Portuguese literature
reviles the latter for his dark complexion; AFONSO ALVAREZ answers by
upbraiding _nonno Chiado_ as the son of a cobbler and a market-woman
and for the habits which had made the cloister seem so dismal a place
to Frei Antonio do Espirito Santo. Fortunately some of the plays of
both of them survive, and we are better able to judge of their merits.
The mulatto, who was a valued member of his master’s household and
prides himself that Chiado has nothing worse to throw in his face
than the colour of his skin, was certainly Chiado’s inferior in wit
and talent. Both imitate Gil Vicente without having a vestige of his
lyrical genius or greater skill in devising a plot. Alvarez preferred
religious subjects. In his _Auto de Santo Antonio_ St. Anthony restores
to life the drowned son of two peasants, who are imitated from
Vicente’s _Auto da Feira_.[355] The only other of his plays that we
have is the _Auto de Santa Barbara_, but we know that he also wrote an
_Auto de S. Vicente Martyr_ and an _Auto de Santiago Apostolo_.
Chiado’s plays and witty sayings, _avisos para guardar_ and
_parvoices_, appear to have made him extremely popular in Lisbon,
Camões recognized his talent, and Lisbon’s most famous street still
bears his name in common speech. His boisterous life at Lisbon after
leaving his convent may have given him his name Chiado (cf. the _chiar_
of ox-carts), but it existed as a surname earlier. His _Pratica de Oito
Figuras_ (1543?), _Auto das Regateiras_ (1568 or 1569), and _Pratica
dos Compadres_ (1572), are the work of an accomplished wit who was
intimately acquainted with the farces of Gil Vicente and, in the last
two, with the prose plays of Jorge Ferreira. Many of Vicente’s types
are present, but all in a town atmosphere, in which cards take the
place of the rustic dances and lyric yields to epigram, the natural
genius of Vicente to a laboured smartness. We have the _clerigo de
vintem_, the _ratinho_ from Beira, the vain _pação_, the poor _fidalgo_
or _escudeiro_, the negro with his pidgin Portuguese, the witch, the
ill-tempered _velha_, the _trovador_ chaplain, the ambitious priest,
the corrupt judge. The scenes are even more disconnected and less
dramatic, and the ingenious _redondilhas_ necessarily seem artificial
because their author so often challenges comparison with the more
genuine skill of his master, Gil Vicente. Chiado’s _Auto de Gonçalo
Chambão_ was reprinted several times in the seventeenth century, but
is now unknown. Of his _Auto da Natural Invençam_ (_c._ 1550) a single
copy survives, in the library of the Conde de Sabugosa, whose edition
(1917) is of exceptional interest. The play, as reminiscent of Vicente
as are the other plays of Chiado, describes the acting of an _auto_
in a private house in the reign of João III, and bears witness to the
frequency of such representations at Lisbon and to their extraordinary
popularity.
BALTHASAR DIAZ, a blind poet (or _jogral_) of Madeira, in the first
half of the sixteenth century wrote plays which have retained their
popularity. He versified at great length traditions of chivalry and
of mediaeval saints. We do not possess his _Trovas_ written on the
death of D. João de Castro (1548), and many of his plays, _Auto da
Paixam de Christo_, _Auto de El Rei Salomão_, _Auto da Feira da Ladra_,
have become rare or unknown. One of the best of them, the _Auto de
Santo Aleixo_, perhaps owes its survival to its subject, akin to
the popular theme of a prince in disguise. The rich and noble Aleixo
wanders in rags to the Holy Land. The Devil, who tempts him in the
form of a wayfarer, declares that now--the eternal querulous ‘now’
of the poets--only the rich are honoured and learning is neglected.
