afonso  [c.  1265-1312), 
may  as  Infante  have  expressed  dislike  of  a  certain  incident  (the 
treatment  of  Briolanja)  in  the  already  well-known  story,  and 
his  preference  would  be  borne  in  mind  when  the  Portuguese 
version  was  written  in  his  reign  (1325-57).  If  the  first  Peninsular 
version  of  Amadis  was  composed  in  Portuguese  in  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  it  may  have  been  eagerly  read  as 
a  novelty  by  Lopez  de  Ayala.  In  the  fourteenth  century  most 
Spaniards  read,  a  few  wrote  ^  Portuguese  lyrics ;  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why  we  should  rigorously  confine  them 
to  the  reading  of  verse,  to  the  exclusion  of  Portuguese  prose. 
There  is  no  means  of  deciding  with  certainty  whether  Lopez  de 
Ayala  and  Ferrus  read  Amadis  in  Spanish  or  in  Portuguese,  but 
there  are  inherent  probabilities  in  favour  of  Portuguese.  No 
one  without  a  thesis  to  support  would  deny  that,  generally,  the 
cycle  of  the  Round  Table,  to  which  Amadis  is  so  closely  related, 
was  more  congenial  to  the  Portuguese  than  to  the  Spanish 
temperament,  that  the  geographical  position  of  Portugal  facili- 
tated its  introduction,  and  that,  in  the  particular  case  of  Amadis, 
the  style  and  subject  of  the  work,  certainly  of  the  first  three 

^  For  the  later  writers  of  Galician    (second    half    14th  c.)    see    Professor 
Lang's  Cancioneiro  Gallego-Castelhano  (1902). 

£2 


68  1325-1521 

books,  are  Portuguese  rather  than  Spanish.  Melancholy  in- 
cidents, sentimental  phrases  and  tears  occur  on  nearly  every 
page.  Some  critics  even  discern  traces  of  Portuguese  in  the 
language.^ 

But  if  we  admit  that  Amadis  was  written  c.  1350,  who  was 
its  author  ?  It  is  noteworthy  that  while  in  Spanish  it  had  been 
attributed  to  many  persons,  in  Portugal  tradition  has  persistently 
hovered  round  the  name  of  Lobeira.  Unfortunately  the  Lobeira 
authorship  has  given  far  more  trouble  than  that  of  prince,  Jew, 
or  saint  in  Spain.  Zurara,  basing  his  statement  on  an  earlier 
fifteenth-century  authority,  in  a  perfectly  genuine  passage  of 
his  Cronica  do  Conde  D.  Pedro  de  Meneses,^  written  in  the  middle 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  ascribes  Amadis  to  Vasco  de  Lobeira. 
In  the  next  century  Dr.  Joao  de  Barros^  (not  the  historian)  and 
Leite  Ferreira  agree  with  Zurara.^  There  was  no  reason  why 
they  should  say  Vasco  rather  than  Pedro  or  Joao.  According 
to  Nunez  de  Leam,  Vasco  de  Lobeira  was  knighted  on  the  field 
of  Aljubarrota  (1385),  according  to  Fernam  Lopez  he  was  already 
a  knight  in  1383.^    If  he  was  not  a  young  but  an  old  knight  at 

'  Lua  (glove),  cedo,  &.C.,  of  course  occur  in  early  Spanish  prose.  Soledad 
certainly  occurs  in  the  first  three  books  more  frequently  than  in  other  Spanish 
prose.     The  Portuguese  atmosphere  is  altogether  absent  in  Las  Sergas. 

■  Cap.  63  :  0  Livra  d' Amadis,  como  quer  que  soomentc  este  fosse  feito  a  prazer 
de  hum  homem  que  se  chamava  Vasco  Lobeira  em  tempo  d' El  Rev  Dam  Fernando, 
sendo  todalas  cousas  do  dito  Liiiro  fingidas  do  Autor. 

^  Libro  das  Antiguidades  (1549),  f.  32  v.  :  E  daqui  \do  Porto]  foi  natural 
uasco  lobeira  q  fez  os  prim'"'  4  libros  de  amadis,  obra  certo  muj  subtil  e 
graciosa  e  aprouada  de  todos  os  gallantes,  mas  comos  [so]  estas  couzas  se  secao 
em  nossas  ma<>s  os  Castelhanos  the  mudarao  a  linguoagem  e  atribuirao  a  obra  assi 
[so].  This  passage  is,  however,  absent  in  the  earliest  manuscript.  The 
spelling  cour.as  implies  a  late  date  for  its  introduction. 

*  So  did  Faria  e  Sousa,  but  he,  too,  had  his  Lobeira  doubts,  and  after 
noting  that  Vasco  de  Lobeira  was  knighted  by  King  Joao  I  says  :  '  si  ya  no 
es  que  era  otro  del  mismo  nombre.  Pero  la  Escritura  do  Amadis  sc  tiene  por 
del  tiempo  deste  Rey  don  luan  '  (Fvcnte  de  Aganipc  (Madrid,  1646),  §  10). 
The  obviou.s  sympathj'  of  the  author  for  the  cscudero  viejo  who  is  knighted 
in  Amadis  (ii.  13,  14)  amidst  the  laughter  of  the  Court  ladies  is  perhaps 
significant. 

*  Cronica  de  D.  Fernando,  cap.  177.  The  year  of  his  death,  given  as  1403, 
is  quite  uncertain.  Scares  de  Brito  in  the  Theatrum  fornxs  no  independent 
opinion  :  '  Vascus  de  Lobeyra  inter  Lusitanos  Scriptores  enumeratur  a  Faria. 
.  .  .  Floruit  tempore  Fernandi  Regis.'  Antonio  Sousa  de  Macedo,  in  Flores 
de  Espaha,  also  follows  Faria  :  \^asco  de  Lobeira /m^  el  primero  que  con  gentil 
habilidad  escribid  libros  de  caballerias.  Nicolds  Antonio  (1617-84),  Bib. 
Nov.,  1688  ed.,  ii.  322,  says  that  Vasco  de  Lobeira  vtdgo  inter  cives  suos 
existimari  solet  auctor  celeberrimi  inter  famosa  scripti  Historia  de  Amadis  de 


EARLY    PROSE  69 

Aljubarrota,  it  is  just  possible  that  he  wrote  the  book  thirty-five 
years  earher,  in  the  same  way  that  the  historian  Barros  wrote 
Clarimundo  in  his  youth. 

If  he  Hved  on  through  the  reigns  of  Pedro  I  (1357-67)  and 
Fernando  (1376-83),  and  acquired  new  distinction  in  battle  in 
the  reign  of  the  latter,  this  might  account  for  Zurara's  assertion 
that  he  wrote  Amadis  in  the  reign  of  Fernando.  But  the  chief 
obstacle  to  the  authorship  of  Vasco  is  the  existence  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Colocci-Brancuti  (Nos.  230  and  232  a)  of  a  song  by 
Joan  de  Lobeira,  Leonoreta,  fin  roseta.y^hich.  reappears  with  slight 
variations  in  Montalvo's  Amadis  [lAh.  II,  cap.  xi :  este  villancico). 
It  would  seem  then  that  Joan,  not  Vasco,  wrote  Amadis.  Joan  de 
Lobeira,^  or  Joan  Pirez  Lobeira,  flourished  in  the  second  half  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  and  so  we  have  Amadis  dating  not  only 
from  the  reign  of  King  Dinis  but  from  the  first  half  of  his 
reign.  But  does  the  existence  of  the  poem  entail  that  of  a  prose 
romance  ?  The  early  mention  of  Tristan,  e.g.  by  Alfonso  X, 
does  not  necessarily  imply  the  existence  of  a  thirteenth-century 
Peninsular  Tristan  in  prose.  May  we  not  accept  the  poem, 
written  in  the  stirring  metre,  dear  to  men  of  action,  used  by 
Alfonso  X  (C.  M.  300),  as  merely  a  proof  of  the  popularity  of 
the  story,  fondness  for  an  episode  perhaps  treated  in  greater 
detail  in  the  Anglo-French  original  than  in  Montalvo's  version  } 
Certainly  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable  that  a  Spaniard, 
writing  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  should  extract 
a  poem  from  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros  and  insert  it  in  his 
prose  ;  but  the  improbability  disappears  if  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  a  Portuguese  (Vasco  de  Lobeira),  perhaps 
drawn  to  the  story  by  the  poem  of  his  ancestor,  incorporated  it 
in  his  romance.  The  late  Antonio  Thomaz  Pires  in  1904  dis- 
covered at  Elvas  the  will  of  a  Joao  de  Lobeira,  mercador,  who  died 

Gaula  .  .  .  cuius  laudes  nos  inter  Anonymos  curiose  collegimus.  Osiendere 
autem  Lusitanos  Amadisium  hunc  Lusitane  loquentem,  uti  Castellani  Castel- 
lanum  ostendunt,  ins  et  aequum  esset  in  dubia  re  ne  verbis  tantum  agerent. 
The  challenge  in  the  last  sentence  is  of  interest,  as  coming  in  date  between 
the  two  statements  (by  Leite  Ferreira  and  the  Conde  da  Ericeira)  asserting 
the  existence  of  the  Portuguese  text. 

1  There  was  a  Canon  of  Santiago  of  this  name  in  1295,  and  he  may  have 
come  to  the  Portuguese  Court  on  business  concerning  certain  privileges  of  the 
Chapter  which  King  Dinis  confirmed  in  1324. 


70  1325-1521 

there  in  1386,  and  in  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga's  latest  opinion^  there 
were  three  Portuguese  versions  of  Amadis :  that  of  the  father,  this 
Joao  de  Lobeira,  written  in  the  time  of  King  Dinis  (a  long-lived 
race  these  Lobeiras !),  that  of  the  son,"  Vasco,  and  a  third  by 
Pedro  de  Lobeira  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
threefold  authorship  of  this  family  heirloom  is  even  more  cruu 
de  creer  than  the  theory  that  a  single  Lobeira — Vasco — wrote 
it  in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  A  certain  note 
of  disapproval  of  Amadis  as  fabulous,  shared  by  Portuguese 
and  Spanish  writers,^  perhaps  indicates  a  fairly  late  date  :  its 
irresponsible  fiction  would  be  less  excusable  if  it  was  written 
in  an  age  which  was  beginning  to  attach  serious  impor- 
tance to  nohiliarios  and  '  true  '  chronicles.  Moreover,  if  the 
Portuguese  adaptation  of  an  Anglo-French  legend  had  been 
even  remotely  as  developed  as  the  form  in  which  we  now  have 
it,  the  Infante  Afonso  must  have  seen  at  once  that  the  faith- 
fulness of  Amadis  was  absolutely  essential  to  the  story.  But 
especially  the  fact  that  the  Portuguese  Cancioneiros,  familiar 
with  Tristan  and  the  matiere  de  Bretagne,  are  silent  on  the  subject 
of  Amadis  is  significant. 

In  Gottfried  Baist's  argument,  based  on  a  rigid  division 
between  early  lyric  poetry  (as  Portuguese)  and  early  prose  (as 
Spanish),  the  Leonoreta  lyric,  far  from  being  a  stum^bling-block, 
is  actually  a  sign  of  the  Spanish  origin  of  Amadis  :  as  a  fragment 
(14th  c.)  of  a  prose  Tristan  exists  in  Spanish,  and  five  Portuguese 
Tristan  lais  figure  in  the  Cancioneiro  Colocci-Brancuti,  so  the 
Leonoreta  poem  belongs  to  a  Spanish  Amadis  in  prose.  But 
although  the  priority  and  relations  of  early  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  prose  works  are  intricate  and  have  not  yet  been  thoroughly 
studied,  it  is  clear  that  in  many  cases  versions  have  been  more 
carefully  preserved  in  conservative  Spain,  while  the  Portuguese 
through  neglect,  fire,  and  earthquake  have  perished,  and  also 
that  the  natural  tendency  and  development  of  prose,  in  view  of 

»  Hist,  da  Litt.  Port,  i  (1909). 

*  In  the  document  the  only  son  mentioned  is  named  Gon9alo. 

*  Zurara,  loc.  cit.,  cousas  fingidas;  Lopez  de  Ayala,  mentiras  probadas. 
According  to  D.  Francisco  de  Portugal  {Arte  de  Galanteria,  p.  146)  such 
lies  could  only  be  written  in  Spanish  {en  la  Portuguesa  no  se  podia  mentir 
tanlo).    Portugal  was  writing  in  Spanish. 


EARLY    PROSE  71 

the  growing  power  of  Castille  and  the  greater  pliancy  of  the 
Portuguese,  was  from  Portuguese  to  Spanish,  not  from  Spanish 
to  Portuguese.  And  in  one  instance  at  least  we  have  an  early 
Portuguese  prose  work  of  the  first  importance,  the  Demanda  do 
Santo  Graall,  which  with  its  gallicisms  can  by  no  stretch  of 
imagination  be  accounted  a  version  from  the  Spanish,  It  is 
plainly  legitimate  to  hold  that  the  story  of  Amadis  was  first 
reduced  to  book  form  in  the  Peninsula  in  precisely  the  same  way 
as  was  the  story  of  Galahad,  i.e.  as  a  fourteenth-century  Portu- 
guese adaptation  with  the  French  text  in  view.  Nicholas 
d'Herberay  des  Essarts,  we  know,  claimed  to  have  discovered 
fragments  of  Amadis  en  langage  picard,  Jorge  Cardoso  (1606- 
69)  declared  that  Pero  Lobeira  translated  Amadis  from  the 
French,^  and  Bernardo  Tasso,  whose  Amadigi  appeared  in  1560, 
believed  {71071  e  duhbio)  Amadis  to  be  derived  da  qualche  istoria  di 
Bretagna.  Nor  would  the  Portuguese,  for  all  their  familiarity 
with  the  story  and  topography  of  the  Breton  cycle,  be  likely 
to  compose  original  works  dealing  with  Vindilisora  (Windsor) 
or  Bristoya  (Bristol).  Unhappily,  however  deep  may  be  our 
conviction  (a  conviction  which  stands  in  no  need  of  antedating 
Hebrew  versions  of  the  1508  Amadis)  that  the  Peninsular  A7nadis 
was  originally  Portuguese,  it  has  now  ceased  to  belong  to 
Portuguese  literature ;  another  instance,  if  we  may  beg  the 
question,  of  the  gravitation  to  Spain.  The  Portuguese  text,  of 
which  a  copy,  according  to  Leite  Ferreira,  existed  in  the 
library  of  the  Duques  de  Aveiro  in  the  sixteenth  century  (1598), 
and,  according  to  the  Conde  da  Ericeira,  in  the  library  of  the 
Condes  de  Vimieiro  in  the  seventeenth  (1686),  is  still  missing,  as 
it  was  in  1726. 

*  Agiologio  Lusitano,  i  (1652),  p.  410  :  E  por  sen  mandado  [of  the  Infante 
Pedro,  son  of  Joao  I]  trasladoii  de  Frances  em  a  nossa  lingtia  Pero  Lobeiro 
[so],  Tabalido  d'Eluas,  0  liiiro  de  Amadis. 


§2 

Epic  and  Later  Galician  Poetry 

Some  of  the  poems  of  the  early  Cancioneiros^  as  we  have  seen, 
have  an  historical  character,  but  they  are  all  written  from  a 
personal  point  of  view.  Portuguese  history,  with  its  heroic 
achievements  such  as  the  conquest  of  Algarve,  seems  to  have 
begun  just  too  late  to  be  the  subject  of  great  anonymous  epics, 
or  rather  the  temperament  of  the  Portuguese  people  eschewed 
them.  Of  five  poems,  long  believed  to  be  the  earliest  examples 
of  Portuguese  verse  but  no  longer  accepted  by  any  sane  critic 
as  genuine,  only  one  belongs  to  epic  poetry.  This  Poema  da 
Cava  or  da  Perda  de  Espanha  was  an  infant  prodigy  indeed, 
since  it  was  supposed  to  have  been  written  (in  oitavas)  in  the 
eighth  century.  With  a  discretion  passing  that  of  Horace  it 
kept  itself  from  the  world  not  for  nine  but  nine  hundred  years, 
and  was  first  published  in  Leitao  de  Andrada's  Miscellanea 
(1629)  ^  •  0  rougo  da  Cava  imprio  de  tal  sanha,  &c. 

Of  the  four  other  spurious  poems,  two  ^  were  alleged  to  be 
love  letters  of  Egas  Moniz  Coelho,  a  cousin  of  the  celebrated 
Egas  Moniz  Coelho  of  the  twelfth  century ;  another,  pub- 
lished by  Bernardo  de  Brito,^  Tinherabos  nam  tinherabos,  has 
a  real  charm  as  gibberish.  Fascination,  of  a  different  kind, 
attaches  also  to  the  fifth  : 

No  figueiral  figueiredo,  no  figueiral  entrei  : 

Tres  nifias  encontrara,  tres  ninas  encontrei, 

for  if  this  poem  is  not  genuine,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  first 
published  by  Brito^  at  once  lays  it  open  to  grave  suspicion,  it  is 
nevertheless  undoubtedly  based  on  popular  tradition  of  a  yearly 

»   1867  ed.,  p.  333.  «  Ibid.,  pp.  304-7. 

'  Cronica  de  Cister,  Bk.  VI,  cap.  i,  1602  ed.,  f.  372.  It  has  been  several 
times  reprinted  :  cf.  J.  F.  Barreto,  Orlografia  (1671),  p.  23;  Bellermann,  Die 
alien  Liederbucher,  p.  5  ;    Grundriss,  p.  163. 

*  Monarchia  Lusitana,  1609  ed.,  ii.  296  (also  in  Miscellanea,  1867  ed., 
pp.  25-6  ;  Bellermann,  pp.  3-4). 


EPIC    AND    LATER    GALICIAN    POETRV     73 

tribute  of  maidens  to  the  Moors  such  as  the  Greeks  paid  to  the 
Minotaur,  and  must  be  the  echo  of  some  Algarvian  song.     Its 
simple  repetitions  have  a  haunting  rhythm,  but  they  are  perhaps 
a  Httle  too  emphatic.     The  impression  is  that  its  author  had 
been  struck  by  the  repetitions  in  songs  heard  oji  the  hps  of  the 
people,  perhaps  crooned  to  him  in  his  infancy  (cf.  Miscellanea, 
p.  25  :    sendo  en  miiito  menino),  and  worked  them  up  in  this 
poem.     One  early  epic  poem  Portugal  undoubtedly  possessed, 
the  Poema  da  Batalha  do  Salado,  by  Afonso  Giraldez,  who 
himself  probably  took  part  in  the  battle  (1340).    The  subject  of 
the  poem  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Spanish  Poema  de  Alfonso 
Onceno,  but  whether  its  treatment  was  similar  we  cannot  say, 
as  only  forty  lines  of  the  Galician-Portuguese  poem  survive. 
Since  the  authorship  of  the  Spanish  poem  is  doubtful  and  its 
rhymes  run  more  naturally  in  Galician  than  in  Spanish,   the 
theory  has  arisen,  among  others,  that  Rodrigo  Yannez,  whose 
name  perhaps  denotes  a  connexion  with  Galicia,  merely  trans- 
lated  the    poem  of  Afonso  Giraldez.      But  against  this   it   is 
argued  that  Yannez  or  Eanez  was  a  Galician  or  wrote  Galician 
lyrics  (there  are  several  poets  of  that  name  in  the  Cancioneiro  da 
Vaticana),  and  when  called  upon  to  compose  an  epic — for  Spain 
a  late  epic — chose  Castilian,  the  traditional  language  of  such 
poetry,  and  in  executing  his  design  found  that  his  enthusiasm 
had  outrun  his  knowledge  of  Castilian.^    It  is  not  strange  if  so 
brilliant  a  victory  inspired  two  poets  independently  with  its 
theme.    It  is  perhaps  more  extraordinary  that  both  should  have 
chosen  a  metre  (8  +  8)  which  has  called  for  remark  as  showing 
the  romance  through  the  cantar  de  gesta.^    Frei  Antonio  Brandao, 
indeed,  called  the  Portuguese  poem  a  romance,  a  type  of  poem 
which  did  not  exist  in  the  fourteenth  century.    Since  the  battle 
was  fought  in  Spain  it  would  be  considered  in  Brandao's  day 
a  proper  subject  for  a  romance,  but  would  be  noticeable  as  being 
written  in  Galician.     Castilian  was  throughout  the  Peninsula 
regarded  as  the  fitting  medium  for  the  romance,  as  for  its  father 
the  epic,  just  as,  a  century  earlier,  Galician  was  the  universal 

'  SeeGrundriss,  p.  205.    D.  Ramon  Menendez  Pidal  supports  the  suggestion 
of  Leonese  authorship  (Revista  de  Filologia  Espanola,  i.  i  (1914),  pp.  90-2). 
*  See  J.  Fitzmau rice- Kelly,  Litterature  Espagnole,  1913  ed.,  p.  64. 


74  1325-1521 

language  of  the  lyric.^  Portuguese  poets,  if  they  wrote  a 
romance,  would  usually  do  so  in  Spanish.  The  best-known 
instance  is  Gil  Vicente's  fine  poem(wMy  sentido  y  galan  as  the 
1720  editor  says)  of  D.  Duardos  e  Flerida,  which  only  belongs 
to  Portuguese  literature  through  the  excellent  '  translation  of 
the  Cavalheiro  dc  Oliveira  ',  among  whose  papers  Garrett  pro- 
fessed to  have  found  it.  Portugal  possessed  no  epic  cantares 
de  gesta  of  her  own,  had  not  therefore  the  stuff  out  of  which  the 
romances  were  formed,  and  the  birth  of  the  romance  coincided 
with  the  predominance  of  Spanish  influence  in  Spain.  It  is 
therefore  surprising  to  find  in  Portugal  a  large  number  of  romances 
unconnected  with  Spain,  the  explanation  being  that,  having 
accepted  with  characteristic  enthusiasm  the  new  thing  imported 
from  abroad,  the  Portuguese  turned  to  congenial  themes,  of 
love,  religion,  and  adventure.  Had  the  romances  been  elaborated 
in  the  same  way  as  in  Spain,  we  might  have  expected  a  large 
number  of  anonymous  Portuguese  romances  dealing  with  the 
Breton  cycle,  and  indeed  with  early  Portuguese  history,  so  rich 
in  heroic  incidents.  The  fact  that  this  is  not  the  case  and  the 
number  of  romances  collected  in  Tras-os-Montes  alike  point  to 
their  Spanish  origin,  while  their  frequency  in  the  Azores  denotes 
how  popular  they  became  later  in  Portugal.  In  the  sixteenth 
century  their  Spanish  character  was  recognized.  The  poor 
escudeiro  in  Eufrosina  is  bidden  go  to  Spain  to  gloss  romances, 
and  in  the  seventeenth  century,  as  a  passage  in  Mello's  Fidalgo 
Aprendiz  well  shows,  they  were  better  liked  if  written  in  Spanish. 
The  partiality  for  Spanish  applied  to  poetry  of  other  kinds, 
and  Manuel  de  Galhegos  says  (1635)  that  it  is  a  bold  venture 
to  publish  poetry  in  Portuguese.^  But  it  did  not  as  a  rule 
extend  to  popular  poetry.  It  is  therefore  noteworthy  that  the 
nurse  in  Gil  Vicente  sings  romances  in  Spanish.^  Dr.  Theophilo 
Braga,   who   considers   Spanish   influence   on   the   romances   in 

•  Cf.  Rodriguez  Lobo,  Primavera  (1722  ed.),  p.  369  :  tinhdo  os  nossos 
guardadores  por  muyto  diffictdtoso  fazcremse  em  a  lingoa  Portugueza,  porque 
a  tern  por  menos  engragada  para  os  romances.  Sousa  de  Macedo  says  that 
Romance  he  poesia  propria  de  Hespanha,  but  Hespanha  here  means  Spain 
and  Portugal  and  he  instances  G6ngora  and  Rodriguez  Lobo  {Eva  e  Ave, 
1676  ed.,  p.  130). 

^  See  infra,  p.  258. 

'  Obras,  1834  ed.,  ii.  27. 


EPIC    AND    LATER    GALICIAN    POETRY     75 

Portugal  to  have  been  '  late  and  insignificant '/  is  obliged,  in 
order  to  support  his  argument,  to  quote  not  Portuguese  but 
Spanish  romances."  Nor  is  it  a  happy  contention  that  Portuguese 
romances  were  not  printed  owing  to  desleixo,  since  the  publica- 
tion of  Spanish  romances  at  Lisbon  cannot  be  attributed  merely 
to  a  craze  for  things  foreign.  More  persuasive  is  the  theory, 
developed  by  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,^  that 
many  romances  in  Spanish  were  the  work  of  Portuguese  poets, 
especially  those  related  to  the  Breton  cycle,  such  as  Ferido  estd 
Don  Tristan,  those  concerned  with  the  sea,  and  those  of  a  soft 
lyrical  character,  as  Fonte  Frida  and  La  Bella  Malmaridada. 
However  that  may  be,  the  fact  that  ro?nances  appear  on  the  lips 
of  the  people  in  Gil  Vicente,  that  is,  before  the  publication  of 
the  romanceros,  indicates  how  rapidly  their  popularity  spread,* 
and  accounts  for  their  numerous  progeny  in  Portugal,  collected 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  True  historical  romances  the  Portu- 
guese did  not  possess,  unless  we  are  to  consider  that  certain  lines 
which  occur  in  Vicente's  parody  of  Yo  me  estaha  alia  en  Coimbra, 
in  Garcia  de  Resende's  Trovas,  and  elsewhere,  are  echoes  of 
a  Portuguese  romance  on  the  death  of  Ines  de  Castro.^  But  that 
is  not  to  say  that  they  did  not  possess  romances,  and  many  of 
these  might  be  almost  as  old  as  their  Spanish  models,  although 
not  derived  directly  from  cantares  de  gesta.  These  Portuguese 
romances  or  xacaras  (in  the  Azores  estorias  and  aravias)  often 
differ  from  the  Spanish  in  a  certain  vagueness  of  outline  and 
sentimental  tone.  They  are  frequently  of  considerable  length. 
Many  of  them  are  undoubtedly  of  popular  origin  and  have 
a  large  number  of  variants  in  different  parts  of  the  country.    If 

1  Hist,  da  Liu.  Port.,  ii  (1914),  pp.  267-87.  ^  Ibid.,  pp.  280-5. 

*  Estudos  sobre  0  Romanceiro  Peninsular.  Romances  velhos  de  Portugal, 
Madrid,  1907-9. 

*  Lucena  {Vida,  Bk.  Ill,  cap.  3)  speaks  of  romances  velhos  em  que  elles 
[the  natives  of  India]  como  nos,  por  ser  0  ordinario  caniar  da  gente,  guardam 
0  successo  das  memorias  e  cousas  antigas.  The  expression  romance  velho 
in  the  sixteenth  century  may  mean  a  romance  that  has  gone  out  of  fashion. 
Cf.  Vicente,  Os  Almocreves  :  Hei  os  de  todos  grosar  Ainda  que  sejam  velhos. 
Antigo  may  similarly  mean  '  antiquated  '  rather  than  ancient.  Barros, 
Grammatica,  1785  ed.,  p.  163,  mentions  rimances  antigas.  D.  Carolina  Michaelis 
de  Vasconcellos  considers  that  the  romances  came  from  Spain  to  Portugal  at 
the  latest  in  the  third  quarter  and  perhaps  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  centu  ry . 

*  See  Estudos  sobre  0  Rom.  Renins,  (the  lines  are  Polos  campos  do  Mondego 
Cavaleiros  vi  somar). 


76  1325-1521 

there  are  none  to  compare  with  Fonte  Frida  or  Conde  Arnaldos 
(which  belong  to  CastiHan  literature,  whatever  the  nationahty  of 
their  authors),  they  nevertheless,  with  a  total  lack  of  concentra- 
tion, present  many  natural  scenes  and  incidents  of  affecting 
pathos  and  an  attractive  simplicity.  One  of  the  best  and  most 
characteristically  Portuguese  is  A  Nau  Catharineta,  and  others 
almost  equally  famous  are  Santa  Iria,  Conde  Nillo,  and  Brancaflor 
e  Flares.  The  second  edition  of  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga's  Romanceiro 
runs  to  nearly  two  thousand  pages.  The  first  two  volumes 
contain  over  150  romances  (together  with  numerous  variants). 
Of  these  5  belong  to  the  Carolingian,  8  to  the  Arthurian  cycle, 
63  are  romances  sacros  or  ao  divino,  11  treat  of  the  cruel 
husband  or  unfaithful  wife.  In  the  third  volume  are  reprinted 
romances  composed  by  well-known  Portuguese  authors  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
Spain  generously  repaid  to  Portugal  the  loan  of  the  Galician 
language  for  lyrical  composition — although  in  each  case  it  was 
the  lender's  literature  that  profited  (especially  if  some  of  the 
most  beautiful  Spanish  romances  were  the  work  of  Galician  or 
Portuguese  poets).  But  even  after  the  birth  of  the  romance 
Spain  continued  to  cultivate  the  Galician  lyric,  until  the 
second  half  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  last  instance  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  Galician  poem  by  Gomez  Manrique  (1412-91), 
uncle  of  the  author  of  Recuerde  el  alma  dormida,  No.  65  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Gallego-Castelhano.  This  collection,  published  by 
Professor  Lang  at  the  suggestion  of  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de 
Vasconcellos,  contains  the  meagre  crop  of  Portuguese  verse  of 
the  transition  period  from  1350  to  1450,  meagre  in  quality  and 
quantity.  One  name  dominates  the  period.  The  love  and  tragic 
fate  of  Macias  (second  half  14th  c),  <?  N  amor  ado,  idolo  de  los 
amantes,  gave  him  a  renown  similar  to  but  far  exceeding  that 
of  D.  Joan  Soarez  de  Paiva  in  the  preceding  century.  As  the 
ideal  lover  he  is  met  with  at  every  turn  in  the  Portuguese  poetry 
of  the  fifteenth  century,^  and  later  became  the  subject  of  Lope 
de  Vega's  Porfiar  hasta  morir  (1638).  Of  his  story  we  know 
definitely  nothing,  but  some  lines  in  one  of  his  poems.  En  men 

»  In  later  Portuguese  his  name  was   often   written   Mansias.    So   Moraes 
transforms  Mile  de  Macy's  name  into  Mansi. 


EPIC    AND    LATER    GALICIAN    POETRY     77 

cor  tenno  ta  langa  and  Aquesta  langa  .  .  .  me  ferio,  would  appear 
to  have  inspired  the  famous  legend  which  dates  from  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  Imprisoned  at  Arjonilla  in  Andalucia  for 
paying  court  to  his  sennora,  he  continued  to  address  her  in  song 
and  was  killed  by  the  lance  that  her  infuriated  husband  hurled 
through  the  prison  window.  In  an  older  version,  that  of  the 
Constable  D.  Pedro  in  his  Satira  de  felice  e  infelice  vida,  he 
saved  the  lady  of  his  heart  from  drowning,  and  afterwards,  as 
he  lingered  where  she  had  stood,  was  struck  down  by  the  jealous 
husband.  According  to  Argote  de  Molina,^  both  he  and  the 
husband  served  in  the  household  of  D.  Enrique  de  Villena 
(1385-1434),  who  was  perhaps  only  six  when  Macias  died. 
Most  of  the  twenty  poems  ascribed  to  Macias  that  survive  are 
written  in  Galician,  and  of  many,  as  Loado  sejas  amor,^  the 
authorship  is  doubtful.  Clearly  his  fame  would  act  as  a  strong 
magnet  to  poems  of  uncertain  origin.  The  matter  is  of  the  less 
importance  in  that  these  poems,  however  love-sick,  have  but 
little  literary  merit.  If  the  Galician  Juan  Rodriguez  de  la 
Camara,  a  native,  like  Macias,  of  Padron,  was  the  real  author  of 
the  romance  of  Conde  Arnaldos  (which  is  improbable),  he  was 
a  far  greater  poet  than  his'  friend.  Both  the  lyrics  and  the 
prose  of  his  El  Sieruo  lihre  de  Amor  are  in  Castilian.  Of  the  other 
two  fourteenth-century  Galician  poets  mentioned  by  Santillana, 
Fernam  Casquicio  and  Vasco  Perez  de  Camoes  (ti386  >)^^ 
no  poems  have  survived.  The  latter,  a  knight  well  known  at 
the  Court  of  King  Ferdinand  and  an  ancestor  of  Luis  de  Camoes, 
played  a  leading  part  in  the  troubles  preceding  the  battle  of 
Aljubarrota,  He  had  come  to  Portugal  from  Galicia,  and  his 
name  appears  frequently  in  the  pages  of  Fernam  Lopez  (where 
it  is  written  Caamooes)  till  the  year  1386.  In  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  he  is  mentioned  by  Sa  de  Miranda's  brother- 
in-law  as  a  Court  poet  corresponding  to  Juan  de  Mena  in  Spain. 
But  there  were  other  poets  whose  verse  was  probably  not  inferior 

*  Nobleza  de  Andalvzia  (1588),  ii,  f.  272  v. 

^  This  and  two  other  Macias  poems  (Ai  que  mal  aconsellado  and  Crueldad* 
e  trocamento)  are  in  C.  G.  C.  (Nos.  33,  38,  41)  ascribed  to  Alfonso  Alvarez  de 
Villasandino. 

^  The  Cancionero  de  Baena  contains  poems  addressed  to  Vasco  Lopez  de 
Camoes,  un  cavallero  de  Galizia,  and  an  answering  poem  by  him. 


78  1325-1521 

to  that  of  Perez  de  Camoes  and  Casquicio.  Besides  Macias  the 
Cancioneiro  Gallego-Castelhano  contains  the  names  of  sixteen 
writers  whose  poems  may  not  attain  high  distinction  but  prove 
that  the  Galician  lyiic  continued  to  be  cultivated  by  poets  in 
the  fourteenth  and  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  in  Castille 
and  Leon,  Aragon  and  Catalonia.  The  Archdeacon  of  Toro, 
GoNgALO  Rodriguez  (fl.  1385)/  was  one  of  a  group  of  such 
poets  ;  a  man  with  a  keen  zest  of  living  and  capable  of  vigorous 
verse,  in  which  he  took  a  characteristic  delight  [a  minna  boa  arte 
de  Undo  cantar).  In  his  farewell  poem  A  Deus  Amor,  a  Deus 
el  Ret,  which  Cervantes  perhaps  remembered,  he  bids  good  bye 
to  the  trohadores  con  quen  trobei,  and  in  a  quaint  humorous 
testament  he  mentions  a  number  of  friends  and  relatives,  two 
of  whom,  at  least,  his  cousin  Pedro  de  Valcacer  or  Valcarcel  and 
Lope  de  Porto  Carreiro,  also  wrote  verse.  In  the  last  of  the 
sixteen  stanzas  [ahhacca]  of  this  testamento  the  Archdeacon 
appoints  his  namesake  Gongalo  Rodriguez  de  Sousa  and  Fernan 
Rodriguez  to  be  his  executors.  He  may  have  been  alive  in  1402, 
for  a  Doctor  Gongalo  Rodriguez,  Archdeacon  of  Almazan,  is 
mentioned  as  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the  oath  taken  by  the  city 
of  Burgos  to  the  Infante  Maria  in  that  year.^  In  that  case  he 
must  have  been  transferred  to  Almazan,  some  150  miles  farther 
up  the  Duero.  More  chequered  was  the  career  of  Garci  Ferran- 
DEZ  DE  Gerena  [c.  1340-C.  1400).  Having  married  one  of 
King  Juan  I's  dancing  girls  [una  juglara)  in  the  belief  that  she 
was  rich,  he  repented  when  he  found  que  non  tenia  nada.  He 
next  became  a  hermit  near  Gerena,  and,  this  not  proving  more 
congenial  than  married  poverty,  he  embarked  ostensibly  for  the 
Holy  Land,  but  in  fact  landed  at  Malaga  with  his  wife  and 
children.  At  Granada  he  turned  Moor,  satirized  the  Christian 
faith,  and  deserted  his  wife  for  her  sister.  After  such  proven 
inconstancy  we  may  perhaps  doubt  the  sincerity  of  his  repen- 
tance when  he  returned  to  Christianity  and  Castille  at  the  end 

•  For  the  name  of  this  hitherto  anonymous  poet  sec  The  Modern  Language 
Review  (July  1917),  pp.  357-8. 

*  Gil  Gonzalez  Davila,  Historia  de  la  Vida  y  Hechos  del  Rev  Don  Henriqve 
Tercero,  &c.  (Madrid,  1638),  p.  173.  The  name  was  a  common  one.  The 
Spanish  translator  of  Pero  Menino's  Livro  de  Cetreria,  Gongalo  Rodriguez  de 
Escobar,  may  have  been  a  relation.  There  was  also  a  fourteenth-century 
poet  called  Ruiz  de  Toro. 


EPIC    AND    LATER    GALICIAN    POETRY     79 

of  the  fourteenth  century.  But  for  all  his  weakness  and  folly 
he  seems  not  to  have  sunk  utterly  out  of  the  reach  of  finer 
feelings  ;  he  sang  various  episodes  of  his  life,  e.g.  when  he  went 
to  his  hermitage  {puso  se  beato),  in  lyrics  of  some  charm,  and 
addressed  the  nightingale  in  a  dialogue,  as  did  his  contemporary, 
Alfonso  Alvarez  de  Villasandino  {c.  1345-c.  1428).  This 
Castilian  Court  poet,  born  at  Villasandino  near  Burgos  and 
possessed  of  property  at  Illescas,  was  of  a  sleeker  and  more 
subservient  mind  than  Garci  Ferrandez  and  prospered  accord- 
ingly, en  onra  t  en  ben  e  en  alto  estado.  He  wrote  to  order  and 
was  considered  the  '  crown  and  king  of  all  the  poetas  e  trovadores 
who  had  ever  existed  in  the  whole  of  Spain  '.  This  extravagant 
claim  of  his  admirers  need  not  prevent  us  from  recognizing  that 
there  is  often  real  feeling  and  music  in  his  poems,  of  which  the 
Cancionero  de  Baena  has  preserved  over  twenty.  He  writes  in 
varying  metres  with  unfailing  ease  and  harmony,  rarely  sinks 
into  mere  verbal  dexterity,  and  well  deserves  to  be  considered 
the  best  of  these  later  Galician  poets.  Side  by  side  with  the 
lyric  the  cantiga  d'escarnho  continued  to  flourish.  Alfonso 
Alvarez  (C.  G.  C.  48)  upbraids  Garci  Ferrandez  for  renouncing 
the  Christian  faith  and  leaguing  himself  with  the  Devil  [gannaste 
privanga  do  demo  mayor)  ;  Pero  Velez  de  Guevara  ( 11420), 
uncle  of  the  Marques  de  Santillana,  addresses  a  satiric  poem  to 
an  old  ma'd,  and  an  anonymous  poet  in  a  vigorous  sirventes 
attacks  degenerate  Castille,  cativa,  mezela  Castela,  perhaps,  as 
Professor  Lang  thinks,  immediately  after  the  Portuguese  vic- 
tories of  Trancoso,  Aljubarrota,  and  Valverde  in  1385.  Five 
fragmentary  poems  belong  to  the  Infante  D.  Pedro  (1429-66), 
Constable  of  Portugal.  There  are,  besides  his  three  short 
Portuguese  poems  in  the  Cancioneiro  de  Resende,  only  forty- 
one  lines  in  all,  for  while  Galician,  already  separated  from 
her  twin  sister  of  Portugal,  went  to  sleep — a  sleep  of  nearly  four 
centuries — in  these  last  accents  of  her  muse  preserved  in  the 
Cancionero  de  Baena,  the  Infante  Pedro  turned  definitely  to 
the  new  forms  of  lyric  appearing  in  Castille.  As  a  transition 
poet  he  may  be  mentioned  here  before  his  father  D.  Pedro, 
Duke  of  Coimbra,  since  his  prose  works,  which  would  naturally 
place  him  with  his  father  and  with  D.  Duarte,  his  uncle,  belong. 


8o  1325-1521 

together  with  most  of  his  poetry  [prosas  and  metros)  to  Spanish 
literature.  By  stress  of  circumstance  rather  than  any  set 
purpose  he  inaugurated  the  fashion  of  writing  in  Castilian, 
a  fashion  so  eagerly  taken  up  by  his  fellow-countrymen  during 
the  next  two  centuries.  After  the  tragic  death  of  his  father 
at  Alfarrobeira  (1449)  he  escaped  from  Portugal,  of  which  his 
sister  Isabel  was  queen, ^  spent  the  next  seven  years  as  an  exile 
in  Castille,  and  after  returning  to  his  native  land  died  an  exile, 
but  now  as  King  of  Aragon  (1464-6).  His  life  of  thirty-seven 
years  was  thus  as  full  of  wandering  adventure  as  that  of  any 
troubadour  of  old.  To  him  Santillana  addressed  his  celebrated 
letter  on  the  development  of  poetry,  and  his  own  influence  on 
Portuguese  literature  was  important,  for  he  introduced  not  only 
a  new  style  of  poetry,  including  oitavas  de  arte  maior,  but  the 
habit  of  classical  allusion  and  allegory.  His  first  work,  Satira 
de  felice  e  infelice  vida,  was  written  in  Portuguese  before  he  was 
twenty,  but  re-written  by  himself  in  Castilian,  the  only  form 
in  which  it  has  survived.  This  firstfruit  of  his  studies  was 
dedicated  to  his  sister,  Queen  Isabel,  whose  death  (1455)  he 
mourned  in  his  Tragedia  de  la  Insigne  Reyna  Dona  Isabel  (1457), 
a  work  of  deep  feeling  and  some  literary  merit,  first  published 
by  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  444  years  after 
Queen  Isabel's  death.  His  longest  and  most  important  poem, 
in  125  octaves,  Coplas  del  menosprecio  e  contempto  de  las  cosas 
fertnosas  del  mundo  (1455),  reflects  the  misfortunes  of  his  life  and 
the  high  philosophy  they  had  brought  him.  Under  a  false 
attribution  to  his  father,  the  Duke  of  Coimbra  -  (his  Portuguese 
poems  were  also  wrongly  ascribed  to  King  Peter  I  of  Portugal, 
through  confusion  with  the  later  King  Peter,  of  Aragon),  it  was 
incorporated  in  the  Cancioneiro  de  Resende,  which  appeared  half 
a  century  after  the  Constable's  death. 

'  Another  sister,  D.  Philippa  de  Lencastre  (1437-97),  lived  in  retirement 
in  the  convent  of  Odivellas  near  Lisbon,  and  as  a  dedicatory  poem  to  her 
translation  of  the  Gospels  wrote  the  simple,  impressive  lines  beginning 
Non  vos  sirvo,  nnn  vos  amo, 
Mas  desejo  vos  amar. 
^  Cf.  Ribeiro  dos  Santos,  Obras  (MS.),  vol.  xix,  f.  205  :   A  /rente  de  todos  os 
Poetas  deste  Seculo  apparece  como  hum  Ds  [Deusi  da  Poezia  0  Infante  D.  Pedro, 
filho  do  Snr.  Rev  D.  Jodo  I .     In  reality  he  was  not  gifted  with  greater  poetical 
talent  than  his  brothers. 


§3 
The  Chroniclers 

The  father  of  Portuguese  history,  Fernam  Lopez  {c.  1380- 
c.  1460),  had  grown  up  with  the  generation  that  succeeded 
Aljubarrota,  and  from  his  earliest  years  imbibed  the  national 
enthusiasm  of  the  time.  He  had  himself  seen  Nun'  Alvarez  as 
a  young  man  and  the  heroes  who  had  fought  in  a  hundred 
fights  to  free  their  country  from  a  foreign  yoke,  and  he  had 
listened  to  many  a  tale  of  Lisbon's  sufferings  during  the  great 
siege.-"-  Since  1418,  at  latest,  he  was  employed  in  the  Lisbon 
Torre  do  Tombo  (the  State  Archives),  for  in  that  year  he  was 
appointed  keeper  of  the  documents  [escrituras)  there.  Sixteen 
years  later.  King  Duarte,  who  as  prince  encouraged  him  to 
collect  materials  for  the  work,^  entrusted  him  with  the  task  of 
writing  the  chronicles  of  the  Kings  of  Portugal  {poer  em  caronycas 
as  esiorias  dos  reys),  and  at  the  same  time  (March  19,  1434^) 
assigned  him  a  salary  of  14,000  reis.  His  work  at  the  Torre  do 
Tombo  covered  a  period  of  over  thirty  years.  He  won  and  kept 
the  confidence  of  three  kings,  was  secretary  to  Joao  I  {escrivam 
dos  livros)  and  to  the  Infante  Fernando  [escrivam  da  puridade), 
whose  will  exists  in  Lopez'  handwriting.'*  His  son  Martinho 
accompanied  the  Infante  to  Africa  as  doctor,  and  died  (1443) 
in  prison  soon  after  the  prince.  The  last  document  signed  by 
Lopez  as  official  is  dated  1451  ;  in  July  1452  he  seems  to  have 
resigned  his  position  at  least  temporarily,  and  on  June  6,  1454, 
he  was  definitely  superseded  by  Zurara  as  being  '  so  old  and 

.  '  Lopez  himself  was  probably  of  humble  birth.  It  appears  from  a  document 
presented  by  Dr.  Pedro  de  Azevedo  at  a  meeting  of  the  Sociedade  Portnguesa 
de  Estudos  Historicos  in  July  1916  that  his  wife's  niece  was  married  to  a  shoe- 
maker. 

^  Zurara,  Cron.  D.  Joam,  cap.  2. 

•i.e.  eighty-nine  years  before  the  first  English  translation  of  Froissart 
was  published.     Needless  to  say,  no  English  translation  of  Lopez  exists. 

'  A  facsimile  of  a  page  of  this  lengthy  document  is  given  in  Snr.  Braam- 
camp  Freire's  excellent  edition  of  the  Primeira  Parte  da  Crdnica  de  D.  Joam  I 
(1915)- 

2362  F 


82  1325-152I 

weak  that  he  cannot  well  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  post '.  That 
he  lived  for  at  least  five  years  more  we  know  from  the  existence 
of  a  document  (July  3,  1459)  referring  to  the  pretensions  of  an 
illegitimate  son  of  Martinho  which  Fernam  Lopez  rejected.^ 
Of  the  chronicles  of  the  first  ten  Kings  of  Portugal  written  by 
Lopez  2  only  three  survive :  the  Cronica  del  Rei  Dom  Joam  de 
boa  memoria,  Cronica  del  Rei  Dom  Fernando,  and  Cronica  del 
Rei  Dom  Pedro.  The  latter  is  but  a  brief  sketch,  and  lacks  the 
unity  which  the  subject-matter  gives  to  the  other  two.  His 
chronicles  of  the  seven  earlier  kings  disappeared  in  the  revised 
versions  of  subsequent  historians.  Although  they  no  doubt 
incorporated  large  slices  of  his  work  with  little  alteration,  the 
freshness  and  the  style  are  gone,  the  good  oak  hidden  beneath 
coats  of  paint.  It  was  a  proceeding  the  more  deplorable  in  that 
Lopez  had  been  at  great  pains  to  discover  and  record  the  truth, 
'  the  naked  truth  '.^  His  successor,  Zurara,  represents  him  as 
'anotable  person',  'a  manof  some  learning  and  great  authority';* 
he  travelled  through  the  whole  of  Portugal  to  collect  information 
and  spent  much  time  in  visiting  churches  and  convents  in  search 
of  papers  and  inscriptions,  while  King  Duarte  had  documents 
brought  from  Spain  for  his  use.  Whatever  sources  he  utilized, 
Latin,  Spanish,  or  Portuguese,  he  stamped  his  work  with  his 
own  individuality.  He  himself  frequently  refers  to  previous 
historians,  and  often  expresses  his  disapproval  of  their  methods.^ 
He  seems  to  have  drawn  largely  from  a  Latin  work  of  a  certain 
Dr.  Cristoforus.    Keenly  alive  to  the  dignity  and  responsibilities 

*  See  A.  Braamcamp  Freire,  ibid.,  pp.  xl-xlii. 

^  Fez  todas  as  chronicas  dos  Reis  td  seu  tempo,  come^ando  do  Conde  dom 
Henrique,  coma  prova  Damiao  de  Goes  (Caspar  Esta90.  V arias  Antigvidades 
de  Portugal  (1625),  cap.  21,  §  i)  ;  cf.  Goes,  Cron.  de  D.  Manuel,  iv.  38. 

'  Nosso  desejo  foi  em  esta  obra  escrever  verdade — nuamente — a  nua  verdade 
{Cr.  D.  Joam,  Prologo). 

*  Zurara,  Cr.  D.  Joam,  cap.  2.  Cf.  Lopez'  preface  to  his  Cr.  D.  Joam  : 
Oo  com  quamto  cuidado  e  diltgemfia  vimos  gramdes  vollumes  de  livros,  de  desvai- 
radas  lingtiagees  e  terras  ;  e  isso  meesmo  pubricas  escprituras  de  muitos  cartarios 
e  otitros  logares  nas  quaaes  depois  de  longas  vegilias  e  gramdes  trabalhos  mais 
(ertidom  aver  nom  podemos  da  contheuda  em  esta  obra  (19 15  ed.,  p.  2). 

*  tlsually  he  does  this  ^vithout  naming  the  offender,  but  he  refutes  the 
razoes  of  Martim  Afonso  de  Mello,  a  person  well  known  at  the  Court  of  King 
Joao  I  and  author  of  a  technical  book  on  the  art  of  war.  Da  Guerra  (see 
Zurara,  Cr.  D.  Joam,  cap.  99).  Mello  refused  the  governorship  of  captured 
Ceuta  in  141 5.  A  work  on  a  similar  subject,  Tratado  da  Milicia,  is  ascribed 
to  Zurara's  friend  and  patron.  King  Afonso  V  (Barbosa  Machado,  i.  19). 


THE    CHRONICLERS  83 

of  history,  he  was  anxious  that  his  work  should  be  well  ordered 
and  philosophical.^  He  has  been  called  the  Portuguese  Froissart, 
but  he  combines  with  Froissart's  picturesqueness  moral  philo- 
sophy, enthusiasm,  and  high  principles,  is  in  fact  a  Froissart 
with  something  of  Montaigne  added,  and  easily  excels  Giovanni 
Villani  or  Pero  Lopez  de  Ayala.  The  latter  must  descend  from 
the  pedestal  given  him  by  Menendez  y  Pelayo,^  since  he  only 
occasionally  rises  to  the  height  of  Fernam  Lopez,  as  in  the 
account  of  the  murder  of  the  Infante  Fradique,  which  Lopez 
copies  very  closely  (although  abbreviating  it  as  really  foreign  to 
his  history),  evidently  appreciating  such  dramatic  touches  as 
the  sentence  which  describes  how,  as  the  murdered  man  advanced 
through  the  palace,  ever  fewer  went  in  his  company.  By  the 
side  of  the  laborious  prose  and  precocious  wisdom  of  King 
Duarte  this  child  of  genius  seems  to  give  free  rein  to  his  pen, 
but  it  is  his  greatness  and  his  title  to  rank  above  all  contemporary 
chroniclers,  not  only  of  Portugal  but  of  Europe,  that  he  could 
combine  this  spontaneity  with  the  scruples  of  an  accurate 
historian,  and  be  at  once  careful  and  impetuous,  or,  as  Goes  calls 
him,  copious  and  discreet.  He  assigns  speeches  of  considerable 
length  to  the  principal  actors,  but  they  contain  not  mere  rhetoric  ^ 
but  arguments  such  as  might  well  have  been  used ;  and  the 
frequent  shorter  sayings  of  humbler  persons,  often  anonymous 
and  as  illuminating  as  graffiti,  have  the  stamp  of  truth  and 
bring  the  scenes  most  clearly  before  us.  Indeed,  every  sentence 
is  living ;  his  unfailing  qualities  are  rapidity  and  directness. 
Sometimes  the  sound  of  galloping  horses  or  the  loud  murmur 
of  a  throng  of  men  is  in  his  pages.  He  ever  and  anon  rivets  the 
reader's — the  listener's — attention  by  some  captivating  phrase, 
by  his  quaintly  expressed  wisdom,  by  his  personal  keenness  and 
delight  in  the  '  marvellous  deeds  of  God  '  {maravilhas  que  Deos 
faz)  or  in  the  actions  of  his  heroes  [Oo  que  fremosa  cousa  era  de 
veer  /).     His  chronicles  are  not  only  a  succession  of  imperishably 

*  Cy.  del  Rei  D.  Fern.,  cap.  2  :  a  ordenariQa  de  nossa  obra  ;  Cr.  D.  Joam, 
191 5  ed.,  p.  51  :  Certo  he  que  quaaesquer  estorias  muito  melhor  se  entemdem 
e  nembram  se  som  perfeitamente  e  hem  hordenadas  ;  Cr.  del  Rei  D.  Fern.,  cap. 
1 39  :  gnardando  a  regra  do  philosopho  [of  cause  and  effect]. 

^  Antologia,  iv,  p.  xx  :  Nada  hay  seme j ante  en  las  liter atur as  extranjeras 
antes  de  fin  del  siglo  xv.     The  words  apply  more  accurately  to  Fernam  Lopez. 

'  Leixados  os  compostos  e  afeitados  razoamentos  (Cr.  D.  Joam,  Prologo). 

F2 


84  1325-1521 

vivid  scenes — King  Pedro  dancing  through  his  capital  by  night, 
the  escape  of  Diogo  Lopez,  the  punishment  of  D.  Ines'  mur- 
derers, the  siege  of  Lisbon,  the  murder  of  D.  Maria  Tellez 
— but  describe  fully  and  with  skilful  care  the  character  of 
the  actors,  pleasure-loving  King  Ferdinand,  cunning,  audacious, 
and  accomplished  Queen  Lianor  Tellez,  wise  and  noble  Queen 
Philippa,  even  morose  Juan  I,  and  principally  the  popular 
Mestre  d'Avis  and  his  great  Constable,  Nun'  Alvarez  Pereira. 
And  the  Portuguese  people  is  delineated  both  collectively  and 
as  individuals,  in  its  generous  enthusiasm,  unreasoning  impetuo- 
sity, and  atrocious  anger.  That  Lopez  paid  attention  to  his 
style  is  proved  by  his  modest  disclaimer  bidding  the  reader 
expect  no  fremosura  e  afeitamento  das  pallavras,  but  merely 
the  facts  breve  e  sdamente  contados,  em  bom  e  claro  estilo.  His 
style  is  always  clear  and  natural,  the  serviceable  handmaid  of 
his  subject,  admirably  assuming  the  colour  and  sound  of  the 
events  described,  and  his  longest  sentences  are  never  obscure. 
He  wrote  his  history  on  a  generous  scale,  for  in  the  rapidity  of 
his  descriptions  this  inimitable  story-teller  preserved  his  leisure. 
His  last  chronicle  ended  with  the  expedition  to  Ceuta  (1415). 
The  kernel  of  that  chronicle  had  been  the  illustrious  deeds  and 
character  of  Nun'  Alvarez,  also  described  in  the  hitherto  anony- 
mous Coronica  do  condestabre  de  purtugal,  of  which  the  earliest 
edition  is  dated  1526.  Large  tracts  of  this  chronicle  are 
included,  with  alterations,  in  Lopez'  Chronicles  of  King  Fernando 
and  King  Joao  L  Dr.  Esteves  Pereira  and  Snr.  Braamcamp 
Freire  have  now  independently  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
is  the  work  of  Lopez,  clearly  an  earlier  work  ^  written  shortly 
after  the  death  of  Nun'  Alvarez  (1431),  i.  e.  before  he  concluded 
the  Cronica  de  D.  Fernando^  and  wrote  the  Cronica  de  D. 
Joam,  at  which  he  was  working  in  1443.^  We  are  forced  to 
accept  this  view,  although  of  course  it  is  no  argument  to  say 
that  the  conscientious  and  scrupulous  Fernam  Lopez  could  not 
be  a  plagiarist  since  it  was  the  duty  of  the  official  chronicler  of 
the  day  to  incorporate  the  best  work  of  other  historians.    Lopez' 

*  The  references  in  cap.  76  and  80  to  events  of  145 1  and  1461  are  evidently 
later  additions. 

'  Cf.  Cr.  do  Cond.,  cap.  14  and  15,  with  Cr.  del  Rei  Fern.,  cap.  166. 
'  A.  Braamcamp  Freire,  Cr.  de  D.  Joam  (191 5),  Inirodufdo,  p.  xxi. 


THE    CHRONICLERS  85 

authorship  is  borne  out  by  two  passages  which  at  a  first  glance 
seem  to  refute  it.  In  chapter  55  of  the  Cronica  de  D.  Joam  (1915 
ed.,  p.  120)  he  introduces  the  version  given  in  the  Cronica  do  Con- 
destahre  (cap.  22)  with  the  words  '  now  here  some  say  '  [ora  aqui 
dizem  algiis),  and  then  cites  hufi  outro  estoriador,  cujo  fallamento 
nosparege  mats  rrazoado,  i.e.  he  now  rejects  the  version  (of  algiis) 
which  he  had  adopted  in  his  earlier  work.  In  chapter  152 
(1915  ed.,  p.  281)  he  similarly  quotes  what  dizem  aqui  algiis  and 
then  the  version  of  huU  outro  compillador  destes  feitos,  de  cujos 
garfos  per  mais  largo  estillo  exertamos  nesta  obra  segundo  que 
compre,  rrecomta  isto  per  esta  maneira,  a  manner  which  is  not 
that  of  the  Cronica  do  Condestahre.  But  indeed  the  style  of  the 
two  works  is  conclusive.  A  single  age  does  not  produce  two 
Fernam  Lopez  any  more  than  it  produces  two  Montaignes  or 
two  Malorys.  Those  who  read  the  continuation  of  the  Cronica 
de  D.  Joam  ( i.  e.  the  Cronica  da  Tomada  de  Ceuta,  completed 
in  1450)  by  Gomez  Eanez  de  Zurara  {c.  1410-74)  find 
themselves  in  a  very  different  atmosphere.  We  are  told  ^  that 
this  soldier,  turned  historian,  acquired  his  learning  late  in  life, 
and  he  parades  it  like  a  new  toy.  Aristotle,  Avicenna,  and  all 
the  Scriptures  are  in  his  preface ;  Job,  Ovid,  Hercules,  and 
Xenophon,  a  motley  company,  mourn  the  death  of  Queen 
Philippa  (cap.  44).  Sermons  extend  over  whole  chapters, 
although,  as  he  is  careful  to  state,  the  exact  v/ords  of  the  preachers 
could  not  be  given.^  Philosophy  had  been  graciously  woven 
into  Lopez'  narrative,  but  here  it  stands  in  solid  icebergs 
interrupting  the  story.  And  if  he  wishes  to  say  that  memory 
often  fails  in  old  age  he  must  quote  St.  Jerome ;  a  date 
occupies   half  a  page,  being  calculated  in  nine  or  ten  eras  ;  ^ 

*  By  Matheus  de  Pisano  (whom  some  have  considered  the  son  of  Christine 
de  Pisan).  He  wrote  in  Latin:  De  Bello  Septensi  {Ined.  de  Hist.  Port., 
vol.  i,  1790),  Portuguese  tr.  Roberto  Correia  Pinto  :  Livro  da  Guerra  de 
Ceuta  (1916). 

-  Ndo  seja  porem  algum  de  tarn  simples  conhecimento  que  presuma  que  este 
I  o  teor  propria,  &c.  (cap.  95). 

'  But  he  can  also  be  picturesque  in  expressing  time  (like  Lopez,  who  for 
'early  morning  '  says,  '  at  the  time  when  people  were  coming  from  Mass  '), 
e.g.  Cr.  D.  Joam,  cap.  102  ad  fin.  :  Ceuta  had  been  captured  so  swiftly 
that  '  many  had  left  the  corn  of  their  fields  stored  in  their  granaries  and 
returned  in  time  for  the  vintage  '.  The  whole  description  of  the  expedition 
against  Ceuta  and  the  attack  and  sack  of  the  city  are  extremely  clear. 


86  1325-1521 

and  the  style  is  sometimes  similarly  inflated,  so  that  '  next 
morning  '  becomes  '  When  Night  was  bringing  the  end  of  its 
obscurity  and  the  Sun  began  to  strike  the  Oriental  horizon  ' 
(cap.  92).  He  also  delights  in  elaborate  metaphors.^  But  it 
must  not  be  thought  that  Zurara  is  all  froth  and  morals  :  in 
between  his  purple  patches  and  erudite  allusions  he  tells  his 
story  directly  and  vividly,  and,  what  is  more,  he  has  his  en- 
thusiasm and  his  hero.  Nun'  Alvarez  has  faded  into  the  back- 
ground, but  in  his  place  appears  the  intense  and  fervent  spirit 
of  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator.  His  partiality  for  Prince  Henry 
appears  in  the  Cronica  de  D.  jfoam,  and  in  his  Cronica  do 
Descohrimento  e  Conquista  da  Guine  it  is  still  more  evident.'^ 
In  this  chronicle,  written  at  the  request  of  King  Afonso  V  and 
finished  in  the  king's  library  in  February  1453,  he  made  use  of 
a  lost  Historia  das  Conquistas  dos  Portugueses  by  Afonso  Cerveira, 
and  profited  by  much  that  he  had  heard  from  the  Infantes  Pedro 
and  Henrique  and  other  makers  of  history.  For  Zurara  was 
a  sincere  and  painstaking  historian,^  and  when  the  king  bade 
him  record  the  deeds  of  the  Meneses  in  Africa  (the  Cronica  do 
Conde  D.  Pedro  de  Meneses  was  completed  in  1463,  and  the 
Cronica  dos  Feitos  de  D.  Duarte  de  Meneses  about  five  years 
later)  he  was  not  content  with  the  '  recollections  of- courtiers  ', 
but  set  out  for  Africa  (August  1467)  and  spent  a  whole  year 
there  gathering  material  at  first  hand.     An  affectionate  letter^ 

*  Cf .  Goes,  Cr.  D.  Manuel :  escrevia  com  razoamentos  prolixos  e  cheos  de 
tnetaforicas  figuras  que  no  estilo  historico  ndo  tern  lugar ;  Cr.  do  Princ. 
D.  Joam,  cap.  17  :  com  a  superfltia  abundancia  e  copia  de  palavras  poeticas 
e  metaforicas  que  usou  em  todalas  cousas  que  screveo.  His  style  is  less  involved 
than  is  often  said.  Some  of  his  sentences  may  contain  as  many  as  500  words 
and  yet  be  perfectly  plain  and  straightforward,  whereas  Mallarme  could  be 
obscure  in  five  words. 

*  Cf .  cap.  2  :  Oo  tu  principe  pouco  menos  que  devinal !  and  Tua  gloria,  teus 
louvores,  tua  fama  enchem  assi  as  minhas  orelhas  e  ocupam  a  minha  vista  que 
nam  sei  a  qual  parte  acuda  primeiro.  This  chronicle  has  the  same  plethora  of 
learned  quotations.  Chapter  i  quotes  St.  Thomas,  Solomon,  Tully,  the  Book 
of  Esther,  and  introduces  Afonso  V,  King  Duarte,  the  French  duke  Jean  de 
Lan^on,  the  Cid,  Nun'  Alvarez,  Moses,  Fabricius,  Joshua,  and  King  Kamiro. 

^  He  re-wrote  the  Cronica  do  Conde  D.  Pedro  de  Meneses  twice.  Joao  de 
Barros,  who  was  inclined  to  slight  earlier  and  contemporary  historians, 
acknowledges  his  great  debt  to  Zurara.  Damiao  de  Goes  regards  him  less 
favourably. 

*  November  22,  1467  {Coll.  Liv.  Ined.  iii.  3-5).  There  is  also  an  affection- 
ate letter  from  King  Pedro  of  Aragon  to  Zurara,  dated  June  11,  146O,  or  1460. 


THE    CHRONICLERS  87 

from  King  Afonso  to  the  historian  in  his  voluntary  exile  shows 
the  pleasant  relations  existing  between  the  liberal  king  and  his 
grateful  librarian.  He  praises  him  as  well  learned  in  the  arte 
oratoria,^  and  for  undertaking  of  his  own  free  will  a  journey 
which  was  imposed  on  others  as  a  punishment,  and  promises 
to  look  after  the  interests  of  his  sister  while  he  is  away.  Zurara 
was  a  Knightof  theOrderof  Christ, with  a  comendane2ir  Santarem, 
owned  other  property,  and  suffered  himself  to  be  adopted  by 
a  wealthy  furrier's  widow,  an  unusual  proceeding  for  a  person 
in  his  station.  But  if,  as  this  indicates,  he  had  a  love  of  riches 
(satisfied  by  the  king's  generosity  and  this  fortunate  adoption), 
this  in  no  way  interfered  with  his  work  of  collecting  and  verify- 
ing evidence  nor  affects  the  truth  of  his  chronicles.  He  had 
proposed  to  write  that  of  Afonso  V,  but  the  king,  wisely  con- 
sidering that  his  reign  was  not  yet  over,  Jrefused  his  consent,^ 
and  this  chronicle  was  reserved  for  the  pen  of  Ruy  de  Pina 
[c.  1440-1523  }).^  Herculano's  '  crow  in  peacock's  feathers  '  has 
been  somewhat  harshly  treated  by  modern  critics.  Not  he  but 
the  taste  and  fashion  of  his  time  was  to  blame  if  he  laid  desecrat- 
ing hands  on  the  invaluable  chronicles  of  Fernam  Lopez,  and 
thus  became  the  '  author  '  of  the  chronicles  of  the  six  kings, 
Sancho  I  to  Afonso  IV.  The  mischief  is  irreparable,  but  it  is 
well   at   least   that    these   chronicles   should  have    been   dealt 

*  Zurara,  on  the  other  hand,  with  feigned  diffdence  represents  himself 
as  '  a  poor  scholar  ',  '  a  man  almost  entirely  ignorant  and  without  any  know- 
ledge ',  and  if  he  has  any  learning  it  is  but  the  crumbs  from  King  Afonso's 
table  [Cr.  D.  Pedro,  cap.  2).  He  can  rise  to  real  eloquence,  as  in  the 
beginning  of  cap.  25  of  the  Cr.  da  Guin6  :  Oo  iu  cellestrial  padre,  que  com 
tua  poderosa  maao,  sent  movimento  de  tu  devynal  essencia,  governas  toda  a  in- 
fiinda  companhya  da  tua  sancta  cidade,  &c.,  or  sober  down  into  a  Tacitean 
phrase  such  as  that  of  cap.  26,  describing  the  fate  of  natives  of  Africa  brought 
to  Portugal  :  morriam,  empero  xrados  (they  died,  but  Christians).  He  has 
a  misleading  trick  of  saying  '  The  author  says — diz  0  autor  ',  meaning  himself. 

^  Nunca  me  em  ello  quis  leixar  obrar  segundo  meu  desejo  (Cr.  D.  Pedro, 
cap.  I). 

*  His  son  Fernam  de  Pina  became  Cronista  Mor  in  1523.  The  immediate 
successor  of  Zurara  as  Cronista  MSr  was  Vasco  Fernandez  de  Lucena, 
whose  life  must  have  coincided  almost  exactly  with  the  sixteenth  century. 
He  represented  King  Duarte  at  the  Council  of  Basel  in  1435,  and  according 
to  Barbosa  Machado,  who  calls  him  um  dos  varoes  mais  famosos  da  sua  idade 
assim  na  profundidade  da  litteratura  como  na  eloquencia  da  frase,  he  was 
still  living  in  1499.  Unfortunately  none  of  his  works  have  survived.  His 
manuscript  translation  of  Cicero's  De  Senectute  and  other  works  were  destroyed 
in  the  Lisbon  earthquake  (1755). 


88  1325-1521 

with  by  Ruy  de  Pina,  and  not,  for  instance,  by  the   uncritical 

DuARTE    Galvao    {c.   1445-1517),'    the   friend    of    Afonso    de 

Albuquerque,  who  died  in  the  Arabian  Sea  when  on  his  way  as 

Ambassador  to  Ethiopia,  and  who  as  Cronista  Mor  revised  the 

Cronica  de  D.  Afonso    Henriquez  (1727).      Ruy  de   Pina    has 

further  been  attacked  because  the  people  no  longer  figures,  and 

the  king  figures  too  prominently,  in  the  chronicles  for  which 

he  was  more  directly  responsible  :   Cronica  de  D.  Duarte,  Cronica 

de  D.    Afonso  V,    and  Cronica   de   D.    Jodo  II.      That    is    to 

censure  him  for  faithfully  recording  the  changed  times  and  not 

writing  as  if  he  were  his  own  grandfather.    Pina  was  no  flatterer, 

but  the  chronicle  of  Joao  II  inevitably  centred  round  the  king, 

and,  in  spite  of  its  excellence  and  of  the  moving  incident  of 

Prince  Afonso's  death,  is  less  attractive  than  those  which  are 

a  record  of  freer,  jollier  times.      Born  at  Guarda,  of  a  family 

originally  Aragonese,  Pina  served  as  secretary  on  an  embassy  to 

Castille  in  1482  and  on   two  subsequent  occasions,  and  in  the 

same  capacity  in  a  special  mission  to  the  Vatican  in  1484.     He 

became  secretary  [escrivao  da  nossa  camara)  to  King  Joao  II, 

and  succeeded  Lucena  as  Cronista  Mor  in  1497.     Both  King 

Joao   II    and   King  Manuel  showed   their  appreciation   of   his 

services,  and  Barros  lent  authority  to  a  foolish  story  that  Afonso 

de  Albuquerque  sent  him  rubies  and  diamonds  from  India  as 

a  reminder,  in  Correa's  phrase,  to  glorificar  as  coiisas  de  Afoiiso 

de  Albuquerque.     Ruy  de  Pina  in  his  chronicles  of  King  Duarte 

and  Afonso  V  used  material  collected  by  Fernam  Lopez  and 

Zurara,  and  he  in  turn  left  material  for  the  reign  of  King  Manuel 

of   which  Damiao   de  Goes  availed   himself,  while  his  Cronica 

de  D.  Jodo  II  was  laid  under  contribution  by  Garcia  de  Resende. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Cronica  de  D.  Afonso  V  contains 

much  that  is  not  Ruy  de  Pina's  own.     It  was  poetical  justice 

that  the  interest  of  the  story  should  be  transferred  from  the 

Infante  Henrique  to  the  Infante  Pedro. ^    His  death  and  that  of 

the  Conde  de  Abranches  at  Alfarrobeira  are  told  with  the  most 

impressive  simplicity,  which  produces  a  far  greater  effect  than 

»  Much  later,  in  the  first  third  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Caspar  Diaz 
DE  Landim  wrote  a  copiosa  relagao  from  a  point  of  view  unfavourable  to 
D.  Pedro  and  dedicated  it  to  the  Duke  of  Braganza  :  O  Infante  D.  Pedro, 
Chronica  Inedita,  3  vols.  (1893-4). 


THE    CHRONICLERS  89 

the  long  exclamagao  that  follows.  Lacking  Lopez'  genius,  but 
possessed  of  an  excellent  plain  style,  which  only  becomes  flowery 
on  occasion,  and  on  his  guard  against  what  he  calls  the  vicio 
e  avorrecimento  da  proluxidade,  Pina  relates  his  story  straight- 
forwardly, almost  in  the  form  of  annals.  He  does  not  attempt 
to  eke  out  his  matter  with  rhetoric  and  has  chapters  of  under 
fifty  words.  The  Cronica  de  D.  Afonso  V  effectively  contrasts 
the  characters  of  the  weak  and  chivalrous  Afonso,  who  is  praised 
as  man  but  not  as  king,  and  the  vigorous  practical  Joao  H,  and 
has  an  inimitable  scene  of  the  meeting  of  the  former  and  Louis  XI 
at  Tours  in  1476.  The  glow  of  Fernam  Lopez  is  absent,  but 
Pina  none  the  less  deserves  to  be  accounted  an  able  and 
impartial  historian. 

To  the  fifteenth  century  belongs  the  Cronica  do  Infante 
Santo.  It  is  impossible  to  read  unmoved  the  clear  and  unaffected 
story  of  the  sufferings  and  death  (1437-43),  as  a  captive  of  Fez, 
of  this  the  most  saintly  of  the  sons  of  King  Joao  I  and  Queen 
Philippa.  It  was  written  at  the  bidding  of  his  brother.  Prince 
Henry  the  Navigator,  with  the  skill  born  of  a  fervent  devotion, 
by  Frei  Joao  Alvarez,  an  eyewitness  ^  of  D.  Fernando's 
misfortunes  and  one  of  the  few  of  his  companions  to  survive 
(till  1470  or  later).  A  curious  indication  of  the  writer's  accuracy 
in  detail  is  the  correct  spelling  of  a  Basque  name,^  of  the  meaning 
of  which  he  was  probably  ignorant. 

The  founder  of  the  dynasty  of  Avis,  King  Joao  I  (1365- 
1433),  found  time  in  his  busy  reign  of  forty-eight  years  to 
encourage  literature,  ardently  assisted  no  doubt  by  English  Queen 
Philippa,  and  was  himself  an  author.  His  keen  practical  spirit 
turned  to  Portuguese  prose,  and  while  as  a  poet  he  confined 
himself  to  a  few  prayers  and  psalms,  in  prose  he  caused  to  be 
translated  the  Hours  of  the  Virgin  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
New  Testament,  as  well  as  foreign  works  such  as  John  Gower's 

'  Tudo  0  contheudo  no  siguiente  trautado  eu  o  uy  e  ouuy  (191 1  ed.,  p.  2). 

^  191 1  ed.,  p.  117:  Ichoa  (=  Blind).  The  fact  that  no  other  name  is  given 
shows  that  then  as  now  Basques  were  known  by  their  nicknames.  The  same 
name  figures  in  '  Pierre  Loti's  '  Ramuntcho  (1897)  :  Itchoua.  In  the  sixteenth 
century  Martim  Ichoa  and  Joao  de  Ychoa  appear  among  the  moradores  of 
King  Manuel's  household  (1518).  The  substantive  ichd  (—  armadilha),  derived 
from  ostiolum,  is  used  by  Diogo  Fernandez  Ferreira  [Arte  da  Ca(a)  and  Garcia 
de  Resende  (Cron.  Joao  II). 


90  1325-1521 

Confessio  Amantis  {c.  1383),  and  himself  wrote  a  long  treatise 
on  the  chase.  This  Livro  da  Montaria,  which  has  little  but  the 
title  in  common  with  Alfonso  XI's  Libro  de  Monteria,  lay  un- 
published for  four  centuries,  but  is  now  available  in  a  scholarly 
edition  by  Dr.  Esteves  Pereira  from  the  manuscript  in  the 
Lisbon  Biblioteca  Nacional.  Valuable  and  interesting  in  itself, 
this  book  is  of  great  significance  in  Portuguese  literature  by 
reason  of  the  impulse  thus  given  to  Portuguese  prose.  It  is 
impossible  as  yet  to  estimate  the  full  value  of  the  prose  works 
that  followed  :  many  are  lost,  others  remain  in  manuscript,  as 
the  Orio  do  Sposo  by  Frei  Herrnenegildo  de  Tancos,  or  the  Livro 
das  Aves.  But  with  King  Joao's  son  and  successor  Portuguese 
prose  came  into  its  kingdom. 

Punctilious  and  affectionate,  gifted  with  many  virtues  and 
graces,  the  half-English  King  Duarte  (1391-1438),/?  Eloquente, 
shared  the  high  ideals  of  all  the  sons  of  Joao  I.  Liable  to  fits 
of  melancholy,  and  of  less  active  disposition  than  his  brothers 
Henrique  and  Pedro,  he  proved  himself  not  less  gallant  in  action 
than  they  at  the  taking  of  Ceuta  in  1415,  and  had  even  earlier 
been  entrusted  by  his  father  with  affairs  of  State.  His  scruples 
as  philosopher-  or  rather  student-king  during  his  unhappy  reign 
of  five  years  may  have  hampered  his  decisions,  but  his  love  of 
truth  made  the  saying  palavra  de  rei  proverbial.  The  corroding 
cares  of  State  prevented  him  from  giving  all  the  time  he  would 
have  wished  to  literary  studies,  but  he  was  a  methodical  collector 
of  books  ^  and  papers  written  by  himself  and  others,  and  his  great 
work.  Leal  Conselheiro  {c.  1430),  consisted  of  such  a  collection  on 
moral  philosophy  and  practical  conduct,  addressed  to  his  wife, 
Queen  Lianor.  It  contains  102  chapters,  often  stray  papers, 
sometimes  translated  from  other  authors. ^  Besides  a  detailed 
consideration  of  virtues  and  vices  which  are  treated  with  an 
Aristotelian    precision,    and    always    with    preference    for    the 

.  '  The  extremely  interesting  list  of  liis  important  library  has  been  published 
in  Provas  Genealogicas,  i.  544,  in  the  1842  ed.  of  Leal  Conselheiro,  and  edited 
byDr.T.Bragain  Historiada  Univ.de  Coimbra,i.20g.  It  contained  O  Acypreste 
de  Fysa  {=  the  Archpriest  of  Hita)  and  O  Amante,  i.e.  the  translation  by 
Robert  Payne,  Canon  of  Lisbon,  of  Gower's  Confessio  Amantis. 

"  p.  9,  Fiz  tralladar  em  el  algiius  capitnllos  doutros  livros  :  the  Vita  Christi, 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Diogo  Afonso  Mangancha  on  Prudence,  Cicero,  De 
Officiis,  St.  Gregory. 


THE    CHRONICLERS  91 

Portuguese  as  opposed  to  the  latinized  word,  it  has  chapters 
on  the  art  of  translation, food,  chapel  services,  and  other  subjects.^ 
The  book  reveals  a  character  of  rare  charm,  combining  humility 
with  a  clear  instinct  for  what  was  right,  humanity  with  common 
sense.  His  literary  genius  was  akin  to  that  of  his  father ;  he 
scarcely  possessed  poetical  talent,  although  he  translated  in 
verse  the  Latin  hymn  Juste  Judex,  and  possessed  in  his  library 
a  Livro  das  Trovas  del  Rei,  in  all  probability  a  collection  of  the 
poems  of  others.  Wit  and  originality  he  also  lacked.  But  as 
a  prose-writer  he  ranks  among  the  greatest  Portuguese  authors, 
and  in  style  was  indeed  something  of  an  innovator,  using  words 
with  an  exactness  and  scrupulous  nicety  hitherto  unknown  in 
Portugal.  He  gave  the  matter  long  and  serious  consideration, 
and  the  directness  of  his  style  corresponds  to  his  sincerity  of 
thought.  His  clear,  concise  sentences  and  careful  choice  of  words 
show  a  true  artist  of  unerring  instinct  in  prose. ^  King  Duarte 
wished  to  be  read  as  Sainte-Beuve  recommended  that  one  should 
read  the  Caracteres  of  La  Bruyere  :  pen  et  souvent  {pauco  .  .  . 
tornando  alguas  vezes).  The  first  part  of  the  precept  has  been 
followed,  but  unhappily  for  Portuguese  prose  the  second  has 
been  neglected.  In  his  youth  the  king  was  noted  for  his  horse- 
manship, and  his  Livro  da  Ensinanga  de  bem  cavalgar  toda  sella 
is  a  practical  treatise  based  on  his  personal  experience  [nom 
screvo  do  que  ouvi,  as  he  says)  begun  when  he  was  prince,  laid 
aside  after  his  accession,  and  left  unfinished  at  his  death.  It  is 
remarkable,  like  the  Leal  Conselheiro,  for  the  excellence  of  its 
style  and  the  manly,  thoughtful  character  of  its  author.  But 
for  his  premature  death,  King  Duarte  might  have  done  for 
Portuguese  prose  what  Alfonso  X  and  Don  Juan  Manuel  had 
done  for  Castilian.  An  excellent  translator  himself,  he  encouraged 
translations  into  Portuguese,  in  Portugal  and  Spain  ;  the  Bishop 
of  Burgos,  Don  Alonso  de  Cartagena,  translated  Cicero  for  him, 

'  It  contains  papers  written  at  various  times  (between  1428  and  1438). 
The  date  1435  occurs  p.  474.  Cf.  p.  169,  King  Joao  I  (ti433),  citja  alma 
Deos  aja. 

^  His  modern  editor.  Jose  Ignacio  Roquette  (1801-70),  comments  (p.  sy) 
on  the  passage  he  bem  de  lavrar  e  criarem  as  a  great  grammatical  discordancia 
and  eno,  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  King  Duarte  did  not  omit  one 
of  the  personal  infinitives  deliberately,  for  the  sake  of  euphony,  as  the  -mente 
is  omitted  in  the  case  of  two  or  more  adverbs. 


92  1325-1521 

and  the  Dean  of  Santiago  Aristotle.  More  active  than  King 
Duarte,  more  Hterary  than  his  younger  brother  Prince  Henry 
the  Navigator  (1394-1460),  D.  Pedro  (1392-1449),  created 
Duke  of  Coimbra  after  the  capture  of  Ceuta  in  1415,  became 
almost  a  legendary  figure  owing  to  his  extensive  travels  (1424-8) 
— midou  as  sete  partes  do  mundo — and  his  equally  exaggerated 
reputation  as  a  poet,  through  confusion  with  his  son  the  Con- 
stable. Regent  from  1438  to  1448,  he  resigned  when  the  young 
king,  his  nephew  and  son-in-law,  Afonso  V,  came  of  age.  His 
enemies  succeeded  in  effecting  his  banishment  from  Court. 
Civil  strife  followed,  and  D.  Pedro  fell  in  a  preliminary  skirmish 
at  Alfarrobeira  in  May  1449.  Had  he  been  granted  a  peaceful 
old  age  he  would  probably  occupy  a  more  important  place  in 
Portuguese  literature.'  Apart  from  the  historical  value  of  his 
letters,  his  chief  claim  to  be  remembered  literarily  consists  in 
the  translations  from  the  Latin,  principally  from  Cicero,  under- 
taken under  his  supervision  or  by  himself  personally,  as  the 
De  Officiis,  which  was  dedicated  to  King  Duarte  and  is  still 
unpublished.  The  Trauctado  da  Uirtuosa  Benfeyturia  was 
originally  a  translation  by  the  prince  of  Seneca's  De  Beneficiis. 
Except  the  dedication  to  King  Duarte  (between  1430  and  1433), 
the  work  as  it  stands  in  six  books  is  properly  not  ■  D.  Pedro's, 
since  he  had  not  leisure  for  the  corrections  and  additions  which 
he  wished  to  make,  and  accordingly  handed  over  his  translation 
and  the  original  to  his  confessor,  Frei  Joao  Verba,  who  made 
the  necessary  alterations,^  and  expanded  the  book  from  a  literal 
translation  to  a  paraphrase  of  the  De  Beneficiis.  The  reader 
who  does  not  bear  this  in  mind  might  be  startled  to  find  refer- 
ences in  a  work  of  Seneca's  to  St.  Thomas,  Nun'  Alvarez,  the 
noble  knight  Abraham,  or  the  virtuous  knight  Cid  Ruy  Diaz. 
The  work  lacks  King  Duarte's  gift  of  style  which  set  the  Leal 
Conselheiro  high  above  contemporary  prose. 

Lopo  DE  Almeida,  created  first  Count  of  Abrantes  in  1472,^ 

'  Corregendo  e  acrecentando  0  que  entendeo  ser  compridoiro  acaboii  0  liuro 
adeante  scripto. 

^  DamiaodeGoes(C»'.  ^o  Pr.  D.  Joam,  cap.  88)  says  1476.  His  father  Diogo 
Fernandez  was  Reposteiro  Mor  at  the  Court  of  King  Duarte,  and  his 
mother  a  half-sister  of  the  Archbishop  of  Braga.  One  of  his  sons  was  the 
famous  and  unfortunate  Viceroy  of  India  (1505-9),  D.  Francisco  de  Almeida. 


THE    CHRONICLERS  93 

accompanied  D.  Lianor,  daughter  of  King  Duarte,  on  her 
marriage  to  the  Emperor  Frederick  HI  in  1451.  In  four  letters 
written  to  King  Afonso  V  from  Italy  (February  to  May  1452) 
he  displays  a  keen  eye  for  colour  and  much  directness  in  descrip- 
tion, so  that  the  Emperor  bargaining  miserly  over  the  price  of 
damask  or  the  two  wealthy  Italian  dukes  so  sorrily  horsed  {em 
sima  de  senhos  rocins  magros)  remain  in  the  memory,  and  the 
letters  are  more  original  than  most  of  the  Portuguese  prose  of 
the  century. 

One  of  the  most  important  early  prose  works  is  the  Boosco 
Delleytoso  (1515).  It  consists  of  153  short  chapters,*  and  is 
dedicated  (on  the  verso  of  the  frontispiece  portraying  the 
*  delightful  wood  ')  to  Queen  Lianor,  widow  of  King  Joao  II. 
It  is  a  homily  in  praise  of  the  hermit's  life  of  solitude  and  against 
worldly  joys  and  traffics,  and  is  marked  by  a  pleasant  quaint- 
ness,  an  intense  and  excellent  style,  a  fervent  humanity  and  love 
of  Nature.  The  hermit's  independent  and  healthy  life  ^  is  con- 
trasted with  that  of  the  merchant  in  cities.^  In  chapter  i  the 
repentant  sinner  is  introduced  in  '  a  very  thick  wood  of  very 
fair  trees  in  which  many  birds  sang  very  sweetly  '  near  '  a  very 
fair  field  full  of  many  herbs  and  scented  flowers ' — frolles  de  boo 
odor.  He  prays  to  be  delivered  from  this  darkness  of  death, 
and  a  very  fair  youth  appears  '  clothed  in  clothes  of  gleaming 
fire  and  his  face  shone  as  the  sun  when  it  rises  in  the  season  of 
great  heat  '.  His  '  glorious  guide  ',  grorioso  guyador,  leads  him 
to  a  dona  sabedor  and  to  dom  francisco  solitario,  who  in  a  fre?noso 
fallamento  praises  the  solitary  life  and  condemns  those  who  are 
puffed  up  with  the  conceit  of  learning,   in  itself  '  a  very  fair 

1  Seventy-four  black-letter  double  column  folios,  unnumbered,  of  fifty  lines 
each.  The  colophon  runs  :  Acaboiise  do  [so]  emprimir  este  lyuro  chamado 
boosco  delleytoso  solitario  p.  Hertna  de  capos  bomhardeiro  del  Rey  nosso  Sehor 
CO  gra^a  &  preuilegio  de  sua  alteza  em  ha  muy  nobrem  [so]  &>  sempre  leal  fidad 
[so]  de  lixboa  co  muy  grande  dilligencia.  A  no  da  encarnaga  de  nosso  ScUuador 
6-  Redentor  jhesu  xpo.  De  mil  6-  quinientos  &•  quinze  a  vinte  quatro  de 
Mayo  (Bib.  Nacional  de  Lisboa,  Res.  176  a  [lacking  f.  i]).  Nicolas  Antonio 
thus  refers  to  the  work  (Bib.  Nova,  ii.  402)  :  Anonymus,  Lusitanus,  scripsit 
&■  nuncupavit  Serenissimae  Eleonorae  Reginae  loams  II  Portugalliae  Regis 
Coniiigi  librum  ita  inscriptum.     Bosco  deleitoso.  Olisipone  1515. 

"^  He  can  do  ho  que  Ihe  praz  ;  at  sunrise  he  goes  up  alguii  outeiro  de  boo 
&  saaom  aar  far  from  the  delleytagooes  do  mundo,  arroydo  do  segre  and  as 
aiiollimentos  &•  trasfegos  das  fidades. 

'  The  malauefurado  negociador  que  qr  seer  rico  tostentete. 


94  1325-1521 

thing  '.  He  tells  of  the  lives  of  saintly  hermits  ;  St.  Bernard, 
St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  Dom  Seneca,  Dom  Cicero,  a  mui  com- 
fortosa  donzella,  and  others  exhort  the  sinner  to  leave  the  world, 
and  he  ends  by  relating  his  frequent  raptures  until  his  soul  is 
carried  to  the  terra  perduravil.  In  its  main  subject,  praise  of 
the  solitary  life,  the  book  recalls  the  title  of  the  treatise  ascribed 
to  D.  Philippa  de  Lencastre  :  Tratado  da  Vida  Solitaria, 
a  translation  or  adaptation  from  the  Latin  of  Laurentius  Jus- 
tinianus.^  The  latter's  De  J^ita  Solitaria  is,  however,  quite 
different  from  the  Boosco  deleytoso,  which  was  probably  composed 
before  the  birth  of  D.  Philippa  (1437). 

Another  remarkable  early  work  is  the  anonymous  Corte 
Imperial  (14th  or  early  15th  c),  the  language  of  which  often 
bears  traces  of  a  Latin  original.^  Many  of  its  sentences  are 
veritable  dohres  and  mordobres  in  prose, ^  and  to  a  superficial 
reader  will  have  little  meaning  ;  but  in  fact  this  mystic  treatise 
is  closely  reasoned.  It  may  have  some  connexion  with  similar 
works  by  Juda  Levi,  Ramon  Lull,  and  Don  Juan  Manuel.  In 
a  corte  or  parliament  the  Church  'Militant,  in  the  person  of 
a  '  glorious  Catholic  Queen  '  argues  with  Gentile,  Moor,  and  Jew 
on  the  nature  of  God  and  the  Trinity.  The  Gentiles  and  Moors 
gradually  accept  her  doctrines,  but  the  Jewish  rabbis  prove 
more  contumacious.  Saints  and  angels  and  all  the  company  of 
heaven  discourse  sweet  music  in  the  intervals  of  the  discussion. 
One  of  the  best  known  of  the  many  other  important  translations 
of  this  time  was  the  Flos  Sanctorum  (1513),*  which  begins  ^  with 
extracts  from  the  Gospels  and  has  a  [savour  of  the  Bible  about 
its  prose.  There  were  many  later  versions  of  the  Gospel  story, 
as  A  Paxd  de  Jesu  Christo  Nosso  Deos  e  Senhor,  &c.  (1551)  ; 

*  See  Grundriss,  p.  249,  and  Divi  Lavrentii  Ivstiniani  Protopairiarchae 
Veneti  opera  Omnia  (Coloniae,  1616),  pp.  728-70  :    De  Vita  Solitaria. 

*  Cf.  1910  ed.,  pp.  I,  4.  The  writer  claims  to  be  only  a  compiler  :  comedo 
este  livro  nom  como  autor  e  achador  das  cousas  em  elle  contheudas  mas  como 
simprez  aiuntador  dellas  em  huii  vellume.  It  has  been  attributed  to  the 
Infante  D.  Pedro  and  to  Joao  I. 

'  e.g.  p.  85  :  Ca  per  entender  entende  0  entendedor  e  per  entender  i  entendido 
0  entendido  e  0  entendedor  entende  que  elle  mesmo  i  Deos. 

*  The  title  is  simply //o  Flos  Sctorj  em  lingoaje  porgue\  The  colophon  says 
that  it  se  chama  ystorea  lombarda  pero  comuumente  se  chama  flos  sanctorum. 

'  Aqui  se  comefa  ha  payxam  do  eterno  Principe  christo  Jhesu  nosso  Senhor 
&'  saluador  segundo  os  sanctos  quatro  euangelistas. 


THE    CHRONICLERS  95 

Tratado  en  que  se  comprende  breue  e  deuotamente  a  Vida,  Paixdo 
e  Resurreigao,  &c.  (1553)  ;  Traatado  em  q  se  conte  a  paixam  de 
xpo,  &c.  (1589?).  But  the  earliest  and  most  splendid,  an 
incunable  of  which  Portugal  has  reason  to  be  proud  on  account 
of  its  beautiful  print,  is  the  Vita  Christi  (Lixboa,  1495),  trans- 
lated em  lingoa  materna  e  portugues  linguagem  from  the  original 
of  Ludolph  von  Sachsen  by  the  Cistercian  monk  Frei  Bernardo 
de  Alcobaga  (ti478  ?),  at  the  bidding  of  Queen  Isabel,  sister  of 
the  Constable  D.  Pedro,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 

(1445). 

Another  notable  translation  for  the  same  queen  is  the  Espelho 
de  Christina  {1^18), ^irom  the  French  of  Christine  de  Pisan  :  Livre 
des  trots  vertus  pour  V enseignement  des  princesses  (1497).  The 
Portuguese  manuscript,  translated  from  the  French  manuscript 
nearly  half  a  century  before  the  latter  appeared  in  print, ^  was 
published  at  the  bidding  of  Queen  Lianor  (wife  of  Joao  II), 
who  so  keenly  encouraged  Portuguese  art,  language,  and  litera- 
ture. Her  squire  Valentim  Fernandez'  version  of  Marco  Polo, 
Marco  Paulo,  was  published  at  Lisbon  in  1502,  The  Espelho 
de  Prefeygam  (1533)  was  translated  from  the  Latin  by  the 
Canons  of  Santa  Cruz,  Coimbra,  and  edited  by  Bras  de  Barros 
{c.  1500-59),  Bishop  of  Leiria  and  cousin  of  the  historian  Joao 
de  Barros.  A  Portuguese  version  of  a  scriptural  work  entitled 
Sacramental,  originally  written  in  Spanish  by  Clemente  Sanchez 
de  Vercial,  was  published  apparently  in  1488  (it  would  thus  be 
one  of  the  earliest  books  printed  in  Portugal),  and  was 
reprinted  at  Lisbon  in  1502. 

*  The  only  known  copy  exists  in  the  Bibhoteca  Nacional,  Lisbon.  The 
colophon  (in  Spanish)  gives  the  alternative  title  [das  tres  'virtudes) .  The 
French  original  was  also  called  Tresor  de  la  Cite  des  Dames. 

'  See  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos,  Lifoes  de  Philologia  Portuguesa,  p.  137. 


§4 
The  Cancionetro  Geral 

The  silence  that  falls  on  Portuguese  poetry  after  the  early 
Cancioneiros  lasts  for  over  a  century,  scarcely  interrupted  by 
the  twilight  murmurings  of  the  later  Galician  poets,  and  is  only 
broken  for  us  by  the  publication  of  the  Cancionetro  Geral  five 
years  before  the  death  of  King  Manuel.  The  native  trovas  had 
no  doubt  continued  to  be  written  by  many  poets  in  a  country 
where  poetry  is  scarcely  rarer  than  prose,  far  commoner  than 
good  prose.  But  no  one  had  cared  to  preserve  them  in  a  collec- 
tion corresponding  to  the  Cancionero  de  Baena  in  Spain.  When 
Portuguese  poetry  again  emerges  into  the  clear  light  of  day  Spanish 
influence  is  infuU  swing  and  behind  it  looms  that  of  Italian  poetry, 
the  natural  continuation  of  one  side  of  the  Cancionetro  da  Vati- 
cana.  No  Spanish  poet  now  writes  in  Portuguese,  many  Portu- 
guese in  Spanish.  Popular  poetry  and  royal  troubadours  have 
alike  disappeared,  leaving  a  narrow  circle  of  Court  .rhymesters. 
It  is  to  one  of  these  that  we  owe  the  collection  which  embraces 
the  poetry  of  the  day,  from  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 
to  the  actual  year  of  publication,  1516.  Stout,  good-natured 
Garcia  de  Resende  [c.  1470-1536),  a  favourite  alike  with  king 
and  courtiers,  often  the  butt  of  the  Court  poets'  wit — he  is 
a  tunny,  a  barrel,  a  wineskin,  a  melon  in  August — belonged  to 
an  old  family  which  in  the  sixteenth  century  distinguished  itself 
in  literature.  Born  at  Evora  and  brought  up  in  the  palace  as 
page  and  then  as  secretary  of  King  Joao  II,  he  had  every  oppor- 
tunity of  observing  the  events  which  he  so  graphically  describes 
in  his  Vida  de  Dom  Joao  II  (1545).^  Talented  and  many-sided, 
Resende  continued  in  high  favour  during  the  succeeding  reigns : 
in  1498  as  secretary  he  accompanied  King  Manuel  to  Castille 
and  Aragon,  and  in  15 14  was  chosen  for  the  much  coveted  post 

»  The  book  has  as  many  titles  as  editions,  that  of  1545  being  Lyuro  das 
Obras  de  Garcia  de  Resede  que  trata  da  vida  e  grddissimas  virtudes,  &c. 


THE    CANCIONEIRO    GERAL  97 

of  secretary  to  Tristao  da  Cunha's  mission  to  Rome  with  wonder- 
ful presents  for  Pope  Leo  X.  Resende  not  only  drew  and  wrote 
verses  but  was  a  musician  and  an  accomplished  singer  :  de  tudo 
intende  laughed  his  friend  Gil  Vicente.  Perhaps  it  only  required 
the  stress  of  adversity  to  inspire  to  greatness  this  blunted,  pros- 
perous courtier — fidalgo  da  casa  del  Ret.  He  was  not  a  great 
poet,  although  he  excelled  the  Court  poets  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  As  historian  he  has  been  unjustly  condemned.  If  in  his 
Chronicle  of  Joao  H  he  made  use  of  Ruy  de  Pina's  manuscript 
chronicle,  first  published  in  1792,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
it  was  customary  for  the  official  historians  to  regard  their  pre- 
decessors as  existing  mainly  for  purposes  of  plagiarism.  Hercu- 
lano  called  Resende's  chronicle  a  poor  bundle  of  anecdotes,^  and  no 
doubt  Resende  was  not  a  Herculano  nor  a  Fernam  Lopez  but 
a  more  limited  Court  chronicler.  He  is  none  the  less  delightful 
because  he  deals  not  in  tendencies  and  abstractions  but  in  con- 
crete details  and  persons.  Court  persons.  With  an  artist's  eye 
for  the  picturesque  he  makes  his  readers  see  the  event  described, 
and  his  chronicle  is  throughout  singularly  vivid  and  dramatic. 
He  is  certainly  an  attractive  writer,  and  perhaps  he  is  also 
instructive.  The  incident,  for  instance,  of  the  Duke  of  Braganza 
being  kept  waiting  while  a  scaffold  of  the  latest  Paris  pattern  is 
being  erected  for  his  execution  (1483),  which  a  grander  historian 
might  have  omitted,  is  possibly  not  without  its  significance  and 
shows  francesismo  in  action  four  centuries  before  Ega  de  Oueiroz. 
Besides  various  minor  works  in  prose  Resende  composed,  not 
without  misgiving,^  a  long  survey  of  the  events  of  his  day  in  some 
300  decimas  :  Miscellania  e  Variedade  de  Historias,  which  throws 
curious  and  valuable  light  on  the  times.  His  literary  work  was 
prompted  by  a  real  desire  to  serve  his  country.  His  delicate 
appreciation  of  the  past  appears  in  his  remarkable  and  charming 
verses  on  the  death  of  Ines  de  Castro  ;  and  wishing  in  so  far  as 
lay  in  his  power  to  remedy  the  Portuguese  neglect  which  had 
allowed  so  many  poems  and  records  and  gentilezas  to  perish,  he 
collected  what  he  could  of  past  and  present  poets  and  published 

'  Historiadores  Portugueses  in  Opusculos  (1907),  ii.  27.  The  author  of  the 
Theatrum  has  a  similar  verdict  :  Scripsit  Chronicam  loannis  II  ut  quidem 
potuit  sed  longe  impar  regis  et  rerum  niagnitudinis . 

*  Sent  letras  e  sem  saber,  he  says  modestly,  me  fui  nisto  meter. 
2362  G 


98  1325-1521 

them  in  one  great  volume  which  he  dedicated  to  the  Infante  Joao : 
Cancioneiro  Geral  (1516),  often  known  as  the  Cancioneiro  de 
Resende  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Spanish  Cancionero  General 
(1511).  Resende  wrote  to  the  poets  of  his  acquaintance  requesting 
them  in  verse  to  send  him  their  poems,  and  they  sent  him  answers, 
also  in  verse,  accompanying  their  poems.^  The  receipt  of  these 
he  would  acknowledge  as  editor,  promising,  still  in  verse,  to  have 
them  printed.  Politeness  no  doubt  induced  him  to  include  more 
than  his  judgement  warranted,  for  his  own  poems  are  superior 
to  those  of  most  of  his  contemporaries.  A  large  number  of  the 
Cancioneiro' s  poems — some  1,000  poems  by  between  100  and  200 
poets — should  scarcely  have  been  included,  for,  however  well 
they  might  answer  their  purpose  as  occasional  verse,  they  were 
not  intended  as  a  possession  for  ever,  and  massed  together  pro- 
duce an  effect  of  dull  and  endless  triviality.  These  love  poems 
can  indeed  be  as  monotonous,  the  satiric  poems  as  coarse,  licen- 
tious, and  irreverent,  as  those  of  the  Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana. 
One  of  the  poets,  D.  Joao  Manuel,  like  King  Alfonso  X  of  old, 
does  beseech  his  colleagues  to  cease  singing  of  Cupid  and  Macias 
and  turn  to  religious  subjects.  But  it  was  not  Garcia  de  Resende's 
purpose  to  include  religious  verse.  Poems  recording  great  deeds 
and  occasions  he  would  gladly  have  printed  in  larger  number,  but, 
as  he  (among  others)  complained  in  his  preface,  it  was  character- 
istic of  the  Portuguese  not  to  record  their  deeds  in  literary  form. 
Satiric  verses  he  included  in  plenty,  satire  being  one  of  the 
recognized  functions  of  the  poet's  art  :  per  trouas  sani  castigados.^ 
But  if  we  turn  to  the  poems  of  his  collection  we  are  amazed  by 
the  pettiness  of  the  subjects,  and  our  amazement  grows  when 
we  remember  that  this  was  the  period  in  the  world's  whole 
history  most  calculated  to  awe  and  inspire  men's  minds  with  the 
thought  of  vast  new  horizons.  While  Columbus  was  discovering 
America,  Bartholomeu  Diaz  rounding  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 

'  Or  he  would  seek  to  obtain  them  through  a  friend  as  in  the  case  of  o  Can- 
cioneiro do  abade  frei  Martinho  of  Alcobafa.  It  is  improbable  that  Resende, 
who  valued  friendship  above  good  poetry,  altered  the  manuscripts  he  received, 
in  spite  of  Francisco  de  Sousa's  permission  :   as  quaes  podeys  enmcndar. 

"  Prologo.  '  Had  you  forgotten  that  irovas  are  still  written  in  Portugal  ?  ' 
asks  Nuno  Pereira  of  one  of  his  victims  ;  and  of  a  dress  it  is  said  that  it 
would  be  certo  de  leuar  Trouas  de  riso  e  mole.  Cf.  the  phrase  dar  causa  a 
trov  adores. 


THE    CANCIONEIRO    GERAL  99 

Vasco  da  Gama  sailing  to  India,  or  Afonso  de  Albuquerque 
making  desperate  appeals  for  men  and  money  to  enable  him  to 
maintain  his  brilliant  conquests,  the  Court  poets  were  versifying 
on  an  incorrectly  addressed  letter,  a  lock  of  hair,  a  dingy  head- 
dress, a  very  lean  and  aged  mule,  the  sad  fate  of  a  lady  marrying 
away  from  the  Court  in  Beira,  a  quarrel  between  a  tenor  and 
soprano,  a  courtier's  velvet  cap  or  hat  of  blue  silk,  a  button 
more  or  less  on  a  coat,  the  length  of  spurs,  fashions  in  sleeves  : 
themes,  as  Jose  Agostinho  de  Macedo  might  say,  '  prodigiously 
frivolous'.  When  news  reached  Lisbon  of  the  tragic  death  of 
D.  Francisco  de  Almeida  and  of  the  defeat  of  Afonso  de 
Albuquerque  ^  and  the  Marshal  D.  Fernando  de  Coutinho  before 
Calicut,  with  the  death  of  the  latter,  Bras  da  Costa  wrote  to 
Garcia  de  Resende  that  at  this  rate  he  would  prefer  to  have  no 
pepper,  and  Resende  answered  that  for  his  part  he  certainly  had 
no  intention  of  embarking.  But,  as  a  rule,  such  events  received 
not  even  so  trivial  a  comment,  and  no  doubt  the  poets  felt  that 
the  verse  which  served  to  pass  the  time  at  the  seroes  was  in- 
adequate to  any  great  occasion.  But  the  trovador  segundo  as 
trovas  de  aquelle  tempo  ^  had  little  idea  of  what  subjects  were 
suitable  or  unsuitable  to  poetry.  A  typical  instance  of  the 
themes  in  which  they  delighted  is  an  event  which  seems  to  have 
produced  a  greater  impression  than  the  discovery  of  new  worlds  : 
the  return  from  Castille  of  a  gentleman  of  the  Portuguese  Court 
wearing  a  large  velvet  cap.  For  over  300  lines  of  verse  this  cap 
is  bandied  to  and  fro  by  the  witty  poets.  It  must  weigh  four 
hundredweight,  says  one.  Another  advises  him  to  lock  it  up 
em  arcaaz  until  he  can  turn  it  into  a  doublet ;  another  bids  him 
sell  it  in  the  Jews'  quarter.  Small  wonder,  chimes  in  a  fourth, 
that  no  galleys  come  now  with  velvet  from  Venice.^  '  I  would 
not  wear  it  at  a  serdo,  not  for  a  million, '  says  another.  '  A  Samson 
could  not  wear  it  all  one  summer,'  is  the  comment  of  a  sixth. 
Another  remarks  that  he  would  rather  read  Lucan  (or  Lucian) 

*  Or  Albuquerque  would  be  mentioned  in  a  game  of  Porqtte's  (why's) 
common  among  the  praguentos  da  India :  Porque  Afonso  d' Albuquerque 
Da  parens  a  el  rey  de  Fez  ? 

^  Zurara,  Cr.  de  D.  Joam,  cap.  29. 

*  The  Cancioneiro  contains  many  references  to  Venice.  The  pimenta  de 
Veneza  mentioned  in  one  of  the  poems  must  have  sounded  strange  to  Portu- 
guese readers  in  15 16. 

G  2 


100  1325-1521 

{antes  leria  por  lugam)  in  the  heat  of  the  day  than  wear  it. 
'  He  will  need  a  cart  to  bring  it  to  the  serdo,'  says  yet  another. 
The  wit,  it  will  be  seen,  is  not  brilliant,  although  it  may  have 
effectively  nipped  this  budding  Castilian  fashion  and  enlivened 
an  evening.  But  there  were  duller  contests.  For  score  on  score  of 
pages  the  rival  merits  of  sighing  and  of  loving  in  silence  arc  dis- 
cussed by  poet  after  poet  {0  Cuidar  e  Sospirar).  Such  a  subject 
once  started  tended  to  accumulate  verses  like  a  snowball.  But 
the  Cancioneiro  also  contains  poems  on  serious  topics,  although 
they  are  rarer,  as  well  as  delicate,  airy  nothings  {sutiles  nadas) 
like  Vimioso's  vilancetes}  There  are  two  poems  on  the  death  of 
King  Joao  II,  there  is  Luis  Anriquez'  lamentation  on  the  death  of 
the  Infante  Afonso  (1491),  that  of  Luis  de  Azevedo  on  the  death 
of  the  Infante  Pedro,  Duke  of  Coimbra,  at  Alfarrobeira,  and  a 
few  poets,  like  Resende  himself,  stand  out  from  the  rest.  Besides 
the  elaborate  Spanish  poem  by  that  noble  prince  the  Constable 
D.  Pedro  we  have  several  long  poems  dealing  with  high  matters 
of  the  soul  or  the  State.  The  sixty-one  interesting  stanzas  by 
the  querulous,  satirical,  intolerant  Alvaro  de  Brito  Pestana 
treat  of  the  condition  of  the  city  of  Lisbon  and  the  decay  of 
morals.  The  correspondent  of  Gomez  Manrique  and  contem- 
porary of  his  nephew  Jorge,  in  the  metre  of  whose  famous  Coplas 
he  wrote,  he  was  present  at  the  battle  of  Alfarrobeira.  His 
trovas  on  the  death  of  Prince  Afonso,  with  the  recurrent  choremos 
perda  tamanha,  are  wooden  and  artificial  and  his  sixteen  allitera- 
tive verses  scarcely  belong  to  literature,  but  at  least  he  chose 
themes  which  were  not  concerned  with  passing  Court  fashions. 
The  few  simple  lines  written  as  he  lay  dying  show  him  at  his 
best.2  His  friend  and  distant  relative  Fernam  da  Silveira, 
0  Coudel  Mor,  is  concerned  with  more  mundane  matters.  A  man 
of  noble  birth  and  high  character,  he  was  held  in  great  honour 
by  Afonso  V  and  Joao  II.  The  latter,  a  keen  judge  of  men,  had 
implicit  confidence  in  the  justice  of  this  upright  magistrate,  who 

*  e.  g.  Meu  bent,  sent  vos  ver  Se  vivo  urn  dia,  V'iver  nam  queria.  Caland' 
e  so/rendo  Meu  mal  sem  medida.  Mil  mortes  na  vida  Sinto  nam  vos  vendo, 
E  pois  que  vivendo  Moiro  toda  via,  Viver  nam.  queria. 

'  La  t'arreda  Satanas,  Cristo  Jesu  a  ti  chamo,  A  ti  amo,  Tu  Senhor  me 
salvards.  O  sinal  da  cruz  espante  Minha  torpe  teniafam,  Com  deuafam 
Espero  dir  adianie. 


THE    CANCIONEIRO    GERAL  loi 

was  also  a  soldier,  a  poet,  and  a  finished  courtier.  He  deals  with 
affairs  of  State,  writes  an  account  in  trovas  of  six  syllables  of 
the  Cortes  held  by  the  king  at  Montemor  in  1477  and  a  short 
poem,  on  the  appointment  of  various  bishops  in  1485.  Or  he  sends 
a  poem  to  his  nephew  Garcia  de  Mello  with  detailed  instructions 
as  to  how  he  should  dress  and  behave  at  Court.  His  trovas  are 
thoroughly  Portuguese,  vigorous,  concise,  and  picturesque.  He  is 
less  at  home  in  the  trovas  de  poesia  (i.  e.  de  arte  mayor)  written  on  a 
journey  from  Evora  toThomar,  but  he  could  skilfully  turn  a  short 
love  poem,  and  for  a  wager  of  capons  for  Easter  (with  Alvaro  de 
Brito)  wrote  a  stanza  containing  as  many  rhymes  as  it  has  words. 
In  fine  he  belonged  to  his  age,  but  his  poetry  bears  the  impress  of 
his  strong  character  and  his  love  of  Portuguese  ways.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  younger  brother  of  the  Conde  de  Cantanhede, 
D.  JoAO  DE  Meneses  (ti5i4),  wrote  indifferently  in  Portuguese 
or  Spanish.  He  fought  for  many  years  in  Africa,  although  his 
slight  love  poems,  fluent  and  harmonious,  give  no  sign  of  a  ]ife 
of  action,  and  died  in  the  expedition  against  Azamor.^  Another 
soldier,  courtier,  and  poet  marked  out  by  birth  and  ability  was 
D.  JoAO  Manuel  [c.  1460-99),  son  of  the  Bishop  of  Guarda. 
Legitimized  in  1475  and  brought  up  at  Court  with  the  prince 
Manuel,  he  continued  to  be  a  favourite  after  the  latter's  accession, 
became  Lord  High  Chamberlain,  and  was  sent  to  the  Court  of 
Castille  in  1499  to  arrange  the  marriage  of  the  king  with  the 
daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  In  Spanish  octaves  he  had 
written  a  lament  on  the  death  of  Prince  Afonso,  which  both  in 
feeling  and  technique  excels  the  verses  of  Alvaro  de  Brito  on  the 
same  subject.  Towards  the  end  of  his  poem  he  introduces  the 
saying  of  St.  Augustine  that  '  our  soul  exists  not  where  it  lives 
but  where  it  loves  ',  which  in  the  following  century  was  quoted 
by  two  writers  so  different  as  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos  and  Frei 
Heitor  Pinto  and  soon  became  a  commonplace.  In  other  works 
he  shows  a  high  seriousness,  sometimes  a  sententious  strain, 
combined  with  a  very  real  poetical  talent.  His  death  during  his 
mission  to  Castille  was  a  loss  for  the  Court  and  for  Portuguese 
poetry.    Byanotherwriter,  Fernam  da  Silveira  (11489),  we  have 

*  One  of  his  poems  has  the  heading  :    Ontro  vilanfete  sett  estado  em  Azamor 
antes  q  se  fynasse. 


102  I325-I52I 

but  a  few  poems,  the  principal  of  which  is  a  lament  for  his  own 
death,  in  the  metre  of  Manrique,  which  he  places  on  the  lips  of 
various  ladies  of  the  Court.  His  death  was  tragic,  for,  having 
succeeded  his  father  as  secretary  to  King  Joao  II,  he  took  part 
in  the  ill-fated  conspiracy  of  the  Duke  of  Viseu.  After  lying 
hidden  in  the  house  of  a  friend  he  fled  in  disguise  to  Castille  and 
thence  to  France,  but,  although  he  thus  succeeded  in  prolonging 
his  life  for  five  years,  the  king's  justice  relentlessly  pursued  and 
he  was  stabbed  to  death  at  Avignon.  A  favourite  of  Joao  II, 
especially  before  his  accession,  was  Nuno  Pereira  (fl.  1485), 
homem  galante,  cortesao  e  horn  trovador,  who  married  the  daughter 
of  the  Coudel  Mor  and  valiantly  sustained  the  part  of  Cuidar 
against  his  relative  Jorge  da  Silveira's  Sospirar  in  the  great 
literary  tournament  of  the  courtiers.  Later,  after  serving  as 
Governor  {Alcaide)  of  the  town  of  Portel,  he  retired  to  live  in 
the  country,  and  presents  a  happy  picture  of  himself  in  the  midst 
of  harvesters  and  pruners.  He  finds,  he  says,  more  pleasure 
in  his  vines,  in  the  chase,  in  digging  and  watering  his  garden, 
than  in  being  a  favourite  at  Court.  He  had  not  always  thought 
thus,  for  when  the  lady  he  was  courting  married  a  rival  he  could 
devise  no  worse  fate  for  her  than  to  bid  her  go  and  die  among 
the  chestnut  groves  of  Beira.  He  had,  indeed,  made  a  name  for 
himself  by  his  courtly  satire,  which  he  turned  to  good  use  in 
ridiculing  those  who  came  back  from  Castille  with  a  supercilious 
disdain  for  everything  Portuguese.  It  is  pleasant  to  find  him 
bidding  them  not  speak  their  '  insipid  Castilian  '  in  his  presence. 
DiOGO  Brandam  (ti53o)  of  Oporto  wrote  an  elaborate  poem  in 
octaves  on  the  death  of  King  Joao  II.  He  also  used  the  octo- 
syllabic metre  with  breaks  of  single  lines  [quehrados)  of  four 
syllables,  so  familiar  in  Gil  Vicente's  plays,  and  in  his  Fingi- 
mento  de  Amores[2y  verses  of  8  octosyllabic  lines),  under  Spanish- 
Italian  influence,  he  touches  a  richer,  more  generous  vein  of 
poetry  :  the  poet-lover  descends  into  the  region  of  Proserpine, 
the  dominion  of  Pluto,  and  sees  the  torments  of  Love's  followers. 
His  vilancete  to  the  Virgin  is  in  the  same  metre  with  the  difference 
that  the  verses  have  seven  lines  only  {abbaacc).  The  spirit  of 
Jorge  de  Manrique  is  absent  from  the  stanzas  written  in  the  metre 
of  his  Coplas  by  Luis  Anriquez  on  the  fatal  accident  which  ended 


THE    CANCIONEIRO    GERAL  103 

the  life  of  Prince  Afonso  in  his  teens.  His  lamentation  on  the 
death  of  King  Joao  H  is  written  in  octaves,  as  that  of  Diogo 
Brandam,  which  they  resemble.  Both  poets  invoke  Death  : 
0  morte  que  matas  quern  e  prosperado  (Brandam)  ;  O  morte  que 
matas  sem  tempo  e  sazam  (Anriquez).  Other  historical  poems 
by  Anriquez  in  the  same  metre  are  the  verses  written  on  the 
occasion  of  the  transference  of  the  remains  of  Joao  H  and  thirty- 
five  stanzas  addressed  to  James,  Duke  of  Braganza,  when  he 
left  Lisbon  with  his  fleet  to  attack  Azamor  in  15 13.  If  we  turn 
from  these  somewhat  heavy  pieces  to  Anriquez'  other  poems 
we  find  a  hymn  in  praise  of  the  Virgin,  written  more  in  the 
manner  of  Alfonso  X,  and  various  love  cantigas.  The  nephew 
of  D.  Joao  de  Meneses,  Joam  rroiz  de  saa,  that  is,  Joam 
Rodriguez  de  Sa  e  Meneses  (1465  ?-i576),  studied  in  Italy 
as  a  disciple  of  Angelo  Poliziano  (ti594)  and  died  a  cen- 
tenarian. He  wrote  a  poem  in  decimas  describing  the  arms  of 
the  noble  families  of  Portugal,  and  translated  into  trovas  three 
long  letters  from  the  Latin  which  by  their  spirit  of  saudade 
appealed  to  Portuguese  taste  :  Penelope  to  Ulysses,  Laodamia 
to  Protesilaus,  and  Dido  to  Aeneas.  He  was  also  versed  in  the 
Greek  language,  and  for  his  noble  character  and  courtly  ways 
as  well  as  for  his  learning  and  poetical  talent  was  venerated  by 
the  younger  generation  into  which  he  lived  :  Antonio  Ferreira 
salutes  him  as  the  '  ancient  sire  of  the  muses  of  this  land  '. 
The  '  most  discreet '  D.  Francisco  de  Portugal,  first  Conde 
de  Vimioso  (■|'i549),  although  he  did  not  live  to  be  a  centenarian, 
also  survived  most  of  the  poets  of  Joao  IPs  reign  and  died  towards 
the  end  of  that  of  Joao  HI.  Son  of  the  Bishop  of  Evora  and  great- 
grandson  of  the  first  Duke  of  Braganza,  he  was  created  a  count 
by  King  Manuel  in  1515,  and  was  equally  renowned  as  soldier, 
statesman,  courtier,  and  poet,  '  wise  and  prudent  in  peace  and 
war '.  His  Sentengas  (1605),  over  one  hundred  of  which  are  rhymed 
quatrains,  were  published  by  his  grandson  D.  Anrique  de  Portu- 
gal. Some  of  these  moral  sayings  have  considerable  subtlety, 
and  they  reveal  a  fine  character  and  insight  into  the  character 
of  others.^     Most  of  his  poems,   in  Spanish   and   Portuguese, 

'  e.g.  A  culpa  de  quern  se  ama  doe  mats  &■  perdoase  mais  asinha,  Nam  pede 
louvor  quern  o  merece.  Da  fee  nace  a  rezam  da  fee,  &c. 


104  1325-1521 

preserved  in  the  Cancioneiro  are  brief  cantigas  which  prove  him 
to  have  been  a  skiU'ul  versifier  and  a  typical  Court  poet.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  feehng  for  Nature,  a  constant  command  of  metre, 
and  a  certain  passionate  sadness  mark  out  an  earHer  poet, 
DuARTE  DE  Brito  (fl.  1490),  the  friend  of  D.  Joao  de  Menescs, 
from  most  of  the  other  writers  in  Resende's  song-book.  The 
redondilha  in  his  hands  is  no  wooden  toy  but  a  living,  moving 
instrument.  His  most  celebrated  poem,  em  que  conta  o  que  a  ele 
&  a  outro  Ihacontegeo  com  huu  rrousinol  &  muitas  outras  cousas 
que  vio,  is  written  after  the  fashion  of  Diogo  Brandam's  Fin- 
gimento  de  Amoves  and  Garci  Sanchez  de  Badajoz'  Infierno  de 
Amor,  in  imitation  of  the  Marques  de  Santillana's  El  Infierno 
de  los  Enamorados;  but  there  is  real  feeling  in  these  eighty  verses 
of  eleven  lines  (of  which  the  eighth  and  eleventh  are  of  four,  the 
rest  of  eight  syllables).  The  Italian  influence,  working  through 
Spanish,  was  already  present  in  Portuguese  poetry  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  although  Brito  writes  exclusively  in  redondilhas,  as 
indeed  does  the  introducer  of  the  new  style,  Sa  de  Miranda,  in 
the  few  and  short  poems  which  he  contributed  to  the  Cancio- 
neiro immediately  before  its  publication.  Duarte  de  Brito  did 
not  condescend  to  those  artificial  devices  which  give  us  in  this 
Cancioneiro  a  poem  of  sixty  lines  all  ending  in  dos,  alliterative 
stanzas,  and  other  verbal  tricks.  The  real  busmess  of  the  seroes, 
so  far  as  poetry  was  concerned,  was  ouvir  e  glosar  motes.  These 
glosas  and  the  similar  cantigas  and  esparsas,  short  poems  of  fixed 
form,  often  written  with  skill  and  spontaneous  charm,  were  merely 
one  of  the  necessary  accomplishments  of  a  courtier.  Such  a  view 
of  poetry  could  scarcely  give  rise  to  great  poets,  and  these  versi- 
fiers indeed  styled  themselves  trovadores,  reserving  the  name  of 
poet  for  those  who  wrote,  often  but  clumsily,  in  versos  de  arte 
mayor,  de  muita  poesia.  But,  worse  still,  the  poets  of  the  Can- 
cioneiro were  often  scarcely  Portuguese.*  Many  wrote  in  Spanish, 
and  Spanish  influence  is  to  be  found  at  every  turn  :  that  of  Juan 
de  Mena,  Gomez  and  Jorge  Manrique,  Rodriguez  de  la  Camara, 
Macias,  Santillana.    Unlike  Macias,  who  is  but  a  name,  Santillana 

*  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  goes  so  far  as  to  call  the  Portu- 
guese Cancioneiro  Geral  a  mere  supplement  or  second  part  of  the  Spanish 
Cancionero  General  {Estudos  sobre  o  Romanceiro,  p.  303). 


THE    CANCIONEIRO    GERAL  105 

is  not  mentioned,  but  his  influence  is  constantly  felt.  On  the 
other  hand,  King  Dinis,  unexpectedly  introduced  once  as  a  poet 
by  Pedro  Homem  (fl.  1490) — invoco  el  rei  dom  Denis  Da  licenga 
Daretusa — is  nowhere  imitated.  By  method,  subject,  and  foreign 
imitation,  this  Court  poetry  was  thus  inevitably  artificial  and 
uninspired.  Perhaps  in  the  whole  Cancioneiro  the  only  poem 
marked  by  authentic  fire  is  that  of  the  obscure  Francisco  de 
•  SousA — the  few  lines  beginning  0  monies  erguidos,  Deixai-vos  cair. 
The  contributions  of  Sa  deMiranda,  as  those  of  three  other  famous 
poets,  give  no  sign  of  the  coming  greatness  of  the  contributor. 
The  names  of  the  other  three  are  Bernardim  Ribeiro,  Cristovam 
Falcao,  and  the  prince  of  all  these  poets,  here  the  humblest  of 
Cinderellas,  Gil  Vicente. 


Ill     . 

The  Sixteenth  Century  [1503-80] 

§1 
Gil  Vicente 

In  Portugal  a  splendid  dawn  ushered  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
The  discovery  of  the  sea  route  to  India,  while  it  gave  an  impulse 
to  science  and  literature,  also  increased  religious  fervour,  since 
the  Portuguese  who  contended  against  the  Moors  in  India  were 
but  carrying  on  the  work  of  their  ancestors  five  centuries  earlier 
in  Portugal.  Old-fashioned  Portugal  thus  only  gradually  wel- 
comed the  Renaissance  and  stood  firm  against  the  Reformation. 
But  in  the  reign  of  Joao  III  (1521-57)  the  University  of  Coimbra 
came  to  be  one  of  the  best-known  universities  in  Europe.  Andre  de 
Gouvea  (11548),  whom  Montaigne  called  '  sans  comparaison  le 
plus  grand  principal  de  France',^  and  Diogo  de  Teive  returned 
from  the  College  de  Sainte-Barbe  to  inaugurate  its  studies,  and 
many  of  its  chairs  were  offered  to  distinguished  Portuguese  and 
foreign  scholars,  such  as  Ayres  Barbosa  (ti54o)  and  George 
Buchanan  (1506-82),  as  well  as  to  Portuguese  humanists  such  as 
Antonio  de  Gouvea  and  Achilles  Estago  (ti58i).  Nicholas 
Cleynarts  or  Nicolaus  Clenardus  (1493  or  1494-1542),  Professor 
of  Greek  and  Hebrew  at  Louvain,  came  to  Portugal  from 
Salamanca  as  tutor  to  the  Infante  Henrique  in  1533,  and  from 
Portugal  wrote  some  of  his  wittiest  letters.^  He  found  Coimbra 
a  second  Athens,  and  few  great  Portuguese  writers  of  the  century 
had  not  spent  some  years  there  or  at  the  University  before  it  was 
transferred  to  Coimbra  from  Lisbon  in  1537.  King  Joao  III  and 
especially  his  son,  the  young  prince  Joao  (1537-54),  Cardinal 
Henrique  (1512-80),  and  the  many-sided  Infante  Luis  (1506-55), 
favorecedor  de  toda  habilidad,  himself  a  poet  of  no  mean  order  ^ 

'  Essais,  I.  XXV. 

*  Nicolai  Clenardi  Episiolarum  libri  duo.    Antuerpiae,  1561. 

•  Several  fine  sonnets  have  been  ascribed  to  hini  (cf.  Fenix  Renascida, 
iii.  252,  H  or  as  breves,  and,  with  more  reason,  iii.  253,^  redeasulta  corre  o  pensa- 
mento),  as  was  also  Gil  Vicente's  Dom  Dttardus  and  a  manuscript  Tratado 
dos  modos,  proporfdes  e  medidas. 


GIL    VICENTE  107 

and  pupil  of  Pedro  Nunez,  eagerly  patronized  letters  ;  the  house- 
hold of  the  accomplished  Infanta  Maria  (1521-77)  became  the 
'  home  of  the  Muses  '  i;  learned  Luisa  Sigea  (fiS^o),  of  French 
origin,  but  born  at  Toledo  and  brought  up  in  Portugal,  wrote 
a  Latin  poem  in  praise  of  Syntra  ;  her  sister  Angela,  Joana  Vaz, 
and  Publia  Hortensia  de  Castro  were  likewise  noted  for  their 
learning,  and  D.  Lianor  de  Noronha  (1488-1563),  daughter 
of  Fernando,  Marques  de  Villareal,  did  good  service  to 
Portuguese  prose  by  her  encouragement  of  translations.  But 
Portuguese  literature  lost  something  by  its  latinization,  and 
it  is  pleasant  to  turn  back  half  a  century  to  a  time  when  it  was 
humbler  and  more  national.  The  '  very  prosperous  '  Manuel  I, 
Lord  of  the  Ocean,^  Lord  of  the  East,=^  had  been  seven  years  king, 
Vasco  da  Gama  had  returned  triumphantly  from  Calicut  (1497-9), 
Cabral  had  discovered  Brazil  for  Portugal  (1500),  Afonso  de 
Albuquerque  (ti5i5)  stood  on  the  threshold  of  his  career  of 
conquests  and  glory,  the  Portuguese  Empire  was  advancing 
from  North  Africa  to  China,*  the  gold  and  spices  were  beginning 
to  arrive  in  plenty  from  the  East,  and  hope  of  honour  and  riches 
was  drawing  nobleman  and  peasant  to  Lisbon,  when  Gil 
Vicente  [c.  1465-1536?)  introduced  the  drama  into  his 

dear,  dear  land, 
Dear  for  its  reputation  through  the  world. 

