Kingsley Garland Jayne and Edgar Prestage

“ Yet as regards the Peninsula, the literatures of Portugal and Castile act and react on one another and if the latter gave much, she also received much, for nearly every Portuguese author of renown from 1450 until the 18th century, except Antonio Ferreira, wrote in Spanish, and some, like Jorge de Montemôr and Manoel de Mello, produced masterpieces in that language and are numbered as Spanish classics. Again, in no country was the victory of the Italian Renaissance and the classical revival so complete, so enduring. ”

“ To a superficial observer the prosperity of Portugal might well seem to have culminated during this period of expansion. Vast profits were derived from the import trade in the innumerable products of the tropics, of which Portugal was the sole purveyor in Europe. This influx of wealth furnished the economic basis for a sudden development of literary and artistic activity, inspired by contrast with the new world of the tropics. The 16th century was the golden age of Portuguese literature ”

“ In order to understand the apparently sudden collapse of Portuguese power in 1578–1580 it is necessary to examine certain facts and tendencies which from the first rendered a catastrophe inevitable. Chief among these were the extent of the empire and its organization, the financial and commercial policy of its rulers, the hostility, often wantonly provoked, of the chief Oriental states, the depopulation of Portugal and the slave trade, the expulsion of the Jews, the growth of ecclesiastical influence in secular affairs, and the decadence of the monarchy. ”

“ As far as the constituents of its flora are concerned Portugal is not very dissimilar from Spain, but their distribution is peculiar. The vegetation of Spain is distributed in clearly marked zones; but over the whole of Portugal, except the hottest parts of Algarve and Alemtejo, the plants of northern Europe flourish side by side with cacti, palms, aloes and tree-ferns (see Cintra) . This is largely due to the fact that the moisture laden winds from the Atlantic penetrate almost as far inland as the Portuguese frontier, but do not reach the interior of Spain. ”

“ The foreign policy of Diniz, Alphonso IV. and Pedro I. had been, as a rule, successful in its main object, the preservation of peace with the Christian kingdoms of Spain; in consequence, the Portuguese had advanced in prosperity and culture. They had supported the monarchy because it was a national institution, hostile to the tyranny of nobles and clergy. During the reign of Ferdinand (1367–1383) and under the regency of Leonora the ruling dynasty ceased to represent the national will; the Portuguese people therefore made an end of the dynasty and chose its own ruler. ”

“ In Santarem appeared Antonio Prestes, a magistrate who drew from his judicial experience but evinced more knowledge of folk-lore than dramatic talent, while Camoens himself was so far influenced by Gil Vicente, whose plays he had perhaps seen performed in Lisbon, that in spite of his Coimbra training he never exchanged the old forms for those of the classical comedy. His Amphitryons is a free imitation of the Latin, yet thoroughly national in spirit and cast in the popular redondilha; the dialogue is spirited, the situations comic. ”

“ The Algarve and parts of Alemtejo might belong to North-West Africa rather than to Europe. The Paiz do Vinho, on the Douro, and the Tagus near Abrantes, with their terraced bush-vines grown up the steep banks of the rivers, are often compared with the Rhine and the Elbe. The harbours of Lisbon and Oporto are hardly inferior in beauty to those of Naples and Constantinople. Apart from this variety, and from the historic interest of such places as Braga, Bussaco, Cintra, Coimbra, or Torres Vedras, the attractiveness of the country is due to its colouring, and not to grandeur of form. ”

“ The British government was ready to make concessions, but more than one collision took place between Portuguese troops in Manica and the forces of the British South Africa Company. The defeat of the Portuguese was the chief cause of a serious military rising in Oporto, which broke out on the 30th of January 1891. The suppression of this rising so far enhanced the prestige of the cabinet that the cortes forthwith approved the convention with Great Britain; and the dehnitive treaty, by which Portugal abandoned all claim to a trans-African dominion, was ratified by the cortes on the 28th of May. ”

