Four Plays of Gil Vicente Part 3

[14] _Os livros das obras que escritas vi_ (Letter of G. V. to King Joo III).

[15] 'E a.s.si mandou de Castella e outras partes vir muitos ouriveis para fazerem arreos e outras cousas esmaltadas.' (Garcia de Resende, _Cronica del Rei D. Joo II_, cap. 117.)

[16] _Bibliography_, Nos. 70, 71.

[17] He argues that Vicente was not old enough to be King Manuel's tutor, but in other pa.s.sages he is clearly in favour of the date 1460 or 1452. He is born 'considerably before' 1470 (_Revista de Historia_, t.

21, p. 11), in 1460? (_ib._ p. 27), in 1452? (_ib._ pp. 28, 31, and t.

22, p. 155), 'about 1460' (t. 22, p. 150), he is from two to seven years younger than King Manuel, born in 1469 (t. 21, p. 35). He is nearly 80 in 1531 (_ib._ p. 30). His marriage is placed between 1484 and 1492, preferably in the years 1484-6 (_ib._ p. 35).

[18] Gil Terron in the same year is _alegre y bien asombrado_ (I. 12).

[19] Cf. _Nao de Amores_ (1527), _Viejo, vuestro mundo es ido_, and II.

478 (1529).

[20] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, t. 26, p. 123.

[21] _Grandes baxillas y pedraria_ (_Canc. Geral_, vol. III. (1913), p.

57).

[22] Cf. _Canc. Geral_, vol. I. (1910), p. 259:

Vejam huns autos Damado, Huu judeu que foi queimado No rressyo por seu mal.

[23] There is a slight confusion. The 'second night of the birth' of the rubric may mean the night following that of the birth (June 6-7), i.e.

the evening of June 7, or the second night _after_ the birth, i.e. the evening of June 8; but the former is the more probable.

[24] Damio de Goes, _Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom Emanuel_, Pt I.

cap. 69.

[25] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, vol. XXII.

(1917), p. 124 and _Critica e Historia_, vol. I. (1910), p. 325; Brito Rebello, _Gil Vicente_ (1902), p. 106-8.

[26] _Antologia de poetas liricos castellanos_, t. 7, p. clxiii.

[27] _Origenes de la Novela_, t. 3, p. cxlv.

[28] _Antol._ t. 7, p. clxvi.

[29] _Ib._ p. clxxvi.

[30] _Ib._ p. clxiv.

[31] Especially that of Garcia de Resende, who in one verse (185) of his _Miscellanea_ mentions the goldsmiths and in the next verse the plays of Gil Vicente.

[32] _Bibliography_, No. 45.

[33] Cf. his earlier studies, in favour of ident.i.ty, with his later works, maintaining cousinhood.

[34] Cf. _Obras_, I. 154 (Jupiter is the G.o.d of precious stones), I. 93, 286; II. 38, 46, 47, 210, 216, 367, 384, 405; III. 67, 70, 86, 296, etc.

Cf. pa.s.sages in the _Auto da Alma_ and especially the _Farsa dos Almocreves_. Vicente evidently sympathizes with the goldsmith to whom the _fidalgo_ is in debt, and if the poet took the part of _Diabo_ in the _Auto da Feira_ (1528) the following pa.s.sage gains in point if we see in it an allusion to the debts of courtiers to him as goldsmith:

Eu no tenho nem ceitil E bem honrados te digo E homens de muita renda Que tem divedo comigo (I. 158).

[35] The MS. note by a sixteenth century official written above the doc.u.ment appointing Gil Vicente to the post of _Mestre da Balanca_ should be conclusive as to the ident.i.ty of poet and goldsmith: _Gil V^te trouador mestre da balanca_ (_Registos da Cancellaria de D. Manuel_, vol. XLII. f. 20 v. in the _Torre do Tombo_, Lisbon).

[36] Garcia de Resende ( 1536) was of opinion that it had no rival in Europe:

nam ha outra igual na Christamdade no meu ver.

(_Miscellanea_, v. 281, ed. Mendes dos Remedios (1917), p. 97.)

It contained 5000 _moradores_ (_ibid._). In the days of King Duarte (1433-8) the number was 3000.

[37] Cf. the dedication of _Dom Duardos_ (_folha volante_ of the Bib.

Munic.i.p.al of Oporto, N. 8. 74) to Prince Joo: 'Como quiera Excelente Principe y Rey mui poderoso que las Comedias, Farcas y Moralidades que he compuesto en servicio de la Reyna vuestra tia....'

[38] The date 1509 is not barred by the reference to the _Sergas de Esplandian_, which certainly existed in an earlier edition than the earliest we now possess (1510). A certain Vasco Abul had given a girl at Alenquer a chain of gold for dancing a _ballo vylam ou mourysco_ and could not get it back from the _gentil bayladeyra_. Gil Vicente contributes but a few lines: _O parecer de gil vycente neste proceso de vasco abul a rraynha dona lianor_.

[39] It is absurd to argue that during the years of his chief activity as goldsmith he had not time to produce the sixteen plays that may be a.s.signed to the years 1502-17.

[40] _Gil Vicente_ (1912), p. 11-13.

[41] The dates in the rubrics are given in Roman figures and the alteration from MDV to MDIX is very slight.

[42] Cf. Bartolome Villalba y Estana, _El Pelegrino Curioso y Grandezas de Espana_ [printed from MS. of last third of sixteenth century].

_Bibliofilos Espanoles_, t. 23, 2 t. 1886, 9, t. 2, p. 37: 'Almerin, un lugar que los reyes de Portugal tienen para el ynvierno, con un bosque de muchas cabras, corzos y otros generos de caza.'

[43] See A. Braamcamp Freire in _Revista de Historia_, vol. XXII. p.

129.

[44] A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXII. p. 133-4.

[45] Luis Anriquez in _Canc. Geral_, vol. III. (1913), p. 106.

[46] See _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXII. p. 122; vol. XXIV. p. 290.

[47] E.g. the words _ahotas_ and _chapado_ and the expression _en velloritas_ (I. 41), cf. Enzina, _Egloga_ I.: _ni estare ya tendido en belloritas_ = in clover, lit. in cowslips: _belloritas de jacinto_ (_Egl._ III.).

[48] A. Braamcamp Freire in _Rev. de Hist._ vol. XXIV. p. 290.

[49] There are, however, several such psalms in the works of Enzina.

[50] Cf. I. 85: _huele de dos mil maneras_ with Enzina, _Egloga_ II: _y ervas de dos mil maneras_. In the _Auto da Alma_, probably written about this time, there are imitations of Gomez Manrique (_c._ 1415-90). Cf.

the pa.s.sage in the _Exhortaco_.

[51] That the illness of the Queen would not prevent the entertainment is proved by the fact that in the month before her death King Manuel was present at a fight between a rhinoceros and an elephant in a court in front of Lisbon's India House. We do not know if Vicente was present nor what he thought of this new thing.

[52] In December 1517 El Bachiller de la Pradilla published some verses in praise of _la muy esclarecida Senora Infanta Madama Leonor, Rey[na]