[655] His _Romanceiro_ published in 3 vols. (1843, 51) contains poems
of national themes drawn from popular songs and traditions, written by
himself (as
[656] The name of the first Earl of Desmond (cr. 1328) was Maurice
fitzThomas (†135) not Gerald, Gerod, Gerott, Garrett, or Garrt (see
Lord Walter FitzGerald, _Notes on the FitzGeralds of Ireland_). The
forms Garret and Gareth existed in Catalonia in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, e. g. the Catalan poet Bernardo Garret, born at
Barcelona, who wrote in Italian and became known as Chariteo (_c._
1450-_c._ 1512).
[657] Amorim, _Memorias_, i. 28.
[658] Of _O Magriço_, a still longer epic, only fragments remain; it
went down in manuscript in the _Amelia_, sunk by the Miguelists off the
Portuguese coast.
[659] Preface to 4th ed. (1845) of _Catão_.
[660] The ‘tyranny’ of the day was that of General Beresford. Some
scenes of _Catão_ (derived from the _Cato_ (1713) of Addison), of which
a Portuguese version by Manuel de Figueiredo (_Theatro_, vol. viii)
had appeared in Garrett’s boyhood, were directed against this English
despot. A few years later Garrett learned to enjoy English society, as
his Anglophobe biographer, Amorim, admits.
[661] Published in 1841.
[662] Written ten years earlier.
[663] These two plays were published in vol. vii of his _Obras_ (1847)
with _D. Philippa de Vilhena_.
[664] A contemporary novel, _Helena_ (1871), remained unfinished at his
death.
[665] It was, however, no sudden decision. As early as 1851 he wrote,
in a letter to Garrett, ‘... _me ver entre quatro serras com algumas
geiras de terra proprias, umas botas grossas e um chapeu de Braga,
bello ideal de todas as minhas ambições mundanas_’.
[666] The second edition with additional poems was entitled _Poesias_
(1850).
[667] _Cronica, poema, lenda ou o que quer que seja_, he says.
[668] The late Dr. Gonçalvez Viana considered Herculano ‘the most
vernacular, scrupulous and perfect writer of the nineteenth century’
(_Palestras Filolójicas_, 1910, p. 116).
[669] _O Alliciador_ (1859), _O Astrologo_ (1860).
[670] The last novel to appear in Rebello da Silva’s lifetime was _A
Casa dos Phantasmas_ (1865). _De Noite todos os gatos são pardos_ was
published posthumously.
[671] After Camillo, as he is always called in Portugal, had been
created Visconde de Corrêa Botelho in 1885, his descent was traced back
to Fruela, son of Pelayo.
[672] That is, a year before the novel _Memorias de um Doudo_ (1849) by
Antonio Pedro Lopes de Mendonça (1826-65).
[673] Cf. also _Carlota Angela_ (1858), _O que fazem mulheres_ (1858),
_Annos de Prosa_ (1863), _O Sangue_ (1868), _Estrellas Propicias_
(1863), _Estrellas Funestas_ (1869).
[674] e. g. _Lagrimas Abençoadas_ (1857), _Carlota Angela_ (1858), _O
Santo da Montanha_ (1865), _A Engeitada_ (1866), _O Judeu_ (2 vols.,
1866), _O Regicida_ (1874), _A Filha do Regicida_ (1875).
[675] That it is not impeccable such a phrase as _confortar o palacio_
(_O Livro Negro do Padre Diniz_, 1896 ed., p. 135) well shows.
[676] M. A. Vaz de Carvalho, _Serões no Campo_ (1877), p. 171.
[677] Part 2 is entitled _A Festa de Maio_ (two cantos).
[678] Written in 1830.
[679] This ‘collection of contemporary poems’ contains verses of
considerable merit. Of some 200 poems by twenty-one poets twenty-eight
are by João de Lemos, thirty by José Freire de Serpa Pimentel
(1814-70), second Visconde de Gouvêa, author of _Solaos_ (1839),
thirty-four by Antonio Xavier Rodrigues Cordeiro (1819-1900), and
thirty-six by Augusto José Gonçalves Lima (1823-67), who reprinted his
contributions in _Murmurios_ (1851). A similar collection of verse was
_A Grinalda_ (Porto, 1857).
§ 2
_The Reaction and After_
It was in 1865 that Castilho, the acknowledged high-priest of literary
aspirants, wrote a long letter which was published as introduction (pp.
181-243) to Pinheiro Chagas’ _O Poema da Mocidade_ (1865), in which he
deprecated the pretentious affectations of the younger poets. For while
Castilho was dispensing his patronage to the acolytes of romanticism
a new school of writers had grown up at Coimbra, who refused to know
Joseph. They turned to Germany as well as to France, professed to
replace sentiment by science, and in the name of philosophy chafed
unphilosophically at the old commonplaces and unrealities. Castilho
stood not only for romanticism but for the classical style of the
eighteenth century, and in some respects the secession from his school
may be described as the revolt of the Philistine against Filinto.
Anthero de Quental now voiced the cause against the aged Castilho’s
preface in an article entitled _Bom Senso e Bom Gosto_ (1865). For
the next few months it rained pamphlets.[680] Snr. Julio de Castilho,
subsequently second Visconde de Castilho (1840-1919), and author of
many well-known works, including the drama _D. Ignez de Castro_ (1875)
and the eight volumes of _Lisboa Antiga_ (1879-90), took up the cudgels
on behalf of his father. The high principles at stake, good sense and
good taste, were sometimes forgotten in personal bitterness; a duel was
even fought between Quental and Ramalho Ortigão, in which both the poet
and his critic were happily spared to literature.
But romanticism in Portugal has nine lives, and raised its head at
intervals during the second half of the century. In the domain of
history JOAQUIM PEDRO DE OLIVEIRA MARTINS (1845-94) always remained
more than half a romantic. His life explains the character of his
historical writings. Born at Lisbon, obliged to work for a living when
he was barely fifteen, he succeeded at the same time in educating
himself, supported his mother and her younger children, married before
he was twenty-five, had published a dozen works before he was forty,
was elected deputy for Viana do Castello in 1886, became Minister of
Finance in 1892, and died in his fiftieth year. A career so meteoric
could scarcely give scope for that scrupulous research, that careful
sifting of evidence which modern ideas associate with the work of the
historian; and Oliveira Martins as historian embraced not only the
whole of Portuguese but the whole of Iberian history, and that of
Greece and Rome to boot. But even had he had more time, the result
would only have been more subjects treated, not a different treatment.
His whole idea of history was coloured with romance, his work impetuous
and personal as that of a lyric poet. His first book, the historical
novel _Phebus Moniz_ (1867), passed almost unnoticed. After several
pamphlets, appeared his first historical work, _O Hellenismo e a
Civilisação Christã_ (1878), and then in marvellous rapidity the
_Historia da Civilisação Iberica_ (1879), _Historia de Portugal_
(1879), _Elementos de Anthropologia_ (1880), _Portugal Contemporaneo_
(1881), and a further succession of historical works ending with the
_Historia da Republica Romana_ (1885). Although politics now occupied
much of his time he continued to publish, and wisely emphasized
the biographical side of his work, of which _Os Filhos de D. João
I_ (1891) and _A Vida de Nun’ Alvares_ (1893) are not the least
valuable part. _O Principe Perfeito_ (1896), dealing with King João
II, appeared posthumously and incomplete. A master of psychology
and impressionistic character-sketching, all his work is a gallery
of pictures--and especially of portraits--from Afonso Henriquez to
Herculano, which reveal the artist as well as his subjects. His style,
nervous, coloured, insinuating, is a swift and supple implement for his
exceptional power of skilfully summarizing a person or a period. He
is capable of vulgarity (as in the account of Queen Philippa and the
frequent use of colloquialisms perfectly unbefitting the dignity of
history) but not of dullness. He uses and abuses epigram and metaphor,
and is not free from the pompous rhetorical antitheses of Victor Hugo
(e.g. _De Cid transformou-se em Wallenstein_), till the reader suspects
him of being ready at all times to sacrifice truth to a phrase. Yet it
is surprising, considering the circumstances of his life and the extent
of his work, how often he bases his history, if not on documents, on
the work of reliable earlier historians, Portuguese and foreign. If
he fills in the gaps with pure romance or an uncritical use of texts
(for instance, in _A Vida de Nun’ Alvares_ he incorporates as authentic
those charming ‘letters of Nun’ Alvarez’ which a mere glance at their
style shows to be apocryphal) these are but the poet’s arabesques,
the main structure is often sound enough. Were there no other history
of Portugal it might be necessary to consider his work not only
fascinating but dangerous, nor would _Portugal Contemporaneo_ alone
convey an impartial or complete idea of Portuguese history in the first
two-thirds of the nineteenth century. We may deny him the title of
great historian, we cannot deny him a foremost place in the literature
of the century as a writer of brilliant intellect and feverish energy
and a powerful re-constructor of characters and scenes in their
picturesqueness and their passions.
The work of MANUEL PINHEIRO CHAGAS (1842-95), poet, playwright, critic,
novelist, historian, was even more abundant and for the most part
of a more popular character and more commonplace. He is also more
Portuguese, and his works deserve to be read if only for their pure and
easily flowing style. Many of his novels are historical. _A Corte de D.
João V_ (1867) has an account of an _outeiro_[681] in which figures the
_Camões do Rocio_ as the poet Caetano José da Silva Souto-Maior (_c._
1695-1739) was called. The subject of the earlier novel _Tristezas á
beira-mar_ (1866) is that which Amorim in his _A Abnegação_ derived
from an English novel, but is here more naturally treated. _A Mascara
Velha_ (continued in _O Juramento da Duqueza_) appeared in 1873. _As
Duas Flores de Sangue_ (1875) is concerned with revolution in France
and at Naples. _A Flor Secca_ (1866) treats of more everyday scenes
and contains some amusing if rather obvious character-sketches, as
the old servant Maria do Rosario (a rustic Juliana), or the devout and
vixenish old maid D. Antonia. His _Novelas Historicas_ (1869) contains
six historical tales dealing with Afonso I, Nun’ Alvarez, Prince Henry
the Navigator, King Sebastian, Pombal, and the French Revolution. His
_Historia de Portugal_ (8 vols., 1867), begun on a plan originally laid
down by Ferdinand Denis, contains lengthy and frequent quotations from
previous historians but is coloured by later political ideas. The two
shorter works _Historia alegre de Portugal_ (1880) and _Portugueses
illustres_ (1869) are admirably suited for their purpose--to interest
the people in the history and heroes of their country.
