CONTINUANCE OF CORRUPT TASTE IN PORTUGUESE POETRY.
BARROS PEREIRA—ALEXANDRE ANTONIO DE LIMA.
The age of the Count da Ericeyra presents, at its close, a resting point in the history of Portuguese poetry, which, if the numerical division of the years be not too rigidly insisted on, may form a boundary between the first and the second halves of the eighteenth century. It was solely during the latter half that a favourable change became obvious in the poetic cultivation of the Portuguese. In the former half only a few Portuguese poets of celebrity laboured to maintain a suitable connection between the new and the old eras.
Among those poets it is not meant to include Father Antonio de Lima Barros Pereira, who in the year 1720 published his spiritual and temporal works, under the title of Floresta Apollinea, (Apollinian Flower-garden). But this collection of miscellaneous poems ought to be mentioned, as it serves to prove that in the beginning of the eighteenth century the Spanish was the favourite dramatic language in Lisbon. Among the works of Barros Pereira, his loas, or allegorical preludes, are the most numerous, and are all written in Spanish. Barros Pereira also sought to distinguish himself by those poetic rhapsodies without plan or object, which were, both in Spain and Portugal, called Sylvas (Forests.)
The Rasgos Metricos (Metrical Fragments) of a writer, named Alexandre Antonio de Lima, which were printed in 1740, are likewise about equally divided between the Portuguese and Spanish languages. The title-page bears a dedication to St. Ann; and in the same spirit which dictated that kind of address, the author, who seems to have been of a sprightly humour, has mingled spiritual and temporal productions together; and he has sometimes made even pieces of the most sacred character vehicles for jokes, which, however, are meant to be pious after their own way.350 This singular incongruity was still considered inoffensive by the Portuguese of that age. The miscellaneous poems of Antonio de Lima are chiefly of a comic character. But a foreigner who has never lived in Portugal will be unable to understand most of this writer’s epigrammatic conceits, as they all refer to particular customs and local relations.351 Some of Antonio de Lima’s serious sonnets are by no means contemptible productions.352 In satirical prose he attempted an imitation of Quevedo’s visions.
THE PORTUGUESE DRAMA IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
SPURIOUS DRAMAS CALLED OPERAS.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, a new, though not a happy turn, became perceptible in the dramatic poetry of the Portuguese. While the Spanish drama still supplied the place of a Portuguese national drama, the favour of the court of Lisbon was bestowed on the Italian opera. The general approbation which was soon extended to operatic performances of every description, led to the introduction on the Portuguese stage of a singular species of hybridous comedy. There was a wish to naturalize the Italian opera; but it is probable that few Portuguese singers were then capable of executing recitative; and it may also be presumed, that the Portuguese had heard of the little French operas, in which the characters speak and sing alternately. This, however, is certain, that the public of Lisbon had always a strong predilection for comic entertainments; and, it appears, that with the view of fully satisfying the popular taste, it was thought advisable to introduce the pomp of the serious Italian opera into the comic drama of Portugal. By what practical head this idea was suggested no Portuguese writer has thought fit to record. It seems not improbable that it had its origin in the speculation of a theatrical manager, who wished to venture on the experiment of amusing the public in a new way; and who, for that purpose, availed himself of the services of some obscure writer, who happened to have a talent for dramatic poetry. The first essays of this theatrical novelty were all anonymous. It is, however, likely, that the result greatly exceeded the expectation of the speculator. The scenic decorations, in which the new species of drama rivalled the Italian, the burlesque humour of the pieces themselves, the effects of music, both vocal and instrumental, captivated the great mass of the Lisbon public. The higher ranks of society too, and even the court, took an interest in these performances. New dramas in this spirit and style followed each other in rapid succession, more particularly during the ten years which elapsed between 1730 and 1740. But no poet, who had previously acquired reputation, appears to have devoted himself to this kind of composition; and the prolific dramatist, whose anonymous productions were so fortunate as to obtain the chief favour of the public, had probably at the time private reasons for wishing to remain unknown. He was a Jew, whose name, even after it was disclosed, was seldom mentioned, as the public, content with the antonomasia, still continued to call him O Judeo, (the Jew).353
The popularity of the new dramas soon became so great, that manuscript copies were eagerly procured for the purpose of private performance or reading. From these copies collections were printed, the increase of which fell still short of the public demand.354 To none of the dramas contained in these collections is the name of an author affixed. In spirit and style they so closely resemble each other, that they may all be considered as the production of one individual. If at this period French taste had acquired any decided influence on Portuguese literature, such dramas, though they might, for the sake of incident, music, and decoration, have been tolerated on the stage, would never have been sought for in print. It is impossible to imagine a more rude combination of low jests, with romantic and miraculous events, partly taken from real history, and partly from the Greek and Roman mythology. Had this strange compound been the workmanship of cultivated as well as of inventive talent, then, indeed, might the grotesque medley have been rendered, by the ingenuity of composition, entertaining even to readers of cultivated taste. But in these confused jumbles, called comic operas, the composition is, in general, as inartificial as the wit intended to enliven them is dull. The lowest buffoonery is blended with singular adventures, tournaments, or ceremonies; and trivial airs and songs are successively introduced. Some can lay no claim to any merit of invention, either in arrangement of story or incidents, as is exemplified in a spectacle of this class called Don Quixote, which was represented in 1733. No fewer than thirty-six characters figure in this compilation from the master work of Cervantes, whose spirit is, however, banished from the composition. The Esopaida ou Vida de Esopo, (Æsopeid, or Life of Æsop) is one of these pieces which seems intended to be particularly comic. The first scene represents a fair at Athens with all its appropriate accompaniments. The philosopher Zeno appears with Æsop and two other slaves, all of whom he wishes to sell. Æsop soon distinguishes himself by coarse jests and endless quibbling.355 Another philosopher, named Xanthus enters, accompanied by his disciples Periander and Ennius. He puts Æsop’s wit to the test, and purchases him.356 The scene now changes. Filena, the daughter of Xanthus, confides the secrets of her heart to an old and ugly female slave, named Gerigonza. They are joined by Euripedes, the wife of the philosopher, who reprimands her daughter, and sings a silly scolding duet with her.357 Æsop enters and again makes a display of his wit. Then follows a tender scene between Filena and her lover; Gerigonza becomes enamoured of Æsop; and the philosopher and his wife quarrel together, singing a duet of the most vulgar character. By a succession of scenes of this sort, the action is carried on through the first act. In the second act King Crœsus of Lydia arrives with an army to besiege Athens: and Themistocles appears on horse-back in the suite of Crœsus. The scene is now alternately in Athens and in the camp of Crœsus. Drums and fifes are kept in constant employment. Splendid pleasure gardens adorned with statues add to the pomp of the spectacle. But Æsop, whose puns and quibbles are inexhaustible, is always the hero of the piece. At last, after bringing about a peace between Crœsus, and the people of Athens, he is appointed governor of the city. Thus ends the Æsopeid, which might with more propriety be entitled the Buffooniad. Amidst this grotesque jumble, however, sparks of no common fancy are occasionally elicited; but the anonymous author seems to have been totally destitute of literary cultivation, and to have had no higher aim than to give a humorous colouring to the rudeness of his combinations. The rest of the Portuguese comic operas are, upon the whole, still more rude than the Æsopeid, though some are richer in the musical part of the composition, and possess grave or even pathetic airs and duets in the style of the serious Italian opera.
