A Second Divorce?
By 1931 (five years into the conservative, authoritarian regime of the New State, when the future dictator António de Oliveira Salazar was still finance minister), Judith and Alvaro’s marriage was on the rocks. On February 20, Alvaro filed for divorce on the grounds of abandonment.[1] Judith responded that it was he, and not her, who had abandoned the conjugal domicile—a separation to which she had never consented. Moreover, she alleged, Alvaro had left their home “para ir viver com uma amante que tinha” (to go live with a lover of his). He eventually left the lover and promised to return to his wife, only to take a new lover, “com quem vive presentemente” (with whom he is living at present). Thus it was not Alvaro but Judith who would be in the right if she were to seek a divorce.[2]
Alvaro replied that he had left the conjugal domicile only because it was Judith who had committed adultery, a charge which “não quiz claramente articular por razões de decoro” (he did not wish to articulate clearly for reasons of decorum).[3] Judith observed that Alvaro’s abandonment of the conjugal domicile, to which he had freely admitted in his reply, would constitute grounds for her to divorce him.[4] Somewhat implausibly, she denied the charge of adultery, claiming that while she, the defendant, had always led “uma vida recatada e honesta” (a decent and honest life), the plaintiff’s was one of “libertinagem e vicio . . . que toda a gente em Lisboa conhece” (libertinage and vice . . . known to every person in Lisbon).[5] Judith knew which way the wind was blowing. The government being what it was, her use of these legal formulas is less a sign of indignation than of desperation. Finally, she revealed that Alvaro’s aim was to marry his new lover, with whom he had a son.[6]
Judith presented a telegram and an envelope, addressed to her at 38 Avenida Antonio Augusto d’Aguiar, as proof that she had not abandoned the conjugal domicile.[7] She also exhibited several of Alvaro’s letters. In the first, dated May 12, 1919, Alvaro apologizes for his unfaithfulness:
Minha querida mulhersinha, – Perdoa o mal que tenho feito, se alguma vez disse a alguém que te não amava foi um desvario de quem quer conseguir alguma coisa que no fim só traz arrependimento e tédio. Como pude eu, minha Santa, fazer-te sofrer!! Um grande beijo do teu Alvaro. – P.S. Solo refere-se como sabes á M. Pene por uma brincadeira me apetecem uns momentos, nada mais. Nunca lhe tive a mais leve sombra de amôr embora lh’o tivesse dito.[8]
My dear little woman, — Forgive the wrong I have done; if ever I told someone I did not love you, it was a fit of madness on the part of one who wishes to attain something that only brings remorse and tedium in the end. How could I, my Saint, make you suffer!! A big kiss from your Alvaro. — P.S. One only applies, as you know, to Monsieur Péné for a game, they bring me a few moments of pleasure, nothing more. I never felt the faintest shadow of love for him, whatever I might have told him.
“M. Pene” (Moniseur Péné) would have been a male sex worker or perhaps the male owner of a brothel, one that Judith may have also frequented. The pronoun “lhe,” which I have rendered as “him,” is one of the few words in Portuguese whose gender is not readily apparent, while the verb conjugated in the plural, “apetecem,” could refer either to games with Monsieur Péné or to several men or women or both. Still, the wording in this letter raises the distinct possibility that Alvaro, like Judith, was bisexual.
