Contents:
Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 45 2. Vide Manuel Soeiro, Anales de Flandes, vol. Vernant, Myth and Society in Ancient Greece, , p. Mircea Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries: Eliot, Selected Prose of T. Six Myths of Our Time, , p. Michel Tournier, Vent Paraclet, , p. The New Politcs of Europe, , p. David Miller, On Nationalism, , pp.
Mythe et Nation, , Anthony D. Hierarchy, Covenant, and Republic, , idem, Ethno- symbolism and Nationalism: A Cultural Approach, , F. Formes et Mythes, e S. Centrally, myth is about perceptions rather than historically validated truths [ It is the content of the myth that is important, not its accuracy as a historical account. Myth, therefore, is one of a number of crucial instruments in cultural reproduction.
It acts as a means of standardization and of storage of information. Although they may feel very alone during the quest, at its end their reward is a sense of community: Pearson, The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, , p. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world.
Ian Watt, Myths of Modern Individualism: Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 51 nacional. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 53 2. A Demanda do Santo Graal, , p. Recentemente, a vila de Penedono, onde existem, por Costa da Silva, Estudantes de Coimbra: Duperron de Castera, vol. Comentados pelo Licenciado Manuel Correia, p. Jonathan William Wade, op.
Sus Trofeos, Blasones y Conquistas Heroicas, , p. Pedro de Meneses, , pp. Quer a viagem de D. Pedro e a sua estada no ducado da Borgonha, quer as tentativas de D. Fernando, filho segundo de D. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 57 se instalam na Flandres, tal como viria a acontecer em , quando Isabel de Portugal, filha de D. VV, Monumenta Henriciana, vol. Recueil de Documents Extraits des Archives Bourguignonnes, , pp. Si furent les armes acomplies si comme vous advez oy. Vide Carlos Riley, op. Faro, Receitas e Despesas da Fazenda Real de a , , doc.
Pedro e pelo infante D. Na viagem de regresso de D. Isabel, filha do conde de Urgel, que teria lugar em Agosto desse ano. Fernando se dirigem para esse destino de barco. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 61 tendo D. Pedro, e, no ano seguinte, D. Afonso V nomeia-o alcaide-mor do castelo da cidade, cargo que lhe vale alguns desentendimentos com os moradores da capital. Anselmo Braancamp Freire, op. Collins, The Order of the Garter, Chivalry and Politics in Late Medieval England, , pp. Pedro entram em conflito, levando muito provavelmente ao regresso de Almada a Portugal, no final de Setembro, para defender D.
Henrique, para o ducado de Coimbra, para se juntar a D. Vaz de Almada aconselha D. Afonso V, , p. Afonso Henriques e que se estabeleceram depois em Almada, de onde adviria o apelido. Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, , pp. Julia Kristeva, Desire in Language, , p. Eco, Apostillas a El Nombre de la Rosa, , p. The Authority of Interpretive Communities, , p. Where Non Fictions Come Together, Scott as Storyteller, , p. Filipa de Lencastre com D. Hayden White, Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect, , pp.
Canary e Henry Kozicki eds. Postmodernist Innovations of the Historical Novel, , p. Sobre Filipa de Lencastre, consultem-se, entre outros, William J. Isabel — duquesa de Borgonha, filha de D. Vide Ana Paula J. Jacques Paviot, Portugal, pp. No such restriction applies to the […] agents in fictional worlds. O seu filho Vasco Fernandes Coutinho torna-se es- cudeiro de D. Oliveira, A Casa dos Coutinhos, pp. Maria Vitalina Leal de Matos, s. III, tomos , , pp. In this respect, the Portuguese comedias are often hybrid resistance plays in which dramatists convey their national identity in a foreign tongue.
No canto terceiro de Mondegueida: Vejam-se, por exemplo, M. Historians as Nation Builders in Modern Europe, Conto Moral, , folha de rosto. De acordo com Pierre Nora dir. Desculpai-o da valentia com que elle trata este assumpto.
Antes de eu estudar a lingua portugueza, havia lido a Lusiada elegantemente trasladada em inglez por um nosso poeta de nome, chamado Mickle. Francisco Gomes de Amorim, Versos, , p. Ainda hoje decahidos como estamos do nosso antigo esplendor, somos o povo mais affavel, mais delicado, mais cortez e mais respeitoso para com as damas entre quantos eu tive a honra [ Apud Alberto Pimenta, op. A 8 de Junho de , o autor informa J.
Ibidem, I, , IV, e I, , respectivamente. Vereis em que me fundo. Que sentimentos Ao Poeta inspira um amoroso fogo! No seu final estava quase o Poema; Fatalidade que persegue a um morto! Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 91 Nestas estrofes, T. Foram doze, portanto, os desafios. Vide Alberto Pimenta, op. Kathryn Bishop-Sanchez, Utopias Desmascaradas: Em , Jacinto Heliodoro Loureiro n. Para uma breve biobibliografia, veja-se s.
Veja-se Ana Isabel P. Beatriz Filha Natural de D. Ibidem, II, viii, p. Francisco Soares Toscano, op. Beatriz , filha bastarda de D. Beatriz, Filha de El-Rei D.
A Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, , Dramas Originias, , p. Processo de Uma Bestialidade Inglesa. Carta a El-Rei D. Vejam-se Teresa Pinto Coelho, op. Maria Manuel Lucas, op. Os tercetos associam, mais uma vez, a valentia dos doze cavaleiros do reinado de D. Vejam-se Maria Isabel da C.
Veja-se Teixeira Bastos, A Crise: Cultura Popular e Identidade Nacional, , pp. First, rather than merely describing a pre-existing reality of national others, national images acti- vely construct that very reality. Different genres and media […] deploy a genre- or medium-specific Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais rhetoric to create powerful images of national others, images which are bound up with cultural norms and are designed to structure systems of thought. National stereotyping is never a monomedial process because the creation and perpetuation of culturally normative knowledge builds on the perpetual reaffirmation of cultural notions of self and other.
Third, national auto- and heteroimages are historically variable forms of cultural signification. Finally, national images have a pragmatic dimension and thus fulfil diverse functions in specific historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts, functions which cannot be reduced to the construction of national identity. Antecedentes e Possibilidades, , p. Margreta de Grazia, Shakespeare Verbatim: The Reproduction of Authenticity and the Apparatus, , pp. Paul Magnuson, Reading Public Romanticism, , p. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais 5. Apud Marques Braga et alii org. Patria e Amor, Canto IV: A Mensagem Ducal, Canto V: Homem, A Ideia Republicana em Portugal: Consulte-se Maria Teresa Pinto Coelho, op.
Amor da Patria Santo [ Ignez de Castro, e a encantadora aventura dos Doze de Inglaterra. Henrique Vasconcelos Novidades, n. A auto-imagem adquire contornos Zacharasiewicz, Imagology Revisited, , pp. Hoje, Roma conta com a antipathia do Ibero para subjugar a Lusitania: Vejam-se os textos de: Gaetano Mezzacapo , in ibidem pp. Jean Froissart, Chronicles, , pp. Torna-se, portanto, significativo o facto de ser esse inimigo da coroa a voz da afronta que leva os cava- leiros portugueses a Londres.