Later the Devil becomes a courtier and again tempts St. Aleixo, who
is defended by an angel. The _Auto de Santa Catherina_ is a long
devout play of which the persons are St. Catherine, her mother, her
page, the Emperor Maxentius, a hermit, three _doutores_, Christ, the
Virgin, angels. The saint, who receives news of her mother’s death
with admirable equanimity, suffers martyrdom at the end of the play
with equal fortitude. Diaz also dramatized the story of the Marques de
Mantua. Although devoid of dramatic or lyric talent, he is sometimes
interesting. Women, whose dresses and fashions are contrasted in the
_Auto de Santo Aleixo_ with the hard toil of the men, are represented
in the _Auto da Malicia das Mulheres_ as treating their husbands ‘like
negroes’. We do not know whether Diaz spoke from experience, his life
is very obscure; but he may have spent his last years in Beira if the
passage in his _O Conselho para bem casar_:
estou nesta Beira
tão remoto de trovar (1680 ed., p. 2)
be not merely a reference to Boeotia, any place far from Lisbon.
Traces of Vicente and the _Celestina_[356] are apparent in ANRIQUE
LOPEZ’ _Cena Policiana_ or _O Estvdante_, in which a _fidalgo_ and a
student[357] figure. The poor _escudeiro_ and his fasting _moço_ are
prominent in JORGE PINTO’S _Auto de Rodrigo e Mendo_. Spanish romances
are quoted with great frequency, and Vicente’s _En el mes era de Abril_
is parodied by the _moços_.[358] Indeed, their knowledge of literature
was become embarrassing since, when his master’s guest, invited to a
dinner which did not exist, recites some verses that he has made,
Rodrigo has already read them in Boscán and heard them sung in the
street.[359]
The exact dates of ANTONIO PRESTES, of Torres Novas, are unknown, but
seven of his plays, after having been acted at Lisbon and published in
_folhas volantes_, were first collected by Afonso Lopez half a century
after Gil Vicente’s death in the _Primeira Parte dos Avtos e Comedias
Portuguesas_, &c. (1588). The _Auto da Ave Maria_, written between
1563 and 1587, is an allegorical play in which Reason is vanquished by
Sensuality; Heraclitus mourns over her fall while Democritus laughs.
A knight in league with the Devil[360] robs in turn an almoner, a
_ratinho_, and Fast, but his pious habit of saying an _Ave Maria_
causes St. Michael to rescue him from the Devil and reconcile him
with Reason. Of the profane plays, that with the most definite plot
is the _Auto dos Dous Irmãos_, in which an old man, after refusing to
see his sons who have married without his permission, divides all his
money between them and is then neglected by both: he is sent from one
to the other like King Lear. But the story is feebly worked out here
as in the other plays. Their action is mostly that of a puppet show.
Sometimes the _moço_, who always plays a prominent part, seems to be
the only link in the plot, as Duarte in the _Autos dos Cantarinhos_.
These _moços_, who show the author’s acquaintance with Gil Vicente[361]
and _Lazarillo de Tormes_,[362] are quite unlike either Lazarillo or
Apariço. They are certainly hungry, but they combine starvation with
laziness, presumption and abundant learning. The names of Petrarca and
Seneca are on their lips; they read _Palmeirim_ and quote romances
of chivalry and Spanish _romances_ glibly.[363] Indeed, the chief
interest of these artificial plays is the light thrown on the times:
the position of women, the bribery of judges and lawyers, the aping
of foreign manners, the mixed styles of architecture. They contain no
poetry, little drama, and their wit is seldom natural. Like Prestes,
JERONIMO RIBEIRO, perhaps a brother of Chiado, was born apparently
at Torres Novas. Only one of his plays was published: the _Auto do
Fisico_, written in the last third of the sixteenth century. It has
some farcical Vicentian scenes, the inevitable hits against the doctors
and lawyers--the _moço_ dresses up as a _doutor_ to receive a simple
fisherman from Alfama--and is generally more popular and natural than
Prestes’ plays.
