Four Plays of Gil Vicente Part 4

de Portugal_ (v. Menendez y Pelayo, _Antologia_, t. 6, p. cccx.x.xviii).

[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 pa.s.sages 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, _a 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 n.o.bre Rei D. Joo 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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. Renascenca_ (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. Menendez y Pelayo, _Antologia_, t. 7, p. cci; _Orig. 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: no fazem bem [na corte] seno a quem menos faz_ (III. 320); _Auto da Festa: os homens verdadeiros no so tidos nua 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 Invencam_ (Lisboa, 1917), pp. 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 88, 89.

[74] _Este nome pos-lho o vulgo_ (III. 4). Cf. the t.i.tle _Os Almocreves_.

[75] _Rol dos livros defesos_ (1551) ap. C. Michaelis de Vasconcellos, _Notas Vicentinas_, I. p. 31. We might a.s.sume that the second part of _O Clerigo da Beira_ (III. 250-9) was printed separately under the t.i.tle _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 ident.i.ty 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 princ.i.p.al 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 t.i.tle, Spanish being added, to suit the foreign audience.

[79] _E como sempre isto guarda.s.se Este mui leal autor Ate que Deos envia.s.se O Principe nosso senhor Nam quis que outrem o goza.s.se_ (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 repet.i.tions are not entirely groundless. Cf. _com saudade suspirando_ (_Cortes de Jupiter_, 1521) and _sam suspiros de saudade_ (_Pranto de Maria Parda_, 1522); _Que dira a vezinhanca?_ III. 21 (1508-9), _A vezinhanca que dira?_ III.

34 (1509); _o demo que t'eu encomendo_, III. 99 (1511), _o diabo que t'eu encomendo_, II. 362 (1513). The _Exhortaco_ (1513), which has pa.s.sages 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 _Exhortaco_.

[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 Informacam_ (1540), modern reprint, p. 191.

[86] _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXV. p. 89.

[87] According to Snr Braamcamp Freire this play must be a.s.signed to the months between September 1529 and February 1530.

[88] O mandei a V. A. por escrito ate 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 contare mis quejas_ (II. 147) is repeated from the _Trovas_ addressed to King Joo in 1527. It is taken from a poem by the Marques de Astorga printed in the _Cancionero General_ (1511):

A quien contare mis quexas Si a ti no?

Cf. _Comedia de Rubena_ (II. 6): _A quien contare mi pena?_ The comical role of the Justica 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] Andre de Resende, _Genethliacon Principis Lusitani_ (1532), ap. C.

Michaelis de Vasconcellos, _Notas Vicentinas_, I. (1912), p. 17.