“ To summarize, the first literary activity of Portugal was derived from Provence, and Provençal taste ruled for more than a century; the poets of the 15th century imitated the Castilians, and the 16th saw the triumph of Italian or classical influence. Spain again imposed its literary standards and models in the 17th century, France in the 18th, while the Romantic movement reached Portugal by way of England and France; and those countries, and in less degree Germany, have done much to shape the literature of the 19th century. ”

“ The decadence of agriculture partly explains the prevalence of famine at a time when Portuguese maritime commerce was most prosperous. The Portuguese intermarried freely with their slaves, and this infusion of alien blood profoundly modified the character and physique of the nation. ”

“ The monarchy owed its triumph to its championship of national interests, to the support of the municipalities and military orders, and to the prestige gained by the royal armies in the Moorish and Castilian wars. In 1263 Alphonso X. renounced his claim to suzerainty over Algarve, and thus the kingdom of Portugal simultaneously reached its present European limits and attained its complete independence. Lisbon was henceforth recognized as the capital. ”

“ Lisbon is the headquarters of the ship-building trade. Here, and in other cities, tanning, distilling, various metallurgical industries, and manufactures of soap, Hour. tobacco, &c., are carried on; the entire output is sold in Portugal or its colonies. There is a steady trade in natural mineral waters, which occur in many parts of continental Portugal and the Azores. From the 16th century to the 18th many artistic handicrafts were practised by the Portuguese in imitation of the fine pottery, cabinetwork, embroideries, &c., which they imported from India and Persia. ”

“ The Portuguese language can be most conveniently described in relation to the other languages of the Peninsula (see Spain: Language) . Portuguese literature is distinguished by the wealth and variety of its lyric poetry, by its primacy in bucolic verse and prose, by the number of its epics and historical books, by the relative slightness of the epistolary element, and by the almost complete absence of the memoir. ”

“ The national sport of bull-fighting (q.v.) is conducted as humanely as possible, for the Portuguese are lovers of animals. The artistic sense of the nation is perhaps greatest among the peasantry, although Portugal has the most illiterate peasantry in western Europe. It is manifested in their poetry and music even more than in their admirable costumes and in the good taste which has preserved the Roman or Moorish forms of their domestic pottery. ”

“ Five years afterwards Portugal was overtaken by the tremendous disaster of the Lisbon earthquake (see Lisbon) , which, as Oliveira Martins justly observes, was “more than a cataclysm of nature; it was a moral revolution.” It brought the Restoration period to an end (1755) . Throughout that period the monarchy had occupied a precarious position, dependent until 1668 for its very existence, and after 1668 for its stability, on foreign support. Its policy had been moulded to suit France or Great Britain, while its internal administration had normally been directed by the Church. ”

“ Portugal was not to be regarded as a conquered or annexed province, but as a separate kingdom, joined to Spain solely by a personal union similar to the union between Castile and Aragon under Ferdinand and Isabella. ”

“ In scientific literature hardly a single department lacks a name of repute even outside Portugal. The press has accompanied the general progress, and ever since Herculano founded and wrote in the Panorama, the leading writers have almost without exception made both name and livelihood by writing for the papers, but as pure journalists none has excelled Antonio Rodriguez Sampaio, Antonio Augusto Teixeira de Vasconcellos and Emygdio Navarro.
The leading Portuguese orators of the 19th century, with the exception of Malhao, were not churchmen, as in the past, but politicians. ”

“ Geology.—By far the greater part of Portugal is occupied by ancient rocks of Archean and Palaeozoic age, and by eruptive masses which probably belong to various periods. All the higher mountains are formed of these rocks, and it is only near the coast and in the plain of the Tagus that later deposits are found. The Mesozoic beds form an irregular triangle extending from Lisbon and Torres Novas on the south to Oporto on the north. There are also a narrow strip along the southern shores of the Algarve and a few smaller patches along the western coast. ”