It might, at first sight, be supposed, that a nation which could be pleased by dramas of this kind, must be for ever excluded from the path of higher cultivation. In Lisbon, the Italian opera-house continued to be the real court theatre. But the Portuguese opera which stood like a spurious child beside the Italian, maintained its ground in spite of its parent. Had not the taste for this kind of dramatic entertainment prevailed down to the second half of the eighteenth century, a new edition of the Æsopeid, and other theatrical caricatures, would not have been published in 1787. The restoration of a truly noble style in Portuguese poetry, could not therefore be expected to derive its origin from the drama.
RESUMPTION OF AN IMPROVED STYLE IN PORTUGUESE POETRY.
MANOEL DA COSTA.
To obtain this object, it was, however, only necessary that a poet should arise, who, charmed by the renewed union of Portuguese and Italian poetry, might be induced to place himself under the tutelage of the early Italian poets. Thus would the Italian opera have rendered compensation for the evils to which it had given birth. A Brazilian, named Claudio Manoel da Costa, was one of the first writers who in this way contributed to reintroduce an elevated style into Portuguese poetry.358 Born in the province of Minas Geraes, that part of Brazil where the chief object is the working of mines, he seems not to have been destined for the service of the muses. He indeed passed through a course of academic studies in Europe; but he himself states that during the five years which he spent at the university of Coimbra, no kind of poetry was there held in esteem, save that which was composed in the corrupt but fashionable style of the Portuguese Marinists. That young Da Costa, while at the university of Coimbra, should have applied himself to the study and imitation of the older Italian poets, and of Metastasio, was a circumstance peculiarly favourable to his improvement, while at the same time it afforded the first proof of his being destined to arrive at a point of purer cultivation than his contemporaries. He even ventured on the composition of Petrarchic sonnets in the Italian language, and in this attempt he was not unsuccessful. On his return to Brazil his poetic studies were continued in the region of gold and diamond treasures, to which he seems to have attached but little value; for he complains that amidst these mountains, no Arcadian stream awakes by its sweet murmur harmonious verse: and that the turbid waters of the brooks only serve to call to recollection the rapacious perseverance of the miners by whose labour they are discoloured. On his own poems he pronounces a remarkable judgment. He observes that he was too late in learning the rules of good taste from the Greeks, Italians and French; and that influenced by bad example, he sinned against principles, the justice of which he recognized. The perverted manner of the sonnetists of the seventeenth century is certainly here and there perceptible in the writings of Da Costa. But upon the whole, it may be said, that for nearly the space of a century, no Portuguese writer had so well succeeded in that kind of sonnet poetry, which most charmingly approximates to the style of Petrarch; and that in the other compositions of this Brazilian poet, the faults are counterbalanced by merits of the most pleasing kind. The sonnets included in the collection of his poetic works, amount to nearly a hundred; and among them are some in Italian, but none in the Spanish language. The style of these sonnets, nearly all of which have love for their subject, is, however, not altogether that of Petrarch. They possess a certain tone of poignancy, which betrays the spirit of modern times. Nevertheless, Da Costa’s style, alike free from exaggeration and fantastic ornaments, exhibits the truth of nature and of poetry so happily united with Petrarchic intensity of feeling, and expressed in language so elegant and unostentatious, that his sonnets may justly be numbered among the very best in Portuguese literature.359 While perusing them, the reader cannot fail sometimes to fancy that he recognizes the simple tone of the old Portuguese lyric poetry, reflected by an Italian echo.360 Though the influence of French taste was far less powerful than the Italian with Da Costa, it still had some effect on his poetry. It appears to have guided him in the choice of a metre for his epicedios, or elegies. These poems, however, are not composed in Alexandrines, but in iambics of five feet, without any complexity in the rhymes. This is a kind of verse which is frequently used by English writers; and yet Da Costa seems never to have turned his attention to English poetry. But though such verse was quite uncommon, similar measures had long before been known in Portugal, and perhaps Da Costa was not the first Portuguese poet who in this way attempted to approximate to the French style, as far as the diversity of the languages would, with propriety, permit the experiment to be carried. This dull style of rhyming, appears, however, always somewhat foreign and inharmonious in Portuguese poetry. In other respects, these epicedios possess the merit of noble, inartificial, and pleasing