O silencio gela o sangue! O tio do rei escolhe como conselheiros Geoffrey Young Women and Gender in England, , , pp. Sobre a fonte, veja-se G.
Goodman, John of Gaunt: O Poeta no Atelier do Artista, The Age of Chivalry, , pp. Hope Moncrieff, Romance and Legend of Chivalry, Braga e por Alexandre Herculano nas pp. Viajam encobertos com os onze cava- leiros, a bordo da nau Frol da Rosa, os embaixadores portugueses, Martim Ocem — perso- nagem, tal como D. Teresa Pinto Coelho, op. Maria Teresa Pinto Coelho, op. Gaspar Frutuoso, Saudades da Terra, livro 2, , p. Se na despedida dos Doze em Lisboa Richard Hakluyt, Voyages in Eight Volumes, vol. The Social Psychology of Hearsay, , p. Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, p.
Braga pelo radical laicismo positivista. Jones, Religion and the Political Imagination, On the symbolical level, the city is seen as an image of something larger than itself [ Thus the city is seen as a body, monster, jungle, ocean or volcano. Such metaphorical equations usually have an ideological quality. Lynch, The Image of the City, , pp. Carlos Rotella, October Cities: Redevelopment of Urban Literature, , pp. Sobre os filhos de D. The Canterbury Tales, , p. A Cultural and Literary Companion, , p.
Schachter, Searching for Memory: Similarly, smellscapes will involve smell events and smell marks. Visual evidence becomes hearsay and nosesay. Relph, Place and Placelessness, , T. Engen, The Perception of Odors, e T. Isabel, mas sim D. Beatriz, filha bastarda de D. For every one of these events there are ceremonies whose essential purpose is to enable the individual to pass from one defined position to another that is equally well defined. Ibidem, V, viii, p. Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, , p. Theory of the Novel. A Historical Approach, , p.
Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale, , p. Bildung was more than a type of education or even self-formation, for it was a way by which the indi- vidual came to know himself by knowing his world and its traditions [ It was a return to the image of the active individual Michael Minden, The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance, , p. James Hardin, Reflection and Action: Essays on the Bildungsroman, , p. Eysturoy, Daughters of Self-Creation: The Contemporary Chicana Novel, , p.
Maria Teresa Pinto Coelho, op. Concedida a Marco Lucchesi. Quero-te muito and A Rosa e a Borboleta were published in Nos. Antero arrived in Lisbon in October and maybe spent an academic year in the Escola Academica in Lisbon. There were problems abroad, the struggles against autocratic monarchies were not over but to the young intellectuals of CJoimbra, the evident lagging behind of the Portuguese nation was intolerable, i t wounded their national pride.
Sax, Images of Identity: Langland eds , Out of Bounds: Male Writers and Gender ed Criticism, , p. Contesting the Past, , pp. Gender, Race and Power in Colonial Virginia, , pp. Connel, Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics, , p. Culture, History, Political Economy, , p. Meade e Merry E. Alston, Women on the Land: The Hidden Heart of Rural Australia, , p. The Role of the Consort, , pp. Studies on Medieval Women, , pp. Mate, Women in Medieval English Society, , pp. Consultem-se, entre outros, M. Loureiro JL Poema de T.
Lucas de Portugal, filho do autor. Francisco de Portugal, Arte de Galantaria, , p. Desde o Ultimatum de [sic. Marques Braga et alii org. Alfredo Gallis Tempo, n. Carta publicada por ibidem, p. Naomi Jacobs, The Character of Truth: Historical Figures in Contemporary Fiction, , p. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais the reality conceived […] is fictitious — it is not a chronicle […]. The fiction is based on the reflec- tions and reactions of the individual characters, whose subjective transformation of an historical situation gives rise to the reality of the novel.
O poema li-o todo, com verdadeiro prazer. Admiro a arte com que V.
Buy Sonetos (Biblioteca Essencial da Literatura Portuguesa Livro 32) ( Portuguese Edition): Read Kindle Store Reviews - www.farmersmarketmusic.com Sonetos (Biblioteca Essencial da Literatura Portuguesa Livro 32) (Portuguese Edition) eBook: Bocage: www.farmersmarketmusic.com: Kindle Store.
Wolfgang Iser, The Implied Reader, pp. Continuador inspirado de Almeida Garrett, V. O reinado de D. Victor Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, , p. Imagologia e Mitos Nacionais de D. Eight Exercises in Political Thought, , p. Editora Alcino Aranha, Lisboa, Casa da Moeda, Lisboa, []. Correia, Pedro Craesbeck, Lisboa, Poesias, Tipografia do Futuro, Lisboa, Espanhola e Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro, Pedro e Juan Beleros, Anvers, Maria Segunda, Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa, Vidas dos Senhores Reis de Portugal.
Francisco de, Arte de Galantaria, Lisboa, Editorial Domingos Barreira, Porto, O Rich, Londres, Craesbeck de Melo, Lisboa, Ceuta por El Rei D. England Historical Society of Portugal, Lisboa, O Poeta no Atelier do Verso, Londres, Isabel de Lencastre e trad. Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, He had been away from home a few times, he had his young uncle close by, Coimbra was already a familiar place by He handled words with talent and confidence, and he had his educated, progressive, extrovert and ancient family to back him up.
Alexandre Herculano Poesias, Ode Deus. Antero de Quental, Vol. I, Prosas A Patria, pp. Urbano de Mendonca Bias, Literatos dos Agores historia. Antero de Quental, Volume I, Prosas. Couto Martins, I 9 2 3. Lyman Weeks, Horace, Among the Azores. Cortes Rodrigues, Os Agores. Antologia da Terra Portug. Alexandre Herculano, Poesias Varias. David Lopes, Livraria Bertrand.
Teofilo Braga, Historia da Universidade de Coimbra nas suas relagoes com a Instrujgao publica portuguesa, Lisboa, , Academia das ciencias. It i s also the period when Antero came to see himself as a poet. Maybe this is not an exact statement since later on he denied that he ever was a poet: He certainly came to view himself as a philosopher but most of his friends and admirers then and now see him as a poet concerned with philosophy. In his f i r s t years in Coimbra he developed his talent in poetry and asserted himself as a poet among his friends and co-students, using poetry as his most genial medium, convinced that Art was the most effective tool to express his concerns and impress his audience.
These concerns he developed in Coimbra during his very fi r s t year. The law which he came to Coimbra to study, did not interest him. Law was the traditional course to take for sons of "morgados". Whether law was his choice or that of his advisors, I do not know, but he soon established himself as a mediocre student. Had his teachers been more openminded, had the university walls been more welcoming, had so many challenging books not been accessible, had Antero not found a supportive family in a circle of firm friends, had he not been a suggestible, sensitive, intelligent, religious, energetic young boy, avid of knowledge, things might have turned out differently, but such 16 17 he was: According to student witnesses, and particularly according to Teofilo Braga's Historia da Universidade the program of studies was not very up-to-date, nor was the Faculty of Law up-to-date in most univer-sities of Europe.
