Gil Vicente
Gil Vicente, called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often referred to as the "Father of Portuguese drama" and as one of Western literature's greatest playwrights. Also noted as a lyric poet, Vicente worked in Spanish as much as he worked in Portuguese and is thus, with Juan del Encina, considered joint-father of Spanish drama.
The year 1465, the date proposed by Queirós Veloso, is the commonly accepted year of Vicente's birth. However, Braamcamp Freire proposes the year 1460, while de Brito Rebelo proposes between 1470 and 1475. Vicente's own works indicate contradictory dates. The Velho da Horta ("Old Man of the [Vegetable] Garden"), the Floresta de Enganos ("Forest of Mistakes"), and the Auto da Festa ("Act of the Party") indicate 1452, 1470, and before 1467, respectively. Since 1965, when official festivities commemorating the 500th birthday of the writer were held, the date of 1465 has been almost universally accepted. Though Frei Pedro de Poiares conjectured Barcelos was Vicente's birthplace, evidence for this is scarce. Despite this, the people of Barcelos honored the playwright by naming their own football club after him. Pires de Lima, on the other hand, proposed Guimarães, which better accounts for Vicente's identification as a jeweller. The people of Guimarães have embraced this theory; a municipal school in Urgezes is named after the playwright. There are some stories about Gil Vicente's father, that he was from this parish in Guimarães, so people believe that Gil Vicente had lived here too. Another conjecture places his birthplace at Lisbon. The Beira region is also a candidate because of various references to it in his plays, more exactly the location of Guimarães de Tavares, that has been mistaken with Guimarães.
It is assumed that Vicente studied in Salamanca. Though he initially studied law, he soon abandoned it for literature.
As a writer
In 1493, he was acting as master of rhetoric to the Duke of Beja, afterwards King Manuel, a post which gave him admission to the court. His first known work, O Monólogo do vaqueiro ("Monologue of the Cowherd"), was written in Spanish and acted in the rooms of Maria of Aragon, wife of King Manuel, to celebrate the birth of Prince John (later John III of Portugal). The first performance, recited by the playwright himself, took place on the night of 8 June 1502, in the presence of the king; the queen; Leonor of Viseu, former Queen of Portugal and widow of John II; and Beatriz of Portugal, mother of the King. O Monólogo do vaqueiro contains several elements clearly inspired by the Adoration of the Shepherds which takes place in accounts of Christ's birth. Its staging included offerings of simple and rustic gifts, such as cheese, to the future king, from whom great achievements were expected.
As a goldsmith
Many works about Gil Vicente associate him with a goldsmith of the same name at the court of Évora; technical terms used by the playwright lend credibility to this identification. In 1881, Camilo Castelo Branco wrote the letter "Gil Vicente, Embargos à fantasia do Sr. Teófilo Braga" ("Gil Vicente, Refutations of the Opinion of Mr. Teófilo Braga"), which argued that Gil Vicente the writer and Gil Vicente the goldsmith were two different people. Teófilo Braga, who initially believed them to be the same man, later adopted a different opinion after reading a study by Sanches de Baena which showed the different genealogy of two individuals named Gil Vicente. However, Brito Rebelo demonstrated the historical inconsistency of these two genealogies by the use of documents from the Portuguese national archive.
Vicente's oeuvre spans the years between 1500 and 1536. Most of his plays were intended for performance at court, where he and the ladies and gentlemen of the court participated in their production. He wrote no fewer than forty-four pieces, ten of which are in Spanish, fourteen in Portuguese, and the remainder in mingled Portuguese and Spanish. His plays may be grouped into four main categories: acts, or devotional plays; comedies tragicomedies; and farces. Like Spain's classical dramas, his plays are often in verse form. In addition, they feature his own musical compositions and well as popular lyrics and melodies of the time. He was also a noted lyric poet in both Portuguese and Spanish, as represented by several poems in the Cancioneiro of Garcia de Resende. He wrote a number of vilancetes and cantigas ("songs") which were influenced by a palatial style and the themes of the troubadours.
Characteristics
Vicente's works were partially influenced by the Iberian popular and religious theatre that was already being done. Pastoral themes present in the writings of Juan del Encina strongly influenced Vicente's early works and continued to inform his later, more sophisticated plays. The humanism of Erasmus and of Renaissance Italy also impacted his work. Luís Vicente, his son, classified Vicente's sacred plays as acts and mysteries and his secular plays as farces, comedies, and tragicomedies. His plays may be further divided into pastoral acts, religious allegories, biblical narratives, episodical farces, and narrative acts. However, many of his works blend both secular and sacred elements; for example, Triologia das Barcas ("Trilogy of the Ships") contains both farcical and religious motifs.
