Part 18

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.