The chief work of the able and industrious critic and historian JOSÉ
MARIA LATINO COELHO (1825-91) was his _Historia Politica e Militar de
Portugal desde os fins do seculo XVIII até 1814_ (3 vols., 1874-91).
ANTONIO COSTA LOBO (1840-1913), editor of the instructive _Memorias
de um Soldado da India_, in his _Historia da Sociedade em Portugal no
seculo XV_ (1904) began a meticulous and well thought-out study of an
earlier period of Portuguese history. JOSÉ RAMOS COELHO (1832-1914)
is chiefly known for his elaborate romantic biography of the brother
of King João V: _Historia do Infante D. Duarte_ (2 vols., 1889, 90).
Dr. HENRIQUE DA GAMA BARROS (born in 1833) in the invaluable _Historia
da Administração Publica em Portugal nos seculos XII a XV_ (3 vols.,
1885, 96, 1914) has collected an abundance of concrete, carefully
verified details, and thrown a searching light on the early history of
Portugal.[682]
In literary criticism as well as in historical research the nineteenth
century worthily continued the traditions of the eighteenth. FRANCISCO
MARQUES DE SOUSA VITERBO (1845-1910) after first appearing in print
as a poet in _O Anjo do Pudor_ (1870) rendered excellent service in
both those fields; the best-known work of LUCIANO CORDEIRO (1844-1900)
is his study _Soror Marianna_ (1890); ZOPHIMO CONSIGLIERI PEDROSO
(1851-1910) and ANTONIO THOMAZ PIRES (†1913) were celebrated for their
studies in folk-lore[683]; the VISCONDE DE JUROMENHA (1807-87) for his
edition of the works of Camões; the CONDE DE FICALHO (1837-1903) for
several remarkable studies and his edition of Garcia da Orta; ANNIBAL
FERNANDES THOMAZ (1840-1912) as a bibliographer; AUGUSTO EPIPHANIO DA
SILVA DIAS (1841-1916) as scholar and critic; JOSÉ PEREIRA DE SAMPAIO
(1857-1915), who used the pseudonym _Bruno_, as a critic; ANICETO DOS
REIS GONÇALVEZ VIANA (1840-1914) and JULIO MOREIRA (1854-1911) as
philologists; LUIZ GARRIDO (1841-82) as critic and classical scholar in
his _Ensaios historicos e criticos_ (1871) and _Estudos de historia e
litteratura_ (1879). After the death of the diligent and enthusiastic
but sadly unmethodical bibliographer INNOCENCIO DA SILVA (1810-76),
his celebrated _Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez_ was carried on
by BRITO ARANHA (1833-1914), and the task of continuing it is now
entrusted to Snr. GOMES DE BRITO. To the eminent folk-lorist FRANCISCO
ADOLPHO COELHO (1847-1919) the language, literature, and folklore
are indebted for many works of permanent value. Notable among living
scholars, apart from D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos and Mr.
Edgar Prestage, who both write in Portuguese, are Colonel FRANCISCO
MARIA ESTEVES PEREIRA, whose editions of early works are invaluable;
Dr. JOSÉ JOAQUIM NUNES, who has devoted his careful scholarship to the
early poetry and prose; the Camões scholar, Dr. JOSÉ MARIA RODRIGUES;
Snr. PEDRO DE AZEVEDO, archaeologist and historian; Snr. DAVID LOPES,
a scholar equally versed in literature and history; Snr. CANDIDO DE
FIGUEIREDO (born in 1846), enthusiastic student and exponent of the
Portuguese language; while Dr. FIDELINO DE FIGUEIREDO has a wide
and growing reputation as critic and as editor of the _Revista de
Historia_. Snr. ANSELMO BRAAMCAMP FREIRE (born in 1849), founder and
editor of the _Archivo Historico Portugues_ and a most sagacious critic
and keen investigator, is the author of attractive and important
historical studies and editions, which have become more frequent since
he has been able to spare more time from public affairs. Dr. JOSÉ
LEITE DE VASCONCELLOS (born in 1858) has a European reputation as
archaeologist, folk-lorist, philologist, and founder and editor of
the _Revista Lusitana_. Ethnology, numismatics, and poetry are among
his other subjects, and he maintains the renown of the Portuguese as
polyglots, since he writes in Portuguese, Spanish, French, Latin,
and Galician. His untiring enthusiasm for all that is popular or
genuinely Portuguese is reflected in his numerous books and pamphlets,
and he happily infects younger scholars. The gift and training of
exact scholarship were denied to Dr. THEOPHILO BRAGA (born in 1843),
but his exceptional ardour, industry, and ingenuity have been of
inestimable value to Portuguese literature, which will always venerate
his name even though his works perish. More than thirty years ago they
numbered over sixty, and that was, as it were, only a beginning. His
volumes of verse, _Folhas Verdes_ (1859), _Visão dos Tempos_ (1864),
_Tempestades Sonoras_ (1864), _Ondina do Lago_ (1866), _Torrentes_
(1869), _Miragens Seculares_ (1884), which was intended to succeed
where Victor Hugo’s _Légende des Siècles_ had failed through lack of a
_plano fundamental_, have been variously judged, some regarding them as
real works of genius, others as a step removed from the sublime; his
works on the Portuguese people are always full of interesting matter.
His important _Historia da Litteratura Portuguesa_ was to have been
completed in thirty-two volumes, but his energies have been spent in
many directions, and he has further written works of history, including
that of Coimbra University in four volumes, positivist philosophy, and
sociology, as well as short stories and plays.
The Portuguese novelists in the nineteenth century showed an increasing
tendency to write plays, while authors whose reputation belonged more
exclusively to the drama rarely rose above mediocrity. The success
of Garrett’s plays was bound to fire a crowd of dramatists. Gomes de
Amorim’s _Ghigi_ (1852), on a fifteenth-century theme, was followed by
plays with a thesis, such as _A Viuva_ (1852), _Odio de Raça_ (1854),
written on the slavery question at Garrett’s request, and _Figados de
Tigre_ (1857), which entitles itself a parody of melodramas. Having
emigrated as a boy to Brazil, he was able to use his knowledge of South
America, sometimes with more zeal than discretion, as in _O Cedro
Vermelho_, an exotic play in five acts and seventy-nine scenes, which
the unfamiliar dresses and hybrid dialogue helped to make popular at
Lisbon.[684]
The notable success of more recent playwrights has perhaps developed
in proportion as the drama has ceased to be drama in order to become
a series of isolated scenes, a novel or _conto_ in green-room attire.
They are at their happiest when they abandon formal drama for the
lighter _revista_. Pathos is theirs and a deft handling of social
themes; they can reproduce the peasant or _bourgeois_ or noble as a
class in thought and action and external conditions. Some of them
possess technical skill, choose indigenous subjects and an atmosphere
of chastened romanticism. But individual psychology and dramatic
action are scarcely to be found. A reader with the patience to peruse
the hundreds of plays acted and published in Lisbon during the last
fifty years would be rewarded by many delicate half-tones, polished
and impeccable verse, excellent prose, admirable sentiments, and
poignant scenes, but could with difficulty afterwards recall a striking
character or situation. FERNANDO CALDEIRA (1841-94) was a poet,
and his plays, _O Sapatinho de Setim, A Mantilha de Renda_ (1880),
_Nadadoras, A Madrugada_ (1894), are read less for the plot than for
his carefully limned verse. His volume of poems, _Mocidades_, appeared
in 1882. ANTONIO ENNES (1848-1901), journalist, librarian, politician,
diplomatist, Minister of Marine, showed command of pathos and humour
as well as of style in his plays _O Saltimbanco_ (1885), the tragedy
of the noble devotion of a mountebank, Falla-Só, descendant of Jean
Valjean, for his daughter, who has been brought up in ignorance of
her birth, _Os Lazaristas_ (1875), and _Os Engeitados_ (1876), which
insists throughout on its thesis, the wickedness and cruelty of
exposing children, but has some good scenes and living characters,
and the notable one-act piece _Um Divorcio_ (1877). The principal
play of MAXIMILIANO DE AZEVEDO (1850-1911), author of many light and
commonplace comedies, as _Por Força_ (1900), was the drama _Ignez de
Castro_ (1894). The scene in which Inés, full of foreboding, takes
leave of Pedro before he goes hunting, and that at the end of Act IV,
in which Pedro returns to find Inés, in the words of their little son,
_ali a dormir_, are effective. A fifth act six years later [1361]
comes as an anti-climax. _O Auto dos Esquecidos_ (1898) is the work
not of a dramatist but of a poet, JOSÉ DE SOUSA MONTEIRO (1846-1909),
whose poems were published under the title _Poemas: Mysticos, Antigos,
Modernos_ (1883). The _auto_, written in the old _redondilhas_
of which another modern poet has sung the praises, necessarily
suffers by comparison with plays in which Gil Vicente touched
upon the subject--the humbler forgotten heroes of the Portuguese
discoveries--but it has its own charm and pathos.
