Camões and the realms of stupidity: from Francisco de Melo Franco to Francisco Manoel de Mello Branco

Abstract

The presence of Camões in Brazilian Literature makes for an undeniable fact, as clearly proven by Gilberto Mendonça Teles in Camões e a poesia brasileira e o mito camoniano na língua portuguesa (2001). Starting with some critical judgements that we should try to revise, we aim to show Os Lusíadas’ presence in two texts which take the lector to a place between Portugal and Brazil: the comic-heroic poem O Reino da Estupidez (1785), by Francisco de Melo Franco, and a text from a descendant of the poet, Francisco de Mello Franco, titled Novo Reino da Estupidez (1995). In these voices of complaint of a painfully present-day stupidity, through laughter, insurgency and hope, we invite the reader to acknowledge, listen to and memorize the unique tone of Camões, one of the most displeased voices of poetry written in Portuguese.