Part 3 (2/2)

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]

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