But the most noteworthy of the dramatists of the latter part of the
century was D. JOÃO DA CAMARA (1852-1908), son of the first Marques
and eighth Conde da Ribeira Grande and grandson of the third Duque
de Lafões. He early began writing for the stage one-act pieces such
as _Nobreza_ (1873). His work is various, for it includes elaborate
historical dramas in heroic couplets, as _Affonso VI_ (1890), in
which the king is treated with a sympathy denied to Cardinal Henrique
in _Alcacer-Kibir_ (1891), slight pieces in verse, as _O Poeta e
a Saudade_ or the _Auto do Menino Jesus_ (1903); and prose plays
of contemporary Lisbon society: _O Pantano_ (a series of scenes of
madness and murder), _A Rosa Engeitada_, _A Toutinegra Real_, _A Triste
Viuvinha_, _Casamento e Mortalha_. In these he is lifelike and natural,
but many may prefer him in his more fanciful pieces, portraying the
old Canon who lives up under the roof of Lisbon Cathedral, in _Meia
Noite_ (1900), or the _prior_ and other rustic worthies of Alentejo,
in _Os Velhos_ (1893), or the ancient mariner of _O Beijo do Infante_
(1898). The mad José of _O Pantano_, the scatterbrained Clytemnestra
in _A Toutinegra Real_, the _parvenu_ Arroiolos and select Dona
Placida in _A Rosa Engeitada_ give little idea of the essential mellow
humanity of his work, enhanced by a prose style carefully chosen
and at times slightly archaic. Snr. Abel Botelho is more peculiarly
concerned with the novel, and his plays _Germano_ (1886), _Os Vencidos
da Vida_ (1892), _Jucunda_ (1895) derive their interest from the
description of certain phases of Lisbon life which could have been
presented equally well in novel form. MARCELLINO MESQUITA (1856-1919),
doctor and deputy, wrote historical dramas, _O Regente_ [1440] in
prose, _Leonor Telles_ (1889, published in 1893) in verse, _O Sonho
da India_ (1898) (scenes from the discoveries of Gama and ten other
famous Portuguese navigators), and _Pedro O Cruel_ (1916). If these
historical tragedies are somewhat ponderous, he has a lighter touch in
the _redondilhas_ of _Margarida do Monte_ (1910) and in the charming
sketch _Peraltas e Secias_, and displays psychological insight in prose
plays dealing with more modern problems: the comedy _Perola_ (1889),
_Os Castros_ (1893), _O Velho Thema_ (1896), _Sempre Noiva_ (1900),
_Almas Doentes_ (1905), which treats of hereditary madness and suicide,
and in the moving tragedy _Envelhecer_ (1909), although it is perhaps
out of keeping with the finely portrayed character of Eduardo de
Mello that he should so end who had endured so nobly. His prose style
has great merit (a few words require excision, e. g. _restaurante_,
_rewolver_, _desconforto_), and he wrote many shorter problem pieces
or episodes in prose: _Fim de Penitencia_ (1895), _O Auto do Busto_
(1899), _O Tio Pedro_ (1902), _A Noite do Calvario, A Mentira_ (in
which a wife lies to her husband by the life of their child, who
dies). The monotony of the rhymed couplets in _Leonor Telles_ is
intensified in the work of Snr. HENRIQUE LOPES DE MENDONÇA (born in
1856). His verse is more declamatory, the use of strained _esdruxulo_
endings is carried so far that it becomes a mannerism and the verse
often resembles a hurdle-race, the line running on smoothly to the
obstacle at its end (_thalamo_--_cala-m’o_; _silencio_--_recompense-o_;
_phantasma_--_faz-m’a_). This no doubt helps to increase the effect
of hollow resonance. Nor is there a compensating skill in psychology.
There is nothing subtle, for instance, in the characters of _O Duque
de Vizeu_ (1886): the cruel João II, the timid Manuel, the high-minded
Duke, and self-sacrificing Margarida. _A Morta_ (1891) deals with Pedro
I’s justice and _saudade_ for the dead Inés. _Affonso d’Albuquerque_
(1898) has a tempting subject (handled previously by Costa Lobo in
his play--also in verse--_Affonso d’Albuquerque_, 1886), but it is
embarrassing to find the most unrhetorical of heroes, will of iron
but not as here tongue of gold, solemnly haranguing in couplet after
couplet, (although here, as in the other plays, the atmosphere of
Portugal’s spacious days is well maintained):
E em psalmos de christão se ha de mudar o cantico
De Brahma, confundindo o Indico no Atlantico.
It is perhaps a relief to turn to the prose plays, _O Azebre_ (1909,
written in 1904), the interest of which centres in the artist Fidelio,
_Nó Cego_ (1904), dealing with divorce, and especially to _O Salto
Mortal_, which treats of more homely peasant affairs, and to the
admirably natural fishermen’s scenes and dialogues enacted at Ericeira
in the second half of the nineteenth century, in _Amor Louco_ (1899).
The author succeeds in giving a more definite picture of a whole
community here than of any of his individual heroes in high places. _A
Herança_ (1913) also has the lives of fishermen for its subject. An
equally slight but charming one-act piece in verse is _Saudade_ (1916),
while the dramatist’s power of evoking past scenes is shown in the
glowing historical tales of _Sangue Português_ (1920), _Gente Namorada_
(1921), and _Lanças n’Africa_ (1921).
The most conspicuous among slightly younger dramatists is Snr. JULIO
DANTAS (born in 1876), who published a first volume of poems, _Nada_,
in 1896. He is gifted with wit, lightness of touch, an excellent style,
and a sense of atmosphere, which enables him to bring a pleasant
archaic flavour to reconstructions of the past and observe the true
spirit of history in periods the most diverse. His malleable talent
is equally at its ease in _O que morreu de amor_ (1899) and _Viriato
Tragico_ (1900); in Spain of the seventeenth century: _Don Ramón de
Capichuela_ (1911); contemporary Lisbon: _Crucificados_ (1902), _Mater
Dolorosa_ (1908), _O Reposteiro Verde_ (1912); the Inquisition-clouded
Portugal of the seventeenth century: _Santa Inquisição_ (1910), or its
lighter side, with the _bonbon_ marquis: _D. Beltrão de Figueiroa_
(1902); the gentle, romantic Portugal of the middle of the nineteenth
century: _Um Serão nas Laranjeiras_ (1904), or the bull-fighting
Portugal of the same period: _A Severa_ (1901) with the gallant Marques
de Marialva and the beautiful and magnanimous gipsy of the Mouraria.
The filigree of his elaborate stage directions is skilfully used
to enhance the effect,[685] and some of his scenes are exquisite,
especially the simple, very charming, and tragic one-act comedy _Rosas
de todo o anno_ (1907). If the characters are usually sacrificed to
their setting, here and there a slight sketch stands out, as that of
the cynical old cardinal who delights in the mental torture of others,
in _Santa Inquisição_, the attractive bishop of _Soror Mariana_ (1915),
or the characters in _A Ceia dos Cardeais_ (1902). ERNESTO BIESTER
(1829-80) in the middle of last century wrote lively comedies of
contemporary Lisbon life. The comedies of GERVASIO LOBATO (1850-95), as
_Os Grotescos_, _A Condessa Heloïsa_ (1878), _O Festim de Balthazar_
(1892), _O Commissario de Policia_, _Sua Excellencia_, and many others,
are natural, farcical scenes of high spirits and real good humour and
good feeling. More literary and charming is the work of Snr. EDUARDO
SCHWALBACH, whose _O Dia de Juizo_ (1915) and _Poema de Amor_ (1916)
came to crown a long series of plays and _revistas_. There are touches
of real comedy in the lightly sketched scenes and characters of Snr.
AUGUSTO DE CASTRO’S _Caminho perdido_ (1906), _Amor á Antiga_ (1907),
_As nossas amantes_ (1912), _A Culpa_ (1918), as in his slight,
attractive essays _Fumo do Meu Cigarro_ (1916), _Fantoches e Manequins_
(1917), and _Conversar_ (1920); thought and character in Snr. AUGUSTO
LACERDA’S _O Vicio_ (1888), _Casados Solteiros_ (1893), _Terra Mater_
(1904), _A Duvida_ (1906), _Os Novos Apostolos_ (1918). In Snr. BENTO
MANTUA’S _O Alcool_ (1909) and _Novo Altar_ (1911) the problem may be
a little too much in evidence, but in his prose plays _Má Sina_ (1906)
and _Gente Moça_ (1910) the human interest is insistent. _Má Sina_,
apart from the author’s weakness for strained coincidences, is a story
of peasant life very naturally told. A young playwright of promise is
Snr. VASCO DE MENDONÇA ALVES, author of _Promessa_ (1910) and _Filhos_
(1910). The subject of _Filhos_ is unpleasant if not original (it is
that of Eça de Queiroz’ _Os Maias_ and Ennes’ _Os Engeitados_), but is
treated with dignity and in a good prose style. Snr. JAIME CORTESÃO,
hitherto known rather as a poet, has turned to the drama in _Egas
Moniz_ (1918).
