History of Spanish and Portuguese Literature (Vol 2 of 2)

by Friedrich Bouterwek

JOAÕ DE BARROS.

The events of India formed the favourite theme of many of the Portuguese Cronistas of the sixteenth century. At the head of these industrious writers stands Joaõ de Barros, whose name is not altogether unknown in literature, beyond the boundaries of his native land. In the early part of the sixteenth century he was distinguished by his talents and acquirements among the young men of rank, who were educated at the court of Emanuel the Great. At this period he seems to have applied himself with particular delight to the study of the Roman historians, and in particular of Livy. In his twenty-first year he produced a romance of chivalry. King Emanuel, who on reading this romance thought that he perceived in the youthful author a talent for historical composition, commissioned him to draw up an account of the oriental discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese. Barros immediately prepared for the commencement of his arduous task; the execution of which was, however, delayed for some time in consequence of the death of King Emanuel. But he was speedily solicited by King John III. not to relinquish his design, and, as an encouragement, was invested with the lucrative but troublesome post of Treasurer to the Indian department (Caza da India). Without neglecting the duties of this office, Barros indefatigably collected materials for his great historical work, which he commenced and continued with unremitting activity until a short time previous to his decease. He died in the year 1570, at the age of seventy-four. The Portuguese have surnamed him their Livy. His historical labours sufficiently prove that he did not study Livy in vain, and though he cannot justly claim a place near that historian, yet are his labours well deserving of an ample notice in the history of Portuguese literature.

The celebrated work of Joaõ de Barros is entitled “Asia, or the Atchievements which the Portuguese performed in the Discovery and Conquest of the Seas and Lands of the Orient.[241]” The books are, like those of Livy’s works, distributed into decades. These decades are four in number, and each makes a moderately sized folio volume. In this work Barros, though he embraces only the most brilliant portion of Portuguese history, has pursued an idea similar to that which governed Livy, for he constantly endeavours to illustrate and render self-evident the greatness of the Portuguese name, as Livy does the majesty of the Roman people. Whether national pride may not sometimes have seduced him into violations of historical truth, is a question which the historian of eloquence cannot be required to investigate.[242] This Portuguese Livy has to a certain degree approached the excellence of his model in the art of historical description. His language is sometimes not merely elegant; but the pictures he draws exhibit an unaffected charm of intuitive representation. These descriptions are neither disfigured by pompous phrases nor poetic excrescences; and they still possess a lively internal spirit as well when rural or urbane scenery is depicted,[243] as when military events are represented.[244] But passages thus distinguished for rhetorical beauty are only occasionally to be found in the works of Barros. His narrative style is, upon the whole, merely the old chronicle style, with the diction somewhat more elevated; and even his diction abounds in expressions which were beginning to grow antiquated at the period when he wrote. The practice of commencing several sentences in succession by the conjunction and, in the manner of the old chronicles, is not uncommon in the writings of Barros. But he seldom attains the real flexibility of the long, yet harmoniously articulated sentences of Livy. Barros sometimes very happily inculcates his practical views by speeches in the manner of the ancients, which under certain circumstances he introduces as delivered by the Public, in order to express in the most natural way all that can be said for and against certain enterprises; such, for example, as the continual fitting out, under the auspices of Prince Henry, so celebrated in the history of discoveries of vessels, for the further exploring of the new passage to India.[245] Speeches by individuals, though seldom, are for the most part not inappropriately introduced; but the insipid style of the chronicles is then very unseasonably retained.[246] Least of all did Barros understand the drawing of character; and in this respect the difference between the Roman and the Portuguese Livy is most striking. The monkish point of view in which this author, like every other of his age in Portugal and Spain, regarded the faults and excellencies of human character, rendered any thing like natural portraiture impossible. An ancient Roman observer of human nature would not, for instance, have deduced the courtesy and gentleness of Prince Henry, the encourager of navigation, from the purity of that prince’s soul, with an intimation that such a conclusion was to be drawn because he was held to be truly virginal.[247] In the spirit of his age, Barros seizes every opportunity for putting forward his catholic opinions, though the result is by no means to the advantage of his historical work.