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Portuguese literature is, generally speaking,
literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...
written in the
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, ...
, particularly by citizens of
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
; it may also refer to literature written by people living in
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordinat ...
and
Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
, and other Portuguese speaking countries. An early example of Portuguese literature is the tradition of a medieval
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
poetry, originally developed in
Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...
and northern Portugal. The literature of Portugal is distinguished by a wealth and variety of
lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...
, which has characterized it from the beginning of its language, after the Roman occupation; by its wealth of historical writing documenting Portugal's rulers, conquests, and expansion; by the then considered Golden Age of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
period of which it forms part the moral and allegorical Renaissance drama of
Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...
,
Bernardim Ribeiro Bernardim Ribeiro (1482October 1552) was a Renaissance Portuguese poet and writer. Early life Ribeiro was a native of Torrão in the Alentejo. His father, Damião Ribeiro, was implicated in a conspiracy against King John II in 1484, and had to f ...
,
Sá de Miranda Sá is a Portuguese, Spanish and Sephardic Jewish surname. It has a high incidence in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Portugal, Brazil and Angola. It is still very common in countries like India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nigeria, South Korea, Sau ...
and especially the great 16th-century national epic of
Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...
, author of the national and epic poem ''Os Lusíadas'' ( The Lusiads). The seventeenth century was marked by the introduction of the
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...
in Portugal and is generally regarded as the century of literary decadence, despite the existence of writers like Father António Vieira,
Padre Manuel Bernardes __NOTOC__ Padre means father in many Romance languages, and it may also refer to: Music * "Padre" (song) People * A military chaplain * A Latin Catholic priest * A member of the San Diego Padres baseball team Places * Padre Island, a barrier ...
and
Francisco Rodrigues Lobo Francisco Rodrigues Lobo (1580 – 4 November 1622), sometimes called the ''Portuguese Theocritus,'' was a Portuguese poet and bucolic writer. He was born of rich and noble New Christian parents in Leiria, reading philosophy, poetry and writing of ...
. The writers of the eighteenth century tried to counteract a certain decadence of the baroque stage by making an effort to recover the level of quality attained during the
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
, through the creation of academies and literary Arcadias - it was the time of
Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism ...
. In the nineteenth century, the neoclassical ideals were abandoned, where
Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of t ...
introduced
Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, followed by
Alexandre Herculano Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo (28 March 181013 September 1877) was a Portuguese novelist and historian. Early life Herculano's family had humble origins. One of his grandfathers was a foreman stonemason in the royal employ. Herculan ...
and
Camilo Castelo Branco Camilo Castelo Branco, 1st Viscount of Correia Botelho (; 16 March 1825 – 1 June 1890), was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having produced over 260 books (mainly novels, plays and essays). His writing is considered original i ...
. In the second half of the nineteenth century,
Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: * Classical Realism *Literary realism, a mov ...
(of naturalistic features) developed in novel-writing, whose exponents included
Eça de Queiroz José Maria de Eça de Queiroz (; 25 November 1845 – 16 August 1900) is generally considered to have been the greatest Portuguese writer in the realist style. Zola considered him to be far greater than Flaubert. In the London ''Observer'', ...
and
Ramalho Ortigão José Duarte Ramalho Ortigão () (24 October 1836 – 27 September 1915) was a Portuguese writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Biography Ortigão spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Porto. He studied law in ...
. Literary trends during the twentieth century are represented mainly by
Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...
, considered one of the greatest national poets together with Camões, and, in later years, by the development of prose fiction, thanks to authors such as
António Lobo Antunes António Lobo Antunes, GCSE (; born 1 September 1942) is a Portuguese novelist and retired medical doctor. He has been named as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has been awarded the 2000 Austrian State Prize, the 2003 Ovid P ...
and
José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hecon ...
, winner of the Nobel prize for Literature.


Birth of a literary language


Verse

It has been argued (by great early scholars such as Henry Roseman Lang and
Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos Carolina may refer to: Geography * The Carolinas, the U.S. states of North and South Carolina ** North Carolina, a U.S. state ** South Carolina, a U.S. state * Province of Carolina, a British province until 1712 * Carolina, Alabama, a town in t ...
) that an indigenous popular poetry existed before the beginning of the written record, although the first datable poems (a handful between around 1200 and 1225) show influences from
Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bo ...
. These poems were composed in
Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle ...
, also known as Old Portuguese. The first known venues of poetic activity were aristocratic courts in Galicia and the North of Portugal (we know this thanks to the recent work of the Portuguese historian António Resende de Oliveira). After that the center shifted to the court of Alfonso X (The Wise King), King of Castile and León (etc.). Some of the same poets (and others) practiced their craft in the court of
Afonso III of Portugal Afonso III (; rare English alternatives: ''Alphonzo'' or ''Alphonse''), or ''Affonso'' (Archaic Portuguese), ''Alfonso'' or ''Alphonso'' ( Portuguese-Galician) or ''Alphonsus'' (Latin), the Boulonnais ( Port. ''o Bolonhês''), King of Portugal ...
, who had been educated in France. The main manuscript sources for Galician-Portuguese verse are the '' Cancioneiro da Ajuda'' probably a late 13th-century manuscript, the '' Cancioneiro da Vaticana'' and the '' Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional'' (also called ''Cancioneiro Colocci-Brancuti''). Both these latter codices were copied in Rome at the behest of the Italian humanist
Angelo Colocci Angelo Colocci (1467 at Iesi, Marche – 1549) of Rome, papal secretary of Pope Leo X, romance philologist and a Renaissance humanist at the collegial center of literary and artistic classicism, assembled a collection of antiquities in his v ...
, probably around 1525. There was a late flowering during the reign of King Dinis I (1261–1325), a very learned man, whose output is the largest preserved (137 texts). The main genres practiced were the male-voiced ''cantiga d'amor'', the female-voiced ''cantiga d'amigo'' (though all the poets were male) and the poetry of insult, called ''cantigas d'escarnio e maldizer'' (songs of scorn and insult). This 13th-century Court poetry, which deals mainly with love and personal insult (often wrongly called satire), by no means derives entirely from Provençal models and conventions (as is often said). Most scholars and critics favor the ''cantigas d'amigo'', which probably were "rooted in local folksong" (Henry Roseman Lang, 1894), and in any event are the largest surviving body of female-voiced love lyric that has survived from ancient or medieval Europe. The total corpus of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric, excluding the ''
Cantigas de Santa Maria The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they a ...
'', consists of around 1,685 texts. In addition to the large manuscripts named above, we also have a few songs with music in the ''Vindel Parchment'', which contains melodies for six ''cantigas d'amigo'' of
Martin Codax Martin Codax or Codaz, Martín Codax () or Martim Codax () was a Galician medieval ''joglar'' (non-noble composer and performer, as opposed to a ''trobador''), possibly from Vigo, Galicia in present-day Spain. He may have been active during th ...
, and the ''
Pergaminho Sharrer The Pergaminho Sharrer (; gl, Pergamiño Sharrer {{IPA-gl, peɾɣaˈmiɲʊ ˈʃarɪɾ}; "Sharrer Parchment") is a mediaeval parchment fragment containing seven songs by King Denis of Portugal, with lyrics in the Galician-Portuguese language and ...
'', a fragment of a folio with seven ''cantigas d'amor'' of King Dinis. In both these manuscripts the poems are the same we find in the larger codices and moreover in the same order. By the middle of the 15th century troubadour verse was effectively dead, replaced by a limper form of court poetry, represented in the ''Cancioneiro Geral'' compiled in the 16th century by poet and humanist Garcia de Resende. Meanwhile, the people were elaborating a ballad poetry of their own, the body of which is known as the ''Romanceiro''. It consists of lyrico-narrative poems treating of war, chivalry, adventure, religious legends, and the sea, many of which have great beauty and contain traces of the varied civilizations which have existed in the peninsula. When the Court poets had exhausted the artifices of Provençal lyricism, they imitated the poetry of the people, giving it a certain vogue which lasted until the Classical
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
. It was then thrust into the background, and though cultivated by a few, it remained unknown to men of letters until the nineteenth century, when
Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of t ...
began his literary revival and collected folk poems from the mouths of the peasantry.


