Aguiar (Manuel Caetano Pimenta de)

His name is all but unknown here in Madeira. Some years ago Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), wishing to save the memory of this distinguished Madeiran from complete oblivion, gave his name to the lane that links Rua da Carreira (‘track’) and Rua das Cruzes. Even so, the great majority of the people of Funchal have not come to know any better the qualities or merits that may have made him illustrious.

Pimenta de Aguiar was not one of those writers who mark an era or remain immortal in the annals of a country’s literature. Nevertheless, he left a quite distinguished name in the pages of our literary history, and some even regard him as the true precursor of Almeida Garrett in the creation of a national theatre. He did not possess the prodigious and versatile talent of the author of Frei Luiz de Sousa, nor the inimitable beauty of his language, nor his rare and exceptional gifts as a dramatist. Yet he had the insight to see that we had no true theatre in Portugal, and he tried to awaken a taste for this kind of literature, following chiefly the lead of the French tragedians. He wrote many tragedies, which were greatly in vogue in their day and which revealed his remarkable aptitude as a dramatic writer. His literary works had the faults typical of the period, but they undeniably showed great originality, departing from the models followed until then. For this reason, despite all their imperfections, the public flocked to hear the tragedies of Pimenta de Aguiar and enthusiastically acclaimed their author.

With his admirable dramatic works, which created the true national theatre, Viscount Almeida Garrett consigned the undeniable merits of our illustrious fellow countryman to oblivion. Critics have nonetheless recognised that Pimenta de Aguiar deserves a distinguished place in our literary annals.

Manuel Caetano Pimenta de Aguiar was born in this city on 16 May 1765, the son of Bartolomeu Luís Pimenta de Aguiar and Dona Maria Felícia de Carvalho. His father, a doctor of law from the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra), came to this island to hold the post of general guardian of orphans, and here he administered an entailed house (casa vinculada).

In 1778, aged 13, Pimenta de Aguiar left for Lisbon to enrol at the Colégio dos Nobres; it is not known whether or not he completed his studies there. In 1785 he went to Paris, where for some years he followed the course in arts and sciences. He later abandoned his studies to take his chances in war, taking part in the country’s internal revolts around 1790 or 1791. He always showed great daring and courage, and for this he attained the rank of captain and the Cross of the Legion of Honour. When the war was over and he had obtained his discharge from military service, he returned to his homeland and devoted himself chiefly to study and to his literary interests. In 1816 he published his first tragedy, which he entitled Virgínia, and he brought out his last work in 1820. He was remarkably prolific, for in so short a period he printed ten tragedies, all of them of some length. In order of publication, they are entitled Virginia, Os Dois Irmãos Inimigos, D. João I, Arria, Destruição de Jerusalém, D. Sebastião em Africa, Conquista do Peru, Eudoxia Liciana, Morte de Socrates and Carácter dos Lusitanos. After 1820, following a period of such literary activity, there is no record of his publishing any further writings, and we do not know to what to attribute this sudden and complete break in his work. We do not know whether he devoted himself to other literary genres besides tragedy; it is recorded only, on the testimony of Inocêncio Francisco da Silva, that he left some unpublished works. As befits tragedy, and in imitation of the Greek and French tragedians, Pimenta de Aguiar wrote all his compositions in verse, revealing himself as an inspired poet who combined loftiness of thought with beauty of form.

Although he had lived away from Madeira for most of his life, Pimenta de Aguiar’s rare gifts of talent and learning were not unknown to his fellow Madeirans, and they therefore chose him as their representative in the general Cortes (Portuguese parliament) that sat from 1822 to 1823. He was also elected deputy for this island for the legislative session of 1826 to 1828. Of his work as a parliamentarian and representative of this archipelago in the Cortes, we know only what the Actas das sessões públicas of the first extraordinary annual session of the first legislature of the Chamber of Deputies record: in the session of 1826 to 1828 he attended the meetings assiduously, sat on some parliamentary committees and presented a bill permitting the free export of Madeira wine.

The establishment of absolute government forced him into hiding to escape persecution by Miguelist agents, who could not spare a man who had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Constitution of 1820 and of the Constitutional Charter (Carta Constitucional) of 1826.

Pimenta de Aguiar married Dona Micaela Antónia de Sá Betencourt, by whom he had seven children. One of them, Luís Pimenta de Aguiar, was exiled to Mozambique as a liberal and died there; another, Dona Isabel Betencourt de Aguiar, married António João da Silva Betencourt Favila, holder of the entail (morgado).

Pimenta de Aguiar lived in the house in the old Rua da Carreira where the respected Vieira family lives today, a little below the lane (Travessa, ‘crossing’) that bears the name of the distinguished poet and dramatist. In that house, according to information we consider reliable, he wrote some of his tragedies.

Struck down by an apoplectic fit, he died in Lisbon, in the Rua Direita (‘straight street’) in the parish (freguesia) of São Paulo, on 19 February 1832, and was buried in the parish church of that same parish. He died just short of 67 years of age.

Dr Ernesto Gonçalves published two articles in the Arquivo Histórico da Madeira (‘Historical Archive of Madeira’) on Manuel Caetano Pimenta de Aguiar, which provide new and interesting information for the biography of this illustrious Madeiran.