In Coimbra few reforms had happened since those effected under Pombal. Teofilo registered in claimed in his Historia da Universidade that the text studied had not changed since Estudos Historicos e Economicos. Theology, Law, Medicine, Mathematics, and Philosophy. The professors were appointed by the king. Many teachers were landlords, had commercial interests, Coimbra offered them financial security and status. If the stipend was not high i t allowed some ventures in extra-curricular activities.
The less ambitious stayed as teachers after their graduation, the more ambitious used the position of teacher at the university as a stepping stone toward ministerial jobs, said Oliveira Martins. Coimbra was conservative, traditional, and had a guarded attitude toward the students always apt to show rebellion. Eca de Queiros wrote in the In Memoriam: The battalion had kept the Duke of Terceira prisoner and, before peace settled again, some students had been put into the Torre de Sab Juliab da Barra and guarded by english troops.
In I, i t was clear that I was not forgotten: Socialist masonic lodges existed in the city: In I, to celebrate the enthusiastic adhesion of the body of students to his "Regeneragad", Saldanha, with Maria II, had exempted the students from examinations. This had allowed a generation of incompetent graduates t i b i quoque. Queen Maria II, during her visit with the infant princes had given permission to the academics to wear caps and gowns at public functions outside Coimbra. From this, says Teofilo, bloomed a crop of pompous and ostentatious professors.
They had managed to enroll some members of the university staff as lecturers: The lectures were given in the municipal hall of Coimbra and Jose Feliciano's "Hymno do Trabalho" was sung regularly. This was part of a socialist-inspired movement, not in any way republican, according to Teofilo. The "Socie-dade" represented an effort to close the gap between the intelligentsia and the working class of Coimbra but the scission between "filhotes" not titled, not blasoned, not haute bourgeoisie and the "academicos" was too real and too deep, and this effort petered out after some serious fights.
Those "academicos" who could not sympathize with the movement had started a secret "liga academica" which also petered out. Moral standards were low among the youth, and the military was always ready to be called by the administration against the students. Arter an incident when a student, protesting against some act of favoritism, had rallied some malcontents around him and created a disturbance, the rector Jose Manuel de Lemos, being perhaps too absorbed by his creation, the "Jardim Botanico", was replaced in April by Basllio Alberto de Souza Pinto.
This rector was a stickler for external discipline, determined to restore not only order but prestige to the university. He insisted that a cassock type of vestment be worn by the students, open in the back, with a long row of small buttons in the front. This clerical garb did not please the students, unless they were "ursos", that is to say, docile, studious and subservient, in the eyes of the "cabulas".
I found 20 this advice in the Cancioneiro de Coimbra; E'ser indulgente- e em suma Nab se r i r de coisa algurna. Acho isto assim mais feliz Se um Doutor se engasga, espeita E' um acaso infeliz. Fala demais outras vezesl 2 Antero became conspicuous in the streets of Coimbra for his un-tidy long flaming hair, his unpolished shoes, his unkempt clothes.
He soon made a show of his attitude toward the Establishment. He was not likely to obey promptly the university bell which pealed from the tower summoning the students and reminding them of the curfew. The rigid external discipline irritated the young boys, newly escaped from the rural domains; the system of the "sebenta" whereby the professors read each year their own same comments on the traditional texts did not stimulate those inclined to laziness and did not satisfy the individualists and the bright ones among the students.
It is not quite clear from the Historia da Universidade and the Subsxdios whether the "Sociedade do Raio" was started in or Antero joined this secret group of students determined to demand the dismissal of Basilio; they intended, according to Teofilo, to capture the rector and hold him hostage until the king agreed to replace him.
During their meetings they read Proudhon, Michelet, Hegel, Hugo, Darwin, Strauss and others, indiscriminately and enthusiastically. We can imagine young Antero, bored in class, staying away as much as he could without endangering his eventual law degree, reading a l l the books on the shelves in his Uncle Filipe's quarters which he shared at f i r s t. A rather lonely boy, but anxious for close friendships, too serious to be amused long by pranks, awkward in appearance, a l i t t l e intimidating.
We can follow the history of his readings and of his friendships through his contributions to the Coimbra reviews, through the poems he published in the ephemeral journals, through the small book'of twenty-one sonnets which he published in Now a very rare book. He seems to have been absolutely prepared, like a well tended early spring garden, for the most generous sowing.
The new ideas he received from his readings moved him, he rushed to discuss them with his friends.
Bruno Tavares tells us that he was always ready to join his selected group for dinners and social gatherings but he came always with his head f u l l of ideas generated by his latest reading; impatient and unmethodical, he would only respond to the group i f i t was willing to follow him in wild speculations. If the group did not respond, he would read, compose poems, or go for long walks. The Sampaio brothers, Santos Valente, and Mexreles were often joined from on, by Tebfilo Braga, and in by Eca de Queiros who became a close and loyal follower of Antero as soon as he discovered him one evening speaking 22 enthusiastically to a few cc—students on the steps of the Se" Nova.
Antero had inherited from his family, and his Uncle Filipe in particular, an inclination for theatrical postures. A strange young man, intense, individualistic, f u l l of feverish anticipation about the future, not his future but the future of Humanity, Antero looked too far away to see the present: He was at this time trying to make an adjustment between his growing vision and his trained conscience.
The concern for his "brothers" expounded by some of the authors he read, echoed inside him. The appeal to universal brotherhood, not militant but loving, was exactly the answer to his youthful religious aspirations. His mother had well prepared him by teaching him about the love of God. She had transferred her intense religiousity to Antero but Antero had different ideas. He retained the notion of love, we know i t became a sort of madness. The slightly hysterical love relationship which existed in that large welcoming house, the high emotional content of the atmosphere and the loneliness inherent in such highly individualis-t i c people had developed in Antero a capacity and a hunger for love.
His Coimbra friends provided an essential element in his development. He needed to care for them, he needed to be with them, he needed them to bounce his ideas around without fear of rejection. When he stayed in Coimbra during the holidays, he missed his friends acutely, could find no one who would be interested in his dreams of the future, no one who had, like him, read eagerly the Lamentations of Lamartine, the Divine Comedy of Dante, the sonnets of Camoes, the romantic works of 23 Herculano. With his friends he read and discussed Nogueira's Estudos sobre a Reforma em Portugal, not interested in pan-iberianism for practical or nationalistic reasons, but because pan-iberianism was a step toward universalism.
Antero came to be the moving, lyrical, prophetic, evangelical voice of the writers worshipped by the group. He translated them for his friends in exalted verses. There developed in him a great thirst for Beauty, a disgust for compromise, a search for absolutes. But his emotional nature would not let him follow the mystical inclinations of his soul. During the period Antero grew in contradictions. On one hand he said: A l l the conflicts which common mortals suffer from in various degrees, he suffered from acutely.
