FALCAO, CHRISTOVAM (? I 512—? I 553), Portuguese poet, born at Portalegre in the r'llemte j o, is said to have fallen in love with an 11-year-old heiress, Maria Brandao, to have married her, and to have been separated from her by hostile parents. He then entered the diplomatic service, and died about 1553. The love story is told in some beautiful lyrics and in the charming eclogue Chrisfal. Falcao was the friend of Bernardim Ribeiro, and the poems are very similar in style to Ribeiro's. It is suggested by many critics that Chrisfal is really Ribeiro's work.
For a discussion of the authorship of Chrisfal see A. F. G. Bell, Portuguese Literature (1922). There is a modern critical edition of Chrisfal and a Carta (letter) by A. Epiphanio da Silva Dias under the title Obras de Christovdo Falcdo (Oporto, 1893), and one of the Cantigas and Esparsas by the same scholar appeared in the Revista Lusitana, vol. iv., pp. 142-179 (1896), under the name Fragmento de um Cancioneiro do Seculo XVI. See Dr. T. Braga, Bernardim Ribeiro e o Bucolismo (Oporto, 1897), and Delfim Guimarqes, Bernardim Ribeiro (0 Poeta Crisf al) (1908).