N. W. Africa consisted of over 400 ships (Luis Anriquez in his poem in
the _Cancioneiro Geral_ says 450) and a force of 18,000 soldiers, of
which 3000 were provided by James, Duke of Braganza, who commanded the
expedition. It set sail from Lisbon on the 17th of August, 1513. (Damião
de Goes and Osorio say the 17th, Luis Anriquez the 15th, which was
evidently the day (the Feast of the Assumption) fixed for departure.) It
was entirely successful and the news of the fall of Azamor caused great
rejoicings both at Lisbon and Rome. The play was evidently touched up
afterwards, for it includes the sending of the elephant to Rome (1514)
and the marriages of the princesses. It is barely possible that it was
written after the victory, in which case the words _na partida_ would be
retrospective and the date given in the 1st edition was not a slip.
Parts of the play suit 1514 better than 1513. Tristão da Cunha's special
mission (cf. lines 195-6) to the Pope (with Garcia de Resende for
secretary) left early in 1514 and entered Rome on March 12. One of the
objects of the mission was to obtain a grant of the tithes (ll. 194,
224) for the Crown to use for the war in Africa. (The request was
granted but King Manuel subsequently renounced them in return for
150,000 gold coins.) The exhortations of l. 351 _et seq._, l. 514 _et
seq._, l. 559 _et seq._ are better suited to a time when more men and
money were needed actively to continue the war than when an army of
18,000 was equipped and ready to leave. The Pope in 1514 promised
indulgences to all those who should contribute money for the African war
and also granted King Manuel a portion of church property in Portugal
(cf. ll. 475-84 and 535-48) for the same object (l. 546: _pera Africa
conquistar_). The King's aim is now to build a cathedral in Fez (l.
573-4). There is no mention of Azamor. This was the first of the great
patriotic outbursts (cf. the _Auto da Fama_ and other plays) in which
Vicente appears not as a satirist or religious reformer but as an
enthusiastic imperialist, and which still delight and stir his
countrymen.
18 Prince Luis (1506-55), one of the most gallant, talented and
interesting of Portuguese _infantes_, was no doubt present at the
_serão_ and would be delighted by this reference. (The youngest princes,
Afonso, born in 1509, and Henrique, born in 1512, are not mentioned.
They both became Cardinals and the latter King of Portugal, 1578-80.)
The princes are similarly addressed in the _Cortes de Jupiter_ in 1521.
46 Mercury opens the _Auto da Feira_ with a similar string of
absurdities (suggested by Enzina's _perogrulladas_), e.g. _Que se o ceo
fora quadrado Não fora redondo, Senhor; E se o sol fora azulado D'azul
fora seu cor_. (If square the sky were found then it would not be round,
and if the sun were blue then blue would be its hue.) _Os disparates de
'Joan de Lenzina'_ (Ferreira, _Ulys._ IV, 7) were well-known in
Portugal.
94, 113, 129 No meaning is to be squeezed out of these cabbalistic
words.
116 We have an even more detailed description in the _Sumario da
Historia de Deos_:
A furna das trevas, ponte de navalhas,
o lago dos prantos, a horta dos dragos,
os tanques da ira, os lagos da neve,
os raios ardentes, sala dos tormentos,
varanda das dores, cozinha dos gritos,
Açougue das pragas, a torre dos pingos,
o valle das forcas.
125 Vicente was more tolerant than most contemporary writers who
inveighed against the blindness and malice of the Jews.
132 The necromancer evokes spirits which he is unable to control. He
calls them brothers but they answer in effect: 'Du gleich'st dem Geist
den du begreif'st, nicht mir.'
151 The _almude_ = 12 gallons.
156 Cabrela e Landeira is a village near Montemôr-o-Novo. Cf. _Sum. da
Hist. de Deos_:
_Satanas_: Sabes Rio-frio e toda aquela terra,
aldea Gallega, a Landeira e Ranginha
e de Lavra a Coruche? Tudo é terra minha.
