Chapter LXXXVIII: describes the voyage of another Lagos fleet of nine (2)

Finally, while no serious critic would admit Azurara within the circle of great historians, few would dispute his title to be named a great Chronicler. That he was a laborious and truthful writer his pages make clear; that he could tell a simple story vividly--nay, dramatically--and that he had at times flashes of inspiration, the _Chronica de Guiné_ attests, though, even bearing this work in mind, it is easy to perceive his inferiority in the matter of style to Fernào Lopes, a point constantly insisted on by Portuguese critics. In a word, if, as Southey said, Lopes is "beyond all comparison the best Chronicler of any age or nation", it may well be that Azurara, "notwithstanding an occasional display of pedantry, is equal in merit to any Chronicler, except his unequalled predecessor".[85]

[Footnote 85: _Quarterly Review_, May 1809, p. 288.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

The following is a list of Azurara's works in the order in which they were written:--

(_a_) "MILAGRES DO SANTO CONDESTABRE D. NUNO ALVRES PEREIRA."

This volume, of doubtful authenticity, which was never printed, has now been lost. Senhor Oliveira Martins was unable to find a trace of it when engaged on his recently-published life of the Holy Constable,[86] and suggests that it may have perished, along with so many other literary treasures, in 1755, during the Great Earthquake. Jorge Cardoso, in his _Agiologico Lusitano_,[87] quotes a passage from Azurara's work, and Santa Anna gives the substance of it in his _Chronica dos Carmaelitas_, expressly declaring that he had seen the original MS., which was then preserved among the Archives of the Carmo Convent.[88]

[Footnote 86: _A Vida de Nun' Alvares._ Lisbon, 1893.]

[Footnote 87: Tom. iii, p. 217, ed. Lisbon, 1666. Barbosa Machado
mentions the MS. on the authority of Cardoso.--Vide _Bibliotheca
Lusitana_, tom. ii, art. on Azurara.]

[Footnote 88: _Chronica dos Carmaelitas_, vol. i, pp. 469 and 486.
Lisbon, 1745.]

(_b_) "CHRONICA DEL REI D. JOAM I DE BOA MEMÓRIA E DOS REYS DE PORTUGAL O DECIMO. Terceira parte em que se contém a tomada de Ceuta." Composta por Gomez Eannes D'Azurara Chronista Mór destes Reynos & impressa na linguagem antiga. Em Lisboa. Com todas as licenças necessarias. Á custa de Antonio Alvarez, Impressor del-rei N.S. 1644, pp. X-283 fol. Such is the full title of the _Chronica de Ceuta_ as given in the one and only published edition.

Following the Chronicle come accounts of the death of King João and the translation of his body to Batalha, extracted from the _Chronica de D. Duarte_, as well as a copy, with translation, of the epitaph on his tomb, and then his will and a general Index. MSS. of this Chronicle exist in the Bibliotheca National in Lisbon, and in the Torre do Tombo. The former place contains a defective one, dating from the middle of the 16th century, as well as one of the second part of the same period apparently complete. The latter boasts a MS. (No. 366) of the 15th century, in large folio, written on paper in red and black, which derives importance from its early date, and exhibits a text practically identical with that of the book described above; while of the others, one may be attributed to the 16th century and two to the 17th. The Oporto Municipal Library has an 18th-century MS. of this Chronicle.[89]

[Footnote 89: There doubtless exist many other MSS. of Azurara's
Chronicles, besides those mentioned in this notice, both in public
libraries and private collections. Most of those described here are
in Lisbon, and neither the Royal Library at the Ajuda nor the rich
collection at Evora appear to contain a single specimen. Gallardo
states that D. Pedro Portocarrero y Guzman, Patriarch of the Indies,
the catalogue of whose library was printed at Madrid in 1703,
possessed a signed MS. of the _Chronica de Ceuta_.]