The novelists of the second half of the century were numerous and, as
a rule, too dependent upon foreign models, chiefly French. JOAQUIM
GUILHERME GOMES COELHO (1839-71) neither by date nor inclination
belonged to one or other of the two schools between which lies his
brief ten years’ activity. His talent developed early. As a medical
student at his native Oporto he published poems and several stories,
originally printed in the _Jornal do Porto_ and later collected with
the title _Serões de Provincia_ (1870), and at the age of twenty-one,
under the pseudonym JULIO DINIZ, he wrote the novel which brought him
immediate fame and is still sometimes preferred to his later works:
_Uma Familia Ingleza_ (1868). In these scenes of the life of Oporto he
drew with the most elaborate analysis the relations between English
and Portuguese which he had had frequent opportunities of observing in
that city. Portuguese critics hint that what to superficial readers has
seemed the tediousness of his novels is due to the influence of Dickens
and other English novelists who revel in detail, and it is interesting
that Gomes Coelho’s maternal grandmother was an Englishwoman, Maria,
daughter of Thomas Potter. But it is a mistake to call his work
tedious; the deliberate dullness of his novels has an excitement of
its own, ‘’tis a good dullness’. The reader, tired with sensational
plots and strained incidents, follows not only with relief but with
growing absorption the homely daisy-chain of his stories, in which
not the tiniest link in the development of the action or thought,
especially the latter, is omitted. The interest never flags and never
disappoints, leading gently on with carefully measured steps; the
approval of virtue and disapproval of wickedness only occasionally
becomes obtrusive and insipid. Julio Diniz confessed to a preference
for _bourgeois_ types, but his real interest was in the country,
and _As Pupillas do Senhor Reitor_[686] (1866), a village chronicle
suggested by Herculano’s _O Parocho de Aldea_, is by many held to be
his best work. The characters are delineated with the same delicate
charm as that of Jenny in his earlier novel, and there is a background
of curious observation--_esfolhadas_ (husking the maize), _espadeladas_
(braking flax), _ripadas_ (dressing the flax), _fiadas_ (gatherings
of women to spin at the winter _lareira_ in the faint light of a lamp
hanging on the smoke-blackened wall), the men at cards in the tavern,
the old country doctor going his rounds on horseback, the solemn
greetings _Guarde-o Deus, Louvado seja nosso Senhor Jesu Christo_. If
he sometimes sees the peasants as he would have them be rather than as
they are, if his realism is subdued and gentle, his descriptions are
at least truer than those of the naturalistic school. In _A Morgadinha
dos Canaviaes_ (1868), another village chronicle of Minho, the winter
life of the peasantry is described, the _consoada_ preceding ‘cock-crow
mass’ on Christmas Eve, the _auto_ represented on a rough stage in the
village on the Day of Kings, together with the inevitable missionaries,
_beata_, enriched ‘Brazilian’, and electioneering intrigues. Some
critics have seen a falling off in his last novel, _Os Fidalgos da Casa
Mourisca_ (1871), written in the winter of 1869-70 at Madeira, whither
he went in vain quest of health, but it is perfectly on a level with
his previous work. There may be a slight tendency to exaggerate some of
the characters, as there was in _A Morgadinha_, the contrast between
Jorge and Mauricio may be too crude, the last scenes may be touched
with melodrama, the style may have traces of the _francesismo_ which
Castilho noticed in his first novel, the execution may be excessively
minute--these were not new defects in his works. On the other hand,
the ruined _fidalgo_ D. Luiz, his chaplain and agent Frei Januario,
who scents a Liberal doctrine leagues away, the large-hearted peasants
Anna do Vedor and Thomé da Povoa, are as interesting as Tio Vicente
the herbalist or any of his previous characters, and the charming and
accurate descriptions of the country that he loved so well show him at
his best. This demure chronicler of quiet scenes, this specialist in
the obvious, in his _romances lentos_, as he calls them--a Portuguese
blend of Jane Austen, Enrique Gil, and Fernán Caballero: his delicacy
is essentially feminine--achieved an originality which so often eludes
those who most furiously pursue it. His _Poesias_ (1873), partly
consisting of poems interspersed in his novels, have a quiet, intimate
charm. A curious originality had been attained earlier by a young naval
lieutenant, FRANCISCO MARIA BORDALLO (1821-61). When he published
_Eugenio_ (1846) at Rio de Janeiro, and a second edition at Lisbon in
1854, it was claimed that this sea novel (_romance maritimo_) was the
first of its kind to be written in Portuguese; but his use of naval
technical terms and descriptions of the sea is perhaps too deliberate.
His _Quadros maritimos_ appeared in _O Panorama_ in 1854.
Few authors are more interesting to the critic (owing to the
courageous and persistent development of his art) than JOSÉ MARIA DE
EÇA DE QUEIROZ (1843-1900), a far more robust writer than Julio Diniz
and the greatest Portuguese novelist of the realistic school. Born at
Villa do Conde, the son of a magistrate, he was duly sent to study law
at Coimbra, and after taking his degree contributed in 1866 and 1867 a
series of _feuilletons_ to the _Gazeta de Portugal_. These _folhetins_,
reprinted in _Prosas Barbaras_ (1903), are remarkable because they show
beside a love of the gruesome and fantastic (_O Milhafre_, _O Senhor
Diabo_, _Memorias de uma Forca_) at least one story (_Entre a neve_)
of a perfect simplicity, such as the author is sometimes supposed to
have attained only towards the end of his life. His partiality for
the exotic was fostered by travels in Egypt and Palestine in 1869 and
manifested itself in _A Morte de Jesus_, _Adão e Eva no Paraiso_,
and _A Perfeição_, as well as in _A Reliquia_ and in part of _A
Correspondencia de Fradique Mendes_. In 1873 he went to Havana as
Portuguese Consul, and twenty-six years as Consul at Newcastle-on-Tyne
(1874-6), Bristol (1876-88), and Paris (1888-1900), where he died,
enabled him to see his own country in a new light. His prose lost
its exuberance, his taste became more severe, his extravagant fancy,
so strangely combined with realism in many of his works, was merged
in natural descriptions of his native land. He regained his own soul
without losing that peculiar mockery with which he veiled a kindly,
sensitive temperament, and which agreeably stamps the greater part of
his writings. But indeed the introducer of the naturalistic novel into
Portugal only played with materialism, which in his hands was always
unreal: legendary and romantic, as in _Frei Genebro_, _S. Christovam_,
_O Tesoiro_; deliberately false and artificial, as _A Civilisação_;
a macabre fantasy, as _O Defunto_; or half-intentional caricature,
as _O Primo Basilio_ and _Os Maias_. What more chimerical than _A
Reliquia_ or more elusive than _O Suave Milagre_, or more fanciful
than _O Mandarim_ (1879), in which without himself knowing China the
author makes his readers know it! All through his life he was as it
were groping through Manueline for a purer Gothic; the pity was that
his education from the first should have thrown him into contact
with French models--so that his very language too often reads like
translated French--instead of directing him to a truer realism (such
as that of his nearer neighbour Pereda), to which he turned in his
last works, and in which he might have written regional masterpieces
had he not died at a moment when his art apparently had lost nothing
of its vigour. More probably, however, his still unsatisfied craving
for perfection would have sought relief in mysticism. His first novel
was a sensational story written in collaboration with Ramalho Ortigão:
_O Mysterio da Estrada de Cintra_ (1870), originally published in the
_Diario de Noticias_ (July 24-September 27, 1870). It was, however,
_O Crime do Padre Amaro_ (1876), in which he grafted the naturalistic
novel on the quiet little town of Leiria, and the two notable if
unpleasant Lisbon stories _O Primo Basilio_ (1878) and _Os Maias_
(1880), that marked him out as the most powerful writer of the time in
Portugal. But he was still feeling his way. _A Reliquia_ (1887) is as
different from _Os Maias_ as it is from the remarkable and charming
letters of _A Correspondencia de Fradique Mendes_ (1891) and his last
two novels, _A Illustre Casa de Ramires_ (1900), most Portuguese of
his works, and _A Cidade e as Serras_ (1901). The three fragments
in _Ultimas Paginas_ (1912) were probably written earlier. There
are samples of all his phases in his _Contos_ (1902), and the short
story gave scope for his powers of observation and insight without
calling for an elaborate plot, in which he often failed. _A Cidade e
as Serras_, after developing the earlier story _A Civilisação_, is
but a fascinating succession of country scenes. All Eça de Queiroz’
characters are caricatures, some more so, others less, but they are
nevertheless true to a certain degree, that is to say, they are good
caricatures, and living, and this is so especially in these later
novels, which show how great a regionalist writer was lost in him
through the influence of French schools. Yet no one can deny that his
works have an originality of their own as well as power and personal
charm, and all contain some striking character-sketches or delightful
descriptions that are not easily forgotten.
The dullness of the naturalistic novels of JULIO LOURENÇO PINTO
(1842-1907) is not relieved by Eça de Queiroz’ pleasant irony and
definite characterization. These ‘scenes of contemporary life’,
while they display a praiseworthy restraint, give the idea rather
of exercises in imitation of a French exemplar or of one of Eça de
Queiroz’ early novels than of living stories. Their style is slovenly,
the development of the plot prolix and monotonous. A certain interest
attaches to _Margarida_ (1879)--although even here the author is too
methodical in detailing the past lives of the four protagonists, the
nonentity Luiz, the aspiring Adelina (a Portuguese Madame Bovary),
Fernando, and Margarida, after they have been duly presented in the
opening pages--and to the descriptions of a fair, a bull-fight,
a flood, or provincial politics in _Vida Atribulada_ (1880), _O
Senhor Deputado_ (1882), _Esboços do Natural_ (1882), and _O Homem
Indispensavel_ (1884). Snr. JAIME DE MAGALHÃES LIMA (born in 1857)
in _O Transviado_ (1899), _Na Paz do Senhor_ (1903), and _O Reino
da Saudade_ (1904), has written novels _à thèse_ which are quite as
interesting as naturalistic novels and more natural, but his art,
especially in the presentation of contemporary politics, is a little
too photographic. Snr. LUIZ DE MAGALHÃES (born in 1859), author of
several volumes of verse, wrote a single novel, _O Brasileiro Soares_
(1886). It would offer little new in theme or treatment to distinguish
it from other naturalistic novels were it not for the author’s success
in drawing in Joaquim Soares a natural and attractive portrait of
the Portuguese returned rich from Brazil (the _Brasileiro_). None
of these novelists can rival the reputation of FRANCISCO TEIXEIRA
DE QUEIROZ (1848-1919). He became prominent as a novelist of the
realistic school over forty years ago when under the pseudonym of
BENTO MORENO he inaugurated the series of his _Comedia do Campo_ (8
vols.), of which the last volume is _Ao Sol e á Chuva_ (1916), followed
by a second series: _Comedia Burgueza_ (7 vols.), which began with
_Os Noivos_ (1879). The obvious defects of his work--its laborious
realism, its insistence on medical or physical details, its vain load
of pedantry[687]--need not obscure its real merits. The careful style
has occasional lapses, the psychology is thin, the conversations
commonplace. His art, like a winter sunshine, fails to penetrate.
Yet even in the _Comedia Burgueza_, where the interest must depend
on the psychology, he succeeds in _D. Agostinho_ and _A Morte de D.
