[507] For a full list see Innocencio da Silva, _Dicc. Bibliog._ i.
377, and _Grundriss_, p. 339. Five volumes were announced by Barbosa
Machado as ready for press. The modern editors, besides eleven wrecks
of the sixteenth, eight of the seventeenth, and two of the eighteenth,
have included three of the nineteenth century. Some of the original
chap-books survive, with a fine woodcut of a tossing galleon on the
title-page: _Historia da mui notavel perda do galeam grande S. Joam_
(1554?); _Relaçam do lastimozo navfragio da nao Conceiçam chamada
Algaravia a Nova_ (1555); _Naufragio da nao Santo Alberto_ (1597);
_Memoravel relaçam da perda da nao Conceiçam_ (1627). The _Relaçam da
viagem do galeão São Lovrenço e sua perdição_ (1651) is by the Jesuit
Antonio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659); the _Relaçam sumaria da viagem
que fez Fernão d’Alvarez Cabral_, by Manuel Mesquita Perestrello, is
an account of the wreck of the fine ship _S. Bento_, which had taken
Camões to India.
[508] In this _Relaçam do naufragio da nao S. Thomé_, written in 1611,
twenty-two years after the event, he refers several times to his
_Decadas_.
[509] _Naufragio da nao S. Alberto_ (1593). It is a summary of a _largo
cartapacio_ of the pilot.
[510] _pedirme meu tio Ioam de Barros que lhe screuesse muito
particularmente todos os lugares deste meu caminho._
[511] _Verd. Inf._, p. 110: _nam era pera velhos_.
[512] This seems to have aroused the resentment of Barros (_Asia_, III.
iv. 3). The author, he says, had no learning. In II. iii. 4 he again
refers to him slightingly as ‘a certain Francisco Alvarez’. Barros as
grammarian similarly ignored Oliveira.
[513] Barbosa Machado says, _ultimamente em o Convento de Goa,
para onde tinha passado no anno de 1622 falleceu com saudade_, &c.
Innocencio da Silva read this with a comma after _passado_.
[514] Afonso de Albuquerque mentions another surgeon Mestre Afonso
in India in his time, i.e. half a century earlier. The value of the
_Itinerario_ consists in its having been written as a diary on the
journey, and its author, perhaps thinking of Mendez Pinto, says _hee
hũu grande descuido de homens que fazem semelhantes viagens e as nom
escreuem ... porque a memoria nom pode ser capaz de tamanha cousa e
tantas particularidades_ (p. 82).
[515] According to Barbosa Machado he entered the Jesuit College as a
novice in 1645 and died in 1712 _aet._ 78. Godinho also wrote a life of
Frei Antonio das Chagas.
[516] He was the son of D. Jorge, illegitimate son of João II., and was
created Duke of Aveiro.
[517] See the important works by Colonel Cristovam Ayres, _Fernão
Mendes Pinto_, 1904; _Fernão Mendes Pinto e o Japão_, 1906.
[518] His work did not appear till 1614 and it is uncertain to what
extent it was edited by the historian Francisco de Andrade. It is
thought that the account of his services as missionary in Japan may
have been excised owing to the hostility of the Jesuits.
[519] Cap. 223: _eu respondi acrecentando em muitas cousas que me
perguntava por me parecer que era assim necessario á reputação da nação
portuguesa_.
[520] Cf. caps. 14, 70, 88, 114, 126, 198, 204. The complaint is echoed
by almost every Portuguese traveller of the day. Bishop Osorio refers
to the _fidei faciendae difficultas_; even the truthful and exact
Francisco Alvarez fears his readers’ disbelief.
[521] Cf. Faria e Sousa (_laudari a laudato!_): _Yo le tengo por muy
verdadero_; A. de Sousa Macedo, _Eva e Ave_, ii. 55, 1676 ed., p. 495:
_El Rey Catholico D. Philippe II, quando veio a Portugal, gostava de
ouvir a Fernão Mendes, em cujas peregrinaçoens & sucessos que dellas
escreveo mostrou o tempo com a experiencia a verdade que se lhe
disputava antes que ouvesse tantas noticias d’aquellas partes_; Soares,
_Theatrum_: _diu apud Lusitanos fidem non meruit donec rerum qui secuti
sunt eventus et aliorum scripta nihil Ferdinandum a vero discrepasse
confirmarunt_; Manuel Bernardes, _Nova Floresta_, i (1706), p. 124: _as
Relações do nosso Fernão Mendez Pinto que não merecem tão pouco credito
como alguns lhe dão_. ‘Either never man had better memory or he was the
most solemn liar that ever put pen to paper’ is the verdict of José
Agostinho de Macedo (_Motim Literario_, 1841 ed., ii. 17).
[522] In France he was known as du Jardin. Familiarly this great
botanist seems to have been called Herbs. A copy of the first edition
of the _Coloquios_ has GRACIA DORTA O ERVAS on the back of the binding.
This might be an ignorant mistake for D’ELVAS.
[523] The Governor’s brother, Pero Lopez de Sousa, wrote a _Diario da
Navegação_ (1530-2) first published at Lisbon in 1839. The soldier in
Couto’s _Dialogo_ says, _não vai tão mal negociado hir por Fysico môr
pois todos os que este cargo serviram tiraram nos seus tres annos sete
ou oito mil cruzados_.
