FRANCISCO MANUEL DE MELO (1647)

One of the most talented and many-sided figures of 17th-century Portugal, a soldier, diplomat and courtier who won fame as a poet, moralist, historian and literary critic in both the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

Born of aristocratic parents he studied classics and mathematics at the Jesuit College of Santa Antao and chose a military career.

Since Portugal was then under Spanish rule he spent some time at the brilliant court of Madrid where he formed a friendship with the satirist Quevedo y Villegas, the foremost Hispanic literary figure of the day.

In 1639 he was colonel of a regiment serving in Flanders and in June took a leading part in the defense of La Coruña against a French fleet.

At the outbreak of the Catalan rebellion he was chief of staff to the commander of the royal forces ot of which experience came his classic history of the origin and first year of the war Historia de la Guerra de Cataluña (1645).

When Portugal declared its independence from Spain he offered his services to the new Portuguese monarch John IV and travelled to Holland to equip a fleet for Portugal which he brought safely to Lisbon in October 1641.

For reasons still obscure he was arrested on Nov. 19, 1644 and was in prison or under police supervision for 11 years.

In 1655 his sentence was commuted to exile in Brazil where he remained for three years writing and restoring his fortunes by participation in the sugar trade.

During his imprisonment he wrote constantly, he finished his history of the Catalan war, he published some verse in 1649 and a popular much reprinted discourse on marriage Carta de Guia de Casados (1650, The Government of a Wife). But he himself never married.

He also wrote a series of historical episodes and dialogues on social and literary topics.
He edited 500 letters, most of which are a record of his experiences and thoughts in prison. They were published as Cartas Familiares (1664, Personal Letters). Many are addressed to Quevedo.

In 1665 he published his Obras Métricas which includes Spanish verse betraying the Baroque conceits and Latinisms conventional in the period and Portuguese sonnets and verse epistles that are notable for their power, sincerity and perfection of form.

His verse comedy the Auto do Fidalgo Aprendiz (THe Apprentice Nobleman) dealing with a parvenu´s attempt to acquire aristocratic manners overnight is considered by some to anticipate Molière´s Bourgeois Gentilhomme.