MANUEL DE MELLO, DOM FRANCISCO 1666), Portuguese writer, a connection on his father's side of the royal house of Braganza, was a native of Lisbon. He studied the Humanities at the Jesuit College of S. Antao, where he showed a precocious talent. The death of his father, Dom Luiz de Mello, drove him early to soldiering, and having joined a contingent for the Flanders war he suffered shipwreck in the Bay of Biscay. At Madrid, he contracted a friendship with Quevedo and earned the favour of the powerful minister Olivares. In 1639 he was appoint ed colonel of one of the regiments raised for service in Flanders, and in June that year he took a leading part in defending Corunna against a French fleet commanded by the archbishop of Bor deaux. He came safely through the naval defeat in the Channel suffered by the Spaniards at the hands of Van Tromp, and on the outbreak of the Catalan rebellion acted as chief of the staff to the commander-in-chief of the royal forces ; his Historic de la guerra de Cataluna became a Spanish classic. On the proclamation of Portuguese independence in 1640 he was imprisoned by order of Olivares, and when released hastened to offer his sword to John IV. He travelled to England, where he spent some time at the court of Charles I. and thence passing over to Holland assisted the Portuguese ambassador to equip a fleet in aid of Portugal, and himself brought it safely to Lisbon in Oct. 1641. For the next three years he was employed in various important military com missions. An intrigue with the beautiful countess of Villa Nova, and her husband's jealousy, led to his arrest on Nov. 19, 1644, on a false charge of assassination, and he lay in prison about nine years. Owing perhaps to the intercession of the queen regent of France and other powerful friends, his sentence was finally com muted into one of exile to Brazil. During his long imprisonment he finished and printed his history of the Catalan war, and also wrote other volumes including the Carta de Guia de Casados and a Memorial in his own defence to the king, which Herculano considered "perhaps the most eloquent piece of reasoning in the language." During his exile in Brazil, whither he sailed on April
17, 1655, he lived at Bahia, where he wrote one of his Epanaphoras de varia historic and two parts of his masterpiece, the Apologos dialogaes. He returned home in 1659, and in 1663 Alphonso VI. charged him to negotiate with the Curia about the provision of bishops for Portuguese sees. During his stay in Rome he pub lished his Obras moraes, dedicated to Queen Catherine, wife of Charles II. of England, and his Cartas familiares. On his way back to Portugal he printed his Obras metricas at Lyons in May 1665. He died in August of the following year.
Manuel de Mello's early Spanish verses are tainted with Gon gorism, but his Portuguese sonnets and cartas on moral subjects are notable for their power, sincerity and perfection of form. His Letters are written in a conversational style illumined by flashes of wit. His commerce with the best authors appears in the Hos pital das letters, a brilliant chapter of criticism forming part of the Apologos dialogaes. His comedy in redondilhas, the Auto do Fidalgo Aprendiz, may be considered an anticipation of Moliere's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—There is no uniform edition of Manuel de Mello's works, but a list of them will be found in his Obras moraes. See E. Prestage, Dom Francisco Manuel de Mello, his Life and Writings (Manchester, 1905) ; "D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, documentos biographicos" and "D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, obras autographas e ineditas" in Archivo historico portuguez for 1909 ; and D. Francisco Manuel de Mello, Esboco biografico (Coimbra, 1914).