Dressed  as  a  herdsman  on  the  night  of  June  7,  1502,  he  con- 
gratulated the  queen  on  the  birth  of  the  Infante,  later  King 
Joao  III  (born  during  the  night  of  June  6),  in  a  Spanish  mono- 
logue of  114  lines.  This  speech  gives  promise  of  two  qualities 
apparent  in  his  later  work:  extreme  naturalness  (the  embarrassed 
peasant  wonders  open-mouthed  at  the  grand  palace  and  his 
thoughts  turn  at  once  to  his  village)  and  love  of  Nature  (mountain 
and  meadow  are  aflower  for  joy  of  the  new  prince  born).     But, 

•  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam,  Descripgao,  2*  ed.  (1785),  cap.  80  :  Da  habilidade 
das  molheres  portuguesas  para  as  letras  e  artes  liber aes.  Severim  de  Faria  speaks 
of  her  sancto  desejo  de  saber.  The  author  of  Dos  prinilegios  &  praerogatitias 
q  ho  genero  femenino  tern  (1557)  says  (p.  9)  :  se  pode  estranhar  esta  hidade 
na  qual  as  molheres  ndo  se  aplicam  aas  letras  e  sciencias  coma  faziam  as  antigas 
Romanas  e  Gregas. 

2  Gil  Vicente,  Obras  (1834),  ii.  414.  ^  Ibid.  iii.  350. 

*  Cf .  Joao  Rodriguez  de  Sa  e  Meneses  in  the  Cancioneiro  Geral  :  De  (^eita  atee 
OS  Chijs. 


io8  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

it  may  reasonably  be  asked,  where  is  the  drama  ?  It  consists 
principally  in  the  vaqueiro,  who  is  restless  as  one  of  the  wicked 
in  a  Basque  pastorale.  He  rushes  into  the  queen's  chamber, 
has  a  look  at  its  luxuries,  turns  to  address  the  queen,  declares 
that  he  is  in  a  hurry  and  must  be  going,  leaps  in  gladness,  and 
finally  introduces  some  thirty  courtiers  in  herdsman's  dress  who 
offer  gifts  of  milk,  eggs,  cheese,  and  honey.  There  is  little  in  this 
simple  piece — the  Visitagam,  or  Monologo  do  Vaqueiro — to  fore- 
shadow the  sovereign  genius,^  the  Plautus,  the  Shakespeare  ^  of 
Portugal  that  was  Gil  Vicente.  His  life  is  wrapped  in  obscurity, 
and  the  known  existence  of  half  a  dozen  contemporary  Gil  Vi- 
centes makes  research  a  risky  operation.  There  was  a  page 
(1475)  and  an  escudeiro  (1482)  of  King  Joao  II,  an  official  at 
Santarem,  a  Santarem  carpenter  (f  1500),  there  was  a  Gil  Vicente 
in  India  in  1512,^  and  a  Gil  Vicente  goldsmith  at  Lisbon.  We 
know  that  the  poet  spoke  of  himself  as  near  death  {visinho  da 
morte)  in  153 1,  although  apparently  in  good  health.  This  would 
seem  to  place  his  birth  a  few  years  before  1470.'*  Unfortunately 
the  Auto  da  Festa,  in  which  he  says  that  he  is  over  sixty,  is 
undated.  As,  however,  it  was  written  before  the  Templo  de 
Apolo  (1526)  we  may  place  it  probably  about  1525.  We  are 
thus  brought  back  to  about  the  same  date  {c.  1465).  Almost  cer- 
tainly he  was  not  of  exalted  parentage.^  Indeed,  he  would  appear 
to  have  been  slighted  for  his  humble  birth,  and  sarcastically  spoke 

'  M.  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Antologia,  vol.  vii,  p.  clxiii. 

*  A.  Herculano,  Historia  da  Inquisif&o,  3*  ed.  (1879),  i.  238.  Cf.  Camillo 
Castello  Branco,  A  Viuva  do  Enforcado,  ad  init.  No  one  of  course  thinks  of 
comparing  Gil  Vicente  with  Shakespeare,  but  one  may  perhaps  say  that  he 
resembles  what  Shakespeare  might  have  been  had  he  been  bom  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  shipwreck  in  the  Triunfo  do  Inverno  recalls  the  opening 
scene  of  The  Tempest,  as  the  mad  friar  recalls  poor  Tom,  and  the  magnificent 
fidalgo  Falstaff.  In  the  Farsa  de  Inis  Pereira  Ines,  without  being  a  shrew, 
is  tamed  by  her  husband,  who  says  : 

Se  eu  digo  :    Esto  e  novello 
Vos  aveis  de  confirmalo. 
»  In  1 5 1 3  Afonso  de  Albuquerque  writes  of  '  the  son  of  Gil  Vicente '  in  India. 

*  It  is  customary  in  Portugal  to  fix  the  date  of  his  birth  in  1470  owing 
to  the  statement  of  the  judge  in  the  Floresta  de  Enganos  (1536)  that  he — the 
judge — was  already  sixty-six.  It  is  a  method  which  might  lead  to  comical 
results  if  further  pressed  in  the  case  of  Vicente  or  other  dramatists.  Was 
Mello  seventy-three  when  he  wrote  the  Fidalgo  Aprendiz  ? 

*  '  A  gentleman  of  good  family '  (Ticknor)  ;  hijo  de  ilustres  padres  (Barrera  y 
Leirado);  na  qualidade  nobilissimo  (Pedro  de  Poyares). 


GIL    VICENTE  109 

of  himself  as  the  son  of  a  pack-saddler  and  born  at  Pederneira 
(Estremadura).^  He  may  have  been  the  son  of  Luis  Vicente  or 
of  Martim  Vicente,  '  said  to  have  been  a  silversmith  of  Guimaraes  ' 
(Minho).^  The  frequent  mention  of  the  province  of  Beira  is, 
however,  noticeable  in  his  plays.  If  it  were  only  that  his  peasants 
use  words  such  asnega,  nego,  which  according  to  the  grammarian 
Fernam  d'Oliveira  were  peculiar  to  Beira  (in  1536),^  it  might  pass 
for  a  dramatic  device,  since  Oliveira  remarks  that  old-fashioned 
words  will  not  be  out  of  place  if  we  assign  them  to  an  old  man  of 
Beira  or  a  peasant.*  Indeed,  the  grammarian  seems  to  have  had 
Gil  Vicente  especially  in  view  (he  mentions  him  in  another  con- 
nexion) since  three  of  the  six  words  that  he  notes — ahem,  acajuso, 
algorrem — occur  in  three  successive  lines  of  the  Barca  do  Pur- 
gatorio,  and  another,  samicas,  is  as  great  a  favourite  with  Vicente 
as  at  first  was  soncas,^  derived  from  Enzina.  But  it  is  impossible 
to  explain  all  the  references  to  Beira  by  the  supposition  that  heirdo 
is  equivalent  to  rustic  and  Beira  to  Boeotia,  for  Beira  and  the 
Serra  da  Estrella  intrude  constantly  and  indeed  pervade  his  work. 
He  shows  personal  knowledge  of  the  country  between  Manteigas 
and  Fundao,  and  we  may  suspect  that  it  was  in  order  to  connect 
'  Portuguese  Fame  desired  of  all  nations '  with  Beira  '  our 
province '  rather  than  with  rusticity  that  he  makes  her  keep 
ducks  as  a  mocinha  da  Beira.  We  do  not  know  when  Vicente 
came  to  Lisbon,  nor  whether,  as  Jose  de  Cabedo  de  Vasconcellos, 
another  (17th  c.)  genealogist,  would  have  us  believe,  he  became 

*  iii.  275.     Pederneira  is  mentioned  again  in  ii.  390  and  iii.  205. 

^  The  authority  is  Cristovam  Alao  de  Moraes  in  his  manuscript  Pedatura 
Lusitana  (1667)  (No.  441  in  the  Public  Library  of  Oporto).  This  genealogist, 
says  Castello  Branco,  era  as  vezes  ignorante  e  outras  vezes  mal  intencionado. 
He  does  not  say  that  Martim  Vicente  exercised  his  alleged  profession  of  silver- 
smith at  Guimaraes,  or  that  Gil  was  bom  there.  What  more  probable  than  for 
Guimaraes,  proud  of  its  poetical  traditions,  to  invent  a  silversmith  father 
for  the  famous  poet-goldsmith  ?  Pedro  de  Poyares,  Tractado  em  louvor  da 
villa  de  Barcellos  (1672),  says  that  Gil  Vicente,  em  tempo  de  D.  Jodo  0  terceiro 
poeta  celehre,  foi  natural  de  Barcellos  e  andam  algumas  cousas  suas  impressas. 

'  Grammatica,  ed.  1871,  p.  118. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  81 .  See  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos,  Gil  Vicente  e  a  Lingnagem  Popular, 
1902.  Feo,  Trattados  Quadragesimais  (i6i9),f.  10,  mentions  the  somsonete  de 
pronunciafao  of  the  ratinhos. 

'  Soncas  occurs  no  less  than  seven  times  in  the  brief  Auto  Pastoril  Castelhano. 
It  occurs  twice  in  the  first  twenty-eight  lines  of  one  of  Enzina's  eclogues 
{Canctonero  de  todas  las  obras  (Carag09a,  1516),  f.  Ixxviii,  and  again  f.  Ixxviii 
verso  and  Ixxx) . 


no  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

the  tutor  {mestre  de  rhetorica)  of  King  Manuel,  then  Duke  of 
Beja.  Of  his  life  at  Lisbon  our  information  is  almost  as 
meagre.  We  know,  of  course,  that  he  accompanied  the  Court 
to  Evora,  Coimbra,  Thomar,  Almcirim,  and  other  towns  to 
set  up  and  act  in  his  plays,  that  besides  acting  in  his  plays 
he  wrote  songs  for  them  and  music  for  the  songs.  We  know 
that  he  received  considerable  gifts  in  money  and  in  kind 
both  from  King  Manuel  and  from  Joao  HI,  in  whose  reign 
he  complains  of  being  penniless  and  neglected.  Some  hold  that 
he  married  his  first  wife,  Branca  Bezerra,  in  15 12,  that  he  owned 
the  Quinta  do  Mosteiro  near  Torres  Vedras  (a  supposition  no 
longer  tenable),  that  the  name  of  his  second  wife  was  Melicia 
Rodriguez,  but  we  have  no  certainty  as  to  this,  nor  as  to  the 
number  of  his  children.  The  accomplished  Paulabecame  musician 
and  lady-in-waiting  to  the  Infanta  Maria  before  the  death  of  her 
father,  whom  she  helped — runs  the  legend — in  the  composition 
of  his  plays,^  as  she  helped  her  brother  Luis  in  editing  them  in 
1562.  From  a  document  concerning  another  brother,  Belchior, 
we  know  that  Gil  Vicente  {sen  pae  que  Deus  haja)  died  before 
April  16,  1540.  There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  he  died  in 
the  year  of  his  last  play  (1536)  or  early  in  1537.  From  his  asser- 
tion that  the  mere  collection  of  his  works  was  a  great  burden  to 
his  old  age^  we  might  judge  him  to  have  been  very  oM,  but  he 
may  have  been  worn  out  with  labour  in  many  fields  and  his  health 
had  not  always  been  good.  He  suffered  from  fever  and  plague, 
which  brought  him  to  death's  door  in  1525,  and  he  had  grown 
stout  with  advancing  age.  An  incident  at  Santarem  on  the 
occasion  of  the  great  earthquake  of  1531,  so  vividly  described  by 
Garcia  dc  Resende,  shows  him  in  a  very  attractive  light,  for 
by  his  personal  prestige  and  eloquent  words  he  succeeded  in  re- 
straining the  monks  and  quieting  the  half-maddened  populace, 
and  thus  saved  the  '  new  Christians '  from  ill-treatment  or 
massacre. 

•  A.  dos  Reis,  Entkusiasmus  Poelictis  {Corpus  III.  Poet.  Lus.,  torn,  viii,  pp. 
18-19):  Quern  iuvisse  ferunt  vehtt  olim  Polla  maritum.  Manuel  Tavares, 
Portugal  illustrado  pelo  sexo  fcminino  (1734),  calls  her  a  discretissima  mulher. 

*  Com  muita  pena  de  minha  velhice.  Ruy  de  Pina  calls  a  man  mui  vclho 
whose  father  (King  Joao  I)  would  have  been  but  ninety-one  in  that  year 
{Cr.  de  Afonso  V,  cap.  105).  Cf.  Jorge  Ferreira,  Ulysippo,  iii.  3  :  vclho  se  pode 
chamar  pais  vai  aos  cincoenta  anos. 


GIL    VICENTE  iii 

We  know  a  little  more  about  him  if  \vc  identify  him  with 
Gil  Vicente,  the  goldsmith  of  Queen  Lianor  (1458-1525),  sister 
of  King  Manuel  and  widow  of  King  Joao  II,  whose  most  famous 
work  is  the  beautiful  Belem  monstrance,  wrought  of  the  first 
tribute  of  gold  from  the  East  (from  Quiloa  or  Kilwa).^  The 
probabilities  in  favour  of  identity  are  so  convincing  that  we  are 
bound  to  assume  it  unless  an  insuperable  obstacle  presents  itself. 
Our  faith  in  manuscript  documents  and  genealogies  is  not  in- 
creased by  the  fact  that  one  investigator,  the  Visconde  Sanches 
de  Baena  (1822-1909),  emerges  with  the  triumphant  conclusion 
that  the  two  Gil  Vicentes  were  uncle  and  nephew,  while  another, 
Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  declares  that  they  are  cousins.  Perhaps 
we  may  be  permitted  to  believe  in  neither  and  to  restore  Gil 
Vicente  to  himself.  For  indeed  this  was  a  singular  instance  of 
cousinly  love.  The  goldsmith  wrote  verses  ;  the  poet  takes 
a  remarkable  interest  in  the  goldsmith's  art.^  The  goldsmith 
is  appointed  inspector  [vedor)  of  all  works  in  gold  and  silver  at 
the  convent  of  Thomar,  the  Lisbon  Hospital  of  All  Saints,  and 
Belem.  The  poet  is  particularly  fond  of  referring  to  Thomar,^ 
and  in  its  convent  in  1523  staged  his  Farsa  de  Ines  Pereira  (who 
lived  at  Thomar  with  her  first  husband),  while  at  the  Hospital  of 
All  Saints  was  played  the  Barca  do  Purgatorio  in  15 18.  The  gold- 
smith was  in  the  service  of  the  widow  of  Joao  II,  Queen  Lianor, 
who  mentions  two  of  his  chalices  in  her  will ;  the  poet  at  the 
request  of  the  same  Queen  Lianor  wrote  verses,  probably  in  1509, 
in  a  poetical  contest  about  a  gold  chain  and  was  encouraged  by 
her   to  write  his  early  plays.*     The  goldsmith  was  Mestre   da 

'  See  Barros,  Asia,  i.  vi.  7.  Beckford  has  glowing  praise  for  'this  gold 
custodium  of  exquisite  workmanship  '  :  '  Nothing  could  be  more  beautiful 
as  a  specimen  of  elaborate  Gothic  sculpture  than  this  complicated  enamelled 
mass  of  flying  buttresses  and  fretted  pinnacles  '  {Italy,  with  Sketches  of  Spain 
and  Portugal,  Paris,  1834). 

^  Reference  to  gold,  jewels,  sapphires,  pearls,  rubies  is  frequent  in  his  plays. 
The  goldsmith  in  the  Farsa  das  Almocreves  uses  the  technical  word  hastiaes 
which  occurs  in  the  Livro  Vermelho  of  Afonso  V  :  E  porqiie  alguns  Ouriueses 
tern  ora  feita  algua  prata  dourada  e  de  bastiaes.  It  occurs,  however,  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Geral  (galantes  bastiaes),  in  Resende's  Miscellania  (bestides),  and 
other  writers. 

^  Cf.  i.  127,  130;    ii.  391,  488;    iii.   151,  379. 

*  An  unfortunate  interpolation  by  the  1834  editors  in  the  rubric  of  the 
Auto  da  Sibila  Cassandra  was  largely  responsible  for  the  belief  that  his 
patroness   was  not  Queen  Lianor   but   King  Manuel's    mother  D.   Beatriz. 


112  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Balan<;a  from  1513  to  1517;  the  poet  goes  out  of  his  way 
to  refer  to  os  da  Aloeda,  familiarly  but  not  as  one  of  them,  in 
1521.  He  henceforth  devoted  himself  more  ardently  to  the 
literary  side  of  his  genius,  speaks  of  himself  as  Gil  Vicente  who 
writes  autos  for  the  king,  and  with  an  occasional  sigh*  that 
he  can  no  longer  afford  to  stage  his  plays  as  splendidly  as  of  old 
(in  KingManuel's  reign)  produces  them  with  increasingfrequency. 
'  Had  Gil  Vicente  been  a  goldsmith  and  a  goldsmith  of  such  skill,' 
said  the  late  Marcelino  Menendez  y  Pelayo  (1856-1912),  'it 
would  have  been  impossible  for  him  to  leave  no  trace  of  it  in  his 
dramatic  works  and  for  all  the  contemporary  writers  who  speak 
of  him  to  have  kept  complete  silence  as  to  his  artistic  talent.'^ 
But  his  work  is  essentially  that  of  an  artist  (Menendez  y  Pelayo 
himself  well  calls  him  an  alma  de  artista)  ^  :  involuntarily  one 
likens  his  sketches  to  some  rough  terra-cotta  figure  of  Tanagra 
or  sculpture  in  early  Gothic,  and  his  lyrics  are  clear-cut  gems, 
a  thing  very  Vare  in  Portuguese  literature.  Intensely  Portuguese 
in  his  lyrism  and  his  satire,  he  is  almost  un-Portuguese  in  the 
extreme  plasticity  of  his  genius.  Concrete,  definite  images 
spring  from  his  brain  in  contrast  to  the  vaguer  effusions  of  most 
Portuguese  poets.  And  if  Queen  Lianor's  goldsmith,  like  the 
troubadour  ourives  Elias  Cairel,  or,  to  come  to  the  fifteenth  century, 
like  Diogo  Fernandez  and  Afonso  Valente  of  the  Cancioneiro  de 
Resende,*  set  himself  to  write  verses,  this  would  call  for  no  com- 
ment. Every  one  wrote  verses.  Had  a  celebrated  poet — say  the 
Gil  Vicente  of  1520 — wrought  the  custodia  his  contemporaries 
might  have  recorded  the  fact,  but  Gil  Vicente  was  not  a  famous 

Yet  the  rubric  of  the  Auto  dos  Quafro  Tempos  say?  clearly  that  a  sobredila 
senhora  is  King  Manuel's  sister. 

*  Mas  ja  ndo  auto  hofi  Coma  os  autos  que  fazia  Quando  elle  tinha  com  que 
{Auto  Pastoril  Portugues,  i.  129). 

*  Antologia,  vii,  p.  clxvi.  It  should  be  said  that  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  the 
late  General  Brito  Rebello,  and  the  late  Dr.  F.  A.  Coelho  agree  with  Menendez 
y  Pelayo.  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  even  declares  that  he  can  prove  an  alibi. 
D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  opposed  identity  in  1894,  and  has 
not  definitely  expressed  herself  in  its  favour  since.  On  the  other  hand, 
Snr.  Braamcamp  Freire  is  a  convinced  supporter  of  identifying  poet  and 
goldsmith.  '  Antologia,  vii,  p.  clxxvi. 

*  And  later  Jeronimo  Correa  (ti66o)  at  Lisbon,  author  of  Daphne  e  Apollo 
(Lisboa,  1624)  and  other  prosaic  verses,  Xavier  de  Novaes  (1820-69)  ^t  Oporto, 
and  others.  Perhaps  the  gold-beater  of  Seville,  Lope  de  Rueda  (1510  ?-65), 
whose  pasos  are  akin  to  Vicente's /arsas,  was  fired  by  his  example  and  success. 


GIL    VICENTE  113 

poet  when  the  custodia  was  begun  in  1503.  Stress  was  therefore 
naturally  laid  on  the  plays  of  Gil  Vicente  the  goldsmith,  not  on 
the  art  of  Gil  Vicente  the  poet.  The  historian  Barros  refers  in 
1540  to  Gil  Vicente  comico,'^  and  since  1517  he  had  certainly  been 
more  comico  than  ourives.  But  the  comico  who  was  dramatist 
and  lyric  poet,  musician,  actor,  preacher  in  prose  and  verse, 
may  also  have  been  a  goldsmith.  His  versatility  was  that  of 
Damiao  de  Goes  a  little  later  or  of  his  own  contemporary  Garcia  de 
Resende,  with  genius  added.  The  fact  that  the  official  document 
in  which  Gil  Vicente  lavrador  da  Rainha  Lianor  is  appointed  to 
his  post  in  the  Lisbon  Casa  da  Moeda  (Feb.  4,  1513  ^)  has  above 
it  a  contemporary  note  Gil  V'"  trouador  mestre  da  balaga  should 
in  itself  be  conclusive  evidence  that  the  poet  was  the  goldsmith 
of  the  queen.  This  modest  but  intimate  position  at  Court 
accords  well  with  what  we  know  of  the  poet  and  with  the  produc- 
tion of  his  plays.  The  offerings  at  the  end  of  the  Visitagam  seem 
to  have  suggested  to  Queen  Lianor  the  idea  of  its  repetition  on 
Christmas  morning,  but  Gil  Vicente,  considering  its  matter  in- 
appropriate, wrote  a  new  play  with  parts  for  six  shepherds.  This 
Auto  Pastoril  Castelhano  is  four  times  as  long  as  the  Visitagam. 
The  shepherds  pass  the  time  in  dance  and  song,  games,  riddles, 
and  various  conversation  (the  dowry  of  the  bride  of  one  of  them 
is  catalogued  in  the  manner  of  Enzina  ^  and  the  Archpriest  of 
Hita).  To  them  the  Angels  announce  the  birth  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  they  go  to  sing  and  dance  before  aquel  garzon.  The  principal 
part,  that  of  the  mystic  shepherd  Gil  Terron,  '  inclined  to  the  life 
contemplative  ',  well  read  (letrudo)  in  the  Bible,  with  some 
knowledge  of  metaphysics  and  perhaps  of  the  Corte  Imperial, 
devoted  to  Nature  and  the  sierras  benditas,  was  evidently  played 
by  Gil  Vicente  himself.  A  fortnight  later,  for  the  Day  of  Kings, 
he  had  ready  the  Auto  dos  Reis  Magos  (1503),  again  at  the  re- 
quest of  Queen  Lianor,  who  had  '  been  very  pleased '  with  what 
Vicente  himself  called  a  pobre  cousa.  This  brief  interval  of  time 
limited  the  length  of  the  new  play.  Its  action  is  as  slight.  A 
shepherd  enters  who  has  lost  his  way  to  Bethlehem.     He  meets 

^  Dialogo  em  lovvor  de  nossa  linguagem,  1785  ed.,  p.  222. 
^  Registers  of  the  Chancellery  of  King  Manuel  (vol.  xlii,  f.  20  v.)  in  the 
Torre  do  Tombo,  Lisbon.  '  Cf.  Cancionero,  i.  Ixxxvi  v. 

2362  H 


114  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

another  shepherd  and  then  a  hermit,  whom  they  ply  with  irreve- 
rent problems.  To  them  enters  a  knight  of  Araby,  and  finally 
the  three  kings,  singing  a  vilancete.  The  Auto  da  Sihila  Cas- 
sandra has  been  assigned  to  the  same  year,  but  is  probably  a  later 
play  (15 13  ?).  Nearly  twice  as  long  as  the  Auto  Pastoril  Caste- 
Ihano,  it  combines  the  ordinary  scenic  display — todo  0  apparato — 
of  a  Christmas  representagdo  with  a  presentment  of  the  early 
prophecies  now  to  be  fulfilled,  and  introduces  Solomon,  Isaiah, 
Abraham,  and  Moses,  who  describes  the  creation  of  the  world. 
The  play  includes  a  profane  theme,  since  Cassandra  in  her  mystic 
aversion  from  marriage  realistically  portrays  the  sad  life  of 
married  women  in  Portugal.  Although  Cassandra  appears  as 
a  shepherdess  and  her  aunt  Peresica  as  a  peasant,  they  speak 
a  purer,  more  flowing  Castilian  than  the  toscos,  rusticos  pastores 
of  the  preceding  autos,  and  the  play  is  remarkable  for  the  beauty 
of  its  lyrics — Dicen  que  me  case  yo,  Sanosa  estd  la  nina,  Muy 
graciosa  es  la  doncella,  and  A  la  guerra.  For  the  Corpus  Christi 
procession  of  1504  was  provided,  at  short  notice  from  Queen 
Lianor,  the  Auto deS.  Martinho.  The  subject  of  this  piece,  merely 
ten  dodecasyllabic  oitavas  followed  by  a  solemn  prosa,  is  that 
of  El  Greco's  marvellous  picture — St.  Martin  dividing  his  cloak 
with  a  beggar,  whom  Vicente  treats  with  characteristic,  sympathy 
and  insight  : 

(jCriante  rocio,  que  te  hicc  yo  ^ 
Que  las  hiervecitas  fioreces  por  Mayo 
Y  sobre  mis  carnes  no  echas  un  sayo } 

The  Auto  dos  Quatro  Tempos,  of  uncertain  date,  acted  before  the 
Court  in  the  Lisbon  palace  of  Alcagova  on  Christmas  morning 
in  or  after  15 11,  opens  with  a  mystic  ode  on  the  Nativity  and 
a  vilancete  [A  ti  dine  de  adorar)  and  proceeds  rapidly  with 
snatches  of  song  in  a  splendid  rivalry  between  the  four  seasons. 
The  praises  of  Spring  are  sung  with  a  delightful  freshness,  as 
are  Winter's  rages,  while  Summer  in  a  straw  hat  appears  sallow 
and  fever-stricken.  Jupiter  comes  with  countless  classical  allu- 
sions and  David  with  much  Latin,  and  they  all  worship  together 

'  An  effective  instance  of  a  line  shortened  by  emotion.  The  long  pause 
on  tardus  in  Oo  morte  que  tardas,  quien  te  detien  ?  is  equally  impressive,  but 
the  1562  ed.  has  de  quien  and  Vicente  may  have  written  Oo  morte  que  tardas, 
di  (  quien  te  detien  ? 


GIL    VICENTE  115 

the  new-born  King.  Very  different  is  the  Auto  da  Alma,  written 
for  Queen  Lianor  and  acted  in  King  Manuel's  Lisbon  palace 
of  Ribeira  on  the  night  of  Good  Friday,  1518  (Snr.  Braam- 
camp  Freire's  plausible  suggestion  in  place  of  the  commonly 
accepted  1508).  It  represents  the  eternal  strife  between  the  soul 
and  sin.  The  soul,  slowly  journeying  in  the  company  of  its 
guardian  angel,  is  alternately  tempted  by  Satan  with  the  delights 
of  the  world,  with  fine  dresses  and  jewels,  and  exhorted  by  the 
Angel,  till  it  arrives  at  the  Church,  the  Innkeeper  of  Souls,  and 
confesses  its  guilt,  imploring  protection  [Ach  neige,  du  schmer- 
zenreiche  !).  Then,  while  Satan  in  a  restless  fury  of  disappoint- 
ment makes  a  last  effort  to  secure  his  victim,  the  ransomed  soul 
is  fortified  with  celestial  fare  served  by  St.  Augustine  and  other 
doutores.  The  w'hole  theme,  to  which  the  language  rises  fully 
adequate,  is  treated  with  great  delicacy  and  with  a  mystic 
fervour. 

In  1505  King  Manuel  and  his  Court  in  his  Lisbon  palace  had 
witnessed  the  first  of  those  farsas  in  which  Gil  Vicente  has 
sketched  for  all  time  Portuguese  life  in  the  first  third  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  rapidly  became  popular  and  went  from 
hand  to  hand  as  a  folha  volante,  receiving  from  the  people  the 
name  of  Quem  tem  farelos  ?  i.e.  the  first  three  words  of  the  play. 
The  plots  of  the  tv^eWt  farsas  written  from  1505  to  1531  are  so 
slight  that  only  one  calls  for  detailed  notice,  the  Farsa  de  Ines 
Pereira^  (1523),  which  in  its  carefully  defined  characters  and 
developed  story  more  closely  resembles  a  modern  comedy.  It 
tells  how  the  hapless  Ines,  having  rejected  a  plain  suitor  for 
a  more  romantic  lover,  a  poor  but  deceptive  escudeiro  presented 
to  her  by  two  Jewish  marriage  agents,  learns  by  bitter  experience 
the  truth  of  the  old  proverb  that  '  an  ass  that  carries  me  is  better 
than  a  horse  that  throws  me  '.  But  the  types  and  persons  in 
all  these  farces  are  etched  with  so  much  realism  and  humour  that 
they  bite  into  the  memory  and  rank  with  the  living  malicious 
sketches  of  Lazarillo  de  Tormes.  Who  can  forget  the  famished 
escudeiro  Aires  Rosado  with  !his  book  of  songs  (cancioneiro)  and 

'  Auto  de  Ines  Pereira  in  the  1562  ed.  So  Auto  dos  Almocreves.  It  will, 
however,  be  convenient  to  call  them  farsas,  since  auto  is  a  more  general 
term  applicable  to  all  the  plays. 

H  2 


ii6  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

guitar,  continuing  to  sing  beneath  the  window  of  his  love  while 
the  curses  of  her  mother  fall  thick  as  snowfiakes  on  his  head,^ 
or  the  lady  of  his  affections,  vain  and  idle  Isabel,  or  his  servant 
[nio^o]  Apari^o  who  draws  so  cruel  a  picture  of  his  master,  or 
that  other  penniless  escudeiro  who  considers  himself  '  the  very 
palace  '  and  calls  up  his  mogo  Fernando  at  midnight  to  light 
the  lamp  and  hold  the  inkstand  while  he  writes  down  his  latest 
verses  ?  -  Equally  well  sketched  is  the  splendid  poverty-plagued 
fidalgo  who  walks  abroad  accompanied  by  six  pages,  but  can- 
not pay  his  chaplain  or  his  goldsmith;  his  ill-used,  servile, 
ambitious  chaplain  ^  ;  the  witch  Genebra  Pereira  mixing  the 
hanged  man's  ear,  the  heart  of  a  black  cat,  and  other  grim 
ingredients:  Algnidar,  alguidar^  que  feito  foste  ao  luar'^;  the 
household  of  the  Jewish  tailor  who  delights  in  songs  of  battles- 
at-a-distance  and  is  filled  with  pride  when  the  Regedor  salutes 
him  in  the  street^;  M.  Diafoirus'  lineal  ancestors  Mestres  Anrique, 
Felipe,  Fernando,  and  Torres^;  the  sporting  priest'^;  the  unfaith- 
ful wife  of  the  Portuguese  who  has  embarked  for  India  with 
Tristao  da  Cunha  ;  the  vainglorious,  grandiloquent  Spaniard  who 
takes  the  opportunity  to  pay  his  court  to  her.^  They  are  all 
drawn  from  life  with  a  master  hand,  even  the  more  insignificant 
figures,  the  girl  keeping  ducks,  the  mogos,  the  gipsy  horse-dealers,^ 
the  old  man  amorous,^"  the  carriers  faring  leisurely  along  with 
their  mules,  the  braggart  who  disables  six  of  his  fourteen  imaginary 
opponents,  the  Frenchman  and  Italian  with  their  stock  phrases 
Par  ma  foi,  la  belle  France,  tiitti  quanti,^^  the  wily  and  impudent 

*  Quern  tem  farelos  ? 

^  O  Jtiiz  da  Beira,  a  continuation  suggested  by  the  success  of  the  Farsa 
de  Inds  Pereira  and  acted  at  Almeirim  in  1525. 

'  Farsa  dos  Almocreves  (or  do  Fidalgo  Pobre)  acted  at  Coimbra  (1525). 
It  is  curious  to  compare  the  sterner  type  of  chaplain  denounced  in  Don 
Quixote.  *  Auto  das  Fadas  (151 1). 

s  Auto  da  Lusitania  (1532)  acted  in  honour  of  the  birth  of  Prince  Manuel 
( 1 5  3 1 ) .  *  Farsa  dos  Fisicos  ( 1 5 1 2) . 

'  O  Clerigo  da  Beira  (1529  ?).  *  Auto  da  India  (1509). 

'  Farsa  das  Ciganas  (or,  in  the  1562  edition.  Auto  de  huas  ciganas),  a  very 
slight  sketch  acted  in  a  scram  before  the  king  at  Evora  (1521). 

»»  O  Velho  da  Horta  (1513). 

"  Auto  da  Fama  (Lisbon).  Its  date  has  been  given  as  15  10,  but  internal 
evidence  shows  that  it  is  later,  probably  1515  or  15 16  (although  perhaps 
prior  to  the  knowledge  of  Albuquerque's  death  in  India  (December  16,  1515) 
since  so  splendid  a  paean  in  honour  of  the  Portuguese  victories  would  be  out 
of  place  afterwards). 


GIL    VICENTE  117 

negro,  the  poor  ratinho  ^  Gongalo,  who  loses  his  hare  and  capons 
and  his  clothes  as  well,  the  page  of  peasant  birth  ambitious  to 
become  a  cavaleiro  fidalgo,  the  roguish  and  pretentious  palace 
pages.  Side  by  side  with  these  farces  Vicente  continued  to 
write  religious  aiUos  as  well  as  comedies  and  tragicomedies. 
The  difference  between  these  various  pieces  is  less  of  kind  than 
of  the  occasion  on  which  they  were  produced,  the  obras  de  de- 
vagdo  on  Christmas  morning  or  other  solemn  day,^  the  farsas  de 
folgar,  comedias,  &c.,  at  the  evening  parties — those  famous 
seroes  of  King  Manuel's  reign  to  which  the  courtiers  thronged  at 
dusk,  and  which  Sa  de  Miranda  remembered  with  regret.^  All 
provide  us  with  realistic  sketches  since  the  backgrcjund  is  filled 
with  the  common  people,  the  real  hero  of  Gil  Vicente's  plays  as  it 
is  of  Fernam  Lopez'  chronicles.  Thus  the  Auto  da  Mofina  Mendes 
(Christmas,  1534),  besides  its  heavenly  gloria  with  the  Virgin, 
Gabriel,  Prudence,  Poverty,  Humility,  and  Faith,  has  a  very 
life-like  peasant  scene  in  which  Mofina  Mendes,  personifying 
Misfortune,  represents  a  Portuguese  version  of  Pierrette  et  son  pot 
au  lait.  The  Auto  Pastoril  Portugues  (Christmas,  1523)  is 
a  similar  scene  of  peasant  life,  relating  the  cross-currents  of 
the  shepherds'  loves  and  the  finding  of  an  image  of  the  Virgin 
on  the  hills.  The  Auto  da  Feira,  acted  before  King  Joao  at  Lisbon 
in  1527,  is  a  more  elaborate  Christmas  play.  Mercury,  Time, 
Rome,  and  the  Devil  attend  a  fair,  and  this  furnishes  opportunity 
for  a  vigorous  attack  upon  the  Church  of  Rome,  wath  her  indul- 
gences for  others  and  her  self-indulgence,  who  has  not  the  kings 
of  the  Earth  but  herself  to  blame  if  she  is  rushing  on  ruin,  ruin 
that  will  be  inevitable  unless  she  mends  her  ways.  But 
to  the  fair  also  come  the  peasants  Denis  and  Amancio,  as  dis- 
satisfied with  their  wives  as  their  wives  are  dissatisfied  with  them 
(their  conversation  is  most  voluble  and  natural),  and  market- 
girls,  basket  on  head,  come  down  singing  from  the  hills.    Another 

'  =  labourer  from  Beira.  He  figures  in  comedy  as  the  slow-witted  (or 
malicious)  clod-hopper,  to  the  delight  of  an  urban  audience. 

*  In  the  palace  (at  Lisbon,  Almeirim,  Evora)  or  in  convents  (Enxobregas, 
Thomar,  Odivellas),  once  (as  part  of  a  procession)  in  a  church  (Auto  de 
S.  Martinho). 

^  Os  momos,  os  seroes  de  Portugal 

Tam  fallados  no  mundo,  onde  sao  idos, 
E  as  gra9as  temperadas  do  seu  sal  ? 


ii8  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Christmas  play,  the  Auto  da  F^,  was  acted  in  the  royal  chapel  at 
Almeirim  in  15 lo,  and  consists  of  a  simple  conversation  between 
Faith  and  two  shepherds.  The  Breve  Summario  da  Historia 
de  Deos^  (1527)  and  the  Auto  da  Cananea  (written  for  the 
Abbess  of  Odivellas  in  1534)  are  both  based  on  the  Bible  ; 
the  former,  which  contains  the  vilancete  sung  by  Abel  [Adorae 
mo)itanhas),  outlines  the  story  of  the  Fall,  of  Job,  and  of  the 
New  Testament  to  the  Crucifixion,  sometimes  in  passages  of 
great  beauty.  The  latter  develops  the  episode  of  the  woman 
of  Canaan  (Matt.  xv.  21-8).  The  great  trilogy  of  Barcas, 
which  ranks  among  Vicente's  most  important  works,  is  of  earlier 
date.  The^  first  part,  Auto  da  Barca  do  Inferno,  was  acted 
before  Queen  Maria  pera  consolagao  as  she  lay  on  her  death-bed 
in  15 17,  the  second.  Auto  da  Barca  do  Purgatorio,  at  Christmas  of 
the  following  year  in  Lisbon,  and  the  Auto  da  Barca  da  Gloria 
at  Almeirim  in  1519.  The  plot,  again,  is  of  the  simplest  :  the 
Devil,  combining  the  parts  of  Charon  and  Rhadamanthus,  ferry- 
man and  judge,  invites  Death's  victims  to  show  cause  why  they 
should  not  enter  his  boat ;  and  the  interest  is  in  the  light  thus 
thrown  upon  the  earthly  behaviour  of  nobleman,  judge,  advocate, 
usurer,  fool,  love-lorn  friar,  the  cheating  market-woman,  the 
cobbler  who  throve  by  deceiving  the  people,  the  peasant  who 
skimped  his  tithes,  the  little  shepherdess  who  had  seen  God 
'  often  and  often ',  of  Count,  King,^  and  Emperor,  Bishop, 
Cardinal,  and  Pope.  The  first  part  ends  with  a  noble  invoca- 
tion to  the  knights  who  had  died  fighting  in  Africa,  and  the 
second  begins  with  the  mystic  jewelled  romance  :  Remando  vam 
remadores. 

The  comedies  and  tragicomedies  vary  greatly.  The  Comedia 
de  Rubena  (1521)  is,  like  A  Winter's  Tale,  quite  without  unity  of 

*  This  play  is  written  in  lines  of  10,  11,  or  12  syllables  with  a  break 
of  a  line  of  5  or  6  syllables  after  every  four  lines.  Most  of  Gil  Vicente's 
plays  are  in  octosyllabic  redondilhas  with  or  without  breaks  of  a  line  of 
four  syllables,  as  in  the  poems  of  Duarte  de  Brito  and  others  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Geral.  Lightness,  grace,  and  ease  mark  this  metre  in  Vicente's 
hands. 

*  This  splendour-loving  king  bears  an  unmistakable  resemblance  to  King 
Manuel,  before  whom  the  play  was  acted,  but  in  no  other  instance  does 
Vicente  allow  his  satire  to  touch  the  king  or  royal  family  :  cumpre  attentat 
coHio  poemos  as  maos  {Cortes  de  Jupiter). 


GIL    VICENTE  119 

time  or  place  (for  this  primitive  humanist,  although  he  might 
mention  Plato,  did  not  '  reverence  the  Stagirite  '),  but  is  divided 
into  three  acts  (called  scenes)  as  in  a  modern  play.  Cismena,  like 
Perdita  born  in  the  first  scene,  is  conveyed  by  fairies  to  Crete, 
where  she  is  wooed  and  won  by  the  Prince  of  Syria.  The  Comedia 
do  Viuvo  (15 14)  is  much  more  compact  and  has  a  delicate  charm. 
Don  Rosvel,  a  prince  in  disguise,  serves  in  the  house  of  a  widower 
at  Burgos  for  love  of  his  daughters.  (He  is  in  love  with  both,  but 
his  brother  in  search  of  him  arrives  and  marries  the  second.) 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Comedia  sobre  a  divisada  cidade  de  Coimbra, 
acted  before  King  Joao  III  in  his  ever-loyal  city  of  Coimbra  in 
1527,  is  a  lengthy,  far-fetched  explanation  of  the  city's  arms, 
and  the  Floresta  de  Engafios  (played  before  the  king  at  Evora  in 
1536)  is  a  succession  of  scenes  of  pure  farce — the  deceit  practised 
upon  a  merchant,  the  ludicrous  predicament  to  which  love 
reduced  the  grave  old  judge  who  had  taken  his  degree  in 
Paris — ^with  a  more  serious  theme,  a  Portuguese  version  of  the 
story  of  Psyche  and  Eros.  Of  the  '  tragicomedies  '  two,  Dom 
Duardos  (1525.?)  and  Amadis  de  Gaula  (1533),  dramatize 
romances  of  chivalry :  Primaleon,  that  '  dulce  &  aplacible 
historia  translated  from  the  Greek  ',^  and  Amadis}  The  work 
is  done  with  skill,  for  Vicente  succeeds  here  as  always  in  being 
natural,  and  in  this  twilight  atmosphere  of  garden  flowers  and 
romance  keeps  his  realism.^  Both  plays  contain  passages  of  great 
lyrical  beauty,  and  Dom  Duardos  ends  with  the  romance  beginning 
Pelo  mes  era  de  Abril.  Thus  in  his  latter  age  he  successfully  adapted 
himself  to  pastures  new.  In  his  letter  dedicating  Dom  Duardos 
to  King  Joao  III  he  wrote  :  '  Since,  excellent  Prince  and  most 
powerful  King,  the  comedies,  farces  and  moralities  which  I  wrote 
for  {en  servicio  de)  the  Queen  your  Aunt  were  low  figures  *  in 

*  1598  ed.  (colophon).    The  date  of  the  first  edition  is  15 12. 

^  Montalvo's  Amadis  clearly.  Vicente,  who  invariably  suits  his  language 
to  his  subject,  would  have  written  in  Portuguese  had  the  text  before  him 
been  Portuguese.  If  Montalvo's  Amadis  became  fashionable  in  Portugal 
this  was  characteristic  of  the  Portuguese,  who  would  welcome  foreign  books 
while  they  despised  and  neglected  their  own. 

'  When  Flerida  meets  D.  Duardos  disguised  as  a  gardener  she  supposes 
that  his  ordinary  fare  is  garlic. 

*  For  the  words  quanta  en  caso  de  amores  the  Censorship  is  evidently  respon- 
sible. 


120  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

which  there  was  no  fitting  rhetoric  to  satisfy  the  dehcate  spirit 
of  your  Highness,  I  realized  that  I  must  crowd  more  sail  on  to  my 
poor  bark.'  For  us  the  words  have  a  tinge  of  irony,  and  how- 
ever much  some  readers  may  admire  the  hushed  rapture  of  these 
idyllic  scenes  we  miss  the  merry  author  of  the  farsas,  and  gladly 
turn  to  the  Romagem  de  Aggravados  (1533)  in  which  Vicente 
proves  that  his  hand  had  lost  none  of  its  cunning.  '  This  tragi- 
comedy is  a  satire  '  says  the  rubric,  and  it  introduces  us  to  the 
inimitable  Frei  Pago,  the  mincing  courtier-priest  with  gloves, 
gilt  sw^ord,  and  velvet  cap  (one  of  Sa  de  Miranda's  clerigos  per- 
fumados),  to  the  discontented  peasant  who  brings  his  son  to  be 
made  a  priest,  the  talkative  fish-wives,  the  hypocrite  Frei  Narciso 
scheming  to  be  made  a  bishop,  and  awkward  Giralda,  the  peasant 
Aparicianes'  daughter,  whom  Frei  Pago  instructs  so  competently 
in  Court  manners.  This  long  play  was  written  for  a  special 
occasion,  the  birth  of  the  Infante  Felipe.  Gil  Vicente  for  many 
years,  as  poet  laureate,  had  celebrated  great  events  at  Court. 
When  the  Duke  of  Braganza  was  about  to  leave  with  the  expedi- 
tion against  Azamor  in  15 13  he  wrote  the  eloquent  Exhortagam 
da  Giierra,  which  is  introduced  by  a  necromancer  priest  and  ends 
with  a  rousing  call  to  war  {soiga)  : 

Avante  avante,  senhores, 
Pois  que  com  grandes  favores 
Todo  o  ceo  vos  favorece  ; 
El  Rey  de  Fez  esmorece 
E  Marrocos  da  clamores. 

When  King  Manuel's  daughter,  the  princess  Beatrice,  married 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  in  15 21  Vicente  wrote  the  Cortes  de  Jupiter ^ 
in  which  the  Providence  of  God  bids  Jupiter,  King  of  the  Ele- 
ments, speed  her  on  her  voyage,  and  the  courtiers  and  inhabitants 
of  Lisbon  accompany  her  ship,  swimming,  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Tagus.  The Fm^cia  ^^  yim(?r(  1525)  was  written  on  the  occasion  of 
the  betrothal  of  King  Joao  and  Queen  Catherina  (who  replaced 
Queen  Lianor  as  Vicente's  protector  and  patron).  Into  the  forge, 
to  the  sound  of  singing,  goes  a  negro,  and  then  Justice  in  the  form 
of  a  bent  old  woman  who  is  forced  to  disgorge  all  her  bribes  and 
reappears  upright  and  fair.  A  similar  play,  Nao  de  Amor  (1527), 
in  which  courtiers  caulk  a  miniature  ship  on  the  stage,  was  played 


GIL    VICENTE  121 

before  their  Majesties  in  Lisbon  two  years  later.  The  Templo 
de  Apolo  (1526)  was  acted  when  another  daughter  of  King  Manuel 
left  Lisbon  to  become  the  wife  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  The 
author  introduces  the  play  and  excuses  its  deficiencies  on  the 
plea  that  he  has  been  seriously  ill  with  fever.  He  then  relates 
the  dream  of  fair  women — las  hermosas  que  son  miiertas — that  he 
had  seen  in  his  sickness.  Apollo  then  enters,  and  after  declaring 
that  he  would  have  made  the  world  otherwise  mounts  the  pulpit 
and  preaches  a  mock  sermon.  The  world,  Fame,  Victory,  come 
to  his  temple  and  bear  witness  to  the  greatness  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  A  Portuguese  peasant  also  comes  and  has  more 
difficulty  in  obtaining  admittance.  The  author  called  the  play 
an  ohra  doliente,  and  it  was  propped  up  by  a  passage  from  the 
earlier  Auto  da  Festa  (1525  .?),  edited  by  the  Conde  de  Sabugosa 
from  the  unique  copy  in  his  possession.  Its  figures  are  Truth, 
two  gipsies,  a  fool,  and  seven  peasants.  Their  speech  is  markedly 
beirdo  and  the  old  woman  closely  resembles  the  velha  of  the  tragi- 
comedy Triuiifo  do  Invenio,  written  to  celebrate  the  birth  of 
Princess  Isabel  in  1529,  as  the  Auto  da  Lusitania  celebrated  that 
of  Prince  Manuel  in  1532  and  the  Tragicomedia  Pastoril  da  Serra 
da  Estrella  that  of  Princess  Maria  in  1527.  The  latter  is  a  whole- 
hearted play  of  the  Serra  with  a  cossante,  a  baile  de  terreiro  and 
chacota,  and  continual  fragments  of  song  :  one  of  the  most 
Portuguese  of  Vicente's  plays.  The  Triunfo  do  Inverno  con- 
tains some  most  effective  scenes  and  a  bewildering  wealth  of 
lyrics  :  before  one  is  finished  another  has  begun,  and  the  w^hole 
long  play  goes  forward  at  a  gallop.  The  first  triumph  of  Winter 
is  on  the  hills,  the  Serra  da  Estrella  {serra  nevada) ;  the  second,  on 
the  sea,  affords  a  telling  satire  against  the  pilots  on  India-bound 
ships.  The  pilot  here  begins  by  stating  that  the  storm  will  be 
nothing,  then  he  says  that  he  is  not  to  blame  for  Winter's  con- 
duct, finally  he  falls  to  imploring  the  Virgin  and  St.  George  and 
St.  Nicholas  ;  and  but  for  his  incompetence  the  ship  might  have 
been  lying  safe  at  Cochin.  The  second  part  of  the  tragicomedy 
is  the  Triumph  of  Spring  in  the  Serra  de  Sintra.  Spring  enters  in 
a  lyrical  profusion  singing 

Del  rosal  vengo,  mi  madre, 
Vengo  del  rosale. 


122  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

breaks  off  into  Afiiera,  afuera  iiublados,  and  resumes  his  song  : 

A  riberas  de  aquel  rio 
Viera  estar  rosal  florido, 
Vengo  del  rosalc. 

Enough  has  perhaps  been  said  to  suggest  the  variety  of  these 
plays,  the  glow  of  colour  that  pervades  them,  and  to  show  how 
far  their  author,  although  his  genius  was  never  fully  realized  in 
his  aiitos,  had  travelled  from  the  first  glimmerings  of  the  drama 
in  Portugal  and  from  his  first  model,  Enzina.  Rudiments  of 
dramatic  art  existed  in  the  Middle  Ages  in  the  ceremonies  pro- 
vided by  an  essentially  dramatic  Church  and  in  the  mummeries 
and  mimicking  jograes  that  delighted  the  people.  Bonamis  and 
his  companion  furnished  some  kind  of  extrernely  primitive 
play  [arremedillum)  for  King  Sancho  I,  and  they  were  probably 
only  the  most  successful  of  hundreds  of  wandering  mimics  and 
players.  Mimicry  and  scenic  display^  were  the  principal  in- 
gredients of  the  momos  in  which  Rui  de  Sousa  excelled  -  and  the 
entremeses  for  which  Portugal  was  famous  :  they  scarcely  be- 
longed to  literature,  although  they  might  include  a  song  and 
prose  breve  such  as  the  Conde  do  Vimioso's,  printed  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Geral.  Religious  processions  and  Christmas,  Epi- 
phany, Passion,  or  Easter  scenes  ^  gave  further  scope  for  dramatic 
display,  as  also  popular  ceremonies  such  as  that  in  which  '  Em- 
perors '  and  '  Kings  ' — figures  similar,  no  doubt,  to  those  still  to 
be  seen  in  Spanish  processions  (e.  g.  at  Valencia) — were  carried 
in  triumph  to  the  churches,  accompanied  hy  jograes  who  invaded 
the  pulpit  and  preached  profane  sermons  containing  '  many 
iniquities  and  abominations  ',  even  while  mass  was  in  progress. 
The  popular  tendencies  darkly  suggested  in  the  Constituigoes 
are  manifest  in  Vicente's  plays — the  Christmas  representagoes, 
the  preaching  of  burlesque  sermons,  parodies  of  the  mass,  pro- 
fane litanies,  parodies  and  paraphrases  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Like  the  Clercs  de  la  Bazoche  in  France,  he  represents  the  drama 

'  Cf.  Zurara,  Cronica  de  D.  Jodo  I,  1899  ed.,  i.  116:  Alii  houve  momos 
de  tao  desvairadas  maneiras  que  a  vista  delles  fazia  mui  grande  prazer. 

''■  Cancioneiro  Geral,  1910  ed.,  i.  326. 

'  The  Portuguese  in  the  East  in  the  sixteenth  century  maintained  these 
customs.  We  read  of  Christmas  autos  in  India  and  a  representafam  dos  Rets 
in  Ethiopia.    Cf.  the  Good  Friday  centurios  in  Barros,  11.  i.  5. 


GIL    VICENTE  123 

breaking  its  ecclesiastical  fetters.  It  was,  however,  from  Spain 
that  the  idea  of  his  autos  first  came  to  him,  as  the  direct  imitations 
of  Juan  del  Enzina  (1469  ?-i529  ?)  in  Vicente's  early  pieces  and  the 
explicit  statement  of  Garcia  de  Resende  in  his  Miscellania  prove  : 
he  speaks  of  the  representagoes  of  very  eloquent  style  and  new 
devices  invented  in  Portugal  by  Gil  Vicente,  and  adds  the 
qualifying  clause  that  credit  for  the  invention  of  the  pastoril 
belongs  to  Enzina.  But  the  wine  of  Vicente's  genius  soon 
burst  the  old  bottles,  and  when  his  plays  ceased  to  be  confined  to 
the  pastoril  he  naturally  turned  elsewhere  for  suggestion.  He 
himself  towards  the  end  of  his  life  called  his  religious  plays 
moralidades,  and  the  real  name  of  the  play  popularly  known  as 
the  Farsa  da  Alofina  Mendes  was  Os  Mysterios  da  Virgem}  The 
introduction  of  Lucifer  as  Maioral  do  Inferno  and  Belial  as  his 
meirinho "  may  have  been  derived  from  French  mysteres  ;  the 
conception  of  his  Barcas  certainly  owed  more  to  the  Danse 
macabre  (probably  through  the  Spanish  fifteenth-century  Danza 
de  la  Muerte)  than  to  Dante.  The  burlesque  testamento  of  Maria 
Parda  ^  is  one  of  a  long  list  of  such  wills  (of  which  an  example  is 
the  mule's  testament  in  the  Cancioneiro  Geral),^  but  in  some  of  its 
expressions  appears  to  be  copied  from  the  Testament  de  Pathelin. 
His  knowledge  of  French  was  perhaps  more  fluent  than  accurate, 
like  his  Latin  which,  albeit  copious,  did  not  claim  to  be  '  pure 
TuUy  '.  But  there  are  many  references  to  France  in  his  plays, 
as  there  are  in  the  Cancioneiro  Geral,  and,  although  the  enselada 
from  France  with  which  the  Auto  da  Fe  ends  (i.  75)  and  the 
French  song  (i.  92)  Ay  de  la  nohle  ville  de  Paris  ^  were  no  doubt 
some  fashionable  courtier's  latest  acquisition,  Vicente  in  literary 

*  i.  103.  The  word  was  of  course  not  new  in  the  Peninsula.  Cf.  the 
thirteenth  (?)-century  El  Misterio  de  los  Reyes  Magos. 

^  Breve  Summario  da  Historia  de  Deos  (i.  309). 

^  In  the  Pranto  de  Maria  Parda  '  because  she  saw  so  few  branches  on  the 
taverns  in  the  streets  of  Lisbon  and  wine  so  dear  and  she  could  not  live 
without  it '. 

*  Do  macho  rrugo  de  Luys  Freyre  estando  pera  niorrer.  See  also  Dr.  H.  R. 
Lang,  C.  G.  C,  pp.  174-8,  note  on  the  will  of  the  Archdeacon  of  Toro  ;  and 
the  extract  from  a  manuscript  testamento  burlesco  in  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos, 
De  Campolide  a  Melrose  (191 5). 

^  As  neither  of  them  is  printed  in  his  plays  we  cannot  say  whether  they 
were  two  or  one  and  the  same,  or  whether  the  French  of  his  song  was  more 
intelligible  than  the  version  preserved  in  Barbieri's  Cancionero  Musical 
(No.  429). 


124  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

matters  probably  shared  the  curiosity  of  the  Court  as  to  what 
was  going  on  beyond  the  frontiers  of  Portugal.  The  great 
majority  of  his  songs  are,  however,  plainly  indigenous.  His 
knowledge  of  Italian  certainly  enabled  him  to  read  Italian  plays 
and  poems.  We  know  that  he  was  a  great  reader — he  mentions 
'  the  written  works  that  I  have  seen,  in  verse  and  prose,  rich  in 
style  and  matter  '.  In  Spanish  he  did  not  confine  himself  to 
Enzina.  He  read  romances  of  chivalry,  imitated  the  romances 
with  supreme  success,  mentions  Diego  de  San  Pedro's  La  Carcel 
de  Amor,  had  read  the  autos  of  Lucas  Fernandez,  the  comedias 
of  Bartolome  de  Torres  Naharro  probably,  and  without  doubt 
the  Archpriest  of  Hita's  Libra  de  Buen  Amor,  possessed  by 
King  Duarte,  and  the  Celestina.  Indeed,  for  some  time  past 
barriers  between  the  two  literatures  had  scarcely  existed  and 
Vicente  enriched  both.  Celestina  would  have  spoken  many 
proverbs  had  she  foreseen  that  he  would  allow  two  men  [jiideos 
casamenteiros)  to  take  the  bread  out  of  her  mouth,  but  he  copies 
her  in  his  Brigida  Vaz,  Branca  Gil,  the  formidable  Anna  Diaz, 
and  the  beata  alcoviteira  of  the  Comedia  de  Rubena,  although  he 
may  also  have  had  in  mind  the  moller  viiii  vil  of  King  Alfonso  X's 
Cantigasde  Santa  Maria  (No.  64),  with  the  spirit  of  which — their 
fondness  for  popular  types  and  satire — Vicente  had  more  in 
common  than  with  the  Cancioneiro  Geral,  compiled  by  his  friend 
Resende.  With  this  collection  he  was  naturally  familiar,  and  must 
have  heard  many  of  its  songs  before  it  was  published  in  1516.  A 
line  here  and  there  in  Vicente  seems  to  be  an  echo  of  the  Caji- 
cioneiro,^  although  the  fact  that  it  mentions  some  of  his  types 
(as  in  the  Arrenegos  -  of  Gregorio  Afonso)  merely  means  that  he 
drew  from  the  life  around  him.  His  satire  of  doctors  and  priests, 
although  essentially  popular  and  mediaeval — both  are  present 
in  the  Cantigas  de  Santa  Maria — was  also  due  to  his  personal 
observation  :  that  is  to  say,  he  gave  realistic  expression  to 
a  satire  of  which  the  motive  was  literary  (since  satire  directed 
against  priests  had  long  been  one  of  the  chief  resources  of  comic 

'  For  instance,  the  following  lines  and  phrases  of  the  Cancioneiro  Geral : 
Hirmee  a  tierras  eslranas,  Oo  morte  porque  tardais,  Vos  soes  0  mesmo  pafo, 
E  outras  cousas  que  calo,  O  eco  pelos  vales.  The  Portuguese  fifteenth-century 
poet  by  whom  he  was  most  influenced  was  probably  Duarte  de  Brito. 

'  They  were  pubhshed  separately  in  the  following  century  :    Lisboa,  1649. 


GIL    VICENTE  125 

writers  in  France,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Portugal). ^  The  type  of  the 
poor  fidalgo  or  famishing  escudeiro  on  which  Vicente  dwells  so 
fondly — we  have  the  latter  as  Aires  Rosado  in  Quem  tern  farelos? 
and  anonymous  in  the  Farsa  de  Ines  Pereira  and  0  jfuiz  da  Beira  ^ 
— is  another  instance  of  literary  tradition  combined  with  observa- 
tion at  first  hand.  Of  the  priest-satire  Vicente  was  the  last  free 
exponent  in  Portugal.  That  of  the  poor  gentleman  was  even 
older  and  survived  him.  It  dates  from  Roman  times.  The 
amethystinatus  of  Spanish  Martial^  reappears  in  the  Cancioneiro 
da  Vaticana,  in  the  Archpriest  of  Hita's  Don  Furon,  in  the 
lindos  fidalgos  que  viven  lazerados  of  Alfonso  Alvarez  de  Villasan- 
dino,  in  the  Cancioneiro  Geral,  and  just  before  Vicente's  death  is 
wittily  described,  as  the  raphanophagus  purpuratus,  by  Clenardus,  ^ 
and  less  urbanely  in  Lazarillo  de  Tormes.  With  no  Inquisition 
to  crush  him  he  continued  to  starve  in  literature — for  instance, 
in  the  anonymous  later  sixteenth-century  play  Auto  do  Escudeiro 
Surdo  he  and  his  mogo  come  on  the  scene  in  thoroughly  Vicentian 
guise  :  a  vossafome  de  pam  .  .  .  meio  tostdo  gasto  quinze  dias  ha  ^ — 
as  he  starves  in  the  real  life  of  the  Peninsula  to-day.^  In  a  sense 
Gil  Vicente  no  doubt  borrowed  widely ;  he  was  no  sorcerer  to 
make  bricks  without  straw,  and  straw,  like  poets,  is  not  manu- 
factured :  it  has  to  be  gathered  in.  But  the  homens  de  horn  saber 
who,  as  we  know  from  the  rubric  to  the  Farsa  de  Ines  Pereira, 
doubted  his  originality  must  have  been  very  superficial  as  well 
as  envious  critics,  for  the  bricks  were  essentially  his  own.    Indeed, 

>  Many  writers  note  the  large  number  of  priests.  The  north  of  Portugal 
is  chea  de  muitos  sacerdotes  says  Dr.  Joao  de  Barros  in  his  Lihro  de  Antiguidades, 
&c.,  a  book  full  of  curious  information  collected  by  the  author  when  he  was 
a  magistrate  (ouvidor)  at  Braga,  and  written  in  1549.  [A  different  work, 
Compendio  e  Summario  de  Antiguidades,  Sec,  variously  attributed  to  Ruy 
de  Pina  and  to  Mestre  Antonio,  surgeon  to  King  Joao  II,  appeared  in  1606.] 
Gil  Vicente  was  never  in  India,  otherwise  he  would  certainly  have  borne 
witness  to  the  devotion  and  courage  of  monks  and  priests  in  the  East  and 
on  the  dangerous  voyages  to  and  from  India. 

2  The  anonymity  may  have  been  intentional,  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
there  was  no  personal  allusion  to  any  of  the  poor  escudeiros  who  thronged 
the  capital  and  Court. 

'  Ep.  n.  $7.  *  Letter  from  Evora,  March  26,  1535. 

*  In  the  same  play  reappears  Vicente's  Spaniard  :  Castelhano  muy  fanfarrdo. 

'  According  to  the  Arte  de  Fiirtar,  decimas  and  sonnets  were  written  on 
the  subject  of  a  poor  fidalgo  who  was  in  the  habit  of  sending  his  mofo  to  two 
shoemakers  for  a  shoe  on  trial  from  each,  since  they  would  not  trust  him  with 
a  pair. 


126  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

every  page  of  his  autos  is  hall-marked  as  his,  ca  non  alheo,  and  he 
could  say  with  King  Alfonso  X: 

Mais  se  o  m'eu  mclhoro  fago  ben 
E  non  800  per  aquesto  ladron. 

Besides  the  Auto  da  Festa  we  have  42  plays  ^  :  12  farsas,  16  obras 
de  devagam,  4  comedias,  10  tragicomedias.  Some  of  them  were 
staged  with  much  pomp  and  grande  aparato  de  musica  in  the 
spacious  times  of  King  Manuel,  but  they  lose  little  in  being  merely 
read.  They  contain  a  few  scenes  of  dramatic  insight  and  power, 
a  few  touches  of  real  comedy,  but  above  all  we  value  them  for 
their  types  and  characters,  the  insight  they  afford  us  into  man 
and  that  particular  period  of  man's  history,  and  for  the  lyrics 
and  lyrical  passages,  fragments  of  heaven-born  poetry  thrown 
out  tantalizingly  at  random  as  the  dramatist  passes  rapidly, 
carelessly  on.  We  do  not  possess  all  Vicente's  plays.  A  farce 
which  in  a  poem  to  the  Conde  de  Vimioso  (?I525)  he  says  that  he 
had  in  hand,  A  Caga  dos  Segredos,  was  perhaps  never  finished,  or 
perhaps  it  was  produced  seven  years  later  as  the  Auto  da  Lusi- 
tania  (1532).  Others  were  probably  lost  as  folhas  volantes  before 
the  edition  of  1562  could  collect  them.  Three  at  least,  the  Aiito  da 
Aderencia  do  Pago,  Auto  da  Vida  do  Pago,  and  Jubileu  de  Amor  or 
Amores,  were  suppressed. ^  The  latter,  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese, 
was  probably  the  cause  of  the  loss  of  the  two  other  plays,  for, 
having  ventured  far  away  from  the  natural  piety  of  Portugal,  it 
was  acted  in  Brussels  on  December  21,  1531,  in  the  house  of  the 
Portuguese  Ambassador,  D.  Pedro  de  Mascarenhas,  and  in  the 
mind  of  the  Nuncio,  Cardinal  Aleandro,  who  was  among  those 
invited,  this  '  manifest  satire  against  Rome  '  caused  such  com- 
motion that,  as  he  wrote,  he  '  seemed  to  be  in  mid-Saxony  listen- 
ing to  Luther^  or  in  the  horrors  of  the  sack  of  Rome  '.■*    Yet  in 

*  If  theDiaiogo  da Resurreifamhe  counted  separatelywehavcforty-fourinall. 
2  Index   of    1551.      See   C.   Michaelis  de   Vasconcellos,   Notas    Vicentinas, 

i  (1912),  p.  31.     But  here  again  the  Auto  da   Vida  do  Pago  might   be   the 
Romagem  de  Aggravados. 

'  Cf.  Barros,  prefatory  letter  to  Ropica  Pnefma  (May  25,  1531)  :  falam 
tam  solto  como  se  estivessem  em  Alemanha  nas  rixas  de  Luthero. 

*  Notas  Vicentinas,  p.  21,  where  the  letter  is  given  in  the  original  Italian 
and  in  Portuguese.  The  Legate  had  lent  a  cardinal's  hat  for  the  occasion, 
little  realizing  that  it  was  to  be  worn  by  one  of  the  actors  in  such  a  play 
(a  witness  to  the  realism  with  which  Vicente's  plays  were  staged). 


GIL    VICENTE  127 

1533  impenitent,  the  incorrigible  Vicente  is  pillorying  the  Court 
priest,  Frei  Pago.  The  fact  is  that  in  Portugal  no  one  could 
suspect  the  sheep-dog,  who  had  for  so  long  and  so  mordantly 
kept  watch  over  the  Court  flock,  of  turning  wolf  and  encouraging 
the  seitas  and  cismas  against  which  Alvaro  de  Brito  had  already 
inveighed.  He  was  himself  deeply,  mystically  religious  and 
perhaps  cared  the  less  for  creeds  and  dogmas.  His  mystic 
philosophy  appears  as  early  as  1502.  Yet  they  do  him  a  poor 
service  who  represent  him  as  a  profound  theologian,  a  great 
philosopher,  an  authoritative  philologist.  His  plays  show  us 
a  man  lovable  and  human,  tolerant  of  opinions,  intolerant  of 
abuses,-*-  a  man  of  many  gifts,  with  a  passionate  devotion  to  his 
country.  We  have  only  to  turn  to  the  ringing  Exhortagam  da 
Guerra  or  the  Auto  da  Fama.  The  whole  of  the  latter  is  written 
in  a  glow  of  pride  and  patriotism  at  Portugal's  vast,  increasing 
empire  and  the  victories  of  Albuquerque  : 

Ormuz,  Quiloa,  Mombaga, 
Sofala,  Cochim,  Melinde. 

Clearly  the  words  to  him  are  a  sweet  music. ^  From  one  point 
of  view  Gil  Vicente's  position  exactly  tallied  with  Herculano's 
description  of  the  bobo.  He  was  a  Court  jester,  expected  to  render 
the  idle  courtiers  muy  ledos.  To  this  purpose  he  was  compelled 
to  saddle  his  plays  with  passages  which  for  us  have  lost  their 
savour  and  significance  but  almost  every  line  of  which  must  have 
elicited  a  smile  or  a  shout  of  laughter  at  the  seroes.  We  may 
instance  0  Clerigo  da  Beira,  which  ends  with  the  signs  and  planets 
under  which  various  courtiers  were  born,  the  Tragicomedia  da 
divisa  da  cidade  de  Coimbra,  with  the  origins  of  various  noble 

'  His  tolerant  spirit,  expressed  in  his  letter  to  the  King  in  1531,  was 
remarkable  in  an  age  not  very  remote  from  the  day  when  Duarte  de  Brito 
wrote  to  Anton  de  Montoro  (c.  1405-80)  that  he  would  have  been  burnt 
had  he  written  in  Portugal  the  blasphemous  lines  addressed  to  Queen  Isabella 
of  Spain  : 

Si  no  pariera  Sanctana 

hasta  ser  nacida  vos, 

de  vos  el  hijo  de  Dios, 

rescibiera  carne  humana. 
^  As  indeed  they  were  to  Milton:     'Mombasa  and  Quiloa  and  Melind '. 
On  the  other  hand,  Garcia  de  Resende  in  one  of  the  decimas  of  his  Miscellania 
has  twenty-six  names  :    Tern  Ceita,  T anger,  Arzilla,  &c.,  ordered  rather  for 
the  rhyme  than  for  harmony. 


128  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

families,  the  malicious  catalogue  raisonne  of  courtiers  in  the 
Cortes  de  Jupiter,  Branca  Gil's  comical  litany  in  0  Velho  da  Horta, 
the  sixty-four  puzzle  verses  of  the  Auto  das  Fadas.  But  Vicente 
frequently  had  a  deeper  purpose  than  to  enliven  a  fashionable 
gathering.  The  abuse  of  indulgences,  the  corruption  of  the  clergy,^ 
the  subjection  of  married  women,  the  danger  of  appointing 
ignorant  men  to  the  responsible  position  of  pilot,  the  mingling  of 
the  classes — it  was  not  so,  he  remarks,  in  Germany  or  Flanders, 
France  or  Venice — the  increasing  tendency  to  shun  honest  labour 
in  order  to  occupy  a  position  however  humble  at  Court,^  the 
ignorance  and  presumption  of  the  peasants,  the  false  display  and 
false  ambitions,  the  thousand  new  lies  and  deceits,  the  decay  of 
piety,  the  growth  of  luxury  and  corresponding  diminution  in 
gaiety — these  were  matters  which  he  sought  not  only  to  portray 
but  to  correct,  with  much  earnestness  in  his  iocis  levibus.  But 
to  the  end  of  his  life  he  was  never  able  to  learn  that  religion 
and  virtue  must  be  melancholy.  In  the  introduction  to  the 
Triunfo  do  Inverno  (1529)  he  complains  of  the  loss  of  the  joyous 
dances  and  songs  of  Portugal  and  the  disappearance  in  the  last 
twenty  years  of  the  gaiteiro  and  his  cheerful  piping.  He  himself 
drew  his  inspiration  from  the  people,  from  Nature,  and  from  the 
Scriptures,  with  which  he  had  no  superficial  acquaintance.  In  his 
love  of  Nature  and  his  wide  curiosity  he  studied  children  and 
birds,  plants  and  flowers,  astronomy  and  witchcraft — those  myriad 
forms  of  sorcery  in  Portugal,  some  of  which  have  fortunately 
survived  in  the  prohibitory  de.crees  of  the  Church.  ?Ie  included 
in  his  plays  or  alluded  to  many  of  the  traditions,  the  songs  and 
dances  of  old  Portugal — the  ancient  cossantes,  the  bailes  de 
terreiro,  bailos  vildos,^  bailes  da  Beira,  chacotas,  folias,  alvoradas, 

1  He  does  not  attack  them  without  exception.    There  is  much  good  sense 
in  the  clerigo  of  Beira,  and  true  charity  in  the  frade  of  the  Comedia  do  Viuvo. 
'  OS  lavradores 

Fazem  os  lilhos  pa^aos, 
Cedo  nao  ha  de  haver  villaos  : 

Todos  d'  El  Rei,  todos  d'  El  Rei  (Farsa  dos  Almocreves). 
*  Cf.  the  bcUho  vylam  ou  mourisco  which  cost  Abul  his  gold  chain  in  the 
Cancioneiro  Gercd,  and  Lopo  de  Almeida's  third  letter,  from  Naples :  Mandaram 
bailar  men  sobrinho  com  Beatriz  Lopez  0  baylo  mourisco  e  despots  0  vilao. 
A  century  after  Vicente  the  shepherds'  dances  are  but  a  memory  :  as  dattfas 
e  bailios  antigamente  (do  tisados  entre  os  pastores  (Faria  e  Sousa,  Europa  Portu- 
guesa,  vol.  iii,  pt.  4). 


GIL    VICENTE  129 

janeiras,  lampas  de  S.  Jodo}  For  he  stood  at  the  parting  of  the 
ways.  Desirous  and  capable  of  playing  many  parts,  tinged  un- 
awares by  the  new  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  but  at  the  same  time 
keenly  national,  he  linked  the  Middle  Ages  with  the  new  learning 
and  the  old  traditions  of  Portugal  with  her  ever-widening 
dominions,  for  which  he  showed  the  wise  enthusiasm  of  a  true 
imperialist.  But  behind  the  new  glitter  and  luxury  of  Lisbon  he 
constantly  saw  the  growing  misery  of  the  people  of  Portugal 
for  which  all  the  splendour  of  King  Manuel's  reign  had  been  but 
a  terrible  storm  ^  ;  and  his  latter  sadness  was  perhaps  less  personal 
than  patriotic.  He  had  done  what  he  could,  far  more  than  had 
been  required  of  him.  He  had  been  expected  to  delight  a  Court 
audience,  and  had  mingled  warning  and  instruction  with  amuse- 
ment ;  and  when,  having  lived  and  laughed  and  loved,  he  went 
his  way,  he  was  not  only  spared  by  a  crowning  grace  from  the 
wrath  that  was  to  come  but  left  to  his  countrymen  an  heirloom 
more  enduring  than  brass,  more  precious  than  all  the  gold  of 
India,  with  a  breath  of  that  true  Portugal  in  its  simplicity,  its 
mirth  and  jollity,  the  disappearance  of  which  he  had  deplored. 
Portuguese  literature  was  never  so  national  again.  A  period  of 
splendid  achievement  followed,  but  alike  in  subject  and  language 
it  was  too  often  a  honeyed  sweetness  containing  in  itself  the  seeds 
of  decay,  and  if  for  the  time  it  swept  away  all  memory  of  Gil 
Vicente,  for  us  it  only  emphasizes  his  qualities  by  the  contrast. 
In  his  directness,  his  close  contact  with  the  people,^  his  humanity, 
his  quick  observation,  keen  satire,  love  of  laughter  and  malicious 
humour,  in  his  unsurpassed  lyrical  gift  and  his  natural  delight  in 
words,  to  be  used  not  at  haphazard  but  weighed  and  set  cunningly 
as  precious  stones  in  the  hands  of  an  ourives,  this  great  lyrical 
poet  and  charmingly  incorrect  playwright  clearly  foreshadowed 
dramatists  so  different  as  Calderon,  Lope  de  Vega,  Shakespeare, 

'  Cf.  Ulysippo,  iii.  6:  aquellas  mayas  que  punhao,  aquellas  lampas,  aquellas 
alvoradas,  and  D.  Francisco  de  Portugal,  Prisoens  e  Solturas  de  hiia  Alma: 
Ines  [of  Almada]  moQa  de  cantaro,  a  gabadinha  dos  ganhois  do  Itigar,  requestada 
da  velanao  dos  barbeiros,  a  cuja  porta  nunca  faltou  Mayo  florido  em,  dia  de 
Santiago  nem  ramos  verdes  com  perinhas  no  de  S.  Joao  a  que  os  praticos  daquella 
noute  chamao  lampas. 

"  A  morte  d'El  Rei  D.  Manoel. 

'  His  occasional  coarseness  is  popular,  rustic,  and  as  a  rule  contrasts  favour- 
ably with  that  of  the  Cancionciro  Geral. 

2362  I 


130  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

and  Moliere.  Yet  we  look  in  vain  for  a  Vicentian  school  of  great 
dramatists  in  Portugal.  His  fame  had  reached  Brussels  and 
thence  Rome,  and  Erasmus  is  credited  with  having  wished  to 
learn  Portuguese  in  order  to  read  Vicente's  plays.  Shakespeare, 
who  was  twenty-two  when  the  second  edition  of  Vicente's  plays 
appeared  and  who  almost  certainly  read  Spanish,  may  also  have 
been  tempted.  It  would  have  been  strange  if  Erasmus  had  not 
heard  of  Vicente  through  his  friend  Andre  de  Resende,  who  in 
his  Latin  poem  Genethliacon  declared  that  had  not  the  comic  poet 
Gil  Vicente,  actor  and  author,  written  in  the  vulgar  tongue  he 
would  have  rivalled  Menander  and  excelled  Plautus  and  Terence. 
In  Portugal  the  number  of  plays  written  in  the  sixteenth  century 
was  large,^  but  none  can  be  placed  on  a  level  with  those  of  Vicente. 
One  cannot  say  that  he  influenced  Camoes  or  Ferreira  de  Vascon- 
cellos  deeply,  although  they  had  evidently  read  him.  In  Spain 
Cervantes,  who  read  everything,  aunque  sean  los  papeles  rotos  de 
las  calles,  had  read  his  plays  (the  Farsa  dos  Fisicos,  0  Juiz  da 
Beira,  the  Comedia  de  Rubena  among  others).  Lope  de  Vega 
likewise,  Calderon  possibly.  Lope  de  Rueda  probably  derived 
the  idea  of  his  paso  Las  Aceitunas  from  the  Auto  da  Mofina 
Mendes.  Yet  it  is  almost  with  amazement,  if  we  forget 
the  crowded  history  of  Portugal  and  Portuguese  literature  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  introduction  of  the  Inquisition,  and  the 
great  changes  in  the  language,  that  we  find  a  Portuguese,  Sousa  de 
Macedo,  a  century  after  Vicente's  death,  speaking  of  him  as  one 
'  whose  style  was  celebrated  of  old  ',^  and  a  Spaniard,  Nicolas 
Antonio,  declaring  that  his  works  were  written  in  prose  and  know- 
ing nothing  of  a  collected  edition.^    It  was  with  reasonable  mis- 

*  For  a  list  containing  about  a  hundred  see  T.  Braga,  Eschola  de  Gil 
Vicente,  p.  545,  or  the  Diccionario  Universal,  vol.  i  (1882),  p.  1884,  s.v. 
Auto. 

*  Flores  de  Espana,  cap.  5. 

'  Bib.  Nova,  ii.  158.  Elsewhere  he  speaks  of  him  as  poetae  comoediarum 
suo  tempore  celehratissimi,  and  in  the  Appendix  says  :  cuius  comoedias  Lusitani 
admodum  celebrant.  But  after  the  sixteenth  century  Vicente  was  little 
more  than  a  name.  Faria  e  Sousa  could  say  that  his  plays  had  been  esteemed 
[cor%]  poquisima  causa  (the  accidental  omission  of  the  coyi  led  to  the  invention 
poqiiisima  cosa)  ;  and  a  learned  Coimbra  professor,  Frei  Luis  de  Sotomaior, 
caught  reading  as  semsaborias  de  Gil  Vicente,  que  em  seus  tempos  foi  mui 
celebrado,  felt  bound  to  be  apologetic  :  Aurum  colligo  ex  stercore  (Francisco 
Scares  Toscano,  Parallelos  de  Principes  (Evora,  1623),  f.  159). 


GIL    VICENTE  131 

givings  that  Vicente  just  before  his  death  wrote  :  Livro  men,  que 
esperas  tu  ?  ;  '  my  book,  what  is  in  store  for  you  ?  '  We  know 
that  it  remained  in  manuscript  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  that 
a  second  edition  in  1586  was  so  handled  by  the  Censorship  that 
it  contains  but  thirty-five  mutilated  plays,  and  that  for  two  and 
a  half  centuries  no  new  edition  was  printed. 


I  2 


§2 

Lyric  and  Bucolic  Poetry 

The  romantic  story  of  Macias  had  not  been  given  literary 
form,  but  it  exercised  a  wide  influence  over  the  Portuguese  poets 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Together  perhaps  with  Diego  de  San 
Pedro's  Carcel  de  Amor,  the  Spanish  version  of  Boccaccio's 
Fiammetta,  and  especially  Rodriguez  de  la  Camara's  El  siervo 
lihre  de  Amor  (containing  the  Estoria  de  los  dos  amadores  Ardanlier 
e  Liesa),  it  must  have  been  in  the  mind  of  Bernardim  Ribeiro 
(1482-1552)  when  he  wrote  that '  gentle  tale  of  love  and  languish- 
ment '  the  book  of  Saudades,  which  is  always  known  (like  the 
first  farce  of  Gil  Vicente)  from  its  first  three  words  as  Menina  e 
moga.  Yet  it  is  not  really  an  imitative  work,  being,  indeed,  re- 
markable for  its  unaffected  sincerity,  as  the  expression  of  a  per- 
sonal experience.  Its  passionate  truth  continues  to  delight  many 
readers,^  Almost  all  our  information  about  Ribeiro's  life  is 
derived  from  his  writings,  which  are  in  part  evidently  auto- 
biographical, and  it  shrinks  or  expands  according  to  the  degree 
of  the  critic's  wariness  or  ingenuity.  His  birthplace  is  declared 
to  have  been  the  quaint  Alentejan  village  of  Torrao.  A  passage 
in  the  eclogue  Jano  e  Franco  says  that  Jano  fled  thence  at  the 
time  of  the  great  famine.  The  unhappy  frequency  of  famines 
makes  the  date  doubtful,  but  if  the  year  of  Ribeiro's  birth  be 
correctly  stated  in  an  official  document  of  May  6,  1642,  as  1482, 
we  may  suppose — since  Jano  was  twenty-one — that  he  left  his 
native  Alcntejo  for  Lisbon  in  1503.  It  is  possible  that  he  studied 
law  and  took  his  degree  at  the  University  (at  Lisbon)  a  few  years 
later  (1507-11  P),^  and  became  secretary  to  King  Joao  III  in  1524. 
As  a  cavalleiro  fidalgo  he  had  his  place  at  Court,  as  poet  he  con- 

*  Cf.  H.  Lopes  de  Mendon^a,  O  Salto  Mortal,  Act  iii  :  Tanto  gostaes  d'este 
livro  ;  £,  por  ser  trisie  ? — ti.  por  ser  verdadeiro. 

*  Eclogue  5  (a  qual  dizem  ser  do  mesmo  aiUor),  which  is  undoubtedly  by 
Ribeiro,  refers  to  Coimbra  in  the  lines  :  £  hmbrarnte  os  sinceiraes  De  Coimbra 
oue  me  mata. 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  133 

tributed  to  the  Caiicioneiro  Geral  (15 16).  A  hopeless  passion  drove 
him  from  the  Court,  drove  him  perhaps  to  Italy,  and  finally 
deprived  him  of  his  reason,  so  that  his  last  years  were  spent  in  the 
Lisbon  Hospital  de  Todos  os  Santos.-^  Successive  generations 
have  busied  themselves  over  the  object  of  his  passion.  The 
romantic  tradition  that  it  was  the  Princess  Beatriz,  twenty-two 
years  his  junior,  the  daughter  of  King  Manuel  for  whose  marriage 
to  the  Duke  of  Savoy  in  1521  Gil  Vicente  wrote  the  Cortes  de 
Jupiter,  is  now  definitely  discarded.  That  it  was  Queen  Juana 
la  Loca  of  Castille  no  one  except  Varnhagen  has  ever  imagined. 
But  literary  critics  continue  to  be  tempted  by  the  transparent 
anagrams  of  Ribeiro's  novel  (adopted  evidently  in  order  to  make 
the  story  unintelligible  to  all  except  the  inner  circle  of  the  Court). 
Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  has  an  ingeniously  fabricated  theory  that 
Aonia  was  Ribeiro's  cousin,  Joana  Tavares  Zagalo.  Lamentor 
at  least  can  scarcely  have  been  King  Manuel,  since  he  sends 
his  daughter  to  the  king's  Court.  The  scenery  appears  to  be 
a  combination  of  that  of  the  Serra  de  Sintra  near  Lisbon 
with  that  of  Alentejo.  The  story  opens  with  an  introductory 
chapter  in  which  a  young  girl  [menina  e  moga),  who  has  taken 
refuge  in  the  serra  far  from  all  human  society,  announces  her 
intention  of  writing  down  what  she  had  seen  and  heard  in  a  small 
book  {livrinho),  not  for  the  happy  to  read  but  for  the  sad,  or  rather 
for  none  at  all,  seeing  that  of  him  for  whom  alone  it  is  intended 
she  has  had  no  news  since  his  and  her  misfortune  bore  him  away 
to  far-distant  lands.  Thus  we  have  the  thirteenth-century  amiga 
mourning  for  her  lover.  At  Dens  !  e  u  e  ?  Presently,  as  she 
shelters  from  the  noonday  calma  beneath  trees  that  overhang 
a  gently  flowing  stream,  a  nightingale  pours  forth  its  song,  and 
then  dying  with  its  song  falls  with  a  shower  of  leaves  and  is  borne 
away  songless  by  the  silent  stream. ^  She  is  still  bewailing  its 
fate  when  another,  older  but  equally  sad,  lady  [dona]  appears, 
and  the  menina  becomes  an  almost  silent  listener  to  the  end  of  the 

'  As  in  the  case  of  Gil  Vicente,  we  are  vexed  with  homonyms — a  notary, 
an  admiral,  &c.  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  skilfully  dovetailing  hypotheses, 
develops  his  biography  fully.  Casi  todo  lo  que  de  el  se  ha  escrito  son  fdbulas 
sin  fundamento  alguno,  wrote  Menendez  y  Pelayo  in  1905. 

*  Fray  Luis  de  Leon  may  have  remembered  this  passage  in  De  los  Nombres 
de  Crista,  Bk.  3  (1917  ed.,  t.  i,  p.  198;  Bib.  Aitt.  Esp.,  t.  37,  p.  182). 


134  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

book  while  the  dona  unfolds  the  tale  which  is  its  true  subject,  the 
history  of  two  friends  Narbindel  and  Bastiao.  But  it  begins 
with  the  love  adventure  of  Lamentor  and  Bclisa.  It  is  only  in  the 
ninth  chapter  that  the  knight  Narbindel  arrives  and  falls  in  love 
with  Belisa's  sister  Aonia,  adopting  a  shepherd's  life  in  order  to 
be  near  her  palace.  It  is  in  fact  a  romance  of  chivalry  in  pastoral 
garb.  But  Ribeiro  might  have  introduced  the  pastoral  romance 
without  changing  the  fantastic  features.  It  is  in  his  singular 
combination  of  passion  and  realism  that  his  true  originality 
consists.  His  power  of  giving  vivid  expression  to  tranquil 
scenes — the  whole  of  the  first  part  has  something  of  the  quiet 
intensity  of  a  background  by  Correggio,  as  well  as  his  '  softer 
outline ',  and  although  there  is  no  explicit  indication  of  colour  it  is 
clearly  felt  by  the  reader — and  his  gentle  love  of  Nature,  or  rather 
his  love  of  Nature  in  its  gentler  aspects,  cast  over  the  book  a 
strange  charm.  The  softly  flowing  streams,  the  trees  and  birds 
and  delicious  shade,  beautiful  dawns,  the  birds  seeking  their  nests 
at  evening,  the  flowers  que  a  seu  prazer  se  estendem,  the  mateiros 
going  out  to  cut  brushwood,  the  shepherds  asleep  round  their  fire 
at  night,  are  described  with  great  naturalness  and  truth,  often  with 
familiar  words  and  colloquial  phrases.  The  reason  of  the  extreme 
intricacy  of  the  plot  was  not  the  wish  to  conceal  the  author's  love 
story  in  a  labyrinthine  maze  ^  in  order  to  exercise  the  ingenuity  of 
nineteenth-century  professors,  but  to  be  true  to  life.  In  life  events 
are  not  rounded  and  distinct  but  merge  into  and  react  on  one 
another  in  an  endless  ravelled  skein  :  Das  tristezas  nao  se  pode 
contar  nada  ordenadamente  porque  desordenadamente  acofitecem 
ellas  (cap.  i).  Ribeiro  thus  anticipates  by  four  centuries  the 
theory  enunciated  in  Spain  by  Azorin  that  a  novel,  like  life, 
should  have  no  plot,^  and  his  book  has  a  certain  modernity.  We 
may  refuse  him  the  name  of  novelist,  but  many  a  novelist  might 
envy  his  lifelike  portrayal  of  scenes  and  sentiments.  It  has  been 
doubted  whether  he  wrote  the*second  part  of  the  story.  It 
consists  of  fifty-eight  short  chapters,  and  opens  with  a  new  episode, 
the  love  of  Avalor  for  Arima,  daughter  of  Lamentor  (cap.  1-24), 

*  Nossos  aniores  contados   por   wm   modo   que    os   ndo   entenderd  ninguent, 
Garrett,  Urn  Auto  de  Gil  Vicente. 

'  La  Voluntad,  Barcelona.,  igo2.   Camillo  Castello Branco  held  similar  views. 


LYRIC  AND  BUCOLIC   POETRY  135 

and  it  is  even  more  bewildering  in  its  confusion  than  is  Part  I. 
The  scenes  are  less  idyllic,  the  tone  more  that  of  a  conventional 
romance  of  chivalry,  yet  the  realism  is  maintained.  It  is  on 
no  hippogriff  that  Avalor  goes  to  the  rescue  of  the  distressed 
maiden  :  in  fact,  he  had  set  out  on  his  adventure  in  a  rowing-boat 
and  his  hands  blistered.  If  later  there  are  mortal  combats  with 
wicked  knights,  with  a  bear,  with  giants,  there  are  also  scenes, 
as  in  chapters  9,  12,  23 — of  an  impassioned  saudade,^  of  dove 
and  nightingale — -which  could  only  have  been  written  by  the 
author  of  Part  I.^  His  own  story,  still  related  by  the  dona,  is  only 
resumed  in  chapter  26,  or  rather  32,  since  the  intervening  chapters 
deal  with  events  prior  to  those  with  which  Part  I  begins.  Bim- 
narder,  now  again  Narbindel — the  name  Bernardim  was  also 
spelt  Bernaldim — after  Aonia's  marriage  lives  with  an  old  hermit 
and  his  nephew,  Godivo,  and  passes  his  time  in  tears  and  contem- 
plation, as  in  Part  I.  But  he  is  discovered  by  his  faithful  squire, 
and  meets  Aonia,  and  the  lovers  are  killed  by  the  jealous  husband 
(cap.  48).  The  last  chapters  are  concerned  with  the  happier 
love  story  of  Romabisa  and  Tasbiao. 

Narbindel,  the  second  of  the  two  knights,  the  two  friends 
de  que  e  a  nossa  historia,^  dies :  therefore  Bernardim  Ribeiro 
cannot  have  written  the  second  part.  But  it  is  rather  a  nice 
point ;  one  may  imagine  that  Ribeiro's  delight  in  so  tragic 
an  episode  would  compensate  him  amply  for  the  obvious 
anachronism,  and  after  all  it  is  the  dofia  who  tells  the  story. ^ 
The  inconsistencies  of  detail  need  not  concern  us  overmuch. 
That  Belisa  has  a  mother  in  Part  I  and  is  '  brought  up  without 
a  mother  '  in  Part  II,  that  the  Castle  of  Lamentor  exists  in 
Part  II  at  a  time  when,  according  to  Part  I,  it  was  not  yet  begun, 
that  the  name  of  Aonia's  husband  is  in  Part  I  Fileno,  and  in 
Part   II   Orphileno,   are  just  such   contradictions   as   an   alien 

'  The  word  cannot  be  translated  exactly,  but  corresponds  to  the  Greek 
nodos,  Latin  desiderium,  Catalan  anyoranza,  Galician  morrina,  German 
Sehnsucht.  Russian  TOCKa  (pron.  taskd).  It  is  the  'passion  for  which  I  can 
find  no  name  '  (Gissing,  The  Private  Papers  of  Henry  Ryecroft) . 

"  Menendez  y  Pelayo's  strict  division  between  the  'subjective'  pt.  i  and 
pt.  2  as  externa  y  de  aventuras  is  thus  somewhat  arbitrary. 

*  Pt.  I,  cap.  9  ;  pt.  2,  cap.  25. 

*  In  pt.  2,  cap.  9,  this  is  forgotten  :  outras  [cousas]  que  nao  sdo  escritas  neste 
livro,  a  slip  which  throws  no  light  on  the  authorship. 


136  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

continue!-  would  most  studiously  have  avoided,  and  we  all  know 
what  happened  to  Sancho's  ass  in  a  far  less  intricate  story.  Or 
they  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  Ribeiro  had  not  revised 
his  tale  before  it  was  printed,  or  by  corrections  made  in  copies  of 
the  original  manuscript.^  Perhaps  on  the  whole  we  may  con- 
clude that  Ribeiro,  like  Cervantes,  by  an  exception  wrote  a  valu- 
able second  part,  but,  unlike  Cervantes,  was  unable  to  maintain 
it  altogether  on  a  level  with  the  first.  The  mingling  of  rapt  passion 
and  colloquialisms  is  with  Ribeiro  not  the  inability  of  a  poet  to  ex- 
press himself  but  a  deliberate  mannerism,  and  is  present  in  the  five 
eclogues  with  which  he  introduced  pastoral  poetry.  By  his  quiet 
resolution  to  be  natural  he  thus  became  doubly  an  innovator,  in 
poetry  and  prose.  That  he  was  a  true  poet  is  proved  by  the 
romances  in  his  novel  :  Pensando  vos  estoii,  filha  (Pt.  I,  cap.  21) 
and  Pola  ribeira  de  um  rio  (Pt.  H,  cap.  11).^  The  eclogues  may 
not  excel  those  poems,  but  in  their  directness,  primitive  freshness, 
and  grace  they  form  a  group  apart,  entirely  distinct  from  their 
numerous  eclogue  progeny.  One  eclogue  only,  the  celebrated 
Trovas  de  Crisfal,  resembles  them.  The  resemblance  is  remark- 
able and  cannot  fail  to  strike  the  most  careless  reader.  Before 
Snr.  Delfim  Guimaraes  began  his  spirited  campaign  in  favour  of 
identification,  the  similarity  had  been  recorded  by  D.  Carolina 
Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  in  the  Grundriss  ^ :   the  extraordinary 

1  It  was  characteristic  of  the  hot-house  air  in  which  Portuguese  literature 
existed  that  the  first  publication  of  a  book  often  consisted  in  its  circulation 
(correr)  in  manuscript  from  courtier  to  courtier,  a  special  licence  being  obtained 
for  this  apart  from  the  licence  to  print.  Those  to  whom  it  appealed  made 
copies.  The  earliest  known  edition  of  Menina  e  moga  is  of  1557-8  :  Primeira 
&-  seguda  parte  do  liuro  chantado  as  Saudades  de  Bernaldini  Ribeiro  com  todas 
suas  obras.  Treladado  de  seu  propria  original.  Nouamenie  impresso.  1557 
(Euora.  The  date  of  the  colophon  is  January  30,  1558).  An  introductory 
note  Aos  lectores  says  :  For  am  tantos  os  traduzidores  deste  liuro  cS-  os  pareceres 
em  elle  tam  diuersos  que  nam  he  de  marauilhar  que  na  primeira  impressam  desta 
historia  se  achassem  tantas  consas  em  contrario  de  como  foram  pello  attctor  delle 
escriptas  .  .  .  Joy  causa  de  andar  este  liuro  tam  vicioso  .  .  .  conueo  tirarse  a  limpo 
do  propria  original,  &.C.,  &c.).  The  edition  of  1554,  quoted  by  Brunet,  was 
probably  the  first  in  spite  of  the  words  com  summa  diligencia  emendada 
(i.e.  corrections  of  the  manuscript).  The  phrase  de  nouo  tells  more  against 
than  in  favour  of  an  earlier  edition  (=  rather  '  new  '  than  '  anew  '). 

'  Ribeiro,  so  far  as  we  know,  wrote  no  line  of  Spanish.  Boscdn's  romance 
J usta  fue  mi  perdicion  Sind.  the  romance  6  Belerma  have  been  wrongly  ascribed 
to  him. 

'  p.  287  :  .  .  .  so  ganz  personlichem  Stil,  dass  sie  mit  keinem  andcren  Dichter 
vor  Oder  nach  ihnen,  wohl  aber  untereinander  zu  verwechseln  wdren  ;   and  p.  292  : 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  137 

similarity  of  these  Trovas  to  the  poetry  of  Ribeiro  and  to 
nothing  else  in  Portuguese  literature.  In  this  poem  of  some  900 
lines  written  in  octosyllabic  decimas,  like  Ribeiro's  eclogues,  we 
have  that  romantic,  passionate  sandade  and  sentimental  grief,  the 
mystic  visions,  the  simplicity,  the  ingenuous  conceits,  wistfully 
humorous,  the  sententious  reflections,  the  elliptical  concision,  the 
real  shepherds,  the  familiar  language,  the  love  of  Nature  which 
are  peculiarly  Ribeiro's.  Tradition  assigns  the  Trovas  to  Cris- 
TOVAM  Falcao  {c.  1512-53  }),'^  who  was  born  at  Portalegre,  in 
Alentejo,  was  made  a  mogo  fidalgo  in  1527,  and  is  supposed  to 
have  fallen  in  love  with  and  secretly  married  D.  Maria  Brandao 
(i.  e.  the  Maria  of  the  Trovas),  whom  her  parents  confined  as 
a  punishment  in  the  convent  of  Lorvao.  At  the  risk  of  being 
dubbed  incorrigibly  simplicista  one  must  confess  that  the  simul- 
taneous appearance  of  these  two  poets  from  Alentejo,  not  fertil 
en  poetas,  taxes  one's  belief  to  the  utmost.  May  not  the  secret 
marriage  deduced  from  the  Trovas  have  been  described  by 
Ribeiro  in  his  keen  sympathy  for  his  friend's  position,  so  like  his 
own.?  The  contention  is  not  that  Cristovam  Falcao  did  not  exist — 
there  were  several — or  did  not  fall  in  love  with  Maria  Brandao — 
a  do  Crisfal — or  did  not  marry  her,  but  that  he  did  not  write 
verses  in  the  style  familiar  to  us  as  that  of  Ribeiro. ^  It  is  remark- 
able that  the  very  critics  who  represent  Ribeiro  in  his  novela  as 
hiding  like  a  cuttle-fish  in  his  own  ink  change  their  method  when 

Bernardim  Ribeiro  writes  ganz  im  Stile  des  Falcao.  Cf .  F.  Bouterwek,  History 
of  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Literature,  Eng.  tr.  1823,  ii.  39  :  'A  long  eclogue 
by  this  writer,  which  forms  an  appendix  to  the  works  of  Ribeyro,  so  com- 
pletely partakes  of  the  character  of  the  poems  which  it  accompanies  that 
were  it  not  for  the  separate  title  it  might  be  mistaken  for  the  production  of 
Ribeyro  himself.  It  therefore  proves  that  Ribeyro's  poetic  fancies,  his 
romantic  mysticism  not  excepted;  were  by  no  means  individual.' 

'  According  to  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga,  he  was  born  in  1 5 1 5  ;  married  in 
1529  Maria  Brandao  (aged  eleven)  ;  was  profoundly  influenced  by  Ribeiro's 
Trovas  de  dous  pastores  (1536)  but  did  not  plagiarize  it  in  the  Trovas  de  Crisfal 
(1536-41),  similar  passages  being  due  to  the  situafSo  quasi  similar  (i.  e.  quasi 
identica)  of  the  two  friends  ;  went  to  Italy  on  a  diplomatic  mission  in  1541  ; 
spent  the  year  1 543  in  Rome  and  returned  to  Portugal  in  the  winter  of  1 543-4  ; 
was  factor  of  the  fortress  of  Arguim  from  1545  to  1548  ;   and  died  in  1577. 

^  The  whole  question  at  issue  is  whether  the  de  of  Trovas  de  Crisfal  = 
'  by  '  or  '  about  '  (cf .  O  Livro  das  Trovas  d'El  Rei  =  rather  '  belonging  to  ' 
than  '  by  '  the  king),  and  protests  against  a  illusdo  de  pretender  identificar 
em  um  mesmo  poeta  0  apaixonado  de  Aonia  e  0  de  Maria  (Obras,  191 5  ed., 
p.  10)  or  o  intuito  de  converterem  Christovam  Falcao  em  um  mytho  (ibid.,  p.  42) 
are  beside  the  point. 


138  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

they  come  to  the  eclogues  and  accept  every  name  and  allusion 
with  the  greatest  literalness,  as  though  it  were  a  poet's  duty  to 
wear  his  heart  in  his  verses.  It  is  idle  to  adduce  the  fact  that 
Cristovam  Falcao  wrote  ungrammatical  letters  (so  did  Keats), 
or  to  devise  far-fetched  interpretations  (such  as  Crisma  falso) 
for  the  word  Crisfal.  What  more  probable  than  that  Ribeiro 
and  Falcao,  born  in  the  same  province,  became  friends  at  Court, 
and  that  Ribeiro  introduced  his  friend  in  one  of  his  poems  as 
he  is  supposed  to  have  introduced  Sa  de  Miranda  in  another,  and 
as  Miranda  introduces  Ribeiro  [Canta  Ribero  los  males  de  amor)  ? 
If  in  his  favourite  manner  he  added  a  little  mystification  in  the 
word  Crisfal,  what  more  characteristic  ?  The  very  form  of  the 
poem,  in  which  first  the  Autor  and  then  Crisfal  speaks  [Falla 
Crisfal)  suggests  this,  as  does  the  title  :  Trovas  de  um  pastor  per 
nome  Crisfal,  compared  with  the  definite  Trovas  de  dous  pastores 
.  .  .  Feitas  por  Bernaldim  Ribeiro.^  It  is  not  difficult  to  explain 
the  printing  of  the  Trovas  together  with  the  works  of  Ribeiro 
and  the  hesitancy  of  the  early  editions  in  ascribing  them,  on 
hearsay,  to  Cristovam  Falcao  ;  but  the  word  Crisfal  caught  the 
fancy,  and  those  who  learnt  that  it  stood  for  Cristovam  Falcao 
would  inevitably  confuse  the  explanation  of  the  anagram  with 
the  authorship  of  the  poem.  One  of  those  who  did  so  was  Gaspar 
Fructuoso  (or  Antonio  Cordeiro),  and  the  tradition  which  had 
begun  so  shakily  with  a  dizem  ser  gained  strength  with  the  years. 
Presumably  the  editor  of  the  1559  edition  knew  what  was  to  be 
known  on  the  subj  ect,  yet  he  speaks  with  a  quavering  uncertainty : 
it  is  only  much  later  that  the  ascription  to  Cristovam  Falcao 
becomes  a  fixed  belief.^  The  eighth  Decada  of  Diogo  do  Couto 
was  not  published  till  1673,  i.  e.  over  half  a  century  after  the  death 
of  its  author.  The  explanatory  sentence  aquelle  que  fez  aquellas 
antigas  e  nomeadas  (or  namoradas)  trovas  de  Crisfal^  may  well  be, 
and  probably  is,   a  later  interpolation.      But  although  a  few 

'  That  one  of  the  figures  is  identical  in  the  woodcuts  of  these  two  folhas 
volantes  is  not  significant  :  it  appears  also  in  an  anonymous  edition  of  the 
Pranto  de  Maria  Parda. 

*  In  the  1559  ed.  the  words  hua  muy  nomeada  e  agradauel  Egloga  chamada 
Crisfal  .  .  .  que  dizem  ser  de  Cristouam  Falcam,  ho  que  parece  alludir  ho  nome 
da  mesma  Egloga  may  legitimately  be  held  to  imply  merely  that  some  persons, 
misled  by  the  anagram,  attributed  the  poem  to  Falcao. 

*  Decada  8,  cap.  34  (1786  ed.,  p.  322). 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  139 

scholars  definitely  hold  that  Ribeiro  wrote  this  poem,  grammatici 
certant  and,  should  tradition  prove  too  strong,  we  have  to  accept 
asecond  writer  who  claims  an  undying  place  in  Portuguese  litera- 
ture owing  to  the  marvellous  success  with  which,  divesting  his 
muse  of  any  qualities  of  its  own,  he  identified  himself  with  a  poet 
who  is  the  most  characteristically  Portuguese,  but  also  the  most 
individual  of  impassioned  singers  :   Bernardim  Ribeiro. 

A  kind  of  continuation  of  the  story  of  Crisfal  (who  is  now 
enchanted  within  the  fountain  of  his  own  tears)  appeared  at  the 
end  of  the  century  in  a  small  collection  of  poems  entitled  Sylvia 
de  Lisardo  (1597).  It  contains  forty-one  sonnets  (of  which  one 
only  is  in  Spanish),  three  eclogues  in  tercetos  and  oitavas,  and 
various  romances  (in  Spanish)  and  shorter  poems,  and  has  been 
ascribed,  without  sufficient  reason,  to  the  historian  Frei  Bernardo 
de  Brito.  These  poems  must  remain  anonymous,  and  they  throw 
no  light  on  the  Crisfal  problem,  but  in  their  true  poetical  feehng 
and  power  of  expression  they  deserved  their  popularity  ^  in  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

It  is  not  certain  but  it  is  probable  that  Ribeiro  went  to  Italy, 
and  his  Italian  travels  may  have  coincided  with  those  of  his 
life-long  friend,  the  champion  of  humanism  in  Portugal,  Fran- 
cisco DE  Sa  de  Miranda  [c.  1485-1558),  the  most  famous  of  all 
the  Portuguese  poets  with  the  exception  of  Camoes  and  Gil 
Vicente.  As  a  lyric  poet  far  inferior  to  either  of  them,  his  great 
influence  was  due  partly  to  his  character,  partly  to  his  intro- 
duction of  the  new  school  of  poetry,  the  versos  de  medida  nova,  or 
de  arte  ntaior,  replacing  the  national  trovas  de  medida  velha  (octo- 
syllabic redondilhas)  by  the  Italian  hendecasyllab-ics  :  Petrarca's 
sonnets  and  canzoni,  Dante's  terza  rima  {tercetos),  and  the  octava 
rima  of  Poliziano  and  Ariosto.  The  exact  date  of  Miranda's 
birth  is  still  uncertain,  but  if  he  was  the  eldest  of  five  sons  of 
the  Coimbra  Canon,  Gongalo  Mendez  de  Sa,  who  were  legitimized 
in  1490,  he  must  have  been  born  about  the  year  1485.  Yet  one 
would  willingly  make  him  younger.  His  life  in  Minho  certainly 
sounds  too  active  for  a  man  of  fifty  :  perhaps  c.  1490  would  be 
nearer  the  mark.    He  studied  at  the  University  at  Lisbon  and 

*  The  licenga  of  the  1632  edition  says,  Este  livrinho  .  .  .  muitas  vezes  se  im- 
primio. 


140  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

early  frequented  the  Court.  He  soon  won  distinction  as  a 
scholar  and  was  a  Doctor  of  Law  when  he  contributed  several 
poems  to  Garcia  de  Resende's  Cancioneiro  (1516).  His  journey 
to  Italy  a  few  years  later,  in  1521,  may  have  been  due  merely  to 
the  natural  desire  of  a  scholar  to  see  Rome  or  there  may  have  been 
other  motives,  a  love  affair  of  his  own  or  his  friendship  with 
Bernardim  Ribeiro.  He  was  distantly  related  to  the  great  Italian 
family  of  Colonna  (as  he  was  to  Garci  Lasso)  and  in  Italy  perhaps 
met  the  celebrated  Vittoria  Colonna  (1492-1547),  Marchesa  di 
Pescara,  besides  probably  most  of  the  other  distinguished  Italians 
of  the  time,  Lattanzio  Tolomei,  Sannazzaro,  Cardinal  Bembo, 
Giovanni  Rucellai,  Ariosto.  During  five  years  he  saw  the  principal 
cities  of  Italy  and  Sicily  and  returned  to  Portugal  in  1526  (or 
earlier,  possibly  after  three  years,  in  1524)  with  a  deep  know- 
ledge of  Italian  literature  and  the  firm  resolve  to  acclimatize  in 
his  country  the  metres  in  which  the  Italians  had  written  things  so 
divine.  If  he  had  seen  at  Rome  the  Cancioneiro  of  thirteenth - 
century  Portuguese  poets  ^  he  must  have  realized  that  the  metres 
were  not  so  foreign  as  many  might  think  ;  if  he  met  Boscan  on 
his  homeward  journey  his  determination  to  become  innovator  or 
restorer^  would  be  strengthened.  King  Joao  III  was  on  the  throne, 
and  we  are  told  in  Miranda's  earhest  biography  (i6i4).,  which  is 
attributed  with  some  probability  to  D.  Gon^alo  Coutinho,  that 
he  became  '  one  of  the  most  esteemed  courtiers  of  his  time  '.  He 
was  an  enthusiastic  believer  in  monarchy  and  in  the  divinity 
that  doth  hedge  a  king,  but  was  less  enamoured  of  the  growing 
corruption  and  luxury  at  Court  :  probably  he  was  himself  more 
esteemed  by  the  king  than  by  the  courtiers,  and  after  the  poetry 

»  Cf.  1885  ed..  No.  109  : 

Eu  digo  OS  Proven9ais  que  inda  se  sente 
O  som  das  brandas  rimas  que  entoaram. 
Cf.  Boscdn  ap.  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Antologia,  torn,  xiii  (Juan  Boscdn),  p.  165: 
En  tiempo  de  Dante  y  tin  poco  antes  florecieron  los  Proenzales,    cuyas  obras 
por  culpa  de  los  tiempos  andan  en  pocas  manos.      Menendez  y  Pelayo  also 
(ibid.,  p.  174)  gives  a  reference  by  Faria  e  Sousa  to  King  Dinis  :   El  rey  don 
Dionis  de  Portugal  nacid  primero  que  el  Dante  tres  6  quatro  anos  y  escrivid 
ntucho  deste  propio  ginero  endecasilabo,  coma  consta  de  los  manuscritos. 
2  Cf.  1885  ed.,  No.  112: 

I  Como  se  perdieron 
Entre  nos  el  cantar,  como  el  taner 
Que  tanto  nombre  a  los  pasados  dieron  ? 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  141 

of  Italy  he  could  scarcely  share  their  taste  for  the  trivial  verses 
of  the  Cancioneiro  Geral  nor  could  they  see  how  a  compliment 
could  be  turned  more  neatly  than  in  the  old  esparsas  and  vilancetes. 
During  these  years  he  wrote  his  first  play,  Os  Estranjeiros,  the 
eclogue  Alexo  with  oiiavas  in  Portuguese,  and  the  Fabula  do  Mon- 
dego,  perhaps  in  order  to  show  his  superiority  over  Gil  Vicente. 

There  was  an  obvious  antagonism  between  the  laughing 
and  the  weeping  reformer  (for  both  protested  vigorously  in  their 
different  ways  against  the  growing  materialism  of  the  day), 
between  the  learned,  philosophical  and  the  natural,  human  poet, 
and  Vicente's  humour  probably  appeared  to  Sa  de  Miranda  as 
unintelligible  and  undignified  as  Miranda's  hendecasyllabic 
poems  may  have  appeared  melancholy-thin  and  artificial  to 
Vicente  :  et  ce  n'est  point  ainsi  que  parle  la  Nature.  But  the  line 
in  the  introduction  of  the  Fabula  do  Mondego  in  which  Miranda 
speaks  of  the  king's  condescension, 

Al  canto  pastoril  ya  hecho  osado, 

probably  refers  to  some  previous  effort  of  his  own  rather  than 
to  the  work  of  Vicente,  and  Miranda  was  in  Italy  when  Gil  Vicente 
was  taunted  by  certain  Aom^m^  de  horn  saber  and  turned  the  tables 
on  them  in  the  Farsa  de  Ines  Pereira.  The  Fabula  do  Mondego 
is  a  cold,  stilted  production  of  600  lines  in  Petrarcan  stanzas, 
the  subject  of  which  was  partly  derived  from  Angelo  Ambrogini 
(Poliziano).  In  I532the  King  gave  Miranda  a  commenda  (benefice) 
of  the  Order  of  Christ  on  the  banks  of  the  Neiva  in  Minho,  and 
having  acquired  the  neighbouring  estate  of  Tapada  [quinta  da 
Tapada)  he  left  the  Court  and  retired  to  it  not  many  months  later. 
Miranda's  love  of  Nature  was  very  deep,  from  his  boyhood  at 
Coimbra  he  hadpreferred  the  country  to  life  in  cities,  and  probably 
no  other  incentive  was  required,  although  it  is  thought  that  he 
may  have  been  too  zealous  in  support  of  Bernardim  Ribeiro  and 
that  a  passage  in  Alexo  (1532  ?)  offended  the  powerful  favourite, 
the  Conde  da  Castanheira.  Whatever  the  cause  of  his  with- 
drawal, literature  must  call  it  blessed,  for  his  new  life  in  the 
country  suited  his  temperament ;  the  independence  of  character 
shown  in  his  fine  letter  (one  of  the  most  famous  poems  in  the 
Portuguese  language)   addressed  to  King  Joao  III  developed. 


142  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

and  close  contact  with  the  country  and  the  peasants  gave  his 
poetry  that  indigenous  flavour  and  peculiar  charm  which  have 
fascinated  all  readers  of  the  eclogue  Basto,  that  individual  stamp 
in  which  the  Court  poetry  was  infallibly  lacking.  He  had  already 
written  his  best  work — for  this  eclogue  and  the  letters  show  the 
real  Miranda,  pointed,  original,  racy  of  the  soil — and  written  it  in 
quintilhas,  when  in  1536  he  married  Briolanja,  the  sister  of  his 
old  friend,  now  his  neighbour  at  Crasto,  Manuel  Machado  de 
Azevedo.  Some  miles  away,  at  the  straggling  little  village  of 
Cabeceiras  de  Basto,  he  had  other  intimate  friends,  the  Pereiras, 
and  the  gift,  by  one  of  these  two  brothers,  Antonio  Nunalvarez 
Pereira,  of  a  manuscript  of  Garci  Lasso  de  la  Vega's  poems  shortly 
before  Miranda's  marriage  revived  his  enthusiasm  for  the  alien 
metres.  He  turned  again  to  the  hendecasyllable  and  wrote  the 
eclogues  Andres  (1535),  Celia,  and  Nemoroso  (1537),  the  latter  in 
memory  of  the  tragic  death  of  Garci  Lasso  in  the  preceding  year. 
He  returned  to  the  quintilha  later,  employing  it  with  flowing  ease 
in  A  Egipciaca  Santa  Maria  (or  Santa  Maria  Egipciaca),  which 
was  probably  written  between  1544  and  1554,  when  he  was 
educating  his  two  sons  with  amor  encoherto  e  moderado  [A  Egip- 
ciaca, p.  3),  and  nearer  the  former  than  the  latter  date.  Its 
vigour  and  the  promise  of  more  ^  after  721  quintilhas  preclude 
the  date  (1556-8)  assigned  to  it  by  its  first  editor,  even  without 
the  statement  of  the  1614  biographer  that  Miranda  wrote  scarcely 
anything  after  his  wife's  death  in  1555  ;  but  it  may  have  been 
written  even  earlier,  before  1544.  And  still  through  all  these 
various  poems,  despite  their  undeniable  value  and  incidental 
beauties,  it  is  the  man,  his  life  and  character,  that  interest  us. 
The  wild  yet  green  and  peaceful  scenery  of  Minho  accorded  well 
with  his  alma  soberana,  at  once  active  and  contemplative,  disci- 
plined and  independent.  At  first  hunting  the  wolf  and  boar 
occupied  his  leisure — we  see  him  out  with  his  dogs  Hunter, 
Swallowfoot,  &c.,  in  crimson  dawn  and  breathless  noonday — and 
gave  him  a  hundred  opportunities  for  quiet  observation  of  Nature, 
the  streams,  especially  the  birds,  and  the  peasants.  The  poems 
written  soon  after  his  arrival  still  retain  the  freshness  of  these 

•  Adcus  leitor  a  mais  ver, 
Porque  ainda  haveis  de  ver  mais  (A  Egipciaca,  p.  181). 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  143 

impressions.  His  evenings  were  spent  with  his  friends  at  Cabe- 
ceiras— true  nodes  cenaeque  deum— or  in  the  more  formal  society 
at  Crasto  or  with  music — he  played  the  viola — or  his  favourite 
authors,  Homer  in  Greek,  or  Horace,  the  Bible,  the  Italians,  or 
Garci  Lasso  and  Boscan.  Later  gardening  ^  and  the  education 
of  his  sons  and  entertainment  of  visitors  took  the  place  of  his 
favourite  wolf-hunting.  As  his  fame  and  influence  spread,  Diogo 
Bernardez  (whose  recollections  of  Miranda  were  recorded  in  the 
1614  life)  was  not  the  only  disciple  who  came  to  see  him  in  his 
retreat,  and  he  corresponded  in  verse  with  most  of  the  poets  of 
the  time,  Andrade  Caminha,  Montemor,  Ferreira,  D.  Manuel 
de  Portugal,  Bernardez.  Cardinal  Henrique  was  a  steadfast 
admirer  of  his  work,  and  the  young  Prince  Joao  asked  for  a  copy  : 
Ihas  mandou  pedir.  This  wide  recognition  after  the  first  coldness  ^ 
was  some  measure  of  comfort  for  the  many  sorrows  of  his  last 
years,  the  death  of  his  eldest  son  Gongalo,  killed  in  his  teens 
in  Africa  (1553),  of  his  wife  (1555),  of  that  promising  precocious 
Prince  Joao  (1537-54)  to  whom  he  had  thrice  sent  a  collection 
of  his  poems,  the  departure  of  his  brother,  Mem,  to  become  one 
of  the  most  notable  Governors  of  Brazil  (1557).  In  the  latter 
year  King  Joao  died,  leaving  an  infant  heir  to  a  distracted  king- 
dom, and  Miranda's  death  followed  a  few  months  later.  In 
a  sense  this  philosopher  was  the  most  un-Portuguese  of  poets,  for 
he  had  no  facility  in  verse.  He  went  on  hammering  his  lines, 
altering,  erasing,  compressing  in  a  divine  discontent.  He  had 
a  lofty  conception  of  the  poet's  art — to  express  the  noblest 
sentiment  in  the  best  and  fewest  words — five  versions  of  Alexo, 
twelve  of  Basto,  attest  his  untiring  zeal  and  his  '  art  to  blot '.  The 
elliptical  abruptness  of  his  native  quintilhas,  by  which  they  have 
something  in  common  with  those  of  Ribeiro,  are  not  their  least 
charm,  and  gives  an  effective  emphasis  to  his  sententious  philo- 

1  He  must  often  have  repeated  Nuno  Pereira's  lines,  which  may  have 
influenced  him  when  he  read  them  in  the  Cancioneiro  Geral :  Privar  em  cas  da 
Rainha  Deos  vollo  deixe  fazer,  E  a  mi  hua  vinha  E  regar  hua  almoinha  Em  que 
tenho  mor  prazer  .  .  .  Lavro,  cavo  quanta  posso  .  .  .  O  gingrar  de  meu  caseiro,  &c. 

^  His  complaint  in  the  second  elegy  (1885  ed.,  No.  147,  1.  17)  shows  how  far 
he  was  in  advance  of  his  age  in  Portugal  :  Um  vilancete  brando  ou  seja 
urn  chiste,  Letras  as  invengoes,  motes  as  damas,  Hua  pregunta  escura,  esparsa 
triste,  Tudo  bom,  quern  0  nega  ?  Mas  porque,  Se  alguem  descobre  mats,  se 
the  resiste  ? 


144  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

sophy.  In  introducing  the  new  measures  ^  he  used  the  Castilian 
language  as  being  the  most  natural  and  suitable  until,  but  only 
until,  they  should  be  thoroughly  accHmatized.  He  wrote  Cas- 
tilian not  fluently — that  was  not  his  gift — but  correctly,  with 
only  occasional  lusitanismos.  His  best  work,  however,  was 
written  in  Portuguese  :  in  the  new  poetry  with  which  his  name 
is  for  ever  associated  he  is  only  the  forerunner  of  the  work  of 
Diogo  Bernardez  and  Camoes,^  the  founder  of  a  school  to  which 
Portuguese  literature  owes  some  of  its  chief  glories.  In  Portu- 
guese he  wrote  his  comedies  and,  about  half  a  century  before 
Samuel  Daniel's  Cleopatra  (1592),  a  tragedy  Cleopatra^  of  which  we 
only  possess  a  few  lines.'  The  poem  on  the  life  and  conversion  of 
St.  Mary  of  Egypt  *  (a  favourite  theme  a  few  centuries  earlier,  as 
in  the  Spanish  Vida  de  Santa  Maria  Egipciaqua  (13th  c.  ?),  the 
fourteenth-century  Vida  de  Maria  Egipcia,  and  the  French  Vie  de 
Sainte  Marie  VEgyptienne)  is  stamped  with  the  author's  senten- 
tious wisdom  and  love  of  discipline.  It  contains  quaint  plays  on 
words  {Ide  ao  mar  que  por  amar,  p.  169),  tours  de  force  such  as  the 
three  quintilhas  of  esdruxulos  (pp.  179-80),  and  rises  to  wonderful 
lyric  beauty  in  the  saint's  farewell  to  Earth  {Vou  para  wmjardim 
de  flores,  pp.  166-9).  He  intended  the  poem  to  be  '  rare,  unique 
and  excellent  '  and  to  some  extent  he  achieved  his  aim.  In  much 
of  his  work  the  diction  is  rough  and  halting,  but  the  greatness 
of  the  man  nevertheless  extends  to  his  poetry.  Perhaps  the  best 
example  of  this  is  the  melancholy  grandeur  of  the  sonnet,  techni- 
cally so  imperfect,  0  sol  e  grande.  Force  of  character  made  him 
not  only  a  laborious  but  a  successful  craftsman.  When  he  died, 
honoured  and  admired  by  all  the  best  intellects  in  the  country, 
the  position  of  the  new  school  was  assured  and  he  had  been  able 

*  Often  he  combines  several  in  the  same  poem.  Thus  the  long  (533  lines) 
eclogue  on  the  death  of  Garci  Lasso  (Nemoroso)  begins  in  tercetos,  proceeds 
with  rima  encadeada  (internal  rhjmie),  and  ends  with  Petrarcan  stanzas. 

*  Cf.  the  sonnet  (1885  ed..  No.  126)  Esprito  que  voastevnth  Alma  minhagentil. 
'  The  autograph  manuscript  of  this  and  of  other  poems,  discovered  in  the 

Lisbon  Biblioteca  Xacional  by  Snr.  Delfim  Guimaraes  in  1908,  has  been 
reproduced  in  facsimile  by  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  in  the 
Boletim  of  the  Lisbon  Ac.  das  Sciencias,  vol.  v  (i9i2),pp.  187-220.  See  infra, 
p.  164. 

*  Leonel  da  Costa,  the  translator  of  Virgil  and  Terence,  later  wrote  a  poem 
in  seven  cantos  of  redondilhas  on  the  same  subject :  A  Conversao  miracnlosa 
da  felice  egypcia  penitente  Santa  Maria  (1627). 


I 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  145 

to  hail  with  joy  the  support  of  younger  writers:  Venid  huenos 
zagales  !  Foremost  in  time  among  these  poets  of  el  verso  largo  was 
D.  Manuel  de  Portugal^  (1520  ?-i6o6),  son  of  the  first  Condc 
de  Vimioso  and  of  D.  Joana  de  Vilhena,  cousin  of  King  Manuel. 
He  outlived  all  his  fellow-poets,  welcomed  the  appearance  of 
Os  Lusiadas,  and  in  1580  took  the  side  of  the  Prior  D.  Antonio. 
His  Obras  (1605)  consist  of  seventeen  books  of  poems,  mostly 
of  a  religious  character  and  written  in  Spanish — books  9  and 
15  contain  some  Portuguese  poems,  and  among  them  the  fine 
mystic  sonnet  Apetece  minha  alma  (Bk.  ix,  f.  199  v.). 

Among  those  who  welcomed  and  acclimatized  the  new  style 
none  was  a  more  talented  or  truer  poet  than  Diogo  Bernardez 
{c.  1530-C.  1600), 2  who  confessed  that  he  owed  everything  to 
Sa  de  Miranda  and  Antonio  Ferreira.^  Born  of  a  distinguished 
family  *  at  Ponte  da  Barca  on  the  river  Lima,  he  would  ride 
over  to  visit  Sa  de  Miranda  or  send  him  letters  in  verse,  and 
he  mourned  his  death  in  sonnet,  letter,  and  eclogue  with  un- 
affected grief.  He  himself  continued  to  sing  by  the  banks  of 
his  beloved  Lima,  endeared  to  him  all  the  more  by  disillusion 
at  Lisbon  and  captivity  in  Africa.  In  a  letter  to  Miranda  he 
alludes  to  an  apparently  unhappy  love  affair  at  Lisbon.  Later 
the  retirement  of  his  poet  brother,  Frei  Agostinho,  into  a  con- 
vent, the  deaths  of  Miranda  and  Ferreira,  the  great  plague 
of  1569,  and  the  misfortunes  of  his  country  were  all  deeply 
felt  by  his  affectionate  nature.  In  1576  he  went  as  secretary 
of  Embassy  to  Madrid,  but  otherwise  he  seems  to  have 
been  disappointed  in  hopes  of  lucrative  employment,   and  he 

'  Faria  e  Sousa  even  makes  him  the  first  Portuguese  poet  to  write  hendeca- 
syllabics,  setting  aside  those  of  Sa  de  Miranda  as  unreadable  :  son  incapaces 
de  ser  leidos  !  ( Varias  Rimas,  pt.  ii,  p.  162). 

^  He  was  Mot^o  da  camara  in  1566.  He  was  appointed  a  knight  of  the 
Order  of  Christ  in  1 582.  He  married  apparently  after  his  return  from  Africa  in 
1581.  He  was  alive  in  1596  (although  in  one  of  his  poems  he  refers  to  a  pre- 
mature old  age)  and  dead  in  1605.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  apparently  over 
twenty-five  in  1558.  It  is  thought  that  the  right  of  passing  on  his  official 
posts  to  his  children  (sobrevivencia),  granted  to  his  father  in  1532,  may  in- 
dicate the  date  of  the  birth  of  the  eldest  of  his  eleven  children  :  Diogo  Bernardez 
(who  did  not,  like  some  of  his  brothers,  use  his  father's  second  name,  Pimenta). 

^  Carta  12  :    Confesso  dever  tiido  dquella  rara  Doutrina  tua. 

*  The  succeeding  generation  was  also  distinguished,  one  of  the  poet's 
nephews  becoming  Bishop  of  Angra,  another  Governor  of  Angola,  a  third 
Professor  at  Coimbra  University. 

2362  K 


146  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

was  always  ready  to  exchange  the  mud  of  the  streets  and  the 
'bought  meals'  of  Lisbon,  with  its  penurious,  importunate  mop(75,* 
for  the  dewy  golden  dawns,  the  hills  and  streams  of  Minho,  entre 
simples  e  huviildes  lavradores  {Carta  27).  In  1578,  however,  he  who 
had  lamented  that  no  Maecenas  encouraged  those  eager  to  sing 
the  deeds  of  Portuguese  heroes  was  chosen  to  accompany  as 
official  poet  ^  the  Portuguese  expedition  which  ended  disastrously 
in  aquelle  funeral  e  turvo  ^m— the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir.  It 
was  not  till  1581  that  Bernardez  returned  from  captivity. 
Whether  he  was  ransomed  by  King  Philip,  or  by  the  Trinitarians 
or  Jesuits,  or  by  himself  or  his  friends,  is  not  known.  After  his 
return  and  his  marriage  he  frequently  laments  his  poverty  :  not, 
he  says,  that  he  wishes  to  be  the  Pope  in  Rome,  but  merely  to 
have  enough  to  cat  {Carta  31).  Yet  apparently  he  had  no  cause  to 
regret  the  change  of  dynasty  so  far  as  his  personal  fortunes  were 
concerned.  Whereas  he  had  merely  held  the  post  of  servidor  de 
toalha  at  the  palace  under  King  Sebastian,  he  was  now  (1582) 
appointed  a  knight  of  the  Order  of  Christ  with  a  pension  of 
20,000  reis  and  was  granted  500  cnizados  ('  in  property  and 
goods  ')  in  the  same  year.  In  1593  his  yearly  pension  was  40,000 
reis,  of  which  one-half  was  to  revert  to  his  wife  and  children. 
Either  these  moneys  remained  unpaid  or  the  new  cavaleiro 
fidalgo's  ideas  had  changed  greatly  since  he  had  sung  of  the  joys 
of  rustic  poverty  and  the  vanity  of  riches.  Bernardez  found  his 
inspiration  in  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish  poets  of  the  new  school 
{cantigas  strangeiras,  stranas),^  and  through  them  in  the  great 
Italians.  Dante's  name  does  not  occur  in  his  letters,  written  in 
tercetos,*  but  Tasso — 0  men  Tasso — -Ariosto,  Petrarca,  and  others 
are  mentioned.^  In  form  and  sound  some  of  his  cauQoes  are  not 
unworthy  of  Petrarca,  but  they  arc  more  homely  and  bucolic, 

'  Bernardez'  letters  in  verse  contain  many  such  references  to  everyday  life, 
e.g.  the  Lisbon  negress  selling  fried  fish  in  the  Betcsga. 