[524] _Libro di Odoardo Barbosa Portoghese._
[525] He must have spent many a half-hour in the corner bookshop in
Goa mentioned by Couto (_Dec._ VI. v. 8, 1781 ed., p. 400): _o canto
onde pousa um livreiro_--unless this is a misprint for _luveiro_,
as the neighbouring _sirgueiro_ seems to indicate. The growth of
Portuguese literature in the East would furnish matter for a curious
essay. Great folios like the _Cancioneiro de Resende_ (see Lopez de
Castanheda, v. 12, and Barros, _Asia_, III. iii. 4, for the strange use
made of it in India) and the _Flos Sanctorum_ were taken out, and it
is improbable that they were brought back when every square inch was
required for pepper. Thousands of precious volumes must have gone down
in shipwrecks, others--profane books and _autos_--were thrown overboard
at the bidding of the priests. For the fate of a case of Hebrew Bibles
(_briuias_) see Corrêa, _Lendas da India_, i. 656-7. _Amadis de Gaula_
was apparently in India in 1519 (Lopez de Castanheda, v. 16). A most
interesting list of books ready to be sent to the Negus of Abyssinia in
1515 is given in Sousa Viterbo’s _A Livraria Real_ (1901), p. 8.
[526] Unless Corrêa’s description (_Lendas_, iv. 288-9) is earlier.
Other events recorded by Corrêa which must have closely affected Orta
are the fate of a bachelor of medicine strangled and burnt by the
Inquisition at Goa in 1543 (iv. 292) and the outbreak of small-pox,
from which 8,000 children died there in three months in 1545 (iv. 447).
The _Dialogo da perfeyçam & partes que sam necessarias ao bom medico_
(1562), with the exception of the dedicatory letter to King Sebastian
and the title, is written in Spanish (25 ff.). Apparently AFONSO DE
MIRANDA found it in Latin among the books of his son Jeronimo (who had
studied at Coimbra and Salamanca) and translated it.
[527] _Composto_, he says (_Coloquios_, i. 5). Dimas Bosque (ib. i. 11)
says _começado_.
[528] Thus he contributed to the fact, which he notices in the _Tratado
da carta de marear_, that the Portuguese sea enterprises were based
on careful preparation. The _nonius_ was perfected in the following
century by Vernier.
[529] _Tratado da Sphera_, Preface.
[530] This volume contains also two brief treatises by Nunez in
Portuguese: _Tratado ... sobre certas duuidas da nauegação_, answering
certain questions put to him by Martim Afonso de Sousa, and _Tratado
... em defensam da carta de marear_, addressed to the Infante Luis.
The _De Sphaera_ of Joannes de Sacro Bosco was printed with a preface
by Philip Melanchthon in 1538. Arraez, in his _Dialogos_, 1604 ed., f.
56, says: _sei algo da Sphera porque quando Pero Nunez a lia a certos
homens principais eu me achava presente_.
[531] He himself says that he was born in the excellent city of Lisbon
(_Esmeraldo_, iv. 6), and he was one of the captains sent out by João
II to continue the discovery of the West Coast of Africa. In 1520-2 he
was Governor of the fortress of S. Jorge da Mina, but his last years
were spent in poverty.
[532] Other works of a similar nature, _livros das rotas_ or
_derrotas_, are printed in _Libro de Marinharia_. _Tratado da Aguia de
Marear_ [1514] _de João de Lisboa_ [†1526]. _Copiado e coordenado por
J. I. Brito Rebello_, 1903. Cf. also G. Pereira, _Roteiros Portuguezes
da viagem de Lisboa á India nos seculos xvi e xvii_, 1898; H. Lopes
de Mendonça, _Estudos sobre navios portuguezes nos seculos xv e xvi_,
1892, and _O Padre Fernando Oliveira e a sua obra nautica_, 1898 (pp.
147-221 contain _O Liuro da fabrica das naos_, of which, says the
preface, _ninguem escreveo ateegora_); and Sousa Viterbo, _Trabalhos
nauticos dos portuguezes nos seculos xvi e xvii_ (_Historia e Memorias
da Ac. das Sciencias_, tom. vii (1898), _mem._ 3; tom. viii (1900),
_mem._ 1). Diogo de Sá’s _De Navigatione_ was published in Paris in
1549; the _Arte Practica de Navegar_ (1699) by the _Cosmographo Môr_
Manuel Pimentel (1650-1719) appeared a century and a half later and had
several editions in the eighteenth century.
[533] Fr. Antonio de San Roman, _Historia General de la India
Oriental_, Valladolid, 1603.
[534] _De Rebvs Emmanvelis_ (1571), p. 380: _Non erat alienus a
literis, & cum otium erat lectione sacrarum praecipue literarum
oblectabatur._
[535] Pt. 1, 1572 ed., f. 224: _não feyto por mão do nosso Olãda nẽ do
vosso Michaël Angelo mas por meu bayxo ingenho_.
[536] Or Gonçalo Fernandez of Trancoso (Beira). His name has no
connexion with the phrase _contar historias a trancos_ (_de coq à
l’âne_).
[537] Preface addressed to the Queen in Pt. 1. His object was _prender
a imaginação em ferros_.
[538] Timoneda’s _El Patrañuelo_ appeared in the following year.
[539] See, however, Dr. Agostinho de Campos’ selections (1921).
[540] _O que aprendi, ouui ou li_ (1624 ed.); _o que aprendi, vi ou li_
(1734 ed.).
[541] See Menéndez y Pelayo, _Orígenes de la Novela_, tom. ii (1907),
p. lxxxvii et seq.
[542] The alternation of the indigenous and the exotic may be seen in
the spelling of the same name as Piro (= Pero, Pedro, Peter) and Pyrrho
(Pyrrhus) in iii. 8.
