of scrutinizing the past lives of men as Death reaps them, high and low,
but his profoundly religious temperament raises the _Barcas_ into an
atmosphere of sublime if gloomy splendour, which is surpassed in the
_Auto da Alma_, the most perfect and consistent of his religious
plays--even the symbolical character of the latter part can hardly be
called a defect. In the _Comedia de Rubena_ the development of Vicente's
art is perhaps more superficial than real. It is divided into three long
scenes or acts and is thus more like a regular comedy than his other
plays. The acts, however, are isolated, the action occupies fifteen
years and occurs in Castille, Lisbon and Crete. English readers of the
play must be struck by its resemblance to _Pericles, Prince of Tyre_.
Written fifty-five years before Lawrence Twine's _The Patterne of
Painful Adventures_ (1576) and eighty-seven before George Wilkins and
William Shakespeare produced their play (1608), the _Comedia de Rubena_
is in fact a link in a long chain beginning in a lost fifth century
Greek romance concerning Apollonius of Tyre and continued after Gil
Vicente's death in Timoneda's _Tarsiana_ and in _Pericles_. Vicente,
however, in all probability did not derive his Cismena, cold and chaste
predecessor of Marina, from the _Gesta Romanorum_ or the _Libro de
Apolonio_ but from the version in John Gower's _Confessio Amantis_, of
which a translation, as we know, was early available in Portugal. After
an exclusively Court piece, the _Cortes de Jupiter_, Vicente wrote the
_Farsa de Ines Pereira_, in which there is more action and development
of character than in his preceding, or indeed his subsequent, plays. He
represents the aspirations and repentance of Ines, the 'very flighty
daughter of a woman of low estate.' Despite the warnings of her sensible
mother she rejects the suit of simple and uncouth Pero Marques for that
of a gentleman (_escudeiro_) whose pretensions are far greater than his
possessions. The mother gives them a house and retires to a small
cottage. But the _escudeiro_ married confirms the wisdom of the Sibyl
Cassandra (I. 40). He keeps his wife shut up 'like a nun of Oudivellas.'
The windows are nailed up, she is not allowed to leave the house even to
go to church. Thus the hopes and ambitions of Ines Pereira de Grãa are
tamed, although she was never a shrew[144]. Presently, however, the
_escudeiro_ resolves to cross over to Africa to win his knighthood:
ás partes dalem
Vou me fazer cavaleiro,
and he leaves his wife imprisoned in their house, the key being
entrusted to the servant (_moço_). Ines, singing at her work, is
declaring that if ever she have to choose another husband _on ne m'y
prendra plus_ when a letter arrives from her brother announcing that her
husband, as he fled from battle towards Arzila, had been killed by a
Moorish shepherd. The faithful Pero Marques again presses his suit. He
is accepted and is made to suffer the whims and infidelity of the
emancipated Ines. The question of women's rights was a burning one in
the sixteenth century.
Vicente's versatility enabled him to laugh at his critics to the end of
the chapter. In _Dom Duardos_ he gave them an elaborate and very
successful dramatization of a Spanish romance of chivalry. The treatment
has both unity and lyrical charm. It was so successful that the
experiment was repeated in 1533 with the earlier romance of _Amadis de
Gaula_ (1508), out of which Vicente wrought an equally skilful but less
fascinating play[145]. But Vicente had not given up writing farces and
the sojourn of Ines Pereira's husband in town enables the author to
introduce various Lisbon types in _O Juiz da Beira_. It indeed
completely resembles the early farces, while the _Auto da Festa_ with
its peasant scene and allegorical _Verdade_ is of the _Auto da Fé_ type
but adds the theme of the old woman in search of a husband. The _Templo
de Apolo_, composed for a special Court occasion, shows no development,
but in the _Sumario_ we have a fuller religious play than he had
hitherto written. It proves, like _Dom Duardos_, his power of
concentration and his skill in seizing on and emphasizing essential
points in a long action (the period here covered is from Adam to
Christ[146]). It is closely moulded on the Bible and contains, besides
an exquisite _vilancete_ (_Adorae montanhas_), passages of noble poetry
and soaring fervour--Eve's invocation to Adam:
Ó como os ramos do nosso pomar
Ficam cubertos de celestes rosas (I. 314);
Job's lament 'Man that is born of woman' (I. 324); the paraphrase or
rather translation of 'I know that my Redeemer liveth' (I. 322). Nothing
here, surely, to warrant the complaints of Sá de Miranda as to the
desecration of the Scriptures. This play was followed by the _Dialogo
sobre a Ressurreiçam_ by way of epilogue; it is a conversation between
three Jews and is treated in the cynical manner that Browning brought to
similar scenes. The _Sumario_ or _Auto da Historia de Deos_ was acted
before the Court at Almeirim and must have won the sincere admiration of
the devout João III. If the courtiers were less favourably impressed
they were mollified by the splendid display of the _Nao de Amores_ with
its much music, its Prince of Normandy and its miniature ship fully
rigged. Vicente was now fighting an uphill battle and in the _Divisa da
Cidade de Coimbra_ he attempted a task beyond the strength of a poet and
more suitable for a sermon such as Frei Heitor Pinto preached on the
same subject: the arms of the city of Coimbra. Even Vicente could not
make this a living play; it is, rather, a museum of antiquities and ends
with praises of Court families. It is pathetic to find the merry
satirist reduced to admitting (in the argument of this play) that merely
farcical farces are not very refined. Yet we would willingly give the
whole play for another brief farce such as _Quem tem farelos?_:
Ya sabeis, senhores,
Que toda a comedia começa em dolores,
E inda que toque cousas lastimeiras
Sabei que as farças todas chocarreiras
Não sam muito finas sem outros primores (II. 108).
