Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/342

* PORTUGAL. 288 POKTUGTJESE-BBAZILIAN. cal education under the opera-singer Borselli, by whose influence lie was appointed cembalist at the Madrid Opera in 1782. In 1787 he went to Italy, where, the following year, his first opera, L'eroe mnese, was produced.' The slight success of his first work was compensated for by tlie jiopular favor accorded to La bacchetta porteniosa, in 1788, at Genoa. In 1790 apjiearcd /( iloUnaro and L'astnlo, both in Italy, and he was appointed Court conductor at Lisbon, but later returned to Italy. From 1799 to 1810, he conducted at the San Carlos Theatre in Lisbon, and produced a number of Italian and Portuguese operas. In 1810 he went to Rio de Janeiro, at which place he occupied the position of general musical di- rector. In 1813, with his brother, Simao, he was appointed joint musical director of the Conserva- tory at Vera Cruz. In 1815 he visited Itah' for the last time. He sjieut the remaining years of his life at Rio de Janeiio as an invalid. He com- posed about forty operas, five grand masses, five masses with the organ, and two Te Deums, in addition to numerous smaller works and church music. Though not among the great international composers, he holds the first j)lace in Portuguese music. PORTUGALETE, por'tHo-gii'lu-ta. A Span- ish seaport near Bilbao (q.v.). PORTUGUESE - BRAZILIAN LITERA- TURE. The literature of Brazil has to some degree followed the literary tendencies of the motherland in Euro])t, As it was long the cus- tom to send Brazilian youths of promise to Coim- bra for their training, the intellectual relations between Portugal and Brazil were very close dur- ing the colonial period. Since the winning of Brazilian independence. however, Brazilian writers have shown no slight originality. Four periods maybe marked: ( 1) From the age of discovery and exploration down to the middle of the eighteenth century, a period during which the seeds of culture are sown by missionaries from Europe, especially by the Jesuits. At first Portuguese and .Spanish models are followed servilely, but in the first half of the eighteenth century a slight tendency toward independence manifested itself, even though Portuguese in- fluence still ruled supreme. (2) The second half of the eighteenth century, an age which is char- acterized by the endeavors of the poets of the school of Minas-Geraes, who show in certain in- stances a growing desire to escape from the too rigid influence of the Old World. (3) The period ranging from the beginning of the nineteenth cen- tury to about 1840, and bearing the impress of the political independence that began in 1822. (4) The epoch from 1840 on, during which the Romantic movement comes to shake the power of Pseudo-Classicism as well in America as in Europe, and the feeling of national consciousness exerts a constantly growing influence. ( 1 ) From the settlement to the middle of the eighteenth century. The .Jesuits sought as soon as possible to naturalize the literary forms popu- lar in the old country, and composed and had per- formed dramas religious in their nature and based on the Autos of Gil Vicente and his successors. The first poet known by name is Bento Te.xeira Pinto (born about 1.550) ; he is more noteworthy . for his prose ReUirdo do nniifrufiio que fe:. . . em o anno de J565 than for his verse. More important than Pinto are the brothers Gregorio and Eusebio de Mattos. Gregorio (1033-90), the better of the two, was an inveterate satirist; he closely imitated the Spanish Juvenal, Quevedo, adopting also the methods of the Spaniards Lope de Vega and (iongora. Spanish Gougorism prevailed likewise in the lyrics of Vieira Ravasco (1017- 97) and Botelho" de Oliveira (1030-1711); and Oliveira, like so nuiny Portuguese of the period, wrote at least as much in Spanish as in Portu- guese. Bahia, where the Viceroy dwelt, saw the greatest literaiy development in this first period. It was the centre of societies of men of letters, such as the Academia BrazUica dos Es- quecidos, whose members produced much occa- sional verse of a panegj'rical nature. The pane- gyrics of Brito de Lima (1071-1742) are typical compositions. We may mention the Franciscan Manoel de Santa Maria Itaparica (born 1704), whose poetical legend, Eustachidos, treats the well-known story of Saint Eustace, and the Bis- toria da America portugneza of Sebastiao da Rocha Pita (1000-1738). This is the fir.st truly scientific and detailed account of the history of Brazil. The first distinguished dramatist of Brazilian birth now appeared in Antonio Jose da Silva (q.v.). (2) Second half of the eighteenth century. The intluence of Portuguese literature, itself now wholly subordinated to the precepts of French Pseudo-Classicism, continued to hold sway during this period, but the note of protest against what was fast beginning to be felt as foreign domina- tion rang out ever more loudly both in politics and in letters. On the model of the European Academies and Arcadias, Rio de Janeiro had the Arcadia Ulframarina founded by the poet .JosS Basilio da Gama (1740-95) and kindred spirits. The members of the coterie of Minas Geraes, manj' of them associated with the Arcadia UUramarinii, known as the poeias minriros. headed the luckless movement for political independence which ema- nated from that region. To .Jose Basilio, a mas- iter of style and harmony, is due the epic Uruyuny, ■which describes the struggles of the Spanish and Portuguese troops against the Indians of Para- guay. Another worthy endeavor to compose an epic is seen in the Caramuru of Jose de Sant.a Rita Durao (1737-84), celebrating Diego Alvares, an early explorer of the coast of Bahia. The earliest of the lyric poets of the Minas Geraes group was Claudio Manoel da Costa (1729-90), who hanged himself in prison after the failure of the revolutionary plot in which he and his fellow poets had figured. His close friend Thomaz Antonio Gonzaga ( 1744-1809). the great- est member of the school and one of the most popular poets in the Portuguese speech, per- ished in exile. Gonzaga is best known by the pseudonym of Direen, which he assumed in his famous Marilia de Dirceu. This collection of impassioned lyrics is addressed to his beloved (Marilia). The erotic spirit also inspires the lyrics in the Glaura of Manoel Ignacio da Silva Alvarenga (1740-1814), who helped to found the Arcadia XJltramarinn. Alvarenga earnestly en- deavored to infuse a more national and popular spirit into the Brazilian lyric. Domingos Caldas Barboza (1740-1800). author of canfigas, quintih has. sonnets, etc., and Francesco de Mello Franco (1757-1823), who. with the aid of Jose Boni- facio, wrote the mock-heroic poem. reino da cstupidez, belong more properly to Portugal.