Part 1

PORTUGUESE LITERATURE

Oxford University Press

_London_ _Edinburgh_ _Glasgow_ _Copenhagen_ _New York_ _Toronto_ _Melbourne_ _Cape Town_ _Bombay_ _Calcutta_ _Madras_ _Shanghai_

Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY

PORTUGUESE LITERATURE

BY AUBREY F. G. BELL

OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1922

TO THE TRUE PORTUGAL OF THE FUTURE

_La letteratura, dalla quale sola potrebbe aver sodo principio la rigenerazione della nostra patria._

GIACOMO LEOPARDI.

_This book was ready in October 1916, but the war delayed its publication. A few alterations have now been made in order to bring it up to date. It is needless to say how welcome will be further suggestions, especially for the bibliography. Only by such help can a book of this kind become useful, since its object is not to expatiate upon schools and 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. JOÃO DO ESTORIL, PORTUGAL. _July 1921_

CONTENTS

_Introduction_

PAGE

Portuguese literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--D. Carolina Michaëlis 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. 1185-1325.

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

§ 1. _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 Chariño--Airas Nunez’ _pastorela_--The _cantigas de vilãos_--Songs of women--Persistence of the _cossante_ to modern 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--Provençal 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. 1325-1521.

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

§ 1. _Early Prose_ 58

Comparatively late development of prose--Spanish influence in the second period of Portuguese literature--King Dinis’ translation of the _Cronica Geral_--_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 ab Arimatia_--_Estorea de Vespeseano_--_Amadis de Gaula_--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--Macias--Juan Rodriguez de la Cámara--Fernam Casquicio--Vasco Perez de Camões--Gonçalo Rodriguez, Archdeacon of Toro--Garci Ferrandez de Gerena--Alfonso Alvarez de Villasandino--_Cantigas de escarnho_--The Constable D. Pedro.

§ 3. _The Chroniclers_ 81

Fernam Lopez--_Cronica do Condestabre_--Zurara--Ruy de Pina--_Cronica do Infante Santo._ Other prose: King João 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 Prefeyçam_.

§ 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 Môr_--D. João de Meneses--D. João Manuel--Fernam da Silveira--Nuno Pereira--Diogo Brandam--Luis Anriquez--Rodriguez de Sá--The Conde de Vimioso--Duarte de Brito--Spanish influence.

III. The Sixteenth Century [1502-80].

§ 1. _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 _autos_--Types sketched in his _farsas_--Devotional plays, 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 Falcão--Sá de Miranda--D. Manuel de Portugal--Diogo Bernardez--Frei Agostinho da Cruz--Antonio Ferreira--Andrade Caminha--Sá de Meneses--Falcão de Resende--Jorge de Montemôr--Fernam Alvarez do Oriente--Faria e Sousa--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--Simão Machado--Francisco Vaz--Gil Vicente de Almeida--Frei Antonio da Estrella--Classical drama: Sá de Miranda--Antonio Ferreira--Camões--Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos.

§ 4. _Luis de Camões_ 174

Family of Camões--His birth and education--In North Africa--In India--Return to Portugal--Last years and death--Camões as epic and lyric poet--The _Lusiads_--Its critics--His greatness--Influence on the language--His _Parnasso_--Camões and Petrarca--Later epic poets--Corte Real--Pereira Brandão--Francisco de Andrade.

§ 5. _The Historians_ 190

Historians of India--Alvaro Velho --Lopez de Castanheda--Barros--Couto--Corrêa--Bras de Albuquerque--Antonio Galvam--Special narratives--Gaspar Fructuoso--Frei Bernardo de Brito--Francisco de Andrade--Osorio--Bernardo da Cruz--Jeronimo de Mendoça--Miguel de Moura--Duarte Nunez de Leam--Damião de Goes--André de Resende--Manuel Severim de Faria--Faria e Sousa.

§ 6. _Quinhentista Prose_ 217

Vivid prose--_Historia Tragico-Maritima_. Travels: Duarte Barbosa--Francisco Alvarez--Gaspar da Cruz--Frei João dos Santos--Tenreiro--Mestre Afonso--Frei Gaspar de S. Bernardino--Manuel Godinho--Fernam Mendez Pinto--Garcia da Orta--Pedro Nunez--Duarte Pacheco--D. João de Castro--Afonso de Albuquerque--Soropita--Rodriguez Silveira--Fernandez Ferreira--Francisco de Hollanda--Gonçalo Fernandez Trancoso--Francisco de Moraes.

§ 7. _Religious and Mystic Writers_ 235

Mysticism--Frei Heitor Pinto--Arraez--Frei Thomé de Jesus--Frei Luis de Sousa--Lucena--Preachers: Paiva de Andrade--Fernandez Galvão--Feo--Luz--Calvo--Veiga--Ceita--Lisboa--Almeida--Alvarez--Samuel Usque--Frei Antonio das Chagas--Manuel Bernardes.

IV. 1580-1706.

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

_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 Mascarenhas--Sá de Meneses--Sousa de Macedo--Mousinho de Quevedo--The Academies--Martim Afonso de Miranda--Leitão de Andrade--The Love Letters--_Arte de Furtar_--Ribeiro de Macedo--Freire de Andrade--Antonio Vieira.

V. 1706-1816.

[i. e. from the accession of João V to the death of Maria I.]

_The Eighteenth Century_ 270

The Arcadias--Corrêa Garção--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 José da Silva--Nicolau Dias--The Academy of Sciences--Scholars and critics--Theodoro de Almeida--Letters.

