Uma queixa de galanteio: relações freiráticas em Gregório de Matos e Guerra

Abstract

The objective of this research is to observe how the theme of monastic love was present in the Luso-Brazilian literature from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as to investigate how it developed during that same time. The knowledge regarding Cordel literature and the baroque aesthetics are the basis for comprehending how subjects which contradict the religious morals, after the Council of Trent, were dealt with by writers and their audience. With its unique characteristics, baroque literature enabled its dissemination through satirical poetry, in which there was a satirical persona who represented the vices and sins of a given society. In this context, the poet from Bahia Gregório de Matos e Guerra is introduced as one of the main Brazilian writers of the seventeenth century, known for his accentuated satires criticizing several subjects of then. One of the controversies addressed by the author were the illicit relationships among nuns and their paramours – the monastic lovers – divided into two groups: the friars and the laymen. Within a poem chosen, we can observe for instance the point of view of this poet regarding the duel which qualified the most apt to love and enjoy a foundling wheel, a peephole or a grille together with his “joyous nun”.