Four Plays of Gil Vicente Part 41

725 The truth I'm confessing.

_And with this dance they went out and the play ended._

-- LAUS DEO.

NOTES

AUTO DA ALMA

PAGE 1

The _Auto da Alma_, produced probably in 1518, which in some sense forms a Portuguese pendant to the _Recuerde el alma_ of Jorge Manrique (1440?-79), is a Pa.s.sion play, corresponding to the modern _Stabat_ on the eve of Good Friday, and was suggested, perhaps, by Juan del Enzina's _Representacion a la muy bendita pasion y muerte de nuestro precioso Redentor._ It was not, however, acted in a convent or church, but in the new riverside palace which saw so many splendid _seres_ during King Manuel's reign (1495-1521). King Manuel was now in the full tide of prosperity. His sister, Queen Lianor or Eleanor (1458-1525), Gil Vicente's patroness, who so keenly encouraged Portuguese art and literature, was the widow (and first cousin) of his predecessor, King Joo II. The theme of the play, the contention of Angel and Devil for the possession of a human soul, was far from new. Its treatment, however, was original and the versification is clear-cut and well sustained throughout, while a deep sincerity and glowing fervour raise the whole play to the loftiest heights. The metre is mostly in verses of seven short (8848484) lines (_abcaabc_) with an occasional slight variation. There is a French version of the play, presumably in verse (see _Durendal_, No. 10: Oct. 1913: _Le Mystere de l'ame_; tr. J.

Vandervelden and Luis de Almeida Braga), but the difficult task of translating it would require, to be successful, the delicate precision of a Theophile Gautier. In his hands it might have become in French a thing of beauty and a joy for ever, as it is in the original Portuguese.

As to the text, without emulating the pedantry of the critic who added a fourth season to Sh.e.l.ley's three, and thereby provoked a splendid outburst of wrath from Swinburne, we may a.s.sume that in pa.s.sages where Vicente appears to have gone out of his way to avoid a required rhyme, this is merely a case of corruption repeated in successive editions.

Thus in the _Auto Pastoril Portugues_, where _Catalina minha dama_ rhymes with _toucada_ we may perhaps subst.i.tute _fada_ for _dama_. (Cf.

_Serra da Estrella_, l. 530: _amigo_ for _marido_.) So here verse 114 must read _tristeza_, not _tristura_, to rhyme with _crueza_. In 3 one of the _mantimentos_ should perhaps be _alimentos_: see Lucas Fernandez, _Farsas_ (1867), p. 247 (cf. the two _vaydades_ in 14); in 26 _fortunas_ should probably read _farturas_ (cf. _essas farturas_ in the _Dialogo sobre a Ressurreicam_); in 35 the words _mui fermosos_, or a single longer word, have evidently dropped out; in 54 _tendes_ was perhaps an alteration by some critic who did not realize that the Angel might naturally a.s.sociate itself with the Church (or with the Soul) and say _temos_; the last line of 100 was perhaps the word _pecadora_ or _e senhora_ (cf. Fr. Luis de Leon, _Los Nombres de Cristo_, Bk I: _mi unica abogada y senora_); in 108 also a line is missing and a rhyme required for _figura_ (_lavrado_ must go with _Deos_, _triste_ with _vereis_, omitting _seu_). On the other hand it is hardly necessary to alter 42 or 45 (although here _esmaltado_ is in the air) or 46 so as to make them exactly fit the metre.

1 _perigos dos immigos_, cf. _Os Trabalhos de Jesus_, 1665 ed. p. 94: _o caminho do Ceo he cercado de inimigos e perigos para o perder. Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis Degitur hoc aevi quodcunque est!_

7 Cf. Newman, _The Dream of Gerontius_, l. 292 _et seq._:

O man, strange composite of heaven and earth, Majesty dwarfed to baseness, fragrant flower, etc.

7-10 These exquisite verses have something of the scent and perfection of wild flowers, and that mystic rapture which is not to be found in Goethe's more worldly _Faust_. We may, if we like, call the _Auto da Alma_ (as also the witch-scene in the _Auto das Fadas)_ a 16th century _Faust_, but really no parallel can be drawn between the two plays. The ethereal beauty of Vicente's lyrical _auto_, carved in delicate ivory, is far less varied and human: it has scarcely a touch of the cynicism and not a touch of the coa.r.s.eness of Goethe's splendid work cast in bronze. It can be compared at most with such lyrical pa.s.sages as _Christ ist erstanden_ or _Ach neige, Du Schmerzenreiche, Dein Antlitz gnadig meiner Not_, and as a whole is a mere lily of the valley by the side of a purple hyacinth.

