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SADE, DONATIEN ALPHONSE FRANCOIS, COUNT

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 992 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SADE, DONATIEN See also:ALPHONSE See also:FRANCOIS, See also:COUNT [usually called the See also:MARQUIS DE SADEj (1740-1814), See also:French licentious writer, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 2nd of See also:June 1740. He entered the See also:light-See also:horse at fourteen and saw considerable military service before returning to Paris in 1766. Here his vicious practices became notorious, and in 1772 he was condemned to See also:death at See also:Aix for an unnatural offence, and for poisoning. He fled to See also:Italy, but in 1777 he was arrested in Paris, removed to Aix for trial, and there found guilty. In 1778 he escaped from See also:prison, but was soon re-arrested and finally committed to the See also:Bastille. Here he began to write plays and obscene novels. In 1789 he was removed to the Charenton Lunatic See also:Asylum, but was See also:diss charged in 1790, only to be recommitted as incurable in 1803. He died there on the 2nd of See also:December 1814. Among his See also:works, all of the type indicated, were Justine (1791), Juliette (1792), Philosophic dons le boudoir (1793) and See also:Les Crimes de l'amour (1800). The word Sadism, meaning a See also:form of sexual perversion, is derived from his name. SA DE See also:MIRANDA, FRANCISCO DE (1485-1558), Portuguese poet, was the son of a See also:canon of See also:Coimbra belonging to the See also:ancient and See also:noble See also:family of Sae and passed his See also:early years by the See also:banks of the See also:river Mondego, the source of See also:inspiration to poets in every See also:age. He probably made his first studies of See also:Greek, Latin and See also:philosophy in one of the colleges of the Old See also:City, and in 1505 went to See also:Lisbon University, beginning at the same See also:time to frequent the See also:court.

See also:

Verse-making and gallantry occupied much of his time there, and by virtue of his talents and name he became one of a See also:group comprising the greatest nobles and most celebrated poets of the age, including Bernadim See also:Ribeiro and Christovao See also:Falcao, who surrounded the beautiful and gifted D. Leonor de Mascarenhas. He seems to have resided for the most See also:part in the See also:capital down to 1521, dividing his time between the See also:palace and the university, in the latter of which he had taken the degree of See also:doctor of See also:law by 1516. Honoured by the friendship of See also:Prince See also:John (afterwards John III.), he accompanied the court as it moved from See also:place to place during the reign of See also:King Manoel, and witnessed the triumphs of the Fortunate Monarch; and at a time when the See also:flag of See also:Portugal floated victorious in every See also:sea and her See also:ships encircled the globe, it was not surprising that the youthful poet should aspire to be the See also:Virgil of a new See also:Augustus ruling a universal See also:monarchy. His studious and reflective mind and See also:sound sense did not allow him, however, to nourish these illusions for See also:long, and we find him pointing out in tones of prophetic See also:melancholy the signs of decadence and future disaster. He had come out of the university so See also:good a lawyer that he was able to See also:act as ad See also:interim See also:professor of his See also:faculty, and he was offered a judicial See also:post, but his See also:independent spirit and punctilious See also:conscience led him to refuse it. He had only embarked on a legal career to please his See also:father, and on the latter's death he abandoned law for moral and stoic philosophy and See also:poetry, and resolved to travel. He had observed with regret the modest intellectual position of his See also:country, for all her See also:wealth and epic achievements, the latter of which had found no See also:echo in poetry; and if he were to learn and be able to introduce new forms of See also:art fed by fresh ideals, as he desired, he See also:felt he must go abroad. The Cancioneiro de See also:Resende, which represented the poetical efforts of courtiers for almost a See also:century and contained Miranda's early verses, showed the extent of the See also:national poverty by its artificiality, and lack of ideas, of sincerity and of good See also:taste. These defects are not surprising, seeing that during most of that long See also:period the See also:literary See also:movement had been confined to court circles and had remained essentially imitative of See also:Spanish See also:models, with hardly a vestige of national or popular inspiration about it. Portugal had been too busy See also:building up a See also:world-See also:empire to imbibe much of the See also:mental culture of the See also:Renaissance, and even the See also:classics were for the most part only known through Spanish See also:translations. See also:Direct intercourse between Portugal and Italy partook of a commercial rather than a literary or See also:artistic See also:character, and, previously to Miranda's See also:journey, See also:Italian poetry was practically unknown.