[543] _Ropica Pnefma_, 1869 ed., p. 2.
[544] _Dialogos_, 1604 ed., f. 157. A third edition of _Clarimundo_
(1601) had appeared before the second edition of the _Dialogos_.
[545] _Corte na Aldea_ (1619), _Dialogo_ 1 (1722 ed., p. 5).
[546] Moraes, _Dialogo_ 1 (1852 ed., p. 11).
[547] Barbosa Machado seems to have considered him much under seventy
at the time of his death in 1572.
[548] The tradition, mentioned by Cervantes, that it was written by
a learned and witty king of Portugal is clearly traceable to that
other tradition that King João III as Infante had been joint-author of
_Clarimundo_.
[549] Mount Brandon, Smerwick (and The Three Sisters) of the ‘pleasant’
but ‘densely wooded’ coast of Kerry, are Greek to the Spanish
translator and become San Cebrian (Cyprian) and San Maurique.
[550] The title continues: _que tinha com hũa dama francesa da raynha
dona Leanor per nome Torsi, sendo Portugues, pela quai fez a historia
das damas francesas no seu Palmeirim_.
[551] It is scarcely possible that the author (Francisco Vazquez?)
considered that Burgos, as his birthplace--his mother--had a part in
the work.
[552] From being merely the legend above, the mounted knight on the
title-page _Dom Duardos de Bretanha_ became the title of the book.
§ 7.
_Religious and Mystic Writers_
Amador Arraez in one of his dialogues defines mysticism thus: ‘There
is a theology called mystic, as being hidden and unintelligible to
those who have no part in it. It is attained by much love and few books
and with much meditation and purity of heart, which alone suffices
for its exercise, and consists mainly in the noblest part of our will
inflamed in the love of God, its full and perfect good.’[553] ‘Our
will inflamed’: perhaps these words explain the excellence of the
style, the intensity and directness, of the writers in this mystic
theology. Style, so shy and elusive to Flaubert and his disciples,
came unsought to the religious writers of the sixteenth century,
because they wrote not with an eye on verbal artifices but out of the
fullness of the heart, ‘self-gathered for an outbreak’; and their
works can still be read with pleasure by priest and pagan. Mysticism,
inherent in the character of the Portuguese, runs through a great
part of their literature; we find it, for instance, in the merry
poetry of Gil Vicente or in the precious accents of Soror Violante do
Ceo. Strength of character, aloofness, rapt enthusiasm, singleness
of purpose: these are the qualities of mysticism at its best, and if
it also manifests itself in vagueness and confusion, this was not
so with the great mystic and religious writers of the golden age of
Portuguese literature. To them mysticism was not a cloudy goodness or
an abstract perception-dulling humanity, not a mist but a pillar of
fire, in the light of which the facts and details of reality stood out
the more clearly. But if the intensity of many of the mystics has its
natural complement in the fervour and directness of their prose, this
was not always the case, and it was not only in profane works that the
Portuguese language fell into the pitfalls of _culteranismo_. All the
more remarkable is the purity, the exquisite taste, the simplicity
and charm of some of the later, seventeenth century, prose. The secret
of this prose lay in fact in _culteranismo_ itself, the points and
conceits of which were based on a recognition of the value of words.
All the _seiscentistas_ set to playing with words as with unset stones
of price. The more critical or inspired writers joined in the game but
selected the genuine stones, leaving the rest to those who did not care
to distinguish between gems and coloured glass.
A faint vein of mysticism is to be found in the work of FREI HEITOR
PINTO (_c._ 1528-1584?), who was born at the high-lying little town
of Covilhan and professed in the famous Convento dos Jeronimos at
Belem in 1543. After taking the degree of Doctor of Theology at
Siguenza he in 1567 competed for a Chair at Salamanca University, but
came into collision with Fray Luis de Leon, and in a bitter contest
between the Hieronymite and Augustinian Orders Pinto was defeated. He
returned to Portugal, became Professor of the new Chair of Scripture
at Coimbra University in 1576, Rector of the University and Provincial
of his Order.[554] After the death of the Cardinal-King he appears
vehemently to have espoused the cause of the Prior of Crato. King
Philip accordingly invited Pinto to accompany him to Spain--he was
one of the fifty excluded from the amnesty of 1581--and scandal added
that the king had him poisoned there in 1584. Pinto was an eminent
divine, a man of wide learning, a master of Portuguese prose, and he
appears to have inspired his pupils with affection; but King Philip
could scarcely have considered him worth poisoning, especially when
removed from his sphere of influence. No doubt he went to Spain with
extreme reluctance--on other occasions of his busy life when the
affairs of his Order drove him to France and Italy he had sighed in
tears (in spite of his interest in travel, his love of Nature, and
especially his antiquarian curiosity[555]) for his quiet cell at Belem,
‘where he had lived many years in great content’. Perhaps too he had
not forgotten his defeat at Salamanca. ‘King Philip’, he now said
sturdily, ‘may put me into Castille but never Castille into me.’ Pinto
wrote commentaries on various books of the Old Testament, which were
published in Latin, but his principal work consists in the dialogues,
_a maneira dos de Platão_, of his _Imagem da Vida Christam_ (1563),
followed by the _Segunda Parte dos Dialogos_ (1572). The first part has
six dialogues, the subjects being true philosophy, religion, justice,
tribulation, the solitary life,[556] and remembrance of death. The five
of the second part treat of tranquillity of life, discreet ignorance,
true friendship, causes,[557] and true and spurious possessions. It
is impossible to read a page of these dialogues and not be struck by
the extraordinary fascination of their style. It is concise and direct
without ever losing its harmony. Perhaps its best testimonial is
that its magic survives the innumerable quotations, although one may
regret that the work was not written, like the _Trabalhos de Jesus_,
