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FERREIRA, ANTONIO (1528–1569)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 286 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FERREIRA, See also:ANTONIO (1528–1569) , Portuguese poet, was a native of See also:Lisbon; his See also:father held the See also:post of escrivao de fazenda in the See also:house of the See also:duke of See also:Coimbra at See also:Setubal, so that he must there have met the See also:great adventurer Mendes See also:Pinto. In 1547–1548 he went to the university of Coimbra, and on the 16th of See also:July 1551 took his See also:bachelor's degree. The Sonnets forming the First See also:Book in his collected See also:works date from 1552 and contain the See also:history of his See also:early love for an unknown See also:lady. They seem to have been written in Coimbra or during vacations in Lisbon; and if some are dry and See also:stilted, others, like the admirable No. 45, are full of feeling and tears. The Sonnets in the Second Book were inspired by D. Maria Pimentel, whom he afterwards married, and they are marked by that chastity of sentiment, seriousness and ardent patriotism which characterized the See also:man and the writer. Ferreira's ideal, as a poet, was to win " the See also:applause of the See also:good," and, in the See also:preface to his poems, he says, " I am content with this See also:glory, that I have loved my See also:land and my See also:people." He was intimate with princes, nobles and the most distinguished See also:literary men of the See also:time, such as the scholarly Diogo de Teive and the poets Bernardes, Caminha and See also:Corte-Real, as well as with the aged Sa de See also:Miranda, the founder of the classical school of which Ferreira became the foremost representative. The See also:death in 1554 of See also:Prince See also:John, the See also:heir to the See also:throne, See also:drew from him, as from See also:Camoens, Bernardes and Caminha, a poetical lament, which consisted of an See also:elegy and two eclogues, imitative of See also:Virgil and See also:Horace, and devoid of See also:interest. On the 14th of July 1555 he took his See also:doctor's degree, an event which was celebrated, according to See also:custom, by a sort of See also:Roman See also:triumph, and he stayed on as a See also:professor, finding Coimbra with its picturesque environs congenial to his poetical tastes and love of a See also:country See also:life. The See also:year 1557 produced his See also:sixth elegy, addressed to the son of the great See also:Albuquerque, a poem of See also:noble patriotism expressed in eloquent and sonorous See also:verse, and in the next year he married. After a See also:short and happy married life, his wife died, and the ninth See also:sonnet of Book 2 describes her end in moving words.

This loss See also:

lent Ferreira's verse an added austerity, and the See also:independence of his muse is remarkable when he addresses See also:King See also:Sebastian and reminds him of his duties as well as his rights. On the 14th of See also:October 1567 he became Disembargador da Casa do Civel, and had to leave the quiet of Coimbra for Lisbon, His verses tell how he disliked the See also:change, and how the bustle of the See also:capital, then a great commercial See also:emporium, made him sad and almost See also:tongue-tied for See also:poetry. The intrigues and moral twists of the courtiers and traders, among whom he was forced to live, hurt his See also:fine sense of See also:honour, and he See also:felt his See also:mental See also:isolation the more, because his See also:friends were few and scattered in that great See also:city which the discoveries and conquests of the Portuguese had made the centre of a See also:world See also:empire. In 1569 a terrible epidemic of carbunculous See also:fever See also:broke out and carried off 50,000 inhabitants of Lisbon, and, on the 29th of See also:November, Ferreira, who had stayed there doing his See also:duty when others fled; See also:fell a victim. Horace was his favourite poet, erudition his muse, and his admiration of the See also:classics made him disdain the popular poetry of the Old School (Escola Velha) represented by Gil See also:Vicente. His See also:national feeling would not allow him to write in Latin or See also:Spanish, like most of his contemporaries, but his Portuguese is as Latinized as he could make it, and he even calls his poetical works Poemas Lusitanos. SA de Miranda had philosophized in the See also:familiar redondilha, introduced the See also:epistle and founded the See also:comedy of learning. It was the beginning of a revolution, which Ferreira completed by abandoning the hendecasyllable for the See also:Italian decasyllable, and by composing the noble and austere Roman poetry of his letters, odes and elegies. It was all done of set purpose, for he was a reformer conscious of his See also:mission and resolved to carry it out. The See also:gross See also:realism of the popular poetry, its lack of culture and its carelessness of See also:form, offended his educated See also:taste, and its picturesqueness and ingenuity made no See also:appeal to him. It is not surprising, however, that though he earned the applause of men of letters he failed to See also:touch the See also:hearts of his countrymen. Ferreira wrote the Terentian See also:prose comedy Bristo, at the See also:age of twenty-five (1553), and dedicated it to Prince John in the name of the university.

It is neither a comedy of See also:

character nor See also:manners, but its vis comica lies in its See also:plot and situations. The Cioso, a later product, may almost be called a comedy of character. See also:Castro is Ferreira's most considerable See also:work, and, iii date, is the first tragedy in Portuguese, and the second in See also:modern See also:European literature. Though fashioned on the great See also:models of the ancients, it has little plot or See also:action, and the characters, except that of the prince, are See also:ill-designed. It is really a splendid poem, with a See also:chorus which sings the sad See also:fate of Ignez, in musical odes, See also:rich in feeling and grandeur of expression. Her love is the chaste, timid See also:affection of a wife and a See also:vassal rather than the strong See also:passion of a See also:mistress, but Pedro is really the man history describes, the love-fettered prince whom the tragedy of Ignez's death converted into the cruel See also:tyrant. King Alfonso is little more than a See also:shadow, and only meets Ignez once, his son never; while, stranger still, Pedro and Ignez never come on the See also:stage together, and their love is merely narrated. Nevertheless, Ferreira merits all praise for choosing one of the most dramatic episodes in Portuguese history for his subject, and though it has since been handled by poets of renown in many differenc See also:languages, none has been able to surpass the old See also:master. The Castro was first printed in Lisbon in 1587, and it is included in Ferreira's Poems, published in 1598 by his son. It has been translated by See also:Musgrave (See also:London, 1825), and the chorus of See also:Act I. appeared again in See also:English in the See also:Savoy for July 1896. It has also been done into See also:French and See also:German. The Bristo and Cioso first appeared with the comedies of Sa de Miranda in Lisbon in 1622.

There is a good modern edition of the See also:

Complete Works of Ferreira (2 vols., See also:Paris, 1865). See See also:Castilho's Antonio Ferreira (3 vols., Rio, 1865), which contains a full See also:biographical and See also:critical study with extracts. (E. PR.) FERREL'S See also:LAW, in See also:physical See also:geography. " If a See also:body moves in any direction on the See also:earth's See also:surface, there is a deflecting force arising from the earth's rotation, which deflects it to the right in the See also:northern hemisphere and to the See also:left in the See also:southern hemisphere." This law applies to every body that is set in See also:motion upon the surface of the rotating earth, but usually the duration of the motion of any body due to a single impulse is so brief, and there are so many frictional disturbances, that it is not easy to observe the results of this deflecting force. The movements of the See also:atmosphere, however, are upon a See also:scale large enough to make this observation easy, and the simplest See also:evidence is obtained from a study of the direction of the See also:air movements in the great See also:wind systems of the globe.

End of Article: FERREIRA, ANTONIO (1528–1569)

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