^  A  confident  sonnet  by  him  in  this  capacity  is  extant  :  Pois  armarse  por 
Christo  nan  duvida  Sebastido. 

^  O  doce  estillo  teu  tamo  por  giiia  and  Escrevo,  lein  e  risco  he  writes  to 
Miranda,  but  his  muse  was  far  more  spontaneous  than  Miranda's,  and  it 
appears  from  another  passage  (in  Elegia  5)  that  his  alterations  were  less 
of  style  than  of  matter. 

*  Carta  32  is  an  exception,  and  consists  of  seventy-two  oitavas. 

*  He  introduces  Italian  lines  {Cartas  23,  27,  30)  and  wrote  a  sonnet  in 
Italian. 


LYRIC   AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  147 

have  more  saudade  and  less  definite  images,  no  concrete  pictures 
like  that  of  la  stanca  vecchierella  pellegrina  of  the  fourth  Canzone. 
His  second  source  of  inspiration  was  his  native  Minho  and  the 
transparent  waters  and  fresca  praia  of  the  Lima.  He  was  never 
happier  than  when  wandering  lungo  Vaniate  rive,  and  this  gives 
a  pleasant  reality  to  his  eclogues.  His  muse,  a  bosques  dada 
e  a  fontes  cristalinas,  sings  not  only  of  the  conventional  'roses  and 
lilies  '  but  of  honeysuckle,  of  cherries  red  in  May,  grapes  heavy 
with  dew,  golden  apples,  nuts,  acorns,  the  trout  so  plentiful  that 
they  can  be  caught  with  the  hand,  hares,  partridges,  doves,  the 
thrush  and  the  nightingale,  and  mentions  oak,  ash,  elm,  poplar, 
beech,  hazel,  chestnut,  and  arbutus.  These  eclogues,  written 
in  various  metres,  sometimes  with  leixapren  or  internal  rhyme, 
are  collected  in  0  Lima  (1596),  which  also  contains  his  letters. 
His  other  works  are  sonnets,  elegies,  odes  in  Rimas  Varias,  Flores 
do  Lima  (1596),  and  a  third  small  volume  V arias  Rimas  ao  Bom 
Jesus  (1594)  which  includes  elegies  and  odes  to  the  Virgin  written 
during  his  captivity,  a  long  Historia  de  Santa  Ursula  in  octaves, 
and  other  devotional  verse  of  much  fervour  and  his  wonted  per- 
fection of  technique.  If,  read  in  the  mass,  his  poems  produce 
the  impression  of  a  cloying  sweetness,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  never  before  had  Portuguese  poetry  risen  to  so  harmonious 
a  music.  Faria  e  Sousa  accused  him  of  plagiarizing  Camoes,  but 
in  the  case  of  a  writer  whose  accepted  poems,  the  dulcissima 
carmina  Limae,  are  of  such  excellence  the  accusation  cannot  be 
seriously  entertained.  Neither  he  nor  Camoes  was  a  great 
original  poet,  but  in  both  the  command  of  the  new  style  was 
such  that  their  poems  were  often  confused  by  collectors.  A 
passage  in  one  of  Bernardez'  letters  (5,  1.  6)  seems  to  imply 
that  his  poetry  was  not  appreciated  at  Lisbon.  It  was  too 
genuine  and  clear  to  suit  the  clever  Court  rhymesters.  But  he 
had  his  followers,  who  would  send  him  their  poems  to  be  cor- 
rected, or  rather,  praised,  and  later  Lope  de  Vega  recognized 
him  as  his  master  in  the  eclogue  in  preference  to  Garci  Lasso. 

Francisco  Galvao  {c.  1563-1635  }),  equerry  to  the  Duke  of 
Braganza,  was  a  true  poet  if  he  wrote  the  sonnet  A  Nosso  Senhor 
ascribed  to  him  by  his  editor,  Antonio  Lourengo  Caminha,  in 
Poesias  ineditas  dos  nossos  insignes  poetas  Pedro  da  Costa  Peres- 

K  2 


148  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

trello,  coevo  do  grande  Luis  de  Camoes,  e  Francisco  Galvao  (1791)  : 
0  til  de  puro  amor  Deos  fonte  pura.  Innocencio  da  Silva  vigor- 
ously doubts  the  authenticity  of  these  poems,  which  are  mostly 
of  a  religious  character  or  concerned  with  Horace's  theme  of  the 
golden  mean,  as  that  of  the  Ohras  ineditas  de  Aires  Telles  de 
Meneses  (1792)  published  by  the  same  editor,  who  professed  to 
have  faithfully  copied  them  from  the  antigos  originaes  of  the  time 
of  Joao  n.  Bernardez'  brother  Frei  Agostinho  da  Cruz  (1540- 
1619),  born  at  Ponte  da  Barca,  entered  as  a  novice  the  Convent 
of  Santa  Cruz  in  the  Serra  de  Sintra  in  1560,  and  took  the  vows 
a  year  later.  In  1605  he  obtained  permission  to  live  as  a  hermit 
in  the  Serra  da  Arrabida,  where  he  cultivated  sandade  and  the 
muses,  although  his  poems  were  no  longer  profane,  as  when  in 
his  youth  as  Agostinho  Pimenta  he  haunted  with  his  brother 
Diogo  the  banks  of  the  Lima.  These  early  verses  he  burnt : 
Queimei,  como  vergonha  me  pedia,  Chorando  par  haver  tao  mal 
caiitado.  The  eclogues,  elegies,  letters,  sonnets,  and  odes  that 
survive  prove  that  mal  is  here  a  moral,  not  an  aesthetic  adverb, 
and  that  he  shared  his  brother's  love  of  Nature  and  in  no  mean 
degree  his  power  of  expressing  it  in  soft,  harmonious  verse. 

That  gift  was  denied  to  Antonio  Ferreira  (1528-69),  who 
combined  enthusiasm  for  the  new  style — a  lira  nova — and  for 
classical  antiquity  with  a  rooted  antipathy  against  the  use  of 
a  foreign  language  or  foreign  subjects.  His  uneventful  life  as 
judge,  courtier,  and  poet  was  cut  short  by  the  plague  of  1569. 
His  poetry  is  not  that  of  a  poet  but  of  the  Coimbra  law  student 
who  had  become  a  busy  magistrate.-^  It  is  thus  at  its  best 
when  it  docs  not  attempt  to  be  lyrical,  for  instance  in  his 
excellent  letters  in  tercetos.  His  odes  are  closely  modelled  on 
those  of  Horace  {0  men  Horacio).  Nor  did  he  claim  originality: 
indeed,  his  plan  of  introducing  certain  new  forms  was  a  little  too 
deliberate  for  a  great  poet,^  and  his  best  sonnet  is  a  translation 
from  Petrarca.     For  bucolic  poetry  neither  the  grave  doctor's 

'  Cf.  Carta  4  :  Foge  inda  0  dia  an  muito  diligente,  although  whether  this  is 
due  to  his  work  or  to  the  number  of  his  friends  is  not  clear. 

*  Com  cujo  [Miranda's]  exemplo  tneu  pai,  que  entam  estaua  nos  esttidos,  pre- 
tendeo  com  a  variedade  destes  sens  manifestar  como  a  lingua  Portugueza  assi 
em  copia  de  palaiiras  como  em  granidade  de  estylo  a  nenhuma  he  inferior  (Miguel 
Leite  Ferreira,  Preface  to  Poemas  Lvsitanos,  1598). 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  149 

style  nor  his  inclinations  were  well  suited.  Not  only  is  the 
smooth  flow  of  the  verse  which  charms  us  in  Diogo  Bernardez 
here  absent  but  the  metre  often  actually  halts/  and  throughout 
his  work  we  have  sincerity,  lofty  aims,  a  stiff  unbending  severity, 
but  not  poetical  genius.  Ferreira  was  a  true  patriot,  and  it  was 
his  boast  and  is  his  enduring  fame  that  he  devoted  himself  to 
exalt  the  Portuguese  language.^  It  was  most  fortunate  for 
Portuguese  literature  that  at  this  time  of  changing  taste  a  poet  of 
Ferreira's  great  influence  should  have  forsworn  foreign  intrusions 
in  the  language  with  the  exception  of  Latin  (in  the  introduction  of 
which,  however,  his  characteristic  restraint  forbade  excess),  and 
left  both  in  prose  and  verse  abiding  monuments  of  pure  Portu- 
guese. This  was  the  more  remarkable  in  a  poet  who  disdained 
the  old  popular  metres  {a  antiga  trova  deixo  ao  povo)  and  had  no 
thought  apparently  for  popular  customs  or  traditions.  His 
Poemas  Lusitanos,  published  posthumously,  contain  over  a  hun- 
dred sonnets,  besides  his  odes,  eclogues,  elegies,  epigrams  (which 
are  but  fragments  of  sonnets),  and  letters,  and  he  also  wrote 
a  Historia  de  Santa  Comba  in  fifty-seven  oitavas. 

The  work  of  Pero  de  Andrade  Caminha  (1520  .^-89),  an 
industrious  writer  of  verse  rather  than  a  poet,  is  as  cold  and 
unmusically  artificial  as  Ferreira's  in  its  form,  while  it  lacks 
Ferreira's  high  thought  and  ideals  and  his  love  for  his  native 
language.  One  may  imagine  that  it  was  through  friendship  with 
Ferreira — who  scolds  him  for  writing  in  Spanish — that  he  became 
one  of  the  set  of  Miranda  and  Bernardez.  Camoes  he  must 
have  known, ^  and  indeed  refers  to  him  satirically  in  his  epi- 
grams :  he  seems  to  have  actively  disliked  so  wayward  a  genius, 
a  man  so  unfitted  to  be  a  Court  oflicial.  Caminha  himself  was  the 
son  of  Joao   Caminha,  Chamberlain  of  the  Duchess  Isabel  of 

'  To  take  an  example  not  from  the  eclogues  but  from  one  of  his  sonnets, 
the  words 

da  guerra 
Nossa  livres  viveis  em  paz  e  em  gloria 
correspond  but  ill  to  their  peaceful  sense. 

^  Cf.  Carta  2.  Bernardez  (in  an  elegy  on  Ferreira's  death  addressed  to 
Andrade  Caminha)  records  that  among  all  Ferreira's  verses  not  a  line  was 
written  in  a  foreign  tongue  :    um  so  nutica  Ihe  dezi  em  lingua  alhea. 

^  Thirteen  times  the  same  subject  is  treated  by  Camoes  and  Caminha, 
sometimes  exclusively  by  them  (C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos,  Ptro  de  Andrade 
Caminha  (1901),  p.  55). 


150  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Braganza,  and  of  Philippa  de  Sousa  of  Oporto,  where  (or  at 
Lisbon)  the  poet  may  have  been  born.  After  studying  at  the 
University,  either  at  Lisbon,  or  after  its  transference  to  Coimbra 
in  1537,  he  entered  the  household  of  the  Infante  Duarte.  In 
1576  the  poet  retired  to  the  palace  of  the  Braganzas  at  Villa 
Vigosa  and  died  there  thirteen  years  later.  During  the  last  ten 
years  of  his  life  he  held  a  tenga  of  two  hundred  milreis  besides 
other  sources  of  income  (he  was  Alcaide  Mor  of  Celorico  de 
Basto,  as  his  father  had  been  of  Villa  Vigosa),  so  that  his  lot 
compares  handsomely  with  that  of  Camoes.  He  had  planned 
an  edition  of  his  works  in  nine  books,  but  only  a  few  occasional 
poems  were  published  during  his  lifetime.  He  wrote  short 
poems  in  all  the  usual  kinds,  but,  although  trusted  and  honoured 
by  the  princes  he  served,  he  entirely  lacked  Camoes'  divine 
furia  and  had  no  compensating  sympathy  or  insight  or  lyrical 
charm.  What  would  not  Camoes  have  made  of  his  chanty, 
cantiga  para  galamear  !  ^ 

In  perfect  contrast  to  the  laboured  verses  of  Andrade  Caminha 
is  the  spontaneous  flow  of  the  lines  to  the  river  Lega  beginning 
6  rio  Lega,  by  which  the  Conde  de  Mattosinhos,  Francisco 
DE  Sa  de  Meneses  (1515  ?-84),  is  chiefly  remembered.  They 
place  him  at  once  among  the  principal  poets  of  the  century. 
He  succeeded  the  Conde  de  Vimioso  as  Camareiro  Mor  of 
Prince  Joao,  held  the  same  post  in  the  first  years  of  King 
Sebastian's  reign,  and  subsequently  under  King  Henrique,  who 
created  him  Count  of  Mattosinhos  in  return  for  his  services  as 
Governor  of  Portugal  (during  the  absence  of  King  Sebastian) 
and  on  other  occasions.  After  the  death  of  the  Portuguese 
king  he  retired  to  Oporto,  and  no  doubt  spent  the  remaining 
summers  at  Mattosinhos  near  the  gentle  stream  which  he  had 
immortalized. 

The  Portuguese  poems  of  Andre  Falcao  de  Resende 
(1527  ?-98),  born  at  Evora,  nephew  of  the  antiquarian  Andre 
and  of  the  poet  Garcia  de  Resende,  were  first  published  at 
Coimbra  in  an  incomplete  volume  Poesias  [1865],  and  consist 
of  the  Microcosmographia  and  some  spirited  anti- Drake  ballads 
and  good  sonnets  (e.  g.  0  fragil  bem,  0  breve  gosto  humano)  and 
'  Obras,  ed.  Priebsch,  p.  361. 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  151 

satires,  Balthasar  de  EsxAgo  (born  in  1570),  Canon  of  Viseu, 
and  his  brother  the  antiquarian  Caspar  de  EsxAgo,  Canon  of 
Guimaraes  and  author  of  Varias  Antigiiidades  de  Portugal  (1625), 
were  both  born  at  Evora.  The  former's  Sonetos,  Eglogas  e  ovtras 
rimas  (1604),  published,  according  to  the  preface,  in  the  author's 
mature  age  but  written  in  the  green,  contain  some  religious 
sonnets  of  high  merit. 

A  far  more  celebrated  writer  than  these  minor  poets  was 
Jorge  de  Montemor  [c.  1520-61),  or  hispanice  Montemayor,  who 
was  early  driven  by  poverty  from  Montem6r  o  Velho  (where  he 
was  born  between  1518  and  1528)  a  few  years  after  Mendez 
Pinto.  Fortunately  the  latter  did  not  relate  his  travels  in 
Chinese,  but  Montemor,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  brief  passages  ^ 
in  his  Diana,  wrote  exclusively  in  Spanish.  In  Spain  his  musical 
talent  gave  him  a  livelihood,  and  as  musician  and  singer  of  the 
Royal  Chapel  he  remained  at  the  Court  till  1552,  when  he  accom- 
panied the  Infanta  Juana  as  aposentador  on  the  occasion  of  her 
marriage  with  that  promising  patron  of  letters,  the  Infante  Joao. 
But  even  before  the  prince's  death  in  1554  Montemor  returned 
to  Spain.  In  1555  he  may  have  gone  in  the  train  of  Philip  II  to 
England,  and  subsequently  served  as  a  soldier  in  Holland  and 
Italy  till  a  duel,  perhaps  in  a  love  affair,  at  Turin  ended  his  days 
in  1561.^  Despite  his  brief  and  restless  life  Montemor,  who 
showed  in  Las  obras  de  George  de  Montemayor  (1554)  that  he  was 
no  mean  poet,  found  time  to  write  one  of  the  most  famous  books 
in  literature.  The  date  of  its  publication — it  was  dedicated  to 
Prince  Joao  and  Princess  Juana — is  uncertain,  but  it  was  probably 
an  early  work.  In  spirit,  since  not  in  the  letter,  it  belongs  to 
Portugal.  Its  gentle,  easy  style  (Menendez  y  Pelayo  calls  it  tersa, 
suave,  melodica,  expresiva),  the  sentimental  love  and  melancholy, 
the  introduction  of  bucolic  scenes,  the  references  to  Portugal — 
cristalino  applied  to  the  Mondego  is  no  conventional  epithet, 
as  only  those  who  have  seen  its  transparent  waters  can  fully 

1  All  that  he  wrote  in  Portuguese  is  contained  in  two  pages  (389-91)  of 
Garcia  Peres'  Catdlogo  (1890). 

*  Fray  Bartolome  Ponce,  Primera  Parte  de  la  Clara  Diana  a  lo  divino 
(1582  ?)  :  Me  dijeron  como  un  muy  amigo  suyo  le  habia  miierto  por  ciertos 
zelos  6  aniores  (quoted  by  Ticknor,  iii.  536,  and  by  T.  Braga  (omitting 
ciertos),  Bernardim  Ribeiro  (1872),  p.  80). 


152  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

realize — mark  the  Diana  as  the  work  of  a  Portuguese.  Its  fame 
soon  overleapt  the  borders  of  the  Peninsula.  In  Spain  it  had  a 
numerous  progeny,  to  which  Cervantes  refused  the  grace  some- 
what grudgingly  given  to  Montemor's  work  as  '  the  first  in  its 
kind  '.  In  Portugal  this,  the  eldest  child  of  Bernardim  Ribeiro's 
Menina  e  moga,  had  to  wait  over  half  a  century  before  it  found 
a  worthy  successor  in  the  Lusitania  Transformada. 

Little  certain  is  known  of  the  life  of  Fernam  Alvarez  do 
Oriente  [c.  1540-C.  1595  ?).  Born  at  Goa,  he  served  in  the 
East,  and  may  have  fought  in  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir.  His 
resemblance  to  Moraes  in  temperament  and  adventures  perhaps 
gave  rise  to  the  assertion  that  he  wrote  the  fifth  and  sixth  parts 
of  Pahneirim  de  Inglaterra.  The  scene  of  his  Lvsitania  Trans- 
formada (1617)  is  partly  in  Portugal  (the  banks  of  the  river 
Nabao  and  the  seven  hills  of  Thomar)  and  partly  in  India  [no 
nosso  Oriente).  Like  Montemor's  Diana,  it  is  divided  into  prosas 
and  poems,  and  it  is  modelled  on  the  Arcadia  of  Jacopo  Sannaz- 
zaro  (1458-1530) — the  mountains  of  Arcadia  transformed  into 
Lusitania^ — which,  however,  each  of  its  three  books  equals  in 
length.  The  prose  setting,  although  devoid  of  thought,  is  melli- 
fluous and  clear,  and  the  poems,  which  contain  reminiscences 
of  Camoes,  rival  in  the  harmony  and  transparent  fiow.of  the  verse 
that '  prince  of  the  poets  of  our  time  ',  as  Alvarez  calls  him.  Some 
critics  have  even  ventured  to  attribute  the  work  to  Camoes,  as 
though  his  genius  were  so  poor  that  he  must  needs  fall  to  quoting 
himself  in  whole  lines,  as  is  here  the  case.  But  Alvarez  had 
certainly  caught  some  measure  of  Camoes'  skill  and  of  il  soave 
stilo  e  '/  dolce  canto  of  Sannazzaro  and  Petrarca.  He  is,  moreover, 
less  vague  ^  than  many  writers  of  eclogues,  and  in  singing  his 
own  love  story  describes  what  his  eyes  have  seen.  It  was,  how- 
ever, an  aberration  to  favour  the  verso  esdnixulo  (Ariosto's 
sdruccioli)  (cf.  Sannazzaro's  Arcadia,  Eel.  i,  6,  8,  9,  12),  a  truly 
Manueline  adornment  which  other  Portuguese  poets  unfortu- 
nately copied  as  a  new  artifice.^ 

'  Argumento  desta  obra. 

*  e.g.  No  mato  o  rosmaninho,  a  branca  esteva, 

No  campo  o  lirio  azul  que  o  chao  cubria. 
'  Que  estes  se  chameni  poetas  !  rightly  exclaims  Frei  Lucas  de  Santa  Catha- 
rina  {Seram  Politico  (1704),  p.  146)  of  those  who  revel  in  the  use  of  esdruxulus. 


LYRIC   AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  153 

As  a  poet  Manuel  de  Faria  e  Sousa,  who  was  something  more 
than  a  pedant  of  pedants,  deserves  a  place  among  the  multitude 
of  Portuguese  writers  of  eclogues,  since  of  the  twenty  long  eclogues 
contained  in  his  Fvente  de  Aganipe  y  Rimas  Varias  (7  pts.,  1624-7) 
the  first  twelve  are  in  his  native  tongue.  They  show  no  originality 
but  have  occasional  passages  of  quiet  beauty.  Nos.  7  and  8  are 
both  entitled  '  rustic '  and  purpose  to  represent  peasants  of 
Minho.  They  are  so  overcharged  with  archaisms  and  rustic 
words  and  expressions  [samicas  and  nanija  of  course  occur,  and 
grolea  (glory),  marmolea  (memory),  the  form  suidade,  &c.)  that 
they  would  probably  have  been  Greek  to  the  peasants.  As 
a  critic  Lope  de  Vega  called  Faria  the  prince  of  commentators, 
on  the  strength  of  his  learned  and  copious  editions  of  the 
Lusiads  and  lyrics  of  Camoes,  for  whom  he  had  a  genuine 
devotion.  Time  has  lent  an  interest,  if  not  validity,  to  his 
literary  criticisms.  In  poetry  he  was  as  prolific  as  in  prose  :  he 
boasted,  in  the  age  of  Lope  de  Vega,  that  he  had  written  more 
blank  verse  than  any  other  poet  and  that  his  printed  sonnets 
exceeded  those  of  Lope  by  300. 

Eloi  de  Sa  Sottomaior  (or  Souto  Maior),  the  author  of 
Jar  dim  do  Ceo  (1607)  and  Riheiras  do  Mondego  (1623),  is  generally 
perhaps  more  familiar  with  the  Saints  than  with  the  Muses,  but 
some  of  his  poems  are  not  without  merit.  The  latter  work,  in 
prose  and  verse,  has  no  originality,  although  the  author  was 
careful  to  state  that  he  had  composed  it  before  the  Prhnavera 
of  Francisco  Rodriguez  Lobo  {c.  1580-1622),  who  in  strains 
not  less  sweetly  harmonious  than  the  Lima  poems  of  Bernardez 
sang  the  little  stream  of  Lis  that  runs  so  gaily  through  his  native 
Leiria.  He  went  to  study  at  Coimbra  in  1593,  took  his  degree 
there  in  1602,  returned  to  Leiria  and  before  1604  was  in  the 
service  of  Theodosio,  Duke  of  Braganza,  at  Villa  Vigosa.  He  was 
drowned  in  his  prime  in  the  Tagus  coming  from  Santarem  to 
Lisbon.  He  was  alive  in  1621,  but,  as  Dr.  Ricardo  Jorge  has 
shown  in  his  able  biography,  died  before  the  end  of  1622.  The 
fact  of  his  drowning  is  well  established,  otherwise  the  tradition 
might  have  been  attributed  to  passages  in  his  works  in  which  he 
seems  to  foretell  such  a  fate.  An  extraordinarily  prolific  writer, 
his  fame  rests  chiefly  on  his  three  pastoral  works  of  mingled  prose 


154  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

and  verse  :  A  Primavera  (1601)  and  its  second  and  third  parts 
0  Pastor  Peregrino  (1608)  and  0  Desenganado  (1614).  Rodriguez 
Lobo  somewhere  speaks  disparagingly  of  books  '  long  as  leagues 
in  Alentejo  ',  but  length  and  monotony  are  not  absent  from  his 
own  pastorals.  Look  into  them  where  you  will,  beautiful  descrip- 
tions, showing  deep  love  of  Nature,  will  present  themselves,  and 
delightful  verse  and  harmonious  prose,  excellent  in  its  component 
parts  although  allowed  to  trail  in  the  construction  of  the  sentences. 
But  the  reader  who  attempts  more  than  a  desultory  acquaintance 
is  soon  overcome  by  a  feeling  of  satiety,  for  the  Primavera  in  its 
brandura  sent  Jim  and  the  complete  absence  of  thought  is  like  a 
stream  choked  by  water-lilies  :  lovely,  but  tiring  to  the  swimmer. 

Through  all  these  love-lorn  shepherd  scenes  runs  a  vague 
thread  of  autobiography.  The  passion  of  Bernardim  Ribeiro  is 
replaced  by  a  suaver  melancholy.  The  poet  leaves  the  Lis  for 
Coimbra  and  then  goes  to  Lisbon  and  thence  to  distant  lands, 
where  he  wanders  as  a  pilgrim  till  he  is  shipwrecked  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Lis  and  returns  to  his  home  to  find  Lisea  given  to 
another.  It  is  divided  into  florestas.  In  the  opening  florestas  the 
quiet  streams,  the  green  woods  and  pastures,  are  charmingly  de- 
scribed ;  later  the  scene  is  transferred  to  the  campos  do  Mondego 
and  the  praias  do  Tejo.  A  breath  of  the  sea  is  welcome  in  0 
Desenganado,  but  the  story  soon  returns  to  shepherd  life  and  its 
series  of  natural  but  rather  insipid  incidents. 

Had  Rodriguez  Lobo  written  not  better  but  less,  his  pastoral 
romances  would  probably  be  far  more  widely  read.  But  his 
finest  work  is  of  a  different  kind,  a  long  dialogue,  Corte  na 
Aldea  e  Noites  de  Invenio  (1619),  between  a  fidalgo,  D.  Julio, 
and  four  friends  in  the  long  winter  evenings  near  Lisbon. 
Suggested  by  Baldassare  Castiglione's  famous  //  Cortigiano,  which 
had  been  popularized  in  Spain  by  Boscan's  excellent  translation 
(1534),  this  work,  for  which  Gracian  prophesied  immortality,  is 
full  of  the  most  varied  interest.  The  prose,  excellent  as  is  all  that 
of  this  champion  of  the  Portuguese  language,  jardineiro  da  lingua 
portuguesa  (which  his  countrymen,  he  complained,  patch  and 
patch  like  a  beggar's  cloak),  is  here  more  vigorous  and  compact 
in  its  construction  without  losing  its  harmonious  rhythm,  attrac- 
tive as  the  conversations  which  it  records.    Besides  the  beautiful 


LYRIC  AND   BUCOLIC   POETRY  155 

verses  lavishly  scattered  through  his  prose  works,  Rodriguez  Lobo 
wrote  a  long  epic  on  Nun'  Alvarez  in  twenty  cantos  of  oitavas  : 
0  Condestabre  de  Portugal  D.  Nuno  Alvarez  Pereira  (1610)/ 
a  volume  of  Eglogas  (1605),  in  which  he  is  a  recognized  master, 
a  volume  of  Romances  (1596)  wTitten,  with  two  exceptions,  in 
Spanish,^  and,  perhaps,  a  Christmas  play  entitled  Auto  del 
Nascimiento  de  Christo  y  Edicto  del  Emperador  Avgvsto  Cesar, 
published  in  1676.  It  is  written  in  redondilhas  in  Spanish  and 
Portuguese.^  This  auto  is  followed  by  an  Entremes  do  Poeta  in 
Portuguese.  A  poet,  an  obdurate  Gongorist  [Do  Gongora  live 
sempre  opinadas  preferencias),  recites  a  sonnet  to  a  lady  :  Celicola 
substancia  procreada,  which  she  does  not  understand,  and  a  ra- 
tinho,  also  at  a  loss  {he  para  ?nim  cousa  grega),  advises  him  to  give 
over  his  jargon  for  a  more  natural  language  : 

Gerigongas  no  fallar, 

Que  amor  nam  he  contrafeito. 

But  Rodriguez  Lobo  has  no  need  of  such  attributions  to  justify 
his  great  and  enduring  fame. 

*  The  whole  of  Canto  XIV  is  given  to  a  vigorous  account  of  the  battle  of 
Aljubarrota,  already  described  more  vividly  in  fewer  stanzas  by  Camoes. 
Another  poem  in  oitavas  by  Rodriguez  Lobo,  Historia  da  Arvore  Triste,  was 
published  in  Fenix  Renascida,  vol.  iv. 

'^  In  Spanish  also  are  the  fifty-six  romances  which  make  up  the  poem 
La  Jornada,  &c.  {1623),  written  on  the  coming  of  Philip  III  to  Portugal 
in  1619.  In  the  eclogues,  written  chiefly  in  redondilhas,  he  sings  with  spon- 
taneous charm  as  praticas  humildes  e  os  cuidados  Ndo  por  arte  fingidos  e  en- 
feitados  of  the  rusticos  vaqiieiros,  as  he  says  in  the  prefatory  sonnet.  Many  of 
the  words  are  pleasantly  indigenous  :  milho,  boroa,  salgueiraes,  rafeiro, 
charneca,  chocalho,  abegoes,  ovelheiros. 

3  For  instance,  when  the  Angel  has  announced  in  Spanish  las  alegres  nuevas, 
the  goatherd,  ratinho,  Mendo,  says  :  A  din  Rey,  a  din  Rey  ay  !  Que  estou 
amorrinhentado ,  Aciidame  algum  Cristom  ou  Sancristom.  Laureano,  the 
shepherd,  speaks  Portuguese  and  Spanish,  and  Silvia  says  :  Porque  o  que 
sinto  qtiisera  Dizelo  em  bom  Purtugiies.  An  Auto  e  Colloquio  do  Nascimento  de 
Christo  {1646)  attributed  to  Francisco  Lopes  was  reprinted  in  1676. 


§3 
The  Drama 

After  Gil  Vicente's  death  the  autos  continued  to  flourish  in 
number  if  not  in  excellence,  and  evidently  answered  to  a  very 
real  popular  demand.  It  was  in  vain  that  the  Jesuits  produced 
their  Latin  plays  and  that  serious  poets  of  high  reputation 
sought  to  wean  the  affections  of  the  people  from  the  auto  to 
the  classical  drama.^  This  opposition  of  the  educated  did, 
however,  conduce  to  the  swift  deterioration  of  the  auto,  although 
some  of  those  of  a  religious  character,  chiefly  the  Nativity 
plays,  still  succeeded  in  reflecting  a  part  of  the  charm  that 
characterized  the  Vicentian  drama.  To  Gil  Vicente's  lifetime 
probably  belongs  the  Obra  famosisswia  tirada  da  Sancta  Escrip- 
tura  chamada  da  Geragdo  humana,  onde  se  representam  sentengas 
muy  catolicas  &  proueitosas  pera  todo  christd :  Feita  por  huu 
famoso  autor  (1536?).  Indeed,  the  verse  runs  so  easily,  the 
peasants  are  so  natural,  that  one  might  almost  suspect  him  of 
having  had  a  hand  in  its  composition.  But  the  metre  (884  884) 
is  more  monotonous  than  he  would  have  used  throughout. 
The  dramatis  personae  are  angels,  peasants,-  Adam,  Justice, 
Reason,  Malice,  two  devils,  a  priest,  four  saints  and  doctors  of 
the  Church,  a  Levite,  the  Church,  the  Heavenly  Samaritan, 
Adam  in  a  scene  closely  resembling  that  of  the  Auto  da  Alma 
is  tempted  by  Malice.  Justice  intervenes,  and  finally  the 
Samaritan  leads  him  to  the  estalagem  of  Holy  Mother  Church, 
The  Auto  de  ds  [Deus]  padre  &  justiga  &  mia   [Misericordia] 

'  The  disapproval  of  the  popular  drama  is  frequent  in  religious  writers. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  Antonio  Vieira  declared  that  xima  das  felicidades 
que  se  contava  entre  as  do  tempo  presente  era  acabarem-se  as  comedias  em 
Portugal.  Feo  earlier,  in  common  with  many  others,  had  similarly  denounced 
the  romances  of  chivalry  pelos  quaes  o  Demonio  comvosco  Jala  ;  livraria  do 
diabo  (Tratt.  Qvad.  (1619),  ff.   156,   157). 

*  One  of  them,  Joao,  lacrador,  says  :  Vimos  ver  se  he  assi  on  nam  De  hua 
arremedagam  Que  s'a  ca  d'arrertiedar  .  .  .  Ora  nos  dizei  se  he  assi  Que  fazem 
ho  ay  to  cd. 


THE   DRAMA  157 

belongs  to  the  same  period.  It  is  written  in  octosyllabic  verse 
and  contains  a  similar  medley  of  peasants,  prophets,  and  abstract 
virtues.  In  the  first  part  the  angels  in  Portuguese  announce 
to  the  Virgin  the  birth  of  Christ,  and  in  the  second  part  the 
peasants,  who  speak  Spanish,  go  to  offer  rustic  gifts  to  el  miiy 
chiquito  donzel.  Another  early  and  anonymous  play  is  the  Auto 
do  Dia  do  Juizo,  included  in  the  Index  of  1559,  which  for  its 
subject  closely  follows  Gil  Vicente's  Auto  da  Barca  do  Inferno. 
A  peasant,  a  false  and  lying  notary,  a  market-woman  who  had 
offered  weekly  bread  and  wax  to  Santa  Catharina  but  had  '  robbed 
the  poor  people  ',  a  butcher,  a  miller  who  had  mixed  bran  in 
his  sacks  of  flour,  are  introduced  in  turn  and  duly  consigned 
by  Lucifer  to  Hell. 

If  we  only  knew  the  quondam  Franciscan  monk  Antonio 
RiBEiRo  Chiado  {c.  1520  P-gi)  and  his  contemporary  and  rival, 
the  mulatto  servant  of  the  Bishop  of  Evora,  by  their  mutual 
abuse,  we  could  form  no  very  high  opinion  of  their  character 
or  their  wit.  In  bitter  quintilhas  Chiado  reviles  the  latter  for 
his  dark  complexion ;  Afonso  Alvarez  answers  by  up- 
braiding nonno  Chiado  as  the  son  of  a  cobbler  and  a  market- 
woman  and  for  the  habits  which  had  made  the  cloister  seem  so 
dismal  a  place  to  Frei  Antonio  do  Espirito  Santo.  Fortunately 
some  of  the  plays  of  both  of  them  survive,  and  we  are  better 
able  to  judge  of  their  merits.  The  mulatto,  who  was  a  valued 
member  of  his  master's  household  and  prides  himself  that 
Chiado  has  nothing  worse  to  throw  in  his  face  than  the  colour 
of  his  skin,  was  certainly  Chiado's  inferior  in  wit  and  talent. 
Both  imitate  Gil  Vicente  without  having  a  vestige  of  his  lyrical 
genius  or  greater  skill  in  devising  a  plot.  Alvarez  preferred 
religious  subjects.  In  his  Auto  de  Santo  Antonio  St.  Anthony 
restores  to  life  the  drowned  son  of  two  peasants,  who  are 
imitated  from  Vicente's  Auto  da  Feira}  The  only  other  of  his 
plays  that  we  have  is  the  Auto  de  Santa  Barbara,  but  we  know 
that  he  also  wrote  an  Auto  de  S.  Vicente  Martyr  and  an  Auto 
de  Santiago  Apostolo. 

*  e.  g.  Branca  Janes  says  of  her  husband  : 
He  hum  grao  comedor, 
Destruidor  da  fazenda,  &c. 


158  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Chiado's  plays  and  witty  sayings,  avisos  para  giiardar  and 
parvoices,  appear  to  have  made  him  extremely  popular  in 
Lisbon,  Cam5es  recognized  his  talent,  and  Lisbon's  most  famous 
street  still  bears  his  name  in  common  speech.  His  boisterous 
life  at  Lisbon  after  leaving  his  convent  may  have  given  him  his 
name  Chiado  (cf.  the  chiar  of  ox-carts),  but  it  existed  as  a  sur- 
name earlier.  His  Pratica  de  Oito  Figiiras  (1543  ?),  Auto  das 
Regateiras  (1568  or  1569),  and  Pratica  dos  Compadres  (1572), 
are  the  work  of  an  accomplished  wit  who  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  the  farces  of  Gil  Vicente  and,  in  the  last  two, 
with  the  prose  plays  of  Jorge  Ferreira.  Many  of  Vicente's  types 
are  present,  but  all  in  a  town  atmosphere,  in  which  cards  take 
the  place  of  the  rustic  dances  and  lyric  yields  to  epigram,  the 
natural  genius  of  Vicente  to  a  laboured  smartness.  We  have 
the  clerigo  de  vintem,  the  ratinho  from  Beira,  the  vain  pagdo,  the 
poor  fidalgo  or  escudeiro,  the  negro  with  his  pidgin  Portuguese, 
the  witch,  the  ill-tempered  velha,  the  trovador  chaplain,  the 
ambitious  priest,  the  corrupt  judge.  The  scenes  are  even 
more  disconnected  and  less  dramatic,  and  the  ingenious  redon- 
dilhas  necessarily  seem  artificial  because  their  author  so  often 
challenges  comparison  with  the  more  genuine  skill  of  his  master, 
Gil  Vicente.  Chiado's  Auto  de  Goiigalo  Chamhao  was  reprinted 
several  times  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but  is  now  unknown. 
Of  his  Auto  da  Natural  Invengam  {c.  1550)  a  single  copy  survives, 
in  the  library  of  the  Conde  de  Sabugosa,  whose  edition  (1917)  is 
of  exceptional  interest.  The  play,  as  reminiscent  of  Vicente  as 
are  the  other  plays  of  Chiado,  describes  the  acting  of  an  auto 
in  a  private  house  in  the  reign  of  Joao  HI,  and  bears  witness  to 
the  frequency  of  such  representations  at  Lisbon  and  to  their 
extraordinary  popularity. 

Balthasar  Diaz,  a  blind  poet  (or  jogral)  of  Madeira,  in  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  wrote  plays  which  have 
retained  their  popularity.  He  versified  at  great  length  tradi- 
tions of  chivalry  and  of  mediaeval  saints.  We  do  not  possess 
his  Trovas  written  on  the  death  of  D.  Joao  de  Castro  (1548), 
and  many  of  his  plays.  Auto  da  Paixam  de  Christo,  Auto  de  El 
Rei  Salomdo,  Auto  da  Feira  da  Ladra,  have  become  rare  or 
unknown.     One  of  the  best  of  them,  the  Auto  de  Santo  Aleixo, 


THE   DRAMA  159 

perhaps  owes  its  survival  to  its  subject,  akin  to  the  popular 
theme  of  a  prince  in  disguise.  The  rich  and  noble  Aleixo 
wanders  in  rags  to  the  Holy  Land.  The  Devil,  who  tempts 
him  in  the  form  of  a  wayfarer,  declares  that  now — the  eternal 
querulous  '  now '  of  the  poets — only  the  rich  are  honoured  and 
learning  is  neglected.  Later  the  Devil  becomes  a  courtier  and 
again  tempts  St.  Aleixo,  who  is  defended  by  an  angel.  The 
Auto  de  Santa  Catherina  is  a  long  devout  play  of  which  the 
persons  are  St.  Catherine,  her  mother,  her  page,  the  Emperor 
Maxentius,  a  hermit,  three  doutores,  Christ,  the  Virgin,  angels. 
The  saint,  who  receives  news  of  her  mother's  death  with  admir- 
able equanimity,  suffers  martyrdom  at  the  end  of  the  play  with 
equal  fortitude.  Diaz  also  dramatized  the  story  of  the  Marques 
de  Mantua.  Although  devoid  of  dramatic  or  lyric  talent,  he  is 
sometimes  interesting.  Women,  whose  dresses  and  fashions  are 
contrasted  in  the  Auto  de  Santo  Aleixo  with  the  hard  toil  of  the 
men,  are  represented  in  the  Auto  da  Malicia  das  Mulheres  as 
treating  their  husbands  '  like  negroes  '.  We  do  not  know 
whether  Diaz  spoke  from  experience,  his  life  is  very  obscure  ; 
but  he  may  have  spent  his  last  years  in  Beira  if  the  passage  in 
his  0  Conselho  para  bem  casar  : 

estou  nesta  Beira 
tao  remoto  de  trovar  (1680  ed.,  p.  2) 

be  not  merely  a  reference  to  Boeotia,  any  place  far  from 
Lisbon. 

Traces  of  Vicente  and  the  Celestina  ^  are  apparent  in  Anrique 
Lopez'  Cena  Policiana  or  0  Estvdante,  in  which  a  fidalgo  and 
a  student "  figure.  The  poor  escudeiro  and  his  fasting  yno^o 
are  prominent  in  Jorge  Pinto's  Auto  de  Rodrigo  e  Mendo. 
Spanish  romances  are  quoted  with  great  frequency,  and  Vicente's 
En  el  mes  erade  Abril  is  parodied  by  the  mogos.^  Indeed,  their 
knowledge  of  literature  was  become  embarrassing  since,  when 
his  master's  guest,   invited  to  a  dinner  which  did  not  exist, 

1  Cf.  este  leo  ja  Celestina  (Primeira  Parte  dos  Avtos,  &c.  (1587), 
f.  44). 

^  The  student's  song  on  f.  44  v.  and  f .  46,  Polifema  mi  postema  Grande  nial 
he  querer  bem,  parodies  Lobeira's  Leonoreta  fin  roseta. 

'  Ibid.,  f.  49. 


i6o  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

recites  some  verses  that  he  has  made,  Rodrigo  has  already  read 
them  in  Boscan  and  heard  them  sung  in  the  street.^ 

The  exact  dates  of  Antonio  Prestes,  of  Torres  Novas,  are 
unknown,  but  seven  of  his  plays,  after  having  been  acted  at 
Lisbon  and  published  in  folhas  volantes,  were  first  collected  by 
Afonso  Lopez  half  a  century  after  Gil  Vicente's  death  in  the 
Primeira  Parte  dos  Avtos  e  Comedias  Portuguesas,  &c.  (1588).  The 
Auto  da  Ave  Maria,  written  between  1563  and  1587,  is  an  alle- 
gorical play  in  which  Reason  is  vanquished  by  Sensuality  ;  Hera- 
clitus  mourns  over  her  fall  while  Democritus  laughs.  A  knight 
in  league  with  the  Devil  ^  robs  in  turn  an  almoner,  a  ratinho, 
and  Fast,  but  his  pious  habit  of  saying  an  Ave  Maria  causes 
St.  Michael  to  rescue  him  from  the  Devil  and  reconcile  him  with 
Reason.  Of  the  profane  plays,  that  with  the  most  definite  plot 
is  the  Auto  dos  Dous  Irmdos,  in  which  an  old  man,  after  refusing 
to  see  his  sons  who  have  married  without  his  permission,  divides 
all  his  money  between  them  and  is  then  neglected  by  both  :  he 
is  sent  from  one  to  the  other  like  King  Lear.  But  the  story  is 
feebly  worked  out  here  as  in  the  other  plays.  Their  action  is 
mostly  that  of  a  puppet  show.  Sometimes  the  mogo,  who  always 
plays  a  prominent  part,  seems  to  be  the  only  link  in  the  plot,  as 
Duarte  in  the  Autos  dos  Cantarinhos.  These  mogos,  who  show  the 
author's  acquaintance  with  Gil  Vicente  ^  and  Lazarillo  de  Tormes,^ 

*  Primeira  Parte  dos  Avtos,  f.  57  : 

Ro.    Senhor,  se  me  da  licen9a, 

Ja  eu  aquela  trova  li. 
Os.    Qual  trova  leste  ?     Ro.    Essa  sua, 

Como  a  disse  nua  e  crua. 
Os.    E  onde  a  leste,  vilao  ? 
Ro.    Cuido,  senor,  que  em  Boscao, 
E  canta-se  pela  rua. 
'  The  Devil  speaks  both  Portuguese  and  Spanish.     All  the  other  characters 
in  Prestes'  plays,  with  the  exception  of  an  enchanted  Moor,  speak  Portuguese. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  frequent  Spanish  words  and  quotations.     The 
word  algorrem  occurs  twice  in  these  plays,  but  the  attempt  to  retain  the  old 
style  of  peasant  conversation  is  but  half-hearted. 

'  Duarte  in  the  Auto  dos  Cantarinhos  sleeps  on  an  area  (chest)  like  the 
moQo  in  O  Juiz  da  Beira.  There  are  other  echoes  of  Vicente,  as  the  words 
qiiem  tern  farelos  ?  (1871  ed.,  p.  65),  the  reference  to  Flerida  e  Dam  Duardos 
(p.  485),  the  line  Qwe  mdeousasdovilaos  {p.  420),  the  peasant  who,  like  Mofina 
Mendes,  builds  up  his  future  on  the  strength  of  an  apple  of  gold,  which  proves 
to  be  a  coal  (pp.  407-8). 

*  Auto  do  Mouro  Encantado  (p.  347).  Unless  there  was  an  earlier  edition 
of  Lazarillo  de  Tormes,  this  play  must  therefore  have  been  written  after  1554. 
Prestes'  Auto  do  Procurador  was  written  before  1557. 


THE   DRAMA  i6i 

are  quite  unlike  either  Lazarillo  or  Aparigo.  They  are  certainly 
hungry,  but  they  combine  starvation  with  laziness,  presumption 
and  abundant  learning.  The  names  of  Petrarca  and  Seneca 
are  on  their  lips  ;  they  read  Palmeirim  and  quote  romances 
of  chivalry  and  Spanish  romances  glibly.^  Indeed,  the  chief 
interest  of  these  artificial  plays'  is  the  light  thrown  on  the  times  : 
the  position  of  women,  the  bribery  of  judges  and  lawyers,  the 
aping  of  foreign  manners,  the  mixed  styles  of  architecture.  They 
contain  no  poetry,  little  drama,  and  their  wit  is  seldom  natural. 
Like  Prestes,  Jeronimo  Ribeiro,  perhaps  a  brother  of  Chiado, 
was  born  apparently  at  Torres  Novas.  Only  one  of  his  plays 
was  published  :  the  Auto  do  Fisico,  written  in  the  last  third  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  has  some  farcical  Vicentian  scenes, 
the  inevitable  hits  against  the  doctors  and  lawyers — the  mogo 
dresses  up  as  a  doutor  to  receive  a  simple  fisherman  from  Alf ama 
— and  is  generally  more  popular  and  natural  than  Prestes'  plays. 

SiMAO  Machado  [c.  i^yo-c.  1640),  who  as  a  Franciscan  monk — 
Frei  Boaventura — ended  his  life  at  Barcelona,  was  also  born 
at  Torres  Novas.  His  plays — Comedias  portvgvesas  (1601?) — 
are  two  :  Comedia  de  Dio  and  Comedia  da  Pastora  Alfea.  They 
are  written  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese  indiscriminately  despite 
Gongalo's  admonition  palrar  como  Pertigues.^  The  author 
explains  that,  well  aware  of  his  countrymen's  love  of  what  is 
foreign,  he  uses  Castilian  to  save  his  plays  from  the  neglect  often 
bestowed  in  Portugal  upon  works  written  in  Portuguese.  His 
verse  is  ordinarily  the  redondilha,  although  Nuno  da  Cunha 
in  the  first  part  of  0  Cerco  de  Dio  makes  a  speech  in  oitavas. 
He  has  lyrical  facility  and  his  peasant  scenes  are  full  of  life, 
for  instance,  the  dialogue  between  the  cowherd  Gil  Cabago  and 
Tome  the  goatherd  in  Alfea. 

The  Gospel  story  was  dramatized  by  Frei  Francisco  Vaz 
of  Guimaraes  in  a  long  Auto  da  Paixdo.  The  oldest  edition 
we  have  is  dated  1559,  ^"^^  it  has  been  often  reprinted,  with 

*  p.  262.  For  a  corresponding  knowledge  of  Amadis  de  Gaula,  &c.,  among 
English  servants  see  Dr.  Henry  Thomas,  The  Palmerin  Romances,  London, 
1916,  pp.  38-40- 

*  Alfea  (ed.  1631),  p.  59.  The  wonderful  spelling  is  due  to  the  printer 
(e.g.  sesse  =  cease)  as  well  as  to  the  peasants  (e.g.  monteplica  =  multiply, 
pialdrade  =  piety). 

2362  L 


i62  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

thirty  rough  woodcuts.  Some  of  these  are  very  spirited,  as  that 
of  the  cock  crowing  after  St.  Peter's  denial,  or  that  of  Judas 
hanging  himself.  After  a  long  introductory  speech  in  versos  de 
arte  viaior  the  play  proceeds  in  redondilhas  (over  2,000  lines). 
Religious  subjects  have  always  been  favourites  with  the  Portu- 
guese, especially  those  affording  scope  for  lavish  scenic  display, 
not  only  those  of  martyred  saints,  as  the  Auto  de  Santa  Genoveva, 
but  those  based  on  the  New  Testament,  as  the  later  play  Acto 
figurado  da  degolagdo  dos  Innocentes  (1784)  in  seven  scenes.^ 

Two  plays,  the  Auto  da  Donzella  da  Torre  and  Auto  de  Dom 
Andre,  are  attributed  to  Gil  Vicente's  grandson,  Gil  Vicente 
DE  Almeida.  The  latter,  written  before  1559,  in  which  a  peasant 
brings  his  unlettered  son  [nem  nunca  falei  Gramatica)  to  Court, 
and  a  ratinho,  on  becoming  a  page,  promises  himself  to  learn 
to  sing  and  play  on  the  guitar  within  a  month,  has  a  Vicentian 
character. 

To  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  also  belongs  the 
Pratica  de  Tres  Pastores  (1626),  a  Christmas  play  by  Frei 
Antonio  da  Estrella,  who  may  perhaps  be  identified  with 
Frei  Antonio  de  Lisboa,  author  of  the  lost  Auto  dos  Dous  Ladroes 
(1603).  The  three  shepherds,  Rodrigo,  Loirengo,  and  Sylvestre, 
are  awakened  by  an  angel  singing  cousas  de  prego.  They  agree 
that  the  song  echoing  over  the  hills  is  no  earth-born  music  but 
algum  Charuhim  ou  Anjo  ou  Charafim,  and  presently  they  go 
to  Bethlehem  to  offer  their  rustic  gifts.  The  author  has  caught 
the  charm  and  spontaneity  of  the  earlier  Christmas  autos. 
Another  seventeenth-century  auto  of  the  same  kind  is  the 
Colloquio  do  Nascimento  do  Menino  Jesus  by  the  Lisbon 
bookseller,  Francisco  Lopez.  The  scene  and  conversation  of 
the  three  shepherds,  Gil,  Silvestre,  and  Paschoal,  with  their 
assorda  ou  migas  de  alho  in  the  cold  night — mas  como  queima 
0  rocio,  says  Gil — are  very  naturally  drawn.  An  echo  of  the 
satirical  side  of  Gil  Vicente's  genius  is  to  be  found  in  the  Auto 
das  Padeiras  chamado  da  Fome  (1638),-  in  which  the  various  frauds 

'  Composto  por  A .  D.  S.  R.  There  is  an  earlier  Acto  Sacramental  da  Jornada 
do  Menino  Deus  para  o  Egypto  (1746). 

*  It  contains  a  dispute  between  Maize  and  Rye,  after  the  very  popular 
fashion  of  the  contention  between  Winter  and  Spring  in  Vicente's  Auto  dos 
Quatro  Tempos,  and  the  poetical  contrasts  common  in  the  Middle  Ages  and 


THE   DRAMA  163 

of  the  bakeresses,  sardine-sellers,  market-women,  pastry-cooks, 
and  tavern-keepers  of  Lisbon  are  shown  up  by  the  devils  Palur- 
dam  and  Calcamar,  as  in  the  Barca  do  Purgatorio.  There  is 
nothing  of  Vicente  in  the  Auto  novo  da  Barca  da  Morte  (1732) 
by  a  Lisbon  author  who  wrote  under  the  name  of  Diogo  da  Costa 
(Innocencio  da  Silva,  ii.  153,  believed  that  his  real  name  was 
Andre  da  Luz).  It  consists  of  a  single  scene  crowded  with 
classical  allusions.  Death  has  [deprived  Midas  of  his  gold, 
Alexander  of  his  victories,  Aristotle  of  his  learning.  The  actors 
here  are  a  rich  miser,  a  poor  man,  a  youth,  an  old  man,  and 
Death,  whose  boat  Time  steers.  The  title  of  the  Auto  novo 
e  curioso  da  Forneira  de  Aljubarrota  (1815),  also  attributed  to 
Diogo  da  Costa,  is  misleading,  since  it  is  a  prose  narrative 
of  the  experiences  of  that  valorosa  matrona,  who,  dressed  as 
an  almocreve,  comes  to  Lisbon  with  her  two  bestinhas  laden  wMth 
wine. 

Of  the  twenty-five  plays  contained  in  the  Musa  entretenida 
de  varios  entremeses  (1658)  edited  by  Manuel  Coelho  Rebello, 
No.  17  [Castigos  de  vn  Castelhano)  is  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese, 
six  are  in  Portuguese,^  all  the  rest  in  Spanish.  Popular  plays 
continued  to  be  written  long  after  the  introduction  of  the 
classical  drama  and  in  spite  of  the  antagonism  of  the  priests. 
They  were  oftei.  composed  in  a  variety  of  metres,  as  the  Acto 
de  S^"  Genoveva,  Princesa  de  Barbante  (1735)  by  Balthasar 
Luis  da  Fonseca,  if  its  verse  can  be  called  metre,^  or  the  Comedia 
famosa  intitulada  A  Melhor  Dita  de  Amor  (1745)  by  Rodrigo 
Antonio  de  Almeida,^  w^hich  opens  with  a  sonnet  and  proceeds 
in  redondilhas,  hendecasyllables,  and  prose. 

in  the  East,  and  still  in  vogue  among  the  iniprovisatori  of  Basque  villages, 
between  wine  and  water,  boots  and  sandals,  &c. 

*  i.e.  No.  3  :  De  hvm  almotacel borracho ;  No.  5  :  Dos  conselhos  de  hvm  letrado 
(a  ratinho  figMxesin  this,  as  a  ratino  figures  in  No.  17)  ;  No.  6  :  Do  negro  mais 
bem  mandado  (the  escudeiro's  mofo  is  here  a  negro  who  speaks  in  broken 
Portuguese,  e.g.  Zesu)  ;  No.  11:  Dous  cegos  cnganados;  No.  13:  Das  padeiras 
de  Lisboa  (besides  the  bakeresses  there  is  a  meleiro  (honey-seller),  an  alheiro 
with  his  brafos  of  leeks,  an  azeiteiro,  &c.),  and  No.  25.  The  titles  of  these 
plays  sufficiently  show  their  homely  character. 

*  Of  its  author  we  only  know  that  he  was  Ulysbonense.  The  play  had 
many  editions  :    1747,  1758,  1789,  1853. 

'  A  priest  of  the  same  name  wrote  political  and  religious  pamphlets  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

L2 


i64  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

In  the  Christmas  plays  and  peasant  scenes  some  of  Gil  Vicente's 
poetry  had  lingered  ;  the  plays  of  more  fashionable  authors 
caught  no  gleam  of  his  lyrism,  but  sketched  types  and  satirized 
manners  successfully,  none  more  so  than  Mello's  Auto  do  Fidalgo 
Aprendiz,  written,  it  must  be  remembered,  before  Le  Bourgeois 
Gentilkonime  (1670).  Both  kinds,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
were  derived  from  Vicente's  genius  as  manifested  in  his  plays 
for  the  Court  and  of  the  people. 

During  Gil  Vicente's  lifetime,  perhaps,  Sa  de  Miranda  had  written 
the  two  plays,  Os  Estrangeiros  {c.  1528)  and  Os  Vilhalpandos 
(1538  ?),i  with  which  he  introduced  classical  comedy  into  Portugal 
(nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  its  introduction  into  France 
and  England).  Os  Estrangeiros  was  a  novelty-  in  more  ways 
than  one,  for  it  was  written  in  prose.  Both  plays  were,  as  the 
author  admitted,  imitated  from  Plautus  and  Terence  and  also 
from  Ariosto,  whose  comedies  were  composed  in  the  first  third  of 
the  century.  Os  Estrangeiros  was,  he  further  observed  in  a  brief 
introductory  letter  to  the  Cardinal  Henrique,  rustic  and  clumsy.^ 
Its  only  claim  to  be  called  rustic,  in  character  as  apart  from 
treatment,  consists  in  a  few  allusions  to  popular  customs.  We 
would  have  had  it  more  indigenous.  The  scene  is  Palermo, 
the  plot,  a  la  Plautus,  consists  of  the  difficulties  and  differences 
between  father  and  son,  and  there  is  the  aio,  the  vainglorious 
soldier  Briobris,  nas  armas  um  Rolddo,  and  the  trudo  who  plays 
the  part  of  gracioso.  The  action  advances  in  long  soliloquies 
to  the  final  reconciliation  between  father  and  son.  The  character 
of  Os  Vilhalpandos,  which  Mello  called  *  a  mirror  of  courtly 
wit  ',  is  similar,  with  the  difference  that  Fame  instead  of  Comedy 
speaks  the  prologue  and  the  action  between  son,  father,  and 
courtesan  is  placed  in  Rome.  Both  the  plays  were  acted  before 
Cardinal  Henrique  and  printed  by  his  command.  As  if  to  mark 
his  initiative  in  every  field,  Miranda  also  composed  a  classical 
tragedy  entitled  Cleopatra  [c.  1550),  the  title  of  which  is  of 
interest   as   preceding   the   plays   of   Shakespeare   and   Samuel 

•  The  affronta  de  Dio  is  mentioned.    It  may  have  been  written  in  the  same 
year  as  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos'  Eufrosina. 

*  In  a   letter   sent  with  Os   Vilhalpandos  to  the  Infante  Duarte    he   says 
that  ninguem  que  eu  saiba  had  so  written  in  Portuguese. 

'  A  comedia  qual  he  tal  va,  aldeaa  e  mal  atauiada. 


THE   DRAMA  165 

Daniel  (1562-1619).  The  twelve  octosyllabic  lines  [abcabcdefdef ) 
that  survive  (from  a  chorus  ?)  give  no  idea  of  its  character,  but 
it  probably  followed  closely  the  Sofonisha  (15 15)  of  Gian  Giorgio 
Trissino  (1478-1550).  A  Spanish  version  of  Sophocles'  Electra 
by  Hernan  Perez  de  Oliva  appeared  in  1528,  and  in  1536  Anrique 
Ayres  Victoria  had  translated  this  into  Portuguese  octosyllabic 
verse  :  A  Vinganga  de  Agamemnon.  The  date  of  the  first 
edition  is  unknown  ;  the  second  appeared  in  1555.  Nor  do  we 
know  when  Cleopatra  was  written,^  although  it  must  have  been 
prior  to  Antonio  Ferreira's  classical  tragedy  acted  at  Coimbra, 
Inis  de  Castro  [c.  1557),  which  has  hitherto  been  considered 
the  first  of  its  kind  in  Portugal.  Written  when  the  author  was 
about  thirty,  that  is,  about  the  time  of  Miranda's  death,  it  copied 
the  form  of  Greek  tragedies  and,  the  better  to  acclimatize  this, 
a  thoroughly  national  subject  was  chosen — the  death  of  Ines — 
whereas  Miranda  had  gone  to  Rome  and  Egypt.  As  might  be 
expected  from  Ferreira's  other  work  the  conception  was  executed 
with  the  careful  skill  of  a  conscientious  craftsman.  The  drama 
has  unity,  the  style  is  purest  Portuguese,  the  chorus  sometimes 
soars  into  poetry,  as  in  the  celebrated  passage  Quando  amor 
7iaceo.  That  the  same  high  language  is  spoken  throughout, 
that,  as  has  often  been  observed,  scenes  of  dramatic  opportunity 
— a  meeting  between  D.  Pedro  and  his  father  or  Ines — are 
omitted,  merely  shows  that  Ferreira  had  no  dramatic  instinct. 
Perhaps  the  only  dramatic  passage — and  even  so  it  is  of  more 
psychological  than  dramatic  interest — is  that  in  Act  III  :  Ines. 
'  Ah,  woe  is  me  !  what  ill,  what  fearful  ill  dost  thou  announce }  ' 
Chorus.  '  It  is  thy  death.'  Ines.  '  Is  my  lord  dead  ? '  Nevertheless, 
the  play  was  a  remarkable  achievement,  carried  out  without 
faltering  and  with  a  sustained  loftiness  worthy  of  its  subject. 
No  one  any  longer  believes  that  Ferreira  copied  from  the  Nise 
lastimosa  by  Geronimo  Bermudez,  published  under  the  pseudo- 
nym Antonio  da  Silva  eight  years  after  Ferreira's  death.  This  is 
a  slightly  expanded  Spanish  translation,  closely  following  the 
1587  edition  ^  of  hies  de  Castro,  which  differs  considerably  from 

'  A  passage  in  Aulegrafia  (1555  ?)  describes  the  dramatic  death  of  Antony 
as  a  new  thing  :   parece-me  que  o  estoii  vendo  (f.  129). 

'■'  Tragedia    mvy  sentida   e   elegante   de   Dona   Ines   de    Castro       .    .   Agora 


i66  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

that  of  1598.  The  Nise  laureada  which  accompanied  it  is 
perfectly  insignificant.  Like  Miranda,  Ferreira  wrote,  besides 
one  tragedy,  two  comedies,  Bristo  and  0  Cioso.  There  are 
indications  that  he  had  in  mind  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos' 
Eufrosina  as  well  as  Miranda's  comedies.  Bristo  soliloquizing 
is  the  counterpart  of  Philtra,  and  in  his  dedication  of  Bristo 
to  Prince  Joao  he  acknowledges  his  debt  to  previous  plays. ^ 
In  this  comedy,  written  during  some  vacation  days  at  Coimbra 
University,  the  action  is  very  primitive,  but  the  braggart 
Annibal  and  the  charlatan  Montalvao  account  for  some  farcical 
scenes.  His  later  play,  0  Cioso  (the  jealous  husband  is  also 
handled  by  Gil  Vicente  and  Prestes),  belongs  to  a  higher  plane, 
i.  e.  to  comedy  rather  than  farce,  although  Bristo  is  not  entirely 
devoid  of  character- drawing.  Bristo  was  '  made  public  ' 
[publicada)  before  1554,  but  neither  play  was  published  till 
1622.  Both  are  remarkable  for  the  correctness  and  concise 
vigour  of  their  prose. 

The  three  plays  of  Camoes,  written  perhaps  between  the 
years  1544  and  1549  during  his  first  stay  at  Lisbon,  belong 
entirely  neither  to  the  classical  drama  nor  to  the  more  ancient 
autos,  but  combine  elements  of  both.  They  are  written  in 
redondilhas,  mostly  quintilhas.  The  third,  El  ReiSeleuco  (1549  ?), 
is  slighter  even  than  a  Vicentian  farce.  It  has  a  curious  prologue 
scene  {V  or  spiel  auf  dem  Theater)  in  prose.  The  versification  is 
easy,  but  its  chief  interest  is  the  important  part  it  may  have 
played  in  its  author's  life.  The  earliest  in  date,  Filodemo^ 
although  it  lacks  Vicente's  savour  of  the  soil,  has  a  graceful 
charm  and  faintly  recalls  the  Comedia  do  Viuvo.  Filodemo, 
orphan  son  of  a  Danish  princess  and  a  Portuguese  fidalgo,  is  in 
love  with  Dionysa,  daughter  of  his  father's  brother,  whose  son 
Venadoro  is  in  love  with  Filodemo's  sister  Florimena.  Their 
relationship  is  unknown,  but  the  discovery  of  their  true  birth 
smoothes  the  path  of  love  and  ends  the  play.     Os  Amphitrioes, 

nouatnente  acrescentada  (31  ff.  unnumbered).  The  one  who  published  ^rs/  was 
the  most  likely  to  be  the  thief.     Saudade  is  translated  soledad. 

*  Nesta  Universidade  .  .  .  onde  pouco  antes  se  virani  outras  que  a  todas  as  dos 
antigas  ou  levam  ou  ndo  dam  ventagem.  Bristo  was  written  por  s6  sen  desen- 
fadamento  em  certos  dias  de  ferias  e  ainda  esses  fiirtados  ao  estudo.  It  is 
a  comedia  mixta,  a  mor  parte  della  motoria. 


THE   DRAMA  167 

in  Portuguese  and  Spanish,^  is  based  on  the  Amphitruo  of  Plautus. 
The  predicaments  resulting  from  the  appearance  of  Jupiter  as 
Amphitriao's  double  and  Mercury  as  the  double  of  Sosia  are 
deftly  and  humorously  worked  out  in  delightfully  spontaneous 
verse. 

For  those  so  fastidious  as  to  be  satisfied  neither  by  the  popular 
aiitos  nor  the  staid  classical  plays,  yet  another  kind  was  provided 
in  the  shape  of  Celestina  comedies  in  prose.  Of  the  life  of  their 
author  we  know  scarcely  more  than  that  he  was  very  well 
known  in  his  day.  Judging  by  literary  merit  only,  one  might 
assign  the  verses  written  by  Jorge  de  Vasconcellos  in  the  Can- 
cioneiro  Geral  to  Jorge  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos  [c.  i5i5~ 
63.?),  since  the  poems,  alike  in  the  new  and  the  old  style,  inter- 
spersed in  his  works  do  not  prove  him  to  have  possessed  high 
poetical  talent.  It  is  as  a  dramatist  and  still  more  as  a  writer 
of  Portuguese  prose  that  the  distinguished  courtier  of  King 
Joao  IH's  reign  -  deserves  a  higher  place  in  Portuguese  literature 
than  his  ungrateful  countrymen  have  habitually  accorded  him. 
But  the  dates  forbid  the  identification  of  the  dramatist  with  the 
earlier  poet,  who  was  also  a  notable  courtier  since  he  is  specially 
mentioned  in  Vicente's  Cortes  de  Jupiter  (ii.  404).  One  of  the 
few  definite  facts  known  to  us  concerning  Jorge  Ferreira  is  that 
affirmed  in  the  preface  of  his  Eufrosina  :  that  this  play  was  the 
firstfruit  of  his  genius,  written  in  his  youth. ^  The  exact  date  of 
Eufrosina  is  unknown,  but  it  was  written  after  the  University 
had  been  finally  established  at  Coimbra  in  1537 — the  date  of 
the  letter  from  India  (December  20,  1526  *)  is  clearly  a  misprint 
since  mention  is  made  of  the  siege  of  Diu  (1538).  Ferreira  de 
Vasconcellos  evidently  studied  law  at  the  University.  If  he  was 
born,  not  at  Coimbra  but  at  Lisbon,  he  may  have  begun  his 
studies  in  the  capital.  At  the  time  of  Prince  Duarte's  death 
(1540)    he    was    in   his   service,    as    mogo   da    camara,    and   he 

1  In  El  Ret  Seleuco  the  doctor  and  in  Filodemo  the  shepherd  and  bobo  speak 
Spanish. 

^  Homem  fidalgo  w'"  cortezdo  cS^  discretto  (Rangel  Macedo,  manuscript  Nobi- 
liario,  in  Lisbon  Bib.  Nac.)  ;  aquelle  galante  e  elegante  cortesao  Portugnes 
(licen^a  of  1618  ed.  of  Ulysippo). 

^  As  primicias  do  men  rustico  engenho,  que  he  a  Comedia  Eufrosina,  e  foi 
ho  primeiro  fruito  que  delle  colhi,  inda  bem  tenrro. 

*  Eufrosina,  ii.  5. 


i68  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

continued  as  a  Court  official,  first,  perhaps,  in  the  service  of  the 
heir  to  the  throne.  Prince  Joao,  who  died  on  January  2,  1554, 
and  then  in  that  of  King  Sebastiao.  In  1563  he  was  succeeded 
as  Secretary  [escrivao  do  Tesouro)  by  Luis  Vicente,  probably  son 
of  the  poet  Gil.  The  document^  which  nominates  his  successor 
by  no  means  implies  his  death,  since,  as  Menendez  y  Pelayo  ^ 
observed,  his  name  is  unaccompanied  by  the  formula  que  Dens 
perdoe  or  aja.  But  it  is  strange,  if  he  did  not  die  till  1585,  the 
date  given  by  Barbosa  Machado,  that  nothing  more  is  heard 
of  him  after  1563  (we  are  told  that  his  son  died  at  the  battle 
of  Alcacer  Kebir),  and  that  his  son-in-law  called  Aulegrafia, 
written  before  the  death  of  Prince  Luis  (1555),  his  swan-song.^ 
Apart  from  manuscript  treatises  which  were  never  published,  Jorge 
Ferreira  is  the  author  of  four  works  in  prose,  the  three  plays, 
Eufrosina,  Ulysippo,  Aulegrafia,  and  the  Memorial  da  Segunda 
Tavola  Redonda.  The  latter  is  an  involved  romance  of  chivalry  * 
which  describes  the  adventures  of  the  Knight  of  the  Crystal 
Arms,  emulator  of  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table  and  Amadis 
of  Gaul.  Each  chapter  commences  with  a  brief  sententious 
reflection,  from  which  the  reader  is  plunged  into  mortal  combats 
of  knights,  centaurs,  giants,  and  dragons.  It  begins  by  giving  an 
account  of  King  Arthur,  his  disappearance,  and  the  prosperous 
reign  of  Sagramor.  It  ends  with  a  vivid  description  of  the  tourna- 
ment (August  5,  1552)  at  Enxobregas  (=  Xabregas)  in  which  the 
ill-fated  Prince  Joao  was  the  principal  figure.  Barbosa  Machado 
included  among  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos'  works  Triunfos  de 
Sagramor  em  que  se  tratao  os  feitos  dos  Cavalleiros  da  Segunda 
Tavola  Redonda  (Coimbra,  1554).  A  passage  in  the  Memorial^ 
may  have  led  to  the  belief  that  this  was  a  second  part  of  the 

'  Discovered  by  General  Brito  Rebello  in  the  Torre  do  Tombo  and  printed 
in  his  Gil  Vicente  (1902),  p.  114. 

-  Origenes  de  la  Novela,  vol.  iii,  p.  ccxxx. 

^  Sousa  de  Macedo,  in  Eva  e  Ave  (1676  ed.,  p.  131),  says  that  he  lived  in  the 
reign  of  King  Joao  and  in  the  beginning  of  that  of  King  Sebastian,  which 
confirms  the  date  1563  as  that  of  his  death. 

♦  Some  of  its  heroes  have  geographical  names,  as  King  Tenarife  of  the 
Canary  Islands  and  the  Spanish  Moor  Juzquibel,  who  now  survives  in  the  name 
of  the  mountain  that  falls  to  the  sea  above  Fuenterrabia.  The  author  shows 
considerable  knowledge  of  the  Basque  country,  and  we  may  perhaps  infer  that 
he  was  at  the  French  Court  and  studied  the  Basque  provinces  on  the  way. 

*  1867  fid.,  p.  21  :    como  se  vee  ao  diante  no  triumpho  del  rey  Sagramor. 


THE   DRAMA  169 

Memorial,  of  which  the  first  known  edition  is  that  of  Coimbra, 
1567,  but  from  the  preface^  it  appears  that  the  Memorial  is  the 
Triunfos.  The  title  Triunfos  de  Sagramor  may  have  been  given  to 
an  earlier  edition,-  or  it  may  have  been  the  title  of  the  second 
half  of  the  work.  The  author  himself  declares  that  his  story 
had  been  '  presented '  to  Prince  Joao.^  The  editor  of  Ulysippo 
in  1618  says  that  the  Memorial  had  been  printed  at  least  twice 
during  the  author's  lifetime.*  Yet  it  is  difficult  not  to  suspect 
that  the  date  1554  was  a  confusion  with  the  year  of  the  death 
of  the  prince  to  whom  the  work  was  dedicated.  The  same 
uncertainty,  as  we  have  seen,  prevails  as  to  the  date  of  the 
first  edition  of  the  author's  masterpiece  Eufrosina.  (He  pub- 
lished his  plays  anonymously,  partly  perhaps  for  the  same 
reason  that  made  him  insist  that  his  characters  represented  no 
definite  persons  but  types.)  The  earliest  edition  that  we  have 
is  that  of  Evora,  1561,  that  of  Coimbra,  1560,  having  disappeared, 
if  it  ever  existed.^  The  words  on  the  title-page,  de  nouo  reuista 
&  em  partes  acrecentada,  need  not  imply  more  than  that,  as  we 
know,  the  manuscript  had  circulated  among  his  friends  :  por 
muitas  mdos  deuassa  e  falsa.  As  a  novelty,  invengam  noua 
fiesta  terra,  Eufrosina  with  its  proverbs  and  its  ingenious  thoughts 
and  phrases  was  appreciated  in  Portugal,  whose  inhabitants 
were  justifiably  proud  now  to  possess  a  Celestina  of  their  own, 
a  Celestina  with  less  action  and  rhetoric  but  more  thought  and 
sentiment.^     Ouevedo  was  loud   in   its   praises,    Lope   de  Vega 

1  Nesta  trasladafdo  do  iriumpho  del  Rey  Sagramor,  ibid.,  p.  viii. 

^  A  vague  tradition  placed  the  1554  edition  in  the  Lisbon  Torre  do  Tombo, 
but  inquiries  in  1916  proved  that  nothing  is  known  of  it  there. 

^  Ao  esclarecido  Principe  ja  apresentada,  ibid.,  p.  vii. 

*  A  primeira  parte  da  Tabola  redonda  que  pera  a  terceira  impressao  emendou 
0  Autor  em  sua  vida  (Aduertencia  ao  leitor). 

5  Nicolas  Antonio,  whose  information  as  to  Portuguese  books  was  often 
far  from  accurate,  says  that  there  were  several  editions  before  that  of  16 16, 
probably  an  erroneous  deduction  from  the  1561  title-page.  The  late  Menendez 
y  Pelayo,  who  also  made  many  slips  in  dealing  with  Portuguese  literature, 
declared  that  the  1560  edition  was  in  the  British  Museum,  which,  however, 
only  possesses  a  (mutilated)  copy  of  the  edition  of  Evora,  1561  (lacking  the 
colophon  with  the  date) .  Of  the  1 561  edition  several  copies  exist,  that  of  the 
Torre  do  Tombo,  that  in  the  library  of  the  late  Snr.  Francisco  Van  Zeller  at 
Lisbon,  and  that  of  the  British  Museum. 

"  Joao  de  Barros,  Dialogo  em  lovvor  da  nossa  lingvagem  (1540),  wrote  that 
the  Portuguese  language  parece  nam  consintir  em  si  hiia  tal  obra  como 
Celestina  (1785  ed.,  p.  222). 


170  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

perhaps  quoted  it,^  its  influence  on  the  style  of  Mello  and  other 
Portuguese  writers  is  clear.  It  was  a  legitimate  success  and 
its  modern  neglect  is  all  the  more  deplorable  because  in  this  play 
the  Portuguese  language,  the  richness,  concision,  and  grace  of 
which  are  exalted  in  the  preface,  appears  in  its  purest,  raciest 
form.  The  author's  vocabulary  is  immense,  his  sentences 
admirably  vigorous  and  clear.  After  heading  the  E's  in  the 
Index  of  1581  [Evphrosina  simply,  without  author)  it  was 
reprinted  by  the  poet  Rodriguez  Lobo  in  1616,  in  a  slightly 
modified  form,  shorn,  that  is,  of  some  of  the  coarser  passages 
and  of  all  reference  to  the  Scriptures. ^  The  style  is  not  the 
only  merit  of  Eufrosina.  Despite  the  lack  of  proportion  in  some 
of  the  scenes,  in  which  Jorge  Ferreira  proves  himself  to  have 
been,  like  Richardson,  '  a  sorry  pruner  '  (four  scenes  out  of  the 
thirty-nine  constitute  a  quarter  of  the  play),  there  is  a  certain 
unity  in  this  story  of  the  love  of  the  poor  courtier  Zelotipo  de 
Abreu  for  Eufrosina,  proud  and  beautiful  daughter  of  the  rich 
fidalgo  D.  Carlos,  Senhor  das  Povoas,  in  the  little  ancient 
university  town  above  the  green  waters  and  willows  of  Mondego. 
The  numerous  other  persons  are  strictly  subordinate,  and  both 
scenes  and  characters  are  skilfully  drawn.  The  artificial  con- 
struction, the  convention  by  which  emotion  finds  vent  in  a  string 
of  classical  allusions,  scarcely  mar  the  exceedingly  natural 
presentment  of  many  of  the  scenes.  Charming,  for  instance,  is 
that  in  which  Eufrosina  and  her  companion  and  friend  Silvia 
de  Sousa,  Zelotipo's  cousin,  watch  from  the  terrace  of  their 
house  the  river's  gentle  flow  and  along  its  bank  the  citizens  and 
students  taking  the  air  in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  The  play 
contains  as  many  characters  as  a  modern  novel.  There  is 
Cariofilo,  a  gay  good-hearted  Don  Juan;  his  friend,  the  more 
serious  Zelotipo,  type  of  the  Portuguese  lover,  the  galante  con- 
templativo ;    D.  Carlos,  quick  to  anger  but  easily  appeased ;    the 

'  La  Filoinena,  162 1  ed.,  p.  188.  The  quotation,  if  direct,  was  from  the 
1 56 1  edition,  not  that  of  16 16,  in  which  part  of  the  sentence  quoted  is  omitted, 
as  in  the  Spanish  translation  first  published  ten  years  later,  in  163 1. 

*  They  were  considered  out  of  place  in  a  comedy.  The  Catalogue  of  1581 
condemns  todos  os  mais  tratados  onde  se  aplicam,  vsurpam  &■  torcetn  as  autori- 
dades  cS-  sentettfas  da  sancta  escriptura  a  sentidos  profanos,  grafas,  escarnios, 
fabulas,  vaidades,  lisonjarias,  detracfoes,  stiperstifors,  encantagoes  cS-  semelhantes 
cousas.    The  rules  were  carried  out  most  mechanically. 


THE   DRAMA  171 

pedantic,  unscrupulous  Dr.  Carrasco,  whose  conversation  with 
D.  Carlos  gives  scope  for  a  vigorous  attack  on  the  legal  pro- 
fession ;  Silvia,  who  sacrifices  her  love  and  gives  up  to  Eufrosina 
her  cousin's  verses  that  she  had  so  carefully  kept ;  the  mogos 
Andradeand  Cotrim,  greedy,  timid,  and  talkative ;  the  gentleman 
of  Coimbra,  Philotimo,  a  wise  and  kindly  man  of  the  world. 
Other  phases  of  Coimbra  life  are  shown  in  the  rnogas  de  Ho 
and  de  cantaro,  who  fetch  water  or  wash  clothes  in  the  Mondego 
and  metaphorically  toss  in  a  blanket  Galindo,  the  rich  D. 
Tristao's  agent  from  Lisbon  ;  in  the  love-lorn  student  with  his 
Latin,  the  morose  and  jealous  workman  Duarte,  proud  of  his 
position  as  official,  the  resolute  goldsmith  and  his  languid 
daughter  Polinia,  the  old  servant  Andresa  and  the  merry 
servant  girl  Vitoria,  and,  most  prominent  of  all,  Philtra 
the  alcoviteira,  deploring  the  wickedness  and  degeneracy  of 
the  world  and  full  of  wise  saws — the  play  contains  many 
hundreds.  Eufrosina  herself  is  first  described  by  the  lover — 
brow  of  Diana,  lips  of  Venus,  limbs  of  Pallas,  clear  green  eyes  ^ 
of  Juno,  quietly  mirthful ;  then  by  his  servant  Andrade — the 
fairest  thing  that  ever  he  thought  to  see,  fan  in  hand,  the 
sleeves  of  her  dress  like  a  ship  at  full  sail  ^ — so  that  we  have 
an  effective  impression  of  her  beauty.  Besides  Coimbra  life  we 
obtain  glimpses  of  that  of  the  Court  at  Lisb.on  and  Almeirim  in 
a  letter  from  the  courtier  Crisandor,  of  India  in  a  very  real  and 
interesting  letter  from  Silvia's  brother,  even  of  Cotrim's  native 
village.  That  the  unity  was  not  sacrificed  to  these  many  by-scenes 
says  much  for  the  author's  skill.  This  praise  cannot  be  given 
to  his  second  play  written  some  ten  years  after  the  first,  Ulysippo 
(1547  .»*),  for  here  the  reader  loses  his  way  among  the  many 
courses  of  true  love.  There  are  twenty-one  dramatis  personae, 
but  the  principal  interest  is  in  the  sketch  of  Constanga  d'Ornellas, 
the  hypocritical  beata,^   or,    rather,    that   is   the  most   original 

'  Green  eyes  are  beloved  by  Portuguese  writers  for  their  rarity  or  from  an 
early  mistaken  rendering  of  the  French  vair  (e.  g.  Sylvia  in  the  sixteenth, 
Joaninha  in  the  nineteenth  century).  The  glosadores  inclined  to  them  on 
account  of  the  second  person  of  the  infinitive  '  to  see '  :  verdes. 

^  In  Arraez,  Dialogos  (1604),  f.  311  v.  fashionable  women  parecem  .  .  . 
velas  de  nao  inchadas. 

*  In  the  first  edition  she  had  been  called  a  heata.  In  that  of  161 8  she 
became  merely  a  widow  woman,   dona  viiwa,   but  the  editor  defeated   the 


172  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

part,  since  in  the  play  as  a  whole  there  is  a  certain  monotony 
after  Eiifrosina,  and  many  of  the  proverbs  are  the  same.-^ 
Excellent  as  the  earlier  play  in  its  terse  and  idiomatic  prose,^ 
full  of  interest  in  the  insight  it  gives  into  the  customs  and  life 
of  the  people,  its  chief  fault  is  the  intricacy,  or  absence,  of  plot 
which  makes  it  difficult  reading,  and  of  course  it  would  naturally 
please  less  on  its  first  appearance  as  being  no  longer  a  new  thing. 
The  author,  who  knew  how  the  Portuguese  prized  iwvidades, 
appears  to  have  been  conscious  of  this,  since  his  third  play, 
Aulegrafia,  written  perhaps  in  1555,^  and  first  published  in  1619, 
was  developed  on  somewhat  different  lines.  It  is  concerned, 
as  its  name  implies,  exclusively  with  the  Court,  and  the  people 
and  popular  proverbs  are  in  abeyance.  In  its  fifty  scenes  we 
are  introduced  to  typical  Court  ladies,  noble  fidalgos,  poor 
gentlemen  and  their  servants,  one  of  whom  considers  it  mais 
fidalgo  nam  saber  ler.  The  play  is  by  its  author  termed  '  a  long 
treatise  on  Court  manners  ',*  and  as  such  it  is  admirable  and  full 
of  interest,  however  negligible  it  may  be  as  drama.  Its  style, 
moreover,  even  excels  in  atticism  Ferreira's  other  works.  The 
most  remarkable  character  is  that  of  the  young  [menina  e  moga) 
and  very  wily  aunt  of  Filomela.  She  is  twice  described  in  detail 
(f.  46  and  f.  153  v.),  and  we  perceive  that  Philtra  of  the  people, 
the  middle-class  Constanga  d'Ornellas,  and  the  aristocratic 
Aulegrafia  are  really  three  persons  and  one  spirit.  In  Ulysippo 
one  of  the  lesser  personages  was  the  Spanish  Sevilhana  (mentioned 
also  in  Eufrosina),  and  here  a  boastful  Spanish  adventurer  is 
introduced  in  the  person  of  Agrimonte  de  Guzman,  who  disdains 
to  speak  Portuguese.  The  scene  of  both  the  later  plays  is 
Lisbon.    The  author  drew  from  his  experience  here,  as  previously 

censor's  intentions  by  noting  the  change  in  the  preface  and  declaring  that 
but  for  this  she  remained  exactly  the  same  as  before. 

'  Here  the  doctors,  not  the  lawyers,  are  conjurados  contra  0  mundo. 

■  Cf.  the  brief  but  eloquent  praises  of  wine  and  of  love. 

^  One  might  be  inclined  to  place  it  later  were  not  the  Infante  Luis  (jNovem- 
ber  27,  1555)  still  alive. 

*  Um  largo  disciirso  da  cortesania  vulgar,  f.  178  v.  Cf.  f.  5  :  pretende 
mostraruos  ao  olho  o  rascunho  da  vida  cortesaa.  On  f .  5  v.  it  is  called  esta  selada 
Portitguesa.  The  courtiers  spend  all  the  time  they  can  spare  from  the  pursuit 
of  love  in  discussing  the  rival  merits  of  the  romance  velho  and  new-fangled 
sonnet,  of  Boscdn  and  Garci  Lasso,  of  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  a  line  of 
a  Latin  poet,  &c. 


I 


THE   DRAMA  173 

at  Coimbra,  and  often  describes  to  the  life  the  persons  that  he 
had  met.  Scarcely  any  other  writer  gives  us  so  intimate  an  idea 
of  the  times — of  this  the  latter  heyday  of  Portugal's  greatness — 
or  of  the  gallant,  lovesick,  dreaming  Portuguese,  who  considers 
love  as  much  a  monopoly  of  his  country  as  the  ivory  and  spices 
of  India. ^ 

'  O  amor  S  portugues  [Aulegrafia,  f.  38  v.). 


§4 
Luis  de  Canioes 

The  plays  of  Luis  de  Camoes  (1524? -8o)  are  in  a  sense  typical 
of  his  genius,  for  they  show  him  combining  two  great  currents  of 
poetry,  the  old  indigenous  and  the  classic  new.  A  generation  had 
sprung  up  accustomed  to  wide  horizons  and  heroic  deeds,  and 
poets  and  historians  regretted  that  there  was  no  Homer  or  Virgil 
to  describe  them  adequately.  Camoes  was  not  a  Homer  nor 
a  Virgil,  but  he  was  a  more  universal  poet  than  Portugal  had  yet 
produced,  and  by  reason  of  his  marvellous  power  of  expression 
he  triumphantly  completed  the  revolution  which  Sa  de  Miranda 
had  tentatively  begun.  In  a  sense  he  was  not  a  great  original  poet, 
but  in  his  style  he  was  excelled  by  no  Latin  poet  of  the  Renais- 
sance. The  eager  researches  of  modern  scholars  have  succeeded 
in  piercing  the  obscurity  that  enveloped  his  life,  although  many 
gaps  and  doubtful  points  remain.  Four  or  five  generations  had 
gone  by  since  his  ancestor  Vasco  Perez  had  passed  out  of  the 
pages  of  history,^  and  some  of  the  intervening  members  of  the 
family  had  also  won  distinction,  but  Camoes'  father,  Simao  Vaz  de 
Camoes,  was  a  poor  captain  of  good  position  [cavaleiro  fidalgo) 
who  was  shipwrecked  near  Goa  and  died  there  soon  after  the  poet 
was  born  in  1524.  Through  his  grandmother,  Guiomar  Vaz  da 
Gama,  he  was  distantly  related  to  the  celebrated  Gamas  of  Algarve. 
His  mother,  Anna  de  Sa  e  Macedo,  belonged  to  a  well-known 
family  of  Santarem.^    Whether  he  was  born  at  Lisbon  or  Coimbra 

*  Seu  quarto  avb  foi  um  Gallego  nohre  (Diogo  Camacho,  Jornada  as  Cortes 
do  Parnaso). 

^  Dr.  Wilhclm  Storck,  the  author  of  the  most  elaborate  life  of  Camoes  in 
existence,  considered  tliat  the  words  quando  vim  da  matcrna  sepultiira  in  one 
of  Camoes'  poems  could  only  mean  that  his  mother  (Anna  de  Macedo)  died 
at  his  birth,  and  that  he  was  survived  by  Annade  Sa,  his  stepmother.  It  may 
have  been  so,  but  there  is  not  a  scrap  of  evidence  in  favour  of  the  theory 
nor  were  the  words  materna  sepultura  anything  more  than  a  conventional 
phrase.  Cf.  Antonio  Feo,  Trattados  Quadragesimais  (1609),  pt.  i,  f.  2  :  Como 
N azianzeno  diz  .  .  .  e  tiimtdo  prosiliens  ad  tumulum  itertim  contendo,  em  nacendo 
saimos  de  hiia  sepultura  que  foi  as  entranhas  da  mai  e  morrendo  entramos 
noutra.     So  Pinto,  Imagem,  pt.  2,   1593  ed.,  f.  342   v.  :    tornar  nu  ao  ventre 


LUIS   DE  CAMOES  175 

is  still  uncertain.  His  great-grandfather  had  settled  at  Coimbra. 
That  Camoes  studied  there  scarcely*  admits  of  doubt.  He 
alludes  to  it  in  his  poems,  and  nowhere  else  in  Portugal  could  he 
have  received  his  thorough  classical  education.  In  the  year 
1542  or  1543  he  went  to  Lisbon.  I'he  exact  dates  of  events  in 
his  life  during  the  next  ten  years  are  difficult  to  determine. 
but  the  events  themselves  are  clear  enough.  His  birth  and  talents 
assured  him  a  ready  welcome  in  the  capital.  Whether  he  became 
tutor  to  D.  Antonio  de  Noronha,  son  of  the  Conde  de  Linhares  (the 
Portuguese  ambassador  whom  Moraes  accompanied  to  Paris),  or 
not,  he  soon  had  many  friends  and  was  probably  received  at 
Court.  Referring  later  to  this  time  he  is  said  to  have  spoken  of 
himself  as  cheo  de  muitos  favor es,  and  in  this  popularity  he  wrote 
a  large  number  of  his  exquisite  redondilhas  and  also  sonnets, 
odes,  eclogues,  and  the  three  autos.  But  Camoes  had  fallen 
passionately  in  love  with  a  lady-in-waiting  of  the  queen,  Catherina 
de  Athaide.^  Tradition  has  it  that  he  first  saw  her  in  church  on 
a  Good  Friday  (1544.'').  We  may  surmise  that  Natercia's  parents 
objected  to  the  suit  of  the  penniless  cavaleiro  fidalgo,  and  that 
Camoes  pressed  his  suit  on  them  with  more  vehemence  than 
discretion.  He  was  banished  from  Court,  and  spent  six  months 
in  the  Ribatejo  (Santarem)  and  two  years  in  military  service  in 
North  Africa  (Ceuta).  He  admits  that  he  had  been  in  the  wrong, 
but  not  seriously  so,  and  hints  that  envy  had  played  its  part  in  his 
downfall.  It  is  probable  that  his  play  El  Ret  Seleuco  had  given 
a  handle  to  the  enemies  that  his  growing  reputation  as  a  poet 
had  made.  It  must  be  confessed  that  its  subject  was  tactless, 
for  in  the  play  the  king  gives  up  his  bride  to  his  son,  which 
could  easily  be  interpreted  as  a  reflection  on  the  conduct  of  the 
late  King  Manuel,  who  had  married  his  son's  bride.  The  two 
years  in  Africa  passed  slowly.  In  a  letter  [Esta  vae  com  a  candea 
na  mdo)  he  describes  sadness  eating  away  his  heart  as  a  moth 
a  garment,  and  it  was  with  his  thoughts  in  Lisbon  that  he  took 
part  from  time  to  time  in  skirmishes  against  the  Moors,  in  one 

de  sua  mat,  o  qual  6  a  sepultura  da  terra,  and  Bemardes,  Nov.  Flor,  i.  122  : 
A  terra  e  nossa  mde,  de  cujo  tenebroso  ventre  que  e  a  sepultura,  &c. 

'  She  may  have  been  a  distant  relation  of  the  poet's  :  the  name  was  a  com- 
mon one,  but  Camoes  was  connected  with  the  Gamas,  and  the  wife  and  grand- 
daughter of  the  first  Conde  deVidigueira  were  both  named  Catherina  deAthaide. 


I76*  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

of  which  he  lost  his  right  eye.  Hard  blows,  scanty  provisions, 
and  no  chance  of  enriching  oneself  as  in  India  were  the  features 
of  military  service  in  North  Africa,  and  when  Camocs  returned 
to  Lisbon  his  prospects  contrasted  sharply  with  those  which 
had  been  his  when  he  first  came  from  the  University  a  few 
years  before.  He  was  now  nearly  thirty,^  disfigured  by  the  loss 
of  an  eye  and  embittered  by  the  turn  his  fortunes  had  taken. 
He  no  longer  looked  on  life  from  the  inside,  gazing  contentedly 
at  the  show  from  the  windows  of  privilege,  but  was  himself  in 
the  arena.  For  the  school  of  Sa  de  Miranda  he  had  probably 
never  felt  much  sympathy,  considering  it  too  severe  and  artificial. 
He  wished  to  live  and  enjoy,  and  although  the  patronage  of 
literary  Prince  Joao  may  have  encouraged  him  to  hope  for 
better  times,  he  meanwhile  set  himself  to  sample  life  as  best 
he  might,  associating  with  rowdy  companions  [valentdes],  who 
brought  out  the  Cariofilo  side  of  his  character  at  the  expense 
of  the  contemplative  Zelotipo.  Whether  he  had  intended  to 
embark  for  India  in  1550,  or  this  be  a  pure  invention  on  the 
part  of  Faria  e  Sousa,  it  is  certain  that  he  was  still  in  Lisbon  on 
June  16,  1552.  On  that  day  the  Corpus  Christi  procession 
passed  through  the  principal  streets.  In  the  crowded  Rocio 
Camoes  was  drawn  into  a  quarrel  with  a  Court  official,  Gon^alo 
Borges,  and  wounded  him  with  a  sword-cut  on  the  head.  For 
nearly  nine  months  Camoes  lay  in  prison,  and  then,  Borges 
having  recovered  and  bearing  no  malice,  he  was  pardoned  ^ 
(March  7,  1553)  and  released,  but  only  on  the  understanding 
that  he  would  leave  Portugal  to  serve  the  king  in  India.  Before 
the  end  of  the  month  he  had  embarked  in  the  ship  5.  Bento. 
Hitherto  he  had  hoped  against  hope  for  an  improvement  in  his 
lot ;  now  he  went,  he  says,  as  one  who  leaves  this  world  for  the 
next,  and  with  the  words  Ingrata  patria,  non  possidehis  ossa  mea,^ 

'  According  to  Dr.  Storck  he  was  banished  in  1 549,  and  in  the  same  year, 
after  the  sentence  of  banishment  had  been  commuted  to  service  in  Africa,  left 
Portugal,  returning  to  Lisbon  in  the  autumn  of  1551.  Others  believe  that 
he  was  in  Lisbon  again  in  1550  and  that  his  two  years  in  Africa  nuist  be 
placed  between  1546  and  1549. 

'  The  important  document  containing  his  pardon  is  printed  in  Juromenha's 
edition  of  his  works,  i.  166-7. 

'  This  quotation  is  assigned  to  various  other  persons,  as  to  Nuno  da  Cunha 
when  arranging  that  he  should  be  buried  at  sea. 


LUIS   DE   CAMOES  177 

turned  his  back  on  the  calumnies  and  intrigues  of  Lisbon.  In 
one  of  his  finest  elegies  ^  he  described  the  voyage,  a  storm  off 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the  arrival  at  Goa  in  September 
1553-  The  voyage  was  full  of  interest  to  him,  and  he  made  good 
use  of  it,  becoming  what  Humboldt  called  him— a  great  painter 
of  the  sea  '^ — but  so  far  as  comfort  was  concerned  he  fared  probably 
much  as  would  a  modern  emigrant.  His  disillusion  at  Goa  is 
poignantly  described  in  a  letter^  written  soon  after  his  arrival. 
He  found  it  '  the  stepmother  of  all  honest  men  ',  money  the  only 
god  and  passport,  and  he  sends  a  note  of  warning  to  aventureiros 
in  Portugal  eager  to  make  their  fortune  in  India.  We  know 
from  the  bitter  pages  of  Couto  and  Correa  how  difficult  it  was 
for  a  private  soldier  to  thrive  there,  and  the  position  of  a  reinol 
newly  arrived  from  Portugal  was  precarious.  Camoes  joined 
a  few  weeks  later  (November  1553)  in  a  punitive  expedition 
along  the  coast  of  Malabar  against  the  King  of  Chembe,  and  in 
1554  probably  accompanied  D.  Fernando  de  Meneses  in  a 
second  expedition  to  Monte  Felix  or  Guardafui  (Ras  ef  Fil),  the 
Red  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf.  After  his  three  years'  service 
(1553-6)  he  continued  to  live  at  Goa.  He  had  found  time  to 
write  poetry,  and  sent  home  a  sonnet  and  an  eclogue  on  the 
death  of  his  friend  D.  Antonio  de  Noronha.  His  play  Filodemo 
was  acted,  probably  in  the  winter  of  1555,  before  the  popular 
Governor  Francisco  Barreto,  who  provided  him  with  the  post 
of  Provedor  Mor  dos  Defuntos  e  Ausentes  (i.  e.  trustee  for  the 
property  of  dead  or  absent  Portuguese)  at  Macao.  Whether 
his  satiric  verses  had  anything  to  do  with  the  appointment  we 
do  not  know- — some  have  maintained  that  the  Portuguese  of 
Goa  appreciated  his  poetical  powers  best  at  a  distance — but  it 
is  more  probable  that  his  appointment  was  a  favour,  since  every 
post  in  India  was  eagerly  coveted,  and  it  was  a  kinder  action  to 
give  him  a  comparatively  humble  one  at  once  than  the  reversion 
to  a  more  lucrative  office,  filled  thrice  or  even  ten  times  over 
by  the  deplorable  system  of  'successions  '.*     He  set  sail  in  the 

*  O  poeta  Simonides  fallando. 

*  Cf.  Lus.  i.  19,  43  ;   ii.  20,  67  ;   v.  19-22  ;   vi.  70-9.  ^  Desejei  tanto. 

*  Couto,  in  the  Dialogo  do  Soldado  Pratico,  remarks  that  if  a  man  is  given 
a  post  at  the  age  of  twenty  he  only  receives  it  at  the  age  of  sixty  (p.  99). 
The  soldier,  who  wishes  ter  logo  em  ires  annos  vinte  mil  cruzados,  suggests, 

2362  M 


178  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

spring  of  1556,  and  after  touching  at  Malacca,  arrived   at  the 

Molucca  Islands,   the  most  lawless  region  in  India.     Camoes 

himself,  according  to  Storck,  was  wounded  about  this  time,  but 

in  a  fight  at  sea,  not  in  one  of  the  chronic  broils  at  Tcrnate  or 

Tidore.     In  1557  or  1558  he  reached  Macao,  but  two  years  later 

he  was  relieved  of  his  post  owing  to  a  quarrel  with  the  settlors, 

w^hose  part  was  taken  by  the  captain  of  the  silver  and  silk  ship 

passing  from  Goa  to  China.     On  his  authority  Camoes  was  sent 

to  Goa,  protesting  against  0  injusto  maiido,  which  was  a  common 

fate  of  officials  in  India.      He  was  shipwrecked  off  the  coast  of 

Tongking,  lost   all   his   possessions,  and   arrived  penniless  and 

perhaps  in  debt  at  Goa  in  1560  or  1561.    To  these  four  or  five 

chequered  years  are  ascribed  the  wonderful  quintilhas,  the  most 

beautiful  in  the  language,  Soholos  rios  que  vam,  which  may  owe 

something  to  Vicente's  admirable  paraphrase  of  Psalm  1,  the 

cangao  Com  forga  desusada,  the  oitavas  Conio  nos  vossos,  and  the 

completion  of  the  first  six  books  of  the  Lusiads.    Soon  after  his 

return  he  was  probably  imprisoned  for  debt,  but  was  released, 

probably  at  the  instance  of  the  Viceroy,  D.  Francisco  Coutinho, 

Conde  de  Redondo,  to  whom  Camoes  addressed  his  first  printed 

poem,  the  ode  in  Orta's  Coloquios  (1563).      Camoes'   thoughts 

must  have  now  more  than  ever  turned  homeward.    F.ortune  had 

danced  tantalizingly  before  him,  holding  out  hopes  which  broke 

as  glass  in  his  hands  whenever  he  attempted  to  seize  them.-' 

Of  his  life  between  1564  and  1567  we  know  nothing.     He  did 

not  occupy  the  post  of  factor  of  Chaul,  the  reversion  to  which 

indeed  he  may  perhaps  only  have  received  after  his  return  to 

Portugal.     He  was  eager  to  get  home.     In  1567  he  accompanied 

Pedro  Barreto  to  Mozambique,  glad  to  get  even  so  far  on  the  return 

voyage.     There  poverty  and  illness  delayed  him  till  1569,  when 

through  the  generosity  and  in  the  company  of  some  friends, 

among  whom  was  the  historian  Couto,  he  was  able  to  embark 

for  Portugal.     They  reached  Lisbon  in  April,    1570.^     Sixteen 

among  other  posts  for  himself,  that  of  Provedor  das  Defuntos  /  porque  com 
qualquer  destes  ficarei  mui  bent  remediado.  To  which  the  Desembargador 
objects  :  he  necessario  que  quern  houver  de  servir  esses  cargos  sejaleirado  evisto 
em  umbos  os  Direitos. 

•  Vinde  cd.     It  is  advisable  to  give  the  first  words  of  his  poems  without 
the  number  until  there  is  a  definitive  edition  of  his  works. 

*  It  is  uncertain  whether  Camoes'  ship  was  the  Santa  Clara  or  the  Fe. 


LUIS   DE   CAMOES  179 

years  had  passed.  The  popular,  impulsive,  talented  youth 
returned  middle-aged,  poverty-stricken,  and  unknown.  Antonio 
de  Noronha  and  many  others  of  his  friends  were  dead.  Catherina 
dc  Athaidc  had  died  in  1556  (although  she  may  have  continued  to 
receive  Camoes'  rapt  devotion  as  the  dead  Beatrice  that  of  Dante), 
Prince  Joao,  hope  and  patron  of  poets,  two  years  earlier.  The 
plague,  to  which  nearly  half  the  city's  population  had  succumbed, 
had  only  recently  abated,  and  Camoes  may  have  witnessed  the 
thanksgiving  procession  in  Lisbon  on  April  20,  1570.  Modern 
critics  have  even  denied  him  the  only  consolation  which  probably 
remained  to  him  in  the  patria  esquiva  a  quem  se  mal  apro- 
veitou^,  but  there  seems  no  reason  to  reject  the  tradition  that 
his  mother  was  alive  ;  in  fact  she  survived  him  and  continued 
to  receive  the  pension  of  15,000  reis'^  granted  him  from  1572  till 
his  death  on  Friday,  June  10,  1580.  It  was  a  sum  barely  sufficient 
to  support  life,  and  it  was  not  always  regularly  paid,  so  that  he 
is  reported  to  have  been  in  the  habit  of  saying  that  he  would 
prefer  to  his  pension  a  whip  for  the  responsible  officials  [almoxa- 
rifes).  Tradition,  to  the  indignation  of  reasonable  historians, 
loves  to  represent  a  faithful  Javanese  slave,  who  had  accom- 
panied Camoes  to  Europe,  begging  for  his  master  in  the  streets 
of  Lisbon.  Camoes  did  not  go  with  King  Sebastian  to  Africa. 
He  may  have  been  already  ill  when  the  expedition  set  out  in 
June  1578 — the  plague  soon  began  again  to  ravage  Lisbon,  and 
long  years  of  suffering  and  disappointment  must  have  sapped 
his  strength.  Two  years  later  his  life  of  heroic  endurance,  in 
patience  of  the  juizos  incognitos  de  Deos,^  ended.  He  was 
perhaps  buried  in  a  common  grave  with  other  victims  of  the 
plague.*  Long  absence  had  served  to  strengthen  his  love  for 
his  patria  ditosa  amada,  and  the  news  from  Africa  left  him  no 
heart  to  battle  against  disease,   content,   as  he  wrote  to  the 

•  Barros,  Decada,  iii.  ix.  i. 

2  It  is  about  the  sum  (apart  from  any  grant  of  pimento)  which  a  common 
soldier  on  active  service  might  earn  in  India  (see  Barros,  i.  viii.  3  :  1,200 
X  12  =  14,400)  ;  environ  huit  cents  livres  de  notre  monnoie  d'aujourd'hui 
(Voltaire).     It  would  scarcely  correspond  to  more  than  £s'^  of  to-day. 

*  Lus.  V.  45. 

«  Prophetically  he  had  echoed  (Lus.  x.  23)  the  complaint  of  the  historians 
of  India  :  Morrcr  nos  hospitaes  em  pobres  leitos  Os  que  ao  Rei  e  d  lei  servem 
de  muro. 

M  2 


i8o  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Captain-General  of  Lamego,  to  die  with  his  country,  with 
which  his  name  has  ever  since  been  intimately  linked.  Couto 
and  Mariz  agree  that  he  brought  Os  Lusiadas  with  him  virtually 
complete  on  his  return  to  Portugal.  It  was  published  through 
the  influence  of  the  poet  D.  Manuel  de  Portugal  in  1572.  Camoes 
has  often  been  called  the  prince  of  heroic  poets,  but  it  is  note- 
worthy that  Faria  e  Sousa  in  1685  says  that  '  all  have  hitherto, 
especially  in  Spain,  considered  him  greater  as  a  lyric  than  as 
an  heroic  poet  '.^  Os  Ltisiadas  rather  than  an  epic  is  a  great 
lyrical  hymn  in  praise  of  Portugal,  with  splendid  episodes  such 
as  the  descriptions  of  the  death  of  Ines,  the  battle  of  Aljubarrota, 
the  storm,  Adamastor,  the  Island  of  Venus.  Apart  from  the 
style,  its  originality  consists  in  the  skill  with  which  in  a  poem 
but  half  the  length  of  Tasso's  Geriisalemme  Liberaia  and  a  fifth 
of  Ariosto's  Orlando  Furioso  the  poet  works  in  the  entire  history 
of  his  country.  It  is  this  which  gives  unity  to  his  ten  cantos  of 
oitavas,  this  and  the  wonderfully  transparent  flow  of  the  verse, 
which  carries  the  reader  over  many  weaknesses  and  inequalities 
of  detail.  It  is  a  nobler  poem  than  the  crowded  garden  of 
flowers  in  a  high  wind  that  is  the  Orlando  Furioso,  and  at  once 
more  human  and  intense  than  the  Geriisalemme  Liberata.  Camoes, 
with  a  wonderful  memory  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  legends 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  read  everything,  and  we  find  him  gathering 
his  material  from  all  sides  ^  like  a  bird  in  spring,  from  a  Latin 
treatise  of  the  antiquarian  Rescnde,  from  the  historians  Duarte 
Galvao,  Pina,  Lopez,  Barros,  or  Castanheda,  or  literally  translat- 

•  Todos  hasta  oy,  y  principalmente  en  Castilla,  tuvieron  siempre  a  mi  Maestre 
por  mayor  en  estes  Poemas  que  en  el  Heroyco  {Varias  Rimas,  Prologo,  2  vols., 
1685,  1689).  Cf.  the  praise  of  his  versos  peqtienos  in  Severim  de  Faria,  Vida, 
p.  121. 

^  See  the  important  work  by  Dr.  Rodrigues  :  As  Pontes  dos  Lusiadas  (1904- 
191 3).  Cf.  Camoes'  Vao  os  annos  decendo  (x.  9)  and  Leal  Consclheiro  (cap.  1, 
p.  18),  where  the  words  are  used  in  the  same  connexion.  With  Virgil  he  was 
obviously  acquainted  at  first  hand,  with  Homer  perhaps  in  the  translation 
of  the  Florentine  scholar  Lorenzo  Valla  (1405-57).  In  ^s  Pontes  dos  Lusiadas 
is  also  discussed  the  origin  of  the  word  Lusiads,  as  by  D.  Carolina  Michaclis 
de  Vasconcellos  in  O  Instituto,  vol.  Hi  (1905),  pp.  241-50:  Lucius  Andreas 
Resendius  Inventor  da  palavra  Lusiadas.  It  was  one  of  the  Latin  words 
acclimatized  by  Camoes.  It  occurs  in  a  Latin  poem  by  Andre  de  Resende, 
Vicentitis  Levita  et  Martyr  (1545),  and  in  his  Encomium  Erasmi  written,  but 
not  published,  in  1531  ;  in  a  Latin  poem  by  Jorge  Coelho,  perhaps  written 
in  1526  but  touched  up  before  its  publication  in  1536;  and  is  twice  used  by 
Manuel  da  Costa  (in  and  about  1537). 


LUIS   DE   CAMOES  i8i 

ing  lines  of  Virgil,  as  in  his  shorter  poems  he  imitated  Petrarca, 
Garci  Lasso,  and  Boscan.  Tasso  used  the  mot  juste  when  in 
a  sonnet  addressed  to  Camoes  he  called  him  dotto  e  buon  Luigi?- 
If,  as  seems  probable,  he  had  early  wished  to  sing  the  deeds  of 
the  Portuguese,  the  first  volumes  of  Castanheda  and  Barros 
must  have  been  an  incentive  as  powerful  as  the  destiny  which 
made  him  personally  acquainted  with  the  scenes  of  Gama's 
voyage  and  of  the  Portuguese  victories  in  the  East.  It  seems 
probable  that  cantos  iii  and  iv,  containing  the  early  history  of 
Portugal,  were  already  written,  and  that  around  them  he  wove 
the  epic  grandeur  revealed  in  the  histories  of  the  discovery  of 
India.  The  poem  opens  with  an  invocation  to  the  nymphs  of  the 
Tagus  and  to  King  Sebastian,  and  then,  in  a  wonderful  stanza 
of  the  sea  {Jd  no  largo  oceano  juivegavam,  i.  19),  Gama's  ships 
are  shown  in  mid-voyage.  The  gods  of  Olympus  take  sides, 
and  Venus  protects  the  daring  adventurers  in  seas  never  crossed 
before,  while  Mars  stirs  up  the'  natives  of  Mozambique  and  of 
Mombasa  to  treachery  (i-ii).  In  contrast  to  the  natives  farther 
south,  the  King  of  Melinde  receives  them  with  loyal  friendship, 
and  Gama  rewards  him  by  relating  the  history  of  Portugal 
(iii-iv).  He  then  continues  his  voyage,  and  after  weathering 
a  terrible  storm  brewed  by  Bacchus,  arrives  at  Calicut  (v-vi). 
After  a  visit  to  the  Samori  (the  King  of  Calicut),  the  Catual  (the 
Governor)  accompanies  Gama  on  board,  and  Paulo  da  Gama 
explains  to  him  the  warlike  deeds  of  the  Portuguese  embroidered 
on  the  silken  banners  of  the  ships  (vii-viii).  On  the  return 
voyage  they  are  entertained  by  Tethys  and  her  nymphs  in  the 
island  of  Venus,  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  Azores  (ix-x),  and  the 
poem  ends  with  a  second  invocation  to  King  Sebastian  (x.  145-56). 
Thus  the  time  of  the  poem  occupies  a  little  over  two  years 
(July  1497-September  1499).  Into  this  the  previous  four 
centuries  had  been  ingeniously  worked,  but  in  order  to  include 
the  sixteenth    century  fresh  devices  were    adopted,  by  which 

'  The  word  is  undoubtedly  dolio  in  the  facsimile  of  the  text  given  in  Antonio 
de  Portugal  de  Faria,  Torquato  Tasso  a  Luiz  de  Camoes  (Lcorne,  1898)  although 
there,  as  always,  it  has  been  transcribed  as  colto.  Diogo  Bernardez  calls 
Tasso  culto,  perhaps  niistaking  the  reference  in  Garci  Lasso,  whose  ciilto  Taso 
is  not  Torquato  but  Bernardo.  Lope  de  Vega  called  Camoes  diiino  and 
reserved  docto  for  Corte  Real. 


i82  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Jupiter  (canto  ii),  Adamastor  (v),  and  Tethys  (x)  foretell  the 
future.  Almost  every  land  and  city  connected  with  Portuguese 
history  finds  a  place  in  the  poem.  Small  wonder  that  it  was  well 
received  by  the  Portuguese,  combining  as  it  did  intense  patriotism 
with  hundreds  of  exotic  names.  The  extraordinary  number  of 
12,000  copies  is  said  to  have  been  printed  within  a  quarter  of 
a  century  of  Camoes'  death,^  and  by  1624  the  sale  had  increased 
to  20,000  and  his  fame  had  spread  throughout  the  world.  It 
would  have  been  still  stranger  if  the  murmiiradores  maldizentes 
had  been  silent.  As  early  as  1641  we  find  a  critic,  Joao  Soares 
dc  Brito  (1611-64),  defending  Camoes  against  the  charges  of 
plagiarizing  Virgil  and  of  improbabilities  of  time  and  place.^ 
Not  every  one  apparently  was  of  the  opinion  of  the  Conde  de 
Idanha,  who  considered  that  the  only  fault  of  the  Lusiads  was 
that  it  was  too  long  to  learn  by  heart  and  too  short  to  be  able 
to  go  on  reading  it  for  ever.  Montesquieu  found  in  it  something 
of  '  the  fascination  of  the  Odyssey  and  the  magnificence  of  the 
Aeneid  ',  and  Voltaire,  while  objecting  to  its  merveilleux  ahsurde, 
adds  :  '  Mais  la  poesie  du  style  et  I'imagination  dans  I'expres- 
sion  I'ont  soutenu,  de  meme  que  les  beautes  de  I'execution  ont 
place  Paul  Veronese  parmi  les  grands  peintres.' 

In  1820  appeared  Jose  Agostinho  de  Macedo's  Censura  dos 
Liisiadas,  in  which  he  noted  with  some  asperity  Camoes'  erros 
crassissimos.  Prosaic  lines,  hyperbole,  the  use  of  the  super- 
natural, lack  of  proportion,^  absence  of  unity,  and  historical  im- 
probabilities arc  the  main  heads  of  his  indictment,  and  he  quotes 
Racine  as  to  Camoes'  '  icy  style  '.  He  also  has  much  petty 
detailed  criticism,  for  he  finds  in  Camoes  a  notavel  falla  de 
grammatica.  And  Macedo  was  certainly  right.  Most  of  the 
faults  he  attributes  to  Camoes  do  exist  in  the  Lusiads.  Macedo 
himself  could  write  more  correctly.  When  he  says  that  the  line 
Somos  hum  dos  da  ilha,  Ihe  tornou  (i.  53)  is  unpoetical  {nao  tern 
tinlura  de  poesia),  we  agree  ;  it  is  sheer  prose.  We  can  add  other 
instances  :    the  line  as  que  elle  para  si  na  cruz  tomou  (j.  7)  is  as 

'  His  works  are  ja  mttitas  vezes  impressas  in  1594.  In  163 1  Alvaro  Ferrcira 
de  Vera  speaks  of  twelve  Portuguese  editions  (Breves  Lovvores,  i.  87). 

^  Apologia  em  qvc  dcfcnde,  &c.  (1641). 

'  The  instance  he  gives  is  the  long  story  of  Magrifo  e  os  Doze  de  Inglaterra 
(vi),  which  he  admits  is  in  itself  very  fine. 


LUIS   DE   CAMOES  183 

unmusical  as  the  rhyming  of  Heliogabalo,  Sardanapalo  (iii.  92), 
or  impossibil,  terribil  (iv.  54).  Only  Maccdo  forgot  that  genius 
is  justified  of  its  children,  and  that  these  details  are  all  merged  in 
the  incomparable  style,  imaginative  power,  and  lofty  theme  of  the 
poem.  If  a  man  is  unable  to  feel  the  heat  of  the  sun  for  its  spots, 
we  will  vainly  try  to  warm  or  enlighten  him,  but  it  is  not  pedantic 
grammarians  such  as  Macedo  ^  w^ho  could  obscure  the  fame  of 
Camoes.  That  could  only  be  done  by  those  whom  Macedo  calls 
OS  idolatras  camoneanos.  Lope  de  Vega  -  effusively  professed  to 
place  the  Lusiads  above  the  Aeneid  and  the  Iliad,  and  Camoes' 
fellow-countrymen  have  eagerly  followed  suit.  He  has  also 
suffered  much  at  the  hands  of  translators.  Since  the  Lusiads  is 
clearly  not  the  equal  of  the  Iliad  or  the  Odyssey,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  consider  by  what  reasons  Camoes  really  is  one  of  the 
world's  greatest  poets.  There  is  celestial  music  in  much  that  he 
wrote,  in  incidents  of  the  Lusiads  such  as  the  death  of  Ines  de 
Castro,^  in  his  eclogues  and  cangoes  and  elegies,  in  many  of  the 
sonnets,  and  in  the  redoiidilhas,  most  of  all  perhaps  in  the  seventy- 
three  heavenly  quintilhas  beginning  Sobolos  rios  que  vam.  But 
other  Portuguese  poets  have  been  musical ;  Diogo  Bernardez  in 
this  respect  vies  with  Camoes  :  Camoes  excels  them  all  in  the 
vigour  and  transparent  clearness  that  accompany  his  music.  But 
his  principal  excellence  is  that,  still  without  losing  the  music  of 
his  versos  deleitosos,  he  can  think  inverse  ■* — the  thought  in  some 
of  his  elegies  and  oitavas  is  remarkable — and  describe  with 
scientific  precision,   as  in  the  account  of  the  tromba  [Lus.  v. 

'  One  of  the  best  instances  of  his  pedantry  is  his  comment  on  the 
lines  S^j^,  nobre  Lisboa,  que  no  mundo  Facilmente  das  ontras  es  princesa.  The 
ordinary  reader  is  content  to  understand  '  cities  '  after  outras.  But  no,  says 
Macedo,  you  can  only  understand  Lisbons.  Princess  of  all  the  other  Lisbons  ! 
^  Laurel  de  Apolo  :  Postrando  Eneidas  y  venciendo  Iliadas. 
^  Even  here  some  of  the  lines  are  a  literal  translation  of  Virgil,  but  if  we 
compare 

Para  o  ceo  crystalline  alevantando 
Com  lagrimas  os  olhos  piadosos, 
Os  olhos,  porque  as  maos,  &c., 
with  the  passage 

Ad  coelum  tendens,  &c., 
it  is  not  at  all  clear  that  the  picture  of  the  older  poet  is  more  beautiful  than 
that  of  il  lusiade  Maro. 

*  He  is  thus  an  exception  to  Macedo's  axiom  in  the  Motitn  Liter ario  that 
Portuguese  poets  (most  of  whom,  it  must  be  admitted,  are,  like  Byron, 
children  in  thought)  either  have  versos  sem  cousas  or  cousas  sent  versos. 


i84  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

19-22).  Like  Milton,  he  could  transform  an  atlas  into  a  fair 
harmony  of  names.  His  influence  on  the  Portuguese  language 
has  been  very  great.  Whether  it  was  wholly  for  good  may  be 
open  to  doubt — a  doubt  mentioned  by  one  of  his  earliest  bio- 
graphers, Severim  de  Faria,  in  1624.  The  Lusiads,  he  says, 
'  greatly  enriched  the  Portuguese  language  by  ingeniously 
introducing  many  new  words  and  expressions  which  then  came 
into  common  use,  although  some  severe  critics  have  censured 
him  for  this,  considering  the  use  of  latinized  forms  a  defect  in 
his  poem  '.^  An  inch  farther  than  he  went  in  this  direction,  or 
in  that  of  furia  grande  e  sonorosa,  and  esiilo  grandiloqiw,  would 
have  been  an  inch  too  far,  and  subsequent  writers  did  not  always 
observe  his  restraint,  the  sobriety  due  to  his  classical  education. 
But  his  poem  certainly  helped  to  fix  the  language,  and  he 
cannot  be  blamed  for  the  excesses  of  his  followers,  or  for  a  change 
which  had  begun  before  his  time.^ 

Couto  records  the  theft  of  the  Parnaso  in  which  Camoes  was 
collecting  his  lyrics  with  a  view  to  publishing  them.  He  must 
have  written  many  more  lyrics  than  we  possess,  but  even  so  the 
number  existing  is  not  small.  Successive  editors  have  added  to 
them  from  time  to  time,  and  often  clumsily.  Faria  e  Sousa, 
a  century  after  Camoes'  death,  declared  that  he  had  added  200, 
and,  while  upbraiding  Diogo  Bernardez  for  his  robos,  was  himself 
the  thief.  Camoes  might  have  been  somewhat  surprised  to  find 
in  the  first  edition  of  his  lyrics  (1595)  two  poems  which  had 
been  in  print  in  the  Cancioneiro  de  Resende  eight  years  before 
he  was  born.  This  1595  edition  contained  but  65  sonnets,  but 
their  number  grew  to  108  (1598),  140  (1616),  229  (1668),  296 
(1685),  352  (i860),  354  (1873).  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vas- 
concellos  has  already  contributed  much  towards  a  critical 
edition,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  before  long  it  may  be  possible 

'  Discursos  politicos  varios  (1624),  f.  117  :  &-  com  esta  obra  ficou  enriquccida 
grandemente  a  lingua  Portuguesa  ;  porque  Ihe  deu  tnuitos  termos  nouos  <&• 
palanras  bem  achadas  que  depots  ficdrao  pcrfeitamcnte  introdiicidas.  Posto 
que  nesta  parte  ndo  deixdrdo  algus  cscrtipulosos  de  o  condenar,  jtilgandolhe  pot 
defeito  as  palauras  alatinadas  que  vsou  no  sen  poema. 

^  Cf.  Fr.  Manuel  do  Scpulchro,  Rejlcxdo  Espirilual  (1669)  :  Nao  ha  duvida 
que  maior  mudanfa  fez  a  lingua  Portuguesa  nos  primeiros  vinte  annos  do 
reinado  de  D.  Manuel  que  em  cento  e  cincoenta  annos  dahi  para  ca.  Barros, 
however,  in  his  Dialogo  emluvvor  (1540),  says  latinization  had  not  yet  begun  : 
se  0  nos  usdratnos. 


LUIS   DE  CAMOES  185 

to  read  the  genuine  lyrics  of  Camoes  in  a  complete  edition  by 
themselves. 1  That  would  certainly  cause  him  to  be  more  widely 
read  abroad.  It  is  perhaps  inevitable  that  a  comparison  should 
arise  between  Camoes  and  Petrarca  (although  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  they  are  separated  by  two  centuries),  yet  he 
would  be  an  extremely  bold  or  extremely  ignorant  critic  who 
should  place  the  one  of  them  above  the  other.  In  genius  they 
were  equal,  but  a  different  atmosphere  acted  on  their  genius, 
the  artistic  atmosphere  of  Italy  and  the  natural  atmosphere  of 
Portugal.  Petrarca  was  the  more  scholarly  writer,  so  that  if  he 
perhaps  never  attains  to  the  rapturous  heights  occasionally 
reached  by  Camoes,  he  also  keeps  himself  from  the  blemishes 
which  sometimes  disfigure  Camoes'  work.  Camoes'  life  was  far 
more  varied,  many-coloured  as  an  Alentejan  manta,^  and  this 
is  reflected  in  his  poems.  Intensely  human,  he  is  swayed  by 
many  moods,  while  Petrarca  is  merged  in  the  narrower  flame  of 
his  love.  Petrarca  excels  him  in  the  sonnet,  for  although  many 
of  those  by  Camoes  are  beautiful,  and  nearly  all  contain  some 
beautiful  passage,  he  was  not  really  at  his  ease  in  this  scanty 
plot  of  ground.  His  genius  required  a  larger  canvas  for  its 
expression.  The  following  lines  from  his  long  and  magnificent 
cangdo  Vinde  cd  are  worth  quoting  because  they  triumphantly 
display  many  of  the  noblest  characteristics  of  his  poetry  : 

No  mais,  cangao,  no  mais,  que  irei  fallando, 

Sem  o  sentir,  mil  annos  ;    e  se  acaso 

Te  culparem  de  larga  e  de  pesada, 

Nao  pode  ser,  Ihe  dize,  limitada 

A  agoa  do  mar  em  tao  pequeno  vaso. 

Nem  eu  delicadezas  vou  cantando 

Co'  gosto  do  louvor,  mas  explicando 

Puras  verdades  ja  por  mi  passadas  : 

Oxala  foram  fabulas  sonhadas  ! 

Here  we  see  the  force  and  precision,  the  amazing  ease  and 
rapidity,  the  crystalline  transparency,  the  sad  saudade,  and  above 
all  the  deep  sincerity  that  mark  so  much  of  his  work.     Both 

*  The  authorship  of  the  fine  sonnets  Horas  breves  do  meu  contentamento 
(attributed  to  Camoes,  Bernardez,  the  Infante  Luis,  &c.)  and  Formoso  Tejo 
men,  quarn  dijferente  (attributed  to  Camoes,  Rodriguez  Lobo,  &c.)  is  still 
under  dispute. 

*  Filodemo,  v.  3. 


i86  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Petrarca  and  Camoes  are  representative  of  their  countiy,  the 
latter  not  only  in  his  poems,  in  which  almost  every  Portuguese 
hero  is  included,  but  in  his  character  and  his  life.  In  his  wit  and 
melancholy,  his  love  of  Nature,  his  passionate  devotion,  his 
persistency  and  endurance,  his  independence  and  sensitive  pride, 
in  his  lyrical  gift  and  power  of  expression,  in  his  courage  and 
ardent  patriotism,  he  is  the  personification  and  ideal  of  the 
Portuguese  nation. 

Many  of  Camoes'  friends  were  also  lyric  poets,  but  their 
poems  have  mostly  vanished.  One  of  them,  Luis  Franco  Correa, 
compiled  a  cancioneiro  of  contemporary  poems  which  still  exists 
in  manuscript.  A  few  later  poets,  chiefly  pastoral,  have  already 
been  mentioned,  but  after  Camoes'  death  the  star  of  lyric  poetry 
waned  and  set,  and  the  only  compensation  was  a  brilliant 
noonday  in  the  realm  of  prose.  Camoes  was  a  learned  poet,  but 
he  also  plunged  both  hands  in  the  songs  and  traditions  of  the 
people.  The  later  poets  withdrew  themselves  more  and  more 
from  this  perennial  spring  of  poetical  images  and  expression,  till 
at  last  in  the  ripeness  of  time  Almeida  Garrett  turned  to  it 
again  for  inspiration,  even  Bocage,  devoted  admirer  of  Camoes 
though  he  was,  having  neglected  this  side  of  his  genius,  as  was 
inevitable  in  the  eighteenth  century. 

Epic  poetry  scarcely  fared  better  than  the  lyric,  despite 
a  hundred  honest  efforts  to  eclipse  the  Lusiads.  A  favourite 
legend  of  Portuguese  and  other  folk-lore  tells  how  the  step- 
daughter comes  from  the  fairies'  dwelling  speaking  flow-ers  for 
words  or  with  a  star  on  her  forehead,  but  her  envious  half-sister, 
who  then  visits  the  fairies,  returns  uttering  mud  and  toads  or 
with  an  ass's  head.  If  the  epic  poems  of  those  who  emulated  the 
fame  of  Camoes  are  something  better  than  mud  they  never- 
theless fail  for  the  most  part  lamentably  in  that  inspiration 
which  Portuguese  history  might  have  been  expected  to  give. 