in a dungeon instead of in a well-stocked library.[558] Apart from
the proof it affords of the exceptional capacity of the Portuguese
language for combining softness and vigour, the work contains much
ingenious thought, charming descriptions, and elaborate similes. Some
twenty editions in various languages before the end of the century
show how keenly it was appreciated. It was certainly not without
influence on the _Dialogos_ (1589) of the energetic and austere Bishop
of Portalegre, AMADOR ARRAEZ (_c._ 1530-1600), who spent his boyhood at
Beja and professed as a Carmelite at Lisbon a year after Frei Thomé de
Jesus and two years after Frei Heitor Pinto had professed in the same
city. Like the former he studied theology at Coimbra.[559] Cardinal
Henrique, when Archbishop of Evora, chose Arraez to be his suffragan,
and in 1578 appointed him to the see of Tripoli. Three years later he
was made Bishop of Portalegre by Philip II. He resigned in 1596, and
spent the last four years of his life in retirement, in the college
of his Order at Coimbra. A few weeks before his death he wrote the
prefatory letter for the revised edition of his great work.[560] It
consists of ten long dialogues between the sick and dying Antiocho
and doctor, priest, lawyer, or friends. The longest, over a quarter
of the whole, is a mystic life of the Virgin, and of the others some
are purely religious, as _Da Paciencia e Fortaleza Christam_, some
historical or political (_Da Gloria e Triunfo dos Lusitanos_; _Das
Condições e Partes do Bom Principe_). That on the Jews (_Da Gente
Judaica_) is marred by a spirit of bitter intolerance; on the other
hand there is an outspoken protest against slavery. The whole of this
interesting miscellany, which incidentally discusses a very large
number of subjects,[561] is tinged with mystic philosophy, and at the
same time shows a keen sense of reality. In style as in degree of
mysticism it stands midway between Pinto’s _Imagem_ and the _Trabalhos
de Jesus_. It is evident that its composition, although less artificial
than that of the _Imagem_, has been the subject of much care, and the
author declares in his preface that while adopting a ‘common, ordinary
style’, to the exclusion of forced tricks and elegances, he has striven
after clearness and harmony (the two postulates of his contemporary,
Fray Luis de Leon). The result is a treasury of excellent prose,
in which the harmonious flow of the sentences in nowise interferes
with precision and restraint, that grave brevity which Arraez notes
as one of the principal qualities of Portuguese. It can rise to
great eloquence (as in the lament of Olympio) without ever becoming
rhetorical or turgid.
The prose of Pinto and Arraez was a very conscious art, that of the
still greater FREI THOMÉ DE JESUS (1529?-82) was the man, and the man
merged in mysticism, without thought of style. He was the son of
Fernam Alvarez de Andrade, Treasurer to King João III, and of Isabel de
Paiva. One of his brothers was the celebrated preacher Diogo de Paiva
de Andrade (1528-75), another the historian Francisco de Andrade; a
third, Frei Cosme da Presentação, distinguished himself in philosophy
and theology, but died at the age of thirty-six at Bologna, while the
work of a nephew (son of Francisco de Andrade), Diogo de Paiva de
Andrade (1576-1660), _Casamento perfeito_ (1636), is counted a classic
of Portuguese prose. His sister D. Violante married the second Conde
de Linhares. As a boy at the Augustinian Collegio de Nossa Senhora
da Graça at Coimbra he is said to have been all but drowned while
swimming in the Mondego. He professed at the Lisbon convent of the
same Order in 1544, went to Coimbra to study theology, and then became
master of novices at the Lisbon convent.[562] Here in 1574 he planned
a reform of the Order, but when all was ready for the secession of the
new _Recoletos_ an intrigue put an end to the scheme, which a kindred
spirit, Fray Luis de Leon, later carried into effect. Frei Thomé was
permitted to retire to the convent of Penafirme by the sea, near Torres
Vedras, where he might hope to indulge his love of quiet and solitude.
He was, however, appointed prior of the convent and Visitor of his
Order, and in 1578 was chosen by King Sebastian to accompany him to
Africa. At the battle of Alcacer Kebir, as he held aloft a crucifix
or tended the wounded, he was speared by a Moor and taken prisoner
to Mequinez. Here he was loaded with chains and placed in a dungeon,
and as the slave of a marabout received ‘less bread than blows’. The
Portuguese Ambassador, D. Francisco da Costa, intervened, and he was
removed to Morocco. Frei Thomé had borne all his sufferings with the
most heroic fortitude, and now, broken in health but not in spirit,
he refused to lodge at the ambassador’s and asked to be placed in the
common prison. During a captivity of nearly four years, regardless
of his own fate,[563] with unflagging devotion he ministered to the
numerous Christian prisoners, and was occupied to the last with their
needs. Costa, who shared the general respect and affection for this
saint and hero, visited him as he lay dying (April 17, 1582). _Vattene
in pace, alma beata e bella!_ It was during his captivity that he
composed the work that has given him the lasting fame earned by his
life and character, writing furtively in the scant light that filtered
through the cracks of the prison door.[564] These fifty _Trabalhos de
Jesus_ (2 pts., 1602, 9) embrace the whole life of Christ, and deserve,
more than Renan’s _Vie de Christ_, to be called a gracious fifth
Gospel. Each _trabalho_ is, moreover, followed by a spiritual exercise,
and these constitute a Portuguese _De Imitatione Christi_. Rarely, if
ever, has such glow and fervour been set in print: none but the very
dull could be left cold by these transports of passionate devotion. The
prose wrestles and throbs in an agony of grief or rapture, of mysticism
carried to the extreme limit where all power of articulate expression
ends.[565] Frei Thomé de Jesus is a master of Portuguese prose not by
any arts or graces but through the white heat of his intensity. No book
shows more clearly that style must always be a secondary consideration,
that if there be a burning conviction excellence of style follows.