Fortunately for him, he was able to exteriorize his longings, disappointments, exaltations, in writing. The year II was one of adjustment; Antero sorted himself out, rejected those companions with whom he had l i t t l e in common, found his way around Coimbra, and drifted away from the academically inclined.
Did he embarrass his uncle? His appearance and performance in the class-room could hardly have pleased Filipe, although the dreams of Antero were largely his also. Antero lived away from the university walls, as did many of his friends, the Sampaios, Joao de Deus, Santos Valente. Real l i f e for him happened inside his head: His writing was a manifestation of his mental activity, like an overflow at 24 times.
The new ideas he came across in his readings in these f i r s t years of Coimbra had a permanent effect not only on his social and political beliefs but mostly on his philosophical beliefs. His mental activity was feverish, because thought and feeling were so inextricably associated. The shock of a new idea immediately caused him to visualize possibilities never before imagined; his generous heart could never separate his visions of Humanity from his feelings for Humanity, and because he was so intensely religious, every revolutionary thought forced him to re-evaluate his relationship with his God.
Since his writings are the positive manifestations of his inner l i f e , we are fortunate to be able to read most of his works and trace their genesis. This is what he wished eventually: Antero destroyed systematically most of his early writings in but because he was a young man who could function comfortably only xfhen in close communication with congenial souls, most of his poems were dedicated to this or that friend, as the outcome of a discussion, as a game played mutually, or as the expression of his selective affection; these friends who were his brothers in thought and heart, and poets like him, kept these l i t t l e presents.
Teofilo Braga made a collection of those discarded witnesses in a volume which he called, quoting Antero: Raios de Extinta Luz: Raios de Extinta Luz, ecos perdidos Da voz que se sumiu no espaco absorta-Meus cantos voarao de idade em idade, Como folhas que ao longe o vento espalha. Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho borrowed the t i t l e for a similar collection, in , from the sonnet A Mao de Deus and called i t: Antero de Quental, Coragao Liberto.
Fragments appeared in one of the Coimbra reviews: We should not doubt the genuineness of the feeling expressed even i f the style is "literary", that i s to say, self-conscious. Antero missed his island; already he felt, in a supremely Portuguese way, a constant, painful, deep-rooted and inexplicable bereavement as of an exile. His Quentais genes, his mother's intense piety, his father's preoccupation with genealogical papers, his early years on an isolated Atlantic island, and the necessity of removing himself to the Continent to make the connection with the nineteenth century, a l l these helped to develop the mystical quality characteristic of Antero.
He felt more acutely than most the exile from his family's birthplace. Even i f A Patria i s not a great piece of writing, i t gives an insight into the young man, now living among his uncle's books in Coimbra; Antero spoke here of his feelings at the thought of his homeland, he recalled one of his favorite memories: Aqui a velha arvore onde todas as tardes uma mae boa e carinhosa se vinha sentar rodeada de seus filhinhos, e apontando para o sol moribundo nas orlas do hori-zonte, e meio mergulhado no Oceano, lhes dizia de amar a Deus e aos homens.
The Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue was published in This review had a very short l i f e three issues. Quero-te muito and A Rosa e a Borboleta were published in Nos. Pavilhab Negro, and Indianas. In this collection there are several poems inspired by Victor Hugo, and in the same series Versoes e Imitagoes there are a number of poems inspired by David's Song of Songs, and by Dante's Divine Comedy, which both friends read and commented avidly together. Of his own love poems Antero did not think very highly. He said as much in his autobiographical letter to Wilhelm Storck Antero was not comfortable with his own sensuality; despite Dr.
Ruy Galvad de Carvalho's protests Antero de Quental e a Mulher we have no evidence to show that Antero was even then, or indeed ever, able 1 to accept woman as a creature of flesh and blood. He had an article published in in Estrela Literaria. IT em vossa alma, jovems esposas, que repousam os destinos humanos. Sem a mulher, a aurora e o occaso da vida seriam sem soccoro e 0 meio-dia sem prazer.
A mulher, 6 um ente fraco, desvalido, apaixonadOi e nobre mais que tudo,H said Antero. We have to give women a chance to receive moral and intellectual education because i t i s through them that we will reach Goodness and Truth, he claimed. Young Antero was awed and fascinated. A woman's bosom, "o seio", i s one of his most recurrent images: A paixao da amante, a amizade da irma, a solidariedade da esposa, o amor da mae, sab outros tantas cadeias invisfveis com que a providehcia se aprouve ligar estreita-mente a vida da mulher a do homen e tornar assim a sua dependehcia moral penhor de proteccao para a fraqueza dela Em todas as fases da nossa vida e claro que o que 1?
It i s up to us, young men of , to inculcate high moral values in the mothers-to-be, said he. We recognize Michelet's influence in the writings of this period: His faith in God was at the basis of his faith in Man: A Senda du Calvario. Ave Christusl Heroi e martir, deixa a terra Que e cumprida a missao. Morres tu, mas a ideia que deixaste Nab morre, como a luz em fim do dia, Nem o fogo do ceu que em t i ardia, Nem o exemplo sublime, que legaste. Whilst he fought to free himself, the scissors wounded him and the culprits were summoned before the university rector who condemned one of the Sampaios to expulsion for two years; Antero was condemned to eight days in j a i l.
He protested, claimed he was not there, but the judgement stood. Whether he was really there or not, his reputation as a mediocre student did not help his case. Judging by his literary activity in i, his assiduousness at the classes did not improve. S t i l l under Aime Martin's influence he undertook to write seven articles in Preludios Literarios under the t i t l e Leituras populares.
The topic, as we have seen, was not new in Antero's world, A. Antero's reading of Giuseppe Mazzini, or at least his knowledge of Mazzini's action in Italy and Lajos Kossuth's in Hungary, inspired him he mentioned them here into the only action he was capable of in these years, which was writing and publishing his articles in the available periodicals. Antero deplored the state of sciences in Portugal, he deplored the absence of material at the level of the working class. In France there was 30 already a system of Rural Travelling Libraries.
The two great books Antero recommended were J. Nogueira favored a Republic with universal suffrage, free legal aid, a single tax based on individual income, improvement in the status of the working-woman, protection of agriculture and industry, election of bishops by the "povo", priority for the considera-tion of municipal interests, so dear to Herculano, abolition of "morgadios", and, following Proudhon, respect for rights to property ownership as being the natural agent of civilization, and freedom from land levies.
Nogueira also advocated Iberian federation. Antero called him "um economista profundo, poeta e pensador. There must be free associations. The poet, who has special resources, i s able to combine imagination, analysis, knowledge and inspiration, and arrive 31 at Truth. In conformity with his romantic masters, for Antero, History was, of course, made by individuals: E'o coragab do homem uma como harpa melo-dic sa, de tao maviosos sons e por t a l arte uns com outros casados, que esta s6 harmonia sublime da natureza humana fora de sobra a revelar-nos a mao munificente, com que o Crea-dor espalhou seus dons por todo o universo E'esta ideia de Deus um centro commum, a que todas vem necessaria-mente convergir, a synthese do Universo.
