GARRETT, JOAO BAPTISTA DA SILVA LEITAO DE ALMEIDA, VISCONDE DE ALMEIDA-GARRETT perhaps the greatest Portuguese poet since Camoens, was born in Oporto; but the French invasion of Portugal drove the family to the Azores, and Garrett made his first studies at Angra. Going to the University of Coimbra in 1816 he soon earned notoriety by the precocity of his talents and his fervent Liberalism. His tragedy Lucretia was played there in Feb. 1819, and he also wrote Merope and a great part of Cato, all these plays belonging to the so-called classical school. Leaving Coimbra with a law degree, he proceeded to Lisbon, and on Nov. 11, 1822, married D. Luiza Midosi; but the alliance proved unhappy and a formal separation took place in The reactionary movement against the Radical revolution of 182o reached its height in 1823, and Garrett had to leave Por tugal by order of the Absolutist ministry then in power, and went to England. He became acquainted with the masterpieces of the English and German romantic movements during his stay abroad.
Imbued with the spirit of nationality, he wrote in 1824 at Havre the poem Camoes, which destroyed the influence of the worn-out classical and Arcadian rhymers, and in the following year composed the patriotic poem D. Branca. He was permitted to return to Portugal in 1826, and thereupon devoted himself to journalism. His defence of Liberal principles brought him three months' imprisonment and when D. Miguel was proclaimed ab solute king on May 3, 1828, Garrett had again to leave the coun try. He spent the next three years in and about Birmingham, Warwick and London. Sailing in Feb. 1832, he disembarked at Terceira, whence he passed to S. Miguel, then the seat of the Liberal government. Here he became a co-operator with the statesman Mousinho da Silveira, and assisted him in drafting those laws which were to revolutionize the whole framework of Portuguese society. In his spare time he wrote some of the beautiful lyrics afterwards collected into Flores sem Fructo (1845). He took part in the expedition that landed at Mindello on July 8, 1832, and in the occupation of Oporto. Early in the siege he sketched out, under the influence of Walter Scott, the historical romance Arco de Sant' Anna In 1834-35 he served as consul-general and chargé d'affaires at Brussels, later the government employed him to draw up a proposal for the construction of a national theatre, and a school of dramatists and actors arose under his influence. To give them models, he proceeded to write a series of prose dramas, choosing his subjects from Portuguese history. He began in. 1838 with the Auto de Gil Vicente and followed this up in 1842 by the Al f ageme de Santarem, and in 1843 by Frei Luiz de Sousa, one of the few great tragedies of the 19th century, a work as intensely national as The Lusiads and written in a restrained and beautiful prose.
Entering parliament in 1837, Garrett soon made his mark as an orator. He brought in a literary copyright bill, which, when it became law in 1851, served as a precedent for similar legisla tion in England and Prussia. He wrote about this time the drama D. Filippa de Vilhena (1840), founded on an event in the revolu tion of 1640. In July 1843 an excursion to Santarem resulted in a prose masterpiece Viagens na minha terra. He took no part in the civil war that followed the revolution of Maria da Fonte. He spent much of the year 185o in finishing his Romanceiro, a collection of folk-poetry of which he was the first to perceive the value; and in June 1851 he was created a viscount. In 1852 he became for a short time minister of foreign affairs. In he brought out Folhas Cahidas, a collection of short poems ex quisite in form. He died on Dec. 9, 1854, and on May 3, 1903, his remains were translated to the national pantheon, the Jero nymos at Belem, where they rest near to those of Herculano and Camoens. As poet, novelist, journalist, orator and dramatist, he deserves the remark of Rebello da Silva : "Garrett was not a man of letters only but an entire literature in himself." Besides his strong religious faith, Garrett was endowed with a deep sensibility, a creative imagination, rare taste and a singular capacity for sympathy. He was first and always an artist. His artistic temperament explains his many-sided activity, his ex pansive kindliness, his seductive charm, especially for women, his patriotism, his aristocratic pretensions, his huge vanity and dandyism and the ingenuousness that absolves him from many faults in an irregular life. From his rich artistic nature sprang his profound, sincere, sensual and melancholy lyrics, the variety and perfection of his scenic creations, the splendour of his elo quence, the truth of his comic vein, the elegance of his lighter compositions. The complete collection of his works comprises 24 volumes.