It could evidently only have been written by one who had greatly
suffered, indeed by one who still suffered, one who expressed in these
fervid accents of heavenly communion an oblivion of self and an energy
habitually employed in eager earthly service of his fellow men. In a
prefatory letter (November 8, 1581) addressed to the Portuguese people
he declared his intention of publishing as it stood this masterpiece
of mystic ecstasy, which he believed to have been written by divine
inspiration.[566]
Another celebrated treatise of a mystic character is the _Voz do_
_Amado_ (1579) by the learned Canon D. HILARIAM BRANDÃO (†1585). The
religious works of this century are very numerous. We may mention the
anonymous _Regras e Cautelas de proueito espiritual_ (1542), which is
written in biblical prose and deals with the fifteen perfections or
excellences of charity and kindred subjects; the dialogues _Desengano
de Perdidos em dialogo entre dous peregrinos, hũ christão e hũ
turco_ (Goa, 1573) by the first Archbishop of Goa, D. GASPAR DE LEÃO
(†1576), and the _Dialogo espiritual: Colloquio de um religioso com um
peregrino_ (1578) by FREI ALVARO DE TORRES [Vedras] (fl. 1550), who was
drowned in the Tagus when on the way to his convent at Belem.
D. JOANA DA GAMA (†1568), a nun of noble birth who directed a small
community founded by herself at Evora, a few miles from her native
Viana, published a short collection of moral sentences in alphabetical
order, followed by a few poems (_trovas_): _Ditos da Freyra_ (1555).
She insists, perhaps a little too emphatically for conviction, on her
lack of intelligence and ability, and says that these sayings were
written down for herself alone and that she purposely avoids subtleties
(_ditos sotijs_), but her aphorisms contain some shrewd personal
observation. Fact and legend have combined to weave an atmosphere of
romance about the life of Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, better known as
FREI LUIS DE SOUSA (1555?-1632). A descendant of the second Conde de
Marialva, he early entered or was about to enter the Order of Knights
Hospitallers at Malta, but was captured by the Moors in much the same
way and at about the same time (1575) as was Cervantes. He was taken to
Algiers, and may have known Cervantes there, or the statement that he
became Cervantes’ friend may have been an inference from the latter’s
mention of him in _Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda_; they may
have met in Lisbon in 1590, or at Madrid. Sousa Coutinho returned to
Portugal in 1578, and some years later married D. Magdalena de Vilhena,
widow of D. João de Portugal, one of all the peerage that fell with
King Sebastian at Alcacer Kebir. Sousa Coutinho, at the invitation of
his brother in Panama, is said to have gone thither in the hope of
making a fortune, but the date is not clear. His unbending patriotism
was immortalized when as Governor of Almada in 1599 he burnt down his
house rather than receive as guests the Spanish Governors of Portugal.
The prospect of riches at Panama may have seemed especially alluring
after this rash act. He appears to have lived quietly in Portugal for
some years before 1613, when both he and his wife entered a convent.
Their act has been variously explained as due to melancholy disposition
or to the early death of their daughter, D. Anna de Noronha. Probably
after her death the example of their friend the Conde de Vimioso and
the conviction that the only abiding pleasure is the renunciation of
all the rest were prevalent factors in their decision. The legend,
however, related by Frei Antonio da Encarnação and dramatized two
centuries later by Garrett, records that D. João de Portugal, D.
Magdalena de Vilhena’s first husband, had been not killed but taken
prisoner in Africa, and after many years’ captivity he reappears as
an aged pilgrim and bitterly reveals his identity. In the convent of
Bemfica, where he had professed in September 1614, Frei Luis de Sousa
was consulted on various matters by the Duke of Braganza and others
who valued his fine character and clear judgement, but he did not
live to see the Restoration. He was entrusted by his Order with the
revision of works left by another Dominican, FREI LUIS DE CACEGAS (_c._
1540-1610). These he re-wrote, giving them a lasting value by virtue
of his style. The first part of the _Historia de S. Domingos_, ‘a new
kind of chronicle’ as he calls it in his preface addressed to the king,
appeared in 1623, but the second (1662) and third (1678) parts were
not published in his lifetime. A fourth part (1733) was added by FREI
LUCAS DE SANTA CATHARINA (1660-1740), who among other works wrote a
curious miscellany of verse and prose, romance and literary criticism,
entitled _Seram politico_ (1704). In the biography of the saintly
and strong-willed Archbishop of Braga, _Vida de D. Fr. Bertolomeu
dos Martyres_ (1619), the excellence of Sousa’s style is even more
apparent, for it has here no trace of rhetoric and the pictures
stand out with the more effect for the economy with which they are
drawn--the dearth of adjectives is noticeable. The archbishop’s visits
to his diocese give occasion for charming, homely glimpses of Minho.
