Gregório de Mattos

Gregório de Matos e Guerra (April 7 1636 – November 26 1696), was the major baroque poet of Brazil. He wrote religious, lyrical, satirical and erotic poetry that was collected privately and finally published in the nineteenth century. His satiric poetry criticized everyone and everything, earning him the nickname "Boca do Inferno" (Mouth of Hell).

He was born in Salvador, Bahia and is sometimes considered the first Brazilian poet. The poetic work of Gregório de Matos has intrigued many literary critics and historians, and raised contradictory comments and opinions. Plagiarized, imitated, and versatile; a translator and original poet, those are the most common descriptions of Gregório. He wrote during the XVII Century, when there was no press in Brazil, and his work began to be published in the second half of XIX Century. There are no signed or handwritten texts from the author himself. He was a popular artist and against ideology. His texts were copied and re-copied, making it even more difficult to solve the authorship problem.

Life

Gregório de Matos was born in Bahia, where he studied at the Jesuit College. In 1650 he traveled to Lisbon and in 1652 entered the University of Coimbra, where he completed his law degree in 1661. There he married D. Michaella de Andrade, and two years later was appointed to a judgeship in Alcácer do Sal, in the Portuguese province of Alentejo. In 1672 he served as solicitor for the city of Bahia to the Portuguese court.

In 1679 he returned to Brazil as a widower. He was married for a second time in 1691 to Maria dos Povos. But Gregório led a rather Bohemian life. A malcontent, he criticized everyone and everything: the church, government, and all classes of people, from the rich and powerful to the lowly pauper, sparing no race or profession. This constant satirizing earned for him the nickname of "Boca do Inferno" (Hell's Mouth).

His irreverent and satiric writings eventually got him into trouble, and Gregório was exiled to Angola in 1694. Very ill, he managed to return to Brazil the following year, but he was prohibited from entering Bahia and from distributing his poetry. He instead went to Recife, where he died in 1696.

There is no record of his death, no painting of him, no proved signature, and no text published during his lifetime. All poems attributed to Gregório are handwritten in manuscripts (called codex), totalling twenty four. All of them are from the 18th century and were copied by different people. Most may be found in the National Library in Rio de Janeiro.

Works

Initially, his lyric and religious poetry drew critical attention. Even today his satiric is highly valued for its linguistic and sociological value.

Not published until the nineteenth century, his baroque verse has been collected from private albums and manuscripts, and divided into four major classifications: religious, lyrical, satirical, and erotic, thus matching the tensions found in baroque duality.

The Brazilian Academy of Letters published his complete works in six volumes: v. I - "Sacra" (1929)v. II - "Lírica" (1923)v. III - "Graciosa" (1930)v. IV e V - "Satírica" (1930)v. VI - "Última" (1933).

In English Translation

* Descreve o que era realmente naquele tempo a cidade, a Bahia (He Describes What the City(of Salvador), what Bahia (province of the early portuguese colonization)Was Really like at That Time)
* Pondera agora com mais atenção a formosura de D. Ângela (Now Ponders with More Attention the Beauty of Lady Angela)
* "Anjo no nome, Angélica na cara" (An angel's name, an angelic face)
* "A vós correndo vou, braços sagrados" (I run to you, most sacred arms):Included in "Poets of Brazil" ISBN 085051701X

External links

* [http://www.ufba.br/~gmg/english/en-welcome.html Gregório de Matos e Guerra: a visit to the poet]
* [http://dbh.nsd.uib.no/nfi/rapport/?keys=7744&language=en NFI Project: Gregório de Matos]