In the See also:

middle of See also:July 1520 he set out across See also:Spain for Italy, and spent the years 1521 to 1525 abroad, visiting See also:Milan, See also:Venice, See also:Florence, See also:Rome, See also:Naples and See also:Sicily " with leisure and curiosity." He enjoyed intimacy with Giovanni Ruccellai, Lattanzio Tolomei and Sanazarro; he saluted the illustrious See also:Vittoria See also:Colonna, a distant connexion of his family, and in her See also:house he probably talked with See also:Bembo and See also:Ariosto, and perhaps met See also:Machiavelli and See also:Guicciardini. He assisted at the rebirth of the Italian See also:drama and saw the performance of classical See also:prose comedies, a form of art which he was to transplant to Portugal. Lastly he heard the echoes of the See also:Protestant revolt, and witnessed with horror the See also:dissolution of morals which prepared the way for the See also:Reformation. Returning See also:home in 1525, he brought with him the See also:sonnet and anzone of See also:Petrarch, the tercet of See also:Dante, the ottava rima of Ariosto, the See also:eclogue in the manner of Sanazarro, and Italian endecasyllabic verse. He did not, however, like his See also:disciple See also:Antonio See also:Ferreira (q.v.), abandon the national redondilha, but rather continued to employ it and carried it to perfection in his Cartas. Settling down in Coimbra or its environs, he lived there from 1526-1527 until 1532. The visit of King John III. and his court to the city enabled him to resume his old relations with the reigning house and the cultivated members of the See also:nobility, who received him affably and listened with See also:interest to the See also:story of his Italian tour. Gil See also:Vicente, the court dramatist, was then at the height of his fame, but his autos appeared poor things to SA de Miranda as compared with the comedies he had seen in Italy; and urged by his See also:friends to See also:present an example of the new See also:style, he wrote the Estrangeiros. Produced in 1527-1528, it wasthe first Portuguese prose See also:comedy, and was composed on the lines of the classical See also:Roman drama as modified by contemporary Italian authors like Ariosto; it had a See also:great and immediate success, notwithstanding the opposition of the partisans of the popular auto, who saw themselves attacked in the See also:prologue. In 1528 Miranda made his first real See also:attempt to introduce the new forms of verse by See also:writing in Spanish a canzon entitled Fabula do Mondego, and in 1530-1532 he followed it up with the eclogue Aleixo, which among its redondilhas has some endecasyllables—the earliest attempt at ottava rima in Portuguese. Various sonnets dedicated to friends also belong to this period. The See also:foundations of the Italian school were now laid, and hence-forth Miranda's reputation as a poet See also:grew visibly, while he was also one of the most esteemed of courtiers; but the opposition of his literary foes increased with his very success.

Moreover, in the See also:

sphere of politics See also:pessimism had taken See also:firm hold of him. From being a See also:land of promise, See also:India had become for him, as for See also:Camoens, " the See also:mother of villains, the stepmother of men of See also:honour "; and though the wealth of the See also:East poured into Lisbon, Portugal remained poor because See also:agriculture was neglected and See also:corn had to be imported from abroad. Miranda protested in vigorous terms against the See also:fever of See also:adventure and lust of See also:gold, but few gave See also:ear to his moralizings or had leisure to read poetry, and in 1534 he See also:left the court. The See also:year 1532 had marked his passage from the active to the contemplative See also:life, and the eclogue Basto, in the form of a See also:pastoral See also:dialogue written in redondilhas, opened his new manner. It has a pronounced See also:personal See also:note, and its episodes are described in a genuinely popular See also:tone. The shepherds Gil and Bento represent, the one city sociability, the other rustic aloofness, or the contrast between life at court and in the country, and serve as a vehicle for the poet's ideas. The same See also:epoch saw the See also:composition of his Cartas or sententious letters in quintilhas, which, with Baste and his satires, make up the most See also:original, if not the most valuable, portion of his See also:legacy, and served as models for two centuries. His allusion in Aleixo to the See also:exile of Bernardim Ribeiro, and his See also:defence of his friend, seem to have offended that powerful See also:grandee, the count of Castanheira, and probably hastened his retirement from court, and the royal See also:gift of a Commenda of the See also:Order of See also:Christ, situate by the river Neiva on the See also:borders of See also:Galicia, came opportunely, because the rents Si de Miranda See also:drew from it and a small private See also:fortune enabled him to live in modest comfort at the neighbouring Quinta da Tapada. Poetry with him was never a See also:mere pastime, and, after a See also:short period of repose, the gift of a MS. of the verses of Garcilasso and Boscan, founders of the Italian school in See also:Castile, encouraged him to resume the See also:work of reform commenced at Coimbra; between 1535 and 1538 he composed five eclogues in endecasyllables, four in Spanish and one in Portuguese, which show evident traces of their See also:influence. Before long he heard echoes of his new See also:song, first from the See also:province, then from the court. In 1536 he married D. Briolanja de Azevedo, a See also:lady of rare qualities and See also:education, belonging to an illustrious Minho family.

