After the period of the highest greatness of the little kingdom of Portugal had long passed away, its effects still operated powerfully on the spirit and the literature of the nation. To be obliged to become Spanish subjects, on the extinction of their old royal family, deeply mortified the Portuguese; but the shadow of ancient national independence which the cabinet of Madrid found it necessary to concede to Portugal, was sufficient during the whole period in which that country continued under Spanish domination, to maintain in full force the old national hatred between the two countries. This was carried to the highest pitch of exasperation in the hearts of the Portuguese, when they found that in spite of the seeming independence of the kingdom of Portugal, the foreign powers with whom Spain waged incessant war, paid no attention to the distinction between Spanish and Portuguese possessions; and that the Dutch in particular availed themselves of the favourable opportunity to treat the Portuguese as Spaniards, and to deprive them of those valuable possessions in India, for which they were indebted to the enterprising spirit and courage of their ancestors. It required no great political penetration to discover that the most productive source of Portuguese national prosperity had thus become obstructed, and that in all probability such a misfortune would not have occurred had Portugal preserved her independence. Even the nobility and the ecclesiastics, who, contrary to the express wish of the people, had favoured the claims by which Philip II. of Spain was declared Philip I. of Portugal, could not possibly be warm partisans of a government which oppressed the whole country by an absurd and despotic system of administration. During the sixty years therefore in which Portugal felt the weight of Spanish supremacy, every patriotic Portuguese regarded the three Philips, who ruled over his native country, merely as kings of Portugal, unfortunately residing in Madrid. Lisbon continued to be the real Portuguese capital. The ministerial departments of state were still concentrated there; and in conformity with the treaty by which the crown was ceded to Philip, all the public offices in Portugal were filled by native Portuguese. In Lisbon, too, the Portuguese language maintained its ancient consideration in the courts of law, in the polite world, and in literature, though it was not very readily adopted by Spaniards.
The national peculiarities which, even under the Spanish dominion, continued to distinguish the Portuguese from the Spaniards, were attended by consequences remarkably favourable to Portuguese literature, when at last, in the year 1640, the long prepared blow was struck, which rescued Portugal from the yoke of the Spanish sovereigns, and placed John of Braganza on the throne amidst the acclamations of the people. At this period, Spanish poetry had already declined, while on the contrary Portuguese poetry once more revived. The general re-action against every thing Spanish had an inspiring influence on the Portuguese poets, even though they took no part in political affairs. If no second Camoens arose in that age, it nevertheless gave birth to several poets, whose lyric compositions honourably maintained the reputation of their country; and they were eminently successful in gathering the last blossoms of the poetry of romantic love, which had taken the deepest root in Portugal.
CAUSES OF THE CONTINUED CULTIVATION OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE IN PORTUGAL.
To causes of a totally different nature and in which political interests were but remotely concerned, must be attributed the zeal with which the Portuguese, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, cultivated the language and literature of Spain, along with their mother tongue and the learning of their own country; while the Spaniards of the same period regarded the Portuguese poetry as a mere scion of the Spanish, and besides, generally speaking, looked down with contempt on the language and literature of Portugal. That this unequal conduct of the two nations was not the effect of political causes, is evident from the favour which the Portuguese poets extended to the Castilian language, in the first half of the sixteenth century, when certainly no expectation was entertained of the union of the two kingdoms. Even at that period it was a custom, and indeed a high style of fashion in literature for Portuguese poets to write verses in Castilian as well as in their mother tongue. Saa de Miranda, the poet with whom the most brilliant period of Portuguese literature commences, also holds a place among Spanish poets. Compositions in the Castilian language are indeed interspersed through the works of all the Portuguese poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; but nothing could be more extraordinary than to find either verse or prose written in the Portuguese language by a Spaniard.
This phenomenon, which seems to be at variance with Portuguese patriotism, may, however, be explained by the peculiar relations which the Castilian and Portuguese languages bear to each other. The Castilian language has an imposing character which is wanting in the Portuguese; and though the stateliness of the Spanish diction might seem formal and affected to the Portuguese in general, it was likely to make a forcible impression on their poets. The pleasing fluency of the Portuguese tongue, could not, however, operate so favourably on the poets of Spain, for to a Spanish ear the most elegant Portuguese has merely the effect of broken Castilian.[56] The Portuguese were indemnified for the Castilian guttural, which so much displeased them, by the sonorous accentuation of the Castilian words; but the Spaniards found much of this accentuation lost in Portuguese by abbreviations of the very words in which it occurs in Spanish. The Castilian too was regarded as the more dignified tongue, because its unabbreviated words, for which it is indebted to the latin, excited more precise recollections of the language of ancient Rome.[57] It is probable also, that Castilian pride after the union of the Castilian and Arragonian provinces contributed its share in rendering the Spaniards insensible to the peculiar beauties of the Portuguese language. On the contrary, the flexibility of the Portuguese character more readily accommodated itself to foreign forms. Finally, the dependence of the whole government of Portugal on the court of Madrid, during the space of half a century, rendered the knowledge of the Castilian language indispensable to those Portuguese who were destined to fill the first ministerial departments in their native country; but the Spaniards had no such inducement to learn Portuguese, as they were not permitted to hold any public office in Portugal. Thus did the Spanish language during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, acquire that degree of consideration in Portuguese literature which it afterwards maintained. It should besides be recollected, that during the period in which Portugal continued under the dominion of Spain, a great portion of the bookselling trade had been transferred to Lisbon, the first commercial city in the two united kingdoms; and trifling as this circumstance may at first sight appear, it cannot be doubted that it co-operated to the diffusion of the Spanish language in Portuguese literature.
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE PORTUGUESE DURING THIS PERIOD.