“ Negroid types are common throughout central and southern Portugal. No European race confronted with the problem of an immense coloured population has solved it more successfully than the Portuguese and their kinsmen in Brazil; in both countries intermarriage was freely resorted to, and the offspring of these mixed unions are superior in character and intelligence to most half-breeds. ”

“ On the other hand Portugal gave birth to no considerable dramatist from the time of Gil Vicente, in the 16th century, until that of Garrett in the 19th, and it has failed to develop a national drama.
Its geographical position and history have rendered Portugal very dependent for intellectual stimulus and literary culture on foreign countries, and writers on Portuguese literature are wont to divide their subjects into periods corresponding to the literary currents from abroad which have modified its evolution. ”

“ But the Portuguese were well aware that they could hardly maintain their independence without foreign assistance, and ambassadors were at once sent to Great Britain, the Netherlands and France. The struggle between the Crown and the parliament prevented Charles I. from offering aid, but he immediately recognized John IV. as king. Richelieu and the states-general of the Netherlands dispatched fleets to the Tagus; but commercial rivalry in Brazil and the East led soon afterwards to a colonial war with the Dutch, and Portugal was left without any ally except France. ”

“ The orography of Portugal cannot be scientifically studied except in relation to that of Spain, for there is no dividing line between the principal Portuguese ranges and the highlands of Galicia, Leon and Spanish Estremadura. Three so-called Portuguese systems are sometimes distinguished: (1) the Transmontane, stretching between the Douro and the Minho; (2) the Beirene, between the Douro and the Tagus; (3) the Transtagine, south of the Tagus. ”

“ The old dramatists came to write for the lower classes only, and though the school lingered on, its productions were performed solely by travelling companies at country fairs. Though we know that much has perished, the four Indexes of the 16th century give some idea of the rich repertory of the popular theatre, and of the efforts necessary to destroy it; moreover, the Spanish Index of 1559, by forbidding autos of Gil Vicente and other Portuguese authors, is interesting evidence of the extent to which they were appreciated in the neighbouring country. ”

“ All the monarchs of the 15th century were highly educated men and patrons of letters; indeed, even that typical medieval knight Alphonso V. confesses, in his correspondence with Azurara, that the sword avails nothing without the pen. The age is noted for its chronicles, beginning with the anonymous life of the Portuguese Cid, the Holy Constable Nuno Alvares Pereira, told in charming infantile prose, the translated Chronica da fundição do moesteyro de Sam Vicente, and the Vida de D. Tello. ”

“ The kingdom and its dependencies were also involved in the naval disasters which overtook Spain. Faro in Algarve was sacked in 1595 by the English, who ravaged the Azores in 1596; and in many parts of the world English, French and Dutch combined to harass Portuguese trade and seize Portuguese possessions. (See especially Brazil; India; Malay Archipelago.) Union with Spain had exposed Portugal to the hostility of the strongest naval powers of western Europe, and had deprived it of the power to conclude an independent peace. ”

“ The strain of the war was acutely felt in Portugal, especially in 1711, when the French admiral Duguay-Trouin sacked Rio' de Janeiro and cut off the Brazilian treasure ships. At last, on the 6th of February 1715, nearly two years after the treaty of Utrecht, peace between Spain and Portugal was concluded at Madrid.
Never was the Portuguese Crown richer than in the years 1715–1755; rarely had the kingdom prospered less. The commercial and financial evils rife under the last kings of the Aviz dynasty were now repeated. More gold had been discovered in Matto Grosso,The Mon-archy and the Church. ”

“ At the beginning of the 20th century the question whether the monarchy should be replaced by a republic had become a living political issue, which was decided by the revolution of October 5, 1919.
The charter was brought to Lisbon by Sir Charles Stuart in July 1826. The absolutists had hoped that D. Pedro would abdicate unconditionally in favour of D. Miguel, and the council of regency at first refused to publish the charter. They were forced to do so (July 12) by a pronunciamento issued by D. João Carlos de Saldanha de Oliveira e Daun, count of Saldanha and commander of the army in Oporto. ”