expression; but they want the high charm of the author’s sonnets, and some of his other poetic compositions.361 He himself appears to have attached most value to his twenty eclogues. They are indeed written with peculiar care, and are not destitute of beauty in some of their parts; but, like most Portuguese eclogues, they are either occasional poems in a bucolic dress, or partly lyric compositions, which, with the exception of pastoral names, exhibit no trace of bucolic character. The extraordinary predilection of the more ancient Portuguese for this species of pastoral poetry, had therefore descended from one generation to another, down to these latter times. One of Da Costa’s eclogues is dedicated to the prime minister, the Marquis of Pombal, or as he was then still called, the Count of Oeyras, with a warmth of feeling which seems to have been the genuine effusion of the poet’s heart. From an emphatic eulogy pronounced on that minister, it may be concluded that the Portuguese poets immediately and sensibly felt the beneficial effects of his administration, for the general encouragement of mental freedom was a part of Pombal’s system. The poet says of the statesman, that he reconciled innocence with genius, and recalled justice to the world.362 Among Da Costa’s other poems, the most remarkable are his masterly imitations of canzonettas, cantatas, and other modern Italian poems for music, to which the opera has given birth. Nothing finer in this style of poetry is to be found even in the similar minor works of Metastasio. His A’ Lyra Desprezo (Farewell to Poetry), and the Palinodia, which accompanies it, are alone sufficient to prove the perfect accordance of the Italian and Portuguese language with respect to the laws of musical poetry.363 But still finer is another Farewell, entitled, Fileno ä Nize, despedida, which was probably composed by Da Costa on his return to America. Here the old romantic inexhaustibility in the poetic amplification of a favourite idea, sustained by a constantly recurring burthen, is united with all the magic of Metastasio’s versification.364 In some poems of the same class which Da Costa composed in the Italian language, a certain degree of constraint is observable. But his Portuguese cantatas, spiritual as well as temporal, are not only free from that fault, but often bear the stamp of excellence.
PROGRESS OF PORTUGUESE POETRY IN THE LATTER PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.365
To make a detailed report of Portuguese poetry during the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, is a task which must be consigned to other writers. In this general history it is sufficient briefly to describe how the new spirit of Portuguese literature acquired, even on its poetic side, a marked influence, though it did not unfold itself with that energy which was necessary to reproduce the poetry of the sixteenth century under somewhat varied features. This period must not yet be extolled as the commencement of a second golden age of Portuguese poetry; but the poetic talent of the Portuguese has opened for itself a wider field; and fantastic rhyming no longer finds admirers among the educated class of readers. The Portuguese zealously endeavour to rival, in polite literature, as well as in science, those nations who have, or who seem to have outstripped them. But this rivalry is happily combined with a revived veneration for the poetry of the sixteenth century. Thus have the old national forms of Portuguese poetry been preserved for modern times; and the Portuguese drama alone seems doomed to be governed by French laws.
TRANSLATIONS.
In the first half of the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, the desire to cultivate a correct style in Portuguese poetry was fostered by new translations of some of the latin classics. The Odes of Horace were translated into Portuguese by Joaquim José da Costa e Sa;366 the Satyres of Sulpitia by Antonio Luis de Azavedo;367 Ovid’s Heroides by Miguel de Couto Guerreiro;368 and the comedies of Terence by Leonel da Costa.369 But it would appear that the Portuguese did not in their wish to become more intimately acquainted with genuine poetry, so happily commence the translation of the Greek poets. On the other hand, several French and English works obtained a suitable Portuguese dress. Telemachus appeared in the year 1770; and Young’s tragedies in 1788. A circumstance which cannot fail to excite surprize, at least in Germany, is that in the year 1791 there appeared a Portuguese translation of the Herman of Baron Shönaich, the most indifferent of all German epic compositions;370 but Gessner’s Death of Abel also appeared in the Portuguese language in the year 1785.
TITLES OF SOME OF THE POEMS PRODUCED IN THIS PERIOD.
Among the best poems which appeared about this time in Portugal, may be classed, The Rebuilding of Lisbon, an epic composition, by Miguel Mauricio Ramalho;371 Satires and Elegies, by Miguel do Couto Guerreiro;372 the Dream, a heroic poem, by Luis Rafael Soyé;373 the Triumph of Innocence, by José Anastasio da Costa e Sà;374 Lusitania transformed by Alvares do Oriente;375 Gaticanea, or the War between the Dogs and Cats, by Joaõ Jorge de Carvalho;376 and some others.
GARÇAÕ.
