Four Plays of Gil Vicente Part 44

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_: _no o dessengules mais_. Duarte Nunes de Leo, _Origem da Lingva Portvgvesa_ (1606), cap. 18, includes _dissingular_ (= dissimular) among the _vocabulos que vso os plebeios ou idiotas que os homens polidos no deuem vsar_.

467 For the form Diz cf. _Auto das Fadas_: Estevo Dis, and _O Juiz da Beira_: Anna Dias, Diez, Diz (= Diaz).

473 Pero Vaz evidently did not know the _cantiga:_

A molher do almocreve Pa.s.sa vida regalada Sem se importar se o marido Fica morto na estrada.

Cf. the Galician quatrain (Perez Ballesteros, _Canc. Pop. Gall._ II, 219):

A vida d'o carreteiro e unha vida penada, Non vai o domingo a 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 acha.s.se 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. Sa de Miranda, 1885 ed., No. 108, l. 261: _Inda hoje vemos que em Franca Vivem nisto mais a antiga_, etc. Couto (_Dec._ V, vi, 4) speaking of the mingling of cla.s.ses, 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 mo_ (= not 'there is death in that hand' as was said of Keats, but 'he is at death's door').

591 The original reading _da serty_ (rhyming with _my_ in l. 588) is confirmed by the _Auto da Lusitania_: _rendeiro na Serte_. The town of Cert in the district of Castello Branco now has some 5000 inh.

603 Cf. Jorge Ferreira, _Aulegrafia_, I, 4: _o senhor, gro 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 nina_. 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 digo_, etc.; _Cortes de Jupiter_: _Cantara c'os atabaques: Se dissero digo, 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 Cames, _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 no so tidos numa palha_), but here the meaning is different.

TRAGICOMEDIA PASTORIL DA SERRA DA ESTRELLA

PAGE 55

It is remarkable that just at the time when Sa de Miranda had returned to Portugal with the new metres from Italy and was frankly contemptuous of Gil Vicente's rough mirth and rustic verse, Gil Vicente felt his position strong enough to present this lengthy play before the King and Court at Coimbra on occasion of the birth of the King's daughter Maria.

There is no action in the play, and King Manuel would perhaps have yawned at these shepherds' quarrels, relieved not at all by the _parvo's_ wit or the hermit's grossness and only occasionally by a touch of lyric poetry; but perhaps these simple scenes were welcome to the growing artificiality of the Court. For us the beautiful _cossante Um amigo que eu havia_ stands out like a single orange gleaming from a dark-foliaged tree. The interest lies in the customs of the shepherds and their s.n.a.t.c.hes of song and in the intimate knowledge of the Serra da Estrella shown by the author.

10 The Serra da Estrella, the highest mountain-range in Portugal (6500 ft), is in the province of Beira.

17 _meyrinhas_ = _maiorinho_ (merino).

30 _esperauel_ (as here and in _Comedia de Rubena_), or _esparavel_. Cf.

Damio de Goes, _Chron. de D. Manuel_ (1617), f. 25 v.: a _modo de sobreceo d'esparavel_.

32 Cf. the _vilo's_ complaints of G.o.d in the _Romagem de Aggravados_.

35 _nega_ = _seno_.

51 As in Browning's _A Grammarian's Funeral_ they are advancing as they converse: 'thither our path lies.'

103 _Nega se meu embeleco_ = _se no me engano_. This line occurs in the _Templo de Apolo_. The _Auto da Festa_ text has _nego se meu embaleco_.

113 _mancebelhes_. Cf. Correa, _Lendas_, IV, 426: _Folgara de ser mais mancebelho_.

127 The corresponding _a_-lines might be:

Dous acores que eu amava Aqui andam nesta casa.

172 _argem_ for _prata_. Similarly in Spanish there is the old form _argen_ for _argento_ (= _plata_). Cf. the proverb _Quien tiene argen tiene todo bien_.

190 _somana_ for _semana_. So _romendo_ for _remendo_ and v. infra: _perem_ for _porem_.

225 _gingrar_. Nuno Pereira in the _Cancioneiro Geral_ (1910 ed., vol.

I, p. 305) has _o gingrar de meu caseiro_. Cf. Enzina, _Auto del Repelon_: _Hora dejalos gingrar_ (_Teatro_, 1893, p. 241).

241 _sois_. Cf. _Barca do Purgatorio_: _sem sois motrete de po_; _Farsa dos Fisicos_: _no vos quer sois olhar_.

290-1 = _odi et amo_.

322 As a rule Vicente's shepherds are natural enough but we may be permitted to doubt whether any shepherdess of the Serra da Estrella would have spoken of 'ending like Queen Dido.' She had probably been reading Lucas Fernandez, _Farsas_ (1867), p. 56.

328 A, B, C, D and E unaccountably print _quere-lo_ (through the bad attraction of _malo_) although _querer_ is needed to rhyme with _quer_.

367 _pintisirgo_ = _pintasilgo_.

410 _grauisca_. Vicente appears to have coined the word from _grave_ and _arisca_.

427 Fronteira, a village of nearly 3000 inh. in the district of Portalegre. Monsarraz is of about the same size, in the district of Evora.

435 _tinhosa cada mea hora_. Cf. Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos, _Aulegrafia_, f. 89: _he hua tinhosa que ontem guardava patas em Barquerena_.