SIMÃO MACHADO (_c._ 1570-_c._ 1640), who as a Franciscan monk--Frei
Boaventura--ended his life at Barcelona, was also born at Torres
Novas. His plays--_Comedias portvgvesas_ (1601?)--are two: _Comedia
de Dio_ and _Comedia da Pastora Alfea_. They are written in Spanish
and Portuguese indiscriminately despite Gonçalo’s admonition _palrar
como Pertigues_.[364] The author explains that, well aware of his
countrymen’s love of what is foreign, he uses Castilian to save his
plays from the neglect often bestowed in Portugal upon works written
in Portuguese. His verse is ordinarily the _redondilha_, although
Nuno da Cunha in the first part of _O Cerco de Dio_ makes a speech in
_oitavas_. He has lyrical facility and his peasant scenes are full of
life, for instance, the dialogue between the cowherd Gil Cabaço and
Tomé the goatherd in _Alfea_.
The Gospel story was dramatized by FREI FRANCISCO VAZ of Guimarães in
a long _Auto da Paixão_. The oldest edition we have is dated 1559,
and it has been often reprinted, with thirty rough woodcuts. Some of
these are very spirited, as that of the cock crowing after St. Peter’s
denial, or that of Judas hanging himself. After a long introductory
speech in _versos de arte maior_ the play proceeds in _redondilhas_
(over 2,000 lines). Religious subjects have always been favourites with
the Portuguese, especially those affording scope for lavish scenic
display, not only those of martyred saints, as the _Auto de Santa
Genoveva_, but those based on the New Testament, as the later play
_Acto figurado da degolação dos Innocentes_ (1784) in seven scenes.[365]
Two plays, the _Auto da Donzella da Torre_ and _Auto de Dom André_,
are attributed to Gil Vicente’s grandson, GIL VICENTE DE ALMEIDA. The
latter, written before 1559, in which a peasant brings his unlettered
son (_nem nunca falei Gramatica_) to Court, and a _ratinho_, on
becoming a page, promises himself to learn to sing and play on the
guitar within a month, has a Vicentian character.
To the beginning of the seventeenth century also belongs the _Pratica
de Tres Pastores_ (1626), a Christmas play by FREI ANTONIO DA ESTRELLA,
who may perhaps be identified with Frei Antonio de Lisboa, author
of the lost _Auto dos Dous Ladrões_ (1603). The three shepherds,
Rodrigo, Loirenço, and Sylvestre, are awakened by an angel singing
_cousas de preço_. They agree that the song echoing over the hills
is no earth-born music but _algum Charubim ou Anjo ou Charafim_,
and presently they go to Bethlehem to offer their rustic gifts. The
author has caught the charm and spontaneity of the earlier Christmas
_autos_. Another seventeenth-century _auto_ of the same kind is the
_Colloquio do Nascimento do Menino Jesus_ by the Lisbon bookseller,
FRANCISCO LOPEZ. The scene and conversation of the three shepherds,
Gil, Silvestre, and Paschoal, with their _assorda ou migas de alho_ in
the cold night--_mas como queima o rocio_, says Gil--are very naturally
drawn. An echo of the satirical side of Gil Vicente’s genius is to be
found in the _Auto das Padeiras chamado da Fome_ (1638),[366] in which
the various frauds of the bakeresses, sardine-sellers, market-women,
pastry-cooks, and tavern-keepers of Lisbon are shown up by the devils
Palurdam and Calcamar, as in the _Barca do Purgatorio_. There is
nothing of Vicente in the _Auto novo da Barca da Morte_ (1732) by a
Lisbon author who wrote under the name of Diogo da Costa (Innocencio
da Silva, ii. 153, believed that his real name was André da Luz). It
consists of a single scene crowded with classical allusions. Death has
deprived Midas of his gold, Alexander of his victories, Aristotle of
his learning. The actors here are a rich miser, a poor man, a youth,
an old man, and Death, whose boat Time steers. The title of the _Auto
novo e curioso da Forneira de Aljubarrota_ (1815), also attributed to
Diogo da Costa, is misleading, since it is a prose narrative of the
experiences of that _valorosa matrona_, who, dressed as an _almocreve_,