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CASTILHO, ANTONIO FELICIANO DE (1800-...

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 476 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CASTILHO, See also:ANTONIO FELICIANO DE (1800-1875) , Portuguese See also:man of letters, was See also:born at See also:Lisbon. He lost his sight at the See also:age of six, but the devotion of his See also:brother Augusto, aided by a retentive memory, enabled him to go through his school and university course with success; and he acquired an almost See also:complete mastery of the Latin See also:language and literature. His first See also:work of importance, the Cartels de See also:Echo e Narciso (1821), belongs to the pseudo-classical school in which he had been brought up, but his romantic leanings became apparent in the Primavera (1822) and in Amor e See also:Melancholia (1823), two volumes of honeyed and prolix bucolic See also:poetry. In the poetic legends A noite de See also:Castello (1836) and Cuimes do bardo (1838) Castilho appeared as a full-blown Romanticist. These books exhibit the defects and qualities of all his work, in which lack of ideas and of creative See also:imagination and an See also:atmosphere of artificiality are See also:ill compensated for by a certain emotional See also:charm, See also:great purity of diction and melodious versification. Belonging to the didactic and descriptive school, Castilho saw nature as all sweetness, See also:pleasure and beauty, and he lived in a dreamland of his imagination. A fulsome epic on the See also:succession of See also:King See also:John VI. brought him an See also:office of profit at See also:Coimbra. On his return from a stay in See also:Madeira, he founded the Revista Universal Lisbonense, in See also:imitation of Herculano's See also:Panorama, and his profound knowledge of the Portuguese See also:classics served him well in the introduction and notes to a very useful publication, the Livraria Classica Portugueza (1845–1847, 25 vols.), while two years later he established the " Society of the See also:Friends of Letters and the Arts." A study on See also:Camoens and See also:treatises on metrification and See also:mnemonics followed from his See also:pen. His praise-worthy zeal for popular instruction led him to take up the study of pedagogy, and in 185o he brought out his Leitura Repentina, a method of See also:reading which was named after him, and he became See also:government See also:commissary of the See also:schools which were destined to put it into practice. Going to See also:Brazil in 1854, he there wrote his famous " See also:Letter to the Empress." Though Castilho's lack of strong individuality and his over-great respect for authority prevented him from achieving See also:original work of real merit, yet his See also:translations of See also:Anacreon, See also:Ovid and See also:Virgil and the Chave do See also:Enigma, explaining the romantic incidents that led to his first See also:marriage with D. Maria de See also:Baena, a niece of the satirical poet See also:Tolentino, and a descendant of Antonio See also:Ferreira, reveal him as a See also:master of See also:form and a purist in language. His versions of See also:Goethe's See also:Faust and See also:Shakespeare's Midsummer See also:Night's See also:Dream, made without a knowledge of See also:German and See also:English, scarcely added to his reputation.

When the Coimbra question arose in 1865, See also:

Garrett was dead and Herculano had ceased to write, leaving Castilho supreme, for the moment, in the See also:realm of letters. But the youthful Anthero de See also:Quental withstood his claim to See also:direct the rising See also:generation and attacked his superannuated leadership, and after a fierce See also:war of See also:pamphlets Castilho was dethroned. The rise of Joao de See also:Deus reduced him to a secondary position in the Portuguese See also:Parnassus, and when he died ten years later much of his former fame had preceded him to the See also:tomb. See also " Memorias de Castilho" in the Instituto of Coimbra; .Innocencio da See also:Silva in Diccionario bibliographic() Portuguez, i. 130 and viii. 132: Latino Coelho's study in the Revista Gontemporanea de See also:Portugal e Brazil, vols. i. and ii. ; Dr Theophilo See also:Braga, Historia do Romantismo (Lisbon, 188o). (E.

End of Article: CASTILHO, ANTONIO FELICIANO DE (1800-1875)

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