Prose

Prose developed later than verse and first appeared in the 13th century in the shape of short chronicles, lives of saints, and genealogical treatises called ''Livros de Linhagens''. In Portuguese
chanson de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th c ...
has survived to this day, but there are medieval poems of romantic adventure given prose form; for example, the ''Demanda do Santo Graal'' (Quest for the Holy Grail) and " Amadis of Gaul". The first three books of the latter probably received their present shape from João Lobeira, a troubadour of the end of the 13th century, though this original has been lost and only a 16th-century
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
version remains. The ''Book of Aesop'' also belongs to this period. Though the cultivated taste of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
affected to despise the medieval stories, it adopted them with alterations as a homage to classical antiquity. Hence came the cycle of the "Palmerins" and the ''Chronica do Emperador Clarimundo'' of
João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his '' Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southe ...
. The medieval romance of chivalry gave place to the
pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depict ...
novel, the first example of which is the ''Saudades'' of
Bernardim Ribeiro Bernardim Ribeiro (1482October 1552) was a Renaissance Portuguese poet and writer. Early life Ribeiro was a native of Torrão in the Alentejo. His father, Damião Ribeiro, was implicated in a conspiracy against King John II in 1484, and had to f ...
, followed by the ''Diana'' of
Jorge de Montemayor ( es, Jorge de Montemayor) (1520? – 26 February 1561) was a Portuguese novelist and poet, who wrote almost exclusively in Spanish. His most famous work is a pastoral prose romance, the ''Diana'' (1559). Biography He was born at Montemo ...
, a Portuguese writer who wrote in Spanish. Later in the sixteenth century Gonçalo Fernandes Trancoso, a fascinating storyteller, produced his ''Historias de Proveito e Exemplo''.


15th century


Prose

A new epoch in literature dates from the Revolution of 1383-1385. King John I wrote a book of the chase, his sons, King Duarte and
Peter, Duke of Coimbra Infante D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra KG (; en, Peter), (9 December 1392 – 20 May 1449) was a Portuguese ''infante'' (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gau ...
, composed moral treatises, and an anonymous scribe told with charming naïveté the story of the heroic
Nuno Álvares Pereira D. Nuno Álvares Pereira, O. Carm. (; 24 June 1360 – 1 November 1431) was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a mystic ...
in the ''Chronica do Condestavel''. The line of the chroniclers which is one of the boasts of Portuguese literature began with
Fernão Lopes Fernão Lopes () (c. 1385 – after 1459) was a Portuguese chronicler appointed by King Edward of Portugal. Fernão Lopes wrote the history of Portugal, but only a part of his work remained. His way of writing was based on oral discourse, ...
, who compiled the chronicles of the reigns of Kings Pedro I, Fernando I, and
John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John I ...
. He combined a passion for accurate statement with a special talent for descriptive writing and portraiture, and with him a new epoch dawns.
Azurara Gomes Eanes de Zurara (c. 1410 – c. 1474), sometimes spelled Eannes or Azurara, was a Portuguese chronicler of the European Age of Discovery, the most notable after Fernão Lopes. Life and career Zurara adopted the career of letters in middle ...
, who succeeded him in the post of official chronicler, and wrote the ''Chronicle of Guinea'' and chronicles of the African wars, is an equally reliable historian, whose style is marred by pedantry and moralizing. His successor,
Ruy de Pina Rui (or Ruy) de Pina (1440–1522) was a Portuguese chronicler. Biography Rui (or Ruy) de Pina was a native of Guarda. He acted as secretary of the embassy sent by King John II of Portugal to Castile in the spring of 1482, and in the followin ...
, avoids these defects and, though not an artist like Lopes, gives a useful record of the reigns of Kings
Duarte Duarte may refer to: * Duarte (surname), person's surname (or composed surname) and given name * Duarte, California, United States * Duarte Province, Dominican Republic * Pico Duarte, mountain in the Dominican Republic See also

* * {{disambigu ...
,
Afonso V Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Afric ...
, and John II. His history of the latter monarch was appropriated by the poet Garcia de Resende, who adorned it, adding many anecdotes he had learned during his intimacy with John, and issued it under his own name.