9 _Planta sois e caminheira_. Cf. the white-flowered 'wayfaring tree.'

16-17 This pa.s.sage resembles those in the Spanish plays _Prevaricacion de Adan_ and _La Residencia del Hombre_ quoted in the _Revista de Filologia Espanola_, t. IV (1917), No. 1, p. 15-17.

17 Cf. _The Dream of Gerontius_, l. 280 _et seq._: 'Then was I sent from Heaven to set right, etc.'

18 _pora grosa_, attack, criticize, gloss. (= _glosar_. Cf. the modern 'to grouse.')

35 Cf. Antonio Prestes, _Auto dos Cantarinhos_ (_Obras_, 1871 ed. p.

457): _todo Valenca em chapins_. The _chapim_ was rather a high-heeled shoe than a slipper. The reference is to the Spanish city Valencia del Cid. Cf. Fr. Juan de la Cerda ap. R. Altamira, _Historia de Espana_, III, 728: 'En una mujer ataviada se ve un mundo: mirando los chapines se vera a Valencia'; Alonso Jeronimo de Salas Barbadillo in _El Cortesano Descortes_ (1621) speaks of 'un presente de chapines valencianos'; and in _La Picara Justina_ (1912 ed. vol. I, p. 70) we have 'un chapin valenciano.'

38 _marcante_. In the _Auto da Feira_ the Devil is similarly a _bufarinheiro_ (pedlar) and _mercante_.

43 _a for da corte_. _For_ = _foro_ (v. Goncalvez Viana, _A postilas_, vol. I, p. 353).

58 Cf. Plato, _Respublica_, 365: ~?ad???t??? ?a'? ??t??? ?ap'? t???

ad????t??, ?.t.?. Vicente in his plays often inculcates the need of something more than a formal religion.

_xiquer_. Cf. _Auto da Barca do Inferno_: _Isto hi xiquer ira_.

59-60 These two verses are in the true spirit of Goethe's Mephistopheles.

62 _esta peconha_. Would Vicente have written thus (cf. 66 and _Obras_, III, 344, sermon addressed to Queen Lianor; and also Garcia de Resende, _Miscellanea_, 1917 ed. p. 50) of the soul had there been the slightest gossip or suspicion that his patroness, Queen Lianor, had poisoned her husband? (See the most interesting studies in _Critica e Historia_, por Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, vol. I. Lisbon, 1910.)

71 Cf. _The Dream of Gerontius_, l. 210-1:

Nor do I know my att.i.tude, Nor if I stand or lie or sit or kneel.

73 _day pa.s.sada_ = _perdoai_, _dai licenca_. Cf. Jorge Ferreira de Vasconcellos, _Eufrosina_, II, 5. 1616 ed. f. 79 v.

77 In Basque _pastorales_ one of the main attributes of the devils and the wicked is that they are never quiet on the stage. In the _Auto da Cananea_ (1534), a play in many ways resembling the _Auto da Alma_, the line _Como andas desosegado_ recurs, addressed by Belzebu to Satanas. It is the 'incessant pacing to and fro' of _The Dream of Gerontius_ (l.

446). In its beauty and intensity as a whole and in many details Cardinal Newman's _The Dream of Gerontius_ is strikingly similar to the _Auto da Alma_. But in it the strife is o'er, the battle won, and the sanctified soul, rising refreshed from sleep with a feeling of 'an inexpressive lightness and sense of freedom,' pa.s.ses serenely, accompanied by its guardian angel, above the 'sullen howl' of the demons in the middle region. Cf. _Calte por amor de Deus, leixai-me, no me persigais_ with 'But hark! upon my sense Comes a fierce hubbub which would make me fear _Could I be frighted_' (l. 395-7).

80 Cf. Amador Arraez, _Dialogos_, No. 1, 1604 ed. f. lv.: _S. Jeronimo diz que e grande o reino, potencia e alcada das lagrimas...atormentam mais aos Demonios que a pena infernal_.