D'elle dimana tudo, e tudo a elle tem de se referir. In May, he wrote an innocuous Resposta a um pedido de uma Senhora. There i s in this poem an expression of his growing disenchantment, a loss of joy; Antero took refuge from his black mood in mysticism, he worked at keeping his faith. During his holidays in Sao Miguel we may assume that he regained some of his emotional vigour: In September, the weather i s perfect for an excursion to Figueira-da-Foz. Antero went there and was inspired to write As Estrelas. Was he thinking of Lamartine?
Les Etoiles, Secondes Meditations. We know that he continued to read Lamartine during this year: This may well be, but the withdrawal was certainly temporary and may have lasted only during his walk to Figueira-da-Foz; i t was characteristic of the moody young man. Had he been rejected?
In November he wrote Palavras Aladas: Se alguem tiver no peito a urna mxstica Onde o Amor se recolhe, essa ha de amar-me; Se livre, por tiranos nab comprado, Pulsar um coragab, esse comigo Ha de a aurora saudar do nosso novo-dia; Se uma alma recordar a eterna patria Que lhe dera o Senhor, do ceu saudosa Comigo a Deus num hino ha de elevar-se. Although the testimonies which we have now led us to believe that Antero wasted no time in imposing himself as a popular leader, he was at this period a non-conformist, a member of a small group of an elite which considered itself so, made of some strong individuals, gifted, rebels with a few followers, keeping themselves apart from the crowd of average students and particularly from the exemplary students.
E a mim, que aspiro a ele, a mim, que o amo, Que anseio por mais vida e maior brilho, 2i Ha-de negar-me o termo deste anseio? Se um momento a prendeu mortal beHeza 22 E'pela eterna patria que suspira Aspiracao, i Yet, at times l i f e seemed so f u l l of promises: He spoke of course, not of his death, but of that of his friend, but he perceived clearly the quality of youth, his own as well as others. He was eighteen, and a poet! A poesia, a grande e verdadeira poesia, a que se escreve com uma mao sobre o coracab, sem querer outros modelos alem da natureza, outras leis mais que as da razao, essa vive e chega longe nos seculos.
Nevertheless, we cannot forget them i f we want to know Antero. He fervently believed in him-self, in his mission, in Humanity; his enthusiasm about his visions for the future of society was boundless, but he had more and more trouble reconciling what he read with what he wished deeply to believe: And he needed education even more than the rich man who compensated for his lack of knowledge with his wealth. He had made clear his point of view on the position of woman, not only in his fi r s t article on the Education of Women, but in a further enlargement of the subject in Influencia da Mulher.
In this he had been guided by Aime Martin, whilst Lamartine had been his "livre de chevet" to comfort and inspire him. Michelet also helped him define his vision of the ideal woman. He shared with him his admiration for Joan of Arc and, to satisfy his Iberianism, awakened by Nogueira, he presented Isabel the Catholic as a second prototype. This division in periods of years starting in January and ending in December i s a l i t t l e arbitrary, but there i s no way of knowing 36 whether Antero was more sensitive to a division into academic years rather than into calendar years.
It is unlikely that he went home for the celebration of Christmas, travelling was slow and uncomfortable in those days; the railway did not reach Coimbra until I, there was the long journey by sailing ship from Figueira or Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, which took up to 10 days, and the sea i s likely to be rough at that time of year.
A student in Coimbra would not have had time to travel there and back during Christmas time. Yet there was a break in the academic year when the students dispersed and maybe a few exiles - Azoreans and other overseas Portuguese - holed up in chilly quarters, warming themselves with wine and tobacco, staying away from the deserted streets of Coimbra, reading the latest available imports, stretched on the bed, going out occasionally in search of company. Antero's good friend Joab de Deus Joab de Deus Ramos probably went home, so would Santos Valente and Meireles and the Sampaios, a l l from the Continent one of the Sampaios had been rusticated, rememberl.
During i, stimulated by Joab de Deus, who was older b. I seem to have overindulged myself f i l l i n g these pages with quotations but how could I adequately and convincingly present this young man, paraphrasing him? The style i s inseparable from the emotion and the emotion i s inseparable from the thought in a l l Antero's writings. The f i r s t poem he wrote in January was Paz en Deus. His spiritual anxiety seems to 37 have been growing and we observe his pains. He was too fond of absolutes, of purity and Light and Love, too proud and too unsure, too demanding, too unstable, to be sailing through these years without shocks.
How he must have enjoyed Lamartine: Borne'' dans sa nature, infini dans ses voeux, L'homme est un dieu tombe qui se souvient des cieux. Elle va se faire peuple, et devenir populaire comme la A7 religion, l a raison ou l a philosophie. No tumulo d'uma Crianca. He sent a poem to Herculano, one of the men he admired most for his ideas and for his lyricism.
As Campas shows that Herculano of the Ode a Deus. The poem greeted Herculano in these words: The ode had made such an impression on the precocious boy of ten, both by it s deeply religious sentiments and by it s lyricism, that i t predisposed Antero to listen with respect and eagerness to the great man of f i f t y. Vitorino Nemesio says that apart from some correspondence exchanged about the dedication of As Campas there was no 38 exchange or letters or visits. There was a mutual admiration at a distance Subsxdios, II, p. According to Alberto Sampaio, the relationship between the two continued after the visit concerning the endorsement of the Odes, but we have no proof of this.
However much he admired Herculano, i t is only in December I, during the controversy of the Questab coimbra that Antero spoke at length of Herculano in A Dignidade das lettras e as litteraturas officiaes. The epigraph to the article A Ilustracab e o Operario is a quote from Herculano: Morigeracao, trabalho, sciencia, eis as armas com que a filosofia poetica deste seculo ensina as 2 g nacoes civilIzadas a combater numa luta generosa.
Antero in was just as romantic as Herculano had been, but he was s t i l l vague in his ideas. He had been admiring the poet and social philosopher for ten years at a distance. It is quite probable that the students read Herculano's works. It i s possible that they read his Panorama. During these years in Coimbra, without guidance, he sorted things out for himself and emerged with trust in the "povo", not "plebs", not the masses, but a very Portuguese emotional loving protective notion of the "povo"; he allied himself definitively against the bourgeois, with the "povo".
This he might well have learned from Herculano. He emerged convinced that everyone had to make his contribution to the New World by effecting his own moral revolution. This too he could have learned from Herculano. He became convinced of the urgent necessity to educate the "povo" at a basic and primary level f i r s t of a l l. This we know he fir s t learned from Castilho, and we also know that i t was one of the main concerns to 39 which Herculano devoted much energy with his friend Ferrer. By he declared himself against the clergy, and Herculano would not dis-agree here either.
