Edgar Prestage

“ CORTE-REAL, JERONYMO (1533–1588) , Portuguese epic poet, came of a noble Portuguese stock. Of the same family were Gaspar Corte-Real, who in 1500 and 1501 sailed to Labrador and the Arctic seas; and his brothers Miguel and Vasco. Their voyages opened the way for important Portuguese fisheries on the Newfoundland coast (see Henry Harrisse, Les Corte-Real et leurs voyages au Nouveau-Monde, and Gasper Corte-Real: la date exacte de sa dernière expédition au Nouveau-Monde, Paris, 1883) . In his youth Jeronymo fought in Africa and Asia according to the custom of noblemen in that age. ”

“ His lengthy epics suffer from a want of sustained inspiration, and are marred by an abuse of epithet, though they contain episodes of considerable merit, vigorous and well-coloured descriptive passages, and exhibit a pure diction. ”

“ O Segundo cerco de Diu, an epic in 21 cantos, deals with the historic siege of that Indian island-fortress of the Portuguese. First printed in 1574, it had a second edition in 1783, while a Spanish version appeared at Alcalá in 1597. Austriada, an epic in 15 cantos celebrating the victory of Don John of Austria over the Turks at Lepanto, was written in Spanish and published in 1578. ”