More particular attention is due to the poetic works of Pedro Antonio Correa Garçaõ, which were written at an earlier period, but which were only first collected and published in the year 1778.377 Since Ferreira flourished, no other Portuguese poet had so decidedly formed his taste by the imitation of Horace. Garçaõ, who for this reason is called the second Portuguese Horace, did not content himself as Ferreira had two hundred years before, with imitating in Portuguese verse, the intellectual elegance and sprightly philosophy of Horace’s odes, sermons and epistles; in the composition of his odes he endeavoured to introduce into Portuguese poetry verse constructed on the Horatian model. But, however distinctly the Portuguese language may without prejudice to its abrupt pronunciation be accentuated, and however readily it may, at first sight, seem to accommodate itself to the ancient metres, it is in reality as little subject to their laws as the Spanish and Italian; the reason plainly is, that the Portuguese, like all modern languages, is totally destitute of fixed syllabic quantity in monosyllabic words; and, that like the Spanish and Italian languages, it is not sufficiently rich in dactylic words to afford, in some degree, the means of concealing this deficiency. In most of his imitations of ancient verse Garçaõ has therefore merely strung together, in an unusual way, lines of long and short iambics. In his sapphic odes, as he calls them, the sapphic verse is not more obviously perceptible than in many older compositions of the same kind, into which rhyme is admitted.378 Garçaõ endeavoured to make an approximation to alcaic verse by the employment of dactylic words.379 But whatever objections may be urged against the metrical form of Garçaõ’s odes, they must be allowed to exhibit in their spirit and style proofs of a bold endeavour to soar above the eternal sameness of the sonnet and the eclogue. Of the spirit of Horatian philosophy, they present no deeper traces than the odes of Ferreira;380 but they were well calculated to recall the Portuguese to the exercise of a sound and vigorous judgment in poetry. Garçaõ’s diction is worthy of a poet of the sixteenth century. Among the lyric works of this poet are a Pindaric ode with strophes, antistrophes and epodes;381 and a dythirambic, the character of which is certainly somewhat frigid.382 Had Garçaõ been a pedant, he would not have devoted so much labour on sonnets, and on canções and glosses in the old national forms. He was, however, by his turn of mind and cultivation better fitted to succeed in didactic satire and epistles in the manner of Horace; and in this respect he again resembles Ferreira. But his satires and epistles, which are among the best in modern literature, possess more of Horatian gaiety and airyness than the kindred works of Ferreira;383 there is in their moral tendency occasionally something more social.384
Garçaõ also endeavoured to give a new direction to the dramatic poetry of Portugal. He did not possess sufficient dramatic invention to satisfy a public accustomed to all the extravagance of operatic and theatric pomp. But he exerted his utmost efforts to counteract the influence of that pomp, and of the general bad taste which seemed to have obtained a complete dominion over the national theatre. His theory, which will be further noticed in the next chapter, could only be promulgated within a narrow circle. As a dramatic poet, he first declared war against the rude opera taste, by writing a little comedy in the style of Terence, the title of which is:—Theatro Novo, drama, (The New Theatre, a drama). It is a mere dramatic trifle, with a very simple plot. An adventurer of fallen fortune conceives the idea of establishing a new theatre, in which speculation he is to be assisted by his two fair daughters and a rich Englishman, Arthur Bigodes, (a name formed from the English oath, “by God.”) He engages several other individuals in his scheme. Two love affairs, the one sincere and the other compulsory, impart comic interest and dramatic unity to the piece. The principal scene, to which the others merely serve as auxiliaries, is that in which each member of the dramatis personæ delivers a critical opinion respecting the kind of pieces which ought to be represented at the new theatre. But judicious and patriotic as the result of the deliberation might be, it was nevertheless very liable to be interpreted by the public of Lisbon to the prejudice of a reformer, who consigned the execution of his plan to a ruined adventurer. This was, however, the first step towards raising the dignity of Portuguese comedy, and restoring it to its former rank as a national drama. The Portuguese public was susceptible of patriotic sentiments, and Garçaõ understood how to touch the national feeling without having recourse to pedantry. Accordingly, he makes the manager of the new theatre, in a comic situation, say, that his beloved native country is not a little indebted to him for the trouble he has taken to rescue her from the abyss of ignorance in which she lay, miserable and infatuated, amidst wretched dramas.385 He observes, that genuine comedy must again become the school of manners, as it had been to the ancients. In conclusion, he solemnly invokes the shades of Gil Vicente, Ferreira, and Saa de Miranda.386 This little comedy is written in light and agreeable iambic verse, and is not destitute of dramatic spirit.
Another comedy by Garçaõ appears to have been intended as an example of the kind of character drama which the author wished to introduce on the Portuguese stage. It is called Assemblea ou Partida, (the Assembly or the Party).387 This modern Gallo-Portuguese title denotes that the author intended it to be an elegant conversational piece, affording a picture of fashionable manners. It is called merely a drama, and is attributed to no particular species, because it consists of only one act, which indeed is a tolerably long one. Thus it is not entirely faithful to the plan of a regular comedy in the style of Terence. The satire of the piece is directed against that sort of ostentatious boasting, to realize which the finances of the fashionable braggadocio are not always adequate. The characters are well drawn. To accommodate the national taste in every way, Garçaõ has introduced into the piece some well written sonnets, and a half-comic cantata, which is set to music and performed at the party of a lady. This comedy exhibits no trace of any particular imitation of the French style. Garçaõ wished to reform the Portuguese drama on classic principles, but, as he himself on another occasion observes, he wished to effect the reformation with a due regard to modern times and manners, and consequently without any rigorous adoption of the ancient dramatic laws in their full extent.
THE ABBOT PAULINO.
The ingenious prelate, Paulino Cabral de Vasconcellos, Abbot of Jazente, who is commonly called merely the Abbot Paulino, deserves to be honourably distinguished among those Portuguese poets, who at the latter end of the eighteenth century reclaimed the national taste, and brought it under the rules of classic cultivation.388 The collection of his poems, printed in the year 1786, consists of sonnets only; but without having read them, it is scarcely possible to conceive that this species of poetic composition should have acquired so many new charms towards the close of the eighteenth century. In this collection of two hundred and forty-five sonnets, which are probably selected from a still greater number of compositions of the same kind by the Abbot Paulino, there is scarcely one that can be pronounced dull or heavy; most of them display a peculiar union of clearness, lightness and elegance, with a tone of Horatian philosophy and irony. The study of French literature seems to have contributed to the singular cultivation of the Abbot Paulino. But the spirit of his poetry is by no means French. In one poetic glance he comprehended the various situations of real life, viewing them sometimes on the romantic, sometimes on the rural, and sometimes on the comic side; and the pictures of sentiment and reflection which he thus calls up, are compressed into the sonnet form in the most pleasing and natural manner. The best of Paulino’s sonnets are those which are conceived in a tone of elegant satire;389 and some which, though apparently frivolous, occasionally remind the reader of Propertius.390 The satire of this Portuguese poet, however, very seldom degenerates into grossness.