But was he a close or dedicated follower of Herculano? I do not see any evidence of i t. He sent him a copy of As Campas with a respectful and admiring dedication, as we have seen. We have no record of an answer by Herculano, who most probably acknowledged this tribute. Apart from this admiration which I believe stemmed from the communion he had felt as a boy with the very religious poet of Voz do Profeta and Harpa do Crente. Antero mentioned Herculano but I am convinced that, like his admiration for Michelet, i t was the strongly emotional reaction he had toward someone who had touched him, rather than the continuing relationship of a disciple and his master.
In April i Antero played a literary game with Joab de Deus. In Antero developed his ability toward the sonnet which was a favourite poetic form with Joab de Deus. Much later, when Antero met Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos, he told her that he had developed an ability for the sonnet unthinkingly, as being naturally the form for idealism and sentiments which corresponded to his, as the poets of the XVTth century and especially Camdes had expressed them.
The sonnet was not used by the Portuguese romantics: The sonnet was to him "a forma superior do lirismo"; in the sonnets he expressed his deepest, truest emotions. Whilst the ode allowed fantasy, visions, dreams, the sonnet was the higher expression of the "lyricism of the heart". Joab de Deus restitui-nos o Soneto como ele e, como deve ser: Sem este lago atrave's dos tempos, quern poderia achar aquella forma para nol-a restituir em toda a sua pureza? A strange parallel which we must forgive him since he had not seen Strasbourg nor any gothic cathedral, but had wandered many hours through the Mosteiro.
For his impression of Strasbourg Cathedral we should probably make Goethe responsible. I haven't been able to locate the three sonnets of Cambes which Antero claimed as his favourites. Antero's mood of discouragement toward love and woman at this time makes us suspect some painful rejection, but he was discreet about such things and i f his friends knew they didn't t e l l. Antero was no carouser, nor was he a philanderer; whatever heart pains he had to endure we already know that his dream-women were noble creatures, virtuous mothers-to-be, his favourite dream-image was a warm and pure 41 breast to lay his tired head against.
Since this pleasure was so hard to obtain, no wonder he f e l l under the spell of Dante's Beatrice1 Salgado Junior suggests that Antero turned to Beatrice because of his general and particular discouragement with women: With Dante he shared "o fogo daquela alma profunda e ardente, as dores da sua alma angustiada," and, most important: Although he concentrated on sonnets in , he thought also of writing an epic, whose t i t l e would be Vasco. Would he be another Camoes? Eu tenho sonhos de gloria, Que me acodem a memoria Como a visab ilus6ria Que brilha e que se desfaz De oiro e nome tenho sede, Do poder aspiro a sede Mas toda esta gloria cede o 0 A glbria de luz e paz.
His dreams of glory were gradually taking shape in Coimbra. But, as he said of himself, he lacked patience and method, and many of his projects were abandoned. E o Senhor fez o mundoi e a t i , o noite; Noite de Primavera, deu-te estrelas, 3 1 Que sab almas no espaco a procurar-te. No historical facts, but images representing ideas, in nine ottavas.
Our suspicions are gradually confirmed: Antero was in a very depressed mood which made him attack a l l his beliefs: P'ra dor que sofre em s i tudo e presente. Aqui, a l i , e em toda a parte o punge Verse-nous ton poison pour qu i l nous reconforte and with Goethe's ballad in Faust, another of his early Coimbra enthusiams. Antero continued this way: This i s a long way from his Amor with a capital A. Thanks to his friends, he could turn towards other problems, outside of himself, he could join them in their concerns for a new society. Antero didn't confide much through his letters; i t seems 43 that letter writing for him was mostly part of a moral campaign, a way of curing his own anxieties by pushing them aside temporarily.
The sonnets to which he was working were another way of curing himself, they were a kind of exorcism, no, not really, more a response to the need of pressing his finger where i t hurt, A Arte, meu Florido, parece-me a mim, que ja em pouco tenho crengas, a unica coisa capaz de ainda jpoder fazer saltar nos peitos todos os coracoes capazes de nobremente baterem por alguma coisa boa e bella Desses alguns quero eu ser, corao tu es, meu apostolo e precursor de novos mundos, como sab todos os que, depondo ambicpes do dia, viram os olhos da sua alma para o horizonte longinquo, aonde tern de raiar a Aurora do dia novo.
The city must have been even more deserted at this time. And why wasn't he joining Florido who was working at a new literary review in Oporto with some friends? He was probably behind in his studies and cramming for examinations due in October. It was certainly not the delights of the University halls which detained him, "o tumulo do bom-senso" as he called his Alma Mater. He escaped to Batalha, where he could always refresh his spirit. Was he writing his poems in the court of the Monastery by the light of the moon? Per arnica silentia lunae was written there, with a l i t t l e help from Lamartine and Dante, i t seems.
At this time Tebfilo Braga came to Coimbra to enrol in the faculty of law and, being from Sab Miguel, naturally joined Antero. This journey was not the beginning of friendly relations; by October Antero was making disparaging remarks about Te6filo in an article, which he signed Vasco Vasques Vasqueannes, about the Revistas de Coimbra.
It is a pamphlet rather than an article, in which he exercised his sarcastic vein against Camilo Castelo Branco, Julio Cesar Machado, and "unworthy" imitators of Lamartine, against the small mindedness and narrow-mindedness of Portuguese periodicals; wasn't he considering a new l i f e for the Worldl In November a short piece about 0 que toda a gente ve ou a polxtica numa ligab tells us that he had no faith in the present government of Portugal to improve the fate of Humanity.
It seems that as the year passed, Antero became more belligerent, he was becoming more self-assured, published an article on the necessity to build a dock in Ponta Delgada. Eight ships had been wrecked against the coast of Sao Miguel during a storm a couple of years before, and disasters of less magnitude were frequent. Antero wanted a committee made of Sao Miguel citizens to be authorized to work out a plan with the help of an imported engineer.
By the end of he had spread his ideas, had had articles and poems printed not only in Coimbra but in periodicals across the country, thanks to his friends. He was confident enough to gather in one edition the twenty-one sonnets he had written on separate sheets for his companions, Alberto Teles, Santos Valente, Florido Teles. Salgado Junior explains that the chronology of the sonnets shows the evolution of Antero away from Lamartine and his concept of Love.
The collection i s dedicated to his friends: In the universe he no longer saw the hand of a God of Mercy; he no longer knew God: Que beleza mortal se te assemelha, 0 sonhada visab desta alma ardente, Although this discouragement i s characteristic of Antero throughout his l i f e , his dedication to the "remodelTing of the inner man" i s also characteristic. He became convinced, through his readings, and reflections, that society could reach harmony only through moral revolution and each individual was responsible for his own revolution.
Antero was by now taking upon himself the priestly task of remodelling not only himself but society around him. Already he felt the loneliness of a position which he had grown into gradually, unwittingly and naively. It was Coimbra, but not the university, which changed him; here, 46 but outside the walls of the Faculty of Law, and uninspired by h i s teachers, he taught himself haphazardly a blend of moral socialism based as we l l on h i s natural goodness and on h i s catholic t r a i n i n g , as on h i s voracious reading. I t i s not easy to decide with accuracy which books he read apart from those that he quotes.
