Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/475

 GARÇÃO, PEDRO ANTONIO JOAQUIM CORRÊA (1724–1772), Portuguese lyric poet, was the son of Philippe Corrêa da Serra, a fidalgo of the royal house who held an important post in the foreign office; his mother was of French descent. The poet’s health was frail, and after going through a Jesuit school in Lisbon and learning English, French and Italian at home, he proceeded in 1742 to the university of Coimbra with a view to a legal career. He took his degree in 1748, and two years later was created a knight of the Order of Christ. In 1751 his marriage with D. Maria Salema brought him a rich dower which enabled him to live in ease and cultivate letters; but in later years a law-suit reduced him to poverty. From 1760 to 1762 he edited the Lisbon Gazette. In 1756, in conjunction with Cruz e Silva and others, Garção founded the Arcadia Lusitana to reform the prevailing bad taste in literature, identified with Seicentismo, which delighted in conceits, windy words and rhetorical phrases. The Arcadia fulfilled its mission to some extent, but it lacked creative power, became dogmatic, and ultimately died of inanition. Garção was the chief contributor to its proceedings, bearing the name of “Corydon Erimantheo,” and his orations and dissertations, with many of his lyrics, were pronounced and read at its meetings. He lived much in the society of the English residents in Lisbon, and he is supposed to have conceived a passion for an English married lady which completely absorbed him and contributed to his ruin. In the midst of his literary activity and growing fame, he was arrested on the night of the 9th of April 1771, and committed to prison by Pombal, whose displeasure he had incurred by his independence of character. The immediate cause of his incarceration would appear to have been his connexion with a love intrigue between a young friend of his and the daughter of a Colonel Elsden, but he was never brought to trial, and the matter must remain in doubt. After much solicitation, his wife obtained from the king an order for her husband’s release on the 10th of November 1772, but it came too late. Broken by infirmities and the hardships of prison life, Garção expired that very day in the Limoeiro, at the age of forty-seven.

Taking Horace as his model, and aided by sound judgment, scholarship and wide reading, Garção set out to raise and purify the standard of poetical taste, and his verses are characterized by a classical simplicity of form and expression. His sonnets ad sodales show a charming personality; his vigorous and elegant odes and epistles are sententious in tone and reveal an inspired poet and a man chastened by suffering. His two comedies in hendecasyllables, the Theatro Novo (played in January 1766) and the Assemblêa, are excellent satires on the social life of the capital; and in the Cantata de Dido, included in the latter piece, the spirit of Greek art is allied to perfection of form, making this composition perhaps the gem of Portuguese 18th century poetry.

Garção wrote little and spent much time on the labor limae. His works were published posthumously in 1778, and the most complete and accessible edition is that of J. A. de Azevedo Castro (Rome, 1888). An English version of the Cantata de Dido appeared in the Academy (January 19th, 1895). See Innocencio da Silva, Diccionario bibliographico Portuguez, vol. vi. pp. 386–393, and vol. xvii. pp. 182–184; also Dr Theophilo Braga, A Arcadia Lusitana (Oporto, 1899).

GARCIA (DEL POPOLO VICENTO), MANOEL (1775–1832), Spanish singer and composer, was born in Seville on the 22nd of January 1775. He became a chorister at the cathedral of Seville, and studied music under the best masters of that city. At seventeen he made his début on the stage at Cadiz, in an operetta, in which were included songs of his own composition. Soon afterwards he appeared at Madrid in the twofold capacity of singer and composer. His reputation being established, he proceeded to Paris, where he appeared for the first time, in 1808, in Paer’s opera Griselda. Here also he was received with great applause, his style of singing being especially appreciated. This he further improved by careful study of the Italian method in Italy itself, where he continued his successes. His opera Il Califo di Bagdad was favourably received at Naples in 1812, but his chief successes were again due to his perfection as a vocalist. His opera La Morte di Tasso was produced in 1821 in Paris, where it was followed in 1823 by his Il Fazzoletto. In 1824 he went to London, and thence proceeded to America (1825) with a company of artistes, amongst whom were his son Manoel and his daughter Maria, better known under her subsequent name of Malibran. In New York was produced his opera La Figlia dell’ aria in 1827. He extended his artistic tour as far as Mexico, and was on the point of returning to Europe in order to retire from public life when he was robbed of his well-earned wealth by brigands on his way to Vera Cruz. Settled again in Paris in 1829, he soon retired from the stage, and devoted himself exclusively to teaching. He died in Paris on the 2nd of June 1832. His method of teaching was famous, and some of the most celebrated singers of the early part of the century were amongst his pupils. He also wrote an excellent book on the art of singing called Metodo di canto, of which the essence was subsequently incorporated by his son Manoel in his admirable Traité complet de l’art du chant (1847). His operas have not survived their day. He wrote nearly forty in all, but with the exception of those quoted, and El Poeta calculista, produced when he was thirty, none are remarkable. Besides the children already mentioned, his daughter Paulina, Madame Viardot (1821–1910), worthily continued the tradition for the best singing with which his name had become associated.

His son, (1805–1906), who celebrated his hundredth birthday in London on the 17th of March 1905, was born at Madrid, and after his father’s death devoted himself to teaching. He was a professor at the Paris Conservatoire from 1830 to 1848, from that time to 1895 was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He became famous for his invention of the laryngoscope about 1850, apart from his position as the greatest representative of the old “bel canto” style of singing.

GARCÍA DE LA HUERTA, VICENTE ANTONIO (1734–1787), Spanish dramatist, was born at Zafra on the 9th of March 1734, and was educated at Salamanca. At Madrid he soon attracted attention by his literary arrogance and handsome person; and at an early age became chief of the National Library, a post from which he was dismissed owing to the intrigues of his numerous enemies. The publication of his unsatisfactory collection of Spanish plays entitled Theatro Hespanol (1785–1786) exposed him to severe censures, which appear to have affected his reason. He died at Madrid on the 12th of March 1787, without carrying into effect his avowed intention of reviving the national drama. His Agamemnón vengado derives from Sophocles, his Jaire is translated from Voltaire, and even his once famous Raquel, though Spanish in subject, is classic in form.

GARCÍA DE PAREDES, DIEGO (1466–1534), Spanish soldier and duellist, was a native of Trujillo in Estremadura, Spain. He never commanded an army or rose to the position of a general, but he was a notable figure in the wars of the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century, when personal prowess had still a considerable share in deciding the result of actions. His native town and its district, which lie between Talavera and Madrid, produced many of the most noted conquistadores of America, including the Pizarro family. Diego himself served in his youth in the war of Granada. His strength, daring and activity fitted him to shine in operations largely composed of night marches, escalades, surprises and hand-to-hand combats. The main scene of his achievements was in Italy, and he betook himself to it—on his own showing—not in search of glory, but because he had killed a relation of his own, Ruy Sanchez de Vargas, in a street fight arising out of a quarrel about a horse. He fled to Rome, then under the rule of the Borgias. Diego was a distant relation to the cardinal of Santa Cruz (Carvajal), a favourite with Pope Alexander VI., who was in conflict with the barons of the Romagna and took Diego into his service. He remained a soldier of the pope till he killed a man in a personal quarrel and found it necessary to pass over to the enemy. Now he became acquainted with the Colonnas, who appreciated his services. The wars between Ferdinand V. of Aragon (the Catholic king) and Louis XII. gave him a more creditable opening. The Spanish general Gonsalvo de Córdoba, who knew his value, employed him and trusted him; and he took part in all the wars of Italy on the