Alguns  (misera  gente)  inutilmente 
Compoem  grandes  Iliadas, 

wrote  Diniz  da  Cruz  {0  Hyssope,  canto  i).  The  epic-fever  had 
not  abated  even  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  Madeira  poet  Francisco  de  Paula  Medina  e  Vasconcellos 


LUIS   DE   CAMOES  187 

(f.  1770- 1824)  alone  wrote  two  :  Zargueida  (1806),  Georgeida 
(1819)  ;  and  Jose  Agostinho  de  Macedo  in  his  Motim  Literario 
imagines  himself  at  the  mercy  of  a  poet  with  an  epic  in  sixty 
cantos  entitled  Napoleada,  and  himself  became  the  mock-hero 
of  one  in  nine  :  Agostinheida  (Londres,  1817),  written  by  his 
unfortunate  opponent  Nuno  Alvares  Pereira  Pato  Moniz  (1781- 
1827).  The  strange  poet  of  Setubal,  Thomaz  Antonio  de 
Santos  e  Silva  (1751-1816),  published  a  Braziliada  in  twelve 
cantos  in  1815.  Of  the  earlier  epics  Camillo  Castello  Branco 
wrote  sarcastically :  '  They  contain  impenetrable  mysteries  of 
dullness  and  inspire  a  sacred  awe,  but  they  are  the  conventional 
glory  of  our  literary  history,  untouched  and  intangible.'^ 

Of  the  two  long  epic  poems  of  Jeronimo  Corte  Real  {c.  1530- 
1590  ?) :  Svcesso  do  Segvndo  Cerco  de  Div  (1574)  and  Naufragio, 
e  Lastimoso  Svcesso  da  Perdigam  de  Manoel  de  Sousa  de  Sepulveda, 
&c.  (1594),  we  may  perhaps  say  that  they  are  excellent  prose. 
He  dwells  more  than  once  upon  the  inconstancy  of  fortune,  and 
this  may  be  something  more  than  a  platitude.  Of  his  life  little 
is  known.  He  is  by  some  believed  to  have  been  born  in  the 
Azores  in  1533.  A  document  in  the  possession  of  the  Visconde 
de  Esperanga  shows  that  he  died  before  May  12,  1590.  He  may 
have  been  a  musician  as  well  as  a  poet  and  a  painter.  It  is 
probable,  but  not  certain,  that  he  accompanied  King  Sebastian 
to  Alcacer  Kebir  and  was  taken  prisoner.  Faria  e  Sousa  says 
that  he  was  too  old  to  go.  After  varied  service  by  land  and  sea 
he  wrote  these  poems  when  living  in  retirement  on  his  estate 
near  Evora,  and  his  own  experiences  stood  him  in  good  stead 
for  his  descriptions,  which  are  often  not  without  life  and  vigour, 
as  the  account  of  the  battle  in  canto  18  of  the  Segundo  Cerco 
de  Dill,  or  of  the  storm  in  canto  7  of  the  Naufragio.  The  former 
poem  records  the  famous  defence  of  Diu  by  D.  Joao  de  Mas- 
carenhas  and  its  relief  by  D.  Joao  de  Castro  (1546),  in  whose 
mouth  is  placed  a  long  and  tedious  speech.  The  last  two  cantos 
(21,  22)  are  tacked  on  to  the  main  theme  and  occupy  more 
than  a  quarter  of  the  whole.  They  tell  from  paintings  the  deeds 
of  past  captains  and  prophesy  future  events  and  the  '  golden 
reign  '   of  King  Sebastian.     The  prophetic  vision,  although  it 

'  Os  Ratos  da  Inqiiisi^do,  Preface,  p.  97. 


i88  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

included  a  generation  beyond  the  nominal  date  of  the  poem 
(1546),  did  not  extend  to  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir  (1578). 
The  hendecasyllablcs  of  the  blank  verse  have  an  exceedingly 
monotonous  fall  and  the  lines  merge  prosaically  into  one  another.^ 
The  use  of  adjectives  is  excessive,  and  generally  there  is  an 
inclination  to  multiply  words  without  adding  to  the  force  of 
the  picture.^  The  same  plethora  of  epithets,  elaborate  similes, 
and  slow  awkward  development  of  the  story  mark  the  seventeen 
cantos — some  10,000  lines  of  blank  verse,  with  some  tercets  and 
oitavas — which  constitute  the  Naufragio.  In  cantos  13  and  14  a 
learned  man  tells  from  sculptures  the  history  of  the  Portuguese 
kings,  from  Afonso  I  to  Sebastian.  The  remaining  cantos  have  a 
more  lively  interest,  ending  with  the  death  of  D.  Lianor  in  canto 
17,  but  the  poet  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to  round  off 
with  an  anticlimax,  in  which  Phoebus,  Proteus,  and  Pan  make 
lamentation.  His  short  Auto  dos  Quatro  Novissimos  do  Homem 
(1768)  in  blank  verse  is  written  with  some  intensity,  but  the 
style  is  the  same.^  His  Austriada,  composed  to  commemorate 
Don  John  of  Austria's  felicissima  victoria  ^  of  Lcpanto,  consists 
of  fifteen  cantos  in  Spanish  blank  verse. 

Luis  Pereira  Brandao,  born  at  Oporto  about  1540,  was 
present  at  Alcacer  Kebir,  and  after  his  release  from  captivity 
is  said  to  have  worn  mourning  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  That  later 
generations  might  also  suffer,  his  epic  Elegiada  (1588) — in  spite  of 
his  professed  temor  deserprolixo — was  published  in  eighteen  cantos. 
Beginning  with  the  early  years  of  King  Sebastian,  it  recounts 
the  king's  dreams  and  ambitions,  his  first  expedition  to  Africa, 
and  the  later  disastrous  adventure.  Not  even  the  story  of 
D.  Lianor  de  Sousa  (canto  6)  nor  the  excessively  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir  (canto  17)  rouses  the  poet 
from  his  implacable  dullness.     The  defects  of  his  style  have 

*  e.  g.  D.  Alvaro  de  Castro  e  D.  Francisco  Do  Meneses,  or  hum  grave  Prudente 
capitam. 

^  e.g.  valor,  esfor^o  c  valentia;  mar  sereno  e  calmo;  ahimdosa  e  larga  vea', 
a  dura  dcfensa  rigitrosa  ;  afotitando  e  batendo.  The  line  often  consists  of  three 
adjectives  and  a  noun. 

3  Between  Corte  Real's  cruel  mulesto  duro  mortal  frio  and  Dante's  eterna 
maladetta  fredda  e  greve  {Inf.  vi)  is  all  the  difference  between  a  heap  of  loose 
stones  and  a  shrine.  The  conception  of  the  Auto,  especially  the  third  novis- 
simo,  que  he  o  Inferno,  was  no  doubt  derived  from  Dante. 

*  These  are  the  first  words  of  the  original  title  of  the  poem  (1578). 


LUTS   DE   CAMOES  189 

perhaps  been  exaggerated,  but  it  is  certainly  inferior  to  that  of 
Andrade,  with  whom  he  shares  the  inability  to  distinguish 
a  poem  from  a  history.  The  introduction  of  contemporary 
events  in  India  (cantos  6,  10,  14),  however  legitimate  in  a  history, 
is  singularly  out  of  place  in  an  epic. 

If  the  author  of  the  history  of  King  Joao  Ill's  reign,  Fran- 
cisco DE  Andrade  {c.  1535-1614),  brother  of  the  great  Frci 
Thome  dc  Jesus,  regarded  his  epic  0  Primeiro  Cerco  .  .  .  de  Diu 
(1589)  merely  as  a  supplementary  chapter  of  that  history,  we 
can  only  regret  that  he  did  not  write  it  in  prose.  It  is  a  straight- 
forward account,  in  excellent  Portuguese,  of  the  first  siege  of 
Diu  (1538),  but  oitava  follows  prosaic  oitava  with  a  relentless 
wooden  tread,  maintaining  the  same  level  of  mediocrity  through- 
out and  rendering  it  unreadable  as  poetry.  The  author  begins 
by  imploring  divine  favour  that  his  song  may  be  adequate  to 
his  subject  (i.  1-3).  It  is  only  when  he  has  passed  his  two- 
thousandth  stanza  that  he  expresses  some  diffidence  as  to 
whether  his  '  fragile  bark  '  was  well  equipped  for  so  long  a 
voyage,  but  he  consoles  himself,  if  not  his  reader,  with  the 
sincere  conviction  that  his  rude  verse  cannot  detract  from  the 
greatness  of  the  deeds  which  he  describes  (xx.  1-6). 


§5 

The  Historians 

It  was  a  proud  saying  of  a  Portuguese  seiscentista  that  the 
Portuguese  discoveries  silenced  all  other  histories.^  Certainly  this 
was  so  in  the  case  of  the  history  of  Portugal,  which  was  neglected 
while  writer  after  writer  recorded  the  history  of  the  Portuguese  in 
India.  Nor  need  we  quarrel  with  a  vogue  which  has  preserved 
for  us  so  many  striking  pictures  in  which  East  and  West  clash 
without  meeting,  new  countries  are  continually  opening  to  our 
view,  and  heroism  and  adventure  go  hand  in  hand.  Sometimes 
the  pages  of  these  historians  seem  all  aglow  with  precious  stones, 
emeralds  from  Peru,  turquoises  from  Persia,  rubies,  cat's-eyes, 
chrysolites,  amethysts,  beryls,  and  sapphires  from  Ceylon,  or 
scented  with  the  opium  of  Cairo,  the  saffron  of  Cannanore,  the 
camphor  of  Borneo,  sandalwood  from  Timor,  pepper  from  Mala- 
bar, cloves  from  the  Moluccas.  Blood  and  sea-spray  mingle 
with  the  silks  from  China  and  ivory  from  Sofala,  and  among  the 
crowd  of  rapacious  governors  and  unscrupulous  adventurers 
move  a  few  figures  of  a  simple  austerity  and  devotion  to  duty, 
Albuquerque,  Galvao,  Castro,  St.  Francis  Xavier. 

Little  is  known  of  Alvaro  Velho  except  that  he  was  one  of 
the  immortals  (unless  he  was  the  degredado  (convict)  from  whose 
caderno  Couto  derived  his  account  of  the  discovery)  who  accom- 
panied Vasco  da  Gama  on  his  first  voyage.  To  him  is  attributed 
the  simple,  clear  narrative  contained  in  the  log  or  Roteiro  da 
Viagem  de  Vasco  da  Gama  em  I4gy,  filled  with  a  primitive  wonder, 
which  pointed  the  way  to  the  historians  of  India.  Indeed,  it  pro- 
vided material  for  the  first  book  of  a  writer  who  may  perhaps  be 
called  the  first  ^  historian  of  the  discoveries  '  enterprised  by  the 

*  Antonio  Vieira,  Historia  do  Futuro  (171 8),  p.  24:  esia  historia  era  0 
silencio  de  todas  as  historias. 

''■  O  primeiro  Poriugues  que  na  nossa  lingoa  as  [fafanhas]  resuscitei.  Joao 
de  Barros,  in  his  preface,  makes  a  similar  claim  :  foi  0  primeiro. 


THE   HISTORIANS  191 

Portingales '.  Fernam  Lopez  de  Castanheda  {c.  1500-59) 
was  born  at  Santarem,  and  in  1528  accompanied  his  father, 
appointed  Judge  at  Goa,  to  India.  For  the  next  ten  years  he 
diligently  and  not  without  many  risks  and  discomforts  consulted 
documents  and  inscriptions  in  various  parts  of  the  country  with 
a  view  to  writing  a  history  of  the  discovery  and  conquest  of  India, 
making  himself  personally  acquainted  with  the  ground  and  with 
many  of  those  who  had  played  a  part  in  the  half-century  (1498- 
1548)  under  review.  After  his  return  to  Portugal  he  continued 
his  life-work  with  the  same  devotion  for  twenty  years,  during 
which  poverty  constrained  him  to  accept  the  post  of  bedel  at 
Coimbra  University.  When  he  died,  worn  out  by  his  continuas 
vigilias,  his  history  was  complete,  but  only  seven  books  had 
been  published  :  Historia  do  Descohrimento  e  Conqvista  da  India 
(1551-4).  He  had  at  least  the  satisfaction  to  know  that  a  part 
had  already  been  translated  into  French  and  Italian.  The  eighth 
book,  bringing  the  history  down  to  1538,  was  published  by  his 
children  in  1561,  but  books  nine  and  ten  never  appeared.  This 
history  of  forty  years,  which  has  less  regard  to  style  than  to  sin- 
cerity and  the  truth  of  the  facts,  is  written  in  great  detail.  It  is 
a  scrupulous  and  trustworthy  record  of  high  interest  describing 
not  only  the  deeds  of  the  Portuguese,  '  of  much  greater  price  than 
gold  or  silver  ',  '  more  valiant  than  those  of  Greek  or  Roman  ', 
but  the  many  lands  in  which  they  occurred.  The  narrative  can 
rise  to  great  pathos,  as  in  the  account  of  Afonso  de  Albuquerque's 
death  (iii.  154),  and  is  often  extremely  vivid. ^  The  interest 
necessarily  diminishes  after  1515,  and__the  seventh  book  is  largely 
concerned  with  dismal  contentions  between  Portuguese  officials. 
But  the  great  events  and  persons,  the  capture  of  Goa  or  Diu, 
the  characters  of  Gama  or  Albuquerque,  Duarte  Pacheco  Pereira 
or  Antonio  Galvao,  stand  out  the  more  clearly  from  the  deliberate 
absence  of  rhetoric. 

LouRENgo  DE  Caceres,  in  his  Doutrina  addressed  to  the 
Infante  Luis  in  twenty  short  chapters  on  the  parts  of  a  good 
prince,  showed  that  he  could  write  excellent  prose.  His  death  in 
1531  prevented  him  from  undertaking  a  more  ambitious  work, 

'  Cf.  vi.  37,  38  ;  vii.  77,  78  ;   or  vi.  100,  where  the  ships  bristling  with  the 
enemy's  arrows  are  likened  to  porcupines. 


192  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

which  was  accordingly  entrusted  to  his  nephew  Joao  de  Barros 
(1496  ?-i57o).*  But  much  earHer  and  a  generation  before  Lopez 
de  Castanheda's  work  began  to  appear,  the  most  famous  of  the 
Portuguese  historians  had  resolved  to  chronicle  the  discovery 
of  India.  Born  probably  at  Viseu,  the  son  of  Lopo  de  Barros,  he 
came  of  ancient  Minhoto  stock  and  was  brought  up  in  the  palace 
of  King  Manuel.  When  the  Infante  Joao  received  a  separate 
establishment  Barros  became  his  page  [fno^o  da  giiardaroiipa). 
It  was  in  this  capacity,  por  cima  das  areas  da  vossa  guardaroupa, 
that  with  the  active  encouragement  of  the  prince  he  wrote  his 
first  work,  Cronica  do  Emperador  Clarimundo  (1520).  It  is  a 
long  romance  of  chivalry  crowded  with  actors  and  events, 
and  contains  afTecting,  even  passionate  episodes.  But  the  most 
remarkable  feature  of  this  work,  written  in  eight  months  when 
the  author  was  little  over  twenty,  is  its  inexhaustible  flow  of  clear, 
smooth,  vigorous  prose,  entirely  free  from  awkwardness  or  hesita- 
tion. One  may  also  note  that  he  regarded  it  merely  as  a  parergon, 
a  preparation  for  his  history,  afim  de  apurar  0  estilo,  that  despite 
its  length  he  assures  his  readers  that  he  omits  all  details  in  order 
to  avoid  prolixity,  that  much  of  its  geography  is  real — all  his 
works  prove  the  truth  of  Couto's  assertion  that  he  was  doutissimo 
na  geografia — and  that  each  chapter  ends  with  a  brief  moral. 
King  Manuel,  to  whom  he  read  some  chapters,  encouraged 
him^to  persevere  in  his  intention  to  write  the  history  of  India, 
but  the  king's  death  in  1521  delayed  the  project.  In  the 
following  year  Barros,  who  meanwhile  had  married  Maria, 
daughter  of  Diogo  de  Almeida  of  Leiria,  is  said  to  have  gone 
out  as  Captain  of  the  Fortress  of  S.  Jorge  da  Mina  (although 
probably  he  never  left  Portugal)  and  later  became  Treasurer 
of  the  Casa  da  India  (1525-8),  and  its  Factor  in  1532,  a  post 
which  he  retained  for  thirty-five  years.  Although  he  lost  a 
large  sum  of  money  in  an  unfortunate  venture  in  Brazil,  this 
was  partly  made  good  by  the  king's  munificence,  and  when  in 
1568,  the  year  after  his  resignation,  he  retired  to  his  quinta  near 
Pombal  sihi  ut  viveret  he  went  as  a  fidalgo  of  the  king's  household 

'  1496,  the  generally  accepted  year  of  his  birth,  is  the  calculation  of  Scverim 
de  Faria,  followed  by  Barbosa  Machado,  Nicolas  Antonio,  &c.  As  he  retired 
at  the  end  of  1567  it  is  difficult  not  to  suspect  (from  his  love  of  method  and 
the  decimal  system)  that  he  was  born  in  1497 — the  year  of  Vasco  da  Gama's 
expedition. 


THE   HISTORIANS  193 

and  with  a  pension  over  t\yenty-five  times  as  large  as  that  of 
Camoes.^  In  old  age  he  is  described  as  of  a  fine  presence,  although 
thin  and  not  tall,  with  pale  complexion,  keen  eyes,  aquiline  nose, 
long  white  beard,  grave,  pleasant,  and  fluent  in  conversation. 
Before  beginning  his  history  he  wrote  several  brief  treatises  of 
great  interest  and  importance,  Ropica  Pnefma  (1532),  a  dialogue 
written  at  his  country  house  in  1531  in  which  Time,  Under- 
standing, Will,  and  Reason  discuss  their  spiritual  wares  {merca- 
doria  espiritual),  and  incidentally  the  new  heresies  ;  three  short 
works  on  the  Portuguese  language,  a  Dialogo  da  Vigiosa  Vergonha 
(1540),  and  a  Dialogo  sobre  preceptos  moraes  (1540)  in  which  he 
reduced  Aristotle's  Ethics  to  a  game  for  the  benefit  of  two  of  his 
ten  children  and  of  the  Infanta  Maria,  He  also  wrote  two  excel- 
lent Panegyricos  (of  the  Infanta  Maria  and  King  Joao  III)  which 
were  first  published  by  Severim  de  Faria  in  his  Noticias  de  Portugal 
in  1655.  As  a.  historian  he  chose  Livy  for  his  pattern  both  in 
style  and  system.  The  first  Decada  of  his  Asia  appeared  in  1552, 
the  second  in  1553,  and  the  third  ten  years  later  (1563).  Their 
success  was  immediate,  especially  abroad— in  Portugal,  like 
other  historians  of  recent  events,  he  was  accused  of  partiality 
and  unfairness  ^ — copies  soon  became  extremely  rare,  the  first  two 
Decads  were  translated  into  Italian  before  the  third  appeared, 
and  Pope  Pius  IV  is  said  to  have  placed  Barros'  portrait  (or  bust) 
next  to  the  statue  of  Ptolemy.^  Barros  had  prepared  himself 
very  thoroughly  for  his  task.  His  work  as  Factor  seems  to  have 
been  exacting — he  says  that  it  was  only  by  giving  up  holidays 
and  half  the  night  and  all  the  time  spent  by  other  men  in  sleeping 
tYiQsesta,  or  walking  about  the  city,  or  going  into  the  country, 
playing,  shooting,  fishing,  dining,  that  he  was  able  to  attend  to 
his  literary  labours.  Yet  he  read  everything,  pored  over  maps 
and  chronicles  and  documents  from  the  East,  and  even  bought 

•  400,000  reis.  He  also  obtained  the  privilege  of  trading  with  India  free 
from  all  taxes  so  as  to  clear  a  profit  of  1,600,000  reis.  Innocencio  da  Silva 
adds  '  yearly '  to  this  sum,  mentioned  by  Severim  de  Faria.  In  any  case 
Barros'  complaints  of  his  poverty  seem  misplaced. 

^  Faria  e  Sousa  (Varias  Rimas,  pt.  2  (1689),  p.  165),  says  that  neither 
Lopez  de  Castanheda  nor  Barros  was  widely  read,  one  of  the  reasons  being 
the  length  of  their  histories. 

*  According  to  Pero  de  Magalhaes  de  Gandavo  [Dialogo  em  defensam  da 
lingua  portvgvesa)  Barros  'is  in  Venice  preferred  to  Ptolemy  '. 

2362  N 


194  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

a  Chinese  slave  to  translate  for  him.  With  this  enthusiasm,  his 
unfailing  sense  of  order  and  proportion,  and  his  clear  and  copious 
style  he  necessarily  produced  a  work  of  permanent  value.  His 
manner  is  lofty,  even  pompous,  worthy  of  the  great  events 
described.  If  his  history  is  less  vivid  and  interesting  than  Casta- 
nheda's,  that  is  because  he  wrote  not  as  an  eyewitness  ^  or  actor 
in  them  but  as  Court  historian.  He  was  a  true  Augustan,  and  the 
great  edifice  that  this  Portuguese  Livy  planned  and  partly  built 
was  of  eighteenth-century  architecture.  He  was  fond  of  com- 
paring his  work  to  a  building  in  which  each  stone  has  its  appointed 
place.  The  material  to  his  hand  must  be  moulded  to  suit  the 
symmetry  of  the  whole — Albuquerque  had  never  in  his  life  used 
so  many  relative  sentences  as  are  attributed  to  him  by  Barros 
(ii.  V.  9) — and  with  a  pedantic  love  of  definitions  and  systematic 
subdivisions  we  find  him  measuring  out  the  proportions  of 
his  stately  structure,  while  picturesque  details  are  deliberately 
omitted. 2  The  merits  of  his  style  have  been  exaggerated.  It  is 
never  confused  or  slovenly,  but  is  for  use  rather  than  beauty  ; 
its  ingredients  are  pure  and  energetic  but  the  construction  is  in- 
artistic and  monotonous.^  It  is  rather  in  the  forcible,  crisp 
sentences  of  his  shorter  treatises  than  in  the  Asia  that  Barros 
displays  his  mastery  of  style.  His  great  narrative  of  epic  deeds 
is  interrupted  by  interesting  special  chapters  or  digressions  on 
trade,  geography.  Eastern  cities  and  customs,  locusts,  chess,  the 
Mohammedan  religion,  sword-fish,  palm-trees,  and  monsoons.  It 
was  planned  in  four  Decadas  and  forty  books,  to  embrace  120 
years  to  1539,  but  the  fourth  was  not  written  and  the  third 

'  His  account  of  the  fleet  leaving  Lisbon  (i.v.  i)  is  that  of  an  eyewitness. 

'  Mais  trabalhamos  no  substancial  da  historia  que  no  ampliar  as  tniudezas 
que  enfadam  e  nao  deleitam[\.  vii.  8).  Cf.  i.  v.  10(1778  ed.,  p.  465)  ;  iii.  Lx.  9 
(p.  426) ;  III.  X.  5  (p.  489).  Yet  the  vivid  light  thrown  by  the  details  recorded 
in  other  writers,  such  as  the  '  bushel  of  sapphires'  sent  to  Albuquerque  by 
one  of  the  native  kings,  or  the  open  boat  drifting  with  a  few  Portuguese 
long  dead  and  a  heap  of  silver  beside  them,  is  of  undeniable  value.  Goes 
inserts  details,  but  is  too  late  a  writer  to  do  so  without  apology,  like  Correa 
and  Lopez  de  Castanheda  :  pode  parecer  a  algua  pessoa  [e.  g.  his  friend  Barros] 
que  em  historia  grave  nam  eram  necessarias  estas  miudezas  {Cron.  do  Pr.  D.  Joam, 
cap.  cii). 

'  e.g.  the  following  mortar  of  conjunctions  between  the  stones  on  p.  335  of 
Decada  11  (1777  ed.)  opened  at  hazard  :  nas  quaes  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  qual  .  .  . 
que  .  .  .  como  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  a  qual  .  .  .  cujos  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  que  .  .  .  que  .  .  . 
posto  que  .  .  .  como  .  .  .  porque  .  .  .  que. 


I 


THE   HISTORIANS  195 

ends  with  the  death  of  D.  Henrique  de  Meneses  (1526).  Probably 
he  did  not  find  the  dispute  as  to  the  Governorship  of  India 
a  very  congenial  subject,  especially  as  the  feud  was  resumed  in 
Portugal.  Material  and  notes  were  however  ready,  and  these 
were  worked  up  into  a  lengthy  fourth  Decada  by  Joao  Baptista 
Lavanha  (11625)  '^i  1615,  which  covers  the  same  ground  as,  but  is 
quite  distinct  from,  the  fourth  Decad  of  Couto.  The  Asia  was 
only  a  block  of  a  vaster  whole.  Europa,  Africa,  and  Santa  Cruz 
were  to  treat  respectively  of  Portugal  from  the  Roman  Conquest 
and  Portuguese  history  in  North  Africa  and  Brazil,  while  Geo- 
graphy and  Commerce  were  to  be  the  subjects  of  separate  works, 
the  first  of  which  (in  Latin)  was  partly  written. 

Inseparably  connected  with  the  name  of  Barros  is  that  of 
DiOGO  DO  Couto  (1542-1616),  who  continued  his  Asia,  writing 
Decadas  4-12.  He  was  born  at  Lisbon,  and  at  the  age  of  ten 
entered  the  service  {guardaroupa)  of  the  Infante  Luis,  who  sent 
him  to  study  at  the  College  of  the  Jesuits  and  then  with  his  son, 
D.  Antonio,  under  Frei  Bartholomeu  dos  Martyres,  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Braga,  at  S.  Domingos,  Bemfica.  When  thirteen 
he  was  present  at  the  death  of  his  talented  patron  Prince  Luis, 
and  remained  in  the  palace  as  page  to  the  king  till  the  king's 
death  two  years  later.^  Couto  then  went  to  seek  his  fortune  in 
India,  andthere  as  soldier,  trader,  official  (in  1571  hewas  in  charge 
of  the  stores  at  Goa),-  and  historian  he  spent  the  best  part  of  the 
following  half-century,  his  last  visit  to  Portugal  being  in  1569-71. 
At  the  bidding  of  Philip  II  (I  of  Portugal),  who  appointed  him 
Cronista  Mor  of  India,  he  undertook  the  completion  of  Barros' 
Asia.  Probably  he  needed  little  inducement — his  was  the  pen  of 
a  ready  writer,  and  the  composition  of  his  history  was,  he  tells 
us,  a  pleasure  to  him  in  spite  of  frequent  discouragement.  He 
had  received  a  classical  education  ;  as  a  boy  in  the  palace  he  had 
listened  to  stories  of  India  ^  and  had  been  no  doubt  deeply  im- 

'  E  sendo  en  mo^o  servindo  a  El  Rey  D.  Joao  na  guardaroupa  {Dec.  iv.  iii.  8). 
In  Dec.  viT.  viii.  i  he  speaks  of  having  served  Joao  III  for  two  years  as  mogo 
da  camara  (1555-7).  ^^  the  same  passage  he  embarks  for  India  in  1559  aged 
fifteen.     In  Dec.  vii.  ix.  12  (1783  ed.  p.  396)  he  is  eighteen  (April  1560). 

'  According  to  the  Governor,  Francisco  Barreto,  he  was  more  at  home 
with  arms  than  with  prices  {Dec.  ix.  20,  1786  ed.,  p.  160).  Another  passage 
in  the  Decadas  proves  him  to  have  been  an  excellent  horseman. 

'  Cf.  Dec.  IV.  iii.  8  (1778  ed.  p.  234). 

N  2 


196  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

pressed  by  the  vivid  account  of  the  Scpulvcda  shipwreck.*  In 
India  he  won  general  respect.  At  Goa  he  married  the  sister  of 
Frei  Adeodato  da  Trindade  (1565-1605),  who  in  Lisbon  saw  some 
of  his  Decadas  through  the  press  ;  he  became  Keeper  of  the  Indian 
Archives  (Torre  do  Tombo)  and  more  than  once  madqji  speech  on 
behalf  of  the  City  Councillors,  as  at  the  inauguration  of  the  por- 
trait of  Vasco  da  Gama  in  the  Town  Hall  in  the  centenary  year 
of  the  discovery  of  India,  before  Gama's  grandson,  then  Viceroy, 
and  a  gathering  of  noblemen  and  captains.  Couto  knew  every 
one — we  find  him  conversing  with  Viceroy,  Archbishop,  natives, 
Moorish  prisoners,  rich  merchants  from  Cambay  or  the  Am- 
bassador of  the  Grand  Mogul.  This  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  scenes,  events,  and  persons  gives  a  lively  dramatic  air  to 
his  work.  The  sententious  generalities  of  the  majestic  Barros 
are  replaced  by  bitter  protests  and  practical  suggestions.  He  is 
a  critic  of  abuses  rather  than  of  persons. ^  He  writes  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  common  soldier,  as  one  who  had  seen  both 
sides  of  the  tapestry  of  which  Barros  smoothly  ignored  the 
snarls  and  thread-ends.  He  displays  a  hatred  of  semjustigas, 
treachery,  and  '  the  insatiable  greed  of  men  \  with  a  fine  zest  in 
descriptions  of  battles,  but  he  has  not  Barros'  skill  in  proportion 
and  the  grand  style. ^  He  can,  however,  write  excellent  prose, 
and  he  gives  more  of  graphic  detail*  and  individual  sayings  and 
anecdotes  than  his  predecessor.     Nor  is  he  by  any  means  an 

'  He  himself  describes  with  great  detail  and  pathos  the  wrecks  of  the  ships 
N.  Senhora  da  Barca  (vii.  viii.  i),  Garga  (vii.  viii.  12),  5.  Paulo  (vii.  ix.  16), 
Santiago  (\'.  vii.  i),  as  well  as  that  of  Sepulveda  (Dec.  vi.  ix.  21,  22).  In  his 
account  of  the  loss  of  the  S.  Thomd  (which  was  printed  in  the  Historia  Tragico- 
Maritima,  in  the  Vida  de  D.  Paulo  de  Lima,  and  no  doubt  in  the  lost  eleventh 
Decada),  the  separation  of  D.  Joana  de  Mendoga  from  her  child  is  one  of  the 
most  tantalizing  and  touching  incidents  ever  penned. 

*  Ndo  particularizo  ninguem  {Dec.  xii.  i.  7). 

*  What  he  lacks  in  gravidade  (cf.  Dec.  x.  x.  14) — he  is  quite  ready  to  admit 
that  he  writes  toscamente  (vit.  iii.  3),  singelamente,  sent  ornamento  de  palavras 
(vi.  ii.  3),  simplesmente ,  sem  ornamento  nem  artificio  de  palavras  (v.  v.  6) — he 
makes  good  by  directness  as  an  eyewitness,  de  mats  perto  (iv.  i.  7  ;  cf.  iv.  x. 
4  ad  init.).  When  he  had  not  himself  been  present  he  preferred  the  accounts  of 
those  who  had,  as  Sousa  Coutinho's  description  of  the  siege  of  Diu  (Com- 
mentarios)  em  estilo  excellente  e  grave,  e  fox  0  mclhor  de  todos,  porqne  escreveo 
como  testemtinha  de  vista,  v.  iii.  2)  or  Miguel  de  Castanhoso's  copioso  tratado 
(v.  viii.  7).  Among  the  traces  of  his  close  touch  with  reality  are  the  popular 
romances,  cantigas,  adagios,  which  Barros  would  have  deemed  beneath  the 
dignity  of  history. 

*  As  the  fleets  grew,  long  catalogues  of  the  captains'  names  were  perhaps 


THE   HISTORIANS  197 

ignorant  chronicler.  A  poct^  and  the  friend  of  poets,  he  read 
Dante  and  Petrarca  and  Ariosto,  was  old-fashioned  enough  to 
admire  Juan  de  Mena,  consulted  the  works  of  ancient  and  modern 
historians,  travellers,  and  geographers,  and  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  customs  and  religions  of  the  East.  The  inequahty  of  his 
Decadas  is  in  part  explained  by  their  history,  which  constitutes 
a  curious  chapter  in  the  fata  of  manuscripts.  He  first  wrote 
Decada  x,  which  is  the  longest  and  most  resembles  those  of 
Barros  :  this  was  only  sent  to  Portugal  in  1600  and  was  not 
immediately  published,  apparently  because  the  period,  1580-8, 
was  too  recent.  It  remained  in  manuscript  till  1788.  Meanwhile 
Couto,  working  with  extraordinary  speed,  sent  home  the  fourth 
and  fifth  Decadas  in  1597,  the  sixth  in  1599,  ^"^^  the  seventh  in 
1601.  Noting  the  fact  that  the  last  two  books  (9  and  10)  of 
Castanheda's  history  had  been  suppressed  by  royal  order  as  being 
excessively  fond  of  truth  {porque  fallava  nelles  verdades),  he 
remarks  that,  should  this  happen  to  a  volume  of  his,  another 
would  be  forthcoming  to  take  its  place.  Friends  and  enemies, 
indeed  the  very  elements,  took  up  the  challenge,  but  fortunately 
Couto'sspirit  and  independence  continued  to  the  year  of  his  death. 
The  fourth  Decada  was  at  once  printed,  but  the  text  of  the  fifth 
was  tampered  with  and  its  publication  delayed,  the  sixth  was 
destroyed  by  fire  when  ready  for  publication  and  recast  by  Frei 
Adeodato,  the  seventh  was  captured  at  sea  by  the  English  and 
re-written  in  1603  by  Couto  and  sent  home  in  the  same  year,  the 
eighth  and  ninth,  finished  in  1614,  were  stolen  from  him  in  manu- 
script during  a  severe  illness.  This  was  a  crushing  blow,  but  he 
partially  reconstructed  them  a  modo  de  epilogo  and,  writing  in  old 
age  from  memory,  dwelt,  to  our  gain,  on  personal  recollections  : 
his  literary  bent  appears — his  friend  Camoes,  Cristovam  Falcao, 

inevitable.  They  are  certainly  out  of  place  in  a  biography,  but  Couto's 
Vida  de  D.  Paulo  de  Lima  Percira  (1765)  is  really  a  collection  of  those  passages 
from  the  Decadas  which  bear  on  the  life  of  Couto's  old  friend,  3.  fidalgo  muito 
pera  tudo.  As  far  as  chapter  32  it  is  told  in  words  similar  to  or  identical  with 
those  of  Decada  x.  Chapter  32  corresponds  with  the  beginning  of  the  lost 
Decada  xi. 

*  His  biographer,  Manuel  Severim  de  Faria,  says  that  he  left  (in  manu- 
script) '  a  large  volume  of  elegies,  eclogues,  songs,  sonnets  and  glosses ' 
(Barbosa  Machado  calls  them  Poesias  V arias),  and  that  he  wrote  a  commentary 
on  the  first  five  books  of  the  Lusiads.  Carminibus  quoque  pangendis  nun 
infelicitcr  vacavit,  says  N.  Antonio. 


198  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

and  Garcia  de  Rescnde  are  mentioned.  Finally  Decada 
xi  (1588-97),  which,  writing  to  King  Philip  HI  in  January 
1616,  he  says  '  survived  this  shipwreck  ',  has  disappeared  and 
Decada  xii  is  incomplete,  although  the  first  five  books  bring  the 
history  to  the  end  of  the  century  (1599).  His  successor  in  the 
Goa  Archives,  Antonio  Bocarro,  took  up  the  history  at  the  year 
1612,  in  a  work  which  was  published  in  1876  :  Decada  13"  da 
Historia  da  India.  The  manuscript  of  his  Dialogodo  Soldado  Pratico 
na  India  (written  before  the  fourth  Decada)  was  also  stolen. 
The  indomitable  Couto  re-wrote  it  and  both  versions  have  sur- 
vived. They  were  not  published  till  1790,  the  title  given  to  the 
earlier  version  being  Dialogo  do  soldado  pratico portugues.  With  its 
verdades  chans,  this  dialogue  between  an  old  soldier  of  India,  an 
ex-Governor,  and  a  judge  forms  a  most  valuable  and  interesting 
indictment  of  the  decadence  of  Portuguese  rule  in  India,  where 
the  thief  and  rogue  escaped  scot-free,  while  the  occasional  honest 
man  was  liable  to  sufter  for  their  sins,  and  the  sleek  soldier  in 
velvet  with  gold  ribbons  on  his  hat  had  taken  the  place  of  the 
bearded  conquistadores  {Dialogo,  pp.  91-2). 

Gaspar  Correa  {c.  1495-C.  1565)  claims,  like  Fernam  Lopez  de 
Castanheda  and  Barros,  to  have  been  the  first  historian  of  the 
Portuguese  in  the  East.^  He  went  to  India  sixteen  years  before 
Lopez  de  Castanheda  and  no  doubt  soon  began  -  to  take  notes 
and  collect  material,  but  he  was  still  working  at  his  history  in 
1561  and  1563,  and  his  Lendas  da  India  were  not  published  till 
the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  year  1506  Correa  entered  the 
king's  service  as  mo^o  da  camara,^  and  six  years  later  went  to 
India,  where  he  became  one  of  the  six  or  seven  secretaries  of 
Afonso  de  Albuquerque.*  They  were  young  men  carefully 
chosen  by  the  Governor  from  among  those  who  had  been  brought 

*  Lendas,  iii.  7  :  nom  ouve  cdguem  que  tomasse  por  gloria  escrever  e  cronizar 
o  descohrimento  da  India.  In  an  earlier  passage  (i.  3)  he  refers  to  narratives 
of  travellers  such  as  that  of  Duarte  Barbosa. 

*  He  says  (Lendas,  ii.  5)  :  qtiando  comecei  esta  ociipafdo  de  escrever  as  cousas 
da  India  erdo  ellas  (do  gostosas,  per  suas  bondades,  que  dava  muito  contentamento 
ouvilas  recontar. 

'  Lenda,  iii.  438. 

*  1-ui  hum  dos  sens  escrivdes  que  com  elle  andei  tres  annos  (ii.  46).  Elsewhere 
(i.  2)  he  says  that  he  went  to  India  mo^o  de  pouca  idade  sixteen  years  after 
the  discovery  of  India.  15  12  was  fourteen  years  after  the  actual  discovery 
(1498),  but  might  be  counted  the  sixteenth  year  from  1497. 


THE  HISTORIANS  ig^ 

up  in  the  palace  and  to  whom  he  felt  he  could  entrust  his  secrets.* 
Theirs  was  no  humdrum  or  sedentary  post,  for  they  had  to 
accompany  the  Governor  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  in  peace  and 
war,  ever  ready  wath  ink  and  paper.  Thus  Correa  had  occasion 
vividly  to  describe  Aden  in  15 13,  and  helped  with  his  own  hands 
to  build  the  fortress  of  Ormuz  in  1515.  After  Albuquerque's 
death  Correa  seems  to  have  continued  to  fight  and  write.  In 
1526  he  was  appointed  to  the  factory  of  Sofala,-  and  in  the 
following  year  the  nw(o  da  camara  has  become  a  cavaleiro  and  is 
employed  at  the  customs  house  at  Cochin.^  He  cannot  have 
remained  much  longer  at  Cochin  than  at  Sofala,  since  he  signed 
his  name  in  the  book  of  moradias  at  Lisbon  in  1529,  and  in  1530-1, 
in  a  ship  provided  by  himself  {em  uni  men  catur),  went  with  the 
Governor  of  India's  fleet  to  the  attack  of  Diu.  Later  he  was 
commissioned  by  the  Viceroy,  D,  Joao  de  Castro,  to  furnish 
lifesize  drawings^  of  all  the  Governors  of  India,  so  that  he  must 
then  have  been  living  at  Goa.  The  ever-growing  abuses  in  India 
and  the  scanty  reward  given  to  his  fifty  years  of  service  and 
honourable  wounds  ^  embittered  his  last  years,  and  if  his  spoken 
comments  were  as  incisive  as  the  indictment  of  the  Governors 
and  Captains  contained  in  the  Lendas^  he  must  have  made 
enemies  in  high  positions  :  it  seems,  at  least,  that  his  murder 
one  night  at  Malacca  went  unpunished,  as  if  to  prove  the  truth 
of  his  frequent  complaint  that  no  one  ever  was  punished  in 
India.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  may  still  have  been  at 
work,  as  in  1561  and  1563,  on  the  revision  of  his  Lendas  or 
Coronica  dos  Feytos  da    India,'^  originally  completed  in  i55i-^ 

^  Homcns  da  criafdo  d'El  Rei,  says  Correa  with  some  pride,  de  que  cunfias.se 
seus  segredos  (ii.  46). 

-  Lima  Felner,  Noticia  preliminar  {Lendas,  i,  p.  xi). 

*  Ibid.  ;  but  Correa  says  (Lendas,  ii.  891)  that  he  held  this  post  at  Cochin 
{almoxarife  do  almazeni  da  Ribeira)  in  1525. 

*  Por  ter  entendimento  em  debuxar.  The  portraits,  drawn  by  Correa  and 
painted  by  '  a  native  painter '  so  cleverly  that  you  could  recognize  the 
originals  (iv.  597),  as  well  as  Correa's  very  curious  drawings  of  Aden  and  other 
cities,  are  reproduced  in  the  1858-66  edition  of  the  Lendas. 

*  Passa  de  cincoenta  annos  [i.e.  1512-63]  que  ando  no  rodizio  d'este  servi(o, 
aieijado  de  feridas  com  que  tret  d  cava  sem  satisfagao. 

«  Cf.  ii.  608,  752  ;   iii.  437  ;   iv.  338,  537-8,  567-8,  665,  669,  730-1. 
'  He  so  styles  his  work  in  the  preface  of  Lenda  iv. 

*  He  is  writing,  he  says,  in  1561  {Lendas,  i.  265)  ;  1561  again  (i.  995  :  ndo 
cessando  cste  trabalho  ate  este  anno) ;  1563  (iii.  438) ;  i55o(iv.25);  1551  (iv. 732). 


200  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

The  first  three  books  relate  the  events  from  1497  to  1538;  the 
last  carries  the  history  down  to  1550.  The  account  of  the 
discovery  is  based  on  the  narrative  of  one,  and  the  recollec- 
tions of  others,  of  Vasco  da  Gama's  companions,  and  the  subse- 
quent events  arc  drawn  largely  from  Correa's  own  experience. 
He  spared  no  trouble  to  obtain  first-hand  information,  from  aged 
officials.  Moors,  natives,  captives,  a  Christian  galley-slave,  or 
a  woman  from  Malabar,  distrusting  mere  hearsay.  He  lays 
frequent  stress  on  his  personal  evidence.^  Without  necessarily 
establishing  the  trustworthiness  of  his  work  on  every  point,  this 
method  had  the  advantage  of  rendering  it  singularly  vivid,  and  it 
contains  many  a  brilliantly  coloured  picture  of  the  East.  In 
many  respects  he  is  the  most  remarkable  of  the  historians  of 
India.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that  he  had  written  down  some 
of  Albuquerque's  letters  to  King  Manuel.^  If  Albuquerque's 
words  are  still  striking  w^hen  read  after  four  centuries,  we  may 
imagine  their  effect  on  the  boy  still  in  his  teens  to  whom 
he  dictated  them.  Tinha  grande  oratoria,  says  Correa,  and 
many  years  afterwards  some  of  the  phrases  remained  in  his 
memory.^  He  no  doubt  learnt  from  Albuquerque  his  direct, 
vigorous  style,  his  love  of  concrete  details,  his  regard  for 
truth.  His  account  of  the  sack  of  Malacca — the  rifled  chests 
of  gold  coins  and  brocades  of  Mecca  and  cloth  of  ^old,  the 
narrow  dusty  streets  in  shadow  in  the  midday  calma — must, 
one  thinks,  be  that  of  an  eyewitness  ;  yet  Correa  was  not  in 
India  at  the  time.  The  explanation  is  that  it  was  largely  the 
account  of  Albuquerque.^ 

Correa  writes  in  even  greater  detail  than  Lopez  de  Castanheda. 
There  is  no  trace  of  literary  leanings  in  his  work;  he  is  sparing 
of  descriptions  as  interrupting  the  story. ^  Whole  pages  have 
scarcely  an  adjective,  and  this  gives  his  narrative  clearness  and 

'  The  value  of  that  evidence  varies.  For  instance,  he  assures  us  (iii.  689) 
that  he  saw  with  his  own  eyes  a  native  300  years  old  and  his  son  of  200 ;  yet 
there  is  something  suspicious  in  the  roundness  of  the  figures. 

^  Escrcvia  com  die  as  cartas  pcra  El  Rei  (ii.  172). 

*  Albuquerque  in  one  of  his  letters  (No.  95)  says  that  in  Portugal  a  man  is 
hanged  for  stealing  Alcntejan  manias.  Correa  repeats  this  phrase  twice 
{Lendas,  ii.  752  ;   iv.  731). 

*  Cf.  ii.  247  :   Ell  ouvi  dizer  a  Afonso  d' Albuquerque. 

^  Nesie  mcu  trabalho  ndo  tomci  scntido  scnao  escrever  os  feilos  dus  Portugueses 
e  nada  das  terras  (iii.  66).    Cf.  i.  651,  815  ;  ii.  222. 


THE    HISTORIANS  201 

fapidity,  yet  he  is  careless  of  style.  It  has  been  called  redundant 
and  verbose,  but  that  is  true  mainly  of  the  prefaces,  which  show 
that  Correa  in  a  library  might  have  developed  into  a  rhetorical 
Zurara  of  boas  oratorias.  It  is,  however,  no  longer  the  fashion  to 
sneer  at  this  '  simple  and  half  barbarous  chronicler  ',  this  '  soldier 
adventurer  in  whose  artless  words  appears  his  lack  of  culture  '.^ 
His  Lendas  are  infinitely  preferable  to  the  sleek  periods  of 
Barros  and  often  as  reliable,  being  legendary  in  little  beyond 
their  title,  as  understood  by  the  ignorant  (for  the  word  lenda 
meant  not  legend  but  record  or  log).  They  have  a  harsh  flavour 
of  -religious  fervour  and  of  lust  for  gold  ^  and  an  intense  atmo- 
sphere of  the  East — sangre  e  incenso,  cravo  e  escravaria,  St. 
James  fighting  for  the  Christians,  St.  Thomas  transformed  into 
a  peacock,  all  in  a  region  of  horror  and  enchantment.  Correa 
was  aware  that  it  was  dangerous  to  write  history  in  India 
(iii.  9) — periculosae  plenuyyi  opus  aleae — but  although  he  had 
no  intention  of  immediately  publishing  it  ^  he  evidently  expected 
some  recognition  of  his  work.  The  appearance  of  Lopez  dc 
Castanheda's  Historia  and  Barros'  Decadas  must  have  been  a 
blow  almost  as  cruel  as  the  daggers  of  his  assassins  a  few  years 
later. 

The  events  of  India  from  1506-15,  chronicled  by  Castanheda 
and  Barros,  necessarily  centred  round  the  great  figure  of  Afonso 
de  Albuquerque,  and  they  were  recorded  afresh  by  his  illegitimate 
son  Bras  de  Albuquerque  (1500-80),  whom  the  dying  Gover- 
nor recommended  to  the  king  in  his  last  letter.  King  Manuel 
in  belated  gratitude  bestowed  his  favour  on  this  son  and  bade 
him  assume  the  name  of  Afonso  in  memory  of  his  father.  His 
Comnientarios  de  Afonso  de  Alboquerque  (1557)  were  revised  by 
the  author  in  a  second  edition  (1576)  four  years  before  his  death. 
They  are  written  in  unassuming  but  straightforward  style  and 
furnish   a  very  clear  and  moderate  account  based  on  letters 

^  Latino  Coelho,  Fernao  de  Magcdhaes  in  Archivo  Pittoresco,  vi  (1863),  p.  170 
et  seq. 

■  Correa  himself  seems  to  have  been  rather  unsuccessful  than  scrupulous 
in  amassing  money.  He  tells  without  a  hint  of  embarrassment  (ii.  432)  how 
he  took  the  white  and  gold  scarf  (rumal)  of  the  murdered  Resnordim  (or 
Rais  Alimad)  and  sold  it  for  20  xarafins  (about  £7),  and  (iii.  281)  helped  to  dis- 
pose of  stolen  goods  in  1528  at  Cochin. 

*  Protestando  d'eni  mens  dias  esta  lenda  notn  mostrar  a  ncnhiini  (i.  3). 


202  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

written  by  Albuquerque  to  King  Manuel.^  The  author  seems 
to  have  reahzed  that  Albuquerque's  words  and  deeds  speak 
sufficiently  for  themselves,  but  the  reflection  produced  is  some- 
what pale. 

The  gallant  and  chivalrous  apostle  of  the  Moluccas,  Antonio 
Galvam  {c.  I490?-i557),  'as  rich  in  valour  and  knowledge  as 
poor  in  fortune  ',-  printed  nothing  in  his  lifetime  but  his  manu- 
scripts were  handed  over  after  his  death  to  Damiao  de  Goes  as 
Cronista  Mor.^  We  have  only  a  brief  treatise  by  him  published 
posthumously.  Copious  in  matter  rather  than  in  length,  for  it  has 
but  eighty  small  folios  in  spite  of  its  lengthy  title,  this  Tratado 
(1563),  or,  if  we  adopt  the  briefer  title  from  the  colophon,  this 
Lyvro  dos  Descobrimentos  das  Antilhas  &  India,  is  remarkable  for 
the  curious  observation  shown  and  its  vivid,  concise  style  of  a  man 
of  action.  Written  in  the  form  of  annals,  it  begins  with  the 
Flood,  and  on  f.  13  we  are  still  in  the  age  of  Merlin  ;  but  the  most 
valuable  part  consists  in  the  writer's  direct  experience — he  tells 
of  buffaloes,  cows  and  hens  '  of  flesh  black  as  this  ink  ',  of  mock- 
ing parrots,  fires  made  of  earth  '  as  in  Flanders  '.  Goes,  who  had 
certainly  handled  the  manuscript,  may  have  added  this  com- 
parison ;  he  evidently  interpolated  the  account  of  his  own  travels 
(ff.  58  V.-59  v.).  The  life  of  Galvam  gives  a  further  interest  to  this 
rare  book,  for,  a  man  of  noble  and  disinterested  character,  himself 
a  prince  by  election,  he  has  always  been  regarded  as  a  stock 
instance  of  the  ingratitude  of  princes.  Born  in  the  East,  the  son 
of  Albuquerque's  old  friend,  the  historian  Duarte  Galvam,  he  won 
fame  by  his  courage  and  martial  qualities,  both  as  soldier  and 
skilful  mariner.  After  subduing  the  Molucca  Islands  he,  as  their 
Governor  (Captain),  spent  his  energies  and  income  in  missionary 
zeal  and  in  developing  agriculture.  On  the  expiry  of  his  term 
as  Governor  (1536-40)  he  refused  the  position  of  Raja  of  Ternate, 

*  Que  colligi  dos  proprios  originaes.  The  work  is  a  history  of  events  in  India, 
not  a  biography  of  Albuquerque,  the  first  forty  years  of  whose  life  are  repre- 
sented only  by  half  a  dozen  sentences  (1774  ed.,  iv.  255). 

*  A  quelle  tdo  pouco  venturoso  como  scienie  &-  valeroso  Antonio  GcUvdo  (Joao 
Pinto  Ribeyro,  Preferencia  das  Letras  as  Armas,  1645).  In  his  youth  in 
India  he  won  the  regard  of  that  keen  judge  of  men,  Afonso  de  Albuquerque, 
who  could  see  in  him  nothing  to  find  fault  with  except  his  excessive  generosity. 

'  Tratado.  Prologo  [3  £f.].  Em  este  tractado  con  noue  oil  dez  liuros  das 
coiisas  de  Maluco  &•  da  India  que  me  0  Cardeal  mandou  dar  a  Damiam  de  Goes. 


THE   HISTORIANS  203 

which  the  gratelul  natives  besought  him  to  accept.  He  arrived 
penniless  in  Portugal  and  penniless  died  seventeen  years  later  in 
the  Lisbon  hospital. 

Besides  the  general  histories  many  briefer  records  of  separate 
regions  or  events  were  written,  and  these  are  often  of  great  value 
as  the  accounts  of  men  who  had  seen  and  taken  part  in  what  they 
describe. 

Lopo  DE  SousA  CouTiNHO  (.'^  1515-77),  father  of  Frei  Luis  dc 
Sousa  and  one  of  the  captains  in  the  heroic  siege  of  Diu  (1538) — 
he  is  said  to  have  died  by  accidentally  running  himself  through 
with  his  sword  when  dismounting  from  his  horse — wrote  a  strik- 
ing account  of  the  siege,  especially  of  its  last  incidents,  in  his 
Livro  Primeiro  do  Cerco  de  Diu  (1556).  The  siege  of  Mazagam 
(1562)  was  similarly  described  in  clear,  vigorous  prose  by  Agos- 
TiNHO  Gavy  de  Mendonqa  :  Historia  do  famoso  cerco  qve  0 
Xarife  pos  a  fortaleza  de  Mazagam  {1607).  Jorge  de  Lemos,  of 
Goa,  wrote  a  careful  Historia  dos  Cercos  .  .  .  de  Malaca  (1585), 
and  Antonio  Castilho,  the  distinguished  son  of  the  celebrated 
architect  Joao,  published  a  Commentario  do  Cerco  de  Goa  e  Chaul 
no  anno  MDLXX  (1572).  Events  in  the  Moluccas  were  briefly 
recorded  in  an  Informagam  das  cousas  de  Maluco  (1569)  by 
Gabriel  de  Rabello,  who  went  out  as  factor  of  Tidore  in  1566. 

The  anonymous  gentleman  of  Elvas  who  wrote  the  Relagani 
verdadeira  (1557)  of  Soto's  discovery  of  Florida  was  akeen  observer 
and  related  what  he  saw  in  direct  language.  His  publisher, 
Andre  de  Burgos,  in  a  short  preface  washes  his  hands  of  the  style 
as  insufficiently  polished  [limado). 

The  deeds  of  D.  Cristovam  da  Gama,  his  conquest  of  a  hundred 
leagues  of  territory  in  Ethiopia,  his  defeat,  torture,  and  beheadal, 
are  recounted  with  the  vivid  details  of  an  eyewitness  by  Miguel 
DE  Castanhoso,  of  Santarcm,  who  accompanied  him  on  his 
fatal  expedition.  This  Historia  (1564)  was  published  by  Joao  da 
Barreira,  who  dedicated  it  to  D.  Cristovam's  nephew,  D.  Francisco 
de  Portugal. 

Manuel  de  Abreu  Mousinho  wrote  in  Spanish  a  brief  account 
of  the  conquest  of  Pegu  by  Salvador  Ribeiro  de  Sousa,  of  which 
a  Portuguese  version  appeared  in  the  1711  edition  of  Mendez 
Pinto's  travels  :    Breve  discurso  em  que  se  content  a  conquista  do 


204  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

reyno  de  Pegu,  nearly  a  century  after  the  original  edition,  Breve 
Discvrso  en  qve  se  cventa,  &c.  (1617).  The  Jornada  do  Mara- 
nhao  feita  por  Jeronymo  de  Albuquerque  em  1614  is  ascribed  to 
DiOGO  DE  Campos  Moreno,  who  took  part  in  that  conquista. 
It  was  published  in  the  Collecgdo  de  Noticias  para  a  Historia  e 
Geographia  das  Nagoes  Ultramarinas.^  The  second  volume  of 
this  collection  contains  several  re- translations  of  Navegagoes 
(by  Thome  Lopez  and  anonymous  Portuguese  pilots)  surviving 
in  Italian  in  Ramusio,  It  would  require  a  separate  volume  to 
give  an  account  of  all  the  sixteenth-  and  seventeenth-century 
narratives  of  newly  conquered  countries  written  in  Portuguese 
and  often  immediately  translated  into  many  European  languages, 
e.  g.  the  Novo  Descohrimento  do  Grdo  Cathay 0  (1626)  by  the  Jesuit 
Antonio  de  Andrade  [c.  1580-1634),  or  the  Relagam  of  the 
Jesuit  Alvaro  Semmedo  (1585  ?-i658)  written  in  Portuguese  but 
published  in  the  Spanish  translation  of  Faria  e  Sousa :  Imperio 
de  la  China  (1642).  However  unliterary,  they  are  often  so  vividly 
written  as  to  be  literature  in  the  best  sense. 

Pedro  de  Magalhaes  de  Gandavo,  of  Braga,  whose  Regras 
(1574)  ran  into  three  editions  before  the  end  of  the  century,  de- 
scribed Brazil  and  its  discovery  in  two  short  works  :  Historia  da 
prouincia  Sdcta^  Cruz  (1576)  and  Tratado  da  terra  do. Brazil  first 
published  in  1826  in  the  Collecgdo  de  Noticias.  This  collection 
also  prints  works  of  the  following  century,  such  as  the  Fatalidade 
historica  da  Ilha  de  Ceildo  ^  by  Captain  Joao  Ribeiro,  who  had 
served  the  king  as  a  soldier  for  eighteen  years  in  the  preciosa 
ilha  de  Ceildo.  His  manuscript,  written  in  1685,  was  translated 
and  published  in  French  (1701)  135  years  before  it  was  printed  in 
Portuguese.  Gandavo's  Historia  (48  if.),  his  first  work  (premicias), 
was  introduced  by  tercetos  and  a  sonnet  of  Luis  de  Camocs,  who 
speaks  of  his  claro  estilo,  and  engenho  curioso.  The  author  himself 
in  a  prefatory  letter  says  that  he  writes  as  an  eyewitness,  content 
with  a  '  plain  and  easy  style  '  without  seeking  epithetos  exquisitos. 

The  Jesuit  Balthasar  Tellez  ^  (1595-1675)  won  considerable 
fame  as,  an  historian  and  prose-writer  in  his  Cronica  da  Com- 

»  Vol.  i.  No.  4.  -  Vol.  V,  No.  I  (1836). 

'  The  name  would  seem  to  have  been  really  Tillison,  i.e.  son  of  John  Tilly, 
who  married  a  granddaughter  of  Moraes,  the  author  of  Palmcirim. 


THE   HISTORIANS  205 

panhia  de  lesus  (2  pts.,  1645,  1647)  in  which  he  forswears  what  he 
calls  the  artifices  and  liberties  of  ordinary  seiscentista  prose.  He 
also  edited  the  work  of  the  Jesuit  missionary  Manuel  de  Almeida 
(1580-1646),  recasting  it  in  an  abbreviated  form  :  Historia 
Geral  da  Ethiopia  a  Alta  ov  Preste  loam  (1660),  for  which  Tellez' 
friend,  Mello,  provided  a  prefatory  letter.  Almeida,  born  at 
Viseu,  had  gone  to  India  in  1601  and  in  1622  was  sent  to  Ethiopia, 
where  he  became  the  head  of  the  mission.  He  died  at  Goa  after 
a  life  of  much  hard  work  and  various  adventure.  In  writing  his 
history  of  Ethiopia  he  made  use  of  the  Historia  da  Ethiopia  of 
an  earlier  (1603-19)  head  of  the  mission,  Pedro  Paez  (1564-1622), 
who  had  started  for  Ethiopia  in  1595  but  was  captured  by  the 
Turks  and  only  ransomed  in  1602.  Although  a  Spaniard  by  birth 
(born  at  Olmeda),  Paez  wrote  in  Portuguese.  A  third  Jesuit 
missionary,  Manuel  Barradas,  born  in  1572  at  Monforte,  who 
went  to  India  in  1612,  was  also  a  prisoner  of  the  Turks  for  over 
a  year  at  Aden.  In  1624  he  went  to  Ethiope,  terre  maldite,  and 
remained  there  some  ten  years.  Of  his  three  treatises  the 
most  important  is  that  entitled  Do  Reyno  de  Tygre  e  seus  mandos 
em  Ethiopia.  The  modern  editor  of  these  works,  P.  Camillo 
Beccari,  considers  that  their  authors'  simple  style  caused  their 
treatises  to  be  regarded  rather  as  the  material  of  history  than  in 
themselves  history,^  but  their  value  for  us  is  in  this  very  sim- 
plicity and  in  the  detailed  observation  which  bring  the  country 
and  its  inhabitants  clearly  before  us.  Scarcely  less  important,  as 
material  for  history  and  as  human  documents,  are  the  Cartas 
from  Jesuits  in  China  and  Japan,  especially  the  collection  of 
82  letters  (Coimbra,  1570),  and  that  of  206  letters  (Evora, 
1598).  The  Jesuit  Fernam  Cardim  at  about  the*  same  time 
rendered  a  like  service  to  Brazil  in  his  Narrativa  epistolar, 
edited  in  1847  by  F.  A.  de  Varnhagen.  A  more  important  work 
on  Brazil  was  that  of  Gabriel  Soarez  de  Sousa  {c.  1540-92) — 

'  He  speaks  of  their  lingua  alqiianto  negletia  e  lo  stile  molto  semplice, 
naturale  e  piano,  la  qual  cosa  deveva  ahparire  un'  anomalia  a  confronto  della 
lingua  ptirgata  con  cui  si  scriveva  allora  in  Portogallo  (Contenuto  della  storia 
del  Patriarca  Alfonso  Mendez,  p.  115).  This  work  was  written  in  Latin  in 
1651  by  Afonso  MENDE^  (1579-1656),  born  at  Moura,  who  became  Patriarch 
of  Ethiopia  in  1623.  This  splendid  edition  (Rerum  Aethiopicarum  Scriptores) 
also  contains  three  volumes  of  Relationes  et  Epistolae  Variorum  (Romae, 
1910-12). 


2o6  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

the  Tratado  descriptivo  do  Brasil  em  i^Sy,  which  its  modern 
editor,  F.  A.  de  Varnhagcn,  described  in  a  moment  of  enthu- 
siasm as  '  the  most  admirable  of  all  the  works  of  the  Portu- 
guese quinhentistas  \  Two  other  works  of  interest,  half  history, 
half  travels,  are  the  Jornada  do  Arcebispo  de  Goa  Dom  Frey 
Aleixo  de  Meneses  (1606)  by  Antonio  de  Gouvea,  Bishop  of 
Cyrcne  [c.  1565-1628),  in  three  parts,  describing  the  archbishop's 
life  and  visits  in  his  diocese  ;  and  the  Discvrso  da  Jornada  de 
D.  Gongalo  Covtinho  a  villa  de  Mazagam  e  sev  governo  nella  (1629). 
The  writer — ^the  admirer  of  Camoes  and  alleged  author  of  the  1614 
life  of  Sa  de  Miranda — -who,  as  he  says,  had  grown  white  in  the 
council-chamber,  lived  on  till  1634.  He  here  relates  with  much 
directness  his  voyage  and  four  years'  Governorship  (1623-7). 

The  Saiidades  da  Terra  (1873)  of  Caspar  Fructuoso  (1522-91), 
who  was  born  at  S.  Miguel  in  the  Azores,  was  written  in  1590  and 
waited  three  centuries  in  manuscript  for  an  editor.  Both  its 
title  and  the  '  preamble  ',  in  which  Truth  says  that  she  will  write 
of  nothing  but  sadness,  are  misleading,  since  the  book  is  an 
account — in  good,  straightforward  style  after  the  manner  of 
Castanheda  and  other  historians — of  the  discovery  and  subse- 
quent conditions  of  various  islands,  especially  of  Madeira  and  the 
lives  of  its  Governors.  Antonio  Cordeiro  (1641-1722),  Jesuit, 
of  Angra,  wrote  at  the  age  of  seventy-six  an  uncritical  but 
interesting  work  entitled  Historia  Insulana  das  Ilhas  a  Portugal 
sujeitas  no  Oceano  Occidental  (1717),  based  partly  on  Fructuoso's 
manuscript. 

It  was  only  as  it  were  by  an  afterthought  that  the  historians 
turned  to  consider  the  history  of  Portugal  as  apart  from  separate 
chronicles  of  the  kings  or  episodes  of  Eastern  conquest.  The 
historical  scheme  of  Joao  de  Barros  was  too  vast  to  be  executed 
by  one  man  and  the  European  part  was  never  written.  Andre 
de  Resende  likewise  failed  to  carry  out  his  project  of  a  history 
of  Portugal.  Pedro  de  Mariz  [c.  1550-1615),  son  of  the  Coimbra 
printer,  Antonio,  in  the  last  four  of  his  Dialogos  de  Varia  Historia 
(1594)  between  a  Portuguese  and  an  Italian,  embraces  the  whole 
history  of  Portugal,  but  these  dialogues,  although  industriously 
written  in  good  plain  ^tyle,  were  eclipsed  by  the  appearance 
three  years  later  of  the  first  part  of  the  Monarchia  Lusitana 


THE   HISTORIANS  207 

(1597).  Its  author,  a  young  Cistercian  monk  of  Alcobaga,  Frei 
Bernardo  de  Brito  (1569-1617),  in  the  world  Balthasar  de 
Brito  de  Andrade,  at  once  became  known  as  one  of  the  best 
writers  of  his  time,  and  he  is  still  reckoned  among  the  masters 
of  Portuguese  prose.  His  style,  clear,  restrained,  copious,  proved 
that  the  mantle  of  Barros  had  fallen  upon  worthy  shoulders. 
But,  despite  his  rich  vein  of  humanity,  as  a  historian  he  is  far 
inferior  to  Barros  and  even  more  uncritical  than  Mariz.  The 
value  of  evidence  seems  to  have  weighed  with  him  little  when  it 
was  a  question  of  exalting  his  language,  literature,  religion,  or 
country,  and  he  used  and  incorporated  documents  entirely 
worthless.  Whether  he  deliberately  manufactured  spurious 
documents  to  serve  his  purposes  cannot  be  known,  but  he  seems 
at  least  to  have  quoted  authorities  which  had  never  existed.^ 

In  a  word  he  failed  to  make  good  use  of  the  incomparable 
material  which  the  library  of  Alcobaga  afforded.  His  was  a  mis- 
directed erudition,  and  we  would  willingly  exchange  the  T<now- 
ledge  of  where  Adam  lies  buried,  or  on  what  day  the  world  began, 
or  how  Gorgoris,  King  of  Lusitania,  who  died  1227  years  after 
the  Flood,  invented  honey,  for  accurate  details  of  more  recent 
Portuguese  history.  Yet  he  had  the  diligence  and  enthusiasm 
of  the  true  historian  and  made  use,  sometimes  a  skilful  use,^  of 
coins  and  inscriptions.  His  brief  Geographia  antiga  da  Lusytania 
also  appeared  in  1597,  and  in  the  same  year  the  Cistercian  Order 
appointed  him  its  chronicler.  Thus  he  interrupted  his  main 
work — the  second  part  of  the  Monarchia  Lusitana  was  only 
published  in  1609 — in  order  to  write  the  Primeira  Parte  da 
Cronica  de  Cister  (1602).^  This,  in  many  ways  his  best  work, 
runs  to  nearly  a  thousand  pages,  and  treats  of  the  saints  of  the 
Order  and  especially  of  the  life  of  the  charming  St.  Bernard, 

^  Nicolas  Antonio  dwells  more  than  once  on  the  invisibility  of  Brito's 
authorities  {Bib.  Vet.  i.  65,  453;  ii.  374):  Nos  de  invisis  hactenus  censere 
ahstinemus.  Antonio  Brandao,  Brito's  successor,  he  says,  nullum  horum 
vidit  librorum  quos  Brittus  olim  historiae  suae  Atlantes  iactaverat ;  nihil 
autem  horum  librorum  {quod  mirum  si  ibi  asservabantur)  vidit.  Scares  {Thea- 
trum)  remarks  epigrammatically  :  fama  est  eloquentiam  minus  desiderari  quam 
fidem. 

2  From  a  comparison  of  inscriptions  he  notes  the  similarity  between  the 
Etruscan  and  '  our  ancient '  (Iberian  ?)  letters.  The  Iberians  may  have 
originally  gone  East  from  Tuscany. 

^  His  Elogios  dos  Reis  de  Portugal  appeared  in  1603. 


2o8      THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

with  contemporary  events  in  Portugal.^  It  was  to  be  followed 
by  two  other  parts,  but  Brito's  early  death  at  his  native  Almeida 
on  his  way  back  to  Alcobaga  from  Spain,  a  year  after  he  had 
been  appointed  Cronista  Mor  (1616),  left  his  work  unfinished. 
He  is  remembered  as  a  fine  stylist,  a  poet  who  wrote  history 
rather  than  as  a  great  historian.  Mariana,  the  Latin  original  of 
whose  Historia  de  Espaiia  (1592)  he  knew  and  quoted,  is  by  com- 
parison almost  a  scientific  writer — at  least  he  is  not,  like  Brito, 
pseudo-scientific. 

The  two  parts  of  the  Monarchia  Lusitana  written  by  Brito 
ended  with  the  beginning  of  the  Portuguese  monarchy.  Parts 
3  and  4,  by  Frei  Antonio  Brandao  (1584-1637),  to  whose 
sincerity  and  skill  Herculano  paid  tribute,  appeared  in  1632 
and  carried  it  down  to  the  year  1279.  Brandao  had  spent  nearly 
ten  years  collecting  and  sifting  documentary  evidence  for  his 
work  and  is  a  far  better  historian  than  Brito,  although  in  style 
lie  is  not  his  equal.  His  nephew  Frei  Francisco  Brandao 
(1601-80),  vir  modestus,  diligens  et  eruditus,  succeeded  Frei 
Antonio  as  Cronista  Mor  and  wrote  Parts  5  and  6  (1650), 
describing  the  reign  of  King  Dinis.  The  style  was  less  well 
maintained  in  Part  7  (1633)  by  Frei  Raphael  de  Jesus  (1614- 
93).  Part  8  (1727),  the  last  to  be  published,  was  added  by  Frei 
Manuel  dos  Santos  (1672-1740)  over  a  century  after  the  publi- 
cation of  the  first  Part,  but  only  brought  the  history  to  the  battle 
of  Aljubarrota  (1385).  Santos'  Part  7  as  well  as  Parts  9  and  10 
remained  in  manuscript.  His  prose  is  worthy  of  a  work  which 
is  a  monument  of  the  language,  not  of  the  history  of  Portugal. 
Perhaps  the  truest  epitaph  of  this  history  as  a  whole — after 
allowance  has  been  made  for  Brito's  style  and  the  excellent  work 
of  Antonio  Brandao — is  a  severe  sentence  from  the  preface  of 
the  author  of  Part  7  :  '  There  are  histories  whose  tomes  are 
tombs.' 

It  could  hardly,  perhaps,  be  expected  that  the  historians  of  the 

reigns  of  King  Manuel  and  King  Joao  HI   should  pass  over 

events  in  the  East  as  already  fully  related,  and  in  Damiao  de 

'  ff.  248  V.-249  V.  give  a  very  curious  description  of  Ireland  :  tarn  remota 
de  nossa  conversagdo  e  metida  debaixo  do  Polo  Arctico.  Brito  had  not  inherited 
Barros'  knowledge  of  geography  and  confuses  Ireland  with  Iceland,  but  is 
far  richer  in  fables,  as  these  pages  delightfully  prove. 


THE   HISTORIANS  209 

Goes'  Cronica  do  Felicissimo  Rey  Dom  Emanvel  and  Francisco 

de  Andrade's  Cronica  de  Dom  Jodo  III  (1613),  although  they 

lose  much  by  compression,  they  still  occupy  a  disproportionate 

space.      Andrade    wrote    most    correct    prose,     even    in    his 

poems,  and  the  style  of    his    history  is  excellent,  but  neither 

of  these  works  gives  any  adequate  account  of  the  internal  history 

of  Portugal,  any  more  than  does  that  of  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa  on 

Joao  Ill's  reign,  in  which  there  should  have  been  more  scope  for 

originality.    The  same  prominence  is  given  to  India  in  the  history 

of    Jeronimo    Osorio    (1506-80),  Bishop  of    Silves,  De  Rebvs 

Emmanvelis  Regis  Lvsitaniae  (1571),  written  in  Latin  in  order 

to  spread  the  knowledge  of  these  events  per  omnes  reipuhlicae 

Christianae  regiones.^    Osorio,  whose  father,  like  Lopez  de  Casta- 

nheda's,  had  been  a  judge  [ouvidor)  in  India,  was  born  at  Lisbon, 

but  studied  abroad,  at  Salamanca,  Paris,  and  Bologna.     After 

occupying    the    Chair    of    Scripture    at    Coimbra    for    a   brief 

space,  he  went  to  Lisbon  and  became  secretary  to  the  Infante 

Luis.    In  1560  he  was  made  Archdeacon  of  Evora  and  four  years 

later  Bishop  of  Silves.    (The  see  was  removed  to  Faro  three  years 

before  his  death  and  his  title  is  sometimes  given  as  Bishop  of 

Algarve.)  A  few  remarkable  letters  in  Portuguese,  in  one  of  which 

(1567)  he  attempted  to  convert  Queen  Elizabeth,  show  that  he 

was  skilled  in  the  use  of  his  native  tongue ;    his  countrymen 

delighted   to   call   him   the   Portuguese   Cicero.     According   to 

Sousa  de  Macedo  '  many  people  came  from  England,  Germany 

and  other  parts  with  the  sole  object  of  seeing  him  '.-    In  England 

certainly  his  book  was  highly  prized,  and  both  Dryden  and  Pope 

praised  Gibbs'  translation,  although  Francis  Bacon  noted  the 

diffuseness  of  Osorio's  style  :    luxurians  et  diluta,  certainly  not 

a  just  verdict  on  the  style  as  a  whole  ;  we  have  but  to  think  of  the 

concise  sketches  of  Albuquerque  {De  Rebus,  p.  380)  and  King 

Manuel  (p.  478).     Osorio  acknowledged  his  ample  debt  to  the 

chronicle  of  Goes,  which  he  describes  as  written  '  with  incredible 

felicity  '.     Frei  Bernardo  da  Cruz,  who  accompanied  King 

Sebastian  to  Africa  in  1578  as  chaplain,  in  his  Cronica  de  El  Rei 

D.  Sebastido  wrote  the  history  of  his  life  and  reign  and  happily 

•  To  Spanish  readers  they  were  presented  later  by  Faria  e  Sousa  in  his  Asia. 
^  Flores  de  Espana  (1631),  f.  248.     Arias  Montano  refers  to  him  as  a  close 
friend  {Doc.  inid.  t.  xli.  p.  386). 

2362  O 


210      THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

describes  him  as  '  a  young  king  without  experience  or  fear  '.  The 
Cronica  do  Cardeal  Rei  D.  Henrique  (1840)  completed  the 
history  of  the  house  of  Avis.  It  chronicles  in  fifty-four  diminutive 
chapters  the  eighteen  months'  reign  of  the  pouco  nihnoso  e  sever 0 
Cardinal  King  Henry.  It  was  written  in  1586/  and,  although 
anonymous,  is  ascribed  with  some  probability  to  the  Jesuit  Padre 
Alvaro  Lobo  (1551-1608). 

The  Jornada  de  Africa  (1607)  by  Jeronimo  de  Mendo^a,  of 
Oporto,  is  divided  into  three  parts,  describing  the  expedition 
and  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir,  the  ransoms  and  escapes  of  the 
captives,  and  the  death  of  Christian  martyrs  in  Africa.  Its 
object  was  to  refute  certain  statements  in  Conestaggio's  recent 
work  DelV  unione  del  regno  di  Portogallo  alia  corona  di  Castiglia, 
but  Mendoga  had  fought  at  Alcacer  Kebir  and  had  been  taken 
prisoner ;  he  thus  writes  as  an  eyewitness,  and  his  excellent  style 
and  power  of  description  give  more  than  a  controversial  value 
and  interest  to  his  book  and  make  it  matter  for  regret  that  this 
short  history  was  apparently  his  only  work. 

Miguel  de  Moura  (1538-1600),  secretary  to  five  kings  and 
one  of  the  three  Governors  of  Portugal  in  1593,  set  an  example 
too  rarely  followed  by  those  who  have  played  an  important 
part  in  Portuguese  history  by  composing  a  brief  autobiography  : 
Vida  de  Miguel  de  Moura.  It  was  written  on  the  eve  of  St.  Peter's 
Day,  1594,  except  a  few  pages  which  were  added  in  the  year 
before  the  author's  death.  Incidentally  it  has  the  distinction  of 
containing  one  of  the  longest  sentences  ever  written  (114  lines — 
1840  ed.,  pp.  126-9), 

The  painstaking  and  talented  Duarte  Nunez  de  Leam 
[c.  1530-1608),  born  at  Evora,  son  of  the  Professor  of  Medicine 
Joao  Nunez,  besides  genealogical  and  legal  works,  Leis  extrava- 
gantes  (1560,  1569),  wrote  two  valuable  treatises  on  the  Portu- 
guese language  and  an  interesting  Descripgao  do  Reino  de  Portugal 
(1610), which  he  finished  in  1599.  He  also  found  time  to  spare  from 
his  duties  as  a  magistrate  to  recast  the  chronicles  of  the  Kings  of 
Portugal.  The  Cronicas  dos  Rets  de  Portugal  (1600)  contain 
those  from  Count  Henry  to  King  Fernando,  and  the  Cronicas 
del    Rey    Dom    loam    de    gloriosa   memoria    those    of    Kings 

*  See  Cronica,  p.  46. 


THE   HISTORIANS  211 

Joao  I,  Duarte,  and  Afonso  V.  Shorn  of  the  individuality 
of  the  early  chroniclers,  they  yet  retain  much  of  interest,  and 
Nunez  de  Learn  would  be  accorded  a  higher  place  as  historian 
were  it  not  for  our  knowledge  of  the  inestimable  value  of  the 
originals  which  he  edited  and  '  improved  '.  Two  generations 
earlier  Cristovam  Rodriguez  Azinheiro  (or  Accnheiro),  born  in 
1474  (he  tells  us  that  he  was  sixty-one  in  May  1535),  had  treated 
the  early  chronicles  in  the  same  way,  but  only  succeeded  in  re- 
taining all  that  was  jejune  without  preserving  their  picturesque- 
ness  in  his  Cronicas  dos  Senhores  Reis  de  Portugal.^ 

More  interesting  personally  than  as  historian,  the  humanist 
Damiao  de  Goes  (1502-74  2)  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
men  of  his  time,^  and,  thanks  partly  to  his  trial  before  the 
Inquisition,  partly  to  the  not  unpleasant  egotism  with  which  he 
chronicled  autobiographical  details,  not  only  in  his  Genealogia'^ 
but  in  many  of  his  other  works,  we  know  more  of  his  life  than  we 
know  of  most  contemporary  writers.  Traveller  and  diplomatist, 
scholar,  singer,  musician,  he  was  a  man  of  many  friends  during 
his  lifetime,  and  the  tragic  circumstances  of  his  last  years  have 
won  him  fresh  sympathizers  after  his  death.  Born  at  Alenquer 
and  brought  up  at  the  Court  of  King  Manuel,  he  became  page  to 
the  king  in  1518,  and  five  years  later  was  appointed  secretary 
at  the  Portuguese  Factory  at  Antwerp.  In  1529  he  was  sent  on 
a  diplomatic  mission  to  Poland,  and  in  this  and  the  following 
years,  on  similar  missions  or  for  his  own  pleasure,  '  saw  and  con- 
versed with  all  the  kings,  princes,  nobles  and  peoples  of  Christen- 

*  Ten  chronicles  from  Afonso  I  to  Joao  III.  He  says  (1824  ed.,  p.  12)  : 
Estam  em  este  presente  volliime  recopiladas,  sumadas,  abreviadas,  todas  as 
lemhrangas  dos  Reys  de  Portugal  das  caroniquas  velhas  e  novas  sent  mudar 
sustancia  da  verdade. 

^  Dise  q  hee  de  jdade  de  setenta  anos,  has  faz  e  este  feu'"  qve  (Examination 
before  the  Inquisition,  April  19,  1571).  The  name  appears  as  Goes,  Gooes, 
Goiz,  Guoes,  Guoez,  Guoiz,  Goyos.  Goes  is  a  small  village  some  twenty 
miles  north-east  of  Coimbra.  The  name  also  occurs  in  the  Basses-Pyrenees. 
See  P.  A.  de  Azevedo,  Alguns  nomes  do  departamento  dos  Baixos  Pirineos  que 
teem  correspondencia  em  Portugal  CBoletim  da  Ac.  das  Sciencias  de  Lisboa, 
viii  (1915),  pp.  280-1).  It  may  be  one  more  trace  of  the  former  occupation  of 
the  whole  Peninsula  by  the  Iberians  (=  high,  on  the  height,  as  in  Goyetche, 
&c.). 

*  See  Marques  de  Montebello,  Vida  de  Manoel  Machado  de  Azevedo  (1660), 
p.  3,  ap.  J.  de  Vasconcellos,  Os  Musicos  Portugueses,  i.  268. 

*  ff.  269  V.-71.  The  original  manuscript  disappeared,  but  a  copy  (that  of 
the  Marqueses  de  Castello  Rodrigo)  is  in  the  Biblioteca  Nacional  at  Lisbon. 

02 


212       THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

dom  '.*  He  made  the  acquaintance  of  Montaigne's  auhergistes 
allemands,  '  glorieux,  coleres  et  ivrognes  ',  turned  aside  to  visit 
Luther  and  Melanchthon  at  Wittenberg,^  and  was  for  several 
months  the  guest  of  Erasmus  at  Freiburg.  In  Italy  he  lived  with 
Cardinal  Sadolctto  at  Padua  (1534-8)  and  met  Cardinal  Bembo 
and  other  celebrated  men  of  the  day.  At  Louvain,  too,  mihi 
intime  carum  et  iucundum,  as  throughout  Europe,  he  had  many 
devoted  friends.  A  senator  of  Antwerp  welcomed  him  in  Latin 
verse  on  his  return  from  his  Scythian  travels,^  Luis  Vives  ad- 
dressed affectionate  letters  to  mi  Damiane,  Albrecht  Diirer 
painted  his  portrait,  Glarcanus  in  his  Dodecachordon  included 
music  of  his  composition.* 

In  1542  he  was  on  his  way  to  Holland  with  his  Flemish  wife 
when  he  heard  that  Louvain  was  threatened  by  a  French  force 
commanded  by  Longueval  and  mens  ille  in  Academiam  Louva- 
niensem  fatalis  amor  took  him  back  to  share  its  perils.  He  played 
a  principal  part  in  the  defence,  and  finally  remained  a  prisoner 
in  the  enemy's  hands,  quasi  piacularis  hostia,  as  he  says.^  His 
imprisonment  in  France  lasted  nine  months,  and  after  paying 
a  ransom  of  6,000  ducats  he  went  back  to  Louvain.  The  Emperor 
Charles  V  rewarded  him  for  his  services  with  a  splendid  coat  of 
arms.  In  1545,  after  twenty-one  years  of  European  travel,  he 
returned  with  his  wife  and  children  ^  to  Portugal,  and  three 
years  later  was  entrusted  with  Fernam  Lopez'  old  post,  the 

»  Antonio  Galvam,  Tratado,  f.  59  v.  He  visited  the  Courts  of  Charles  V, 
Fran9ois  I,  Henry  VHI,  and  Pope  Paul  IH.  Nicolas  Antonio  says  of  him 
[Bib.  Nova)  :  niorum  quippe  suavitate  atque  elegantia,  ergaque  doctos  liberalitate 
insinuabat  se  in  cuiusque  animum  qui  Musarum  commercio  frueretur,  facile 
atque  alte. 

^  He  arrived  on  Palm  Sunday,  1531,  and  learning  that  Luther  was  preaching 
at  once  left  the  inn  to  hear  him,  but  could  only  understand  the  Latin  quota- 
tions. Next  day  he  had  dinner  (jantar)  with  Luther  and  Melanchthon  and 
afterwards  returned  to  Luther's  house,  where  the  latter's  wife  regaled  theni 
with  a  dessert  of  nuts  and  apples.  Thence  he  went  to  Melanchthon's  house 
and  found  his  wife  spinning,  shabbily  dressed. 

^  Venisti  nimium  usque  et  usque  et  usque 

Expectate  tuis. 

*  Lib.  Jll,  pp.  264,  265  :  Aliud  Aeolij  Modi  exemplu  auihore  D.  Damiano 
a  Goes  Lusitano. 

6  He  had  gone  with  others  to  negotiate  terms  and,  when  barely  half  an  hour 
was  allowed  to  refer  the  terms  to  the  Senate,  remained  in  the  enemy's  camp 
in  order  to  create  a  delay  by  conversing  with  Longueval.  Meanwhile  relief 
had  been  received  and  the  Senate  refused  the  terms. 

»  In  his  trial  he  says  that  threeof  them  became  monks :  mcteo  tresfilhosfrades. 


THE   HISTORIANS  213 

Keepership  of  the  Archives.  He  lived  in  the  Pagos  d'Alcagova 
with  a  certain  magnificence,  keeping  open  house  for  all  foreigners, 
one  of  whom  records  that  already  in  1565  il  se  faict  fort  vieulx. 
Six  years  later,  on  April  4, 1571,  he  was  arrested  by  the  Inquisition 
and  spent  twenty  months  in  prison. 

It  was,  perhaps,  inevitable  that  he  should  have  incurred 
suspicion,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  explain  his  trial  by  the  enmity  of 
certain  persons  at  Court  due  to  passages  in  his  works.  His  life  had 
been  out  of  keeping  with  the  gravedades  de  Hespanha,  and  the 
charges  against  him  were  numerous  and  varied.  He  had  eaten  and 
drunken  with  heretics,  he  had  read  strange  books,  the  sound  of 
songs  not  understanded  of  the  people  and  organ  music  had  issued 
from  his  house  at  Lisbon,  he  had  omitted  to  observe  fasts,  he  had 
called  the  Pope  a  tyrant,  he  set  no  store  by  papal  indulgences  or 
auricular  confession.  Even  the  testimony  of  his  grand-niece  is 
recorded,  to  the  effect  that  her  mother  had  said  of  Goes,  her 
husband's  uncle,  that  he  had  no  more  belief  in  God  than  in  a  stone 
wall  (she  seems  to  have  had  Berkeleian  tendencies).  As  usual 
it  is  less  the  proceedings  of  the  Inquisition  than  the  bad  faith 
of  the  witnesses  that  arouse  disgust.  The  poet  Andrade  Caminha, 
who  apparently  came  forward  of  his  own  accord — we  are  not 
told  that  he  was  chamado — admitted  that  certain  words  of  Goes 
which  he  now  denounced  had  not  seemed  so  serious  to  him  before 
he  knew  that  Goes  was  in  the  prison  of  the  Inquisition.  Goes  had 
already  been  denounced  to  the  Inquisition  in  1545  and  1550, 
and  his  book  Fides,  Religio  Moresque  Aethiopum  (Lovanii,  1540) 
had  been  condemned  in  Portugal  in  1541.  He  was  examined 
frequently  in  1571  and  1572,  was  left  for  three  months  without 
news  of  his  family,  and  complained  of  being  old,  weak,  and  ill,  and 
that  his  body  had  become  covered  with  a  kind  of  leprosy  (July  14, 
1572).  His  sentence  (October  16,  1572)  pronounced  him  to  have 
incurred,  as  a  Lutheran  heretic,  excommunication,  confiscation 
of  all  his  property,  and  the  life-long  confinement  of  his  person. 
He  was  transferred  to  the  famous  monastery  of  Batalha  in 
December,  but  his  death  (January  30,  1574)  occurred  in  his  own 
house.  His  return  and  his  death  probably  explain  one  another. 
He  was  growing  very  old  in  1565  and  we  must  suppose  that  his 
recent  experiences  had  not  made  him  younger.    His  last  request 


214  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

— to  die  among  his  family — was  apparently  granted,  and  the 
further  explanations  (that  he  fell  forward  into  the  fire,  that  he 
died  of  an  apoplexy,  was  killed  by  order  of  the  Inquisition,  was 
beaten  to  death  by  the  lackeys  of  the  Conde  da  Castanheira, 
or  murdered  and  robbed  by  his  own  servants)  are  superfluous. 
His  works  consist  of  several  brief  Latin  treatises  crowded  with 
interesting  facts  (especially  his  Hispania)  ;  and  in  Portuguese 
the  Cronica  do  Principe  Dom  loam  (1567)  and  Cronica  do 
Felicissimo  Rey  Dom  Emanvel,  4  pt.  (1566,  1567).  He  also  found 
time  to  translate  Cicero's  De  Senectute  :  Livro  .  .  .  da  Velhice, 
(Veneza,  1534).  He  had  not  the  imagination  of  an  historian,  and 
unless  events  have  passed  before  his  eyes,  or  happen  to  interest 
him  personally,  he  can  be  bald  and  meagre  as  an  annalist.  But 
in  any  matter  which  touches  him  closely,  as  the  expulsion  and  the 
cruel  treatment  of  the  Jews,  or  the  massacre  of  new  Christians,  or 
the  account  of  Ethiopia,  he  broadens  out  into  moving  and 
detailed  description.  The  result  is  that  this  long  Chronicle  of  King 
Manuel  is  a  number  of  excellent  separate  treatises  rather  than 
a  history  with  unity  and  a  sense  of  proportion.  It  is  the  work 
of  a  scholar  who  likes  to  describe  directly,  from  his  own  experi- 
ence. The  Cronica  do  Principe  was  written  some  months  before 
that  of  King  Manuel.  The  latter  was  a  difficult  undertaking,^ 
for  many  persons  concerned  were  still  alive,  and  subjects  such 
as  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  needed  delicate  handling.  For 
thirty-one  years  it  had  hung  fire  in  the  hands  of  previous 
chroniclers  when  in  1558  Cardinal  Henrique  entrusted  it  to 
Damiao  de  Goes.  After  eight  years  the  four  parts  were  ready  for 
press,'-  but  the  difficulties  were  not  yet  over,  for  certain  chapters 
met  with  strong  disapproval  at  Court ^  and  had  to  be  altered,  so 
that  two  editions  of  the  first  part  appeared  in  1566  (the  first  being 
apparently  submitted  as  a  proof  and  not  for  sale),  but  the  publi- 
cation of  the  work  as  a  whole  was  not  completed  before  1567. 

^  Cf .  Prologo :  em  que  nmitos,  conio  em  cousa  desesperada,  se  nam  atreveram 
poer  a  mdo.  One  of  these  '  many  '  was  Goes'  rival,  the  eloquent  Bishop 
Antonio  Pinheiro. 

^  The  fourth  part  was  approved  on  January  2,  1566. 

^  For  the  grounds  of  this  disapproval  see  Critica  contcmporanen  a  Chronica 
de  D.  Manuel,  1914,  ed.  Edgar  Prestage  from  a  manuscript  in  the  British 
Museum.  Dr.  Joaquim  de  Vasconcellos  and  Mr.  G.  J.  C.  Henriques  have 
dealt  very  ably  with  many  interesting  points  of  Goes'  life  and  works. 


THE   HISTORIANS  215 

Scarcely  less  celebrated  than  Goes,  the  archaeologist  Lucio 
Andre  de  Resende  (1493  ?-i573),^  friend  of  Goes,  Clcnardus, 
and  Erasmus,  left  the  Dominican  convent  of  Bemfica,  in  which  he 
was  a  novice,  in  order  to  study  abroad,  at  Salamanca,  Paris,  and 
Louvain.  '  Tall,  with  very  large  eyes,  curling  hair,  rather  dark 
complexion  but  of  a  cheerful,  open  countenance ',  living  in  his 
house  {as  casus  de  Resende)  at  Evora  among  his  books  and  coins, 
statues  and  inscriptions — his  small  garden  hedged  with  marmores 
antigos  as,  according  to  Brito,  too  often  were  peasants'  vine- 
yards— he  exercised  a  considerable  influence  on  the  writers  of 
his  time  ^  and  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V 
and  by  King  Joao  III,  The  principal  of  his  own  works  were 
written  in  Latin,  but  besides  his  De  Antiquitatibus  Lusitaniae 
(1593),  which  was  edited  by  Mendez  de  Vasconcellos  with  the 
addition  of  a  fifth  book  from  notes  left  by  the  author,  he  com- 
posed in  Portuguese  a  '  brief  but  learned  '  Historia  da  Antiguidade 
da  Cidade  de  Evora  (1553).  In  his  Vida  do  Infante  Dom  Duarte 
(1789)^  he  did  not  write  the  '  very  copious  history  '  which  Paiva 
de  Andrade  ^  said  the  subject  required.  He  did  better,  for  this 
sketch  of  a  few  pages  is  a  little  masterpiece  in  which  the  vignettes, 
for  instance,  of  the  boatman  and  his  figs,  or  the  meal  in  the  mill, 
must  ever  retain  their  vividness  and  charm.  Resende  had  been 
the  prince's  tutor  and  writes  of  what  he  saw  ;  he  shows  that  he 
could  decipher  a  person's  character  as  keenly  as  a  Latin  inscrip- 
tion. Resende's  legitimate  successor  in  archaeology,  Manuel 
Severim  de  Faria  (1583-1655),  scarcely  belongs  to  the  sixteenth 
century  although  he  wrote  verses  in  1598  and  1599.  He  suc- 
ceeded his  uncle  as  Canon  (1608)  and  Precentor  (1609)  of  Evora 
Cathedral  and  resigned  in  favour  of  his  nephew  Manuel  de  Farip 
Severim  as  Canon  in  1633  and  Precentor  in  1642.  Living  in  ancient 

»  His  friend  Diogo  Mendez  de  Vasconcellos  (1523-99),  Canon  of  Evora, 
says  that  he  died  in  1575  aet.  80  (so  the  Theatrum  :  obiit  octogenaritts  A.C. 
1575).     Probably  the  5  is  an  error  or  misprint  for  3,  and  the  80  correct. 

'  Luis  de  Sousa  (Hist.  S.  Dom.,  Pt.  I,  Bk.  i,  cap.  2)  praises  his  juizo  e  curiosi- 
dade  de  bom  antiquario,  and  there  are  many  similar  passages  in  other  writers. 
Resende  furnished  Barros,  as  Severim  de  Faria  later  furnished  Brito,  with 
materials  and  advice. 

3  In  a  similar  though  more  elaborate  work  (88  ff.)  Frei  Nicolau  Diaz  (ti596) 
told  the  life  and  death  of  Princess  Joana  (fMay  1490)  :  Vida  da  Serenissima 
Princesa  Dona  Joana,  Filha  del  Rey  Dom  Afonso  0  Quinto  de  Portugal  (1585). 

*  Casamento  Perfeyto,  2a  ed.  (1726),  p.  61. 


2i6  THE  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

Evora  when  the  memory  of  Resende  was  still  fresh,  this  anti- 
quary of  the  pale  face  and  blue  eyes,  '  store-house  of  all  the 
treasures  of  the  past  ',^  with  his  medals  and  statues  and  choice 
library  of  rare  books,  soon  rivalled  Rescnde's  fame.  His  most 
important  works  are  Discursos  varios  politicos  (1624)  containing 
four  essays  and  the  lives  of  Barros,  Camoes,  and  Couto,  and 
Noticias  de  Portugal  (1655). 

A  less  attractive  personality  is  that  of  Manuel  de  Faria  e 
SouSA  (1590-1649),  born  near  Pombeiro  (Minho),  a  most  accom- 
plished, industrious,  but  untrustworthy  author  who  wrote  mainly 
in  Spanish.  His  Epitome  de  las  Historias  Portuguesas  was 
published  in  1628  at  Madrid,  where  he  spent  the  greater  part 
of  his  life,  and  where  he  died.  He  seems  to  have  retained  a  real 
affection  for  his  native  country,  but  he  was  not  a  man  of  inde- 
pendent character  and  bestowed  his  flatteries  as  his  interest 
required.  After  the  Restoration  of  1640  he  stayed  on  at  the 
Spanish  Court,  and  there  appears  to  be  some  doubt  whether  it 
was  Joao  IV,  his  nominal  master,  or  Philip  IV  of  Spain  that  he 
served  best.  His  long  historical  works,  Europa  Portuguesa, 
Asia  Portuguesa,  Africa  Portuguesa,  appeared  posthumously, 
between  1666  and  1681.  He  is  most  pleasant  when  he  is  not  try- 
ing to  '  make  '  history  but  is  simply  describing,  as  in  his  account 
of  the  various  provinces  of  Portugal.^  In  his  own  not  over-modest 
verdict  in  Part  4  of  the  same  volume,  De  las  primazias  deste 
Reyno,  he  was  el  primero  que  supo  historiar  con  mas  acierto. 
Faria  e  Sousa  was  enthusiastic  but  unscrupulous  and  he  has 
been  severely  handled  by  the  critics.  With  posterity  he 
has  fallen  between  two  stools,  since  the  Spanish  are  only 
moderately  interested  in  his  subject,  Portugal,  and  the  Portu- 
guese consider  him  to  belong  to  Spanish  literature. 

*  Monarchia  Lusitana,  Pt.  V,  Bk.  xvii,  cap.  5.  Bernardo  de  Brito  also 
praises  him,  and  Frei  Antonio  Brandao  acknowledges  his  debt  to  him.  Faria 
e  Sousa  says  that  he  received  from  him  cantidad  de  papelcs. 

*  Europa  Portuguesa,  vol.  iii,  pt.  3.  Portugal,  he  says,  is  a  perpetual 
Spring,  and  he  speaks  of  the  women  who  earn  their  living  by  selling  roses  and 
other  flowers  in  Lisbon,  of  the  almonds  of  Algarve,  the  excellent  honey,  &c., 
&c.  Vol.  i  covers  the  period  from  the  Flood  to  the  foundation  of  Portugal  ; 
vol.  ii  goes  down  to  1557  ;   vol.  iii  to  Philip  II  of  Spain. 


§6 
Ouinhentista  Prose 

Had  latinization  and  the  Renaissance  come  to  Portugal  in 
a  quiet  age  it  is  not  pleasant  to  think  what  havoc  they  might 
have  wrought  on  Portuguese  prose  in  the  unreal  atmosphere 
of  the  study.  Fortunately  they  found  Portugal  in  turmoil. 
Stirring  incidents  and  adventures  were  continually  occurring 
which  needed  no  heightening  of  rhetoric  or  Latin  pomp  of 
polysyllables.  A  scientific  spirit  of  accuracy  was  abroad,  and 
the  missionaries  and  adventurers,  travellers,  mariners,  mer- 
chants, officials,  and  soldiers  who  recorded  their  experiences 
wrote  as  men  of  action,  with  life  and  directness. 

Few  stories  are  more  intense  and  affecting  than  those  told  by 

the   Portuguese  survivors   of  shipwreck   in   the  sixteenth   and 

seventeenth  centuries.    Twelve  of  these  appeared  in  the  original 

collection    edited    by   Bernardo   Gomes   de   Brito   (born   in 

1688)  :  Historia  Tragico-Maritima  (2  vols.,  1735, 6).i    The  earliest 

and  most  celebrated  is  the  Relagam  da  mui  notavel  perda  do  galeao 

grande  S.  Jodo  [June  24,  1552],  an  anonymous  narrative  based 

on  the  account  of  a  survivor,  Alvaro  Fernandez,  probably  the 

ship's  mate,  which  tells  of  the  death  of  D.  Lianor  de  Sepulveda 

and  her  husband  with   a  simple  pathos  and  dramatic  power 

unattained  by  the  many  poets  who  later  treated  the  same  theme. 

But  the  accounts  of  the  wreck  of  the  S.  Bento  (i554),  the  Conceigao 

(1555),  the  S.  Paulo  (1561),  of  D.  Jorge  de  Albuquerque  (1565), 

»  For  a  full  list  see  Innocencio  da  Silva,  Dice.  Bihliog.  i.  377,  and  Grundriss, 
p.  339.  Five  volumes  were  announced  by  Barbosa  Machado  as  ready  for 
press.  The  modern  editors,  besides  eleven  wrecks  of  the  sixteenth,  eight  of 
the  seventeenth,  and  two  of  the  eighteenth,  have  included  three  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Some  of  the  original  chap-books  survive,  with  a  fine  woodcut 
of  a  tossing  galleon  on  the  title-page  :  Historia  da  miii  notavel  perda  do  galeam 
grande  S.  Joam  (1554  ?)  ;  Relagam  do  lastimozo  navfragio  da  nao  Conceifani 
chamada  Algaravia  a  Nova  (1555)  ;  Naufragio  da  nao  Santo  Alberto  (1597)  '• 
Memoravel  relafam  da  perda  da  nao  Conceigam  (1627).  The  RelaQatn  da  viagem 
do  galeao  Sao  Lovrenfo  e  sua  perdigdo  (1651)  is  by  the  Jesuit  Antonio  Francisco 
Cardim  (i  596-1659)  ;  the  Relagam  sumaria  da  viagem  que  fez  Ferndo  d' Alvarez 
Cabral,  by  Manuel  Mesquita  Perestrello,  is  an  account  of  the  wreck  of  the  fine 
ship  5.  Bento,  which  had  taken  Camoes  to  India. 


2i8      THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

and  others,  are  scarcely  less  moving.  The  ships,  of  i,ooo  tons, 
as  the  Aguia,  '  the  largest  vessel  that  had  hitherto  sailed  to 
India'  (1558),  and  under,  often  with  rotten  rudder,'or  the  whole 
ship  rotten,  sepulturas  dos  homens,  with  few  boats,  careless  and 
ignorant  pilots,  badly  careened,  overloaded,  overcrowded,  ill- 
supplied  with  worm-eaten  biscuit,  '  poisonous  '  wine,  and 
insufficient  water,  seemed  to  invite  destruction.  Between  1582 
and  1602  alone  thirty-eight  ships  were  lost.  The  sea  was  not  the 
only  enemy  :  corsairs  off  the  coast  of  Portugal,  French,  Dutch, 
and  English,  Lutheran  heretics  who  threw  overboard  beads 
and  missals,  or  a  Turkish  fleet  '  in  sight  of  Ericeira  ',  exacted 
their  toll  when  all  other  dangers  had  been  successfully  overcome. 
The  story  is  told  immediately  after  the  event,  sometimes  almost 
in  the  form  of  a  diary  or  log,  or  years  later,  by  survivors  or 
based  on  the  account  of  survivors,  and  it  varies  according  as 
the  narrator  is  the  captain  of  the  ship,  a  landsman  with  a  dislike 
of  sailors,  a  plain  soldier,  a  Jesuit  priest,  a  Franciscan  monk, 
a  distinguished  Lisbon  chemist  (Henrique  Diaz  in  i.  6),  or 
a  famous  historian  (ii.  3  by  Diogo  do  Couto,*  ii.  4  by  Joao  Baptista 
Lavanha  ^).  All  or  most  of  their  accounts  are  masterpieces  of 
vivid  phraseology.  We  follow  as  in  a  novel  their  adventures 
as  the  sea  '  breaks  into  flower — quehrando  em  frol ',  as  they  are 
stranded  on  a  desert  island,  boarded  in  sight  of  home,  entrapped 
by  savages,  devoured  by  wild  beasts,  tottering,  arrimados  em  paos, 
exhausted  by  thirst  and  hunger,  or  prostrated  by  heat,  in 
comparison  with  which  the  calmas  of  Alentejo  '  are  but  as 
Norwegian  cold  '  :  toils  and  perils  borne  with  heroic  courage, 
told  with  the  simplicity  of  heroes,  without  adorno  de  palavras 
nem  linguagem  floreada. 

Many  books  of  travel  were  the  natural  consequence  of  the 
discovery  of  India.  The  historian  Joao  de  Barros'  passion  for 
knowledge,  especially  geographical  knowledge,  was  the  first  cause  ' 
of  the  learned  and  instructive  Chorographia  (1561)  of  his  nephew 

'  In  this  Relafam  do  naufragio  da  nao  S.  Thome,  written  in  161 1,  twenty-two 
years  after  the  event,  he  refers  several  times  to  his  Decadas. 

-  Naufragio  da  nao  S.  Alberto  (1593).  It  is  a  summary  of  a  largo  cartapacio 
of  the  pilot. 

'  pedirme  meu  tio  loam  de  Barros  que  Ihe  screucsse  miiito  particularmente  todos 
OS  lugares  desie  meu  caminho. 


QUINHENTISTA   PROSE  219 

Caspar  Barreiros  (ti574),  a  description  of  the  places  through 
which  he  passed  on  his  way  to  Rome  in  1545  to  thank  the  Pope 
on  behalf  of  the  Infante  Henrique,  Cardinalem  amplissimum, 
for  his  cardinal's  hat.  But  this  work  (edited  by  his  brother, 
Lopo  Barreiros)  was  an  exception.  Most  of  the  travel  books 
were  concerned  with  the  far  East. 

The  Livro  em  que  da  relagdo  do  que  viu  e  ouviu  no  Oriente  (15 16) 
by  DuARTE  Barbosa  of  Lisbon,  brother-in-law  of  Fernam  de 
Magalhaes,  exists  in  a  Portuguese  manuscript  in  the  Public 
Library  of  Oporto,  but  was  first  published  in  Portuguese  in 
1 82 1  as  a  translation  from  the  Italian  Lihro  di  Odoardo 
Barbosa  Portoghese,  itself  a  translation  from  a  copy  at  Seville. 
The  author  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  youth  in  India, 
and  his  work  contains  vivid  and  accurate  notes  on  Eastern 
lands  and  cities,  especially  Malabar. 

One  of  the.  causes  that  most  moved  Portugal  to  curiosity 
and  acted  as  an  incentive  to  discovery  were  the  vague  rumours 
of  the  existence  of  a  mighty  Christian  prince,  the  half-mythical 
Prester  John,  Negus  of  Abyssinia.  The  priest  Francisco 
Alvarez  {c.  1470  ?-r.  1540)  set  out  with  Duarte  Galvam,  first 
Portuguese  Ambassador  to  Abyssinia,  in  15 15,  but  Galvam's 
death  delayed  the  mission,  and  it  was  not  till  1520  that  Alvarez 
and  the  new  ambassador,  D.  Rodrigo  de  Lima,  reached  the 
Court  of  Prester  John.  They  remained  for  six  years  in  the 
country,  and  during  this  time  Alvarez  recorded  in  straight- 
forward notes  every  detail  of  the  country  and  its  inhabitants 
with  minuteness  and  accuracy.  He  considered  himself  old  ^ 
in  1520;  he  was  certainly  active  :  he  shoots  hares  and  pheasants, 
washes  unsuccessfully  for  gold,  looks  after  his  slaves,  his  nine 
mules,  his  fourteen  cows,  and  organizes  a  procession  against 
locusts.  On  their  return,  in  Alvarez'  friend  Antonio  Galvam's 
ship,  to  Lisbon,  bringing  'the  length  of  Prester  John's  foot', 
he  was  eagerly  questioned  by  king,  prelates,  and  courtiers — 
the  whole  Court  trooped  out  along  the  road  from  Coimbra  to 
meet  them — and  when  he  published  his  fascinating  diary  of 
travel,  Verdadeira  Informagam  das  terras  do  Preste  Joam 
(1540),  it  was  soon  translated  into  almost  every  language  of 
'   Verd.  Inf.,  p.  i  lo  :    nam  era  pera  velhos. 


220  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

Europe.^  Frei  Caspar  da  Cruz  of  Evora,  missionary  in  China, 
returned  to  Portugal  in  1569,  and  in  the  same  year  began  his 
Tractado  em  que  se  cotam  muito  por  esteso  as  cousas  da  China 
(1570).  He  calls  it  a  singella  narragam,  but  it  contains  valuable 
information  about  China,  nor  did  the  author  neglect  his  style. 
The  Dominican  Frei  Joao  dos  Santos  {c.  1550 -c.  1625  P)^ 
was  born  at  Evora  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  went  out  to  East  Africa  and  India  as  a  missionary  in  1586. 
He  returned  to  Lisbon  in  August  1600  and  nine  years  later 
published  his  Ethiopia  Oriental  (1609),  an  attractive,  curious 
account,  written  in  a  clear  and  easy  style,  of  the  natives,  their 
land  and  customs.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  some  of  the  settlers 
sadly  abused  his  credulity,  as  in  the  case  of  the  mercador's  tale 
of  the  native  sorcerer  or  the  man  380  years  old,  but  this  does 
not  by  any  means  impair  the  interest  of  his  book.  More  individual 
and  vivid  is  the  Itinerario  (1560)  of  Antonio  Tenreiro,  who  in 
brief,  staccato  sentences  describes  minutely  what  he  saw  (the 
yosaes  of  red,  white,  and  yellow  roses  in  May  near  Damascus, 
the  red  roses  of  Shiraz,  the  fair,  white  Gurgis,  complexioned  like 
Englishmen)  during  his  travels  from  Ormuz  to  the  Caspian 
Sea  and  in  Palestine  and  Egypt,  and  his  overland  journey 
from  Ormuz  to  Portugal  (1529)  in  which,  alone  with  an 
Arab  guide,  he  spent  twenty-two  days  in  crossing  the  desert. 
A  similar  land  journey,  a  generation  later,  is  described  wdth  an 
equal  wealth  of  curious  detail  in  the  Itinerario  (1565)  of  Mestre 
Martim  Afonso,  surgeon  to  the  Viceroy,  Conde  de  Redondo,^ 
while  the  Franciscan  Frei  Pantaleam  de  Aveiro  in  his 
Itinerario  da  Terra  Santa,  &c.  (1593)  described  his  journey  to  the 
Holy  Land.      Not  less  adventurous  were  the  travels  of  another 

'  This  seems  to  have  aroused  the  resentment  of  Barros  {Asia,  iii.  iv.  3). 
The  author,  he  says,  had  no  learning.  In  11.  iii.  4  he  again  refers  to  him 
slightingly  as  '  a  certain  Francisco  Alvarez  '.  Barros  as  grammarian  similarly 
ignored  Oliveira. 

^  Barbosa  Machado  says,  ultimamente  em  0  Convento  de  Goa,  para  onde 
tinha  passado  no  anno  de  1622  falleceu  com  saudade,  &c.  Innocencio  da 
Silva  read  this  with  a  comma  after  passado. 

^  Afonso  de  Albuquerque  mentions  another  surgeon  Mestre  Afonso  in 
India  in  his  time,  i.e.  half  a  century  earlier.  The  value  of  the  Itinerario 
consists  in  its  having  been  written  as  a  diary  on  the  journey,  and  its  author, 
perhaps  thinking  of  Mendez  Pinto,  says  hee  huii  grande  descuido  de  homens 
que  fazem  semelhantes  viagens  e  as  nom  escreuem  .  .  .  porque  a  memoria  nom 
pode  ser  capaz  de  tamanha  cousa  e  tantas  particularidades  (p.  82). 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  221 

Franciscan,  Frei  Caspar  de  S.  Bernardino,  who  related  them 
with  greater  parade  of  erudition  in  a  clear,  elegant  style  in  his 
Itinerario  da  India  por  terra  (1611),  the  promised  second  part 
of  which  was  unhappily  not  finished  or  at  least  not  published. 
Half  a  century  later  the  Jesuit  Manuel  Godinho  {c.  1630- 
1712),^  in  the  Relagam  do  novo  car,iinho  que  fez  por  terra  e  mar 
(1665),  gave  a  remarkable  account,  in  a  style  not  untouched  by 
the  culteranismo  of  the  time,  of  his  return  journey  in  1663  from 
Ba^aim.  But  various  and  arresting  as  are  the  books  of  Portu- 
guese travellers,  they  are  all  eclipsed  by  the  wonderful  Peregrina- 
gam  (1614)  of  F'ernam  Mendez  Pinto  (c.  1510-83).  This  prince 
of  travellers  and  adventurers  was  born  at  Montemor  0  Velho. 
His  parents  were  of  humble  station,  and  at  the  time  of  King 
Manuel's  death  (1521)  he  w^as  brought  by  an  uncle  to  Lisbon 
in  order  to  earn  his  living.  Although  he  remained  in  Portugal 
for  sixteen  years,  in  the  service  first  of  a  lady  of  Lisbon 
and  later  of  D.  Joao  de  Lencastre,^  lord  of  Montemor  o 
Velho,  at  Setubal,  he  was  but  just  in  his  teens  when,  cross- 
ing in  a  boat  from  Alfama,  he  was  captured  off  Cezimbra 
by  a  French  corsair  as  a  foretaste  of  pleasures  to  come.  In 
March  1537  he  set  out  for  India  and  his  odyssey  began  in  earnest. 
He  had  no  sooner  reached  Diu  than  he  re-embarked  on  an 
expedition  to  the  Straits  of  Mecca.  His  hope  was  to  make 
a  rich  prize  and  become  muito  rico  em  pouco  tempo.  He 
went  next  with  three  others  on  a  mission  to  Ethiopia,  and  on 
the  return  voyage  he  was  captured  by  the  Turks,  placed  in 
a  subterranean  dungeon,  and  then  sold  to  a  Greek  renegade, 
whom  he  describes  as  '  the  most  inhuman  and  cruel  dog  of  an 
enemy  ever  seen'.  Fortunately  after  three  months  the  Greek 
sold  him  for  12,000  reis  to  a  Jew,  who  brought  him  to  Ormuz. 
After  spending  little  over  a  fortnight  there  he  embarked  with 
a  cargo  of  horses  for  Goa,  and  later  was  wounded  in  a  fight  with 
the  Turks.  He  next  proceeded  to  Malacca,  and  was  sent  thence 
on  a  mission  to  the  King  of  the  Batas,  by  whom  he  was  made 
welcome  '  as  rain  to  our  rice  crops  '.     After  accompanying  the 

'  According  to  Barbosa  Machado  he  entered  the  Jesuit  College  as  a  novice 
in  1645  ^-id  died  in  1712  aet.  78.  Godinho  also  wrote  a  life  of  Frei  Antonio 
das  Chagas, 

'  He  was  the  son  of  D.  Jorge,  illegitimate  son  of  Joao  II.,  and  was  created 
Duke  ol  Aveiro. 


222  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

king  on  a  campaign  he  returned  to  Malacca,  losing  his  cargo  of 
tin  and  benjamin  on  the  way.  His  next  mission  was  to  the 
King  of  Aaru.  He  returned  to  Malacca  a  slave,  as  his  ship  was 
wrecked,  and  after  fearful  sufferings  he,  the  only  survivor,  was 
bought  cheap  by  a  poor  Moorish  trader.  A  trading  expedition 
to  Pao  and  Lugor  ended  as  disastrously  :  after  a  fight  with 
Moors  he  succeeded  in  swimming  wounded  to  land,  but  returned 
penniless  to  Patane.  In  despair  he  joined  the  frcebooting 
Antonio  de  Faria,  and  they  preyed  on  Chinese  junks  till  their 
ship  was  weighed  down  with  silver  and  silk,  damask  and  porce- 
lain. Faria  and  his  men  are  represented  fighting,  torturing, 
murdering,  plundering,  playing  at  dice  on  deck  for  pieces  of  silk, 
praying  a  litany,  and  promising  rich  and  good  spoil  to  Our  Lady 
of  the  Hill  at  Malacca.  After  being  shipwrecked  they  joined 
a  Chinese  pirate  and  again  built  up  theirfortunes.  They  weathered 
a  storm  by  throwing  overboard  twelve  cases  of  silver,  sacked 
a  Chinese  city,  were  received  in  honour  at  Liampo  (Ningpo), 
but  again  inordinate  greed  for  gold  proved  their  ruin,  and,  after  a 
daring  attempt  to  plunder  the  rich  tombs  of  the  Emperors  of  China 
in  the  island  of  Calemplui,  they  were  finally  stranded  in  China 
and  arrested  as  vagabonds.  After  six  weeks  in  the  crowded 
prison  at  Nanking  the  Portuguese  were  taken  to  Peking  and 
thence  deported  to  Quansi  (Kansu),  where  they  were  freed  by 
the  timely  attack  of  the  King  of  Tartary.  He  sent  them  to 
Cochin-China,  but  on  the  way  they  entered  the  service  of  a  Chinese 
pirate.  When  they  reached  Japan  only  three  Portuguese  sur- 
vived, the  first  Europeans,  Mendez  Pinto  claims,  to  set  foot 
there.  When  he  brought  news  of  this  land  to  Liampo  a  trading 
expedition  was  hastily  equipped  and  set  out  in  defiance  of  times 
and  seasons.  Few  of  those  who  embarked  in  the  nine  junks 
ever  saw  land  again.  Mendez  Pinto  eventually  reached  Malacca 
(1544).  Pedro  de  Faria  later  sent  him  on  a  mission  to  the  King 
of  Martavao.  Martavao  was,  however,  sacked  soon  after  his 
arrival,  and  he  was  carried  a  prisoner  to  Pegu.  He  escaped  by 
night  and  after  many  adventures  returned  to  Goa.  He  imme- 
diately set  out  again  '  to  challenge  fortune  in  China  and  Japan  '. 
After  accompanying  the  King  of  Sunda  on  a  war  expedition 
he  was  again  wrecked  and  spent  thirteen  days  on  a  raft.    Of  the 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  223 

eleven  survivors  three  were  eaten  by  crocodiles  and  the  rest 
sold  as  slaves.  Released  by  the  King  of  Calapa,  Mendez  Pinto 
served  under  the  King  of  Siam  and  returned  to  Pegu  and  thence 
to  Malacca.  Once  more  he  set  out  for  Japan,  and  this  time  his 
voyage  prospered  and  he  came  back  with  a  fair  profit.  At 
Malacca  he  was  eagerly  questioned  by  St.  Francis  Xavier  (1506-52) 
as  to  the  conditions  in  Japan.  He  seems  to  have  been  infected 
with  the  saint's  enthusiasm,  as  were  most  of  those  who  met 
him,  and  after  his  death  he  perhaps  gave  up  a  considerable 
fortune  in  order  to  return  as  missionary  and  ambassador  to 
Japan.  Before  leaving  Goa  (April  1554)  with  St.  Francis 
Xavier's  successor,  Padre  Belchior,  he  had  been  received  into 
the  Company  of  Jesus.  After  many  hardships  they  landed  in 
China  in  July  1556.  In  the  spring  of  1558,  a  few  weeks  after 
returning  to  Goa,  Mendez  Pinto  sailed  for  home  and  arrived  at 
Lisbon  on  September  22.  The  Lisbon  officials  dallied  with  his 
pretensions  to  reward  for  his  services.  During  his  wanderings 
in  India,  Ethiopia,  China,  Japan,  Tartary,  and  Arabia  he  had 
persevered  through  captivities,  battles,  and  shipwrecks,  but 
four  or  five  years  of  official  evasions  broke  his  spirit,  and  he  retired 
to  live  in  poverty  at  Almada.  Philip  II,  stirred  to  interest  in 
this  legendary  figure,  granted  him  two  bushels  of  wheat  in 
January  1583,  and  in  July  of  the  same  year  he  died.  He  had 
long  before  left  the  Company  of  Jesus,  either  of  his  own  free 
will  or  expelled,  perhaps  on  suspicion  of  Jewish  descent.^  His 
name  was  erased  from  the  Company's  records  and  letters.  Of 
his  twenty-one  years  of  trader,  envoy,  pirate,  and  missionary 
in  the  far  East  he  wrote  for  his  children  a  narrative  of  breath- 
less interest,  and,  speaking  generally,  it  bears  the  stamp  of 
truth.  We  gather  that  he  was  brave  and  adventurous,  despite 
a  natural  timidity,  of  a  consuming  curiosity  which  often  got 
the  better  of  his  fears,  pious,  temperate,  apt  to  be  carried  away 
by  fugitive  enthusiasms,  but  persistent,  gay,  and  optimistic 
in  defeat  and  disappointment.  He  appears  not  to  have  been  par- 
ticularly vain.  He  does  not  disguise  some  of  his  less  creditable 
actions,   and  he  certainly   does  not  exaggerate  his  services  in 

*  See  the  important  works  by  Colonel  Cristovam  Ayres,  Fern  So  Mevdes 
Pinto,  1904  ;   Ferndo  Mendes  Pinto  e  o  Japao,  1906. 


224  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

Japan.^  He  may  possibly  have  been  one  of  the  three  Portuguese 
who  discovered  it  in  1542  :  their  names  are  given  by  Couto  (V.  viii. 
12)  as  Mota,  Zeimoto  and  Peixoto.  Gifted  with  keen  imagination, 
he  could  exaggerate  -  when  expediency  required,  but  he  knew  that 
in  the  account  of  his  travels  exaggeration  was  not  expedient,  and 
he  was  constantly  on  guard  against  the  notorious  scepticism  of  his 
fellow-countrymen.^  He  may  have  heightened  the  colour  occa- 
sionally, but  as  a  rule  he  writes  with  restraint,  although  with 
delight  in  a  good  story  and  skill  in  bringing  out  the  dramatic  side 
of  events.  It  is  one  of  the  charms  of  his  work  that  it  is  very  definite 
in  dates  and  figures,  but  this  also,  through  inevitable  errors  and 
misprints,  afforded  a  handle  to  the  pedantry  of  critics.  The  fatal 
similarity  of  Mendez  and  mendacity  gave  rise  to  the  play  on  his 
name  :  Fernam,  mentes ?  Minto  (' Fernam,  do  you  lie? — I  lie'), 
and  Congreve,  in  Love  for  Love,  by  calling  him  '  a  liar  of  the  first 
magnitude  '  clinched  the  matter  in  England.  But  comparatively 
early  a  reaction  set  in,*  and  modern  travellers  have  unequivocally 
confirmed  the  more  favourable  verdict  and  corroborated  his 
detailed  descriptions  of  Eastern  countries.  The  mystery  of  the 
East,  the  heavy  scent  of  its  cities,  its  fervent  rites  and  im- 
memorial customs,  as  well  as  the  magic  of  adventure,  haunt  his 
pages.     A  hundred  pictures  refuse  to  fade  from  the  memory, 

'  His  work  did  not  appear  till  1614  and  it  is  uncertain  to  what  extent  it 
was  edited  by  the  historian  Francisco  de  Andrade.  It  is  thought  that  the 
account  of  his  services  as  missionary  in  Japan  may  have  been  excised  owing 
to  the  hostility  of  the  Jesuits. 

^  Cap.  223  :  eii  respondi  acrecentando  em  mtiitas  coiisas  que  me  perguntava 
por  me  parecer  que  era  assim  necessario  a  reputafdo  da  nafdo  portuguesa. 

^  Cf.  caps.  14,  70,  88,  114,  126,  198,  204.  The  complaint  is  echoed  by 
almost  every  Portuguese  traveller  of  the  day.  Bishop  Osorio  refers  to  the 
fidei  faciendae  difficidtas ;  even  the  truthful  and  exact  Francisco  Alvarez 
fears  his  readers'  disbelief. 

*  Cf.  Faria  e  Sousa  (laudari  a  laudato  f)  :  Yo  le  tengo  por  muy  verdadero  ; 
A.  de  Sousa  Macedo,  Eva  e  Ave,  ii.  55,  1676  ed.,  p.  495  :  El  Rcy  Catholico 
D.  Philippe  II,  quando  veio  a  Portugal,  gostava  de  ouvir  a  Fernao  Mendes,  em 
ctijas  peregrinafoens  &■  sucessos  que  dellas  escreveo  mostrou  0  tempo  com  a  ex- 
periencia  a  verdade  que  se  Ihe  disputava  antes  que  ouvesse  tantas  noticias 
d'aquellas  partes  ;  Soares,  Theatrum  :  diii  apud  Lusitanos  fidem  non  meruit 
donee  rerum  qui  secuti  sunt  eventus  et  aliorum  scripta  nihil  Ferdinandum  a  vera 
discrepasse  confirmarunt ;  Manuel  Bernardes,  Nova  Floresta,  i  (1706),  p.  124  : 
as  Relafoes  do  nosso  Fernao  Mendez  Pinto  que  ndo  merecem  tdo  pouco  credito 
como  alguns  Ihe  ddo.  '  Either  never  man  had  better  memory  or  he  was  the 
most  solemn  liar  that  ever  put  pen  to  paper  '  is  the  verdict  of  Jose  Agostinho 
de  Macedo  (Motim  Literario,  184.1  ed.,  ii.  17). 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  225 

whether  they  are  of  silk-laden  Chinese  junks  or  jars  of  gold  dust, 
vivid  descriptions  of  shipwreck  (the  hiss  and  swell  of  the  waves 
are  in  his  rich  sea-Latin)  or  the  awful  pathos  of  the  Queen  of 
Martavao's  death,  the  sketch  of  a  supercilious  Chinese  mandarin 
or  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  tramping  through  Japan. 

Five  years  after  Mendez  Pinto's  return  to  Portugal  a  book 
scarcely  less  strange  than  his  PeregrinaQam,  of  atmosphere  as 
oriental  and  of  interest  as  absorbing  although  more  scientific,  was 
printed  at  Goa,  Its  author,  Garcia  da  Orta^  [c.  1495-r.  1570), 
born  at  Elvas,  the  son,  perhaps,  of  Jorge  da  Orta,  owner  of  a  shop 
[temdeiro]  in  that  town,  studied  medicine  for  ten  years  (1515-25) 
at  Salamanca  and  Alcala,  and  in  1526  began  to  practise  as  a  doctor 
at  Castello  de  Vide.  From  1532  to  1534  he  w^as  Professor  at  the 
University  of  Lisbon,  and  in  March  1534  sailed  with  his  friend  and 
patron,  the  insatiable  Governor  Martim  Afonso  de  Sousa,^  to  India 
as  king's  physician.  The  East  cast  its  spell  over  his  curious 
and  inquiring  mind  ;  he  remained  under  twelve  or  more  Governors 
and  died  at  a  good  old  age,  probably  at  Goa.  There,  on  the 
veranda  of  his  beautiful  garden,  in  this  land  of  bellissimi  giardini,^ 
served  affectionately  by  many  slaves,  and  with  the  books  of 
his  well-stocked  library  ready  to  his  hand,*  he  would  regale  his 

'  In  France  he  was  known  as  du  Jardin.  Familiarly  this  great  botanist 
seems  to  have  been  called  Herbs.  A  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  the  Coloquios 
has  Gracia  Dorta  o  Ervas  on  the  back  of  the  binding.  This  might  be  an 
ignorant  mistake  for  D'Elvas. 

*  The  Governor's  brother,  Pero  Lopez  de  Sousa,  wrote  a  Diario  da  Nave- 
gafao  (1530-2)  first  published  at  Lisbon  in  1839.  The  soldier  in  Couto's 
Dialogo  says,  nao  vat  tao  mal  negociado  Mr  por  Fysico  mor  pais  todos  os  que 
esle  cargo  serviram  iiraram  nos  sens  tres  annos  sete  ou  oito  mil  cruzados, 

^  Libro  di  Odoardo  Barbosa  Porloghese. 

*  He  must  have  spent  many  a  half-hour  in  the  corner  bookshop  in  Goa 
mentioned  by  Couto  (Dec.  vi.  v.  8,  1781  ed.,  p.  400)  :  0  canto  onde  pousa 
um  livreiro — unless  this  is  a  misprint  for  hiveiro,  as  the  neighbouring  sirgueiro 
seems  to  indicate.  The  growth  of  Portuguese  literature  in  the  East  would 
furnish  matter  for  a  curious  essay.  Great  folios  like  the  Cancioneiro  de 
Resende  (see  Lopez  de  Castanheda,  v.  12,  and  Barros,  Asia,  iii.  iii.  4,  for  the 
strange  use  made  of  it  in  India)  and  the  Flos  Sanctorum  were  taken  out,  and 
it  is  improbable  that  they  were  brought  back  when  every  square  inch  was 
required  for  pepper.  Thousands  of  precious  volumes  must  have  gone  down  in 
shipwrecks,  others — profane  books  and  auios — were  thrown  overboard  at 
the  bidding  of  the  priests.  For  the  fate  of  a  case  of  Hebrew  Bibles  (briuias) 
see  Correa,  Lendas  da  India,  i.  656-7.  Amadis  de  Gaula  was  apparently 
in  India  in  15 19  (Lopez  de  Castanheda,  v.  16).  A  most  interesting  list  of 
books  ready  to  be  sent  to  the  Negus  of  Abyssinia  in  15 15  is  given  in  Sousa 
Viterbo's  A  Livraria  Real  (1901),  p.  8. 