157 Cartaxo, a small town in the district of Santarem.
158 The village of Lumiar is now connected with Lisbon by a tramway.
159 Mealhada, a parish in the district of Aveiro.
162 Cf. _uva terrantes_ (indigenous).
164 Ribatejo = the country along the river Tejo (Tagus). Cf. _Auto da
Feira_: _Vai-te ao sino do Cranguejo, Signum Cancer, Ribatejo._
168 Arruda dos Vinhos and Caparica are villages in a vine-growing
district on the left bank of the Tagus opposite Lisbon, near Almada.
173 _estrema_ = _marco_ (Sp. _mojon_). Cf. _Auto da Festa_, ed. Conde de
Sabugosa (1906), p. 110: _Este he da pedra do estremo_.
174 _diadema_ is usually masculine, but Antonio Vieira has it both ways.
176 Seixal (2500-3000 inh.) in the district of Almada.
177 Almada, formerly Almadãa (Arab = the mine, but as Englishmen settled
there in the 12th century it was later given the fanciful derivation All
made or All made it), a town of 10,000 inh., opposite Lisbon on the left
bank of the Tagus.
179 Tojal (= whin-moor, gorse-common), a small village near Olivaes
(= olive groves), in the Lisbon district.
195 The impression produced by the arrival in Rome of King Manuel's
elephant, panther and other magnificent gifts was vividly described by
several writers. Cf. Damião de Goes, _Chron. de D. Manuel_, Pt 3, cap.
55, 56, 57 (1619 ed. f. 223 v.-227). According to Ulrich von Hutten the
elephant 'fuit mirabile animal, habens longum rostrum in magna
quantitate; et quando vidit Papam tunc geniculavit ei et dixit cum
terribili voce _bar, bar, bar_' (apud Theophilo Braga, _Gil Vicente e as
Origens do Theatro Nacional_ (1898), p. 191). Cf. also Manuel Bernardez,
_Nova Floresta_, V, 93-4. The head of this celebrated elephant forms the
background to a portrait of Tristão da Cunha (head of the embassy to the
Pope) reproduced in Senhor Joaquim de Vasconcellos' edition of Francisco
de Hollanda's _Da Pintura Antigva_ (Porto, 1918).
229 In 1517 among other exotic presents a rhinoceros was sent to the
Pope. It was however shipwrecked and drowned on the way. It had the
honour of being drawn by Albrecht Dürer.
238 Vicente seems to have coined this intensive of _bellisima_.
243-4 Cesar = King Manuel. Hecuba=his second wife, Queen Maria, daughter
of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
249 Prince João, born in 1502, afterwards King João III (1521-57).
259 The Infanta Isabel (1503-39) married her first cousin the Emperor
Charles V, and in her honour on that occasion Vicente composed his
_Templo de Apolo_ (1526). Her marriage may have already been planned in
1513, but more probably Vicente altered the passage when he was
preparing the 1st edition of his works during the last months of his
life. Gil Vicente more than once refers to her great beauty. Her
portrait by Titian in the Madrid Prado fully bears out his praises and
the expression on her face places this among the most fascinating
portraits of women. The Empress is sitting by a window looking on to a
beautiful country of woods and blue mountains, in her hand is a book;
but one feels that she is thinking of neither book nor scenery but that
her thoughts go back in _saudade_ to the soft air and merry days of
Lisbon. It might indeed be a picture of _Saudade_. There is a slight
flush on her pale oval face. Her almond-shaped eyes are grey-green, her
nose delicately aquiline. In the eyes and in the general expression
there is a look of undeniable sadness. Her dress of plum, cherry-pink,
gold and brown gives a gorgeously mellow effect and the curtain at the
back is plum-brown. If the colouring seems at first too rich this is due
to the criminal gold frame which clashes with the dress and the
chestnut-golden hair. In a dark frame the picture would be twice as
beautiful. The Empress' dress gleams with pearls and she has a jewel
with pearls--set perhaps by Gil Vicente--in her hair, large pearl
earrings and a necklace of large pearls. She died at Toledo at the age
of 36 and lies in the grim Pantheon of the Kings in the Escorial crypt.