Poetry

The introduction of
Italian poetry Italian poetry is a category of Italian literature. Italian poetry has its origins in the thirteenth century and has heavily influenced the poetic traditions of many European languages, including that of English. Features * Italian prosody is a ...
, especially that of
Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...
, into the peninsula led to a revival of Castilian verse, which dominated Portugal throughout the fifteenth century. Constable
Dom Pedro Dom Pedro (''Lord Peter'') is the traditional Portuguese appellation of several kings of Portugal: * Peter I of Portugal * Peter II of Portugal * Peter III of Portugal * Pedro IV of Portugal * Pedro V of Portugal and of the two 19th-century Emperors ...
, friend of the Marquis of Santillana, wrote almost entirely in Castilian and is the first representative of the Castilian influence which imported from Italy the love of allegory and reverence for classical antiquity. The court poetry of some three hundred knights and gentlemen of the time of Afonso V and John II is contained in the "Cancioneiro Geral", compiled by Resende and inspired by Juan de Mena, Jorge Manrique, and other Spaniards. The subjects of these mostly artificial verses are love and satire. Among the few that reveal special talent and genuine poetical feeling are Resende's lines on the death of
Inês de Castro Inês de Castro (; in Castilian: Inés; 1325 – 7 January 1355) was a Galician noblewoman and courtier, best known as lover and posthumously-recognized wife of King Peter I of Portugal. The dramatic circumstances of her relationship with Peter ...
, the "Fingimento de Amores" of Diogo Brandão, and the "Coplas" of D. Pedro. Three names appear in the "Cancioneiro" which were destined to create a literary revolution, those of
Bernardim Ribeiro Bernardim Ribeiro (1482October 1552) was a Renaissance Portuguese poet and writer. Early life Ribeiro was a native of Torrão in the Alentejo. His father, Damião Ribeiro, was implicated in a conspiracy against King John II in 1484, and had to f ...
,
Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...
, and
Sá de Miranda Sá is a Portuguese, Spanish and Sephardic Jewish surname. It has a high incidence in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Portugal, Brazil and Angola. It is still very common in countries like India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nigeria, South Korea, Sau ...
.


Early sixteenth century


Pastoral poetry

Portuguese pastoral poetry is more natural and sincere than that of the other nations because Ribeiro, the founder of the bucolic school, sought inspiration in the national serranilhas, but his eclogues, despite their feeling and rhythmic harmony, are surpassed by the "Crisfal" of Cristóvão Falcão. These and the eclogues and sententious "Cartas" of Sá de Miranda are written in ''versos de arte mayor'', and the popular ''medida velha'' (as the national metre was afterwards called to distinguish it from the Italian
hendecasyllable In poetry, a hendecasyllable (sometimes hendecasyllabic) is a line of eleven syllables. The term may refer to several different poetic meters, the older of which are quantitative and used chiefly in classical (Ancient Greek and Latin) poetry, and ...
), continued to be used by Camões in his so-called minor works, by Bandarra for his prophecies, and by Gil Vicente.


Drama

Though
Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often ref ...
did not originate dramatic representations, he is the father of the Portuguese stage. Of his forty-four pieces, fourteen are in Portuguese, eleven in Castilian, the remainder bilingual, and they consist of ''autos'', or devotional works, tragicomedies, and farces. Beginning in 1502 with religious pieces, conspicuous among them being "Auto da Alma" and the famous trilogy of the "Barcas", he soon introduces the comic and satirical element by way of relief and for moral ends, and, before the close of his career in 1536, has arrived at pure comedy, as in "Inês Pereira" and the "Floresta de Enganos", and developed the study of character. The plots are simple, the dialogue spirited, the lyrics often of finished beauty, and while Gil Vicente appeared too early to be a great dramatist, his plays mirror to perfection the types, customs, language, and daily life of all classes. The playwrights who followed him had neither superior talents nor court patronage and, attacked by the classical school for their lack of culture and by the Inquisition for their grossness, they were reduced to entertaining the lower class at country fairs and festivals.


First classical phase: The Renaissance

The Renaissance produced a pleiad of distinguished poets, historians, critics, antiquaries, theologians, and moralists which made the sixteenth century a golden age.


Lyric and epic poetry

Sá de Miranda Sá is a Portuguese, Spanish and Sephardic Jewish surname. It has a high incidence in Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Portugal, Brazil and Angola. It is still very common in countries like India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nigeria, South Korea, Sau ...
introduced Italian forms of verse and raised the tone of poetry. He was followed by António Ferreira, a superior stylist, by Diogo Bernardes, and Andrade Caminha, but the ''Quinhentistas'' tended to lose spontaneity in their imitation of classical models, though the verse of Frei Agostinho da Cruz is an exception. The genius of
Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...
, led him to fuse the best elements of the Italian and popular muse, thus creating a new poetry. Imitators arose in the following centuries, but most of their epics are little more than chronicles in verse. They include three by
Jerónimo Corte-Real Jerónimo Corte-Real (1533–1588) was a Portuguese epic poet, who was of noble Portuguese stock. He is sometimes regarded as the Portuguese Virgil. Life Jerónimo was born in the Azores; from the same Corte-Real family as Gaspar Corte-Real, wh ...
, and one each by
Pereira Brandão Pereira (Portuguese and Galician for "pear tree") may refer to: People * Pereira (surname) Places *Brazil **Pereira (Bahia) (est. 1534) in the present-day Barra neighborhood of Salvador in Bahia **Pereira Barreto, municipality in São Paulo ** P ...
,
Francisco de Andrade Francisco Augusto D'Andrade, or De Andrade, (11 January 1856 – 8 February 1921) was a Portuguese baritone who sang leading roles in opera houses throughout Europe, including five years as the principal baritone at the Royal Italian Opera in L ...
, Rodrigues Lobo, Pereira de Castro, Sá de Menezes, and Garcia de Mascarenhas.


The classical plays

Sá de Miranda endeavoured also to reform the drama and, shaping himself on Italian models, wrote the "Estrangeiros". Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos had produced in "Eufrosina" the first prose play, but the comedies of Sá and António Ferreira are artificial and stillborn productions, though the latter's tragedy, "Inês de Castro", if dramatically weak, has something of Sophocles in the spirit and form of the verse.


Prose

The best prose work of the sixteenth century is devoted to history and travel.
João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his '' Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southe ...
in his "Decadas", continued by Diogo do Couto, described with mastery the deeds achieved by the Portuguese in the discovery and conquest of the lands and seas of the Orient.
Damião de Góis Damião de Góis (; February 2, 1502January 30, 1574), born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 152 ...
, humanist and friend of Erasmus, wrote with rare independence on the reign of King
Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was King of Portugal from 1495 to 1521. A member of the House of Aviz, Manuel was Duke of Beja and Viseu prior to succeeding his cousin, John II of Portuga ...
. Bishop Osório treated of the same subject in Latin, but his interesting "Cartas" are in the vulgar tongue. Among others who dealt with the East are
Fernão Lopes de Castanheda Fernão Lopes de Castanheda (Santarém, c. 1500 – 1559 in Coimbra) was a Portuguese historian in the early Renaissance. His "History of the discovery and conquest of India", full of geographic and ethnographic objective information, was wid ...
,
António Galvão António Galvão (c. 1490–1557), also known as Antonio Galvano, was a Portuguese soldier, chronicler and administrator in the Maluku islands, and a Renaissance historian who was the first person to present a comprehensive report of the leading v ...
,
Gaspar Correia Gaspar Correia (1492 – c. 1563 in Goa) was a Portuguese historian considered a Portuguese Polybius. He authored ''Lendas da Índia'' (Legends of India), one of the earliest and most important works about Portuguese rule in Asia.Gaspar da Cruz Gaspar da Cruz ( 1520 – 5 February 1570; sometimes also known under an Hispanized version of his name, Gaspar de la Cruz) was a Portuguese Dominican friar born in Évora, who traveled to Asia and wrote one of the first detailed European account ...
, and Frei
João dos Santos João dos Santos (Évora – Goa, 1622) was a Portuguese Dominican missionary in India and Africa. Life On 13 August 1586, four months after leaving Lisbon, Santos arrived in Portuguese Mozambique. He was at once sent to Sofala, where he ...
. The chronicles of the kingdom were continued by Francisco de Andrade and Frei Bernardo da Cruz, and Miguel Leitão de Andrade compiled an interesting volume of "Miscellanea". The travel literature of the period is too large for detailed mention: Persia, Syria, Abyssinia, Florida, and Brazil were visited and described and Father Lucena compiled a classic life of St. Francis Xavier, but the "Peregrination" of
Fernão Mendes Pinto Fernão Mendes Pinto (; c.1509 – 8 July 1583) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. His voyages are recorded in ''Pilgrimage'' ( pt, Peregrinação) (1614), his autobiographical memoir. The historical accuracy of the work is debatable due t ...
, a typical Conquistador, is worth all the story books put together for its extraordinary adventures told in a vigorous style, full of colour and life, while the " História trágico-marítima", a record of notable shipwrecks between 1552 and 1604, has good specimens of simple anonymous narrative. The dialogues of Samuel Usque, a Lisbon Jew, also deserve mention. Religious subjects were usually treated in Latin, but among moralists who used the vernacular were Frei Heitor Pinto, Bishop Arraez, and Frei Thome de Jesus, whose "Trabalhos de Jesus" has appeared in many languages.


Second classical phase: Baroque

The alleged inferiority of seventeenth-century literature to that of the preceding age has been blamed on the new royal absolutism, the
Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...
, the Index, and the exaggerated humanism of the Jesuits who directed higher education; nevertheless, had a man of genius appeared he would have overcome all obstacles. In fact letters shared in the national decline. The influence of
Gongora ''Gongora'', abbreviated Gga in horticultural trade, is a member of the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It consists of 65 species known from Central America, Trinidad, and tropical South America, with most species found in Colombia. They grow acr ...
and Marino was felt by all the Seiscentistas, as may be seen in the "Fenix Renascida". The Revolution of 1640 restored a Portuguese king to the throne, but could not undo the effects of the sixty years
personal union A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interli ...
with the Spanish crown. The use of Spanish continued among the upper class and was preferred by many authors who desired a larger audience. Spain had given birth to great writers for whom the Portuguese forgot the earlier ones of their own land. The foreign influence was strongest in the drama. The leading Portuguese playwrights wrote in Spanish, and in the national tongue only poor religious pieces and a witty comedy by D.
Francisco Manuel de Mello Francisco Manuel de Mello (23 November 160824 August 1666), was a Portuguese writer. Youth De Mello, a connection on his father's side of the royal house of Braganza, was a native of Lisbon. He studied the humanities at the Jesuit College of S ...
, "Auto do Fidalgo Aprendiz", were produced. The numerous Academies which arose with exotic names aimed at raising the level of letters, but they spent themselves in discussing ridiculous theses and determined the triumph of pedantry and bad taste.


Lyric poetry

Melodious verses relieve the dullness of the pastoral romances of Rodrigues Lobo, while his "Corte na Aldea" is a book of varied interest in elegant prose. The versatile D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, in addition to his sonnets on moral subjects, wrote pleasing imitations of popular romances, but is at his best in a reasoned but vehement "Memorial to John IV", in the witty "Apologos Dialogaes", and in the homely philosophy of the "Carta de Guia de Casados", prose classics. Other poets of the period are Soror
Violante do Ceo Violante may refer to: Given name *Duchess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673–1731), Grand Princess of Tuscany *Violante Beatrice Siries (1709–1783), Italian painter * Violante do Ceo (1601–1693), Portuguese writer and nun *Violante Placido ( ...
, and Frei Jerónimo Vahia, convinced Gongorists, Frei Bernardo de Brito with the "Sylvia de Lizardo", and the satirists, D. Tomás de Noronha and António Serrão de Castro.


Prose

The century had a richer output in prose than in verse, and history, biography, sermons, and epistolary correspondence all flourished. Writers on historical subjects were usually friars who worked in their cells and not, as in the sixteenth century, travelled men and eyewitnesses of the events they describe. They occupied themselves largely with questions of form and are better stylists than historians. Among the five contributors to the ponderous "Monarchia Lusitana", only the conscientious Frei António Brandão fully realized the importance of documentary evidence. Frei Bernardo de Brito begins his work with the creation and ends it where he should have begun; he constantly mistakes legend for fact, but was a patient investigator and vigorous narrator. Frei Luis de Sousa, the famous stylist, worked up existing materials into the classical hagiography "Vida de D. Frei Bartolomeu dos Mártires" and "Annaes d'el Rei D. João III. Manuel de Faria e Sousa, historian and arch-commentator of Camões, by a strange irony of fate chose Spanish as his vehicle, as did Mello for his classic account of the Catalan War, while Jacinto Freire de Andrade told in grandiloquent language the story of justice-loving viceroy, D.
João de Castro Dom João de Castro (27 February 1500 – 6 June 1548) was a Portuguese nobleman, scientist, writer, and the fourth viceroy of Portuguese India. He was called ''Castro Forte'' ("Stronghold" or "Strong Castle") by the poet Luís de Camões. De Ca ...
. Ecclesiastical eloquence was at its best in the seventeenth century and the pulpit filled the place of the press of to-day. The originality and imaginative power of his sermons are said to have won for Father
António Vieira Pedro António Vieira (; 6 February 160818 July 1697) was an Afro-Portuguese Jesuit priest, diplomat, orator, preacher, philosopher, writer, and member of the Royal Council to the King of Portugal. Biography Vieira was born in Lisbon to ...
in Rome the title of "Prince of Catholic Orators" and though they and his letters exhibit some of the prevailing faults of taste, he is nonetheless great both in ideas and expression; perhaps most famous among his sermons is his 1654 ''
Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish The "Sermon of Saint Anthony to the Fish" ( pt, Sermão de Santo António aos Peixes) is a sermon written by Portuguese Jesuit priest António Vieira, preached to the congregation at the Church of Saint Anthony in São Luís do Maranhão, Colonial ...
''. The discourses and devotional treatises of the Oratorian Manuel Bernardes, who was a recluse, have a calm and sweetness that we miss in the writings of a man of action like Vieira and, while equally rich, are purer models of classic Portuguese prose. He is at his best in "Luz e Calor" and the "Nova Floresta". Letter writing is represented by such master hands as D. Francisco Manuel de Mello in familiar epistles, Frei
António das Chagas António das Chagas, O.F.M. (Anthony of the Holy Wounds), (25 June 1631 – 20 October 1682) was a Portuguese Franciscan friar and ascetical writer. Life Early life He was born António da Fonseca Soares on 25 June 1631 at Vidigueira, then i ...
in spiritual, and by five short but eloquent documents of human affection, the " Cartas de Mariana Alcoforado".