2362  P 


226  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

guests  with  strange  fruits — all  the  maneiras  a  giila  of  India — 
and  with  still  stranger  knowledge  His  knowledge  was  based 
on  personal  observation,  for  although  he  respected  Galen  and 
Dioscorides  as  the  princes  of  medicine  and  was  possessed  of  great 
erudition,  he  was  not  disposed  to  bow  blindly  to  the  authority  of 
any  writer,  Arab  or  Greek,  least  of  all  to  Scholasticism,  he  went 
to  Nature  and  in  his  Coloquios  dos  Simples  (1563)  recorded  what 
he  had  seen  and  heard,  the  truth  without  rhetoric,  setting 
aside  the  mil  fabulas  of  Pliny  and  Herodotus.  These  fifty-nine 
dialogues,  arranged  in  alphabetical  order,  pay  more  regard  to 
facts  than  to  style.  They  are  full  of  varied  information  and  give 
us  a  most  pleasant  insight  into  the  writer's  character,  strong, 
humorous,  obstinate,  and  into  his  life  at  Goa.  From  a  scientific 
point  of  view  they  are  of  great  importance  :  not  only  did  they 
provide  the  first  description  of  cholera  ^  and  of  many  unknown 
plants,  but  after  three  and  a  half  centuries  they  retain  their 
scientific  interest  and  value.  Begun  many  years  earlier  in 
Latin,^  they  were  published  in  the  author's  old  age,  with  an 
introductory  ode  by  his  friend,  the  poet  Camoes.  Unhappily 
they  became  known  to  Europe  chiefly  in  a  garbled  Latin  version 
by  Charles  de  I'ficluse  (Clusius) — a  fifth  edition  appeared  in 
1605 — from  which  the  Italian  and  French  translations  were 
made.  It  was  not  until  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  skilful 
and  eager  care  of  the  Conde  de  Ficalho  enabled  a  larger  number 
of  those  who  read  Portuguese  to  appreciate  Orta  at  his  true 
worth. 

Born  at  Alcacer  do  Sal,  the  celebrated  scientist  Pedro  Nunez 
(1492  .''-1577  ?),  whose  name  lives  in  the  instrument  of  his 
invention,   the  nonius,'^  was  Cosmographer  to  Kings  Joao  HI 

*  Unless  Correa's  description  (Lendas,  iv.  288-9)  is  earlier.  Other  events 
recorded  by  Correa  which  must  have  closely  affected  Orta  are  the  fate  of 
a  bachelor  of  medicine  strangled  and  burnt  by  the  Inquisition  at  Goa  in  1543 
(iv.  292)  and  the  outbreak  of  small-pox,  from  which  8,000  children  died  there 
in  three  months  in  1545  (iv.  447).  The  Dialogo  da  perfey^am  &-  partes  que 
sum  necessarias  ao  bpj^  medico  (1562),  with  the  exception  of  the  dedica- 
tory letter  to  King  Sebastian  and  the  title,  is  written  in  Spanish  (25  ff.). 
Apparently  Afonso  de  Miranda  found  it  in  Latin  among  the  books  of  his 
son  Jeronimo  (who  had  studied  at  Coimbra  and  Salamanca)  and  translated  it. 

2  Composto,  he  says  {Coloquios,  i.  5).    Dimas  Bosque  (ib.  i.  1 1)  says  comcgado. 

*  Thus  he  contributed  to  the  fact,  which  he  notices  in  the  Tratado  da  carta 
de  tnarear,  that  the  Portuguese  sea  enterprises  were  based  on  careful  prepara- 
tion.    The  nonius  was  perfected  in  the  following  century  by  Vernier. 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  227 

and  Sebastian  and  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  the  University 
of  Coimbra  (1544-62).  Prince  Luis  and  D.  Joao  de  Castro 
were  his  pupils.  He  wrote  indifferently  in  Latin,  Spanish,  or 
Portuguese,  declared  that  as  science  treats  of  concrete  things 
it  can  be  expressed  in  any  language  however  barbarous,^  and, 
in  order  to  secure  for  it  a  wider  public,  translated  into  Portuguese 
the  Latin  treatise  {lihellus)  De  Sphaera  by  John  of  Halifax 
(Joannes  de  Sacro  Bosco)  :  Tratado  da  Sphera  (i537),^  and  into 
Spanish  his  own  Libro  de  Algebra  en  arithmetica  &  geometria 
(1567),  originally  written  in  Portuguese  and  addressed  to  his 
pupil  and  friend  the  Cardinal-King  Henrique.  His  other  works, 
including  the  De  Crepuscidis  (1542),  were  written  in  Latin. 

The  Homeric  hero  Duarte  Pacheco  Pereira  (1465  ?- 
1533  ?)»  about  whose  life,  apart  from  the  hundred  days  at 
Cochin  (1504)  and  a  fight  off  Finisterre  (1509)  with  the  French 
pirate  Mondragon,  singularly  little  is  known, ^  on  his  return 
from  India  in  1505  wrote  a  work  entitled  Esmeralda  de  Sit7i 
Orbis  [1505-6.?].  This  curious  and  important  survey  of  the 
coast  of  Africa,  the  work  of  one  more  accustomed  to  wield 
sword  than  pen,  but  sometimes  as  picturesque  and  interesting 
as  Duarte  Barbosa,  was  to  have  consisted  of  five  books,  but  only 
three  and  a  part  of  the  fourth  were  written.  It  remained  in 
manuscript  for  nearly  four  centuries. 

The  three  Roteiros  (logs)  *  written  by   the  famous  Viceroy 

*   Tratado  da  Sphera,  Preface. 

^  This  volume  contains  also  two  brief  treatises  by  Nunez  in  Portuguese  : 
Tratado  .  .  .  sabre  cartas  duuidas  da  naiiegagao,  answering  certain  questions 
put  to  him  by  Martim  Afonso  de  Sousa,  and  Tratado  .  .  .  em  defensam  da  carta 
de  marear,  addressed  to  the  Infante  Luis.  The  De  Sphaera  of  Joannes  de 
Sacro  Bosco  was  printed  with  a  preface  by  Philip  Melanchthon  in  1 5  38.  Arraez, 
in  his  Dialogos,  1604  ed.,  f.  56,  says  :  sei  algo  da  Sphera  porque  qttando  Pero 
Nunez  a  Ha  a  certos  honiens  principals  eu  me  achava  presente. 

^  He  himself  says  that  he  was  born  in  the  excellent  city  of  Lisbon  {Esme- 
ralda, iv.  6),  and  he  was  one  of  the  captains  sent  out  by  Joao  II  to  continue 
the  discovery  of  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  In  1520-2  he  was  Governor  of 
the  fortress  of  S.  Jorge  da  Mina,  but  his  last  years  were  spent  in  poverty. 

■•  Other  works  of  a  similar  nature,  livros  das  rotas  or  derrotas,  are  printed  in 
Libro  de  Marinharia.  Tratado  da  Aguia  de  Marear  [15 14]  de  Joao  de  Lisbaa 
[11526].  Capiado  e  coordenada  par  J.  I.  Brito  Rebello.  1903-  Cf.  also 
G.  Pereira,  Roteiros  Portugiiezes  da  viagem  de  Lisbaa  d  India  nos  seculos 
xvi  e  xvii,  1898  ;  H.  Lopes  de  Mendon9a,  Estudos  sabre  navios  portuguezes 
nos  seculos  xv  e  xvi,  1892,  and  O  Padre  Fernando  Oliveira  e  a  sua  obra 
nautica,   189S  (pp.   147-221  contain  O  Liuro  da  fabrica  das  naos,  of  which, 

P  2 


228      THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

D.  JoAO  DE  Castro  (1500-48)  on  his  voyages  (i)  from  Lisbon 

to  Goa  in  1538,  (2)  from  Goa  to  Diu,  1538-9,  (3)  from  Goa  to 

the  Red  Sea  in  1541,  are  decked  out  with  no  literary  graces. 

He  wrote,   he  said,   for  seamen,   not  for  ladies  and  gallants. 

Yet  the  scientific  curiosity  and  enthusiasm  of  this  keen-eyed, 

broad-minded  observer  give  his  descriptions  force  and  truth,  the 

same  practical  lucidity  that  marks  his  letters,  which  according 

to  his  friend  Prince  Luis  contained  todas  as  coiisas  necessarias 

e  nenhuas  superjiuas,  and  they  were   early  prized  in  Spain  as 

harto  notables,  muy  curiosos}     The  third  Roteiro  would  seem 

to  have  been  originally  written  in  Latin,  and  perhaps  translated 

by  Castro  at  his  beloved  Sintra  home.     The  manuscript  was 

bought  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  it  appeared  in  English  in  1625, 

208  years  before  it  was  published  in  Portuguese. 

Greater  historical  interest  attaches  to  the  letters  of  an  earlier 

Governor,   Afonso  de  Albuquerque  (1461-1515).    That  grim 

conqueror  of  the  East  might  have  smiled  somewhat  sardonically 

to  be  numbered  among  Portugal's  writers.    He  merely  said  what 

he  had  to  say,  and  there  was  an  end  of  it,  would  be  his  comment. 

But  it  is  precisely  this  directness — the  powerful  grasp  of  reality 

and  the  horror  of  useless  rhetoric — which  gives  excellence  to 

the  prose  of  his  Cartas.     These  incomparable  reports,  written  to 

King  Manuel  in  moments  snatched  from  his  many  occupations  as 

Governor  of  India  (1509-15),  sometimes  rise  to  a  biblical  grandeur 

and  eloquence,  as  in  the  splendid  passage  beginning  Goa  c  vossa  ; 

Onor,  0  rei  dele  paga-vos  pareas.      Perhaps,  after   all,  he  was 

not  wholly  unconscious  of  his  art,  and  certainly  the  source  of 

it  is  clear  :    as  Osorio  ^  notices,  he  was  a  devoted  student  of  the 

Bible.     In  more  familiar  mood  he  can  give  a  vivid  sketch  in 

a  few  emphatic  words,  as  when  he  describes  the  judge,  '  a  little 

man  dressed  in  a  cloak  of  coarse  cloth  w'ith  a  crooked  stick 

says  the  preface,  ninguem  escreveo  ateegora)  ;  and  Sousa  Viterbo,  Trabalhos 
nauticos  dos  portuguezes  nos  seculos  xvi  e  xvii  {Historia  e  Memorias  da  Ac.  das 
Set  end  as,  torn.  V\\  (1898),  nzew.  3  ;  torn,  viii  (1900),  mem.  i).  Diogo  de  Sd's  De 
Navigatione  was  published  in  Paris  in  1549;  the  Arte  Practica  de  Navegar 
(1699)  by  the  Cosmographo  Mor  Manuel  Pimentel  (1650-1719)  appeared  a 
century  and  a  half  later  and  had  several  editions  in  the  eighteenth  centurj'. 

'  Fr.  Antonio  de  San  Roman,  Historia  General  de  la  India  Oriental,  Valla- 
dolid,  1603. 

'  De  liehvs  Emmanvelis  (1571),  p.  380:  Kon  erat  alienus  a  Uteris,  (~  cum 
ntium  erat  lectione  sacrarum  praecipue  literarum  nhlertahattir. 


QUINHENTISTA   PROSE  229 

under  his  arm  ',  or  the  impostors  who  will  practise  '  a  thousand 
wiles  and  deceits  for  one  ruby  '. 

To  turn  to  lesser  men,  Fernam  Rodriguez  Lobo  Soropita 
(born  c.  1560),  a  distinguished  Lisbon  advocate  and  the  first 
editor  of  the  Rythmas  (1595)  of  Camoes,  was  a  poet  celebrated 
for  his  wit  in  his  day.  That  of  his  letters  is  perhaps  a  little  forced, 
and  the  obscurity  of  the  allusions  now  interferes  with  our  enjoy- 
ment. The  interest  of  the  extracts  from  a  manuscript  in  the 
British  Museum  written  by  Francisco  Rodriguez  Silveira 
(1558-C.  1635)  in  1608,  published  under  the  title  Memorias  de  um 
Soldado  da  India  (1877),  consists  both  in  the  record  of  his  thirteen 
years'  service  in  India  (1585-98)  and  in  the  account  during  the 
succeeding  ten  years  of  Portugal  and  especially  Beira,  the 
condition  of  the  roads,  the  land,  the  peasants,  and  the  sway  of 
the  local  caciques — thief,  Turk,  Pasha,  tyrant,  he  calls  them — 
and  his  indignation  gives  a  pleasant  vigour  to  his  prose.  The 
Arte  da  Caga  da  Altanaria  (1616)  of  Diogo  Fernandez  Ferreira 
(born  c.  1550),  page  of  the  Pretender  D.  Antonio,  is  a  work 
of  great  interest.  The  writer  evidently  delights  in  his  theme 
and  has  a  real  love  of  birds,  the  migratory  habits  of  which  he 
describes  in  Part  6 ;  and  he  treats  '  of  swallows  and  of  the  swallow- 
grass  which  restores  sight  ',  of  the  food  made  of  sugar,  saffron, 
and  almonds  for  nightingales,  and  other  alluring  topics. 
Among  the  rare  and  curious  books  of  the  time  we  may  notice 
that  on  the  prerogatives  of  women,  Dos  priuilegios  &proerogatiuas 
q  ho  genero  femenino  te  par  dsreito  comii  &  ordenacoes  do  Reyno 
mais  que  ho  genero  masculino  (1557),  by  Ruy  GoNgALVEz,  Professor 
of  Law  at  Coimbra  in  1539  and  subsequently  Court  Advocate 
at  Lisbon. 

Two  writers  especially  attract  attention  even  in  the  feast 
of  interest  which  Portuguese  prose  in  this  century  offers  so 
abundantly.  The  son  of  a  distinguished  Dutch  illuminator 
and  painter  settled  in  Portugal,  Antonio  de  Hollanda,  who 
painted  Charles  V  at  Toledo  and  may  have  illuminated  the 
Book  of  Hours  of  Queen  Lianor,  Francisco  de  Hollanda 
(1518-84),  born  in  Lisbon,  painter,  illuminator,  and  architect, 
in  his  short  treatises  Da  fabrica  que  fallece  d  cidade  de  Lishoa  and 
Da  scieiicia  do  desoiho,  showed  an  enthusiasm  for  his  subject 


230  THE  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

almost  out  of  place  in  the  Portugal  of  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  Indeed,  he  nearly  ran  into  trouble  with  the 
Inquisition  by  seeming  to  make  painting  '  divine  ',  but  prudently 
altered  the  passage.  His  curious  and  celebrated  treatise  Da 
Pintvra  Antigva  (1548)  is  written  in  a  style  which  may  be  rather 
rejoiced  in  than  imitated,  for,  as  he  tells  us,  he  was  more  at 
home  with  the  brush  than  with  the  pen,  but  it  is  full  of  ingenious 
and  original  remarks.  The  first  part  deals  in  forty-four  brief 
chapters  with  painting  generally,  and  opens  with  a  fine  passage 
describing  the  work  of  God  as  the  greatest  of  all  painters.  The 
second  part  contains  the  Qiiatro  dialogos,  in  the  first  three  of 
which  he  records  the  conversations  of  Vittoria  Colonna,  Michel- 
angelo, Lattanzio  Tolomei,  and  himself  in  the  church  of 
St.  Sylvester  or  in  a  garden  overlooking  Rome  ;  conversations 
which,  despite  their  Portuguese  dress,  bear  the  stamp  of  truth 
and  will  retain  their  fascination  so  long  as  interest  in  art  endures. 
Francisco  worked  first  in  the  household  of  the  Infante  Fernando 
and  then  in  that  of  the  Archbishop  of  Evora.  In  1537  he  set 
out  on  a  journey  to  Rome  by  land  (Valladolid,  Barcelona, 
Provence),  and  in  Italy  remained  from  1538  to  1547.  His 
friendship  with  Michelangelo  continued  after  his  return  to 
Portugal,  as  a  letter  from  Hollanda  to  Michelangelo  in  1553 
proves.  The  last  part  of  his  life  he  spent  in  the  country  between 
Lisbon  and  Sintra  among  the  Portuguese  whom  he  -had  called 
desmusicos,  and  despite  his  comfortable  circumstances — he 
received  a  pension  of  100,000  reis  from  Philip  II — he  must  often 
have  looked  back  with  regret  to  the  fullness  of  those  nine  years 
in  Italy.  But  his  countrymen,  thanks  largely  to  the  scholarly 
researches  and  studies  of  Dr.  Joaquim  de  Vasconcellos,  are  now 
fully  alive  to  his  merits.  And,  indeed,  even  in  the  sixteenth 
century  a  passage  in  Frei  Heitor  Pinto's  Imagem  da  Vida 
Christam  sets  him  side  by  side  with  the  great  Italian.'^  Philipe 
Nunez,  who  professed  as  a  Dominican  in  1591,  wrote  on  painting 
in  the  next  century  :  Arte  poetica  e  da  pintura  e  symmetria 
(1615).  A  work  on  music  by  Antonio  Fernandez  of  about 
the  same  date.  Arte  de  Mvsica  de  canto  dorgam  e  canto  chant 

'  Pt.  1,  1572  ed.,  f.  224  :   ndo  feyto  por  tndo  do  nosso  Oldda  tie  do  vosso  Michael 
Angela  mas  par  men  bayxo  ingenho. 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  231 

(1626),  consists  of  three  treatises  which  do  not  profess  to  be 
original.  Manuel  Nunez  da  Silva  wrote  on  the  same  subject 
in  his  Arte  Minima  (1685). 

In  the  preface  (1570)  to  his  Regra  Geral,  written  in  1565,  Gon- 
gALO  Fernandez  Trancoso^  {c.  1515-^,  1590)  professed  not  to 
have  sufficient  literary  skill  even  for  this  simple  calendar  of  mov- 
able feasts.  Yet  in  the  previous  year  (1569),  in  which  at  Lisbon 
he  lost  both  wife  and  children  in  the  great  plague  (a  beloved 
daughter  of  twenty-four,  a  student  son,  and  a  choir-boy  grand- 
son), in  order  to  distract  his  mind  from  these  sorrows,-  he  wrote 
a  remarkable  work,  unique  of  its  kind  in  Portuguese  literature; 
or  at  least  he  wrote  then  the  first  two  books,  which  appeared 
under  the  title  Covtos  e  historias  de  prove ito  e  exemplo  (1575).^ 
A  third  part  was  published  posthumously  in  1596.  The  number 
and  kind  of  the  editions  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  testify  to  its  popularity,  but  since  the  eighteenth 
century  no  new  edition  has  been  printed  and  the  book  has  fallen 
into  a  strange  neglect. *  Trancoso  did  not  claim  originality:  he 
merely  collected  stories  from  what  he  had  heard  or  read.^ 
The  stories,  only  thirty-eight  in  number,  are  very  various. 
The  subjects  of  many  of  them  resemble  those  of  Franco  Sacchetti's 
Novelle  or  Giovanni  Francesco  .Straparola's  Le  xiii  Piacevoli 
Notti,  and  some  are  directly  imitated  from  Boccaccio's  11 
Decamerone  or  Giovanni  Battista  Giraldi's  Gli  Ecatommiti  or  from 
Matteo  Bandello  (fiS^s).^  But  often  they  are  traditions  so  wide- 
spread that  they  occur  in  many  authors  and  languages,  as  that 
(ii.  7)  which  corresponds  to  Straparola's  third  Notte  and  of 
which  Dr.  F.  A.  Coelho  recorded  twenty-one  other  foreign 
versions,  besides  four  popular  variants  in  Portuguese ;  or 
i.  17,  in  which  the  cunning  answers  to  difficult  questions  are 
similar  to  those  in  Sacchetti,  No.  4  [Mestre  Bernabd  signer  di 
Milano),  and  Dr.  Braga's  Contos  tradicionaes  do  povo  porluguez, 

'  Or  Gon9alo  Fernandez  of  Trancoso  (Beira).     His  name  has  no  connexion 
with  the  phrase  contar  histovias  a  trancos  (de  coq  a  I'dne). 

*  Preface    addressed   to  the   Queen    in    Pt.    i.      His    object   was   prender 
a  imaginagao  emferros. 

^  Timoneda's  El  Patranuelo  appeared  in  the  following  year. 

*  See,  however,  Dr.  Agostinho  de  Campos'  selections  (1921). 

^  O  que  aprendi,  ouui  oil  li  (1624  ed.)  ;  0  que  aprendi,  vi  ou  li  (1734  ed.). 
^  See  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Origenes  de  la  Novela,  tom.  ii  (1907),  p.  Ixxxvii  et 
seq. 


232  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

No.  71  [Frei  Joani  Sem  Cuidados).  Others  are  apparently  of 
oriental  origin,  as  the  judge's  verdict,  worthy  of  Sancho  Panza 
(i.  15),  or  the  king  and  the  barber  (iii.  3).  But  the  subject  and 
place  (Lisbon,  Oporto,  Evora,  Coimbra,  &c.)  of  most,  although 
not  of  the  longest,  of  these  tales  are  Portuguese.^  Some  are 
trifling  anecdotes  which  acquire  a  charm  and  vividness  through 
their  popular  character  and  the  author's  simple  details  of 
description,  as  the  picture  of  the  peasant  family  near  Oporto 
sitting  round  the  fire  after  their  supper  of  maize-bread  and  chest- 
nuts (i.  10).  The  author  is  not  content  that  we  should  draw 
our  own  moral,  but  this  scarcely  spoils  the  reader's  pleasure  in 
these  malicious  and  ingenious  tales. 

Despite  inroads  of  the  exotic  and  all  the  chances  and 
changes  of  life  and  literature  in  this  century,  the  Portuguese 
maintained  their  interest  in  the  romances  of  chivalry,  in  which 
indeed  they  saw  a  reflection  of  their  own  prowess  in  the 
East.  Dull  as  Clarimundo  may  now  seem,  it  made  a  great 
impression  in  its  day,  and  was  eagerly  read,  from  Lisbon  to 
the  Moluccas.^  Even  as  late  as  1589  Bishop  Arracz  con- 
siders it  necessary  to  say  that  a  prince  should  have  better 
ways  of  spending  his  time  than  ler  por  Clarimundo,^  while 
Rodriguez  Lobo,  thirty  years  later,  brackets  it  with  Amadis 
and  Palmeirim^  Many  a  young  page  and  escudeiro  must 
have  aspired  not  only  to  pore  over  the  cronicas  but  to 
write  one  of  his  own.^  The  facility  of  a  Barros  is,  however, 
given  to  few,  and  both  Jorge  Ferreira's  Memorial  and  Moraes' 
Palmeirim  de  Inglaterra  were  written  later  in  life.  Francisco 
DE  Moraes  [c.  1500-72),®  a  well-known  courtier  in  the  reign  of 
King  Joao  III,  whose  Treasurer  he  was,  and' a  Come/iidador  of 
the  Order  of  Christ,  in  1540  accompanied  the  Portuguese 
Ambassador,  D.  Francisco  de  Noronha,  to  Paris  as  Secretary, 

'  The  alternation  of  the  indigenous  and  the  exotic  may  be  seen  in  the 
spelling  of  the  same  name  as  Piro  ( =  Pero,  Pedro,  Peter)  and  Pyrrho  (Pyrrhus) 
in  iii.  8. 

'  Ropica  Pnefma,  1869  ed.,  p.  2. 

'  Dialogos,  1604  ed.,  f.  157.  A  third  edition  of  Clarimundo  (1601)  had 
appeared  before  the  second  edition  of  the  Dialogos. 

*  Corte  na  Aldea  (1619),  Dialogo  i  (1722  ed.,  p.  5). 

°  Moraes,  Dialogo  i  (1852  ed.,  p.  11). 

'  Barbosa  Machado  seems  to  have  considered  him  much  under  seventy 
at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1572. 


OUINHENTISTA   PROSE  233 

and  at  the  French  Court  he  fell  passionately  in  love  with  one 
of  the  ladies-in-waiting  of  Queen  Leonor  (sister  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  V  and  widow  of  King  Manuel  of  Portugal)  named 
Claude  Blosset  dc  Torcy.  His  love  was  not  returned  :  there 
was  a  great  discrepancy  of  age  between  them,  his  knowledge  of 
French  was  very  slight,  and  his  passion  robbed  him  of  wit  and 
reason.  If  the  Due  de  Chatillon  was  favoured,  or  if  the  English 
Ambassador  gave  Mademoiselle  de  Torcy  his  arm,  Moraes  would 
flare  up  in  jealousy,  and  when  in  the  presence  of  the  queen  the 
elderly  lover  went  down  on  his  knees  la  belle  Torcy  (to  whom 
Clement  Marot  had  addressed  one  of  his  Etrennes  and  who 
eventually  married  the  Baron  de  Fontaines)  prayed  him  not  to 
continue  to  make  her  as  well  as  himself  ridiculous.  Moraes, 
after  leaving  France  in  1543,  or  early  in  1544,  recovered  from 
his  passion  and  married  in  Portugal,  Of  his  subsequent  life 
little  is  known  ;  he  appears  to  have  returned  to  France,  and  in 
1572  he  was  murdered  at  the  entrance  of  the  Rocio,  the  cen- 
tral square  of  Evora.  His  Cronica  de  Palmeirim  de  Inglaterra, 
written  in  France  or  Portugal  or  both,  was  probably  published 
in  1544,  but  the  earliest  existing  Portuguese  edition  is  that  of 
Evora,  1567,  which  contains  the  dedication  to  the  Infanta 
Maria,  written  over  twenty  years  earlier  (1544).  Chiefly  remark- 
able for  the  excellence  of  its  style,  Palmeirim  will  always  retain  its 
place  in  Portuguese  literature  as  a  masterpiece  of  prose,  musically 
soft,  yet  clear  and  vigorous.  Cervantes  considered  it  worthy  to 
be  preserved  in  a  golden  casket  like  the  works  of  Homer,^  but 
few  of  its  readers  will  now  differ  from  the  more  modern  and 
moderate  opinion  of  Menendez  y  Pelayo  that  '  it  requires  a  real 
effort  '  to  read  the  whole  of  it.  The  effort  required  to  read 
the  miserable  vSpanish  translation  of  1547-8  is  infinitely 
greater.  The  fact  that  this  translation  is  of  earlier  date  than  any 
surviving  Portuguese  edition  gave  rise  to  the  theory  that  Moraes 
had  translated  his  work  from  the  Spanish.  No  competent  critic 
now  believes  this ;  any  doubts  that  may  have  lingered  were 
dispelled  wittily  and  for  ever  in  Mr.  Purser's  able  essay  (1904). 

'  The  tradition,  mentioned  by  Cervantes,  that  it  was  written  by  a  learned 
and  witty  king  of  Portugal  is  clearly  traceable  to  that  other  tradition  that 
King  Joao  III  as  Infante  had  been  joint-author  of  Clarimundo. 


234  THE  SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  Spanish  version,  with  its  painful  efforts  to  avoid  lusitanismos 
and  its  palpable  mistranslations  (such  as  suavidad  or  alegria 
for  saudade),  shows  less  knowledge  of  the  sea,  of  Ireland,^  and  of 
Portugal.  Moreover,  the  preference  of  the  author  of  Palmcirim 
for  Portugal  is  obvious,  and  the  passage  in  which  ladies  of  the 
French  Court  arc  introduced  corresponds  to  Moracs'  Descvlpa 
de  hvns  amoves,'^  first  published  with  the  Dialogos  in  1624.  Moraes 
himself  would  probably  not  have  been  greatly  troubled  by  the 
impudent  claim  set  up  for  Luis  Hurtado  and  Miguel  Ferrer. 
To  have  made  a  masterpiece  out  of  their  book  would  have  been 
an  achievement  as  great  as  to  have  made  it  out  of  old  French 
and  English  legends  in  Paris.  Pahneirim's  predecessors,  Pal- 
merin  de  Oliva  (151 1),  Prinialeon  (1512),  and  Platir  (1533),  were 
probably  all  genuinely  Spanish,  although  some  doubts  have 
been  raised  as  to  the  first  of  the  line,  Pahnerin  de  Oliva 
attributed  to  a  cryptic  lady,  a  femiiia  docta  called  Agustobrica.^ 
Its  successors  were  as  genuinely  Portuguese  :  to  Moraes'  parts 
I  and  2  DioGO  Fernandez  added  parts  3  and  4  (1587),  concerned 
with  the  deeds  of  Palmeirim's  son,  Dom  Duardos,^  and  Balthasar 
GoNQALVEZ  LoBATO  parts  5  and  6  (1602),  in  which  are  told  those 
of  his  grandson,  Dom  Clarisol  de  Bretanha.  Three  brief  but 
very  lively  and  natural  Dialogos  (1624)  show  that  Moraes  was 
not  only  an  excellent  stylist  but  a  keen  observer.  The  fidalgo 
and  escudeiro,  the  lawyer  and  the  love-lorn  mogo,  are  all  clearly 
and  wittily  presented. 

>  Mount  Brandon,  Smerwick  (and  The  Three  Sisters)  of  the  '  pleasant  ' 
but  '  densely  wooded  '  coast  of  Kerry,  are  Greek  to  the  Spanish  translator 
and  become  San  Cebrian  (Cyprian)  and  San  Maurique. 

■^  The  title  continues  :  que  tinha  com  hua  dama  francesa  da  raynha  dona 
Leanor  per  nome  Torsi,  sendo  Portngues,  pela  quai,  fez  a  historia  das  datnas 
francesa s  no  sen  Palmeirim. 

*  It  is  scarcely  possible  that  the  author  (Francisco  Vazquez?)  considered 
that  Burgos,  as  his  birthplace — liis  mother — had  a  part  in  the  work. 

*  From  being  merely  the  legend  above,  the  mounted  knight  on  the  title- 
page  Dom  Duardos  de  Bretanha  became  the  title  of  the  book. 


§7- 
Religious  and  Mystic   Writers 

Amador  Arraez  in  one  of  his  dialogues  defines  mysticism 
thus  :  '  There  is  a  theology  called  mystic,  as  being  hidden  and 
unintelligible  to  those  who  have  no  part  in  it.  It  is  attained  by 
much  love  and  few  books  and  with  much  meditation  and  purity 
of  heart,  which  alone  suffices  for  its  exercise,  and  consists 
mainly  in  the  noblest  part  of  our  will  inflamed  in  the  love  of 
God,  its  full  and  perfect  good.'  ^  '  Our  will  inflamed  '  :  perhaps 
these  words  explain  the  excellence  of  the  style,  the  intensity 
and  directness,  of  the  writers  in  this  mystic  theology.  Style,  so 
shy  and  elusive  to  Flaubert  and  his  disciples,  came  unsought  to 
the  religious  writers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  because  they 
wrote  not  with  an  eye  on  verbal  artifices  but  out  of  the  fullness 
of  the  heart,  '  self-gathered  for  an  outbreak  '  ;  and  their  works 
can  still  be  read  with  pleasure  by  priest  and  pagan.  Mysticism, 
inherent  in  the  character  of  the  Portuguese,  runs  through  a  great 
part  of  their  literature  ;  we  find  it,  for  instance,  in  the  merry 
poetry  of  Gil  Vicente  or  in  the  precious  accents  of  Soror  Vio- 
lante  do  Ceo.  Strength  of  character,  aloofness,  rapt  enthusiasm, 
singleness  of  purpose  :  these  are  the  qualities  of  mysticism  at 
its  best,  and  if  it  also  manifests  itself  in  vagueness  and  con- 
fusion, this  was  not  so  with  the  great  mystic  and  religious 
writers  of  the  golden  age  of  Portuguese  literature.  To  them 
mysticism  was  not  a  cloudy  goodness  or  an  abstract  perception- 
dulling  humanity,  not  a  mist  but  a  pillar  of  fire,  in  the  light  of 
which  the  facts  and  details  of  reality  stood  out  the  more  clearly. 
But  if  the  intensity  of  many  of  the  mystics  has  its  natural 
complement  in  the  fervour  and  directness  of  their  prose,  this  was 
not  always  the  case,  and  it  was  not  only  in  profane  works  that 
the  Portuguese  language  fell  into  the  pitfalls  of  culteranismo. 
A.11  the  more  remarkable  is  the  purity,  the  exquisite  taste,  the 

'  Dial.  X.  4. 


236  THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

simplicity  and  charm  of  some  of  the  later,  seventeenth  century, 
prose.  The  secret  of  this  prose  lay  in  fact  in  cidteranismo  itself, 
the  points  and  conceits  of  which  were  based  on  a  recognition  of 
the  value  of  words.  All  the  seiscentistas  set  to  playing  with 
words  as  with  unset  stones  of  price.  The  more  critical  or 
inspired  writers  joined  in  the  game  but  selected  the  genuine 
stones,  leaving  the  rest  to  those  who  did  not  care  to  distinguish 
between  gems  and  coloured  glass. 

A  faint  vein  of  mysticism  is  to  be  found  in  the  work  of  Frei 
Heitor  Pinto  [c.  1528-1584?),  who  was  born  at  the  high-lying 
little  town  of  Covilhan  and  professed  in  the  famous  Convento  dos 
Jcronimos  at  Belem  in  1543.  After  taking  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Theology  at  Siguenza  he  in  1567  competed  for  a  Chair  at  Salamanca 
University,  but  came  into  collision  with  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  and 
in  a  bitter  contest  between  the  Hieronymite  and  Augustinian 
Orders  Pinto  was  defeated.  He  returned  to  Portugal,  became 
Professor  of  the  new  Chair  of  Scripture  at  Coimbra  University 
in  1576,  Rector  of  the  University  and  Provincial  of  his  Order. -^ 
After  the  death  of  the  Cardinal-King  he  appears  vehemently 
to  have  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Prior  of  Crato.  King  Philip 
accordingly  invited  Pinto  to  accompany  him  to  Spain — he  was 
one  of  the  fifty  excluded  from  the  amnesty  of  1581— ^and  scandal 
added  that  the  king  had  him  poisoned  there  in  1584.  Pinto 
was  an  eminent  divine,  a  man  of  wide  learning,  a  master  of 
Portuguese  prose,  and  he  appears  to  have  inspired  his  pupils 
with  affection  ;  but  King  Philip  could  scarcely  have  considered 
him  worth  poisoning,  especially  when  removed  from  his  sphere 
of  influence.  No  doubt  he  went  to  Spain  with  extreme  reluct- 
ance— on  other  occasions  of  his  busy  life  when  the  affairs  of 
his  Order  drove  him  to  France  and  Italy  he  had  sighed  in  tears 
(in  spite  of  his  interest  in  travel,  his  love  of  Nature,  and  especially 
his  antiquarian  curiosity  ^)  for  his  quiet  cell  at  Bclem,  '  where 
he  had  lived  many  years  in  great  content  '.     Perhaps  too  he 

'  The  dates  given  by  JSarbosa  Machado  are  Rector  1565,  Provincial  1571. 

'  He  introduces  himself  as  a  theologian  in  his  dialogues,  and  one  may  infer 
several  facts  concerning  his  life,  e.  g.  that  he  had  been  in  Rome  (Iniagem, 
Pt.  2,  1593  ed..  f.  351  v.),  Montserrat  (f.  88),  Marseilles  (f.  88),  Savoy  (f.  295), 
Madrid  (f.  190),  that  he  kept  a  diary  (f.  190),  that  he  was  curiuso  de  anti- 
gualhas  (f.  352). 


RELIGIOUS   AND   MYSTIC   WRITERS       237 

had  not  forgotten  his  defeat  at  Salamanca.  '  King  Philip  ',  he 
now  said  sturdily,  '  may  put  me  into  Castillo  but  never  Castille 
into  mc.'  Pinto  wrote  commentaries  on  various  books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  were  published  in  Latin,  but  his  principal 
work  consists  in  the  dialogues,  a  ynaneira  dos  de  Platdo,  of  his 
Imagem  da  Vida  Christam  (1563),  followed  by  the  Segunda  Parte 
dos  Dialogos  (1572).  The  first  part  has  six  dialogues,  the  sub- 
jects being  true  philosophy,  religion,  justice,  tribulation,  the 
solitary  life,^  and  remembrance  of  death.  The  five  of  the  second 
part  treat  of  tranquillity  of  life,  discreet  ignorance,  true  friend- 
ship, causes,-  and  true  and  spurious  possessions.  It  is  impossible 
to  read  a  page  of  these  dialogues  and  not  be  struck  by  the 
extraordinary  fascination  of  their  style.  It  is  concise  and  direct 
without  ever  losing  its  harmony.  Perhaps  its  best  testimonial 
is  that  its  magic  survives  the  innumerable  quotations,  although 
one  may  regret  that  the  work  was  not  written,  like  the  Trabalhos 
de  Jesus,  in  a  dungeon  instead  of  in  a  well-stocked  library.^ 
Apart  from  the  proof  it  affords  of  the  exceptional  capacity  of 
the  Portuguese  language  for  combining  softness  and  vigour, 
the  work  contains  much  ingenious  thought,  charming  descrip- 
tions, and  elaborate  similes.  Some  twenty  editions  in  various 
languages  before  the  end  of  the  century  show  how  keenly  it 
was  appreciated.  It  was  certainly  not  without  influence  on  the 
Dialogos  (1589)  of  the  energetic  and  austere  Bishop  of  Portalegre, 
Amador  Arraez  {c.  1530-1600),  who  spent  his  boyhood  at  Beja 
and  professed  as  a  Cc.rmelite  at  Lisbon  a  year  after  Frei  Thome 
de  Jesus  and  two  years  after  Frei  Heitor  Pinto  had  professed  in 
the  same  city.     Like  the  former  he  studied  theology  at  Coimbra.* 

*  Macedo,  quoted  by  Innocencio  da  Silva  (iii.  176),  alleged  this  to  be 
a  'faithful  translation'  from  Petrarca.  Why  Petrarca  (1304-74)  should 
praise  Belem  Convent  and  Coimbra  University,  refer  to  the  recent  death 
(1557)  of  King  Joao  III,  or  speak  of  '  our  '  Francisco  de  Hollanda  we  are  not 
told.  Pinto  in  a  later  dialogue,  Da  Tranqnillidade  da  Vida,  refers  to  Petrarca's 
Vita  Solitaria  (Pt.  2,  1593  ed.,  f.  47  v.). 

-  Since  1590  is  implied  as  the  date  of  this  dialogue  on  f.  290  of  the  1593 
edition  it  must  be  emphasized  that  the  Segunda  Parte  appeared  original^ 
in  1572. 

^  Pt.  2,  1593  ed.,  f.  366  v.  :  eu  revolvo  os  livros  .  .  .  com  grandes  trabalhos 
&•  vigilias. 

*  Cf.  Dialogos,  1604  ed.,  f.  346  :  Coimbra,  onde  gastei  a  flor  de  minlia 
adolescencia.     (This  edition  really  has  but  344  ff.  since  f.  29  follows  f.  22.) 


238  THE    SIXTEENTPI    CENTURY 

Cardinal  Henrique,  when  Archbishop  of  Evora,  chose  Arraez  to 
be  his  suffragan,  and  in  1578  appointed  him  to  the  see  of  TripoH. 
Three  years  later  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Portalegre  by  Philip  H. 
He  resigned  in  1596,  and  spent  the  last  four  years  of  his  life  in 
retirement,  in  the  college  of  his  Order  at  Coimbra.  A  few  weeks 
before  his  death  he  wrote  the  prefatory  letter  for  the  revised 
edition  of  his  great  work.^  It  consists  of  ten  long  dialogues 
between  the  sick  and  dying  Antiocho  and  doctor,  priest,  lawyer, 
or  friends.  The  longest,  over  a  quarter  of  the  whole,  is  a  mystic 
life  of  the  Virgin,  and  of  the  others  some  are  purely  religious,  as 
Da  Paciencia  e  Fortaleza  Christam,  some  historical  or  political 
{Da  Gloria  e  Triunfo  dos  Liisitanos  ;  Das  Condigoes  e  Partes  do 
Bom  Principe).  That  on  the  Jews  {Da  Gente  Judaica)  is  marred 
by  a  spirit  of  bitter  intolerance  ;  on  the  other  hand  there  is  an 
outspoken  protest  against  slavery.  The  whole  of  this  interest- 
ing miscellany,  which  incidentally  discusses  a  very  large  number 
of  subjects, 2  is  tinged  with  mystic  philosophy,  and  at  the  same 
time  shows  a  keen  sense  of  reality.  In  style  as  in  degree  of 
mysticism  it  stands  midway  between  Pinto's  Imagem  and  the 
Trabalhos  de  Jesus.  It  is  evident  that  its  composition,  although 
less  artificial  than  that  of  the  Imagem,  has  been  the  subject  of 
much  care,  and  the  author  declares  in  his  preface  that  while 
adopting  a  '  common,  ordinary  style  ',  to  the  exclusion  of  forced 
tricks  and  elegances,  he  has  striven  after  clearness  and  harmony 
(the  two  postulates  of  his  contemporary.  Fray  Luis  de  Leon). 
The  result  is  a  treasury  of  excellent  prose,  in  which  the  har- 
monious flow  of  the  sentences  in  nowise  interferes  with  precision 
and  restraint,  that  grave  brevity  which  Arraez  notes  as  one 
of  the  principal  qualities  of  Portuguese.  It  can  rise  to  great 
eloquence  (as  in  the  lament  of  Olympio)  without  ever  becoming 
rhetorical  or  turgid. 

The  prose  of  Pinto  and  Arraez  was  a  very  conscious  art,  that 
of  the  still  greater  Frei  Thome  de  Jesus  (1529  .^-82)  was  the 
man,  and  the  man  merged  in  mysticism,  without  thought  of 

'  Dialogos  de  Dom  Frey  Amador  Arraiz,  Coimbra,  1604.  The  idea  of  the 
work  belonged  to  his  brother,  Jeronimo  Arraez,  who  did  not  live  to  complete 
what  he  had  begun. 

*  The  same  variety  occurs  in  Poderes  de  Amor  em  geral  e  horas  de  conver- 
saQam  particular  (1657),  by  Frei  Cristovam  Godinho  (c.  1600-71)  of  Evora. 


RELIGIOUS   AND   MYSTIC   WRITI^RS       239 

style.    He  was  the  son  of  Fcrnam  Alvarez  dc  Andrade,  Treasurer 
to  King  Joao  III,  and  of  Isabel  dc  Paiva.     One  of  his  brothers 
was    the    celebrated    preacher    Diogo    dc    Paiva    de    Andrade 
(1528-75),    another   the    historian    Francisco    dc    Andrade;    a 
third,    Frei    Cosme    da    Presentagao,    distinguished    himself    in 
philosophy  and  theology,  but  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-six  at 
Bologna,  while   the  work  of    a  nephew  (son  of    Francisco    de 
Andrade),  Diogo  de  Paiva  de  Andrade  (1576-1660),  Casamento 
perfeito  (1636),  is  counted  a  classic  of  Portuguese  prose.      His 
sister  D.  Violante  married  the  second  Conde  de  Linhares.    As  a 
boy  at  the  Augustinian  Collegio  de  Nossa  Senhora  da  Graga  at 
Coimbra  he  is  said  to  have  been  all  but  drowned  while  swimming 
in  the  Mondego.    He  professed  at  the  Lisbon  convent  of  the  same 
Order  in  1544,  went  to  Coimbra  to  study  theology,  and  then 
became  master  of  novices  at  the  Lisbon  convent.-^    Here  in  1574 
he  planned  a  reform  of  the  Order,  but  when  all  was  ready  for 
the  secession  of   the  new  Recoletos  an  intrigue  put  an  end  to 
the  scheme,  which  a  kindred  spirit,  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  later 
carried  into  effect.     Frei  Thome  was  permitted  to  retire  to  the 
convent  of  Penafirme  by  the  sea,  near  Torres  Vedras,  where  he 
might  hope  to  indulge  his  love  of  quiet  and  solitude.     He  was, 
however,  appointed  prior  of  the  convent  and  Visitor  of  his  Order, 
and  in  1578  was  chosen  by  King  Sebastian  to  accompany  him 
to  Africa.     At  the  battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir,  as  he  held  aloft  a 
crucifix  or  tended  the  wounded,  he  was  speared  by  a  Moor  and 
taken  prisoner  to  Mequinez.     Here  he  was  loaded  with  chains 
and  placed  in  a  dungeon,  and  as  the  slave  of  a  marabout  received 
'less  bread  than  blows'.     The  Portuguese  Ambassador,  D.  Fran- 
cisco da  Costa,  intervened,  and  he  was  removed  to  Morocco. 
Frei  Thome  had  borne  all  his  sufferings  with  the  most  heroic 
fortitude,  and  now,  broken  in  health  but  not  in  spirit,  he  refused 
to    lodge  at  the  ambassador's  and  asked  to  be  placed  in  the 
common    prison.      During    a   captivity    of    nearly   four   years, 
regardless  of  his  own  f  ate,^  with  unflagging  devotion  he  ministered 

'  He  wrote  the  life  of  the  prior,  Frei  Luis  de  Montoia,  whose  Vida  de  Christo 
he  completed. 

*  Tendo  elle  sua  nidi  e  irmdos  muito  ricos  e  a  Condessa  de  Linhares  sua  irtnda, 
todos  offerecidos  a  pagar  o  grosso  resgate  que  os  Monros  pediam,  por  saberem 
a  qualidade  de  sua  pessoa  {Cronica  do  Cardeal  Rei  D.  Henrique,  p.  38). 


240  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

to  the  numerous  Christian  prisoners,  and  was  occupied  to  the 
last  with  their  needs.  Costa,  who  shared  the  general  respect 
and  affection  for  this  saint  and  hero,  visited  him  as  he  lay 
dying  (April  17,  1582).  Vattene  in  pace,  alma  beata  e  hella  ! 
It  was  during  his  captivity  that  he  composed  the  work  that  has 
given  him  the  lasting  fame  earned  by  his  life  and  character, 
writing  furtively  in  the  scant  light  that  filtered  through  the 
cracks  of  the  prison  door.^  These  fifty  Trahalhos  de  Jesus 
(2  pts.,  1603,  9)  embrace  the  whole  life  of  Christ,  and  deserve, 
more  than  Renan's  Vie  de  Christ,  to  be  called  a  gracious  fifth 
Gospel.  Each  t'rabalho  is,  moreover,  followed  by  a  spiritual 
exercise,  and  these  constitute  a  Portuguese  De  Imitatione  Christi. 
Rarely,  if  ever,  has  such  glow  and  fervour  been  set  in  print  : 
none  but  the  very  dull  could  be  left  cold  by  these  transports  of 
passionate  devotion.  The  prose  wrestles  and  throbs  in  an 
agony  of  grief  or  rapture,  of  mysticism  carried  to  the  extreme 
limit  where  all  power  of  articulate  expression  ends.^  Frei 
Thome  de  Jesus  is  a  master  of  Portuguese  prose  not  by  any 
arts  or  graces  but  through  the  white  heat  of  his  intensity.  No 
book  shows  more  c.learly  that  style  must  always  be  a  secondary 
consideration,  that  if  there  be  a  burning  conviction  excellence 
of  style  follows.  It  could  evidently  only  have  been  written  by 
one  who  had  greatly  suffered,  indeed  by  one  who  still  suffered, 
one  who  expressed  in  these  fervid  accents  of  heavenly  com- 
munion an  oblivion  of  self  and  an  energy  habitually  employed 
in  eager  earthly  service  of  his  fellow  men.  In  a  prefatory  letter 
(November  8,  1581)  addressed  to  the  Portuguese  people  he 
declared  his  intention  of  publishing  as  it  stood  this  masterpiece 
of  mystic  ecstasy,  which  he  believed  to  have  been  written  by 
divine  inspiration.* 

Another  celebrated  treatise  of  a  mystic  character  is  the  Voz  do 

•  See  his  prefatory  letter  in  the  Trabalhos.  Cf.  Antonio,  Bib.  Nova,  ii.  307. 
Barbosa  Machado  speaks  of  hua  horrivel  masmorra. 

^  Cf.  p.  39  (1666  ed.)  :  O  ,  6,  6  amor  ;  6,  6,  6  amor,  cole  a  lingua  e  o  entendi- 
mento,  dilatai-vos  vos  por  toda  esta  alma,  &c.  ;  or  p.  54  :  Ah,  ah,  ah  bondade  ; 
ah,  ah  amor  sem  lei,  sem  regra,  sem  medida,  adoro-te,  louvo-te,  desejo-te,  por  ti 
suspiro. 

^  He  also  wrote  Oratorio  sacra  de  soliloqtiios  do  amor  divino  (1628)  and  various 
works  in  Latin.  Manuel  dodinho  refers  to  his  Estimulo  das  Missoes  {Relagao, 
1842  ed.,  p.  47). 


RELIGIOUS   AND   MYSTIC  WRITERS      241 

Amado  (1579)  ^y  the  learned  Canon  D,  Hilariam  Brandao 
(11585).  The  religious  works  of  this  century  are  very  numerous. 
We  may  mention  the  anonymous  Regras  e  Cautelas  de  proueito 
espiritual  (1542),  which  is  written  in*  biblical  prose  and  deals 
with  the  fifteen  perfections  or  excellences  of  charity  and  kindred 
subjects  ;  the  dialogues  Desengano  de  Perdidos  em  dialogo  e?itre 
dons  peregrmos,  hit  christao  e  hu  turco  (Goa,  1573)  by  the  first 
Archbishop  of  Goa,  D.  Gaspar  de  Leao  (fi576),  and  the  Dialogo 
espiritual:  Colloquio  de  um  religioso  com  um  peregrino  (1578)  by 
Frei  Alvaro  de  Torres  [Vedras]  (fl.  1550),  who  was  drowned 
in  the  Tagus  when  on  the  way  to  his  convent  at  Belem. 

D.  JoANA  DA  Gama  (fi568),  a  nun  of  noble  birth  who  directed 
a  small  community  founded  by  herself  at  Evora,  a  few  miles 
from  her  native  Viana,  published  a  short  collection  of  moral 
sentences  in  alphabetical  order,  followed  by  a  few  poems  [trovas] : 
Ditos  da  Freyra  (1555).  She  insists,  perhaps  a  little  too  em- 
phatically for  conviction,  on  her  lack  of  intelligence  and  ability, 
and  says  that  these  sayings  were  written  down  for  herself  alone 
and  that  she  purposely  avoids  subtleties  {ditos  sotijs),  but  her 
aphorisms  contain  some  shrewd  personal  observation.  Fact 
and  legend  have  combined  to  weave  an  atmosphere  of  romance 
about  the  life  of  Manuel  de  Sousa  Coutinho,  better  known  as 
Frei  Luis  de  Sousa  (1555  .?-i632).  A  descendant  of  the  second 
Conde  de  Marialva,  he  early  entered  or  was  about  to  enter  the 
Order  of  Knights  Hospitallers  at  Malta,  but  was  captured  by  the 
Moors  in  much  the  same  way  and  at  about  the  same  time  (1575)  as 
was  Cervantes.  He  was  taken  to  Algiers,  and  may  have  known 
Cervantes  there,  or  the  statement  that  he  became  Cervantes' 
friend  may  have  been  an  inference  from  the  latter's  mention  of 
him  in  Los  Trabajos  de  Persiles  y  Sigismunda  ;  they  may  have 
met  in  Lisbon  in  1590,  or  at  Madrid.  Sousa  Coutinho  returned 
to  Portugal  in  1578,  and  some  years  later  married  D.  Magda- 
lena  de  Vilhena,  widow  of  D.  Joao  de  Portugal,  one  of  all  the 
peerage  that  fell  with  King  Sebastian  at  Alcacer  Kebir.  Sousa 
Coutinho,  at  the  invitation  of  his  brother  in  Panama,  is  said  to 
have  gone  thither  in  the  hope  of  making  a  fortune,  but  the  date 
is  not  clear.  His  unbending  patriotism  was  immortalized  when 
as  Governor  of  Almada  in  1599  he  burnt  down  his  house  rather 

2362  Q 


242  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

than  receive  as  guests  the  Spanish  Governors  of  Portugal.  The 
prospect  of  riches  at  Panama  may  have  seemed  especially 
alluring  after  this  rash  act.  He  appears  to  have  lived  quietly  in 
Portugal  for  some  years  before  1613,  when  both  he  and  his 
wife  entered  a  convent.  Their  act  has  been  variously  explained 
as  due  to  melancholy  disposition  or  to  the  early  death  of  their 
daughter,  D.  Anna  de  Noronha.  Probably  after  her  death  the 
example  of  their  friend  the  Conde  de  Vimioso  and  the  con- 
viction that  the  only  abiding  pleasure  is  the  renunciation  of  all 
the  rest  were  prevalent  factors  in  their  decision.  The  legend, 
however,  related  by  Frei  Antonio  da  Encarnagao  and  dramatized 
two  centuries  later  by  Garrett,  records  that  D.  Joao  de  Portugal, 
D.  Magdalena  de  Vilhena's  first  husband,  had  been  not  killed 
but  taken  prisoner  in  Africa,  and  after  many  years'  captivity 
he  reappears  as  an  aged  pilgrim  and  bitterly  reveals  his  identity. 
In  the  convent  of  Bemfica,  where  he  had  professed  in  September 
1614,  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa  was  consulted  on  various  matters  by 
the  Duke  of  Braganza  and  others  who  valued  his  fine  character 
and  clear  judgement,  but  he  did  not  live  to  see  the  Restoration. 
He  was  entrusted  by  his  Order  with  the  revision  of  works  left 
by  another  Dominican,  Frei  Luis  de  Cacegas  [c.  1540-1610). 
These  he  re-wrote,  giving  them  a  lasting  value  by  virtue  of  his 
style.  The  first  part  of  the  Historia  de  S.  Domingos,  '  a  new 
kind  of  chronicle  '  as  he  calls  it  in  his  preface  addressed  to  the 
king,  appeared  in  1623,  but  the  second  (1662)  and  third  (1678) 
parts  were  not  published  in  his  lifetime.  A  fourth  part  (1733) 
was  added  by  Frei  Lucas  de  Santa  Catharina  (1660-1740), 
who  among  other  works  wrote  a  curious  miscellany  of  verse  and 
prose,  romance  and  literary  criticism,  entitled  Seram  politico 
(1704).  In  the  biography  of  the  saintly  and  strong-willed  Arch- 
bishop of  Braga,  Vida  de  D.  Fr.  Bertolomeu  dos  Martyres  (1619), 
the  excellence  of  Sousa's  style  is  even  more  apparent,  for  it  has 
here  no  trace  of  rhetoric  and  the  pictures  stand  out  with  the  more 
effect  for  the  economy  with  which  they  are  drawn — the  dearth  of 
adjectives  is  noticeable.  The  archbishop's  visits  to  his  diocese 
give  occasion  for  charming,  homely  glimpses  of  Minho.  Neither 
of  these  books  is  the  work  of  a  critical  historian  (in  the  Vida, 
for   instance,  winds  and  waves  obey  the  archbishop),  but  the 


RELIGIOUS   AND   MYSTIC   WRITERS      243 

latter,  especially,  is  in  matter  and  manner  one  of  the  master- 
pieces of  Portuguese  literature,  a  livro  divino,  as  a  modern 
Portuguese  writer  called  it/  The  Annaes  de  El  Rei  Dom  Jodo  Ter- 
ceiro,  written  at  the  bidding  of  Philip  IV,  was  published  in 
1844  by  Herculano,  who  described  the  work  as  little  more  than 
a  series  of  notes,  except  in  the  Indian  sections,  which  sum- 
marize Barros.  It  is  as  a  stylist,  not  as  a  historian,  that  Frei 
Luis  de  Sousa  will  always  be  read,  and  read  with  delight.-  The 
subject  of  his  biography,  Frei  Bartholomeu  dos  Martyres 
(1514-go),  wrote  in  Portuguese  a  simple  Catecismo  da  Dovtrina 
Christam  (Braga,  1564),  resembling  the  Portuguese  work  of  his 
friend  Fray  Luis  de  Granada  (1504-88)  :  Compendio  de  Doctrina 
Christda  (Lixboa,  1559). 

The  Historia  da  Vida  do  Padre  Francisco  Xavier  (1600),  by 
the  Jesuit  Joao  de  Lucena  (1550-1600),  born  at  Trancoso, 
who  made  his  mark  as  an  eloquent  preacher  and  Professor  of 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Evora,  is  also  one  of  the  classics 
of  the  Portuguese  language.  It  receives  a  glowing  fervour 
from  the  author's  evident  delight  in  his  subject — the  life  of  the 
famous  Basque  missionary  in  whose  arms  D.  Joao  de  Castro 
died.  His  command  of  clear,  fluent,  vigorous  prose,  his  skilful 
use  of  words  and  abundant  power  of  description,  enable  him  to 
convey  this  enthusiasm  to  his  readers.  Part  of  the  matter  of  his 
book  was  derived  from  Fernam  Mendez  Pinto,  but  the  style  is 
his  own. 

Like  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa,  Frei  Manuel  da  Esperan^a  (1586- 
1670)  became  the  historian  of  his  Order  in  the  Historia  Seraphica 
da  Ordem  dos  Frades  Menores  (2  pts.,  1656,  66).  We  know  from 
remarks  in  the  second  part  that  he  paid  the  greatest  attention 
to  its  composition,  for  which  he  had  prepared  himself  by  reading 
hiia  multiddo  notavel  of  books  on  that  and  kindred  subjects. 
Similar  excellence  of  style  marks  the  later  work  of  the  Jesuit 

*  C.  Castello  Branco,  Estrellas  propicias,  2^  ed.,  p.  204.  Its  only  fault, 
artistically,  is  the  detailed  description  of  the  commemoration  festivities, 
which  come  as  an  anticlimax. 

*  Other  works  of  the  period  are  similarly  read  rather  for  their  style  than 
as  history,  as  the  Historia  Ecclesiastica  da  Igreja  de  Lisboa  (1642)  and  the 
Historia  Ecclesiastica  dos  Arcebispos  de  Braga  (2  pts.,  1634, 1635)  by  D.  Rodrigo 
DA  CuNHA  (1577-1643),  the  Archbishop  of  Lisbon  who  had  an  active  share 
in  the  liberation  of  Portugal  from  the  yoke  of  Spain  in  1640. 

Q  2 


244  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

Francisco  de  Sousa  (1628  }-iyi^),  0  Oriente  conqiiistado 
(2  vols.,  1710),  in  which  he  chronicles  the  history  of  the  Company 
in  the  East. 

The  most  celebrated  Portuguese  preacher  of  his  time,^  Frei 
Thome  de  Jesus'  brother,  Diogo  de  Paiva  de  Andrade 
(1528-75),  represented  Portugal  at  the  Council  of  Trent  in 
1561.  His  eloquent  Sermoes  (1603,  4,  15)  were  published 
posthumously  in  three  parts.  His  mantle  fell  upon  Francisco 
Fernandez  Galvao  (1554-1610),  the  prose  of  whose  Sermoes 
(3  vols.,  1611,  13,  16)  is  admirably  restrained  and  pure.  Less 
sonorous  than  the  periods  of  Paiva  de  Andrade,  the  Trattados  [sic] 
Quadragesimais  e  da  Paschoa  (1609)  and  Tratados  das  Festas 
e  Vidas  dos  Santos  (2  pts.,  1612,  15)  of  the  Dominican  Frei 
Antonio  Feo  (1573-1627)  perhaps  gain  rather  than  lose  by 
being  read,  not  heard.  In  the  clearness  and  precision  of  their 
prose  they  are  scarcely  inferior  to  the  remarkable  Sermoes 
(3  pts.,  1617,  18,  25)  of  the  Augustinian  Frei  Philipe  da 
Luz  (1574-1633),  confessor  to  the  Duke  of  Braganza  (after- 
wards King  Joao  IV),  in  whose  palace  at  Villa  Vigosa  he  died. 
He,  too,  writes  sem  grandes  eloquencias ;  he  is  as  precise  as  Feo 
in  his  use  of  words,  and  his  vocabulary  is  as  extensive.  Purity, 
concision,  clearness,  and  harmony  give  him,  together  with  Feo, 
Ceita,  and  Veiga,  a  high  place  in  Portuguese  prose. 

The  sermons  for  which  the  Dominican  Frei  Pedro  Calvo 
(born  c.  1550)  was  celebrated  were  published  in  Homilias  de 
Quaresma  (2  pts.,  1627,  9),  and  at  the  repeated  request  of  a 
friend  he  wrote  his  Defensam  das  Lagrimas  dos  ivstos  persegvidos 
(1618)  to  prove  that  '  tears  shed  in  time  of  trouble  do  not  lessen 
merit '.  The  Sermoes  (1618)  and  Consideragoes  (1619,  20,  33) 
of  Frei  Thomas  da  Veiga  (i578-i638),like  his  father  a  Professor 
of -Coimbra  University,  are  written  in  a  style  of  great  excellence, 
as,  although  a  trifle  more  redundant^  and  latinized,  is  that  of 
his  contemporary,  like  him  a  Franciscan,  Frei  Joao  da  Ceita 

'  Another  renowned  Court  preacher  was  D.  Antonio  Pinheiro  (f  1582  ?), 
Bishop  of  Miranda,  whose  works  were  collected  by  Sousa  Farinha  :  Colleccao 
das  obras  portugtiesas  do  sahio  Bispo  de  Miranda  e  de  Leiria,  2  vols.,  1785,  6. 

*  e.  g.  officio  e  dignidade,  gritos  e  brados,  boca  e  lingoa,  cuidao  e  imagindo. 
Macedo  (O  Couto,  p.  82)  rightly  calls  Ceita  urn  dos  principaes  textos  em  lingua 
portugueza. 


RELIGIOUS  AND   MYSTIC  WRITERS       245 

(1578-1633),  whose  prose  has  a  natural  grace  and  harmony,  if 
it  is  less  pure  and  indigenous  than  that  of  Luz.  His  best 
known  works  are  the  Quadragena  de  Sermoens  (1619)  and 
Quadragena  Segunda  (1625).  Two  more  volumes  of  Sermoes 
(1634,  5)  appeared  after  his  death.  Two  slightly  later  writers 
were  Frei  Cristovam  de  Lisboa  (11652),  brother  of  Manuel 
Severim  de  Faria,  and  Frei  Cristovam  de  Almeida 
(1620-79),  Bishop  of  Martyria.  The  former,  author  of  Jardim 
da  Sagrada  Escriptura  (1653)  and  Consolagam  de  Ajfiictos 
e  Allivio  de  Lastimados  (1742),  in  the  preface  to  his  Santoral 
de  Varios  Sermoes  (1638)  deplores  the  new  fashion  of  certain 
preachers  who  hide  their  meaning  under  their  eloquence.  He 
is  himself  sometimes  inclined  to  be  florid.  Bishop  Almeida 
attained  a  reputation  for  great  eloquence  even  in  the  days  of 
Antonio  Vieira.'^  His  Sermoes  (1673,  80,  86)  are  simpler  than 
those  of  Vieira,  but  for  the  reader  their  prose  lacks  the  quiet 
precision  of  Ceita,  Veiga,  or  Luz,  whose  sermons  may  be  con- 
sidered one  of  the  sources  from  which  a  greater  master  of  Portu- 
guese, Manuel  Bernardes,  derived  his  magic.  The  Jesuit 
Luis  Alvarez  (1615.^-1709.^),  who  was  born  a  few  years  after 
Vieira,  and  lived  on  into  the  eighteenth  century,  also  had 
a  great  reputation  as  a  preacher.  The  fire  is  absent  from  the 
printed  page,  but  his  works,  Sermoes  da  Quaresma  (3  pts.,  1688, 
94,  99),  Amor  Sagrado  (1673),  and  Ceo  de  graga,  infer?io  custoso 
1692),  are  notable  for  the  purity  of  their  prose. 

The  religious  works  of  the  seventeenth,  as  of  the  sixteenth  century 
are  very  various  in  subject  and  treatment.  Frei  Joao  Cardoso 
(ti655),  author  of  Ruth  Peregrina  (2  pts.,  1628,  54),  also  wrote 
a  lengthy  commentary  on  the  113th  Psalm  in  twenty-one  dis- 
courses:  Jornada  Dalma  Libertada  (1626).  Ten  years  earlier 
a  Jew,  Joao  Baptista  d'Este,  had  published  in  excellent 
Portuguese  a  translation  of  the  Psalms :  Consolagam,  Christam 
e  Lvz  para  0  Povo  Hebreo  (161 6).     His  title  was  suggested  by 

*  other  noted  preachers  were  the  Jesuits  Francisco  do  Amaral  (1593— 
1647),  who  pubhshed  the  first  (and  only)  volume  of  his  Sermoes  (1641)  in  the 
year  in  which  Vieira  came  to  Portugal,  and  Francisco  de  MENDON9A  (1573— 
1626),  a  master  of  clear  and  vigorous  prose  in  his  two  volumes  of  Sermoes 
(1636,  9)  ;  and  the  Trinitarian  Baltasar  Paez  (i  570-1638),  whose  Sermoes 
de  Quaresma  (2  pts.,  1631,  3),  Sermoes  da  Semana  Santa  (1630),  Mortal  de 
Sermoes  (1649),  may  still  be  read  with  profit. 


246  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

that  of  a  far  more  remarkable  book  by  another  Jew,  Samuel 
Usque  (fl.  1540),  Co^isolagam  as  Tribulagoens  de  Israel,  written 
probably  between  1540  and  1550^  and  first  printed  at  Ferraraby 
Abraham  ben  Usque  in  1553.  The  author  was  the  son  of  Spanish 
Jews  who  had  taken  refuge  in  Portugal,  where  he  was  born, 
probably  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.^  His  famous  work 
is  an  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Jewish  race.  In  three 
dialogues  Jacob  {Ycaho),  Nahum  {Numeo),  and  Zachariah 
{Zicareo)  converse  as  shepherds.  Israel,  in  person,  relates  his 
sorrows  down  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  an  event  which  is  described 
in  detail,  and  so  on  to  the  persecutions  in  European  countries 
{novas  gentes),  and  at  the  end  of  each  dialogue  the  prophets 
administer  their  comfort.  The  book  closes  with  a  chorus  of 
rapturous  psalms  in  biblical  prose,  rejoicing  at  the  coming  end 
of  Israel's  tribulations  and  calling  for  vengeance  on  their  ene- 
mies, and  thus  finishes  on  a  note  of  joyful  faith  and  courageous 
hope,  without  an  inkling  of  charity.  The  first  dialogue,  which 
condenses  Old  Testament  history,  has  a  rhythmical,  luxuriant 
style,  rich  in  Oriental  imagery,  but  later,  where  Roman  history 
is  the  authority,  or  in  the  tragic  account  of  the  persecution  of 
Jews  in  Portugal^  under  Joao  II  and  the  two  succeeding  kings, 
the  style  is  shorn  of  rhetoric.  Nor  is  there  a  trace  of  false 
ornament  in  a  long  passage  of  wonderful  eloquence,  Israel's 
final  complaint  and  invocation  to  sky  and  earth,  waters  and 
mortal  creatures.  The  agony  and  awful  glow  of  indignation  at 
these  recent  events  had  a  restraining  influence  on  the  style, 
which  loses  nothing  by  this  simplicity.  Quieter  descriptions  are 
those  of  the  shepherd's  life  and  of  the  chase  in  the  first,  and  of 
spring  and  evening  in  the  third  part. 

The  Jesuit  Diogo  Monteiro  (1561-1634),  when  towards  the 
end  of  his  life  he  published  his  Arte  de  Orar  (1631),  promised, 
should  his  '  great  occupations  '  allow,   to  print  very  soon  the 

*  Ha  poucos  annos  que  he  arribado  (the  Inquisition  in  Portugal),  Pt.  3,  190S 
ed  ,  f.  xxxii. 

^  See  p.  5  of  Prologo  :  Portuguese  is  a  lingoa  que  mamei,  but  his  passados 
are  from  Castile. 

^  The  inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula  are  astuios  e  maliciosos,  Spain  is  '  a  hypo- 
critical and  cruel  wolf  ',  the  Portuguese  arc  fortes  e  quasi  barbaros,  the  English 
maliciosos,  the  Italians,  since  the  book  was  to  appear  in  their  country,  merely 
'  warlike  and  ungrateful  '. 


RELIGIOUS    AND    MYSTIC    WRITERS       247 

second  volume  dealing  with  the  divine  attributes.  This  did  not 
appear  in  that  generation :  Meditagoes  dos  attribvtos  divinos 
(Roma,  1671).  The  Arte  de  Orar  contains  twenty-nine  treatises 
(604  ff.).  Its  subjects  are  various  (of  the  virtue  of  magnifi- 
cence ;  of  the  esteem  in  which  singing  is  held  by  God,  &c.), 
and  they  are  presented  with  fervour  and  clear  concision,  and 
especially  with  a  complete  absence  of  oratorical  effect.  Quin- 
tilian  takes  part  in  one  of  the  six  dialogues  which  compose 
the  Peregrinagam  Christam  (1620)  by  Tristao  Barbosa  de 
Carvalho  (ti632)  ;  he  is  on  a  pilgrimage  from  Lisbon  to  the 
tomb  of  Saint  Isabel  at  Coimbra,  but  he  expresses  himself  in 
excellent  Portuguese,  modelled  perhaps  on  that  of  Arraez. 
The  prose  of  the  Retrato  de  Prvdentes,  Espelho  de  Ignorantes 
(1664)  by  the  Jesuit  Francisco  Aires  (1597-1664)  often  rises 
to  eloquence,  notably  in  the  fervent  prayers.  His  Theatro  dos 
Trivmphos  Divinos  contra  os  Desprimores  Hvmanos  (1658)  is  of 
a  more  practical  character.  The  Franciscan  Frei  Manuel  dos 
Anjos  (1595-1653)  laid  no  claim  to  originality  in  his  Politica 
predicavel  e  doutrina  moral  do  bom  governo  do  mundo  (1693), 
written  in  a  clear  and  correct  but  slightly  redundant^  style. 

Frei  Luis  dos  Anjos  [c.  1570-1625)  in  his  lardim  de  Portugal 
(1626)  gathered  edifying  anecdotes  of  saintly  women  from 
various  writers,  and  set  them  down  in  good  Portuguese  prose. 
The  Franciscan  Frei  Pedro  de  Santo  Antonio  {c.  1570- 
1641)  in  his  lardim  Spiritual,  tirado  dos  Sanctos  e  Varoens 
spiritvaes  (1632)  contented  himself  with  translation  of  his 
authorities,  adding,  he  modestly  says,  '  some  things  of  my  own 
of  not  much  importance'.  He  carefully  avoided  interlarding 
his  Portuguese  with  Latin,  his  object  he'mg  fazer  prato  a  todos. 
Even  more  humble  is  the  work  of  the  Cistercian  Frei  Fradique 
Espinola  {c.  1630-1708),  who  compiled  in  his  Escola  Decurial 
(12  pts.,  1696-1721)  an  encyclopaedia  of  themes  so  various  as 
the  fate  of  King  Sebastian,  the  duties  of  women,  and  the  habits 
of  storks.     Although  it  lacks  the  literary  pretensions  of  the 

1  If,  for  instance,  the  bracketed  words  in  the  following  sentence  (p.  3,  §  5) 
be  omitted  it  gains  in  vigour  and  loses  little  in  the  sense  :  Este  poder  se  nao 
deo  aos  Reys  para  extorsoens  [&■  violencias]  mas  para  amparar  [&•  defender] 
OS  vassallos  porque  ate  0  propria  Decs  parece  que  tern  as  mdos  atadas  a  rtgores 
[(S'  castigos]  &'  livres  a  cletnencias  {&'  niisericordias]. 


248      THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY 

Divertimento  erudito  by  the  Augustinian  Frei  Joao  Pacheco 
(1677-?  1747),  it  contains  some  curious  matter.  A  similar 
miscellany  of  anecdotes  and  precepts  was  written  by  Joao 
Baptista  de  Castro  in  the  eighteenth  century :  Hora  de  Recreio 
nas  ferias  de  maiores  estudos  (2  pts.,  1742,  3), 

The  life  of  the  ardent  Frei  Antonio  das  Chagas  (1631-82) 
abounded  in  contrasts.  Born  at  Vidigueira,  of  an  old  Alentejan 
family,  Antonio  da  Fonseca  Scares  began  his  career  as  a  soldier 
in  1650;  a  duel  (arising  out  of  one  of  his  many  love  affairs),  in 
which  he  killed  his  man,  drove  him  to  Brazil,  and  it  was  only 
after  several  years  of  distinguished  service  ^  that  he  returned  to 
Portugal,  perhaps  in  1657.  In  1661  he  attained  the  rank  of 
captain,  but  in  the  following  year  abandoned  his  military  career, 
and  in  1663  professed  in  the  Franciscan  convent  at  Evora, 
exchanging  the  composition  of  gongoric  verse  for  a  voluminous 
correspondence  in  prose,  and  his  unregenerate  days  of  dissipa- 
tion for  a  glowing  and  saintly  asceticism.  [Trocando  as  galas  em 
burel  e  os  caprichos  em  cilicios  are  the  words  with  which  he  veils 
the  real  sincerity  of  his  conversion.)  Preferring  the  humbler 
but  strenuous  duties  of  missionary  in  Portugal  and  Spain  to 
the  bishopric  of  Lamego,  he  founded  the  missionary  convent  of 
Varatojo,  and  died  there  twenty  years  after  his  novitiate. 
During  those  years  he  built  up  and  exercised  a  powerful  spiritual 
influence  throughout  Portugal,  and  it  continued  after  his  death. 
Few  of  his  poems  survive,  since  he  committed  the  greater  part 
of  his  profane  verse  to  the  flames,  but  some  of  his  romances 
may  still  be  read.  It  is,  however,  as  a  prose- writer, 
especially  in  his  Cartas  Espirituaes  (2  pts.,  1684,  7),  that  he 
holds  a  foremost  place  in  Portuguese  literature.  There  is  less 
affectation  in  these  more  familiar  letters  than  in  his  Sermdes 
genuinos  (1690)  or  his  Obras  Espirituaes  (1684).  The  very  titles 
of  some  of  his  shorter  treatises,  Vozes  do  Ceo  e  Tremores  da  Terra, 
Espelho  do  Espelho,  show  that  he  had  not  even  now  altogether 
escaped  the  false  taste  of  the  time,  and  artificial  flowers  of 
speech,  plays  on  words,  laboured  metaphors  and  antitheses 
appear  in  his  prose.     But  if  it  has  not  the  simple  severity  of 

'   He  had  been  fortunate,  for,  says  Antonio  Vieira  in  1640,  ndo  ha  gnerra 
no  mundo  onde  se  morra  (do  frequentetnenlc  coniu  na  do  Brazil. 


RELIGIOUS  AND   MYSTIC  WRITERS       249 

a  Bernardes,  it  possesses  so  persuasive,  so  passionate  an  energy, 
and  is  of  so  clear  a  fervour  and  harmony  that  its  eloquence  is 
felt  to  be  genuine. 

The  Jesuit  Frei  Joao  da  Fonseca  (1632-1701),  in  the  preface 
to  one  of  his  works,  Sylva  Moral  e  Historica  (1696),  which  may 
have  given  Bernardes  the  idea  of  his  Nova  Floresta,  rejects 
affected  periods  and  new  phrases,  and  there  is  no  false  rhetoric 
in  his  Espelho  de  Penitentes  (1687),  Satisfagam  de  Aggravos 
(1700),  which  takes  the  form  of  dialogues  between  a  hermit 
and  a  soldier,  and  other  devotional  works.  Another  Jesuit, 
Alexandre  de  Gusmao  (1629-1724),  although  born  at  Lisbon, 
spent  most  (eighty-five  years)  of  his  long  life  in  Brazil.  He 
wrote,  among  other  works,  Rosa  de  Nazareth  nas  Montanhas 
de  Hebron  (1715),  compiled  from  various  histories  of  the 
Company  of  Jesus,  and  Historia  do  Predestinado  Peregrino  e  seu 
Irmdo  Precito  (1682).  The  latter  is  an  allegory  in  six  books 
which  lacks  the  human  interest  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress, 
which  it  preceded.  It  describes  the  journey  of  two  brothers, 
Predestinado  and  Precito,  out  of  Egypt  to  Jerusalem  (Heaven) 
and  Babylon  (Hell).  The  style  is  simpler  and  more  direct  than 
might  be  inferred  from  the  inflated  title,  and  often  has  an 
effective  if  studied  eloquence.'^ 

Vieira  dying  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  Portuguese 
language  was  safe  in  the  keeping  of  Padre  Manuel  Bernardes. 
The  aged  Jesuit,  who  maintained  his  interest  in  literature  to  the 
end,  may  have  received  Bernardes'  Lmz  e  Calor  ^  (1696)  in  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  and  t]\Q  Exercicios  Espirituaes  (2  vols.,  1686) 
had  appeared  ten  years  earlier.  Other  works,  Sermoes  e  Praticas 
(1711),^  Nova  Floresta  (5  vols.,  1706-28),  Os  Ultimos  Fins  do 
Homem  {lyzy),  Varios  Tratados  (2  vols.,  1737),  were  soon 
forthcoming  to  justify  the  prophecy.  Manuel  Bernardes 
(1644-1710),  the  son  of  Joao  Antunes  and  Maria  Bernardes, 
was  born  at  Lisbon,  studied  law  and  philosophy  at  Coimbra 

'  e.g.  in  the  following  passage  (p.  47),  in  which  Calderon  and  Joao  de 
Deus  join  hands  :  '  The  world  and  its  glory  is  a  passing  comedy,  a  farce  that 
ends  in  laughter,  a  shadow  that  disappears,  a  thinning  mist,  a  fading  flower, 
a  blinding  smoke,  a  dream  that  is  not  true.' 

^  Estimulos  de  amor  divino  (1758)  is  an  extract  from  this,  as  the  Tratado 
breve  da  ora(am  mental  (5th  ed.,  1757)  is  extracted  from  the  Exercicios  Es- 
pirituaes. '  Pt.  2  appeared  in  1733. 


250  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY 

University,  and  at  the  age  of  thirty  entered  the  Lisbon  Oratory, 
where  he  spent  thirty-six  years.  That  was  all  his  life,  yet 
through  his  books  this  modest,  humorous,  austere  priest  has 
exercised  a  profound  influence  not  only,  as  Barbosa  Machado 
declares,  in  guiding  souls  to  Heaven,  but  in  moulding  and  pro- 
tecting the  Portuguese  language.  His  style  is  marked  in  an 
equal  degree  by  grace  and  concision,  intensity  and  restraint, 
smoothness  and  vigour.^  With  him  the  florid  cloak,  in  which 
many  recent  writers  had  wrapped  Portuguese,  falls  away, 
leaving  the  pith  and  kernel  of  the  language  ;  the  conceits  of 
the  culteratios  disappear,  and  the  most  striking  effects  are 
attained  without  apparent  artifice.  In  his  hands  the  pinchbeck 
and  tinsel  are  transmuted  into  delicate  pieces  of  ivory.  The 
charm  of  his  style  is  difficult  to  analyse,  but  it  may  be  remarked 
that  his  vocabulary  is  inexhaustible,  his  precision  unfailing,  that 
he  is  not  afraid  to  employ  the  commonest  words,  and  that  the 
construction  of  his  sentences  is  of  a  transparent  simplicity,  as 
bare  of  rhetoric  as  is  the  poetry  of  Joao  de  Deus.  His  reputa- 
tion as  a  lord  of  language  has  survived  every  test.  His  works 
are  not  merely  the  deliciae  of  a  few  distant  scholars  but  an 
acknowledged  glory  of  the  nation,  praised  by  that  literary 
iconoclast  Macedo,  and  quoted  as  an  authority  in  the  Republican 
Parliament  of  1915.  The  most  popular  of  his  works  are  Luz 
e  Calor,  and  especially  the  Nova  Floresta,  in  which  moral  and 
familiar  anecdote  go  quaintly  hand  in  hand,  but  if  one  must 
choose  between  excellence  and  excellence  his  masterpiece  is 
the  Exercicios  Espirituaes,  in  which  thought  and  expression 
often  rise  to  sublime  heights.  One  may  perhaps  compare  him 
with  Fray  Juan  de  los  Angeles  (I1609).  His  simple  doctrines 
spring  from  the  heart  and,  winged  by  shrewd  knowledge  of  men, 
touch  the  heart  of  his  readers.  One  of  his  more  immediate 
followers  was  Padre  Manuel  Consciencia  {c.  1669-1739),  author 
of  a  large  number  of  works  on  moral  and  religious  subjects, 
the  best  known  of  which  is  A  Mocidade  enganada  e  desenganada 
(6  vols.,  1729-38). 

*  He  often  deliberately  links  a  soft  and  a  hard  word,  as  ca^a  e  cdo,  candores 
da  celestial  grafa,  licita  a  guerra.    Thus  his  style  becomes  crespo  sem  aspereza. 


I 


IV 

I580-I706 
The  Seiscentistas 

Philip  II  entered  his  new  capital  under  triumphal  arches 
on  June  29,  1581,  and  the  subjection  of  Portugal  to  Spain 
during  the  next  sixty  years  in  part  accounts  for  the  fact  that 
nowhere  was  the  decadence  of  literature  in  the  seventeenth 
century  more  marked  than  at  Lisbon.  For  Spain  in  her  sturdy 
independence  and  reaction  from  rigid  classicism  had  led  the  way 
in  those  precious  affectations  which  invaded  the  literatures  of 
Europe,  and  the  universal  malady,  gongorism  with  its  Lylyan 
conceits  and  cultured  style,  now  found  a  ready  welcome  in 
Portugal.  The  literary  style  which  corresponded  to  the  Chur- 
riguerresque  in  architecture  naturally  proved  congenial  to  the 
land  of  the  estilo  manuelino.  King  Philip  was  glad  to  conciliate 
and  provide  for  Portuguese  men  of  letters,^  but  if  in  the  preceding 
centuries  many  of  them  wrote  in  Spanish,  that  tendency  was 
now  necessarily  strengthened.  Another  cause  of  decadence  was 
no  doubt  the  Inquisition,  although  its  influence  in  this  respect 
has  been  greatly  exaggerated.  It  required  no  immense  tact  on 
the  part  of  an  author  to  prevent  his  works  from  being  placed  on 
the  Index.  An  examination,  for  instance,  of  the  differences 
between  the  1616  edition  of  Eufrosina  and  the  condemned 
1561  edition  shows  that  the  parts  excised  were  chiefly  coarse 
passages  or  unsuitable  references  to  the  Bible  (this  was  also 
the  charge  against  the  letters  of  Clenardus).  That  remarkable 
mathematician,  Pedro  Nunez,  pays  a  tribute  to  the  enlightened 
patronage  of  letters  by  Cardinal  Henrique,  the  most  ardent 
promoter  of    the    Inquisition    in    Portugal :     qui   cum   nullum 

*  Bernardo  de  Brito,  no  lover  of  Spain,  bears  witness  to  0  favor  e  bene- 
volencia  com  que  (rata  os  homens  doutos. 


252  I58O-I706 

tempus  intermittat  quin  semper  ant  animarum  saluti  prospiciat 
aut  optimos  quosque  auctores  evolvat  aut  liter atorum  hominnni 
colloquia  audiat} 

No  literary  figure  in  Portugal  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
few  in  the  Peninsula,-  can  rank  with  D.  Francisco  Manuel  de 
Mello  (1608-66).  Born  at  Lisbon,^  he  belonged  to  the  highest 
Portuguese  nobility  and  began  both  his  military  and  literary 
career  in  his  seventeenth  year.  He  wrote  in  Spanish,  although, 
in  verse  at  least,  he  felt  it  to  be  a  hindrance,^  and  it  was  not  till 
he  was  over  forty  that  he  published  a  work  in  Portuguese  : 
Carta  de  Guia  de  Casados  (1651).^  Few  men  have  accomplished 
more,  and  towards  the  end  of  his  life  he  could  say  with  pride 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  idle  hour  in  it.  He  was 
shipwrecked  near  St.  Jean  de  Luz  in  1627  and  fought  in  the 
battle  of  the  Downs  in  1639.  He  was  sent  with  the  Conde  de 
Linhares  to  quell  the  Evora  insurrection  in  1637,  ^^id  took  part  in 
the  campaign  against  revolted  Catalonia  {1640),  which  he  described 
in  his  Guerra  de  Cataluna  ^  (1645),  written  e7n  varias  fortunas  and 
recognized  as  a  classic  of  Spanish  literature.  A  man  frankly 
outspoken  like  Mello  must  have  made  many  enemies,  enemies 
dangerous  in  a  time  of  natural  distrust.  During  the  Catalan 
campaign  he  was  sent  under  arrest  to  Madrid,  apparently  on 
suspicion  of  favouring  the  cause  of  an  independent  Portugal,' 
and  a  little  later,  when  he  was  in  the  service  of  the  King  of  Portugal, 
the  suspicion  as  to  his  loyalty  recurred.  On  November  19, 
1644,  he  was  arrested  at  Lisbon  on  a  different  charge.  It  appears 
that  a  servant  dismissed  by  Mello  revenged  himself  by  im- 
plicating his  former  master  in  a  murder  that  he  had  committed 

'  De  Crepusculis,  Preface.  Martim  Afonso  de  Miranda  later  (Tempo  de 
Agora,  prologo  to  Pt.  2,  1624)  writes  of  a  pouca  curiosidade  que  hoje  ha  acerca 
da  lifdo  dos  liuros.  como  tambem  o  risco  a  que  se  expoem  os  que  escreuem. 

*  Menendez  y  Pelayo  set  Mello  above  all  except  his  friend  Quevedo. 

'  Mr.  Edgar  Prestage  discovered  his  baptismal  certificate  and  established 
the  date  (1608)  beyond  doubt,  though  it  is  still  often  given  as  161 1.  On  his 
mother'ssideMello  was  great-grandson  of  the  historian  Duarte  Nunez  de  Lcam. 

*  Prefatory  letter  to  Las  tres  Mvsas  del  Melodino  (1649)  :  el  lenguaje 
estrangero  tan  poco  es  favorable  al  que  compone. 

'  He  was  writing  it  in  January  1650. 

*  Historia  de  los  mnvimientos  y  separacion  de  Cataluna  y  de  la  guerra,  &c. 
Lisboa,  1645. 

'  On  his  release  after  four  months  of  imprisonment  the  Count-Duke  Olivares 
said  to  him  ;    Ea,  caballero,  ha  sidu  tin  crro,  pero  erro  con  causa. 


THE   SEISCENTISTAS  253 

(of  a  man  as  obscure  as  himself).  Whether  he  did  this  of  his 
own  initiative  or  at  the  bidding  of  Mello's  enemies  is  uncertain, 
but  they  saw  to  it  that  Mello  once  in  prison  should  not  be  soon 
released.  They  might,  probably  did,  assure  the  king  that  this 
was  the  best  place  for  one  '  devoted  to  the  cause  of  Castile  '. 
There  are  other  theories  to  account  for  Mello's  long  imprison- 
ment, the  most  romantic  of  which — that  he  and  the  king  were 
rivals  in  the  affections  of  the  Condessa  de  Villa  Nova,  and,  meet- 
ing disguised  and  by  accident  at  the  entrance  of  her  house, 
drew  their  swords,  the  king  recognizing  Mello  by  his  voice — is 
now  generally  abandoned.  Although  no  evidence  of  Mello's 
participation  in  the  murder  was  forthcoming,  he  was  condemned 
to  be  deported  for  life  to  Africa,  for  which  Brazil  was  later 
substituted.  It  was  only  in  1655,  after  eleven  years  of  more 
or  less  ^  strict  confinement,  that  he  sailed  for  Brazil.  Joao  IV 
died  in  1656  and  two  years  later  Mello  returned  to  Portugal  : 
he  was  formally  pardoned^  and  spent  the  last  years  of  his  life 
in  important  diplomatic  missions  to  London,  Rome,  and  Paris, 
The  unfaltering  courage  and  gaiety  with  which  he  faced  his 
adventures  and  misfortunes  win  our  admiration,  but  his  life 
can  strike  no  one  as  literary.  Yet  it  is  probable  that  but  for  his 
long  imprisonment  he  would  never  have  found  leisure  to  write 
many  of  his  best  works,  and  prosperity  might  have  dimmed  his 
insight  and  dulled  his  style — that  style  (influenced  no  doubt  by 
Quevedo  and  Gracian)  which  is  hard  and  clear  as  the  glitter  of 
steel  or  the  silver  chiming  of  a  clock,  with  concmnitas  quaedam 
venusta  et  felix  verhorum.^  Even  when  full  of  points  and  conceits 
it  retains  its  clearness  and  trenchancy,  and  in  his  more  familiar 
works  he  is  unrivalled,  as  the  Carta  de  Guia  de  Casados,  in  which, 
innuptus  ipse,  he  brings  freshness  and  originality  to  the  theme 
already  treated  in  Fray  Luis  de  Leon's  La  Perfecta  Casada  (1583), 
Diogo  Paiva  de  Andrade's  sensible  but  less  caustic  Casamento 
Perfeito  (1631),  and  Dr.   Joao   de  Barros'  Espelho  de  Casados 

*  The  first  five  years  were,  in  his  own  words,  rigorous.  In  1650  he  was 
removed  from  the  Torre  Velha  to  the  Lisbon  Castello,  and  thenceforth  enjoyed 
greater  liberty.  He  had  been  transferred  from  the  Torre  de  Belem  to  the  Torre 
Velha  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tagus  in  1646. 

^  The  document  was  discovered  by  Dr.  Braga  and  published  in  his  Os 
Seiscentistas  (1916),  p.  339. 

^  Apprubatio  of  Cartas,  Roma,  1664. 


254  1580-1706 

(1540),^  or  the  pithy  and  delightful  Cartas  Familiares,  of  which 
five  centuries — a  mere  fragment — were  published  at  Rome  in 
1664,  with  a  rapier-thrust  of  his  wit  and  a  maxim  of  good  sense 
on  every  page,  preserving  for  us  some  vestige  of  what  Frei 
Manuel  Godinho  described  as  his  'admirable  conversation'  when 
he  met  him  at  Marseilles  in  1633. ^  The  Epanaphoras  de  varia 
Historia  Portugueza  (1660)  are  unequal  and  often  excessively 
detailed.^  Three  of  the  five  are,  however,  the  accounts  of  an 
eyewitness  and  as  such  are  full  of  interest :  the  Alteragoeyis 
de  Evora  (i),  the  Naiifragio  da  Armada  Portuguesa  em  Franga  (ii), 
and  the  Confiito  do  Canal  de  Inglaterra  (iv).^ 

Mello's  knowledge  of  men  was  as  wide  as  his  knowledge  of 
books,  and  both  appear  to  great  advantage  in  his  Apologos 
Dialogaes  (1721).  An  individualist  in  religion^  and  politics,^ 
an  acute  thinker  and  a  keen  student  of  men  and  manners,  he 
found  no  dullness  in  life  even  at  its  worst  and  no  solitude,  for, 
if  alone,  his  fancy  instilled  wit  and  wisdom  into  clocks'  and 
coins  ^  and  fountains.^  The  first  three  Apologos  contain  incisive 
portraits  in  which  types  and  persons  are  sharply  etched  in 
a  few  lines :  the  poor  escudeiro,  the  beata,  the  Lisbon  market- 
woman,  the  litigious  ratinho,  the  fidalgo  from  the  provinces,^** 
the  ambitious  priest,  the  shabby  grammarian, ,  the  worldly 
monk,  political  place-hunter,  miles  gloriosus,  or  melancholy 
author,   a  tinselled  nobody  boiling  down  the  good  sayings  of 

'  A  copy  of  this  rare  and  curious  work  exists  in  the  Lisbon  BibHoteca 
Nacional  (Res.  264  v.).  It  contains  71  ff.  divided  into  four  parts.  The  author, 
in  his  apophthegms  on  the  character  of  women,  quotes  the  classics  widely, 
and  refers  to  the  Uthopia  [so]  of  Sir  Thomas  More  and  to  Cclestina. 

^  Relagam,  1842  ed.,  p.  233. 

^  His  digressions  are  methodical  :  por  este  modo  de  historiar  {que  i  aquelle 
que  eu  desejo  ler)  pretendo  escrever  sempre  {Epan.  ii).  In  Epan.  i  he  says: 
Refiro,  pode  ser  com  demasia,  todos  os  accidcntes  deste  negocio. 

*  He  re-wrote  this  Epanaphora  twice,  the  first  two  versions  having  been  lost. 

*  Cf.  Visita  das  Pontes  (Ap.  Dial.  3),  1900  ed.,  p.  89:  cada  qiial  desde 
0  logar  em  que  estd  acha  uma  linha  muito  junto  de  si  que  6  0  caminho  por  onde 
pode  ir  a  Dens. 

*  Cf.  Hospital  das  Lettras  (Ap.  Dial.  4),  1900  ed.,  p.  114:  por  falta  de 
cuidar  cada  um  em  se  aproveitar  deste  mundo  0  que  delle  Ihe  toca,  0  langam  todos 
a  perder  todos  juntos  do  modo  que  vemos. 

'  Relogios  Fallantes  (Ap.  Dial.  i). 
■  Escriptorio  Avarento  (Ap.  Dial.  2). 

*  Visita  das  Pontes  (Ap.  Dial.  3). 

"  Cf.  the  backwoodsman  described  by  Couto  as  algum  fidalgo  criado  Id 
na  Beira  que  nunca  vio  0  Rei  (Dialogo  do  Sold.  Prat.,  p.  31). 


THE   SEISCENTISTAS  255 

past  writers.  The  fourth  Apologo  entitled  Hospital  das  Lettras 
(1657)  is  devoted  more  especially  to  literary  criticism;  Mello 
with  Quevedo,  Justus  Lipsius,  and  Traiano  Boccalini  (who  died 
when  Mello  was  five)  makes  a  notable  scrutiny  of  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  literature.  As  a  literary  critic  Mello  is  excellent 
within  limits.  Himself  an  artificial  writer,  although  as  it  were 
naturally  artificial,  bred  at  Court,  versed  in  social  and  political 
affairs,  he  considered  that  the  proper  study  of  mankind  was  man, 
and,  like  Henry  Fielding  a  century  later,  admired  '  the  wondrous 
power  of  art  in  improving  Nature  ' }  For  him  the  country  and 
Nature,  the  bucolic  poetry  and  prose  of  Fernam  Alvarez  do 
Oriente,  the  ingenuous  narratives  of  the  early  chroniclers,  had 
no  charm ;  he  preferred  Rodrigo  Mendez  Silva's  Vida  y  hechos 
del  gran  Condestable  (Madrid,  1640)  to  the  Cronica  do  Con- 
destabrer  But  all  that  was  vernacular  and  indigenous  attracted 
him,  as  is  proved  in  his  letters,  in  his  lively  farce  Auto  do  Fidalgo 
Aprendiz  (1676),  and  in  the  Feira  dos  Anexins,  which  is  a  long 
string  of  popular  maxims  and  of  those  plays  upon  words  in 
which  Mello  delighted.  His  poetry — Las  Tres  Musas  del  Melodino 
(1649),  Ohras  Metricas  (1665) — is  marred  by  the  conceits  which 
in  his  prose  often  serve  effectively  to  point  a  moral  or  drive 
home  an  argument.  It  is  far  too  clever.  When  in  a  poem 
'  On  the  death  of  a  great  lady  '  we  find  the  line  contigo  0 
sepultara  a  sepultura  we  do  not  know  whether  to  laugh  or 
weep,  but  we  suspect  the  sincerity  of  the  author's  grief, 
and  although  he  wrote  some  excellent  quintilhas,  most  of  his 
poems,  which  are,  as  might  be  expected,  always  vigorous,  are 
too  sharp  and  thin,  stalks  without  flowers,  the  very  skeletons  of 
poetry.  It  is  to  his  prose  in  its  wit  and  grace,  its  shrewd  thought, 
its  revelation  of  a  sincere  and  lofty  but  unassuming  character,  its 
directness,^  its  bom  portugues  velho  e  relho,  that  he  owes  his 
place  among  the  greatest  writers  of  the  Peninsula. 

The  taste  in  poetry  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 

'  Cf.  Aidegrafia  (1619),  f.  85  v.  :   emendar  a  Natureza. 

-  Edgar  Prestage,  Esbogo,  pp.  128-9. 

^  Like  another  equally  brilliant  soldier  historian,  Napier,  he  rarely  spells 
a  foreign  word  aright.  Cf .  Epanaphoras,  p.  204 :  A  este  nome  Milord  corresponde 
no  estado  feniinil  o  nome  Lede.  Falmouth,  where  he  had  actually  been, 
becomes  Valmud,  the  Isle  of  Wight  Huyt.  Whitehall  Huythal,  the  Earl  of 
Northumberland  Notaborlan  (Brito  has  Northubria). 


256  I 580-1706 

turies  is  seen  in  two  collections,  partly  Spanish,  partly  Portuguese : 
Fenix  Renascida  (5  vols.,  1716-28)  and  Eccos  que  0  Clarim  da 
Fama  da  (2  vols.,  1761,  2).  The  latter  is  sufficiently  charac- 
terized by  its  title,  too  long  to  quote  in  full.  As  to  the  former 
the  Phoenix  seems  to  have  given  real  pleasure  to  contemporary 
readers,  but  for  us  the  bird  and  song  are  flown  and  only  the 
ashes  remain,  from  which  a  sixteenth-century  poem  such  as  the 
sonnet  Horas  breves  stands  out  conspicuously.  The  subjects 
are  often  as  trivial  as  those  of  the  Cancioneiro  published  two 
centuries  earlier  and  more  domestic :  to  a  cousin  sewing,  to  an  over- 
dressed man,  to  a  large  mouth,  a  sonnet  to  two  market-women 
fighting,  another  to  the  prancing  horse  of  the  Conde  de  Sabugal, 
on  a  present  of  roses,  two  long  romances  on  a  goldfinch  killed  by  a 
cat,  verses  sent  with  a  gift  of  handkerchiefs  or  eggs  or  melons, 
or  to  thank  for  sugar-plums — the  Fenix  rarely  soars  above  such 
themes.  The  magistrate  Antonio  Barbosa  Bacellar  (1610-63) 
figures  largely,  with  glosses  on  poems  by  Camoes,  a  romance 
A  umas  saudades,  a  satirical  poem  A  umas  beatas.  His  romances 
varios  are  mostly  in  Spanish,  but  a  few  of  his  sonnets  in  Portu- 
guese have  some  merit.  The  fifth  volume  opens  (pp.  1-37) 
with  a  far  more  elaborate  satire  by  Diogo  Camacho  (or  Diogo 
de  Sousa)  :  Jornada  que  Diogo  Camacho  fez  as  Cortes  do  Parnaso, 
the  best  burlesque  poem  of  the  century,  in  which  the  author  did 
not  spare  contemporary  Lisbon  poets. ^  The  poems  of  Jeronimo 
Bahia  likewise  cover  many  pages.  He  it  is  who  bewails  at 
length  the  sad  fate  of  a  goldfinch.  In  oitavas  he  wrote  a  Fabula 
de  Polyfemo  a  Galatea,^  and  in  octosyllabic  redondilhas  jocular 
accounts  of  journeys  from  Lisbon  to  Coimbra  and  from  Lisbon 
into  Alentejo  (on  a  very  lean  mule)  which  are  sometimes  amusing. 
His  sonnet  Fallando  com  Deos  shows  a  deeper  nature,  and  the 
collection  contains  other  religious  verse,  notably  that  of  Violante 
Montesino,  better  known  as  Soror  Violante  do  Ceo  (1601-93). 
Here,^  as  in  her  Rythmas  varias  (Rouen,   1646)   and  Parnaso 

'  A  more  personal  and  picaresque  satirist  was  D.  Thomas  de  Noronha 
(11651),  whose  works  were  collected  by  Dr.  Mendes  dos  Remedios  in  his 
Subsidios,  vol.  ii  :  Poesias  Ineditas  de  D.  Thomas  de  Noronha  (Coimbra,  1899). 
The  satiric  poem  Os  Ratos  da  Inquisifdo  by  Antonio  Serrao  de  Castro 
(1610-85)  was  first  published  by  Castello  Branco  in  1883. 

*  Vol.  iii  contains  a  poem  by  Jacinto  Freire  de  Andrade  with  the  same  title. 

»   Fenix  Hen.  ii.  406  ;   iii.  225  ;    v.  376. 


THE   SETSCENTISTAS  257 

Lusitano  de  divinos  e  humanos  versos  (2  vols.,  1733),  this  nun, 
who  spent  over  sixty  years  in  the  Dominican  Convent©  da  Rosa 
at  Lisbon,  and  who  from  an  early  age  was  known  for  her  skill 
upon  the  harp  and  in  poetry — admiring  contemporaries  called 
her  the  tenth  Muse — showed  that  she  could  write  with  simple 
fervour,  as  in  the  Portuguese  deprecagoes  devotas  of  the  Meditagoes 
da  Missa  (1689)  or  her  Spanish  villancicos.  But  she  could  also 
be  the  most  gongorical  of  wjiters,  her  very  real  native  talent 
being  too  often  spoilt  by  the  taste  of  the  time.^  Bernarda 
Ferreira  de  Lacerda  (1595-1644),  another  femina  incom- 
parahilis,  like  Soror  Violante  and  Dercylis  considered  the  tenth 
Muse  and  fourth  Grace,  wrote  almost  exclusively  in  Spanish, 
nor  can  her  Soledades  de  Biigaco  (1634)  or  her  epic  Hespana 
Libertada  (2  pts.,  1618,  73)  be  considered  a  heavy  loss  to 
Portuguese  literature.  Soror  Maria  Magdalena  Euphemia  da 
Gloria  (1672-?  c.  1760),  in  the  world  Leonarda  Gil  da  Gama,  in 
Brados  do  Desengano  (1739),  Orhe  Celeste  (1742),  and  Reino  de 
Babylonia  (1749),  rarely  descends  from  the  high-flown  style  indi- 
cated in  these  titles.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Franciscan  nun  of 
Lisbon,  Soror  Maria  do  Ceo  (1658-1753),  or  Maria  de  Ega,  in 
A  Preciosa  (2  pts.,  173 1,  3)  and  Enganos  do  Bosque,  Desenga^ws 
do  Rio  (1741),  among  much  verse  of  the  same  kind  has  some 
poems  of  real  charm  and  an  almost  rustic  simplicity. 

By  reason  of  a  certain  intensity  and  a  vigorous  style  D.  Fran- 
cisco Child  Rolim  de  Moura  (1572-1640),  Lord  of  the  towns  of 
Azambuja  and  Montargil,  although  more  versed  in  arms  than 
in  letters,  wrote  in  Os  Novissimos  do  Homem  (1623)  a  poem  quite 
as  readable  as  the  longer  epics  of  his  contemporaries,  despite  its 
duller  subject  (man's  first  disobedience  and  all  our  woe).  The  four 
cantos  in  oitavas  are  headed  Death,  Judgement,  Hell,  Paradise.- 

'  Hers  is  the  deplorable  pun  of  a  superior  superior  : 
Que  se  Prior  sois  agora 
Sempre   fostes  suprior. 

*  The  real  title  of  the  first  ( 1623)  edition  is  Dos  Novissimos  de  Dom  Francisco 
Rolim  de  Moura.  Adam  is  conducted  by  his  son  Abel  through  Hell  and  com- 
forted by  a  vision  of  Paradise.  As  he  is  the  first  man  and  only  Abel  has 
died,  he  must  forgo  Dante's  pleasure  in  meeting  his  personal  enemies  there, 
but  there  is  something  perhaps  even  more  awful  in  the  thought  of  the  empti- 
ness of  these  infinitos  logares  (iii.  48).  Virgil's  Facilis  descensus,  &c.,  is 
translated  in  two  lines  of  great  badness  :  Onde  descer  he  cousa  tdo  factivel 
Quanto  tornar  atraz  tern  de  impossivel  (iii.  36). 

2362  R 


258  I580-I706 

Of  the  life  of  Manuel  da  Veiga  Tagarro  wo  know  little  or 
nothing,  but  his  volume  of  eclogues  and  odes,  Lavra  de  Anfriso 
(1637),  stands  conspicuous  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  its 
simplicity  and  true  lyrical  vein.  There  is  nothing  original  in 
these  four  eclogues,  but  the  verse  is  of  a  harmonious  softness. 
In  the  odes  he  succeeds  in  combining  fervent  thought  with 
a  classical  restraint  of  expression.  He  aimed  high ;  Horace, 
Lope  deVega,  and  Luis  de  Leon  seem  to  have  been  his  models. 
Some  measure  of  the  lattcr's  deliberate  tranquillity  he  occa- 
sionally attained.  The  works  of  the  '  discreet  and  accomplished  ', 
keen-eyed  and  graceful  D.  Francisco  de  Portugal  (1585- 
1632)  appeared  posthumously  ^ ;  Divinos  e  hutnanos  versos  (1652) 
and  (without  separate  title-page)  Prisoes  e  solturas  de  hiia  alma, 
consisting  of  mystic  poems  mostly  in  Spanish  in  a  setting  of 
Portuguese  prose,  and,  in  Spanish,  Arte  de  Galanteria  (1670),  of 
which  a  second  edition  was  published  in  1682.  Lope  de  Vega 
praised  the  'elegant  verses'  of  the  Gigantoinachia  (1628)  written 
by  Manuel  de  Galhegos  (1597-1665).  That  he  could  write 
good  Portuguese  poetry  the  author  showed  in  the  732  verses  of 
his  Templo  da  Memoria  (1635),  in  the  preface  of  which  he  declares 
that  it  had  become  a  rash  act  to  publish  poems  written  in 
Portuguese  but  quotes  the  example  of  Pereira  de  Castro  and 
of  Gongora  as  having  used  the  language  of  everyday  life  and 
plebeian  words  without  indignity. 

The  later  epics  testified  to  the  perseverance  of  their  authors 
rather  than  to  their  poetical  talent.  They  arc  perhaps  less 
guilty  than  the  critics,  who  should  have  discouraged  the  kind 
and  recognized  that  the  Lusiads  were  only  an  accident  in  Portu- 
guese literature,  the  accident  of  the  genius  of  Camoes.  As 
a  rule  the  epic  spirit  of  the  Portuguese  expressed  itself  better 
in  prose.  Gabriel  Pereira  de  Castro  (1571  ?-i632)  fore- 
stalled Sousa  de  Macedo  in  his  choice  of  a  subject.  His  Vlyssea, 
ov  Lyshoa  Edificada,  Poema  heroyco  (1636)  was  published  post- 
humously by  his  brother  Luis,  and  perhaps  the  most  remarkable 
thing  about  it  is  that  it  should  have  run  through  six  editions. 
The  structure  of  the  poem,  in  ten  cantos  of  oitavas,  is  closely 

'  Nihil  tamen  eo  vivenle  exciissttm  nisi  Solitudines  {hoc  est  Saudades),  says 
the  Theatrum. 


THE   SEISCEXTISTAS  259 

modelled  on  that  of  the  Litsiads,  and  the  gods  of  Olympus  duly 
take  a  part  in  the  story.  He  sings,  he  says  boldly,  to  his  country, 
to  the  world  and  to  eternity,  but  his  sails  flap  sadly  for  lack  of 
inspiration  and  enthusiasm,  and  his  daring  eyijambements  ^  do  not 
compensate  for  the  dullness  of  theme  and  treatment.  If,  for 
instance,  we  compare  his  storm  ^  with  that  of  the  Lusiads 
(vi.  70-91)  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  former  has  much  the 
air  of  a  commotion  in  a  duckpond.  Ulysses  on  his  way  to 
Lisbon  visits  (canto  4)  the  infernal  regions,  is  astonished  to  meet 
kings  there,  and  (canto  6)  relates  the  siege  and  fall  of  Troy. 

The  life  of  Bras  Garcia  de  Mascarenhas  (1596-1656)  was 
more  interesting  than  his  verses.  He  was  born  at  Avo,  near  the 
Serra  da  Estrella,  and  his  adventures  began  early,  for  he  was 
arrested  on  account  of  a  love  affair  (1616)  and  made  a  daring 
escape  from  Coimbra  prison  after  wounding  his  jailer.  His 
careful  biographer.  Dr.  Antonio  de  Vasconcellos,  has  shown  that 
there  is  no  record  of  his  having  studied  at  Coimbra  University. 
Subsequently  he  travelled  and  fought  in  Brazil  (1623-32),  Italy, 
France,  Flanders,  and  Spain,  and  in  1641,  as  captain,  raised 
and  commanded  a  body  of  horse  known  as  the  Company  of 
Lions.  As  Governor  of  Alfaiates,  the  '  key  of  Beira  ',  he  was 
wrongfully  accused  of  having  a  treasonable  understanding 
with  Spain  and  imprisoned  at  Sabugal,  some  ten  miles  from 
Alfaiates  (1642).  He  obtained  a  book  (the  Flos  Sanctorum)^ 
flour,  and  scissors  and  cut  out  a  letter  in  verse  to  King  Joao  IV, 
who  restored  him  to  his  governorship  and  gave  him  the  habit 
of  Avis.  His  long  epic  Viriato  Tragico  (1699)  contains  some 
forcible  descriptions  and  has  a  pleasantly  patriotic  and  indigenous 
atmosphere — one  feels  that  he  is  singing  os  patrios  monies  as 
much  as  the  hero — but  in  style  it  differs  little  from  prose.  Tedious 
geographical  descriptions,  dry  catalogues  of  names,  a  whole 
stanza  (vii.  39)  composed  exclusively  of  nouns,  another  (iv.  63) 
of  proper  names,  incline  the  reader  less  to  praise  than  sleep, 

'  e.  g.  (x.  126) : 

Hua  montanha  e  serra  inhabitada 

Se  erguia  ao  ar,  em  cuja  corpulenta 

Espalda.  .  .  . 
^  ii.  30-49 :  Do  undoso  leito,  donde  repousava 

O  mar,  &c. 

R  2 


26o  I 580-1 706 

from  which  he  is  only  gently  stirred  when  the  sun  is  called 
a  solar  emhaixadora.  In  the  prevailing  fashion  of  the  time  the 
author  works  in  lines  of  Camoes,  Sa  de  Miranda,  Garci  Lasso, 
Ariosto,  and  other  poets.  While  the  work  was  still  in  manu- 
script another  poet,  and  perhaps  a  relation,  Andre  da  Silva 
Mascarenhas,  helped  himself  liberally  to  its  stanzas  (they 
number  2,287)  foi"  his  epic  A  Destruigao  de  Hespanha  (1671), 
He  could  have  given  no  better  proof  of  the  poverty  of  his  genius. 
Francisco  de  Sa  de  Meneses  {c.  1600-1664  ?),  although 
less  true  a  poet  than  his  cousin  and  namesake  the  Conde  de 
Mattosinhos,  won  a  far  wider  fame  by  his  epic  poem  Malaca 
Conqvistada  (1634),  in  which  he  recounts  a  heroica  historia  dos 
feitos  de  Albuquerque.  The  reader  who  accompanies  his  frail 
bark^  through  twelve  cantos  of  oitavas  feels  that  he  has  well 
earned  the  fall  of  Malacca  at  the  end.  For  although  the  author 
is  not  incapable  of  vigorous  and  succinct  description  he  too  often 
decks  out  the  pure  gold  of  Camoes'  style  ^  with  periphrases  and 
Manueline  ornaments  which  delay  the  action.  The  sun  is  '  the 
lover  of  Clytie '  or  '  the  rubicund  son  of  Latona '.  He  stops  to 
tell  us  that  a  diamond  won  by  Albuquerque  had  been  '  cut  by 
skilled  hand  in  Milan  ',  and  some  of  his  more  elaborate  similes 
are  not  without  charm.  Canto  7  tells  of  the  future  deeds  of 
the  Portuguese  in  India.  The  gods  interfere  less  than  in  the 
Lusiads  (Asmodeus  plays  a  part  in  canto  6),  but  the  general 
effect  is  that  of  a  great  theme  badly  handled.  After  the  death 
of  his  wife,  the  author  spent  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life 
(from  1641)  in  the  Dominican  convent  of  Bemfica  as  Frei  Fran- 
cisco de  Jesus. 

Antonio  de  Sousa  de  Macedo  (1606-82),  mogo  fidalgo  of 
Philip  IV  and  later  Secretary  of  Embassy  and  Minister  [Resi- 
dente)  in  London  (1642-6)  and  Secretary  of  State  to  the  weak 
and  unlettered  Afonso  VI,  wrote  at  the  age  of  twenty-two  Flores 
de  Espana,  Excelencias  de  Portugal  (1631).  This  historical  work 
of  considerable  interest  and  importance  was  written  in  Spanish 
por  ser  mais  universal,  but  he  returned  to  Portuguese  presently  in 

*  xii.79:   Sou  fragil  lenho. 

^  In  the  storm  in  canto  2  {Ets  que  n  reo  de  improuiso  se  escurece)  he  seems 
to  have  realized  that  Camoes'  description  could  not  be  improved  upon. 


THE  SEISCENTISTAS  261 

a  curious  prose  miscellany,  Eva  e  Ave  (1676),  and  in  the  epic  poem 
Vlyssippo  (1640)  in  fourteen  cantos  of  oitavas.  He  seems  to  have 
felt  that  interest  could  not  easily  be  sustained  by  the  subject, 
the  foundation  of  Lisbon  by  Ulysses.  Accordingly,  following 
the  example  of  Camoes,  he  inset  various  episodes.  Canto  6 
summarizes  the  events  of  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  canto  10 
describes  a  tapestry  adorned  with  future  Portuguese  victories, 
in  canto  11  the  Delphic  Sibyl  foretells  the  deeds  of  Portugal's 
kings,  down  to  Sebastian,  in  canto  12  the  W'ise  Chiron  prophesies 
of  her  famosos  vardes.  The  style  is  correct,  but  the  poem  as 
a  whole  is  commonplace.  Vasco  Mousinho  de  Quevedo,  of 
Setubal,  although  no  records  of  his  life  remain,  won  high  fame 
by  his  epic  poem  in  oitavas  (tw^elve  cantos)  Afonso  Africano 
(1611),  in  which  'the  marvellous  prowess  of  King  Afonso  V 
in  Africa  '  is  described.  The  poem,  admired  by  Almeida  Garrett, 
is  particularly  wearisome  because  it  is  largely  allegorical.  The 
king  conquering  Arzila  represents  the  strong  man  subduing  the 
city  of  his  own  soul,  the  Moors  are  the  spirits  of  the  damned, 
and  seven  of  their  knights  representing  the  seven  deadly  sins 
are  defeated  by  seven  Christian  knights  who  stand  for  the 
virtues. 

The  poverty  of  profane  prose,  compared  with  its  flourishing 
condition  in  the  preceding  century,  is  also  remarkable.  A  few 
historians  of  the  seventeenth  century  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. The  literary  academies,  of  which  the  most  famous  were 
the  Acadeynia  dos  Generosos  (1649-68)  and  the  Academia  dos 
Singular es  (1663-5),^  existed  rather  for  the  interchange  of  wit 
and  complimentary  or  satiric  verses  than  for  the  encouragement  of 
historical  and  scientific  research.  The  Conde  da  Ericeira's  Portugal 
Restaurado  and  Freire  de  Andrade's  Life  bear  no  comparison 
with  works  of  the  Quinhentistas.  Yet  it  was  the  second  golden 
age  of  Portuguese  prose,  as  the  names  of  Manuel  Bernardes  and 
Vieira  prove.  The  latter's  letters,  with  those  of  Frei  Antonio 
das  Chagas  and  Mello,  are  in  three  different  kinds — the  political, 
religious,  and  familiar — the  most  notable  written  in  the  century. 

'  Numerous  other  academies  of  the  same  kind  came  into  being  in  this  and 
the  first  half  of  the  next  century.  Most  of  their  members  now  belong  to  the 
(Brazilian)  Acadeinia  dos  Esquecidos — the  Forgotten. 


262  I58O-I706 

Gaspar  Pires  de  Rebello  in  the  preface  to  his  Infortvnios 
tragicos  da  Constante  Florinda  (1625)  excuses  himself  for  its 
publication  on  the  ground  that  '  not  spiritual  and  divine  books 
only  benefit  our  intelligence  '.  The  book,  which  records  the  love 
of  Arnaldo  and  Florinda,  of  Zaragoza,  shows  the  modern  novel 
growing  through  Don  Quixote  out  of  the  Celestina  plays  and  the 
romances  of  chivalry,  but  has  little  other  interest.  A  second  part 
was  published  in  1633,  and  Novellas  Exemplares,  six  stories 
by  the  same  author,  in  1650.  Numerous  other  works  appeared 
with  more  or  less  alluring  or  sensational  titles  but  contents  dis- 
appointingly dull.  Mattheus  de  Ribeiro  [c.  1620-95),  in  his 
Alivio  de  Tristes  e  Consolagdo  de  Queixosos  (1672,  4),  shows 
greater  skill  than  Pires  de  Rebello  in  the  invention  of  the 
story,  but  it  is  marred  by  the  diffuse  and  pedantic  style — April 
becomes  an  '  academy  in  which  Flora  was  opening  the  doors 
for  the  study  of  flowers '.  The  pastoral  novel  ended  in  sad 
contortions  with  the  Desmayos  de  Mayo  em  somhras  de  Mondego 
(1635)  by  DioGO  Ferreira  de  Figueiroa  (1604-74).  Its  title 
and  the  three  involved  sentences  which  cover  the  first  three 
pages  (ff.  10,  11)  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  its  character  and 
contents. 

Of  several  prose  works  written  by  Martim  Afonso  de 
Miranda,  of  Lisbon,  in  the  first  third  of  the  century,  the  most 
important  is  Tempo  de  Agora  (2  pts.,  1622,  4).  It  contains 
seven  dialogues  dealing  with  truth  and  falsehood,  the  evils  of 
idleness,  temperance,  friendship,  justice,  the  evils  of  dice  and 
cards,  and  precepts  for  princes.  Much  of  their  matter  is  interest- 
ing and  the  comments  incisive,  especially  as  to  the  prevailing 
luxury  in  food  and  dress.  They  tell  of  the  infinite  number  of 
curiously  bound  books  at  Lisbon,  of  the  soldiers  unpaid,  '  eating 
at  the  doors  of  convents  ',  of  the  delight  in  foreign  fashions,  and 
the  craze  for  '  diabolical  '  books  from  Italy  to  the  exclusion  of 
livros  de  historias  and  books  in  Portuguese.  The  anonymous 
Primor  e  honra  da  vida  soldadesca  no  Estado  da  India  (1630), 
editedby  the  Augustinian  Frei  Antonio  Freire  (t:.  1570-1634), 
is  a  different  work  from  Geronimo  Ximenez  de  Urrea's  Didlogo 
de  la  verdadera  honra  militar  (1566),  which  it  resembles  slightly  in 
title.     It  is  divided  into  four  parts  and  contains  various  episodes 


TIIK   SEISCENTISTAS  263 

of  the  Portuguese  in  the  East  and  some  curious  information. 
Miguel  Leitao  de  Andrade  (1555-1632)  went  straight  from 
Coimbra  University  to  Africa  with  King  Sebastian.  After  the 
battle  of  Alcacer  Kebir  he  succeeded  in  escaping  from  captivity, 
followed  the  cause  of  the  Prior  of  Crato,  and  was  imprisoned 
under  Philip  II.  In  his  book,  in  twenty  dialogues,  Miscellanea 
do  Sitio  de  N.  S"  da  Lvz  do  Pedrogdo  Grande  (1629),  he  disclaims 
any  purpose  of  writing  history.  It  reveals  an  inquiring  and 
observant  but  uncritical  mind,  interested  in  fossils,  inscriptions, 
astrology,  the  early  history  of  Portugal,  etymology,  heraldry,  and 
the  '  infinite  wonderful  secrets  of  Nature  daily  being  revealed  '. 
It  contains  a  graphic  account  of  his  escape  from  Fez,  but  on  the 
whole,  in  spite  of  attractive  passages  and  interesting  details, 
scarcely  merits  its  great  reputation.  Do  Sitio  de  Lisboa  (1608), 
which  Mello  praises  as  aquelle  elegantissimo  livro,  by  the  author 
of  Arte  Militar  (1612),  Luis  Mendes  de  Vasconcellos,  is 
written  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  a  philosopher,  a 
soldier,  and  a  politician,  and  deserves  its  place  among  the 
minor  classics  of  Portuguese  literature. 

The  famous  love  letters  of  the  Portuguese  nun  Marianna  Alco- 
FORADO  (1640-1723),  which  bring  a  breath  of  life  and  nature 
into  the  stilted  writing  of  that  day,  only  belong  to  Portuguese 
literature  in  the  sense  that  Osorio's  history  belongs  to  it — by 
translation.  They  first  appeared  in  indifferent  French  [Lettres 
Portvgaises,  Paris,  1669)  and  were  not  retranslated,  or,  if  we  accept 
the  theory  that  the  nun  originally  wrote  them  in  French^ — French 
siiranne  et  denue  d'elegance — translated  into  Portuguese  for  a 
century  and  a  half  :  Cartas  de  uma  Religiosa  Portugueza  (1819).^ 
Meanwhile,  even  before  their  obscure  author  died  in  the  remote 

'  The  slip  in  the  second  letter  by  which  in  the  French  version  not  the 
Beja  Mertola  Gate  but  Mertola  itself  is  seen  from  the  convent,  does  not  favour 
this  theory,  which  recently  has  been  sustained  by  the  Conde  de  Sabugosa. 
This  passage  is  held  to  be  a  convincing  proof,  were  such  proof  needed,  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  letters.  It  is  rather  a  proof  of  the  reality  of  the  love 
intrigue  than  of  the  nun's  authorship.  If  Chamilly,  for  the  edification  of  his 
vanity,  were  fabricating  such  a  letter,  what  more  likely  than  that  he  should 
wish  to  add  his  note  of  local  colour  and  remembered  vaguely  the  word  Mertola 
in  connexion  with  the  view  from  the  convent  terrace  ?  What  he  could  scarcely 
have  invented  or  expressed  is  the  real  depth  of  feeling. 

'  Seven  spurious  letters,  and  subsequently  others,  were  added  in  many  of 
the  editions.    Filinto  Elysio  translated  the  twelve. 


264  1580-1706 

and  beautiful  city  of  Beja,  they  had  been  translated  into  English 
and  Italian  and  had  received  over  fifty  French  editions.  Colonel 
(later  Marshal)  Noel  Bouton,  Comte  dc  Saint-Leger,  afterwards 
Alarquis  de  Chamilly  (1636-1715),  accompanied  the  French 
troops  sent  to  help  Portugal  against  Spain,  and  was  in  Portugal 
from  1665  to  1667.  Marianna  Alcoforado,  belonging  to  an  old 
Alentejan  family,  was  a  nun  in  the  convent  of  Nossa  Senhora 
daConcei^ao  at  Beja.  Her  five  letters,  written  between  the  end 
of  1667  and  the  middle  of  1668  after  her  desertion,  in  their  art- 
Icssness,  contradictions,  and  disorder,  vibrate  with  emotion. 
They  are  a  succession  of  intense  cries  like  the  popular  quatrain  : 

Por  te  amar  deixei  a  Deus  ; 

Ve  la  que  gloria  perdi  ! 

E  agora  vejo-me  so, 

Sem  Deus,  sem  gloria,  sem  ti. 

Sometimes,  it  is  true,  a  trace  of  French  reason  seems  to  mingle 
with  the  ingenuous  Portuguese  sentiment,  and  it  is  almost 
incredible,  although  of  course  not  impossible,  since  omnia  vincit 
amor,  that  the  nun  should  have  written  certain  passages.  From 
these  and  not  on  the  amazing  assumption  of  Rousseau  that 
a  mere  woman  could  not  write  so  passionately — he  was  ready 
to  wager  that  the  letters  wxre  the  work  of  a  man  ^ — one  may 
suspect  that  the  lover,  who  did  not  scruple  to  hand  over  the 
letters  to  a  publisher  (unless  he  was  merely  guilty  of  showing 
them  to  his  friends),  sank  a  little  lower  and  edited  them,  adding 
a  phrase  here  and  there  more  peculiarly  pleasing  to  his  vanity.^ 
In  that  case  the  nun  actually  wrote  these  letters,  full  of  passion 
and  despair,  and  perhaps  in  French,  to  her  French  lover ;  but 
we  only  read  them  as  they  were  touched  up  for  publication  by 
another  hand. 

A  work  which  has  nothing  in  common  with  these  fervent 
love  letters  except  an  enigmatic  origin  is  the  Arte  de  Furtar, 
which   in   part   at  least  probably  belongs   to   the  seventeenth 

'  Jc  pnrierais  tout  au  monde  que  Ics  Lettres  portugaises  ont  eti  ecrites  par  un 
homme. 

^  e.g.'  You  told  me  frankly  that  you  were  in  love  with  a  lady  in  your  own 
country  '  (letter  2).  '  Were  you  not  ever  the  first  to  leave  for  the  front,  the 
last  to  return  ?  '  (S)-  '  My  passion  increases  every  instant  '  (4).  '  I  do  not 
repent  having  adored  you.     I  am  glad  that  you  betrayed  me  '  (3). 


THE  SEISCENTISTAS  265 

century.  It  is  a  curious  and  amusing  treatise  on  the  noble 
art  of  thieving  in  all  kinds,  private  and  official,  civil  and  military. 
Its  anecdotes  are  racy  if  not  original.  Two  of  the  happiest 
incidents  (in  caps.  6  and  41)  are  copied  without  acknowledge- 
ment from  Lazarillo  de  Tormes?-  The  author  seems  to  have  had 
misgivings  that  he  had  presented  his  subject  in  too  favourable 
a  light,  for  he  ends  by  assuring  his  reader  thieves  that  many 
tons  of  worldly  glory  are  not  worth  an  ounce  of  eternal  blessed- 
ness, and  promises  them  before  long  another  '  more  liberal 
treatise  on  the  art  of  acquiring  true  glory  '.  These  tardy 
qualms  did  not  save  his  book  from  the  Index.  The  first  edition, 
purporting  to  be  printed  at  Amsterdam,  bears  the  date  1652'^ 
and  attributes  the  work  to  Antonio  Vieira.  That  attribution 
may  be  set  aside.  Were  there  no  other  reasons  for  its  rejection 
it  would  suffice  to  read  the  book  or  even  its  title  in  order  to 
be  convinced  that  it  is  not  from  the  veneravel  penna  of  that 
great  statesman  and  preacher.  He  might  dabble  in  Bandarra 
prophecies,  but  would  scarcely  have  sunk  to  the  picaresque 
familiarities  of  the  Arte  de  Furtar  or  occupy  himself  with  the  sad 
habits  of  innkeepers,  the  long  stitches  of  tailors,  or  the  price 
of  straw.  It  has  also  been  attributed,  without  adequate  ground, 
to  Thome  Pinheiro  daVeiga  (1570.? -1656),  the  author  of  a  lively 
account  of  the  festivities  at  the  Spanish  Court  and  description 
of  Valladolid  in  1605,  entitled  Fastigwiia  (it  mentions  Don 
Quixote  and  Sancho  (p.  119)  but  says  nothing  of  Cervantes), 
and  to  Joao  Pinto  Ribeiro  [c.  1590-1649),  the  magistrate  who 
played  a  notable  part  in  the  Restoration  of  1640  and  wrote 
various  short  treatises  such  as  Preferencia  das  Letras  as  Armas 
(1645)  ;  and  even  less  plausibly  to  Duarte  Ribeiro  de  Macedo 
(i6i8?-8o),  statesman  and  diplomatist,  an  indifferent  poet 
but  an  excellent  writer  of  prose  and  a  careful  although  not 

'  Ed.  H.  Butler  Clarke  (1897),  pp.  17-18  and  65-7. 

*  The  1652  edition  speaks  of  coronets  (p.  277)  who,  it  has  been  argued,  were 
called  mestres  de  campo  till  1708  (Goes,  however,  in  liis  Cron.  de  D.  Manuel, 
1619  ed.,  f.  213,  has  os  fez  todos  quatro  coronets  de  mil  homens  ;  cf.  Gil  Vicente, 
i.  234 :  Corregedor,  coronel)  ;  it  refers  (p.  393)  to  Joao  IV  as  still  alive 
(11656)  :  Que  Deos  guarde  e  prospere.  It  would  appear  to  have  been  written 
at  two  periods,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  unless  the 
passages  implying  the  earlier  date  arc  as  deliberately  misleading  as  the  1652 
title-page. 