VI. 1816-1910.

[i. e. from the accession of João VI to the fall of the Monarchy.]

§ 1. _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--Bulhão Pato.

§ 2. _The Reaction and After_ 304

The Coimbra School--History: Oliveira Martins--Pinheiro Chagas--Research and criticism--The Drama: Ennes--Azevedo--D. João da Camara--Marcellino Mesquita--Snr. Lopes de Mendonça--Snr. Julio Dantas--The Novel: Julio Diniz--Eça de Queiroz--J. L. Pinto--Snr. Luiz de Magalhães--Snr. Magalhães Lima--Bento Moreno--Snr. Silva Gayo--Snr. Malheiro Dias--Abel Botelho--Ramalho Ortigão--Snr. Teixeira Gomes--Snr. Antero de Figueiredo--D. Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho--The Conde de Sabugosa--The _Conto_: Machado--The Conde de Ficalho--Fialho de Almeida--D. João da Camara--Trindade Coelho--Snr. Julio Brandão--Poetry: Quental--João de Deus--Guilherme Braga--A. da Conceição--G. de Azevedo--João Penha--Cesario Verde--Gonçalves Crespo--Snr. Guerra Junqueiro--Gomes Leal--Snr. Teixeira de Pascoaes--Antonio Nobre--Colonel Christovam Ayres--Joaquim de Araujo--Antonio Feijó--Snr. Eugenio de Castro--Snr. Corrêa de Oliveira--Snr. Afonso Lopes Vieira.

APPENDIX

§ 1. _Literature of the People_ 338

Unwritten literature--Traditional themes--_Floras e Branca Flor_--Bandarra--The Holy Cobbler--Primaeval elements--Connexion 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--Añon--Posada--Camino--Rosalía de Castro--Lamas Carvajal--Sr. Bárcia Caballero--Losada--Eduardo Pondal--Curros Enriquez--Martelo Pauman--Pereira--Garcia Ferreiro--Núñez González--Nun de Allariz--Sr. Rodríguez González--Sr. López Abente--Sr. Noriega Varela--Sr. Cabanillas--Sr. Rey Soto--_Cancionero Popular Gallego_--Prose--Pérez Placer--Dª. 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[1] in the Vatican Library until the late Professor Ernesto Monaci published _Il 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 Göttingen copy of that of 1562; Sá 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[1] of Sá de Meneses, which haunted Portuguese poetry for a century,[2] then sank into oblivion till they were discovered by Dr. Sousa Viterbo in the Torre do Tombo.[3] The abundant literature of popular _quadras_, _fados_, _romances_, _contos_ has only begun to be collected in the last fifty years.

In prose, the most important _Leal Conselheiro_[4] of King Duarte was rediscovered in the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale and first printed in 1842, and Zurara’s _Cronica da Guiné_, lost even in the days of Damião de Goes,[5] similarly in 1841; Corrêa’s _Lendas da India_ remained in manuscript till 1858; so notable a book as King João I’s _Livro da Montaria_ appears only in the twentieth century, in an edition by Dr. Esteves Pereira, and the first trustworthy 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 eternizar e engrandecer o dos passados’, had to wait two and a half centuries before this debt was paid by Mr. Edgar Prestage.[6] 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 Michaëlis de Vasconcellos. Perhaps, therefore, one may be forgiven for having been tempted to render some account of this ‘new’ literature which continues to be so strangely neglected in England and other countries.[7] 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 history[8] 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 Damião 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,[9] 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 MICHAËLIS 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 Michaëlis, 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 reconstruction and literary criticism, and her influence on Portuguese literature generally is as wide as her encouragement and assistance of younger scholars are generous.[10] _Femina_, as was said of the Princess Maria, _undequaque spectatissima et doctissima_.

Most of the works of DR. THEOPHILO BRAGA are of too provisional a nature to be of permanent value, but a summary, _Edade Medieval_ (1909), _Renascença_ (1914), _Os Seiscentistas_ (1916), _Os_ _Arcades_ (1918), gives his latest views. The best detailed criticism of the literature 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 Portuguesa_ (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 Coimbra University, DR. JOAQUIM MENDES DOS REMEDIOS: _História da Literatura Portuguêsa_ (5th ed., Coimbra, 1921), since it contains that rarity in Portuguese literature: an index.[11] 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[12] follows--_longo intervallo_--the lines of PROFESSOR JAMES FITZMAURICE-KELLY’S _Bibliographie de l’Histoire de la Littérature 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 literature in the future. Yet with the gradually developing prosperity of Portugal and her colonies such expectations are not unfounded. A new poet may arise indigenous as Gil Vicente and technically proficient as Camões. 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 Vasconcellos, Luis de Sousa, João de Lucena, Heitor Pinto, Arraez; an immense mass of sermons (_milhões de sermonarios_), 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 concision to the language; old _constituições_, _ordenações_, and _foros_[13]; technical treatises,[14] folk-lore, popular phrases,[15] 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 Litteratura 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 independent,[16] modern Galician is not more different from modern Portuguese than is the language of the _Cancioneiros_ with which Portuguese literature opens. The Portuguese have always shown a strong aptitude for acquiring foreign languages, and the individual’s gain has been the literature’s loss. Jorge de Montemôr, who

con su Diana Enriqueció 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.[17] It was 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 Illustrium Poetarum Lusitanorum qui latine scripserunt_ (Lisbonae, 1745), consists of eight volumes, and Domingo Garcia Peres’ _Catálogo 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’ _O Saltimbanco_. 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.[18]