Third classical phase: Neo-classicism

Affectation continued to mark the literature of the first half of the eighteenth century, but signs of a change gradually appeared and ended in that complete literary reformation known as the Romantic Movement. Distinguished men who fled abroad to escape the prevailing despotism did much for intellectual progress by encouragement and example. Verney criticized the obsolete educational methods and exposed the literary and scientific decadence in the "Verdadeiro Methodo de Estudar", while the various Academies and Arcadias, wiser than their predecessors, worked for purity of style and diction, and translated the best foreign classics.


The Academies

The Academy of History, established by John V in 1720 in imitation of the French Academy, published fifteen volumes of learned "Memoirs" and laid the foundations for a critical study of the annals of Portugal, among its members being Caetano de Sousa, author of the voluminous "Historia da Casa Real", and the bibliographer Barbosa Machado. The Royal Academy of Sciences, founded in 1779, continued the work and placed literary criticism on a sounder basis, but the principal exponents of belles-lettres belonged to the Arcadias.


The Arcadians

Of these the most important was the Arcadia Ulisiponense established in 1756 by the poet Cruz e Silva--"to form a school of good example in eloquence and poetry"—and it included the most considered writers of the time. Pedro Correia Garção composed the "Cantata de Dido", a classic gem, and many excellent sonnets, odes, and epistles. The bucolic verse of Quita has the tenderness and simplicity of that of Bernardin Ribeiro, while in the mock-heroic poem, "Hyssope", Cruz e Silva satirizes ecclesiastical jealousies, local types, and the prevailing gallomania with real humour. Intestine disputes led to the dissolution of the Arcadia in 1774, but it had done good service by raising the standards of taste and introducing new poetical forms. Unfortunately its adherents were too apt to content themselves with imitating the ancient classics and the Quinhentistas and they adopted a cold, reasoned style of expression, without emotion or colouring. Their whole outlook was painfully academic. Many of the Arcadians followed the example of a latter-day Maecenas, the Conde de Ericeira, and endeavoured to nationalize the pseudo-classicism which obtained in France. In 1790 the "New Arcadia" came into being and had in Bocage a man who, under other conditions, might have been a great poet. His talent led him to react against the general mediocrity and though he achieved no sustained flights, his sonnets vie with those of Camoens. He was a master of short improvised lyrics as of satire, which he used to effect in the "Pena de Talião" against Agostinho de Macedo. This turbulent priest constituted himself a literary dictator and in "Os Burros" surpassed all other bards in invective, moreover he sought to supplant the Lusiads by a tasteless epic, "Oriente". He, however, introduced the didactic poem, his odes reach a high level, and his letters and political pamphlets display learning and versatility, but his influence on letters was hurtful. The only other Arcadian worthy of mention is Curvo Semedo, but the "Dissidents", a name given to those poets who remained outside the Arcadias, include three men who show independence and a sense of reality, José Anastácio da Cunha, Nicolão Tolentino, and Francisco Manuel de Nascimento, better known as Filinto Elysio. The first versified in a philosophic and tender strain, the second sketched the custom and follies of the time in quintilhas of abundant wit and realism, the third spent a long life of exile in Paris in reviving the cult of the sixteenth-century poets, purified the language of Gallicisms and enriched it by numerous works, original and translated. Though lacking imagination, his contos, or scenes of Portuguese life, strike a new note of reality, and his blank verse translation of the "Martyrs" of Chateaubriand is a high performance. Shortly before his death he became a convert to the Romantic Movement, for whose triumph in the person of
Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of t ...
he had prepared the way.


Brazilian poetry

During the eighteenth century the
colony of Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Duri ...
began to contribute to Portuguese letters. Manuel da Costa wrote a number of Petrarchian
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...
s,
Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga (1749–1814) was a Brazilian poet. He had a life-long commitment to life-long learning and promoting civic values and educational reforms. Silva Alvarenga edited one of the first newspapers in Brazil, ''O Patriota ...
showed himself an ardent lyricist and cultivator of form,
Tomás António Gonzaga Tomás António Gonzaga (11 August 1744c. 1810) was a Portuguese-born Brazilian poet. One of the most famous Neoclassic colonial Brazilian writers, he was also the ''ouvidor'' and the ombudsman of the city of Ouro Preto (formerly "Vila Rica") ...
became famous by the harmonious verses of his love poem "
Marília de Dirceu ''Marília de Dirceu'' ( en, Dirceu's Marília) is a poetry book written by Luso-Brazilian Neoclassic poet Tomás António Gonzaga. It is divided in three parts — all of them published in different years. The first part, published in 1792, has ...
", while the "Poesias sacras" of António Pereira
Sousa Caldas Antônio Pereira de Sousa Caldas (November 24, 1762 – March 2, 1814) was a Colonial Brazilian poet, priest and orator, patron of the 34th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. About Sousa Caldas was born in 1762, to Portuguese merchant Lu ...
have a certain mystical charm though metrically hard. In epic poetry the chief name is that of
Basílio da Gama José Basílio da Gama (April 10, 1740 – July 31, 1795) was a Portuguese poet and member of the Society of Jesus, born in the colony of Brazil, famous for the epic poem '' O Uraguai''. He wrote under pen name Termindo Sipílio. He is patron of t ...
, whose " O Uraguai" deals with the struggle between the Portuguese and the Paraguay Indians. It is written in
blank verse Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", and Pa ...
and has some notable episodes. The "
Caramuru Caramuru (-1557) was the Tupi name of the Portuguese colonist Diogo Álvares Correia, who is notable for being the first European to establish contact with the native Tupinambá population in modern-day Brazil and was instrumental in the early ...
" of
Santa Rita Durão José de Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784), known simply as Santa Rita Durão, was a Colonial Brazilian Neoclassic poet, orator and Augustinian friar. He is considered a forerunner of " Indianism" in Brazilian literature, with his epic poem ''Car ...
begins with the discovery of
Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-larges ...
and contains, in a succession of pictures, the early
history of Brazil The history of Brazil begins with indigenous people in Brazil. Europeans arrived in Brazil at the ending of the 15th century. The first European to claim sovereignty over Indigenous lands part of what is now the territory of the Federative Repu ...
. The passages descriptive of native customs are well written and these poems are superior to anything of the kind produced contemporaneously by the mother country.