Another letter, dated September 9, 1921, offers a damning portrait of its writer. Here, Alvaro implicitly attempts to justify his refusal to return home on the grounds of illness—his and his wife’s:
Não vou aí a casa, conforme te tinha dito, porque, pensado bem é desnecessario e até inconveniente. Só podia servir para nos incomodar-mos mais e nada resultava de bom nem para ti nem para mim. . . . Em primeiro logar quero dizer-te que em virtude da minha doença já desapareceram as consequencias que eram para ti mais um motivo de tristeza. Agora é necessario falar de ti: tive hontem uma conversa com o teu médico e ele disse-me o mesmo que os outros médicos já disseram é que tu estás doente principalmente pelo teu estado de nervosismo e que nada fazes nem queres fazer de tratamento. Quanto a esse estado nervoso não esta na mão d’eles curar-te e eu direi que tambem não está na minha mão. O unico remédio que te póde trazer o socego é tu teres paciencia e resignação, não querendo violentar a minha vontade e lembrando-te que a traz de tempo tempo vem. Bom seria que tu quizesses ir fazer uma cura de repouso no campo ou arranjares outra qualquer forma de socegar esses nervos.[9]
I am not coming home, as I told you, because, on reflection, it is unnecessary and even inconvenient. It has only discomfited us more and nothing good has come of it, for either you or me. . . . In the first place, I want to tell you that in virtue of my illness, the consequences that were one more cause of sorrow for you are already gone. Now it is necessary to speak of you: yesterday I consulted your doctor, and he told me the same thing the other doctors have already said—your illness is due principally to your state of neuroticism and you are neither following nor seeking any treatment. As for that nervous state, it is not in their power to cure you of it, nor, I tell you, is it in my power. The only remedy that can bring you quiet is that you must have patience and resignation, not seeking to violate my will, and remembering that sunshine always follows rain. It would be best for you to go and seek a rest cure in the countryside or arrange some other way of quieting those nerves.
Reading between the lines, we can infer that Alvaro had contracted a sexually transmitted disease during one of his visits to Monsieur Péné. Judith, understandably concerned, went from doctor to doctor, only to be told that the problem was not her husband but her own mental state—a ploy that will be recognizable to readers of Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman: Or, Maria (1798) or Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892).[10]
Alvaro beat a strategic retreat. In June 1931, he withdrew his action, claiming that he had been unable to supply his lawyer with all the evidence in his possession because of his father’s declining health, which was also the reason his action had seemed “um tanto confusa” (a trifle confused)—though he would file for divorce again, as soon as he could.[11] Judith seized her opportunity. On August 31, she petitioned a judge to order Alvaro to return to her once and for all.[12] Alvaro contested her petition, on the grounds that Judith was wasting his money: “tem sempre feito, e continua fazendo, vida cara e só propria de gente que tem dinheiro para o superfluo” (she has always led, and continues to lead, an expensive lifestyle that is proper only for those who have money for superfluities).[13] When they had gone “variadissimas vezes ao estrangeiro, e designadamente a Paris” (many and various times abroad, and namely to Paris), Judith had shown off “os mais caros vestidos, chapeus, etc. e até casacos de peles só proprios de quem tem larga abastança” (the most expensive dresses, hats, etc. and even fur coats only proper for those who have plenty).[14] In Portugal, she “assiduamente frequenta os animatografos, teatros, os chás elegantes das pastelarias chics, e outros onde se gasta à larga, veraneia em praias proprias de gente rica, como o casino do Estoril, etc.” (assiduously frequents animatographs, theaters, elegant teahouses of chic pastry shops, and others where she spends lavishly, summers at beaches proper to the wealthy, like the Casino Estoril, etc.).