(_c_) "CHRONICA DO DESCOBRIMENTO E CONQUISTA DE GUINÉ, escrita por mandado de El-Rei D. Affonso V sob a direcção scientifica, e segundo as instrucçoës do illustre Infante D. Henrique pelo Chronista Gomez Eannes de Azurara; fielmente trasladada do Manuscripto original contemporaneo, que se conserva na Bibliotheca Real de Pariz, e dada pela primeira vez á luz per diligencia do Visconde de Carreira, Enviado Extraordinario e Ministro Plenipotentiario de S. Majestade Fidelíssima na corte da França; precedida de uma Introducção e illustrada com algumas notas pelo Visconde de Santarem ..... e seguida d'um Glossario das palavras e phrases antiquadas e obsoletas." Paris, 1841. Fol. pp. XXV-474, with frontispiece portrait of D. Henrique from this same MS.

The letter which Azurara addressed to King Affonso V, when he forwarded the Chronicle, is printed in facsimile and precedes the Introduction.

There are three separate impressions of this Chronicle--one on parchment, of which the Bibliotheca National in Lisbon possesses a copy, another on large paper, both of these being folio size, and a third on small paper octavo size.

Two early MSS. of the Chronicle exist: one, very handsome and perfect, in the Paris National Library, from which the printed edition was made; and the other, bearing date 1506, in the Royal and National Library at Munich. The latter belonged to Valentim Fernandes, a German printer, established in Lisbon from the end of the 15th century to past the middle of the 16th, who owned many MSS. of great value, which have been studied by Schmeller in his _Ueber Valentī Fernandez Alemā und seine Sammlung von Nachrichten über die Entdeckungen und Besitzungen der Portugiesen in Afrika und Asien bis zum Jahre 1508_. The imprint of this essay is 1845.

The Munich MS. is an abridgment; many of the rhetorical passages, ch. i, and nearly the whole of chs. iii-vii, being omitted. Valentim Fernandes, who transcribed, if he did not compile, this summary, which he finished on November 14th, 1506, commences his chapters at the eighth of the Paris MS., and reduces the original number of chapters from ninety-seven to sixty-two.

The text of the Paris MS. seems to have been added to at some later time, and, at any rate, is not in the state in which Azurara left it in 1453, the year the Chronicle was finished, because certain passages speak of D. Henrique as though already deceased, while he only died in 1460.[90] Innocencio thinks Azurara emended his work after the Prince's death, and inserted some reflections on his life and moral qualities, without continuing the narrative, or passing the limit he had at first marked out, namely 1448.

[Footnote 90: Cf. _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 5.]

The history of the MS., and the discovery in 1837 by the Lusophile, Ferdinand Denis, of the Paris copy, together with a description thereof, is related by the Viscount de Santarem in his Introduction, and deserves perusal.[91] Fragments of the Chronicle were known to Barros, who incorporated them in his _Asia_, but Goes never saw it at all, and it would seem to have disappeared from Portugal in the 16th century.[92] Frei Luiz de Sousa, the great Dominican prose writer, met with a MS. copy at Valencia, in the possession of the Duke of Calabria, one of whose ancestors, a King of Naples, had received it, he was informed, from D. Henrique himself.[93] We know from another source that this MS. was still in Spain at the beginning of the last century, but how it reached its present resting-place, the National Library in Paris, remains a mystery.

[Footnote 91: _Chronica de Guiné_, p. xii, and compare the art. on
Azurara in the _Diccionario Universal Portuguez_, and Innocencio da
Silva, _Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez_, vol. ix, p. 245.]

[Footnote 92: Barros, _Asia_, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 1, and Goes,
_Chronica do Principe D. Joào_, ch. 6.]

[Footnote 93: _Historia de S. Domingos_, p. 1, liv. vi, ch. 15.
Santarem suggests that Affonso V sent it to his uncle, Affonso the
Magnificent of Naples, by his ambassador, Martin Mendes de Berredo,
between 1453 and 1457; but this cannot be reconciled with the fact
that certain passages in the Chronicle appear to have been written
after the death of D. Henrique.]

