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VISCONDE DE JOAO BAPTISTA DA SILVA LE...

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 475 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VISCONDE DE JOAO BAPTISTA DA See also:

SILVA LEITAO DE See also:ALMEIDA See also:GARRETT  See also:ALMEIDA-See also:GARRETT (1799—1854), perhaps the greatest Portuguese poet since See also:Camoens, was of Irish descent . See also:Born in See also:Oporto, his parents moved to the Quinta do See also:Castello at Gaya when he was five years old . The See also:French invasion of See also:Portugal drove the See also:family to the See also:Azores, and Garrett made his first studies at See also:Angra, beginning to versify at an See also:early See also:age under the See also:influence of his See also:uncle, a poet of the school of See also:Bocage . Going to the university of See also:Coimbra in 1816, he soon earned notoriety by the precocity of his talents and his fervent Liberalism, and there he gained his first oratorical and See also:literary successes . His tragedy See also:Lucretia was played there in See also:February 1819, and during this See also:period he also wrote See also:Merope as well as a See also:great See also:part of See also:Cato, all these plays belonging to the so-called classical school . Leaving Coimbra with a See also:law degree, he proceeded to See also:Lisbon, and on the 11th of See also:November 1822 married D . Luiza Midosi; but the See also:alliance proved unhappy and a formal separation took See also:place in 1839 . The reactionary See also:movement against the See also:Radical revolution of 182o reached its height in 1823, and Garrett had to leave Portugal by See also:order of the Absolutist See also:ministry then in See also:power, and went to See also:England . He became acquainted with the masterpieces ofthe See also:English and See also:German romantic movements during his stay abroad . Imbued with the spirit of See also:nationality, he wrote in 1824 at See also:Havre the poem " CamOes," which destroyed the influence of the worn-out classical and Arcadian rhymers, and in the following See also:year composed the patriotic poem " D . Branca," or " The See also:Conquest of the See also:Algarve." He was permitted to return to Portugal in 1826, and thereupon devoted himself to journalism . With the publication of 0 Portuguez, he raised the See also:tone of the See also:press, exhibiting an See also:elevation of ideas and moderation of See also:language then unknown in See also:political controversy, and he introduced the " See also:feuilleton." But his See also:defence of Liberal principles brought him three months' imprisonment, and when D .

See also:

Miguel was proclaimed See also:absolute See also:king on the 3rd of May 1828, Garrett.had again to leave the See also:country . In See also:London, where he sought See also:refuge, he continued his See also:adhesion to romanticism by See also:publishing Adozinda and Bernal-Francez, expansions of old folk-poems, which- met with the warmest praise from See also:Southey and were translated by See also:Adamson . He spent the next three years in and about See also:Birmingham, See also:Warwick and London, engaged in See also:writing See also:poetry and political See also:pamphlets, and by these and by his See also:periodicals he did much to unite the Portuguese emigres and to keep up their spirit amid their sufferings in a See also:foreign See also:land . Learning that an expedition was being organized in See also:France for the liberation of Portugal, Garrett raised funds and joined the forces under D . Pedro as a volunteer . Sailing in February 1832, he disembarked at See also:Terceira, whence he passed to S . Miguel, then the seat of the Liberal See also:government . Here he became a co-operator with the statesman Mousinho da Silveira, and assisted him in drafting those See also:laws which were to revolutionize the whole framework of Portuguese society, this important See also:work being done far from books and without pecuniary See also:reward . In his spare See also:time he wrote some of the beautiful lyrics afterwards collected into See also:Flores sem Fructo . He took part in the expedition that landed at the Mindello on the 8th of See also:July 1832, and in the occupation of Oporto . Early in the See also:siege he sketched out, under the influence of See also:Walter See also:Scott, the See also:historical See also:romance Arco de Sant' See also:Anna, descriptive of the See also:city in the reign of D . Pedro I.; and, in addition, he organized the See also:Home and Foreign offices under the See also:marquis of See also:Palmella, drafted many important royal decrees, and prepared the criminal and commercial codes .

In the following November he was despatched as secretary to the marquis on a See also:

diplomatic See also:mission to foreign courts, which involved him in much See also:personal hardship . In the next year the See also:capture of Lisbon enabled him to return home, and he was charged to prepare a See also:scheme for the reform of public instruction . In 1834—1835 he served as See also:consul-See also:general and See also:charge d'affaires at See also:Brussels, representing Portugal with distinction under most difficult circumstances, for which he received no thanks and little pay . When he got back, the government employed him to draw up a proposal for the construction of a See also:national See also:theatre and for a See also:conservatoire of dramatic See also:art, of which he became the See also:head . He instituted prizes for the best plays, himself revising nearly all that were produced, and a school of dramatists and actors arose under his influence . To give them See also:models, he proceeded to write a See also:series of See also:prose dramas, choosing his subjects from Portuguese See also:history . He began in 1838 with the Aldo de Gil See also:Vicente, considering that the first step towards the re-creation of the Portuguese See also:drama was to revive the memory of its founder, and he followed this up in 1842 by the Alfageme de See also:Santarem, dealing with the See also:Holy See also:Constable, and in 1843 by Frei Luiz de See also:Sousa, one of the few great tragedies of the 19th See also:century, a work as intensely national as The Lusiads . The See also:story, which in part is historically true, and has the merit of being See also:simple, like the See also:action, is briefly as follows . D . Joao de Portugal, who was supposed to have died at the See also:battle of Alcacer, returns, years afterwards, to find his wife married to Manoel de Sousa and the See also:mother of a daughter by him, named Maria . Thereupon the pair See also:separate and enter See also:religion, and Manoel becomes the famous chronicler, Frei Luiz de Sousa (q.v.) . The characters live and move, especially Telmo, the old servant, who would never believe in the See also:death of his former See also:master D .

