concellos, J. Leite de
Vasconcellos, and others, whose life-work is devoted to the conviction
that only a thorough and critical study of their country's past can
inspire its literature with new life and vigor and maintain the sense
of national independence.

* * * * *

LUIZ VAZ DE CAMOENS, Portugal's greatest poet and patriot, was born in
1524 or 1525, most probably at Coimbra, as the son of Simao Vaz de
Camoens and Donna Anna de Macedo of Santarem. Through his father, a
_cavalleiro fidalgo_, or untitled nobleman, who was related with Vasco
da Gama, Camoens descended from an ancient and once influential noble
family of Galician origin. He spent his youth at Coimbra, and though
his name is not found in the registers of the university, which had
been removed to that city in 1537, and of which his uncle, Bento de
Camoens, prior of the monastery of Santa Cruz, was made chancellor in
1539, it was presumably in that institution, then justly famous, that
the highly gifted youth acquired his uncommon familiarity with the
classics and with the literatures of Spain, Italy, and that of his own
country. In 1542 we find Camoens exchanging his _alma mater_ for the
gay and brilliant court of John III., then at Lisbon, where his gentle
birth, his poetic genius, and his fine personal appearance brought him
much favor, especially with the fair sex, while his independent
bearing and indiscreet speech aroused the jealousy and enmity of his
rivals. Here he woos and wins the damsels of the palace until a
high-born lady in attendance upon the Queen, Donna Catharina de
Athaide,--whom, like Petrarch, he claims to have first seen on Good
Friday in church, and who is celebrated in his poems under the anagram
of _Natercia_,--inspires him with a deep and enduring passion.
Irritated by the intrigues employed by his enemies to mar his
prospects, the impetuous youth commits imprudent acts which lead to
his banishment from the city in 1546. For about a year he lives in
enforced retirement on the Upper Tagus (_Ribatejo_), pouring out his
profound passion and grief in a number of beautiful sonnets and
elegies. Most likely in consequence of some new offense, he is next
exiled for two years to Ceuta in Africa, where, in a fight with the
Moors, he loses his right eye by a chance splinter. Meeting on his
return to Lisbon in 1547 neither with pardon for his indiscretions nor
with recognition for his services and poetic talent,