Fortunately he returned to the plain farce in _Os Almocreves_, the _Auto
da Feira_ and _O Clerigo da Beira_ (which, however, ends with a series
of Court references) with all his old wealth of satire, touches of
comedy and vivid portraiture. He also returned to the pastoral play in
the _Serra da Estrella_, while his exquisite lyrism flowers afresh in
the _Triunfo do Inverno_, a tragicomedy which is really a medley of
farces. It is not a great drama but it is a typical Vicentian piece,
combining vividly sketched types with a splendid lyrical vein. Winter,
that banishes the swallows and swells the voice of ocean streams, first
triumphs on hills and sea and then Spring comes in singing the lovely
lyric _Del rosal vengo_ in the Serra de Sintra. The play ends on a
serious and mystic note, for Spring's flowers wither but those of the
holy garden of God bloom without fading:
E o santo jardim de Deos
Florece sem fenecer.
The _Auto da Lusitania_ is divided into two parts, the first of which is
complete in itself and gives a description of a Jewish household at
Lisbon, while the second is a medley which contains the celebrated scene
of Everyman and Noman: Everyman seeks money, worldly honour, praise,
life, paradise, lies and flattery; Noman is for conscience, virtue,
truth. In the _Romagem de Aggravados_ the fashionable and affected Court
priest, Frei Paço, is the connecting link for a series of farcical
scenes in which a peasant brings his son to become a priest, two
noblemen discourse on love, two fishwives lament the excesses of the
courtiers, Cerro Ventoso and Frei Narciso betray their mounting
ambition, civil and ecclesiastic, the poor farmer Aparicianes implores
Frei Paço to make a Court lady of his slovenly daughter, two nuns bewail
their fate and two shepherdesses discuss their marriage prospects. The
_Auto da Mofina Mendes_ is especially celebrated because Mofina Mendes,
personification of ill-luck, with her pot of oil is the forerunner of La
Fontaine's _Pierrette et son pot au lait_: it was perhaps suggested to
Vicente by the tale of Doña Truhana's pot of honey in _El Conde
Lucanor_; the theme of counting one's chickens before they are hatched
also forms the subject of one of the _pasos_, entitled _Las Aceitunas_,
of the goldbeater of Seville, Lope de Rueda[147]. Vicente's piece
consists, like some picture of El Greco, of a _gloria_, called, as
Rueda's scenes, a _passo_, in which appear the Virgin and the Virtues
(Prudence, Poverty, Humility and Faith) and an earthly shepherd scene.
It is thus a combination of farce and religious and pastoral play.
Vicente's last play, the _Floresta de Enganos_, is composed of scenes so
disconnected that one of them is even omitted in the summary given after
the first deceit: that in which a popular traditional theme, derived
directly or indirectly from a French (perhaps originally Italian)
source, _Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles_, is presented, akin to that so
piquantly narrated by Alarcón in _El Sombrero de Tres Picos_ in the
nineteenth century, the judge playing the part of the Corregidor and the
malicious and sensible servant-girl that of the miller's wife.
