PORTUGAL (LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.; 



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Barros, a celebrated politician of the time of John 

 III. (died 1571), whom Portugal calls her Livy, first 

 acquired distinction. His Asia or Dos Feilos, que 

 os Portuguezes fizerao no Descobrimento e Conquista 

 dos Mares e Terras do Oriente (Lisbon, 1552,*felio; 

 second edition, Lisbon, 1553 ; third edition, Lisbon, 

 1563; fourth edition, with notes and maps, by J. B. 

 Lavanha, Madrid, 161 6, folio), is an important work. 

 Diego de Con to has continued it in his Asia Portu- 

 gueza, which comprises the whole in 14 vols., folio, 

 1552 1615. Also Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, 

 in his Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da 

 India pe.'os Portuguezes (Coimbra, 15521561, 8 

 vols., folio); Ant. Bocarro, and the famous Portu- 

 guese hero Afonso de Albuquerque, in his Com- 

 mentarios, published by his son (Lisbon, 1557, 

 folio); Damiao de Goes (translator of the Cato 

 major of Cicero), in his Chronica do Folio. Rey D. 

 Emmanuel (p. i. iv. Lisbon, 1565 1567, folio); 

 and Chron. do Principe D. Joam II. (Lisbon, 

 1567, folio): and in his short Latin writings De 

 Moribus JEthiopum, &c, (in P. Martyr's work De 

 Rebus Oceanicis, (Cologne, 1574, third edition), 

 have described the Portuguese heroes. The his- 

 tory of king Emmanuel by the bishop Jeronymo 

 Osorio, who died 1580 (Lisbon, 1571), is esteemed 

 on account of the tolerant views of this prelate. 

 Bernardo de Brito afterwards wrote his Monarchia 

 Lusitana (1597 and 1609, folio); also his Elogios 

 dos Reis de Portugal (Lisbon, 1603, 4to). But as 

 he began with the creation of the world, he had 

 not proceeded to the actual foundation of the Por- 

 tuguese state, when he died in 1617 ; his style is 

 manly and simple. The voyages of discovery of 

 the Portuguese missionaries and other Portuguese 

 also furnished abundant materials to the Portuguese 

 literature ; for instance, the Travels of John Fer- 

 nandez, from cape Arguin into the interior of Africa, 

 in 1445 ; of Alf. de Paiva and Joan de Covilham, 

 whom John III. sent, towards the end of the 

 fifteenth century, as ambassadors to the (so called) 

 Prester John, king of Abyssinia, and to India ; yet 

 many of these narratives are still in manuscript. 

 Respecting the historical literature, see Biblioth. 

 Histor. de Portugal e seus Dominios Ultramarinos , 

 &c., with notes by Arco do Cejo (Lisbon, 1801). 