Neither of these books is the work of a critical historian (in the
_Vida_, for instance, winds and waves obey the archbishop), but the
latter, especially, is in matter and manner one of the masterpieces of
Portuguese literature, a _livro divino_, as a modern Portuguese writer
called it.[567] The _Annaes de El Rei Dom João Terceiro_, written at
the bidding of Philip IV, was published in 1844 by Herculano, who
described the work as little more than a series of notes, except in
the Indian sections, which summarize Barros. It is as a stylist, not
as a historian, that Frei Luis de Sousa will always be read, and read
with delight.[568] The subject of his biography, FREI BARTHOLOMEU DOS
MARTYRES (1514-90), wrote in Portuguese a simple _Catecismo da Dovtrina
Christam_ (Braga, 1564), resembling the Portuguese work of his friend
Fray Luis de Granada (1504-88): _Compendio de Doctrina Christãa_
(Lixboa, 1559).
The _Historia da Vida do Padre Francisco Xavier_ (1600), by the Jesuit
JOÃO DE LUCENA (1550-1600), born at Trancoso, who made his mark as
an eloquent preacher and Professor of Philosophy in the University
of Evora, is also one of the classics of the Portuguese language. It
receives a glowing fervour from the author’s evident delight in his
subject--the life of the famous Basque missionary in whose arms D.
João de Castro died. His command of clear, fluent, vigorous prose, his
skilful use of words and abundant power of description, enable him to
convey this enthusiasm to his readers. Part of the matter of his book
was derived from Fernam Mendez Pinto, but the style is his own.
Like Frei Luis de Sousa, FREI MANUEL DA ESPERANÇA (1586-1670) became
the historian of his Order in the _Historia Seraphica da Ordem dos
Frades Menores_ (2 pts., 1656, 66). We know from remarks in the second
part that he paid the greatest attention to its composition, for which
he had prepared himself by reading _hũa multidão notavel_ of books
on that and kindred subjects. Similar excellence of style marks the
later work of the Jesuit FRANCISCO DE SOUSA (1628?-1713), _O Oriente
conquistado_ (2 vols., 1710), in which he chronicles the history of the
Company in the East.
The most celebrated Portuguese preacher of his time,[569] Frei Thomé
de Jesus’ brother, DIOGO DE PAIVA DE ANDRADE (1528-75), represented
Portugal at the Council of Trent in 1561. His eloquent _Sermões_
(1603, 4, 15) were published posthumously in three parts. His mantle
fell upon FRANCISCO FERNANDEZ GALVÃO (1554-1610), the prose of whose
_Sermões_ (3 vols., 1611, 13, 16) is admirably restrained and pure.
Less sonorous than the periods of Paiva de Andrade, the _Trattados_
[_sic_] _Quadragesimais e da Paschoa_ (1609) and _Tratados das Festas e
Vidas dos Santos_ (2 pts., 1612, 15) of the Dominican FREI ANTONIO FEO
(1573-1627) perhaps gain rather than lose by being read, not heard. In
the clearness and precision of their prose they are scarcely inferior
to the remarkable _Sermões_ (3 pts., 1617, 18, 25) of the Augustinian
FREI PHILIPE DA LUZ (1574-1633), confessor to the Duke of Braganza
(afterwards King João IV), in whose palace at Villa Viçosa he died. He,
too, writes _sem grandes eloquencias_; he is as precise as Feo in his
use of words, and his vocabulary is as extensive. Purity, concision,
clearness, and harmony give him, together with Feo, Ceita, and Veiga, a
high place in Portuguese prose.
The sermons for which the Dominican FREI PEDRO CALVO (born _c._ 1550)
was celebrated were published in _Homilias de Quaresma_ (2 pts., 1627,
9), and at the repeated request of a friend he wrote his _Defensam
das Lagrimas dos ivstos persegvidos_ (1618) to prove that ‘tears shed
in time of trouble do not lessen merit’. The _Sermões_ (1618) and
_Considerações_ (1619, 20, 33) of FREI THOMAS DA VEIGA (1578-1638),
like his father a Professor of Coimbra University, are written in a
style of great excellence, as, although a trifle more redundant[570]
and latinized, is that of his contemporary, like him a Franciscan,
FREI JOÃO DA CEITA (1578-1633), whose prose has a natural grace and
harmony, if it is less pure and indigenous than that of Luz. His best
known works are the _Quadragena de Sermoens_ (1619) and _Quadragena
Segunda_ (1625). Two more volumes of _Sermões_ (1634, 5) appeared after
his death. Two slightly later writers were FREI CRISTOVAM DE LISBOA
(†1652), brother of Manuel Severim de Faria, and FREI CRISTOVAM DE
ALMEIDA (1620-79), Bishop of Martyria. The former, author of _Jardim
da Sagrada Escriptura_ (1653) and _Consolaçam de Afflictos e Allivio
de Lastimados_ (1742), in the preface to his _Santoral de Varios
Sermões_ (1638) deplores the new fashion of certain preachers who
hide their meaning under their eloquence. He is himself sometimes
inclined to be florid. Bishop Almeida attained a reputation for great
eloquence even in the days of Antonio Vieira.[571] His _Sermões_
(1673, 80, 86) are simpler than those of Vieira, but for the reader
their prose lacks the quiet precision of Ceita, Veiga, or Luz, whose
sermons may be considered one of the sources from which a greater
master of Portuguese, Manuel Bernardes, derived his magic. The Jesuit
LUIS ALVAREZ (1615?-1709?), who was born a few years after Vieira, and
lived on into the eighteenth century, also had a great reputation as
a preacher. The fire is absent from the printed page, but his works,
_Sermões da Quaresma_ (3 pts., 1688, 94, 99), _Amor Sagrado_ (1673),
and _Ceo de graça, inferno custoso_ 1692), are notable for the purity
of their prose.