Phoenix-squares

Joao, and the consumptive See also:

child Maria, who See also:helps Telmo to create the See also:atmosphere of impending disaster; while the episodes, particularly those of the return of D . Joao and the death of Maria, are full of power, and the language is Portuguese of the best . Entering See also:parliament in 1837, Garrett soon made his See also:mark as an orator . In that year he delivered many notable discourses in defence of liberal ideas . He also brought in a literary See also:copyright See also:bill, which, when it became law in 1851, served as a precedent for similar legislation in England and See also:Prussia . In 1840 he made his famous speech known as See also:Porto Pyreu, in which he skilfully turned the well-known See also:anecdote of the " mad Athenian " against his opponents . While attending with assiduity to his duties as a See also:deputy, he wrote, about this time, the drama D . Filippa de Vilhena, founded on an incident in the revolution of 164o, for See also:representation by the pupils of the conservatoire, and the session of 1841 saw another of his oratorical triumphs in his speech against the law of See also:tithes . In July 1843 an excursion to Santarem resulted in his prose masterpiece Viagens na minha terra, at once a novel and a See also:miscellany of literary, political and philosophic See also:criticism, written without See also:plan or method, easy, jovial and epigrammatic . He took no part in the See also:civil See also:war that followed the revolution of Maria da Fonte, but continued his literary labours, producing in 1848 the See also:comedy A Sobrinha do Marquez, dealing with the times of See also:Pombal, and in 1849 an historical memoir on Mousinho da Silveira . He spent much of the year 185o in See also:finishing his Romanceiro, a collection of folk-poetry of which he was the first to perceive the value; and in See also:June 1851 he was created a See also:viscount . In the following See also:December he See also:drew up the additional See also:act to the constitutional See also:charter, and his draft was approved by the ministers at a See also:cabinet See also:meeting in his See also:house .

Further, he initiated the Conselho Ultramarino; and the Law of the Misericordias, with its See also:

preamble, published in 1852, was entirely from his See also:pen . In the same year he became for a See also:short time See also:minister of foreign affairs . In 1853 he brought out Folhas Cahidas, a collection of short poems ablaze with See also:passion and exquisite in See also:form, of which his friend Herculano said: " if Camoens had written love verses at Garrett's age, he could not have equalled him." His final literary work was a novel, See also:Helena, which he See also:left unfinished, and on the loth of February 1854 he made his last notable speech in the House . He died on the 9th of December 1854, and on the 3rd of May 1903 his re-mains were translated to the national See also:pantheon, the Jeronymos at Belem, where they See also:rest near to those of Camoens . As poet, novelist, journalist, orator and dramatist, he deserves the remark of Rebello da See also:Silva: " Garrett was not a See also:man of letters only but an entire literature in himself." Besides his strong religious faith, Garrett was endowed with a deep sensibility, a creative See also:imagination, rare See also:taste and a singular capacity for sympathy . Thus, though a learned man and an able jurist, he was See also:bound to be first and always an artist . His See also:artistic temperament explains his many-sided activity, his expansive kindliness, his seductive See also:charm, especially for See also:women, his patriot-ism, his aristocratic pretensions, his huge vanity and dandyism, and the ingenuousness that absolves him from many faults in an irregular See also:life . From his See also:rich artistic nature sprang his profound, sincere, sensual and See also:melancholy lyrics, the variety and perfection of his scenic creations, the splendour of his eloquence, the truth of his comic vein, the elegance of his lighter compositions . Two books stand out in bold See also:relief from among his writings: Folhas Cahidas, and that tragedy of fatality and pity, Frei Luiz de Sousa, with its See also:gallery of See also:noble figures incarnating the truest See also:realism in an almost perfect prose form . The See also:complete collection of his See also:works comprises twenty-four volumes and there are several See also:editions . AntHORITIES.—Gomes de Amorim, Garrett, memorias biographicas (3 vols., Lisbon, 1881–1888); D . Romero Ortiz, La Litteratura Portuguesa en el siglo XIX (See also:Madrid, 1869), pp .

165-221; Dr Theophilo See also:

Braga, Garrett e o romantismo (Oporto, 1904), and Garrett e os dramas romanticos (Oporto, 1905), with a full bibliography; Innocencio da Silva, Diccionario bibliographico Portuguez, vol. in. pp . 309-316, and vol. x. pp . 18o-185 . See Revue encyclopedique Larousse, No . 284, for a bibliography of the foreign See also:translations of Garrett . Frei Lutz de Sousa was translated by See also:Edgar Prestage under the See also:title See also:Brother Luiz de Sousa (London, 1909) . (E .

End of Article: VISCONDE DE JOAO BAPTISTA DA SILVA LEITAO DE ALMEIDA GARRETT
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