Luiz Vaz de Camoes Or Camoens is considered the greatest Portuguese poet, lived during the reigns of three kings, John III, Sebastian, and the Cardinal-King Henry. His entire life was deeply rooted in the national existence, and its very essence was transmuted into his poetry. During this span Portugal plunged from the illusory splendor of the days of Manuel the Fortunate to the ignominy of defeat and servitude.
Background
Camoes was born in Lisbon, or possibly Coimbra, presumably in 1524. All Portugal at this time was acutely conscious of the heroic maritime explorations and conquests of the recent past, of the creation of an opulent empire overseas, and of aspirations to hegemony in world affairs. It was, furthermore, an epoch in which material splendor was becoming more and more intensified by the spirit of the Renaissance.
Education
Camoes studied in Coimbra, first at the College of All Saints and then at the university until 1542 and soon thereafter made his way to Lisbon.
Career
The next ten years he spent on the turbulent fringes of the royal court. At the outset he was well received in Lisbon, but apparently as a result of his intemperate conduct he fell into difficulties and disgrace. Perhaps the most celebrated phase of this period of his life is his passion for a lady traditionally identified as one of the queen's attendants, Caterina de Ataide, whose name can be read in the anagram "Natercia," found in Camoes' love poems. Possibly the reality of this affair has been exaggerated, for the examples of Dante and Petrarch made almost obligatory the fiction of concentrating the generalized Neoplatonic spirit of love upon some specific person.
Camoes incurred the active disfavor of the court, doubtless, as he himself said, because of the intrigues of envious courtiers, but also in some degree because of his indiscreet conduct, which added to the offense he had already given by his play El Rei Seleuco ("King Seleucus"), whose plot recalled King John's loss of his bride to his own father, Manuel. Camoes found it necessary to spend the better part of a year away from Lisbon and then enlisted for military service in North Africa, where he remained in the vicinity of Ceuta from 1547 to 1549. There he lost his right eye in a skirmish. Returning to Lisbon, Camoes failed to obtain rewards for his services, and in his disappointment he engaged in a series of brawls and scandals that culminated in his seriously wounding one of the king's retinue, Goncalo Borges, during the feast of Corpus Christi. The penalty was an imprisoinment from which he was released only on the recovery and magnanimous forgiveness of his victim. Camoes received the king's full pardon by enlisting for service in India, and on Mar. 24, 1553, he set sail for Goa for a sojourn destined to last seventeen years.
In the Orient CamõesCamoes met with ever increasing disappointment. His duties took him westward from Goa to the Red Sea and eastward as far as Macao on the Chinese coast, where he remained two years, only to be deported to stand trial for alleged irregularities in handling funds. The vessel bearing him back to Goa was wrecked in the Gulf of Tonkin, where the picturesque tradition has it that he swam ashore carrying in one hand the unfinished manuscript of his great epic poem, Os Lusiadas. In Goa he underwent further imprisonment. Finally he began his homeward journey with the aid of Pedro Barreto, who in 1567 took him as far as Sofala, on the east coast of Africa; but he remained there for two years, lacking sufficient funds to proceed farther, and succeeded in reaching Lisbon only in 1570. His homeland gave him a sorry welcome. The country was ravaged by plague; his remaining friends were few and his means fewer; and "Natercia" had died in 1556 during his stay in the Orient. He had completed his epic, however, and after its publication in 1572 received a three-year pension from King Sebastian. This, despite a lapse in payment, was renewed and continued for his lifetime. 'Camoes' last days were clouded by the disastrous defeat and death of King Sebastian at al-Qasr al-Kabir, and he died in misery June 10, 1580, only shortly before the vacant throne of Portugal was annexed by Philip II of Spain.
Other Works. Passing mention must be made of Camões'Camoes' three dramatic works: Auto dos Anfitrioes, in mixed Spanish and Portuguese, as was often the way of Gil Vicente; Audo d'el Rei Seleuco, which gave offense to King John III; and Auto de Filodemo. The first two were based on Classical themes and the third upon tales of knightly adventure. None is particularly noteworthy, except for the competence of the verse.
Camoes expressed himself, perhaps even more characteristically than in his great epic, in his shorter lyrical poems, his odes, elegies, eclogues, songs, and, above all, sonnets. His Coimbra days, filled with the reading of Classical and Renaissance poetry, his years in Lisbon, his loves, his banishment and days of soldiering in Africa, the sea voyage to India, his exile in Goa and Macao with its shipwreck and miserable hours in prison, the death of "Natercia," all had emotional significance for him in terms of passion, nostalgia, resignation, bitterness, and patriotic fervor. All took form in both the native songs and in the dolce stil nuovo not long since naturalized by Sa da Miranda. To be sure, his extensive output, even discounting probably apocryphal lyrics, is uneven; but at his frequent best he is unsurpassed by any other national poet. Such poems as the sonnet on the death of "Natercia," Alma minha gentil ("My Beloved"), or the exquisite octosyllables, Sobolos rios que vam, whose nostalgic opening lines paraphrase Psalm 137 ("By the rivers of Babylon") are among the most beautiful in the language.