LUÍS DE CAMÕES

Luís Vaz de Camões (1524 – June 10, 1580) is considered the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante.

He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work “Os Lusíadas “(The Lusiads).

Many details concerning the life of Camões remain unknown, but he is thought to have been born around 1524. His birthplace is unknown. Lisbon, Coimbra or Alenquer are frequently presented as his birthplace.

Camões, as his love poetry can attest, was a romantic and idealist. It was rumored that he fell in love with Catherine of Ataíde, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and also the Princess Maria, sister of John III of Portugal. It is also likely that an indiscreet allusion to the king in his play El-Rei Seleuco, as well as these other incidents may have played a part in his exile from Lisbon in 1548. He traveled to the Ribatejo where he stayed in the company of friends who sheltered and fed him. He stayed in the province for about six months.

He enlisted in the overseas militia, and traveled to Ceuta in the fall of 1549. During a battle with the Moors, he lost the sight in his right eye. He eventually returned to Lisbon in 1551, a changed man, living a bohemian lifestyle. In 1552, during the religious festival of Corpus Christi, in the Largo do Rossio, he injured Gonçalo Borges, a member of the Royal Stables. Camões was imprisoned. His mother pleaded for his release, visiting royal ministers and the Borges family for a pardon. Released, Camões was ordered to pay 4,000 réis and serve three-years in the militia in the Orient.

He departed in 1553 for Goa on board the São Bento, commanded by Fernão Alves Cabral. The ship arrived six months later. In Goa, Camões was imprisoned for debt. He found Goa "a stepmother to all honest men" but he studied local customs and mastered the local geography and history. On his first expedition, he joined a battle along the Malabar Coast. The battle was followed by skirmishes along the trading routes between Egypt and India. The fleet eventually returned to Goa by November 1554. During his time ashore, he continued his writing publicly, as well as writing correspondence for the uneducated men of the fleet.

In 1570 Camões finally made it back to Lisbon, where two years later he published “Os Lusíadas”. In recompense for his poem or perhaps for services in the Far East, he was granted a small royal pension by the young and ill-fated Sebastian of Portugal (ruled 1557–1578).

In 1578 he heard of the appalling defeat of the Battle of Ksar El Kebir, where King Sebastian was killed and the Portuguese army destroyed. The Spanish troops were approaching Lisbon when Camões wrote to the Captain General of Lamego: "All will see that so dear to me was my country that I was content to die not only in it but with it". Camões died in Lisbon in 1580, at the age of 56. The day of his death, 10 June, is Portugal's national day. He is buried near Vasco da Gama in the Jerónimos Monastery in the Belém district of Lisbon.