 At that time the power of Portugal sunk under 

 Spanish despotism, and with it the Portuguese 

 literature (in the seventeenth century). A volumi- 

 nous writer, Manoel de Faria e Souza (1590 to 

 1649), commented on Camoens, without taste and 

 spirit, but with an abundance of erudition ; he pub- 

 lished Fuente de Aganippe, e Rimas varias (Madrid, 

 1644 46, 7 vols.), and Europa Portugueza (3 vols., 

 folio, Lisbon, 1675), in the Castilian language, and 

 was considered for a long time a good critic in Por- 

 tugal. His historical work shows a faulty taste, 

 and, whilst he is anxious to exhibit every where 

 his knowledge, wit, and eloquence, he abuses the 

 talents which he actually possessed. Among his 

 sonnets some are distinguished by feeling and 

 grace. Among other poets is the inventor of a 

 sort of elegiac compositions, called saudades, the 

 famous lawyer Ant. Barbosa Bacellar (who died in 

 1663). The prose writer Jacinto Freire de An- 

 drade is distinguished by his Vida de D. Judo de 

 Castro, Viso Rey da India (Lisbon, 1671, second 

 edition, folio), and by his comic poems. This bio- 

 graphy, translated into several languages, is con- 

 sidered, by the Portuguese, a model of a pure and 

 noble historical style. Violante do Ceo, a Domi- 

 nican nun, published Rimas (1646) and Soliloquios 

 (1668). She, as well as some others, such as Jero- 

 nymo Bahia, are too artificial. The sonnets of 

 Franc, de Vasconcellos. who was born in Madeira, 



and the sacred songs of the Brazilian Andre N lines 

 de Silva, are in a simpler style. In the eighteenth 

 century, the literature of Portugal seemed to sink 

 entirely with the decay of the state. In order to 

 give it some support, the government founded the 

 academy of the Portuguese language in 1714, and 

 the academy of history in the same year. But the 

 Jesuits and the inquisition permitted no talent to 

 develop itself freely. Under Pombal's powerful 

 government (1750 1777), the national feeling 

 rose once more. He established, indeed, a censor- 

 ship ; but this was intended chiefly for political 

 writings ; he himself was a great friend to scien 

 tific pursuits. Under Joseph I. the whole school 

 system was reformed, and an institute for the edu- 

 cation of young noblemen was established. The 

 rupture with Rome, then existing, was wisely taken 

 advantage of for this purpose. The traces of inde- 

 pendent thinking yet to be met with are chiefly 

 derived from that time, when, among others, the 

 great theologian Ant. Pereira was very active. The 

 renovation of the university of Coimbra also belongs 

 to this period, and several good works then ap- 

 peared. After the death of Joseph, the enemies of 

 intelligence again raised their heads, yet without 

 being able to destroy every thing. On the con- 

 trary, an academy of sciences was founded in 1779, 

 by the influence of the duke of Braganza, which 

 consists of three classes. One man, of great talents 

 and accomplished taste, distinguished himself in the 

 first half of the eighteenth century general Franc. 

 Xav. de Meneses, count of Ericeyra. He corre- 

 sponded with Boileau, whose Art Poetique he had 

 translated into Portuguese verse, and published, 

 among several other writings, an epic poem, the 

 Henriqueida, or the Foundation of the Portuguese 

 Monarchy, by Henry of Burgundy (Lisbon, 1741). 

 It was intended to be more regular than the Lusiad, 

 but Boileau's school was unable to inspire the count 

 with the ardent and chivalric spirit of Camoens. 

 Another poem of this period, by Jose Basilio da 

 Gama, called Ouraguay (Lisbon, 1769), commem- 

 orating the conquest of Paraguay, is much esteemed. 

 The inclination of the people of Lisbon now turned 

 again to the theatre which had been so long 

 neglected. We shall say a few words on the Por- 

 tuguese theatre hereafter. Among the recent 

 Portuguese poets, several have contributed to 

 banish the ancient pastoral style, and to alter the 

 taste of the people for poetry of an Oriental charac- 

 ter, by good translations, particularly from the 

 English ; e. g. two Brazilians, Claude Manoel da 

 Costa, and Antonio Diniz da Cruz e Silva, after 

 whose death appeared his Obras, &c. (Lisbon, 

 1807), containing imitations of British poets, and 

 Odes Pindaricas posthumas de Elpino Nonacrience 

 (Coimbra, 1801); also Almeno, translator of the 

 first four books of Ovid's Metamorphoses into Por- 

 tuguese verse, author of Poesias de Almeno, publi- 

 cadas por Elpino Duriense (Lisbon, 1805); Fran- 

 cisco Manoel, who was born in 1734, and after 

 1778, when he escaped from the inquisition, passed 

 his life in Paris, where his lyrical poems appeared 

 in 1808, and where he died in 1819; and several 

 others. One of the most fertile and most popular 

 poets was Manoel Maria de Barbosa du Bocage, 

 who died in 1805, in the Lisbon hospital. Of his 

 Rimas, the second edition appeared in Lisbon, 

 1800, in 3 vols. (the third, 1804, under the title 

 Poesias, dedicated to the countess of Oyenhausen). 

 This lady, a daughter of the marquis of Alorno, 

 has translated Wieland's Oberon, but not yet pub- 

 lished it. Among the poets yet living, Jose Mon- 

 teiro da Rncha and Mozinho d'Albuquerque are 

 esteemed. There are among the Portuguese several 