Michelet had given him an outlook which appealed t o h i s esthetic sense; i t was always necessary f o r Antero to s a t i s f y t h i s love of Beauty S i d'etoiles en e t o i l e s reunis, elances dans un v o l eternel, nous suivions tous ensemble un doux pe"lerinage a travers l a bonte' immense I On l e c r o i t par moments. Quelque chose nous d i t que ces reves ne sont pas des reves, mais des echappees du v r a i monde, des promesses certaines, et que l e pretendu r e e l s e r a i t plutot l e v r a i songel Michelet, L'Oiseau.
I t was the l y r i c i s m of Lamartine and Hugo which l e d him to Proudhon, whose apostle he became. Those spending with him these years i n Coimbra t e s t i f i e d i n t h e i r memorials that Antero read Byron, George Sand, Guizot, Thierry, Balzac, Vigny, Sainte-Beuve, from the shelves of h i s uncle's l i b r a r y. We read i n several studies of Antero that the railway brought books and periodicals from France. Considering the state of the r a i l -way construction at the time, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to imagine the book-stores of Coimbra receiving regularly, " d a i l y " said Eca, mountains of l i t e r a t u r e.
Later on maybe, but now I believe that the coming of the railway i n t o Portugal, the development of telegraphic l i n e s , stopped the f e e l i n g of i s o l a t i o n , created an enthusiasm f o r shared knowledge, made impossible dreams seem close at hand, almost within reach. The great technical inventions coupled with the new philosophies f i l l e d 47 our vigorous young poet with impatience.
The national situation, the death of Pedro V in November , the nagging problem of debts and credits, the constitutionalism of Luis I, the growing utilitarianism f i l l e d hearts at 'once with hope and with despondency, Antero was no utilitarian; his hopes were not for material wealth but he shared with his generation: Carta autobiografica, , J. Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho, Palayra Aladas, p. Salgado Junior, A Beira Mar. Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho, Palavras Aladas. Alphonsus de Guimaraens, Salmo, p. Jose Bruno Carreiro, Subsxdios. A Tlustracao e o Operario, p. A Joab de Deus, pp.
Alphonsus de Guimaraens Filho, Aspiracao, p. Raios de Extinta Luz. Salgado Junior, Beatrice, p. Raios de Extinta Luz, A. Antonio Sergio, Ignoto Deo, p. Antero de Quental, Prosas.
I, Imprensa da Universidade, Coimbra, Teofilo Braga, Historia da Universidade de Coimbra. Antero de Quental Sonetos. Antero de Quental Coragab Liberto, Poemas escolhidos, ed. Antero de Quental, Odes Modemas. I, , Lisboa, Livraria classica editora, A. Hernani Cidade, Antero de Quental a obra e o homem. Sa da Costa, He had become convinced that only a public revolution would start the era of Peace for Humanity.
He was anti-bourgeois, the defender of the oppressed "povo". These words "revolution" and "anarchism" immediately convey the idea of violence in the mind of the reader, but Antero was not a violent man. He believed in a social regeneration based on moral individual revolution, in sympathy with Herculano. Unlike Herculano, having lost confidence in his religion, he was developing a pantheistic view of humanity a l a Michelet, he was an optimist, an idealistic revolutionary and saw a great era starting for Humanity, a la romantique, a l a Hugo, to which the only obstacle, but a stubborn and most powerful obstacle, was the attachment to the past: The press which could help greatly was not respon-sible, the Arts which he claimed to be the door to the understanding of the New Vision of the World were decadent, Arcadic, removed in form and images from the modern reality.
Antero believed firmly that science, helped by the Arts, was the key to Universal Harmony according to his acknowledged French master Proudhon. From Proudhon Antero absorbed only what reached his emotions. Antero read everything with his heart. It i s true that he searched for ideas, but only those ideas which touched his emotional 51 52 fibre were received by him. He was impetuous, not impulsive, cautious, not prudent. I understand the loyalty of his admirers who wished to present him to posterity as a great man, resplendent with virtues.
Oliveira Martins, who was an intimate friend and corresponded with Antero for many years, saw him and presented him a l i t t l e more realistically than did most contributors to the In Memoriam. Teofilo Braga, we know, jealous of the place which his generation gave Antero as its leader, did everything he could to undermine the reputation of Antero.
Oliveira Martins met Antero only in , we can therefore not use his testimony here; we can however try to reach a balance and see in him, not "Santo Antero" as Eca de Queiros came to call him, but an outstanding young man, serious in his intent, clearsighted and detached in a period of blind and selfish enthusiasm for technical progress, surrounded by materialists who did not hesitate to compromise between their principles and their greed.
The political Regeneration of was well over, and Antero saw in politicians nothing but self-seeking unscrupulous exploiters of the "povo". His heart always went out to the oppressed and that is how he saw the great masses, not only of Portugal, but particularly of Portugal. Converted to the "religion of Humanity" of Auguste Comte, the "povo" was for him the most important element of society because of i t s basic purity.
In this he was a Romantic, but in this he differed from the previous generation to which Herculano and Garrett, both dedicated liberals of the Mindelo group, belonged. Garrett, a bourgeois, Herculano, a believer in medieval civic organization and 53 skeptical as was his King Pedro V about democracy.
Camilo Castelo Branco was more to his taste, most probably because of his insight into the peasantry and his anti-bourgeois attitude. Feliciano de Castilho was called a socialist by Oliveira Martins in his Portugal contemporaheo. Antero would never believe in a supremacy of the State over the individual. The truth as he saw i t , was attain-able only with the tearing down of a l l the obstacles, through a revolution not only moral but artistic. During these years, , he was really getting ready, rehearsing unwittingly, for his big battle with the Pontiff of the Arts, A.
I might conclude this essay at the end of the academic year but as mentioned earlier, to Antero those years as a student of the University were not what he would consider progressive achievements. He failed his fourth year, repeated i t and graduated a year later than his best friends. It must have distressed him most because i t meant another year on the wooden seats, another year of "sebenta", but he lived, as we have shown, outside of the classroom.
The University represented a hated part, a perpetual reminder of national and human stagnation. I chose to carry on until the edge of his great battle, the Questab Coimbra which established him as the leader of the new generation, not only in poetry but in thinking. From then on he was, for better and for worse, married to his revolution. The Questab Coimbra 54 is extremely well documented; i f i t marked a new phase in the l i f e of Antero, i t brought into national consciousness the split between the older generation and the moderns.
Before i t was over Antero removed himself to Lisbon for good, disengaging himself from the quarrel. I have chosen to stop just short of September 65 but after the publication of the Odes Modernas August since they are a resume and a con-clusion of his years in Coimbra. By the end of Antero was far from contented. He was far from inner peace, but he had published his Sonnets and this gave him a reputation i n Coimbra. He had been at University four years and he was a senior.