266 Of Prince Fernando, born in 1507, Damião de Goes, who knew him
personally, says: 'assi na mocidade como depois de ser homem foi de bom
parecer e bem disposto, muito inclinado a letras e dado ao estudo das
historias verdadeiras e imigo das fabulosas... Era colerico e apressado
em seus negocios e muito animoso, com mostra e desejo de se achar em
algun grande feito de guerra, mas nem o tempo nem o estudo do Regno
deram pera isso lugar' (_Chron. de D. Manuel_, II, xix). Cf. Osorio, _De
Rebvs Emmanvelis_ (1571), p. 189: 'Fuit in antiquitate pervestiganda
valde curiosus: maximarum rerum studio flagrabat multisque virtutibus
illo loco dignis praeditus erat.'
275 Princess Beatrice as a matter of fact married Charles, Duke of
Savoy, and on the occasion of her departure from Lisbon by sea with a
magnificent suite Vicente wrote the _Cortes de Jupiter_ (1521) with the
_romance_:
Nina era la Ifanta, Dona Beatriz se dezia,
Nieta del buen Rei Hernando, el mejor rei de Castilla,
Hija del Rei Don Manuel y Reina Doña Maria, etc.
284 Cf. the _Auto das Fadas_ (with which this play has many points of
resemblance): _Feiticeira_ (ao principle e infantes): _ó que joias
esmaltadas, ó que boninas dos ceos, ó que rosas perfumadas!_
331-2 Cf. _Divisa da Cidade de Coimbra_: _Vai delas a eles tão grande
avantagem... como haverá...do vivo a hũa imagem_.
341 _Godos_, Goths, i.e. of ancient race, 'Norman blood.'
346 For _dioso_ = _idoso_ v. _C. Geral_, vol. II (1910), p. 153. Fernam
Lopez, _Chron. J. I._ Pt. 2, cap. 10, has _deoso_.
384 _pequenas quadrilhas_. When Afonso de Albuquerque began his glorious
career (1509-15) there were in India but a few hundred Portuguese
fighting men, and most of these badly armed. The whole population of
Portugal during this time of fighting and discovery in N.-West, West and
East Africa and India is by some calculated at a million and a half, by
others at between two and three millions.
416 Prov. _mais são as vozes que as nozes_.
418 For this line cf. Pedro Ferrus: _Que por todo el mundo suena_ (ap.
Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, t. I, p. 159 and Enzina, _Egloga_, V
(_ib._ t. VII, p. 57)).
420 _pois que...pessoa_, a homely version of Goethe's _Was du ererbt von
deinen Vätern hast Erwirb' es um es zu besitzen_.
470-4 These lines are translated from the Spanish poet Gomez Manrique
(1415?-1490?). See Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, t. VII, p. ccx.
Cf. Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos, _Ulysippo_, V, 7: _Vos quando vos
tirarem de Ansias e passiones mias e guando Roma conquistava_.
487 _dom zote_. Cf. supra _zopete_ and Sp. _zote_, _zopo_, _zopenco_,
_zoquete_ (a dolt); low Latin _sottus_; Dutch _zot_; Fr. _sot_; Eng.
_sot_ (_bebe sem desfolegar_). _Zote_ occurs twice in the _Auto Pastoril
Portugues_: _muito gamenho_ (cf. Fr. _gamin_) _zote_ and _Auto da Fé_,
l. 5.
534 _trepas_ is the Span. form (Port, _tripas_?).
538 _soyços_ the old, _soldados_ the new, word for 'soldiers.' Cf. Lucas
Fernández, _Farsas_ (1867), p. 89: _Entra el soldado, o soizo, o
infante_.
559 This rousing chorus fitly ends a play from every page of which
breathes the most ardent patriotism. Small wonder that King Sebastião
(1557-78), with his visions of conquest and glory, read Vicente with
pleasure as a boy.
561 Cf. Gaspar Correa, _Lendas da India_, IV, 561-2: _o Governador logo
sobio e o frade diante dele bradando a grandes brados, dizendo: 'O fieis
Christãos, olhai para Christo, vosso capitão, que vai diante'_ (1546).
FARSA DOS ALMOCREVES
PAGE 37
This is one of the most famous of those lively farces with which Gil
Vicente for a quarter of a century delighted the Portuguese Court and
which still hold the reader by their vividness and charm. Its fame rests
on the portraiture of the poverty-stricken but magnificent nobleman who
has been a favourite object of satire with writers in the Peninsula
since the time of Martial, and who in a poem of the _Cancioneiro Geral_
is described in almost the identical words of Vicente's prefatory note:
o gram estado
e a renda casi nada
(_Arrenegos que que fez Gregoryo Affonsso_).
An alternative title of the play is _Auto do Fidalgo Pobre_, but the
extremely natural presentment of the two carriers in the second part
justifies the more popular name. The Court, fleeing from plague at
Lisbon, was in the celebrated little university town of Coimbra on the
Mondego and here Gil Vicente in the following year staged his _Divisa da
Cidade de Coimbra_, the _Farsa dos Almocreves_, and (in October) the
_Tragicomedia da Serra da Estrella_ and Sá de Miranda, in open rivalry,
produced his _Fabula do Mondego_. But Gil Vicente was not to be silenced
by the introduction of the new poetry from Italy and to these two years,
1526 and 1527, belong no less than seven (or perhaps eight) of his
plays. Yet what a difference in his own position and in the state of the
nation since his first farce--_Quem tem farelos?_ twenty years before!
The magnificent King Manuel was dead, and his son, the more care-ridden
João III, was on the throne:
tão ocupado
co'este Turco, co'este Papa
co'esta França.
There was plague and famine in the land. The discovery of a direct route
to the East and its apparently inexhaustible wealth had not brought
prosperity to the Portuguese provinces. There the chief effect had been
to make men discontented with their lot and to lure away even the
humblest workers to seek their fortune and often to find death or a far
less independent poverty:
até os pastores
hão de ser d'el-Rei samica.
The result was that the old rustic jollity which Vicente had known so
well in his youth was dying out, and the very songs of the peasants took
a plaintive air:
E no mais triste ratinho
s'enxergava hũa alegria
que agora não tem caminho.
Se olhardes as cantigas
do prazer acostumado
todas tem som lamentado,
carregado de fadigas,
longe do tempo passado.
O d' então era cantar
e bailar como ha de ser,
o cantar pera folgar,
o bailar pera prazer,
que agora é mao d'achar[155].
Nor could it be expected that the rich _parvenu_, the mushroom courtier,
the _fidalgo 'que não sabe se o é,'_ the palace page fresh from keeping
goats in the _serra_, the Court chaplain anxious to hide his humble
origin, would greatly relish Vicente's plays which satirized them and in
which rustic scenes and songs and memories appeared at every turn. It
was much like mentioning the rope in the house of the hanged, and these
dainty and sophisticated persons would turn with relief to the revival
of the more decorous ancient drama inaugurated by Trissino in Italy and
in Portugal by Sá de Miranda.
3 _este Arnado_. Cf. Bernardo de Brito, _Chronica de Cister_, III, 18:
'se foi [Afonso Henriquez] ao longo do Mondego por um campo ̃q então e
no tempo de agora se chama o Arnado, trocado ja pelas enchentes do rio
de campo cuberto de flores em um areal esteril e sem nenhũa verdura.'
Cf. _Cancioneiro da Vaticana_, No. 1014: 'en Coimbra caeu ben provado,
caeu en Runa ata en o Arnado.'
7 See the Spanish _romance_ (ap. Menéndez y Pelayo. _Antología_, t.
VIII, p. 124): 'Yo me estaba allá en Coimbra que yo me la hube ganado.'
8, 9 The sense of these two obscure lines is apparently: 'Since Coimbra
so chastises us that we are left without a penny.' Ruy Moniz in the
_Canc. Geral_, vol. II (1910), p. 142, has _çimbrar ou casar_. In
Spanish _cimbrar_ = 'to brandish a rod,' 'to bend.' In the _Auto del
Repelon_, printed in 1509, Enzina has: _El palo bien assimado Cimbrado
naquella tiesta_ (_Teatro_ (1893), p. 236) and Fernández (p. 25) _No vos
cimbre yo el cayado_. Cf. Antonio Prestes, _Autos_ (ed. 1871), p. 211:
_E o vilão vindo me zimbra: reprender-me!_ and João Gomes de Abreu (_C.
Ger._ vol. IV (1915), p. 304) _seraa rrijo çimbrado_. _preto_ = _real
preto_, contrasted with the white (i.e. silver) _real_.
12 _Pelos campos de Mondego cavaleiros vi somar_ were two very
well-known lines apparently belonging to a real historical Portuguese
_romance_ on the death of Ines de Castro. They occur in Garcia de
Resende's poem on her death. See C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Estudos
sobre o romanceiro peninsular_.
13 Cf. _Tragicomedia da Serra da Estrella_ (1527): _Pedem-lhe em Coimbra
cevada E elle dá-lhe mexilhões_.
19 _milham_, green maize cut young for fodder.
32 _ratinhos_, peasants from Beira. They play a large part in Portuguese
comedy.
80 _azemel_ = _almocreve_. Both words are of Arabic origin. Cf.
_almofreixe_ infra.
93 _Endoenças_ = _indulgentiae_. _Semana de Endoenças_ = Holy Week.
103 In the _Auto da Lusitania_ Vicente says jestingly, perhaps in
imitation of the Spanish _romances_, that he was born at Pederneira (a
small sea-side town in the district of Leiria). He mentions it again in
the _Cortes de Jupiter_ and in the _Templo de Apolo_.
109 Cf. Alvaro Barreto in _Cancioneiro Geral_, vol. I (1910), p. 322:
_põe me tudo em huũ item_.
120 It was the plea of Arias Gonzalo that the inhabitants of Zamora were
not answerable for the guilt of Vellido Dolfos who had treacherously
killed King Sancho:
¿Qué culpa tienen los viejos? ¿qué culpa tienen los niños?
¿qué culpa tienen los muertos...?
129 _balcarriadas_. Cf. _Auto das Fadas_: _Venhas muitieramá com tuas
balcarriadas;_ _Auto da Festa_: _tão grão balcarriada_; _Auto da Barca
do Purgatorio_: _Nunca tal balcarriada Nem maré tão desastrada_. Couto,
_Asia_, VII, 5, vii: _Tal balcarriada_ (act of folly) _foi esta_. The
_Canc. Geral_, vol. IV (1915), p. 370, has the form _barquarryadas_.
134 Cf. _Auto da Lusitania_: _um aito bem acordado Que tenha ave e piós_
(= well-proportioned).
135 The numerous servants of the starving _fidalgos_ are satirized by
Nicolaus Clenardus and others. Like the English as described by a German
in the 18th century they were 'lovers of show, liking to be followed
wherever they go by whole troops of servants' (_A Journey into England_,
by Paul Hentzer. Trans. Horace Walpole, 1757). Clenardus in his
celebrated letter from Evora (1535) says that a Portuguese is followed
by more servants in the streets than he spends sixpences in his house.
He mentions specifically the number eight.
141 Alcobaça is the town famous for its beautiful Cistercian convent.
161 _Alifante._ Cf. infra, _avangelho_. _A_ for _e_ is still common in
Galicia: e.g. _mamoria_ (memory). Cf. Span. Basque _barri_ (new), for
Fr. Basque _berri_.
165 The Dean was Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas († 1544) successively Bishop
of São Tomé (1534) and Ceuta (1540). See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista
de Historia_, No. 25 (1918), p. 3.
224 _bastiães = _bestiães_, figures in relief. Gomez Manrique has
_bestiones_ in this sense.
247 In Antonio Prestes' play _Auto do Mouro Encantado_ the golden apples
prove to be pieces of coal. So Mello in his _Apologos Dialogaes_ speaks
of the treasure of _moiras encantadas_ which all turns to coal.
269 _In Rey_, the popular form of _El-Rei_ (the king) is frequent also
in the plays of Simão Machado, who died about a century after Vicente.
272 It is tempting to add the word _madraço_ (fool, ignoramus) for the
sake of the rhyme. If _O recado que elle dá_ were spoken very fast the
line would bear the addition.
293 Here, as often, the deeper purpose of Vicente's satire appears
beneath his fun. The growing depopulation of the provinces was becoming
painfully evident to those who cared for Portugal.
302 Jorge Ferreira, _Ulysippo_, III, 5: _não haveria corpo, por mais que
fosse de aço milanes, que podesse sofrer quanta costura lhe seria
necessaria_; _ib._ III, 7: _temos muita costura esta noite; muita
costura e tarefa_; Antonio Vieira, _Cartas_: _tambem aqui teremos
costura_ (1 de agosto de 1673).
310 _trapa_ in Port. = 'a gin,' 'a trap,' but in Sp., as perhaps here, =
'noise,' 'uproar.'
327 Cf. _Farsa dos Fisicos_: _Praticamos ali O Leste e o Oeste e o
Brasil_ and III, 377; Chiado, _Auto da Natural Invençam_, ed. Conde de
Sabugosa (1917), p. 74.
348 The carrier comes along singing snatches of a _pastorela_ of which
we have other examples, of more intricate rhythm, in the _Cancioneiro da
Vaticana_ and the poems of the Archpriest of Hita and the Marqués de
Santillana. A modern Galician _cantiga_ says that
O cantar d'os arrieiros
E um cantariño guapo:
Ten unha volta n'o medio
Para dicir 'Arré macho.'
(Pérez Ballesteros, _Cancionero Popular Gallego_, vol II, p. 215.)
355 Cf. _O Clerigo da Beira_: _Nuno Ribeiro Que nunca paga dinheiro E
sempre arreganha os dentes_; and _Ah Deos! quem te furtasse Bolsa, Nuna
Ribeiro. Homem vai buscar dinheiro, A todo ele disse: Ja dinheiro feito
é_.
360 _uxtix_, _uxte_. Ferreira de Vasconcellos, _Eufrosina_, II, 4:
_Tanto me deu por uxte como por arre_.
_atafal_. Cf. _Barca do Purgatorio_ (I, 258): _amanhade-lhe o atafal_
(not _amanhã dé-lhe_).
363 Candosa, a village of some 1400 inh. in the district of Coimbra.
369 _xulo_ = _chulo_, _pícaro_. The derivation of _chulo_ is uncertain
(v. Gonçalvez Viana, _Apostilas_, vol. I (1906), p. 299). While Dozy
derives it from Arabic _xul_, A. A. Koster suggests the same origin as
that of Fr. _joli_, It. _giulivo_, Catalan _joliu_ [= gay. Cf. Eng.
_jolly_ and the Portuguese word used by D. João de Castro: _joliz_],
viz. the Old German word _jol_ (gaiety). Vid. _Quelques mots espagnols
et portugais d'origine orientale_ (_Zeitschrift für rom. Philologie_,
Bd. 38 (1914), S. 481-2). The Valencian form for July (_Choliol_) may
strengthen this view.
372 Tareja is the old Portuguese form of Theresa.
375 _bareja_ = _mosca varejeira_.
379 Aveiro. A town of about 7500 inh., 40 miles S. of Oporto. It was
nearly taken by the Royalists in 1919.
398 For the naturalness of this conversation cf. that of the peasants
Amancio Vaz and Deniz Lourenço in the _Auto da Feira_.
410 Pero Vaz' point is that the mules will not stop to feed in the cool
shade of the trees but do so in the shelterless _charneca_.
429 Cf. the act of D. João de Castro (1500-48) as before him of Afonso
de Albuquerque in pawning hairs of his beard, and the proverb _Queixadas
sem barbas não merecem ser honradas_.
435 _O juiz de çamora_. In the _romance Ya se sale Diego Ordoñez_ Arias
Gonzalo of Zamora says: 'A Dios pongo por juez porque es justo su
juicio.' So that the judge of Zamora = God.
438-9 No one was better situated than Gil Vicente to criticize--and
suffer the slights of--the brand-new nobility of the Portuguese Court.
The nearer they were to the plough the more disdainful were they likely
to be to a mere goldsmith and poet.