In these last plays we see little or no advance: there is no attempt at
unity or development of plot. We cannot deny that the creator of the
penniless-splendid nobleman and the mincing courtier-priest and the
author of such touches as the death of Ines' husband or the sudden
ignominious flight of the judge possessed a true vein of comedy, but he
remained to the end not technically a great dramatist but a wonderful
lyric poet and a fascinating satirical observer of life. His influence
was felt throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Portugal,
by Camões and in the plays of Chiado, Prestes and a score of less
celebrated dramatists, as well as in a considerable number of anonymous
plays, but confined itself to the _auto_, which, combated by the
followers of the classical drama and the Latin plays of the Jesuits,
soon tended to deteriorate and lose its charm. In Spain his influence
would seem to have been more widely felt, which is not surprising when
we remember how many of his plays were Spanish in origin or
language[148]. We may be sure that Lope de Rueda was acquainted with his
plays and that several of them were known to Cervantes--the servant
Benita insisting on telling her simple stories to her afflicted mistress
is Sancho Panza to the life:
_Benita._ Diz que era un escudero....
_Rubena._ O quien no fuera nacida:
¿Viendome salir la vida
Paraste a contar patrañas?
_Benita._ Pues otra sé de un carnero....
Lope de Vega was likewise certainly familiar with some of Vicente's
plays. If we consider these passages in _El Viaje del Alma_, the
_representación moral_ contained in _El Peregrino en su Patria_ (1604),
we must be convinced that the trilogy of _Barcas_, the _Auto da Alma_,
and perhaps the _Nao de Amores_ were not unknown to him:
Alma para Dios criada
Y hecha a imagen de Dios, etc.;
Hoy la Nave del deleite
Se quiere hacer a la mar:
¿Hay quien se quiera embarcar?;
Esta es la Nave donde cabe
Todo contento y placer[149].
The alleged imitation by Calderón in _El Lirio y la Azucena_ is perhaps
more doubtful. Vicente was already half forgotten in Calderon's day. In
the artificial literature of the eighteenth century he suffered total
eclipse although Correa Garção was able to appreciate him, nor need we
see any direct influence in that of the nineteenth[150] except that on
Almeida Garrett: the similar passages in Goethe's _Faust_ and Cardinal
Newman's _Dream of Gerontius_ were no doubt purely accidental. Happily,
however, we are able to point to a certain influence of the great
national poet of Portugal on some of the Portuguese poets of the
twentieth century. The promised edition of his plays will increase this
influence and render him secure from that neglect which during three
centuries practically deprived Portugal and the world of one of the most
charming and inspired of the world's poets.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] _Falamos do nosso Shakespeare, de Gil Vicente_ (A. Herculano,
_Historia da Inquisição em Portugal_, ed. 1906, vol. I. p. 223). The
references throughout are to the Hamburg 3 vol. 1834 edition.
[7] See infra _Bibliography_, p. 86, Nos. 42, 62, 79.
[8] _Bibliography_, Nos. 21, 24, 25, 26, 30, 51, 52, 59, 89.
[9] _Bibliography_, Nos. 29, 48, 57, 66, 83, 95.
[10] _Bibliography_, Nos. 53, 73, 82, 88, 97.
[11] _Bibliography_, Nos. 44, 84, 90, 101, 102.
[12] Guerra Junqueiro, _Os Simples_.
[13] Cf. André de Resende, _Gillo auctor et actor_. (For the accurate
text of this passage see C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Notas
Vicentinas_, I. p. 17.)
[14] _Os livros das obras que escritas vi_ (Letter of G. V. to King João
III).
[15] 'E assi mandou de Castella e outras partes vir muitos ouriveis para
fazerem arreos e outras cousas esmaltadas.' (Garcia de Resende, _Cronica
del Rei D. João II_, cap. 117.)
[16] _Bibliography_, Nos. 70, 71.
[17] He argues that Vicente was not old enough to be King Manuel's
tutor, but in other passages he is clearly in favour of the date 1460 or
1452. He is born 'considerably before' 1470 (_Revista de Historia_, t.
21, p. 11), in 1460? (_ib._ p. 27), in 1452? (_ib._ pp. 28, 31, and t.
22, p. 155), 'about 1460' (t. 22, p. 150), he is from two to seven years
younger than King Manuel, born in 1469 (t. 21, p. 35). He is nearly 80
in 1531 (_ib._ p. 30). His marriage is placed between 1484 and 1492,
preferably in the years 1484-6 (_ib._ p. 35).
[18] Gil Terron in the same year is _alegre y bien asombrado_ (I. 12).