Prose

The prose of the century is mainly dedicated to scientific subjects, but the letters of António da Costa, António Ribeiro Sanches, and
Alexandre de Gusmão Alexandre de Gusmão ( Santos, 17 July 1695 – Lisbon, 9 May 1753) was a diplomat born in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. He is regarded as one of the best diplomats of his time, chiefly for his role in negotiating the Treaty of Madrid in 17 ...
have literary value and those of the celebrated Carvalheiro d'Oliveira, if not so correct, are even more informative.


Drama

Though a Court returned to Lisbon in 1640, it preferred, for one hundred and fifty years, Italian opera and French plays to vernacular representations. Early in the eighteenth century several authors sprung from the people vainly attempted to found a national drama. Their pieces mostly belong to low comedy. The "Operas Portuguezas" of
António José da Silva António José da Silva Coutinho (8 May 170518 October 1739) was a Portuguese dramatist born in colonial Brazil, known as "the Jew" (''O Judeu''). The Brazilian spelling of his first name is Antônio; António José da Silva Coutinho in Hebrew is ...
, produced between 1733 and 1741, have a real comic strength and a certain originality, and, like those of Nicolau Luiz, exploit with wit the faults and foibles of the age. The latter divided his attention between heroic comedies and comedies de capa y espada and, though wanting in ideas and taste, they enjoyed a long popularity. At the same time the Arcadia endeavoured to raise the standard of the stage, drawing inspiration from the contemporary French drama, but its members lacked dramatic talent and achieved little. Garção wrote two bright comedies, Quita some stillborn tragedies, and Manuel de Figueredo compiled plays in prose and verse on national subjects, which fill thirteen volumes, but he could not create characters.


Romanticism and realism


Poetry

The early nineteenth century witnessed a literary reformation which was begun by
Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of t ...
who had become acquainted with the English and French Romanticism in exile and based his work on the national traditions. In the narrative poem "Camões" (1825) he broke with the established rules of composition and followed it with "Flores sem Fruto" and a collection of ardent love poems "Folhas Caídas", while the clear elegant prose of this true artist is seen in a miscellany of romance and criticism, "Viagens na minha terra". The poetry of the austere
Alexandre Herculano Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo (28 March 181013 September 1877) was a Portuguese novelist and historian. Early life Herculano's family had humble origins. One of his grandfathers was a foreman stonemason in the royal employ. Herculan ...
has a religious or patriotic motive and is reminiscent of Lamennais. The movement initiated by Garrett and Herculano became ultra-Romantic with Castilho, a master of metre, who lacked ideas, and the verses of
João de Lemos João de Lemos Seixas Castelo Branco (1819 – 1890) was a Portuguese journalist, poet and dramatist. Lemos was born in Peso da Régua. He was known as "the troubadour" (in Portuguese: Trovador) in Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a c ...
and the melancholy Soares de Passos record a limited range of personal emotions, while their imitators voice sentiments which they have not felt deeply or at all. Tomás Ribeiro, author of the patriotic poem "D. Jayme", is sincere, but belongs to the same school which thought too much of form and melody. In 1865 some young poets led by
Antero de Quental Antero Tarquínio do Quental (; old spelling ''Anthero'') (18 April 184211 September 1891) was a Portuguese poet, philosopher, and writer. Do Quental is regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation and is recognized as one of the most i ...
, and future president Teófilo Braga, rebelled against the domination over letters which Castilho had assumed, and, under foreign influences, proclaimed the alliance of philosophy with poetry. A fierce pamphlet war heralded the downfall of Castilho and poetry gained in breadth and reality, though in many instances it became non-Christian and revolutionary. Quental produced finely wrought, pessimistic sonnets inspired by neo-
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
ic and German agnostic ideas, while Braga, a Positivist, compiled an epic of humanity, the "Visão dos Tempos".
Guerra Junqueiro Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro (, 17 September 1850 – 7 July 1923) was a Portuguese top civil servant, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author, and poet. His work helped inspire the creation of the Portuguese First ...
is mainly ironic in the "Morte de D. João", in "Pátria" he evokes and scourges the Braganza kings in some powerful scenes, and in "Os Simples" interprets nature and rural life by the light of a pantheistic imagination. Gomes Leal is merely anti-Christian with touches of
Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...
. João de Deus belonged to no school; an idealist, he drew inspiration from religion and women, and the earlier verses of the "Campo de Flores" are marked, now by tender feeling, now by sensuous mysticism, all very Portuguese. Other true poets are the sonneteer João Penha, the Parnassian Goncalves Crespo, and the symbolist Eugénio de Castro. The reaction against the use of verse for the propaganda of radicalism in religion and politics has succeeded and the most considered poets of the early twentieth century,
Correia de Oliveira Correia ( Portuguese and Galician for "leather strap") is a surname of Portuguese and Galician origin, also spelled Correa or Corrêa. Correia/Correa is found throughout all of the Iberian Peninsular. It may refer to: People General Portugues ...
, and Lopes Vieira, were natural singers with no extraneous purpose to serve. They owe much to the "Só" of António Nobre, a book of true race poetry.


Drama

After producing some classical tragedies, the best of which is "Cato",
Almeida Garrett João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, 1st Viscount of Almeida Garrett (; 4 February 1799 – 9 December 1854) was a Portuguese poet, orator, playwright, novelist, journalist, politician, and a peer of the realm. A major promoter of t ...
undertook the reform of the stage on independent lines, though he learnt something from the Anglo-German school. Anxious to find a national drama, he chose subjects from Portuguese history and, beginning with "An Auto of Gil Vicente", produced a series of prose plays which culminated in " Brother Luiz de Sousa", a masterpiece. His imitators, Mendes Leal and Pinheiro Chagas, fell victim to ultra-Romanticism, but Fernando Caldeira and Gervásio Lobato wrote lifelike and witty comedies and recently the regional pieces of D. João da Camara have won success, even outside Portugal. At the present time, with the historical and social plays of Lopes de Mendonça,
Júlio Dantas Júlio Dantas, GCC (1876 – 1962) was a Portuguese doctor, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and dramatist. He was born in Lagos and was a prolific writer; he cultivated various literary genres, from poetry to novels and journalis ...
, Marcellino Mesquita, and Eduardo Schwalbach, drama is more flourishing than ever before and Garrett's work has fructified fifty years after his death.