Agostinho_ (1895) in giving individuality to that strange rickety
figure of the old _fidalgo_ in his ruined Lisbon _palacio_. And in the
Minho scenes of the _Comedia do Campo_ his scrupulous descriptions
obtain their full effects. In the _romaria_ (pilgrimage), the
_cantadeira_ (improvisator), the _diligencia_ with its load of priests
(in _Amor Divino_), the girl shepherdess, the _abbade_ fond of hunting
wolves and boars, the old women spinning, the lawsuit of centuries over
the fruit of an orange-tree, the sexton Coruja and his dog Coisa (in
_Vingança do morto_ and _O Enterro de um Cão_), and especially some old
familiar country-house, with Dona Maria and her preserves and _receios
infernaes_, in _Amor Divino_ and _Amores, Amores_ (1897), Minho and the
Minhotos are presented with naturalness and skill. Many of these scenes
are from the short stories of _Contos_, _Novos Contos_ (1887), _A Nossa
Gente_ (1900),[688] and _A Cantadeira_ (1913),[689] some of which have
been collected in an attractive volume, _Arvoredos_ (1895).
Snr. MANUEL DA SILVA GAYO (born in 1860), poet and novelist, wrote
in _Peccado Antigo_ (1893) a short _novela_ as it calls itself,
or rather a _conto_, remarkable for its combination of colour and
restraint. It describes country scenes and customs in a style that
may not be spontaneous but is well subservient to the matter in hand,
and has a vigour, purity, and concision too often lacking in modern
Portuguese prose. Some of his early stories were collected in _A Dama
de Ribadalva_ (1904). In his later novels this style is not maintained.
We will not quarrel with its abruptness in _Ultimos Crentes_ (1904), a
remarkable story of nineteenth-century _Sebastianistas_ in a fishing
village to the extreme north of Estremadura, but it is more slovenly
in _Os Torturados_ (1911), in which a certain originality of thought
seems to have damaged the form in which it was expressed. There is a
welcome Spanish directness in the work of the able journalist Snr.
CARLOS MALHEIRO DIAS (deputy for Vianna do Castello in 1903-5) in his
novels _O Filho das Hervas_ (1900), _Os Telles de Albergaria_ (1901),
and _A Paixão de Maria do Ceo_ (1902). Frankly sensational in _O Grande
Cagliostro_ (1905), he displays his gift for the short story in _A
Vencida_ (1907), a volume of dramatic tales, of which _A Consoada_
is especially effective. Snr. JOÃO GRAVE (born in 1872) carefully
elaborates his prose in _A Eterna Mentira_ (1904) and _Jornada
Romantica_ (1913). It turns to marble in the musings of the marble faun
in _O Ultimo Fauno_ (1906), but loses this unreality in studies of the
poor in country, _Gente Pobre_ (1912), and town, _Os Famintos_ (1903),
a tragic story of a workman’s family at Oporto. More recently he has
treated historical themes with success in _Parsifal_ (1919) and _A Vida
e Paixão da Infanta_ (1921). In the historical novel Snr. FRANCISCO DE
ROCHA MARTINS has won a special place by picturesque works such as _Os
Tavoras_ (1917). He has an eye for dramatic episodes and has composed
many a living picture of the past.
ABEL BOTELHO (1856-1917), a colonel in the Army, and for some years
Minister of the Portuguese Republic at Buenos Aires, author of a volume
of verse, _Lyra Insubmissa_ (1885), showed an intermittent power of
description in seven stories of his native Beira, collected under the
title _Mulheres da Beira_ (1898). In his series of novels published
under the heading _Pathologia Social: O Barão de Lavos_ (1891), _O
Livro de Alda_ (1898), _Fatal Dilemma_ (1907), _Prospera Fortuna_
(1910), he would seem to have laboured under a misapprehension,
believing apparently that the introduction of physiology into
literature might prove him an original writer.[690] Sainte-Beuve may
speak of the _saletés splendides_ of Rabelais, a great stylist like
Signor Gabriele d’ Annunzio, except when his art fails, may redeem
if he does not justify any theme. But Abel Botelho’s style in these
wearisome novels can only be described as worthy of their matter.
They are a welter of shapeless sentences, long abstract terms, French
words, gallicisms, expressions such as _pathognomonico_, _autopsiação_,
_neuro-arthritico_, _a etiologia dos hystero-traumatismos_. This
may be magnificent pathology, but it is not art or literature. _As
Farpas_ had come to an end some years before these novels began to
appear, otherwise their defects might have been pilloried by an adept
in ridicule who in contemporary literature occupies a place apart.
As critic JOSÉ DUARTE RAMALHO ORTIGÃO (1836-1915) took his share in
the controversy of 1865, as a traveller he wrote a vivid, witty,
and charming account of Holland, with malicious side-reflections
on Portugal: _A Hollanda_ (1883). Between these two dates a series
of papers, _As Farpas_ (1871-87), originally suggested by Alphonse
Karr’s _Les Guêpes_ and begun in collaboration with his friend Eça
de Queiroz, had made him famous. His clear and pointed style was an
excellent instrument for the barbed shafts of his satire and irony and,
having discovered how powerful a weapon he possessed, he wielded it to
right purpose. With abundant good sense he ridiculed and undermined
the foibles and follies of Lisbon life, obstinately determined to
bring health to the minds and the bodies of his fellow-countrymen and
succeeding by his wit where a more sedate reformer might have failed.
The range of subjects covered was very wide--the interest of many of
them necessarily ephemeral--and his skill in brief character-sketches
is remarkable. But although Ramalho Ortigão will always be remembered
as the author of _As Farpas_ it is perhaps _A Hollanda_ that will
be read. The former work was imitated by Fialho de Almeida in _Os
Gatos_ (1889-94), which achieved popularity in Lisbon. His is a more
lumbering wit: the rapier of Ramalho Ortigão is exchanged for bludgeon
or umbrella. But _Os Gatos_, despite much that is vulgar and much
that is dull, contains some good literary criticism and successful
descriptions, of places rather than of persons. A battling critic was
MANUEL JOSÉ DA SILVA PINTO (1848-1911) in _Combates e Criticas_ (1882),
_Frente a frente_ (1909), and _Na procella_ (1909). Equally vigorous
and pure was the style of JOAQUIM DE SENNA FREITAS (1840-1913) in _Per
agoa e terra_ (1903) and _A Voz do Semeador_ (1908), as likewise that
of FRANCISCO SILVEIRA DA MOTA in _Viagens na Galliza_ (1889). The
literature of travel is not extensive. Oliveira Martins published in
the _Jornal do Commercio_ of Rio de Janeiro in 1892 his _A Inglaterra
de hoje_ (1893); Eça de Queiroz showed a deeper acquaintance with
England in his _Cartas de Inglaterra_ (1905). Snr. WENCESLAU JOSÉ DE
SOUSA MORAES (born in 1854), sometimes called the Portuguese Pierre
Loti, has skilfully described China and Japan in _Traços do Extremo
Oriente_ (1905), _Paisagens da China e do Japão_ (1906), and _Cartas do
Japão_ (three series, 1904-7). In a letter in French at the end of his
_Traços_ he says: _J’ai dit ce que je pensais, naïvement, au gré de mes
souvenirs._
Snr. MANUEL TEIXEIRA GOMES, versatile and gifted, traveller,
diplomatist (Portuguese Minister at the Court of St. James), and
author, is essentially an artist. With a clear, coloured, liquid style
he excels in painting the blue seas, transparent air, and sun-burnt
soil of Algarve in _Agosto Azul_ (1904). His pagan and unconventional
art has the power of impressing incidents on the mind, as of giving
sharp relief to fantastic persons such as the Canon and his three
witless sisters in _Gente Singular_ (1909), the Danish literary lady
in _Inventario de Junho_ (1899), or the avaricious Dona Maria and the
inane Minister of _Sabina Freire_ (1905). This ‘comedy in three acts’
contains sufficient shrewdness, humour, and clever characterization
for a long novel instead of a short play. The tiny volumes _Tristia_
(1893) and _Alem_ (1895) by Snr. ANTERO DE FIGUEIREDO (born in 1867)
were notable for their style, and in other works, _Partindo da Terra_
(1897), the passionate letters of _Doida de Amor_ (1910), the novel
_Comicos_ (1908), and the fascinating historical studies _D. Pedro
e D. Inês_ (1913) and _Leonor Teles, Flor de Altura_ (1916), his
prose maintains a restraint and charm which place him among the best
stylists of the day. One of the noblest qualities of this prose is its
precision, the scrupulous use of the right word, common or archaic.
It is the more disconcerting to find good Portuguese words such as
_estação_, _hospedaria_, _comodo_, _bondade_ ousted by _gare_, _hôtel_,
_confortavel_, _bonomia_. But these are only occasional blemishes in
a style of rare distinction. It can paint a whole scene in a brief
sentence, as _os milheiraes amarellecem-se caladamente_. This power of
description gives excellence to his _Recordações e Viagens_ (1905),
whether the recollections be of Minho or of _uma aldeia espiritual_ in
Italy. It is really as a writer of short sketches and essays that he
excels. In _Senhora do Amparo_ (1920) and especially in the seventeen
sketches of _Jornadas de Portugal_ (1918) skill in the choice of
indigenous words gives a forcible and original poetry to glowing
descriptions redolent of the soil.
D. MARIA AMALIA VAZ DE CARVALHO (1847-1921) collaborated with her
husband, the poet Gonçalves Crespo, in _Contos para os nossos filhos_,
and in _Serões no Campo_ (1877), three stories, in one of which, _A
Engeitada_, one may perhaps see reminiscences of Julio Diniz’ _A Casa
Mourisca_, and _Contos e Phantasias_ (1880) treated slight themes with
a delicate charm. But she is less well known as writer of _contos_ or
as poet, in _Vozes do Ermo_ (1876), than as the author of a notable
historical biography, _Vida do Duque de Palmella_ (1898-1903), and
of critical essays on Portuguese and foreign literatures. In the
latter the English predominates, but French, German, and Italian,
as in _Arabescos_ (1880), are not forgotten. The sane judgement,
sympathy, and insight of _Alguns homens do meu tempo_ (1889), _Figuras
de Hoje e de Hontem_ (1902), _Cerebros e Corações_ (1903), _No Meu
Cantinho_ (1909), _Coisas de Agora_ (1913), and other volumes have been
appreciated by countless readers in Portugal and Brazil. A writer who
likewise combines literary and historical criticism with original work
in verse (_Poemetos_, 1882) and prose is the CONDE DE SABUGOSA (born in
1854), skilful and delicate reconstructor of the past in _Embrechados_
(1908), _Donas de Tempos Idos_ (1912), _Gente d’Algo_ (1915), _Neves
de Antanho_ (1919), and _A Rainha D. Leonor_ (1921), who collaborated
with another stylist, the CONDE DE ARNOSO[691] (1856-1911), author of
_Azulejos_ (1886), in the volume of _contos_ entitled _De braço dado_
(1894). His historical portraits are full of life and charm, painted in
the warm colours of knowledge and emotion.
