Part 15

Rodrigo shall the first lot claim. We'll see now if he acts aright.

_R._ In the Virgin Mary's name 485 Read it, padre, for the same Brings to me my day or night.

_The hermit reads the writing:_

'By Fortune's and by God's command Whosoever draws this lot Shall to Felipa give his hand, 490 Shall do so and reason not.'

_R._ I have won the victory, Felipa, come hither to me, my dear.

_F._ Away with thee, away, dost hear, Thinkest thou this will profit thee? 495 Ne'er such a victory shalt thou see.

_G._ Draw thy lot now, Ferdinand, Let's see what for thee is planned.

_F._ Here goes then in the name of Heaven; Read, padre, what is written there.

_The hermit reads:_

500 'The sentence is already given And its substance doth declare That thou shalt Madanela wed.'

_M._ Well, Ferdinand, I do not care, If it must be so, no more be said.

505 _F._ Many a day hast thou heard that from me But thou e'er hadst me in disdain.

_C._ O Ferdinand, my uncle's swain, Would that I might marry thee!

_G._ O Madanela, if only now 510 We had come together, I and thou.

_C._ Rather might I straight expire Than that Ferdinand should stay there So remote from my desire. Yet I do not greatly care, 515 Since to thee I am inclined, Gonçalo.

_G._ And even so, Catalina, art thou to my mind, But come away that I may know What graces I in thee shall find.

520 _F._ Rodrigo, as I look upon thee I begin to grow content.

_R._ If to that I have not won thee By me no further prayers be spent. For while I have courted thee 525 Daily hast thou flouted me.

_C._ Though from time to time I thus, Rodrigo, behaved, truly Very fond was I of thee. And when most contemptuous 530 Thy wife I refused to be 'Twas not that I had no love But, that I tested thee, to prove The heart of thy audacity.

_Hermit._ Now I have a mind to say 535 What I came to look for here. For my wish it is to stay In a hermitage that may Yield me plenty of good cheer. Ready-made would I find it: ill 540 Could I all these joys fulfil Worn out by toil and labour fell. Wide not narrow be my cell That I may dance therein at will; Be it in a desert land 545 Yielding wine and wheat alway, With a fountain near at hand And contemplation far away. Much fish and game in brake and pool Must I have for my own preserve 550 And as for my house it must never swerve From an even temperature, cool In summer and in winter warm. Yes, and a comfortable bed Would not do me any harm, 555 All of it of cedar-wood, A harpsichord hung at its head: So do I find a monk's life good. I would lie and take my rest And sleep on far into the day 560 So that I could not my matins say For noise of the whistling and the singing Of shepherdesses' songs clear ringing. On partridge would I sup and dine, Of stockfish should my luncheon be 565 And of wine the very best. And the Judge's daughter should make for me The bed on which I would recline. And even as my beads I tell She should forget her flock of sheep 570 And embrace me in my cell And bite my ears and make me weep: Yes, even thus it would be well. My brothers, since you know, I trow The recesses of each vale and hill 575 Be good enough to tell me now Where best I may so have my will And this holy life fulfil.

_G._ Yonder, padre, there's a briar All in flower, thick and green, 580 And its thorns are long and dire: Naked laid thereon, I ween You would soon lose your desire. Go and make no further stay, For the life you wish to live 585 The true God will never give Howsoe'er for it you pray.

_Serra._ Come, my sons, now come away, Each with his fair bride to-day, That our Queen and Sovereign we 590 May go visit speedily, And let none of you gainsay, For you must go all together, Since, if report say true, I ween I as nurse must serve the Queen 595 And therefore do I go thither. Such milk as mine you will not find No, not in all Portugal, So plentiful and such kind As God has blessèd me withal: 600 Pure butter were not more refined. And since she will be princess Of such flocks and all this land, No other nurse shall be to hand, For the perfect shepherdess 605 My hill-sides alone command.

_G._ From every village, house and town Great presents must with us come down.

_S._ The town of Sea of its store Shall five hundred cheeses send 610 All home-made, and furthermore Of calves will she send thrice five score And of her merino sheep A thousand, and lambs two hundred keep So fat that on no hills you'll find 615 Any more unto your mind. And two thousand sacks Gouvea Of chestnuts that there abound Of such size, so fine and round That all men will wonder where 620 Things so excellent are found. And Manteigas will prepare A store of milk for years twice seven, By Covilham much fine cloth be given That is manufactured there. 625 From the houses in the heather High upon the mountain-top, For pillows shall be sent a crop All of royal eagles' feather That men there are wont to gather. 630 From the Penados vale below And the hills where three roads meet That through rough mountain country go They will send as present meet Three hundred ermines white as snow 635 As edging of brocades to show. Mines of gold too I will bring And give all I have within If the Queen and if the King Order it to be brought in: 640 Plenty is there there to win.

_G._ And with presents none the less Will we in her honour sing With great joy and revelling That God hath willed the Queen to bless 645 For her people's happiness.