84 The author of the _Vexilla regis_ hymn was Venantius Fortunatus (530-600).

95 Cf. Antonio Feo, _Trattados Quadragesimais_ (1609), II f. 23: _a.s.sy na Cruz como no monte Oliueto chorou porque vio vir a quem ouuera de chorar_.

97 Cf. Gomez Manrique, _Fechas para la Semana Santa_ (ap. M. Pelayo, _Antologia_, t. III, p. 92).

108 Cf. Juan del Enzina, _Teatro_ (1893), p. 39: _Veis aqui donde vereis Su figura figurada Del original sacada_.

116 _dais o seu a cujo he_, cf. _Triunfo do Inverno_: _Porque se devem de dar As cousas a cujas so_; _C. Res._ I (1910), p. 64: _dar o seu a cujo hee_.

121 Cf. Gomez Manrique, _Fechas_ (_Antolog._ t. III, p. 93):

Y vamos, vamos al huerto Do veredes sepultado Vuestro fijo muy prouado De muy cruda muerte muerto.

EXHORTAcAO DA GUERRA

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The expedition to capture from the Moors the important town of Azamor in N. W. Africa consisted of over 400 s.h.i.+ps (Luis Anriquez in his poem in the _Cancioneiro Geral_ says 450) and a force of 18,000 soldiers, of which 3000 were provided by James, Duke of Braganza, who commanded the expedition. It set sail from Lisbon on the 17th of August, 1513. (Damio de Goes and Osorio say the 17th, Luis Anriquez the 15th, which was evidently the day (the Feast of the a.s.sumption) fixed for departure.) It was entirely successful and the news of the fall of Azamor caused great rejoicings both at Lisbon and Rome. The play was evidently touched up afterwards, for it includes the sending of the elephant to Rome (1514) and the marriages of the princesses. It is barely possible that it was written after the victory, in which case the words _na partida_ would be retrospective and the date given in the 1st edition was not a slip.

Parts of the play suit 1514 better than 1513. Tristo da Cunha's special mission (cf. lines 195-6) to the Pope (with Garcia de Resende for secretary) left early in 1514 and entered Rome on March 12. One of the objects of the mission was to obtain a grant of the t.i.thes (ll. 194, 224) for the Crown to use for the war in Africa. (The request was granted but King Manuel subsequently renounced them in return for 150,000 gold coins.) The exhortations of l. 351 _et seq._, l. 514 _et seq._, l. 559 _et seq._ are better suited to a time when more men and money were needed actively to continue the war than when an army of 18,000 was equipped and ready to leave. The Pope in 1514 promised indulgences to all those who should contribute money for the African war and also granted King Manuel a portion of church property in Portugal (cf. ll. 475-84 and 535-48) for the same object (l. 546: _pera Africa conquistar_). The King's aim is now to build a cathedral in Fez (l.

573-4). There is no mention of Azamor. This was the first of the great patriotic outbursts (cf. the _Auto da Fama_ and other plays) in which Vicente appears not as a satirist or religious reformer but as an enthusiastic imperialist, and which still delight and stir his countrymen.

18 Prince Luis (1506-55), one of the most gallant, talented and interesting of Portuguese _infantes_, was no doubt present at the _sero_ and would be delighted by this reference. (The youngest princes, Afonso, born in 1509, and Henrique, born in 1512, are not mentioned.

They both became Cardinals and the latter King of Portugal, 1578-80.) The princes are similarly addressed in the _Cortes de Jupiter_ in 1521.

46 Mercury opens the _Auto da Feira_ with a similar string of absurdities (suggested by Enzina's _perogrulladas_), e.g. _Que se o ceo fora quadrado No fora redondo, Senhor; E se o sol fora azulado D'azul fora seu cor_. (If square the sky were found then it would not be round, and if the sun were blue then blue would be its hue.) _Os disparates de 'Joan de Lenzina'_ (Ferreira, _Ulys._ IV, 7) were well-known in Portugal.

94, 113, 129 No meaning is to be squeezed out of these cabbalistic words.

116 We have an even more detailed description in the _Sumario da Historia de Deos_:

A furna das trevas, ponte de navalhas, o lago dos prantos, a horta dos dragos, os tanques da ira, os lagos da neve, os raios ardentes, sala dos tormentos, varanda das dores, cozinha dos gritos, Acougue das pragas, a torre dos pingos, o valle das forcas.

125 Vicente was more tolerant than most contemporary writers who inveighed against the blindness and malice of the Jews.