Portuguese literature
poem to her translation of the Gospels wrote the simple, impressive
lines beginning
_Non vos sirvo, non vos amo,
Mas desejo vos amar._
[161] Cf. Ribeiro dos Santos, _Obras_ (MS.), vol. xix, f. 205: _A
frente de todos os Poetas deste Seculo apparece como hum Ds_ [_Deus_]
_da Poezia o Infante D. Pedro, filho do Snr. Rey D. João I._ In reality
he was not gifted with greater poetical talent than his brothers.
§ 3
_The Chroniclers_
The father of Portuguese history, FERNAM LOPEZ (_c._ 1380-_c._ 1460),
had grown up with the generation that succeeded Aljubarrota, and from
his earliest years imbibed the national enthusiasm of the time. He
had himself seen Nun’ Alvarez as a young man and the heroes who had
fought in a hundred fights to free their country from a foreign yoke,
and he had listened to many a tale of Lisbon’s sufferings during the
great siege.[162] Since 1418, at latest, he was employed in the Lisbon
Torre do Tombo (the State Archives), for in that year he was appointed
keeper of the documents (_escrituras_) there. Sixteen years later,
King Duarte, who as prince encouraged him to collect materials for the
work,[163] entrusted him with the task of writing the chronicles of
the Kings of Portugal (_poer em caronycas as estorias dos reys_), and
at the same time (March 19, 1434[164]) assigned him a salary of 14,000
_réis_. His work at the Torre do Tombo covered a period of over thirty
years. He won and kept the confidence of three kings, was secretary to
João I (_escrivam dos livros_) and to the Infante Fernando (_escrivam
da puridade_), whose will exists in Lopez’ handwriting.[165] His son
Martinho accompanied the Infante to Africa as doctor, and died (1443)
in prison soon after the prince. The last document signed by Lopez as
official is dated 1451; in July 1452 he seems to have resigned his
position at least temporarily, and on June 6, 1454, he was definitely
superseded by Zurara as being ‘so old and weak that he cannot well
fulfil the duties of his post’. That he lived for at least five
years more we know from the existence of a document (July 3, 1459)
referring to the pretensions of an illegitimate son of Martinho which
Fernam Lopez rejected.[166] Of the chronicles of the first ten Kings
of Portugal written by Lopez[167] only three survive: the _Cronica
del Rei Dom Joam de boa memoria_, _Cronica del Rei Dom Fernando_,
and _Cronica del Rei Dom Pedro_. The latter is but a brief sketch,
and lacks the unity which the subject-matter gives to the other two.
His chronicles of the seven earlier kings disappeared in the revised
versions of subsequent historians. Although they no doubt incorporated
large slices of his work with little alteration, the freshness and the
style are gone, the good oak hidden beneath coats of paint. It was a
proceeding the more deplorable in that Lopez had been at great pains to
discover and record the truth, ‘the naked truth’.[168] His successor,
Zurara, represents him as ‘a notable person’, ‘a man of some learning
and great authority’;[169] he travelled through the whole of Portugal
to collect information and spent much time in visiting churches and
convents in search of papers and inscriptions, while King Duarte had
documents brought from Spain for his use. Whatever sources he utilized,
Latin, Spanish, or Portuguese, he stamped his work with his own
individuality. He himself frequently refers to previous historians, and
often expresses his disapproval of their methods.[170] He seems to have
drawn largely from a Latin work of a certain Dr. Cristoforus. Keenly
alive to the dignity and responsibilities of history, he was anxious
that his work should be well ordered and philosophical.[171] He has
been called the Portuguese Froissart, but he combines with Froissart’s
picturesqueness moral philosophy, enthusiasm, and high principles,
is in fact a Froissart with something of Montaigne added, and easily
excels Giovanni Villani or Pero López de Ayala. The latter must descend
from the pedestal given him by Menéndez y Pelayo,[172] since he only
occasionally rises to the height of Fernam Lopez, as in the account of
the murder of the Infante Fradique, which Lopez copies very closely
(although abbreviating it as really foreign to his history), evidently
appreciating such dramatic touches as the sentence which describes how,
as the murdered man advanced through the palace, ever fewer went in his
company. By the side of the laborious prose and precocious wisdom of
King Duarte this child of genius seems to give free rein to his pen,
but it is his greatness and his title to rank above all contemporary
chroniclers, not only of Portugal but of Europe, that he could combine
this spontaneity with the scruples of an accurate historian, and be
at once careful and impetuous, or, as Goes calls him, copious and
discreet. He assigns speeches of considerable length to the principal
actors, but they contain not mere rhetoric[173] but arguments such
as might well have been used; and the frequent shorter sayings of
humbler persons, often anonymous and as illuminating as _graffiti_,
have the stamp of truth and bring the scenes most clearly before us.
Indeed, every sentence is living; his unfailing qualities are rapidity
and directness. Sometimes the sound of galloping horses or the loud
murmur of a throng of men is in his pages. He ever and anon rivets the
reader’s--the listener’s--attention by some captivating phrase, by his
quaintly expressed wisdom, by his personal keenness and delight in the
‘marvellous deeds of God’ (_maravilhas que Deos faz_) or in the actions
of his heroes (_Oo que fremosa cousa era de veer!_). His chronicles
are not only a succession of imperishably vivid scenes--King Pedro
dancing through his capital by night, the escape of Diogo Lopez, the
punishment of D. Inés’ murderers, the siege of Lisbon, the murder of D.