DONA CATHARINA DE SOUSA—HER TRAGEDY OF OSMIA.
But dramatic poetry in Portugal required some particular excitement to make it keep pace with the new cultivation of the nation; and an impulse of this kind was given when the Lisbon academy of sciences, which, during the last twenty years of the eighteenth century, was constantly embracing new objects, turned its attention to polite literature. The academy offered a prize for the best tragedy in the Portuguese language. Competitors came eagerly forward. But none of the tragedies which have been crowned by the academy, obtained so much popularity as the Osmîa of Dona Catharina de Sousa.391 It is probable that no other female writer who has acquired celebrity in the eighteenth century, could have produced such a work, though, perhaps, in other respects she might rank higher as a poetess than Catharina de Sousa. The fable of the tragedy, according to the conditions required by the academy, in the year 1785, is selected from the Portuguese national history. Three tragedies were produced within the space of three years. In the year 1788 the academy awarded the prize to Osmîa; and on opening the sealed note, in which the author’s name was supposed to be inscribed, it was found to contain only a reference to a prize question respecting improvements in the cultivation of the olive in Portugal, with a request that the academy would apply to that object the prize which was renounced for the tragedy of Osmia. But the equally generous and ingenious authoress soon became known. The tragedy was first printed without her name; but a second edition was published in the year 1795. It owes its celebrity not merely from the circumstance of its being the production of a female pen. In several scenes of this drama, tragic pathos is, in the happiest way, combined with an elegance which from the sex of the writer was more to be expected than the former quality. The subject is chosen from the history of the ancient inhabitants of Portugal, rather than of the Portuguese. A story from the age of romance would have better fulfilled the idea of a national tragedy; but Dona Catharina de Sousa, in the spirit of modern cosmopolite education, in a great measure formed by French reading, followed the Gallic taste even in a predilection for the Roman age in tragic drama. Osmia, the heroine of the tragedy, is a Lusitanian Princess of the race of the Turdetani, who in the second century of the Christian era, sought to emancipate themselves from the Roman yoke. She is, contrary to her inclination, united to Prince Rindacus, who heads the Turdetani in their insurrection against the Romans. Osmia combats like a heroine. The Turdetani are, however, defeated; Rindacus disappears, and Osmia is made prisoner by the Romans. The Roman Prætor Lælius becomes deeply enamoured of the fair captive, and she in her turn is not indifferent to his passion. With the principal persons thus situated the developement of the dramatic action commences. The composition would doubtless have been much more rich and brilliant if the authoress had not so rigorously confined herself within the rules of French tragedy. The Roman characters appear modernized in the French style. In this very absurd way the Prætor Lælius is drawn. On several occasions he complains of his “poor heart” in as doleful a strain as a hapless lover of modern times. But in the delicate representation of the relationship of Osmia with the Prætor, and with her rude barbarian husband, the sentiments of a noble-minded woman are painted in such a manner as none but a woman could paint them. The tragic grandeur of the composition rests on the character of Osmia, who will not on any consideration render herself unworthy of her noble descent. The loftiest pride of patriotism contends in her bosom with love for the Roman Prætor, whom she wishes to hate, but whose tender generosity she feels less and less power to resist.392 The feminine heroism of her character thus acquires a pensive gentleness, which renders her, as a woman, more and more interesting in every scene. The character of Osmia is forcibly relieved by contrast. A Turdetanian prophetess, who is also among the number of the captives, burns with national pride and hatred of the Romans; and her energetic but unfeminine patriotism is the means of constantly producing tragic concussions in the train of the events, until the husband of Osmia unexpectedly re-appears. The authoress has been eminently successful in the gradual heightening of the tragic interest.393 She did not venture to shed blood on the stage. The death of Osmia is related; but at the end her husband enters wounded and dying. Notwithstanding the simplicity of the composition, the tragedy comprises a considerable share of action. The rapid flow of the dialogue in some of the scenes, approximates more nearly to the tragic style of Voltaire, than to that of Corneille and Racine. The language is dignified throughout; though in some scenes it is deficient in poetic keeping. But according to the rule which the authoress herself was accustomed to consider as the only correct one in the estimation of dramatic perfection, she could not avoid faults which she theoretically regarded as beauties. The present is not the proper place for analysing the individual fine passages of this tragedy. The feminine character of the whole composition, however, well merits a minute analysis in a theory of poetry.
FAILURE OF OSMIA ON THE STAGE—PREVALENCE OF DRAMATIC IMITATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS.
The great difference between such a tragedy as Osmia and the dramatic entertainments to which the Portuguese public were accustomed, must have impeded the good effect which under other circumstances might have been produced by the prizes which the academy of Lisbon continued to offer. Osmia was performed; but it did not obtain a favourable reception from the public, and some similar tragedies by which it was succeeded experienced nearly the same fate. The Italian opera maintained its consideration in Lisbon; and the dramas which have since been produced on the Portuguese stage, are for the most part, either imitations of foreign pieces or translations. No modern Portuguese poet seems to have attempted to pursue the path of dramatic composition in the style of the Spanish comedy, and to carry it forward from the point at which Gil Vicente had stopped. Of the modern Portuguese comedies in the French style those from the pen of Guita have the highest reputation. But the Portuguese appear still to cherish as a favourite dramatic entertainment, the burlesque and truly national entremeses (interludes) which have either risen out of the Spanish compositions of the same class, or have with them one common origin.394
RECENT PORTUGUESE POETS:—IN PARTICULAR TOLENTINO DA ALMEIDA.
