Portuguese literature
wear it. ‘He will need a cart to bring it to the _serão_,’ says yet
another. The wit, it will be seen, is not brilliant, although it may
have effectively nipped this budding Castilian fashion and enlivened an
evening. But there were duller contests. For score on score of pages
the rival merits of sighing and of loving in silence are discussed by
poet after poet (_O Cuidar e Sospirar_). Such a subject once started
tended to accumulate verses like a snowball. But the _Cancioneiro_
also contains poems on serious topics, although they are rarer, as
well as delicate, airy nothings (_sutiles nadas_) like Vimioso’s
_vilancetes_.[214] There are two poems on the death of King João II,
there is Luis Anriquez’ lamentation on the death of the Infante Afonso
(1491), that of Luis de Azevedo on the death of the Infante Pedro, Duke
of Coimbra, at Alfarrobeira, and a few poets, like Resende himself,
stand out from the rest. Besides the elaborate Spanish poem by that
noble prince the Constable D. Pedro we have several long poems dealing
with high matters of the soul or the State. The sixty-one interesting
stanzas by the querulous, satirical, intolerant ALVARO DE BRITO
PESTANA treat of the condition of the city of Lisbon and the decay of
morals. The correspondent of Gomez Manrique and contemporary of his
nephew Jorge, in the metre of whose famous _Coplas_ he wrote, he was
present at the battle of Alfarrobeira. His _trovas_ on the death of
Prince Afonso, with the recurrent _choremos perda tamanha_, are wooden
and artificial and his sixteen alliterative verses scarcely belong
to literature, but at least he chose themes which were not concerned
with passing Court fashions. The few simple lines written as he lay
dying show him at his best.[215] His friend and distant relative
FERNAM DA SILVEIRA, _o Coudel Môr_, is concerned with more mundane
matters. A man of noble birth and high character, he was held in great
honour by Afonso V and João II. The latter, a keen judge of men, had
implicit confidence in the justice of this upright magistrate, who
was also a soldier, a poet, and a finished courtier. He deals with
affairs of State, writes an account in _trovas_ of six syllables of
the _Cortes_ held by the king at Montemôr in 1477 and a short poem, on
the appointment of various bishops in 1485. Or he sends a poem to his
nephew Garcia de Mello with detailed instructions as to how he should
dress and behave at Court. His _trovas_ are thoroughly Portuguese,
vigorous, concise, and picturesque. He is less at home in the _trovas
de poesia_ (i. e. _de arte mayor_) written on a journey from Évora to
Thomar, but he could skilfully turn a short love poem, and for a wager
of capons for Easter (with Álvaro de Brito) wrote a stanza containing
as many rhymes as it has words. In fine he belonged to his age, but
his poetry bears the impress of his strong character and his love of
Portuguese ways. On the other hand, the younger brother of the Conde
de Cantanhede, D. JOÃO DE MENESES (†1514), wrote indifferently in
Portuguese or Spanish. He fought for many years in Africa, although
his slight love poems, fluent and harmonious, give no sign of a life
of action, and died in the expedition against Azamor.[216] Another
soldier, courtier, and poet marked out by birth and ability was D. JOÃO
MANUEL (_c._ 1460-99), son of the Bishop of Guarda. Legitimized in 1475
and brought up at Court with the prince Manuel, he continued to be a
favourite after the latter’s accession, became Lord High Chamberlain,
and was sent to the Court of Castille in 1499 to arrange the marriage
of the king with the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. In Spanish
octaves he had written a lament on the death of Prince Afonso, which
both in feeling and technique excels the verses of Álvaro de Brito on
the same subject. Towards the end of his poem he introduces the saying
of St. Augustine that ‘our soul exists not where it lives but where
it loves’, which in the following century was quoted by two writers
so different as Ferreira de Vasconcellos and Frei Heitor Pinto and
soon became a commonplace. In other works he shows a high seriousness,
sometimes a sententious strain, combined with a very real poetical
talent. His death during his mission to Castille was a loss for the
Court and for Portuguese poetry. By another writer, FERNAM DA SILVEIRA
(†1489), we have but a few poems, the principal of which is a lament
for his own death, in the metre of Manrique, which he places on the
lips of various ladies of the Court. His death was tragic, for, having
succeeded his father as secretary to King João II, he took part in
the ill-fated conspiracy of the Duke of Viseu. After lying hidden in
the house of a friend he fled in disguise to Castille and thence to
France, but, although he thus succeeded in prolonging his life for
five years, the king’s justice relentlessly pursued and he was stabbed
to death at Avignon. A favourite of João II, especially before his
accession, was NUNO PEREIRA (fl. 1485), _homem galante, cortesão e bom
trovador_, who married the daughter of the _Coudel Môr_ and valiantly
sustained the part of _Cuidar_ against his relative Jorge da Silveira’s
_Sospirar_ in the great literary tournament of the courtiers. Later,
after serving as Governor (_Alcaide_) of the town of Portel, he retired
to live in the country, and presents a happy picture of himself in the
midst of harvesters and pruners. He finds, he says, more pleasure in
his vines, in the chase, in digging and watering his garden, than in
being a favourite at Court. He had not always thought thus, for when
the lady he was courting married a rival he could devise no worse fate
for her than to bid her go and die among the chestnut groves of Beira.