The religious works of the seventeenth, as of the sixteenth century
are very various in subject and treatment. FREI JOÃO CARDOSO (†1655),
author of _Ruth Peregrina_ (2 pts., 1628, 54), also wrote a lengthy
commentary on the 113th Psalm in twenty-one discourses: _Jornada Dalma
Libertada_ (1626). Ten years earlier a Jew, JOÃO BAPTISTA D’ESTE,
had published in excellent Portuguese a translation of the Psalms:
_Consolaçam Christam e Lvz para o Povo Hebreo_ (1616). His title was
suggested by that of a far more remarkable book by another Jew, SAMUEL
USQUE (fl. 1540), _Consolaçam ás Tribulaçoens de Israel_, written
probably between 1540 and 1550[572] and first printed at Ferrara by
Abraham ben Usque in 1553. The author was the son of Spanish Jews who
had taken refuge in Portugal, where he was born, probably at the end
of the fifteenth century.[573] His famous work is an account of the
sufferings of the Jewish race. In three dialogues Jacob (_Ycabo_),
Nahum (_Numeo_), and Zachariah (_Zicareo_) converse as shepherds.
Israel, in person, relates his sorrows down to the fall of Jerusalem,
an event which is described in detail, and so on to the persecutions in
European countries (_novas gentes_), and at the end of each dialogue
the prophets administer their comfort. The book closes with a chorus
of rapturous psalms in biblical prose, rejoicing at the coming end
of Israel’s tribulations and calling for vengeance on their enemies,
and thus finishes on a note of joyful faith and courageous hope,
without an inkling of charity. The first dialogue, which condenses Old
Testament history, has a rhythmical, luxuriant style, rich in Oriental
imagery, but later, where Roman history is the authority, or in the
tragic account of the persecution of Jews in Portugal[574] under João
II and the two succeeding kings, the style is shorn of rhetoric. Nor
is there a trace of false ornament in a long passage of wonderful
eloquence, Israel’s final complaint and invocation to sky and earth,
waters and mortal creatures. The agony and awful glow of indignation
at these recent events had a restraining influence on the style, which
loses nothing by this simplicity. Quieter descriptions are those of
the shepherd’s life and of the chase in the first, and of spring and
evening in the third part.
The Jesuit DIOGO MONTEIRO (1561-1634), when towards the end of his life
he published his _Arte de Orar_ (1631), promised, should his ‘great
occupations’ allow, to print very soon the second volume dealing
with the divine attributes. This did not appear in that generation:
_Meditações dos attribvtos divinos_ (Roma, 1671). The _Arte de Orar_
contains twenty-nine treatises (604 ff.). Its subjects are various (of
the virtue of magnificence; of the esteem in which singing is held by
God, &c.), and they are presented with fervour and clear concision, and
especially with a complete absence of oratorical effect. Quintilian
takes part in one of the six dialogues which compose the _Peregrinaçam
Christam_ (1620) by TRISTÃO BARBOSA DE CARVALHO (†1632); he is on a
pilgrimage from Lisbon to the tomb of Saint Isabel at Coimbra, but he
expresses himself in excellent Portuguese, modelled perhaps on that of
Arraez. The prose of the _Retrato de Prvdentes, Espelho de Ignorantes_
(1664) by the Jesuit FRANCISCO AIRES (1597-1664) often rises to
eloquence, notably in the fervent prayers. His _Theatro dos Trivmphos
Divinos contra os Desprimores Hvmanos_ (1658) is of a more practical
character. The Franciscan FREI MANUEL DOS ANJOS (1595-1653) laid no
claim to originality in his _Politica predicavel e doutrina moral
do bom governo do mundo_ (1693), written in a clear and correct but
slightly redundant[575] style.
FREI LUIS DOS ANJOS (_c._ 1570-1625) in his _Iardim de Portugal_ (1626)
gathered edifying anecdotes of saintly women from various writers, and
set them down in good Portuguese prose. The Franciscan FREI PEDRO DE
SANTO ANTONIO (_c._ 1570-1641) in his _Iardim Spiritual, tirado dos
Sanctos e Varoens spiritvaes_ (1632) contented himself with translation
of his authorities, adding, he modestly says, ‘some things of my own of
not much importance’. He carefully avoided interlarding his Portuguese
with Latin, his object being _fazer prato a todos_. Even more humble is
the work of the Cistercian FREI FRADIQUE ESPINOLA (_c._ 1630-1708), who
compiled in his _Escola Decurial_ (12 pts., 1696-1721) an encyclopaedia
of themes so various as the fate of King Sebastian, the duties of
women, and the habits of storks. Although it lacks the literary
pretensions of the _Divertimento erudito_ by the Augustinian FREI
JOÃO PACHECO (1677-?1747), it contains some curious matter. A similar
miscellany of anecdotes and precepts was written by João Baptista
de Castro in the eighteenth century: _Hora de Recreio nas ferias de
maiores estudos_ (2 pts., 1742, 3).
