Da Silva's uncle Alexandre José da Silva, then known as Friar Alexandre da Sagrada Família, returned to the Azores in 1811 as bishop of Angra do Heroísmo, and da Silva learned classical literature and modern philosophy from him. He also studied Latin, Greek, French, Italian, arithmetic, and geometry, because his parents wanted him to become a priest.
In 1815 da Silva left for Coimbra, abandoning plans for an ecclesiastical career, and enrolled in law school on 23 November 1816. While in law school, he founded a secret society similar to the Freemasons. Also during this period he began to receive recognition as an orator, founded an academic theater, and combined the maiden names of his grandmothers to become known as Almeida Garrett. He presented the play Xerxes (1819) in Coimbra. He did not publish the work, nor did he keep a copy of it. His tragedy Lucrécia was performed in 1819 at the Teatro dos Grilos in Coimbra. In the same year he started writing the tragedies "Afonso de Albuquerque" and "Sofonisba," but he never finished them.
In 1820 Garrett became enthusiastic about the liberal revolution that took place in Porto on 24 August and spread to Lisbon on 15 September.
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