MORAES, FRANCISCO DE (c. 1500-1572)

This article appears in Volume V18, Page 815 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MOL-MOS

MORAES, FRANCISCO DE (c. 1500-1572) , Portuguese romance writer, was probably born at the close of the 15th century. We know very little of his life, except that he was treasurer of the

household

HOUSEHOLD, ROYAL

to King John III., and he is first found in Paris in the suite of the Portuguese

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

, D. Francisco de Noronha, who had gone there in 1540. He was a

commander

COMMANDER

of the Order of Christ, and was called 0 Palmeirim on account of his authorship of the famous romance of

chivalry

CHIVALRY (O. Fr. chevalerie, from
Late
- LATE
Lat. caballerius)

Palmeirim de Inglaterra; in 1572 he was assassinated at Evora. He appears to have written his book in France (perhaps in Paris) in 1544, dedicating it to the Infanta D. Maria, daughter of King Manoel, but the first extant Portuguese edition only came out in 1567. A Spanish version was published as early as 1548, and on the strength of this many critics have contended that the book was originally written in that language and that Moraes only translated it into Protuguese. Both tradition and a

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

examination of the Portuguese and Spanish texts, however, tell overwhelmingly in favour of the first being the

original

ORIGINAL

with Moraes as its author. The episode of the four French ladies shows an intimate acquaintance with the

court

of Francis I., where Moraes spent some years, and one of these ladies named Torsi is the one he loved and to whom he addressed some verses entitled "Desculpa de huns amores." The Palmeirim de Inglaterra belongs to another branch of the same cycle as the Amadis de Gaula; the two romances are the best representatives of their class, and for their merits were spared from the auto da fe to which Cervantes condemned other romances of

chivalry

CHIVALRY (O. Fr. chevalerie, from
Late
- LATE
Lat. caballerius)

in D. Quixote. It has a well-marked

plot

PLOT
PLOT, ROBERT (164o-1696)

, clearly

drawn

DRAWN

characters, and an admirable style, and has been reckoned a Portuguese classic from the time of its issue.

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