Novel

The novel is really a creation of the nineteenth century and it began with historical romances in the style of
Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
by
Alexandre Herculano Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo (28 March 181013 September 1877) was a Portuguese novelist and historian. Early life Herculano's family had humble origins. One of his grandfathers was a foreman stonemason in the royal employ. Herculan ...
, to whom succeeded Rebelo da Silva with ''A Mocidade de D. João V'', Andrade Corvo, and others. The romance of manners is due to the versatile
Camilo Castelo Branco Camilo Castelo Branco, 1st Viscount of Correia Botelho (; 16 March 1825 – 1 June 1890), was a prolific Portuguese writer of the 19th century, having produced over 260 books (mainly novels, plays and essays). His writing is considered original i ...
, a rich impressionist who describes to perfection the life of the early part of the century in ''Amor de Perdição'', ''Novellas do Minho'', and other books. Gomes Coelho (
Júlio Dinis Júlio Dinis, pseudonym of Joaquim Guilherme Gomes Coelho (14 November 1839 – 12 September 1871) was a Portuguese doctor and poet, playwright and novelist. He was the first great novelist of modern Portuguese middle-class society. His novels, ...
), a romantic idealist and subjective writer, is known best by ''As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor'', but the great creative artist was
José Maria de Eça de Queirós José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacu ...
, founder of the Naturalist School, and author of '' Primo Basílio'', '' Correspondência de Fradique Mendes'', '' A Cidade e as Serras''. His characters live and many of his descriptive and satiric passages have become classical. Among the lesser novelists are Pinheiro Chagas, Arnaldo Gama Luís de Magalhães, Teixeira de Queirós, and Malheiro Dias.


Other prose

History became a science with
Alexandre Herculano Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo (28 March 181013 September 1877) was a Portuguese novelist and historian. Early life Herculano's family had humble origins. One of his grandfathers was a foreman stonemason in the royal employ. Herculan ...
whose ''História de Portugal'' is also valuable for its sculptural style, and
Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins (30 April 1845 – 24 August 1894) was a Portuguese politician and social scientist. He was a writer, a deputy, a minister; he became the 47th Minister for Treasury Affairs on 17 January 1892. Martins was born ...
ranks as a painter of scenes and characters in ''Os Filhos de D. João I'' and ''Vida de Nuno Álvares''. A strong gift of humour distinguishes the '' As Farpas'' of
Ramalho Ortigão José Duarte Ramalho Ortigão () (24 October 1836 – 27 September 1915) was a Portuguese writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Biography Ortigão spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Porto. He studied law in ...
, as well as the work of Fialho d'Almeida and Julio Cesar Machado, and literary criticism had able exponents in Luciano Cordeiro and Moniz Barreto. The ''Panorama'' under the editorship of Herculano exercised a sound and wide influence over letters, but since that time the press has become less and less literary and now treats of little save politics.


Examples of Portuguese literature


Luís Vaz de Camões

The poet
Luís Vaz de Camões Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...
(1524 - June 10, 1580) was the author of the
epic poem An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. ...
Os Lusíadas ''Os Lusíadas'' (), usually translated as ''The Lusiads'', is a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões ( – 1580) and first published in 1572. It is widely regarded as the most important work of Portuguese-language literature ...
. (In the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...
, he was both sufficiently admired and sufficiently obscure for
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Born in County Durham, the eldest of 12 children, Elizabet ...
to disguise her work by entitling it
Sonnets from the Portuguese ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'', written ca. 1845–1846 and published first in 1850, is a collection of 44 love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular during the poet's lifetime and it remain ...
, a reference to Camões). The Portuguese national holiday, "
Portugal Day ) , type = National holiday , longtype = National Day , image = EstatuaCamoesLisboa.JPG , caption = Monument to Luís de Camões in Lisbon, Portugal (May 2005) , official_name = ''Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comu ...
" or "Dia de Portugal, das Comunidades Portuguesas e de Camões" (Day of Portugal, Camões, and the Portuguese Communities), is celebrated on 10 June, the anniversary of Camões' death. It is a day of national pride similar to the "Independence Day" celebrated in other countries.


Eça de Queirós

Eça de Queirós (1845–1900) was a Portuguese novelist. Born in
Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim (, ) is a Portuguese city in Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho and Douro rivers. In 2001, there were 63,470 ...
, near
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
, he traveled throughout the world as a consul. He accepted an assignment to the consulate of
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
in 1888 and remained there until his death on August 16, 1900. The books he wrote in Paris are critical of Portuguese society. His most famous works include ''
Os Maias ''Os Maias: Episódios da Vida Romântica'' ("The Maias: Episodes of Romantic Life") is a realist novel by Portuguese author Eça de Queiroz. ''Maia'' is the name of the fictional family the novel is about. As early as 1878, while serving in t ...
'' (''The Maias'') (1878), ''
O Crime do Padre Amaro ''O Crime do Padre Amaro'' ("The Crime of Father Amaro"), subtitled 'Scenes of Religious Life', is a novel by the 19th-century Portuguese writer José Maria de Eça de Queiroz. It was first published in 1875 to great controversy. Background Eç ...
'' (''The Crime of Father Amaro'') (1876) and ''O Primo Bazilio'' (''Cousin Basílio'') (1878). Nicknamed the "Portuguese
Zola Zola may refer to: People * Zola (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * Zola (musician) (born 1977), South African entertainer * Zola (rapper), French rapper * Émile Zola, a major nineteenth-century French writer Plac ...
," Eça was the founder of Portuguese Naturalism. In 2002, the Mexican director
Carlos Carrera Carlos Carrera (born 18 August 1962) is a Mexican film director and screenwriter. He directed '' El crimen del Padre Amaro'' (2002), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2009, he directed ''Backyard'' abou ...
made a motion picture, "El Crimen del Padre Amaro" ("The Crime of Father Amaro"), adapted from Queirós' novel. One of the most successful Mexican films in history, it was also controversial because of its depiction of
Catholic priesthood The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned (" ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers onl ...
.


Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (; 13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and ...
(1888–1935) was a Portuguese poet and prose writer. He used heteronyms, where he wrote in different styles as if he were more than one poet. One of his most famous works was the epic-lyric poem "Mensagem" (Message). Message discusses Sebastianism and Portuguese prophecies that were created and prophesied after the death of Sebastian of Portugal in the
Battle of Alcácer Quibir The Battle of Alcácer Quibir (also known as "Battle of Three Kings" ( ar, معركة الملوك الثلاثة) or "Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin" ( ar, معركة وادي المخازن) in Morocco) was fought in northern Morocco, near the t ...
. The Portuguese await the return of the dead king on a foggy day – the return of the "National I" (''Eu Nacional'') that will take Portugal to govern the
Fifth Empire The Fifth Empire ( Portuguese: ''Quinto Império'') is an esoteric concept of a global Portuguese empire with spiritual and temporal power, based on an interpretation of Daniel 2 and the Book of Revelation, whose origins lay with António Vieira ...
.