He spent the See also:

rest of his life in retirement at the Quinta da Tapada, which became a centre from which the reform of Portuguese poetry spread; for he See also:developed great poetical activity in his See also:retreat, and while he read and annotated See also:Homer in the original Greek, he did not disdain domestic pleasures and country See also:sports. His evenings were occupied by See also:music and the performance of comedies and mimes, and by readings of Bembo and Ariosto with cultivated neighbours; and he extended hospitality to savants like See also:Nicholas Cleynarts and Francisco de Hollanda, and launched on the career of letters such men as Diogo Bernardes, the author of. the See also:Lima. In 1538 he wrote his second classical prose comedy, the Vilhalpandos, which was played before the See also:Cardinal See also:Infant See also:Henry, afterwards king, at his See also:request, and on the poet's death that prince saw to the See also:printing of this and the earlier comedy. During the years 1543 to 1553, except for a few occasional poems Si de Miranda kept silence, and the cause is not far to seek; the See also:Inquisition had got to work, and the See also:Jesuits had acquired See also:control of the university and displaced the humanists. When the king and court See also:lent their presence to autos da ft and organized public penances, initiating a reign of fanaticisms and sadness, there was no place for poetry. Si de Miranda could only deplore in private the misfortunes of his country and devote himself to polishing his verses and educating his See also:children. His life's work was done, for the year 1550 saw Camoens writing his admirable sonnets; canzons and elegies, and the Italian school had definitely triumphed. The last eight years of Si de Miranda's life produced a See also:cycle of beautiful poems evoked by the See also:personality of Prince John, the See also:heir-apparent, who loved letters and especially poetry, and whose precocity of See also:talent made him the See also:hope of all patriots. In 1S5o and 1551, after the prince's visit to the university of Coimbra, he honoured the See also:master by asking for a collection of his poems, and on three occasions we find the latter despatching portions of his song-See also:book to Lisbon accompanied by dedicatory sonnets. Moreover, he had the further gratification of receiving verses from Antonio Ferreira, Jorge de See also:Montemayor, Diogo Bernardes, and See also:Andre Falcao de Resende, which were so many proofs of the vitality of his school. Three misfortunes, however, came on him in See also:quick See also:succession. He lost his eldest son in 1553, Prince John died in 1554, and in 1555 his wife died.

His friend King John III. passed away in 1557, and on the 15th of See also:

March 1558 Si de Miranda followed him to the See also:grave. He was not a great writer and never entered into the See also:hearts of his countrymen, remaining the poet of the cultured, who could understand him and See also:pardon his metrical imperfections. He led the way, however, in a revolution in literature, and especially in poetry, which under his influence became higher in aim, purer in tone and broader in sympathy. He is obviously not at ease in the new forms which he had introduced, and his verse is, as a See also:rule, austere, unharmonious and often difficult of understanding, but these remarks do not, of course, apply to his redondilhas. Some of his sonnets are, however, admirable, and display a grave tenderness of feeling, a refinement of thought, and a simplicity of expression which give them a high value. As examples it is only necessary to mention the one beginning " 0 sol he grande ...," and the lines he composed on the death of his wife. Si de Miranda wrote much and successfully in Castilian, several of his best eclogues being in that See also:language. The See also:charm of these compositions lies in their convincing descriptions of natural scenery and country life, which he loved and comprehended to perfection. SA de Miranda's works were first published in 1595, but the admirable See also:critical edition of Madame See also:Michaelis de Vasconcellos (See also:Halle, 1885), containing life, notes and glossary, supersedes all others so far as the poems are concerned. His plays can best be read in the 1784 edition of the collected works. No See also:modern or critical edition is available. See also See also:Oswald See also:Crawford, Portugal Old and New (See also:London, 188o); Dr See also:Sousa See also:Viterbo, Estudos sabre Sd de Miranda (3 parts, Coimbra, 1895-1896) ; Decio Carneiro, Sd de Miranda e a sua See also:obra (Lisbon, 1895) ; and Dr Theophilo See also:Braga, Sd de Miranda (See also:Oporto, 1896).

(E.

End of Article: SADE, DONATIEN ALPHONSE FRANCOIS, COUNT

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