Júlio Dantas

Júlio Dantas
File:Tenente médico Dr. Júlio Dantas.jpg
Born	(1876-05-19)19 May 1876 Lagos, Portugal
Died	Lisbon, Portugal
Occupation	Doctor, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and dramatist
Genre	Poetry
Literary movement	Romantism, Academism
Notable works	A Severa (1901) A Ceia dos Cardeais (1902)
Signature	File:Assinatura Júlio Dantas.svg

Júlio Dantas GCC GOSE (19 May 1876 – 25 May 1962) was a Portuguese doctor, poet, journalist, politician, diplomat and dramatist.

Biography

Júlio Dantas was born in Lagos, the son of Casimiro Augusto Vanez Dantas, a military figure, writer, and journalist, and his wife Maria Augusta Pereira de Eça. He studied at the Military College in Lisbon, and was admitted with the number 114 in 1887. He then enrolled in the medical course at the Lisbon Medical-Surgical School, which he finished in 1900 with a thesis entitled Pintores e poetas de Rilhafoles. Shortly afterwards he joined the Portuguese Army, and was a medical officer from 1902 onwards.

His career in military medicine, where he chose to practice in the field of psychiatry, did not absorb him: he devoted himself simultaneously to literature and to an intense intellectual and social activity, which made him well-known in political circles and in the cultured circles of Lisbon. In 1905 he was elected to the Cortes (Parliament).

In literature he proved to be a true polygraph, dedicating himself to the most varied literary genres, from poetry, theater, short stories, novels and chronicles to essays. He achieved great success with his plays, with works such as A Severa, A Ceia dos Cardeais (a work that has been translated into more than 20 languages), Rosas de Todo o Ano, and O Reposteiro Verde.

He published his first article in 1893 in the newspaper Novidades, and his first book of verse in 1897. From a stylistic point of view, his work lies between Romanticism and Parnassianism, with historical themes predominating in his plays and novels. However, Júlio Dantas' best works, namely Paço de Veiros (1903) and O Reposteiro Verde (1921) have a clear leaning towards naturalism. For decades, he was one of the most appreciated Portuguese authors abroad.

In his works, he defends the cult of heroism, elegance and love, placing the plot of his works almost invariably in the 18th century, a time he almost always chose as the setting for his productions, highlighting the decadence of the aristocratic life of the time. In his works it is also common to find the exaltation of the ephemeral, death, and the most poignant sentimentalism. His poetic work is clearly inspired by the palace lyric of the Cancioneiro Geral by Garcia de Resende.

The first production of one of his plays occurred in 1899, at Teatro Dona Amélia (today Teatro São Luiz) in Lisbon, with the presentation of the play in four acts O que morreu de amor, by Companhia Rosas & Brasão. Still in the theatrical field, he dedicated himself to translation, having published Portuguese language versions of Cyrano de Bregerac, by Edmond Rostand, and King Lear, by William Shakespeare. His translations are among the best ever made into Portuguese.

A Ceia dos Cardeais (1902) was enormously popular in its time, and has continued to be reissued to this day. Based on his theatrical work A Severa, José Leitão de Barros made the first Portuguese sound film in 1931. His play Os Crucificados addresses, for the first time in Portuguese theater, the theme of homosexuality.

He was a correspondent member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences from 1908 and a full member since 1913. Several times he was chosen to be the institution's president. In 1949 he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Brazil, a title that in 1954 was also awarded by the University of Coimbra.

He also had a career in artistic education and was director of the Lisbon National Conservatory, where he was professor of History of Literature and director of the Dramatic Art Section.

On February 14, 1920, he was made Grand Officer of the Ancient, Most Noble and Enlightened Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, of the Scientific, Literary and Artistic Merit.

He was Minister of Public Instruction in the fall of 1920, in the government headed by António Granjo, and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Cunha Leal's government, in the winter of 1921–1922, and again in 1923 in Ginestal Machado's government.

On February 14, 1930 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and on March 21 of the same year he was elevated to the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword.

In 1938–1940 he presided over the Executive Committee of the Centennials, directing the Exposition of the Portuguese World that took place in Lisbon and collaborated in the Revista dos Centenários.

In 1941 he was one of the Special Ambassadors sent to Brazil to dignify Portugal's culture, and in 1949 he was appointed Portugal's ambassador to Rio de Janeiro. In these functions he played a leading role in drafting an orthographic agreement with Brazil.

He was considered backward by some, as was the case of Almada Negreiros, who dedicated the Anti-Dantas Manifesto to him. The fact that he was reviled for that manifesto and became one of the targets of the young adherents of modernism proves his notoriety as a public man. Despite this, once the test of time had passed and passions had died down, Vitorino Nemésio and David Mourão-Ferreira defended his literary quality and his unusual dramatic mastery, considering him worthy of prominence in Portuguese letters.

In journalism and literary criticism, he was a contributor to the most important newspapers in Portugal, namely Diário Ilustrado, Novidades, Correio da Manhã and Renascença, and wrote in the Correio da Manhã of Rio de Janeiro, and La Nación of Buenos Aires.

