Antônio José da Silva

Antônio José da Silva (born May 8, 1705, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—died Oct. 18, 1739, Lisbon, Port.) was a Portuguese writer whose comedies, farces, and operettas briefly revitalized the Portuguese theatre in a period of dramatic decadence.

Silva was born in Brazil, the son of Jews. Though his parents professed Christianity, his mother was accused by the Inquisition of relapsing into Judaism, and in 1712, when Antônio was seven years old, the family was forced to leave Brazil for Portugal for her trial. Silva studied canon law at Coimbra, but at 21 he was imprisoned with his mother and brothers and forced under torture to abjure his Jewish faith. On his release, he completed his studies (1728), joined his father’s legal practice in Lisbon, and married a cousin who had also suffered religious persecution.

During a brief period (1729–37) when he was unmolested by the authorities, Silva wrote eight plays, all for the ópera dos bonecos (puppet theatre), performed at the Bairro Alto Theatre in Lisbon. Prose dialogue is interspersed with arias, minuets, and modinhas (popular, light songs). His best plays are generally considered to be A Vida do grande D. Quixote de la Mancha (1733; “The Life of Don Quixote of La Mancha”) and As Guerras do Alecrim e da Mangerona (1737; “The Wars of the Rosemary and the Marjoram”). Altogether they constitute a skilled and witty satire against the pretensions of a society based on caste and privilege.

In 1739 Silva and his wife were both charged by the Inquisition with the heresy of Judaizing and imprisoned on October 5. Thirteen days later, Silva was garrotted and burned at an auto-da-fé (public burning at the stake), witnessed by his wife, who died soon thereafter.