[19] Cf. _Nao de Amores_ (1527), _Viejo, vuestro mundo es ido_, and II.
478 (1529).
[20] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, t. 26, p. 123.
[21] _Grandes baxillas y pedraria_ (_Canc. Geral_, vol. III. (1913), p.
57).
[22] Cf. _Canc. Geral_, vol. I. (1910), p. 259:
Vejam huns autos Damado,
Huũ judeu que foi queimado
No rressyo por seu mal.
[23] There is a slight confusion. The 'second night of the birth' of the
rubric may mean the night following that of the birth (June 6-7), i.e.
the evening of June 7, or the second night _after_ the birth, i.e. the
evening of June 8; but the former is the more probable.
[24] Damião de Goes, _Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom Emanuel_, Pt I.
cap. 69.
[25] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, vol. XXII.
(1917), p. 124 and _Critica e Historia_, vol. I. (1910), p. 325; Brito
Rebello, _Gil Vicente_ (1902), p. 106-8.
[26] _Antología de poetas líricos castellanos_, t. 7, p. clxiii.
[27] _Orígenes de la Novela_, t. 3, p. cxlv.
[28] _Antol._ t. 7, p. clxvi.
[29] _Ib._ p. clxxvi.
[30] _Ib._ p. clxiv.
[31] Especially that of Garcia de Resende, who in one verse (185) of his
_Miscellanea_ mentions the goldsmiths and in the next verse the plays of
Gil Vicente.
[32] _Bibliography_, No. 45.
[33] Cf. his earlier studies, in favour of identity, with his later
works, maintaining cousinhood.
[34] Cf. _Obras_, I. 154 (Jupiter is the god of precious stones), I. 93,
286; II. 38, 46, 47, 210, 216, 367, 384, 405; III. 67, 70, 86, 296, etc.
Cf. passages in the _Auto da Alma_ and especially the _Farsa dos
Almocreves_. Vicente evidently sympathizes with the goldsmith to whom
the _fidalgo_ is in debt, and if the poet took the part of _Diabo_ in
the _Auto da Feira_ (1528) the following passage gains in point if we
see in it an allusion to the debts of courtiers to him as goldsmith:
Eu não tenho nem ceitil
E bem honrados te digo
E homens de muita renda
Que tem divedo comigo (I. 158).
[35] The MS. note by a sixteenth century official written above the
document appointing Gil Vicente to the post of _Mestre da Balança_
should be conclusive as to the identity of poet and goldsmith: _Gil V^te
trouador mestre da balança_ (_Registos da Cancellaria de D. Manuel_,
vol. XLII. f. 20 v. in the _Torre do Tombo_, Lisbon).
[36] Garcia de Resende († 1536) was of opinion that it had no rival in
Europe:
nam ha outra igual
na Christamdade no meu ver.
(_Miscellanea_, v. 281, ed. Mendes dos Remedios (1917), p. 97.)
It contained 5000 _moradores_ (_ibid._). In the days of King Duarte
(1433-8) the number was 3000.
[37] Cf. the dedication of _Dom Duardos_ (_folha volante_ of the Bib.
Municipal of Oporto, N. 8. 74) to Prince João: 'Como quiera Excelente
Principe y Rey mui poderoso que las Comedias, Farças y Moralidades que
he compuesto en servicio de la Reyna vuestra tia....'
[38] The date 1509 is not barred by the reference to the _Sergas de
Esplandian_, which certainly existed in an earlier edition than the
earliest we now possess (1510). A certain Vasco Abul had given a girl at
Alenquer a chain of gold for dancing a _ballo vylam ou mourysco_ and
could not get it back from the _gentil bayladeyra_. Gil Vicente
contributes but a few lines: _O parecer de gil vycente neste proceso de
vasco abul á rraynha dona lianor_.
[39] It is absurd to argue that during the years of his chief activity
as goldsmith he had not time to produce the sixteen plays that may be
assigned to the years 1502-17.
[40] _Gil Vicente_ (1912), p. 11-13.
[41] The dates in the rubrics are given in Roman figures and the
alteration from MDV to MDIX is very slight.
[42] Cf. Bartolomé Villalba y Estaña, _El Pelegrino Curioso y Grandezas
de España_ [printed from MS. of last third of sixteenth century].
_Bibliófilos Españoles_, t. 23, 2 t. 1886, 9, t. 2, p. 37: 'Almerin, un
lugar que los reyes de Portugal tienen para el ynvierno, con un bosque
de muchas cabras, corzos y otros generos de caza.'