266  I 580-1706 

original  historian.  His  halting  verses  and  his  treatises  were 
collected  in  his  Obras  (2  vols.,  1743).  Of  the  latter  the  Summa 
Politica  has  been  shown  by  Snr.  Solidonio  Leite^  to  be  copied 
almost  word  for  word  Trom  the  work  of  identical  title  by 
D.  Sebastiao  Cesar  de  Meneses  (11672),  Bishop  of  Oporto  and 
Archbishop  of  Braga.  Both  author  and  book  were  too  well 
known  for  Ribeiro  de  Macedo  to  claim  it  as  his  own.  He  seems 
merely  to  have  translated  it  from  the  original  Latin  published 
at  Amsterdam  in  1650,  a  year  after  the  first  Portuguese  edition. 
The  work  is  remarkable  for  acute  thought  and  clear  and  concise 
expression.  A  work  of  a  similar  character  is  the  well-written  Arte 
^ei^gmar  (1643)  by  P.  Antonio  CarvalhodeParada(i595-i655). 
The  Tratado  Analytico  (1715),  by  Manuel  Rodriguez  Leitao 
{c.  1620-91),  a  controversial  treatise  written  to  prove  the  right 
of  Portugal  to  appoint  bishops,  is  also  the  work  of  a  good 
stylist.  Some  would  say  the  same  of  one  of  the  best-known 
books  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  Vida  de  Dom  Joao  de 
Castro  (1651),  by  Jacinto  Freire  de  Andrade  (1597-1657). 
The  author,  born  at  Beja,  was  suspected  at  Madrid  of  nationalist 
inclinations,  and  retired  to  his  cure  in  the  diocese  of  Viseu  ;  after 
the  Restoration  he  refused  the  bishopric  of  Viseu.  His  book 
has  often  been  regarded  as  a  model  of  Portuguese  prose.  Pom- 
pous and  emphatic,-  it  may  be  described  as  inflated  Tacitus,  or 
rather  a  mixture  of  Tacitean  phrases,  conceits,  and  rhetorical 
affectation.  But  if  as  a  whole  it  is  more  akin  to  Castro's  garish 
triumph  at  Goa  than  to  the  scientific  spirit  of  his  letters,  it 
scarcely  deserves  the  severe  strictures  which  followed  excessive 
praise^  :  it  might  even  become  excellent  if  judiciously  pruned 
of    antitheses    and    artifice.*     The   second   Conde   da   Ericeira, 

'  Classicos  Esquecidos  (Rio  de  Janeiro,  1915).  Diiarte  de  Macedo  in  his 
dedicatory  letter  says  :  '  I  have  taken  this  Summa  Politica  from  the  Latin 
and  Italian  languages.'  '  I  do  not  ofier  it  as  my  own,  because  I  restore  it 
to  your  Highness  as  yours  ',  so  that  he  had  armed  himself  against  such 
charges  of  plagiarism. 

*  It  loses  nothing  in  Sir  Peter  Wyche's  translation.  Cf.  the  account  of 
Castro's  first  arrival  at  Goa  :  '  When  the  entry  was  to  be,  the  two  Govemours 
were  in  a  Faluque  with  gilded  Oars,  and  an  awning  of  divers-coloured  silks ; 
the  Castles  and  Ships  entertain'd  'em  with  the  horrour  of  reiterated  shootings, 
the  Vivas  and  expectation  of  the  common  people  did  without  any  cunning 
flatter  the  new  Government,  &c.' 

^  Cada  clausula  he  filha  da  eloquencia  mats  sublime,  &c.  (Barbosa  Machado). 

*  e.g.  1759  cd.,  p.  342:    cujtis  riiinas  seriao  de  sua  Jama  os  elogtos  maiores 


I 

i 


THE  SEISCENTISTAS  267 

D.  Fernando  de  Meneses  (1614-99),  wrote  a  Historia  de 
Tangere  (1732)  and  the  Vida  e  Acgoens  d'El  Ret  D.  jfodo  I  (1677), 
which  ends  with  an  elaborate  parallel  betw'een  Julius  Caesar 
and  the  Master  of  Avis.  Equally  clear  but  far  more  artificial  is 
the  style  of  the  third  Count,  D.  Luis  de  Meneses  (1632-90),  in 
the  best-known  historical  work  of  the  century  in  Portuguese : 
Historia  de  Portugal  Restaurado  (2  pts.,  1679,  9^)-  ^^s  author 
ended  his  life  by  leaping  from  an  upper  window  into  the  garden 
of  his  palace  on  a  May  morning  in  a  fit  of  melancholy. 

The  great  prose-writer  of  the  century,  Antonio  Vieira  (1608- 
97),  was  born  in  the  same  year  and  city  as  D.  Francisco  Manuel 
de  Mello  and  spent  a  life  as  unquiet.  He  was  not  literary  in  the 
same  sense  as  Mello,  but  he  has  always  been  considered  one  of 
the  great  classics  of  the  Portuguese  language.  He  was  the  son 
of  Cristovam  Vieira  Ravasco,  escrivao  das  devassas  at  Lisbon, 
but  at  the  age  of  seven  he  accompanied  his  parents  to  Brazil 
(1615)  and  began  his  education  in  the  Jesuit  college  at  Bahia. 
In  1623,  by  his  own  ardent  wish,  long  opposed  by  his  parents, 
he  became  a  Jesuit  novice  and  professed  in  the  following  year. 
Before  he  was  thirty  he  was  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  Bahia 
college  and  a  celebrated  preacher,  the  sermons  in  which  he  encou- 
raged the  citizens  of  Bahia  in  the  w'ar  against  the  Dutch  being 
especially  eloquent.  In  1641  he  was  chosen  with  Padre  Simao  de 
Vasconcellos  to  accompany  D.  Fernando  de  Mascarenhas,  son  of 
the  viceroy,  to  Europe  in  order  to  congratulate  King  Joao  IV  on 
his  accession.  Vieira  preached  in  the  Royal  Chapel  on  New 
Year's  Day,  1642.  Both  his  sermons  and  his  conversation  greatly 
impressed  the  king,  and  from  1641  to  the  end  of  the  reign 
(1656)  his  influence  was  great  although  not  unchallenged.  They 
were  critical  years  in  Portugal's  foreign  policy,  and  Vieira,  who 
refused  a  bishopric  but  was  appointed  Court  preacher,  was 
entrusted  with  several  important  missions — to  Paris  and  The 
Hague  (February-July  1646),  London,  Paris,  and  The  Hague 
(1647-8),  and  Rome  (1650).  In  1652  he  returned  to  Brazil 
as  a  missionary  in  Maranhao,  and  during  two  years  roused  the 
bitter  hostility  of  the  settlers  by  his  protection  of  the  slaves 

would  be  straightened  out  from  Latin  into  Portuguese  :  serido  os  ntaiores 
elogios  dc  sua  fama. 


268  1580-1706 

or  rather  by  his  opposition  to  slavery.     In  1655  he  again  left 

Lisbon  for  Maranhao,^  and  during  five  arduous  years  showed 

unfailing  courage  and  energy  in  dealing  with  natives  and  settlers. 

The   latter  in   1661   attacked   the  mission-house   and   arrested 

and  expelled  the  Jesuits.    At  home  King  Joao,  Vieira's  friend, 

was    dead.      Differences    arose    between    the     Queen    Regent 

supported  by  Vieira,  and  her  son,  and  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the 

latter  on  taking  power  into  his  own  hands  was  to  banish  Vieira 

to  Oporto  and  later  to  Coimbra.     Here  in  the  spring  of  1665  ^ 

he  wrote  that  curious  work  Historia  do  Futuro  (1718),  which 

was  to  interpret  Portugal's  destiny  by  the  light  of  old  prophecies, 

but   of  which   only   the   introduction   {livro  anteprimeiro)   was 

printed.     An  even  stranger  book,  in  which  he  had  paid  serious 

attention    politically    to    the    prophecies    of    Bandarra,    was 

denounced  in  1663,  and  in  October  1665  Vieira  was  consigned 

to   the   prison   of    the  Inquisition   at  Coimbra.     His   sentence 

was    not    read    till    1667    (December   24),    and    it    condemned 

him  to  seclusion  in  a  college  or  convent  of  his  Order  and  to 

perpetual   silence   in   matters   of   religion.      The   deposition   of 

King  Afonso  VI  (1667)  and  the  accession  of  his  brother  Pedro  II 

altered   Vieira's  prospects,   and  his  eloquent  voice  was  again 

heard  in  the  pulpit.     After  preaching  before  the  Court  in  Lent 

1669  he  proceeded  to  Rome  on  business  of  the  Company  and  spent 

six  years   there.      He  preached  several   times   in   Italian,   and 

Queen  Christina  of  Sweden,  who  had  settled  in  Rome  in  1655, 

offered  him  the  post  of  preacher  and  confessor,  which  he  refused. 

In  August  1675  he  returned  to   Lisbon,  where  he  was  coldly 

received  by  the  Prince  Regent,  and  in  1681  retired  to  Brazil. 

In  the  same  year  he  was  burnt  in  effigy  by  the  mob  at  Coimbra. 

A  special  brief  given  to  him  by  the  Pope  secured  his  person  from 

the  attacks  of  the  Inquisition.     But  even  at  Bahia  he  was  not 

free    from    troubles    and    intrigues.      His    activity    continued 

to    the   end    of  his  long  life.     In  1688  he  preached  in  Bahia 

Cathedral,   and   was  Visitor  of    the   Province  of   Brazil  from 

1688  to  1691.     Even  in  1695  we  find  him,  although  feeble  and 

'  On  his  homeward  voyage  in  1654  he  had  suffered  from  a  violent  storm, 
and  was  only  saved  by  a  Dutch  pirate  who  landed  the  passengers  of  the 
Portuguese  ship  at  the  Ilha  Graciosa  without  their  belongings. 

^  Historia  do  Fiiluro  (171 8),  p.  93. 


THE   SEISCENTTSTAS  afjQ 

broken,  writing  letters  and  eager  to  finish  his  Clavis  Pro- 
phetical (or  Prophetarum),  which  now  lies  in  manuscript  in  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale  at  Paris  and  elsewhere.  Seventy 
years  earlier  he  had  been  entrusted  by  the  Jesuits  with  the 
composition  of  the  annual  Latin  letters  of  the  Company. 
Vieira's  vein  of  caustic  satire  no  doubt  made  him  numerous 
enemies  and  increased  the  difficulties  which  his  advocacy  of 
the  Jews  and  slaves  and  his  fearless  stand  against  injustice 
and  oppression  were  certain  to  produce.  Ambitious  and  fond 
of  power,  he  could  devote  himself  to  causes  which  entailed  a  life 
of  toil  and  poverty.  An  energetic  if  unsuccessful  diplomatist,  an 
ingenious  thinker,  a  statesman  of  far-reaching  views,  he  was  also  a 
fantastic  dreamer,  but  his  dreams  and  restlessness  rarely  affected 
the  sanity  of  his  judgement.  The  works  of  this  great  writer  and 
extraordinary  man  are  an  inexhaustible  mine  of  pure  and  vigor- 
ous prose,  at  its  best  in  his  numerous  Cartas,  written  in  selecta 
et  propria  dictio,  misquam  verbis  indulgens  sed  rebus  inhaerens. 
A  Portuguese  critic,  Dias  Gomes,  notes  his  '  sustained  elegance  ', 
and  we  may  sometimes  sigh  for  an  interval  of  Mello's  familiarity 
or  Frei  Luis  de  Sousa's  charm.  In  his  famous  Sermoes  he 
bowed  intermittently  to  the  taste  of  the  time  for  conceit  and 
artifice.  He  condemned  the  practice  in  a  celebrated  sermon, 
but  indeed  a  certain  humorous  quaintness  was  not  foreign  to  his 
temperament,  and  in  the  obscurity,  at  least,  of  thecultoshe,  never 
indulged.  When  inspired  by  patriotism  or  indignation  his  words 
soar  beyond  cold  reason  and  colder  conceits  to  a  fiery  eloquence. 
Among  writers  whom  he  influenced  was  the  Benedictine  Frei 
JoAO  DOS  Prazeres  (1648-1709),  of  whosc  principal  work, 
0  Principe  dos  Patriarchas  S.  Bento,  or  Empresas  de  S.  Bento, 
only  the  first  two  volumes  were  published.  Closer  imitators 
of  Vieira  were  Frei  Francisco  de  Santa  Maria  (1653-1713), 
author  of  0  Ceo  Aberto  na  Terra  (1697)  and  many  sermons, 
and  the  Jesuit  preacher  Antonio  de  Sa  (1620-78),  whose 
Sermoes  Varies  appeared  in  1750. 

See  letters  from  Bahia,  July  22,  1695. 


V 

1706-18 i6 
The  FAghteenth  Century 

The  eighteenth  century  did  not  kill  literature  in  Portugal  any 
more  than  in  other  countries,  but  poetry  had  lost  its  lyrism,  and 
under  the  influence  of  French  and  English  writers  assumed 
a  scientific,  philosophical,  or  utilitarian  character.  No  mighty 
genius  arose  in  Portuguese  literature  at  the  bidding  of  Joao  V 
(1706-50),  but  the  king's  lavish  patronage  gave  an  impulse,  and 
he  founded  the  Academia  Real  de  Historia  in  1720.  A  crop  of 
scholars  and  poets  followed  in  the  second  half  of  the  century, 
so  that  it  was  not  without  some  unfairness  that  Giuseppe 
Baretti  wrote  of  the  Portuguese  in  1760  that  di  letteratura 
non  hanno  punto  fama  d'essere  soverchio  ghiotti  .  .  .  quel  poco 
que  scrivono,  sia  in  prosa  sia  in  verso,  e  tutto  panciuto  e  petto- 
ruto}  It  was  the  age  of  Arcadias :  the  famous  Arcadia  Ulyssi- 
ponense'^  (1756-74)  and  the  Nova  Arcadia  founded  in  1790 
(i,  e.  precisely  a  century  after  the  Italian  Arcadia).  All  the 
poets  of  the  century  belonged  to  one  or  other  of  these  societies 
or  made  their  mark  as  dissidentes  from  them.  One  of  the  founders 
of  the  Nova  Arcadia,  Francisco  Joaquim  Bingre  (1763-1856), 
lived  on  into  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  a  few 
of  his  poems  were  collected  under  the  title  0  Moribundo  Cysne 
do  Vouga  (1850).  Atypical  eighteenth-century  poet  is  D.  Fran- 
cisco Xavier  de  Meneses  (1673-1743),  fourth  Conde  da  Ericeira, 
who  in  turning  to  literature  was  but  following  the  traditions 
of  his  family.  A  staunch  defender  of  pure  Portuguese  against 
those  who,  he  said,  disfigure  and  corrupt  the  language  by  the 
introduction   of  foreign  words  and  phrases,  he  wrote  a  large 

'  Lettere  Familiari,  No.  30. 

'  Or  Arcadia  Lusitana.  For  a  list  of  its  members  see  T.  Braga,  A  Arcadia 
Ltfiilana  (1899),  pp.  210-29  ;   for  its  statutes,  ibid.,  pp.  189-205. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  271 

number  of  works  in  prose  and  in  verse.  The  best  known  of 
them  is  his  Henriqiieida  (1741),  a  heroic  poem  on  the  conquest 
of  Portugal  by  Count  Henry  in  twelve  long  cantos  of  prosaic 
oitavas.     It  may  contain  lines  more  inspiring  than  these : 

E  a  contramina  fabricou  Roberto, 
Da  mina  conhecendo  o  lugar  certo, 

but  they  do  not  really  differ  greatly  from  the  rest  of  the  poem. 
The  large  quantity  of  poetry  still  written  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century  had  met  with  severe  criticism  in  Frei  Lucas  de 
Santa  Catharina's  Seram  Politico.  He  slyly  calls  the  egloga 
campestre  '  poesia  ervada  '.  The  objects  of  the  Arcadia  of  1756 
were  to  free  Portuguese  literature  from  foreign  influences  and 
restore  the  purity  of  the  language.  If  to  some  extent  it  merely 
substituted  French  or  Italian  influence  for  Spanish,  its  cry  was 
also  back  to  the  classics  and  to  the  Portuguese  quinhentistas. 
As  to  the  language  its  services  were  invaluable,  for  at  a  time 
when  French  influence  was  great  in  Portugal  and  in  the  rest  of 
Europe  it  checked  the  use  of  gallicisms  ;  as  to  literature  the 
attempt  to  write  poetry  on  an  ordered  plan  was  perhaps  fore- 
doomed to  failure :  it  plodded  along  in  an  artificial  atmosphere 
of  Roman  gods  and  antiquities,  and  became  hidebound  in 
imitation  of  the  Horatian  ode. 

Pedro  Antonio  Correa  Gar^ao  (1724-72),  one  of  the  first 
members  and  most  prominent  poets  of  the  Arcadia,  did  good 
service  in  his  determined  efforts  to  deliver  his  country's  literature 
from  foreign  imitations  and  the  false  affectation  of  the  time, 
and  to  revert  to  the  classics,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Portuguese. 
He  even  prophesied  that  Gil  Vicente's  day  would  come.  His 
master  was  Horace,  grande  Horacio,  and  his  Horatian  odes,  if 
they  show  no  remarkable  lyrical  gift,  have  a  dry  native  flavour 
in  the  purity  of  their  language.  He  was  also  successful  in 
reviving  the  cultivation  of  blank  verse.  There  is  a  fine  sound 
in  some  of  the  sonnets  in  which  he  sings  Marilia,  Lydia,  Belisa, 
Maria,  Nise,  writes  to  a  friend  to  ask  for  a  doubloon  or  for 
Spanish  tobacco,  sends  birthday  congratulations  or  laughs  at 
a  bald  priest  :  the  themes  are  mostly  of  this  level.  His  satirical 
vein  is  marked  in  his  two  short  comedies  in  blank  verse.  Theatre 


272  1706-1816 

Novo,  a  skit  on  the  drama  then  in  vogue,  and  Assembled  ou 
Partida,  in  which  certain  Lisbon  types  are  ridiculed  and  which 
contains  the  famous  and  much  overpraised  Cantata  de  Dido. 
Correa  Gargao's  days  ended  tragically  in  prison.  The  motive  of 
his  arrest  is  not  clear.  Tradition  wavers  between  a  love  intrigue 
and  political  reasons/  and  declares  that  the  Marques  de  Pombal, 
whom  he  had  offended,  signed  the  order  for  his  release  on  the  very 
day  of  the  poet's  death  after  eighteen  months  of  imprisonment. 
Pombal  was  effusively  praised  by  Domingos  dos  Reis  Quita 
(1728-70),  a  Lisbon  hairdresser  who  wrote  bucolic  poetr^ 
melodiously,  but  with  perhaps  even  less  originality  than  we 
have  learnt  to  expect  in  that  kind  since  the  time  when  Virgil 
mistranslated  Theocritus.  The  influence  of  Bernardez  and 
Camoes  is  clear,^  in  many  passages  too  clear,  and  he  had  un- 
doubtedly caught  something  of  their  skill  and  harmony  in 
technique.  But  his  poems  leave  the  impression  that  he  had  no 
real  feeling  for  the  rustic  life  which  they  describe  ;  no  doubt 
he  was  more  at  home  with  the  scissors  than  with  the  faithful 
Melampus  or  the  nymphs  and  shepherd's  pipe.  When  he  is  relating 
an  event,  such  as  the  earthquake  of  1755,  which  touched  him 
nearly,  his  ready  flow  of  verse  deserts  him,  in  spite  of  his  skill 
in  improvisation,^  although  the  sonnet  written  on  the  same 
occ2ision,  P or  castigar,  Senhor,  stands  out  with  a  certain  majesty 
from  most  of  his  other  sonnets,  which  are  mere  slices  of  eclogue. 
If  his  mellifluous  idylls  show  no  individuality,  his  return  to  the 
classic  poets  of  Portugal  was,  as  with  other  Arcadian  poets, 
a  welcome  change  from  the  Spanish  influence,  the  mao  uso,  as 
he  calls  it,  of  '  rude  strangers  from  the  Manzanares  '  (Eclogue  6). 
His  tragedies  and  pastoral  drama  Licore  are  not  more  original. 

'  Debt  might  seem  a  more  probable  cause,  were  it  not  for  the  apparent 
rigour  of  his  confinement. 

^  A  sua  alma  conversava  com  Bernardes  e  Ferreira,  says  his  friend  Tolentino, 
who  advises  another  cabelleireiro  poet  to  cease  writing  verses,  since  vale  mats 
que  cem  sonetos  a  peior  penteadura.  The  Arte  de  Furlar  mentions  a  barber 
who  sank  still  lower,  since  he  left  his  profession  in  order  to  cut  purses.  The 
modern  writer  Antonio  Francisco  Barata  (i 836-1910)  likewise  began  life  as 
a  poor  hairdresser  at  Coimbra. 

^  Cf.  Ecloga  I.  Dorindo  to  Alcino  {Alcino  Mycenio  was  Quita's  Arcadian 
name)  : 

E  tu  es  dos  pastores  mais  famosos 

No  can  tar  de  impro\'iso  o  verso  brand  o. 


1 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  273 

One  of  his  tragedies,  Ines  de  Castro,  suggested  that  of  Joao 
Baptista  Gomes  (ti8o3),  Nova  Castro,  which  had  a  great  vogue 
in  its  day  but  is  now  scarcely  more  remembered  than  Osmia 
(1788),  a  tragedy  of  which  the  blank  verse  has  vigour,  although 
it  is  often  scarcely  distinguishable  from  prose.  This  play, 
published  anonymously,  was  long  attributed  to  Antonio  de 
Araujo  de  Azevedo  (1754-1817),  but  its  real  author  was  D. 
Theresa  de  Mello  Breyner,  Condessa  de  Vimieiro,  who  married 
her  cousin,  the  fourth  Count,  in  1767. 

It  was  a  cruel  kindness  to  edit  the  works  of  Antonio  Diniz 
DA  Cruz  e  Silv-a  (1731-99)  m  six  volumes,  for,  despite  the  fame  of 
his  high-flown  Pindaric  odes,  his  three  centuries  of  sonnets  and  his 
other  lyrics  are  not  of  conspicuous  merit  and  are  often  imitative. 
Having  nothing  to  say,  Elpino  Nonacriense,  like  too  many  of 
the  Arcadian  poets,  said  it  at  inordinate  length.  Que  enorme 
confusdo  !  he  exclaims  in  an  elegy  on  the  Lisbon  earthquake, 
and  most  of  his  poems  are  on  a  like  plane  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion. The  son  of  a  Sargento  Mor,^  he  was  born  at  Lisbon,  and 
after  studying  law  at  Coimbra  was  appointed  a  judge  at  Castello 
de  Vide.  With  Manuel  Nicolau  Esteves  Negrao  (11824)  arid 
Theotonio  Gomes  de  Carvalho  (ti8oo)  he  founded  the  Arcadia 
Ulyssiponense,  of  which  he  drew  up  the  statutes  in  September 
1756.  The  first  aim  of  these  early  Arcadians  was,  as  we  have 
noticed,  to  break  the  shackles  of  Spanish  influence  and  gon- 
gorismo,  which  was,  indeed,  on  the  wane  in  the  land  of  its  birth. 
Diniz  da  Cruz'  own  poems  were  written  in  good  idiomatic 
Portuguese.  In  0  Hyssope  he  satirizes  with  telling  vigour  the 
use  of  gallicisms,  and  his  comedy  0  Falso  Heroisyno  is  thoroughly 
Portuguese  in  subject  and  treatment.  From  1764  to  1774  he 
was  stationed  at  Elvas,  and  here  a  quarrel  between  the  bishop, 
D.  Lourengo  de  Lancastre,  and  the  dean,  D.  Jose  Carlos  de  Lara, 
furnished  him  with  the  subject  of  his  celebrated  mock-heroic 
poem  0  Hyssope.  The  legend  runs  that  he  was  summoned  to 
read  his  satire  to  the  all-powerful  Pombal  in  the  presence  of  the 
infuriated  bishop,  and  that  the  poem  proved  too  much  for  the 
gravity  of  the  minister,  who  appointed  him  a  judge  at  Rio  de 

'  i.e.  the  military  governor  of  a  district,  with  rank  next  to  that  of  Capitdo 
Mor. 

2362  S 


274  1706-1816 

Janeiro  (1776).  Thence  he  was  transferred  to  Oporto  (1787), 
but  in  1790  was  again  appointed  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  showed 
himself  merciless  in  sentencing  the  Brazilian  poets  Claudio 
Manuel  da  Costa,  Gonzaga,  and  Ignacio  Jose  de  Alvarengo 
Peixoto  (1748-93),  accused  of  conspiring  to  secure  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  country.  0  Hyssope  was  first  published  in 
1802,  three  years  after  the  author's  death.  The  idea  of  the 
poem  was  derived  from  Boileau's  Le  Lutrin.  Boileau  would 
have  been  horrified  by  its  eight  cantos  of  slovenly  and  mono- 
tonous blank  verse,  which  often  scarcely  rises  above  prose  ; 
but  as  a  satire  on  the  times  and  in  its  grotesque  portraiture  of 
prelate  and  lawyer  and  notary  it  is  sometimes  irresistibly  comic. 
The  mock-heroic  Benteida,  written  by  Alexandre  Antonio 
DE  Lima  of  Lisbon  (1699-c.  1760?)  and  published  fifty  years 
before  0  Hyssope,  consisted  of  three  cantos  of  oitavas.  Two 
editions  appeared  in  1752,  published  at  '  Constantinople  '  as 
written  by  '  Andronio  Meliante  Laxaed  '.  Pedro  de  Azevedo 
Tojal  (ti742)  had  used  the  same  metre  for  his  Foguetario  (1729). 
The  burlesque  poem  0  Reino  da  Estupidez  (1819),  written  in 
four  cantos  of  easily-fiowing  blank  verse  by  the  Brazilians 
Francisco  de  Mello  Franco  (1757-1823)  and  Jose  Bonifacio  de 
Andrade  e  Silva  (1763-1838),  is  professedly  an  imitation  of 
aquelle  activo  e  discreto  Diniz  na  Hyssopa'ida,  only  the  butt  here  is 
not  the  Chapter  of  Elvas  but  the  professors  of  Coimbra  University. 
Like  the  less  celebrated  poet  son  of  an  Alentejan  painter, 
Jose  Anastasio  da  Cunha  (1744-87),  artillery  officer,  mathe- 
matician, Professor  of  Geometry  at  Coimbra,  who  translated 
Pope  and  Voltaire  and  had  milk  in  his  tea  and  buttered 
toast  on  a  fast-day,  Francisco  Manuel  do  Nascimento 
(1734-1819),  better  known  as  Filinto  Elysio,^  was  denounced 
to  the  Inquisition.  His  thrilling  escape  in  the  year  of 
Cunha's  condemnation  for  apostasy  and  heresy  (1778)  brought 
him  almost  as  much  fame  as  his  poems.  The  son  of  a  Lisbon 
lighterman  and  a  humble  varina,^  he  was  accused  of  not  believing 

'  This  Arcadian  name  was  given  to  him  by  the  Marquesa  de  Alorna, 
although  he  did  not  properly  belong  to  the  Arcadia,  being,  like  Tolentino, 
one  of  the  dissidentes. 

'  =  fishwife  ;  literally  '  woman  of  Ovar  ',  a  small  sea-town  between  Aveiro 
and  Oporto. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  275 

in  the  Flood  and  of  throwing  ridicule  on  the  doctrine  of  original 
sin,  and  by  another  witness  of  being  simply  an  atheist.  He 
succeeded  in  locking  up  in  his  own  rooms  the  official  sent  to  arrest 
him  early  on  the  4th  of  July,  hid  for  eleven  days  in  Lisbon, 
and  then,  disguised  as  a  poor  man  carrying  a  load  of  oranges, 
escaped  on  a  boat  bound  for  Havre.  Had  this  persecution  come 
earlier,  the  disquieting  atmosphere  of  Paris,  into  which  he  was 
now  transplanted  and  where,  except  for  a  few  years  at  The 
Hague,  he  lived  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  might  have  given  some 
originality  to  his  talent.  But  his  mind  and  poetic  style  were 
already  fixed,  and  through  every  political  disturbance  he  con- 
tinued his  steady  flow  of  Horatian  odes  and  similar  artificial 
verse.  He  wrote  for  seventy  years  (Lamartine  notes  the  precoces 
faveurs  of  his  muse),  and  at  the  age  of  sixty-four  calculated  that 
he  had  already  composed  730,000  lines,  probably  too  modest  an 
estimate.  He  received  by  royal  decree  an  amnesty  and  the 
restoration  of  his  property,  but  never  returned  to  Portugal. 
His  influence  on  younger  Portuguese  poets  was  nevertheless 
great.  Bocage,  when  his  verses  were  praised  by  the  older 
poet,  exclaimed  : 

Filinto,  0  gran  cantor,  prezou  meus  versos 
.  .  .  Posteridade,  es  minha  ! 

His  influence  was  bad  and  good.  It  encouraged  a  dry  and 
artificial  classicism,  but  also  careful  versification  in  pure  Portu- 
guese. Although  the  poems  of  Lamartine's  divin  Manuel  are 
no  longer  even  by  his  countrymen  held  to  be  divine,  they  may 
be  read  with  satisfaction  by  virtue  of  their  indigenous  expres- 
sions and  a  hundred  and  one  allusions  to  popular  traditions. 
It  was  by  these  characteristics  that  he  expressed  his  revolt  from 
the  Arcadia.  Half  a  long  life  spent  in  Paris  was  unable  to  imbue 
Filinto  with  the  mimo  de  fallar  luso-gallico,  against  which  he 
vigorously  protested  to  the  end.  This  purity  of  style  gives 
excellence  to  the  many  translations  which  he  was  obliged  to 
write  for  a  bare  livelihood,  and  his  native  land  is  present  even 
in  his  closest  imitations  of  Horace  (Falernian  becomes  louro 
Carcavellos).  Unfortunately  his  contemporaries  and  successors 
were  not  always  so  discreet. 

s  2 


27^1  1706-18 1 6 

The  genial  satirist  Nicolau  Tolentino  (1741-1811),  son  of 
a  Lisbon  advocate,  after  studying  law  at  Coimbra  spent  some 
years  teaching  rhetoric  to  the  raw  youth  [bisonhos  rapazes)  of 
Lisbon.  He  was  perpetually  discontented  with  his  lot  or  ready 
to  profess  himself  so.  '  Long  years  have  I  already  spent  in 
begging,'  he  says  candidly,  '  and  shall  perhaps  pass  my  whole 
life  in  the  same  way.'  He  harps  on  his  poverty  ;  the  kitchen, 
he  complains,  is  the  coolest  room  in  his  house.  In  1781  he 
obtained  a  comfortable  post  in  the  civil  service,  his  poems  were 
printed  for  him  in  two  volumes  twenty  years  later,  he  would 
receive  a  pheasant  from  one  friend,  a  Sunday  dinner  of  turkey 
from  another,  he  acknowledges  a  thousand  benefits,  and  still 
begs  on.  Before  he  had  had  time  to  grow  rich  the  habit  had 
become  incurable.  His  was  no  lyrical  gift,  but  he  imitated  with 
success  the  quintilhas  of  Sa  de  Miranda,^  in  which  much  of  his 
work  is  composed  {0  Bilhar  is  in  oitavas).  He  writes  naturally; 
his  style  is  thoroughly  Portuguese,  often  prosaic.  His  satire, 
repressed  for  personal  reasons  rather  than  from  any  failure  of  wit 
or  talent,  reducible  to  silence  by  the  gift  of  a  pheasant,  lacks  inde- 
pendence and  thought,  but  sheds  a  gentle  light  on  the  manners 
of  the  time — on  the  travelled  coxcomb  who  returns  to  Portugal 
affecting  almost  to  have  forgotten  Portuguese,  or  the  rich  nun 
who  knows  by  heart  whole  volumes  of  the  Fenix  Renascida — 
and  one  or  two  of  his  entertaining  sonnets  are  likely  to  endure. 
The  Obras  Poeticas  of  the  Marquesa  de  Alorna  (1750-1839), 
in  Arcadia  Alcippe,  are  now  more  often  praised  than  read,  but 
her  poetry  is  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  many  even  more  cele- 
brated writers  of  the  time.  As  a  child  she  defied  the  anger 
of  the  Marques  de  Pombal.  She  was  detained  with  her  sister 
Maria  and  her  mother  D.  Leonor  de  Almeida  in  the  convent  of 
Chellas  from  the  age  of  eight  till  the  death  of  King  Jose  (1777). 
Two  years  later  she  married  the  Count  of  Oeynhausen,  who 
became  minister  at  Vienna  in  1780.  After  his  death  in  1793 
she  lived  partly  in  England,  but  spent  the  last  twenty-five  years 
of  her  life  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lisbon,  and  exercised  con- 

'  Sd  do  Miranda,  he  says,  em  quern  das  doces  quintilhas  Sdmente  a  ritna 
aprendi.  .  .  .  Falta-me  arte  e  natureza,  Mas  pude  delle  imitar  A  verdadeira  sin- 
geleza. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  277 

siderablc  influence  on  young  writers— not  Garrett  but  Bocage, 
and  especially  Herculano — and  thus  with  Macedo  formed  a  link 
between  the  poets  of  the  Arcadia  and  the  nineteenth  century. 
Her  works  contain  over  2,000  pages  of  verse.  There  are  sonnets 
and  odes,  eclogues,  elegies,  epistles,  translations  or  paraphrases 
of  Homer,  Horace,  Claudian  {De  raptu  Proserpinae),  Pope 
[Essay  on  Criticism),  Wieland,  Thomson's  Seasons,  Goldsmith, 
Gray,  Lamartine,  and  the  Psalms.  There  is  a  long  poem  on  botany 
which  notices  more  than  a  hundred  kinds  of  scented  geranium, 
and  indeed  the  range  of  her  subjects  is  very  wide,  from  May 
fireflies  to  the  '  barbarous  climate '  of  England,  from  Leibniz 
to  the  ascent  of  Robertson  in  a  balloon.  Classical  allusions  are 
everywhere  ;  she  even  drags  in  Cocytus  in  a  sonnet  on  the 
death  of  her  infant  son.  At  the  same  time  we  have  a  constant 
sense  of  high  ideals  and  love  of  liberty. 

The  compositions  of  the  '  pale,  limber,  odd-looking  young 
man  ',  which  '  thrilled  and  agitated  '  William  Beckford  in  1787, 
now  scarcely  move  us,  vanished  the  fire  and  glow  which  Bocage 
(1765-1805)  brought  to  his  improvisations.  For  the  reader  thev 
are  for  the  most  part  carboni  spenti.  His  parents  were  a  Portu- 
guese judge  and  the  daughter  of  a  French  vice-admiral  in  the 
Portuguese  Navy,  and  he  enlisted  in  an  infantry  regiment  in 
the  town  of  his  birth,  Setubal,  in  1779.  Ten  years  later  he 
deserted  at  Damao,  and  after  wandering  in  China  reached 
Macao  and  thence  Goa,  which  he  still  found  a  stepmother  to 
poets,  and  Lisbon.  Here  he  continued  to  live  a  dissipated  life, 
till  in  1797  his  revolutionary  opinions  and  his  poem  A  Pavorosa 
lllusao  da  Eternidade  brought  him  first  to  the  Limoeiro  and 
then  for  a  few  months  to  the  prison  of  the  Inquisition.  His 
unstable  romantic  spirit  was  influenced  as  much  by  the  French 
Revolution  during  the  latter  years  of  his  life  as  by  the  wish  in 
his  youth  to  become  a  second  Camoes,  but  he  wrote  an  elegy  on 
the  execution  of  Queen  Marie  Antoinette,  which  he  described  as 
'  a  crime  from  Hell  '.  He  supported  life  during  his  last  years 
principally  by  translation.  He  was  himself  his  chief  enemy, 
and  he  was  also  the  victim  of  the  critics  who  applauded  his 
improvisations  until  he  no  longer  distinguished  between  poetry 
and  prose,  sense  and  absurdity.     No  better  Portuguese  pendant 


278  1706-1816 

to  the  celebrated  line  of  blank  verse  'A  Mr.  Wilkinson,  a  clergy- 
man '  will  be  found  than  that  in  one  of  Bocage's  elegies  :  Carpido 
ohjecto  men,  carpido  ohjecto.  The  undoubted  talent  of  Elmano 
Sadino,  as  he  was  in  Arcadia,  was  thus  frittered  away  in  occasional 
verse  in  which  his  fecund  gift  of  satire  found  expression,  and 
a  great  poet  was  lost  to  Portuguese  literature.  His  impromptu 
sallies  against  rival  poets,  such  as  Macedo,  brought  him  con- 
temporary fame,  but  in  some  of  his  poems,  especially  the  sonnets, 
we  have  proof  of  a  possibility  of  greater  things.  No  doubt  his 
work  is  disfigured  by  pompous  phrases  ^  and  hollow  classical 
allusions.  He  did  not  always  rise  above  the  bad  taste  of  the 
period ;  he  was  unable  to  concentrate  his  talent  or  separate 
prosaic  from  poetical  subjects.  Thus  he  sang  of  an  ascent  in 
a  balao  aerostatico  in  1794,  and  saw  in  the  vil  mosquito  a  proof 
of  the  existence  of  God.  But  his  was  nevertheless  a  very  real 
and  above  all  a  very  Portuguese  inspiration,^  and  some  of  his 
sonnets  have  force  and  grandeur  and  hover  on  the  fringes  of 
beauty,  especially  when  they  voice  his  unaffected  enthusiasm 
for  Portugal's  past  greatness  and  heroes. 

One  of  the  foremost  poets  of  the  Nova  Arcadia  was  Belchior 
Manuel  Curvo  Semedo  (1766-1838),  two  volumes  of  whose 
Composigoes  Poeticas  appeared  in  1803.  A  crowd  of  secondary 
lights  revolved  round  the  great  planets  of  the  two  Arcadias.  The 
poems  of  Alfeno  Cynthio,  Domingos  Maximiano  Torres  (1748- 
1810),  are  not  without  vigour  {Versos,  1791).  Their  unfortunate 
author  died  a  political  prisoner  at  Trafaria.  The  gay  and  lively 
Abbade  of  Jazente,  Paulino  Antonio  Cabral^  (1719-89),  was 
the  son  of  an  Oporto  doctor,  and  was  parish  priest  at  Jazente 
(near  Amarante)  from  1753  to  1784.  His  poems  are  still  read  for 
their  pleasant  satire,  but  he  was  careless  of  literary  fame.  Some 
of  the  sonnets  of  both  these  writers  deserve  not  to  be  forgotten. 
JoAO  Xavier  deMattos  (11789),  a  fourth  edition  oiwhostRimas 

'  The  sky  is  a  estellifera  morada  (the  starry  abode),  birds  o  phimoso  aereo 
bando,  bees  niordazes  enxames  voadorcs,  &c. 

*  Menendez  y  Peiayo  (Antologia,  torn,  xiii  (1908),  p.  377)  calls  him  el  poeta 
de  mas  condiciones  nativas  que  ha  producido  Portugal  despiies  de  Camoens, 
'the  most  indigenous  Portuguese  poet  since  Camoes",  and  elsewhere  gives  the 
highest  praise  to  his  sonnets. 

^  His  modern  editor,  Visconde  (Julio)  de  Castilho,  has  shown  that  the 
additional  surname  de  Vasconcellos  was  bestowed  on  him  gratuitously. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  •    279 

appeared  in  the  year  after  his  death,  is  now  remembered  chiefly 
for  some  of  his  sonnets,  as  that  beginning  Poz-se  0  sol,  with  its 
melancholy  charm.  He  was  a  true  but  not  a  great  or  original  poet. 
Born  at  Oporto,  the  son  of  a  Brazilian  father  and  a  Portuguese 
mother,  Thomas  Antonio  Gonzaga  (1744-1807?)  was  a  judge 
at  Bahia  when  he  was  accused  of  taking  part  in  the  Republican 
conspiracy  of  Minas  Geraes  (1789),  and  after  three  years'  im- 
prisonment was  deported  (1792)  to  Mozambique,  where  he  died 
several  years  after  his  sentence  had  expired.  Some  of  his 
Horatian  and  Anacreontic  lyras  in  many  metres,  addressed  to 
Marilia  and  collected  under  the  title  A  Marilia  de  Dirceo  [Dirceo 
being  his  Arcadian  name),  are  graceful  lyrics  of  an  idyllic  charac- 
ter. Of  the  other  poets  implicated  in  the  conspiracy,  Claudio 
Manuel  da  Costa  (1729-69),  who  was  found  dead  in  his  prison 
cell,  was  an  Arcadian  poet  of  the  Italian  school,  and  shows 
a  gentle  love  of  Nature  in  his  sonnets.  Of  the  hundred  sonnets 
printed  in  his  Obras  (1768)  some  are  in  Italian.  The  eclogues 
number  twenty.  In  Brazil  at  this  time,  as  earlier  in  Portugal, 
patriotism  if  not  poetry  suggested  epics.  Jose  Basilio  da 
Gama  (1740-95),  who  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  Por- 
tugal and  died  at  Lisbon,  wrote  0  Uraguay  (1769)  in  five  cantos 
of  prosaic  blank  verse — an  account  of  the  struggle  between 
Portuguese  and  , Indians.  Jose  de  Santa  Rita  Durao 
[e.  1720-84),  Doctor  in  Theology  (Coimbra),  composed  an  epic 
entitled  Caramuru  (1781)  on  the  discovery  of  Bahia  in  the 
sixteenth  century  by  Diogo  Alvarez  Correa.  This  poem  in  ten 
cantos  of  oitavas  is  inferior  to  0  Uraguay,  but  it  contains  some 
interesting  notes  on  the  country  and  the  customs  of  Brazil.^ 

If  a  great  poet  lurked  in  Bocage,  he  had  certainly  never 
existed  in  Bocage's  contemporary  and  rival  in  Arcadia,  Jose 
Agostinho  deMacedo  (1761-1831),  who  lived  to  be  confronted 
by  an  even  more  formidable  adversary  in  his  old  age,  Almeida 
Garrett.  (In  one  of  his  fierce  political  letters  he  prays  that 
either  he  or  Garrett  may  be  sent  to  the  galleys.)  Born  at  Beja, 
he  took  the  vows  as  an  Augustinian  monk  at  Lisbon  in  1778. 

'  The  Couvade  (ii.  62)  is  also  described  by  Henrique  Diaz,  Nanfragio  da 
Nao  S.  Paulo,  1904  ed.,  p.  25,  and  Pero  de  Magalhaes  Gandavo,  Historia  da 
Provincia  Sancta  Cruz  (1576),  cap.  10. 


28o  I 706-1816 

The  future  champion  of  law  and  order  provoked  the  displeasure 
of  his  superiors  at  Lisbon,  Evora,  Coimbra,  Braga,  Torres 
Vcdras,  by  his  pranks  and  mutinies,  his  boisterous  and  dissi- 
pated life.  Methodical  theft  of  books  was  one  of  his  minor 
failings.  At  last  after  fourteen  years,  his  Order,  tired  of  trans- 
ferring and  imprisoning,  formally  expelled  the  delinquent  in 
1792.  He,  however,  obtained  recognition  as  a  secular  priest, 
won  fame  as  a  preacher,  and  for  the  next  forty  years  wrote  in 
verse  and  prose  with  an  amazing  copiousness.^  He  is  said  to 
have  composed  a  hundred  Anacreontic  odes  in  three  days  : 
Lyra  Anacreontica  (1819).  During  the  last  three  years  of  his 
life,  after  he  had,  as  he  said,  capitulated  to  the  doctors,  he 
continued  to  write,  although  in  great  pain.  His  financial 
circumstances  did  not  require  this  effort.  His  works  had  brought 
him  considerable  sums,  he  had  become  Court  preacher  and 
chronicler,  and  had  many  friends  in  high  places,  including 
Dom  Miguel  himself.  His  vanity  was  soothed,  the  unfrocked 
Augustinian  had  won  the  regard  of  princes.  But  to  this  learned  '^ 
and  splenetic  priest  virulent  denunciation  of  his  hterary  and 
political  opponents  had  become  a  necessity,  and  he  was  at 
work  on  the  twenty-seventh  number  of  his  periodical  0  Desengano 
a  fortnight  before  his  death.  He  was  spared  the  mortification 
of  seeing  his  enemies  triumph  in  1832,  His  character  was  not 
amiable,  and  a  large  part  of  his  life  was  unedifying,  but  there  is 
something  fine  in  his  unfailing  energy,  for  by  sheer  energy  he 
imposed  himself,  and  his  self-conceit  was  so  colossal  as  to  be 
virtually  innocuous,  while  his  real  horror  of  revolution,  a  horror 
based  on  experience,  was  expressed  with  persistency  and  courage. 
He  seems  to  have  been  quite  honest  in  the  belief  that  the  poems 
of  Homer,  which  he  could  not  read  in  the  original,  were  worth- 
less,^ and  that  his  own  0  Oriente  was  a  great  epic.    His  utilitarian 

»  His  works  in  the  Dice.  Bibliog.  go  from  J.  2163  to  J.  2475.  Many  are, 
however,  single  odes,  sermons,  &c.  Other  eighteenth-century  sermons 
worth  reading  are  those  of  the  learned  Franciscan  Frei  Sebastiao  de  Santo 
Antonio:    Sermoes,  2  vols.  (1779.  84). 

*  Superficially,  at  least,  more  than  Manuel  Caetano  de  Sousa  (1658-1734) 
he  deserves  to  be  called  a  varao  encyclopedico. 

3  He  admires  Cicero — not  only  as  jjhilosopher  and  orator  but  as  a  '  sublime 
poet'  !  (O  Hnmem  {181 5),  p.  98) — and  Seneca,  calls  Petrarca  immortal,  Tasso 
incomparable,  and   is   generous  in  his  appreciation  of  English  writers.     At 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  281 

conception  of  literature  was  inevitably  fatal  to  his  verse.  He 
wished  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  poetry,^  He  wrote  a  long 
poem — four  cantos  of  blank  verse — on  Newton  (1813),  recast 
and  increased  to  3,560  lines  under  the  title  Viagem  Extatica 
ao  Templo  da  Sabedoria  (1830),  because  Newton  had  conferred 
greater  benefits  on  humanity  than  many  a  great  conqueror  (yet 
so  may  a  dentist).  He  composed  a  long  poem,  Gama  (1811), 
re-written  as  0  Oriente  (1814),^  to  show  how  Camoes  should  have 
written  Os  Lusiadas.  His  poem  is  no  doubt  more  correct ;  it 
observes  all  the  rules,  but  unfortunately  it  lacks  genius  and  is 
as  dull  and  turgid  as  Macedo's  other  verse.  A  good  word  for 
the  sea  in  Portuguese  is  mar;  the  poets  often  call  it  oceano, 
Camoes  had  ventured  to  name  it  0  falso  argento,  0  liquido  estanho, 
0  fuiido  aquoso,  0  humido  elemento  ;  with  Macedo  it  becomes 
0  himido  elemento  (or  perhaps  he  adopted  -the  phrase  from 
Caramuru,  in  which  it  occurs).  We  can  scarcely  blame  Bocage 
for  labelling  him  tumido  versista?  Among  his  other  philosophical 
poems  are  Contemplagao  da  Natureza  (1801),  A  Meditagao  (1813), 
A  Natureza  (1846),  and  A  Creagdo  (1865),  now  not  more  often 
read  than  his  many  odes  and  other  verse.  The  most  scandalous 
of  his  satires  is  Os  Burros  (1827),  in  blank  verse,  in  which  he 
lavishly  and  outrageously  insults  nearly  all  the  writers  of  the 
time,  and  which  may  have  been  suggested  by  Juan  Pablo 
Forner's  El  Asno  Erudito  (1782).  Like  his  poems,  his  dramatic 
works  usually  have  some  ulterior  object ;  their  purpose  is  not 
less  practical  than  his  pamphlets  against  Os  Sehastianistas  (1810) 
or  Osjesuitas  (1830)  :  behind  Ezelino  and  Beatriz  in  his  tragedy 
Branca  de  Rossi  (1819)  loom  Napoleon  and  Josephine,  and  the 
prose  comedy  A  Impostura  Castigada  (1822)  is  an  attack  upon 
the  doctors.  The  fact  is  that  Macedo  was  essentially  not  a  poet 
or  a  dramatist  or  a  philosopher,  but  a  forcible  and  eloquent 
pamphleteer.    His  philosophical  letters  and  treatises,  A  Verdade 

about  the  same  time  John  Keats,  as  Petrarca  five  centuries  earlier,  was  also 
reading  Homer  in  translation,  but  in  a  somewhat  different  spirit. 

1  Newton,  Proemio. 

-  In  the  second  edition  (1827)  he  says  that  this  poem,  in  twelve  cantos  and 
about  1,000  oitavas,  written  with  '  more  fire  and  a  purer  light  '  than  those  of 
Camoes,  had  cost  him  '  nine  years  of  assiduous  application  '. 

^  Macedo  called  Bocage  fanfarrdo  glosador,  and  much  abuse  of  the  same 
kind  varied  the  monotony  of  elogio  miihio. 


282  I706-I816 

(1814),  0  Homem  (18 15),  Demonstragdo  da  Existencia  de  Deos 
(1816),  Cartas  filosoficas  a  Attico  (1815),  arc  at  their  best  not 
when  he  is  developing  a  train  of  scientific  thought  but  when 
he  is  arguing  ad  hominem  ;  and  his  literary  criticism  in  Motim 
Literario  (181 1)  is  primarily  personal.  As  a  critic  militant  he 
has  his  merits,  and  he  is  pleasantly  patriotic  in  denouncing  the 
glamour  of  missangas  estranjeiras.  But  it  is  in  his  political 
periodicals,  pamphlets,  and  letters.  Cartas  (1821),  Cartas  (1827), 
Tripa  virada  (1823),  Tripa  por  uma  vez  (1823),  A  Besta  Esfolhada 
(1828-31),  0  Desengano  (September  1830-September  1831),  that 
he  puts  forth  all  his  spice  and  venom.  Ponderous  and  angry 
like  a  lesser  Samuel  Johnson,  he  bullies  and  crushes  his  opponents 
in  the  raciest  vernacular.  He  may  be  unscrupulous  in  argument, 
but  his  idiomatic  and  vigorous  prose  will  always  be  read  with 
pleasure. 

Macedo's  dramatic  works  were  neither  better  nor  worse  than 
those  of  other  playwrights  of  the  time.  It  was  the  professed 
object  of  Manuel  de  Figueiredo  (1725-1801)  to  'write  plays 
morally  and  dramatically  correct '.  The  effect  of  this  didacticism 
in  the  fourteen  volumes  of  his  Theatro  (1804-15)  is  disastrous. 
He  wrote  in  prose  and  verse,  but  the  plays  in  ordinary  prose 
are  to  be  preferred,  since  in  the  others,  like  M.  Jourdain, 
he  made  de  la  prose  sans  le  savoir.  He  wrote  comedies,  and 
tragedies  in  which  he  is  involuntarily  comic.  Even  in  Igfiez 
he  keeps  the  even  tenor  of  his  dullness,  and  he  warns  the  reader 
in  a  preface  that  his  Ines  is  not  to  be  considered  beautiful  since 
she  was  probably  over  thirty,  and  that  her  and  Pedro's  passion 
had  had  time  to  cool.^  There  is  more  life  in  the  plays  written 
in  a  medley  of  prose  and  verse  by  Antonio  Jose  da  Silva 
(1705-39),  whom  Southey  considered  'the  best  of  their  dramatic 
writers ',  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  would  have  received 
any  attention  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries  had  it 
not  been  for  the  tragedy  of  their  author's  life.     He  was  born  at 

'  Such  woodenness  was  unlikely  to  appreciate  El  Greco's  pictures.  In  the 
preface  to  his  Agriparia  {Theatro,  vol.  v,  1804)  he  speaks  of  a  cxtravagancia 
do  vaidoso  Domenico,  herein  following  Faria  e  Sousa,  who  calls  Theotocopuli 
the  Gongora  of  painters  and  adds  :  Pero  vale  mas  una  llaneza  del  Ticiano 
que  todas  sus  extravagancias  juntas  por  mas  que  ingeniosas  (Fuente  de  Aganipe 
Pr6logo.%i7). 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  283 

Rio  dc  Janeiro,  the  son  of  Portuguese  Jews,  his  mother  had  been 
arrested  by  order  of  the  Inquisition  as  early  as  1712,  and  the 
whole  family  came  to  Lisbon,  where  the  father  practised  success- 
fully as  a  lawyer.  In  1726  his  mother  was  re-arrested,  and  this 
time  Antonio  Jose  with  her.  He  was  released  after  suffering 
torture  and  pubhcly  abjuring  Jewish  doctrines  in  an  auto  da  je. 
Eleven  years  later,  after  studying  at  Coimbra  and  following  his 
father's  profession  in  Lisbon,  he  was  again  arrested,  with  his 
wife — he  had  married  his  cousin  despite  the  dangerous  fact  that 
her  mother  had  been  burnt  and  she  herself  imprisoned  by  the 
Inquisition — and  on  October  18,  1739,  he  was  first  strangled  and 
then  burnt  in  an  auto  da  je  at  Lisbon.  For  some  years  (1733-8) 
before  his  death  the  people  of  Lisbon  had  admired  the  plays  of 
'  the  Jew  ',  as  they  called  him,  at  the  Theatro  do  Bairro  Alto. 
Of  the  eight  plays  that  have  survived  in  print  it  must  be  said 
that  they  are  for  the  most  part  very  purposeless  and  ineffective. 
He  attracted  his  audience  sometimes  by  wit,  more  often  by  sheer 
farcical  absurdity;  the  constant  plays  on  words,  the  meaningless 
snatches  of  verse  interpolated,  do  not  increase  the  interest,  which 
flags  on  every  page  because  the  author  has  not  the  slightest  power 
of  concentration.  The  action  at  least  is  quick  and  varied;  it 
shows  Silva's  inventive  talent  and  explains  the  popularity  of  his 
galhofeiras  comedias,^  however  much  it  may  weary  the  reader. 
His  plays  with  classical  subjects  are  especially  cold  and  dull, 
A  Ninfa  Syrmga  ou  Amoves  de  Pan  e  Syringa,^  Os  Encantos  de 
Medea,^  Esopaida,^  Amphitrido,^  As  Variedades  de  Proteo* 
Laherinto  de  Creta.^  His  best  play,  Guerras  do  Alecrim  e 
Mangerona  (1737),  contains  some  elements  of  character- 
drawing  and  describes  the  devices  of  the  starving  gentlemen 
D.  Gilvaz  and  D.  Fuas  to  obtain  rich  wives  at  the  expense 
of  miserly  father  and  country  cousin.  The  action  consists  in 
a  bewildering  succession  of  disguises,  the  scene  (Pt.  ii,  Sc.  5)  in 
which  Gilvaz  and  Fuas  doctor  their  stolid  rival  and  ridicule  the 
medical  profession  has  humour  but  shows  the  usual  inability 
to  end  before  the  reader's  patience  has  been  long  exhausted. 

'  Arnaldo  Gania,  Um  ntotim  ha  cent  annos,  3^  ed.  (1896),  p.  35. 
'^   Theatro  Comico  Portuguez,  4  vols.  {1759-90),  vol.  iii. 
^  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  ■•  Ibid.,  vol.  ii. 


284  1706-1816 

In  the  Vida  do  Grande  D.  Quixote  de  la  Mancha  (1733)  Silva 
made  bold  to  dramatize  Don  Quixote  in  a  series  of  scenes  not 
over-skilfully  connected.  Of  his  own  invention  there  is  a  comical 
scene  (Pt.  i,  Sc.  8),  in  which  Don  Quixote  is  harassed  by  doubts 
as  to  whether  the  enchanters  have  not  transformed  Dulcinea  into 
Sancho  Panza  :  he  begins  to  sec  a  certain  likeness  ;  but  most 
of  the  scenes  are  directly  copied  and  here  become  signally  insipid, 
as  that  of  Sancho's  judgements  (ii.  4),  or  that  of  the  lion  (i.  5), 
which  is  as  far  removed  from  Cervantes  as  the  sorry  lions  of  the 
Alhambra  at  Granada  from  those  in  Trafalgar  Square.  The 
drama  of  Nicolau  Luis,  whose  life  is  obscure  but  whose  name 
was  possibly  Nicolau  Luis  da  Silva,  belongs  to  the  literatura 
de  cordel,  popular  plays  imitated  and  often  directly  translated 
from  the  Spanish  and  Italian  and  acted  with  great  applause  in 
the  eighteenth  century  at  Lisbon.  Most  of  them  were  published 
without  the  author's  name,  and  although  it  is  believed  that  he 
wrote  over  one-third  of  the  numerous  comedias  de  cordel  of  the 
century  ^  only  a  few,  as  0  Capitdo  Belisario  (1781)  and  0  Conde 
Alarcos  (1788),  can  be  definitely  assigned  to  him,  a  fact  which 
incidentally  bears  witness  to  his  lack  of  individuality.  His  best- 
known  tragedy  is  D.  Ignezde  Castro  (1772),  an  imitation  of  Reinar 
despues  de  morir  by  Luis  Velez  de  Guevara  (1579-1644). 

In  prose  it  was  not  an  age  of  great  writers,  but  of  research 
and  learning.  The  Lisbon  Academia  Real  das  Sciencias,'^  founded 
by  the  Duque  de  Lafoes,  met  for  the  first  time  in  1780,  and  was 
not  slow  in  inaugurating  the  work  which  has  won  for  it  the 
gratitude  of  all  who  care  for  the  language  or  literature  of  Portugal. 
D.  Antonio  Caetano  de  Sousa  (1674-1759)  had  published  his 
valuable  Provas  da  Historia  Genealogica  (1739-48)  in  seven 
volumes,  and  the  learned  cure  of  Santo  Adriao  de  Sever,  Diogo 
Barbosa  Machado  (1682-1772),  had  spent  a  long  life  in 
bibliographical  study  and  compiled  his  indispensable  and 
magnificent  Bibliotheca  Lusitana  (1741-59)  with  a  generous  inac- 
curacy which  is  attractive  in  the  minute  pedantry  of  a  later  age. 
The   scarcely  less    famous  Vocabulario  Portuguez   of    Raphael 

'  Innocencio  da  Silva,  Dice.  Bibliog.  vi.  275-85;  xvii.  91-3,  gives  217  titles. 

*  Now  Academia  das  Sciencias  de  Lisboa,  but  it  is  found  convenient  to 
retain  the  original  title  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  a  more  recent  (private) 
institution,  the  Academia  das  Sciencias  dc  Portugal. 


THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY  285 

Bluteau  (1638-1734),  who  was  born  of  French  parents  in  London 
but  spent  over  fifty  years  in  Portugal,  began  to  appear  in  1712. 
The  work  of  research  was  now  carried  on,  among  others  by 
Francisco  Jose  Freire  (1719-73)  ;  Frei  Joaquim  de  Santa 
Rosa  de  Viterbo  (1744-1822)  ;  the  librarian  Antonio  Ribeiro 
DOS  Santos  (1745-1818)  ;  D.  Francisco  Alexandre  Lobo 
(1763-1844),  Bishop  of  Viseu;  Cardinal  Saraiva  (1766-1845), 
Patriarch  of  Lisbon;  and  Frei  Fortunato  de  S.  Boaventura 
(1778-1844).  Critics  of  poetry  were  Luis  Antonio  Verney 
(1713-92),  Archdeacon  of  Evora,  'El  Barbadifio',  whose  criti- 
cisms in  his  Verdadeiro  Methodo  de  Estudar  (2  vels.,  1746)  are 
severe,  even  harsh;  Francisco  Dias  Gomes  (1745-95),  whom 
Herculano  called  0  nosso  celebre  critico,  and  who  was  indeed  a 
better  critic  than  poet,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  notes  and  poems 
of  his  Obras  Poeticas  (1799);  and  Miguel  de  Couto  Guerreiro 
[c.  1720-93),  who  showed  good  sense  in  the  twenty-six  rhymed 
rules  of  his  Tratado  da  Versificagam  Portugueza  (1784). 
.  The  best-known  work  of  the  learned  son  of  a  Lisbon  black- 
smith who  became  the  first  Bishop  of  Beja  and  Archbishop 
of  Evora,  Manuel  do  Cenaculo  Villas-Boas  (1724-1814), 
is  his  Cuidados  Litterarios  (1791).  Theodoro  de  Almeida 
(1722-1804),  an  erudite  and  voluminous  writer,  one  of  the 
original  members  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  was  more 
ambitious.  In  0  Feliz  Independente  do  Mundo  e  da  Fortuna  in 
twenty-four  books  (3  vols.,  1779),  he  took  Fenelon's  Telemaque 
for  his  model  and  sought  to  combine  the  gall  of  instruction 
with  the  honey  of  entertainment.  He  wrote  it  first  [uma 
boa  parte)  in  rhyme,  then  turned  to  blank  verse,  but,  still 
dissatisfied,  finally  adopted  prose,  taking  care,  however,  he  says, 
that  it  should  not  degenerate  into  a  novel.  The  book  had  a  wide 
vogue,  but  is  quite  unreadable.  One  may  be  thankful  that  it 
was  not  written  in  verse  like  that  of  his  Lisboa  Destruida  (1803), 
an  account  of  the  earthquake  of  1755,  with  sundry  moralizings 
in  six  cantos  of  oitavas,  of  which  a  Portuguese  critic  has  said  that 
the  author,  in  an  excess  of  Christian  humility,  resolved  to  mortify 
his  pride  of  learning  by  making  himself  ridiculous  to  posterity  in 
verse.  Afiickering  interest  enlivens  the  Cartas Familiares  {1741,  2) 
of  Francisco  Xavier  de  Oliveira  (1702-83).     Their  subjects 


286  1706-1816 

are  various  :  love,  literature,  witchcraft,  and  even  the  relation  of 
a  man's  character  to  the  ribbon  on  his  hat.  The  author  gave 
up  a  diplomatic  career,  perhaps  on  account  of  his  Protestant 
tendencies,  and  went  to  Holland  (1740)  and  England  (1744), 
where  he  publicly  abjured  Roman  Catholicism  (1746).  After  the 
Lisbon  earthquake  of  1755  he  addressed  a  pamphlet  in  French 
to  the  King  of  Portugal,  exhorting  him  to  mend  his  ways ;  to 
become  Protestant  with  all  his  subjects  and  abolish  the  Inquisi- 
tion, He  was  duly  burnt  in  effigy  at  Lisbon  (1761),  but  died 
quietly  at  Hackney  twenty-two  years  later.  The  letters  of 
Alexandre  de  Gusmao  (1695-1753),  born  at  Santos  in 
Brazil,  have  not  been  collected;  those  of  the  remarkable  Portu- 
guese Jew  of  Penamacor,  Antonio  Nunes  Ribeiro  Sanches 
(1699-1783),  physician  to  the  Empress  Catherine  H  of  Russia, 
Cartas  sohre  a  Educagao  da  Mocidade,  appeared  in  1760  at  Cologne, 
The  Cartas  Curiosas  (1878)  of  the  Abbade  Antonio  da  Costa 
(1714-C.  1780)  consist  of  thirteen  letters  written  from  Rome  and 
Vienna  from  1750  to  1780,  mainly  on  the  subject  of  music. 
The  century  was  not  rich  in  memoirs.  The  Miscellaneas  of 
D,  JoAO  de  S.  Joseph  Oueiroz  (1711-64)  contain  some 
interesting  and  amusing  anecdotes.  He  speaks  of  the  Memorias 
Genealogicas  of  Alao  de  Moraes  and  of  the  general  discredit  of 
genealogists,  and  attributes  Mello's  imprisonment  to  his  polite 
acquiescence  in  the  suggestions  of  the  Condessa  de  Villa  Nova, 
made  at  the  instigation  of  King  Joao  IV  :  para  lisongea-la  disse 
que  seguiria  0  partido  de  Castella.  But  without  seeing  the  manu- 
script it  is  impossible  not  to  suspect  that  there  is  as  much  of 
Camillo  Castello  Branco  as  of  the  Bishop  of  Grao-Para  in  the 
Memorias  (1868),  which  he  was  the  first  to  publish. 


VI 

I8I6-19IO 

The  Romantic  School 

In  Portugal  the  first  quarter  of  tfie  nineteenth  century  was 
filled  with  violence  and  unrest.  The  French  invasion  and  years 
of  fighting  on  Portuguese  soil  were  followed  by  a  series  of  revolu- 
tions and  civil  wars.  It  seemed  as  if  a  more  general  earthquake 
had  come  to  complete  the  ruin  of  1755,  against  which  Lisbon  had 
so  finely  re-acted.  The  historian  who  attempts  to  record  the 
conflicts  between  Miguelists  and  Constitutionalists,  and  the 
miserable  political  intrigues  which  accompanied  the  ultimate 
victory  of  the  latter,  must  waver  disconsolately  between  tragedy 
and  farce.  But  horrible  and  pitiful  as  were  many  of  these  events, 
they  succeeded  in  awakening  what  had  seemed  a  dead  nation 
to  a  rtew  life.  The  introduction  of  the  parliamentary  system 
called  into  being  eloquent  orators,  and,  more  valuable  than  much 
eloquence,  the  conviction  sprang  up,  partly  under  foreign  in- 
fluence, partly  through  love  of  the  soil,  deepened  by  persecution 
and  banishment,  that  hterature  might  have  a  closer  relation  to 
earth  and  life  than  a  philological  Filintian  ode.  Returning 
exiles  brought  fresh  ideas  into  the  country,  and  the  two  men 
who  dominated  Portuguese  literature  in  the  first  half  of  the 
century  had  both  learnt  much  from  their  enforced  sojourn 
abroad.  Almeida  Garrett  (1799-1854),  one  of  the  strangest 
and  most  picturesque  figures  in  literature;  was  born  at  Oporto, 
but  spent  his  boyhood  in  the  Azores  (Ilha  Terceira),  where  his 
uncles,  especially  the  Bishop  of  Angra,  gave  him  a  classical 
education  and  destined  him  for  the  priesthood.  He,  however, 
preferred  to  study  law  at  Coimbra  (1816-21).  Here  politics  were 
in  the  air  and  he  soon  made  himself  conspicuous  as  a  Liberal. 
The  fall  of    the  Constitution   drove  him  into  exile  (1823)   in 


288  1816-1910 

England  (near  Edgbaston  and  in  London),  and  France  (Havre 
and  Paris),  and  for  the  next  thirty  years  politics  remained  one 
of  his  ruling  passions.  His  first  great  opportunity  for  rhetorical 
display  was  his  defence  in  the  law-courts  against  the  charge  of 
impiety  incurred  by  the  publication  of  his  poem  0  Retrato  de 
Venus  (1821),  although  even  before  going  to  Coimbra  he  is  said  to 
have  preached  to  a  church  full  of  people.  He  was  able  to  return 
to  Portugal  in  1826,  and  edited  0  Chronista  and  0  Portugues, 
which  evoked  Macedo's  wrath  and  ended  in  Garrett's  imprison- 
ment. When  Dom  Miguel  returned  from  Brazil  and,  instead  of 
'signing  the  paper'  (the  famous  Carta  of  1826),  had  himself 
declared  absolute  king  (1828)  Garrett  again  became  an  exile, 
chiefly  in  London,  and  did  not  return  to  his  country  till  July 
1832,  when  he  landed  as  a  private  soldier  at  Mindello,  one  of 
the  famous  7,500  who  fought  for  King  Pedro  and  his  daughter, 
Maria  da  Gloria.  His  zeal  and  outspokenness  rendering  him 
an  uncomfortable  colleague  at  Lisbon,  he  fared  rather  badly  in 
the  ignoble  scramble  for  office  which  followed  the  triumph  of  the 
cause.  He  was  sent  first  on  a  mission  to  London  and  then  as 
charge  d'affaires  to  Brussels  (1834-6).  The  diplomatic  service 
was  in  many  ways  congenial  to  his  character,  but  his  enemies 
made  the  mistake  of  slighting  and  neglecting  him,  and,  refusing 
the  post  of  Minister  at  Copenhagen,  he  returned  to  Portugal  and 
helped  to  bring  about  the  Revolution  of  September  1836.  But 
his  life  is  the  whole  history  of  the  time  :  enough  to  say  that  for 
the  next  fifteen  years  his  activities  in  politics  and  literature  were 
unceasing.  In  a  hundred  ways  he  showed  his  versatility  and 
energy.  He  served  on  many  commissions,  was  appointed 
Inspector  of  Theatres  (1836),  Cronista  Mor  (1838),  elected 
deputy  (1837),  raised  to  the  House  of  Peers  (1852).  As  journa- 
list, founder  and  editor  of  several  short-lived  newspapers,  as 
a  stylist  and  master  of  prose,  his  country's  chief  lyric  poet  in  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  (coming  as  a  fire  to  light  the 
dry  sticks  of  the  eighteenth-century  poetry)  and  greatest  dramatist 
since  the  sixteenth ;  as  politician  and  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
of  all  Portugal's  orators,  an  enthusiastic  if  unscientific  folk-lorist,' 

»  His  Romanceiro  published  in  3  vols.  (1843,  51)  contains  poems  of  national 
themes  drawn  from  popular  songs  and  traditions,  written  by  himself  (as 


THE    ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  289 

a  novelist,  critic,  diplomatist,  soldier,  jurist  and  judge,  Garrett 
played  many  parts  and  with  success.  This  patriot  who  did  not 
despair  of  his  country,  this  marvellous  dandy  who  seemed  to 
bestow  as  much  thought  on  the  cut  of  a  coat  as  on  the  fashioning 
of  a  constitution,  and  who  refused  to  grow  old,  preferring  to  incur 
ridicule  as  a  velho  namorado  (his  love  intrigues  ended  only  with 
his  life  and  he  wrote  his  most  passionate  lyrics  when  he  was 
over  fifty),  this  artist  in  life  and  literature,  lover  of  old  furniture 
and  old  traditions,  this  lovable,  ridiculous,  human  Garrett,  whom 
his  countrymen  called  divine,  can  still  alternately  charm  and 
repel  us  as  he  scandalized  and  fascinated  his  contemporaries.  His 
motives  were  often  curiously  mixed.  His  immeasurable  peacock 
vanity  as  well  as  his  generosity  prompted  him  to  champion  weak 
causes  and  assist  obscure  persons.  A  man  of  high  ideals  and  an 
essential  honesty,  he  only  rarely  deviated  into  truth  in  matters 
concerning  himself.  When  past  fifty  he  was  still  '  forty-six  '  and 
he  wrote  an  anonymous  autobiography  and  filled  it  with  his  own 
praise.  He  often  gave  his  time  and  talent  ungrudgingly  to  the 
service  of  the  State  and  then  cried  out  that  his  disinterestedness 
went  unrewarded.  Fondof  moneybutfonderof  show  and  honours, 
he  died  almost  poor  but  a  viscount.  Although  of  scarcely  more 
than  plebeian  birth  he  liked  to  believe  that  the  name  Garrett, 
which  he  only  assumed  in  1818,  was  the  Irish  for  Gerald  and  that 
he  was  descended  from  Garrt,  first  Earl  of  Desmond,^  and  through 
the  Geraldines  from  Troy.-  At  the  mercy  of  many  moods,  easily 
angered  but  never  vindictive,  capable  occasionally  of  half- 
unconscious  duplicity  but  never  of  hypocrisy,  he  remained  to 
the  last  changing  and  sensitive  as  a  child.  His  faults  were 
mostly  on  the  surface  and  injured  principally  himself,  offering 

Adozinda,  based  on  the  romance  Sylvaninha  and  originally  published  in  London 
in  1828  and  reviewed  in  the  Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  October  1832)  or  by- 
others,  e.  g.  Balthasar  Diaz'  O  Marques  de  Mantua,  or  popular  rowawces  revised 
and  polished  by  their  collector.  His  own  compositions  (vol.  i)  often  have  great 
charm,  as  Miragaia,  Rosalinda,  Bernal  Francez. 

'  The  name  of  the  first  Earl  of  Desmond  (cr.  1328)  was  Maurice  fitzThomas 
(11356)  not  Gerald,  Gerod,  Gerott,  Garrett,  or  Garrt  (see  Lord  Walter 
FitzGerald,  Notes  on  the  FitzGeralds  of  Ireland).  The  fonns  Garret  and  Gareth 
existed  in  Catalonia  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  e.g.  the  Catalan 
poet  Bernardo  Garret,  born  at  Barcelona,  who  wrote  in  Italian  and  became 
known  as  Chariteo  (c.  1450-c.  1512). 

-■  Amorim,  Memorias,  i.  28. 

2362  T 


290  1816-19IO 

a  hundred  points  of  attack  to  critics  incapable  of  understanding 
his  greatness.  That  he  did  not  play  a  more  fruitfully  effective 
part  in  politics  was  less  his  fault  than  that  of  the  politics  of  the 
day  ;  but  the  t\vofold  incentive  of  serving  his  country  by  useful 
legislation  and  of  a  personal  triumph  in  the  Chamber  prevented 
this  ingenuous  victim  of  political  intrigue  from  ever  devoting 
himself  exclusively  to  literature.  In  politics  he  was  an  oppor- 
tunist in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  and  a  Liberal  who  detested 
the  art  of  the  demagogue.  His  few  months  as  Minister  in  1852 
gave  no  scope  for  his  real  power  of  organization  and  of  stimulating 
others.  In  the  life  and  literature  of  his  country  he  was  a  great 
civilizing  and  renovating  force.  He  taught  his  countrymen  to 
read  and  what  to  read,  and,  having  freed  them  from  the  trammels 
of  pseudo-classicism,  did  his  utmost  to  prevent  them  from  merely 
exchanging  pedantry  for  insipidity. 

His  early  verses,  many  of  the  poems  published  or  reprinted  in 
Lyrica'  de  Joao  Minimo  (1829),  Flores  sem  Fructo  (1845),  and 
Fahulas  e  Contos  [1853),  were  written  under  the  influence  of  Filinto 
Elysio  and  the  eighteenth  century,  but,  fired  by  romanticism 
during  his  first  exile  in  France,  he  introduced  it  into  Portugal  in 
his  epic  poems  Camoes  (1825)  and  Dona  Branca  (1826),^  in  which 
prosaic  passages  alternate  with  others  of  fervent  poetic  beauty 
and  glimpses  of  popular  customs  which  in  themselves  spell  poetry 
in  Portugal.  But  Garrett  was  no  super-romantic,  in  fact  he 
deprecated  '  the  extravagances  a«id  exaggerations  of  the  ephe- 
meral romanticism  which  is  now  coming  to  an  end  in  Europe  '.- 
At  Brussels  he  learnt  German,  and  the  poetry,  and  especially 
the  plays,  of  Goethe  cast  a  steadying  influence  over  his  work. 
Garrett  had  early  been  attracted  towards  the  theatre.  His 
Merope,  in  its  subject  derived  from  Alfieri,  and  Catdo  (1821) 
were  both  written  in  his  student  days.  Neither  of  them  can  be 
called  dramatic.   In  vain  a  glow  of  liberty^  and  rhetoric  strives 

'  Of  0  Magrifo,  a  still  longer  epic,  only  fragments  remain  ;  it  went  down  in 
manuscript  in  the  Amelia,  sunk  by  the  Miguelists  otf  the  Portuguese  coast. 

'  Preface  to  4th  ed.  (1845)  of  Catao. 

'  The  'tyranny'  of  theday  was  that  of  General  Beresford.  Some  scenes  of 
Catao  (derived  from  the  Cato  ( 1 7 1 3)  of  Addison) ,  of  which  a  Portuguese  version  by 
Manuel  de  Figueiredo  (Theairo,  vol.  viii)  had  appeared  in  Garrett's  boyhood, 
were  directed  against  this  English  despot.  A  few  years  later  Garrett  learned 
to  enjoy  English  society,  as  his  Anglophobe  biographer,  Amorim,  admits. 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  201 

to  melt  the  ice  of  Catdo  :  its  parliamentary  debates  still  leave 
the  reader  cold.  When  fifteen  years  later,  in  the  tercentenary 
year  of  Vicente's  last  comedy,  he  was  able  definitely  to  undertake 
his  favourite  scheme  of  providing  Portugal  with  a  national  drama, 
he  found  difficulties.  He  had  to  provide  not  only  theatre,  actors, 
and  audience,  but  also  the  plays.  He  succeeded  in  instilling  his 
keenness  into  some  of  his  more  lethargic  countrymen,  but,  not 
content  with  translating  from  the  French,  Italian,  or  Spanish, 
himself  wrote  a  series  of  plays  to  pave  the  way.  His  themes, 
unlike  those  of  his  earlier  efforts,  were  now  entirely  national  :  the 
legendary  love  of  the  poet  Bernardim  Ribeiro  for  the  daughter 
of  King  Manuel  in  Um  Auto  de  Gil  Vicente  (1838) ;  ^  the  patriotism 
of  the  Condessa  de  Athouguia  in  arming  her  two  sons  on  the 
morning  of  December  i,  1640,  to  throw  ofT  the  Spanish  yoke,  in 
Dona  Philippa  de  Vilhena  (1840) ;  an  early  incident  in  the  life  of 
one  of  the  most  chivalrous  soldiers  that  the  world  has  seen,  the 
Constable  Nun'  Alvarez,  in  0  Alfagetne  de  Santarem  (1842);  the  fall 
of  Pombal  in  A  Sobrinha  do  Marquez  (1848);  ^  two  famous  episodes 
in  the  life  of  Manuel  de  Sousa  Coutinho,  the  first  of  which,  the 
setting  fire  to  his  palace  rather  than  entertain  the  Spanish 
Governors,  preserves  the  national  atmosphere,  in  Frei  Luiz  de 
Sousa  (1844).  These  plays,  with  the  exception  perhaps  of  the 
hastily  improvised  D.  Philippa  de  Vilhena,  are  all  remarkable, 
although  their  merit  is  unequal.  The  characters,  and  especially 
the  epoch  in  which  they  are  presented,  lend  their  chief  interest 
to  the  first  and  third.  The  fifth,  overpraised  by  some  critics  but 
praised  by  all^Menendez  y  Pelayo  called  it  '  incomparable ' — 
Frei  Luiz  de  Sousa,  far  excels  the  others  by  reason  of  the  concen- 
tration of  interest  and  the  really  dramatic  character  of  the  plot 
(or  at  least  of  the  anagnorisis  of  Act  II)  and  by  its  intensity  and 
deliberately  simple  execution.  The  intensity  may  be  almost 
too  unrelieved,  but  the  conception  of  the  play  showed  a  fine 
dramatic  instinct.  Like  most  of  Garrett's  work  it  was  composed 
in  a  white  heat,  and  the  effect  is  enhanced  by  its  excellently  clear 
and  restrained  style,  which  brings  out  every  shade  and  symptom 
of  tragedy  without  distracting  the  attention  by  any  extraneous 
ornaments.  But  all  these  plays  are  written  in  admirable  prose. 
*  Published  in  184 1.  -  Written  ten  years  earlier. 

T  2 


i 


2Q2  l8l6  -IQTO 

Indeed,  a  value  is  given  even  to  (iarrett's  slighter  pieces — Tin 
Simplicio  (1844),  Fallar  Verdade  a  Mentir  (1845)  ^ — apart  from 
their  indigenous  character,  by  his  pliant,  transparent,  glowing 
prose,  to  which  perhaps  even  more  than  to  his  poetry  he  owes 
his  foremost  place  in  Portuguese  literature.  Although  essentially 
a  poet,  his  poems  of  enduring  worth  are  a  mere  handful  of  beauti- 
ful episodes  and  graceful  lyrics — in  Folhas  Cahidas  (1853)  ^i^d 
vol.  I  (1843)  of  his  Romanceiro — but  his  prose  stamps  with  indi- 
viduality works  so  diverse  as  his  historical  novel  0  Arco  de  Santa 
Anna  (2  vols.,  1845,  51),"^  his  charming  miscellaneous  Viagens 
na  minha  terra  (1846)  with  its  famous  episode  of  Joaninha  of  the 
nightingales,  his  treatises  Da  Educagdo  (1829),  Portugal  na  balanga 
da  Eiiropa  (1830),  Bosquejo  da  Litteratura  Portuguesa  {1826),  as  well 
as  his  plays.  All  his  work  was  thoroughly  national,  and  when  he 
died  a  group  of  younger  writers  was  at  hand  ready  to  continue  it. 

Garrett  intended  as  Cronista  Mor  to  write  the  history  of  his 
own  time.  More  serious  historians  existed  in  the  Canon  of  Evora, 
Antonio  Caetano  do  Amaral  (1747-1819)  ;  his  fellow-aca- 
demician the  Canon  Joao  Pedro  Ribeiro  (11839)  I  Luz 
Soriano  (1802-99),  author  of  aHisforia  da  Guerra  Civil  (1866-90) 
in  seventeen  volumes  ;  the  Visconde  de  Santarem  (1791-1856), 
whose  able  and  persistent  researches  were  of  inestirpable  service 
to  the  history  and  incidentally  to  the  literature  of  his  country  ; 
and  the  patient  investigator  Cunha  Rivara  (1809-79). 

While  scientific  research  work  was  accumulating  the  bones  of 
history  a  creator  arose  in  the  person  of  Alexandre  Herculano 
(1810-77).  He  had  emigrated  to  France  and  England  in  1831,  lived 
for  a  time  at  Rennes,  and  from  the  Azores  in  1832  with  Garrett 
accompanied  the  Liberal  army  to  Oporto  as  a  private  soldier. 
In  the  following  year  he  obtained  work  as  a  librarian.  His  A  Voz 
do  Propheta  (1836)  (Castilho  in  this  year  translated  Lamennais' 
Paroles  d'un  Croyant),  written  in  the  impressive  style  of  a  Hebrew 
prophet,  although  it  appeared  anonymously,  brought  its  author 
fame,  and  in  1839  the  King  Consort  D.  Fernando  appointed  him 
librarian  of  the  Royal  Library  of  Ajuda.     The  salary  was  not 

'  These  two  plays  were  published  in  vol.  vii  of  his  Ohras  (1847)  with 
/).  Philippa  de  Vilhena. 

■  A  contemporary  novel,  Helena  (1871),  remained  unfinished  at  his  death. 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  293 

large,  under  £200  a  year,  but  the  post  gave  him  the  two  necessaries 
of  literary  work,  quiet  and  books.     From  that  year  to  1867  his 
life  was  taken  up  with  his  work,  with  which  politics  only  occa- 
sionally interfered.      He  edited  0  Panorama  from  1837  to  1844 
and  joined  in  founding  0  Paiz.  Although  he  was  elected  deputy  to 
the  Cortes  in  1840  he  rarely  attended  the  sittings.    His  friendship 
with  D.  Fernando  and  King  Pedro  V  continued  unbroken  till  their 
death.    In  1867  with  characteristic  abruptness  he  left  Lisbon  and 
literature  and  gave  his  last  ten  years  almost  entirely  to  agricul- 
ture on  the  estate  of  Val  de  Lobos,  near  Santarem.^     The  call 
of  the  land  was  combined  with  disgust  at  the  politics  of  the 
capital  and  probably  a  natural  disinclination  to  a  sedentary 
mode  of  life.     His  retirement  was  greeted  as  a  betrayal,  and 
attacks  formerly  directed  against  his  historical  work  were  now 
directed  against  him  for  abandoning  it.     But  since  he  had  no 
intention  of  continuing  his  history,  his  literary  work  was  really 
ended.     It  has  three  main  aspects,  poetry,  the  historical  novel, 
and  history.     From  the  prosaic  height  of  forty-six  he  informed 
Soares  de  Passos  in  a  letter  that  he  had  been  a  poet  till  he  was 
twenty-five.      Some  of  the  poems  of  A  Harpa  do  Crente  (1838),"^ 
especially  A   Tempestade  and  A  Cruz  Mutilada,  rise    to  noble 
heights  by  reason  of  a  fine  conviction  and  a  rugged  grandeur,  as  of 
blocks  of  granite.     Herculano  had  returned  to  Portugal  imbued 
with  profound  admiration  for  the  historical  novels  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  '  immortal  Scott '  as  he  called  him,  and  Victor  Hugo,  and 
in  his  remarkable  stories  and  sketches  contributed  to  0  Pano- 
rama and  published  as  Lendas  e  Narrativas  (1851),  as  well  as  in 
the  more  elaborate  0  Monasticon,   consisting  of  two  separate 
parts  Eurico  0  Presbytero  (1844)  and  0  Monge  de  Cister  (1848),  he 
wrote  romance  based  upon  scrupulous  historical  research.     A 
slight  leaning  towards  melodrama  is  as  a  rule  successfully  with- 
stood, and  his  intense  and  pow-erful  style  enchains  the  attention. 
Eurico  is  really  a  splendid  prose  poem,^  in  which  the  eighth- 

'  It  was,  however,  no  sudden  decision.  As  early  as  185  i  he  wrote,  in  a  letter 
to  Garrett,  '  .  .  .  me  ver  entre  quatro  serras  com  algumas  geiras  de  terra  proprtas, 
timas  botas  grossas  e  um  chapeu  de  Braga,  bello  ideal  de  todas  as  minhas  am- 
blades  mundanas  '. 

-  The  second  edition  with  additional  poems  was  entitled  Poesias  (1850). 

*  Cronica,  poeina,  Icnda  on  0  que  qitcr  que  scja,  he  says. 


294  1816-1910 

century  priest  Eurico  is  Herculano  brooding  over  the  degeneracy 
of  Portugal  in  the  nineteenth  century.  His  glowing  patriotism 
unifies  the  action  and  raises  the  style  to  an  impassioned  eloquence. 
The  Middle  Ages  were  well  suited  to  him  in  their  mixture  of 
passion  and  ingenuousness  and  their  scope  for  violent  contrasts 
of  evil  and  virtue,  light  and  shadow.  Most  of  the  Lendas  e 
Narrativas  and  0  Bobo  belong  to  that  period,  and  his  Historia  de 
Portugal  (4  vols.,  1846-53)  ends  with  the  year  1279.  That  he 
should  have  stopped  there  when  the  character  and  achievements 
of  King  Dinis  must  have  offered  him  a  powerful  incentive  to  pro- 
ceed shows  how  deeply  he  had  felt  the  controversial  attacks  levelled 
at  his  work ;  but  with  the  Renaissance  and  the  subsequent  history 
of  Portugal  he  was  too  intensely  national  to  have  great  sympathy. 
As  a  historian  he  has  been  compared  with  Hallam,  Thierry,  and 
Niebuhr,  and  he  stands  any  such  comparison  well.  A  passion 
for  truth  drove  him  to  the  original  sources  and  documents,  and, 
since  alle  Gelehrsamkeit  ist  noch  kein  Urteil,  he  brought  the  same 
patience  and  impartial  sincerity  to  their  interpretation.  The 
results  obtained  he  imposed  on  thousands  of  readers  by  his 
impressive  and  living  style. ^  In  his  case  the  style  was  the  man. 
Beneath  coldness  or  roughness  he  concealed  an  affectionate, 
impetuous  nature,  a  hatred  of  meanness  and  injustice.  In  his 
personal  relations  austere  and  difficult,  sometimes  no  doubt 
unfair  and  undiscerning  in  the  severity  of  his  judgements,  he 
was  a  perfect  contrast  to  Almeida  Garrett,  compared  with 
whom  he  was  as  granite  to  chalk  or  as  the  rock  to  the  stream 
that  flows  past  it.  His  strong  will  was  fortunately  directed  by  the 
Marquesa  de  Alorna  in  his  youth  to  the  thoroughness  of  German 
writers.  Thoroughness  marked  all  his  work.'  When  the  Academy 
of  Sciences  entrusted  him  with  the  task  of  collecting  documents 
on  the  early  history  of  Portugal  he  threw  himself  into  the  labour 
with  Siierwour v>'hichproducedthesp\cn6idPortvgaliae Monvme?ita 
Historica,  a  series  of  historical  works  and  documents  of  the  first 
importance  which  began  to  appear  in  1856.  From  1867  to  1877 
he  undertook  agriculture  not  as  an  amateur's  pastime  but  as 

*  The  late  Dr.  Gon9alvez  Viana  considered  Herculano  '  the  most  vernacular, 
scrupulous  and  perfect  writer  of  the  nineteenth  century  '  {Paleslras  I'llo- 
Idjicas,  1910,  p.  1  iG). 


THE  ROMANTIC  SCHOOL  295 

the  work  of  his  hfc,  with  the  result  that  he  achieved  another 
great  success  scarcely  inferior  to  his  success  as  a  writer.  The 
same  thoroughness  is  evident  in  the  Cyclopean  fragment  of  his 
history  and  in  his  shorter  writings,  the  Opusculos  (1873-76). 
His  Da  Origeni  e  Estahelecimento  da  Inquisigao  em  Portugal 
(3  vols.,  1854-9),  3-  deeply  interesting  account  of  the  negotiations 
and  intrigues  at  the  Vatican,  in  ceasing  to  be  dispassionate  may 
suffer  as  a  purely  historical  work,  but  its  vigour  brooks  no 
denial  and  its  literary  excellence  is  acknowledged  even  by  those 
who  dispute  its  fairness.  Great  as  scholar  and  man,  too  great  to 
be  always  understood  during  his  life,  his  memory  received  a  tribute 
from  men  so  different  as  Dollinger  and  Niifiez  del  Arce,  and  it  is 
probable  that  his  reputation  will  only  increase  with  time. 

In  the  historical  novel  Herculano  had  many  followers.  Antonio 
DE  Oliveira  Marreca  (1805-89)  wrote  two  laborious  fragments 
in  0  Panorama  :  Manoel  Soiisa  de  Sepulveda  (1843)  and  0  Conde 
Soberano  de  Castella  (1844,  53).  JoAo  de  Andrade  Corvo  (1824- 
90),  poet  and  dramatist,^  author  of  a  novel  of  contemporary 
politics,  6>  5^«^m^w/d;/25m(?(i87i), which  contains  excellent  descrip- 
tions of  Bussaco,  wrote  a  long  historical  novel,  Um  Anno  na  Corte 
(1850),  in  which  interest  in  the  actors  at  the  Court  of  Afonso  VI, 
in  incidents  such  as  a  bullfight  or  a  boarhunt,  in  witchcraft  or  the 
Inquisition,  is  skilfully  maintained.  His  style  in  its  sober  restraint 
is  superior  to  that  of  Arnaldo  da  Gama  (1828-69),  whose  his- 
torical episodes  of  the  French  invasion  of  1809  [0  Sargento  Mor 
de  Villar  and  0  Segredo  do  Abbade),  or  of  Oporto  in  the  fifteenth 
century  in  A  Ultima  Dona  de  S.  Nicolau,  or  in  the  eighteenth  in 
UmMotim  ha  cem  annos  {1861) ,  are  of  considerable  interest  despite 
their  author's  excessive  fondness  for  Latin  quotations.  Perhaps 
the  influence  of  Camillo  Castello  Branco  may  be  traced  in  his 
novel  0  Genio  do  Mai  (4  vols.,  1857).  Guilhermino  Augusto 
DE  Barros  (1835-1900)  is  the  author  of  a  novel  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  0  Castello  de  Monsanto  (2  vols.,  1879),  o^  great  length 
and  dullness.  Its  chief  interest  is  for  the  student  of  the  Portuguese 
language,  owing  to  its  large  vocabulary.  Bernardino  Pereira 
PiNHEiRO  (born  in  1837)  ^^  Sombras  e  Luz  (1863)  described 
scenes  from  the  reign  of  King  Manuel,  and  drew  a  strange  portrait 
1  O  Alliciador  (1859),  0  Astrologo  (i860). 


296  I8I6-I9IO 

of  King  Joao  III  in  Amoresdeum  Visionario  (2  vols.,  1874).  But 
the  mantle  of  Herculano,  as  historical  novelist,  fell  especially 
upon  Luiz  AuGUSTO  Rebello  da  Silva  (1822-71),  politician  and 
journalist.  His  Rausso  por  Homisio,  a  short  novel  of  the  time  of 
King  Sancho  II,  written  with  the  exaggeration  of  extreme  youth, 
appeared  in  the  Revista  Universal  Lisbon  en  se  (1842-3),  followed  by 
OdioVelho  ndo  cansa  (reign  of  Sancho  I), with  similar  defects,ini848. 
In  the  same  (the  first)  volume  of  A  Epocha  appeared  his  short  conto 
entitled  A  Ultima  Corrida  de  Touros  em  Salvaterra,  which  won  and 
has  retained  popularity  by  its  skilful  presentment  of  a  stirring  and 
pathetic  episode  in  the  reign  of  Jose  I  (1750-77).  Four  years  later 
Rebello  da  Silva  published  his  principal  novel,  A  Mocidade  de  D. 
Joao  V  (1852).  In  its  somewhat  tedious  descriptions  the  reader 
soon  loses  the  thread  of  the  story,  but  is  entertained  by  the  quick 
dialogue  and  almost  clownish  humour  of  the  separate  scenes. 
Lagrimas  e  Thesouros^  (1863)  may  interest  English  readers  from 
the  fact  that  its  principal  character  is  WiUiam  Beckford,  but  it 
has  not  the  great  merits  of  the  preceding  novel.  The  author  was 
already  at  work  on  his  unfinished  Historia  de  Portugal  nos  secidos 
XVII  eXVI  II  [svoh.,  1860-71).  In  this,  as  in  his  Fastos  da  I grej  a 
(1854-5)  and  Vardes  Illustres  (1870),  his  defects  fall  away,  while 
his  real  skill  as  a  historian,  his  intensity,  and  his  excellent  style 
remain  ;  indeed,  an  added  intensity  gives  his  style  a  new  vigour 
and  simplicity.  His  Historia,  although  less  rigorously  scientific 
and  far  less  methodically  ordered  than  that  of  his  master  Hercu- 
lano, has  value  as  history  as  w^H  as  literature.  Rebello  da  Silva 
wrote  too  much,  but  his  work  generally  improved  with  the  years 
and  might  have  resulted  in  a  real  masterpiece  had  he  not  died 
before  attaining  the  age  of  fifty. 

Meanwhile  the  novel  had  entered  on  a  new  and  intensely 
modern  phase  in  the  hands  of  a  slightly  younger  contemporary. 
The  life  of  Camillo  Castello  Branco  (1825-90),  whose  nume- 
rous novels  have  been  and  still  are  read  enthusiastically  in 
Portugal,  had  about  it  an  element  of  improbability  which  is 
reflected  in  his  works  and  made  it  possible  to  combine  their 

'  The  last  novel  to  appear  in  Rebello  da  Silva's  lifetime  was  A  Casa 
dos  Phantasmas  {1865).  ^^  Noite  todos  os  gatos  sao  pardos  was  published 
posthumously. 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  297 

apparent  sincerity  with  a  peculiar  unreality.  Born  at  Lisbon 
but  left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  eight,  and  brought  up  by  a  sister, 
wife  of  a  doctor,  in  a  small  village  of  Tras-os-Montes,^  a  widower 
in  his  teens,  then  a  boisterous  Oporto  medical  student,  twice  im- 
prisoned for  love  affairs  and  finally  guilty  of  abducting  an  heiress 
as  a  bride  for  his  son,  his  whole  life  was  spent  in  a  whirlwind, 
actual  or  imaginary,  a  tragicomedy  which,  stricken  with  blind- 
ness, he  ended  by  suicide.  He  read  and  wrote  in  the  same  tem- 
pestuous fashion.  The  sentimental  atmosphere  of  his  novels  is 
relieved  systematically  by  outbursts  ot  cynicism  and  sarcasm. 
When  he  began  to  write  romanticism  was  in  full  swing,  but  his 
last  twenty  years  were  spent  under  what  was  to  him  the  vexing 
and  tantalizing  shadow  of  the  new  realism.  His  first  story,  Maria 
nao  me  mates,  que  son  tua  mde!  (1848), ^  was  sentimental  and 
sensational,  and  something  of  these  qualities  remained  in  the 
greater  part  of  his  work.  His  first  more  elaborate  novel  Anathema 
(1851),  in  which  the  story  is  interrupted  by  lengthy  musings  and 
moralizings,  he  himself  described  as  '  a  kind  of  literary  crab  ', 
and  most  of  his  novels  are  somewhat  lop-sided':  he  confessed 
that  his  discursiveness  was  incurable.  It  is  the  more  hysterical 
among  his  works,  such  as  Amor  de  Perdigao  (1862) — its  character 
is  well  described  by  the  title  of  the  Italian  version.  Amor  sfrenato 
—or  A?nor  de  Salvagdo  (1864)  and  those  which  combine  this 
character  with  a  chain  of  amazing  coincidences,  as  Os  Mysterios  de 
Lishoa  (1854)  a-iid  0  Livro  Negro  do  Padre  Diniz  (1855),  which  were 
read  most  avidly  in  Portugal.  He  himself  favoured  the  quieter 
Romance  de  um  Homem  Rico  (1861)  and  Livro  de  Consolagdo{i8y2). 
We  may  prefer  the  attic  flavour  of  the  humorous  sketch  of  a 
country  gentleman  (born  in  the  year  of  Waterloo)  at  Lisbon,  in 
A  Queda  d'um  Anjo  (1866),  which  somehow  recalls  the  best  work 
of  Pedro  Antonio  de  Alarcon.  Castello  Branco  had  a  true  vein  of 
comedy,  and  although  a  great  part  of  the  work  of  this  specialist 
in  hysterics  has  an  air  of  unreality,  he  is  many-sided  and  yields 
frequent  surprises.    The  true  Camillo  appears  only  intermittently 

*  After  Camillo,  as  he  is  always  called  in  Portugal,  had  been  created  Viscondc 
de  Correa  Botelho  in  1885,  his  descent  was  traced  back  to  Fruela,  son  of 
Pelayo. 

^  That  is,  a  year  before  the  novel  Memorias  de  um  Doudo  (1849)  by 
Antonio  Pedro  Lopes  de  Mendon9a  (1826-65). 


29^  1816-I910 

in  his  novels,  and  charms  with  a  simplicity  of  style  and  description 
worthy  of  Frei  Luis  dc  Sousa,  as  in  some  of  his  Novellas  do  Minho 
(12  vols.,  1875-7),  the  country-house  in  Coragao,  Cabega  e  Esto- 
mago  (1862),  the  Tras-os-Montes^^aZg'o's  house  in  Os  Mysterios 
de  Lisboa,  the  village  priest  in  A  Sereia  (1865),  Padre  Joao  in 
Doze  Casamentos  Felizes  (1861),  the  farrier  in  Amor  de  PerdiQdo, 
the  charcoal-burners  in  0  Santo  da  MontanJia  (1865).  Then  (as 
if  with  the  question  :  what  will  the  Chiado,  what  will  the  Lisbon 
critics  say?)  he  pulls  himself  up,  lashes  himself  with  sarcasms, 
and  plunges  into  his  improbabilities  and  passions.  A  poet  and 
a  learned  and  ingenious  if  unscholarly  critic,  he  saw  and  de- 
scribed the  charm  of  the  villages  of  North  Portugal,  but  he 
satirized  with  peculiar  venom  the  bourgeois  life  and  the  enriched 
brazileiros  of  Oporto,  as  in  A  Filha  do  Arcediago  (1855),  A  Neta 
do  Arcediago  (1856),  A  Douda  do  Candal  (1867),  Os  Brilhantes  do 
Brazileiro  (1869),  Memorias  de  Guilherme  do  Amaral  (1863),  and 
Um  Homeni  de  Brios  (1856),^  the  last  two  being  continuations  of 
Onde  estd  aFelicidade?  (1856).  This  last  work  has  a  broader 
historical  setting,  and  many  of  his  novels  are  really  historical 
episodes,^  some  of  which  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  Perez 
Galdos'  Episodios  Nacionales.  Especially  is  this  the  case 
with  the  latter  part  of  As  Tres  Irmas  (1862)  and  with  A  Bruxa 
de  Monte  Cordova  (1867),  both  written  before  the  appearance  of 
the  first  Episodio  Nacional.  In  Eusebio  Macario  and  y^  Corja  he 
set  his  hand  to  the  naturalistic  novel,  and  in  A  Brazileira  de 
Prazins  (1882)  modified  this  method  to  suit  his  favourite  phan- 
tasy of  extremes,  in  which  the  angel  and  martyr  are  contrasted 
with  the  romantic  Don  Juan  or  vulgar  brazileiro  or  narrow- 
minded  Minho  noble.  Apart  from  their  historical  interest  and 
occasional  charming  glimpses  of  life  and  literature,  his  books 
are  invaluable  for  their  style,  and  he  is  the  author  of  many 
masterly  passages  rather  than  of  any  masterpiece.  He  some- 
times— here,  as  in  all  else,  leaving  moderation  to  the  bourgeois 

'  Cf.  also  Carlota  Angela  (1858),  O  que  fazem  mulheres  {1858),  Annas  de 
Prosa  (1863),  O  SangU2  (1868).  Estrellas  Propicias  (1863),  Estrellas  Funestas 
(1869). 

*  e.g.  Lagrimas  Abenfoadas  (1857),  Carlota  Angela  (1858),  O  Santo  da  Mon- 
tanha  (1865).  A  Engeitada  (1866),  O  Judeu  (2  vols.,  1866),  O  Regicida  {1874), 
A  Filha  do  Regicida  (1875). 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  299 

Spate — allows  himself  to  bo  carried  away  by  his  immense  vocabu- 
lary, but  often,  indeed  usually,  his  language  is  a  flawless  marble, 
a  rich  quarry  of  the  purest,  most  vernacular  Portuguese,  de- 
rived from  the  Portuguese  religious  and  mystic  writers  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.^  Absorbed  in  his  work 
night  after  night  till  the  first  songs  of  birds  announced  the  dawn, 
writing  in  or  after  a  paroxysm  of  grief  or  excitement  in  his  own 
life,  he  first  lived,  then  swiftly  set  on  paper,  the  incidents  of  his 
novels— /4wor  de  Perdigdo  was  written  in  a  fortnight.  Their  plot 
may  be  ill  constructed,  the  delineation  of  characters  shallow, 
Balzac  manque,  the  episodes  far-fetched  and  melodramatic,  but 
they  corresponded,  if  not  to  life,  to  the  life  of  their  author  and 
thereby  attained  intensity  of  style  and  a  certain  unity  of  action. 
Yet  he  was  always  greatly  concerned  with  schools  and  ten- 
dencies (he  imitated  Emile  Zola  in  Eusehio  Macario,  although 
he  declared  the  realistic  school  to  be  the  perversion  of  Nature, 
£mile  Souvcstre  in  As  Tres  Irmds,  Octave  Feuillet  in  Romance 
de  um  Homem  Rico),  sure  of  his  genius  but  not  of  the  channels 
into  which  he  should  direct  it,  at  his  best  perhaps  in  brief  essays 
and  sketches  from  which  his  high-flown  romanticism  is  absent, 
as  in  the  studies  of  the  lives  of  criminals  in  Memorias  do  Carcere 
(2  vols.,  1862)  and  his  many  scattered  reminiscences  of  life  in 
Minho,  the  valley  of  the  Tamcga,  and  Oporto.  With  his  sensitive 
restless  temperament,  his  imagination,  his  satire  and  sadness  (of 
tears  rather  than  saudade,  for  which  the  action  in  his  stories  is  too 
rapid),  his  intolerant  hatred  of  tyranny  and  intolerance,  his  essen- 
tial interest  not  in  things  nor  even  characters  but  in  life  and  passion, 
and  his  unfailing  power  of  expression,  he  may  well  be  called  'the 
[modern]  Portuguese  genius  personified  '.^  His  life  is  a  strange 
contrast  to  the  almost  idyllic  serenity  of  that  of  Antonio 
Feliciano  de  Castilho  (1800-75),  whose  admirable  persistency 
as  poet  and  translator  during  a  period  of  nearly  sixty  years — he 
had  been  blind  from  the  age  of  six — enabled  him  to  attain  an 
extraordinary  pre-eminence  in  Portuguese  poetry  after  Garrett 
and  other  poets"  had  been  broken  like  crystals  while  he  remained 

•  That  it  is  not  impeccable  such  a  phrase  as  confortar  o  palacio  (O  Livro 
Negro  do  Padre  Diniz,  1896  ed.,  p.  135)  well  shows. 

-  M.  A.  Vaz  dc  Carvalho,  Seroes  no  Campo  (1877),  p.  171. 


300  1816-I910 

as  a  tile  upon  the  housetop.  A  romantic  with  a  natural  leaning 
to  perfection  of  form,  he  always  retained  something  of  the 
Arcadian  school,  and  like  the  Arcadians  sought  his  inspiration 
in  Bernardim  Ribeiro  and  other  bucolic  quinhentistas.  Un- 
sympathetic critics  incapable  of  appreciating  Castilho's  masterly 
style  may  feel  that  in  the  twenty-one  letters  of  the  Cartas  de 
Echo  e  Narciso  (1821),  in  A  Priniavera  (1822)^  and  Amor  e 
Melancholia  on  a  Novissima  Heloisa  (1828)  he  combined  the 
classical  school's  dearth  of  thought  with  the  diffuseness  of  the 
romantics.  But  his  quadras  {A  Visdo,  0  Sao  Jodo,  A  Noite  do 
Cemiterio)  and  his  blank  verse  are  alike  so  easy  and  natural,  his 
style  so  harmonious  and  pure  that,  despite  the  lack  of  observation 
and  originality  in  these  long  poems,  they  have  not  even  to-day 
lost  their  place  in  Portuguese  literature.  In  their  soft,  vague 
melancholy  and  gentle  grace  they  were  even  more  popular  than 
his  romantic  poems,  A  Noite  do  Castello  (1836)  -  and  Os  Ciumes 
do  Bardo  (1838),  and  influenced  many  younger  writers.  Like 
Garrett  he  taught  them  to  seek  the  subjects  of  their  verse  in 
the  popular  traditions  of  their  own  land.  Indeed,  so  great  was 
his  bent  for  the  national  in  literature  that  his  numerous  trans- 
lations (from  the  French  and  English,  Latin  and  Greek,  to  which, 
with  an  occasional  aftermath  of  poems  such  as  Outono  (1862), 
his  later  years  were  devoted)  are  often  remarkable  rather  for  their 
excellent  Portuguese  versification  than  for  faithfulness  to  the 
originals,  and  the  Faust  of  Goethe,  whose  powerful  directness 
was  unintelligible  to  his  translator,  especially  as  he  only  read  the 
poem  in  a  French  version,  became  translated  indeed. 

The  most  prominent  or  the  least  insipid  of  the  numerous  group 
of  romantic  and  ultra-romantic  poets,  a  generation  younger  than 
Garrett  and  Castilho,  who  published  their  verses  in  0*Trovador 
(1848)-"^  and  0  Novo  Trovador  (1856),  were  Luiz  Augusto  Pal- 

'  Part  2  is  entitled  A  Festa  de  Maio  (two  cantos). 

-  Written  in  1830. 

^  This  '  collection  of  contemporary  poems '  contains  verses  of  considerable 
merit.  Of  some  200  poems  by  twenty-one  poets  twenty-eight  are  by  Joao 
de  Lemos,  thirty  by  Jose  Freire  de  Serpa  Pimentel  (1814-70),  second  Viscondc 
de  Gouvea,  author  of  Solaos  (1839),  thirty-four  by  Antonio  Xavier  Rodrigues 
Cordeiro  (1819-1900),  and  thirty-six  by  Augusto  Jose  Gon9alves  Lima  (1823- 
67),  who  reprinted  his  contributions  in  Murmnrios  (1851).  AsimiUtr  collection 
of  verse  was  A  Grinalda  (Porto,  1857). 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  301 

MEiRiM  (1825-93),  whose  Poesias  appeared  in  185 1,  and  Joao  de 
Lemos  (1819-89),  some  of  whose  poems  (one  of  the  best  known 
is  A  Lua  de  Londres)  in  Flores  e  Amoves  (1858),  Religido  e  Patria 
(1859),  ^ricl  especially  Cangdes  da  Tarde  (1875),  have  a  delicacy 
of  rhythm  and  are  more  scholarly  than  those  of  most  of  the 
romantic  poets.  The  three  volumes  form  the  Cancioneiro  de 
Jodo  de  Lemos.  Jose  da  Silva  Mendes  Leal  (1818-86), 
author  of  Historia  da  Guerra  no  Oriente  (1855),  and,  like  Pal- 
meirim,  a  successful  dramatist,  in  Os  Dots  Renegades  (1839) 
and  0  Homem  da  Mascara  Negra  (1843),  and  also  a  novelist  {0  que 
foram  os  Portugueses),  as  a  poet  is  at  his  best  in  patriotic,  military, 
or  funeral  odes  :  0  Pavilhdo  Negro  (1859),  ^^^  Cesar,  Gloria  e 
Martyrio  (perhaps  suggested  by  Tennyson's  Ode  on  the  Death  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington),  Napoledo  no  Kremlin  (1865),  Indiannas,  in 
which  his  sonorous  verse  has  a  certain  grandeur.  His  Canticos 
(1858)  contain  among  others  a  good  translation  of  El  Pirata  of 
Espronceda,  whose  influence  is  evident  in  the  ode  to  Vasco  da 
Gama,  which  forms  the  first  part  of /nimwwa^.  Antonio  Augusto 
Scares  de  Passos  (1826-60),  son  of  an  Oporto  chemist,  studied 
at  Coimbra  and  published  a  volume  of  sentimental  romantic 
poems  in  1856  [Poesias).  The  most  remarkable  is  the  noble  if 
a  little  too  grandiloquent  ode  entitled  0  Firmamento,  which  far 
excels  the  poems  of  death,  pale  moonlight,  autumn  regrets,  and 
vanished  dreams  of  this  excellent  translator  of  Ossian.  After  his 
death  a  fellow-student,  Dr.  Lourengo  de  Almeida  e  Medeiros, 
accused  him  of  having  stolen  0  Firmamento  and  other  poems. 
He  had  himself,  he  said,  written  the  melancholy  ballad  0  Noivado 
do  Sepulchro  in  February  1853,  but  unfortunately  for  his  con- 
tention it  had  appeared  over  Scares  de  Passos'  signature  eight 
months  earlier  in  0  Bardo.  A  miscellaneous  writer,  like  so 
many  of  his  contemporaries,  Francisco  Gomes  de  Amorim 
(1827-92)  achieved  popularity  with  his  plays,  published  two 
volumes  of  sentimental  poems.  Cantos  Matutinos  (1858)  and 
Ephemeros  (1866),  of  which  perhaps  0  Desterrado  is  now  alone 
remembered,  and  several  pleasantly  indigenous  stories  of  his 
native  Avelomar  (Minho)  collected  in  Fruitos  de  Vario  Sabor 
(1876),  with  an  attractive  sketch  of  the  priest,  Padre  Manuel, 
Muita  parra  e  pouca  uva  (1878),  and  As  Duas  Fiandeiras  (1881). 


302  1816-1910 

He  played  the  sedulous  Boswell  to  Almeida  Garrett  during  the 
last  three  years  of  the  latter's  life,  and  the  result  was  one  of 
the  few  interesting  biographies  in  the  modern  literature  of  the 
Peninsula  :  Garrett,  Memorias  Biographicas  (3  vols.,  1881-8). 
Among  the  host  of  pale  moon-singers  following  in  the  wake  of 
Castilho  it  is  a  relief  to  find  a  satirist,  Faustino  Xavier  de 
Novaks  (1822-64),  who  mh\sPoesias{i^$$), Novas Poesias  (1858), 
and  Poesias  Postiimas  (1877),  preferred  to  take  Tolentino  for  his 
model.  He  ridiculed  the  janota  com  pouco  dinheiro,  com  fumos 
de  grande  and  other  types  of  his  native  Oporto,  where  for  some 
time  he  worked  as  a  goldsmith.  Later  he  emigrated  to  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  but  there  found  'everything  except  literature  well  paid'. 
Two  of  the  romantic  poets  lived  on  into  the  twentieth  century, 
one  even  survived  the  Monarchy.  Thomaz  Ribeiro  (1831-1901), 
born  at  Parada  de  Gonta  in  the  district  of  Tondella  (Beira), 
advocate,  journalist,  playwright,  historian,  politician,  deputy, 
minister,  peer  of  the  realm,  won  enduring  fame  with  his  long 
romantic  poem  D.  Jayme  (1862),  which  opens  with  fifteen  strik- 
ing stanzas  addressed  to  Portugal.  In  this  introductory  ode  he 
rises  on  the  wings  of  ardent  patriotism  and  sturdy  faith  in 
Portugal  to  a  fine  achievement  in  verse.  Less  rhetorical,  the 
rest  of  the  poem  (or  series  of  poems  in  varying  metre)  would  have 
gained  by  reduction  to  half  its  length,  but  is  sometimes  not 
without  charm  in  its  meanderings.  Yet  it  is  a  kind  of  inspired 
rhetoric  and  natural  grandiloquence  that  best  characterize 
Ribeiro,  and  when  his  inspiration  falters  it  leaves  but  a  hollow 
and  metallic  shell  of  verse.  We  will  expect  no  delicate  shades 
from  a  lyric  poet  who  calls  the  sky  0  celico  espectaculo.  Subse- 
quent volumes — Sons  que  passam  (1867),  which  contains  poems 
written  as  early  as  1854,  ^  Delfina  do  Mai  (1868),  Vesperas  (1880), 
Dissonancias  (1890),  0  Mensageiro  deFez  (1899) — maintained,  but 
did  not  increase,  his  reputation  as  a  poet.  The  chief  work  of 
Raimundo  Antonio  de  Bulhao  Pato  (1829-1912),  a  Portuguese 
born  at  Bilbao,  was  Paquita,  which  he  began  to  publish  in  1866, 
and  to  the  completion  of  which  he  devoted  nearly  forty  years  of 
loving  care.  It  is  a  facetious  romantic  poem  of  sixteen  cantos, 
mostly  in  verses  of  six  lines  [ababcb  or  ababca),  intended  to  be  in 
the  manner  of  Byron  but  more  akin  to  Antonio  de  Trueba,  whose 


THE   ROMANTIC   SCHOOL  303 

verses  are  imitated  in  Flores  Agrestes  (1870).  The  modern  reader, 
after  readily  agreeing  with  Herculano  that  the  poem  has  its 
faults,  will  perhaps  be  disposed  to  inquire  further  if  it  has  any 
merits  ;  but,  although  its  subject  is  often  unpoetical  and  trivial, 
the  versification  is  easy  and  occasionally  excellent.  Bulhao  Pato 
published  other  volumes  of  gentle  album  poetry,  2lS  Poesias  {t.%So), 
Versos  (1862),  Cangoes  da  Tarde  (1866),  and  Hoje:  Satyras,  Can- 
goes  e  Idyllios  (1888),  besides  sketches  and  recollections  in  prose. 
Nearly  fifty  years  before  his  death  the  romantic  school  in  Portu- 
gal had  received  a  severe  shock,  and  the  fact  that  long  romantic 
poems  continued  to  appear  is  proof  how  deep  its  roots  had 
penetrated. 


§2 

The  Reaction  and  After 

It  was  in  1865  that  Castilho,  the  acknowledged  high-priest 
of  literary  aspirants,  wrote  a  long  letter  which  was  published 
as  introduction  (pp.  181-243)  to  Pinheiro  Chagas'  0  Poema 
da  Mocidade  (1865),  in  which  he  deprecated  the  pretentious 
affectations  of  the  younger  poets.  For  while  Castilho  was 
dispensing  his  patronage  to  the  acolytes  of  romanticism  a  new 
school  of  writers  had  grown  up  at  Coimbra,  who  refused  to 
know  Joseph.  They  turned  to  Germany  as  well  as  to  France, 
professed  to  replace  sentiment  by  science,  and  in  the  name  of 
philosophy  chafed  unphilosophically  at  the  old  commonplaces 
and  unrealities.  Castilho  stood  not  only  for  romanticism  but 
for  the  classical  style  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  in  some 
respects  the  secession  from  his  school  may  be  described  as  the 
revolt  of  the  Philistine  against  Filinto.  Anthero  de  Ouental 
now  voiced  the  cause  against  the  aged  Castilho's  preface  in  an 
article  entitled  Bom  Senso  e  Bom  Gosto  (1865).  For  the  next 
few  months  it  rained  pamphlets.^  Snr.  Julio  de  Castilho,  subse- 
quently second  Visconde  de  Castilho  (1840-1919),  and  author  of 
many  well-known  works,  including  the  drama  D.  Ignez  de  Castro 
(1875)  and  the  eight  volumes  of  Lisboa  Antiga  (1879-90),  took 
up  the  cudgels  on  behalf  of  his  father.  The  high  principles  at 
stake,  good  sense  and  good  taste,  were  sometimes  forgotten  in 
personal  bitterness;  a  duel  was  even  fought  between  Ouental 
and  Ramalho  Ortigao,  in  which  both  the  poet  and  his  critic  were 
happily  spared  to  literature. 

But  romanticism  in  Portugal  has  nine  lives,  and  raised  its  head  at 

intervals  during  the  second  half  of  the  century.    In  the  domain  of 

'  The  incomplete  list  in  the  Dice.  Bibliog.,  vol,  viii.  records  forty-four 
published  in  1865  ^.nd  1866.  These  include  Julio  dc  Castilho's  O  Senhor  An- 
tonio  Feliciana  de  Castilho  e  0  Senhor  Anthero  de  Qnental  (1865,  ^^  -^-i  1866), 
R.  OTt\gdt.o's  Litter atur a  d'Hoje  (1866),  Snr.  Braga's  As  Theocracias,  Litterarias 
(1865),  Quental's  A  Dignidade  das  Lettras  (1865),  and  C.  Castello  Branco's 
Vaidades  irritadas  e  irritantes  (1866). 


\ 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  305 

history  JoAOUiM  Pedro  de  Oliveira  Martins  (1845-94)  always 
remained  more  than  half  a  romantic.  His  life  explains  the  charac- 
ter of  his  historical  writings.  Born  at  Lisbon,  obliged  to  work  for  a 
living  when  he  was  barely  fifteen,  he  succeeded  at  the  same  time 
in  educating  himself,  supported  his  mother  and  her  younger 
children,  married  before  he  was  twenty-five,  had  published 
a  dozen  works  before  he  was  forty,  was  elected  deputy  for 
Viana  do  Castello  in  1886,  became  Minister  of  Finance  in  1892, 
and  died  in  his  fiftieth  year.  A  career  so  meteoric  could  scarcely 
give  scope  for  that  scrupulous  research,  that  careful  sifting  of 
evidence  which  modern  ideas  associate  with  the  work  of  the 
historian ;  and  Oliveira  Martins  as  historian  embraced  not  only 
the  whole  of  Portuguese  but  the  whole  of  Iberian  history,  and 
that  of  Greece  and  Rome  to  boot.  But  even  had  he  had  more 
time,  the  result  would  only  have  been  more  subjects  treated, 
not  a  different  treatment.  His  whole  idea  of  history  was  coloured 
with  romance,  his  work  impetuous  and  personal  as  that  of  a  lyric 
poet.  His  first  book,  the  historical  novel  Phebus  Moniz  (1867), 
passed  almost  unnoticed.  After  several  pamphlets,  appeared 
his  first  historical  work,  0  Hellenismo  e  a  Civilisagdo  Christd 
(1878),  and  then  in  marvellous  rapidity  the //z5/ma  da  Civilisagdo 
Iberica  (1879),  Historia  de  Portugal  (1879),  Elementos  de  Anthro- 
pologia  (1880),  Portugal  Contemporaneo  (1881),  and  a  further 
succession  of  historical  works  ending  with  the  Historia  da 
Republica  Roniana  (1885).  Although  politics  now  occupied  much 
of  his  time  he  continued  to  publish,  and  wisely  emphasized  the 
biographical  side  of  his  work,  of  which  Os  Filhos  de  D.  Joao  I 
(1891)  and  A  Vida  de  Nun"  Alvares  (1893)  are  not  the  least 
valuable  part.  0  Principe  Perfeito  (1896),  dealing  with  King 
Joao  II,  appeared  posthumously  and  incomplete.  A  master  of 
psychology  and  impressionistic  character-sketching,  all  his  work 
is  a  gallery  of  pictures — and  especially  of  portraits — from  Afonso 
Henriquez  to  Herculano,  which  reveal  the  artist  as  well  as  his 
subjects.  His  style,  nervous,  coloured,  insinuating,  is  a  swift  and 
supple  implement  for  his  exceptional  power  of  skilfully  sum- 
marizing a  person  or  a  period.  He  is  capable  of  vulgarity  (as 
in  the  account  of  Queen  Philippa  and  the  frequent  use  of  collo- 
quialisms perfectly  unbefitting  the  dignity  of  history)  but  not  of 
2362  u 


3o6  1816-IOIO 

dullness.  He  uses  and  abuses  epigram  and  metaphor,  and  is  not 
free  from  the  pompous  rhetorical  antitheses  of  Victor  Hugo  (e.  g. 
De  Cid  transformou-se  em  Wallenstein),  till  the  reader  suspects 
him  of  being  ready  at  all  times  to  sacrifice  truth  to  a  phrase.  Yet 
it  is  surprising,  considering  the  circumstances  of  his  life  and  the 
extent  of  his  work,  how  often  he  bases  his  history,  if  not  on 
documents,  on  the  work  of  reliable  earlier  historians,  Portuguese 
and  foreign.  If  he  fills  in  the  gaps  with  pure  romance  or  an 
uncritical  use  of  texts  (for  instance,  in  A  Vida  de  Nun'  Alvares 
he  incorporates  as  authentic  those  charming  '  letters  of  Nun' 
Alvarez  '  which  a  mere  glance  at  their  style  shows  to  be  apocry- 
phal) these  are  but  the  poet's  arabesques,  the  main  structure  is 
often  sound  enough.  Were  there  no  other  history  of  Portugal  it 
might  be  necessary  to  consider  his  work  not  only  fascinating  but 
dangerous,  nor  would  Portugal  Contemporaneo  alone  convey  an 
impartial  or  complete  idea  of  Portuguese  history  in  the  first  two- 
thirds  of  the  nineteenth  century.  We  may  deny  him  the  title 
of  great  historian,  we  cannot  deny  him  a  foremost  place  in  the 
literature  of  the  century  as  a  writer  of  brilliant  intellect  and 
feverish  energy  and  a  powerful  re-constructor  of  characters  and 
scenes  in  their  picturesqueness  and  their  passions. 

The  work  of  Manuel  Pinheiro  Chagas  (1842-95),  poet,  play- 
wright, critic,  novelist,  historian,  was  even  more  abundant  and 
for  the  most  part  of  a  more  popular  character  and  more  common- 
place. He  is  also  more  Portuguese,  and  his  works  deserve  to  be 
read  if  only  for  their  pure  and  easily  flowing  style.  Many  of  his 
novels  are  historical.  A  Cortede  D.  Joao  V  (1867)  has  an  account 
of  an  outeiro^  in  which  figures  the  Camoes  do  Rocio  as  the  poet 
Caetano  Jose  da  Silva  Souto-Maior  {c.  1695-1739)  was  called. 
The  subject  of  the  earlier  novel  Tristezas  a  beira-niar  (1866)  is  that 
which  Amorim  in  his  A  Ahnegagdo  derived  from  an  English  novel, 
but  is  here  more  naturally  treated.  A  Mascara  Velha  (continued 
in  0  Juramento  da  Duqueza)  appeared  in  1873.  As  Duas  Flores 
de  Sangue  (1875)  is  concerned  with  revolution  in  France  and  at 
Naples.    A  Flor  Secca  (1866)  treats  of  more  everyday  scenes  and 

'  The  outeiro  (lit.  '  hill ')  was  an  assembly  of  poets  to  glosar  motes.  Often 
the  gathering-place  was  outside  a  convent,  from  the  windows  of  which  the 
nuns  gave  the  motes  for  the  poets  to  gloss. 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  307 

contains  some  amusing  if  rather  obvious  character-sketches,  as 
the  old  servant  Maria  do  Rosario  (a  rustic  Juliana),  or  the  devout 
and  vixenish  old  maid  D.  Antonia.  His  Novelas  Historicas  (1869) 
contains  six  historical  tales  dealing  with  Afonso  I,  Nun'  Alvarez, 
Prince  Henry  the  Navigator,  King  Sebastian,  Pombal,  and  the 
French  Revolution.  His  Historia  de  Portugal  (8  vols.,  1867), 
begun  on  a  plan  originally  laid  down  by  Ferdinand  Denis, 
contains  lengthy  and  frequent  quotations  from  previous  his- 
torians but  is  coloured  by  later  political  ideas.  The  two  shorter 
works  Historia  alegre  de  Portugal  (1880)  and  Portugueses  illustres 
(1869)  are  admirably  suited  for  their  purpose — to  interest  the 
people  in  the  history  and  heroes  of  their  country. 

The  chief  work  of  the  able  and  industrious  critic  and  historian 
Jose  Maria  Latino  Coelho  (1825-91)  was  his  Historia  Politica 
e  Militar  de  Portugal  desde  osfins  do  seculo  XVIII  ate  1814  (3  vols., 
1874-91).  Antonio  Costa  Lobo  (1840-1913),  editor  of  the 
instructive  Memorias  de  um  Soldado  da  India,  in  his  Historia  da 
Sociedade  em  Portugal  no  seculo  XV  (1904)  began  a  meticulous  and 
well  thought-out  study  of  an  earlier  period  of  Portuguese  history. 
Jose  Ramos  Coelho  (1832-1914)  is  chiefly  known  for  his  elaborate 
romantic  biography  of  the  brother  of  King  Joao  V :  Historia  do 
Infante  D.  Duarte  (2  vols.,  1889,  90).  Dr.  Henrique  da  Gama 
Barros  (born  in  1833)  in  the  invaluable  Historia  da  Administragao 
Publica  em  Portugal  nos  seculosXII  aXV  (3  vols.,  1885,  96,  1914) 
has  collected  an  abundance  of  concrete,  carefully  verified  details, 
and  thrown  a  searching  light  on  the  early  history  of  Portugal.^ 

In  literary  criticism  as  well  as  in  historical  research  the 
nineteenth  century  worthily  continued  the  traditions  of  the 
eighteenth.  Francisco  Marques  de  Sousa  Viterbo  (1845-1910) 
after  first  appearing  in  print  as  a  poet  in  0  Anjo  do  Piidor  (1870) 
rendered  excellent  service  in  both  those  fields  ;  the  best-known 
work  of  Luciano  Cordeiro  (1844-1900)  is  his  study  Soror 
Marianna  (1890)  ;  Zophimo  Consiglieri  Pedroso  (1851-1910) 
and  Antonio  Thomaz  Pires  (11913)  were  celebrated  for  their 

'  Historical  research  and  compilation  are  carried  on  by  Snr.  Fortunato 
de  Almeida  in  his  Historia  da  Igreja  em  Portugal  (iQio,  &c.),  and  by 
Snr.  Afonso  de  Dornellas  (Historia  e  Genealogia,  1913,  &c.).  Snr.  Lucio 
de  Azevedo,  well  known  for  his  studies  of  Pombal  (O  Marquez  de  Pombal  e  a 
sua  epoca,  1909)  and  Antonio  Vieira  [Historia  de  Antonio  Vieira,  2  vols.,  19 18, 
21),  is  a  Brazilian. 

