Júlio Dantas

In 1902,{{cn|date=May 2024}} Dantas published the one-act verse play A Ceia dos Cardeais (The Dinner of the Cardinals).{{cite journal |last1=Hilton |first1=Ronald |author1-link=Ronald Hilton |title=Joaquim Paço D'Arcos and Contemporary Portuguese Literature |journal=Hispania |date=1953 |volume=36 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/334746 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/334746 |access-date=27 May 2024 |issn=0018-2133}}{{rp|85}} In 1907, his one-act play Rosas de Todo o Ano (Roses all the Year) had its premiere in Lisbon. It was later translated into English by A. F. d'Almeida Carvalho and Mrs. Edward Lewis, and its 1912 Royal Court Theatre debut was the first time a play translated from Portuguese had been performed in London.{{cite news |title=A Portuguese Play |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-a-portuguese-play/148201135/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=26 March 1912 |page=7}}

In 1931, one of his plays was adapted for the screen as A Severa: it was one of the earliest sound films in Portuguese cinema.{{cite news |title=Opera Hit Gives Portugal Native 'Talkie' Industry |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/hawaii-tribune-herald-opera-hit-gives-po/148166523/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=Hawaii Tribune-Herald |date=6 April 1931 |page=2}} In 1947, he published the play Frei António das Chagas about a Portuguese soldier's conversion to becoming a mystic.{{cite journal |last1=Moser |first1=Gerald |author1-link=Gerald M. Moser |title=Portuguese Literature in Recent Years-1945-1947 |journal=The Modern Language Journal |date=1948 |volume=32 |issue=8 |page=585 |doi=10.2307/319150 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/319150 |issn=0026-7902}}

Dantas was a friend of the politician Vitorino Guimarães, having dedicated the poem "A minha boneca" ("My Doll") to his daughter Elina Guimarães during her childhood.{{cite book |last1=Mariano |first1=Fátima |editor1-last=Bermudez |editor1-first=Silvia |editor2-last=Johnson |editor2-first=Roberta |title=A New History of Iberian Feminisms |date=2018 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-1028-2 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.3138/9781487510282/html |language=en |chapter=Portuguese Feminist Writing during the Estado Novo}}{{rp|256}}

Following the Bloody Night in October 1921 and Francisco Cunha Leal's appointment as prime minister, Dantas began serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs on 16 December 1921.{{cite news |title=Portuguese Ministry Formed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-portuguese-ministry-formed/148202912/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The Observer |date=18 December 1921 |page=13}} With the collapse of António Maria da Silva's cabinet on 30 October 1923, António Ginestal Machado was made prime minister and Dantas was again appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs on 15 November that year.{{cite news |title=Nationalists Take Over Creating of Defunct Silva Body |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tampa-tribune-nationalists-take-over/148203964/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The Tampa Tribune |date=16 November 1923 |page=3}} He also served as Minister of Education.{{cite news |title=Obituary |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-obituary/148207210/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=26 May 1962 |page=10}}

During this period, the First Portuguese Republic, he served as president of the Nationalist Republican Party. He later served as a delegate to the League of Nations.{{cite news |title=Dr. Julio Dantas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-montreal-star-dr-julio-dantas/148206458/ |access-date=27 May 2024 |work=The Montreal Star |date=26 May 1962 |page=59}}

In 1936, Dantas was a founding member of the {{ill|Portuguese Academy of History|pt|Academia Portuguesa da História}}, which was created by the Estado Novo dictatorship as a way to instill a collective cultural history and memory in the country.{{cite book |last1=da Silva Rêgo |first1=António |editor1-last=Paul |editor1-first=Herman |title=How to be a Historian: Scholarly personae in historical studies, 1800-2000 |date=2019 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9781526132802 |chapter=Coalescence and conflict: historians and their personae in the Portuguese New State}}{{rp|131-132}} In 1954, he headed a government commission to celebrate the centenary of Almeida Garrett's death.{{cite journal |title=The Hispanic World |journal=Hispania |date=1954 |volume=37 |issue=3 |page=352 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/335288 |access-date=27 May 2024 |issn=0018-2133}}

Dantas served as president of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.{{cite journal |title=Announcements |journal=Science |date=1962 |volume=136 |issue=3519 |page=866 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1709205 |access-date=27 May 2024 |issn=0036-8075}}

Dantas died on 25 May 1962 at the age of 86.

According to Ronald Hilton, Dantas had established himself as the dominant figure of the Portuguese literary scene in the early twentieth century.{{rp|85}} However, his influence on younger generations of writers began to wane as he was considered "old-fashioned".{{rp|85}} In 1916, Dantas came under attack from Futurist artist and writer Almada Negreiros through his Manifesto Anti-Dantas, which employed a radical critique of contemporary Portuguese culture.{{cite book |last1=Infante |first1=Ignacio |title=A Planetary Avant-Garde |date=2023 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-2975-2 |language=en |chapter=A Planetary Avant-Garde: Experimental Literature Networks and the Legacy of Iberian Colonialism}}{{rp|42}} Ignacio Infante wrote that Dantas was seen to represent an "older reactionary condition" which was keeping the Portuguese people in an alleged state of "cultural degradation".{{rp|43}}

• A Ceia dos Cardeais (The Dinner of the Cardinals; 1902)
• Rosas de Todo o Ano (Roses all the Year; premiered in 1907)
• Frei António das Chagas (1947)

{{reflist}}

{{RAE honorary members}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dantas, Julio}}

Category:1876 births

Category:1962 deaths

Category:19th-century Portuguese writers

Category:19th-century Portuguese male writers

Category:Portuguese male writers

Category:People from Lagos, Portugal

Category:Education ministers of Portugal

Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Portugal

Category:Portuguese diplomats

Category:Nationalist Republican Party (Portugal) politicians

{{Portugal-bio-stub}}