Portuguese pre-Romantic poet born in Setúbal, considered the greatest poet of the language in the 18th century and known for his style rebellious and satirical, symbol of irreverence, frontality, the fight against despotism and an integral and paradigmatic. He was the son of bachelor José Luís Soares de Barbosa, former judge from outside, ombudsman, and later a lawyer, and of D. Mariana Joaquina Xavier Lestof du Bocage, of French origin, second niece of the famous French poet, Madame Marie Anne Le Page du Bocage, translator of Milton's Paradise, imitator of Death of Abel, by Gessner, and author of the tragedy As Amazonas and the epic poem in ten corners A Columbiada, which earned her the laurel wreath of Voltaire and the first prize of the academy of Rouen. In the royal grammar class of the Spanish priest D. João de Medina learned the Latin language.
He became a cadet in the 7th Infantry Regiment of Setúbal (1779), coming to study in Lisbon at 14 years of age. At the Royal Marine Academy, he received his scientific education, perfected himself at the Academy of Marine Guards, created on August 14 (1782), and enlisted in the Navy (1783). In these seven years he spent in Lisbon he studied science and began to compose verse. Embarking to India (1786), he lived in Goa, Daman and Macau, returning to Lisbon (1790), where he continued writing verses, initially about a heartbreak with a sister-in-law and her difficulties materials.
He was arrested because, following a police raid, he was issued with pamphlets apologists for the French Revolution and the publication of an erotic poem and political, entitled Fearful Illusion of Eternity, also known as Carta a Marília (1797), and was imprisoned in Limoeiro, accused of the crime of wrong-majesty. He moved influences and was then handed over to the Inquisition, an institution that no longer had the discretionary power it had previously had. In February of the following master, it was delivered by the General Intendant of the Police, Pina Manique, to the monastery of S. Bento da Saúde, from Lisbon (1798) and a month later he moved to the hospice of Nossa Senhora das Necessidades of the clerics of S. Filipe Nery, Convent of the Oratorians, to be re-educated.
Bowing to the religious and moral conventions of the time, he was finally released later that year. Upon returning to freedom, he accepted (1800) the proposal made by the Brazilian naturalist, Father José Mariano da Conceição Veloso to, for a monthly salary, make the translations for the Calcographic Typography of Arco do Cego, for him directed. In this new venture; a very painful work and of the utmost responsibility, it came out brilliantly, becoming one of the most glorious phases of the poet. He translated several didactic poems such as The Gardens of Delille and The Plants, by Castel, The Agriculture, by Roset, and O Consorcio das Flores, an epistle by Lacroix. In addition to French poems, he also translated several Latin and Italian poets.
The last five years, which preceded his death, were very painful for the unfortunate poet, agitated with terror and anxieties, seeing himself poor and sick. Due to a poorly regulated life that he had led, his health rapidly deteriorated in his last year of life (1805). Even when he was sick, he still published Os improvisos and Novos improvises, written during his illness. At just 40 years old, he died in Travessa de André Valente, in Lisbon, to the commotion of the general population and was buried in the Igreja das Mercês.
Considered one of the best Portuguese poets, and after Camões the most popular and celebrated of all, his personal publications being the most The 1st volume of Rimas, the Complaints of Pastor Elmano (1791), the Idyllios maritimos (1791), the 2nd tome of the Rimas (1799) and the 3rd (1804). From a plural personality, for many generations, he embodied the symbol of irreverence, directness, of the struggle against despotism and of an integral and paradigmatic humanism, and its erotic and burlesque verses circulated worldwide and for a long time, in editions clandestine.
Figure copied from the SETÚBAL website:
http://www.alentejodigital.pt/a_margem/setubal.htm
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order M - Biography - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/jose-manuel-maria-barbosa-du-bocage.htm