Portuguese literature
Fray Luis de Leon). The result is a treasury of excellent prose,
in which the harmonious flow of the sentences in nowise interferes
with precision and restraint, that grave brevity which Arraez notes
as one of the principal qualities of Portuguese. It can rise to
great eloquence (as in the lament of Olympio) without ever becoming
rhetorical or turgid.
The prose of Pinto and Arraez was a very conscious art, that of the
still greater FREI THOMÉ DE JESUS (1529?-82) was the man, and the man
merged in mysticism, without thought of style. He was the son of
Fernam Alvarez de Andrade, Treasurer to King João III, and of Isabel de
Paiva. One of his brothers was the celebrated preacher Diogo de Paiva
de Andrade (1528-75), another the historian Francisco de Andrade; a
third, Frei Cosme da Presentação, distinguished himself in philosophy
and theology, but died at the age of thirty-six at Bologna, while the
work of a nephew (son of Francisco de Andrade), Diogo de Paiva de
Andrade (1576-1660), _Casamento perfeito_ (1636), is counted a classic
of Portuguese prose. His sister D. Violante married the second Conde
de Linhares. As a boy at the Augustinian Collegio de Nossa Senhora
da Graça at Coimbra he is said to have been all but drowned while
swimming in the Mondego. He professed at the Lisbon convent of the
same Order in 1544, went to Coimbra to study theology, and then became
master of novices at the Lisbon convent.[562] Here in 1574 he planned
a reform of the Order, but when all was ready for the secession of the
new _Recoletos_ an intrigue put an end to the scheme, which a kindred
spirit, Fray Luis de Leon, later carried into effect. Frei Thomé was
permitted to retire to the convent of Penafirme by the sea, near Torres
Vedras, where he might hope to indulge his love of quiet and solitude.
He was, however, appointed prior of the convent and Visitor of his
Order, and in 1578 was chosen by King Sebastian to accompany him to
Africa. At the battle of Alcacer Kebir, as he held aloft a crucifix
or tended the wounded, he was speared by a Moor and taken prisoner
to Mequinez. Here he was loaded with chains and placed in a dungeon,
and as the slave of a marabout received ‘less bread than blows’. The
Portuguese Ambassador, D. Francisco da Costa, intervened, and he was
removed to Morocco. Frei Thomé had borne all his sufferings with the
most heroic fortitude, and now, broken in health but not in spirit,
he refused to lodge at the ambassador’s and asked to be placed in the
common prison. During a captivity of nearly four years, regardless
of his own fate,[563] with unflagging devotion he ministered to the
numerous Christian prisoners, and was occupied to the last with their
needs. Costa, who shared the general respect and affection for this
saint and hero, visited him as he lay dying (April 17, 1582). _Vattene
in pace, alma beata e bella!_ It was during his captivity that he
composed the work that has given him the lasting fame earned by his
life and character, writing furtively in the scant light that filtered
through the cracks of the prison door.[564] These fifty _Trabalhos de
Jesus_ (2 pts., 1602, 9) embrace the whole life of Christ, and deserve,
more than Renan’s _Vie de Christ_, to be called a gracious fifth
Gospel. Each _trabalho_ is, moreover, followed by a spiritual exercise,
and these constitute a Portuguese _De Imitatione Christi_. Rarely, if
ever, has such glow and fervour been set in print: none but the very
dull could be left cold by these transports of passionate devotion. The
prose wrestles and throbs in an agony of grief or rapture, of mysticism
carried to the extreme limit where all power of articulate expression
ends.[565] Frei Thomé de Jesus is a master of Portuguese prose not by
any arts or graces but through the white heat of his intensity. No book
shows more clearly that style must always be a secondary consideration,
that if there be a burning conviction excellence of style follows.
It could evidently only have been written by one who had greatly
suffered, indeed by one who still suffered, one who expressed in these
fervid accents of heavenly communion an oblivion of self and an energy
habitually employed in eager earthly service of his fellow men. In a
prefatory letter (November 8, 1581) addressed to the Portuguese people
he declared his intention of publishing as it stood this masterpiece
of mystic ecstasy, which he believed to have been written by divine
inspiration.[566]
Another celebrated treatise of a mystic character is the _Voz do_
_Amado_ (1579) by the learned Canon D. HILARIAM BRANDÃO (†1585). The
religious works of this century are very numerous. We may mention the
anonymous _Regras e Cautelas de proueito espiritual_ (1542), which is
written in biblical prose and deals with the fifteen perfections or
excellences of charity and kindred subjects; the dialogues _Desengano
de Perdidos em dialogo entre dous peregrinos, hũ christão e hũ
turco_ (Goa, 1573) by the first Archbishop of Goa, D. GASPAR DE LEÃO
(†1576), and the _Dialogo espiritual: Colloquio de um religioso com um
peregrino_ (1578) by FREI ALVARO DE TORRES [Vedras] (fl. 1550), who was
drowned in the Tagus when on the way to his convent at Belem.
D. JOANA DA GAMA (†1568), a nun of noble birth who directed a small
community founded by herself at Evora, a few miles from her native
Viana, published a short collection of moral sentences in alphabetical
order, followed by a few poems (_trovas_): _Ditos da Freyra_ (1555).