Maria Tellez--but describe fully and with skilful care the character
of the actors, pleasure-loving King Ferdinand, cunning, audacious,
and accomplished Queen Lianor Tellez, wise and noble Queen Philippa,
even morose Juan I, and principally the popular Mestre d’Avis and
his great Constable, Nun’ Alvarez Pereira. And the Portuguese people
is delineated both collectively and as individuals, in its generous
enthusiasm, unreasoning impetuosity, and atrocious anger. That Lopez
paid attention to his style is proved by his modest disclaimer bidding
the reader expect no _fremosura e afeitamento das pallavras_, but
merely the facts _breve e sãamente contados, em bom e claro estilo_.
His style is always clear and natural, the serviceable handmaid of
his subject, admirably assuming the colour and sound of the events
described, and his longest sentences are never obscure. He wrote his
history on a generous scale, for in the rapidity of his descriptions
this inimitable story-teller preserved his leisure. His last chronicle
ended with the expedition to Ceuta (1415). The kernel of that chronicle
had been the illustrious deeds and character of Nun’ Alvarez, also
described in the hitherto anonymous _Coronica do condestabre de
purtugal_, of which the earliest edition is dated 1526. Large tracts of
this chronicle are included, with alterations, in Lopez’ Chronicles of
King Fernando and King João I. Dr. Esteves Pereira and Snr. Braamcamp
Freire have now independently come to the conclusion that it is the
work of Lopez, clearly an earlier work[174] written shortly after the
death of Nun’ Alvarez (1431), i. e. before he concluded the _Cronica de
D. Fernando_[175] and wrote the _Cronica de D. Joam_, at which he was
working in 1443.[176] We are forced to accept this view, although of
course it is no argument to say that the conscientious and scrupulous
Fernam Lopez could not be a plagiarist since it was the duty of the
official chronicler of the day to incorporate the best work of other
historians. Lopez’ authorship is borne out by two passages which
at a first glance seem to refute it. In chapter 55 of the _Cronica
de D. Joam_ (1915 ed., p. 120) he introduces the version given in
the _Cronica do Condestabre_ (cap. 22) with the words ‘now here some
say’ (_ora aqui dizem algũs_), and then cites _huũ outro estoriador,
cujo fallamento nos pareçe mais rrazoado_, i. e. he now rejects the
version (of _algũs_) which he had adopted in his earlier work. In
chapter 152 (1915 ed., p. 281) he similarly quotes what _dizem aqui
algũs_ and then the version of _huũ outro compillador destes feitos,
de cujos garfos per mais largo estillo exertamos nesta obra segundo
que compre, rrecomta isto per esta maneira_, a manner which is not
that of the _Cronica do Condestabre_. But indeed the style of the two
works is conclusive. A single age does not produce two Fernam Lopez
any more than it produces two Montaignes or two Malorys. Those who
read the continuation of the _Cronica de D. Joam_ (i. e. the _Cronica
da Tomada de Ceuta_, completed in 1450) by GOMEZ EANEZ DE ZURARA
(_c._ 1410-74) find themselves in a very different atmosphere. We are
told[177] that this soldier, turned historian, acquired his learning
late in life, and he parades it like a new toy. Aristotle, Avicenna,
and all the Scriptures are in his preface; Job, Ovid, Hercules, and
Xenophon, a motley company, mourn the death of Queen Philippa (cap.
44). Sermons extend over whole chapters, although, as he is careful
to state, the exact words of the preachers could not be given.[178]
Philosophy had been graciously woven into Lopez’ narrative, but here
it stands in solid icebergs interrupting the story. And if he wishes
to say that memory often fails in old age he must quote St. Jerome; a
date occupies half a page, being calculated in nine or ten eras;[179]
and the style is sometimes similarly inflated, so that ‘next morning’
becomes ‘When Night was bringing the end of its obscurity and the Sun
began to strike the Oriental horizon’ (cap. 92). He also delights in
elaborate metaphors.[180] But it must not be thought that Zurara is all
froth and morals: in between his purple patches and erudite allusions
he tells his story directly and vividly, and, what is more, he has his
enthusiasm and his hero. Nun’ Alvarez has faded into the background,
but in his place appears the intense and fervent spirit of Prince
Henry the Navigator. His partiality for Prince Henry appears in the
_Cronica de D. Joam_, and in his _Cronica do Descobrimento e Conquista
da Guiné_ it is still more evident.[181] In this chronicle, written
at the request of King Afonso V and finished in the king’s library
in February 1453, he made use of a lost _Historia das Conquistas dos
Portugueses_ by Afonso Cerveira, and profited by much that he had heard
from the Infantes Pedro and Henrique and other makers of history. For
Zurara was a sincere and painstaking historian,[182] and when the king
bade him record the deeds of the Meneses in Africa (the _Cronica do
Conde D. Pedro de Meneses_ was completed in 1463, and the _Cronica dos
Feitos de D. Duarte de Meneses_ about five years later) he was not
content with the ‘recollections of courtiers’, but set out for Africa
(August 1467) and spent a whole year there gathering material at first
hand. An affectionate letter[183] from King Afonso to the historian in
his voluntary exile shows the pleasant relations existing between the
liberal king and his grateful librarian. He praises him as well learned
in the _arte oratoria_,[184] and for undertaking of his own free will
a journey which was imposed on others as a punishment, and promises
to look after the interests of his sister while he is away. Zurara
was a Knight of the Order of Christ, with a _comenda_ near Santarem,
owned other property, and suffered himself to be adopted by a wealthy