Antônio José da Silva (1705 - October 18, 1739), Portuguese dramatist, known as "the Jew," was born at Rio de Janeiro, but came to Portugal at the age of eight. Events Construction begins on Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, England. ... October 18 is the 291st day of the year (292nd in Leap years). ... Events March 20 - Nadir Shah occupies Delhi in India and sacks the city stealing the jewels of the Peacock Throne, including the Koh-i-Noor September 9 - Stono Rebellion erupts near Charleston September 18 - Treaty of Belgrade signed October 3 - Treaty of Nissa signed October 23 - Great Britain declares war... The word Portuguese can mean: From or related to Portugal The ethnic Portuguese people, see list of Portuguese people The Portuguese language Portuguese Creole Portuguese sidewalk Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was nicknamed My little Portuguese by her husband Robert Browning. ... A dramatist is an author of dramatic compositions, usually plays. ... Ipanema beach A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. ...

His parents, Joâo Mendes da Silva and Lourença Coutinho, were descended from Portuguese Jews who had emigrated to Brazil to escape the Inquisition, but in 1702 that tribunal began to persecute the Marranos in Rio, and in October 1712 Lourença Coutinho fell a victim. Her husband and children accompanied her to Portugal, where she figured among the "reconciled" in the auto-da-fé of July 9, 1713, after undergoing the torment only. The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world. ... Pedro Berruguete. ... Events March 8 - William III died; Princess Anne Stuart becomes Queen Anne of England, Scotland and Ireland. ... The term marrano refers to the Sephardim, Jews from the Iberian peninsula, who were forced to adopt the identity of Christians, either through coercion as consequence of the cruel persecution of Jews by the Spanish Inquisition, or for forms sake, and became Catholic converts. ... Pedro Berruguete. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ... Events April 11 - War of the Spanish Succession: Treaty of Utrecht June 23 - French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia Canada first Orrery built by George Graham Ongoing events Great Northern War (1700-1721) War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713...

Her husband, having then acquired a fixed domicile in Lisbon, settled down to advocacy with success, and he was able to send Antônio to the university of Coimbra, where he matriculated in the faculty of law. In 1726 Antônio was suddenly imprisoned along with his mother on August 8; on the 16th he suffered the first interrogation, and on September 23 he was put to the torment, with the result that three weeks later he could not sign his name. He confessed to having followed the practices of the Mosaic law, and this saved his life. Lisbon (in Portuguese, Lisboa) is the capital and largest city of Portugal. ... The University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) is a Portuguese state university with administrative and financial autonomy in Coimbra, a city of central Portugal. ... Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... Mosaic law in the narrow sense is observance of the Ten Commandments of Moses. ...

He went through the great auto-da-fé held on October 23 in the presence of King John V and his court, abjured his errors, and was set at liberty. His mother was only released from prison in October 1729, after she had undergone torture and figured as a penitent in another auto-da-fé. October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. ... John V (Portuguese João) (1689-1750), king of Portugal, was born at Lisbon on October 22 1689, and succeeded his father Peter II of Portugal in December 1706, being proclaimed on January 1, 1707. ...

Meanwhile Antônio had gone back to Coimbra, and finishing his course in 1728-1729 he returned to Lisbon and became associated with his father as an advocate. He found an ignorant and corrupt society ruled by an immoral yet fanatical monarch, who wasted millions on unprofitable buildings though the country was almost without roads and the people had become the most backward in Europe. As his plays show, the spectacle struck Antonio's observation, but he had to criticize with caution.

He produced his first play or opera in 1733, and the next year he married a cousin, D. Leonor Maria de Carvalho, whose parents had been burnt by the Inquisition, while she herself had gone through an auto-da-fé in Spain and been exiled on account of her religion. A daughter was born to them in 1734, but the years of their happiness and of Silva's dramatic career were few, for on October 5, 1737 husband and wife were both imprisoned on the charge of "judaizing." A slave of theirs had denounced them to the Holy Office, and though the details of the accusation against them seem trivial and even contradictory, Antônio was condemned to death. On the 18th of October he was beheaded and his body burnt in an auto-da-fé; that same day one of his popular operettas was given at a Lisbon theatre. Events February 12 - British colonist James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia. ... October 5 is the 278th day of the year (279th in Leap years). ... Events 12 February - The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated. ...

His dramatic works, which were produced at the Bairro Alto theatre between 1733 and 1738, include the following comedies, all played by marionettes: Marionette in Prague A marionette is a type of puppet moved by strings, as in a puppet show. ...

• Don Quixote (1733)
• Esopaida (1734)
• Os Encantos de Medea (1735)
• Amphitriio (May 1736)
• Labyrintho de Creta (November 1736)
• Guerras do Alecrim e Mangerona (carnival of 1737)
• As Variedades de Proteo (May 1737)
• Precipicio de Faetonte (1738)

Slight as these sketches are, they show considerable dramatic talent and an Aristophanic wit. The characters are well drawn and the dialogue full of comic strength, the scenes knit together and the plot skilfully worked out. Moreover Silva possessed a knowledge of stagecraft, and, if he had lived, he might have emancipated the drama in Portugal from its dependence on foreign writers; but the triple licence of the Palace, the Ordinary and the Inquisition, which a play required, crippled spontaneity and freedom. Even so, he showed some boldness in exposing types of the prevailing charlatanism and follies, though his liberty of speech is far less than that of Gil Vicente. His comedies give a truthful and interesting picture of 18th century society, especially his best comedy, the Alecrim e Mangerona, in which he treats of the fidalgo pobre, a type fixed by Gil Vicente and Francisco Manoel de Mello. A bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ... Gil Vicente (1470? - 1536?) was a significant Portuguese dramatist. ...

His works bear the title "operas" because, though written mainly in prose, they contain songs which Silva introduced in imitation of the true operas which then held the fancy of the public. He was also a lyric poet of real merit, combining correctness of form with a pretty inspiration and real feeling. His plays were published in the first two volumes of a collection entitled Theatro comico portuguez, which went through at least five editions in the 18th century, while the Alecrim e Mangerona appeared separately in some seven editions. This comedy and the Don Quixote have been reprinted in a critical edition with a life of Silva by Dr Mendes dos Remedios (Coimbra, 1905). (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...

Ferdinand Denis, in his Chefs-d'œuvre du théâtre portugais (pp. 365-496, Paris, 1823), prints liberal extracts, with a French translation, from the Vida de Don Quixote, and F Wolf likewise gives selections from Silva's various compositions. Silva is the subject also of several laudatory poems and dramas, one or two of which were composed by Brazilian compatriots.

See:

• Dr Theophilo Braga, Historia do theatro portuguez
• a baixa comedia e a opera (Oporto, 1871)
• F Wolf, Dom Antonio José da Silva (Vienna, 1860)
• Ernest David, Les Operas du juif Antonio Jose da Silva, 1705-1939 (Paris, 1880)
• Oliveira Lima, Aspectos de litteratura colonial Brazileira (Leipzig, 1896)
• Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. xi. p. 341
• GA Kohnt, "Bibliography of Works relating to Antonio Jose da Silva and Bibliography of Don Antonio's Compositions" in the Publ. Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. No. 4, p. 181
• idem, "Martyrs of the Inquisition in South America," ib. p. 135
• M Grunwald, "José da Silva" in Monatsschrift (1880), xxix. p. 241.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica ( 1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...