She insists, perhaps a little too emphatically for conviction, on her
lack of intelligence and ability, and says that these sayings were
written down for herself alone and that she purposely avoids subtleties
(_ditos sotijs_), but her aphorisms contain some shrewd personal
observation. Fact and legend have combined to weave an atmosphere of
romance about the life of Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, better known as
FREI LUIS DE SOUSA (1555?-1632). A descendant of the second Conde de
Marialva, he early entered or was about to enter the Order of Knights
Hospitallers at Malta, but was captured by the Moors in much the same
way and at about the same time (1575) as was Cervantes. He was taken to
Algiers, and may have known Cervantes there, or the statement that he
became Cervantes’ friend may have been an inference from the latter’s
mention of him in _Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda_; they may
have met in Lisbon in 1590, or at Madrid. Sousa Coutinho returned to
Portugal in 1578, and some years later married D. Magdalena de Vilhena,
widow of D. João de Portugal, one of all the peerage that fell with
King Sebastian at Alcacer Kebir. Sousa Coutinho, at the invitation of
his brother in Panama, is said to have gone thither in the hope of
making a fortune, but the date is not clear. His unbending patriotism
was immortalized when as Governor of Almada in 1599 he burnt down his
house rather than receive as guests the Spanish Governors of Portugal.
The prospect of riches at Panama may have seemed especially alluring
after this rash act. He appears to have lived quietly in Portugal for
some years before 1613, when both he and his wife entered a convent.
Their act has been variously explained as due to melancholy disposition
or to the early death of their daughter, D. Anna de Noronha. Probably
after her death the example of their friend the Conde de Vimioso and
the conviction that the only abiding pleasure is the renunciation of
all the rest were prevalent factors in their decision. The legend,
however, related by Frei Antonio da Encarnação and dramatized two
centuries later by Garrett, records that D. João de Portugal, D.
Magdalena de Vilhena’s first husband, had been not killed but taken
prisoner in Africa, and after many years’ captivity he reappears as
an aged pilgrim and bitterly reveals his identity. In the convent of
Bemfica, where he had professed in September 1614, Frei Luis de Sousa
was consulted on various matters by the Duke of Braganza and others
who valued his fine character and clear judgement, but he did not
live to see the Restoration. He was entrusted by his Order with the
revision of works left by another Dominican, FREI LUIS DE CACEGAS (_c._
1540-1610). These he re-wrote, giving them a lasting value by virtue
of his style. The first part of the _Historia de S. Domingos_, ‘a new
kind of chronicle’ as he calls it in his preface addressed to the king,
appeared in 1623, but the second (1662) and third (1678) parts were
not published in his lifetime. A fourth part (1733) was added by FREI
LUCAS DE SANTA CATHARINA (1660-1740), who among other works wrote a
curious miscellany of verse and prose, romance and literary criticism,
entitled _Seram politico_ (1704). In the biography of the saintly
and strong-willed Archbishop of Braga, _Vida de D. Fr. Bertolomeu
dos Martyres_ (1619), the excellence of Sousa’s style is even more
apparent, for it has here no trace of rhetoric and the pictures
stand out with the more effect for the economy with which they are
drawn--the dearth of adjectives is noticeable. The archbishop’s visits
to his diocese give occasion for charming, homely glimpses of Minho.
Neither of these books is the work of a critical historian (in the
_Vida_, for instance, winds and waves obey the archbishop), but the
latter, especially, is in matter and manner one of the masterpieces of
Portuguese literature, a _livro divino_, as a modern Portuguese writer
called it.[567] The _Annaes de El Rei Dom João Terceiro_, written at
the bidding of Philip IV, was published in 1844 by Herculano, who
described the work as little more than a series of notes, except in
the Indian sections, which summarize Barros. It is as a stylist, not
as a historian, that Frei Luis de Sousa will always be read, and read
with delight.[568] The subject of his biography, FREI BARTHOLOMEU DOS
MARTYRES (1514-90), wrote in Portuguese a simple _Catecismo da Dovtrina
Christam_ (Braga, 1564), resembling the Portuguese work of his friend
Fray Luis de Granada (1504-88): _Compendio de Doctrina Christãa_
(Lixboa, 1559).
The _Historia da Vida do Padre Francisco Xavier_ (1600), by the Jesuit
JOÃO DE LUCENA (1550-1600), born at Trancoso, who made his mark as
an eloquent preacher and Professor of Philosophy in the University
of Evora, is also one of the classics of the Portuguese language. It
receives a glowing fervour from the author’s evident delight in his
subject--the life of the famous Basque missionary in whose arms D.
João de Castro died. His command of clear, fluent, vigorous prose, his
skilful use of words and abundant power of description, enable him to
convey this enthusiasm to his readers. Part of the matter of his book
was derived from Fernam Mendez Pinto, but the style is his own.
Like Frei Luis de Sousa, FREI MANUEL DA ESPERANÇA (1586-1670) became
the historian of his Order in the _Historia Seraphica da Ordem dos
Frades Menores_ (2 pts., 1656, 66). We know from remarks in the second
part that he paid the greatest attention to its composition, for which
he had prepared himself by reading _hũa multidão notavel_ of books
on that and kindred subjects. Similar excellence of style marks the
later work of the Jesuit FRANCISCO DE SOUSA (1628?-1713), _O Oriente
conquistado_ (2 vols., 1710), in which he chronicles the history of the
Company in the East.
The most celebrated Portuguese preacher of his time,[569] Frei Thomé
de Jesus’ brother, DIOGO DE PAIVA DE ANDRADE (1528-75), represented
Portugal at the Council of Trent in 1561. His eloquent _Sermões_
(1603, 4, 15) were published posthumously in three parts. His mantle
fell upon FRANCISCO FERNANDEZ GALVÃO (1554-1610), the prose of whose
_Sermões_ (3 vols., 1611, 13, 16) is admirably restrained and pure.
Less sonorous than the periods of Paiva de Andrade, the _Trattados_