One can also find collaborations of his authorship in the magazines Branco e Negro (1896–1898), Serões (1901–1911), Revista do Conservatório Real de Lisboa (1902), Illustração portugueza (1903–1980), Azulejos (1907-1909), O Palco (1912), Atlântida (1915–1920), Terra portuguesa (1916–1927), Revista de turismo started in 1916, O domingo ilustrado (1925–1927), Ilustração (1926–), Feira da Ladra (1929–1943), Anais das bibliotecas, arquivo e museus municipais (1931–1936), Boletim cultural e estatístico (1937), Revista municipal (1939–1973) and Boletim do Sindicato Nacional dos Jornalistas (1941–1945).

In politics he was considered an opportunist, really showing great versatility, serving as a deputy in the Monarchy, as a minister in the First Republic and finally as a deputy, president of the Centenary Commission and ambassador in the Estado Novo. Under his political plasticity, Fernando Dacosta stated: "to approach the Palace and the Queen he writes the Ceia dos Cardeais. Not receiving the positions and honors he thought he was entitled to, he takes advantage of the crisis of the monarchical regime and writes Um Serão nas Laranjeiras, a denunciation of the decomposition of the court. But he doesn't distance himself from it." When the Republic was proclaimed, Júlio Dantas adhered to the regime and published, in the daily newspaper A Capital, the pamphlet "Cruz de Sangue", later in a book with the title Pátria Portuguesa (1914), exalting the people and condemning the nobility. In 1911, with the conflict between the Catholic Church and the Portuguese State sparked by Afonso Costa's Separation Law, he published the play A Santa Inquisição (1910), a libel against the Inquisition. With the advent of Salazarism, he published Frei António das Chagas, a "eulogy of one who sacrifices, immolates himself for the Homeland." After World War II ended, foreseeing the fall of the Estado Novo, he introduced, in 1946, in Antígona, actress Mariana Rey Monteiro's debut play, a veiled criticism of the old dictator through the character of Creon.

He was one of the founders of the Society of Portuguese Theatrical Writers and Composers (SECTP), of which he was the first president. That society gave rise to the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA).

Contrary to the stereotype of conservatism attached to his public image, he broke with tradition and, not being a believer, resisted the social pressure of the time: he civilly married Maria Isabel Penedo Cardoso e Silva on May 30, 1942, from whom he had no descendants, and refused a Catholic funeral, remaining faithful to his secular convictions.

Júlio Dantas is remembered in his hometown, Lagos, by a bust, located in Santo Amaro, in the area surrounding the New Market, also giving his name to the city's public library. He is also the patron saint of the Júlio Dantas Secondary School, the main public secondary school in that city.

Works

One of the most prolific polygraphs of Lusophone literature, Júlio Dantas cultivated the most varied literary genres, such as the novel, poetry, theater and short story, having also dedicated himself to essays. However, he achieved his greatest successes as a playwright, with plays such as A Severa, A Ceia dos Cardeais, Rosas de Todo o Ano, and O Reposteiro Verde. The following list, organized by literary genre, is not exhaustive.

Poetry

• Nada (1896)
• Sonetos (1916)

Theater

• Auto da Rainha Claudia (1897)
• O Que Morreu de Amor (1899)
• Viriato Trágico (1900)
• A Severa (1901)
• Dona Mécia (1901)
• Crucificados (1902)
• A Ceia dos Cardeais (1902)
• D. Beltrão de Figueirôa (1902)
• Paço de Veiros (1903)
• Um Serão nas Laranjeiras (1904)
• O Caminheiro (1905)
• Rosas de Todo o Ano (1907)
• Mater Dolorosa (1908)
• Auto de El-Rei Seleuco de Camões (1908)
• Santa Inquisição (1910)
• O Primeiro Beijo (1911)
• D. Ramon de Capichuela (1912)
• O Reposteiro Verde (1912)
• 1023 (1912)
• O Tambor (1913)
• Soror Mariana (1915)
• Carlota Joaquina (1919)
• D. João Tenório (1920)
• A Castro (1920)
• O Rendez-Vous Amarelo (1926)
• Os Dois Macacos
• Antígona (1946)
• Frei António das Chagas (1947)
• Outono em Flor - Comédia em Três Actos (1949)
• A Catedral (1970)

Prose works

• Doentes (1897; Manuel Penteado)
• Outros Tempos (1909)
• Figuras de Ontem e de Hoje (1914)
• Pátria Portuguesa (1914)
• O Amor em Portugal no Século XVIII (1915)
• Mulheres (1916)
• Abelhas Doiradas (1920)
• Arte de Amar (1922)
• O Heroísmo, a Elegância, o Amor (1923)
• Cartas de Londres (1927)
• Alta Roda (1932)
• Viagens em Espanha (1936)
• Marcha triunfal (1954)

Translations

• Rei Lear by William Shakespeare
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
• O Azougue by Paul Saunière (1898)
• O Caminheiro by Jean Richepin (1905)

References

• Saraiva, José Hermano (2004). História de Portugal, Dicionário de Personalidades, Vol. 14. Lisboa: Ed. QN-Edição e Conteúdos.

External links

• Works by Júlio Dantas at Unz.com
• Júlio Dantas at the Internet Movie Database