The Camonian emulation in Prosopopeia: The New Lusitania sung in The Lusiads

Abstract

Prosopopeia (1601), a Luso-Brazilian epic by Bento Teixeira, was for a long time read as a mere imitation of Camoes, with no literary qualities of its own, due to its similarities with The Lusiads. In this article, we seek to confront this perspective, through a reading of the poem in which the emulation of Camoes is seen as a rhetorical device adopted by Bento Teixeira. We start by considering the concept of mimesis, which in the Renaissance was guided by the imitation of traditionally established authorities, to then highlight Camoes as an archetype of the epic genre in the Lusitanian context. Bento Teixeira emulates the Camonian model, when elaborating Prosopopeia as the poem that Proteus fails to enunciate in The Lusiads, in addition to portraying the nobles of the New Lusitania, who, like the predecessor heroes, are marked in history as an example of Portuguese values. Understood as a variation on The Lusiads, Prosopopeia presents several similarities and disparities in relation to the Camonian epic, such as the mythological analogies, the theme of the Great Navigations and the ekphrasis of Triton. These associations – sometimes growing nearer, sometimes withdrawing from one another – are listed throughout the article, to highlight the dialogue between the epics, as well as the relevance of Prosopopeia to the studies of Camoes.