Portuguese literature
LOURENÇO DE CACERES, in his _Doutrina_ addressed to the Infante Luis
in twenty short chapters on the parts of a good prince, showed that
he could write excellent prose. His death in 1531 prevented him from
undertaking a more ambitious work, which was accordingly entrusted
to his nephew JOÃO DE BARROS (1496?-1570).[439] But much earlier and
a generation before Lopez de Castanheda’s work began to appear, the
most famous of the Portuguese historians had resolved to chronicle
the discovery of India. Born probably at Viseu, the son of Lopo de
Barros, he came of ancient Minhoto stock and was brought up in the
palace of King Manuel. When the Infante João received a separate
establishment Barros became his page (_moço da guardaroupa_). It was
in this capacity, _por cima das arcas da vossa guardaroupa_, that
with the active encouragement of the prince he wrote his first work,
_Cronica do Emperador Clarimundo_ (1520). It is a long romance of
chivalry crowded with actors and events, and contains affecting, even
passionate episodes. But the most remarkable feature of this work,
written in eight months when the author was little over twenty, is its
inexhaustible flow of clear, smooth, vigorous prose, entirely free
from awkwardness or hesitation. One may also note that he regarded it
merely as a parergon, a preparation for his history, _afim de apurar o
estilo_, that despite its length he assures his readers that he omits
all details in order to avoid prolixity, that much of its geography
is real--all his works prove the truth of Couto’s assertion that he
was _doutissimo na geografia_--and that each chapter ends with a
brief moral. King Manuel, to whom he read some chapters, encouraged
him to persevere in his intention to write the history of India, but
the king’s death in 1521 delayed the project. In the following year
Barros, who meanwhile had married Maria, daughter of Diogo de Almeida
of Leiria, is said to have gone out as Captain of the Fortress of S.
Jorge da Mina (although probably he never left Portugal) and later
became Treasurer of the _Casa da India_ (1525-8), and its Factor in
1532, a post which he retained for thirty-five years. Although he
lost a large sum of money in an unfortunate venture in Brazil, this
was partly made good by the king’s munificence, and when in 1568, the
year after his resignation, he retired to his _quinta_ near Pombal
_sibi ut viveret_ he went as a _fidalgo_ of the king’s household and
with a pension over twenty-five times as large as that of Camões.[440]
In old age he is described as of a fine presence, although thin and
not tall, with pale complexion, keen eyes, aquiline nose, long white
beard, grave, pleasant, and fluent in conversation. Before beginning
his history he wrote several brief treatises of great interest and
importance, _Ropica Pnefma_ (1532), a dialogue written at his country
house in 1531 in which Time, Understanding, Will, and Reason discuss
their spiritual wares (_mercadoria espiritual_), and incidentally the
new heresies; three short works on the Portuguese language, a _Dialogo
da Viçiosa Vergonha_ (1540), and a _Dialogo sobre preceptos moraes_
(1540) in which he reduced Aristotle’s _Ethics_ to a game for the
benefit of two of his ten children and of the Infanta Maria. He also
wrote two excellent _Panegyricos_ (of the Infanta Maria and King João
III) which were first published by Severim de Faria in his _Noticias de
Portugal_ in 1655. As a historian he chose Livy for his pattern both in
style and system. The first _Decada_ of his _Asia_ appeared in 1552,
the second in 1553, and the third ten years later (1563). Their success
was immediate, especially abroad--in Portugal, like other historians of
recent events, he was accused of partiality and unfairness[441]--copies
soon became extremely rare, the first two Decads were translated into
Italian before the third appeared, and Pope Pius IV is said to have
placed Barros’ portrait (or bust) next to the statue of Ptolemy.[442]
Barros had prepared himself very thoroughly for his task. His work
as Factor seems to have been exacting--he says that it was only by
giving up holidays and half the night and all the time spent by other
men in sleeping the _sesta_, or walking about the city, or going into
the country, playing, shooting, fishing, dining, that he was able to
attend to his literary labours. Yet he read everything, pored over
maps and chronicles and documents from the East, and even bought a
Chinese slave to translate for him. With this enthusiasm, his unfailing
sense of order and proportion, and his clear and copious style he
necessarily produced a work of permanent value. His manner is lofty,
even pompous, worthy of the great events described. If his history is
less vivid and interesting than Castanheda’s, that is because he wrote
not as an eyewitness[443] or actor in them but as Court historian. He
was a true Augustan, and the great edifice that this Portuguese Livy
planned and partly built was of eighteenth-century architecture. He was
fond of comparing his work to a building in which each stone has its
appointed place. The material to his hand must be moulded to suit the
symmetry of the whole--Albuquerque had never in his life used so many
relative sentences as are attributed to him by Barros (II. v. 9)--and
with a pedantic love of definitions and systematic subdivisions we
find him measuring out the proportions of his stately structure, while
picturesque details are deliberately omitted.[444] The merits of his
style have been exaggerated. It is never confused or slovenly, but is
for use rather than beauty; its ingredients are pure and energetic but
the construction is inartistic and monotonous.[445] It is rather in the
forcible, crisp sentences of his shorter treatises than in the _Asia_
that Barros displays his mastery of style. His great narrative of epic
deeds is interrupted by interesting special chapters or digressions
on trade, geography, Eastern cities and customs, locusts, chess, the
Mohammedan religion, sword-fish, palm-trees, and monsoons. It was
planned in four _Decadas_ and forty books, to embrace 120 years to
1539, but the fourth was not written and the third ends with the death
of D. Henrique de Meneses (1526). Probably he did not find the dispute
as to the Governorship of India a very congenial subject, especially
as the feud was resumed in Portugal. Material and notes were however
ready, and these were worked up into a lengthy fourth _Decada_ by João
Baptista Lavanha (†1625) in 1615, which covers the same ground as, but
is quite distinct from, the fourth Decad of Couto. The _Asia_ was only
a block of a vaster whole. _Europa_, _Africa_, and _Santa Cruz_ were to
treat respectively of Portugal from the Roman Conquest and Portuguese
history in North Africa and Brazil, while Geography and Commerce were
to be the subjects of separate works, the first of which (in Latin) was
partly written.