(_d_) "CHRONICA DO CONDE D. PEDRO (DE MENEZES) Continuada aa tomada de Cepta, a qual mandou El-Rey D. Affonso V deste nome, e dos Reys de Portugal XII, escrepver." Such is the title of this Chronicle, which was published in Vol. II of the _Ineditos_, and runs from page 213 to the end. It is there preceded by an Introduction of six pages, dealing with the life and works of Azurara, from the pen of the erudite Abbade Corrêa da Serra.

There exists a valueless MS. of this Chronicle in the Bibliotheca National in Lisbon of the end of the 17th century, and another equally devoid of interest in the Academia das Sciencias. Mr. Quaritch recently offered one for sale,[94] which derives importance from having been copied from another of early date, and was kind enough to send it for our inspection. It is a small folio, beautifully written on paper, containing 164 leaves with thirty-one lines to the page, and was transcribed from a MS. on parchment of 233 folios in a single column, which had been itself finished in Lisbon on July 24th, 1470, by João Gonçalvez, the scribe who copied the Paris MS. of the _Chronica de Guiné_. The copy belonging to Mr. Quaritch has some marginal notes without value, and must, to judge from the writing, have been made in Portugal at the very beginning of the 17th century, or, as he says, about 1620. The text is the same as that printed in the _Ineditos_.

[Footnote 94: Catalogue No. 148, _Bibliotheca Hispana_, February 1895.]

(_e_) "CHRONICA DO CONDE D. DUARTE DE MENEZES."

This was published for the first time in Vol. III of the _Ineditos_, and has there no separate title page, but the heading of the first chapter reads as follows:--"Comecasse a Historia, que fala dos feitos que fez o Illustre e muy nobre Cavaleiro Dom Duarte de Menezes, Conde que foi de Viana, Alferes Del-Rey e Capitão por elle na Villa Dalcacer em Affrica. A qual foi primeiramente ajuntada e escripta per Gomez Eanes de Zurara, professo Cavalleiro, e Comendador na Ordem de Christus, Chronista do mesmo Senhor Rey, e Guardador mór do Tombo de seus Regnos."

All the MSS. of this Chronicle are defective, and we know from the Royal Censor that they were in the same state as early as the reign of Dom Sebastião. In fact, more than a third of the work has disappeared, and is represented by lacunæ. The Bibliotheca National in Lisbon has three, the Torre do Tombo two, and the Bibliotheca da Academia Real das Sciencias one MS. of this Chronicle; all show the same gaps. The only MS. of value is one (No. 520) in the Torre do Tombo, dating from the end of the 15th century, written on parchment, with the headings to the Chapters in red and black, and an illuminated title-page. It must be pronounced a fine specimen of caligraphy, and, though incomplete like the rest, is otherwise in good condition.

* * * * *

The Writings attributed to Azurara consist of the following:--

(_f_) A CHRONICLE OF D. DUARTE.

There seems to be little doubt that Azurara wrote some sort of a Chronicle of this King which has not been preserved. The Chronicle we possess goes under the name of Ruy de Pina, but, according to Goes, it was begun by Fernão Lopes, continued by Azurara, and only finished by Pina.[95] Barros is more explicit, for he not only states that Azurara compiled the Chronicle in question, but adds that it was appropriated by Ruy de Pina, who succeeded him in the post of Chronista Mór.[96] Azurara himself does not help us much to a solution of the problem. In the _Chronica de Guiné_ he refers twice to it somewhat vaguely, but in another place mentions it quite clearly as his own work, though in the future tense.[97] Again, in the _Chronica de Ceuta_ there is a similar reference to it, also in the future tense.[98] Unsatisfactory as this is, we must perforce be content with it in default of any better information. It seems most unlikely that Affonso V would have employed the Chronicler on the lives of great nobles like Pedro and Duarte de Menezes, who, after all, were but private persons, without providing, in some way, for a history of his father to be written. All we can say is, that Azurara probably collected the material and possibly made a first draft--although it is noticeable that he nowhere speaks of the Chronicle as finished, but always as something that is to be done--then came Ruy de Pina and put it into shape, for the style is certainly his, and, while more smooth, is far less characteristic than the quaint rhetorical sentences of Azurara.