[43] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, vol. XXII. p.
129.
[44] A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXII. p. 133-4.
[45] Luis Anriquez in _Canc. Geral_, vol. III. (1913), p. 106.
[46] See _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXII. p. 122; vol. XXIV. p. 290.
[47] E.g. the words _ahotas_ and _chapado_ and the expression _en
velloritas_ (I. 41), cf. Enzina, _Egloga_ I.: _ni estaré ya tendido en
belloritas_ = in clover, lit. in cowslips: _belloritas de jacinto_
(_Egl._ III.).
[48] A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXIV. p. 290.
[49] There are, however, several such psalms in the works of Enzina.
[50] Cf. I. 85: _huele de dos mil maneras_ with Enzina, _Egloga_ II: _y
ervas de dos mil maneras_. In the _Auto da Alma_, probably written about
this time, there are imitations of Gomez Manrique (_c._ 1415-90). Cf.
the passage in the _Exhortação_.
[51] That the illness of the Queen would not prevent the entertainment
is proved by the fact that in the month before her death King Manuel was
present at a fight between a rhinoceros and an elephant in a court in
front of Lisbon's India House. We do not know if Vicente was present nor
what he thought of this new thing.
[52] In December 1517 El Bachiller de la Pradilla published some verses
in praise of _la muy esclarecida Señora Infanta Madama Leonor, Rey[na]
de Portugal_ (v. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, t. 6, p. cccxxxviii).
[53] He argues that such a form as MD & viii was never used and must be
a misprint for MDxviii.
[54] Cf. also the resemblance of certain passages in the _Auto da Alma_
and in the _Auto da Barca da Gloria_ (1519). They must strike any reader
of the two plays.
[55] Goes, _Chronica_, IV. 34.
[56] Garcia de Resende, _Hida da Infanta Dona Beatriz pera Saboya_ in
_Chronica...del Rey Dom Ioam II_, ed. 1752, f. 99 V.
[57] Gil Vicente, _Á morte del Rei D. Manuel_ (III. 347).
[58] Gil Vicente, _Romance_ (III. 350).
[59] Goes says generally that King Manuel _foi muito inclinado a letras
e letrados_ (_Chronica_, 1619 ed., f. 342. _Favebat plurimum literis_,
says Osorio, _De rebus_, 1561, p. 479).
[60] II. 4: _Foi feita ao muito poderoso e nobre Rei D. João III. sendo
principe, era de MDXXI_ (rubric of _Comedia de Rubena_).
[61] II. 364. Although 'good wine needs no bush' the custom of hanging a
branch above tavern doors still prevails.
[62] A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXII. p. 162.
[63] _Id. ib._ vol. XXIV. p. 307. It is astonishing how slight errors in
the rubrics of Vicente's plays have been permitted to survive, just as
Psalm LI, of which Vicente perhaps at about this time wrote a remarkable
paraphrase, still appears in all editions of his works as Ps. L.
[64] _Ib._ vol. XXIV. p. 312-3.
[65] Th. Braga, _Historia da Litteratura Portuguesa. II. Renascença_
(1914), p. 85.
[66] J. I. Brito Rebello, _Gil Vicente_ (1902), p. 64.
[67] H. Thomas, _The Palmerin Romances_ (London, 1916), p. 10-12.
[68] M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, t. 7, p. cci; _Oríg. de la
Novela_, I. cclxvii: _toda la pieza es un delicioso idilio_.
[69] _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXIV. p. 315.
[70] It should be noted that the lines in _Dom Duardos_ (II. 212):
Consuelo vete de ahi
No perdas tiempo conmigo
are from the song in the _Comedia de Rubena_ (1521):
Consuelo vete con Dios (II. 53).
[71] Cf. _O Clerigo da Beira: não fazem bem [na corte] senão a quem
menos faz_ (III. 320); _Auto da Festa: os homens verdadeiros não são
tidos nũa palha_, etc.
[72] _Vejo minha morte em casa_ say the verses to the Conde de Vimioso;
_La muerte puesta a mis lados_ says the _Templo de Apolo_.
[73] _Auto da Natural Invençam_ (Lisboa, 1917), pp. 64, 65, 68, 69, 70,
88, 89.
[74] _Este nome pos-lho o vulgo_ (III. 4). Cf. the title _Os
Almocreves_.
