Part 42 (1/2)
132 The necromancer evokes spirits which he is unable to control. He calls them brothers but they answer in effect: 'Du gleich'st dem Geist den du begreif'st, nicht mir.'
151 The _almude_ = 12 gallons.
156 Cabrela e Landeira is a village near Montemor-o-Novo. Cf. _Sum. da Hist. de Deos_:
_Satanas_: Sabes Rio-frio e toda aquela terra, aldea Gallega, a Landeira e Ranginha e de Lavra a Coruche? Tudo e terra minha.
157 Cartaxo, a small town in the district of Santarem.
158 The village of Lumiar is now connected with Lisbon by a tramway.
159 Mealhada, a parish in the district of Aveiro.
162 Cf. _uva terrantes_ (indigenous).
164 Ribatejo = the country along the river Tejo (Tagus). Cf. _Auto da Feira_: _Vai-te ao sino do Cranguejo, Signum Cancer, Ribatejo._
168 Arruda dos Vinhos and Caparica are villages in a vine-growing district on the left bank of the Tagus opposite Lisbon, near Almada.
173 _estrema_ = _marco_ (Sp. _mojon_). Cf. _Auto da Festa_, ed. Conde de Sabugosa (1906), p. 110: _Este he da pedra do estremo_.
174 _diadema_ is usually masculine, but Antonio Vieira has it both ways.
176 Seixal (2500-3000 inh.) in the district of Almada.
177 Almada, formerly Almada (Arab = the mine, but as Englishmen settled there in the 12th century it was later given the fanciful derivation All made or All made it), a town of 10,000 inh., opposite Lisbon on the left bank of the Tagus.
179 Tojal (= whin-moor, gorse-common), a small village near Olivaes (= olive groves), in the Lisbon district.
195 The impression produced by the arrival in Rome of King Manuel's elephant, panther and other magnificent gifts was vividly described by several writers. Cf. Damio de Goes, _Chron. de D. Manuel_, Pt 3, cap.
55, 56, 57 (1619 ed. f. 223 v.-227). According to Ulrich von Hutten the elephant 'fuit mirabile animal, habens longum rostrum in magna quant.i.tate; et quando vidit Papam tunc geniculavit ei et dixit c.u.m terribili voce _bar, bar, bar_' (apud Theophilo Braga, _Gil Vicente e as Origens do Theatro Nacional_ (1898), p. 191). Cf. also Manuel Bernardez, _Nova Floresta_, V, 93-4. The head of this celebrated elephant forms the background to a portrait of Tristo da Cunha (head of the emba.s.sy to the Pope) reproduced in Senhor Joaquim de Vasconcellos' edition of Francisco de Hollanda's _Da Pintura Antigva_ (Porto, 1918).
229 In 1517 among other exotic presents a rhinoceros was sent to the Pope. It was however s.h.i.+pwrecked and drowned on the way. It had the honour of being drawn by Albrecht Durer.
238 Vicente seems to have coined this intensive of _bellisima_.
243-4 Cesar = King Manuel. Hecuba=his second wife, Queen Maria, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain.
249 Prince Joo, born in 1502, afterwards King Joo III (1521-57).
259 The Infanta Isabel (1503-39) married her first cousin the Emperor Charles V, and in her honour on that occasion Vicente composed his _Templo de Apolo_ (1526). Her marriage may have already been planned in 1513, but more probably Vicente altered the pa.s.sage when he was preparing the 1st edition of his works during the last months of his life. Gil Vicente more than once refers to her great beauty. Her portrait by t.i.tian in the Madrid Prado fully bears out his praises and the expression on her face places this among the most fascinating portraits of women. The Empress is sitting by a window looking on to a beautiful country of woods and blue mountains, in her hand is a book; but one feels that she is thinking of neither book nor scenery but that her thoughts go back in _saudade_ to the soft air and merry days of Lisbon. It might indeed be a picture of _Saudade_. There is a slight flush on her pale oval face. Her almond-shaped eyes are grey-green, her nose delicately aquiline. In the eyes and in the general expression there is a look of undeniable sadness. Her dress of plum, cherry-pink, gold and brown gives a gorgeously mellow effect and the curtain at the back is plum-brown. If the colouring seems at first too rich this is due to the criminal gold frame which clashes with the dress and the chestnut-golden hair. In a dark frame the picture would be twice as beautiful. The Empress' dress gleams with pearls and she has a jewel with pearls--set perhaps by Gil Vicente--in her hair, large pearl earrings and a necklace of large pearls. She died at Toledo at the age of 36 and lies in the grim Pantheon of the Kings in the Escorial crypt.
266 Of Prince Fernando, born in 1507, Damio de Goes, who knew him personally, says: 'a.s.si na mocidade como depois de ser homem foi de bom parecer e bem disposto, muito inclinado a letras e dado ao estudo das historias verdadeiras e imigo das fabulosas... Era colerico e apressado em seus negocios e muito animoso, com mostra e desejo de se achar em algun grande feito de guerra, mas nem o tempo nem o estudo do Regno deram pera isso lugar' (_Chron. de D. Manuel_, II, xix). Cf. Osorio, _De Rebvs Emmanvelis_ (1571), p. 189: 'Fuit in antiquitate pervestiganda valde curiosus: maximarum rerum studio flagrabat multisque virtutibus illo loco dignis praeditus erat.'
275 Princess Beatrice as a matter of fact married Charles, Duke of Savoy, and on the occasion of her departure from Lisbon by sea with a magnificent suite Vicente wrote the _Cortes de Jupiter_ (1521) with the _romance_:
Nina era la Ifanta, Dona Beatriz se dezia, Nieta del buen Rei Hernando, el mejor rei de Castilla, Hija del Rei Don Manuel y Reina Dona Maria, etc.
284 Cf. the _Auto das Fadas_ (with which this play has many points of resemblance): _Feiticeira_ (ao principle e infantes): _o que joias esmaltadas, o que boninas dos ceos, o que rosas perfumadas!_