One of the chapters I find most interesting in Michael Page's book (cited below) is the chapter dedicated to Marquis de Pombal. I am of the opinion that it is not possible to have some admiration for the Portuguese people and for Pombal at the same time because Pombal represents everything that the Portuguese people are not. Page has some incisive, typically British observations on the character of this man:
"It has been a source of speculation (...) as to how Pombal achieved such immense power , not to mention admiration. In part, he did so by his precocious understanding of propaganda as a political tool. He wrote, and had published under other people's names, not only advocacy of his policies, and ferocious attacks on his and the King's enemies, but glowing biographies of himself. Thus the legend survived until recently, that as ambassador in London he collected and avidly studied a major library of works of contemporary English philosophy, theory of mercantilism and imperial trade. In fact, after being there for six years, he was still complaining that English was a language completely beyond the grasp of the Portuguese like himself. When an English newspaper published an article about him, he had to ask an Anglo-Portugueses acquaintance to translate it for him. Similarly he is credited with master-minding the rebuilding of Lisbon, virtually alone, because the only account of it which he permitted to be published was his own".
(Page, op. cit., p. 195)
"It has been a source of speculation (...) as to how Pombal achieved such immense power , not to mention admiration. In part, he did so by his precocious understanding of propaganda as a political tool. He wrote, and had published under other people's names, not only advocacy of his policies, and ferocious attacks on his and the King's enemies, but glowing biographies of himself. Thus the legend survived until recently, that as ambassador in London he collected and avidly studied a major library of works of contemporary English philosophy, theory of mercantilism and imperial trade. In fact, after being there for six years, he was still complaining that English was a language completely beyond the grasp of the Portuguese like himself. When an English newspaper published an article about him, he had to ask an Anglo-Portugueses acquaintance to translate it for him. Similarly he is credited with master-minding the rebuilding of Lisbon, virtually alone, because the only account of it which he permitted to be published was his own".
(Page, op. cit., p. 195)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário