Carpo (Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do)
Original title: Carpo (Arsenio Pompilio Pompeu do)
Biography of Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do Carpo (b. 1792), a Funchal stonemason and actor exiled to Angola as a liberal in 1823, who became a wealthy merchant, colonel and poet in Luanda.
What we know of the life of this Madeiran is almost limited to what Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says on p. 806 of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), which we transcribe below:
Born in the city of Funchal in 1792, he worked here as a stonemason and was an actor, until the special judicial commission (alçada) that came to the island of Madeira in 1823 condemned him as a liberal to five years of penal exile (degredo) in Angola, where he went to serve his sentence. From the parts he played in the theatre he took the grandiose surnames he used. He was a shrewd and adventurous man; for this reason he became not only a wealthy merchant in the city of São Paulo de Luanda but a leading figure in that overseas possession, a commander of the Order of Christ and a colonel. Brought under arrest to São Jorge Castle (Castelo de São Jorge) in Lisbon in 1846 on serious charges, he succeeded in clearing himself. He died some years later, having written and published, under the title Dedo de Pigmeu (Lisbon, 1843), a collection of intimate poems, as well as some pamphlets on his personal quarrels.
The Diccionario Bibliographico of Inocêncio Francisco da Silva, which supplied Dr Azevedo with almost all these notes, lists the pamphlets published by Arsénio Pompílio and states that he was born on 20 February 1792. In the Notas para um diccionario dos portugueses notaveis do meu tempo, written by Júlio César Machado, there is a long and most interesting article on Pompeu do Carpo.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 04-
Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do Carpo was born in Funchal.
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An absolutist royal tribunal (alçada) came to Funchal to investigate the 1821 constitutional events, holding its inquiry at the town hall until early November 1823; it dispersed the freemasons and sentenced many liberals to exile, including Joaquim Melchior Gonçalves to Cape Verde and others to Angola.
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Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do Carpo published the poetry collection Dedo de Pigmeu in Lisbon.
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Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do Carpo was brought prisoner to São Jorge castle in Lisbon on serious charges but freed himself.
Place
Places mentioned · 04
Abroad
- Angola
Place of his exile and later fortune.
Portuguese overseas colony which served as a place of exile for those condemned for the 1668 and 1834 disturbances in Madeira and by the Alçada of 1823. It was governed by Vasco Guedes, Sebastião Xavier Botelho and D. Lourenço de Almada. It was also the main source of the P.O.J. sugar-cane varieties imported from 1933 onwards.
- Funchal
Birthplace of Pompeu do Carpo.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Luanda
Angola. City where he became a wealthy merchant.
A city in Angola, recorded as a place of exile and as the proposed site of acclimatisation gardens by Welwitsch. Arsenio do Carpo became a wealthy merchant there, and Vitorino José dos Santos directed its municipal public works.
- St George’s Castle
Portugal. Lisbon castle where he was imprisoned in 1846.
The Castelo de São Jorge is a castle in Lisbon used as a prison. Acursio Garcia Ramos was held there, as were the corregedor at the time of the Alçada of 1823 and Arsénio Pompílio Pompeu do Carpo in 1846.
People
People mentioned · 04-
Funchal-born stonemason and actor exiled to Angola for liberalism, later a rich Luanda merchant, colonel and author of Dedo de Pigmeu.
- Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo1825–1898
Annotator of the Saudades da Terra, whose biographical note on Pompeu do Carpo is quoted here.
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Author of the Diccionario Bibliographico, source of most facts on Pompeu do Carpo and his pamphlets.
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Portuguese writer whose notes on notable Portuguese include a long article on Pompeu do Carpo.