If we except D. Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho, the literary achievement
of women in Portugal in recent years has not been remarkable. Like D.
CLAUDIA DE CAMPOS, author of the novels _Elle_ (1898) and _A Esfinge_
and short stories, D. ALICE PESTANA (_Caiel_) has cultivated with
success both the novel, as in _Desgarrada_ (1902), and the _conto_, as
in _De Longe_ (1904), which contains stories of familiar life written
with sincerity and truth. If D. ANNA DE CASTRO OSORIO’S _Ambições_
(1903) gives the impression rather of a series of scenes than of a
long novel, in her short stories _Infelizes_ (1898)--especially _A
Terra_--and _Quatro Novelas_ (1908) she ably describes common family
life in town or country, or (in _A Sacrificada_) the lives, past and
present, of aged nuns in a dwindling convent. D. VIRGINIA DE CASTRO E
ALMEIDA has written two novels concerning the development of the soil
in Alentejo: _Terra Bemdita_ (1907) and _Trabalho Bemdito_ (1908).[692]
They are frankly novels with a thesis to prove, but contain so much
vigour and zest of living that they stand out from other more futile or
anaemic novels of contemporary Portugal.
The growing prominence of the _conto_ is felt in the work of Castello
Branco, Eça de Queiroz, Teixeira de Queiroz, Snr. Jaime de Magalhães
Lima (_Via Redemptora_, 1905, _Apostolos da Terra_, 1906, _Vozes
do Meu Lar_, 1912), and many other novelists. JULIO CESAR MACHADO
(1835-90) showed talent in _Contos ao luar_ (1861), _Scenas da minha
terra_ (1862), _Quadros do campo e da cidade_ (1868), _Á Lareira_
(1872). His skill in the description of rustic scenes would have been
more convincing had he not thought it necessary to introduce touches
of extraneous elegance and humour into his very real love of the
country, so that the patent leather boot is ever appearing among the
_tamancos_ in these light humorous sketches and romantic tales. As
slight but perhaps more natural are the _Contos do Tio Joaquim_ (1861)
by RODRIGO PAGANINO (1835-63); the pleasant stories of village life,
_Contos_ (1874) and _Serões de Inverno_ (1880), written by CARLOS LOPES
(born in 1842) under the pseudonym PEDRO IVO; and _Contos_ (1894)
and _Azul e Negro_[693] (1897) by Afonso Botelho. The poet AUGUSTO
SARMENTO (born in 1835) also wrote stories of village life, _Contos do
Soalheiro_ (1876), but stories _à thèse_, treating of emigration and
other _minhoto_ evils, among which he includes _beatas_, witches, and
_brasileiros de torna-viagem_. A writer of _contos_ as disappointing
as Machado is ALBERTO BRAGA (1851-1911). He has a sense of style
and technique, and some of his tales, especially _O Engeitado_, are
pathetic, but after reading his _Contos da minha lavra_ (1879), _Contos
de aldeia_, _Contos Escolhidos_ (1892), _Novos Contos_, one has the
perhaps somewhat unfair impression that they are mainly concerned
with _viscondessas_ and canaries. The learned Conde de Ficalho in
_Uma Eleição Perdida_ (1888) evidently relates his own experiences,
and this and the five accompanying _contos_ contain some charming
descriptions of Alentejo, of the _reisinho cacique_ Lopes, Paschoal
the _passarinheiro_, the gossips of the village _botica_, the girls
carrying _bilhas_, the scent of rosemary in morning dew. The same
province supplies the background of the work of JOSÉ VALENTIM FIALHO
DE ALMEIDA (1857-1912). Born at Villa de Frades, the son of a village
schoolmaster, he spent seven years sadly against the grain as chemist’s
assistant before he was able to turn more exclusively to literature.
No recent writer has had a greater vogue in Portugal. One must account
for this by the fact that in the somewhat nerveless literature of
the day he showed a virile and often brutal colour and energy. A few
descriptions of Alentejo gave interest to his _Contos_ (1881) and _A
Cidade do Vicio_ (1882), an interest strengthened in _O Paiz das Uvas_
(1893). This collection of naturalistic stories of great variety and
very unequal merit is, indeed, redeemed by the author’s love for his
native province. He sometimes obtains powerful effects when his subject
is the wide spaces, the night silences, or the summer drought and
midday zinc-coloured sky of Alentejo. The shepherdess with her distaff,
the village crier, the small proprietor, the harvesters with their
week’s provision of coarse bread, goat’s cheese, and olives, toiling in
a temperature of 122 degrees, appear in his stories. His art is wholly
external. One need not have complained of his lack of psychology had he
been able to express what he saw in good Portuguese prose. But if we
turn to his style we find uncouth constructions, the constant use of
French words, and worse still, French words disguised as Portuguese:
_deboche_, _coquettemente_, _crayonar_. This is the more pity because,
had he written in Portuguese, he might have left robust pictures of
the Alentejan peasant’s life in its grim reality which would have been
read with pleasure. A sober and fastidious style, sometimes recalling
that of the Spanish essayist Azorín, marks the _Contos_ (1900) of
the dramatist D. João da Camara. The clear etching of the blind man
and his grandson going through the streets on Christmas Eve in _As
Estrellas do Cego_ and, especially, the poignant sketch of the ruined
old scholar _fidalgo_ in _O Paquete_ show admirably what a skilful
craftsman can make of the slightest of themes. This is true to an even
greater degree of the best of all the Portuguese _contistas_, JOSÉ
FRANCISCO DE TRINDADE COELHO (1861-1908). His _contos_ collected under
the title _Os Meus Amores_ (1891), natural and deeply felt scenes
of peasant life, are all marked by an exceptional delicacy of style
and by a most alluring freshness and simplicity. The tinkling of the
bells of flocks, the thin blue smoke above the roofs, the evening
mists, the flight of doves are in these pages. And the peasants are
treated with the same sympathetic insight as their surroundings, the
women singing at their work in the fields, the olive-gatherers at
supper in the great farm kitchen; vintage and harvest, tragedy and
idyll. The sympathy is extended to the animals, donkey (_Sultão_),
goat (_Mãe_), and hen (_A Choca_). The _saudade_ of peasant soldiers
for the land in _Terra-Mater_ gives an opportunity for describing the
life of the peasants with its hardy toil and many simple pleasures.
In _Á Lareira_, the longest of these stories, a rustic _serão_ of
peasants _ao borralho_ is pleasantly drawn out with quatrains, riddles,
anecdotes, fairy-tales, only interrupted by the ringing of the angelus
for the saying of prayer on prayer. Two little masterpieces stand
somewhat apart from the rest: _Abyssus Abyssum_, the tragic story of
two small boys, brothers, rowing to overtake the evening star, and
_Idyllio Rustico_, which with its two ingenuous little shepherds and
their flocks of sheep in the lonely places might almost be a chapter
from Don Ramón María del Valle Inclán’s _Flor de Santidad_ (1904). _Os
Meus Amores_ shows realism at its best, that is to say, hand in hand
with idealism. The author is not so enamoured of his delightful style
that he does not make the peasants speak their natural language, and
although he realizes keenly and expresses the poetry of their life, he
never sacrifices truth to this perception any more than to the strange
and essentially false propensities of the naturalistic school, nor
refines his descriptions to a rose-colour insipidity. A good scent of
the earth and of wild flowers pervades these realistic descriptions.
On such lines, if this book influences younger writers, it might lead
the way to many a delightful novel of the _parfum du terroir_ of
Portugal. Snr. JULIO BRANDÃO (born in 1870), equally distinguished
in prose and verse, is the author of _Maria do Ceo_ (1902), mystic
love letters in a chiselled style, only with the mystic writers of
old the style flowed naturally from an inner fervour, here it has
evidently been the chief consideration. If the effort is apparent it is
sometimes very successful, and in _Perfis Suaves_ (1903) and _Figuras
de Barro_ (1910), fantastic stories and fascinating fairy-tales, he
occasionally achieves simplicity. Equally studied is the prose of
Snr. JUSTINO DE MONTALVÃO’S _Os Destinos_ (1904), twelve stories, of
which _Conto dos Reis_ relates the death of a peasant child as voices
outside sing _São chegados os tres Reis_. The VISCONDE DE VILLA-MOURA
(born in 1877) has shown in the five _contos_ of _Doentes da Belleza_
(1913), as in _Bohemios_ (1914), that his sensitive plastic style is
excellently suited to the short story. Snr. ANTONIO PATRICIO’S _Serão
Inquieto_ (1910) contains two poignant _contos_: _O Precoce_ and _O
Veiga_. _Os Pobres_ by Snr. RAUL BRANDÃO (born in 1869) is a succession
of scenes, a striking analysis of suffering as exhibited in various
strange types of the poor and of its beauty and necessity in the
philosophy of Gabiru. Snr. SEVERO PORTELA displays a tortured style
in _Os Condemnados_ (1906) and _Agua Corrente_ (1909); smoother but
equally artificial is that of Snr. HENRIQUE DE VASCONCELLOS in _Contos
Novos_ (1903) and _Circe_ (1908), the former of which contains the
slight sketch _O Caminheiro_. _Excentricos_ is the title of a volume
containing some notable stories by Snr. ALBERTO DE SOUSA COSTA. The
large number of _contos_ is a sign of the times, corresponding to the
favour shown towards the brief _revista_ in the drama and the host of
sonnets which now replace the long romantic poems of the past.