Inseparably connected with the name of Barros is that of DIOGO DO
COUTO (1542-1616), who continued his _Asia_, writing _Decadas_ 4-12.
He was born at Lisbon, and at the age of ten entered the service
(_guardaroupa_) of the Infante Luis, who sent him to study at the
College of the Jesuits and then with his son, D. Antonio, under Frei
Bartholomeu dos Martyres, afterwards Archbishop of Braga, at S.
Domingos, Bemfica. When thirteen he was present at the death of his
talented patron Prince Luis, and remained in the palace as page to
the king till the king’s death two years later.[446] Couto then went
to seek his fortune in India, and there as soldier, trader, official
(in 1571 he was in charge of the stores at Goa),[447] and historian he
spent the best part of the following half-century, his last visit to
Portugal being in 1569-71. At the bidding of Philip II (I of Portugal),
who appointed him _Cronista Môr_ of India, he undertook the completion
of Barros’ _Asia_. Probably he needed little inducement--his was the
pen of a ready writer, and the composition of his history was, he tells
us, a pleasure to him in spite of frequent discouragement. He had
received a classical education; as a boy in the palace he had listened
to stories of India[448] and had been no doubt deeply impressed by the
vivid account of the Sepulveda shipwreck.[449] In India he won general
respect. At Goa he married the sister of Frei Adeodato da Trindade
(1565-1605), who in Lisbon saw some of his _Decadas_ through the press;
he became Keeper of the Indian Archives (Torre do Tombo) and more
than once made a speech on behalf of the City Councillors, as at the
inauguration of the portrait of Vasco da Gama in the Town Hall in the
centenary year of the discovery of India, before Gama’s grandson, then
Viceroy, and a gathering of noblemen and captains. Couto knew every
one--we find him conversing with Viceroy, Archbishop, natives, Moorish
prisoners, rich merchants from Cambay or the Ambassador of the Grand
Mogul. This personal acquaintance with the scenes, events, and persons
gives a lively dramatic air to his work. The sententious generalities
of the majestic Barros are replaced by bitter protests and practical
suggestions. He is a critic of abuses rather than of persons.[450]
He writes from the point of view of the common soldier, as one who
had seen both sides of the tapestry of which Barros smoothly ignored
the snarls and thread-ends. He displays a hatred of _semjustiças_,
treachery, and ‘the insatiable greed of men’, with a fine zest in
descriptions of battles, but he has not Barros’ skill in proportion
and the grand style.[451] He can, however, write excellent prose,
and he gives more of graphic detail[452] and individual sayings and
anecdotes than his predecessor. Nor is he by any means an ignorant
chronicler. A poet[453] and the friend of poets, he read Dante and
Petrarca and Ariosto, was old-fashioned enough to admire Juan de Mena,
consulted the works of ancient and modern historians, travellers, and
geographers, and was deeply interested in the customs and religions
of the East. The inequality of his _Decadas_ is in part explained by
their history, which constitutes a curious chapter in the _fata_ of
manuscripts. He first wrote _Decada_ X, which is the longest and most
resembles those of Barros: this was only sent to Portugal in 1600 and
was not immediately published, apparently because the period, 1580-8,
was too recent. It remained in manuscript till 1788. Meanwhile Couto,
working with extraordinary speed, sent home the fourth and fifth
_Decadas_ in 1597, the sixth in 1599, and the seventh in 1601. Noting
the fact that the last two books (9 and 10) of Castanheda’s history
had been suppressed by royal order as being excessively fond of truth
(_porque fallava nelles verdades_), he remarks that, should this happen
to a volume of his, another would be forthcoming to take its place.
Friends and enemies, indeed the very elements, took up the challenge,
but fortunately Couto’s spirit and independence continued to the year
of his death. The fourth _Decada_ was at once printed, but the text
of the fifth was tampered with and its publication delayed, the sixth
was destroyed by fire when ready for publication and recast by Frei
Adeodato, the seventh was captured at sea by the English and re-written
in 1603 by Couto and sent home in the same year, the eighth and ninth,
finished in 1614, were stolen from him in manuscript during a severe
illness. This was a crushing blow, but he partially reconstructed them
_a modo de epilogo_ and, writing in old age from memory, dwelt, to our
gain, on personal recollections: his literary bent appears--his friend
Camões, Cristovam Falcão, and Garcia de Resende are mentioned. Finally
_Decada_ xi (1588-97), which, writing to King Philip III in January
1616, he says ‘survived this shipwreck’, has disappeared and _Decada_