He had, indeed, made a name for himself by his courtly satire, which
he turned to good use in ridiculing those who came back from Castille
with a supercilious disdain for everything Portuguese. It is pleasant
to find him bidding them not speak their ‘insipid Castilian’ in his
presence. DIOGO BRANDAM (†1530) of Oporto wrote an elaborate poem in
octaves on the death of King João II. He also used the octosyllabic
metre with breaks of single lines (_quebrados_) of four syllables, so
familiar in Gil Vicente’s plays, and in his _Fingimento de Amores_
(27 verses of 8 octosyllabic lines), under Spanish-Italian influence,
he touches a richer, more generous vein of poetry: the poet-lover
descends into the region of Proserpine, the dominion of Pluto, and sees
the torments of Love’s followers. His _vilancete_ to the Virgin is in
the same metre with the difference that the verses have seven lines
only (_abbaacc_). The spirit of Jorge de Manrique is absent from the
stanzas written in the metre of his _Coplas_ by LUIS ANRIQUEZ on the
fatal accident which ended the life of Prince Afonso in his teens.
His lamentation on the death of King João II is written in octaves, as
that of Diogo Brandam, which they resemble. Both poets invoke Death: _Ó
morte que matas quem é prosperado_ (Brandam); _Ó morte que matas sem
tempo e sazam_ (Anriquez). Other historical poems by Anriquez in the
same metre are the verses written on the occasion of the transference
of the remains of João II and thirty-five stanzas addressed to James,
Duke of Braganza, when he left Lisbon with his fleet to attack Azamor
in 1513. If we turn from these somewhat heavy pieces to Anriquez’
other poems we find a hymn in praise of the Virgin, written more in
the manner of Alfonso X, and various love _cantigas_. The nephew of
D. João de Meneses, Joam rroiz de saa, that is, JOAM RODRIGUEZ DE
SÁ E MENESES (1465?-1576), studied in Italy as a disciple of Angelo
Poliziano (†1594) and died a centenarian. He wrote a poem in _decimas_
describing the arms of the noble families of Portugal, and translated
into _trovas_ three long letters from the Latin which by their spirit
of _saudade_ appealed to Portuguese taste: Penelope to Ulysses,
Laodamia to Protesilaus, and Dido to Aeneas. He was also versed in
the Greek language, and for his noble character and courtly ways as
well as for his learning and poetical talent was venerated by the
younger generation into which he lived: Antonio Ferreira salutes him
as the ‘ancient sire of the muses of this land’. The ‘most discreet’
D. FRANCISCO DE PORTUGAL, first Conde de Vimioso (†1549), although he
did not live to be a centenarian, also survived most of the poets of
João II’s reign and died towards the end of that of João III. Son of
the Bishop of Evora and great-grandson of the first Duke of Braganza,
he was created a count by King Manuel in 1515, and was equally renowned
as soldier, statesman, courtier, and poet, ‘wise and prudent in peace
and war’. His _Sentenças_ (1605), over one hundred of which are rhymed
quatrains, were published by his grandson D. Anrique de Portugal. Some
of these moral sayings have considerable subtlety, and they reveal a
fine character and insight into the character of others.[217] Most of
his poems, in Spanish and Portuguese, preserved in the _Cancioneiro_
are brief _cantigas_ which prove him to have been a skillful versifier
and a typical Court poet. On the other hand, a feeling for Nature, a
constant command of metre, and a certain passionate sadness mark out
an earlier poet, DUARTE DE BRITO (fl. 1490), the friend of D. João
de Meneses, from most of the other writers in Resende’s song-book.
The _redondilha_ in his hands is no wooden toy but a living, moving
instrument. His most celebrated poem, _em que conta o que a ele & a
outro lhaconteçeo com huũ rrousinol & muitas outras cousas que vio_,
is written after the fashion of Diogo Brandam’s _Fingimento de Amores_
and Garci Sanchez de Badajoz’ _Infierno de Amor_, in imitation of the
Marqués de Santillana’s _El Infierno de los Enamorados_; but there
is real feeling in these eighty verses of eleven lines (of which the
eighth and eleventh are of four, the rest of eight syllables). The
Italian influence, working through Spanish, was already present in
Portuguese poetry in the fifteenth century, although Brito writes
exclusively in _redondilhas_, as indeed does the introducer of the new
style, Sá de Miranda, in the few and short poems which he contributed
to the _Cancioneiro_ immediately before its publication. Duarte de
Brito did not condescend to those artificial devices which give us
in this _Cancioneiro_ a poem of sixty lines all ending in _dos_,
alliterative stanzas, and other verbal tricks. The real business of the
_serões_, so far as poetry was concerned, was _ouvir e glosar motes_.
These _glosas_ and the similar _cantigas_ and _esparsas_, short poems
of fixed form, often written with skill and spontaneous charm, were
merely one of the necessary accomplishments of a courtier. Such a view
of poetry could scarcely give rise to great poets, and these versifiers
indeed styled themselves _trovadores_, reserving the name of poet for
those who wrote, often but clumsily, in _versos de arte mayor, de muita
poesia_. But, worse still, the poets of the _Cancioneiro_ were often
scarcely Portuguese.[218] Many wrote in Spanish, and Spanish influence
is to be found at every turn: that of Juan de Mena, Gomez and Jorge
Manrique, Rodriguez de la Cámara, Macias, Santillana. Unlike Macias,
who is but a name, Santillana is not mentioned, but his influence is
constantly felt. On the other hand, King Dinis, unexpectedly introduced
once as a poet by Pedro Homem (fl. 1490)--_invoco el rei dom Denis
Da licença Daretusa_--is nowhere imitated. By method, subject, and
foreign imitation, this Court poetry was thus inevitably artificial and
uninspired. Perhaps in the whole _Cancioneiro_ the only poem marked by
authentic fire is that of the obscure FRANCISCO DE SOUSA--the few lines
beginning _Ó montes erguidos, Deixai-vos cair_. The contributions of Sá