ANTHERO DE QUENTAL[694] (1842-91), the Coimbra student who waved the
banner of revolt against a too complacent romanticism in 1865, was that
rare thing in Portuguese literature, a poet who thinks. Powerfully
influenced by German philosophy and literature, his was a tortured
spirit, and when in his sincerity he attempted to translate his
philosophy into action the result was too often failure. Born at Ponta
Delgada in the Azores, he studied law at Coimbra from 1858 to 1864,
became a socialist, worked for some time as a compositor in Paris,
in spite of his independent means; then, after a visit to the United
States of America, settled at Lisbon for some years and figured as an
active socialist. Weary and ill, he retired in 1882 to the quieter town
in the north, Villa do Conde, but he could not escape from his own
turbulent thoughts and nine years later he shot himself in a square of
his native town. If his life was ineffectual in its series of broken,
noble impulses, there is nothing vague or uncertain about the splendid
sonnets of _Odes Modernas_ (1865) and _Sonetos_ (1881). They are the
effect, often perfectly tranquil, of a previous agony of thought, like
brimmed furrows reflecting clear skies after rain. His search was for
truth, not for words to express it, far less for words to describe his
own sensations. Indeed, he was far from considering poetry as an end in
itself and destroyed more of his poems than his friends published. In
his autobiographical letter addressed to Dr. Storck in 1887 he states
that his poetry was written _involuntariamente_. That is to say, after
much thought on the great problems of existence verse came to him
unrhetorical and spontaneous, as it did to João de Deus without any
thought whatever:
Já sossega depois de tanta luta,
Já me descansa em paz o coraçam.
Quental’s poems owe their strength and intensity to the fact that they
had passed through the fire of _tanta luta_.
Totally different from Quental’s was the genius of JOÃO DE DEUS
(1830-96), the most natural Portuguese poet of the nineteenth century.
Born at Messines in Algarve, he studied law at Coimbra, became a
journalist, but did not come to live permanently at Lisbon until he
was elected to represent Silves in the Chamber of Deputies in 1868. It
is significant that many of his most perfect lyrics were contributed
to provincial journals. They are written in the simple language of a
peasant composing a quatrain. He sought his inspiration not in books
or any of the rival schools of poetry but in his native soil and
popular speech, and through him Portuguese poetry was renovated. His
first published work, _A Lata_ (Coimbra, 1860), in _oitavas_, gives no
measure of his genius, but some of his best poems, such as _A Vida_,
were widely known before _Flores do Campo_ (1868) appeared, followed
by _Ramo de Flores_ (1875), _Folhas Soltas_ (1876), and finally the
collected edition, _Campo de Flores_ (1893). His last years were spent
in advertising and perfecting his special method for teaching children
to read. If ever poet was born, not made, it was João de Deus. He is at
his best when he does not attempt thought or philosophy or even give
rein to his satire. His verse, clear and light as a leaf, a cloud, a
stream--its favourite metaphors--and entirely free from rhetorical
effects, has a most spontaneous charm. Despite occasional defects, the
use of lukewarm or unpoetical words, _objectos_, _chaile_, _affavel_,
_bussola_, or such rhymes as _gotta_--_dou-t-a_, his work, which lacks
the fire that more spacious times might have elicited, abounds in
exquisite love lyrics. The popular inspiration is also evident in the
_Peninsulares_ (1870) of JOSÉ SIMÕES DIAS (1844-99), many of whose
poems are a mere string of _quadras_.
GUILHERME BRAGA (1843-76), who wrote vigorous political verse against
‘Jesuit reactionaries’ and the like in _Os Falsos Apostolos_ (1871) and
_O Bispo_ (1874), proved himself a talented poet in _Heras e Violetas_
(1869), although even here are to be found words and expressions
frequently out of tune. Like ALEXANDRE DA CONCEIÇÃO (1842-89), whose
best-known volume of verses, _Alvoradas_ (1866), belongs to the
romantic school, GUILHERME DE AZEVEDO (1846-82) began with romantic
verse in imitation of Garrett in _Apparições_ (1861), wavered in
_Raçõdiaes da Noite_ (1871), and succumbed to the new school in _A
Alma Nova_ (1874). JOÃO PENHA (1839-1919) in _Rimas_ (1882) and _Novas
Rimas_ (1905) shows a command of metre and harmony worthy of something
better than his commonplace themes. Gonçalves Crespo heard in his
verse ‘the plaining music of a guitar of Andalucía’, but Penha never
cared to be serious. CESARIO VERDE (1855-86) was a Lisbon poet who
in verse written between 1873 and 1883, _O Livro de Cesario Verde_
(1886), showed a most promising gift of presenting reality in phrases
limpidly clear without straining after effect. Another poet who died
almost as young left a far more definite achievement, although his
poems are scarcely more numerous than those of Verde. Few Portuguese
writers have, indeed, published less than ANTONIO CANDIDO GONÇALVES
CRESPO (1846-83), a Portuguese born at Rio de Janeiro. He studied
at Coimbra University, and became a distinguished journalist and a
colonial member of the Portuguese Parliament from 1879 to 1881. Two
tiny volumes of lyrics, _Miniaturas_ (1870) and _Nocturnos_ (1882),
comprise his whole work, but his restraint and his fastidiously
chiselled verse place him at the head of the Portuguese Parnassians.
Portuguese in his hands becomes a pliant medium crystallizing round an
emotion, _longes de saudade_, or, more frequently, round a concrete
image, a parting at sunset (_Mater dolorosa_) or a village in a
summer noontide (_Na Aldeia_). The latter sonnet recalls a few lines
of Leopardi’s _Il Sabato del Villaggio_, and in one respect, the
perfection of form with which he describes quite ordinary scenes, the
Portuguese poet need not fear the comparison. An old woman spinning,
children at play, a peasant’s song in the fields, an orange-grove at
dawn musical with birds--these are incidental pictures in his poems,
and by his combination of a vague dreaming temperament with a delicate,
definite artistic sense they receive a new significance. An earlier
Brazilian poet, ANTONIO GONÇALVES DIAS (1823-64), author of _Primeiros
Cantos_ (1846), _Segundos Cantos e Sextilhas de Frei Antão_ (1848), and
_Ultimos Cantos_ (1851), made a name for himself by his _sextilhas_.
It might be said of that marvellous poet Victor Hugo that he is not
for exportation: the tendency has been for those who lack his genius
to take shelter in his defects. Since one of his earliest followers,
CLAUDIO JOSÉ NUNES (1831-75), published _Scenas Contemporaneas_
(1873) his influence has been very marked in Portugal and manifests
itself in the grandiloquence, over-emphasis, and love of antithesis
of much of Snr. ABILIO MANUEL GUERRA JUNQUEIRO’S work. The greatest
of Portugal’s living poets was born at Freixo de Espada á Cinta in
1850 and was thus a small child when Hugo’s poems _Les Contemplations_
(1856) and _La Légende des Siècles_ (1859) appeared. After studying
law at Coimbra he was returned to Parliament in 1878. Enthusiastically
revolutionary until 1910, he became Portuguese Minister at Berne in the
following year, but retired from the service of the Republic in 1914.
His first verses were published at the age of fourteen, _Duas paginas
dos quatorze annos_ (1864), and before he was twenty he had written
_Mysticae Nuptiae_ (1866), _Vozes sem Echo_ (1867), and _Baptismo do
Amor_ (1868), with a preface by Camillo Castello Branco. But it was
_A Morte de Dom João_ (1874), a poem or series of poems in which Don
Juan and Jehovah are attacked impartially, that brought him resounding
success, a success followed up and increased by _A Velhice do Padre
Eterno_ (1885) and, under the influence of the political crisis of
1890, _Finis Patriae_ (1890) and the play _Patria_, in which his eager
and vigorous patriotism found vent. In all these, as in the quieter
volume _A Musa em Ferias_ (1879), there is true poetry (as well as
unfailing sincerity and passionate sympathy for the oppressed), but it
has to be looked for. A weird ghostliness in _Finis Patriae_ and in the
_doido’s_ part in _Patria_ is accompanied by a strange and impressive
lilt in the rhythm[695] which corresponds to the haunting refrains of
some of the shorter poems. But there seemed a danger that on the wings
of applause, in political invective, and turgid rhetoric the poet
might allow his genius to be totally misdirected, and it is his most
remarkable achievement that in _Os Simples_ (1892) he laid all that
aside and returned to the simpler themes of peasant life which cast
a spell over some of the lyrics in _Finis Patriae_: harvesters, the
_linda boeirinha_ guiding her great oxen, the old shepherd with his
flute and crook on the scented hills, the _cavador_ going to his work
at cockcrow beneath the red morning star. _A Caminho_, the inimitable
opening poem, has a delicate inspiration which is masterly in its
restraint and ingenuous charm. It was well to rest on such laurels. In
two subsequent odes, _Oração ao Pão_ (1902) and _Oração á Luz_ (1904),
filled with a vague music, Snr. Guerra Junqueiro’s poetry merges into
a mystic philosophy which he intends to express in prose. Some early
poems appeared in _Poesias Dispersas_ (1921). A victim of Victor Hugo
to whom it is not easy for a critic to do justice, is the Lisbon poet
ANTONIO DUARTE GOMES LEAL (1849-1921). His capacity is felt to be so
much greater than his achievement. The grandiloquence and declamatory
character of the verse in his first volume, _Claridades do Sul_ (1875),
are accentuated in subsequent works: _A Fome de Camões_ (1880), _A
Historia de Jesus_ (1883), _O Fim de um Mundo_ (1900), _A Mulher de
Luto_ (1902). His satire here, as in _Satyras Modernas_ (1899), or
the biting sonnets of _Mefistófeles em Lisboa_ (1907), is sincerely
indignant but too often based on ignorance. In _O Anti-Christo_
(1884) it voices the eternal revolt against false civilization and
materialism. This, the most celebrated of his works, presents a strange
medley of persons, from Barabbas to Tolstoi and Huysmans, who have
this in common that they all declaim in hollow sonorous Alexandrines.
