Proteus' canticle, or the court in the colony in Prosopopéia (1601), by Bento Teixeira

Prosopopéia é exemplar de práticas poético-retóricas lusas entre os séculos XVI e XVII. Desde o século XIX, muitos mal-entendidos têm marcado a interpretação desse texto, que permite analisar, por exemplo, os papéis políticos dos vassalos ultramarinos portugueses no contexto da União Ibérica. Aqui, procuraremos perceber seus efeitos de sentido sobre auditórios letrados de seu tempo. Prosopopéia is a Portuguese poetic and rhetorical text written at the turn of the 16th to the 17th century. Since the 19th century, it has been misunderstood in many of its different aspects. Politically, for instance, the text permits us to analyse the roles of Portuguese overseas vassals in the context of Iberian Union. The aim of the present article is to understand the effects of Prosopopéia over its audiences at the time when it was written. Prosopopéia est paradigmatique en tant que pratique poétique et rhétorique portugaise dans le tournant du XVIème au XVIIème siècles. L'étude de ce texte permet d'analyser, par exemple, le rôle politique des vassaux portugais en outre-mer pendant l'Union Ibérique. Le but de cet article est de discuter les significations de la Prosopopéia dans son temps tout en considérant les possibles lectures de son époque.