Among the latest Portuguese poets of eminence, may be numbered Manoel de Barbosa du Boccage, Francisco Bias Gomez, Francisco Cardoso, Alvarez de Nobrega, Xavier de Matos, Valladares, and Nicolao Tolentino de Almeida. The last mentioned writer seems to be greatly admired for his poignant satires, which have for their subject various local relations in Lisbon.395 The wit of this poet, whose writings betray much dissatisfaction with his lot in life, is not always intelligible to a foreigner; but he evinces a decidedly national spirit, which when combined with the representation of modern manners, becomes peculiarly interesting.396 In the works of Tolentino are revived most of the ancient national metres of the Portuguese in redondilhas.397
ARAUJO DE AZAVEDO—HIS TRANSLATIONS OF ENGLISH POEMS.
It would be unjust to close this History of Portuguese Poetry, without recording the name of Araujo de Azavedo, minister for foreign affairs in Lisbon, a writer of talent and learning, and a statesman to whom his country and its government is much indebted. His excellent translations of Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast, some of Gray’s Odes, and the Elegy in a Country Church-yard, are truly valuable acquisitions to the national literature of Portugal. His object in making these translations was to direct the attention of his poetical contemporaries to the hitherto unexplored side of the Portuguese Parnassus; and it may be expected that genius will readily follow the tract of such a guide.398
CHAP. III.
HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE ELOQUENCE, CRITICISM,
AND RHETORIC, DURING THIS PERIOD.
Further Decline of Portuguese Eloquence.
Before it was possible for any thing like true eloquence to find a place in Portuguese literature, public spirit had to revive from that state of feebleness and apathy into which it had been plunged by the rapid decline of Portugal from the pinnacle of national glory. It was indispensable that a time should return in which the human mind might move with somewhat more freedom in the trammels of ecclesiastical tyranny. The nation had to become once more capable of contemplating great objects. The national taste was to be reclaimed from the affectation of pompous phraseology, and it was necessary that the spirit of philosophy should be allowed to make suitable approaches towards the spirit of poetry. But these, and all the other conditions requisite for the revival of polite prose in Portugal, were never more decidedly wanting than precisely at the period when the introduction of French manners seemed likely to infuse a French taste into the national literature. But reckoning from the latter end of the seventeenth century, the imitation of French taste had operated for a considerable time, and yet had influenced only the forms of social life. Its presence in Portuguese literature, was scarcely perceptible. It has already been shewn that during the first half of the eighteenth century, Portuguese poetry, even in the hands of the few poets who were not unwilling to learn elegance from the French, continued subject to the style of the Gongorists and Marinists. Of course still less was it to be expected that Portuguese writers should be capable of imitating the polite prose of the French, since such an imitation would pre-suppose a cultivation of the understanding which at that time was not practicable in Portugal. The French taste in so far as it really found admission into Portugal, doubtless contributed at first, as about the same time its adoption did in Germany, to repress the loftier style of eloquence, for the language became so corrupted by foreign words and phrases, that it was difficult for the prose writer to know what tract it was proper to follow. The poet might, if he pleased, still adhere to the style of the sixteenth century; for his language was not like that of prose composition, subject to the laws of fashion. But no author could attempt classic prose, in the language of the sixteenth century, without encountering the risk of being regarded as a pedant by his contemporaries; and if he wished to follow the fashion, he was obliged to disfigure the language in which he wrote.
A few works of research which were written during the first half of the eighteenth century, are, with the exception of books of devotion, almost the only compositions which still preserved a kind of national prose style in Portuguese literature. Barbosa Machado’s great national Dictionary of Learned Men, is not written without rhetorical care. The author wished to express himself with correctness and elegance, particularly where he uses the language of panegyric, but even then he could not avoid frigid and pompous phraseology; and some phrases, which he seems to have admired, are constantly recurring in the work; as for example when he calls a poet “one of the most melodious swans of the Portuguese Parnassus,” without considering that Parnassus is neither a river nor a pond. A few affected metaphors were the only recognized beauties of prose composition at this period in Portugal. Didactic prose could no longer exist when the philosophic and scientific cultivation of the Portuguese became daily more abridged, and was almost limited to the small remnant which was taught in the cloisters and the colleges of the Jesuits. The lectures which under these circumstances were delivered in the academies, were considered to have sufficiently fulfilled their objects if they did not lull the auditors to sleep. The art of historical composition was now completely extinguished in Portugal.
NEW CULTIVATION OF ELOQUENCE—CLASSICAL PROSE AUTHORS STILL WANTING IN MODERN PORTUGUESE LITERATURE.
In the second half, and more especially during the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, the spirit of improvement was awakened, and began to diffuse itself into every department of Portuguese eloquence. The admirable clearness, precision and facility of the French prose, has at length exercised an advantageous influence on the Portuguese. Without enforcing with pedantic rigour the restoration of all the old forms of the sixteenth century, the best Portuguese authors now endeavour to write their mother tongue with purity, and at the same time to satisfy the new wants created by the progress of time and the spirit of the age. The praiseworthy diligence which the Portuguese now manifest in collecting scientific knowledge of every kind, and in republishing the works of their early authors, appears, however, to have operated indirectly to the prejudice of eloquence, for among the men of talent, to whom Portugal is indebted for her regeneration, none have yet distinguished themselves in prose composition. But the Portuguese have had so many things to retrieve, that they have scarcely had time to devote particular attention to the rhetorical form of didactic works. An effort to avoid the bad taste of the preceding age, and upon the whole to cultivate a clear and dignified form of expression, is perceptible in most of the modern treatises of the Portuguese. Empty bombast has given place to the language of reason. The Portuguese nation have now to wish for a modern historian qualified to tread in the footsteps of Barros, Brito and Andrada. Such a writer might succeed in still more firmly rivetting the connecting link between the promising present and glorious past in the hearts of Portuguese patriots.
