Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities

by Anne C. Lynch Botta

1. THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE.—Portugal was long considered only as an integral part of Spain; its inhabitants called themselves Spaniards, and conferred on their neighbors the distinctive appellation of Castilians. Their language was originally the same as the Galician; and had Portugal remained a province of Spain, its peculiar dialect would probably, like that of Aragon, have been driven from the fields of literature by the Castilian. But at the close of the eleventh century, Alphonso VI., celebrated in Spanish history for his triumphs over the Moors, gave Portugal as a dowry to his daughter on her marriage with Henry of Burgundy, with permission to call his own whatever accessions to it the young prince might be able to conquer from the Moorish territory. Alphonso Henriquez, the son of this pair, was saluted King of Portugal by his soldiers on the battle-field of Castro-Verd, in the year 1139, his kingdom comprising all the provinces we now call Portugal, except the province of Algarve. Thenceforward the Portuguese became a separate nation from the Spaniards, and their language asserted for itself an independent existence. Still, however, the Castilian was long considered the proper vehicle for literature; and while few Portuguese writers wholly disused it, there were many who employed no other.

Although the Portuguese language, founded on the Galician dialect, bears much similarity to the Spanish in its roots and structure, it differs widely from it in its grammatical combinations and derivations, so that it constitutes a language by itself. It has far more French, and fewer Basque and Arabic elements than the Spanish; it is softer, but it has, at the same time, a truncated and incomplete sound, compared with the sonorous beauty of the Castilian, and a predominance of nasal sounds stronger than those of the French. It is graceful and easy in its construction, but it is the least energetic of all the Romance tongues.

2. EARLY LITERATURE OF PORTUGAL.—The people, as well as the language, of Portugal possess a distinctive character. Early in the history of the country the extensive and fertile plains were abandoned to pasturage, and the number of shepherds in proportion to the rest of the population was so great, that the idea of rural life among them was always associated with the care of flocks. At the same time, their long extent of coast invited to the pursuits of commerce and navigation; and the nation, thus divided into hardy navigators, soldiers, and shepherds, was better calculated for the display of energy, valor, and enterprise than for laborious and persevering industry. Accustomed to active intercourse with society, rather than to the seclusion of castles, they were far less haughty and fanatical than the Castilians; and the greater number of Moçárabians that were incorporated among them, diffused over their feelings and manners a much stronger influence of orientalism. The passion of love seemed to occupy a larger share of their existence, and their poetry was more enthusiastic than that of any other people of Europe.

Although the literature of Portugal, like the character of its people, is marked by excessive softness, elegiac sentimentality, and an undefined melancholy, it affords little originality in the general tone of its productions. Henry of Burgundy and his knights early introduced Provençal poetry, and the native genius was nurtured in the succeeding age by Spanish and Italian taste, and afterwards modified by the influence of French and English civilization. National songs were not wanting in the early history of the country, yet no relics of them have been preserved. The earliest monuments of Portuguese literature relate to the age of the French knights who founded the political independence of the country, and must be sought in the "Cancioneros," containing courtly ballads composed in the Galician dialect, after the Provençal fashion, and sung by wandering minstrels. The Cancionero of King Dionysius (1279-1325) is the most ancient of those collections, the king himself being considered by the Portuguese as the earliest poet. In fact, Galician poetry, modeled after the Provençal, was cultivated at that time all along the western portion of the Pyrenean peninsula. Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile, used this dialect in his poems; and as a poet and patron of the Spanish troubadours, he may be considered as belonging both to the Spanish and Portuguese literatures.

In the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century, Portuguese poetry preserved its Provençal character. The poets rallied around the court, and the kings and princes of the age sang to the Provençal lyre both in the Castilian and the Galician dialects; but only a few fragments of the poetry of the fourteenth century are extant.

3. POETS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.—Early in the fifteenth century, the same chivalrous spirit which had achieved the conquest of the country from the Moors, led the Portuguese to cross the Straits of Gibraltar, and plant their banner on the walls of Ceuta. Many other cities of Africa were afterwards taken; and in 1487, Bartolomeo Diaz doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and Vasco da Gama pointed out to Europe the hitherto unknown track to India. Within fifteen years after, a Portuguese kingdom was founded in Hindostan, and the treasures of the East flowed into Portugal. The enthusiasm of the people was thus awakened, and high views of national importance, and high hopes of national glory, arose in the public mind. The time was peculiarly favorable to the development of genius, and especially to the spirit of poetry. Indeed, the last part of the fifteenth century, and the beginning of the sixteenth, the age of King John (1481- 1495), and of Emanuel (1495-1521), may be called the golden age of the Portuguese poetry.

At the head of the poetical school of the fifteenth century, stands Macias, surnamed the Enamored (fl. 1420). He was distinguished as a hero in the wars against the Moors of Granada, and as a poet in the retinue of the Marquis of Villena. He became attached to a lady of the same princely household, who was forced to marry another. Macias continuing to express his love, though prohibited by the marquis from doing so, was thrown into prison; but even there, he still poured forth his songs on his ill-fated love, regarding the hardships of captivity as light, in comparison with the pangs of absence from his mistress. The husband of the lady, stung with jealousy, recognizing Macias through the bars of his prison, took deadly aim at him with his javelin, and killed him on the spot. The weapon was suspended over the poet's tomb, in the Church of St. Catherine, with the inscription, "Here lies Macias the Enamored."

The death of Macias produced such a sensation as could only belong to an imaginative age. All those who desired to be thought cultivated mourned his fate. His few poems of moderate merit became generally known and admired, and his melancholy history continued to be the theme of songs and ballads, until, in the poetry of Lope de Vega and Calderon, the name of Macias passed into a proverb, and became synonymous with the highest and tenderest love.

Ribeyro (1495-1521), one of the earliest and best poets of Portugal, was attached to the court of King Emanuel. Here he indulged a passion for one of the ladies of the court, which gave rise to some of his most exquisite effusions. It is supposed that the lady, whose name he studiously conceals, was the Infanta Beatrice, the king's own daughter. He was so wholly devoted to the object of his love, that he is said to have passed whole nights wandering in the woods, or beside the banks of a solitary stream, pouring forth the tale of his woes in strains of mingled tenderness and despair. The most celebrated productions of Ribeyro are eclogues. The scene is invariably laid in his own country; his shepherds are all Portuguese, and his peasant girls have Christian names. But under the disguise of fictitious characters, he evidently sought to place before the eyes of his beloved mistress the feelings of his own breast; and the wretchedness of an impassioned lover is always his favorite theme.

The bucolic poets of Portugal may be regarded as the earliest in Europe, and their favorite creed, that pastoral life was the poetical model of human life, and the ideal point from which every sentiment and passion ought to be viewed, was first represented by Ribeyro. This idea threw an air of romantic sweetness and elegance over the poetry of the sixteenth century, but at the same time it gave to it a monotonous tone and an air of tedious affectation.