Camo�ns or Cam�es, Luis de 1524-80
Portuguese poet

Born in Lisbon, he studied for the church at Coimbra, but declined to take orders. Returning to Lisbon, probably in 1542, he fell in love with Donna Caterina Ataide, but her father opposed the marriage. He was banished from Lisbon for a year, and joining a Portuguese force at Ceuta, served there for two years, losing an eye. In 1550 he returned to Lisbon, where he was thrown into prison for his share in a street brawl, and released only on his volunteering to go to India. While in Goa (1553-55) his denunciations of the Portuguese officials led to an honourable exile in Macao (1556). Returning to Goa (1558) he was shipwrecked and lost everything except his great epic poem, Os Lusiadas (the Lusiads). He was imprisoned in Goa, but after an exile of 16 years, he returned to Lisbon to spend the remainder of his life. He wrote plays, sonnets and lyrics but is best remembered for his Os Lusiadas which was published in 1572 and was an immediate success. It took as its subject the history of Portugal, and did for the Portuguese language what Chaucer did for English and Dante for Italian. The Portuguese came to regard it as their national epic.

Bibliography: W Freitas, Camoens and his Epic: a Historic, Geographic and Cultural Background (1963)