DEUS, JOAO DE (183o-1896), the greatest Portuguese poet of his generation, was born at Messines in Algarve on March 8, 183o. Matriculating in the faculty of law at the University of Coimbra, he settled in the city, dedicating himself wholly to the composition of verses. In 1862 he left Coimbra for Beja, where he was appointed editor of 0 Bejense, and four years later he edited the Folha do Sul. As the pungent satirical verses entitled Eleicoes prove, he was not an ardent politician, and, though he was returned as Liberal deputy for the constituency of Silves in 1868, he acted independently and promptly resigned his mandate. In 1868 his friend Jose Antonio Garcia Blanco collected from local journals the series of poems, Flores do campo, which is supple mented by the Ramo de fibres (1875). This is Joao de Deus's mas terpiece. The Folhas soltas (1876) is a collection of verse in the manner of Flores do campo, brilliantly effective and exquisitely re fined. Within the next few years the writer turned his attention to educational problems. This was a misfortune for Portuguese litera ture; his educational mission absorbed Joao de Deus completely, and is responsible for many publications of no literary value. A copy of verses in Antonio Vieira's Grinalda de Maria (1877), the Loas a Virgem (1878) and the Proverbios de Salomao are evi dence of a complete return to orthodoxy during the poet's last years. He died at Lisbon on Jan. II, 1896, and was buried in the National Pantheon at Belem.
Next to Camoens and perhaps Garrett, no Portuguese poet has been more widely read, more profoundly admired than Joao de Deus; yet no poet in any country has been more indifferent to public opinion and more deliberately careless of personal fame. And yet, though he never appealed to the patriotic spirit, though he wrote nothing at all comparable in force or majesty to the restrained splendour of Os Lusiadas, the popular instinct which links his name with that of his great predecessor is just.