[Footnote 95: _Chronica de D. Manoel_, quarta parte, ch. 38.]

[Footnote 96: _Asia_, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 2.]

[Footnote 97: _Chronica de Guiné_, chs. 1, 5, and 68.]

[Footnote 98: _Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 21, and cf. _Chronica de D.
Duarte de Menezes_, ch. 24.]

(_g_) A CHRONICLE OF KING AFFONSO V.

Both Barros and Goes agree that Azurara wrote a Chronicle of this monarch, and carried it down to the death of D. Pedro in the year 1449, and that it was finished by Ruy de Pina, under whose name it appears.[99] More than this, Barbosa Machado actually cites it, as though it existed in his day, thus--_Chronica del Rey D. Affonso V, até a morte do Infante D. Pedro; fol. MS._[100] It is true that, in the _Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, Azurara declares that, in spite of entreaties, the King would never allow him to write a history of his reign; but this was in 1463, and Affonso may well have entrusted him with the work in later years, and another passage of the same Chronicle seems to imply it,[101] though Pina, while confessing that he was not the first to receive a commission for the Chronicle of King Affonso, declares that he found it uncommenced.[102] If we examine carefully the first 124 Chapters of Pina's Chronicle, we shall at first sight conclude the ideas to belong to Azurara and the phraseology to savour of Pina. Such prominence is given to the acts and character of the Regent that the work might well have borne his name, and he is treated with a fervent veneration and a love which might naturally be expected from Azurara, who must have known him intimately, as he certainly knew his son, but which could hardly be looked for in a later writer. Again, D. Henrique's neglect of his brother, a neglect which made Alfarrobeira possible, is reprehended in terms that bring to mind the stern and impartial Azurara rather than his more smooth-tongued successor, while, curiously enough, the incident is not touched on in Chapter cxliv, undoubtedly the work of Pina, where the character of the Prince is summed up after his death and receives unmixed praise. On the other hand, it must be remembered that D. Henrique's behaviour to his brother Pedro at the last is referred to in the _Chronica de Guiné_ as a proof of his loyalty under difficult circumstances, and this fact certainly tells against Azurara's authorship of the Chronicle under consideration, though hardly enough of itself to discredit the express statements of Barros and Goes. To sum up. While it is certain that Azurara never wrote a complete Chronicle of Affonso V, for the good reason that he predeceased the King, it is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to measure his share in the first part, with which alone he has been credited, although one cannot help inclining to the opinion that the Chronicle as it stands is substantially the work of Ruy de Pina.

[Footnote 99: _Asia_, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 2, and _Chronica de D.
Manoel_, quarta parte, ch. 38. Goes says, too, that Azurara related
the taking of Arzilla, which happened in 1470.]

[Footnote 100: _Bibliotheca Lusitana_, vol. ii, art. on Azurara.]

[Footnote 101: _Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, chs. 1, 2, and
parte II, ch. 26; and compare his references to the _Chronica Geral_
in the _Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes_, chs. 108, 111, 135, 142,
and 145, as well as in the _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 5.]

[Footnote 102: Prologue to the _Chronica de D. Affonso V_
(_Ineditos_, vol. i, p. 202).]

(_h_) A ROMANCE OF CHIVALRY, in three MS. volumes, existing in the Lisbon National Library.

The title of the First Volume runs:--"Chronica do Invicto D. Duardos de Bertania, Princepe de Ingalaterra, filho de Palmeiry, e da Princeza Polinarda, do qual se conta seus estremados feitos em armas, e purissimos amores, com outros de outros cavalleiros que em seu tempo concorrerão. Composta por Henrrique Frusto, Chronista ingres, e tresladada em Portugues por Gomes Ennes de Zurara que fes a Chronica del Rey Dom AFonço Henrriques de Portugal, achada de novo entre seus papeis."