ROMANTIC PROSE—TRANSLATIONS.
A new era of romantic prose might also have been commenced in Portugal, had the poetic spirit of the old Portuguese pastoral romances been modified, instead of being enfeebled by the introduction of the cultivated forms of modern prose. Translations of foreign novels seem to have too readily satisfied that portion of the Portuguese public, whose cultivation was, through this species of reading, gradually approximating to the taste of the other nations of Europe. A translation from the French of Le Sage’s popular Gil Blas was supplied by the poet Barbosa Du Boccage, who is probably descended from a French family. This was soon followed by translations of the Moral Tales of D’Arnaud, and of various works of a similar description.
PORTUGUESE CRITICISM OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The progress of genuine prose in Portuguese literature during the eighteenth century, may, upon the whole, be estimated by the style of Portuguese criticism in the same period. It may be presumed that the authors of critical treatises on literary subjects, endeavoured by their own prose to shew the relationship, which, according to their opinion, ought to exist between poetry and eloquence; and it is certain that the principles on which they wrote precisely corresponded with the rhetorical cultivation of the age, within the boundaries of Portuguese taste. These theoretical labours, in their relation to Portuguese poetry and eloquence, deserve to be particularly noticed.
ERICEYRA’S INTRODUCTION TO HIS HENRIQUEIDA.
A new epoch in Portuguese criticism seems to commence with the critical treatises of the Count da Ericeyra; for this writer studiously availed himself of the principles of French criticism, and his authority gave full effect to the example he set. But there was more of semblance than reality in Ericeyra’s appropriation of French criticism. He had too little feeling for the essence of poetry to be able to modify the idea of beauty according to French principles of correctness, without losing sight of the true foundation of that idea. With all his critical rules, therefore, he never rose above what may be termed the external apparatus of poetry. Within that apparatus his taste was altogether circumscribed. His general opinions on poetry are developed with sufficient clearness in the copious introduction to his Henriqueida,399 and in the explanatory notes which he has attached to that epic composition. The introductory dissertation is written in good prose; but the observations which the author makes on the subject of epic poetry, partake more of prosaic than of poetic views. The subject with which the Count da Ericeyra’s critical essay commences is imitation; but, composing in the spirit of his own system, he first speaks of the celebrated poets whose works he had imitated, and afterwards of the imitation of nature. He speaks of Homer with emphasis; and yet at the same time acknowledges that he was acquainted with that poet only through Madame Dacier’s prose translation. Under these circumstances he reasonably enough speaks with still greater emphasis of Virgil, whose works he could read in the original. Of all human works, Virgil’s Æneid, in the opinion of Ericeyra, approaches nearest to perfection.400 On the other hand, he says, that Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, belongs more properly to the class of romantic tales of chivalry, than to epic poetry; but that it is nevertheless worthy of imitation on account of its pleasing narrative style and the “fertility of poetic genius,” which the Count acknowledges Ariosto to possess. Voltaire’s Henriade, however, which was then the newest epic production, is pronounced to be particularly distinguished for its “elevated and natural poetry.” Ericeyra takes this opportunity of more accurately defining his theory of perfection in epic poetry. It belongs, in his opinion, to a perfect epic action, that the hero of the poem should as much as possible be kept present in the scene of action. On epic machinery Ericeyra pronounces nearly the same judgment as Boileau, namely, that when a modern introduces into his poetry the Christian system of the ancient mythology, the pleasure to be derived from epic composition is destroyed. Even the Jerusalem Delivered, would be a tedious work, had not Tasso enlivened the “pious melancholy of the subject” by the introduction of magic and by other means. The example set by Camoens, who introduced into modern poetry all the mythological deities as allegorical characters, is recommended as highly worthy of imitation; but nevertheless Tasso’s plan is not to be altogether condemned. Ericeyra makes some very judicious observations on the epic treatment of real history. Lucan, he says, was the first who disfigured epic poetry by writing merely as a poetic historian; and he attributes the ill success of the Spaniards in epic poetry to their having always preferred Lucan to every other model. His remarks on the epic character are no less correct; and his opinions on language and style are such as might be expected from a man of sound and cultivated understanding. He praises the dramatic style of Corneille, Racine and Moliere. From these authors, he observes, a writer may learn how to express naturally the heroic and tender passions in their full force, and without the false glare which disfigures the works of many modern and also some ancient poets. Thus the Count da Ericeyra endeavoured to vindicate his own poem before the tribunal of the public. The most remarkable circumstance with respect to the whole treatise is the little value which the author attaches to poetic allegory. When it is recollected in what esteem allegory was held by the early Portuguese critics, Ericeyra’s treatise, though in other respects unimportant, and only interesting in its connection with the whole of Portuguese literature, will be recognised as at least a step gained in literary criticism.
GARÇAÕ’S LECTURES.