U  2 


3o8  1816-1910 

studies  in  folk-lore  ^ ;    the  Visconde  de  Juromenha  (1807-87) 
for  his  edition  of  the  works  of  Camoes  ;    the  Conde  de  Ficalho 
(1837-1903)  for  several  remarkable  studies  and  his   edition  of 
Garcia  da  Orta ;     Annibal   Fernandes   Thomaz  (1840-1912) 
as    a    bibliographer ;     Augusto    Epiphanio    da    Silva   Dias 
(1841-1916)  as  scholar  and  critic  ;    Jose  Pereira  de  Sampaio 
(1857-1915),    who    used    the   pseudonym    Bruno,   as    a  critic ; 
Aniceto  DOS  Reis  GoNgALVEZ  ViANA  (1840-1914)  and  Julio 
Moreira  (1854-1911)  as  philologists  ;   Luiz  Garrido  (1841-82) 
as  critic  and  classical  scholar  in  his  Ensaios  historicos  e  criticos 
(1871)  and  Estudos  de  historia  e  litteratura  (1879).     After  the 
death  of   the  diligent  and  enthusiastic  but  sadly  unmethodi- 
cal bibliographer  Innocencio  da  Silva  (1810-76),  his  celebrated 
Diccionario  Bibliographico  Portuguez  was  carried  on  by  Brito 
Aranha(i833-i9I4),  and  the  task  of  continuing  it  is  nowentrusted 
to  Snr.  Gomes  de  Brito.    To  the  eminent  folk-lorist  Francisco 
Adolpho  Coelho  (1847-1919)  the  language,  literature,  and  folk- 
lore are  indebted  for  many  works  of  permanent  value.    Notable 
among  living  scholars,  apart  from  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vas- 
concellos  and  Mr.  Edgar  Prestage,  who  both  write  in  Portuguese, 
are  Colonel  Francisco  Maria  Esteves  Pereira,  whose  editions 
of   early  works   are   invaluable ;     Dr.   Jose  Joaquim    Nunes, 
who  has  devoted  his  careful  scholarship  to  the  early  poetry  and 
prose ;     the    Camoes   scholar,    Dr.    Jose    Maria    Rodrigues  ; 
Snr.     Pedro     de     Azevedo,     archaeologist     and      historian; 
Snr.  David  Lopes,   a  scholar  equally  versed  in  literature  and 
history;   Snr.   Candido  de  Figueiredo  (born  in  1846),  enthu- 
siastic student  and  exponent  of  the  Portuguese  language;  while 
Dr.  Fidelino  de  Figueiredo  has  a  wide  and  growing  reputation 
as  critic  and  as  editor  of  the  Revista  de  Historia.     Snr.  Anselmo 
Braamcamp  Freire  (born  in  1849),  founder  and  editor  of  the 
Archivo  Historico  Portugues  and  a  most  sagacious  critic  and  keen 
investigator,  is  the  author  of  attractive  and  important  historical 
studies  and  editions,  which  have  become  more  frequent  since  he 
has  been  able  to  spare  more  time  from  public  affairs.    Dr.  Jose 
Leite  de  Vasconcellos  (born  in  1858)  has  a  European  reputa- 

'  For  the  works  of  these  and  other  authors  here  mentioned  consult  the 
Bibliography. 


THE   REACTION  AND   AFTER  309 

tion  as  archaeologist,  folk-lorist,  philologist,  and  founder  and 
editor  of  the  Revista  Lusitana.  Ethnology,  numismatics,  and 
poetry  are  among  his  other  subjects,  and  he  maintains  the  renown 
of  the  Portuguese  as  polyglots,  since  he  writes  in  Portuguese, 
Spanish,  French,  Latin,  and  Galician.  His  untiring  enthusiasm 
for  all  that  is  popular  or  genuinely  Portuguese  is  reflected  in  his 
numerous  books  and  pamphlets,  and  he  happily  infects  younger 
scholars.  The  gift  and  training  of  exact  scholarship  were  denied  to 
Dr.  Theophilo  Braga  (born  in  1843),  but  his  exceptional  ardour, 
industry,  and  ingenuity  have  been  of  inestimable  value  to  Portu- 
guese literature,  which  will  always  venerate  his  name  even  though 
his  works  perish.  More  than  thirty  years  ago  they  numbered  over 
sixty,  and  that  was,  as  it  were,  only  a  beginning.  His  volumes 
of  verse,  Folhas  Verdes  (1859),  Visdo  dos  Tempos  (1864),  Tempes- 
tades  Sonoras  (1864),  Ondma  do  Lago  (1866),  Torrentes  (1869), 
Miragens  Secular es  (1884),  which  was  intended  to  succeed  where 
Victor  Hugo's  Legende  des  Siecles  had  failed  through  lack  of  a 
piano  fundamental,  have  been  variously  judged,  some  regarding 
them  as  real  works  of  genius,  others  as  a  step  removed  from  the 
sublime  ;  his  works  on  the  Portuguese  people  are  always  full  of 
interesting  matter.  His  important  Historia  da  Litteratura  Portii- 
guesa  was  to  have  been  completed  in  thirty-two  volumes,  but  his 
energies  have  been  spent  in  many  directions,  and  he  has  further 
written  works  of  history,  including  that  of  Coimbra  University 
in  four  volumes,  positivist  philosophy,  and  sociology,  as  well  as 
short  stories  and  plays. 

The  Portuguese  novelists  in  the  nineteenth  century  showed  an 
increasing  tendency  to  write  plays,  while  authors  whose  reputa- 
tion belonged  more  exclusively  to  the  drama  rarely  rose  above 
mediocrity.  The  success  of  Garrett's  plays  was  bound  to  fire 
a  crowd  of  dramatists.  Gomes  de  Amorim's  Ghigi  (1852),  on 
a  fifteenth-century  theme,  was  followed  by  plays  with  a 
thesis,  such  as  A  Viuva  (1852),  Odio  de  Raga  (1854),  written 
on  the  slavery  question  at  Garrett's  request,  and  Figados  de 
Tigre  (1857),  which  entitles  itself  a  parody  of  melodramas. 
Having  emigrated  as  a  boy  to  Brazil,  he  was  able  to  use  his 
knowledge  of  South  America,  sometimes  with  more  zeal  than 
discretion,  as  in  0  Cedro  Vermelho,  an  exotic  play  in  five  acts  and 


310  1816-1910 

seventy-nine  scenes,  which  the  unfamiliar  dresses  and  hybrid 
dialogue  helped  to  make  popular  at  Lisbon.^ 

The  notable  success  of  more  recent  playwrights  has  perhaps 
developed  in  proportion  as  the  drama  has  ceased  to  be  drama 
in  order  to  become  a  series  of  isolated  scenes,  a  novel  or  conto 
in  green-room  attire.  They  are  at  their  happiest  when  they 
abandon  formal  drama  for  the  lighter  revista.  Pathos  is  theirs 
and  a  deft  handling  of  social  themes;  they  can  reproduce  the 
peasant  or  bourgeois  or  noble  as  a  class  in  thought  and  action  and 
external  conditions.  Some  of  them  possess  technical  skill,  choose 
indigenous  subjects  and  an  atmosphere  of  chastened  romanticism. 
But  individual  psychology  and  dramatic  action  are  scarcely  to  be 
found.  A  reader  with  the  patience  to  peruse  the  hundreds  of  plays 
acted  and  published  in  Lisbon  during  the  last  fifty  years  would  be 
rewarded  by  many  delicate  half-tones,  polished  and  impeccable 
verse,  excellent  prose,  admirable  sentiments,  and  poignant  scenes, 
but  could  with  difficulty  afterwards  recall  a  striking  character  or 
situation.  Fernando  Caldeira  (1841-94)  was  a  poet,  and 
his  plays,  0  Sapatinho  de  Setim,  A  Mantilha  de  Renda  (1880), 
Nadadoras,  A  Madrugada  (1894),  are  read  less  for  the  plot  than 
for  his  carefully  limned  verse.  His  volume  of  poems,  Mocidades, 
appeared  in  1882.  Antonio  Ennes  (1848-1901),  journalist, 
librarian,  politician,  diplomatist.  Minister  of  Marine,  showed 
command  of  pathos  and  humour  as  well  as  of  style  in  his  plays 
0  Saltimbanco  (1885),  the  tragedy  of  the  noble  devotion  of  a 
mountebank,  Falla-S6,  descendant  of  Jean  Valjean,  for  his 
daughter,  who  has  been  brought  up  in  ignorance  of  her  birth, 
Os  Lazaristas  (1875),  and  Os  Engeitados  (1876),  which  insists 
throughout  on  its  thesis,  the  wickedness  and  cruelty  of 
exposing  children,  but  has  some  good  scenes  and  living 
characters,  and  the  notable  one-act  piece  Um  Divorcio  (1877). 
The  principal  play  of  Maximiliano  de  Azevedo  (1850-1911), 
author  of  many  light  and  commonplace  comedies,  as  Por  Forfa 
(1900),  was  the  drama  Ignez  de  Castro  (1894).  The  scene  in 
which  Ines,  full  of  foreboding,  takes  leave  of  Pedro  before  he 
goes  hunting,  and  that  at  the  end  of  Act  IV,  in  which  Pedro  re- 
turns to  find  Ines,  in  the  words  of  their  little  son,  ali  a  dormir, 

'  It  was  published,  with  the  necessary  explanations,  in  two  volumes  (1874). 


THE   REACTION  AND   AFTER  311 

are  effective.  A  fifth  act  six  years  later  [1361]  comes  as  an 
anti-climax.  0  Auto  dos  Esquecidos  (1898)  is  the  work  not  of  a 
dramatist  but  of  a  poet,  Jose  de  Sousa  Monteiro  (1846-1909), 
whose  poems  were  published  under  the  title  Poemas  :  Mysticos, 
Antigos,  Modernos  (1883).  The  auto,  written  in  the  old  redon- 
dilhas  of  which  another  modern  poet  has  sung  the  praises, 
necessarily  suffers  by  comparison  with  plays  in  which  Gil  Vicente 
touched  upon  the  subject — the  humbler  forgotten  heroes  of  the 
Portuguese  discoveries — but  it  has  its  own  charm  and  pathos. 

But  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  dramatists  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  century  was  D.  Joao  da  Camara  (1852-1908),  son  of  the 
first  Marques  and  eighth  Conde  da  Ribeira  Grande  and  grandson 
of  the  third  Duque  de  Lafoes.  He  early  began  writing  for  the 
stage  one-act  pieces  such  as  Nobreza  (1873).  His  work  is  various, 
for  it  includes  elaborate  historical  dramas  in  heroic  couplets,  as 
AJfonso  VI  (1890),  in  which  the  king  is  treated  with  a  sympathy 
denied  to  Cardinal  Henrique  in  Alcacer-Kibir  (1891),  slight  pieces 
in  verse,  as  0  Poeta  e  a  Saudade  or  the  Auto  do  Menino  Jesus 
(1903)  ;  and  prose  plays  of  contemporary  Lisbon  society  :  0 
Pantano  (a  series  of  scenes  of  madness  and  murder),  A  Rosa 
Engeitada,  A  Toutinegra  Real,  A  Triste  Viuvinha,  Casamento  e 
Mortalha.  In  these  he  is  lifelike  and  natural,  but  many  may 
prefer  him  in  his  more  fanciful  pieces,  portraying  the  old  Canon 
who  lives  up  under  the  roof  of  Lisbon  Cathedral,  in  Meia  Noite 
(1900),  or  the  prior  and  other  rustic  worthies  of  Alentejo,  in  Os 
Velhos  (1893),  or  the  ancient  mariner  of  0  Beijo  do  Infante  (1898). 
The  mad  Jose  of  0  Pantano,  the  scatterbrained  Clytemnestra  in 
A  Toutinegra  Real,  the  parvenu  Arroiolos  and  select  Dona  Placida 
in  A  Rosa  Engeitada  give  little  idea  of  the  essential  mellow 
humanity  of  his  work,  enhanced  by  a  prose  style  carefully  chosen 
and  at  times  slightly  archaic.  Snr.  Abel  Botelho  is  more 
peculiarly  concerned  with  the  novel,  and  his  plays  Germano  (1886), 
Os  Vencidos  da  Vida  (1892),  Jucunda  (1895)  derive  their  interest 
from  the  description  of  certain  phases  of  Lisbon  life  which  could 
have  been  presented  equally  well  in  novel  form.  Marcelling 
Mesquita  (1856-1919),  doctor  and  deputy,  wrote  historical 
dr2.m3S>,0  Regente  [1440]  in  prose,  LeonorTelles  (1889,  published  in 
1893)  in  verse,  0  Sonho  da  India  (1898)  (scenes  from  the  discoveries 


312  1816-1910 

of  Gama  and  ten  other  famous  Portuguese  navigators),  and 
Pedro  0  Cruel  (1916).  If  these  historical  tragedies  are  somewhat 
ponderous,  he  has  a  lighter  touch  in  the  redondilhas  of  Margarida 
do  Monte  (1910)  and  in  the  charming  sketch  Peraltas  e  Secias, 
and  displays  psychological  insight  in  prose  plays  dealing  with 
more  modern  problems  :  the  comedy  Perola  (1889),  Os  Castros 
(1893),  0  Velho  Thema  (1896),  Sempre  Noiva  (1900),  Almas 
Doentes  (1905),  which  treats  of  hereditary  madness  and  suicide, 
and  in  the  moving  tragedy  Envelhecer  (1909),  although  it  is 
perhaps  out  of  keeping  with  the  finely  portrayed  character 
of  Eduardo  de  Mello  that  he  should  so  end  who  had  endured 
so  nobly.  His  prose  style  has  great  merit  (a  few  words 
require  excision,  e.g.  restaurante,  rewolver,  desconforto) ,  and 
he  wrote  many  shorter  problem  pieces  or  episodes  in  prose : 
Fim  de  Penitencia  (1895),  0  Auto  do  Busto  (1899),  0  Tio 
Pedro  (1902),  A  Noite  do  Calvario,  A  Mentira  (in  which  a  wife 
lies  to  her  husband  by  the  life  of  their  child,  who  dies).  The 
monotony  of  the  rhymed  couplets  in  Leonor  Telles  is  intensified 
in  the  work  of  Snr.  Henrique  Lopes  de  Mendgn^a  (born  in 
1856).  His  verse  is  more  declamatory,  the  use  of  strained  esdru- 
xulo  endings  is  carried  so  far  that  it  becomes  a  mannerism  and 
the  verse  often  resembles  a  hurdle-race,  the  line  running  on 
smoothly  to  the  obstacle  at  its  end  {thalamo — cala-m'o;,  silencio — 
recompense-o  ;  phantasma — faz-rn'o).  This  no  doubt  helps  to 
increase  the  effect  of  hollow  resonance.  Nor  is  there  a  compensat- 
ing skill  in  psychology.  There  is  nothing  subtle,  for  instance,  in 
the  characters  of  0  Duque  de  Vizeu  (1886)  :  the  cruel  Joao  H,  the 
timid  Manuel,  the  high-minded  Duke,  and  self-sacrificing  Mar- 
garida. A  Morta  (1891)  deals  with  Pedro  I's  justice  and  saudade 
for  the  dead  Ines.  Ajfonso  d' Albuquerque  (1898)  has  a  tempting 
subject  (handled  previously  by  Costa  Lobo  in  his  play — also  in 
verse — Ajfonso  d' Albuquerque,  1886),  but  it  is  embarrassing  to 
find  the  most  unrhetorical  of  heroes,  will  of  iron  but  not  as  here 
tongue  of  gold,  solemnly  haranguing  in  couplet  after  couplet, 
(although  here,  as  in  the  other  plays,  the  atmosphere  of  Portugal's 
spacious  days  is  well  maintained)  : 

E  em  psalmos  de  christao  se  ha  de  mudar  o  cantico 
De  Brahma,  confundindo  o  Indico  no  Atlantico. 

It  is  perhaps  a  relief  to  turn  lu  the  prose  plays,  0  Azebre  (1909, 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  313 

written  in  1904),  the  interest  of  which  centres  in  the  artist  FideHo, 
No  Cego  (1904),  dealing  with  divorce,  and  especially  to  0  Salto 
Mortal,  which  treats  of  more  homely  peasant  affairs,  and  to  the 
admirably  natural  fishermen's  scenes  and  dialogues  enacted  at 
Ericeirain  thesecond  half  of  the  nineteenth  centnxy^m  Amor  Lou  co 
(1899).  The  author  succeeds  in  giving  a  more  definite  picture 
of  a  whole  community  here  than  of  any  of  his  individual  heroes  in 
high  places.  A  Heranga  {1913)  also  has  the  lives  of  fishermen  for 
its  subject.  An  equally  slight  but  charming  one-act  piece  in  verse 
is  Sandade  (1916),  while  the  dramatist's  power  of  evoking  past 
scenes  is  shown  in  the  glowing  historical  tales  of  Sangue  Portugues 
{1920),  Gente  Namorada  (1921),  and  Langas  n' Africa  (1921). 

The  most  conspicuous  among  slightly  younger  dramatists  is 
Snr.  Julio  Dantas  (born  in  1876),  who  published  a  first  volume 
of  poems,  Nada,  in  1896.  He  is  gifted  with  wit,  lightness  of  touch, 
an  excellent  style,  and  a  sense  of  atmosphere,  which  enables  him 
to  bring  a  pleasant  archaic  flavour  to  reconstructions  of  the  past 
and  observe  the  true  spirit  of  history  in  periods  the  most  diverse. 
His  malleable  talent  is  equally  at  its  ease  in  0  que  morreu  de  amor 
(1899)  and  Viriato  Tragico  (1900)  ;  in  Spain  of  the  seventeenth 
century:  Don  Ramon  de  Capichuela  (1911);  contemporary  Lis- 
bon: Crucificados  (1902),  Mater  Dolorosa  (1908),  0  Reposteiro 
Verde  (1912)  ;  the  Inquisition-clouded  Portugal  of  the  seven- 
teenth century:  Santa  Inquisigdo  (1910),  or  its  lighter  side,  with 
the  bonbon  marquis  :  D.  Beltrdo  de  Figueiroa  (1902) ;  the  gentle, 
romantic  Portugal  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century : 
Um  Serao  nas  Laranjeiras  (1904),  or  the  bull-fighting  Portugal  of 
the  same  period:  A  Severa  (1901)  with  the  gallant  Marques 
de  Marialva  and  the  beautiful  and  magnanimous  gipsy  of  the 
Mouraria.  The  filigree  of  his  elaborate  stage  directions  is  skil- 
fully used  to  enhance  the  effect,^  and  some  of  his  scenes  are 
exquisite,  especially  the  simple,  very  charming,  and  tragic  one-act 
comedy  Rosas  de  todo  0  anno  (1907).  If  the  characters  are  usually 
sacrificed  to  their  setting,  here  and  there  a  slight  sketch  stands 
out,  as  that  of  the  cynical  old  cardinal  who  delights  in  the  mental 
torture  of  others,  in  Santa  Inquisigdo,  the  attractive  bishop  oiSoror 
Mariana  (1915),  or  the  characters  in  A  Ceia  dos  Cardeais  (1902). 

•  In  this  most  delicate  upholstery,  if  Wedgwood  and  Baedeker  (as  well  as 
Maple  and  Mappin)  are  introduced,  they  should  surely  be  spelt  correctly. 


314 


i8i6-iqio 


Ernesto  Biester  (1829-80)  in  the  middle  of  last  century 
wrote  lively  comedies  of  contemporary  Lisbon  life.  The  comedies 
of  Gervasio  Lobato  (1850-95),  as  Os  Grotescos,  A  Condessa 
Helo'isa  (1878),  0  Festim  de  Balthazar  (1892),  0  Commissario  de 
Policia,  Sua  Excellencia,  and  many  others,  are  natural,  farcical 
scenes  of  high  spirits  and  real  good  humour  and  good  feeling. 
More  literary  and  charming  is  the  work  of  Snr.  Eduardo  Schwal- 
BACH,  whose  0  Dia  de  jfuizo  {igi5)  and  Poemade  Amor  (igib)  came 
to  crown  a  long  series  of  plays  and  revistas.  There  are  touches 
of  real  comedy  in  the  lightly  sketched  scenes  and  characters  of 
Snr.  AuGusTO  de  Castro's  Caminhoperdido  (1906),  Amor  dAntiga 
(1907),  As  nossas  amantes  (1912),  A  Culpa  (1918),  as  in  his  slight,^ 
attractive  essays  Fumo  do  Meu  Cigarro  (1916),  Fantoches  e  Mane- 
quins  (1917),  diVid  Conversar  (1920);  thought  and  character  in 
Snr.  AuGUSTO  Lacerda's  0  Vicio  (1888),  Casados  Solteiros  (1893), 
Terra  Mater  (1904),  A  Duvida  (1906),  Os  Novos  Apos tolas  (191 8). 
In  Snr.  Bento  Mantua's  0  Alcool  (1909)  and  Novo  Altar  (191 1) 
the  problem  maybe  a  little  too  much  in  evidence,  but  in  his  prose 
plays  Md  Sina  (1906)  and  Gente  Moga  (1910)  the  human  interest 
is  insistent.  Md  Sina,  apart  from  the  author's  weakness  for 
strained  coincidences,  is  a  story  of  peasant  life  very  naturally 
told.  A  young  playwright  of  promise  is  Snr.  Vasco  de  MENDONgA 
Alves,  author  of  Promessa  (1910)  and  Filhos{igio).  The  subject 
of  Filhos  is  unpleasant  if  not  original  (it  is  that  of  Ega  de  Queiroz' 
Os  Maias  and  Ennes'  Os  Engeitados),  but  is  treated  with  dignity 
and  in  a  good  prose  style.  Snr.  Jaime  Cortesao,  hitherto 
known  rather  as  a  poet,  has  turned  to  the  drama  in  Egas  Moniz 
(1918). 

The  novelists  of  the  second  half  of  the  century  were  numerous 
and,  as  a  rule,  too  dependent  upon  foreign  models,  chiefly  French. 
JoAQuiM  GuiLHERME  GoMES  CoELHO  (1839-71)  neither  by  date 
nor  inclination  belonged  to  one  or  other  of  the  two  schools 
between  which  lies  his  brief  ten  years'  activity.  His  talent  de- 
veloped early.  As  a  medical  student  at  his  native  Oporto  he 
published  poems  and  several  stories,  originally  printed  in  the 
Jornal  do  Porto  and  later  collected  with  the  title  Seroes  de  Pro- 
vincia  (1870),  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  under  the  pseudonym 
Julio  Diniz,  he  wrote  the  novel  which  brought  him  immediate 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  315 

fame  and  is  still  sometimes  preferred  to  his  later  works  :  Uma 
Familia  Ingleza  (1868).  In  these  scenes  of  the  life  of  Oporto  he 
drew  with  the  most  elaborate  analysis  the  relations  between 
English  and  Portuguese  which  he  had  had  frequent  opportunities 
of  observing  in  that  city.  Portuguese  critics  hint  that  what  to 
superficial  readers  has  seemed  the  tediousness  of  his  novels  is 
due  to  the  influence  of  Dickens  and  other  English  novelists  who 
revel  in  detail,  and  it  is  interesting  that  Gomes  Coelho's  maternal 
grandmother  was  an  Englishwoman,  Maria,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Potter.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  call  his  work  tedious;  the  deliberate 
dullness  of  his  novels  has  an  excitement  of  its  own,  "tis  a  good 
dullness'.  The  reader,  tired  with  sensational  plots  and  strained 
incidents,  follows  not  only  with  relief  but  with  growing  absorption 
the  homely  daisy-chain  of  his  stories,  in  which  not  the  tiniest 
link  in  the  development  of  the  action  or  thought,  ^especially  the 
latter,  is  omitted.  The  interest  never  flags  and  never  disappoints, 
leading  gently  on  with  carefully  measured  steps  ;  the  approval 
of  virtue  and  disapproval  of  wickedness  only  occasionally  becomes 
obtrusive  and  insipid.  Julio  Diniz  confessed  to  a  preference 
for  bourgeois  types,  but  his  real  interest  was  in  the  country, 
and  Ass  Pupillas  do  Senhor  Reitor'^  (1866),  a  village  chronicle 
suggested  by  Herculano's  0  Parocho  de  Aldea,  is  by  many 
held  to  be  his  best  work.  The  characters  are  delineated  with 
the  same  delicate  charm  as  that  of  Jenny  in  his  earlier 
novel,  and  there  is  a  background  of  curious  observation — 
esfolhadas  (husking  the  maize),  espadeladas  (braking  flax), 
ripadas  (dressing  the  flax),  fiadas  (gatherings  of  women  to  spin 
at  the  winter  lareira  in  the  faint  light  of  a  lamp  hanging  on  the 
smoke-blackened  wall),  the  men  at  cards  in  the  tavern,  the 
old  country  doctor  going  his  rounds  on  horseback,  the  solemn 
greetings  Guarde-o  Deus,  Louvado  seja  nosso  Senhor  Jesu  Christo. 
If  he  sometimes  sees  the  peasants  as  he  would  have  them  be  rather 
than  as  they  are,  if  his  realism  is  subdued  and  gentle,  his  descrip- 

'  The  Athenaeum  in  1872  announced  that  Lord  Stanley  of  Alderney  was 
preparing  a  translation  oi  As  Pupillas.  According  to  a  letter  of  Julio  Diniz 
(March  25,  1868),  'an  Englishman,  a  relation  of  Lord  Stanley,  who  is  here 
[Oporto]  studying  the  history  of  the  Portuguese  discoveries  ',  had  expressed 
a  wish  to  translate  it.  The  translation  was  never  published.  The  date  of 
the  first  Portuguese  edition  is  1867.     It  was  dramatized  at  Lisbon  in  1868. 


3i6  1816-1910 

tions  are  at  least  truer  than  those  of  the  naturalistic  school.  In 
A  Morgadinha  dos  Canaviaes  (1868),  another  village  chronicle 
of  Minho,  the  winter  life  of  the  peasantry  is  described,  the 
consoada  preceding  '  cock-crow  mass  '  on  Christmas  Eve,  the 
auto  represented  on  a  rough  stage  in  the  village  on  the  Day  of 
Kings,  together  with  the  inevitable  missionaries,  beata,  enriched 
'  Brazilian ',  and  electioneering  intrigues.  Some  critics  have  seen  a 
falling  off  in  his  last  novel,  Os  Fidalgos  da  Casa  Monrisca  (1871), 
written  in  the  winter  of  1869-70  at  Madeira,  whither  he  went 
in  vain  quest  of  health,  but  it  is  perfectly  on  a  level  with  his 
previous  work.  There  may  be  a  slight  tendency  to  exaggerate 
some  of  the  characters,  as  there  was  in  A  Morgadinha,  the  con- 
trast between  Jorge  and  Mauricio  may  be  too  crude,  the  last 
scenes  may  be  touched  with  melodrama,  the  style  may  have 
traces  of  the  francesismo  which  Castilho  noticed  in  his  first  novel, 
the  execution  may  be  excessively  minute — these  were  not  new 
defects  in  his  works.  On  the  other  hand,  the  ruined  fidalgo 
D.  Luiz,  his  chaplain  and  agent  Frei  Januario,  who  scents  a  Liberal 
doctrine  leagues  away,  the  large-hearted  peasants  Anna  do  Vedor 
and  Thome  da  Povoa,  are  as  interesting  as  Tio  Vicente  the 
herbalist  or  any  of  his  previous  characters,  and  the  charming 
and  accurate  descriptions  of  the  country  that  he  loved  so  well 
show  him  at  his  best.  This  demure  chronicler  of  quiet  scenes,  this 
specialist  in  the  obvious,  in  his  romances  lentos,  as  he  calls  them — 
a  Portuguese  blend  of  Jane  Austen,  Enrique  Gil,  and  Fernan 
Caballero  :  his  delicacy  is  essentially  feminine — achieved  an 
originality  which  so  often  eludes  those  who  most  furiously 
pursue  it.  His  Poesias  (1873),  partly  consisting  of  poems  inter- 
spersed in  his  novels,  have  a  quiet,  intimate  charm.  A  curious 
originality  had  been  attained  earlier  by  a  young  naval  lieutenant, 
Francisco  Maria  Bordallo  (1821-61).  When  he  published 
Eugenio  (1846)  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  a  second  edition  at  Lisbon 
in  1854,  it  was  claimed  that  this  sea  novel  {romance  marilimo) 
was  the  first  of  its  kind  to  be  written  in  Portuguese  ;  but  his  use 
of  naval  technical  terms  and  descriptions  of  the  sea  is  perhaps 
too  deliberate.  His  Quadros  maritimos  appeared  in  0  Panorama 
in  1854. 

Few  authors  arc  more  interesting  to  the  critic  (owing  to  the 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  317 

courageous  and  persistent  development  of  his  art)  than  Jose 
Maria  de  EgA  de  Oueiroz  (1843-1900),  a  far  more  robust  writer 
than  Julio  Diniz  and  the  greatest  Portuguese  novelist  of  the 
realistic  school.  Born  at  Villa  do  Conde,  the  son  of  a  magis- 
trate, he  was  duly  sent  to  study  law  at  Coimbra,  and  after  taking 
his  degree  contributed  in  1866  and  1867  a  series  of  feuilletons 
to  the  Gazeta  de  Portugal.  These  folhetins,  reprinted  in  Prosas 
Barbaras  (1903),  are  remarkable  because  they  show  beside  a  love 
of  the  gruesome  and  fantastic  [0  Milhafre,  0  Senhor  Diabo, 
Memorias  de  uma  Forca)  at  least  one  story  [Entre  a  neve)  of 
a  perfect  simplicity,  such  as  the  author  is  sometimes  supposed 
to  have  attained  only  towards  the  end  of  his  life.  His  partiality 
for  the  exotic  was  fostered  by  travels  in  Egypt  and  Palestine 
in  1869  and  manifested  itself  in  A  Morte  de  Jesus,  Adao 
e  Eva  no  Paraiso,  and  A  Perfeigao,  as  well  as  in  A  Reliquia  and 
in  part  of  A  Correspondencia  de  Fradique  Mendes.  In  1873  he 
went  to  Havana  as  Portuguese  Consul,  and  twenty-six  years 
as  Consul  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne  (1874-6),  Bristol  (1876-88), 
and  Paris  (1888-1900),  where  he  died,  enabled  him  to  see  his 
own  country  in  a  new  light.  His  prose  lost  its  exuberance,  his 
taste  became  more  severe,  his  extravagant  fancy,  so  strangely 
combined  with  realism  in  many  of  his  works,  was  merged 
in  natural  descriptions  of  his  native  land.  He  regained  his 
own  soul  without  losing  that  peculiar  mockery  with  which 
he  veiled  a  kindly,  sensitive  temperament,  and  which  agree- 
ably stamps  the  greater  part  of  his  writings.  But  indeed  the 
introducer  of  the  naturalistic  novel  into  Portugal  only  played 
with  materialism,  which  in  his  hands  was  always  unreal  :  legen- 
dary and  romantic,  as  in  Frei  Genebro,  S.  Christovam,  0  Tesoiro ; 
deliberately  false  and  artificial,  as  A  Civilisagdo ;  a  macabre 
fantasy,  as  0  Defunto;  or  half -intentional  caricature,  as  0  Prima 
Basilio  and  Os  Maias.  What  more  chimerical  than  A  Reliquia  or 
more  elusive  than  0  Suave  Milagre,  or  more  fanciful  than  0  Man- 
darim  (1879),  in  which  without  himself  knowing  China  the  author 
makes  his  readers  know  it  1  All  through  his  life  he  was  as  it  were 
groping  through  Manueline  for  a  purer  Gothic  ;  the  pity  was  that 
his  education  from  the  first  should  have  thrown  him  into  contact 
with  French  models — so  that  his  very  language  too  often  reads  like 


3t8  1816-IQIO 

translated  French — instead  of  directing  him  to  a  truer  reaHsm 
(such  as  that  of  his  nearer  neighbour  Pereda),  to  which  he  turned 
in  his  last  works,  and  in  which  he  might  have  written  regional 
masterpieces  had  he  not  died  at  a  momentwhen  his  art  apparently 
had  lost  nothing  of  its  vigour.  More  probably,  however,  his  still 
unsatisfied  craving  for  perfection  would  have  sought  relief  in 
mysticism.  His  first  novel  was  a  sensational  story  written  in  colla- 
boration with  Ramalho  Ortigao :  0  Mysterio  da  Estrada  de  Cintra 
(1870),  originally  published  in  the  Diario  de  Noticias  (July  24- 
September  27,  1S70).  It  was,  however,  0  Crime  do  Padre  Amaro 
(1876),  in  which  he  grafted  the  naturalistic  novel  on  the  quiet  little 
town  of  Leiria,  and  the  two  notable  if  unpleasant  Lisbon  stories  0 
Primo  Basilio  (1878)  and  Os  Maias  {1880),  that  marked  him  out  as 
the  most  powerful  writer  of  the  time  in  Portugal.  But  he  was  still 
feeling  his  way.  A  Reliquia  (1887)  is  as  different  from  Os  Maias 
as  it  is  from  the  remarkable  and  charming  letters  of  A  Corre- 
spondencia  de  Fradique  Mendes  (1891)  and  his  last  two  novels, 
A  Illustre  Casa  de  Ramires  (1900),  most  Portuguese  of  his  works, 
and  A  Cidade  e  as  Serras  (1901).  The  three  fragments  in  Ultimas 
Paginas  (191 2)  were  probably  written  earlier.  There  are  samples 
of  all  his  phases  in  his  Contos  (1902),  and  the  short  story  gave 
scope  for  his  powers  of  observation  and  insight  without  calling 
for  an  elaborate  plot,  in  which  he  often  failed.  A  Cidade  e  as 
Serras,  after  developing  the  earlier  story  A  Civilisagdo,  is  but 
a  fascinating  succession  of  country  scenes.  All  Ega  de  Oueiroz' 
characters  are  caricatures,  some  more  so,  others  less,  but  they  are 
nevertheless  true  to  a  certain  degree,  that  is  to  say,  they  are  good 
caricatures,  and  living,  and  this  is  so  especially  in  these  later 
novels,  which  show  how  great  a  regionalist  writer  was  lost  in  him 
through  the  influence  of  French  schools.  Yet  no  one  can  deny 
that  his  works  have  an  originality  of  their  own  as  well  as  power 
and  personal  charm,  and  all  contain  some  striking  character- 
sketches  or  delightful  descriptions  that  are  not  easily  forgotten. 
The  dullness  of  the  naturalistic  novels  of  Julio  LouRENgo 
Pinto  (1842-1907)  is  not  relieved  by  Ega  de  Queiroz'  pleasant 
irony  and  definite  characterization.  These  '  scenes  of  contem- 
porary life',  while  they  display  a  praiseworthy  restraint,  give  the 
idea  rather  of  exercises  in  imitation  of  a  French  exemplar  or  of 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  319 

one  of  E^a  de  Queiroz'  early  novels  than  of  living  stories.  Their 
style  is  slovenly,  the  development  of  the  plot  prolix  and  mono- 
tonous. A  certain  interest  attaches  to  Margarida  (1879) — 
although  even  here  the  author  is  too  methodical  in  detailing  the 
past  lives  of  the  four  protagonists,  the  nonentity  Luiz,  the 
aspiring  Adelina  (a  Portuguese  Madame  Bovary),  Fernando,  and 
Margarida,  after  they  have  been  duly  presented  in  the  opening 
pages — and  to  the  descriptions  of  a  fair,  a"bull-fight,  a  flood,  or 
provincial  politics  in  Vida  Atribulada  (1880),  0  Senhor  Deputado 
(1882),  EsboQOS  do  Natural  (1882),  and  0  Homem  Indispensavel 
(1884).  Snr.  Jaime  de  Magalhaes  Lima  (born  in  1857)  in  0 
Transviado{i8ggi),NaPazdoSenhor{igo:^),03.ndReinodaSaiidade 
(1904),  has  written  novels  a  these  which  are  quite  as  interesting  as 
naturalistic  novels  and  more  natural,  but  his  art,  especially  in  the 
presentation  of  contemporary  politics,  is  a  little  too  photographic. 
Snr.  Luiz  de  Magalhaes  (born  in  1859),  author  of  several 
volumes  of  verse,  wrote  a  single  novel,  0  Brasileiro  Soares  (1886). 
It  would  offer  little  new  in  theme  or  treatment  to  distinguish  it 
from  other  naturalistic  novels  were  it  not  for  the  author's  success 
in  drawing  in  Joaquim  Soares  a  natural  and  attractive  portrait 
of  the  Portuguese  returned  rich  from  Brazil  (the  Brasileiro). 
None  of  these  novelists  can  rival  the  reputation  of  Francisco 
Teixeira  de  Queiroz  (1848-1919).  He  became  prominent  as 
a  novelist  of  the  realistic  school  over  forty  years  ago  when  under 
the  pseudonym  of  Bento  Moreno  he  inaugurated  the  series 
of  his  Comedia  do  Campo  (8  vols.),  of  which  the  last  volume 
is  Ao  Sol  e  a  Chiiva  (1916),  followed  by  a  second  series : 
Comedia  Burgueza  (7  vols.),  which  began  with  Os  Xoivos 
(1879).  The  obvious  defects  of  his  work — its  laborious  realism, 
its  insistence  on  medical  or  physical  details,  its  vain  load  of 
pedantry  ^ — need  not  obscure  its  real  merits.  The  careful  style 
has  occasional  lapses,  the  psychology  is  thin,  the  conversations 
commonplace.  His  art,  like  a  winter  sunshine,  fails  to  penetrate. 
Yet  even  in  the  Comedia  Burgueza,  where  the  interest  must 
depend  on  the   psychology,   he  succeeds   in  D.  Agostinho  and 

'  e.g.  a  girl,  Rosario,  in  Amor  Divino,  is  described — annihilated — with  the 
assistance  of  Cybele,  Goya,  the  Venus  of  Milo,  Reynolds,  Shakespeare. 
Cf.  the  names,  from  Descartes  to  Danvin,  in  O  Conto  do  Gallo. 


320  1816-I910 

A  Morte  de  D.  Agostinho  (1895)  in  giving  individuality  to  that 
strange  rickety  figure  of  the  old  fidalgo  in  his  ruined  Lisbon 
palacio.  And  in  the  Minho  scenes  of  the  Comedia  do  Campo  his 
scrupulous  descriptions  obtain  their  full  effects.  In  the  romaria 
(pilgrimage),  the  cantadeira  (improvisator),  the  diligencia  with  its 
load  of  priests  (in  Amor  Divmo),  the  girl  shepherdess,  the  abhade 
fond  of  hunting  wolves  and  boars,  the  old  women  spinning,  the 
lawsuit  of  centuries  over  the  fruit  of  an  orange-tree,  the  sexton 
Coruja  and  his  dog  Coisa  (in  Vinganga  do  morto  and  0  Enterro  de 
urn  Cao),  and  especially  some  old  familiar  country-house,  with 
Dona  Maria  and  her  preserves  and  receios  infernaes,  in  Amor 
Divino  and  Amores,  Amores  (1897),  Minho  and  the  Minhotos  are 
presented  with  naturalness  and  skill.  Many  of  these  scenes  are 
from  the  short  stories  of  Contos,  Novos  Contos  (1887),  A  Nossa 
Gente  (1900),^  and  A  Cantadeira  (1913),'  some  of  which  have 
been  collected  in  an  attractive  volume,  Arvoredos  (1895). 

Snr.  Manuel  da  Silva  Gayo  (born  in  i860),  poet  and  novelist, 
wrote  in  Peccado  Antigo  (1893)  a  short  novela  as  it  calls  itself, 
or  rather  a  conto,  remarkable  for  its  combination  of  colour  and 
restraint.  It  describes  country  scenes  and  customs  in  a  style 
that  may  not  be  spontaneous  but  is  well  subservient  to  the 
matter  in  hand,  and  has  a  vigour,  purity,  and  concision  too 
often  lacking  in  modern  Portuguese  prose.  Some  of  his  early 
stories  were  collected  in  A  Dama  de  Ribadalva  (1904).  In  his 
later  novels  this  style  is  not  maintained.  We  will  not  quarrel 
with  its  abruptness  in  Ultimos  Crentes  (1904),  a  remarkable 
story  of  nineteenth-century  Sebastianistas  in  a  fishing  village 
to  the  extreme  north  of  Estremadura,  but  it  is  more  slovenly  in 
Os  Torturados  (191 1),  in  which  a  certain  originality  of  thought 
seems  to  have  damaged  the  form  in  which  it  was  expressed. 
There  is  a  welcome  Spanish  directness  in  the  work  of  the  able 
journalist  Snr.  Carlos  Malheiro  Dias  (deputy  for  Vianna  do 
Gastello  in  1903-5)  in  his  novels  0  Filho  das  Hervas  (1900), 
Os  Telles  de  Albergaria  (1901),  and  A  Paixdo  de  Maria  do  Ceo 
(1902).  Frankly  sensational  in  0  Grande  Cagliostro  (1905),  he  dis- 
plays his  gift  for  the  short  story  in  A  Vencida  (1907),  a  volume 
of  dramatic  tales,  of  which  A  Consoada  is  especially  effective. 

*  Comedia  do  Campo,  vol.  vi.  ^  Vol.  vii. 


TIIK   REACTION   AND   AFTER  321 

Snr.  JoAO  Grave  (born  in  1872)  carefully  elaborates  his  prose 
in  A  Eterna  Mentira  (1904)  and  Jornada  Romantica  (1913). 
It  turns  to  marble  in  the  musings  of  the  marble  faun  in  0  Ultimo 
Fauno  (1906),  but  loses  this  unreality  in  studies  of  the  poor  in 
country,  Gente  Pobre  (1912),  and  town,  Os  Famintos  (1903),  a 
tragic  story  of  a  workman's  family  at  Oporto.  More  recently  he 
has  treated  historical  themes  with  success  in  Parsifal  (1919)  and 
A  Vida  e  Paixdo  da  Infanta  (1921).  In  the  historical  novel 
Snr.  Francisco  de  Rocha  Martins  has  won  a  special  place  by 
picturesque  works  such  as  Os  Tavoras  (1917).  He  has  an  eye  for 
dramatic  episodes  and  has  composed  many  a  living  picture  of 
the  past. 

AbelBotelho(i856-I9I7),  a  colonel  in  the  Army,  and  for  some 
years  Minister  of  the  Portuguese  Republic  at  Buenos  Aires,  author 
of  a  volume  of  verse,  Lyra  Insubniissa  (1885),  showed  an  inter- 
mittent power  of  description  in  seven  stories  of  his  native  Beira, 
collected  under  the  title  Mulheres  da  Beira  (1898).  In  his  series  of 
novels  published  under  the  heading  Pathologia  Social :  0  Bardo 
de  Lavos  (1891),  0  Livro  de  Alda  (1898),  Fatal  Dilemma  (1907), 
Prospera  Fortiina  (1910),  he  would  seem  to  have  laboured  under 
a  misapprehension,  believing  apparently  that  the  introduction 
of  physiology  into  literature  might  prove  him  an  original  writer.^ 
Sainte-Beuve  may  speak  of  the  saletes  splendides  of  Rabelais, 
a  great  stylist  like  Signor  Gabriele  d'  Annunzio,  except  when  his 
art  fails,  may  redeem  if  he  does  not  justify  any  theme.  But 
Abel  Botelho's  style  in  these  wearisome  novels  can  only  be 
described  as  worthy  of  their  matter.  They  are  a  welter  of  shape- 
less sentences,  long  abstract  terms,  French  words,  gallicisms, 
expressions  such  as  pathognomonico,  autopsiagdo,  neuro-arthritico, 
a  etiologia  dos  hystero-traumatismos.  This  may  be  magnificent 
pathology,  but  it  is  not  art  or  literature.  As  Farpas  had  come  to 
an  end  some  years  before  these  novels  began  to  appear,  otherwise 

>  Pathology,  religious  and  social,  crops  up  in  the  later  novels  of  Snr.  Vieira 
da  Costa,  Irma  Celeste  (1904),  A  Familia  Maldonado  (1908)  ;  yet  his  earlier 
work,  Entre  Montanhas  (1903),  a  story  of  contemporary  life  in  the  high- 
lying  vine-lands  of  Douro  written  in  1899,  was  more  original.  The  modern 
Portuguese  novelists  are  nearly,  although  not  quite,  as  numerous  as  the 
poets.  Jose  de  Caldas  is  the  author  of  Os  Humildes  (1900)  and  Cartas  de  nm 
Vencido  {19 10),  D.  Joao  de  Castro  of  Os  Malditos  (1894)  and  A  Deshonra,  in 
which  a  strange  situation  is  too  long  drawn  out. 

2362  X 


322  1816-I9IO 

their  defects  might  have  been  pilloried  by  an  adept  in  ridicule 
who  in  contemporary  literature  occupies  a  place  apart.  As  critic 
Jose  Duarte  Ramalho  Ortigao  (1836-1915)  took  his  share  in 
the  controversy  of  1865,  as  a  traveller  he  wrote  a  vivid,  witty, 
and  charming  account  of  Holland,  with  malicious  side-reflections 
on  Portugal  :  A  Hollanda  (1883).  Between  these  two  dates 
a  series  of  papers.  As  Farpas  (1871-87),  originally  suggested  by 
Alphonse  Karr's  Les  Guepes  and  begun  in  collaboration  with  his 
friend  Ega  de  Queiroz,  had  made  him  famous.  His  clear  and 
pointed  style  was  an  excellent  instrument  for  the  barbed  shafts 
of  his  satire  and  irony  and,  having  discovered  how  powerful 
a  weapon  he  possessed,  he  wielded  it  to  right  purpose.  With 
abundant  good  sense  he  ridiculed  and  undermined  the  foibles 
and  follies  of  Lisbon  life,  obstinately  determined  to  bring  health 
to  the  minds  and  the  bodies  of  his  fellow-countrymen  and  suc- 
ceeding by  his  wit  where  a  more  sedate  reformer  might  have 
failed.  The  range  of  subjects  covered  was  very  wide — the  interest 
of  many  of  them  necessarily  ephemeral— and  his  skill  in  brief 
character- sketches  is  remarkable.  But  although  Ramalho 
Ortigao  will  always  be  remembered  as  the  author  of  As  Farpas 
it  is  perhaps  A  Hollanda  that  will  be  read.  The  former  work 
was  imitated  by  Fialho  dc  Almeida  in  Os  Gatos  (1889-94),  which 
achieved  popularity  in  Lisbon.  His  is  a  more  lumbering  wit :  the 
rapier  of  Ramalho  Ortigao  is  exchanged  for  bludgeon  or  umbrella. 
But  Os  Gatos,  despite  much  that  is  vulgar  and  much  that  is  dull, 
contains  some  good  literary  criticism  and  successful  descrip- 
tions, of  places  rather  than  of  persons.  A  battling  critic  was 
Manuel  Jose  da  Silva  Pinto  (1848-1911)  in  Combates  e 
Criticas  (1882),  Frente  a  frente  (1909),  and  Na  procella  (1909). 
Equally  vigorous  and  pure  was  the  style  of  Joaquim  de 
Senna  Freitas  (1840-1913)  in  Per  agoa  e  terra  (1903)  and  A  Voz 
do  Semeador  (1908),  as  likewise  that  of  Francisco  Silveira 
DA  Mota  in  Viagens  na  Galliza  (1889).  The  literature  of  travel 
is  not  extensive.  Oliveira  Martins  published  in  the  Jornal  do 
Commercio  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  1892  his  A  Inglaterra  de  hoje 
(1893) ;  Ega  de  Queiroz  showed  a  deeper  acquaintance  with  Eng- 
land in  his  Cartas  de  Inglaterra  (1905).  Snr.  Wenceslau  Jose  de 
SousA  MoRAES  (born  in  1854),  sometimes  called  the  Portuguese 


THE    RP^ACTTOX   AND   AFTER  323 

Pierre  Eoti,  ha^?  skilfully  described  China  and  Japan  in  Tra^os 
do  Extremo  Oriente  (1905),  Paisagens  da  China  e  do  Japdo  (1906), 
and  Cartas  do  Japdo  (three  series,  1904-7).  In  a  letter  in 
French  at  the  end  of  his  Tragos  he  says  :  J'ai  dit  ce  que  je 
pensais,  naivement,  an  grS  de  mes  souvenirs. 

Snr.  Manuel  Teixeira  Gomes,  versatile  and  gifted,  traveller, 
diplomatist  (Portuguese  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James),  and 
author,  is  essentially  an  artist.  With  a  clear,  coloured,  liquid 
style  he  excels  in  painting  the  blue  seas,  transparent  air,  and  sun- 
burnt soil  of  Algarve  in  Agosto  Azul  (1904).  His  pagan  and 
unconventional  art  has  the  power  of  impressing  incidents  on  the 
mind,  as  of  giving  sharp  relief  to  fantastic  persons  such  as  the 
Canon  and  his  three  witless  sisters  in  Gente  Singular  (1909), 
the  Danish  literary  lady  in  Inventario  de  Junho  (1899),  or  the 
avaricious  Dona  Maria  and  the  inane  Minister  of  Sabina  Freire 
(1905).  This '  comedy  in  three  acts '  contains  sufficient  shrewdness, 
humour,  and  clever  characterization  for  a  long  novel  instead  of  a 
short  play.  The  tiny  volumes  Tristia  (1893)  and  Alem  (1895)  by 
Snr.  Antero  de  Figueiredo  (born  in  1867)  were  notable  for  their 
style,  and  in  other  works,  Partindo  da  Terra  (1897),  the  passionate 
letters  of  Doida  de  Amor  (1910),  the  novel  Comicos  (1908),  and  the 
fascinating  historical  studies  D.  Pedro  e  D.  lues  (1913)  and  Leonor 
Teles,  Flor  de  Altura  (1916),  his  prose  maintains  a  restraint  and 
charm  which  place  him  among  the  best  stylists  of  the  day.  One 
of  the  noblest  qualities  of  this  prose  is  its  precision,  the  scrupu- 
lous use  of  the  right  word,  common  or  archaic.  It  is  the  more 
disconcerting  to  find  good  Portuguese  words  such  as  esiagdo, 
hospedaria,  comodo,  hondade  ousted  by  gare,  hotel,  confortavel, 
honomia.  But  these  are  only  occasional  blemishes  in  a  style 
of  rare  distinction.  It  can  paint  a  whole  scene  in  a  brief 
sentence,  as  os  milheiraes  amarellecem-se  caladamente.  This  power 
of  description  gives  excellence  to  his  Recordagoes  e  Viagens 
(1905),  whether  the  recollections  be  of  Minho  or  of  uma  aldeia 
espiritual  in  Italy.  It  is  really  as  a  writer  of  short  sketches  and 
essays  that  he  excels.  In  Senhora  do  Amparo  (1920)  and  especially 
in  the  seventeen  sketches  of  Jornadas  de  Portugal  (1918)  skill  in 
the  choice  of  indigenous  words  gives  a  forcible  and  original 
poetry  to  glowing  descriptions  redolent  of  the  soil. 

x  2 


324  1816-191O 

D,  Maria  Amalia  Vaz  de  Carvalho  (1847- 1921)  col- 
laborated with  her  husband,  the  poet  Gongalves  Crespo,  in 
Contos  para  os  nossos  filhos,  and  in  Seroes  no  Campo  (1877),  three 
stories,  in  one  of  which,  A  Engeitada,  one  may  perhaps  see 
reminiscences  of  Julio  Diniz'  A  Casa  Mourisca,  and  Contos  e 
Phantasias  (1880)  treated  slight  themes  with  a  delicate  charm. 
But  she  is  less  well  known  as  writer  of  contos  or  as  poet,  in  Vozes 
do  Ermo  (1876),  than  as  the  author  of  a  notable  historical  bio- 
graphy, Vida  do  Diique  de  Palmella  (1898-1903),  and  of  critical 
essays  on  Portuguese  and  foreign  literatures.  In  the  latter  the 
English  predominates,  but  French,  German,  and  Italian,  as  in 
Arabescos  (1880),  are  not  forgotten.  The  sane  judgement,  sym- 
pathy, and  insight  of  Alguns  homens  do  men  tempo  (1889),  Figuras 
de  Hoje  e  de  Hontem  (1902),  Cerehros  e  Coragoes  (1903),  No  Meii 
Cantinho  (1909),  Coisas  de  Agora  (1913),  and  other  volumes  have 
been  appreciated  by  countless  readers  in  Portugal  and  Brazil. 
A  writer  who  likewise  combines  literary  and  historical  criticism 
with  original  work  in  verse  {Poeynetos,  1882)  and  prose  is  the 
CoNDE  DE  Sabugosa  (bom  in  1854),  skilful  and  delicate  recon- 
structor  of  the  past  in  Embrechados  (1908),  Donas  de  Tempos 
Idos  (1912),  Gente  d'Algo  (1915),  Neves  de  Antariho  (1919),  and 
A  Rainha  D.  Leonor  (1921),  who  collaborated  with  another 
stylist,  the  Conde  de  Arnoso^  (1856-1911),  author  of  Azulejos 
(1886),  in  the  volume  of  contos  entitled  De  brago  dado  (1894). 
His  historical  portraits  are  full  of  life  and  charm,  painted  in  the 
warm  colours  of  knowledge  and  emotion. 

If  we  except  D.  Maria  Amalia  Vaz  de  Carvalho,  the  literary 
achievement  of  women  in  Portugal  in  recent  years  has  not  been 
remarkable.  Like  D.  Claudia  de  Campos,  author  of  the  novels 
Elle  (1898)  and  A  Esfinge  and  short  stories,  D.  Alice  Pestana 
[Caiel]  has  cultivated  with  success  both  the  novel,  as  in  Desgar- 
rada  (1902),  and  the  conto,  as  in  De  Longe  (1904),  which  contains 
stories  of  familiar  life  written  with  sincerity  and  truth.  If 
D.  Anna  de  Castro  Osorio's  Ambigoes  (1903)  gives  the  im- 
pression rather  of  a  series  of  scenes  than  of  a  long  novel,  in  her 
short  stories  Infelizes  (1898) — especially  A  Terra — and  Quatro 
Novelas  (1908)  she  ably  describes  common  family  life  in  town 

'  He  wrote  under  the  name  Bernardo  de  Pindella  or  Bernardo  Pinheiro. 


THE   REACTlOiN   AND   AFTER  325 

or  country,  or  (in  A  Sacrificada)  the  lives,  past  and  present,  of 
aged  nuns  in  a  dwindling  convent.  D.  Virginia  de  Castro 
E  Almeida  has  written  two  novels  concerning  the  development 
of  the  soil  in  Alentejo  :  Terra  Bemdita  (1907)  and  Trabalho 
Bemdito  (1908).^  They  arc  frankly  novels  with  a  thesis  to 
prove,  but  contain  so  much  vigour  and  zest  of  living  that  they 
stand  out  from  other  more  futile  or  anaemic  novels  of 
contemporary  Portugal. 

The  growing  prominence  of  the  conto  is  felt  in  the  work  of 
Castello  Branco,  Ega  de  Queiroz,  Teixeira  de  Queiroz,  Snr. 
Jaime  de  Magalhaes  Lima  {Via  Redemptora,  1905,  Aposiolos 
da  Terra,  1906,  Vozes  do  Men  Lar,  1912),  and  many  other 
novelists.  Julio  Cesar  Machado  (1835-90)  showed  talent  in 
Contos  ao  luar  (1861),  Scenas  da  minha  terra  (1862),  Quadros  do 
campo  e  da  cidade  (1868),  A'  Lareira  (1872).  His  skill  in  the 
description  of  rustic  scenes  would  have  been  more  convincing 
had  he  not  thought  it  necessary  to  introduce  touches  of  ex- 
traneous elegance  and  humour  into  his  very  real  love  of  the 
country,  so  that  the  patent  leather  boot  is  ever  appearing  among 
the  tamancos  in  these  light  humorous  sketches  and  romantic  tales. 
As  slight  but  perhaps  more  natural  are  the  Contos  do  Tio  Joaquim 
(1861)  by  RoDRiGO  Paganino  (1835-63)  ;  the  pleasant  stories 
of  village  life,  Contos  (1874)  and  Seroes  de  Inverno  (1880),  written 
by  Carlos  Lopes  (born  in  1842)  under  the  pseudonym  Pedro 
Ivo  ;  and  Contos  (1894)  and  Azul  e  Negro "  (1897)  by  Afonso 
Botelho.  The  poet  Augusto  Sarmento  (born  in  1835)  also  wrote 
stories  of  village  life,  Contos  do  Soalheiro  (1876),  but  stories 
a  these,  treating  of  emigration  and  other  minhoto  evils,  among 
which  he  includes  beatas,  witches,  and  brasileiros  de  torna-viagem. 
A  writer  of  contos  as  disappointing  as  Machado  is  Alberto 
Braga  (1851-1911).  He  has  a  sense  of  style  and  technique,  and 
some  of  his  tales,  especially  0  Engeitado,  are  pathetic,  but  after 
reading  his  Contos  da  minha  lavra  (1879),  Contos  de  aldeia, 
Contos  Escolhidos  (1892),  Novos  Contos,   one  has  the  perhaps 

'  In  novels  intimately  connected  with  the  Portuguese  soil  such  expressions 
as  coloridogritante  (criard),lHnchar  (to  partake  of  luncheon),  endomingado  (endi- 
manchS)  are  more  than  ever  out  of  place.  The  authoress  has  written  other 
stories  :  Capital  Bemdito  (1910),  Fe  (a  Socialist  novel),  Inocente  (1916),  A  Praga 

(1917)- 
*  A  conto  written  by  Sur.  Julio  de  Lemos  in  1905  bears  the  same  title. 


326  i8i6-igio 

somewhat  unfair  impression  that  they  are  mainly  concerned  with 
viscondessas  and  canaries.  The  learned  Conde  de  Ficalho 
in  Uma  Eleigdo  Perdida  (1888)  evidently  relates  his  own  expe- 
riences, and  this  and  the  five  accompanying  contos  contain  some 
charming  descriptions  of  Alentejo,  of  the  reisinho  cacique  Lopes, 
Paschoal  the  passarinheiro,  the  gossips  of  the  village  botica,  the 
girls  carrying  bilhas,  the  scent  of  rosemary  in  morning  dew.  The 
same  province  supplies  the  background  of  the  work  of  Jose 
Valentim  Fialho  de  Almeida  (1857-1912).  Born  at  Villa  de 
Frades,  the  son  of  a  village  schoolmaster,  he  spent  seven  years 
sadly  against  the  grain  as  chemist's  assistant  before  he  was  able 
to  turn  more  exclusively  to  literature.  No  recent  writer  has  had 
a  greater  vogue  in  Portugal.  One  must  account  for  this  by  the 
fact  that  in  the  somewhat  nerveless  literature  of  the  day  he 
showed  a  virile  and  often  brutal  colour  and  energy.  A  few 
descriptions  of  Alentejo  gave  interest  to  his  Contos  (1881)  and 
A  Cidade  do  Vicio  (1882),  an  interest  strengthened  in  0  Paiz  das 
Uvas  (1893).  This  collection  of  naturalistic  stories  of  great 
variety  and  very  unequal  merit  is,  indeed,  redeemed  by  the 
author's  love  for  his  native  province.  He  sometimes  obtains 
powerful  effects  when  his  subject  is  the  wide  spaces,  the  night 
silences,  or  the  summer  drought  and  midday  zinc-coloured  sky 
of  Alentejo.  The  shepherdess  with  her  distaff,  the  village  crier, 
the  small  proprietor,  the  harvesters  with  their  week's  provision 
of  coarse  bread,  goat's  cheese,  and  olives,  toiling  in  a  temperature 
of  122  degrees,  appear  in  his  stories.  His  art  is  wholly  external. 
One  need  not  have  complained  of  his  lack  of  psychology  had  he 
been  able  to  express  what  he  saw  in  good  Portuguese  prose.  But  if 
we  turn  to  his  style  we  find  uncouth  constructions,  the  constant 
use  of  French  words,  and  worse  still,  French  words  disguised 
as  Portuguese  :  deboche,  coqiiettemente,  crayonar.  This  is  the 
more  pity  because,  had  he  written  in  Portuguese,  he  might  have 
left  robust  pictures  of  the  Alentejan  peasant's  life  in  its  grim 
reality  which  would  have  been  read  with  pleasure.  A  sober  and 
fastidious  style,  sometimes  recalHng  that  of  the  Spanish  essayist 
Azorin,  marks  the  Contos  (1900)  of  the  dramatist  D.  Joao  da  Ca- 
mara.  The  clear  etching  of  the  bhnd  man  and  his  grandson  going 
through  the  streets  on  Christmas  Eve  in  As  Estrellas  do  Ccgo  and. 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  327 

especially,  the  poignant  sketch  of  the  ruined  old  schoVar  fidalgo  in 
0  Paquete  show  admirably  what  a  skilful  craftsman  can  make  of 
the  slightest  of  themes.  This  is  true  to  an  even  greater  degree  of 
the  best  of  all  the  Portuguese  contistas,  Jose  Francisco  de  Trin- 
DADE  CoELHO  (i86i-igo8).  His  contos  collected  under  the  title  Os 
Mens  Amoves  (1891),  natural  and  deeply  felt  scenes  of  peasant 
life,  are  all  marked  by  an  exceptional  delicacy  of  style  and  by 
a  most  alluring  freshness  and  simplicity.  The  tinkling  of  the 
bells  of  flocks,  the  thin  blue  smoke  above  the  roofs,  the  evening 
mists,  the  flight  of  doves  are  in  these  pages.  And  the  peasants 
are  treated  with  the  same  sympathetic  insight  as  their  surround- 
ings, the  women  singing  at  their  work  in  the  fields,  the  olive- 
gatherers  at  supper  in  the  great  farm  kitchen ;  vintage  and  harvest, 
tragedy  and  idyll.  The  sympathy  is  extended  to  the  animals, 
donkey  {Sultdo),  goat  (Mae),  and  hen  {A  Choca).  The  saudade  of 
peasant  soldiers  for  the  land  in  Terra- Mater  gives  an  opportunity 
for  describing  the  life  of  the  peasants  with  its  hardy  toil  and  many 
simple  pleasures.  In  A  Lareira,  the  longest  of  these  stories, 
a  rustic  serdo  of  peasants  ao  horralho  is  pleasantly  drawn  out 
with  quatrains,  riddles,  anecdotes,  fairy-tales,  only  interrupted 
by  the  ringing  of  the  angelus  for  the  saying  of  prayer  on 
prayer.  Two  little  masterpieces  stand  somewhat  apart  from 
the  rest  :  Abyssus  Abyssum,  the  tragic  story  of  two  small  boys, 
brothers,  rowing  to  overtake  the  evening  star,  and  Idyllio  Rustico, 
which  with  its  two  ingenuous  little  shepherds  and  their  flocks  of 
sheep  in  the  lonely  places  might  almost  be  a  chapter  from  Don 
Ramon  Maria  del  Valle  Inclan's  Flor  de  Santidad  (1904).  Os 
Mens  Amores  shows  realism  at  its  best,  that  is  to  say,  hand  in 
hand  with  idealism.  The  author  is  not  so  enamoured  of  his 
delightful  style  that  he  does  not  make  the  peasants  speak  their 
natural  language,  and  although  he  realizes  keenly  and  expresses 
the  poetry  of  their  life,  he  never  sacrifices  truth  to  this  perception 
any  more  than  to  the  strange  and  essentially  false  propensities 
of  the  naturalistic  school,  nor  refines  his  descriptions  to  a  rose- 
colour  insipidity.  A  good  scent  of  the  earth  and  of  wild  flowers 
pervades  these  realistic  descriptions.  On  such  lines,  if  this  book 
influences  younger  writers,  it  might  lead  the  way  to  many  a  de- 
lightful novel  of  the  parjiim  dii  terroir  of  Portugal.    Snr.  Julio 


328  1816-1910 

Brandao  (born  in  1870),  equally  distinguished  in  prose  and 
verse,  is  the  author  of  Maria  do  Ceo  (1902),  mystic  love  letters 
in  a  chiselled  style,  only  with  the  mystic  writers  of  old  the  style 
flowed  naturally  from  an  inner  fervour,  here  it  has  evidently  been 
the  chief  consideration.  If  the  effort  is  apparent  it  is  sometimes 
very  successful,  and  in  Perfis  Suaves  (1903)  and  Figuras  de  Barro 
(1910),  fantastic  stories  and  fascinating  fairy-tales,  he  occasion- 
ally achieves  simplicity.  Equally  studied  is  the  prose  of  Snr. 
JusTiNO  DE  MoNTALVAo's  Os  DesHuos  (1904),  twclvc  storics,  of 
which  Conto  dos  Reis  relates  the  death  of  a  peasant  child  as 
voices  outside  sing  Sao  chegados  os  tres  Reis.  The  Visconde  de 
ViLLA-MouRA  (born  in  1877)  ^^^  shown  in  the  five  contos  of 
Doentes  da  Belleza  (1913),  as  in  Bohemios  (1914),  that  his  sensitive 
plastic  style  is  excellently  suited  to  the  short  story.  Snr.  Antonio 
Patricio's  Serao  Inquieto  (1910)  contains  two  poignant  contos  : 
0  Precoce  and  0  Veiga.  Os  Pobres  by  Snr.  Raul  Brandao 
(born  in  1869)  is  a  succession  of  scenes,  a  striking  analysis  of  suf- 
fering as  exhibited  in  various  strange  types  of  the  poor  and  of  its 
beauty  and  necessity  in  the  philosophy  of  Gabiru.  Snr.  Severo 
Portela  displays  a  tortured  style  in  Os  Condemnados  (1906) 
and  Agua  Corrente  (1909)  ;  smoother  but  equally  artificial  is 
that  of  Snr.  Henrique  de  Vasconcellos  in  Contos  Novos 
(1903)  and  Circe  (1908),  the  former  of  which  contains  the 
slight  sketch  0  Caminheiro.  Excentricos  is  the  title  of  a  volume 
containing  some  notable  stories  by  Snr.  Alberto  de  Sousa 
Costa.  The  large  number  of  contos  is  a  sign  of  the  times, 
corresponding  to  the  favour  shown  towards  the  brief  revista 
in  the  drama  and  the  host  of  sonnets  which  now  replace  the  long 
romantic  poems  of  the  past. 

Anthero  de  Quental  ^  (1842-91),  the  Coimbra  student  who 
waved  the  banner  of  revolt  against  a  too  complacent  romanticism 
in  1865,  was  that  rare  thing  in  Portuguese  literature,  a  poet  who 
thinks.  Powerfully  influenced  by  German  philosophy  and  litera- 
ture, his  was  a  tortured  spirit,  and  when  in  his  sincerity  he 
attempted  to  translate  his  philosophy  into  action  the  result  was 
too  often  failure.     Born  at  Ponta  Delgada  in  the  Azores,  he 

*  de  Quental  or  do  Quental.  See  J.  Lcite  de  Vasconcellos,  Lifdes  de  Philo- 
logia  Poritiguesa  (191 1),  p.  125  ad  fin. 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  329 

studied  law  at  Coimbra  from  1858  to  1864,  became  a  socialist, 
worked  for  some  time  as  a  compositor  in  Paris,  in  spite  of  his 
independent  means  ;  then,  after  a  visit  to  the  United  States  of 
America,  settled  at  Lisbon  for  some  years  and  figured  as  an 
active  socialist.  Weary  and  ill,  he  retired  in  1882  to  the  quieter 
town  in  the  north.  Villa  do  Conde,  but  he  could  not  escape  from 
his  own  turbulent  thoughts  and  nine  years  later  he  shot  himself 
in  a  square  of  his  native  town.  If  his  life  was  ineffectual  in  its 
series  of  broken,  noble  impulses,  there  is  nothing  vague  or  un- 
certain about  the  splendid  sonnets  of  Odes  Modernas  (1865)  and 
Sonetos  (1881).  They  are  the  effect,  often  perfectly  tranquil,  of 
a  previous  agony  of  thought,  like  brimmed  furrows  reflecting 
clear  skies  after  rain.  His  search  was  for  truth,  not  for  words 
to  express  it,  far  less  for  words  to  describe  his  own  sensations. 
Indeed,  he  was  far  from  considering  poetry  as  an  end  in  itself  and 
destroyed  more  of  his  poems  than  his  friends  published.  In  his 
autobiographical  letter  addressed  to  Dr.  Storck  in  1887  he  states 
that  his  poetry  was  written  involuntariamente.  That  is  to  say, 
after  much  thought  on  the  great  problems  of  existence  verse 
came  to  him  unrhetorical  and  spontaneous,  as  it  did  to  Joao  de 
Deus  without  any  thought  whatever  : 

Ja  sossega  depois  de  tanta  luta, 
Ja  me  descansa  em  paz  o  coragam. 

Quental's  poems  owe  their  strength  and  intensity  to  the  fact  that 
they  had  passed  through  the  fire  of  ianta  luta. 

Totally  different  from  Quental's  was  the  genius  of  Joao  de 
Deus  (1830-96),  the  most  natural  Portuguese  poet  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Born  at  Messines  in  Algarve,  he  studied  law  at 
Coimbra,  became  a  journalist,  but  did  not  come  to  live  perman- 
ently at  Lisbon  until  he  was  elected  to  represent  Silves  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  in  1868.  It  is  significant  that  many  of  his 
most  perfect  lyrics  were  contributed  to  provincial  journals. 
They  are  written  in  the  simple  language  of  a  peasant  composing 
a  quatrain.  He  sought  his  inspiration  not  in  books  or  any  of  the 
rival  schools  of  poetry  but  in  his  native  soil  and  popular  speech, 
and  through  him  Portuguese  poetry  was  renovated.  His  first  pub- 
lished work,  A  Lata  (Coimbra,  i860),  in  oitavas,  gives  no  measure 


330  1816-1910 

of  his  genius,  but  some  of  his  best  poems,  such  as  A  Vida,  were 
widely  known  before  Flores  do  Campo  (1868)  appeared,  followed 
by  Ranio  de  Flores  (1875),  Folhas  Soltas  (1876),  and  finally  the 
collected  edition,  Campo  de  Flores  (1893).  His  last  years  were 
spent  in  advertising  and  perfecting  his  special  method  for  teach- 
ing children  to  read.  If  ever  poet  was  born,  not  made,  it  was 
Joao  de  Deus.  He  is  at  his  best  when  he  does  not  attempt 
thought  or  philosophy  or  even  give  rein  to  his  satire.  His  verse, 
clear  and  light  as  a  leaf,  a  cloud,  a  stream — its  favourite  meta- 
phors— and  entirely  free  from  rhetorical  effects,  has  a  most 
spontaneous  charm.  Despite  occasional  defects,  the  use  of  luke- 
warm or  unpoetical  words,  ohjectbs,  chaile,  ajfavel,  bussola,  or 
such  rhymes  as  gotta — dou-t-a,  his  work,  which  lacks  the  fire  that 
more  spacious  times  might  have  elicited,  abounds  in  exquisite 
love  lyrics.  The  popular  inspiration  is  also  evident  in  the  Penin- 
sulares  (1870)  of  Jose  Simoes  Dias  (1844-99),  many  of  whose 
poems  are  a  mere  string  of  quadras. 

GuiLHERME  Braga  (1843-76),  who  wrote  vigorous  political 
verse  against  '  Jesuit  reactionaries '  and  the  like  in  Os  Falsos 
Apostolos  (1871)  and  0  Bispo  (1874),  proved  himself  a  talented 
poet  in  Her  as  e  Violetas  {i86g) ,  although  even  here  are  to  be  found 
words  and  expressions  frequently  out  of  tune.  Like  Alexandre 
DA  CoNCEigAo  (1842-89),  whose  best-known  volume  of  verses, 
Alvoradas  (r866),  belongs  to  the  romantic  school,  Guilherme  de 
AzEVEDO  (1846-82)  began  with  romantic  verse  in  imitation  of 
Garrett  in  Apparigdes  (1861),  wavered  in  RaQodiaes  da  Noite 
(1871),  and  succumbed  to  the  new  school  in  A  Alma  Nova  (1874). 
Joao  Penha  (1839-1919)  in  Rimas  (1882)  and  Novas  Rimas  (1905) 
shows  a  command  of  metre  and  harmony  worthy  of  something 
better  than  his  commonplace  themes.  Gongalves  Crespo  heard 
in  his  verse  '  the  plaining  music  of  a  guitar  of  Andalucia ',  but 
Penha  never  cared  to  be  serious.  Cesario  Verde  (1855-86) 
was  a  Lisbon  poet  who  in  verse  written  between  1873  and 
1883,  0  Livro  de  Cesario  Verde  (1886),  showed  a  most  promising 
gift  of  presenting  reality  in  phrases  limpidly  clear  without 
straining  after  effect.  Another  poet  who  died  almost  as  young 
left  a  far  more  definite  achievement,  although  his  poems  are 
scarcely  more  numerous  than  those  of  Verde.     Few  Portuguese 


THE   REACTION   AND   AETER  331 

writers  have,  indeed,  published  less  than  Antonio  Can  dido 
GoNgALVES  Crespo  (1846-83),  a  Portuguese  born  at  Rio  de 
Janeiro.  He  studied  at  Coimbra  University,  and  became  a  dis- 
tinguished journalist  and  a  colonial  member  of  the  Portuguese 
Parliament  from  i879toi88i.  Two  tiny  volumes  of  lyrics,  Mwm- 
turas  (1870)  and  Nocturnos  (1882),  comprise  his  whole  work,  but 
his  restraint  and  his  fastidiously  chiselled  verse  place  him  at  the 
head  of  the  Portuguese  Parnassians.  Portuguese  in  his  hands 
becomes  a  pliant  medium  crystallizing  round  an  emotion,  longes 
de  saudade,  or,  more  frequently,  round  a  concrete  image,  a  parting 
at  sunset  [Mater  dolorosa)  or  a  village  in  a  summer  noontide  [Na 
Aldeia).  The  latter  sonnet  recalls  a  few  lines  of  Leopardi's 
II  Sahato  del  Villaggio,  and  in  one  respect,  the  perfection  of  form 
with  which  he  describes  quite  ordinary  scenes,  the  Portuguese 
poet  need  not  fear  the  comparison.  An  old  woman  spinning, 
children  at  play,  a  peasant's  song  in  the  fields,  an  orange-grove 
at  dawn  musical  with  birds — these  are  incidental  pictures  in  his 
poems,  and  by  his  combination  of  a  vague  dreaming  temperament 
with  a  delicate,  definite  artistic  sense  they  receive  a  new  signifi- 
cance. An  earlier  Brazilian  poet,  Antonio  GoNgALVES  Dias 
(1823-64),  author  of  Primeiros  Cantos  (1846),  Segundos  Cantos 
e  Sextilhas  de  Frei  Antdo  (1848),  and  Ultimos  Cantos  (1851), 
made  a  name  for  himself  by  his  sextilhas. 

It  might  be  said  of  that  marvellous  poet  Victor  Hugo  that  he 
is  not  for  exportation  :  the  tendency  has  been  for  those  who  lack 
his  genius  to  take  shelter  in  his  defects.  Since  one  of  his  earliest 
followers,  Claudio  Jose  Nunes  (1831-75),  published  Scenas  Con- 
temporaneas  (1873)  his  influence  has  been  very  marked  in  Portugal 
and  manifests  itself  in  the  grandiloquence,  over-emphasis,  and 
love  of  antithesis  of  much  of  Snr.  Abilio  Manuel  Guerra  Jun- 
QUEiRo's  work.  The  greatest  of  Portugal's  living  poets  was  born 
at  Freixo  de  Espada  a  Cinta  in  1850  and  was  thus  a  small  child 
when  Hugo's  poems  Les  Contemplatioyis  (1856)  and  La  Legende  des 
Siecles  (1859)  appeared.  After  studying  law  at  Coimbra  he  was 
returned  to  Parliament  in  1878.  Enthusiastically  revolutionary 
until  1910,  he  became  Portuguese  Minister  at  Berne  in  the  following 
year,  but  retired  from  the  service  of  the  Republic  in  1914.  His  first 
verses  were  published  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  Duas  paginas  dos 


332  1816-19IO 

quatorze  annos  (1864),  and  before  he  was  twenty  he  had  written 
Mysticae  Nuptiae  (1866),  Vozessem  Echo  (1867),  and  Baptismo  do 
Atnor  (1868) ,  with  a  preface  by  Camillo  Castello  Branco.  But  it  was 
A  Morte  de  Dam  Jodo  (1874),  a  poem  or  series  of  poems  in  which 
Don  Juan  and  Jehovah  are  attacked  impartially,  that  brought  him 
resounding  success,  a  success  followed  up  and  increased  by  A 
Velhice  do  Padre  Eterno  (1885)  and,  under  the  influence  of  the 
political  crisis  of  1890,  Finis  Patriae  (1890)  and  the  play  P atria, 
in  which  his  eager  and  vigorous  patriotism  found  vent.  In  all  these, 
as  in  the  quieter  volume  A  Musa  em  Ferias  (1879),  there  is  true 
poetry  (as  well  as  unfailing  sincerity  and  passionate  sympathy 
for  the  oppressed),  but  it  has  to  be  looked  for.  A  weird  ghostli- 
ness  in  Finis  Patriae  and  in  the  doido's  part  in  Patria  is  accom- 
panied by  a  strange  and  impressive  lilt  in  the  rhythm^  which 
corresponds  to  the  haunting  refrains  of  some  of  the  shorter  poems. 
But  there  seemed  a  danger  that  on  the  wings  of  applause,  in 
political  invective,  and  turgid  rhetoric  the  poet  might  allow  his 
genius  to  be  totally  misdirected,  and  it  is  his  most  remarkable 
achievement  that  in  Os  Simples  (1892)  he  laid  all  that  aside  and 
returned  to  the  simpler  themes  of  peasant  life  which  cast  a  spell 
over  some  of  the  lyrics  in  Finis  Patriae  :  harvesters,  the  li7ida 
hoeirinha  guiding  her  great  oxen,  the  old  shepherd  with  his  fiute 
and  crook  on  the  scented  hills,  the  cavador  going  to  his  work  at 
cockcrow  beneath  the  red  morning  star.  A  Caminho,  the  inimi- 
table opening  poem,  has  a  delicate  inspiration  which  is  masterly 
in  its  restraint  and  ingenuous  charm.  It  was  well  to  rest  on  such 
laurels.  In  two  subsequent  odes,  Orafdo  ao  Pao  (1902)  and  Oragdo 
a  Lti2  (1904),  filled  with  a  vague  music,  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro's 
poetry  merges  into  a  mystic  philosophy  which  he  intends  to 
express  in  prose.  Some  early  poems  appeared  in  Poesias 
Dispersas  (1921).  A  victim  of  Victor  Hugo  to  whom  it 
is    not    easy    for    a   critic    to    do   justice,    is    the  Lisbon  poet 

'  e.g.  Tive  castellos,  fortalezas  pclo  muyido.  .  .  .  Ndo  tcnho  casa,  ndo  tenho 
pao.  The  cadence  here,  as  in  many  of  Snr.  Guerra  Junqueiro's  lines,  is 
singularly  arresting.  The  tendency  to  morbid  repetition  is  exaggerated  in 
Patria  and  has  influenced  many  younger  poets,  as  Snr.  Correa  de  Oliveira  and, 
especially,  Antonio  Nobre.  The  reader  is  credited  with  no  imagination  and 
the  effect  is  diminished.  For  instance,  in  Patria  :  deixa-me  dormir,  Dortnir  em 
paz  .  .  .  dormir  !  That  is  excellent ;  but  the  word  dormir  is  then  again  thrice 
repeated,  until  the  reader  sleeps. 


THE    REACTTON    AND   AFTER  333 

Antonio  Duarte  Gomes  Leal  (1849-1921).  His  capacity 
is  felt  to  be  so  much  greater  than  his  achievement.  The 
grandiloquence  and  declamatory  character  of  the  verse  in  his 
first  volume,  Claridades  do  Sul  (1875),  are  accentuated  in  subse- 
quent works:  A  Fome  de  Camoes  (1880),  A  Historia  de  Jesus 
(1883),  0  Fim  de  um  Mundo  (1900),  A  Mulher  de  Luto  (1902). 
His  satire  here,  as  in  Satyras  Modernas  (1899),  or  the  biting 
sonnets  of  Mefistofeles  em  Lisboa  (1907),  is  sincerely  indignant 
but  too  often  based  on  ignorance.  In  0  Anti-Christo  (1884)  it 
voices  the  eternal  revolt  against  false  civilization  and  material- 
ism. This,  the  most  celebrated  of  his  works,  presents  a  strange 
medley  of  persons,  from  Barabbas  to  Tolstoi  and  Huysmans, 
who  have  this  in  common  that  they  all  declaim  in  hollow  sonorous 
Alexandrines.  Science,  saints,  Hebrew  prophets,  Chinese  philo- 
sophers, the  eleven  thousand  Virgins  pass  in  a  vision  before  the 
Anti-Christ  and  converse  with  him.  It  is  as  if  a  Goethe  without 
genius  had  written  the  second  part  of  Faust.  But  Claridades  do 
Sul  contains  poems  in  a  totally  different  kind,  poems  like  De 
Noute  and  Os  Lohos,  which  seem  to  have  caught  something  of  the 
pathos  and  simplicity  of  Les  Pauvres  Gens,  satire  and  humorismo 
forgotten.  In  his  descriptions  of  homely  scenes  his  verse  becomes 
quiet,  natural,  and  effective ;  after  reading  the  restrained  and 
skilful  tercetos  of  De  Noute  one  is  inclined  to  wonder  whether  the 
secret  of  his  comparative  failure  is  that  here  was  an  excellent 
Dutch  genre-painter  striving  to  be  a  high-flown  Velazquez.  But 
certainly  he  has  no  lack  of  talent,  imagination,  and  power  of 
expression  in  resonant  verse. 

The  cult  of  saudade  has  been  deliberately  revived  by  a  group 
of  poets  in  the  north  who  have  founded  the  school  of  Saudosismo, 
and  in  their  monthly  A  Aguia  and  the  Renascenga  press  seek 
to  foster  all  that  is  native  in  Portuguese  literature.  Their  creed 
is  a  vague  pantheism,  their  poetry  is  often  equally  vague  and 
lacking  in  individuality,  but  they  have  the  advantage  of  being 
remote  from  Lisbon  and  of  not  concerning  themselves  with  foreign 
schools,  and  can  therefore  be  natural  and  Portuguese.  At  the  head 
of  these  poets  Snr.  Joaquim  Teixeira  de  Pascoaes  (born  in 
1877)  sings  musically  in  an  enchanted  land  of  mists  and  shadows 
of  pantheism,  saudade,  and  his  native  Tras-os-Montes.    Merging 


334  I(Sl6-I9IO 

itself  entirely  in  Nature,  his  poetry  becomes  a  wavering  symphony  ^ 
woven  of  night  and  silence.  The  vagueness  present  in  the 
lyrics  of  Sempre  (1897),  Terra  prohibida  (1899),  Jesus  e  Pan 
(1903),  Vida  Etherea  (1906),  As  Somhras  (1907),  is  more  marked 
in  his  longer  poems  Mardnos  (191 1),  in  eighteen  Ccintos,  and 
Regresso  ao  Paraiso  (19 12),  in  twenty- two  cantos  of  mono- 
tonous blank  verse.  But  Nature  is  justified  of  her  child,  and 
Mardnos,  like  a  mountain-stream  threading  its  transparent  pools, 
shows  abundantly  that  the  author  has  also  the  power  of  con- 
densing a  picture  into  a  single  line.  To  this  group  belong  Snr. 
Mario  Beirao  (born  in  1891),  whose  verse  in  0  Ultimo  Lusiada 
(1913)  and  Ausente  (1915)  is  strong  and  concrete;  Snr.  Afonso 
DuARTE  (born  in  1896),  Snr.  Augusto  Casimiro,  author  of 
Para  a  Vida  (1906),  A  Victoria  do  Homem  (1910),  and  A  Evoca0o 
da  Vida  (1912),  and  other  young  writers  of  promise. 

Few  if  any  of  the  younger  poets  have  found  in  Portugal  so 
ready  a  reception  for  their  work  as  Antonio  Nobre  (1867-1900), 
whether  this  be  due  to  the  all-pervading  melancholy,  saudades 
de  tudo,  to  the  metrical  skill,  or  to  the  haunting  intensity  of  his 
verse.  In  a  series  of  poems  written  between  1884  and  1894  he 
combined  the  dreams  of  a  student  at  Coimbra,  a  lendaria  Coimbra, 
the  home-sickness  of  a  Portuguese  in  Paris,  and  a  real  sympathy 
for  the  poor  and  miserable.  In  these  poems  of  suffering  and 
disillusion,  published  under  the  title  So  (1892),  a  strange  alter- 
nation of  ingenuousness  and  satanism,  fantastic  visions  and 
serene  simplicity,  genuine  poetry  and  sheer  prose,  refrains  of 
rustic  gaiety  and  of  morbid  sentiment,  produces  a  certain 
measure  of  originality.  He  can  fit  his  pliant  metres  to  his  will, 
mould  them  like  wax,  and  if  the  book  contains  no  perfect  poems 
this  is  partly  due  to  a  deliberate  intention  to  reflect  his  own 
incoherent  moods  and  to  an  evident  pleasure  in  incongruous 
effects.  A  second  volume,  of  poems  written  between  1895  and 
1899,  Despedidas  (1902),  appeared  posthumously. 

The  permanent  Secretary  of  the  Lisbon  Academy  of  Sciences, 
Colonel  Cristovam  Ayres  (born  in  1853),  has  won  distinction 
in  many  fields.  Well  known  as  an  historian  of  the  army  {Historia 
Organica  e  Politica  do  Exercito  Portuguez,  8  vols.,  1896-1908)  and 

'  In  details  his  ear  is  not  faultless.  Cf.  the  unscannable  line  /T  que  na  corda 
do  remorso  enforcoit  Jtidas  (unless  this  is  deliberately  onomatopoeic). 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  335 

as  a  critic,  he  has  also  written  short  stories  and  volumes  of  verse 
which  have  placed  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  living  Parnassian 
poets  of  Portugal.  In  Indianas  (1878),  Intimas  (1884),  Anoitecer 
(1914),  and  Chizas  ao  Veyito  (1921),  he  displays  great  technical 
skill,  especially  in  the  reproduction  of  still  scenes  as  in  the 
sonnets  Paizagem,  Aguarella,  or  Ao  hiar.  The  Parnassian  verse 
of  JoAQUiM  DE  Araujo  (1858-1917)  in  Lyra  Intima  (1881) 
OccideiUaes  (1888),  and  Flores  da  Noite  (1894)  has  a  narcotic 
spell,  a  slow  lulling  music.  And  there  is  real  opium  in  the  pliant 
melodies  of  Antonio  Feijo  (1862-1917),  during  sixteen  years 
Portuguese  Minister  at  Stockholm,  in  Lyricas  e  Biicolicas  (1884) 
and  Ilha  dos  Amoves  (1897).  The  words  are  heavy  with  sleep  like 
cistus  flowers  :  Astros  das  noites  limpidas  velae-vos  or  A  neve  cae 
na  terra  lentamente  [les  lourds  floco7is  des  neigeuses  annees).  This 
perfection  of  metre  is  seen  at  its  highest  in  his  Cancioneiro  Chinez 
(1890),  translations  from  the  French  Livre  de  Jade  (1867),  itself 
a  translation  by  Judith  Gautier  from  various  Chinese  poets.  The 
poems  of  JoAo  Diniz,  in  Aquarellas  (1889) ;  Manuel  Duarte  de 
Almeida  (1844-1914),  in  Estancias  ao  Infante  Henrique  (1889), 
Ramo  de  Lilazes  (1887),  and  Terra  e  Azul;  Snr.  Manuel 
da  Silva  Gayo,  in  Novos  Poemas  (1906) ;  Snr.  Julio  Brandao, 
in  Saudades  (1893),  in  which  he  weaves  the  linho  luarento  das 
saudades,  0  Jardim  da  Morte  (1898)  and  Nuvem  de  Oiro  (1912) ; 
Snr.  Fausto  Guedes  Teixeira  (born  in  1872),  in  his  remarkable 
0  Melt  Livro,  i8g6-igo6  (1908)  ;  Snr.  Luiz  Osorio,  in  Neblinas 
(1884),  Poemas  Portuguezes  (1890),  and  Alma  lyrica  (1891) ; 
Snr.  GuiLHERME  DE  Santa  Rita  in  Vacillantes  (1884)  and 
0  Poema  de  um  Morto  (1897),  and  indeed  of  a  great  caterva 
vatum,^  belong  to  this  school.  The  chiselling  of  faultless  sonnets 
has  become  a  mannerism,  but  the  critic  who  recalls  the  vague 
and  often  slipshod  diffuseness  of  earlier  romantic  poems  pauses 
before  condemning.  Perhaps  it  may  be  possible  in  time  to 
combine  the  cunning  artifice  of  the  verse-cutter  with  thought 
and  a  breath  of  life  and  Nature. 

The  CoNDE  DE  MoNSARAZ  (1852-1913)  wrotc  some  pleasant 

1  Without  counting  those  of  Brazil,  which  had  an  exquisite  word-chiseller 
in  the  poet  Olavo  Bilac  (1865-1918),  author  of  Panoplias  and  other  verse 
published  in  Poesias  {1888,  Nova  ed.  1904). 


33^  1816-1910 

regional  verse  in  Miisa  Alemtejana  (1908),  in  which  he  describes 
Hfe  in  the  charnecas  (moors)  and  herdades  (estates)  of  Alentejo  : 
the  sound  of  the  well-wheel  among  orange-trees,  the  ringing  of 
trindades,  the  long  lines  of  women  hoeing,  the  old  herdsman 
singing  melancholy  fados,  the  smoking  agorda  of  the  workmen's 
meals,  the  storks  fleeing  from  the  July  heat,  the  processions 
to  pray  for  rain.  The  same  out-of-door  air  and  fullness  of 
treatment  pervade  the  work  of  Snr.  Augusto  Gil,  with  a  more 
popular  strain,  in  Musa  Cerula  (1894),  Versos  (1901),  Luar  de 
Janeiro  (1909),  Somhra  de  Jimo  (1915),  Alha  Plena  (1916),  Snr. 
Jose  Coelho  da  Cunha's  Terra  do  Sol  (1911)  and  Vilancetes 
(1915),!  and  D.  Branca  de  Gonta  CoLLAgo's  Cangoes  do  Meio 
Dia  (1912).  A  more  vigorous  talent,  also,  is  that  of  Snr.  Joao  de 
Barros  in  Algas  (1899),  Entre  a  Multiddo  (1902),  Dentro  da  Vida 
(1904),  Terra  Florida  (1909),  and  Anteii  (1912).  At  the  head  of 
the  Portuguese  Symbolists  (their  symbolism  has  been  rather  ex- 
ternal than  philosophic)  stands  Snr.  Eugenic  de  Castro  (born 
in  1869).  He  wished,  while  retaining  perfection  of  form,  to  fill 
it  with  a  new  imagery  and  colour,  and  that  his  verse  in  describing 
Nature  through  his  sensations  should  remain  detached  and 
impersonal  :  the  poet  is  iima  somhra  saudosa  d'outras  sombras. 
The  success  achieved  in  Oaristos  (1890)  was  strikingly  maintained 
in  Sagramor  (1895),  0  Rei  Galaor  (1897),  Constanga  (1900),  Depois 
da  Ceifa  (1901),  A  Somhra  do  Qiiadrante  (1906),  0  Annel  de 
Polycrates  (1907),  0  Filho  Prodigo  (1910),  and  the  twenty-one 
sonnets  of  Camafeiis  Romanos  (1921).  His  versification  is  not 
sufficiently  varied  (a  defect  naturally  less  apparent  in  the  shorter 
poems),  his  rare  words  and  rhymes  often  have  a  cumbrous  air, 
but  a  real  fire  occasionally  runs  through  the  cold  monotony  of 
his  verse,  lighting  up  its  heavy  jewels  with  a  glow  almost  of  life. 
If  it  is  sometimes  an  echo  of  Baudelaire,  it  is  a  Baudelaire 
thoroughly  acclimatized."  His  debt  was  not  wholly  to  French 
Parnassian  or  Symbolist,  for  he  had  also  drunk  deep  of  Greek  and 

•  He  is  the  son  of  Snr.  Alfredo  Carneiro  da  Cunha  (born  in  1863), 
whose  Versos  (1900)  contains  the  poignant  lines  A  utna  crcanga  morta,  which 
recall  Coventry  Patmore  and  the  pathos  of  Dr.  Robert  Bridges'  On  a  Dead 
Child.     The  earlier  edition,  Endeixas  e  Madrigaes,  appeared  in  1891. 

*  The  word  Nephelihatas  {=  Cloud-treaders),  formerly  applied  to  poets  of 
the  decadent  school  in  Portugal,  is  now  seldom  heard. 


THE   REACTION   AND   AFTER  337 

German  literature.  His  originality  in  modern  Portuguese  poetry 
is  a  very  real  one.  Yet  it  is  a  pleasure  to  pass  from  verse  often  so 
perfect,  always  so  artificial,  to  the  more  natural  poems  of  two 
younger  writers.  Snr.  Antonio  Correa  de  Oliveira  (born  in 
1880)  in  his  Auto  do  Fim  do  Dia  (1900),  Raiz  (1903),  and  Auto 
de  Junho  (1904)  shows  a  true  lyrical  gift,  an  inspiration  of  the 
soil,  of  the  quatrains  of  popular  poetry  : 

Passou  Maio  taful,  Maio  magano, 
E  por  onde  passou  nasceram  rosas. 

In  his  later  works,  Alma  Religiosa  (1910),  Auto  das  Quatro 
Estagoes  (19 11),  Os  Teus  Sonet os  (19 14),  A  Minha  Terra  (1916), 
the  effect  is  sometimes  strained  or  marred  by  an  almost  morbid 
iteration.  Snr.  Afonso  Lopes  Vieira  (born  in  1878)  displays 
a  genuine  talent  in  0  Naufrago  (1898),  0  Encoherto  (1905), 
Ar  Livre  (1906),  and  0  Pao  e  as  Rosas  (1908).  Ilhas  de  Bruma 
(1918)  is  filled  with  the  rhythm  of  the  sea  and  with  the  traditions 
and  native  poetry  of  Portugal.  There  is  a  certain  strength  as 
well  as  a  subtle  music  about  his  verse  which  is  of  good  promise 
for  the  future.  Whatever  that  future  may  be  for  Portuguese 
literature,  Portugal  will  join  the  more  worthily  in  the  great 
literary  age  which  will  eventually  spring  from  years  of  terrific 
upheaval  if  she  studies  and  utilizes  her  full  heritage  of  prose 
and  verse.  There  is  the  less  excuse  now  for  its  neglect  since  the 
devoted  labour  of  many  Portuguese  scholars  is  rendering  it  yearly 
more  accessible. 


2362 


APPENDIX 

Literature  of  the  People 

Side  by  side  with  literature  proper  there  has  always  existed 
in  Portugal  a  literature  of  the  people.  Indeed,  before  Portuguese 
poetry  was  written  it  flourished  on  the  lips  of  the  people,  in 
the  songs  of  the  women.  Sometimes  this  popular  literature 
almost  coalesced  with  written  literature,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
cossantes  in  the  thirteenth  century.  Its  poetry  lent  a  glow  and 
magic  to  the  work  of  Gil  Vicente  and  later  to  some  of  the 
lyrics  of  Camoes  ;  its  proverbial  lore  was  reproduced  in  Jorge 
Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos'  prose  plays  and  later  by  D.  Francisco 
Manuel  de  Mello  ;  in  indigenous  folk-tales  Trancoso  found  part 
of  his  material.  Eighteenth-century  writers  neglected  it,  but 
Filinto  Elysio  returned  to  popular  sources,  and  in  the  nineteenth 
century  they  inspired  two  great  poets,  Almeida  Garrett  and  Joao 
de  Deus.  Literature  and  illiteracy  have  often  gone  hand  in  hand. 
In  Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos'  Eufrosina  (Act  iii,  sc.  ii)  we  read  of 
the  workwoman  [lavrandeira)  who  '  sings  de  solao,  composes 
songs,  loves  to  learn  trovas  by  heart,  gives  a  schoolboy  farthings 
to  buy  cherries  in  return  for  reading  aiitos  to  her  '  ;  and  the 
Pratica  de  Tres  Pastores  gives  us  a  picture  of  an  old  peasant 
reading  out  from  the  Bible ^  of  an  evening  to  the  whole  village: 

Esse  velhinho 
Tinha  hum  cartapolinho 
Feito  de  letra  de  mao 
Em  papel  de  pergaminho, 
E  chamava-se  o  feitinho 
Do  livro  da  creagao. 

*  The  whole  Bible  in  Portuguese  was  not  translated  until  the  eighteenth 
century,  by  Joao  Ferreira  de  Almeida,  O  Novo  Testamento  (Amsterdam, 
1681),  Do  Velho  Testamento,  2  vols.  (Batavia,  1748,  53).  This  is  the  version 
still  commonly  in  use.  Another  translation,  entitled  Biblia  Sagrada,  was 
made  from  the  Vulgate  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  Antonio 
Pereira  de  Figueiredo  (1725-97),  author  of  some  fifty  theological  and 
historical  works  in  Latin  and  Portuguese,  and  a  paraphrase  (Historia  Evaii- 
gelica,  1777,  78,  Historia  Biblica,  1778-82)  by  Frei  Francisco  de  Jesus 
Maria  Sarmento  (1713-90).  See  C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  et  S.  Berger, 
Les  Bibles  Portugaises  in  Romania,  xxviii  (1899),  pp.  543-8:  La  littiratiire 
portugaise  est  en  matiere  de  traductions  bibliques  d'une  pauvretS  desespirante. 
The  Parocho  Perfeito  (1675)  speaks  of  os  parochos  que  ndo  tiverem  Bihlias  (p.  19). 
See  also  G.  L.  Santos  Ferreira,  A  Biblia  em  Portugal,  1495-1830  (L.  1906). 


1 


LITERATURE    OF    THE    PEOPLE  339 

E  entao 

Que  sempre  cada  serao 

A  noytc  depois  da  cca 

Com  oculos  a  candea 

O  lia  por  devogao 

A  toda  a  gentc  d'aldea. 

The  popular  appetite  for  autos,  simple  Christmas  plays,  legends 
of  saints,  and  for  long  vague  romances  never  flagged,  and  some 
of  the  literature  written  to  satisfy  it,  by  Balthasar  Diaz  and 
others,  is  reprinted  and  hawked  about  the  countiy  in  folhas 
volantes  at  the  present  day,  as  Diaz'  Historia  da  Imperatriz 
Porcina  (Porto,  1906) — a  romance  of  some  1,500  octosyllables  in 
-ia  —  and  his  Tragedia  do  Marques  de  Mantua.  The  prose 
Verdadeira  Historia  do  Imperador  Carlos  Magno  (Porto,  1906)  is 
the  last  descendant  of  Nicolas  Piamonte's  Spanish  translation 
(from  the  French  original)  Carlotnagno,  printed  at  Seville  in 
1525  and  at  Alcala  in  1570,  or  rather  of  Jeronimo  Moreira  de 
Carvalho's  Portuguese  version  (2  pts.,  1728,  37).  It  is  an  instance 
of  the  Portuguese  delight  in  strange,  even  fantastic,  but  in  any 
case  foreign,  themes.  The  Verdadeira  Historia  da  Donzella 
Theodora  (Porto,  1911),  daughter  of  a  merchant  of  Babylon, 
was  introduced  from  the  East  and  was  translated  by  Carlos  Fer- 
reira  from  the  Spanish  (1524)  and  published  at  Lisbon  in  1735. 
The  Verdadeira  Historia  do  Grande  Roberto  Duqne  de  Normandia 
e  Imperador  de  Roma  (Porto,  1912)  is  a  belated  echo  of  the 
French  story  of  Robert  le  Diable,  which  also  came  to  Portugal 
through  Spain  (Burgos,  1509).  The  Verdadeira  Historia  da 
Princeza  Magalona  (Porto,  1912)  has  a  similar  derivation  from 
France  (14th  or  15th  c.)  through  Spain  (Sevilla,  1519),  and 
retains  its  popularity  as  a  record  of  unswerving  constancy  na  fe 
e  na  virtude.  The  Verdadeira  Historia  de  Jodo  de  Calais, 
reprinted  at  Oporto  in  1914,  is  also  undisguisedly  foreign.  The 
story  of  Flores  e  Branca  Fror,  last  offshoot  (a  '  vile  extract  ' 
Menendez  y  Pelayo  called  it)  of  the  charming  Greek  tale  which 
came  originally  from  the  East,i  was  mentioned  by  several  poets 
(King  Dinis,  Joan  de  Guilhade,  the  Archpriest  of  Hita)  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  ^  and  in  the  Gran  Conqiiista 

*  See  Floire  et  Blancheflor.  Poemes  du  xiii''  sidcle.  Publics  d'apris  les 
manitscrits  .  .  .  par  E.  du  Mhil,  Paris,  1856.  In  the  original  story  Flores 
in  a  basket  of  roses  enters  the  tower  where  Brancaflor  is  imprisoned. 
Senor  Bonilla  y  San  Martin  {La  Historia  de  los  dos  Enamorados  Flores  y  Blanca- 
flor,  Madrid,  1916)  attributes  an  Italian  origin  to  the  Spanish  prose  story.  The 
Spanish  translation  probably  dates  from  the  fifteenth  century. 

^  For  its  popularity  with  the  Provencal  troubadours  see  Raynouard,  Choix, 
e.g.  ii.  297,  304,  305. 

Y  2 


340  APPENDIX 

de  Ultramar  (13th  c),  and  was  condemned  by  Luis  Vives.  The 
prose  story  copied  by  Boccaccio  in  his  Filocolo  is  still  popular 
in  Portugal  and  Galicia.  There  is  an  edition  printed  at  Oporto  in 
1912 :  Historia  de  Flores  e  Branca-Flor,  sens  amores  e  perigos  que 
passaram  por  Flores  ser  moiiro  e  Branca-Flor  christa.  Garcia 
Ferreiro  refers  to  a  historia  de  Branca  Fror  as  recited  at  a 
Galician  escasula}  Most  of  these  popular  threepenny  leaflets  are 
very  quaintly  illustrated  on  the  title-page.  The  woodcut  on  the 
1912  edition  of  Flores  e  Branca-Flor  is  worth  many  an  epic.^ 
The  portrait  of  Robert  le  Diable  (1912  cd.)  represents  no  less  a 
person  than  Napoleon  III,  and  the  '  true  likeness  of  the  beautiful 
Princess  Magalona'^  (1912  ed.)  is  Queen  Alexandra.  These  folhas 
volantes  of  the  literatura  de  cordel  with  m2t.r\y  farsas,  such  as  Manoel 
Mendes  by  Antonio  Xavier  Ferreira  de  Azevedo  (1784-1814), 
reprinted  at  Oporto  in  1878,  and  various  progeny  of  the  ingenious 
Bertoldo,  as  Astucias  de  Mengoto,  Industrias  de  Malandrino  (both 
Porto,  1879),  Astucias  de  Zangnizarra  (Porto,  1878),  Vida  de 
Cacasseno  (Porto,  1904),  contain  little  of  the  real  people  and 
less  of  literature.  More  indigenous,  but  still  attracting  by 
virtue  of  its  foreign  episodes,  is  the  Auto,  Livro  (1554.?), 
Historia  or  Tratado  do  Infante  D.  Pedro  que  andou  as  quatro 
[sete]  partidas  do  mnndo,  which  is  attributed  to  Gomez  de  Santo 
Estevam,  one  of  the  prince's  attendants  in  his  long  travels,  and 
of  which  the  first  known  edition  (1547)  is  in  Spanish.  It 
has  been  constantly  reprinted  and,  with  romances  of  chivalry, 
formed  the  education  of  the  notary  in  0  Hyssope.'^  Nor  do  the 
Trovas  do  Bandarra  belong  to  literature,  although  these  verses 
of  the  cobbler  prophet  of  Trancoso,  GoNgALO  Annez  Bandarra 
(11556.?),  which  caused  him  to  figure  in  one  of  the  earliest  trials 
before  the  Inquisition  (1541)  and  were  subsequently  interpreted 
as  referring  to  the  return  of  King  Sebastian,  exercised  the  fancy 
of  the  people  and  even  the  wits  of  the  educated  for  some  three 
centuries.  Forbidden  in  Portugal,  they  were  printed  abroad, 
probably  at  Paris  in  1603,  at  Nantes  in  1644,  Barcelona  1809, 
London  1810  and  1815.  It  was  not  until  1852  (Porto)  that  an 
Explicagdo  of  them  could  be  published  in  Portugal.  Their  interest 
was  then  much  diminished,  since  the  thirty  scissors  of  the  verse, 

'  A  historia  de  Branca  Fror  Outra  saca  a  relocer  {Chorimas  (1890),  p.  148). 
-  It  has  been  reproduced,  from  an  earlier  edition,  in  T.  Braga,  Os  Livros 
Populares  Portuguezes  {Era  Nova,  vol.  i,  1881). 

*  At  either  side  explanatory  verses,  the  only  verse  in  the  leaflet,  tell  us 
that  '  Magalona  was  the  most  beautiful  of  all  contemporary  princesses, 
beloved  daughter  of  the  King  of  Naples,  and  her  heart  full  of  goodness.  She 
was  a  model  of  virtues,  of  pure  beliefs  and  a  loving  heart,'married  with  Pierres, 
Pedro  of  Provence,  a  noble  knight  and  virtuous  man.' 

*  One  of  the  Elvas  Chapter  was  komem  versado  Na  lifdo  de  Florinda  e  Carlo 
Magna. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE   PEOPLE  341 

Augurai  gentes  vindouras 

Que  0  Rey  que  de  vos  ha  de  hir 

Vos  ha  de  tornar  a  vir 

Passadas  trinta  tesouras,  • 

had  been  thought  to  signify  the  year  1808,  i.e.  thirty  closed 
scissors  =  30  X  8 :  240  years  after  King  Sebastian  began  to  reign 
(1568).  A  more  reasonable  computation  would  have  been  from 
Alcacer  Kcbir  {de  vos  ha  de  hir)  =  1818,  or,  if  the  scissors  were 
open:  ^^X^  (10),  =  1878.  Many  sought  to  connect  with  Bandarra's 
prophecies  the  sayings  of  Simao  Gomez  (1516-76),  the  '  Holy 
Cobbler  ',  and  his  biography,  written  by  the  Jesuit  Manuel  da 
Veiga  (1567-1647),  Tratado  da  Vida,  Virtudes  e  Doutrina 
Admiravel  de  Simao  Gomes,  vulgarmente  chamado  0  Qapateiro 
Santo  (1625),  a  book  in  more  than  one  respect  singular  and 
charming,  was  burnt  by  the  public  hangman  at  Lisbon  in  1768 
in  '  Black  Horse  Square  '.  The  1759  edition  had  received  the 
ordinary  licengas.  But  farther  afield,  deeper  in  the  heart  of  the 
people  and  far  more  ancient,  exists  another  literature.  Writers 
who  have  gone  to  this  source  have  never  come  away  unrewarded. 
Their  work  has  gained  a  freshness  and  a  charm  ^  which  the  most 
successful  disciples  of  imported  learning  and  latinity  have  in 
vain  attempted  to  rival,  and  gives  the  reader  the  impression 
that  if  he  is  not  plucking  the  bough  of  gold  he  is  not  far  from  the 
tree  on  v/hich  it  grows.  And  the  reason  is,  perhaps,  that  the 
Portuguese  people  still  retains  an  element  pre-Christian,  even 
pre-Roman,  an  element  which  goes  back  to  solar  myths  and 
pagan  beliefs,  and  about  which  hangs  a  primaeval  mystery  and 
wonder,  a  glamour  and  enchantment  born  of  direct  contact 
with  the  forces  of  Nature,  and  the  worship,  fear,  and  pro- 
pitiation of  many  unseen  powers  and  divinities.  A  great  part 
of  the  people  still  inhabits  a  region  of  fiery  dragons  and  apples 
of  gold,  and  with  ready  imagination  peoples  streams  and  woods, 
sea  and  air  with  spirits.  December  and  June  are  connected  with 
the  birth  and  supremacy  of  the  sun's  power,  and  paganism, 
thinly  disguised,  survives  in  several  of  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Christian  Church,  and  serves  to  increase  the  Church's  hold  on 
the  minds  of  the  people.  Both  the  songs  and  the  dancing  with 
which  it  was  accompanied  were  no  doubt  originally  religious. 

'  This  charm  hangs  over  many  anonymous  lyrics  of  popular  inspiration, 
as  the  Trovas  da  Menina  Fermosa,  seventeenth  or  eighteenth  century 
variations  of  a  sixteenth  century  song  :  Menina  fermosa  Dizei  do  que  vem 
Que  sejais  irosa  A  quern  vos  quer  bem  ;  Porque  se  concerta  Rosto  e  condifam 
Dais  por  galardam  A  pena  niui  certa.  Sendo  tarn  fermosa  Dizei,  &c.  Even 
less  genuinely  popular  are  the  Trovas  do  Moleiro  (1602),  written  by  an 
obscure  native  of  Tangier,  Luis  Brochado,  and  others. 


342  APPENDIX 

The  movements  of  the  dance  seem  to  have  influenced  the  song, 
so  that  its  metre  was  divided  by  real  feet.  When  the  Archbishop 
of  Braga,  Frei  Bartholomeu  dos  Martyres,  was  visiting  his 
diocese  in  the  sixteenth  century  he  was  met  by  Minhoto  peasants 
with  dangas  e  folias  and  with  cantigas  que  entoavam  eiitre  as 
voltas  e  saltos  dos  bailes,^  songs  evidently  similar  to  those  in  the 
works  of  Gil  \^iccntc,  with  leixapren  and  refrain  [aaxbbx'^  or 
abxbcx).^  The  volta  would  correspond  in  action  to  the  leixapren'^ 
of  the  song,  the  salto  to  the  refrain.  The  origin  of  the  refrain 
was  perhaps  the  pause  (preceded  by  a  final  leap  into  the  air) 
made  by  the  breathless  dancers,  as  in  the  words  no  penedo  of 
this  version  of  '  The  House  that  Jack  Built'  :  Quaes  for  am  os 
perros  que  mataram  os  lobos  que  comeram  as  €abras  que  roeram 
0  bacello  que  posera  Jodo  preto  no  penedo.^  The  phrase  ver  cantar^ 
'  to  see  these  songs  sung  ',  might  be  defended.^ 

In  modern  times  the  refrain  has  not  been  entirely  lost,  it 
occurs  occasionally,  e.g.  Valhame  Deus,  or  Valhame  Deus  e 
a  Virgem  Maria,  but  the  usual  song  is  a  refrainless  quatrain 
rhyming  in  the  second  and  fourth  lines,  perhaps  originally 
a  distich  broken  up  into  four  lines  like  the  sixteen-syllable  lines 
of  the  old  romances,  and  from  which  the  refrain  has  disappeared. 
It  is  essentially  a  love  song  :  instead  of  the  song  of  the  people, 
sung  to  the  tread  of  dancing  feet,  the  song  of  the  love-lorn 
individual,  sung  to  the  strumming  of  his  guitar  or  of  the  pro- 
fessional cantadeira  at  a  rustic  pilgrimage.  But  they  are  also  sung 
by  the  people  generally,  often  by  women '^  who  can  neither  read 
nor  write  but  have  a  large  stock  of  these  cantigas,  which,  indeed, 
are  almest  innumerable.  They  may  be  read  in  their  thousands 
in  Antonio  Thomaz  Pires'  Cantos  Populares  Portugueses  (4  vols., 
Elvas,  1902-10),  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga's  Cancioneiro  Popular 
Portuguez  (2  vols.,   Lisboa,  191 1,   1913),  Snr.  Jaime  Cortesao's 

'  Luis  de  Sousa,  Vida,  1763  ed.,  i.  462. 
^  e.g.  Em  Belem  vila  do  amor  (i.  183). 

*  e.g.  Que  no  quiero  estar  en  casa  (i.73)  (which  is  como  laa  canines  co'  gado, 
essentially  a  peasant's  song). 

*  The  leixapren  occurs  in  most  of  the  songs  accompanied  by  dance  in  Gil 
Vicente:  e.g.Quem  &  a  desposada  (chacota,  i.  147),  Pardeus  bcm  andoii  Castella 
(em  folia)  (ii.  389),  Ja  nao  quer  minha  senhora  (ii.  439,  Esta  cantiga  cantardo 
e  bailarao  de  terreiro  os  folioes).  Ndo  me  firaes  madre  (ii.  440,  em  chacota), 
Mor  Gongalves  (ii.  509,  baildo  ao  som  desta  cantiga),  Por  Mayo  era,  por  Mayo 
(ii.  525,  a  vozes  bailarao  e  cantardo  a  cantiga  segninte  :  i.e.  a  romance  with 
leixapren  and  refrain).     They  are  thus  a  combination  of  glee  and  dance. 

5  Gil  Vicente,  Obras  (ii.  448). 

«  Ndo  nas  qiiero  ver  cantar  (Gil  Vicente)  is,  however,  probably  a  misprint, 
for  which  D.  Carolina  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  suggests  quer'  eu. 

'  Cf.  J.  Leite  de  Vasconcellos,  Ensaios  Ethnographicos,  ii.  264  :  O  povo 
{principalmente  as  mulheres)  canta-as  [cantigas  soltas]  em  quaJquer  occasido. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE   PEOPLE  343 

Cancioneiro  Popular  (Porto,  1914),  and  in  other  collections,  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  die  uncollected  and  unknown.  Although 
it  is  perhaps  a  pity  that  all  the  popular  poetical  talent  should 
tend  to  adapt  itself  to  one  mould — the  quatrain — their  brevity 
is  excellent  in  that  it  imposes  concision.  Their  thought  has  to 
be  expressed  in  some  twenty  words,  although  they  are  rarely 
epigrammatic  in  the  sense  of  the  modern  epigram.  Some  are 
geographical,  or  local,  in  praise  of  some  town  or  village,  river 
or  fountain.  Many  are  religious,  that  is,  they  combine  love  and 
religion  in  honour  of  the  Lady  of  the  Hills,  the  Star,  the  Snows, 
the  Rosary,  the  Sands,  Pity,  Affliction,  Health,  Hope,  or  in 
honour  of  saints,  and  especially  of  the  three  popular  saints  of 
June  :  St.  Anthony,  St.  John,  and  St.  Peter.  Others  are  devoted 
to  special  festivals  :  Christmas  {Natal),  the  New  Year  [Anno 
Bom),  the  Epiphany  {Os  Reis),  the  Resurrection,^  The  majority 
are  concerned  with  Nature,  either  generally  or  in  detail.  Some- 
times they  are  frankly  pantheistic,  more  often  they  content 
themselves  with  singing  the  praises  of  a  favourite  flower, 
rosemary,  myrtle,  the  rose,  and  especially  the  carnation — the 
red  cravos  which  glow  in  doorway  or  window-ledge  of  countless 
houses  and  cottages  in  June.  Among  the  birds  the  swallow,^ 
'  the  bird  of  the  Lord ',  as  the  peasants  call  it,  is  rare — perhaps 
its  rhyme  is  disdained  as  too  easy — the  parrot,  the  dove, 
and  the  nightingale  are  far  commoner.  Numerous  cantigas  are 
concerned  with  the  sea,  fewer  with  the  sun,  the  stars,  super- 
stitions, witches,  sirens ;  many  with  dancing  and  various 
occupations — the  herdsman  [ganadeiro),  yokel  (ganhdo),  shepherd 
{pastor)f  harvesters  {ceifeiros,  ratinhos,  malteses,  mondadeiras). 
But  of  course  the  principal  subject  is  love,  jealousy,  separation, 
constancy,  saiidade,  satire.  The  occasional  presence  of  a  French 
word,  e.  g.  neglige  or  cache-nez,  is  not  necessarily  a  proof  that  the 
cantiga  in  question  is  not  of  popular  origin,  but  merely  that  it  is 
urban.  Of  many  cantigas  the  first  line  consists  simply  of  a  long- 
drawn  Aile  [aikivov,  alkivov  diri,  to  3'  ev  rtKarco)  or  At  lari  lari 
lole  (where  the  fanatic  of  Basque  can  find  il  ( =  dead)  as  easily 

•  Jd  OS  campos  reverdecem,  Jd  o  alecrim  tent  flor, 

Jd  cantam  os  passarinhos  A  resiirreifdo  do  Senhor. 
(Now  to  the  fields  returns  the  green  and  the  rosemary 's  in  flower,  and  the 
little  birds  are  singing  the  Lord's  Resurrection  hour). 
■^  O  triste  da  minha  vida,  O  triste  da  vida  minha, 

Quern  me  dera  ir  contigo  Onde  tii  vaes,  andorinha. 
(O  how  sad  my  life  is,  O  how  sad  my  plight  ! 
Would  I  might  go  with  thee,  swallow,  in  thy  flight ') 
recalls  the  French  Si  j'etais  hirondelle  Que  je  pusse  voter,  Sur  voire  sein,  ma  belle, 
J'irais  me  reposer  (A  swallow  I  Would  be  to  fly  And  take  my  rest  Upon  thy 
breast). 


344  APPENDIX 

as  in  the  refrain  of  C.  V.  415),  so  that  they  really  consist  of 
three  lines,  the  aile  being  introductory. 

Some  of  the  quatrains  rise  to  real  poetical  beauty,  and  most 
of  them  are  charmingly  spontaneous,  forming  in  their  unpre- 
meditated art  the  natural  song-book  of  a  nation  of  poets.  The 
number  in  print  already  approaches  fifty  thousand.  In  the  mass 
they  perhaps  produce  a  monotonous  effect,  being  mostly  of  the 
one  pattern,  despite  the  variety  of  their  contents  : 

Tudo  0  que  e  verde  se  seca  Em  vindo  0  pino  do  vcrao  : 
.    So  mcu  amor  reverdece  Dentro  do  meu  cora^ao.^ 

Inda  que  o  lume  se  apague  Na  cinza  fica  o  calor  : 
Inda  que  o  amor  se  ausente  No  cora^ao  fica  a  dor.^ 

Os  tres  reis  foram  guiados  For  uma  estrella  do  ceu  ; 
Tambem  teus  olhos  guiaram  Meu  coragao  para  o  teu.^ 

A  few  links  in  these  modern  cantigas  carry  us  back  to  the  songs 
in  Gil  Vicente's  plays  and  beyond  :  a  dialogue  between  mother 
and  daughter,  a  reference  to  dancing  de  terreiro,  balho,  dance  and 
song,  to  the  casada,  mas  mat  casada,  or  i-a  sequence,  as  Filho  da 
Virgem  Maria  {Sagrada).  Other  links  in  the  popular  literature 
throughout  the  ages  are  the  riddles  {adivinhas)  at  which  Gil 
Vicente's  shepherds  played  in  the  Auto  Pastoril  Castelhano  (the 
example  given  in  Joao  de  Barros'  Grammatica  (1540)  is  : 

Ainda  o  pae  nao  e  nado 

Ja  0  filho  anda  pelo  telhado  (1785  ed.,  p.  176) 

— the  father  is  still  unborn  and  the  son  is  on  the  roof :  a  fire  and 
its  smoke ;  modern  instances  are  printed  in  Dr.  Theophilo  Braga's 
Cancioneiro  Popular  Portuguez,  vol.  i  (1913),  pp.  363-70) ;  the 
lullabies  (cf.  the  modern  R6  ro,  men  meuiiio,  Dorme  e  descansa, 
Tu  es  7neu  alivio  E  a  minha  esperanga  with  Gil  Vicente's  Ro,  ro, 
ro,  Nuestro  Dios  y  Redentor,  No  lloreis,  &c.,  i.  57) ;  the  cantigas 
de  Anno  Bom ;  the  '  pagan  janeiras ',  as  Filinto  Elysio  called 
them  ;  the  cantigas  dos  Reis,  the  alvoradas,  the  maios.  The  alva 
or  alvorada  should  properly  contain  the  word  alva  in  the  refrain, 
as  in  C.  V.  172,  or  Guiraut  de  Bornelh's 

Ou'el  jorn  es  apropchatz, 

Qu'en  Orien  vey  I'cstela  creguda 

Ou'adutz  lo  jorn,  qu'ieu  I'ai  ben  conoguda, 

Et  ades  sera  I'alba. 

'  All  green  things  in  summer  Their  freshness  lose :  Only  my  heart  Its  love 
renews. 

^  When  the  light  of  the  fire  is  dead  The  ashes  its  heat  retain  :  When  love 
is  over  and  fled  In  the  heart  abides  the  pain. 

'  To  the  three  kings  was  given  A  star  in  heaven  for  sign  :  And  thy  eyes 
have  guided  My  heart  unto  thine. 


LITERATURE   OF  THE   PEOPLE  345 

(For  day  is  near,  and  high  in  the  East  appears  the  star  that 
brings  in  the  day  :  I  know  it  well,  and  soon  it  will  be  dawn.) 
The  theme  is  the  parting  of  lovers  at  dawn  : 

Wilt  thou  be  gone  ?    it  is  not  yet  near  day.  .  .  . 

A  Catalan  alha-cossante  is  given  in  Mila  y  Fontanals'  Romancerillo 

Catalan  * : 

Marieta  lleva't  lleva't  de  mati 

Que  I'aygua  es  clara,  el  sol  vol  sortir. 

Como  m'en  llevare  si  gipo  no  tinch } 

Marieta  lleva't,  de  mati  lleva't, 

Que  el  sol  vol  sortir,  que  I'aygua  es  clara. 

Como,  &c. 

An  example  of  a  Galician  mayo,  that  is,  a  song  introducing  the 
Mayo  or  May-boy  (corresponding  to  our  Queen  of  the  May),  is 
given  in  Mila's  article  in  vol.  vi  of  Romania.  It  closely  resembles 
that  of  Gil  Vicente  [Este  e  o  Mayo,  o  Mayo  S  este)  in  the  Auto  da 
Lusitania  : 

Este  e  o  Mayo  que  Mahino  e, 

Este  e  o  Mayo  que  anda  d'o  pe. 

O  noso  Mayo  anque  pequenino 

Da  de  comer  a  Virxen  d'o  Camifio. 

Velay  o  Mayo  cargado  de  rosas, 

Velay  o  Mayo  que  las  trae  mas  hermosas. 

It  then  breaks  into  a  muineira  (in  Castilian) : 

Angeles  somos,  del  cielo  venimos  (bajamos), 

Si  nos  dais  licencia  a  la  Reina  le  pedimos  (la  cantamos). 

To  the  janeiras  more  than  one  classical  author  alludes.  Mello 
{Epan.  i)  thus  notices  them  at  Evora  on  New  Year's  Eve,  1638, 
before  the  house  in  which  the  Conde  de  Linhares  was  lodged  : 
a  fim  de  se  Ihe  cantarem  certas  Bengoens  &  Rogatiuas  [costume  de 
nossos  ancidos  que  com  7iome  de  Janeiras  entoavam  placidamente 
pelas  portas  dos  mais  caros  amigos)  se  congregou  grande  numero 
de  pouo.^  Some  romances  (also  xacara,  xacra,  and  in  the  Azores 
arabia)  have  been  printed  direct  from   the  lips  of  the  people 

*  Reprinted  in  his  article  in  Romania,  vol.  vi,  and  by  Dr.  Braga.  Aygua  in 
the  second  line  is  probably  a  corruption  from  alua  (dawn)  to  agua  (water). 

*  Fernam  Rodriguez  Lobo  Soropita,  speaking  of  the  noites  privilegiadas — 
the  eves  of  New  Year  and  Epiphany — refers  to  os  villoes  ruins  que  essaa 
noutes  vos  perseguem  and  to  their  pandeirinhos,  musica  de  agna-pe  que  toda 
a  noiite  vos  ztine  nos  ouvidos  como  hizouro,  e  sobre  tudo  isto  haveis  de  Ihe 
offertar  os  vossos  qiiatro  vintens,  e  quando  Ih'os  entregais  a  candeia  vos  descobre 
o  feitio  dos  ditos  musicos  ;  um  niocho  com  sombreiro  com  mais  chocas  que 
urn  corredor  de  folhas.     They  thus  resembled  Christmas  '  waits  '. 


346 


APPENDIX 


by  Dr.  Lcite  de  Vasconcellos  in  his  Romanceiro  Portugiiez 
(1886).  The  degenerate,  more  modern,  and  subjective  form  of 
the  romance  is  the  f ado,  a  ballad  (melancholy  as  the  old  solao'^), 
composed  by  the  professional  fadistas  of  the  towns.  The  fado 
is  even  more  modern  than  the  modinha  (end  of  eighteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century).  It  dates  from  the  first 
third  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  has  not  even  now  penetrated 
to  the  south,  being  indeed  largely  a  Lisbon  product.  It  may  be 
composed  in  verses  of  four  [quadras),  five  {quintilhas),  or  ten 
[decimas]  lines. 

The  individual  in  the  favourite  quadras  expresses  his  personal 
sorrow  and  his  love ;  the  immemorial  lore  of  the  Portuguese 
people  as  a  whole  survives  less  in  them  than  in  the  no  less 
numerous  proverbs — um  bosque  de  muitas  e  varias  maneiras  de 
adagios.  There  is  scarcely  a  Portuguese  writer  whose  works  do 
not  furnish  a  goodly  crop  of  these  proverbs,  often  in  evidently 
popular  form,  sometimes  betraying  their  Spanish  origin  in 
the  rhyme.  They  have  been  collected  in  Antonio  Delicado's 
Adagios  Portugueses  (1651),  in  Adagios  (1841),  Philosophia  Pro- 
verbial (1882),  and  elsewhere.  The  language  is  full  of  proverbial 
phrases,  and  most  Portuguese  could  at  will  conceal  their  meaning 
from  a  foreigner  in  a  maze  of  idiomatic  expressions.  The  variety 
of  their  names  is  sufficient  proof  of  the  extraordinary  number 
of  the  proverbs.  They  are  crystallizations  of  some  forgotten 
fable  or  event  [adagios)  ^  or  of  a  more  personal  anecdote  [anexins), 
or  the  refrain  of  a  long-lost  song  [rifoes).^  Or  they  are  moral 
[maximas  and  senteiigas),  biblical  [proverbios),  satirical  [dictados 
or  ditados,  ditos).  Many  of  them  embody  the  wisdom  of  the 
ages  in  a  form  admirably  concise  and  forcible,  e.  g.  Quem  muito 
abarca  pouco  abraga  (which  is  the  very  reverse  of  Portuguese 
history  :  e  nulla  stringe  e  tutto  7  mondo  abbraccia),  or  Ate  ao 
lavar  das  cestas  e  vindima.  Many  of  course  correspond  more 
or  less  closely  to  those  of  other  countries,  e.  g.  Muitos  enfei- 
tadores  estragdo  a  noiva  (Too  many  cooks  spoil  the  broth),  Gato 
escaldado  de  agua  fria  ha  medo  (The  burnt  child  fears  the  fire) ; 
Manhan  ruiva,  on  vento  ou  chuva  [  =  Alba  gorri,  hegoa  edo  uri)  ; 

'  The  Spanish  translator  of  Eufrosina  apparently  derived  this  name  from 
musical  notes  (=  a  sung  romance),  since  he  translates  itn  romance  de  sol  la, 
Eufr.  i.  3  ;  iii.  2  (Orig.  de  la  Novela,  iii.  jy  and  no),  but  even  he  would  not 
derive  it  from  the  selah  of  the  Psalms  (T.  Braga,  Hist,  da  Litt.  Port,  i  {1914), 
p.  205).  In  the  Spanish  solao  in  Obras  de  Dom  Manoel  de  Portugal  (1605), 
Bk.  XII,  pp.  282-7,  each  singer  takes  three  lines,  of  which  the  last  two  rhyme 
together. 

*  Formerly  verbos  (e.g.  in  the  Cane,  da  Vat.)  and  exemplos  (enxem-pros) . 

^  The  word  rifdo  does  not  now  mean  the  refrain  or  burden  (estribilho)] 
of  a  song  but  proverb,  like  the  Spanish  refrdn. 


LITERATURE  OF  THE   PEOPLE  347 

Pedra  movediga  ndo  cria  holor  {  =  Pierre  qui  roule  n'amasse  pas 
mousse).'^  Many  of  these  saws  as  well  as  the  contos  (folk-tales) 
have  their  birth  at  fiandoes  as  the  women  sit  spinning,  or  as 
nossas  velhas  sit  at  their  cottage  doors  and  gossip  in  the  sun 
{soalheiro),  or  as  all  gather  round  the  spacious  lareira.  After 
the  day's  work  on  the  farm,  in  field  and  granary,  to  the  sound  of 
singing,  legend  and  tradition  come  into  their  own  of  an  evening 
round  the  great  fire  of  logs  and  scented  brushwood.  The  contos 
have  been  collected  by  Z.  Consiglieri  Pedroso,  Portuguese  Folk 
Tales  (London,  1882) ;  F.  Adolpho  Coelho,  Contos  Popular es  Portu- 
guezes  (Lisboa,  1879)  ;  Dr.  Thcophilo  Braga,  Contos  Tradicionaes 
do  Povo  Portuguez  (2  vols.,  Porto,  1883) ;  F.  X.  de  Athaide  Oli- 
veira,  Contos  Tradicionaes  do  Algarve  (2  vols.,  Tavira,  1900,  5). 
As  was  to  be  expected,  they  have  their  equivalents  in  the  folk- 
lore of  other  nations,  a  fact  which  does  not  prevent  them  from 
possessing  an  indigenous  character,  a  charm  and  flavour  of 
their  own.  The  glowing  imagination  of  the  peasants  spins  out 
fairy  and  allegorical  tales  with  marvellous  facility.  Thus  old 
Mother  Poverty  [Tia  Miseria)  owned  a  pear-tree  in  front  of  her 
cottage,  and  had  obtained  the  privilege  that  whoever  went  up 
it  to  steal  her  pears  should  be  unable  to  come  down.  When 
Death  comes  she  asks  him  to  fetch  her  one  more  pear.  Once 
up  the  tree  all  the  priests  and  lawyers  cannot  bring  him  down, 
and  only  when  he  agrees  to  the  bargain  that  Poverty  shall  never 
die  is  she  willing  to  release  him. 