_Enter two players from Sardoal, Jorge and Lopo, and the Serra says:_

From Castille, brothers, do you hale Or from down yonder in the vale?

_J._ Now in the devil's name, amen, They would have us be Castilian men 650 A lizard I would rather be By the Holy Gospels verily.

_S._ Well and from what land come you then?

_J._ From Sardoal, and by your leave We are come hither to defy 655 The Serra our challenge to receive With us in song and dance to vie.

_R._ 'Tis a proud challenge for your ill, For shepherds are so many here And their dancing of such skill 660 That of none need they have fear.

_L._ Many peasants come yonder too From the hills for sustenance And we watch them sing and dance Even as up here they do: 665 Their way of it shall you see at a glance.

_Lopo sings and dances in imitation of the men of the Serra:_

Ah, should I lay my hand on you, Love, fair my love. A friend of mine, a friend of old, Sends unto me apples of gold, 670 How fair is love! A friend I loved, even my friend, Apples, apples of gold doth send. So fair is love! Apples of gold he sends amain, 675 The best of them was cleft in twain, So fair is love! [Apples of gold he sends to me, The best was cleft for all to see. How fair is love!]

(_Spoken:_)

680 That I think is, well or ill, How you dance on fell and hill. _S._ But now I would have you sing As in Sardoal they do. _L._ That is quite another thing, 685 Wait then and I'll show it you: Now no more my lady wills That I speak with her alone. How am I now woe-begone! On a day my lady said 690 That she would fain speak with me, Now I for my sins atone Since she says it may not be. How am I now woe-begone! For to me my lady said 695 That she fain would speak with me, Now I for my sins atone Since me now she will not see. How am I now woe-begone! Now I for my sins atone 700 Since she says it may not be, Through the world will I begone Where'er fortune carry me. How am I now woe-begone!

_The players sing this song, dancing together, and when it is finished Felipa says:_

I pray you go not away so, 705 But wait until the fiddle come, O wait until you hear the drum, Then how to move you'll scarcely know So dead with dancing shall you go.

_C._ And meanwhile by my life I ween 710 'Twere well that we our dance and song Should order here upon the green And we will go with it along To see the King and see the Queen.

_All these shepherds took their places in the dance after their custom, but its song was sung to the accompaniment of the organ and with the following words:_

O strike me not, mother, 715 The truth I'm confessing. For, mother, a squire Of our queen all on fire With love came to woo me: Of what he said to me 720 The truth I'm confessing. He came for to woo me And 'O,' said he to me, 'Were you in my power, Alone without dower!' 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 Passion 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 _serões_ 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 João 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 Mystère de l'Âme_; 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 Théophile 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 Shelley's three, and thereby provoked a splendid outburst of wrath from Swinburne, we may assume that in passages 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 substitute _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 Fernández, _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 Ressurreiçam_); 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 associate 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 León, _Los Nombres de Cristo_, Bk I: _mi única abogada y señora_); 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 coarseness of Goethe's splendid work cast in bronze. It can be compared at most with such lyrical passages as _Christ ist erstanden_ or _Ach neige, Du Schmerzenreiche, Dein Antlitz gnädig 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 passage resembles those in the Spanish plays _Prevaricación de Adán_ and _La Residencia del Hombre_ quoted in the _Revista de Filología Española_, 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 _porá grosa_, attack, criticize, gloss. (= _glosar_. Cf. the modern 'to grouse.')

35 Cf. Antonio Prestes, _Auto dos Cantarinhos_ (_Obras_, 1871 ed. p. 457): _todo Valença 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 España_, III, 728: 'En una mujer ataviada se ve un mundo: mirando los chapines se verá a Valencia'; Alonso Jerónimo de Salas Barbadillo in _El Cortesano Descortés_ (1621) speaks of 'un presente de chapines valencianos'; and in _La Pícara 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. Gonçalvez Viana, _A postilas_, vol. I, p. 353).

58 Cf. Plato, _Respublica_, 365: ̃̓αδικητέον κὰι θυτέον ̓απ̀ο τ̑ων αδικημάτων, κ.τ.λ. 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 irá_.

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

62 _esta peçonha_. 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 attitude, Nor if I stand or lie or sit or kneel.

73 _day passada_ = _perdoai_, _dai licença_. 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,' passes 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, não 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 é grande o reino, potencia e alçada 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: _assy 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, _Antología_, 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 são_; _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.

EXHORTAÇAO DA GUERRA

PAGE 23

The expedition to capture from the Moors the important town of Azamor in N. W. Africa consisted of over 400 ships (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. (Damião de Goes and Osorio say the 17th, Luis Anriquez the 15th, which was evidently the day (the Feast of the Assumption) 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. Tristão 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 tithes (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 _serão_ 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 Não 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, Açougue 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.

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 Montemôr-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 é 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 Almadãa (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.