Philosophical elements
The worlds presented in Vicente's works could be considered as representative of the duality of Platonic idealism. The first world is the abstract, an ideal place of serenity and divine love that leads to inner peace, quietness, and "resplendent glory", according to his letter to John III of Portugal. The second world, which he portrays in his farces, is the physical: a false world, tired, without order or remedy, and lacking in strength. His satirical works depict the second world, in which human flaws are caricatured with little regard for actual or historical truth. Though critics call attention to these anachronisms and narrative inconsistencies, it's possible that Vicente considered these errors trivial in his portrayals of an already false and imperfect world. In contrast, his representations of the mythic, symbolic, and religious aspects of Christmas, such as the figure of the Virgin Mother, the infant Jesus, and Christmas Eve, demonstrate a harmony and purity which is not present in his social commentary.
Religious plays
Many of Vicente's plays were composed in order to celebrate religious festivals; these seventeen plays are called his "Obras de devoção" ("Devotional works"). In these plays, also called "autos", or "acts", Vicente blended themes from Medieval morality plays with theatrical mumming and the liturgical dramas that were used in Corpus Christi festivals. One of his first devotional plays was Auto da Fé ("Act of Faith") in 1510. Like a morality play, it explores the journey of the Soul as it travels to the arms of the Mother Church. On its way, it is waylaid by the Devil and led to goodness by an Angel. His magnum opus is considered to be the Triologia das Barcas ("Trilogy of the Ships"), which consists of the three plays Auto da Barca do Inferno ("Act of the Ship of Hell"), written 1516; Auto da Barca do Purgatório ("Act of the Ship of Purgatory"), written in 1518; and Auto da Barca da Glória ("Auto of the Ship of Heaven"), written in 1519. These plays combine morality narratives with criticism of 16th-century Portuguese society by placing stereotypical characters on a dock to await the arrival of one of the ships which will take them to their eternal destination. The characters are of a variety of social statuses; for example, in Auto da Barca do Inferno, those awaiting passage include a nobleman, a madam, a corrupt judge and prosecutor, a dissolute friar, a dishonest shoemaker, a hanged man, and a Jew (who would have been considered bound for Hell in Vicente's time).
Comedies and farces
Vicente's comedies and farces were likely influenced by indigenous popular entertainment. Contemporaneous Spaniards, like Lucas Fernandez and Torres Naharro, may also have influenced his style. Vicente's comedies blended slapstick and satire; in addition, his use of dialect clearly delineated the social classes of his characters. The staging of these plays maintained the simplicity of morality plays. For example, two simultaneous scenes might utilize a single curtain to divide them. Auto da Índia ("Act of India"), written in 1509, was one of his first comedies. This play, which shows his proficiency with the form, is comparable to a modern bedroom farce. Vicente wrote farces throughout the rest of his life; one notable example is Farsa de Inês Pereira ("Farce of Inês Pereira"), written in 1523.
Prior to Vicente, few dramatic stagings had taken place in Portugal. However, a few notable performances had established theatrical precedence in courtly and religious contexts. During the reign of Sancho I of Portugal (1185–1212), Bonamis and Acompaniado, the first recorded Portuguese actors, put on a show of arremedillo and were paid by the King with the donation of lands. In a document dated 1281, Frei Telo, Archbishop of Braga, refers to liturgical dramas which were performed during Catholic festivities. In 1451, theatrical acts accompanied the festivities of the wedding of Infanta (Princess) Eleanor of Portugal with Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg. According to the Portuguese chronicles of Fernão Lopes, Gomes Eanes de Zurara, Rui de Pina, and Garcia Resende, spectacular stagings took place in the courts of John I of Portugal, Afonso V of Portugal, and John II of Portugal. For example, Rui de Pina refers to one instance in which King John II himself played the part of The Knight of the Swan in a production which included a scene constructed of fabric waves. During the action, a fleet of carracks with a crew of spectacularly dressed actors entered the room accompanied by the sound of minstrels, trumpets, kettledrum, and artillery.
The first edition of Vicente's complete works was published in Lisbon in 1561–1562 by his children Paula and Luís. In 1586, the second edition was published; however, many parts were heavily censored by the Inquisition. The third edition was not published until 1834 in Hamburg by Barreto Feio, after which Vicente's work was finally rediscovered. Since that time, various composers, such as Max Bruch (who made Von den Rosen komm' ich (Von dem Rosenbusch, o Mutter) from Vicente's De la rosa vengo my madre [from the rose I come my mother], which also had a version by Schumann) and Robert Schumann (who made his Spanische Liebeslieder [Spanish Love Songs] no. 7. Weh, wie zornig ist das Mädchen from Vicente's Sañosa está la nina [Irritated is the little girl] and no. 3. Lied, op. 29 no. 2 from Vicente's Canción [Song]; and two of his Spanisches Liederspiel no. 1. Erste Begegnung, op. 74 no. 1 and no. 3. Intermezzo, op. 74 no. 2), have set Vicente's poetry to music in the form of lieder. Most of these were translated into German by Emanuel van Geibel. Chilean composer Sylvia Soublette set Vicente's text to music in her song “Del Rosal Vengo.”