[15] Judith responded that the allowance she asked for was “em perfeita harmonia com as necessidades daquela, atenta a sua condição social, e os recursos do R.” (in perfect accordance with her necessities, given her social condition, and the defendant’s resources), that some of the purchases in Paris had been made by and for Alvaro’s mistress, that she herself dressed “modestissimamente” (extremely modestly), that the only pastry shop she sometimes visited was the Pastelaria Ferrari, and that she had only been in Estoril to visit “uma pessoa amiga” (a friend).[16] Because “amiga” is an adjective modifying “pessoa,” the gender of Judith’s friend is left unclear—an ambiguity Alvaro alluded to in his next reply: “A abundancia de Senhoras amigas com quem a A. pulvilhou a replica não pode explicar honestamente nem as idas a Paris, os casacos de peles, os veraneios no Estoril” (The abundance of Lady friends with whom the plaintiff has sprinkled her reply cannot honestly explain the trips to Paris, the fur coats, the summers at Estoril).[17] There was no verdict; on January 23, 1932, Judith and Alvaro both requested that the trial be deferred “até que qualquer das partes requeira o seu proseguimento” (until either one of the parties requests its pursual).[18]
Perhaps the deferral was on account of Alvaro’s illness. He died only five years later, on September 9, 1937, without a will. The cause of death was given as “arderia-esclerose” (arteriosclerosis), a thickening and stiffening of the arterial walls that is sometimes associated with sexually transmitted infections.[19] Shortly thereafter, almost all the possessions he left behind—including valuable antiques and objets d’art—were seized to pay off those who claimed to be his creditors.[20] This would have been a disaster for Judith, but for two things: (1) the status of “cabeça de casal” (head of household) fell not to Judith but to his mistress, one Manuela Marques, who was also the mother of his son; (2) the marriage contract between Judith and Alvaro had stipulated the separation of their property, which meant that Alvaro’s debts were his own, not his wife’s.[21] Judith may not have inherited her husband’s wealth, but neither was she subject to destitution. The mistress and son, however, were not so fortunate.[22] Poet that Judith was, the triple irony—that of the formerly “illegitimate” daughter, now a “legitimate” wife, relinquishing her claim in favor of the mistress, who then loses her claim to the husband’s creditors—could not have been lost on her.
Notes
[1] Teixeira divorce, ff. 1v–2v.
[2] Teixeira divorce, ff. 2r–v, 14r–v.
[3] Teixeira divorce, f. 17r.
[4] Teixeira divorce, f. 19r.
[5] Teixeira divorce, ff. 19v–20r.
[6] Teixeira divorce, f. 20v.
[7] Teixeira divorce, ff. 25r–v, 26r–v (numbered as 1, 2).
[8] Teixeira divorce, f. 26r (2).
[9] Teixeira divorce, ff. 26v–28r (2–4).
[10] Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), esp. 89–92, 245–46.
[11] Teixeira divorce, f. 56r.
[12] Lisbon, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Lisboa, cível antigo, 4.a Vara, 3.a Secção, proc. 11872/1931, mç. 74J, cx. 489, sala 1, corpo 35, Acção ordinária sendo intervenientes Alvaro Virgílio de Franco Teixeira e Judite dos Reis Ramos Teixeira (PT/TT/JUD/TCLSB02/A/340/00672). Hereafter cited as Teixeira trial.
[13] Teixeira trial, f. 13v.
[14] Teixeira trial, ff. 13v–14r.
[15] Teixeira trial, f. 14r.
[16] Teixeira trial, ff. 19r–v.
[17] Teixeira trial, f. 22r.
[18] Teixeira trial, f. 72r.
[19] Lisbon, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Lisboa, 5.a Vara, 1.a Secção, proc. 254/1937, mç. 95, cx. 131, sala 1, corpo 38, Inventário obrigatório por óbito de Alvaro Virgílio de Franco Teixeira (PT/TT/JUD/TCLSB02/A/914/00351), f. 2r–v. Hereafter cited as Teixeira inventory. See also: Pekka Saikku, “Chlamydia pneumoniae and cardiovascular diseases,” Clinical Microbiology and Infection 1 (March 1996): S19–22; Kiera Liblik et al., “Sexually Transmitted Infections and the Heart,” Current Problems in Cardiology 48, no. 5 (May 2023): 1–18.
[20] Teixeira inventory, ff. 17r–20r, 27r–30r, 126r–39v.
[21] Teixeira inventory, ff. 7r–v, 10r.
[22] Teixeira inventory, ff. 321r–32v. See also Lisbon, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Lisboa, 5.a Vara, 1.a Secção, proc. 254/1939, Autos de agravio, appended to Teixeira inventory.