FERREIRA, ANTONIO (1528-1569), Portuguese poet, was a native of Lisbon ; his father was employed in the house of the duke of Coimbra at Setubal, and the poet was educated at the University of Coimbra, where he eventually became a professor. The sonnets forming the First Book in his collected works date from 1552 and contain the history of his early love for an un known lady. The sonnets in the Second Book were inspired by D. Maria Pimentel, whom he afterwards married, and they are marked by that chastity of sentiment, seriousness and ardent patriotism which characterized the man and the writer. He was intimate with princes, nobles and the most distinguished literary men of the time, and became the foremost representative of the classical school. On Oct. 14, 1567 he became Disembargador da Casa do Civel, and had to leave the quiet of Coimbra for Lisbon. His verses tell how he disliked the change, and how the bustle of the capital, then a great commercial emporium, made him sad and almost tongue-tied for poetry. He died of plague in Lisbon on Nov. 29, 1569, having stayed there doing his duty when others fled.
Horace was his favourite poet and his admiration of the classics made him disdain the popular poetry of the Old School (Escola Velha) represented by Gil Vicente. His national feeling would not allow him to write in Latin or Spanish, like most of his con temporaries, but his Portuguese is as Latinized as he could make it, and he even calls his poetical works Poemas Lusitanos. Fer reira wrote the Terentian prose comedy, Bristo, at the age of 25 (1553), and dedicated it to Prince John in the name of the university. It is neither a comedy of character nor manners, but its vis cornice lies in its plot and situations. The Cioso, a later product, may almost be called a comedy of character. Castro is Ferreira's most considerable work, and, in date, is the first tragedy in Portuguese, and the second in modern European literature.
The Castro was first printed in Lisbon in 1587, and it is included in Ferreira's Poemas, published in 1598 by his son. It has been trans lated by Musgrave (1825), and the chorus of Act I. appeared again in English in the Savoy for July 1896. It has been done into French and German. The Bristo and Cioso first appeared with the comedies of SA, de Miranda in 1622. There is a good modern edition of the Complete Works of Ferreira (2 vols., Paris, 1865). See Castilho, Antonio Ferreira (3 vols., Rio, 1865), which contains a full biographical and critical study with extracts.