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Tolentino de Almeida, Nicolau (b. Sept. 10, 1740, Lisbon—d. June 23, 1811), Portugal’s leading satirical poet of the 18th century. At age 20 he entered the University of Coins- bra to study law; he interrupted his studies three years later to assume the first of a series of teaching positions as a substitute instructor in rhetoric. In 1776 he was appointed to a post in Lisbon and the following year was named professor régio de retórica. Around the time of the downfall of the prime minister the Marques de Pombal (1777), Tolentino grew tired of his teacher’s role and aspired to public office. He dedicated numerous verses to members of the new political generation and, like other poets of the period, drew satirical sketches of the former minister (A Quixotada). Tolentino continued to bring the financial plight of his family, which he exaggerated greatly, and the tediousness of the schoolmaster’s labours to the attention of his readers in the aristocracy, and he eventually was made an officer of the Secretaria do Estado dos Negócios do Reino.
In 1790 he was made a knight of the royal family, and in 1801 his works were published by the state.
Tolentino’s literary importance is based on the wide range of social types depicted in his poetic vignettes and on the light he sheds on the writer’s position in Portuguese society from Pombal’s reign to the end of the century. His principal poems include “A Guerra” (“The War”), “Os Amantes” (“The Lovers”), “0 Bilhar” (“Billiards”), and “Memorial a Sua Alteza” (“Memorial to His Highness”).
tolerance, in biology, the ability of an organism to endure contact with a substance, or its introduction into the body, without ill effects.