Among the treatises of criticism by which it was hoped, about the middle of the eighteenth century to reform the taste of the Portuguese, some consideration is due to those written by Garçaõ, the imitator of Horace.401 They are in the form of lectures, and were delivered in an assembly called the academy of the Portuguese Arcadians. On this account they are also entitled to rank among works of oratory. In two of these lectures, Garçaõ zealously defends the Aristotelian theory of tragedy in its application to the modern drama. He insists on obedience to the rule of not shedding blood on the stage. Accordingly he commends the French drama; and notices Addison’s Cato with approbation. His opinion, on this point, he conceives is sufficiently supported by these two remarks—1st. That to fulfil the object of tragic art it is not necessary to shed blood on the stage—and 2dly. That it is improper, because at an intellectual entertainment disgusting objects should not be presented to the eye. Garçaõ appears also to have understood in the usual way the condition of Aristotle, that tragedy should refine the passions of the spectator. He expatiates much on the moral utility of a perfect tragedy, through which the theatre might, in his opinion, be easily converted into an excellent school of morals. To this effect the opinions of the French critics Le Bossu and Dacier, are industriously cited in concert with those of Aristotle. Both lectures were given in the year 1757. The main object of a third lecture which Garçaõ delivered to the same society in the same year, is to demonstrate that the imitation of the classic poets of antiquity is one of the most essential requisites of modern poetry. He observes that the judicious and the servile imitator must not be confounded together, for that the latter is in fact merely a plagiarist. Garçaõ himself seems, however, to have been somewhat puzzled to make out this distinction; for he asserts that Camoens has in his pastoral poems imitated Virgil in the same manner as Virgil has Theocritus. A skilful imitator, he says, may excel the poet whom he imitates, as Horace has in many passages excelled Pindar. At the same time it must be allowed, that these and the following lectures of Garçaõ possess the merit of pure, natural, and dignified language; and that in several passages they display true eloquence.402 Garçaõ, who felt a patriotic interest in the improvement of the polite literature of his country, expected that the academy of the Portuguese Arcadians would by its exertions revive the good taste of the sixteenth century. Only such a society, zealously competing for the welfare and honour of the country, can, he says, become “the Alexander who will cut this gordian knot of bad taste, the Achilles who will conquer this Troy.”403 But it appears that he appealed to his Arcadians in vain. Their literary patriotism was of a very passive character; and the advantages which Garçaõ hoped this society would procure, were destined to be obtained through another.
PHILOLOGICAL AND CRITICAL TREATISES OF THE ACADEMICIANS JOAQUIM DE FOYOS—FRANCISCO DIAS—ANTONIO DAS NAVES, &C.
Among the literary treatises (Memorias de Litteratura) published by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon,404 are to be found the latest contributions to Portuguese criticism and eloquence; and that society may justly boast of the well directed efforts of its members to promote the literary cultivation of the nation. At the head of these literary treatises, there appeared in the year 1792 a remarkable essay on Portuguese pastoral poetry by Joaquim de Foyos.405 This treatise served at once to record the unconquerable predilection with which the Portuguese adhered to their pastoral poetry, and the new freedom of opinion which ventured to shew itself in opposition to the oracles of French criticism. Joaquim de Foyos asserts, that pastoral poetry must be the oldest, and consequently the most natural and original style of poetry. In the history of human nature, he observes, the shepherd’s life is in the natural course of the transition from barbarism to social cultivation. It is, he adds, precisely in this stage of the developement of human wants and energies, that the mind is particularly awakened to poetic activity: and as in pastoral life man is surrounded by the sweetest tranquillity of nature, so must pastoral poetry be the true poetry of nature. Joaquim de Foyos has indeed related consistently with his own notions, the history of mankind and poetry in a way which is well calculated to set forth the particular merits of bucolic composition: otherwise history might soon have convinced him that pastoral life has scarcely ever been the passage from the savage state to civilization: that the kind of pastoral state which favours the ground work of bucolic poetry, has only arisen under particular circumstances in a few places; and has, even there been of little advantage to poetry: that Greek poetry no more originated in Arcadia, than German in Switzerland: that the oldest Greek poetry exhibits no trace of the pastoral character: that Theocritus first devoted himself to this style of composition at the voluptuous court of the Ptolemies in Alexandria: and that its revival in the romantic age, like its birth in Alexandria, presupposes a degree of social cultivation, whence the human mind longingly reverts to a more natural existence, on which it at last bestows ideal beauties. Joaquim de Foyos judges of the French critics by more just principles. He observes, that these critics, of whom Le Bossu may be placed at the head, deduce numerous chimerical rules from what they term the morality of a poem. Dacier, he says, has also misunderstood Aristotle in wishing to render the story of a poem a sort of Æsopic fable. The ingenious and elegant Marmontel has fallen into the same error.
A philological treatise in the form of a dictionary, by Antonio Pereita do Figueiredo, on the genius of the Portuguese language, according to the Decades of Barros,406 though not immediately connected with poetry and rhetoric, is nevertheless worthy of honourable notice, since it is calculated to direct Portuguese writers to the study of Barros, and the spirit of their mother tongue. Another treatise by the same writer, has for its object to recommend Barros as a model for Portuguese eloquence.407
The analysis of the poetic language and style of Saa de Miranda, Ferreira, Bernardes, Caminha and Camoens, by Francisco Dias, is more useful than most of the treatises of the same kind previously written in Portuguese.408 The investigations of this intelligent writer are philological rather than critical; but the critical observations which he introduces are dictated by a clear judgment and just feeling. The improvements which Saa de Miranda effected in the poetic language of the Portuguese are here exhibited in their true light. Even the latinisms of Ferreira are placed in an advantageous point of view by the author. He speaks of Camoens in terms of enthusiasm; but in the encomiums which have lately been bestowed on Caminha, Dias does not concur.409 The treatise is, upon the whole, very well written.410
An Essay by Antonio das Naves Pereira on the proper use of the language of the Portuguese writers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, abounds in judicious critical remarks.411 It is written expressly to condemn the gallicizing (a Francezia) of modern Portuguese. This learned philologist and critic is likewise the author of a comparative view of the language and manner of the principal Portuguese poets with particular reference to the peculiarities of each style of poetry.412
The want of a work which might in the strict sense of the term be called a complete theory of criticism, does not appear to have yet been felt by the Portuguese. A compendium of rhetorick by Antonio Teixeira de Magalhaens was published in the year 1782;413 and a few years after a French art of rhetorick by Gisbert, as translated into Portuguese.414