[75] _Rol dos livros defesos_ (1551) ap. C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos,
_Notas Vicentinas_, I. p. 31. We might assume that the second part of _O
Clerigo da Beira_ (III. 250-9) was printed separately under the title
_Auto de Pedreanes_ but for the words _por causa das matinas_.
[76] _Ib._ p. 30-1.
[77] The probability is shown by the fact that the idea of their
identity had occurred to me before reading the same suggestion made by
Snr Braamcamp Freire in the _Revista de Historia_.
[78] See _Notas Vicentinas_, I. (1912). The _Auto da Feira_ answers in
some respects to Cardinal Aleandro's description of the _Jubileu de
Amores_, and Rome (the Church, not the city) might conceivably have been
crowned with a Cardinal's hat, but Aleandro's letter refutes this
suggestion: _uno principal che parlava ... fingeasi Vescovo_. Rome in
the _Auto da Feira_ (I. 162) is a _senhora_. One can only say that the
_Auto da Feira_ may perhaps have been adapted for the occasion, with an
altered title, Spanish being added, to suit the foreign audience.
[79] _E como sempre isto guardasse Este mui leal autor Até que Deos
enviasse O Principe nosso senhor Nam quis que outrem o gozasse_ (III.
276).
[80] The familiarity with which the Nuncio is treated would be more
suitable if he was the Portuguese D. Martinho de Portugal, but then the
date would have to be after 1527.
[81] Cf. II. 343: _Salga esotra ave de pena ... Son perdices_ and _Auto
da Festa_, p. 101. The latter text is corrupt (_penitas_ for _peitas_,
and _cousas fritas_ has ousted the required rhyme _juizes_).
[82] The line _nega se m'eu embeleco_ occurs here and in the _Serra da
Estrella_ (1527). Arguments as to date from such repetitions are not
entirely groundless. Cf. _com saudade suspirando_ (_Cortes de Jupiter_,
1521) and _sam suspiros de saudade_ (_Pranto de Maria Parda_, 1522);
_Que dirá a vezinhança?_ III. 21 (1508-9), _A vezinhança que dirá?_ III.
34 (1509); _Ó demo que t'eu encomendo_, III. 99 (1511), _Ó diabo que
t'eu encomendo_, II. 362 (1513). The _Exhortação_ (1513), which has
passages similar to those in the _Farsa de Ines Pereira_ (1523) and the
_Pranto de Maria Parda_ (1522), probably became a kind of national
anthem and was touched up for each performance. Curiously, the mention
of _a pedra d'estrema_ in the _Pranto_ and in the _Auto da Festa_ might
correspond to a first (1521) and second (1525) revision of the
_Exhortação_.
[83] The very success of his plays incited emulation. A play written in
Latin, _Hispaniola_, was acted at the Portuguese Court before his death
(Gallardo, ap. Sousa Viterbo, _A Litt. Hesp. em Portugal_ (1915), p.
xxiv).
[84] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXIV. p. 331.
[85] Francisco Alvarez arrived at the Court at Coimbra in the late
summer of 1527 and he says: _nam se tardou muito que el Rey nosso senhor
se partisse com sua corte via dalmeirim. Verdadeira Informaçam_ (1540),
modern reprint, p. 191.
[86] _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXV. p. 89.
[87] According to Snr Braamcamp Freire this play must be assigned to the
months between September 1529 and February 1530.
[88] O mandei a V. A. por escrito até lhe Deos dar descanso e
contentamento... pera que por minha arte lhe diga o que aqui falece
(III. 388).
[89] In this letter, written in the very year of the first Bull for the
introduction of the Inquisition into Portugal, Vicente uses the
expression 'May I be burnt if.'
[90] The line _A quien contaré mis quejas_ (II. 147) is repeated from
the _Trovas_ addressed to King João in 1527. It is taken from a poem by
the Marqués de Astorga printed in the _Cancionero General_ (1511):
¿A quien contaré mis quexas
Si a ti no?
Cf. _Comedia de Rubena_ (II. 6): _¿A quien contaré mi pena?_ The comical
rôle of the Justiça Maior may have been taken by Garcia de Resende, who
added acting to his other accomplishments. He was 66, and he died at
Evora in this year.
[91] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXVI. p. 122-3.
[92] From Gil Vicente's epitaph written by himself.
[93] Garcia de Resende (1470-1536), _Miscellanea_, 1752 ed., f. 113.
[94] André de Resende, _Genethliacon Principis Lusitani_ (1532), ap. C.
Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Notas Vicentinas_, I. (1912), p. 17.