Part 41 (1/2)
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.