A  great  part  of  the  popular  literature  has  been  set  down  in 
cold  print  during  the  last  half-century.  Much  remains  un- 
garnered.  In  every  province  there  are  peculiar  words,  phrases, 
traditions,  heirlooms  of  times  prehistoric,  waiting  to  be  gathered 
in,  and  both  the  Portuguese  literature  and  the  Portuguese 
language  of  the  future  will  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  their 
collectors,  and  find  rich  material  in  the  pages  of  the  Revista 
Lusitana. 

§  2 

The  Galician  Revival 

For  over  four  hundred  years — with  the  exception  of  a  few 
poems  by  Padres  Jose  Sanchez  Feijoo  and  Martin  Sarmiento^ 
in  the  eighteenth  century — the  Galician  language  held  aloof 
from  literature.     It  was  peculiarly  fitting  that  at  a  time  when 

*  There  is  another  proverb  Mentras  a  pedra  vae  e  vem  Deus  dard  de  seu  hem 
(While  the  [mill  ?]  stone  doth  come  and  go  God  his  blessing  shall  bestow). 

2  See  Antolin  Lopez  Pelaez,  Poesias  Ineditas  del  P.  Feijoo  .  .  .  seguidas 
de  las  poesias  gallegas  '  Dialogo  de  24  Rusticos  '  y  'O  Tio  Marcos  da  Portela  ' 
por  el  P.  Saryniento,  Tuy,  1901. 


348  APPENDIX 

Portugal  was  recovering  for  her  own  literature  the  early  Galician 
lyrics,  which  are  now  one  of  its  most  precious  possessions,  a  new 
company  of  poets  should  have  sprung  up  in  the  region  now, 
as  of  old,  fertil  de  poetas  ^ — Galicia.  They  were  no  doubt  multi- 
plied and  encouraged  by  the  discovery  of  the  Cancioneiros,  but 
began  independently  of  these,  in  the  wake  of  that  regionalism 
which  manifested  itself  so  vigorously  in  the  second  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  for  instance  in  Provence,  Catalonia,  and 
Valencia.  Besides  their  general  character — the  mingling  of 
irony  and  sentimental  melancholy — and  a  few  conscious  imita- 
tions, the  new  poets  and  the  ancient  Cancioneiros  present  several 
striking  similarities.  It  is  now  some  three-quarters  of  a  century 
since  regionalism  in  Galicia  assumed  its  first  literary  pretensions. 
In  1861  the  poets  had  become  sufficiently  numerous  and  distin- 
guished to  warrant  the  holding  of  Juegos  Florales  [xogos  froraes) 
at  La  Corufia.  Juan  Manuel  Pintos  (1811-76)  had  published 
eight  years  earlier  a  small  volume  of  verses,  A  Gaita  Gallega 
(Pontevedra,  1853),  and  Francisco  Anon  (1817-78)  had  con- 
tributed poems  to  various  local  newspapers.  Anon  led  the  life 
of  a  wandering  jogral  of  old,  and  his  occasional  verses  soon  won 
him  popularity,  so  that  he  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  father  of 
modern  Galician  poetry.  He  could  express  his  love  for  his 
native  province  in  the  tender  and  melancholy  stanzas  [abhcdeec) 
A  Galicia,  and  in  his  other  poems,  at  once  ingenuous  and  satirical; 
he  is  also  thoroughly  Galician  and  foreshadowed  the  poetry  that 
was  to  follow.  A  leaflet  of  his  verses  appeared  in  the  year  after 
his  death,  Poesias  (Noya,  1879),  and  a  more  satisfactory  collec- 
tion ten  years  later :  Poesias  Castellanas  y  Gallegas  (1889). 
Jose  MarIa  Posada  y  Pereira  (1817-86),  born  at  Vigo,  the 
son  of  a  Vigo  advocate,  published  his  first  volume  of  verses  in 
1865  and  others  were  collected  in  Poesias  Selectas  (1888).  The 
second  part  of  this  collection  (pp.  11 1-250)  is  written  in  Spanish, 
but  the  Galician  poems  include  a  series  of  letters  in  octosyllabic 
verse,  the  wistful  humour  of  which  is  attractive.  Born  in  the  same 
year  as  Afion,  he  survived  Rosalia  de  Castro,  twenty  years  his 
junior.  He  survived  in  disillusion,  for  he  had  been  one  of  the 
pioneers  and  now  felt  himself  neglected  in  the  changed  con- 
ditions. When  the  first  floral  games  were  celebrated  the  most 
talented  of  these  early  poets,  Alberto  Camino  (1821-61),  had 
but  a  few  months  to  live.  Another  generation  passed  before  his 
poems  were  published  :  Poesias  Gallegas  (1896).  Camino  was 
not  a  prolific  writer,  and  this  tiny  book  contains  but  twelve 
of  his  poems  ;    but  there  is  not  one  of  them  that  we  would 

*  Cf.  A.  Ribeiro  dos  Santos,  Obras  (MS.),  vol.  xix,  f.  21  :   Galicia  .  .  .  muito 
affeita  desde  alia  antiguidadc  ao  exercicio  de  truvas  e  caniares. 


THE   GALICIAN   REVIVAL  349 

willingly  miss,  whether  he  is  giving  harmonious  form  to  a 
poignant  theme,  as  in  Nai  Chorosa  and  0  Desconsolo^  or  in 
lighter  verses  deseribing  with  a  contagious  glow  and  spirit  some 
scene  of  village  merriment,  as  in  A  Foliada  de  San  Joan  or 
Repique. 

Galician  patriots,  indignant  at  the  neglect  or  contempt 
habitually  meted  out  to  their  region,  might  persevere  in  their 
belief  that  the  language  which  had  produced  the  cantigas  of 
King  Alfonso  X,  the  Portuguese  Cawao7i^2>05,  and  the  poems  of 
Macias  was  capable  of  revival  as  an  instrument  of  poetry  ; 
but  it  was  for  the  most  part  by  scattered  poems,  manuscript  or 
printed  in  periodicals  (especially  the  Coruna  paper  Galicia, 
1860-6),  that  they  justified  their  faith,  until  in  1863  appeared 
Cantares  Gallegos  by  Rosalia  de  Castro  ^  (1837-85).  The 
authoress,  born  at  Santiago,  was  but  twenty-six  when  this 
collection  of  poems  gave  her  a  wider  celebrity  than  has  been 
granted  to  any  Galician  writer  since  Macias.  Emilio  Castelar 
wrote  a  preface  for  her  second  volume,  Follas  Novas  (1880), 
and  hailed  her  as  '  a  star  of  the  first  order  '.  Indeed,  so  great 
was  her  fame  as  a  Galician  singer  that  until  recently  it  obscured 
her  Spanish  poems,  En  las  orillas  del  Sar  (1884).  It  was  an 
unsought  fame.  Rosalia  de  Castro  wrote  much  more  than  she 
published  and  destroyed  much  that  was  worth  publishing. 
She  sank  herself  in  Galicia  ;  her  voice  is  that  of  the  Galician 
gaita  in  all  its  varying  moods.  In  her  preface  to  Cantares  Gallegos 
she  wrote  :  '  I  have  taken  much  care  to  reproduce  the  true  spirit 
of  our  people.'  That  she  succeeded  in  this  all  critics  are  agreed. 
A  favourite  method  in  the  Cantares  Gallegos  is  to  take  a  popular 
quatrain  and  develop  it  at  some  length,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
beautiful  variations  on  the  lines  Airinos,  airinos,  aires,  Airinos 
da  mina  terra.,  Airinos,  airinos,  aires,  Airinos,  levaime  a  ela.~ 
Here,  as  throughout  the  book,  there  is  such  yearning  passionate 
sadness  that  we  may  say,  in  her  own  words,  no?i  canta  que  chora. 
The  sadness  is  of  soedade  and  brooding  over  her  country's 
plight.  She  has  felt  all  the  peasants'  sorrows,  the  longing  of  the 
emigrant  for  his  country,  the  fate  of  the  women  at  home  who 
find  no  rest  from  toil  but  in  the  grave,^  above  all  the  neglect 
and  poverty  in  which  those  sorrows  centre — with  the  result 
of  sons  torn  from  their  families  and  scattered  abroad  to  Castile 

»  Or  Rosalia  Castro  de  (or  y)  Murguia.  Her  husband,  Don  Manuel  de 
Murgui'a  (bom  in  1833),  author  of  Los  Precursores  (1886),  Diccionario  de 
Escritores  Gallegos  (1862),  and  other  works  devoted  to  the  study  of  Galicia, 
its  ethnology  and  history,  is  still  alive. 

2  O  winds  of  my  country  blowing  softly  together.  Winds,  winds,  gentle 
winds,  O  carry  me  thither  !    (1909  ed.,  pp.  95-8). 

^   Follas  Novas  :   Duas  palabras  d'a  aiitora,  1910  ed.,  p.  31. 


350  APPENDIX 

and  Portugal  and  across  the  seas  in  search  of  bread.  Her  themes 
are  thus  often  homely  ;  their  treatment  is  always  plaintive  and 
musical.  The  metres  used  are  very  various.  The  book  opens 
with  a  chain  of  muineiras  singing  Galicia  frorida,  and  the  rhyth- 
mical beat  of  the  nmineira  constantly  recurs  throughout.  Nothing 
could  serve  better  to  express,  as  she  so  marvellously  expresses, 
the  very  soul  of  the  Galician  peasantry  in  its  gentle,  dreaming 
wistfulness  and  tearful  humour.  Her  style  is  so  thin  and  delicate, 
yet  so  flowing  and  natural,  that  it  is  more  akin,  almost,  to  music 
than  to  language.  Few  writers  have  attained  such  perfection  with- 
out a  trace  of  artifice.  It  is  Galician — esta  fala  mimosa  ^ — seen 
at  its  best,  clear,  soft,  and  pliant,  rising  in  protest  or  reproach  to  a 
silvery  eloquence.  In  Follas  Novas  the  melancholy  note  is  accen- 
tuated, without  becoming  morbid  :  the  new  leaves  are  autumnal. 
The  music  of  her  sad  and  exquisite  poetry  had  been  forged 
in  the  crucible  of  her  own  not  imaginary  suffering  and  grief,  and 
in  these  lyrics  she  utters  her  inmortales  deseios  (immortal  long- 
ings) as  well  as  the  woes  of  the  peasant  women  of  Galicia, 
'  widows  of  the  living  and  widows  of  the  dead  '.  New  metres 
are  introduced,  the  old  skill  and  perfection  of  form  is  main- 
tained. A  few  poems  in  the  second  half  even  succeed  in  repeat- 
ing that  identification  between  the  poet  and  the  genius  of  the 
people  which  makes  much  of  Cantares  Gallegos  almost  anony- 
mous and  assures  its  immortality. 

Midway  between  the  publication  of  Cantares  Gallegos  and 
Follas  Novas  appeared  the  first  volume  of  Galician  verse  by  the 
blind  poet  of  Orense,  Valentin  Lamas  Carvajal  (1849-1906). 
This  book,  Espinas,  Follas  e  Frores  (1871),  has  remained  the 
most  popular  of  his  works.^  He  is  a  true  poet  of  the  soil  {poeta 
del  terriino),  the  soil  of  Galicia  which  he  sings  with  melancholy 
charm,  and  his  verse  is  filled  with  soedades.  He  complains  of 
the  peasant's  lot,  protests  against  its  injustice  and  the  tyranny 
of  the  caciques^  laments  the  drain  on  Galicia's  best  forces  through 
emigration  and  military  service,  and  his  later  work  especially 
betrays  a  rustic  cynicism  and  disillusion.  But  the  value  both 
of  his  first  book  and  of  Saudades  Gallegas  (1889)  and  A  Musa 
d' as  Aldeas  {i8go)  is  that  in  them  speak  the  voices  of  the  peasants. 
Only  occasionally  does  Aesop  or  Macias  intrude  to  dispel  the 
charm,  and  even  sophisticated  touches — as  when  he  speaks  of 
'  this  century  of  enlightenment  ',  of  Galicia  as  '  a  poetical 
garden ',  or  of  the  tamborileiro  as  '  the  inseparable  companion ' 

•  Follas  Novas  (1910  ed.),  p.  254. 

*  A  sixth  edition  appeared  in  1909,  whereas  most  books  of  Galician  verse 
cling  to  the  obscurity  of  their  first  edition  or  at  best  obtain  a  second  in  the 
hospitable  Biblioteca  Gallega. 


THE   GALICIAN   REVIVAL  351 

of  the  gaiteiro — are  not  out  of  keeping,  since  the  peasant,  to 
whom  a  long  word  is  a  sign  of  education,  will  in  ambitious 
moments  use  such  phrases.  The  Galician  peasants  are  shown 
in  their  sadness  and  superstitions,  at  their  common  tasks  and 
festas.  When  Lamas  Carvajal  is  describing  an  escasula^  or 
a  fiadeiro,^  a  dance  in  the  beaten  space  before  the  doors  [baile 
de  turreiro),  a  foliada^  in  honour  of  some  saint,  a  ruada  or 
rueiro  (street  courting),  a,  summer  romaxe  or  romaria  (pilgrimage), 
or  autumn  magosto  (feast  of  chestnuts),  his  melancholy  almost 
deserts  him,  and  he  can  sing,  in  his  own  phrase, 

Algun  ledo  cantar  d'a  sua  terrina. 

The  toil  often  becomes  a  festa,  in  which,  he  says,  there  is  more 
mirth  than  in  all  the  city's  joys.  In  Ey,  hoy,  ey  he  admirably 
reproduces  the  thoughts  of  the  slow-footed,  slow-reasoning 
peasant  as  he  trudges  along  to  market  in  front  of  his  droning 
and  shrieking  ox-cart.  And,  generally,  all  the  life  of  the  pro- 
vince of  Orense  is  in  his  poems :  witches,  exorcisers,  beatas, 
ciirandeiros  (to  whom  the  peasants  turn  in  place  of  the  doctor), 
pilgrims,  blind  singers,  santeiros  selling  images  of  saints,  the 
wailing  alalaa,  the  evening  litany  or  rosario,  the  angelus  [Ave 
Maria  or  as  animas,  or  tocar  as  oracios).  The  gaiteiro,  of  course, 
is  a  prominent  figure,  for  without  his  bagpipe  (the  gaita  gallega) 
and  the  accompanying  drum  (tamboril),  cymbals  {ferrinas, 
conchas),  tambourine  [pandeiro,  pandeireta),  and  castanets 
[castanolas],'^  no  village  fete  would  be  welcome  or  complete,  and 
his  alborada  or  his  rhythmical  dance-song,  the  muineira,  is  the 
emblem  of  all  the  peasant's  pleasures.  Melancholy  pervades 
the  Rimas  (1891)  of  D.  Juan  Barcia  Caballero  (born  in  1852), 
but  it  is  no  longer  the  melancholy  of  the  peasant,  but  of  the 
poet.  His  verse  is  more  artificial  and  subjective,  and  expres- 
sions such  as  the  '  bed  of  Aurora  ',  '  Olympic  disdain  ',  '  the 
Nereids  ',  carry  us  far  away  from  the  peasant  scenes  so  pleasantly 
described  by  Lamas  Carvajal.  Yet  in  his  lyrics  lives  a  faint 
music  which  raises  them  above  the  commonplace.  He  writes 
of  moonlight,  the  fall  of  the  leaves,  a  flowing  stream,  tears, 
death,  and  admires  Heine  and  Leopardi ;  but  in  his  slight 
fancies,  often  built  into  a  single  brief  sentence,  he  has  a  natural 
charm  of  his  own. 

'  Esfolhada  or  desfolla  :  gathering  to  husk  the  maize. 

^  Fiada,  fiandon  :   a  rustic  terttilia  (evening  party)  of  women  to  spin. 

'  FiUiada,  afuliada,  folion. 

*  In  Tras-os-Montes  potatoes  are  called  castanholas,  i.e.  large  chestnuts, 
which  recalls  the  fact  that  Andrea  Navagero,  eating  potatoes  for  the  first 
time  at  Seville  in  1526,  considered  them  to  taste  like  chestnuts.  In  parts 
of  Galicia  they  are  called  castanas  d'a  terra. 


352  APPENDIX 

Benito  Losada  (1824-91)  gained  great  popularity  in  Galicia 
with  his  Continos  (1888),  epigrammatic  and  often  far  from 
edifying  stories  in  verse  which  mostly  do  not  exceed  ten  lines. 
He  is  said  to  have  had  them  printed  on  matchboxes  ad  maiorem 
gloriam,  but  for  this  he  was  probably  not  responsible.  More 
interesting  and  equally  racy  of  the  soil  arc  the  poems  of  his 
Soaces  (Vun  Velio  (1886),  of  which  the  continos  d'a  terra  form  only 
Part  3.  The  first  part  consists  of  a  long  legend  in  octosyllabic 
verse,  and  in  the  second  some  thirty  poems  give  a  coloured, 
homely,  delightful  picture  of  peasant  life  in  Galicia  : 

En  lias  e  espadelas. 
En  festas,  en  foliadas^ 

— song  and  dance,  the  pot  of  chestnuts  {zonchos)  over  the  lareira 
fire  on  the  night  of  All  Saints'  Day,  the  ox-girl  quietly  singing, 
the  girl  with  spindle  and  distaff  keeping  the  cows,  the  sorrowful, 
hard-working  peasant  women,  the  priests  exorcising  those 
possessed  by  the  Devil.  The  gay  notes  of  the  gaita  with  its 
plaintive  undertone  sound  from  his  pages.  The  language, 
a  garrida  lengiia  nosa,  has  rarely  been  written  more  idiomatically 
or  with  a  surer  instinct  for  the  force  and  fascination  of  the 
native  word  used  in  its  rightful  place.  To  turn  from  Losada 
to  Eduardo  Pondal  (1835-1917),  the  poet  of  Pontcceso,  a 
small  village  in  the  district  of  Coruna,  is  to  go  from  a  village 
praga  to  a  high  mountain-top.  He  stands  quite  apart  from  the 
other  Galician  poets. ^  Their  irony  and  scepticism,  sorrows  and 
mirth,  are  mostly  of  the  peasant.  But  here  we  have  no  dance 
or  rustic  merriment.  The  pipe  and  the  drum  give  place  to  the 
wind  blowing  through  an  Aeolian  harp.    The  poet 

Sofia  antr'as  uces  hirtas 
Na  gentil  arpa  apoyado 
En  donde  0  vento  suspira.^ 

He  is  a  lonely,  martial  spirit,  disdainful  but  never  arrogant, 
hating  all  servitude  and  looking  upon  a  comfortable  inertness  as 
a  kind  of  servitude.  There  is  no  pettiness  in  him,  although 
details  of  Nature  he  may  notice  and  love.  The  most  learned  of 
Galician  poets,  and  not  sparing  of  classical  allusions,  he  is  yet 
entirely  merged  in  the  forces  of  Nature  and  becomes  a  voice, 
a  mystery.  Some  of  his  poems  are  a  single  sentence  of  perhaps 
twenty  words,  a  musical  cry  borne  slowly  away  on  the  wings 

'  Soaces,  p.  156.    The  espadela  is  the  task  of  braking  flax. 
*  Perhaps  the  only  poem  that  might  have  been  written  by  Pondal  is  that 
on  p.  177  (the  first  verse)  of  Rosalia  tie  Castro's  Follas  Novas  (1910  ed.). 
^  Oueixjimes  dos  Finos  (1886),  p.  loi. 


THE  GALICIAN   REVIVAL  353 

of  the  wind.  He  sings  of  mists  (the  Gallegan  bretoma)  and 
pregnant  silences,  the  whispering  of  the  pines,  the  great  chestnut- 
trees  and  Celtic  oaks,  of  the  swift  daughter  of  the  mists  and  the 
'  intrepid  daughter  of  the  noble  Celts  ',  of  old  forgotten  far-off 
things,  battles  long  ago.  One  must  go  to  Ireland  for  a  parallel. 
It  has  been  noticed  of  him  that  he  is  entirely  pre-Christian  ; 
he  is  almost  prehistoric.  His  long  epic  on  the  discovery  of 
America,  in  twenty-seven  cantos,  Os  Eoas,  remained  unpublished 
at  his  death.  Nor  would  it  be  easy  to  account  for  his  popularity 
were  it  not  for  the  poem  by  which  he  won  early  fame :  A  Campana 
d'Anllons.  It  is  full  of  music  and  melancholy,  a  plaintive  fare- 
well addressed  to  his  native  village  by  a  Galician  peasant 
imprisoned  at  Oran.  His  subsequent  verses,  collected  in  Riimores 
de  los  Pinos  (1879)  ^-^^d  Queixumes  dos  Pinos  (1886),  if  they 
could  not  increase  his  popularity,  brought  him  a  wide  recognition 
among  all  lovers  of  poetry.  The  undefinable  fascination  of 
many  of  these  poems  is  due  to  their  aloofness,  tenderness,  and 
sorrowful  music.  He  is  a  genuine  Celtic  bard,  child  of  the  wind 
and  the  rain,  with  Rosalia  de  Castro  the  truest  poet  produced 
by  modern  Galicia. 

The  most  prominent  of  the  later  Galician  poets  was  Manuel 
CuRROS  Enriquez  (1851-1908),  whose  work  Aires  d'a  niina 
terra  (1880)  was  condemned  by  the  Bishop  of  Orense  and  repub- 
lished in  the  following  year.  Born  at  Celanova  in  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  he  studied  law  at  Santiago  de  Com- 
postela  and  became  a  journalist.  His  advanced  opinions  caused 
him  to  emigrate,  first  to  London,  then  to  South  America.  His 
anticlericalism  was  pronounced  in  Aires  d'a  mina  terra,  and 
even  more  so  in  a  forcible  satire  describing  a  pilgrimage  to 
Rome,  written  in  triadas'^  and  entitled  0  Divino  Sainete  (1888). 
He  writes  of  dogma  assassinating  liberty,  heaps  abuse  on  Ignacio 
de  Loyola,  hails  the  advent  of  the  railway  to  Galicia  as  bringing 
not  priests  but  progress.  All  this  has  caused  his  poems  to  be 
widely  read.  But  the  reader  has  the  agreeable  surprise  to  find 
that  many  of  them  deal  quite  simply  with  the  legends  {A  Virxe 
d'o  Cristal)  or  customs  {Unha  Boda  en  Einibd,  0  Gneiteiro,  &c.) 
of  his  native  country,  and  show  a  true  poetic  power  and  a  quiet 
and  accurate  observation  of  Nature.  We  forget  all  about  anti- 
clericalism  and  the  Pope  in  reading  of  spring  in  Galicia,  of  the 
xentis  andurinas,  the  anemas  ringing,  and  the  children  who 
come  singing  a  mayo  and  asking  for  chestnuts.  Curros  Enriquez 
would  not  be  a  Galician  were  not  his  work  of  a  melancholy  cast, 
and  the  charm  of  some  of  his  poems  is  also  indigenous.     The 

*  For  an  earlier  example  of  the  same  kind  of  tercets  (ahacdcefe)  see  R,  de 
Castro,  Follas  Novas,  1910  ed.,  p.  158. 
2.^62  Z 


354  APPENDIX 

torch  of  Galician  poetry  burnt  on  after  Curros  Enriquez  had 
ceased  to  write.  D.  Evaristo  Martelo  Pauman  (born  c.  1853) 
in  his  Liricas  Gallegas  (1891)  showed  that  he  possessed  the 
traditional  charm  and  satire  of  Gahcian  verse,  but  a  charm 
and  satire  that  in  his  case  had  become  all  individual  and  sub- 
jective. Aureliano  J.  Pereira  (figoG),  author  of  Cousas 
(Va  Aldea  (1891),  displayed  a  rustic  humour  in  sketching  with 
many  a  gay  note  the  life  of  the  Galician  peasantry,  and,  in  his 
more  subjective  poems,  a  very  real  and  delicate  lyrical  gift.  A 
sly  humour  also  marks  the  work  of  Alberto  GarcIa  Ferreiro 
(1862-1902)  in  Volvoretas  (1887)  and  Chorimas  (1890).  It  is 
sometimes  marred  by  the  bitterness  of  his  anticlerical  and 
anti-Spanish  feeling.  In  the  stream's  voice  he  hears  a  murmur 
against  the  mayor  and  the  judge,  the  cacique  is  '  dragon,  tiger 
and  snake  ',  the  monks  and  priests  are  greedy  and  ignorant. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  they  describe  a  fair  {N'a  feira)  or  a 
pilgrimage  or  the  woes  of  the  Galician  emigrant,  his  poems  are, 
moving,  vivid,  and  full  of  local  colour.  In  a  slight  volume  of 
poems,  Salayos  (1895),  Manuel  Nunez  GonzXlez  (1865-1917) 
shows  true  lyrical  power.  They  are  poems  in  Galician  rather 
than  of  Galicia,  telling  in  a  plaintive  music  of  night,  autumn, 
morrina,  soedades.  For  all  the  author's  love  of  his  smaller 
country,  it  is  Galicia  seen  from  without,^  or  sung  from 
memory.  The  '  vintage  songs  and  the  gay  din  of  chestnut 
gatherings'  are  no  longer,  as  with  Losada  and  Lamas,  a  part  oi 
life,  but  '  a  dream  in  the  ideal  realm  of  thought',^  a  subject  of 
disillusion  and  regret.  Folerpas^  (1894)  by  D.  Eladio  Ro- 
driguez GonzAlez  (born  in  1864)  is  also  essentially  not  of  the 
people.  In  its  less  elaborate  poems  it  often  describes,  attrac- 
tively and  with  much  colour,  popular  customs  and  dances,  thai 
night  of  St.  John,  as  festas  d'a  mina  terra.  Yet  after  recording 
the  pleasant  superstition  that  on  St.  John's  Day  the  sun  rises 
dancing,  the  author  must  needs  pause  to  say  '  away  with  these 
fanatical  beliefs,  unworthy  of  a  civilized  region  ',  to  which  the ; 
answer  is  that  such  reflections  may  be  sincere  but  are  unworthy  j 
of  poetry,  and  should  be  expressed  in  prose.  But  the  author! 
of  these  verses  can,  when  he  wishes,  identify  himself  with  the 
peasants  whose  life  he  depicts,*  and  is  capable  of  writing  poems 

*  The  very  word  morrifla  is  more  common  (in  the  sense  of  saudade)  at  Madrid 
than  in  GaHcia. 

*  Salayos,  p.  65.  * 

'  Also  flepa,  folepa,  folepina,    Portuguese  folheca — floco,  froco,  copo  (  = 
'flake'). 

*  The  passage  (Folerpas,]}.  182)  in  which  a  peasant,  refusing  alms  to  an  old 
woman,  bids  her  beg  of  the  rich,  is  scarcely  drawn  from  life. 


THE   GALICIAN   REVIVAL  355 

of  great  delicacy.  The  general  impression  is  that  he  has  not 
grown  up  among  these  scenes  but  is  observing  them  keenly  as 
might  a  stranger.  The  edict  of  the  Archbishop  of  Santiago 
(June  26,  1909),  which  made  it  a  deadly  sin  to  read  Fume  de 
Palla  (1909),  by  '  Alfredo  Nun  de  Allariz  ',  as  containing 
impious,  blasphemous,  and  heretical  propositions,  gave  these 
poems  a  wider  publicity  than  they  might  otherwise  have  attained, 
and  they  received  a  second  edition  in  the  same  year.  It  certainly 
savours  of  blasphemy  and  is  bad  criticism  to  call  Curros  Enriquez 
the  Galician  Christ,  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  excommunica- 
tion of  the  author  will  only  encourage  him  to  abandon  '  simple 
verses  written  without  art ',  as  in  his  preface  he  describes  these, 
for  more  studied  poems  with  a  thesis  to  prove.  It  is  perhaps 
disquieting  to  find  that  three  poets  in  most  respects  so  different, 
agree  in  this,  that  between  them  and  popular  poetry  a  gulf  is 
fixed,  owing  to  the  sensitive  aloofness  of  a  true  poet  (for  Nufiez 
Gonzalez  was  undoubtedly  the  most  talented  of  the  younger 
Galicians),  or  owing  to  the  adoption  of  the  superior  standpoint 
of  the  rationalist  or  the  anticlerical.  Younger  poets  of  remark- 
able promise  and  achievement  are  D.  Gonzalo  Lopez  Abente 
(born  in  1878),  a  relative  of  Eduardo  Pondal,  whom  he  some- 
times recalls  in  the  original  inspiration  of  Escumas  da  Ribeira 
(1914)  and  Alento  da  Raza  (1917)  ;  D.  Antonio  Noriega  Varela 
(born  in  1869),  whose  deep  love  for  his  native  moors  and  moun- 
tains gives  an  eternal  magic  to  Montanesas  (1904)  and  D'O 
Ermo  (1920)  ;  D.  Ramon  Cabanillas,  who  voices  the  sorrows 
and  aspirations  of  Galicia  in  Vento  Mareiro  and  Da  Terra  Asohal- 
lada  (1917)  ;  and  D.  Antonio  Rey  Soto,  who,  however,  writes 
chiefly  in  Castilian.  D.  Xavier  Prado  expresses  the  very  soul 
of  the  peasantry  in  A  Caron  do  Lume  (1918).  The  poets  of  the  last 
half-century  have  unquestionably  justified  the  literary  revival  of 
the  Galician  language,  and  even  if  in  the  future  no  poetry  of 
the  highest  order  be  written  in  Galicia,  it  is  unthinkable  that  so 
musical  an  instrument  should  be  allowed  to  perish.  Galician 
poetry  may  be  a  thin,  an  elfin  music,  a  scrannel  voice,  as  of 
a  wind  blowing  through  tamarisks,  but  it  has  a  natural  charm, 
a  raciness,  a  native  atmosphere  which  give  it  a  peculiar  flavour 
and  attraction.  Literary  contests,  veladas,  certames^  xogos 
froraes,  keep  the  flame  of  poetry  alive  in  Galicia,  but  in  its 
anonymous  form  it  is  a  very  vigorous  growth  which  needs  no 
fostering,  and  flourishes  now  as  it  flourished  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries,  as  it  flourished  in  the  time  of  the  Romans. 
Hundreds  of  anonymous  quadras  [cantiga,  cantar,  cantarino, 
cantilena,  cantiguela,  cantigiiina,  copra,  or  cancio)  have  been 
collected  in  the  Cancionero  Popular  Gallego  (Madrid,   3  vols., 

z  2 


356  APPENDIX 

1886)  by  Jose  Perez  Ballesteros  (I1918).  The  peasant  women 
compose  and  sing  their  songs  to-day^  as  when  Fray  Martin  Sar- 
miento  (1695-1772)  noticed  that  eii  Galicia  las  mujeres  no  solo 
son  poetisas  sino  tamhien  musicas  naturales,^  or  the  Marques  de 
Montcbello  hstcned  to  las  tonos  que  a  coros  cantan  con  fitgas  y 
repeticiones  las  mozuelas,  or  the  Archpriest  of  Hita  w^atched  the 
cantaderas  dancing  (as  well  as  singing)  in  neighbouring  Asturias.^ 
The  ancient  mnineira  rhythm  continues,  and  the  parallel- 
strophed  songs  of  the  early  Cancioneiros  have  their  echoes  in 
the  anonymous  poetry  of  to-day.  It  is,  indeed,  of  interest  to 
note  how  the  poets  of  the  revival  fall  quite  naturally  into  the 
same  parallelism  and  the  same  repetition.*  Besides  these 
muineiras  the  popular  poetry  consists  principally  of  quadras.^ 
Traditional  romances  are  nearly  non-existent.  This  popular 
poetry  (soft,  musical,  malicious,  satirical)  connects  by  a  thread 
of  anonymous  song  the  Galicia  of  to-day  with  the  whole  of  its 
past  life,  and  the  revivalists  are  likely  to  prosper  in  proportion 
as  they  seek  their  inspiration  in  popular  sources,  as  did  Rosalia 
de  Castro.  For  the  Galician  peasants,  living  in  a  land  of  mists 
and  streams,  inlet  arms  of  sea,  dark  pinewoods,  deep-valleyed 
mountains,  green  maize-fields,  and  grey  mysterious  rocks,  a 
land  of  spirits  and  fairies  and  witches,  of  legends  and  ruins,  have 
the  Celt's  instinct  and  love  of  poetry.  Poetry  is  their  natural 
expression.  For  prose  in  Galician  literature  there  is  less  genius, 
and  perhaps  less  incentive,  since  the  country  has  been  described 
with  intimate  knowledge  and  charm  in  the  Castilian  novels  of  Dona 
Emilia  Pardo  Bazan  (1851-1921)  and  Don  Ramon  Maria  del 
Valle-Inclan  (born  in  1870),  and  more  recently  by  Don  Jaime  Sola 
(born  in  1877).  But  the  value  and  possibilities  of  Galician  prose 
have  been  shown  by  D.  Aurelio   Ribalta  (born  in  1864)  in 

'  Cf.  Cancionero,  i.  50  :  Cantade,  ncnas,  cantade  ;  G.  Ferreiro,  Chorimas, 
p.  76,  as  cantigtiinas  das  mofas  ;  R.  de  Castro,  Cant.  Gall.,  p.  102,  As 
meninas  cantan,  cantan.  Cf.  also  E.  Pardo  Bazan,  De  mi  tierra  (1888),  p.  122 : 
las  \coplas'\  gallegas  de  las  cuales  buena  parte  debe  ser  obra  de  hembras. 

*  Memorias  para  la  historia  de  la  poesia  y  poetas  espanoles  (Obras  Postumas, 
vol.  i,  Madrid,  1775,  p.  238,  §  538). 

^  See  C.  da  Ajuda,  ed.  C.  Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  (1904),  ii.  902. 

«  Cf.  R.  de  Castro,  Cantares  Gallegos  (1909  ed.),  p.  18  (mantelo,  refaixo), 
p.  19  {mar,  rio),  pp.  20-1  [e-a),  p.  27  {terras,  vilas),  p.  29  {pousaban,  vivian), 
p.  85  {vestira,  calzara)  ;  Follas  Novas  (1910  ed.),  p.  229  (a-e)  ;  Aires  d'a 
miiia  terra  (ed.  191 1).  p.  35  {queria,  pensaba),  p.  139  {i-a),  p.  249  (a  miles, 
a  centos)  ;  Chorimas,  p.  36  {estrevidos,  ousados)  ;  A.  Camino,  Poesias  Gallegas, 
p.  19  :  Que  noite  aquela  en  que  eu  a  vin  gemindo  !  {chorar  /). 

*  Quatrains  of  which  lines  2  and  4  are  in  rhyme  or  assonance,  e.g.  Rulina 
que  vas  volando  Sin  facer  case  a  ninguen,  Vai  e  dille  a  aquela  nena  Que  sempre 
a  quixen  ben.  Tercetos  are  rarer  {aba).  Sometimes  the  quadra  is  really 
a  tercet  with  line  i  repeated  iaaba). 


THE   GALTCIAN    REVIVAL  357 

Fernixe  (1894)  and  by  D.  Manuel  Lugris  y  Freire  (born  in  1863) 
in  Contos  de  Asieumedre  (1909).  It  is,  indeed,  in  the  conto  that 
especial  success  has  been  won,  and  Heraclio  Perez  Placer, 
whose  novel  Frediccion  appeared  in  1887,  is  widely  known  for 
his  Contos,  Leendas  e  TradiciSs  de  Galicia  (1891),  Contos  da 
Terrina  (1895),  and  Veira  do  Lar  (1901).  Contos  da  Terrina, 
thirty-four  stories  in  some  two  hundred  brief  pages,  are  various 
and  unequal  in  value.  Most  of  them  are  sad,  even  the  harmless 
St.  Martin  magosto  ends  in  a  death.  They  contain  many  in- 
timate descriptions  of  Galicia  and  the  life  of  the  villages  about 
Orense.  There  is  much  pathos  in  Vellina,  yniiia  vellina !,  in 
Rapanota  de  Xasmis,  and  especially  in  Follas  Secas,  an  exquisite 
picture  of  an  old  peasant  dying  alone  in  a  dark  room — its  walls 
are  black  with  smoke,  yellow  maize-cobs  hang  from  the  ceiling — 
while  through  the  open  door  come  all  the  gay  sounds  and  colours 
of  a  Galician  vintage.  The  poetess  Francisca  Herrera,  author 
of  Almas  de  Midler  (19 15)  and  Sorrisas  e  Bdgoas  (1918),  has 
recently  turned  to  prose  with  remafkable  success  in  Neveda 
(1920).  Few  Galician  poets  have  published  volumes  of  prose, 
although  many  have  contributed  as  journalists  to  the  local 
press,  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  prose-writer  who  is  not 
also  a  poet.^  And  it  is  by  its  poetry  that  Galicia  has  won  for 
itself  a  notable  place  in  modern  literature  and  added  another 
leaf  to  the  literary  laurels  of  the  Peninsula. 

*  D.  Aurelio  Ribalta  is  author  in  verse  of  Os  mens  votos  (1903)  and 
Libro  de  Konsagrazidn  (1910);  D.  Manuel  Lugris  of  Soidades  (1894),  Noitebras 
(1910)  ;  Snr.  Perez  Placer  of  Cantares  Gallegos  (1891).  D.  Florencio  Vaa- 
MONDE  (bom  in  i860),  author  of  a  Resume  da  Historia  de  Galicia  (1898), 
also  wrote,  in  verse,  Os  Calaicos  (1894).  Recently  Galician  literature  has 
found  a  keen  historian  in  D.  Eugenic  Carr6  Aldao,  whose  Literatura 
Gallega  (2nd  ed.,  191 1)  also  contains  an  anthology. 


INDEX 


Aboim  (D.  Joan  de),  46,  52. 
Abranches,  Conde  de,  88. 
Abreu  Mousinho  (Manuel  de),  203. 
Academia  das  Sciencias  de  Portugal, 

284. 
Academia  dos  Esquecidos,  261. 
Academia  dos  Generosos,  261. 
Academia  dos  Singulares,  261. 
Academia  Real  da  Historia,  270. 
Academia  Real  das  Sciencias  de  Lis- 

boa,  14,  15,  284,  294. 
Acenheiro.    See  Rodriguez  Azinheiro. 
Ados  dos  Apostolos,  59. 
Adagios,  346. 
Addison  (Joseph),  290. 
Aesop,  60,  350. 
Afonso  I,  188,  211,  305,  307, 
Afonso  III,  38,  42,  46,  52. 
Afonso  IV,  38,  87. 
Afonso  V,  82,  86,  87.  88,  89,  92,  93, 

100,    III,    211,    261. 

Afonso  VI,  260,  268,  295,  311. 
Afonso,  Infante  [xiii  c],  67. 
Afonso,  Infante  [xiv  c],  67,  70. 
Afonso,  Infante  [xv  c],  88,  100,  loi, 

103. 
Afonso,  Mestre,  220. 
Afonso  (Gregorio),  124. 
Afonso  (Martim),  Mestre,  220. 
Aguia,  A,  333. 
Agustobrica,  234. 
Airas  (Joan),  52. 
Aires  (Francisco),  247. 
Alarcon  (Pedro  Antonio  de),  297. 
Alarte  (Vicente)  pseud.    See  Gomez  de 

Moraes. 
Albuquerque  (Afonso  de),  57,  88,  99, 

107,   108,   116,  127,  190,   191,   194, 

198,  199,  200,  201,  202,  2og,  220, 

228-9,  260,  312. 
Albuquerque  (Bras  de),  201-2. 
Albuquerque  (Jeronymo  de),  204. 
Albuquerque  (D.  Jorge  de),  218. 
Alcobaga  (Bernardo  de),  59,  95. 
Alcoforado  (Marianna),  263-4,  3°7' 
Aleandro,  Cardinal,  126. 
Aleixo,  Vida  de  Santo,  60. 
Alexandra,  Queen,  340. 
Alfieri  (Vittorio),  290. 
Alfonso  X,  13,  26,  28,  30,  37,  40,  41-6, 


53.  54.  55.  56,  59.  61.  69.  91,  98. 
103,  124,  126,  349. 

Alfonso  XI,  38,  42,  90. 

Alfonso  Onceno,  Poenia  de,  73. 

Almeida  (Cristovam  de),  245. 

Almeida  (Diogo  de),  192. 

Almeida  (Fortunato  de),  307. 

Almeida  (D.  Francisco  de),  92,  98. 

Almeida  (D.  Leonor  de),  276. 

Almeida  (Lopo  de),  92,  128. 

Almeida  (Manuel  de),  205. 

Almeida  (Rodrigo  Antonio  de),  163. 

Almeida  (Theodoro  de),  285. 

Almeida  e  Medeiros  (Lourengo  de), 
301. 

Almeida  Garrett  (Joao  Baptista  da 
Silva  Leitao),  Visconde  de,  21,  33, 
74,  186,  242,  261,  277,  279,  287- 
92,  293,  294,  299,  300,  302.  309,  338. 

Alorna,  Marquesa  de  [D.  Leonor  de  Al- 
meida Portugal  Lorena  e  Lencastre, 
Condessa  de  Assumar,  Condessa  de 
Oeynhausen],  274,  276-7,  294. 

Alvarengo  Peixoto  (Ignacio  Jose  de), 
274. 

Alvarez  (Afonso),  157. 

Alvarez  (Francisco),  33,  219-20,  224. 

Alvarez  (Joao),  89. 

Alvarez  (Luis),  245. 

Alvarez  de  Andrade  (Fernam),  239. 

Alvarez  de  Lousada  Machado  (Gas- 
par),  62. 

Alvarez  de  Villasandino  (Alfonso),  77, 

79.  125. 
Alvarez  do  Oriente   (Fernam),    152, 

253.  25.5- 
Alvarez  Pereira  (Nuno),  50,  62,   8t, 

84,  86,  92,  155,  291,  306,  307. 
Amadis  de  Gaula,  64,  65-71,  119,  225. 
Amaral  (Antonio  Caetano  do),  292. 
Amaral  (Francisco  do),  245. 
Amaro,  Vida  de  Santo,  60. 
Ambrogini  (Angelo).     See  Poliziano. 
Amigo  (Pedro)  de  Sevilha,  51. 
Amorim.     See  Gomes  de  Amorim. 
Andrade  (Antonio  de),  204. 
Andrade    (Francisco    de),    189,    209, 

224,  239. 
Andrade    (Thome    de).      See    Jesus 

(Thome  de). 
Andrade    Caminha    (Pero    de),    143, 

149-50,  213. 


360 


INDEX 


Andrade  Corvo  (Joao  de),  295. 
Andrade  e  Silva  (Jose  Bonifacio  de), 

274. 
Anez  Solaz  (Pedro),  29. 
Angeles  (Juan  de  los),  250. 
Angra,  Bishop  of,  287. 
Anjos  (Luis  dos),  247. 
Anjos  (Manuel  dos),  247. 
Annunzio  (Gabriele  d"),  321. 
Anon  (Francisco),  348. 
Anrique.     See  Henrique. 
Anriquez  (Luis),  100,  102-3. 
Antonio,  Mestre,  125. 
Antonio,  D.,  Prior  of  Crato,  145,  195, 

229,  236,  263. 
Antonio  (Nicolds),  68,  93,   130,   169, 

192,  197,  207,  212. 
Antunes  (Joao),  249. 
Aquinas  (Thomas).     See  Thomas. 
Araujo  (Joaquim  de),  335. 
Araujo  de  Azevedo  (Antonio  de),  273. 
Arcadia,  A  Nova,  270. 
Arcadia  Ulyssiponense,  270,  271,  272, 

273- 
Archivo  Historico  Porttiguez,  308. 
Argote  de  Molina  (Gonzalo),  77. 
Arias  Montano  (Benito),  209. 
Ariosto    (Lodovico),    139,    140,    146, 

152,  164,  180,  197,  260. 
Aristotle,  85,  90,  92,  119,  163,  193. 
Arnoso,    Bernardo    Pinheiro    Corr^a 

de  Mello,  Conde  de,  324. 
Arquivo.     See  Archivo. 
Arquivo    Historico    Portugues.       See 

Archivo  Historico  Portugiicz. 
Arraez  (Jeronimo),  238. 
Arraez    de    Mendoga    (Amador),    16, 

227,  232,  235,  237-S. 
Arte  de  Furtar,  125,  264-5,  272. 
Asenjo  Barbieri  (Francisco),  36,  123. 
Athaide  (Catherina  de),  175,  179. 
Athaide  Oliveira    (Francisco   Xavier 

de),  347- 
Augustine,  Saint,  26,  56,  loi,  115. 
Austen  (Jane),  316. 
Auto  da  Fome,  162. 
Auto  da  Forneira  de  Aljubarrota,  163. 
Auto  da  Gerafao  Humana,  156. 
Auto  das  Padeiras,  162. 
Auto  de  Deus  Padre,  156-7. 
Auto  del  Nascimiento  de  Christo,  155. 
Auto  de  Santa  Genoveva,  162. 
Auto  do  Dia  de  Juizo,  157. 
Auto  do  Escudeiro  Surdo,  125. 
Auto    Figurado    da    Degolafao    dos 

Inocentes,  162. 
Aveiro,  D.  Joao  de  Lencastre,  Duque 

de,  221. 
Aveiro,  Dukes  of,  71. 
Aveiro  (Pantaleam  de),  220. 


Avellar  Brotero  (Felix  de),  17. 
Avicenna,  85. 

Avis,  Mestre  de.     See  Jocto  1. 
Aj'res  de  Magalhaes  Sepulveda  (Cris- 

tovam),  223,  334-5. 
Ayres  Victoria  (Anrique),  165. 
Azevedo  (Briolanja  de),  142. 
Azevedo  (Guilherme  de).  See  Azevedo 

Chaves. 
Azevedo  (Joao  Lucio  de),  307. 
Azevedo  (Luis  de),  100. 
Azevedo  (Manuel  de),  17. 
Azevedo   (Maximiliano  Eugenio  de), 

310. 
Azevedo  (Pedro  A.  de),  13,  81,  211, 

308. 
Azevedo  Chaves  (Guilherme  Avelino 

de),  330. 
Azevedo  Tojal  (Pedro  de),  274. 
Azinheiro.    See  Rodriguez  Azinheiro. 
Azorin  pseud.    [Don    Jose    Martinez 

Ruiz],  134,  326. 
Azurara.     See  Zurara. 


B 


See 


Bacellar     (Antonio    Barbosa). 

Barbosa  Bacellar. 
Bacon  (Francis),  209. 
Bahia  (Jeronimo),  256. 
Baiao  (Antonio),  13. 
Baist  (Gottfried),  65,  70. 
Balzac  (Honore  de),  299. 
Bandarra  (Gonzalo  Annez),  265,  268, 

340-1. 
Bandello  (Matteo),  231.  ' 
Barata  (Antonio  Francisco),  272. 
Barbieri     (Francisco     Asenjo).       Sec 

Asenjo  Barbieri. 
Barbosa  (Ayres),  106. 
Barbosa  (Duarte),  198,  219,  227. 
Barbosa  Bacellar  (Antonio),  256. 
Barbosa  de  Carvalho  (Tristao),  247. 
Barbosa  Machado   (Diogo),   87,    168, 

192,  197,  217,  220,  232,  236,  240, 

250,  284. 
Barcellos,     Conde    de.      See     Pedro 

Afonso. 
Bdrcia  Caballero  (Juan),  351. 
Baretti  (Giuseppe),  270. 
Barlaam  e  Josaphat,  Lenda  dos  Santos, 

59. 
Barradas  (Manuel),  205. 
Barreira  (Joao  da),  203. 
Barreiros  (Caspar),  219. 
Barreiros  (Lopo),  219. 
Barreto  (Francisco),  177,  178,  195. 
Barreto  (Pedro),  178. 
Barros  (Bras  de),  95. 
Barros  (Guilherme  Augusto  de),  295. 
Barros  (Joao  de),  20,  69,  75,  86,  88, 


INDEX 


361 


95,  113,  169,  180,  181,  184,  190, 
192-5,  196,  197,  198,  201,  206,  207, 
208,  215,  216,  218,  220,  232,  233, 

243.  344- 
Barros  (Joao  de),  of  Oporto,  68,  125, 

253- 
Barros  (Joao  de),  poet,  336. 
Barros  (Lopo  de),  192. 
Baudelaire  (Charles),  336. 
Beatriz,    Infanta,    mother    of    King 

Manuel,  iii. 
Beatriz,   Infanta,   daughter  of  King 

Manuel,  120,  133,  291. 
Beauvais  (Vincent  de),  44. 
Beccari  (Camillo),  205.  % 

Beckford  (William),  iii,  277,  296. 
Beirao  (Mario),  334. 
Beja,  Bishop  of.     See  Villas-Boas.. 
Belchior,  Padre,  223. 
Bembo  (Pietro),  39,  140,  212. 
Bento,  Regra  de  S.,  59. 
Berceo  (Gonzalo  de),  43. 
Beresford   (William  Carr),   Viscount, 

290. 
Berger  (S.),  338. 
Bermudez  (Geronimo),  165. 
Bernard,  St.,  94,  207. 
Bernardes  (Manuel),  14,   16,  20,  224, 

245,  249-50,  261. 
Bernardes  (Maria),  249. 
Bernardez    (Diogo),    14,    143,    145-7, 

148, 149,153.  181,  183,  184. 185,  272. 
Bezerra  (Branca),  no. 
Bible,  The,  59,  94,  95,  113,  128,  170, 

246,  251,  338. 
Blester  (Ernesto),  314. 
Bilac  (Olavo),  335. 

Bingre  (Francisco  Joaquim),  270. 

Bluteau  (Raphael),  284-5. 

Bocage  (Manuel  Maria  de  Barbosa 
du),  186,  275,  277-8,  281. 

Bocarro  (Antonio),  19S. 

Boccaccio  (Giovanni),  132,  231,  340. 

Boccalini  (Traiano),  255. 

Boileau  (Nicolas),  274. 

Bonamis,  122. 

Bonaval  (Bernaldo  de),  28,  29. 

Bonifazio  II,  41. 

Bonilla  y  San  Martin  (Adolfo),  339. 

Boosco  Delleytoso,  93-4. 

Bordallo  (Francisco  Maria),  316. 

Borges  (G<)ngalo),  176. 

Bomelh  (Guiraut  de),  48,  344. 

Boron  [  =  Borron]  (Robert  de),  64. 

Boscan  Almogaver  (Juan),  58,  136, 
140,  143,  154,  160,  172,  181. 

Bosco  Deleitoso.  See  Boosco  Delley- 
toso. 

Bosque  (Dimas),  226. 

Boswell  (James),  302. 


Botclho  (Abel  Acacio  de  Almeida), 
311,  321-2. 

Botelho  (Afonso),  325. 

Bouterwek  (Friedrich),  14,  137. 

Braamcamp  Freire  (Anselmo),  14,  15, 
81,  84,  112,  115,  308. 

Braga  (Alberto  Leal  Barradas  Mon- 
teiro),  325-6. 

Braga  (Guilherme),  330. 

Braga  (Joaquim  Theophilo  Fer- 
nandes),  14,  15,  23,  24,  37,  65,  70, 
74,  75,  76,  90,  III,  112,  133,  137, 
142,  231,  253,  304,  309,  342,  344, 

345.  347- 
Braganza,  Ferdinand,  Duke  of,  97. 
Braganza,  Isabella,  Duchess  of,  149. 
Braganza,  James,  Duke  of,  103,  120. 
Braganza,     John,     Duke     of.       See 

Joao  IV. 
Braganza,  Theodosio,  Duke  of,  147, 

153- 
Brancuti,   di    Cagli,    Paolo   Antonio, 

Conte,  37. 
Brandao  (Antonio),  73,  207,  208,  216. 
Brandao  (Diogo),  102,  103-4. 
Brandao  (Francisco),  62,  208. 
Brandao  (Hilario),  241. 
Brandao  (Julio),  327-8,  335. 
Brandao  (Maria),  137. 
Brandao  (Raul),  328. 
Braunfels  (Ludwig  von),  65. 
Bridges  (Robert),  336. 
Brito  (Bernardo  de),  18,  72,  139,  206- 

8,  215,  216,  251. 
Brito  (Duarte  de),  104,  118,  124,  127. 
Brito  Aranha  (Pedro  Wenceslau  de), 

308. 
Brito  de  Andrade  (Balthasar  de),  207. 
Brito  Pestana  (Alvaro  de),  100,  loi, 

127. 
Brito  Rebello   (Jacinto  Ignacio  de), 

112,  168. 
Brochado  (Luis),  341. 
Brule  (Gace),  48. 
Bruno  pseud.     See  Pereira  de  Sam- 

paio. 
Buchanan  (George),  106. 
Bulhao    Pato    (Raimundo    Antonio), 

302-3. 
Bunyan  (John),  249. 
Buonarroti  (Michelangelo),  230. 
Burgos  (Andre  de),  18,  203. 
Bussinac  (Peire  de),  47. 
Byron,  George  Gordon  Noel,  Lord, 

183,  302. 


Caamooes.     See  Camoes. 
;    Caballero    (Ferndn)    pseud.     [Cecilia 
'       Bohl  de  FaberJ,  316. 


362 


INDEX 


Cabanillas  (Ramon),  355. 

CabedodeVasconcellos  (Jos6dc),  109. 

Cabral  (Paulo  Antonio),  278. 

Cabral  (Pedro  Alvarez),  107. 

Cacegas  (Luis  de),  242. 

Caceres  (Louren^o  de),  191,  102. 

Caiel  pseud.     See  Pestana  (Alice). 

Cairel  (Elias),  112. 

Caldas  (Jose  de),  321. 

Caldeira  (Fernando  Afonso  Geraldes), 

310. 
Calderon  de  la  Barca   (Pedro),    129, 

130.  249- 

Calvo  (Pedro),  244. 

Camacho  (Diogo),  256. 

Camara  (D.  Joao  Gon9alves  Zarco 
da),  311,  326,  327. 

Caminha  (Antonio  Louren^o),  147. 

Caminha  (Joao),  149,  150. 

Camino  (Alberto),  348-9. 

Camoes  (Luis  de),  14,  16,  20,  77,  130, 
139,  147,  148,  149,  150,  152,  153, 
155.  158.  166,  167,  174-86,  193, 
197,  204,  206,  216,  217,  226,  229, 
256,  258,  259,  260,  261,  272,  277, 
278,  281,  338. 

Campancho  (Airas).    See  Carpancho. 

Campos  (Agostinho  de),  231. 

Campos  (Claudia  de),  324. 

Campos  Moreno  (Diogode),  204. 

Cancioneirinko  de  Trovas  Antigas,  36, 

37.  39. 
Cancioneiro  Colocci-Brancuti,  27,  35, 

37.  38,  63,  66,  69,  70,  140. 
Cancioneiro  da  Ajuda,  36,  37,  38,  39, 

56.  6i- 
Cancioneiro  da  Vaticana,  13,  36,  37, 

38,  50.  73.  96.  98,  125,  344. 

Cancioneiro  del  Rei  D.  Dinis,  36,  37. 

Cancioneiro  de  Resende.  See  Can- 
cioneiro Geral. 

Cancioneiro  Gallego-Castelhano,  36, 
67.  76,  77. 

Cancioneiro  Geral,  13,  33,  36,  79,  96- 
105,  118,  122,  123,  124,  125,  128, 
129,  140,  141,  167,  184,  225,  256. 

Cancionero  de  Baena,  36,  66,  77,  79,  96. 

Cancionero  General,  36,  98,  104. 

Cancionero  Musical.  See  Ascnjo  Bar- 
bieri. 

Cancionero  Popular  Gallego,  36,  355-6. 

Cantanhede,  Conde  de,  loi. 

Canzoniere  Portoghese  Colocci-Bran- 
cuti. See  Cancioneiro  Colocci-Bran- 
cuti. 

Canzoniere  Portoghese  della  Biblioteca 
Vaticana.  See  Cancioneiro  da 
Vaticana. 

Cardim  (Antonio  Francisco),  217. 

Cardim  (Fernam),  205. 


Cardoso  (Joao),  245. 
Cardoso  (Jorge),  71. 
Carlos  Magno,  Verdadeira  Historia  do 

Imperador,  339. 
Carneiro  da  Cunha  (Alfredo),  336. 
Carpancho  (Airas),  29. 
Carre  Aldao  (Eugenio),  357. 
Cartagena    (Alonso    de).    Bishop    of 

Burgos,  91. 
Cartas  que  as  Padres  .  .  .  escreveram, 

205. 
Carvalho  de  Parada  (Antonio),  266. 
Casimiro  (Augusto),  334. 
Casquicio  (Fernam),  77,  78. 
Castanheda  (Fernam  Lopez  de).     See 

Lopez  de  Castanheda. 
Castanheira,  Conde  de  [or  da],   141, 

214. 
Castanhoso  (Miguel  de),  196,  203. 
Castelar  (Emilio),  349. 
Castello   Branco   (Camiilo),  Visconde 

de  Correa  Botelho,  109,   134,   187, 

243,  256,  286,  295,  297-9,  304,  325, 

332. 
Castello  Rodrigo,  Marqueses  de,  211. 
Castiglione  (Baldassare),  154. 
Castilho  (Antonio  de),  203. 
Castilho  (Antonio  Feliciano) , Visconde 

de,  292,  299-300,  302,  304,  316. 
Castilho  (Joao  de),  203. 
Castilho  (Julio),  second  Visconde  de, 

278,  304. 
Castillejo  (Cristobal  de),  33. 
Castro  (Augusto  de),  314. 
Castro  (Eugenio  de),  336-7. 
Castro  (In6s  de),  75,  84,  97,  165,  273, 

282,  284,  304,  310,  312. 
Castro  (D.   Joao  de),   158,   187,   190, 

199,  227-8,  243,  266. 
Castro  (D.  Joao  de),  novelist,  321. 
Castro  (Joao  Baptista  de),  248. 
Castro  (Publia  Hortensia  de),  107. 
Castro  de  Murguia  (Rosalia  de),  348, 

349-50,  352.  353.  356- 
Castro  e  Almeida  (Virginia  de),  325. 
Castro  Osorio  (Anna  de),  324-5. 
Catherina,  Queen,  120. 
Catherine  II,  Empress  of  Russia,  286. 
Cava,  Poema  da,  72. 
Caxton  (William),  60. 
Ceita  (Joao  da),  17,  244-5. 
Celestina,  La,  65,  124,  159,  167,  169, 

254,  262. 
Ceo  (Maria  do)  [Maria  de  E9a],  257. 
Ceo   (Violante  do)   [Violante  Monte- 

sino],  35,  235,  256-7. 
Cervantes  (Miguel  de),   78,   116,   130, 

152,  233,  241,  262,  265,  284. 
Cerveira  (Afonso),  86. 
Chagas  (Antonio  das),  221,  248-9,  261. 


INDEX 


363 


Chamilly,  Noel  Bouton,  Marquis  de, 

263,  264. 
Charino    (Pai    Gomez).      See  Gomez 

Charino. 
Charles  V,  Emperor,   121,  212,   215, 

229. 
Chatillon,  Due  de,  233. 
Cliiado.     See  Ribeiro  Chiado. 
Child   Rolim  de  Moura   (Francisco), 

-.57- 
Chrisfal,  Trovas  de.    Sec  Crisfal. 
Christina,  Queen  of  Sweden,  268. 
Chronica.     See  Cronica. 
Cicero,   86,   87,   90,   91,   92,   94,   209, 

214,  280. 
Cid,  Poema  del,  23,  46,  63. 
Claro  (Joao),  59. 
Claudian,  277. 
Clenardus  (Nicolaus),   106,   125,  215, 

251- 
Cleynarts  (Nicholas).    See  Clenardus. 
Clusius.     See  ficluse. 
Codax  (Martin),  29. 
Coelho  (Estevam),  30,  52. 
Coelho  (Francisco  Adolpho),  15,  112, 

231,  308,  347. 
Coelho  (Jorge),  180. 
Coelho  da  Cunha  (Jose),  336. 
Coelho  Rebello  (Manuel),  163. 
Coimbra  (Leonardo  de),  20. 
Coincy  (Gautier  de),  43,  44. 
Colocci  (Angelo),  37,  39. 
Colonna  (Egidio),  66. 
Colonna  (Vittoria),  140,  230. 
Conceigao  (Alexandre  da),  330. 
Conestaggio    (Girolamo   Franchi   di), 

210. 
Congreve  (William),  224. 
Conquista  de  Ultramar,  Gran,  339. 
Consciencia  (Manuel),  250. 
Consiglieri  Pedroso   (Zophimo),   307, 

347- 
Cordeiro  (Antonio),  138,  206. 
Cordeiro  (Luciano),  307. 
Cornu  (Jules),  59. 

Corpancho  (Airas).     See  Carpancho. 
Corpancho  (Manuel  Nicolas),  29. 
Corpus    Illustrium    Poetarum    Lusi- 

tanorum,  18. 
Coronica  do  Covdestahre  de  Purtugal. 

See  Cronica. 
Correa  (Caspar),  14,  20,  88,  177,  194, 

198-201,  226. 
Correa  (Jeronimo),  112. 
Correa  (Luis  Franco),  186. 
Correa   de    OUveira    (Antonio),    332, 

337- 
Correa  Gar9ao  (Pedro  Antonio  Joa- 

quim),  271-2. 
Correa  Pinto  (Roberto),  85. 


Correggio  (Antonio  AUegri  da),  134. 

Correia.     See  Corrfia. 

Carte  Imperial,  94,  113. 

Corte  Real  (Jeronimo),  181,  187-b. 

Cortesao  (Jaime),  314,  342. 

Costa  (Antonio  da),  286. 

Costa  (Bras  da),  99. 

Costa    (Claudio    Manuel    da),     274, 

279. 
Costa  (Diogo  da),  163. 
Costa  (D.  Francisco  da),  239,  240. 
Costa  (Leonel  da),  144. 
Costa  (Manuel  da),  180. 
Costa    Lobo  (Antonio  de   Sousa    da 

Silva),  307,  312. 
Costa  Perestrello  (Pedro  da),  147-8. 
Cota  (Rodrigo),  23. 
CoudelMor,  O.    See  Silveira  (Fernam 

de). 
Coutinho  (Fernando  de),  99. 
Coutinho   (D.   Francisco),   Conde   de 

Redondo,  178,  220. 
Coutinho  (D.  Gon9alo),  140,  206. 
Couto  (Diogo  do),  138,  177,  178,  184, 

190,    192,    195-8,    216,    218,    225, 

254- 
Couto  Guerreiro  (Miguel  de),  285. 
Craveiro  (Tiburcio  Antonio),  54. 
Crisfal,  Trovas  de,  136-9. 
Cristoforus,  Dr.,  82. 
Cronica  Breve  do  Archive  Nacional, 

60. 
Cronica    da    Conquista    do    Algarve, 

61. 
Cronica  da  Fundagam  do  Mosteiro  de 

S.  Vicente,  61. 
Cronica  da  Ordem  dos  Frades  Menores, 

60. 
Cronica  do  Cardeal  Rei  D.  Henrique, 

210. 
Cronica  do  Condestabre  de  Portugal, 

84-5- 
Cronica  dos  Vicentes.    See  Cronica  da 

Fundagam. 
Cronica  Troy  ana,  61. 
Cronicas  Breves,  60. 
Cruz  (Agostinho  da),  145,  148. 
Cruz  (Bernardo  da),  209. 
Cruz  (Caspar  da),  220. 
Cunha  (Joao  Louren90  da),  31. 
Cunha  (Jose  Anastasio  da),  274. 
Cunha  (Nuno  da),  161,  176,  199. 
Cunha  (D.  Rodrigo  da),  243. 
Cunha  (Tristao  da),  97,  116. 
Cunha  Rivara    (Joaquim    Heliodoro 

da),  292. 
Curros    Enriquez     (Manuel),    353-4, 

355- 
Curvo      Semedo      Torres      Sequeira 
(Belchior  Manuel),  278. 


364 


INDEX 


D 

Daniel  (Samuel),  164. 

Danse  macabre,  123. 

Dantas  (Julio),  313. 

Dante  Alighieri,  19,  54,  123,  139,  146, 

179,  188.  197,  237. 
Danza  de  la  Mnerte,  123. 
De  Imitatione  Christi,  240. 
Delicado  (Antonio),  346. 
Demanda  do  Santo  Graall,  63,  64,  67, 

71- 
Denis,  King.     See  Dinis. 
Denis  (Jean  Ferdinand),  19,  307. 
Deslandes  (Venancio),  231. 
Desmond,  Maurice,  first  Earl  of,  289. 
Destroyfum  de  Jerusalem.     See   Ves- 

peseano,  Estorea  de. 
Destruction  de  Jerusalem,  64. 
Deus  (Joao  de).    See  Nogueira  Ramos. 
Dias  (Epiphanio).     See  Silva  Dias. 
Dias  Gomes  (Francisco),  20,  21,  269, 

285. 
Diaz  (Balthasar),  158-9,  289,  339. 
Diaz  (Bartholomeu),  98. 
Diaz  (Henrique),  218,  279. 
Diaz  (D.  Lopo),  51. 
Diaz  (Nicolau),  215. 
Diaz  (Ruy),  El  Cid,  92, 
Diaz  de  Landim  (Caspar),  88. 
Dickens  (Charles),  315. 
Dinis,  King,  13,  14,  28,  30.  37,  38,  39, 

48.  51.  52.  53.  54-7.  58.  59,  60,  61, 

67,  69,  70.  105.  140.  208,  294,  339. 
Diniz,  King.     See  Dinis. 
Diniz  (Joao),  335. 
Diniz     (Julio)    pseud.       See    Gomes 

Coelho. 
Diniz  da  Cruz  e  Silva  (Antonio),  186, 

273-4.  340- 
Dioscorides,  226. 
Ditos  da  Freira.    See  Gama  (D.  Joana 

da). 
DoUinger  (Johann  Joseph  Ignaz  von), 

295- 
Dornellas  (Afonso  de),  307. 
Dozy  (Reinhart),  22. 
Drake  (Sir  Francis),  150. 
Dryden  (John),  209. 
Duarte,  Infante  [•|-i576],  150. 
Duarte,   Infante  [■|-i54o],   brother  of 

Joao  III,  164,  167,  215. 
Duarte,  Infante,  brother  of  Joao  V, 

307- 
Duarte,  Kmg,  13,  38,  46,  55,  59,  63, 

79,  81,  82,  83,  86,  87,  88,  90-2,  93, 

124,  211. 
Duarte  (Afonso),  334. 
Duarte  de  Almeida  (Manuel),  335. 
Dtirer  (Albrecht),  212. 


Eanez  (Rodrigo).     See  Yannez. 
Eanez  de  Vasconcellos  (D.  Rodrigo), 

54- 
Eanez    de    Zurara    (Gomez).      See 

Zurara. 
Eannez.     See  Eanez. 
Eannez  (Rodrigo).     See  Yannez. 
fibrard  (Aymeric  d'),  54. 
E9a  (Maria  de).     See  Ceo  (Maria  do). 
E9a  de  Queiroz  (Jose  Maria  de),  97, 

314,  316-18,  322,  325. 
Eccos    que    0    Clarim    da    Fania    dci, 

256. 
ficluse  (Charles  de  1'),  226. 
Edward  I,  of  England,  41. 
Egas  Moniz.     See  Moniz  Coelho. 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  209. 
Eloy,  Lenda  de  Santo,  60. 
Elysio  (Filinto).     See  Nascimento. 
Encarna9ao  (Antonio  da),  242. 
Ennes  (Antonio),  18,  310,  314. 
Enzina  (Juan  del),  19,  109,  113,  122, 

123,  124. 
Erasmus  (Desiderius),  130,  212,  215. 
Ericeira,  Conde  da.     See  Meneses. 
Esguio  (Fernando),  29. 
Esopo,  Livro  de,  60. 
Espelho  de  Prefeygam,  95. 
Espelho    de    Christina.       See    Pisan 

(Christine  de). 
Esperan9a,  Visconde  de,  187. 
Esperan9a  (Manuel  da),  243. 
Espinola  (Fradique),  247-8. 
Espirito    Santo    (Antonio    do).      See 

Ribeiro  Chiado. 
Esplandian.     See  Sergas. 
Espronceda  (Jose  de),  301. 
Esquio  (Fernando).     See  Esguio. 
Esta90  (Achilles),  106. 
Esta90  (Balthasar),  151. 
Esta90  (Caspar),  151. 
Este  (Joao  Baptista  d'),  245. 
Esteves    Negrao    (Manuel    Nicolau), 

273- 
Esteves  Pereira  (Francisco  Maria),  14, 

60,  64,  84,  90,  308. 
Estorea    de    Vespeseano.       See    Ves- 

peseano. 
Estrella  (Antonio  da),  162,  338. 
Eufrosina,  Vida  de,  59. 


Falcao    (Cristovam   de  Sousa),    105, 

137-9.  197- 
Falcao  de  Resende  (Andr^),  21,  150-1, 
Faria  (Antonio  de),  2^2. 
Faria  (Pedro  de),  222. 


INDEX 


365 


Faria  e  Sousa  (Manuel  dc),  18,  20,  68, 
130,  140.  145,  147,  153,  176,  180, 
184,  187,  204,  209,  216,  224,  282. 

Faria  Severim  (Manuel  de),  215. 

Feijo  (Antonio  Joaquim  de  Castro), 

335- 
Feijoo  (Jose  Sanchez),  347. 
Felipe,  Infante,  120. 
Fenelon  (Fran9ois  dc),  285. 
Fenix  Renascida,  155,  256,  276. 
Feo  (Antonio),  17,  156,  244. 
Ferdinand,  King.     See  Fernamlo. 
Fernandes  Thomaz  Pippa  (Annibal), 

308. 
Fernandez  (Alvaro),  217. 
Fernandez  (Antonio),  230. 
Fernandez  (Diogo)  [xv  c],  92. 
Fernandez  (Diogo)  [xv  c.  poet],  112. 
Fernandez  (Diogo)  [xvi  c],  234. 
Fernandez  (Lucas),  124. 
Fernandez  (Roy),  30. 
Fernandez  Alemao  (Valentim),  95. 
Fernandez  de  Lucena  (Vasco),  87,  88. 
Fernandez  Ferreira  (Diogo),  89,  229. 
Fernandez  Galvao  (Francisco),  244. 
Fernandez  Torneol  (Nuno),  28,  31. 
Fernandez  Trancoso  (Gon9alo),  231-2, 

338- 
Fernando,  Infante  [son  of  Joao  I], 

81,  89. 
Fernando,     Infante     [son     of     King 

Manuel],  230. 
Fernando,  King  Consort,  292,  293. 
Fernando  I,  of  Portugal,  84,  210. 
Fernando  III,  of  Castile,  40,  41,  51. 
Ferrandez  de  Gerena  (Garci),  78-9. 
Ferreira  (Antonio),   13,  67,  103,  145, 

148-9,  165,  166,  272. 
Ferreira  (Carlos),  339. 
Ferreira  de  Almeida  (Joao),  338. 
Ferreira  de  Azevedo  (Antonio  Xavier), 

340. 
Ferreira  de  Figueiroa  (Diogo),  262. 
Ferreira  de  Lacerda  (Bernarda),   18, 

257- 
Ferreira  de  Vasconcellos  (Jorge),  14, 

16,  74,  loi,  130,  155,  164,  166,  167- 

73,  232,  251,  33S,  346. 
Ferreira  de  Vera  (Alvaro),  182. 
Ferrer  (Miguel),  234. 
Ferrus  (Pero),  66,  67. 
Feuillet  (Octave),  299. 
Fialho  de  Almeida  (Jose  Valentim), 

322,  326. 
Ficalho,     Francisco    Manuel     Carlos 

de  Mello,  third  Conde  de,  226,  308, 

326. 
Fielding  (Henry),  255. 
Figueira  (GuiUierme),  32. 
Figueiredo  (Antero  de),  323. 


Figueiredo  (Antonio  Candido  de),  308. 
Figueiredo  (Fidelinodc  Sousa),  16,308. 
Figueiredo  (Manuel  de),  282,  290. 
Fitzmaurice-Kelly  (James),  16. 
Flaubert  (Gustave),  235,  319. 
Flores  e  Branca  Flor,  Historia  de,  65, 

339.  340- 
Florida.     See  Relafam  Verdadeira  do^ 

trabalhos. 
Flos  Sanctorutn,  94,  225,  259. 
Fonseca  (Balthasar  Luis  da),  163. 
Fonseca  (Joao  da),  249. 
Fonseca  Soares  (Antonio  da),  248. 
Fontaines,  Baron  de,  233. 
Forner  (Juan  Pablo),  281. 
Fradique,  Infante,  83. 
Franco     (Luis).       See  Correa   (Luis 

Franco). 
Fran9ois  I,  212. 
Frederick  III,  Emperor,  93. 
Freire  (Antonio),  262. 
Freire  (Francisco  Jose),  285. 
Freire    de    Andrade    (Jacinto),    256. 

261,  266-7. 
Froissart  (Jean),  81,  83. 
Fructuoso  (Caspar),  138,  206. 
Furtado  de  Mendoza  (Diego),  22. 


Galaaz,  O  Livro  de,  63. 

Galen,  226. 

Galhegos  (Manuel  de),  58,  74,  258. 

Galvam    (Antonio),   190,   igi,   202-3, 

219. 
Galvam  (Duarte),  88,  180,  202,  219. 
Galvam  (Francisco),  147-8. 
Galvam  de  Andrade  (Antonio),  17. 
Gama  (Arnaldo  de  Sousa  Dantas  da), 

295- 
Gama  (D.  Cristovam  da),  203. 
Gama  (D.  Estevam  da),  196. 
Gama  (D.  Joana  da),  241. 
Gama  (Jose  Basilio  da),  279. 
Gama  (Leonarda  Gil  da).    See  Gloria 

(Maria  Magdalena  Euphemia  da). 
Gama  (D.  Vasco  da),  Conde  de  Vidi- 

gueira,   99,  107,  175,  190,  191,  192, 

196,  200,  301,  312. 
Gama  Barros  (Henrique),  307. 
Gandavo.  See  Magalhaes  deGandavo. 
Garcia  (Fernan),  Esgaravunha,  52. 
Garcia  (Pero)  de  Burgos,  51. 
Garcia  de  Castrogeriz  (Johan),  66. 
Garcia  de  Guilhade  (D.  Joan),  51. 
Garcia deMascarenhas  (Bras),  259-60. 
Garcia  Ferreiro  (Alberto),  340,  354. 
Garcia  Peres  (Domingo),  18,  151, 
Garret  (B.),  Chariteo,  289. 
Garrett.     See  Almeida  Garrett. 
Garrido  (Luiz  Guedes  Coutinho),  308. 


366 


INDEX 


Gautier  (Judith),  335. 

Gavaudan,  40. 

Gavy  de  Mcndon9a   (Agostinho  de), 

203. 
Gayangos  y  Arce  (Pascual  de),  65. 
Gibbs  (James),  209. 
Gil  (Augusto),  336. 
Gil  y  Carrasco  (Enrique),  316. 
Ginzo  (Martin  de),  29. 
Giraldez  (Afonso),  73. 
Giraldi  (Giambattista),  231. 
Giraldo,  Mestre,  17. 
Glareanus  (Henricus),  212. 
Gloria   (Maria  Magdalena  Euphemia 

da)  [Leonarda  Gil  da  Gama],  257. 
Godinho  (Cristovam),  238. 
Godinho  (Manuel),  221,  240,  254. 
Goes  (Damiao  de),  14,  15,  39,  83,  86, 

88,  92,  113,  194,  202,  209,  211-14, 

215.  265, 
Goethe  (Johann  Wolfgang  von),  290, 

300.  333. 
Goldsmith  (Oliver),  277. 
Gomes  (Joao  Baptista),  273. 
Gomes  Coelho  (Joaquim  Guilherme) 

[Julio  Diniz],  314-16,  317,  324. 
Gomes  de  Amorim  (Francisco),  290, 

301-2,  306,  309,  310. 
Gomes  de  Brito  (Jose  Joaquim),  308. 
Gomes  de  Carvalho  (Theotonio),  273. 
Gomes  Leal  (Antonio  Duarte),  332-3. 
Gomez  (Simao),  341. 
Gomez  Charino  (Pai),  29-30. 
Gomez  de  Briteiros  (Rui),  46. 
Gomez  de  Brito  (Bernardo),  217. 
Gomez  de  Moraes  (Silvestre),  17. 
Gon9alves  Crespo  (Antonio  Candido), 

324,  330-1. 
Gon9alves  Dias  (Antonio),  331. 
Gon9alves  Lima  (Augusto  Jose),  300. 
Gon9alves    Vianna.     See    Gon9alvez 

Viana. 
Gon9alvez  (Ruj'),  229. 
Gon9alvez   de   Seabra    (Fernan),    47, 

48. 
Gon9alvez  Lobato  (Balthasar),  234. 
Gon9alvez  Viana  (Aniceto  dos  Reis), 

18,  294,  308. 
Gongora  (Luis  de),  74,  155,  258. 
Gonta  Colla90  (Branca  de),  336. 
Gonzaga     (Thomaz     Antonio),     274, 

279. 
Gonzalez  de  Sanabria  (Ferrant).    See 

Gon9alvez  de  Seabra. 
Gouvea  (Andre  de),  106. 
Gouvea  (Antonio  de),  106,  206. 
Gouveia.     See  GouvSa. 
Gower  (John),  89,  90. 
Gracian  (Baltasar),  19,  154,  253. 
Granada  (Luis  de),  243. 


Grao  Para,  Bishop  of.    See  S.  Joseph 

Queiroz. 
Grave  (Joao),  321. 
Gray  (Thomas),  277. 
Gregory,  St.,  90. 
Grinalda,  A,  300. 
Guarda  (Stevam),  51. 
Guarda,  Foros  da,  17.  - 
Guedes  Teixeira  (Fausto),  335. 
Guerra    Junqueiro    (Abilio    Manuel), 

331-2. 
Guilhade  (Joan  de),  28,  51,  339. 
Guilherme  (Manuel),  13. 
Guimaraes  (Delfim),  136. 
Gusmao  (Alexandre  de),  286. 
Gusmao  (Alexandre  de),  Jesuit,  249. 

H 

Halifax  (John  of),  227. 
Hallam  (Henrj'),  294. 
Heine  (Heinnch),  351. 
Henrique,  Cardinal,   King,   106,   150, 
164,  210,  214,  219,  227,  238,  250, 

2.51.  311- 
Henrique,  Infante,  18,  86,  88,  89,  90, 

92,  307- 
Henriques  (Guilherme  J.  C),  214. 
Henry  VHL  of  England,  212. 
Henry   the   Navigator,    Prince.      See 

Henrique,  Infante. 
Henry,  of  Burgundy,  Count,  210,  271. 
Henryson  (Robert),  60. 
Herberay  des  Essarts  (Nicholas),  71. 
Herculano    de    Carvalho    e    Araujo 

(Alexandre),  61,  87,   97,    127,   208, 

243,  277,  285,  287,  292-5,  296,  303, 

305.  315- 
Herodotus,  226. 

Herrera  y  Garrido  (Francisca),  357. 
Historia    dos    Cavalleiros    da    Mesa 

Redonda.     See  Demanda  do  Santo 

Graall. 
Historia  Trai^ico-Maritima,  196,  217- 

8. 
Historia  Tristani,  63. 
Historias    abreviadas   do   Testamento 

Velho,  59. 
Hita,  Archpriest  of.     See  Ruiz. 
Hollanda  (Antonio  de),  229. 
HoUanda     (Francisco     de),    229-30, 

237- 
Homem  (Pedro),  105. 
Homer,  19,   143,  174,   180,   182,  183, 

233.  277,  280,  281. 
Horace,  72,  143,  148,  258,  272,  275, 

277. 
Horta.     See  Orta. 
Hugo  (Victor),  293,  306,  308,  310,  331, 

332,  333 


INDEX 


367 


Humboldt  (Alexander  von),  177. 
Hurtado  (Luis),  234. 
Huysmans  (J.  K.),  333- 


Ichoa  (Martini)',  8g. 

Idanha  (Pedro  de  AIca90vaCarneiro), 

Conde  de,  182. 
Ignacio  de  Loyola,  San,  353. 
Isabel,  Empress,  121. 
Isabel,  Infanta,  121. 
Isabel,  Queen  Consort  of  Afonso  V, 

80,  95. 
Isabel,  Queen  Consort  of  Dinis,  54, 

60,  247. 
Isabel,  Queen  of  Spain,  127. 
Isabel,  Vida  de  Santa,  60. 
Ivo     (Pedro)     pseud.       See     Lopes 

(Carlos) . 

J 

Jardin  (G.  du).     See  Orta. 

Jeanroy  (Alfred),  29. 

Jerome,  St.,  85. 

Jesus    (Francisco    de).      See    Sa    de 

Meneses  (F.  de). 
Jesus  (Raphael  de),  208. 
Jesus  (Thome  dc),   14,  20,   189,  237, 

238-40. 
Joana,  Infanta,  215. 
Joao  I,  14,  68,  81,  82,  84,  89-90,  94, 

no,  211. 

Joao  II,  88,  89,  93,  96,  100,  102,  103, 

108,  125, 148,221,  227,246,305,312. 

Joao  III,  98,  103,  106,  107,  no,  117, 

119,   132.   140,   141,   158,   167,   175, 

189,  192,  193,  195,  208,  209,  211, 

215,  226,  232,  233,  237,  296. 

Joao  IV,  216,  242,  244,  253,  259,  265, 

267,  268,  286. 
Joao  V,  270. 
Joao,  Infante  [xvi  c],  106,  143,  150, 

151,  166,  168,  169,  176,  179. 
Joao  de  Calais,    Verdadeira  Historia 

de,  339. 
Joao     Manuel     (D.).        See     Manuel 

(D.  Joao). 
John,  Prester,  219,  225. 
Johnson  (Samuel),  282. 
Jorge,  D.,  221. 
Jorge  (Ricardo),  153. 
Jose  I,  276,  296. 
Josep  ab  Arimatia,  Livro  de,  64. 
Josephine,  Empress,  281, 
Juan  I,  78,  84. 
Juan  de  Austria,  Don,  1S8. 
Juan  Manuel,  Infante  Don,  91,  94. 
Juana,  Infanta,  151. 
Juana,  la  Loca,  Queen,  133. 
Juromenha,       Joao      Antonio      de 


Lemos    Pereira   de    Lacerda,   Vis- 
conde  de,  176,  308. 
Justinianus  (Laurentius),  94. 

K 

Karr  (Alphonse),  322. 
Keats  (John),  138,  281. 


La  Bruy^re  (Jean  de),  91. 
Lacerda  (Augusto),  314. 
Lafoes,  Duque  de,  284. 
Lafoes,  third  Duque  de,  311. 
La  Fontaine  (Jean  de),  117. 
Lamartine  (Alphonse  de),  275,  277. 
Lamas  Carvajal  (Valentin),  350-1. 
Lamennaia   (Hugues  Felicite  Robert 

de),  292. 
Lancastre  (D.  Louren90  de),  273. 
Lang  (Henry  Roseman),  23,  24,  37, 

76,  79,  123. 
Lara  (Joao  Carlos  de),  273. 
Lasso  de  la  Vega  (Garci),   140,   141, 

143,  147,  172,  181,  260. 
Latino  Coelho  (Jose  Maria),  201,  307. 
Lavanha  (Joao  Baptista),  195,  218. 
Lazarillo  de   Tormes,    115,    125,    160, 

265. 
Leam  (Caspar  de),  241. 
Lear,  King,  62. 
Leitao  de  Andrade  (Miguel),  72,  73, 

263. 
Leite  (Solidonio),  266. 
Leite  de  Vasconcellos  Cardoso  Pereira 

de  Melo  (Jose),  15,  33.  34,  60,  308- 

9,  342,  346. 
Leite  Ferreira  (Miguel),  67,  68,  69,  71, 

148. 
Lemos  (Jorge  de),  203. 
Lemos  (Juho  de),  325. 
Lemos  Seixas  Castello  Branco  (Joao 

de),  300,  301. 
Lencastre  (D.  Philippa  de),  80,  94. 
Leo  X,  97. 
Leon   (Luis  de),   133,   236,   238,   239, 

253.  258. 
Leonor.     See  Lianor. 
Leonor,  successively  Queen  of  Por- 
tugal and  France,  233. 
Leopardi  (Giacomo),  Count,  331,  351. 
Lettres  Portiigaises.     See  Alcoforado. 
Levi  (Juda),  94. 
Lianor,  Empress,  93. 
Lianor,  Queen  Consort  of  Duarte,  go. 
Lianor,  Queen  Consort  of  Joao  II,  93, 

95,  III,  112,  113,  114,  119,  120,  229. 
Lima  (Alexandre  Antonio  de),  274. 
Lima  (D.  Rodrigo  de),  219. 
Lima  IPereira  (Paulo  de),  197. 


368 


INDEX 


Linhares,    second     Conde    de.      See 

Noronha  (D.  Francisco  dc). 
Linhares,  Conde  de  [xvii  c.J,  252,  345. 
Linhares,  Violante,  Condessa  de,  239. 
Lipsius  (Justus),  255. 
Lisboa  (Antonio  dc),  162. 
Lisboa  (Cristovam  de),  245. 
Lisboa  (Joao  dc),  227. 
Livro  da  Noa,  60. 
Livro  das  Aves,  00. 
Livro  das  Heras,  60. 
Livro    de    Josep    ab    Arimatia.      See 

Josep. 
Livro  Velho,  61. 
Livro  Vermelho,  17. 
Livros  de  Linhagens,  61. 
Livy,  193,  194. 
Lobato  (Gervasio),  314. 
Lobeira  (Gon^alo  de),  70. 
Lobeira  (Joan  de),  68,  69,  70,  159. 
Lobeira  (Pedro  de),  68,  70,  71. 
Lobeira  (Vasco  de),  67,  68,  69,  70. 
Lobo  (Alvaro),  210. 
Lobo(I).  Francisco  Alexandre),  Bishop 

of  Viseu,  285. 
Lobo    (Francisco    Rodriguez).       See 

Rodriguez  I.-obo. 
LoUis  (Cesare  de),  45. 
Lopes  (Carlos),  325. 
Lopes  (Davi"d  de  Melo),  308. 
Lopes  (Francisco),  155,  162. 
Lopes  de  Mendon9a  (Antonio  Pedro), 

297. 
Lopes     de     Mendon^a     (Henrique), 

312-13. 
Lopes  de  Moura  (Caetano),  37. 
Lopes  Vieira  (Afonso),  337. 
Lopez  (Afonso),  160. 
Lopez  (Anrique),  159. 
Lopez  (Diogo),  84. 
Lopez  (Fernam),   14,   19,  61,  62,  68, 

77,  81-5,  87,  88,  So,  97,  117,  180, 

212,  255. 
Lopez  (Martinho),  81. 
Lopez  (Thome),  204. 
Lopez  Abente  (Gonzalo),  355. 
Lopez  de  Ayala  (Pero),  66,  67. 
Lopez  de  Bayan  (D.  Afonso),  53. 
Lopez  de  Camoes  (Vasco),  77. 
Lopez  de  Castanheda  (Fernam),  180, 

181,  190-1,  192,  193,  194,  197,  198, 

200,  201,  206,  209. 
Lopez  de  Sousa  (Pero),  225. 
Lopez  de  Ulhoa  (D.  Joan),  52. 
Lopo,  jogral,  29. 
Losada  (Benito),  352. 
Loti  (Pierre)  pseud.    [Julicn   Viaud], 

89.  323- 
Louis  XI,  89. 
Louren90,  jogral,  29. 


Lucan,  99. 

Lucena  (Joao  de),  16,  75,  243. 

Lucena  (Vasco  Fernandez  de).     See 

Fernandez  Lucena. 
Liician,  99. 

Ludolph  of  Saxony.     See  Sachsen. 
Lugris  y  Freire  (Manuel),  357. 
Luis,  Infante,   106-7,   ^^8,   170,   185, 

191.  195.  209,  227,  228. 
Luis  (Nicolau),  2S4. 
Lull  (Ramon),  94. 
Luther  (Martin),  126,  212. 
Luz  (Andre  da),  163. 
Luz  (Philipe  da),  17,  244,  245. 
Luz  Soriano  (Simao  Jose  da),  292. 

M 

Macedo  (Anna  de).    See  Sa  e  Macedo. 
Macedo  (Jose  Agostinho  de),  17,  99, 

182,   183,   187,  224,  237,  244,  250, 

277,  278,  279-82,  288. 
Machado  (Julio  Cesar),  325. 
Machado  (Simao),  18,  161. 
Machado  de  Azevedo   (Manuel),   77, 

142. 
Macias,  76-77,  78,  98,  104,  132,  349, 

350. 
Magalhaes  (Fernam  de),  219. 
Magalhaes  (Luiz  Cypriano  Coelho  de), 

319- 
Magalhaes  de   Gandavo  (Pedro    de), 

193,  204,  279. 
Magalhaes  Lima  (Jaime  de),  319,  325. 
Magalona,     Verdadeiva    Historia    da 

Princeza,  65,  339,  340. 
Malheiro  Dias  (Carlos);  320. 
Mallarme  (Stephane),  86. 
Malory  (Sir  Thomas),  85. 
Mangancha  (Diogo  Afonso),  90. 
Manrique  (Gomez),  76,  100,  104. 
Manrique  (Jorge),  76,  100,  102,  104. 
Mantua  (Bento),  314. 
Manuel  I,  88,  89,  96,  101,  103,  107, 

no,   III,   112,  115,   117,   118,  120, 

121,  126,  129,  133,   145,   175,   192, 

200,  201,  202,  208,  209,  211,  214, 

221,  228,  295,  312. 
Manuel,  Infante,  116,  121. 
Manuel  (D.  Joao),  98,  loi. 
Maranhao,  Jornada  do,  204. 
Marcabrun,  39. 
Marcos,  Frei,  59. 
Maria,  Infanta,  15,  107,  no,  121,  193, 

233- 
Maria,  Consort  of  King  Manuel,  118, 
Maria  da  Gloria,  Queen,  288. 
Maria  Egipcia,  Vtda  de,  59. 
Marialva,  second  Conde  de,  241. 
Marialva.  Marques  de,  313. 


INDEX 


369 


Mariana  (Juan  de),  208. 

Marie  Antoinette,  Queen,  277. 

Marinbo  de  Azcvcdo  (Luis),  18. 

Mariz  (Antonio  de),  206. 

Mariz  (Pedro  de),  206,  207. 

Marot  (Clement),  233. 

Martelo  Pauman  (Evaristo),  354. 

Martial,  123. 

Martim  Afonso,  Mestrc.     Sec  Alonso 

(Martim). 
Martinez  de  Kescnde  (Vasco),  13. 
Martinez  Salazar  (Andres),  61. 
Martinlio,  de  Alcoba^a,  98. 
Martorell  (Pedro  Juan),  63. 
Martyres  (Bartholonieudos),  195,  242, 

243.  342. 
Marueil  (Arnaut  de),  35. 
Mascarenhas  (D.  Fernando  de),  267. 
Mascarenhas  (D.  Joao  de),  187. 
Mascarenhas  (D.  Pedro  de),  126. 
Mattos  (Joao  Xavier  de),  278-9. 
Medina  e  Vasconcellos  ^Francisco  de 

Paula),  186. 
Meendinho,  29,  52. 
Mehinchthon  (Philip),  212,  227. 
Mello  (Carlos  de).     See  Ficalho. 
Mello  (D.  Francisco  Manuel  de),   14, 

74,- 108,  164,  170,  205,  252-5,  261, 

263,  267,  269,  338,  345. 
Mello  (Garcia  de),  loi. 
Mello  (Martim  Afonso  de),  82. 
Mello  Breyner  (D.  Theresa  de),  Con- 

dessa  de  Vimieiro,  273. 
Mello  Franco  (Francisco  de),  274. 
Mena  (Juan  de),  77,  104,  197. 
Menander,  130. 

Mendes  de  Vasconcellos  (Luis),  263. 
Mendes  dos  Remedios  (Joaquim),  16, 

256. 
Mendes  Leal  (Jose  da  Silva),  301. 
Mendez  (Afonso),  205. 
Mendez  (Manuel),  60. 
Mendez  de  Sa  (Gon^alo),  139. 
Mendez     de     Vasconcellos     (Diogo), 

213- 
Mendez    Pinto    (Feruam),    151.    203, 

220,  221-5,  243. 
Mendez  Silva  (Rodrigo),  255. 
Mendo9a  (Jeronimo  de),  210. 
Meudo9a  (Joana  de),  196. 
Mendon9a  (Francisco  de),  245. 
Mendon9a  (Jeronimo).    5ee  Mendo9a. 
Mendon9a  Alves  (Va.sco  de),  314. 
Menendez  Pidal  (Ramon),  73. 
Menendez  y  Pelayo   (Marcehno),   19, 

65,  83,  112,  133,  135,  140,  151,  168, 

169,  233,  232,  278,  291,  339. 
Meneses  (D.  Aleixo  de),  206. 
Meneses  (D.  Duarte  de),  86. 
Mcncses  (D.  Fernando  de^,  177. 


Meneses    (D.    Fernando   de),    second 

Conde  da  Ericeira,  266-7. 
Mene.ses    (D.    Francisco   Xavier   de), 

fourth  Conde  da  Ericeira,  270-1. 
Meneses  (D.  Henrique  de),  195. 
Meneses  (D.  Joao  de),  loi,  103,  104. 
Meneses  (D.  Luis  de),  third  Conde  da 

Ericeira,  69,  261,  267. 
Meneses  (D.  Pedro  de),  86. 
Meneses  (D.  Scbastiao  Cesar  de),  266. 
Menina  Fcrmosa,  Trova^  da,  341. 
Menino  (Pero),  17,  78. 
Meogo  (Pero),  29. 
Merlim,  63. 
Mesquita     (Marcellino     Antonio     da 

Silva),  311-12. 
Mesquita    Perestrello    (Manuel    de), 

217. 
Meyer  (Paul),  44. 
Michaelis  (Gustav),  15. 
Michaelis  de  Vasconcellos  (Carolina), 

14,  15,  22,  23,  29,  31,  32,  33,  34,  37, 

39,  .50,  53.  62,  63,  75,  76,  80,  104, 

112,  136,  180,  184,  308,  338,  342. 
Michelangelo.     See  Buonarroti. 
Mickle  (William  Julius),  14. 
Miguel  I,  280,  288. 
Mila  y  Fontanals  (Manuel),  41,  345. 
Milton  (John),  127,  184. 
Miranda  (Afonso  de),  226. 
Miranda  (Jeronimo  de),  226. 
Miranda    (Martim   Afonso   de),    252, 

262. 
Mislerio  de  los  Reyes  Magos,  123. 
Moleiro,  Trovas  do,  341. 
Moliere     (Jean-Baptiste     Poquelin), 

T16,  130,  164. 
Molteni  (Enrico  Gasi),  38. 
Monaci  (Ernesto),  13,  37. 
Moniz  Barreto  (Guilherme),  21. 
Moniz  Coelho  (Egas),  72. 
Mons  (Nat  de),  42. 
Monsaraz,    Antonio   de   Macedo    Pa- 

pan9a,  Conde  de,  335-6. 
Montaigne  (Michel  de),  83,  106,  212. 
Montalvao  (Justino  de),  328. 
Montalvo.     See  Rodriguez  de  Men- 
tal vo. 
Montebello,  Marques  de,  356. 
Monteiro  (Diogo),  246-7. 
Montemayor  (George  de) .  See  Monte- 

mor  (Jorge  de). 
Montemor  (Jorge  de),  17,  151-2. 
Montesino  (Violante).     See  Ceo  (Vio- 

lante  do). 
Montesquieu    (Charles   Louis   de   Se- 

condat),  182. 
Montoia  (Luis  de),  239. 
Montoro  (Anton  de),  23,  127. 
Moogo  (Pero).     See  Meogo. 


A  a 


370 


INDEX 


Moraes    (Cristovam    Alao    de),     109, 

286. 
Moraes  Cabral  (Francisco  de),  65,  76, 

152,  161,  204,  232-4. 
More  (Sir  Thomas),  254. 
Moreira  (Julio),  308. 
Moreira  Camello  (Antonio),  33S. 
Moreira  de  Carvalho  (Jeronimo),  339. 
Moreno  (Bento)  pseud.    Sec   Teixeira 

de  Qiieiroz. 
Moura  (Miguel  de),  210. 
Mousinho  de  Quevedo  (Vasco),  261. 
Murguia  (Manuel  de),  349. 


N 


Napier  (Sir  William),  255. 

Napoleon  I,  281. 

Napoleon  III,  340. 

Nascimento  (Francisco    Manuel   do), 

263,  274-5,  290,  304,  338,  344. 
Navagero  (Andrea),  351. 
Newton  (Sir  Isaac),  281. 
Niebuhr  (Barthold  Georg),  294. 
No  figueiral  figueiredo,  72. 
Nobtliario  do  Collegio  dos  Nobres,  61. 
Nobiliario    do    Conde.       See     Pedro 

Afonso,  Conde  de  Barcellos. 
Nobre  (Antonio),  332,  334. 
Nobrega,  Padre,  45. 
Nogueira  Ramos  (Joao  de  Deus),  249, 

250,  329-30.  338. 
Noriega  Varela  (Antonio),  355. 
Noronha  (D.  Anna  de),  242. 
Noronha  (D.  Antonio  de),   175,   177, 

179. 
Noronha    (D.   Francisco   de),  second 

Conde  de  Linhares,  175,  232,  239. 
Noronha  (D.  Lianor  de),  107. 
Noronha  (D.  Thomas  de),  256. 
Novaes   (Francisco  Xavier  de),    112, 

302. 
Nun'  Alvarez.     See  Alvarez  Pereira 

(Nuno). 
Nun  de  AUariz.  (Alfredo)  pseud.,  355. 
Nunes  (Claudio  Jose),  331. 
Nunes  (Jose  Joaquim),  26,  60,  308. 
Nunes   Ribeiro    Sanches     (Antonio), 

286. 
Nunez  (Airas),  23,  31,  47,  52-3. 
Nunez  (Joao),  210. 
Nunez  (Pedro),  18,  107,  226-7,  251. 
Nunez  (Philipe),  230. 
Nunez  da  Silva  (Manuel),  231. 
Nunez  de  Learn  (Duarte),  39,  55,  56, 

68,  210-11,  252. 
Nunez   del  Arce   (Caspar   Esteban), 

295- 
Nufiez  Gonzsllez  (Manuel),  354,  355. 


O 

Oeynhausen,  Count  of,  276. 
Olanda  (Francisco  de).    See  HoUanda. 
Olivares,  Conde-Duque  de,  252. 
OHvcira  (Fernam  de),  109,  220,  227. 
Oliveira  (Francisco  Xavier  de),  Cava- 

Iheiro  de  Oliveira,  74,  285-6. 
Oliveira  Marreca  (Antonio  de),  295. 
Oliveira    Martins     (Pedro     Joaquim 

de),  305-6,  322. 
Orta  (Garcia  da),  178,  225-6,  308. 
Orta  (Jorge  da),  225. 
Ortigao    (Ramalho).      See    Ramalho 

Ortigao. 
Osborne  (Dorothy),  20. 
Osmia.     See  Mello  Breyner. 
Osorio  (Luiz),  335. 
Osorio   da   Fonseca    (Jeronimo),    18, 

209,  224,  228,  263. 
Ossian,  301. 
Ovid,  85. 


Pacheco  (Joao),  248. 

Pacheco  Pereira  (Duarte),  191,  227. 

Paez  (Balthasar),  245. 

Paez  (D.  Maria),  22. 

Paez  (Pedro),  205. 

Paganino  (Rodrigo),  325. 

Paiva  (Isabel  de),  239. 

Paiva  de  Andrade    (Diogo  de)    [xvi 

c],  239,  244. 
Paiva  de   Andrade  (Diogo  de)   [xvii 

c],  215,  239,  253. 
Palmeirim  (Luiz  Augusto),  300-1. 
Palmeirim  de  Inglaterra.    See  Moraes 

(F.  de). 
Palmerin  de  Oliva,  234. 
Pardo   Bazan    (Emilia),  Condesa  de, 

356. 
Patmore  (Coventry),  336. 
Pato    Moniz    (Nuno    Alvares).      See 

Pereira  Pato  Moniz. 
Patricio  (Antonio),  328. 
Paixam  de  Jesu  Christo,  A,  94,  95. 
Paul  III,  Pope,  212,  219. 
Paulo  (Marco).     See  Polo. 
Payne  (Robert),  90. 
Pedro  I,  of  Portugal,  80,  84,  312. 
Pedro  II,  of  Portugal,  268,  288. 
Pedro  V,  of  Portugal,  293. 
Pedro    Afonso,  Conde  de  Barcellos, 

38,  57,  61-2. 
Pedro,  Duque  de  Coimbra,  71,  79,  80, 

86,  88,  90,  92,  94,  100. 
Pedro,  O  Condestavel  D.,  38,  77,  79- 

80,  86,  92,  95,  100. 
Pedro,  King  of  Aragon.     See  Pedro, 

O  Condestavel  D. 


J 


INDEX 


371 


Pedro,  Tratado  do  Infante  D.,  340. 
Pelagia,   Vida  de  Santa,  60. 
PenhaFortuna(JoaodeOliveira),  330. 
Pereda  (Jose  Maria  de),  318. 
Pereira  (Antonio  Nunalvarez),  141. 
Pereira  (Aureliano  J.),  354. 
Pereira  (Nuno),  98,  102,  143. 
Pereira  Brandao  (Luis),  188-9. 
Pereira  de  Castro  (Gabriel),  258-9. 
Pereira  de  Castro  (Luis),  258. 
Pereira  de  Figueiredo  (Antonio),  338. 
Pereira  de  Novaes  (Manuel),  20. 
Pereira  de  Sampaio  (Jose^   [Bruno], 

308. 
Pereira  Pato  Moniz  (Nuno  Alvarez), 

187. 
Pereira  Pinheiro  (Bernardino),  295-6. 
Pereira  Teixeira  de  Vasconcellos  ( Joa- 

quim).     See  Teixeira  de  Pascoaes. 
Perez  Ballesteros  (Jose),  356. 
Perez  Galdos  (Benito),  298. 
Perez  Placer  (Heraclio),  357. 
Perez  de  Camoes  (Vasco),  77,  78,  174. 
Perez  de  Oliva  (Hernan),  165. 
Pestana  (Alice),  324. 
Petrarca  (Francesco),   139,   146,   147, 

148,   152,   161,   181,   185,   186,  197, 

237,  280,  281. 
Philip   II,    of   Spain,    146,    151,    195, 

216,  223,  224,  230,  236,  237,  238, 

250,  263. 
Philip  III,  of  Spain,  155. 
Philip  IV,  of  Spain,  216,  243. 
Philippa,  Queen  Consort  of   Joao  I, 

84.  85.  89,  305. 
Piamonte  (Nicolas),  339. 
Picaud  (Aimeric),  25. 
Pierres  de  Provence,  65. 
Pimenta      (Agostinho).        See     Cruz 

(Agostinho  da). 
Pimentel  (Manuel),  228. 
Pina  (Fernam  de),  87. 
Pina  (Ruy  de),  87-9,  97,  no,  125,  180. 
Pindella  (Bernardo  de).     See  Arnoso. 
Pinheiro  (D.  Antonio),  214,  244. 
Pinheiro   (Bernardino).     See  Pereira 

Pinheiro. 
Pinheiro  (Bernardo).    See  Arnoso. 
Pinheiro  Chagas  (Manuel),  304,  306—7. 
Pinheiro  da  Veiga  (Thome),  265. 
Pinto  (Heitor),  14,  16,  loi,  230,  236- 

7.  238. 
Pinto  (Joao  Louren9o),  318-19. 
Pinto  (Jorge),  159. 
Pinto  Ribeiro  (Joao),  265. 
Pintos  (Juan  Manuel),  348. 
Pires  (Antonio  Thomaz),  69,  308,  342. 
Pires  de  Rebello  (Caspar),  262. 
Pirez    Lobeira    (Joan)       See   Lobeira 

(Joan  de). 


Pisan  (Christine  do),  85,  95. 

Pisano  (Mattheus  de),  85. 

Pius  IV,  Pope,  193. 

Platir,  234. 

Plato,  119,  237. 

Plautus,  108.  130,  164,  167. 

Pliny,  226. 

Poema   da   Perda  de  Espanha.      See 

Cava. 
Poema  del  Cid.     See  Cid. 
Poetica,  48,  49,  58,  66. 
Poitou,  Guillaume,  Comte  de,  39. 
Poliziano  (Angelo  [Ambrogini]),  103, 

139,  141. 
Polo  (Marco),  95. 
Pombal,  Sebastiao  Jose  de  Carvalho 

e  Mello,  Marques  de,  272,  273,  276, 

291.  307- 
Ponce  (Bartolome),  151. 
Pondal  y  Abente  (Eduardo),  352-3, 

355- 
Ponte  (Pero  da),  28,  51. 
Pope  (Alexander),  50,  209,  274,  277. 
Portela  (Severo),  328. 
Porto  Carreiro  (Lope  de),  78. 
Portugal  (D.  Anrique  de),  103. 
Portugal    (D.  Francisco  de)  [xvi  c], 

203. 
Portugal  (D.  Francisco  de)   [xvii  c], 

18,  70,  129,  258. 
Portugal  (D.  Francisco  de),  Conde  de 

Vimioso,  100,  103-4,  122,  126,  145, 

150. 
Portugal  (D.  Joao  de),  241,  242. 
Portugal   (D.   Manuel  de),   145,   180, 

346. 
Portugaliae     Monumenta     Historica . 

See  Herculano  (Alexandre). 
Posada  y  Pereira  (Jose  Maria),  348. 
Potter  (Maria),  315. 
Potter  (Thomas),  315. 
Poyares  (Pedro  de),  109. 
Prado  (Xavier),  355. 
Prazeres  (Joao  dos),  269. 
Presenta9ao  (Cosme  da),  239. 
Prestage   (Edgar),    14,    15,   214,   252, 

308. 
Prestes  (Antonio),  19,  160-1,  166. 
Primlaeon,  119,  234. 
Primor   e   honra   da   vida   soldadesca, 

262. 
Ptolemy,  193. 

Purificagam  (Antonio  da),  18. 
Purser  (Wilham  Edward),  233. 

Q 

Queimado  (Roy),  52. 
Quental  (Anthero  Tarquinio  de),  304, 
328-9. 


372 


INDEX 


Quevedo  y  Villegas  (Francisco  Gomez 

de),  169,  252,  253,  255. 
Quinet  (Edgar),  19. 
Quintilian,  247. 
Quita  (Domingos  dos  Reis),  272-3. 

R 

Rabelais  (Fran9ois),  321. 

Rabello  (Ciabriel  de),  203. 

Racine  (Jean),  182. 

Raleigh  (Sir  Walter),  228. 

Ramalho  Ortigao  (Jose  Duarte),  304, 

318,  321-2. 
Ramos  Coelho  (Jcse),  307. 
Ramusio  (Giovanni  IBattista),  204. 
Rebello  da  Silva  (Luiz  Augusto),  296. 
Redondo,   Conde  de.     See  Coutinho 

(D.  Francisco). 
Regras  e  Cautelas,  241. 
Relagam  verdadeira  dos  trabalhos,  &c., 

203. 
Renan  (Ernest),  240. 
Resende  (Garcia de),  75,  88,  89,  96-8, 

99,    100,    no,    113,   123,    124,   127, 

140,  150,  199. 
Resende   (Lucio   Andre   de),    13,    39, 

130,  150,  180,  206,  215,  216. 
Revista  de  Hisioria,  308. 
Revista  Lusitana,  309,  347. 
Rey  Soto  (Antonio),  355. 
Ribalta  (Aurelio),  35'>-7- 
Ribeira  Grande,  Conde  da,  311. 
Ribeiro    (Bernardim),     14,    19,    105, 

132-9,  141.  15^.  154.  291,  300. 
Ribeiro  (Jeronimo),  161. 
Ribeiro  (Joao),  204. 
Ribeiro  (Joao  Pedro),  292. 
Ribeiro  (Mattheus  de),  261. 
Ribeiro  Chiado  (Antonio),  157-8,  161. 
Ribeiro  de  Macedo  (Duarte),  265-6. 
Ribeiro  de  Sousa  (Salvador),  203. 
Ribeiro  dos  Santos  (Antonio),  285. 
Ribeiro  Ferreira   (Thomaz  Antonio), 

302. 
Ribeiro    Sanches    (Antonio    Nunes). 

See  Nunes  Ribeiro  Sanches. 
Ribeiro     Soarez      (Jeronimo).        See 

Ribeiro  (Jeronimo). 
Richardson  (Samuel),  170. 
Riquier  (Guiraut),  42,  55. 
Roberto,  Verdadeira  Historia  do  Grande, 

339- 
Rocha  Martins  (Francisco  de),  321. 
Rodrigucs  (Jose  Maria),  180. 
Rodrigues  Cordeiro  (Antonio  Xavier), 

300. 
Rodriguez  (Fcrnan),  78. 
Rodriguez  (Gonzalo),  Archdeacon  of 

Almazan,  78. 


Rodriguez  (Gonzalo),  Archdeacon  of 

Toro,  78,  123. 
Rodriguez  (Melicia),  no. 
Rodriguez     Azinheiro      (Cristovam), 

211. 
Rodriguez  de  Calheiros  (Fernan),  52. 
Rodriguez  de  Escobar  (Gonzalo),  78. 
Rodriguez  de  la  Camara  (Juan),  63, 

77,  104,  132. 
Rodriguez  de  Montalvo    (Garci),  65, 

66,  67,  69,  119. 
Rodriguez  de  Sa  e  Meneses   (Joao), 

103. 
Rodriguez  de  Sousa  (Gon9alo),  78. 
Rodriguez  del   Padron    (Juan).     See 

Rodriguez  de  la  Camara. 
Rodriguez  Gonzalez  (Eladio),  354-5. 
Rodriguez  Leitao  (Manuel),  266. 
Rodriguez  Lobo  (Francisco),  74,  153- 

5,  170.  185,  232. 
Rodriguez  Lobo  Soropita  (Fernam), 

229,  345- 
Rodriguez  Silveira   (Francisco),   229, 

307- 
Roiz.     See  Rodriguez. 
Roland,  Chanson  de,  53. 
Rolim  de  Moura.     See  Child  Rolim. 
Romances,  74-6,  124,  161,  172. 
Romero  (Sylvio),  17. 
Roquette  (Jose  Ignacio),  91. 
Rousseau  (Jean-Jacques),  264. 
Rucellai  (Giovanni),  140. 
Rudel  (Jaufre),  47. 
Rueda  (Lope  de),  112,  130. 
Ruiz  (Juan),  Archpriesf  of  Hita,  23, 

38.  53.  90,  113.  124.  125,  339.  356. 
Ruiz  de  Toro  (Alvar),  78; 


Sa  (Antonio  de),  269. 

Sa  (Diogo  de),  228. 

Sa  (Gongalo  de),  143. 

Sa  (Mem  de),  143. 

Sa  de  Meneses   (Francisco  de),   epic 

poet,  260. 
S4  de  Meneses  (Francisco  de),  Conde 

de  Mattosinhos,  13,  150,  260. 
Sa  de  Miranda  (Francisco  de),  13,  19, 

39,  53.  77.  104.  105.  "7,  120,  138, 

139-45,    146,    149,    164,    165,    166, 

174,  176,  206,  260,  263,  276. 
Sa  e  Macedo  (Anna  de),  174,  179. 
Sa  Sottomaior  (Eloi  de),  153. 
Sabugal,  Conde  de,  256. 
Sabugosa   (Antonio    Maria    Jose    de 

Mello  Silva  Cesar  e  Meneses),  Conde 

de,  121,  158,  324. 
Sacchetti  (Franco),  231. 
Sachsen  (Ludolph  von),  90,  95. 


INDEX 


373 


Sacramental.    See  Sanchez  de  Vercial. 
Sacro     Bosco     (Joannes     de).       See 

Halifax  (John  of). 
Sadoletto  (Jacopo),  Cardinal,  212. 
Sainte-Beuve  (Charles- Augustin),  91, 

321. 
Saint-More  (Benoit  de),  61. 
Saint  Victor  (Adam  de),  24. 
San  Pedro  (Diego  de),  124,  132. 
Sanches  de  Baena  Farinha  Augusto 

Romano,  Visconde,  iii. 
Sanchez  (D.  Afonso),  30,  57. 
Sanchez  (Francisco),  20. 
Sanchez  de  Badajoz  (Garci),  104. 
Sanchez  de  Vercial  (Clemente),  95. 
Sancho  I,  of  Portugal,  22,  27,  34,  39. 

87,  122. 
Sancho  II,  of  Portugal,  17,  53,  296. 
Sannazzaro  (Jacopo),  140,  152. 
Santa  Catharina  (Lucas  de),  152,  242, 

271. 
Santa  Maria  (Francisco  de),  269. 
Santa  Rita  (Guilherme  de),  335. 
Santa  Rita  Durao  (Jose  de),  279. 
Santa  Rosa  de  Viterbo  (Joaquim  de), 

285. 
Santarem  (Manuel  Francisco  de  Barros 

e  Sousa  de  Mesquita  Leitao  e  Car- 

valhosa),  Visconde  de,  292. 
Santarem,  Foros  de,  17. 
Santillana,  Ifiigo  Lopez  de  Mendoza, 

Marques  de,  22,  32,  38,  41,  48,  49, 

77.  79.  80,  104. 
Santo  Antonio  (Pedro  de),  247. 
Santo  Antonio  (Sebastiao  de),  280. 
Santo  Estevam  (Gomez  de),  340. 
Santos  (Joao  dos),  220. 
Santos  (Manuel  dos),  208. 
Santos  e  Silva  (Thomaz  Antonio  de), 

187. 
S.  Bernardino  (Gaspar  de),  221. 
S.  Boaventura  (Fortunato  de),  285. 
S.  Joseph  Queiroz  (D.  Joao  de),  286. 
S.   Luis   (D.   Francisco  de).  Cardinal 

Saraiva,  285. 
Saraiva,  Cardinal.     See  S.  Luis. 
Sarmento  (Augusto  Cesar  Rodrigues), 

3^5- 
Sarmento  (Francisco  de  Jesus  Maria), 

338- 
Sarmiento  (Martin),  347,  356. 
Savoy,  Duke  of,  120,  133. 
Schwalbach  Lucci  (Eduardo),  314. 
Scott  (Sir  Walter),  293. 
Sebastian,  King,   146,   150,   168,   179, 

181,    187,  188,  209,  210,  226,   227, 

239,  241, 247,  261, 263, 307, 340,  341. 
Semmedo  (Alvaro),  204. 
Semmedo    (Curvo).      See   Curvo    Se- 

mcdo. 


Seneca,  92,  94,  161,  280. 

Senna  Freitas  (Joaquim  de),  322. 

Sepulveda  (D.  Lianor  de).    See  Sousa 

(D.  Lianor  de). 
Sergas  de  Esplandian,  Las,  65,  68. 
Serpa  Pimentel  (Jose  Freire  de),  300. 
Serrao  de  Castro  (Antonio),  256. 
Servando  (Joan),  29. 
Severim  de  Faria  (Manuel),  107,  180, 

184,  192,  193,  197,  215-16,  245. 
Sevilha     (Pedro     Amigo     de).      See 

Amigo. 
Shakespeare  (William),  19,  108,  118, 

129,  130,  160,  164. 
Sigea  (Angela),  107. 
Sigea  (Luisa),  107. 
Siglar  (Pierres  de),.43. 
Silius  Italicus,  41. 
Silva  (Antonio  Jose  da),  282-4. 
Silva  (Innocencio  Francisco  da),  61, 

148,  163,  192,  193,  220,  237,  308. 
Silva   (Nicolau   Luis   da).     See    Luis 

(Nicolau). 
Silva  Dias  (Augusto  Epiphanio  da), 

308. 
Silva  Gayo  (Manuel  da),  320. 
Silva  Mascarenhas  (Andre  da),  260. 
Silva  Pinto  (Manuel  Jose  da),  322. 
Silva  Souto-Maior  (Caetano  Jos6  da), 

306. 
Silveira  (Fernam  da)  [11489],  loi. 
Silveira  (Fernam  da),  O  Coudel  Mor, 

loo-i,  102. 
Silveira    (Franciso   Rodriguez).     See 

Rodriguez  Silveira. 
Silveira  (Jorge  da),  102. 
Silveira  da  Motta  (Francisco),  322. 
Simoes  Dias  (Jose),  330. 
Soares  de  Brito  (Joao),  52,  68,   182, 

207,  224,  258. 
Soares  de  Passos  (Antonio  Augusto), 

293.  301- 
Soarez  (Martin),  52. 
Soarez  Coelho  (D.  Joan),  52. 
Soarez  de  Paiva  (D.  Joan),  48,  76. 
Soarez  de  Sousa  (Gabriel),  205. 
Soarez  de  Taveiroos  (Pai),  22. 
Sola  (Jaime),  356. 
Sophocles,  165. 
Soropita.     See  Rodriguez  Lobo  Soro- 

pita. 
Soto  (Hernando  de),  203. 
Sotomaior  (Luis  de),  130. 
Sousa  (D.  Antonio  Caetano  de),  284. 
Sousa  (Diogo  de),  256. 
Sousa  (Francisco  de)  [xvi  c],  98,  105. 
Sousa  (Francisco  de)  [xvii  c],  2.14. 
Sousa  (D.  Lianor  de),  188,  217. 
Sousa  (Luis  de),  14,  16,  203,  209,  215, 

241-3,  269,  291,  298. 


374 


INDEX 


Sousa  (Manuel  Caetano  de),  280. 

Sousa  (Martini  Afonso  de),  225,  227. 

Sousa  (Philippa  de),  150. 

Sousa  (Rui  de),  122. 

Sousa  Costa  (Alberto  de),  328. 

Sousa  Coutinho  (Lopo  de),  196,  203. 

Sousa   Coutinho    (Manuel    de).      See 

Sousa  (Luis  de). 
Sousa  de  Maccdo  (Antonio),  56,  68, 

74,  130,  209,  224,  258,  260-1. 
Sousa   Falcao    (Cristovam   de).      See 

Falcao. 
Sousa  Farinha  (Bento  Jose  de),  244. 
Sousa  IMonteiro  (Josexie),  311. 
Sousa  Moraes   (Wenceslau   Jose  de), 

322-3. 
Sousa  Sepulveda   (Manuel  de),    187, 

196,  217. 
Sousa    Viterbo    (Francisco    Marques 

de).  13,  307. 
Southey  (Robert),  15,  19,  282. 
Souto-Maior  (Caetano  Jose  da  Silva). 

See  Silva  Souto-Maior. 
Souto   Maior   (Eloi   de   Sa).     See  Sa 

Sottomaior. 
Souvestre  (£mile),  299. 
Spinoza  (B.),  20. 
Stanley  of  Alderney,  Lord,  315. 
Storck  (Wilhelm),  174,  176,  178,  329. 
Straparola  (Giovanni  Francesco),  231. 
Stuart     (Charles),     Lord     Stuart    of 

Rothesay,  37. 
Sylvia  de  Lisardo,  139. 


Tacitus,  266. 

Tancos  (Hermenegildo  de),  90. 

Tasso  (Bernardo),  71,  181. 

Tasso     (Torquato),     146,     180,     181, 

280. 
Tavares  (Manuel),  no. 
Tavares  Zagalo  (Joana),  133. 
Teive  (Diogo  de),  106. 
Teixeira     de     Pascoaes     (Joaquim), 

333-4- 
Teixeira  de  Quieroz  (Francisco),  319- 

20,  325. 
Teixeira  Gomes  (Manuel),  323. 
Tellez  (Balthasar),  204-5. 
Tellez    (Lianor),    Queen    Consort    of 

Fernando  I,  84. 
Tellez  (Maria),  84. 
Tellez  de  Meneses  (Aires),  148. 
Tello,  Vida  de  D.,  60. 
Tennyson  (Alfred),  Lord,  64,  301. 
Tenreiro  (Antonio),  220. 
Terence,  130,  164. 
Testament  de  Patheliv,  123. 
Theocritus,  272. 


Theodora,     Verdadeira     Historia     da 

Domella,  339. 
Theotocopuli  (Domenico),  El  Greco, 

114,  282. 
Thierry  (Augustin),  294. 
Thomas  (Henry),  65. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  St.,  86,  90,  92,  94. 
Thomson  (James),  277. 
Tilly  (John),  204. 
Timoneda  (Juan  de),  231. 
Tinherabos  nam  tinherabos,  72. 
Tirant  lo  Blanch,  65. 
Tolentino  de  Almeida  (Nicolau),  272, 

274,  276. 
Tolstoi  (Leo),  Count,  333. 
Tolomei  (Lattanzio),  140,  230. 
Torcy  (Claude  Blosset  de),  233. 
Toro,  Archdeacon  of.    See  Rodriguez 

(Gonzalo). 
Torres  (Alvaro  de),  241. 
Torres  (Domingos  Maximiano),  278. 
Torres  Is^aharro  (Bartolome  de),  124. 
Trancoso  (Gon9alo  Fernandez).     See 

Fernandez  Trancoso. 
Trindade  (Adeodato  da),  196,  197. 
Trindade  Coelho  (Jose  Francisco  de), 

327- 
Trissino  (Giangiorgio),  165. 
Tr islam,  O  Livro  de,  63. 
Tristan,  65,  69,  70. 
Trovador,  O,  300. 
Trovador,  O  Novo,  300. 
Trueba  (Antonio  de),  302,  303. 
Timdalo,  Visao  de,  59. 

U 

Usque  (Abraham  ben),  246. 
Usque  (Samuel),  245-6. 


Vaamonde  (Florencio),  357. 

Valcacer.     See  Valcarcel. 

Valcarcel  (Pedro  de),  78. 

Valdes  (Juan  de),  65. 

Valente  (Afonso),  112. 

Valera  (Juan),  19. 

Valla  (llorenzo),  180. 

Valle  Inclan  (Ramon  Maria  del),  327, 

356- 
Van  Zeller  (Francisco),  169. 
Vaqueiras  (Raimbaut  de),  41. 
Varnhagen  (Francisco  Adolpho   de), 

37,  133,  205.  206. 
Vasconcellos  (Antonio  de),  39,  259. 
Vasconcellos  (Henrique  de),  328. 
Vasconcellos  (Joaquim  de),   15,  214, 

230. 
Vasconcellos  (Jorge  de),  167. 


INDEX 


375 


Vasconcellos  (Jorge  Ferreira  de) .    See 

Ferreira. 
Vasconcellos  (Simao  de),  267. 
Vaz  (Francisco),  de  Guimaraes,  161-2. 
Vaz  (Joana),  107. 
Vaz  da  Gama  (Guiomar),  174. 
Vaz  de  Camoes  (Luis).     See  Camoes. 
Vaz  de  Camoes  (Simao),  174. 
Vaz    de    Carvalho    (Maria    Amalia), 

324- 
Vazquez  (Francisco),  234. 
Veer  (Pero  de),  29. 
Vega  (Garci  Lasso  de  la).    See  Lasso 

de  la  Vega. 
Vega  Carpio  (Lope  Felix  de),  76,  129, 

130,  147,  153,  169,  181,  183,  258. 
Veiga  (Manuel  da),  340. 
Veiga  (Thomas  da),  17,  244,  245. 
Veiga  Tagarro  (Manuel  da),  258. 
Velazquez  (Diego),  333. 
Velez  de  Guevara  (Luis),  284. 
Velez  de  Guevara  (Pero),  79. 
Velho  (Alvaro),  190. 
Verba  (Joao),  92. 

Verde  (Jose  Joaquim  Cesario),  330. 
Vernier  (P.),  226. 
Verney  (Luis  Antonio),  285. 
Veronese  (Paolo),  182. 
Vespasian,  Emperor,  64. 
Vespeseano,  Estorea  de,  64. 
Vespesiano,  Estoria  del  noble,  64. 
Vicente  (Belchior),  no. 
Vicente  (Gil),  13,  16,  19,  31,  32,  33, 

34,  35,  62,  74,  75,  97.  102,  105,  106- 

31,   132,    133,    138,    139,    141,    156, 

157.  158,   159,   160,   162,   163,   164, 

166,   167,   178,  235,  271,  291,  311, 

338,  342,  344,  345. 
Vicente  (Luis),  109. 
Vicente   (Luis),   son   of  Gil  Vicente, 

no,  168. 
Vicente  (Martim),  109. 
Vicente  (Paula),  no. 
Vicente  de  Almeida  (Gil),  162. 
Vicentes,   Cronica   dos.     See   Cronica 

da  Ftindagam. 
Vieira    (Antonio),    14,    16,    156,    190, 

245,  248,  249,  261,  265,  267-9,  307. 
Vieira  (Nicolao),  59. 
Vieira  da  Costa  (J.),  321. 
Vieira  Ravasco  (Cristovam),  267. 
Vilhena  (D.  Joana  de),  145. 
Vilhena  (D.  Magdalena  de),  241,  242. 


Vilhena   (D.    Philippa   de),   Condessa 

de  Athougnia,  291. 
Villa-Moura,  Visconde  de,  328. 
Villa  Nova,  Condessa  de,  253,  286. 
Villani  (Giovanni),  83. 
Villareal,  Fernando,  Marques  de,  107. 
Villas-Boas  (D.  Manuel  do  Cenaculo), 

Bishop  of  Beja,  285. 
Villena  (D.  Enrique  de),  77. 
Vimieiro,  Counts  of,  71. 
Vimieiro,  fourth  Conde  de,  273. 
Vimioso,  first  Conde  de  [or  do].     See 

Portugal  (D.  Francisco  de). 
Vimioso,  third  Conde  de,  242. 
Virgil,   174,   180,   181,   182,   183,  257, 

272. 
Visdo  de  Tundalo.    See  Tundalo. 
Viseu,  Diogo,  Duke  of,  102. 
Viseu,  Henry,  Duke  of.  See  Henrique, 

Infante. 
Visio  Tundali,  59. 
Vita  Christi.     See  Sachsen  (Ludolph 

von). 
Vives  (Juan  Luis),  65,  212,  340. 
Voltaire  (Fran9ois  .\rouet),  179,  182, 

274. 
Vyvyaes  (Pero),  52. 

W 

Wieland  (Christoph  Martin;,  277. 
Wyche  (Sir  Peter),  266. 

X 

Xavier,   St.   Francis,    190,   223,   225, 

243- 
Xavier  de  Mattos.     See  Mattos. 
Xavier  de  Novaes.    See  Novaes. 
Xenophon,  85. 
Ximenez  de  Urrea  (Geronimo),  262. 


Yannez  (Rodrigo),  73. 
Ychoa  (Joao  de),  89. 


Zamora  (Gil  de),  42. 
Zola  (fimile),  299. 
Zorro  (Joan),  29,  31,  53. 
Zurara  (Gomez  Eanez  de),  14,  15,  68, 
69,  81,  82,  85-7,  88,  201. 


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