There are three MS. copies of this volume which differ somewhat _inter se_, the earliest dating from the second half of the 17th century. Two of these copies contain eighty chapters, the other but seventy-six. They are marked respectively U/2/100 B/10/6 B/10/7 in the Lisbon National Library.

The last, an 18th-century MS., though substantially the same work as the two former ones, bears a different title: "Chronica de Primaleão, Emperador de Grecia. Primeira Parte. Em que se conta das façanhas que obrou o Princepe D. Duardos, e os mais Princepes que com elle se criarão na Ilha Perigoza do Sabio Daliarte." Its composition is attributed to "Guilherme Frusto, Autor Hybernio", and the name of Azurara does not appear as translator, one "Simisberto Pachorro" being named as the copyist.

The Second Volume bears the title:--"Segūda parte da cronica do Princepe Dom Duardos. Composta por Henrique Frusto e tresladada por Gomez Enes Dazurara, autores da primeira parte." It contains eighty-six chapters and is marked U/2/101. Underneath the title is written in a flowing hand--"Podesse encadernar esta segunda parte da Chronica do Princepe Dom Duardos. Lxa em Mesa. 21 de Outubro de 659", and signed with three names.

The Third Volume is headed:--"Terseira parte da Chronica do Princepe Dom Duardos, composta por Henrrique Frusto e tresladada por Gomez Ennes dazurara, Auctores da 1a, e 2a parte." It has thirty-five Chapters, and ends abruptly. Its mark is U/2/102.

All the MSS. described above are of relatively recent date, written on paper and of folio size.[103] A certain want of connection appears between Parts I and II, but this is not so as regards Parts II and III. A very unpoetical Sonnet closes Chapter XI. of the last Part, and, since it is not referred to in the text and its language is modern, may possibly have been interpolated. From the form it cannot be earlier than 1526 or 1530, while a competent judge holds it to have been probably composed after 1550.

[Footnote 103: Dr. Theophilo Braga mentions another MS. of the whole
Chronicle, in a single volume of 644 folios, as being in private
hands. The name of the English (?) Chronicler is there spelt
"Henrique Fauste".--_Amadis de Gaula_, p. 196 _n._ Porto, 1873.]

From a cursory examination of the Chronicle under consideration, it would seem to be neither (1) a translation from the English, nor yet (2) by the hand of Azurara, as alleged, but an original composition by some anonymous writer. The value of the first statement may be estimated by remembering how Cervantes declared he had copied _D. Quixote_ from the Cide Hamete Benengeli; and, again, how João de Barros introduced his _Clarimundo_ as a version from the Hungarian; in any case, no such early English or Irish Chronicler as Frusto or Frost (?) can be shown to have existed. The Cycle of the Round Table, and other British Romances of Chivalry, which were known in Portugal early in the 14th century, became more popular after the marriage of D. João I with D. Philippa of Lancaster, and this accounts for the ascription to an English origin; while Azurara's knowledge of such books, as displayed in his various Chronicles, explains how this story of a mythical D. Duarte came to be fathered on him. The considerations that weigh most against Azurara's authorship of the MS. are those of date and style. It has been already proved that he died in or about the year 1473, so that, assuming the work to be his, it must have been written at least before that date, or even much earlier, say before 1454; since it cannot be presumed that he would have time for such an essay after his appointment as Chief Chronicler of Portugal and Royal Archivist. Perhaps he would have lacked the inclination as well, at least judging from the disdainful tone of his reference to the _Amadis de Gaula_ in the _Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_. Now, the first of the Palmerin series--to which our MS. certainly belongs--the _Palmerin de Oliva_, was only printed in 1511; and though both it and its sequel, _Primaleon_, may have existed in MS. in the 15th century, contemporary literature has no record of the fact as in the case of _Amadis_, and there is nothing to favour the supposition. But, apart from this, a perusal of the first few chapters of Part I of the present MS., and especially the opening lines of