Science, saints, Hebrew prophets, Chinese philosophers, the eleven
thousand Virgins pass in a vision before the Anti-Christ and converse
with him. It is as if a Goethe without genius had written the second
part of _Faust_. But _Claridades do Sul_ contains poems in a totally
different kind, poems like _De Noute_ and _Os Lobos_, which seem to
have caught something of the pathos and simplicity of _Les Pauvres
Gens_, satire and _humorismo_ forgotten. In his descriptions of homely
scenes his verse becomes quiet, natural, and effective; after reading
the restrained and skilful _tercetos_ of _De Noute_ one is inclined to
wonder whether the secret of his comparative failure is that here was
an excellent Dutch genre-painter striving to be a high-flown Velazquez.
But certainly he has no lack of talent, imagination, and power of
expression in resonant verse.
The cult of _saudade_ has been deliberately revived by a group of poets
in the north who have founded the school of _Saudosismo_, and in their
monthly _A Aguia_ and the _Renascença_ press seek to foster all that
is native in Portuguese literature. Their creed is a vague pantheism,
their poetry is often equally vague and lacking in individuality,
but they have the advantage of being remote from Lisbon and of not
concerning themselves with foreign schools, and can therefore be
natural and Portuguese. At the head of these poets Snr. JOAQUIM
TEIXEIRA DE PASCOAES (born in 1877) sings musically in an enchanted
land of mists and shadows of pantheism, _saudade_, and his native
Tras-os-Montes. Merging itself entirely in Nature, his poetry becomes
a wavering symphony[696] woven of night and silence. The vagueness
present in the lyrics of _Sempre_ (1897), _Terra prohibida_ (1899),
_Jesus e Pan_ (1903), _Vida Etherea_ (1906), _As Sombras_ (1907), is
more marked in his longer poems _Marános_ (1911), in eighteen cantos,
and _Regresso ao Paraiso_ (1912), in twenty-two cantos of monotonous
blank verse. But Nature is justified of her child, and _Marános_, like
a mountain-stream threading its transparent pools, shows abundantly
that the author has also the power of condensing a picture into a
single line. To this group belong Snr. MARIO BEIRÃO (born in 1891),
whose verse in _O Ultimo Lusiada_ (1913) and _Ausente_ (1915) is strong
and concrete; Snr. AFONSO DUARTE (born in 1896), Snr. AUGUSTO CASIMIRO,
author of _Para a Vida_ (1906), _A Victoria do Homem_ (1910), and _A
Evocação da Vida_ (1912), and other young writers of promise.
Few if any of the younger poets have found in Portugal so ready a
reception for their work as ANTONIO NOBRE (1867-1900), whether this
be due to the all-pervading melancholy, _saudades de tudo_, to the
metrical skill, or to the haunting intensity of his verse. In a series
of poems written between 1884 and 1894 he combined the dreams of a
student at Coimbra, _a lendaria Coimbra_, the home-sickness of a
Portuguese in Paris, and a real sympathy for the poor and miserable.
In these poems of suffering and disillusion, published under the title
_Só_ (1892), a strange alternation of ingenuousness and satanism,
fantastic visions and serene simplicity, genuine poetry and sheer
prose, refrains of rustic gaiety and of morbid sentiment, produces
a certain measure of originality. He can fit his pliant metres to
his will, mould them like wax, and if the book contains no perfect
poems this is partly due to a deliberate intention to reflect his own
incoherent moods and to an evident pleasure in incongruous effects. A
second volume, of poems written between 1895 and 1899, _Despedidas_
(1902), appeared posthumously.
The permanent Secretary of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, Colonel
CRISTOVAM AYRES (born in 1853), has won distinction in many fields.
Well known as an historian of the army (_Historia Organica e Politica
do Exercito Portuguez_, 8 vols., 1896-1908) and as a critic, he has
also written short stories and volumes of verse which have placed
him in the front rank of the living Parnassian poets of Portugal. In
_Indianas_ (1878), _Intimas_ (1884), _Anoitecer_ (1914), and _Cinzas
ao Vento_ (1921), he displays great technical skill, especially
in the reproduction of still scenes as in the sonnets _Paizagem_,
_Aguarella_, or _Ao luar_. The Parnassian verse of JOAQUIM DE ARAUJO
(1858-1917) in _Lyra Intima_ (1881), _Occidentaes_ (1888), and _Flores
da Noite_ (1894) has a narcotic spell, a slow lulling music. And there
is real opium in the pliant melodies of ANTONIO FEIJÓ (1862-1917),
during sixteen years Portuguese Minister at Stockholm, in _Lyricas e
Bucolicas_ (1884) and _Ilha dos Amores_ (1897). The words are heavy
with sleep like cistus flowers: _Astros das noites limpidas velae-vos_
or _A neve cae na terra lentamente_ (_les lourds flocons des neigeuses
années_). This perfection of metre is seen at its highest in his
_Cancioneiro Chinez_ (1890), translations from the French _Livre de
Jade_ (1867), itself a translation by Judith Gautier from various
Chinese poets. The poems of JOÃO DINIZ, in _Aquarellas_ (1889); MANUEL
DUARTE DE ALMEIDA (1844-1914), in _Estancias ao Infante Henrique_
(1889), _Ramo de Lilazes_ (1887), and _Terra e Azul_; Snr. Manuel da
Silva Gayo, in _Novos Poemas_ (1906); Snr. Julio Brandão, in _Saudades_
(1893), in which he weaves the _linho luarento das saudades_, _O
Jardim da Morte_ (1898) and _Nuvem de Oiro_ (1912); Snr. FAUSTO GUEDES
TEIXEIRA (born in 1872), in his remarkable _O Meu Livro, 1896-1906_
(1908); Snr. LUIZ OSORIO, in _Neblinas_ (1884), _Poemas Portuguezes_
(1890), and _Alma lyrica_ (1891); Snr. GUILHERME DE SANTA RITA in
_Vacillantes_ (1884) and _O Poema de um Morto_ (1897), and indeed of a
great _caterva vatum_,[697] belong to this school. The chiselling of
faultless sonnets has become a mannerism, but the critic who recalls
the vague and often slipshod diffuseness of earlier romantic poems
pauses before condemning. Perhaps it may be possible in time to combine
the cunning artifice of the verse-cutter with thought and a breath of
life and Nature.
The CONDE DE MONSARAZ (1852-1913) wrote some pleasant regional
verse in _Musa Alemtejana_ (1908), in which he describes life in the
_charnecas_ (moors) and _herdades_ (estates) of Alentejo: the sound of
the well-wheel among orange-trees, the ringing of _trindades_, the long
lines of women hoeing, the old herdsman singing melancholy _fados_,
the smoking _açorda_ of the workmen’s meals, the storks fleeing from
the July heat, the processions to pray for rain. The same out-of-door
air and fullness of treatment pervade the work of Snr. AUGUSTO GIL,
with a more popular strain, in _Musa Cerula_ (1894), _Versos_ (1901),
_Luar de Janeiro_ (1909), _Sombra de Juno_ (1915), _Alba Plena_ (1916),
Snr. JOSÉ COELHO DA CUNHA’S _Terra do Sol_ (1911) and _Vilancetes_
(1915),[698] and D. BRANCA DE GONTA COLLAÇO’S _Canções do Meio Dia_
(1912). A more vigorous talent, also, is that of Snr. JOÃO DE BARROS
in _Algas_ (1899), _Entre a Multidão_ (1902), _Dentro da Vida_ (1904),
_Terra Florida_ (1909), and _Anteu_ (1912). At the head of the
Portuguese Symbolists (their symbolism has been rather external than
philosophic) stands Snr. EUGENIO DE CASTRO (born in 1869). He wished,
while retaining perfection of form, to fill it with a new imagery and
colour, and that his verse in describing Nature through his sensations
should remain detached and impersonal: the poet is _uma sombra saudosa
d’outras sombras_. The success achieved in _Oaristos_ (1890) was
strikingly maintained in _Sagramor_ (1895), _O Rei Galaor_ (1897),
_Constança_ (1900), _Depois da Ceifa_ (1901), _A Sombra do Quadrante_
(1906), _O Annel de Polycrates_ (1907), _O Filho Prodigo_ (1910), and
the twenty-one sonnets of _Camafeus Romanos_ (1921). His versification
is not sufficiently varied (a defect naturally less apparent in the
shorter poems), his rare words and rhymes often have a cumbrous air,
but a real fire occasionally runs through the cold monotony of his
verse, lighting up its heavy jewels with a glow almost of life. If
it is sometimes an echo of Baudelaire, it is a Baudelaire thoroughly
acclimatized.[699] His debt was not wholly to French Parnassian or
Symbolist, for he had also drunk deep of Greek and German literature.
His originality in modern Portuguese poetry is a very real one. Yet
it is a pleasure to pass from verse often so perfect, always so
artificial, to the more natural poems of two younger writers. Snr.
ANTONIO CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA (born in 1880) in his _Auto do Fim do Dia_
(1900), _Raiz_ (1903), and _Auto de Junho_ (1904) shows a true lyrical
gift, an inspiration of the soil, of the quatrains of popular poetry:
Passou Maio taful, Maio magano,
E por onde passou nasceram rosas.
In his later works, _Alma Religiosa_ (1910), _Auto das Quatro Estações_
(1911), _Os Teus Sonetos_ (1914), _A Minha Terra_ (1916), the effect is
sometimes strained or marred by an almost morbid iteration. Snr. AFONSO
LOPES VIEIRA (born in 1878) displays a genuine talent in _O Naufrago_
(1898), _O Encoberto_ (1905), _Ar Livre_ (1906), and _O Pão e as Rosas_
(1908). _Ilhas de Bruma_ (1918) is filled with the rhythm of the sea
and with the traditions and native poetry of Portugal. There is a
certain strength as well as a subtle music about his verse which is of
good promise for the future. Whatever that future may be for Portuguese
literature, Portugal will join the more worthily in the great literary
age which will eventually spring from years of terrific upheaval if she
studies and utilizes her full heritage of prose and verse. There is
the less excuse now for its neglect since the devoted labour of many
Portuguese scholars is rendering it yearly more accessible.