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.