MACEDO, JOSE AGOSTINHO DE (1761-1831)

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 216 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LUP-MAL

MACEDO, JOSE AGOSTINHO DE (1761-1831) , Portuguese poet and

prose

PROSE

writer, was born at Beja of plebeian family, and studied Latin and rhetoric with the Oratorians in Lisbon. He became professed as an Augustinian in 1778, but owing to his turbulent character he spent a

great

GREAT

part of his time in prison, and was constantly being transferred from one convent to an-other, finally giving up the monastic habit to live licentiously in the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. In 1792 he was unfrocked, but by the aid of powerful friends he obtained a papal brief which secularized him and permitted him to retain his ecclesiastical status. Taking to journal-ism and preaching he now made for himself a substantial living and a unique position. In a short time he was recognized as the leading pulpit orator of the day, and in 1802 he, became one of the royal preachers. Macedo was the first to introduce from abroad and to cultivate didactic and descriptive poetry, the best example of which is his notable transcendental poem Meditation (1813). His colossal egotism made him attempt to supersede Camoens as Portugal's greatest poet, and in 1814 he produced Oriente, an insipid epic notwithstanding its correct and vigorous verse, dealing with the same subject as the LusiadsGama's discovery of the sea route to India. This amended paraphrase met with a cold reception, whereupon Macedo published his Censura dos Lusiadas, containing a minute examination and virulent indictment of Camoens. Macedo founded and wrote for a large number of

journals

JOURNALS

, and the tone and temper of these and his political pamphlets induced his leading biographer to name him the "

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

libeller " of Portugal, though at the time his jocular and satirical style gained him popular favour. An extreme adherent of absolutism, he expended all his brilliant powers of invective against the Constitutionalists, and advocated a general massacre of the opponents of the Miguelite regime. Notwithstanding his priestly office and old age, he continued his aggressive journalistic campaign, until his own party, feeling that he was damaging the cause by his excesses, threatened him with proceedings, which caused him in 1829 to resign the post of censor of books for the

Ordinary

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

, to which he had been appointed in 1824. Though his ingratitude was proverbial, and his moral character of the worst, when he died in 1831 he left behind him many friends, a host of admirers, and a

great

GREAT

but ephemeral literary reputation. His ambition to rank as the king of letters led to his famous conflict with Bocage (q.v.), whose poem Pena de Taliao was perhaps the hardest blow Macedo ever received. His malignity reached its height in a satirical poem in six cantos, Os Burros (1812-1814), in which he pilloried by name men and women of all grades of society, living and dead, with the utmost

licence

LICENCE (through the French from Lat. licentia, licere, to be lawful)

of expression. His

translation

TRANSLATION

of the Odes of

Horace

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

, and his dramatic attempts, are only of value as evidence of the extraordinary versatility of the man, but his treatise, if his it be, A Demonstration of the Existence of God, at least proves his possession of very high mental powers. As a poet, his odes on

Wellington

and the emperor Alexander show true inspiration, and the poems of the same nature in his Lyra anacreontica, addressed to his mistress, have considerable merit.
See Memorias pares la vida intima de Jose Agostinho de Maceda (ed. Th. Braga, 1899) ; Cartas e opusculos (1900) ; Censures a diversas obras (1901). (E. PR.)

End of Article: MACEDO, JOSE AGOSTINHO DE (1761-1831)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/LUP_MAL/MACEDO_JOSE_AGOSTINHO_DE_1761_.html">
MACEDO, JOSE AGOSTINHO DE (1761-1831)
</a>

(Previous)
MACE (Fr. masse, O. Fr. mace, connected with La...

(Next)
MACEDONIA

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email