Antero de Quental

Antero de Quental Antero Tarquínio do Quental (; old spelling ''Anthero'') (18 April 184211 September 1891) was a Portuguese poet, philosopher, and writer. Do Quental is regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation and is recognized as one of the most i ...
studied at the
University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...
, and soon distinguished himself by unusual talent, as well as turbulence and eccentricity. He began to write poetry at an early age, chiefly, though not entirely, devoting himself to the sonnet. After the publication of one volume of verse, he entered with great warmth into the revolt of the young men which dethroned António Feliciano de Castilho, the chief living poet of the elder generation, from his place as dictator over modern Portuguese literature. He then travelled, engaged on his return in political and socialistic agitations, and found his way through a series of disappointments to the mild pessimism, a kind of Western Buddhism, which animates his latest poetical productions. His melancholy was increased by a spinal disease, which after several years of retirement from the world, eventually drove him to suicide in his native island. Antero stands at the head of modern Portuguese poetry after João de Deus. His principal defect is monotony: his own self is his solitary theme, and he seldom attempts any other form of composition than the sonnet. On the other hand, few poets who have chiefly devoted themselves to this form have produced so large a proportion of really exquisite work. The comparatively few pieces in which be either forgets his doubts and inward conflicts, or succeeds in giving them an objective form, are among the most beautiful in any literature. The purely introspective sonnets are less attractive, but equally finely wrought, interesting as psychological studies, and impressive from their sincerity. His mental attitude is well described by himself as the effect of Germanism on the unprepared mind of a Southerner. He had learned much, and half-learned more, which he was unable to assimilate, and his mind became a chaos of conflicting ideas, settling down into a condition of gloomy negation, save for the one conviction of the vanity of existence, which ultimately destroyed him. A healthy participation in public affairs might have saved him, but he seemed incapable of entering upon any course that did not lead to delusion and disappointment. The great popularity acquired, notwithstanding, by poetry so metaphysical and egotistic is a testimony to the artistic instinct of the Portuguese. As a prose writer Quental displayed high talents, though he wrote little. His most important prose work is the Considerações sobre a philosophia da historia literaria Portugueza, but he earned fame by his pamphlets on the Coimbra question, Bom senso e bom gosto, a letter to Castilho, and A dignidade das lettras e litteraturas officiaes. His friend Oliveira Martins edited the Sonnets (Porto, 1886), supplying an introductory essay; and an interesting collection of studies on the poet by the leading Portuguese writers appeared in a volume entitled Anthero de Quental. In Memoriam (Oporto, 1896). The sonnets have been turned into most European languages; into English by Edgar Prestage (Anthero de Quental, Sixty-four Sonnets, London, 1894), together with a striking autobiographical letter addressed by Quental to his German translator, Dr Storck.


Alexandre O'Neill

Alexandre Manuel Vahía de Castro O’Neill (December 19, 1924 - August 21, 1986) was a Portuguese poet of Irish origin. In 1948, O'Neill was among the founders of the Lisbon Surrealist Movement, along with Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, José-Augusto França and others. His writings soon diverged from surrealist to form an original style whose poetry reflects a love/hate relationship with his country. His most salient characteristics– a disrespect of conventions, both social and literary, an attitude of permanent revolt, playfulness with language, and the use of parody and black humor – are used to form a body of incisive depictions of what is to be Portuguese and his relation with the country. O’Neill was in permanent conflict with Portugal. While other contemporaries wrote poems that protested against national life under Salazar, O’Neill's attack ran deeper. Poems such as ‘Standing at Fearful Attention’ and ‘Portugal’ suggested that the dictatorial regime was a symptom (the worst symptom) of graver ills– lack of courage and smallness of vision– woven into the nation's psyche. Other poems, such as ‘Lament of the Man Who Misses Being Blind’, seemed to hold religion and mysticism responsible for an obscurantism that made change difficult if not impossible. A publicist by profession, famed for inventing some of the most ingenious advertising slogans of his time, O’Neill was unusually adept at manipulating words and using them in an efficacious manner, but he refused to put that talent at the service of a lyrically lofty, feel-good sort of poetry (see ‘Simply Expressive’). Stridently anti-Romantic, concerned to keep humanity in its place as just one of earth's species, he did not believe that an especially harmonious world was possible, and he abhorred all attempts to escape the world, whether through mystical or poetical exaltations. His one hope, or consolation, explicitly stated in ‘St. Francis’s Empty Sandal’, was in the connection (never entirely peaceful) he felt with other members of the species. Although most of his works are lost or out of sight in private collections he was also a painter and a graphic composer of immense talent. Some of his work was shown, to great surprise and admiration, in 2002 at an exhibit on the surrealist movement.


José Saramago

José Saramago José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE ComSE GColCa (; 16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010), was a Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony ith which hecon ...
(1922–2010) was a Portuguese novelist, who wrote such works as "
Memorial do Convento ''Baltasar and Blimunda'' ( pt, Memorial do Convento, 1982) is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago. It is an 18th-century love story intertwined with the construction of the Convent of Mafra, now one of Portugal' ...
", and won the Nobel Prize in 1998.


See also

*
Angolan literature Angolan literature has its origins in the mid-19th century. The diversity of Angola's culture is reflected in the diversity of its literature, which traditionally has been combative and satirical. As Angola was a colony of Portugal, it is a Lus ...
*
Brazilian literature Brazilian literature is the literature written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, including works written prior to the country's independence in 1822. Throughout its early years, literature from Brazil followed the literary t ...
* Latin American literature * List of Portuguese novelists * List of Portuguese writers *
List of Brazilian writers This is a list of Brazilian people, Brazilian writers, those born in Brazil or who have established citizenship or residency. Writers for children * Ana Maria Machado (born 1941) * Francisco Marins (1922–2016) * Lúcia Machado de Almeida (1 ...
*
Portuguese language Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, ...
* Portuguese poetry *
Media of Portugal Mass media in Portugal includes a variety of online, print, and broadcast formats, such as radio, television, newspapers, and magazines. In the 20th century the Portuguese government censored the media, until the " 1976 constitution guaranteed f ...


References


Further reading

* Parkinson, Stephen, Cláudia Pazos Alonso, and T. F. Earle, eds. ''A Companion to Portuguese Literature''. Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2009. *


External links


Projecto Vercial
A big Portuguese literature database.
Portugueses de Papel
A bilingual database of Portuguese characters in Brazilian novels. {{Authority control