Guilherme Augusto de Santa-Rita

Poet and playwright, he published a few books of verse (Vacilantes, 1884; O Poema dum Morto, proem and ten cantos, with a preface by Gomes Leal, 1897; O Sonho do Herói, a 5-act poem commemorating the Centenary of India, 1898) and two plays, O Bezerro de Ouro (1890) and O Estigma (1900). The former is a satire targeting certain figures and behaviors of high finance (which led the National Theatre company to fear staging it, and when it premiered years later at the Teatro do Príncipe Real, it caused a loud scandal), while the latter is a laborious dramatic poem in which the romantic texture is tinged with incipient symbolism.