He had prestige, this gave him self-assurance, his friends were around him to restrain him, support him, follow him. During these years he found himself more and more involved in public action, sometimes reluctantly i t seems: Antero had always remarkable lucidity. He had detached himself as much as he could,-given his temperament and education,-from his situation as a son of a wealthy ancient "morgado" family, and was ready to suffer the consequences; he saw the danger of making for himself the reputation of a trouble-maker, and showed caution when involved in compromising situations, but he was also carried forward by his growing reputation among his peers.
Usually he did not take initiatives but i f he had made an impetuous move, and joined some student rebellion, he did his best 55 to plead extenuating circumstances or tried to remove himself from the limelight as long as he was in Coimbra. Here arose the contra-dictions which plagued the whole of Antero's l i f e: Even Bruno Carreiro, who i s always on the side of Antero, and his loyal biographer, leaves no doubt that Antero suffered from venereal disease. How long was his illness? There are no documents. His commentators, friends as well as critics, were reluctant to speak about i t.
Antero was very open to his best friends and they respected his confidences. Was his illness of I the same as ? Did his health deteriorate partly because of i t? The secret was revealed through letters published after his death: Some of his commentators, contemporary and others, have tried to portray Antero as a misogynist.
Open with his friends, Antero was very discreet with outsiders and the fact that such an outsider described him as a misogynist and that authors have insisted on his uneasiness with women proves nothing. According to his best friends, Antero was susceptible of great passions. An observation of his rejection of women's company of might have been accurate, but the reason was probably not. If Antero did not seek the company of young ladies during that time, 5 6 might i t not have been because his conscience and his health kept him away?
At times, his verses show disappointment and frustration with women; he was unfortunate in his passions: Yet he held on to his idea of Womanhood, We know that he systematically, almost fiercely destroyed many of his poems during , probably the juvenile love-poems he did not care to leave to posterity; what he wanted to pass on was his reverence for Motherhood, his trust in woman's instinct to lead man to Truth, He saw in her the perfect companion, indispensable to the fulfilment of man's spiritual destiny. Bruno Carreiro says that was Antero's great year, "a mais rutilante", the year when he justified his established ascendency, stirred himself about problems which affected his immediate environment, confirmed the faith that his friends and peers were investing i n him as a leader.
This i s how Antero feels in this "most brilliant year": It was published 57 as a series of a r t i c l e s i n the Revolucao de Setembro beginning on the 26th of January, , signed Raymundo Castromino one of h i s pseudonyms. In these Antero made public h i s opinion of Portuguese l e t t e r s , whose High P r i e s t had been f o r quite a while, and s t i l l was, A. He joined Santos Valente i n the sentiments expressed: He would have l i k e d to see one theme developed throughout, rather than an anthology. There i s no reason given f o r not continuing the series. In t h i s agrarian Gremio Alemtejano.
Antero published "A Indiferenga em p o l i t i c a " i n A p r i l and May of He complained that they did not represent the people though they claimed to represent the nation, 58 only the masses, "o povo", could represent the nation. There was no liberal thinking around the throne. It was necessary to develop a civic conscience. The sons of Loyola were not the defenders of the working class which was slowly increasing nor of the peasants, who were the majority, Antero stood thus again and again during his l i f e against the criniinal indifference of politicians towards the poorer classes; he would again and again attack Absolutism, the Inquisition, Rome, and the Jesuits, In April he wrote, s t i l l for the Gremio Alemtejanot Quest ab Romana, This was an attack on an ultramontane periodical.
Poor Antero1 He believed firmly in the christian principles which he was taught as a child and though he had lost much of his faith, he had not lost his ability to be incensed at the inconsistency of those who preached one thing and practised another. He could not stand what he saw as an obstacle to progress. His f i r s t participation in students' activities was a rebellious one, as member of a secret society determined to put pressure on the administration to have Rector Basilio removed. In April students, irritated by Rector Basilio Alberto de Sousa Pinto's petty application of the rules, formed a secret society: A Sociedade du Raio, with masks and passwords and meetings in dark rooms at midnight.
Romanticism was not dead yeti The main objective was to apprehend Basilio and hold him hostage until the students received assurances that he would be removed. The atmosphere was very oppressive: The members gathered and the plan was read. The plan was never carried out but the member-ship grew to over two hundred, a sure sign of the growing resentment against the rector, and of the fascination of secret societies!
The attitude of Antero de Quental toward Antonio Feliciano de Castilho seems ambivalent at this time: Uncle Filipe urged Antero to make an appearance and a contribution to the poetic soiree; at f i r s t reluctant, he agreed finally and wrote an ode: Sabe-las tu, o mar, que te torturas. No teu carcere imenso? As verdades, as bxblias, as certezas? Limites, formas, consagrados modos? Para fechar os olhos sobre a vida Eternamente, abandonando a sorte A palraa da vitdria doloridal Ha quanto baste porque se corte A amarra do destino, enfim partida Com um grito de dor, que leve o vento c Onde quiser- a morte e o esquecimentoi Antero recited this and received thunderous applause.
This i s a great moment for him because i t means that not only his faithful friends are with him, but also the youth of Coimbra. His anxiety was genuine and he could not be indifferent to the sharing of his own pains by his generation. It was an important moment for him because i t was the beginning of solidarity with those who wished to turn their backs on the past, and this victory was made easier by Castilho himself who warmly congratulated him and continued the evening himself with a recitation of Victor Hugo's Napoleon II.
As a poet Antero was already established and his services were obtained again to homage other visitors of less or more importance. It i s around this time that Eca de Queiros found him improvising on the steps of the 'Se Nova'. Such public success had he that he failed his examinations in July. He spent much of the summer in Coimbra preparing his readmission in October.
Despite his disappointment at staying in Coimbra an extra year and the prospect of his friends graduating before he did, this was a good summer for Antero, with suppers of "agonias de boi com cebolada". Manuel de Arriaga, who was a vegetarian, shuddered at the sight of those plates of meat; he had come out with the designation "agonias de boi" and Antero added the "cebolada". Together they went swimming in the Mondego. They had discussed Darwin 61 Origin of Species, I and Antero, who could not swim, floated on his side with one hand supporting him on the bottom of the very shallow waters of the summer river.
He said i f he stayed long enough i n the water some atavistic instinct would wake up and he would start swimming effortlessly I He propelled himself on his hand to demonstrate! When he was alone, his ghosts rejoined him: Doubt, Darkness, Longings, Anxiety, Despair. His sonnet "Divina Comedia" from July Erguendo os bracos para o ceu distante E apostrophando os deuses invisxveis Os homens clamam Porque e que nos criastes?
Why was Prince Humberto visiting Portugal in October ? Whatever the political reason for such a trip may have been, Prince Humberto made a visit to the student youth of Coimbra and Antero was asked by the Sociedade do Raio to greet him in their name. This he did, much to the embarrassment of Prince Humberto and of the conserva-tive academics of Coimbra.
I don't think Antero and his friends were naive. I have every reason to believe that this was indeed Antero's style: Victor Emmanuel had become the king of a unified Italy except for Rome and Venice and reluctantly allowed a constitutional regime.