QUENTAL, ANTHERO DE (1842-1891), Portuguese poet, was born in the Azores, and studied at the University of Co imbra. After the publication of one volume of verse, he joined the revolt of the young men which dethroned Castilho, the chief living poet of the elder generation, from his place as dictator over modern Portuguese literature. He adopted socialist opinions, worked as a compositor in Paris, though he had independent means, visited the United States, and then returned to Lisbon, where he worked actively for socialism. He found his way through a series of disappointments to the mild pessimism, a kind of West ern Buddhism, which animates his later productions. His melan choly was increased by a spinal disease which, after several years of retirement, eventually drove him to suicide in his native island. Quental seldom attempted any other form of composition than the sonnet, but few poets who have chiefly devoted themselves to this form have produced so large a proportion of really exquisite work. The comparatively few pieces in which he either forgets
his doubts and inward conflicts, or succeeds in giving them an ob jective form, are among the most beautiful in any literature.
His friend Oliveira Martins edited the sonnets (Oporto, 1886), supplying an introductory essay ; and an interesting collection of studies on the poet by the leading Portuguese writers appeared in a volume entitled Anthero de Quental. In Memoriam (Oporto, 1896). The sonnets have been turned into most European languages; into English by Edgar Prestage (Anthero de Quental, Sixty-four Sonnets, 1894), together with a striking autobiographical letter addressed by Quental to his German translator, Dr. Storck.