Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/359

 PORTUGAL

309

PORTUGAL

mous narrative. The dialogues of Samuel Usque, a Lisbon Jew, also desene mention. Religious sub- jert.'i were usually treated in Latin, but among moral- ists who used the vernacular were Frei Heitor Pinto, Bishop Arraez, and Frei Thome de Jesus, whose "Trabalhos de Jesus" has appeared in many lan- guages.

\'L Se\"ENTEEXth Cextitry. — The general inferi- ority of seventeenth-century literature to that of the preceding age has been charged to the new royal aksolutism, the Inquisition, the Index, and the exag- gerated humanism of the Jesuits who directed higher education; nevertheless, had a man of genius appeared he would have overcome all obstacles. In fact letters shared in the national decline. The taint of Gon- gorism and Marinism attacked all the Seiscenlistas, as may be seen in the "Fenix Renascida", and rhetoric conquered style. The Revolution of 1640 liberated Portugal, but could not undo the effects of the sixty years' union with Spain. The use of Spanish con- tinued among the upper class and was preferred by many authors who desired a larger audience. Spain had given birth to great writers for whom the Por- tuguese forgot the earlier ones of their own land. The foreign influ- ence was strong- est in the drama. The leading Por- tuguese play- wrights wrote in Spanish, and in the national tongue only poor re- ligious pieces and a witty comedy by D. Francisco flannel de Mello, "Autodo Fidalgo Aprendiz ", were produced. The numerous Acade- mies which arose with exotic names aimed at raising the level of letters, but they spent themselves in discussing ridiculous theses and determined the triumph of pedantry and bad taste. Yet though culteranismo and con- ceptismo infected nearly everyone, the century did not lack its big names.

A. Lyric Poetry. — Melodious verses relieve the dull- ness of the pastoral romances of Rodriguez Lobo, while his "Corte na Aldea" is a book of varied interest in elegant prose. The versatile D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, in addition to his sonnets on moral subjects, wrote pleasing imitations of popular romances, but is at his best in a reasoned but vehement "Me- morial to John IV ", in the witty " Apologos Dialogaes ", and in the homely philosophy of the "Carta de Guia de Ca.sados", prose classics. Other poets of the j)eriod are Soror Violante do Ceo, and Frei Jeronymo Vahia, convinced Gongorists, Frei Bernardo de Brito with the "Sylvia de Lizardo", and the satirists, D. Thomas de Noronha and Antonio Serrao de Castro.

B. Prose. — The century had a richer output in prose than in verse, and history, biography, sermons, and epistolary correspondence all flourished. Writers on historical subjects were usually friars who worked in their cells and not, as in the sixteenth century, travelled men and eye-witnesses of the events they describe. They occupied themselves largely with questions of form and are better stylists than his- torians. Among the five contributors to the ponder- ous "MonaTchia Lusitana", only the conscientious Frei Antonio Brandao fully realized the importance of documentarj' evidence. Frei Bernardo de Brito begins his work with the creation and ends it where

Luiz DE Camoens

he should have begun; he constantly mistakes legend for fact, but was a patient investigator and a vigorous narrator. Frei Luiz de Sousa, a famous stylist, worked up existing materials into the classical hagiog- raphy "Vida de D. Frei Bertholameu dos Martyres" and "Annaes d'el Rei D. Joao III". Manoel de Faria y Sousa, historian and arch-commentator of Camoens, by a strange irony of fate chose Spanish as his vehicle, as did Mello for his classic account of the Catalonian War, while Jacintho Freire de Andrade told in grandiloquent language the storj' of the justice- loving viceroy, D. Joao de Castro.

Ecclesiastical eloquence was at its best in the seven- teenth century and the pulpit filled the place of the press of to-day. The originality and imaginative power of his sermons are said to have won for Father Antonio Vieira in Rome the title of "Prince of Cath- olic Orators" and though they and his letters exhibit some of the prevailing faults of taste, he is none the less great both in ideas and expression. The dis- courses and devotional treatises of the Oratorian Manuel Bernardes, who was a recluse, have a calm and sweetness that we miss in the writings of a man of action like Vieira and, while equally rich, are purer models of classic Portuguese prose. He is at his best in "Luz e Calor" and the "Nova Floresta". Letter writing is represented by such master hands as D. Francisco Manuel de Mello in familiar epistles, Frei Antonio das Chargas in spiritual, and by five short but eloquent documents of human affection, the "Cartas de Marianna Alcoforada".

VIII. Eighteenth Century. — Affectation contin- ued to mark the literature of the first half of the eighteenth century, but signs of a change gradually appeared and ended in that complete literary refor- mation known as the Romantic Movement. Distin- guished men who fled abroad to escape the prevailing despotism did much for intellectual progress by en- couragement and example. Verney criticized the obsolete educational methods and exposed the literary and scientific decadence in the "Verdadeiro Methodo de Estudar", while the various Academies and Arcadias, wiser than their predecessors, worked for purity of style and diction, and translated the best foreign classics.

A. The Academies. — The Academy of History, established by John V in 1720 in imitation of the French Academy, published fifteen volumes of learned "Memoirs" and laid the foundations for a critical study of the annals of Portugal, among its members being Caetano de Sousa, author of the voluminous "Historia da Casa Real", and the bibliographer Barbosa Machado. The Royal Academy of Sciences, founded in 1780, continued the work and placed literary criticism on a sounder basis, but the principal exponents of belles-lettres belonged to the Arcadias.

B. The Arcadias. — Of these the most important was the Arcadia Ulisiponense established in 1756 by the poet Cruz e Silva — "to form a school of good example in eloquence and poetry" — and it included the most considered writers of the time. Gar^ao composed the "Cantata de Dido", a classic gem, and many excellent sonnets, odes, and epistles. The bucolic verse of Quita has the tenderness and sim- plicity of that of Bernardin Ribeiro, while in the mock-heroic poem, "Hyssope", Cruz e Silva satirizes ecclesiastical jealousies, local types, and the prevailing gallomania with real humour. Intestine disputes led to the dissolution of the Arcadia in 1774, but it had done good service by raising the standard of taste and introducing new poetical forms. Unfortunately its adherents were too apt to content themselves with imitating the ancient classics and the Quinhentistas and they adopted a cold, reasoned style of expression, without emotion or colouring. Their whole outlook was painfully academic. Many of the Arcadians fol- lowed the example of a latter-day Mi3ecenas, the Conde