Almeida Garrett

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Almeida Garrett bigraphy, stories - Ministers

Almeida Garrett : biography

February 4, 1799 – December 9, 1854

João Baptista da Silva Leitão de Almeida Garrett, Viscount of Almeida Garrett (February 4, 1799 – December 9, 1854) was a Portuguese poet, playwright, novelist and politician. He is considered to be the introducer of the Romanticism in Portugal. He is regarded as one of history’s greatest romantics and a true revolutionary and humanist.

List of works

  • 1819 – Lucrécia (Lucretia)
  • 1820 – O Roubo das Sabinas (poem written in youth, published in 1968) (The Theft of the Sabines)
  • 1820 – Mérope (theater) (Merope)
  • 1821 – O Retrato de Vénus (poetry) (The Portrait of Venus)
  • 1821 – Catão (theater) (Cato)
  • 1825 – Camões (poetry) (Camoens)
  • 1826 – Dona Branca (poetry) (Mrs. Branca)
  • 1828 – Adozinda (poetry)
  • 1829 – Lírica de João Mínimo (poetry) (João Mínimo’s Lyric)
  • 1829 – O tratado "Da Educação" ("Education" treaty)
  • 1830 – Portugal na Balança da Europa (Portugal on the scales of Europe)
  • 1838 – Um Auto de Gil Vicente (theater) (A Auto of Gil Vicente)
  • 1842 – O Alfageme de Santarém (theater)
  • 1843 – Romanceiro e Cancioneiro Geral, tomo 1
  • 1843 – Frei Luís da Sousa (theater) ISBN 0-85051-510-6 (Brother Luís de Sousa)
  • 1845 – Flores sem fruto (poetry) (Fruitless Flowers)
  • 1845 – O Arco de Sant’Ana I (fiction) (The Arch of Sant’Ana I)
  • 1846 – Falar Verdade a Mentir (theater) (Speaking the Thruth by Lying)
  • 1846 – Viagens na Minha Terra (fiction) ISBN 0-85051-511-4 (Travels in my Homeland)
  • 1846 – D. Filipa de Vilhena (theater)
  • 1848 – As profecias do Bandarra (Bandarra’s Prophecies)
  • 1848 – Um Noivado no Dafundo (A Wedding in Dafundo)
  • 1848 – A sobrinha do Marquês (theater) (The Marquis’s Niece)
  • 1849 – Memórias Históricas de José Xavier Mouzinho da Silveira (Historical Memories of José Xavier Mouzinho da Silveira)
  • 1850 – O Arco de Sant’Ana II (fiction) (The Arch of Sant’Ana II)
  • 1851 – Romanceiro e Cancioneiro Geral, tomo 2 e 3
  • 1853 – Folhas Caídas (poetry) (Fallen Leaves)
  • 1853 – Fábulas e Folhas Caídas (poetry) (Fables and Fallen Leaves)
  • 1854? – Helena (fiction)
  • 18?? – Afonso de Albuquerque
  • 1871 – Discursos Parlamentares e Memórias Biográficas (Parliamentary Speeches and Biographical Memories)

Biography

Garrett was born João Leitão da Silva in Porto, the son of António Bernardo da Silva Garrett (1740–1834), a fidalgo of the Royal Household and knight of the Order of Christ whose mother was the daughter of an Irish father born in exile in France and an Italian mother born in Spain, and his wife (m. 1796) Ana Augusta de Almeida Leitão (b. Porto, c. 1770). At an early age, around 4 or 5 years old, Garrett changed his name to João Baptista da Silva Leitão, adding a name from his godfather and altering the order of his surnames.

In 1809, his family fled the second French invasion carried out by Soult’s troops, seeking refuge in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores. While in the Azores, he was taught by his uncle, Dom Frei Alexandre da Sagrada Família (Faial, Horta, May 22, 1737 – Terceira, Angra do Heroísmo, April 22, 1818), also a freemason, then the 25th Bishop of Angra (1816–1818) and former Bishop of Malacca and Timor; his two other uncles were Manuel Inácio da Silva Garrett, Archdeacon of Angra, and Inácio da Silva Garrett, also a clergyman of Angra. In childhood, his mulatto Brazilian nanny Rosa de Lima taught him some traditional stories that later influenced his work.

In 1818, he moved to Coimbra to study at the University law school. In 1818, he published O Retrato de Vénus , a work for which was soon to be prosecuted, as it was considered "materialist, atheist, and immoral"; it was during this period that he adopted and added his pen name de Almeida Garrett, who was seen as more aristocratic.

Although he did not take active part in the Liberal Revolution that broke out in Porto in 1820, he contributed with two patriotic verses, the Hymno Constitucional and the , which his friends copied and distributed in the streets of Porto. After the "Vilafrancada", a reactionary coup d’état led by the Infante Dom Miguel in 1823, he was forced to seek exile in England. He had just married the beautiful Luísa Cândida Midosi who was only 12 or 13 years old at the time and was the sister of his friend Luís Frederico Midosi, later married to Maria Teresa Achemon, both related to theatre and children of José Midosi (son of an Italian father and an Irish mother) and wife Ana Cândida de Ataíde Lobo. While in England, in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, he began his association with Romanticism, being subject to the first-hand influences of William Shakespeare and Walter Scott, as well as to that of Gothic aesthetics. In the beginning of 1825, Garrett left for France where he wrote Camões (1825) and Dona Branca (1826), poems that are usually considered the first Romantic works in Portuguese literature. In 1826, he returned to Portugal, where he settled for two years and founded the newspapers O Portuguez and O Chronista. In 1828, under the rule of King Miguel of Portugal, he was again forced to settle in England, publishing Adozinda and performing his tragedy Catão at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth.