[302] Cf. H. Lopes de Mendonça, _O Salto Mortal_, Act iii: _Tanto
gostaes d’este livro: É por ser triste?--É por ser verdadeiro._
[303] Eclogue 5 (_a qual dizem ser do mesmo autor_), which is
undoubtedly by Ribeiro, refers to Coimbra in the lines: _É lembrarme os
sinceiraes De Coimbra que me mata_.
[304] As in the case of Gil Vicente, we are vexed with homonyms--a
notary, an admiral, &c. Dr. Theophilo Braga, skilfully dovetailing
hypotheses, develops his biography fully. _Casi todo lo que de él se ha
escrito son fábulas sin fundamento alguno_, wrote Menéndez y Pelayo in
1905.
[305] Fray Luis de Leon may have remembered this passage in _De los
Nombres de Cristo_, Bk. 3 (1917 ed., t. 1, p. 198; _Bib. Aut. Esp._, t.
37, p. 182).
[306] _Nossos amores contados por um modo que os não entenderá
ninguem_, Garrett, _Um Auto de Gil Vicente_.
[307] _La Voluntad_, Barcelona, 1902. Camillo Castello Branco held
similar views.
[308] The word cannot be translated exactly, but corresponds to
the Greek πόθος, Latin _desiderium_, Catalan _anyoranza_, Galician
_morriña_, German _Sehnsucht_, Russian тоска (pron. _taská_). It is the
‘passion for which I can find no name’ (Gissing, _The Private Papers of
Henry Ryecroft_).
[309] Menéndez y Pelayo’s strict division between the ‘subjective’ pt.
1 and pt. 2 as _externa y de aventuras_ is thus somewhat arbitrary.
[310] Pt. 1, cap. 9; pt. 2, cap. 25.
[311] In pt. 2, cap. 9, this is forgotten: _outras_ [_cousas_] _que
não são escritas neste livro_, a slip which throws no light on the
authorship.
[312] It was characteristic of the hot-house air in which Portuguese
literature existed that the first publication of a book often consisted
in its circulation (_correr_) in manuscript from courtier to courtier,
a special licence being obtained for this apart from the licence to
print. Those to whom it appealed made copies. The earliest known
edition of _Menina e moça_ is of 1557-8: _Primeira & segũda parte do
liuro chamado as Saudades de Bernaldim Ribeiro com todas suas obras.
Treladado de seu propria original. Nouamente impresso._ 1557 (Euora.
The date of the colophon is January 30, 1558). An introductory note
_Aos lectores_ says: _Foram tantos os traduzidores deste liuro & os
pareceres em elle tam diuersos que nam he de marauilhar que na primeira
impressam desta historia se achassem tantas cousas em contrario de como
foram pello auctor delle escriptas ... foy causa de andar este liuro
tam vicioso ... conueo tirarse a limpo do propria original_, &c., &c.).
The edition of 1554, quoted by Brunet, was probably the first in spite
of the words _com summa diligencia emendada_ (i.e. corrections of the
manuscript). The phrase _de nouo_ tells more against than in favour of
an earlier edition (= rather ‘new’ than ‘anew’).
[313] Ribeiro, so far as we know, wrote no line of Spanish. Boscán’s
_romance Justa fué mi perdición_ and the _romance Ó Belerma_ have been
wrongly ascribed to him.
[314] p. 287: ... _so ganz persönlichem Stil, dass sie mit keinem
anderen Dichter vor oder nach ihnen, wohl aber untereinander zu
verwechseln wären_; and p. 292: Bernardim Ribeiro writes _ganz im Stile
des Falcão_. Cf. F. Bouterwek, _History of Spanish and Portuguese
Literature_, Eng. tr. 1823, ii. 39: ‘A long eclogue by this writer,
which forms an appendix to the works of Ribeyro, so completely partakes
of the character of the poems which it accompanies that were it not
for the separate title it might be mistaken for the production of
Ribeyro himself. It therefore proves that Ribeyro’s poetic fancies, his
romantic mysticism not excepted, were by no means individual.’
[315] According to Dr. Theophilo Braga, he was born in 1515; married
in 1529 Maria Brandão (aged eleven); was profoundly influenced by
Ribeiro’s _Trovas de dous pastores_ (1536) but did not plagiarize it in
the _Trovas de Crisfal_ (1536-41), similar passages being due to the
_situação quasi similar_ (i.e. _quasi identica_) of the two friends;
went to Italy on a diplomatic mission in 1541; spent the year 1543 in
Rome and returned to Portugal in the winter of 1543-4; was factor of
the fortress of Arguim from 1545 to 1548; and died in 1577.
[316] The whole question at issue is whether the _de_ of _Trovas de
Crisfal_ = ‘by’ or ‘about’ (cf. _O Livro das Trovas d’ El Rei_ = rather
‘belonging to’ than ‘by’ the king), and protests against _a illusão
de pretender identificar em um mesmo poeta o apaixonado de Aonia e
o de Maria_ (_Obras_, 1915 ed., p. 10) or _o intuito de converterem
Christovam Falcão em um mytho_ (ibid., p. 42) are beside the point.
[317] That one of the figures is identical in the woodcuts of these two
_folhas volantes_ is not significant: it appears also in an anonymous
edition of the _Pranto de Maria Parda_.
[318] In the 1559 ed. the words _hũa muy nomeada e agradauel Egloga
chamada Crisfal ... que dizem ser de Cristouam Falcam, ho que parece
alludir ho nome da mesma Egloga_ may legitimately be held to imply
merely that some persons, misled by the anagram, attributed the poem to
Falcão.
[319] _Decada_ 8, cap. 34 (1786 ed., p. 322).
[320] The _licença_ of the 1632 edition says, _Este livrinho ... muitas
vezes se imprimio_.
[321] Cf. 1885 ed., No. 109:
Eu digo os Provençais que inda se sente
O som das brandas rimas que entoaram.
Cf. Boscán ap. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, tom. xiii (_Juan
Boscán_), p. 165: _En tiempo de Dante y un poco antes florecieron los
Proenzales, cuyas obras por culpa de los tiempos andan en pocas manos._
Menéndez y Pelayo also (ibid., p. 174) gives a reference by Faria e
Sousa to King Dinis: _El rey don Dionis de Portugal nació primero
que el Dante tres ó quatro años y escrivió mucho deste propio género
endecasílabo, coma consta de los manuscritos._
[322] Cf. 1885 ed., No. 112:
¿Como se perdieron
Entre nos el cantar, como el tañer
Que tanto nombre a los pasados dieron?
[323]
Adeus leitor a mais ver,
Porque ainda haveis de ver mais (_A Egipciaca_, p. 181).
[324] He must often have repeated Nuno Pereira’s lines, which may have
influenced him when he read them in the _Cancioneiro Geral: Privar em
cas da Rainha Deos vollo deixe fazer, E a mi hũa vinha E regar hũa
almoinha Em que tenho mor prazer ... Lavro, cavo quanta posso ... O
gingrar de meu caseiro_, &c.
[325] His complaint in the second elegy (1885 ed., No. 147, l. 17)
shows how far he was in advance of his age in Portugal: _Um vilancete
brando ou seja um chiste, Letras ás invenções, motes ás damas, Hũa
pregunta escura, esparsa triste, Tudo bom, quem o nega? Mas porque, Se
alguem descobre mais, se lhe resiste?_
[326] Often he combines several in the same poem. Thus the long (533
lines) eclogue on the death of Garci Lasso (_Nemoroso_) begins in
_tercetos_, proceeds with _rima encadeada_ (internal rhyme), and ends
with Petrarcan stanzas.
[327] Cf. the sonnet (1885 ed., No. 126) _Esprito que voaste_ with
_Alma minha gentil_.
[328] The autograph manuscript of this and of other poems, discovered
in the Lisbon Biblioteca Nacional by Snr. Delfim Guimarães in 1908, has
been reproduced in facsimile by D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos
in the _Boletim_ of the Lisbon _Ac. das Sciencias_, vol. v (1912), pp.
187-220. See _infra_, p. 164.
[329] Leonel da Costa, the translator of Virgil and Terence, later
wrote a poem in seven cantos of _redondilhas_ on the same subject: _A
Conversão miraculosa da felice egypcia penitente Santa Maria_ (1627).
[330] Faria e Sousa even makes him the first Portuguese poet to write
hendecasyllabics, setting aside those of Sá de Miranda as unreadable:
_son incapaces de ser leidos!_ (_Varias Rimas_, pt. ii, p. 162).
[331] He was _Moço da camara_ in 1566. He was appointed a knight of the
Order of Christ in 1582. He married apparently after his return from
Africa in 1581. He was alive in 1596 (although in one of his poems he
refers to a premature old age) and dead in 1605. On the other hand, he
was apparently over twenty-five in 1558. It is thought that the right
of passing on his official posts to his children (_sobrevivencia_),
granted to his father in 1532, may indicate the date of the birth of
the eldest of his eleven children: Diogo Bernardez (who did not, like
some of his brothers, use his father’s second name, Pimenta).
[332] _Carta_ 12: _Confesso dever tudo áquella rara Doutrina tua_.
[333] The succeeding generation was also distinguished, one of the
poet’s nephews becoming Bishop of Angra, another Governor of Angola, a
third Professor at Coimbra University.
[334] Bernardez’ letters in verse contain many such references to
everyday life, e. g. the Lisbon negress selling fried fish in the
_Betesga_.
[335] A confident sonnet by him in this capacity is extant: _Pois
armarse por Christo não duvida Sebastião._
[336] _O doce estillo teu tomo por guia_ and _Escrevo, leio e risco_
he writes to Miranda, but his muse was far more spontaneous than
Miranda’s, and it appears from another passage (in _Elegia_ 5) that his
alterations were less of style than of matter.
[337] _Carta_ 32 is an exception, and consists of seventy-two _oitavas_.
[338] He introduces Italian lines (_Cartas_ 23, 27, 30) and wrote a
sonnet in Italian.
[339] Cf. _Carta_ 4: _Foge inda o dia ao muito diligente_, although
whether this is due to his work or to the number of his friends is not
clear.
[340] _Com cujo_ [Miranda’s] _exemplo meu pai, que entam estaua nos
estudos, pretendeo com a variedade destes sens manifestar como a lingua
Portugueza assi em copia de palauras como em grauidade de estylo
a nenhuma he inferior_ (Miguel Leite Ferreira, Preface to _Poemas
Lvsitanos_, 1598).
[341] To take an example not from the eclogues but from one of his
sonnets, the words
da guerra
Nossa livres viveis em paz e em gloria
correspond but ill to their peaceful sense.
[342] Cf. _Carta_ 2. Bernardez (in an elegy on Ferreira’s death
addressed to Andrade Caminha) records that among all Ferreira’s verses
not a line was written in a foreign tongue: _um só nunca lhe deu em
lingua alhea_.
[343] Thirteen times the same subject is treated by Camões and Caminha,
sometimes exclusively by them (C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Pero de
Andrade Caminha_ (1901), p. 55).
[344] _Obras_, ed. Priebsch, p. 361.
[345] All that he wrote in Portuguese is contained in two pages
(389-91) of Garcia Peres’ _Catálogo_ (1890).
[346] Fray Bartolomé Ponce, _Primera Parte de la Clara Diana a lo
divino_ (1582?): _Me dijeron como un muy amigo suyo le habia muerto por
ciertos zelos ó amores_ (quoted by Ticknor, iii. 536, and by T. Braga
(omitting _ciertos_), _Bernardim Ribeiro_ (1872), p. 80).
[347] _Argumento desta obra._
[348] e.g.
No mato o rosmaninho, a branca esteva,
No campo o lirio azul que o chão cubria.
[349] _Que estes se chamem poetas!_ rightly exclaims Frei Lucas de
Santa Catharina (_Seram Politico_ (1704), p. 146) of those who revel in
the use of _esdruxulos_.
[350] The whole of Canto XIV is given to a vigorous account of the
battle of Aljubarrota, already described more vividly in fewer stanzas
by Camões. Another poem in _oitavas_ by Rodriguez Lobo, _Historia da
Arvore Triste_, was published in _Fenix Renascida_, vol. iv.
[351] In Spanish also are the fifty-six _romances_ which make up the
poem _La Jornada_, &c. (1623), written on the coming of Philip III to
Portugal in 1619. In the eclogues, written chiefly in _redondilhas_, he
sings with spontaneous charm _as praticas humildes e os cuidados Não
por arte fingidos e enfeitados_ of the _rusticos vaqueiros_, as he says
in the prefatory sonnet. Many of the words are pleasantly indigenous:
_milho_, _boroa_, _salgueiraes_, _rafeiro_, _charneca_, _chocalho_,
_abegões_, _ovelheiros_.
[352] For instance, when the Angel has announced in Spanish _las
alegres nuevas_, the goatherd, _ratinho_, Mendo, says: _A din Rey,
a din Rey ay! Que estou amorrinhentado, Acudame algum Cristom ou
Sancristom._ Laureano, the shepherd, speaks Portuguese and Spanish,
and Silvia says: _Porque o que sinto quisera Dizelo em bom Portugues._
An _Auto e Colloquio do Nascimento de Christo_ (1646) attributed to
Francisco Lopes was reprinted in 1676.
§ 3
_The Drama_
After Gil Vicente’s death the _autos_ continued to flourish in number
if not in excellence, and evidently answered to a very real popular
demand. It was in vain that the Jesuits produced their Latin plays and
that serious poets of high reputation sought to wean the affections of
the people from the _auto_ to the classical drama.[353] This opposition
of the educated did, however, conduce to the swift deterioration of
the _auto_, although some of those of a religious character, chiefly
the Nativity plays, still succeeded in reflecting a part of the charm
that characterized the Vicentian drama. To Gil Vicente’s lifetime
probably belongs the _Obra famosissima tirada da Sancta Escriptura
chamada da Geração humana, onde se representam sentenças muy catolicas
& proueitosas pera todo christã: Feita por huũ famoso autor_ (1536?).
Indeed, the verse runs so easily, the peasants are so natural, that
one might almost suspect him of having had a hand in its composition.
But the metre (8 8 4 8 8 4) is more monotonous than he would have used
throughout. The _dramatis personae_ are angels, peasants,[354] Adam,
Justice, Reason, Malice, two devils, a priest, four saints and doctors
of the Church, a Levite, the Church, the Heavenly Samaritan. Adam
in a scene closely resembling that of the _Auto da Alma_ is tempted
by Malice. Justice intervenes, and finally the Samaritan leads him
to the _estalagem_ of Holy Mother Church. The _Auto de ds [Deus]
padre & justiça & mia [Misericordia]_ belongs to the same period. It
is written in octosyllabic verse and contains a similar medley of
peasants, prophets, and abstract virtues. In the first part the angels
in Portuguese announce to the Virgin the birth of Christ, and in the
second part the peasants, who speak Spanish, go to offer rustic gifts
to _el muy chiquito donzel_. Another early and anonymous play is the
_Auto do Dia do Juizo_, included in the _Index_ of 1559, which for
its subject closely follows Gil Vicente’s _Auto da Barca do Inferno_.
A peasant, a false and lying notary, a market-woman who had offered
weekly bread and wax to Santa Catharina but had ’robbed the poor
people’, a butcher, a miller who had mixed bran in his sacks of flour,
are introduced in turn and duly consigned by Lucifer to Hell.
If we only knew the quondam Franciscan monk ANTONIO RIBEIRO CHIADO
(_c._ 1520?-91) and his contemporary and rival, the mulatto servant of
the Bishop of Evora, by their mutual abuse, we could form no very high
opinion of their character or their wit. In bitter _quintilhas_ Chiado
reviles the latter for his dark complexion; AFONSO ALVAREZ answers by
upbraiding _nonno Chiado_ as the son of a cobbler and a market-woman
and for the habits which had made the cloister seem so dismal a place
to Frei Antonio do Espirito Santo. Fortunately some of the plays of
both of them survive, and we are better able to judge of their merits.
The mulatto, who was a valued member of his master’s household and
prides himself that Chiado has nothing worse to throw in his face
than the colour of his skin, was certainly Chiado’s inferior in wit
and talent. Both imitate Gil Vicente without having a vestige of his
lyrical genius or greater skill in devising a plot. Alvarez preferred
religious subjects. In his _Auto de Santo Antonio_ St. Anthony restores
to life the drowned son of two peasants, who are imitated from
Vicente’s _Auto da Feira_.[355] The only other of his plays that we
have is the _Auto de Santa Barbara_, but we know that he also wrote an
_Auto de S. Vicente Martyr_ and an _Auto de Santiago Apostolo_.
Chiado’s plays and witty sayings, _avisos para guardar_ and
_parvoices_, appear to have made him extremely popular in Lisbon,
Camões recognized his talent, and Lisbon’s most famous street still
bears his name in common speech. His boisterous life at Lisbon after
leaving his convent may have given him his name Chiado (cf. the _chiar_
of ox-carts), but it existed as a surname earlier. His _Pratica de Oito
Figuras_ (1543?), _Auto das Regateiras_ (1568 or 1569), and _Pratica
dos Compadres_ (1572), are the work of an accomplished wit who was
intimately acquainted with the farces of Gil Vicente and, in the last
two, with the prose plays of Jorge Ferreira. Many of Vicente’s types
are present, but all in a town atmosphere, in which cards take the
place of the rustic dances and lyric yields to epigram, the natural
genius of Vicente to a laboured smartness. We have the _clerigo de
vintem_, the _ratinho_ from Beira, the vain _pação_, the poor _fidalgo_
or _escudeiro_, the negro with his pidgin Portuguese, the witch, the
ill-tempered _velha_, the _trovador_ chaplain, the ambitious priest,
the corrupt judge. The scenes are even more disconnected and less
dramatic, and the ingenious _redondilhas_ necessarily seem artificial
because their author so often challenges comparison with the more
genuine skill of his master, Gil Vicente. Chiado’s _Auto de Gonçalo
Chambão_ was reprinted several times in the seventeenth century, but
is now unknown. Of his _Auto da Natural Invençam_ (_c._ 1550) a single
copy survives, in the library of the Conde de Sabugosa, whose edition
(1917) is of exceptional interest. The play, as reminiscent of Vicente
as are the other plays of Chiado, describes the acting of an _auto_
in a private house in the reign of João III, and bears witness to the
frequency of such representations at Lisbon and to their extraordinary
popularity.
BALTHASAR DIAZ, a blind poet (or _jogral_) of Madeira, in the first
half of the sixteenth century wrote plays which have retained their
popularity. He versified at great length traditions of chivalry and
of mediaeval saints. We do not possess his _Trovas_ written on the
death of D. João de Castro (1548), and many of his plays, _Auto da
Paixam de Christo_, _Auto de El Rei Salomão_, _Auto da Feira da Ladra_,
have become rare or unknown. One of the best of them, the _Auto de
Santo Aleixo_, perhaps owes its survival to its subject, akin to
the popular theme of a prince in disguise. The rich and noble Aleixo
wanders in rags to the Holy Land. The Devil, who tempts him in the
form of a wayfarer, declares that now--the eternal querulous ‘now’
of the poets--only the rich are honoured and learning is neglected.
Later the Devil becomes a courtier and again tempts St. Aleixo, who
is defended by an angel. The _Auto de Santa Catherina_ is a long
devout play of which the persons are St. Catherine, her mother, her
page, the Emperor Maxentius, a hermit, three _doutores_, Christ, the
Virgin, angels. The saint, who receives news of her mother’s death
with admirable equanimity, suffers martyrdom at the end of the play
with equal fortitude. Diaz also dramatized the story of the Marques de
Mantua. Although devoid of dramatic or lyric talent, he is sometimes
interesting. Women, whose dresses and fashions are contrasted in the
_Auto de Santo Aleixo_ with the hard toil of the men, are represented
in the _Auto da Malicia das Mulheres_ as treating their husbands ‘like
negroes’. We do not know whether Diaz spoke from experience, his life
is very obscure; but he may have spent his last years in Beira if the
passage in his _O Conselho para bem casar_:
estou nesta Beira
tão remoto de trovar (1680 ed., p. 2)
be not merely a reference to Boeotia, any place far from Lisbon.
Traces of Vicente and the _Celestina_[356] are apparent in ANRIQUE
LOPEZ’ _Cena Policiana_ or _O Estvdante_, in which a _fidalgo_ and a
student[357] figure. The poor _escudeiro_ and his fasting _moço_ are
prominent in JORGE PINTO’S _Auto de Rodrigo e Mendo_. Spanish romances
are quoted with great frequency, and Vicente’s _En el mes era de Abril_
is parodied by the _moços_.[358] Indeed, their knowledge of literature
was become embarrassing since, when his master’s guest, invited to a
dinner which did not exist, recites some verses that he has made,
Rodrigo has already read them in Boscán and heard them sung in the
street.[359]
The exact dates of ANTONIO PRESTES, of Torres Novas, are unknown, but
seven of his plays, after having been acted at Lisbon and published in
_folhas volantes_, were first collected by Afonso Lopez half a century
after Gil Vicente’s death in the _Primeira Parte dos Avtos e Comedias
Portuguesas_, &c. (1588). The _Auto da Ave Maria_, written between
1563 and 1587, is an allegorical play in which Reason is vanquished by
Sensuality; Heraclitus mourns over her fall while Democritus laughs.
A knight in league with the Devil[360] robs in turn an almoner, a
_ratinho_, and Fast, but his pious habit of saying an _Ave Maria_
causes St. Michael to rescue him from the Devil and reconcile him
with Reason. Of the profane plays, that with the most definite plot
is the _Auto dos Dous Irmãos_, in which an old man, after refusing to
see his sons who have married without his permission, divides all his
money between them and is then neglected by both: he is sent from one
to the other like King Lear. But the story is feebly worked out here
as in the other plays. Their action is mostly that of a puppet show.
Sometimes the _moço_, who always plays a prominent part, seems to be
the only link in the plot, as Duarte in the _Autos dos Cantarinhos_.
These _moços_, who show the author’s acquaintance with Gil Vicente[361]
and _Lazarillo de Tormes_,[362] are quite unlike either Lazarillo or
Apariço. They are certainly hungry, but they combine starvation with
laziness, presumption and abundant learning. The names of Petrarca and
Seneca are on their lips; they read _Palmeirim_ and quote romances
of chivalry and Spanish _romances_ glibly.[363] Indeed, the chief
interest of these artificial plays is the light thrown on the times:
the position of women, the bribery of judges and lawyers, the aping
of foreign manners, the mixed styles of architecture. They contain no
poetry, little drama, and their wit is seldom natural. Like Prestes,
JERONIMO RIBEIRO, perhaps a brother of Chiado, was born apparently
at Torres Novas. Only one of his plays was published: the _Auto do
Fisico_, written in the last third of the sixteenth century. It has
some farcical Vicentian scenes, the inevitable hits against the doctors
and lawyers--the _moço_ dresses up as a _doutor_ to receive a simple
fisherman from Alfama--and is generally more popular and natural than
Prestes’ plays.
SIMÃO MACHADO (_c._ 1570-_c._ 1640), who as a Franciscan monk--Frei
Boaventura--ended his life at Barcelona, was also born at Torres
Novas. His plays--_Comedias portvgvesas_ (1601?)--are two: _Comedia
de Dio_ and _Comedia da Pastora Alfea_. They are written in Spanish
and Portuguese indiscriminately despite Gonçalo’s admonition _palrar
como Pertigues_.[364] The author explains that, well aware of his
countrymen’s love of what is foreign, he uses Castilian to save his
plays from the neglect often bestowed in Portugal upon works written
in Portuguese. His verse is ordinarily the _redondilha_, although
Nuno da Cunha in the first part of _O Cerco de Dio_ makes a speech in
_oitavas_. He has lyrical facility and his peasant scenes are full of
life, for instance, the dialogue between the cowherd Gil Cabaço and
Tomé the goatherd in _Alfea_.
The Gospel story was dramatized by FREI FRANCISCO VAZ of Guimarães in
a long _Auto da Paixão_. The oldest edition we have is dated 1559,
and it has been often reprinted, with thirty rough woodcuts. Some of
these are very spirited, as that of the cock crowing after St. Peter’s
denial, or that of Judas hanging himself. After a long introductory
speech in _versos de arte maior_ the play proceeds in _redondilhas_
(over 2,000 lines). Religious subjects have always been favourites with
the Portuguese, especially those affording scope for lavish scenic
display, not only those of martyred saints, as the _Auto de Santa
Genoveva_, but those based on the New Testament, as the later play
_Acto figurado da degolação dos Innocentes_ (1784) in seven scenes.[365]
Two plays, the _Auto da Donzella da Torre_ and _Auto de Dom André_,
are attributed to Gil Vicente’s grandson, GIL VICENTE DE ALMEIDA. The
latter, written before 1559, in which a peasant brings his unlettered
son (_nem nunca falei Gramatica_) to Court, and a _ratinho_, on
becoming a page, promises himself to learn to sing and play on the
guitar within a month, has a Vicentian character.
To the beginning of the seventeenth century also belongs the _Pratica
de Tres Pastores_ (1626), a Christmas play by FREI ANTONIO DA ESTRELLA,
who may perhaps be identified with Frei Antonio de Lisboa, author
of the lost _Auto dos Dous Ladrões_ (1603). The three shepherds,
Rodrigo, Loirenço, and Sylvestre, are awakened by an angel singing
_cousas de preço_. They agree that the song echoing over the hills
is no earth-born music but _algum Charubim ou Anjo ou Charafim_,
and presently they go to Bethlehem to offer their rustic gifts. The
author has caught the charm and spontaneity of the earlier Christmas
_autos_. Another seventeenth-century _auto_ of the same kind is the
_Colloquio do Nascimento do Menino Jesus_ by the Lisbon bookseller,
FRANCISCO LOPEZ. The scene and conversation of the three shepherds,
Gil, Silvestre, and Paschoal, with their _assorda ou migas de alho_ in
the cold night--_mas como queima o rocio_, says Gil--are very naturally
drawn. An echo of the satirical side of Gil Vicente’s genius is to be
found in the _Auto das Padeiras chamado da Fome_ (1638),[366] in which
the various frauds of the bakeresses, sardine-sellers, market-women,
pastry-cooks, and tavern-keepers of Lisbon are shown up by the devils
Palurdam and Calcamar, as in the _Barca do Purgatorio_. There is
nothing of Vicente in the _Auto novo da Barca da Morte_ (1732) by a
Lisbon author who wrote under the name of Diogo da Costa (Innocencio
da Silva, ii. 153, believed that his real name was André da Luz). It
consists of a single scene crowded with classical allusions. Death has
deprived Midas of his gold, Alexander of his victories, Aristotle of
his learning. The actors here are a rich miser, a poor man, a youth,
an old man, and Death, whose boat Time steers. The title of the _Auto
novo e curioso da Forneira de Aljubarrota_ (1815), also attributed to
Diogo da Costa, is misleading, since it is a prose narrative of the
experiences of that _valorosa matrona_, who, dressed as an _almocreve_,
comes to Lisbon with her two _bestinhas_ laden with wine.
Of the twenty-five plays contained in the _Musa entretenida de
varios entremeses_ (1658) edited by Manuel Coelho Rebello, No. 17
(_Castigos de vn Castelhano_) is in Spanish and Portuguese, six are in
Portuguese,[367] all the rest in Spanish. Popular plays continued to be
written long after the introduction of the classical drama and in spite
of the antagonism of the priests. They were often composed in a variety
of metres, as the _Acto de Sᵗᵃ Genoveva, Princesa de Barbante_ (1735)
by Balthasar Luis da Fonseca, if its verse can be called metre,[368] or
the _Comedia famosa intitulada A Melhor Dita de Amor_ (1745) by Rodrigo
Antonio de Almeida,[369] which opens with a sonnet and proceeds in
_redondilhas_, hendecasyllables, and prose.
In the Christmas plays and peasant scenes some of Gil Vicente’s poetry
had lingered; the plays of more fashionable authors caught no gleam
of his lyrism, but sketched types and satirized manners successfully,
none more so than Mello’s _Auto do Fidalgo Aprendiz_, written, it must
be remembered, before _Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme_ (1670). Both kinds,
consciously or unconsciously, were derived from Vicente’s genius as
manifested in his plays for the Court and of the people.
During Gil Vicente’s lifetime, perhaps, Sá de Miranda had written
the two plays, _Os Estrangeiros_ (_c._ 1528) and _Os Vilhalpandos_
(1538?),[370] with which he introduced classical comedy into Portugal
(nearly a quarter of a century before its introduction into France and
England). _Os Estrangeiros_ was a novelty[371] in more ways than one,
for it was written in prose. Both plays were, as the author admitted,
imitated from Plautus and Terence and also from Ariosto, whose comedies
were composed in the first third of the century. _Os Estrangeiros_ was,
he further observed in a brief introductory letter to the Cardinal
Henrique, rustic and clumsy.[372] Its only claim to be called rustic,
in character as apart from treatment, consists in a few allusions
to popular customs. We would have had it more indigenous. The scene
is Palermo, the plot, _à la_ Plautus, consists of the difficulties
and differences between father and son, and there is the _aio_,
the vainglorious soldier Briobris, _nas armas um Roldão_, and the
_truão_ who plays the part of _gracioso_. The action advances in long
soliloquies to the final reconciliation between father and son. The
character of _Os Vilhalpandos_, which Mello called ‘a mirror of courtly
wit’, is similar, with the difference that Fame instead of Comedy
speaks the prologue and the action between son, father, and courtesan
is placed in Rome. Both the plays were acted before Cardinal Henrique
and printed by his command. As if to mark his initiative in every
field, Miranda also composed a classical tragedy entitled _Cleopatra_
(_c._ 1550), the title of which is of interest as preceding the plays
of Shakespeare and Samuel Daniel (1562-1619). The twelve octosyllabic
lines (_abcabcdefdef_) that survive (from a chorus?) give no idea
of its character, but it probably followed closely the _Sofonisba_
(1515) of Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550). A Spanish version of
Sophocles’ _Electra_ by Hernan Perez de Oliva appeared in 1528, and
in 1536 Anrique Ayres Victoria had translated this into Portuguese
octosyllabic verse: _A Vingança de Agamemnon_. The date of the first
edition is unknown; the second appeared in 1555. Nor do we know when
_Cleopatra_ was written,[373] although it must have been prior to
Antonio Ferreira’s classical tragedy acted at Coimbra, _Inés de Castro_
(_c._ 1557), which has hitherto been considered the first of its kind
in Portugal. Written when the author was about thirty, that is, about
the time of Miranda’s death, it copied the form of Greek tragedies
and, the better to acclimatize this, a thoroughly national subject
was chosen--the death of Inés--whereas Miranda had gone to Rome and
Egypt. As might be expected from Ferreira’s other work the conception
was executed with the careful skill of a conscientious craftsman. The
drama has unity, the style is purest Portuguese, the chorus sometimes
soars into poetry, as in the celebrated passage _Quando amor naceo_.
That the same high language is spoken throughout, that, as has often
been observed, scenes of dramatic opportunity--a meeting between D.
Pedro and his father or Inés--are omitted, merely shows that Ferreira
had no dramatic instinct. Perhaps the only dramatic passage--and
even so it is of more psychological than dramatic interest--is that
in Act III: _Inés._ ‘Ah, woe is me! what ill, what fearful ill dost
thou announce?’ _Chorus._ ‘It is thy death.’ _Inés._ ‘_Is my lord
dead?_’ Nevertheless, the play was a remarkable achievement, carried
out without faltering and with a sustained loftiness worthy of its
subject. No one any longer believes that Ferreira copied from the
_Nise lastimosa_ by Geronimo Bermudez, published under the pseudonym
Antonio da Silva eight years after Ferreira’s death. This is a
slightly expanded Spanish translation, closely following the 1587
edition[374] of _Inés de Castro_, which differs considerably from
that of 1598. The _Nise laureada_ which accompanied it is perfectly
insignificant. Like Miranda, Ferreira wrote, besides one tragedy, two
comedies, _Bristo_ and _O Cioso_. There are indications that he had
in mind Ferreira de Vasconcellos’ _Eufrosina_ as well as Miranda’s
comedies. Bristo soliloquizing is the counterpart of Philtra, and in
his dedication of _Bristo_ to Prince João he acknowledges his debt
to previous plays.[375] In this comedy, written during some vacation
days at Coimbra University, the action is very primitive, but the
braggart Annibal and the charlatan Montalvão account for some farcical
scenes. His later play, _O Cioso_ (the jealous husband is also handled
by Gil Vicente and Prestes), belongs to a higher plane, i. e. to
comedy rather than farce, although _Bristo_ is not entirely devoid of
character-drawing. _Bristo_ was ‘made public’ (_publicada_) before
1554, but neither play was published till 1622. Both are remarkable for
the correctness and concise vigour of their prose.
The three plays of Camões, written perhaps between the years 1544 and
1549 during his first stay at Lisbon, belong entirely neither to the
classical drama nor to the more ancient _autos_, but combine elements
of both. They are written in _redondilhas_, mostly _quintilhas_. The
third, _El Rei Seleuco_ (1549?), is slighter even than a Vicentian
farce. It has a curious prologue scene (_Vorspiel auf dem Theater_)
in prose. The versification is easy, but its chief interest is the
important part it may have played in its author’s life. The earliest in
date, _Filodemo_, although it lacks Vicente’s savour of the soil, has
a graceful charm and faintly recalls the _Comedia do Viuvo_. Filodemo,
orphan son of a Danish princess and a Portuguese _fidalgo_, is in love
with Dionysa, daughter of his father’s brother, whose son Venadoro
is in love with Filodemo’s sister Florimena. Their relationship is
unknown, but the discovery of their true birth smoothes the path
of love and ends the play. _Os Amphitriões_, in Portuguese and
Spanish,[376] is based on the _Amphitruo_ of Plautus. The predicaments
resulting from the appearance of Jupiter as Amphitrião’s double and
Mercury as the double of Sosia are deftly and humorously worked out in
delightfully spontaneous verse.
For those so fastidious as to be satisfied neither by the popular
_autos_ nor the staid classical plays, yet another kind was provided
in the shape of Celestina comedies in prose. Of the life of their
author we know scarcely more than that he was very well known in his
day. Judging by literary merit only, one might assign the verses
written by Jorge de Vasconcellos in the _Cancioneiro Geral_ to JORGE
FERREIRA DE VASCONCELLOS (_c._ 1515-63?), since the poems, alike in
the new and the old style, interspersed in his works do not prove
him to have possessed high poetical talent. It is as a dramatist and
still more as a writer of Portuguese prose that the distinguished
courtier of King João III’s reign[377]--deserves a higher place in
Portuguese literature than his ungrateful countrymen have habitually
accorded him. But the dates forbid the identification of the dramatist
with the earlier poet, who was also a notable courtier since he is
specially mentioned in Vicente’s _Cortes de Jupiter_ (ii. 404). One of
the few definite facts known to us concerning Jorge Ferreira is that
affirmed in the preface of his _Eufrosina_: that this play was the
first fruit of his genius, written in his youth.[378] The exact date
of _Eufrosina_ is unknown, but it was written after the University had
been finally established at Coimbra in 1537--the date of the letter
from India (December 20, 1526[379]) is clearly a misprint since mention
is made of the siege of Diu (1538). Ferreira de Vasconcellos evidently
studied law at the University. If he was born, not at Coimbra but at
Lisbon, he may have begun his studies in the capital. At the time
of Prince Duarte’s death (1540) he was in his service, as _moço da
camara_, and he continued as a Court official, first, perhaps, in the
service of the heir to the throne, Prince João, who died on January
2, 1554, and then in that of King Sebastião. In 1563 he was succeeded
as Secretary (_escrivão do Tesouro_) by Luis Vicente, probably son of
the poet Gil. The document[380] which nominates his successor by no
means implies his death, since, as Menéndez y Pelayo[381] observed,
his name is unaccompanied by the formula _que Deus perdoe_ or _aja_.
But it is strange, if he did not die till 1585, the date given by
Barbosa Machado, that nothing more is heard of him after 1563 (we are
told that his son died at the battle of Alcacer Kebir), and that his
son-in-law called _Aulegrafia_, written before the death of Prince
Luis (1555), his swan-song.[382] Apart from manuscript treatises which
were never published, Jorge Ferreira is the author of four works in
prose, the three plays, _Eufrosina_, _Ulysippo_, _Aulegrafia_, and
the _Memorial da Segunda Tavola Redonda_. The latter is an involved
romance of chivalry[383] which describes the adventures of the Knight
of the Crystal Arms, emulator of the Knights of the Round Table and
Amadis of Gaul. Each chapter commences with a brief sententious
reflection, from which the reader is plunged into mortal combats
of knights, centaurs, giants, and dragons. It begins by giving an
account of King Arthur, his disappearance, and the prosperous reign of
Sagramor. It ends with a vivid description of the tournament (August
5, 1552) at Enxobregas (= Xabregas) in which the ill-fated Prince João
was the principal figure. Barbosa Machado included among Ferreira de
Vasconcellos’ works _Triunfos de Sagramor em que se tratão os feitos
dos Cavalleiros da Segunda Tavola Redonda_ (Coimbra, 1554). A passage
in the _Memorial_[384] may have led to the belief that this was a
second part of the _Memorial_, of which the first known edition is
that of Coimbra, 1567, but from the preface[385] it appears that the
_Memorial_ _is_ the _Triunfos_. The title _Triunfos de Sagramor_ may
have been given to an earlier edition,[386] or it may have been the
title of the second half of the work. The author himself declares
that his story had been ‘presented’ to Prince João.[387] The editor
of _Ulysippo_ in 1618 says that the _Memorial_ had been printed at
least twice during the author’s lifetime.[388] Yet it is difficult
not to suspect that the date 1554 was a confusion with the year of
the death of the prince to whom the work was dedicated. The same
uncertainty, as we have seen, prevails as to the date of the first
edition of the author’s masterpiece _Eufrosina_. (He published his
plays anonymously, partly perhaps for the same reason that made him
insist that his characters represented no definite persons but types.)
The earliest edition that we have is that of Evora, 1561, that of
Coimbra, 1560, having disappeared, if it ever existed.[389] The words
on the title-page, _de nouo reuista & em partes acrecentada_, need
not imply more than that, as we know, the manuscript had circulated
among his friends: _por muitas mãos deuassa e falsa_. As a novelty,
_invençam noua nesta terra_, _Eufrosina_ with its proverbs and its
ingenious thoughts and phrases was appreciated in Portugal, whose
inhabitants were justifiably proud now to possess a _Celestina_ of
their own, a _Celestina_ with less action and rhetoric but more thought
and sentiment.[390] Quevedo was loud in its praises, Lope de Vega
perhaps quoted it,[391] its influence on the style of Mello and other
Portuguese writers is clear. It was a legitimate success and its modern
neglect is all the more deplorable because in this play the Portuguese
language, the richness, concision, and grace of which are exalted
in the preface, appears in its purest, raciest form. The author’s
vocabulary is immense, his sentences admirably vigorous and clear.
After heading the E’s in the _Index_ of 1581 (_Evphrosina_ simply,
without author) it was reprinted by the poet Rodriguez Lobo in 1616,
in a slightly modified form, shorn, that is, of some of the coarser
passages and of all reference to the Scriptures.[392] The style is not
the only merit of _Eufrosina_. Despite the lack of proportion in some
of the scenes, in which Jorge Ferreira proves himself to have been,
like Richardson, ‘a sorry pruner’ (four scenes out of the thirty-nine
constitute a quarter of the play), there is a certain unity in this
story of the love of the poor courtier Zelotipo de Abreu for Eufrosina,
proud and beautiful daughter of the rich _fidalgo_ D. Carlos, Senhor
das Povoas, in the little ancient university town above the green
waters and willows of Mondego. The numerous other persons are strictly
subordinate, and both scenes and characters are skilfully drawn. The
artificial construction, the convention by which emotion finds vent
in a string of classical allusions, scarcely mar the exceedingly
natural presentment of many of the scenes. Charming, for instance, is
that in which Eufrosina and her companion and friend Silvia de Sousa,
Zelotipo’s cousin, watch from the terrace of their house the river’s
gentle flow and along its bank the citizens and students taking the air
in the cool of the evening. The play contains as many characters as
a modern novel. There is Cariofilo, a gay good-hearted Don Juan; his
friend, the more serious Zelotipo, type of the Portuguese lover, the
_galante contemplativo_; D. Carlos, quick to anger but easily appeased;
the pedantic, unscrupulous Dr. Carrasco, whose conversation with D.
Carlos gives scope for a vigorous attack on the legal profession;
Silvia, who sacrifices her love and gives up to Eufrosina her cousin’s
verses that she had so carefully kept; the _moços_ Andrade and Cotrim,
greedy, timid, and talkative; the gentleman of Coimbra, Philotimo, a
wise and kindly man of the world. Other phases of Coimbra life are
shown in the _moças de rio_ and _de cantaro_, who fetch water or wash
clothes in the Mondego and metaphorically toss in a blanket Galindo,
the rich D. Tristão’s agent from Lisbon; in the love-lorn student with
his Latin, the morose and jealous workman Duarte, proud of his position
as _official_, the resolute goldsmith and his languid daughter Polinia,
the old servant Andresa and the merry servant girl Vitoria, and, most
prominent of all, Philtra the _alcoviteira_, deploring the wickedness
and degeneracy of the world and full of wise saws--the play contains
many hundreds. Eufrosina herself is first described by the lover--brow
of Diana, lips of Venus, limbs of Pallas, clear green eyes[393] of
Juno, quietly mirthful; then by his servant Andrade--the fairest thing
that ever he thought to see, fan in hand, the sleeves of her dress
like a ship at full sail[394]--so that we have an effective impression
of her beauty. Besides Coimbra life we obtain glimpses of that of the
Court at Lisbon and Almeirim in a letter from the courtier Crisandor,
of India in a very real and interesting letter from Silvia’s brother,
even of Cotrim’s native village. That the unity was not sacrificed to
these many by-scenes says much for the author’s skill. This praise
cannot be given to his second play written some ten years after the
first, _Ulysippo_ (1547?), for here the reader loses his way among the
many courses of true love. There are twenty-one _dramatis personae_,
but the principal interest is in the sketch of Constança d’Ornellas,
the hypocritical _beata_,[395] or, rather, that is the most original
part, since in the play as a whole there is a certain monotony after
_Eufrosina_, and many of the proverbs are the same.[396] Excellent
as the earlier play in its terse and idiomatic prose,[397] full of
interest in the insight it gives into the customs and life of the
people, its chief fault is the intricacy, or absence, of plot which
makes it difficult reading, and of course it would naturally please
less on its first appearance as being no longer a new thing. The
author, who knew how the Portuguese prized _novidades_, appears to have
been conscious of this, since his third play, _Aulegrafia_, written
perhaps in 1555,[398] and first published in 1619, was developed
on somewhat different lines. It is concerned, as its name implies,
exclusively with the Court, and the people and popular proverbs are
in abeyance. In its fifty scenes we are introduced to typical Court
ladies, noble _fidalgos_, poor gentlemen and their servants, one of
whom considers it _mais fidalgo nam saber ler_. The play is by its
author termed ‘a long treatise on Court manners’,[399] and as such it
is admirable and full of interest, however negligible it may be as
drama. Its style, moreover, even excels in atticism Ferreira’s other
works. The most remarkable character is that of the young (_menina
e moça_) and very wily aunt of Filomela. She is twice described in
detail (f. 46 and f. 153 v.), and we perceive that Philtra of the
people, the middle-class Constança d’Ornellas, and the aristocratic
Aulegrafia are really three persons and one spirit. In _Ulysippo_ one
of the lesser personages was the Spanish _Sevilhana_ (mentioned also in
_Eufrosina_), and here a boastful Spanish adventurer is introduced in
the person of Agrimonte de Guzman, who disdains to speak Portuguese.
The scene of both the later plays is Lisbon. The author drew from his
experience here, as previously at Coimbra, and often describes to
the life the persons that he had met. Scarcely any other writer gives
us so intimate an idea of the times--of this the latter heyday of
Portugal’s greatness--or of the gallant, lovesick, dreaming Portuguese,
who considers love as much a monopoly of his country as the ivory and
spices of India.[400]