The life of the ardent FREI ANTONIO DAS CHAGAS (1631-82) abounded in
contrasts. Born at Vidigueira, of an old Alentejan family, Antonio da
Fonseca Soares began his career as a soldier in 1650; a duel (arising
out of one of his many love affairs), in which he killed his man, drove
him to Brazil, and it was only after several years of distinguished
service[576] that he returned to Portugal, perhaps in 1657. In 1661 he
attained the rank of captain, but in the following year abandoned his
military career, and in 1663 professed in the Franciscan convent at
Evora, exchanging the composition of gongoric verse for a voluminous
correspondence in prose, and his unregenerate days of dissipation
for a glowing and saintly asceticism. (_Trocando as galas em burel e
os caprichos em cilicios_ are the words with which he veils the real
sincerity of his conversion.) Preferring the humbler but strenuous
duties of missionary in Portugal and Spain to the bishopric of Lamego,
he founded the missionary convent of Varatojo, and died there twenty
years after his novitiate. During those years he built up and exercised
a powerful spiritual influence throughout Portugal, and it continued
after his death. Few of his poems survive, since he committed the
greater part of his profane verse to the flames, but some of his
_romances_ may still be read. It is, however, as a prose-writer,
especially in his _Cartas Espirituaes_ (2 pts., 1684, 7), that he holds
a foremost place in Portuguese literature. There is less affectation
in these more familiar letters than in his _Sermões genuinos_ (1690)
or his _Obras Espirituaes_ (1684). The very titles of some of his
shorter treatises, _Vozes do Ceo e Tremores da Terra, Espelho do
Espelho_, show that he had not even now altogether escaped the false
taste of the time, and artificial flowers of speech, plays on words,
laboured metaphors and antitheses appear in his prose. But if it has
not the simple severity of a Bernardes, it possesses so persuasive, so
passionate an energy, and is of so clear a fervour and harmony that its
eloquence is felt to be genuine.
The Jesuit FREI JOÃO DA FONSECA (1632-1701), in the preface to one
of his works, _Sylva Moral e Historica_ (1696), which may have given
Bernardes the idea of his _Nova Floresta_, rejects affected periods
and new phrases, and there is no false rhetoric in his _Espelho de
Penitentes_ (1687), _Satisfaçam de Aggravos_ (1700), which takes the
form of dialogues between a hermit and a soldier, and other devotional
works. Another Jesuit, ALEXANDRE DE GUSMÃO (1629-1724), although born
at Lisbon, spent most (eighty-five years) of his long life in Brazil.
He wrote, among other works, _Rosa de Nazareth nas Montanhas de Hebron_
(1715), compiled from various histories of the Company of Jesus, and
_Historia do Predestinado Peregrino e seu Irmão Precito_ (1682). The
latter is an allegory in six books which lacks the human interest of
Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s Progress_, which it preceded. It describes the
journey of two brothers, _Predestinado_ and _Precito_, out of Egypt to
Jerusalem (Heaven) and Babylon (Hell). The style is simpler and more
direct than might be inferred from the inflated title, and often has an
effective if studied eloquence.[577]
Vieira dying is reported to have said that the Portuguese language was
safe in the keeping of Padre Manuel Bernardes. The aged Jesuit, who
maintained his interest in literature to the end, may have received
Bernardes’ _Luz e Calor_[578] (1696) in the last year of his life,
and the _Exercicios Espirituaes_ (2 vols., 1686) had appeared ten
years earlier. Other works, _Sermões e Praticas_ (1711),[579] _Nova
Floresta_ (5 vols., 1706-28), _Os Ultimos Fins do Homem_ (1727),
_Varios Tratados_ (2 vols., 1737), were soon forthcoming to justify
the prophecy. MANUEL BERNARDES (1644-1710), the son of João Antunes
and Maria Bernardes, was born at Lisbon, studied law and philosophy
at Coimbra University, and at the age of thirty entered the Lisbon
Oratory, where he spent thirty-six years. That was all his life,
yet through his books this modest, humorous, austere priest has
exercised a profound influence not only, as Barbosa Machado declares,
in guiding souls to Heaven, but in moulding and protecting the
Portuguese language. His style is marked in an equal degree by grace
and concision, intensity and restraint, smoothness and vigour.[580]
With him the florid cloak, in which many recent writers had wrapped
Portuguese, falls away, leaving the pith and kernel of the language;
the conceits of the _culteranos_ disappear, and the most striking
effects are attained without apparent artifice. In his hands the
pinchbeck and tinsel are transmuted into delicate pieces of ivory. The
charm of his style is difficult to analyse, but it may be remarked that
his vocabulary is inexhaustible, his precision unfailing, that he is
not afraid to employ the commonest words, and that the construction of
his sentences is of a transparent simplicity, as bare of rhetoric as
is the poetry of João de Deus. His reputation as a lord of language
has survived every test. His works are not merely the _deliciae_ of a
few distant scholars but an acknowledged glory of the nation, praised
by that literary iconoclast Macedo, and quoted as an authority in
the Republican Parliament of 1915. The most popular of his works are
_Luz e Calor_, and especially the _Nova Floresta_, in which moral and
familiar anecdote go quaintly hand in hand, but if one must choose
between excellence and excellence his masterpiece is the _Exercicios
Espirituaes_, in which thought and expression often rise to sublime
heights. One may perhaps compare him with Fray Juan de los Ángeles
(†1609). His simple doctrines spring from the heart and, winged by
shrewd knowledge of men, touch the heart of his readers. One of his
more immediate followers was Padre MANUEL CONSCIENCIA (_c._ 1669-1739),
author of a large number of works on moral and religious subjects, the
best known of which is _A Mocidade enganada e desenganada_ (6 vols.,
1729-38).