Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage

Biography

Bocage was born in Setúbal to José Luís Soares de Barbosa and Mariana Joaquina Xavier l'Hedois Lustoff du Bocage, whose family was of French origin. He began composing verses as a child and, showing early talent, grew into a flattered, self-conscious and unstable adult. At fourteen he left school to join the 7th Infantry Regiment, but after two years of garrison life in Setúbal he entered the Portuguese navy. He attended the Royal Marine Academy in Lisbon, yet pursued romantic adventures instead of studying. Over the next five years he had many love affairs, and his retentive memory and skill at improvisation attracted numerous admirers. He gained further fame by writing Brazilian modinhas—short rhyming poems sung with guitar at family parties—and by extemporizing verses on given themes, as well as composing allegorical idyllic pieces with subjects similar to those in paintings by Watteau and Boucher. In 1786 he was appointed guarda-marinha in the Portuguese India navy, reaching Goa via Brazil in October. There he encountered an ignorant society full of petty intrigue, where his talents found no outlet; the East's glamour left him unmoved, and the climate caused a serious illness. Comparing the heroic traditions of Portugal in Asia with reality, he wrote satirical sonnets on The Decadence of the Portuguese Empire in Asia and sonnets addressed to Afonso de Albuquerque and D. João de Castro. The irritation from these satires, along with rivalries in love affairs, made it advisable to leave Goa. Early in 1789 he obtained a post as lieutenant of the infantry company at Damão, India, but promptly deserted and made his way to Macau, arriving in July–August. A contemporary tradition held that much of Os Lusíadas had been written there, and Bocage likely traveled to China following the path of Luís de Camões, to whose life and misfortunes he liked to compare his own. Though he escaped punishment for desertion, he had no resources and lived on charity, which allowed him to return to Lisbon in the middle of the following year.