454 _desingulas_ (= _dissimulas_). Cf. _Auto Pastoril Portugues_: _não o
dessengules mais_. Duarte Nunes de Leão, _Origem da Lingva Portvgvesa_
(1606), cap. 18, includes _dissingular_ (= dissimular) among the
_vocabulos que vsão os plebeios ou idiotas que os homens polidos não
deuem vsar_.
467 For the form Diz cf. _Auto das Fadas_: Estevão Dis, and _O Juiz da
Beira_: Anna Dias, Diez, Diz (= Diaz).
473 Pero Vaz evidently did not know the _cantiga:_
A molher do almocreve
Passa vida regalada
Sem se importar se o marido
Fica morto na estrada.
Cf. the Galician quatrain (Pérez Ballesteros, _Canc. Pop. Gall._ II,
219):
A vida d'o carreteiro
É unha vida penada,
Non vai o domingo á misa
Nin dorme n'a sua cama.
478 Vicente refers to the Medina fair in the _Auto da Feira_ and again
in _O Juiz da Beira_: _morador en Carrion Y mercader en Medina_.
498 _Folgosas_. There are two small villages in Portugal called Folgosa,
but reference here is no doubt to an inn or small group of houses.
506 Vicente several times refers to _Val de Cobelo_, e.g. _Comedia de
Rubena_: _E achasse os meus porquinhos Cajuso em Val de Cobelo_, and the
shepherd in the _Auto da Barca do Purgatorio_: _estando em Val de
Cobelo_.
529-30 Cf. Sá de Miranda, 1885 ed., No. 108, l. 261: _Inda hoje vemos
que em França Vivem nisto mais á antiga_, etc. Couto (_Dec._ V, vi, 4)
speaking of the mingling of classes, says: 'no nosso Portugal anda isto
mui corrupto.'
537 Cf. _Comedia de Rubena_: _E broslados (= bordados) uns letreiros Que
dizem Amores Amores._
559 The ancient town of Viseu or Vizeu (9000 inh.) in Beira has now sunk
from its former importance.
560 _pertem_ for _pertence_.
565 _arauia_ = _algaravia_. So _ingresia_, _germania_, etc. (cf. the
French word _charabia_).
586 Cf. _O Juiz da Beira_: _pois tem a morte na mão_ (= not 'there is
death in that hand' as was said of Keats, but 'he is at death's door').
591 The original reading _da sertãy_ (rhyming with _mãy_ in l. 588) is
confirmed by the _Auto da Lusitania_: _rendeiro na Sertãe_. The town of
Certã in the district of Castello Branco now has some 5000 inh.
603 Cf. Jorge Ferreira, _Aulegrafia_, I, 4: _Ó senhor, grão saber vir_.
657 _tam mancias_, i.e. _Macias, o Namorado_, the prince of lovers. For
the form _Mancias_ cf. _palanciana_ used for _palaciana_.
671 _los tus cabellos niña_. Cf. Ferreira de Vasconcellos, _Aulegrafia_,
f. 113: _Sob los teus cabelos, ninha, dormiria_.
675 Cf. Jorge Ferreira, _Eufrosina_. _Prologo_: _Eu por mim digo com a
cantiga se o dizem digão_, etc.; _Cortes de Jupiter_: _Cantará c'os
atabaques: Se disserão digão, alma minha_ and Barbieri, _Cancionero
Musical_, No. 127: _Si lo dicen digan, Alma mia_, etc. E wrongly gives
the words _alma minha_ to the next quotation.
676 Cf. _Auto da India_: _Quem vos anojou, meu bem, Bem anojado me tem_.
707 Cf. _Auto das Fadas_: _Son los suspiros que damos In hac vita
lachrymarum_.
713 Camões, _Filodemo_, IV, 4, has _tudo terei numa palha_, 'I will not
care a straw' (cf. Vicente in the _Auto da Festa_: _Que os homens
verdadeiros não são tidos numa palha_), but here the meaning is
different.
TRAGICOMEDIA PASTORIL DA SERRA DA ESTRELLA
PAGE 55