The polite literature of Portugal experienced no disadvantage from certain traits of difference in the Spanish and Portuguese character and manners. The Portuguese who were less addicted to pomp than the Spaniards, were also less inclined to religious fanaticism. The monarchs of Portugal, it is true, exerted their utmost endeavours to inflame the religious prejudices of their subjects, and to teach them to revel in the same delirium of barbarous orthodoxy as the Spaniards. John III. in whose reign Portugal attained the highest pinnacle of her power, did not neglect formally to introduce the Spanish inquisition into his dominions; and the jesuits, who had now begun to excite the alarm of every catholic monarchy, Spain excepted, were in the year 1540, received into Portugal by the same sovereign who proposed to avail himself of the aid of those enterprising defenders and propagators of the old catholic faith, for the conversion of the infidels in both Indies. He consigned to the jesuits the education of his grandson Sebastian, who was his successor on the throne; and the example of the monarch was doubtless imitated by many families of rank. Thus, literary education seems to have been still more jesuitical in Portugal than in Spain; and the dreadful pile, on which heretics were immolated, was lighted up often enough to blunt the moral feelings of the people. But these horrid festivals of superstition accorded less with the Portuguese than the Spanish character. Of the two nations the Portuguese were in disposition the more tolerant, and they continue so to be.[58] On this account the spiritual comedies, with which the Spanish public was never satiated, obtained only a transitory success in Portugal. If, then, the fetters imposed on conscience proved only slight restraints to poetic genius in Spain,[59] still less could any considerable injury arise from such influence on polite literature in Portugal.
At this period poetry and eloquence were not in Portugal much more than in Spain indebted to support from the throne. The poetic art was nevertheless held in esteem and honour at the court of John III. The time had, indeed, gone by in which the kings of Portugal competed for the laurels of Apollo, and shone conspicuous among the bards of their native land. From the reign of Emanuel the Great, to the period when the dynasty of that monarch became extinct, the kings of Portugal were more disposed to encourage adventurous enterprises in the two Indies than to devote themselves to the cultivation of poetry. John III. however, seems to have possessed a strong taste for dramatic amusements; at least it is related that he himself used to perform parts in the plays of Gil Vicente, which were represented at his court. Sebastian, the ardent disciple of the jesuits, was occupied in the fulfilment of his presumed destiny to extend the glory of his faith and his name by romantic achievements, until in the fatal conflict, by which he hoped to render himself master of Fez and Morocco, he was lost among the lifeless wreck of his defeated army: and Camoens, the no less ardent disciple of the muses, whose enthusiasm in his sovereign’s cause was both patriotic and poetic, was left by Sebastian to languish in bitter poverty. Old Cardinal Henry, though a lover of literature, found, on ascending the throne, sufficient occupation in providing for the political welfare of the country. That the Spanish kings who next governed Portugal bestowed little or no attention on Portuguese poetry and eloquence, is a fact to which it is scarcely necessary to advert. On the accession of John of Braganza, it is probable that the government would have done more for the national drama, which had hitherto been left to work its own way, had not the Portuguese, after the death of the inventive Gil Vicente, fallen further behind the Spaniards in dramatic composition than in any other class of poetry. The royal patronage now arrived too late. Portugal possessed no national drama like that of Spain; and for the non-existence of that branch of literature the people and not the government must be held responsible. The causes which prevented dramatic poetry in Portugal from attaining that degree of excellence to which it arrived in Spain, will be noticed in their proper place, in so far as they can be ascertained or conjectured. The distinguished favour, however, which the Italian opera at length obtained from the court of Lisbon was not only unprofitable to Portuguese national poetry, but contributed to banish it still further from the stage. There was of course now less reason than ever to hope for the establishment of a genuine and well cultivated national drama in Portugal.
To the Portuguese nation must be attributed the excellencies and the defects which Portuguese poetry and eloquence presented throughout the whole of this period. In Portugal, no poet, who wished to distinguish himself within the sphere of his art, presumed to dictate legislatorily to the national taste. No one, by striking out a new path, sought to explore the unbeaten regions of his native Parnassus. No sects, like those which occasionally arose in Spain, disturbed the poetic harmony of the Portuguese poets, whose various voices were always attuned in national concord. The influence which the Italian poetry gained over the Portuguese was recognised with equal willingness by the poets and the public. It cannot, however, be denied that this national harmony of the Portuguese poets during the most brilliant period of the polite literature of their nation, gave rise to a certain spirit of self-satisfaction, which though very favourable to subordinate talent, was by no means calculated to awaken genius. The higher beauties of the poetic art were not scrupulously demanded: to secure success it was sufficient that an author should elevate himself in a slight degree above the common makers of verse. Romantic ideas tolerably versified in pleasing language were all that a Portuguese poet found necessary in order to secure the esteem and the eulogy of that public on whose decision his reputation depended. Eminent poetic merit could be appreciated by very few, and it received no particular encouragement or uncommon reward. Thus it happened that the state of poetic public spirit among the Portuguese created no demand beyond an extensive improvement of the national poetry. The great mass of the people adhered to the old romance style; while the nobility, men of education, and finally, all who wished to mingle in fashionable society, preferred the Italian forms, on which, however, the Portuguese national impress was always discernible. But the majority of the poets whose names acquired celebrity, belonged to noble families;—for in Portugal, as in Italy and Spain, every one who wished to gain distinction at court, or in the army, or as a well educated man of the world, composed verses; and even ecclesiastics who were anxious to gain the good graces of the fair sex, found it necessary to lay claim to poetic cultivation. Among the princes of the royal house, the Infante Dom Manoel, who stands in a kind of poetic relationship with Saa de Miranda, seems to be the last who was distinguished for writing passable verse.